The soul's highest good in spirit life depends on the development to which it attains in earth life.
So when you ask, on what general conditions of earth life depend the soul's highest good in spirit life? our answer must be the conditions depend upon the mental status of the spirit which is to be developed.
Man is three-fold in his nature. In man's three-fold development we find what is called body, soul or mind, and spirit.
It is not difficult for any intelligent, watchful mind on earth to observe the reactive influences of mind and body. The best health and development of the one tends to the best health and development of the other.
But there is a greater fact which too often earthly minds fail to perceive at all. This is that both the body and mind of a man (or woman) may receive a very high degree of development while yet the spirit remains comparatively dormant—its development being very little advanced by all its earthly career.
This is a mysterious thing, and the saddest thing in all earth life—that a man may have mental powers polished, cultivated and capable until they are almost Godlike in their power and mastering grasp upon the science and laws of nature, upon minds which are less developed than his own, upon his own bodily appetites and pleasures, and yet have less spiritual perception and development than the child who carries her apron full of flowers, her sympathetic eyes, her loving smiles, to some uncouth, bed-ridden unfortunate!
But you must not judge the man. His own spirit is yet small who dares to do that.
What earthly mind, by looking upon its fellow, can tell what may have been the environments, the crushing disappointments, the unfed hungerings for spiritual necessities—yes, and the pre-natal influences which have left its poor spirit room for so little development—which may have so stunted or warped it from its ultimate possibilities? The one great in spirit is ready to weep with compassion over the struggles, the sorrows, the stumbling, at the sinfulness of such a low-spirited nature; but it never disdains, rejects, or relishes its sufferings. It longs to give plenteously of the light which it has been permitted to receive, and has its patience whetted by the sorrowfulness of the fact, that the other, so enshrouded in darkness, is unable to receive.
The soul's highest good in the spirit life, then, does depend upon the conditions of its earth life. But woe and alas! it cannot make its own conditions of life any more than the babe can choose of whom it shall be born.
But every spirit (as soon as it wakens to a perception of itself and its needs) may modify or advance its conditions. This is purely a spiritual matter. But each of the three-fold natures in man are typical. As the muscles of the arm are strengthened, hardened and developed by constant use so is the spirit advanced by its own efforts in the perception and rendering of spiritual things—its loyalty and truth to itself—to its conception of what is highest, and best and purest in itself; by sustaining itself by prayer, by the perception of God's spirit in nature as in man; by the influx of strength that flows to it from eyes that look into its own with gratitude; by the consciousness of its own unwavering integrity of purpose; by any of the various ways by which through different minds the spiritual man is developed.
As the earthly mind can only find expression through the earthly body, so the spirit can only find expression through the soul or mind. Hence it is that the greatest mind gives evidences of the greatest spirit—when it shall have become developed. No very great, powerful, well-balanced mind ever found expression through a feeble, misshapen, imperfectly developed body; and no sweet, pure, inspiring spirit ever found its way through an ill-balanced, stubborn, arrogant, selfish, undisciplined mind. Thus you see the three-fold nature of man must develop in harmony in earth life to reach its greatest perfection there, and thus, when transplanted, to be in its highest good in spirit life.
What one generation has learned advances the next. When man's mental powers have grasped the facts of what bodily conditions are best to his mind's peace and enlargement, and when he has subjected the body to the dominion of the mind, then will the perfection and perception of the spirit break through and govern both.
So the highest development which the spirit can attain in earth life is wrought through the good which it is able to accomplish in the world for humanity, the uplifts which it can in any way give toward a more spiritualised existence.
It may be through inventions, which economise labour and give more room for the cultivation of mind, in place of the hard, unending toil for bread. It may be in art, which enlarges the perceptions and often teaches lessons which no words could do. It may be in science, which opens up the labyrinths of different laws and truths to an astonished world. It may be in any way that assists mankind to a higher plane than that to which his brute nature would consign him.
But every person has it not, in the possibilities of their nature, to even approach such results. Very true. But every person has it within him, if he will, to be considerate, just and kind, and thus he helps, thus he sustains those at greater heights than himself, who are burning out their bodies to furnish fuel for their mind's action. Thus the father and the mother impress the seeds of righteousness in the mind of the unborn babe, and afterward teach the law of love to their children.
Exchange of love, exchange of sympathy, and a helping hand to one who is stumbling or in distress, is a development of both soul and spirit, one that is reciprocal.
The writer has prepared an abridged and edited copy of the original – Leaflets of Truth; or, Light from the Shadow Land (published before 1923 and now in the public domain), M. Karl, S. R. Miner (Publisher), Chicago, 1886
But there is a greater fact which too often earthly minds fail to perceive at all. This is that both the body and mind of a man (or woman) may receive a very high degree of development while yet the spirit remains comparatively dormant—its development being very little advanced by all its earthly career.
This is a mysterious thing, and the saddest thing in all earth life—that a man may have mental powers polished, cultivated and capable until they are almost Godlike in their power and mastering grasp upon the science and laws of nature, upon minds which are less developed than his own, upon his own bodily appetites and pleasures, and yet have less spiritual perception and development than the child who carries her apron full of flowers, her sympathetic eyes, her loving smiles, to some uncouth, bed-ridden unfortunate!
But you must not judge the man. His own spirit is yet small who dares to do that.
What earthly mind, by looking upon its fellow, can tell what may have been the environments, the crushing disappointments, the unfed hungerings for spiritual necessities—yes, and the pre-natal influences which have left its poor spirit room for so little development—which may have so stunted or warped it from its ultimate possibilities? The one great in spirit is ready to weep with compassion over the struggles, the sorrows, the stumbling, at the sinfulness of such a low-spirited nature; but it never disdains, rejects, or relishes its sufferings. It longs to give plenteously of the light which it has been permitted to receive, and has its patience whetted by the sorrowfulness of the fact, that the other, so enshrouded in darkness, is unable to receive.
The soul's highest good in the spirit life, then, does depend upon the conditions of its earth life. But woe and alas! it cannot make its own conditions of life any more than the babe can choose of whom it shall be born.
But every spirit (as soon as it wakens to a perception of itself and its needs) may modify or advance its conditions. This is purely a spiritual matter. But each of the three-fold natures in man are typical. As the muscles of the arm are strengthened, hardened and developed by constant use so is the spirit advanced by its own efforts in the perception and rendering of spiritual things—its loyalty and truth to itself—to its conception of what is highest, and best and purest in itself; by sustaining itself by prayer, by the perception of God's spirit in nature as in man; by the influx of strength that flows to it from eyes that look into its own with gratitude; by the consciousness of its own unwavering integrity of purpose; by any of the various ways by which through different minds the spiritual man is developed.
As the earthly mind can only find expression through the earthly body, so the spirit can only find expression through the soul or mind. Hence it is that the greatest mind gives evidences of the greatest spirit—when it shall have become developed. No very great, powerful, well-balanced mind ever found expression through a feeble, misshapen, imperfectly developed body; and no sweet, pure, inspiring spirit ever found its way through an ill-balanced, stubborn, arrogant, selfish, undisciplined mind. Thus you see the three-fold nature of man must develop in harmony in earth life to reach its greatest perfection there, and thus, when transplanted, to be in its highest good in spirit life.
What one generation has learned advances the next. When man's mental powers have grasped the facts of what bodily conditions are best to his mind's peace and enlargement, and when he has subjected the body to the dominion of the mind, then will the perfection and perception of the spirit break through and govern both.
So the highest development which the spirit can attain in earth life is wrought through the good which it is able to accomplish in the world for humanity, the uplifts which it can in any way give toward a more spiritualised existence.
It may be through inventions, which economise labour and give more room for the cultivation of mind, in place of the hard, unending toil for bread. It may be in art, which enlarges the perceptions and often teaches lessons which no words could do. It may be in science, which opens up the labyrinths of different laws and truths to an astonished world. It may be in any way that assists mankind to a higher plane than that to which his brute nature would consign him.
But every person has it not, in the possibilities of their nature, to even approach such results. Very true. But every person has it within him, if he will, to be considerate, just and kind, and thus he helps, thus he sustains those at greater heights than himself, who are burning out their bodies to furnish fuel for their mind's action. Thus the father and the mother impress the seeds of righteousness in the mind of the unborn babe, and afterward teach the law of love to their children.
Exchange of love, exchange of sympathy, and a helping hand to one who is stumbling or in distress, is a development of both soul and spirit, one that is reciprocal.
The writer has prepared an abridged and edited copy of the original – Leaflets of Truth; or, Light from the Shadow Land (published before 1923 and now in the public domain), M. Karl, S. R. Miner (Publisher), Chicago, 1886
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