The agonies in store for the selfish

Shall we tell you what we have witnessed of the agonies that are in store for the selfish? Have we not seen many a mother weeping and wringing her hands in vain, wandering about the earth plane, seeking eagerly for her infant child, whom kind nature took from her selfish arms to place in better care? Oh could you but see the sorrow and agony which awaits such a woman as the one who—with plenty of love for her home, her child, her husband and her own belongings—has never cast a thought on the wants of others, preferring to centre her whole earthly love on herself—for such her love amounts to—few would be anxious to be happy in this life at such a cost in the future. Mothers who do their duty to their own children and their own families and cast no thought around them are not qualified to enter the higher life; they must remain below until, like the rest, they have learnt to love humanity and not merely those who minister to their love of self. If, therefore, they have lost any children very young, the latter will necessarily be separated from them until the mother's spiritual development brings her to a higher sphere.

Life Beyond the Grave, described by a Spirit, through a writing medium, London, 1877