But what does it all come to?

But what does it all come to? 

The only object so important as to prove beyond all doubt is that what all the saints and sages have taught is true, that when the body is put off, the spirit lives; you begin a new life.

A nitrogen-rich nebula | ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement—Matej Novak

Sin consists in living without God.

Remember; sin consists in living without God, that is to say, without love.

IC 4406 | Howard Bond (STScI)/NASA/ESA

Motive is a great deal.

Motive is not everything, but it is a great deal—so much so that those from whom motive is hidden cannot judge. Remember that.

Free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globules(frEGGs) | ESA/Hubble & NASA/R. Sahai

There is only One.

VII—The Perfect Man

Lastly—

The highest—

The most perfect that spirit-lives have ever known, or dreamed of, is the Master.

In other ages—

In other climes—

There may have been one or two that nearly reached the height of his perfection—

But to spirit-lives, there  is only one. 

There is only One.

Having passed through the earthly life without failure in any moral duty, and with singleness of heart from first to last, always reaching after the highest ideals—

In him, the perfect, the Ideal (wo)manhood was manifest. 

After a brief psychic sleep, he arose in the full possession of his new powers—

Uncontrolled by mere circumstance, he bends all things to the accomplishment of his high and loving purpose and sets himself to raise his brethren and sistren to the level of his own perfect life.

Literally, the Living Son of God, Your Creator—Your Father and Mother God—The Son of Man!

These few illustrations will be enough to give you an idea of the soul’s awakening, and of its new life in the earlier stages. 

The soul’s expansion will come later. 

Do not interpret THESE words too literally, or think these classes are marked off too sharply—

No—

They blend into each other, as do the good and evil on earth.

Private publication, “I AWOKE!” Conditions of Life on the Other Side, David Stott, London, 1895

What greater thing would you then have been?

What greater thing would you then have been?

Suppose God had made you perfect in the beginning and avoided for you all this effort and stumbling; what greater thing would you then have been than a flower, a beast, a world? You would have simply been such a thing as God made you—nothing more—no virtue in yourself, no possibility of ever becoming greater than the thing which you were at first created.

But God endowed you a living soul—endowed you the offspring of His own undying spirit!—endowed you too with all the possibilities necessary to develop to a comprehension of Himself. He made you spiritually in His own image, in that he gave you personal freedom and free will and the inherent power of evolution outwardly from your own individual life germ.

Hubble images remarkable double cluster | ESA/NASA/Martino Romaniello (European Southern Observatory, Germany)

What is the purpose and law of the family of God?

What is the purpose and law of the family of God?

All is in perfect harmony—

Perfect unity is the purpose and law of the family of God.

Tarantula Nebula | ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgements—Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)

What is the test of irreligion?

What is the test of irreligion?

The degree of hatred or indifference which paralyzes love in the soul is the test of religion. 

New Hubble image pays tribute to WFPC2 | NASA/ESA

What is God in life?

What is God in life?

Love eats into selfishness as the sun's rays eat into the black and dark night. That is God in life. 

Little gem | ESA/Hubble & NASAESA/Hubble & NASA; acknowledgement—Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.com)

What measures your religion?

What measures your religion?

The degree of love with which you love measures your religion.

Hubble captures stars going out in style | NASA/ESA

Do not judge.

Do not judge. Remember; often what seems to you the worst things are the best. 

Collage of top images in the Hidden Treasures image processing competition | NASA/ESA

How do you live in God?

How do you live in God?

God is love, and those who love are living in God.

First images after Servicing Mission 4 | NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team

What is the only way to save the world?

What is the only way to save the world?

The only way to save the world is to drench it with love; yes, love even for the worst.

Arp 273 | NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Are things real to the spirit?

Are things real to the spirit?

Quite—and very beautiful.

The lure of the rings | NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

Are the spiritual spheres like this world?

Are the spiritual spheres like this world?

In every way similar. It is only the change of conditions that makes the difference. Flowers, fruits, pleasant landscapes, animals and birds are with them as with us. Only the material conditions are changed. They do not crave food like us; nor do they kill to live. Matter, Only the material conditions are changed. We do not crave food like you; nor do they kill to live. Matter is done with and they have no need of sustenance, save that which they can draw in with the air they breathe. Nor are they impeded in their movements by matter. They move freely, and by volition. The spirit learns by degrees, and as a newborn babe, to accustom itself to the new conditions of its being.

Arp 148 | NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)/K. Noll (STScI)/J. Westphal (Caltech)

What is the whole secret of all things?

What is the whole secret of all things?

When you come to the spirit world and have a more vivid sense of the majesty and marvel of the universe; when you see, as spirits do every day, the great unfolding of the infinite glory of the Infinite Father; and when you see also, as they do, that the whole secret of all things is love, and that there was never so much love revealed to you, and your fellow beings, as in Him, you can understand how it is true that there dwelt in Him, the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Messier 82 (M82) | NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); acknowledgement—J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI) and P. Puxley (NSF)

Does death exist?

Does death exist?

Death exists—for the living.

Hubble's view of the Carina Nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail | NASA/ESA/N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley)/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

What is the love that overcometh the world?

What is the love that overcometh the world?

God is love! God is love!

And heaven differs from earth most in this. There is more love in it and every love throbs in the human heart makes the earth more like heaven. The love which takes you out of yourself, and makes the happiness of another so important to you as to make even pain and trouble joyous and more to be desired than the greatest pleasure if they are for the welfare of the beloved, that love is the love that overcometh the world.

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and companion galaxy | NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith (STScI)/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

What is the ozone of life in the spirit world?

What is the ozone of life in the spirit world?

The ozone of spiritual life in the spirit world is love.

If you had but love enough you would make heaven where you are. Believe me, there is no truth greater than this. 

God is love! God is love! 

And heaven differs from earth most in this. There is more love in it and every love throbs in the human heart makes the earth more like heaven. The love which takes you out of yourself, and makes the happiness of another so important to you as to make even pain and trouble joyous and more to be desired than the greatest pleasure if they are for the welfare of the beloved, that love is the love that overcometh the world.

The Lagoon Nebula | NASA/ESA/STScI

Is individuality eliminated in the spirit world?

Is individuality eliminated in the spirit world?

Even here! individuality persists.

Do you think that if that bundle of passionate and eager forces, which make up your Ego were to come here, if the earthly house of your tabernacle were to be dissolved, that you would, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, be quite other than you are? Would that spirit of yours be freed from the characteristics which make you really you? 

No; individuality is not eliminated, but rather accentuated in its essence, and harmonised in its accidents.

You are in a moral and spiritual sanitarium. You have brought with you all your diseases. You get cured. 

New infrared view of the Horsehead Nebula | NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

How does love make heaven?

No Sense of Perfection

Do not imagine that you feel yourself a saint or an angel.

The sense of imperfection is still with you. There are heights to scale, which you have not dreamed of; there are depths of infinite love, which you have not even attempted to fathom. And the more you see, and know, and understand the Divine love, the more you feel lost in the contrast between the immensity of His love and the infinitesimal meagerness of your own soul. But the difference between what you feel in the spirit world and on earth is that in the world of spirits the consciousness of love is everywhere. You see what you are, and you often regret it and mourn for your shortcomings. But you know that you live in the very love of God and that your very stumblings tend upwards.

The cluster Westerlund 2 and its surroundings | NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/A. Nota (ESA/STScI)/Westerlund 2 Science Team