Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

150 AS TO HEAVEN BEING OVERHEAD.7G7. The actual effects of the old Bible were to produce cither unhclieversin immortality, like the Sadducccs, or iminoral hclievers, like thePharisees, whom Christ espcciully denounces as vipers, and intcrnallj/ corriiptjlike whitcd sejnilchrcs lioldiiKjdead men's hones.7G8. Christ never singles out the kSadducces for denunciation, but speaksof the Pharisees particularly as hypocritical and corrupt. But in whatdid their hypocrisy consist, if it was not in that insincerity of their professionsas respects belief in futurity which was shown by their worldlincss.7G9. Thus the evidence of the existence of a future state was such asto produce avowed unbelievers, or professed believers whose morality wasso deficient as to create an expression that they were corrupt hypocrites, asodious as vipers.770. It is not the feebleness of the impressions respecting the existenceof another world, where happiness is proportional to good conduct, thatrenders the existing system so inoperative in preventing those vices whichit especially interdicts ; as, for instance, combativeness, cupiditj', and revcngefulncss; so that the course usually pursued by professed Christians,does not merely amount to a neglect of Christ's precepts, but renders anadherence to them disreputable? Nothing is more degrading throughoutChristendom than poverty or tame submission to blows. The last excuseChristians in general will make for any omission or deficiency is theirpoverty.771. If they really believed that they would broil to eternity, like therich man, merely for seeking the good things of this life,would the attainmentof those good things be made the great object of their existence ?772. Notwithstanding the representations of Josephus^ sanctioned, asabove shown, by Christ, of the subterranean localization of Elysium, thereseems, nevertheless, an instinctive propensity to assume that heaven isoverhead. Clergymen all look upward when they address God, and theThespian artists universally follow their example. "Whenever heaven isreferred to, it is customary, I believe, for all devout persons to turn theireyes in the same direction.773. But if heaven be above, what does this term ahove mean ? Itpractically designates a vertical direction relatively to this globe at anypoint over which a speaker who uses the word may stand. Conscqueutl}-,itindicates a space overhead, having everywhere the same relative positionto the terrestrial surface ; in other words, a region concentric with thatsurface, like that within which the clouds float. This floating takes placerarely at a less distance than two, or more than six, miles.774. The spiritual spheres are estimated, as already mentioned, as beingbetween sixty and one hundred and twenty miles from the earth's surface.They are, therefore, analogous in position to the region of the clouds, thoughat a much greater distance and vastly more capacious.