been
barren and without profit.

The revelation abolishes the idea of a grotesque hell and of a
fantastic heaven, while it substitutes the conception of a gradual rise
in the scale of existence without any monstrous change which would turn
us in an instant from man to angel or devil. The system, though
different from previous ideas, does not, as it seems to me, run counter
in any radical fashion to the old beliefs. In ancient maps it was
usual for the cartographer to mark blank spaces for the unexplored
regions, with some such legend as "here are anthropophagi," or "here
are mandrakes," scrawled across them. So in our theology there have
been ill-defined areas which have admittedly been left unfilled, for
what sane man has ever believed in such a heaven as is depicted in our
hymn books, a land of musical idleness and barren monotonous adoration!
Thus in furnishing a clearer conception this new system has nothing to
supplant. It paints upon a blank sheet.

One may well ask, however, granting that there is evidence for such a
life and such a world as has been described, what about those who have
not merited such a destination? What do the messages from beyond say
about these? And here one cannot be too definite, for there is no use
exchanging one dogma for another. One can but give the general purport
of such information as has been vouchsafed to us. It is natural that
those with whom we come in contact are those whom we may truly call the
blessed, for if the thing be approached in a reverent and religious
spirit it is those whom we should naturally attract. That there are
many less fortunate than themselves is evident from their own constant
allusions to that regenerating and elevating missionary work which is
among their own functions. They descend apparently and help others to
gain that degree of spirituality which fits them for this upper sphere,
as a higher student might descend to a lower class in order to bring
forward a backward pupil. Such a conception gives point to Christ's
remark that there was more joy in heaven over saving one sinner than
over ninety-nine just, for if He had spoken of an earthly sinner he
would surely have had to become just in this life and so ceased to be a
sinner before he had reached Paradise. It would apply very exactly,
however, to a sinner rescued from a lower sphere and brought to a
higher one.

When we view sin in the light of modern science, with the tenderness of