nt out that
there are some things that are always assumed by legitimate inference
even without any definite proofs. If I knew that the inhabitants of
Mars were alive, and in full consciousness, and with souls like mine,
and capable of intercourse with each other--whether they have bodies or
not, I should assume that they knew one another. I should not wait for
that fact to be definitely stated by a visitor to Mars who should
return to earth. I should assume it without his stating it. Nay, I
should require very strong evidence to make me believe the contrary.
Now, the Bible says that our dear ones in Paradise are alive,--that
their life is a full conscious life, with full consciousness of
personal identity, that they remember the things of the old earth life,
that they love one another, that they can have intercourse together as
in the story of Dives and Lazarus.

So far as we can judge, the inner life of the "I" THERE seems a very
natural continuation of his life HERE.

If then, "I" am the same "I," the same person, still alive, still
conscious, still thinking, still remembering, still loving, still
longing for my dear ones, still capable of intercourse with others, why
may I not without definite proof assume the fact of recognition?
Surely it should require strong evidence to make me believe the
contrary. It is one thing to avoid reckless assertions without any
foundation--it is quite another thing to have so little trust in God
that we are afraid to make a fair inference such as we would
unhesitatingly make in like conditions here--just because it seems to
us "too good to be true." Nothing is too good to be true where God is
concerned. I do believe that one reason why we have not definite
answers to such questions as this is because such answers ought not to
be necessary for people who trusted fully in the tenderness of the love
of God.

Section 3

Why, even if the Bible were to give you no hint of it, do you not see
that the deepest, noblest instincts that God has implanted in us cry
out for recognition of our departed; and where God is concerned it is
not too much to say that the deepest, noblest instincts are, in a
sense, prophecies. This passionate affection, the noblest thing that
God has implanted in us, makes it impossible to believe that we should
be but solitary isolated spirits amongst a crowd of others whom we did
not know, that we should live in the society of happy souls hereafter
and neve