What we need is to banish all haze from our conceptions of the reality of that state, so that we can think of it heartily and talk about it to each other with clear eye and open brow, as we would talk of some great university or gorgeous landscape of a foreign land. Thus only can we have any comfort when our dearest are transferred hence. What is so inspiring, what aspect of our humanity is so lofty and divine, as when a Christian mother, one the hallowed clay of a little one, can say with assured faith: "This was only the earthly image of an innocence, a wonder, and a love that have been withdrawn into the deeps of eternal life, into that world of truth and essences and peace that is near me in my prayers. Its dawning faculties, which I loved so to watch and guide, are more precious to God than to me, and he has lifted them to a state of being where a purer light and more delightful splendors than the earthly sun sheds or shines upon, surround its unfettered spirit. It is mine still through my faith in God , and my assurance of the supremacy of the spirit over the clay." That is the way to think of the future world, -not in weak fancy, but in a conviction that our powers of thought, feeling, and worship are our real substance here. -Thomas Starr King.
