It is a proposition generally believed, that there is a soul-mate for every human being, and it is usually supposed that in the spirit world those mates are found, and that those united there live together inseparably.  But as there exists in the spirit world the same states, the same variety of progressive development among men and women as in this world, so unions are formed there in which one soul develops beyond the capacity of the other, and in such cases changes must ensue.

I will now speak of marriages more in detail.

In the summer land the union of the man with the woman occurs from very similar causes to those which bring about like unions upon earth—­the man is drawn to the woman and the woman to the man through the operation of a natural law.  If instinct were not so impaired by the cultivation of the external faculties, there would arise but little difficulty—­on earth in selecting partners adapted to each other.  Considerations of wealth and position are permitted to influence your selections rather than the idea of congeniality and adaptability.

In spirit life this method is reversed, and the marriages formed there are productive of greater happiness than those among men in the first condition of life.

But as I have stated, marriage in the spirit world is not an indissoluble bond.  Some minds associate together in harmony and expand in the same direction, and with these the union is permanent.  I have seen such in the spirit world,—­beautiful and noble souls intertwined and aspiring together.

There be others whose states and conditions after a time become changed.  Such seek new companions, and this is permitted without discredit to the individuals.

Many forms of marriage ceremonies are extant in the different societies and countries.  Garlands of flowers and symphonies of divine music are bestowed upon the bride and groom.  Bright bands of spirits from the celestial heavens attend them, for they represent in their love and in their wedded joy the harmonies of nature!

While they love, sin, sorrow, darkness, and all evils shrink from sight.

From these spiritual marriages are born soul attributes.  Human beings are never generated in the second condition; they need what is known as the material world for their nurture and growth; and yet I understand that in some of the more refined spiritual existences births have occurred.  The beings born there are indigenous—­not generated by earth parents, but offspring of those refined conditions.

I know not of this as a fact; yet if we take the old Jewish Bible as a history, we find an analogous statement there in the assertion that Christ was born of God in a spiritual state of existence previous to entering this earth plane.

Spirit soils and atmosphere interblend and produce trees, shrubs, flowers, and the cereals, but the human being, after the second birth, ceases to reproduce his species.  His children are thoughts born of the spirit.  After birth succeeds death.  The soul passes through many stages of existence in the process of refinement.  The next state of existence to the material, I term the spiritual, and the one beyond that the celestial, and beyond that the seraphic.