“Like all flames, this electric spark can either be fanned into a fire or it can be allowed to escape in air—­it can never be destroyed. It can be fostered and educated till it becomes a living Spiritual Form of absolute beauty—­an immortal creature of thought, memory, emotion, and working intelligence.  If, on the contrary, he is neglected or forgotten, and its companion Will is drawn by the weight of Earth to work for earthly aims alone, then it escapes and seeks other chances of development in other forms on other planets, while the body it leaves, supported only by physical sustenance drawn from the earth on which it dwells, becomes a mere lump of clay animated by mere animal life solely, full of inward ignorance and corruption and outward incapacity.  Of such material are the majority of men composed by their own free-will and choice, because they habitually deaden the voice of conscience and refuse to believe in the existence of a spiritual element within and around them.

“To resume:  the Earth is one of the smallest of planets; and not only this, but, from its position in the Universe, receives a less amount of direct influence from the Electric Circle than other worlds more happily situated.  Were men wise enough to accept this fact, they would foster to the utmost the germs of electric sympathy within themselves, in order to form a direct communication, or system of attraction, between this planet and the ever-widening Ring, so that some spiritual benefit might accrue to them thereby.  But as the ages roll on, their chances of doing this diminish.  The time is swiftly approaching when the invincible Law of Absorption shall extinguish Earth as easily as we blow out the flame of a candle.  True, it may be again reproduced, and again thrown out on space; but then it will be in a new and grander form, and will doubtless have more godlike inhabitants.

“In the meantime—­during those brief cycles of centuries which are as a breath in the workings of the Infinite, and which must yet elapse before this world, as we know it, comes to an end—­God has taken pity on the few, very few souls dwelling here, pent up in mortal clay, who have blindly tried to reach Him, like plants straining up to the light, and has established a broad stream of sympathetic electric communication with Himself, which all who care to do so may avail themselves of.

“Here it may be asked:  Why should God take pity?  Because that Supreme Shape of Light finds a portion of Himself in all pure souls that love Him, and he cannot despise himself.  Also because He is capable of all the highest emotions known to man, in a far larger and grander degree, besides possessing other sentiments and desires unimaginable to the human mind.  It is enough to say that all the attributes that accompany perfect goodness He enjoys; therefore He can feel compassion, tenderness, forgiveness, patience—­all or any of the emotions that produce pure, unselfish pleasure.