o imagine that the fate of a Rasputin is the same as that of a
Father Damien. The punishment is very certain and very serious, though
in its less severe forms it only consists in the fact that the grosser
souls are in lower spheres with a knowledge that their own deeds have
placed them there, but also with the hope that expiation and the help
of those above them will educate them and bring them level with the
others. In this saving process the higher spirits find part of their
employment. Miss Julia Ames in her beautiful posthumous book, says in
memorable words: "The greatest joy of Heaven is emptying Hell."

Setting aside those probationary spheres, which should perhaps rather
be looked upon as a hospital for weakly souls than as a penal
community, the reports from the other world are all agreed as to the
pleasant conditions of life in the beyond. They agree that like goes
to like, that all who love or who have interests in common are united,
that life is full of interest and of occupation, and that they would by
no means desire to return. All of this is surely tidings of great joy,
and I repeat that it is not a vague faith or hope, but that it is
supported by all the laws of evidence which agree that where many
independent witnesses give a similar account, that account has a claim
to be considered a true one. If it were an account of glorified souls
purged instantly from all human weakness and of a constant ecstasy of
adoration round the throne of the all powerful, it might well be
suspected as being the mere reflection of that popular theology which
all the mediums had equally received in their youth. It is, however,
very different to any preexisting system. It is also supported, as I
have already pointed out, not merely by the consistency of the
accounts, but by the fact that the accounts are the ultimate product of
a long series of phenomena, all of which have been attested as true by
those who have carefully examined them.

In connection with the general subject of life after death, people may
say we have got this knowledge already through faith. But faith,
however beautiful in the individual, has always in collective bodies
been a very two-edged quality. All would be well if every faith were
alike and the intuitions of the human race were constant. We know that
it is not so. Faith means to say that you entirely believe a thing
which you cannot prove. One man says: "My faith is THIS." Another
says: