or of suffering, is
reserved for mankind, and yet more, if the principle of that world is
not inactivity but energy or character or life, it is reasonable to
believe that the souls which enter upon the future state with the taint
of sin clinging to them, in whatever form or degree, will be slowly
cleansed by a disciplinary or purifactory process from whatever it is
that, being evil in itself, necessarily obstructs or obscures the vision
of God." He continues, "And this is the benediction of human nature, to
feel that, as souls upon earth are fortified and elevated by the prayers
offered for them in the unseen world, so too by our prayers may the
souls which have passed behind the veil be lifted higher and higher into
the knowledge and contemplation and fruition of God."[10]

[Footnote 10: The Hope of Immortality, page 337.]

We do not know that death forever determines the condition of the soul.
On the other hand, as I grow older, the idea seems to me to be opposed
to Scripture, to the analogies of nature and history, to reason, and to
the universal moral sense.

If any one should object to prayers for the dead because the privilege
and duty seem so distinctively a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church,
my only reply is that we should never ask who are the advocates of any
teaching, but, only, is it true? Each branch of the church emphasizes
some phase of truth. The Roman Church has given more prominence to
prayers for the dead than Protestants, and because of that it will have
the gratitude of many honest souls who cannot believe that they are
entirely and forever severed from those whom they have loved and still
love.

I am well aware that there are many difficult questions concerning this
subject which it is impossible for me to answer. Some truths are clearly
revealed and of others we have only glimpses. Concerning some we feel
more than we know, and feelings which are not selfish are prophetic.
What an earnest and inquiring spirit feels must be true is quite as
likely to be found true as conclusions which seem to have been reached
by a process of faultless logic.

I fully believe that we are justified in praying for those who have
departed this life, that the good may grow better, that the clouds which
obscure the vision of the unbelieving may be removed, that all taints of
animalism may be washed away; and that we should pray even for the
wicked, that the disciplinary processes through which they are passing