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lying and interpenetrating this, will surely seem to a reflecting mind, whose spiritual faculties are on the alert, to confirm that belief in a wonderful manner. And indeed it is this dull apprehension as to the existence of a spiritual world close to us, not far away, which is at the root of the ordinary objections to the sacramental system. Minds which regard the spiritual world as a fixed place in space beyond the sidereal system find it hard to believe in real, veritable, spiritual substances behind material veils. And yet the whole of this world which we inhabit is in truth a sacramental system, an economy of outward and visible signs veiling realities hidden behind them.

But this will more fitly form the subject of a separate chapter.

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CHAPTER V

PROPINQUITY OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

NOTHING has struck me more, in contemplating the modern discoveries of physical science, than the light which they appear to me to throw on the glimpses into the spiritual world which Holy Writ incidentally, and as it were casually, vouchsafes to us. If we are to believe the Bible, the spiritual world is not a region far away in space, but close to us; and we do not see its sights or hear its sounds simply because our present organs are too dull to apprehend them. We are thus in the condition of a man born deaf and blind into this world of sense. He is in the midst of two worlds, of which, however, he knows next to nothing. For him the abounding beauties of nature in the sphere of sight and sound are as if they were not. Let his eyes be opened, and he finds himself at once in the midst of a world of which before he had no conception-nothing but the vaguest notion from the report of those who had eyes to see. Open his ears, and another world is disclosed to him which his want of hearing had till then concealed from him.

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This is the sort of relation in which Holy Scripture represents us as standing towards the spiritual world. Let us take a few instances.

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When Elijah was about to leave the earth, and Elisha prayed for 'a double portion of the spirit' of his departing master, the latter answered, Thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.' What did the prophet mean by if thou see me when I am taken from thee'? Surely this: that if Elisha was able to see the spiritual transformation which his master was about to undergo, that would in itself be a sufficient proof to him that spiritual organs were opened within him which placed him in communication with the spiritual world. Elisha did see the translation of his master, and found himself at once endowed with the gift of seership, which enabled him to reveal the secret counsels of the Syrian King, who consequently sent an army to arrest him. 'And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host encompassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.'

It is evident that the 'eyes' which the prophet prayed might be opened were not the bodily eyes of the young man. These were open before, and saw nothing but the Syrian host. A new sense was opened which revealed to the youth the agencies of Divine Providence invisible to mortal sight, which protect the servants of God.

In S. Luke's Gospel (iii. 21, 22) we read: 'Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that, Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.' In S. Matthew's account the expression is, 'The heavens were opened unto Him.'

The meaning evidently is that prayer on the part of Jesus was in fact the opening of His sinless soul to that spiritual world which the gross environment of the mortal body hides from the multitude.

Another incident of similar import in our Lord's life is related in S. John's Gospel (xii. 27-29):

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Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, say. ing, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The people, therefore, that stood by and heard it said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him.'

That is to say, the heavenly voice which fell in articulate accents on the sensitive ear of our Saviour

sounded like the rumbling of distant thunder on the duller organs of those who were about Him.

I believe that several of the discrepancies in the Gospel record of our Lord's Resurrection may be explained in the same way. Woman's more refined and delicate organisation is naturally more sensitive to spiritual influences than man's, and this is probably the reason why the devout women who visited the tomb of the risen Saviour saw more of the spiritual world than Peter and John. Mary, whose absorbing love and intense grief had, no doubt, quickened her spiritual perceptions, saw two angels; the other women saw only one; Peter and John saw none. In fact, each saw more or less according as the spiritual organs were in each case rendered more or less sensitive to spiritual influences.

My next illustration shall be from an incident in the account of the martyrdom of S. Stephen, recorded in Acts vii. 55-57:

'Being full of the Holy Ghost, he looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.'

Now where was the heaven into which the dying martyr gazed? Millions of miles away, beyond the starry firmament? Was his mortal sight miraculously endowed with a telescopic power of traversing in a moment the planetary spaces and looking into a world of supersensuous glories behind them? Is it not plain, on the contrary, that a new sense was

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