THE WEDDING GARMENT.
THE WEDDING GARMENT.
A Tale of the Life to Come.BY LOUIS PENDLETON.16mo. Cloth, price, $1.00. White and gold, $1.25.“The Wedding Garment” tells the story of the continued existence of a young man after his death or departure from the natural world. Awakening in the other world,—in an intermediate region between Heaven and Hell, where the good and the evil live together temporarily commingled,—he is astonished and delighted to find himself the same man in all respects as to every characteristic of his mind and ultimate of the body. So closely does everything about him resemble the world he has left behind, that he believes he is still in the latter until convinced of the error. The young man has good impulses, but is no saint, and he listens to the persuasions of certain persons who were his friends in the world, but who are now numbered among the evil, even to the extent of following them downward to the very confines of Hell. Resisting at last and saving himself, later on, and after many remarkable experiences, he gradually makes his way through the intermediate region to the gateways of Heaven,—which can be found only by those prepared to enter,—where he is left with the prospect before him of a blessed eternity in the company of the woman he loves.The book is written in a reverential spirit, it is unique and quite unlike any story of the same type heretofore published, full of telling incidents and dramatic situations, and not merely a record of the doings of sexless “shades” but oflivinghuman beings.The one grand practical lesson which this book teaches, and which is in accord with the divine Word and the New Church unfoldings of it everywhere teach, is the need of an interior, true purpose in life. The deepest ruling purpose which we cherish, what we constantly strive for and determine to pursue as the most real and precious thing of life, that rules us everywhere, that is our ego, our life, is what will have its way at last. It will at last break through all disguise; it will bring all external conduct into harmony with itself. If it be an evil and selfish end, all external and fair moralities will melt away, and the man will lose his common sense and exhibit his insanities of opinion and will and answering deed on the surface. But if that end be good and innocent, and there be humility within, the outward disorders and evils which result from one’s heredity or surroundings will finally disappear.—From Rev. John Goddard’s discourse, July 1, 1894.Putting aside the question as to whether the scheme of the soul’s development after death was or was not revealed to Swedenborg, whether or not the title of seer can be added to the claims of this learned student of science, all this need not interfere with the moral influence of this work, although the weight of its instruction must be greatly enforced on the minds of those who believe in a later inspiration than the gospels.This story begins where others end; the title of the first chapter, “I Die,” commands attention; the process of the soul’s disenthralment is certainly in harmony with what we sometimes read in the dim eyes of friends we follow to the very gate of life. “By what power does a single spark hold to life so long ... this lingering of the divine spark of life in a body growing cold?” It is the mission of the author to tear from Death its long-established thoughts of horror, and upon its entrance into a new life, the soul possesses such a power of adjustment that no shock is experienced.—Boston Transcript.ROBERTS BROTHERS,Publishers,BOSTON, MASS.
A Tale of the Life to Come.
BY LOUIS PENDLETON.
16mo. Cloth, price, $1.00. White and gold, $1.25.
“The Wedding Garment” tells the story of the continued existence of a young man after his death or departure from the natural world. Awakening in the other world,—in an intermediate region between Heaven and Hell, where the good and the evil live together temporarily commingled,—he is astonished and delighted to find himself the same man in all respects as to every characteristic of his mind and ultimate of the body. So closely does everything about him resemble the world he has left behind, that he believes he is still in the latter until convinced of the error. The young man has good impulses, but is no saint, and he listens to the persuasions of certain persons who were his friends in the world, but who are now numbered among the evil, even to the extent of following them downward to the very confines of Hell. Resisting at last and saving himself, later on, and after many remarkable experiences, he gradually makes his way through the intermediate region to the gateways of Heaven,—which can be found only by those prepared to enter,—where he is left with the prospect before him of a blessed eternity in the company of the woman he loves.
The book is written in a reverential spirit, it is unique and quite unlike any story of the same type heretofore published, full of telling incidents and dramatic situations, and not merely a record of the doings of sexless “shades” but oflivinghuman beings.
The one grand practical lesson which this book teaches, and which is in accord with the divine Word and the New Church unfoldings of it everywhere teach, is the need of an interior, true purpose in life. The deepest ruling purpose which we cherish, what we constantly strive for and determine to pursue as the most real and precious thing of life, that rules us everywhere, that is our ego, our life, is what will have its way at last. It will at last break through all disguise; it will bring all external conduct into harmony with itself. If it be an evil and selfish end, all external and fair moralities will melt away, and the man will lose his common sense and exhibit his insanities of opinion and will and answering deed on the surface. But if that end be good and innocent, and there be humility within, the outward disorders and evils which result from one’s heredity or surroundings will finally disappear.—From Rev. John Goddard’s discourse, July 1, 1894.
Putting aside the question as to whether the scheme of the soul’s development after death was or was not revealed to Swedenborg, whether or not the title of seer can be added to the claims of this learned student of science, all this need not interfere with the moral influence of this work, although the weight of its instruction must be greatly enforced on the minds of those who believe in a later inspiration than the gospels.
This story begins where others end; the title of the first chapter, “I Die,” commands attention; the process of the soul’s disenthralment is certainly in harmony with what we sometimes read in the dim eyes of friends we follow to the very gate of life. “By what power does a single spark hold to life so long ... this lingering of the divine spark of life in a body growing cold?” It is the mission of the author to tear from Death its long-established thoughts of horror, and upon its entrance into a new life, the soul possesses such a power of adjustment that no shock is experienced.—Boston Transcript.
ROBERTS BROTHERS,Publishers,BOSTON, MASS.