a celestial hope, a pious dream; and the whole life to come a mystery, before which the uninstructed mind sinks down in helplessness or total apathy.
We have seen in the previous chapters that heaven is, first, a state of love and charity in the heart; secondly, and flowing from the first, a state of wisdom and illumination in the mind; and thirdly, as an effect of these emotional and intellectual states, a vast world of beauty and glory, making precisely the same kind of impression upon our spiritual senses that the natural world makes upon our natural senses.
Heaven begins at the centre, in a state of love and charity in the heart. That is the essential basis of its existence, the primal cause of its creation. No physical changes, no variations of place, no possible yearnings or prayers can bring a soul into heaven. No learning, no wisdom, no spiritual illumination, no faith, no operations of the understanding, can of themselves advance the spirit one step nearer to the pearl-white gates and mansions of the blessed. Love to God in the heart, charity to the neighbor, obedience to the divine laws, a life according to the commandments, however acquired, under whatever names or forms or creeds; these are the passports to heaven, for these
