CHAPTER XXXIII.
"A STUDY OF SCIENCE IS A STUDY OF GOD."--COMMUNING WITH ANGELS.
"This is incredible," I exclaimed.
"You need not be astonished," he answered. "Is there any argument thatcan be offered to controvert the assertion that man is ignorant of manynatural laws?"
"I can offer none."
"Is there any doubt that a force, distinct and separate from matter,influences matter and vivifies it into a living personality?"
"I do not deny that there is such force."
"What then should prevent this force from existing separate from thebody if it be capable of existing in it?"
"I can not argue against such a position."
"If, as is hoped and believed by the majority of mankind, even thoughsome try to deny the fact, it is possible for man to exist as anassociation of earth matters, linked to a personal spirit force, thesoul, and for the spirit force, after the death of the body, to existindependent of the grosser attributes of man, free from his mortal body,is it not reasonable to infer that the spirit, while it is still in manand linked to his body, may be educated and developed so as, underfavorable conditions, to meet and communicate with other spirits thathave been previously liberated from earthly bondage?"
"I submit," I answered; "but you shock my sensibilities when you thusimply that by cold, scientific investigation we can place ourselves in aposition to meet the unseen spirit world--"
It was now my turn to hesitate.
"Go on," he said.
"To commune with the angels," I answered.
"A study of true science is a study of God," he continued. "Angels areorganizations natural in accordance with God's laws. They appearsuperhuman, because of our ignorance concerning the higher naturalforces. They exist in exact accordance with the laws that govern theuniverse; but as yet the attraction between clay and clay-bound spiritis so great as to prevent the enthralled soul of man from communicatingwith them. The faith of the religionist is an example of theunquenchable feeling that creates a belief as well as a hope that thereis a self-existence separate from earthy substances. The scoffingscientific agnostic, working for other objects, will yet astonishhimself by elaborating a method that will practically demonstrate thesefacts, and then empirical religion, as exemplified by the unquestioningfaithful believer, and systematic science, as typified in theexperimental materialist, will meet on common ground."