THE WORTH OF LIFE. 235
diction but a fulfilment of the law of healing. It simply stops the evil internal action at a certain point and allows the healing powers to commence and carry on the work of spiritual cure.
It is beyond the limited scope of the present work to make a separate discussion of details in religion. In the full edition of the Book of Life the reader may find them described more at length.
OBEDIENCE brings life in every sphere of existence. For the human constitution, the nature of our faculties remain the same whether we exist in a physical or a spiritual world.
The amount of life is measured by the variety of powers, and the ability to resist those causes which tend to destroy the body. This quantity increases from infancy to maturity. There is no reason, that man has yet learned, why our physical existence might not be continued as long as man chooses, if all the conditions of life were fully maintained. When maturity is reached, for a number of years the internal forces are able to keep an even balance against those which are outside of the body. If we knew and obeyed the vital laws, it would be no more difficult to maintain that balance for a thousand years.
The life of each person is bound up with that of others. It is affected on every side by their life and conduct. Hence human life can be greatly prolonged only by the collective obedience of society. This obedience requires true institutions, in harmony with man's nature, such as we have described in these seven chapters.
But suppose that we were not assured of an earthly immortality. Yet we can be absolutely certain that
human life could be ushered in by a painless birth; that during long centuries it could pass through scenes of unalloyed happiness, and when old age should finally come, it would be a gradual fading out of life.
The stability of this earth as the abode of man is secured by cosmic laws whose cycles sweep through millions of years. blan cannot escape from his destiny. He must remain a dweller on the earth ; but he may change widely its conditions. And the possibility of removing the great evils that have afflicted the race should move us to the mightiest efforts to transform the old conditions and drive the dark hosts of evil from the fair face of the world.
