Life in a Thousand Worlds by William Shuler Harris
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William Shuler Harris >> Life in a Thousand Worlds
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"I am on a peace mission from a far distant world," I quietly said as I
slowly became visible to my audience of one.
Naturally she was alarmed at my appearance, and consequently I drew
gradually farther and farther away until she gained more self-possession
and turned interestingly toward me.
"Ah! how can you be a spirit without wings?" were her first unexpected
words.
"But I am no spirit," I said assuringly.
"You cannot be otherwise," she insisted.
"Believe what you wish, we have no time for parley. I am delighted to
visit your world and I desire, if possible, to have some mysteries
solved. Can you help me?"
Plume, for that is the name I called her, was much unsettled. She
scanned my form with wild curiosity and I feared that she would at once
use her wings at their swiftest.
"Pray do not fly hence," I quickly urged. "I will never harm you, even
though we could converse together forever. Believe me true, and rest
your wings and heart in peace."
My words had some effect toward calming her mind and with more placid
features she still looked at me half shrinkingly.
"Are you not happy that you have wings with which fly?" I continued,
hoping to create a more natural familiarity.
"Happy? No more than for my feet, my ears, or my life," she answered in
a more composed manner. "You say that you are from another world. Where
can that be?" was her welcome query.
Then I pointed my finger in the direction of our world and remarked:
"If you could travel in that direction on swift wings day and night for
a few millions of years, you would still be far, far away from the world
where I live."
"And is that world inhabited by sensible creatures?"
"It is."
"But how could you have traversed so great a distance?"
"Never can I explain that mystery to you. Be content that I am here."
"Are you in the image of the other human creatures in that far away
world?"
"In general they are all fashioned as I am."
"No one having wings?" she added with surprise.
"Not one."
"How can that be true?"
"Because we were made without them."
"And have you no way of moving through the air at pleasure?"
"Not without artificial machinery."
"Artificial machinery?" she repeated. "What can you mean by that?"
Of course they have no word for balloon or flying machine, and I found
it difficult to describe the shape and explain the philosophy of these
things. I did the best I could in her language, and after I had finished
my description she for the first time smiled and said:
"That sort of a construction would be a fine thing for the indolents of
our world who, through misuse or lack of use of their wings, have no
more ability to fly."
This was interesting to me and I closely inquired as to the cause of
this loss of the wing power. Plume grew more and more familiar in her
address and in a long conversation told me of the many conditions that
make people unfit to fly. I deduce from our conversation a few of these
causes.
1. Simple neglect.
2. Gluttonous life.
3. Sensuality of a low and heavy life.
4. Pride. Some yield to a superstitious notion that it is honorable to
make but little display of themselves, and allow their wings to be bound
or partly clipped.
5. Certain kinds of sickness render the wing-chords inoperative.
I learned that altogether nearly one-half of the population are unable
to fly. How my mind flew back to our own life as I was learning of these
sad conditions. There is a sort of a life on wings in our world,
although the wings are invisible. But on account of the low, mean lives
so many are living, they never rise above the miasmic contagion of the
sin and self level. These unseen wings are either paralyzed or clipped.
Plume now actually stepped toward me. What a graceful tread. She was
indeed the most charming creature I had met outside of my own world. She
seated herself near me on the rustic bend of a tree unlike any in our
world and hurried her questions at me as if she realized that I would
not tarry long. At length she gratefully said:
"I am beginning to believe that you are really a son of another world,
or else I am reveling in a day dream."
"Happy am I that I can learn from you some of the truths after which I
am seeking," was my evasive reply. "Tell me, Plume, something about your
faith religiously."
"I worship the God who made all things and am hoping to live in the
wider life after my mortal days are ended."
"Do you expect to meet, in that wider life, representatives from other
worlds?"
"Ah! I have often thought that it might be so," she answered, as her
face brightened in poetic fervor, and her eyes sparkled with seraphic
luster.
"It shall all be so, and much more," I declared. "In that life you can
fly without wings and mingle with the pure from the unnumbered worlds of
space."
"What an incentive to a pure life," she quickly added.
"Talking of wings, do you object if I see more closely the cut and style
of your wings? I never saw before a human creature possessing a pair."
After a moment's hesitancy she raised her right arm and with it the one
wing unfolded. I ventured near enough to see the intricate network of
muscle and bone woven around the arm and filling the space between the
raised arm and the side of Plume's body. She was surprised at the
interest I manifested in the human wing. After this she offered to
furnish an able escort to conduct me to several points of interest.
All this I declined and informed my talented friend that I must hasten
away to another world.
"Let me go with you," she strongly insisted.
"Your wings are not of the right kind," I replied hurriedly.
"They are strong enough to bear us both," were her inviting words.
"But not beyond the atmosphere of this world," I explained.
I quietly arose, scanned once more the beautiful valley before me, and
indicated that I was about to wane into the invisible. Then did her
womanly nature assert its supremacy and she, for the first time, touched
my hand imploringly:
"Have I been dreaming, or do my eyes deceive me? How can all this be
true? Your hand is sensible to my touch. I implore you to remain until I
speak to you more about the sciences of your world."
In all my journey I never yielded to persuasion before. But somehow I
consented to spend a season longer of most charming fellowship, talking
of the elements in nature, their chemical affinities, and the laws of
matter and mind. Plume was unusually bright in the philosophies, and I
gathered from her many truths which had always before been hidden to me.
Finally I became rigid in my determination to leave, for I knew that I
could not stay.
"Grant me one request," she begged.
"Let me hear it."
"Promise me that you will return."
"Impossible, impossible!"
The parting that followed was indeed memorable. Without any further
notice I suddenly vanished, but still tarried invisibly in close
proximity.
Plume was now left in deep bewilderment, and I could not even
conjecture the details of her warring thoughts. Finally I saw that for
which I had tarried. Plume lifted her wings and flew skyward as
beautifully and gracefully as any bird of our earthly air.
CHAPTER XXII.
Heaven.
After my ambition to visit one thousand worlds had been realised, and I
was darting toward the confines of our own little Solar System,
instinctively I looked out once more over the vast stretches of space.
All around me, at amazing distances, loomed up the millions of spheres
which I had not visited by reason of my limited time. I felt like some
one who, after gaining his first thousand dollars, has a wild craving to
accumulate ten or one hundred thousand more.
Still I scanned the heavens while deeper longings pervaded my soul.
While in this mood the most unusual vision flashed upon my eyes.
Suddenly I forgot whither I was going and in wild astonishment I drank
in the first view of Heaven. Inwardly I marveled that I had not seen at
least a part of it before.
Heaven is fashioned on a transcendently large scale. It is not a single
sphere, but a universal chain of vast and luminous star-groups,
scattered harmoniously throughout the infinite regions of space, so that
a part of it lies suspended preciously near to our own Solar System.
Heaven is more real and substantial than the suns and planets of the
universe, although not one of its numberless parts can be detected by
the human eye, or discerned through a telescope. These luminous orbs
that constitute Heaven control the movements of the planets, suns and
systems which we call material. They are whiter than snow and shine with
a luster not dazzling, but restful to the eye capable of seeing them.
How this glimpse put to naught all my former crude conceptions of
Heaven, and if I found myself unable to describe the wonders of many a
dark world which I have visited, how much less could I portray the
vastly superior beauties of Heaven which are so far beyond the glory of
dark, rugged worlds that I felt an inexpressible desire to take up my
abode there at once and to remain forever.
Inwardly I shouted for joy as this new light illumined my face, and I
loathed to think of proceeding on my journey to any sin-cursed world of
the universe, for the ties of kinship, friendship, and earthship all
vanished at the sight of such resplendent spheres.
THE GREATNESS OF HEAVEN.
There is no language to be employed that can fitly describe the parts of
Heaven I saw, and I know that the greater glory was curtained from my
view. But the size of the lustrous orbs is not equaled by the large
material suns that blaze in the depth of immensity. Heaven's diamond
splendor extended as far as my unassisted eyes could reach, and
according to the way it appeared it must extend without limit.
It would require one hundred millions of years for a child of God to
take one excursion trip to the physical worlds of our universe. Then
there are millions of such universes, (I know of no better name to use)
each one occupying its own immense stretches of space. These universes
average about sixteen hundred millions of worlds each.
Heaven is infinitely greater than this whole material fabric, so that if
a spirit is inclined to travel, he will need all eternity to study the
works of God as displayed in the glorious abodes of Heaven and in the
changing aspects of created worlds.
Let us give a deeper meaning to the stanza of the poet by substituting
"million" for "thousand."
When I've been there ten million years,
Bright, shining as the sun,
I've no less days to sing God's praise,
Than when I first begun.
Compared with this life more vast, does it not appear that our own
insignificant existence on our tiny Earth is as the creeping of a mere
insect on the leaf of a giant oak?
PERMANENCY OF HEAVEN.
The only permanent or imperishable feature of our universe is the Heaven
part of it. The created or visible worlds are mere dark appendages of
the real spheres, and are serving their parts in bringing fruit to
their Maker.
Sin-cursed and sinless worlds are coming to an end continually, and as
rapidly are new ones flung out or old ones re-peopled to serve as garden
plots to bear fruit in the form of created intelligences who serve and
admire God through choice.
Heaven is indestructible. It has already been in existence since the
morning of time. In all my journey, no angel or mortal could tell me how
many cycles ago that was. But it must be said that Heaven does not
always present the same aspect. Mansions are built for the reception of
new arrivals, or for the vast delegations from millennial worlds.
THE INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN.
They come from all parts of the universe, from millions of spheres. The
righteous of any world, at death, are suddenly transported to that part
of Heaven lying nearest to their world. This is the Abraham's bosom
where the spirit is happy until it takes up its abode with its own
spiritualized body in a millennial reign, after which, by a decree of
the Final Judgment, it is given its credentials to the illimitable life
of all Heaven.
This is Paul's third heaven. Oh! what unlimited expansion! What
incomprehensible principles, to move at large in quest of universal
truths as seen in the seven types of Heaven's spiritual intelligences,
and in the unending manifestations of God's work and love as displayed
in all heaven and in all the peopled planets of space!
Not one of these blessed inhabitants ever grows old or suffers fatigue.
They are capable of moving with tireless energy from one part of
Heaven's vast domains to any other portion.
DEGREES OF HEAVEN.
In space there are many sinless worlds where human species are
propagated, not as the result of any sexual affinities, but in a manner
totally unintelligible to a finite mind. They who reach Heaven from such
a world cannot drink in the same kind of enjoyment as those who come up
out of great tribulations from the spheres of a sin-cursed world, and
who have struggled for mastery and forged their way to the sky through
armies of aliens.
But these creatures are perfectly contented, for they have no way of
realizing the glory resulting from the victory over the world, the flesh
and the Devil.
Then there are degrees of glory among those who come from a sin-cursed
world. Some have many treasures laid up in Heaven, while others centered
their affections too much upon the transitory things of time and sense.
There are also various orders or degrees of glory among the seven types
of intelligences of which Heaven's multitudes are composed. Some of
these may be suggested to your mind when you read more of this sevenfold
life.
[Illustration: A Glimpse of Blissful Life in Heaven.]
SEVEN TYPES OF INTELLIGENCES.
1. The first class of beings is composed of those whom we comprehend as
the Trinity, whose highest glory is expressed in the Mediatorial
personage who can be seen at will by any of Heaven's hosts from any
world.
2. The cherubim and seraphim, or the highest order of spirits, who
have always been pure and holy. They constitute the next rank of the
celestial host.
3. The third class is composed of the general host of angels who also
have been holy from eternity, and who serve as ambassadors to various
points of the limitless creation.
4. The spirits of those who have risen from sinful worlds by virtue of a
God-approved and God-appointed Mediator. To join the ranks of this class
we, who serve God, are hastening. This is no low order or caste in
Heaven, but they who belong to it vie with higher angels, and taste
sweetness beyond the capacity of those who, in other respects, are our
peers. The angels desire to look into the deep mystery of salvation's
plan.
5. The matured and maturing spirits of those who left sinful worlds
before God held them accountable for their deeds. To this class belong
our children who precede us into the final abode.
6. The spirits of those who have risen from sinless worlds to take
their infinitely higher degrees in this Heaven life.
7. The matured and maturing spirits of those who left the sinless worlds
before sense perception was duly developed. They form a distinct class
of spirits and have their distinctive marks.
UNITY OF HEAVEN.
Redemption's plan for each sinful world is somewhat similar to ours, so
that there is a oneness in the whole family of the redeemed. This is one
main factor that makes the bond of unity perfect and renders the
fellowship of the celestial hosts absolutely without a flaw.
True enough, each of the seven classes of intelligences is a mystery and
a glory to the others. But there is no friction, no jar. Each one is
perfect in himself and happy in spirit.
Although each one of the vast companies carries the distinctive impress
and the spiritual peculiarities of his own planet, yet they are all now
fashioned after the symmetry of the Heaven life, and no one bears a
single repellant feature, but rather each spiritual body is beautiful
to the eyes of all the others, and each one breathes the same atmosphere
of purity and converses in the self-same language of love.
A HOME-LIKE PLACE.
No feature of Heaven is more beautiful than its home-like atmosphere.
The soul is not chilled by the two-thousand-mile-cube cities, or by the
long, long stretches of Divine masonry. God is as a real father, and all
his subjects are as our blood-relations. We feel it, and the inspiration
of these truths takes a deep hold of Heaven's vast populace.
EMPLOYMENT.
Now and then large excursion parties visit various points of our own
universe and frequently span the incredible distances in order to study
the works and life of other universes.
Each soul is occupied in gratifying its own master passion, and lives in
the delightsome fellowship of the saints.
TRANSPORTATION.
There are no vehicles or cars of any kind. Actual wings are unknown
except as used by certain birds of Heaven. Spirits travel as rapidly as
desired by a mere submissive connection with the universal system of
power filaments, all of which center in God. More refined power than
electricity is transmitted over these substantial filaments to any point
of any world. The fleshly body is not sensitive to this spiritual power,
but the pure soul, when free from the body, is at once sensitive to
these chords of power and is carried swifter than a current of
electricity to Abraham's bosom, where it is entitled forever to a free
use of this perfect power without being subject to any kind of taxation.
SEXUAL AFFINITIES OF HEAVEN.
Contrary to some of my former ideas I saw that the inhabitants of Heaven
are not all of one sex. The male and female are clearly distinguishable,
and they bear relations one to another still more refined than was
manifest in the Millennial World.
The most holy affinity exists between the several types of
intelligences. Here the glorious fires of love burn never to reach a
climax. Lovers have been drinking from perennial fountains for a million
years, and their ecstacies are rising still. Pure love is as endless and
infinite as time and space, and its mystery is deep to these shining
throngs of Heaven who look into one another's faces with untrammeled
emotions. Think of falling in love with the inhabitants of other worlds
and of having the capacity and right to foster a thousand or more types
of affinity, each one differing from the others!
These relations are so highly refined and so gloriously developed that
one must not think of reducing them by comparison to the level of the
flesh life.
STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF HEAVEN.
I would not attempt to describe the structural glory of Heaven, for I
know not where nor how to begin. Seemingly all things are transparent
even to the center of vast orbs. Magnificent cities apparently lie
suspended far under the indefinite surface of the orbs composing
Heaven, and free passage ways of phantastical design ramify throughout
all the glorious under-surface regions.
Architectural greatness here finds its unmatched examples. Seven-mile
diamond arches are common-places, and towers of two thousand miles in
height and one thousand miles in diameter, as the corner stone of a
city, are nothing unusual, although many cities are built on a smaller
plan. Nothing needs repairing, and nothing is mortgaged. The wealth of
unnumbered trillions is easily represented in one orb of Heaven's
empire.
I now saw a thousand-fold more clearly than ever before the absolute
folly of fixing our affections on the perishing things of the mortal
life in our dark and dusty world.
While my eyes were still feasting on the sublime picture before me I
began to realize that my privilege would be of short duration, as the
vision was fast waning. I looked intently until the last curtain fell,
and reluctantly I continued my journey toward my own little world. I now
felt that, if the whole Earth were my own property, I would gladly push
it all aside if I could be a mere door keeper in one of the heavenly
cities of my God.
And very often since that time I have cast my longing eyes skyward,
hoping to catch another glimpse of that fair scene.
How I long for that restful picture,
A vision of Heaven, once more;
With its trillion orbs of beauty,
And its wealth of endless store.
There are saints from unnumbered planets,
Where they lived in a million ways.
Now they mingle in perfect glory,
Through the length of eternal days.
There the poor are wealthy forever,
For the beggar sits down with the King.
The man who never knew music
Will vie with angels to sing.
Here the hopeful student, progressing,
After failing does often grieve;
But in Heaven each lesson is perfect,
No theory to blind or deceive.
Here the runner, in breathless struggle,
Sees the other in touch of the goal;
But Heaven gives each one the laurel,
To be crowned while the ages roll.
There they have no light of a candle,
For there are no shadows of night.
There the flash of unnumbered opals
Sparkles on in their wealth of light.
In that home-like palace of Heaven,
Where these myriad trillions are,
There the Lord is the self-same Master,
And Love is the self-same star.
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