* * * * *

Perhaps I ought to say here that this supposed state of discipline is by
no means to be confounded with the Roman Catholic doctrine of
Purgatory.

The term of duration of purgatorial fire is supposed to be determined by
the priest, who can effect a release at any time he pleases. It is
simply a matter of payment. And the idea of purgatory may be held--I
think is generally held--without conceiving of it as a means of
purification. Is it not rather conceived of as a place of punishment?

But the intermediate state we conceive of is a state of purification and
education. There may be intense suffering in certain cases. We can
conceive that such suffering may be required as a means of purification.
In other cases no great suffering, or none at all, may be necessary. By
some means, specially adapted to each case, every soul will be prepared
to enter a state of blessedness.

Even that final state may have lower grades, preparatory for the higher.
It does not seem consistent with God's dealings with man to thrust a
frail human spirit into the blinding glory of heaven. It is far more
likely that there are lower stages, preparatory for higher. When a child
is born into the world it is not even aware for a time that it has
entered on a new mode of existence. But it adapts itself unconsciously
to its new surroundings, and by easy stages develops perhaps into a poet
or a philosopher. In some such way, but on a higher plane, we can
believe that the soul is developed in the future life. We may
confidently leave all details with Him who is "Wise in Counsel, and
excellent in working," and whose love is unchangeable and everlasting.