This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ... IV THE DANGEROUS PATH TO HEAVEN" This belief in its widest acceptance means only that there are dangers which the soul has to encounter on its journey to heaven. Usually these dangers appear in a series extending the entire length of the path from earth to heaven, so that every step of the soul's passage is made fearful because of them. In the patristic texts the soul meets with recurring bands of spirits who challenge its progress; in the Coptic texts there are beings who threaten and usually, also, physical dangers. 1. The Struggle With The Spieits The soul, as soon as it is freed from the body, ascends toward heaven. Its passage, however, is hindered by numerous spirits, or "powers," who come to meet it, and, confronting it with the various sins, refuse to allow it to pass until it prove its innocence of them. If it be guilty, they carry it off to Hades immediately. Usually there are bands of spirits corresponding to the various sins, and the soul encounters them in a definite order. Only when it has proved its innocence of the first sin, can it encounter the spirits of the second; and so it passes throughout the entire ascent to heaven. In the greater number of the texts, also, the soul is accompanied and protected by angels, who bring forward its good deeds when the spirits present its sins, and, if occasion demands, fight with them for the possession of the soul. In a homily by Cyril of Alexandria, the sins are identified with a series of telonia through which the soul must pass as it ascends to heaven. Tenetur igitur animus a Sanctis angelis, per aereni sublimis praeteriens, invenitque quosdam quasi publicanos ascensum custodientes, et aseendentes animos prehendentes, prohi'bentesque: nam quisque publicanorum propria habet...