THus we live our life in the Mystical Body, well or less well or
altogether ill. We have seen the three possible states -- we may
unite our wills wholly to Christ's; or we may unite our wills
partially to His, reserving something of self unyielded; or we may
separate our wills wholly from His, choosing self as apart from
God, closing our soul to the flow of His life. In one or other of
these states we are, at any given moment of our life upon earth;
in one or other of them we die. Pause for a moment to consider
this matter of natural death, the separation of soul and body
which ends our life upon this earth, our time of testing and of
growth.

A point comes -- suddenly if there is violence, or by slow wear-
ing -- when the body can no longer respond to the lifegiving
energy of the soul. That, precisely, is death. The body unvivified,
falls away into its elements, not to be re-united with the soul and
once more whole and entire, till the end of the world. But the
soul does not die with the body. Why should it? As a spirit it does
not depend for its life upon the body: matter cannot give life to
spirit. In the absence of the body, the soul cannot exercise its
powers as the animator of a body, so that these must remain
wrapt within it till the body rises again at the last day. But in its
own nature as a spirit with intellect and will it lives on. In what
state? According to the state in which death finds it.

If we die wholly separated, then we are cut out from the Body
forever. Our lot is forever with the angel who created the prece-

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