3. As human beings arrive at a true understanding of a future state, their fear of death diminishes; but at the same time, they also comprehend more clearly the purposes for an earthly life, and they await its ending calmly, without impatience or regret. The certainty of a future life gives another direction to their thoughts, another aim to their activities. Before acquiring this certainty they labored only for the things of the present life; having acquired this certainty they labor for the life to come, yet without neglecting the duties and interests of their present life, because they know that the character of their future lives will be decided by the use they will have made of their present existence. The certainty of again meeting the friends whom they have lost by death, of preserving the relationships they have formed upon the Earth, of not losing the fruit of any effort, of continuing, forever, to grow in intelligence and in goodness, gives them patience to await the appointed term of their earthly sojourn and courage to bear, without complaint, the momentary fatigues and disappointments of terrestrial life. The solidarity which they perceive to exist among spirits and humankind show them the union which ought to exist among all people of the Earth. Thus, they perceive the true basis of human fraternity and the true objective of charity in the present and in the future.
