"It has in all ages been allowed that the communion of saints extends to those in paradise as well as those upon earth as they are all one body united under one Head. And "Can death’s interposing tide / Spirits one in Christ divide?" But it is difficult to say either what kind or what degree of union may be between them. It is not improbable their fellowship with us is far more sensible than ours with them. Suppose any of them are present, they are hid from our eyes, but we are not hid from their sight. They no doubt clearly discern all our words and actions, if not all our thoughts too; for it is hard to think these walls of flesh and blood can intercept the view of an angelic being. But we have in general only a faint and indistinct perception of their presence, unless in some peculiar instances, where it may answer some gracious ends of Divine Providence. Then it may please God to permit that they should be perceptible, either by some of our outward senses or by an internal sense for which human language has not any name. But I suppose this is not a common blessing. I have known but few instances of it. To keep up constant and close communion with God is the most likely means to obtain this also."
React to this quote
More by John Wesley
See allResonant Thoughts
"...when I had gone through the whole, and saw what a plain, simple, reason able thing Christianity was, suited to all conditions and capacities; and in the morality of it now, with divine authority, e…"
"Framework 2 is connected with the creativity and vitality of your world. In your terms, the dead waken in Framework 2 and move through it to Framework 3, where they can be aware of their reincarnation…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Two things made The Dice of the Gods, another play about drugs, seem much better than it had any real right…"
— Dorothy Parker"External silence helps to achieve inner Silence, and only in internal Silence is Baba found — in profound i…"
— Meher Baba"I must give some attention to the delicate question of religion, on which I have touched already. In my fat…"
— Max Born"Oh, if God would but give me strength to strangle him in my last agony, I'd go to hell with joy."
— Emily Brontë"If there is a God, I don't think He would demand that anybody bow down or stand up to Him. I have often a s…"
— Rebecca West"I won’t put my ignorance on an altar and call it God."
— Robert Charles Wilson
Related Thinkers
Related Topics
Deep Dives
- Martin Luther on religion
- Fulton J. Sheen on religion
- Mother Teresa on religion
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on religion
- Edwin Abbott Abbott on religion
- Evagrius Ponticus on religion
- Henry Melvill on religion
- Eugen Drewermann on religion
- Martin Luther on justice
- Martin Luther on knowledge
- knowledge & Beauty
- knowledge & Change

