448、我与许多在世时相识的人交谈过，并且我们的对话持续了很长时间，可以说经年累月。尽管我以一种内在的声音说话，但这声音却清晰地如同在世间与朋友说话一样。我们谈论的主题有时是人死后的状态。他们感到震惊的是，活在肉身中的人，竟没有一个知道或相信肉体生活结束后，他会如此活着；而事实上，生命在继续，并且是以这种方式继续的：这人从一种模糊的生活过渡到一种清晰的生活；而那些拥有对主之信的人则走进越来越清晰的生活。他们想叫我转告他们的朋友，他们还活着，并且叫我写信将他们的状况告知他们的朋友，就像我将他们朋友的许多状况报告给他们一样。但我回答他们说，就算我真的把这些事告诉他们的朋友，或写信给他们，他们也不相信，反而会称其为幻觉，并加以嘲笑，甚至要求先显个神迹异事，他们才相信；因此，我只会受到他们的嘲笑。恐怕很少有人会相信我所说的都是真的，因为人们从心里否认灵人的存在，即便那些不否认的人，也不愿听见说有人能与灵人交谈。对灵人的这种不信在古代是不存在的，只存在于现代，现在人们通过疯狂的推理试图发现灵是什么。他们用自己的定义和假设剥夺了灵的一切感觉，并且越渴望成为有学问的人，就越这么做。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]448. I have talked to many people I knew in their bodily life, and our conversations have continued a long time, over months and through a year. Our voices were as clear to each other as voices are among friends in this world, but they were heard internally. Sometimes we also engaged in discussions about the human condition after death. They were astounded that no one who is alive in the body knows or believes that she or he will live on after physical life ends, when the truth is that life continues, and continues in such a way that it passes from darkness into broad daylight. For those who believe in the Lord, life grows clearer and clearer.
These people wanted me to tell their friends [on earth] that they were alive and to send letters describing their current status. They themselves had heard much from me about how those friends were doing.
[2] "But," I said, "if I were to say or write the things you ask, your friends would not believe me. They would accuse me of hallucinating, laugh at me, and demand signs or miracles before believing. So I would be exposed to their ridicule. Few, perhaps, would believe that those things were true, because they deny at heart that spirits exist. Even those who do not deny are completely unwilling to hear that anyone could talk with spirits."
Such beliefs about spirits never existed in ancient times, only in modern times, when people desire to investigate what the spirit is in a highly intellectual way that relies on skewed logic. With their definitions and theories they deprive spirits of all sensation, and the more erudite they claim to be, the more they do so.
Potts(1905-1910) 448
448. I have conversed with many who had been known to me in this life (and this I have done for a long time-for months and years), in as clear a voice, although an inward one, as with friends in this world. The subject of our conversation has sometimes been the state of man after death, and they have wondered exceedingly that during the bodily life no one knows or believes that he is so to live when the bodily life is over, when yet there is then a continuation of life, and such a continuation that the man passes from an obscure life into a clear one, and those who are in faith in the Lord into a life that is more and more clear. They have desired me to tell their friends that they are alive, and to write and tell them what their condition is, even as I had related to themselves many things about that of their friends here. But I replied that were I to tell their friends such things, or to write to them about them, they would not believe, but would call them delusions, would scoff at them, and would ask for signs or miracles before they would believe; and I should merely expose myself to their derision. And that these things are true, perchance but few will believe. For at heart men deny the existence of spirits, and even those who do not deny it are unwilling to hear that anyone can speak with spirits. In ancient times there was no such state of belief in regard to spirits, but so it is now when by crazy ratiocination men try to find out what spirits are, and by their definitions and suppositions deprive them of all the senses, and do this the more, the more learned they desire to be.
Elliott(1983-1999) 448
448. I have spoken to many people whom I had known during their lifetime, and have done so for considerable lengths of time, for months or a year. I have spoken in as clear a voice, though an internal one, as when speaking to friends in the world. Conversation with them has included the subject of man's condition after death. They have been utterly amazed that nobody in the life of the body knows or believes that when his bodily life ends he will be alive even as they are now. Yet there is a continuation of life such as involves passing from an obscure life into a clear life, and with people who have had faith in the Lord, passing into life that is more and more clear. They wished me to tell their friends that they were alive, and to write to them telling of their condition, just as I had reported to them also many things about the state of their friends. I said however that if I did speak or write to their friends these would not believe me. They would call it sheer imagination, they would laugh me to scorn, they would ask for signs or miracles before believing, and so I would expose myself to their derision. Few would probably have would expose believed that what I said was true, for in their hearts they deny that spirits exist; and those who do not deny their existence nevertheless refuse to hear of anybody being able to talk to spirits. In ancient times such disbelief concerning spirits never existed, but nowadays they wish to discover what spirits may be by a crack-brained reasoning involving definitions and presuppositions that deprives spirits of every one of the senses. And the more learned that people wish to be, the more they continue in this way.
Latin(1748-1756) 448
448. Locutus cum multis qui in vita eorum corporis mihi noti fuerunt, et diu, per menses et annum, tam clara voce, sed interna, sicut cum amicis in mundo; cum quibus aliqua etiam intercesserunt commercia sermonis de statu hominis post mortem; mirati valde quod nemo in corporis vita sciat vel credat quod victurus ita post vitam corporis, cum tamen sit continuatio vitae, et talis ut transeat e vita obscura in perspicuam; et qui in fide in Dominum, in magis magisque perspicuam: voluerunt ut dicerem amicis eorum quod vivant, et quod scriberem ad eos; qui eorum status sint, quibus etiam plura narravi de statu amicorum eorum; [2] sed dixi, si dicerem aut scriberem, quod non crederent; vocarent phantasias, irriderent, peterent signa aut miracula antequam credant, sic exponerer eorum subsannationi: et quod haec vera sint, forte pauci credituri, nam negant corde quod sint spiritus; et qui non negant, usque nihil audire volunt quod aliquis cum spiritibus loqui possit. Talis fides de spiritibus nusquam fuit antiquis temporibus, sed hodie, cum ex cerebroso ratiocinio volunt explorare quid spiritus, quos omni sensu privant per definitiones et suppositiones; et quo eruditiores volunt esse, eo plus.