To sum up the whole matter, we find in history the manifestation of a constant providence. The Creator is indeed seen reflected from all his works. Not a leaf that rustles in the grove, not an insect that sports in the air, not a flower that blooms, not a star that shines, but is a text upon which many a homily might be written. But how much more conspicuous does this truth appear in the life of Him who is indeed the master-piece of Heaven! In the material universe, God reveals himself as the Creator; in the mysterious life of man, as the Father; in the life of nations, as the King and Governor. The great purpose of his government is declared to be the perfection and happiness of the human family; to this end all things are subordinated.

The

For the last six thousand years God has been educating the human race; and he is as truly present in the world to-day, teaching man his duty and his inevitable destiny, as when of old he communed with him face to face. theory of the final consummation of all things, the perfection and happiness of all men, is alone adequate to explain God's dealings as they are recorded in history. That history commences with the announcement of man's heavenly origin, and it will be closed when he has attained his heavenly destiny.

B. B. B.

ART. XXII.

Immortality.

CENTURIES ago the question was asked, "Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" In every period of the world, the same axious query has been proposed, and to it different answers have been given. There are those who scoff at the idea of any other life than an outward one-a life of the senses. They see the material world. They feel the breath of heaven in the wind that fans their brows. They suffer pain or enjoy pleasure, as this outward world affects them for evil or for good. They know, too, that the body in

which these senses dwell, dies and crumbles back to earth. And they come at once to the conclusion that this is the end of man. They see no evidence that he shall live again. The existence of a spirit world, they regard as the vain dream of the fancy, without any foundation in fact, or in the reason of things. "Show us a spirit, and then we will believe there is a spirit world. Let any one of those we have known upon the earth, come back to us after passing away, and we will believe; but we can not believe before. These are the doubting Thomases, who must put their fingers in the very prints of the nails, and thrust their hands into the wounded side, before they can believe.

Now these people are the shallowest of reasoners. It is not true that we live even here an exclusive life of the senses. By the plainest laws of induction, it can be shown that we live in another world than that which can be seen and felt. These outward things, of which so much account is made, are not the only realities. There are things which can not be seen-things that can be neither weighed, measured nor felt-that are quite as real. Truth is real; virtue is real; thought is real; but neither truth, nor virtue, nor thought can be perceived by any of the external senses. Invisible and impalpable, they are conceptions of the intellect, and are independent of outward sensation. So are friendship, love, honor and right. They are as much realities as if we could discuss their qualities by the principles of natural philosophy. Nay, more. These things which are not seen, are the only realities there are. The outward world is but a shadow; the invisible world is the substance. Outward forms are in a state of perpetual flux. They exist only through change. That which to-day is, to-morrow is not. The mighty oak which we gaze upon with so much admiration, was yesterday but an acorn. To-morrow it will vanish in smoke, leaving only a handful of ashes to tell us that it ever was. The human form, erect and proud to-day, but a little while since was but the puny form of an infant. In a little while it will be shriveled and bent, tottering upon the verge of the grave, in which it will soon crumble back to earth. But truth, friendship, honor, virtue and the like, do not change. They are the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. While the outward things perish, they remain, day after day, year after year, from centuries to eternity.

Now it is specially worthy of note, that our real life lies in these invisible things, and not in what is outward and seen. We labor and toil, not for a mere living, but for the love we have for our families and those dependent upon us. We would see them full fed, well clothed, and sheltered from the rude elements, comfortable and happy, and therefore we are content to delve on, from day to day, from year to year. We labor for wealth, not simply that we may have the satisfaction of looking upon the gold we have hoarded, but for the position and consideration wealth will give us in the world. We are benevolent, not merely because others are in need of our kind offices, but because we are made happy by administering to their needs. sacrifice time, ease, competence, every thing, sometimes, at the call of duty. Not a life of the senses do we live, but a life of thoughts, emotions, sentiments; not a life of the body, but of the spirit. The outward things of which so much account is made, are but the shells and husks which serve to cover the more valued fruits within. And so it is true that we live in a spirit world even here. There is such a world all around us, peopled with thoughts, emotions, imaginings, hopes and aspirations. In these do we find the real joy of life.

It is not true, then, that all we know of man, dies with him. His body is laid in the grave; but the thoughts to which he has given utterance survive. The friendships he inspired, and the love he called forth in kindred hearts, live when his body has long since mouldered in the earth. Only the shell, the outward covering, dies; that which was interior to this, in which his life really consisted, still lives.

Further, we observe that those things which survive man, such as friendship, love, truth, thought and emotion, do not come of the body that dies. They pertain to that part within us, which thinks and wills, remembers and reasons. There is no reason to suppose that this part perishes with the body. In its very nature it is different from the body. It cannot be seen or felt, weighed or measured. It is beyond the reach of the senses, and cannot be perceived by them. It is perceived only by something of its own kind-by the mind-by that which is spiritual within us. And as the objects of its creation live when the grave claims the body, the presumption is, that the intelligent principle, which

called them into being, also lives, and has a deathless existence. Reason, analogy, presumption, all favor the idea of its immortality.

Again, when we look at the beautiful world in which we live, and witness how fitly it is adapted to its ends; when we see the various creatures of animated nature, beast, bird, fish and insect, with all their instinctive desires gratified by the gift of what they desire, and then look at man, with that instinctive longing for immortality, out of which have sprung all his religious fancies, theories and hopes, we can not but think he is destined to live when the very heavens shall have grown old, and the starry lamps shall have gone out with age. A singular thing it would be in the universean isolated fact, differing from all other facts—if man's instinctive desire to live forever, is to be doomed to disappointment. All the instincts of the brutes are gratified; inferior and insignificant as they are, they have their corresponding objects; but those of man, which reach out into the infinite and sweep through eternity, are to be eternally unanswered! We cannot believe it; for we see in this longing after immortality, which God has given us, and of which we can not rid ourselves, an evidence, to us irresistible, that the thread of our being is not severed by death, but is to stretch onward through eternal ages.

Add to this the consciousness of having a deathless nature, which dwells in every mind. This, too, speaks of a world where death shall be unknown. As has been forcibly said by an excellent author, "There is, in the consciousness of every man, a deep impression of continued being. The casuist may reason against it till he bewilder himself in his own sophistries; but a voice within gives the lie to his vain speculations, and pleads with authority for a life to come."

This voice of God in the soul finds confirmation of its testimony in the voice of God in the Scriptures. The whole system of Divine Revelation is based upon the fact that man is immortal, and the soul can not die. The truth of his immortality is indeed stated, in so many words, in but few places in the Bible. But it is all along taken for granted, and alluded to, not by way of formal affirmation, but as an undisputed truth. We shall be surprised how seldom the doctrine is dogmatically proposed, when we read the Bible for that purpose. Not often do the writers put it forth as a

distinct doctrine, as Jesus did, when conversing with the Sadducees, or as Paul did in refutation of the doctrine of some of the Corinthians, who said "there is no resurrection." But the idea is the great substratum of the whole New Testament. In its words we are addressed always as beings having deathless powers within us, and whose existence bridges over the narrow stream of physical death and spans eternity itself.

The same observation is true in reference to the mode of our existence in the future world. There is very little in the Bible definitely affirmed respecting it. There is no detailed theory of another life; no minute description of the spirit world, given in the Scripture writings. A great many questions respecting it may be started which the Bible does not definitely answer. And yet there are intimations given, here and there, in several of the books of the New Testament, by which we are able to frame, with a sufficient degree of minuteness, our theory of another life. And we think that with the aid of these intimations, we are able to solve, from what we know of the soul itself, all the questions upon the subject that are of really practical interest.

We are well aware that there are those who seem to think we ought not to believe any thing in reference to the future life, that is not written down, in so many words, in the Bible. They tell us of the danger of speculation about the future, and warn us of the errors to which we are liable, if we begin to theorize upon so momentous a subject. This would be well enough, if there were not questions, and very important ones, too, which the Bible does not distinctly and definitely answer. And it would come with a better grace, if these people were not themselves quite often in the habit of putting forth the crudest notions respecting the future state; notions which have no confirmation in either Scripture or reason. Besides, it is enough to say, that the Lord has many ways of saying things. There are some things he has spoken definitely in his word. There are other things which he has said incidentally and by way of intimation, in speaking through inspired men, upon other subjects. Often in reading the Scriptures a word, a sentence, an allusion, an illustration will open to us views of truth of infinite importance, which are not distinct subjects of discourse any where in the Bible. Then, again, God is