death. The body will then be destroyed, and for an indefinite time can have no farther conception either of joy or sorrow. Hence he will be led to consider his own nature, and he will soon perceive that he is compounded of two parts, a soul and a body. The constitution of the latter evidently proves that it is not calculated, at least in it's present form, for any great length of existence. But what of the soul? Is that too of a perishable nature? "Will my soul (we may suppose such a person to ask), will my soul die when my body dies? Certainly not; otherwise man would be no better than the beasts that perish. But my body must die! then, when my body is dead, what will become of my soul? It cannot die; can it sleep with my body? but my body does not sleep in the grave; it perishes and moulders away into corruption and dust! While my body lives indeed in sleep, my soul may appear to sleep also; because the bodily faculties by means of which, while united to the body, it has it's power of perception, are for a time suspended; but the case is very ferent in death. Death is not merely a suspension of bodily faculties; my body will then be destroyed and incorporated with common earth. A spiritual soul cannot thus be destroyed and mixed with earth. From the nature of the soul, then, it is plain that it cannot find a place in the grave. But

dif

if it is not destroyed, it must exist; if it exists, it must BE somewhere; it cannot be in the grave; where then will it be? evidently it will be in some other place! some place unknown to it now, but appointed by God for the place of its separate abode, till the body shall be re-formed, and raised and re-united to it.

"But while thus existing in a state of separation from my body, what will be the condition of my soul? will it sleep, or be conscious of it's own existence? What reason have I to believe it CAN sleep, when not clogged by a body which, from it's gross material substance, now causes it to be comparatively dull and inactive? My soul is spirit; spirit cannot sink to sleep, unless weighed down by matter. But why should I suppose it will sleep? When there is no evidence of it's dormiency, but every proof to the contrary, why should I try to believe that it ever can lose its inherent self-consciousness? When I look into a dark and cold grave, and know that my body must be buried and perish in it, can I find any comfort or pleasure in the prospect of my soul's being reduced to the same sad and helpless state? On the contrary, does not the greatest happiness of the soul now consist in activity, and in the acquisition of knowledge? and is it not, therefore, more agreeable to look forward to a state when the

highest degree of knowledge will be attainable without all that toil and tedium with which even a slight degree of it must now be purchased? Can there be any pleasure in what may not unfitly be called temporary annihilation? Then why should I incline to believe that my soul will be insensible? I can find no proof of it; why then should I gratuitously assume that it will be so? Let me rather believe that of which there is abundant proof, viz. that my soul will never either die or sleep, but that on the death of my body, it will pass into another unknown region, where it will still enjoy and exercise it's intellectual powers, in a degree infinitely more active and excellent, than it can do now, whilst impeded in it's operations by a mortal, hebetating body."

Beyond a doubt no inquiry can be more awfully interesting than this,-what will be to us the immediate consequences of death? The possession of the highest bodily health and worldly comfort, will not prevent a thinking mind from often dwelling on this subject. But how much more highly important will the question appear to him, who from sickness or any other cause shall find all worldly pleasure peculiarly tasteless and unsatisfying! who, unable, like others, to derive ease and enjoyment even from the most abundant worldly advantages, looks forward with a yearning heart to

some other state of being, in which the evils that now bear him down shall no longer exist; where he may at length taste of that repose and happiness which seem to be denied to him here!

Surely, then, by nothing can the inward peace and comfort of all serious persons be better promoted, than by collecting and laying before them from various quarters, as much proof as can be necessary of the important fact, that the soul will never for a moment lose it's consciousness by the death of the body; but that it will exist in a place of separate abode appointed for it till the day of resurrection. Much original matter need not be expected. All that is wanted is clear and forcible exposition of the truth; and that will be most satisfactorily attained by resorting to the superior knowledge of those eminent men who have examined the question with minds unbiassed by prejudice, and powerful in intellectual acuteness.

Before we enter regularly on the subject, a sentence or two may be quoted, as written by an excellent living author some years ago. After mentioning some works in which the question is discussed, he says,-"The sum is this:-1st. That the soul of man subsists after death; and hath some place of abode allotted to it till the resurrection. 2dly. That this intermediate state is not a state of insensibility to the souls of the righteous; but

of thought and self-consciousness; and, consequently, of content and happiness, in a certain degree." This is Jortin's summary. Bull maintains, that the souls of the wicked are consigned to a state of misery. On such a subject, there are no two writers better able to give satisfactory information. Bull was a profound divine; Jortin a sensible and inquisitive man. Their opinions on this point may be embraced as incontrovertible on any ground of sound reason, and Christian or even Deistical principle.

In entering upon this subject we may confidently say, that this position is certainly incontrovertible: The opinion that the soul survives the body, and retains it's consciousness of existence, has from the earliest times been so general among all nations, whether barbarous or civilized, that it may be called universal. The few persons in different ages who have doubted it, bear no proportion whatever to the numbers who have lived and died in it's belief. If we read the accounts which travellers, ancient and modern, have given of the people they discovered or visited, we find them always stating it as part of the religious creed of such people, that immediately after death the soul was to be borne away to some distant land, in full activity and consciousTheir ideas were indeed often, as was to be expected, strange and wild. Thus our progenitors

ness.