CHAP. XVI. INSTINCTIVE CONVICTION OF HUMAN BEINGS THAT THEY ARE IMMORTAL. He smil'd in death, and still his cold pale face BERNARD BARTON. WHEN Pope was dying, he said, "I am so certain of the soul's being immortal, that I seem to feel it within me, as it were by intuition." That instinctive belief which he describes is felt even by those professing to be infidels, who, amidst the appalling perplexities of obstinate unbelief, yet betray, perhaps inadvertently, an instinctive consciousness of the inevitable future. The shudder of awe with which they hear that any human being with whom they are acquainted has very suddenly died, is a proof of their conviction that he has not been utterly extinguished, for if the deceased had fallen only into permanent insensibility, if he had merely lost a few years of animal existence, if he had but escaped the ills and lost sooner than was expected the common lot, how calmly might even his best friends contemplate such an event! It is not so, however, in respect to any one, for the power of instinct in such an emergency refuses to be quelled by any fallacies of perverted reason, and the great truth stands distinctly revealed before the shrinking mind of a would-be infidel, that the body which lived and the soul which has departed are both immortal, both to be introduced, when they pass from this transient scene, into another as real, but infinitely more important. It is, indeed, the fool only, who says in his heart, "There is no God," and he says so because he wishes it; yet, as the most determined sceptic cannot say, "there is no death," when he witnesses that awful event overtaking others, or when he himself experiences its approach, he begins to find that human life is not like a froward child, which may be played with and humoured, and by any means kept quiet until it fall asleep, and then the care shall be over; no, a man might as easily attempt to convince himself that there are no stars in the firmament, or that the sun is invented or manufactured by philosophers, as that there is no intelligent and almighty Creator of this most marvellous world. * * When an infidel, dining once with a party of clergymen, had openly professed his scepticism, and afterwards, The aspect of death brings to the mind of all present the consciousness that this world is indeed like a rapid succession of dissolving views, a shifting phantasmagoria, displayed before a mind and spirit fitted long to survive all its changes,and that it is of the body, not the soul, that this sentence is written, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return." Men who devote their time and affections to the frivolities of this world might be compared to children in a storm at sea, who delight in watching the white foam on the waves which rushes in to sink them; and nothing is more remarkable in the history of shipwrecks than that description of the Pegasus, lost in 1843, where it is mentioned, that the crew and passengers, even in the very agonies of terror and of sudden death, had their thoughts irresistibly directed towards two lovely children, unconscious of danger, who amused themselves at play till within a few moments of their destruction, and whom, it is generally thought, the admirable Christian clergyman, Mr. Mackenzie, died in his efforts to save, -a true emblem how the brightest pleasures of a stormy world may but render us heedless of danger, happened to praise one of the dishes, Sidney Smith said to him, with a look of inquisitive earnestness, "Pray, sir, do when, without a strong arm to save us, we shall be plunged the next moment into final shipwreck. An instance of Christian foresight is related of a distinguished statesman, recently deceased, that when tempted once to do that which seemed to him sinful, he stopped, saying, "Satan is very busy at death-beds, and I would not have this deed on my conscience at mine." Religion is truly described as "an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast." It lies deep, and often unseen, yet causes permanent security, and all men learn best to know its value when the storms of life become threatening. Any man who lives at 500 miles distance from the ocean would consider an anchor in his house a mere encumbrance. Even a mariner at sea, if the wind be always fair, and the billows always at rest, may seldom, perhaps, look to it for additional security, but the anchor is appreciated in its worth and in its power at last, after the sky becomes overcast, and the voyager sees himself situated like St. Paul, when "neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and all hope that he should be saved seemed taken away." In such a solemn hour, should we greatly fear, let us find out the cause. If it be our sins, let us instantly repent of them; if our love of the world, let us restrain it; if our deficiency of faith, let us earnestly repeat the petition of the Apostles, "Lord, increase our faith!" How concise and energetic are all the prayers in Holy Scripture! On such occasions the Christian will often, in meditation and prayer, seek a solitary interview with God, who promises, by his Spirit, to instruct and prepare us for entering his visible presence; and let us in the meanwhile nourish our confidence and gratitude, by diligently recalling to mind, not as we are too apt, perhaps, to do, the sorrows that have oppressed us, but, on the contrary, to call up before our remembrance the numerous blessings which have enriched our past existence, and the many which still remain to adorn our path of life. Thus, in reviewing our merciful preservation throughout the past, new encouragement will arise to place our whole, implicit, unwavering reliance on a beneficent God for the whole futurity of time and eternity. When Moses first beheld his own rod turned into a serpent, he started back with terror; but, after obeying the divine command to grasp it in his hand, he did so with perfect confidence, perceiving that there was no real cause of apprehension. Thus it is also with those who, in obedience to God, resolutely prepare with submission to meet whatever he ordains. The prayer of a halfconverted Socinian was thus expressed, "Let me be saved in God's own way," and the Christian, |