CHAPTER I. UNIVERSAL BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY IN ALL TIME. Prevalent Ideas of the Future in the Early Ages. - Power of Persistent Self-Inquiry. Confession of Lord Bolingbroke. — Argument of Dick. - Homeric Views. - Poets of Antiquity. — Mountain Illustration. — Socrates. Opinions of Philosophers of Different Nations. "WHAT shall our lot be, when we lay aside These cumbering vestments of mortality?" is a question that has exercised the human mind, and agitated the human heart, from the earliest ages; accompanied, indeed, with cheerless doubts whether the living, acting principle, the possession of which self-consciousness assures, be that which shall run parallel with interminable ages, or find its full end in the narrow round of a few fleeting years on earth. From the depths of anxious souls, down through all time, there has been the ceaseless echo of the same question, Are we immortal, or are we not? For long periods man's history and destiny were like an occan of unfathomable mysteries; the waves of dark uncertainty ever sweeping onward, beating against the shores of ill-concealed oblivion. But mind, in its restlessness for something more, was never content to dwell upon the frontier of so shadowy a land, and therefore continually sought to know if the realm before was real and actual, or unreal - an indefinable nothing-an evermore, or 14 nevermore. GREATNESS OF THE PROBLEM. No other matter of equal interest could absorb the attention of thinking men, none as relating to himself. As the Great First Cause is higher and nobler than all created intelligences, and his interests higher than all human interests, we might suppose that minds which he had created in his own image, and associated with organisms of such wonderful skill, would first of all be engaged in the contemplation of the character of their Creator, and the study of his will. But mortals would fain know themselves; would lift the veil of mystery; clear away the mists of doubt that surround their own future, and understand whither they are bound, what shall attend them on their way, and what awaits them at the close; for an end is a natural idea of man. In connection with this idea there must of necessity be solicitude; and what shall meet it? Observation cannot, experience cannot. Who, then, shall solve the enigma? From whence cometh light to illumine the dark recesses of mind? It is not strange that the spirit's cravings are for this knowledge, and that, prior to the gospel's cheering revelations, a thousand ways of man's devising had been opened, each promising to conduct the multitude through their labyrinthian journey, to a, perhaps, possible state in some very doubtful region, either within or without God's universe. The closing day and setting sun inspire no terror, and bring no dread, for the morrow's sun is an object of assured hope, and this assurance precludes doubt and disquiet. So man, as he approaches the evening of his days, the twilight of his existence, would fain be persuaded that a new era of gladness will open before him, and his soul exult in the continuation of that most desirable of all things, life. He cannot rest while all things depend upon uncertain ifs. Ever and anon he will be engaged in the profound soliloquy, "If I am destined to an eternal existence, if the powers of my mind. are being disciplined for another state, how incalculably momentous is time! What infinite importance attaches to the actions, pursuits, and affections of the present! How desirable that the energies of my being be so directed as to find that channel through which flow those streams of felicity which constitute the bliss of endless life! "But if it be not thus, if it be the whole of life to live,' if it be that the whole of existence is circumscribed within the narrow circle of the few, fleeting years that pass between the first wail of infancy and the last agony of worn-out, expiring nature, then of what avail are the plans and purposes I am continually forming? Why cherish affection? It will soon die out. Why practise virtue, since there is no inducement? I am to myself an enigma, an inexplicable mystery, that I fail to find out. O, tell me, ye winged winds, and mighty waves of ocean tide, if in all your broad circuits ye have found the land of Evermore." Such are the queries which self will ever propose to self, in its unsettled, unenlightened state; and the response that comes up from the deep caverns of untaught Nature is not sufficient for the spirit's repose. There is something more needful; yet Nature hath its teaching and its wise counsel, to which all may well give heed. Everything that hath a tendency to establish the doctrine of man's immortality will be invested with a thousand charms for the thoughtful and reflective mind, which regards with becoming interest its future destination. Its frequent consideration, its constant repetition, can never divest the idea of its power, for each for himself must personally prove its reality, to his own ineffable joy or sorrow. From whatever source the knowledge be derived, it will be taken into close embrace as of vital account, while the whole man grows stronger and better, under the firm conviction of an immortal destiny. In considering the doctrine of the soul's immortality, upon which hinges the "New Jerusalem, or the life to come," we shall first consider proofs from the light of Nature. Accordingly the present chapter is given to the contemplation of 16 CONFESSION OF BOLINGBROKE. the truth that there has been in all time, among all nations and people, the universal belief of a future, endless life. The idea of some "immeasurable, boundless time" has, at least, been an undertone in the human spirit from the beginning. Far back in the most ancient traditions of the pagan world, ere civilization and learning had shed their benign rays upon the moral darkness of man, the doctrine of immortality held sway over his mind. A celebrated philosopher of early time, in speaking of the happiness of those who departed this mortal life, represents the birth of such an opinion as dating at such an uncertain period in the past, that none knew when it began. to be, or who was its author, therefore rendering it easy to believe it was handed down from earliest ages. "Before we have any light into antiquity," says Lord Bolingbroke, whose want of interest made it no willing confession, "these things began to be taught; and when we begin to have any, we find it established, that it was strongly inculcated from time immemorial, and as early as the most ancient and learned nations appear to us." The mysteries of another life were among the first things toward which Reason turned its piercing eye; and though it had not yet gained the advantage of telescopic vision, it discovered, through the dim ether, glimpses of that which awakened the deepest interest and most anxious inquiry. How could it be otherwise? for "the soul of the very first pagan was immortal, and consequently of infinite capacity in this respect, and it would therefore, by impulse of its own nature, breathe after the infinite." Dim and confused, indeed, were all notions of future life and endless existence, for it was the gray twilight of the world's morning," when not the faintest sign was visible to herald the approach of the sun of celestial Truth which should arise, with "healing in its wings," dispensing light and gladness upon the yearning, darkened souls of men. They struggled for victory; they knew not what. With an instinctive belief in the unknown, the unseen, |