BY EDMUND H. SEARS. "Shade here, authenticating substance there." LONDON: 42, HOLBORN HILL. 101.4.478. INTRODUCTION. Ir might well be supposed that man's prerogative as the heir of an endless life would be his unfailing resource both in temptation and sorrow. How could he fall into sin or into despondency, if the august future were before him as an object of living faith, and the pains and pleasures of this mortal state took the inferior place which belongs to them in the grand economy of things? And how could the charm of existence ever depart, or the humblest lot become poor and mean, if its incidents were once discerned as belonging to a plan which included eternity as well as time? Nevertheless, it is hardly to be denied, that with vast multitudes the years flow on very much as they would if man were only an animal more finely organized and more highly endowed. It is not that the future life is disbelieved or denied: there is an expectation perhaps not completely extinguished in any mind, that there is something which will survive the shock of death. But for two reasons this expectation does not become controlling in human affairs. It does not take form, and therefore it does not rise to the dignity and strength of faith. It is a vague hope or fear which is not without its influence, but an influence too feeble to rule the purpose of life and shape its ends. Or if it takes form, it is one so entirely factitious and irrational, that the future existence is completely foreign from the present, and has no genial relations with its concerns; and thus it becomes a portentous and lurid superstition, to haunt our meditations and compel us to prayer, and not an inspiration to quicken our pulses and turn our daily business to hallelujahs. We believe Divine Revelation to be exceed ingly rich and full on the themes of immortality, and that it contains a philosophy vastly compre.hensive and exhaustive. Our object in the following pages is to unfold this philosophy and apply it. Its annunciations on this subject have been neglected or partially heard, but the world will come back to them at last from its wildering superstitions. Our purpose is twofold: first, so to evolve the pneumatology of the Scriptures that their theory of immortality may stand forth distinct and tangible; and, secondly, to show it in such relation to the present life that we may know its hallowing influence now, and see where the heavens meet the earth, and whence they are interfused through all its duties. Our theme spreads out before us into three departments of inquiry. In Part First, after an examination of partial and artificial theories, we endeavour to unfold and illustrate the laws of the Immortal Life, and show its relation to this outward and transitory condition; that of the inward and imperishable man, to the cumbering and perishable body; and for this purpose we seek for the principle of interpretation that shall draw the |