VOL. XXXII.

SHALL WE LIVE AGAIN?

LETTER TO A FRIEND.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

You ask me how you shall clearly satisfy yourself that you shall exist after this life?

-or

I have lived long enough to have learned, that the evidence which has been sufficent to convince some of this consoling truth, has failed to satisfy others; which is a clear demonstration either that some minds require more proof than others,else they deny the evidence the credit which is due to it, or do not investigate it sufficiently to perceive its force and tendency. Otherwise it must be conceded, with regard to all those who do most sincerly believe in a future, conscious, happy existence, that their faith is implicit and not defensible. I cannot give my assent to the latter.

The truth of the Christian religion depends not on the number but upon the strength and clearness of the arguments adduced in its favor. And though I may not be able to put you in a way clearly to satisfy yourself that there is a conscious existence fo all rational beings beyond this life, I

will freely state as far as practicable in a letter, the reasons why I cannot doubt the truth of this sentiment.

1. Because I believe in a Being who originated the universe, and established the order and the harmony which now reign, and which without interruption, have reigned from the beginning of the creation. This being granted, it is obvious to enlightened reason, and confirmed by Scripture, that a God, infinite in goodness, wisdom and power, could neither desire nor purpose nor execute permanent nor abiding evil-nor could he stoop to purpose, plan or produce other than permanent and abiding good, finally, to all whom he has fitted, or shall hereafter put in. circumstances, to hope for a continuance of being and happiness. The benevolence and the wisdom and the power of God, were concerned in the production of the human species whom He has endowed with intelligence and stamped with his own image. He has inclined them, by the very constitution of their nature, to acts of devotion and homage, and formed them to desire a perpetuity of life and bliss. This desire which is

absolutely universal, I must believe, will be gratified in a manner, and to an extent, altogether worthy of God, and commensurate witn the native and rational longing of the creature; or else I must believe, that infinite and unblemished goodness and wisdom can condescend to sport with the infirmities of man, and mock those very aspirations after happiness which God, himself has made a part

of our constitution.

You, and every man, professing a relish for life, and for the enjoyments which it brings, must be deeply pained-or pained in proportion as you value being and happiness, on the one hand, and the strength with which you doubt a future existence on the other. Hence you instinctively dread annihilation, and struggle to retreat, and with horror start back, from the prospect which presents nothing beyond this longing, hoping rational existence, but

"The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave,

The deep, damp vault, the darkness and the worms."

There cannot be but misery in this reflection, and if it be a reality, God has constituted us to regard it as the very bane of our being-and what with one hand, he has made the desire and the solace of the rational universe, is, with the other, detected as a delusion. While with one hand he extends to his creatures a cup of consolation, with the other he dashes it to the ground, and scatters their hopes, and buries their inspiring anticipations in sepulchral and perpetual gloom. We should almost execrate an earthly parent who should practice thus with the children of his care, yet the latter idea is infinitely more endurable, to any mind, than the former. Let me enjoy a belief in the existence, and in the perfections of God, and I cannot doubt the

future, conscious and happy being of rational man.

1. Because I cannot doubt the evidence which distinguishes Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah of God, the Saviour of the world. These are first the indisputable facts that the prophetic writings are as ancient as the date which has been assigned them. These writings originated among and were fully believed by a people, who through all their discernments, have never to this day, doubted that God had promised, by their prophets, a more than ordinary deliverer to Israel.

2. In these truly ancient writings, it is predicted, that this deliverer should come under the name of Shiloh, (i. e. The apostle. Comp. Heb. 3: 1) before the sceptre should wholly depart from Judah, Gen. 49: 10. The whole of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah treats of the coming, the reception, the labors, the sufferings, the death and I may add the resurrection of Christ. For this is plainly intimated, to my mind, in the tenth verse, wherein, though his soul or life was to be made an offering for sin, it is said he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands."

3. These, and the other prophecies concerning Jesus of Nazareth were minutely fulfilled. He made his appearance, as the Messiah, a short period before the Jewish power and authority were wholly demolished, and to him the gathering of the people, agreeably to the terms of the prediction which is confirmed by the Jewish and Pagan as well as by Christian authors. The history of Jesus Christ most clearly demonstrates, that, in perfect fulfillment of the prophecy in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, he was regarded by his enemies and persecutors, and murderers, as one without agreeable form