verse.

tion is evidently modified in the case of a human being, who, as facts seem to warrant, has had originally implanted by the Creator, and as an ineradicable part of his mental and vital organism, a longing sense of a future life, even down to the lowest and most uncultured tribes of savage men. The evidence from science alone, as here abundantly given, that this "inner man " is not only a substantial entity but a real organism, is a demonstrative proof that such substantial organism must have been a direct and primordial emanation from a prior fountain of intelligence and vitality, which is, by common consent, designated as the God or Creator of the uniThis simple and harmonious fact of an incorporeal vital and mental organism, thus proved by science, not only annihilates materialism, but demonstrates the existence of a God, since admittedly no such incorporeal vital and mental entity could have come into existence from inert matter by any law or principle known to materialistic philosophy. Then if an intelligent God did really create and give to man this vital and mental entity, with the additional endowment, above all other races of organic life, of an aspiration for a future state of existence, it becomes scientific proof as strong as holy writ that such a state of being is not only possible but an absolute verity, since an intelligent God, capable of thus making us, would not have so endowed us, and so indelibly stamped upon our spiritual organism a longing sense for a future conscious existence, with no possibility in the universe for its realization and enjoyment. Scientifically considered, we feel satisfied that the true difference between man and beast, and the original cause of that difference, as given in The Problem of Human Life, and here reproduced, is the only correct and reasonable solution of the problem of a future existence. If the beast had a mental constitution that gave it the slightest glimpse into a future state of being, or that caused the faintest desire for such a continuance of conscious existence, we should believe, with John Wesley, Joseph Cook, and other great and careful thinkers, in the possible-nay, probable—future life of such animal tribes as possessed these aspirations. But as animals below man are not constitutionally capable of such anticipatory thoughts, their lives undoubtedly serve the purpose originally intended by the Creator in placing them on the earth, where they have supplied their wants during the brief period of this temporary existence.

How simple and beautiful, then, is the sublime thought that the mental and vital substance which animated and inspired these myriads of lower organisms, as fast as they die is reabsorbed into the primordial fountain of life and mentality from which they were originally supplied, without an atom of such incorporeal entity being lost or annihilated!

But the same analogical reasoning which would convince us that the beast will not retain an individual and conscious identity after the death of its body, proves also that man will so survive his earth

ly existence. It is an inbred principle of his constitution and a part of his nature-even in the lowest savage-to long for and anticipate a life beyond the present; and it is an unanswerable fact that the more uncultured a people are, the more personal, literal, and entitative do these pictures of a future state become, even to the most vivid visions of hunting-scenes which pass before the mind of the unlettered savage, and which no argument of the atheist or materialist can ever eradicate from his belief, or even tend to weaken. If this general idea of a hereafter for man be not an original implantation from the Almighty, then tell me, ye skeptical philosophers, please, why the ideal of the life of the future approaches more nearly to the real life of the present, becomming more and more a palpable fact to the longing heart as the mental and vital stream of humanity is traced back to its primordial source?

The solution we have given,—and the only one that affords any satisfaction to the mind,―is, that this longing anticipation individualizes the human animal as a race,-not only making it a subject of personal immortality in a future state, but demonstrating the original design of the Creative Will to be that man was destined from the first to be a denizen of two worlds; and that the present, in the All-wise counsels of the universe, was to be but the temporary school as a preparatory step for a final state of conscious personality.

As certain as living creatures are the original products of a personal supervising intelligence, who knew what he was about in placing man and the countless grades of lower organisms upon this planet, instead of tracing their origin to a senseless and mindless law of Natural Selection, just so certain does this implanted aspiration for immortality in man prove that there is in the realms of this creative intelligence a state or condition somewhere with which to gratify such longing, or else the very implantation would be an exhibition of supreme mockery and infinite trifling.

DOES DEATH END ALL? No. 1.

No other question so deeply interests mankind individually and personally as the one propounded above; and no intelligent man or woman of the countless millions who have lived and died upon this earth has approached the final change without seriously asking the same question. For thousands of years it has been one of the chief efforts of philosophers and religionists of all schools to give a definite and satisfactory answer to this question, and to establish such a system of intelligent belief, based on such an array of facts, or other rational considerations as would convince persons of ordinary intellects that there is as much a real hereafter to humanity beyond the night of death, as there is a real to-morrow beyond the setting of the physical sun of to-day. It scarcely needs to be said that all efforts to such an end thus far have failed-not wholly, but to the extent of absolute satisfaction on the part of an inquiring mind.

Could we know positively that when this body dies that which animates it will immediately awaken in another life with a spiritual body, clothed upon with spiritual vestments, and surrounded by a real spiritual environment as tangible to the soul as is the present environment to the bodily senses, it is manifest that the present state of existence would be a very different thing to that which it now is. With such a future before us clearly defined and rationally assured upon such unimpeachable evidence as to defy reasonable doubt, man could walk erect and smile in the midst of the most exasperating vexations and disappointments, and be enabled thereby to meet the trials and discouragements of life with a serenity that would tend to allay the very storms which they generate and which would otherwise lead to disaster and ruin.

Is it possible in this life to acquire such a practical assurance of a real existence beyond the present, independent of the ordinary channels of religious faith, as to make the future state a matter of business consideration, as we would anticipate the coming spring-time and prepare for its duties and enjoyments when this winter of our discontent shall have passed away?

We believe that such a degree of assurance on the part of every intelligent man and woman, is the chief and legitimate inheritance which the Creator of our bodies and the Father of our spirits originally intended for us to possess and enjoy here.

We do not claim that the same kind of evidence can be given of a future life as we enjoy of the rising of to-morrow's sun, because the

latter is the result of experience in our often seeing the sun to rise and set, and in witnessing the close of one day and the dawn of another. But even personal experience, oft-repeated, is no stronger or more convincing evidence than that which depends upon other kinds of testimony, such as the unquestioned voice of concurrent circumstances coupled with various other rational considerations. For example, we met a friend whom we have well known for years on Broadway yesterday, and conversed with him for several minutes. Of this we have the evidence of our senses, as well as of years of previous acquaintance. But in point of fact we are not nearly so sure that we met, or saw, or conversed with this friend as we are that there is a real city called London which has existed for hundreds of years on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, though we never saw that, city and only know of its existence by rational consideration outside of personal experience. The "fool" concludes that there is no God because he never saw one. Yet if God should actually present himself to the gaze of such an atheist he would be more apt to conclude that he had been momentarily out of his senses that to believe that he had seen the Almighty, unless he were really too big a "fool" to reason soundly. So we might be mistaken about having met our friend on Broadway because others have been so mistaken before from momentary derangement of the sight or aberration of the mental faculties; but we cannot be mistaken about the city of London, because its existence in our convictions depends upon so many concurrent facts, evidences, and circumstances that we are necessarily as certain of such a city beyond the Atlantic as we are certain of our own consciousness, which is the only basis of all other classes of knowledge.

We hold, therefore, that the want of personal experience with reference to a future state of conscious being for man does not necessarily detract from the certainty of the evidence in its favor, or the undoubted assurance which we may rationally entertain of such a hereafter for humanity.

We believe that the time has at last arrived in the world's philosophical and scientific progress when man may absolutely know, in a most important sense of that word, that the present life is not, in the very nature of things, all there is of us or for us; and that the Power that created and placed us here, with the countless evidences of intelligent design manifest in our marvelous vital, mental, and physical organizations, and everywhere witnessed in our relations to the environment, contemplated more by such existence than to mock human intelligence and to stultify all ideas of Divine wisdom which man is capable of forming. We purpose, therefore, from time to time, as opportunity offers, to present brief articles upon this most pregnant theme, of which this forms the introduction.

DOES DEATH END ALL? No. 2.

In this paper we assume the existence of God as the Creator of the universe, and shall base or arguments for a future conscious existence for man upon that fact the same as if it had been demonstrated beyond all question. In our next, we will undertake to prove the existence of God so demonstrably as to leave no room for doubt in a reasonable mind.

Assuming that God exists and that he created this world with all it contains, we must, in the nature of things, conceive of such Creator as a personal intelligence of infinite capabilities. To have created such a world, with such evidences of design and such beautiful adaptions of means to ends, with so many results everywhere seen in Nature as the effect of complex laws, forces, and processes interacting to accomplish such results, proves to a rational mind that the being, or principle, or power which so originated these processes, designed these adaptations, ordained these laws, and put into operation these forces must be an infinite intelligence, a real personality like unto man in point of conscious, entitative being, but incomprehensibly beyond man in the extent of his knowledge, and the sweep of his power in executing his conceptions. That such a being must think, plan, resolve, and reason, cannot be doubted except to fall back upon an utter denial of his existence as the creative power which originated the world with its beauty, order, and utility. If he thinks, reasons, plans, and purposes in carrying out his works of creation, he must exist outside of a physical or corporeal organism, and thus exist a real conscious, personal, and spiritual intelligence. This fact or truth alone, if it be an indisputable fact or truth, settles the question of materialism and sweeps its very foundation from existence. Materialists are of necessity compelled to be Atheists. They deny the fact that man exists at all, except as a purely material organism, and insist that all manifestations of vitality or mentality are mere phenomena of motion-the result of molecular action. What causes this molecular action, they do not pretend to explain or even to guess. Here is the chasm which bars their further progress. But, however unsatisfactory and self-contradictory such a view may be even to the minds of avowed materialists, they prefer to adopt its incoherencies and absurdities rather that to yield their convictions to the greater difficulty, as they conceive, of believing that man is a two-fold entity, having an immaterial personality as well as material, visible, tangible form,-the one the counterpart of