"walked no more with him. Then said Jesus "unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then "Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom "shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal "life; and we believe and are sure that thou art "that Christ, the Son of the living God."

My brethren, however inattentive any before me may have been to scriptural themes, however careless to acquaint themselves with the doctrines of the Bible, there are none who have not discovered that our religion treats of a future existence, and that in the Gospel Jesus Christ is set forth as the only medium by which the happiness of that future existence can be attained. These,

say, are those great representations of Scripture, of which none of us are ignorant. A most important question which they suggest for every one of us to ponder is this, Are those representations true? Is there such a future life? and if there be, is its blessedness attainable only through the way which Jesus Christ has made known? To these questions, and to some considerations which follow from them, your attention is requested. First, then, Is there a future, an eternal, life? or rather, is there any evidence of such a life, exclusive of the testimony of Scripture? To what faculty of man shall I ad dress the question? Shall I appeal to his reason for a solution of the difficulty? And does not reason at once reply, that in the unequal distribution of worldly advant

ages, the privations under which some are doomed to labour, while others riot in wanton superfluity; that in the want of reference or regard to the character and deserts of men in the dealings of Providence, the depression of the good, and the exaltation of the worthless; that in the absence of every thing like retribution in the present state, by virtue of which he who carries carnage, and misery, and cruel death, to myriads of his fellow beings, acquires honour, and eminence, and applause, while the multitude with whose destiny he madly sports, are given like sheep to the slaughter, unpitied, unavenged, unthought of, save in those desolated homes where the bitter tears of widowhood and orphanage deplore their doom; does not reason assert that these considerations, to say nothing of the immortal capacity of the human mind, of the unworthiness of the objects about which it is occupied here, of the shortness of life, and its utter want of value or of purpose, excepting on the supposition of its being a probationary state; that in these are to be found such implications of the justice, the wisdom and the goodness of God, as can only be removed by acknowledging the necessity and the certainty of a life to come.

Shall the imagination be appealed to, to decide upon the reality of that future life? What spirit is so dull that it has not soared beyond the boundaries of this narrow scene? Whose fancy has

not pierced those cloudless heavens, and sought among its bright and starry mansions some better clime, some blest abode, where joy should be perennial, and life unfading, and sin and misery be for ever unknown? And what heart has not responded to the scriptural delineations of a new heaven and a new earth, of that holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, and having the glory of God, that city of pure gold like unto glass, having its foundations of precious stones, and its gates of pearls, in which the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and God himself shall be with them, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away?

Shall we address the hopes which make their residence in the human mind, to know what evidence they give to the truth of a life to come? My brethren, whether we ask the question in the midst of some happy and peaceful circle, where the sense of present enjoyment may influence the wish for future happiness, or go to some sad and melancholy abode, where misery sits brooding over its griefs, and finds all its consolation in the belief of a better state; whether we ask the parent, or the friend, as he looks joyfully around on the objects of his affection, in the full fruition of health and of life, or him who, sunk in sorrow,

bewails the loss of all whom he has loved; in all these cases, though differing as widely as can be, the answer would be the same, and hope would bear her testimony to the promise of immortality.

And if, turning from these views which hope suggests, we ask the probability from the fears of men; if we go to the conscience oppressed with guilt, to the bosom where remorse has sunk deeply her fangs, if to any in whom is found the sense and feeling of unpardoned sin, they will at once acknowledge that the evidence for that future life is but too certain, the fact of its reality too true; at the least, they will be ready to confess that if there be no heaven, there is a hell.

My brethren, place the question on any ground; put it under every variety of circumstance; take the verdict of universal man; it is wholly in favour of a life to come, of an existence beyond the tomb. Go even at that latest and darkest hour, when every proof might seem to be confounded; when the body is consuming by decay, and the whole frame is sinking into dissolution; when every circumstance is adverse to expectation, and apparently forbids belief; go then, and let the spirit of the dying man decide. He reasons, he fears, he hopes, though his bodily faculties have almost wholly lost their power. Nay, often he reasons, fears, and hopes, more strongly than ever he did in his hours of health. His soul is more awake. He feels that his spirit is immortal; that its ex

istence is distinct from that of his outward frame, its prison, its tenement, its temporary abode. He knows that it may depart from the body; but he is sure that it cannot die. This conviction he maintains while his bodily faculties permit him to express it, and often when reason is perverted in its seat, or when its testimony is imperfectly conveyed, his very ravings are of eternity. Such is a small part of the evidence that there is an eternal life, that the soul of man is a portion of divinity. This evidence of its origin, and of its immortal destination, is found in itself; in its hopes of happiness which look beyond the grave; in its desires, which nothing earthly has ever been able to gratify; in its fears, reaching beyond the destruction of the body; in its apprehensions, anticipating a future misery more appalling than any it has ever yet experienced. It is these hopes and fears which constitute man a religious being; and this is a character which belongs to him in every state of society, in every changing clime, and in every period of the world. With feelings of hope or of terror, all men look up to God, and forward to a future life. The conviction of immortality is, therefore, innate in ourselves; and though youth may shut it out, in the riot of enjoyment; and crime, and hardened courses of sin, may make men wish that it may not be; nay, though they may persuade themselves it will not be, yet when the mind is permitted to act, to