صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

But what evidence is there in the Holy Scriptures that this sacred relation, with its accompanying recollections and characteristic pleasures, will be extended beyond the present life?

CHAPTER IV.

THE PERPETUATION OF CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP, A DOCTRINE WHICH RESTS UPON SCRIPTURAL EVIDence.

HUMAN reason is but the servant or interpreter of revelation, and in this capacity is bound to pay the profoundest deference to her authority, and to ascertain as fully as possible the import of her announcements. What more has it proved, whenever abandoned to its own speculations, than a sickly flame without heat, moving along capriciously in the wide regions of conjecture, serving only to render the prevalent gloom more deep, and generally leading those who have taken it for their guide into the stagnant marshes of infidelity or vice? But reason in subserviency to the scriptures holds a most important office. Without its exercise religion can have nothing more than a name. It is, in fact, the eye of the mind; and there can be no discernment of spiritual objects unless it be employed in the contemplation of

them through the medium of the "true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." And the importance of the rational faculty is more especially seen in its relation to those religious discoveries which are not matter of direct affirmation, but which rest upon the inductive evidence of scripture. These it is the peculiar province of reason to elicit, and by this means to widen the range of revealed truth, or rather to lay it open before the view of the mind. They constitute some of the most interesting themes which can occupy our thoughts, and it will now be our object to shew that amongst them is to be ranked the one which is the more prominent topic of the present pages. This will appear, if it can be proved that christianity secures all that is really essential to the recovery of religious friendship. To this end it is necessary, that those between whom this holy relation subsists should survive the present life,-that the same local destination should await them, that they should recognise each other, that they should retain the affections which now unite them, and that social preferences should be consistent with the circumstances of their new condition. These several particulars we purpose to notice in distinct sections, and then to consider how the conclusion which may be drawn from them harmonizes with the principles and professed objects of the christian system.

---

SECTION I.

ON THE CERTAINTY OF A FUTURE STATE.

What an object of commiseration is the person whose heart has never throbbed at the idea of his immortality! If there be any thing in the conduct of man more astonishing than another, it is that he should cling to this short and uncertain life, and feel no concern whether death extinguishes or perpetuates his conscious existence. For it is a question which lies at the foundation of religion, and involves all that is sublime and really interesting to us. The supposition that the whole amount of our sufferings, enjoyments, and pursuits, are circumscribed by the narrow circle of threescore years and ten, reduces us to the condition of an ephemeral and insignificant race. We possess nothing, in this case, to render us objects of much concern to ourselves, or of deep and benevolent interest to others. The platform on which we stand is too narrow to permit us to project, or to carry into execution any lofty and extended purpose. The great principles of our nature, the hopes and fears which are the main spring of action in the human bosom, must be weakened and degraded, in consequence of having no object to

grasp beyond the diminutive good or evil of a perishable world. Conscience must thus be dethroned, vice stripped of its terrors, and suffering virtue doomed to struggle without hope. But if on the other hand we are destined to survive the dissolution of the body, and to become immortals in some state corresponding with our present characters, the whole structure of religion then stands upon a broad and immoveable basis; and a degree of importance belongs to every individual, which cannot be represented by numbers, or duly estimated by the powers of any finite mind. Every thing belonging to man, both in his personal and relative capacity, assumes unspeakable interest, admitting its connection with a future and more permanent state; and then the bare fact of our future existence renders it possible, and awakens an expectation that our relation to one another may, in some important respects, be extended beyond the present world. Hence the grand question which respects the immortality of the soul, has never ceased to interest the wise and virtuous of our race. Men most distinguished by their talents and characters have, in every age, come to the investigation of this subject with a trembling anxiety; and the eye of human reason has been strained by repeated attempts to look into futurity, and to ascertain the real nature and consequences of death. But how is the inquiring mind to be

« السابقةمتابعة »