its own conscious state, reveals to him a world of
intellectual endowments and powers which unite
in calling for a future existence as the only adequate
sphere for their perfect development and action.
The power of thinking makes man the partaker
of that which is divine. All existence is founded
on thought; for it is the external thoughts of God
that have found their self realization in this world.
In thinking, man assumes his own existence ; in
thinking of God he assumes the existence of God.
In thinking of eternity he assumes the existence
of an eternity, and thus this wondrous power of
thinking, this inner language of the mind proves
almost to a demontration the reality of a future
existence. Man has thoughts, thoughts of the
highest, and thoughts of himself. This is one
aspect of his likeness to God, and links his soul
with him in an endless existence.
Establishing the same truth is the power of free
will. The animal has instinct, man has Tree will.
His acts are determined by motives which pro
ceed ultimately from himself. He has within
himself a certain power of freedom upon which
no external agency, no emotion of his own nature,
no power of custom, can encroach and so deter
mine a man to will or to act that he cannot do
otherwise. Upon this power all responsibility
and moral accountability depends. This mental
endowment puts man in such a relation to God
that the conviction is established that he will con
tinue with Him in existence eternally ; that he
dwells on the borders of a better land, which
projects into this life and has other laws than
those of our own natural life; that his destination
is not accomplished in this life ; that he does not
attain to the end of the highest culture and pro
gress here; and that the soul has still a higher
destination which directs him beyond time and
space ; which directs him to God.
Standing at the point of the convergence of
these presumptions, we look upon the stream of
life as it passes out of sight. We turn our faces to
the future and wait tor the light of revelation.
What a scene it reveals to the enraptured gaze I
THE FREE LANCE.
It makes the two worlds one. The universe, the
broad theatre for the display of God’s wisdom,
love and power, and the actors, God, and souls,
in an unending scene of harmonious action and
unspeakable glory. Spirits coming and going,
meeting and working out the problems which in
volve an eternity, perfectly at home in these vast
themes of the knowledge and purposes of the
Eternal Father.
The analogies of nature and the vague reason
ings of our keenest philosophy leave us in the
shadows of doubt. But by the light that beams
from afar, we look with confidence beyond this
vale of life and death to those unseen hills on
which the light of life falls evermore, and gazing
on their lofty heights we listen in the calmest
mood of nature, to reason, to the longings of the
human heart, and the priest of song harmonious
ly unites with these in their testimony to immor
tality.
Upon her breast she wore a tlntod roso
That matched tho touch of color on hor chocks
And arc that day in J uno had touched Its oloso
Another soul stood ncur and thus ho spuuks
“My dear, wliilo yot tho sun of day is soon
iiy those refracted rays of solar light,
Tho retina of my oyo records tho green,
Itcilootod irom the trees on yonder height,
ilcnoatli those robust deliquescent oltns
(Tho Ulmus rncomoro rightly namoil)
A Vitis cordifoltu now o’orwholms
A lingering flowery earn us slightly framed.
Unto this habitat I would Invito
Tho heart that beats bohlml that Mormot rose;
And through tlioso lips, tinged with delight,
I'll hopo to hour tho song you might eomposo,"
It must l>o so, Pluto, thou rensonost well!
Klso why this pleasing hope, tills l'oml doslro,
This longing after Immortality?
’Tis the divinity that stirs within us.
Tlia stars shall fudo away, the sun hlmsolf
Grow dim with ago, and nature sinks in yours,
Hut thou shalt nourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amid tho war of olumonts,
Tho wreck of matter and tho crash of worlds
T. A. GILICIiY.
SCIENCE AND POETRY.
iiy John Smith