|
(Continued
from issue #7)
In casting a retrospective glance over the pages of
history, we find that amongst those nations that were supposed to be
unacquainted with revelation, they only who were simple in their manners
and habits entertained ideas of the immortality of the soul at all
consonant with reason. It is not to be supposed, however, that their
unassisted minds could lead them to the pure founts of truth; but they
gazed at it, as it were, with organs so shaded by surrounding
circumstances, that they coloured and blended their ideas of the future
with those of the present. Thus, the eager longing of the aborigines of
the western hemisphere to join their olden warriors in the beautiful
hunting-grounds beyond the setting sun, whose ideal forests rose in
sublime majesty before the dim vision of the future, to chase the mighty
elk with untiring footsteps—to
listen to the “still, small voice” of the Great Spirit as it came
breathing through the ancient woods with such a sweetness in its silent
power, that it filled their souls with ecstasy at its very contemplation—to
people the future with all that was (to them) bright and glorious in the
present:—tends
clearly to show that an ignorant people, with nothing but nature for a
guide, may entertain loftier conceptions of the nature of their being,
than those who bow before the splendid fabrics created by man’s
conceptive genius. Even the Britons, at the time they first cowered
before the ascendancy and star of Cæsar, though but barbarians in
comparison with the Romans in all that related to the refinements of
this life, far surpassed them in their conceptions as to what related to
a spiritual one; and even at that early period gave a lesson by which
modern priestcraft has profited. Of such sacred character were the
Druids in the eyes of the people, that not alone what they taught
concerning futurity was implicitly believed by their votaries, but they
even gave up their wealth to them on their promise to refund it in the
next world.*
It has often been remarked, that the greatest proof
which the human mind could have of its own immortality was the
dissatisfaction attending even the realization of the most distant and
brilliant hopes,—hopes
in themselves seemingly beyond the reach of human attainment, yet when
reached giving but a transient gleam of satisfaction to the mind, and
then urging it on! still on! in the search of bliss, the ignis fatuus
gleam of which is lost in the shadow of the grave, there to perish with
unsatisfied desires, did not hope, scorning to share the grave of
mortality, still whisper—“there
are brighter fields beyond!”
If such, then, is the uncertainty of happiness
here,—if
our speculations of happiness to be enjoyed in a world to come are but
the breathings of an unsatisfied spirit, which will only acknowledge
this world as a place of sojourn,—if the universal belief of others in a
future state is not sufficient to still the doubts in our minds,—if
we will not adopt the belief of our fathers without a stern analysis:—let
us turn once more to the pages of inspiration, and see if we find not
enough there to satisfy the desires of our longing souls.
We must suppose that Adam, when placed ’mid the
glories of nature in her first bloom, was gifted with all knowledge
relating to his well being, and the government of the world over which
he was to rule. In converse with his Creator, he must have been
convinced of his own immortality. The prescience of his Maker had freed
his mind from doubts of any matter that it could take cognizance of; his
conceptions of the Deity, with whom his pure spirit could converse as
with a father, were not darkened by the blight of sin, as are our own;
he therefore must have comprehended what the penalty of disobedience
(death) was, and no doubt knew that its concomitants were pain and
remorse. Eve, whose mind was of a softer and more yielding nature, might
have forgotten for the moment the purposes of her being in surrounding
joys; and when the tempter presented her the forbidden fruit, her
curiosity no doubt was as strongly excited to know how she could still
live, though death was the penalty of disobedience, as it was impulsive
in urging her on to that state, when “ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil.” Her frequent converse with the Creator gave her the
knowledge that He was a Spirit unencumbered with outward form: the
serpent held up the dazzling lure, she might be as a god; her ambition
should be gratified. She ate, and “knew the evil” of gratifying
unhallowed wishes; the “good” she had forfeited, in sacrificing the
gratitude due to the One who had showered unending bliss on her being,
at the altar of vain desire.
If,
after the act of disobedience had been fully consummated,—if, after
the ejection of the first pair from Eden, they had had no knowledge of
the undying nature of their Souls,—how could they have lived on
through the sad reverse? Could their frail nature have endured the agony
which their crime had cast over their spirits, if the beacon of hope had
not cheered them on in their thorny path with the promise that a
submissive spirit, endeavouring to recover and keep a steadfast hold of
the line of duty, might regain that happiness which its perverseness had
forfeited? Thus our ancient sages paint (in the beautiful imagery of the
last) Adam as one whose head reached unto the heavens, whilst his feet
rested on the earth, indicating the idea that repentance had enabled him
to ascend to heaven for the bliss that his own act had deprived him of
here. But the pages of prophecy are so full of the life of the soul as
to convince all who search for the truth of its immortality. It may
shock our sense of propriety that the soul of the pious Samuel should
reanimate the clay, at the unhallowed call of the witch of Endor; still
it proves to us that his soul died not with the body in which it had
once dwelt; and even if the call had been unanswered, the restoration of
life, at the prayer of Elisha, of the son of the Shunamite, had it been
the only record, would have been sufficient evidence of this glorious truth. The minstrel king drew inspiration from the longings
of his spirit; for he tells in prophetic words: “But God will redeem
my soul from the power of the grave; for he shall receive me.” (Psalm
49:15.) “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13.)* “For thou hast
delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from
falling, that might walk before God in the light of the living?”
(Psalm 46:13.)
And
what plainer language could we have than the words of Isaiah? “For
thus saith the Lord unto the childless ones, that keep my Sabbaths and
choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even to
them will I give a place in my house, and within my walls, a place and a
name better than that of sons and of daughters; I will give unto them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut
off.” (Isaiah 46:4,5.) “For thus saith the high and lofty One that
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy; I dwell in the high and holy
place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite
ones.” (Ibid. 47: l5.) “He will swallow up death forever; and the
Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.” (Ibid. 25:8.) “For
behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity: the earth shall also disclose her blood,
and shall no more cover her slain.” (Ibid. 26:24.) “But Israel shall
be saved in the Lord, with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be
ashamed or confounded, world without end.” (Ibid. 45:17.) Nor was he
who was skilled in all other knowledge, a tithe of whose works, had they
been handed down to posterity, would no doubt have enlightened the most
scientific of the present and future ages, deficient in a knowledge at
which all other is but of minor importance; for he tells us, “Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7.) That this truth was
acknowledged in the time of Job, we may infer from the words of Elihu;
for in speaking of the Almighty he says: “He looketh upon man,and if
any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it
profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and
his life shall see the light.” (Job 33:27.) Nor is the knowledge of a
place of punishment withheld from us, for David assures us that “The
wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God.”
(Psalm 9:17.) “Let death seize upon them, and let them go quick into
hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.” (Ibid.
55:15.) To select all the passages that relate to a future state would
be an endless task; but who can read the vision of Ezekiel, (37th
chapter,) remembering at the same time “that the heavens and earth may
pass away, but the word of God never,” Without rejoicing that he at
least is one of the chosen?—that, though he may pass away, and be
numbered with the things that were, still he is one of the exceeding
great army of Israel; and though their “bones are dried,” and
“their hope is lost,” according to the belief of the nations, their
hopes will bud anew from the promise of their Redeemer? For “Thus
saith the Lord God; behold, O my people! I will open your graves, and
cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of
Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your
graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall
put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your
own land: then shall we know that I the Lord have spoken it, and
performed it, saith the Lord.”
May
we not then infer from the evidence adduced—first, that the knowledge
of the immortality of the soul was revealed to mankind, whilst they were
yet one family, from the fact that the ideas concerning it of three of
the oldest nations of antiquity, (the Hebrew, the Persian, and the
Chinese,)* with whose history we are acquainted, are very similar in
their nature, if we divest the two latter of the garb of superstition?
And the researches of the great Champollion, and of those who followed
in his steps, would almost lead us to assert that the ideas the Egyptian
people held in ages far antecedent to Moses, of the living nature of the
soul, differed not very materially from our own.
Secondly:
from the fact that those who dwell amid the magnificence of nature in
her pristine state, “having such a ceaseless consciousness of
immortality, that their departed friends are considered as merely absent
for a time, and permitted to relieve the hours of separation by
occasional intercourse with the objects of their earliest
affections,”* may we not conclude that nature teaches this belief to
all that inquire it of her?
Thirdly.
Does not the power of thought convince us that we are more than
material? To matter we may prescribe a limit, and say unto it, “Thus
far shalt thou go;” but who can restrain the imagination, and say,
“Thou shalt go no farther?” Laughing the lightning to scorn in its
resistless speed, in an instant it has bounded past the most distant
constellation, peopling the voidless space, in its onward course, with
beings more bright than an infant’s dream; and ere the roar of the
thunder is heard, returning with unwearied wing to solace its earthy
prison-house with the sweet communions of the spirits of other spheres.
S.
Solis. |
