to wcB beoi",h or his beloved charge 
 ,-. ! .:G'HOLAS MURRAY, D.D. 
 
 
 
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 TO THE PEOPLE OP HIS BELOVED CHARGE. 
 
 By 
 
 NICHOLAS ^MURRAY, D.D. 
 
 IzbtnavQ iFottrtl), 1861. 
 
 THINGS UNSEEN AND ETERNAL. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 FBANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
 1861. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 « »»- 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction 3 
 
 A Future World — 2 Cor., iv., 18 7 
 
 A Personal God — Gen., i, 1 25 
 
 The Soul— 1 Cor., xv., 45 43 
 
 Intermediate State — Eccles., xii, 7 61 
 
 Resurrection — 1 Cor., xv., 35 79 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-one, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 Why send forth these sermons ? The sub- 
 jects are not new ; they have been treated by 
 every faithful minister of Christ, and their 
 treasures again and again unfolded in the 
 Church. Why, then, send them forth ? There 
 is a secret reason : they are the dying legacy 
 of a faithful pastor to his beloved flock. In 
 that solemn hour when, like one translated, 
 he was just entering the celestial city, his 
 thoughts rested for a brief moment on those 
 he had so long and so often endeavored to 
 lead into " green pastures and beside the still 
 waters ;" and while he poured out his soul in 
 prayer to God for them, he was reminded that 
 he had prepared messages for them which he 
 had not yet delivered, and he committed the 
 delivery to other hands, as his dying legacy 
 to his people. 
 
 The Future World. Here we find a con- 
 
iv Introduction. 
 
 firmation of the faith of all ages, the testimony 
 of Scripture and the deductions of reason, 
 with an earnest appeal to his beloved flock to 
 "live, not for the things which are seen and 
 temporal, but for those which are unseen and 
 eternal." 
 
 A Personal God. Here our faith is 
 strengthened in things unseen and eternal by 
 a review of great first principles, and our safe- 
 guard and the safeguard of the world estab- 
 lished by the belief of the being and presence 
 of God. The methods by which this person- 
 al God is made known to his people, and the 
 peace and blessedness of walking with him, 
 are set forth. 
 
 The Soul. In this third sermon we have 
 another of the " unseen things," with its prop- 
 erties, the teachings of Scripture on its im- 
 mortality, the responsibility of the trust, and 
 the value of its salvation. 
 
 Intermediate State, or " the state of the 
 soul between death and the resurrection." 
 
Introduction. 
 
 Here we find the destination of the soul set- 
 tled, the Christian comforted in the anticipa- 
 tion of death, and the sinner alarmed. This 
 was the last sermon written by this beloved 
 pastor. His series was not completed. As 
 we take up the prepared sheets for the fifth 
 and last of the course, we find the Scripture, 
 " How are the dead raised ? and with what 
 body do they come ?" (1 Cor., xv., 35.) This 
 was to close the course. The subject is still 
 among the things unseen and eternal. 
 
 Resurrection. God, in his inscrutable prov- 
 idence, has left this subject open to pastor and 
 people, that each in his own person may learn 
 what it is to rise to glory and honor, or to 
 everlasting shame and contempt. 
 
 11 My work is done ; I want my mind un- 
 clouded." " My work is done ; I want 
 
 to pray," is the utterance of the dying pastor. 
 Confessing his unworthiness, and expressing 
 his assurance that he had been washed in the 
 blood of Christ and sanctified by his Spirit, 
 he thanked God that he had prepared him for 
 
vi Introduction. 
 
 this trying hour. Committing his family, his 
 domestics, his beloved Church and people, his 
 dear elders, his trustees and deacons, and all 
 classes of the community to the divine care, 
 he prayed that they might be men after God's 
 own heart. Especially he prayed for his 
 young men, merchants and mechanics, that 
 they might be God-fearing men, hating covet- 
 ousness, and that the words he had spoken to 
 them might bear fruit to the glory of God. 
 His brethren in the ministry, his country and 
 the world, were remembered. We may not 
 enter too minutely into this sacred scene. 
 Loving ties were sundering, and the full heart 
 gave vent to its warm affections in earnest, 
 tender, and ever- to -be -remembered expres- 
 sions ; but, having gathered together in one 
 comprehensive petition all that was dear and 
 all that had so long filled his great heart, like 
 a departing apostle he lifted his hands : " Re- 
 ceive the blessing. ' The grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the com- 
 munion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.' ' 
 Having repeated the Lord's Prayer, he added, 
 " ' Father, into thy hands I commend my spir- 
 it' " " No more — no more." 
 
THINGS UNSEEN AND ETERNAL. 
 
 A FUTURE WORLD. 
 
 " While we look not at the things which are seen, but at 
 the things which are unseen; for the things which are seen 
 are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
 —2 Cor., iv., 18. 
 
 We never stop for an hour to consider 
 the character of Paul the Apostle without 
 having our minds elevated and our rever- 
 ence greatly excited. In his state of nature 
 he was a true man — true to the principles of 
 his education and to his conscientious con- 
 victions. And, ignorantly believing that he 
 was doing God's service, he persecuted the 
 disciples unto strange cities. But, when con- 
 victed of his error, he gave at once his 
 wrong principles and prejudices, as chaff) to 
 the winds of heaven, and grasped the truth 
 with the promptitude and the earnestness of 
 
8 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 a mind that saw at a glance its eternal im- 
 portance. For three days he was " cast 
 down," but not " forsaken ;" during those 
 days the light of the glorious Gospel of 
 Christ shined into his soul. His spiritual 
 life, like that of plant and flower, germinated 
 in darkness ; and when taught by Ananias 
 the way of salvation through Christ, he 
 promptly embraced it. He bows at once to 
 the truth. The heart of stone relents — the 
 fury of persecution subsides — the murdering 
 sword is thrown away — Saul the persecutor 
 becomes Paul the Apostle ; and, with an ar- 
 dor proportioned to his former enmity, he 
 preaches Christ as the wisdom of God, and 
 as the power of God to every one that be- 
 lieves. He saw, at a glance, the losses, the 
 persecutions, the excommunications, the dan- 
 gers to which his new course of life subject- 
 ed him ; but he counted every thing the world 
 promised as dross and as dung that he might 
 win Christ. We find him, at the time he wrote 
 our text, in great affliction. He felt that his 
 life was in danger daily — that it was wearing 
 out under his incessant labors and trials ; but 
 yet, in the exercise of unwavering faith in 
 the Gospel, which brought life and immortali- 
 
A Future World. 9 
 
 ty to light, he persevered in the discharge of 
 every duty, and counted not his life dear if he 
 could only win Christ ! And why this course 
 of moral heroism, then, and often now, called 
 madness ? The answer we have in our text. 
 He looked not at the things which are seen, 
 but at the things which are not seen ; for the 
 things which are seen are temporal, but the 
 things which are not seen are eternal. 
 
 The apostle here contrasts the things seen 
 with the things not seen, and gives to the lat- 
 ter the preference. And not a preference 
 merely ; but, as the things seen are temporal 
 — existing but for a day, like a tent pitched in 
 the wilderness — they are not to be named in 
 comparison with the things which are unseen, 
 because they are eternal ! The things which 
 are not seen are of infinitely greater im- 
 portance than the things which are seen. 
 This, although reversing the usual estimate 
 of men, is true as to every thing. You see 
 the stream, but you see not the hidden springs 
 from which it flows ; the hidden springs are 
 of more importance than the seen stream. 
 You see the tree in verdure, flower, and fruit, 
 but you see not the hidden agencies produc- 
 ing these results. You see around you the 
 
10 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 most wonderful results of human skill, but 
 you see not, nor can you comprehend, the 
 mind that produces them ! You daily ob- 
 serve the rotation of the world on its axis, 
 and the wonderful regularity of its motion, 
 but what do you know of the hidden laws 
 that produce them ? You see the members 
 of your body, you can understand their va- 
 rious movements, but you see not the soul, 
 which is to these movements as are the hid- 
 den springs and wheels of a clock to the 
 hands that move on its face. 
 
 And it is in religion just as it is in other 
 things ; the things unseen are of infinitely 
 greater importance than the things seen, and 
 are equally real. We believe in the unseen 
 in nature, why reject them in religion ? We 
 believe the unseen things in nature to be more 
 important than the things seen, why not so 
 believe in religious things ? We are fully 
 persuaded that the reason why men live so 
 regardless of the future is that their faith is 
 so feeble as to the things which are unseen 
 and eternal. Their hearts are filled with the 
 love of the world ; their minds are engrossed 
 with the things of time and sense. The god 
 of this world has blinded their minds, " lest 
 
A Future World. 11 
 
 the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, 
 who is the image of God, should shine unto 
 them." Believing all this, we purpose, in a 
 brief series of discourses, and in a simple and 
 practical form, to ask your attention to the 
 consideration of some of those things which 
 
 ARE UNSEEN AND ETERNAL. 
 
 And we commence to-day with 
 
 A FUTURE WORLD. 
 
 The question we now propose to discuss is 
 a very simple one. It is not whether there 
 are more worlds than one ? This question, 
 we think, philosophers have satisfactorily de- 
 termined in the affirmative. Nor is it wheth- 
 er these other worlds are inhabited by beings 
 like ourselves. This may or may not be the 
 case. But, however that question may be 
 settled, it disturbs not a question of revelation, 
 nor does it modify our duty to God or to man. 
 The question before us is this : Is there a fu- 
 ture world, in which we are to live forever, 
 and in which we are to be rewarded or pun- 
 ished according to the deeds done in the 
 body ? This is a question of the highest im- 
 portance to us ; it is a question so intensely 
 practical as to induce us to summon every 
 energy of mind and conscience in order to its 
 
12 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 true settlement. We answer the question in 
 the affirmative, and now ask your attention 
 to our reasons for so believing. 
 
 1. That there is a future world in which 
 we are to live has been the faith of all the 
 ages. The earliest records of the race tes- 
 tify to such a belief. The Egyptians, Per- 
 sians, Scythians, Assyrians, Celts, and Druids 
 believed in the immortality of the soul, and, 
 of course, in a future state. This faith was 
 not lost in the deepest darkness into which 
 the race ever sunk, nor was it surrendered as 
 a traditionary prejudice amid the lights of the 
 highest civilization. Socrates taught that, 
 when the dead arrive at the place of departed 
 spirits, they are judged. The good are sent 
 to a place of vast enjoyments; the very bad 
 to Tartarus ; and those who are neither very 
 good nor very bad are sent to a place of pu- 
 rification, where they are fitted for the enjoy- 
 ment of the good. Socrates is the great au- 
 thority for Purgatory, and not Christ, Paul, or 
 Peter. 
 
 And this universal faith in a future world 
 seems a part of our humanity. The mind of 
 the child grasps it the moment it is present- 
 ed. The mind of hoary age clings to it with 
 
A Future World. 13 
 
 a tenacity which no feebleness can relax. 
 The savage, the sage, the hermit, the lover of 
 fashion, the poor, the rich, equally cling to the 
 belief of a future state, and are cheered by its 
 hopes or awed by its fears. And when all 
 other hopes and fears are forgotten amid the 
 shadows of death, when collecting fast and 
 thick around us, even then are we sustained 
 by the hopes or depressed by the fears of 
 meeting our God in judgment. And this in- 
 delible impression upon the universal con- 
 science of man is itself a proof of the exist- 
 ence of a future world. Would our benevo- 
 lent Creator implant such a belief in the uni- 
 versal conscience if there was nothing in the 
 unseen to correspond to it ? Would these 
 voices, admonishing us of a future world, be 
 evermore sounding in our ears, if there were 
 no future world ? Impossible. 
 
 Nor is it any objection to this argument 
 that now and then men have arisen who have 
 denied the immortality of the soul and a fu- 
 ture state. These have been to the believers 
 in them as are the comets which now and 
 then blaze and burn out in the heavens, to the 
 stars which are ever shining in their place. 
 It is very strange that any man should wish 
 
14 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 his soul to be mortal ; but " a wicked man," 
 says a Grecian philosopher, " is afraid of his 
 judge, and therefore wishes that his soul and 
 his body should perish together." So that we 
 do not cease to be when we die. We mere- 
 ly pass from this world to a future world. 
 
 2. The desire of future existence is innate 
 to man. There is no person who finds full 
 satisfaction in his present enjoyment; and 
 the more the mind is cultivated, the more it is 
 seeking to advance from its present to some 
 higher attainment. Things that give exqui- 
 site enjoyment at first soon lose their relish, 
 and soon pall the appetite they pleased. And 
 the evidence of all this you see in the univer- 
 sal desire for novelty — for change — you see 
 every where around you. 
 
 " Hope springs eternal in the human breast ; 
 Man never is, but always to be bless'd ; 
 The soul, uneasy and confined from home, 
 Rests and expatiates in a life to come." 
 
 And this desire of future existence is a pow- 
 erful stimulus to noble and generous actions. 
 When life was offered to Demosthenes on a 
 base condition, he replied, " God forbid that I, 
 who have heard Plato discourse so divinely 
 on the immortality of the soul, should prefer 
 
A Future World. 15 
 
 a life of disgrace to an honorable death." 
 Hence, too, the noble actions of Christian he- 
 roes under the influence of things unseen and 
 eternal. Their faith was the substance of 
 things hoped for, and the evidence of things 
 not seen ; and, in order to secure a title to 
 " the better country," they counted not their 
 own life dear. They looked beyond the 
 bounds of the present; they. lived for the fu- 
 ture, and rejoiced in the hope that was set be- 
 fore them. And such, in some degree, is the 
 universal desire of man. And would God ex- 
 cite this universal desire if there were no fu- 
 ture world — if the soul died with the body ? 
 
 Let us put this idea in a form that all can 
 understand it. A man, filled with the love of 
 adventure, ascended the Alps, with his dog as 
 his only companion. He lost his way, was 
 overtaken in a storm, and perished. He was 
 soon discovered, his faithful dog lying dead 
 by his side. And was there no future for that 
 master more than for his dog? And, with 
 these quenchless desires after immortality — 
 with these thoughts within us which can roam 
 through space and creation with more than 
 the rapidity of light, is there no future world 
 for us more than for the beasts that perish ? 
 
16 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 So that we do not cease to be when we die ; 
 we merely pass from this world to a future 
 world. 
 
 3. The admitted difficulties of Providence 
 is another evidence to the same point. It is 
 admitted, to a certain extent, "that virtue is 
 its own reward, and that vice is its own pun- 
 ishment." Were there no unseen world, the 
 deeds of a Howard would bring their own re- 
 ward, and the wickedness of a Herod would 
 secure its own punishment. The natural tend- 
 ency of virtue is to produce happiness, and 
 of vice, misery ; and by connecting happi- 
 ness with virtue, and misery with vice, God 
 has given us an illustration which every man 
 feels as to the rectitude of his purposes to the 
 children of men. Yet do these purposes seem 
 very often frustrated in actual life. How oft- 
 en is virtue in rags, and vice wearing the 
 royal purple ! How often is virtue, like Laz- 
 arus, in abject poverty, and begging at the 
 gate of vice, like the rich man clothed in pur- 
 ple and fine linen ! How often is wickedness 
 on the bench, like Jeffreys, and virtue at the 
 bar, like Baxter ! How often is hypocrisy in- 
 stalled as high-priest in the synagogue, like 
 Caiaphas, and pronouncing the sentence of 
 
A Future World. 17 
 
 excommunication upon immaculate virtue ar- 
 raigned at its bar, like the adorable Redeem- 
 er ! We wish not to exaggerate the difficul- 
 ties in the world of Providence ; but who does 
 not daily see honesty thrown into the shade 
 by a double-tongued expediency, or trodden 
 under the iron heel of brazen effrontery ? 
 Who does not see honest industry sinking 
 into the grave under the pressure and the 
 burdens imposed by pampered idleness ? Who 
 does not see poltroon demagogues and parti- 
 sans elevated to office, while the purest patri- 
 otism is left to die in neglect, weeping over 
 the evils he would remedy ? And why all 
 this ? Why does an omnipotent and benevo- 
 lent God permit such things ? Why are the 
 wicked ever in power, and spreading them- 
 selves like green bay-trees ? and why do the 
 good ever wander in deserts and mountains, 
 in dens and caves of the earth, destitute, af- 
 flicted, tormented ? God's plans are very 
 large. The wheel of his providence makes 
 a wide circuit. The life of man here is too 
 short to allow the full development of his pur- 
 poses. To do this requires two worlds. We 
 see the heavens above us moving on in per- 
 fect order without a jarring note of discord. 
 
 B 
 
18 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 We see the physical laws of our earth pro- 
 ducing their regular effects without ceasing; 
 and there is no way of accounting for the dis- 
 orders in the moral world but on the ground 
 that there is a future world, where men will 
 reap as they sow here ! There the sun of 
 Providence will pass from under eclipse, and 
 the whole intelligent creation will clearly dis- 
 cern that God does make a difference be- 
 tween virtue and vice ; between those who 
 serve him and those who do not. These ev- 
 idences render a future world probable — yes, 
 even necessary to vindicate the works of God 
 to man. But let us pass on, 
 
 4. To the positive testimony of Scripture 
 as to a future world. If a navigator should 
 discover an island in an unknown sea, his first 
 desire would be to land upon it. If this were 
 impossible, because of the rocks and of the 
 billows every where lashing the shore, he 
 would desire to know whether it was inhab- 
 ited. Should a canoe be seen crossing the 
 billows from the islands, and bringing its fruits 
 for sale, the proof would be positive that it 
 was inhabited, and the world would believe 
 that it was. Now, have we any such evidence 
 of a future world ? Hear what we have to 
 say in answer to this question. 
 
A Future World. 19 
 
 In the fullness of time Jesus Christ came 
 into our world. But whence did he come ? 
 He came from the unseen world, to tell us 
 about it, and to teach us definitely and author- 
 itatively that it is the spirit-home of all the 
 dead. He brought life and immortality to 
 light ; and, to prove the truth of his statements 
 and the divinity of his mission, he wrought a 
 series of the most stupendous miracles. 
 
 But has a human being ever returned to 
 earth from the invisible world ? Go to that 
 mount of transfiguration, where the Savior as- 
 sumed for a brief time the glory which he had 
 with the Father before the world was ; and 
 who are these conversing with him ? They 
 were Moses and Elias ; the one the venerable 
 deliverer and legislator of Israel, the other the 
 venerable priest and prophet of the dispensa- 
 tion which was just about to vanish away, who 
 ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, and, as 
 if for the purpose of proving that, whether we 
 die upon the mount with Moses, or are trans- 
 lated with the prophet, there is another world 
 where we live after death. 
 
 And we have in the resurrection of Christ 
 proof positive to the same point. If he was 
 divine, he was also human. He assumed our 
 
20 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 nature, suffered and died in our nature, and 
 rose with it. The body that died rose from 
 the grave ; and he rose the first-fruits of those 
 that slept, the pattern and the pledge of our 
 resurrection ; and he only went before to pre- 
 pare a place for his people, for he will come 
 again and receive them unto himself. He 
 rose and ascended to a world now invisible 
 to us. 
 
 Nor is this even all. If Moses and Elias 
 came from the unseen world to ours, Paul 
 went from ours to the unseen world. " I knew 
 a man in Christ," he says, "about fourteen years 
 ago, how that he was caught up into Paradise, 
 and heard unspeakable words which it is not 
 lawful for a man to utter." Here, then, we 
 have the testimony of Paul that, while yet in 
 the flesh, he had actually seen the world which 
 is yet invisible to us ! No wonder that he had 
 so little regard for the things which are seen 
 and temporal, and that he was mainly swayed 
 by the things which are unseen and eternal. 
 
 And if from these instances in proof we 
 pass to the teachings of the Scriptures, the ev- 
 idence of a future state becomes at once over- 
 whelming. The belief of a future lies at the 
 foundation of the entire volume. If there is 
 no such state, our religion has no meaning, 
 
A Future World. 21 
 
 and its teachings are all a delusion ! Abra- 
 ham lived in the expectation of a city which 
 had foundations, whose builder and maker was 
 God. Moses endured as seeing him who is 
 invisible, for he had respect to the recompense 
 of reward. All the patriarchs declared plainly 
 that they sought a better country, that is, a 
 heavenly. David says, " I shall be satisfied 
 when I awake in thy likeness. My flesh shall 
 rest in hope, for thou wilt not leave my soul 
 in the grave." " For I know," says Job, " that 
 my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand 
 in the latter day upon the earth ; and though 
 after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in 
 my flesh shall I see God." And the belief in 
 a future state forms the entire framework of 
 the New Testament. " For we know," says 
 Paul, " if this earthly house of our tabernacle 
 were dissolved, we have a building of God, a 
 house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens." And Peter teaches us that believ- 
 ers are " begotten to the lively hope of an in- 
 heritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, 
 and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven 
 for them." And the Savior says, " I give unto 
 them eternal life." " Many shall come from 
 the east and from the west, and shall sit down 
 with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the 
 
22 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 kingdom of heaven." And the Scriptures teach 
 with equal explicitness the future misery of the 
 wicked, as they do the happiness of the right- 
 eous. " These shall go away into everlasting 
 punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." 
 
 Here, then, we rest our proof as to a future 
 state of being. Skepticism may affect to doubt, 
 or may deny the testimony adduced, but it can 
 not disprove it; and the man that denies it 
 denies the testimony of Scripture, and the de- 
 ductions of his own reason, and the longings 
 of his own soul after immortality. Let us turn 
 for a moment to some of the practical appli- 
 cations of this great doctrine. 
 
 While the doctrine of a future world has 
 interpenetrated the faith of all nations and of 
 all people, what is its practical effect upon the 
 conduct of men ? Which influences men 
 most, the seen or the unseen world ? All 
 those out in the pursuit of sensual gratifica- 
 tion, of power, wealth, fame, amusements, be- 
 lieve that they are to live forever ! Perhaps, 
 without an exception, you all believe the proofs 
 we have now given of the future world, and 
 yet how many of you will go out from these 
 seats resolved to live for the things which are 
 unseen and eternal ? The fact is, that while 
 there is a general credence in a future world, 
 
A Future World. 23 
 
 there is far less firm faith in it than we imag- 
 ine. How busy we are as to things this side 
 of the grave — how careless as to things be- 
 yond it ! See those parents, believing in a fu- 
 ture world, and yet not to be comforted, be- 
 cause their children are gone there, or bringing 
 up their children for this ! See those profess- 
 ing the religion of Christ, and yet living for 
 the present state as if it were never to end, 
 and laying up treasures upon earth as if a fu- 
 ture world were all a fable! See that man, 
 verging to his threescore years and ten, with 
 the unquestionable belief of a future world, 
 and yet without one serious thought as to 
 preparation to enter it ! And there are many 
 such here. There are multitudes who believe 
 in a future world, and yet who regard the man 
 who daily seeks preparation for it as more su- 
 perstitious than reasonable, as more pious than 
 wise. Seneca, after surveying the heavenly 
 bodies, asked, " Is it to this little spot that the 
 great designs and vast desires of men are con- 
 fined ? Is it for this that there is such disturb- 
 ance of nations ? Oh, folly of deceived men, 
 to imagine great kingdoms in the compass of 
 an atom!" And, in view of the unseen state, 
 may we not ask, What is a man profited should 
 he gain this entire globe, and fail of the hap- 
 
24 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 piness of the future state ? We are here but 
 for a day, and all the things seen and tempo- 
 ral are but as the light dust of the balance 
 when compared with the things which are un- 
 seen and eternal. 
 
 My dear hearers, are you now satisfied that 
 we have proved the doctrine of a future world 
 beyond any reasonable doubt ? Do you not 
 feel certain that, when you cease living here, 
 you will, in another world, enter upon an eter- 
 nal life ? You can not tell when, where, or 
 how you may pass the narrow frith which 
 separates this from the future world, but 
 cross it you must. And is it wise, amid the 
 seen, to neglect the unseen ? is it wise, amid 
 things temporal, to forget the things that are 
 unseen and eternal ? Very many have kept 
 on, and on, and on, to the very borders of this 
 world, and put off a preparation for the next 
 until they were just stepping into it. Then it 
 was too late ! Some such I have known and 
 loved — and sought, in vain, to turn them from 
 such a course of folly. And we warn you 
 against such a course of folly. Live not for 
 the world around you, but for the world before 
 you ; not for the things which are seen and 
 temporal, but for the things which are unseen 
 and eternal. 
 
THINGS UNSEEN AND ETERNAL. 
 
 GOD. 
 
 " In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." 
 — Genesis, i., 1. 
 
 On the last Sabbath morning we com- 
 menced a series of discourses on some of 
 those things which are unseen and eternal. 
 Our object in doing so is, if possible, to arrest 
 attention to their infinite importance. These 
 things which are seen — these bodies, this 
 earth, these heavens, with all their garniture, 
 and all which they possess desirable — are 
 temporal. They are but as a tent pitched in 
 the wilderness, to be taken down by the trav- 
 eler on his next remove ; but the things which 
 are unseen are eternal. They are without 
 variableness or shadow of turning. And our 
 object in calling up these unseen things be- 
 fore you is to place them before you as reali- 
 
26 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 ties, and to induce you to live, not for the 
 things which are seen and temporal, but for 
 the things which are unseen and eternal. 
 And as in our last discourse we placed before 
 you the doctrine of a future world, we will 
 ask your attention this morning to the doc- 
 trine of 
 
 A personal God. 
 
 A missionary in India was asked by a pun- 
 dit that he was instructing in the doctrines of 
 the Bible to prove to him the being of a God. 
 " I can not see him," he said, " and how can I 
 know that he exists ?" " Do you believe you 
 have a soul?" " Oh yes," was the prompt re- 
 ply. " Do you see your soul ?" he again ask- 
 ed. "Certainly not," said the pundit. "And 
 such," said the missionary, " is the living God ; 
 he is not seen by us, but he is every where 
 present." And the Hindoo bowed assent to 
 the truth that a thing may be invisible to us, 
 and yet be a great power in the universe. 
 
 As we walk up and down in this world of 
 ours, amid the things which are seen and 
 temporal, we are every where met with order, 
 and arrangement, and adaptation, and beauty. 
 These we see in the heavens above, and on 
 the earth beneath, and in the sea, and in the 
 
God. 27 
 
 body of man, fearfully and wonderfully made. 
 And whence this order, adaptation, arrange- 
 ment, and beauty? Our text answers the 
 question : " In the beginning, God created the 
 heaven and the earth." But who is God ? 
 And what if we are left to say with Job, 
 " Behold, I go forward, but he is not there ; 
 and backward, but I can not perceive him ; 
 on the left hand, where he doth work, but I 
 can not behold him ; he hideth himself on the 
 right hand, that I can not see him." Does he 
 not, therefore, exist ? Have you no soul be- 
 cause you can not see it ? Is there no wind 
 that rolls the sea into billows because you can 
 not see it? Is there no law that binds and 
 regulates the planets, producing the regular 
 succession of the seasons, because we do not 
 see it ? Do the thousand spindles of a mill 
 go of themselves because you can not see the 
 power that moves them ? The unseen are 
 the great powers of the world and of the uni- 
 verse, and none but a mind dark as was that 
 of the pundit can question the being of a per- 
 sonal God because unseen. He is a spirit, 
 infinite, eternal, and unchangeable ; and if seen, 
 he would be no longer God ! 
 
 The existence of God is the basis of all 
 
28 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 religion, because "religion means a system 
 of truths of which God is the subject and 
 centre, or a course of conduct of which he is 
 the grand object. To such a Being we and 
 the universe sustain very important relations, 
 if we can prove his existence. If there is no 
 God, then the whole fabric of religion totters 
 to its foundations, and the services it requires 
 are not only vain, but unreasonable. But, hap- 
 pily for all the great interests involved, God 
 has not left himself without ample witnesses 
 on this subject. And while to undertake to 
 prove the existence of God seems as unnec- 
 essary as to prove our own, yet is it well to 
 strengthen our faith in things unseen and 
 eternal by an occasional review of great first 
 principles. 
 
 Permit a few brief thoughts, by way of pre- 
 liminary, before giving a synopsis of the ar- 
 gument for the being of a personal God. 
 
 " The fool says in his heart there is no 
 God." This fool is the Atheist. But atheism 
 has never succeeded to any extent in weak- 
 ening the general belief in his existence, and 
 for two reasons : it is the theory of a corrupt 
 heart, and it sets itself in opposition to an in- 
 tuitive belief of the race. It is not the mind 
 
God. 29 
 
 that refuses the evidence which proves his 
 existence ; it is the heart which revolts against 
 his holiness and against his law, which implies 
 accountability, guilt, and punishment. It is 
 our carnal nature which drives the intellect 
 into rebellion, and then " the fool says in his 
 heart there is no God." But the absurdity 
 of atheism is so obvious that we can afford 
 to lay it aside with this brief notice. What 
 would you think of the man who should 
 gravely attempt to prove to you that your 
 watch, or your coat, or your gloves, had no 
 maker — that they made themselves! And 
 what can you think of the man who would 
 prove to you that these heavens above us, 
 this earth on which we live, these bodies so 
 wonderfully articulated, had no maker — that 
 they made themselves! No man can be an 
 Atheist until he knows all things ; for the 
 thing which he does not know may be God ; 
 and when he knows all things, he is God. 
 
 Nor has Pantheism ever succeeded to any 
 extent in weakening the simple belief in the 
 existence of a personal God save on its idol- 
 atrous side. This makes God the world, and 
 the world God. Every thing that lives, and 
 moves, and exists, is a development of God. 
 
30 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 The tree, the stream, man and beast, the an- 
 gel, the worm, Moses and Pharaoh, Paul and 
 Judas, Balaam and his ass, are alike parts of 
 God. The results to which this theory leads 
 — the worship of man, beast, fowl, of the bad 
 and the good, as God — stamps it as false up 
 to the point of absurdity. Nor has atheism, 
 nor Pantheism, nor any other theory which 
 the corrupt heart of man has devised to get 
 rid of a personal God, ever collected enough 
 of evidence around them to weaken the gen- 
 eral belief in the God in whom we live, and 
 move, and have our being. Thus putting 
 atheism and Pantheism aside, we proceed to 
 place before you the testimony which proves 
 the existence of a personal God. We must 
 compress into paragraphs what it would take 
 chapters and volumes fully to develop. 
 
 1. We have no knowledge of any existence 
 without a cause. Look around you, and 
 minutely examine every thing that meets the 
 eye ; and do you find any thing on the wide 
 field of your scrutiny that has not had a cause ? 
 Does not every effect require a cause ? If 
 the little pin in your sleeve had a maker, 
 must not every thing else that exists have had 
 a maker ? It is simply absurd to assert that 
 
God. 31 
 
 there is any existence without an adequate 
 cause. And all mankind have confessed their 
 belief in the inseparable connection of cause 
 and effect. If, on entering a building, I should 
 see a wheel turning, I would at once conclude 
 that the wheel had a maker, and that it was 
 turned by some power ; and can I look out 
 upon this moving earth, with all its wonderful 
 adaptations, without coming to a similar con- 
 clusion ? 
 
 2. The mind can not conceive of existence 
 without a cause. You find a deserted hut in 
 the woods ; it was built by somebody. You 
 find a well in the desert ; it was dug by some- 
 body. You find a pocket-knife on the sum- 
 mit of the Andes ; it was dropped by some- 
 body from the regions of civilization, or it was 
 brought from those regions. If nothing ex- 
 isted, nothing can possibly exist. For every 
 thing that exists there must be a cause ; nor 
 can the human mind conceive to the contrary, 
 save as to the great, first, necessary existence, 
 which explains every thing, and without which 
 we are in a labyrinth of mysteries. 
 
 3. The existence of things proves the be- 
 ing of God. You know that you exist. 
 You require no proof here. . You know you 
 
32 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 did not exist always ; you began to be a few 
 years since. You did not make that body, so 
 wonderfully adjusted and contrived ; you did 
 not put into that body that mind, of such mys- 
 terious powers. This is beyond human pow- 
 er. Your existence had a cause, and that 
 cause we call God. And the understanding 
 necessary to contrive, and the power neces- 
 sary to create a being composed of human 
 body and soul, admits of no limits. He who 
 can contrive and create such a being, can 
 contrive and create any thing, and he certain- 
 ly created all things. 
 
 4. The state of things is proof to the same 
 point. We admit the existence of each oth- 
 er ; and, when asked for the evidence of this 
 admission, we give that of our senses. We 
 see a form; we hear a voice; we see each 
 others actions and movements. But these 
 are not the man ; they are only the effects of 
 which man is the cause. And thus we rea- 
 son as to the existence of God. In the world 
 without and within us, we perceive every va- 
 riety of effects produced by some adequate 
 cause. Thus the motions of the planetary 
 system ; the diffusion of light ; the growth, 
 decay, and reconstruction constantly going on 
 
God. 33 
 
 in progress around us ; the storm, the light- 
 ning, the volcano, the rain, the dew ; the pul- 
 sations of the heart ; the perceptions of the 
 senses ; the rapid and various actions of the 
 mind, are all effects of a cause adequate to 
 their ceaseless production. And that cause 
 is God. 
 
 And how wonderful the adaptation every 
 where observable in the world of nature 
 around us ! Every organized being is com- 
 plete in itself, and yet each seems necessary 
 to the good and beauty of the whole. The 
 grass covers the earth with beauty, and is 
 adapted to the support of animals. Fruit, 
 grain, and animals are adapted to the support 
 of man. The earth, the air, the ocean, the 
 rain, the dew, the sunshine, are all adapted to 
 the production of vegetable life, and to the 
 comfort and preservation of man. And in 
 all these things there is a skill and a power 
 which can be ascribed only to God. Infinite 
 power and skill are every moment conspicu- 
 ous in every thing around us. 
 
 What the nature of man craves — what 
 the reason of man proves and approves — 
 what the effects which every where meet the 
 eye declare, the Scriptures plainly teach that 
 
 C 
 
34 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 there is a God, the Creator of all things, who 
 in the beginning made the heavens and the 
 earth, in whom we live, and move, and have 
 our being. He is self-existent ; without be- 
 ginning of days or end of years. He is al- 
 mighty. To the power which gave existence 
 to all things in heaven, earth, and hell — which 
 upholds all things — there can be no limit. 
 He moves every atom ; expands every leaf; 
 guides every ray of light ; breathes in every 
 wind ; heaves the ocean, and rolls round the 
 globe. He thundereth marvelously with his 
 voice ; holdeth the winds in his fist ; sendeth 
 lightnings with rain ; looketh on the earth and 
 it trembleth ; toucheth the hills and they 
 smoke ; melteth the mountains at his pres- 
 ence, and causeth the outgoing of the morn- 
 ing and of the evening to rejoice. And with 
 almighty power and infinite wisdom he is con- 
 ducting all things to their destined and de- 
 sired ends. He is the God of creation, provi- 
 dence, and grace. He is the God and the 
 Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
 This is the God we worship. And, although 
 no man hath seen God at any time — although 
 now we see him not, yet, believing in him, we 
 rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glo- 
 
God. 35 
 
 ry. " In the beginning he made the heavens 
 and the earth ;" he now rules in the armies 
 of heaven and among the children of men ; 
 his providence is universal, extending to all 
 creatures and all their actions. "You talk 
 about your God," said a Roman emperor to a 
 rabbi ; " I do not see him ; show him to me." 
 " Raise your eyes," said the rabbi, " to the 
 heavens ; God is there." And the emperor 
 looked up into the sky. At that moment the 
 sun passed from under a cloud, and poured 
 its rays upon the earth, and the emperor 
 closed his eyes, unable to bear its dazzling 
 lustre. " What !" said the rabbi, " would you 
 see God, when you have not power to look 
 one of his satellites in the face for a mo- 
 ment ?" 
 
 As surely as there is a sun in heaven, as 
 surely as there is a living man, as surely as 
 no effect can exist without a cause, as surely 
 as the Bible is a divine revelation, so surely is 
 there a God, who is a spirit, infinite, eternal, 
 unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, 
 holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. 
 
 Having thus placed before you the evidence 
 of the being of a personal God, we ask your 
 serious attention to a few of the lessons which 
 it teaches. 
 
36 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 1. It teaches us how great a being is God. 
 He created the heavens and the earth — that 
 is, he made them out of nothing. He said, 
 " Let there be light, and there was light." He 
 said, " Let there be a firmament," and there 
 was a firmament. He is the first cause of ev- 
 ery effect we see. The heavens declare his 
 glory, and the earth his skill. On him all 
 things depend for their continuance, and by 
 him all things are conducted in order and har- 
 mony to their destined ends. He exists with- 
 out cause and without change. He is al- 
 mighty. While all the men that live could 
 not draw a mountain from its base, God takes 
 up the isles as a very little thing, and moves 
 this world sixty-eight thousand miles in an 
 hour ; and not this world merely, but the whole 
 system of which it is a part. The power, the 
 wisdom that do all this, we call God ; but the 
 name gives us no adequate idea of him ; he is 
 infinitely beyond our comprehension. " Canst 
 thou, by searching, find out God ? Canst thou 
 find out the Almighty to perfection ? It is 
 high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? deep- 
 er than hell ; what canst thou know ? The 
 measure thereof is longer than the earth, and 
 broader than the sea." Oh, to have our minds 
 
God. 37 
 
 and our hearts thoroughly imbued with right 
 feelings as to the greatness of God ! It is in 
 this way we may become great ourselves. 
 
 2. It teaches us that we are ever living un- 
 der his inspection. " Thou, God, seest me,' 
 is the feeling which we should ever entertain 
 in every walk of life and amid all its duties. 
 All that we do we are doing under the imme- 
 diate inspection of God. It is in him we live, 
 and move, and have our being. He knows 
 our downsitting and our uprising, and under- 
 stands our thoughts when to us they are yet 
 afar off. And as we move up and down our 
 world — as we are engaged in its trade, travel, 
 duties, we should ever feel that God is on our 
 right hand and on our left. Although unseen, 
 we are surrounded with God, from whose om- 
 nipotence there is no escape. And this con- 
 scious presence of God is our great safeguard. 
 If we withhold our hand from evil because of 
 the presence of man, how much more because 
 of the presence of God ? It was this sense 
 of his presence that induced Joseph to say, 
 " How can I do this great wickedness and sin 
 against God ? 
 
 The belief in the being and presence of God 
 is the safeguard of the world — is the founda- 
 
38 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 tion of civil order — is the great tie upon the 
 conscience of man. What is an oath worth 
 if there is no God, or if the individual taking 
 it denies or disregards his existence ? Men 
 are to be trusted just in the proportion they 
 believe in God and fear him ; and they are to 
 be distrusted just in the proportion they deny 
 or disregard his existence. Nor can we ac- 
 count for many things we hear and see — for 
 the corruption, fraud, dishonesty, peculations, 
 prevailing in high places and in low, but on 
 the ground that practical atheism has corrupt- 
 ed the public mind, and is poisoning the fount- 
 ains of public influence. How different a 
 world would ours be if all men could say, 
 
 " Within thy circling power I stand, 
 On every side I find thy hand ; 
 Awake, asleep, at home, ahroad, 
 I am surrounded still with God." 
 
 3. It teaches us to acquaint ourselves with 
 God, and to be at peace with him. God is 
 not known by abstract definitions, nor even 
 by logical or theological proofs of his exist- 
 ence, such as we have now placed before you. 
 He is known very much as a man knows his 
 friend, by the hourly wants he supplies — by 
 his sympathy in suffering — by the fears which 
 
God. 39 
 
 he relieves — by the temptations which he ena- 
 bles us to surmount. We learn to know God 
 as the infant child learns to know its mother, 
 by realizing his constant presence, and kind- 
 ness, and care. And as we pass on through 
 life, and find in every changing situation, in 
 every reverse, in every trouble, from the light- 
 est sorrow to those which move the soul to 
 its depths, that he is equally present, and that 
 his gracious aid is equally adequate, our faith 
 gradually grows almost into sight, until his 
 existence, love, and care become a reality. 
 It was thus with Paul when he could say, " I 
 know in whom I have believed, and that he 
 will keep that which I have committed unto 
 him." To him, faith in God was the substance 
 of things hoped for and the evidence of things 
 not seen. He walked with God as a man 
 walks with a friend. 
 
 And how elevating the thought of walking 
 with God, and how comforting ! Are you a 
 pilgrim walking in ways often dark ? He is 
 your guide. Acknowledge him in all your 
 ways, and he will direct your steps. Are you 
 in affliction and sorrow ? He is with you 
 amid the deep waters and the fires. Call 
 upon him in the day of trouble, and he will 
 
40 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 not permit the waters to overwhelm you, nor 
 the fires to consume you. Are you tried and 
 tempted ? He is able to succor them that are 
 tempted. Do you think yourself overlooked 
 because of your obscure situation ? The hairs 
 of your head are numbered. Various and 
 changeful may be the scenes of your life, but 
 he makes all things work together for your 
 good. Do you fear death ? He will be with 
 you through the valley and shadow of death. 
 Are you to return to the dust, and to moulder 
 in the grave ? He watches over your dust ; 
 in his book all your members are written ; 
 your flesh shall rest in hope. And walking 
 with God in white will be the substance and 
 the essence of the joys of heaven, and the 
 theme of its unending hallelujahs. 
 
 But how may we acquaint ourselves with 
 God, and be at peace with him ? We may 
 learn much of God from the things which he 
 has made — from the laws and instincts he has 
 given to his creatures — from his providential 
 government of the world ; but all these only 
 exhibit him in part. " No man hath seen God 
 at any time ; the only-begotten Son which is 
 in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared 
 him." We only know God truly as he has 
 revealed himself in the face of Jesus Christ. 
 
God. 41 
 
 Whatever is visible in an object is called its 
 face. Thus we speak of the face of the heav- 
 ens, and of the earth, and of the sea ; and in 
 each of these the glory of God is to be seen. 
 But it is only in the face of Jesus Christ — that 
 is, in his person, his life, his preaching, his 
 miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, atone- 
 ment, ascension, intercession, that the whole 
 Godhead is revealed. When speaking of 
 God in relation to the Gospel, Paul uses the 
 epithet " blessed" with singular propriety : 
 "According to the glorious Gospel of the 
 blessed God." The Gospel is the grand em- 
 anation from the fountain of blessedness. It 
 is the grand overflow of the divine goodness. 
 It is the infinitely holy and blessed God pour- 
 ing forth his happiness upon sinners through 
 Jesus Christ. The result is, that, as God is 
 the great Supreme, he must in all things oc- 
 cupy the supreme place. 
 
 God, then, though unseen, is the great re- 
 ality. He gives us life, and breath, and all 
 things we possess. To him we must give an 
 account of every thought, word, and deed. 
 We can only truly know God by believing on 
 his Son. " No man knoweth the Father but 
 the Son, and he to whom the Son shall re- 
 veal him." 
 
THINGS UNSEEN AND ETERNAL. 
 
 THE SOUL. 
 
 " The first man Adam was made a living soul." 
 
 " 'EyeVero 6 TrpuiTog avdpioirog Aca/j. slg ^v^ijv (waav." — 1 Cor., 
 XV., 45. 
 
 In two discourses on things unseen and 
 eternal, we have already placed before you a 
 future world and the being of a God. These 
 are both unseen to us ; but yet are they great 
 realities, which should influence us far beyond 
 the things which are seen and temporal. This 
 world is but a dot in comparison with the 
 world to come, and the approbation of man is 
 but as the tinkling of a cymbal, or as the mur- 
 muring of a ripple on the shore of the sea, to 
 the approbation of God. But there are other 
 things unseen of infinitely greater importance 
 than the things which are seen, and which are 
 
44 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 ever seeking to give direction to our conduct. 
 And among these is the soul of man. 
 
 When we turn to the record of creation as 
 given us by Moses, we find a very different 
 style of narrative as to the forming of matter, 
 of beasts, and of man. He simply spoke into 
 being the heavens and the earth, the beasts of 
 the earth, the fishes of the sea, and fowl of 
 the air. But man was designed for dominion, 
 and he must be made in the image and like- 
 ness of his Creator. " And the Lord God 
 formed man out of the dust of the ground, 
 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
 life ; and man became a living soul." And 
 in the sense in which Adam possessed, do we 
 all possess a living soul. The body, with all 
 its parts, is visible. We see it. We feel it. 
 The soul is invisible ; but it is not less a real- 
 ity because we do not see it ; no more than is 
 God, because we do not see him ; no more 
 than is the wind, because we do not see it. 
 And while to undertake to prove the exist- 
 ence of the soul seems as unnecessary as to 
 prove the existence of the body, yet is it well 
 to strengthen our faith in things unseen by an 
 occasional review of great principles, until our 
 faith shall be evidence of things not seen. 
 
The Soul. 45 
 
 And in the present discourse we invite your 
 attention to 
 
 The soul and its properties. 
 
 What is the soul ? This is a question that 
 has been variously answered, and especially 
 by those ignorant of the Scriptures or reject- 
 ing its instructions. Some have thought it to 
 be a subtle air composed of atoms. Some 
 have maintained that it was a flame, or a por- 
 tion of heavenly light. Some make thinking 
 the essence of the soul. Some have taught 
 that men are endowed with three kinds of 
 soul — the rational, the sensitive, and the veg- 
 etative ; and, were it not for the light and in- 
 structions of heaven upon this subject, man 
 would become bewildered in the mazes of his 
 speculations. Conscious of the working with- 
 in him of that which no modification of mat- 
 ter could produce — that he was a combina- 
 tion of the spiritual and of the material, of the 
 thinking and the thoughtless — he would seek 
 after the nature of the spirit within him until 
 lost in the profundity of his ignorance, or be- 
 wildered in the heights of his imaginings; 
 ever learning, but never coming to the knowl- 
 edge of the truth. 
 
 From this endless dreaming as to the soul, 
 
46 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 God has mercifully delivered us by the reve- 
 lations of his Word, from which we learn that 
 man was made in the image of God. God 
 made matter, but not in his image, for God is 
 immaterial ; so that man being made in the im- 
 age and likeness of God, must have reference 
 to his spiritual nature — his soul — because it is 
 uncompounded, indivisible, capable of thought 
 and activity, and immortal. So that the soul 
 is the vital, immaterial substance in man 
 whereby he perceives, reasons, remembers, 
 and wills ; and it is rather to be described by 
 its operations than to be defined by its es- 
 sence. We are conscious that it differs from 
 the body and matter. Our body, like that of 
 other animals, is made of the dust. All ma- 
 terial things are made of dust. But, to distin- 
 guish man from all other animals, he was 
 made a living soul. 
 
 Such being the soul, we remark, as to its 
 properties, 
 
 1. That it is a simple substance. The 
 soul is one single agent, and not made up of 
 several parts. In this respect it is like to 
 God and to angels. In this respect it differs 
 from all material substances. These are 
 made up of parts, and dissolve on the separa- 
 
The Soul. 47 
 
 tion of those parts. The soul, because a sim- 
 ple substance, can not be thus separated, and 
 can not therefore perish. We often say that 
 the mind reasons, that the heart feels, that the 
 conscience approves or condemns, that the 
 will decides, as if all these were different 
 parts of the soul. But it is the one indivisi- 
 ble, rational, feeling, moral, self-determining 
 soul that reasons, feels, approves, condemns, 
 or decides. These are the acts of the one 
 agent — the soul ; just as walking, running, ly- 
 ing down, fighting, are acts of the same body. 
 The soul is a simple substance. 
 
 2. The soul is a thinking substance. Think- 
 ing beings are the only beings that are active, 
 that originate changes, that commence opera- 
 tions in reference to future results, that con- 
 trive, invent, and direct unconscious objects 
 to their proper uses. Animals have instincts 
 sometimes approaching reason, but they know 
 not God, nor moral distinctions, and are not 
 the subjects of moral government. What be- 
 ing in this lower world thinks but man ? And 
 that thought inheres in the soul — is of its very 
 nature — is obvious. Atoms do not think. If 
 they do not think separately, neither can they 
 collectively. You may arrange them as you 
 
48 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 may, yet they can not think. You may atten- 
 uate matter — you may subject it to chemical 
 processes — you may form it into the most ex- 
 quisite machinery, yet it will not think. That 
 steamer, that walks over the ocean as a thing 
 of life — that sewing-machine, that seems to ri- 
 val the skill of human fingers — that machinery, 
 which drives a thousand spindles with a reg- 
 ularity which astonishes — that watch, which 
 moves with the regularity of the sun, do not 
 think. The soul of that child, just rising into 
 thoughtfulness, infinitely surpasses them all, 
 because it thinks. It is only the immaterial 
 soul that thinks. 
 
 3. The soul possesses affections. God is a 
 being of infinite affections. He loves the good, 
 he hates the evil. He is the subject of infinite 
 joy in himself. And the soul of man is like 
 him in these respects. In its state of holiness, 
 before darkened and corrupted by sin, it loved 
 the good, it hated the evil, it rejoiced in moral 
 virtue ; and its affections are yet the great 
 springs from which proceed its actions. As 
 the mind loves or hates, rejoices or sorrows, 
 so it acts. Its affections direct its contempla- 
 tions, and give direction to all our pursuits and 
 associations. They form the bond of union 
 
The Soul. 49 
 
 between families, communities, and states. 
 Without affections man would be as a stork, 
 and the world would be a desert. 
 
 4. The soul is immortal. The body and 
 soul of man were originally designed for im- 
 mortality. After the fall, the body was sen- 
 tenced to return to the dust from which it was 
 made, but the soul was left possessed of the 
 never-dying principle with which it was en- 
 dowed. Save by the power which created it, 
 it was incapable of dissolution. But, turning 
 aside from arguments like these to prove the 
 existence and immortality of the soul, let us 
 address ourselves for a moment to your own 
 consciousness. 
 
 You are conscious of the power of reflec- 
 tion. You review the past — you recall at will 
 the acts and scenes of former days — you cause 
 them to pass in review before you — you pass 
 along the various links which form the chain 
 of history until you reach the origin of man — 
 you draw lessons from the great facts and in- 
 cidents which meet you by the way for the 
 guidance of your own course. No animal 
 around you is capable of doing this. The le- 
 viathan of the deep, the monarch of the forest, 
 
 the eagle — the king of birds — know not who 
 
 D 
 
50 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 or what was before them. And what is it in 
 you that enables you to do what these do not ? 
 Your soul. 
 
 You are conscious of the power of inven- 
 tion. All possess it in kind ; some to a re- 
 markable degree. The world is full of its ef- 
 fects. These effects you see in architecture, 
 in sculpture, in painting, in all the mechanic 
 arts. They are such as often to astonish. 
 But what has any mere animal ever invent- 
 ed ? What improvement has the beaver ever 
 made on its original dam ? or the bee in its 
 comb ? or the bird in its nest ? And what is 
 it that enables you to do what these do not ? 
 It is your soul. 
 
 You are conscious of an anxious desire of 
 forecasting the future. And such is our so- 
 licitude upon this matter, and the absurd and 
 wicked conduct to which it is liable to lead 
 us, that we are repeatedly commanded to take 
 no undue thought for to-morrow. How rap- 
 idly, in thought, we pass from the beginning 
 to the end of things ! How often we withhold 
 our hand from an act, fearing its conse- 
 quences ! How often we rush to a future 
 judgment, and decide upon things here in the 
 light of the aspect they will assume there ! 
 
The Soul. 51 
 
 When in present pain, how eagerly we antici- 
 pate future relief! How the joys that are 
 placed before us make us to feel that present 
 afflictions are but for a moment ! And how 
 our souls are cast down within us when clouds 
 and darkness rest upon the future ! No ani- 
 mal around you is capable of exercises like 
 these. Sufficient is the good or evil of each 
 returning day to them. And if the ant builds 
 her store-house in the summer, and fills it with 
 provisions for the winter, it builds it where 
 the tread of a beast may crush it to atoms, 
 or where the descending rains may sweep it 
 away. And what is it in you that enables 
 you to do what these do not ? We again re- 
 ply, it is your soul. 
 
 You are conscious of a desire for happiness 
 which nothing earthly satisfies. Wealth prom- 
 ises happiness ; but, when obtained, it only 
 brings anxious care. Station promises hap- 
 piness ; but it subjects us to the jealousies of 
 others, and withholds what it promised. Sens- 
 ual gratification promises happiness ; but the 
 pleasures of sense are only those which we 
 enjoy in common with the brute. Open to 
 man all the fountains of earthly pleasure — per- 
 mit him to drink freely of them all, and his 
 
52 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 desires for happiness are all unquenched ; yes, 
 more, they are stronger than ever. And why 
 is this ? Oh ! man has a living soul, that was 
 made for God, and that nothing beneath God 
 can fill ; and, until God is its portion, its 
 burning thirst for happiness will remain un- 
 satisfied. 
 
 And this soul is to live forever. Some of 
 the arguments to prove this we have just 
 stated. As it is not material, consisting of 
 parts, it is incapable of dissolution. Its pow- 
 ers are not, and can not be, the result of ma- 
 terial organization. It perceives the present, 
 recalls the past, and anticipates the future. It 
 rises from earth to the study and contempla- 
 tion of the phenomena of nature in the most 
 distant fields of creation. By a process of 
 reasoning, it traces causes to their effects, 
 and effects to their causes ; and, through the 
 works of God, it goes up to the High and 
 Lofty One that inhabits eternity ! It ascer- 
 tains our relations to God and to man, and 
 the various duties growing out of those rela- 
 tions. Is it conceivable that God would kin- 
 dle up such a light within us to burn for a 
 few years, and then quench it forever ? 
 
 And the operations of conscience prove the 
 
The Soul. 53 
 
 endless life of the soul. The mind judges of 
 truth and error — the conscience of right and 
 wrong. The conscience enjoins the right 
 and forbids the wrong, and points to a coming 
 judgment where we shall be judged according 
 to the deeds done in the body. And why this 
 internal monitor, to admonish of future exist- 
 ence, if there is no such existence ? 
 
 What reason thus renders probable, the 
 Scriptures place beyond all doubt, as Jesus 
 Christ has brought life and immortality to 
 light by the Gospel. The Scriptures do not 
 so much prove the immortality of the soul 
 as they take it for granted, and give such in- 
 formation in reference to it as practically to 
 influence the conduct of men. David says, 
 " Into thy hand I commit my spirit ;" and 
 these were the words of the expiring Savior ; 
 and the last words of Stephen were, " Lord 
 Jesus, receive my spirit." What do these, 
 and all such phrases mean, unless the soul 
 lives after its separation from the body ? In 
 describing death, Solomon says, " Then shall 
 the dust return to the dust as it was, and the 
 spirit shall return unto God who gave it." 
 And what does this mean, unless the soul 
 lives after the death of the body ? In the 
 
54 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 parable of Dives and Lazarus, the Savior 
 teaches us that Dives died and went to hell, 
 and that Lazarus died and was carried by 
 angels to Abraham's bosom ; and to the thief 
 on the cross the Savior said, " To-day shalt 
 thou be with me in Paradise." Of course it 
 was his soul that went to Paradise. The Sav- 
 ior says, as to his believing people, "I give 
 unto them eternal life, and they shall never 
 perish, neither shall any pluck them out of 
 my hand ;" and again he says, " I go to pre- 
 pare a place for you ; and if I go, I will come 
 again and receive you to myself, that where I 
 am there ye may be also." And John, in 
 Patmos, on seeing the multitude which no 
 man can number, clothed in white, standing 
 before the throne, asked, Who are these ? And 
 the angel answered, " These are they who 
 have come out of many tribulations — who 
 have washed their robes, and made them white 
 in the blood of the Lamb." 
 
 Such, then, is the soul, and such are its 
 properties, and such are the evidences which 
 prove its immortality. And as the first man, 
 Adam, was made a living soul, so are we all 
 made. A soul more valuable than worlds, 
 bearing upon it the impress of immortality, is 
 
The Soul. 55 
 
 in the possession of us all ; and we can each 
 say, in the sweet words of Montgomery, 
 
 " Time grows not old with length of years — 
 Changes he brings, but changes not : 
 New-born each moment he appears — 
 We run our race, and are forgot. 
 
 " Stars in perennial rounds return, 
 As from eternity they cam e, 
 And to eternity might burn — 
 
 We are not for one hour the same. 
 
 " Spring flowers renew their wild perfume, 
 But ere a second sj)rmg they fly ; 
 For life is longer than their bloom; — 
 Our bloom is sweeter, yet we die. 
 
 " Yet stars, like flowers, have but their day ; 
 And Time, like stars, shall cease to roll ; 
 We have what never can decay — 
 A living and immortal soul." 
 
 With a few of the practical lessons which 
 it teaches we will close this important subject. 
 
 1. It teaches us hoiv illustrious a being is 
 man. Before created by God, this world was 
 fitted up for his residence. It was only when 
 the earth was carpeted with beauty, and the 
 sky spread over it its magnificent curtains, 
 and the sun, moon, and stars were hung up to 
 illumine it by day and by night, that man was 
 ushered into it to be its -tenant and its lord. 
 And how fearfully and wonderfully is he made ! 
 
56 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 He has a body, like the animals that were made 
 for his service and use. This is seen and 
 temporal. This must return to the dust as 
 it was. But, unlike all animals, he has a soul, 
 because immaterial, immortal ! That soul is 
 unseen and eternal. It will live as long as 
 God lives. Well might Paul say, " Thou hast 
 made him but a little lower than the angels ; 
 thou hast clothed him with glory and honor." 
 And, were we disposed to worship any being 
 or thing beneath God, there is nothing out of 
 heaven before which we would sooner bow in 
 homage than before regenerated man, and 
 for the reason that he is in the possession of 
 a living, renewed, immortal soul, destined for 
 an eternal life in heaven. My dear hearers, 
 do we ponder sufficiently our illustrious de- 
 scent, or our eternal destiny ? Our souls are 
 to live forever ! 
 
 2. It teaches the great value of the soul 
 above the body. The body returns to the 
 dust as it was, but the soul must return to the 
 God that gave it. And, on the common prin- 
 ciple that things of the greatest value receive 
 the geatest care, how far beyond our care for 
 the body should be our care for the soul! 
 And yet, alas ! to what a degree is the reverse 
 
The Soul. 57 
 
 of this true ! The fond mother will cradle her 
 infant in clown — will care for her child with 
 sleepless solicitude — will have it educated with 
 all care, and by the best masters her means 
 can afford — will fit it for the stage of life at 
 any expense, and yet will overlook its im- 
 mortal soul ! Are there no such mothers ? 
 The father will rise with the sun of every day, 
 and retire weary to rest at night, and for half 
 a century of years, toiling to accumulate rich- 
 es for himself and family, and yet never spend 
 a day of serious thought as to the future of 
 his own soul, or the souls of those for whom 
 he is laying up earthly treasures ! Are there 
 no such fathers ? Are there not many now 
 under the sound of my voice who daily feed, 
 dress, and garnish the body — who attend to its 
 every want, pain, ache, with the utmost punc- 
 tuality — who will spend any amount of money 
 to repair its diseased functions, and who yet 
 live in the utter neglect of their souls ? Nor 
 can we account for the alarming neglect of 
 the soul, which is so visible on every hand, 
 save on the ground of a latent and wide- 
 spread infidelity as to its existence. And yet 
 that careless, reckless, and, it may be, that pro- 
 fane and degraded man, would be loud in his 
 
58 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 anathemas against our preaching if we taught 
 that man has not a living soul — that he is as 
 the brutes that perish. And yet there is no 
 way of accounting for his conduct save on the 
 ground that he believes that he is no higher 
 than the brutes in the scale of being — that his 
 motto is, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow 
 we die." My hearers, we ask you not to neg- 
 lect the body, but we implore you not to forget 
 the soul, which is to the body as the sun is to 
 the glow-worm. We ask you not to disre- 
 gard the things that are seen and temporal, 
 but we implore you duly to regard the things 
 which are unseen and eternal. 
 
 3. It teaches the value of the salvation of 
 the soul. It is immortal, and has to spend its 
 eternity in heaven or in hell. Hence the val- 
 ue of its salvation. Ought it not to be our 
 first care ? True, we are surrounded by daily 
 cares, and duties, and crosses; but the soul 
 should be our first care ; " for what is a man 
 profited if he should gain the whole world and 
 lose his soul ? or what would a man give in 
 exchange for his soul ?" 
 
 There is a buyer in the market of the world 
 whose name is never in the newspapers, and 
 whose bids are never in the " Prices Current." 
 
The Soul. 59 
 
 Yet is his business extensive and successful. 
 He walks boldly on 'Change ; he glides into 
 the bank and counting-house ; he steps into 
 the workshop ; he goes out upon the farm ; 
 the tavern, the theatre, the ball-room, are the 
 places of his greatest success. He is every 
 where to be found in the pursuit of his own 
 business. But who is he ? He is the buyer 
 of souls. His object is to find out what price 
 each one will take in exchange for his soul. 
 He paid to Judas for his soul only thirty pieces 
 of silver. He has bought some for less ; but 
 for wealth, station, name, fame — for the noisy 
 breath of the fickle multitude, which changes 
 from hosannas to execrations with the chang- 
 ing wind, how many are exchanging their 
 souls ! Yes, for the guilty, transient, unsatis- 
 fying pleasures of an hour, how many around 
 us are bartering away their immortal souls ! 
 
 It is narrated of a certain merchant, engaged 
 in a very profitable business, that he was once 
 deeply moved as to his salvation. A friend 
 set before him the riches of earth and of heav- 
 en. Pausing for some moments, he said, " Give 
 me my portion here." He went on, and accu- 
 mulated a large fortune, and when he was dy- 
 ing he said to the same friend, " I have gained 
 the world, but I have lost my soul." 
 
THINGS UNSEEN AND ETEENAL. 
 
 INTERMEDIATE STATE. 
 
 " Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the 
 spirit shall return unto God who gave it." — JEJcclesiastes, xii., V. 
 
 Man is fearfully and wonderfully made. 
 He was formed last of all the creatures of 
 God, as the master-piece of the Creator. He 
 is a compendium of the creation — a little world 
 in miniature — uniting in himself something of 
 the vegetable, the animal, and the rational. 
 His main constituent and essential elements 
 are two — the body, and the soul or spirit. 
 The one was made out of the dust ; it is ma- 
 terial and visible. Never was there made 
 such a perfect, beautiful piece of machinery, 
 with each part so exactly adapted to every 
 other. The other part, the soul or spirit, was 
 breathed into it. It is spiritual and invisible. 
 It is not an accident of matter, nor a quality 
 
62 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 inherent in it. It lives out of the body, and, 
 perhaps, better than in it. It is a spiritual 
 substance, immaterial and immortal. 
 
 In the present life, this body and spirit are 
 mysteriously united together. The body is 
 to the soul as is the case to the clock — as is 
 the instrument to the agent. What disposi- 
 tion God would have made of man had he 
 never sinned we know not. As this planet 
 could not contain all the successive genera- 
 tions of Adam, he would not continue him 
 here. But hoiv, or ichere would he remove 
 him ? This we may not know ; but it would 
 not be by death, for death is a penal evil. Nor 
 would the body and spirit be separated as 
 now — the body, without the soul, to return to 
 the earth as it was, and the soul, without the 
 body, to return to the God that gave it. 
 
 But sin has entered into the world, and 
 death by sin; and all die, because all have 
 sinned. And when the silver cord is loosed, 
 and the golden bowl is broken — that is, when 
 death occurs — then the body returns to the 
 dust as it was, and the spirit returns to God 
 who gave it. And this is the universal law 
 as to our humanity. 
 
 Take any one of the multitude of cases that 
 
Intermediate State. 63 
 
 are evermore taking place. There is a par- 
 ent watching by the bed of a dying child. 
 Slow, but certain, is the progress of disease. 
 Life is driven from one fortress to another 
 until it is made to surrender. And the change 
 it makes is at once affecting and appalling. 
 However familiar with it, death always in- 
 duces solemnity and reflection. The body is 
 taken to the grave, and the mourners go about 
 the streets. This is all seen and temporal. 
 But where does the soul go ? This is the 
 question which nature and religion alike sug- 
 gest. 
 
 We have already, in our present series of 
 discourses on things unseen and eternal, 
 placed before you a future world, the being 
 of a God, and the immortality of the soul. 
 And our object in the present discourse is to 
 discuss before you, 
 
 The state of the soul between death 
 and the resurrection. 
 
 Whether this is a subject more theoretical 
 than practical, we can better decide at the close 
 of the discussion than now. It is a subject in 
 which we all have the deepest interest, as we 
 all have friends who have passed through the 
 gates of death, and as we have each soon 
 
64 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 to pass through them for ourselves. Where, 
 then, does the soul go at death ? This ques- 
 tion opens up our whole subject, and has re- 
 ceived different answers more or less remote 
 from the truth. As we have already proved 
 the immortality of the soul, we have nothing 
 now to do save with those who believe in its 
 future existence. 
 
 1. Sortie tell us that at death the soul goes 
 to an intermediate state, there to await the 
 resurrection and the judgment. This theory 
 is founded on a criticism on the terms used 
 to express the state o.f the soul after death. 
 One of these terms is " Hades" («<^e). This 
 is the term used in these and other passages : 
 " The gates of hell shall not prevail against 
 it" (Matt., xvi., 18). " In hell he lifted up his 
 eyes, being in torments" (Luke, xvi., 23). 
 " Thou wilt not leave my soul in helV (Acts, 
 ii., 27). "O grave, where is thy victory?" 
 (1 Cor., xv., 55). Another of these terms is 
 "Abrahams bosom' (koXttoc "Afipaaju). "And 
 it came to pass that the beggar died, and was 
 carried by angels into Abraham's bosom" 
 (Luke, xvi., 23). Another of these terms is 
 " heaven' (ovpavog), and the one most frequent- 
 ly used ; as, " Our Father, who art in heaven" 
 
Intermediate State. 65 
 
 (Matt, vi., 9). "Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven' 
 (Matt., v., 3). " Rejoice, and be exceeding 
 glad, for great is your reward in heaven' 
 (v., 12). Another of these terms is Paradise 
 (napaSuaog). " This day," said Jesus to the 
 dying malefactor — the penitent thief — " this 
 day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" 
 (Luke, xxiii., 43). Another of these terms is 
 " Tartarus" (Taprapog). " For, if God spared 
 not the angels that sinned, but cast them 
 down to hell" (2 Pet., ii., 4). And another 
 of these terms is " Gehenna." " But whoso- 
 ever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, shall 
 be in danger of hell fire" (Matt, v., 22). " For 
 it is profitable for thee that one of thy mem- 
 bers should perish, and not that thy whole 
 body should be cast into hell" (Matt., v., 29). 
 These, then, are the words and phrases used 
 in the New Testament to represent the state 
 into which the soul passes at death : they 
 are Hades, Abraham's bosom, Heaven, Para- 
 dise, Tartarus, Gehenna. They are all applied 
 to the invisible state, into which the soul en- 
 ters at death. That state is represented as 
 two provinces divided by a great gulf; that 
 on the one side is called " Abraham's bosom," 
 
 E 
 
66 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 " Heaven," " Paradise ;" that on the other is 
 called " Hades," " Tartarus," " Gehenna." In 
 these provinces the souls of the good and of 
 the bad are retained until the resurrection and 
 the final judgment ; then the good enter Heav- 
 en, and the bad Hell, properly so called. This 
 is, in brief, the doctrine of an intermediate 
 state, as held by many Protestants and di- 
 vines. 
 
 But, while this theory admits the immor- 
 tality of the soul, conscious existence after 
 death, and experience of happiness and mis- 
 ery — while it falls in with the general belief 
 that rewards and punishments will not be 
 consummated until after the resurrection and 
 the judgment, yet must we reject it as a the- 
 ory which has nothing to sustain it but a 
 doubtful criticism, which only scholars can 
 fully understand, and the wresting of a few 
 words from their figurative to a literal mean- 
 ing. This doctrine of an intermediate state 
 rests upon a vapor, is utterly unsatisfactory 
 to the thoughtful mind, and is opposed, as we 
 shall soon show, to some of the plainest 
 teachings of the Scriptures. We therefore 
 dismiss it as unworthy of credence. 
 
 2. Another theory as to the state of the soul 
 
Intermediate State. 67 
 
 between death and the resurrection is that it 
 lies in an unconscious state. But this is in 
 opposition to all our notions as to spirit, which 
 is a living, thinking, active subsistence, capa- 
 ble of life and activity without a body as with 
 a body. God has neither body nor parts, and 
 he is ever active. So is it as to angels. And 
 the separation of the soul from the body would 
 seem rather to quicken its energies than to 
 reduce it to insensibility. Is it not a fact that, 
 the more active the mind, the less we think of 
 the body ? As pent-up fires burn the bright- 
 er when relieved from the earth or ashes un- 
 der which they smoulder, so the soul, when 
 it leaves its clay tabernacle, is the more free 
 to exert its natural energies. 
 
 But the advocates of this theory oppose all 
 these reasonings with scriptures, which seem 
 to intimate that the soul at death falls into a 
 state of unconsciousness. Thus David says, 
 " Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the 
 Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee" (Ps. 
 cxvi., 7). Again he says, " The dead praise 
 not the Lord, neither any that go down into 
 silence" (Ps. cxv., 17). And again he says, 
 " Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the 
 grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction ? 
 
68 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark, 
 and thy righteousness in the land of forget- 
 fulness ?" (Ps. lxxxviii., 11, 12). And so, also, 
 death is represented as a sleep. Thus Jesus 
 said, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go 
 that I may wake him out of his sleep." It is 
 said of Stephen, when he died, that " he fell 
 asleep." And, speaking of the resurrection, 
 Paul says (1 Thess., iv., 14), " For if we be- 
 lieve that Jesus died and rose again, even so 
 them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring 
 with him." It is upon these and similar texts 
 that such men as Whately base the theory 
 of an unconscious state of the soul between 
 death and the resurrection. 
 
 Now to us it is very obvious that these and 
 all similar passages are figurative and meta- 
 phorical, and must be so explained. All that 
 David meant is that the dead can not any 
 longer praise God in this world — that the won- 
 ders of his providence can not be known by 
 the sleepers in the tomb — that only the living 
 can take any part in advancing the glory 
 of God here. And the dead are said to 
 be asleep, because of the remarkable resem- 
 blance between death and sleep. This theo- 
 ry also we dismiss as unworthy of credence. 
 
Intermediate State. 69 
 
 3. There is yet another theory as to the 
 state of departed souls. It is that of the 
 Church of Rome, which is not worthy of se- 
 rious argument to disprove it. It teaches 
 that, as none die perfectly holy, all must pass 
 through the fires of Purgatory in order to be 
 prepared for heaven. This is not a doctrine 
 of the Bible. It is borrowed from the sixth 
 book of Virgil's iEneid, where an account is 
 given of the processes through which souls 
 must go in order to be prepared for the Elys- 
 ian Fields. As we are dealing with Chris- 
 tian, and not heathen theories, we can afford 
 to lay this aside as unworthy of farther no- 
 tice. To talk of a soul being purified by fire 
 is at once to render it material and destructi- 
 ble. Purgatory is not only untrue as a theo- 
 ry, but it is a physical impossibility. 
 
 To the question, Where does the soul go 
 at death ? we answer, 
 
 4. It returns to the God who gave it. At 
 death, the body becomes cold and corruptible ; 
 it is soon conveyed to the grave, where it re- 
 turns to the dust as it was. The soul goes 
 immediately to the presence of its God. If 
 prepared for blessedness, it will enter upon 
 its destined happiness without pause, suspen- 
 
70 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 sion, or intermediate preparation. If not pre- 
 pared, without any respite or reprieve it will 
 enter upon its destined misery. No dreamy 
 slumber, no drowsy torpor, will seal up the 
 faculties of the soul; it knows no state of hy- 
 bernation until spring shall revisit the grave 
 in which the body lies mourning ; it goes im- 
 mediately to God, to receive from him, as 
 judge, according to the deeds done in the 
 body. And of all this we think we have 
 abundant scriptural proof. 
 
 Take your stand by the bier of Lazarus, 
 who, although a child of God, seems deserted 
 of heaven and of earth. He dies, and his soul 
 is carried " by angels into Abraham's bosom," 
 which is but a figurative name for heaven. 
 Dives, at whose gate he was laid, in vain, for 
 alms, also died, and was buried ; and the next 
 we read of him is " that in hell he lifted up 
 his eyes, being in torments." We admit that 
 the Gospel narrative as to these is a parable ; 
 we also admit that we can not give to its fig- 
 urative language a literal interpretation ; but 
 then its great central truth is that Lazarus 
 went immediately to a state of ineffable bliss, 
 and Dives to a state of unspeakable misery. 
 And this is the doctrine we believe. 
 
Intermediate State. 71 
 
 Take your stand, again, before those three 
 crosses, on the centre one of which hung the 
 expiring Son of God. One of the thieves re- 
 lented, repented, and, lifting up his voice amid 
 the agitations and the convulsions of nature, 
 cried to the Savior, " Lord, remember me 
 when thou comest into thy kingdom." It was 
 a cry for mercy amid those agonies which 
 were loosing the silver cord and breaking the 
 golden bowl. And what was the reply of the 
 Savior ? " Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt 
 thou be with me in Paradise" — which is, again, 
 but a figurative name for heaven. What mean 
 these words, spoken under such solemn cir- 
 cumstances ? That they would go into some 
 intermediate state called Paradise ? No. That 
 they would go together into some dreamy 
 elysium, some comatose state — he to awake 
 after three days, on the resurrection of his 
 body, and the penitent man to remain in that 
 state till the resurrection of his body ? Be- 
 lieve this who can. Christ just meant what 
 he said : To-day — this very day shalt thou be 
 with me in heaven, to share with me its joys 
 and its repose. And thus the souls of all 
 dying in the faith go to be with Jesus in Par- 
 adise. This is the doctrine we believe. 
 
72 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 While these passages are sufficient to 
 prove the doctrine that the soul at death re- 
 turns to the God that gave it — that the souls 
 of believers, at death, do immediately pass 
 into glory, there are many other passages 
 bearing on the same doctrine to which we 
 will briefly advert. The prayer of Stephen 
 was, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Is it 
 not plain that he felt and believed that his 
 soul would immediately pass into the presence 
 of his Savior ? Paul says (2 Cor., v., 1), " For 
 we know that if our earthly house of this tab- 
 ernacle were dissolved, we have a building of 
 God, a house not made with hands, eternal in 
 the heavens." Now what does this mean un- 
 less at death we pass from the earthly to the 
 heavenly house ? And what does he mean 
 when he says (Phil., i., 23), " For I am in a 
 strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart 
 and to be with Christ, which is far better?" 
 Did he not obviously believe that at death 
 he would immediately pass into the presence 
 of Christ ? And what does he mean when 
 he says (2 Cor., v., 6, 8), " We are confident, 
 knowing that while we are at home in the 
 body we are absent from the Lord : we are 
 confident, I say, and are willing rather to be 
 
Intermediate State. 73 
 
 absent from the body and to be present with 
 the Lord ?" Is it possible for language to 
 express in a clearer manner the immediate 
 transition of the soul from the body into the 
 presence of Christ ? What detains it from 
 his presence is its continuance in the body ; 
 what introduces it into his presence is its de- 
 parture from the body ; and without any in- 
 terval, as our admirable Catechism says, " the 
 souls of believers, at their death, are made 
 perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass 
 into glory." So that the doctrine of an inter- 
 mediate state is a fiction, as is also the doc- 
 trine of Purgatory, and the repose of the soul 
 in unconsciousness until the morning of the 
 resurrection. 
 
 Yet is it true that when the body and soul, 
 at the resurrection, shall be reunited, their 
 capacity for joy or suffering will be greatly 
 increased. Nor will the bliss of heaven be 
 full and perfect until it is enjoyed by soul and 
 body united, nor will the punishment of ever- 
 lasting banishment from God be felt to the 
 full until it falls upon those who only rise 
 from the grave to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt. 
 
 Such being what we consider the true 
 
74 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 teachings of the Scriptures and of the Church 
 as to the state of the soul between death and 
 the resurrection, it only remains for us to 
 place before you a few of the many important 
 lessons which it teaches. 
 
 1. It settles the destination of the soul at 
 death. And this can not be a matter of curi- 
 ous speculation to any of us. On the con- 
 trary, how often has it been to us all a sub- 
 ject of the most anxious inquiry ! When the 
 heart has beat its last pulsation, and we have 
 closed the eyes of a dear friend in death, how 
 often has the question arisen, Oh that I knew 
 where his soul has gone ! And, as we have 
 returned from the grave where we have laid the 
 body to sleep, how deeply the question often 
 presses upon the heart, Where is the soul now ? 
 The body, in its winding-sheet, sleeps in the 
 grave, but is the soul asleep also ? Whether 
 our dead remember us as we remember them, 
 we know not ; whether they see us, and watch 
 over us, and minister to us, we may not know ; 
 but we do know that they live — that they live 
 with God or away from God, according to the 
 character they bore with them into eternity. 
 Away, then, with the dreary, skeptical philoso- 
 phy which would wrap up the soul in the same 
 
Intermediate State. 75 
 
 winding-sheet with the body, and which would 
 consign it to sleep with the body until the 
 resurrection ! It is equally at war with the 
 teachings of the Scriptures, and with the natu- 
 ral longings of every human soul. At death, 
 the soul, without a moment's stay, returns to 
 the God that gave it. 
 
 Death, we reason, instead of weakening, 
 vastly increases the perceptive powers of the 
 soul. It is freed from this body of sin and 
 death which encumbers it as does a weight 
 the eagle that seeks to soar to the sun. As 
 death closes the eyes of the body, it opens 
 those of the soul ; so that one hour after death 
 discovers the errors of many ages. We are 
 here like men clambering up a mountain in a 
 dense fog ; when they reach the summit the 
 fog suddenly passes away, and the entire land- 
 scape lies sun-gilt before them. So, when the 
 soul at death returns to God, we shall see as 
 we are seen, and know as we are known. 
 
 2. It comforts the Christian in the antici- 
 pation of death. Death is the leviathan which 
 all fear. It is not in human nature to regard 
 it other than an enemy. We stand over the 
 bed of a dying friend. The quivering lip — 
 the contracted brow — the laboring breath, 
 
76 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 prove that physical pain accompanies death. 
 But what the struggling soul then feels we 
 can only guess. They have been long united, 
 and the separation of those long united gives 
 pain. Sometimes the pain of dying is beyond 
 description, and hence death is so universal- 
 ly regarded as an enemy. But this can be 
 all calmly and joyfully borne when we know 
 that the soul, when released from the body, 
 goes directly to God who gave it. Hear the 
 Savior say to the penitent thief, " To-day shalt 
 thou be with me in Paradise." Hear Stephen 
 say, " Lord, into thy hands I commit my spir- 
 it." See the soul of Lazarus, the moment it 
 quit its dilapidated tenement, conveyed by an- 
 gels to Abraham's bosom. And thus it shall 
 be with all the saints. To the person pre- 
 pared for the event, like Lazarus, death comes 
 only to lift up the veil of the flesh from the 
 soul, and to introduce it at once to the glories 
 and the happiness of heaven. I have stood 
 at the death-bed of many a dying saint, and it 
 seemed to me that, had I but another sense, 
 I could see the soul taking its departure from 
 the body, like a bird of Paradise freed from 
 its confinement, and going directly to heaven 
 to the God who gave it. And why is it that, 
 
Intermediate State. 77 
 
 as believers, we can not more fully realize all 
 this, and feel less fear of death, which is but 
 the short passage-way to glory ? Alas ! we 
 are influenced more by the things which are 
 seen and temporal than by those which are 
 unseen and eternal. 
 
 3. It should alarm the sinner in the antici- 
 pation of death. If Lazarus went to heaven 
 at death, so Dives went to hell. The passage 
 to the one place was just as short and as cer- 
 tain as to the other. There is no interme- 
 diate state — no Purgatory — no chamber of 
 sleep till the resurrection — no annihilation for 
 the wicked ! Their souls, at death, go directly 
 to God as judge. Unclothed, in their naked- 
 ness, they shall stand before him to be exam- 
 ined, scanned, pierced through, and through, 
 and through by his all-searching eye. And 
 then they will be consigned to everlasting 
 punishment prepared for the devil and his an- 
 gels ! And how important to be prepared for 
 the event which must happen to all, and which 
 at any hour may happen to any of us ! 
 
 What a change the first hour in the spirit- 
 world will make in the opinions of men ! Here 
 all things are mixed up together, so that it is 
 difficult often to discern between the righteous 
 
78 Things Unseen and Eternal. 
 
 and the wicked. They seem equally to hope ; 
 but the hopes of the righteous are confirmed, 
 and the hopes of the wicked are confounded ! 
 When death comes, " then shall the dust re- 
 turn to the dust as it was, and the spirit shall 
 return unto God who gave it." 
 
THINGS UNSEEN AND ETERNAL. 
 
 RESURRECTION. 
 
 " How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they 
 come ?" 
 
 " Hug tyeipovrai oi vucpoi ; iroia) Ze aujfiaTi ep^pvrai ;" — 1 Cor. 
 XV., 35.