PROOFS FROM DIVINE REVELATION. 



57 



OS THE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE WHICH THB 

 DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE STATE OUGHT TO 

 HAVE UPON OUR AFFECTIONS AND CON- 

 UTTCT. 



When we look around us on tne busy scene of 

 numan life, and especially when we contemplate 

 the bustle and pageantry which appear in a 

 populous city, we can scarcely help concluding, 

 that the great majority of human beings that 

 pass in review before us, are acting as if the 

 present world were their everlasting abode, and 

 as if they had no relation to an invisible state of 

 existence. To indulge in sensual gratifications, 

 to acquire power, wealth and fame, to gratify 

 vanity, ambition and pride, to arnuse themselves 

 with pictures of fancy, with fantastic exhibitions, 

 theatrical scenes and vain shows,and to endeavour 

 to banish every thought of death and eternity 

 from the mind, appear to be in their view the 

 great and ultimate ends of existence. This is 

 the case, not merely of those who openly avow 

 themselves &quot; men of the world,&quot; and call in 

 question the reality of a future existence ; but 

 also of thousands who regularly frequent our 

 worshipping assemblies, and profess their belief 

 in the realities of an eternal state. They listen 

 to the doctrines of eternal life, and of future 

 punishment, without attempting to question 

 either their reality or their importance, but as 

 soon as they retire from &quot; the place of the 

 holy,&quot; and mingle in the social circle, and the 

 bustle of business, every impression of invisible 

 realities evanishes from their minds, as if it had 

 been merely a dream or a vision of the night. 

 To cultivate the intellectual faculties, to aspire 

 after moral excellence, to devote the active 

 powers to the glory of the Creator, and the bene 

 fit of mankind ; to live as strangers and pilgrims 

 upon earth, to consider the glories of this world 

 as a transient scene that will soon pass away, 

 and to keep the eye constantly fixed on the reali 

 ties of an immortal life are characteristics of 

 only a comparatively small number of indivi 

 duals scattered amidst the swarming population 

 around us&amp;gt; who are frequently regarded by their 

 fellows as a mean-spirited and ignoble race of 

 beings. Though death is making daily havoc 

 around them, though their friends and relatives 

 are, year after year, dropping into the grave, 

 though poets and orators, princes and philoso 

 phers, statesmen and stage-players, are continu 

 ally disappearing from the living world ; though 

 sickness and disease are raging around and lay 

 ing their victims of every age prostrate in the 

 dust, and though they frequently walk over 

 Ihe solemn recesses of the burying ground, and 

 tread upon the ashes of &quot;the mighty man, and 

 the man of war, the judge and the ancient, the 

 cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator,&quot; yet 

 they prosecute the path of dissipation and vanity 

 with as much keenness and resolution, as if 

 8 



every thing around them were unchangeaoie, apd 

 as if their present enjoyments were to last 

 for ever. 



If this representation be founded on fact, we 

 may assuredly conclude, that the great bulk of 

 mankind have no fixed belief of the reality of a 

 future world, and that more than the one half of 

 those who profess an attachment to religion, are 

 as little influenced in their general conduct by 

 this solemn consideration, as if it were a matter 

 of mere fancy, or of&quot; doubtful disputation.&quot; Il 

 is somewhat strange, and even paradoxical, that, 

 amidst the never-ceasing changes which are 

 taking place among the living beings around us, 

 men should so seldom look beyond the grave to 

 which they are all advancing, and so seldom 

 make inquiries into the certainty and the nature 

 of that state into which the tide of time has car 

 ried all the former generations of mankind. If 

 a young man were made fully assured that, at 

 the end of two years, he should obtain the sove 

 reignty of a fertile island in the Indian ocean, 

 where he should enjoy every earthly pleasure his 

 heart could desire, his soul would naturally 

 bound at the prospect, he would search his maps 

 to ascertain the precise position of his future 

 residence, he would make inquiries respecting it 

 at those travellers who had either visited the 

 spot or passed near its confines ; he would pe 

 ruse with avidity the descriptions which geogra 

 phers have given of its natural scenery, its soil 

 and climate, its productions and inhabitants; and, 

 before his departure, he would be careful to pro 

 vide every thing that might be requisite for his 

 future enjoyment. If a person, when setting out 

 on a journey which he was obliged to under 

 take, were informed that his road lay through a 

 dangerous territory, where he should be exposed, 

 on the one hand, to the risk of falling headlong 

 into unfathomable gulfs, and, on the other, to the 

 attacks of merciless savages, he would walk 

 with caution, he would look around him at every 

 step, and he would welcome with gratitude any 

 friendlv guide that would direct his steps to the 

 place of his destination. But, in relation to a fu 

 ture and invisible world, there exist, in the minds 

 of the bulk of mankind, a most unaccountable 

 apathy and indifference ; and net only an indif 

 ference, but, in many instances, a determined 

 resolution not to listen to any thing that may be 

 said respecting it. To broach the subject of im 

 mortality, in certain convivial circles, would be 

 considered as approaching to an insult ; and the 

 person who had the hardihood to do so, wouid 

 be regarded as a rude, sanctimonious intruder 

 How unaccountably foolish and preposterous is 

 such a conduct ! especially when we consider, 

 that those very persons who seem to be entirely 

 regardless whether they shall sink into the gulf 

 of annihilation, or into the regions of endlesg 

 perdition, will pass whole days and nights ic 

 chagrin and despair for the loss of some employ- 



