190 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



into a state of non-existence, and though my mouldering 

 remains may raise horror in the breasts of the living, the 

 vacuum which once existed shall not sympathize with 

 them. But that the soul is immortal, if it be the same 

 wise God that created the heavens and earth who formed 

 man, I must believe ; and if that soul, after it has 

 departed from its fleshly nook, is to be punished or re- 

 warded according to the deeds done in the body this I 

 also must and shall believe ; then death becomes not the 

 herald of rest but the messenger of judgment. Thus far 

 unassisted reason can go. Socrates went still further, for, 

 when other philosophers were raving of an absurd because 

 unattainable virtue, by the possession of which men were 

 to be made happy both in this world and the next, he 

 taught of the evil that dwelleth in the human heart, and 

 of the help which cometh from God. But it is to the 

 pages of Revelation we must turn, if it be our desire to 

 learn with certainty how to prepare for death by making 

 the Judge our friend. 



' You have often urged me with a friendly zeal both in 

 speech and by writing to forsake sin and turn to God. 

 Your letters and conversations have had an effect I wish 

 I could add, the desired one. I give some of my time to 

 the study of the Scriptures, and have become perhaps 

 nearly as well acquainted as the mere theorist can be with 

 the scheme of redemption. Nay more, I pray. But the 

 day-beam has not yet, I am afraid, dawned upon me 

 the light vouchsafed is not a clear and steady one like the 

 beam of the morning ; it is rather like the reflection of 

 lightning in a dark night a momentary glimpse suc- 

 ceeded by an hour of gloom. My prevailing disposition 

 is evil, and though I have oftener than once experienced 

 a feeling strange indeed to the human heart a feeling 

 of love to God, the cares of the world and the allure- 



