confirm ifc? My time permits me only to suggest an answer. 



The science of man, yet in its infancy, has made it 

 clear that human life on earth has been, as we have seen, 

 an intelligible, progressive development. From the time 

 when each tribe was the enemy of every other tribe to the 

 present age in which all enlightened peoples acknowl- 

 edge all other peoples as having a common origin, living 

 a common life, and looking with millions of eager and long- 

 ing eyes into a common destiny. The race is gathering 

 round the hearth of "humanity^" This growing brother- 

 hood, it would appear, has in its heart the ideal potency, 

 and therefore the prophecy of infinite grov/th. And this 

 being so it i& reasonable to assume that the means of ful- 

 filment will not be absent. 



Man thinks he was not made to die. 

 And Thou hast made him, Thou art just." 



The hope of the continuance of life after the dissolu- 

 tion of the body i© of keener interest than appears, for 

 though often spoken of the speech rarely comes from the 

 deeps. In the heart of us we cannot escape it. It springs 

 up in us unbidden in the presence of man's mortality; and, 

 W'hen we miss from his usual haunts a life-long companion, 

 we ask ourselves — for as a rule it is an inner monologue — 

 is he alive? Does he know himself as the same person 

 who, on this side of death, played with the boj's on a cer- 

 tain playground; who loved, married, brought up his family, 

 and did his part as a man of business, a neighbor, and a 

 citizen? Now, if this hope were not crowned in experience 

 it would long agO' have ceased to sway its sceptre over the 

 human heart. The persistent hope of immortality seems to 

 suggest that human life needs, it for completion, and can- 

 not fulfil itself without it. 



But hope to have validity must be supported by rea- 

 son. Our feelings alone unsupported by reason give us no 

 final assurance. Feelings are often no more enduring than 

 houses of sand built on the shore and swept away by the 

 next high tide. Many a cherished wish and forward gleam- 



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