lug hope remaina with us oiilv a« a pathetic memory. No, 

 this compelling hope of immortality, to be seciire, must 

 have a more stable foundation than a pious feeling. It 

 must rear its spire, running up\^'ard into the eternal sky, 

 on a foundation in M'hicli feeling is reinforced by intelli- 

 gence. 



Let us then tost the reasonableness of the hope by set- 

 ting it over against its negation. Either the human fam.- 

 ily i& immortal or it is not. Which of the two hypotheses 

 is the more reasonable : that is, more in accordance with 

 mo/a's deepest and truest instincts? See first what is in- 

 volved in the denial of immortality. Assume that' a time 

 will come when the human family has ceased to' be. Our 

 hopes and fears, our failures and successes, and our efforts 

 after a higher civilization will ha,ve come to — nothingness. 

 Is it reasonable to suppose that these self-sacrificing 

 efforts are without any intelligible end? Is the end of 

 man's labor under the sun to- be lured, by these high visions 

 of eternal service, to the brink of the precipice of extinc- 

 tion, and suddenly to fall down into the sullen waters 

 of oblivion? If such is the end of humanilj^ what must we 

 think of its creator? On this assumption human lif© on 

 thi(3 side of death is meaningless. On the other hand, as- 

 sume that the entire human family is here undergoing a 

 training for the etenial career in another province of the 

 eternal, and life here is rcaecnable and full of meaning. 



The-r© is thus in the passengers on the ship of humanity, 

 as it forges ahead on the unknown sea, the lively and rea- 

 sonable hope that it will not drift beyond the love and care 

 of Him who rules the waves, and that it will reach the 

 latitude where 



"His islands lift their fronded polnis in air." 



At the close of the lecture a hearty A-otc of thanks \A-as 

 tendered the Eev. Mr. IMorton. 



Several gentlemen spoke: at length m review and in 

 appreciation. 



The meeting then adjourned, 



12.^ 



