WHAT diligence should we give to cultivate the principles of uprightness !—To be upright, is to obey the will of God, and to consult our own interest. If then, we have any regard, either to the will of God, or to our own interest, we must be instant prayer for grace to enable us to fulfil, with fidelity, all the duties of life. May wein simplicity, and godly sincerity,

in

not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace ' of God, have our conversation in the world.'-May we never debase ourselves with what is mean, nor defile ourselves with what is corrupt in the present state. In midst of all the business, allurements, and temptations of the world, may we regulate our conduct, as becomes the heirs of a divine inheritance. O let us never weary in well-doing. Behold,'-(saith 'the 'faithful and true Witness,')' I come quickly, and reward is with me, to give every man according as his work ⚫ shall be.'*-Let then, each comfort himself: let us all endeavour to comfort one another; with these words, The upright • shall have dominion in the morning.'

my

* Rev. xxii, 12.

Q2

THE

EVIDENCES OF A FUTURE STATE.

ECCLES. xii, 7.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

WHETHER the present life be the whole of our existence: whether when this frail body is dissolved there be a spirit within which survives it, and returns at dissolution to God who gave it, is one of the most important inquiries that can occupy the human mind. It is no less an inquiry than whether we be the kindred of brutal or celestial natures: whether we be doomed to final destruction, or to the vast inheritance of immortal being.-The infidel renounces his hopes of immortality, and-unnatural

man! courts the gulf of annihilation. He consents to part with existence; he believes that he shall return to the earth, (nay wishes that he may return), like the brutes that perish. What a faith!—What a wish this! A gloomy faith which desperate guilt only inspires.-A monstrous wish ' unborn till virtue dies.'-And as such horrid characters were never more numerous than they are now, we should feel more than ordinarily zealous to expose their folly to vindicate the government of God, and to contend for the dignity of man. We may thus be useful in suppressing the growth of infidelity in others, and become more rooted and grounded in the faith ourselves. And we can never be too much so. The doctrines of religion, and particularly the doctrine of immortality, is of infinite importance, and therefore we can never too carefully examine; too fully possess the whole sum of its evidence. Now have we carefully examined are we in full possession of all this evidence?— Can we stop the mouths of gainsayers?— Can we, (as we are required by the Scriptures), render a reason for the hope that is in us? Certainly this is not the case

with all of us. Would that it were with even the majority! But that it may be the case as much as possible: that we may understand what we profess to believe in: that our future prospects may have a stable foundation to rest upon, let us attend to the following reflections.-We say that the present is not the whole of our existence, and that after death we are destined for immortal existence. But the unbeliever

denies this: he says that the present is the whole of us, and that after death we have done with existence. Now in opposition to him; in attempting to shew the futility, the absurdity of his reasoning, we maintain,

FIRST, that we are naturally capable of future existence;

SECONDLY, that we have no reason from the mere circumstance of death to conclude against our future existence;

AND, THIRDLY, that we can give positive proofs of our future existence.

FIRST, we are naturally capable of future

existence. Our nature consists of two parts, body and mind. These two terms comprehend all the natures in the universe. We know nothing of either but by their qualities: and were their qualities radically the same, we should conclude that the subjects to which they belong were the same likewise; and should not perhaps distinguish them by different names.-But their qualities are radically and essentially different, and therefore we conclude that the subjects also to which they belong must be radically and essentially different. We know nothing of matter, if it be not something which is of itself wholly inactive; which has length and breadth; which is the object of the external senses, and may be divided into parts. Mind, again, is something that feels, thinks, acts, loves, hates, chooses, refuses, reflects, imagines, reasons, all which qualities seem quite inconsistent with those which we ascribe to matter. Mind, therefore, the subject of these qualities, being thus different from matter, must not only be imperceptible to the external senses, but likewise be incapable of being divided into parts; and being indivisible, it must naturally be in