above all, his spiritual loves, and especially his love of his Creator, may increase to an inconceivably higher and purer degree than he can experience on earth, so that the soul shall progress ever and ever onward in greater development of all its qualities and faculties within the limits of the special organisation assigned to it by its Creator, and to constantly increasing love and happiness, knowledge, wisdom, and beauty, if it loves and obeys God and His divine laws; but, on the other hand, to restricted power and diminished happiness, if it neglects and disobeys Him and His laws. In the first case, progressing perpetually towards a more ethereal body, a purer spirit, a more beautiful form, and lovelier features, to a life of perfect happiness and bliss, bright with the light and warm with the sunshine of God's ever-closer presence-a life of uses and of love, full of concord, harmony, and perfect freedom; or, in the other case, falling into deeper and deeper degradation, assuming a body more and more dense and grossly material, more ugly and more deformed, more diseased, more revolting in feature as it sinks lower and lower, and goes further astray from the blessed presence of God into darkness, the ever-thickening darkness of hell, where are hatred, contention, strife, perpetual discord, and slavery.

It is not desirable, however, nor do we think it good, that any man should engage himself overmuch on meditations as to the future state; he has assuredly enough to do with his life on this earth; enough evil to overcome in himself, enough good to do unto others. The common sense of mankind gives its verdict in favour of those who perform diligently, with the fear of God before their eyes, and with the love of God in their hearts, those daily duties which may seem commonplace and even ignoble, but which are good for the man himself-serviceable to his fellow-creatures-and most acceptable to the Divine Disposer and Ruler of us all. Be sure, God has placed you on earth to do, first of all, the work which is set before you, and to do it under Him with all your heart and soul, in all cheerfulness of spirit, whatever your task may be.

Let it be an article of faith, in which no misdoubt shall arise, that you are an immortal spirit, though clad on earth in those fleshly garments "which from the womb

you did participate ;" and when the hour of your departure comes, confide your soul with joy and thanksgiving into the charge of Him who made it, to do with it as seemeth good unto Him, and with your last breath say, "Lord, I commend my spirit unto Thee; into Thy hands do I commit my soul. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

The creed of the Universal Church is, that

1. The soul of man is, by virtue of its origin,
immortal.

2. The body of man is, by virtue of its origin, mortal.
3. The two conjoined in this world constitute man;
4. Who has thus an immortal spiritual soul con-
joined to a mortal material body.

5. What is termed death is only the disjunction of
the spiritual soul from the material body, of the
immortal from the mortal.

6. Love and intellect, which constitute man, belong
to the spirit and not to the flesh;

7. For flesh is made of earthy matter, to which it
returns, which matter is not in itself sentient.
8. The soul of man is endued with a capacity for
love of God and love of self.

9. To know what love of self means, it must also
possess consciousness of self;

10. And consciousness of self, to be permanent, must be accompanied with a capacity for remembrance or memory.

11. The soul is permanently conscious of self, and is, therefore, endued with memory.

12. Self-consciousness and memory constitute individuality,

13. Which is not only permanent on earth but to all time;

14. Therefore the soul of man will retain its identity in any after-state of existence.

15. And this self-consciousness and memory can be obliterated by the power of the Creator alone, and not by the soul's own will.

16. Wherefore the nature of man's life on earth must

materially affect his life hereafter-if good, for good; if evil, for evil.

17. But the future of man's soul is in the hands, and

at the disposition, of God alone, and must be confided to His charge on the soul's departure from earth, in full assurance of His great mercy, love, wisdom, and justice.

CHAPTER VII.

SALVATION.

SALVATION from Sin, from Death, and from Hell! How shall this be obtained?

Through past ages this cry still resounds in our ears. The cry of the bewildered, anxious, and terrified sinner echoes mournfully through our hearts, "What shall I do to be saved?”

The answer to all mankind has been, and still is, Repent you of your sins; reform your life, and become regenerate in God your Saviour. "Cease to do evil; learn to do well." "Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." "As I live," saith the Lord, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;" and, When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness which he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive."

Again and again have mankind received this most merciful assurance of salvation from God; but then the very gist of such a blessed assurance lies in the necessity of our becoming, as the Apostle says, "Fellow-workers together with Him." We should not have been commanded to wash and make us clean-to cease to do evil, and learn to do well-if it were not in our power voluntarily to do so, and we can; though so far have we fallen away from purity and truth, from innocence and

righteousness-so deeply have we entangled ourselves in the snares of the flesh and the world, that it is certain we must all, more or less, pass through much tribulation before we can enter into the kingdom of God, that God who will have all men to be saved-who is the Saviour of all mankind, without distinction of creed or colour.

We have, then, some work to do; we have duties to perform towards God before we can hope to be saved by Him; nor are we strangers to them. Many of us have been taught those duties in our youth; and if we desire salvation from sin, and reconciliation with God, we must perform them; and it is only by diligently performing them that we shall obtain the favour and forgiveness of God, in love of, and obedience to, whom our hope of salvation consists.

The following duties are, then, imperative on us all :— We must believe in God, the one only living, beneficent, and just God, and love Him with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength; worship Him, and give Him thanks; put our whole trust in Him; reverence Him, and do honour to His holy name; be grateful to Him, and serve Him truly and faithfully all the days of our life; seek out and hold fast all good and all truth, and be prepared to suffer all things for their sake.

These are some of our principal duties towards God; but we have duties also to perform to our neighbours and to ourselves, which we must endeavour to practise continually, and must succeed in so doing before we can possibly cease to do evil, and learn to do well"-before we can obtain that salvation, or escape from selfishness and sin, which must preclude our hopes of heaven.

Those duties to our neighbours, to all our fellowcreatures, are:-To endeavour to love them as ourselves; to do to all men as we would they should do unto us; to love, honour, and obey our parents; to be faithful in marriage; wisely kind to our offspring; gentle to all; to relieve the distressed; to comfort the afflicted; to instruct the ignorant, and to be active in charity towards all men; to hurt nobody by thought, word, or deed; to be true and just in all our dealings; to be merciful and forgiving to those who have injured us; to bear no malice nor hatred

in our hearts; to keep our hands from picking and stealing, and our tongues from evil speaking, lying, and slandering; to act towards all men as towards brothers, being, as they are, all children of God, and all co-heirs with us of eternal life, and to be ready to give up all we possess-even life itself-for the sake of our country, and for the truth.

Our duties to ourselves, and these by no means the least important, even for our spiritual welfare, are:-That we should all learn and labour truly to get our own living; to do our duty diligently in those stations in life in which we are born; to seek to advance our own spiritual, temporal, and physical well-being in every way; to be cleanly in our persons, temperate in our habits, moderate in our pleasures; to be prudent abroad, freely hospitable at home; to keep a good conscience, and to resist all evil, injustice, and wrong, with a steady firmness, free from all uncharitableness; to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good and true.

It is, then, an article of our faith, that only by repentance and reformation, by a new birth and a new life, can salvation from sin, which leads to hell, be obtained.

Salvation from death has no meaning; the saying that "by sin came death into the world," is but a saying; the death so spoken of is but a regular and pre-ordained incident in the course of the soul's eternal life: there is no such thing as death for any human being. Only the body dies, the soul lives for ever, and there will be no change of soul; even such as its spiritual state was here such will be its state hereafter, and woe be to those who have led evil lives in this world, for their portion will be the bitterness of prolonged remorse. There is no real evil but sin, which arises from excessive and perverted love of self; and there is no real, permanent, and everlasting happiness but in the pure and humble love of God, and in love to our fellow-creatures springing therefrom, and fruitful in good works for them-in this and the sacrifice of our own will to that of our great Creator consist perfect happiness, unending bliss, and heaven.

It is absolutely necessary that man should voluntarily forsake and resolutely cast off all sin, vice, and crime; cast them utterly out of his heart and soul; that he should