In a similar sublime strain, and in words of a similar two-fold meaning, the prophet HOSEA exclaims, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave,-I will redeem them from death. O death! I will be thy plague, O grave! I will be thy destruction." Other extracts might be made from the Old Testament, to the same purport: and, with all of them, the materialist will readily accord, as not asserting the vitality of any part of man, after death has obtained the dominion over him.

But the non-assertion of a doctrine, and the denial of a doctrine, are two very different things. The writers in the Old Testament asserted or revealed all that was permitted them to know, under the degree of illumination that was vouchsafed them: a brighter light,

a more excellent way," a fuller manifestation of divine truth, being promised when they wrote. And what was thus promised, appeared afterwards in the world; even that "Sun of Righteousness," whose glorious rising they predicted, and

"to whom they all gave witness." The materialist, then, has no co-adjutor for his cause in the Old Testament: and that he has none in the New, will be abundantly proved, when we open that Treasury of sacred knowledge containing "the pearl of great price," the clear revelation of light and immortality for the soul, on its delivery from an earthly .prison.

What, but such a view, can furnish adequate comfort to the heart which is agonized by a "multitude of sorrows," as it did to that of the Psalmist? What but this can comfort an aged mourner, who, having long since seen "the delight of his eyes taken away with a stroke," now, after being left with an only child, the sole prop and stay of his declining nature, sees that also cut down like the flower; sees it carried hence, to be here, by him, beheld no more? When thus bereft of all that rendered this world desirable, what is there to console such an afflicted solitary being, except the lively hope of meet

ing, in a brighter world, the beloved objects whom he has lost, of meeting them again, to part no more?

Does there exist a rational creature who disbelieves or despises such a persuasion? Is there a single human heart uncheered, uninfluenced by it? If there be, alas, how forlorn must be that wretched heart! Let him, would he know "the way of God more perfectly," let him enter the abode of some truly christian family, just deprived by death of one of its beloved members: let him witness the soothing, the salutary effects of that blessed hope of life and immortality, which not merely supports, but animates every surviving relative and friend. Let him contemplate the influence and efficacious power of the religion of Jesus, at this season of trial. see, with how much sweetness and composure she resigns her children to the dust, in full assurance of faith that they will rise again, with more than renovated beauty and strength, to a scene of bliss and endless glory; to an inherit

Let him

ance that is incorruptible and undefiled. and that fadeth not away; which God has prepared for them that love him. To this consoling view of the subject, we shall soon turn; when it is to be hoped, refreshing thoughts, like summer rain on the dry ground, will revive every fainting heart. For the present let us remember that an eternity of bliss is offered to us by a gracious God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. May, therefore, the sure and certain hope of possessing a boon so transcendently glorious, animate us to a perseverance in faith and pureness of living, by which alone it can be attained, and call forth from our gladdened bosoms this ardent and devout exclamation of the apostle, "Thanks be to God, for his unspeakable gift!"

SECTION III.

Concerning the great fundamental doctrine of Christianity—a resurrection from the dead-it is not now requisite, in pursuing the present argument, fully to speak; that being admitted by the materialist: nor is it denied by any but by an atheist, who is an isolated kind of mortal, a cheerless Saducëan, who, having forsaken God, brings himself as last to deny His existence. Such an unhappy being maintains, of course, "that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit;" and therefore, on these grounds, necessarily asserts his belief, "that death is an eternal sleep."

But if we may credit the sages of every age and every clime, such a man is what I have termed him, an isolated being. Plutarch declares the opinion of rewards and punishments after death

B