TWO MARRIAGES. By the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman," "Christian's Mistake," etc. 12mo. Pp. 301. $1.50. New York: Harper & Brothers. Cincin nati: Robert Clarke & Co.-Another volume from the pen of Miss Mulock, now Mrs. Craik, will find a large number of readers ready to welcome it. Her stories are marked by their faithful delineation of character, their naturalness and purity of sentiment, the interest of their plots, their beauty and force of expression, and their elevated moral tone.

ESOP'S FABLES. Illustrated. The People's Edition. $1. New York: Fowler & Wells. Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co.-Every body knows the character and value of Esop's fables; but every body does not yet know in what a charming dress Messrs. Fowler & Wells have placed them in this volume. It is an octavo of seventy-two double-columned pages, printed on fine, tinted paper, bound in heavy, beveled backs, and giltedged, and all for one dollar-surely it is "a people's

edition."

DROPS OF WATER FROM MANY FOUNTAINS. By Mira Eldridge. 16mo. Pp. 216. New York: Foster & Palmer. This little book consists of short, "desultory passages of experience, taken from letters received and written by the author;" and to those who are thirsting for the higher life these will be found most grateful drops of living water. The passages abound in spiritual suggestion and instruction.

THE TONGUE OF FIRE ON THE DAUGHTERS OF THE LORD. By Mrs. Phoebe Palmer. 18mo. 32 pages. Paper. New York: Foster & Palmer.-This little book is a vigorous discussion of questions relating to the duty of the Christian Church in regard to the privileges of her female membership-claiming for "the daughters of the Lord" the privileges of public activity and labors, and public address before the assemblies of the Lord's people.

MISCELLANEOUS.-A Defense of American Methodism against the Criticisms, Inculpations, and Complaints of a Series of Sermons, by Rev. Edward D. Bryan. By Rev. H. Mattison, D. D. 8vo. Pp. 64. Paper. Address Rev. H. Mattison, Jersey City, N. J. Short, incisive, and decisive. Message of Governor Thomas C. Fletcher to the Twenty-Fourth General Assembly of Missouri. Twenty-Eighth Annual Report of the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum. A Centenary Sermon before the Minnesota Annual Conference. By Rev. Jabez Brooks, A. M.

Chambers's Encyclopedia; A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Parts 113 and 114.

Kissing the Rod, by Edmund Yates; Sir Brook Fosbrooke, by Charles Lever; Cradock Nowell, by Richard Doddridge Blackmore; and Bernthal, from the German of L. Mühlback-being Nos. 277, 281, 283, and 281 of Harper's Library of Select Novels. New York: Harper & Brothers. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.

STUDIES ON THE FUTURE LIFE.

THIRD PAPER.

I. PRE-CHRISTIAN REVELATIONS OF IMMORTALITY. The doctrine of immortality, though perhaps not clearly and directly revealed in the earlier portions of the Old Testament, seems to be always assumed as a known fact, though possibly not recognized with the clearness and believed with the certainty of the Christian age. Indeed, the great truths of the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, which we are inclined to claim as intuitions of the human spirit, needing no revelation as matters of fact, but only enlargement of conception and accuracy and fullness of definition, are truths assumed as lying constantly at the foundation of all revelation. While, therefore, the doctrine of immortality may not be put forth in the early revelations as a prominent truth, the circumstances and the sentiments of a growing revelation, constantly increasing in light, made it increasingly evident to the human mind that the truth of God assumed and encouraged the belief of immortality. The commandments of God, the promises of Messiah, the translation of Enoch, the frequent appearances and revelations from the spirit-world, were all circumstances from which the doctrine was clearly to be inferred. The workings of the mind of Job in this early age is a good exhibition of the hope and yet uncertainty which hung around the doctrine. How touching is the following language of Job! "For there is hope of a

tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep."

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It is in this doubting mood that he starts the question, 'If a man die shall he live again?" and then, as if an inspiration had reassured him, he exclaims, All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands." Evidently to the mind of Job death was still only a sleep long and mysterious, beyond which still reached his yearnings after life, and out of which in the distant future his faith expected a glorious awakening On another occasion he breaks out in that beautiful expression of faith and hope, which even modern rationalistic interpretation can not rob of its sublime signifi cance, "O that my words were now written! O that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and laid in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I

The minds of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, under the provisions of God's providence for them, and the manifestations of God to them, must have reached a thrilling apprehension of this truth, and the reading of their histories with an immortal destiny left out leaves them contradictory and insignificant. With regard to the wandering, homeless Abraham, the apostle informs us that "he expected a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God." In this world he received no such city, and we must, therefore, conclude that his faith fixed upon the city of God, which is the heavenly Jerusalem. Mingling with this hope of a future life was also that of a blessed reunion with the beloved dead, and hence the importance attached by these patriarchs to the burying of their dead, and their beautiful expression of death under the idea of "being gathered to their fathers."

When we reach the Mosaic age we find increasing light, but we still observe that the Christian prominence is by no means given to this doctrine-a fact made clear by the great prominence given to the immediate temporal rewards and punishments attached to the law, a circumstance which has very wrongfully been interpreted as indicating a total ignorance of the future life and its rewards and punishments. We would only see in this circumstance an indication of the state of mind to be provided for in the early religious history of the world, a state of mind which, though by no means in ignorance of a future life, yet much more impressible by the tangible and visible things of time. But it is very clear that the whole Mosaic economy is founded on the idea of a future life, and that its commandments, its purifications, and its final designs have reference to a qualification for that life. But we have the positive testimony of the apostle bearing on this point. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where St. Paul refers to the manifestations of faith among the patriarchs and through the Mosaic dispensation, he shows very clearly that the ancient people of God were animated in all their services by the conviction of the realities of a future and invisible world. With respect to Moses himself he says that under all his persecutions and afflictions, "he endured as seeing Him that is invisible; for he had a respect unto the recompense of reward." That recompense could not have been in this world, for he resigned in behalf of it the splendor and security of Pharaoh's court, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." With regard to all the other worthies to whom he refers, he declares that "they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth;" that "they declared plainly that they sought a better country, that is a heavenly;" and that those who endured torture to induce them to renounce their religion, bore their sufferings with invincible fortitude, "not accepting deliverance" when it was offered them, "that they might obtain a better resurrection."

In the age of the psalmists the expectation of a future life was their consolation under their sufferings, and often the inspiration of their songs. Nothing can be more clear and express than such declarations as the following: "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with

wilt not leave my soul in the grave. Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore;" "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever;" "God will redeem my soul from the grave; for he will receive me;" "Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory;""My flesh and my heart shall fail; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever."

When we reach the immediate age of our Savior we find an undoubted recognition of the future life, but by no means the clear light and full assurance which were given afterward to this doctrine by the teachings of Christ and his apostles. We find one whole sect, and by no means an insignificant one, denying entirely the immortality of the soul and the existence of angels and spirits, while even among the Pharisees we find obvious traces of the absurd ideas of preexistence and transmigration, and among the common people a large amount of skepticism, ignorance, and superstition. While, therefore, it can not be said that the first revelations of immortality were given by the Savior, yet it may be said with the utmost propriety, that even among the Jews, life and immortality were brought to light in the Gospel, by giving to this doctrine clearness, distinctness, and impressive significance.

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II. IMMORTALITY AS REVEALED BY CHRIST. In all our previous studies we have discovered that however universal may be the sentiment of immortality among mankind, yet such were the obscurities enshrouding it, the errors and superstitions associated with it, and the want of authority to give weight, certainty, and significance to the great truth, that it was still needed that "life and immortality should be brought to light in the Gospel" by the great Teacher sent from God. As immortality is a common prerogative; as it is a doctrine in which men of all ranks and classes are concerned, and elevates the simple plowman or mechanic to share in the glorious destiny of a Newton and a Bacon, a common revelation was necessary; one that would level itself to every mind, and teach every child of Adam that there had been enkindled within him a spark that should burn with quenchless ardor, when the stars of heaven should be blotted out and the sun himself set in everlasting eclipse. And this has the Gospel done. It has come to make up for every defect of human reason, and to add the testimony of Him that can not lie' to all those pantings after endless life that make the soul 'shrink back upon itself and startle at destruction.'"

With Christ immortality was not only an assumed truth, but one clearly stated, defended, and illustrated in all the magnitude of its significance and importance, and in all its momentous relations to a grand system of divine truth, and to the interests and duties of men. Life and immortality, an endless existence beyond the grave, lies as the broad foundation of the Christian religion, from which the great Teacher develops his views of life and his lessons of human interest and duty. The bringing into prominent and impressive light the future life, and the revelation of the method

of attaining its blessedness through the remission of sins by the redemption through the Mediator, are the grand characteristics of Christianity. Its power lies in bringing to bear on the heart and understanding the tremendous motives of eternal things.

The Divine Teacher is not a mere man uttering the longings of his own soul, or a philosopher speculating on the destiny of his race. He is a revealer of truth; he speaks of these eternal things with the simplicity, repose, and familiarity of one perfectly conversant with the facts he delivers and perfectly convinced of the accuracy of the truths he announces. Immortality is one of those truths of which he "speaks what he knew, and delivers what he had seen." He does not reason about it and prove it as a man, but reveals it as one having authority. It is couched in no ambiguous terms; it is delivered in connection with no absurd and unmeaning superstitions. The revelation is as wonderful for what it withholds as it is clear, and sublime in what it makes known. His language is, "Because I live ye shall live also;" Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die;" "Yea, whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live again;" "I am the resurrection and the life;" "I am the life, the truth, and the way;" "In my Father's house are many mansions-I go to prepare a place for you:""God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto him." He displayed to us the region of departed souls, and Lazarus is seen reclining on Abraham's bosom, while Dives lifts up his eyes in hell, being in torment. He connected it with the sublime idea of the resurrection of the body, a doctrine of which the heathen mind had not conceived, and which had only been dimly foreshadowed to the ancient people of God. He revealed it in its momentous relations to the present life, as being determined in its character of blessedness or misery, by our conduct here. He exhibited it in its relations to the just rewards of virtue and the equitable punishments of vice. He revealed it in connection with the final judgment, and the assembling of the dead, both small and great, before the judgment-seat of God, to receive the deeds done in the body. He revealed it in its relations to an eternal, beautiful, blessed home for the good, and to a fearful, unending place of torment for the wicked.

III. IMMORTALITY SUBSTANTIATED BY REASON. We have had, in the history of the wonderful workings of the human mind in this momentous subject of a future life, abundant evidence that unaided human reason would never reach a clear apprehension and certain belief of immortality. It would ever struggle after it-the soul-longings of humanity would not let man sink into despair and cease to think, and speculate, and reason about the great hereafter. "The divinity that stirs within us, and intimates eternity to man," would still lead us to perpetual efforts to grasp and comprehend the great problems, but for want of proper data would still leave us doubting, hoping, desiring, and fearing.

The doctrine of immortality we do not believe is an offspring of human reason-it did not first spring up in the sphere of human logic, but has its birthplace among the soul-thoughts and heart-aspirings of humanity. Hence its universality. But those soulthoughts, so plainly intimating to us our heavenly na

tivity, our nobler origin, and higher destiny, as the language, sentiments, and bearing of the nobleman, even in poverty and obscurity, intimate his better parentage, would never reach to distinctness, would never bring us out into the clear light of certainty, would never free us from the errors, superstitions, and sensual distortions which our imaginations throw around the subject. Hence, immortality, with the distinctness, and clearness, and certainty which now characterize it in the Christian age, is not a discovery of science. "No, the light that flings its heavenly halo over the grave, and illumes our pathway to the skies, is not the light of science, but of religion. Not the dim tapers by which the philosophers of the world grope their way through it, but that glorious light of heaven" which the revelation of God, and especially the Divine Teacher, shed on these great truths. Hence, with us the doctrine of immortality is clear, authoritative, free from absurdities, and commending itself to our reason and sentiments.

When we turn, then, to human reason for arguments on the immortality of the soul, it is not because we believe human reason, apart from the Word of God, is sufficient to discover and demonstrate the immortal nature of the soul, but because that now, since the great truths connected with immortality have been brought to light, the human mind is able clearly to see the reasonableness of this great truth of revelation; and human reason comes forth to approve and substantiate it. Hence this appeal to our reason and the sentiments of our heart is both important and profitable. "Nature, and reason, and revelation do not stand in contradiction. The Creator of the one is the Author of the other, and all his manifestations must necessarily harmonize; and though our reasonings may not carry us as far as revelation in this matter, yet it is important to know that they tend in the same direction; that they are helping to work out the same great re

sults."

In turning our attention, then, to the corroboration of this truth of revelation by human reason, we argue for the immortality of the soul,

From what we know of the soul's nature. Man habitually thinks and speaks of his soul as something distinct from his body. In every human language is found a word or name by which man designates his better part, his real self, and which is different from the title by which he designates his body. Whether by the force of education, by the influence of a universal tradition, or by the conscious apprehension of the real fact of human existence, we have learned to look upon ourselves as twofold beings made up of soul and body. We do not believe that this is a result of education; we do not believe that this universal opinion is the result of a universal tradition; we believe that man thinks and speaks of him. self as a being of soul and body, because he realizes in the conscious phenomena of his own life that he is such a compound being-that is, man feels that he is a compound being, that he lives a twofold life, a life of the body and a life of the soul.

This soul we know to be distinct in its attributes and functions from the attributes and functions of the body. Thought, conception, reasoning, volition, etc., powers which we know ourselves to possess, we know are

attributes entirely different from those of our bodies. These are powers and functions not only differing from those of matter in its abstract or unorganized condition, but differing also from any of the known results of organization. Respiration, secretion, circulation, motion, etc., are functions incident to matter in a state of organization; but thought, reason, memory, judgment, will, etc., are just as different from those physical functions as from the solidity, magnitude, figure, etc., which are the essential attributes of ordinary matter. Thus differing in its functions and attributes from all the known functions and attributes of matter in any known states, we habitually look apon the soul as something different from matter, and therefore different from the body-something which not merely acts when it is acted upon, but which is selfacting, which thinks and wills from its own inherent impulses and emotions. We call it spirit; we say that it is immaterial-that it is a thing of life-a being whose essential attribute is to exist, as the essential attribute of matter is extension. We know not what it is; we know that it is not matter.

Again, we know the soul, or thinking and reasoning part of man, to be distinct from the body, from our consciousness of personal identity-that is, from the fact that, amidst all the changes of a long lifetime, we still know ourselves to be the same individual. It is a well-known fact that during our lifetime our bodies completely change their material parts several times, and that in manhood we probably have not a particle of the substance which constituted our bodies in childhood and, youth. Yet some part of us seems unquestionably to have come up with us from the earliest dawn of childhood, and we are conscious, amid all these changes of body, that we are the same individuals we were in childhood and youth. The impressions made in early life, the bent of character given in youth, the scenes, the emotions, the desires which were active in us in childhood, are still fresh in the mind of the old man; and though, perhaps, in the circuit of years, a half a score of renovations may have changed the entire body, yet the old man still feels that he is the same being that in sunny childhood played about his mother's knees, in gay, happy, joyous youth, mingled with loved companions whose memory still is dear, and in mature manhood plunged boldly into the struggles and duties of life. How may we account for this, except upon the supposition that the soul, the real man, has come up uninfluenced among all these changes, and

that therefore the soul is something different from the body?

Again, many of the manifestations of the mind in life and death prove to us that it must be something distinct from the body. If it were not-if the soul is only an attribute or result of the physical organization, like respiration, circulation, etc., we should expect a much more perfect agreement than we find between the powers and activity of the soul and those of the body. We should expect to find the soul, not only affected in its emotional nature, and experiencing pleasure or pain according to the varying states of the body, but, even more than this, we should expect the soul in its very capacity and activity to be dependent on the perfection of the physical system; and yet it is manifest that there exists by no means such correspondence and dependence between the capacity and activity of the soul and the condition of the body. It is neither the magnitude nor the integrity of the body which determines the powers of the human soul, nor do they repose and decay with the repose and decay of the body. A very feeble frame often contains a very large soul; in dreams men have solved problems on which they had labored in vain when awake, and frequently, when the body is almost worn out with disease, the soul has increased vigor.

But we may see in death itself a proof of immortality and unquestionable evidence of the distinctness of the soul from the body. When we see the soul come up to the indefinable and mysterious limits of life; when, in full consciousness, it lingers between two worlds, the one passed, the other all unknown; when the body is sinking away, is feeble, is broken, is dying, and the soul knows it, and we know it, and see that it is powerless-that fatal disorganization from which it can not recover has taken place within it-that all that is physical in man is so disarranged that it can no longer perform its functions and live; when we discover that often in the midst of these unmistakable evidences of decay and death, the soul still survives-that in the midst of this dissolution of the man the mind perfectly maintains its integrity-that not one of its powers or faculties is weakened or extinguished-that it perceives as keenly, judges as correctly, reasons as accurately, loves as strongly, as when the body was in vigorous health, is this not a moral demonstration that the mind of man is an existence whose perfection or whose being is not dependent on the physical organism that is crumbling into ruin?

OUR ENGRAVINGS.-Cromwell Dictating a State Letter. When the news of the massacre in Piedmont was received in England, Lord Protector Cromwell was roused to a sacred fury. He caused his Latin Secretary, Milton, to write to all the Protestant powers, broke off his negotiations for a treaty with France, then allied with Savoy, compelled Mazarin to use his influence to get justice done in those valleys, and even dictated a letter to Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy,

threatening that in case the persecutions of the Protestants were not stopped, the thunders of his cannon on the Mediterranean should be heard with terror, even in Rome. The remonstrances of England were effectual: the Catholics quietly submitted, the Vaudois were restored to their rights, and Europe felt the thrill in every nerve. Western Wilds. Our readers can interpret this beautiful picture for themselves. It needs no commendation, as its excellence speaks its own praise.