worlds to come, that the things most clearly foreknown are far off, rather than near; in the heavens, not so much on the earth. To this may be added—the distant future we can certainly predict; but the near future, over which we have most power, as preparatory for the distant, we are least able to foresee. The time of an eclipse we know accurately, of to-morrow's weather we are uncertain. We can, by prudence, shorten or lengthen our days; obtain riches, or cause poverty; but we neither know the time, nor the manner of our death. We are ignorant, in some respects, of what a day may bring forth; yet do know, in other respects, what the great future contains. Little by little, we have extended our knowledge even into those parts of the universe which eye hath not seen nor can see. We know in a certain sense of things not yet in existence, and are sure that our foreknowledge is true, because verified in analogous things of the past with which we are acquainted. We know that physical agencies combine to bring a flood of material desolation; and that the fire within our planet gushes forth, because overmastering forces will have vent. Not less do we know that moral forces are reliable as to their power, and meaning, and as a preparation for the future: the moral future being as definite, as the physical: These are indisputable facts. Science, not less than intuition as to the future, urges preparation for it. Any man refusing to act on so great a number of such accurate and clear impressions as to the future, is a prey to sensuality or unbelief; or is low in the order of his intellect; not able to select, or to use in due combinations, the various voluntary and involuntary signs and adaptations by which Nature indicates and prepares for the future. When we regard the future issues of a life well spent, or ill spent; whether, as we erroneously think, narrowly bounded; or, as the wise perceive, of infinite result we are commanded, by every reasonable motive, to prepare for those issues; and not to lose, but to gain our life. Biologists speak of organic development; Physicists, as to conservation of energy, and that every force has a great future before it; Geologists know the past state of the earth, and predict what is to come; every man, who will, may find everywhere signs and seals of the future-a definite future for everything. One sleeping dependent larva becomes a bear-mouse with leathern wings; another larva, seemingly the same, grows into a whale with skin and blubber, thick as a house-wall. Reptiles, birds, mammals, possess much that is common to all; yet did not arise confusedly. Little differentiations, worked by harmonious co-operation of the universe, formed the present exquisite structures. A mind of adequate power would have seen in the origin all that the completion contains: that a nightingale, an opossum, a crocodile, would grow out of germs as like to one another as the right hand is to the left. Wisdom saw the ripe corn, the rose, the oak, man, in their first beginnings, and arranged for every future difference. We are sure that Wisdom does not mean these, having come to good estate, to go lower than their former lowest stage, and be no more for ever. The past, moment by moment, entered a new future; and the present, moment by moment, enters another. We have evidence in ourselves; not only do we possess potentialities of physical powers greatly surpassing our present capacities; there are indications, or germs, of very excellent mental functions. Our best thoughts are as apples of gold in pictures of silver, which we hang up in the chambers of reason; not as memorials of the past, but as living prophecies, of a better future. Good hopes are not diminished by knowledge; as we recede from folly and shake off the animal, we become like the angel. The works of the Almighty are not cast away, or hidden as a child of shame. His loving arms embrace all time; we rest on the bosom of the Eternal. It is not required to go into proof of prophecy, though, to the seeing eye, Holy Scripture so made known beforehand the Messiah's advent; the establishment, the struggles, the growth, the final conflicts and victory of the Church and of Christ; that even he who runs may read. It does not concern us if Psychologists explain away the asserted visions of spiritualists; and show that Clairvoyance, Hypnotism, Mesmerism, and other modes of revealing secrets, are so largely false, and so little true; intensely trivial, and probably wicked; that prudent men disregard them. Of this we are sure : men have known the future, and will know the future. The Prophets were not deceivers, our Blessed Lord was true. Even when we think of the laws of nature, the limitations of space and time should not enter our conception; the greatness of the Creator comes before us. He dwells amongst us in our science; for everywhere we behold, in all the past, seeds prophetic of the future; and everywhere we find that mutual adaptation of every part of the system of nature which accords with our own intelligence. Our own intelligence, being thus confirmed as accurate in its processes; we are enforced to believe also in its affirmations concerning the eternity to come; and a moral government, not less vast, carried on in obedience to laws, not less exact and true, than holy and just. Not through our own exertions, are we at the very summit of the organic scale; and the past, where our noblest faculties lay rooted, whence came the present hopes and fears; that god-like intellect which penetrates to the far-off movements of the stars and reads, as in a book, the distant future; are proofs concerning the kingdom of God. The lesson of the future is an enchanter's wand; he who possesses it, and has suffered many and sore evils, may say, "Fate, thou hast done thy worst. The power of thy sword is now weak; its edge, turned aside; flesh and heart failed, but 'God is the strength of my heart, and my Portion for ever." "As, in sparkling majesty, a star Gilds the bright summit of some gloomy cloud; So, when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud, John Keats, Hope. RESEARCH XXVII. IMMORTALITY REVEALED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. "Let the religion of our souls imitate the nature of our bodies, which, although with process of time they develop and unfold their proportions, yet they remain the same that they were.”—VINCENTIUS, Commonit., Chapter on the Growth of Doctrine, xxiii. ". . . God is Holy, and His righteous wrath ... God is Love, and willeth not the death DEAN PLUMPTRE, D.D., Lazarus. HAD the Jews, brought so nigh to God, any definite knowledge as to immortality? Certainly they had. Dwelling so long amongst the Egyptians, whose ritual in regard to the dead was most elaborate, they must have known of a future state. Though the Sadducees, in our Lord's time, maintained that there was no angel, no soul, nor future life; our Lord, refuting them, manifested and confirmed the common belief of the people as to their finding eternal life in the Holy Scriptures, which testified of Him (John v. 39). Eternal life was appointed for man before time began. God laid down the wonderful scheme of redemption, ere the Creation, by which men, despite much error and sin, should attain a glorious future. This was not only made known to the Jews by laws, ceremonies, sacrifices; their |