Signs of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 35. (9/11/1879)

Signs of the Times

Sep 11, 1879

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Sep 11, 1879

General Articles.

By Miss Sarah Smiley

Chosen Vessels.

Parting words from Miss Sarah Smiley to Christian workers at the Home of Industry, on Saturday, February 15, 1879.

I FEEL like the little lad of whom we read in the gospels, who had a very few loaves and a few small fishes—what were they among so many! I had only thought this afternoon of meeting a little circle of friends in a smaller room, and had only a little simple message. But I trust it may please God to bless it to some hungry or thirsty soul here.

There are a few precious words in the 9th chapter of Acts, that came to my mind when I was praying the Lord to give me a message for this afternoon. Verse 15: "The Lord said unto Ananias, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." A CHOSEN VESSEL! And so it is with you, dear friends. If God has called you to his service, you are chosen vessels,—chosen for the Lord. Chosen, not to live unto yourselves, but to bear the blessed name of Jesus before the world. Not in the way that Paul bore it, and yet to bear it as God may guide; to bear it to the rich and the poor, to the sinful and the suffering, to all classes and conditions of men. Not choosing your own vocation, but chosen by God to bear his blessed name. How all important it is for us to get into the attitude where God may use us; so that there shall be the full consent of our will to his choice.

There is a precious passage in Isaiah bearing upon this. Chapter 64: 8: "But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." How fully and unconditionally the people came at that time, and put themselves into the Lord's hand! Nothing can be more perfectly helpless than clay in the potter's hand. It has no power to shape itself; everything depends on the potter's choice and skill. "We are the clay, and thou our potter." That is true, whether we give ourselves into the hands of God or not; it is always the relation which the soul bears to God. It is true, even while we are in rebellion against God. It is true of us while in the blessed process of reconciliation, and true throughout the whole of the glorious process and progress of redemption. If we do not put ourselves into his hands—if we think to keep this "free will" of ours, as we call it, we may find that the only freedom we have is to resist his blessed will and to mar ourselves,—to make ourselves vessels of wrath, which he will use in some way for his own name's sake, but which will be cast aside as a potter's vessel and be broken in pieces.

But God does not thus propose to use us. We are clearly told in Jeremiah that there is no absolute choice of any one to destruction. Our attitude changes the attitude of the unchanging God. According to our attitude before him does he put himself before us. How full of instruction are these verses, chapter 18:6-10. God tells us plainly that he changes his plans according as we change ours. If, then, we see that it is to our interest and for God's glory that in everything we should be as clay in his hands, what is the attitude that we must have! Perfect submission to God—surrender of our being entirely to him. If this is not done, it brings much harm to us subsequently as vessels for the Lord.

The first time I went to a potter's house was in a very remote part of the Southern States. I do not know that what I witnessed there would be a fair sample of the ruder forms of pottery, but I judge it was. I had never seen a vessel shaped on the wheel before, and I asked the potter to let us see him make one. He took a little lump of clay, but instead of putting it immediately on the wheel, he took it in one hand and began to give it very heavy blows with his fist. I almost thought he was angry with the poor clay before him, and I said, "What are you doing with it? I thought you were going to make a vessel." "So I am when I get it ready. I am getting the bubbles out of it. If I were to put it on the wheel as it is, it would be spoiled in a few moments. One of these little bubbles would mar all my work. So I beat it and beat it, and in this way get all the air out of it."

Ah! I thought, so does God have to treat us. The great difficulty with us is those little bubbles of self-conceit, of our own self-will, and sometimes of our self-righteousness, something that, in the process of God's work, would wonderfully mar it. So he has to deal with us severely; but he is not angry with the poor clay before him. He is not angry with us when he puts us through this process of adversity. He is only getting out of all that would mar his blessed work. How wise it is, then, for us just to accept, with perfect simplicity, his will!

I can never forget the first time I heard a saying that originated with one whose name is well known to many—Alfred Cookman—whose last words were, "I am sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb!" A few weeks before his death he stated to a friend of mine that he thought his whole life had become a continual "Yes" to God's dealings with him. Sometimes it was joy, sometimes it was trial and sorrow; but he had learned, whatsoever came, to recognize God's hand in it, and say, "Yes, Lord, yes!" So the sting was taken out of every sorrow, the Lord took him into his blessed hand to shape him.

When the process of reconciliation is begun and God is going on with us in this wonderful process of redemption, seeking our full development, what does he do with us, his vessels? It seems to me that nothing would be more beautiful than the figure which the servant of God has chosen to show God's work upon us. "We are the clay, and thou our potter!" With all the improvements that have gone on in other things, the choicest vessels are still shaped precisely as the prophet saw them shaped—upon the wheel. If we go to Minton's works, for example, and witness the formation of the choicest vessels, they are made exactly as they were in Jeremiah's time. They are not made by machinery—some of the commoner kinds are—but the choicest things are not put into molds, they are emphatically the work of the potter's hand. When the clay has been taken into the potter's hands the process begins, and then the potter's hand is everywhere. It is round about it, within it, without it, forming it, shaping it, widening it, or narrowing it; and his eye is continually upon it to see if it pleases him.

While watching the work and noticing the material, I put some questions as to what sort of clay they used. I was told that some of the very choicest preparations were made out of flint. They ground it, and out of the hardest stones they formed the best vessels. And so God takes some of the strongest wills, those who are the most rigid, firm, and unyielding, breaks down their stubbornness and makes them his chosen vessels. Yesterday it was my sad and blessed privilege to give a last look upon the face of one whom none of us can ever see again on earth—that dear Christian worker, Mrs. Raynard—whom God has blessed so wonderfully. I looked on that lovely face as it lay in death, and the death smile was so like the smile that I had seen it was in life! I had never seen anything of life but gentleness and love upon the features; but in death, through the sweetness and the smile, one could see in those firmly pressed lips all the wonderful power of will there was behind it. If it had not been consecrated, what then? Many a will like that is moving through this world, a source of misery to others; but when yielded up to God, it is one of the choicest gifts that he can give us. The Potter knows how to subdue it! It may take a severe process, but I am sure we will let him do anything he chooses.

As we have sometimes looked at the poor, shapeless clay in the pit, and have seen no beauty in it, and perhaps have seen it again in the rare, beautiful vase, that was an exquisite work of art, we remember that such is the difference between us as living our own lives, keeping ourselves in our own hands, and when we put ourselves into the hands of God. There is nothing lovely about us while we are living to self; but God takes us into his blessed hands and makes us his chosen vessels. We become his workmanship to his praise.

We have sometimes known what it was to walk along the rough roads where the clay became a positive hindrance to us; but when the potter has taken it, it has become changed into some choice vessel, to be lifted to our lips as a cup to give us refreshment. This feebly expresses the difference in our lives when living to ourselves and when living to God. In the one case we are a hindrance to every one that comes along our pathway, just clogging every homeward traveler. But when God has taken us and used us, we can carry refreshment to all, cheering them day by day.

But some may find that they have to go through a severer process than others. In those beautiful works I have mentioned, I lingered long in the room where the painting was done. After having seen the artist give the finishing touch to a choice vessel, I said, "Now that is all done, except, of course, that it has to go through the fire!" "Oh, no!" "Why," I said, "your work is finished!" "Just for the present it is." And then he explained that after it was burned and had passed through the furnace, nearly all the color was taken out of it. There would be just a little of the ground-work left, and the artist had to go over it again, putting in every single touch with just as much pains as before. Otherwise, he said it would not be lasting. Never till I heard him say that, did I quite comprehend how it was in some of our life experiences. Every one of us who has passed through the furnace will understand all about the experience. When it came we supposed we were going to grow in grace; but instead of that, it took every grace out of us. We thought we were patient, and we found we were not. And one grace after another that we trusted God had put into us, seemed to dissolve away. That is often the first result of trial. But God is just grounding all graces more deeply, taking out of us all our conceit about them, all our knowledge and consciousness of them, doing the work more thoroughly, engraving his beautiful patterns down out of sight of man; so that it should be a permanent basis for all those after-touches which he shall put upon us and which shall abide. Never let us be discouraged if the first result of trial seems to be the loss of our virtues and graces rather than the strengthening of them. The Lord always knows what he is about.

I do not know why I should speak so much about the furnace, because I believe it is our privilege to be very rejoicing Christians. But I believe, also, that we have come upon times when God will more and more try his people. How significant are the words of Peter—literally they should be read—“It is the time of judgment beginning at the house of God.” For we, God's chosen vessels, constitute this “house of God,” as now representing him on the earth. And we must expect that these judgments that are by-and-by to fall upon the earth—but from which God has promised he will keep his own overcoming ones free—in some anticipatory form will come upon us. He will search us and try us, and see if there be any evil way in us, and take out of us everything that mars us as vessels for his use, and so fit us to bear his name effectually before the world that so greatly needs us.

Now let us look for a moment at some of the little things that mar our usefulness. If we have not been thoroughly transformed; if, when God is calling us, we draw back or are unfaithful, we cannot expect to be anything but poor, leaky vessels. I often see those beautiful little jars and other vessels used so much now for ornaments, and when I have asked if they would hold water, the answer has always been, “They would not do for me, they have not been burned sufficiently.” It may be that there are some Christians who attract the eye and yet cannot do the work that God wishes them to do. God may fill them with his Spirit, but it passes away; they have never been sufficiently chastened by God to become effectual holders of the blessed truth committed to their trust.

Again, it seems as if many of the vessels the Lord deigns to use were like those we have seen sometimes in traveling and in some homes, where all the dishes seem to get “nicked,”—not broken or cast aside, but all the edges nicked. They have answered the purpose, though not so pleasant to the eye. We do not like to have the nicked side come next to our lips. How many a blessed draught may be refused because it is put into a nicked cup. We want not only to be full of power, but to bear it in a befitting way, so that the cup itself shall correspond to the joyous wine of refreshment which God sees fit to put into us.

Another truth is very beautifully conveyed to us in Numbers 19:15, “And every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it is unclean.” It was on account of the presence of death that this was spoken. Everything that came in contact with death in any form became unclean. So we live in an atmosphere of death, in a world that lieth in the wicked one, amongst those who are dead in trespasses and sins. And as the open vessel when it was exposed to the air was sure to contract impurity, so we must have something to come between us and the world; we must be covered from its corrupting power. All our greatest dangers come from the atmosphere that surrounds us. Nearly all the skepticism that is making its way in this country and across the sea, comes—so to speak—from the atmosphere more than from the direct touch. It has got into our literature, and pervades so much of the conversation we hear, that unless we are covered with the power of God, and unless the covering be bound upon the vessels—our life hid with Christ in God—the subtle, corrupting influence will be sure to get into our hearts, and the vessel will become unclean.

One other thing connected with these vessels is that the choicest ones do not always get the most common use. In a great house some cups are on the table every day; but there are some that only come out on occasions. We recognize the fitness of this, and I believe it is so in the great house of our God. The vessels that are only sometimes used, and for great purposes, are as truly doing the will of God when waiting as though they were restlessly working. It is a truth that needs great care in its application, and yet it seems to be clearly taught by God's way of working with us. I shall never forget when I returned to America, after my first visit to this country about ten years ago, how I felt, so flat, and empty, and useless, that a fear came into my heart that God was setting me aside. A dear friend wrote from your land, sending me this little message: “The wine cup or glass when it has been

used and washed is turned upside down and set upon a shelf, but it is just as valuable as it ever was. It is not cast aside because it is not at that moment used.” So I felt like the poor empty glass, turned upside down, as it were, left to wait and rest a little while; not cast aside at all, but waiting till He should find something to fill the poor glass again. So there may be moments in our lives when we have to turn aside to rest awhile. And my figure does not hold good perfectly,—the analogy fails here,—for I am sure that such a time of rest and being alone with God is the most profitable. It is a time when the vessel may not exactly be put to the lips of any one to refresh them with a cooling draught, but it may be a time when the vessel is being more effectually cleansed, and then to be filled and filled to overflowing; until, wherever it goes, it is always ready to give refreshment to others, in bearing about the blessed name of Jesus.

Now, dear friends, we do not exactly know each other here to-day, but God knows all our hearts. May it be that as he looks down on us, he is saying, “Chosen vessels;” she is a chosen vessel to bear my name; he is a chosen vessel to bear my name. What have we been bearing? Let us remember it is JESUS' NAME. It is not earthly aid merely, not merely comfort or relief from suffering, but the name of Jesus. If we do our service rightly, though it be only giving a garment to some shivering person, or putting a crumb of bread into some poor hungry mouth, along with that must go something of the name of Jesus. We act as the representatives of the Lord Jesus, and if we have done these things in love, then that is the name of Jesus, for his name is LOVE. And we have thus passed on a little of that blessed name—commended him unto those who thus know the Master's love by what his servants do.

Let, then, our uppermost thought be this: in word or deed, eating or drinking, or whatsoever we do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Oh, may we realize what that name is more and more—that wondrous name, and all that it means. His cross, his blood, his resurrection, his intercession, all that is included in the dear name of Jesus—never to be told throughout eternity. And then the name of the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier, Comforter, and Teacher, may we bear that name, and never forget any of the names,—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, having them dwelling in our hearts so richly by faith, that we may be always “filled with the Spirit,”—God's chosen vessels, bearing his blessed name wherever he shall lead us.

MISSION SONG.

HARK the voice of Jesus calling— Who will go and work to-day? Fields are white, the harvest waiting, Who will bear the sheaves away? Loud and long the Master calleth, Rich reward he offers free; Who will answer, gladly saying, "Here am I, O Lord, send me."

If you cannot cross the ocean, And the heathen lands explore, You can find the heathen nearer, You can help them at your door. If you cannot give your thousands, You can give the widow's mite; And the least you do for Jesus Will be precious in his sight.

If you cannot speak like angels, If you cannot preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, You can say he died for all. If you fail to rouse the wicked, With the Judgment's dread alarms, You may lead the little children To the Saviour's waiting arms.

While the souls of men are dying, And the Master calls for you, Let none hear you idly saying, There is nothing I can do. Gladly take the task he gives you, Let his work your pleasure be; Answer quickly when he calleth, "Here am I, O Lord, send me."—Sel.

The Immortality of the Soul.—History of the Doctrine.

(Continued.)

WE have now seen that of the different sects of philosophers, the Aristotelians, the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Academics, and the Pyrrhonists, denied the immortality of the soul; and that the great mass of the people agreed with them on this subject. This leaves only the Platonics and Pythagoreans, and these sects, it is claimed, did believe the soul immortal. We know that they talked about the immortality of the soul, and argued about it, and professed to believe in it; but the doctrine they discussed was only that of emanation and immanation, or absorption. That is, they thought the soul a part of God, an emanation from him, separated from him for a short time, but destined finally, either at the death of the body or at some future time, to return to him, be re-absorbed into his being, and thus lose all personality and conscious existence. This view, it will be seen, virtually amounts to annihilation of the soul. It is not at all like the present doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

On this point Bishop Warburton remarks:

"But when the ancients are said to hold the pre and post existence of the soul, and therefore to attribute a proper eternity to it, we must not suppose that they understood it to be eternal in its distinct and peculiar existence; but that it was discerped from the substance of God, in time, and would, in time, be rejoined and resolved into it again. This they explained by a closed vessel filled with seawater, which, swimming awhile upon the ocean, does, on the vessel's breaking, flow in again, and mingle with the common mass. They only differed about the time of this reunion and resolution: the greater part holding it to be at death; but Pythagoreans, not till after many transmigrations. The Platonists went between these two opinions, and rejoined pure and unpolluted souls immediately to the Universal Spirit; but those which had contracted much defilement were sent into a succession of other bodies, to purge and purify them, before they returned to their parent substance." (Divine Legation of Moses, vol. ii., book iii., sec. 4, pp. 214, 215.) Then he justly adds: "Thus we see this very opinion of the soul's eternity, which hath made modern writers conclude that the ancient sages believed in a future state of rewards and punishments, was, in truth, the very reason why they believed it not." (Ibid., p. 216.)

This was the doctrine of the Platonists and Pythagoreans.

Speaking of this subject, Mr. Watson remarks:

"Thus philosophy refined upon the doctrine of immortality until it converted it into annihilation itself; for so it is, in the most absolute sense, as to distinct consciousness and personality. The prevalence of this notion under different modifications is indeed very remarkable." (Theol. Inst., vol. i., p. 50.)

He thus indorses Warburton's position:—

"Some learned men have denied the consequence which Warburton wished to establish from these premises, and consider the re-absorption of these sages as figurative, and consequently compatible with distinct consciousness and individuality. The researches, however, since that time made into the corresponding philosophy of the Hindoos, bear this acute and learned man out to the full length of his conclusions." (Ibid., pp. 50, 51.)

Of the belief of the philosophers in the immortality of the soul, the Encyclopædia Britannica says:—

"This, however, appears by no means to have been the case with the systems of any, as far as we can learn, of those ancient philosophers who contended the most strenuously for the immortality of the soul. For not only do they seem to have agreed that no suffering could be expected by the wicked in another life, on the grounds that the gods were incapable of anger and therefore could not punish, but the very notion of the soul's immortality, as taught by them, involved the complete destruction of distinct, personal existence. "Their notion was, that is, when they spoke their real sentiments (for in their exoteric or popular works they often inculcate, for the benefit of the vulgar, the doctrine of the future retribution, which they elsewhere laugh at), that the soul of each man is a portion of that spirit which pervades the universe, to which it is reunited at death, and becomes again an undistinguishable part of the great Whole, just as the body is resolved into the general mass of matter. So that their immortality, or rather eternity, of the soul, was anterior as well as posterior; as it was to have an end, so it had no beginning; and the boasted continuance of existence, which, according to this system, we are to expect after death, consists in returning to the state in which we were before birth; which every one must perceive is the same thing virtually as annihilation. Such, then, were the views which prevailed among the most highly enlightened nations of antiquity on this subject." (Encyc. Brit., eighth edition, vol. i., pp. 459-463.)

What will our friends say to these facts? Not one of the ancients believed in the eternal, personal existence of the soul. All souls were finally to lose their separate existence, and be re-absorbed into God. Certainly these will not be claimed as orthodox believers in the immortality of the soul! With these views they could not possibly believe in the eternal misery of the wicked.

PERIODICAL DESTRUCTION.

There was another point universally held by the ancients which utterly forbade their believing in the soul's immortality. They held to a periodical destruction of all things, not excepting the soul.

Thus writes Mr. Leland: "It was a notion which generally obtained among them [the philosophers], that at certain periods which the Stoics termed conflagrations, and which were to happen at the end of what they as well as the Pythagoreans and Platonists called the great year, there should be an utter end put to the present state of things; and the souls of all men, and even of those of them which had become gods, demons, or heroes, were to be resumed into the universal soul, and thereby lose their individual existence." (Leland's Revelation, vol. i. part iii. chap. v. p. 341.)

Watson confirms this testimony thus: "Another notion equally extensive and equally destructive of the original doctrine of the immortality of the human soul, and a state of future rewards and punishments, which sprung up in the Egyptian schools, and was from thence transmitted into Greece, India, and throughout all Asia, was that of a periodical destruction and renovation of all things." (Theol. Inst., vol. i. part i. p. 52.)

"When the universal inundation takes place," says Enfield, "the whole surface of the earth is covered with water and all animal life is destroyed; after which nature is renewed, and subsists as before till the element of fire, becoming prevalent in its turn, dries up all the moisture, converts every substance into its own nature, and at last, by universal conflagration, reduces the world to its pristine state. At this period, all material forms are lost in one chaotic mass; all animated nature is reunited to the Deity, and nature again exists in its original form, as one whole, consisting of God and matter. From this chaotic state, however, it again emerges, by the energy of the Efficient Principle, and gods, and men, and all the forms of regulated nature, are renewed, to be dissolved and renewed in endless successions." (Hist. of Phil., book ii. chap. ii. sec. 1, p. 195.)

Then none among them could possibly believe in the immortality of the soul as a separate personality.

BELIEF OF THE HINDOOS.

To-day the doctrine of the soul's immortality is not universally nor even generally believed, though it has been industriously propagated for over two thousand years, from the time of the school of Plato down to that of the modern theological seminaries. Nearly the whole of the Asiatic nations reject it, and hold to the total annihilation of all souls! That this is not merely my assertion will be seen from the following testimonies, all from men who hold to the immortality of the soul. Mr. Watson's testimony will not be questioned. Hear him:—

"With us, this [the doctrine of the soul's immortality] is a matter of general belief; but not so with the generality of either ancient or modern pagans. The same darkness which obscured the glory of God, proportionately diminished the glory of man,—his true and proper immortality. The very ancient notion of an absorption of souls back again into the divine Essence was with the ancients what we know it to be now in the metaphysical system of the Hindoos, a denial of individual immortality; nor have the demonstrations of reason done anything to convince the other grand division of metaphysical pagans into which modern heathenism is divided, the followers of Buddha who believe in the total annihilation of both men and gods after a series of ages,—a point of faith held probably by the majority of the present race of mankind." (Theol. Inst., vol. i. part i. chap. iv. p. 22.)

This is a valuable testimony, especially coming from one who is such good authority. This alone gives a majority at the present day against the doctrine of the soul's immortality.

Mr. Davy says: "The religion of Buddha is more widely extended than any other religion. It appears to be the religion of the whole of Tartary, China, Japan, and their dependencies, and of all the countries between China and the Brahmapootra. . . . They appear to be materialists in the strictest sense of the term, and to have no notion of pure spirit or mind. . . . Ordinary death is merely a change of form, and this change is almost infinite, and bounded only by annihilation, which they esteem the acme of happiness." (Ibid.)

Then a majority of the race are materialists, instead of immortal-soulists!

Our next witness is that candid author, Henry Howe. He writes: "Boodhism, the religion of Burmah, has the greatest number of disciples of any on the globe, among whom is half of the people of China, Laos, Cochin China, and Ceylon; all of Cambodia, Siam, Burmah, Thibet, Tartary, and Loo-Choo; and a great part of Japan, and most of the islands of the Southern seas." (Travels of Celebrated Travelers, p. 596.)

"Existence and sorrow are declared to be necessary concomitants; and therefore 'the chief end of man' is to finish this eternal round of changes, and be annihilated. The great doctrines of this faith are five; viz., 1. The eternal existence of the universe and all things; 2. Metempsychosis; 3. Nicban, or annihilation," etc. (Travels of Celebrated Travelers, pp. 597, 598.)

Of this religion, Alger says, "It is the basis and motive of the most extensive disbelief of individual immortality the world has known." (Future Life, part v. chap. viii. p. 615.) Kœpen, in his work on the "Religion of Buddha," says, "Buddhism is the gospel of annihilation." (Ibid., part ii. chap. vi. pp. 111-127.)

In the Methodist of April 16, 1870, Bishop Thomson publishes a sermon in which he says: "As to the existing systems of India, China, and Japan, Hindooism, Confucianism, and Buddhism are all, as every intelligent man knows, decaying and ready to perish, without satisfying the wants of mankind. They hinder human development, and must be swept from the earth by human progress. Nor need we lament; nay, we should rejoice in the prospect, for they offer no salvation to man in this life, but by the extinction of all interests in this life,—its duties, responsibilities, and possibilities,—and no salvation beyond the grave but annihilation, the blowing out of the soul as the blowing out of a candle."

Then the bishop understood them to teach the annihilation of the soul after death, and they do not believe in the immortality of the soul.

In the same paper I find still further unquestionable proof of the belief of the Hindoos on this point. A new sect has lately originated in India called the "Church of the One God." Says the Methodist: "Representatives of the 'Church,' learned in the Sanscrit, were sent to the sacred city of Benares to study more fully the Vedas—the supreme scriptures of Brahmanism—in order to ascertain if the new movement could not be reconciled to the primitive and purest faith of the country; but they reported that these ancient documents taught Pantheism, Metempsychosis, and the annihilation of the soul.

"The Hindoo books describe several different degrees or states of happiness for mankind after death. Of these the highest state is called Mooktee, and consists of union with the Deity, or absorption into the infinite Spirit. This state is the result or reward of attaining divine knowledge. As soon as any man acquires a knowledge of Brahma, it overcomes or extinguishes all sin within him, and its influence upon him; he disregards all work, however meritorious in general opinion, and, emancipated from all worldly desires and bodily passions, his spirit becomes united with Brahma, or is absorbed into him, 'as a drop of water when it falls into the ocean.' He loses all personal identity. He is no longer, and will never again be, a conscious and separate being, and so is not subject to any further transmigrations or changes."

"The third and fourth states of happiness are in the heaven, or abode of the gods, called the Swurg. Some few persons who in this life have performed works of extraordinary merit, after death proceed to Swurg, and reside there till the close of the present Kapla, when Swurg and all its residents, whether gods or saints, will be annihilated." (India, Ancient and Modern, pp. 408, 409.)

This is the faith held by the majority of the human race to-day. Is this the doctrine of the immortality of the soul? It is just the opposite. Do not our orthodox friends know these facts? How, then, can they have the face to claim a universal belief in their notion of the soul's immortality--when all the facts are the other way!

(To be Continued.)

EMINENT MEN WHO REJECTED THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY.

On examination we find that most of the eminent orators and authors of antiquity have recorded themselves as unbelievers in the soul's immortality. Among these, Cicero stands prominent as a great orator and statesman. Though in some of his writings he argues for the immortality of the soul, yet after all he confesses that he did not really believe it. Of him Warburton says, "He professes his disbelief of a future state of rewards and punishments in the frankest and freest manner." (Divine Lega., vol. ii. book iii. sec. 3, p. 182.)

Virgil, Horace, and Seneca were all disbelievers in the immortality of man." (See Enfield, Hist. Phil., pp. 310-313.)

After showing that Cicero was full of doubts on the subject, Dr. Horne says: "All which gave Seneca just occasion to say that 'immortality, however desirable, was rather promised than proved by these great men.' While the followers of these great philosophers were thus perplexed with doubts, others of the heathen entertained the most gloomy notions,—either imagining that they should be removed from one body to another, and be perpetual wanderers, or contemplating the grave as their eternal habitation, and sadly complaining that the sun and stars could rise again, but that man, when his day was set, must lie down in darkness, and sleep a perpetual sleep." (Horne's Intro., vol. i. p. 18.)

No wonder that Paul said that the heathen had no hope; for it was really true.

Gibbon, the celebrated historian, says: "The writings of Cicero represent in the most lively colors the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty, of the ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of death, they inculcate, as an obvious though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the calamities of life, and that those can no longer suffer who no longer exist." (Dec. and Fall, vol. i. p. 527.)

So then, the belief of the ancients was against the immortality of the soul.

The Harm of Attacking a Man

By Macaulay

I HAVE never been able to discover that a man is all the worse for being attacked. One foolish line of his own does more harm than the ablest pamphlets against him by other people.—Macaulay.

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