and finally by prayer. For we can never approach God more acceptably, or with a greater certainty of having our prayers answered, than when we are praying for the soul's good of our brethren. We must be praying then in the spirit of Christ. We may then lean on the promise, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done for you." No prayer can go up more acceptable to God from any human heart than that which asks that the loved one may be preserved from some insnaring temptation, from the bewildering sophistry of worldliness, from the snares of error; which asks not outward good, but inward life, for those most dear; which prays that they may hold fast their integrity, and enter into the blessed rest of the children of God. When Augustine was about to go to Italy, his mother Monica, a pious Christian, prayed that he might be prevented, as she feared the temptations of Rome. But he went, and was converted to Christianity at Milan by Ambrose. "Thou, O my God!" says he, "didst give her not what she asked then, but, by refusing that, didst give what she was always asking." The prayer of the righteous for the souls of others must be at last effectual.

But though Christians are not faithful to this duty, though their love grows cold, and though many are obliged to say, "No man cares for my soul," yet there is One who always cares for the souls of all his children. God cares for souls evermore. All souls are his, and he will not let them go without many an effort to draw them up to himself. He sends many

blessed influences, he sends many holy providences, ever to those who are neglected and forsaken by man. He does not leave himself without a witness in the most abandoned heart. Multitudes are abandoned of man, but none abandoned of God. If they do not like to retain him in their thoughts, he leaves them to themselves; but he does not forget nor forsake them. His love pursues, surrounds, and calls after them. He sees the first dawning light in their heart; he sees them when yet a great way off. If we are God's children, if we are Christ's disciples, we also should love the souls of all; for to God and to Christ all souls are dear.

XIX.

LIFE AND THE RESURRECTION.

(AN EASTER SERMON.)

John xi. 25, 26: "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. HE

THAT BELIEVETH IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE; AND WHOSOEVER LIVETH AND BELIEVETH IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE."

1 Pet. i. 3: "BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHICH, ACCORDING TO HIS ABUNDANT MERCY, HATH BEGOTTEN US AGAIN UNTO A LIVING HOPE BY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD."

Phil. iii. 10-12: "THAT I MAY KNOW HIM, AND THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BEING MADE CONFORMABLE UNTO HIS DEATH; IF BY ANY MEANS I MIGHT ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD; NOT AS THOUGH I HAD ALREADY ATTAINED, EITHER

WERE ALREADY PERFECT."

Rom. vi. 3-8: "KNOW YE NOT THAT SO MANY OF US AS WERE BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST WERE BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH? THEREFORE WE ARE BURIED WITH HIM BY BAPTISM INTO DEATH; THAT LIKE AS CHRIST WAS RAISED UP FROM THE DEAD BY THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, EVEN SO WE ALSO SHOULD WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. FOR, IF WE HAVE BEEN PLANTED TOGETHER IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH, WE SHALL BE ALSO IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION.... Now, IF WE BE DEAD WITH CHRIST, WE BELIEVE THAT WE SHALL ALSO LIVE WITH HIM."

1 Cor. xv. 49: "As WE HAVE BORNE THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHY, WE SHALL ALSO BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY."

THAT

HAT God has placed in man an instinctive consciousness of his immortality, is, I think, very evident. We call it an instinct, because we can find

no better word for it; but man's instincts differ from those of the animals in several ways. The instincts of animals are invariable, universal, and unchangeable, or nearly so. Those of men are different in degree in different persons; are modified and changed by circumstances in each man; and are susceptible of modification, growth, and improvement.

The instincts of dogs, foxes, and vipers, were the same in the days of Esop that they are now; the eagle fed its young in the time of Isaiah very much as at the present day; the community of bees, of beavers, and of ants, was governed and arranged according to the same constitution and code of laws in the nineteenth century before Christ as in the nineteenth century after him. Man, too, has a social instinct, which causes him always to organize a society, and to come into some kind of community. He does this instinctively and necessarily; but how different are his societies, and modes of organizing them! They were patriarchal among the Jews, arranged in families; hierarchal among the Egyptians, formed according to priestly arrangements and religious laws. Society took the form of clans in Scotland; of tribes among the Indians; of feudal societies, or a military system, in the middle ages; of castes and fixed occupations in India; and, in modern Europe and America, of perfect liberty, or the absence of all organization. Yet through all this variety remains the same instinct of society; the disposition to come together and work together in clans, families, castes,

towns, corporations, armies, or churches. If men wish to fight, they unite in an army; if they wish to make cotton, they unite in a corporation; if they wish to pray, they unite in a church; if they wish to amuse themselves, they unite in a club or picnic or ball-room; if they wish to study, they unite in a school or a college. Who does not see here an irresistible instinct of society existing in man, yet modified in a thousand ways by circumstances, by choice, or by reason?

We call that tendency, then, an instinct in mankind, which causes it continually to think, feel, and act in certain ways. These instincts are very numerous. There are religious instincts, moral instincts, social instincts, warlike instincts; the instinct of construction, of art, of science, of commerce, of accumulation. An instinctive tendency is that which is to be found more or less developed in every one, and which acts in every one at first independently of reason and choice.

Now, there is in man an instinctive feeling of immortality. This shows itself exactly as all the other instincts show themselves. Men, in all ages, countries, nations, races, have believed in a future life; but they have had very different notions about the future life. The Egyptians, long before Moses, believed fully in a future life, into which men were admitted after a judgment by Osiris. Pythagoras, and many ancient religions, taught transmigration; the Greeks held to the Elysian Fields and Tartarus.