Here and Hereafter.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3341, 6 September 1879, Page 1

Here and Hereafter.

' Those who cling most lovingly to nith ia a future life, and would atoia tfc* shocks which close thought ilwayt'eawne,' jto it, will ie well to guard' tgamat 'rriij jtemptetteu) to define or 'particularite its feature, node or conditions, to realise its yeUiliOTpttHjei^tofonn.diittoci or {plausible theory regarding it—especially jalo*l, physieaJ, or biological pie..; Let it rest in tfce regae, if you raid We it reetuaehakau. For, while it w mem Ik** [probable that our imiginetwa is utterly sneejpawV of picturing or eoueeiving, or {em coajeeturint: or appteaetMa* the actual truth about the unseen world, it it bartain that oar reason: will find no dffiieulty at all in demolishing; or discrediting |every concrete aad tyiteuatie eoaeeption we might form. The Great Idea—fateiBfttmg and maintainable to long at it it suffered to remaiu nebuloui and un* outlined—opngeals and earnaliies, the jmontent we endearor to embody jt, into' iiomething which it Tulnerable at rery ipoint, and which we are forced to admit lit, on,one gronnd or another, uniuttaina* (We///, I' ' '" ' •',,"'{ ■ 'We all reeognite initinctirely that a' jtfQi'e of identity, a oonteiout eontinuitj of the Ego, it an essential element of the iddetrine. A life beyond the grave, m other worMi and under other conditions ;of corporeal or tpiritaal existence, but. idevoid of thit main feature of individuality, would not, it it evident, answer > the purpose* of the doctrine, nor fulfil those yearnings of the heart and toil 'which many writers hold to. be if a jmost contiDcing: indication. Apart froni jthit consciousness of personal identity,; a futuro life would be simply a ntw ereatioa, —the beings who came into exittenoe Iwo^id be other beinns, not ourselves jawnkened.,and renewed. The curious, .but not unattractive, Pythagorean theory of transmigration, reaching, at it did, both to the future aad the patt, failed alto*tether in thit essential; ' It it probable jth'at the determination to hold fast to that essential—a determination often half unjconseiout and instincti»e-—fostered, if it did not originate, the astonishing doctrine bf the resurrection of the body, which . )ias to strangely and thoughtlessly (like ; knany minor dogmas) found its way into our popular creed. The originators, or congeaiers of that creed, whoever they bay have been—innocent of all science md oddly muddled in their metaphysics, tat resolute in their conviction that the tame person who died should be, in very Jeed, the tamo that should rise hereafter r-systeuatised their anticipations into he notion that the grave should give up ts actual inmates for their ordained^ ransfbrmatidh and their allotted fate^* The:current notion, of the; approaching^ >nd of. the world no ;doubt; Aflpef o blind them to the vulnerability, tnd indeed the fatal telf eontradUdtions, of he form in which they had embodied their aithV .Of course, if they had taken,, time . o think, or if the Fathers of the CUur«h lad been more given to tbiukiig in the! ' rigid meaning of this word, thef would lavei discovered that thiatneeial lortm^ -endered that faith' indefeasible, aW rirtualiy impossible; - They did •ttAmwrr >r they never eonaidered, that the buried tody toon dissolves intb tits ekaeati* vhioh ia the eour«e ot tfmntiuu.JtmL, NWtariet pass into other eeHMMtioas, orm' part «f other ■ living eraalurea, feedi lad eoutitute countless organitatieat sal

after another; so that when the graves were summoned "to give up the dead that were in them," and the sea "the dead that were in it," they will be called upon to surrender what they 110 longer possess, and what no infernal power can give back to them. It never occurred to ! those ereedmakers who thus took upon themselves to carnaliso an idea into a fact, that for every atom that once went to make up the body they committed to the earth, there would be scores of claimants, and that even Omnipotence itself could scarcely be expected to make the same component part be in two or ten j places at once. The original human frames, therefore, could not be had when ! as supposed, they would be wanted. Neither, apparently, did it occur to them that these bodily shells and frames would not be wanted. " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.'' The periihftVe carcase 'could not be needed (like the bone " Luz " so queerlj invented for the purpose by the later Jewg) to supply materials for "the spiritual body," and would sot be forthcoming if it were wanted.

Moreover, what could such inccngrous elements as nitrogen and the phosphates, sodium and other metallic bases, be doing in immaterial spheres, and before the judgment-seat of God ? It was the Souls of men that were to be the actors in that mighty, drama. And, again, where were the souls during the ages that elapse between their exit from the mortal husk, and their appearance at the final summons P Speculation has been busy with this problem for generations, and has always been baffled. A more thoughtful age will marvel that the fancy of the primeval savage, who buries his horse and dog, and spear and arrows in the same grave with his departed chief, that they may be ready forhim in tho mnseen hunting-grounds, whither he is gone, .should hare been so nearly reproduced in the creed of the most cultivated nation in the most civilised age that human progress has yet reached— 11 Enigmas of Life." W. E. Gtßeg.