Recognition in heaven
m lite; ctif^ Kt r- \y !- I -^r.-f ■(. ' - ( 1 '•iti- 'K* ;. I* s < ^- "^.^■i* ♦ V .•I • ^ ^^ *j( 1 • O .^* ^^kirni' Vo^' '*^^-' " 'o ■• » ' *^o* ' n o c° .1^=^. "^^ Mgiti&n m Mt^hm. *:-5^ BY jfc^ mF^ -^ Rev. LrlieSffEE, A.fHJ V ft ' ' OP THBVI'«^IN1A ANNUAL CONFERENCE. JN ic / « Can w/f3^t departeilfrieads ? Ah, no ! / Wymin our hearts their memory Bu1rte«i4jfi§| , TheAhought that where they are we too shall go ' "Wm cast a light o'er darkest scenes of wo ; /Tor to their own blest dwellings in the skie^ y The souls whom Christ sets free exultinglyi shall rlBt." / ? FOURTH EDITION. RICHMOND, VA.: PUBLISEED BY THE AUTHOR. / -V" ^1/ ^' nS-7 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by L. ROSSER, in the Gerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia. STEREOTTPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO. PHILADELPHIA. In Exchange Duke. Univeroity MAY V- 1934 / PREFACE. \ The heart has its own history. In its loneliness often spontaneously arise emotions of indefinable endearment, that seem to be prophetic of a bliss- ful consummation, as if breathed by invisible and familiar friends from the Spirit-land. Insensible, • at such times, of connection with rude matter about us, we seem to be soaring aloft to a bright and happy world afar, — a Paradise, an Eden of Love, the home of the soul, — where the Father of our spirits abides, surrounded by his ransomed and angelic family, — and among them are many of our own household. Anon, we seem to have approached so near as almost to hear the softened * notes" of the distant cherubim, and to inhale the fragrance of the Rose of Sharon and the odor of the "golden vials," and to see the curtain of immortality gently rising, and revealing familiar forms and faces beckoning us to a welcome place / among them. At such times, like Paul, we hear and see what it is unlawful to repeat — so sacred are our communings with them we love, amd so rude and cold the world in which we live. Or, like Peter on Tabor, we never would think of 4 PREFACE. earth again, did not other friends and unfinished work recall us to the place of graves. Or, as to John in Patmos, a door to us seems opened in heaven, and we seem to hear a voice saying, " Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter;" — and suddenly the sterile rocks around us become a mount of glori- ous vision — from which, like Elijah, in a chariot of fire we would ascend into the open heavens, if the time had come to transmit our mantle to another. And so, like David, we cheer ourselves the while with the belief, that, though our sainted friends cannot come back to us, we shall in due time go to them. "We cannot renounce the belief that an in- visible spiritual world surrounds us, that other spirits, besides the Omniscient, take cognizance of our inmost feelings and tenderest emotions, and in some sort reciprocate our purest afiTec- tions, sympathize in our sorrows, and share in our joys. We are assured that guardian angels are about us, and oft we believe that sainted friends commingle with them, and are our com- panions by the way. Sometimes so intense is the impression that they are near us, that the. image seems to start from the canvas on the wall, and smile on us, and the summer breeze through the window seems to whisper messages from the land ©f our loved ones. The carol of birds in the stillness of eventide reminds us of our bereave- ment, and, in cadences soft and sw^et, awakens in PEEFACE. 5 the soul a note ineffably tender, wliicli we wish we had words to express. The crystal streamlet, murmuring by the moss and the sedge, or rippling over the pebbles, or "rombling" down the slope of the mountain, has, too, a voice the soul can interpret, but cannot express. The stars in the serene heavens, in the hour of melancholy, twinkle so mildly on us, that our sadness is soothed, for they seem to be "Telling a touchmg story Of friends long past to the kingdom of loye, Where the soul wears its mantle of glory." "We love the graves of our sainted dead; and every visit we make where they repose we in- stinctively recall what they were, and as instinct- ively believe that their spirits are the same. In the solemn sanctity of the churchyard, or the old family burial-ground, we often feel a deeper throb of immortality, and a warmer glow of social affec- tion, than elsewhere ; for those that loved us seem to be there, and we love to linger there, because there we laid them, and there we parted from them last, and there we can visit them again, and we would feel desolate if we knew not the sacred spot where their loved forms are sleeping in the deep and lonesome slumber of death. "We love the wild rose that blossoms, and the greensward that waves, and the evergreen that bends, and the vine that ^droops, over their graves. Treasured m.ementos awaken the tenderest reminiscences, and the departed are associated with every object U PEEFACE. we know they loved most, and we love tlie tMngs they loved because they loved them. In the impulse of affection, we would die to meet them again, if by dying we knew we should do so, and find them the same they were when with us on earth. Oh, who, when his work is done, would not resign his body to repose beside the graves of his sleeping friends, that he might rejoin their blessed spirits in heaven? "When Sarah died in Kirjath- Arba, "Abraham came to mourn for her, and to weep for her," and he buried her "in the cave, in the end of the field of Machpelah;" and when Abraham, died, his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, laid him by the side of Sarah. It may be you have just returned from the grave to your dreary home, where the loved one never, never can come back again. Suddenly the sunshine of life has faded into gloom, and the fireside is clothed with mourning and grief. Un- heard now is the sound of approaching or receding footsteps, and no more in this life, except in memory, can the departed cheer you with the smiles of love, or bless you with the offices of friendship, or instruct you with the counsels ol wisdom; and through the dwelling, just now so cheerful and joyous, a deep melancholy reigns, which no words can describe, and which the following pages are designed to relieve. ligature speaks in tones of sadness and uncertainty, till a voice, clear and distinct, from the Spirit-land itself, is heard. PREFACE. 7 "We shall survey tlie whole ground, as far at least as we are able, on which the hope of recog- nition is founded; and in doing so, we cordially avow that to us no hope of the soul is invested with so much interest and value as that of meet- ing and knowing our friends in heaven, except that one most blissful hope, the hope of meeting and knowing Him "who loved us, and gave him- self for us." It is the presence of our friends that constitutes all that is worthy of the name of home in this wilderness world ; and, bowed into the dust as we are on their death, our grief is relieved only in proportion as we hope to rejoin them beyond the wilderness. "What, then, besides the exception we have made, can so enlist our hearts as the sub- ject of this treatise? Home! and Heaven! blessed names ! A thousand unutterable thousrhts and feelings crowd upon us as soon as they are mentioned ? We make a brief statement of the general arrangement of this volume, and shall then detain the reader no longer from the meditations that have been so pleasant to us. The immortality of the soul is first considered, be- cause, if the soul be not immortal, recognition after death is out of the question. The immortality of the soul may be doubted indeed by but few, and yet the consideration of it may not only be plea- sant in itself, but an agreeable introduction to the consideration of the doctrine of recognition. Part First embraces arguments derived from 8 PREFACE. Nature, Reason, and tlie Scriptures, in favor of the recognition of those we have known. Part Second embraces arguments in favor of the stronger position, that we shall know those we have not known ; from which follows the less from the greater, — that is, that we shall recognise those we have known. Part Third embraces arguments in support of the exaltation and perpetuation of particular friend- ships in heaven. Part Fourth embraces the consideration of objections. The conclusion contains the consolatory and practical application of the subject. Petersburg, Yiroinia, Oct. 20th, 1855. ANALYSIS. PAQE Preface < 3 INTRODUCTION. Immortality of the Soul 13 PART I. RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN OF THOSE WE HAVE KNOWN. Chap. I. — The Argument from Nature 27 Chap. II. — ^Arguments from Reason. 1. Consciousness of personal identity inde- structible 35 2. Memory will continue forever 41 3. Recognition essentially inyolved in the doc- trine of the Resurrection 50 4. The proceedings of Judgment necessarily involve recognition 60 5. Intercourse in Heaven involves recognition... 66 Chap. III. — A.rguments from the Scriptures. I. The hope of recognition impressively set forth in the Old Testament 69 1. "Gathered unto his people" 69 2. The case of David 71 n. The doctrine of recognition plainly taught in the New Testament 75 1. The case of the Bethany family 75 2. The case of the rich man and Lazarus... 78 3- Fellowship of the saints with Abraham, &c. 80 9 ^ 10 ANALYSIS. PAOE 4. Mutual knowledge set forth 81 5. The work of the Christian ministry involves recognition 91 6. Ground of comfort to the Church in bereave- ment 95 PART n. recognition: the argument from the greater to THE LESS. Chap. I. — ^We shall know the Angelic Orders 98 Chap. II. — Facts of Scripture. 1. The case of the rich man and Lazarus 113 2. The transfiguration of Christ , 114 3. Christ in his glorified humanity 117 4. The visions of John in the Apocalypse 130 PAET III. exaltation and perpetuation of particular friendships. Chap. I. — The Argument from Reason 132 Chap. II. — The Argument from Reason continued 151 Chap. III. — The Argument from the Scriptures. 1. Christ had his favorite Apostles 154 2. Christ had his favorites among private Chris- tians 155 3. The Apostles had their favorite churches and particular friends 156 4. The relation between the minister of Christ and his converts 157 Chap. IV. — A Difficulty considered: The medium of future recognition. 1. In the intermediate state 169 2. After the resurrection 179 ANALYSIS. 11 PAET ly. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. PAGE Chap. I. — Several Minor Objections. 1. If the doctrine were true, it would be more clearly revealed 180 2. The heavenly life will be much higher than this 180 3. The love of Christ will absorb every other affection 180 4. The number of heaven's inhabitants excludes the possibility of knowing them all 180 5. The change in the resurrection will render recognition impossible 180 Chap. II. — Objections continued. 1. Particular friendships will be absorbed in universal charity 184 2. Grief will be felt in the absence of those who have been dear to us on earth 186 CONCLUSION. 1. Practical 191 2. Consolatory 196 # - \ \ :-a-^j: // ■p — 'f .. .--'7~-«. — /. C\^ ^ ydi^ <h v_. INTRODUCTION. IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. There is a deep impulse to eternity in every human bosom, a profound longing after some grand consummation of our being, to which we feel charmed onward by a power superior to ourselves. TVe no sooner begin conscious exist- ence, than spontaneously we go forth in pursuit of some long- lost, final good, corresponding to the magnitude of the pre- parations without us, and the mystery and intensity of the impulses within us. Somewhere in the future, beyond the sunset of this world, we anticipate the establishment of our being, and we give to the future its boundlessness and its greatness, because we feel that we are formed for it and -are destined to it, though we feel there are stupendous obstacles lying in our path, which cannot be surmounted without calling constantly to our aid the same power that ever allures us onward. Heathendom, with its sublime philoso- phy, science, arts, and education, amid tones of deepest sad- ness and despair, felt an under-current of spiritual energy struggling for dominion, and heard the fainter whispers and echoes of a ^^Name above every other name,'' to be re- vealed in due time. ^'Golden threads of immortality" ran through the whole tissue of antiquity, which the ancients in vain attempted to trace to their origin and end, and of which they formed the finer material that adorned their 2 13 14 INTRODUCTION. gods, and heroes, and temples. Many of the noble words of heathen niythology, descriptive of worship, religion, sanctity, piety, atonement, sacrifice, faith, initiation, were but the impressive preparations for the splendid revelations of the gospel, and only required a satisfactory explanation to confirm the long and ardently cherished hope of the world's redemption. Heathen philosophers were but the seers, and heathen poets the bards, of initial grace, pre- paring their disciples, ''like those of John the Baptist,''* to be presented to Christ for perfection. Till this time, though they could not call themselves the followers of Christ, they called themselves the followers of Plato. Though they were ignorant of the refreshing shade and fruits of the Tree of Life, and the healing waters of Siloam, they loved the pleasant groves of Academia, and the crystal fountains of Helicon, Parnassus, and Pindus. Though they beheld not the charms of holiness, they cultivated the taste for the sub- lime and beautiful. Though not a temple of the true God was found in all their cities, they reared structures for the worship of their deities, and selected and consecrated spots to sacred services. Though their religious impulses were perverted by ignorance, superstition, policy, or education, they still cherished reverence for some supreme ruling power, to whom they dedicated altars, in the earliest in- stances composed of earth or ashes, erected in the open air, or in sombre recesses in solitary woods, or upon the tops of mountains, or in retired grottoes in the sides of the moun- tains, or in shady arbors formed of laurel, or beneath some venerable oak or other sacred tree, till at length, in the pro- gress of refinement and civilization, splendid temples were erected, surrounded by the most costly enclosures, and adorned with a gorgeous profusion of altars, statues, and monu- * Trench, Hulsean Lectures. INTRODUCTION. 15 ments. In a word, the whole heathen world inclined tc some great central truth for the solution of its sacred myste- ries and the explanation and confirmation of its deep and sacred impulses. 1. The admirable harmony of the material universe over our heads, suggests the belief that there is another state, in which the confusion, irregularity, and imperfection of the world we inhabit shall be corrected and repaired. The constitution of the human mind, though now in magnificent ruins, suggests the belief of its destination to a higher sphere; though humbled in the dust, it instinctively refers its noble powers to a period infinitely exalted above the pre- sent changeful and transitory life. Or if this spontaneous conviction be interpreted as an illusion of a frail and transi- tory being, the inquiry arises, why should divine wisdom and goodness have connected so frail and transient a being with such a splendid and harmonious system as that which surrounds him, and overawes him on every hand? Admit man's destination to a higher state, and he-is above the pre- sent system ; deny his immortality, and he is not only helow the present system, but the present system itself suggests no end in vindication of the wisdom and goodness of Grod. AVhat! was the mind of man originally constituted to be absorbed and vanish amid the enterprises and trivial pur- suits of a few years ? Grant that this world had an origin, — and blind infidelity only denies that it had, — and no argument can prove that its Creator confines the existence of man to the present state, or that his hopes of the future are illusory. Let it not be assumed that man knows the ybrce and limit of his existence through the medium of the senses. Intuition is connatural with the human mind, and hence existence cannot be inferred from sense. The soul has its own sepa- rate and independent spontaneity, prophetic of its immortal- ity and indefinite expansibility. As a latent fire from the 16 INTRODUCTION. smitten rock issues a brilliant and splendid ligbt, a new essence, possessing nothing in common with the rude mate- rial in which it had long lain reposed, — or as the lightning, bursting from the bondage of the midnight thunder-cloud, flashes out, a new element of resplendent glory, — so the soul, issuing from its terrestrial confinement, will ascend, a new being, to the consummation of its existence, amid higher harmonies; the heavens and the earth shall open, and be covered with a momentary glory, as it ascends to the per- fection to which it aspires. 2. The phenomena of mind cannot explain the origin and issue of mind, since by phenomena we are led forward interminably into the future, where the explanation reposes in the conclusion of the series. The unfathomed mystery of the soul, and the incomprehensibility of God, which are intuitive, fundamental, and unexplained facts, are strong presumptive arguments in favor of our future and exalted being. And by the light of revelation, borne upward in a succession of reflections and inspirations, we presently reach an intellectual and moral altitude we cannot measure, from which we look down with profound solicitude and upward with kindled hope, exclaiming, '^ There is one difficulty moi-e!" — every difficulty surmounted becoming in our progress a sub- lime argument that we are pursuing the appropriate path toward our first cause and ultimate end ; every moment confirmed in the belief that the universe should have con- genial inhabitants, and that we have already passed its fron- tiers and entered upon its possession ; every moment antici- pating that the next step will diffuse a sudden and sufficient light upon great questions now partially explained, or wholly involved in mystery ; every moment assured that the com- prehensive issue will have its own overwhelming evidence and its own indubitable history; every moment reminded, too, of our grandeur and our nothingness, of our dignity INTRODUCTION. 17 and our dependence, of our immortality and our infancy, of our origin and our destiny; and every moment the more impressed with the duty of being content with the morning twilight that dawns clear and calm on this distant portion of our inheritance, and that warms our hearts into reverence, confidence, and hope. 3. All the fundamental facts of the present are connected with ultimate ends in the future. A means without a cor- responding end is an absurdity; a faculty without a corre- sponding object is an absurdity. Every expectation of good, and every apprehension of evil, partakes of the nature of sure prophecy; and hence every man may find constituent in his present character indications of his final destiny. The development of the fundamental laws of nature is not more certain than the development of the fundamen tal laws of mind. As the seed contains in its unsightly coil all the inherent energy that is to bear it through the amplitude of its history, till it is consummated in summer beauty and autumnal perfection, — as the acorn, for example, contains within its organized atoms all the dormant energy that is to support the oak through a thousand storms, — so the mind has an inherent power, that is to sustain it through all the eventful periods of its immortality. The slow development of this energy, in the present state, is to be ascribed to the nature of the present state, in which 'Hhe whole creation groaneth for the glorious liberty of the sons of God, the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the hodi/." Though man lost the holi- ness of Adam, he did not lose the original latent energy of mind. The purification and development of this latent energy in the proper direction are two of the grand objects of the plan of redemption by Jesus Christ, and consequently they invest the redemptive principle with inconceivable importance. No wonder prophets and apostles, in referring, under inspiration, to the grace of God, employ such great 18 INTRODUCTION. terms. Lost angels retain all the latent mental energy (except that of holiness) which they had in original crea- tion ; and the banishment of wicked men " from the presence of God, and the glory of his power/' will not destroy this innate energy. The repression and confinement of this energy in evil will constitute a principal element in the re- tribution of lost angels and men. This is impressively set forth in the Scriptures under the figures of ^'- a great gulf Jixedj' impassable; ^^ chains,'' restraint; ^^ gnashing of teeth," energy recoiling upon itself; ^'bottomless pit," not only utter hopelessness, but the endless development of men- tal energy in evil and misery ; ''banished from God, and the glory of his power/^ severed completely from the only proper sources of mental development in the universe and in eternity : all this is the ''second death/^ and the unutter- able consciousness of it. The natural energy of mind is indestructible and inter- minable, and the test of its strength is its development. The labors of to-day are preliminary to those of to-morrow ; the labors of time are preliminary to those of eternity ; and so on in endless and harmonious succession. Increasinf;' o strength diminishes difficulty. Every achievement is an accession of power. What, then, is the final object of men- tal energy? This world, we have seen, is inferior to it; and if this world were a paradise, life is too short for the mind's maturity in it ', and hence we must look to a higher existence for the mind's maturity, to which we are allured by forces on all sides, and to which we are directed by the unerring and animating light of revelation. 4. It is the nature of pure reason, noblest faculty of the mind, to deduce unity and harmony from all the simple ab- stract judgments of the understanding, and thus, hj general- izing,XQ2iQ\\ the Absolute Cause and final end — each particu- lar truth leading to a general truth, and each general truth, INTRODUCTION. 19 with its whole class of truths, leading nearer to the absolute, the unconditional, the necessary, the final, till the mind in rapture beholds the simple, central, all-comprehending Truth of the Universe, — the totality of all phenomena, mental and material. We feel no alarm for our hopes, or for the reve- lations of the Bible, when some new science threatens to invade them. Though great minds have discovered the almost obliterated traces of ancient nations, and genius and science have surveyed the border-lands of unknown and nameless worlds, and ventured even beyond the bounds of time in search of the primeval spoils and exuviae of our own globe, entombed in fossiliferous strata during alternate and incalculable cycles of life and death, yet Grod, the Father of our spirits, like the sun, which hideth himself in his own splendor while he disperses darkness from every thing else, '' holdeth back the face of his throne,^' — concealeth himself in the dazzling effulgence of his own perfections, — till he shall light up the dark universe with his glory ; thus reprov- ing the pride and presumption of ignorance, as he appro- priates the successive achievements of science to the final and complete confirmation of the truth of the Bible. Though through a long series of profound researches, extending, with occasional intervals, over many centuries, and conducted by most of the renowned countries of antiquity, down to the present brilliant period, the aim of the whole process has been to approach the final truth, divine Providence has per- mitted this employment of mind, in order that the simple statements of the Bible may receive some confirmation from man himself; that, in whatever department of scientific or philosophical investigation the mind may take its direction, it may finally reach a conclusion in exact conformity with the dignified declarations of the Bible -, that, as every im- provement upon a preceding system, in any science, is made, it shall be added to the lore of mind, and lead man nearer 20 INTRODUCTION. the perception of the primeval truth revealed in the Bible; that what now can only be the objects of faith and hope shall finally become the subjects of conviction ; that the bewildered mind of man, after all its fatigue and skepticism, may cordially and satisfactorily admit that in not the least particular, in any department of scientific knowledge, any inconsistency with the truth of the Bible exists. Thus, Moses furnishes man with no philosophy, no laws of physics, states no theory, defends no hypothesis, indulges in no spe- culation; but announces positive facts, fundamental laws, ultimate truths, thoughts and acts and purposes of God, as so many simple propositions, composing one grand and har- monious system of first principles, for man through a long succession of ages to elaborate and arrange for the confirma- tion and satisfaction of human hopes. When the mind, therefore, shall arrive at the ultimate truths of all science, the truth of the Bible will be recognised xx^on. philosophical ground — a department of collateral evidence in support of revelation, cumulative in its strength, as that derived from prophecy and providence. We seem to have forgotten that, in the nature of things, it is necessary that Grod should prepare the minds of men and angels, by the most stupendous and magnificent pre- liminaries, for the future, transcendent, and endless evolu- tions of his Godhead. The present great universe is but an introduction to all this ; for it is rational to suppose that, on the laws of progress along the endless chain of the known and unknown that conducts us into the future, in some dis- tant era of mind the present limits of actual existence will be but the old familiar valleys in which we sported in our childhood, from which we shall ascend to the mountain sum- mits, over which other stars and suns are shining, and be- yond which brighter visions expand on the interminable immensity. Exalted to the position where the dependence INTRODUCTION. 21 of every thing upon one general truth is perceived and traced to the nature of the all-perfected Being, the mind will enjoy a perpetual sabbatic rest in the love and contem- plation of that Being — in Himself, in the past, and in the forthcoming and endless manifestations of Himself. 5. We reach the same conclusion from a consideration of the nature and tendency of man's social nature. The inef- fably, unspeakably tender, pure, and substantial union be- tween the three Persons in the Grodhead — a profound and inexplicable fact and mystery — is the original standard of the social nature of man ) and if such be the original, what must be the image? The final end of the social principle in man is not only to associate him with God and his holy family, but to exalt him to the highest happiness of which mind is capable. The constitution of society was ordained for happiness, and is founded upon the social principle. Every man, though he be an infidel, is bound to obey the laws of nature ; and whoever disregards their authority not only becomes an enemy to himself, but to God and the hu- man race. The indications of nature in man are such, that, independently of the knowledge of God, man discovers that be is made for society; and when the explanatory 'kno^N- ledge of the God of love is added; the most lively energy is given to the social sentiments, and is designed to carry them to the highest degree of perfection. The law of na- ture, explained by the gospel, and proceeding from the will of God, becomes the supreme law of man's conduct, and enjoins the most enlightened and sacred obligation — "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor as thy- self.'' The social principle pervades the holy universe. God for man declares a love whose utmost intensity nO lan- guage can describe, no figures illustrate, no types express, no imagery represent, no actions exhaust^ no periods unfold. 22 INTRODUCTION, All the angels are transported in every case of penitence among men. They all rejoiced at the opening of one of the seals of redemption ; and we know not that they are em- ployed in any other service but what respects the salvation of man. All the prophets and apostles displayed the same holy sympathy; and so does the true church in all ages. What vast interests then must be involved ! what great re- sults must be impending ! what grand consummation must be connected with man as a social being ! / 6. Love is the noblest ornament of our nature, and the { sweetest passion that burns in the bosom of man or angel. It is a sublime enchantment, that insensibly disengages us from ourselves, and transports us beyond the limit of our being in search of the congenial out of ourselves. The soul, elevated by the sublime idea of the God of love, takes the first step toward immortality, exclaiming, ^^I shall be satis- Jied when I awake with thy likeness.^' Love is happiness, and the mind, expanded by love, is soon in motion to make everybody else happy within its reach. What then is the final object of love ? It Js jQot truth — nor is it beauty — nor is it order — nor is it nature — nor, least of all, is it self; it is God himself, and all who are like Grod. , Love languishes for these through all life, and is never fully content with the sweetest glimpses of them in this life. Over all sufi'ering, temptation, self-denial, sacrifice, want, persecution, and death itself, love goes forward for its maturity to Grod in heaven, where the face will beam with a sentimental glory, and every attribute be grace, and the exercises of the afi^ctions be in unison with the music of the spheres, the melody of angels, the songs of saints, and the perfections of God. 7. We may conclude the future has its origin in the 'pre- sent. The soul reposes on the only permanent foundation of happiness when all its hopes are connected with duty. The world appears inefiably beautiful, and incalculably valu- INTRODUCTION. 23 able, when it appears contributing to the development of faculties of mind whose termination is unknown, and evolv- ing a future in which its true destiny is confined. The emotions of immortality — the aspirations of a long celebrity — the sighs of the soul for the unbounded future as our country — are encouraged only when it is known that the present is connected with duty. Then the soul is as a flower, daily unfolding its petals, to bloom forever, and dif- fuse its fragrance as incense through eternity. The instinct- ive fear of spirit, the apprehension of some fearful disaster when the awful mysteries of the present state shall be ex- plained, the expectation of magnificent things in the future world, the profound anxiety of the soul respecting its cause, its design, and the design of the vast universe it inhabits, the oppressive idea of the infinite, supreme, and eternal God, are not the results of material affinity, nor the spontaneous accidents of refined matter; or the soul would recoil from the confines of a dark and silent futurity. But these are the elements of a destiny that is to survive the heavens and the earth — elements which religion explains and classifies by connecting them with the future, and directing them to the approving decision of the Judge on the last day. y' 8. [We have already stated that man is ever anticipating some point in the future in which his destiny shall be settled / forever. Enchanted in this life from one delusion to an- d 1 1 \ other, the charm is soon flown, and the last and best bound- ary yet appears in the distance. The first draught of earthly pleasure is always the sweetest, and succession soon results in satiety; the heart is tormented with the remembrance that what is past is gone forever, and depressed by the con- sciousness that the past has contributed nothing to the wel- fare of the future. 9. Finally : let it not be supposed that the soul's matu- rity will be the limit of its progress. No; but in turn it be- comes the basis of a higher and more glorious series. We shall take up existence where Adam forfeited it and angels found it. As some mighty mind in this life — Bacon's, for instance — out of the materials of the past founds a new era and gives a new direction to human thought; so the close of our earthly state will be the epoch in the history of our be- ing, from which shall be dated the unrestrained and endless development- of mind in exact harmony with all that is great, and grand, and supreme, in eternity. Here we are arrived at our Father's house at last, and we are ourselves again. And we look around for our friends : nothing is more natural. Are they with us ? Do we know them ? Let us interpret nature again. Let us descend into the vale again, and commune with our grief. The soul knows its own grief best. No one loved our departed friends as we do. No one feels their loss as we do; no one misses them as much as we do. No heart on earth retains so perfectly and inde- libly the image of their loveliuess as ours does ; and that INTRODUCTION. 25 is the precious memento which spirit gives to spirit, and which no artist can portray on canvas as it is impressed on our hearts. It has entered into our very being as a living reality; it seems to have become a part of ourselves, and we bear it along as a part of our destiny. We cannot realize the idea of its utter obliteration. It is the unfading pledge of the remembrance and return of the dear original. It were as difficult, it seems, to cease to be, as to violate this law of our nature. The waste of life and change cannot deface or dim the likeness love left us years ago. Every feature still is perfect j that eye, that brow, that smile, that face, that form, the dress, are as vivid still as an actual ex- istence- Unchanged it must endure in us, though every thing else change and dissolve to dust around us. It is stamped with our own immortality — it must continue till the heavens and the earth are no more. It has a mysterious import of certain reunion. Though vanished from sight ROW is the original, this image we retain most sacredly im- pressed upon our hearts, assured, with the certainty of a pro- phecy, that somewhere in the great universe of being it still lives ; and could we this instant start in pursuit of it, we would inquire where the angels of God and the good abide, and forthwith would we direct our course straight to that happy place ; expecting, it might be, every moment to see the happy one on the way to meet us. This much we know is true;- — ^so long as we remember and love, we hope to meet again; ay, so long as we love, we cannot forget. Imagine not that this is but the delicious dream of the «oul. Ever since man was banished from Paradise he has wandered in the wilderness, day and night, ever reminded by a mysterious impression, to" which he cannot give utter- ance, that he is not what he was — that he is not what he may be — that, though much is lost, all is not lost — that what is lost may be recovered — that beyond the wilderness 26 INTRODUCTION. there is a world whose flowers are unsoiled by the dust, un- scorched by the sun, untorn by the tempest, unwithered by the frost, ever beautiful and fadeless. He feels now that he is alone; that his best friends are invisible; that the deep throbbing of his soul, which he can no more repress than he can stop the beating of his heart, is that he may see them again, and be with them forever. He wanders on, inquir- ing, Where is my Father? where is my First Cause ? where is my Chief Grood? where is my Ultimate End ? where are the rest of the members of His family ? where in the bound- less universe may I find Him, and rejoin them? where shall the heart enjoy the full freedom for which it sighs ? It is more than imagination that peoples the heavens with holy and exalted intelligences, and the good man feels he would be at home anywhere with them. Never can we believe that God created the bright sun merely to light us to the grave; nor do we believe that it is bright enough to light us a single step beyond it; nor do we believe that the stars shine merely to adorn the night. We feel that sun and stars are but a part of our kingdom, and that we have already entered upon its possession, and that, though now over our heads, they will soon be beneath our feet and under our sway. Great lights are in the heavens; and we are glad to see them, for they awaken great thoughts and great emo- tions, encouraging the soul onward in its right path to its noble destiny. Who, then, will say this is a dream ? No : it is sublime faith ; such a faith as is supported by the strongest deductions of reason, and as is consistent with the true dignity, the deep promptings, of the soul, and the reve- lations of the word of G'^d. PART I. RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN OF THOSE WE HAVE KNOWN. CHAPTEE I. THE ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. The doctrine of recognition is essentially involved in the original instincts of our social nature. It is more than hope that supports the doctrine ; it is the deep, spontaneous yearning of our social nature; it is nature's pledge of reunion and recognition; it is the prophecy of our social nature, which, though we cannot fully interpret it in this life, we believe to be true, and to be connected with a glorious fulfilment in the future state. It is a funda- mental belief of human nature. It is universal, and hence cannot be invalidated by reason without abrogating that in us which is above reason. Who that carefully analyzes his mental states does not know that there sjce feelings or instincts which are as natural to us as reason is ? which reason may encourage, but never could originate? whose authority, in- deed, reason cannot explain away? and which exist even where reason is weak and sheds scarcely a single ray upon the future state ? If, in the indulgence of these innate and precious instincts and feelings, uncultivated' man cannot bring reason to his support, he substitutes the tenderest fancies in its place. . 1. The rude barbarian loves '^ the tale of the blue moun- 27 28 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. tains, and of his ancestral shadows behind them." Nature is to him a volume of inspiration, which kindles and ani- mates his hopes. In the deep solitude of the forest, as he presses near the mausoleums and mournful mounds and tombs which his rude skill has erected over the departed, how does he yield up his soul to hallowed reveries and visions of his spirit-land ! Nature whispers that the Great Spirit has provided some congenial home afar for his loved ones. How does he inquire of every breeze that murmurs by him, whether it had fanned the fadeless flowers of that beautiful country! How does he inquire of every wind that moans through the forest, and bears away the moun- tain echo, whether it had ever wafted the melody of his shadowy land ! How does he inquire of every wave that tumbles round the distant rock, or breaks with its expiring foam at his feet on the shore, whether it had borne upon its bosom the bark of his fathers, or could bear him back to their company ! How does he inquire of every cloud that floats along the blue bosom of the morning, or hangs in golden hues over the repose of the evening, whether it came from the tranquil lakes of his paradise, or reflected the light from the home of his blissful hopes ! How does he inquire of every star that twinkles in the mysterious heavens, whether it is the home of his loved ones, or can guide him to their country, or ever sparkled in their heavens ! How does he inquire of the moon, as she rises softly up from her ocean bed, or hangs like an angel's lamp in the vault of night, whether her beams fall upon his emerald islands, or bring him news from the spirits of his fathers ! How does he inquire of the sun, lighting up the heavens and the earth, whether he sheds his resplendence on his far distant country, or is a type of the glory of the land of his immortality ! How does he inquire of the promptings of his immortal soul, whether they are the calls of the Great Spirit to rejoin his THE ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. It is the tuneful chime Of spirit voices ! 'tis my infant band, Calling the mourner from this darken'd land To joy's unclouded clime. 30 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. There is a beautiful Indian legend, told by Addison in the Spectator, of ^^Maraton and Yaratilda," in which the de- voted husband comes unawares in sight of Paradise, and sees the shadowy forms of his wife and children, without their bodies. Maraton wishes to die, that he may be admit- ted again to their society. The Indian dreams of his dogs, believing that the greatest hunters shall be in the highest favor with Brahma. The followers of Mohammed die in visions of their houris' beauty. The warriors of Odin already drink the honey-water from the skulls of their ene- mies, served up for them by the beautiful ^' Valkas" of the "Valkalla." Cultivated man has entertained the same instinctive belief. " Who would not part,'^ said Socrates, '' with a great deal to purchase a meeting with Orpheus, Hesiod, and Homer ? If it be true that this is a consequence of death, I would even be glad to die often. What pleasure will it give to live with Palamedes, Ajax, and others, who, like va^, have had unjust sentence pronounced against them ? What an inconceivable happiness will it be to converse, in another world, with Ulj^sses, Lysippus, and that illustrious chief who led out the vast forces of the Grecian army against the city of Troy \" Again, the same philosopher : ''Are there not numbers who, upon the death of their lovers, wives, and children, have chosen of their own accord to enter Hades, induced by the hope of seeing there those they loved, and of living with them again V Said Cicero, the renowned orator of the Roman nation, " For my own part, I feel myself transported with the most ardent impatience to join the society of my two departed f)iends, your illustrious fathers, whose characters I greatly respected, and whose persons I sincerely loved. Nor is this, my earnest desire, confined to those excellent persons alone with whom I was formerly connected : I ardently wish to THE ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. 31 visit also those celebrated worthies, of whose honoi-able con- duct I have heard and read much, or whose virtues I have myself commemorated in some of my writings. 