Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-09-24
Hereafter.

There are two HereafteTs-one lying with
in our reach The other beyond it. One is
Gods Hereafter-the other, mans. From
Gods Hereafter, we are separated by the
~grave-by death-and by all the mysteries
of another and a spiritual world: from our
own Hereafter, we are not separated at ALL
We belong TO tive have grown to it-and
whatever mystery there may be, is that Of a
transparent curtain at most, shimmering with
in our reach, and always ready TO obey our
will, if that will be earnest; varying from a
hands breadth in thickness, through which
no man may see, TO that of kindling air,
when the bright sun is up, according to our
wishes and the steadfastness of our faith.
OF the eight hundred millions who inhab-
it the earth, how many are there who ever
think of this, their first Hereafter? Hardly
one, perhaps, in a hundred thousand, or a
million. The great multitude go toiling on
forever and ever, without a care, without a
wish beyond the NOW, save where they wan
der for a brief moment or two over the boun-
daries of that other Futdre-God's Hereafter.
Here and there one may build a house, or a
temple, or plant a tree, or a state, or buy a
grave-stone, or bequeath his goods TO the
PEOPLE, that he may be remembered forever
the countless thousands who are
already forgotten: or found a charity, that
his name may be had in Everlasting remem-
brance'' among church-wardens, trustees and
overseers of the poor.
But how few are these-even hese-to the
countless millions that have walked up-and
turned overland gone to sleep again with
their Fathers bestirring themselves for a
while above the earth, only that they might
sleep the sounder within it; to the countless
millions that have died after a long and wea-
risome life-toiling and sweating, and bear
ing and suffering, and trying to persuade
themselves they were awake, through all
their appointed years, without one thought OF
the only Hereafter that lies within the grasp
of their understandings. OF the spiritual
Future they have talked much, and always
the more, the less they knew about it. OF
that other world, before whose everlasting
gates, a shape like the shadow of the Uni
verse, which men call Death, abides forever
of that, the few that think beyond the
hour, have sometimes thought. But to what
purposel Bewildering and vast contempla-
ton of Gods Hereafter-of what avail is it
to the health of the soul, or the welfare of
the body, apart from its bearing upon a mans
Hereaflerf Ask the men that have dashed
themselves to death-or starved and rotted
by tens of housands-here cast into the fire
and there butchered upon the same altar
at one time crushed under the wheels of Jug
gernaut, and al another, doomed to utter
worthlessness, within a temple Of a different
shape, and not on wheels-ask them how
much il profiteth creatures built in the like
ness of God himself, TO forget their relation
ship to Man or their duty to themselves, and
10 their august lineage.
Between those who care about no Hereaf-
ter, and those who labor unproftably alike,
to themselves and 10 others, in preparing for
a spiritual Hereafter, as if they had nothing
to do with any other-a few may be found
a very few, faithful and fearless, who trust.
ing to the goodness of their Heavenly Faith
err, take it for granted that He will take care
of them, so long, at least, as they follow the
solemn instincts of that nature wherewith he
has endowed them and who, believing that
whatever may be the fate of those who labor
only after spiritual good, nothing can be
known of them till the great day of final &C
count, ESQ that all the advantages of encour
agement and example are lost upon their fel
lows are ever laboring where their infiu
ence and example may be felt that is among
{ living men; sure that if they grapple witt
the enemy there, their purpose cannot be mis-
, taken; and that he cannot be wrong, VIII,
= lays himself alongside of any great overbear
5 ing error, and battles with it to the last.
These are they, who are laboring for tn
t first Future-man's Hereafter? Can the
be much in the wronga Lies not the broa,
Y highway TO the second Future-God's Here
after-through this Believing, as they dc
e that the only imperishable monuments 70
e mortal man, are the seeds of thought, drop
s ped alive into warm and faithful hearts an
that to Just opinions and exalted virtues bt
long the only self-perpetuating power that
a allowed to flourish under Heaven, can it b
T. wondered at, as if they appear to shut the
l. eyes 10 spiritual things, and to labor lin ii
j, judgment Of the spiritual and self-righteous
1t for that which p%rofteth not? Are not tn
10 ambitious, and the greedy of praise, and tn
I'd covetous of wealth, all alike wandering fro
re the true path-unjust to the holy instincts
IN their nature, and given up to that whiC
er keeps them painting all their lives long, ar
Id hurries them out of the world at last, in cha!
I'D of a phantom ?-and all alike besotted 2
id And are not they, who live neither for then
ld selves nor for the world within their reac
e. whether they be anchorites or idolator
IS, monks or nuns, of the priesthood, or of I
SIS ~people-are they not grievously in the wrol
and greatly to be pitied?
IT, Is il unworthy of Mantle spiritual m
ad to seek to be remembered II not W
m reprOach him, when he labors to that en-
There is only one way. To be rememberc
he must be useful and useful not to
an Spiritualities of another world-to the che
all bin and seraphim-not to Gods archang
al. but 10 his fellow man! But how to
he fellow man ? By holding himself aloof;
cts stealing away from the world by deny
its himself all companionship with the peri
ing millions of earth ? or by talking W
1es them, face to face, in the highways q
ird sitting with them on the hill-side!-
yes ing and drinking with publicans and slime
ent and by Thinking with theml Thus did
ist- Master, whom we all acknowledge, or ?
on tend to acknowledge; and therefore it is I
in we find the riches he scattered so abunda
ly, as he went about dropping gold, not i
the the laps, but into the hearts of men-endC
is ed from the first with a self-multiplying pc
ar which has well nirh 6Iled Tho eartb ~