Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-05-07
ASHTABULA, 0. SATURDAY MORNING, MAY 7, 1859


mny not, we look for the angel still, and in
this sweet looking fall happily asleep at
last. weaken possibly in the angels arms -
possibly, where As the future holds our
happiness A hopes, so does it also hold our
ears our apprehensions; & the mind is up
m constant outlook for that upon which il
ran best rely to avoid the evils which il
breads, and secure. the good which it
desires. 1t reaches in all directions with
its hands, and tries in all directions
with its feet, for solid basis Of calcu-
lation and expectation, with reference
to its future pleasure and pain. AS
the future is inscrutable, it reads carefully
lhe lessons of experience, studies the ma
ure and tendency OF things having rela-
'on to its life, erects theories and Institutes
-chemes of good, and bends its energies to
the achievement and security of protection,
necessary ministry, and aIl.desirable posses
sion. All this it does with reference to the
lew years OF mortal life which remain to it,
But there is a God above the soul, and
there is something within it which prophe-
sizes of another life. The body is to die /;
so much is certain. What lies beyond p
No one who passes the charmed boundary
comes back to tell. The imagination visits
the reOlm Of shadows-sent out from some
window of the soul over life's restless wa
ters-bnt wings its way wearily back with
no olive leaf in its beak as a token of
emerging life beyond the closely bending
horizon. The great sun comes and goes in
heaven, yet breathes no secret of the ethe.
rial wilderness. The crescent moon cleayes
her mighty passage across the upper deep,
bnt tosses overheard no message and dis.
plays no signals. The sentinel stars chal-
lenge each other as they walk their nightly
rounds, but we catch no syllable of the
countersign which gives passage to the
heavenly camp. Shut in Shutin |! Be.
tween this life and the other life there is a
great gulf fixed, across which neither eye
nor foot can travel The gentle friend
who's eyes we closed in their last sleep long
years ago died with rapture in her wonder.
stricken eyes, o smile of ineffabe Joy upon
her lips, and hands folded over triumph
ant heart but her lips were past speech,
and intimated nothing of the vision that
enthralled her.
So, in the lack of all demonstration, we
have but one resort, and that is to faith.
Faith must build a bridge for us faith
must weave wings for us and that faith
must find materials for its fabrics brought
from the other side of the gulf, and not pro.
duced on this. We cannot enter the spirit
land to explore, record and report so al
we get must he revealed to us. We may
talk never so loudly of the intimatioDs O
the immortality within us, of the light oi
reason and of conscience, of the godlike
human soul; we may speculate with marvel
lous ingenuity upon the future development
and destiny Of powers that seem angelic
even TO ourselves, but it is all conjecture
it is all as substantial as the dreams that
haunt our slumbers. Unless God teach us
of the things of God, or delegate some oc-
cupant of heavenly scat to tell us of the
things of heaven and of the destiny Of the
great family of intelligences to which we
belong, we shall know nothing upon these
subjects In brief, all knowledge concern
ing the future condition of men must come
from the other world to this not through
any agency initiated in this. We are thus
helplessly inevitably, left to revelation =
We cannot help ourselves. We may fut-
ter aud founder under this conviction as
much as we choose, but hutterng and
houndering avail uothing If the fact that
We are immortal be not revealed to us, by
Being who knows, and cannot lie if the
way to make our Immortality happy one
he not pointed ont to us by one who has
the right 10 direct, then are we in darkness
that may be felt. Then are we ahOat upon
a wide sea, without rudder or compass.
Now, there can he no faith in any revela-
tionS concerning the future state, and no
faith in the things revealed, without thor
ough conviction on the part of the soul ex-
ercsing it that the source from which these
revelations come is infalible. They must
also be authoritative, and fully received as
such into the convictions, or they are no.
thing. A revelation from any source,
touching whose authority the soul admits
a douht, is absolutely valneless as an inspir-
er of faith. 1t is for this reason that all
the unsettled mind in ChriStendom is drift
ing either towards an infalble Bible, or an
nfallble church, or an infallble atheism
infalible because denying everything-shut
ting God and the future out of existence
With many the drifting process is done
with, and the journey is completed in rest
and satisfaction. Many can say, with the
Bible upon the heart-"Ths is Gods word
1t is my rule of life. believe in the Goo
and Immortality which it reveals. / trust
in it, and am happy. Others, educated t.
believe in an nfallble church. or struggling
through frightful years of skepticsm, have
taken refuge in Rome, aud tied up to th'
element of infalIibillity which they imagine
they find there. Others still are eithe
practically or professedly atheists and inf
dels, diScarding Bible and church, and rest
ing or trying to rest in the infallibility of
broad uegation.
1t is not for me to prove the infalibilit,
Of the Bible, in part or in whole, l haV
not undertaken the task in this article, no
do propose to undertake it in any futur,
article. Neither do ] undertake to show
that an infallible church cannot be mad,
out Of falli0le materials. Still less do
undertake to prove the existence of Co
and future life. / take it for granteC
that the question of future life is one 0
great interest to all minds, and the ques