Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-03-09
THE HEAVENLY HEREAFTER.

Despite the teachingso Of that Divine Religion when
has brought life and Immortality to light there is Jet
proneness among men to doubt the realization OF Al
immortal nature in Themselves It is indeed the great
mystery Of mans existence at which Philosophy stag
gers if unaded by Revelation. Butcvon to the natural
mind, there irresistible arguments to prsre the
Immortality Of the soul. OF these, we do not rcmem-
Der to have aeen the argumentum ad hominem moro
furciby statcd than in the sujonsd brief but beautiful
extract:
"IMpossIBLE Am to bo told that the orations OF
DElosTnESEs, the philosophy Of NEwroS, the pictures
Of RAPHAEL, the poetry of MILTON, nothing more
than conceptiopso brute matter! Am It"be todthas
all this passion and thought which animate my frame
these deep transports of hope and fear and JOY anu
sorrow, and despair these lofty aspiration.
and vast desresthcse dreams Of tho long gone pss1
and the dstan future those wanderings Of imagination
through tho abysses Of in6nitude all prsduced Py
the vibration Of few breS Of brain underneath tne
skull? Am to believe that pure Affection, and Id.
corruptble Honor, and heroic Courage, and ferysht
Piey, and trnnscendent Genius, have given to them
only momentary existence and then to snk into tne
same grave with the frame which they informed with
their fire, and 10 dissolve into the same dust! Dove
not feel, in tho LOVE which fills bosoms, con-
sciousncss of o divine efnuenco, which will survive
every thing less durable than heaven and eternity
Who that had heart, ever doubted that ho hsd
soul"
And then comes that other grand mystery, the
future homo of the sou-what and whore is it to boz
Even to the Christian the conception of that home "
necessarily dim and underlined. The glimpsss vouch-
safsd to JOHN the Isle Of Patmos, make up no such
description rs man realize Tho Evangests and
Apostles wore not inspired to instruct mankind Is to
the locality and circumstances of this future home;
and the reason, doubtless because it's brightness
and glory wero inconceivable by man in his present
existence. An eminent Divine thus strikingy Illus
tratcs the mpossibiity of realizing this change With
our presont limitod Understandings:
"IY child had been born, and spent all Of hisGfe
in the Mammoth Cave, how impossible would it DO for
him to comprehend the upper world! Parents might
of joy; hcy might heap up the sand into mounds and
try to show him. by stalactitcs how grass and flowers
and trees grow out Of the grounds till at length, with
sborious thinking the child would fancy be had gain
Cd truo idea Of the unknown land. Aud yet, though
be longed to behold it, when the day that hs was
to 30 forth, it would be with regret for the familiar
crystals and rock-hewn rooms, and tho quiet that
reigned therein. But when he came up, some May
morning, with ten thousand birds singing in the trees,
and the heavens bright and bluo and full Of sunlight
and the wind blowing softly through the young leaves,
al s.glitter with dew, und the landscape stretching
away green and beautiful to tho horizon, with what
rapture would he gaze about him, and SEQ how poor
all the fancyings and tho interpretations which
made within tho care Of the things which grow
and lived without: and how he would wonder that he
could ever hnvo regretted tu loare the silence and
drcary darkness Of his old abode! So, whsu We
emerge from this cave Of earth into that land where
spring -growths nre, und wsero is eternal summer,
how qhall we wonder that We could have cluns 30
fundly to thi, dark nnd barren life"