The Nevada journal., 1860-06-22


ence, it floats through the air with new beauties
and form almost rs unlike its former self as
the glori6ed body of Moses, as he stood with
Christ on Horeb, was unlike that body whom il
wandered in WEAKNESS and faintness throug the
sands Of the desert.
A similar, only more glorious transformation
occurs in the life Of the butterfly. In its chry-
sails state, it is neither thing of fight nor beauty
Slowly and awkwardly it creeps along, nngainiy
and unsightly it seems, but, by and by, there
comes forth from this first body another Of such
rare beauty that the world has not many things
so lovely. He would indeed be an artist, who
could equal, on canvass, the fine pencilings, the
harmonious tints, the delicate shadings, the gor-
geous briliance, the rich colors, and their taste
full distribution, as seen in its wings.
sThis painted populace
That live in fields, and lead ambrosial lives"
reach our highest conceptions Of the beautiful,
and present to the student of nature, transfer
nations as wonderful as that through which man
may pass at the resurrection Of the dead. The
soul of man, leaving it chrysalis state, winged
for an upward flight, and higher sphere, and
more glorious and enduring existence, is par
TALLY typefed in the butterfly.
Vegetable life has similar forcshadowings -
The single wheat grain, falling upon the earth,
mostly dies, but living germ bursts forth from
this corruption and, shooting u2, give, the blade,
the stalk, the ear and the full corn in the ear,
rewarding the husbandman thereby thirty, sixty
or an hundred fold. The acorn, buried in the
earth from its tiny beginning becomes great tree
with roots so widely spread and deeply fixed
that the storm cannot overthrow it. Other seeds,
more mysterious still, give, not only trees, but
blossoms and fruits.
While writing this discourse, beautiful gem
of poetry fell in my way-entitled, "Through
Death to Life" Among its illustrations are the
following lines, on the Aloe plant:
90 Have you heard of the aloe plant,
Away In the sunny clime'
By humble growth of an hundred years,
1t reaches its blooming time;
And then wonderous bud at its crown,
Breaks into a thousand flowers;
This floral queen, i'll its blooming seen,
Is the pride of the tropical bowers,
But, the plant to the flower is sacrifice,
For it blooms but once, and, in blooming dies.
Have you heard the tale of the aloe plant,
That grows in the sunny cline,
How every ono of Its thousand flowers,
AS they drop, in the blooming time,
Is an infant plant, that fastens its roots
In the place where it falls to the ground;
And fast as they drop, from the parent stem
Grow lively, and lovely around,
By dying, it liveth thousand fold,
In the young, which spring from the death oi
the old''
Even inanmate nature is not without its ma
teral from which We might frame an argument.
The charcoal, dark, dusky and unsightly, with
out beauty, and almost without value, is CON-
posed of the same material as the diamond
When reduced to powder or n liquid, no chem.
ical test can detect any essential difference in
the two. and yet, the coal which we consume in
our dwellings, and the diamond which beauty
wears upon its brow are as unlike in their ap-
pearance as anything which we can conceive
between the body, in its ungloriied and glorifed
state.
Some animals, also. after spending months in
a state of torper. scarcely distinguishable from
death. at the proper time and under favoring
circumstances come again into new and active
life. Some things creep upon the earth in fee
bleness and homeliness, and then leaving their
bodies in the ground las the christian, at death
may leave his in the grave) assume higher forms
develope higher powers and move among new
order of things, rs the spirit Of the christian
may do when, having separated from the body
it shines in the beauty of holiness before the
throne.
There is another fact for which we are indebted
to modern scientific research. There il a large
class of objects. whose first stage of existence is
in the water, and their second i'll the air. As the
organism required for the second state. is un-
suit d for, and would be out of place in the first
the rudiments of the future body lie within the
present, demonstrating to the scientific observer
that the first stage of existence is only initiative
or preparatory to the second. Just so is it with
US. Tn our present stage of existence we have
-intimations of undeveloped faculties, which
| fit us for another life.
Science, ever the handmade of religion. when
rightly understood. i, constantly bringing to
| light similar changes. Instead Of being excep-
tions to the general rule, as was long supposed
they really seem to constitute the rule, and the
things which differ from them the exceptions
Thus God is everywhere giving us intimations
of another life. life for the good, more gloriou:
| and blessed than this. While looking at these
things it seems to me that He intended to teach
us, by the facts of science. as well as by the
words of revelation, that if man die, he shall
| live again. To reason against future life be
cause of its mystery, while in science we receive
equal if not greater mysteries, is not rational oil
honest. However incomprehensable the future
existance of the soul NAV be- or the resurrection
of the body we are every day observing, and
accepting facts, as incomprehensable as either
of these. If q man would be consistent with
himself. he must either admit the possibility Of
future life, or become a universal sceptic.
We have not said, nor do We believe. that any
| of the cases above adduced are precisely similal
| to the resurrection of the dead But, we present
them as singular analogies, as admitted facts
as wonderful. mysterious and incomprehensible
as ANYTHING the Bible teaches, or the christian
believes respecting a future life. Nature ant
revelation both teach US that your dead and ou'
dead may live agan-live. with greater powers
and higher conditions of life than they pos
sessed while here. They have only crossed thu
ocean of time to another land and fairer cline
| Emerging from the earlier and lower form o
life, they have risen to higher, where, if they
have been wise in this life, they shall be IS th'
"angels Of God"
| Faith in the resurrection of the dead. and in
future life, is as old, and almost as universal r.
our race. In some form or other it has beel
cherished by all nations. Testimonies like tn
following might easily be multiplied: " 1t i
absurd to suppose that souls are made only L
blossom and flourish for day in tender an,
delicate body of flesh. and then, be suddenly
extinguished" What the multitude call dealt
is but the beginning Of immortality, and the brit
into a future life. "Do not think, whom 6av
finished my life among men. that have cease
to exist never. my sons. was persuaded tina
the soul lives only while inhabiting the morta
body, and dies when it departs thence" Tn
opinions of Plato and Socrates too wei
known to require quoting. These ancient phi
losophers believed. as we believe who receive tn
Bible. that, II a man die he shall lire again.
Wise men Of modern times tell us that not
single particle of matter has been annihilate
from the creation until now. Whatever change
it may have undergone. it still exists in som
form and place. If it has gone mp to the cloud
in mist or vapor it will come down again in raj
; or dew, to beautify the flowers and water tn
earth. to make it fruitful. So with man. nothin
!, of him is lost. lie dies. men shroud his remain
for the grave and lay them there to sleep. hui
that dust shall rise again. Sown in weakness
and corruption. it shall he raised in strength an
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