The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-11-16
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT.
BY REV. s. CRANE, DID.

is, to the life that is coming, the first
thing of which note must be taken is
the continuity of life, that there really
is but one life; that death is not a
break in the souls existence, but only
an experience in its continuous life.
Death is like sleep in that we live
while we sleep. We live right on
through nights repose into new
morning, so we live right on through
death into the new day and the new
world.
Hence the relation of this life to
the next is not relation of two
completed existences, but the rela-
ton of one period of life to another,
as of youth to manhood, or of one day
to another day. 1t is much as though
we should ask what is the relation of
today to tomorrow, or of this year of
our life to the year to come. These
are clearly marked periods and yet
not separated by any dead and fast
lines. They run into each ether, and
elements of of the former are always
found in the latter. Today is sepa-
rated from the morrow by the night
of sleep, but the life of today flows
into the morrow. So this life is sep
arated from the next by the night of
death, but this life flows right on into
the next.
In this study, therefore, the first
thing to know is the nature of death.
What is death? Death is purely a
physical matter. 1t has to do only
with the body. 1t is of the earth
earthly. 1t takes down the house we
live in. 1t separates the soul from
the body, the spirit from the flesh.
The soul lives on; the body goes back
to the dust 1t is resolved into it's or
iginal elements and as body, as
physical form, it ceases to be. For
it there is no resurrection. The notion
of the resurrection of the "self-same
body" is absurd. Science, reason and
Scripture pronounce against it. The
Scripture says, "Thou sowest not that
body that shall be" and reason and
science respond, nay verify.
But the soul that lives on is not
''unclothed but clothed upon" 1t
enters new body, even spiritual
''There is natural body and there is
spiritual body" and as we put off
the one we put on the other. The first
body dies that the second may be re-
vealed to us, and we revealed as as
living in and being clothed with it.
Death then is change of environ
ment. Here we live in purely ma
terial environment; there we shall
live in a purely spiritual environment
This body and this world are mater
ial; the next body and the next world
are spiritual.
What this change implies and all
that it implies we may not know. But
we do know that it cannot change
the principles of being or the funda-
mental laws of life. Our souls must
be souls, our spirits must be spirits,
and must act in accordance with the
laws of spiritual life. Any other sup
position makes death humiliation.
To suppose that death changes the
makeup of our souls and the laws of
their life, is to suppose that it annihi-
lates us. For such change would
destroy our identity and transform
us into something or somebody else,
and that would be equivalent to ami
hilation. We live, our souls live be-
You'd death; therefore, the same souls
that live here only in new dress, in
a new body. Hence all spiritual &C.
tivities exist there as here. We think,
we feel, we reason, we love, we hope,
we aspire, we will and believe just as
we do here and in obedience to the
same laws. Our mental. moral and
spiritual processes are all the same.
Hence the first relation between this
life and the next is that of indemnity.
They are essentially the same life;
our souls and their activities are the
same.
Again our characters are the same
Death does not change the character
of soul any more than it changes its
nature. We are as to disposition,
habits of mind and heart, wills, loves
and purposes before death what we
will be after. The strong mind here
will be the strong mind there. The
power to choose righteously here will
be the same power there. The loving
soul here will be the loving soul
there. And vice versa.
Hence the mighty motive, to make
the most of this life. 1t flows into
and colors the next, it is of vast i'm
portance therefore, that it be right