Year: 1875

Z
| cherish affectionate hopes of future life
not all poisoned and black with heavenly
or diabolical vindictiveness, we observe
as much care of life and dread of death
as when the old-time pictures of endless
torment were exhibited to alarm the sem
sibility as the means of reaching the con-
science. This, to a reasonable degree, is
normal and we would not have it other
wise. healthy person is never eager to
encounter death The pagan votary who
performs self-immolation voluntarily, if
there is any such, is in a morbid or alb
normal condition, and life has little val
ue in his eyes. Disease, privatlOn, or
overwhelming trouble is the occasion of
such things. The wording of life insur-
ance policies, exempting the companies
from paying IN case of suicide, is mani
testify unjust, and ought to be denounced.
But life insurance is largely extortion at
the best, as it is transacted Suicide is a
death from disease, and is no more
breach of trust with insurers than many
of our social and dietetic practices.


Nevertheless, however sacred the in
stinct of life, it is the law Of nature, and
in the providence of God, that we shall
die. Every plant and animal that ever
existed, however remotely in geological
time, was born, lived and died, by divine
law inherent in all functional existence.
The races of men are no exception.
When a being came into the world with
a cerebrum passing from the frontal re-
gion over the optical thalami and even
above the cerebellum, he became up
right, and a partaker, as no other ami
mated being was, of the divine nature
But the same laws and contingencies per-
tanned to his physical organism as to 9th
er creatures of flesh and blood. He can
have no exemption. Accepting the event
of death as ordered by the same law as
that which caused our existence to begin,
the motive that impelled the establishing
of both conditions must be alike God-like,
and equally benevolent and beatifc. 1t
is best for US, most fortunate for us, that,
having properly accomplished our ca
reers, we die.


We need dread no hereafter, whatever
that is, it is in the same hands, governed
by the same laws, and tending to the
same goal as the present life. So far, we
may die cheerfully and with confidence
that it is for better and not for worse.
Sudden death, without premonition, now
so common, is boon rather than hard
ship. If we have ''set our house in or
deS" attended to all persons and mat
ters requiring our care, and have not in
opportunely hurried our end, there is



clusion 1t seems to us a glorious thing
to live our life out full, exhausting its
powers without disease, and then cease
to exist from the sudden stopping of the
machinery. If destiny, which overruies
our acts and purposes, has that end in
store for the writer, he would in advance
declare it the mode most agreeable to
him.


In other days religious fanaticism in
duced men who had made God in their
own image to think of him a grand
torture master, who delighted in the Sc
robustness and suffering of men, and was
offended by mirth. They affected the
life, sores, and filth of the beggar, Laza-
rus, because he was comforted, and pro-
nounced the rich man in torment in the
under world wicked, because he had in
his lifetime received good things. Henae
not only were the rack, thumb-scPew5
and burning alive inflicted on dissenters,
but partial self-immolations rigid scourg
ing, and voluntary starving were resorted
to, as wearing out a corrupt rature. The
| pangs and violent anguish of neuralgia
and infammatory diseases were regarded
as direct aff1iction from God for the wei
fare OF the soul A Hindoo fakir, swing
ing on hook, or a dervis, lying down on
a couch of sharp nails, only carried out
the idea to greater length. Certain
Scotch clergymen once denounced the
use of chloroform by child bearing Wo-
men, because the third chapter OF the
book of Genesis denounced pain in bring
ing forth as the penalty of the first wo-
man for eating the fruit of the Tree of
knowledge.


We are outgrowing all such ideas, and
leaving behind the notion that we may
not lawfully escape pain. Yet, what is
termed "the agony of death" is the unut-
terable horror which embitters life to
very many. Not merely the Unknown
before them creates awe and deadly ap-
prehension, but also the fear that the
final moment of mortality is one of ter
rifle, unimaginable pain. If this could
be obviated the present life could be en-
joyed as the boon of a Benevolent Parent,
and trusting the future to His benign
care. But argument fails us here; facts
are what such eager souls wish for most
earnestly.


Emanuel Swedenborg explains the pro
cess of dying as follows: "When the
body is no longer able to perform its
functions in the natural world, then man
is said to die. This takes place when the
respiratory motions of the lungs and the
systolic motions of the heart cease; but
still man does not die but is only sepa-
rated from the cOrporeal part which was
OF use to him in the world, for man him
self lives continually" He goes on to
define that the inmost communicated Of
the spirit is with the respiration and
with the motion OF the heart, its thought
being with the respiration and the atfec-
ton with the heart; wherefore, when
those two motions cease in the body q
separation Immediately ensues. These
motions are the bonds which attach the
spirit to the body, and their ruDtlre is
followed by the spirits Withdrawing
upon the cessation of the hearts action,
after which the body grows cold and be-
gins to dissolve


There is likelihood and liability of
such separation where person is in
the habit of heavy dreaming or trance
The spiritual individuality in such cases
becomes more or less concentrated in it.
self, and the physical capacity becomes
IN great degree separated and some
times apparently dead This was the
case with the Swedish seer, who, however,
possessed a prodigious vital energy as
well as cerebral power, and could under
60 these ecStasis with little comparative
peril. But others, reft thus from the
! body fail to return; or, if resuscitation
takes place, nevertheless die shortly at
terward from the peculiar shock. Pass
ing by the clairvoyant and other analo-
| gous phenomena of modern time part of
which are arrant impostures, and all of
them contemptuously disregarded by ig-
norant or uncandid scientists, we cite eX-
amples from the orient classics Epi-
menides, a poet living in the time of So
Ion, had frances in which his body ex-
hibited the appearance Of corpse, and
he seems to have contemplated it as q
| thing distinct from himSalf pliov va