emotional; and they too, the intellectual especially, tend to decay. For if the affection remains strong and vivid to life's end, as often it will, yet memory, perception and resolution begin to fail. The spiritual experiences, on the other hand, grow more intense as life proceeds. The consciousness of God is never so clear as at life's close.

Thus the contemplation of the Immortal Life evokes the qualities which seem to possess in themselves the secret of Immortality. He who hopes to live after death will even in this life practise the virtuous habits which do not seem to die.

The habit or temper of worship, for instance, is suited to Immortality. Worship is Man's prerogative. It exalts him above other terrestrial beings by prostrating him before the throne of the Supreme. No misjudgment of human nature can be so grievous as the imagination that it is exalted, if it loses the power of looking upwards. Man is never so low as when he thinks great thoughts of himself; he is never so high as when upon his knees he cries, "I have sinned." But humiliation, penitence, devotion, are essentially witnesses to the Unseen. In worship Man asserts his proper kinship with the superior beings whose immaculate existence finds its con

summation in worship. It is thus that in the highest aspirations given to Man we adore the Supreme saying, "With Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name; evermore praising Thee and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory; glory be to thee, O Lord Most High."

Yet, again, the quality of love transcends the grave. St. Paul in a memorable passage has defined it. Yet it is often misunderstood, or but partly understood. Love which asks for love in return is but half love. Love in its nature is selfless; it gives all, it asks for nothing. It is the most ethereal of the virtues. It is greater than faith, greater than hope. It is begun on earth; it is perfected in Heaven. It cannot die. It forbids the thought of mortality. It is immortal as God is immortal. For it is His Spirit; it is Himself; for "God is love."

And akin to love, as a sign and earnest of the Immortal Life, is purity. But of this so much only may here be said, that to the believer in Immortality, i.e., to one who believes in the spiritual and eternal nature of Man, it possesses a value which no mere secular system of morals can impart to it; for it is

felt to be essentially an approximation of human nature to the Immortal and Divine.

This is the religious faith in its highest form, not Christian faith only; for the most spiritually minded of pagan philosophers puts it thus: "It may well be that none but the pure may approach the pure." I And in so saying he does but anticipate the teaching given long ages afterwards by the most spiritual of Christian Apostles. "We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." 2

This chapter has been persuasive and suggestive rather than didactic; it has in a measure dealt with experiences unknown or hardly known unless, perhaps, to devout and spiritual natures; but its conclusions may be summarised as follows:

That the belief in Immortality, as interpreted by the enlightened conscience of Humanity, affords, and alone affords, an absolute moral sanction for all the critical sublime demands and duties of life. That it alone affords a complete infallible solace for all human sufferings, trials and disappointments.

I

Plato, Phado, p. 67, Β. μὴ καθαρῷ γὰρ καθαροῦ ἐφάπτεσθαι μὴ οὐ θεμιτὸν ἦ. I John iii. 2, 3.

2

That it promises a development and satisfaction of the graces, powers, and capacities which are felt to be circumscribed and sometimes defeated in the present life.

That it exalts and ennobles the whole conception of human nature.

That it guarantees the supreme virtues of Humanity, such as devotion, love, and purity, which are the points of contact between the Divine and human natures.

And that, as so doing, it attests that Man is made in the image of God, and can shape himself according to his Divine Original.

In Pascal's words, then, "Il importe à toute la vie de savoir si l'âme est mortelle ou immortelle." I 1 Pensées, ii. 18.

CHAPTER IV

EVIDENCES FOR THE BELIEF

A. External Evidences

WHEN the nature of the belief in the soul's Immortality and the development and value of the belief have been ascertained, it is right to examine such evidences as are adducible either for or against the belief itself. For the naturalness or the utility or comfort of a belief is not in itself a proof that the belief is true. A belief may be natural, it may be suggested or confirmed by phenomena, it may possess a history, it may long have influenced and inspired human thought; and yet it may be so devoid of evidential support that, as soon as the light of truth is thrown upon it, it disappears and the world hears of it no more. This was the case

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