reasonable soul is distinct from the material flesh, or wherefore should the one depart we know not whither, while the other remains, to outward appearance, for a time at least unchanged; it is a fact, further, that shortly after the departure of the reasonable soul, which is the image and likeness of God, the body becomes the prey of corruption, which would of itself preclude all idea, that IT could be the image of the incorruptible God. "It lieth down in the dust, and the worms do cover it." We know from observation of man that the body cannot exist without the soul, but we know from revelation of God that the soul, regarded as Intelligence, can exist without the body, for in this the image does but correspond to its original or archetype. "God is a Spirit," and on this ground we might infer, if but from reason alone, that man, made in His likeness, apart from the body of dust, is a spirit also. In a concern of such grave and surpassing moment, however, we are not left

either to analogies from human reason, however accurate, or to inferences from a part of revelation, however probable. "God, who in time past spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these latter days spoken unto us by his Son," and the language in which He hath spoken assures two things; first, an eventual resurrection, in which the connection between soul and body shall be renewed, the "corruptible having put on incorruption, and the mortal clothed with immortality," the very frame of dust being animated and glorified by the inhabitation of the likeness of God: and secondly, until that resurrection shall be accomplished, a continued and unintermitted consciousness of the disembodied soul. An eventual resurrection; for "the hour is coming, and now is, in which the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live;" an unintermitted consciousness of the disembodied soul, for "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him,"

and "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord; He that believeth in me though he were dead—yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, SHALL NEVER DIE!”

Thus then we are enabled, and that on the authority of the WORD MADE flesh, the same "Who was in the beginning with God;" by “Whom all things were made, and without Whom was not anything made that was made;”— we are enabled to express the state of the reasonable soul after that departure from the body which is called death, in phrases pregnant with consolation, encouragement, and hope. Living unto God; living in Christ; never dying; sleeping in Jesus, yet living unto God. There is, we acknowledge, much difficulty in conceiving of existence distinct from the body when our experience is only of existence associated with the body; but the mystery is no greater than many others by which we are encompassed on every side; and we possess

some clue to the understanding of it, in the fact, which is clear from reason as well as from revelation, that disentanglement and disencumbrance from the body, is itself no slight advance towards perfect conformity to the image of Him who is without body, parts, or passions; the ever-present, the all-pervading, yet, at the same time, the invisible God. All difficulty vanishes when we consider that "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God." The mystery of the process did not, in the apprehension of St. Paul, invalidate the certainty of the result, when he "desired to depart and be with Christ, which was far better;" nay, rather it quickened him into livelier and more assured anticipation: "Hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." And precisely the same effect was produced by the consideration of the mystery, on the mind of the venerable

John, when he testified to the Church, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!"

But as there was another Divine Person concurrent and co-operative in the work of creation;-Another to whom it was said, "Let us make man;"-Another, in whose image and likeness man was formed;-so is there another witness to his immortality. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit," said St. Paul, "that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together."

So far then as the testimony of Divine Revelation can extend; so far as we can understand the promise of the Father, the assurance of the Son, and the witness of the Holy Ghost; so far as the expectation and the experience of holy Apostles