change which the spiritual realizes at death is not ar one of existence itself, but only of the conditions of becoming adapted to a different atmosphere, furnished ferent surroundings, infinitely better, or infinitely wors nity obviously finds us with the same mental orga same tastes, feelings and desires, the same individua which death leaves us. Henceforth, change is going

in the sense of development, the character of which is affected by the surroundings.

If a savage gorilla fresh from the wilds of Africa, suddenly transplanted to civilized society we should change from the animal to the human, though prob gorilla, he could be improved by the surroundings. change of place, and hot-bed development in the uni never change a being of one distinct species to a bei other species. No amount of culture has yet suc making a man from a monkey, though it has frequen a better monkey. Change of location and climate ne a camel a horse, or a horse an elephant. Developmen same species is possible, but a radical change of nature ganization in nature, is an utter impossibility. The sl of fact pricks the airy bubble of fancy, and proves t dern development theory" to be the very essence of Reasoning from analogy, then, can we consistently sup because at death the soul has met an entire change of condition, the soul itself is changed? Most assuredly manifestly the mind exists as the same harmonious eternity as in time. The memory, the reasoning p perceptions, the conscience, and the will exist in the

lations that they have ever maintained, only in a more perfect state of development. The plant is not essentially changed, but the soil is much improved.

If this be true, then it necessarily follows that the same men- . tal processes take place in a future state as in our present life, viz., the perceptive faculties perceive, the reasoning powers weigh the testimony presented by the understanding, the conscience approves or condemns, and the will decides,-in a word, God has made no change of structure, and imposed no law of necessity on the mind which did not always exist in perfect agreement with the wise man's declaration, that "where the tree falleth, there it shall be." If, then, our faculties are retained in their relative harmony, only better instructed and more perfect in action, it must certainly follow that the power of choice exists as it has ever existed. To argue to the contrary is to assert a destruction of certain faculties of mind, or its equivalent, a suspension of their exercise. All our observation here shows that, when, through bodily disease the exercise of any mental faculty is in the least degree impaired, the man is proportionately imbecile and imperfect. It is a perversion of the design of the Creator in man's formation-a consequence of sin attached to diseased flesh. It is regarded as a calamity, and so God's word expresses it. Shall that which is such a calamity among men here be conferred as the greatest blessing in eternity. But if man in the future shall possess the power of free choice, the inquiry at once arises whether he may not then choose the ways of evil, and an unlimited succession of Edens lost because of transgression be again enacted. We naturally ask How shall we reconcile this secming possibility with the uniform representation of the Scriptures that in eternity man's condition is a finality, and admits of no change, either of place or moral purpose? We apprehend that all seeming difficulties will disappear when we contemplate the proper distinction between the existence of power, and the exercise of that power. That power does often exist, as a hidden force, potent in its nature, without being called into exercise, may be shown by any one of a thousand familiar illustrations which nature furnishes for our inspection.

We have often stood upon the bank of a river and watched the current as it flowed onward to the sea; and who, as thus he has looked, has failed to reflect that if the current were directed to the wheel of the factory it would set in motion a thousand whirling spindles. But the stream flows silently on, though freighted with the power of a thousand giants, and finds no room for its exercise,-the factory is not there! Such, in part, will obviously be our relations to the future world. The ordinary powers of mind will exist, and, we believe, be active too, only the action may terminate on a new class of objects. The perceptions will manifestly be no less active than on earth, but will just as manifestly rest on a very different field of vision. The will, with none of its powers abated, will exercise that power, but by no means necessarily choosing between the same classes of motives that are presented here. The current of the river, though failing to exercise its power upon the great driving wheel of the factory, for lack of opportunity, may nevertheless wield that power in other directions, and bear upon its bosom the vessel freighted with a valuable cargo. Human freedom does not depend upon the actual choice of a particular object, but upon the ability to choose some object.

We may readily conceive a multitude of cases where a certain class of motives may be presented which are so completely in harmony with our previous desires, and so potent in their influence, because leading to the possession of some object which we have desired to obtain, that to a moral certainty we shall now choose what we had previously determined to choose upon first opportunity. Such we conceive is to be precisely our condition in the future world, for it is most certainly true that we fix the place of our habitation there by the successive acts of previous volition. The saint becomes an heir of heaven because he has chosen in life to become one; the sinner as surely inherits perdition because he has chosen the course inevitably leading there. In either case, the motives being mainly in one direction, and such as accord with constant desire, the mind having chosen to be placed in the midst of such surroundings, it seems clear that choice will be in one direction, and yet no faculty of mind be changed or impaired in its action.

that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abou plan, securing a restoration of the race to a condition e like that of our parents in Eden before the fall, would n also have left the race subject to like influences, and i of like ruin. But, instead of this, no fact is more cle vealed than that the future condition of man is irrevocal whether the state be one of happiness or of misery.

That all which tends to induce sin is excluded entire heaven is explicitly stated by John, as the revealer of mysteries. He says, "God shall wipe away all tea their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the things are passed away." And still more explicitly,there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth, whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie." The un able nature of the future life is clearly taught in the im parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and by familiar decl of a positive nature throughout God's revealed Word. asserts this changeless state when of the finally impen says, "these shall go away into everlasting punishment, the righteous, they shall inherit "life eternal." Joh that "the smoke of their torment ascendeth forever and when he refers to the final condition of the lost in misery most solemn warnings and most urgent appeals of Script based on the certainty of probation and possible change and a fixed abode suited to a fixed character hereafter.

But it may be urged that this expressed certainty of a c less state in the future, would seem to imply the destruc

volition, and place it beyond the power of man to change his attitude before God. We are to bear in mind, however, that the certainty of an event does not prove its necessity. Because it is certain, and God has indicated that certainty, that man will not become a sinner in heaven or a saint in hell, it does not necessarily follow that the power of voluntary choice is either destroyed or arbitrarily controlled. The destruction of moral agency involves the exercise over the mind of a superior power sufficient to compel action invariably in accordance with the will of the superior power. In other words, that we must act, not because of choice on our part, but because a superior power has chosen for us. But is it true that such an occurrence takes place at death, that manhood is dethroned, and the responsible creature formed in God's own image, changed to a mere negative existence, without conscious individuality? Most assuredly not, for if heaven shall hold for the redeemed constant joy, and God's favor afford perpetual delight, they must be conscious of a constant desire, a perpetual choice for that which heaven holds, and God loves. This constant consciousness of choosing what God loves is the secret spring of the Christian's happiness here on earth, which Paul described as "unspeakable and full of glory." Feeling how complete is God's holiness, how supreme his wisdom, we know our highest good is best secured when in thought and feeling we are "changed into the same image," and the choice of the Christian is constantly to will what God wills, and heaven begins in the soul when we love to pray "not as I will, but as thou wilt." No true child of God deliberately desires to sin, or to be exposed to temptation, but, on the contrary, his constant, anxious prayer ever ascends; "Lord, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil." The brightest sky on which the Christian pilgrim rests his longing gaze is that in which is set the rainbow of divine promise, revealing "an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and which fadeth not away." He longs for the beautiful land on which

"There falls no shadow, rests no stain,"—

where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at