Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/345

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IMMORTALITY.
337

Bring your ignorance to the Holy Spirit, the great teacher, who by His precious truth will lead you into all truth.


IMMORTALITY.

Immortality! We bow before the very term. Immortality! Before it reason staggers, calculation reclines her tired head, and imagination folds her weary pinions. Immortality! It throws open the portals of the vast forever; it puts the crown of deathless destiny upon every human brow; it cries to every uncrowned king of men, "Live forever, crowned for the empire of a deathless destiny!"


The soul secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years,
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds.

Addison.

Earthly providence is a travesty of justice on any other theory than that it is a preliminary stage, which is to be followed by rectifications. Either there must be a future, or consummate injustice sits upon the throne of the universe. This is the verdict of humanity in all the ages.


Without a belief in personal immortality, religion surely is like an arch resting on one pillar, like a bridge ending in an abyss.