out of my ears, when awake, for at least three years. All the kingdoms of the earth were in my sight as nothing and vanity; and so great were my ideas of heavenly glory, that nothing which did not in some measure relate to it, could command my serious attention."*

How strikingly does such a narrative remind one of the trance of Peter, Acts x. 10, and of the words of Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 2-4: "I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth ;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth ;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."

What reason have we for doubting that the trance of Mr. Tennent was similar to that of St. Paul, and that in both instances the soul was temporarily separated from the body? We base no argument on this assumption, however, being content with the indisputable fact in all these cases, that the mind is conscious and active though the body is apparently dead.

V. Persons resuscitated from apparent drowning often relate similar experiences of the consciousness and activity of the mind, while every animal function of the body was suspended. Memory, will, consciousness, hope and fear were as active as if the body was in its normal state, and all its functions in active play.

VI. In other instances, though the heart and lungs,

* Life of Tennent, pp. 28-31.

which are among the most vital portions of the human frame, have ceased to perform their functions, and have continued inactive for a greater or less period of time, the mind has retained not only its consciousness, but the unimpaired use of all its faculties and powers. Take the following instance copied from the Book of Nature by Dr. John Mason Good, as an illustration in point:

"In the year 1769, Mr. John Hunter, being then forty-one years of age, of a sound constitution, and subject to no disease except a casual fit of the gout, was suddenly attacked with a pain in the stomach, which was shortly succeeded by a total suspension of the action of the heart and lungs. By the power of the will, or rather by violent striving, he occasionally inflated the lungs, but over the heart he had no control whatever; nor, though he was attended by four of the chief physicians in London from the first, could the action of either be restored by medicine. In about three-quarters of an hour, however, the vital actions began to return of their own accord, and in two hours he was perfectly recovered.

"In this attack," observed Mr. (now Sir Everard) Home, who has given an interesting memoir of his life, "there was a suspension of the most material involuntary actions; even involuntary breathing was stopped; while sensation, with its consequences, as thinking and acting, with the will, were perfect, and all the voluntary actions were as strong as before."

"In the whole history of man," continued Dr. Good, "I do not know of a more extraordinary case. The functions of the soul were perfect, while the most important functions of the body, those upon which

life depends absolutely, in all ordinary cases, were dead for nearly an hour. Why did not the soul depart from the body? and why did not the body itself commence that change, that subjection to the laws of chemical affinity which it evinces in every ordinary case of the death or inaction of the vital organs ? Because in the present instance, as in every instance of suspended animation from hanging or drowning, the vital principle, whatever it consists in, had not ceased, or deserted the corporeal frame. It continued visible in its effect, though invisible in its essence and mode of operation."*

Is there no significance in all these facts? How strikingly do they comport with and corroborate the revealed doctrine of the soul's immortality. And how completely do they refute the opposite idea that the mind is merely a function of the body, necessarily sharing its condition of quiescence or activity, and doomed to perish when the body dies. Ah, no!

Cold in the dust this perished heart may lie,

But that which warmed it once shall never die.

*Book of Nature, pp. 253, 254.

CHAPTER XI.

VIGOR AND ACTIVITY OF THE SOUL IN THE HOUR OF DEATH.

Life makes the soul dependent on the dust,

Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres.

THE vigor and activity of the soul in the hour of death, and amid bodily dissolution, is an evidence of its independency of the body, and its consequent immortality.

I. The history of the Christian martyrs furnishes many striking illustrations of the power of the soul to rise superior to the terrors of death, and the agony of bodily dissolution, and show herself essentially indestructible and immortal.

Polycarp sang hymns of praise to God while his body was being consumed by the fires of martyrdom. While John Huss was being burned he sang a hymn with so loud and cheerful a voice that it was heard above the crackling of the fagots, and the noise of the multitude. Jerome of Prague sang amid the flames of martyrdom till his voice was stifled by them.

"Thus we hear Lambert while consuming by a slow fire, exclaiming, 'None but Christ! none but Christ!' Thus also died Cranmer-the soul triumph

ing over all that was terrible in bodily sufferingsteadily hold his hand in the flame, and exclaim, while it is being consumed, "This hand! this wicked. hand.'

"So also Mrs. Cecily Ormes, who was added to the noble host of martyrs at the early age of twenty-two. Approaching the stake, already charred by the fires that had consumed two martyrs before her, she clasped it with her hands, exclaiming, 'Welcome! welcome, Cross of Christ!'

"But a still more striking instance of the triumph of the soul over the body is the case of James Bainham. When his legs and his arms were half consumed, and his body scorched and seething in the flame, he cried out to the bystanders, 'Ye look for miracles! Here, now, ye may see one. This fire is to me a bed of roses.'

"Before being led to the stake, Mr. Hawkes agreed with his friends upon a signal by which to express his feelings when he should be no longer capable of speech. When he was so nearly consumed that all thought him dead, and when his whole body was crisped with the fire, the skin of his arms drawn up, and his fingers literally consumed, suddenly seeming to recollect the appointed signal, he raised his fingerless hands above his head and clapped them three times in token of triumph."*

Thus triumphed many of the martyrs, while their bodies were being devoured by wild beasts, or consumed by fire.

II. Numerous instances of unimpaired and even unusual intellectual vigor in the hour of death, by * Man all Immortal, pp. 60, 61.