its own bare will, of perceiving persons strange to it, in foreign countries-it may certainly be supposed to have still greater powers when every tie is broken.

O God, my Father, wilt Thou also "satiate" my weary soul?" I will not tremble any more for the hour of dissolution-I will await it with that tranquillity, with that happy confidence, which Jesus has imparted to me-Jesus, the conqueror of the king of terrors-with that serenity which Thine infinite goodness and mercy encourage me to feel. Oh the transport! when all that I have lost shall be again restored to me in the holy, glorious life, to which Thou hast ordained me!-when after a short separation, I shall find again all that was dearest to my soul.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah! Praised be God-the unutterably glorious the unutterably merciful Jehovah. Hallelujah to the all-loving Father of spirits, of spirits which He refreshes and enlightens in the hour of death. Praised be the Eternal, the Source of light and blessedness, from world to world, thenceforth throughout eternity. Amen.

XXXIII.

ON APPARITIONS OF THE DEAD.

LUKE xxiv. 36-39.

But they

"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."

WHETHER the souls of deceased persons can give any signs of their existence to their friends or enemies,-whether they can appear again to us, through the senses of seeing, hearing, and feeling

-or not-is no principle of Christian doctrine; and consequently, as regards religion, perhaps quite indifferent. Hence every one follows his own opinions on this point without incurring blame. Many believe that they have grounds for admitting the existence of ghosts and apparitions, and forebodings of absent or deceased friends—many reject it as a groundless imagination.

Since the religion of Jesus Christ—the words and doctrines of our Lord himself, which he delivered during his earthly life-give us no elucidation of the real condition of the spiritual kingdom, and no precise information with respect to the state and being of the soul after the death of the body-but, at most, only hint what the soul beyond the grave shall not be, and what it will not do-all endeavours must be fruitless to draw back the vail from the mysterious future. We lose ourselves, when we make such inquiries, in dark speculations without basis or certainty; and our meditations are nothing more, at last, than the unprofitable sport of a vain curiosity.

Had the wisdom of God conceived it beneficial to the welfare and peace of man, to acquaint him with the actual circumstances and relations of the spiritual kingdom-then it is not to be doubted, but that they would have been made known in the most clear and incontrovertible manner. We should have received divine communications on the subject-we should possess a revelation which no living man would be capable of disputing. For without a particular revelation, no knowledge of the state of departed souls is to be attained. The bare human intellect is a light too faintly glimmering to enlighten the darkness which obscures the moral horizon after the hour of death.

If, therefore, poor short-sighted mortals, infatuated with their foolish imaginations, pretend to give us intelligence of the spiritual kingdom-information as to the condition of the soul after death,-if short-sighted mortals take upon themselves to furnish us with light and explanation upon that obscure point, respecting which Jesus Christ himself-not without purpose-was entirely silent, and whereof no divine revelation has ever been granted to the children of men ;-then, doubt not, that those people who presume to do more than Jesus our Saviour did, set before us, instead of sacred truth, mere empty fanaticism; and, instead of a heavenly revelation, merely their own conceits. Holy Scripture itself warns them against their folly; against their imaginations; against their suppositions; against their fictions and fables concerning the state of the soul after death,-apparitions-unriddling of things beyond the grave - investigations of the future, and the like. (1 TIM. iv. 7.)

However indifferent, indeed, may be the belief or disbelief of the re-appearance of the deceased in respect to religion itself-which has expressly determined nothing on the subject-yet it is not entirely indifferent, inasmuch as the belief or denial of the appearance of spirits may have great influence on the health of our bodies and our souls.

It is remarkable in fact, that the appearance of departed souls should have been believed in the oldest times, but always, moreover, only among people who were notorious for their ignorance and superstition. It is no less remarkable, that even in these days, many men still believe in the appearance of spectres; but always those only who are little instructed, superstitious, or of weak nerves and sickly; or such persons as possess a very lively enthusiastical fancy, disposed to all kinds of singu. lar imaginations. On the other hand, the wisest, best instructed, most sound and intrepid persons, never know any thing about it.

It requires only a little reflection to be soon convinced that one could learn to believe in apparitions of the dead; and that one could fall into this belief without ever having seen a departed spirit. For how must mortals, who have received no light from above, conclude,-how must it affect their mind,-when they see the corpse of a well-known friend? They cannot, though he lie already in the grave, bring themselves to believe him lost. They suppose he must yet be with them: their heated imagination presents his image, in a lively manner, before them. They persuade themselves, in their fears, that they have seen him; and as they know his body to be in the grave, they must think that his spirit has the power of appearing to