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TH 
 COMFORT RO^b'^^'" 
 
 >^ 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE BIBLE 
 
 AND OTHER LITERATURE 
 
 REGARDING THE LIFE 
 
 IMMORTAL 
 
 COMPILED/ BY 
 
 JAMES H. DOWNEY 
 
 THE ABINGDON PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI 
 
Copyright, 1915, by 
 
 JAMES H. DOWNEY 
 
 The Bible text used in tiiis volume is taken from the American 
 Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by 
 Tbomat Nelson Sc Sons, and is used by permission. 
 
 E*rlnted in the United States of Amei^ca 
 
 First Edition Printed March, 191 S 
 
 Reprinted April and November, 191S; May, 1916 
 
 February. 1917; April. 1918; May. 1919; January, 1921 
 
 March, 1923 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 to 
 
 My Son 
 
 WILBUR J. DOWNEY 
 
 the only surviving member of my familv, and 
 in memory of a WIFE and MOTHER,' who, 
 unselfish, kind, and patient through suffering, 
 in her earthly life, is now in full fruition of 
 
 THE LIFE IMMORTAL 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 Immortality in the Scriptures 9 
 
 The Old Testament 9 
 
 The Gospels 1 1 
 
 Acts and Epistles 14 
 
 Revelation 20 
 
 Immortality in the Ancient Writings 23 
 
 Immortality in Modern Literature 25 
 
 The Poets 25 
 
 Religious Writers 42 
 
 Novelists and Essayists 53 
 
 Theologians and Preachers 66 
 
 Periodical Press 83 
 
 Miscellaneous 87 
 
 L'Envoi 91 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Immortality has been to me a subject 
 of great and thoughtful interest, as one 
 after one my friends, and nearly all my 
 family — including my companion of over 
 forty years — have taken their departure to 
 that "bourne from whence no traveler re- 
 turns." 
 
 I have read much on the subject, and 
 have wished that some one might have col- 
 lected the best of all that has been uttered 
 thereon into book form for the comfort and 
 encouragement of the many who must be 
 interested in this matter. 
 
 Failing to find such a volume, I have, in 
 my own behalf and that of others who may 
 be helped thereby, compiled these extracts, 
 making my selections from the authoritative 
 statements of Scripture, and the utterances 
 of prose and poetical writers that appeal 
 to the soul and answer to its divinely im- 
 planted longings for immortality. 
 
 I may say that the result of this very 
 pleasant labor on my part is to confirm and 
 7 
 
8 pki-:face 
 
 establish my own hope and behef in the 
 Life Immortal and fill my soul with joyous 
 anticipations of reunion beyond the grave. 
 
 If this little book may be the means of 
 bringing to other souls light and cheer re- 
 garding the future, and if it shall carry 
 some degree of comfort and consolation to 
 other bereaved hearts, the purpose of the 
 compiler v^^ill have been accomplished, with 
 his gratitude to God for the privilege thus 
 afforded him. 
 
 James H. Downey. 
 
 901 Sterling Place, 
 Brooklyn, New York. 
 
Smmortalttp in t()e i^criptuteflt 
 
 The Old Testament 
 
 I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
 
 And at last he will stand up upon the earth : 
 
 And after my skin, even this body, is 
 
 destroyed. 
 Then without my flesh shall I see God ; 
 Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side. 
 And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a 
 
 stranger. 
 
 — Job ip. ^3-2/. 
 
 But now he is dead, . . . can I bring him 
 back again ? I shall go to him, but he will 
 not return to me. — 2 Sam. 12. 2^. 
 
 Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; 
 Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see 
 
 corruption. 
 Thou wilt show me the path of life: 
 In thy presence is fullness of joy; 
 In thy right hand there are pleasures for 
 
 evermore. 
 
 — Psa. 16. 10, II. 
 
 9 
 
10 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 I shall behold thy face in righteousness ; 
 I shall be satisfied when I awake, with 
 beholding thy form. 
 
 —Psa. 17. 15. 
 
 God will redeem my soul from the power 
 
 of Sheol; 
 For he will receive me. 
 
 —Psa. 49. 15. 
 
 Unto Jehovah the Lord belongeth escape 
 from death. 
 
 —Psa. 68. 20. 
 
 Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, 
 And afterward receive me to glory. 
 
 —Psa. ;j. 24. 
 
 The spirit returneth unto God who gave 
 it. — Eccles. 12. 7. 
 
 Thine eyes shall see the king in his 
 beauty. — Isa. 33. i/. 
 
 If the wicked turn from all his sins . . . 
 he shall surely live, he shall not die. — Ecck. 
 18. 21, 
 
 They that turn many to righteousness 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK ii 
 
 [shall shine] as the stars for ever and ever. 
 — Dan. 12. J. 
 
 The Gospels 
 
 For in the resurrection they . . . are as 
 angels in heaven. — Matt. 22. jo. 
 
 God is not the God of the dead, but of 
 the living. — Matt. 22. ^2. 
 
 The righteous [shall go] into life eternal. 
 ^—Matt. 25. 46. 
 
 Shall . . . receive ... in the world to 
 come eternal life. — Luke 18. jo. 
 
 For neither can they die any more: for 
 they are equal unto the angels ; and are sons 
 of God, being sons of the resurrection. — 
 Luke 20. jd. 
 
 Thus it is written, that the Christ should 
 suffer, and rise again from the dead the 
 third day. — Luke 24. 46. 
 
 For God so loved the world, that he gave 
 his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth on him should not perish, but have 
 eternal life. — John j. 16. 
 
12 THE COiMFORT BOOK 
 
 He that believcth on the Son hath eternal 
 hfe. — John j. 56. 
 
 The water that I shall give him shall 
 become in him a well of water springing 
 up unto eternal life. — John 4. 14. 
 
 He that heareth my word, and believeth 
 him that sent me, hath eternal life. — John 
 5-^4- 
 
 They that have done good [shall come 
 forth] unto the resurrection of life. — John 
 
 For this is the will of my Father, that 
 everyone that beholdeth the Son, and be- 
 lieveth on him, should have eternal life; 
 and I will raise him up at the last day. — 
 John 6. 40. 
 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
 believeth hath eternal life. — John 6. 4/. 
 
 I am the living bread: ... if any man 
 eat of this bread, he shall live forever. — 
 John 6. 51. 
 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you. If a man 
 keep my word, he shall never see death. — 
 John 8. [,L 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 13 
 
 My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
 them, and they follow me : and I give unto 
 them eternal life; and they shall never 
 perish. — John 10. 2y, 28. 
 
 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrec- 
 tion, and the life: he that believeth on me, 
 though he die, yet shall he live; and who- 
 soever liveth and believeth on me shall 
 never die. — John 11. ^5, 26. 
 
 What I do thou knowest not now; but 
 thou shalt understand hereafter. — John 
 
 Let not your heart be troubled: believe 
 in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 
 house are many mansions; if it were not 
 so, I would have told you ; for I go to pre- 
 pare a place for you . . . that where I am, 
 there ye may be also. — John 14. 1-3. 
 
 Father, I desire that they also whom thou 
 
 hast given me be with me where I am, that 
 they may behold my glory, which thou hast 
 given me. — John //. 24. 
 
 These are written, that ye may believe 
 that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; 
 
14 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 and that believing ye may have [eternal] 
 life in his name. — John 20. 57. 
 
 Acts and Epistles 
 
 And now I commend you to God, . . . 
 w^ho is able to build you up, and to give 
 you the inheritance among all them who 
 are sanctified. — Acts 20. ^2. 
 
 Who will render ... to them that by 
 patience in well-doing seek for glory and 
 honor and incorruption, eternal life. — Rom. 
 2. 6, 7. 
 
 The free gift of God is eternal life in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord. — Rom. 6. 2j. 
 
 For I reckon that the sufferings of this 
 present time are not worthy to be compared 
 with the glory which shall be revealed to 
 US-ward. — Rom. 8. 18. 
 
 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but 
 then face to face : now I know in part ; but 
 then shall I know fully even as also I was 
 fully known. — i Cor. /j. 12. 
 
 Now if Christ is preached that he hath 
 been raised from the dead, how say some 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 15 
 
 among you that there is no resurrection of 
 the dead? But if there is no resurrection 
 of the dead, neither hath Christ been 
 raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, 
 then is our preaching vain, your faith also 
 is vain. Yea, and we are found false wit- 
 nesses of God; because we witnessed of 
 God that he raised up Christ: whom he 
 raised not up, if so be that the dead are 
 not raised. For if the dead are not raised, 
 neither hath Christ been raised : and if 
 Christ hath not been raised, your faith is 
 vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they 
 also that are fallen asleep in Christ have 
 perished. If we have only hoped in Christ 
 in this life, we are of all men most pitiable. 
 
 But now hath Christ been raised from 
 the dead, the first fruits of them that are 
 asleep. For since by man came death, by 
 man came also the resurrection of the dead. 
 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ 
 shall all be made alive. 
 
 So also it is written, The first man Adam 
 became a living soul. The last Adam be- 
 came a life-giving spirit. Flowbeit that is 
 not first which is spiritual, but that which 
 is natural ; then that which is spiritual. The 
 
i6 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 first man is of the earth, earthy: the second 
 man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such 
 are they also that are earthy : and as is the 
 heavenly, such are they also that are heav- 
 enly. And as wq have borne the image of 
 the earthy, we shall also bear the image of 
 the heavenly. 
 
 For this corruptible must put on incorrup- 
 tion, and this mortal must put on immor- 
 tality. But when this corruptible shall have 
 put on incorruption, and this mortal shall 
 have put on immortality, then shall come to 
 pass the saying that is written, Death is 
 swallowed up in victory. O death, where 
 is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting ? 
 The sting of death is sin ; and the power 
 of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, 
 who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved 
 brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, 
 always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
 forasmuch as ye know that your labor is 
 not in vain in the Lord. — i Cor. 15. 
 
 Knowing that he that raised up the Lord 
 Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and 
 shall present us with you. — 2 Cor. 4. 14. 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 17 
 
 For our light affliction, which is for the 
 moment, worketh for us more and more 
 exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 
 while we look not at the things which are 
 seen, but at the things which are not seen : 
 for the things which are seen are temporal ; 
 but the things which are not seen are eter- 
 nal. — 2 Cor, 4. //, 18. 
 
 For we know that if the earthly house 
 of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a 
 building from God, a house not made with 
 hands, eternal, in the heavens. 
 
 For indeed we that are in this tabernacle 
 do groan, being burdened ; not for that we 
 would be unclothed, but that we would 
 be clothed upon, that what is mortal may 
 be swallowed up of life. — 2 Cor. 5. 1-4. 
 
 For to me to live is Christ, but to die 
 is gain. — Phil. i. 21. 
 
 That I may know him, and the power of 
 his resurrection, ... if by any means I 
 may attain unto the resurrection from the 
 dead. — Phil. j. 10, 11. 
 
i8 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Who shall fashion anew the body of our 
 humiliation, that it may be conformed to 
 the body of his glory, according to the 
 working whereby he is able even to subject 
 all things unto himself. — Phil. 3. 21. 
 
 When Christ who is our life, shall be 
 manifested, then shall ye also with him be 
 manifested in glory. — Col. j. 4, 
 
 But we would not have you ignorant, 
 brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; 
 that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who 
 have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus 
 died and rose again, even so them also that 
 are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring 
 with him . . . Wherefore comfort one an- 
 other with these words. — / Thess. 4. 13. 
 
 Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold 
 on the life eternal. — / Tim. 6. 12. 
 
 Manifested by the appearing of our 
 Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, 
 and brought life and immortality to light 
 through the gospel. — 2 Tim. i. 10. 
 
 Henceforth there is laid up for me the 
 crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 19 
 
 the righteous judge, shall give to me at that 
 day ; and not to me only, but also to all 
 them that have loved his appearing. — 2 
 Tim. 4. 8. 
 
 Looking for the blessed hope and appear- 
 ing of the glory of the great God and our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. — Titus 2. /j. 
 
 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent 
 forth to do service for the sake of them that 
 shall inherit salvation? — Heb. i. 14. 
 
 There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest 
 for the people of God. — Heb. 4. p. 
 
 But now they desire a better country, that 
 is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not 
 ashamed of them, to be called their God; 
 for he hath prepared for them a city. — 
 
 Heb. II. 16. 
 
 Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his 
 great mercy begat us again unto a living 
 hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
 from the dead, unto an inheritance incor- 
 ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away, reserved in heaven. — / Pet. i. j, 4. 
 
20 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 And this is the promise which he 
 promised us, even the Hfe eternal. — i John 
 
 Beloved, now are we children of God, and 
 it is not yet made manifest what we shall 
 be. We know that, if he shall be mani- 
 fested, we shall be like him; for we shall 
 see him even as he is. — / John ^. 2. 
 
 These things have I written unto you, 
 that ye may know that ye have eternal life. 
 — I John 5. Jj. 
 
 And we know that the Son of God is 
 come, and hath given us an understanding, 
 that we know him that is true, and we 
 are in him that is true, even in his Son 
 Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and 
 eternal life. — / John 5. 20. 
 
 Keep yourselves in the love of God, look- 
 ing for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 unto eternal life. — Jude, verse 21. 
 
 Revelation 
 
 He that overcometh, I will give to him 
 to sit down with me in my throne, as I also 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 21 
 
 overcame, and sat down with my Father 
 in his throne. — Rev. j. 21. 
 
 After these things I saw, and behold, 
 a great multitude, which no man could num- 
 ber, out of every nation and of all tribes 
 and peoples and tongues, standing before 
 the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in 
 white robes, and palms in their hands; 
 and they cry with a great voice, saying, 
 Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the 
 throne, and unto the Lamb. . . . And they 
 fell before the throne on their faces, and 
 worshiped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, 
 and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, 
 and honor, and power, and might, be unto 
 our God, for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 And one of the elders answered, saying 
 unto me, These that are arrayed in the 
 white robes, who are they, and whence 
 came they? And I say unto him. My lord, 
 thou knowest. And he said to me. These 
 are they that come out of the great tribula- 
 tion, and they washed their robes, and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
 Therefore are they before the throne of 
 God; and they serve him day and night in 
 his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne 
 
22 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 shall spread his tabernacle over them. They 
 shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
 more; neither shall the sun strike upon 
 them, nor any heat: for the Lamb that is 
 in the midst of the throne shall be their 
 shepherd, and shall guide them unto foun- 
 tains of waters of life; and God shall wipe 
 away every tear from their eyes. — Rev. J. 
 9-17. 
 
 And I heard a voice from heaven saying. 
 Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the 
 Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, 
 that they may rest from their labors; for 
 their works follow with them. — Rev. 14. 7J. 
 
 And they shall see his face; and his name 
 shall be in their foreheads. And there 
 shall be night no more; and they need no 
 light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the 
 Lord God shall give them light: and they 
 shall reign for ever and ever. — Rev. 22. 4. 
 
3JmmortaIitp in tfje ancient Wtitin^ii 
 
 The soul being a bright fire, by the power 
 of the Father remains immortal. 
 
 The soul of man will in a manner clasp 
 God to herself. — From a Translation of 
 the Writings of Zoroaster. 
 
 When the day shall come that will sepa- 
 rate this composition, human and divine, 
 I will leave this body here, where I found 
 it, and return to the gods. Not that I am 
 altogether absent from them even now, 
 though detained from superior happiness 
 by this heavy earthly clog. 
 
 This short stay in mortal life is but the 
 prelude to a better and more lasting life 
 above. . . . That day which men are apt 
 to dread as their last is but the birthday 
 of an eternity. — From a Translation of the 
 Writings of Seneca. 
 
 The great, the wise, the valiant, the beau- 
 tiful — alas! where are they now? They 
 are all mingled with the clod; and that 
 23 
 
24 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 which has befallen to them shall happen 
 to us and to those that come after us. Yet, 
 let us take courage. . . . Let us aspire to 
 that heaven where all is eternal, and cor- 
 ruption cannot come. The horrors of the 
 tomb are but the cradle of the Sun, and the 
 dark shadows of death are brilliant lights 
 for the stars. — From a Translation of the 
 Writings of the Indian Monarch, Nezahual- 
 coyotl. 
 
3mmortaIitj> in jBobern literature 
 
 The Poets 
 
 My own dim life should teach me this, 
 That Hfe shall live for evermore, 
 Else earth is darkness at the core, 
 
 And dust and ashes all that is. 
 
 O yet we trust that somehow good 
 Will be the final goal of ill, 
 To pangs of nature, sins of will, 
 
 Defects of doubt, and taints of blood ; 
 
 That nothing walks with aimless feet, 
 That not one life shall be destroyed. 
 Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
 
 When God hath made the pile complete. 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 The stars shall fade away, the sun him- 
 self grow dim with age, and nature sink in 
 years; but thou (my soul) shalt flourish in 
 immortal youth, unhurt amid the war of 
 elements, the wreck of matter, and the 
 crash of worlds. — Joseph Addison. 
 25 
 
26 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 I go to prove my soul ! 
 I see my way as birds their trackless way. 
 I shall arrive ! What time, what circuit first, 
 I ask not ; but unless God send his hail 
 Or blinding fireballs, sleet, or stifling snow 
 In some time, his good time, I shall arrive : 
 He guides me and the bird. In his good 
 time. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 It must be so ! Plato, thou reasonest well ! 
 
 Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond 
 desire. 
 
 This longing after immortality? 
 
 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 
 
 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an here- 
 after. 
 
 And intimates eternity to man. 
 
 — Joseph Addison. 
 
 We see but dimly through the mists and 
 vapors ; 
 
 Amid these earthly damps. 
 What seem to us but sad funereal tapers 
 
 May be heaven's distant lamps. 
 
 There is no death ! what seems so is transi- 
 tion ; 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 27 
 
 This life of mortal breath 
 Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 
 Whose portal we call Death. 
 
 — H. W . Longfellow. 
 
 Who hath not learned in hours of faith 
 This truth to flesh and sense unknown; 
 
 That life is ever lord of death, 
 
 And Love can never lose its own ! 
 
 — John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 Sunset and evening star, 
 
 And one clear call for me ! 
 And may there be no moaning of the bar 
 
 When I put out to sea. 
 
 But such a tide as moving seems asleep. 
 
 Too full for sound or foam, 
 When that which drew from out the bound- 
 less deep 
 
 Turns again home. 
 
 Twilight and evening bell, 
 
 And after that the dark ! 
 And may there be no sadness of farewell 
 
 When I embark; 
 
 For though from out our bourne of Time 
 and Place 
 
28 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 The flood may bear me far, 
 I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
 When I have crossed the bar. 
 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 There is a day of sunny rest, 
 
 For every dark and troubled night ; 
 
 Grief may abide an evening guest, 
 
 But joy shall come with morning light. 
 
 For God has marked each sorrowing day, 
 And numbered every secret tear. 
 
 And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay 
 For all his children suffer here. 
 
 — William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 "Deem not that they are blest." Copyright by D. Appleton & Co. 
 
 I know this earth is not my sphere, 
 For I cannot so narrow me but that 
 I still exceed it. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 Take the joys and bear the sorrows — 
 
 neither with extreme concern ! 
 Living here means nescience simply; 'tis 
 
 next life that helps to learn. 
 Shut those eyes next life will open — stop 
 
 those ears next life will teach 
 Hearing's office; close those lips next life 
 
 will give the power of speech! 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 29 
 
 Or, if action more amuse thee than the 
 
 passive attitude, 
 Bravely bustle through thy being, busy thee 
 
 for ill or good. 
 Reap this life's success or failure! Soon 
 
 shall things be unperplexed. 
 And the right or v^rong, now tangled, lie 
 
 unraveled in the next. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 For I must be immortal, 
 Not doomed to die, but surely called to live 
 Here and hereafter by His loving will 
 Who placed me where I am. 
 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 And I, with faltering footsteps, journey on, 
 Watching the stars that roll the hours away, 
 Till the faint light that guides me now is 
 
 gone. 
 And, like another life, the glorious day 
 Shall open o'er me from the empyreal 
 
 height, 
 With warmth, and certainty, and bound- 
 less light. 
 
 — William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 This body is my house — it is not I ; 
 Herein I sojourn till, in some far sky, 
 
30 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 I lease a fairer dwelling, built to last 
 
 Till all the carpentery of time is past, 
 
 When from my high place viewing this lone 
 star, 
 
 What shall I care where these poor timbers 
 are? 
 
 What though the crumbling walls turn dust 
 and loam — 
 
 I shall have left them for a larger home. 
 
 What though the rafters break, the 
 stanchions rot, 
 
 When earth has dwindled to a glimmering 
 spot! 
 
 When thou, clay cottage, fallest, I'll im- 
 merse 
 
 My long-cramped spirit in the universe. 
 
 Through uncomputed silences of space 
 
 I shall yearn upward to the leaning Face. 
 
 The ancient heavens will roll aside for me. 
 
 As Moses monarched the dividing sea. 
 
 This body is my house — it is not I. 
 
 Triumphant in this faith I live, and die. 
 — Frederic Laivrence Knowles. 
 
 "Th« Ttnant." Copyright by Dana EsUa & Co. 
 
 Admit immortal life. 
 And virtue is knight-errantry no more; 
 Each virtue brings in hand a golden dower 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 31 
 
 Far richer in reversion ; Hope exults, 
 And, though much bitter in the cup is 
 
 thrown, 
 Predominates and gives the taste of heaven. 
 Oh, wherefore is the Deity so kind? 
 Astonishing beyond astonishment! 
 Heaven our reward for heaven enjoyed 
 
 below. 
 
 — Edward Young. 
 
 Our life is onward, and our very dust 
 Is longing for its change, that it may take 
 New combination— that the soul may break 
 From its dark thralldom, where it lies in 
 
 trust 
 Of its great resurrection. Not the rust 
 Of cold inertness shall defeat the life 
 Of e'en the poorest which after strife 
 Shall spring from our dead ashes, and 
 
 which must 
 Bless some else barren waste with its meek 
 
 grace. 
 And germs of beautiful vast thought con- 
 cealed. 
 Lie deep within the soul which evermore 
 Onward and upward strives. The last in 
 
 place 
 Enfolds the higher yet to be revealed, 
 
32 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 And each the sepulcher of that which went 
 before. 
 
 — Elisabeth Oakes Smith. 
 
 O happy world ! O glorious place ! 
 
 Where all who are forgiven 
 Shall find their loved and lost below, 
 And hearts, like meeting streams, shall flow 
 
 Forever one, in heaven. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 Not by the dross of worlds we gauge the 
 
 mind ; 
 Nor by material laws is it confined. 
 Though mighty are the orbs which roll in 
 
 space. 
 Mightier far the soul to run its race. 
 Transcending time, eliminating space. 
 In unseen things its destiny to trace. 
 
 Not for a moment, then, the mind confine — 
 It claims eternity as well as time. 
 Absolved from matter, there's no time or 
 
 space. 
 Nor past nor future in its mighty race. 
 An endless now — one bright eternal day — 
 When once the soul from earth shall pass 
 
 away. 
 
 — Daniel Forbes Lockerbv- 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 33 
 
 The battle is ended; the hero goes 
 
 Worn and scarred to his last repose. 
 
 He has won the day: he has conquered 
 
 doom, 
 He has sunk unknown to his nameless 
 
 tomb. 
 For the victor's glory no voice may plead, 
 Fame has no echo and earth no meed; 
 But the guardian angels are hovering 
 
 near — 
 They have watched unseen o'er the conflict 
 
 here — 
 And they bear him now on their wings 
 
 away 
 To a realm of peace, to a cloudless day. 
 Ended now is earthly strife, 
 And his brow is crowned with the crown 
 
 of Hfe. 
 
 — Anne C. Lynch. 
 
 Some day thou, too, shalt go, 
 
 Shalt pass beyond the gate, 
 Beyond the sunset's glow. 
 Beyond the ebb and flow 
 
 Of time and change and fate; 
 
 See what there is to see. 
 Know what there is to know, 
 
 Be what is thine to be. 
 
34 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Soul ! Soul ! Thou shalt be free 
 That day when thou shalt go ! 
 
 — Helen Hazvthorne. 
 
 "Thou Shalt B« Fr«e," In Christian Regljter, Boston, Mast. 
 
 Life! We've been so long together, 
 Through pleasant and through cloudy 
 
 weather, 
 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear — 
 Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 
 Then steal away, give little warning, 
 Choose thine own time; say not "Good 
 
 night," 
 But in some brighter clime bid me ''Good 
 
 morning.'* 
 
 — Mrs. A. L. Barhauld. 
 
 And I sit and think when the sunset's gold 
 
 Is flushing river, and hill, and shore, 
 I shall one day stand by the water cold. 
 And Hst for the sound of the boatman's 
 oar; 
 I shall watch for a gleam of the flapping 
 sail ; 
 I shall hear the boat as it gains the 
 strand ; 
 I shall pass from sight with the boatman 
 pale, 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 35 
 
 To the better shore of the spirit land. 
 I shall know the loved who have gone 
 before, 
 And joyfully sweet will the meeting be, 
 When over the river, the peaceful river, 
 The angel of death shall carry me. 
 
 — Nancy A. W. Priest. 
 
 What care I though falls the sky 
 
 And the shivering earth to a cinder turn ? 
 
 No fires of doom can ever consume 
 
 What never was made nor meant to burn ! 
 
 Let go the breath! There is no death 
 To a living soul, nor loss, nor harm. 
 
 Not of the clod is the life of God — 
 Let it mount as it will from form to form. 
 — Charles Gordon Ames. 
 
 I hold that, since by death alone 
 God bids my soul go free, 
 
 In death a richer blessing is 
 Than all the world to me. 
 — Schefiier, translated by Frederic Rowland 
 
 Marvin. 
 
 A human soul went forth into the night, 
 Shutting behind it Death's mysterious 
 door, 
 
36 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 And shaking off, with strange resistless 
 might 
 The dust that once it wore. 
 
 So swift its flight, so suddenly it sped — 
 As when by skillful hand a bow is bent 
 
 The arrow flies — those watching round the 
 bed 
 Marked not the way it went. 
 
 Through the clear silence of the moonless 
 dark, 
 
 Leaving no footprint of the way it trod, 
 Straight as an arrow cleaving to its mark. 
 
 The soul went home to God. 
 
 **Alas !" they cried, "he never saw the morn, 
 But fell asleep, outwearied with the 
 strife" — 
 Nay, rather, he arose and met the dawn 
 Of Everlasting Life. 
 
 — Christian Burke. 
 
 Forenoon and afternoon and night, — Fore- 
 noon, 
 
 And afternoon, and night, — Forenoon, 
 and — what ? 
 
 The empty song repeats itself. No more? 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 37 
 
 Yea, that is Life: make this forenoon 
 
 subHme, 
 This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, 
 And Time is conquered, and thy crown is 
 
 won. 
 
 — Edzvard Rozvland Sill. 
 
 Copyright, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 So Hve that when the mighty caravan, 
 Which halts one nighttime in the vale of 
 
 Death, 
 Shall strike its white tents for the morning 
 
 march, 
 Thou shalt mount onward to the eternal 
 
 Hills, 
 Thy foot unwearied, and thy strength 
 
 renewed 
 Like the strong eagle's for the upward 
 
 flight. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 "Thine eyes shall see the King." Soon, 
 
 soon the veil 
 That hides the glorious Throne shall be 
 
 withdrawn. 
 No cloud shall hang athwart the radiant 
 
 dawn 
 Of Heaven's glad morning. Yet no eye 
 
 shall fail for all the brightness, 
 
38 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Perfect light will bring a perfect vision, 
 Heavenly rapture fall on hearts attuned to 
 
 comprehend it all. 
 The songs will not seem strange that angels 
 
 sing; 
 New, but not strange. The joy will be most 
 
 sweet, 
 Because most natural. To see Him there, 
 To know and love him, and his image bear 
 Will make it homelike. Though the golden 
 
 streets 
 Were more than golden, yet it still would be 
 The ''Father's House" and nothing else to 
 
 thee. 
 
 — Liic\ A. Bennett. 
 
 Why should I dread to pass the silent portal 
 That opens the pathway to the great be- 
 yond. 
 To tread the road proclaimed for every 
 mortal 
 When the freed spirit bursts its earthly 
 bond ? 
 
 Do I not know that when this life has 
 ended, 
 And every shadow of its care has fled, 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 39 
 
 When all we love, with whom our souls 
 have blended 
 Have sunk to rest with "those whom we 
 call dead," 
 
 That in that land, over the mystic river, 
 Absolved from error, and devoid of stain. 
 
 Blessed by the bounty of the mighty Giver, 
 A brighter Hfe shall dawn for us again! 
 
 That there the bruised heart that well nigh 
 perished 
 Beneath its load of suffering and wrong, 
 Sustained by Faith, and by Affection cher- 
 ished, 
 Shall thrill the heavens with its grateful 
 song. 
 
 That there the stricken souls who vainly 
 waded 
 O'er Hope's dead sea, never to reach the 
 shore. 
 Shall find their trusting ones with love 
 unfaded, 
 No longer lost, but only gone before. 
 
 No longer, then, my doubt's absorbing power 
 Dim the fair radiance of the future's sky; 
 
40 THE CO:\IFORT BOOK 
 
 But let nie wait in patience for the hour 
 That kindly teaches me, ** 'tis joy to die." 
 
 — /. H. Gray. 
 
 So, thievish Time, I fear thee not ; 
 
 Thou'rt powerless on this heart of mine; 
 My precious jewels are mine own, 
 
 'Tis but the settings that are thine. 
 
 — Charles Mackay. 
 
 Life never dies; 
 Body dies off it, and it lives elsewhere. 
 — Bayard Taylor. 
 
 Of man immortal! Hear the lofty style: 
 
 "If so decreed, th' Almighty will be done. 
 
 Let earth dissolve, yon ponderous orbs 
 descend, 
 
 And grind us into dust: the soul is safe; 
 
 The man emerges ; mounts above the wreck, 
 
 As towering flame from Nature's funeral 
 pyre : 
 
 O'er devastation, as a gainer, smiles ; 
 
 His charter, his inviolable rights, 
 
 Well pleased to learn from thunder's im- 
 potence 
 
 Death's pointless darts, and Hell's defeated 
 storms." 
 
 — Edzvard Young. 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 41 
 
 But soon the doubt and toil and strife of 
 
 earth shall all be done, 
 And knowledge of our endless life be in 
 
 a moment won. 
 
 — Otzuay Curry. 
 
 Is it not sweet to think, hereafter, 
 
 When the spirit leaves this sphere, 
 Love, with deathless wing, shall waft her 
 
 To those she long hath mourned for here? 
 Hearts from which 'twas death to sever, 
 
 Eyes this world can ne'er restore, 
 There, as warm, as bright as ever, 
 
 Shall meet us and be lost no more. 
 
 Alas! alas! doth Hope deceive us? 
 
 Shall friendship — love— shall all those 
 ties 
 That bind a moment, and then leave us, 
 
 Be found again wdiere nothing dies? 
 Oh ! if no other boon were given 
 
 To our hearts from wrong and stain, 
 Who would not try to win a heaven 
 
 Where all we love shall live again ? 
 — Thomas Moore, 
 
42 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Religious Writers 
 
 Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
 
 Till I am wholly thine, 
 Till all this earthly part of me 
 
 Glows with thy fire divine. 
 
 Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
 
 So shall I never die. 
 But live with thee the perfect life 
 
 Of thine eternity. 
 
 — Edwin Hatch. 
 
 The tomb is but the gateway to an eter- 
 nity of opportunity. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 Thus nothing dies, or only dies to live. 
 Sun, star, stream, flower, the dewdrop, 
 and the gold ; 
 Each goodly thing, instinct with buoyant 
 hope, 
 Hastes to put on its purer, finer mold. 
 
 Thus in the quiet joy of kindly trust, 
 We bid each parting saint a brief fare- 
 well; 
 
 Weeping, yet smiling, we commit their dust 
 To the safe-keeping of the silent cell. 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 43 
 
 Softly within that peaceful resting place 
 
 We lay their wearied limbs, and bid the 
 
 clay 
 
 Press lightly on them till the night be past, 
 
 And the far east give warning of the 
 
 coming day. 
 
 The day of reappearing! How it speeds! 
 He who is true and faithful speaks the 
 word. 
 Then shall we ever be with those we love. 
 Then shall we be forever with the Lord. 
 — H or at ins Bonar. 
 
 It is not death to die — 
 To leave this weary road, 
 
 And, mid the brotherhood on high, 
 To be at home with God. 
 
 It is not death to close 
 
 The eye long dimmed by tears. 
 
 And wake in glorious repose 
 To spend eternal years. 
 
 — George W. Bethune. 
 
 I go to life and not to death ; 
 
 From darkness to life's native sky; 
 I go from sickness and from pain 
 
 To health and immortality. 
 
44 TI-IE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 God lives! Who says that I must die? 
 
 I cannot while Jehovah liveth ! 
 Christ lives! I cannot die, but live; 
 
 He life to me forever giveth. 
 
 — Horatiiis Bonar. 
 
 The heavenly home is bright and fair : 
 Nor death nor sighing visits there ; 
 Its glittering towers the sun outshine; 
 That heavenly mansion shall be mine. 
 
 Then fail this earth, let stars decline, 
 And sun and moon refuse to shine ; 
 All nature sink and cease to be, 
 That heavenly mansion stands for me. 
 
 — William Hunter. 
 
 Yes, w^e do but die to live ; 
 
 It is from death we're flying; 
 Forever lives our Hfe; 
 
 For us there is no dying. 
 We die but as the Spring-bud dies, 
 In Summer's golden glow to rise, 
 These be our days of April bloom ; 
 Our Summer is beyond the tomb. 
 
 — Horatius Bonar. 
 
 Are you faint with hope delayed? 
 Life is long! 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 45 
 
 Tarries that for which you prayed ? 
 
 Life is long! 
 What dehghts may not abide — 
 What ambitions satisfied — 
 ^^'hat possessions may not be 
 In God's great eternity ? 
 Lift the heart! Be glad and strong! 
 
 Life is long! 
 
 —Amos R. Wells. 
 
 "The Length of Life." Copyright by Houghton, Mifflin A Co. 
 
 It was the fancy of the ancients to speak 
 of the "sleep of death"; but for the Chris- 
 tian, life is the sleep from which death 
 awakens him. ''Our birth is but a sleep and 
 a forgetting." 
 
 In death the spirit opens its eyes, recalled 
 from a troubled dream to the realities of 
 life which have all the time surrounded it 
 unseen, and to the Father, who has been 
 all the time ''not far from any one of us." 
 — F. W. Henry. 
 
 Through the Darkness. Copyright, 1884, by E. P. Putton & Co, 
 
 But little is said in the New Testament 
 about death. We have very clear and defi- 
 nite assertions of the fact of immortality, 
 but mere hints only of the form of the life 
 into which the earthly life emerges, through 
 
46 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 dying. Two of the most vivid of the ex- 
 pressions used by St. Paul in speaking of 
 what occurs in dying are in the phrases 
 "absent from the body" and "at home with 
 the Lord." In dying we leave the body, 
 which has been "the earthly house of our 
 tabernacle" during our stay. The old house 
 is empty — the tenant has gone out of it. 
 But we are not homeless now, because of 
 our eviction from the earthly house; we 
 are "at home with the Lord." That is, we 
 have a far more glorious dwelling place 
 than the one we were in before. "We know 
 that if the earthly house of our tabernacle 
 be dissolved, we have a building from God, 
 a house not made with hands, eternal, in 
 the heavens." Instead of a tent, which is 
 frail and temporary, liable to decay and 
 dissolution, our new habitation is a building 
 from God, not made with hands, eternal. 
 Instead of an earthly house, our new home 
 is in the heavens. Instead of a place of 
 pain and suffering in which we groan, being 
 burdened, when we leave it we shall find 
 ourselves at once at home with Christ. 
 There is no time for wandering, unclothed, 
 as disembodied spirits, seeking for a new 
 habitation in which to dwell, but the mo- 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 47 
 
 ment we are absent from the body we shall 
 find ourselves at home in heaven. Our new 
 habitation will be a home, with all the 
 blessed meaning of that word; it will be 
 eternal ; it will be with Christ. — /. R. Miller. 
 
 Tba Book of Comfort Copyright by Thomas Y. Crowd! Company. 
 
 Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy 
 
 race, 
 For when as each bad thing thou hast 
 
 entomb'd. 
 And last of all thy greedy self consumed, 
 Then long eternity shall greet our bliss 
 With an individual kiss ; 
 And joy shall overtake us as a flood. 
 When everything that is sincerely good 
 And perfectly divine, 
 With Truth and Peace and Love shall ever 
 
 shine 
 About the supreme throne 
 Of Him to whose happy-making sight alone 
 When once our heavenly guided soul shall 
 
 climb, 
 Then, all this earthly grossness quit, 
 Attired with stars we shall forever sit 
 Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and 
 thee, O Time. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
48 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 The strife is o'er, the battle done; 
 The victory of Hfe is won ; 
 The song of triumi:>h has begun. 
 
 — Francis Pott. 
 
 Paul, as a Christian, knew that we should 
 not be "unclothed but clothed upon." What 
 we have to look forward to is not a process 
 of subtraction but of addition. All that 
 this body has been meaning to me in this 
 world — of sense and growing knowledge 
 and power and manifested identity — all that 
 and more my Christian faith promises me 
 in the world beyond. For even if this mor- 
 tal body should wear out and be dissolved, 
 my faith promises me something which it 
 is fair to call, as the apostle calls it, *'a 
 spiritual body." My Lord's own victory 
 over the grave has given this assurance to 
 all his people that there is for them in the 
 spiritual life beyond, something that shall 
 mean to them all of advantage that this 
 natural body has ever meant to us in the 
 life here on earth; that death shall not 
 condemn us to the shivering nakedness of 
 pagan despair, that we shall not be un- 
 clothed but clothed, that mortality may be 
 swallowed up of life. 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 49 
 
 At the same time I am well assured that 
 all the rich and novel experiences of that 
 unknown future shall never rob me of this 
 personal identity to which I cling so fondly 
 now for myself and for my friends ; for the 
 very principle of this identity which all 
 through my life has been ordering all these 
 changing particles of matter into one body 
 for me has been nothing but the breath of 
 life in me, my own living self. And I my- 
 self, blessed be God, am going to live on. 
 It is a mystery, as all life is . . . But the 
 mystery grows radiant through our Lord's 
 great triumph over corruption and death. 
 ... As Christians we beheve in that ever- 
 lasting life. All one Hfe it is, a life which 
 the accidents of time can never interrupt, 
 and over which death has no power. — 
 W. R. Richards, in the Bible Study Quar- 
 terly. 
 
 To think for aye! to breathe immortal 
 
 breath. 
 And know nor hope, nor fear, of ending 
 
 death ; 
 To see the myriad worlds that round us roll 
 Wax old and perish, while the steadfast 
 
 soul 
 
50 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Stands fresh and moveless in her sphere of 
 thought ; 
 
 O God omnipotent! who in me wrought 
 This conscious world, whose ever-growing 
 
 orb, 
 When the dead Past shall all in time absorb. 
 Will be as but begun, — oh, of thine own 
 Give of the holy light that veils thy throne, 
 That darkness be not mine, to take my place 
 Beyond the reach of light, a blot in space! 
 So may this wondrous life, from sin made 
 
 free. 
 Reflect thy love for aye, and to thy glory be ! 
 — Washington Allston. 
 
 What though with weariness oppressed ? 
 'Tis but a little and we rest. 
 This throbbing heart and burning brain 
 Will soon be calm and cool again. 
 Night is far spent and morn is near, — 
 Morn of the cloudless and the clear! 
 
 We grudge not, then, the toil, the way: 
 Its ending is the endless day ! 
 We shrink not from these tempests keen. 
 With little of the calm between; 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 51 
 
 We welcome each descending sun, — 
 Ere morn, our joy may be begun ! 
 
 — Horatiits Bonar, 
 
 So when my latest breath 
 Shall rend the veil in twain, 
 
 By death I shall escape from death. 
 And life eternal gain. 
 
 — James Montgomery, 
 
 I have learned 
 This doctrine from the vanishing of youth. 
 The pictured primer, true, is thrown aside; 
 But its first lesson liveth in my heart. 
 I shall go on through all eternity. 
 Thank God, I am only an embryo still ; 
 The small beginning of a glorious soul. 
 An atom that shall fill immensity. 
 
 ~A. C. Coxe. 
 
 My soul shall sec the eternal day, 
 And dwell with God forever ! 
 
 — Thomas Dale. 
 
 I think of death as some delightful journey 
 That I shall take when all my tasks are 
 done ; 
 
52 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Though life has given me a heaping 
 
 measure 
 Of all best gifts, and many a cup of 
 
 pleasure, 
 Still better things await me farther on. 
 
 This little earth is such a pleasant planet, 
 
 The distances beyond it so supreme, 
 I have no doubt that all the mighty spaces 
 Between us and the stars are filled with 
 faces 
 More beautiful than any artist's dream. 
 
 I like to think that I shall yet behold them. 
 When from this waiting room my soul 
 has soared. 
 Earth is a wayside station, where we 
 
 wander 
 Until from out the silent darkness yonder. 
 Death swings his lantern, and cries, "All 
 aboard !" 
 
 I think Death's train sweeps through the 
 solar system 
 And passes suns and moons that dwarf 
 our own, 
 And close beside us we shall find our 
 dearest, 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 53 
 
 The spirit friends on earth we held the 
 nearest, 
 And in the shining distance God's great 
 throne. 
 
 Whatever disappointment may befall me 
 In plans or pleasures in this world of 
 doubt, 
 I know that life at worst can but delay me, 
 But no malicious fate has power to stay me 
 From that grand journey on the Great 
 Death route. 
 
 — Theo. F. Van Wagener. 
 
 Novelists and Essayists 
 
 Victor Hugo's great soul found utterance 
 in his later years for these great thoughts : 
 
 **I feel in myself the future life. I am 
 like a forest once cut down ; the new shoots 
 are stronger and livelier than ever. I am 
 rising, I know, toward the sky. The sun- 
 shine is on my head. The earth gives me 
 its generous sap, but heaven lights me with 
 the reflection of unknown worlds. You 
 say the soul is nothing but the resultant of 
 the bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul 
 more luminous when my bodily powers be- 
 
54 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 gin to fail? Winter is on my head, but 
 eternal spring is in my heart. I breathe 
 at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the 
 violets, and the roses, as at twenty years. 
 The nearer I approach the end, the plainer 
 I hear around me the immortal symphonies 
 of the world which invites me. It is mar- 
 velous yet simple. It is a fairy tale, and 
 it is history. For half a century I have 
 been writing my thoughts in prose and in 
 verse ; history, philosophy, drama, romance, 
 tradition, satire, ode, and song ; I have tried 
 all. But I feel I have not said the thou- 
 sandth part of what is in me. When I 
 go down to the grave I can say, like many 
 others, T have finished my day's work.' 
 But I cannot say T have finished my Hfe.' 
 My day's work will begin again the next 
 morning. The tomb is not a blind alley ; it 
 is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight, 
 it opens on the dawn." 
 
 For those who know that God is Father 
 and Friend, who know that all things work 
 for ultimate good in his large plan ; who 
 know that while he cares for the universe, 
 he cares for every sparrow, and numbers 
 every hair of our head — they can tran- 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 55 
 
 quilly and gratefully give up to him their 
 dear ones, and with tears in their eyes, and 
 yet with joy in their heart, bless him for 
 the great convictions of immortality he has 
 given us. We know that these dear friends 
 of ours have passed on before us, happy, 
 holy angels, into the society of angels, into 
 a higher world of light and love and duty. 
 
 We are told that love abides ; and if love 
 abides, the objects of love must also abide. 
 The continuance of our human love is one 
 of the best evidences, not only of immor- 
 tality, but also that we are to know our 
 friends again, and be with them again in the 
 other life. Else why this undying memory 
 of our loved ones, this aching void never 
 filled? 
 
 If therefore we shall not remember our 
 friends hereafter, I think we should not 
 remember anything, and if we did not re- 
 member anything, it would be no immor- 
 tality of the soul, no continuance of the 
 same personal life. What is immortality, 
 if love is not immortal? 
 
 So Tennyson, mourning his lost friend, 
 shows us in all his tender strains of lamen- 
 tation that he has him still, because he loves 
 him so truly and so entirely: 
 
56 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 **Known and unknown ; human, divine ; 
 Sweet human hand and lips and eye ; 
 Dear heavenly friend that canst not die, 
 Mine, mine, forever, ever mine." 
 
 — James Freeman Clarke. 
 
 Oh, listen, man ! 
 A voice within us speaks the startling word, 
 Man, thou shalt never die ! Celestial voices 
 Hymn it round our souls ; according harps, 
 By angel fingers touched when the wild 
 
 stars 
 Of morning sang together, sound forth still 
 The song of our great immortality; 
 The dying hear it, and as sounds of earth 
 Grow dull and distant, wake their passing 
 
 souls 
 To mingle in this heavenly harmony. 
 
 — Richard H. Dana. 
 
 It cannot be that the earth is man's only 
 abiding place. 
 
 It cannot be that our life is a mere bubble 
 cast up by eternity to float a moment on 
 its waves and then sink into nothingness. 
 
 Else why is it that the glorious aspira- 
 tions which leap like angels from the temple 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 57 
 
 of our hearts arc forever wandering unsat- 
 isfied ? 
 
 Why is it that all the stars that hold their 
 festival around the midnight throne are set 
 above the grasp of our Hmited faculties, 
 forever mocking us with their unapproach- 
 able glory? 
 
 And, finally, why is it that bright forms 
 of human beauty presented to our view 
 are taken from us, leaving the thousand 
 streams of our affections to flow back in 
 Alpine torrents upon our hearts ? There is 
 a realm where the rainbow never fades; 
 where the stars will be spread out before 
 us like islands that slumber in the ocean; 
 and where the beautiful beings which now 
 pass before us like shadows will stay in our 
 presence forever. — George D. Prentice. 
 
 There is no death ! The stars go down, 
 To rise upon some fairer shore ; 
 
 And bright in heaven's jeweled crown 
 They shine for evermore. 
 
 There is no death ! An angel form 
 Walks o'er the earth with silent tread ; 
 
 He bears our best loved things away ; 
 And we then call them **dead." 
 
58 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 But ever near us, though unseen. 
 The dear immortal spirits tread; 
 
 For all the boundless universe 
 Is life — there are no dead. 
 
 — /. L. McCrcary. 
 
 The instinct, which prompts the birds at 
 the coming of v^^inter to spread their wings 
 for a warmer climate, makes it certain that 
 the feathered songsters shall not go south, 
 and shall not come north in the spring, to be 
 disappointed; the instinct is safe and un- 
 erring. 
 
 Shall God be kinder to the birds than to 
 human beings? He cares much more for 
 us than for the fowls of the air. If he has 
 something to answer to the migratory in- 
 stincts of the birds, we may be sure that 
 our expectation of a better country, of a 
 fair summerland, shall not meet with dis- 
 appointment. The spirit that rises in Chris- 
 tian faith from the ashes of human mor- 
 tality, and soars away toward the sky, is 
 going to find the blessedness anticipated. 
 This should be our assurance, as we listen 
 to the singing of birds, to the voice of the 
 turtledove, to the joyous notes of bluebird 
 and robin, and the various songsters of the 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 59 
 
 spring. . . . The soul divinely guided, re- 
 turns to God whence it came. Let it but 
 follow the directions of the still small voice 
 heard within, and it will never falter or 
 stop in its flight upward till it rests in the 
 bosom of God, till it finds its nest beyond 
 the stars, in that "home of the soul." 
 
 Beings with the migratory instinct for 
 heaven are not going to be put to shame at 
 the last. . . . Man's grand ideals are over- 
 tures of immortality, because they require 
 and demand immortality for their realiza- 
 tion. . . . Aspirations are liens upon im- 
 mortal life, and they are stepping stones 
 that slope through the darkness up to God. 
 The planting of a desire indicates that the 
 gratification of that desire is in the con- 
 stitution of the creature that feels it. It 
 is there structurally. The Creator keeps 
 his word with everything and everybody. 
 — Andrezv IV. Archibald. 
 
 The Easter Hope, by A. W. Archibald. Copyright by Sulem D. Towae, BostOD 
 Ma8«. 
 
 I thank thee, Father, that at this simple 
 grave on which the dawn is breaking, em- 
 blem of that day which hath no close, thou 
 kindly unto my dark mind hath sent a 
 sacred light, and that away from this green 
 
6o THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 hillock, whither I had come in sorrow, 
 thou art leading me in joy. — Richard Henry 
 Dana. 
 
 The truest end of life is to know the life 
 that never ends. — William Penn. 
 
 Haste not — rest not. Calm in strife 
 Meekly bear the storms of life; 
 Duty be thy polar guide; 
 Do the right, whate'er betide ; 
 Haste not — rest not. Conflicts past 
 God shall crown thy work at last. 
 — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 
 
 Will my tiny speck of being wholly vanish 
 
 in your deeps and lights ? 
 Must my day be dark by reason, O ye 
 
 heavens, of our boundless nights, 
 Rush of suns, and roll of systems, and your 
 
 fiery clash of meteorites ? 
 
 Spirit, nearing yon dark portal at the limit 
 
 of my human state, 
 Fear not, thou, the hidden purpose of that 
 
 Power which alone is great. 
 Nor the myriad world, his shadow, nor the 
 
 silent Opener of the Gate. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 6i 
 
 Eternity, which cannot be far off, is my 
 one strong city. I look into it fixedly now 
 and then. All terms about it seem to me 
 superfluous. The universe is full of love 
 and of inexorable sternness and veracity; 
 and it remains forever true that God reigns. 
 Patience, silence, hope. — Carlyle. 
 
 Still, still with Thee, when purple morning 
 breaketh, 
 When the bird waketh, and the shadows 
 flee; 
 Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight, 
 Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am 
 with thee! 
 
 So shall it be at last, in that bright morning, 
 When the soul waketh, and life's shadows 
 flee; 
 O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawn- 
 ing, 
 Shall rise the glorious thought — I am 
 with thee! 
 
 — Harriet Beecher Stozve. 
 
 I do not believe in a long, dreary sleep, 
 nor in a "happy land far, far away." I 
 believe that death is itself a resurrection. 
 
62 THE COMFORT BOOK ; 
 
 Death is the dropping away of the body 
 from the spirit; resurrection is the up- ; 
 springing of the spirit from the body. The \ 
 two are identical. Death is as we see it | 
 here; resurrection is as they see it on the 
 other side of the thin veil which separates 
 two worlds. And while I frankly admit | 
 to myself and to others that I do not know ' 
 with clearly defined and scientific knowl- 
 edge respecting that other world, I believe i 
 that I have a right to accept the interpre- 
 tations of it given by the New Testament, 
 confirming my own hopes and desires, and ! 
 to believe that the friends who have gone 
 are the great cloud of witnesses to which j 
 the apostle refers, and that they look on j 
 and see how we run our race, fight our i 
 battles, bear our burdens here, andr I have 
 wished so to live and so to carry myself j 
 in my own sorrow as not to minister any i 
 element of sorrow to her whom I still re- 
 gard as my comrade. I think I can truly i 
 say that I am never less lonely than at times i 
 when I am alone and when the choir in- \ 
 visible no longer seems invisible, when it , 
 seems to me as though I have only to push > 
 open the door and enter into the other room ; 
 where they are, unseen by me but not un- j 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 63 
 
 able to see and minister to me. — From a 
 Personal Letter of the Rev. Dr. Lyman 
 Abbott to the compiler. 
 
 Note.— Dr. Abbott's wife died ia Geruiauy six yeari b«for«. 
 
 Man looks for an hour of liberation 
 which shall repeal the flesh and cancel the 
 clod. He has a notion that earth's roof 
 is heaven's floor, and expects to break jail 
 by way of the skylight. His understanding 
 is that when discharged and manumitted 
 here he is requisitioned elsewhere. 
 
 Renan said in his last days, *'The inward 
 worth of a man is measured by his reli- 
 gious tendencies." These are gravitations 
 to draw him home. ... It is humanity 
 being drawn home by the hovering heaven. 
 Hid somewhere underfoot in the heart of 
 this rock-crusted globe is the seat of the 
 power called gravitation which holds man's 
 body down. Anchored in the hidden heart 
 of God above is the attraction which con- 
 trols the spirit and commands and orders 
 home a liberated humanity when it slips the 
 leash of matter and goes free. 
 
 What better can we say than that life 
 here is incubation, and death is the final 
 launching away off this narrow ledge of 
 
64 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Time? When liberation and levitation 
 come, it will not seem strange to be afloat 
 on the bosom of eternity, but as natural as 
 nature's self. We were made for that life 
 as surely as for this, and folded within us 
 are the faculties that fit us for it. The 
 young eagle, pushed out of the nest and off 
 the cliff's edge, is buoyed by wings sufficient 
 though before untried. Some ''full-grown 
 power informs her from the first," and she 
 sweeps easily away through superior spaces 
 vast and unexplored. . . . She is as much 
 at home there, afloat in and supported on 
 the unseen, as ever she was on the crag. 
 She knows neither strangeness, nor danger, 
 nor fear. She is meant for the airy heavens 
 when her time comes, as certainly as for the 
 cliff until her time comes. Nor could you 
 coax her back to be content with the nest 
 of sticks and the narrow ledge whence she 
 launched away into her legitimate large, 
 natural liberty. Likewise the soul is 
 secretly, unconsciously equipped to survive 
 and subsist hereafter as naturally and as 
 easily as here. True for all realms and 
 worlds are the lines : 
 
 **Go where he will, the good man is at home ; 
 
THE COiMFORT BOOK 65 
 
 Where the good Spirit leads him, there's 
 his road, 
 
 By God's own Hght illumined and fore- 
 showed." 
 
 August with lofty dignity are the antique 
 words of Sir Thomas Browne, the Nor- 
 wich physician: "Those that look merely 
 upon my outside, perusing only my condi- 
 tion and fortunes, do err as to my altitude, 
 for I am above Atlas' shoulders. The mass 
 of flesh that circumscribes me limits not 
 my mind. You cannot measure me, for I 
 take my circle to be above 360 degrees. 
 There is surely a piece of divinity in us. 
 ., . . Nature tells me I am the image of 
 God ; he that understands not this much 
 hath not learned his first lesson and is yet 
 to begin the alphabet of man." . . . 
 
 Geometry cannot measure Man ; his circle 
 exceeds 360 degrees. Astronomy cannot 
 calculate his orbit; it knows not the equa- 
 tion of his path. A Pilgrim of the Infinite 
 is he; and the old hymn, familiar to our 
 childhood, sings on in our souls : 
 
 "Thus onward we move, and, save God 
 above. 
 
66 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 None guesseth how wondrous the journey 
 will prove." 
 
 — William Valentine Kelley. 
 
 Let us trust the divine laws of God, which 
 work on forever, creating evermore new 
 growth, tending to develop higher forms, 
 nobler activities, more sweet and joyful 
 lives. Through death we go into higher 
 life. — James Freeman Clarke, 
 
 Theologians and Preachers 
 
 What, then, is this truth which we be- 
 lieve ? The dead live. 
 
 In the years gone we had them with us. 
 They separated from the throng and 
 gave us their love. They grew into our 
 being and became a part of us. One day 
 they became weary and sick. We thought 
 nothing of it at first; but morning after 
 morning came and they were more faint. 
 The story of the dark days that followed is 
 too sad. One dreary night with radiant 
 face they kissed us and said good-by. They 
 were dead. Kind neighbors came in and 
 carried them out of our home and we fol- 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 67 
 
 lowed with dumb awe and saw them lay 
 them down gently beneath the earth. We 
 returned to the vacant house which never 
 could be home any more. Our hearts were 
 broken. The earth and sky have been so 
 dark since that day. ^^'e have searched 
 through the long nights and desolate days 
 for them; they do not come back. We 
 listen, but we get no tidings. Neither form 
 nor voice comes to us. The dark, silent 
 immensity has swallowed them up. Are 
 they extinct? No. They live. We cannot 
 tell where, whether near us or remote; we 
 cannot tell in what form, but they live. 
 They are essentially the same beings they 
 were when they went in and out among us. 
 There has been no break in their life. It 
 is as if they had crossed the sea. The old 
 memories and old loves still are with them. 
 New friends do not displace old ones. They 
 are more beautiful than when we knew 
 them, and purer and holier and happier. 
 They are not sick or weary now and are 
 free from all pain. They have no sorrow. 
 They are not alone. They have joined 
 others. They think and talk of us. They 
 make affectionate inquiry for our welfare. 
 They wait for us. They are learning great 
 
68 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 lessons which they mean to recite to us 
 some day. They are not lonely; they are 
 a glorious company. They have no envies 
 or jealousies. ' They are ravished with the 
 happiness of their new life. They are kings 
 and priests unto God. They wear crowns 
 that flash in the everlasting light. They 
 wear robes that are spotless white. They 
 wave victorious palms. They sing anthems 
 of such exceeding sweetness as no earthly 
 choirs ever approach. They stand before 
 the throne. They fly on ministries of love. 
 They are rapturous with ecstasies of love. 
 God wipes away all tears from their eyes ; 
 and there is no more death, neither sorrow 
 nor crying, nor any more pain ; for the 
 former things are passed away. The glori- 
 ous angels are their teachers and com- 
 panions. . . . The discussion of this doc- 
 trine teaches us the greatness of the future 
 and urges its paramount claims. How can 
 we be charmed any more with the earth? 
 How can we resist the attraction of the 
 blessed heaven? This time — a day, a mo- 
 ment — what has it for us that we should 
 cling to it, love it ? The immortal home, the 
 blessed ones awaiting us, the spirits of just 
 men made perfect, the endless good in store, 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 69 
 
 will they not draw us with irresistible at- 
 traction ? 
 
 These views clothe our friendships with a 
 new charm, and enrich them with an eternal 
 value. Blessed loves ! how happy they have 
 made us on earth; what will they be when 
 they have deepened through ages, with no 
 alloy of envy or suspicion or selfishness, or 
 sorrow ! 
 
 Who as he stands here and looks into that 
 blessed state feels not within him the yearn- 
 ing to depart ? 
 
 Multitudes stand waiting to receive us, 
 expecting our arrival. With open arms they 
 will embrace us, and with blessed welcomes 
 attend us to our prepared homes. 
 
 Let us not disappoint them ; but be up 
 and pressing on until the battle of life is 
 fought and we ascend to join them. — 
 Bishop Randolph S. Foster. 
 
 Listen, then, for through the ages comes 
 a voice saying, "I am the resurrection." It 
 does not falter or waver, but is clear and 
 strong. If that voice is true you may even 
 rejoice at separation, for the doors of an- 
 other home are swinging wide open, and 
 
70 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 dear ones long since departed, stand at the 
 threshold to welcome the new comer. — 
 George H. Hepworth. 
 
 Herald Sermom, vol. I. Copyright, 1897, by E. P. Button & Co. 
 
 Amid the drudgery and hardship of life 
 keep that truth in mind and it will clear the 
 fogs away and leave you in sunshine. We 
 are on the road home, and the way is some- 
 times dark and dreary, but when we get 
 there we shall see that every experience of 
 earth was intended to fit us for the higher 
 joys of heaven. 
 
 — George H ^Hepworth. 
 
 Herala Sermons. toI. II, Copyright, 1897, by E. P. Button 4 Co. 
 
 I am immortal ! I should never forget it, 
 but should carry myself as one who cher- 
 ishes that truth. No matter what my con- 
 ditions in life may be, whether I be poor or 
 rich, learned or unlettered, well or ill, strug- 
 gling or at leisure, I am immortal. I shall 
 outlive my body and my sorrows, my tears 
 and my sighs, all hardships and heart- 
 breakings, for God — my God — will help mc 
 through it all, and his Christ has prepared 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 71 
 
 a place for me where I shall dwell at peace 
 and be at rest. . . . 
 
 — George H. Hepzvorth. 
 
 We Shall LIt« A(;«ln. Copyricht, 1903, by E. P. Dutton A Co. 
 
 Let the current bear us where it will, we 
 are in God's hands, and the current is sub- 
 ject to his instruction. Other worlds await 
 us. Larger opportunities are in the near 
 future. The soul, now hampered by cir- 
 cumstances, shall some time be free; the 
 burden of environment shall be dropped, 
 and when we are emancipated we shall be 
 larger, nobler, and more like the Christ. 
 What care we then for time? The years 
 may come and go as they please and their 
 speed does not disturb us. We are on the 
 road' to our eternal home and the nearer 
 we get to it the higher are our anticipations, 
 the deeper are our longings. Earth is noth- 
 ing when heaven is in sight. . . . — George 
 H. Hepworth. 
 
 Makinfc th« Moit ot Llf*. Copyright, 1904, by E. P. Dutton A Co. 
 
 As for me the other life is a clear and 
 distinct fact. I have more faith in it than 
 I have in this life, and, thus believing, I 
 must, of course, regard it as altogether pref- 
 erable to this life. If either the present or 
 
y2 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 the future is a dream, then, I am sure that 
 1 am dreaming now and that the grand 
 reality is to come. To feel that there is a 
 fire in me which is simply smoldering dur- 
 ing my earthly years because of my bodily 
 limitations, but which will break into an 
 unrestrained blaze when death, the great 
 hypnotist, shall put my physical system to 
 sleep — that feeling forces me to look for- 
 ward with high anticipation. I may be 
 amazed as I contemplate this truth, but my 
 amazement gives place to plans which out- 
 reach the narrow boundaries of time. The 
 soul pulses with pride at the thought of its 
 greatness and its destiny, and must live in 
 accordance with them. 
 
 — George H. Hcpivorth. 
 
 Making the Most of Life. Copyright, 1904, by E. P. Dutton A Co. 
 
 It is not always easy to realize that our 
 souls do not perish with our bodies, but 
 surely no such cold doubts need assail the 
 Christian's heart, nor chill his faith, as he 
 thinks of those who sleep in Jesus, for 
 reason asserts, and Scripture affirms its 
 assertion, that we shall see them again, that 
 we shall know them, and it will add to the 
 joys of heaven even, that in the full com- 
 
THE CO:\IFORT BOOK 73 
 
 munion of love we can cast our crowns at 
 our Saviour's feet. The river of forgctful- 
 ness did indeed flow through the heaven of 
 ancient heathenism, but let us thank God 
 that it does not water the Christian's Para- 
 dise. — 6*. 0. Seymour. 
 
 Through th« Darkness. Copyright, 1884, by E. P. Dutton 4 Co. 
 
 I think that the two things above all 
 others that have made men in all ages be- 
 lieve in immortality, apart, so far as we 
 know, from any revelation save that which 
 is written in the human heart, have been 
 the broken lives and the broken friendships 
 of the world. 
 
 And yet, what terrible misgivings ! Per- 
 haps there is no more! Perhaps it is all 
 over! Until, to the soul standing with all 
 its questionings before the door of the tomb, 
 He who liveth and was dead came as he 
 came to Martha, and holding out the key of 
 death, said the great final conclusive words, 
 "Thy brother shall rise again." 
 
 Alen's souls leaped to that word because 
 they wanted to believe it and had not dared 
 wholly to believe it till he showed them 
 that it was true. And now if v/e believe 
 
74 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 in him, we do believe it, and death is really 
 changed to us, and the dead are really living 
 by the assurance of the living Christ. . . . 
 A living Christ, dear friends ! the old, ever- 
 new, ever-blessed Easter truth ! He liveth : 
 he was dead; he is alive for evermore. 
 Do you believe it ? What are you dreary for. 
 O mourner ? What are you hesitating for. 
 O Worker? What are you fearing death 
 for, O man? 
 
 Oh, if we could only lift up our heads 
 and live with him; live new lives, high 
 lives, lives of love and hope and holiness, to 
 which death should be nothing but the 
 breaking away of the last cloud, and the 
 letting of the Hfe out to its completion. — 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 Th« PurpM* and Um of Comfort. Copyright, 1906, by E. P. Dutton A Co. 
 
 Immortality is the leverage of righteous- 
 ness, the power by which humanity is raised 
 out of habits and vices worse than animal: 
 it is the vast support of the spirit against 
 the flesh, the infinite ally of love against 
 brutality, the necessary and mighty postu- 
 late of the true life of mankind. 
 
 The bedrock of the universe is the faith- 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 75 
 
 fulness of God, the integrity of our Maker, 
 and at our being's height we can do no 
 other and no better than ground our trust 
 upon the immutable promise confirmed by 
 the oath of him that cannot lie, and thus 
 rest our hope of the life after death upon 
 the truth of Christ and the honor of God. 
 ■ — George A. Gordon. 
 
 Tb« Witness to Immortality. Cupyright by Houghton Mifflin Company. 
 
 Shortly before his death, the Rev. Robert 
 J. Burdette wrote a personal letter to the 
 editor of an Eastern Baptist paper, in 
 which he said : 
 
 'T watch the sunset as I look out over the 
 rim of the blue Pacific, and there is no mys- 
 tery beyond the horizon line, because I 
 know what there is over there. I have been 
 there. I have journeyed in those lands. 
 Over there where the sun is just sinking is 
 Japan. That star is rising over China. In 
 that direction lie the Philippines. I know 
 all that. Well, there is another land that 
 I look toward as I watch the sunset. I have 
 never seen it. I have never seen any one 
 who has been there, but it has a more abid- 
 ing reality than any of these lands which I 
 do know. This land beyond the sunset — • 
 
y6 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 this land of immortality, this fair and 
 blessed country of the soul — why, this 
 heaven of ours is the one thing in the world 
 which I know with absolute, unshaken, un- 
 changeable certainty. This I know with a 
 knowledge that is never shadowed by a 
 passing cloud of doubt. I may not always 
 be certain about this world ; my geographi- 
 cal locations may sometimes become con- 
 fused, but the other world — that I know. 
 And as the afternoon sun sinks lower, faith 
 shines more clearly and hope, lifting her 
 voice in a higher key, sings the songs of 
 fruition. My w^ork is about ended, I think. 
 The best of it I have done poorly ; any of it 
 I might have done better, but I have done 
 it. And in a fairer land, with finer material 
 and a better working light, I will do better 
 work." 
 
 Flowers! speak to me this morning the 
 same dear old lesson of immortality which 
 you have been speaking to so many sorrow- 
 ing souls. 
 
 Wise old book ! let me read again in your 
 pages that to die is gain. Poets ! recite to 
 me your verses which repeat in every line 
 the gospel of eternal life. Singers! break 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK "j^ 
 
 forth once more into songs of joy, let me 
 hear again the well-known resurrection 
 psalm. Tree and blossom and bird and sea 
 and sky and wind, whisper it, sound it 
 afresh, warblt it, echo it, let it throb and 
 pulsate through every atom and particle; 
 let the air be filled with it ; let it be beaten 
 into our brains, there to be told and retold 
 and still retold until hope rises to convic- 
 tion, and conviction unto certitude of 
 knowledge, until we, like Paul, even though 
 going to our death, go with triumphal mien, 
 with assured faith, with serene and shining 
 face, able to say, I know in whom I have 
 beHeved, for the which cause I suffer death, 
 and I am persuaded that He is able to keep 
 my soul which I have committed unto him 
 even unto the end. — Thomas Van Ness. 
 
 Reasons for Faith in Immortality, Copyright by American Unitarian AssociatioTi 
 Biistou, Mass. 
 
 I say to thee, do thou repeat 
 
 To the first man thou mayest meet 
 
 In lane, highway, or open street — 
 
 That he and we and all men move 
 
 Under a canopy of love. 
 
 As broad as the blue sky above ; 
 
78 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 That doubt and trouble, fear and pain 
 And anguish, all are shadows, vain, 
 That death itself shall not remain ; 
 
 That weary deserts we may tread, ] 
 
 A dreary labyrinth may thread, : 
 
 Through dark ways underground be led ; i 
 
 Yet if we will one Guide obey, 
 
 The dreariest path, the darkest way, 
 
 Shall issue out In heavenly day. 
 
 — Richard Chenevix Trench. / 
 
 Why be afraid of Death as though your 
 
 life were breath! 
 Death but anoints your eyes with clay, O 
 
 glad surprise! 
 
 Why should you be forlorn? Death only 
 
 husks the corn, 
 Why should you fear to meet the thresher 
 
 of the wheat? 
 
 Is sleep a thing to dread ? Yet sleeping you 
 
 are dead? 
 Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond 
 
 the skies. 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 79 
 
 Why should it be a wrench to leave your 
 
 wooden bench, 
 Why not with happy shout run home when 
 
 school is out. 
 
 The dear ones left behind! O foolish one 
 
 and blind, 
 
 A day — and you will meet; a night — and 
 
 you will greet ! 
 
 This is the death of Death, to breathe away 
 
 a breath 
 And know the end of strife, and taste the 
 
 deathless life. 
 
 And joy without a fear, and smile without 
 
 a tear. 
 And work, nor care nor rest, and find the 
 
 last the best. 
 
 — Maltbie D. Babcock. 
 
 Thoug;ht8 for Every Day Living. Copyright, 1901, by Charles Scribner'i Sout 
 New York, 
 
 Without this larger faith in the future we 
 would be without defense and without com- 
 fort in the face of the worst desolations of 
 the heart. No earthly consolation can reach 
 the root of the deepest sorrows of life. 
 
8o THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Without eternity there would be some 
 wounds that could never be stanched, and 
 some griefs that must be incurable. 
 
 There can be no healing of the grave's 
 most poignant sting without immortal faith. 
 Our heart need not be troubled or afraid if 
 we believe in the God whom Jesus revealed. 
 We can leave ourselves and all our love to 
 him. 
 
 In the power of endless life, all burdens 
 are lightened. 
 
 The sunshine of eternity illumines the 
 mansions of time. — Hugh Black. 
 
 From Comfort, by Hugh Black. Copyiight, ISlO, by Fbmlng H. Revell Com 
 paijy. 
 
 If a man dies, shall he live again? After 
 long mental conflict and distress over the 
 teachings of the scientists, at last our sun 
 has cleared itself of clouds, and we hold a 
 faith in the future that is as firm as the 
 stars and as bright and sure. When we 
 read in Sir Walter Scott's journal the 
 words, "Last night I slept soundly, and in 
 the morning" (after which the pen fell 
 from his hand forever), we believe that the 
 morning eternal dawned and that his pen 
 resumed its task. For ours is a reasonable 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 8i 
 
 and moral universe. If the heroes and 
 martyrs have never Hved again, then the 
 sun shoots off rays of blackness and icicles. 
 Socrates was true to his convictions, and 
 wore threadbare garments and ate crusts. 
 And with a prayer to God upon his lips was 
 put to death, while his judges went home 
 to drink wine and sleep on beds of down. 
 Where is Socrates ? Has he met the Homer 
 and Hesiod, and the two philosophers 
 whom he called his teachers and heroes? 
 Has he been rewarded of God for his 
 deeper convictions and finer feelings? 
 Lost ? No ! A thousand times no ! We do 
 not charge God with folly! Abraham Lin- 
 coln has seen of the travail of his soul and 
 been satisfied. Tennyson, who felt that he 
 had just begun to master the beginnings of 
 his craft, and the rude beginnings of the 
 beautiful, has found the beauty that is per- 
 fect, and that ravishes the soul with loveli- 
 ness that is divine. Paul has found that 
 dying is gain. The broken-hearted mother 
 has found her sweet babe and received it 
 again from the arms of the angel that did 
 always behold the face of its Father which 
 art in heaven. Therefore, look upward, 
 beyond the clouds shines the eternal sun. 
 
82 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 Because God lives, you who are made in 
 his image shall live also. 
 
 Forget your fears and anxieties. The 
 sons and daughters of immortality should 
 not go through life dull-eyed, despondent, 
 and discrowned. This life, incomplete here, 
 shall be completed there. Through adver- 
 sity and fire, mist and hail, we slowly prove 
 our souls. Having begun to live it is but 
 a little thing that God should continue the 
 soul that has begun its long career. Gone 
 those that are dearest and best, and time 
 can neither allay our sorrow nor cure our 
 grief. The loneliness must continue while 
 the separation continues. But if they come 
 not back to us, we go to them. . . . There- 
 fore put away all dark garments worn of 
 selfishness, passion, and sin! Array your- 
 selves in garments of hope and faith, with 
 a girdle of love. And in that hour when 
 the soul rises through the pathless air and 
 goes winging its way to the Court of Love, 
 who shall describe the joy of those who cast 
 their crowns before Him who hath brought 
 immortality to light! While, with one 
 accord, all exclaim, "Not unto us, not unto 
 us, but unto thy name be all the praise of 
 our salvation." For in God, in Christ, in 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 83 
 
 holiness and in love, the soul shall ever 
 live and move and have its eternal being. — 
 
 Nezvell D wight Hill is. 
 
 Sermon ob Immortality, in Brooklyn Kagl*. 
 
 Periodical Press 
 
 The question is sometimes asked, *'Does 
 death end all?" Death ends nothing; it is 
 simply a change. There are no dead in 
 the sense in which the phrase is commonly 
 used; there are only the living in the vast 
 mystery of life which unfolds us all, on 
 the fathomless stream of life which bears 
 us all forward. We are here for a little 
 time, as we are often in inns where we 
 make friends who are dear to us, and then 
 we leave them and go on to another stage 
 in our journey ; we miss them and they miss 
 us, and neither their places nor ours are 
 ever taken by others. But we see new land- 
 scapes and pass through new experiences 
 into a larger world, and they presently fol- 
 low us. We are separated and are often 
 lonely, but we look forward joyfully to new 
 sights and sounds, and to the hour when, 
 farther on in the journey, we shall look into 
 their eyes and hear their voices. 
 
 To think of life as one and indivisible. 
 
84 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 of immortality as our possession, here and 
 now, of death as normal change in an eter- 
 nal process of growth, of those whom we 
 call dead as more intensely alive than when 
 we saw them, is to transform the experience 
 which has overshadowed the world for cen- 
 turies as the end of happiness into a larger 
 freedom and joy, and to make immortality 
 not a vague expectation but a glorious open- 
 ing of the doors and windows of the house 
 of life. ^'While we poor wayfarers still 
 toil with hot and bleeding feet, along the 
 highway and the dust of life," writes Dr. 
 Martineau, "our companions have but 
 mounted the divergent path, to explore the 
 more sacred streams, and visit the divine 
 vales, and wander amid the everlasting 
 Alps of God's upper provinces of creation. 
 And so we keep up the courage of our 
 hearts, and refresh ourselves with the mem- 
 ories of love, and travel forward in the 
 ways of duty, with less weary step, feeling 
 ever for the hand of God, and listening for 
 the domestic voices of the immortals whose 
 happy welcome awaits us. Death, in short, 
 under the Christian aspect, is but God's 
 method of colonization ; the transition from 
 this mother country of our race to the 
 
THE COiMFORT BOOK 85 
 
 fairer and newer world of our emigration. 
 — The Outlook, 
 
 What glories await the spirit set free 
 From fetters of earth, iintrammeled to be! 
 The work begun here is continued above, 
 And all that blest life is service and love. 
 — Parish Visitor, 
 
 The testimony of literature to the hope 
 of immortality is valuable because it repre- 
 sents the judgment and the instincts of the 
 men and women of the highest ranks of 
 genius. 
 
 The human soul has always been the 
 chief subject of study for literary genius. 
 Inventive, scientific, political, and military 
 genius takes Httle thought of the higher life 
 of man. Indeed, the effect of the things 
 which occupy men of genius of these classes 
 is often to divert their thought from the 
 consideration of the soul. But literary 
 genius has for its most constant theme, in 
 varying form, the human soul. It means 
 much, therefore, when with practical una- 
 nimity these great students of the spirit 
 affirm their belief in its immortality. One 
 of the marked characteristics of the literary 
 
86 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 masters is their recognition of the spiritual 
 meanings of life. Their genius is that of 
 the seer. Poets, dramatists, and novehsts 
 are always seers of visions. For them the 
 unseen is always the background of the 
 seen. For them hidden light is always shin- 
 ing out of things. Behind the visible they 
 forever hear the footfalls of the invisible 
 creation, and the reality of things lies be- 
 neath the appearance of things. To them 
 life and nature are always waiting for an 
 interpreter through whom their secret sig- 
 nificance may be made known. This mystic 
 element, as seen by the eyes of literary 
 genius, is the thing of deepest interest in 
 human Hfe. 
 
 When literature, therefore, takes up the 
 question of immortality, it has practically 
 but one answer. Man must be immortal, 
 or there is no meaning in life, and the whole 
 course of history is moving to a hopeless 
 and remediless tragedy. Man must be im- 
 mortal, or a magnificent harmony is des- 
 tined to end in clashing discord. Man must 
 be immortal, or what inspired souls have 
 taken to be beacon lights on the hills of the 
 future are the flames of funeral pyres, and 
 God has put the song of hope in the uni- 
 
THE CO.AIFORT BOOK 87 
 
 versal human heart only to smother it at 
 last in dust and ashes. — Sunday School 
 Journal, 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 O, blessed thought ! we shall not always so 
 In darkness and in sadness walk alone; 
 
 There comes a glorious day when we shall 
 know 
 As we are known. 
 
 To be absent from the body is to be pres- 
 ent with the Lord. The word translated 
 "to be present" really means to be among 
 one's people : surrounded by familiar scenes 
 and faces; in a word, to he at home; and is 
 there not something very beautiful in this 
 divine assurance, that the spirit as it goes 
 forth from the body does not feel the sun- 
 dering of the ties which bind us to the earth, 
 nor is it oppressed with the strangeness of 
 the transition, nor bewildered by the im- 
 mensity of its abode? Its exit will be a 
 going home: some place there is which is 
 the Home of Christ's redeemed ones : where 
 they shall be welcomed to his Presence, and 
 have friendly hands outstretched to greet 
 them and loved faces to surround them, 
 
88 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 and blissful occupations to engage them. 
 Heaven is the home of the spirit, and death 
 instead of unhousing it, or turning it adrift 
 like an ejected tenant from its present 
 dwelling, opens for it the door of its true 
 home, and ushers it into its heavenly inti- 
 macies and companionships. 
 
 All around, man's acres lie, 
 Under the same brooding sky. 
 There, the plowman blithely sings ; 
 Broadcast, there the sower flings 
 Golden grain, to die in gloom, 
 Making every clod its tomb. 
 Lo! a miracle is seen — 
 Acres clothed in living green. 
 
 In their midst God's acre lies, 
 Under these same yearning skies. 
 Here, men move with dirges slow ; 
 Here, their tears unbidden flow; 
 Loved forms, here, in earth they lay ; 
 Leave to darkness and decay. 
 Autumns wane, and springs return ; 
 Still they sleep 'neath shaft and urn. 
 
 Side by side, those acres lie, 
 Under this expectant sky. 
 
THE COMFORT BOOK 89 
 
 What ? On God's lies death's dark spell, 
 ^^'hile in man's comes miracle? 
 No ! for love's eyes pierce the gloom ! 
 No ! for Christ hath burst the tomb ! 
 God will give by power unknown, 
 Each a body of its own. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 Hail, glorious dawn! 
 
 Bright, beauteous morn ! 
 When I shall wake from death's embrace, 
 And see my Saviour face to face, 
 
 My life revived, 
 
 The great white throne beside, 
 
 *1 shall be satisfied." 
 
 O joy complete ! 
 
 Loved ones to greet, 
 And to my bosom as of yore, 
 Press close — to part again no more. 
 
 With Him I'll then abide 
 
 Close to his loving side, 
 
 Forever satisfied. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 The stars shine over the earth, 
 The stars shine over the sea ; 
 
90 THE COMFORT BOOK 
 
 The stars look up to the mighty God, 
 The stars look down on me. 
 The stars have lived for a million years, 
 A million years and a day ; 
 But God and I shall love and live 
 When the stars have passed away. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
V (Cnbof 
 
 Heaven overarches earth and sea, 
 Earth-sadness and sea-bitterness. 
 
 Heaven overarches you and me: 
 
 A httle while and we shall be — 
 
 Please God — where there is no more sea 
 Nor barren wilderness. 
 
 Heaven overarches you and me, 
 
 And all earth's gardens and her graves. 
 Look up with me, until we see 
 The day break and the shadows flee. 
 What though to-night wrecks you and me 
 
 If so to-morrow saves? 
 
 — C. G. Rossetti. 
 
 From Th« Golden Treasury. Copyright by The M»cmill»n Company. 
 
 91 
 
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 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U S A. 
 
Pnncnon Theological Seminary-Spec Libia 
 
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