him; we are gathering with him or we are scattering abroad. The particular point to which we wish at present to direct your attention, is the fact, that these different classes of individuals are destined to pass into eternity with the same character that they had on earth. However their capacities may be expanded or their circumstances changed, yet morally, they are to remain as they have been." If the tree fall towad the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be."

We can conceive it possible that the soul might pass through some great transformation, by which its former history would be lost, and all the earlier impressions made upon it be obliterated. The doctrine has been often taught, that in the intermediate state, between death and the resurrection, the soul will undergo a purifying process; and that in this way it will become prepared for a world of everlasting holiness. Even where the truth, for which we are contending, is admitted to its full extent, yet the reasons of the fact are not always nor adequately understood. Many who believe that this life is preparatory to another, regard the connexion between the two as merely a matter of arbitrary arrangement. They do not see how in the very nature of things it must be, that our character and conduct here determine all that is to come after them. But, my hearers, religion accords with true philosophy. The reasons for the oft-repeated assertion, that as we live here, so shall we live hereafter, lie deep in the very elements of our being. The sophistries of the sceptic may delude us, and our own wicked hearts pervert our understandings, but the calm and sober investigation of truth, as discovered in the works of the Almighty, tends but to confirm and illustrate the infallible teachings of his word. If we may

judge from what we know and what we can see, of the world around us, we have the strongest evidence for the Immortality of Character.

That we may make this apparent, we ask you,

I. To consider for a moment what constitutes the character. What are the elements of the moral man? It is true, we necessarily include in the character, the qualities or dispositions with which we are originally formed, and in this sense speak of men as naturally depraved, or otherwise. Yet we commonly refer to something which is acquired; to the propensities and tastes when in a state of maturity or developement; to the fruit rather than the germ from whence it springs. We are accustomed to say, that the character is now in a state of formation; that it is now modified by the thousand agencies to which it is exposed, and that it may not for some time to come, attain a perfectly definite and invariable com

plexion. It is evident from this that we have particular reference in speaking of the character, to that condition in which the soul is, after it has passed through a period of trial, and its native faculties have been exercised and disciplined. We refer not to the gilded binding of the book, nor to the blank leaves it contains, however they may be discolored, but to the sum of the impressions made upon its pages-to the book as written over with the busy hand of Time.

Now if the soul survives the body, which we are all ready to admit, must we not reasonably infer, that it will carry with it, not merely its original elements, but also the strength and maturity which have been imparted to them by years of cultivation or indulgence? There is nothing in nature to make any other supposition even plausible. We have no analogy to warrant the opinion that the character may be stripped off from the soul as the garments are from the body. The fullgrown man may become a meagre skeleton, a mere wreck of what he formerly was in the days of his pride and vigor, but he can never again become the little child-never dwindle into infancy. His physical constitution is not susceptible of such a change. The wide branching tree may lose its verdure or be broken by the tempest, but no conceivable process can reduce it to the sapling, or compress it within the folds of the seminal germ. So the character may lose its tone, or be deprived of some of its former peculiarities, but it can never be converted into the original elements from which it has been evolved. It bears the same relation to the soul that shape or color does to matter. It is a part and property of the souland so far as we can perceive, they can never be entirely separated from each other.

We have reason to believe that impressions made upon the soul are never lost. If it were necessary we might mention many interesting facts in support of this opinion. Individuals have been known under certain circumstances, to remember things with which they had once been familiar, but which had long, long been forgotten; and yet the character is made up of the effects, which these words and thoughts and actionsthese unremembered things-have left behind them. It appears to us about as reasonable to suppose, that the soul can be separated from its faculties as from its character. We confess that when we consider the nature of character, we can see no valid way of escaping the conclusion, that he who at death is unjust, will be unjust still; and he which is filthy will be filthy still; and he that is righteous will be righteous still, and he that is holy will be holy still.

II. Consider, secondly, in what manner the character is formed.

How do men become licentious, intemperate, or profane :— how do they become upright, benevolent and wise? Not by accident, surely, nor by birth, for whatever evil propensities we may have by nature, yet we do not spring into existence like the fabled goddess, full armed and strong. We acquire our character, as we do the qualities of our manhood, by exercise and growth; by gradually going on from one degree of strength unto another.

The miser was not made so in a moment. Years have been confirming habits early formed and giving intenseness to desires that were early cherished. Once his idol gold received only the partial homage of his heart; now, every faculty and thought are devoted to its service. Once he craved only the abundance of the rich; now he would defraud the widow of her mite, and envies the beggar at the gate his scanty portion. The murderer has not become the foul spirit that he is, at once. You can trace the progress of his sad degeneracy from the time when with a "bosom that carried anger as the flint bears fire," he first mingled in scenes of strife and tumult, until now when his hands are crimsoned with his brother's blood his life is about to pay the forfeit of his crimes. Once conscience lifted its voice and checked him in his waywardness; but it was disregarded. Again it spoke, though in more feeble accents, but it was again refused, until at last insulted and disowned, it ceased to do its office work and left him to his own devices. Could you have the chart of his past history unrolled before you, you would see that his crime was but the visible representative of his character, and that his character was but the legitimate result of the deteriorating process through which he had passed. The wicked man, let his offencs be what they may, has not reached the bad eminence, which he occupies, without cultivating evil habits, mingling with evil associations, and indulging corrupt and unholy thoughts. He has had to resist good influences and kindly motives and become insensible to gentle persuasions and terrific threatenings. The work, difficult at first, has become easier at every repetition. The flaming cherub that once guarded his way has at last departed from his path; the barriers that God had erected to defend him have been despised again and again, until now effectually destroyed. In like manner, it is true of the good man that he advances just in proportion as he cultivates his distinctive traits and makes a vigorous resistance against every thing that threatens evil. In the kingdom of God as elsewhere, there is first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. We must add to our faith virtue, and to

virtue knowledge, and to knowledge every other grace and good attainment. The righteous holds on his way becoming stronger and stronger, while evil men and seducers wax worse and

worse.

Thus you will perceive that the character is formed according to the same law that obtains in every department of the divine administration; a law, which in respect to some things at least, we all admit; a law with which we are made acquainted in the earliest stages of our childhood, and upon which we uniformly act in all the common concerns of life; the law that the future is determined by the present; that what we shall be is only the enlargement and perfection of what we now are. In viewing this great principle, "the child is" indeed "the father of the man." He has the web of his own destiny within his hands and is giving shape by his present conduct to the results of coming years. We see that to-day is but the reprint of yesterday; simply a fresher and stronger impression than had been made before. The desires then gratified clamour again and yet more loudly for indulgence. The habits then formed are yet adhered to, and exercise over us a more unlimited control. The principles then avowed are still defended and are taking a deep hold within, and so in like manner, will the future be but the reproduction of the present, bearing the same relation to it that the full length portrait bears to the miniature. This is as surely a law in the moral as is gravitation in the natural world. Principles vegetate and propensities become established, as really as seeds and plants. Hence the almost utter impossibility of making any radical alteration in the characters of those who have advanced in years. Hence when the lives of men were extended far beyond what they now are, as a natural consequence they became giants in wickedness.

When new worlds are discovered in the heavens, however magnificent they may be, they are yet formed to be controlled by precisely the same laws that regulate those which have been known for ages; and so when in the gospel, we learn of regions of eternal night and endless day, in which the soul shall sink or soar hereafter, are we not to presume that it will still be under the operation of the same laws that have affected it on earth? We are indeed assured, that the laws which regulate the moral world are even more stable and more permanent than those which regulate the physical;—that heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of God's word shall fail.

There is nothing that nature teaches us in regard to God more clearly, than that his laws are uniform and abiding; that he will, so to speak, make any sacrifice rather than devi

ate from established rules. Let the best man that lives thrust himself into the fire, or leap from the brow of the deep precipice, and he will share the same fate as the careless and ungodly that do likewise. Let angels, God's first-born sons, rebel, and he will hunt them from their exalted seats and bind them in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day. No matter who transgresses, although the divine compassions are infinite, yet without true repentance there can be no salvation. Now before we can believe that God is to act differently hereafter-that he is to renounce the character he has always thus far sustained, we must have some new and explicit revelation on the subject. All analogy favors the idea, that he will still adhere to the same course that has marked his government thus far, and that at death, he that is unjust will be unjust still; and he which is filthy will be filthy still; and he that is righteous will be righteous still; and he that is holy will be holy still.

III. We ask you to consider thirdly, whether there be any changes to be passed through, or any influences to be exerted in the future, that will be likely to effect a radical transformation

in the character.

Will the dissolution of the body have a tendency to do it? We have passed through many physical changes, but are not our characters substantially the same as they were before! If they have been affected it has been through other causes. In our maturity, we discover to a considerable degree the same qualities and traits we did in earlier life; and yet the body has been changing every hour. The profane, the proud or the covetous man, does not become a different being when his body is emaciated or his limbs are severed; when he is abroad upon the sea, or when he is wandering in distant lands. Why then should the tearing asunder of the invisible ligament that connects the spirit with the body, change the moral aspect or complexion of that spirit? The faculties of the soul are often most vigorous when the eyes are sunken, and the heart beats slow and feebly. The half-articulated utterances of the dying man often give evidence that his mind is intensely active, and his thoughts yet fixed upon the objects that have so long absorbed them. And may we not then very safely presume, that since the character has survived all other outward changes, it will also survive this one of death! Whatever difficulties there may be in arguing from analogy in favor of the soul's existence beyond the existence of the body, yet admitting this, there are none, so far as we can perceive, in relation to the character. If death does not destroy nor change the essence of the spirit, it is but fair to con