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    tudes prematurely in its invisible womb , $ n& all , trace of tfc § efc& for e $ &g $ m - ?* mto m&s }* iff ; & ; befcra us with fearful , iAC&rfjt || i < J ^ m& m man laying himself down at night is

    sure tfiak be \ vift rise again in the morning among his friends and in his native land . Bat though it shifts awhile * titis gloamy bourne of our pilgrimage hath an unshifting limit behind which it never recedes . And

    soon the extreme angle of that limit is reached by all ! Oft they move in endless succession , helpless as the sheep to the slaughter , and the moment they touch the dark confine they

    disappear , and all clue of them is lost 1 You may cry aloud , but they bear and answer not j you may give them any signal , but they see and return it not . No voice cbmeth from

    within the curtain where all is silent and unknown . How it fares with them , whether they merge at once into another country , whether they are put at sea , by what compass and map they steer , or whether they are lost in that gulf and abyss of being for evermore , no man for thousands

    and thousands of years had the shadow of an imagination . It was very mysterious ; each man as he passed c shuffled off his mortal coil , ' left us his slough , but nothing of himself . His reason , his feeling , his society , his love , all went with him : here with us was left all of him that we were

    wont to see and touch and handle . How he could exist apart from these , the helps and instruments of being , was all a phantom and a dream . The existence , if existence there was , no kuman faculties could fix : a thought upon . His spirit , if spirit there were , takes its fate ia cold nakedness ; but how it dwells or feels or suffers or

    enjoys , when thus divested , was altogether incomprehensible . Why , then , iti this midnight ignorance , should we ap $ I $ to any ma ^ n to guide us , or to ourselves ? It is vanity . Quit , then , with such presumptuous trust , and be not dipped \ vith their blind directions .

    * ** Onlyo $# man ; of the myriads whq passed the darksome veil returned ; he passed into the obscure , in the obscure | he tarried , and like the rest was given , up fip i . lost . But forth he came in the greatness of his strength , having conquered thei powers beyond .

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    He came not for hi ^ own-sate but foir 61 * 1 % to give us note an ^ warning of what was doing upon the other side , and of what fere-we ^ ro ^ forever ! And hehatli laid down M ^ simplest rules to guide us to happiness and honour , and the amplest' warding to ke 6 p us from cfegradation and ruin . In the name of reason and consisteneyy

    then , to whom should we apply but unto him who knows so well , &t * d ivas never known in all he said to deceived in all he did toinjure ? To hira * , then , let us go for tuition . And most surely he is the kindest , most affectionate , most considerate . Teacher , that ever breathed the breath of

    knowledge over helpless ? ignorance . Away , then , with our own conjectures , away with the conjectures of other men who , however wise in this life , know nothing of the life within the veil which shrouds us in . Up ,

    then , go to the Scriptures which he uttered of himself or by the inspiration of his spirit ; there let us be str ipped of all our fancied knowledge of things which we know not in the least . Under them let us commence

    a new childhood , a new scholarship for eternity , and we shall arrive at length at that manhood of strength and knowledge , which will never fall away into the dotage or sereness of

    age , and shall survive death and con * vey us safe through the unknown to the mansion of our heavenly Father , which our great Fore-runner hath gone to prepare for our reception /*

    I close by remarking , that in this great doctrine of a future state , the Christian world , however crumbled down respecting inferior articles of faith , are united . The Catholic , the

    Churchman and Dissenter , are here agreed . That Jesus ^ hath brought life and immortality to light , is the prime doctrine of the Christian revelation in which both Trinitarians and

    Unitarians have uniformly acquiesced * " There is a something in our common faith /* ( says Dr . Watson , the late Bishop of Llandaff , ) in which all are agreed , and that somewhat is in my opinion a circumstance of such

    ineffable importance that I will never refuse the right hand of fellowship to ham who acknowledges its truth , never think or speak of him with disrespecjt , nor with ^ rue pharisaical pride esteem myself more orthodox , more accepta *

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    j&tel ^ w * mM * i > fit

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1824, page 31, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2520/page/31/