Author: Chauncey Giles

Publisher:

Published: 2020-04-09

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13:

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I INVITE your attention to a subject which must interest everyone who believes in the possibility even of a life after this, and of another world in which we are to dwell forever. Nothing can explain the indifference of those who have any belief in Christianity to the great realities of the future, but the conviction that it is impossible to know anything concerning spiritual beings and a spiritual world beyond the bare fact of their existence. How can an intelligent being remain indifferent to a subject of such infinite importance, if he believes in its reality? If any one of you knew that you must sooner or later remove to some remote country, to spend the remainder of your life there, and that you might be called upon at any moment to go, you could not remain indifferent to' the nature of the country, and to your own situation when you arrived there. You would lose no opportunity for personal inquiry; you would read every book you could procure, that treated upon the subject; you would exhaust all the means in your power to learn where you were going, and what your condition would be when you had reached your new home. How, then, can anyone who believes in the existence of a spiritual world, and who sees one after another of those whom he knows and loves-beings as dear to him as his own life-daily passing away, and who knows that he must soon follow them;-how can a rational being, with such a belief, be indifferent to the nature of that world, and to the condition of its inhabitants? It is impossible to account for this general unconcern upon any other supposition than the prevalent opinion, that nothing definite and certain can be known about it.There is conclusive evidence that this has long been, and is now, the state of the Christian world upon this subject. We are even told that it is not best for us to know anything about the world that lies upon the other side of the grave; that the Lord did not intend to have us know anything definite about it. But all inquiries and all thoughts upon a subject so vital to our eternal interests cannot be suppressed, even by those whose doctrines teach them that such knowledge is impossible. Accordingly we have many theories and speculations; but they are so vague, so various and contradictory, that they keep the mind in perpetual doubt, and finally defeat the end for which they were instituted. They confirm the mind still more strongly in the belief that nothing can be known about the future life, beyond the bare fact of its existence; and multitudes go still further-they deny its existence, and they now live as though there was no world and no life but this....

Download or read book Lectures on the Nature of Spirit written by Chauncey Giles and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I INVITE your attention to a subject which must interest everyone who believes in the possibility even of a life after this, and of another world in which we are to dwell forever. Nothing can explain the indifference of those who have any belief in Christianity to the great realities of the future, but the conviction that it is impossible to know anything concerning spiritual beings and a spiritual world beyond the bare fact of their existence. How can an intelligent being remain indifferent to a subject of such infinite importance, if he believes in its reality? If any one of you knew that you must sooner or later remove to some remote country, to spend the remainder of your life there, and that you might be called upon at any moment to go, you could not remain indifferent to' the nature of the country, and to your own situation when you arrived there. You would lose no opportunity for personal inquiry; you would read every book you could procure, that treated upon the subject; you would exhaust all the means in your power to learn where you were going, and what your condition would be when you had reached your new home. How, then, can anyone who believes in the existence of a spiritual world, and who sees one after another of those whom he knows and loves-beings as dear to him as his own life-daily passing away, and who knows that he must soon follow them;-how can a rational being, with such a belief, be indifferent to the nature of that world, and to the condition of its inhabitants? It is impossible to account for this general unconcern upon any other supposition than the prevalent opinion, that nothing definite and certain can be known about it.There is conclusive evidence that this has long been, and is now, the state of the Christian world upon this subject. We are even told that it is not best for us to know anything about the world that lies upon the other side of the grave; that the Lord did not intend to have us know anything definite about it. But all inquiries and all thoughts upon a subject so vital to our eternal interests cannot be suppressed, even by those whose doctrines teach them that such knowledge is impossible. Accordingly we have many theories and speculations; but they are so vague, so various and contradictory, that they keep the mind in perpetual doubt, and finally defeat the end for which they were instituted. They confirm the mind still more strongly in the belief that nothing can be known about the future life, beyond the bare fact of its existence; and multitudes go still further-they deny its existence, and they now live as though there was no world and no life but this....