Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." _Without a revelation from God, the mind of man can attain to no certainty regarding the most important of all his interests, the destiny of his immortal soul._ He knows well--for every sickness, and sorrow, and calamity declares it, and quick returning troubles will not allow him to forget--that the Ruler of the world is offended with him; and conscience tells him why.

The sense of guilt is common to the human race.

This is, indeed, "the inspiration which knows no sect, no country, no religion, no age; which is as wide as humanity." Reason asks herself, Will God be always thus angry with me?
Shall I always feel these pangs of remorse for my sins?
Will misery follow me forever, as I see and feel that it does here?
Or shall my soul exist under God's frowns, or perish under his just sentence, even as my body perishes?
Does the grave hide forever all that I loved?
Have they ceased to be?
Shall we ever meet again?
Or must I say, "Farewell, farewell! An eternal farewell!" And in a few days myself also cease to be?
The only answer Reason gives is--solemn silence.
The wisest of men could not tell.

Who has not dropped a tear over the dying words of Socrates, "I am going out of the world, and you are to continue in it, but which of us has the better part is a secret to every one but God." Cicero contended for the immortality of the soul against the multitudes of philosophers who denied it in his day; yet, after recounting their various opinions, he is obliged to say, "Which of these is true, God alone knows; and which is most probable, a very great question."[54] And Seneca, on a review of this subject, says: "Immortality, however desirable, was rather promised than proved by these great men."[55] The multitude had but two ideas on the subject.

Either their ghosts would wander eternally in the land of shadows, or else they would pass into a succession of other bodies, of animals or men.