It is a question of degree; and the settlement of that question is made to hinge entirely on the comparative uncertainty of our prospect after death.

Suppose it were more uncertain, might not the magnitude of the interests that must be involved in a new and untried existence hereafter, and which must be measured on the scale of eternity, be more than sufficient to counterbalance the difference?
"Let us be only fully convinced that our present life is (or may be) the beginning of an _eternal duration_, and how irresistibly are we urged to a mode of conduct answerable to that _accession of importance_ which our present condition in the world derives from the peculiar point of view in which we then contemplate it!"[314] But, in point of fact, can it be reasonably said that _the future of our present life_ is in any respect more certain than our prospects after death: "What is our life?
is it not like a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away ?" And yet, in spite of its proverbial uncertainty, is it not a fundamental principle of Secularism that "true life begins in renunciation," and that "the _future_ must rule the _present_ ?" Extend these maxims, which are of unquestionable authority with reference to the present life, to our prospects beyond the grave, whether they be regarded as certain, or probable, or possible only, and they will abundantly vindicate the position that our conduct now and here should be regulated to some extent by a regard to what may be before us.

In both cases alike, present gratification must give place to future safety, and _self-denial_, according to the shrewd remark of Franklin, is neither more nor less in the case of a prudent man than _self-owning_, the recognition of his own dignity, and the preference of a greater and more permanent to a smaller and transitory good.

It might still, therefore, be alike our interest and our duty to have _some_ regard to a possible future in the scheme of our present life.

And aware of this Mr.Holyoake solaces himself, and attempts to sustain the spirits of his friends with the assurance, "Whatever is likely to secure your best interests here will procure for you the same hereafter,"-- a strange inversion of the scriptural maxim, for it practically amounts to this, "Seek first the things of this world, and the kingdom of heaven shall be added unto you." And he states the ground or reason of his confidence in this respect: "If there be other worlds to be inhabited after this life, those persons will best be fitted for the enjoyment of them who have made _the welfare of humanity their business in this_." To make "the welfare of humanity their business in this life," is a duty which may be discharged by the Christian not less than the Secularist, and perhaps with all the greater zeal in proportion to his estimate of men as responsible and immortal beings, all passing on, like himself, to an interminable future.