* * * * *
=_Manning._=
From a Discourse upon Immortality.
=_25._= GRANDEUR OF THE PROSPECT.
To me there is but one objection against immortality, if objection it
may be called, and this arises from the very greatness of the truth.
My mind sometimes sinks under its weight, is lost in its immensity; I
scarcely dare believe that such a good is placed within my reach. When I
think of myself, as existing through all future ages, as surviving this
earth and that sky, as exempted from every imperfection and error of my
present being, as clothed with an angel's glory, as comprehending with
my intellect and embracing in my affections, an extent of creation
compared with which the earth is a point; when I think of myself as
looking on the outward universe with an organ of vision that will reveal
to me a beauty and harmony and order not now imagined, and as having
an access to the minds of the wise and good, which will make them in
a sense my own; when I think of myself as forming friendships with
innumerable beings of rich and various intellect and of the noblest
virtue, as introduced to the society of heaven, as meeting there the
great and excellent, of whom I have read in history, as joined with "the
just made perfect" in an ever-enlarging ministry of benevolence, as
conversing with Jesus Christ with the familiarity of friendship, and
especially as having an immediate intercourse with God, such as the
closest intimacies of earth dimly shadow forth;--when this thought of my
future being comes to me, whilst I hope, I also fear; the blessedness
seems too great; the consciousness of present weakness and unworthiness
is almost too strong for hope.
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