s Question.]

"The question for man most momentous of all is whether or no he has
an immortal soul; or--to avoid the word immortal, which belongs to
the realm of infinities--whether or no his personality involves any
element which can survive bodily death. In this direction have
always lain the gravest fears, the farthest reaching hopes, which
could either oppress or stimulate mortal minds.... The method of
modern science--that process which consists in an interrogation of
Nature entirely dispassionate, patient, systematic ... has never
yet been applied to the all-important problem of the existence, the
powers, the destiny of the human soul."

The Rev. Doctor Alexander Whyte of Edinborough, one of the few greatest
and most celebrated preachers in Europe, said, in a sermon recently
delivered in London, that the spiritual, like the physical life,
required constant sustenance. Doctor Whyte dwelt with marked emphasis
on the important truth that no one who does not give at least one hour
of the day to the concentration of thought on the higher purposes of
life, and devote himself, essentially and especially, to aspiration and
prayer, can live aright, and live up to his higher possibilities. Doctor
Whyte especially recommended the last hour before sleep as the best
season for this uplift of the soul to its native atmosphere. "It is not
necessary," he said, "that one should be kneeling, in the attitude of
prayer, all the time. Walk about. Go out and look at the stars. Read, if
you prefer, some ennobling book. But, in whatever form thought and
meditation may take, keep the key held to the divinest melody of life.
In that way shall the spiritual life gather its rich strength and
infinite energy." The principle is one that every life which has given
to the world noble results, has acted upon, consciously or
unconsciously, as may be. No one can live, in the sense of that life
which is alone worth the living, without definite and constant periods
of seeking that refreshment which is found in communion with God, and in
setting one's spiritual forces in touch anew with the infinite
spiritual energy. Poet and prophet have emphasized this truth. Stephen
Phillips, in his poem of "The Dead Soul," touches it most impressively.
Without its own sustenance from the spiritual world, how could it
survive?

"She felt it die a little every day,
Flutter more wildly and more feebly pray."