er man lives again or not I cannot pretend to
say. There may be another world and there may not be. If there
is another world we ought to make the best of it after arriving
there. If there is not another world, or if there is another world,
we ought to make the best of this. And since nobody knows, all
should be permitted to have their opinions, and my opinion is that
nobody knows.

If we take the Old Testament for authority, man is not immortal.
The Old Testament shows man how he lost immortality. According to
Genesis, God prevented man from putting forth his hand and eating
of the Tree of Life. It is there stated, had he succeeded, man
would have lived forever. God drove him from the garden, preventing
him eating of this tree, and in consequence man became mortal; so
that if we go by the Old Testament we are compelled to give up
immortality. The New Testament has but little on the subject. In
one place we are told to seek for immortality. If we are already
immortal, it is hard to see why we should go on seeking for it.
In another place we are told that they who are worthy to obtain
that world and the resurrection of the dead, are not given in
marriage. From this one would infer there would be some unworthy
to be raised from the dead. Upon the question of immortality, the
Old Testament throws but little satisfactory light. I do not deny
immortality, nor would I endeavor to shake the belief of anybody
in another life. What I am endeavoring to do is to put out the
fires of hell. If we cannot have heaven without hell, I am in
favor of abolishing heaven. I do not want to go to heaven if one
soul is doomed to agony. I would rather be annihilated.

My opinion of immortality is this:

First.--I live, and that of itself is infinitely wonderful.

Second.--There was a time when I was not, and after I was not, I
was. Third.--Now that I am, I may be again; and it is no more
wonderful that I may be again, if I have been, than that I am,
having once been nothing. If the churches advocated immortality,
if they advocated eternal justice, if they said that man would be
rewarded and punished according to deeds; if they admitted that
some time in eternity there would be an opportunity given to lift
up souls, and that throughout all the ages the angels of progress
and virtue would beckon the fallen upward; and that some time, and
no matter how far away they might put off the time, all the children
of men would be