cannot be. It is in the plane, or sphere, or world he inhabits, or to
which he goes. It is a change of garments, of habitat, of houses in which
we live--if we live at all.

This much we _know_, and should not forget or confuse it. We know it, as
we know that "twice two are four"; that fire will burn, or that bodies,
unsupported, fall to the ground. We know it from the fact of our own
self-conscious identity. Radically or suddenly to change that essentially
is to annihilate _us_.

The preacher says, "Study the Bible." He might say, "Study yourself!" The
preacher says, "Look to Jesus." He might say, "Look within!" The preacher
says, "Repent and pray." I would say, "After an inventory of your inner
possessions, clean up the house and _go to work_ to improve it in every
way."

When "cleaning day" is well under way, if the "sure-enough" preacher drops
in, and you show him the house and what you are trying your best to do, he
will just start "Old Hundred," and will be too happy for anything else.

I am not criticising the preacher, nor opposing religion, but getting
ready for it, laying the foundation of Morals and the building of
character. "Religion" cannot do this. _You_ and _I_ have to do it, or it
is never done.

Without this work of _ours_, religion is little more, or else, than
passing emotion or lasting superstition, "lip service," cant, hypocrisy,
and then cold heartless dogmatism, a measure and jingling of words that
never touch the heart, but leave the individual ready to throw stones and
light brands of torture: a case-hardening of the affections and the
aspirations, that wraps the soul like the bandages of the mummied
Pharaohs, a mere petrifaction.

We know, or may know, as much actually and scientifically of the growth of
the soul as of the growth of the body. The average individual knows more
of the soul than of the body, but his knowledge is in confusion. It is a
matter of hourly, daily, life-long, and changing _experience_. He knows
little of physiology, except feelings, sensations, desires, and results.
How and why the mechanism of the body works he knows not.

Body and soul are organically identified, intimately associated and
interwoven, and act and react on each other. They are functionally
synchronous in all movements. The analogies between them are numberless
and easily traced.

The physician and physiologist does not stop to inquire, "What _is_ Life"
and refuse to move till someone gives a sa