cognising the shade of the king of Babylon and rising from their
sombre thrones to greet him with mockery. Ezekiel shows us each
people of the heathen nations in the under world in a company by
themselves. When David's child died, the king sorrowfully
exclaimed, "He will not return to me; but I shall go to him." All
these passages are based on the conception of a gloomy
subterranean abode where the ghosts of the dead are reunited after
their separation at death on earth. An old commentator on the
Koran says a Mohammedan priest was once asked how the blessed in
paradise could be happy when missing some near relative or dear
friend whom they were thus forced to suppose in hell. He replied,
God will either cause believers to forget such persons or else to
rest in expectation of their coming. The anecdote shows
affectingly that the same yearning heart and curiosity are
possessed by Moslem and Christian. A still more impressive case in
point is furnished by a picture in a Buddhist temple in China. The
painting represents the story of the priest Lo Puh, who, on
passing into paradise at death, saw his mother, Yin Te, in hell.
He instantly descended into the infernal court, Tsin Kwang Wang,
where she was suffering, and, by his valor, virtues, and
intercessions, rescued her. The picture vividly portraying the
whole story may be seen and studied at the present time by
Christian missionaries who enter that temple of the benevolent
Buddha.2 From the faith of many other nations illustrations might
be brought of the same fact, that the great common instinct which
has led men to believe in a future life has at the same time
caused them to believe that in that life there would be a union
and recognition of friends. Let this far reaching historical fact
be taken at its just value,

1 Alexius, Tod and Wiedersehen. Eine Gedankenfolge der besten
Schriftsteller aller Zeiten und Volker.

2 Asiatic Journal, 1840, p. 211.

while we proceed to the labor in hand. The fact referred to is of
some value, because, being an expression of the heart of man as
God made it, it is an indication of his will, a prophecy.

There are three ways of trying the problem of future recognition.
The cool, skeptical class of persons will examine the present
related facts of the case; argue from what they now know; test the
question by induction and inference. Let us see to what results
they will thus be led. In the first place, we learn upon
reflection that