Page:God Manifest.djvu/137

and murderers of all times, the cunning, the deceitful, the malicious, the cruel, of all ages, hating, tearing, and torturing each other? For it must he so. Observe the principles that have been laid down. Death can make no change whatever in the character, because it touches only the body not the mind, only the material not the spiritual part. Those, therefore, whose lives have been given up to evil and wickedness, to private or public crime, to ambition, sensuality, avarice, selfishness, and who have thus cherished and indulged various bad passions, till those passions have become a constituent part of their minds and characters—must, at death, take all their passions with them, for they are their very selves—they make the man. And as all the faculties and feelings, when passing into the spiritual sphere of existence, become indefinitely strengthened, whether in good or in evil, therefore the wicked cannot but be even worse there than here: as good men become angels, so bad men become demons. All observation and experience, even in this world, go to establish and confirm the truth of this view: continued indulgence strengthens and deepens evil, as constant effort enlarges and perfects goodness. What a fearful picture, then, does eternity hold up to the evil! as sad and dreadful, as to the good it is charming and delightful.—But let us return: for it was not our purpose, in this connection, to dwell upon the evils of existence, in any of their forms,—that subject being reserved for another place; but rather to speak of the good, the beautiful, and the happy things of life, in order to make manifest the wisdom and goodness of Him who created them.

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