the world of spirit. The world of matter is the world that now is, and is adapted to the life of man when clothed with a material body. The world of spirit, is "the world to come," (not that it does not already exist, but that we are not as yet conscious inhabitants of it), and is fitted for the life of man when clothed with a spiritual body. Now, death is simply a passage, from one world into the other. It is a kind of a gate which divides time from eternity; hence the saying "mors janua vitæ,"—death is the gate of life. Death is, therefore, but an event in life. A thing to be expected, "for it is appointed unto all men once to die."* Man is simply elevated thereby from an external to an internal sphere of existence, in which he will be happy according to his state. The process itself has been variously described. Sometimes as a man leaving a dusky chamber, and going through a dark passage into a brilliantly lighted palace. Others think of it much as they do of sleep, (in itself, that is, without disease,) as a painless, necessary, and certain operation of nature; thus they would say, that death, is only like going to bed in this, and getting up in the eternal world! This passage from one world into the other, is effected by putting off the body it has, therefore,
* 9 Heb. 27.
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