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AN ENDLESS LIFE ON EARTH.
There is an inborn consciousness in every breast that we live
after we are dead, that we have existence in the other world. We
also know by observation and experience that every man lives here
after he goes hence, that the momentum of life goes on here.
This fact brings to every sane soul this most serious and engaging
question, What of the life and influence when we are gone? Who
has not even with fevered anxiety asked this question :
“When I am gone, will my influence be a precious legacy to the
world, working good, healing the wounded heart and saving the
lost soul through all time, or will it be an evil force set a-going to
work havoc in hearts till the Lord shall put all evil under his feet,
and even then produce its endless harvest in hell ?” In the face
of this question no man can always remain passive. One may re¬
fuse to think on such things for a while, may drown such thoughts
in the mad stream of worldly strife. But the cool quiet moments
will come, when the most callous heart will grow tender and the
hardest face will blanch with deep concern at the awful thought,
that the world will be affected for all time by the influence that we
leave behind. At such moments ever}' heart-beat becomes the heavy
stroke of the engine that is propelling, at a frightful speed, our ship
to the other shore, and the nearer we draw to the other harbor the
more serious this question of the future life becomes, not the future
life yonder, but the future life here.
What influence shall I leave behind? The answer to this is
found in the answer to another question, namely : What are my life
and influence now? The life that I shall live when I am dead both
yonder and here will be a continuation of the life I am now living.
So as we muse in the future let us awake from the reverie and come
to a plain, practical consideration of a plain, practical question,
What is my' life to-day?
There are two kinds of influence that those who are pass¬
ing over are leaving behind them, — good and bad. There is, of
course, great variation as to the degree or strength of our influence,
but every life, every influence, is good or bad.
This question, serious as it is, can not take away the peace of
