Upon examination, each will find that there is within himself a principle of absolute consciousness—a principle which is self-conscious, which represents itself to itself, and is not represented by any thing but itself. It can not be analyzed. It is absolute in itself. To prove to you that your consciousness of identity has undergone no change, I need but attempt to prove to you that you are the same individual that you were when a child, by referring to scars made upon your fingers in childhood, which still remain, by calling to mind traits of your childish character. All these proofs you would consider very much inferior to that proof afforded by an affirmation within you, which rises above all outward evidence. It is that to which the Book alludes when it says, “As he could swear by no greater, therefore he swore by himself.” Although in your physical, intellectual, and moral being you have changed in every thing pertaining to your finite consciousness, yet there is that within you which tells you you are the same. Let one change follow another to eternity, you will not lose your consciousness of identity. That which makes you differ from others does not enter into this absolute consciousness of identity. In other words, the thought, feeling, and affection which characterized you at any particular time of life has nothing to do with this absolute identification of self. Nothing by which the world knows me, or by which it knows you, enters in to form our inmost identity. We have an identity which lies deeper than everything external; and it is this identity, which admits of no change, which says that we are the same, and will forever remain the same identical beings to all eternity. No change of position, no change of character, no destruction of reputation, no conversion of happiness into suffering, presents the least difficulty in the way of identification. The man who has fallen, been ruined in reputation, and is steeped in suffering, finds no difficulty in identifying himself as the same being who was once good, respected, and happy. He does not say that there was once a being who was happy and good, but who has changed and become another being, but he says that the character and position of this individual identity has changed, while his identity has undergone no change. I wish to call your attention to that principle of absolute consciousness in you, by means of which you know yourself, but by which nobody else knows you. You know that that principle in you does not constitute your individuality. It constitutes your personality; but that in you which is undergoing change, and develops from a lower to a higher degree of knowledge, constitutes your individuality. This unchanging, ever-present, conscious identity is the very divine life within you, from which you derive all life. This outside identity, which thinks and wills, is no part of my immortal nature, separate from this divine principle within me. This outside