Now, of course, there is a little confusion here between a _future_ life--a mere _post-mortem_ addition of so many years or centuries to this mortal existence--and an _immortal life_, which, it is assumed, will continue either in a series of births and deaths or in one unbroken life forever and ever. In the former idea, no one can find any self-contradiction. It is only the latter notion of immortality, strictly so described, which is suspected of involving a contradiction. Practically, however, the two ideas must stand or fall together; for almost every argument for the survival of the soul after death bears with double force against its extinction at any subsequent epoch of its existence. Taking then the future life of a man as, to all intents and purposes, the immortal life, we are bound to confront the difficulty,--“What right have we to assume that immortality and creaturehood are compatible the one with the other?” _A priori_ argument on such a matter is altogether futile. We know and can reason literally nothing about it. For anything we could urge _antecedent to the observation of a man’s actual state_, it was, apparently, just as probable that he could not be made immortal as that he could be made so by any conceivable power in the universe. But we are not quite in the position of lacking all such _a posteriori_ assistance to our judgment. We can see how God has actually constituted the human race, and the problem is consequently modified to this: “Are there any signs or tokens that _man_ is meant for something more than a mere mundane existence?” It is obvious that, if immortality were an attribute which in the nature of things he could never share, nothing in his mental or moral constitution would have been made with any reference to such an unattainable destiny. If, on the other hand, there be in his nature evidences of a purpose extending beyond the scope of this life, and stretching out into the limitless perspective of eternity, then we are authorized to draw the inference that the Author of his being planned for him a future existence, and, of course, knew that he might enjoy that divine heritage.