By Rev. DINSDALE T. YOUNG (President of the Wesleyan Conference)

It is the pre-supposition of the Christian religion that we shall live again, and it seems to me that the whole appeal of Christianity must lose its reality unless founded upon the doctrine of a second life.

There is a story told of Lord Tennyson that he was discussing with Bishop Lightfoot one day the question of Christianity, and that they both emphatically declared that immortality was the fundamental matter in Christianity.

I believe that this is a conclusion from which there can be no reasonable appeal. The Bible, which we accept as our great spiritual authority, is pervaded with the doctrine of immortality. The Old Testament has many hints of it for students, though some doubting readers of today do not choose to admit their presence. As a matter of fact, however, I believe you will find that the doctrine of a future life is presented in the very first book of the Bible, and certainly in the case of some of the Old Testament writers it was a conviction that had almost the sureness which might mark the Christian believer.

Then, when we come to the New Testament, in the remarkable words of St. Paul it is brought to light in the Gospel.

Our Lord Jesus Christ distinctly taught the doctrine that we shall live again; so did all the Apostles. Passage after passage might be cited from the New Testament books which clearly indicate this.

Then, again, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is to me the chief evidence of the life to come; and the Resurrection is an historical fact which is better attested than almost any other fact of history. Such is the verdict of scholars and historical students who have very carefully weighed all the evidence. Never before was there such good reason for accepting the resurrection of Christ as an historical fact as there is to-day.

Now, granted that Christ rose again from the dead, you have an indisputable demonstration of the fact that we shall live again. You sometimes hear people say that no one has ever come back from the world beyond to bear witness to its existence, but that suggestion is absolutely refuted by the resurrection of our Lord. No one can honestly or with any show of reason or accuracy declare that no one ever came back, for He came back. I put the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the foundation evidence of the fact that we shall live again.

Then Nature appears to me to confirm that suggestion of a future life. Bishop Butler, in his great "Analogy," a work the main points of which never can be overthrown, has argued very powerfully that Nature abounds in hints and suggestions of the future life.

We see in human nature, in the nature of animals and in the vegetable world, startling illustrations which no thoughtful person can reject - wonderful hints of life under new conditions in another state.

Then another great evidence, as it seems to me, that we shall live again consists in our conscience. Now perhaps, next to the resurrection of our Lord, the ministry of conscience in every human being is the strongest indication of a life to come. Conscience distinctly preaches, to those who will listen, that there is another world. Conscience is constantly appealing to us on this point. People often stifle their conscience, and, as St. Paul put it, they "sear" their conscience so that it loses its power; but if it is not stifled or seared it bears an irresistible message of a future life. If people will only listen to their conscience as it speaks within them, it seems to me that they must be absolutely driven to believe that we shall all live again.

The wonderful faculty which dwells in every human being is in truth a great prophet of the life beyond.

Another very striking suggestion that we shall live again is to be found in the all but universality of that conviction. Among all nations and in all times there has been a belief in immortality. Among heathen peoples the belief often assumes very grotesque forms, but it none the less exists! How can we account for the universal prevalence of the idea and its continual prevalence except by the supposition that it is an instinct implanted by our Maker in the human breast?

Another important consideration which has a very strong influence upon my own mind is the fact that a belief in immortality has always had such an ennobling influence wherever it has been accepted. No one ever taught more beautifully or more impressively than Tennyson did how the doctrine of immortality points to all that is moral and noble in human character.

Tennyson speaks in one of his poems of the great moral qualities, and he says something like this: "Take the charm 'for ever' from them, and they crumble into dust." I believe Tennyson's doctrine to be entirely true! Wherever the doctrine of a future life is received it is a check upon sin; there can be no doubt that the doctrine of immortality has been one of the most powerful influences in leading men to accept the Saviour and to lead good lives.

On the other hand, wherever the doctrine is disbelieved you lose one of the greatest forces for all that is moral and spiritually good.

Finally, another consideration which seriously impresses me is this - that the very noblest intelligences and spirits in history have held the doctrine, and that a great deal of their nobleness is to be attributed to their having held it.

Not to go back to the earlier ages, think of the influence the belief in a future life has had on some of the master minds of modern times. Think of the fact that it was an intense reality to such men as Mr. Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, Bishop Westcott, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson.

These men were enthusiasts for that doctrine, and if we look into the history of humanity we shall find, I think without exception, that all the very noblest personalities have retained this doctrine most definitely. The argument in favour of a belief in immortality based on the qualities of those who have held such a belief seems to me to be an argument which is unassailable, or, if not unassailable, at all events invincible.