substance to things not yet seen" (Heb. xi, 1, R.V.).




CHAPTER VII

DEATH AND IMMORTALITY


I think most of my readers will agree with me, that the greatest of all
the promises is that of the overcoming of death, for, as the greater
includes the less, the power which can do _that_ can do anything else.
We think that there are only two things that are certain in this
world--death and taxes, and no doubt, under the ordinary past
conditions, this is quite true; but the question is: are they really
inherent in the essential nature of things; or are they not the outcome
of our past limited, and often inverted modes of Thought? The teaching
of the Bible is that they are the latter. On the subject of taxes the
Master says: "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's" (Matth.
xxii, 21), but on another occasion he said that the children of the King
were not liable to taxation (Matth. xvii, 26). However we may leave the
"taxes" alone for the present, with the remark that their resemblance to
death consists in both being, under present conditions, regarded as
compulsory. Under other conditions, however, we can well imagine "taxes"
disappearing in a unity of thought which would merge them in
co-operation and voluntary contribution; and it appears to me quite
possible for death to disappear in like manner.

In whatever way we may interpret the story of Eden, whether literally,