animals, who in character so often equal, nay, excel human beings, have
a future life also.

Those who in the Scriptures find a key to all things, can find nothing
in them to confute this argument. There is no saying of Christ that
justifies one in supposing that man is the only being, whose existence
extends beyond the grave.

Granted, however, merely for the sake of argument, that we have some
ground for the denial of a future existence for animals, consider the
injustice such a denial would involve. Take, for example, the case of
the horse. Harming no one, and without thought of reward, it toils for
man all its life, and when too old to work it is put to death without
even the compensation of a well-earned rest. But if compensation be
God's law,--as I, for one, believe it to be--and also the _raison
d'être_ of a hereafter, then surely the Creator, whose chief claim to
our respect and veneration lies in the fact that He is just and
merciful, will take good care that the horse--the gentle, patient,
never-complaining horse--is well compensated--compensated in a golden
hereafter.

Consider again, the case of another of our four-footed friends--the dog;
the faithful, affectionate, obedient and forgiving dog, the dog who is
so often called upon to stand all sorts of rough treatment, and is shot
or poisoned, if, provoked beyond endurance, he at last rounds on his
persecutors, and bites. And the cat--the timid, peaceful cat who is
mauled, and all but pulled in two by cruel children, and beaten to a
jelly when in sheer agony and fright it scratches. Reflect again, on the
cow and the sheep, fed only to supply our wants; shouted at and kicked,
if, when nearly scared out of their senses, they wander off the track;