The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 5.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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‘ [238] have reason to thank God that this fear no longer troubles me. Nothing that is really valuable and necessary for us can ever be lost. The present will live hereafter; memory will bridge over the gulf between the two worlds; for only on the condition of their intimate union can we preserve our identity and personal consciousness. Blot out the memory of this world, and what would heaven or hell be to us? Nothing whatever. Death would be simple annihilation of our actual selves, and the substitution therefor of a new creation, in which we should have no more interest than in an inhabitant of Jupiter or the fixed stars.’

The Elder, who had listened silently thus far, not without an occasional and apparently involuntary manifestation of dissent, here interposed.

‘Pardon me, my dear friend,’ said he; ‘but I must needs say that I look upon speculations of this kind, however ingenious or plausible, as unprofitable, and wellnigh presumptuous. For myself, I only know that I am a weak, sinful man, accountable to and cared for by a just and merciful God. What He has in reserve for me hereafter I know not, nor have I any warrant to pry into His secrets. I do not know what it is to pass from one life to another; but I humbly hope that, when I am sinking in the dark waters, I may hear His voice of compassion and encouragement, “It is I; be not afraid.” ’

‘Amen,’ said the Skipper, solemnly.

‘I dare say the Parson is right, in the main,’ said the Doctor. ‘Poor creatures at the best, it is safer for us to trust, like children, in the goodness ’