which are to us the most certain of all
realities."--_Carpenter._

"The body continually requires new materials and a continued action of
external agencies. But the mind, when it has been once called into
activity and has become stored with ideas, may remain active and may
develop new relations and combinations among these, after the complete
closure of the sensorial inlets by which new ideas can be excited 'ab
externo.' Such, in fact, is what is continually going on in the state of
dreaming.... The mind thus feeds upon the store of ideas which it has laid
up during the activity of the sensory organs, and those impressions which
it retains in its consciousness are working up into a never ending variety
of combinations and successions of ideas, thus affording new sources of
mental activity even to the very end of life."--_Carpenter._

In death the spirit returns to God, who gave it, retaining, doubtless, all
its store of ideas and all its own inherent activities, which will
continue while eternity endures.

OUR RELATIONS TO THE ANCIENT LAW AND PROPHETS--WHAT ARE THEY?

The above questions can not be answered intelligently without a knowledge
of the character of the law, and of its relations to humanity, as well as
a knowledge of the relations of the ancient prophets. The law given at
Sinai as a "covenant," with all the laws contained in the "Book of the
Law," was political in character; that is to say, it pertained to a
community or nation. Such law is _always_ political in its character. The
ancient law pertained to the nation of the Jews. It was given to them as a
community, and to no other people. Moses said, "And the Lord spake unto
you out of the midst of fire: Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no
similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant,
which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote
them upon two tables of stone." Deut. iv, 12, 13. "And the Lord said unto
Moses, Write thou these words; for after the _tenor_ of these words I have
made a covenant _with thee_ and _with Israel_.... And he wrote upon the
tables _the words of the covenant_, the ten commandments." Exodus xxxiv,
27, 28. "The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord _made
not_ this covenant with our fathers, but with us, who _are_ all of us here
alive this day." Deut. v, 2, 3. "Behold, I have taught you statutes and
judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, tha