In these days, following upon hundreds of years of preaching and exegesis, Christianity, as usually expounded and understood, is more a moral and ethical system for the regulation of conduct than a teaching to inspire one, either in the heyday of life or at the last hour, with the reality and imminence of life after death. I say " as usually expounded and understood," for the reality of the Resurrection and the imminence of the future life, as set forth both by precept and example, stand as plainly in Holy Writ now as on that day when the evangelists and apostles first gave their writings to the world. It has been my lot during the last twenty-five years to converse upon these things with Christians of all shades of belief, and rarely have I found that feeling of absolute certainty as to the future which should be the Christian's especial privilege. When pressed upon the subject there has almost always been revealed a harassing doubt which has found vent in such expressions as " I hope to live again," " I trust so," " We must believe that it is so," " What a blessed thing it would be if we could really know," " We have to live by faith," " No one has ever come back," and similar expressions, all showing the diffidence that lay behind the most sincere profession of religion.