It admits of much question, whether human science can ever find a solid foundation in what relates to the world of spirits.  The only instrument of knowledge we can here employ is language.  Careful thinkers long ago came to the conclusion, that it is impossible to frame a language precisely and exclusively adapted to convey abstract and spiritual ideas, even if it is possible, as some philosophers have denied, for the mind, in its present state, to have such ideas.  All attempts to construct such a language, though made by the most ingenious men, have failed.  Language is based upon imagery, and associations drawn from so much of the world as the senses disclose to us; that is, from material objects and their relations.  We are here confined, as it were, within narrow walls.  We can catch only glimpses of what is above and around us, outside of those walls.  Such glimpses may be vouchsafed, from time to time, to rescue us from sinking into materialism, and to keep alive our faith in scenes of existence remaining to be revealed when the barriers of our imprisonment shall be taken down, and what we call death lift us to a clearer and broader vision of universal being.

Of the reality of the spiritual world, we are assured by consciousness and by faith; but our knowledge of that world, so far as it can go into particulars, or become the subject of definition or expression, extends no further than revelation opens the way.  In all ages, men have been awakened to the “wonders of the invisible world;” but they remain “wonders” still.  Nothing like a permanent, stable, or distinct science has ever been achieved in this department.  Man and God are all that are placed within our ken.  Metaphysics and Theology are the names given to the sciences that relate to them.  The greater the number of books written by human learning and ingenuity to expound them, the more advanced the intelligence and piety of mankind, the less, it is confessed, do we know of them in detail, the more they rise above our comprehension, the more unfathomable become their depths.  Experience, history, the progress of light, all increase our sense of the impossibility of estimating the capacities of the human soul.  So also we find that the higher we rise towards the Deity, in the contemplation of his works and word, the more does he continue to transcend our power to describe or imagine his greatness and glory.  The revelation which the Saviour brought to mankind is all that the heart of man need desire, or the mind of man can comprehend.  We are God’s children, and he is our Father.  That is all; and, the wiser and better we become, the more we are convinced and satisfied that it is enough.