Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/8

iv past then in its own nature must exert a stronger influence over the human mind, and excite deeper feelings, than the present ever can. For the past is nothing else but the whole collection of numberless instants, that once were present for a moment, and then for ever ceased: though, awful mystery! their consequences are eternal and for ever present! But if the past naturally and necessarily exercises so large an influence on the feelings of men, what must be the intensity of interest that belongs in every thoughtful mind to the consideration of the future?

The future contains within its fathomless and boundless bosom our own destiny, our own lot for good or evil, for weal or woe: it contains the sum and the result of more than all that lies buried in the past; it contains those brief instants still reserved for each of us, that will soon be present, and then become the apanage of the past; but it contains far more, it contains the moral and physical results of all these little present instants, and of the use which we shall make of them. It contains the solution of the great mystery of human creation, of the