The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-02

solcmnity is sounding down the ages the ever GER
tain fiat, "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou
RETURN" still, strange to say, il Is with the ut
most difficulty one can make another believe he is
i rot just as innately immortal as God himself,
or convince him he Is not ghost or spirit
instead OF flesh and blood. Thrust out from para
disc lest he should partake OF the tree OF life and
live forever, eectually barred from all that Is life
giving and doomed to dust and ashes, what frenzy,
what amazing presumrti ton possesses man that he
should for a moment deem himself immortal |
, Striving to be equal with God, working ever
against true interests, we yield to the in
nuence OF an arrogant ambition, wholly regardless
of the great lessons Of the past and forgetting
certain Of our own poets have said that by that
4 very sin "fell the angels" we likewise
When God said sThou shalt surely die"
did He make any reservations or exceptions
Did He say, ~ will kill the body, but preserve the
soul9" Nay; but He said, Dying thou shalt die
as though He had said, ~ will take away the spirit
Tor BREATH which ! gage thee and thou shalt go
back to dust" for dust thou art and unto dust
shalt thou return" But who said man should not
dieS The serpent. But who told the truth-God or
before the Hood, go ask the millions who lie sleep
ing in their mother EARTH go stand by the yawning
grave and ask the question, and II any voice comes
up from its dank, dark chambers 1t will BIO but to
Il corroborate the fact that is in ITSELF OF all
4 others, the most evident "the living know that
Z they must die.n There is but one way OF escape
( from the doom that awaits us. Alas how deep and
q lasting the Impressions OF error! Truth Is dell,
\ cate, tender plant that to flourish must be cared
n for and nursed; but error Is like some tough ana
gnarlcd upas whose twisted roots strike deeplL into
\ the soil and hard to be eradicated In proof OF
y this we have only to observe how side by side the
two asserions-to wit, that OF God ana that OF the
Z serpent have come down to us through the misty
years-and to-day there are more men and women
who profess to believe the latter than the former
giving in some cases as reason for so doing that
the instincts Of savage men are to be followed
I fed in this instance more times than there are
sands on the ocean shore or stars in the armament
OF heaven. 1t is In the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ II the Gospel is true then we may
live again. If the Gospel Is only q eunningly de-
viscd fable, "Let us eat drink and be merry, for
contend that the human soui can survive
outside OF Christ and cannot be destroyed
and to take away from Christianity the force
,of that beautiful and grand mystery that was hid
den from the world until 1t was revealed in the res
direction of Jesus Christ towt, the eternal pur-
pose Of God TO restore us to our lost heritage and
give us by and by another and better life. This is
Ia rational belief. To the uneducated to the super
stitlous, to witches, to crazy fanatics, to unamed
and uncivllized Indians and all unettered heathens
belongs the faith in ghosts and spirits. Let us no
more try to bolster up our belief in the Immortality
of the soul with the fact that unchristianzed and
savage people in the darkness OF their intellect
sacs a p nef0'rs IS a1 sna n to- the
ace and light in which we live. How patent that
subteriuge of all orthodox writers on theology,
upon which Is reared the great Superstructure OF
their argument in this connection, to wit: the
traditions relating to the Immortality or the soul
Strange iniatuation that leads Christian men to
draw from sucn Il source material upon which TO
sustain their theories when God has favored them
with direct revelation Of His purposes and viii, and
assured them by His chosen instrument that until
the scheme Of salvation was announced In the good
news OF the coming Kingdom it not only yelled
from mortal ken, but concealed from the most
scrutinizing investigation OF angelic intellect
Better never read the Word OF God and trust to
Providence than give the immortal (G red men OF
America or some other people equally as unin- /
formed the credit OF finding out problem which
nothing but the ingenuity OF God has been able
to solve. CATO.