The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-03
UNITY CHAPEL.
Is Death q ains-sermon by the Rev.
w. II. Clarke.

L ~
w. II. Clarke.
The subject OF the discourse preached by Rev. W.
T. Clarke, at Unity chapel, Harlem, yesterday
morning was Ills Death GainS' The way we
look at DEATH the speaker said. affects our entire
view of life. with all its interests obligations and
contents. The old idea of death was dark and
dreary enough to send q SILVER through all who
had anything to love or hope for in life The future
was blank, II not black. In the dreary underworld,
where all souls were grouped In ghostly c0mmu-
MON, there neither substance, heat nor color,
evanescent splendor or abiding joy. The old Greek
thought 1t better to be slave on earth than the
KING OF HADRs
The Greek Imagination spent itself In weaving
the thinnest film OF poetic fascination over the
bier. He decorated the death he dreaded, but
could not explain. The Egyptian mummy proves
the tenacty Of his desire for perpetual existence
here The later Jew was rec0nciled to death only
in the hope of resurrection to enjoy forever the
hills and sunsets and prospective glory OF his ma
tive land; and when death invaded his home he
rent his clothes and tore his hair and hired band
OF mourners to keep his misery company The Old
World looked on death as the end Of life, or
the end OF It's JOY 1t was an memorable fate-an
unspeakable calamity an awful eclipse blacken-
ing the world. It was the king of terrOrs. There
were instances OF sublime trust In the primitive in
buttons, and clearness of spiritual vision which
shames our blindness. The strongest Christian
faith has pagan parallels. But the prevailing sent
ment was sadness which dipped down into de-
spar. The masses found life SO bleak and hard
that they were Indifferent to Its continuance and
looked on death as a release from ills rather than
an entrance into better conditions With our
views in their lot they would have committed sui
eide. Providence adapts faiths to facts. a.
The classic literature of six centuries Is satu-
rated with sadness that drips through its figures
and bends its lines, and to read from Eccleslastes
listening to dirge over dying hopes or following
the funeral procession of dead world. CHRISTIAN
Ity changed the whole estimate and perspective OF
life. 1t cleared away the depressing gloom as the
sun dlsslpates the morning mists on meadow
lands 1t was not so much what 1t says
eV every i its A total Teaching communicated
victorious and uncOnquerable hope to its believers.
Candles were used thousands of years before some
innovator gathered 10000 lamps in one splendid
group to NIL an Assyran nall with their con-
centrated blaze, turning midnight into MONDAY.
Christianity is not series of single intulti0ns that
can be tax en- apart and inspected and estimated as
though it were an isolated idea; 1t is spiritual
chandelier every lamp in It's blazing galaxy lend
ing its light to the brightness OF all the rest.
Every idea and principle and sentiment goes with
and adds to all the rest, like the separate glasses
Of the Others and multiplying soul
sight a million fold. 1t helped men to
see anu iee tGat TINS EARN was pII S,s nnope on
moment in Gods eternity; that at the best 1t is
but the seed time for an immortal harvest, the
training school for endless applications and uses
and ambitions for which 1t gives no hint 1t was
this new view that gave the early Christians such
energy of aith, such hope and courage. 1t was
this that made millions court martyrdom and well
come death in It's fercest form as friend. Cal
vinism reversed the teaching oil the original Cos
pei and blOtted out its supernal hope. 1t made
even the thought of it terrible. 1t haunted the
Imagination OF childhood with dreams Of ghosts
and chased its victims through lie with
A REGIMENT OF FIENDs.
II filed churchyards with grim and hOrrd images
OF skulls ana skeletons and demon armed with
scythe. Thank God, Its sway Is broken and its day
spent Death is gain, the speaker claimed, because
1t opens into new stage OF discipline and adds to
the variety and interest Of lile The doctrine Of
immortality Is based on intuitl0ns as ineradlcable
as human nature.
THE SCIENTIFIC SCEPTICIsM
Is neutralized by scientific revelations Admit
that we do no not know how 1t Is to be. We do
not know how anything Is, but the fact Is no more
incredible than that a lump Of ice can be made TO
blaze or that two men can converse across the
q single drop OF water holds electricity
enough to charge half q million jars. The evolu.
ton of man from the ape prepares us for his evOu-
ton into an angel. All the anaogies go to prove
that the next stage OF being Is higher than this.
Death Is an upward step in the ascending order
of an endless life. 1t isa gain in what 1t leads to-
and gain the restraints it throws over us here,
it puts behind the wavering will. 1t Ia a gain in
trial and trouble in the sweet and blessed hope Of
delverance 1t drops on the heavy heart. And 1t is
gain in the heat and passion OF the day by the
glory THAT streams down through Its open door
from on high.