Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1874-10-27
THE USE OF THE FUTURE.
NIr Beecher on the Immortality
of the Soul
The Force Of a. Universal Belief
lis a Life Beyond the Grave
What the Belief Should
Mean to the Ci.ri>tiaD,

Hebrews, iv.. g.: There remaineth
therefore, rest to the people Of God"
| The pastor said;
That there was a future conscious
| existence, with continuance of per-
| sOnal identity, was truth OF individ-
ual hope and aspiration among the in
! teiligent Jews, rather than an all
| nounced doctrine. It is nowhere eX-
pressly taught in the Old Testament
| scriptures it formed no part of the
| Mosaic economy All the threats and
rrmises that were made of old were
secular; and yet we discern unmista-
| kably in the nObler men whose work
or life or teachings are contained in
the Hebrew scriptures that they did
| expect continued life hereafter. 1t
! belOngs-the anDunciation of this
| truth-to the older and advanced stage
| of the Jewish life, and this expec.a-
! tiOn has grown into what may oe
| called a universal certainty. With
| the unfolding of the race this expecta-
| ton of another life is not evanescent
as q shadow; it is more, and the FUN
| dations of hope are deeper as the years
are multiplied and i'll the proportion as
men are more men. This fact does
|
another state of being-Of immOrtali-
ty. L do not think that desire is evil
! dence or presumption of the existence
of the thing desired. Mere desire of
continued existence is not proof of it,
but it is proof where il exists in wild
ening circles and where it grows
stronger and stronger with develop
ment of the reason; that is to say,
h. oh hn
that is to say, where it attaches itself
to the reason, to the imagination, to
all the noblest affections, and grows
stronger as men grow larger and no.
bler-the universally of this desire is
proof positive of the imperfectiOns OF
the human sense or the consciousness
of another stage of existence, In 9th
er words, it Is testimony to the incOm-
potency of this world to fulfil for it
what this world needs. 1t is testimo-
ny that the stage through which we
are RUNNING is partial and incom-
plete; that judged by that sense of dis
cernment which belongs to the reason
it would seem tC f0reshadOw dn afte r
existence. The world is a kind OF
| chrysanthemum world, so to speak
In our ATTITUDES the chrysanthemum
planted in the spring does not bloom
until September and is cut off by the
frost in October, and needs to be
brought into the greenhouse or kept
over in some way, and so the testimo-
ny of the observation and reason is, in
respect 10 to this world, that men
come up into a state of blossom they
come into bud, but the summer is not
long enough, and they do not come to
themselves, the great mass, nowhere
near, And even in civilized society
| the great bulk of men do not really
get out of the bounds that are marked
among them and that tell one from
another, and human nature, as gen.
eral thing, does not perfect itself here
not certainly in any one channel nor
in cycles and everything seems NOV
ing on with indications of something
better, and something better and some
thing better, which we do not in this
life of the race certainly attain. But,
by as much as we do attain il, it indi-
Gates the lines of the higher develop
ment. Ifa man needs the comfort of
an after state of being; if all that is
hest IN him lifts its hands implor-
ingly for it, then that is kind OF
proof, and the foundation or reason for
accepting it is because of its practical
benefit. | would rather all my life
long live com!orted and inspired by
the belief that / was yet ng to live.
and live more gloriously, even ifdying
was going out for if death was ami