The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-02-11
would be pitied most if we could see and

would be pitied most if we could see and
know all2 DR.. johnson feared death
excessively all his life-the thought of
1t rendered him wretched beyond de-
scriptiofi for over fifty years, and yet
when it came he bore 1t cheeffnlly, and
as one who stood over him bears witness,
"yall his fears and anxieties seemed to be
absorbed" Almost everyone who has
recovered from daiigtf6tts Illness will
attest that the fear of death bad ffO in
huence over his mind, unless, indeed, as
associated with the thought of the great
beyond: And what is to come then
Tntist .FeHiaifi matter Of belief. not of
knowledge. M audible voice cafl reach
us out of the solemii darkness which lies
before us. The teaching of christianity
eat1 alone illumine it. 1t is the domain
Of faith, and II Is wiser on every ground
to hold to the filth tsttght by the chris
tian church, than to plunge ihto the
bottomless sea of skepticism toward
which the philosophers are ceaselessly
endeavoYing to ptsh us.
For What, after all, does their knOwl-
edge tell us? Whence tic came, or
whittier we go, are problems upon which
the boosted discoveries of science have
thrown no light. and never can throw
any. What we know and see Is that
man is gifted with powers which seem TO
be capable Of indefinite expansion, and
that these powers are suddenly arrested,
often inst as they are becoming most
valua6fs. The few years which are
mans portion here Oh earth vanish like
a dream in the night. Before ne can
say, az have Iife," it Is gone; in the for
chile imagery Of scripture, he is like the
grass" In the morning it fiOurisheth
and groweth mp; in the evening ii Is cnt
down and withereth." So brief is human
existence. Something within us says
that this is not all; that beyond the
grave the mysterious thread of life will
be carried on. Scripture declares that
this is net a delusion, and reason con-
firms it, for however difficult it may be
to conceive of a. future world, it is still
more difficult to .elieve that man came
from nothing and goes forward to ami
To devote great powers and
much learning TO the destruction of the
christian belief traught as it is with in
consolation to the myriads, is
a work which the men engaged IN 1t must
at times find it hard to reconcile with
or if the existence of con-
science be denied, as thing not to be
Z" proven" then to the common desire
not to inhict unnecessary pain and sut-
fering upon our fellow men. Yet 1t Is
between these two forms of belief that
our children will have to choose, even as
we have to do. 1t is useless to hide the
question from thcm-they must be
brought face to face with it sooner or
later. The more thoroughly they are
made acquainted with what science has
done and attempted, the less will they |
be liable to fall into the abyss ofatheism,
the less will they be disposed TO set up
human reason in the place of God, and |
worship it. We are, indeed, told by Mr.. !
Matthew Arnold and his school that |
christianity is doomed; but past ex-
perience teaches us that human predic- |
lions about the fall of christianity are
not worthy of implicit credence. Ot
nations and empires it has itself foretold |
many things which have come to pass.
Some of its prophecies have yet to be !
fulfilled and among them is that which |
declares that though heaven and earth !
shall pass away, the word which has
,ome from their creator shall not fail.