The Russellville Democrat., 1877-07-12

dicated the reasons for the same. But since the fall, how clouded is the soul, and intellect, or in other words, I.how the windows out of which the soul looks, has been darkened, and man knows absolutely nothing, ex- cept what he may have learned by long years of experience, toll and study.
 If we 90 to the schools of ancient philosophy, we can learn nothing on this subject, and even in the Old Tes- lament Scriptures the idea of the Immortality of the Soul is vaguely and indefinitely set forth. It is l true that the ques. tion is propounded, "If man die shall he live again." but nowhere is the question answered satisfactorily, and for a term Of thousands of years, did philosophers and prophets pon- der this important subject, until iD spirit of dispair, one of the mest learned cried out in anguish of soul, and said: "If Tn this life we only have hope, we are of all men most miserable" What can man learn in the short probationary existence that is allotted to him? What was he created for? Does he not at the very moment oJ' his birth, commence his solemn march to tEe grave: Does not she earth ring hollow be heath his feet? And is his ears not saluted by the cries of Rachels' mourning for thelr children, and re- fusing to be comforted because they are not? Did the Allwise Creator intend to mock man by giv- ing him a1 existence? No. the idea is revolting. God did not intend to pock man, but made him for His own glory. Listen at his language on the morning of his creation, "Let us make man in our own image," land He breathed into his nostrils and he became living soul" What kind of life was gwen to the clay tene- ment of man? An immortal life as immortal as God Himself. He breathed into his nostrils a part of his own very life. God intends that man shall live beyond the grave, that he may develop the God prin- ciple that was infused into him at the time of his creation. And that although he has placed him in a world of sin, whose footprints are battlefields and graveyards, and ap- pointed him a time to die, yet he has implanted in hlm an immortal rrin- ciple that will live on and on, after this life is ended, and long after the pyramids and monuments that have been reared, shall have been gnawed down by the tooth of time.
 Another reason that 1 would give in proof of the immortality of the soul, is that all nations of people, without any tuition on the subject, seemed to be impressed with the immortality af the soul. The un- tutored savage, who has never wor- shipped any God, except the rising sun, and gathers his highest concep- tion of the Deity by the smiling or the frowning of the heavens, conveys the Idea of thls impression when he buries with hls comrade, the imple- ments of war to be used on some future battlefield or hunting ground. Where, would asK, did he get this impression or instinct? I answer, he received it from his own immor- tality.
 What has caused the monarchs of earth to rear to heaven, pyramids of stone, which has cost the lives of millions of slaves and which has been the wonder of all succeeding generations? I answer, an insatia- ble thirst for immortality. And the same principle actuates the thought less boy, as he carved his name on the beach or rock, that those who may follow after him, may know that he has lived and gone on before.
 The last and most important req son is, that the New Testament fur nishes abundant proof of the immor- tality of the soul.
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: l re- joice that Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to light, and that the Christian, in the face of the taunts and sneers of inidels, may say of truth, that if man die, he shall live again; and that he will not live this eternal life in a world of sorrow and pain, but that it will be in mansion, and in the pres ence of the blessed Jesus, in a City whose Maker and Builder is God whose streets are paved with gold, where there will be no more sorrow, no more weeping, and no more part ing of friends; but he will live an eternal life and all that life will be a life of love. With this view of the subject, the Christian mother can consign her beautiful and dead babe to the grave with full assurance that she will one day meet the pre- cious babe on the banks beyond the river, remembering the sweet words of Jesus Christ when he said: q am the resurrection and the life, and that when he who is our life shall appear, we shall also appear with him." would not, if l could