The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-10-05
The Life Beyond the Grave.


Bishop r. s. Foster, of Boston, de-
livered lecture not long ago before the
Chautauqua Assembly on the topic Be
yond the Grave" He said the subject
was one of great Importance, but one of
great intrinsic obscurity. 1t will not do
either to assume everything and to dis
cuss the theme from personal beliefs. II
must be discussed from the standpoints
of the Bible, truth, and human reason.
The first question of two to be con-
sidered, " Is there life beyond the
graveg" was taken up. The Bishop
said: | do not know whether there is
or not. There are grounds for belief
that there is. 1t is a matter of natural
belief supported by evidence, because
there is no absolute knowledge of life
beyond the grave. The question has
become one for disputation, and there
are great many honest doubters, many
of whom do not declare their doubts
With David the Bishop classcd pure
materialists as fools. For them there is
no God and no life beyond. Others be-
lieve that man has spirit within his
human organization, but that at death
the spirit sleeps until the resurrection.
Others believe the souls of the wicked
are annihilated at death. Then there is
the well-known belief of the Christian
world. The belief of the speaker was
that man was spirit and survived after
death, yet the matter was involved in
great difficulties. So far as we can sec
the man dies and perishes. We cannot
pursue personal investigation beyond
the grave. Why do we believe that man
survives death? We are bound to an
swer this question. First was given the
evidence which is found outside of the
Bible. This is first in the nature of
man. What we see is not the man.
The essential man is invisible. The
material man is only an organism for
the use of the real man. In proof of
this it was said that there were two
kinds of existence, one of spirit and
one of matter, factor of thought
which thinks and expresses thought.
The mere matter of living or unliving
is not thought factor and cannot be-
come so. Behind every organism, and
necessary to it, is the thought factor,
which is antecedent to organism, and
without it the organism could never ex-
list. A watch is an organized machine.
Reason asks, whence came it? and it
finds that at one time it existed in un-
organized material; that a thinker ex-
listed who organized the idea of the watch
and gave it a material form. This was
certainty. 1t is said the brain is tho
organizer, but what organizes the brain
in the realm of nature2 However, we
have variety of organisms superior to
material structures, chief of which is
that of man himself. Then the universe
itself is an organized whole. A grain of
sand or drop of water is an organism
as result of natural law. Vegetable
organisms were also alluded to. Behind
all these the Bishop placed thinker.
No order or succession could be eternal
The essence of numbers is unit. The
idea is finite. The order of the globe
cannot be eternal. The system of day
and night cannot be eternal. One is
before the other, and thing that is
after any other thing cannot be eternal.
Take the order of corn; every grain
grows on stalk, and every stalk grows
from grain. You can't get one except
as the result of another. The heavenly
system was referred to by way of illus
grafton. Beyond it there must be
thought. We say granite and the noun
tains are solid. They are not. They
must pass away. There is only one
thing that is solid and eternal-that is
the spirit. The question now was, :" Is
man spiritY' The speaker thought he
was; yet, as he was invisible, he of
course could not be seen. We can look
in through the window of the sparkling
Lot .o -,
there. The spirit of man has a machine
the human frame-to get about with.
When he wants to go to Europe, he tells
his body to get up and 20. Is not the
spirit different from the flesh and blood ?
We know it. Every seven years there
is an entire change in the body, but
there man stays. The picture gallery
of the soul is larger than all the picture
galleries of the world and it is not a
material construction. We may know
this spirit is older than matter. The
soul is distinct from the body. Man be-
longs to the spiritual realm. All this
we find as the result of pure reasoning.
When the body perishes, what after?
Does it have any effect on the soul ?
When the musical instrument is de-
stroyed, does it follow that the player is
destroyed? Destroy the body of the
lover who whispers sweet words to his
mistress and you do not destry him.
There are things man can do without
eyes or ears to hear. He can love God
and commune with him. He. can live
in two worlds. He cannot eat corn, but
he must raise it to feed to his machine
The Bishop said: II undertake to say
that ! can live without the body after
death and expect to-"