The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-08-08
rs THERE A FUTURE LIFE?
Bishop Foster Says Ise Doesnt Know, hut
believes TINT there Il.

FAmPoNT, N. Y, Aug AT the Ch0utau-
qua Assembly o-day Bishop II. $. Foster OF Bos-
ton delivered lecture on thotopic, Beyond the
Grave" He said the subject WIS one Of great
importance. but one Of great intrinsic obscurity.
1t will not do either to assume everything and
to discuss the theme from personal beliefs. 1t
must be discussed from the stnndpoints Of Bible
truth and human reason. The first question
Of two TO be considered. Is there a life beyond
the grave 2" was taken up. Said the Biehop:
=" / do not know whether there II or not. SEN
sationI There are grounds for belief that there
IL. 1t is matter OF natural belief supported by
evidence. because there IL no absolute knowl-
edge Of life beyond the grave. The question
has become one for disputution. and there
arc great many honest doubtcrs many Of
whom do not declare their doubts" With Da-
vid tho Bishop classed pure matcrialists as
fools. For them There IL no God and no life
beyond. Others believe that man has spirit
within his human organization. but that ut
death the spirit sleeps until the resurrertto ton.
Others believe that the souls OF the wicked are
nnnihilnted nj denth Then there is the we'll
known belief Of the Christian world. The be-
lief 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 see the man dies and prrishcs. We can
not pursue personal investigation beyond the
Why do we believe that man survives denth ?
We are bound to answer this question. First
was given tho evidence which is found outside
II tho Bible This l. first in the nature of man.
What We see Is not the man. Tho essential man
is invsill" Inc material man is only an or
ganisn for the use OF the real man. I'm proof
of this II was said that there were two kinds Of
existence. one OF spirit AMI one Of matter, a fac
Thought. The mere matter Of living or univ
ing Is not n thought fuctor. and cannot become
SO. Behind every organism. and necessary 10
IT, IL the thought factor, which is antecc-
dent 10 organism, and without 1t the organ
ism could never exist. n watch Is an
organized machine Reason asks Whence
istrd in unorganizcd material that u thinker
existed who organized the idea OF the watch
and gave IL u material form. This was n Ger
tainty. 1t IL said the brain IL the organizer. but
what organizes the brain in the realm Of nature
However. we have a variety Of organisms SUI
that Of man himself. Then the universe itself
il an organized whole. A grain Of sand or a
drop Of water l. an organism rs a result Of nat
ural law. Vegetable organisms were also al.
luded To. Behind all these the Bishop placed
thinker. No order or succession could be cier-
nal The essence of numbers is n 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 a thing
that is after any other thing cannot be eternal
Take the order Of corn; every grain grows on n
stalk and every stalk grows from grain. You
can't get one except as the result Of another
lApplause.l The heavenly system was referred
TO 10y way of illustration. Beyond II there must
Ice thought. We say granite and the mountains
are solid. They are not. They must pass
away. There is only one thing that is solid and
eternal-that Is the spirit lApplause.l
The question now was " IL Man Spirit p
The speaker thought he was. yet. us he was in
visible. he Of course could not be seen. We can
look in through tho window Of the sparkling
eye and know that there is Il man in there The
spirit Of man has n machine-the human frame
to get about with When he wants TO 20 to
Furoue he tells his body TO get up and 90.
.Laughtcrl IL not The spirit different from the
flesh and bloodY We know IL. Applause
Every seven years there is an entire change in
the body but the man stays. Laughter and
applHuscl The picture gallery Of the soul is
larger than all the picture galleries Of the
world. and II Is not u material construction.
We may know this spirit is older than
body Man belongs to the spiritual realm. All
this we find as the result of pure reasoning.
When the body pershes., what. afterY Does Il
have any effect on the soul When the musical
instrument Is destroyed. does il follow that the
player is destroyedi Destroy the body OF the
lover who whispers sweet words To his mistress.
and you do not destroy him. There are things
q man can do without eyes or ears or hands.
He can love God and commune with him. He
can live in two worlds. lie cannot eat corn. but
he must raise IL 10 feed to his machine. Laugh %
teri The Bishop said: " / undertake to say that
| can live without the body after death and |
expect TO-" lApplauscl