The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-09-30
CAN A FUTURE STATE OF EXISTENCE BE
DEMONSTRATED?

The important question: IF man die shall he
live again ?' is one that every mortal must ask
when contemplating the chemical change called
death, which hourly pursues him with the Ger
tainty of a final triumph that needs no demon
stration Every intelligent mind must answer
the question with at least an affirmative hope (:
but there are vet very many good persons who
devoutly believe that it is above all things des-
perately wicked for mortal man TO seek satisfac-
tory reply TO the involuntary query, which, never
theless, within itself presupposes that it may be
answered, since every demand naturally suggests
reply. MAN giveth up the ghost, and where is
he ?' is question that has been handed down 10
humanity from bygone ages Many centuries
after this query first went FORTH through Jewish
channels, a part of the infalible word Of the
Infinite God, a New Testament was left to the
people by asserted authority of One before whom
all Chrstendom claims that "every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confessn And this
divine and exemplary character who did not ask
new questions, but confidently replied to old ones
left on record the following testimony relative to
the advent of the spirit into eternal life:
The wind bloweth where isteh and thou nearest the
sound thereof, but canst tell il cometh nor
whittier goeth. 50 is every that spirit
That religious teachers, inspired by their own
crude and material fancies, have construed this
sort of a chemical or spiritual earthly experiment
which does not apply on philosophical principles
to the great fact to which the patient scientist
fearlessly applies it, is not wonderful nor is it
strange that the mass of deyOut believers choose
rather to lazily and supersttiously rely upon the
fossilized dogmas prepared for them through the
creeds of their forefathers than to search the
Scriptures for themselves, that they may no longer
think, but know, that they have inherited eternal
life through mortal existence; but there has been
q class of advanced thinkers and investigators in
every age who have not been content to bow the
knee unquestioned before the bygone light of hu-
man ancestry, and to these the world has been
indebted for all the progress of its higher thought
Honest skeptcism is no longer regarded with holy
horror by the reading and reasoning public
Blind bgotry is growing every day more rapidly
into disrepute. Many of the most respectable
scientists Of the age declare openly, and bring
with their conclusions character and dignity that
command even the unwilling respect Of the
dogmatist, that there is no possible way to dem
onstrate future state of sentient existence and
consequently there can be none They have
proved that every physical growth, from an atom
to solar system has both beginning and ending,
and their deduction is that what is so plainly true
of matter must also be true of mind But this de-
ductve wisdom of the scientist does not and can
not satisfy the waling cry Of the bereaved mourner
whose beloved dead have drifted away from hu-
man sight, but never can be eliminated from the
iondest memories Of the longing and loving sur
NVor' Inc opposite extreme of "A critical and
scienuilc materalism is reached by another and
much larger class Of investigators. who claim 10
prove by demonstration that the TEACHINGS Of
Jesus and the Apostles are capable of verifcation
through the reproduction Of the phenomena which