The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-09-14
A PREPOSTEROUS CLAIM.

Clamorous skepticism claims that
modern science disproves immortality.
No claim was ever more preposterous.
Science is knowledge, and not one fact
that antagonizes Immortality is known
now that was not known before technic-
al science was born. Physical death
has reigned from the beginning, and
that is the one fact that seems to mega
tive future existence. Silence knows
no other. II attempts to identify mind
with matter; to show that all mental
and moral activities are but the opera
ton of organized matter, and to resolve
all thought and feeling into molecular
action of brain tissue. If this were
anything more than hypothesis and
conjecture, it would disprove immor-
tally; for if thought is wholly a mate
rial process, and the thinking principle
in man is the resultant of physical
forces, then he can have no existence
separate from matter, and when the
body dies he ceases to be. The suffi-
Gent answer to this is that it has not
been proved, and, if one of the shin
ing lights of skeptical science be a
judge, it can not be proved. Prof. Tyn-
dali says: 1.-The chaSm between BRAIN
action and consciousness is impassa-
ble;" and that "here is the rock upon
which materialism must split whenever
it pretends to be complete philosophy
of the human mind"
That theory of evolution which holds
that all forms of life are developed from
preceding forms under the impulse of
some unknown physical force is also in
conflict with immortality. The amazing
credulity which can believe that matter
is eternal, and that man was evolved
from it without the aid of an all-wise
Creator, can easily believe that he will
lapse to nothing. There is such q
thing as evolution; but the evolu-
ton which proposes to dispense en-
tirely with q Creator is only a n.y.
pothesis. and very poor one at that.
1t fails to account for man as think
ing moral being. 1t does not account
for the beginnings of life, for the plans
of any life, for the source of the 20
tency that works in life, or for the ra-
tional nature in man. 1t does not ac-
count for the difference between the in
stincts of brutes and the mental and
moral faculties of man, nor for his con-
seriousness of thought and of personal
identity. If mere materialistic evolu-
ton can not account for the existence
of man, it certainly can predict nothing
concerning his destiny. This very con-
seriousness of identity, of thought, of
continued being which defies explana-
ton by materialists is pledge of i'm
mortality that they can not gainsay.
Il think, therefore, I am" said De-
cartes. Goethe said: at is, to think
ing being, quite impossible to think
himself non-eXisting."
Science throws no barrier in the way
of belief in Immortality. 1t knows and
saws nothing against it. 1t contains
nothing to hinder faith in the evidences
of Immortality found in reason and reve-
lation. As for the theories of skeptics
who claim to be scientists, they may be
set aside as of no weight, since they
have not been proved true, and until
they are must be regarded as mere
guesses and hypothesis which have no
value as evidence. Over against these
guesses stand the general consensus of
human belief in Immortality; the dis
tinct intimation given by the boundless
capacities of the human mind that it
viii have longer period and larger
arena for development than its earthly
existence affords; the instructive and
universal demand that strict justice be
done and all wrongs be righted, which
requires future existence for its salts
faction; and the hopes and longings of
the human heart, which are prophetic
of future life. These rational argu-
ments might be greatly multiplied. I'm
mortality has been said to be 1.-The great
prophecy of reason" We can not look
into ourselves without finding it. The
belief is part of the contents of human
nature. To, take it away is to reverse
instinct, to reject the Hottest verdict of
reason. to blast the only hope of man.
kind.
What to science is a terra incognita,
and to reason appears, at most, to be
but strong probability. never q GER
tainty, is fully and clearly revealed in
the Gospel, in which life and immor-
tally are brought to light. Immortal
ity is fundamental fact of the Gospel;
but for that fact, itwould not have been
given. If death ends all, redemption
by the death of Christ is superfuous
and fallacy. If then we believe the
Gospel, we believe in future life. The
two must stand or fall together; and
since the fruit of the Gospel is capable
of historical proof and experimental
verification, so also is immortality; and
we can say with the apostle: 1--WE know
that if our earthly house of this taber-
nacle be dissolved we have building
of God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens" We NAV
change the question of Job to conf
dent assertion, and say: s'If man die,
he shall live again. IN T. Christian
advocate.
A Short Story with q Warning.