The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-10
THE SOULS IMMORTALITY.
Mrs. Mary A. LivermOre Answers the Cues
ton, HAS the Night of Death
No Morning."

"Our estimate of every human life varies
with our scant fund of information said Mrs.
Mary Livermore, she stepped out before a
splendid audience at Masonic Hall last night,
after formal presentation by Rev. o. G. Nc
Culloch; ''some think it is not worth living; to
them it is a vale of tears, while others thank
God that they are allowed to live, and enjoy
every hour of their existence But all estimates
of life are from earthly standpoint 1t seems
impossible to project ourselves out and estimate
IL from the upper standard The speaker
illustrated this point by the story of a man who
lived forever in the basement of his magnificent
and stately mansion, in the midst of a landscape
of surprising beauty. When the grandeur of
his surroundings was extoed to him by poets
and artists he did not credit them, but spent all
his years in the belief that the world was made
up of stones and clods, and other baser things
that could be seen from his windows He did
not know the truth because he would not go up
higher. Business and family cares compel us
to live to great extent in the basement of ma
ture," said Mrs. Livermore, until
we are overtaken by some great
sorrow or affection, and are obliged to fee up
ward for help and strength, and there we find
that although we have lost all, yet rich"
With this brief introduction the speaker began
discussion of the subject of the souls immor
tality, in answer to the question, HAS the Night
of Death no Morningl" She said it was exceed
ingly difficult to establish the fact of immor
tality by positive proof, but she proposed to dis
cuss it without taking into consideration the
Divine Revelation on the subject, and to
simply place before her hearers certain beliefs
which were thoroughly conclusive to her She
cited the Unborn desire of every human to live,
and asserted that we all believe in future life,
and hence desire to prove it, but in this connec-
ton we do not consider that to prove truth it
should be proved in the domain to which it be-
longs. This one truth of the immortality of the
soul lies in the higher spiritual department, and
there must it be carried for solution. Few Of us
attain that height, and then it is after long Years
ofnoble living. Her line of argument tended to
show that all these desires for a future life
point to something. The eye is given for The
purpose of seeing We're there no light this
would be unnecessary, and nature would be
guilty of a blunder in giving sight to those con
demned to live in impenetrabe gloom Her
conclusion would be that there is purpose
in all things, and that this innate desire of man
The ancient Egyptians believed in it, as did also
the Buddhists, who for long years were CHROME
ously thought to be annihilatiOnists. The belief
of children is an argument in favor of the i'm
mortality of the soul She cited instances of
death bed scenes of men strong in their faith,
same unseen power The speaker regarded the
fact that we are here strong argument in
favor of our eternal continuance
Mrs. Livermore spoke for about an hour and
half, and her address was model of forcible ex-
preston and felicitous illustration