The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-09
ATHEISM AND IMMORTALITY.
The Discourse of DIR. Jeffery at First Baptist
Church Last Evening.

The Discourse of DIR. Jeffery at First Baptist
Church Last Evening.
AT the First Baptist Church, last evening, DR..
Jeffery read the eighth verse of the fourth chap
ter of l Timothy as his text: For bodily exercise
profteth little; but goodness is profitable unto
all things, having promise of the life that now is,
and of that which is to come" The theme of
his discourse was Atheism and Immortality"
Atheism is a theory of denial" DR.. lottery
said ''of the existence of God as the creator of
the universe This existence is denied because
1t is not proven; but is this so! Is it not provera
1t is impossible for the human mind
to think of creator without ad-
hitting a cause of some kind for this
creation. You may reduce this cause to force,
for there must be cause equal to the results
The very fact of the conception of such a
creation carries its own conviction that there
must be cause. But some doubt the cause be-
cause it is SO difficult to see. The difficulty is
that as soon as man doubts he is at once
thrown out into the field of conjecture. He has
to account for things as they are, and not as
some circumstances might make them.
1t is impossible to have only one theory and
all agree upon it. All agree that nature is a
universal system. Start with simple nature as
one man sees it, We start with little atom in
space and it grows and collects other particles
out of space. This is called protoplasm. But
will the theory of protoplasm do2 No;
because whence came this vital force? The athe-
list says it is the elements of nature. But VIII at
is natureg To think of nature and explain it
you have to admit the existence of a self ext St
all-OOWarful I'D no
prophet has said ''the fool hath said: Ia tins I
see no God AS read this the fool has said,
II want no God"
Let us suppose there is no God; no intelligent
hrst God. We are what are and we can't
help it Atheists do not admit the doctrine of
eternal life One OF the atheistic theories is
that we go down into posterity; that is, that all
we labor for on this earth is to be left to those who
are TO follow in our footsteps 1t, at best, is not
a very pleasing theory to me. Even if we admit
that there is no God, that does not by any means
follow that there is no such thing as immor-
taity. Whatever the forces that make this ex-
istence, 1t must conform to the uniformity Of ma
ture. No one on this earth can tell whether this
little span OF earthly existence is the end of our
existence from any personal experience There
tore, we have to suppose, or as the atheist may
say, we have to guess. Illustrations from nature
would seem to contradict this Take. for exam
pie. the caterpillar. 1t probably does not know
that when It dies 1t simply enters new form of
llfe and has not lost its identv. 1t has simply
changed into a butterfly. and each succeeding
change makes it better than before. AS you can
see that this is what scientifically happens to
the creeping caterpillar, how can we say but
that something of the same nature should hap
pen to US after diel
If we can exist in this world without a God
whocan say we cannot exist in another world
without the aid of God also? Scientists saw it
would be impossible TO live OH any other world
because no other world has the same physical
condition as ours Animal life on the moou
would be impossible, because the moon has no
atmosphere; on Saturn. because of the cold; or
on Venus, because of the heat Why would this
not be2 The home of the fish is in the water
Now. should you take that fish out of the water
and it were to be thrown back again would it
not say to the other Ash: II know that life out
there is impossible, because | was out there and
came very near dying Now, how can the
scientists say but that our order of life might
be changed so that life there would be
possibility under the existing order of things
therel This is not uncommon in. nature. Take
drop of water. In it you may find the hydra,
a small poyp 1t soon becomes GERM next
assumes shape like cup; then has little leaves
like daisy, and is animated. thus going on
through five or six changes. How can the athe-
ist tell bat our lives may have changes likened
to these, and SO reach Immortality. What we