Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-14
IMMORTALITY.
SOME THOUGHTS UPON THE SUB
JECT BY A WOMAN.
Is Immortality Inherent in Man p
A Brief Letter Self-Claiming
Thoughtful Attention.


from the pen of Rev. j. F. Won Herrlich
Rector of st. Pauls Church, Sacramento
entitled Immortality" His text, taken
from Job xiv, IA, reads: ''If a man die
shall he live again."
This question was asked by the sorrow
stricken patriarch of ancient days; well
knowing that he should not live again
upon this earth, his thoughts and hopes
extended into the great beyond. Hear
his expressions of. confidence and exulta-
ton: 81 know that my Redeemer liveth
and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth whom | shall see for my
self, and mine eyes shall behold and not
another" Chapter xix, 25, ~ Thus
has he answered his own question: off a
man die shall he live again?n
That the whole human family shall
have life in the great hereafter is fully es-
tablished by the sacred writers. And
Christ himself hath told us that when he
shall come the second time, All that are
in their graves shall hear his voice and
come forth they that have done good to
the resurrection of life, and they that have
done evil to the resurrection of damna-
ton"
Then will stand before their Judge TWO
classes of beings opposite in their charac-
ter and in their destinies. To the right
eous he will say "Come We blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you;" and to the wicked depart from
me We workers of iniquity." They stand
self-conyicted and ready to call on the
rocks and the mountains to fall upon them
and hide them from the face of their
offended God depart from me-" is the
stern command.
But, whittier can they go to escape His
all-seeing eye? Whittier? Is He not
omnipresent? | can conceive of no place
in the universe where God is not. Is inn
mortality boon then for lost souls to
covet? True while they were probation
ers on the earth, "our Savior never entered
into any argument to prove the immortal
ity Of the SOUL" Earthly potentates do
not enter into an argument with their
subjects to prove the business of their
claims, though sometimes well they might,
for they are finite and erring like our
He gave them laws to govern their lives,
and to those who would keep them the
promise of great reward, while to those
who would violate them the most terrible
denuneiations of his wrath.
Who proclaimed to the world the prom
Use and assurance of Immortality? Who
implanted within US as strong as life itself,
and part of our very makeup and nature,
the belief of immortality? Was it God
He said to Adam "In the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die
Alas was it not the arch deceiver who
visited the Garden of Eden and said to our
sinless mother, Eve: "Thou shalt not
surely diep' She believed this falsehood,
and this belief has been transmitted to her
posterity; and how faithfully they have
chung to this delusion-the nineteenth
century of the Christian Era bears testi-
mony.
My reverend friend says: Man cannot
die; it is not death to lay aside this
throbbing dust-to burst these bonds and
not accompany our dearest earthly friends
beyond their death-chamber. Tenderly"
We may commit their remains into the
bosom of mother-earth But where is our
friend? Whittier gone? He said to his
disciples: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth /;
but l go that ! may awake him out of
sleep" They said: lord, if he sleep he
shall do we'll" But they understood him
not. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead" He then went to Beth
any, and to the tomb of Lazarus, and
"cried with loud voice, Lazarus, come
forth" Did our Savior bring the glori-
fed spirit of Lazarus from the abodes of
bliss to reinhabit its former home? or did
he wake him out of sleep as he said he
would? Unquestionably sleeping Laza-
rus represented the condition of all the
dead. This, in my mind, is of itself suffi-
cient proof of their unconscious state.
l viii notice one more instance. When
Stephen, devout man, and a worshiper
of the Just One suffered martyrdom at the
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing
on the right hand of God"-doubtless an
earnest of his acceptance and whittier he
should go. Then prayed he for his per-
secutors, saying: Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge" and when he had said
this he fell asleep.
But for moment only; sleep annihi-
lates time. When Christ stands again
upon the earth his voice, "Come FORTH
will be the rallying cry which all shall
hear. Lazarus will awake the second
time, and Stephen behold the glory Of
| God. Man dreams of life and resurrec-
ton to follow the lowering of his mortal
body beneath the sod of the graveyard. y
If man cannot die, as stated, his life can.
not be broken off or suspended. When he
| breathes his last on earth his spirit scars
aloft to heaven and God" in advance oil
his body to the grave.
But man need not thus dream no truth
of the Bible is more plainly taught thar
that Christ came into the world and died
to give life to all, else all must sleep the
sleep that knows no waking I'm the ma.
terial world there is no such a thing as
destruction or humiliation" Nature.
laws certainly do teach us the iudestructi.
bility of matter. A house may be burned
to the ground; hence it is no longer q
| house; the house is annihilated, the mate
rial of which it was composed exists and
has passed into other substances.
Science tells us that force which make.
man living soul is indestructible." What
is this force, and from whence does il
come? We answer, from God himself
Then most certainly this force is indie.
structible. God made man living soul
and his soul is not indestructible. To say
| that it cannot be annihilated is limiting
the power of the All Mighty. If God car
create soul he surely can blot it out O
existence" For the wages of sin is death. ,
Romans vi, 23.) Our Savior John v.
| 40) says: Ye will not come unto me thai
We might have life" This cannot mear
temporal life, for all have learned that all
must die 1t plainly means, then, thai
they who reject Christ cannot have eter
nal life
Ny friend, Mr.. Won Herrlieh, uses the
term Immortality with much freedom, an6
strongly asserts that the spirit of man j,
immortal. This has led me to more care
full research of Gods word, and to exam
i inc every text which speaks of immortal
lIty, or of those who are immortal. O
these in / Timothy i, IL, is the fol
lowing: Now unto the King eternal, i'm
mortal, invisible, the only wise God, b.
honor and glory forever and ever" Thi.
i certainly does not mean any one but the
King eternal. have carefully examined
and find no other place in the Bible wher,
the word immortal is used.
! What, not even one solitary text in the
Bible where the term immortal is applied