St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-23
Believers at Red Rock Worked
to a Mighty High
Pitch.
Many Sobbed, and the Camp
Resounded With Triumph
ant Shouts.
Multitudes Stirred by DR..
Cooks Eloquent and Pow
erfuI Sermon.
Said to Be the Greatest Yet
Preached at This Historic i
Meeting.

Meeting.
Nature smiled upon the Red Rock
camp ground yesterday, and thousands
from the city and country sought her
shady groves for quiet and cool Sun
day. The day could not have been a
brighter one, and before the sun was
many hours on its course the people be-
gan to arrive by team and train. A
Sunday spent on these camp grounds is
something to be long remembered, and
while it has many pleasant features,
there are few unpleasant ones on ac-
count of the great crowds, which are
mostly composed of sightseers, that ar
rive in the afternoon. The campers
and boarders are we'll astir at O'clock
in the morning. Many before this
hour have risen and gene out to
an early prayer meeting. but the major
ity do not attend services until at least
s O'Clock. About this time the farmers
begin to arrive in their buggies, well
laden with children and provisions.
Some shady place is sought by them and
here is made a temporary camp. An
hour or two later the city people begin
to arrive by train and steamboat. The
forenoon arrivals are very different from
the afternoon ones. The morning visit
ors are citizens who are accompanied by
their families and who have come to at
tend The services; but the afternoon ar
rivals are mostly young people who have
left the city for half-day's outing and
have little or no interest in the meet
ings. At the noon hour under each
shade tree can be found merry party
at lunch. The only tiresome part of the
day is late in the afternoon when the
crowds become weary and wander list
lessly about the grounds. The attend
ance of yesterday was fully 5000. There
were no incidents to disturb the peace.
About noon two or three faro men ar
rived and began operations on the river
bank, but only few dollars had been
taken when they were routed by the
police.
The morning sermon was preached at
II O'Clock by Rev. DIR. Cook, professor of
theology in the q. s. Grant university,
Athens, Tenn. The sermon was one of
the
Greatest Ever Preached
on the Red Rock camp grounds. and
possibly none will equal it this year in
force and in the thoughts presented by
the speaker. For two hours, lacking
ten minutes, he was given the strict
attention of his immense audience,
while he dealt with ungloved hands with
many of the theories which have long
been advanced by theolOgistS as grounds
for belief in future life, but which
are to-day giving way before the more
enlightened thoughts OF this age.
The subject of the mornings sermon,
he said, would be the grounds of a
Christian for his belief in future life.
| The subject Immediately interested his
audience. To-day there are number
of proofs advanced by some theOlogianS
which are being discarded by the mod
ern student of theology as being no
proof at all for belief in a future life.
These are to-day taught in many of the
theological schools, and discussing of
them is an interesting theme.
DR.. Cook said that there were two
main characteristics of this age-a coll
quering faith and depressing doubt.
The church is flinging her banner to
the world and is pushing forward to
victory. Paradoxical as it may seem.
there is also a great wave of doubt COM
ing over this American people, kind
of an agnosticism which was paraiyZing
the soul and spreading practical infidel-
Ity, or indifferentism, throughout the
land. 1t was not the infidelity of the
lecturer or the writer that was doing
the damage. but the infdelity in the
church. 1t is the church member who
says that he believes in God and then
lives as though there was no God. ''My
| text is found in these verses" said the
preacher:
"'lf man die shall he live again?'
Job xiv, IA, and In my Fathers house
are many mansions; if it were not so l
would have told you. | go to prepare
place for you.' John xiv, g."
The preacher began with a graphic
description of the beauty of this world,
| the earth, sea and sky. The granduer
| of this age and its achievements were
spoken of briefly, but under all this. he
| said, there was reStleSSneSS which could
not be stifed. The cry of Job is the cry
| of the human heart of the nineteenth
| century, IF man die shall he live
| again?" The preacher proceeded to
consider one by one the proofs which
| have been advanced for Immortality.
| The first, he said, was the anthropolog-
| ical, such as grew out of the nature of
| the soul. The metaphysical idea of the
| soul is that it is substance, simple, in
| divisiDle, immaterial. spiritual and hav-
| ing life in itself. In answering this he
said:
committing the fact that the state
| ment, which is given as proof, is the
very thing to be proven, answer that
| the same may be compound of spirit
ual elements. which at death may fall
apart, each becoming what it was be-
| fore. But grant all the above. The
substance of the soul may continue for
ever, but may not be self-cOnsciOus.
Continuity of existence without self
consciousness is not immortal life. A
blow on my head produces unconscious
ness. Why may not severer. blow
produce
Eternal UnconseiOusnesse
Another proof advanced is that the
INTEL ectual and other activities of man
are not perfected here, and they must
therefore be perfected III future life.
This is the theological proof, or the
proof found in arguing that there
must be an end from the design. The
activities of man, if not perfected in the
individual. may be in the race.
This was the doctrine of George Elliot
and Herbert Spencer. who believed
that there must be place for the COM
pletion of life. 1t is argued that in
stinets never mock. but l reply that
many instincts and feelings are never
found in corresponding reality. A,
great deal is. made out of the
argument of analogy. Men argue that
there must be future because matter,
and mind are indestructible. In ma
ture nothing is destroyed, and out of
visible death new forms arise. But the
dead buds never live again. The old
form never reappears, and its fra
GRANGE never returns. so while the sub
stance of the soul may live, it may
never be itself again. | omit the theo-
logical proof. and will mention as the
last of these proofs the historical one,
which is that all universal ideas are
true, and as all nations and tribes have
believed in a future existence there
must be such future state.
This the preacher proceeded to show
was not true. Philosophers had denied