Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1893-10-27
TINE AND ETERNITY.
Rev. Marvin's Sermon Preached at the
Funeral of A. B Cooper.
Eloquent and Beautiful Thoughts on
The Life to Come

TExr:-Job l4-l4. "If man die shall
he hve again?"
Three great questions spring out OF our
text. What is this which we call life?
What is this that we set over in antithe-
sis, which we call deathP If man die
! shall he live again? The first question
we are compelled to leave unanswered.
Science has been lavish in her defni-
| tions OF the conditions of life; she has
but when we ask her for the occult law
of life she affords us no answer. Among
the uncertainties that surround us, it is
the most uncertain; liable at any mo-
ment to be brought to an earthly close.
The taking into the system OF drop OF
poison; the penetration OF an ounce OF
lead into some vital organ; the sudden
fall from some elevation a stoppage OF
the heart S action, and all is over, life
has departed. What is death? Some
have called it the king OF terrors, but
that is not always so. To him whose
| life has been offered upon the altar of
selfsnness, in whose career sin and deg
relation have wrought their work OF
wreckage, to him death comes as the
king of terrors for to him death leads to
no reward; beN one it he sees no hope,
nothing but the blackness OF darkness OF
hopeless despair, But to him whose
life has been lived for its noblest ends,
whose soul has been attuned to the har-
monies OF Gods moral and spiritual uni
verse, death comes as no king OF terrors; /;
nay, death to this man is more than rest
from toll and labor, it is the passage
from lower to Il higher sphere OF life,
the transition from life where there is
much to perplex and annoy, to a life of
happiness and joy.
If man die shall he live againP The
question of the ages. A question fraught
with7as much or more interest than any
other that the mind of man has grappled
with a question OF interest to all men,
that forces itself upon all minds,
that will not down, that speaks IN a
voice that will not be hushed. As we
look into each others faces to-day, to
part in a few minutes, wondering when
the rest Of our number will be called
away, we gravely ask if we are the next
to go, where shall we be, or will there be
an existence at all? This is the question
OF the text.
| take you for a moment to sit at the
feet OF Prof. Huxley and his friends.
Hear the voice of materialism hear it as
it tells you that matter and mind are
one, or that mind is but the product Of
matter. Listen as you are told that
mind depends for its istence upon the
action OF the particles OF matter; that it
cannot exist separate from matter. Lis
ten as it attemps to console you with the
thought that all your aspirations after
another life beyond the grave are but
the result OF a vain fancy, a heated inn
agination, the relic OF a by-gone super
stitious age. 1t would 90 to every
mourner and tell them that the lifeless
clay they lay beneath the sod is all that
remains OF the dear one who has gone.
In short, it ruthlessly robs us Of the one
bright gleam OF golden sunshine that
| lightens the death chamber, and leaves
us nothing it its stead. Against this
theory | raise the highest reason of the
souls unquenchablc instincts. Against
this theory humanity revolts; we brand
| it as inhuman; we cannot, we will not
believe it. Call in the testimony OF the
advanced thinkers among earth's great
est pagan philosophers. Here we find
desire, pure, lofty, noble desire for d life
beyond the grave, but little definite as
surance OF it. Socrates hoped that when
he died he might go to live with good
men who had gone before. Cicero ex-
claimed, "God only knows whether there
is life beyond the grave or not" Pliny
said that after men died they were just
as they were before their birth. One
Of the greatest of French writer's ex-
claimed when dying, 81 am about to
take leap in the dark" The Sunday
school boy or girl OF to-day can teach the
old Roman and Greek philosophers on
the subject OF the souls immortality
Let us get nearer the heart OF the Inf.
mite One, away from the sophistries oI
men. We listen to natures voices, and
as we listen learn some things that in.
dicate future life, even while we learn
nothing OF its nature. The caterpillar
OF yesterday is the chrysalis Of to-day
tomorrow it becomes the creature of {
fuller life, and we call it butterfly. w,
scatter the seed upon the ground, il
passes through the process that leads t.
death, but from that death there spring.