The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-05-24
The Undiscovered Country.

subject of the future life, and anxious to
hear whatever there is to be said on the
topic by those who devote much thought
and study to it. This we believe is a
mistake. So far as we can judge from
daily intercourse and close observation,
the average man and woman seldom give
the subject a thought until it is forced
upon their attention by the immediate
prospect of death from old age, sickness
or some other cause, or else by the death
of some one very dear to them. Under
these circumstances they are sometimes
but not always-roused to d vivid in
terest about the life that awaits them be.
yond the grave, or to serious questioning
whether there be any future existence,
but otherwise they 60 on from day to
day aud from year to year with hardly a
thought Of anything beyond the present
moment, and certainly without any prep.
aration to meet the new conditions that
must environ them there.
The Rev. Charles E. Dole in the North
american Review has given US some n =
and interesting thoughts about the futu-
life, and while we do not expect that Il
of our readers will care to hear what
has to say, few of them may find food
for reflection in his ideas upon the stb-
ject. He begins by stating his reasons
for believing in a future life aside from
the assurances of revealed truth. He
says: "Our minds require purpose for
the universe as truly as they compel US
to look for order and unity in it. The
idea of moral order. with benefcence at
the heart of things, alone sati6es this de-
mand of the mind for an adequate pur-
pose. But if death ended all what ade-
quate purpose could there be? Or what
would the beautiful order be good for, if
it worked out nothing but death ?" In
the same way the theory of the evolu-
ZIONIST is unsatisfactory unless it presup-
poses a continuance. of the process in the
next life, for surely the fullest and no
blest life here falls fer short of that per-
fection that should CT. IN work carried
on through so many ages. And it is equal.
ly impossible to believe hat the many
grand qualities Of the mind and soul are
to perish at death, in universe where
change and not utter loss, is the universal
law.
Mr.. Dole goes on 10 argue that great
many things which characterize US here
must inevitably be left behind along with
the environment for which they were
fitted. The man whose whole employ
ment has been to speculate in stocks
must leave his slowly and often painfully
acquired knowledge here along with the
money that made it useful. He who has
spent years perfectipg himself in ancient
and modern languages will suddenly find
bis life wasted unless he has learned the
language of Heaven, and it may be that
there we shall not need speech at all as
medium of communication, but that
what We call "mind reading may make
it possible to communicate our thoughts
without. the use of language. Again the
sciences pertaining to the structure and
organism of the earth are likely to have
little worth when earth itself has been
left behind. He illustrates his meaning
as, follows: "It is like asking what a
man would have if you set him down as
a stranger in India or China. There
are certain mental, moral and spiritual
qualities that would serve man wher-
ever he might be. These qualities would
at once make him at home with strange
men new environment. By virtue of
such qualities he would have what we
may call the citizenship of the world.
We catch q similar conception of the
moral laws of tue world. He who has e
pure heart, who abides by principle, who
has learned to do justly and to love mer.
cy would be at home anywhere in Gods
universe. The moral and spiritual quail.
tiles of which we have spoken seem to
give him the citizenship of the universe. "
He then alludes to the Buddhist doc
trine of "Nirvana," wherein it is taught
that the highest reaches of personality
are those where there is the least con-
sciousness of self, where one is filled with
great and pure love, or when in conse.
Grafton to duty the will is one with the
Good Will, and concludes that if this
experience Of "union with God" is the
best which life here offers, it is the earn
est of the eternal life.
The question Mr.. Dole raises as to how
much Of our personal memory we shall
carry with us into the other life, is a
most interesting one. He argues that, as
so much of that with which our memory
is filled is merely an incumbrance to its
activity an1 would be useless to US under
changed conditions, it would naturally
bs left behind; while, on the contrary,
much of higher knowledge of which We
have had but hints aud glimpses will be
expanded into truth and perfection by
the light of that other world. We are
accustomed to expect to know our friends
in Heaven much as we have known them
here, our memory furnishing the recol.
lection of their personal appearance and
Distinguishing traits, but We think there
is much that is worthy of belief in Mr.
Dole's suggestion that our recognition of
them will depend entirely upon what the
basis of friendship here has been. "The
lower kind of love involved in sel6shness,
the friendship that arises out of acciden
tai juxtaposition, can hardly be con-
ceived to hold after the circumstances
that made it have disappeared. But
there ia a kind of love that proWs out of