The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-29
INN oRTALITY.
Interesting Sermon by Rev. william
Eakins of st. PauI's vi. e. Church.

Interesting Sermon by Rev. William
Eakins of st. Paul's vi. f. Church.
At st. Paul's M. E. Church, Third street,
last evening, Pastor William Eakins preached
an excellent sermon on Immortality or the
Day After Death" and gave many argu-
ments in support of the Christian belief re-
garding eternity. He chose as his text,
Timothy, 2, tx. Among other things he
said:- +
1.-THE masses of. the people, up to Christ's
time, had very crude ideas relative to inn
mortality. Even the great men among the
heathens, who, at times, talked with toler-
able accuracy on the subject, seemed at
other times to fear that their fondest hopeS
were nothing but dreams. The question was
involved in darkness before the great
Preacher brought it to light. By His words
and works, by His resurrection and ascen-
sion, He gave the subject such practical Il
tangible form that ever since 1t has been q
pure and elevating doctrine.
''There is nothing in the physical universe
| destroyed and so the destruction Of our spir-
| itual being would be contrary to analogy.
In times less enlightened than our own
there were those who insisted that every
thing in the universe was destroyed and man
could not be so presumptuous as to expect to
be an exception to this general rule. So far
from its being true that everything in its
turn is destroyed, it has been demonstrated
by the progress of knowledge that there is
absolutely nothing destroyed. In their ig-
norance the people imagined that certain
changes through which matter was known
to pass was destruction. The spiritual part
of our nature being a simple element, is in
capable of division or of separation of parts,
and is therefore incapable of death. The
soul cannot be seen with the eyes, felt with
the hands, cut with the dissecting knife, nor
is it subject to chemical analysis. The spir-
.A-1 -
its own and is governed by laws of its own.
There is a spiritual condition of things out
beyond us II about us, that it is necessary
to die in order to understand.
Provisions nave been made by the Crea-
tor to meet every van in nature, and since
we have come into the world with a desire
and capacity for Immortality, it would be
contrary to the analogy of things to destroy
the soul at the death of the body. The
statement has sometimes been made by
travellers that certain savage tribes with
which they came in contact had no thought
of or desire for a life beyond the grave, but
in every case thus far a more intimate &C
quaintance with such parties has shown these
statements to be incorrect. Black man and
white, bond and free, savage and philosopher
alike look forward to a future life. Not
only is such a desire universal, but it is the
strongest desire of human nature. All that
a man hath will he give for his life is not
only the teaching of Scripture but of phi
losophy.
"You may imagine while you are in the
full flush of health and prosperity that this
world and its enjoyments is good enough for
you and that you do not care whether there
be a future life or not; but the time may not
be far distant when you shal be awakened
from your delusion. Soon you may be called
to stand on the verge of the grave and to
look out into the vast eternity to which you
are going. Soon death may lay its cold hand
upon the one you love dearer than your own
life. As you stand by the coffin and look
upon the face once so lovely, but now pale in
death, and think of the qualities of life that
made the one you loved a universal f~avorite.
your heart will be wrung with feelings of
bitter anguish. Dark indeed will LIES
brightest prospects appear as you follow the
mortal remains, to their last resting place
and see the beloved form covered up
in the cold, damp earth. When you
return home and wander through the house,
you no longer hear the once familiar voice.
You kneel by the bed where the sick one
died, but YOU most earnest prayer cannot
restore the dead. The portrait from the
wall looks down Upon you, but there is ne
fire in the eye nor warmth to the touch, the
lips do not move and you begin to think as
you did not until this hour that the separa-
ton is real and complete. But is it, you
ask, eternal? When we bury our dead out
of our sight is that the last we shall ever see
or know of them, or is there a time coming
when loved ones separated by death shall
meet never to part throughout the ages of
etarnitVg'