The Bossier banner., 1894-04-12

In Madagascar table covered with
dellcacies was regularly set in the
dead kings mausoleum under the
notion that the spirit of the monarch
would occasionally return and partake
of what he was fond of during his
lifetime.
1t these odd customs were found
only in certain localities we might
brush them aside as of little import.
ance. But when you learn that rude
conceptions of heaven are coeval with
the exercise of human intelligence,
that man no sooner thought of this
life than he began to think of fanother
life, as though it was impossible to
believe in the one without believing
in the other, you cannot resist the
feeling that Immortality is something
more than mere longing in dogmatic
shape, and that it is just as natural to
look forward as to look backward.
We may have little interest in the
Persian idea of heaven or in the con,
ception of the peasant of Babylon or
Nineyeh, or that of the scholar of
Egypt, or of the warrior crowd that
filed the streets of Athens or Rome,
but in the fact that everyone of these
people had some idea, and that civil
zation. SO far from crushing it out,
simply gave it a nobler form, is a
matter of very great consequence.
The Norwegian's Valhalla is moth
ing to US; the doings of the gods on
Olympus may not meet our approval;
the custom of the Chinese to light a
lantern when they make q feast in
honor Of the dead that the beggars
and lepers of the other world may
find their way to the banquet; the
habit of the Hottentot, who shuts the
door when his parent dies, makes a
hole through the side of the house
and removes the body in that way
because he is afraid of ghosts and
does not want the dead to come back
these peculiarities have no weight
with Us, except as they show the uni
versatility of belief in another life and
the irresistible conviction that death
does not destroy and can only remove.
The Christian religion is lacking
in detailed description of heaven.
The crude realism of other systems is
not found there. This is one of its
peculiarities. Christ was reticent on
this subject. He simply said He came
from heaven, and then added that
after the cruci6xion He should return.
He told his friends on one occasion
that He should prepare a place for
them that they and He might dwell
together, and on another occasion
he promised the theft who was suffer
ing death by His side that that very
day he should be with Him in Para
disc. He also rebuked Peter by
reminding him that if He needed help
after the shadows of Gethsemane He
had the power to call upon legions OF
angels who would come to his assis.
tance. Beyond these hints we have
almost nothing. We are not satisfied,
indeed, for We should be glad to know
more; but if we are sure of the fact
that there is q heaven. why need we
trouble ourselves as to where it is
situated-whether close to the earth,
or in the interstellar spacee, or in
some region unknown to astronomy
The world has always believed that
we shall not die, but simply lift the
veil and enter new territory. That
belief has been potent factor in the
conduct of all races; has made men
resigned under burdens, courageous
on the battle fields, equal to any sac
ri6ee. 1t has created and encouraged
the heroic element of human nature
and made the last day of earth the
best day of life, because the soul
opens a door on the other side of the
tomb and enters world where there
are no more tears. Is not that
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