The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-20
Or. SAVAGE Progressive
He Believes in Bodies in Future
Life.
CLAIMED BY SPIRlTUALlSTS
Souls of the Departed occupy Space. Hut
We Cannot See Them-TheoIy Of
Or. Collyer's Assistant Re-
garding Spirit Land.

New York. April ia Boston dis
| patch to the Sun gives the following
regarding a clergyman who has pecu-
liar theories regarding the hereafter:
The Rev. Minot j. Savage, who next
fall will begin his services as assistant
to the Rev. DR.. Collyer in New York
city, gave utterance to some remark
| ably bread ideas in his Easter sermon.
One OF these was that souls after death
| occupy space as really as do bodies In
the present life. He furthermore said
that ne believed the souls Of those we
call dead possess bodies not as real
! as these, but unspeakably Aapre real"
During She period that MIR. Savage
has been pastor at the Church of the
Unity he apparently has eXemplified a
statement which he made during the
past winter. The occasion of the ut
terance referred to was when he
preached the sermon at the installation
of Mrs. Helen Van Anderson at the
Church Of the Higher Life, on st. Bot
olph street. He was speaking of creeds
and what he said was this:
Il do not promise not to have an ad-
ditional clause to my creed tomorrow;
II during the day my knowledge has
been added to, ! see no reason for not
Mr.. Savage has no more than one
occasion given utterance to Ideas that
have placed him among the leaders of
advanced thinkers and liberal teachers
Some Of these utterances have been of
such a nature as to cause SpiritualiSts
to claim him as a believer in their
philosophy. If not an advocate of 1t.
Mr.. Savage will have but about six
more discourses as the regular pastor
of the Boston church. Whether he
wished to give utterance to his views
on the after life in no uncertain sound
in his Easter sermon, he of course,
knows best. He did, at all events, ex-
press himself in terms that We're un-
mistakable. The subject was Belief
in Immortality Since Christ" Begin
| ming with the resurrection, he took up
| the subsequent periods, touching upon
the Reformation, and 80 on to the pres
ent period. AS a close to his remarks
he expressed himself in these words,
as reprinted from the Unity Pulpit
II will only outline a few simple
| ideas. for which | alone am responsible.
such as appeal to me as being rational
| and in accord with all the best science
| we know.
II do not believe that death came
into the world as the result of any in
vasior of evil from outside. I do not
| believe that death Is the result of hu-
man sin. l do not believe that it is any
| token of Gods anger. I do not believe
| 1t Is an afterthought, something that
God did not originally intend. I be-
| lieve rather that 1t Is part Of the di-
vine, the universal order, that it is as
natural as being born and that it is as
much an indication of the love Of God
as is being born.
Death Is simply natural phase of
life.-For though I cannot stop to give
| my reasons, believe there are reasons.
adequate reasons. for believing that
what we call death is not the end of
individual existence. believe we pass
through it and out and up and on. What
are We? Where do we go? We do not
GO into any underworld. We do not
ascend into any heaven just above the
dome of blue; for we know that this
dome Of blue Is only an optical illusion.
1t was once believed to be a solid dome
which might be fitting foundation for
a celestial court.
do we go out as disembodied
thoughts? That I cannot believe. a
disembOdied thought is something to
me utterly inconceivable.
II believe that those who have passed
through the experience called death
live in space and occupy space as much
as 40. Are tney tnen material! les,
in one sense they are.
Il believe that the souls of those that
we call dead are not unclothed, but, in
| the language of which Paul used, are
clothed upon
Il believe that they possess bodies
not as real as these, but unspeakably
more real thrilling with an intensity
of life of which at present we are per-
haps utterly unable to conceive. Is
there anything unscientific about it?
No. There is no scientific knowledge
able to discredit belief like this. 1t Is
perfectly rational.
I'VE know perfectly well that the
greatest. the mightiest forces of what
we call the material universe are both
invisible and intangible. We know that
1t Is the very smallest. tiniest part of
the real world that we can see with our
present eyes. We know that it is only
the smallest -tinisst part Of infinite
vibrations of the universe that produce
in us the sense of hearing. If we had
ears more acute, even Mr.. Huxley tells
us. the silence of the opening flowers
in the garden would seem to us as loud
as a thunder storm. 1t is not that there
are llo vibrations. only that our ears
are not adapted to take them up.
80 of the vibrations which produce
the sense of sight, there Is an infinity
of them throughout the universe only
our eyes at present are not adapted to
being affected by them. That is all.
We are too commonly the fools of our
eyes and ears.
I'VE assume that we can see and hear
and feel everything that really is: while
every poorest scientific man on earth
will tell you that there may be an intin
ity of life in every direction with which
nIlr prpsrnt senses do not hiring int "A
any conscious contract.
II believe, then, as the result of our
thinking and, our feeling and our low
ing and our hating that what may be
called u psychical body is being built
up in us. organized day by day. In the
process of death We are released from
this outward shell very much as the
butterfly Is released from its chrysalis
There has been going on through the
whole length of life of the cocoon the
organization of another, and to us in
visible, form within. BY and by it
breaks open. and the life comes forth
and enters upon another stage of its
career. 1t Is transformed. lifted. goes
on to something finer and higher.
use this only as crude illustration.
II believe something akin to this Is
going on within us, and that death
meant the breaking open of the chrysa
lis and the escaping out into this larger
life, and that we enter OH that life
and here Is the tremendous moral power
of belief like this-just the kind OF
men and women that we have made
ourselves by our thoughts, our emo.
tions. our actions here, only that there
as here, Is infinite opportunity through
suffering, II need be, through whatever
experience is necessary. for study. foi
growth, for ascent toward the highest.
; Steamship Arrivals.
New York, April 19.-Arrived: La Gas
D cogne. from Havre. Arrived out: l.,