Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-03-03

The Rev. Father Paquin refreshed
the minds Of his audience Sunday, in
the Elm Grove Catholic Church,
through a short voyage on the ocean of
immortality, sailing on the winds Of a
vigorous augmentation. He said:
God always was, and He will always
be. He is eternal We, men. had be-
ginning, but we viii have no end; We
are immortal We die, but death is
only a transition from an initial state
10 a permanent condition of existence.
When death draws the curtain before
the drama of cur earthly life, it opens
the gate of a life everlasting. When
death turns our body back 10 The earth
whence it came. il sets our soul ac lib
eIJy TO soar into the world OF spirits, 10
which it belongs.
Our soul Is spirit, that very spirit
which thinks in us. and concieves
thoughts, and compares ideas. and
forms judgments. and draws c0nclU-
sious. Matter cannot think. because
the act of thinking is not the work of
a physical force, of a chemical action,
OF q movement of molecules. of a dis
placement Ot atoms. Il is produced
outside all material changes. Matter
can display forces. bur cannot give
birth 10 single thought. Matter can
exhibit the phenomenon of cohesion.
the phenomenon of affinity. and the
phenomenon of attraction. Matter can
put rocks asunder. SET engines in mo-
ton, pull heavy cars on ,he rails. ard
force huge steamers ahead through the
waves. Matter can throw RAYS of light
10 the space, transmit the sound of our
voice, and carry our thoughts along the
wire. But never can matter conceive
that two and Two are four There is.
ID tween the molecules and atoms of
matter, and an Intellectual operation.
an abyss which would battle the COM
bined efforts of AN the powers Of the
visible world. We say of a man of
nigh Intellectual power that he is q
man of brain. This is q ,aphoric2l
expression atrributing TO the inscru-
ment the operation OF the agent.
'lt is not the soft tissue of The brain
that thinks i'm man. no, more than it is
his finger or his toe. It is the thinking
principle which informs the brain. and
the hands, and the feey. and all the
other parts of the human body. that
thinks through the brain. as il sees
through the eyes and hears through he
ears. The lobes and lobules which
form the cOnvOlUtionS of the brainy sub
stance are. 10y themselves and i'm so far
as thew are matter. as thoroughly in
capable of thinking as is a log. or a bar
of iron. or stone Matter is matter.
and In regard 10 an Intellectual act. il
matters not whether it be hard or soft.
round or square, cOnvou.ed or fbrous.
II man is hot dead. his brain remains
In IFS full Integrity for a little while.
until stiffness and dec0mp0sitiOn begin
To- set in, and Vet no thought can en-
tighten the interior Of that brain. be-
c7ps. -he thinking substance is gone.
POINTS OF DIFFERENCE.
Matter can display n vegetative ac-
ivfty in the growing tree. and give ami
NAL power TO a moving beast: but never
viii 10 climb mp 70 The intellectual or
DER The brute animal moves i'm blind
obedience 10 its natural instinct. as the
tree grows In subsection to 'the course
of its sap. and as the stone holds its
component parts together by the coha-
sive force of its molecules. But as the
force of cohesion is q fixed law. and as
The vege.ative energy is q fixed law. so
als3 lis the animal instinct a fixed law.
Progress. the result o. Judgment and
free viii, is moi within the range of ami
NAL activity The bird builds IFS nest