The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-04-17
|h1ossphicl SotlstJ Column.
REINCARNATION.

REMUNERATION.
Each shalt receive tho reward accord
ing to his own labor"
Il it 10 thaught that 1t is unjust that
we should be punished and rewarded
Tor forgotten acts, how much to
be punished with pain and sorrow
never caused at all? II punishment for
our own past acts Is unjust, how much
more for acts committed by our ances-
tors? Al Addison said "A man has
not time to subdue his passions,
establish his soul IN virtue, and come
up to the PERFECTION Of his nature, before
he il hurried off the stage" But
according to theology, a child born a
victim OF caprice, to an unavoidable
life OF degradation, temptation, and
suffering, as birth to vicious or ever
ignorant parents presupposes, may be
cut off without remedy" by a Being OF
Infinite compassion and mercy. And
haye the millions of SO called heather"
no mercy and hope? Let the humane
sentiment OF Whittier stand in contrast:
Nothing can be good in him
Which evil is in u.s."
No one will charge the Rev. DIR. Hawies
OF the church of England, with being
~heterodox, who in the Contemporary
Review ~arraigns the clergy in these
words: "The man in.the pew thinks he has
a right to demonstrate with the man in
the pulpit who denounces him as an
unbeliever. Now you don't actually
believe that alter this life. without
further explanation, the population of
the world will be divided into two parts
and that one half will GO straight to
heaven and be happy forever, and the
other half will be sent straight to hell,
to be tortured forever! You do not
believe that yourself because you are
not such a fool: then why do you expect
me to sit IN church and listen to you
patiently while you preach it"?
Law II just. it weighs the smallestpart
OF a scruple. Every man shall bear
his own burden"
ANoSu10 "OAk I'D w III lCdSCS uS W
think, throws us into apparent cruelty
Of misery, that ws may be stung into
thinking; to work out our own saliva
ton, and then when We are led or
driven into ways OF thought, she will
lead US to plains higher. Thought is
tho builder OF character. Thoughts are
forms OF energy and like everything else,
cannot be annihilated. Thoughts de-
tsrmine our future life and lives. In a
scene in Lessing's Faust, the tiends
were holding carnival and relating their
achievements, when one most malignant
declares. Il have done nothing, I only
conceived q thought more devillsh than
the deeds OF the rest ," The laws of
nature arc the thoughts OF God.
Increase in population is sometimes
urged ~ n objection to re~incarnation,
but there IL no evidence that the popu-
lation OF the earth is increasing. We do
not realize thu decrease in parts OF it by
pestilsnce, foods, etc. the decay OF races
and nations, az their egos pass into
more advanced races. The fact is
stamped on evsrv page OF history, that
when q race no longer furnishes condi-
tons for progression, or rather when
the egos hs We gained all the experience
possible in q race they pass on to a
more advanced one and tho old race
becomes extinct: the same applies to
nations, tribes, families and p~ersonali-
ties,
Like leaves on trees the race OF man is found,
ground,
Another race,the following spring;supplies-
They fall successive and successive rise.
30 generations in their course decay,
So flourish these when those have passed away
-[HoMER.
Those who ask regarding gex, should
remember that nature does not consult
our likes and disllkes; that the soul itself
is ~sexless and uses just such a body as
it needs for the building up of a perfect
humanity, in which both positive and
negative, active and passive, will find
equilibrium. Reincarnation explains the
temperance OF types of civilization. Of
thought. OF costumes and games at
intervals OF 1900 years. Compare the
aggressive Roman OF the Augustan per-
iod with the Elizabethan of England;
compare the Bird and 4th centuries with
the Is and - and then perhaps it will
be seen that the Law OF Cycles and