The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-01-14
The Practical Value of I'm
mortality.
From the New York Herald !

The effect produced upon a mans
current life by firm belief in the
future is something to be wondered
at and admired.
If man had the Kohinoor in his
pocket, and was not afraid of being
robbed, it would add ga cubit to his
stature and fill his heart brimful OF
good nature.
And, on the other hand, when q
man has no faith in the future, not
positively denying it, but looking to
the sky with a very faint hope, be
may be successful in business and
envied of his neighbors; he may be
a right honest creature, living in the
sunshine wherever he can find it
but in his heart there dwells a ten
ant, grim and unwelcome, who holds
a life lease on his residence. He
may make the best of himself which
circumstance allows, but down in the
depths of that mans nature, covered
up by careless laugh or otherwise
concealed, is an intermittent desper-
alton which overshadows his whole
outlook. However rich he may be,
be is "poor indeed" There is kind
OF satisfaction which he can never
enjoy, a domain of peace and happi-
ness whose green grass his feet never
press, whose flowers he never looks
upon, whose crops are never gather
ed into his barns.
The religion which circles about
faith in the future life as the planets
circle about the sun is the most
practical thing in the world. It is a
heat giving idea as necerrary for the
fructifying process as sunshine is to
a wheat field. AS we'll hope for
orange blossoms in a damp cave
where ice water oozes through the
rock and eternal night prevails as to
make soul happy and contented or
in its highest sense productive with
out the radiance which comes from a
belief in Immortality.
Give a man one glimpse of the
Celestial City, let him hear the voices
of angels, and know that they are
angels, and you work a miracle in
that mans whole being As the
clouds at sunset are fairly drenched
in beautiful colors-colors so en-
trancing that the human race ceases
from its labors to gaze upon the
spectacle-so the clouds of sorrow
which overhang our spiritual land
scape are rainbow hued to him who
can see the face of the Father and
feel the touch of his hand. After
such an experience, literally a new
birth, the inevitable tomorrow ceases
to be dreaded, and we gladly con-
template the slowly loosening bonds
of Immortality, because death is free
dom, the Lords messenger to sum.
mon us to a higher, a broader, a
nobler stage of existence.
1t is the greatest of ali pities that
this kind of faith so narrowly pre-
walls. We pretend to be Christians,
but the grandest doctrine of our
Christianity is either rejected or in-
operative We hope, but we also
fear. There are moments when we
feel sure, and at such times we are
inexpressibly happy; there are other
moments when we doubt, and we are
unspeakably miserable.
How can a man fail to see that a
belief in Immortality is prime spir-
itual necessity A denial of it
thwarts every heroic endeavor and
corrupts the motives which urge US
toward higher life. II we are to
die like the beasts of the field, then
why should we not live like them
If we are so made that we can's help
longing for a continued existence,
but are not to enjoy it, we are like