The herald., 1897-05-10
SOME SERMONS
The Natural Law of the
Spiritual World
WHAT is ETERNAL LIFE :?
THE SAYINGS OF CHRIST AFTER
HIS RESURRECTION
WHAT IS ETERNAL LIFE?
DR.. Munhalls Revival Services at
Simpson Tabernacle Were
Largely Attended

At the First Presbyterian church yes
terday morning Rev. Burt Estes How
ard preached from the text found in
st. John xvii:2 and I. John v:90
First-"And this is the age-abiding life.
that they understand thee, the only real
God, and him whom thou didst send, Jesus
Christ
Second-"But we know that the Son of
God has arrived and has given us insight
that we may understand the Real one, and
we are in the Real One, in his son Jesus
Christ. This is the real God and life age
abiding"
DIR. Howard opened his sermon with
a brief summary of Professor Drum
monds argument on the gradual, but
none the less certain decay of the ply
sical universe. In Mr.. Drummond's
argument he agrees with the position
of Spencer that duration of life depends
on the ability of an organism to adapt
itself to its surroundings. Death is
simply the issue of the failure of liv-
ing thing to longer adjust itself to its
circumstances. 1t may be occasiored
either by some modification in the thing
itself or by some change in the environ
ment which the living creature finds
it impossible to meet; or, on the other
hand, some slow or sudden change may
take place in its Surroundings, which
will make these surroundings unfit to
longer sustain that kind of life, and the
organism finding itself unable to adapt
iteslf to the new state of affairs, dies.
AS a matter of simple logic, if there
is such thing as endless life, an in
definitely prolonged vital existence
there must be two conditions assured
an endless or unchanging environment.
and an organism capable of endless ad-
justment to it, That is in order to have
eternal life, for instance, you must
have a physical body eternally endow-
ed with the capacity to respond to that
eternal environment Failing to find
the foundation for doctrine of eternal
life in the domain of the physical scien-
oes, Prof. Drummond executes an adroit
flank movement introducing new de-
finiton of life, which he applies to the
phrase eternal life. He maintains that
the important feature of the Eternal
Life taught by Jesus is not mere dura-
ton, mere everlastingness, but that it
was a certain quality of being.
The definitions of eternal life given
by Spencer and given by Jesus, We're
compared by the speaker and shown to
be in harmony in that each shows there
must be perfect adaptation to environ
ment, which did the organism never
fail to meet, eternal existence and eter-
nal knowledge would follow. Drum
mond links the two statements of Spen-
Ger and Jesus together in that the
scientist predicates for his science a
principle of life, and Jesus says that
the root Of eternal life lies in know
ledge of God, the real and eternal One.
We must emphasize one sharp dis
tinction between mere immortality and
what Jesus insists on calling eter-
nal life. We assume the fact of immort-
ality, which does no violence to scien-
tific principles. AS science declares no
force in the universe is ever lost, then
the force resident in a man which we
call intellectual or spiritual, is not lost.
Further was argued that human life
was subject to endless unfoldings.
Granting to all men a species of i'm
mortality, and bearing in mind that to
Jesus immortality and eternal life were
two different things, we must of ne
cessity expect that there will be push
ing out from this general state of i'm
mortality into a still higher experience.
Jesus called this the resurrection which
to him was closely akin to eternal life,
simply further evolution' out of state
into which the dead were generally con-
ditioned. Life eternal is an understand
ing, literally a through thought. of
God and of Him whom God sent, Jesus
Christ.
To know God is to become conscious
of the divine. II is to realize God. Such
a. one has come into toucn with
the endless environment. The man
walks under the light of Gods face. We
must also know Christ, to see in him the
divine human, not as a theological
theory, but as a scientific fact. This is
the living linking of a mans soul with
the spirit of the eternal. 1t is the pas
sing over of a mans heart into the heart
Cf God.