The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-09
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
EXISTING, BUT DEAD, AND THE PRO-
CESS OF RESURRECTION.
BY Rev. w. l.. Birch, ID. d., PHI. D., Pas
tor Peoples Church, metropolitan
Temple, San Francisco, Cal.

Arise from the dead and Christ shall give
thee light. cor. revised version, 'shi.e
upon thee ')-Ephesians V, IA.
The practical bearing of the teaching of
Jesus is to a great extent a dead letter in
the daily life of christendom. To possess
the gracious disposition He preached and
personally exemplifed is by many regarded
as impossible to mortals. The gospels,
however, teach that the Christ nature is
within the reach of every one, and that
unless we cultivate it until it becomes our
second nature we shall be unfit for an
gelic service in the other world.
Two basal truths were proclaimed by our
Lord: existence in death and resurrection
into life.
1. When God evolved human creatures
from instructive law into the glory of rea-
son and the divine freedom of will, man
chose to guide himself by natural percep-
ions and senses, as if this world were the
only one or the most important. Obedience
to righteous light in the control of ones
self and the spirit of self-sacrifice when
dealing with others are conditions of the
higher evolution now working in the race.
This nature of self-purity and "other love-
is the principle which rules the angelic or
supernatural world, and the only condition
which deserves the name of true life. The
absence of this condition is described by
our Lord as death" and by the apostle
Paul as being dead while one liveth.''
What is human life? Permeating the uni
verse is the invisible ether or energy, which
in union with material substances is the
cause of life. One of its manifestations is
the living moss on a stone, others the
grass, the flower, the plant, the tree.
Other workings of this ethereal energy are
the snail, the fish, the bird, the insect, the
crocodile, the lion, the elephant, the dog,
the horse, the ape. the man. These are
results of invisible omnipresent force in
conjunction with matter.
But is a man only a more intelligent ma
chine than a dog or an ape? Is his death
of no more moment than that of the INTEL
ligent horse or the useful COW? In the idea
that man is only the product of combined
ethereal energy and visible matter, some
new men" and new women are boldly
advocating drastic measures in declaring,
with their acknowledgment machines, that
they would destroy deformed and diseased
children at birth, prevent diseased, crimi-
nal or pauper persons marrying, and would
teach that personal existence ends with
bodily death.
but Is tnefe not IN every human DelnS a
something more divine than energy and
dust? Is there no other God than ethereal
energy? Is there not a supreme intelligence
who. in harmony with unchanging condi-
tions, is omnipotent in both energy and
matter? If so, to exist as if there were
no God is living in a state of death; true
life is as imperative in such persons as in
those under the gravestones. They exist.
but are dead to their divinity and their God.
To be the slave of passioned appetites.
to be swayed by wrongness, to cheat or
otherwise injure man, woman or child; to
be frozen in self-love, which makes us care
less Of others sufferings; TO be influenced
by hatred, which makes it second nature
TO be workers of i~niquity-these are evil
dences which Christ gives as the fruits of
death incarnate. and His declaration is con-
hrmed by common sense. AS the smoke
from a chimney is dead to the beauty of
the landscape. so such workers of iniquity
are dead to the God-inspiration which glo-
rifles existence with the eternal joy.
.. Now. as to resurrection into life from
out this dead existence.
The idea that we must depart from this
world before We can be free from doing
evil Is not seriptural. II pray aot that
Thou shouldst take them from the world.