The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-19
ELOQUENT EASTER WORDS
"IM1fORTALITY'' THE THEME OF
 TRINITY M. E.'S EEW PASTOR,


 Gilbert-Immortality, What it is and
 What it is Not-Reasone for Believing in
 Immortality-WhatS Science Has to Say
 Evening Sermon.
 A large audience, which filled every seat in the church, welcomed the Rev. Dr. Levi Gilbert yesterday morning to his work In the Trinity M. D. church. The church altar was appropriately decorated with palms and cut flowers for Easter, and the church quartet ren- dered music appropriate for the day.
 Immortality" was the thought to which Rev. Dr. Gilbert called his con- gregation's attention, and the sermon preached was a powerful, eloquent and inspiring presentation of the arguments for immortality from Christian and also from scientific standpoint. Ills text was taken from Job 14:14. 'If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will wait till my change come" Dr. Gilbert said, in part:
 There are those to-day who tell us that life is involved in an inexplicable mystery, with no beginning, no end to- ward which the whole creation moves. It is strife without consummation. All we can look forward to is state of equilibrium.
 "The world returns at last to the sun, and at last the blackness of death shuts down upon the universe. It is, they say, dark path, and where it leads we do not know.
 But there are those who see in life an avenue leading out into the light. and we as Christians have a right to turn away from these pessinlists to those who believe that life is good and that 1t has a future.
 "The voice of disbelief is indeed heard ever and anon in this world of ours. The voice of unbelief has been heard again to say that we stand face to face with the mystery of life, and that the secret of life has never been told. What is the kind of immortality that we as Christians desire and look forward to? It is individual immortal- ity-not the immortality of the race uCt tllS llllIllOA LdAly WAiACll lAnsfASS Al0tiI at last to sink into the infinite. What we want is not an immortality of the influence which we may have here on earth, but also an immortality of con- sciousness.
 There is not much comfort in the thought of the immortality of the race when 1t means but little better ma- terial increase, and then at last sdeath comes upon all mankind. sss
 What is the kind of proof that we as Christians are looking for? There are those who say, Give us proof of immortality and we will believe it., and they demand the demonstrative proof of science the same as they would i'm Euclid.
 We, on the other hand, walk by faith. We cannot demonstrate immor- tality and God. It is like asking us to demonstrate truth and life. These are things which stand approved In the hu- man mind.
 Tt is the atheist and egoist who de- mands proof of immortality and the in- finite. Our Saviour taught explicitly the doctrine of immortality. He said.
 Tn my Fathers house are many man. sions;' and He not only taught immor- l tality but He lived in the atmosphera of the other world. He based His life upon immortality as the most reasona- ble and natural of things. If we believe in Jesus Christ as our Master and Teacher, then we must say ] that His teaching upon the question of | immortality is true. If He says death does not end life, we must take His word for 1t. Since Christ in the form of man rose from the dead. then it Is 1 possible for all of us to rise from the dead.
 "The kind of immortality that Jesus ] taught was not a sort of vegetative OF stupid existence. No; he taught of life.
 He came to give us more life. He
 meant the eternal life, the ideal life of
 which this life is but the shadow He meant, moreover, the spiritual life, and this is the life that lies at the bottom of all immortality.
 Does the voice of science have any, | thing to say to us relative to this ims
 mortality? There are those who say | not; scientists, those who creep end botapize on their own mothers graves. ! They are the specialists, but the great
 men of science have been men of great faith in immortality. I have seen phy- sicians who said that with their scalpeE they have cut and dissected every mus- | cle, tension and tissue of the human body and found naught there but what
 ought to be there. as though they ex- pected to uncover the soul with a scal- pei.
 "The bulb of the lily is hard and | tough, but when the life within it | breaks the hard outer shell then the plant grows and blossoms in all it's beauty. So 1t is with this life which but opens up into immortality. When We see the provision which
 has been made for man through all the ages, shall we say that he is here just for day? Just for 9, play spell? Oh, no; it was fitting up ilere for the great bye and bye.
 'It seems to me that the great word evolution should not be left alone to the atheist and agnostic, but that the Christian has claim to it most of all. It is Gods great method of progress from the lower to the higher, and we l see 1t in all the life about us. l What a glorious vista there looms i out for us into the future, as we get
 nearer and nearer to the existence of