Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-06-09
Long Distant Telephone.

ing. Think of life in all of it's phases; ponder over 1t for centuries, and still we find q secret, a mystery, that man cannot solve. Dc away with time,-eompress into one brief second all the three score years and ten allotted to man and the mystery would be no greater than 1t now is. Our lives are like light ming that flashes athwart the sky at midnight, bursting through the dark cloud it rushes furiously across the heavens and IL Is gone. Just so with life, we come from the ,in- known, hurry mndly across the earth, and pass out into the un- known. l say pass to the unknown, yes, if we deny that man is an i'm mortal being, for immortality alone can solve the problem. and to be- Iieve it, is the only thought that gives peace to the soul.
 Listen to the unsatisfied cry of na- l tions that are groping about in | darkness; that are today without revelation. and learn that the low est heathen believes that the soul will live forever.
 l Catch the sound that comes thun- dering down through the ages, in tones that are grand, majestic, and sublime, as those great and learned heathen philosophers loudly pro- claim the immortality of the soul. Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and num- Der of other Greek and Roman phi- losophers taught this truth, and I ask. how could they be assured of this fact? But let us go step fur ther. We will begin as fnr back as history teaches, start in Egypt, and with our minds eye, sweep the globe. until all nations have been visited and their teachings and be- liefs made manifest; even down to savage Indian, free as he Is from sentiment and poetry, and yet we 1 find among all peoples q belief in the immortality of the soul. Do you not see that this belief is instinctive; that it is intuitive?
 But no amount of argument can solve this problem of the souls i'm mortality; all of our reasoning can throw butlittle light upon the sub ject, and the future would be dark and foreboding indeed were it not for the light which shines down from Heaven accompanied by that majestic voice which breaks the si- Dence and dispels ali gloom, when he "who is the resurrection and the life," proclaims. with thrilling ac- cent, 1T give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.' Yes, stand before the tomb of Lazarus, rest yourself upon the stone rolled back from the sepnlehre of Christ, and there catch the glad strains Q
 music; there hear the song that .las melted the hearts of countless thou sands; fred the souls of the wOrld' s greatest leaders; has made nations sing and dance with joy, and now, yes. and forever, rest assured that "Man's Destiny and Immortality have been established beyond all questi of doubt
 Let ns hold to this sublime idea, and with it locked securely i'll our l hearts, go forth to meet lfe's but ties like heroes.
 Let us endeavor to work from life's pathway all the thorns and briers, so that those who shall fol- low us may not find the path SC difficult, and may find even in tht hardest pavement. footprints point ing onward, upward. Then in thal last day when all nations shall b, gathered around that great whit, throne: when their tongues ant songs shall be blended, England singing God save the Queen;'
 France, La Marsellaise;,' Scotland "Bonnie Doon;" America, ssHai Columbia "-all shall burst forth fl
 one grand chorus that shall rin, throughout the courts of Heaven "Halleluiahl praise the LOrdi Then blessed yes. thrice blessed, he who has learned, fought, cor , quered, and gained life's great r, ward Mans Destiny and lmmol :, tallty;;" when he. Lord of all, sha ) crown our brows with immortellel a when he shall bless us with man
 final reward, ,-God's eternal 10,
 linked forever with mans immorta