The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-03

uel Presbyterian church yesterday
preached an appropriate sermon. His
subject was IF a Man Dies Shall He
Live Again."
The question asked by Job one of
| the deep thinkers of the Bible, has been
colossal enigma from time imme-
mortal. To be or not to be, that is the
| question Does the soul die with the
| body? Is it all of life to live? Or shall
| we say with Tennyson, the sweet singer
| OF the Anglo-Saxon race:
| J hope to see my pilot face to face
| When have crossed the bar
| Hope bids us not to despair. The
| Divine One stands at the helm and it is
| the duty of each man to marshal his ar
suments, to set in order the reasons
| for his faith, and to so forth not de-
| pressed by the gloom of an infidel
philosophy, with its heavy draperies of
| darkness, but rather look forward to
the hour of death, believing that dying
is transformation, is home going. In
| my Fathers house are many mansions;
| if it were not 50 I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you There
are foregleams of Immortality in the
| heart of every man. Centuries ago Soc
rates affirmed the Immortality of the
soul, for which belief he suffered the
cup of martyrdom. Thurlow Weed said:
I cannot believe. and cannot be brought
| to believe that the purpose of our crea-
| ton is fulfilled by our short existence
here. To me the existence of another
| world is a necessary supplement of this,
| to adjust its inequalities and Undue it
| with moral significance The proof of
| Immortality is found not alone in the
gospel, but in the writings of the sages
of all times. Cicero said: There is, 1
| know not how, in the minds of men a
| a
existence, and this takes the deepest
root and is most dscoverable in the
greatest geniuses and most exalted
souls To anticipate a higher exist
ence is not a delusion. 1t is inwrought
in our nature. 1t is the instinct of the
soul, and instinct never deceives. As
to each birds wing is given the power of
flight, so to the man of faith is given
| the ability to mount as with wings of
eagles toward the heavenly heights, on
and on, to the land whose cline is glor!-
Gus summer and eternal sunlight. That
Grafton of Ingersoll, beginning Life is a
narrow vale between the cold and bar
rem peaks of two eternities; we cry
aloud, the only answer is the echo of
our wailng cry is not based on the
deep yearnings Of the heart, whence is
found the truest philosophy of life. 1t
is based upon the argument, we do not
know because we have never been the1
ourselves and no traveller has ever re-
turned to give us information. 1nger-
soil is eloquent but not sublime. He
represents the doubt of the age and not
it's faith and progress. l would rather
listen to Daniel Webster, the greatest
intellect the Saxon race has produced
He says: My general wish on earth
has been to do my Masters Will. That
there is a God all must acknowledge. !
see Him in all this wondrous work
Himself how wondrous! What Wou' d
be the condition of any of us if We had
not the hope of immortality? What
ground is there to rest upon but the
gospel | would rather listen to Elmer
son and Lowell and Browning ano
Longfellow and to the immortal Chan
ming. I believe in God and herein do
find the strongest argument why
should believe in myself as creature
destined for eternity. And as George
Mcdonald has said: I came from God
and am going back to God and I Won
have any gaps of death in the middle
of my life The great treasure in every
soul is it's immortal prospect. The
great God that made the world, tina
made heaven, that made men, intended
that men should be the inhabitant!
thereof. In heaven I expect to heal
majestic philosophy touch the thought:
of God, I expect to hear Plato and Ba
con and Newton and LaPlace anc
Homer and Dante and Milton and Bee
thoven and Mozart and study und j
them the beautiful arts and the swee
chords of enhancing melodies of music
] expect to see the prophets of God ant
the apostles of noble evangel and com
i, mune with them through ever brighten
ing ages, until shall stand where Ga
briel now stands, while he shall have
gone on nearer and nearer to God. II
, the Christian religion death is not ca
lamity, it is not an awful sleep, it il
not the moaning of a sad end; it il
great natures holy Office to initiate thu
= soul on it's sublime career from knoWl
edge to knowledge. from glory to glor.
through worlds unnumbered.
THUS we say with Socrates: Their
can no evil befall a good man, whethe
he is alive or dead and, with Job,
know that my Redeemer liveth;' and
with Jesus of Nazareth: 'Whosoeve
| beleveth in Me shall never die.
The big Auditorium was crowded las
: night Seats were ranged in the aisles
and still people were unable to ge
| seats after o'clock, and several wen
r away. The gallery was crowded, an
. while it speaks well for very youn
5 boys to attend church, it is pity som
: of them do not know how to behav
during services. Some of the boy
l seemed to think that they were in tn
'nigger heaven of cheap variet,