The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1900-05-05
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
By John J. ingalls,.

BY John ]. ingalls,.
"A universe without God IS
an intellectual absurdity which
reason reiectsspontaneously. God
is indispensable. Fate force, and
blind chance do not satisfy the
mind"
When Voltaire said if there
we're no God itwould be necessary
for man to invent one he tormu-
lated, unconsciously perhaps, the
Fundamental truth of existence.
A universe without God Is an
intellectual absurdity which rea-
son rejects spontaneously. God
is indispensable. Fate, force and
blind chance do not satisfy, the
mind. If all the letters IN the
play of "Hamlet were shaken In
a dice box and trown at midnight
in tempest on the Desert of Sa-
hara they might fall exactly as
they are arranged in the drama.
1t may be admitted that if destiny
kept on casting long enough they
would inevitably at some time SO
fall, which would render the Bard
of Avon superfuous and unneces-
sarv. But this does not disturb
our belief in Shakespeare.
Irrespective of creeds and theo-
logy, they are wise who would re-
God in the Constitution,
because faith in a Supreme Being
in Immortality and the compensa-
tions of eternity conduces power
fully to social order by enabling
men to endure with composure
the injustice of this world IN the
hope of reparation in that which
is to come.
! Inasmuch as both force and
matter are infinite and indestructl-
ble.and can neither be added to nor
suttracted from,i it follows that IN
some form we have always existed,
and that we shall continue to exist
forever. Whence we came into
this life no one knows nor cares.
Evolution, metempsychosls, REIN
carnation are not beliefs. They
are parts of speech interesting
only to the compiler of lexlcons.
: Our appearance here is not vo-
funtary. We are sent to this
planet on some mysterious errand
without being consulted in adj
vance. Many of us would not
have come had the opportunity
to decline, with thanks, been pre-
sented.
To multitudes life is an incon-
celvable insult and injury, an In
tolerable affront, torture and
wretchedness indescribable from
poverty, disease. grief, fortune S
slings and arrows; wrongs delIbe-
rately inflicted by some unknown
malignant'powe as Job was tor
mented by the devil, with the
consent of God, just to try him,
till at last the troubled patriarch
cursed the day he was born.
Worst of all. we are sent here
under sentence OF death. The
most grievous and humlllatlng
punishment man can in1ict upon
the criminal is death.
Human tribunals give the male
factor chance. His crime must
be proved. He can appear by at
torney and plead and take appeal.
But we are all condemned to
death beforehand. The accusa-
ton and the accuser are unknown.
An inexorable verdict has been
pronounced and recorded in the
secret councils of the skies. We
are neither confronted with the
witness nor allowed a day in court.
From the hour of birth we are be-
set by invulnerable and invisible
enemies, the pestilence that
walketh in darkness and the des-
truction that wasteth at MONDAY.
Fatal germs, immortal bacili, hea-
ven sent microbes inhabit the air
we breathe, the food we eat, the
water we drink, poisoning where
they fly and injecting where they
repOse.
Science continually discloses
malevolent agencies, hitherto un-
detected, which vainIy try to eX-
tirpate or to build frail and feeble
barriers against their depreda-
tiOns.
Theology complacently announ-
ces that for the majority of the
human race this tough world is the
prelude to an eternity in hell. Ii
any trembling sinner desires com
folt and consolation in these
awful miseries let him read the
sermon of Jonathan Edwards
from the text "Their feet shall
slide in due time"
He'll would be preferable to an
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