Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1900-08-29

| VI Hieu hEo Ihlnt ana I6W. Inc wicked
prosper, the good suffer. The. prob
lens of sin, pain and evil are insoluble
Visiting the sins of the fathers upon
the children to the third and fourth
generations, making the innocent suf.
Ter for the offenses Of the guilty, is an
unjust and cruel law that ought to be
repealed. Civilization has long since
rejected the principle from human
Jurisprudence. Even treason. the high.
est crime known to its code, no longer
worksl. corruption of blood or forfeit.
ure of estate.
Unless man is immortal, the moral
universe, SO far as he is concerned, dis
appears altogether. II he does not sur.
vive the grave, 1t makes no difference
to him whether there be q God or devil,
or heaven or hell. And it must not be
only survival, but with q continuity
OF consciousness as well, If the evil are
to be punished and the good rewarded
hereafter. To inflict the penalty of
violated law upon 9 being who does
not know that he has offended is not
punishment, but revenge. Conscious
identity may not be necessary condi.
tlon of intelligence, but it is essential
IN morals. 1t is conceivable that q
being may know without knowing
what he knows, but he cannot sin with.
out knowing that he sins, nor be pun.
ished unless he knows tor what wrongs
he suffers.
Frederick w. Robertson, the eminent
English divine, closes one of his dis.
courses by saying: SEARCH through
tradition, history, the world within you
and the world without-sxcept in
Christ, there is not the shadow of a
shade of proof that man survives the
grave"
Many years ago 1 heard distin-
guished American orator deliver lee.
ture upon the evidences of immortality
outside Of the Bible. In the stress and
pressure Of the closing days of short
session of congress he held the rapt
and breathless attention of an immense
audience, comprising all that was most
cultured, brilliant and renowned in the
social and official life of the capital.
He dwelt with remarkable effective.
ness and power upon the fact that no.
where in nature, from the highest to
the lowest, was an instinct, an impulse,
q desire implanted, but that ultimately
were found the conditions and the op-
portunities for its fullest realization.
He instanced the wild fowl, that,
moved BY some mysterious impulse,
start on their prodigious migrations
from the frozen fens of the pole and
reach at last the shining south and the
summer seas; the fish that from tropic
gulf seek their spawning grounds in
the SEA, bright rivers Of the north; TIE
bees that find in the garnsture of fields
and forests the treasure with which
they store their cells, and even the
wolf, the lion and the tiger, that are
provided with their prey.
Turning to humanity, he alluded to
the brevity of life, its incompleteness,
Its aimless, random and fragmentary
careers; its tragedies, its injustice, it's
sorrows and separations. Then he re-
ferred to the Unsuitable hunger for
knowledge, the efforts of the uncon-
querable mind to penetrate the mys.
teries of the future; Its capacity to
comprehend infinity and eternity; its
desire for the compsnionship Of the de-
parted; its unquenchsble aspirations
for Immortality, and he asked, "Why
should God keep faith with the beast,
the bee, the fish and the fowl, and
cheat MANI"