The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-04-18
N UFE AFTER DEATH
John J. ingalls, Declares Him
self a Believer.
NO PROOF WORTH Will {
But Belief Less Irration al
Than UnbeIief
NO PROOF WORTH WHILE

! tence
A uniyersae without God is an intel
lectuA absurdity which reason rejects
spontaneously. God is indispensable.
Fate, force and blind chance do not sat-
isfy the mind. If all the letters in the
play of Hamlet were shaken in a dice
| box and thrown at midnight in a tenn
pest on the Desert Of Sahara they might
taH exactly as they are arranged in the
| drama 1t may be admitted that if des-
tiny kept on casting long enough they
| you'd inevitably at some time so fall,
which would render the Bard of Avon
superfiuous and unnecessary. But this
does not disturb our belief in Shakes
| peare.
Irrespective of creeds andtheology,
they are wise who would recognize God
In the constitution, because faith in a
Supreme Being, in Immortality and the
compensations Of eternity conduces pow
| erfully TO social order by enabling man
to endure with comDosure the Injustice
Of this world in the hope of reparation
In that which is to come.
lnasmuch as both force and matter are
infinite and indestructible. and can be
neither added to nor substracted from,
it follows that in some form we have
always existed, and that we shall cen
tinue in some form to exist forever.
Whence we came into this life no one
knows nor cares. Evolution, metem-
psychosis, reincarnation are not beliefs.
They are parts of speech, interesting
only to the compiler of lexicons.
Our appearance here is not voluntary.
We are sent to this planet one some
mysterious errand without being con-
suited in advance. Many of US would
not have come had the opportunity to
decline, with thanks, been presented.
To multitudes life is an inconceivabIe
insult and injury, an intolerable affront,
torture and wretchedness indescribable
from poverty, disease grief, fortunes
sings and arrows; wrongs deliberately
inflicted by some unknown malignant
power, as Job was tormented by the
devil, with the consent of God, Just to
try him, till at last the troubled patri-
arch cursed the day he was born.
Worst Of all, we are sent here under
sentence of death. The most grievous
and humiliating punishment man can IN
t1ict upon the criminal is death
Human tribunals give the malefactor
chance. His crime must be proved.
He can put in his defense. He can ap-
pear by attorney and plead and take ap-
peal. But we are all condemned to death
beforehand. The accusation and the ac-
cuser are unknown. An memorable YER
dict has been pronounced and record ID in
the secret councils of the skies. We are
neither confronted with the witness ror
allowed a day in court From fhe hour
of birth we are beset by invulnerable
and invisible enemies, the pestileuce that
walketh in darkness and the destruction
that wasteth in darkness and tie Ge-
struction that wasteth at MONDAY. Fatal
germs. immortal bacilli. heaven-sent
microbes inhabit the air we breathe, The
food we eat, the water we drink, poison
ing where they fly and infaosiag where
they repose.
Science continually discloses malevo-
lent agencies, hitherto undetasrs1, which
vainly try to extripate or to build frail
and feeble barriers against theis DEERE
dations.
Theology Complacently announces that
for the majority of the human race stis
tough world is the prelude to an eternity
in hell. If any trembling sinner desires
comfort and consolation in these awful
miseries ct him real the sermon Of
Jonathan Edwards from the text Their
feet shall slide in due time
Hell would be preferable 20 annihila-
ton, it may be this alternative does not
satisfy those who repeat the everlasting
interrogatory of Job, IF a man die
shall he live again?"
Nature. like a witness in contempt.
stands mute. Science returns from its
remotest excursions, shakes its head
and, smiling, puts the question. Christ
contended Himself with a few vague and
unsatisfactory generalities: "This day
shalt thou be with me in Paradise;
Whose Hveth and believeth in me shall
never die; In my Fathers house are
many mansions" Saint Peter, the great
est Of the teachers of Christianity, could
only respond by a misleading analogy
He knew the wheat which is reaUed is
not that which is sown. The harvest is
4 succession. not q resurrection.
The evidences of experimenting
moral purpose and design in the affairs
Of men are faint and few. The wicked
prosper. the good suffer. The problems
of sin. pain and evil are insoluble. Visit
ing the sins OF the fathers upon the
children to the third and fourth genera
ton. making the innocent suffer for the
O1enses of the guilty. is an unjust and
cruel law that ought to be repealed
Civilization has long since rejected the
principle. Even treason, the highest
crime known to its code. no longer works
corruption Of blood or forfeiture OF es-
tate.
Unless man is immortal. the moral uni
verse, so FAR as he is concerned, disap-
pears altogether If he does not survive
the grave it makes no difference 10 him
whether there be God or devil, or heaven
or hell And 1t must be not only a sur
yiyal. but with a continuity OF conscious
ness as WELL If the evl are 10 be pun
ished and the good rewarded hereafter
To infiict the penalty Of violated law
upon a being who does not know that he
has offended is not punishment, but re-
venge. Conscious identity may not be a
necessary condition OF Intelligence. but il
is essential IN morals. Il is conceivable
that a being may know without know
Ing tia, he knows. bue Ne cannot sin
without knowing that ne sins. nor be
punished unless he knows for what
wrong he suffers
Frederick w Robertson. the eminent
English divine, closes one Of HIS dis
courses by saying. search through ira
didon. history. the world within you and
the world without-exce2t in Christ.