The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-04-18
BEYOND.
GroonriVc MFRS.

comc Wncn the heart has ceased from
beating and the lungs will not draw in
and let out air and all the wonderful
~ Intricate machinery Of the living
body has stopped. The most primi-
tive sense of man revolts against and
rejects the thought that the end Of the
body is the end of ell. Man has ever
felt his soul within him, has always
known from himself thac there is a
hidden and mysterious part of him
not made to die, to perish, to vanish
utterly, as his flesh must do, as even
his bones must, after time and thous-
ands of invisible but potent forces
have worked upon them, making dis
integration and crumbling. Dust we
arc-dust and fluid and vapor and
many chemical constituents when it
comes to the last analysis Of our skin
and flesh and marrow, blood, bon es,
gristlc and hair Yet we have within
us the knowledge more profound than
any knowledge written or spoken q
knowledge dcc:,ar tnan our thought
can. l..'t in the darkness of mysteries 8
and higher than it can soar into the
vast light that is somewhere, that
IS really within us-thc something
that is really US separated from the
skin and flesh and marrow, blood, bone,
gristle and hair that appears for us to
the world-shall live.
How and where few Of us now pre-
tend to know. Not so many years ago
great theologians used to print pam
phlcts of controversy concerning the
number Of cubits heaven would meas
ure and the height of its walls and the
persona! aspect Of the devil and the
dimensions Of hell and its birthstone
lakes. To this day we have learned
sermons on recognition in heavea and
the knowledge Of the souls there con-
corning what is being done here.
Poets have sung and preachers have
preached that guardian angels attend
US, striving to gently guide us in right
ways, l.ading our thoughts with invis-
ible, blessed influences into right and
beautiful paths.
1t is hard to reconcile in our
thought, knowledge by the saved and
blest of our thoughts and doings here
with their perfect happiness. It is
harder yet for US to understand that q
guarding angel could stay with us in
all the tangled paths we travel in
thought and word and speech.
These are the mysteries-the things
we cannot understand. What we cap
and dc and must understand is that
there is life beyond this life, that
there is within us something apart
from our bodies which is connected
with them in many indefnable ways
but separate from them. IL began at
the very beginning. Enoch walked
with God and God took him, and he
was not. The Greeks and Latins
dreamed and wrote Of Elysian fields
where there would be beauty and bless
edness, health and strength and eyer
lasting light and peace and harmony
with the soul. The followers of Islam
tell Of sensual joys. The hard press
ed, sorely stricken people Of India
long for Nirvana-a long and sweet
and endless peace and sleep. So do
all Of ns Of the human race think and
believe and long according to our teach
ing.
The concentration and meaning Of it
oil is, put in American vernacular,
that it will be call right" In the
words Of the old hymn ''we shall be
satisfied those Of us who reach that
unknown and vast and mysterious ha-
ven.
There is no use in questions oe what
shall be there beyond, whether there
is recognition or knowledge or imme-
diate life after the death Of the body
or periods Of suspension or limbo or
purgatory or extinction. We know
within ourselves that We shali live.
We know, if we think at all, that there
must be some universal power, some
creator by law by which we live and
all things are that are; because
we and all are subject to the law,
and law must have source and cre-
ator.
Therefore may we look to beyond
confidently, whatever our creeds and
beliefs may be. Therefore may we
hope and therefore may we fear. s'It
hath not entered into the mind Of
man. what the beyond for the blessed
shall be, nor is any man, nor will ever
be any man. the Judge Of who the