The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1902-03-06
A MELANGE OF
LIVE TOPICS
Penned for Journal Readers
by a Local Scribe.
IMMORTALITY.


al life is not the destiny of the en-
tire human race, that there are
many whose existences will end
with the death Of the body, and
he further maintains that if we
would enjoy q life beyond the
grave we must take proper care of
our souls in this world.
Henry Ward Beecher held these
same views, being Of the opinion
that those who are not sufficiently
good to enter heaven or bad
enough to merit eternal punish
ment are annihiiated at death.
These opinions of Mr.. Beecher and
DR.. Parkhurst are both unscrip-
tural and urscientifc. The Bible
teaches plainly that there is he'll,
that it is of everlasting duration,
and that those who enter it are not
only the desperately wicked, but
the negative characters of this
world, as well-those who are nei-
Their specially good nor particular
ly bad. Thus in Revelation the
inmates of hell are described,
among other things, as being
fearful that is vaccillating
people who are afraid to assume
correct positions because such acts
may not be popular. Also (Rev.,
CHI. 3, VS.. 15-16) the lukewarm-
neither good nor bad nor rejected.
Dives was, apparently, negative
man, for no great sins are alleged
against him. He would no do pos
tive acts of kindness but still al
lowed Lazarus to eat the crumbs
that fell from his table. Earring
sumptuously every day, he had no
thought for anything but the
pleasures of life. which may have
been in themselves innocent, but
which, nevertheless, prevented him
from being in correspondence with
God, with the result that at death
he gravitated to hell as naturally
as leaden bail falls to the earth
after being released at the sum-
NIT of the Washington monument.
Scientific Investigations are
strengthening the belief that the
mind Is not material, that it is es-
sentially independent Of the brain,
though the latter is its organ just
as the eye is the organ Of vision.
There are great numbers of facts
tending to prove this hypothesis,
one of which is the attribute of
memory, which may be defined as
the faculty of recalling past ex-
periences. If, as the materialists
maintain. the intellectual part of
man is only an incident of the
brain, the subjective operation of
the mind which can lie recalled by
memory, are utterly inexplicable.
Memory can be perfectly explain
ed so far as the objective opera
tions Of the mind are concerned,
even though the mind is, itself,
dependent upon the physical
blain. Animals have memory
coming to them through their
senses. They have also some of
the higher characteristics of mind
such as affection, fidelity, and the
like, but no reasoning powers. The
theory of memory is that every
physical or objective experience is
conveyed to the brain by means of
the senses, leaving there an i'm
preston like that produced by OBJ
jects acting upon the sensitive
plate of the camera obscura. This
idea is supported by the expert
ences of drowning people who, just
before they lose consciousness, re-
member all the acts of their whole
lives though prior to the time they
may have thought that the mem
Dry of most of these actions had
entirely left their minds. 1t is
true that the molecules of the
brain are renewed every seven
years, but the new molecules, ac-
cording to the law of heredity or
continuity, are similarly affected
to greater or less extent by the
original impression. BY a con-
slant intsrlacing of different i'm
pressions upon the same surface
the various records become con-
fused, SO that we can remember
later experiences better than
earlier ones; but some early ex-
periences where the impression has
been very clearly and deeply cut
like good record of a phono-
graph-are just as good now as
they were shortly after the event
happened, even though many years
may have elapsed since that time.
But subjective operation of the
mind or mental actions which
have no connection with external
and physical things, cannot leave