The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-07
That in this blindness of the frame
n. Chnst faal that thira Is men


That in this blindness of the frame
My Ghost may feel that thine is near.
In 1.-The Two Voices we find the same
lameness of argument, but fullness of con-
clusion as in its greater successor-'In
Memoriam." In both there is an attempt,
but failure, to prove the future life outside
of Revelation. The evidence is all against
it. How can we think or feel without brain
heart? How can this life exist without
organization? The unsatisfactory nature of
the present world. without the world to
come and. therefore. a future life all as
sumes that life is not worth living for
life's sake, and without a beyond. This
is a mistake. Undoubtedly the supple
ment of eternal life to this present is
enormous gain, but then. this life is splen-
didly worth all 1T cost, even If death ends
all. In both THE Two Voices" and I'm
Memoriam" our poet. perhaps unconscious
ly, rests the real and final proof of immor-
tality in the Christian consciousness of the
last eighteen centuries. which became
part of his mental equipment when child
in his fathers Lincolnshire rectory.
Our own poet, Whittier, once said in his
Snow Bound
Life is Lord of DEATH
This is the dominant thought in THE Two
Voices:
IT'S life, whereof our nerves scant-
Oh. ife not death. for which pant;
More life and fuller than want.
And, therefore, the divine love will not
suffer this precious human life to be the
victim of death L repeat, the infinite love
''all loves excelling'-will not suffer its best
product. human souls. $50 wonderfully
made" to be east in endless shade. This
is the crux of the argument. Man has here
too many splendid beginnings to go out in
endless night. Gods love will not permit it.
And in "The Two Voices" written in the
poets YOUTH this great truth of immor-
tality came to the doubter through the
church. After his long colloquy with him
sef-after over hundred stanzas-our
poet wakes and finds lit is the Sabbath
morn and hears 1.-The sweet church bells
and, looking out sees a scene which re-
calls his best and highest self:
On to Gods house the people prest;
Passing the place where each must rest,
Each entered like welcome guest.
One walked between his wife and child.
With measured football, firm and mild,
And now and then he gravey smiled.
The prudent partner of his blood
Leansd on n, him ms faithful 1T seRd good.
And In their double love secure,
The little maiden walked demure
Pacing with downward eyeIids pure.
The three made unity so sweet
My frozen heart began to beat.
Remembering its ancient heat
Here we have the conclusion of the 'In
Memoriam" in another form. In the latter
the belief in the future life came to our
poet in the festivities of Christmas and in
the gayeties of his sisters wedding day.
In "The Two Voices" with the sweet do
4 rsctta 20 hnt
at home and in social worship, Tennyson's
sullen doubts as to the ultimate victory of
| life over death first gave way, and he felt
Altho' no tongue prove
That every cloud that spreads above
And veileth love- itself is love-
| Thus we have what have emphasized al
ready the proposition that immortality
| cannot be proved outside of Revelation and
| unaided by its greatest fact-the resurrec-
ton of our Savior.
| 1t is very interesting to trace the repudia-
ton of the doctrine of everlasting punish
ment by Tennyson. or course, he learned
| this dogma from his father. an Episcopal
| clergyman. In 1.-The Two Voices" we have
it recognized and put thus:
| And that. in seeking to undo
One riddle, and to find the true,
j knit hundred others new
Or that this anguish ieeting hence,
Unmanacled from bonds OF sense,
BE fixed and frozen to permanence
| In the I'm Memoriam'' We have the doc
| trine of future everlasting punishment dis
scented from, but with an apology. In the
4Os our poet was not quite ready to break
with orthodoxy. but said:
oh. yet we trust that somehow good
| VIII be the final goal Of Ill,
| To pangs of Nature, sins of WILL
| Defects of doubt and taints OF blood;
| That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed
| Or cast rubbish to the void,
| When God shall make the pile complete
| The apology follows in these words:
| So runs my dream; but what am I?
| An infant crying in the night:
| An infant crying for the light;
| And with no language but a cry.
| Years afterward in Despair" this hideous
| dogma and drawback TO the beautiful
| Christian teaching of the future life is thus
savageE repudiated:
| See we were nursed in the drear night-fold OF
| your fatalist creed
/ And turned TO the growing dawn. we had
| hoped for a dawn indeed,
| When the light of sun that was coming would
| scatter the ghosts of the Past.
| And the cramping creeds that had maddend tn.
| peoples would vanish at last,
/ And we broke away from the Christ, our human
| brother and friend,
For He spoke. or 1t seem'd that He spoke. Of q
Hell. without help without end
All yeti have had some giimmer. at times. In
| my gloomest woe,
OF God behind all-after all-the great God fol
| aught know:
But the God OF Love and OF He'll together-the,
| cannot be thought.
| II there be such God. may the great God curse
1 him and bring him 10 naught!
To piece out and preserve the logic OF 9
proposition. and to bolster ND some words