The Newtown bee., 1902-05-02
things that are not seen.

The distinction is, indeed. one that
is we'll understood. Still, it is not held
as clearly and consciously as it should
be, 1t is not the reality to us that its
Importance demands it should be that
we have not to wait till time has run
it's course before the unseen world will
begin to be, the unseen world being
now as certainly in existence, sur
rounding and influencing US, as the
world that we see. In other words,
the commencement of the invisible
and eternal is not to be dated from the
end of the seen and temporal. 1t al
ways has been. The things that are
seen
ARE ONLY LIKE A MOMENTARY MIST
passing over the everlasting solid I'M
seen things. AS cloud flies swiftly
across the face of the sun, and you do
not say the sun then begins to exist
when the fleeting Icloud has gone by,
so it makes no difference with the facts
of the invisible world that for mo-
ment the things that are seen are be-
tween us-and them. They are eternal
for before the beginning, eternally,
and lasting eternally beyond the end
But not only is the simple fact stated
in the text that there are, and are
now. two classes of things but a chief
characteristic of each class is men
toned, "rhe things that are seen are
temporal" the visible is the perish
able. ",The things that are not seen
are eternal" the invisible lasts forever.
And how all that we know or have any
experience of illustrates this, that that
which is seen dies, while that which is
not seen lives on. 1t is all about us.
The grass now rejoicing in it's fresh
ness in few months will be whitening.
The leaves now appearing will soon be
fleeing in little fugitive bands before
every wind of autumn. What variety,
promise, confidence of bloom and
vitality will cover field and tree in the
season now beginning. But soon it
will fade again. On the other hand the
real life and source of all this annual
beauty does not suffer any death; nor
any decay or decease. 1t is only that
which is seen that perishes. That
which was not seen continues, in I'M
diminished volume and vigor, holding
within it's hidden pages the prophecy
of the seasons that are yet to be.
Springs Of life are out of sight
FORCES ARE INVISIBLE.
And these perish not. Their manifes-
tations are constantly changing. 1t is
not forests and rocks that are perma-
nent, but the life principle by which
trees grow, and the cohesive force
which keeps the rock in form that are
permanent. Let the internal attrac-
ton of the rock go from it, and the rock
on the instant is but a heap of dust;
let the life force 60 from the tree, it
withers, falls, decays. If it were the
visible that makes Il city or d nation
then it could not happen that the per-
iOd of greatest abundance and luxury
is always the summit of the hill from
which the cities and nations, in all his
tory, have gone down to their destruc-
tion. 1t is not these outward things
that create a nation or city, but honor,
truth, industry, temperance, patriot
ism, generosity, gDdliness, and when
the time comes that these virtues do
not rule in it, then not it's gold, not it's
guns, nor the wisdom of it's printed
books, nor authority of it's laws and
law officers, nor the architecture and
massiveness of it's buildings, nor its
armies and it's fortresses can prevent
it's downfall. But these virtues that
build up and compact together COM
mOnwealth are invisible.
Man himself is an illustration of the
same principle. His visible body is that
which is mortal of him; it is his
UNSEEN SOUL THAT DOES NOT DIE.
The old world has many ruins of ever
famous buildings once devoted to re-
ligion. They being outward and visi-
bic are in wreck and crumbling to dust,
but the religious idea survives. Once
the temple at Jerusalem was the center
of the true worship of God on earth.
How strong it was. What reverence
surrounded it and defended it. Never
thelesS it passed away, being of the
seen and therefore tempora things;