Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-05-02
IMMORTALITY"
Sunday Discourse BY the Rev. ST. Clair
Hester.
Delivers Comforting Message to Those VIC
Are WaGernI in ID: Belief IN Regard to
Lii: Everlasting.


NEW YORK CITY In tho Church OF the
Messiah Brooklyn. Sunday morning. the
rector, the Rev. 81. Clair Hester. preached
on Immortality Longing for 1t, Pro.
posed Substitutes. Mans Right to 1t.
The text was from Job xiv: IA III man
die shall he live again." Mr.. Hester said:
The irrepressib.e ubiquitous question,
repeated again and again. world without
end. Men like Job were asking IT ceniur-
les before Christ. and men like Job are
asking it centuries after Christ. 1t Is IN,
vested with perpetual youth and the world
never tires OF hearing answers to 1t:
4 father afflicted by the loss OF his only
son in the morning OF a beautiful youth
writes Il hook entitled Life Beyond
Death" His dedication is a letter TO his
boy. beginning, My Dear Phil, and clos
ing with these words: God bless you, my
hoy. till the eyes which closed / see open
again and looking into mime. Lovingly,
father This Is the answer OF one IN
grief Under similar circumstances could
you would you. want to give any different
answer. a wife bcwails the sudden de-
cease OF her husband. She finds great COM
fort in reading through has sermons and
gathering from them and publishing every
sentence that bears on the subject of
meeting again in the world TO come. Her
heart is constantly singing:
Soul oi my soul we shall meet again,
ANA with boG pc the rest.
Hers is the answer OF orc in loneliness
buoyed UP by confident anticipation. Who
in such a position could or would want TO
give any different answer:
The thoughts OF men on the subject re-
peated. reiterated. rcafiirined throuon thou
sands of years oI human history. form an
accumulation OF evidence from which il is
difficult To escape. evidence mat gains en-
phasis BY ITS repetition. evidence that
ht.t no
ness o: its utteranrc. The answer of Jesus
Christ Is the only answer that entirely
satisfies the human mind and heart. 1t
was proclaimed amid rejoicing. melody and
song on Sunday ia; in all the churches
The echoes al Easter have not yet died
out. Their soul has gone into all the word
and their words unto the ends of the earth.
The echoes thar cone from the rock -hewn
tomb within the Garden OF Joseph OF Arr
mathea are no; ike those we shout among
cliffs and canyon walls that gradually solt-
en- and die away They are within the
crease rather than diminish They grow
from sou, Ia soul. from the soul ri the risen
Christ 10 the sous that believe in Him.,
and so they grow forever and forever.
Ii Christ alone of all who live or have
lived upon the earth Is To live again after
death. the resurrection oI the first Easter
day Is nothing more than an amazing eNhl-
bltion OF Almighty power which while It
~ impresses us 1t correspondingiy depresses
us because it emphasizes the difference be-
tween us and Him and makes Us despair or
ever attaining unto such e2altatiol. ii
this re yo;;r feeling HIS rising VAS TO no
purpose, oar preaching Is vain, Christian
ity is 4 cruel system OF deception and we
are of all men most miserable. Bet the
truth Is His rising was a promise and
pledge to us OF oI-s. lie was the first fruit
OF them that s,eep.
First OF all let me ask is IL fact that
men desire to live again: Emerson tells
the story of two members OF the L. :. SEN
ate who were fond OF discussing specula-
tive questions. Whenever possible they
would meet and find re.axation IL convers-
ing on subjects other than shop. Their Ia
vorite topic was the immortality OF the
soul, but they could never find any salts
factory reason Tor believing At. They sep
arsted and one retired TO distant State.
After twenty-five years they net at a
crowded reception in the White House.
They shook hands cordially. and standing
TO one side for a moment one OF them
asked, Any light, Albert: None" was
the reply; After .pau..ee the other asked,
was None" They shook hands again,
looked one another in the eye ir silence
and parted, never 10 see each other again.
Emerson's remark upon the Incident IS
that the impulse that prompted these men
to try to find proofs o. immortality was it.
ION Emerson was right.
Yes. men do desire to live again. They
are not afraid to die. TO have the body de-
stroyed. many OF them, but they shudder
at the idea OF annihlaTion, OF becoming
nothing more than breath of air a
pisch of dust. Even the barbarian and
tho savage belize IN a future life. that
somehow the thinking soul may escape the
wreck of the unthinking body. In all prob
ability il is an idea that grew out OF the
thap Of It-aa nN1n Ias
his other self wan Iers away at will. and
something like this my happen. he rea-
soned, when death. tine long sleep, comes
to him. In after and higher stages OF cu.-
ture the conception OF Immortality was at
first sad and depressing one. The Sheol
OF the Jews. the Hades OF the Greeks the
Orcus of the Roman, were abodes of
shades. shadows. ghosts-and such n future
could only be regarded with fear and dis
like. But IN time man BE- gan TO surmise
that perhaps the next life might he an i'm
provement upon this one. Inc ana.ogies IN
nature around him gave a strong suggestion
TO this effect. The snake casts It's skin and
glides forth III a new and better one. The
beetle breaks away from it, filthy scpu!-
cher and enters on new career, and man
notices it and begins TO hang golden scara-
baei in his temples as symbols OF his hope
Winter retires and there comes 4 resurrec-
tion OF flower, foliage and fruits. He sees
the silkworm weave It's cocoon and die
within II, and after a time come forth cad
in brighter colors and able TO spurn the
n earth on which it formerly s9awied and fly
- away and then he begins to carve butter
flies on tombstones and ventures to hope
that he may likewise be freed from the en-
Engagements and defilemcnts of earth and
flesh and range in a ireer and happier state
= the universe at viii. All such simiitudes,
.e''d there are hundreds OF them in nature.
too 20 strengthen mans conviction that
comtsiil live again make more roseate the
I rspe that he viii survive the wreck OF the
Universe.
Y II man die. shall he live again? The
answer OF Christianity is. Il believe in the
resurrection OF the body and the life ever
lasting" But this answer as not unani-
nous. Modern skepticism and speculative
philosophy have proposed certain substi.
tutes for the faith once delivered Even
Z though the comforting doctrine of Chris
: tiaaity be rejected men recoil from the
,specter OF eternal oblivion. They invent
new theories and call them by the old
iweet name of Immortality, which means
ontinuat;on without break of the individ.
l life. One substitute proposed is alb.
option into God. loss of consciousness OF
ference between self and another and
cen self and Coda melting of human
- ag into Divine Being. just as sugar
5ous and is lost in the coffee it sweetens.
IS the river flowing to the sea is swal