Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1903-04-30
IMMORTALITY" "
Sunday Discourse By the Rev. st. Clair
Hester.

Hester.
D.l;, ers a Comiorti-g Message to Those Who
Are Waycr'ng in the Belief In Regardto
Life Everlasting.
New York CITY--In the Church Of the
Messiah, Brooklyn, Sunday morning, the
rector, the Rev. st, Clair Hester, preached
on 'Tmmortaiity-The Longing for 1t, Pro.
posed Substitutes, Mans Right to It."
The text was from job xiv: "a: If man
die shall he live again." Mr.. Hester said:
The irrepressibe, ubiquitous question,
repeated again and again, world without
end. Men like Job were asking it centur-
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 it.
| A father afflicted by the loss OF his only
son in the morning of a beautiful youth
writes book 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
boy, till the eyes which closed see open
again and looking into mine. 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 bewais the sudden de.
cease of her husband. She finds great com.
fort in reading through his sermons and
gathering from them and publishing every
sentence that bears on the subject OF
meeting again in the world to come. 1ler
heart is constantly singing:
"Sou of my soul, we shall meet again,
And with God be the rest
Hers is the answer of one in loneliness
buoyed up by confident anticipation. Who
| in such a position could oc would want to
give any different answer?
The thoughts of men on the subject re-
peated, reiterated, reatiirmed through thou.
sands of years of human history, form an
accumulation of evidence from which it il
difficult to escape, evidence that gains EN-
| phass by its repetition, evidence that
| arouses deepest feeling by the very earnest
! ness of its utterance. 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 last in all the churches.
The echoes OF Easter have not yet died
out. Their soul has gone into all the world
| and their words unto the ends OF the earth.
| The echoes that come from the rock -hewn
tomb within the Garden OF Joseph OF Arl-
mathea are not like those we shout among
cliffs and canyon walls that gradually soft
en- and die away They are within the
realm OF the spiritual world and they IN
| crease rather than diminish. They grow
from soul to soul, from the soul OF the risen
| Christ to the souls 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 OF the first Easter
| day Is nothing more than an amazing eXhl-
| biton OF Almighty power which while 1t
| imprcsses us 1T Correspondmgly depressCs
! "a, n
tween us and Him and makes US despair of
| ever attaining unto such eXaltation II
| this hc your feeling His rising was to no
purpose, our preaching Is vain, Christian
| i.y is cruel system OF deception and we
| are of all men most miserable. But the
truth IS His, rising was promise ana
! pledge to us of ours. lie was the tlrSt irult
| of them that sleep.
First OF all let me ask is it fact that
men desire to live again! Emerson tells
| the story OF two members Of the |. 5. Sen
ate who were fond OF discussing specula-
| tive questions. Whenever possible they
would meet and find relaxation III convers-
ing on subjects other than shop: Their ia
vortc topic was the Immortality OF the
soul, but they could never find any salts.
factory reason for believing it. They sep
aratcd and one retired 10 distant State.
! After twenty-five years they met at
| crowded reception i'll 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 a pause, the other asked,
was None" They shook hands again,
looked one another in the eye in silence
| and parted, never to see each other agaln.
| Emersons remark upon the incident Is
that the impulse that prompted these men
to try to find proofs of immortality was 1t
self the strongest OF all proof. In my oplA-
| ion Emerson was right.
Yes, men do desire to live again. 1hey
are not afraid to die, to have the body de-
| stroyed, many of them, but they shudder
at the idea of annlhliatlon, OF becoming
| nothing more than a breath OF ar or
pinch of dust. Even the barbarian and
| the savage beIie"e in future llte, that
somehow the thinking soul may escape the
wreck OF the unthlnling body. In all prob
| ability it Is an idea that grew out OF the
! phenomena ot dreams. While man sleeps
| his other sell wan lcr7 away at Will, and
something like this may happen, he rea-
| soned. when death the long sleep, comes
to him. In after and higher stages OF cul'
ture the conception OF immortality was at
first sad and depressing one. The Sheol
! OF the Jews. the IIades OF the Greeks, the
Orcus of the Roman, were abodes OF
shades, shadows, ghostS-and such future
could only be regarded with fear and dis
! like. But in time man began to surmlse
| that perhaps the next life might be an I'M
provement upon this one. The analosies III
nature around him gave strong. suggestion,
to this effect. The snake casts Its SKIN a, ana
glides forth in new and better one. Inc
beetle breaks away from It's illthy sepul-
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 resurrec-
ton of flower, foliage and fruits lie, sees
the silllworm weave its cocoon. and die
within it, and after time come forth clad
in brighter colors and able to spur The
earth on which it formerly crawled al fly
away and then he begins to carve butter
flies on tombstones aud ventures to, hope
| that he NAV likewise be freed from the en-
| t,rrlon,ontS and da61ompntS of earth and