The Penn's Grove record., 1903-05-01
SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT AND CONVINCING DIS.
COURSE ENTITLED ."lMMoRTALITY."
The Rev. st. Clair Hester Delivers q Com
f0rting MESSAGE to Those Who Are
Wavering In the Belief in Regard to
4 Life EVERLASTING,

The Rev. st. Clair Hester Delivers a Com
forting Message to Those who Are
wavering in the Belief in Regard to
. Life Everlasting.
NEW YORK CITY.-In the Church of the
Messiah, Brooklyn, Sunday morning. the
rector, the Rev. st. Clair Hester, preached
on "Immortality-The Longing for 1t, Pro-
posed Substitutes, Mans Right to It."
The text was from Job xiv: IA: 'If a man
die shall he live again. Mr.. Hester said:
repeated again and again, world without
end. Men like Job were asking i. 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 a book entitled Life Beyond
Death" His dedication is a letter to his
ing with these words: "God bless you, my
boy, till the eyes which / closed I 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 bewails the sudden de-
cease of her husband. She finds great COM
fort in reading through his sermons and
gathering from them and publishing every
meeting again in the world to come. Her
heart is constantly singing:
"Soul 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 or would want to
give any different answer?
The thoughts of men on the subject re-
peated, reiterated, reaffirmed THROUGH thou
sands of years of human history. form an
accumulation of evidence from which it is
difficult to escape, evidence that gains EN-
phasis by its repetition, evidence that
arouses deepest feeling by the very earnest
ness of its u~tterance. 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 Ari-
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.
If 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 exhi-
bition of Almighty power which while it
impresses us it co~rrespondingly depresses
us because it emphasizes the difference be-
tween us and Him and makes US despair OF
ever attaining unto such exaltation. III
this Re your feeling His rising was to no
purpose, our preaching is vain, Christian
ity is a cruel system Of deception and We
are of all men most miserable. But the
truth is His rising was a promise and
pledge to us of ours. He was the first fruit
of them that sleep.
First of all let me ask is it a fact that
men desire to live again? Emerson tells
the story Of two members of the u. S. Sen
ate who were fond of discussing specula-
tive questions. Whenever possible they
would meet and find relaxation in eonvers
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 for believing it.. They sep
arated and one retired to a distant State
After twenty-five years they net at 9
crowded reception in the White House
They shook hands cordially, and standing
to one side for a moment one of then
asked, "Any light, Albert?"' None" was
the reply; After q 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 again
Emerson's remark upon the incident Is
that the impulse that prompted these men
to try to find proofs Of Immortality was it
self the strongest of all proof. In my opin
ion Emerson was right.
Yes, men do desire to live again. They
are not afraid to die, to have the body de
at the idea Of annihilaticn, of becoming
nothing more than a breath of air or 9
pinch of dust. Even the barbarian anc
the savage believe in a future life, thai
somehow the thinking soul may escape tht
wreck of the unthinking body. In all prob
ability it is an idea that grew out of the
phenomena of dreams. While man sleep:
his other self wanlers away at will, ane
something like this MY 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 a
first a sad and depressing one. The Sheo
of the Jews, the Hades of the Greeks, th'
Orcus of the Roman, were abodes o
shades, shadows, ghosts-and such a future
could only be regarded with fear and dis
like. But in time man began to surmis'
that perhaps the next life might be an I'm
provement upon this one. The anaiogles II
nature around him gave a strong suggestion
to this effect. The snake casts its skin AM
glides forth in a new and better one. Tn,
beetle breaks away from its filthy sepul
cher n enters on a new career, and NAL
notices it and begins to hang golden scara
baei in his temples as symbols OF his hope
Winter retires and there comes a resurrec
ton Of flower, foliage and fruits. he see
the silkworm weave its cocoon and dl
within it, and after a time come forth cla'
in brighter colors and able to spurn tn
earth on which it formerly crawled and II.
away and then he begins to carve butter
flies on tombstones and ventures to hop
that he may likewise be freed from the en-
tanglements and defilements OF earth AM
flesh and range in a freer and happier stat
the universe at will. All such slmilitudes
and there are hundreds of them in nature
help to strengthen mans conviction tina
ne will live again, make more roSeate Tn
hope that he will survive the wreck OF tn
universe.
The desire for Immortality is too appar
ent to be open to dispute. The savage am
the civilized, the illiterate peasant tn
~profoundest thinker alike want it to be SO
Even when som have lost hope they desir'
it fondly as ever. Even when a man ha
lost all hope of living again he cannot rl'
himself of desire for it. That is lneradiea
Bile. Now here is the sound and legitimate
conclusion. A desire so universal and per
sistent is the planting of the creative powe
responsible for our existence. 1t IS a man
ifest prophecy of what shall be-. Ihe ex
istencc Of an organ implies the existence o
a field for its operation-this is an axiom
of science. There would be no inns II Their
were no water to swim IN. no wings l
there were no air to fly in, no feet II Their
were no earth to walk on. Now here ,
another sound and legitimate conclusion
what God promises He performs. HIS char
acter is perfect. To hold any othe
idea of Him would be blasphemous or pre-
%sumptuous. To implant this desire an
provide no means for its qualification woui'
be a cruel deception. To make this prom
Use and not carry it out would be a breacl
of trust as base as the s~quanderlng on SCI
fish pleasure of the property the WIDOW Q
/ the orphan confides to a n attorney man
agement. God has not dealt so IN an.
other case. He is the rewarder OF tnos
who put their trust in Him. p,
If a man die, shall he i've AGAIN. IN
answer of Christianity is, i believe IN tn
resurrection Of the body and the lite ever
lasting" But this answer IS not unanl
nous. Modern skepticism and speculatlv
philosophy have proposed certain subst
tutes for the faith once delivered. Eve
though the comforting doctrine OF Chris
tianity be rejected men recoiI from tn
enecfer of eternal oblivion. They lnven