The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-04-30
IMMORTALITY"
Sunday Discourse By the Rev. st. Clair
Hester.
n.,ivers a Comfortiug Message to Those WHO
Arc wsyer'ny in the Belief In Regard to
q Life Everlasting.

rector. the Rev. st. Clair Hester, preached
on 'Immortality-The Longing for 1t, Pro.
posed Substitutes, Mans Right to It,"
lie ae sball hail he i've againy' Mr.. Hester said
The irrepressible, 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 beautiful youth
writes a book entitled Life Beyond
Death His dedication is letter to his
boy beginning, My Dear ear PHIL and clos.
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? vile bewails the sudden de-
sease of her husband, She finds great com.
tort 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 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
ouoyed up by confident anticipation. Who
in such a position could or would want to
yive any different answer?
The thoughts of men on the subject re-
peatcd, reiterated, reaiiirmed throuoh 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
lrouses deepest feeling by the very earnest
ness OF its utterance. The answer of Jesus
Christ is the only answer that entirely
.atishes 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
md their words unto the ends of the earth.
The echoes that come from the rock
tomb within the Garden of Joseph OF Arr
mathea are not like those we shout among
cliffs and canyon walls that gradually soft
IN and die away. They are within the
realm of the spiritual world and they in
crease rather than diminish. They grow
rom 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
lay is nothing more than an amazing eXhi-
btion of Almighty power which while it
mpresses us it correspondingly depresses
is because it emphasizes the difference be.
tween us and Him and makes us despair OF
ever attaining unto such exaltation. If
this Re your feeling His rising was to no
purpose, our preaching is vain, Christian
ity is cruel system of deception and we
are of all men most miserable. But the
truth is His rising was promise and
pledge to us OF ours. He was the first fruit
9f 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 U. S. SEN
ate who were fond of discussing specua
tive questions. Whenever possible they
would meet and find relaxation in convers.
ing on subjects other than shop. Their fa-
vorite topic was the immortality of the
soul, but they could never find any salts
factory reason for believing it. They sep
srated and one retired to distant State.
After twenty-five years they met at a
crowded reception in the White House.
asked, ANY light, Albert?" None" was
the reply After a pause the other asked,
ANY light Lewis" The answer again
was None" They shook hands again,
looked one another in the eye ir silence
and parted, never to see each other again.
Emersons 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
ure not afraid to die, to have the body, de-
stroyed, many OF them, but thev, shudder
at the idea of annihilation, of becoming
nothing more than breath of air or q
pinch of dust. Even the barbarian and
somehow the thinking soul may escape the
wreck of the unthinking body. In all prob
ability it is an idea that grew out of the
phenomena of dreams. While man sleeps
his other self wanlers 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 Hades 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 surmise
that perhaps the next life might be an i'm
provement upon this one. The analogies in
nature around him gave a strong suggestion
to this effect. The snake casts its skin and
gldes forth in a new and better one. The
beetle breaks away from its filthy sepul
cher and enters on new career, and man
notices it and begins to hang golden scara'
baei in his temples as symbols OF bis hope
Winter retires and there comes resurrec
ton OF flower, foliage and fruits. He sees
the sikworm weave its cocoon and die
within 1t, and after a time come forth clad
IN brighter colors and able to spurn the
earth on which it formerly crawled and lily
away and then he begins to carve butter
mes on tombstones and ventures to hope
that he may likewise be freed from the en-
Engagements and defilements of earth anc
hesh and range in freer and happier state
the universe at will All such similitudes
and there are hundreds OF them in nature
heip 70 strengthen mans conviction thai
ne VIII i've again, make more roseate thu
nope that nc will survive the wreck OF th'
universe.
II a man die, shall he live again? Tn,
answer OF Christianity is, Il believe in thu
resurrection OF the body and the life ever
lasting. But this answer is not unani
nous. Modern skepticsm and speculativ,
philosophy have proposed certain substi
tptes for the faith once delivered Ever
though the comforting doctrine of Chris
uanty be rejected men reeoii from tn
sspeeter OF eternal oblivion. They inven
new theories and call them by the oil,
sweet name OF Immortality, which mean
eont,nuation without break of the individ
asn lie. one substitute proposed is alb
Jatptoh INTO God, loss OF consciousness o
anerenee between self and another an,
between self and Coda melting of human
Delng into Divine Being Just as. suga
meits and is lost in the coffee it sweetens
Just as the river flowing to the sea is swal
iowed up IN the great deep.
NOW the loss OF individuality, persona
identity, selfhood, would be loss OF con
hcionsness and loss OF consciousness
would be the loss of everything of impor
lance. III do not know that / exist thi
practical annihilation, and this does no
AZ all meet or satisfy the longing of my ma
,uie, his u theistic substitute. No,
re. me mention some atheistc substitute,
'unusu'utes nn tnat leave out God altogether.