The Newtown bee., 1904-04-15
ADYERrIslNa RATES |:

THE HOME CIRCLE. WHAT GREAT MEN HAVE SAID OF
 IMMORTALITY.
 A SERMON BY REV G. H. JOHNSON,
 PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL
 CHURCH, MONROE.
 II Cor 5:1. For we know that, if our earthly have . building of God, house not made with hands, eternal In the heavens.
 To-day, wish to bring you some messages from the great; what the earths first souls have said about the other life. Their words are not proofs of immortality; they are but intima- tions, evidences. Immortality cannot be proved, but we may all conclude, as did Lyman Beecher when he sat on the western veranda of life looking into his sunset, "I have been reviewing my evidences, and conclude that l have right to hope"
 On past Easter morns we have gone to Jesus, to the Bible, to science for assurances concerning the future: To-day we will turn to literature and cull from it few precious gems, words of cheer and hope. We all wish to know about the other shore whither we shall go and whither have gone those we have loved and lost. Tenny- son has expressed what each of us has heretofore thought:
 "Ah Christ, that it were best
 inc sou souls s we loved. owed that they might tell us
 What and whore they be-"
 And so we turn to literature, to sam- pie the utterances of the wise, to delve into the highest wisdom that the race has thus far attained. Four hun- dred years before the birth of Him who Drought life and immortality to light" and in day when the flame of the future life burned low, there lived 8 philosopher in the little land of Greece. Wiser was he than the men of his times, keener in vision, yea, the greatest of philosOphic minds. Easily resOurceful of all who have sought to vindicate the human belief in the fu- ture, and in his Republic" are written these words: "And thus Glancon, the tale has been saved and has not per ished and may be our salvation if we are obedient to the word spoken; and we shall pass safely over the river of Forgetfulness, and
 OUR SOUL WILL NOT BE DEFIL ED. Wherefore my counsel is that we h old fast to the heavenly way, and follow after justice and virtue always, con- sidering that the soul is immortal and able to endure every sort or good and every sort of evil. Thus shall we live, dear to one another and to the gods, both while remaining here and when, Hike conquerors in the games who go around to gather gifts, we receive our reward, and it shall be well with us both in this life and in the pilgrimage of thousand years which we have been reciting:"
 Germany, that land of learning, the fatherland of so many of the earth $ wisest, gave to the world Immanuel Kant, whose arguments for immortal ity carry such conviction and force. His were moral arguments. Duty was the sublime fact In it Kant "found the divine origin of life and the pledge of immortality" God commands us to be holy, just and honorable, and to attain unto such character, says this philosopher, God will give us immor:. tai life as field of exertion. And these words: "I do not fear to die. I assure you, as in the presence of God, that if on this very night, suddenly, the summons to death were to reach me should bear 1t with calmness;I should raise my hands to Heaven and say, Blessed be God.'"
 Across the seas we come to ga ther a gem from the shores of the Colonies We seek out him who wrested the lightningOfrOm sthe skies; whose wis dom madeI celebrated Poor Richard s Almanac; whose learning made him renowned at the court of France, and self for his own tombstone: "The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, Qike the cover of an old book it's contents torn out and stript of it's lettering and gilding) lies here, food for worms; yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author"
 That peerless American mind, the Sage of Concord, mused long and deep over this mighty theme. Emerson minute-men shed the early blood of the Revolution, and the slain Occasioned the question minis breast, "Whither?' All nature awakened in him thoughts about the future and he said: "Man is to live hereafter. That the world is for his education is the only sane solution of the enigma. The planting of de- sire indicates that the qualification of that desire is in the constitution of the creature that feels it. The Crea- tor keeps His word with us all. What 1 have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all 1 have not seen. Will you, with vast pains and care, educate your children to produce masterpiece and then shoot them down?" And then as Emerson neared the hour of his dissolution, when every tick of the old clock was summons home, the sage said: "On the borders of the grave the wise man looks forward with equal elasticity of mind and hope-and why not, after millions of years on the
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