The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-04

and has ever been, practically universal In the human race. Indeed, we may truly term it world idea. a world conviction. We find indications of it in the very ear- Hest period of mans history. There went along with 1t also the belief among men that they were encompassed by an unseen world, as we'll as by a world of audible, tangible. and visible things. They were not dominated entirely by the natural and the material. They felt within them- selves something stronger than either, something superior to either-the soul, the personality. the indestructibie Ego. And so, they necessarily and inevitably believed in a life after that change In the physical being which we call death. Thus, as the famous writer, John Fiske. testifies, From the first the conception of death was not of an event which put an end to human Individuality. but of an event the human individual survives And so, men believed in future life, and in world above and beyond them, unseen, it is true, to mortal eyes, yet none the less real and eternal.
 But it was not uuti the da awning of the first Easter morn, when Christ rose, the Conqueror of death and the grave, that mankind was taught the true idea of immortality. Before then men had diff ferent conceptions of the nature of i'm mortality. although they agreed as to the fact There were those. for instance who believed that the soul, at death, pass ed into some other creative state Again, there were those who believed that the
 soul of the individual after death was
 absorbed into the universal soul of which It was part, and from which it originat- ed. Chfsts resurrection taught the truth that men needed to know, the truth that
 immortality is based upon the continuity or personal identity. the truth that our real, personal, individual selves will sur Vive the process of death, and pass to
 lie and light in those glorious realms
 beyond the portals of the grave
 From this follows, in the very nature
 of the case. the inexpressibly comforting
 truth that We shall see and know one
 another in that immortal life in store for tnose and for those only, who die in the Lord, and that the sacred ties, the tend er household affections and purified of all dross and stripped of everything carnal and material.
 But Immortality means more still. It has what We may call a reflex action. for' observe, immortality is not the pre- serVatlon or personal identity only after death. but continuous personal identity;
 that is the same personal identity. This
 throws back immortality into the present llfe' and makes it psrtake of this life m knd Tn nature. And so the Poet Shcl- ley voiced great truth when he sung:
 Lie' llke a dome of many -colored glass. stains the white radiance of Eternity
 Death, you must see, does not work any miracle, does not change facts, does not cnange our character. Immortality Is not something affixed to our earthly human hfe' and essentially different rom it, but is continuation of it in all its essential qualities. Therefore, what We are in our earthly life, we shall be in our immortal life We shall reap as we have sown. What we shall be then, is fixed and conditioned in large measure by what we are now Hence the tremendous necessity eternal in its outcome, of being in Christ now, and of having Christ in us now. So shall we inherit His promise: Because live ye shall live also Immortality. you see, is an awful, as we'll as a glorious fact. It is like two-edged sword. It cuts both ways.
 Furthermore, What A powerful far reaching motive fl gives to our lives here! And now we see the practical value of a belief in immortality, for. if we are considering 1t in a sentimental, dreamy sort of way merely. 1t is worse than a waste of time It is a mockery. indeed, little short of blasphemy. A be- lief in 1t Is the strongest and sublimest motive or development in Christian character. in word, or growth in Christ. which. in turn. means immortal ity with Him throughout all eternity. It provides us with an impelling constrain- ing incentive to virtue and godliness of life. And how We need some never-fail- ing, ever-present motive to strengthen our wills, to regulate and purify our wayward affections, to turn our faces to- wards the vision of light. to set our feet in the path of righteous living and to enable those eternal principles of goodness within us to overcome and drive out those eternal principles of evil with which they are ever engaged in warfare.
 q say, belief in immortality does this. And. belief is of the first importance, for it lies back of all action. To be sure, as experience shows. other things enter in and affect it, such as passions. appetites. sentiments. desires Nevertheless. belief is the main essential. Why. for instance, do we take a certain course of action? Because, we believe 1t is right. or nice. or necessary. Our belief in that action constitutes our motive for doing 1t. So belief in immortality becomes the motive of motives for leading clean, and holy and pure and Christ-like life urging and