Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1905-09-09

and polluted the days Of innoon Uou
with black despair. -l''ooeiice
But the worst feature of n ho1ioF =,
immortality is that it has given n,ii
lions OF rogues lever by which thar
nave worked upon both the fears and
ioves or mankind. All good spirit.
uailsts agree that fully one.baIf of
an so-called mediums are frauds and
Ihey also admit that most genuine
medlums do not hesitate to amend
anu supplement- their peculiar phvsic
powers with trickery and untrufh-
giving their clients their monev,s
Worth-What they wish to hear and
what they will pay for.
The entire dogma of endless nunisb.
ment that was preached for nearly
two thousand years has become so
repugnant to humanity, that even the
orthodox of the orthodox have aban.
aoned 1t, and are quite willing to saw
we do not know" And if pursued
with the question what has become of
all those millions of children. not a
span long, which they and their pre-.
decessors consigned to sell, the adj
NIT they were possibly mistaken, and
say that hell was only a theological
necessity devised to make bad men
good-and also to make them nav.
The mystery of death, codified by
centuries of priests into belief in an
individual immortality has been the
greatest single force of the Christian
religion; it is still, in its finally drawn
forms, the most vital bit of life pos
sesed by the church. Examined in the
light of results and of essential infiu-
ence, there will be found on the cred
it side of this belief not one benefi-
cent item, excepting the doubtful re-
lief of the dying man who hopes for
glory, and the questionable solace of
the bereaved who hope to meet loved
ones again in person. On the debit
side there is every form of evil in
flicted by churchmen from Constan-
tines time to our own.
The dubious credit account is ut
terly wiped out by the fact that there
is a higher and more unselfish ideal
of Immortality, which demands no
perpetuation of the individual as such
and requires no administration by
church or priest. In this ideal, person
atty has no place. Instead there is
the demonstrate certainty of the i'm
mortality and the high purpose of
the human race, of the Immortality
and ever-growing influence of good
deeds and good lives, and of the liv-
ing immortality of worthy and beauti-
full parenthood. In this ideal there
is something positive, natural, noble,
worthy of the sternest battle OF life.
Beside it, the mysticism of personal,
individual spirit life clutching for COM
fort and lodging pain, is weak and
lifeless, fitted in every respect to be
placed among the discarded beliefs
and ideals which originated in times
crude and savage.
1t is true, of course, that some glft-
ed men like DR.. /. X. Funk and Al1reu
Russell Wallace, seem to find evidence
of the existence of disembodied splr-
it's. But granted that they are on
the high road to important enllghten'
ment, still nothing whatever can de-
tract from the satisfaction obtalnaDle
from the purely unselfish ideal OF
practical and demonstrate Immortal
itv. Could the preachers hold up tnls
idea for hundred years, as they nave
held up the dogmas OF personal ih
mortality for nineteen hundred years.
what strides the world would make
what building for the future genera
tions might be planned! .o+
~, zo,,o 1ya want a religion that