The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-23
AN EASTER SERMON.
BY Rev. Dr., Newell Dwight Hills.
Copyright 1905, by Mcclure, lips & Coz
The Homing Instinct and the Immor-
Y Rev. Or. Newell Dwight Hills


Easter. For those who journey on
with empty arms and treasures lost
this is the golden day of the year.
The immortal hope clothes the over
arching sky with splendor. Those
who have waited long for a voice
that is silent and the sound of the
step that is still, will today recover
faith and courage. Again memory
waves her hand, and through our
tears we behold the glorious company
of fathers and mothers and little chill
dren, of merchants and jurists, and
noble citizens. Faith whispers, They
shall not return to us, but we shall
go to Them" Tonight when the day
is done, many will sit in the fading
twilight and the open window, with
Monica and Augustine, and look long
and silently into the open skies, while
they ask, What are our beloved dead
doing, yonder, beyond the star fires %
For the noble army of dead, the paths
of glory led but to the grave, but be-
yond the path of light leads up the
happy hills of God. Soon also the
grave will be digged for our feet;
but so rich is this good world,-So
wondrous the rewards that follow
work.. industry. books, friendship and
du;y,-So marvellous the achieve,
ments of genius, through tools and
arts and wisdom, that one longs to
postpone death and behold the Golden
very thought that soon we must leave
these familiar scenes brims the eyes
with tears. Now comes this glorious
Easter morn, like an angel with wings
of healing, and with messages of de-
light.
The Meaning of The Homing Instinct.
For men of vision, the world is the
Fathers house, and death is entering
the other room. Dying is home
going. This homing instinct also is
mans earliest. latest and profoundest
instinct. Inexpugnable is this immor-
tai hope. No white clover field ever
allured honey bees as the unseen
realm allures and holds the thoughts,
of philosopher, poet and sage. So
powerful is it's hold, that sometimes
the thought of Immortality seems like
an unconscious recalling of that i'm
perial palace whence we came, "a
recollection of 1.-The glories we have
known" Heaven tugs hard at the
heart strings. The souls summer land
Influences hope as the magnetic pole
holds the needle. UniverSalS also the
homing instinct. The birds feel it,
and when the October days are come,
they plume their wings for the long
flight to the far-off Southern lands.
where the sun ever falls on sweet
flower-beds. The traveller, lingering
in some foreign land feels it, and at
last, unable to postpone his return
longer, he goes down to the seashore,
and with exultant heart strains his
eyes toward that horizon where sea
and sky meet and stretches out his
hands toward those who are hidden
irons sight, but who still live. Witness
the homing instinct as illustrated in
Xcnophon's Ten Thousand The he
role band were left without a leader
in the heart of the enemy's country.
Mountains, deserts, deep rivers, sepa-
Oh n
miles through the enemy'S country lay
before them. Then they took up their
march toward home. Enemies as
sailed them by day. All night long
the arrows fell increasingly. Hunger
and cold and sickness fought them. |
Fleeing through the forests, boughs
tore the face and hands. One day,
the ragged heroes stood on the top
of a HILL and looked down upon the
blue water. In that hour, they shout |
ed, THE Sea, the sea- Beyond lay
Athens. and the homeland. What |
supported them in their Journey |
across that continent? That which |
supports every soul in its journey
across the continent of the years.
the homing instinct. Therefore, when |
Tcnnyson was approaching his death, |
and was to describe his going away |
from this world, he used these words: |
when that which drew from out the |
boundless deep,
Turns again home
The Desire to Meet the Noble Dead. |
The homing instinct also explains |
mans desire to meet the noble dead. |
Deeply earnest minds long to visit old |
cities, the ruins of Pyramids and |
Parthenons, ancient castles and much |
more the galleries, the museums and
cathedrals. that assemble the treas |
ures of the world. Deeper still tGt
n great
statesman, or Prime Minister, or the
general who has led a nation to VIC
tory. For the great soul that lives, |
makes the great dead pile or stone
seem petty and contemplate. VINO
then shall measure the desire to be- 4
hold all the good and great who have
lived and made our laws, won our lb-
critics, written our songs, and GRIM |
soned the banners with their .lfe-
blood. Even Socrates felt this just
before he took the cup of poison ne
exclaimed, IF death is a removal to
another place, and if all the dead are
there, what greater blessing can there
be than dying?" At what price would |
you not estimate meeting with Or
pheus and Homer? What price would |
not one pay for the chance of 1ues-
tioning that Agamemnon who led his |
army against Troy? Or indeed. to
meet ten thousand others that on"
might mention, both of men and Wo-
men, For the scholar who lived !
life of prayer, and stood every moral
test as it came, heaven meant an OBJ
portunity of meeting the good and
great and engaging in refined talk and
glorious conversation. Sometimes orr
earth seems poor. Gone or going the
great Of this generation, both for
America and England. Death SPOTS
the cities of their richest treasures. as
the soldiers stripped the Parthcncn
of its richest marbles. Joyodsly we |
turn our thoughts towards same ca
thedral named st. Marks or st.
Peters. But infinitely more aiIurine
the thought of that noble army of
great souls who have lived upon the
earth, and kept the faith, and then
have dropped the tool. the song, the
law, the liberty. and left tho battle
field, and now have entered in to the
home land, where the wicked cease
from troubling and the weary are al
rest.
Immortality aud Our Beloved Dead.