The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-23

Life in God. Christian life, the true life and eternal life are all one; they all hold together like the links of a chain. Every pure and normal mani- festation of this life in which we are, must reveal the permanent reality that is hidden under our visible exist ence, and thus prepare us to live in the invisible. to seize hold of that reality, of which all that is seen, that is touched. that comes under our com prehension. Is only It's fragile. symbol That is why one action of spiritual life, even If 1t only lasted for a day or an hour, would nevertheless stand pre- euafnent above the most lasting and most gigantic displays of mechanical force. Eternity is not in the number of centuries. but in the things them selves and their inner worth. The blow of a club proves nothing against dis armed reason; a cannon shot proves nothing against defeated justice. and death proves nothing against the spir- 1t To destroy has never established a superiority of the destroyer over the one destroyed. The most frail frag- ment of ideal beauty shattered by brutal hands is none the less of the domain of that which endures. If man could only realize, could only compre- bend, for one moment what overflow ing life and victorious reality are con- tained in the slightest action, the slightest intention of pure kindness, he would see the word of deliverance written in letters of fire even in the insolent triumph of hatred, of tyrran- | ny, of evil in all its aspects.
 Christ has not said T will give again life to whoever believes in me-" but He who believes in me will not die;" and He himself did not look up- on eternal life as a kind of posthu- nous reward-He speaks of 1t as of a conquest to seize hold of now, at the present moment, and that nothing can take away from us. We do not hear Him say: q once possessed life when I was with the Father. and this life will be given back to me when certain mysterious events have been accom- plished In my person" BL such as he was, living a human life, He calls him. self the resurrection and the life, thus asserting the unbreakable link, the absolute continuity between what we are and what we will be. If we add to this declaration that in which Christ said: Abide in me, and I will abide in you" and many others that establish the fact of higher life. im- perishable and divine, that Is possible in us from today heneeforth, we are led to understand that eternal life is not reserved for us in some far-off star after the lapse of a long space of time or after a long annihilation, but that we begin to live right now. God in us, that Is the beginning of eternal life, and It's accomplishment is that he should live in us more and more. We belong to him in this visible existence and under these known shapes; we will remain Ills in the invisible existence and under the shapes that arc un- known to us.
 Our fathers said, when one of them died: He has gone to God" But as God is everywhere, and that it Is in Him that we have life and our benig to go to God Is not to make journey,
 since he is closer to us than our own
 selves. If man knew how near God
 Is, he would be delivered forever from
 the dread. from the fear, the shudder- ing aversion that he has of the final darkness, and he would say with per feet rejoicing in the destruction of his physical being: 70 Death, where is
 thy sting, o Grave, where is thy vic- tory? Eternal life in the gospel. is
 more the object of an experience than
 belief. Under this guise. the energy that which is inparted by the strong
 est hope. Its consoling power Is also
 increased.
 It is in God that we have life. Tn
 Him also we remain united to those
 whom we have lost. One and all, we
 are in the hands of God, and it be-
 comes possible to us to believe not
 only in next meeting. but In some-
 thing of which the most joyful reup-
 ion is only the weak image. Our eyds.
 our ears, all our organs or intercourse
 are only imperfect means by which we
 manage to establish between ourselves
 and those we love a connection that is
 always relative. Separation always
 exists. Dispersion, parting, division,
 such is the lot of temporal life. We
 aspire to union, without ever attain
 ing it. But then we will be one, as
 God will be one with us, and all in all.
 It will be the accomplishment of that
 holy and sublime desire of union that nothing that is mortal can assuage.
 and that man carries in, his very be-
 ing, like a divine stranger filled with
 regret for his mother country.
 My brethren, these days in which we live are overwhelmed by the con-
 sciousness of their emptiness. It
 seems that the very greatness of their
 works. by crushing them down, in-
 creases the extent of our shipwreck.
 Like vanishing races, we only engen-
 der for death. The courage of hope
 departs from us. Death looms up ev-
 erlastingly before our eyes Most of
 us believe that 1t is the alpha and
 omega, that to 1t belongs the king
 dom the power and the glory. Weaned
 from the vivifying source that comes
 down from the immortal summits, we
 fall on the wayside. as Ismael, the son
 of Agar. the Egyptian, fell in the des-
 ert. When will the angel of God show
 us the hidden spring, close to us, that
 no one suspects?
 Thou who have trodden the dust and
 lived through our nights, Thou who
 hath laid with us In the grave so that
 it should be less gloomy. mild victim
 of Cavalry, Man of Sorrows, Unspeak-
 able Greatness that our souls perceive
 through the form of religious symbols,
 Eternal Living One! Come and speak
 to us words of life. Sound the revellle
 from our torpor and our weariness,
 make us hear 1t in our prisons and
 our graves, and may all that is di-
 vine in us start up and rise in a holy
 insurrection against death and it's con
 spirators, for life and all its coven-
 ants