Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-08

LIVE AGAIN?' Job xiv IA.
spirit is more than a function of the body,
and that 1t outlives the body
Third. Mans earthly life requires fu-
ture life for It's completion. We have seen
the little child sicken and die and have
felt that a bud of promise has been nipped
by the untimely frost. We have seen the
youth, full of JOY and hope, just ready to
enter upon manhood's duties. fall suddenly
at his post and we have mourned that the
world has lost another possible servant
We have seen the business man, pushing
forward his enterprises and accommodating
riches. cut down before his plans were half
executed. We have seen the scholar, after
years of patient preparation, laid low In
death when the stores of learning were
about to be opened for the benefit of man
kind These all were unfinished lives. How
many of all the departed lived long enough
to make a united. symmetrical and COM
plete career? Are not all lives appropriate
ly symbolized by the broken shaft of the
cemetery? Besides. the Irregularities, con-
tradictions and uncertainties of this state
are numerous and inexplicable when con-
sidered by themselvs. One man, born In
poverty, devotes his life to labor and dies
in want Another comes up In luxury, lives
in ease is buried in pomp. One suffers be-
meath the wrongs of another, who
prospers upon ill-gotten gains. The wicked
sometimes flourish and the righteous are
often denied the comforts of life. Who
can understand these things from the
viewpoint of time? Who can look on the
unequal lot of man and affirm that there Is
any right or wrong, that there is any Or
der in nature. or any logical sequence in
events? AS the apostle said: IF In this
life only we have hope we are of all men
most miserable" Our earthly lives are
dreams and plays and mysteries until the
doctrine of the future state is accepted. In
the light and hope Of another world this is
a time of discipline and all shall be made
plain hereafter.
Fourth The confessions OF infidels con-
firm our faith In the spirits existence after
the body's dissolution. Tnomas Paine once
wrote: 81 content myself with believing
even to positive conviction, that the power
which gave me existence is able to continue
that existence in any form and manner he
nlaases either with or without the body;
and it appears TO me more probable that
shall continue to exist than that I should
have had existence, as now have it. before
that existence began The dying Altamont
said: my soul is full powerful to reason,
full mighty to suffer. and that whichthus tri-
umphs in the jaws of mortality must De
Immortal" And then he adds: "Remorse
for the past throws my thoughts on the
future: worse dread of the future strikes
and find no ray. Dldst thou feel half the
mountain that is on me, thou wonidst strus-
gle with the martyr for his stake and bless
heaven for the flame that is everlasting.
Who can believe that a soul wrought mp
into such intense agony. with al Its powers
so terribly auickened, and with its dying
confessions and dreadful anticipations st'li
on the lips, shall suddenly drop into non
existence? Nav. these are but the souls as
sartions of its undying nature.
Fifth. The triumphant words of the right
eous in dying afrord a still stronger proof OF
a future life Paurs exultant cry Is far1ll-
tar TO aIl--"I have finished my course, L
have kept the faith Henceforth there Is laid
up for me crown of righteousness which
the Lord, the righteous judge. shall give me
at that day" Stephen the first martyr,
exclaimed, Lord Jesus receive my spirit"
In every land and in every age stout hearts
have gone to the dungeon. the stake and
the block without faitering, steadfastiy be-
lleving that they were about to enter into
life Were these men deluded2 Were they
sustained by a faith that had no founda-
ton? 1t is impossible for US to accept sueh
INTERPRETATION OF these phenomenal lives
that ended In glorious deaths. The best OF
humanity has stepped into what some have
regarded the impenetrabie darkness. and
with holy Joy depicted upon their faces
have declared that they were passing into
a better world than this. To deny the real
fly of such faith would be to blot out the
brightest hopes of the grandest men
Thus we see that reason alone, without
consulting the sacred page. enables US 10
turn the question of our text into an AFR
.,,r IF a man die he shall live again.
This is the dim dawn. the twilight of our
lava the yestibuie OF being. Beyond
the grave is life. real and glorious iife' un-
measured by the flight OF years"