Omaha daily bee., 1906-04-08

ter. Forgetting that the day was world
festival among all who worshipped at the
shrine CT the ancient Teutonic goddess OF
spring, the church has claimed this ami
versary for her own. Despite the fact that
Moses and Job each held brief for immor-
tality, the Investigations of men prior to
the discovery by the weeping women at the
tomb are pronounced meaningless Macau-
ley declares the browning glory Of Chris
tiarity to be that 1t has wiped the tears
from the eyes which had failed with wake
fitness and sorrow; lent celestial visions to
those dwelling under matched roofs and
shed victorious tranquility upon those who
have seen the shades Of death closing
around them" Frederick w. Robertson,
the most brilliant of British clergymen,
whose early death is an insoluble mystery,
once closed a sermon with the words:
Search through tradition, history, the
world within you and the world without
except in Christ there is not the shadow
of a shade of proof that man survives the
grave"
where Easter Sermon Fails.
These statements illustrate the idea with
which the church celebrates Easter, and
the method, purpose and argument of the
Easter sermon as 1t is. AS the year re-
wolves toward Easter, the drama Of the
journey to Jerusalem, the passion of
Gethsemane and the tragedy of the cross
are reviewed Lent, with subdued call,
bids men cease from strife and contests,
pursuit of JOY and love of laughter, 70
contemplate the fact of death. Then Easter
comes with its flowers, music and ex-
hortaton to persuade us that there is no
such thing as death. The arguments of the
sermon are based upon the open tomb.
the weeping women, the mystiied disciples
and the temperance of the crucihed
prophet who called Himself, and whom l
believe to be, the Son OF God. The failure
of the average Easter sermon is that II
deals with the resurrection as an episode
in history and not as a manifestation of
God ever in the world It's weakness is
the ATTEMPT to base the solution Of the
most portentous problem of human life
upon the credibility of a single event. I'M
mortality is Of supreme Importance 70
Christianity The loss of Jesus of Nazareth
would be a calmity, the loss Of the idea of
| immortality would be catastrophe to hui
manity, II man Is not immortal then IL is
not material whether there be a God or
! conscience, a heaven or a hell. Without
| immortality the incarnation and atonemenr
are not worthy of discussion; and the per-
son of Jesus becomes merely a beautiful
I figure upon the canvass of iife without
| motive or propulsion. Credible as we may
regard their testimony, TO rest the case OF
/ Immortality upon the evidence Of the
eleven apostles, the weeping women and the
500 or more disciples. is to place it upon
dsputable ground. The crediblty of the
resurrection hinges for proof upon argu-
ments for Immortality. rather than does the
question OF immortality depend upon the
fact Of the resurrection for its solution.
The church must always deserve the tri-
butte OF Macauley, but fOreshadoWings of
the labor Of science indicate that the state
/ ment OF Robertson will not be regarded in
the future as historically true.
Hope in Science.
F. W. II. Meyers. in his massive and
fascinating work entitled. Human Per
sonality and Its Survival OF Bodily Death"
asserts that man has never yet applied
the method OF science to the problem OF
his own survival OF bodily DEATH" and this
is true. Again he says: IF a spiritual
world exists. and II that world has. at any
epoch, been manifest or even discoverable.
then Il ought 10 be manifest or discoverable
now" Reaching forward from this premise
he gains conclusion that seems sure and
reasonable, and which must at least COM
mand the serious attention. II not the en-