Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-11-16


sooner did Queen Victoria OF England
breathe her last than the Prince OF
Wales became king. Aye. man shall
live on longer than that He will live
on through the centuries and the mil
lenniums ana the ages. He will live
on until the considerations of the heav-
ems shall be snufTed out. He will live
on until the very rocks under our feet
crumble into dust with age and the
mountains above MS are Moderated
and scattered to the four corners OF
space. still man will live on. He viii
live forever and ever lie will never
die. When God created man he made
him immortal, as he is immortal
Wonderful Fact.
This Immortality OF man is the most
wonderful fact to me about man, for
when / try TO fully grasp what that
one word immortality" means 1 feel
as though mighty mountain ranges
were towering one above another into
endless space. When try TO conceive
that man, with all his powers OF love
and hate. joy and suffering, will live
on and on forever. then say, "Now
realize why the salvation Of man was
50 lIuDOIl0nl lDdl N@nIlSl CstliiC hClC W
suffer and die to achieve it." Immor-
tally! oh. what world AS bird 1t
can fly swifter than the light, yet its
wings never tire. Those wings will
continue to fly on forever and ever.
''The wandering Jew" that Eugene Sue
pictures was condemned on account of
a past sin to live on until he outlived
all his generation. He lived on. suf-
fering the agonies of remorse. until he
begged God to let him die. But man
does not live on as did the great char
acter OF the French novelist. IL man
sins and is condemned for his sins, he
must suffer an eternal punishment. He
may plead with God to let him die, as
the wounded soldier sometimes pleads
with his comrades to shoot him to
end his agony. but man by his inherent
nature can never die. Man Is immortal
Man will live on and on forever.
To prove to you that man is immortal
we do not have to turn the leaves OF
the Bible alone We find that this in
finite truth is Unborn in every human
heart. We wander among the tombs
Of the ancient Greeks, and what do we
find? A piece of coin placed in the
mouths OF the dead to pay their way
over the river Styx, for the ferryman
of the river of Death was supposed to
be paid, like every other ferryman. We
90 among the ancient Arabs, and what
do we find? The mourners about this
corpse are not saying ''He is dead" but
"He is alive" We pass to the inhabit-
ants of the islands of the seas, and
to the Aztecs of ancient Mexico, and to
the old mound builders of America,
and everywhere we find the universal
belief that the grave does not end ali.
Now, my friends. do you believe that
this universal belief OF the human race
In the immortality of man is mere
superstition? Listen to these words of
Henry Ward Beecher; would have
each one OF them burn itself into your
soul: 81 never saw man who did not
believe in the Immortality OF love when
following the body OF n loved one to
the grave. ] have seen men under 9th
er circumstances that did not believe
| in II, but 1 never saw Il man who. when
| he stood looking upon the form of one
| that he really loved stretched out for
| burial, did not revolt from saying: IT
! has all come to that The hours OF
sweet companionship. the wondrous in.
terlacing OF congenial souls. the joys,
the hopes. the trusts, the unutterable
yearnings-there they all lie.' No man
| can stand and look in coffin upon the
body of fellow creature and remem.
Der the flaming intelligence, the bios
soming love. the whole range OF divine
faculties, which so lately animated
that cold clay. and say, These have al
collapsed and gone No person car
witness the last sad ceremonials which
are performed over the remains OF =
human being. the scaling down OF tho
unopenable lid, the following OF the
rumbling procession TO the place OF
burial. the letting of the dust down
into the dust. the falling of the eartt
upon the hollow coffin, with those
sounds which arc worse than thunder
and the placing OF the green sod over
the grave-no person, unless he be 9
beast, can witness these things and
then turn away and say, Il have buried
my wtfe;--I have buried my child;
have buried my sister. my brother, my
love- No, nc. No man can say that
Deep down In every heart there is {
divine truth calling which cannot b,
stilled" At the brink OF the grave
above all PAGES. we know It, Man
like God. is immortal. Suns may ris,
and set. but man shall live. Stars MAJ
flicker and 20 out, but man shall live.
But man is made after tins image O,
God in another respect. The grea
Creator OF the universe has made man
n ruler and Il creator also. In his own
sphere man is like king upon his
throne. lie is n free agent. He can
rule his own domain as he wills. He
can do right or do wrong. He can gov
ern well or govern badly. He can
build or he can destroy. In figurative
sense, no one can. say him nay. Let
me try to illustrate my thought by
some OF the ordinary happenings of
everyday life.
Man is a ruler in a material sense.
You cannot think of a king without a
material kingdom. Man, the ruler, has
his material throne. God gave him do
minion over the fish of the sea, over
the fowls OF the air and over every liv-
ing thing. Literally, has not this con-
i ception been fulfilled? Has not man
become master OF all that flies in the
air. and swims in the sea, and walks
upon the land? Aye. has not man
learned how to make the very elements
fulfill his purposes? The mammal is
stronger, but man Is his king. The
tiger is swifter, the fox shrewder, the
hawk keener eyed; the eagle, with flap
OF wing, mounts and disappears into
the blue abyss above, but man is king.
The mighty limbed African lion, with
wild roar, makes the forest echo and