Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-11-23
BELIEF IN IMMORTAL LIFE.
BY Rev. John P. J

And their words seemed to them as
Idle tales, and they believed them not.
Luke "a IL.
1t is a very difficult thing for most
men to grasp spiritual realities. We
touch and taste and hear and see the
material That Is the thing which con-
stantly forces Itself on our physical
senses. 1t has been very hard for men
to grasp the conception Of life In
which these bodies have no part
From the outset Christian teachers
opposed the physical and material con-
ception Of life here and hereafter. From
the outset they taught the resurrection
of the dead as fundamental tenet of
the faith-the glory Of the faith In
Christ. But man asked about details.
How would they liver What sort Of
bodies should they have hereafter? If
these bodies were corrupted and de-
stroyed In the grave, how could they be
raised to life? You remember st. PauPs
answer in that famous fifteenth chapter
Of First Corinthians, which we read
over the bodies of our dear ones when
we consign them to the grave. The
corruption and decay Of these bodies
shall no otherwise affect the life Of
your spirits than corruption and death
affect the seeds which you plant In the
earth.
The real thing Is the idea, the
thought, the spirit. The thing on which
you can lay your hands, the thing
which you can define with mathemat-
ical precision, the thing which you can
photograph, is but the passing express
sion. This seems like an idle tale to
men who cannot free themselves from
the hampering materialism Of their sur
roundings. Such men mournfully toss
aside the realities as unreal, because
they are not susceptible Of that proof
Of the senses which they are wont to
apply in their dealings with material
expressions. They have not developed
those higher powers Of their nature
which respond to the spiritual some
what in the same way In which the
senses respond to the material.
What a glory belief In the resurrec-
tion gives to life! The tasks which
seem to me so irksome and sometimes
SO needless are preparation for a
work that My Father has prepared for
me in another mansion of His great
house, just as the school child's tasks
are the preparation for the greater and
broader work Of maturer life when he
shall be fit to share his fathers post
and his fathers labor.
The pains and sorrows which befall
US here and often seem so unjust, TAX
ing the joy out of our lives, are like the
pains and ills Of the child, which make
his life unhappy for day that they
may cure him Of some Illness, remedy
some defect in his organism or strength
en- the little spirit within, making it
braver and truer and purer. Our very
partings lose their unutterable sadness
and tend in their turn to make life
more glorious when 1t becomes clear to
us that God has taken those we love to
put them in place which He has pre-
pared; that they are only over the
threshold in the next room, busy and
happy in life full Of interest and JOY.
To dwell on thoughts like these, to
have the seal of faith set upon the
hopes and yearnings Of our nature, to
be told that those yearnings and those
aspirations were not given to us by
God In vain, but that they might in
due time find their realization-this
faith ennobles the very sources of our
being. 1t has been the proud concep-
ton Of man as expressed, for example,
In the old Hebrew scriptures, growing
stronger the more men progressed in in
telligence and control over themselves
and the universe about them, that we
are different from the rest of creation.
We are the crown Of creation to which
all the rest leads up. This thought
takes on new and nobler character as
a result Of that doctrine Of immortal
| life which Jesus brought to men.