Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-05-02
THE SPIRIT OF LIFE.

Rev. Alexander 4. Bowser in the Christian
Begi.ter
The spirit of truth and love incarnated
in the Christ is the Christian ideal of man
hood This is the summit of the soul.
His human life in Galiloe has made all
human life divine IL cndows the soul
with new dignity to feel that God is not
only round about his children, but like
wise within them, their abiding Guest,
their Father Thus new hope is born,
a hope full of immortality, whose founda-
tion lies in Jesus thought of the souls
iilial relationship to God, that a common
nature subsists between God and man.
This is no doubt the almost universal be-
lief about Jesus himself Few will deny
that he and the Father were one, that he
was in the Father and the Father in him.
But the essential principle of his religion Is
missed unless we also see in his character
the type or ideal of human attainment,
that he was the "frst born among many
brethren, the beginning of new order
of manhood He never spoke of himself
as being different in nature from other
men, but constantly identified himself
with humanity as its representative; and
there is nothing In his teaching more i'm
portant, nothing more emphatic, than
his conviction that all mankind might
share with him the sublime idea of kinship
TO God and the far-reaching consequences
of human co-partnership with divinity.
The Father, for example, is spirit, and
there is spiritual essence in human
nature; the Father is perfect and
the growth and progress of his sons and
daughters are unlimited; they may aspire
TO God-like attainment. and hope for
infinite development The Fathers love
is houndless and inexhaustible, and His
children may become wholly unselfish
and devoted to goodness and truth, may
learn to love God with all the heart, and
show this love in never-failing service to
the sick and needy The Father dwelt
in the soul of Jesus, he likewise dwells in
every pure heart Jesus was the beloved
son in whom the Father was well pleased
and the happiness of heaven will be in
complete so long as any lost child wanders
from the Fathers house or disregards the
Fathers will The Father is eternal. and
his offspring inherit his immortal nature
Much of current doubt and vagueness
regarding immortality is due to super
fetal and indefinite thinking about God
and our relationship to Him. In place oi
the heavenly Father that Jesus loved. "a
whom he prayed whose will he obeyed
by whose power he did his work anc
spoke his word, there is coming into
vogue a more or less vaguely defined
notion that God is merely a personifcatior
of natures laws, or an impersonal force
behind those laws. But if God is not
the Father of our spirits, if by communion
and loving trust and service we cannot
come into personal relations with Him
then there is no real basis for a rationa
hope Of endless life and it is only a ques
ton Of time when this hope will have dice
out of the soul
There is, however, no danger Of this re
suit God never allows the eternal prin
ciples of religion, that have lifted Hi
children to high ideal attainment anC
| spiritual development to fade from human
consciousness. And if we earnestly cul
tivate faith in Him as our Father, w
shall become as sure that His life animate
our soul, beats in our heart, and inspire
our mind, as we are of any fact of out
ward nature; and, with this conviction
the hope of endless life will well up within
us and grow so real and strong that thu
thought of death will disappear entirel,
from our mind, and our heart will fee
only the touch and thrill of life.
Wilmington Del