The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1907-12-13
EIks Memorial Address.

AT the ElkS Memorial service held
last Sunday in the lodge room of the
order in this city, the following excel
lent Memorial address was delivered
by Rev. J. c. s. Wells, rector of Trim
ity Episcopal church:
Exalted Ruler, Brothers and Friends:
Before speaking words bearing upon
the lives of those of our brothers who
have died during the year it may be
fitting to make some remarks upon a
subject that is very closely allied to
their departure, viz: that of an after
life.
Some scientists in our day teach
that there is no inherent difference
between mind and matter-that the
acts and operations which we call
mental and spiritual, and the acts and
operations which we call physical are
produced by the same ultimate forces.
They tell us that the phenomena of
mind and the phenomena of matter be-
long to and are produced by the same
substance or final force. In other
words that physiology and psychology
treat of different branches of the same
subject-that thought and mental Volt
ton is a process of the same nature
as digestion and proceeds from the
same source. .........
This denial of the difference between
mind and matter is of far-reaching
consequence. 1t makes thought, love
and friendship the outcome of chem
ical change in matter and conscience
nothing more than function or pro-
duct of the nervous system.
Upon such theory our personal
conscious life must depend wholly
upon the mortal body, and becomes an
absolutely earthly and mortal thing,
an iridescence-a wave soon to sink
again into the flood of waters.
Prof. Clifford so thought and ex.
pressed himself in the epitaph that he
wrote and desired placed upon the
marble marker over his grave, which
was, Re.
81 Was Not; Lived; l Loved; !
| Am Not" r.
He overlooked the fact that to write
that epitaph required the existence
within matter of that which was more
powerful than matter and could and
did govern and control it. a
The being who can leave behind
him his own epitaph is able to dc
what no dissolving star can do for
itself on the armament of heaven
When Prof. Clifford wrote, 81 Loved
between the words Il Was Not" and
the words Il Am Not" he gave con
tradiction of meaning, for that which
has the power to love, the power to
know, the power to reason and the
power to will carries with it the at,
tributes of eternal and everlasting
| life. 1t works through matter but II
is of a realm that is far above it.
How it raises man in the scale OF
creation, and the life that he lives
when he believes in a personal God
and in an immortal spirit within him
self. What a glow and fullness II
gives to have the consciousness that
there is within these earthly bodies
that which is as eternal as God him,
self. How it raises man in altitude
and extends his vision, throws light
upon many of life's changes, takes
away the terror Of separation, and
gives comforting assurance to every
heart bending under the loneliness OF
grief.
Clifford's life of the present is ex,
tended into the far future. And his
epitaph over the grave should be
changed into, Here lies what was the
earthly home Of an immortal spirit.
Instead of the materialism popular
with some we need for the uplifting
of the heart a diviner consciousness
of God and deeper conception of the
truth that human life is but divine life
manifested in human form-that the
Joy of the human soul when 1t rises
to its highest tide is but the reaching
out of one life to that of another of
its kind.
What is conscience but Gods voice