Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-08-17
BELIEF IN LIFE HEREAFTER.
BY Rev. Edwin w. Casw,


Life, it is~said, Is not ay"blind alley"
but a thoroughfare death, a bend in
the road that stretches on through the
undiscovered country. Belief in God
and in the future life makes men pa
tient in suffering, hopeful in despair,
calm under calumny, philanthroplc,
self-sacriflcing, patriotic and heroic
1t has inspired the greatest classics In
literature Moses, Homer, Virgil, Dan
tie, Goethe, Bunyan, Milton, all write Of
heroes living beyond the present life
The chief discoveries and inventors
first saw by faith the invisible world
Socrates, Calico, Copernicus, Newton,
Faraday, Watt, Fulton, Morse and Edi-
son, the nearer they approached the
Creator in their vast researches the
more they believed the future to be a
life for the adjustment of inequalities,
for the continuance of development, Of
studies and discoveries and for the re-
union OF souls.
The tendency of those who decry the
future as so predetermined as to be un-
practical is to Sink down into material
ism and animalism, desiring only food,
fire, clothing and housing, reducing life
to getting a living" whereas life here
is only the husk OF the life beyond, the
corn, the husk being valuable till the
corn Is garnered.
Christ's great power over mankind
was because he truthfully exclaim-
ed: 81 am the resurrection and the
life" Without the resurrection Chris
tianity would have persisted at its
birth. Other religious worship ut the
tomb of dead leaders, while Christcn-
dom exclaims: II know that my Re
deemer liveth." Humanity eyeryw here
Graves life. Browning beautifully says
No life that breathes with human breath
Has ever truly longed for death;
IT'S life whereof our lives are scant,
| o life, not death, for which we pant;
More life and fuller, that / want.
Is not Immortality really here and
now and time but a fragment of the
whole life? We are passing through
! eternal atmospheres, as the earth
through air unconsciously while the
eclipse of death Is only shadowy
cloud before the light of the morning.
Life should mean amending bliss or
1t is not worth living. The gates Of
! God must open or all is a failure. Life
must mean cheer, stereotyped in time
for us and JOY for ever more.
If character dies, it is the catastro-
phe of the universe, the failure of ere
alton, the fall of the Godhead and the
enforcement of chaos. Then the phys
| teal becomes grander than the spirit
ual. The sequoias of the Yosemite and
the rocks from which they grow, be-
come nober than man, the MASTERPIECES
of God.
Ian MacLaren once said Let us re
nforce this world with the world
which Is to come
Lift off the roof from your low, mar
row cottage, let the higher world in.
| The soul needs air from its native
skies
Think of the millions who have sin,
poverty, want, disease, loss, bereaye-
I IbNAll anu HctItl lIidlS lOl
their portion in the present life,
Though multitude of philanthropies
are organized to relieve such suffering,
Gods mightiest philanthropy. the hope
OF eternal life, is greater than all hui
mantariau agencies and alone makes
life worth living.
Robert Ingersoll said he did not be-
lieve in living here on skim milk that
be might have cream in heaven, but
Paul explained Il have suffered the
loss Of all things that | might win
Christ and the crown" Jesus himself
endured the cross for the joy that was
set before him, and now awaits our
coming TO his many mansioned home,
where we may have life more abun-
dainty"
This world cannot satisfy the long
iags OF the soul any more than a cage
can satisfy a bird with wings Life
is truly called a voyage, a journey, u
dressing room, a yestibule, and there
fore must have a destination, a home,
palace in the capital city Of all
worlds.