The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-10-02
IS DEATH THE End?
Or, If a Man Dies Shall He Live
Again.
Thc Aearning After Perfection is the
Souls Prophecy Of its Own Immor-
tality,


truth of Immortality may be found
in the nobility of behavior it inspir-
es. The idea that man is but
''The pilgrim Of the day.
Spouse Of the worm and brother
of the clay.
Frail as the leaf in Autumn's yel-
low bower,
Dust in the wind CIR dew upon the
flower.
A child without a sire
Whose mortal life and transltory
fire,
Light to the grave his chance crea-
ted form,
AS ocean wrecks illuminate the
storm. "
And them
Tonight and silence sinks forev-
ermoreW does not kindle great deeds
and strength for any sublime endeav-
or. Cicero said of the Eplcurean
creed that it was utterly to be re-
jected because it led to nothing wor-
thy or generous.
If death ends all, what an impos-
ture our system Of laws on which So
ciety is founded! If we must wholly
perish. the maxims Of charity and
justice and the precepts Of honor and
friendship are empty words. Why
should they be binding if in this life
only we have hope? What duty dc
we owe to the dead. to the living OF
to ourselves, if all will be moth; g!
If retribution terminates with the
grave, morality is 6. bugbear Of hui
man invention. What are the sweet
ties of kindred if we shall not live
again? What sancity is there to the
last wish Of the dying if death is a
wall instead of a door? What is OBJ
edience to laws but an insane servi-
tude, justice an unwarrantable in
fringement upon liberty, the laws Of
marriage vain scruple, and govern
ment an imposition upon credulity,
if death ends all?
There was one nation and only one
that ever tried to destroy belief in
God and in Immortality. France de-
creed in national convention that
there was no God and death an eter-
nal sleep. The Sabbath was abolish.
ed, churches were turned into tenn
pies of reason, the Bible was drag
ged along the streets by way of de-
rision and contempt. Infdelity then
reigned and frightful was its reign.
Its crown was terror, its throne the
guillotine, its scepture the battleaxe,
it's palace yard a field of blood, and
it's royal robes dripped with human
gore. Cutters were filled with the
torn shre6s of human flesh. Prop
erty was confscated. The morning
breeze and evening wind bore across
the vine-clad hills Of France the cries
of suffering and the shrieks of ter
ror, and to carry the metropolis and
the kingdom from utter desolation
the infdel authorities had to insti-
tute the Sabbath and public wor-
ship. Were the belief in God and
Immortality to die cut in the human
heart, the food-gates Of vice would
open wide, plunge the world into
the grave despair, and consign
hurnanitv dungeons Of the
damned.
Ali the .re ,e : that go to prove
the exist, oce Ida God endow-
ed with 81 tributes Is are essen
tial to our very conception of His
character, point out the moral nee
essity of a future state of existence
and inequalities of the present NOR
al government will not only be re-
dressed, but the whole will be shown
to be hol y and righteous.
There is sin and there is punish
ment for sin, which we daily wit
ness. But there is not for all sin
such a reckoning in this world as
meets the claims Of righteousness
and justice. Do we not see evil do
ings go undetected and many bad
men pass unpunished? See how often
the righteous suffer and the wicked
flourish. When we take a deliberate
view we are naturally led to exclaim:
Wherefore do the wicked live. be-
come old, yea, are mighty in power?
Is there no reward for the right
eous? Is there no punishment for
the workers of iniquity? Is there no
God that judgeth in the earth?'!
And indeed were there no retribu-
tion beyond the limits Of this present
life, we should be necessarily oblig-
ed To admit one or the other Of the
foilo."ing conclusions: Either that
no Moral Governor Of the world ex-
lists or that justice and judgment
are not the habitations of His throne.
II the moral government of God,
the existence of which our expert
ence avouches, is eyer to have its ad-
ministrations perfected and wrought
to 9. complete actualizing of its own
manifest principles, it can only be in
another state Of existence, and the
double conclusion presses upon us
hat there is a future life. and that
hat life is one Of rewards and pun
shrnent.
Earthly providence is a travesty of
Justice on any other theory than that
t is a preliminary stage that is to be
followed by rectifcation. God must
n justice to Himself, before the as
embled universe, send the evil-doer
o desolation, and crown suffering
goodness, to show that He was al
Ways on the side o;:: right. Sin is
'ften in honor here, and goodness in
Lishonor, and that God may demon
trate that He is both just and good,
nan must stand again after death.
he crown must be put upon right
BUSINESS and injustice driven to its
wn place, that Justice may again
row bright and the universe rejoice
I its Righteous Ruler.
A future life is needed for the
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