The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-11-16

slnned and as penalty were con-
demned to suffer physical death. In
this way death was fastened upon the
human race. Death, being part of
sin s penalty, is an abhorrent evil, the
last great enemy of mankind. This
is one picture of death which the
bible gives and which even the Apos-
tie Paul, as well as the Book of Gen
esis, mirrored.
But we find not the slightest hint
of such dismal doctrine in the
words of Jesus. That sin, persisted
in, will quench the germ of spiritual
life. is clearly stated by Him. Spirit
ual death was to Jesus a terrible
menace, but the dissolution of the
human body was i; His mind so nat
ural that he took pains to call death
a sleep, - Iebuke with sternness con
ventional symbols of mourning and to
prove that death is a mere accident in
man s real life by summoning back to
the inanimate body the spirit, first, of
Jairus daughter; second, of the wild
ow's son, and, third, of Lazarus.
Whatever opinion anyone may cherish
of these stories of termination, wheth
er he thinks them actual occurrences
or not, they make Jesus point of view
all the clearer. That is what they are
in the narrative To show
We now know that Jesus and not
Paul is right. Physical death is just
as much necessary and benefeent de-
tail of our career as sleep. Death is
part of Nature Shat is, God IS
scheme, being involved in the very
constitution of all living organisms.
Every life embodied in material form
has been evolved to provide for its
own death. If Jesus view of death
as the sister of sleep should come to
prevail everywhere on earth it would
be one of the noblest boons that man
kind could receive. The greatest seers
jhave beheld this truth and have sung
with Wordsworth. "Death is the quiet
haven of US all''-haven, the home
port that holds our hopes. Death is
our Primal Mothers lullaby that
wooes the child to the rest from which
the fuIl-g grown man may awaken.
Whenever it come, teach your soul to
welcome it as a friend, not to dread it
as foe.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews
pictures Jesus as delivering "all them
who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage. "
He had the right to entertain this
brilliant expectation, and if the
Church had not befouled its Master ;
teaching with heathenism, that would
have been the glowing story of Chris
tendon. 1t certainly is a strange
phenomenon that meets Us when
we pads from the brute to the man.
Prof. Shaler, in his book, ''The Indi-
vidual. pointed out this distinction
with great elearness. Animals have no
dread of death. They fear danger, an
organic fear bred in them by the great
evolutionary forces that make for life.
These organic fears may be studied in
the child. But with the rise of the
power to think in man, the dread of
danger is concentrated upon that IN
eseapable event. death.
Mans earliest religion Intensified
this fear. All Nature was peopled
with powers. the wind, sun, trees,
mountains, rivers all had their animal
inc spirits. Accidental violent death
suqR as was due to lightning or sun
stroke. drowning, cyclone or ava
lanehe was looked upon as caused by
the spirits animating the thunder
cloud. sun. ocean, river, wind-storm
and mountain. Nature s forces seem
ed malevolent to savage man, hence
these spirits were thought OF as
hostile Thus the idea Of demons rose
70 fright men. Death. the great IN
known realm and the devil became the
dominant human bugbears- Dream
land. which revealed to early man the
realm where the dead lived again,
only intensified the dread mystery.
An open-minded study Of Jesus
words and deeds shows US absolute
freedom in Him from all this super
stirion. He had not the slightest fear
If death or demon. His disciples were
told plainly that neither of these had
any power over them On the one
hand He cried Death is sleep the
lzinaliest gift of God. On the other
Il beheld Satan fallen as lightning
from heaven the devil IS ended
From our Lord 5 day there has been
absolutely no reasonable place IN the
mind of the Christian for dread OF
70 %