Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-04-10

this our brief Span of 1t, what a JOY
TO live forever, to have eternal life.
Who does not yearn for it with an mex
pressible longing? Must we, with the
stoics, steel our hearts to quitting this
banquet when our summons comes with
a final farewell? Or is there rational
ground for hope Of future life?
Science, as Lord Kelvin affirmed,
tends to support the fact of immortal
ity This it does by the laws of indie
structibility of matter and the conser-
walton of force Not particle Of mat
ter has ever been lost, nor has the
original force in the world ever been
diminished There has been change,
but no loss or destruction. If, then.
matter be indeStructible, how much
more shall not the spirit of which mat
ter is but the servant and slave be in
destructible and immortal.
Nature again is a symbol Of this great
hope. She. too, meets this phenomenon
of death. Her flowers fall, her beauty
fades and winter wraps her in an Icy
shroud as apparently lifeless as the
mausoleums Of our dead. But wait Il
few short months and what do we see?
No sermon ON earth was ever preached
more unanswerable than that proclaim
ed by the fading and reviving of field,
forest and flower.
The being of man is another argu-
ment. Why should his thoughts go out
i'm, rh mfr
Who planted within his heart this in
tense longing? Whether God or ma
ture it was not meant to taunt us with
lie.
Another proof arises from the nature
Of human love. 1t is at once the ten
derest and most powerful of our facul
ties. And love is stronger than death.
The last look, the last pressure of the
hand of the dying proves 1t undimin-
ished Our own bleeding hearts will
not admit that the ties are severed for
ever They cry out against SO cruel
and unnatural a fate. We follow our
departed beyond the great divide and
our unbroken love forbids US to think
that they, too, do not love US still.
To those Of us who believe in reyela-
ton, who hold that the Father would
not hear all these ages the cry of His
children and give no answer from His
infinite heart, there, Of course, comes
absolutely certain evidence.
This doctrine of immortality Is the
best explanation Of unfinished lives.
How many lives are broken off like
column in the midst? In the very cell
ter of their usefulness, with thou
sand bonds holding them to family.
society, church and state, with wisely
laid plans unaccomplished, they arc
suddenly summoned and must leave all.
Are such lives fragmentary, are they q
failure? No, not in the light Of I'M
mortality. But there in larger sphere
and yaster scale. The high ideals and
plans conceived here shall be wrought
out to a glorious perfection.
Again, the life beyond Is a reassuc-
ance to those doomed to crosses, letters
and infirmities. How hard and unfair
the lot Of man If there be no hereafter
Who can believe that righteous God
to suffer? Aye, no. Justice as we'll as
love demands a continuity Of life be-
yond the present. There fettered minds
will be freed, broken hearts Will be
healed and panied bodies made perfect.
And what an ineXpressible comfort
this faith in a future life, as we grieve
for those who have gone before! They
are not lost but living a larger, better
life. They have not forgotten, but love
us as of yore But let no one, either,
forget the warnings Of this great truth.
We SOW here, we reap there.
Here we make up life's record, there
we are to be judged. God is moral, all
life is under law. AS life here is good
or evil such, blessed or woeful, will be
the life beyond.
SHORT METER SERMONS.
cash oonno4 h11v |ODtpntn1qnf