Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-04-10

luis Jul oiicL ~pdu OI IL WudL JOY
10 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 fnal 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-
vation 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
fer 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 n
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 reyiving of field
forest and flower.
The being of man Is another argu-
ment. Why should his thoughts go out
in this high quest for a future life?
Who planted within his heart this in
tense longing? Whether God or ma
ture, 1t was not meant to taunt us with
a 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 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 revela-
tlon, 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 a thou.
sand bonds holding them to family,
society, church and state. with wisely
laid plans accomplished, they arc
suddenly summoned and must leave ALL
Are such lives fragmentary, are they
failure? No, not in the light of I'm
mortality. But there in larger sphere
and vaster scale. The high ideals and
plans conceived here shall be wrought
out to a glorious perfection.
Again, the life beyond is a reassur-
ance to those doomed to crosses, letters
and infrmities. How hard and unfair
the lot of man IL there be no hereafter.
Who can believe that righteous God
to suffer? Aye, no, Justice as we'll as
love demands 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 future life, as we grieve
for those who have gone before! They
are not lost but living 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.