The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1908-07-24
NO NEED TO DIE.
Matter Indestruclible and Eternal
Not an Atom Can Be Lost.

Matter Indestruclible and Eternal
Not an Atom Can Be Lost.
''The last enemy that shall be des
troyed is DEATH" say the Scriptures
yet if some man attempted seriously
to reassert this ancient truth today
we would look upon him as a mao
prophet indeed. Yet the time will
come when men will be able tt
believe this promise of the Bible, al
though they may never be able tt
hope to see it literally fulfilled.
Death some day will be acknowl
edged to be as unnatural in the econo
my Of the creative plan as are sin an6
suffering. But whether or not in some
millennium period, mortal man will
be able to forego the gross process Of
physical dissolution in becoming 6
spiritual body is a purely metaphysics
question that does not enter here
What does interest us is the question
occupying the greatest scientific minds
today, whether the body as such can
not be retained in perfect condition
Indefinitely.
The late William A. Hammond, one
of the great authorities in medical
science, and formerly surgeon general
in the United States army, answered
it by saying: "There is no physiolog-
ical reason why man should die"
Thomas J. Allen, M. A., l.. l.. d.
writing in similar strain, says
'The human body is not like a machine
which must wear out by constant
disintegration, for it is self-renewing
1t is a simple, scientific fact that we
get an entirely new body every few
years, estimated at from three tc
seven. Every day is a birthday, fol-
the process of waste and renewal
never ceases. Perfect balance be-
tween elimination and renewal would
avoid permanent waste"
There is no doubt that when we be-
come more enlightened and under
stand perfectly the laws that govern
when we conform ourselves to these
religiously life will be immeasurably
prolonged.
The decay of the body, as evidenced
in old age, is unnatural. The esthetio
within us recoils in merely contem-
plating it's approach. We feel that
there must be something self-perpetra-
tive in the change when the strong
color in healthy man and the fresh
beauty in a pure woman take their
departure, when the bloom on the
cheeks fades, when the brilliant light
within the eyes grows dim and the
full, red lips become pale and fallen
Medical science has pointed out the
physiological cause of these condi-
TONS Probably the time will come
when it will be able to point out the
manner of avoiding them.
We know that the body grows old
because of the existence of an imper-
feet balance between the waste which
the body accumulates and the amount
it is able to throw off. During youth
the balance is perfect, because the
body has more than its normal vital
ity and strength to throw off the
waste matter. But as we grow older
this perfect balance becomes destroyed
from one cause or another. - s-
The strength that should 60 to elimi-
mating impurities from the body is not
husbanded, but rather squandered in
different ways. Then, too, we eat and
drink those things that cause exces-
sive waste. An impure diet composed
of foods containing uric acid, such as
meat, or of drinks containing poisOns
such as tea and coffee, taxes the elimf-
native powers, and when the time
comes when these give way state OF
imperfect elimination has set in, the
wastes in part are deposited in the
system, settling in the arteries and
joints of the body and accommodating
oI>ex<,, ~
ments.
The blood stream circulates imper-
fectly, and when once this condition
exists bad functioning of every organ
Of the body results and old age and
death gradually ensue. .....
Mind, too, has great deal to do in
Fastening or retarding the unpleasant
signs of physical decay. Mental sci
ence has satisfactorily demonstrated
that mean, narrow, selfish, and un-
pleasant thoughts act destructively
on the issues of the body, while
thoughts of a wholesome and positive
character act constructively.
And when the curtains of "the win
dows of the soul" are drawn, when the
temples door is closed and a final sill
ence is within, when the spirit passes
the threshold to take up a newer and
finer edifice of it's own creation, sci
ence assures us that the body lives on.
Here at least physical Immortality Is
an assured fact.
Theology has irreligiously taught
us that the body returns to inanimate
dust. The religious answer of science
is that it returns to God. The latest
word in the field of biology is that all
nature, including the all mother soil,
is animated, and hallowed with the
divine principle of life.
More than this, matter Is indestruc-
tible and eternal. There is not an
atom that can be lost in all the uni
verse. For this reason our bodies do
not really die; they are in the care of
the angels of the elements.
The peculiar cellular arrangement
that formed them into beautiful body
may be caused to distinegrate through
the action of the oxygen upon it, time
may change the position of the atoms
composing it, but the latter still con-
tain within themselves the sacred and
eternal principle of life as much as
does the soul, and they exist only to
enter into new and, perhaps, more
beautiful combinations of life.
Epictetus, representing the ancient
attitude of religion toward the body,
could give it no higher classification
than that of mud" Luther, repre-
senting the theology of his own day,
spoke of the body as mess of
L. l. -, L, e., Iory