The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-11
TN AGES ID COME" IS EVANS THEME Rector of Church of Advent on
 Immortality INTEREST IN PAST AGES What We Are We Owe to the Far Off Ages That Are eone-"souI
 Shall Live For
 ever."
INTEREST IN PAST AGES

Tn the Ages to Come" was the sub- ject of sermon by the Rev. pr. w. E. Evans, pastor of the Church of the Adment, at the morning service there yesterday This text was taken from the seventh verse of the second chapter
 of Ephesians. reading:
 "That in the ages to come he might
 shew the exceeding riches of his graces in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ"
 The sermon, in part was as follows: Tn the Ages to Come"
 purposely take these words out of their original connection because the surrounding thoughts in the verse l shall not discuss at this time.
 "In the Ages to Come" One might ae prompted to ask the question, what have we to do with the ages to come? We have a recognized relationship with
 the ages that are gone, for the reason
 that we are their offspring; our so- l cial order, our political security, OUT
 religion and, indeed, our present refine
 ment of civilization-all had their rise like so many mountain streams, among
 the mist crowned hills of the far off ages that are gone. What we are to- l day we owe to the ages that are
 passed away into the silence of the
 mystery of eternity; and so, what have
 we to do with the ages to come? Now,
 my friends, our interest in the past ages is either historical, philosophical or poetic, or antiquarian; and inn pelled by either of these principles or | by them all, we do, indeed find interest
 in unfolding the dusty shrouds of the ages that are gone There Is a charm
 in the study of the old Feulad ages, there is romance and engaging fasci-
 nation in the cause and stirring tramp | of the Crusaders in the Moslem's crescent and in the events that moved l the nations to arms and mighty deeds 1 in the earlier ages. But in all this
 there is lacking a direct and personal | interest, because we did not live
 among the scenes of which we read
 in song and story and upon the his- | torian's page. But very different from l this should be our concern in the l ages that are to come, because, wa 1
 place and part amid the scenes an
 events that shall fill and thrill the ages that are to come.
 l The planet on which we live shall
 not always be. At sometime in the ages Is come it will have been de-
 stroyed; at that time the heavens l shall pass away with a great noise aad l the clements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth, also. and the works l that are therein shall be burned up," 1 and the white ashes afloat In space l shall tell the story of the complete | destruction of the earth, where men
 had measured time by years, years by 1 centuries and centuries by ages-ages
 past and ages to comel
 1 Yet, above and beyond this vast an1 indescribabe destruction, you who hear and I who speak, shall still live, Be that solemn event near or remote :, 1 be it at the end of countless centuries,
 still is it true, that we who are here 1 today shall still live.
 dewdrops
 i On the fields of heaven, and all they comprehend,
 | Shall pass: the spirits of all worlds shall all
 Depart to their great destinies; and
 thou and I,
 Greater than all worlds, shall live as now"
 1 But where, O where? Earth. the old l habitation, Is gone, destroyed! And n rvt- here determines the life in eternity! In the ages to come we ourselves
 shall live in our essential personality. Out of the early twilight of mans his
 tory. one asked the question. "If
 man die shall he live again?' The philosophers of the Orient could not answer with assurance; the scientists of Greece and Rome, guessed at an an- swer; the poets and singers of the east and west dreamed the affirmative, and have left us their dreams in rhythem and rhyme and melodious measures in lyrics, dreams and epics. In this our day science answers not the questo l.
 It is a subject outside the phenomna which it studies and classifes. We should not fault science for its silence; for the reason that life beyond the realm of material eXistences comes not
 within it's scope of analysis and study. Philosophy can do but little better than science It reasons that there may be life on the other side of the grave, but it does not know, and its reasoning may be faulty But the answer has been given by Him whose resurrection festival in the church still throws a soft, beautiful radiance upon our ser vice. He in many ways has taught us to believe that, though ones body dies, that the soul, the essentinal part of man shall neverth eless, live in the ages to come! And we are constrained to ask, Why not? What Is there in tho article of death to rob soul of it's life and Its personality, or to consign it to nothngness? What is it that dies? the soul? My friends. only that which Is material can die. And that the soul is superior to material disin- tegration is not only a revelation of the scriptures but is the result of the plainest mans observation. To in-
 stance: The medical faculty assures
 us that physical disintegration is a constant process In the body; so con stant and persistent that every seven years one loses his former body and has acquired new one. So. that he who has lived 70 years has had 10 diff