The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-05-07
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. JOHN WESLEY HILL.
Theme: The Future Life.

! acter Of the proof demanded. 1t can
not be proven as you prove problem
in geometry or demonstrate law in
chemistry. This is true not only of
our arguments for Immortality, but of
our reasoning touching all the facts
involving the deepest and highest
life. You cannot by triangulation
prove your mothers love, nor by
chemical analysis discover the secret
of tear. You cannot extract music
from an organ with a corkscreW, or
sweep up sunshine with a broom ;
neither do you invoke mathematics
and logic to justify your sympathies.
1t is just as impossible to apply these
processes to the problem of immortal
ity. eye do always err" said Christ
| to the Sadducees, mot knowing the
Scriptures, neither the power of
God" Yet our belief in Immortality
is more than an emotion, and beyond
the assurances Of Gods Word there
| are evidences all about us, in facts
and experiences which enable us to
exclaim, This mortal must put on
Immortality" The idea of immortal
| ity is an intuition, voicing itself in
universal human nature. Hunger
means food, not in relation to the
penniless tramp alone, who gazes into
the window where the prosperous
man sits at his feast, but in relation
! to the general order and adjustment
| of the universe. But there is some
thing in man related to immortality
even deeper and more potent than de-
! sire-something working with a pre-
cision beyond the highest efforts of
! the intellect, and which from the
standpoint of reason is simply mirac-
ulous. Look at it. The little squir-
rel carries an almanac in it's brain,
| by which it stores in it's nest pro-
vision for the coming winter. The
bee is possessed of such a perfect
compass that for miles it will fly
| straight back to its hive; and these
birds of passage which are once more
! filling the treetops with song, at pre-
cisely the right time make their way
over river and forest, over lake and
plain, to find here in the North, in
| the summer time, food, and yonder
in the South, for the winter time,
food. Instinct is thus as unerring
as God inspired prophet, and I have
right to say that if instinct in the
lower creation works with such I'M
erring accuracy, surely God will not
disappoint this inexplicable something
within my heart which cries out for
light and life, and longs for better
home beyond the grave. This doc
trine of the future life being peculiar
to Christianity, it has been favor
lite object of attack by every school
of infdelity since it's announcement.
It has been condemned as false be-
cause it involves mystery. The OBJ
jector confounds two things essen
TALLY different, mystery as to fact
and mystery as to mode. A fact may
be plain while the mode of it's exist
ence may be mysterious. Take a few
illustrations. The fact of gravitation
is indisputable, but who understands
it's original phiIosophic and executive
power? How does it bind all worlds
into unity, maintaining the architect
ural branches Of the universe? Who
understands the law of organic
growth and development? What is mo-
ton? How is it communicated from
one body to another? We may rea-
son, we may advance step by step, but
the end of these processes are be-
yond our power of analysis; so that
we are obliged to believe facts, the
modes of which are beyond our I'M
derstanding. 1t is urged again, that
this doctrine is contrary to the i'm
mutable principles of science. Would
it not be well for the objector to es-
tablish some ultimate system of
science from which there can be no
appeal? No science is perfect. 1t
has been the business of one age to
modify and improve the science of the
preceding age. A future age will ex-
pose the learned fol1ies of this.
o;o Loo in,
gress With all it's boosted ability,
1t required nearly six thousand years
for science to discover so simple a
thing as the circulation of the human
blood With the earth and the sky
full of electricity, science was five
thousand years in bringing that i'm
measurable force. to light. Turn
back a few pages of history and tel
egraphy was not scientific; science
laughed at the possibility of the tele.
phone; science Joined with commerce
in deriding the validity and value OF
the Marconi system of wireless tel.
egraphy. The fact is, science is still
an infant; it is scarcely out of its
swaddling clothes; it can barely stand
alone. Is it entitled to more ere
dence than the Bible? Must this old
volume, hoary with the age of cen
turtles, written by the finger of in
spiration, born at Sinai, completed
amid the splendors of the Apocalypse
whose footprints are seen in the
crumbled dust of earth wrecked and
ruined greatness, whose teachings
are Godlike, whose precepts are thun
der-given, whose promises are the
hope of the worldly the track be
fore the gorgeous diction and sacri
ligious pretension of sceptical sci
ence or ungodly philosophy? But
fail to see any relevancy in the OBJ
lection. In what department of real
science are those principles found
that conflict with the doctrine of i'm
mortality? I appeal to all the dis
coveries in the wide range of scien
tific investigation for an answer
Science is not a textbook of revela
ton, nor is it the essential foundation
of religious faith. Yet we are able
to cite some of its fundamental prin
ciples as corroborative. of the Scrip
tural idea of life beyond the grave
The conservation of force is a princi
pie recognized by all schools of sci
ence Under the operation of this
law, we are told that the fall of {
cambria needle upon the carpet ex
ertS an INN eaSurable influence. an9
that the lifting Of the hand sends VII
brations through the stellar avenues
So absolute and far reaching is thi:
law. that so eminent an authority as
John Fiske says: "The track OF
every canoe, Of every yessa! that has
yet disturbed the ocean, remains for
ever registered in the future move
ments of all succeeding particles
which may occupy its space In like
manner, the air itself is one vast
library, on whose pages are forever
written all that man has ever thought
or whispered" Thus we are coming
to know that in the divine economy
there is no such thing as waste. Geol-
ogists tell US that millions of years
ago, sunlight fell upon a carbonifer-
GUS period, and now in these late cen
turtles we gather those same beams
of light to brighten the night and
warm our homes; so that in the black
lump of coal there is packed away
and hidden from sight the light which
was first created by the fiat of God