The Penn's Grove record., 1909-05-14
THE PULPIT.
. SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. JOHN WESLEY HILL.
Theme: The Future Life.

New York City.-Sunday morning,
at the Metropolitan Temple, the pas
tor, DIR. John Wesley Hill, preached
a sermon on "The Future Life" TAX
ing for his text: "If a man die, shall
he live AGAIN." Job 14:14. Among
other things, he said:
Whether immortality can be
proved or not depends upon the char
acter of the proof demanded. It can
not be proven as you prove a problem
in geometry or demonstrate a 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 a 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. "Ye 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 IN 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 1t stores in its nest pro-
vision for the coming winter. The
bee is possessed of such a perfect
compass that for miles 1t will fly
straight back to its hive; and these
birds of passage which are once lore
filling the treetops with song, at pre-
cisely the right time make their way
over river and forest. rel lake and
plain, to find here in the North, in
the summer time, food, and yonder
In the South, for the WATER time,
food. Instinct Is thus as unerring
as a God inspired prophet, and I have
a right to say that if instinct In the
lower creation works with such I'M
prring accuracy, surely God will not
lisappoint this inexplicable something
within my heart which cries out for
light and life, and longs for a better
home beyond the grave. This doc
trine of the future life being peculiar
to Christianity, it has been a favor
tie object of attack by every school
Of inidelity since its announcement.
It has been condemned as false be-
cause 1t involves a 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 its exist
ence may be mysterious. Take a few
Illustrations. The fact of gravitation
Is i~ndisputab1e. but who understands
Its original phi1osophic and executive
power? How does 1t bind all worlds
into unity, maintaining the architect
ural branches of the universe? Who
understands the law of organic
growth and development? Whatismo
ton? How is 1t 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 thai
we are obliged to believe facts, the
modes of which are beyond u un-
derstanding. 1t is urged again, thai
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 O
science from which there can be NJ
appeal? No science is perfect. l
has been the business of n age t.
modify and improve the science of thu
preceding age. A future age will ex
pose the learned follies of this
Science has been snail-like in its pro
gress. With all its boasted ability
it required nearly six thousand year
for science to discover 50 simple
thing as the circulation of the humal
blood. With the earth and the SIX.
full of electricity, science was NV
thousand years in bringing that i'm
measurable force to light. Turl
back a few pages of history and tel
egraphy was not scientific; scienc'
laughed at the possibility of the tele
phone; SCIENCE Joined with commerc
in deriding the validity and value 0
the M~arconi system Of wireless tel
egraphy. The fact is, science is still
an infant; it is scarcely out OF 1t
%swaddling clothes; it can barely STAN
alone. Is it entitled to more ere
dence than the Bible? Must this oil,
volume, hoary with the age of cen
turtles, written by the finger of IN
~spiration, born at Sinai, completes
amid the splendors of the Apocalypse
whose footprints are seen in tn
crumbled dust of earth's wrecked an
ruined greatness, whose teaching
are Godlike, whose precepts are thun
der-given, whose promises are tn
hope of the worldly the track be
fore the diction and saeri
ligious ~pretension of a sceptical Sc
ence or ungodly philosophy? But
fail to see any relevancy in the or
lection. In what department of res
science are those principles feun
that conflict with the doctrine of i'm
mOItd1ibt 1 appear " GIL SAS N
coveries- in the wide range OF scier
tifc investigation for an answer
Science is not a textbook of reveal
ton, nor is it the essential foundatio
of religious faith. Yet we are abb
to cite some of its fundamental pr1f
ciples as corroborative of the ScriI
tural idea of life beyond the grave
The conservation of force is a prime
pie recognized by all schools Of sc
ence. Under the operation of tn
law, we are told that the fall of
cambria needle upon the carpet e,
erts an Unreasonable influence, an
that the lifting of the hand sends v
brations through the stellar avenue
!. So absolute and far reaching is tn
law, that so eminent an authority 8
John Fiske says: THE track
every canoe, of every vessel that hs
yet disturbed the ocean,, remains TO
ever registered in the future NOV
ments of all succeeding particle
which may occupy its space. In lii
L. -- l. ~n.