The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-06-02
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DIR. JOHN WESLEY HILL.
Theme: The Future Life.

New York City.-Sunday morning,
at the Metropolitan Temple, the pas
tor, DR.. 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 a be
proved or not depends upon the char
acter of the proof demanded. 1t 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.
It 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
SCTIpIuISSy uSlluCl lAC poWSl VI
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 its brain,
by which it stores in its 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
filing 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 a God inspired prophet, and. I have
n r;~h& ~ VOW III az 40 inctfnnf IN tho
lower creation works with such un-
erring accuracy, surely God will not
disappoint 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, 1t has been a favor
tie object of attack by every school
of infdelity since its announcement.
1t has been condemned as false be-
cause it 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 it's exist
ence may be mysterious. Take a few
illustrations. The fact Of g%ravitation
is indisputable. but who understands
it's original philosophic 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? Whatismo-
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 un-
d%erstanding. 1t is urged again. that
this doctrine is contrary to the i'm
mutable principles of science. Would
it not be we'll 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 n age to
modify and improve the science Of the
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 boosted ability,
it 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 Gre
ience 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's 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 a sceptical sci
ance or ungodly philosophy? But l
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-
tifc 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 it's fundamental prin-
ciples as corroborative of the Scrip
turo1 idoo If 1ifo bovond tho oravo