The Mankato free press., 1910-06-03

since the war in intelligence, in self
respect, in character, in the accimula
tion of property, than any race has
ever made in the same period of time
All this is your monument. As long as
: the Union endures, as long as the
black man is free, you will live on,
your struggle will continue to bear
fruit. Your names may be forgotten,
the ones who loved you may pass
away, the stones which mark your
grave may crumblc into dust, but
your work, your influence, will live on.
The impress of your faith and devo-
tion will be upon every man and
woman, every boy and girl, beneath
the stars and stripes.
The Personal Immortality.
"IV. But is that all, my friends ?
Does that satisfy your You want to
live on, you, this personality of yours,
, this thinking, feeling, willing being
which answers to the name of self,
your self and not another's. The time
comes for you to leave this earth.
What satisfaction will it be to have
your name remembered or your work
immortalized, if you are dead! Who
or what will there be to feel salts
faction or enjoy immortalityY No, the
craving of the human heart is and al
ways has been for personal immortal
ity. From every man in every age
has come the pathetic question of
job: If man die, shall he live
AGAIN. And Christianity has given the
answer. Il positive answer. an affirma-
tive answer, an answer that has done
as much as any one thing to commend
the religion of. Christ to the human
heart. There is personal Immortality,
there is an mortality of character. Is
there any other Immortality worth
having? Is there anything that can
satisfy us but the Immortality of char.
acter, of virtue!
Glory of warrior, glory of orator,
glory of song,
Paid with Il voice flying by to be
lost on an endless sea-
Glory of virtue to fight, to struggle, to
IIRHI inc WlOHS
Nay, but she aimed not at glory, no
lover of glory she:
Give her the glory of going OH, and
still to be.
1.-The wages of sin is death: if the
wages of virtue be dust,
Would she have heart to endure for
the life of the worm and the fly!
She desires 10 isles of the blest, no
quiet seat of the just,
To rest in a golden grove. Or to bask
in summer sky:
Give her the wages of going ON, and
not to die.
Faithfulness Cannot Die.
"You cannot die, my friend. because
faithfulness cannot uie, and courage,
and obedience to orders, and reverence
and purity and self control and uu-
seliishness and brotherly love. Such
qualities of soldier or of civilian,
of man or woman, are immortal
qualities in the economy of God, they
render the possessor of the immortal. '
Such qualities, such men, are too pre-
cious to be lost. If you ask me why !,
| believe in Immortality, OIL what my i
faith. my assurance is based, my am
swer is this: Next to the word of
Jesus Christ, it is based on some of
the great personalities whom | have
known in history or in life. They cam
not die. too much is invested i'm them. |
God cannot spare them. You and
spare them.
"How far bad qualities are immor-
talized is a question on which | do not !
care to enter tonight. There is room
for honest difference of opinion, even
to the student of Scriptures. | will
only say this If the other life is
4 continuation of this life, if the man
who has been Il coward here and a
beast and a fiend, must continue tn
live the life of coward and beast
and fend. such Immortality would
be of all things most terrible. The
wages of sin is DEATH For practical
purposes, man dies, not when the
breath leaves his body, but when he
oses his purity, when he loses his
sense of honor, when he loses his hon
,sty. and his interest in his fellow men
md in his country and his God. What
S left of the man when all these
,hings are gene isn't worth mentioning.
He is only the shadow of a man,
living shadow.
"No, the only Immortality which sat
SIZES us, the only Immortality worthy
If the name. is the immortality of
noble character We must live, as
Van Dyke says, SO as to make it
worth while to be immortal. IF a
nan die, shall be live again?' Yes,
answers. But there is one
condition attached. For practical pur-
poses, if man is to live on after death
he must be really living before he
lies. What we shall carry away with
Is is not our bank accounts and our
rating, not our inventions,
,ur books or our achievements. 1t is
lot our fame, our titles, our medals
Z is inst the simple qualities, of no.