Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-03-18
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waving tree, and life in the lovely
flowers. We have called to the wise
ones for an answer as to where this
life began, and by what means it came.
They have faithfully tried to answer.
We wade through volume on the
Origin of Species" and find many
facts which lead to no certain conclu-
sion. We peruse the Descent Of Man.
and fail to be convinced by logic, based
partly on truths and partly on error.
We stand beside the great geologists
Of the world, as they delve into the Sc
crets Of the earth, and strive by all
, their power to read the wonderous
history God has written in stone. But
when man has exhausted intellect and
run reason mad, and when all Is
that can be said, what have We for re-
suit? Theory and only theory; suppo-
sitions, but never facts. THE germ of
all life floating in a sac on boundless
ocean, marks the utmost limits OF
even their fancy. Laying my hand on
this Book, I read that God created man,
and at His Almighty fiat the grass and
tree and tender flowers: the birds Of
the air, the beasts of the field and the
| fishes of the sea came into being, and
without Him was not anything made
from the mightiest monarch Of the for
est to the tiniest algae that floats in
stasnant pond-without Him was not
| anything made that was made.
The question about a mans soul Is
another thing OH which we seek enlight-
eminent. Has man a soul, or Is he
like a beast? When his body goes
| back to earth from whence 1t was, Is
that the last of his existence? II he
has a SOUL where does it live, and now
long does II live, and what Is its con-
dition ir the great beyond? l appeal
| to the recorded wisdom of man to an
swer, and the first thing placed before
me, is the Egyptian Book Of The Dead.
I find here that the priests of that long
dead land, believed that man really had
SOUL that his body died, but that his
|
tell me about it, was their belief that
when this soul was separated from the
| body, by what we call death, 1t was
carried into the sacred halls Of Isis,
then weighed on delicately balanced
scales, and adjudsed to good or evil;
but all beyond was darkness to their
minds. I pick up an Assyrian tablet,
digged from beneath the dust Of many
ages, and read from that tablet all that
the Assyrians knew, or thought they
knew about the soul, and that all is
| contained in a picture Of the soul OF
departed king, descending into the
region Of the shades, while the ghosts
of his long departed subjects met him
with jeers saying, "Ah, ha; hast thou,
too, come to this place of the dead?"
| Or I come down to that nation Of
mighty thinkers, the Greeks, and ask
| Socrates, one of their greatest and
| best, what he knew about this question.
He tells me that he Is convinced
| through the cold channels Of reason
| that man is not like a beast, but that
| he has a soul that shall live on, and
must live after his body mas turned
to dust. But beyond this, the intellect
of even this mighty man halts and his
lips become dumb. Thus, failing to find
among all the writings of men, any
definite and final answers to this ques-
| ton, I turn to this Word of God and
| read there that even old Job was able
| to say, Il know that my Redeemer
liveth and that though after my
skin worms destroy this body, yet in
my flesh shall l see God" Or the
records Of Christs sayings are unfold
ed, and read, II am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on Me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live,
and ne that liveth and believeth on Me.
shall never die" Or a few weeks
later, see Him, as with arms Of in
finite might, He bursts the bands OF
death, and arises again from the dead,
alive again forevermore-the first fruits
of them that slept.
Again, what is mans duty toward
God, or how shall man live, so as to
be pleasing to His maker? Here also
we may seek among the records Of
mans wisdom. The philosophers Of
the past have brought to us the stores
Of their wisdom. One school says we
should live as Stoics, suppressing self
and despising pain. Another school
says we should eat, drink and be mer-
ry, rejoicing while We nay. We turn
to the men of a heroic age and ask
them, and they say that it Is pleasing
to God for us to live in strife and die
in strife, for then shall beauteous VAL
kyrie carry us to the halls Of Valhalla,
where we shall drink red wine out OF
the skulls of the slain. The great
prophet Mahomet hands us the Koran
and bids us seek our answers there.
It's great message is, to take the scim-
tier in one hand and the Koran In the
other and force that faith over the
world And the gentle son Of India
opens his Vedas, and reads to US that
we ought to spend our lives in contem-
plations, so that at last We may be alb
sorbed into the personality Of Brahm.
Leaving these, I point you to this word
of God as it gives the answer to the
whole question in tine one word,
Obey" while the gray haired proph-
ct Samuel cries to erring Saul, Behold
to obey Is better than sacrifice and to
hearken, than the fat Of rams"
With this, comes another question.
What Is mans duty to man? Grou11
of men gather on the street corners and
in the corridors of hotels, and discuss
the social and business relations of
mankind. Other men, after much
thought, produce writings on sociology.
Still others, guided by the opinions Of
of their constituents, assemble in some
particular place and fix their various
opinions into those guides of action,
which We call law, and through these
recorded laws strive to give US rules
for guiding us in our conduct toward
our fellowmen. But the imperfection
Of man made laws has become a pro-