The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-06-23
IF A MAN DIE SHALL He LIVE
AGAIN."


Florida Review for June, says:
I'm the March number of the Re-
view the author of the most ably
written essay it has been my privilege
to peruse, in masterpiece, entitled,
Easter asks the question:
Shall man alone, for whom all else
reviveS,
No resurrection know? Shall man
alone,
Imperial man, be sown in barren
ground,
Less privileged than the grain on
which he feeds?'
Then Mrs. Barber goes on to say:
ct is a truly wonderful question,
and not the least impertinent. 1t
shows that the mind who asks it has
reached a stage of development
where, being dissatisfied with the an
swers printed in his primer, calls for
higher and more advanced knowl-
edge"
81 take off my hat" says Mrs. Bar
Der, Ito such a person, and offer my
hand in congratulation."
She then quotes some familiar ex-
tracts from Mr.. Bryan's well known
sermon on the Prince of Peace" The
extracts follow:
IF the Father deigns to touch with
divine power the cold and pulseless
heart of the buried acorn, and to
cause it to burst forth in bloom, will
he leave neglected in the earth the
soul of man, made in the image OF
his creator?
eff He stoops to whisper to the
rosebush, whose withered blossoms
| float upon the autumn air, promises
of another spring, will He refuse the
words of hope to the son of man, who
| like royal guest, has made brief
visit to this tenement of clay? Mat
ter, though changed by the forces OF
nature, mute and inanimate, can new
er die. No, | am as sure that there
is another life as l am that live to-
| day.
while in Cairo | secured a few
grains of wheat which had slumbered
for more than three thousand years
in an Egyptian tomb AS I looked
upon these grains this thought came
| to me:
IF one of those grains had been
| planted the year after it grew and
all it's lineal descendants planted and
replanted till now. its progeny would
be sufficiently numerous to feed the
teeming millions of the earth.
eff the grain of wheat has an invis
ible power to pass unimpaired through
three thousand resurrections, and to
| fashion for itself from earth and air
body so like the old one that the
one cannot be told from the other,
shall not doubt that my soul has pow
er to draw to itself body suited to
| its new existence when this earthly
| frame has crumbled into dust"
| Whilst pleasing to the ear, Mr.. Bry-
any's answer to the oft-propounded
| question is not satisfying to the soul
because those who plant grain know
that to bring forth crops the seed
must be fresh; that if from exposure
to heat or moisture the kernel be kill
ed, it will never again be quickened
into life, but will decay and return
unto the dust from whence it sprung
1t may become food for other plants
and thus infuse itself into other forms
of life, but will never again grow g
plant after it's kind.
AS long as the grain of wheat can
be kept from decay, whether it be for
one day or for a million years, it has
the power of reorganization, but when
decay, from any cause, fastens it:
Ideally fangs upon that which gives ii
life, the husbandman knows that its
cultivation is fruitless, and if he ex
poets to harvest a crop he must plant
other seeds.
When We penetrate into the ham
Knocks and see giant oaks, which have
stood sentinel there perhaps for more
J than an hundred years, with their life
less and decaying trunks stretched
upon the ground. We know that they
can never again be revivified into new
life, and the only virtue left them is
to furnish nourishment for othel
forms of life
Mrs. Barber argues that the answer
to this question that has been yearneG
for so insistently throughout the cen
turtles will be found satisfying in the
law of Karma. That is in the doctrine
of reincarnation In this doctrine she
says the inquiring mind will fine
peace and harmony as nothing elst
can give, answers to questions tha
cannot be answered by any other doc
trine, solutions of problems that can
not be solved by any other method.
But this doctrine seems to hav,
made very little impression upon tht
intellectual or scientific world, an,
: the oft-propounded question still
J years for a plain and satisfying an
swer: IF a man die shall he liv,
1