Pocahontas star herald., 1911-04-21
Is There No Hereafter?

uOuS llle VI sCleHJluC lCoOoiNH'
He denies the immortality of llfe'
He denies the existence of heaven
or hell. In other words, he tells US
that death is the end of life, ana
that there is no hereafter, so far as
mankind is concerned.
Poor, cropping man, who has mas
tered the science of electricity, ne
descends now below the instinct OF
the warbling bird or the intelligence
of the Hottentot.
The very hope of Immortality is
proof Of its existence, but there IS
ct greater proof than this-all
earth, all nature, all nations, all
creeds, all religions declare it, and
even the "black Australian DYING
hopes he may return white"
But the tragedy of life and death
is enacted every day. The mystery
of one is not greater than the mys-
terry of the other.
We may no more explain how
the toddllng infant developes day
by day than we can understand why
the heart ceases to throb and we
call him dead.
But the greatest atheist, living or
dead, a man whose moral life had
no peer, whose love for humanity
was unbounded, and who sometimes
expressed the belief Of an agnostic,
more often "read his title clear to
mansions in the Skies" as when be
said:
"In the midnight of death hope
sees star and listening love can
hear the rustic of wing"
Take away the hope from man of
that immortality, 'incorruptible and
urdefiled and that fadeth not away"
and this world would go back TO
black chaos and destruction in less
chan a generation; and if life were
really indestructible the human
race could not exist on the face of
the earth for twenty-four hours.
We see the faded leaf fall to earth,
withered by the frosts of autumn,
and we call it dead; but 1t is not SO.
1t goes back to the dust from whence
it came to give its strengtf to tie
production of new life, and ssDsee
becomes part and parcel.
The rain descends upon the earth
but to be gathered back again into
the clouds and again to descend to
renew life, and in the waters of all
the oceans and seas and rivers and
brooks of the universe, and in all
the apparent prodigality of God AL.
mighty not one single drop has been
wasted in ten thousand times ten
thousand years, and will not be
wasted in that many more.
We see the flowers bloom when
the sunshine of spring fills the air
with life, and we see them fade
again when the balmy breezes cease
to blow, and their faded petals are
scattered by the icy winds of winter
to the uttermost ends of the earth,
but of all the flowers that have
blossomcd since the gardener plant
ed them in the Garden of Eden not
single one has ever perished from
the earth, and the seeds are but
planted that the same flowers may
be more abundent.
All nature speaks of life; there is
no death.
Mr.. Edison heard the thunder
roar and saw the lightning flash,
and with the intelligence given him
by the Almighty he coped with and
conquered them both.
Tell us, Mr.. Edison, if there be
no God, who flashed the lightning
athwart the storm-swept sky at
midnight and sent the thunder clap
to declare His magnifcence and
His splendor.
If there be no God, Mr.. Edison,
and no future life, and no heaven
and no hell, tell us, oh, wizard of
the world, who formed that electric
ity that nothing except the infinite
mind of an immortal being could