The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-01-19
is THE SOUL IMMORTAL

depCnS Oh men TO ask tHlS question:.
The very asking of it shows a longing
for it. 1t was asked by the ages gone
and will be asked by the ages yet to
come.
The weakness of the argument for
it is generally the strongest argument
against it.
One goes to church on Easter, and
he hears a sermon on the immortality
of the soul.
The argument advanced for the res
direction of the body is usually the
smile of the trees and flowers she'd
ding their leaves in the autumn; lying
dormant and death-like all through
the fall and winter months, but when
the spring approaches and the cold
earth is warmed and revivified by the
genial and fructifying rays of the sun,
the buds begin to form and burst forth
and the tree and flower are regar-
nished with fresh leaves and renewed
life.
Then we have the smile of the
farmer planting his seed in the soil
the womb of nature-and after being
subjected to rain and sunshine it sud-
denly bursts it's tiny cells and trans
forms itself into living plant, and
bears fruit after it's kind. A very Won
derful and mysterious thing.
Then we are given Mr.. Bryan's quo
tation about the grain of wheat found
in the Egyptian mummy. We are told
that it has lain there for many cen
tuturies-long enough, IL it had been
judiciously planted and cared for, for
it's progeny to have been sufficient to
have fed the teeming millions of the
earth.
This seed had lain there dormant
and lifeless through many centuries,
but when transported across the seas
to this country and placed in the soil,
signs of resurrection Immediately be-
come visible and as the spring rays
of the sun draw near this tiny seed,
so long dormant, becomes aglow with
new life
The average man, farmer or what
not, knows that these SMILES are
faulty and that the illustrations are
untenable, and that their weakness is
their strongest rebuttal.
He knows that if the heart of the
tree of flower had died that they
would not have leafed again; that no
amount of rain or sunshine would
ever again warm them into life; that
they were past modification; that the
vital, regenerative organs had perish
ed, and that the remainder of the
tree would likewise perish.
Every farmer knows that if he
plants rotten seed he will have no
crop; that however sedulously tended
rotten seed cannot be made to sprout
nor grow
The farmer knows that Mr.. Bryan's
grain of wheat had been Theoretically
entombed all through the centuries,
and that the kernel-the soul of the
wheat-had not been destroyed; he
knows that if it had been subjected to
a certain degree of heat that under no
possible conditions could any farmer
or scientist have made it grow again.
So one knows that when a man
dies, and his body is consigned to the
grave, it decays and returns to the
dust from whence it sprang.
He knows that it undergoes chem
ical changes and lives on in other
forms of life.
He knows that it furnishes food for
the worms; that it's particles are TAX
en- up by the roots of trees and plants,
grasses and flowers; they, in time,
drop their leaves and petals, which
wither and decay and return to the
soil, the moisture of which is absorb
ed by the rays of the sun and is re-
distributed and diffused over the uni
verse, and thus, in some form or an
other, lives on throughout the endless
ages He knows thta the Creator
breathed into that body the breath of
life, and that that breath, though de-
parted, has not persisted, and is here
to give sustenance to other lives.
This view of the deathlessness
of things gave rise among the an
cient philosophers to the theory of
the transmigration of souls.
There is now being published in the
Outlook a series of articles on this
ever interesting subject, entitled,
THE Assurance of Immortality" by
some of the most brilliant writer's
and distinguished men of letters of
our country, the list embracing such
names as Lyman Abbott, Jas. NJ.
Wilton, w. T. Greenfell, Henry S.
Pritchett, president of the Carnegie
foundation, George Hodges and 9TH
ers.
In the Outlook of December 30th.
L