The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-13

air. because instinct announces the presence of agencies whereby 1t can be borne tip. The ruby throated hummfng bird travels every year from Central America as far north as the Arctic Circle leaving behind for a season those tropical delights so dear to four hundred or more stay home relatives. while it, sole representative of this charming new-world family found east of the Mississippi and. north of Florida. elects to pass the time among us in Voluntary exile. And why Because, acting through the strong aninating desires of seH-pre-8 seryatIon and the favorable perpetua- tIon Of the species, instinct announces. that these will be- found best in 8 summer temperate cline. One might. cite any number of just such illustra- lions from the realm of nature But the question is at once put, What bearing has this on the problem of a. future existence ?'' Simply this: So far as is known there exists nation, Kindred or tribe but what has present. in it. in some form or other, the in stinctive belief in a future existence. The belief may not approach to any thing like certainty The form that it takes may be grotesque in the extreme. It may be stunted and perverted But it is nevertheless there. Emerson pro foundIy said, When the Maker of the
 
 government, He. inpresses His will in the structure of men s minds and it is,ssIn the case in hand, as if the Df-z vine Builder had stamped on mans mind with an indeIible mark, the fact of his immortality. The poet Pope tells US of
 The poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds. Or hears Him in '
 His soul proud science never taught
 ito stray
 Far as the soIar Walk or Milky
 Yet simple Nature to his hope has
 given,
 Behind the cloud top.t hill, an hum
 bier Heaven:
 Some safer world in depths of
 woods eTn braceds
 Some happier island in the watery
 waste,
 where slaves once more their native
 No fiends torment, no Christians
 thirst for gold
 To be content his natural desire.
 He asks no angels wings. no ser.
 aph's fire,
 But thinks, admitted to that equal : His faithful dog shall hear his com
 pany-'
 And the equal sky is the Indians future life. That is the belief Of the anciVilized,; the unlettered-. Turn now to the educated and the enlightened Cicero. master mind of Rome, when bowed in grief over the death of his daughter, turned his thoughts to 2 consideration of the problem as to whether or not there is any future ex- |fskence, ang1y after mature sdelibera-3 ton It thisis what stre deduces as a re- suit: There is,sI know not how he says in minds of man certain pre- sage,as it were, of a future existence. arad this. takes the deepest root and is most clearly discoverable in men of greatest genius and of most exalted soul, Everywhere. then, with the ig-s norant, with the unciyi ilized, witt the enlightened we have the fact that there is traceable in man the immortal instinct. That thenI Shall instinct be foI1ndesuch beneficent and infallf-s ble guide in the case of animals and insects and birds, and yet prove so unr trustworthy in the case of men If instinct is Natures prophecy foretelI-E ing possibilities and coming events Tn the oI1e case. shall it not likewise be Natures prophecy foretelling poss1-s NbiIitfes and coming events in : the other God, in His works, is not doubIe-handedy and that to which. men most tenacIouslyg cling is the uniform s working of Gods laws It is only the leading reason. then to hold that our belief in a future life depends, not merely on an argument Of 1t conciud-s and that our hopes of that life are, when thoughtfully considered and rightly interpreted, Gods written ruarantee of it's reality.
 Again, we live for the most part three score years and ten, and. yet | n axTea heard Of one who. in laying down his life, was able to affirm he had accom- pIfshed all he set out 70 accomplish We find ourselves in the beginning in the midst of a mysterious world, and i'm planted without our natures are cer-s tain dreams of goodness, ideals, as- pfrations af1d hopes. We set out to- realize these But, alas! Is it not the univ ersal experience that, aI least so far as this life is concerned. the. structure is never Completed We see all about us, in the world at large and especially among our friends those |ca1led to their final rest, the ones who becalise of their usefulness have the best warrant in life to live The great engineer of the Brooklyn bridge IbareIy lives to see the masnihcent in working order and completed. Abraham Lincoln is shot down at the very zenith of his career, and this after a life of anxiety, hardship and Ltoi1. President Mckinley is assassin Eated at an hour when, with ripest de- yeloprnent of his powers, he could be an instrument for largest service These are IIfess withheld completions. what. then, must we c6nclude? Why, either we must postulate another life which shall enable one to complete the work already begun, or else we must impugn the justice of God who, in having once given license and pow Fer to begin a good work, will at least. with one crushing blow, dash 1t all into remorseless matter It was in Contemplation of this false view men had formed of God that Jesus gave way to tears in the Garden of Beth any. It was not for Lazarus that He was weeping, nor yet for death. II