The Washington times., 1920-05-23

Ahccd NINA tnht system pTcStTN-
ing force and matter intact through
all eternity, should destroy the
spirit that directs force and con-
trolls matter.
Men ask why immortality should
be the destiny of millions OF saw
ages that have lived on this earth.
IL is uncomfortable that cosmie
force, working through evolution
toward perfection, should preserve
forever hideously imperfect speci-
mems.
II is perfectly conceivable, how
ever, that the spirit, perfect In it.
self. should be preserved when the
imperfect body is destroyed.
Arc men, seeking, striving,
mere photograph plates, used on
earth to express the divine will
and voice!
The savage listening to the
voice of Caruso, the dog listening
to his masters voice in the talk
ing machine, believe the machine
to be a living creature.
Is man the wax upon which
divine power prints certain i'm
pressions for certain purposes,
and are we, as we grow old, cast
aside like worn out photograph
records?
Could you conceive of greater
brutality than making millions of
cylinders, each filed with the de-
sire for life eternal, each condemn
ed to destruction at the end Of q
few days? You could not. There
fore, you cannot conceive divine
power guilty of such cruelty.
Not to believe in immortality
would be death here in earth.
Goethe says:
81 would not be deprived of the
happiness Of believing in q future
life. ! even dare say that all
those are dead for this life who
by no means have hope of another
life
Theodore Parker says belief in
immortality is written in the heart
of man by a hand when writes
no falsehoods." And another
describes death without hope Of
Immortality rs And ending as
appalling to the reason as to the
senses, an infinite tragedy, mad
dening and sickening, blackness
Of darkness forever"
1t isn't fear of death, the COM
monplace desire Of the savage for
rhinoceros meat, the Oriental
for gold, the individual for pres
ervation Of his unimportant nom
entity, that underlies the desire
Of Immortality.
Men want to be immortal be
cause they are ambitious. They
want to live because they want to
work. Huxley, scientist and
doubter, to whom all things had
to be Shown" once wrote to John
Morley that he would sooner
great deal be in hell" than not to
live at all after death. The
Greeks had the same idea before
Huxley.
The average little man, however,
wants immortality as nearly as
possible like his present life. He
is willing to have wings, play the
harp and sing praises eternally, if
that is the necessary program.
But if he is John Smith here, he
wants to be John Smith there. He
wants to recognize Jones, Robin
son, and talk over old times. You
could not take away his present
individuality and give him in ex-
change anything else, not even ru-
lership of the greatest nebulae.
Therefore, religion is mans
great comfort, because it gives
him exact details and exact guar
antees.
Read the twenty-hrst chapter Of
Revelations. tenth to seventeenth
verses, and learn what precise in
formation was vouchsafed "the
chosen people, the twelve tribes
For them, at the last day, their
future magnificent dwelling place,
"lhe Holy Jerusalem" will descend
from Heaven. II will be a city of
twelve gates, an angel at each
gate, names of the twelve tribes
written. 1t will have twelve foun-
dations, upon which are written the
names Of "the Twelve Apostles of
the Lamb" 1t is to be an abso-
lutely square city, twelve thou
sand furlongs high, the same in
width and breadth. That is to say,
a cube, fifteen hundred miles high,
long and wide. :,
That future city fifteen hundred
miles high, constructed by and
with the authority Of Omnipotence,
should rebuke those that foolishly
limit the height Of skyscrapers in
our cities.
Here follow sayings upon which
60 base thinking of your own. Oar
win, studying the slow process by
which man has been produced, af-
ter tens of millions Of years, says:
at is an intolerable thought
that man and all other sentient be-
ings are doomed to complete ami
hilation after such long-continued
and slow progress"
Epicurean philosophy took ev-
orvthinu comfortably and taught