Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-04-07
Synopsis of Sermon.


of spiritualism to find it. The dupes
of the seance and the devotees of the
ouija board are a small company be-
side the multitude of people who are
thinking of their dead in terms of
life as they never did before. In fact,
few of those who feel this quickened
sense of their dead will ever have
anything to do with mediums or the
cult of spiritualism. l do not think
these people deserve to be rebuked or
lectured. They are in no danger OF
conceiving less of their living Lord
because they are realizing more of
their living loved ones. BY the same
faculty of spirit with which they feel
that He lives forever more, they un-
derstand that their loved ones who
are with Him are alive forevermore.
This is why the arguments in con-
troversy against spilitualism and the
sermons renouncing Saul and the
Witch of Endor for disturbing Sam
uel, seem to me inadequate and some
what unsympathetic in dealing with
this new intedest in the dead which is
abroad in the land. The connection
between it and the renewed activity
of spiritualism is, of course, obvious.
but it is not vital. The better to pro-
tect and fortify against spiritualism,
is to soundly include this keen turn
ing toward the living dead as within
the proper range of the spiritual eX-
perience which belongs to the Chris
tian.
The writer's who are disposed to
discredit the present extension of in
terest in the dead usually begin by
explaining that it is something abnor-
NAL, morbid and unnatural. They say
that it is reaction of bereavement,
of sorrow and brokenness from the
war. The explanation does not cover
hte facts. We are in no great mourn
ing in this country on account of the
war. Sixty years ago the Confederate
war swept away our young men like
a flood, but there was no such intens-
ifcation of interest in the dead as the
result. The Interpretation of what we
find in other peoples minds lies deep
ly in another direction, not in. NOR
bid mourning. 1t is a general expe-
rience coming out of the war, certain
ly, but of its illumination, not its la
mentation.
One of the unexpected develop
ments of the war was the sudden in
tense and practically unanimous as
sertion of Immortality in the con-
seriousness of millions of men stand
ing in the presence of death. The
sense of life as continuous and of dy-
ing as movement of life dominated
the armies. 1t was not the hope of i'm
mortality, but the faith of it, the GER
tainty of it that Unexpectedly sound
ed out like grand chorus on the bat
tlefelds. The testimony was proclaim
ed through letters to the home folks,
trench talk, farewells of the wound
ed, and even in the banter of death,
from men who were dead the next
hour. Their witness made an impact
on the worlds mind of new convic-
ton of Immortality.
The new interest in the dead, there
fore, is not as the critics explain,
selfish grief staggering under a load
or sorrow, crying in the lonely dark
ness. 1t i love following faith, pur-
suing spiritual certainty, love en-
lightened and assured, in a degree
never known before that its dead
are actually living. 1t is love acting
as love is bound to act with such
light in it's eyes. What difference
it makes in our thoughts and feelings
about our dead when we pass from
the faith of our survival as a doctine
to the faith of it as fact. This is the
experience many people are coming
into these days.
Revolt Against Materialism.
The new interest in the dead is on
the side of Christianity in its age
long conflict with materialism. 1t is
a revolt against the Grass philosophy
of matter which has dominated US for
a century. No one will rebuke it who
reflects carefully on the loss religion
and life have sustained under the de-
preston of modern mateliaristic
kI.4 .,,ol