Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1923-05-05
WHY | Believe In Immortality
BY REV. PIERCE S. ELLIS

Can we believe that Jesus persisted
as miserably as the man who sold
Him? If this is the whole story. the
very idea Of the injustice Of God be-
comes intolerable and unthinkable.
AS one had said, "What is He but the
most devilish of practical jokers--a
hideous and hateful tormentor." Is
God just to allow crime and murder
60 unpublished? Is He just to allow
loyalty and heroism suffer so much
ard go unrighted? Is He just to al
low successful villany put an end to
moral purpose and suffer no pain from
it? No man in his right mind can be-
lieve that God is just leaving His
own moral accounts in the race I'M
settled and unaccounted for. Then
the justice of God demands that Jesus
live and receive His reward while
cruel PLATE and his perpetrators live
and suffer for their wrong doing. Do
we believe that an Infinite Father is
ceaslessly engaged in wiping off the
earth. His own children whom He
loves and cares for, and in the other
world will not punish disloyalty nor
reward faithfulness? For instance,
the soldiers in the late war. They
have gone, the flower of our manhood,
careers checked, dreams that will new
er come true, expectations never be
realized, and all the care and love Of
father and mother as it seems, thrown
away-such waste! Is there to be
10 day of reckoning, time for the
infallible distribution Of rewards and
punishments Shall German ruth
lessness and barbarism go unpunish-
ed and Belgian suffering and endur-
ance go unrewarded? Will there be
nc final condemnation for the former,
no final approval of the latter? Will
the suffering and destitute Armenians
go unrewarded and the Turkish OPP
pressors go unpublished? Will Nero
who fiddled while Rome and Chris
tians burned receive no punishment
and the martyrs who died in his
bloody hands receive no rewards ?
Shall Jesus for his vicarious death go
unrewarded and Judas Iscariot for his
dastardly treason go UNPUBLISHED?
Shall the Kaiser who fiendishly and
hellishly destroyed part of the world
die with no future punishment, and
Livingstone who saturated the dark
continent of Africa with his blood to
build up a Christian empire receive
no future rewards? God forbid? If
there is no such thing as justice, then
1 join heartily with Tennyson in say
ing, "a moclking fiend hath made us. "
The present is, in many respects,
radically unjust and indefensible.
This world is not a paradise for saints,
and the wicked often flourish as the
green bay tree. Injustice very fire.
quently prevails. Wrongs go unright-
ed and unpublished. Many innocent
persons go to the grave under the
shadow of some suspicion while the
guilty person goes through life un-
suspected. Dishonest men dwell in
palatial homes where heroes live in
dilapidated huts. Strong men are
starving while evil men fare sumpt-
ously. Innocent men are suffering
while the guilty are rejoicing. Mill.
ions are toiling while few enjoy lux
uriously. The innocent are cursed
before they are born. Shelley speaks
of them being "shipwrecked into life
and Emerson refers to them as being
whipped through the world" The
day of righteous judgment must come.
Ingersoll said his creed was "everlast-
ing memorable justice" How could it
be with no future life to make right
the inequalities of life? Yes, man be-
lieves in justice and God Himself must
be just. For what is normal in man
at his best will be found to be true in
God. Certainly our ideals Of justice
are not fancies and play things, as
unmeaning for ultimate existence as
are bubbles on the surface of the
stream. The craving for justice here
and hereafter burns deeply among us.
For this reason / believe with him
who wrote:
"Thou wilt not leave US in the dust,
Thou madest man, he knows not why,
He thinks he was not made to die,
An thou hast made him-Thou art
just"
| Considering the unavoidable suffer-
| So. o.L I, rJeh;~c ~ l;fo r. +bov.o no