Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1923-05-05
Why | Believe In Immortality
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The unquestioned craving of our
nature for perfect beauty, righteous
ness, truth, has not been planted in
US for a joke. Our powers, intellect
ual, moral and spiritual, which we
cultivate and develop so slowly here,
in the next world, thank God, will
fructify in their fitness. As one has
said, els it conceivable that nature,
that brings the body to fruition and
grants the rose perfect growth,
should leave the soul of man unfinish-
ed, partially developed, and dissatis-
fled, meaningless yet magnificent
ruin in the desert of time?" The ar
fist at his best has only intermittent
and partial flashes Of absolute beau
ty; the scientist, at the end Of years
of study and research, has succeeded
in finding only pebble now and then,
better than others, while the great
ocean of truth lies almost all undis-
covered, unplumbed, and UNEMPLOYED
about him; the saint through tireless
sacrifice and heroic devotion has not
attained unto the likeness of Christ.
Will not the artists broken and I'M
finished dream shine TRANSPORTED with
immortal glory in the world to come?
Will not the partial revelation of alb
solute truth be perfected for the
scholar? Will not the frustrated work
of the honest and devout saint be
changed into more glorious moral
achievements? Will not the undevel-
oped powers and virtues of the sin
ner, through an endless moral strug-
gle, and unhampered, rise to perfec-
ton in the next world? Will not, I
mean to say, the moral weakling be
edeemed through unending struggle
for righteousness? In the next world
there will be no distressing and dis
appointing limitations, and our innate
powers will find the freedom for COM
plete expansion and growth. Every
ideal of the soul shall then be realiz-
ed. Emmanuel Rants argument for
Immortality is, "The unfinished tasks
Of EARTH" I delight in believing with
Victor Hugo, 81 will go out to work
in the morning, and in the next world
I shall have the opportunity of per-
fecting what ! SO poorly began here"
You will observe that in this dis
cussion I have not dealt with nor par
ticularized the incidents associated
with the resurrection of Christ. To
do so would be superfuous. I believe
that Jesus rose from the grave. First
and always I base my hopes for eter-
nal life in the indisputable fact that
the granite door of death opened for
our Lord. I believe that the grave will
open for US. Hope sits upon the
grave and sings, "There are no
dead" There is scene in Maeter-
links "Blue Bird" which arouses my
emotions. The two children in their
request for the Blue Bird are hidden
to go to the kingdom of the dead.
They go to the Church yard at mid
night with that eerie feeling natural
at such an hour and such a place.
"Where are the dead?" they whisper
tremblingly. Suddenly a peal of thun-
der terrifes them out of their senses,
and mist seems lifted up as a cur
tain from the ground, and 10! the
tombstones are gone and in their place
are seen flowers of radiant whiteness.
"Where are the dead?" And the boy
shouts back to his sister whose
trembling hand he holds, "There are
no dead" True, indeed, if God be
what Christ knew Him to be, the God
not of the dead but of the living
there are no dead.