The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-11-08

1cdTS ago The 11TSL wire OF l0e
famous Lord Russell wrote a
book on the right to be happy.
Much that she said could be ia
ken to heart by Christians, but
not all. For she had to face hon
estly the problem of death. It is
not true that in the end death al
ways wins? And if this is so,
how can we be happy in the face
of certain defeat at last? Mrs.
Russell gave the only answer an
unbelever could give. True,
deaths triumph is assured, she
admitted; so what we must do is
to forget this and live as If it
were not true. Can anything be
sadder than that? Here is a
person who wants to be happy,
believes she has a right to be
happy, but can be happily only by
forgetting that all happiness
ends in the grave.
The last enemy
There are persons within the
Christian Church who are just
as hopeless as that lady was.
They will tell you it is possible
to be Christian without any hope
Of a life beyond death, that be-
lief in such a life is no essential
part of Christian faith. But they
face tor should face) the same
fact Mrs. Russell more honestly
faced flor she did not pretend to
be a Christian: Doesn't death
end all? And if it does, don t
you have to admit that all your
hopes, dreams, accomplishments
and ideals meet with final and
hopeless defeat? If all the Chris
tan can say is that death is
the last enemy, the gate into
Nowhere, then the Christian is
no better off than the pagan.
If in this life only we have hop
ed in Christ" St Paul says, 1--WE
are of all men most to be pit
led Everybody in the world,
people with religion. know the
fact Of death. They know the
reason why death can be rightly
called the last enemy; for no
matter how many obstacles q
man may surmount in the course
Of a long life, eventually death
looms as the one obstacle he
cannot surmount That is as
the pagan sees it. But the
Christian view does not stop with
the words last enemy" but
goes on: the last enemy to be
destroyed is death.
We shall be changed
The Bible teaches clearly that
there is life beyond death. The
Bible does not teach clearly
what that life is like. Probably
there are no words in our human
dictionaries to describe it. One
thing that is clear, however, is
that the life beyond death, the
life which those who belong to
Christ share with him, Is diff
ferent from what we now exper-
fence. We shall be changed, Paul
writes; and strains his vocabu-
larry Tin l Corinthians 15) to say
how utterly different that life
will be. Jesus spoke of it once
as a life in which marrying is
no more. Just as it is impos-
sible to think of life as we know
it without love and marriage at
the very heart of it, so 1t is be-
You'd our mental powers to say
what it means. and will means,
to live in a form of existence
that Paul calls a Spiritual
body" and that Christ calls be-
ing like angels. If this strains
the imagination, and it really
too much for us to grasp, we
might remember that to be
alive in this physical body Is a
miracle every minute, and if to
be alive in a changed" body
seems a miracle even greater,
we must remember how unlimit-
ed is the power of God.
Work without limit
Does a belief in the life
everlasting cut the nerve of
the Christians conscience? Bis
marck, famed and ruthless Prus-
sian military man, said when de-
Tending himself against charge
of having wasted thousands of
lives in a useless battle: What S
the difference? In 40 years all
those men will be dead any
way. Does belief in immortal
ity make us all, even Christians,
callous in the presence of hum
an suffering and injustice? BY
no means: not for Jesus, and not
for Paul. He ends his eloquent
testimony to Life Eternal with a
sentence beginning Therefore,
F. :" Therefore what? Let us
all sit down and wait for the
golden chariot? Therefore let US
think how happy we are going
to be? No. His therefore" If
you will look it up you will see
for YOURSELF is a plea for firm
ness of character and for enthu-
slastic service Of God. The light
OF heaven lights the common
road. the common task.
Biased ON outlines cnnvrightod