“LIFE AFTER DEATH.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 66, 17 November 1915, Page 2

“LIFE AFTER DEATH.”

[To Tub Enrron Stiiatboiuj Post.] Sir, —Your correspondent “Caution’ 5 does not make himself very clear. In his effort to be cautious he has avoided definiteness. Put one point ho makes 'is that since the Ilev. Twodale does not give his sermon in the same literal language as given in the Bible, no 'notice should be paid to it. .Now, 'those men who think, know that the ■Bible is a book of evolution, in which I there are depths, in which a child may 'paddle and in which a giant must Iswim. Christ’s, message to the world I was the message of love; it was the 'Christ of the “Hindus” who gave to (tiie world the message ol “file Bile After Death,” so that message was known when Christ came; therefore it was quite unnecessary for Him to give it over again. The doctrine ot

("Life Alter Death" is rather taken for 'granted in the New Testament than 'distinctly aught; thus Jesus, speakling ol' John the Baptist, declares that [lie is Elias, "who was to come," referring to the words of Malaclii, "I will send you Elijah the Prophet," and again, when asked as to Elijah coming before the .Messiah, He answered that "Elias has come already ami they knew him not," and in another instance we find the disciples taking the doctrine for granted in asking whether blindness from birth was a punishment for a man's sins; also the phrase applied to "him that overcomcth" that he shall be a "pillar in the temple of my Cod, and shall go out no more." Is it not quite common sense, and reason to assume that since we know," and accept, evolution as going on below us in the vegetable and animal stages, that it is also going on above us; and that at death man merely passes on into a higher world. Man is a soul and has a body. The body is not the man, it is only his garment. God made man to be the image of His own eternity; this is not guess work, it is a definite scientific fact, capable of proof. St. Paul says: "There is a natural body, and a spiritual body." People misunderstood that remark, because they think of these bodies as one after the other; they do not realise that we possess both of them even now. Each of us has a physical body which we can see, which St. Paul called the spiritual body, and when wo lay aside the physical Ave still have the finer spiritual body left. Many maysay this is all assertion, but on what ground do we hold our present bolief ? We hold it because some church teaches it, or because it is founded upon some Holy book, or because it is the general belief of those around us, but if we clear our minds of preconceptions we shall see our views rest merely upon assertions; we have no definite knowledge; it is merely hearsay. These matters which affect us so closely demand the certainty of scientiinvestigation, and "Life After Death" has withstood all such tests,' and moreover, each and everyone of us can prove to his own satisfaction that there does exist an after-life. Communication is as possible to-day between us and the dead as it was 2000 years ago between Christ and his Apostles; only one must obey the laws of the spiritual communication, the natural laws of the spiritual world. We must adopt the right conditions. Do this and the gulf between the two worlds is bridged. At one time the horrible dogma of everlasting punishment was accepted, but as the world advanced men began to see that not louly was such a tenet blasphemous, but ridiculous. Modern religionists have, therefore, replaced it by somewhat saner suggestions. People who have grasped the fact that God is love and that His universe is wisely governed by eternal laws, have begun to realise that those laws must be obeyed beyond the grave just as much as here. We are told of a far-off Heaven, of a Day of Judgment in the remote future, but little information is given to us as to what happens here and now. The day of blind belief is past; the era of scientific knowledge is with us and wo can no longer accept ideas unsustained by reason and common sense. There is no reason why scientific methods should not be applied to the solving of problems which, in earlier days, were left to Religion. Does clairvoyance, occultism, or science still count lor nothing? What of the evidence in the present war? I have a copy of a letter now from a nurse with dozens of illustrations, which I will hand to the Editor should he think well to print it. With regard to the resignation of the Baptist Minister, it is apparent to anyone who looks back over the last few years that crowds of moral and thoughtful people have slipped away from the churches because the teachings they received there did not satisfy their intelligence. It is idle to pretend that the widespread of Agnosticism of the present day has its root in lack of morality or in deliberate crookedness of mind. Everyone who examines the subject will admit that men of strong intellect have been driven out of Christianity by the crudity of the religious ideas set before them. The reason of the revolt lies in the gradual descent of Christian teaching into so-called simplicity, so that the most ignorant might be able to grasp it, leaving nothing for the intellectual. Thanking you, MiEditor, for your kindness.—l am, etc., A. E. BLACKMAN.