SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1922, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

“THE LIFE EVERLASTING.” “Because I live, ye shall live also.” —Saint John, xiv. 19.

i (By -

Rev. A. H. Collins,

New Plymouth.)

DOES DEATH END ALL? 1 For the last three months I have been attempting the impossible. 1 have tried |to tell you what “the Apostles’ Creed’’ means for me, in the. hope that this personal witness might help you to find reinforcement of your faith. If you say the ati tempt was rash, I shall not deny it. If you say it has ended in failure, I shall not * complain. A man’s reach should outstrip Ibis grasp. That’s what Heaven is for! It is better to try and to fail, than to sit still in mental and spiritual sloth. Tbe great I need of the' hour is that religious people I should know what they believe and why they believe. No great soul was ever nourished on a diet of doubts, or on half beliefs which never cost them an hour’s serious thinking. And now we have come to the last, and in some senses the greatest, Article of tbe Creed. “I believe in tbe Life, Everlasting.” Visitors to India, landing on the plains of Bengal, turn their eyes to the north and see the Himalayas, peak rising above peak, each one cutting the skyline a little closer, till they stand wonderstruck at the sight of the rosy and glitteri ing splendours of Kinchinjunga! So the i student of the Apostles’ Creed passes from « one great thought to a greater, until he reaches the climatric wonder of this great thought of immortality. Men may doubt or deny some or all of the clauses we have been considering. They may be too careless or too worldly to think seriously cf pod, of Jesus Christ His Son, of the Resurrection, of the Catholic Church, of the Forgiveness of Sins, or of the Communion of Saints. Even nominally Christian people show by their conduct that these august truths have no particular hold on their minds and hearts. But the most confirmed materialist, and the laggard Christian, cannot escape the thought of death, and what lies beyond the hills of time, for, whether far off or near, death is sure, and it is mere pretence to say he is not concerned to know if death ends all. Evidence of this is found in unexpected quarters. I mention two. In a remarkable modern novel, “The Greatness of Josiah Porlick,” a nominal Christian who was a real unbeliever, confessed: “Of course there are hopes and consolations, and so forth; that is what the Gospel is for; but I hate the sight of wet clay,” and, with a shudder, he hurried out of the room I My second illustration is more striking still. The Referee is the chief sporting journal of England. It is about the last place you would expect to read anything on the question of the Great Beyond. Yet seme years ago the editor open ed his pages to a discussion of this subject, and for weeks the absorbing question was not what horse to back or the doings cf this and that athlete, but this: “If a man die, shall he live again ?” People don't say much about it, because they are afraid of being thought afraid; others proclaim their unbelief with a defiance which is cr.’y wistfulness spelt backwards; but get into close and intimate conversation with those who make no religious profession, and you will find thev thinking about it, and want to know it you believe in the Life Everlasting. Spiritualism is one -. f tbe oldest religions in the world, and its modern revival is. witness to the inextinguishable crave to be assured of a Spiritual w?)!d, and even those who no longer accept the authority of the Bible, or the Church, or the Creed, are nevertheless eager to find confirmation of their dream of immortality. DEATHLESSNESS OF THE SOtJL. Of course it is easy to meet all this with a shrug of the shoulders and a lift of the eyebrows, easy to express unbelief with a lofty wave of the hand, easy to say that thought about the life beyond is a relic of superstition and the survival of the mischievous influence of priests, easy to say our chief concern is with the living present, and not to think too much about “the sweet bye and bye.” It sounds plausible, but it is really very shallow talk after all. A practically universal instinct ought not to be curtly dismissed as a delusion. Defy scribe and pharasee, and reject the oracle of the priest if you like, but you will be wise not to defy or reject the unanimous voice of the human race. For the master minds of the world have affirmed belief in the deathlessness of the soul. From the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates, from the shores of the Ganges to the Far Wpst, the same confidence greets you, and these universal instincts are no delusion. Will the Great Creator speak truth to swallows and spiders, and tell lies to men? Besides, this doctrine of the Life Everlasting has its practical reflex action on conduct. Kant, the great German philosopher, reminds us of three great truths necessary to noble living, belief in God, belief in freedom, and belief in immortality, and he says that if you weaken these, then you inevitably weaken the sense of duty. The ancient prophet describes the people who had lost, faith in God and the future life as saying: “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” That is bound to be the result. Once men come to believe that life is merely animal existence, and you cut the nerve of noble living and striving. To save this age from the blight of materialism you need to recover faith in the Life Everlasting. The best work in the world and for the world is done under the inspiration of the world to come. This subject is not simply a speculative and academic question, fit for dreamers and doctrinaires; it is a matter of vital and practical concern, affecting home and marriage, trade and politics.

THE CHRISTIAN CASE. T am not going to attempt to discuss what Science and Philosophy have to say about immortality, for the sufficient reason that I have not the ability and you probably have not the patience. Science can neither prove nor disprove immortality; ic deals with matter, not spirit, with present not future things. It is a case of the cobbler sticking to his last. Spiritual things are spiritually, not biologically, discerned. It would be no more foolish to expect a microscope to register temperatures than to expect physical science to decide on questions of religion. Only be it kept in mind that the foremost scientists, Sir William Crooks, Dr. A. R. Wallace, Professor William James, and Sir Oliver Lodge, arc reverent believers in the Life Everlasting. Simply and briefly the Christian case stands this way. “I believe in the Life Everlasting,” from man’s moral make up. Man differs from the lower animals chiefly in this, that he is a moral being. You can account for animals without going outside | the reach of time. They eat and drink; I they propagate their species; they struggle and die. But man is not satisfied wUfe

these things. He has a faculty for the infiinite; conscience speaks. He hears a voice saying, “thou shait” and “thou.shalt not.” Others mistrust and say. “But time escapes, Live now or never!” He says: “What’s time? Leave now for dogs and apes! Man has forever.” FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. We say, and rightly say, that man i? immortal till his work is done; but his task is never done down here, and if, as someone finely said, in less than three score years and ten, a germ cell in the brain can produce Hamlet, or the Sermon on the Mount, what might not the future life hold for us?” I believe in the immortality of the soul as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God’s work,” says i John Fiske. Further, “I believe in the Life Everlasting,” from the character of God Himself. He is the Faithful Creator, and for every faculty He provides satisfaction: light for the eye, music for the ear, love for the heart, and if He has implanted in ds this sense of immortality, God will not mock our dream. That is i the thought of Tennyson. “Thou wilt not leave us in the dust, Thou madest man, he knows not why, He thinks he was not made to die, And Thou hast made him; Thou art just. Religion is God calling man into fellowship with Himself. Between God and man there may be deep, holy, intimate friendship, and to think of death robbing God of His friends is morally monstrous. But, chiefly, “I believe in the Life Everlasting,” on the authority of Jesus Christ, “the True and Faithful Witness.” He lived, He died, He rose again, and His experience was typical of ours. In a very deep and real sense He was the Normal Man, and what happened to Him foreshadowed what will befall us. “Because I live ye shall live also.” “We bow our heads at going out, we think, And enter straight another golden chamber of the King, Larger than this we leave, and lovelier.” USE OF THE CREED. And now my task is done. Like golden milestones, the the clauses of “the Apostles’ Creed” stand in stately file behind us, but ere we quit the subject, I want to add a word. This ancient Creed is a noble statement of Catholic truth. It is human in its origin and not binding on Christian consciences, but it is a great document, when rightly used. Would that we thought as deefjly and soberly on Christian doctrine as the author or authors of the Creed! But there is x a right and a wrong use of this and of all Creeds. We are debtors to the men who wrestled with great doctrines and left us the result of their serious thinking to guide, but not to enslave our minds, to serve as a ladder by which we climb, and not as a barbed-wire entanglement behind which we are interned. The right use of the Apostles’ Creed is to prod our mind to think and help us to reach firm foothold. The wrong use is to accept it as a substitute for further thought. Tbe Bible is a growth, the Church is a growth, Christian doctrine is a growth. If a creed is larger than the New Testament it is too large; if it is smaller than the New Testament it is too small; if it is the same size as the New Testament, choose the New Testament. To say this is not to belittle the Apostles’ Creed. I do not scorn a gloire-d’dijon rose when I say it came from a common briar, or the quality of a Ripstone Pippin when I say it came from a crab apple, or an Atlantic liner when I say it had its beginning in a “dug-out.” If we have a clearer, fuller, worthier thought of God and His. ways, let us be thankful for the milestones that mark our pilgrim’s progress. What have we that we have not received ?. THE FINAL TEST. “I believe in God the Father,” one God in threefold manifestation, as Creator, Redeemer, Comforter." “I believe in Jesus Christ, His Unique Son,” our Saviour, Brother, Lord and Judge.” “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Living and Eternal Spirit behind all life.” “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church,” the goodly fellowship in all lands and ages. “I believe in the Communion of Saints,” on Earth and in Heaven. “I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins,” the power of God to reach and renew the sinful hearts of men. “I believe in the Life Everlasting,” the survival and progress of the soul in the presence of the Eternal God, beyond the bounds of time. And I say this not because the Creed says it, but because these triumphant certainties appeal to my mind and heart, to my reason and faith.

But the final test of any creed is a life. A man may be as orthodox as the Devil and as wicked. Belief in God, which does not issue in reverence, is vain. l Belief in Christ, which does not issue in gratitude and service, is vain. Belief in the Holy Catholic Church, which does not issue in fellowship, is vain. Belief in the Life Everlasting, which does not issue in unworldliness, is vain. I have seen a clump of chrysanthemums growing in a sunny garden, and I have seen the same lovely flowers frozen in a block of ice; and our creed xnay be like either. Which is yours? “I believe in the Life Everlasting.”

“Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me, And may there be no moaning at the bar When I put out to sea. But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark.” v For though from out our bourn of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to meet my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.”

I end these studies with the prayer of Saint Athanasius: “And now, O Lord God, • f ™3 his W ° rk 1 have said an which is Thine, Thine own will recognise it, and ff I have said anything which is mine, do rhou and Thine forgive it.” Amen,