A BISHOP'S SPIRITUALISM.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10348, 22 April 1911, Page 5 (Supplement)

A BISHOP'S SPIRITUALISM.

Tho Eight dltev. Dr. Ai. F. Winniuo-ton-Ing(i-am preadicid ltwntly in Glastg'ow from the text in Luke. 1-79, "To give light to them tiiat sit in dai'kne.ss, .amdi in the sliadoiw of death, to guida oui 1 feet into the way of peace." The preajchcr said :— ■ Thcire was no subject 011 which Ohristiians Avei'e more miisitalke'n than an tlwi.ti of dba.Ui. fWb sipokie.—did we not..'—<vf the. hoii'oi-si of dea.th, of the

sleep of duath, of tho darkness vi death, and even fcunffllimea. we repeated that sad aphorism! of the old pluloaoipliqr, 'Death, the end.' And yet when* we lolukcd ait. death in the light of the Epiphany, we found that not. oiia of thoso pln'asesi was justified for a momemti. Taike,. first of all, the hoinvr.s cf dieath—■what Wo were doing was to oonfus-c: the discomfort which sometimes (no* always) preceded death with death itself. We could not dismiss! as micn-ei delusions tho many Tories which came to usoT UiC'®9 who saw ■something just, befoi'e tlicy die*!. Hti inti-.anced the Oases of twoi friends of his own who died lasit; year in the pi^ime of lifei. Ona said jusab before he died, 'How splendid!' ihe other said, 'I never expedited to a.fei anything) like, that.' These, and miany other insit.a.noesi showed that we were Ibum iuito the othicr world as, quicily amd painlossly as -we were ■born intol' tliisi world. Thq text chosen ttua.t day •wias a, pileiturei of loving welcomiei, of outaltrtitched aims. Abi the poet safcl, 'It was nut well that, men should know too stolon the lovely secrets k-cpb for them that diei.' .All the tio.mm.on .taJ!k aib'out the hoi Tors of deiailili was not justified in the light of Eii>ipihia.niy. Wliiat them should we say ahouib {hie slelep of death 1? Simply this, that vel wera the vioiims "of a mataphoal. lit. was the !btrxly that slept, not the spirit. A* te the [iihrasei 'the darkness of death,' perhaps it' would ha no exag'oiea'a'tioai to say that we would .not know what ligih,t really was until we died. If the light, of day as it faded away rteivtwledl the -woiklgts of the siky, was it niofc reasonable to e\pecit tha* the; light of tllna life we knew as it faded away would also reveal wonders unknown! Dfiiath might be Maid to ba the 'beginning/ of the permanent life. And wa did oiiur Liard £>Toat wrong if we

did noib 'bleilieve tlitiit. life to bs a greater and! happier life than the life w'a knew here. It would be a fuller life and a human lifei. Could tlierjr imagino Ali'ohibdshop Temple or one* who was/ iw ieill known to the Provost of thiat Cathedral, Bernard Wilson—coliilcl they imagine either of them doing nothing for ever and ever? In onci ser.se, he proceeded, we were all Ajyoostiiosl—^that was, we only knew in part. Bufc, in spite of tha,t, pwi-tial knowledge was real knowledge, and ha belieived we would findl six things about he life after death which w'oiuld ha.vo a tremendouH effete* on our view' of the after life. First', there was identity. We •wiouild !bef the same. Science, headed by Sir Oliveir Lodgei and others v-ho follow hiim, was all oai our side as to the> identity of the person after death. Besides identity, if there was life ■there must ba growth. Did the very bfcsb men and women we knew not need to gi'ow in grade and in ehoraoter'l 01 course they did, and 1 if they lived afterwards they musit. grow.

Surely tliati was a. glorious thouu'ht for a*iy of hisi hea.r'ers who had lost their cihildren —this growing: in faith, in hope, in luvtel, and. in character in the suany laud of F'aradisfci. Thirdly, Certainly thtrei winuldi br> memory. Foirrthly, if we'died as Christians wo should be wiirh Christ.—'to-day .-Jlnvlt tliou be with me in Paradise.' Fiftili, wo Hvfcj'Tilci redoy'iiisc-opo another and' know onei another after death. Was it roally conceivable, lie a'dked, thati the God who had pei'mitted these boa.utifull human friendship*:, which we formed Ime, our love for one aiLOithar, was ■ gains: to bl.ist them aftei* dloatli 1? And sixth, we would sitill look iback with love and interest to -tiho world wliioli wci had left;. Did they mean to say that the parish priest who had toiledl and prayed htv his r.*?ople for fifty years Would cK?;ise after death td pray and ciare for them, or tlitutJ the motheiV who prayed for i her boys ever since their 1 birth would oetaso to pray for them, five rain ites" after her death? Biut) perliaps they would aay, 'What, Bishop, has -his t;o do with our life here ?' ft wem -0 to him tb have sic*v'eiral- arplicatii.iv; of speeiial importance. What a w'arnin<v it ■was to^rigli* any wrong in our life here, an'V quanviMiot made up which should remember, too late, after deaith. If tlierei was craei wcrvl more than a.noither which he Would press upon his hearers tlv.it morning it, waa this: 'Be bra,ve, confess that sin, break off that, li.al.vit, ripht tha* wrong, .make r.p that q.mrrel. and do not; hhink of it! with, unavailing remoi^o after d^-a.th.' Lvt r.s. lVctMy the piroportion in v.-hieh we sfl.w thino-s. It was possible that we troubled our miinrls will) w( n ifs whidi five minuties aft.-r •k-aHi would appeal' as nothir.tr- Cl>>-u!d' we n->t rej solra to rente" a perfect service in ■ TCiturn frur' what wo would «?e, in 'the lisivt of death, li'would come aa a, friend to those who hud m-.i failed in duty.