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Show i MJWISTER OFFERS PROOF OF LIFE BEIID GRAVE The post-Easter series of Sundav evening sermons upon 'Life Beyond the Grave" was commenced last eve-aj eve-aj ninjc in the Presbyterian church After a musical program, furnished In Misses Pierce Anderson and Scott, and the choir, Rev. Carver said in pa r( The story of the upward struggle of the human race Is the supreme story of interest. The life problems, the fundamental developments and first steps of advance taken at so much COlt in the childhood of the race, presents pre-sents a theme of deep fascination. How- the earliest people come to help rhemrelves by the use of fire, tools, weapons tamed animals, and how the first steps were taken toward homes povernments and written language rpads more interestingly than any 'best seller The story of the development de-velopment of religion and particularly i of the unfolding of the idea of life beyond the grave is as interesting did we know It well. The first belief in life bevond the crave did not deal with either the thought of resurrection or future judg ment These arose later. It dealt with a simple conviction that beyond death there was a continuation of thp same kind of existence that this life knew. The Indian would bury the implements for hunting and often i horse and dog with the man. that In the next life he might have them for his use. The pnmltlvp tribe of Mex Ico and Peru would often bury some of the servants and the favorite amusements or primp needs of the dead for the same purpose The people peo-ple of India, for a like reason some times Insisted that the widow mount the pyre and perish with the husband. It was a very sure conviction of life bevond death that would lead to the widows and servants being put to death In order to be with the departed de-parted Whence arose this conviction that is so universal in all savage peoples? It is one of the few uniersal trends of savage life Some say from a united uni-ted first home To others it is only i be natural consequence of two more primary facts namely, the fact of a conscience and the universal phenomena phe-nomena of dreams Conscience or kd's spirit told of future lifp just as it did of God, for no savRge has i been found without the idea of a God The common dream bore witness to this innate conviction of a life apart from the bod v. The savage knew i In-strange In-strange experience of traveling afar In his dream while his body slept It bore witness to the possibility of life apart from the bodv Now In nil this the savage ma have been very wrong, but nevertheless the fac t remains that dreams are among the riddles of science sci-ence today They are so common that very few people think very much si bout them, but of those who have thought and written most about them hardly any i wo agree, which shows that dreams are not to be waved aside hp of no consequence The psychologists psycholo-gists and physio-psychologists have for some time bepn irying to solve the phenomena of why some dreams come true'' as we sa and as vet It is all a riddle. The simple fact remains, re-mains, however, that just that kind of life beyond the grave that a dream speaks of is the kind of immortality that savage mankind believed in it was merely a continued life of the tame nature as we have here. Food and drink were of use to them The tuture abode was thought of as verj mueh akain to the one here. They feasted fought, made music, hunted. ,S and tolled Paul speaks of death as a ' departure depart-ure ' and again as of an "exodus. Wben Christ was on the Mount of ; i ransfigu ration he spoke of his "exo-due" "exo-due" that waa shortly io take place Christ speaks of death as a "homego Ing" and so did David at the death of his child. The twenty-third psalm has the same thought. "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever more." Again the Bible xpeaks of death as an "awakening" and this term was the one John Bunyan liked bct Vsain i he Bible speaks of death as an ' apo-calvpse" apo-calvpse" or revealing. Nof the point in all this is that in one sense the savage was nearer biblkal than most people arc today for the savage thought of Instant, immediate life after af-ter death. In fact there was no separation sep-aration between this and the next life in point of time. The common con vlctions of an entire human race, even in Its childhood. Is thus seen to be v er nearly right as far as it goes. Its sole fault is that it is only the foundation belief In immortality. It 1 -as lpft for Egypt and Persia to de- I velon the thought of the resurrection land future judgment. The Idea of an immediate life beyond be-yond death is in keeping with all the fteneral trends of savage thought, for they, like ehildren, had little conception concep-tion of disfanre in time or space. Their Gods must be near them as we see in the nature worship, the ancestry ances-try worship, the fetish worship and the idea of "taboo." They could not think of a God afar off It must be near them and this childlike limitation limita-tion of the savage mind is in part the explanation of idolatry. Here they are very much nearer right than many todny. Our God is a God who is near us. ''Nearer," says the poet, ' than hands or feet." It remained for the modern mind to conceive the fallacy of a God afar off in time or space Paul says that none were left without with-out witness of the essentials and therefore, all are without excuse for Godlessness "Our Savior Jesus Christ hath abolished death," wrote Paul. "I am the resurrection and the life." said Christ We live in the full light or the Easter truth. Most wonderful is the mercy of God who left not even his most ignorant chi1-dren chi1-dren without a knowledge of a life beyond be-yond the death. We sometimes wonder won-der if they did not live nearer the truth they had. than we do to the full light of this new testament today. It Is an awful responsibility to hae the truth of God and yet live as if we had it not |