A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer.

  • Farmer, John S.
Date:
1882
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    groaning and travail of creation ceased. Death, lay prostrate at the leet of Life, and the world behind the veil became as tangibly and visibly real as the woidd of our daily tasks, a world in which the cor- Tuptible had put on incorruption, and the mortal immortality. It is upon this evidence, already nearly 2000 years old, that the •Christian Chirrch to-day rests its foundation of belief in, and advocacy •of, the spiritual nature and indestructibility of life. With what result I shall presently show. THE DOCTRINE OT MATERIALISM. On the other hand, the materialistic view of the world is a compara- tively new thing, if we except the Epicurean or Atheistic Philosophy ■of the ancients. It is essentially a product of civilisation. In rude ages,” observes Theodore Parker, “men reason but little. As they begin to be civilised they ask proof of immortality. Hence come doubts, enquiries, denials.” In the present age this school of thought has attakieti a degree of enlightenment and power rarely, if ever, before witnessed, and its ultimate is the existing conflict between modern culture and the qropular faith. Speaking generally, its history is naturally divided into two periods -or stages of development; namely. Rationalism, as developed in France and Germany during the latter part of the last century, and the Scientific Materialism of our own times. Each development has had its own characteristics, both of time and jilace. For inst.ance, Rationalism in France ran riot, and speedily ended in the Revolution. It was frivolous and immoral. Sensual prosperity ■was made the supreme law of existence. Its influence was comparatively weak and transient, and a reaction soon set in. These charges could not, however, be made against the same move- ment in Germany. There it was more earnest, and came more slowly and more thoroughly to maturity, and was^ consequently, the more •dangerous. This school of thought (Rationalism) reduced Christianity to its own standard of reason. Though admitting the probable existence of a Supreme Being on the one hand, jmt, on the other, the possibility of miracles, or of a revelation, was strenuously denied. Rationalism struck the supernatural out of religion, but left the i(ka of a God, inoi-al freedom, and a faint hope of immortality. In the next advance, however, these three fundamental principles are abolished altogether. Materialism recognises neither God, free- will, nor a life after death. It denies the existence of Spirit—the absolute and divine, as well as the created and human. It attempts to explain the existence of the world and of man from m.atter alone, and the power of motion connected therewith. Its distinctive teaching is that matter is everything, and that there is nothing else; th.at it is -eternal and imperishalde, that all forms of life are but modifications of it.* • “ AbamlonitiR nil diHguisi', tUo confesaion lli.-it I feel boiinil to mnke lv>foro yon la. ■ilittt I prolong the vision backwaril across the boumlnry of the cxitcrimental evidences.