LIFE AFTER DEATH

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 7

LIFE AFTER DEATH

An essay on immortality is included in a volume by Canon B. H. Streeter, recently published. “No mental picture we can frame of any life beyond the present is likely to be even approximately a correct image of the reality,” be writes,. But under whatever metaphor or symbol we may envisage it, the alternative between extinction and continued existence is one which belongs to the realm of fact, -badis none the less fact because it happens to bo hard to ascertain. And, difficult as it may be to strike the balance of argument on either side, the continuance or the reverse of life beyond the grave is m the last resort not a matter of opinion, but of fact. And it is a fact the knowledge of which is of more practical importance to man than any other one thing. . . i If the universe is the product of blind mechanical energy, or even of some half-conscious life force, then the heart and mind of Jesus is just a happy accident: it is merely the most remarkable of all the unexpected by-products cast up by the evolutionary process in its agelong aimless track. But if there is a purpose behind it all, then that life and character are not to he explained as accidents. They are an evidence of what the Creative Mind that wills it all is on occasion capable of producing. But no creative mind can produce something higher and nobler, than itself. Therefore the emergence on the plane of history of the man Jesus forces thought to a decision. Either no purpose controls the Universe and there is no God, or else that purpose is as noble, that mind has thoughts as high, as the purpose and the mind of Christ. I must make my choice. There are things which make it hard to believe in a living, loving God. But reflection shows that it is harder still to accept the paradox that all is accident.