SCIENCE, THE MIND-AND IMMORTALITY;

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 August 1928, Page 2

SCIENCE, THE MIND-AND IMMORTALITY ;

"It seems strange, on any mechanical theory, that I who am going to end this article know that I am the same person who. began it, and it seems stranger still that I who had a thoroughly sound sleep last night, am as certain as I can be of anything that I am the same being who decided in a moment of consciousness, yesterday, that I 'would, time permitting, write this article this morning,". writes the Rev. Alfred Hall in the "Inquirer" at the conclusion of his article on "Immortality." ( ' , '"There's a thread somewhere which holds my being with its diverse experiences together and connects my yesterdays and my to-days. I cannot believe that it is just a dance of molecules in my brain at the present moment, I would not dogmatise as to what it is, but I believe it is what men term 'mind'—something spiritual, something that abides and grows amid nil the transmutations wrought by the activity of my brain, something real and less subject to the decay which I see in the perpetual flux of the world about me. "It is that which makes me say to those who are unhinged by statements made occasionally by men who have won the right to*be heard with respect in the realm of science: 'Be not dismayed. Science deals with quantities, and it is exceedingly unlikely that it will ever be able to give us the lineal length cf a feeling, or the cubic measure of a thought, or the weight in ounces or drams of a memory. Keep your mind on "the imponderables," such great realities .as loyo and hope and inspiration. You may find in these stronger support and consolation in the dark passages of your life than you can discover in anything material. They obviously belong to earth, for they operate here, but they also carry in themselves the promise of a higher world. They make us personalities, and if they survive, our personalities shall survive also.' " "No psychologist worthy of the name," writes the Rev. Dr. Tudor Jones.in the "Inquirer," "would say that mind or spirit can be reduced to the mechanical and chemical actions and reactions of material elements. Tin's is the true story as presented by some of the ablest scientists of the. world today. "We agree that matter cannot go out of existence. How can mind or spirit go out of existence as it has originated from what is like itself in the universe? Our bodies will disappear into the elements; our spirits—liberated at what we call death—must go to their source or, as we say, to Cod. I know-of nothing in any science to contradict this. The trouble is that so many people do not give time enough to reflect upon something : of this nature. They are craving for 'signs and wonders,' and 'signs and wonders' are physical things, whilst'the essonce of our being is not physical but mental or spiritual! "I agree that the details of the future, destiny of the soul cannot possibly be mapped nut. How can we know the details until wo are there? But we can now be sure that we are on the way there and shall certainly reach there'. The most important point is to convince ourselves daily that we are on the way to the Eternal Mind and Spirit. Concentration of attention has to be given to this before it sinks from the level of mere intellectual belief to the level of conviction."