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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1910)
SRSBSSTwiimiiTi? nftyiyilmimw mi wi i'iw fWfm jfifo,,fel!lJ0Q!$f The Commoner. 5 UMi I . 3UJGTTST It, 1UI " reality. To prove his right to th name of Christian, one must be something; he must do something. Love impels him to service through example, and the golden rule points the war. Twelfth Immortality, a reward and a re straint. !fi "If a man die shall he live again?" What more important question can thrust It self upon man's attention? Prom the days of Job even from man's first day upon the earth i down to the beginning of the Christian er, this thought-compelling question has risen to his lips. Christ has answered the question, and answered it to the satisfaction of His follow ers. By His word, and by His own resurrection. He has testified to the reality of a future life. Belief in the resurrection Is one of the found ation stones upon which our religion rests. It stands or falls with the sonshlp of tho Saviour: "If Christ be not risen, then is our. preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." If Christ was not divine, He did not rise from tho dead; if Christ did rise from the dead, Ho was divine. Wo need not worry about the details of tho next life; it is enough to know that there is an existence beyond the grave. The God who fashioned this world and suited It to the needs of man, can be trusted to frame a heaven for those whom He has made in His own imago. The transition which takes place when tho mortal puts on immortality; when that which is "sown a natural body is raised a spiritual body" is not more mysterious than the new life "which springs up from the seed which is not quickened, except it die." If the germ of life in the grain of wheat has power to build for itself a new body, so much like tho old one that we can not tell the one from the other -if the germ of life in the grain of wheat can Ifass unimpaired through many resurrections, I Bhall not doubt that my spirit has power to clothe itself In a body suited to its new existence when this frame of mine shall become dust. And who will measure the consolation which this belief in Immortality has brought to the sorrowing hearts of tho sons of men. Comparo the Christian view of heaven with that, presented by the teachers of the non Ghristiati world. Confucius evaded the subject of Immortality; Christ left no doubt as to the future Btate The Koran paints a picture of heaven which neither furnishes Inspiration nor raises man's aspirations; the Bible portrays heaven in such a way as to elevate our thoughts, purify our motives, and ennoble our lives. Buddhism regards life as a calamity, from which one escapes through loss of individual identity; Christianity teaches us that life is an opportunity, to be improved to the utmost a preparation for a still higher life, with conscious existence hereafter where we shall know as we are known as a reward. Belief in immortality is more than a consola tion; it is a restraint also. It tends to estab lish justice and benevolence as a basis of brotherhood. One who expects to live again one who expects to see face to face is strength ened to resist temptations that may come to him to injure his brother for his own benefit. He must be at heart an unbeliever who, to reap an unfair advantage at the expense of his fellow, is willing to risk ages of shame and remorse when he stands uncovered In tho pres ence of the one who he has wronged. The fruits of the tree increase in number as the years go by; they increase also as our vision is clarified. When we look from afar we see the more important fruits of the spirit the fruit that grows on the larger branches. As wo ap proach hearer, the tree grows upon us and we see a multitude of branches and fruit in inex haustible quantity. As we come still nearer, we understand more and more clearly how the tree can, in time, fill the whole earth and how its leaves can in reality be "for the healing of the nations." Christ is the growing Figure in the world; the story of His life touches the hearts of men and women wherever It Is told, and it is being trans lated into every tongue. Even the children and who was more tenderly solicitious concern ing them? catch a 'glimpse of the Christ life as their Innocent hearts receive the .revelation which the worldly-wise and tho so-called pru dent sometimes reject. Christianity is an Increasing force -It it ex panding day by day and year by year, as the missionaries of the Cross carry the message Into distant lands. The march of our religion quiet yet triumph ant is strikingly pictured by an American min ister, the Rev. Charles Edward Jefferson, of New York, in a volume entitled "Things Funda mental;" and with this picture I close: "Christ in history! Thero is a fact face It. According to the now testament, Josus walked along the shores of a little sea known as the sea of Galilee. And thero Ho called Fetor and Andrew and James and John and soveral others to be His followers, and they loft all and fol lowed Him. After they had followod Him they revered Him, and lator on adorod and wor shipped Him. He left them on their faces, each man saying, 'My Lord and my God!' All that is in the New Testament. "But put tho Now Testament away. Time passes; history widens; an unBeen Presenco walks up and down the shores of a larger sea tho sea called tho Mediterranean and this un seen Presenco calls men to follow him. Tortul Uan, Augustino, Ansolm, Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Thomas a Kempis, Savonarola, John Hubs, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin another twelve and these all followed Him and cast themselves at His feet, saying, in tho words of the earlier twelve, 'My Lord and my God!' "Time passes; history advances; humanity lives its life around the circle of a larger sea the Atlantic ocean. An unseen Presenco walks up and down tho Bhores calling men to follow Him. He calls John Knox, John Wesley, George Wh-ltefleld, Charles Spurgeon, Henry Parry Liddon, Joseph Parker, Jonathan Edwards, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, Richard Saltus Storrs, Phillips Brooks, Dwight L. Moody another twelve and theso leavo all and follow Him. We find them on their faces, each one saying, 'My Lord and My God!' "Time passes; history is widening; humanity Is building its civilizaton round a still wider sea wo call It tho Pacific ocean. An unknown Presence moves up and down tho shores calling men to follow him, and they are doing It. An other company of twelve is forming. And what took place In Palestine nineteen centuries ago is taking place again in our own day and under our own eyes." result WTu bo the samo if county onlton fs enacted into a law. The prosperity of Omaha, of any othor city or town or of any portion of Nebraska Is not depondont upon tho opportunity given to their people to partako of Intoxicating liquors. We horo In Nebraska are much of the same muscle and fiber as tho men of Kansas, where prohibition which wo are told Is far nioro torrlblo than county option has boon a law for years. Yot Kansas Is ono of tho moat prosperous and progressive of states, with few county Jails and with sliraly inhabitod ponlton tiarlos and insano asylums. In a word, the Omaha Daily Nows takos quito a cheerful vlei 01 mis awrui, impending doom that is tlin enmg us. or just look at tho latitude thi normutcu 11 county ontlon bncomnn hw.Amzhv county in Nebraska, if it so desires, has tho chance of having saloons to tompt its children' with. It can voto to put its monoy into circu lation by moans of tho saloon bar and tho ba loonkeopor's strong box instead of circulating It through tho grocery and dry goods storos 1r. purchases of bettor things and clothing for Its families. If it chooses, it may send moro than' its share of drink victims to the Insano and in ebriate asylums, supported by tho whole of tho state. Tho pooplo of any county, it they like, may tax themsolvos for tho support of Jails to tako care of tho harvest of tho fightings and killings that are spewed up by tho saloon. Why, a county may, if tho majority of its pooplo so decide, stick a saloon alongsido of ovory homo within Its confines. There is all sorts of per sonal liberty to bo had under tho county option law if tho majority of tho people of any county desire It. Really, tho moro that wo consider tho wide latitudo given by a county option law, the moro enthusiastic wo wax over It." GOOD FOR ALEXANDER COUNTY The democrats of Alexander county, Illlno.Is, met in convention and adopted the following resolutions: Whereas, While a tariff bill which had for Its purpose tho robbing of the many for the en richment of the few was pending In the senate of the United States certain democratic mem bers of the Illinois legislature, among whom was Sidney B. Espy, a representative of this, the Fiftieth, district, although instructed by tho people in a primary election to voto for the Hon. Lawrence B. Stringer for the position of United States senator, combined with certain re publican members and elected to the senate Wil 11am Lorimer, a friend of capitalism; an enemy of tho common people, an exponent of the poli cies of the republican party, and an unswerving opponent of the Tighteous principles of democ racy, and for whose election some democratic members have confessed to being paid, therefore be it Resolved, That we, the members of the Alex ander county democratic central committee, and other democrats present, do by a unanimous vote condemn the democratic legislators for their vote for this servant of plutocracy, William Lorimer, as unfit to be members of the great party of Jefferson, Jackson, Douglas, Tilden, Cleveland and Bryan, and we appeal to democrats through out the state to prevent their renominatlon to tho legislature or their nomination to any office within the gift of the people. We commend those democratic members who stood by the Hon. Lawrence B. Stringer to the last as an illustrious type of American citizenship. - COUNTY OPTION The Omaha Daily News, having perhaps the largest circulation in Nebraska, prints the fol lowing editorial': "County option is an Issue In this fall s cam paign. The state conventions have decided that. And now we hear a loud and vigorous cry go up from all parts of the state that if county option passes, it means the ruin of Ne braska. The same sort of an outburst followed the enactment of the eight o'clock closing law. Omaha was particularly rampant over this meas ure Delegations protested to the governor that if the people of Omaha were not given a chance to drink beer and whisky after eight o'clock the city was going straight to the demnition. bow-wows. Today Omaha is more prosperous than ever, and, as we have stated before, wo believe that if tho eight o'clock law were put to a vote, Omaha would conclude to retain it. The "A COMIN' AN' A GOIN " The old darkey's coon trap, which was set to "cotch 'om a comin' an' a goln' " is a marker to tho trap always sot by Wall Street to catch the innocoiit lambs that seemingly dearly love to gambol in that neighborhood. A few months ago the country was awaiting, with interest,' tho supreme court's decision in the oil audi tobacco trust cases. When the court announced that tho cases would bo re-argued, that mean't' a year's delay, and immediately tobacco and oil stocks took an upward turn. Tho Saturday Evening Post recalls that this fact brought out from a financial organ tho following explan ation: "Tho court's announcement has had tho effect of reviving hope and confidenco in tho financial community to an unusual degree, and complete ly reversed tho downward course of security markets." That seemed a reasonable explanation, but on July 4 tho chief justice of the supreme court died, and tho Immediate result was a sharp do-1 cllne in stocks. Then the same ably edited financial review offered this explanation: "The severe decline occurring Tuesday was brought about partly by the death of Justice Fuller, which foreshadowed further delay in the oil and tobacco cases." In other words, the delay that caused the stock market to advance in April, caused it to decline in July. If that does not make the famous coon trap play second fiddle nothing will. In the meanwhile the innocent lambs will gulp down the explanations and continue to offer their fleece. SURELY BLIND A dispatch to the Louisville (Ky.) Journal says: "Conditions of life in the bituminous coal fields of western Pennsylvania' are deplored in a report of tho- immigration commission, of which Senator Dillingham, of Vermont, is chair man. The report declares 75 per cent of tho( miners are foreign born and many of the mine' accidents are due to their Ignorance." This committee was surely blind. Otherwise it might have discovered that most of thojiccl dents were due to criminal economy on tho part of the mine owners In the matter of pro viding protection for their workingmen. TO PARTY WORKERS Democratic committeemen and active party' workers will find a message of unusual Interest on page 16 of this issue. . All new and renewal subscribers to The Com--nioner during the month of August will receive a year's subscription to tho national farm paper, the American Homestead, without additional charge. Give your friends an opportunity- tof join you In accepting this offer. & "TJ i'j f Ai i