Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1876)
Editor's Chair. 10 We only know what state of tilings must exist at death u comprehension of ti cliiiin of dependent reliitions. Hut let us grant I lint there Is an iminorlnl slain, (for it is easier to believe that the soul is im mortal lli.n to believe that there can be an annihilation of the recognition of depen- 1 ili'iit re at ons.) and el us hoc how wc can possibly modify it and further what are our responsibilities concerning it. In the llrst place, the only evidence of our will is that wo have power to effect the quality of impressions and perceptions. This power is coextensive with the digni. ty of our being, bene it is limited. This constitutes our choice of relations. It is plain however that our choice is not un limited. There is always a choice, tint of ten a forced choice; for often we come front to front with the broad sea of cir cumstaiicesiind the tide so hostile to our own will In defiance lolls its rising waves about our feet and we must change our minds, hence the limit of our respousibili. ty- Again, all must concede that our immor tality is modified by our life. The number of such modifications can only extend to death, yet at death the soul is thus the result of every act and thought through life, for no act or thought can be so small but that it may have an influence. Hence the soul, on its departure from the body, looks back ami perceives every relation it has ehosen, every perception or Impres sion. No one is so minute but that it h-ts had a being, and from this fact it must be recognized, and also because such reoog nitions are simply the conditions of self knowledge. And as the soul thus points to every one of its ir.ls, so, on the other hand.cverv act must poittt to some qualification of the soul. Each perception, each impression each choice and evervicnown relation has its prosnectivo purpose, n purpose for moulding the soul that is proportionate to its own inlluece. It is plain then that du ring life we become the detectives of our own future- existence. Step by step, mark by mark, here by some sign or supposed characteristic, there by some calculated relation between the thing seen and the thing unseen, on this side attending to some word of advice, on that spun ing any attempt to thwart 'us, through long dark, gloomy alleys, through dismal dens as well as through the temples of the counterfeiter, we track through the world our future self. Nor is it until death, that reveals the real object of our search, which has so long eluded us, do we come face to face and front to front witli our real future conditions. As one, who has long been on the search for one whom he has never fien, yet knows him by n few uuqucslion able indications, is somewhat surprised when he does sec him, bucausc he per haps has a hundred other characteristics which were not known, so will wc ho sur prised when we come face to face with our future self, because it will bo something of which we have not enough characteristics to form an adequate idea. Whatever it um he, we know it must be the resultant of all the acts of our lives. It is then the common purpose of each and every tboughtor deed. This is what we must look forward to, and this we truce out by the relations which we ourselves choose. As we have said, as each relation points to the final purpose, so the final purpose will point back to each relation. And since this is of our own selection, let us now inquire, What should be its prime conditions? In the first place, all will willingly concede that it should be some thing possessing absolute purity. If there is not the slightest stain, the least possible error, so much greater will be the happi ness; so much greater will be the satisfac tion. In order that this purity may be one of the conditions of immortality, there must he absolute purity in life. We of course are prone to adopt such a con elusion, through wc arc driven to iiby the above premises, for wo know that, at our present advancement, it is impossible for us to live a perfect life. How the greatest purity may be attained to, is a question
