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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1906)
THE CWAIIA DAILY BEK; SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 190a 3 D N A EAST a 10 GREETING gM M? PVfHfle..... -Af fhink Of it: 'Next Sunday is Easter! Are you prepared to greet the day properly? Easter should mark a new epoch in your wardrobe. Us the natural desire of everybody to appear in new garments Easter Sunday, and if you have not selected your clothes and are undecided we would be pleased to see you here. We can put you in order in thirty minutes with everything that s new and fresh in Suits, Top Coats, Trousers, Vests, Hats and Haberdashery, and you will be as well dressed as any one in. the Easter parade. p Have You Seen Our New Spring Suits? Coats cut extra long, shapely shoulders, wide trousers with all the lat6 kinks in the cut and tailoring. The swellest suits of the sea Bon are here $15, 18, $20, $25 Top Coats of Every Length and Color. Suits for Young Fellows who have the nerve to set the pace for their elders. Correct materials, cut with every fea ture top-notch S10 to $20 The Boys' Easter Suit He ought to have a new one surely. He'll put it on with a spirit of pride Easter morning and it won't cost much if you bring him here $5 to $10 we've all sorts of handsome clothing and toggery for the little fellows, with no extrava gant prices attached. When You Go Forth in your Easter splendor be sure your tie is "correct." You'll find more different things here in neckwear than you'll find at other stores. We are the neckwear store of the town 50c, 75c, $1, $L50, etc Dont let the Easter sun shine down upon a rusty hat on your head. It is the time to change and 6oft or stiff, we have the hat to please you $2,50, $3, $3,50, $5, $6 Shirts The minute the weather lias a 6pring-like appearance that minute you begin to think of negligee shirts. The spring styles are ready $1, $1.50, $2, $2.50 It Is Impossible to mention all the furnishing we have in stock for the com fort and ' adornment for men and boys, but a look at our windows will prove to your entire satisfaction that wo have the very article you want. Girls and Children's Tarns and Caps, 50c to $5 Shirts Underwear Hosiery Night Robes Pajamas Suspenders Gloves Canes Umbrellas Collars Cuffs Etc, . . . BR OWNING, KING & CO. R. S. WILCOX, , , Motiager Misses' and Girls' Tailor Made Coats are one of the features of our Easter showing, and we would be pleased to have you exam ine their many virtues. IDEA OF AN EASTER SERMON Immortality the Only True Guiding Star of Hope for Mankind. PROOF IS WANTED BY THE HUNGRY SOUL Does Not Rest Alone on the Testimony of tbe Weeping Mary tad the Eleven Disciples Who Stood avt Vacant Tomb. The grave cannot pralee Thee; Death cannot celebrate Thee. Aroused from profound meditation by the Query of a friend. Gladstone responded: "I was thinking of the first five minutes after death, and what It means to be good friends with God." Not Infrequent are the times, nor brief, when every man who thinks and very woman who loves turn toward the future with an agony of desire. "Thither all footsteps tend, thence none depart. Prom that bourne no traveler returns. No wave of that mysterious sea has ever been touched by the shadow of a returning sal!." Whence he came and whither ho Journeys, man does not know. Life Is a shoal of time, rounded by a sea whose tides for ver ebb. Msn Is beset by a multitude of foes, but worst of all he must bear his burdens, endure his sorrows and make his flght for existence, all the while knowing that he is under the sentence of death, an Inexorable verdict pronounced by secret council in the mysterious chambers of the sky. Death Is tho august mystery, pondered by every age and solved by none. Before tt the daring and Intrepid feet of science pause and mark time with meaningless shuffle; Philosophy lays aside Its wisdom and gates with the eyes of Ignorance, and from It Religion flees for comfort Into the arms of Faith. Death robs nnd makes no restitution. It strikes the music of the lips of love with everlasting silence and chills the caressing hand, until neither marblu la so rigid nor Ice so old. Born at sero, governed by forces generated In an unauthorised ancestry, the unwilling heir to appetites, passions and desires that scorch sud wound, denied the Instinct of the bird and beast and flower, man 1 forced by an Invisible power to bet in hi Journey along the highway called life, toward the abyss culled death. What llts Has Done. The wonder Is, that man aspires and achieves. The wonder Is, that he should strivf and endeavor within the shadow of this universal tragedy. Tet he continues. Amid the forces that threaten and visit de struction he has founded empires and heaped guilt as high as heaven; he has ex plored the earth, the sea, the sky; he has turned deserts into gardens and marked the trackless waste of oceans with the definite paths of commerce; he has silt his veins above the roots of freedom and plucked the cardinal blossoms of liberty bordering thj crimson highway of war. Amid the crum bling ruins of life's hopes and ambitions. In the face of the sealed silence of hU un- replying dead, conquered yet victorious ter rified yet Intrepid, baffled yet unbeaten. In consistent yet Incomparable, man faces the problems of life with a song In his heart and a laugh on his lips; Imperiously chal lengea death and boldly defies Its cutas trophe. Man loves, therefore he hopes. Dmd seated In his nature la the only Instinct that Justifies the existence of a moral universe. It is tbe Instinct of Immortality. Annlver sarles are monuments as well as mile atones, and to this Instinct for Immortality man nag erected the monument called Ea ter. Forgetting that the day was a world festival among all who worshipped at the shrine of the ancient Teutonic goddess of spring, the church has claimed this anni versary for her own. Despite the faot that Moses and Job each held a brief for Immor tality, the Investigations of men .prior to the discovery by the weeping women at the tomb are pronounced meaningless. Macau ley declares the crowning glory of Chris tianity to be "that It has wiped the tears from the eyes which had failed with wake fulness and sorrow; lent celestial visions to those dwelling under thatched roofs and shed victorious tranquillity upon those who have seen the shades of death closing around them." Frederick W. Robertson, the most brilliant of British clergymen, whose early death Is an Insoluble mystery. once closed a sermon with the words: Search through tradition, history, the world within you and the world without except In Christ there is not the shadow of a shade of proof that man survives the grave." Where Easter Sermon Fails, These statements Illustrate the Idea with which the church celebrates Easter, and the method, purpose and argument of the Easter sermon as It Is. As the year re volves toward Easter, the drama of the Journey to Jerusalem, the passion of Gotbsemane and the tragedy of the cross are reviewed. Lent, with subdued call. bids men cease from strife and contests. pursuit of Joy and love of laughter, to contemplate the fact of death. Tnen Easter comes with its flowers, music and ex hortation to persuade us that there Is no such thing as death. The arguments of the sermon are based upon the open tomb, the weeping women, the mystified disciples and the reappearance of the crucified prophet who called Himself, and whom I believe to be, the Son of God. The failure of the average Easter sermon Is that It deals with the resurrection as an episode in history and not as a manifestation of God ever In the world. Its weakness Is the attempt to base the solution of the most portentous problem of human life upon the credibility of a single event. Im mortality Is of supreme importance to Christianity. The loss of Jesus of Nasareth would be a calmlty, the loss of the Idea of Immortality would be a catastrophe to hu manity. If man Is not Immortal then It is not material whether there be a God or conscience, a heuven or a hell. Without immortality the Incarnation and atonement are not worthy of discussion; and the per son of Jesus becomes merely a beautiful figure upon the canvass of life, without motive or propulsion. Credible as we may retard their testimony, to rest the case of Immortality upon the evidence of the eleven apostles, the weeping women and the 600 or more disciples. Is to place It upon disputable ground. The credibility of the resurrection hinges for proof upon argu ments for immortality, rather than does the question of immortality depend upon the fact of the resurrection for Us solution. The church must always deserve the tri bute of Macauley, but foreshadowings of the labor of science Indicate that the state ment of Robertson will not be regarded In the future as historically true. Hope la Science. F. W. H. Meyers. In his masxlve and fascinating work entitled. "Human Per sonality and Its Survival of Bodily Death," asserts that "man has never yet nppllHl the method of science to the problem of his own survival of bodily death," and this Is true. Again he says: "If a spiritual world exists, and If that world has. at nnr epoch, been manifest or even discoverable, then It ought to be manifest or discoverable now." Reaching forward from this premise he gains a conclusion that seems sure and reasonable, and which must at least com mand the serious attention, If not the en dorsement, of science. The Beyond must henceforth occupy"- the minds of men In their search for conclusive proof of a mo tive for existence. It Is no rash assertion of religious Impulse, no vagary of a dis eased mind to assert that we are on the verge of the greatest discoveries In the history of mankind, which shall come from our explorations of the realm of the soul and the territory beyond the boundary of death. Science Is slowly translating the alphabet of the occult and unseen, nnd soon we shall be able to read the story of the travels of the subconscious self. Immortality as an idea Is a fact. . As a fact It Is worthy of consideration as the earth, the sun or man himself. There Is an aristocracy of ideas. They axe few and of ancient lineage. Tbey have passed through the crucible of reason, survived the trial of Incredulity, and forever con form to the potency and purposes of na ture. They have come to us over the graves of traditions, past the tombs of superstitions, and through the crumbling ruins of persistently defended but Van quished theories. When, therefore, an idea has been reviewed by all the world, sur vived all mutations and persisted In the face of constant objection, when It has been confessed and defended wherever mon have thought and aspired, It can safely stand before the austere tribunal of reason and claim seal of approval. The idea of Immortality has taken Its place In the aristocracy of reason's realm. Knowledge has not made it Irrational, discovery has not disproved It, science has not discred ited It. Whence Came the Ideaf Whence came this Idea? We do not know. It Is not the child of religion, the creature of philosophy ncr the product of science. Imagination did tiot create It. Im agination Is the artist of the soul. It may take the materials provided by the senses and weave them Into wondrous forms and colors, but It cannot create those materials. This Idea of Immortality Is old. In the British museum Is a piece of clay, upon which is rudely drawn the figure of a niau sitting upon a skull. It came from a pre hlstorio period, from a people of whose lan- Gossip and Stories About People of Note n ImhiiVi Rendesvoua for Poets. AMES WHITCOMB RILEY," the Hoosier poet, and John Dickey, a close personal friend, have pur chased Bear Wallow Hill, In Brown county, Indiana, and are going to improve the site with a mag nificent house, which will be a kind of In tellectual summer resort. It Is proposed to set out 6.000 frutt trees early this spring, and when the Improve ments are completed the resort will be opened for people who wish to spend a quiet month or two in an atmosphere and amid scenery which have Inspired some of Riley's most beautiful poems. Bear Wallow, so named from the bears that wallowed on Its green slopes and rocky sides. Is one of the most picturesque spots in the state, being very high and sur rounded by wild and rugged country. An lnterurban traction line has been projected through the country and will run at the base of Bear Wallow hill, making It easily accessible from the cities and towns of the state. The house to be ereoted upon the crown of the hill will be three stories high and will contain twenty-seven rooms. Here It Is the purpose of the Hoosier poet to gather around him men and women who have made the country famous for litera ture, and though the doors are to be shut to none. It la understood that the intel lectual will find the place specially adapted to their desires. Mr. Dickey Is now on the grounds superintending the preliminary work, and the building will be begun and rushed to completion as soon as the weather will permit. Takes Life Easy. Of Joseph Chamberlain a critic says: "He Is one of the most restful men I have ever met. There Is not flurry or haste or bustle In his manner.- He la what our grandfathers would call 'a dry stick.' His voice In conversation has a quixsical tone; his wit Is dry; his manner Is that of a shrewd and somewhat bored ooeerver rather than that of an active participant. He leans back In his chair, sitting rather low, his hands folded, his eyes studying those about him with quiet, contemplative Interest. He never appears eager to make a point In conversation and one only be comes aware of the quickness and wake fulness of his mind by some shrewd re mark which brings general conversation back to the point from which It first set out or to some definite conclusion." office, when the president of the road dropped in one day with Information that the general manager had resigned. "Do you know of a good man for the placeT" the president Inquired of young Morton. "What Is the salary?" "Well, It will depend somewhat upon the man," was the reply. "H-m-m. If you will pay enough I do know of a man, Just the one you need. He knows the railroad business from the bot tom up and is a mighty hard worker In the bargain." "Name him, and If he answers the de scription we will make him a generous offer." "His name, sir, is Paul Morton." He got the place. At a dinner In New York the other even ing President Paul Morton of the Equita ble heard this story related and did not contradict It, so It may, perhaps, be re garded as at least measurably true. He had been working Ills way up in a railroad Xo Great Difference. Johnny Mine, a Klckapoo linguist and philosopher, whose real name Is Mah-me-qua-che-mah-che-mah-net and who can speak ten different languages, Is in Wash ington In the Interest of the Mexican branch of the tribe. He Is said to be the most ac complished Indian linguist In the world. He has some rather uncomplimentary opinions about the white man's governmental meth ods, but he thinks the white man's wife Is a person entirely above criticism. "Not much difference between the white squaw and the red, man," explained Johnny. "They both paint, white squaw with white paint and red brave with red pulnt. They both have to wear feathers when they're dressed up; Indian, he wears eagle feath ers, white squaw wears any kind of feath ers she can get. White squaws not much different from the Indian." Incident In General Schoaeld's Life. The death of Lieutenant General Scho fleld recalls sn amusing episode in the general's career. While at West Point young Schofield was one of the star men of his class, and during the last year of his course he was one of the Instructors of cadets. One day he propounded Mn all solemnity the following question to tli cadets: "If a man on the equator were to climb up a pole 100 feet high without any clothes on, how wide a brim would he have to have on his hat to keep from getting sun burned?" When the authorities learned of Gercral Schofleld's question he was promptly turned out. lie came to Washington, nnd through the Influence of friends succeeded at last In persuading the War department to give him, a trial by court-martial. The trial went against him, however, and he was formally dismissed. But he after ward succeeded In being reinstated. His experience, however, taught him a lesson, and- be Indulged. In no more pranks. In later Ufa, when be became ecret.ary of war, he spent a pleasant afternoon one day In reading the official records of his little Joke, his subsequent court-martial, his dismissal and his eventual reinstatement. Children's Story Teller. To perpetuate the memory of the chil dren's story teller, Hans Christian Ander sen, the old building In Odense, on the Island of Funen, In which he was born, is to be restored and kept as an Andersen museum. In this house In Hans Jensen street the visitors will see his bedstead, his writing table, his armchair, his um brella, photographs, books which he read in his Infancy, his school certificates, his diplomas and decorations. The visitor will also see there a collection of engravings which American children had sent to him more than thirty years ago on learning that the news of his death had been "somewhat exaggerated." A Born Kin sr. There is a fact about King Alfonso well worth knowing. Of all the kings who have ever lived, with the sole exception of Jea'i I of France, who lived but a few hours, he Is the only one to be a king from the moment of his first breath a veritable "born king." And since he Is much spoken of -these days It Is not amiss to know his name, which Is his most catholic majesty, Don Alfonso XIII, king of Spain, of Cas tile, of Leon, of Navarre, of Gibraltar, of the western and eastern Indies, of the oceanic continent, archduke of Austria, duke of Burgundy, of Brabant and Milan, count of Hapsburg, of Flanders, of the Tyrol and grand master of the Golden Fleece. Tamed a Short Corner, Congressman Bede of Minnesota still looks back with horror to an experience he had with a Scandinavian audience In his state last campaign.' It was up in the pine woods and the other orator of the evening was a stalwart Norseman who was to speak In his native tongue. This man failed to arrive and the committeeman asked Bede: "Do you speak Norwegian still'" Bede unthinkingly replied In the affirmative, though he knew only a few phrases. When he faced the audience of about 2u0 big, blue-eyed chaps of the Ole and Nils class he determined to get out of the difficulty us best he could, so he said: "As many of you as can not un derstand English stand up." AH were ashamed to make such an acknowledge ment and not a man moved. "All right, my friends," said Bede, "as It makes me hoarse to talk Norwegirsi for any length of time I'll Just address you In Engllih. which you all know and will appreciate a well." guage, religion, government, laws, customs and habits we are Ignorant. Only this we know that In the days when thought first feebly stirred the mind there lived a people whose Hps, now the . dust of ages, confessed that inan shall live again. This Idea Is universal. Every age, every people that has left a record of tradition, myth, symbol, literature or hisUry, has left a record of Its hope for Immortality. It is not an accident of climate, food or drink. It Is not an Intoxication of the delirium of Joy; it Is not a protest against blank de spair. Among the denizens of the tropics' voluptuous profligacy and in' the habitat of the Arctic hunter beneath the seven stars, along the sallow sand and complain ing surf, in Druid's shadowed aisle, wherever men sobbed and laughed, de spaired and aspired, this hope has been part of the warp and woof of the experience of life and dreams of men. It has never changed. The topography and contour of continents have been re formed, nations have come and gone, em pires have risen and fallen, languages have flourished and become dead, bibles have been rewritten, creeds have been restated, conceptions of God have been revised, while worlds have burned Into idle cinders that whirl on useless orbits, yet immutable, un wearied, unfaltering and unforgotten this Idea of Immortality has survived the flight of time and wreck of ages. Promise of God. This Instinct for immortality is con temporaneous with life and matter. With life and matter it looks toward God for Its fulfillment. It Is Inconceivable that God should teach the bird to wing lis fllntit through the trackless air 16 the desired clime; teach the bee to rifle the flowers' secret chambers of their fragance and dis till into sweetness; to teach the beast of the field the means of defense and succor that He should keep faith with these, and choat man. Nature's unfoldment has as sured us that the Idea of immortality is a gift from God, by creative act. To as sume that God, In a single Instance, could deceive, is to presume for the entire uni verse the probability of chaos und insanity. We can not change the name of God to friend, of universal beneficence to deceiver, nor claim that He speaks with perjured lips. Reason revolts and the soul becomes sick with horror at the very thought. God is true. He has kept faith with the planets and marked their unerring orbits through the Immensity of space. He has Impressed the neoesslty of fidelity and truth upon every atom of the universe. From Incoherent matter He has formed a world that should have no significance until tenanted by man. Every expression of that world moves upon the lines of truth. God has not kept faith with matter, and then lied to the thrilled and throbbing soul of man. This instinct of immortality Is His prevision and pro phecy of the fulfillment which He has In store for us, . Perhaps the most conclusive argument against Immortality la the silence of the dead. Christianity has based Its Idea of Immortality upon the only rational ground of belief, In assuming the resurrection of Its founder. To see the scarred hands of our own dead moving wljh endless life would be sufficient argument for each of us. Why do our dead not return to us? Perhaps they do, and we do not know It. Were an apparition to appear be fore us, we would not believe our senses, for we are not prepared to receive one who has come forth from the tomb. The appearance of J'-sus after the crucifixion, as alleged, is not incredible, and I be lieve In the possibility of seeing our dead return, and the power to commune with them. Mistake of the t bores. Never since the day when tbe Mans .went to the tomb has man ever made the attempt to lift the curtain of the beyond without Incurring the anatnema of the church. Declaring the Idea of Immortality to rest upon the resurrection alone, tbe church has prohibited Its followers from the attempt to prove its truth for them selves. The hunger for the unknown has nover been satisfied by the Christian con cept of Immortality. Denied the bread of life, a few have turned to its husks. Gross mysticism, spiritualism and occultlnm ore the rude and distorted expessions of thl'l hunger of the soul for communion with the unseen. Realizing the mistake of the church, men are now beginning to apply correct methods to the solution of the protiem. Yet, because there shall be only a few who are willing to pay the price, we shall perhaps disbelieve them. However, we shall henceforth receive the results of their discoveries, not with stake and torch, but with eager sympathy and encourage ment. Man will sacrifice truth, conscience, wife, child and hope of future comfort for the gain of a moment. The lust for power and for gold is upon him, and the toll and burden of the years are not accounted too great with success as a probable compon satlon. But where Is the man who is will ing to give all his years to poverty, self effacement, meditation and the constant endeavor to align himself with 'the forces of truth and purity, for the bure chance of speaking to his dead, as Mary spoke to the supposed gardener? What Is Xeeded. No, the methods of science have not bcea applied to the problem of survival of bodily death. The speech of Webster demands knowledge of his language; the motif of Wagner Implies another cultivated auditory norve; the whisper of Love Is meaningless to cruelty and selfishness. We expect our gold and power to buy the mysteries of life. We think we can barter for the secrets of the unseen as we barter for a Krmbrandt, a Cloisonne or a Slradlvarius, forgetting that all the gold la the world cannot buy an understanding of tlso secret of their genius, for that comes by toll alone. Nature Is Jealous of her Becrets. They are well guarded. The grent facts and discoveries of life have not been easily won; the mys teries of life have been disclosed only to an hungering few. Perhaps the time may never come when all will be able to lift the curtain that hangs before the unknown, but truly, this last secret of God shall not be forever withheld. When we are prepared to pay the price our wounded prophet shall return to us and, pointing to life, gold, power and sin, shall say, "Lovest thou me more than these?" We ned less of a recital of events than we do of an inspiring array of proofs for the reasonableness of the Idea of Immortal ity on Easter. Fur multitudes life Is an Inconceivable Insult, an Irreparable Injury. Existence does not grant compensation for the inequalities of men. The innocent suf fer, the promise of early genius Is denied, wrong Is enthroned and righteousness is crucified; Nero gluts his lust and Paul falls before the assassin's knife from the weary Journey of the year men hasten to Easter for cheer and strength with which to sus tain faith and continue rhe contest. Life and matter come from God. yet more en during than life and matter Is love, for love Is God's own heart embracing His world of agony and aspiration. Because man loves he Is the child of God and therefore Im perishable. Because man loves he hopes and Is content. Immortality la the gift of God; It Is the child of Love. "The stars shine over the earth The stars shine over the sea; Th' stars look up to the mighty QocL The stars look down on me. Tlla "'."-J" ,ha" ,lv ,or m million years A million years and a dsy; But God and I will live and love YVTliVn than stars V, . WjLH-O jr TReFZh 4