Immortals And Mortals

In that Book which is held by millions to contain the oracles of God, the question is asked, “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” The answer is given in the ascending scale, and beginning with man as, “a little lower than the angels,” finally points to him in triumph as the representative of Divine power and authority.

It needs not to be argued, that this question ranks first in importance of all that can be asked, for while art, science, and philosophy, are of interest to some, there is but one study of universal interest, and that is man.

If it be true that knowledge is power, we can hardly lose anything in reviewing the statements of those of whom it might be justly said, that truth was their passion; let us only beware of that thought which in the name of this service, spends years of toil:

“Hoping amidst the dust of books to find her,
Content at last for guerdon of their toil,
With the cast mantle she hath left behind her.”

Let us consider that universally accepted belief, viz: the duality of man’s nature.

All through the Bible we find statements concerning man, which do not seem to agree, but which appear to contradict each other.

Not alone in our sacred writings is this apparent discrepancy to be found, but similar testimony comes from other sources. Shakespeare says of one specimen of the genus Homo:

“His dearest friend, or bitterest foe, best angel or worst devil.”

Let us begin with the thought of the mortal, and the question presents itself, How is he to be studied? Experience replies, From the testimony given by the five senses, and yet such knowledge is at best only relative, and can never reveal the absolute facts of Being, still this knowledge is eagerly sought after as of primary importance, and necessary to man’s advancement and happiness.

One of the great poets has said of the coming into this existence that, “Our birth is but a sleep, and a forgetting.”

We are told also in the Bible that, “man that is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.”

One might go on adding to this testimony almost ad infinitum. This mortal and material life begins in helplessness and utter dependence on others. With physical growth comes a sense of pleasure, purely physical, which is always held in check by a sense of pain. So real does this seem, that many doubt whether we could be conscious of the one without the other; nay, certain schools of philosophy have affirmed that pleasure is merely the relief experienced by the cessation of pain.

Lest any think this too dismal a view of mortal existence, we should do well to remember that the most crowded of the learned professions exists for the purpose of making it endurable, and the many institutions which are to be found all over the world, hospitals, asylums and sanitariums, as well as the hopeless sufferers outside of these, go to show that the best efforts of thousands of well-trained, and well-meaning persons, accomplish no more than this. Even if we drop for a moment, the thought of liability to serious illness, what do we find? Even this, the greater in bondage to the lesser, that is, the mind subject to the body. To use Paul’s words, “The good that I would I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do,” and, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This, be it observed, relates only, to the physical. When we come to the moral, the idea of freedom is declared and felt to be impossible of realization. (Here let it be distinctly understood, that the material or mortal only is alluded to). I will quote from the Westminster Confession of Faith: “No mere man since the fall, is able to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them, in thought, word and deed.”

Sir William Hamilton says that, “should physiology ever succeed in reducing the facts of intelligence to phenomena of matter, philosophy would be subverted in the subversion of its three great objects,—God, Free Will and Immortality.”

Mortal man then, is by his own confession, a prisoner in a house of clay, struggling to realize something, he knows not what; the seemingly helpless victim of sickness, sin, and sometimes unmerited misfortune. And what is the ultimate of all this? Death as the only doorway to the unknown immortality. Then surely it might seem that all would eagerly seek this door; but no, strange as it may appear, and although this is acknowledged to be the only certainty, all seek to avoid it as long as possible, for mortal man as such, is incapable of seeing any light, save the ignis fatuis of hopes that perish, and theories that cannot be proved. But it all ends as it began. Longfellow says:

“The battle of our life is brief,
The alarm, the struggle, the relief,
Then sleep we side by side.”

And is this man? we ask, and pause for a reply. Nature as we know her has no answer; human reason says I know no other; but above the discords of the senses, Divine Science lifts up its voice as the sound of many waters, and in the name of Almighty God declares that this is not man; and revelation coincides and affirms, that man is the image and likeness of God.

Nothing is so astonishing as the belief in the inevitableness of mortality, when revelation so clearly points to immortality as man’s true state. Paul says, “Christ hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light.”

At the present time as never before, the demand is made that human rights be recognized, and at this fateful hour is seen descending from Heaven, the luminous charter of universal liberty and right, re-investing man with his God-given birthright. Of this charter, mortals must be in possession ere they can hope to overcome the evils which seem so real to them. It is only as individuals grasp the thought of their immortality, that anything of value to themselves or the world can be accomplished. Without this, there is no real freedom, nor any wide range for the exercise of man’s energy.

And where are we to read the history of the immortals many will ask? Some may answer, O the old Greeks have sung of them, and their sculptors and painters have attempted to delineate their forms. But in the Bible we find the true record of their achievements, and in Science and Health, the key, by which we can read, and understand, and finally walk with them, and more, put on their very nature.

In Genesis 1:27 we read,—”And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,…and over every creeping thing, that creepeth upon the earth.”

Looking down through the vista of the ages as seen in revelation, we catch glimpses of these immortal beings walking the earth in power. Enoch, Moses, Elias, then Jesus, and a glorious company of apostles. The seeming forces of nature bend in obedience to their word. In their august presence, sin is dispelled, sickness gives place to health, bondage to freedom, and death itself vanishes at the revelation of God as the life of man and man as the reflection of God.

But some say,—this was the Son of God. Aye truly, but he never claimed aught for himself that he did not claim for all who were ready to accept his teachings. In First John, 3: 2, 3, we read,—”Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

Overwhelming testimony, is it not? As to the reality of immortal existence, sure proof that the laws of immortal being are universal in their range and supersede all else. Of the environment of immortals we read much in the Bible, especially in John’s Apocalyptic vision. We do not think for a moment of this environment either in time or place. It is the “kingdom within,” and also without, for what is held in thought, is bound by changeless law, to come forth and externalize itself. We are told by John that, “God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” That is enough, and for those who have eyes to see, the only hope of the world. God, the Divine Principle and Intelligence, recognized as governing all in perfect harmony.

The immortals, or children of God, have the Divine law written upon their hearts in their very nature. “The former things,” have indeed passed away. Injustice, tyranny, oppression, luxury and poverty alike, sin, sickness and death, belong to the buried past. “His servant shall serve him,” and in this service shall find the secret of life. Deity is enthroned within, and from this Holy of Holies, comes forth that Light which is the source of absolute justice, and the heart of it is Love,—the activity of it, the power which Jesus wielded, and which nothing can withstand.