p. 133 | Men and Things

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1872

Men and Things.

DRIFTING.

The following little paragraph is full of meaning, and worthy of being committed to memory:

“Any one can drift. But it takes prayer, religious principle, earnestness of purpose, constant watching, to resist the evil of this world, to struggle against the tide.”

The mass of mankind is nothing but moral drift-wood, going whichever way the tide flows, finally bringing up in the great ocean of perdition. Only a few here and there have the moral courage and strength of principle to stem this mighty tide, and live out the real convictions of their souls. But none else will be made immortal. Reader, which way are you going?

SCIENCE CANNOT PROVE IMMORTALITY.

Advocates of the immortality of the soul have boasted greatly that science and philosophy clearly prove the soul immortal. But we notice that this claim is coming to be quite generally abandoned as untenable. Here is a good confession from Rev. Wm. Pittenger in the Phrenological Journal, Feb., 1872:—

“Science will not prove immortality. In all her shining pages, there is not a sentence written concerning the future life. The utmost we can hope is to extract from her teachings on other subjects the assurance that such a life is not impossible. That concession, if we can fairly gain it, is enough. We can then commit to religion the sweeter and nobler task of lifting the vail of the future, and directing our eager eyes to the vistas of eternal life.”