A SPECIMEN OF HUMAN WISDOM.
By W.
WHAT must be expected of the common people, when so wise a paper as the Independent gets off such stuff as the following? "The fact that a man is alive in the morning is a good ground for thinking that he will be so in the evening, unless there be a sufficient reason for thinking otherwise. So the fact that one is a living and conscious agent before death is a good ground for thinking that he will be so after death unless death be a sufficient reason for thinking otherwise." So we must conclude that the fact that a man is hungry before breakfast, is a good ground for thinking that he will be hungry after breakfast, unless his breakfast "be a sufficient reason for thinking otherwise." The fact that a man is very wealthy this morning is good ground for thinking that he will be just as wealthy after the collapse of the bank which holds all his funds, unless the breaking of the bank be a sufficient reason for thinking otherwise. Likewise the fact that a man is perfectly sound and whole before his head is taken off by a railroad engine is good ground for thinking that he will be sound and whole afterward, unless the little item of losing his head be a sufficient reason for thinking otherwise! It is by such driveling nonsense, that would disgrace the reasoning powers of a school-boy ten years of age, that the heathen dogma of the natural indestructibility of man is bolstered up. "Unless death be a sufficient reason for thinking otherwise," a man will be just as much alive after death as before. Very true; but that saving clause is in itself a refutation of the proposition that preceded it. Just as the fact that a man has eaten a meal is sufficient reason for thinking that he is not so hungry as he was before; that the fact that a man's wealth has all been swept away by the failure of a bank is sufficient reason for thinking that he is now a poor man; and that the cutting off of a man's head is ample evidence that he is not so sound as he was; so the fact that a man is dead is all the evidence in the world that is needed to prove that he is not now a living, conscious agent. The truth is, it is a most unwarrantable assumption to say that "the fact that a man is alive in the morning is a good ground for thinking that he will be so in the evening." If a man is alive now, that is no ground for thinking that he will be alive an hour from now. But the whole thing is too puerile to be worthy of comment, except to show what worse than childish arguments wise men are forced to use when they are pledged to a cause that does not admit of argument. The fact that I can see a man a mile away at mid-day is good reason for thinking that I can see him just as distinctly at midnight, unless the fact that it will then be dark is an objection. But that is so great an objection, that it exactly reverses the case, so that we say that although we can see a thing very distinctly in the day-time when the sun is shining, we know that it will be invisible on a moonless night. Why? Because darkness and light are directly opposite conditions. But darkness and light are no more opposed to each other than are death and life. Death and life are just as much opposite conditions as are evil and goodness; for death is to be the wages of the evil-doer, while life is to be the reward of the righteous. The man who says that the wicked man will live as long as the righteous man, virtually says that there is no difference between good and evil, and a terrible curse is pronounced upon the man who says that. See Isa. 5:20-24. But the word of God is that which above all things else brings to nothing the wisdom of the wise. That says: "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146:3, 4. Again: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Eccl. 9:10. To the man who claims that a dead man is just as good as a live man, the word of God's wisdom says that even "a living dog is better than a dead lion," and then it adds that "the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything." Eccl. 9:5, 6. After reading the above, and much more might be added, will anyone be so foolish as to intimate that death is not a sufficient reason for thinking that a man does not know as much as he did before it occurred? The bearing which the Independent's statement has on Spiritualism, can only be referred to. That it places the writer of it squarely in the ranks of Spiritualism, must be evident to one who thinks at all. For if the fact that a man is a living and conscious agent before death is a good ground for thinking that he will be so after death, then the fact that a man can show himself to his friends, and talk with them, before death is a good ground for thinking that he can do the same after death. And that is where all human speculation concerning the natural immortality of the man ends. The editor of the Independent may revile Spiritualism and Spiritualists all he pleases, but unless he throws aside foolish speculation and accepts the plain truth of God's word, he will be one of the leading Spiritualists in a very few years. One word of God's wisdom is of more value than ten thousand volumes of man's folly.