Gospel Herald, 1860-05-19

              Devoted to Ohri.stijinity, Morality, the Interests of S.-il>ba.tli Schools, Social IinproveixierLt, Temperance, Education, and Cxeneral News.
"BEHOLD, I BBING TOU GOOD TIDINGS OP QREAt' JOY . . . .ON EAKTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWAED MEN."
VOL. 17.
DAYTON, 0., SATUJR,DAY, MAY 19,1860.
NO. 3.
ORIGINAL POETRY.
Written for the Gospel Herald.
Lines.
BY FB.I.NCES D. OAQE.
" Fitly years houce, and who will hear of Henry I Oh none ;—-anoLlior busy brood of beings
Will shoot up ill the interim, and none Will hold him in i-omembrance."
UliMtT KiaitE WHITK.
Twas the still hour of niiilnight. The autumn -wiuila sigh'd mournfully anong The fading leaves ujid lio« ers.    The moon lools;-
ed dowti In solemn silence on the -withering.earth, And teemed to drop her tears in chilly deiivs Upon decaying nature.
Tlic inaecl woi'ld hail ceased their busy hum, The night owl drop'd his sombre wing t.o rest, And even the nightingale's sweet lay was o'er. All nature Imshed into a quiet sleep. All, did 1 say 'I not all.
Ohl tliere was one, Ono J ale sad -svalcher, on a couch of pain ¦ "Who turned liitp wearisome, while allarourd, Sank to forgetfuliiess."
The sands of lis young life were almost rim, His days gre-w short and few;—Despondency Had laid her iron hand upon his brow, And -whispered raclcing thoughts into his ear. OEce he had dreamed of Fame.    And from her
height Her airy height., upon the temple top, The coy and peei-kss maiden waved him on; Poiiitiiig his longing eyo, and burning heart, Away, away into a glorious future. Hope cheered him on; and blue eyed Fancy Willi flower dres.s'dhanil, up, up the towering
steep Where the storm vapors crushed about, his path, Up to the loftiest pinnacle of Fame. J3ut now to die I    Die while life's morning dews Are fresh, upon hira—   . Die in flic very budding of liis days- Die all unsoen, unknown. His bright hopes perish; and hia brighter,
thottglits Sink with liim to the cold and silent tomb. Methinks I see him "cw, all wan nnd pale Start from his couch of anguish and despair, And gaziT g out, into the gloom of night, He thus gives fortli the darkness of his soul—
"And it is hard To feel the hand of deiUh arrest one's, steps, Throw a chillblighlo'er all one'sbudding hopes And hurl one's soul tie timely to the sliades, Lost iu the gaping gtdf of blank oblivion. Fifty years hence, and who will think of Henry." Alasl   Alas!   Poor Bard, could he hit ve peer'd Wilh eye prophetic,, through  gloomy folds,^ That veiled witb doubt and darkness coming
years, How had their gleaming cheered his sinking soul; Revived perchaEce,the -weary, fainting heart. And warmed it back once more, to life and joy. The time allotted by the wretched one, Por his young name to die, is almost spent,
And is that name forgotten'? Go ask Bi-itannia if she can forget Her sons of .song.
No, never. While the swelling surges roar, Around her sea girt-iale, can she forget. But from a nation's ever grateful breast, The song of praise and honor shall 50 forth; Old ocean's waves shallcatchthe echoing sound. Admiring millions answer.back the shout, And millions yet to be, shall hear of,Henry.
ORIGINALITIES.
ir, ilteu for the Gosj el Herald
EesTirrPction.
BY W  L &ANIOKD
An jiticle 111 No^, of tho Herald, on Uio babject ol "The PtestuiecUon," calls lomy mind a, iest)liitioii, formed RoinO time Bince, to conti ibuto an aiti do to >om papei on the subject My only apology foi ho doini; is thm—My mind was at"one time vny much, unset tied upon the nature, and m fact, somo what htfigsroied upon tLo tiuth of the doctrine ol PhjMC il Rcsniiection
And, without doubt, the veiy fouen which opoiated on my mind, to the production of doubt aud unbelief (m a
degree,) is at this moment operating upon the minds of others, to the ten¬ dency of the same result. And in the hope that tho same evidence, which convinced and established my miiid in a firm faith in God's promise.'^ of a! res urrection, may also have the same ben¬ eficial tendency, upon the minds of some others, who are in the same doubts; and, also, for the purpose of contributing a mite towards romoving the 7nost potent arguments Infidelity has over brought to boar against the Christian faith. . I offer tho readers of your paper, tho result of iny reflec¬ tions upon tho subject.
A subject well worth onr most devo¬ ted oonardoration, ono that in all ages has elicited the deepest interest, and among all nations, has been a subject of earnest controversy. To my own mind, it furnishes the most pleasing theme for reflection. I lovo to realize that I shall one day meet thoaebeloved forms that have been deposited in the tomb, ns well-as those who must soon¬ er or later, follow after; and that we shall then bo parted no more forever.
To have implicit eonfideneo in the fulfillment of these blessed promises of the Biblo; a flriii faith that tho veil will be lifted that hides our dear friends and precious Saviour fron\ our "Sight, and immortality in perfection, be ushered upon us—istoall who love theSaviour, the riio,^t pleasing theme, for conttim- plation. In view of this hope, woll may the Christian exclaim—Oli Death! wherois thy string? Oh Grave! where is thy victory? A few months since I was living in tho social onjoymont of of a, dear companion. Then, (although a believer in Christianity,) tho attrac¬ tion of my affections tended towards earthly objects,
, Now, that, dear one is gono_, to that unknown country, and the attraction of my affection is changod. It was this, my great earthly Zoss that led me to more mature reflection upon ihc subject of immortality and the resur- rcc.ion. The almost-MnewtfuraWepangt, of separation, havo been followed by tbe sweet consoling faith in the blessed promise of a reunion of friends, after mortal conflicts aro over.
But pardon tho emotions which Imve drawn me away from the production of the evidences this article was de¬ signed to furnish.
Abelief in the immortality of the soul, has obtained in all ages'and among all people—with few insigni-fi- cant exceptions. The whole nation of the Jews believe the doctrine'—with the exception of the Saducoes, a small sect, who denied the immoitality of the soul, the resuircction and tho ex¬ istance ot angels, and spirits There, seomod to bo sufficient pi oof elicited either fiotn nature, 01 lovolation* to convince all mankind with low excep¬ tions, of tho ti iith of the immortality ofthe soul, but there seemed to bo in¬ sufficient iiroul of the mode of the perpetuation of existence, to produce uinioi mity upon this point, (and in¬ deed upon whatever pi oof the former docti ine mighl haivo been based, the latter recpius a povtive divine revela¬ tion to establish it ) Tho consequence of this lack of positive proof, loatleaat a porLion of minkmd—was a variety of opinion The Earyptians, and after thom, the Greeks, holding to the doc¬
trine of "Metempsychosis," br^ of the transmigration of souls. Arid the Jews, holding that there is a place pre¬ pared for the reception of the soul, un¬ til a time appointed when the dead bodies shall all be raised (composed of their original identical particle.?) and reunited', soul and body, then live on eternally, &c. Although tho Jews evi¬ dently derived their belief in a resur¬ rection f'rom divine revelation, yet like other doctrines revealed to them, it was liable to, and no doubt affected with their all corrupting traditions.
Their modes of explaining tho res¬ urrection was in contradiction to the seionce of that day, as wall as this, and hence its rejection by all scientific na¬ tions of that da}^ Whether it would have boon rojecled, if explained by the subHoquont revelation made to man, as well as the corroborating developments of modern scionco, of course, is merely speculative. Tho very same arguments used by the ancient Greeks, against the doctrine, are seized upon by modern Infldols and used with perhaps more effect against tho Christian faith, than any other class of arguments ever used by them; and white tho ancients can screen thomselvos in a metisure, behind tho state ofsciontifie knowledge in theirdays, thero remains for modern Infid.ols in tho blaze of modern science, which destroys every objection ablo scientific argument against the resur¬ rection—no extenuation, or excuse, ex¬ cept the inconsistency of many modern believers, who, surrendering all th(3 advantage of revelation, ancl of mod¬ ern science, in their favor, still occupy grounds bo unreasonable as to invite the attacks of Infidels.
We will now examine the objection¬ able features in the Jewish faith upon this point, and compare them with revelation, and with tho truths of sci¬ ence, in the hope to destroy every ob¬ jection to the doctrine of a physical resurrection, and to elicit the fact that the Ohristiaii.has no reason to doubt tho fulfillment of God's promises.— ThS objections of ancient Grecians, and modern infidels to the doctrine of a physical resurroction, as explained by ancient Jews, and by too many modern believera, is based upon tho plainly doraorstrated truths of science; that the particles of organized mat¬ ter are continually ehanging from ono form of orgaiiiKation to another, and these mutations arts of such a naturo as'toi-cproduco f'rom the diso^ganized particles of tho human body, yegota- blci organization, which in turn, outer into new animal organization, and be¬ come constituent parts of different hu¬ man bodies. Thus creating an inex¬ plicable dilenia; for at the resurrection (say they) how will it bo possible to reorganize each human body with the identtoal particles before possessed, when the truth is, those particles have been constituent parts of different hu¬ man bodies.
It is useless to meet those arguments with tho declaration, that all taings aro possible with God; for admitting all the loroe of this argument, it does not comport with God's harmonious plan of operations as evinced through , all his works, and also, there is a luach more consistent wav of explain ing this doctrine; an explanation perfectly con¬ sistent with Eeveltttion as well as with
science.' The Whole force- of their ar¬ guments is based upon the reception of one cMas of scientific facts, and tbe ignoring, or utter rejection of another class of scientific facts, even better es¬ tablished than the first.
Some believers are so much afi-aid of science as to ignore many of tho plainest truths in naturo for fear of accepting some ideas that might mil.i'- tato against tho Bible. To bueh I would say, Ecvelation has never yet suffered from thorough, scientific investigation, but has emerged from all such ordeals oven brighter if j^ossible—than ever.— But to the point.   .
The very tloctrine of mutation of mat¬ ter, used in argument against the res¬ urrection,.when properly investigated is really an argument in its fdvor.— Science and every, day observation teach us, that there is not only a mu¬ tation ofthe particles of dead and dis- orgaTiizing bodies, but the doctrine is egually truo of living human bodies. Sci¬ entific men tell us, that this mutation of matter is going on so rapidly as to entirely change tho flesh and softer portions of the body in a few months, and the harder portions (bones &c,) in a few years.
The time rec[uired for a complete renovation, ditt'ciing in different indi¬ viduals, and in the same individuals under difierent circumstanooB, bnt as an avei'age about seven yoars.
Infidels cannot demur at these argu¬ ments, for they are drawn from the same source a.s their own,and are posir lively T,roved by every day observar tioii as we shall shortly prove. Bnt first, what is thoir effect. Simply to show that God, working through thQ laws of nature is every inomeiitexem-, l^lifying.his power , to reBiirrect, tho; body by rcflurrectory or resurrecting; it contiinially. And also, that it.is not.' necessary that the resurrected .body, should possess tho identical particles, to constitute the identical body. For such is not the case even through lifo. JSTot a single hour of man's existence is his body possessed of precisely the, Bamo particles and yot it all ithe time retains its identity , through, all , its changes, it is to all intents and pur-. poses the same identical body. Under these circumstancoB it wouhl bo rather difRcnlt to constitute tho body at th.e' resurrection of the aame particles possessed through life.. There having, been through the coarse of a.Jong jife,i many entire changes of the particles, ofthe body, and of course in thoaggror, gate amounting to a ponderous mass of matter, rather extensive to be poa-. sossed all .at one time by one little JiUj[ manbod.y (to say nothirgof .tho c.oi\- .flicting claims thatmust ens.tie.) And; as beforo remarked, whence the nocos- Bity of such dibma. If God,operating, through the laws of nature, can entire^ ly change tho particles of matter com¬ prising the body, yet -preserving the identity ofthe body and person; why, should it ho deemed a thing incredible that jje can,givo to the resurrected body, different particloH of matter yet the same.identity. Infidelity is .njost certainly shorn of its boasted scientific objection. But. many believe, yet ob¬ stinately reject tbe plain truths qf sci¬ ence; and say, the particles of the hu¬ man body do not change in life.. If this is true, tell us first whytheneceB-