Article December 2, 1933 Issue

Permanence of Identity

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

Universal belief in what is called death turns human thought inquiringly towards a hereafter. How is it with those who have left their places by our side? And ever the question recurs, Shall we meet and know them again? It were but a cruel mockery of friendship and affection if identity did not outlast the transient experiences of this fleeting world experience.

The joy of real companionship does not spring from personal association, however pleasant, but from the mental intercourse with those higher thoughts and ideals which distinguish the heavenly from the earthly. It is this divine element shining through the veil of materiality which we love in our friends, and which constitutes our real knowledge of one another; hence there is no ground for fearing that our true identity shall become less distinct to consciousness and recognition as the mask of physical personality becomes more transparent with spiritual progress.

The world of time and sense, the world of material trees and flowers and mountains, of sea and sky, of cities and people, is the background for the human drama of so-called physical life, in which death is represented as the closing incident; but life does not end there, for while God remains there can be no interruption in the individual continuity of life. The identity of each is preserved in Mind, and is not affected by the apparent interval of death any more than are the characters in a story as they pass from one chapter to another, or the performers in a play when the curtain falls between the acts.

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