| Few questions have concerned mankind more deeply than the possibility
of life after death. As James Martineau, the English philosopher,
put it, "We do not believe in immortality because we have proved
it. Rather, we shall always try to prove it, because we believe
in it." Yet there are some kinds of immortality for which we
need no proof. They are self-evident. Moses, Jesus, Washington,
Lincoln, Carnegie, King are immortal because they served their country
or humankind in ways that will never be forgotten. But, in reality,
we do not have to be a great leader or philanthropist to capture
the prize of immortality. Everyone who has done a good deed, who
has made a human heart happy, who has brought a little sunshine
into this world has won a type of deathlessness that survives the
end of his mortal frame. He has made this world a better place to
live in and, in so doing, will be remembered long after he is gone.
Rabbi Sidney S. Guthman, 33°,
Long Beach, California, S. R. Bodies
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