MAN ALL IMMORTAL; OR, THE NATURE AND DESTINATION OF MAN AS TAUGHT BY REASON AND REVELATION. BY REV. D. W. CLARK, D. D. CIN C IN N A TI: PUBLISI ED BY POE & HITCHCOCK, CORNER OF MAIN AND EIGHTH,STREETS. R. P. THOMPSON, PRINTEP.. 186 6. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, BY POE & HI.TCHCOCK, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. PREFACE. THE germ of this volume was a series of lectures' delivered, some years ago, to the students of Amenia Seminary. The purpose of the author was to present, in a popular and yet in a sufficiently scientific manner, certain topics concerning the Nature and Destination of Man, not usually treated upon in ordinary sermonizing, but which are ever rife in the young intelligence. The interest they awakened, as delivered, we hope may be taken as giving some assurance that they will not be wholly without' interest written. To the young gentlemen and ladies, who listened to them in the day of their student life with kindly approbation, and who are now with manly and womanly vigor bearing the burdens and discharging the duties of life, for which they then received nurture and training — these thoughts will come as living souvenirs of the past. The main design of these lectures was to guard the minds of especially the young, against the materialistic tendencies of the age, and to confirm them in the faith that has been with us from the beginning. They comprise topics of the highest moment, showing that "our great immortality" entered into all the plans of the Creator in relation to man. They show that spirit is as really and truly a substance as matter, and that our individuality is to remain unimpaired forever. In the line of these dlscussions, skepticism is met at some of the points where its 3 4 PREFACE. most insidious efforts are now being put forth to remove the very foundations of Christianity. Among these is the assumption that the soul or spirit is nothing more than a result of the bodily organism, by which it is begotten, and with which it dies. Also that still more sutbtile figment, which resolves both soul and body into "force." So of the theories that would spread the pall of unconsciousness over the dead, that would annihilate personality, deny recognition, and dissolve the very heaven of glory into an airy, unsubstantial dream, by denying our essential humanity in the future state. Against these and kindred skeptical notions we have sought to furnish an antidote, recognizing, at all times, that there can be no true Philosophy of Human Nature, without the recognition of the Bible as the true interpreter of the suggestions of reason and the teachings of nature. At the outset we found it impossible to turn aside to discuss the theories of modern speculatists, without becoming too prolix. The same reasons have kept us to the original plan in the volume. The form of address, and the style of composition, in some portions of the work, still bear the impress of the occasion and purpose for which those parts were written. We trust it will not prove any less valuable to the reader on that account. From a wide field of reading and study we have gathered our material, and then wrought it up so as to make it our own. To how many authors we are indebted, and in what proportions, it is impossible to say. We have endeavored to acknowledge, in the appropriate places, our indebtedness to each. The preparation of this work has been a soul-nurture to the author. May it become such to the reader! D. W. C. CONTENTS. PAGE. PREFACE............................................................................... 3 I. THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN; OR, SOUL AND BODY. The permanent question of humanity, 17. How little man knows of himself, 18.. The mysteries of soul, 18. The guiding star, 19. The Bible formula of man's creation, 20. I. MAN POSSESSES A PHYSICAL NATURE...................................... 20 Matter and spirit, 20. Essence of matter unknown, 21. Various forms of matter, 21. Material elements of the human body, 22. No physical superiority over the brute, 22. The human body liable to all the changes of matter, 23. This not all of our being, 23. II. MAN POSSESSES A LIVING SOUL........................................ 24 The crowning work of creation, 24. The soul imparted-Breath of lives, 24. Man became living soul, 25. The creation of man distinguished from that of animals, 26. Endowment of a higher life in man, 27. Life and soul, 28. Ignorance of the essence of soul, 29. Mind, how manifested, 29. III. CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS..................................................... 30 1. The possession of a physical nature not necessarily an evil, 30. 2. The union of soul and body, though mysterious, is by no means incredible, 31. 3. This union of soul and body essential to the objects of our humanity, 31. 4. In the creation of so august a being as man, there must be ends or objects commensurate with his character and endowments, 32. II. ORGANISM AND LIFE. The relationships of soul and body essential to humanity, 33. Man has organism and life in common with the animal and vegetable creation, 33. I. WHAT IS A LIVING ORGANIC BODY?....................................... 34 1. An organic body is made up of various parts or members connected by concresence, or comnmon growth, 34. 2. In organic bodies specific forms are produced, with various parts, invariably the same in number and in function, 34. 3. The living body is the product of inward forces, 35. 4. Organized bodies exist in generations, 35. 5. In the living body the separation of parts can not take place without the death and decay of the part separated, 36. 6. Among all organic bodies there are certain common finctions not found in inorganic bodies, 37. 5 6 CONTENTS. PAGE. II. ORGANIZATION IS PRODUCED BY LIFE, AND NOT LIFE BY ORGANIZATION..............................3.............................................. 38 The life principle, 38. Concurrence between the animal and vegetable world, 38. Plastic power, 39. Omne animal ex ovo, 39. Duration of the living principle in the seed and the egg, 39. III. ANTAGONISMS BETWEEN ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE............. 40 Differences evolving grander harmony, 40. Equilibrium of the atmosphere, 41. The six antagonisms, 41. Dissimilarity in the principle of life suggested, 41. Vegetable life something more than a mere physical operation, 42. No organization without the antecedent germ, 42. IV. HIGHER ELEMENTS OF LIFE IN MAN...................................... 42 The vegetable, animal, and human series, 42. Man's superiority not in physical organization, 42. The human body adapted to be the vehicle of spirit, 43. Mysterious union of body and soul, 43. V. THE MODERN THEORY OF FORCE AS CONSTITUTING THE SOUL..... 43 The soul an independent substance, 43. Essence of matter and spirit assumed to be force, 44. Leibnitz and Descartes, 44. Self-developing force, 44. Morell's theory, 45. Darwin's primeval monads, 46. Huxley, 46.. "Force" and the "old-fashioned theology," 47. The process by which these materialists reach their conclusions, 48. The anti-dualism of the new philosophy, 48. How the universe, if an aggregate of mathematical points, may disappear, 49. VI. ENUMERATION OF POINTS ESTABLISHED................................... 49 1. We have been led to the true idea of organization, 49. 2. A just discrimination has been obtained between animal and vegetable life, 50. 3. A presumption-amounting to almost absolute demonstration-is reached, from a consideration of their respective organisms, that the living soul in man differs widely from both vegetable and animal life, 51. 4. The subject suggests the possible relations man may sustain to the unknown and infinite, 51. III. THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. Men asserting themselves to be brutes, 52. What the m'terialist's position is, 52. Only two possible theories in relation to the nature of soul, 53. I. MATERIALISTS ASSERT THAT THE SOUL IS A FUNCTION OF MATTER-THEIR STATEMENTS QUOTED........................................... 53 D'Holbackl-Compte-M. Crouse-The English materialists, 53. Dr. Priestley, 54. The materialism of modern spiritualism, 54. Thomas Reed, 54. Disguises and assumptions of infidels, 55. Only two theories, 55. Stealthy progress of the materialistic theory, 56. II. THE FUNCTION THEORY FAILS TO SOLVE ANY MYSTERY IN THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION, NOR DOES IT RELIEVE ANY PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFICULTY.................................................................. 56 Ground of difficulty changed, not removed, 56. The union of vegetable or animal life with a material body as inexplicable as that of soul and CONTENTS. 7 PAGE. body, 56. Chemical composition of the brain, 57. Of the pineal gland, 57. Do these elements produce the manifestation of intellect? 58. LII. THE SOUL EXERTS A:CONTROLLING INFLUENCE OVER THE BODY, AND THEREFORE MUST BE SOMETHING MORE THAN A MERE RESULT OF BODILY ORGANIZATION..................................................... 58 Relation of force to machinery, 658. Is the mind simply force produced by bodily machinery? 59. Action of mind upon body, 59. Triumphs of soul over bodily suffering in martyrdom, 60. The force and teaching of such examples, 61. IV. THE POWER OF THE SOUL IS OFTEN DISPROPORTIONED TO THAT OF THE BODY, AND THEREFORE CAN NOT BE THE MERE RESULT OF BODILY ORGANIZATION............-.......................................... 61 The refined physical process of materialists, 61. Triumphs of intellect in the midst of bodily infirmities, 61. Richard Watson, 62. TalleyrandDean Swift-The dying body and the intellect-Dr. Fisk-Bishop Butler's argument, 63. V. THE HUMAN BRAIN MAY BE DISEASED AND THE MIND REMAIN UNAFFECTED; THEREFORE THE LATTER IS NOT A FUNCTION OF THE FORMER.......................................... 63 Statements of anatomists, 63. Brain impaired but mind unaffected, 64. Lady mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie, 64. The right hemisphere of the brain diseased, 64. These examples demonstrate an independent existence and power, 64. An organ using itself, 64. A double organ versus two minds, 65. VI. THE CONSCIOUS INDIVIDUALITY OF SPIRIT IN BEING AND ACTION DEMONSTRATES THAT IT IS NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER................. 65 Consciousness as a department of knowledge, 65. Distinct mental processes recognized by consciousness, 65. Mental changes independent of any physical causes, 65. VII. THE FAILURE OF ANY MATERIAL OR CHEMICAL COMBINATION TO PRODUCE LIFE, IS FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT MIND IS NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER....................................................... 66 Science acknowledges that no life exists without the antecedent germ, 66. Physical elements of the body ascertained, 66. The compounding of them fails to produce life, 66. The Promethean fire, 67. VIII. THE STATE OF-THE MIND IN DYING AFFORDS ALSO A PROOF OF THE SOUL'S SUPERIOR AND INDEPENDENT BEING........................... 67 The soul's conscious expectation of continued life, 67. Rev. Alanson Reed, 67. Mr. Pope, 68. Boerhaave, 68. Haller, 68. Halyburton, 68. The soul-triumph, 68. IX. CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS.................................................... 69 1. The soul and the body are mutually adapted t6 each other, 69. 2. Man is a special device of the Creator, 69. 3. The doctrine of soul and body does not imply that man is a dualism, 70. 4. The subject also suggests the dignity of the spirit and the culture demanded for it, 70. 8 CONTENTS. IV. THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. PAGE. Correspondence between purely spiritual beings and material things, 71. The senses a means of communication between embodied spirits and the outer world, 71. Material things have a real existence, 72. What sensations are, 72. Connection between the sensuous system and the soul, 72. The position advocated: THE BODILY SENSES, WHETHER IN THE MAN OIl IN THE ANIMAL, ARE MERELY ORGANIC INSTRUMENTS, AND, THEREFORE, ARE NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH EITHER ANIMAL LIFE OR THE INTELLIGENT SOUL................. 73 I. THE SOUL HAS A POWER OVER THE ORGANS OF SENSE TO DIRECT THEM, AND HAS POWER ALSO TO MAKE A CHOICE AMONG THEM, THEREFORE THEY ARE MERE INSTRUMENTS......................................... 73 Twofold function of the living organism, 73. The mind the impelling force, 73. Control of the muscles and limbs, 74. Selection of senses, 74. Interpreting sensations, 74. II. THAT THE ORGANS OF SENSE ARE MERE INSTRUMENTS IS PROVED FROM THE FACT THAT ATTENTION TO THE IMPRESSION MADE UPON THE ORGAN IS NECESSARY TO SENSATION.......................................... 74 In sensation there is a change in the state of the soul as well as in the organ, 74. Mechanical perfection of the organs of sense, 75. The mind absorbed is dead to impressions made upon the senses, 75. Examples, 76. III. THE MIND NOT ONLY INTERPRETS THE IMPRESSIONS MADE UPON THE ORGANS OF SENSE, BUT HAS THE POWER OF COMPARING SENSATIONS, AND THUS PERFECTING ITS KNOWLEDGE OF EXTERNAL THINGS. 76 The physical process in sensation, 76. Where the mind takes up the process, 76. Four essentials in sensation, 76. The process interrupted, 76. Attention at last, 77. Familiar example, 77. The mind comparing sensations, 77; e. g., a vase of flowers, 78; e. g., a basket of fruit, 78. Comparison between sensations, 78. The mind's arbitration, 78. The mind's function determined, 79. IV. THAT THE SENSES ARE MERE INSTRUMENTS OF THE SOUL IS FURTHER PROVED FROM THE FACT THAT THE LOSS OF ONE OF THE ORGANS OF SENSE, THOUGH IT MAY EMBARRASS OPERATIONS OF THE INTELLECT, DOES NOT IMPAIR EITHER ITS VITALITY OR POWER........................ 79 The missing saw of the carpenter, 79. The broken string of the violin, 79. Loss of the sense of hearing, 79. Effects, 80. Acuteness of the senses retained, 80. Touch, 80. Dr. Saunderson, 80. Books for the blind, 80. James Metcalf, 80. The problem of this acuteness solved, 81. V. CONCLUDING REMARKS............................................................. 81 1. The foregoing argument applies to animal life and sensation, as well as human, 81. 2. The views here developed suggest an explanation of the phenomena of disordered sensations, 82. 3. The influence of the mind upon the body is easily accounted for in this connection, 85. 4. This subject also suggests that as the bodily senses are the mere instruments to be CONTENTS. 9 PAGE. used by the mind for the time being, death may work but little change in the soul itself, 86. 5. The facts developed in this discussion also afford intimations of the power which shall be possessed by the soul hereafter, 87. V. THE HUMAN SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM ANIMAL INSTINCT. The intelligent soul man's distinguishing characteristic, 88. Its supremacy over the animal mind, 88. I. THE LINES OF DEMARKATION STATED......................................... 89 Extract from Sharon Turner, 89. What mind has achieved, 89. How far instinct corresponds, 89. Its limitation, 90. The transcendent greatness of the soul, 90. Il. INSTINCT PRECEDES BOTH EXPERIENCE AND REASONING................ 90 Illustrated in the appetite for food and its gratification, 90. Examples antedating experience, 91. The newly-hatched turtle making for the water, 91. Selection of plants by graminivorous animals, 92. Darwin's theory of instinct untenable, 92. The value of instinct, 93. III. INSTINCT IS NOT INCIPIENT REASON....................................... 93 The question raised, 93. Views of the ancients, 93. Adherence to natural tendency, 93. Skill and contrivances of birds, 94. Instinct of fishes, 94. Of quadrupeds, 95. Of insects, 95. Acts without forethought, 96. No progress in all the ages, 96. Moves in one line only, 97. Not more difficult to impart spirit than instinct, 97. Individual animals taught definite things, 97. No general improvability, 98. The process of improvement not handed down, 99. Differences in the quality of instinct, 99. Nature unchanged, 100. IV. INSTINCT IS WITHOUT FORETHOUGHT..................................... 100 Mr. Paley's definition defective, 100. The insect working without intention, 100. The uses of her manufacture unknown to her, 101. The beneficent results from a higher source, 101. V. INSTINCT IS CONTROLLED AND GUIDED BY DIVINE INTELLIGENCE... 101 The presence of intelligence not questioned, 101. The problem of the bee's cell, 102. God in animal instinct, 102. Mind rising above instinct, 102. VI. CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS.................................................... 102 1. If mere instinct had been given, there would have been a wonderful waste of skill and adaptations in the material world, 102. 2. We have here a distinct intimation of man's dominant relation to the animal creation, 1n3. 3. The endowment of spirit involyves the idea of higher duties and responsibilities, as well as of higher powers, 104. 4. The endowment of spirit is accompanied with intimations of man's superior destiny, 104. VI. MIND IS INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. Sublimity of the idea, 105. What is meant by being naturally immortal, 105. Heritage of all the race, 106. 10 CONTENTS. PAGE I. FIRST ARGUMENT FOR THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OR MIND IS DRAWN FROM THE ACKNOWLEDGED INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER......... 106 Matter incessantly changing, 106. It is only transformation, 106. No atom ever ceases to be, 107. Annihilation no part of the plan of the Creator, 107. Presumption for the indestructibility of mind, 107. Hightened by the consideration of its immateriality, 107. II. SECOND ARGUMENT: THE CONCURRENT BELIEF OF ALL AGES AND ALL PEOPLES IN A FUTURE STATE..................................... 108 Remarkable uniformity in this belief, 108. How account for it, 108. Belief of the ancient Egyptians-Persians-Greeks-and Roman Mythology, 109. Socrates-The Phaedon, 110. Seneca, 111. Cicero-The Emperor Adrian's address to his soul-Various nations, 112. North American IndiansProved to be the sentiment of humanity, 113. Failure of the effort of modern annihilationists to discredit the fact-Lesson taught by it, 113. III. THIRD ARGUMENT: A FUTURE LIFE ONLY CAN SATISFY THE CONDITIONS AND CAPACITIES OF OUR MENTAL BEING........................ 114 The human race presenting a succession of evanescent beings, 114. Is this all? 114. Full development unattained, 115. Changing into a higher life, 115. The future life, 116. Thoughts of Mr. Addison, 117. If no future life, then the endowment of "spirit" is useless, 118. Advantages of instinct to the brute, 119. Protest.against so cheerless a conclusion, 119. The instinct of immortality, 119. IV. THE HUMAN CONSCIENCE IS A PROPHECY OF IMMORTALITY.......... 120 Conscience and its function, 120. Its universality, 120. Efforts of the heathen to appease it, 120. Impaired, 121. In the commission of sinSkeptic, tell-No escape from it, 121. V. AN ARGUMENT DRAWN FROM THE CONFESSIONS OF INFIDELITY....... 122 What they indicate, 122. Confession of Thomas Paine-An unconfessed feeling among infidels-The soul waking up at death-Altamont, 123. Not drop from this into nothingness. VI. THE DEDUCTIONS OF REASON VERIFIED BY THE TEACHINGS OF REVELATION................................................................... 123 Case stated, 123. Faith of the sainted dead as seen in Bible history, 124. Job-David-Paul-The rich man and Lazarus, 125. Identity-Prayer of our Lord for his saints-The penitent thief upon the cross, 126. The survivance of the soul declared-Apocalyptic vision of the souls of the martyrs-Human reason versus revelation. VII. OBJECTIONS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS.................................. 127 1. The objection to the immortality of the mind that it apparently comes into life with the body, waxes to maturity with it, grows old with it, and dies with it, considered and removed, 127. 2. The objection that the primitive words-perish, destruction, death-in the Bible, indicate annihilation of the living principle; and, therefore, contradict the doctrine that the soul is essentially immortal, tested and refitted, 128. 3. If the soul is to endure forever, its condition in all the ages of the future should deeply cqucern us now, 130. CONTENTS. 11 VII. DEATH AND RESULTS. PAGE. Death pregnant with mysteries, 132. Possible continued earthly existence, 132. Easy transition to the higher state, 133. For what humanity was designed, 133. What probation implies, 133. I. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH......................................................... 134 The words of the sentence, 134. Their import, 134. Death's earthly dominion universal, 135. II. ESSENTIAL NATURE OF DEATH................................................ 135 Gloomy symbols, 135. Precursors-Parts of the body destroyed, but not death, 135. The dweller gone forth, the dwelling destroyed, 136. Going forth of the life of the plant, 136. The living element in the brute, 136. The disappearance of the highest life of all, 137. Death, 137. III. PROCESS AND SYMPTOMS OF DYING............................... 137 Parts of the body die in succession, 137. The blood, 138. Organic functions after death, 138. Hippocrates's description of the dying man, 138. Description from the London Quarterly, 139. IV. THE TERRIBLENESS OF DEATH................................................ 139 Instinctive dread of death, 139. Separation of the soul from the body, 140. Sundering the ties of human life, 141. Death of the wicked, 141. V. MORAL ENDS OR USES OF THESE TERRORS.................................. 142 Is it an unnecessary severity? 142. Guardians of life, 142. Safeguard of society, 143. VI. PHILOSOPHY UNABLE TO REMOVE THESE TERRORS....................... 144 Brutal insensibility or trifling levity, 144. The arguments of philosophy stated, 144. Their force weighed, 146. VII. HIGHER AGENCIES IN DEATH............................................... 146 The Christian's triumph over death does not spring from a disrelish of life's blessings, 146. 1. In him the causes of death's terribleness are taken away, 147. 2. He has an assurance that no harm can come to him in passing through the'dark valley, 148. 3. Death the gateway to endless joy, 150. 4. Dying grace given in a dying hour, 152. Ministering spirits, 153. Clearer insight, 154. Dr. Payson, 154. Value of religion, 155. VIII. LAST MOMENTS AND DYING WORDS OF DISTINGUISHED MEN....., 156 Interest in the dying words of men, 156. Their lessons, 156. Testing hours, 157. George Buchanan, 157. Sir Walter Raleigh, 158. Nelson, 158. Sir Thomas More, 158. Frederick V, 158. Roscommon, 158. Tasso, 158, Schiller, 158. Maccail, 158. Keats, 158. Addison, 158. Last words of various persons, 159. Mozart, 160. Last hours of Cardinal Wolsey, 162. A striking class of psychological phenomena, 163. IX. LESSONS AFFORDED BY THE SUBJECT.................................164 1. Death is not the destruction of the living principle in man, 164. 2. Life is long enough for its purposes, 164. 3. We carry down to death the character we have formed in life, 164. 4. Death will come to us all, 165. 12 CONTE~sTS. VIII. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. PAGE. The ground already surveyed, 166. Interest we have in this question, 166. Efforts to penetrate the mystery of death, 167. This uncertainty an element of terror, 167. The dying saint, 167. I. THERE IS AN INTERMEDIATE STATE OF SOME KIND........................ 168 An interval between death and final judgment, 168. "Last day," 169. Two prevalent errors, 170. Destiny decided, but fuller development of it, 171. Final judgment declaratory, 172. Occurs at the end of the world, 173. II. ERRORS ANCIENT AND MODERN CONCERNING THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.....................................1........................................... 173 Job's description, 173. 1. The under-world theory, 174. 2. Spirits lingering about the place of burial, 175. 3. The soul entering some other body, 177. 4. Intermediate abode, 178. 5. Purgatory of the Papal Church, 179. Materialistic theory that the soul dies with the body, 180. III. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD ONE OF CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE............................. 181 ~EXISTENCE............................................................................... 181 The dead do not return to give intelligence, 181. Philosophy fails, 182. Revelation makes it known as a conscious state, 182. Scripture proofs, 183. Conclusion certain, 187. IV. IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE THE RIGHTEOUS DEAD ARE WITH CHRIST.............................................................................. 187'A state versus a place, 187. Gehenna, Sheol, Hades, 188. Intermediate probation unscriptural, 189. Full consummation of bliss not before the resurrection, 190. The righteous dead with Christ, 190. V. ESSENTIAL MORAL CHARACTER OF THE SOULIN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE WILL BE THE SAME AS IN THE BODY................................ 192 Character and destiny, 192. Death is the act of passing, 192. Improved condition, 193. The progression of the next life a development of the character formed, 193. The characters we shall carry with us, 194. VI. THE SOUL IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE RETAINS ITS APPROPRIATE HUMAN FORM.................................... 195 Shape in the disembodied state, 195. Curious physiological fact, 195. The spiritual body, 196. Notions of heathen poets and philosophers, 196. Ulysses and the shade of his mother, 196. Bible recognition of the dead clothed in human form, 197. The soul longing for reunion, 197. Cicero exulting in the prospect of it, 197. The Indian mother, 198. The demand of this sentiment, 199. Sublime anticipations, 200. VII. THE TRANSITION IN DEATH............................................. 200 A poetic description, 200. Death a change of evolution, 201. Mr. Tennant, 202. Experience of the dying saint, 202. The natural and the supernatural meet-The soul's transit, 203. Emerging into another life, 213. Extract from Mr. Harbaugh, 204. CONTENTS. 13 PAGE. VIII. INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE DEAD AND THE LIVING.................. 205 Interest in the question, 205. Ministering spirits, 206. Samuel appearing to Saul, 206. Moses and Elias, 206. Opinion of Dr. Adam Clarke, 206. Inseparable fellowship recognized by the early Christians, 208. Dr. Nevin on the "communion of the saints," 208. Wesley's opinion of Swedenborg, 209. Recognitions of the dying, 209. IX. THE RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. Reign of death, 213. Fate of the dead, 213. Moment of the question, 214. I..SUGGESTED BY THE ANALOGIES OF NATURE.................................. 215 1. Day and night symbols of life and death, 215. 2. The resurrections of Spring striking emblems of the resurrection, 217. 3. The symbolization of the resurrection of vegetable life is recognized by St. Paul, 219. 4. Aninial and insect transformations symbolize the resurrection, 220. II. TAUGHT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES.............................. 221 Three points made against those who deny that the resurrection is recognized in the Old Testament, 221. 1. The resurrection of the body is directly asserted, either in relation to individuals, or in a general manner, 222. 2. Inspired men expressed the utmost confidence in the resurrection, 224. 3. The resurrection received by the Jews, 226. III. MORE CLEARLY ASSERTED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT................ 229 1. It had on various occasions the tacit assent of Christ, 229. 2. The resurrection of the dead is distinctly taught and affirmed by our Lord, 230. 3. It was affirmed in various ways by the apostles, 231. IV. DEMONSTRATED BY MIRACULOUS RESURRECTIONS..................... 234 A reasonable expectation, 234. 1. The son of the widow of Zarephath, 234. 2. Son of the Shunamite, 236. 3. The man raised to life by touching the bones of Elisha, 238. 4. Daughter of Jairus the ruler, 239. 5. Son of the widow of Nain, 242. 6. The resurrection of Lazarus, 243. 7. The dead bodies of the saints resurrected at the crucifixion, 246. The progressive character of these miracles, 247. Culmination of them, 248. X. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. Importance attached to it in the Church, 249. A dark hour, 249. I. CIRCUMSTANTIAL OR CORROBORATING EVIDENCE........................ 250 Position stated, 250. 1. There was such a man as Jesus Christ, 251. 2. The prophets not only foretold his appearance and character, but also his death and resurrection, 254. 3. He predicted his own death and resurrection, 256. 4. He was crucified, dead, and buried, 257. 5. The utmost precaution was used to guard the body, 258. 6. On the morning of the third day the body had disappeared, 258. 7. The account given by the Jews of the disappearance is incredible, 259. 8. The resurrection was established as a matter of faith in the age in which it occurred, 261. 14 CONTENTS. PAGE. II. EVIDENCE DIRECT OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST................... 264 Points established, 264. The identification of one raised from the dead, 264. 1. First appearance of Christ, 267. 2. Second appearance, 268. 3. Third appearance, 268. 4. Fourth appearance, 269. 5. Fifth appearance, 270. 6. Sixth appearance, 271. 7. Seventh appearance, 271. 8. Eighth appearance, 272. 9. Ninth appearance, 273. 10. Tenth appearance, 273. III. COLLATERAL POINTS AND REMARKS......................................... 275 1. The witnesses gave evidence of their entire belief in the resurrection of Christ, 275. 2. They could not have been deceived with reference to it, 276. 3. The members of the Sanhedrim evidently convinced, 277. 4. The miracles performed by the apostles in the name of a risen Savior accounted for only by admitting the fact of his resurrection, 279. 5. The relation between the resurrection of Christ and ours, 281. XI. POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION. The resurrection and the Bible, 285. Persistency of opposition, 285. I. OBJECTION: THE DOCTRINE UNPHILOSOPHICAL AND ABSURD.......... 287 Vague generality, 287. When a proposition is unsphilosephical-When absurd, 287. Measuring God's miraculous power, 288. II. OBJECTION: THE BODY UNDERGOING PERPETUAL CHANGE.......... 288 Limits and indefiniteness of the change, 289. ENTIRE change simply hypothetical, 289. Bodily identity preserved, 290. III. OBJECTION: ELEMENTS WASTED AND TRANSFORMED................. 291 Decomposition and dispersion, 291. Our first organization mysterious, 292; e. g., Impossibilities of science, 293. NOTE: The silver cup, 293. IV. OBJECTION: SAME ELEMENTS TWO BODIES............................... 294 The skeptic facetious, 294. Physical impossibility, 295. F6rce of the objection, 295. Vegetables raised upon soil enriched by the decomposition of human body, 296. Cannibalism, 297. Parts essential, 297. V. OBJECTION: RAISING UP OF THE SAME BODY THAT DIED.......... 298 Cavils stated; 298. Reply, 299. The resurrection body described by St. Paul, 299. The resurrection body of Christ, 299. Different ages, 300. VI. OBJECTION: THE BODY UNWORTHY OF RESURRECTION................. 302 Ends to be accomplished by the resurrection of the body, 302. Our complex nature in heaven, 303. Christ took it upon himself, 303. The resurrection body indispensable to the soul's destiny, 303. VII. OBJECTION * A MATERIAL BODY AN INCUMBRANCE IN HEAVEN.... 303 Evils charged upon the body, 304. Not just such a body in the resurrection, 304. Transformations of matter, 305. The material body an element of "power" and of "glory," 306. Triumph of the Gospel consummated, 308. XII. RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. Death a final separation, if there is no recognition, 309. CONTENTS. 15 PAGE. X. REASON AFFORDS GROUND FOR EXPECTING THIS RECOGNITION.......... 310 1. The yearning of the soul,- 310. 2. The communion of saints in heaven impossible without recognition, 311. 3. Much of our knowledge either lost or useless without it, 313. 4. Essential to the unraveling of the mysteries of this life, 314. 5. Heart friendships no proper consummation, 314. 1 1. TEACHINGS OF REVELATION IN REGARD TO A FUTURE RECOGNITION. 316 1. The mental basis of recognition retained, 316. 2. Passages imply it, 318. 3. The resurrection implies individuality, 321. 4. Each individual in the judgment, 323. 5. The revelations concerning the heavenly state, 326. III. SPIRITUAL RECOGNITION A UNIVERSAL FAITH.......................... 328 1. The testimony of ancient philosophers and poets, 329. 2. Recognized in the teachings and rites of heathen religion, 335. 3. Testimony of the early Church and the Christian fathers, 337. 4. Testimony of theologians, 339. 5. Christian poets, 343. 6. A support to the dying Christian, 348. XIII. RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN-CONTINUED. IV. OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUAL RECOGNITIONS CONSIDERED................. 350 1. The bodily changes undergone at death are so great, 351. 2. The contemplation of Christ will so occupy us that we will never think of friends and kindred, 352. 3. The declaration that "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage," implies the abnegation of personal recognition, 354. 4. Occasion pain at the missing of friends, 355. 5. Special personal affections incompatible with heaven, 361. V. THE INFLUENCE OF THE DOCTRINE SALUTARY AND PRECIOUS....... 354 1. It suggests principles that should control us in forming the social relations, 365. 2. It should elevate and ennoble our Christian friendships, 366. 3. It should induce tenderness, forbearance, and justice, 368. 4. Source of comfort in bereavement, 369. 5. Presents motives to elevated piety, 371. XIV. DURATION OF MEMORY AND ITS RELATION TO THE FUTURE LIFE. Practical importance of memory, 376. The five rivers in mythology, 377. Deciphering the old manuscripts, 379. Thought imperishable, 380. I. THE GRASP OF MEMORY IN THIS LIFE..................................... 380 Diversities in the power of memory, 381. Feats of memory, 381. Walter Scott, 382. Dr. Porson, 383. Woodfall, the reporter, 383. II. MEMORY AND THINGS WHICH SEEMED FORGOTTEN.................... 384 How memory is stimulated, 384. The little chimney-sweep, 385. Tle Indian youth and the palm-tree, 385. The convent bells, 386. The bank account error corrected, 386. Point proved, 387. III. THE MEMORY OF OLD PEOPLE............................................ 387 Childhood remembered in old age, 387. The Danish traveler, 388. Revolutionary gi andsire, 389. Instance of an old lady, 390. 16 CONTENTS. PAGE. IV. MEMORY IN THE CASE OF DROWNING PERSONS........................ 390 An instance, 390. Admiral Beaufort, 391. Man drowning in James River, 392. These facts suggestive, 391. V. THE MENTAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM INJURY TO THE BRAIN.. 395 Sailor in St. Thomas's Hospital, 395. Case given by Dr. Abernethy, 395. Another by Dr. Pritchard, 396. The British captain, 396. VI. THE QUICKENED ACTION OF MEMORY OCCASIONED BY DISEASE....... 396 How disease affects the mind, 396. Mr. Flint, 397. Professor Fisher, 397. Instances given by celebrated physicians, 397. Mr. Coleridge, 398. VII. THE MENTAL PHENOMENA ON THE APPROACH OF DEATH......... 400 Instances given by Dr. Rush, 400. The guilty conscience, 400. The teaching of these facts, 401. Looking back from eternity, 403. XV. CONSCIENCE THE MINISTER OF JUDGMENT. The question stated, 405. Functions of memory and conscience in this life, 407. *Definition of conscience, 407. 1. DISCRIMINATION OF THE MORAL QUALITY OF OUR ACTIONS, BY WHICH CONSCIENCE DETERMINES THAT THEY ARE RIGHT OR WRONG............ 407 Decisions of conscience, 408. Discriminating power not destroyed, 408. II. A SUSCEPTIBILITY OF MORAL EMOTION..................................... 409 Twofold character, 409. Remonstrance, 409. Guiltiness will speak, 410. Confessions wrung by conscience, 411. Reason dethroned by it, 412. The Malden murderer, 413. Mysterious power of conscience, 415. XVI. HEAVEN; OR, THE HOME OF THE REDEEMED. Vague and unreal views, 423. Revelation not indefinite or doubtful, 424. I. TYPES OF HEAVEN.................................................................. 425 1. Eden, 425. 2. Canaan, 427. 3. Jerusalem, 428. 4. The temple and the church, 430. 5. The holy of holies, 431. 6. The home and the family, 431. 7. The Sabbath, 433. II. FIGUAES EMPLOYED TO REPRESENT HEAVEN............................... 435 I. A place, 435. 2. A house, a building, 435. 3. A city, 435. 4. A kingdom, 436. 5. A country, 437. 6. An inheritance, 438. III. HEAVEN A LOCAL HABITATION.............................................. 438 1. Its types and figures imply locality, 439. 2. A place required for resurrected bodies, 439. 3. Obvious inference of a Bible reader, 441. 4. Relations between the soul and material nature, 441. 5. WHERE IS HEAVEN? 444. IV. SOCIETY IN HEAVEN............................................................. 451 1. The individual in heaven, 452. 2. Society in heaven, 452. 3. The felicity of heaven, 453. 4. Worship in heaven, 454. 5. Work in heaven, 456. 6. Science and knowledge in heaven, 458. 7. Progression in heaven, 461. 8. The crowning Presence in heaven, 462. MAN ALL IMMORTAL. THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN; OR, SOUL AND BODY. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." GENESIS ii, 7. "There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." JoB xxxii, 8. WHENCE came I? what am I? and whither am I bound? are questions which have ever excited in the human mind an intensity of thought and feeling awakened by no other subject. They are questions of transcendent importance. For all that can elevate us in the scale of being; all that can direct to noble and virtuous purpose the energies of our nature; in fine, all that can give permanency to our hopes of an eternal being, or satisfy our longings after immortality, are centered in the solution which reason and religion give of them. The very rules of life, the maxims of society, the ultimate purposes and aims of a social and immortal being, are dependent upon them. For, unless we know- what man is, unless we know what are the present objects of his being, and what is to be his final destiny, how can we prescribe rules for his conduct or lay before him proper motives of action? how can we still the disquietude of his heart or prevent the soul from falling back, discomfited and distressed, in its unsatisfied longings to solve the mysterious problem of its own being? Any effort, 2 17 18 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. then, however feeble and unsatisfactory it may be, looking toward the solution of this problem of humanity is not unworthy of considerate attention and thought. But how little does man know of himself! After all the researches of science, from the time that.-"know thyself" was first inscribed upon the temple of reason till the present hour, what has been the result? How little do we know of even our physical economy-the curious mechanism of the human body! The coarser, appurtenances of the grand machinery are knownj but the finer integuments of our being, which are essential to our existence, which give energy and power to the elastic springs of life, have, as yet, eluded the ken of science and the skill of human ingenuity. New discoveries have perpetually evolved new mysteries, displaying more, and still more, the surpassingly-wonderful organism of our bodies. What complexity of parts, and yet what unity of design! What mysterious interweaving of machinery, what delicate, what wonderful processes, and yet how harmonious the combination, and what simplicity in the result! Who can look upon this organism without feeling that he is indeed "fearfully and wonderfully made!" But if the investigation of our physical nature is attended with so many difficulties, and involves mysteries so inscrutable to the unaided intellect, can we wonder that the mind-the immaterial and thinking principle-should involve questions still more subtile and inexplicable? Can we wonder that the undying spirit-that emanation of light and glory from the bosom of the Eternal-should rise above our comprehension, and elude the research of our unaided powers? Nothing can be more striking than the impotent efforts of heathen philosophers to solve the mystery of this intangible, subtile, conscious element of our nature; unless, indeed, it be the equally-important efforts of those who, though favored with the light of Divine THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 19 Revelation, have chosen to conduct their inquiries independently of it. Such are the men who prefer to wander in the barren deserts of speculation, and to bewilder themselves with the mirages of their own imagination, than to draw water from the Fountain of Truth, or to sit beneath the shade and take of the fruit of the Tree of Life. Philosophy; eagle-eyed, has never, unaided, been able to solve the far-reaching mysteries that center in our nature. What a mystery is man! " I tremble at myself, And in myself am lost. How reason reels! O, what a miracle to man is man!" I remember to have stood once, in the evening twilight, upon the' edge of a towering precipice, from whose base the boundless ocean stretched away in solemn grandeur. What sublime emotions, what burnings of'insatiable curiosity thrilled the soul, deepening and still deepening as Night was gradually drawing her sable curtain over the scene! Just then a solitary star, rising in the east, sent streaming up through the surrounding darkness its pencil of light. From its distant home in the heavens it seemed to say, "Mortal man, beyond the narrow bounds of thy vision, beyond the gloom and darkness that envelop thee, there is a world of light, a creation of glory." So often do we, in imagination, stand upon the outer verge of mortal life and send our anxious thought into the dark future! What yearning desire takes hold upon us to solve its problem! What restless anxiety to break over and go beyond the narrow limit that bounds our horizon! Happy he upon whose longing, weary soul breaks the rising star of heaven's own most glorious truth, bringing "life and immortality to light!" To this light the soul instinctively responds, recognizing the glorioul3 truth that "God is light, and in'him is no darkness at all-." In this revelation the great problem 20 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. of human life, the nature and destination of man, is solved. It is presented, not in, the form of mere hypothesis, not in abstruse, metaphysical theories, but in the clear and broad statement of immutable truth-MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Let us begin with the first elements of this discussion, that we may follow it step by step to the grand conclusion. At the very outset, then, we find the DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN asserted; for, while it was said that man's body was formed of the dust of the ground, it is also said that the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and.man became a iv'ing soul.- It is also declared that there is a spirit. in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth, them understanding. Man, then, is an embodied spirit. When the Almighty had molded the dust into a form of beauty and majesty fit to become the abode of, and to be animated by, a spirit, it was not left inanimate and dead. A mysterious and sublime emanation from himself was infused into the molded dust while as yet it was lifeless as the clod-a principle of feeling, of thought, and of action, a germ of immortality —and then man became a living, soul. The union of these two elements constitutes the sublime mystery of humanity. How body and spirit may cohere; how they are made to blend together, to act in unison, and to depend upon each other, we shall not undertake to explain. We shall confine ourselves to the fact of such relationship;, which is the only really-essential question in the case. The fact is approachable, deironstrable; but its mysteries branch off and spread out into the illimitable and eternal. I. MAN POSSESSES A PHYSICAL NATURE. Both science and Revelation combine to assure us that the entire created universe of God is composed of two distinct and independent substances; namely, matter and spirit. TItE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 21 Each of these possesses peculiar and striking chaiacteristics, which distinguish it fiom the other. If it is asked what is meant by matter, or what matter is, we must confess that we knorw not what constitutes its essence. In this respect its ontology is beyond our reach; and the only advance we find it possible to make is to point out some of the properties of matter as discerned by our senses, and to exhibit some of the laws by which it is governed. Thus we say it possesses extension, impenetrability, inertia, and form, and that it is subject to the laws of gravitation and cohesive attraction. Behind these properties we can not go to explore the essence of that in which they inhere; for these properties, as addressed to the senses, are the only media through which we become acquainted with its existence. Matter, thus defined and thus made known, makes up the material universe. And the human body itself, though curiously and wonderfully made, is only one of the modifications under which matter exists. The spirit may claim affinity with the skies, but the body, though its form be erect and stately, its front bold and daring, may say "to corruption, thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my mother and sister;" for the grave is its home anc its bed. is made in darkness. The gross earth upon which we tread is the first or primal form of matter. The rank luxuriance of vegetati(n, which clothes the earth with new and living beauty, presents only a modification of the form under which matter exists. And, if we advance still further and observe those bodies which are endowed with the peculiar honor of being the abodes of animal and sentient life-whether it be the body of man or beast-still it is matter, changed in form and relations and not in nature. It is matter still, only existing under a new and greatly-modified form. Nor can 22 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. matter, by any possible transformation, be made to lose its distinctive characteristics, and assume the higher prerogatives of spirit. Change it as you may; condense, attenuate, or refine it as you please, it will be matter still. The essential properties of matter will still remain, while the higher indications of intellect will no where appear. Man, then, possesses a body composed of matter under the various modifications of bones, flesh, and blood. The limestone that forms his bony substance is not different from that which is found in the mountain ridges of the earth and in the coral beds, of the ocean. Then, too, what are the softer elements of the body but a combination of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid, with a little sulphur, iron, and quartz? From these are formed the fibrin of the muscles, the albumen of the brain and nerves, the gelatinous substances and the fat of the body, and even the blood that circulates in the veins and arteries. Indeed, such are the materials entering into the composition of the human body, and such the proportions in which those materials are combined, that of the whole weight, when its parts are separated, three-fourths are water. But, again, what is this wonderful structure, the human body, but a mechanical instrument? The bones are levers, the bloodvessels are hydraulic tubes, and the muscles are the connecting links through which motive power is applied, and even the nerves are only the unconscious wires of telegraphic communication. Then, too, in his mere physical organization man has little advantage over the brute creation. His symmetry of conformation is no more perfect than that of many species in the animal kingdom. His organs are not better adapted to their ends; his joints have no finer articulation, nor his sinews any firmer texture. Nay, even the organs of sense are often less delicate and acute in THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 23 man than in the brute. A modern writer puts this point in a very forcible light: "The body of man lacks the massy strength of the elephant and the whale; it can not rival the muscles of the lion; the antelope and the grayhound art far more graceful; man has no pinions to mount on nigh; he can not live in the deep; the falcon has a keener eye, the grouse a quicker ear, the dog a more discerning smell, and the bat a more susceptible touch; and of all the beasts the most hideous is that which most resembles him in form, gestures, and visage."* Nor is the body of man any more guarded against liabilities to accident and change. In none of these respects can we claim any advantage for poor human nature. The beasts of the field perish, and so does man. Indeed, in whatever form matter exists it is liable to change. Even the granite bulwarks of the everlasting hills crumble away in the lapse of time. Can it then be wonderful that the fine and delicate workmanship of the human frame should wear out by the common friction of use? or, when long exposed to the action of the elements, should fall into decay? How little honor, then, is to be attached to the mere material organic body! This is not the mnan. Did we stop here, much as we might admire the beautiful organism of our bodies, interested as we might be in our investigation of its complicated machinery, and important as might be the scientific theories evolved, still it would be but a sad account we could give of the nature and destination of man. The purposes of his animal existence here may be accomplished in a few years, and then the worn-out machinery is laid aside and forgotten; it wastes away in the charnel-house of the dead. "I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they *Burgess's Last Enemy, p. 10. 24 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. themselves arce beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." (Eccl. iii, 19, 20.) But yet there is a wide and eternal distinction between man and the brute: "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth epward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth." (Ecel. iii, 21.) II. MAN PossEssEs A LIVING SOUL. As the crowning work of creation was the production of man, so the crowning work in the formation of man was the imparting from the living God of a soul or spirit that was to animate the material temple. The Temple of old was not left without the indwelling glory of God; so also this fair structure of the human body received its; complement in an indwelling soul. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and qman became a living soul." This is a distinct announcement that the soul of man is something different in its origin and distinct in its character from the body. The one is formed from "the dust of the ground," the other emanated from the breath of the Almighty. The one is "dust," the other "a living soul." The soul is not a part of the physical structure, does not grow out of it, but is superadded to it. The mysterious combination of these two elements in man completed the work of his creation. Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The Hebrew has the t lural, breath of lives. Whether, as some have supposed, this implies that man is endowed with the THIE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 25 vegetative life of plants, the sensitive life of animals, and also the higher life that distinguishes spiritual beings; or, indeed, whether any peculiar force of meaning is to be attached to the mere circumstance of plurality of form, it is diflicult to determine. Nor is the determination of' the question essential to our present purpose; as it now concerns us only to show that to man was imparted a higher nature than that which is merelv animal. In fine, we claim that it was the intenttion of Inspiration to assert for man all that -we understand to be implied in the possession of a "living soul" breathed from God, and "a spirit" inspired with understanding from the Almighty. AnLd man became a livin;g soul. That the Hebrew word zesphesl/ is, in other places, applied to living animals, reptiles, creeping creatures upon the earth, and also to other things, does not prove that it can not here be employed to express what we mean by the word soid, or tivinll soul. Even with us, though the word soul has come to have a technical and definite meaning, nothing is more common than to use it outside of that meaning-as when a vessel foundors at sea, and we say, every soul on bocardc perished, meaning silmply that every person on.board lost his life. The fact is, there is no single word in Biblical Hebrew, answering in fixed and definite import to either of the English words soul and body. The same is true of the G-reek, and also of the Latin. But both body and soul, as distinguished from each other, and as embodying the ideas attaehed to these words in our current English, are distinctly recognized and taught in the Bible. If, then, the intrinsic nature of' the soul is not disclosed by the import of the Hebraic terms used to denote it, it is not because that nature is not recognized, but because hulllan language was then destitute of an appropriate word which might be thus employed. The same remnarks, in a greater or less 26 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. degree, are applicable to the other Hebrew words rutahl7h; mles. hacLah, etc., expressed by the words soul, spirit, etc. And is it not thus also with the English word soul? Even the question of its origin is unsettled, much less has its philological import been made to appear. And yet it has come to have a known and acknowledged signification. It may be said to have grown into this signification, or by gradual process come to be appropriated to this use; so that now, whenever used, we take it to mean the spiritual and immortal nature, unless the connections in which it stands determine some other signification. Whatever, then, may be said of the philological imrport of the Hebrew term rendered by the words living soul, the connections of the term when used in relation to the creation and endowment of man, fully establish the high sense in which it is used. In the creation of unintellectual animnals God said, Let the earth bring then forth. Nothing is said about breathing into them the breath of life. Then, too, man was to be modeled after a higher type. Let gms nmake manc asfter our own imcage and'ikeness. Higher purposes were to be accomplished in his being. He was to have dominidon over the animal creation. It was to be a wide dominion, including all animal kind in the sea, upon the earth, and in the air. That dominion, too, was to spread over every herb bearing seed, and every tree which is uipoln the face of all the earth. The circumstances and the objects of man's creation are such as would indicate a new and higher order of endowment. This is still further confirrmed by the importance attached to his creation in the councils of the Creator. The persons in the Godhead, and it may be the higher order of angelic beings, seem to have been summoned into council over his creation. Nothing can be more clear than that all this is implied in the expression, " Let Its mnakec." If by the breath of lives is simply THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 27 meant that the animal man began then to use his organs of respiration, began to breathe, why is the case mentioned at all in contradistinction from the creation of the unintellectual animals? aWhile, then, man is possessed of the breath of animal life, the plan, the design, the circumstances of his creation, and especially the Divine origin of the higher principle of the life that is within him, render the conclusion inevitable, that superadded to his merely animal life is another life-that of the soul. It will be seen by the above, that we are not to look exclusively to the philological meaning of the words employed to express soul or spirit, to demonstrate this higher endowment in the life of man; we claim simply that there is nothing, so far as is known, in the philological meaning of the words that would lie in the way of this use; we claim that the terms were actually employed to express this higher endowment; and that the distinction of spirit, as something different from the body; something different from animal life; something more Divine, more nearly allied to God, and with different relations to eternity, is brought to light in a thousand ways all through the Bible. In fact, it is a doctrine that permeates all revelation, and gives to it its sublime applicability and force of teaching. No one can read the Bible without being impressed with the fact that it as fully recognizes the soul as a distinct essence, as it does the body. The inference, then, made by sonme, that because the term living soul is sometimes applied to animals, reptiles, vegetables, etc., therefore each is endowed with intellectual and immortal faculties, or that none are thus endowed, is equally invalid. It no more follows, than it does when you s.ay of a wrecked ship, every soul on board perished, that the spiritual nature of each one was annihilated, rather than their lives lost. The full force and contents of the term "living soul," as applied to 28 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. man, is seen only when we place it by the side of that dec laration of that God who is both "life" and "spirit," "Let s,make man in oir image, oafter our likenzess." (Gen. i, 26.) This certainly means something more than that man was made an UPRIGHT ANIMAL WALKING ON TWO FEET! Mian became a living soul. The Greek term,vuy has for its dominant meaning, life, as indicated by the act of breathing. It is distinguished firom another Greek term, Cw-, which is also rendered l'fe. In John xii, 25, we meet those two terms in a connection which goes very far toward determining the original sense in which each was:used: "He that hateth his life ( pv4r/o) in this world shall keep it unto life (-wr/p) eternal." It is evident, then, that the former has special reference to the principle of life manifested in connection with bodily organization; the latter to the higher element of spiritual existence. The terms living soul-or, as more frequently used, the simple term soul —indicate, as applied to man, a higher than mere animal life. This is the term employed by the apostle when he said, speaking of the "first Adam," the type of humanity, that he was made a lvinY soul (^., Ovdriv o' a.v.) We use the term soul to express the spiritual element of our nature-that element which knows, and thinks, and reasons, and possesses a judgment of right and wrong. The operations of the soul are diversified, but its distinct individuality and the unity of its nature rest upon the firmest basis of reason and truth. Sensation, reason, memory, imagination, will, and conscience are expressive of so many different modes of the soul's action. But they leave its unity unLouched. They are so many capabilities, properties, or manifestations of the intelligent substance whose being and action are made known by them. These are the pLeznoqmena through which we are introduced to the knowledge of the soul, and in the liCght of whlich we must study its character. THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 29 It must not be thought amiss, nor awaken surprise, if we confess that we know not in what the essentce of soul or spirit consists. We readily acknowledged our ignorance of the essence, the sltbject-belng of matter. We make the same confession-and under the same limitations-concerning the soul. But though we were unable to tell what matter is, yet we found ourselves able to describe or define it by the sensible properties it possesses and the laws by which it is governed. So it is with the soul. Though we are unable to throw aside the vail and gaze upon its essence, yet we may discover its existence, and something of its nature and qualities, from our consciousness of its operations and our knowledge of its effects. Every one is conscious of a principle within him superior to the frame it inhabits. There is something that warnms into life and excites to motion the machinery of our bodies, which is beyond the artist's skill or the chemist's power. There is a beauty lit up in the expressions of the human countenance which the painter's skill can never reach, for it is not an attribute of matter. It is the high and indisputable proof of the divinity that dwells within us. "It is a flame from heaven purer than Promethean fire that vivifies and energizes the breathing form. It is an immaterial essence, a being that quickens matter and imparts life, sensation, motion to the intricate frame-work of our bodies, which wills when we act, attends when we perceive, looks into the past when we reflect, and, not content with the present, shoots with all its aims and with all its hopes into the futurity that is forever dawning upon it." The properties of mind are manifested in perception, thought, feeling, volition, reason, the passions, and the moral judgments. That every one intuitively recognizes a something in his breast which puts forth the distinct operations or experiences the distinct feelings indicated by these 30 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. words the universal testimony of man abundantly proves. They are not the acts, the operations of matter; they can not be predicated concerning the body. Thought is intangible; you can not see it as you can see light; you can not cause it to travel the magnetic wires as you may cause electricity to travel. But just as the magnetic telegraph is only the vehicle of thought, of ideas, which it neither originates nor constitutes, so are our physical organs only the media for the transmission, the outward expression of ideas which they have no power to originate. It becomes, then, one of the clearest dictates of reason that, if there is that wide difference between the properties, the characteristics of matter and spirit, these two principles must be essentially different in their nature. No one can prove infidel to what he feels; and he who marks the swellings of human thought, passion, and desire, expanding and enlarging to the grasp of infinity and eternity, can not fail to discern within him the elements of a spiritual and eternal existence: "Who reads his bosom reads immortal life; Or Nature there, imposing on her sons, Has written fables-man was made a lieI" Thus are we led to the indubitable conviction that there is a slirit in nan distinct from the body it inhabits, and therefore he has become a living soul. III. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. With the mention of a few of the practical suggestions growing out of the subject, we close this discussion: 1. The possession of a physical nature is not necessarily an evil. What is said, by inspiration, of the vegetable body is also true of the animal creation, that "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him." The ancient philosophers were often accustomed to regard the body as an incum TIHE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 31 branee to the soul-a sort of jail in which the spirit was imprisoned, and from which it longed for deliverance. Such also seems to be a too prevalent notion among many religious persons of the present day, especially those whose minds are of a mystical cast. But the fact that God gave us these bodies, and that they, in our resurrection state, are to be th0 inheritance of the children of God, sufficiently demonstrates that the human body is not an evil in itself: God intended man to be, not a seraph, but a human being; and therefore endowed him with a body as well as a spirit. 2. This union, of soul and body, t7lhotg7lh mysterious, is by no mneans incredible. The combination of material substances, the impenetration of the one by the other, are scarcely less mysterious; and yet they are facts observable every day. How the electricity of thought can find expression in the movement of the tongue or of the hand is no more wondrous than that the electricity of nature, conducted by the metallic wire, shall give expression to its message thousands of miles distant in an instant of time. As with a thousand other things, our inability to comprehend the mode is no argument against the fact. The endowment or connection of animal life with a material body is of the same sort of mystery, and yet the fact of such connection is too palpable for denial. 3. This union of soul and body is essential to the objects Of our hunvmanity. A physical organization was necessary to adapt man to the physical world designed to be the theater of his action and the scene of his embryo growth and development. But, without the spiritual element, the higher link that united him to his God, and made him in fact the representative of the image and likeness of the Divine Being in this lower state, would be wanting. Nor is the material body without its uses. It is the inlet of numerous 32 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. enjoyments to the soul. It is a source of infinitely-varied) knowledge. It brings the soul into visible and tangible connection with the material world, and gives it a wonderful control over the elements of lnature. Then, too, our humanity will not reach its ultimate perfection till a reunion of these elements is consummated by the resurrection of the body. Hence, like the apostle, all we "who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to-wit, the redemption of our body." (iRom. viii, 23.) 4. ItI the creation of so august a being as sman ther-e must be ends or objects commensurate with his character and enldowzents. He was to occupy a preeminent position in the animal creation. In this subdivision of the kingdom of God he was to be the ruler and governor. The sublime mysteries of creation were to be explored by his intellect; the rough limnings of nature were to be molded to forms of beauty by his hand. He was to be at once the representative and the fiiend of God. The very contemplation of such a being awakens within us the loftiest expectations with regard to his destiny! The poorest and the darkest specimen of humanity upon the face of the earth has yet some glimmering indications of what humanity is capable in its present or future state. ",How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful is man! How passing wonder He who made him such, Who centered in one make such strange extremes, From different natures marvelously mixedConnection exquisite of distant worlds! Distinguished linlk in being's endless chainMidway from nothing to the Deity! A beamt ethereal, sullied and absorbed! Thoughl sullied and dishonored, still divine r Dim miniature of greatness absolute! All heir of glory, a frail child of dust! Helpless inlollrtal! insect infinite! A worm! a god!" ORGANISM AND LIFE. 33 II. ORGANISM AND LIFE. "Spirit, and soul, and body." 1 TIoESS. V, 23. "The body without the spirit is dead." JAniES ii, 26. "Being yourselves also in the body." liEB. xiii, 4. "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." 1 COR. xv, 38. WE have already seen that man possesses a double nature-the one organized from the dust of' the ground, the other imparted directly from the living God. These two natures were necessary, in order to constitute him the connecting link between the spiritual and the material worlds. Without the former his present relation to the earth and the inferior animal and vegetable creations would have been impossible; without the latter his present relation to the spiritual universe could not have existed, and he would have become one with the brute creation. Without the combination of these two natures, then, there could not have been such a thing as h7lumzanity. On the one hand man has organism and. life in common with the animal and vegetable creation; but on the other hand he has a soul or spirit in common with angelic or heavenly natures. This question, then, of organism ana life is essential to the full understanding of the nature and destination of man. It becomes especially necessary in order to determine his relation to animated beings and his rank among them. 34 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. I. WHAT IS A LIVING ORGANIC BODY? It is not our purpose here to show what life is in itself, but to ascertain the nature of organism, and to show its relations to life. A living organic body has these several characteristics: 1. It is made up2 of various parts or members connected by concrescence or a common growth. The parts do not exist before the whole, so that you have only to bring them together, as is the case in building a house or in the construction of a machine. They all have a concurrent formation, and that too by a common process. The parts of a machine are first manufactured, so that each may exist in full perfection long before they are brought together and the machine is made. So in the creation of an edifice-like the building of Solomon's temple-every part may be first formed and fashioned for its place, so that each one is complete, while as yet no two of them have been put together. But in the organization of a living body this can never be. The branches are not made before the trunk, and then brought and attached to it. The limbs of the animal are not made separate from the body, and then fitted to it by mechanical ingenuity. No one part precedes the others. All grow up together into one homogeneous body. 2. In organic bodies specific forms are produced, with various parts the same in nunzmber and function. Invariableness in form is, in some sort, true in crystallology. The quartz will invariably assume its six-sided prismatic form, with pyramidal ends; the iron pyrites displays its cubes; the garnet will appear in the form of dodecahedrons; and so each mineral, capable of crystallization, will have its specific and unvarying form. But there is here no diversity ORGANISM AND LIFE. 35 of part or of function. The crystallized mass is a simple a.ggregation of little crystals, each as perfect in itself as the aggregated body; and when separated fiom the mass the particle suffers no change as the result of that separation. There is no life produced, nor is there made the least approximation to it. The crystal has neither organs nor limbs, and even its dimensions are limited by external relations rather than its internal nature. But in the living germ is to be found the form-determining power, which molds and shapes the organic body. The germ in the acorn can, by no possibility of culture or of external influence, be made to develop into an animal. It embodies the parts, roots, trunk, and branches, of the tree, and that too of its own species, the oak; and nothing else can grow out of it. So of the animal germ. The form, while the embryo being is yet in the egg, is as determinate as when it comes forth into life. 3. The living body is the product of inward forces. It gathers its material and incorporates it into the organic body by a power within itself. The block of marble, by a gradual transformation, comes, at length, to assume the human form. But this transformation was not a plan, a work, or a result of its own, nor yet of forces within itself. But for the action of the artist upon it, it had remained a sightless block forever. In the living body there is an invisible power, which takes hold of the elements nature has in store for it, and works them up into its own body, by the most wonderful transformation. This power of assimilation is peculiar to the organic body, and must distinguish it from the inorganic forever. 4. Organized bodies exist in generations. The plant "hath the seed in itself" for the production of other plants. The organic is not only a vitalized body, but it possesses the power of vitalizing, and thus giving being 36 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. to other vitalized bodies that shall be its successors. Not only have the leaves of the forest a time to fall in their successive seasons, but the trees themselves pass through their successive stages of being and pass away, so that the forest is perpetually renewed with new generations of the race. The human race exists, in like manner, in successive generations. " One generation passeth away and another cometh;" and thus the race is preserved. The crystals are the highest efforts of inorganic nature. Curiously are they wrought in her great laboratory, and come forth sparkling in their beauty. But we find no such relation as would indicate successive generations among them. Each is perfect in itself-is without antecedent crystal as a cause, and also without succeeding crystal as a result. Nor is there periodicity in its duration. Every thing is contingent, dependent upon the action of external chemistry, and not upon internal functions. It may be dissolved in a day, or it may last forever. 5. In the living body the sepcaration. of p2arts can Rnot take p2lace without the death and decay of the part so separated. The members all differ from each other in character and office, as the roots, trunks, branches, leaves, blossoms, and fiuits in vegetables, and the feet, hands, bodies, heads, and hearts in animals. Yet each assists and promotes the life of the whole. Strike off a part-a limb of a tree or the arm of a person-and the part so stricken off changes in its whole character. It has life no longer, but is decomposed and returns to dust. An inorganic body, like a block of granite, may be broken into pieces; still it is granite, each part, however small, retaining the characteristic properties of the whole. A bar of iron may be cut up into the smallest filings, but each atom is still iron and complete in itself. The mast of a vessel may be snapped asunder in a gale, but mechanical skill may splice the pieces, and the ORGANISM AND LIFE. 3 7 mast perform the same service as before. But does the storm break the towering trunk of the forest pine, the part so severed is dead. lRestoration, so that it may perform its former functions, is impossible. The lightning may tear away a fragment from a building, but the fragment is unchanged in character. It is wood, or stone, or brick as before, and has only to be replaced to repair the damage. But does the lightning rend a limb from a man, the man himself, possibly, may survive, but the limb is dead. Its restoration is impossible. No surgical skill can replace it so that it shall again become a part of the living body. 6. Among all oryanic living bodies thtere are certain cobmmon fGnlctions not jfoued in inorganic bodies. The vegetable and the animal are widely removed in characteristics from each other; so widely, indeed, that, to the superficial observer, they seem to have scarcely any properties in common. Yet "their living, growing, feeding, reproducing, secreting, transpiring, vascular, diseased, and dying actions are universal instances of a related similitude. In these things all that have life resemble each other, whether animal or vegetable, and however separating their other properties or capacities may be.";: But none of these properties are found in the stone or mineral. They may enlarge, but their enlargement is by exterior accretion, by the addition of exterior particles to their surface. They do not grow. They have no development from within. The peculiar fuactional chemistry so manifest in the operation for the support and growth of living bodies is wholly wanting. Crystallization may produce forms of wondrous beauty, but in none of them do we find life. So the stone or mineral needs no nutriment in order to its preservation. If not operated upon by the action of elements exterior to itself, it will remain unchanged forever. Or, again, it may be disinte.':Turner's Sacred ITistory, T, 153. 38 ~ MAN ALL IMMORTAL. grated, may return to its original elements; but it suffers no dying agony; it is simply action from without, separa ting the parts that had been brought together by external force and blended by nature's chemistry. IT. ORGANIZATION IS PRODUCED BY LIFE, AND NOT LIFE BY ORGANIZATION. Organism is the incarnation of life. The physiologist finds in nature a special principle of organization. No where is inorganic matter converted into organic structures, whether in vegetables or in animals, without the influence of this principle. Call this principle what we may-a germ, a vesicle, or a cell-it possesses an innate power, by which it seizes hold of the material within its reach, and suitable to its purpose, regroups it, and thus develops a new organization.* In this respect there is a wonderful concurrence between the vegetable and the animal world, showing both to be the conceptions of one overruling Mind. The kernel of grain and the egg of the animal alike contain not only the germ of life, but a stock of nutritive material, which is used in the earlier stages of development. The embryo plant first consumes the nutritive material in the seed, ilcorporating a part of it into the new organic body that is being found, till the shell is bursted and connection established with the material outside. Then the plant gradually weans itself and commences collecting the materials of its life and growth from the earth, the air, and the sun. The process of development in the egg of the animal is after the same general type. A large portion of the contents of the egg-shell is simply nutritive material kindly stored, upon which the embryo animal may feed till its connections with:: Draper's Human Physiology. ORGANISM AND LIFE. 39 the outside world are so established that it can draw from the latter its support. In both cases, the organizing and appropriating power is LIFE. In view of this remarkable' fact, we can hardly wonder that so many have conceived that there is aplastic power in nature itself, by which these organizations are effected. But what is meant by plastic power? Is it any thing more than a convenient term under which philosophy may hide its failure to solve the problem of LIFr? The idea of plastic power is, that it is an agent which takes hold of inorganic physical materials, and organizes them so as to produce life. B4-t what is this agent? Where does it reside? If it is a quality of matter, and inheres in matter, what is it, then, but to say that matter organizes itself? If it is not a quality of matter and does not inhere in matter, how does it differ from the living principle or germ ordained by the great Creator of all for the perpetuation of life-each in its appropriate mode and form? The former is sometimes used by the infidel, as an indirect method of ignoring the direct agency of God in the universe. The latter makes full recognition of that agency. The former endues matter with power to produce the various forms of life. The latter recognizes every being possessed of life, as originating in an elementary germ; and that this germ of itself determines the species of the being produced. Hence the celebrated maxim of Harvey, omne aincmal ex ovo. Thus all races and orders of living bodies, first created by God, are also endowed by him with reproductive powers for the perpetuation and increase of the several species. The tenacity of life in the ovim is also worthy of notice as tending to show the mysteriousness of the vital element. The old story of the vegetation of wheat found in an Egyptian mummy, and which had probably been entombed with it three thousand years, is familiar to our readers. In 40 MAN ALL IMMORTAL addition to this, the North British Agriculturist not long since gave an account of the clearing away of the debr)is from an old Roman camp, upon the soil of which, thus made bare, there sprung up no less than seventy four varieties of oats never seen in that section before. The matter was thoroughly sifted; and the conclusion was that the place was an old cavalry camp, and that the oats now germing had been brought from other climes, and had lain buried 1,500 years under the earth. Yet this seed, when exposed to the action of the sun, and air, and moisture, germed as readily as though it had been the growth of the preceding harvest. The fact is also well known, that the seed entombed for ages in an alluvial soil, when thrown up with the dirt from the bottom of deep excavations, will germ and grow. These facts indicate that no limits in time can be set to durations of life pent up in a kernel of grain. May not the same be true of the germ of life in the ovum of the animal? III. ANTAGONISMS BETWEEN ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. In this discussion we have thus far made no distinction between animal and vegetable life. There is that relationship between the embryo condition of each that indicates one original type. There is unity of design. But we can not advance far in our investigations without discovering radical differences; and what is still more striking, these very differences reveal to us a higher and grander harmony. Animal life and vegcetable life are the counterpart of each other. This is seen in their different action upon the atmosphere, and the different relations they sustain to the earth. The plant is constantly consuming the carbonic acid in the atmosphere, and at the same time replenishing ORGANISM AND LIFE. 41 that atmosphere with oxygen. On the other hand, animal bodies are constantly consuming oxygen and returning carbonic acid. Thus has the equilibrium of the atmosphere been preserved for ages. The French chemists group the differences, or antagonisms, between plants and animals in a very clear and striking manner. They make at least six of them, as follows: THE VEGETABLE, THE ANIMIAL, 1. PRODUCES the neutral, nitrogenized 1. CoNSUcIES the neutral, nitrogenized substances, fatty substances, sugar, gum, substances, fatty substances, sugar, gum, aud starch. and starch. 2. DECO3IPosFs carbonic acid, water, 2. PRODUCES carbonic acid, water, and and ammoniacal salts. ammoniacal salts. 3. DISENGAGES oxygen. 3. ABsoRBS oxygen. 4. ABsoRBS heat and electricity. 4. PRODUCES heat and electricity. 5. Is an apparatus of DIEOXIDATION. 5. Is an apparatus of OXIDATION. 6. IS STATIONARY. 6. Is LOCOMIOTIYE. From the above it will be seen that there is, in various and important respects, a distinct antagonism between plants and animals. And yet when taken in their relation to the inorganic world, we see how indispensable they are to each other, and how these very antagonisms minister to the harmony of the universe. These differences, or, to express the fact more correctly, these antagonisms between the physical structure of plants and of animals, and their relations to inorganic matter, suggest a wide difference, if not an entire dissimilarity, between the principle of life in each. But how wide this difference may be, or in what it consists; whether they differ in nature or only in manifestation, are questions that do not concern this discussion. Nor does it seem that human science has yet grasped the elements of knowledge essential to their solution. We are not, however, inclined, with Professor Draper, to regard a plant as being a mere physical operatiQn, origin4 42 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. ating in some antecedent physical impression, and that, therefore, all the phenomena of plants are mechanical and material.* We see no reason why.He who has created such variety in the substances of the inorganic world, might not also have created different kinds Of LIFE. We think there is at least ground for inference that two elements which operate in such direct antagonism in their effects upon the material world must be different in their essential nature. But if in this lowest form of life-so low, indeed, that some philosophers have questioned whether it is any thing more than a physical operation-there are to be found no spontaneous organizations; none without the antecedent germs fronm which it springs; then how complete the demonstration that organization is protduced by LIFE, and?not ife by organizatio! IV. HIGHER ELEMENTS OF LIFE IN MAN. The animal creation stands out distinct from and superior to the vegetable-holding, indeed, many things in common with it, but at the same time possessing other qualities which place it at an immeasurable remove from it. So man possesses many qualities in common with the aninal, but he has also others which place him at a remove almost infinite. These other qualities are not, as we have already seen, in his physical organization. Take away the higher endowment of a thinking and reasoning spirit, and man would no longer be able to cope with many species of his cotemporary animals. He could not face the lion, the tiger, or the wolf; the buffalo would cease to acknowledge his prowess; the horse would speed away from him, and even the mule would hold him in derision. You may endow him with all:: HIuman Physiology, pp. 470, 471. ORGANISM AND LIFE. 43 of life that is possessed or implied in mere animal function, and still, from his very physical organization, he would be compelled to yield the dominion to other animals. In animal organization we have observed that its departure from the type and characteristics of the vegetable is specially designed to adapt it to the function and nature of anrnal life. The element of life effecting the organization and the building up of the living plant, could no more be transferred to the animal body and be made to work a like function there, than it could be to the crystal-quartz or any other mineral. In fact, were the transfer made, the very element that built up the plant into a living body would work death in the animal. So in the organization of man. His peculiarities of body are not designed to secure animal superiority, but to adapt the animal organization to the spirit with which it was to be endowed. If any one shall ask me how a living spirit can dwell in a human body, I will ask him first to solve the problem, How animial life can dwell in the animal body; or how vegetable life is connected with the plant or the tree? When he has solved these two problems, we may be prepared to approach the solution of the higher and more mysterious problem of spiritual life. In the mean time, the fact of man's being endowed with a spirit rests upon the evidence of, and is demonstrated by, the same class of facts that demonstrate life in the vegetable and in the animal. V. THE MODERN THEORY OF FORCE AS CONSTITUTING THE SOUL CONSIDERED. The simple position we have taken in regard to the soul is, that it is an independent substance; that it is something different fiom a general principle of life infused into all matter, as Professor Taylor Lewis seems to imagine was 44 MiAN ALL IMMORTAL. done when "the Spirit of God moved upon the facee of the waters;" in fine, that it is a personality-spiritual in its nature and Divine in its origin. In opposition to this sublime doctrine of soul there is a theory of ancient materialistic philosophers, revived by some modern speculatists, that the essence of matter is force, and also that homogeneous with this is the essence of spirit. According to this, in the final result, the substratum of the universe is FORCE. Leibnitz objected to the theory of Descartes, who made mattter consist essentially in extensiozn, that it would produce a world of unalterable existence, but instead of this the world exhibits an innumerable number of ever-varying movements and developments. Hence he attributes to all substances an in'herent J)owe by which their phenomena are generated. Mlasses being irfinitely divisible, the process at length eliminates every material property, strictly so called, and all that remains is. "the simple and immaterial idea of power, as the essential basis of all existence." This power or force Leibnitz terms a monad. The atomic theory in physical science regarded the material universe as composed of an aggregate of material atoms —each possessing the essential properties of matter; but outside of this, and differing from it, spirit was regarded as a distinct substance. But the nzonadic theory, in the last analysis, entirely eliminates materticlity from the universe, and leaves nothing but a self-working, self-developing force. This is the fundamental axiom of the vaunted dynamqzics of the present day. Now let us see how Morell, following in the lead of Leibnitz, attempts to establish this fundamental principle. "The monad," says he, "being indivisible, unextended,,immlateriat, can not be exposed to any influences from without; being insoluble, it can never perish. The cause of the perpetual changing of monads, then, not being THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 45 external, must be internal; that is, all monads mnzust contain an inward energy, by which they develop themnselves spontaneously."* To what result this brings us will be noted by and by. Mr. Morell, -who, with much philosophic acumen, attempts to galvanize this old doctrine into a new life, after granting that material phenomena indicate a substratum, claims that the real philosophic analysis of this substratum will bring us to no other result than that of the " action and reaction of force." This mysterious "force" he makes the substratum of soul as well as body. Having thus merged both matter and spirit into " FORCE," he becomes enraptured at the result. " The universe in this light!" he exclaims, "appears far more simple, more harmonious, more beautiful. Instead of a dualism we have a homogeneous creation, together with the activities of which it is composed, rising in perfect gradation from the lowest forms of matter through all the regions of organic life to the highest development of mind itself. On these principles, power, acting unconsciously and blindly, is matterpower, raised to intelligence and volition, is spirit. The substratum of both is identical." t What, then, is this wonderful FoRcE? Is it in its nature material or immaterial? Did it exist antecedent to matter-antecedent to spirit? How? What was its origin? Does it exist independently alike of matter and of spirit? Then what is its substratum? What is the fulcrum upon which it plants its lever? But is it eternal? and did it give being to all the phenomena observed in both the material and the spiritual worlds? Then how does it differ from God? Is it not God himself? Till these questions are solved, the pretender of a new iqstauration has not begun to fathom' the depths, nor to comprehend the difficulties of his own system. *Morell's Hist. MIod. Phil., p. 149. j Ibicl., p. 3:33. 46 MAN ALL IMMO1RTAL. Darwin's theory differs firom that of Morell in this: 1H1 has something tangible, something real for a starting-point; namely, "the primeval monads." It is by the action of these upon each other — the working of matter upon matter "-that not only the vast machinery of the universe, together with physical bodies and animal life, have been produced, but also the moral and spiritual faculties of the human race. He has an advantage in this, that his "force" is not a mere abstraction; but in nothing more. Professor Huxley does not hesitate to follow this theory of "force" out to its legitimate result. He says: "The whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the universe, that, in view of the intimate relations between man and the rest of the living world, and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed, from the inorganic to the organic, from the blintd force to conscious intellect and will."* And again: "MIan is, in substance and in structure, one with the brutes." t Thus, according to these modern skeptics, the highest achievements' of science are those which exclude a personal God from the universe and unspiritualize man, making him one with the brutes. "0, star-eyed science, hast thou wandered there, To bring us back the message of despair?" No wonder that the author of such sentiments is compelled to confess that the triumph of man's intellect is a defeat. "It is as if Nature herself had foreseen the arrogance of man, and with Roman severity had provided that his intellect, by its very triumphs, should call into promi-:."Evidence as to 3Ian's Place in JTature," p. 128. tIbid., p. 135. TIHE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 47 nence the slaves-the lower animal creatures-admonishing the conqueror that he is dust."* As our modern speculatist has presumed to push in his "Iforce" between us and the good old Scripture doctrine that "there is a spirit in man," and especially as he carps at us as an "old-fashionecl theologian," at our theology as being "traditional," and most contemptuously at our doctrine, as "the old theory," it may not be amiss to inquire into the origin of his "force." Where does he find it? low feir has he comprehended its nature, mleasured its scope? Is his new philosophy "positive" or mlerely speculative? Rejecting the "traditional theology," does he confine himself to that which is real, or does he launch out upon a broad sea of endless speculation? Let us uncover his process. His first postulate is, that the ultimate atoms of matter are either absolutely, essentially, and necessarily inert, or they are absolutely, essentially, and necessarily active. Then le proceeds to discover that "a force of resistance," or, to use a familiar term, inpemtetrability, is one of the elementary attributes of miatter. His next step is the discovery of "gravitating force," an attraction in matter. Expanding the former a little he draws from it a "repellant force." And hence he claimns that all ultimate atomls of matter are endued with this triple force, and hence with life! With one gigantic bound he has distanced all the absurdities of the schoolmnen and converted the globe itself into a mass of life, each atom of which possesses a distinct individuality! His postulate we might question, and demand from hiln how he knows that these ultimate atomis do not possess the essential properties of matter; how he knows that the Almighty Artificer has not endowed them with diverse nature and function. The diversity of manifestation in nature strongly intimates this, and no analysis thus far "Evidence as to Ilan's Place in Nature," p. 125. 48 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. has afforded even a presumption to the contrary. Indeed. these very speculatists differ among themselves, some claiming that the ponderables only are endowed with the " attractive force," while the imponderables possess the "repeilant force;" others claim that all ultimate atoms are endowed with both forces. If we question the postulate of this materialistic philosophy, as we do with good reason, still more do we question the legitimacy of the process by which its conclusion is reached. Admit a thing which nobody doubts, namely, that God has endowed matter with the attribute of impenetrability or "repellant force," and also with a "gravitative force"-might not the process of endowment be stopped at any stage of progress pleasing to the Divine Mind? It does not follow that, because matter is endowed with "attractive force," it must therefore kindle with the social affinities of life, nor yet because it is endowed with the "repellant force" that it must declare war and fight. It does not follow because God has created innumerable atoms of matter and endowed them with certain attributes, that he must have mnade each the abode of life. Nature is very prolific in the development of life; but this modern materialistic philosophy is perfectly prodigal, and as reckless as prodigal, for it converts'"the whole material cosmos into a stupendous interacting organism." And then how it exults in rapture over its "homogeneous creation," which, rising from the lowest forms of matter, comprehends even "the highest development of mind itself," all looking back to one common origin; namely, "FoncE!" But in the midst of this paean of triumph over the demolished "'dualism" of "the old theology," we are arrested by the fact that our materialistic philosopher instead of FORCE has got FORCES into his unifyin.g system. One of these forces is attractive, the other resistive; therefore they are not only THE DOUBLE NATURE OF MAN. 49 unlike, but antagonistic. Who yokes them together and makes them draw in harmony? Do these forces rest upon their arms, declare an armistice, agree upon terms of peace, and then peacefully work together, "rising in perfect gradation from the lowest forms of matter through all the regions of organic life to the highest development of mind itself?" We confess ourselves unable to see the universe "more simple," or "more harmonious," or "more beautiful," when seen through the optics of this new philosophy. Having tasted of this new wine, we cheerfully go back to the old and believe it better. Morell seems to have drawn upon the old atomic theory of Democritus, as taught by Leibnitz, for his philosophy. According to this theory, as developed by Dr. Samuel Brown, the substratzum of material phenomena, that is, the primary atoms are merely centers of force, "mathematical points encircled with powers of repulsion and attraction;" and that, from the endless variety of combinations of repulsive and attractive forces, the whole material universe is constructed. This theory resolves soul as well as body into mere phenomena-an aggregate of mathematical points encircled with powers of attraction and repulsion. The cancellation of these "forces" would annihilate nature. "Instantantaeously," says Cronhelm, "without an audible crash, without a visible wreck, the glorious fabric of the earth and the heavens would disappear from existence." VI. ENUMERATION OF POINTS ESTABLISHED. Thus far we have gained important points. 1. We have been led to the true idea of organization. Its mysterious element is LIFE. We may not comprehend life; its hidden nature may elude all our researches; but of its being, in the plant and in the animal, we have the fullest 5 50 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. demonstration. ozow it exists or how it coheres with the material body are unsolved problems. But this mystery unknown can not weigh against the facts known. Organization is the formation of a living body. Inorganic matter is the material out of which it is built up, and LIFE is the artificer. 2. We have been led also to a just dciscriiination? between animal and vegetable life. We have found that the plant is not only destitute of the organs of sight, hearing, and the other senses; also that it is destitute of the nervous matter which constitutes the sensorial structure of animals, and, consequently, there can be no nervous sensibility in the plant. And then, still farther, that there are, in other respects, positive dissimilarities and antagonisms that widely separate the vegetable from the animal creation. We have been thus led to conclude that there is a generic difference between the life of the plant and the life of the animal. Organism, we have seen, is the product, not of matter, but of life. The character of the organism, too, is determined, not by the character of the inorganic materials out of which it is constructed, but by the specific nature of the l/fe which was the artificer. If, then, organisms, so widely different, are wrought out from the same elementary materials, the life effecting the organism must be substantially different. If we bring nitrogen into union with oxygen, the result is air, and if we bring hydrogen into union with it, the result is water.* The reaching of these different results from the same element shows that the agencies brought to bear upon it were themselves different. So when we see vegetable life on the vegetable germ, and the animal ovum working upon the same material, and yet invariably bringing forth results so widely different, the':Air is composed of 22.2 parts oxy'gen andt 77.7 nitrogen; water 88.9 parts oxygen and 11.1 nitroglen. ORGANISM AND LIFE. )I conclusion is inevitable that the life of the plant is widely different frow that of the animal. 3. The fact that a~nimal and vegetable life are so dissimilar in their character affords a reasonable presumption that the "living soul" in man differs widely from either. What animal or vegetable life may be, how closely it may be allied to material substance, or how far removed from it, it may not be necessary for us to inquire now. The point insisted upon is simply that God has created different kinds of life. The gradations, not of development or of organism, but of life, so created, rising from the vegetable to the animal, finally culminate in man, who has been endowed with a living soul. 4. This su.ggests, finally, the possible relations man may sustain to the ut7nknown atnd the infinite. To the animal is awarded a higher life, a broader range, and more extended relations to the created universe than to the plant. But still higher in the scale is man. Through his material nature he is allied to all material existences, but through his spiritual he is allied to all spiritual intelligences in the universe of God. This spiritual life within us relates us to.the infinite, and lifts us into communion with it. But for that we could no more apprehend spiritual existence or the Divine Being than the blind man can apprehend the beauties of color in nature. This spiritual nature, then, unfolds an infinitude of relations. Does it not, at the same time, give us intimations of a destiny whose breadth and duration surpass all the bounds of our present comprehension? "The chain of being is complete in me, In me is matter's last gradation lost, And the next step is. spirit-Deity i I can comlmand the lightning, and am dust! A monarch and a slave! a worm, a god!" 52 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. IIl. TIlE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. "There is a spirit in man." JOB xxxii, 8. "And man became a living soul." GEN. ii, 7. " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." MATT. x, 28. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall returr. unto God who gave it." ECCL. Xii, 17. EVERY instinct of our nature, no less than the calm exercise of reason, coincides with the Scripture declaration that "there is a spirit in man." Yet men have not been wanting, who have sought to prove that themselves and all their race are only a higher order of brutes; that, in fact, man is simply a developed acpe. They have used the spirit, the noble and godlike intellect bestowed upon them, in wicked effort to prove that no such thing as soul or spirit exists. The doctrine of this class of philosophers is, that the human soul, instead of being a substance in itself, instead of possessing an existence distinct from that of the body, is a mere result of the peculiar bodily organization. In other words, that it is a finction of matter. Their theory is, that "the bones, muscles, bloodvessels, blood, nerves, and brain, constitute a thinking and feeling machine, working on chemical and mechanical principles." Such a machine as here described, when four-footed, is a brute; when a biped, vith wings and feathers, a fowl; and when a biped, without wings and feathers, a man! Marvelous discovery! If this.s modern science, what is humr n folly? THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 53 It may be stated, as a general fact, that there are but two opinions in relation to the nature of the human soul. Between these two there are no grounds upon which to erect any other. And into one or the other of these opinions, all theories, in the last analysis, resolve themselves. The first-that which we have endeavored to establish-is that the soul is an independent spiritual existence; the other, that it is a function of matter. This latter is the essential doctrine of materialists, whatever may be the form in which they express it. I. MATERIALISTS ASSERT THAT THE SOUL IS A FUNCTION OF MATTER —THEIR STATEMENTS QUOTED. To set at rest the possible charge that we have misrepresented them, we propose to let these materialists speak for themselves: D'Holbach says, "If we are asked, what is man? we reply, that he is a material being, organized, or framed, so as to feel, to think, and to be affected in certain ways peculiar to himself, according to his organization."* M. Comte affirms, that "'all natural phenomena are the necessary results either of the laws of extension or of the laws of motion."t M. Crouse is quite clear that "intelligence is a property or effect of matter," and ventures on the very singular declaration, that "body and spirit together constitute matter."t+ So, also, the English materialists affirm that "instinct, passion, thought, are effects of organized substances." Or, still more explicitly, "Mind is the consequence or product of the material nan; it is not a thing having a seat or home in the brain, but it is the manifestation or expression of the brain in action, as heat and light are of fire, and fragrance of the flower."1 *System of Nature. t Course. T Ies Principles, pp. 84, 86. II "Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development." 54 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Even Dr. Priestley teaches that "man does not consist of two principles so essentially different from each other as mattter and spirit, but the whole man is of one nmi. form comnlosition; and that either the material or the im. material part of the universal system is superfluous."* Having adopted the principle of vmni-siubstance in the universe, he seems to have been, for a time, doubtful whether he should spirituatlize matter, and declare the one substance of the universe to be spirit; or whether he should materialize mind, and declare the one substance to be matter. But in his course toward error, he had already passed the point where "gravitation turns the other way;" and he soon sunk down into materialism. Yet, strangely enough, he still professed to believe the doctrine of man's inmuortality, and also of retribution in another life. So in the so-called spiritualism of the present day; it is thoroughly materialistic, while, at the same time, it assumes the style and title of spiAritualism. A. J. Davis says: "Nature proclaims one of her great working principles to be, that spirit is evolved' ozt of mzatter." But this refined nonsense is illuminated by one ray of true light, when it is admitted that this spirit "outlives the body in which it is eduLcated." t Less known than those quoted before, yet not less clear in the statement of this form of materialism, was Mr. Thomas Read, of New York. He says that "the manifestations of the soul, of life, of mind, of sight, thought, feeling, love, and envy, and the effects of electricity, sound, heat, and so on, are all alike the effects of physical, or, if you please, of material causes."[ Nor does he shrink fi'om the extremest consequences of this materialism: "The soul' "Disquisitions Relating to IMatter and Spirit." t- "The Principles of Nature and Her Divine Revelations." t Immateriality of the Soul, p. 4. THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 0f ori life has no independent conscious existence, apart from the organs that produce thought, feeling, and action; and, therefore, life, mind, memory, thought, reason, and consciousness are physical phenomena, and cease at death."' What balder or bolder infidelity than this was ever displayed? What of being can be left to man after the extinction of all these? And yet this man professed faith in revelation and in a future life! There is a class of men who conceal their materialism in the mystical formulas of some development theory, which stealthily but studiously excludes a first cause in the creation of man, and also the higher elements of soul from his nature. Like infidels in all ages, they assume to be, par excellenlce, the men of science, of facts, of reason, and of intelligence. Of this class are Darwin, lorell, Huxley, and their minor followers. But we have already devoted sufficient space to the examination of their respective theories. We repeat, then, that all the theories relating to the nature of mind or soul range themselves, in the final result, under two general heads. The first is that the soul is an independent spiritual existence, mysteriously connected with the human body. The other is that mind or soul is merely an organic state of matter, such as constitutes the human brain; or, in other words, that the human soul is mnerely a fioction of mcatter. Into one or the other of these two opinions all these various theories, in the final analysis, resolve themselves. Nor does the subject seem to furnish the least grounds upon which, outside of these two, any other opinions could be erected. The first has the sanction of Divine Revelation; the purest and soundest philosophy of all ages has recognized it; and it has ever formed a distinct element in the Chris*Immateriality of the Soul. 5 6 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. tian creed. We have already presented, to some extent, the facts and arguments by which it is established. We come now to consider the objections to the opposite theory; that theory which regards the human soul as a mere result of physical organization, or, in other words, as a function of matter. This summary method of robbing a man of himself we shall subject to a somewhat rigid analysis; and the more so as it seems to be specially revived in the present day. Brought forth under the guise of a new nomenclature, sustained by the most subtile sophistries. and heralded with the most pompous pretension, it has already obtained a foothold among pretentious theologians, and it seems as though it would, were it possible, "deceive the very elect." To us this theory seems not only fraught with pernicious moral effects, tending to degrade the being, character, and destiny of man, but also, in a philosophical point of view, to be unwarranted by any sound induction of facts. We shall go further, and undertake to show that it is irreconcilable with the phenomena of mental action, and also with well-attested facts in the psychological his tory of man. II. THE FUNCTION-TIIEORY FAILS TO SOLVE ANY MYSTERY IN THE IHUIAN ORGANIZATION; NOR DOES IT RE-. LIEVE ANY PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFICULTY. Our first objection to the theory that soul or spirit is merely a function of matter is, that it fails to accomplish the end proposed. It solves no mystery, and removes no difficulty. At most it only changes the ground of difficulty. The acknowledged fact for which we seek a solution-that is, the existing spiritual phenomena-is left as mysterious and inexplicable as ever. If the declaration that "there is a spirit in man" is to THE IIUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 57 be rejected because it is mysterious and above our comprehension, the assumption that these phenomena originate in,he physical condition of our bodies involves a mystery equally inexplicable, and on the same ground must also be rejected. If we can not, upon philosophical principles, explain the origin and nature of mind, still more difficult shall we find the task of explaining by what process matter may become endowed with such transcendent, such surprising power. The opinion that even organic mnatter could, by any possibility, be made to exhibit such power, can not be received without the most clear and indubitable evidence. What is there to be found in the composition of the brain and nervous system, or in their organization, that would lead us to look for the development of thought, feeling, or conscience in them? The brain has been analyzed, and more than eight-tenths of its substance has been found to be water. Indeed this, mixed up with a little albumen, a still less quantity of fat, osmazome, phosphorus, acids, salts, and sulphur constitute its material elements.* In all cases water largely predominates. Take even the pineal glandthat interior and mysterious organ of the brain, supposed by Descartes, and by many philosophers after him, to be the peculiar seat of the soul-even this has been analyzed.: One hundred parts of the brain, according to Vaugnelin, consist of water, 80; albumen, 7; acids, salts, and slsiphur, 5.15; phosphorus, 1.5; osma-zome, 1.12; white fatty matter, 4.53; and red fatty matter, 7. According to Gass and Pfaff, who separated the water into its elements: Carbon, 53.48; hydrogen, 16.89; nitrogen, 6.70; oxygen, 18.44; fixed salts, 3.36; and phosphorus, 1.08. Dr. Draper, in his Human Phlisiology, gives the following table: Infants. YouthI. Adults. Aged. Water....................................... 827.90 742.60 725.00 738.50 Albumen........................................ 70.00 102.00 94.00 86.50 Fat........................................ 34.51) 53.00 61.00:3.20 (Omnazome and salts............................... 59.6;0 85.90 101.90 121.80( lhosphorus........................................ 8.00 16.50 18.00 10.00 1000.00 18001.00[ 1010.00 1000.00 58 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Its principal elements are found to be phosphate of lime, together with a smaller proportion of carbonate of lime and phosphates of ammonia and magnesia. If the brain at large constitutes the soul, then the soul is only a peculiar combination of oxygen and hydrogen with albumnen, acids, salts, sulphur, etc. Or, if the pineal gland constitutes the soul, then the principal element of soul is phosphate of lime! If this wonderful theory is true, it may be safely conceded that we gain som0ethbi;g by it. We have at last found out what tyhe soul is. And when the wise man again inquires, "Who knoweth the spirit of man?" these sage philosophers may respond, "We! it is phosphate of lime!" But, what! has a peculiar combination of a few elemental substances; has phos~phate of li5me been the cause, the fons et origo, of all the glorious manifestations of intel.lect that have been made among men? Is it osmazome that has given origin to the creations of art? Is it oxygen that blazes out in the glowing fires of eloquence? Was it hydrogen that soared in the philosophy of Newton, and sought with all-comprehending grasp to encircle the universe of God? Was it phosphate of lime that wove the garlands of poesy, and thus touched the tender chords of human sympathy, taste, and sentiment? "To rise in science, as in bliss, Initiate in the mysteries of the skies; To read creation, read its mighty plansThe plan and execution to collate." III. THE SOUL EXERTS A CONTROLLING INFLUENCE OVER THE BODY, AND THEREFORE MUST BE SOMETHING -MORE THAN A MERE RIESULT OF BODILY ORGANIZATION. WVe have seen that this function-theory assumes that the intellectual power of man results from plhysical organization, THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 59 just as mechanical power is acquired by the skillful adaptation of machinery. It should be borne in mind that in mechanics it is the machinery which originates and modifies the force or power. The force, which is the mere result or effect produced by the machinery, can not exert the least influence over the machinery itself. There is a physical impossibility in the case. And so it must be with man, if this function-theory is true. If the mental phenomena are the mere result, or force, produced by bodily organization, those phenomena must be entirely subject to the laws which govern the physical nature. Instead of acting upon or exerting any influence over our bodies, the mind, according to the established laws of mechanics, must be acted upon-that is, it is produced, modified, controlled, and in the end will be extinguished by the successive conditions of our physical being. But, we ask, is the mind the mere slave of our bodies? Rather, does it not often force those bodies to action, even against the physical inertia which inheres in matter? nay, often against the strong instincts of our nature? Does not the mind possess a strong and controlling influence over our bodies? How then can it be a mere result or effect of bodily organization, unless we are prepared to admit the absurdity that the effect mcty control the cause? He who should claim that the movement of the hands in a clock or watch occasioned the movement of the machinery within, would do no greater violence to philosophy, nor be guilty of a more palpable absurdity. No fact is more certain or more generally acknowledged than that the soul can and does exert a controlling influence over the bodily functions. "A letter or newspaper is brought by a postman to the individual, he reads it, and the result of reading it has been that the man has dropped down dead. Why this? No physical weapon touched him. 60 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. It was purely a mnental catse that acted upon his brain, and the brain acted upon the nervous system, and the man die(l because the letter contained sonue fearful or disastrous tidings." Or, again, the sudden knowledge of some great calamity, or even of some great good fortune, has often af. fected all the senses, and even palsied the whole system. Now, here was a moral fact, addressed, first, to the intelligence, and resulting in physical effects; a thing clearly impossible on the supposition that mind is the mere result or force produced by the organization of matter. Nay, how often has the soul absolutely triumphed over all that was terrible to nerve and sense! The history of Christian martyrdom presents us instances almost innumerable, any one of which convincingly demon strates the dominion of the soul over the body. Thus we hear Lambert, while consuming by a slow fire, exclaiming, "None but Christ! none but Christ!" Thus also does Cranmer-the soul triumphing over all that was terrible in bodily suffering-steadily hold his hand in the flame, and exclaim, while it is being consumed, "This hand! this wicked hand!" So also Mrs. Cecily Ormes, who was added to the noble host of martyrs at the early age of twentytwo. Approaching the stake, already charred by the fires that had consumed two martyrs before her, she clasped it with her hands, exclaiming, "Welcome! welcome, Cross of Christ!" But a still more striking instance of the triumph of soul over the body is the case of James Bainham. When his legs and his arms were half-consumed, and his body scorched and seething in the flame, he cried out to the bystanders, "Ye look for miracles! Here, now, ye may see one. This fire is to vme a bed of roses." Before being led to the stake, Mr. Hawkes agreed with his friends upon a signal by which to express his feelings when he should be no longer capable of speech. When he was so near TIHE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 61 consumed that all thought him dead, and when his whole body was crisped with the fire, the skin of his arms drawn up, and his fingers literally consumed, suddenly seeming to recollect the appointed signal, he raised his fingerless hands above his head and clapped them three times in token of triumph. We have quoted these instances, not with reference to their religious significance, but to show the mysterious energy of the soul which makes its abode in these earthly bodies; and especially to show that its life is distinct from, and its power superior to, the material tabernacle it inhabits. IV. TIIE POWER OF THE SOUL IS OFTEN DISPROPORTIONED TO TIIAT OF THE BODY, AND THEREFORE CAN NOT BE THE RESULT OF BODILY ORGANIZATION. The theory we are combating represents the soul of man as the "final result and efflorescence of a continually-refined life of the nerves, so that reason and will are nothing but the organic life of matter, which by a refined process attains the power of thinking and willing." In what this "refined process" consists these sage philosophers have failed to tell us. But if the soul is thus dependent upon the bodily organization, it must follow that, as the body becomes enfeebled by disease, or age, the mind will suffer a corresponding debility. But this is so far from being the case, that a large number of those distinguished for intellectual power have possessed but feeble and emaciated frames. The history of all men and of all ages confirms the general statement, that the vigor and force of intellect depend in but a slight degree upon the corresponding qualities of body. The deep mysteries of science have been penetrated with long-continued and devoted toil, even while the body was 62 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. bowed beneath the pressure of infirmity and disease. The Genius of Poetry, even when consumption's pallid hues overspread the dying frame, has tuned those celestial notes and strung those heavenly lays that will never cease to touch for high and holy purpose the chords of human sympathy. Read the works of Richard Watson; trace the footsteps of his giant intellect on every page. Then tell me, would you have expected to find such a radiant, godlike intellect incased in so sickly and feeble a house of clay! Instances have occurred in which paralysis has unnerved the whole system, and yet the mnisd has remained unscathed. We will quote a single case; that of the celebrated, the witty, and the clever diplomatist, Talleyrand. His body was in the most wretched, diseased, and distressed condition one can conceive, and yet the subtilty, and the wisdom, and the skill, and the talent, and the pen etration of that diplomatist are allowed to have remained to his last moments unequaled. Notice, also, the case of the celebrated Dean Swift. It is said that before he died his body was a moving tomnb, and yet his mind was as vigorous as in his earlier years.* How often when the body is prostrated by disease and enfeebled in all its energies has the mind-instead of partaking of the body's weaknessretained all its energy and power! The function of memory has been unaffected; the perceptions have been clear and distinct; and reason has retained undoubted supremacy upon its throne. How often while the body was in the last stages of dissolution-when it possessed not a single capability entire-has the mind blazed up with unwonted luster, and put forth unaccustomed energy! The pious and eloquent Dr. Fisk, while in a dying state, exclaimed, "I now feel a strength of soul and an energy of mind which this: Bible Evidence, I)i. Cuminilg. THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 6G body, though afflicted and pained, can not impair. The soul has an energy of its owan. And so far from my body pressing my soul down to the dust, I feel as if my soul had almost power to raise the body upward and bear it away."* It was by examples such as this that Bishop Butler was led to notice that a mortal disease, which, by degrees, consumes and prostrates the body, and finally destroys it, does not necessarily affect our powers of thought and reflection. While the body is being wasted and consumed, and up to the very instant of death, we can exert those powers as fully as ever. From this the Bishop reaches the just conclusion that the soul, which was unaffected through all the process of dying, could not be supposed at the last moment and suddenly to be destroyed. The same fact must lead us, with still stronger force of conviction, to the conclusion that soul has an independent and superior existence. V. THE HUMAN BRAIN -MAY BE DISEASED AND TI-E MIND REMAIN UNAFFECTED; THEREFORE, THE LATTER IS NOT A FUNCTION OF THE FORMER. At the very outset, in this line of thought, we are met with well-attested facts, showing that the brain has actually been extensively diseased, while the intellectual capability remained unaffected. The annals of medical experience furnish such cases almost without number. Dr. Moore says of the experiments of M. Flouren, that'they prove that the brain may be destroyed, to a large extent, in any direction, without destroying any of the functions of mind." Morgagni and Haller, distinguished anatomists, claim to have ascertained, by a wide induction of facts, that every part of the brain has been found to be destroyed or disorganized, in one instance or another, while yet the indi.':TLife, by Dr. Holdich. 64 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. viduals have not been deprived of mind, or even affected in their intellectual powers. We do not mean that the whole brain has been destroyed in any one individual, intellectual life still remaining, but that a portion of the brain in one instance, and another portion of it in another instance, and so on till the aggre gate would comprehend every organic portion. As an illustration, Dr. Abercrombie mentions the case of a lady, one entire half of whose brain was reduced to a mass of sup puration by disease; and yet she retained her faculties to the last, and had been enjoying herself at a convivial party only a few hours before her sudden death. A man is also mentioned by Dr. Fezrier, who died suddenly, retaining all his faculties till the very moment of dissolution; but, upon examining his head, the whole right hemisphere of the brain was found destroyed by suppuration. Numerous examples might be brought forward from the mournful catalogue of human accidents and infirmities, but these are sufficient to show us, in the clear light of demonstration, that, though the brain and nervous system generally are the appointed organs through which the mind communicates with the material world, yet that mind possesses an existence and a power of action independent of, and superior to, its earthly habitation. There is still another absurdity in which this physical theory of mind would involve us. If the brain constitutes the mind, then when a man has lost half of his brain he has lost half of his mind. Is it objected to this that "the brain is a double organ," and that each part is possessed of full and separate power of action? If the objector admits that the brain is an organ or instrument, then he must also concede that it is an organ or instrument made for something else-that is, for the soul-to use, or he must fall back upon the position that the organ uses itself. But THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 65 does the objector assert that brain and intellect are identical, and yet that the brain is made up of two distinct parts, each fully capable of performing all the functions usually attributed to mind? then must he admit that the person who has both these parts-that is, has a wholh brain-possesses two minds! Such are some of the ab. surdities into which men fall when, refusing the revelation from God., which only can solve the problem and the mystery of human life, they attempt to carve out for themselves something more congenial to their own pride and self-complacency than the simple yet sublime- philosophy of the Bible. VI. THE CONSCIOUS INDIVIDUALITY OF SPIRIT DEMONSTRATES THAT IT IS NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. No department of our knowledge is more positive than that which is founded in individual consciousness. Indeed, take away or even invalidate the authority of consciousness, and you undermine the foundations of all knowledge. Nothing that is certain will remain. But the very idea of consciousness is that it is not a function of matter. "I appeal to the consciousness of every individual that he feels a power within him totally distinct from any function of the body. What other conception than this can he form of that power by which he recalls the past and provides for the future; by which he ranges, uncontrolled, from world to world, and from system to system; surveys the works of all-creating power, and rises to the contemplation of the eternal Cause? " To what functioll of matter shall he liken that principle by which he loves and fears, joys and sorrows; by which he is elated by hope, excited by enthusiasm, or sunk into the horrors of despair? These changes, also, he feels, in 66 IMAN ALL IMMORTAL. many instances, to be equally independent of impression: fromD without, and of the condition of his bodily frame. In the most peaceful state of every corporeal function, passion, remorse, or anguish may rage within! And, on the other hand, while the body is racked with the most frightful diseases, the mind may repose in all the tranquillity of hope."* WVe pause here to inqcuire, What do all these things teach? Evidently that "there is a spirit in man." VII. THE FAILURE OF ANY MATERIAL AND CHEMICAL COMBINATION TO PRODUCE LIFE IS FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT MIND IS NOT A FUNCTION OF IMATTER. It might be reasonably expected that if life was a mere function of matter, somewhere in the history of human observation instances of its spontaneous and original production would have occurred. Science records no such instance, and, indeed, is compelled to acknowledge its failure to produce life by any combination of merely material elements. Nay, it is compelled to go further, and, from its best lights, confess that it has found life no where without evidence of its antecedent germ. This is predicated of life even in its lowest forms. How much more certain, then, the failure of every such experiment to produce the higher manifestations of soul or spirit! The science of chemistry has succeeded in analyzing man's physical nature and ascertaining its composition. It has discovered the elements and the proportions in which each is mixed to form the various parts of the body. It can compound these elements again, but man it has not formed and can not form; nor can it, by even the most refined and delicate process, create the smallest organic existence and impart to it animal life.::Abercromlbie's Intellectual Powers. THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 67 In this direction the experiments of philosophy and all its research have been utterly fruitless. Who can snatch from the altar of the living God the Promethean fire that breathes life and animation into the inanimate clod of clay? Let foolhardy infidelity blush at its empty boasting, and cease its clamorous self-applause, till it has solved the mysterious, awful problem-" What is life?" VIII. THE STATE OP THE MIND IN DYING ALSO AFFORDS PROOF OF THE SOUL'S SUPERIOR AND INDEPENDENT BEING. We have already noticed that, often when the body is in the last stages of weakness and decay, the mind is left in full possession of its intellectual and spiritual force. This of itself is a proof of man's spiritual and immortal nature. But our attention here is directed to another point. We have carefully studied the state of the mind in dying by actual observation and intercourse with persons up almost to the last moment of earthly being, and we have uniformly found that instead of any consciousness or expectation of the soul's being actually extinguished, the expectation of its living on was as strong and as invincible as in the morning flush of life and health. The dying and decay of the body are expected events; the premonitions of physical death are calmly observed and conversed upon freely. Yet the idea that the soul is going out of existence never once seems to be entertained. Thus, in the very act of dying. the soul asserts its claim to an independent spiritual being, and snatches from the jaws of death the proofs of its immortality. Let us notice a few cases in point. The Rev. Alansor Reed, who had been wasting away with consumption several years, said to me, only a half-hour before his last breath, 68 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. "'I know full well that I am at the point of death, but the idea of the spirit being extinguished in death is utterly inconceivable. The soul is going forth, but it has no consciousness of dying; rather the consciousness of living on rises above every other feeling, and it is impossible for me to doubt." The soul seems to possess a sensation of vitality-correspondent to its nature. Thus Mr. Pope, when in a dying state, said, "I am so certain of the soul's being immortal, that I seem to feel it within me, as it were, by intuition." The celebrated Boerhaave contemplated the perceptible difference between his mind and his body, in his last illness, as being like a philosophical experiment to him, that his intellectual self would not perish with his bodily dissolution. The celebrated ITaller, as death advanced to the mastery over his bodily system, could only measure its progress by keeping his fingers upon his own pulse. "The artery, my friend," said he at length, "ceases to beat," and almost instantly expired. The Rev. Mr. Halyburton, when dying, said to a brother minister, "I think my case is a pretty fair demonstration of the immortality of the soul. My bones are rising through my skin. This body is going away to corruption, and yet my intellectuals are so lively, that I can not perceive the least alteration or decay in them." These and kindred facts are in harmony with the sublime idea that man possesses a "living soul." But they are utterly irreconcilable with the idea that the soul is a function of the material nature. An element that can thus remain unaffected by physical decay, that can triumph amid the very ruins of the material man, gives mysterious and wonderful demonstration that the roots of its being are not planted in material soil, but that it possesses a higher life THE HUMAN SOUL NOT A FUNCTION OF MATTER. 69 IX. CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS. Germain to th~ points we have made and the principles we have sought to establish, are suggestions of deep, practical import. But our discussion has already been protracted so far, that we barely glance at a few of them. 1. The soul and the body are mutually ada2ted to each other. They are mutually adapted just as the telegraphic wire and the magnetic fluid. This does not imply sameness, or even similarity in nature, but simply that they aro adapted to co-work for the accomplishment of specific ends. The telegraphic wire and the magnetic fluid co-work for the transmission of knowledge to points far remote. The soul and the body are united for the production of humanity, with all its inconceivable relations to the universe and all the varied purposes of its being. For aught we know, the Creator might have invested any other kind of being with a soul as well as man. But had the soul been connected with the material mechanism of a beast or a bird, how limited in number, and how restricted in use, would have been the organs it could have controlled! But, in the human organism, what multitudes of parts, and what diversity of limbs and organs wait to do the bidding of the soul! WVe can scarcely doubt that the human body was formed with special reference to the soul by which it was to be inhabited and controlled. 2. It is obvious, also, that nman was a special cldevice of the C(reator. He is unlike any other being upon the globe. The worlds that people the amplitude of space are no doubt the abodes of life. But their analogies are so remote to ours; their differences in structure, motions, temperature, and surrounding fluid are so great that their peopling must be by something very different from human 70 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. life. Some of the ends to be accomplished by this " special device "-the creation of man-are obvious even here, but more of those purposes shall be unfolded hereafter. 3. Man is not a dualisim. Two elements-the spiritual and the material-enter into his nature, but man is onte We never think of reckoning the air or the water as dualistic, and yet two distinct and widely-different elements enter into the composition of each. 4. The subject also suggests the dignity of the spirit and the culture demanded for it. The development of the ingenuity and the uses of domestic animals has been one of the grandest achievements of man in the progress of his civilization and the subjugation of the earth. If the culture of the animal is so connected with the earth's advancement, how much more the cultivation of man, and especially of the spirit that is in man! The cultivation and improvement of the animal is every-where beset with difficulties and hedged around with limitations! Mind presents for culture a boundless field, and one fruitful as it is boundless. " The mind Forges from knowledge an archangel's spear, And with the spirits that compel the world, Conflicts for empire." THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 71 IV. THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. "Why is light giver to a man?" JOB iii, 23. "Who by reason of use have their senses exercised." HEB. V, 14. "Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body." 1 CoaR. xii, 18. "Is not the life more than meat?" MATT. vi, 25. 1. How beings purely spiritual correspond with each other, or with the material world, we know not. Indeed, it is hardly a subject of rational inquiry. Revelation gives us little light upon it beyond the bare fact that such correspondence is not only possible but actual. As a subject of philosophical inquiry, the elements of its determination seem too recondite and inaccessible to the human mind to give any ground of hope for its immlediate solution. It is, probably, one of those mysteries the solution of which will be reached only in our future state. 2. But in animal life, and also in an 1"embodied spirit," such as we have seen man to be, there are organs of sensation through which the living being holds connection with the outside material world. These organs are fitted to re ceive impressions from without, as when the image of an external object is painted upon the retina of the eye, affecting the sensorial nerve. The nature of that object is thus perceived by the soul, which, by a mysterious intuition, goes forth, as it were, to grasp it in its intelligence. It is by this process that "we are put in relation to material thinngs as to their color, sound, odor, weight, tesistanee, 72 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. and all that we learn of time and space by contact with matter." 3. Somle transcendental philosophers would, indeed, have us believe that the only real substances are ideas, and that the imagined existing material things, and their qualities, have no reality in nature. Against this refined transcendentalism we shall not undertake to reason, but leave it to the common-sense and practical judgment of mankind. 4. We usually enumerate five senses-sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch-but Dr. Moore intimates that a little reflection will convince us that there are other modes of experiencing sensation, and adds: " There would, indeed, be no impropriety in regarding every part of our bodies as an organ of sense, since every part is endowed with a kind of feeling peculiar to itself and exactly suited to its office. Probably all sensations are but modifications of the same nervous action, and they may all be regarded as the contact of an active agent with the organ, or of something moving, or tending to move, operating on nerve." Thus light strikes upon the retina, the vibrations of air strike upon the tympanum, the odor-laden air comes in contact with the olfactory nerves, the juices spread over the palate, and thus an effect is produced upon the nerves just as much as when a solid comes in contact with the sense of touch. Between the sensuous system and the soul there is so intimate a connection; our thoughts, and feelings, and stimulus to action seem so dependent ujlon it, that many have been led to question whether there is or can be any existence of the human spirit independent of it. We have already seen that soul is not a function of matter. This might cover the present question, a-; the whole sensuous system, which has its center in the brain, is only a part of the bodily organism, and is, therefore, nothing more THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 73 than a material structure. But our survey of the ground will be incomplete till we have made a more direct examination of the relations of the soul to the senses, in order to demonstrate its existence independent of them. The positioni we propose to maintain in this discussion is that THE BODILY SENSES, WHETHER IN MAN OR IN THE ANIMAL, ARE MERELY ORGANIC INSTRUMENTS, AND, THEREFORE, ARE NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH EITHER ANIMIAL LIFE OR THE INTELLIGENT SOUL. Among the reasons which go to establish this position may be named the following: I. It is evident that the organs of sense are mere instruments of the soul, because the soul has power over them to direct them, and also has power to make a choice among them. The living organism, as we have already seen, is a sort of vehiculum of the soul-the bond of connection and the medium of commliunication between the soul and the material world. This organ, therefore, has a twofold function-one relating to the material world, and developing itself in action; the other relating to the soul, and developing itself in sensation. In both these respects it acts in obedience to the impulse given by the mind. The connection is intimate; the velocity of spiritual action inconceivable. "We will to move a foot," says the author of Man and His Motives, "and it obeys us in the 1-200,000,000th of a second." This may as well be expressed by the algebraic formula x-o. It may be safely inferred that impressions upon the senses are received and noted by the mind with equal rapidity. The power of the mind over the action of the limbs is 7 74 IMAN ALL IMMORTAL. illustrated in every voluntary movement of the body. I will to raise the left foot instead of the right, or the arnm instead of the foot, and instant action of the member takes place in obedience to the mandate. An obstruction is to be cleared from my path. I elect which shall do it, the hand or the foot, and the member receiving the command executes the commission. Some functions, it is true, can be executed only by the hand; others only by the foot; still others only by the teeth, and so on; but above we have reference to cases where the instruments are interchangeable. Something akin to this is observed in sensation. In many cases the mind may select from among the organs of sense which it will employ to test the external objects. Some things, like the colors, can be tested only by sight; others, like sound, only by the ear, and so on. But there are objects, like a piece of butcher's meat, or a fish, or a quantity of sugar, or a hogshead of tobacco, in the testing of which more than one of the senses may be employed. In such a case the mind elects which sense, whether the sight, the taste, the touch, or the smell; and, indeed, it may employ the whole of them. Here is a distinct election, made by the soul, among the senses, showing them to be merely the instruments used by the mind for the accomplishment of its purposes. In all this the mind handles the organ of sense just as the optician handles his optical instrument, or as the experimenter in acoustics handles his acoustic tubes. II. That the organs of sense are mere inzstruments is further proved from the fact that attention to the inpression made utpon, the organ, is necessary to sensation. Sensation is something more than an impression made upon the bodily organ; it implies also a change in the state of that which is conscious in the body-the soul. Without THE HUMAI N SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 75 this there is really no sensation. "We are accustomed to say the eye sees, the ear hears, the finger feels, and so forth; but such language is used only in accommodation to our ignorance, or from the force of habit. It is incorrect. [The eye itself no more sees than the telescope which we hold before it to assist our vision; the ear hears not any more than the trumpet of tin which the deaf man directs toward the speaker to convey the sound of his voice; and so with regard to all the organs of sense. They are but instruments which become the media of intelligence to the absolute mind, which uses them whenever it is inclined or obliged to do so."* The eye is a most perfect optical instrument, combining, by a most exquisite apparatus, those distinct qualities of the camera-obscura and the telescope. The ear is a most perfect acoustic instrument. Human skill has never been able to equal the divine model. So each organ of sense is an instrument, special in its structure and in its purpose-the whole together bearing glorious attestation to the wonderful skill and wisdom of the Creator. The working of this machinery is so complete, noiseless, and yet with such inconceivable velocity, that we can hardly wonder it seems self-moved. The organs of sense and of action are so instantaneously respondent to the slightest intimation of the will that the very consciousness of willing is almost lost sight of. And yet the simple fact is apparent that the soul may become so profoundly absorbed in some mighty thought, or in the solution of some intellectual problem, that, though the chords of every sense should be swept by the corresponding elements in nature- from without, no sensation would occur within. The mind is dead to any impression upon the organ. What higher demonstration can be *Soul and Body, by Dr. Moore, p. 25. 76 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. demanded, that the bodily senses are mere organic instruments of the soul? III. The mind not only interprets the impression made qtpon the organs of sense, but has the power of comparing sensations and thus perfecting its knowledge of external things. The nerves are the media of communication between the organs of sense and the brain. The impressions made upon the former by an external object, they take up and convey to the latter. Here, so far as science has explored, the physical process ends. The instrument has performed its appointed function. How the mind takes up the process so as to carry the impression forward into the intelligence, is an unsolved mystery. Human reason may never, in this state, be able to solve it. But this fact we do know, that where the physical process ceases, the intellectual begins. The connection is complete. Though the links that bind it are unseen, the physical and the intellectual stand before us in manifest union. Now, it is evident that these four things are necessary in order to sensation, namely-the presence of an external object having a position and nature adapted to affect the sense, an impression upon the organ, the conveyance of that impression to the brain by the nerves, and the apprehension of that impression by the soul. This process may be interrupted in any of its successive stages, and thus fail to produce the sensation. First, through some obstruction or defect, the sensorial organ may fail to receive its appropriate impression. If the retina of the eye, for instance, is inflamed, the picture, as in a poor looking-glass, will be defective. This defective impression will be conveyed to the brain, and the corresponding sensation will also partake of the defect. Agai.n, if the optic nerve is diseased, it will, like a defective telegraph wire, fail to transmit its message. In the electrical tele THE IIUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 77 graph, the battery may be good, the appropriate shock may be made, and the careful observer at the other end may watch and wait; but all in vain. The message is lost on the way. It is diverted because the wire is not properly insulated; or it is obstructed in consequence of the wire being broken or an imperfect conductor. In like manner in the use of the senses. Unless the nerve is in a healthy condition it fails to transmit the impression to the brain. Though the impression, clear and distinct, is made upon the receiving organ of sense, and though the soul watches and waits at the ether end of this wonderful magnetic line, yet no message comes to it. Then, finally, the organ of sense may receive its appropriate impression, the connecting nerve may take it up and carry it to the brain. But unless the mind gives attention to it there, no sensation results. This is evident from the instances every day occurring, in which, though the senses are known to be unimpaired, the nervous system soundall its functions complete-and also all the external causes of sensation existing; and yet no sensation occurs, for the reason that the mind is abstracted in some deep and absorbing reverie, or by some difficult and perplexing qcuestion. As a familiar example, an individual absorbed in some difficult mathematical problem or in an interesting book, may be spoken to two or three times before his attention is arrested. The vibrations of air struck upon the tympanum as usual, and the acoustic nerve bore the impression to the brain; but the operator there was inattentive, and the message was lost. The relation of the senses to the mind as instruments for the conveyance of impressions, and the relation of the mind to the senses as the interpreter of those impressions, becomes still further apparent when we observe the mind 78 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. comparing the impressions received from the different senses, in order to the perfecting of the knowledge acquired through those sensations. A vase stands upon the mantle, containing what appears to be an exquisite bouquet of flowers. That is the intimation of the sense of sight. But I approach, subject them to the test of the sense of smell, and find they have no flavor. I try the sense of touch upon them, and find they are stiff and the surface hard and cold. The mind sits in judgment upon these three classes of sensation, and thus ascertains that this is not a bouquet of real flowers, but a delicate representation of them. Along side of this is what appears to the eye a basket of fruit. Such is the sensation produced by sight. But when I subject it to the touch, it is cold and hard; when I take it into the mouth, it is without taste. Then I discover it is not fruit, but a wax representation, yet so delicate as to deceive the eye. It will be perceived that, in both these cases, the mind made a comparison between the sensations produced by the different senses, and that its knowledge of the external object was. the result of that comparison. Without this internal interpreter of our sensations —this arbiter among therm —the senses would be constantly leading us astray. We should be their perpetual dupes. But wisely has the Creator of all ordained the function of this central life of our being. "Try the spirits," is an aphorism of Revelation; "try the sensations," is a correspondent aphorism of science. This idea of the mind's arbitration among the sensations produced within is more difficult of comprehension, from a conmmon error in regard to the process of perception. Perception constantly carries us without ourselves, and we conOtantly recognize the objects as being without. And thus we form an idea of the mind-not as inclosed within its THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 79 small and dark chamber, the vehiculam of its present being-and there observing the impressions made by a purelyphysical process upon the organs of sense-just as the artist examines the image made in the canmera-obscura; but as going forth to the object itself. We are thus, by a very common and almost universal misapprehension, led to mistake the point at which the physical terminates and the spiritual begins, in the process of conception. When this point is clearly apprehended, we are able to grasp more Fully the function of mind in its relation to sense, and the wisdom, fitness, and beauty of our wonderful organization dawns upon us in a light never seen before. IV. That the senses are msere insi-rlltments of the soul is further proved fromn the fact tzhat the loss of one of the organs of sense-though it nmag embarrass the operations of the intellect, does not imnpair either its vital'ity or power. The idea we wish to elaborate here may be, perhaps, more forcibly presented by an illustration. A carpenter plying his trade, finds one of the tools-his plane or his saw-missing from his chest; he may devise various substitutes, but fails in the perfection of his work and also in the facility of its execution. The failure is not owing to any lack of strength or skill on the part of the mechanic, but to the lack of the right tools with which to work. If a single string in a violin is broken, or can not be keyed up into harmony with the others, the most skillful player will fail to produce the varied harmonies of which the instrument is capable. The general skill of the violinist is not diminished. The defect is in the violin. In like manner, in the loss of one or more of the senses, the action of the soul in its relation to the external world is disturbed, but its native powers remain unimpaired. The loss of the sense of hearing is a serious embarrassment. It interrupts the intercourse of life; shuts out the 80 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. glorious harmonies of nature. The soul fails of many ideas and of many enjoyments it would otherwise have possessed. But its general powers are not impaired. The tools. it might otherwise have worked with, are lessened in number; but the power of memory, of thought, of reason, and even the ability to interpret such impressions as continue to be made upon the senses, are unimpaired. Nay, they are often quickened; without hearing a syllable, the keen eye of the deaf person will often interpret what is said by closely observing the movement of the lips of the speaker. There is another fact bearing upon this point that must not escape our observation. It is universally noticed that where one or more of the senses fails, the others become more acute, and thus in a measure make up for the loss The sight is destroyed, and as an effect, or rather by an effort of nature to repair the damage, the sense of touch be comes exceedingly acute. In some blind persons this sense has become so acute that they could determine the denomination of a silver coin by slipping it through their fingers, even when it was so worn that the keenest eye could not determine the characters upon it. So, also, blind persons often determine their approach to any solid body by the pressure of the atmosphere-a pressure so slight as to be inappreciable to one having full possession of all his senses. Of the former case we may cite, as an example, the celebrated blind mathematical professor, Dr. Saunderson, of Cambridge University, in England, and also the pupils in our blind asylums generally. In the books printed for their use, the letters are slightly raised, and so delicate becomes the sense of touch, that the letters and words are ascertained by passing the fingers over them. Of the latter, John Metcalf, the celebrated blind road-surveyor over the Derbyshire peaks, may be cited. Some philosophers have even gone so far as to predict, that by new methods T1IE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 81 of culture yet to be devised, persons deprived of both sight and hearing, "would so increase the sensibility of touch as to locate the seat of the soul in the tips of the fingers." Now we come to the point of inquiry, By what process is this increased acuteness of the sense obtained? and where shall the improvement be located? Evidently not in the finger-tips. They are no more delicate than before; perhaps not as delicate. The very excessive use of them tends to render them callous. Nor will any one contend that it is in any increased facility in the nerve for. the transmission of the impression to the brain, nor yet in the brain for receiving. It is all resolved, then, into increased attention to, and closer scrutiny of, the impressions made upon the organs of sense. This is the work of the intelligent principle within. So far, then, from being impaired by the loss of one of the organs of sense, it seems to have nerved itself to repair the damage, so far as it could lie within the function of the intellect to do so. Here we find illustration of not only the great principle of nature's compensation, but of the wonderful harmony of that divine structure, designed to mirror forth God in the created universe. V. Concluding remarks. The line of discussion we have employed, and the conclusions we have reached, are fruitful in suggestions, having an important bearing upon the nature and destination of man. 1. This foregoing argument applies to animal ilfe and sensation as well as to human. The animal is something more than a mere physical organism. If it does not embody "a living soul," yet it does embody animal life. What the interior nature of that animal life may be is as little known to us as the interior nature of the living soul. But it is something that is so near akin to intelligence that 82 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. it can observe and interpret the impressions made upon the organs of sense. The hound that scents the game is not doubtful as to the import of the impressions made upon his organ of smell; the eagle that, from his aerial hight, sights his prey in the deep below, darts down upon it with lightning velocity, just as the hunter levels his gun at the game seen in the distance. Is there not a similitude between them in the manner in which they interpret the impression made by the object upon the organ of sight? This is a highly-suggestive fact. We have already seen that there are radical differences which separate the animal mind from the living soul; that these differences are radical, precluding utterly the confounding of the one with the other. The facts just noticed, however, suggest similitudes as well as differences. They suggest, also-as Mr. Wesley and others have believed-the possibility of a future life for the animal; so that the expectation of the poor Indian"Who thinks, admitted to yon equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company"may possibly be within the scope of creation's grand design. Such a purpose, if it exists, does not disturb the spiritual realm of man's empire; does not lessen the dignity of his character nor the grandeur of his destiny; but it does give us broader views of the plans and purposes of the great Creator. 2. The views here developed suggest an explanation of the phenonmena of disordered sensations. We have already seen that our perceptions comprise two distinct elements-the sensible sign, and the observing of that sign by the mind. The mind has no higher function in the process than that of observing, or, perhaps, we might say, receiving, the impressions made upon the senses, and interpreting them. In order that this may be done correctly, there must be not THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 83 only a perfect correspondence between the soul and the body, but also a sound state of the nervous system. "The nerves being disordered, false impressions are received. Experience may correct them, but it often happens that she is incompetent, or that the defect is congenital. Then the mind manifests itself in a defective manner. The relation between the senses and the soul, the link that connects them, is broken, and the thinking principle continues to act according to the power of the machinery with which it is associated, and according to its innate energy of consciousness." But its action is distorted by the erroneous conveyances of the organs of sense. To those of sound nerves, looking on, the man appears insane. His mind grasps the most incongruous assemblage of old sensations revived, and of new ones distorted by the disordered state of the nerves: hence his wild imaginings, his incoherent expressions, his absurd actions, and even his maniac ravings. All this may occur from diseases purely nervous and physical. Let the nlost skillful pianist that ever touched an instrument run his fingers over the keys. No music is produced, but strange, discordant notes break upon the air, splitting the ear and torturing the soul! Why these discordant, unmeaning, and grating, if not ludicrous sounds? The mind of the musician has not lost its knowledge, nor his fingers their skill; but the instrument is out of tune, and all the musicians in the world could not extort music from the crazy, rattling machinery. So, often, the wildest madness results from some derangement of the bodily system-a nervous disease, a fracture of the skull, or a derangement of the fluids in the system. Cure the physical disease, restore the fractured skull to its position, and thus put the instrument in order again, and the apparent mental disorder at once ceases. Even in those cases where the insanity has been induced by moral or mental causes, 84 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. insanity has never ensued till the mental or moral excitement has deranged the nervous system, from overpressure or too constant exercise of it. There is evidence, also, that the severest cases of idiocy result from disease in the nervous system, and not in the mind. The organs of sense have lost their sensitiveness, the telegraphic wires their conducting power. Hence, as Dr. Moore says, the soulless countenance, the rude mixture of instinct and passions, the unmeaning mirth, the transient fear, the gusty violence, and, he might have added, the stolid inertness of action. "~ This confusion of faculties and feelings has sometimes been reduced to order even in hereditary idiotism. Light has touched the chaos into beauty; a slight interference has awakened the apparentlytorpid soul; an accident has removed the obstruction between the intellect and the world; a fracture of the skull, a fit of frenzy, a fever has cured the disease, and the idiot has suddenly become an observant and reasoning man."* From all these facts it becomes evident that the indwelling soul is ever ready to act when brought into connection with a properly-organized and healthy nervous system, and the presumption follows that the soul is never insane or idiotic. The physical causes affecting our mental action are numerous. The luxurious thoughts and feelings of the opium. eater when under the influence of his drug, the uncomfortable feeling and feverish disposition of one whose luxurious living has mingled in his blood a superabundance of lithic acid, the phantasms of delirium occasioned by the ferment of the virus of small-pox in the blood of the system, the frightful dreams begotten by local disease or pain, the muddled intellect produced by too great indulgence of the appetite, and that terrible poison developing itself in *Soul and Body. TIHE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 85 hydrophobia, are so many instances in which the action of mind is reached and disturbed by the derangement of our nervous system from physical causes. 3. The inflzuence of mind upon the body rmust be noted int this connection. Ours is evidently a reactive system. The soul has a power over the body and all its organs, as well as the body over the soul. " It is," says M'Cormac,'" a matter of common observation, that excitement will cause the heart to throb and the blood to rush to the face. Many sensations are awakened or rendered intense by directing the attention to them; thus, painful or pleasing emotions, and thrills of horror or delight, dart over the frame, and shocks arise, which occasion instant death. Paralysis, and gray hair, and temporary suspension of the faculties, have been similarly produced; the terms,'transfixed with terror,''rooted to the spot with surprise,' are expressive of such occurrences. Individuals, actuated by strong motives and fixity of purpose, go through exertions to which, under other circumstances, they would be wholly unequal. The soldier will make efforts in the hour of victory of which he would be incapable in the languor of defeat. Maniacs, and those in the delirium of disease, often overpower the most robust, and persons whose strength is apparently exhausted become comparatively vigorous after the receipt of pleasant intelligence. Sportsmen and men of science afford instances of people so pre occupied as to be almost insensible to fatigue. The watching and the toil of which a devoted woman is capable, by the couch of sickness, have been the theme of eulogy in every age. Depression renders disease fatal that might have been otherwise, while recoveries ensue in desperate cases in which the patient has displayed unshaken fortitude."* Each of these points might be illustrated by tile Phlilosophy of Human Nature, p. 97. 86 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. citation of examples, but to most of our readers such ex amples will recur without citation. 4. This sulbject also suggests that, as the bodily senses are rmere instr.uztents to be used by the mind for the time being, death may work but little change in the sotul itse~f. This thought is so beautifully elaborated by Professor Bush that we adopt his expression of it: " If then," he says, " it be conceded that the bodily senses are the mere organical functionaries of an intelligent percipient power within, we say the conclusion bears down upon us, with commanding urgency, that what man is substantially here that he is substantially hereafter. Must it not be so? Look at the phenomena of death. There is the eye in its perfect integrity, but it does not see; there is the ear in all the completeness of its mechanism, but it does not hear; there is the wondrous apparatus of nerves spread over the whole surface of the body, but it has no feeling. The seeing, hearing, feeling power, or persoln,, has gone. The house remains, but the occupant has departed. Yet consider what powers, what faculties, what thoughts, what memories, what affections were comprised within the limits of that existence which had just before animated this living, moving, acting mass! Has that perished? Was it not the true man-the actual person, in all his distinguishing attributes-which has now passed out of sight? That which is left behind, though it was all that was visible to the senses, was the mere temporary envelope of the indwelling spirit, and we never call it the man. It is now the corpse, and we speak of it not as he, but it. We lay it out, we deposit it in the grave, and we say it sees corruption. But the man-with all his distinctive attributes, his varied powers of thought, affection, and will, his true personality and character-survives this dislodgment from its earthly house, and goes, in all his integrity, into another sphere of being, where he lives, sub THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SENSES. 87 ject to the same moral and intellectual laws that governed his existence here. The scl t is the mcaan."* 5. FinalCly, this subject affords intimations of the poter the Foul shall possess hereafter. Here the senses may restrict as well as aid the action of the mind. They are constituted, in their present organisms, for this world alone, and hence are "of the earth, earthy." Designed to be vehicles of the soul's action, they may also be clogs and incumbrances. Who has not been conscious of intellectual power restricted because of weak and wearied organs of sense? The eyelid droops and the ear becomes dull of hearing. They demand rest, and no mere requirement of intellect can push thein further. Who has not been conscious of heaviness of spirit from mere physical exhaustion? "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." So in the utmost exhaustion of body, the soul will often retain the full consciousness of its strength. The burden that bears it down is material. It is not the skill nor the power of the worker that has failed, but the keenness and the fitness of the tools with which he works. The consciousness of power remains. And the very struggles of the soul amid this bodily disorder indicate that the germ of immortality is there. Nay, more; they indicate that that germ shall yet burst forth from the mortal casements tha* incase it, and unfold itself in a world where its powers shall have ample scope and full development forever. Life makes the soul dependent on the dust; Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres. Through chinks-styled organs-dim life peeps at light; Death bursts the involving cloud, and all is day; All eSe, all ear, the disembodied power." *The Soul, by George Bush, p. 111. 88 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. V. THE HUMAN SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM ANIMAL INSTINCT. "There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." JOB xxxii, 8. "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" EccL. iii, 21. WE have demonstrated that, in addition to a bodily organization including animal life, man is endowed with an intelligent soul. This is his distinguishing peculiarity-that which gives him preeminence in the animal creation; that which assures him of immortality. This distinction is real and not incidental. It implies a radical difference of elements, which are not therefore interchangeable. Nor can one grow up into the other. Whatever similarity there may seem to be between some of the manifestations of instinct in the brute creation, and some of the manifestations of mind or soul in the human race, still there is an immeasurable and impassable gulf between an intelligent soul and the apparent semi-intellect of the animal instinct. The spiritual principle in man is more divine in its nature, as it is more glorious in its origin. It was given by the "inspiration of the Almighty." Thus our spiritual nature is peculiarly allied to God-a " Dim miniature of greatness absolute." Thus allied to God, and made capable of communing with HIiu; thus endued and made capable of unlimited improvement in all that can elevate and ennoble it; and with a SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM INSTINCT. 89 sphere spread out before and around it-adapted to call out and expand its energies, the progress of intellect, the variety of its discoveries, the richness of its acquisitions, and the grandeur of its aspirations-all claim for it an immeasurable superiority over the animal mind. I. THE LINES OF DEMTARKATION STATED. The line of demarkation between the intelligent soul and the animal instinct is clearly drawn by Sharon Turner. Ile says that "independently of all metaphysical discrimination, the literature, the history, the arts, the mechanisms, and the manufactures of mankind-all that ennobles, enriches, and delights a cultivated nation, show at once, with an irresistible certainty, the immense superiority of the human soul. It has discovered and acquired the sciences, composed the works, displayed the feelings, performed the actions, and created the buildings, ships, the paintings, the statues, the music, and all the other wonders of civilized society. "These are sufficient facts to separate the human spirit from the animal mind. That never improves-that, in no age or country, has effected any progression. Though it sees, hears, and feels as we do, and thinks and reasons, wills and judges, on its perceptions, so far as its appetites are concerned, much as we do on ours; yet there is its limit. Beyond that small, though useful circle, it never advances. In our appetites, and in the mental agency which they stimulate and inspire, we have a kindredship and a similitude, but no further. When our moral principles begin, when our improvabilities develop, when we rise beyond our animal wants and desires, when we study nature, when we cultivate literature, when we seek after knowledge, when the reason and the sympathies ascend to 8 90 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. their Creator, we distinguish our spirit from the anima: mind forever. To none of these things can that attain. It is incapable either of receiving or comprehending them; and these ennobling powers, and their phenomena, express and illustrate the amazing difference that parts us from our fellow-brutes more impressively than any verbal definitions or descriptive particularity. Their faculties, instincts, and powers are admirable for their class of being, and enlarge our notions of the benevolence, as well as the almightiness, of our common Maker. But they bear no comparison with the transcending capacity, qualities, and achievements of their human masters. The soul of man, indeed, exhibits a greatness, a strength, a penetration, an expansibility, and a creative power, which urge us to inquire if any order of being, except the Divine Source of all that exists, is superior to what the human spirit now is in its essential nature, and will become in its most perfect state." * II. INSTINCT PRECEDES BOTH EXPERIENCE AND REASONING. This is one of the peculiar characteristics of instinct. Take the desire of food. We experience an uneasy sensation which we call hunger, and to remove this seek food. This is common to the infant just born and to the man fully grown. The latter, by the aid of reason, may vary his diet, and to some extent regulate his appetite. The former has neither experience, nor is it capable of receiving instruction; yet, when applied to its mother's breast, all the muscles necessary to obtain food by suction are at once brought into play. No amount of instruction or intelligence could improve upon the process; and yet that process is one of no little difficulty, involving a very complicated use of the muscles of the mouth and throat. Who taught *Sacred History of the World, I, p. 411. SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM INSTINCT. 91 the infant that process? Who informed it that the uneasy sensation of hunger would be thus appeased? How did it learn that food was necessary to support life? This peculiarity of instinct is the same in the brute as in the human. The new-born calf needs no instruction to enable him to balance himself on four legs, and to seek the food supplied 1b- his mother. It is said that when a sow is delivered of a litter, each pig as it is born runs at once to take possession of one of his mother's nipples, which he considers as his peculiar property ever afterward.?- A brood of ducklings hatched by a hen, as soon as their muscular powers are sufficiently developed, will break away firom the hen that acts as mother to them, plunge into the water, and then, without example or instruction, commence swimming about. Who taught them what classes of muscles to use, and how they were to be used in this process? The turtle deposits its eggs in a hole in the sand, where they are hatched by the warmth of the sun. No sooner is the young one hatched than it crawls up through the thin covering of sand spread over it by its mother, and makes in a straight line for the sea,t no matter whether in sight or not. Every obstacle is surmounted. The shore once reached, the young turtle dashes into the new element, and disports itself in the waves as though a veteran. There seems to be a double object in this great haste-escape from the birds of prey that haunt the coast, and an innate desire for its native element. Who taught it the peril of remaining upon land? Who instructed the young turtle in its adaptations to the watery element, and how to use its powers then? Its mother left it to its fate while yet a new-laid egg. Nor had it ever seen one of its tribe to be instructed by it, or to take example from it. *Mind and Matter, by Benjamin Brodie, Bart., D. C. L., p. 198. t Buffon's Nat. Hist., IV, p. 218. 92 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. On the bank of a river in Ceylon, Dr. Davy found a young alligator just escaping from its egg, and placed his cane before it to prevent its progress toward the water. The young animal at once assumed an attitude of defense, and bit the stick, manifesting all the wrath and venom of its kind.* In the selection of their food there is the same definiteness of action, antecedent to experience and clearly without instruction. Each graminivorous animal makes the selection adapted to its peculiar organization; does it without hesitation; and all the individuals of a species, without concert of agreement and, as it is known to be in many cases, without knowledge of each other's action, selects precisely the same kinds of vegetables. So definite is this, that Linnreus undertakes to give the precise number selected and rejected by the different animal species. He says the cow eats 276 plants, and rejects 218; the goat eats 449, and rejects 126; the sheep eats 387, and rejects 141; the horse likes 262, and avoids 212. We will not vouch for the entire accuracy of this. But something like it is undoubtedly true. And yet it is done without the study of botany, without an analysis of the properties of plants, and also in many cases it is known to be without experience and without observation of the plants eaten by other individuals of the species. The theory adopted by Mr. Darwin and others, that actions, called instinctive, may be traced to experience acquired by various trials and testings, becomes absolutely untenable in the light of these facts. There are indeed facts of this kind, almost without number, that can be explained only on the supposition that "certain feelings exist which lead to the voluntary exercise of certain muscles, and to the performance of certain acts, without any reference at the time to the ultimate object for which these acts n: Brodie's Mind and Matter, p. 219. SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM INSTINCT. 93 are required."* This is the true function of instinct as distinguished from. intellect. We would not underrate the value of instinct, nor lessen its achievements. This is not necessary to the end we have in view. Our point is that, so far as the animal is concerned, it acts antecedent to experience and without reasoning. It lacks that essential quality of the human soul which improves its knowledge from experience, and then makes that knowledge the pathway of its reason as it ascends to higher and broader conclusions. The more curious and complicated the processes of instinct, the higher the capabilities it evolves and the more complex the results it secures —while yet it acts antecedently to experience and without reasoning-the more wonderful is the display of the wisdom and skill of the Great Architect by whom its nature has been determined and its functions appointed. III. INSTINCT IS NOT INCIPIENT REASON. Animal instinct, upon a superficial view, seems to be a sort of incipient reason, and one is often led to wonder whether, in a new state, and under a different order of things, it will- not be developed into an intelligent soul. The idea that prevailed extensively among the ancients that the soul of man existed in the body of some animal, before it entered into its human body and began its permanent life, unquestionably had its origin in this feeling. In this discussion we are to take the animal instinct as it now appears, and to consider its relationship to mind as illustrated by the manifestations of each. Instinct never increases its stock of knowledge, and never improves upon its processes. The beaver builds a no more perfect dam, *Brodie's Mlind and Mlatter, p. 199. 94 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. nor the bee any more perfect cell, than was constructed by the earliest generations of the same. Instinct will not depart from its usual course even to save from destruction. It therefore often, if not always, acts with a blind disregard of actual results. These obvious and acknowledged facts also distinguish it from the reasoning soul. Water will obey its natural laws, though it deluge a country; so will fire, though it consume a city. There is an unthinking adherence to natural tendency-an inability, in fact, to depart from it, whatever may be the consequences. So it is with the animal instinct; and, in this respect, it seems more nearly allied to the properties of matter than to the faculties of soul. There are, indeed, some things in the history of animal instinct that suggest intelligence and reason. On the part of birds, the building of nests, in which to deposit their eggs; the contrivance to preserve the warmth of the eggs, in order to hatching, as seen in the brooding of the bird over them, and, also, as is affirmed, in changing them alternately from the outer circle to the center, and vice versa, to equalize the proportion of' heat to each. In the efforts to protect their young, as when the quail feigns a broken wing, fluttering and bouncing about almost at one's feet, and yet ever out of one's reach, and all the while drawing him away from the place of her young. Birdsnests display striking and varied indications of contrivance, much resembling the reasoning intellect. The oriole forms its nest of long, flexible grass, which is knit or sewed through and through in a thousand directions, as if done by a needle.* It was this that made a lady, while looking at the curious workmanship, inquire whether the oriole could not be taught to darn stockings.t The salmon journeys a thousand miles to deposit its *Jameson's Note to Wilson, I, 215. t Wilson's Ornlthology, I, 189. SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM INSTINCT. 95 spawn, surmounts the greatest obstacles, nor stops till it finds a place and conditions suited to its purpose; and then not unfrequently returns to the same place year after year. But the young fish, when hatched, go out uninstructed, following the parent into unknown seas. The nautilus spreads its sail and glides before the wind; the gymnotus, by an electrical discharge, stupefies and then catches its victim. Some species of the quadruped genus have ever been marked for their intelligence, affection, and other qualities, that ally them to the human mind. The providence which the squirrel, the beaver, and the alpine have, in laying up their stores of food for Winter, shows them to be possessed of a quality in which many of our own race-the lower classes of the Irish, for example-are sadly deficient. The intelligence, docility, and usefulness of the horse and the dog have long been the theme of eulogy. In fact, surveying the whole ground, we can hardly wonder at the enthusiasm with which a modern writer, quoted by Mr. Brodie, kindles up: "There is," says he, "hardly a mechanical pursuit in which insects do not excel. They are excellent weavers, house-builders, architects; they make diving-bells, bore galleries, raise vaults, construct bridges; they line their houses with tapestry, clean them, ventilate them, and close them with admirably-fitted swingdoors; they build and store warehouses, construct traps in the greatest variety, hunt skillfully, rob and plunder; they poison, saber, and strangle their enemies; they have social laws, a common language, division of labor, and gradations of rank; they maintain armies, go to war, send out scouts, appoint sentinels, carry off prisoners, keep slaves, and tend domestic animals. In short, they are a miniature copy of man rather than of the inferior vertebrate." This description is highly wrought, but not so highly but what its substantial basis, in fact, will be readily recognized. 96 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. But what is the solution of all this? How do we knowI that here is not incompetent reason? Because, first, it act-it upon a different principle from reason, as we have already seen. Nor are any of these acts more wonderful than other results of instinct, which, as we shall soon see, must, fiom the very nature of things, have been performed without forethought and without any previous knowledge. And, indeed, this may obviously be predicated of some of the very acts mentioned. And then, also, whatever this may be, it is unlike reason in the fact that, through all the ages, it has really made not one step of progress; nor has it shown the least additional degree of assimilation to the human intellect. The nightingale sings the same notes now, and with the same melodious cadence it did from the earliest history of the world. Not a new note, not an additional quaver, not the least additional sweetness in cadence has ever been attained in any land or under any circumstances, during the past six thousand years. So of all the song-birds. They warble now just as they ever have done since the first record made concerning them. "The eagle is as incapable of advancement as the sparrow. The common fowl, which is found in all regions and climates of the globe, is in each one exactly alike in its functions, faculties, and habits."' So it is with all the unreasoning animal creation. Their history is the same; they themselves are the same in all ages; not a faculty added, not a faculty improved. All the manifestations of animal ingenuity and skill, instead of being incipient reason, appear more like finished instinct. "They utterly lack the universality, the diversifying capacity, and the self-adapting capability of the human intellect. The bee, with all its wondrous skill, can never be taught to manufacture the coarse paper, nor to construct the rude nest of the wasp:'Turner's Sacred History, I, 269. SOUL DISTINGUISIIED FROM INSTINCT. 97 aud the hornet; the oriole, with all its cui'ious workmanship, could not, by any possibility, be taught to manufacture the ruder structure of the wren or swallow. And so on through all grades of instinct, and in all the stages of its development, it moves in one definite, determinate line of operation. It is incapable of any other. You may as well attempt to shoot the electrical current along wires of glass as to turn instinct out of its appointed channel; and along that it works with wondrous skill, but with a tenacity which seenms either incapable of change or blind to results, however disastrous they may be. From the mass of atoms scattered upon the table the magnet will select the iron filings alone. It picks them out with a facility and an exactness surprising to the beholder. If material agencies, possessing neither intellect nor instinct, can effect results so intricate and wonderful, can we wonder at the skill of instinct even when acting with a blind disregard of results, but impelled along in the line of its function by some blind, unreasoning impulse? Then, again, was it any more difficult for God to inspire the higher order of instinct-that which seems almost to border upon the realm of the spiritual-than to implant the more common? In fine, was it more difficult for him to implant these acute instincts than it was to originate the peculiar functions of electricity, or to ordain the peculiar processes of vegetable life? It is all the contrivance of the same master Mind-all the work of the same skillful Hand. But the question of the possible improvability of animal instinct here presents itself. Under certain conditions, anal within certain limits, improvement by training seems possible. Many singing birds may be taught a few notes sung by others. The starling and the blackbird learn to whistle a tune; the goldfinch will acquire the song of the canary or the woodlark. A greenfinch may learn to ring bells 9 98 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. contrived in a cage; a goldfinch may be trained to draw water in an ivory bucket, and to fire off a pistol; a parrot is taught to say "pretty poll," and a variety of other expressions. The intelligence and affection of the horse have often been the theme of admiration; but perhaps no animal is more in sympathy with man than the dog. The variety of his adaptations, the wide diversity and the instincts of the different species of dogs, the keenness of his perception, the tenacity of his memory, the strength and durability of his affection for his master, and his faithfulness, are subjects that challenge our admiration as well as our study. But the question before us now is not the keenness or the utility, but the i??provabiliy of instinct. In all these cases there appears, in some sort, a capability of being taught and of improvement. But it should be noted that in every department of nature there are to be found individual departures from the established type. These, are the prodigies, the wonders. One horse, in addition to the orclinary instincts of his race, may possess some peculiar instinct leading him to perform certain actions that seem anomalous; but beyond that he is only a common horse. Among dogs, one is by instinct a shepherd's dog, another a pointer, another a rat-terrier, and so on. In these departments they display wonderful skill and utility; but attempt to convert the pointer into a shepherd's dog, or the ratterrier into a pointer, and you will soon find that you might as well have undertaken the conversion of a sheep or a calf. There are anomalies, and, indeed, monstrosities, of instinct as well as of bodily form. It is said that dogs have been known to utter human words.* So, on the other hand, instances have occirred —I knew one, the case of a young man —in which, firom nome strange maternal impres>: Turner's Sacred History, I, 280. SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM INSTINCT. 99 sion, the individual, in the midst of his human talk, would break out, whenever he became excited, into the sudden, sharp, quick bark of the dog. These facts demonstrate peculiarities-monstrosities, if you please-in congenital organization; but by no means do they imply improvability in the instinct of the animal race, at least not such an improvability as would ally instinct to intellect. Then, again, it should be borne in mind that it is only the individual bird or beast that acquires new art or skill. There the process ends. Not one of them manifests the capability or the inclination to impart this special acquisition to its fellow. It is not even transmitted to their offspring, either as an improved instinct or by instruction, from the parents. The offspring, instead of beginning where the parents left off, begin precisely where the parents did before them. Or, if these finer qualities of instinct are handed down, it is only as the qualities of the grape or the strawberry, improved by the culture of man, are perpetuated. It is not an intelligence, nor any approximation to an intelligence; but it is as clearly marked with all the distinctive traits of instinct as before. Nor should it be deemed surprising that there are differences in the quality of instinct in different animals of the same species, just as a finer and more perfect organization in the human species afford finer development of mental power; and so, on the other hand, just as the appreciable qualities of matter, from causes inscrutable, are widely different in the same species. One piece of iron may be more malleable, one more flexible, and one more susceptible of high magnetic power; one kind may be man — ufactured into the finest steel, and gleam forth in the polished saber, the other is fit only for the huge anchor. All these things demonstrate incidental departure from the original type; they demonstrate a variety of adaptation. 100 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. But they no more demonstrate that instinct can grow up into intellect than that the beech may become an oak, the pig an elephant, or the ape a man. The boundary thai parts man, in his physical organization, from the brute creation, is not more clearly defined, nor more utterly impassable, than that which separates the human soul from the animal instinct in all its varied forms and supposed improvabilities. IV. INSTINCT IS WITHOUT FORETHOUGHT. W~e are here brought to another line of demarkation be tween the animal instinct and the human soul. Instinct is without forethought on the part of its subject. Mr. Paley makes it the peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of instinct, that it acts "prior to experience and independent of instruction." This was justly criticised by Lord Brougham as leaving out that vital element of distinction between soul and instinct, that in the former there is ever a conscious foresight and intention, which, at least, in many cases in the latter-even in its highest manifestations-are evidently wanting. The insect, for instance, plies her constructive art when it is certain there can be no intention as to results, because there is an absolute ignorance of what results are to follow. Lord Brougham, in his Dialogues on Instinct, says of the bee, "I see her doing certain things which are manifestly to produce an effect she can know nothing about. For example, making a cell, and furnishing it with carpets and with liquid, fit to hold and to cherish safely a tender grub, and knowing nothing, of course, about grubs, or that any grub is to come, or that any such use, perhaps any use at, all, is ever to be made of the work she is about. Indeed, I see another insect-the solitary wasp-bring a given SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM INSTINCT. 101 number of small grubs and deposit them in a hole which she has made over her egg -just grubs enough to maintain the worm that egg will produce when hatched-and yet this wasp never saw an egg produce a worm, nor ever saw a worm —nay, is to be dead long before the worm can be in existence; and, moreover, she never has in any way tasted or used those grubs, or used the hole she made, except for the benefit of the prospective worm she is never to see. In all these cases, then, the animal works positively without knowledge, and in the dark. She also works without designing any thing, and yet she works to a certain defined and important purpose." Such is animal instinct, even in its highest efforts, a force, intentionless, and blindly working in the dark. If it works beneficent results, in the main, it is not because the results are foreseen and sought after; but for the same reason that the elective and cohesive forces among particles of matter effect useful combinations; they are guided by laws ordained and carried into force by the Infinite Mind. V. INSTINCT CONTROLLED BY DIVINE INTELLIGENCE.It will be perceived that we do not question the presence of intelligence. But whose intelligence is it? Not the insect's; for his is obviously a blind instrumentality. To make this more apparent, notice the hexagonal structure of the bee's cell. Here is the utmost possible economy of space, combining the least expenditure of wax. Man has found this out by the most careful and complicated mathematical calculations. Is it not certain, then, that with the bee, it is an unintelligent and controlled agency? This is all the more apparent from the fact that the young bee, uninstructed and without experience, is equally skillful in the perfection of its angles and the finish of its architecture. 102 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. The intelligence here manifested, then, is not in the animal. That is merely an unthinking instrument, working under a higher guidance-the guidance of the Divine Mlind. Mr. Pope pertinently expresses this idea in his well-known couplet: "And reason raise o'er instinct as you can, In this't is God that acts, in that't is man."-EssAY. Dr. Tulloch states this argument with great force: "VWe have here a mental process of a very high order; we must find a mental agent. Such an agent we do not find in the animal. It appears, on the contrary, from all evidence, to be a mere blind instrument. We are forced, therefore, to admit a higher agent. This agent can only be the Supreme Intelligence every-where present in creation."* There is, then, a distinct line of demarkation between the human soul and the animal mind. Till we find the brute creation exhibiting some of these manifestations of an indwelling soul-reason, conscience, intellect; till we find them cherishing and cultivating moral feelings and motives, exercising moral virtues and charities, recognizing and obeying the law of conscience, recognizing the being and moral government of God; and, in fine, cherishing the hopes and expectations of another life-we must be compelled to recognize a radical and eternal distinction between the human soul and the brute instinct. VI. CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS. The theme here presented, and the lines of distinction drawn, are pregnant with suggestive lessons concerning the Divine economy, and affecting every line of duty. 1. If mere instinct had been given, there would have beenz a wonderful waste of s7cill and adaptations itn the material Theisim, 1). 232. SOUL DISTINGUISHED FROM INSTINCT. 103 world. All those hidden resources and wonderful contrivances of nature which challenge investigation; all those landscape and ocean views which are adapted to call forth emotions of the beautiful, the grand, and the sublimewould have been without their correspondent faculties in the world of mind, and would therefore have failed of their ultimate purpose. The inexhaustible stores of coal and of metals, laid away in the bowels of the earth with such infinite providence, would have been an infinite waste. Indeed, the evident care of nature to provide materials, almost infinitely varied in adaptations and number, to be employed in the various appliances of art, would have been without adequate purpose or aim. Nay, the very capability of culture and production with which our earth has been endowed would have been a useless endowment. Every thing in nature shows that not only the curious workmanship of the body, but this material garniture of the earth and the heavens has direct reference to soul and soul-culture. When the Almighty prepared the heavens and set a compass upon the face of the deep, when he gave to the sea its bounds and to the earth its foundations, still his "delights were with the sons of men." * 2. WVe have here also distinct intimations of man's domin,ant relation to the animal creation. Had the historian of creation never placed upon record that man was to "have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth," still the fact of his appointed dominion would be manifested in his very organization. Not indeed in his physical nature, for that is inferior, in many respects, to that of some of the brute creation. But when he comes forth, a human body, inspired and empowered by an indwelling, living soul, he stands confessed the lord of creation.: Prov. viii, 31. 104 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. 3. Thle ecndowment of spirit involves the idea of higher duties and responsibilities, as well as of higher powers. Every thing in nature has its appropriate sphere and function. But with most creatures that sphere is exceedingly circumscribed. Their capacities do not admit of a wider range. All the functions of their being seem bound up in a narrow compass, and they are soon accomplished. How different is the case with man! His intelligence sweeps over the whole range of the material creation; and, above and beyond that, holds mysterious connection with the spiritual universe, unlimited and eternal. The animal needs only to provide for its physical wants, and that for the briefest period. Animal necessities are the smallest of man's wants, and they scarcely begin the wide range of the duties and responsibilities devolved upon him by his organization, no less than by command of his God. 4. The endownment of a spirit is accompanied with intimations of man's suiperior destiny. The consciousness of selfhood in man, connected as it is with a succession of ideas, to which there is no limit, is of itself an intimation of immortality. "Reason," says Dr. Moore, "is dogmatical, and she asserts her nobility, by demanding a life suited to her nature; she discourses with intelligence, and draws an argument for her deathlessness from the fact that to love truth is to love existence for its highest purposes." These purposes are immortal. "And can it be? Does this Weak, trembling framne conceal within itself A soul ethereal and immortal? A glorious spark sublime and boundless,'Struck frion the burning essence of its God,' The great I Ams, the dread Eternal? 0, how tremendous is the awful thought! The soul shrinks back alarmed, too weak to gaze On its own greatness, or rather, on the greatness Of that God who made it!"-3Iss l. BI. DAVIDSON. THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 105 VI. TLHE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. "A living soul." GEN. ii, 7. "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward." ECCLES. iii, 21. "Not able to kill the soul." IMATT. X, 28. "Life and immortality are brought to light in the Gospel." THE indestructibility and immortality of mind are among the sublimest ideas that ever dawned upon the human soul. How it increases the range of its vision! How it multiplies and enhances the objects of its creation! How much grander the destiny it reveals! How it alleviates the darkl and gloomy aspect of this world, where changes are incessant and death universal! " The sun is but a spark of fire, A transient meteor in the sky, The soul, immortal as its sire, Shall never die." When we assume that the soul in its very nature is indestructible and immortal, we do not mean that it has this nature independent of God, but that the Divine Being has thus endowed it. What God wills it to be that is its nature. If God has made it to be immortal, then is it naturally immortal. The self-existent eternity of matter was a theory of the Epicurean philosophy; and some who have opposed the doctrine of man's immortality represent the Christian philosopher as occupying this old heathen ground. But the distinction is obvious. The one made matter eternally self-existent; the other assumes that neither matter nor soul is self-existent, but that the being, and all the attributes 106 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. or properties of each, have been derived from the Creator of all; and, further, that each is possessed of such a nature as he has given it. We assume, then, that immortality is the heritage of the race. On the same grounds that I claim immortality for myself, I claim it for all my kind; for God "hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." (Acts xvii, 26.) Weakness and darkness, brutality and degradation, do not change this essential characteristic of mind. They may cloud the pathway of the life to come as they do that of the present life, but they have no power to rob the soul of its being. I. OUR FIRST ARGUMENT FOR THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MIND IS DRAWN FROM THE ACKNOWLEDGED INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. Matter is incessantly changing its form. The particles of which bodies are composed, though now solid, impervious, may be resolved into their original liquid or gaseous elements-may be dissipated so as to become invisible and impalpable. The process of evaporation may go on till not one drop of water is left in the pool, and yet the existence, nay, even the identity, of those elements is not lost. They may float over continents and oceans; they may be as widely.separated as the poles, but not one of them is annihilated. The fire may consume the forest oak till all that is left, distinguishable to sense, is the handful of ashes gathered upon the hearth. All the rest has disappearedpassed away in smoke or been evaporated into air-and yet no single particle of the oak has suffered annihilation. Thus the process of change is perpetually going on in the forms and relations of matter. The atoms that now pile up the rugged mountain were once, every single one THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 107 of them, not as they now are. The time will come, away in the ages of the future, when, one by one, each shall have changed again and no longer appear in their present form. But in all this wonderful transformation there is no annihilation. Not a single atom has ceased to be; not one has lost its identity even. That little particle of limestone which nestles so snugly in the bones of the living man is the same particle which once uplifted the mountain's ponderous weight. In regard to the created universe, then, annihilation is no part of the plan of the Creator. The minutest particle to which he has given existence shall never cease to be. It may pass through ten thousand transformations, but its being is untouched. This indestructibility of matter affords, to say the least, a strong presumption for the indestructibility of soul. Can it enter into the mind of any one that a higher destiny is awarded to the insensate atom than to the "living soul?" Was not the material world created that it might become the training-place of the soul, a handmaid to its early growth and development? To suppose, then, that God has appointed to the former a being that should outlast the latter is to reverse all our ideas of the divine plan of wisdom-of proportionate order and ends-in the universe. We have not found it necessary to urge the immateriality of mind as a proof of immortality; for matter itself, we have seen, is indestructible; so that had materialists been able to show that the soul of man is a material sztbstance, it would not have disproved the immortality of the soul. God, for aught we know, could have endowed a material soul with an unending existence. Its heritage would then have been immortality. Nor would this have been more wonderful than the kindred endowment bestowed upon the elementary atoms of material nature. Still, when the fact of the soul's immaterial essence is established, as it is 108 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. by the most undoubted evidence, the question of immortality rises from mere presumption to the region of demonstrated fact. We can join with the poet in saying of our departed fiiends"There are no dead.'T is true, many of them are gone; Singly they came, singly they departed; When their work was done, they lay down to sleepBut never one hath died; Forms may change, but spirit is immortal." II. OUR SECOND ARGUMENT IS DRAWN FROM THE CONCURRENT BELIEF OF ALL AG-ES AND ALL PEOPLE IN A FUTURE STATE. There seems ever to have been a remarkable uniformity in the opinions and traditions of the race concerning a future state. Amid all the darkness that has enveloped the human mind, there have never failed to be seen some gleams of light in regard to a future life. "Never," says Dr. Blair, "has any nation been discovered on the face of the earth so rude and barbarous that, in the midst of their wildest superstitions, there was not cherished among them some expectation of a state after death, in which the virtuous were to enjoy happiness." "Man," says Sidney Smith, "in every stage of society, civilized or savage, has universally believed that he is to live hereafter." If the facts shall be found to justify these broad statements, how are we to account for them? Are they to be traced to an instinctive principle implanted by the Creator? Then must they have some basis in truth, or "Nature, there, Imposing on her sons, has written fablesMIan was made a lie." But let us recur to some of the data which settle the question of fact. The ancient Egyptians represent the soul TIE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 109 as being brought at death into the presence of its Judge, and that attendant spirits were present to bear witness for or against it. The ancient Persians represent the wicked as being sent away into "everlasting darkness," and the good as being restored to the bosom of "the universal Father." The poet of Bokhara-Rodski-when speaking of the death of Muradi, embodies this thought in most exquisite and delicate language: " Muradi, alas! is dead! But no, he certainly can not be dead! It is not so easy for death to triumph over such an illustrious man. He has only restored his noble soul to our universal Father; he has only resigned his sordid body to our universal mother."* The Greek and Roman qmythology-which stood to them in the place of theology-represented the soul, when separated from the body at death, as being ferried over the River Styx by Charon, where they were judged according to the deeds done in the body. Those "Who suffered wounds In fighting for their country's cause; and priests Who kept their souls unspotted whilst their liNes Endured; and pious bards who warbled strains, Did honor to Apollo; those who polished Life by invented arts, and such as made Their memories dear to others by the deeds Of goodness," were at once admitted to "The realms of joy, Delighted haunts of never-fading green, The blessed seats in groves of happiness, Where ether more diffusive robes the fields In purple glory." But the wicked were cast down to hell-a place where hunger, toil, disease, fear, and nameless sorrows reigned supreme. "An hundred tongues, Au hundred mouths, and speech by iron lungs Inspired, could not enumerate the names Of all their punishments." *Turner's Sacred History, I, p. 122. Note. 110 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. The immortality of the soul was one of the distinguishing doctrines of Socrates, and the assertion of it formed the great charm of the Phledon to Cicero and the most enlightened Romans. It became Plato's most valued work, for this reason, as detailing the last conversation of Socrates with his friends just before he took the poison to which he had been sentenced. His mode of reasoning will be illustrated by a brief extract from the Phedon: S. "Answer me; what is that which, when in the body, makes it alive?" Kebes. "The soul." S. "Will it always be so?" K. "IHow can it be otherwise?" S. "Will the soul, then, always bring life to whatever it occupies?" l. "Certainly." S. "Is there any thing contrary to life, or nothing?" K. "There is." S. "What?" K. "Death." S. "Will the soul receive the contrary to what it introduces?" K. "By no means." S. "But what do we call that which does not receive death?" K. "Immortal." S. "The soul will not receive death, you say?" K. "No." S. "Is the soul, then, immortal?" K. "It is immortal." S. "When, therefore, death comes upon a man, what is mortal in him perishes, as it is seen to do; but what is irnamortal withdraws itself from death, safe and uncorrupted?" C. "' This is clear." THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 111 S. "We may, then, be sure that, more than all things, O Kebes! the soul is immortal and incorruptible, and that our souls will still be in existence in Hades."* Seneca, the celebrated philosopher, referring to this universal concurrent belief of the soul's immortality, says: "On the question of the immortality of the soul, it goes very far with me, a general consent to the opinions of a future state of rewards and punishments, the meditation of which raises me to a contempt of this life in hopes of a better." And, after surveying the arguments of the philosophers in favor of the soul's immortality, he exclaims, "I am strangely transported with the thoughts of eternity; nay, with the belief of it." The eloquent Cicero-one of the greatest orators of antiquity, and one of the most learned and talented men that Rome ever produced-argues as follows: "If I am wrong in believing the souls of men immortal, I please myself in my mistake; nor while I live will I ever choose that this opinion, with which I am so much delighted, should ever be wrested from me." There is a spice of genuine wit, as well as of sublime philosophy, when he adds, " But if at death I am to be annihilated, as some philosophers suppose, I am not afraid lest those wise men, when extinct too, should laugh at my error." The Roman Emperor, Adrian, in his celebrated address to his soul, clearly indicates, amid the darkness and doubt of heathenism, his apprehension of the fact that the soul in death did not become extinct, but took its flight to some unknown sphere. "Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing, 3Iust we no longer live together? And lost thou prune thy tremblling wing, To take thy flight, thou know'st not whither? *Turner's Sacred IIistory, I, p. 102. 112 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Thy pleasing vein, thy humorous folly, Lies all neglected, all forgot! And pensive, wavering, melancholy, Thou hop'st, and fear'st, thou know'st not what." The ancient Scandinavians taught that the brave were to revel forever in the halls of Valhalla, and drink mead offered them by maidens, from the skulls of their enemies. The future condition of the soul is differently described among different nations; but this one idea —that death was not the destruction of the Uiving soutl-is apparent in all their traditions and in all their rites. This notion prevailed among the Celts and Druids, the Aztecs and Peruvians, and is found with the inhabitants of the islands of the oceanthe Society Islands, the Friendly Islands, Pelew Islands, and New Zealanders; in Asia, among the Burmrans, Samoyedians, the Kalmuc Tartars; in Africa, among the Gallus, Mandingoes, Jaloffs, Feloops, Foulahs, and Moors; and in fine, every-where does it exist, so far as examination has gone. Among the Indians of North America, the doctrine of the soul's immortality was universally recognized. William Penn says of the Indians of that early time: "These poor people are under a dark night, in things pertaining to religion, yet they believe in a God and immortality, without the help of metaphysics." The common idea of the race was that in the future life he would be permitted to enter the great hunting grounds above, where innumerable herds of deer and buffaloes graze upon the verdant hills, and ruminate in the fertile valleys; where the "'pale face shall trouble no more." Mr. Pope has given a beautiful versification of this sublime conception of the darkened nature of the savage: Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; Whose soul proud science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky wayYet simple nature to his hope has given, Behind the cloud-topt hill, a humnbler heaven; THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 113 Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, Some happier island in the watery waste, Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for goldAnd thinks, admitted to yon equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company." We might multiply these authorities indefinitely. It may be that a few among the ancient philosophers rejected the doctrine of the soul's immortality, or were in doubt concerning it, just as, in the present day, every Christian doctrine —the most clearly established even —has its skeptics and doubters. But that, by no means, impugns the assertion that all nations and all peoples, on the face of the earth, have, as an aggregate, credited the soul's immortality. In a word, it has been the sentimnent of humanity in all ages. In vain do the modern annihilationists, like Storrs, and Hudson, and Dobney, and even Dr. Whately, attempt to deny or throw doubt over the fact of this universal belief. It comes up in all the poetry, the mythology, and the history of antiquity. It is inwrapped as an element of nearly every philosophy. The religious rites and ceremonies of nations and tribes proclaim it. And the deep yearnings of the human heart, in every place and in all ages, give utterance to it. But what is the lesson to be derived from it? Let the immortal Cicero, representing the highest and noblest thought of any age and any people, unblessed with the light of Revelation, answer-" In every thing the consent of all nations is to be accounted the law of nature; and to resist it, is to resist the voice of God." If it was a local tradition, we might refer it to some local cause. If it had been limited to some one age, we might attribute it to some peculiar development or bias of the mind of that age resulting from a temporary cause. But what shall we say when we find it bounded by no clime and limited to no age, but one of the deepest and 10 114 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. most universal sentiments of humanity? There can be but one answer. The sentiment is inspired with the very consciousness of life, and, therefore, appeals to the great Author of life as its source. It must then be true. A belief thus originated, so universal, can not be without a sub-. stantial basis in truth. In a word, it is proof sublime of immortality. It is demonstration that death works only the change, and not the destruction of the soul. III. A FUTURE LIFE ONLY CAN SATISFY THE CONDITIONS AND CAPACITIES OF OUR MENTAL BEING. Look to the human race as they appear to the mere superficial observer, and what do we see? Merely a succession of evanescent and fading objects! Thousands are coming upon the stage, full of life and hope; and thousands, care-worn and weary, are retiring from it-retiring from it with a deep and anxious consciousness of faculties undeveloped and objects unaccomplished; like bubbles upon the mighty deep, they rise and then disappear. This scene is not only enacting now, but it ever has been since man's first transgression " Brought death into the world and all our woe." The multitudes of the dead are more than those of the living. The whole of this vast globe is but an amphitheater, in which are displayed the works, and beneath which repose the bodies of the dead. But is this all? Are all our interests, is all our being crowded within the narrow compass of the brief span of this life? Are there no fountains within us but what are exhausted in a brief life of sorrow, passed in ignorance and fruitless desire? Take even the most favorable examples of human nature-the mind of Newton, or of Bacon-and THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 115 inquire, even concerning them, if they were not susceptible of a wider and fuller development! Were their intellects, capacious as they were, susceptible of no further expansion? Had they attained the utmost limit of which their minds were capable? You shall hear the confessions of one of these great men, as they fell from his own lips. Says the immortal Newton, "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me." * If these are the confessions of the greatest intellect that ever lived-if he only trod- on the shore of the boundless ocean of truth, what must be the case with the great mass of men? If even his intellect did not reach its maturity before he was hurried off the stage of being, how can we say, concerning the race of man, that they are susceptible of no greater development; that they have capacities of no higher order than have been brought out and cultivated here? We argue, then, inasmuch as nothing is made without some worthy object and end, that there must be some other allotment to moitals; some other state of being in which these embryo faculties shall expand into full maturity. Chcantge is indeed one of the allotments of Providence; we see its working every-where. "Few things are in that state now in which they are hereafter to remain. The bird destined for the air sleeps in his shell; the beautiful insect that is to flutter in the sun crawls in the earth till his season of glory is come. The child that requires the hand of a parent to give him food may soon be changed into a saint or a sage. So, also, says the great apostle, is it with the soul of man. This is not its resting-place; it was never Brewster's Life of Newton. 116 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. intended to remain here, and to be always as it now is; It will be changed as the seed is changed; the corruptible will put on incorruption; the mortal, immortality. The object for which it was created will be made manifest; at the very moment when it seems to perish, it is passing into a higher order of creatures and getting hold of a better life." * If there be not this allotment, this new and more glorious state, then must be impeached not only the Divine goodness, but also the Divine wisdom. For if man be not illmortal; if there be no future state in which these faculties may expand to their full maturity; if the vast ocean of truth is never to be crossed or surveyed, and the unfathomed mines of knowledge to remain forever unexplored, why was he endowed with such capacities and desirescapacities that can never be filled up, and desires that can never be satisfied in this state of existence? Was the creation of mind an aimless freak of the God of nature? Did he endow it with its transcendent powers, but allot to it no time nor sphere for the development of these powers? Doth he every-where exhibit the most perfect wisdom'and goodness in his creation-except in its noblest part? Doth he clothe the fields with verdure, and the lily with beauty; doth he feed the young ravens when they cry; and doth he not provide for him whom he hath created to be in his own likeness and image? In the creation of such a being did his skill forsake him, did his right hand forget its cunning? Reason and religion answer, no! conscience and experience answer, no! all that is elevated in the hopes or dear in the expectations of an immortal being answer, no! This idea, expressed by Addison in thought and style of such transparent beauty, that, though repeated a thousand - Sidney Smith. THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 117 times) it can never become worn by use. f"Iow can it," says he, "enter into the thoughts of man, that the soul, which is capable of such immense perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall into nothing almost as soon as it is created? Are such abilities made for no purpose? A brute arrives at a point of perfection which he can never pass. In a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the same thing he is at present. Were a human soul thus at a stand in her accomplishment, were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of further enlargements, I could imagine it might fall away insensibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvements, and traveling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of the Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish in her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries? "Man, considered in his present state, seems sent into the world only to propagate his kind. He provides himself with a successor, and immediately quits his post to make room for him.'Heir urges on his predecessor heir, Like wave impelling wa-ve.' He does not seem born to enjoy life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not surprising to consider of animals which are formed for our use, and can finish their business in a short life. The silk-worm, after having spun her task, lays her eggs and dies. But a man can never have taken in his full measure of knowledge, has not time to subdue his passions, establish his soul in virtue, and come up to the perfection of his nature, before he is hurried off the 118 IMAN ALL IMMORTAL. stage. Would an infinitely-wise Being make such glorioucreatures for so mean a purpose? Can he delight in the production of such abortive intelligences-such short-lived, reasonable beings? Would he give us talents that are not to be exerted? capacities that are never to be gratified? How can we find that wisdom, that shines through all his works in the formation of man, without looking upon this world as the nursery for the next? and believing that the several generations of rational creatures, which rise up and disappear in such quick successions, are only to receive their first rudiments of existence here, and afterward to be transplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish to all eternity."* But, again, if there be not a future state-a future lifedesigned for the fuller development and play of our mental faculties, the endowment of man with an intellect, a "spirit," was not merely useless, but absolutely a curse instead of a blessing to the human race; for what avail to him all the acquisitions of knowledge if he is not immortal? They are scarcely worth a thought or care. Instinct would have answered every purpose of his present being, just as it does for the brute, and man would have been spared all this feverish solicitude, this anxious and unceasing care for the future. The beast lies down in death with as little thought and as little care as if to a night's repose, but man shrinks back with horror from the chill and misty shadows of the grave. His proud reason stands appalled before "the King of Terrors," and can meet him in peace only when irradiated with the glorious hope of immortality. If, then, this hope is baseless, empty, and vain; if this last stay and support of reason is but a crushed reed; if it is only the precursor of eternal nothingness, then may we deprecate the power * Spectator. TIHE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 119 that gave reason birth; and it would be a fit cause for mourning to the human race that we were born with higher powers than the brute if we are destined to the same common fate. If, as "the frail and feverish beings of an hour," we are " Doomed o'er the world's precarious scene to sweep, Swift as the tempest travels on the deep, To know delight but by her parting smile, And toil, and wish, and weep a little while"then, rent by all the agonies of despair under this dark and blighting destiny, we may exclaim, with the same poet, "Melt, ye eloments, that formed in vain, This troubled pulse and visionary brain! Fade, ye wild flowers, memorials of my doom; And sink, ye stars, that light me to the tomb." Against such a dark and cheerless conclusion all within and all around us utter their solemn and impressive protest. The mortal shall perish, shall return tQ its native elements; but the spiritual shall live on forever. As the insect flutters from out its chrysalis to soar on wings of beauty and revel amid the glories of nature, so shall this immortal soul, purified by the blood of atonement, go forth from its chrysalis state to contemplate and enjoy the ineffable glories of the spiritual world. Then shall it find scope for all its powers; then shall it reach the consummation of its highest and grandest hopes. Then cheer up., wayworn and sorrowing pilgrim! Sorrow and darkness may surround thee here, but "hereafter thy voice shall be attuned to angel harmonies, and thy home be in that city whose walls are jasper and whose gates are pearl-along whose streets murmurs the crystal river, ana in whose midst blooms the tree of life." " 0, listen, man! A voice within us speaks that startling word,'Man, thou shalt never die!' Celestial voices Htymn it into our souls; according harps. C120 - ------— MAN ALL IMMORTAL. By angel fingers touch'd, when the wild stars Of morning sang together, sound forth still The song of our great immortality. Night and the dawn, bright day and thoughtful eve, All time, all bounds, the limitless expanse, As one vast mystic instrument. are touched By an unseen living hand, and conscious chords Quiver with joy in this great jubilee. The dying hear it; and, as sounds of earth Grow dull and distant, wake their passing souls To mingle in this heavenly harmony." IV. THE HUiMAN CONSCIENCE IS A PROPHECY OF IhMOCRTALITY. Conscience is that moral faculty which gives us an instinctive conviction of obligation and duty, and also an instinctive apprehension of a future retribution. Its law is written upon the human heart, and interwoven with the very nature of every moral agent. It is as essential a part of our nature as reason, or judgment, or memory. Its universality is asserted by the apostle Paul, when he says that "when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." Its existence and authority are also acknowledged, in some form or other, by all the race. While the doctrine of our "great immortality " has demanded recognition among all men, whether savage or civilized, the belief of it has ever been intensified by conscience. It speaks in every chamber of the soul with a voice more potent than any pealing thunder. The heathen offerings of gold, and silver, and precious things to their gods, and all their sacrifices of sheep, and oxen, and even of human beings, for the atonement of sin. are so THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 121 many sad yet eloquent attestations of the prophecy which conscience makes of our immortality. Conscience, as well as every other faculty of our moral and intellectual nature, has become impaired by sin; but still, quickened by that Spirit that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, it speaks to the sinner, not in tones of thunder, pealing from Sinai or from thrones of judgment, but in his inmost soul, and in a voice inaudible to the ear of sense, proclaiming the unvailed realities of a retribution as invincible as it is certain. Take away every external source of illumination; blot out every syllable of the written law; extinguish forever the written revelation from God, and still, through the natural conscience, enlightened as it is by the Holy Ghost, man would receive no faint conviction of his obligation to virtue, and no faint impressions of a future judgment and retribution'. The commission of sin, even though no flaming thunderbolt of the Almighty should mark to the eyes of men his displeasure, has its fearful attendants. " A waiting conscience, terrific admonition whispering on his secret ear, prophetic warning pointing him to the dim and vailed shadows of future retribution, and the all-penetrating, all-surrounding idea of an avenging God, are present with him; and the right arm of the felon and the transgressor is lifted up, amidst lightnings of conviction and thunderings of reproach." "Skeptic, whoe'er thou art, tell, if thou knowest, Tell why on unknown evil grief attends, Or joy on secret good? Why conscience acts With tenfold force when sickness, age, or pain Stands tottering on the precipice of death? Or why sull horror gnaws the guilty soul Of dying sinners, while the good man sleeps Peaceful and calm, and with a smile expires?" GLYNN. Thus, there is the sacred dread of retribution in another life, running through all the web and woof of our 11 122 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. present being. We can not escape it. It enters the halls of mirth, mingles in the gay scenes of dissipation, traverses the dark chamber of wickedness, goes down with us through all the lanes of life leading to the grave, and in a dying hour makes broad and distinct its utterances of immortality. V. STILL ANOTHER ARGUMENT MiAY BE DRAWN FROI THIIE CONFESSIONS OF INFIDELITY. These confessions indicate how quenchless is the light of immortality in the human soul. Thomas Paine, after declaring that all " belief of a word of God existing in print, or in writing, or in speech, is inconsistent in itself," nevertheless confesses to the conviction of a future existence. He says: " I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, 3that the power which gave me existence is able to continue it in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body; and it appears to me more probable that I shall continue to exist hereafter than that I should have had existence, as I now have, before that existence began." Thus, also, a large portion of that class of infidels who have rejected the written revelation from. God, have, nevertheless, been unable to uproot from their souls the instinct of immortality. Men may deny God and scoff at a future life —may decree that "there is no God," and that "'death is an eternal sleep "-but, after all, down in the depths of their depraved hearts lingers the consciousness that the soul does not die, and that consciousness, though long clogged by evil passions, and buried up beneath the rubbish of false and damning theories, shall yet come forth and assert its undying nature. "E'en at the parting hour, the soul will wake, Nor like a senseless brute its unknown journey take." PERCIVAi,. THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 123 Said the dying Altamont, " My soul is full powerful to reason, full mighty to suffer; and that which thus triumphs within the jaws of mortality is, doubtless, immortal." And then he adds: "Remorse for the past throws my thoughts on the future; worse dread of the future strikes them back upon the past. I turn and turn, and find no ray. Didst thou feel half the mountain that is on me, thou wouldst struggle with the martyr for his stake, and bless heaven for the flame that is not an everlasting flame, that is not an unquenchable fire." Who can believe that a soul wrought up into such intense agony, with all its powers so terribly quickened, and with its dying confessions and dreadful anticipations still upon its lips, shall suddenly drop into non-existence, and cease its consciousness forever? Nay, these very confessions of infidelity, rising up, as they do, to confront and confound all the professions of a life of unbelief, and to anticipate an impending and eternal doom, are but the soul's assertion of its undying and immortal nature. VI. IT NOW ONLY REMAINS FOR US TO VERIFY THESE DEDUCTIONS OF REASON BY THE TEACHINGS OF REVELATION. We have already seen that a future and eternal life only can satisfy the capacities, aspirations, and wants of the soul, and thus meet the conditions of our being; and now it remains for us to ascertain whether God has given us ground of hope that this future life shall be granted-whether that immortality which only can fill up the capacities and satisfy the longings of the mind shall be given or denied to man. Reason may lead us to hope, but revelation produces faith; reason affords some glimmering expectations of a future state, but revelation lifts up the impending vail, and brings 124 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. immortality and eternal life to light. It dissipates the dense mists that hang over the valley of the shadow of death, and enables the soul to revel in the anticipations of a bliss which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and which it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive. Let us commune for a moment with the spirits of the illustrious dead-illustrious, not for feats of valor, nor for conquests achieved upon the blood-stained fields of carnage and death, but illustrious for moral excellence, for exalted piety, for ardent and undying faith. Let us inquire, What was their faith and what were their hopes? Hear the response in the triumphant language of the godly yet afflicted man of Uz: c"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me." (Job xix, 25.) Hear it also in the language of the monarch minstrel: "My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Ps. lxxiii, 25, 26.) The same faith and the same expectations characterized the language of the great apostle to the Gentiles: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv, 6-8.) We are ready to exclaim, Can this be the language of dying men? Yes, it is even so! It is the language of men whose bosoms swelled with the hopes and expectations of immortal life.. In them the fruits of faith in the blessed Redeemer had ripened into full and glorious maturity. TIIE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 125 Whatever may be the change that takes place in death, it is evidently one that does not destroy the identity of the individual. The rich man who lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment, had not only the remcmbrance of his luxurious and godless life, but also of his relationship to five brothers, who had probably been the companions of his pleasures and his sins. Our personal identity we carry forward with us into the other life. But, how is this done? In this life there seems to be a bodily as well as mental identity. In what this bodily identity consists it is not so easy to determine. An unceasing process of change Is ever going on in our physical systems. To-day we are not what we were yesterday, nor shall we be to-morrow what we are to-day. Yet, somehow, we think and speak of ourselves as the same. This flux and efflux of the system may go on for half a century, till every particle of it has been changed many times; and yet our identity of person remains. Think of the bodily changes of half a century! rising from infancy to mature life, or going even beyond to the decrepitude of age! And yet the bodily identity is unaffected. But, at death, this body is dropped in the dust. The identity carried forward into another life, then, is not that of the body. It must be identity of soul. And all along in the unfolding of the future life, prior to the resurrection, this identity of the soul, as the very soul that once inhabited the earthly body, is either roundly asserted or distinctly implied. How clearly is this expressed in that inimitable prayer of our blessed Redeemer for his followers: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am," (John xvii, 24;) not that spirits newly createdhowever exalted or glorious-but these identical followers and companions in the earthly life! This same identity 126 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. was proclaimed from the cross of Calvary, and amid the thrilling scenes of the crucifixion-" toclday shalt THOU" —. not some other newly-created spirit, but "THOU" crucified, penitent, dying companion in suffering —"be with me in paradise." Our dust returns to the earth, but'"the spirit shall return unto God;" when the days of our years are "cut Off" we do not become extinct, but "fly away;" the assassin may kill the body, but is "not able to kill the soul;" and as touching those called dead,'"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living;" and "we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle "-the body —:were dissolved," we do not cease to be, but are simply 1"absent from the body." And then that magnificent apocalyptic vision —"I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, 0 Lord! holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" A more explicit recognition of the conscious existence of the soul after the death of the body it would be difficult to embody in any form. The bodies of these martyrs had been slain; those bodies were still disunited from the soul; and yet there was not only conscious being, but conscious identity of themselves as the sufferers of wrong from wicked men. It is useless to raise any quibble about the form or speech of disembodied souls. Such objectors only place their own ignorance in opposition to the boundless possibilities of the spiritual realm. We might have enumerated many additional proof-texts, but these are sufficient for full demonstration wherever the authority of the Bible is received. It is not too much to say, then, that the suggestions and intimations of human reason concerning the indestructibility TIIE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 127 of mind, are fully authenticated and confirmed by the revelation of God. He who has implanted the instincts of immortality in the human soul has also confirmed its glorious heritage in his Word, and thus given him the double seal of immortality. Ile is not the God oJ' the dead, but of the living. VII. OBJECTIONS AND CONCLUDING REMIARK. With a notice of one or two objections, we close the present discussion. i. The objection to the immnortality of mind is sometimes made that the mind apparently comes into life with the body, waxes into mtatrity with it, grows oMd with it, andl dies with it. The inference the skeptic would draw from this is that the ihind also dies with the body. There is something striking —ad ccaptandnllm —in this objection. It appeals to the common observation of life; and, at first view, seems to be sustained by the facts of human history. But, on closer observation, we shall find the facts of history fail to confirm it. The full vigor of body is often, perhaps generally, attained by the age of twenty-five or thirty; while the full vigor of intellect is rarely attained before the age of forty or fifty. Instances almost without number are constantly coming within our observation, in which there is a most vigorous growth of intellect when the body has already begun to decline with age. A single instance of' gray hairs, and a debilitated body incasing a soul vigorous in all its mental and moral powers, is sufficient to demonstrate that this assumption is utterly untenable. And who has not seen such instances again and again? Besides all that, we have already shown, from incontrovertible facts, that the most vigorous intellects are not unfrequently incumbered with weak and sickly bodies; nay, that even amidst the torpor of approaching death, the mind 128 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. often retains its full vigor up to the very last moment of earthly existence. This analogy of the materialist-by which he would reason from the death of the body to the death of the mind-utterly fails in its essential links; and, therefore, however attractive and imposing in its enunciation, it is, when subjected to the rigid scrutiny of science and fact, found to be without conclusiveness or force. 2. It is objected, againt, that those punitive words, perish, destruction, and death, in the Bible indicate the utter aqnnihilation of the living principle, antd, therefore, contradict the doctrine that the mind is immortal. The objector claims that when it is said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," (Luke xiii, 3,) and that the wicked "shall be punished with everlasting destruction," (2 Thess. i, 9,) and, also, that "the soul that sinneth it shall die," (Eec. xiii, 20,) the objector claims that these and kindred passages imply that the souls thus condemned will be utterly annihilated, or absolutely cease to exist. This would indeed upset our doctrine of the soul's essential immortality by the will of God. But do the passages teach such a doctrine? do the words contain such a breadth of meaning? No one will contend that such a meaning is necessarily deduced from any philological analysis of them. We have a short method, then, to take with the objector, and which will show how mistaken are his interpretations, and how groundless his assumptions: "Lord, save us: we perish," (Matt. viii, 25,) said the disciples, when trembling in apprehension, not of annihilation, but of drowning. " It can not be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem," (Luke xiii, 33,) means nothing more, certainly, than being put to death. The prodigal exclaims, "I perish with hunger." (Luke xv, 17.) Our fastidious objector will hardly make more out of this than that the prodigal was in danger of dying with hunger; annihilation, evidently, did not enter into his thoughts. TILE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 129 So with suffering " destruction." It is not to be annihilated, but to be banished "from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power." (2 Thess. i, 9.) When God makes complaint against his people, " 0, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help," (Hosea xiii, 9,) he can not mean that they had annihilated themnselves; for what avail would it be to make promises of help to beings that had become utterly annihilated? What mockery to assume to address them even! Still less reason for supposing the punishment of " death" implies the annihilation of the condemned; for "wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. v, 12.) If the objector chooses to take this in its full force, we do not see how he is to escape the utter annihilation of the race; but if he assumes that there is a "second death," not necessarily included in this, and which does imply annihilation, then let us see what light the Bible sheds upon the nature of this "'second death." We are here told that "the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." (Rev. xxi, 8.) This certainly can not be annihilation; for into this lake are to be cast, as partakers of this second death, "the devil," and "the beast, and the false prophet," and "death and hell;" and they'shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." " The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brim — stone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day nor night.' 130 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. (Rev. xiv, 10, 11.) Surely this is something far different, and far more appalling, than extinction of being. They teach us that we must live on, and on, and on forever that if lost no annihilation of being will ever come to relieve the soul of its agony, but that it shall continue to writhe amid the agonies of the second death, while the unending ages roll on. 3. Finally,. if the soul is to endure forever, its condition, in all the ages of the fiuture, should dceelply concern qls now. To this end should we seek the revelation of the life of God in the soul. "Everlasting progression and development are involved in our spiritual union by faith with and in him, who is Head over all. Mind answers to mind. Each of us must say, there was a time when I was not; but no man can say the time will ever come when he shall cease to be." " Immortality o'ersweeps All pains, all tears, all time, all fears-and peals Like the eternal thunders of the deep Into my ears this truth: THOU LIV'ST FOREVER!" BYRON. Then may we close with the thrilling apostrophe of another to the soul: "Immortal spirit! let thy thoughts travel down the vale of coming ages, and view thyself still enduring, strong in the possession of eternal youth. Thou wilt then look around thee, and from the hights of eternity thou wilt see all the thrones, the kingdoms, the glories, the struggles, and the pains of earth forever vanished and still. Thou wilt seek in vain to behold fiom afar the wondrous triumphs of art, the renowned cities, the illustrious empires, and the fields of blood, where so much glory was won. The greatness of the mighty dead, and the pomp of the now living, will all have passed away, sunken into one promiscuous and eternal grave. The earth itself may revolve darkly and gloomily in its accustomed orbit; widelyspread solitude and desolation imLay pervade its once crowded THE MIND INDESTRUCTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. 131 scenes; but thou wilt still remain exempt from mutability and death; still enduring amid so much change, undying amid so much decay. No fearful disaster can quench thy torch of being; no lapse of ages diminish the freshness of thy youth! As lasting as the God who made thee, thou and IHe alike will outlive the old age and dissolution of the universe itself, and soar above its crumbling ruins, rejoicing in the progression of an endless and deathless duration!" 132 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. VI. DEATH. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." GEN. ii, 17. "Death -by sin." Ro-e. v, 12. "It is appointed unto men once to die." HEB. iX, 27. "The body without the spirit is dead." JAMES ii, 26. DEATH is a word pregnant with mysteries past conception, and with terrors past repression. It was first uttered in Paradise, conveying to the mind of man an elemental idea terrific in its character as it has become all-pervading in its influence. We discourse largely and loosely of change as one of the laws governing all created things; but this is not merely change; it is DEATH. The dread of death is as natural as it is universal. Like an appalling specter, it haunts every pathway of life and dims every vision of joy. 0, Death! thou art indeed "the King of Terrors! " "The tear, The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, And all we know, or dreamll, or fear Of agony, are thinel" What would have been the physical history of man had he never sinned it is not easy to determine. It is supposed by home that he would have enjoyed the privilege of continued existence and happiness on earth. The tree of life, to which he would have had access, was at once a pledge of permanent being and happiness, and also a means of securing them. The fruit of this tree would, undoubtedly, have healed or averted every evil to which our physical DEATH. 133 nature might have been subject; it would have restored the natural waste of the animal system, now imperfectly restored by food and sleep, and preserved life through the longest periods of duration. Or, again, there is nothing inconsistent in the supposition that man might have enjoyed a long life here; and after a long series of years, when the faculties of his body and mind had acquired earthly maturity, by an easy transition, he might have been transferred to a holier clime, to pass through higher scenes of bliss, in his endless progression toward infinite perfection and happiness. How easy might have been the change! how glorious the transition! What unspeakable felicities would have enraptured the soul as every successive change brought it into nearer progression to the exhaustless Fountain of Goodness and Love! Man was evidently designed to fill a still more exalted sphere in the scale of being than that allotted to him here. Perhaps the race were designed to fill up the vacancy occasioned in heaven by that disastrous rebellion which peopled hell with angels. Can we wonder, then, that beings designed to fill up so glorious a place in the scale of existence should first have their faith and obedience tried, and their habits and characters formed, in a probationary state? But a probation implies a law, inasmuch as there can be no trial, no probation, without a system of discipline and government. A law also implies a prohibition and a penalty. If, then, man was designed to fill up the vacancy in heaven occasioned by the fall of angels, and if he was placed under a law in his probationary state, can we wonder that to a violation of that law was affixed the same penalty which the fallen angels were themselves enduring? Thus it was that when man was created and planted in the garden, which was to be the scene of his probation, the Divine law 134 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. was given, and the fearful penalty was affixed, "Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The violation of this command commenced a course of sinning and disobedience that blotted out the glories of our first Eden, and plunged our race from a sphere of exaltation and glory into one of suffering and ruin. Death, then, has become a part of the history of an immortal being. I. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH, The sentence of death for sin is expressed in these words: "Thou shalt surely die;" or, more literally, "dying, thou' shalt die." This form of expression is peculiar and emphatic, denoting not only the absolute certainty of the punishment denounced, but also the gradual completion of it. "Dying, thou shalt die." In that day thou shalt become incurably mortal; thou shalt gradually but certainly die; all thy days shalt thou be tending to dissolution and death, without the possibility of escape or remedy. This sentence is literally fulfilled upon our race; for "as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." How wide and universal is the dominion death has established! The dark insignia of his power are every-where seen, and wherever living man peoples the earth there are to be found the monuments of his triumphs. No individual can stay his progress or elude his search. From the midst of the populous city and fiom the lonely glen; from the abode of luxury and from the hovel of poverty; from the bustling scenes of crowded life and firom the lounging ranks of ease and idleness, he calls forth his victims to their appointed doom. No one may hope to escape. From the cradle to the grave the monster follows cur footsteps with DEATH. 135 stealthy but steady strides, so that, literally, " dying, we die!" II. ESSENTIAL NATURE OF DEATH. We have noticed the sentence of death and the universality of its execution. We have seen man every-where surrounded by the dark and gloomy symbols; we have seen him with the dread sentence, "'Thou shalt surely die!" pealing evermore in his ear, and breaking, with its solemn cadences, upon his soul. What., then, is the essential nature of this physical death? It is something more than pain and suffering. We almost daily meet with cases of excruciating bodily distress, when every nerve seems wrought up with intensest agony, but death is not the result. The individual recovers. But, on the other hand, the "'silver cord is loosened," sometimes so gently that it is impossible to mark the moment of departure. Indeed, suffering belongs to life; to death, quietude. It is something more than the exhaustion and emaciation of sickness; for the victim of disease that has pined into the most shadowy form-in which nearly all that is material is wasted and gone —has yet come back to life, and glowed with all the ruddiness of youth and health. Another, in the maturity of his manhood, with the flush of health upon his cheek, the marrow of fatness in his bones, sinks down suddenly without external sign or internal premonition, and is gone. The arms and the legs have been severed from the body, and the trunk has even suffered mutilation, till almost the very form of humanity was lost; yet life still remainedintellect, affection, and hope survived. So, also, the sight, the hearing, the taste, the smell, and even the sense of feeling, in a large portion of the body, has been lost, and yet neither of these privations constituted death. The 136 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. whole limbs and body have been paralyzed, even up to the neck, by injury to the spine, and yet something beyond all that must occur before it could be said that the individual was dead. We have already seen that even the brain, the mind's own peculiar organ, may be extensively diseased, and yet life remain. Even respiration, and with it all bodily motion, have, apparently, ceased for days. Few, if any, signs of life remained; yet it was trance, and not death. Death is something beyond all these. What, then, is death? The answer is so pertinently given by a modern writer that we quote him in extenso. He says: "Death is the absolute cessation of all that which makes matter the instrument and dwelling not only of the spirit which is in man, but of the life or animating power which is in brutes, and of the vital operation which is in vegetables, and even of the cohesion which united the particles of the body. A dead body has ceased to have any existence of its own; the merest stone has more; every moment carries off some of its atoms, till all have joined the surrounding elements, so far as the process can be traced by the human eye or by science. The particles of stone adhere to one another till they are forcibly driven asunder or are separated by chemical action; the particles of the human body, after death, fall asunder of themselves, or through the chemistry of nature. "But the stone has no life, and there is life in the flower or shrub-life fiom that great vital stream which pervades the universe, but a life simply passive-a similar life to that which carries on the involuntary operations of the human frame, and in' death this life, too, is removed. Digestion, absorption, secretion, circulation are, as it were, the vegetable parts of man; the power which gives them action returns at death into the general current of natural operations, from which it has been set apart in his person. The DEATH. 137 brute has a still higher life. He is conscious of the vital stream; he feels, acts, resists, consents, dimly remembers, almost reasons. His is the same life which in man perform~ these various operations; so that, in certain states, when they are performed in the least measure, as in infancy, in idiocy, or when the brain has been grievously injured, little more is seen in man than in the inferior animals. In death the senses go out, even the corporeal machinery comes to an utter pause; and this animal life, too, passes from our sight and from its habitation. "That highest life of all; that which belongs to man alone, among all visible creatures; that life of the spirit which makes him capable of speech, and thus of distinct thought; which makes him a moral being, and therefore responsible to his Maker; that life returns not to the dust, nor to the current of vital power which animates plants or brutes, for it came not from those sources. But it disappears like the rest; this moment it is here, perhaps as clear, as vigorous as ever; the next we gaze upon that which has neither power, nor sensibility, nor expression, and which is as far below the meanest living things as it was lately exalted above them. "The dissolution of the body, the withdrawal of the vital principle, the departure of the immortal spirit — this is DEATH." III. PRocEss AND SYMPTOMS OF DYING. It is generally admitted by physiologists that different portions of the body die in succession. And this accords with the common observation of'the dying process. Prof. Draper says* that the system of animal life dies before that of organic. Of the former, the sensory functions fail first,:: Human Physiology. 12 138 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. voluntary motion next, and that the power of muscular contraction under external stimulus still feebly continues. "The blood, in gradual death, first ceases to reacht the extremities, its pulsations becoming less and less energetic, so that, failing to gain the periphery, it passes but a little way from the heart; the feet and the hands become cold as the circulating fluid leaves them, the decline of temperature gradually invading the interior." Some of the organic functions often continue for a time, particularly the secretion and the development of heat. Hippocrates's description of the appearance and acts of the dying man has rarely been equaled, and never been surpassed, by any descriptions of modern physiologists. It is remarkable for its antiquity, for its descriptive particularity, and also as showing that the heritage of dying man has been the same in all ages. For these reasons we give it entire: "If the patient lies on his back, his arms stretched out, *and his legs hanging down, it is a sign of great weakness; when he slides down into the bed it denotes death; if, in a burning fever, he is continually feeling about with his hands and his fingers, and moves them up before his face and eyes, as if he was going to take away something before them, or on his bed-covering, as if he were picking or searching for little straws, or taking away some speck, or drawing out little flocks of wool, all this is a sign that he is delirious, and that he will die. When his lips hang relaxed and cold; when he can not bear the light; when he sheds tears involuntarily; when in dozing some part of the white of the eye is seen, unless he usually sleeps in that manner, these signs prognosticate danger. When his eyes are sparkling, fierce, and fixed, he is delirious, or soon will be so; when they are deadened, as it were, with a mist spread over them, or their brightness lost, it presages death or great weakness. When the patient has his nose sharp, DEATH. 139 his eyes sunk, his temples hollow, his ears cold and contracted, the skin of his forehead tense and dry, and the color of his face tending to a pale-green or leaden tint, one may give out for certain that death is very near, unless the strength of the patient has been exhausted all at once by long watchings, or by a looseness, or being a long time without eating." A writer in the London Quarterly gives one or two striking thoughts not expressed above. He says: "Startling likenesses to relations and the self of former days are sometimes revealed when the wasting of the flesh has given prominence to the frame-work of the face. The cold of death seizes upon the extremities, and continues to spreada sign of common notoriety from time immemorial, which Chaucer has described in verse, and Shakspeare in still more picturesque prose. The very breath strikes chill; the skin is clammy; the voice falters and loses its own familiar tones-grows sharp and thin, or faint and murmuring, or comes with an unearthly, muffled sound. The pulse, sometimes previously deceitful, breaks down —is first feeble, then slower; the beats are fitful and broken by pauses; the intervals increase in firequency and duration, and at length it falls to rise no more. The respiration, whether languid or labored, becomes slow at the close; the death-rattle is heard at every expulsion of air; the lungs, like the pulse, become intermittent in their action; a minute or two may elapse between the effort to breathe, and then one expiration, which has made'to expire' synonymous with'to die,' and the conflict with the body is over."' IV. THE TERRIBLENESS OF DEATH. Death derives it terribleness not exclusively from causes moral. God has implanted an instinctive love of life in 140 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. every creature he has made. The counterpart of this is an instinctive dread of death; and this feeling we share in common with the animal creation. Nature instinctively shudders and startles back at the approach of death. This is not a feeling peculiar to our fallen state. It pertains to our humanity. In its first announcement, while yet a simple. elementary, unrealized idea, death was placed as a terror before the minds of our first parents, while yet sin had not subjected them to its dominion; and from that time forth, through all ages, and among all people, death has been the symbol of terror and dread. Its dread attendants make it terrible-the cold dearthsweat, the quivering, failing pulse, the darkened vision, the dying agony, and the utter stillness, helplessness, and rapid decay of the body from which life has departed, never fail to inspire dread. Death is appalling when viewed only as the separation of the soul from the body. This mysterious blending of our physical and spiritual natures, this union of matter and mind, seems here to constitute our very being. All we have enjoyed of life, our intercourse with the world, all the social intimacies, relationships, and endearments of life have come to us through and by virtue of this mysterious union. The separation of these elements, the bursting asunder of this bond of our being, leaving the body a lifeless wreck, a despoiled and wasted ruin, while the spirit departs to regions and to scenes unknown, can not be realized without a pang. No darkness of superstition, no gloom of skepticism, can so cloud the very instincts of our being but that a tremulous anxiety will be awakened by an occasion so momentous; while we behold the one element of our nature a "blackened ruin," stricken down in the dust, the other, a trembling, flying fugitive, seems to be escaping away from us, we know not whither. DEATH. 141 But death is appalling, also, when looked upon as sun-:lering the ties of human life, and breaking us off from all the scenes and interests of the present world. To think of bidding an everlasting farewell to earthly friends; to think of mingling no more in the social scenes of life-of closing the eye forever upon the light of day, upon the glory of the earth, the grandeur of the heavens; of listening no more to the sweet accents of affection, or the sweet melodies of nature; nay, to look upon ourselves as'the silent, lonely tenants of the grave-the gloom of our habitation cheered by no companionships save such as make the grave terrible; its darkness relieved by no ray of light, its solemn silence broken by no sound; to think of its gloomy solitude, its festering corruption, the rioting of worms in the dark caverns of the dead; to think of its chilling, freezing cold, from which no protection is given, the cold rain dripping down through the loosened earth above us, making damp the dismal bed where we slumber! Alas! these are the things that make death and the grave terrible. The scenes of life will go on in their accustomed course; childhood and youth, joyous and happy, shall sport along the streets and gambol over the fields, treading upon the very dust above us, unconscious of our doom. The festive board shall witness the gathering of friends, but we shall no more be numbered among them; the current of human affairs will roll onward, but we shall be unmoved by the contending emotions, the hopes and fears, joys and sorrows now felt by the living mass. What a gloomy, appalling spectacle does the grave present! It is truly " the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." But, to one that has no hope in the future, it is armed with tenfold terror; to him that knows only of this life, it 142 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. is an exile to all that he holds dear forever. It is thlc withering of all his hopes, it is the blighting and destroying of all his expectations. Darkness is above, and around, and before him, and there is no light! Alas! what can silence the remorse, what can alleviate the pangs of a dying hour! But the dread of impending ruin, the consciousness of being unprepared to stand before the final Judge, fills the soul with anguish and dismay. Do they look back upon the past, its long catalogue of unpardoned sins rises up to haunt their vision and terrify their imagination! Every sin is recorded, and now stands out with fearful distinctness, shaded with the dark hues of moral death. Do they look forward? Ah! the prospect is too appalling for them to contemplate. In the language of the wretched, dying Altamont, they "turn, and turn, and find no ray!" How awfully is realized in the death of the sinner that impressive truth, The wicked is drivenl away in, his wickedness, and the wrath of God abideth on himn! O, "my soul! come not thou into their secret; and unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united." V. MORAL ENDS OR USES OF THESE TERRORS. But we are led to inquire again, Why, for what purpose, has death been clothed with such terrors? In this allotment, is there not an unnecessary severity on the part of God? Death may have been a just and righteous sentence, but might not some of its terrors been spared? Nay, if we consider the nature of man and the condition of soci ety, we shall soon discover that these terrors are abso. lutely necessary, in order to the proper government of the world. The terrors of death are the great guardians of life. They excite the desire of self-preservation; they prompt us DEATH. 143 to undergo with alacrity the labors necessary to the support of life; tney restrain fromn those sinful indulgences and pleasures to which we are prone, and which would break down our health and destroy our lives; they lead us to suffer the ills of life and bear its calamities with patience and fortitude, rather than dare the terrors that arc attendant upon the approach of death. How many of the wretched sons of men have been led, like Hamlet, to ponder "Whether'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The stings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And, by opposing, end them? But that the dread of something after death, That undiscovered country, from whose bourne No traveler returns, puzzles the will; And makes rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of." I-low often has the hand of the suicide been arrested by those appalling terrors that cluster so thickly around the sad hour of a mortal's departure! how many have been checked from giving up to despondency and gloom, and rushing where their fortunes would be irretrievable, when those fortunes have afterward changed and disclosed a brighter sky! Again, as a safeguard to society, these terrors have their moral uses. Were death not dreaded as it is, no public order could be preserved in the world. The wicked and desperate would trample upon all law and all government; the sword of authority would be shorn of its power; the gibbet and the scaffold would cease to awaken dread. If society is so often now disturbed, and human and divine laws so often trampled in the dust, what would be the result if the awful penalties with which they are robed were taken away? We are, then, persuaded that death is not unnecessarily armed with terrors; that its dark valley has not been planted so thick with themi for no wise or benefi 144 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. cent end. Its first view, perhaps, seemed to arraign and bring into question the goodness of the Deity; but, on closer inspection, we find these terrors as indispensable to the economy of his goodness as to his justice. And till man's moral character is changed, thoroughly, radically changed, there can be no safety in the removal of such a check to vice and the indulgence of unrestrained passion; such removal would be a curse and not a blessing. Nor does this dread, as we shall soon have occasion to show, exist any longer than is necessary to accomplish its benevolent designs. VI. PHILOSOPHY UNABLE TO REMOVE THESE TERRORS. But we must notice that philosophy has never been able to remove these terrors. This has been one of the great aims of its discipline. and yet rarely, in the whole range of human experience, has a death-bed scene been exhibited that even philosophy has claimed as being philosophical. Brutal insensibility-nay, even trifling levityhave sometimes marked the dying hour, but it was an unnatural effort, like that of the wretched maniac, whose wild, hollow laugh rings out from some mountain crag, just as the victim plunges down the abyss of ruin and death. But listen to the voice of reason; hear the arguments of philosophy; tell their sum, consider their amount. She will urge that death is the condition on which you have received life, a debt you must pay; it is the law of your being, an inevitable fate; it is the ordering of that Divine Providence that controls our destinies, therefore we ought cheerfully to submit to our fate. Again, she would urge that every thing else and every individual is mortal and perishing-why should you repine when yours is only a common, DEATH. 145 a universal doom? The very face of nature is subject to perpetual change; kingdoms and cities pass away; the most durable monuments of art crumble to dust; the great and the good, as well as the low and the vile, all come to one common end. The grave is the home appointed for all the living; nay, at the very moment when your flesh is wasting, your soIl departing, thousands all over the wide earth are experiencing the same agony, realizing the same doom. Why, then, do you complain? and why should you seek or desire exemption from that which is universal, which nature has appointed to all'? Again, philosophy would urge that the pain of death is of short duration, and that we often suffer more bodily anguish in attacks from which we recover than is experienced in the process of death; much of the apparent agony of the dying hour is only in appearance, and that, therefore, death is not to be so greatly dreaded. Again, it would urge that the very passions of our nature have triumphed over the fear of death; honor has defied it, shame has sought it as a refuge, and grief has longed for its approach. How much more, then, it would plead, ought reason and philosophy to rise above this pusillanimous, unmanly fear! Again, it would reason, is there not an inconsistency in complaining-so much of the evils of life and yet dreading to be released from them? And, again, can it be desirable to protract a life that must be attended swith infirmity and pain, with the decay of all the intellectual as well as the sensitive powers, with the loss of friends and of worldly enjoyments? Rather would there not be greater reason to complain if life should be thus protracted? And then, again, it would urge that the fear of death can do us no good; therefore it becomes us, like wise men, to dismiss it, and not let it destroy the comfort of life, nor mar the enjoyments a kind Providence has allotted to 13 146 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. our present state. Let us yield to Nature. She knows what is best for us; she will guide us to the fulfillment of our destiny. Such are the arguments with which reason would assuage the fears of death, prop up the mind, and give it courage in the dying hour. They deserve to be considered well; they are the highest comfort reason can afford, and they are not without their force. But they will do better when we are calmly speculating about Death, as seen in the distance, than when the grim monster, with all his terrors, stands before us with his dread summons to call us away. Alas! in that solemn hour, the agonizing soul cries out for something more, something higher, more substantial, to dissipate its fears and sustain its fluttering spirit as it goes down into the dark valley of the shadow of death. Reason fails, philosophy staggers and reels, unrelieved terrors fill the soul with anguish and horror. Then religion is indispensable; then faith and hope are indispensable; then the soul must hang upon its Creator and Redeemer for support; and only when he feels that the Divine arm is round about him can he exclaim, in holy triumph, "I will fear no evil!" VII. HIGHER AGENCIES IN DEATH. It is the glory of Christianity that it brings to light higher agencies than earthly philosophy or human reason in death. Though the Christian is enabled to triumph over its fear, his triumph does not by any means result from a disrelish of life or of its blessings. He may have as high an appreciation of the blessings of this life, and as keen a relish for its enjoyments, as the unrenewed man; he may be yet in the bloom of youth and life, with all its inviting scenes spread out before himu; he is surrounded by friends, cheered with bright prospects, and ardent in the DEATH. 14:7 hope of an honorable and useful career; the strong and tender ties of nature, its high and holy responsibilities, may exert powerful influences upon his mind, and render his longer stay on earth desirable. The dying child might wish to live still longer, to soothe and comfort the declining years of decrepit and afflicted parents. The dying mother may find her very heart yearning in its tenderness over the innocent prattlers around her, so soon to be bereft of care so much needed, so soon to be cast out, perhaps, upon the cold charities of the world. The minister of the Gospel, as, fiom the spiritual watch-towers of Zion, he looks out over the world, surveys its wickedness* and wretchedness, beholds the multitudes that are thronging the road to perdition, may desire longer to live, to proclaim, with the fervor of one raised from the dead, the everlasting Gospel. The Christian's triumph, then, does not result from any disrelish of life-not from any want of attachments to life or objects for which to live. It results not even from any conviction that it is by God's special providence or will that he is called to die now. His disease may have been occasioned by some imprudence, some want of care, which, though permitted by God, and, no doubt, overruled by him for good, does not warrant the belief that it is God's will that he should now die. No, the sources of the Christian's triumph lie deeper than any of these. 1. In the first place, this triumph results from the removal of those causes which render death terrible. "The sting of death is sin." Never was truer sentence uttered. Sin pollutes the soul, brings guilt and condemnation, robs us of our faith, and then leaves us a prey to remorse, stricken with the terrors of coming retribution. Restore to us our moral and spiritual purity bring back our lost faith in the Redeemer, and then to lie down in death would be attended with as few terrors as when we lie down 148 MAN ALL IM-MORTAL. to a night's repose. "Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" "This, only this, subdues the fear of death; And what is this?-survey the wondrous cure; And at each step let higher wonder rise! Pardon for infinite offense... A pardon bought with blood! with blood divine!" Said the distinguished Christian philosopher and physician, Mr. Gordon, who was led through many conflicts into the light of Christian experience, "I reasoned, and debated, and investigated, but I found no peace till I came to the Gospel as a little child, till I received it as a babe. Then such a light was shed abroad in my heart that I saw the whole scheme at once. I saw my sinfulness in all its vivid deformity, and found there was no acceptance with God, and no happiness, except through the blessed Redeemer. I stripped off all my own deeds, went to him naked; he received me according to his promise; then I felt joy unspeakable, and all fear of death at once vanished!" Well may the Christian say, "If sin be pardoned, I'm secure, Death has no sting beside; The law gives sin its damning power, But Christ, my Savior, died." 2. Again: the Christian's triumph results from the conviction that no harm can come to him while passing through the dark valley. I-e rests upon the promises of his God, and they, firm as the eternal rock, are the unfailing support of his soul. "Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." (Isa. xliii, 2.) "The righteous hath hope in his death;" "he is taken away from the evil to come;" his end "'is peace.' "'Precions in the sight of the Lord is the death of his DEATH. 149 saints." "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." "There the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of tha oppressor." All these promises to the Christian are ratified and sealed by the death of Christ. Even he has "tasted death," and through death has triumphed over death and the grave. "The graves of all his saints he blest, And soften'd every bed; Where should the dying members rest But with their dying I-lead?" "Thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." Such was the faith of the Psalmist, as he looked down, through the long lapse of more than a thousand years, to a crucified Redeemer, seen only through the dim types of the law, and the darkly-uttered, distant promise. Yet so clear was his spiritual vision, so strong his faith, that he forgets all intervening time, and, in the fullness of his joy, cries out, Thou art with me! No such burden is imposed upon us. We behold a Redeemer, not merely through the type, the shadow, the promise, but through all these fulfilled. How strong, then, in the faith ought we to be! how joyous in confidence, giving glory to God! "Thou art with me." The Christian goes not alone. His Divine Shepherd, with his friendly crook and his spear of defense, goes with him down through the dark valley, and hides from him the fear of evil. I wonder not at his triumph; I wonder not that with his expiring breath he cries out, "I will fear no evil!" "0 would my Lord his servant meet My soul would stretch her wings in haste, Fly fearless through death's iron gate, Nor feel the terrors as she passed." 150 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. 3. Again: the Christian triumphs in death, because ht looks upon it as the termination of present trials and sorrows, and the gateway that shall conduct him to endless joy. Here ends his weary pilgrimage, and from the summit of Pisgah he looks out over the glorious land of his inheritance. A traveler in the East, speaking of a caravan of great length, traveling from the East to Jerusalem, says that, after climbing over the extended and heavy ranges of hills that bounded their way, often obstructing their passage and making it toilsome and difficult, some of the foremost in the train at length reached the top of the last hill, and when the long-sought object broke upon their vision, throwing up their hands with joyful exclamations, they cried out, "The Holy City! the Holy City!" and fell down and worshiped, while those behind pressed forward to behold the glorious sight. So the dying Christian, when he gets to the last rugged summit of life, and from that hight beholds the glory beyond-the celestial city glittering with the beams of everlasting light —he cries out, with the departing Payson, "I am going to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, and to God the Judge of all!" or, with Risden Darracott, "I am going from weeping friends to congratulate angels and rejoicing saints in heaven! Blessed be God! all is well! all is well!" Life is a season of toil, of conflict, and of danger. It is a tempestuous ocean. Thousands have been already stranded upon its shores, while only here and there a wayworn, tempest-tossed, and weather-beaten mariner has gained the everlasting coast, and entered the port of bliss. Such is the day of death to the child of God. Struggling in the midst of life's tempestuous ocean, beset with veering winds and changing tides-with sky perhaps clouded ancd DEATH. 151 obscure-thus driven by fierce winds and tossed by raging waves, the desired haven is seen dimly in the distance, and the soul struggles on, sometimes doubtful whether it shall ever reach the port; just then the tempest is hushed, the clouds are parted, the sun beams forth, and a sound like the deep melodies of an angel's song fills the vast expanse: "Servant of God, well done! Thy glorious warfare's past, The battle's fought, the race is won, And thou art crowned at last." All uncertainty about its destiny now ceases; heaven is sure and Got] is sure; and while "the everlasting doors are lifted up," the ransomed spirit enters its blissful abodejoins the angelic throng amid the welcomes of glorified spirits, flames in robes of living light, seizes the golden harp and strikes up the eternal anthem, "Unto him that loved us and washed us in his own blood, to him be majesty and dominion, honor and glory, forever and ever!" Our souls, lonely and sorrowing, sometimes yearn to call back to earth the loved ones that have passed away from us; but is it not our sefishness rather than our love that could desire their return? Why should we wish to call them away? why would we expose them again to dangers from which they have so surely escaped to toils and sorrows from which heaven has already granted them release? O, no! we would not call you back. Shine on in your brightness, ye blessed of the Lord! Alone will we willingly bear the burdens and sorrows of life; and when death the mighty day of deliverance draws near, with the light of heaven illuminating the soul, and the smile of trlumph brightening every feature, we will welcome its approach and hasten again to enjoy the light of your countelhance more heavenly, and to witness again your affection more pure and exalted. 152 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. 4. Still another and a final reason for the Christiar s tri umph is, that dying grace is given in a dying hour. It is the almost universal experience of the righteous, that as death draws near, much as it may have been dreadecd before, it loses much of the gloom which makes it terrible to the living. This triumph is no result of naturai constitution, of established habit, nor even of strenuous effort; for those who possess least of constitutional courage or philosophical firmness often go down into the dark valley with the most complete triumph over all their past fears and misgivings. I knew a female, naturally timid, distrustful of her Christian experience. For many years she had been a child of affliction, and had often been brought down to the gates of death, and on such occasions her natural timidity often occasioned her the greatest distress. It was with her an almost constant dread and fear that when death came she would be unable to endure the conflict. The dying clay at length approached; her friends trembled to break to her the melancholy truth; but, feeling that it must be done, they at length informed her that she was in a dying state, and that it was the opinion of her physician that she could hold out but a few hours longer. In a moment her whole countenance was overspread with a most heavenly expression, her eye beamed with unearthly luster, and her tongue broke forth in the language of triumph and praise. When reminded of her former doubts and fears, she reproached herself most bitterly, exclaiming, "'0, that I could ever have distrusted the goodness of God and the power of religion! that I could have ever been so unbelieving as to have questioned the faithfulness of the ]Divine promises, and the power of Divine grace to sustain me in the dying hour!" Thus triumphing in God, rejoicing in his presence, she continued encouraging and exhorting her friends, till at length casting up her glance, as if to greet DEATH. 15 3 some heavenly messenger, her spirit took its flight to join the millions of the redeemed. It might not be possible, with our spiritual ignorance and darkness, to point out all the Divine agencies employed in biinging about this glorious result of the Christian's triumph. In the first place, the mind is, no doubt, divinely prepared, and the fulfillment of the promise, "as thy day is so shalt thy grace be," is realized. The excellent Sir William Forbes, when dying1 said to surrounding friends, "Tell those that are drawing down to the bed of death, from my experience, that it' has no terrors; that in the hour when it is most wanted there is mercy with the Most High, and that some change takes place which fits the soul to meet its God." Another of the Divine agencies employed in producing this result may be the more abundant infusion of the Holy Spirit, and a clearer consciousness of the presence and favor of Christ. And, again, who shall deny that ministering spirits are sent down from heaven to watch around the dying couch of the Christian, and to convey his ransomed spirit home to God? When are ministering spirits more needed than when we walk through the dark valley? They gathered around the dying Lazarus, and carried him to rest in Abraham's bosom; and so do they hover around the. dying Christian, unseen by mortal eyes, unheard by mortal ears, breathing heavenly infiuen-e, shedding holy light upon the scene! A dying infant scholar, of heavenly sweetness and temper, just at the moment of death, looked up, with a joyous expression of countenance, and raising her little hands, as though she would greet the heavenly messengers, cried out, "The angels have come!" and expired. Dr. Bateman, a distinguished physician and philosopher, cried out, "What glory! the angels are waiting for mew' And here a thought comes in, upon which we may spec 154 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. ulate for a moment. Among these "ministering spirits,' who would be more ready to run to our relief, to hovei around our dying bed, and to welcome our disinthralled spirit than the dear friends and kindred of earth who have gone before us to God? Is there any thing inconsistent in the idea that they too come down to greet us as we cross the Jordan of death? The mother that watched over us, the sister of our love, the prattling child that passed from our sight, may come down to greet us at the swellings of Jordan, and welcome' us to the partnership of their joy. And is it not something more than the mere glow of the imagination which recognizes the presence of the dear departed at the moment of death? But no one can doubt that to the Christian a clearer insight into spiritual things is given in the hour of death. Heaven was opened to the vision of the dying Stephen, and not to him alone, but to many a saint of God in all ages. Dr. MI'Lain, while expiring, said, "I can now contemplate clearly the grand scene to- which I am going." The pious Blumhardt cried out, "Light breaks in! Halleluiah!" and expired. Sargent, the biographer of Henry Martyn, with his countenance kindled into a holy fervor, and his eye beaming with unearthly luster, fixed his gaze as upon a definite object, and exclaimed, " That bright light!" and when asked what light, answered, "The light of the Sun of Righteousness!" Dr. Payson, whose spiritual conflicts had been many and severe, writing to his sister, just before his death, said, "I might date this letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been some weeks a happy inhabitant. The celestial city is full in view. Its glories beam upon me; its breezes fan me; its odors are wafted to me; its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spir t is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears but an insignificant DEATH. 155 rill that may be crossed at a single step. The Sun of Righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as he approached, and now he fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun, exulting, yet almost trembling, while I gaze upon this excessive brightness, and wondering with unutterable wonder why God should design thus to shine upon a sinful worm." "The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileged beyond the common walkl Of virtuous life, quite on the verge of heaven. HeavemI waits not the last moment, owns its friends On this side death, and points them out to menA lecture silent-but of sovereign powerTo vice confusion, and to virtue peace." Such is the character and such the resources of the Christian's triumph! Such are the circumstances that clothe with moral sublimity the closing scene of his mortal career! "Let me die the death of the righteous; and let my last end be like his." How infinitely valuable and desirable is that religion which can give such divine support in a dying hour! It comes here to meet us in our greatest extremity. When the world is fading from our view, when friends weep in vain, when no light of science can illuminate our pathway or direct our steps, it comes and sheds a heavenly radiance over the scene. It gives security while passing through the dark valley of death, and unvails eternal glory to the mortal vision. Through this may we exclaim, "O Death! where is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory?" Let disease waste and destroy, let pain rack and dismay, let youth and beauty fade-yea, let the grave open its jaws, let the cold clods fall upon the lifeless dust; but, borne aloft and sustained by Divine power, cherished by 156 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. the pi esence of Christ his Redeemer, the Christian may exclaiml, " I will fear no evil!" Nay, to the Christian death is gain. From the bed of infirmity and pain he goes to an immortal crown. Can we wonder, then, that he should have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better? "Death is the crown of life! It wounds to cure; we fall, we rise, we reign! Spring from our fetters, fasten in the skies, Where blooming Eden withers in our sighlt. Death gives us more than was in Eden lost; This King of Terrors was the Prince of Peace." VIII. LAST MOMIENTS AND DYING WORDS OF DISTINGUISIIED }MEN. "The tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony; Where words are scarce, they're seldom spent inl vain, For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain." So sang Shakspeare, the great poet of human nature. The dying words of men have always attracted attention, and have been treasured by friends as something sacred. The solemn hour of death usually subdues the worldly feelings and passions, and induces men to look soberly upon the circumstances of the present and the prospects of the future. "A death-bedl's a detecter of the heart; Here real and apparent are the same." There are, however, different degrees of mental supremacy in dissolution even among cultivated men, owing, often, to the differences in moral character, and not unfrequently to the nature of the disease or to some peculiarity of circumstance. Let the moralist inquire, if he will, how a man has livecd, but all feel a curiosity, whether they will confess it or not, to know how a man dies. Nor is this a mere matter of empty curiosity. These DEATH. 157 dying words have for us lessons of deep significance. What a moral grandeur gathers around the death-scene of the great and good of' earth when sanctified by a religious faith, and how fearful the contrast when the departing spirit leaves the world all unprepared, unaneled, unblessed, with all the terrible premonitions of a coming judgment An eloquent modern writer says: "Life's last hours are grand testing hours. Death tries all our principles and lays bare all our foundation. Vast numbers have been found to act the hypocrite in life who were forced to be honest in the hour of death. What atheists have owned their principles, what worldlings have bewailed their folly, when death approached! Misgivings of the heart, that have been kept secret through life, have come out in death, and many who seemed all right and fair for heaven have had to declare that they had only been self-deceived. It has been said'man may not dissemble in death,' hence the value of dying testimonies. We gather the last words, the last acts, the last experiences, and we treasure them up as indubitable evidences in favor or or against the character of those that wore their value as tests of character, and all have felt their force." An illustration of the boldness of the man sustained by Christian foresight is found in the last hours of George Buchanan, "the ornament of Scottish literature." When in a dying condition, King James summoned him to appear before the court in twenty days. He sent in reply these words: "Before the days mentioned by your Majesty shall be expired, I shall be in that place where few kings enter." When the poet Goethe, after more than the usually-allotted term of human existence, was met by the summons, it found him still busy with the pen, the implement at once of his pleasure and his power, and he sank as a child, who, 158 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. with the glow of the day's activity still on his cheek, look ing forward to a morrow of hope and joy, folds himself to sleep. "Let the light enter!" were his last words, "echoed, we may suppose," says his biographer, "firom a region where all is light."* Sir Walter Raleigh, being asked by the sheriff which way he chose to place himself upon the block, answered, "So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies." The last words of Nelson were, "Tell Collingwood to bring the fleet to anchor." Sir Thomas More, mounting the scaffold, saidcl, "I pray you to see me up safe; and for my coming down, let me shift for myself." Frederick V of Denmark said, in his last moments, " It is a great consolation to me in my last hour that there is not a drop of blood on my hands." The Earl of Roscommon, when about to die, uttered, with great energy, these two lines of his Dies Irc'e "My God, my Father, and my friend, Do not forsake me in the end." Tasso died with the words " nr marnus tuas Domnine" upon his tongue, having died before he could finish the sentence. Schiller, being asked, when he was dying, how he felt, re-. plied, "Calmer and calmer." M[accail, an eminent and pious Scottish gentleman, exclaimed, "Farewell sun, moon, and stars! farewell kindred and friends! farewell world and time! farewell weak and frail body! Welcome eternity! welcome angels and saints! welcome Savior of the world! and welcome God, the Judge of all!" The poet Keats, when asked, a little before he died, how he was, replied,'"Better, my firiend. I feel the daisies growing over me." Addison called a dissolute young nobleman, his son-in-law, to his bedside, saying, "I have summoned you that you': Salad for the Solitary. DEATH. 159 may see with what tranquillity a Christian can die." Cardinal Beaufort, who was accused of murdering the Duke of Gloucester, died in indescribable terrors. His last words were, "And must I die? Will not all my riches save me? What! is there no bribing death?" The demise of Beethoven was peculiarly impressive. He had been visibly declining, when suddenly he revived. A bright smile illumined his features as he softly murmured, "I shall hear in heaven," and then sung, in a low but distinct voice, the lines from one of his own beautiful hymns"BrUiider! i ber'm Sternenzelt, MIuss ein lieber Vaier wohneu." Washington, when dying, said, "It is well;" John Q. Adams, "This is the last of earth;" Madame.De Stael, "I have loved God, my father, and liberty;" Commodore Lawrence, "Don't give up the ship!" Queen Elizabeth, "All my possessions for a moment of time!" Sir J. Stonehouse, " Precious salvation!" John Wesley, "The best of all is, God is with us!" Archbishop Jewell, "This day let me see the Lord Jesus!" General Wolfe, "Who run? the enemy? then I die contented!" Earl of Derby, and also Bishop Broughton, "Let the earth be filled with his glory!" Sir Philip Sidney, "In me behold the end of the world and all its vanities!" Mozart, "Let me hear once more those notes so long my solace and delight!" Hooker, "My days are past as a shadow that returns not!" Cranmer, Hooper, Herbert, and Ferrae, " Lord, receive my spirit!" Archbishop Usher, "0 O Lord, forgive me; specially my sins of omission!" John Locke, "Cease now!" addressing Lady Marham, who was reading a Psalm; Sir James Mackintosh, "Happy!" Thomas Jefferson, "I resign my soul to God, and my daughter to my country!" John Adams, "Independence forever!" Latimer, "Be of good comfort, brother Ridley, for we shall this 160 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. day light such a candle in England as, by God's grace, shah never be put out!" the Marquis of Argyle, when advancing to the scaffold, "I would die as a Roman, but I choose rather to die as a Christian!" Lawrence Saunders, kissing the stake to which he was bound, "Welcome cross of Christ! welcome everlasting life!" AMelanethon, "Nothing but heaven!" Luther, "Thou hast redeemed me, 0 Lord God of truth!" John Huss, "I take God to witness, I preached none but His own pure doctrines, and what I taught I am ready to seal with my blood;" the venerable Hilary, A. D. 385, "Soul, thou hast served Christ these seventy years, and art thou afraid to die? Go out, soul! go out!" Grotius, "0, I have consumed my days in labori ous trifling!" Julian, the apostate,'" Thou hast conquered me, 0 Galilean!" Hobbes, "I am taking a fearful leap in the dark!" Cardinal Mazarine, "0, my poor soul! what is to become of thee? whither wilt thou go?" Napoleon, "Head of the army!" Robert Burns, alluding to the Dumfiies militia, "Don't let that awkward squad fire over me!" Pope, to a friend who came in just as the physician had gone out, after speaking encouragingly of his symptoms, " I am dying, sir, of a hundred good symptoms!" Erasmus, "Lord, make an end;" Simeon, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!" St. Stephen, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" St. Paul, "I have fought a good fight;" Bishop Porteus, "O, that glorious sun!" The closing scene in the life of 3Mozart is one of the most touching ever recorded. He seems to have suffered all his life, like Johnson, from the fear and dread of death. He had been employed upon his "requiem" several weeks; all the while his soul was filled with the richest melodies. After giving to the requiem its last touch, and breathing into it the soul of undying harmony, which was to consecrate it through all time, as his "'cygnean strain," he fell DEATH. 161 into a gentle slumber. At length the light footsteps of his daughter Emilie awoke him. "Come hither," said he, "my Emilie; my task is done-the Requiem, any Requiem, is finished." "Say not so, dear father," said the gentle girl, interrupting him, as tears stood in her eyes; "you must be better; you look better, for even now your cheek has a glow upon it. I am sure we will nurse you well again; let me bring you something refreshing." "Do not deceive yourself, my love." said the dying father; " this wasted form can never be restored by human aid. From Heaven's mercy alone do I look for aid in this my dying hour. You spoke of refreshment, my Emilie; take these, my last notes, sit down by my piano here, sing them with the hymn of thy sainted mother; let me once more hear those dear tones which have been so long my solacement and delight!" His daughter obeyed, and, with a voice enriched with tenderest emotion, sung the following stanzas: "Spirit, thy labor is o'er; Thy earthly probation is run; Thy steps are now bound for the untrodden shore And the race of immortals begun. Spirit, look not on the strife, Or the pleasures of earth with regretPause not on the threshold of limitless life, To mourn for the day that is set. Spirit, no fetters can bind, No wicked have power to molest; There the weary, like thee-the wretched shall find A haven-a mansion of rest. Spirit, how bright is the road For which thou art now on the wing! Thy home it will be with thy Savior and God, Their loud alleluiahs to sing." As she concluded, she dwelt for a moment upon the low, melancholy notes of the piece, and then, turning from the instrument looked in silence for the approving smile of her 14 162 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. father. It was the still, passionless smile which the rapt and joyous spirit had left, with the seal of death upon those features.* What a contrast to this is afforded in the death of Cardinal Wolsey, for the account of which we are equally indebted to D'Aubigne, and that genial literary purveyor, the author of "Salad for the Solitary." "On Monday morning, tormented by gloomy forebodings, Wolsey asked what was the time of day.'Past eight o'clock,' replied Cavendish.'That can not be,' said the Cardinal;'eight o'clock! No! for by eight o'clock you shall lose your master.' At six o'clock on Tuesday, Kingston, having come to inquire about his health, Wolsey said to him,'I shall not live long.''Be of good cheer,' rejoined the Governor of the Tower.''Alas! Master Kingston,' exclaimed the Cardinal,'if I had served God as diligently as I have served the King, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs!' and then, he added, with downcast head,.'This is my just reward!' What a judgment upon his own life! On the very threshold of eternity-for he had but a few minutes more to livethe Cardinal summoned up all his hatred against the RIeformation, and made a last effort. The persecution was too slow to please him.'Master Kingston,' he said,'attend to my last request; tell the King that I conjure him, in God's name, to destroy the new pernicious sect of Lutherans;' and then, with astonishing presence of mind in this his last hour, Wolsey described the misfortunes which the Hussites had, in his opinion, brought upon Bohemia; and then, coming to England, he recalled the times of Wickliffe and Sir John Oldcastle! He grew animated; his dying eyes yet shot forth fiery glances! He trembled, lest Henry VIII, unfaithful to the Pope, should hold out his hands to the Reformers.'3Master Kingston,' said he, in conclusion,'the:Salad for the Solitary. DEATH. 163 King should kn,'w that if he tolerates heresy, God will take away his power, and we then shall have mischief upon misahief-barrenness, scarcity, and disorder to the utter destruction of this Realm.' Wolsey was exhausted by the effort. After a momentary silence, he resumed, with a dying voice:' Master Kingston, farewell! My time draweth on fast. Forget not what I have said and charge you withal; for when I am dead ye shall, peradventure, understand my words better!' It was with difficulty he uttered these words; his tongue began to falter, his eyes became fixed, his sight failed him. He breathed his last at the same minute the clock struck eight, and the attendants standing around his bed looked at each other in affright." He appears to have had a presentiment that he should die at eight o'clock, but had mistaken the day, having fixed it one day too soon. There is another class of psychological phenomena connected with the dying process, which we must not pass unnoticed. It is a matter of notoriety that those dying from delirium trelnens are haunted with the appearance of serpents, horrid forms, black figures, burning flames, and the most appalling spectral forms. Dr. Nelson informs us that in the southern part of the United States, where a friend had often been called to witness the dying scenes of infidels and gamblers, they not unfrequently declared that the evil one was present in the room and visible to them. Similar images often haunt the last hours of men whose dying scene is made terrible by the goadings of a guilty conscience. On the other hand, bright and beautiful scenes seem to kindle the imagination of the holysnatches of heavenly melody, glimpses of angelic visitants, visions of the celestial city and of the heavenly plains! Surely, there is some significance in all this. Can it be other than a prophecy of the life that is to come? 164 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. VIII. LESSONS AFFORDED BY THE SUBJECT. Let us, in conclusion, notice a few of the lessons sug gested by this discussion: 1. Death is not the destruction of the livi~ng prilnciple irn mtan. As death approaches, and the body sinks and wastes, the mind often remains in all its strength and luster. This may be said always to be the case, except when disease imra pedes the functions of the brain, and thus prevents the mental manifestation. Thus, the mind does not even seem to be dynig with the body, but only loosening its hold and preparing to depart from it. 2. Life is loty enough for its purposes. Long before his threescore years and ten are reached the character is formed-we had almost said stereotyped and sealed for eternity. For the Christian life is long enough. Why should he wish to live longer? "The less of this cold world, the more of heaven; The briefer life, the earlier immortality." It is long enough for the sinner. If in the seventy allotted years he has done only evil, what else can we expect from him should his life be prolonged to the greatest period? His evil habits are being constantly strengthened by indulgence; the sphere of his evil influence is ever growing wider and wider. Of what use to him, or the world, or to heaven would be a longer life? In what could it result but greater and more wide-spread evil, deeper guilt, and, in the end, more fearful punishment? In the brevity and uncertainty of human life, then, we find no cause to implead the wisdom or even the goodness of God. 3. Te carry down to death the character we have formved in life. It is a very common, but at the same time a very mistaken notion, that when we come to death we somehow DEATH. 165a take upon us a new character. This idea is not only false in philosophy, but it is pernicious to good morals and religion. We die as we live. We go down to the grave with the characters, the habits, the desires, the feelings we have formed in life. A man may look with horror upon his past life, but that does not change it; a man may, in the terror of approaching death, abhor himself for his worldliness and sensuality, but that does not uproot worldliness and sensuality from his character. Let him be restored to health, and they will sway the same iron rule as before. We fall asleep at night just such beings as we have been through the day, and in the succeeding morning we wake up with characters unchanged. So shall we fall asleep when the night of death comes just such beings as we have been through life's day; and so also shall we awake in the resurrection morning, and such as we have lived we shall remain forever. 4. Death will come to uts all. None can hope to escape. Hle is treading even now in our footsteps-when we sleep or when we wake! Noiseless, ceaseless is his advance! Infancy in its purity, youth in its beauty, manhood in its strength, and age in its honor find no exemption. Death is no respecter of persons. Opulence and poverty, power and feebleness, honor and its opposite, are all alike to him. He will come. His footfall shall, erelong, strike upon thine ear! Thou shalt shiver with icy coldness in the chilling atmosphere he breathes around thee! Thou, too, shalt go and join the countless hosts of his victims! thou shalt lie down in the dark and silent home of the dead! What thy hand findeth to do, do it, then, with thy might. Make life a stepping-stone to eternal bliss, the grave a triunmphal archway to heaven. 166 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. VIIT THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD.* "'But man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" JOB xiv, 10. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." EccL. xii, 7. WWE have already seen that death is not an extinction of our being, and also that the soul has been made immortal by its Creator. The condition of the body after death we know to be one of organic decomposition; and when its elements have been dissolved dust and ashes only remain. But what is the condition of the soul in its separate state? This is a. question that profoundly concerns us. Friends of ours, and dear ones strongly and tenderly allied to us, have already entered that state. We ourselves will soon be called to experience its realities. No wonder that the subject has excited universal and earnest attention in all ages. The visible bond that unites our friends to us is severed by death. Our spirit yearns for intercourse with them, but we find them not. We interrogate the grave, but it gives back no response. This anxiety concerning the departed is an intense and absorbing feeling: hence, in all ages, the efforts to penetrate the vail that conceals their condition from us. Under the influence of this sacred feeling thousands have sought, *In the revision of the chapters on the Intermediate State, the, author has been largely assisted by the excellent work of Mr. Harbaugh on "hIeaven, or The Sainted Dead"-a work worthy of heart-stldy. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 167 unwisely and by unholy agencies, to obtain some message from the dead, or to learn something concerning their condition. Necromancers, astrologers, spiritual mediums, and all kinds of impostors, have been consulted. Upon the basis of the same holy feeling Popery has erected the monstrous fraud of purgatory, and made it a source of revenue that once surpassed the revenues of the greatest commercial nations on the face of the globe. This painful uncertainty atout the future also constitutes one of the sources of that terror which death inspires. "The dread of something after deathThat undiscovered country, fiom whose bourne No traveler returns, puzzles the will." Affrighted at the gloomy prospect, we stand upon the outer edge of our present being and survey the awful scene, the land of darkness and of shadows, just before us. "To die; to sleepTo sleep? Perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, Wshen we have shuffled off this mortal coil, [Must give us pause." And here reason, unillumined by revelation, must ever pause; here it must stand appalled, bewildered, unnerved. Let us enter the privileged chamber where the saint of God, after a long and glorious warfare, struggles in the last dread conflict. His breathing is short and difficult, his pulse fluttering and failing; cold drops of sweat stand upon his marble brow; receding life leaves the pallor of death upon his countenance; his friends give utterance to their sorrow in the gush of falling tears, or in that anguish that is too deep for tears. Another step, and the transit of the cold Jordan of Death will be complete. Life is fast going out, but the beaming eye speaks of heavenly support. Just then he struggles for utterance, and is heard to exclaim, 168 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. with faltering speech, "'Having a desire to depart and be with Christ!" A moment nmore, and all is over! The weary wheels of life have ceased to move! all is still! The body is no longer the home of the spirit! it is motionless and dead! Where has that spirit gone? What is its state now? What now has become of that hope of passing through the agonies of death to the glorious presence of Christ, and to the blissful vision of heaven? Has it been realized, or has it been blighted forever? What saint of G-od, who has been sustained in a dying hour, has not fixed his eye upon this one glorious hope-that of dying and being with Christ? The body we know shall slumber till the resurrection; but shall the spirit, even in its separate state, fail to reach that heaven where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God? Let us, then, consider some of the facts, clearly deducible from the Bible, which throw light upon the condition of the soul after death and before the resurrection. I. THERE IS AN INTERMEDIATE STATE OF SOME KIND. This is clearly inferable from the fact that man is not represented as being judged, and receiving final adjudication of reward or punishment at the time of death, or even immediately after it. An intermediate period elapses. The resurrection of the body, its reunion with the soul, and the final judgment are events still remote. The Scriptures are clear and conclusive upon these points. Indeed, the subject is so often referred to in the Bible, and placed in such clear and strong light, and reiterated in so many forms, that we wonder how any one could ever have mistaken their import. At one time we hear'"the resnrreCtion of the last day" (John xi, 24) spoken of; at another the declaration, fall THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 169 ing from the lips of Christ himself, that "the hour is coming, in thie which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall conme forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John v, 28, 29.) Then, again, we hear our Savior saying to those who had made joyful the poor who could not recompense them, "Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurcction of the just." (Luke xiv, 14.) So St. Paul, when defending himself from the malignant charges made against him by the Jews, says, "So worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets; and have hope toward God... that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just agnd unjust." (Acts xxiv, 15.) So, also, the same great apostle, (2 Tim. iv, 6-8,) when triumphing in the prospect of his speedy and glorious departure, after having fought the good fight, finished his course, kept the faith, still looks forward to " that day" when his peculiar and final reward should be received. St. Peter, also, (1 Peter i, 3-7,) though ecstatic in the "lively hope" of " an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled," contemplates it as "reserved in heaven," and "ready to be revealed in the last time." The reader can not fail to perceive that in all these passages there is not only no allusion made to death as being the time when the righteous should receive their final reward, and the wicked their final doom, but that we are pointed directly to the resurrection as the period when these great events should take place. The recompense of the righteous, the hope of the apostle, the crown of righteousness, the incorruptible and undefiled inheritance, all are reserved in heaven, ready to be 1revealed in the last time. To confirm this great truth still further, and to show how wide and comprehensive it is, let us iisten again to St. Paul, (Rom. ii, 6-16,) while he declares that God "will 15 170 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. render to every man according to his deeds: to them whe by patient continuance in we.l-doing, seek for glory, anti honor, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath." When, then, is this rendering to every soul of man to be made? "Inb the day when God shall judge the secrets of mqan, by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel," is the distinct and emphatic response. At one time the apostle connects realization of the great end of the holiness of the righteous with " the coming of otur Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints," (1 Thess. iii, 13, 23;) and, again, the recompensing of tribulation to them who troubled the saints, a.nd vengeance on them that know not God and do not obey the Gospel, to the period "7when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed friomn heaven, with his m'ighty angels, and in flnmilng fire;" and, still again, St. Peter connects "the promise of his coming" not only with the final judgment, but also with the "coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall mnelt with fervent he.at." (2 Peter iii, 4-12.) The conclusion to which these passages, and many others of the same import, conduct us is, that the day of final adjudication is not the same as that on which we die, but is at the general resurrection of the dead and the consummation of the present order of things. Here, then, two errors, somewhat prevalent, find their certain correction. The first is that the righteous are judged at death, which can not be the case, as the Scriptures explicitly declare that both the righteous and the wicked shall be judged in the great and final day. The second is that the saints of God enter upon tle full realization of their everlasting felicity immediately at death, and independently of their resurrection bodies; but this can not be the case, for these Scriptures plainly show that. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 171 the resurrection and the reinvestment of the soul with its body, rendered incorruptible and glorious, must precede the consummnzation of the bliss of the redeemed. Every-where do the Scriptures teach us that it is in connection with his body man is to attain his highest destiny. Give place to these two errors, and they will serve but as stepping-stones to the denial of both the resurrection and the final judgment; for if the soul is judged at death, and then enters upon its full reward, what can be the advantage of a subsequent resurrection of the body, and what the propriety of a subsequent adjudication of that which has already received judgment? But says the objector, "Is not the destiny of every individual decided bv the character he has formed, and by the relations he has sustained to God in this life, so that no change can be effected in any allotments beyond the grave?" It is true that our character and works in this life fix our destiny in the life to come, and also that there can be no change of ou0r allotmnent-though there may be a fuller development of it-after our brief day of life has ended. Yet the objection, when urged as an objection, overlooks two important facts connected with the final judgment of all men. One of these is that God will judge every man according to his works-the righteous according to his, the wicked according to his. The desert of each individual is to be determined not merely by the motives that gave rise to his actions, but by the influences he has exerted, and by the practical results those influences have brought forth. The influence a man exerts out. lives him, and travels on, for good or for evil, to the enc of time. The good or the evil actually done in life may be very small compared with that which results from his influence after he is dead. " The prophets who wrote the Old Testament, and the evangelists and apostles who wrote 172 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. the New, have exerted a wider influence f'or good since their death than while living. All along down the track of ages, and at the present time, they have been and are now doing untold good. And so every one who writes. Baxter., though dead, yet speaketh. So does Paine; the blighting influence of his Age of Reason travels on, widening as a stream of death in its dark course."* It is fitting, then, that the good should wait for the full realization of their recompense till the full measure of their influence has been reached. which can be done only when the dispensation which circumscribed the sphere of their operations has come to an end. It is fitting, also, that judgment for the wicked should linger till the full measure of their evil has been realized. But, again, this objection misapprehends the character and design of this final judgment. It is declaration-the "revelatioir of God's righteous judgment." It is the day when God shall vindicate his government of the world, as well as his justice and mercy to individual men, to an assembled universe; when he shall draw out the actual characters of men, their good and evil works, and all the influences they have exerted down to the last moment of the now terminated dispensation; and when he shall thus display before the whole moral universe the reasons which have impelled him, as the Supreme Moral Governor, to award eternal death to the wicked and eternal life to the righteous. God might, indeed, in virtue of his foreknowledge, have taken all the consequences that would yet accrue from our actions into the computation, and executed just and final judgment upon us at the very moment of our death; but how, then, should "the revelation" of his righteous judgment be made so that all the universe would say, "It is right," and also even the blighted, scathed, and ruined soul of the wicked with all the hor* Attractions of the World to Come, p. 67. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF TH E DEAD. 173 ror of its fearful ruin yawning before it, respond, "It is right?" Both revelation and reason, then, combine to assure us that the final judgment can take place only at the end of the present dispensation, which will be at one and the same time with the resurrection from the dead. It is, therefore, manifest that between death and the resurrection there must be an intermediate state. It is widely different from the present state; for the soul will be disembodied-no longer invested with or clogged by its earthly tabernacle. Its probation, too, will be ended, so far as voluntary action can affect its character, condition, or destiny. It must also be widely different from the glorious resurrection state, in which the soul will be reunited to the body once more; but that body, how changed! This corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality. The inevitable conclusion to which we are thus brought is, that there is an intermediate state of some kind; and the pleasing task of ascertaining, as far as we may, what the state of the soul is, where it is, and what are its character, form, occupations, and prospects, is now left unto us. II. ERRORS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, CONCERNING THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. Job, speaking of the place of the dead, calls it "a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." (Job x, 22.) With the lamp of revelation in onO hand, let us grope through this region of darkness ana death. It is the only light that can gvide us in the survey. We know so little of spirit in its present state that it 174 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. should in no wise occasion wonder if we find that we know still less of it in its separate state. Here we find it blended with an organic, material body, and manifesting its being and powers in a thousand ways; and yet it must be confessed that we know very little of its modes of existence even in this world. Such knowledge is in no wise essential to us. How, then, can we expect full and minute knowledge of the modes of its existence in the intermediate state? 1. In the early ages of the world, and even now in some heathen lands, the place of the dead is conceived of as a dark, indistinct, and dreamy region, situated somewhere beneath the earth. This was the first expression of the instinctive longing of the soul after immortality-the first rational or natural denial of the extinction of our being in death. It was natural in the infantile state in which the human mind existed in the early ages of the world, that this childish conception should spring into existence, and exert a controlling influence over the imaginations of men. Their friends died, and their bodies were deposited in subterranean vaults and caves: hence arose the idea of the dark, underground region where they were supposed to live. This region was called among the Hebrews Sheol, and among. the Greeks Hades —terms which mean a place of darkness where nothing is seen, or, specifically, place of the departed spirits. In this land of darkness and silence the dead retained their living personality in the form of mysterious shadows, and, hence, were called manes, or shades. This land of shadows was to them desirable, because they expected there to meet again their departed friends, and to enjoy their companionship forever. This was the dawning twilight of the glorious doctrine of the soul's immortality, now so clearly defined and so fully demonstrated. TIlE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 175 2. An offshoot of this early conception of the state of the departed spirits has traveled down and been manifested. in some instances in our own time. We refer to the idea that the spirits of the dead linger about the places where their bodies were buried. Among many of the ancients the burial of the body was regarded as essential to the repose of the soul. Thus Homer represents the ghost of Patroclus as upbraiding Achilles because he had not secured to him the rites of burial: "Let my pale corse the rites of burial know, And give me entrance in the realms below; Till then the spirit finds no resting-place, But here and there th' unbodied spirits chase The va.grant dead around the dark abode, Forbid to cross th' irremeable flood." But this idea was not confined to those who had failed of a proper burial. Plato says that "they who only minded the body, and its appetites and pleasures, having something in them ponderous and earthy, shall, after their departure out of this life, be drawn down to earth, and hover about the sepulchers." Dr. Knapp says "that many of the ancients believed that the departed souls remain in or about the graves or dwellings of the dead, either forever or for a long time." He also says that the opinion widely prevailed that departed spirits sometimes return from the kingdom of the dead, and linger around the dead body or the place of burial. These ideas also prevailed, to some extent, among the Jews and early Christians; and thus it was forbidden, in the year 313, to kindle a light near the places of burial, lest the spirits of the saints should be disturbed... similar feeling still exists among the less intelligent people even in Christian countries. Hence the half-defined, the half-believed idea of the ghost of the murdered man, or of the suicide, haunting the place where the crime was perpetrated. Hence, also, that feeling when we approach 176 MAN ALL IM:MORTAL. the place where the bodies of our departed friends slurnmber, as though they themselves were there. "Hence it is common for persons, of all grades of cultivation, to seek beneath the willow where they lie a kind of lonely fellowship with their beloved dead. There is a sweet hope, at least, that there they are nearer to them than in all the world besides; and he is regarded as a cold and heartless intruder who would argue away from them the cherished dream.'She goeth to the grave to weep there.' Sweet mourner! Though we would not rudely drive her away from the spot which has embalmed all she held dear on earth, or forbid her to water the earth with her tears, which she expects will some day yield her back her own again, yet we would whisper softly,'He is not here. Why seek ye the living among the dead?' "* It is not necessary to meet this error, any more than that which preceded it, by argument. IBut while we cherish the spot where the dear departed lie as something sacred and holy in the heart's affections, and though we often go there to commune in our thoughts and feelings with them, yet it is well to dislodge from our minds so gloomy an idea as that their spirits are evermore hovering around the sad, mournful spot. Ah! who could cherish such an idea without a sensible augmentation of sorrow and of deep concern? "The place so cold and lonely. The night winds sigh so dolefully there. How dreadful, in the dead of night, is that dreary and dreamless silence! The snow lies so cold upon the grave; and fiercel than even the cutting anguish of your bereaved heart are the Wintry storms that rave, and drift, and whirl around the monumental marble. Can any one, then, wish the sainted dead to be there? No, no. We would not wish them to be there. They are not therrit is only inanimate mortality. It feels not its loneliness, IHeaven, or the Sainted Dead, p. 102. TIlE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF TIIE DEAD. 177 and is not chilled by the coldness of the place. Banish, thn,m the thought from your mind; for they are not there. In happier society than that in the city of the dead they live; to sweeter sounds they listen; to the music of angelic choirs they bend an enraptured ear. In genial and stormless climes they have found a home. "Far from this world of toil and strife, They're present with the Lord.":* 3. Another error, kindred to each of the former, is that which represents the soul, when it leaves the body at death, as entering into some other body prepared for it. The kind of body into which it then enters is determined by the character of the individual during life. Thus the evil life of the individual was to throw him backward in his gradation to supreme and eternal felicity, or his virtue and piety were to secure to him an advance toward this final consummation of his being. This doctrine was prevalent in the theology of the ancient Egyptians, in the philosophy of Pythagoras and of Plato, and has found advocates in nearly every age. The Egyptians believed that the soul was compelled to pass successively through the bodies of all animals, whether beasts, or birds, or fishes; and when it had completed its circuit, which required three thousand years, it again entered a human body. Pythagoras proposed, by his philosophy, the accomplishment of three things; namely, to lessen the number of transmigrations in order to attain the supreme felicity; to make those passed through favorable in their nature and of short duration; and, finally, to secure for those who should obey all his precepts an entire exemption from any transmigration, and the privilege of going forth at once into ether, and becoming incorruptible and immortal. ". Iheaven, or the Sainted Dead, p. 163. 178 MAN ALL IMMORTALt. In the darkness of heathensim this doctrine may have sprung up from the analogies of nature-the decaying of the seed which results only in changing the form of organized matter and not in the destruction of its life, and the chrysalis which dies only to resume a new and more glorious life. Connect these facts with the deep and allpervading feeling that "man has wandered far away from his God, and, in order to approach him again, he must travel with great labor through a long and dreary way," and also the conviction that "nothing which is imperfect or stained with sin can enter into the pure world of blessed spirits, or be forever united with God," and you have the rational origin of this doctrine of the transmigration of the souls, as well as of purgatory, its kindred error. It is, then, the rational conclusion of philosophy, groping in the darkness to which the intellect of man is subject when unillumined by the revelation of God. It is man's method of purification, while yet ignorant of the glorious truth that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." How dark and gloomy this speculation! how glorious the truth that beams upon us from the revelation of God! That presents a faint hope, an uncertain chance of attaining final felicity through many and long gradations of uncertain issue; this assures us that the pious dead are present with the Lord. 4. As science advanced and knowledge increased, the old theory of an underworld region where the dead were gathered gave place to the more distinct theory of an intei-mediate abode. The poet thus describes his separate, intermediate abode: "0 see! an awful world is this Where spirits are detained.'T is half a heaven And half a hell! What horrid mixture herel THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 179 I see before me, and along the edge Of rayless night, on either side, the sh des Of spirits move; as yet unjudged, uwno med, Or unrewarded. Some do seem to hope Some sit in gloom; some walk in dark suspense; Some agonize to change their state. O, say, Is all this real, or but a monstrous dream?" Having received the first indication of this doctrine from heathen philosophy, it was subsequently evolved in Christian light. It first became a part of Christian philosophy, and then a part of Christian faith. The Council of Florence, in 1439, established it as a doctrine of the Papal Church, and it was afterward reaffirmed by the Council of Trent. It is also recognized in the forms of the Episcopal Church. In the Papal Church this intermediate abode is connected with the idea of purgatory and the extension of man's probation. to this middle abode. This privilege, however, does not extend to those who have not believed and been baptized into the Church; for all such, they believe, go immediately and without hope to hell. In the Episcopal Church this intermediate abode is regarded as a place where the spirit is detained till the resurrection of the body and its final glorification; and for these events they believe it to be undergoing a preparatory training while in its separate abode. The special and insurmountable objections to this theory of an intermediate abode will more distinctly appear in our subsequent discussions; but we can not fail here to remark that, so far as it is connected with the idea of probation subsequent to this life, it is palpably opposed to the clearest teachings of Divine Revelation. It would deny the completeness of the healing virtue of a Savior's blooc, and derogate from the work of the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier. What these could not do for the soul in its present state is to be accomplished by the bleachings of purgatory, or by 180 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. the "'sanative influences" of this intermediate abode. 0, when will Christians learn to look to Christ, and Christ alone, as the great and all-sufficient source of salvation! He is our life. In him we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What more can we need in order to salvation-to fitness for heaven, even-than that which Christ supplies?* "Where he displays his healing power, Death and the curse are known no more; In him the tribes of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost." 5. Another error relating to the intermediate state, and one that is more revolting to all the instincts of our nature than any of those we have considered, is that the soul dies with the body. It is strange that such a doctrine should ever have found place with those who believe in the resurrection and in everlasting life after death. Yet such is actually the case. This theory is thus stated by some of its modern advocates: "The whole man, whatever are his component parts, suffers privation of life, in what we call death." And, again, "The period which elapses between the time of death and the resurrection is spent in unconsciousness and inactivity; the soul is either extinct or in a profound and dreamless sleep, forgetful of all that is past, ignorant of all that is around it, and regardless of all that is to come." The philosophical basis of this doctrine is the assumption that the soul is only the result of the physical organization, and, therefore, can have no separate existence. But all reason and all philosophy demonstrate the falseness of this assumption. The premises being taken away, the conclusion is of no force. The Scriptural argument is absurd and unsustained. The assumption that the Bible teaches such a doctrine is a monstrous fraud upon *lHeaven, or the Sainted Dead, p. 122. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 181 all revelation. Quickened and revived, as this doctrine has been repeatedly amid the heresies of the present day, it has so little to give it countenance, either in reason or revelation, and is in itself so repugnant to all the instincts of the soul, that no degree of fanaticism can give to it more than a brief and sickly existence. A sufficient refutation of this assumption will be found in the Scripture doctrines we shall develop in the subsequent discussion of this subject. But we may inquire here, How can this state of unconscious sleep, or of absolute extinction, be consistent with the living union of the believer in Christ? "Because I live, ye shall live also." This is the great pledge of our uninterrupted life. He that believeth hath eternal life; he that liveth and believeth on Hlinm shall never die; and he that hath the Son hath life. Christ is the source of our life; and as the source can not become extinct, neither can the life that flows from it. Death has no power here. Instead of locking our faculties up in unconsciousness, and isolating us from our union with Christ, it can only break down some of the obstructions to that intercourse that have heretofore existed. " The star that sets Beyond the western wave is not extinct; It brightens in aiother hemisphere, And gilds another eNening with its rays. 0 glorious hope of immortality! At thought of thee the coffin P ad the tomb Affright no more, and e'en the monster Death Loses his fearful form and seems a friend." III. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD ONE OF CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE. How profound our interest in this question! Many of our dear friends have gone away into this region and shadow of death; our hearts follow after them, and we 182 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. would fain know where "and how they are. We ourselves are trembling, as it were, upon the borders of What dark and dreamy land, and our very instinctive solicitude impels us to the inquiry what our condition will be when we enter there. Never for once has the curtain that hides that invisible land from our sight been thrown aside that we might behold it; no one of its innumerable inhabitants has ever returned to these mortal shores to bring intelligence of our departed friends; no voice nor sound is heard; no signsignalizing of that dreamy land, and telegraphed across the invisible space that separates us from it-is seen. Philosophy fails us; it has fouhd itself able to solve but few of the subtile mysteries of the soul even in its present state. No wonder, then, that it is still less able to solve the mysteries of its separate state. Itere it is blended with an organic, material body, and manifests its being, power, and condition in a thousand ways; and yet it must be confessed that as to the modes of its existence-its peculiar relation to the body, its dependence upon it or control over it-we know comparatively little. How, then, can we expect to unravel all the mysteries of its separate state? Yet we are not left in any necessary darkness in relation to the great facts of that mysterious state. And, perhaps, the most important of all those facts-as it is fundamental to all the rest —is that which we have just announced; namely, that the intermediate state of the dead is a state of conscious existence. "I will hear what God the Lord will speak." And does not God reveal to us this great fact-a fact that constitutes a broad platform upon which rest our most glorious hopes in relation to our intermediate state? If such be not the case, why did St. Paul "desire to depart" that he might " be with Christ?" If the soul sleeps with the body till the resurrection of the dead, he would be no nearer to THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 183 the accomplishment of his wish in dying than he was while he lived. Indeed, if the doctrine that the intermediate state is one of annihilation or of unconscious existence be true, St. Paul is no nearer heaven than he would be had he lived to the present hour. Neither is he so near the attainment of his desire now as he was during his life; for while he lived he aenjoyed communion with Christ, but, being dead, even the communion he did enjoy is cut off, if the spirit sleeps with the body in unconscious repose. All intercourse with the Deity, with heaven, with the saints of God on earth, and even with the glorious truths of the Gospel, is utterly broken off, and in one long oblivious sleep has that intellect so vigorous, those affections so pure and so ardent, and those aspirations so glorious antd sustaining, been pent for nearly eighteen centuries; aind altogether unconscious of the history of the Church, and of the fate of the Gospel, of the glory of Christ or the bliss of heaven, will he still continue to slumber till the trump of God shall arouse the unconscious dead on the resurrection morning. Call you this "being with Christ?" Alas! then, what is it to be separated from him? If, between death and the resurrection, "the soul is either extinct or in a profound and dreamless sleep, forgetful of all that is past, ignorant of all that is around.it, and regardless of all that is to come," how fearfully mistaken was the great apostle when he desired to "depart" in order that he might "be with Christ!" Better, indeed, were it to return to life, for here Fe may see, even though it be only as through a glass darkly; but there we see it not all! It is, truly, ac land of darekness as darkness itself! To the penitent thief upon the cross our Savior said, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." On that very day both our Savior and the penitent thief expired. Did he mean that the penitent thief would with him that day cease 184 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. from all conscious existence? What mocke.y to make such a promise as an antidote to the agonies of the dying man! Upon the Mount of Transfiguration Moses and Elias, though the one had been dead nearly fifteen hundred years, and the other had been translated over a thousand years before, not only appeared in the form of living men, though with bodies glorious-emblematic of the glorious resurrection state-but they also conversed, thus demonstrating that they were not only alive but conscious. And if Moses has a conscious existence in the intermediate state, why may not all others? While reasoning with the Sadducees, one of whose doctrines was that there is no spirit, no conscious existence independent of the body, our Savior says, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." And yet God said to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," two hundred years after the dust of the last had been consigned to the cave purchased by Abraham in the field of Macpelah. Hence, it must follow, if there be any verity in God, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though dead, still had a conscious life. The same conclusion will be reached with an equally-invincible force, when we remember our Savior himself declared, " Abraham rejoiced to see' my day; and he saw it, and was glad." The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is also perfectly in point. (Luke xvi, 22, etc.) The beggar died and was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, but death was to him no dreamless, unconscious sleep; for in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. From the deep gulf of his misery he beheld Abraham in his blissful abode, and Lazarus in his bosom. From him he besought relief. "But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 185 he is comforted, and thou art tormented." The objection that this is a parable will not avail to break the force of the great moral truths it teaches. It is either history or a parable. If history, then it is a record of events that have actually taken place; if a parable, then it is a representation of events that may *occur. Now, Abraham is here placed before us again as in conscious being-capable of observing, and of receiving and making communications. Here, also, is the poor beggar, delivered from his life-long sorrow and suffering —not by a suspension of conscious being, but by sweet repose in Abraham's bosom. The rich man, too, is here, and, though his "lifetime" was past, is still conscious of his awful state; he remembers the good things of his former life, and would fain have his five brothers warned lest they also become his companions in his awful place of torment. When St. John, upon the island of Patmos, had heard the wonderful revelations made to him, filled with wonder and astonishment, he fell down to worship the messenger of God; but that messenger said, "See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book." (Rev. xxii, 9.) Do we not here obtain a glimpse' of not only the conscious being, but the avocations also of those who have died in the faith? Again, St. John says, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true!...And white robes were given to every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season." (Rev. vi, 9, 10.) These souls not only possessed a conscious existence after they had been "slain" for the cause of Christ, but they were also conscious of the wrong they had suffered, and were looking forward to the period 16 186 MAN ALL IMMORTAL of their vindication with anxious desire. Nor was this all; "they cried with a loud voice," and were afterward robed in white, and told to rest yet a little season. Here, then, they have a conscious existence, power to express their desires, and capability of being comforted by gracious assurances. Though persecution had done its work, and the bodies of the martyrs had been consumed by th)e fagot, or devoured by wild beasts, or wasted in deep and dark dungeons or dens and caverns of the earth, yet, after it had destroyed the body, there was a conscious life remaining over which it had no power. Take another case-that of St. Paul when he was "caught up into the third heaven," and enjoyed the rapturous vision of the blessed abode and of God. So rapt was he in the glory of the vision, that "whether in the body or out of the body" he could not tell. Now, whatever this vision may have been, or not have been; sink it, if you please, into the least possible significance; yet it unquestionably develops one thing, and that is that the apostle believed that the soul may have a conscious existence out of the body-an existence in which it may perceive and enjoy-nay, an existence in which it may be filled with the most ecstatic felicity. Else how could he have been in doubt whether his soul was really in the body or not when it enjoyed the glorious vision of God and heaven? Those, then, who assume to know that the soul can have no conscious existence out of the body assume to know more than was known by the great apostle. This passage is all the more important, because it was not with direct reference to this subject that the apostle wrote, and it, therefore, becomes one of those incidental and undesigned passages that corroborate the great and cardinal doctrines of the Gospel. One more passage upon this point must suffice, though THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 187 it would be difficult to exhaust the many Scripture proofs that bear upon it. St. Paul says that Christ Jesus "died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." (1 Thess. v, 10.) How emphatic! Whether we wake or sleep, live or die, whether we are in this world or the other, we shall live together with him, shall enjoy his life and the consolation of his spirit here, and, in the eternal world, shall be glorified together with him. These words show that every-where, and in all circumstances, genuine believers, who walk with God, have life-and not only life, but also communion with Him who is the source of all life. Indeedl, they clearly express that, so far as the great ends of spiritual life and communion are concerned, the living have no advantage over the dead. What, then, do all these things teach us? Evidently not only the great doctrine of the soul's immortality, but also that its intermediate state, during the time that intervenes between death and the resurrection, is one of conscious being-one of thought, of feeling, and of action. To have attained this position only, to have established only this single truth, brings to us a most glorious' deliverance from that cold and cheerless hypothesis, which would crush our hearts as we look down into the grave as a place where all conscious being became extinct, and the soul, as the body, enters upon either utter extinction or upon a long and dreamless sleep, to be broken only at the resurrection. I-V. IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE THE RIGHTEOUS DEAD ARE WITH CHRIST. The Scripture authentication of an intermediate state of conscious being is too full and too explicit to leave any room for apprehension on the part of the serious and inquiring mind, or for cavil on the part of the skeptic. 188 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. With some, however, not only an intermediate state but an intermediate place is maintained. It is contended that while Gelhenna is used in the Bible to denote the place of final misery, Sheol in the Old Testament, and H-ades in the New, is used to express the place of departed spirits. With such THades is regarded as a general term, embracing both Eltyssiun, or Paradise, and Tartarus-the separate abodes of the good and the bad. But whence the necessity of supposing them to indicate a _place distinct from either heaven or hell? The etymology of Sheol and Hades clearly indicates that they are designed to denote general and indefinite ideas. Sheol signifies "'the place and state of those who are out of -sight, out of the way, and to be sought for." Hades is compounded of two Greek words, which together signify "an indistinct, dark, and invisible region;" and among the Greeks it was used as comprehending the dead without any reference to their moral character here or to their state there. Thus it is evident that these two words are used not to designate a third place, as distinct from heaven or hell, but rather as general terms, comprehending the state, condition, or place of the dead, whatever or wherever they might be.* Just so do we say of the dead, that they have gone to the invisible world, the world to come, the world of spirits, or to eternity. We indicate nothing of their peculiar conditionwhether happy or miserable-and least of all do we indicate that they are in any third place, as being distinct from: Professor Vail, one of the best Hebrew scholars of the age, says: "Our position is, after a care.',l investigation of every passage in the Old Testament in which the word occurs, and after a careful consideration of opinions advanced by others, besides referring to almost every original source deemed worthy of reference, that Sheol, in its generic signification, refers to the state of the stead, wvithouzt necessarily specifying that state, whether it be in has.piness or in sszisery, and hence the kineodom or world of the dead; and, aside from this generic signification, it is appllied specifically, (1,) to the place of torment of the wicked, and, (2,) to the grave or selprlcher', as the restieng-place of the inanimate body." (Bieth. Quar. Review.) THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 189 either hell or heaven. It is really astonishing, when we consider how widely this doctrine of a separate abode has spread, and how long it has prevailed in the Christian Church, that, after all, it is found to have so little authority from Revelation. It is unquestionably sustained by a feeling to which we have already adverted; namely, that man has wandered very far away from a just and holy God, and that to be restored to him he must travel a great way, and suffer great penance and purgation. Take this sentiment, which is deeply wrought into our nature-take it in connection with a failure to apprehend that it is by the blood of Christ we are "brought nigh," and you have the true basis upon which this pernicious error rests. This sentiment is thus developed by an Episcopal clergyman, in the form of an argument: "The great majority of those who die in the Lord are very far from being eminent saints. They leave the world pardoned and free from sin, indeed, but very imperfect, ignorant, feeble, and unfit for the ineffable blaze of heavenly effulgence, and the society and employments of the ancient and glorious inhabitants of heaven. But paradise is an inlterlmediate restin1g-place, where the soul becomes unfolded, invigorated, and instructed for a superior state and world. The spirit, disinthralled and emancipated from its earthly prison and vehicle, passes into this pclace of abode, perfectly adapted to its disembodied state, and the design of that state. There, under genial and sanative influences, it repairs its losses and injuries, recovers its balance and tone, becomes thoroughly developed, and fully prepared for another and still higher state of being."* The question is well presented and forcibly reasoned; but, after all, it is only one of the superstitious dreams of the world's children, without Scriptural warrant or authority; * The Dead in Christ, b) Rev. J. W. MI'Cullough. 190 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. nay, further, it wars against the saving provisions of the Gospel as being sufficient to the accomplishment of their great end. It would deny the completeness of the healing virtue of a Savior's blood, and derogate from the work of the Holy Spirit as our sanctifier. What these could not do for the soul in its present state is to be accomplished by the bleachings of purgatory, or by the "sanative influences " of the intermediate abode. 0 when will Christians learn to look to Christ, and to Christ alone, as the great and all-sufficient source of salvation! He is our life. In him we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What more can we need in order to salvationto fitness for heaven even —than that which Christ supplies? "Where he displays his healing power, Death and the curse are known no more; In him the tribes of Adam boast More blessings than their fathers lost." It is generally admitted that -the full consummation of bliss is not realized till the resurrection. It is when the soul is clothed upon with its glorious resurrection body, it enters upon the full development of its powers and the full consummation of its bliss! But why is it necessary to suppose that prior to that event it must be put into a separate, independent place, some gradations in advance of earth toward heaven, but yet beneath heaven itself? Why may it not be transplanted at once, not as a fully-developed, but as an embryo being, to expand and mature till its final investiture with an incorruptible body shall gloriously install it among the thrones of heaven? Such, indeed, seems to be the clear light of Revelation upon the subject. The righteous dead are represented as being with Christ. Such seems to have been the views of the first martyr when he cried, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Such also seemed to be the view of St. Paul when TIlE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 191 he expressed "a desire to depart and be [not in the place of separate spirits, somewhere this side of heaven, but] W'IH CHRIST, which is far better." (Phil. i, 23.) And, again, when not only speaking for himself, but for the great body of believers, he says, "Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be Present with the Lord." (2 Cor. v, 6.) The apostle here expresses the strongest conviction that believers, from the moment of death, instead of being in a separate place, are "with the Lord." But where is the Lord -where is Christ? Most certainly he has not only ascended on high, but he has entered into heaven itself. "For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are but the figures of the true; but INTO HEAVEN ITSELF, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Heb. ix, 24.) And, again, "Of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: we have such an high-priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." (Heb. viii, 1.) From these facts it is clearly evident that death ushers the believer into the immediate and glorious presence of Christ. "One gentle sigh their fetter breaks; We scarce can say,'They're gone!' Before the willing spirit takes HIer mansion near the throne." How consoling such a truth! To know that we shall be with Christ sweetens the bitterness of the dying agony. Death removes us from our kindred he're; but it brings us into the presence of that Friend who is dearer than any brother. What enlargement and beatification of the soul's power shall. be realized even at the hour of death! and how glorious shall be that transition-even though made through pain and agony-which brings us into the pres 192 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. ence of Christ! Feeble nature may drop her tears of sorrow over the departed good; "But reason and religion, better taught, Congratulate the dead, and crown his tomb With wreath triunmphant." V. THE ESSENTIAL MIORAL CHARACTER OF THE SOUL IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE WILL BE THE SAME AS IN THE BODY. The Scriptures not only mark the distinction in character between the good and the bad in this life, but also, in tracing their condition and character in the future life, recognize them, each as possessing the same moral characteristics he had in this life. "The wickod is driven away in his wickedness;" that is, he does not leave his wickedness behind him, but he departs in it, and retains it; and for this cause the "wrath of God abideth upon him." The same great truth is set forth in Revelation xxii, 11: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he which is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Such characters, then, as men form here, such as they possess at the time of death, they will retain after they have crossed the dividing line between time and eternity. "Death, like birth, is the act of passing from one state of existence to another, giving us nothing but a change of situation. Here are two moments of time. Now there is the spirit of a man still tremblingly dwelling within an expiring body. Next moment the spirit lives without the body. The little words in and out contain the only difference. All that the soul is at death it will be after death; nothing less, nothing more. It varies nothing. It leaves nothing of itself. It only goes." THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 193 It may be that when we enter the spirit-land we shall be surprised to find so little change has taken place in our moral, and, perhaps, also in our intellectual character-that we are still so much like what we were when we lived on earth. There will, no doubt, be progressive and great changes, especially in the character of the righteous. Notwithstanding their best endeavors, the close of life found them still subjects to many imperfections, still in darkness and error in many respects. But now, how altered their circumstances! how improved their condition! Their probation has ended; the exciting causes of sin are taken away; they breathe an uninfected atmosphere; unholy associations no longer disturb them, for they have Jesus, and angels, and the spirits of the just made perfect for their companions. The angels of God are now their teachers and their guides. Truth, pure from the fountain-head of light, beams with unclouded luster upon them, and chases away the mists of error and the darkness of ignorance. IHere, then, amid all these inspiring and genial influences, the soul will expand and mature its moral and intellectual powers —rising higher and still higher in the scale of excellence, and progressing onward in unceasing approximation toward the immaculate fountain of purity and of bliss. This progression, transcendently glorious as it is, does not imply the assumption of new characters, but rather the development of those already formed upon earth. Take the vine, placed in some unfavorable spot, where it is excluded from moisture, and light, and air; it has but a sickly life, its leaves fall off, its budding blossoms become parched and dry, and its very stock droops and begins to wither. But change its position; give-it light, and air, and moisture; and it revives; it shoots forth new leaves; its buds burst forth into new life, and give promise of a luxurians 17 t94 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. harvest. It is the same vine, but how gloriously developed! So with the immortal spirit, shining amid the glories of heaven, going forth on angelic wing to survey the vastness and the glory of the Creator's works, and vying with the loftiest archangel in its notes of thanksgiving and praise-that immortal and glorious spirit does now only exhibit the fuller development of a character formed here upon earth, and formzed, too, perhaps, amid sighs of sorrow, tears of penitence, and unceasing conflicts with evil. This truth teaches us the practically-important lesson that in this life, this side of the grave, the essential elements of our future and eternal characters are to be gathered. What our external relations may be will matter but little; but what our feelings, our aims, and habits were will avail every thing. The worldly-minded, the passionate, the selfish, the sensual professor will carry with him all the tarnish and rust his soul has acquired here; and, though he may be saved as by fire, yet he will find himself so much like himself that he will be surprised and ashamed, as the glories of the pure and holy beam upon him and dazzle his vision. How many a sinner-nay, how many a Christian professor-would be ashamed to go forth into eternity, to stand before the scrutinizing eye of God, and in the presence of holy angels and the spirits of holy men, with his present thoughts, passions, and habits! And yet how certain it is that we are not only here what life has made us, but such we shall be in eternity! The waters of' death are not waters of ablution to cleanse away sin; nor is there that difference between the living and the dying world that is generally supposed. We shall, no doubt, die very much as we live. And as we die, so are we when we enter upon that intermediate state that leads to corsummation of either bliss or woe. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 195 VI. THE SOUL IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE RETAINS ITS APPROPRIATE HU3MAN FORM. The question has, no doubt, often come up to every reflecting and sober mind, What is the form or shape of the soul? how does it exist in its disembodied state? Of the mode of existence, or of the form of the soul, so to speak, when disembodied, our conceptions can not be otherwise than vague and inadequate. Souls, however, in the disembodied state, must still possess qualities that are analogous to form and feature, voice and hearing. Such seems to be the most rational as well as the most Scriptural idea. It is, indeed, the individual soul that gives to the bodily form and features, the voice and hearing, their individual peculiarity and identity even here. Nor do we know that it can be regarded as an absurd hypothesis that every soul has a human form corresponding, in a measure, at least, to that of the body, and that it retains this distinctive form when it enters the spirit-world. A singular physiological fact, mentioned by some writers, may not be unworthy of mention in this connection. If every thing in the human body, except the nerves, were suddenly removed, leaving the tissue of nerves in the same position they occupied when they were connected with the other material ele ments, there would still be left a perfect human form as addressed to the eye. Take away all except the bones, and you still have a human form. Again, take away all except the veins and arteries, and the same result is obtained. The query raised by these writers is whether this fact may not be suggestive of the soul likewise having a hiuman form. This may not be altogether irrelevant to that declaration of an apostle, "There is a natural [physical] body, and there is a spiritual body," (I Cor. xv, 44;) and, again, 196 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. "We know, that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. v, 1.) The idea of a spiritual body, or of the soul's possessing a bodily form, at least, has the virtue of being a universal, if not instinctive, sentiment of mankind. The heathen poets and philosophers thought and wrote of the manes or shades of their departed friends as still retaining their human form. Their universal teaching, expressed in their philosophy as well as poetry, is that "3qMan, though dead, retains Part of himself; th' immortal mind remains; The form subsists without the body's aid." Ulysses, where he is represented in the Odyssey as visiting the regions of the dead, recognizes, by their form, those he had known on earth. Nothing can be more touching than the scene where he discovers the shade of his mother. All the recollections of childhood and of her tenderness and love come back upon him. He rushes to embrace her, but she eludes his grasp, he being yet in the flesh, and vanishes like an empty dream. Finding her eluding his grasp, and escaping away from him, he exclaims, with the most tender affection,,"Fliest thou, loved shade, while I thus fondly mourn! Turn to my arms, to my embraces turn! Is it, ye po-wers, that smile at human harms, Too great a bliss to weep within her arms?" The same general view seemed to be all-pervading among the mass of the people as well as among the philosophers and poets. It was closely connected in their minds with the recognition of each other and their reunion in the spirit-land. Thus they cherished their affection for their departed friends, and death was disrobed of half its ter. TiIE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 197 rors by the expectation of greeting again the loved ones already passed away to the regions of the blessed. The Scriptures most clearly recognize this grand truth; for wherever the dead are spoken of, or represented as making their appearance upon earth, they are uniformly referred to as being in their appropriate human form. Hence it is that recognition and identification take place. This idea has prevailed in all ages. It is the universal conception of human nature. It is an unconscious element of that faith in the heart of the Christian, which exults in the confident expectation of seeing the loved ones that have gone into eternity, when he also shall have crossed over the irremeable flood. So does the Bible represent Dives to have seen and recognized Abraham and Lazarus, and them also to have recognized him; so were seen Moses and Elias; and so the great multitude around the throne of Godwhose robes had been washed and who had gone up out of great tribulation-so were they seen by St. John. Their form, their words, their actions all marked them as having been once beings of earth, in spite of all the transformations of circumstance, and time, and place. They were disembodied; new scenes enchanted them, new glories blazed upon them; every thing was wondrously new; but through all the human and the personal were visible and distinctly marked. The mind confidently, almost instinctively, looks forward to a reunion with the departed in another world. "0, how shall I exult," says Cicero, "when I attain the society of my kindred and friends! what intercourse can be more joyous, what meetings and embraces more sweet!" And then, apostrophizing his departed daughter, he exclaims, "Thou, therefore, now separated from me, not deserting me, but sometimes looking back, lead me, where I may yet enjoy the conversation and the sight of thee!" This is not rhetoric, but spontaneous aspiration-the consciousness of 198 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. immortal life gushing forth in the soul. A crushed heart only can yield an odor that savors so highly of immortality. Eloquent as was this language of Cicero, it was not more sublime than the dying language of an Indian mother. She was the wife of Little Wolf, a chief of the Iowa tribe, and had accompanied her husband to Europe. She had already lost three children, and while in London lost a fourth and only child. The iron truly entered her soul, and she withered -and pined away in grief, till she died, soon after reaching Paris. Her husband endeavored to comfort her, and to turn her thoughts again to life, but she only replied, "No! no! my four children recall me; I see them by the side of the Great Spirit; they stretch out their arms to me, and are astonished that I do not join them." There was uttered the true, simple, sublime language of nature. Had you said to that Indian mother that her departed ones had been divested of their human form, and not as children should she know them any more, how would she have exclaimed, "0, say not soI how shall I know my darling, If changed her form, and vail'd her shining hair; If, since her flight, has grown my starling, How shall I know her there? On Memory's page, by viewless fingers painted, I see the features of my angel-child; She passed away ere vice her life hath tainted, Passed to the undefiled. 0, say not so l for I could clasp her even As when below she lay upon my breast; I would dream of her as a bud in heaven, tAmid the blossoms of the blest. My little one, she was a folded lily, Sweeter than any on the azure wave, But night came down, a starless night and chillyAlas! we could not save. Yes, as a child, serene and noble poet0 heaven were dark were children wanting there; I hope to clasp my bud, as when I wore it, A dimpled baby fair. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 199 Though years have flown toward my blue-eyed daughter, My heart yearns ofttimes with a mother's love; Its never-dying tendrils now infold her, E'en as a child above. E'en as a babe, my little dove-eyed daughter, Nestle and coo upon my heart again: Wait for thy mother by the river water, It shall not be in vain. Wait as a child-how shall I know my darling, If changed her form, and vail'd with shining hair; If, since her flight, has grown my little starling, How shall I know her there?" The demand of this sentiment is met when we come to the recognition of the appropriate human form in the departed. Identity is what we want; nature craves for identity, and Scripture gives back the response that assures us this identity shall remain. All the anticipated glories of a reunion with the departed are enhanced by this prospect. The form may be vastly improved, infinitely more glorious, but it will be the same. Our friends or our children, who have been absent from us a few years, sometimes become so changed that we do not at first recognize them, though their general form and identity are the same. So may it be with our friends in heaven. Our aged parents, who totter with halting step and wasting frame to the grave, may there be rejuvenated and glowing with celestial life. Our children, nipped like the buds of Spring, may be so changed in the transition and by the rapid growth of heaven that it may be necessary for some attendant angel to point them out before we could recognize their beatified forms. It shall gladden our eyes, as we emerge from the gloom of the dark valley, to behold how glorious they have become, and to receive their welcomes to the land of everlasting bliss. "Tell me," says Dr. Berg, " ye who have seen the open tomb receive into its bosom the sacred trust committed to its keeping-ye who have heard the sullen rumblings of the cleath-clods, as they dropped upon the 200 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. coffin-lid, and told you that earth had gone back to earth — when the separation from the object of your love was realized in all the desolation of bereavement, next to the thought that you should erelong see Christ as he is, and be like him, was not that consolation the strongest which assured you that the departed one, whom God has put from you into darkness, will run to meet you, when you cross the threshold of immortality, and, with the holy rapture to which the redeemed alone can give utterance, lead you to the exalted Savior, and with you bow down at his feet, and cast the conqueror's crown before him?" How sublime, how glorious these anticipations! Based, as they are, upon the eternal truth of God, and embodied in the elements of a pure and holy Christian faith, they seem almost to rend in twain the curtain that hides the invisible world from us. "And when glad faith doth catch Some echo of celestial harmonies, Archangels' praises, with the high response Of cherubim and seraphim," then, 0 doubting and fainting child of God, let thy heart revive i! Thy dear, departed ones —"the dead in Christ"are there; "And ere thos art aware, the day may be When to those skies they'll welcome thee." VII. THIE TRANSITION IN DEATH. Who has not felt the beauty and power of the following poetic description of the transition in death? Tread softly! bow the head, In reverent silence bow! No passing bell doth toll, Yet an immortal soul Is passing now. O changel 0 wondrous chang.e Burst are the prison bars! THE INTERMIEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 201 This moment there-so low In mortal prayer-and now Beyond the stars! 0 change! stupendous change! Here lies tile senseless clod; The soul from bondage breaks, The new immortal wakesWalks with his God!" From all that the Bible teaches us, and from all we can learn by a careful scrutiny of the phenomena of death, we are brought to the conviction that the change which occurs is one of evolution and not of transformation. It is, like the event of our birth, a transition. Of this transition we can know by our reason but little more than the unborn infant knows of the transition which is to introduce it into a world of light. "The progress of the departed spirit is imagined with an intense eagerness of conjecture. Does it open its eyes at once, with sudden rapture or alarm, on a scene of unutterable wonders? Does it awake, as we awake from the sleep of night, so gently that the mind is conscious of no struggle, and scarcely of change from activity to slumber, and from slumber to activity again? Does it carry on a continuous thread of perception, and know at once the world which it has left, and the world which it has entered? Does it feel itself alone or among companions? Does the separation from this earth become wider and wider as it advances on the journey beyond the eternal hills? Can we attain to any conception of its sensations, its condition, or its prospects?" These questions are pressed upon us by the very conditions of out being, and by the certainty of that fate which awaits us. Their solution is a natural desire, even if not perfectly attainable here. Several facts have an important bearing upon the subject, and illustrate in no small degree this transition. It is evidently of short duration, if, indeed, it be any thing more 202 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. than momentary. Our Savior said to the dying malefactor, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise;" and yet it was not till just before sunset, at which moment the day ended, that the legs of the malefactor were broken. The Savior had before expired, but the dying agony of the penitent criminal, to whom the promise had been made, crowded hard upon the last moments of the closing day. And yet who shall say that the promise had not a literal fulfillment? Some have, for a few moments, vibrated, as it were, between earth and heaven, have almost passed the gates of death, and yet have been restored. Others have seemed to die, and yet come back to earth. To such what glimpses of the better land have come-faint adumbrations of glory yet to be realized! So glorious, as in the case of IMr. Tennant, that they were loth to speak of its hidden beauty, but sufficient in its power to wean from earth, and to create " a homesickness for the land which they had but seen from afar." The vision vouchsafed to such was like that of St. Paul when he was caught up into the heavens, and "heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for man tfJ utter." Then, too, the experience of the saint of God, when dying in the full triumph of a glorious and unclouded faith, has a touching lesson upon this subject. The idea that to such supernatural manifestations are made must be suggested to all who have witnessed their triumphant departure, and heard them speak of the glories revealed. Heaven itself often seems opened to their vision. Nor, indeed, does there any high degree of improbability attach itself to this idea. The dying linger for a moment on the confines of both worlds; and why may they not, when just leaving the one, catch some glimpse of the other? "Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view Who stand upon the threshold of the new." THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 203 In death the natural and supernatural meet. The two worlds here bound upon each other. Heaven was opened to the vision of the dying Stephen. Angels gathered around the dying Lazarus, and we may well conceive that their glorious forms broke upon his vision while yet the earth had hardly faded from it. Said a little Sabbath school scholar from my flock, as she threw up her little wasted arms, her eye fixed upon some definite and glorious object, and her whole countenance beaming with unearthly luster, "Mother, the angels have come!" In a moment more she had joined the angel throng. The pious Blumhardt exclaimed, "Light breaks in! alleluiah!" and expired. Dr. M'Lain said, "I can now contemplate clearly the grand scene to which I am going." Dr. Bateman, a distinguished physician and philosopher, died exclaifming, "What glory! The angels are waiting for me!" It is no vain conception that spiritual messengers, as companions and guides, come down to greet the saint of God as he crosses over Jordan. But what light do these facts shed upon the transition through which we pass? Evidently this: that that transition may be but the work of a moment, and without even the suspension of our consciousness. We shall feel ourselves to be a living continuation of the past. We shall emerge into our new life probably not as by a sudden shock, creating sensations almost of alarm and terror, but as our eyes open to greet the dawning light of some glorious morning. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Some may "sleep" for a longer or shorter period, as the soul makes its transit; and from that sleep they may emerge gradually to self-consciousness, and to a perception of their new state and new relations. The thoughts, the feelings, the wonderments, the amazements of soul with which we shall awaken to the conscious 204 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. ness of another life will form a wonderful chapter in out mental history. Mr. Harbrough touches this theme so beautifully that we quote the passage entire: "When we awake from the swoon or sleep of death, or emerge through the change of death into the realities, circumstances, and affinities of another life, we suppose our first feeling will be that of consciousness of our own identity. We will feel and be conscious that we are ourselves and not another. This we can only do in connection with our past history. It may be the work of an instant; but still it involves a process by which the mind connects itself with what is past, and recollects its previous existence. Thus, for instance, we spend a night in the house of a friend; we wake in the morning suddenly, and scarcely know where we are or who we are. The mind at once enters upon a process of discovery by self-recollection; to do this it goes back and calls up its past history, remembers the way in which it has come, and soon full consciousness of itself and its relations is restored. So in the other world, after the change of death, a consciousness of identity must in some way be preserved. Suppose, however, that in the case of the person just instanced, sleeping in the house of his friend, the room should be furnished in a certain way when he lay down to sleep, and the furniture should be entirely removed and changed while he slept, the difculty of coming to a consciousness of his identity would be greatly increased. In that case it would become necessary for him to depend upon pure recollection of the past in the way of thought and memory. This must be the case with our souls in passing through the change of death; we will find ourselves in new relations, circumstances, and affin ities, and our consciousness of personal identity can continue only as it feels itself the living continuation of the past." This feeling will assuredly come. We may lose it, THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 205 or be bewildered, for a moment, but our distinct individuality will revive and stand out as the great headland in the sea of our existence. VIII. INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE DEAD AND THE LIVING. "But tell us, thou bird of the solemn strain, Can those who have loved forget? We call —but they answer not againDo they love, do they love us yet? We call them far, through the silent night; But they speak not from cave nor hill; We know, we know that their land is bright, But say, do they love there still?" We have here an inquiry of touching interest, and one that requires to be treated with great delicacy. WTe have already shown that the righteous dead are with Christ. To wish that they were constantly with or around us would be as selfish as it would be unkind. We delight in the society of those nearly allied to us on earth-our childrenand yet we send them forth from us because we know the great ends of our common being require it. Heaven we know is the home of the angels of God; but we also know that they go forth-nay, even come down to earth as ministering spirits. By this means there is a strange, mysterious intercourse between the ministering angels and living men. They are not always away from heaven, nor would we wish them to be. We would almost fear that something earthly and gross might be contracted by them, and that even their own joy might be marred by their too constant intercourse with sinful and sorrowing beings. We would have them return often to heaven, to bathe in its celestial light, to catch anew its holy joy, and thus to come back to us again, to labor with more ardent zeal for our salvation. So should we feel in relation to the dead in Christ-our own loved dead! 206 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Among those myriads of angelic messengers is it not possible that there should sometimes be found one who was once an inhabitant of earth? Is it not possible that our departed kindred-our parents, our companions, our dear children that passed from us in the bloom of life, a loved brother or sister-may revisit earth, and come to minister to us in that which is holy and good-to breathe around us influences that will draw us heavenward? If it be possible to revisit earth, this, no doubt, is the glorious mission on which they would desire to come. Is such return to earth possible? One, at least, we may claim on Bible authority, has revisited earth, if the spirit of Samuel appeared to Saul after the incantations of the sorceress of Endor. "Had it been satisfactorily known," says Bishop Burgess, "through any other channel than Divine Revelation, that Saul saw Samuel on the eve of his own fall, and heard his words,'To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me,' it would still have been a fact in the history of mankind, and would have proved, as truly as now, the possibility of such apparitions. That there was a real appearance of Samuel is the plainest interpretation of the language, was the belief of the ancient Jews, and has been supposed by the best divines. He came, not through any power of the sorceress, it would seem, but to her utter amazement. Once, therefore, a departed spirit has revisited the earth, and has been seen and heard; and it is worthy of remark that he took the form and aspect in which he might be the best recognized." But whatever question or room for doubt there may be in relation to this appearance of Samuel, there can be none in relation to the return of Moses and Elias, nlany centuries after their removal to the world of spirits. They were seen and heard by Peter, James, and John upon the Mount of Transfiguration. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 207 Dr. Adam Clarke expresses it as his opinion that spirits from the invisible woeld, including also human spirits which have gone there, may have intercourse with this world, and even become visible to mortals. They are not brought back into mnortal life, but only brought within the sphere of visibility. All along through the Bible the thing, at least by implication, is again and again recognized. As when Peter, miraculously delivered from prison, appeared at the gate, the frightened disciples exclaimed, "It is his angel!" or when the Savior appeared walking upon the water, "they supposed it had been a spirit." We might also cite the universal belief of all ages in not only the possible, but the actual occasional return of the departed from the spirit-world to revisit the earth. There have been numerous accounts of their actual apparition in all ages, but for the most part those apparitions have been made under circumstances that precluded the possibility of proof beyond the testimony of the persons to whom they were made. In other instances a morbid imagination and an excited state of the nerves have furnished the most ready solution. Many other alleged cases, on investigation, have been found wholly wanting in any proper validity from any responsible witnesses. And it must, I think, be conceded that "no single instance of ghostly apparition has been sufficiently authenticated to take its place in history as an acknowledged fact." But, after all, the idea can not be set down as an exploded fancy; for we must yet, with Johnson, regard it, even after so many ages of inquiry and observation, as still an undeterminecd question. We are still inclined, after setting aside the great number of such alleged events as fictions or as mistaken conceptions, to believe the occurrence of such a thing possible, if not actual. While this view is clearly authorized by the fairest deductions from the Bible, it involves, so far 208 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. as we can perceive, neither in reason nor in the nature of things, any impossibility. The form in which the spirits of the departed might be expected most friequently to visit us would be in that of spiritual communion. There are seasons when the soul seems to recognize the presence of, and to hold communion with, the departed. They are like angelic visitants; we meet them in our lonely walks, in our deep and solemn meditations, and in our closet communings; we meet them when the lengthening shadows hallow the eventide —mysterious and solemn is their communion; we meet them when sorrows encompass us round about, and hallowed is the influence their presence imparts. Who shall say that at such times there is not a real communion between the living and the dead? Who shall say that there is not, then, a real presence of the dead with the living? Neander speaks of a custom among the early Christians of cherishing the memory of departed friends by celebrating the anniversary of their death in a manner suited to the Christian faith and hope. "It was usual on this day," says he, "to partake of the communion under a sense of the inseparable fellowship oof those w7ho lhad died in the Lord. A gift was laid on the altar in their name as if they were still living members of the family." So also, he says, "the whole Church would celebrate the anniversary of those who had died as witnesses of the Lord —the holy martyrs; and the communion was celebrated in the consciousness of continued fellowship with them." This is a sublime, beautiful idea! How simple, and yet how deep and earnest, the faith of the early and holy people of God! " The communion of the saints," says Dr. Nevin, "regards not merely Christians on earth, but also the sainted'dead; accoi'ding to the true words of the hymn,'The saints on earth and all the dead but one comnmunion THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 209 makce.' There is a pernicious view in the religious world at the present time by which the dead are taken to be so dissociated from the living as to have no part further in the onward movement of Christ's kingdom." It was the impression of Mr. Wesley concerning Emanuel Swedenborg, whom he knew personally, that the strong impression on his mind of the presence of deceased friends, at particular moments, was produced by their actual but invisible presence. Oberlin, also, for many years, claimed to enjoy intimate communion with the dead. And thousands of Christians have had, at times, as clear and overpowering a consciousness of the spiritual presence of departed friends as of their own self-being. And what is peculiarly to be observed is that this communion has been realized only by those most spiritual in their nature, and peculiarly allied by the power of a living faith to Christ. There is one other fact bearing upon this subject which we can not now forbear. It is the affecting recognition of the presence of the dead in Christ, which is sometimes realized by the dying saint. Parents have recognized departed children as present to welcome them, just at the moment of their own departure; so have children recogaized the presence of a sainted father or mother; also brothers and sisters have thus seemed to meet each other on the dividing line between this world and the next. Hannah More, when dying, extended her arms as if to embrace some one, called the name of a beloved sister long before departed, exclaimed, "'Joy!" and expired. Most touching is the story of Carnaval, who was long known as a lunatic in Paris. His reason had been unsettled by the early death of the object of his tender and most devoted affection. He could never be made to comprehend that she was dead, but spent his life in the vain search for the longlost object of his love. She was the absorbing idea of his 18 210 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. life. In most affecting terms he would mourn her absence, and chide her long delay. Thus life wore away; and when its ebbing tide was almost exhausted, starting, as from a reverie, the countenance of the dying man was overspread with sudden joy, and, stretching forth his arms, as if he would clasp some object before him, he uttered the name of his long-lost love, and exclaiming, "Ah, there thou art at last!" expired. The eloquent Buckminster, of Boston, died suddenly. The next morning his father, who lived in New Hampshire, and was th:m in a dying state, suddenly exclaimed, "IMy son Joseph is dead!" And when those around him attempted to assure him that it was only a dream, he said, with great emphasis, "It is no dream; he is dead!" A moment more and the father had joined his son in the spirit-land. It was a beautiful conception in Southey's ode on the portrait of Bishop Heber, that many "' Will gaze Upon his effigy With reverential love, Till they shall grow familiar with its lines, And know him when they see his face in heaven I" This beautiful conception of the poet, as well as the great truth we have been suggesting, seem strikingly confirmed by the following touching incident, which was recorded by an eye-witness of the scene: "A little girl, in a family of my acquaintance, a lovely and precious child, lost her mother at an age too early to fix the loved features in her remembrance. She was beautiful; and as the bud of her heart unfolded, it seemed as if won by that mother's prayers to turn instinctively heavenward. The sweet, conscientious, and prayer-loving child was the idol of the bereaved family. But she faded away early. She would lie upon the lap of the friend who took a mother's kind care TIHE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF THE DEAD. 211 of her, and, winding one wasted arm about her neck, would say,'Now tell me about my mamma!' And when the ofttold tale had been repeated, she would ask softly,'Take me into the parlor; I want to see my mamma.' The request was never refused; and the affectionate sick child would lie for hours, gazing on her mother's portrait. But'Pale and wan she grew, and weaklyBearing all her pains so meekly, That to them she still grew dearer, As the trial-hour grew nearer.' That hour came at last, and the weeping neighbors assembled to see the little child die. The dew of death was already on the flower, as its sun of life was going down. The little chest heaved faintly-spasmodically.'Do you know me, darling?' sobbed, close in her ear, the voice that was dearest; but it awoke no answer. All at once, a brightness, as if from the upper world, burst over the child's colorless countenance. The eyelids flashed open, and the lips parted; the wan, cuddling hands flew up, in the little one's last impulsive effort, as she looked piercingly into the far above. "'Mother!' she cried, with surprise and transport in her tone-and passed with that breath to her mother's bosom. "Said a distinguished divine, who stood by that bed of joyous death,'If I had never believed in the ministration of departed ones before, I could not doubt it now.'" And what is there inconsistent in all this? Among the "ministering spirits," who would be more ready to run to our relief, to hover around our dying bed, and to welcome our disinthralled spirit, than the dear friends and kindred of earth who have gone before us to God? Who would be more likely than the mother who watched over us, the sister of our love, or the prattling child that passed from our sight, to come down to greet us at the swelling of 212 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Jordan, and welcome us to the partnership of their joy? The very thought that loved ones, under the conduct of the Captain of their salvation, have already safely crossed the Jordan of death, and now wait on the other side to greet our coming, and to conduct us to the Savior's presence, shall nerve our souls with courage as we step down into the dark domain of death, and hasten to their embrace, and to the glorious vision of our God. "0 blissful scene when cherished hearts Renew their ties most cherished; When naught the mourned and mourner parts; When grief with life is perished." RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 213 IX. RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. "If a man die, shall he live againl " JOB xiv, 14. "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised." 1 CoR. xv, 52. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." JOHN v, 28, 29. IN this world the reign of death is as universal as it is appalling. The young in their beauty and loveliness, and the old in their maturity and wisdom, are borne down and swept away. The dark and gloomy grave becomes the silent home of the living. In one lengthened procession the human race, generation after generation, are marching down to the tomb. How ceaseless the onward movement! What unnumbered multitudes have already gone down into the deep and dark abyss, and appear no more! Low in the silent grave they slumber. Worldly thoughts, and passions, and cares disturb them no more. Their very bones have been turned into ashes, and their dust has become scattered and wasted. The monumental marble once told where they slumbered, and affection once paid its tribute of tears at their tomb. But the marble has crumbled and wasted till that also has ceased to be; and even the friends that wept weep no longer, for they, too, have gone down to join the nations of the dead. What shall be the fate of these slumbering millions? Shall they slumber on forever-know life no more? or shall the voice of Omnipotence penetrate those dark caverns 214 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. the homes of the dead-and call them forth again to life? "If a man die, shall he live again?" This is a question of deep and far-reaching importance; it is one of momentous interest to the human race. The inscrutable mysteries that encircle it and the deep interest we have in it, make us almost tremble to raise the question whether these dead shall live again. But we can not refrain from raising it. It constitutes an essential element in the question of man's destiny. It is often forced upon us with a touching tenderness that extorts the inquiry from the very depths of the soul. When our friends die, and we bear their bodies as a sorrowful burden to the tomb, how do we seek to penetrate the dark vail of mystery that shrouds their destiny Or when we meditate upon our own mortal and dying estate —what we shall soon be-where we shall be; when all the solemn realities of our coming history rush in upon our minds-how intense and solemn the interest we feel in the question whether "the dead shall be raised," whether they shall be awakened out of the deep and long slumber of the grave! Let us now bring the question before us with the same earnest thoughtfulness that we will feel when the worn and wasted body begins to give signs of speedy dissolution. Let us now interrogate the holy instincts of reason and listen to their teachings; let us seek to know what I-eaven has revealed; and let us do it with the same depth of feeling as when the dust of departed affection lies moldering before us. We propose to show that the resurrection of the human body is suggested by analogies in nature, is clearly enmbodied in the teachings of the Old Testament Scriptures, is still more clearly revealed in the New Testament Scriptures, and, finally, that it is demonstrated by individual resurrections. BESURRECTION OF THIE HUMAN BODY. 215 I. SUGGESTED BY THE ANALOGIES OF NA TURE. The resurrection of the human body from death and corruption is peculiarly a doctrine of revelation. Yet it may prepare our minds, in a measure, for a better appreciation of the direct Scripture evidence, if we first glance at some of these analogies of nature which either lessen the force of skeptical objection or directly suggest the resurrection as among the probabilities locked up in that future experience nature has in store for us. They suggest to us, at least, that the mysteriousness or seeming incredibility of the resurrection is possessed of no force when urged as an objection, since results are constantly being produced in nature equally inexplicable and scarcely less wonderful. 1. Day and night are to its symbols of life and death. We employ them as such continually. And yet so familiar have we become with the transformations of day and night, that we fail to realize their symbolic power. But in order that we may comprehend how much there really is in this analogy, let us, as some one, we forget whom, has already done, suppose a man to be created, with all the faculties of sense and intellect in full maturity, and placed at midday a solitary intelligence upon the earth, with what astonishment and wonder he gazes upon the glorious creation of God spread out around and above him! With sublime emotions he gazes upon the canopy of the heavens spreading its broad arch above him! He hears the lowing of the flocks and herds, the songs of the birds, and all the varied melodies of nature, with enraptured delight. The glorious landscape spreads out around him; he gazes upon the blooming flowers, the waving grain, the towering forests, and the distant mountains in the dim distance, throwing up 216 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. their broad shoulders to the sky. But chief of all. in his wondering gaze, appears the great orb of day tracing its pathway through the heavens. Its brightness dazzles his vision-is too great for a moment's endurance; yet he finds its influence all-pervading; warmth comes from it; the flowers are tinted by it; the life and growth of vegetation, obviously, hold mysterious connection with it, and are dependent upon it; the very music of the birds seems to be an inspiration from it. The newly-created observer, seeking for a cause of all, now begins to inquire whether all that is real in the wondrous scene around him does not proceed from the sun-whether it is not the source of life as well as of warmth and light? But now the scene changes. The sun declines in the west. Lower and still lower it sinks. It already touches the horizon. Dim shadows creep along the sky and overspread the landscape. The aftrighted mortal stretches out his hands to stay its progress, but in vain. He would fain -unravel the mysteries of the darkly-approaching future; but no response comes back to his oft-repeated inquiries. The sun at length disappears altogether; dark clouds roll up the sky; the face of nature is robed in utter blackness. Naught is seen; his own person, his hands, his feet have become invisible. The many-voiced music of animals, and birds, and insects has become hushed and still. Affright, terror, despair takes hold of the solitary spectator. The glorious pageant has passed, and, to all appearance, has gone forever. It departed without the slightest intimation — whether from bight above or depth beneath-of any return. The hours of darkness are worn away in exclamations of affright and in moans of despair; till at last exhausted nature seeks repose, and the man sinks down also and is overspread with that mysterious emblem of death-sleep. Refreshed, he awakes. Lo! a bright streak of light is seen. RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 217 skirtilg the horizon opposite to that where the sun went down It rises higher, spreads wider, grows brighter, till the whole landscape seems to emerge gradually from tlhe darkness that overspread it. But, more glorious, more wonderful than all! to the astonished apprehension of the beholder, a new sun bursts forth in the horizon and travels up the heavens, in its brightness and glory! A new day has come forth from the womb of night. Such is the manner in which the shifting scene of day, ending in night, would strike the mind on first beholding the wonder. But does our familiarity with the scene, much as it may blunt our own power of perception, detract aught from its symbolic import? Does not Nature ever symbolize to us that as the darkness of night ends in day, so shall the darkness of death terminate in the light of the resurrection? 2. The resurrections of Spring also afford striking emblems of the riesurrection of man from, the dead. But a few weeks ago it was dead Winter. Standing amidst a wide waste of snow and ice, we realized fully what Thomson so beautifully describes: "Dread Winter spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquered year. How dead the vegetable kingdom lies! How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends Her desolate domain!" The trees were leafless and bare; every shrub and flower was belted with ice and covered with snow; the grass, that but a few months before clothed the earth with beauty, was now faded, dead, and buried. The music of no bird was heard among the branches; the hum of no insect came up fromn the earth around; all was silent. What a picture was this of human life " Behold, fond man, See here thy pictured life; pass some few years, 19 218 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Thy flow'ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, Thy sober Autumn fading into age, And pale, concluding Winter comes at last, And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes Of happiness? those longings after fame? Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts, Lost between good and ill, that shared thy life? All now are vanished!" Should some new visitant to earth, having once glanced at the glories and the life of one Summer, return in the dead of Winter to behold its desolation, would not the scene impress him that vegetable life had departed foreverhad become extinct? Its recovery he would deem incredible. And yet what transformations have a few weeks wrought! "Movement, growth, life, joy, appear everywhere, in the place of silence, sadness, and death. Has not a spirit of resurrection, a living soul, entered into nature? Has not the Spirit of God breathed from the four winds upon these dry bones? Do not millions of beings daily break forth into life, in the air, in the earth, and in the waters, even as the elect will'come forth' on the blissful day of the resurrection of the just? Again, the flowers, which all around are springing out of the earth as from their tomb, fresh as the dew, numerous as the sand, and more beautiful than ever was the mantle of imperial royalty-were not these flowers, a few months ago, either shapeless and coarse roots, or seeds not unlike the vile dust that we tread under our feet? And now, behold! those roots and seeds that were lately buried —even like the human body, which, when in the bosom of the grave, is but an object of disgust-those very roots and seeds, which rot or decompose in our furrows before they spring forth again, are to-day the ornament of the landscape and the charm of our eyes. Observe with admiration how, day after day, these miracles of resurrection, far from any cessa RESURRECTION OF THIE HUMAN BODY. 219 tion, appear in succession and spread every-where with no less rapidity than splendor; how thousands of plants and millions of insects, through an incomprehensible operation of God, issue continually from the earth, to praise, as if in concert, the Almighty Creator, who has redeemed them from death, and brought them to the light of these happy days! See how all creation, released from the grave, seems inspired with life and filled with joy!"* We do not present these as analogies going to prove the resurrection of man, but as glorious symbolizations of that resurrection elsewhere clearly taught and divinely demonstrated. "The glorious morn will come! the second birth Of heaven and earth! awakening Nature hear The new creating word, and start to life. The storms of WTint'ry time will quickly pass, And one unbounded Spring encircle all." 3. 17te synbofizcation of the resurrection in vegetable life is irecognized by St. Paul.-" That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." (1 Cor. xv, 36.) When the seed is sown it, to all appearance, dies, becomes corrupted, and out of this corruption, this death, springs the new germ of life. The elemental germen is nourished by the decay of the rest of the kernel; it gathers life from the death and corruption of the rest. "So also is the resurrection of the dead; it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption." (1 Cor. xv, 42.) Whatever link may be wanting to complete the chain of reasoning in the analogy between the resurrected life springing from the seed cast into the earth, and the resurrected life of the human body, there is one point of resemblance that will ever prove most striking. He at whose command the seed germs through death Into life, has also given the pledge of our resurrection. And is not that mysterious Power, which is ever displaying the "':Parables of Spring. Gaussen, p. 58. 220 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. exuberance of its energy in bringing forth life from death, able to number our poor bodies also among the germs of a coming life? Ages of burial do not extinguish the germ of life in the vegetable seed. Kernels of grain that had been buried for centuries in subterranean deposits, in Europe and Africa, germed into new life when brought forth from their tomb. It is said that the ancient Druid priests in France were accustomed to place a tile under the head of each corpse, and under these tiles, in circular hol6s, closed with cement a few seeds. A few years since, some of these graves, of two thousand years ago, were opened. The seeds were taken out and planted, and "the heliotrope, the trefoil, and the corn-flower, were seen rising to life again, after being buried twenty centuries." * If in vegetable resurrections we may trace the process a few steps further, we still seem equally distant from the solution of the mystery, and the act of thus giving life seems equally unapproachable in either case. And does not God set daily before our eyes these wonders of his lifegiving power, that we may be more fully impressed with the certainty of that great and wondrous resurrection he will yet work for us? 4. Animza and insect transformations are also made to synbolize the reslurrection. Of this class the chrysalis state of butterflies, moths, and silkworms furnishes striking examples. Some of these insects exhibit all the phenomena of dying, and for weeks remain in a decomposing and apparently dead state. The dragon-fly is a striking instance. Naturalists tell us that the worm repairs to the margin of a pond in quest of a convenient place of abode during its insensible state. It there attaches itself to a plant or to a piece of dry wood, and then apparently dies. The skin becomes dry and brittle; but the apparently-decayed and tGaussen's Parables of Spring, p. 78. RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODSY 221 rotten mass within gradually assumes a new form. At length the shell bursts and a winged insect pushes its way forth, expands and flutters its wings, and in a moment more soars away in the air. Now, who, that saw the little hanging coffin which entombed the inanimate insect a few weeks before, could have dreamed of such a result as this? whc, from that chrysalis formation, could have predicted a winged insect full of life, floating in the air, and possessed of all the functions of animal life? The philosopher will tell us, perhaps, that the elements of this new life were possessed through all these transformations, and that the rudiments of wings were there even while it was living in water. But may it not be also that even in the bodies of men there may be some latent, elemental organization, to be developed at the moment of the resurrection? who shall say that, carefully folded in our God-created forms, may not be the angel wing upon which, when the chrysalis of mortality is cast aside, we shall soar in triumph through the very heaven of heavens? who shall say that what nature unfolds to us in the transformations of the insect and animal creation are not designed to suggest to us the grander, possible transformations we may experience in the putting off of this mortal body, and the putting on of an immortal? II. TAUGHT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES. In opposition to those who assume that there is no distinct recognition of the resurrection of the body in the Old Testament Scriptures, we shall undertake to establish three facts, namely: 1. That it is directly asserted either in relation to individuals or as a general thing; 2. That inspired men expressed the utmost confidence in the resurrection of the body; and, finally, 3. That the doctrine of the resurrection was generally received among the Jews. 222 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. 1. The resurrection of the body is directly asserted in the Old Testarzent, either in relation to individucals, or in a general manner. One of the texts quoted at the head of this discussion is to the point here. "If a man die, shall he live again?" This is not a question implying doubt, but one of assurance. Hence "will I wait till my change come;" or, as the Septuagint has it, "c till I live again." And even the Hebrew word rendered change, in the expression "till my change come," implies renovation, like the springing of grass after it is once withered —a very expressive emblem of the resurrection. The whole passage, then, implies that Job was so confident that he who died should live again, that in patience would he wait till his final renovation came. That the doctrine of the resurrection is clearly imbedded in this passage scarcely admits of a doubt. Take, again, Itosea xiii, 14: "' I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." This passage is highly figurative. The Jews in their captivity are represented as dead and buried. But their God would ransom them from death and bring them forth from the grave. And thus was symbolized a grander resurrection in the last day, when the Redeemer should be the destruction of the grave itself. Kindred to this is the passage in Isaiah xxv, 8:' He will swallow up death in victory." Both these passages were undoubtedly in the mind of the inspired apostle, when, in that sublime discussion of the doctrine of the resurrection, he says, " Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?" Thus have we the testimony of inspiration itself, that the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead is inmbedded in no uncertain or doubtful form in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 223 Again, (Isaiah xxvi, 19,) from the dark overspreading of sorrow and gloom breaks forth in the exultant strains of an assured victory over death and the grave: " Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Language like this, so specific and involving so many particulars, can hardly be claimed to be merely figurativereferring only to the political resurrection of the Jews and their deliverance from bondage. The figure, as well as the language, is of deeper import. The emblems of a higher resurrection are employed. A power is to come down like that of the dew upon the dried and withered herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Dr. Albert Barnes says, " This is language which is derived from the doctrine of the resurrection of the body; and shows also that that doctrine was understood by the Hebrews in the time of Isaiah. The sense is, that as the earth shall cast forth its dead in the resurrection, so the people of God in Babylon should be restored to life, and to their former privileges in their own land."* To deny as much as this to that sublime passage is to rob it of all significance as applied to the case before the prophet. Take, again, the prophecy of Daniel, (xii, 2.) After referring to the end of time, in which Michael shall stand up, and, amidst calamities and terrors, such as nations had never before experienced, deliver those "that shall be found written in the book;" he says: "And many of them that slept in the dust of the earth," or as mnany as slept in the dust of the earth,'"shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." this passage may have had a primary reference to the resurrection of the Jewish nation from their degradation and bondage; *Notes on Isaiah, vol. ii, p. 177. 224 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. but its ilKYery receives its full significance only when re ferred to the resurrection at the last day. This becomes still more evident when we compare the imagery employed here with that employed in the Revelation to mirror forth the resurrection. No one, after such a comparison, will question that they refer to the same solemn and momentous scene. We might also refer to the vision of the valley of "dry bones." It is to be noted here that though this striking imagery is employed to describe the civil and spiritual resurrection of the Jews, it is based upon the idea of a resurrection of the body, a resurrection taking place after the flesh was wasted and the bones had become bleached and dry. Otherwise the imagery has no pertinence, no force of application. Thus we might show that the whole tenor of the revelation of God to the Jews embodied the essential doctrine of a resurrection from the dead. It beams out with a brightness too obvious for mistake, and is expressed with a distinctness of enunciation that left little ground for cavil or doubt. 2. Inspired men in the Old Testament day have expressed the utmost confidence in the resurrection. The Psalmist says, that'" man being in honor abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish." "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them;.... and their beauty shall consume in the grave." (Ps. x!ix, 12, 14.) This is a vivid description of the wonderful contrast experienced in death by the rich, the great, and those who have lived luxuriously in this life. Utter decay and rottenness shall waste them away. But to the Psalmist there was a brighter hope: "But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave." (Ps. xlix, 15.) "That is,' says Dr. Adam Clarke, inc loco, "by the plainest construction, I shall RESURRECTION OF TIIE HUMAN BODY. 225 have a resurrection from the dead, and an entrance into glory. Death shall have no dominion over me." One can not fail to notice the unhesitating confidence with which David asserts that God will redeem him from the grave. There is no doubt, no questioning; but his soul enters into the full conviction of the power and faithfulness of the Divine Word. A striking comment upon this passage is found in Ps. xvii, 15: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Let us, also, note the force of that memorable declaration of Job, (xix, 25, 27:) " For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." We are aware that this is a disputed passage; some making it refer simply to Job's restoration to health and happiness, and others regarding it as an announcement of his faith in a coming Redeemer, and through him of the resurrection from the dead. We think no one will doubt that the impression made upon the common reader will be that Job refers to Christ and to the resurrection from the dead. This first impression is strengthened by the solemn manner in which the passage is introduced. Job was evidently laboring with some momentous thought. What he had uttered before in defense of himself and in refutation of his friends, he is willing should pass away. But now-so momentous is the truth to which he is about to give utterance, that he would not have the least portion of it lost. " 0 that my words were now written! 0 that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!" (Job xix, 23, 24.) Nothing could be more apt or appropriate, if by a Divine afflatus he was about to announce the 226 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. sublime doctrine of redemption and the resurrection, that he should desire every word and every syllable to be preserved as a testimony among the generations yet to come. But if he referred simply to his personal temporal deliverance, to desire such a record of it as this particular point for the ages to come, borders closely upon the absurd. But when we come to examine the terms and figures employed in the passage itself, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, in the sweep of his inspired vision, Job comprehended the great Redeemer of men. Miy Redeemer liveth-is alive now. But in the latter day he shall stand ulpon the earth; and through him should be the resurrection from the dead. What though after my skin worms shall have destroyed this entire body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Nay, in this identic body that has been decomposed and devoured by worms, should he behold him! for he was to see Him for or by himself and with his own eyes. We leave it for the skeptic and the infidel to explain how all these events could happen without a resurrection from the dead. 3. Coincident with the foregoing propositions, and going to show that the doctrine of the resurrection was taught in the Old Testament, we notice the fact that it was generally received by the Jews. Gaussen says it was a beautiful custom among the Jews of his acquaintance, on entering the cemetery for the purpose of burial, to bow themselves three times toward the earth, and then taking up some grass from the spot where the grave was to be dug, to throw it behind them, while they together repeated aloud these words of the prophet, "Your bones shall flourish like an herb." (Isaiah lxvi, 14.) Thus was symbolized, that as the herb was resuscitated from the death of Winter, so should the remains of their departed brother, now returned to dust, revive again in the resurrec RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 227 tion Spring. This custom had its origin, no doubt, in a faith that had come down to them from the ancient time. lncidental evidence of the existence of this faith among the Jews is afforded in the exclamation of Herod, when he heard of the wonderful works of Christ: "This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead." (Matt. xiv, 2.) Such a thought would hardly have occurred to him, had not the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead been generally received. Another evidence is found in the fact that the rejection by the Sadducees of the doctrine of the resurrection is so often referred to as a marked peculiarity of that small and ignoble sect. Had not the doctrine been generally received by the Jews, its denial would not have been regarded as the characteristic badge of a peculiar sect-distinguishing it from others. Again, when our Savior comforts Martha with the promise, "Thy brother shall rise again," she, supposing that he was simply applying to the case the common and comforting doctrine of the resurrection, responds, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." (John xi, 23, 24.) Here, most clearly, the general resurrection of the dead is referred to as a doctrine known and received. Else, when Jesus spoke of the resurrection of Lazarus, Martha would not have supposed he referred to the ~'resurrection at the last day." We know that some endeavor to evade the force of this conclusion by saying that anastasis, the word employed here, means merely the future existence of man, without any reference to a resurrection. But Martha speaks of an event that shall take place "at the last day." And our Lord, in the very next verse, makes a distinction between anastasis and the future lifte: "I am the resurrection (anastasis) and the life," (zal /towr.) But to place the matter 228 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. beyond all doubt, the sacred writers speak of the resu'rre6 tion of Chrqist from the dead as an anastasis. In Acts i. 22, Peter speaks of the apostles as being "witnesses of his resurrection "-anastcasis. In Acts ii, 31, it is said of David: "He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection (anastasis) of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption." (See, also, Acts iv, 33.) "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection (anlastasis) of the Lord Jesus." The apostle Peter speaks of the "elect" as being "begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection (anastasis) of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Pet. i, 3.) These passages refer not to the future [lfe of Christ in glory, but to the resitrrection of his body from the grave. They are absolutely conclusive of the subject. In the eleventh of Hebrews, all through which the apostle portrays the nature of faith, and its triumphs amid persecutions and deaths, he reaches the climax in those who, in the midst of their tortures, would not accept deliverance at the sacrifice of their faith, "that they might obtain a better resurrection." (Heb. xi, 35.) Thus, in the darkness and gloom of that earlier age.of type, and shadow, and prophecy, the glorious coronal of the resurrection was the hope and the stay of God's suffering and persecuted ones. One other fact to show that this doctrine was generally received among the Jews. We refer to the speech of Paul before Felix, in which, referring to the Jews, he says: "They themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts xxiv, 15.) When we consider the person uttering this declaration-how thoroughly versed he was in all manner of questions among the Jews; and when we consider the occasion upon which it was uttered, and the audience that RESURRECTION OF THE AIUMAN BODY. 229 heard it without denial, we can scarcely conceive of evidence that could be more conclusive, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was generally received among the Jews as a part of their religious faith, taught in their sacred writings. III, THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION IS STILL 3MORE CLEARLY ASSERTED IN THE SCRIPTURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. In the New Teetament we find the references to this doctrine so numerous, that, without classification, we shall fail to present the subject as clearly as we wish. It will be our business, then, to enunciate a few points. 1] The doctrine of the resurrection had, on various occasions, the tacit assent of Christ. Had the belief in the resurrection been an error, it would have afforded our Savior an excellent opportunity to correct the error of the people, when. the Sadducees came to him caviling at the doctrine. But instead of showing that the Jews had mistaken the Scriptures, and that the doctrine of the resurrection was not revealed in them, he shows simply that the cavils of the Sadducees sprung from their ignorance of the power of God. The doctrine of the resurrection could hardly be asserted with more force than is here done by Christ. The very fact that it is a sort of tacit recognition, and at the same time an uncovering of the folly of an ignorant, pretentious objector, gives to this incident peculiar pertinence. Again, also, when Martha refers to "the resurrection at the last day," our Savior makes no correction of her faith. He does not blast her hope by saying that the dead rise not, and that there is no resurrection. It is utterly inconsistent with all our ideas of his character to suppose that would have left so dear a friend the dupe of so false a 230 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. hope. Here, then, is the tacit assent of our Savior to the doctrine. But we stop not here. 2. The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is distinctly tcaught and affirmned by our Lord. When teaching to his disciples the exercise of humility and charity to the poor who could not recompense them, he told them they should not lose their reward; for, says he, " thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." (Luke xiv, 14.) Now, if there is no resurrection at all, and consequently none of the just, the tiTme of their recompense could never come. One of two things must be admitted-either that Christ received and taught the doctrine of the resurrection, or that he here presents false motives to his disciples, and inspires groundless hopes in their hearts. But in John v, 28, 29, our Savior speaks in more emphatic terms, and gives a more comprehensive view of the resurrection. Referring to the spiritual transformation of those who hear the Word of God and believe on him, he says: " Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." Here, the resurrection spoken of is that of those who are itn the graves; and it numbers both classes, the good and the wicked. Nay, the very agency by which the resurrection shall be effected is mentioned; "they," while sleeping in their graves, shall hear his voice. Again, our Savior says that it is the Father's will." that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it Ap again at the last day." (John vi, 39.) He also declares that every one that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: "And I will raise him up at the last day," (verse 40.) And, again, of each one of those who, drawn RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 2-31 by the Father, comes to Him, "I will raise him up at the last day," (verse 44.) And still again, that " whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day," (verse 54.) This series of passages evidently all refer to the same time and the same event that Martha referred to, when she said, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." The establishing of the point before us does not require further Scripture quotation. But we recur again to our Savior's reply to the cavilings of the Sadducees, in which he makes a most striking enunciation of the resurrection. "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection fronm the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." (Luke xx, 35, 36.) 3. The doctrine of the resurrection was affirmed in various ways by the apostles. (1.) They asserted that God had raised the dead. " Women received their dead raised to life again." (Heb. xi, 35.) (2.) They declared their own confident expectation of a resurrection from the dead. "I have hope toward God," said Paul, as he reasoned before Felix, "that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust." (Acts xxiv, 15.) And again, he says, "We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to-wit, the redemption of our body." (Rom. viii, 23.) (3.) They connected the resurrection of Christ with the resurrection of the believer. "God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power." (I Cor. v, 14.) " Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus." (2 Cor. iv, 14.) (4.) It is directly asserted that God will raise the dead. 232 IAN ALL IMMORTAL. "He that raised up Christ shall also quicken your mortal bodies." (Rom. viii, 11.) "God which raiseth the dead." (2 Cor. i, 9.) In the fifteenth chapter of first Corinthians, the apostle not only asserts the resurrection of the dead, but undertakes its demonstration in one of his most conclusive and masterly arguments. He shows, first, that Christ has risen, and fiom hence infers that there must be a resurrection of the dead. This thought he elaborates and amplifies, meeting the cavils of the objector, exhibiting the glory of the resurrection body, declaring the Divine agency by which we obtain the victory over death and the grave, and finally applying the practical inferences which flowed so richly from the subject. (5.) This doctrine was not only asserted by the apostles, but it entered largely into their preaching, and formed an important and distinguishing feature of their doctrine. Hence it is said that the priests, and the captain of the Temple, and the Sadducees, were "grieved that they taught the people and preached, through Jesus, the resurrection from the dead." (Acts iv, 2.) St. Paul also refers to this as one of the elementary doctrines of the Christian faith, and speaks of it as "the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead." (Heb. vi, 2.) (6.) This doctrine was also made a ground of objection to their teaching. "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked." (Acts xvii, 32.) (7.) They expressed wonder at its rejection by others. "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?" (Acts xxvi, 8.) "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" (1 Cor. xv, 12.) (8.) They also reasoned with objectors. After introducing an objector as saying, "How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" (1 Cor. xv, 35,) the RESURRECTION OF TIE HUMAN BOb f. 238 apostle replies by showing the corresponding analogies in nature, instead of disclaiming the doctrine. (9.) They also rebuked those who claimed that the resurrection was already passed. "Who concerning the truth nave erred, saying, that the resurrection is passed already." (10.) Finally, the grand scene of the resurrection is graphically portrayed in the Revelation. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." (Rev. xx, 12, 13.) We have now shown the following facts in relation to the doctrine of the resurrection; namely, that our Savior tacitly assented to it when casually mentioned before him; that he distinctly affirmed and taught it; that the inspired apostles asserted that God had raised the dead, expressed their own confident expectation of a resurrection, and asserted the doctrine of the resurrection in the most positive manner; that the doctrine, ntered largely into their preaching —was one of the grounds of objection urged against them by their opponents; that they expressed wonder at its rejection by others, and reasoned with objectors; that they rebuked those who said the resurrection was already passed; and finally, that the rising of the dead from their graves in the earth and in the sea is shadowed forth in graphic outline in the Revelation. With these facts proved before us, whatever may be said about the absurdity or the impossibility of the resurrection, it must be admitted that it is a doctrine of the Bible. We may as well question whether light proceeds from the sun, as whether the revelation of such a doctrine 20 234 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. is made in the Bible. He who takes the Bible, must take along with it the doctrine of the resurrection. IV. DEMONSTRATED BY MIRACULOUS RESURRECTIONS. It might have been reasonably anticipated that a doctrine so far removed from the ordinary perceptions of sense; standing also, as it were, without the field peculiarly claimed as lying within the scope of science and reason; suggested only by a few dimly-read and poorly-understood analogies of nature; and yet involving and unfolding the most glorious prospect to redeemed humanity-it might have been reasonably anticipated, we say, that such a doctrine would, in some way, receive special authentication and attestation. This reasonable expectation is fully answered. Not only is the doctrine clearly revealed; not only have inspired men gloried amid worldly sorrows and deaths in this great faith; but the grave has been made to utter her testimony; Death, despoiled in his own dark and dread dominion, has been compelled to make confession that his is not an everlastinga secaled donminion. One single case of real miraculous resurrection from the dead, clearly and satisfactorily established, must demonstrate the possible resurrection of every individual from the grave. Let us, then, see what light may be gleaned from individual miraculous resurrections. Such facts are all the more valuable, because they not only exemplify, in some sort, the Scripture revelation of the subject, but also wear another character, it may be equally significant for purposes of argument; namely, that of testimony fozuded on facts. 1. The son of thbe widow of Zarephath. (1 Kings xvii, 17.) Roll back the tide of time till we reach some nine centuries before the coming of our Lord. Let us stand by the gate of the ancient city "that belongeth to Zidon." RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 235 Upon the earth has descended neither dew nor rain for many days. The earth is parched and dry, and the people are famishing for food. An old man approaches; his locks are white; his countenance bespeaks one who is conversant with heaven. He approaches a poor widow gathering sticks without the gate, and asks the boon of a little water and a morsel of bread. But the woman, standing up before him like the gaunt figure of famine, declares that of all her wasted store only "an handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse" were all that remained to her; and that she is now gathering a few sticks to cook the last meal for herself and her son before they die. But at the instance of the man of God she consents to share with him this her last morsel. But, lo! the meal wastes not, and the oil does not fail from day to day! But now a new source of sorrow arises. The son of the widow sickens and dies. The bereaved mother bemoans her loss as a visitation of God. " 0, thou man of God! art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?" Her son is dead: no thought or dream. or presentiment of his restoration to life seems to have entered into her mind. Her sins, her loss, her desolationcheerless, rayless, hopeless-seem to occupy all her thoughts. Elijah takes the son from her arms, carries him to the "loft" where he slept himself, and laid him on his own bed. Then he cries mightily unto God in prayer; and stretched himself three times upon the corpse of the lad, beseeching that his soul may be restored-come into himi: a1gain,. Then breath returned into that dead body —"the soul (nephesh) of the child came into him again and he revived." And Elijah took the child again in his arms, brought him down and presented him to his weeping mother, saying, "See, thy son liveth!" Rising even above the majesty of the wonderful faith and 236 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. the miraculous power that restored this child to life from the dead, is the simplicity and the purity of all this scene. The simplicity of truth is manifest in every part. Again, the petition-let this child's soul come into hnim agatn —regards the soul, not as having died within the body, but as having gone out of it, and as being yet alive somewhere without the body. So, also, when it is said that the child's soul-nephesh —came into him, iMnto the vmidst of hinm, it is implied that a living thing came back into the dead body, and, by reuniting with it, restored that body to life. This whole transaction clearly shows, that, (1.) There is an immortal spirit existing in man. (2.) This spirit can and does exist in a separate state from the body, and does not die with the body. (3.) God has power to remand that spirit back to the body, to restore the connection that had been dissolved by death, and, as a natural result, to quicken the dead body to life. 2. Son of the Shunnamite. (2 Kings iv, 32-37.) Turn again to another scene: Elisha the prophet is seated in his tent upon Mount Carmel. It is a solemn, impressive place, a place for meditation, for communion with God. The heavens, in solemn grandeur, arch above him; the rich plains and valleys of Sharon are on the east; the restless waves of the " great sea " dash against the mountain's base upon the west. Here Elijah, fifteen years before, had contended with the false prophets of Baal, and brought down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice. And it was here, too, upon some elevated solitary crag-the loftiest peak of Carmel-that Elijah was gladdened by the little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, rising from the sea, the sign of God that the famine should cease. But wonders connected with this hallowed spot have not, yet ceased. Yonder approaches a woman, riding in haste, She is at once recognized as the Shunamite, at whose house RESURRECTION OF THE HUrMAN BODY. 237 the prophet had often been rested and refreshed. How tender the salutation of the man of God: "Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?" Strange must have been the feelings of that struggling heart when she answered, "It is well." Yet she bows herself down, and takes hold upon the feet of the prophet, and there pours out the burden of her agony. Her little son, an only child, given by God, and grown to be a lad, going out to his father among the reapers, had fallen, and as he cried, "My head, my head," one of the young men bore him to his mother, upon whose knee he sat till noon, and then died. The light of the dwelling had now gone out. The bereaved mother bore the precious burden in her own arms up to the room she had made for the prophet in her house, and laid him on the prophet's bed; then she closed the door, and hastened to Carmel to lay her burden before the Lord. Hardly was the tale of sorrow completed, when the prophet, giving his staff to Gehazi, said, " Go thy way; if thou meet any man salute him not; and if any salute thee answer him not again; and lay thy staff upon the face of the child." At the importunity of the afflicted woman, the prophet also follows after. But Gehazi " laid his staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing." And when Elisha came to the house, the child was still dead, lying upon the bed, and he entered the room and closed the door. Then he prayed unto the Lord, and stretched himself upon the corpse of the child, till his flesh warmed with life, and he opened his eyes; then he called the mother and committed the child to her arms. This whole narration is also one of touching simplicity. There are no studied parts acted, no labored disguises; the unsuspecting simplicity of conscious innocence and purity mark every act in the scene and every word in the narration. 238 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. 3. The man raised to life by touching the bones of Elisha. Elijah and Elisha are two of the most remarkable characters in sacred history. Of Elijah it is difficult to determine whether he was a man or an angel in a human body. Elisha was his student, his companion, and successor. He was present at the ascension of his master, and saw the chariot of fire, and heard the rushing whirlwind with which he passed into the skies. And to him descended the mantle of the departing Elijah. For sixty-five years he remained the witness of God and the wonder of Israel. He then died. Joash, the king of' Israel, coming down to him in his last sickness, and weeping over him, exclaiming in almost precisely the same language uttered by the prophet himself upon the ascension of Elijah, "0 my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" In Ecclesiasticus xlviii, 12-14, after referring to the character and works of Elijah, it is said, " Elisha was filled with his spirit; whilst he lived, he was not moved with the presence of any prince; neither could any bring him into subjection. Nothing could overcome him; and after his death his body prophesied." Such was the prophet Elisha. Not long after his death the following event occurred, as recorded in the sacred narrative, and to which evident allusion is made in the close of the extract from Ecclesiasticus: "And the bands of the nMoabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." (2 Kings xiii, 20, 21.) This incident is no less wonderful than suggestive. The funeral procession, finding that they could not in safety carry the corpse to the appointed place of burial on account of the near approach of the marauding bands of RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN B(JDY. 2* their enemies, pause in their course. The grave of Elisha is at hand, and here they hasten to make a temporary deposit of the dead. But, lo, a marvel appears! The man who had so honored God in life is now honored of the AMost High. His very bones are endowed with miraculous power. As the corpse is lowered down slowly into the tomb of Elisha, it at length touches the bones of the prophet, when instantly it quivers with new life; and, to the astonishment of all, the dead man rises and stands upon his feet. Thus did God not only give demonstration of the divine mission of Elisha, and in a way well adapted to rivet the impression and also the remembrance of his teachings upon the minds of the people, but he also gave them, in their dark age, a wonderful glimpse of his resurrection power. It may be urged of these most touching and beautiful examples, that the number of witnesses was small, and the miracles were comparatively private. The skeptic may object that there is room for at least the suspicion of col. lusion or imposture; or, at any rate, that there is not that degree of certainty in these miracles that there would have been had the transactions taken place openly and in the presence of many witnesses. There may seem to be some force to these suggestions; yet they are offset by the manif'est truthfulness of the narrations, and by the fhct that the miracles were known, acknowledged, and recorded in the sacred books of the Jews. Yet we will gratify the inquirer by seeking examples of greater publicity. They are not wanting in the sacred record. 4. Dacuhter of Jairus, the ruler. (Luke viii, 49 —56; Matt. ix, 18-26; Mark v, 22-43.) Imagine ourselves to be standing amidst the solitary ruins of an ancient city, upon the western coast of the Sea of Galilee. As I look around upon the silent desolation of what was once a place 240 MAN ALL IMMOlTAL. of opulence and splendor, I remember that our Savior once said, "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell." (Matt. xi, 23.) [But now a new scene rises before mne. I seem to have gone back to Capernaum, as it was when honored as the abode of our Lord. I seem to behold the Savior; near the sloping banks of the sea he stands and discourses to the multitude around him. Just then a man, with hurried step and anxious countenance, is seen making his way through the crowd. He is recognized as the ruler of the synagogue, and the multitude respectfully open a passage for him, as he hurries along. He approaches Christ, and instead of denouncing his doctrine and commanding hinm to silence, he bows down to the very earth before him, and while his frame is trembling with emotion and the tears of anguish are rolling down over his cheek, he says, "'ly little daughter lieth at the point of death; I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she mlay be healed." This was his only daughter, and she had now reached the age of twelve years. Disease had fastened upon her. Every means that affection, wealth, or skill could devise had been employed without effect; and at last the sorrow-stricken father beholds the dear object of parental lffection struggling in the agonies of death. What shall he do? Every resort has failed. MIust she die? Is there no hope? 0, where shall he now find help? In his extremity he remeimbers the strange, mysterious person who has been filling the whole land with the famle of his words and his deeds, and whose abode was in Capernaum. He is not his disciple; he believes not his doctrine; nay, he has, perhaps, often treated him wit-h indignity, when he would have taught the people in the synagogue. But now this is his only hope, every other resource has failed; and there is a possibility that he who has just delivered the dweller among the tombs from RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 241 the legion of devils that possessed him, may heal his daughter. Thus in his extremity he comes to Christ. Our Savior pauses in his discourse. He goes with the ruler. The multitude, filled with wonder and admiration, press around him and go along. While they are still in the way, a messenger meets them with the announcement that the "cldaughter is dead." EHope seems to expire in the breast of the father; but Jesus encourages him to "be not afraid; only believe." Then, with Peter, Jaumes, and John, he enters the house; and to those that were weeping and wailing greatly, he said, "Why make ye this ado and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." But "they laughed him to scorn." But he, when he had put them all out, except the parents and his three disciples, took the maiden by the hand, and said unto her, "Arise!" And, behold, life came into her, and she "arose, and walked!" We wonder not at the astonishment of those who beheld this miracle of Divine power! It is that same power which shall awake to life our sleeping dust in "the resurrection at the last day." "The Savior raised Her hand from off her bosom, and spread out The snowy fingers in his paln, and said,'IMaiden! arise!'-and suddenly a flush Shot o'er her forehead, and along her lips, And through her cheek, the rallied color ran; And the still outline of her graceful form Stirr'd in the linen vesture; and she clasp'd The Savior's hand, and, fixing her dark eyes Full on his beaming countenance, AROSE." Now, let any one scrutinize the facts of this miracle and see how little ground there is to suspect any fraud or imposture in it. (1.) Neither the parents nor friends were the disciples of Christ. (2.) Our Savior was not present during her sickness, nor at her death. (3.) There is full evidence of her death; first, the father declares her in a dying state; second, the messenger meets them in the way and reports 21 242 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. her to be dead; third, the attendants in the house had all witnessed her death and bewailed it; and finally, when our Savior, in order that his enemies might not afterward say that she was only asleep, and that she was only awakened out of sleep by him instead of being raised from the dead, suggests that she is not dead, "they laughed him to scorn." (4.) There were at least five personal witnesses of this resurrection. (5.) And last of all, she, that was so evidently dead, walked, and ate, and lived. 5. Son of the widow of Nain. (Luke vii, 11-18.) Let us now take another case, and one of still more open and striking character. Behold the gate of the city of Nain is thrown open, and a funeral procession marches forth. The corpse is a noble youth — the only son of his mother, and she a widow." The respect in which that youth was held, and the deep sympathy felt for that bereaved mother, is attested by the vastness of the procession, for " much people of the city was with her." The corpse had been prepared for the burial, and weeping friends are now bearing it to its long home. Prominent in that moving assemblage is she whose affliction touches every heart. " There was one, Only one mourner. Close behind the bier, Crunlpling the pall upon her withered hands, Follsw'd an aged woman. Her short steps Faltered with weakness, and a broken moan Fell from her lips, thicken'd convulsively As her heart bled afresh. The pitying crowd Follow'd apart, but no one spoke to her. She had no kinsmen. She had lived aloneA widow with one son. He was her allThe only tie she had in the wide worldAnd he was dead. They could not comfort her." Just then, a strange man, followed by an equally-strange assemblage, is seen approaching. The sight of the bereaved widow touches his heart, and he says to her,'"Weep not." Then he turns and lays his hand upon the bier. They RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 243 that bear it stand still. Then with sublime and commanding authority-authority such as dwells only in the heart of Omnipotence-authority such as can wake the dead-he says, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." In a moment the chains of death are broken; the icy coldness is succeeded by returning warmth; life and animation return. How astonished the multitude! That body just now dead begins to move; the winding sheet is parted; the young man sits up; he speaks! Who can depict the wonder, the astonishment of the gazing multitude! who can conceive the flutterings of hope, joy, transport, in the breast of that mother, as she beholds her son restored to life! Hardly could she be persuaded it was reality till the mysterious personage who had raised him to life committed him to her arms. I wonder not that fear fell upon all the people, and that they said with united voice "'a great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people;" nor yet that the fame of such an event-so clearly and so indubitably the work of miraculous power-spread not only through all Judea, but also through all the surrounding region. 6. Reszrrection of Lazarus. (John xi, 1-54.) One example more of this class of evidence must suffice. At Bethany, near unto Jerusalem, is a family much beloved by the Savior. Their home was his retreat in the time of sorrow, and his place of rest in the time of weariness. Lazarus is now sick, and drawing nigh unto death; but Jesus, the guest and comforter of the family, is away in Bethabara, a day's journey distant. The sisters of Lazarus dispatch a messenger to Christ, saying, "Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick." Scarcely had the messenger departed when their brother died. The day's journey is performed; the messenger comes to Christ, and delivers his message. But still for two days the Savior lingers in the same place. 244 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Why does he thus linger? has he ceased to love his friend? Does he feel no sympathy for the bereaved sisters who have so often ministered to him? or does he fear to test his miraculous power before the scrutiny of those Jews that have come down from Jerusalem? " Surely," they will say, "if he can raise the dead, let him now come and raise his friend; and if he fail to do this, let him be accounted an impostor and a villain." But, lo, as the fourth day dawns, our Savior says to his disciples, "Let us go into Judea again." [But his disciples sought to dissuade him, because the Jews had, just before, attempted to stone him, and were still seeking his life. However, finding their dissuasions of no avail, Thomas said to his fellow-disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Slowly and thoughtfully the little group journey back into Judclea, and approach the now desolate home in Bethany. Then Martha, as soon as she heard Jesus was coming, went forth to meet him. How affecting her address, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." How sublime the discourse of our Lord, as he speaks of the resurrection, and endeavors to prepare her mind for that stupendous miracle of power which was to be the wonder of the world. In the mean time, the other sister, Mary, is called, and goes forth to meet her Lord, followed by the whole assembly of the Jews, who suppose she is going to the grave, there to weep and bemoan her loss. How affecting the scene, as, amid the weeping and the moans of gathered friends, the disconsolate Mary casts herself at Jesus' feet, and cries out, "'Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died' —-our house would not have been desolate. our hearts would not have been broken with anguish!" The auspicious, moment for the exercise of Divine power RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 245 had now arrived. Surrounded by the weeping friends, Jesus "groaned in spirit and was troubled." The sympathies of his soul were awakened, and "Jesus wept." The Jews were struck with the Savior's tenderness, and said, "Behold how he loved him!" and said among themselves, "Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Neither they nor the bereaved sisters seemed to dream of his resurrection from the dead. So that when they came to the grave, and Jesus bade them roll away the stone from its mouth, they interposed that he had been dead four days, and the body must therefore have become offensive. But at his command the stone is rolled away-the astonished Jews are looking on with wonder-the weeping sisters hardly know whether to hope or fear. He lifts his eyes to heaven, offering a brief memorial of his faith to the Father, and then, with a voice whose tones of authority penetrated the deep cavern of the dead, he cried, "Lazarus, come forth!" Memorable words! "3Martha! Mary! dry thy tears; thy brothel lives!" Hle comes forth, with his graveclothes around him. Ye wondering, doubting Jews, come, with your own hands, "loose him and let him go," that ye may know that he whose death-agony ye witnessedhe, whose body ye laid in the grave, has been truly restored to life. "And instantly, bound hand and foot, And borne by unseen angels from the cave, Ite that was dtad stood with them. At the word Of Jesus, the f-ar-stricken Jews unloosed The bands from off the foldings of his shroud; And IMary, with her dark vail thrown aside, Ran to him swiftly, and cried,'LAzARaUSIIY BRIOTHER LAZARUS!' and tore away The napkin she had bound about L is head, And touch'd the warm lips with her fearful handAnd on his neck fell weeping. And while all Lay on their faces prostrate, Lazarus Took MTary by tile hand, and they knelt down And worshiped Hiim who loved them." 2-46 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. 7. The dead bodies of the saints resurrected at the crucifixion. The prodigies attendant upon the crucifixion were such as filled the land with consternation and dread. Earthquakes rent the solid rocks and opened the graves of the dead. The sun vailed itself in darkness and the earth wrapped around her the sable robes of mourning. "From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." (Matt. xxvii, 45.) This darkness lasted from noon till three o'clock in the afternoon-a period of three hom's. It was, therefore, clearly a supernatural event-as a total eclipse of the sun can not last longer than a quarter of an hour; and besides that, this being the time of the Passover, was at the full moon, when an eclipse of the sun is impossible. Mention is made of these prodigies by heathen writers; and Dionysius, the king of Egypt, is recorded to have exclaimed, "Either the God of nature is suffering, or the machine of the world is tumbling into ruin." And even the Roman centurion, and those with him, when they witnessed these wonders, "feared greatly," and exclaimed: "Truly, this was the Son of God!" The multitude who were gathered to witness the spectacle were also filled with wonder at the mysterious displays of the power of God, and "smote their breasts and returned" to their homes. It was among such prodigies as these that St. Matthew says, "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." (Matt. xxvii, 52, 53.) It is not recorded who these saints were, nor yet what became of them. It seems probable, however, that they were persons known in Jerusalem, and thus their ready identification. Their resurrection was no doubt designed, along with the other marvels of the occasion, to confirm the Divine mission of RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. 247 Christ, and demonstrate him to be the promised Messiah of the Jews. They seem to have been quickened to life in, throutgh, or after-u-.r. —his resurrection. They did not rob him of his character as "the first-fruits;" but they rose with him, and probably accompanied him to glory. Now, let us glance at this progressive development of this miraculous power of restoring the dead to life. In the case of the daughter of Jairus, death had just taken place. The body was scarcely cold; the flush of life and youth had hardly faded from her cheek; the corpse was still in her father's house, and they who had witnessed her dying agony were still weeping over it. Hardly had the spirit passed the gates of death, when it was summoned back by the great arbiter of life and death, and bid to tabernacle awhile longer in its tenement of clay. With the young man of Nain, death had occurred some time before. The corpse had lain the appointed time; it was no longer fit for the sight of the eye; it had been prepared for burial, and was now being borne to "the house appointed for all living." No Savior had been invited to the house of mourning; none was expected. The widow had given up her son. The whole city, moved by compassion, had gone forth; no other result than that of his burial enters into any of their thoughts. Just then the Savior meets them, as it were by accident, in the open highway. He is moved with compassion, touches the bier, and the dead man lives. The case of Lazarus presents features differing from both of these. He had not only been prepared for burial, but the body had already been laid in the tomb, when the Savior came to their now desolate home. The process of decomposition had already commenced, the rioting of the worms begun, and the body had therefore become offensive to the smell. But though the process had advanced further, it was not beyond the power of Omnipotence to check, and 248 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. from incipient corruption life comes forth renewed in all its healthfulness and vigor. In the resurrection of the "bodies of the saints" there is still an additional feature of striking import. These "bodies" had been long entombed; the flesh had moldered back to dust; the dry bones and scattered dust only remained. But, behold, under the quickening power of the resurrection of the Son of God, these are restored to life. They come forth the type and the demonstration of a universal resurrection. It was the demonstration that Death was now crushed forever beneath the arm of the Almighty. It was the demonstration "that a power existed that could recover the plundered spoils of Death, could re-embody the parted spirit, could restore it to the fullness of its prerogatives as the quickening principle of an immortal frame." One more fact —the resurrection of Christ —and our chain of argument will be complete. Even skepticism itself can ask no more. "Why, then, should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" But this theme-the resurrection of Christ-viewed first as a matter of fact, and secondly as the pledge of ours, is a theme so wide in its range, so full in its details, and so momentous in its bearing upon the general resurrection of the dead, that we must reserve it for a separate theme of discussion. In the mean time, let us be thankful that we have found so firm footing on which to plant our feet, as we have felt our way along in our search after truth. Even now, looking upon the cold form of death, we may say:'Yet through these rigid limbs once more nobler life, erelong, shall pour; These dead, dry bones again shall feel New warmth and vigor through thesm steal; Re-knit and living they shall soar On high, where Christ lives evernmore." (Fraon the Get. of N. )Iermain.) RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 249 X. RESUIRRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." ACTS ii, 32. " Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say solne among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" 1 Con. xv, 12. THE resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ has ever been regarded by the Christian Church as a doctrine of vast importance. It derives its importance not merely from its relation to the scheme of redemption-illustrating the office, character, and triumph of Christ-but also from its important relation to the general doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. The two things are closely allied by the apostle: "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen;" and, on the other hand, "If Christ be not risen," then is our faith in the resurrection vain, and also they "which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished." In fact, so close is the connection between the resurrection of Christ and the final resurrection of those of whom he has "become the first-fruits," that those who admit the former will find little ground to question the latter. It was a dark and gloomy hour when the Lord of life and glory-the hope of Israel-lay the victim of death, the tenant of the grave. How could the apostles ever have gone forth to preach salvation through a Savior still held by the bands of death? How could they have preached the resurrection of the dead, while he, through whom was the 250 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. promise and the hope, was still shrouded in the dark prisonhouse of the tomb? His resurrection was, therefore, an essential element of their faith, and an essential feature of their ministry. To them the assurance of his resurrection was like the dawning of a new day upon a night of darkness and sorrow. They received it as the final confirmation of the Divinity of his mission-the demonstration of the doctrines he taught. They regarded it as completely annulling all those heresies that denied to man a future state, and placing upon an indestructible basis the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. And in this light has the resurrection of our blessed Lord been viewed by the Church in all ages. We shall make two points in this discussion; namely, 1. That the resurrection of Christ is strongly confirmed by circumstantial evidence, extraneous to the testimony of the direct witnesses of the fact; 2. That the fact of his resurrection is fully confirmed by direct, competent, and positive evidence. I. CIRCU3MSTANTIAL OR CORROBORATINO EVIDENCE OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. Our position here is, that the circumstances connected with the case-circumstances assented to by the Jews as well as by the disciples-strongly corroborate the direct testimony, and can be satisfactorily accounted for on no other h7ypothesis than the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The establishment of this proposition, it is true, will not demonstrate the certainty of the resurrection; but it will show us that all those coincident facts which might be reasonably looked for in connection with such an event do really exist, and that they are such facts as can not be accounted for on any other supposition. The consideration RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 251 of them will, therefore, prepare our minds to weigh with cando' and to feel the force of the direct testimony by which the resurrection of Christ is established as, fixed fact, in history and in religion. 1. There was such a man as Jesus Christ. This proposition lies at the very foundation of our faith. For if no such person ever existed, then all the narrations concerning him are forgeries or fictions. But, on the other hand, if it be shown that he actually lived and died as the Scriptures record of him, then have we a first presumption that all thev record of him is true. Here, setting aside for a moment the sacred narrative, we remark, that the reality of the life and death of Jesus Christ, in the earlier ages of Christianity, was universally conceded by both friend and foe. The only questions at issue related to his character and doctrines. Josephus, a bigoted Jewish historian, who witnessed the siege of Jerusalem, and who wrote within the first century of the Christian era, acknowledges that Christ "did many wonderful works," "won many to his persuasion," and, "at the instigation of the Jews and by Pilate's sentence, was suspended upon the cross," and that to the day in which he wrote "there remained a sect of men, who, from him, have the name of Christians, and who believed in his resurrection from the dead." The account of his death is mentioned by both Tacitus and Lucian. The facts of his trial and execution were communicated by Pilate to the Roman Senate; for both Justin Martyr and Tertullian appeal to the acts of Pilate, then extant, to corroborate their testimony concerning Christ. a Nor do they refer to them in an indefinite "'lIodern research has brought to light the following curious relic: SeYence remlerecl by Potinus Pilate, actilg Governor of Lower Galilee, stating that Jesaa of Nazareth shiall.er deafth on the cross. In the year seventeen of the Emperor Tiberius Caosar, and the 24th day of March, in the city of the holy Jerusalem, Annas and Caiaphas being high-priests, saarrificators of the people of God. Pontius Pilate, Governor of Lower Galilee, 252 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. and obscure manner, or among those who had not the means of refutation. The former, who lived only about a century after our Savior's death, and who suffered martyr dom at Rome, boldly asserts the fact in a letter to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and refers him to the acts themselves for confirmation. The latter in his Apology, written about fifty years after Justin Martyr, affirms that Tiberius, the Emperor, was so struck with the accounts received from Palestine concerning Christ, that he would have deified him had the Senate assented, and even challenges the Senate to consult their records -consulite colgmetnta'rios vestros!-for confirmation of the fact. This certainly was very rash on the part of these men, were they not borne out by the facts in the case. But again, Julian the apostate, Celsus, and Porphyry-all violent enemies to Christianitysitting in the presidential chair of the Praetory, condemns Jesus of Nazareth to die on the cross between two thieves —the great and notorious evidence of tho people saying: 1. Jesus is a seducer. 2. lie is seditious. 3. He is an enelmy to the law. 4. He calls himself falsely tihe Son of God. 5. He calls himself falsely the King of Israel. 6. He entered the Temple followed by a multitude bearing palm branches in their hands. Orders the first Centurion, Quilius Cornelius, to lead him to the place of exe cution. Forbids any person whomsoever, either poor or rich, to oppose the death of Jesus. The witnesses who signed the condemnation of Jesus are: 1. Daniel, Rtiabboni, a Pharisee. 2. Joannes Rorobable. 3. iRaphael, Rabboni. 4. Capet, a citizen. Jesus shall go out of the city of Jerusalem by the gate Struennus. The above sentence is engraved on a copper plate. On one side are written these words: "A similar plate is sent to each tribe." It was found in an antique vase of white marble while excavating in the ancient city of Aquilla, in the lingdom of Naples, in the year 1850, and was discovered by the Cornmissioners of the arts of the French armies. At the expedition of Naples it was inclosed in a box of ebony, at the sacristy of the Charlatrem. The French translation was made by the mornbers of the Commissioners of arts. The original is in the Hebrew language. RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 253 not only admit the existence of Christ, but, to account for his "wonderful works," are compelled to ascribe them to his wonderful skill as a mag-ician. How kindred in spirit to the unbelieving Jews who were personal witnesses of the mighty works performed by Christ, and, unable to deny the fact of tiheir performance, ascribed them to Beelzebub! It has been left to modern skepticism to attempt the astounding feat of demolishing Christianity by denying that Christ ever lived. Volney, who called upon God and upon Christ when danger and death were before him, pretended to the astounding discovery, that the Gospels, which purport to be the history of the life and actions of Jesus Christ, were compiled with variations and improvements, from Hindoo tales. But, alas, for this shallow fabrication; so often as Christianity has demanded, " Where are the origmial.s from which the compilation was made?" echo has responded, "/ Where?" German infidelity, however, has caught up the idea, and, with indefatigable effort, has sought to prove that the Gospels are mytfhs-mere fancy sketches, and not a record of facts. It is contended that while such a man as Jesus smay have lived, that the history of his life, doctrines, works, sufferings, and death, found in the New Testament, is utterly unworthy of credit, and to be regarded only as a succession of fictitious tales of a moral and allegorical character.'That this modern cavil is to supersede the clear and truthful narration of facts found in the Gospels-the constant belief and asseveration of all cotemporary witnesses, both fiiends and foes-the concessions of even the infidels of all early ages, as well as the authentic history of all ages, is a presumption too monstrous and absurd to obtain credit for a moment. Christianity, in its origin, as well as its progress, is blended with the history of the Roman Empire. The existence of Dioclesian or of Constantine 2t54 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. might as well be qustioned as that of Jesus Christ; and neither can be denied without a direct palpable contravention of all the settled laws of human belief. 2. The prophets. not only foretold his appearance and character, but also his death and resurrection. It was the joyful exclamation of Philip, when he had become conversant with Christ, "'We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." (John i, 45.) The Messiah was symbolized in the types of the Jewish dispensation. The offering of Isaac upon Mount Moriah, the lifting up of the brazen 3erpent in the wilderness, the entombing of Jonah in the belly of a whale, and, indeed, every sacrifice offered upon Jewish altars-all were typical of the sufferings, the sacrificial death, the entombing, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what was dimly shadowed forth in the types is exhibited with greater distinctness and with more signifi. cant particularity in the prophets. A messenger was to prepare the way before him. He was to come, the Desire of nations; to come before the scepter departed from Judah, four hundred and ninety years from the building of the second Temple, and before it was destroyed; and also to be born of a virgin. The very tribe, and family, and place of his nativity are foretold.* He was to preach, to: To show the reader how comprehensive the prophecies were, and yet how minute in their statement of particulars, we give a condensed summary of them: 1. A messenger or a foreun noer was to annomnce his coming. " I will send my luessenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." (3Mal. iii, 1.) "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the lord." (Isa. xl, 3.) " I will send you Elijah the prophet." (NMIal. iv, 5.) The predictions were fulfilled in John the Baptist: "' In those days canle John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Platt. iii, 1; Luke i, 17.) "This is Elias which was to come." (Matt. xi, 14.) "Elias it come already." (Matt. xvii, 19; 3Iark ix, 13.) 2. lie was to comwe the Desirge of natiosns. "The desire of all nations shall come." (Hag. ii, 7.) Ancient writers give evidence of the awakened expectation of Eastern nations about the time of the birth of Christ. 3. Before the scepter departed firom Judah. "The scepter shall not RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OU RS. 255 work miracles, to purge the Temple, to ride in triumph into Jerusalem. But he was also to suffer, to be despised and depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his fret, till Shiloh come." (Getn. xlix, 10.) Judea was required to pay taxes, indicative that the scepter had departed to the Roman Emperor; and " this taxing we s first made " at the birth of Christ. (Luke ii, 1-7.) 4. He was to comee while the second Temple was yetstandlig. " I will fill this house "-that is, the second Temple-" with glory." "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former house." (Hag. ii, 7, 9.) Christ suffered crucifixion only forty years before the destruction of this second Tenmpie. 5. The time of his birth is di. stictly,~ecified. "Seveity weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be sevenr weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore aun tio wueeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the micst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations lie shall make it desolate, even iuntil the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." (Dan. ix, 24-27.) The most reliable chronology shows that from the decree of A&taxerxes to Ezra to rebuild Jerusalem to the death of Christ, was a period of 490 years, corresponding precisely to the prophetic period of "seventy weeks," each "week " comprising seven years. On this supposition, let us apply the subdivisions wm.ntioned in verses 25, 26, and 27. 1. From the decree till the city was rebuilt —" 7 weeks," each of 7 years= 49 years. 2. From that date till the public appearance of Christ-" 62 weeks," each of 7 years.....................................................................4 —34 years. 3. The period of Christ's ministry in the midst of which he was to be " cut off"-" 1 week"................................................................... 7 years. 490 years. 6. He swas to be born of a vuirg-n. " Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isa. vii, 14.) Christ was born of the Virgin MIary. (See Matt. i, 18-25; Luke i, 28-35.) 7. Ilis tribe is declared. "'The scepter shall not depart from Judah," etc. (Gen. xlix, 10.) " It is evident our Lord sprang from Judah." (Heb. vii, 14.) 8. His family is specified. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." (Isa. xi, 1.) " Of this man's seed, according to his promise, hath God raised unto Israel a Savior." (Acts xiii, 23.) 9. The place of hisnnativity is not forgottesz. "Thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be Ruler in Israel." (Micah v, 2.) " Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea." (Matt. ii, 1.) " Christ cometh of the seed of Dlvid, and out of ihke town of Bethlehem where David was." (John vii, 42.) 256 MAN ALL DIMORTAL. rejected of men, to be hated and persecuted, to be be trayed by his professed friend and sold for a specified sum; he was to be forsaken by his friends, mocked and smitten by his enemies; his hands and feet were to be pierced, and he was to be "lifted up," to be "cut off," to be "numbered with transgressors." The parting of his garments, the casting of lots upon his vesture, the gall and vinegar with which he should be insulted upon the cross, and the very language he should utter in his dying agonyall are foretold. Thus was he to die; but when dead, his bones were not to be broken, although it was customary to break the bones of those crucified. Though executed as a malefactor, he was to be buried with the rich, and yet not to be left in the grave, nor his body permitted to see corruption. Having risen from the dead, he was to ascend up on high, to be seated at the right hand of God, there to make intercession for his people, and to carry forward the grand designs of his mediatorial office till he shall come to execute final judgment upon all the nations of the earth. Such was the prophetic delineation of the sufferings, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. He had _predicted his own death and r-eszurrection. What other meaning can we attach to the following declarations: " I am the resurrection and the life," (John xi, 25;) and, again, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," (John ii, 19;) and this " he spake of the temple of his body," (verse 21?) But to his disciples his languagewas more distinct and emphatic, and it is a matter of astonishment that they were so slow to comprehend it; for as he drew near the close of his ministry, he " began to show unto his disciples how he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief-priests, and scribes, and be killed, and raised again the third day." (Matt. xvi, 21). On another occasion, as he was going up to Jerusalem, he took the disciples RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 257 apart, and said to them, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief-priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death: and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him; and the third day he shall rise again." (Matt. xx, 17-19.) Whether the disciples comprehendedthesepredictions or not, the Jews evidently understood that Christ had foretold his resurrection from the dead; for, after his execution, they went to Pilate, and said, "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again." (Matt. xxvii, 63.) Such were the predictions made by our Savior, while he was yet alive, concerning his resurrection; and such was the understanding of those predictions by his enemies, and the alarm they occasioned to them. 4. I1e was acttally crucified, dead, and burlied. The fact of his crucifixion and death is as fully confirmed by all history, sacred and profane, as is the fact of his existence. Both Jewish and Gentile opposers of Christianity in the early ages admit the fact of his crucifixion and burial. The testimony of his actual death becomes complete when we remember that he was wholly in the power of his enemies, and was crucified by them in the presence of a large multitude who witnessed the solemn scene. No one wrested the suffering Jesus from their grasp; they executed upon him, without let or hinderance, the unrighteous decree of the IRoman governor; and when their work was done, reported him dead to Pilate, and asked permission to take the body down and bury it, on account of the approaching Sabbath. To be assured of his actual death, Pilate would not permit the body to. be removed till the centurion who had been charged with his execution had been called, and the fact duly authenticated. After this he was taken down from the cross and sabsequently buried in the tomb of 22 258 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Joseph, of Arimathea; the Jews assisting at, and being witnesses of his burial. 5. The utmost precaution was used to guard the body. The Jews sought to guard his body because he had predicted his resurrection; therefore, fearing that his disciples, if the body remained unguarded, might steal it away, and then say he had risen, they sought from Pilate a guard. Pilate, nothing loth to gratify the Jews, and, perhaps, as he had condemned Christ, desiring to have it fully proved that he was an impostor, granted their request, and placed a guard of sixty men at their disposal. This guard were to keep constant watch over the tomb till the three days were past, and the hope of the resurrection extinguished. The tomb itself was hewn out of a solid rock, and was new. The body had been carefully deposited there by the Jews. A massive stone, difficult of removal, had been placed upon the entrance. The seal of the governor had been affixed to the door; thus anticipating the question, what is there to prevent the guards from taking him away —"et quls custodes custodiet Lpsos.?" —and who is to guard the guards themselves? The guards were required to deliver up, at the end of three days, the body that had been committed to their charge. It is difficult to conceive how greater precautions could have been taken in the case. The most bit ter, unrelenting enemies of Christ strictly executed the direction of Pilate, "Make it as sure as ye can." 6. On, the morning of the third day the body had disappeared. It had probably been the plan of the Jews to bring forth the dead body of Christ after the three days had expired, and to exhibit it as a final refutation of his pretensions, his doctrines, and his predictions. The body was with them, and they alone were responsible for its safekeeping; and they were pledged to bring it forth. No stronger evidence that the body was missing can be desired RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 259 than the fact that, after all, they failed to procduce it. Especially when the rumor spread abroad that the Savior had risen, and living witnesses began to assert that they had seen him, and conversed with himn, felt of him, walked and eat with him, if the body was still in their possession, why did they not bring it forth? Or fifty days later, when the disciples began publicly to proclaim that Christ had risen from the dead, why is not the decaying body produced, to the confusion of those who asserted his resurrection? Nay, why is there not some evidence, that should allay excitement and prevent multitudes from being converted to Christianity, brought forward that the grave of Jesus had not been disturbed, or, at least, that those who had assumed the guardianship of the dead body still knew where it was? But the point is given up. The Jews not only fail to produce the body and to refute the disciples by telling where it is, but they are constrained to the reluctant confession that it has disappeared. 7. The account given by the Jews of the disappearance of the body of Christ is absolutely incredible. Having confessed to the disappearance of the body of Christ, they were bound to give some rational and authentic account of the matter, if they could. Their account should have the air of probability, should be sustained by fact. Only two accounts of the disappearance have come down to us. The first is that given by his disciples, and confirmed by many witnesses, and by miracles, signs, and wonders; namely, that he rose from the dead. The second is the account rendered by the enemies of Christ-reported by the guard through the instigation of the priests-namely, that "his disciples came and stole him while we slept." Whatever conclusion we may come to in relation to the evidence of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, this account of the disappearance of the body is absolutely incredible. 260 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. (1.) It is incredible that the whole guard of sixty men, accustomed to the rigor of military discipline in the Rioman army, should have been asleep while upon duty. The punishment of such an offense would have been death. The number of the guard, the responsibility of their charge, and especially the severity of the punishment of such an offense, preclude utterly the idea that they were all asleep. Had they really been asleep, and thus, through neglect of duty, permitted the disciples to steal away the body, they would have been much more likely to have feigned a miracle than to have made confession, had they not been bribed and protected by the Jewish priests and elders. (2.) If the guards were really asleep, how did they know that the body was stolen at all? How could they, when asleep, recognize the persons who performed the robbery so readily and so clearly? It is a novel affair to bring men to testify to things that occurred while they were asleep! It is well that the fact that they were asleep should go along with and constitute a part of the $estimony. (3.) It is, again, utterly incredible that the guard, posted upon and around the tomb, should have slept so soundly that the tomb could be approached by several men, the seal broken, the great stone at the door rolled away, the tomb entered, and the dead body drawn up through the entrance and borne away-and all this with the trepidation and haste that would be inevitable-without awaking them; nay, without awaking a single one of them, who might have alarmed his companions! (4.) But what motive had the disciples to steal him away, had it been possible to do so? What good could the dead body do them? What use could they make of it? Its resurrection could not be facilitated by being in their hands. And, indeed, they appear to have had no views or clear, distinct convictions concerning the resurrec RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 261 tion at all, but were rather overwhelmed with disappointment, terror, and despair. (5.) But suppose the disciples had both a motive and a disposition to "steal him away," was it very likely they would dare to undertake it? Would a few weak and timid men, such as they were, confront a band of ruffian soldiers? Or, on the other hand, how should the disciples know that the guard were asleep, and thus venture to approach by stealth? How could they know that every one of them was asleep? and how could they be assured of the profoundness of their slumber? (6.) But suppose, again, that the disciples had actually stolen away the body, why were they not immediately arrested, and made to surrender it up? Why were they not punished for breaking the seal? why not for burglary? They were still at Jerusalem; they do not hide themselves away; they travel the streets, walk abroad, and even visit, with astonishment and wonder, the vacant tomb of their Lord. And, indeed, these very disciples were afterward arrested on other charges. Why not arrested upon this? why not charged with stealing the body of Jesus? Nay, when arrested and brought before the council, why do we hear not a word of accusation upon this point?-the very point of difficulty, and which, if once settled against the disciples, would end forever all their hopes and prospects. It would utterly destroy the very foundation of the doctrines they preached, and present them before the public as vile and perjured men. The very silence of the Jews under such circumstances is convincing evidence in favor of the disciples of Christ. 8. The resurrection was established as a matter of faith in the age int which it occurred, and has ever since obtained credence. It was firht preached where the event occurred, and among the very cotemporaries of our Lford. The Jews 262 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. were possessed of every means for its refutation had it been possible; nor were they wanting either in motive or dispo., sition to refute it. But in their very midst, and in spite of all their efforts to prevent it, thousands were convinced of its truth and converted to Christianity. And from the very spot where the living witnesses of the event were found, and where the monuments to commemorate it were first established, it has gone forth, radiating like a new sun risen upon our earth, and sending forth its beams to bless all lands and all people. Had the destruction of Jerusalem, the dissolution of the Jewish hierarchy, and the dispersion of the people immediately followed the alleged ascension of Christ, it might have been objected to this grand theme, that in the confusion of revolution and war, while men's hearts were failing them with fear, and earthquake, and pestilence and famine, pillage and flame, sword and bloodshed, were sweeping over and desolating the whole land-that the terrified and excited imaginations of the people would be liable to be led away by every wild delusion that might arise. But it was not so. For nearly forty years after the ascension of our Lord, the current of Jewish affairs continued to roll onward without serious interruption. It was a philosophic age. Every opportunity was given to sift the matter to its very bottom; and that, too, upon the very spot and among the very people where these glorious events transpired. Investigation was provoked-nay, absolutely challenged; for the resurrection of Christ was blended with all the preaching of the apostles, at all times and in every place, from the first moment that their tongues were touched with celestial fire upon the day of Pentecost, till, by martyrdom and death, they gave their final and glorious attestation to its truth. Before Jerusalem had been destroyed, it had been preached not only in the temple and in the places of pubtlie RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 263 resort in the Holy City, but throughout the. entire land. It had spread into Asia Minor, into Macedonia and Greece. The assembled wisdom of Athens had listened to its proclaination by the great apostles to the Gentiles, in the midst of the Areopagus; and it had obtained foothold within the gates of the Imperial City, and numbered its converts in the very household of Cmsar. And all this had been achieved without force of authority or arms; nay, often in the face of both. The sage and the philosopher, convinced by the might of reason and the force of truth, had brought their trophies and laid them at the foot of the cross. And down through all ages learning and wisdom have paid unceasing homage to the divine truth-heralded by the flanming messenger of heaven-that Jesus "is risen from the dead." Let us now, in one broad survey, look over this field of collateral evidence, and sum up the circumstances connected with and going to confirm the direct testimony in the case. It is conceded that there was such a person as Jesus Christ, of whose life and actions the Gospels claim to be the history; that his teachings and works were so wonderful that his enemies could account for them only on the supposition of magic or of Satanic influence; that he predicted his own resurrection from the dead; that he was actually crucified, dead, and buried; that his body was guarded with the utmost care and in the strongest manner by his enemies; that on the third day it was missing from the tomb, and his enemies, who had charge of it, could give no rational account.of its loss, but it was shown that the story they invented to account for it is utterly incredible and unsustained. It was further shown that the doctrine of his resurrection began immediately to be preached in the very place where the event transpired, that the evidence of his resurrection was received by thousands as satisfactory, and that the 264 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. doctrine spread and prevailed in spite of the most active and determined opposition on the part of his enemies, and that it has gained credence in every age of the world. We think, then, that we have established the proposition, that there are circumzstances connected with the case that can be satisfactorily accounted for on no other hypothesis than the actual resuirrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. IT. EVIDENCE DIRECT OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. We have already shown that, beyond all question, Christ was crucified, dead, and buried. Now, if it shall be shown that he was subsequently seen, conversed with, handled, gave and received communications, walked, eat, reproved and instructed, declared himself to be alive, and performed the functions of a living man; and if it shall be shown that the personal witnesses of these facts were competent witnesses, that the number of them was large, that they had opportunity to investigate and know the things whereof they affirmed, that their testimony was given at the time and in the place where the things occurred, and, finally, that it was given under such circumstances as attested, on the part of the witnesses, a full conviction and certainty of the fact; if all these facts shall be shown, then, we say, that, according to all the rules of evidence and the established laws of human belief, we must credit the actual resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. It is very justly remarked by Dr. Dwight, that "in the nature of the case, it is just as easy to determine, whether a person, once dead, is afterward alive, as to determine whether an man is living who has not been dead. Suppose a person who was an entire stranger to us, should come into the family, eat and drink, sleep and wake, converse and RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 265 act with them, exactly in the manner in which these things are done by us and the rest of mankind; suppose him, further, to enter into business in the manner of other men; to cultivate a farm; or manage causes at the bar; or practice medicine; or assume the office of a minister, and preach, visit, advise, and comfort, as is usually done in discharging the duties of this function-every one of us whfo witnessed these things would, beyond a doubt, know this stranger to be a living man, in the same manner, and with the same certainty, with which we know each other to be alive."* Such evidence as the above would be complete; it would be satisfactory; it is the only evidence adapted to the case; and if we reject it, we shall have left to us no satisfactory evidence of the actual existence of any living being besides ourselves. Should we, after becoming acquainted with our stranger, be informed that he had been crucified, dead, and buried, it would not, in the least, invalidate our faith in the actuality of his now being a living man. We might disbelieve the story of his crucifixion, or question whether he were actually dead; but the fact of his now being alive would rest upon too solid a basis to be shaken. But, if we turn to the question before us, the fact of the crucifixion and death of Christ is conceded; and the only point to be established is, that he was subsequently alive. To this question let us apply the above test; let us inquire whether the witnesses had sufficient evidence that Christ Jesus was alive after his crucifixion, whether their competency and number are sufficient, and whether there is evidence that they themselves were fully convinced of the fact. To render the question more perspicuous and satisfactory, it may be necessary to mention some of the circumstances connected with the crucifixion, death, and burial of our'::Dwight's Theology, vol. ii, pp. 265, 266. )99 266 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. Lord. When he was led away to be crucified, a great company of his disciples, relatives, and friends followed, bewailing and lamenting him. Some of them stood so near the cross that he could speak to them; others stood afar off. Many of them remained till the mysterious darkness that overwhelmed the land had passed away, and the Lord had given up the ghost. Among those who not only witnessed his crucifixion, but tarried till he was laid in the sepulcher, were "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary;" that is, "Mary," the mother of "James." Several women appear to have agreed to embalm the body of our Lord, and, after leaving the tomb, they "prepared spices and ointients" for that purpose. This being done, they rested on the Sabbath, and came as the day was dawning, on the first day of the week, to execute the design. They appear to have been ignorant that the Jews had sealed the tomb, and placed a guard over it; and the two Marys and Salome, who were in advance of the other women, were perplexed how they might roll away the stone firom the door of the sepulcher. About this time-before the women had reached the tomb-an angel descended from heaven, rolled the stone firom the sepulcher, and sat upon it. The guard were struck with astonishlent, and for a moment were like dead men; but recovering themselves, and finding that the body of Christ was gone, they fled into the city, and reported the fact to the Jews. As the women approached the tomb, they beheld that the stone was rolled away. This filled them with alarm; and Mary Magdalene, concluding that the body had been taken away, ran back to tell Peter and John. The other Mary and Salome approached the tomb, determined to ascertain whether the body was there; but as they entered the tomb, and saw the angel, but not the body, they were affrighted. The angel sought to calm their fears, told RESUBRECTION OF CHIIRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 267 them the Lord had risen, and bade them behold the place where they laid him, and then go and tell his disciples. But the women went out quickly from the sepulcher, and fled trembling with affright, saying not a word, but hasting to report what they had seen to the eleven apostles. They had hardly gone when Peter and John came, running in advance of Mary Magdalene, and went into the sepulcher. They found that the body was not there, but saw the grave-clothes lying folded up; and after that they returned to their own home, wondering at what had occurred. 1. First cippearance of CArist. Mary Magdalene was left alone at the tomb. She had lingered behind to weep, being in much doubt and perplexity as to what had become of the body of Jesus. While weeping she stooped down and looked again into fhe sepulcher, if perchance there might have been some mistake about the body having been removed. There she saw two angels, robed in white, one at the head and one at the foot, where the body of Jesus had lain. H-Iow touchingly beautiful her reply when they asked her why she wept: "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him!" Turning back she saw Jesus standing by her; but, blinded by her tears, and bewildered by her apprehensions, she did not recognize either his personal appearance nor yet his voice, when he tenderly inquired the cause of her grief; but, supposing him to be the gardener who cultivated the garden, and who might have removed the body, she said, "Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." What an affecting evidence of the strength and purity of her attachment to her Lord-an attachment which death had no power to dissolve! And how overwhelming her astonishment and delight when she heard the well-known voice uttering, as if surprised at her want of recognition, " Mary!" She 268 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. could doubt no more —the voice and the bodily appearance are both recognized, and she, uttering an exclamation of surprise and joy, prostrating herself before him, held him by the feet and worshiped him. But he bids her make no delay; the time was short; he was about to ascend to his Father and his God; therefore, to haste and tell his disciples. Then she'went and told the disciples, as they were mourning and weeping, that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her; but they believed it not. All this narrative has an air of simplicity and naturalness, a harmony of parts, a coincidence with collateral circumstances, a correspondence of feeling and action suited to the occasion, the characters, and circumstances, that strongly confirm its truth, and make Mary Magdalene a credible witness for the resurrection of her Lord. 2. Second appecarance of Chriist. The other Mary and Salome appear to have fled away to sonie retired place, and, perhaps, were so astounded at what they had witnessed that they could not for some time sufficiently recover their self-possession to carry the tidings to the disciples. While in this state their Lord himself met them, calmed their fears, and bade them go boldly and carry the tidings of his resurrection to the apostles, and tell them to meet him, as he had appointed, in Galilee. Still the apostles were incredulous. 3. Third cppectrance of Christ. After the two Mtarys, and Salome, and Peter, and John had departed from the grave, Joanna, and a company of women with her, not knowing the events that had taken place, came bringing spices and ointments to assist in the embalming of the body. Finding the tomb open, they went into it, and discovered that the body had been removed. While they were full of amazement and perplexity, two angels appeared RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 269 to them, and said, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? Hie is not here, but is risen." When Joanna returned and reported this to the disciples, Peter appears to have gone again in haste to the sepulcher; and it is probably at this time that the risen Savior "was seen of Cephas," according to the declaration of St. Paul. (1 Cor. xv, 5.) 4. Fourth appearance of Christ. That.same morning, after the women had returned from the sepulcher, two of the disciples-one of them Cleopas or Alpheus, the father of James, and the other probably St. Luke-had left Jerusalem, and were journeying pn foot to Emmaus, a village seven or eight miles west of the city. They had probably been up to Jerusalem to attend the Passover, and were now returning home; they were returning with grieved and aching hearts; their Lord, in whom they had trusted and through whom they had hoped for the redemption of Israel, had been crucified and slain. As they talked over the sad events of the feast a third traveler falls in with them, and joins in their conversation. IHe expounds to them the prophecies relating to the Messiah, and shows that the very events they lamented were necessary, and also that Christ must rise again, that the prophecies might be fulfilled. All this time they did not recognize him; they saw him, heard his voice, and walked with him, as they would with any other man. But when they reached the village, and were about to sup together, near the close of the day, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave it to them. This significant -tion opened their eyes, and they were filled with astonishment and wonder to recognize their Lord in the person of their fellow-traveler. But he vanished from their sight. So joyful were they at what they had seen, that they immediately arose and returned to Jerusalem; and when they reached the city, they found the disciples assembled, and were assured by them that the 270 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. report received from the women concerning the resurrection of Christ before they left in the morning had been confirmed; for they said, he'"hath appeared to Simon." Then the two disciples rehearsed what they had witnessed in the way, and also at the village whither they went. Thus the evidences of his resurrection were so multiplying that the disciples, who had at first doubted, were constrained to say, "The Lord is risen, indeed." 5. Fifth appearance of Christ. It is now the evening of the day of our Lord's resurrection, and he had already appeared to six witnesses. Ten of the apostles and many disciples were now assembled to talk over the events that had occurred, and especially to consider to what the reports of that day concerning the resurrection of the Lord might grow. For fear of the Jews, they had closed the door. Just then the Savior appears in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be unto you." But the suddenness and the unexpectedness of his appearance filled them with terror and affright. He, however, calmed their fears, bade them look upon him and to feel of him, to behold his hands and his feet, to assure themselves that he was flesh and bones; then also he ate before them; and afterward, still further to confirm their faith, he opened to their understanding the Scriptures, and showed them that " thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day." A large number were evidently present on this occasion; how many it is impossible to say. Twelve are distinctly mentioned; namely, ten apostles-for Thomas had gone out before the Savior appeared-and the two disciples who had returned from Emmaus; and it is further intimated that it was a general gathering of all who had been with the apostles during the day, and were conversant with the reports of the resurrection. It is probable that the six to whom our RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 271 Lord had appeared prior to this, now, for the second time, witnessed his presence. 6. Sixth appearance of Christ. Soon after our Savior had appeared on the previous occasion, Thomas came in, and the disciples told him that they had seen the Lord. He, however, disbelieved, and said, " Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." On the return of the newly-instituted Sabbath, the eighth day of the resurrection, the eleven apostles, and probably others of the disciples, were again assembled together, Thomas being present with the rest; and Jesus etood in their midst, and addressed them with his salutation of peace. Then turning to Thomas, he upbraided his unbelief, and said to him, " Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless but believing." It was enough. The skepticism of Thomas could withstand no longer, and he cried out, "My Lord and my God 1" No further conversation is recorded of our Savior on this occasion than that which related to Thomas; but it is probable that more was said and done; for the sacred historian says that many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, of which he has not thought necessary to make any distinct record. The special object of this appearance of our Savior seems to have been to convince Thomas of the reality of the resurrection, and thus to extinguish the last doubt of the fact from the minds of his apostles. 7. Seventh appearance of Christ. The feast of the Passover being now ended, the eleven returned into Galilee, as the Savior had directed them. This was their native place, and here they would be less exposed to the malice of the Jews, and could, therefore, with more calmness receive the instructions of Christ, and prepare themselves for that public 272 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. ministry so soon to begin at Jerusalem. WVhile here they probably resorted to their several callings as a means of livelihood. Simon Peter, with Nathanael, James, and John, and two others, engaged in fishing, but toiled all night and caught nothing. In the morning Jesus stood upon the shore; and when his disciples did not recognize him, having first asked them if they had any thing to eat, he bade them cast the net on the right side of the boat, which being done, they inclosed no less than a hundred and fifty-three great fishes, which were drawn to the shore and secured. Then they knew it was the Lord; and coming to him, they saw a fish that had been prepared on a fire of coals, and bread. Jesus said to them, " Come and dine;" and gave them bread and fish, and they did eat. It was on this occasion that he so signally reproved the overweening confidence of Peter and his consequent fall. S. Eighth al)pearance of Christ. The grand assemblage of the disciples, where our Savior was to give a still more public demonstration that he was alive, was upon a mountain in Galilee. This meeting he had appointed before his crucifixion; the angel that announced his resurrection to the women bade them remind the disciples of the Savior's appointment; the Lord himself, also, when he appeared to Mary and Salome, renewed the same message; and it is probable that on the preceding appearance he gave the disciples more explicit information where he would meet as many as might assemble. The number assembled on this occasion exceeded five hundred. Twenty years after this St. Paul publicly declares that the greater part of this five hundred were then living witnesses of the resurrection of our Lord. Here he gave infallible proofs of his resurrection, and spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Here also he renewed the promise of the Holy Ghost, and bade them go back to Jerusalem and tarry till it came. And it is probable that on RESURRECTION OF CHRIST TIlE PLEDGE OF OURS. 273 this occasion he gave to the apostles their grand commission, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. 93. Ninth apcplearance of Christ. Our Savior after this seems to have made his appearance to James. This appearance the apostle refers to as an evidence of the resurrection, though he gives no particulars of the case. They were omnitted probably because they were well known. The James spoken of was James the Less, bishop of Jerusalem, the only apostle with whom St. Paul was favored with an interview when he came up firom Damascus after his conversion. It is to be presumed that he then had the fact from the lips of James himself. 10. Tenth alp2earance of Christ. The apostles having returned to Jerusalem according to the command of their Master, about forty days after the resurrection our Savior again appeared to them. Here, after renewing their commission, he gave them the promise of the speedy descent of the Holy Spirit, and commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem till they should "be baptized with the Holy Ghost." Having completed his instructions, he led them out toward Bethany, upon the Mount of Olives. HIere probably upon the sacred spot where he had often instructed his disciples and prayed for them-the spot that had witnessed his awful agony that forced the bloody sweat from every pore-the spot where he had been betrayed by the traitorous kiss of one disciple and forsaken by all the rest; upon this spot he lifted up his hands and blessed his disciples; and as he blessed them, he was parted from them-higher and still higher he ascended in the vaulted heavens, till a cloud received him out of their sight, and he was seen no more. This closes the direct testimony, so far as the recorded evidence of the apostles is concerned. But then we must 274 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. remember that through the whole forty days, from the resurrection to the ascension, our Lord was moose or less conversant with his disciples. For St. Luke, referring to the "many infallible proofs" of his resurrection given to his disciples, says he was "seen of them forty dacys," and during that time was "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." St. John also says that Jesus did many other things in the presence of his disciples which he had not recorded; but that fiom the many, he had selected and made a record of those that were written, in order that men might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of' God, and, believing, might have life through his name. The truth then seems to be, that, without intending a full detail of all the appearances of our Lord, his disciples have placed these on record as constituting a perfect demonstration of his resurrection fromn the dead. We invite the fullest and most impartial scrutiny of this evidence. We ask any one to consider the number of times our Savior was seen after his resurrection, the circumstances connected with his appearance, the words that were uttered, the significant actions that were performed, the number of witnesses, amounting to no less than six hundred, the length of time through which he held intercourse with them, and the circumstances of his final departure from them; and let him consider also that the witnesses were men of moral integrity and of at least common capability, that they did not conceal themselves in a corner and tell their story covertly, but proclaimed the resurrection at Jerusaleim-upon the very spot where Christ had been crucified, and before the very persons that had crucified him-we ask any one to consider this, and then to say whether the testimony that Christ was seen after his crucifixion and death, was not as full and perfect as it is possible for human testimony ever to be. RESURRECTION OF CHRIST TIIE PLEDGE OF OURS. 275 III. COLLATERAL POINTS AND REMARKS. Let us survey the ground over which we have passed. In the first place, we clearly demonstrated that there were circumstances connected with the case-circumstances assented to by the Jews as well as by the disciples-which strongly corroborate the direct testimony, and can be satisfactorily accounted for on no other hypothesis than tile actual resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. These we called circumstantial evidence; they are essential to the argument, and, in connection with the direct evidence, are possessed of the highest force. In the second place, we took up the direct testimony, and showed that after his known and acknowledged death and burial, he was seen by his disciples and friends, talked with them, walked with them, was handled by them, and wrought miracles in their presence, giving infallible evidence that he had risen from the dead. We clearly pointed out no less than ten distinct occasions of his appearance —making the number of persons by whom he was seen not less than six hundred-several of whom saw him repeatedly, and some of them were in almost constant intercourse with him forty days. The record of these facts was made and published while most of these persons were living, and they were appealed to as witnesses; and from not one of them were the Jews ever able to extort a denial of the facts. How could demonstration be more perfect? In concluding the argument, we have a few collateral points of too much importance to be neglected: 1. The disciples, who were witnesses, gave the fuillest evidence of their entire belief tin the resurrcction of Christ. The very manner and place in which they proclaimed the fact, must convince us of their sincerity. The fact, also, that 276 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. the Christian Sabbath from that time was joyfully observed in commemoration of the event, and that the worship of this holy day is also blended together with those sacred institutions which derive all their significance fiom the resurrection no less than the crucifixion of our Lord, are also convincing proofs of the certainty of their conviction. But still further, the fact that they devoted their whole lives, amid want and distress, opposition and persecution, scorn and reproach, strifes and imprisonments, and even amid sufferings and death-without hope or prospect of honor or reward from men or upon the earth-in toilsome effort to preach "Jesus and the resurrection" to dying men, must stand as a perpetual monument of the sincerity of their conviction, the purity of their motives, and the indestructibility of their faith. 2. The disciples could not have been deceived with reference to the appearanee of Christ. They had been in daily and intimate intercourse with him for more than six years, and, therefore, knew his bodily appearance, his manner, and his voice too well to be deceived. Infidelity says they were'rude, unlettered persons." But may not the rudest, the most unlettered plebeian distinguish a fiiend? especially if the separation from him has'been but for a few days? Certainly, then, men-" unlettered and ignorant," as they might have been-who could produce the chaste, the beautiful, the classic, the immortal compositions of the New Testament, were not so ignorant but that they could determine whether the man before them, who walked and talked, ate and drank with them, whose person they handled, and whose wounds they felt, was their friend or an impostor. Deception was wholly impossible. Nor will the theory of illutsion, which has often been urged, answer the turn of infidelity. An individual, it is true, may be the.subject of illusion; it is possible for men RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLISDGE OF OURS. 277 to be deceived, even in matters where the senses are concerned. Such cases, however, are exceedingly rare, even in single individuals. But that two persons should, at the same time, experience the same illusion concerning the same object, and concerning so many circumstances attending it, is certainly very improbable. Such an instance has never been known. But when you increase the number of witnesses, this theory of illusion becomes still more improbable. Increast the number to eleven, and "the improbability becomes incalculable;" but when you have raised it "to five hundred, it transcends all limits." But when you extend the illusion through many days, and combine in it all the circumstances, words, and acts connected with our Savior's appearance, "'the improbability ceases, and is changed into an impossibility." The apostles could not have been deceived. They had all the evidence that Christ was living which they had of the life of each other; and they might as well doubt with reference to each other-Peter concerning Thomas, and John concerning James-as to doubt whether it were really Christ or an illusion. Nay, they had the same evidence that Christ was living which we have that these we are daily conversant with are living beings, and not mere phantoms. To suppose deception possible, in such a case, is to unsettle all the principles of human belief. Moral certainty would become impossible. One step flrther in skepticism, and the man would be prepared to doubt whether his own existence was any thing more than a succession of sensations and ideas. 3. The ScbnhedCriin, theZselves. we're evidently convinced of his reszurrection. Their conduct call be accounted for on no other supposition. They had heard the report of the guard of sixty men; they had been observant of the subsequent events that had transpired. They had great interest to 278 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. vindicate themselves; and if they really believed that tlle disciples had stolen the body away, they would have demanded an investigation of the affair. But they evidently shrunk from such an investigation, and manifested the greatest solicitude that the evidences of the resurrection of the body should not be discussed publicly, or even brought before the people. Hence, when Peter and John publicly declared in the Temple, that the Prince of life, whom they had killed, God had raised from the dead, and with equal boldness also to the Sanhedrim itself, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified, God had raised firom the dead, the Sanhedrim do not proceed like men who have to do with a shallow and base fabrication, that needs only to be put to the test of truth and fact in order to demolish it, but evidently like men who are conscious of their wrong, and whose only hope is in smothering investigation of the facts and the truth. Like self-convicted men, they have not a word of argument, not an opposing fact; they are willing to release their prisoners if they will only cease to preach the doctrine of a risen Savior, and, in fact, are compelled to release them without even this poor pledge. And, indeed, we find the same council soon compelled again to arrest the apostles for teaching the same obnoxious truths. What do they do now? confront the heresy of the apostles and demolish its falsity? Nothing like it; but with halfappealing, whining tremulousness, they complain, "Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." Nor have they any thing except "stripes" with which to reply to the apostles. In both these instances the Sanhedrim studiously avoided the real question at issue. Every thing was suspended on the fact, whether Christ had really risen from the dead or not. If he was not raised he was an impostor, a blasphemer, and, therefore, worthy of death. The whole ques RESURRECTION OF CHIRIST THtE PLEDGE OF OURS. 279 tion whether he was the promised Mlessiah, now turned upon this point. If he was a blasphemer-and the thing could be easily shown by proving that he had not risenthen the Sanhedrim had done only their duty in condemning him; but, on the other hand, if he was actually the promised Messiah, they were guilty of crucifying the Lord of life and glory. The apostles boldly charged *this crime upon them; and the only reply the Sanhedrim have to make to this charge, is to command the disciples not to declare the thing publicly any more. I-low can this be accounted for, except on the supposition of conscious guilt, and the conviction, or, at least, the apprehension, that the declaration of the apostles had underlying it a broad foundation of truth? The fact was, they had duped others with their lie about the disciples having stolen away the body of Christ; but they themselves were not deceived by it. They knew the report was false. 4. The miracles performed by the apostles in the name of a risen Savior, can? be accounted for only by acdmittingly tlhe fact of his resurrection. Not only do they prove his resurrection by convincing witnesses, but corroborate the testimony by displaying the Divine power with which they had been endowed by virtue of his resurrection Not among the least of these miracles, is the miracle of the transformation in their own character. A short time before, they were weak and timid-fearful even to accompany their Lord into Jewry, because the Jews had conspired against him —trembling, affrightedl, and forsaking him when arrested by a comparatively contemptible band-the boldest among them frightened into a denial of himl, with oaths and profanity, even by a maid-servant, who only whispers her suspicion. Hardly two months have passed. The same band —though their Lord has been crucified and slain-now boldly walk forth among their enemies; they 280 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. stand in the public places; they raise their voice in the temple; they cower not before the grand and inmposing Sanhedrim —with tongues of fire and lips of burning eloquence, they proclaim Jesus and the resurrection. Stripes and imprisonment, torture and martyrdom in their most appalling forms, have no longer any terrors for them. Their minds, once so bewildered and mystified by the simplest sayings and parables, now grasp the profoundest truths of religion, construct the most convincing and powerful arguments, and pour forth, radiant with light, and beauty, and truth, the most sublime eloquence. Whence this change, but that their hearts have been filled and their tongues have been tipped with celestial fire? Thus prepared they go forth, and every-where tell the story of the resurrection; and in confirmation of its truth, signs and wonders are wrought, the sick are healed, the unclean spirits are cast out, the lame leap and the dumb speak, the living die and the dead rise to life. The vision of assembled thousands is dazzled by the resplendent glory that descends in visible form on the day of Pentecost; and in the mingled accents of no less than seventeen dialects, the multitude hear the glad tidings of salvation through a risen Savior. Thus, with power imore than human, and amid sanctions that attest the divinity of their mission, and the certainty of the resurrection, do the apostles go forth and lay the broad foundations of that great spiritual temple of our God, whose pillars shall rest upon the uttermost parts of the earth, whose lofty arches shall reverberate with the echoes of immortal songs, going up from every land and in every tongue, and whose ascending turrets, unmarred in beauty or in strength by the roll of ages, shall forever glitter in the sunbeams of eternity. Immortal men! divinely appointed and divinely sustained, your work has been well done, and RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 281 through you shall " Jesus and the resurrection" be preached to all men and through all ages. 5. It now only remains, in the discussion of this subject, to show the relation which exists between the resurrection of Jesuzs Christ cald the general r-esurrection of the dead. The doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead forms a vital element of the Gospel. It stands forth preeminent in the faith, the preaching, and the writings of the apostles. It is connected with all that is practical and immortal in Christianity. But for the resurrection, the hope of immortality had perished in the grave; the Gospel itself had proved a failure. With what exulting rapture the mind turns from the dark scenes of the garden, the cross, and the tomb, to behold the splendor of the resurrection triumph! The dying agony of the cross is blended with the rising glory of the resurrection. No fact has come down to us with stronger attestations of its reality; none has come to us gathering around it and centering in it holier or sublimer interests; and none can so assure the aspirings of the soul after immortality as the resurrection of Jesus Christ fiom the dead. "In his blest life I see the path, and in his death the price, And in his great ascent the proof supreme Of immortality. And did he rise? Hear, 0 ye nations! hear it, 0 ye dead I He rose! he rose! he burst the bars of death! This sum of good to man! whose nature thenI Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb. Then, then I rose; then first Humanity Triumphant passed the crystal ports of light, Stupendous guest 1 and seized eternal youth, Seized in our name. I'er since't is blasphemous To call man mortal. 3lan's mortality Was then transferred to Death; and heaven's duration Unalienably sealed to this frail frame, This child of dust. MAN ALL IMMORTAL hail I" Again: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead meets the infidel objection, that the soul dies with the body, 24 282 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. and that, therefore, reanimation to life after death is impossibli, and demonstrates its falsity. It sets the seal of living verity upon the great mystery of the resurrection. If Christ be indeed risen, how can any one longer say there is no resurrection of the dead? In this grand event-the resurrection of Christ —center two fundamental facts; the one is, that death is not such an extinction of being as to render resurrection impossible, and the other is, that the Divine power is adequate to rescue the body from the grasp of Death. Only let one fact of reviviscence by the agency of Divine power, through all the long ages of the past, be shown; one instance in which Death has been spoiled of his prey and driven back with everlasting defeat from his temporary triumph; and that one fact forever rebukes the vile skepticism that regards it a thing incredible that God should raise the dead. Such a fact we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Others had been restored to life; it was, however, a brief unvailing of Divine power-a brief respite from the power of death and the grave. But the resurrection of Christ was a full and perfect demonstration of his triumph over death and the grave. One day we see him upon the cross groaning, agonizing, dying; the next we behold him the tenant of the grave; but as the morning of the third day begins to dawn, the signal moment of his power has arrivedthe bands of death are broken and the mighty conqueror arises. He comes up girded with strength; he lifts up the broken fetters that had once bound him, in token of everlasting victory, and as he rises, to all his followers he exclaims, " I am the resurrection and the life!" The resurrection of the dead is no longer a sealed problem. Its mystery is solved; its truth demonstrated. That same Power that quickened the body of Jesus shall also quicken our mortal bodies, and shall make us immortal. We are led, then, to remark again that the resurrection RESURRECTION OF CIIRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS. 283 of Christ is the distinct pledge and assurance of our resurrection. We connect these two things as the Bible connects them; they are blended together as cause and effect. We shall rise and triumph over death because Christ, as the great Captain of our salvation, has achieved for us the victory. By him " came the resurrection of the dead;" "Christ hath abolished death." He has become " the first-fruits of them that slept." " He that raised up Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus." And hence, also, it is said, we are " begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." We may well say, then, that the hope of rising "'-from the sleep of the sepulcher "-the glory of our reproduced bodies in the resurrection —is not "the hope of worms," but the well-accredited hope of resurrection, in immortal bodies, beyond the grave and above decay. We died in the first Adam, we live in the second; we sunk with the earthly, we rise with the heavenly. Christ's resurrection is the pledge, the proof, and the pattern of ours. Viewed in this light, we wonder not that the resurrection of Christ was the first and constant theme of the great apostles, who planted and formed the Christian Church. Nay, we wonder not that they caught up the message heralded by the angel of God, " He is risen from the dead," and that this became the burden of their mission and the inspiration of their song. In all ages the message has found a response from Christian hearts —" he is risen from the dead "-and the mighty acclaim has burst upon every land and clime under the face of the whole heaven; and still does the mighty theme continue to gather strength, ever extending the sphere of its dominion and multiplying its trophies, till " Jesus and the resurrection" shall be known in all the earth. The resurrection of Christ is only the first-fruits of a universal and glorious harvest. The dead shall rise. Simall 284 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. and great shall stand before the throne. They shall come forth from their resting-place. The sea shall give up its dead; the earth shall surrender its. The reviviscence shall be sudden. The blast of the appointed trump shall penetrate all the abodes of death. The sleeping dust shall start to life. Wonder and amazement shall seize an astonished world, and all men shall stand before their final Judge. The grandeur of that solemn event is past all conception, the throne of judgment descending through the parted heavens, the elements of nature dissolving, the graves opening, and the dead coming forth to judgment!' herever slept one grain of human dust, Essential organ of the human soul, Wherever tossed-obedient to the call Of God's omnipotence, it hurried on To meet its fellow particles, revived, Rebuilt, in union indestructible. No atom of his spoils remains to Death; From his strong arm by stronger arm released, Immortal now in soul and body both, Beyond his reach stood all the sons of men, And saw behind his valley lie unfeared." Christian! forget not that Death himself shall erelong die.'"Christianity knocks at the gate of the grave and asks back her dead. Long, solitary, and undisturbed may be the slumber; but when the trumpet of eternity shall pour its thrilling thunder into the deaf, cold ear of the sepulcher, your God-created forms shall spring to life, immortal and renewed." We shall come up in the image of our living head; " this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION. 285 XI. POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION.',Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" ACTS xxvi, S. "HIow are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?" 1 COR. xv, 35. WVE have already shown that the doctrine of the resurrection of the human body is deeply imbedded in the teachings of both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures. In the Gospel, especially, it becomes a foundation truth, radiating from the very center of the system, and illuminating every part. Whatever, then, of absurdity or of philosophical impossibility skepticism has to urge against the resurrection, is so much, essentially, urged against the Bible itself. It is for this reason, with others, that we now propose a more particular examination of the popular objections urged against the resurrection. When Paul preached " Jesus and tlle resurrection" among the Epicureans and Stoics of Athens, they said, "he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods!" So to many, in every age, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body seenms little less than a misty fable, because it has never yet been encircled within the scope of their rational philosophy. Others give to the subject little reflection or thought, but, with Pliny, the ancient heathen philosopher, affirm that "the calling of the dead back to life is among the impossible things that God neither canf nor will do." Others would go still further and, with Celsus. denounce 286 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. the resurrection as "the hope of worms-an abominable as -well as impossible thing." Cmcilius, who personates a heathen in the dialogue of Mincius Felix, says of Christians: "They tell us that they shall be reproduced after death and the ashes of the funeral pile, and believe their own lies, so that you might think that they had already revived. 0, twofold madness! to denounce destruction to the heaven and stars, which we leave as we found them, but to promise eternity to themselves, when dead and extinguished." There seems, indeed, to have been arrayed against this doctrine a persistency of opposition, wonderful to contemplate, when we consider how clearly it is revealed. and by how many and striking miracles it is demonstrated; and especially when we take into account how very little, that is really valid, reason, or science, or philosophy can urge against it. In our own day the objections to the resurrection of the body have been drawn out in precise philosophical forms and statements. They thus assume definite and tangible shape. This is well. We can now gain access to them, and subject them to careful examination and analysis. It is often the case that there is a broad, undefined idea that a doctrine is unsound or a thing incredible. The idea, from its very vagueness, presents no salient points of approach, and seems absolutely insurmountable. But the moment the objection assumes definite form, and is distributed into parts, so that each by itself may be subjected to the critical process of examination, one after another they are dissolved, and disappear before the scrutiny of reason and truth. Let us apply ourselves to an examination, in their order, of the chief objections urged against the resurrection of the dead. If the main intrenchments of the enemy are carried, we need not concern ourselves much about the rest. POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION. 287 L. IN THE FIRST PLACE, IT IS ASSERTED THAT THIE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IS UNPIIILOSOPHICAL AND ABSURD. This objection is a mere vague generality, and might be left to itself; but it will help us to a clearer understanding of the nature of this discussion, and of the points at issue, if we clear away somewhat of the rubbish it heaps up be*fore us. An opinion may be unphilosophical without being absurd. To be unphilosophical, is to be at variance with the principles of sound reason. When this variance attains a high degree, so as willfully to stand in opposition to manifest truth, and to the plain dictates of common-sense, it reaches up to the absurd. An unphilosophical proposition may seem to be true, though in reality contradictory to some of the hidden principles of philosophy. An absurd proposition is contradictory to obvious or known truth. The proposition, then, that "the dead are raised," is not absurd, because it is not contradictory to any known truth or obvious principle; for its opposite never has been and never can be established. To say that it is tlophilosophical, is only to say that it can not, so far as we can see, be brought about upon philosophical principles. And this, after all, may amount to nothing more than this-that we have not as yet attained to the klnowledge of those high philosophical elemernts evmployed in bringing about the resurr-ection of the dead. To assume that we know it to be absolutely unphilosophical, is to assume that we have mastered all philosophy; and that we have made the application of its principles to the subject and found them inconsistent. The absurdity of such an assumption is too obvious to require exposure. Philosophy 288 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. is continually enlarging her domain. Even within the present age she has developed new principles and new applications that would have been to former generations as incredible as raising the dead. But, then, there is another reply to this whole objection. This is not a doctrine of philosophy, but of revelation. The question, then, is, not whether the dead can be raised upon the principles of' human philosophy, but whether God, by his own miraculous power, can and will do it. Whatever God does may be above us, and consequently mysterious. It may be incomprehensible to us. Our philosophy may be too contracted, too feeble to rise to the full comprehension of the Divine ways; but his purposes and his acts will ever be in harmony with the sublime philosophy of the universe. They may seem to contradict both our reason and our sense-just as the doctrine of the diurnal revolution of our earth seems to contradict both the sense and the reason of the untutored mind; but the higher revelation of truth may make apparent that it is inconsistent with neither. The objection, then, is nothing more nor less than the opposition of our ignorance to the wisdom and the power of God. II. THIE SECOND OBJECTION IS DRAWN FROM31 THE FACT THAT THE LIVING HUrMAN BODY IS UNDERGOING A PERPETUAL CHANGE. Stating this objection in full, it is this: As the human body is underTgoingy a perjettal cthange, each individual has mzany bodies durinyg his ife-leach one of which the soul has inhabited, anzd it is, therefore, as'much his body as that he possessed at the momen~t of his death; and therefore it is absurd to claim for this last body —possessed, lerhalps, but a very little while-an exclusive reszurrection. It is contended that POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION. 289 this change extends to every material particle that enters into the body. The time required for this complete renovation of the human body is, by some, limited to seven years. Others extend it to twenty. The caviler inquires whether all these particles that have ever entered into the composition of the human body, and which consequently as much belonged to it as those it happened to be in possession of at the particular moment of death, are to enter into the composition of the resurrection body? and if not all, what portion of them is to be rejected? Some have pushed this objection so far as to descant in terms of ridicule upon the bulky appearance of that resurrection body, which, after remaining here its fourscore years, and being changed many times, should call back all the particles which ever entered into its composition. This is the old objection encountered by the apostle: H':ow are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" It is an attempt to apply the little we know, and know imperfectly, too, to the mysteries that lie beyond. It richly merits the reply of the apostle-'"Thou fool!" We might content ourselves by replying to the technical form of this objection; that its claim for the body of the ownership of all the particles which ever entered into its composition, is a stretch of fancy that would hardly be thought of in any other connection. Just as well might the individual prefer a claim to all the bits and parcels of property he had ever owned during his life, however long ago he might have parted with them, and however regular the process, or full the equivalent received for them. But it will be more satisfactory to enter upon the subject in detail. Now, with reference to this entire change of the body, it is rather assumed than proved. Some change is, undoubtedly, constantly going on in our system; but that every 25 290 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. particle of the body, in process of time, passes from us, and the entire body is changed so that it is made up of an entirely new class of particles, is a supposition not only unproved, but one that is not susceptible of proof by any process known to human science. Certain it is that the bodily identity is still maintained through all the changes of the longest life. The man feels that the present is the same body-essentially —that he possessed in past time, and the same he will possess in' the future. All his modes of thought, and all his consciousness of accountability, are based upon this idea. The old man, tottering upon the brink of the grave, still adheres to the thought that the body now worn out with age and enfeebled by disease, is essentially the same body that was fresh and blooming in the day of his youth. He does not say, "'The body I then possessed was a lively, active body; but it has been exchanged for one that is decrepit and old." No, he says, "I have now exchanged the sprightliness of youth for the decrepitude of age." Thus, the bodily identity-that is, the idea of its being essentially the same body-seems as inseparable from us as life itself. Great changes may take place in our bodies, within short periods of time, but we never waver in the recognition of their identity through all these changes. Disease may shrink us from the full habit to the skeleton form; we may suffer mutilation; the leg, the arm, may be ampu. tated; the eye may be cut out; the flesh torn from the body; and the very form of humanity be almost obliterated; but we rise from all this suffering with an undoubted and unmistaken bodily identity still remaining. The conclusion, then, to which we are led, is that much of our bodily nature, the coarser parts of the physical system, are not essential to bodily identity; but that the essence of our physical being is, in a sense, independent POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION. 291 of these and manufactured by them. In this view the objection loses all its force. Whatever changes take place in the coarser parts of the bodily system, the elemental cpartthe essence-yet remains. And it is this that shall rise from the grave. Does this appear mysterious? Take that clump of iron ore just from the quarry. Cast it into the furnace. Behold it there burning and seething in the lambent flames; its form changes; it is consumed; gone. But descend now, and behold the pure metal flowing from the furnace. Here again appears the clump; not, it is true, in its crude state, but freed from its earth; purged from its alloy, and ye, preserving its elemental identity. Its essence is there. So shall it be with this earthly body as it passes through the furnace of death, and comes forth in the resurrection. " It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body;" for "flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God." Therefore c" the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed." III. IT IS OBJECTED TO THE RESURRECTION THAT THE ELEMENTS OF WHICH THE BODY IS COMPOSED ARE NOT ONLY DISSOLVED, BUT WASTED, SCATTERED, AND EVEN TRANSFORMED. After death the body is soon decomposed. The gaseous and watery elements soon escape away, and the more solid parts soon crumble into dust. "' The body of a dead man may be burnt to ashes, and the ashes may be blown about by the wind and scattered far and wide in the air and upon the earth. After it is resolved into its earthy or humid matter, it may be taken up by the vessels which supply plants with nutriment, and at length become constituent parts of the 292 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. substance of these plants."* By these and similar processes, the particles that constitute a single human body may be dispersed over half the globe, may have passed through innumerable transformations, and be combined with other bodies. How can these widely-scattered elements be gathered together? how is it possible that they should be again so reunited as to re-form the body that once crumlbled and wasted? This is indeed mysterious. But is not the organization of our present bodies also mysterious and inexplicable? May not each individual say, " I am fearfully and wonderfully made?" The earth, the air, the sea have all been laid under contribution. The elements that constitute our bodies have been drawn from remote parts of the earth and from the depths of the sea. Some portions of these elements of our bodies have been drawn from the vegetable and animal productions of our own clime. Other portions are the productions of other climes-the tropical regions and the arctic, India and China, the islands of the sea and the mountains of the continents, the rivers and the oceans —have all brought their contributions to the erection of this mysterious temple. A thousand unappreciated and unseen influences have been working, under the all-controlling eye of God, to its completion. Let us, then, not stumble at the mysteriousness of the resurrection of the body from the dead till we have solved the mystery of its first organization. Let us not be over-perplexed because we can not tell how its scattered and wasted elements shall be gathered till we are able to tell how they were originally gathered and organized into a bodily system. If God has done the latter, may he not also be able to do the former? "' Sure the same Power That reared the piece at first, and took it down, Can reassemble the loose, scattered parts. And put them as they were.":;Gregory's Evidences, p. 424. POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION. 293 But this objection is absolutely deprived of all force, when we contemplate processes of daily occurrence, and especially the apparent impossibilities science may and has achieved. Take that ingot of gold. First tell its exact purity and weight, and then give it into the hands of the chemist. He files it to powder; and as you look upon it you say, " My gold will never be gathered again." The chemist gathers that dust and dissolves it in acids; then you exclaim, " I can not even see it; every particle is gone." Again he takes it, alloys it with other metals; he grinds it again to powder; he throws it into the fire; he mingles it with soot, and ashes, and charcoal; and at length, when it would seem as though its very elements were utterly destroyed, he brings it forth, the same fine gold, brilliant and pure as it was before it was subjected to the ordeal.* And does the skill of the chemist transcend the wonder-working power of Jehovah? Nay, the chemist may mistake; he may fail in his experiment; the precious gold may be lost. But over the garnered dust of his saints, God shall watch with that eye which never sleeps; and at the magic of his word, it shall be gathered together and again start to life.t *Resurrection of the Dead. By Dr. C. Kingsley, p. 33. t THE SILnVER CUP.-THE RESURRECTION ILLUSTRATED.-Dr. Brown, in his Resurrection of Life, cites from Hallet the following beautiful illustration of the resurrection: "A gentleman of the country, upon the occasion of some signal service this man had clone him, gave him a curious silver cup. David-for that was the man's name-was exceedingly fond of the present, and preserved it with the greatest care. But one day, by accident, his cup fell into s vessel of aquafortis; lie, taking it to be no other than common water, thought his cup safe enough; and, therefore, neglected it till he had dispatched an affair of importance, about which his master had employed him, imagining it would be then time enough to take out his cup. At length a fellow-servant came into the same room, when the cup was near dissolved, and looking into the aquafortis, asked David who had thrown any thing into that vessel. David said that his cup accidentally fell into the water. Upon this, his fellow-servant informed him that it was not common water, but aquafortis, and that his cup was almost dissolved in it. When David heard this, and was satisfied of the truth of it with his own eyes, he heartily grieved for the loss of his cup; and at the same time, he was astonished to see the liquor as clear as if nothing at all had been dissolved in it, or 294 MAN ALL IMMORTAL. IV. IT IS OBJECTED AGAIN THAT SOME OF THE ELEMENTS WHICH CONSTITUTED A PART OF THE BODY OF ONE MIAN AT DEATH, MAY ALSO ENTER INTO THAT OF ANOTHER MAN AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH, AND HENCE IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE, IN THE RESURRECTION, TO RESTORE THE SAME PARTICLES TO BOTH THE BODIES CLAIMING THEM. Some have grown facetious over this objection, and pre-,sented us with the grotesque picture of two souls contending over a lump of materiality, each claiming it as belonging to himself. This may avail something among those who substitute fancy for fact and argument. But our humorist should first learn, in so grave a matter, whether, even upon the hypothesis of a resurrection, such mixed with it. As, after a little while, he saw the small remains of it vanish, and could not now perceive the least particle of the silver, he utterly despaired of seeing the cup more. Upon this, he bitterly bewailed his loss, with many tears, and refused to be comforted. His fellow-servant, pitying him in this condition of sorrow, told him their master could restore him the same cup again. David disregarded this as utterly impossible.'What do you talk of?' said he to his fellow-servant.'Do you not know that the cup is entirely dissolved, and not the least bit of the silver is to be seen? Are not all the little invisible parts of the cup mingled with the aquafortis, and become parts of the same mass? How then can my master, or any man alive, produce the silver anew, and restore my cup? It can never be; I give it over for lost; I am sure I shall never see it again.' "I His fellow-servant still insisted that their master could restore the same cup; and David as earnestly insisted that it was absolutely impossible. While they were debating this point, their master came in, and asked them -,That they were disputing about. When they had informed him, he says to Davrd,' What you so positively pronounce to be impossible, you shall see me do with very little trouble.'