Now although the continued existence of any creature must depend simply upon the will of its Creator, that will may either be made known by direct revelation, or inferred in any particular instance by analogical reasoning from what is known of his doings in other cases. As far as this argument from analogy goes it de- cidedly confirms the belief that a spiritual substance is, as such, immortal. The entire range of human experience fails to make us acquainted with a single instance of the annihilation of an atom of matter, i. e., of matter as such. Material bodies, organ- ized or chemically compounded, or mere mechanical aggregations, we observe constantly coming into existence, and in turn passing away, yet never through the annihilation of their elementary con- stituents or component parts, but simply from the dissolution of that relation which these parts had temporarily sustained to each other. Spirit, however, is essentially simple and single, and there- fore incapable of that dissolution of parts to which material bodies are subject. We infer, therefore, that spirits are immortal since they can not be subject to that only form of death of which we have any knowledge.
6. What argument in favor of the immortality of the soul may be derived from its imperfect development in this ivorld ?
432 STATE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH.
In every department of organized life every individual crea- ture, in its normal state, tends to grow toward a condition of complete development, which is the perfection of its kind. The acorn both prophesies and grows toward the oak. Every human being, however, is conscious that in this life he never attains that completeness which the Creator contemplated in the ideal of his type ; he has faculties undeveloped, capacities unfulfilled, natural desires unsatisfied ; he knows he was designed to be much more than he is, and to fill a much higher sphere. As the prophetic reason of the Creator makes provision for the butterfly through the instinct of the caterpillar, so the same Creator reveals the immortal existence of the soul in a higher sphere by means of its conscious limitations and instinctive movements in this.
7. What argument on this subject may be derived from the distributive justice of God ?
It is an invariable judgment of natural reason, and a funda- mental doctrine of the Bible, that moral good is associated with happiness, and moral evil with misery, by the unchangeable na- ture and purpose of God. But the history of all individuals and communities alike establishes the fact that this life is not a state of retribution ; that here wickedness is often associated with prosperity, and moral excellence with sorrow ; we must hence conclude that there is a future state in which all that appears at present inconsistent with the justice of God shall be adjusted. See Ps. lxxiii.
8. How do the operations of conscience point to a future state f
Conscience is the voice of God in the soul, which witnesses to our sinfulness and ill-desert, and to his essential justice. Ex- cept in the case of those who have found refuge in the righteous- ness of Christ, every man feels that his moral relations to God are never settled in this life, and hence the characteristic testi- mony of the human conscience, in spite of great individual dif- ferences as to light, sensibility, etc., has always been coinci- dent with the word of God, that " after death comes the judg- ment."
IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 433
9. How is this doctrine established by the general consent of mankind ?
This has been the universal faith of all men, of all races, and in all ages. Universal consent, like every universal effect, must be referred to an equally universal cause, and this consent, uniform among men differing in every other possible respect, can be referred to no common origin other than the constitution of man's common nature, which is the testimony of his Maker.
10. Show that the Old Testament teaches the same distinction between sold and body that is taught in the New Testament.
1st. In the account of the creation. The body was formed of the dust of the earth, and the soul in the image of the Al- mighty, Glen, i., 26 ; ii., 7.
2d. In the definition of death, Eccle. xii., 7. " Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to Grod who gave it." See also Eccle. iii., 21.
11. What does the Old Testament teach concerning Sheol ? and how is it shown, from the usage of that word, that the im- mortality of the soul was a doctrine of the ancient covenant f