THE BLINDNESS OF TRADITION by Dudley Marvin Canright

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1868

THE BLINDNESS OF TRADITION.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

The following extract from “Man all Immortal,” by D. W. Clark, shows how far a man can be blinded by tradition and a desire to sustain a theory. Notice the text which he quotes, and then notice the absurd conclusion which he draws from it.

“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 completeness 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 man 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.”

How false this conclusion! They directly contradict the text which says that man (who was made of the dust of the ground) became a living soul. Yet in the face and eyes of this inspired declaration Dr. Clark has the boldness to say that the soul is not a part of the physical structure,—“it does not grow out of it, but is superadded to it.” How vain a thing is philosophy! It generally darkens the word of God instead of making it light, as may be seen by the above extract from this learned man.

D. M. CANRIGHT.