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The Immortal Soul

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 18, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 28, No. 16.

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The Immortal Soul.

By Luther Lee

A DESCRIPTION OF THE IMMORTAL SOUL, BY LUTHER LEE.
“It is a simple, spiritual essence; immortal, immaterial, intangible, indissoluble; having no exterior or interior surface; cannot be extended; it is analogous to God; cannot come with matter, and does not occupy space; and we might add, does not weigh anything.”

ADMISSIONS, OR CONFESSIONS OF DISTINGUISHED MEN CONCERNING THE DOCTRINE OF THE SOUL.

Bishop Watson, the eminent Methodist writer, says: “I have read volumes on the nature of the soul; but I have no scruple in saying, I know nothing about it.” (Watson’s Memoirs, p. 23.)
He also says: “Some suppose that consciousness is an essential attribute of spirit, and the soul is naturally immortal; the former of which cannot be proved, while the latter is contradicted by the Bible which makes our immortality a gift dependent on the will of the giver. (Institutes, v. 1, p. 82–3.)”
In his Institutes, v. 1, p. 22, he calls the doctrine of the immortality of the soul “a presumption.”
Dr. Dwight assumes that the soul is immortal, but was compelled to say, “Whatever has been created can certainly be annihilated. The continuance of the soul must therefore, depend absolutely on the will of God.” (Works, v. 1, p. 163.)
Mr. George Combe, an eminent phrenologist, says: “No idea can be more erroneous than to suppose that man is an immortal being on account of the substance of which he is composed.” (System of Phrenology, p. 595–7.)
Cicero, having reckoned up the opinions of philosophers as to the soul’s immortality, concludes thus,—“Which of these opinions is true?—Some God must tell us. Which is most like truth? is a great question.” (Institutes, v. 1, p. 46.)
The American Phrenological Journal says on the question of the soul: “Metaphysicians have quite generally acknowledged themselves much in the dark, and their speculations have fallen far short of satisfying the requirements of the general reason of mankind.”