The Breath of Life by A. A. Phelps

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 17, 1883

"The Breath of Life."

By A. A. Phelps

AN ILLUSTRATION.

A FEW years ago, the body of a murderer hanged in Glasgow was subjected, about an hour and a quarter after his execution, to the action of a battery. One pole was applied to the spinal marrow at the nape of the neck, and the other to the sciatic nerve in the left hip, when the whole body was thrown into a violent tremor as if shivering with cold. On removing the wire from the sciatic nerve to a nerve in the heel, the leg was thrown out so violently as nearly to overturn one of the assistants, who tried in vain to prevent its extension. On directing a current to the principal muscle of respiration, the chest heaved and fell, and labored breathing commenced.

When one of the poles was applied to a nerve under the eyebrow and the other to the heel, the most extraordinary grimaces were produced. "Every muscle of the countenance was simultaneously thrown into fearful action; rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles, united their hideous expression in the murderer's face." Several spectators were so overcome by the sight that they had to leave the room, and one man fainted. In the last experiment, the forefinger, which had previously been bent, was instantly extended, and shaking violently, with a convulsive movement of the whole arm, seemed to point to the persons present, some of whom thought that the body had really returned to life.

For the above fact I am indebted to the textbook on natural philosophy written by Prof. Quackenbos. It is a forcible illustration of "the breath of life" which was originally breathed into man's physical organism and constituted him a "living soul." Electricity is a subtle and powerful element which seems to pervade all nature. I do not say this is the vitalizing element which sets the human machinery in motion, but it may at least help us to understand how that heaven-inspired breath could produce the marvelous effect ascribed to it.

Mark how the electric current, in the foregoing case, caused a dead man to look and act like a live one. Yet no one believes that electricity is a living personality—a sentient soul—a conscious spirit. Why, then, is it necessary to invest "the breath of life" with the attributes of conscious personality? There is no such necessity. People do so from the force of habit. They follow their traditional teachings, without stopping to search either the word or works of God.

Why not take the record just as it reads? There is nothing said about an inbreathed immortal soul. I believe "the breath of life," of Gen. 2 : 7, means exactly the same as "the spirit," of Eccl. 12 : 7. But the spirit of man is not the man himself any more than the steam which propels the engine is the engine itself. God's philosophy teaches man's unity—a physical organism vitalized—both the elements employed being essential to a living man; so that in the event of death neither the animating principle nor the lifeless body will fill the bill. Man's philosophy teaches that "the breath of life" is an interior man, dwelling awhile in the exterior man, and then moving out into still greater freedom and knowledge.

This philosophy lays the foundation for Spiritualism, Mormonism, Purgatory, and almost every false religious system that ever cursed the world. The churches have quite generally adopted this double-entity theory. In doing so, they have gradually lost their interest—and too often their faith in the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the distinctive day of Judgment. I prefer the old Bible theology.—A. A. Phelps, A. M., in Bible Banner.