THOUGHTS ON SOUL AND SPIRIT.
By Daniel T. Bourdeau
The fact that each of these words has different meanings seems to be a source of perplexity to some. But this is no more remarkable than is the fact that nearly every noun, in every language, has several definitions. In order to attach a proper meaning to the words in question, care should be taken in observing the circumstances under which they are used, the nature of the subject, the context, and some very simple principles that are common to all languages. Take, for example, the word soul, which is translated mainly from the Hebrew word nephesh, and from the Greek word psuche, and signifies, primarily, life. “And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life [margin, Heb., soul].” “For they are dead which sought the young child’s life [psuche].” Matt. 2: 20. This word also signifies a creature that has or has had life. “Man became a living soul.” Gen. 2: 7. “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” Luke 12: 19. Now on what principle of language can this second meaning be accounted for? Simply this: such is the importance of life that it gives its name to the beings that possess it. Again, a creature that has life is called soul (life) on the principle whereby the thing contained gives its name to the thing that contains it. Thus, a congregation of Christians is called a church, and the edifice in which this congregation assembles is also called a church. Such simple principles of language account for every other sense of the word soul. Again, the word spirit applied to man, means primarily breath. But as life depends largely on breath, so that breath is called “the breath of life,” life is sometimes called spirit. In this case the cause is put for the effect, as in the following scriptures: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear.” Col. 3: 4. “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11: 25. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” John 6: 63. “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot.” 2 Kings 4: 40. So important is the function of air in the vital economy that air or spirit is applied to breathing creatures, or to beings that have had breath. This is no more remarkable than it is for Jerusalem to represent a city and the people contained in that city. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,” etc. Matt. 23: 37. As spirit in some cases signifies life in general, it also signifies the mind, or the manifestation of life in the brain. 1 Cor. 5: 3; Col. 2: 5; 1 Thess. 5: 23. But even in this case it cannot apply to an entity that thinks, speaks, and acts independently of the body; for the infallible word positively declares that when a man dies his thoughts perish (Ps. 146: 4), thus agreeing with the scientific fact that the mind depends upon the brain. The mind is not the brain, but is the result of brain action, just as instrumental music is not the instrument, but the result of the action of that instrument, the fingers playing upon the instrument as the five senses play upon the brain. Without an instrument of music and fingers to play upon it, there can be no instrumental music; so without brain and senses to make impressions upon it, there can be no mental music, no thoughts. Smash the instrument on which that young gentleman plays, and he will be unable to produce instrumental music until it is repaired, or until another instrument is furnished him. So when man dies, and his brain and physical structures are demolished, his thoughts perish, and he can think no more until the Lifegiver shall restore him according to the plan of identity that is sacredly preserved in the records above. D. T. BOURDEAU.