NOT "INFERRED" BUT BELIEVED.
The Christian Standard, in, an attempted, reasoning on the immortality of the soul, says:— "When it is said that we do not read of the 'immortality of the soul,' in the Scriptures, the truth is spoken; but when it is inferred from this that there is nothing in man that remains in possession of conscious existence after death, the conclusion is not well drawn. The immortality of the angels is something not named in the Scriptures. Yet it would be most unsafe to infer that they are not to continue in possession of conscious being forever. That which is mortal is subject to death, as the human body as it now is; that which is immortal is not subject to death, as the immortal bodies of the redeemed, as they shall be." But the unconsciousness of men in death is not "inferred" from the silence of Scripture on the subject of the "immortality of the soul." In fact it is not "inferred" from anything. It is the plain declaration of Scripture, and therefore, on the part of men who accept it, it is not an inference at all but is belief of the word of God. The Scriptures plainly state that "the dead know not anything," also "their love and their hatred and their envy" is "perished" (Eccl. 9:5); that when his breath goeth forth, "in that very day his thoughts perish" (Psalm 146:4); that "in death there is no remembrance of" God (Psalm 6:5); and that "the dead praise not the Lord" (Psalm 115:17): all these, and many more, scriptures show that at death men go to the place of silence and forgetfulness, and to accept such a view as the truth, is not inference but perfectly-founded faith. "The immortality of the angels is something not named in the Scriptures," says the Standard. Now the Scriptures do say of those who shall be made immortal, that "Neither can they die any more, for [because] they are equal unto the angels." To be equal unto the angels exempts from death forever, and that is immortality. Therefore the immortality of the angels is named in the Scriptures. This is proved by the Standard itself. It says, "That which is immortal is not subject to death." And the Scriptures do certainly say that the angels cannot die, in that it is said that the redeemed cannot die any more because they are equal unto the angels. Therefore upon the Standard's own proposition the immortality of the angels is named in the Scriptures. Yet on the supposition that the Scriptures do not name the immortality of the angels, the Standard says, "It would be most unsafe to infer that they are not to continue in the possession of conscious being forever." But if the word of God should say of the angels, as it says of men, that while they live "they know that they shall die," but when dead they "know not anything," that their "thoughts" would then "perish," and they would remember not God, and "praise not the Lord," but would remain in silence and in the land of forgetfulness,—if the word of God should say all this of the angels, and much more to the same effect, it would not be unsafe to believe that they were not to continue in the possession of conscious being forever. And to believe so of men of whom all these things are said by the word of the Lord, is not only not unsafe, but is the only really safe thing to believe on that subject. This conclusion is well drawn.