A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM.
By T. E. Bowen
THEOLOGIANS, learned and profound, discourse vaguely upon the question of the soul of man. Leaving the simple statements of God's unerring Word concerning this subject, they wander far from the truth, ending in skepticism and the bewildering fogs of uncertainty. A little child was asked by his Sunday-school teacher the direct question, "Do you know that you have a soul?" "'Course I do," replied the little fellow, placing his hand over his heart, "'Cause I can feel it tick." This little item was placed in the joker's column of a newspaper, taken for a little bit of fun at the expense of the little fellow who of course did not yet understand that he was possessed of a "something," nobody can tell just what, that at death takes a sudden flight to the unseen world, either to rejoice in glory or writhe among the damned in torment. Of all this the little fellow was happily ignorant, and so is the precious Word of God. When God formed the soul the heart began its "ticking." That was life. God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and when He breathed into him the breath of life, man became a "living soul." This is the record. Reversely, he dies. Life ceases, and man goes back into dust. God said if he sinned he would, and so it came to pass. "But," says one, "surely there is something that at death goes back to God." O, yes, surely, but it is only the life—that "ticking" power of the heart that God gave when life began. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." The life God gave, He reserves unto Himself. No one can bestow that wonderful phenomenon—life—but God only. Life without the body is impossible. God formed muscles, veins, nerves, sinews, brain, and bones by the power of His Word from the dust of the earth, then put life into all these, and man became a living, thinking, active being—a living soul. When the heart ceases "ticking," all there is of man dies. His thoughts cease, his muscles are powerless to respond to the call of nerve for action, all is still in death. "Man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:12. All there is of man lieth down. Man lieth down. This was true of Jesus Christ. If it can be shown that the soul of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ went into Joseph's new tomb, then surely this problem is made plain. Peter on the day of Pentecost, speaking as moved of the Holy Spirit, said, quoting from the Psalms concerning Christ, "Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope; because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [the grave], neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." His soul was not left in the tomb, but this passage says it went in there. Otherwise, no sacrifice has been made for man. Jesus died. Life ceased, and for three days the Son of God lay in state on earth, cold and silent in death—all this the result of your sin and mine. He committed His life into His Father's hand on the cross, and perished. Nothing hard to understand about this. Life is simply life, and death, life's opposite, is death. "Got a soul?" "Sure, 'cause I can feel it tick."