p. 10 | Life and Immortality by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 4, 1913

Life and Immortality

By Editor

THE Christian Standard of August 23, in its Family Altar department, quotes, under the title "Gems of Thought," the following text, and makes thereon the comment which follows it:—

Jesus Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Tim. 1:10.

Men have always been immortal, but they did not know it. They suspected it and longed for it, but were in doubt about it. Adam was as really immortal as John, but there was a veil over the eyes of one, and the other saw clearly. Christ had demonstrated it to John; had brought it to light.

The only statement in the above that is not contrary to the Scripture is the one which declares that "Adam was as really immortal as John;" for neither of them possessed it. It is very strange indeed that if Jesus came simply to remove a veil and demonstrate to man that man is immortal and always had been, he should have inspired the same apostolic penman to write these words concerning "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords:" "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable." It is strange, also, that if Jesus Christ came to demonstrate, through the gospel, that men have and always have had immortality, the gospel should be utterly silent concerning such a fact. It would be difficult to produce a more direct and striking denial of Scripture teaching than that contained in the above-quoted comments on the text given. From the day when God declared in Eden that death would follow disobedience, Satan has been endeavoring to make men believe that man could not die, that he was immortal. Over and over have the Scriptures declared man's mortality, the certainty of his eternal death if he continued in sin, and has made it plain that man's only hope of life beyond this life lies in submission to God's will and acceptance of Christ and his sacrifice in man's behalf. In spite of this the old contradiction of God and of his Word continues, and innumerable souls are deceived thereby. The ashes of the wicked under the feet of the righteous (Mal. 4:1-3) ought to settle the question of man's mortality, if no other text existed on the subject.

THE steady advance of surgery in the treatment of wounds received in warfare is shown in the statistics of three wars. In the American civil war the mortality of the wounded was 13.2 per cent; in the Franco-Prussian war, 11 per cent; in the Russo-Japanese war, 5 per cent.