"By education many are misled;
They so believe, because they so were bred;
The priest continues what the nurse began,
And thus the child imposes on the man."
Elias Smith.
"The infant heard the nurse devoutly say,
The first day of the week was Sabbath-day,
For reasons in the Primer plainly told,
And thus the man believes when he is old.
When he becomes a man he's made a priest,
Acquires the arts and language of the East;
With knowledge vast acquired from every clime,
He speaks in strains that one would think sublime.
He tells us of a new-made Sabbath-day,
And that the former one is done away;
The people think it surely must be so,
It will not do to say the priest don't know.
Thus round the world the Primer story flies,
While quite unseen the Scripture doctrine lies."
Wm Stillman.
The above text is applicable to other subjects besides the Sabbath. The nurse told the infant also, that he had an immortal, never-dying soul, that must exist, in happiness or misery, as long as God exists. It made a deep impression on the child's mind; and when he became a man and a preacher, being a Protestant, he felt himself bound to prove this anti-scriptural dogma from the Bible. But failing to find one text that affirmed the doctrine, and finding many that positively asserted the negative, such as, "The soul that sinneth it shall die," he was obliged to content himself in raising fancied objections to the scriptural doctrine of immortality alone through Christ.
I few days since I saw a copy of the Sabbath Recorder, from which I discovered that my friend, Eld. V. Hull, has written at some length on the immortality question. I think it was his "No. 17" that I read. In that article he appeals to the original Greek, and the testimony of the learned, to prove that in some passages in the common version the Greek word rendered immortality would be more properly rendered incorruptibility. Admitting this to be true, (I profess to know nothing in regard to it,) what is gained to his theory? Incorruption is exemption from decay. Immortal means, Having no principle of alteration or corruption; exempt from death. Both terms signify exemption from decay, while immortality denotes exemption from death also. Now if both life and incorruptibility are brought to light through the gospel, those who avail themselves of the privileges of the gospel will be made immortal.189
Both immortality and incorruption are, by Paul, used in reference to man as an organized being, or to the body. 1 Cor. xv, 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Verse 52. "The dead shall be raised incorruptible." That which was dead and is raised then becomes incorruptible. Verse 53. For this corruptible body must put on incorruption, and this mortal body must put on immortality. Campbell. But my friend evidently uses the term, incorruption, in reference not to the physical, but to the moral man—the soul. But I presume he would not admit that the "immortal soul" of man is subject to decay till the resurrection, and then becomes incorruptible—not subject to decay. But this is not my friend's meaning. He uses the terms, corruption and incorruption, in the sense of moral depravity and moral purity. He claims that Rom. ii, 7 should read, To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, and honor, and incorruption, eternal life. On this he remarks, "Perfection in holiness is the object for which the people of God seek; not for eternal existence; of that they are sure without seeking it." Now we have his meaning. To such immortal souls as seek for "moral purity," or "perfection in holiness," God will render eternal life. But when will they obtain this incorruption or moral purity for which they seek? At the resurrection. Then this corruptible must put on incorruption. That is, according to my friend's construction, the morally polluted and depraved man will, at the resurrection, put on a good moral character! I should think he ought to put it on before that time, unless Universalism be true.
Again, Christ did not see corruption. This harmonizes very well with my friend's definition. He was perfect in holiness—he knew no moral depravity. But this prophecy had a specific reference to the resurrection of Christ, and is affirmed of his flesh. David "spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." Acts ii, 31. This is plain enough; though he died, he rose again the third day; his soul came out of the grave, and his flesh did not decay. But what became of David, a man who spent his life-time seeking incorruption? He saw corruption. When? After he had served out his probation. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption; but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Acts xiii, 36, 37. Then, according to the view in question, after David was dead and buried, he saw his moral depravity. Rather late, I should think, in the discovery.
But enough has been said to show the utter fallacy, and the positive absurdity of the position my friend has taken. The saints of all ages have sought incorruption; but their mortal career has ended in corruption. But, at the resurrection of the just, they will put on incorruption. Then, having life and incorruption, they will be immortal. They will have obtained an endless existence—the very thing they sought for.
My friend is a Seventh-day Baptist; and I dare say he has been often enough disgusted with the course of those who, failing to find anything in the word of God to sustain the First-day Sabbath, have racked their invention to find objections against the seventh day—the Sabbath of the Lord. Whether he is aware of it or not, he occupies a similar position. There is no text of Scripture which affirms the natural immortality of any part of man; but the opposite is just as clearly taught as words can express ideas. Failing to find the one text which affirms the immortality of the soul, men undertake, by unnecessary inferences and perversions of the plain sense of certain scriptures, to set aside the positive assertions of the infallible Word, and prove that the wages of sin is not death—that the soul that sinneth it shall not die.
"Ye shall not surely die," was the first teaching of the father of lies to the human race. Then, when they had apostatized from the only true and living God, their new master set them to worshiping the sun. Hence the origin of Sunday. The two doctrines can boast the same parentage. Their pedigree can be traced back, through Papacy and Paganism, to their true source. But how hard it is for men to leave tradition, and to come to the word of God and receive its instructions. How prone are men to follow the beaten track of tradition, however at variance with the word of God. Generation after generation have followed in the same wake. While the Papacy was in its glory, men worshiped the beast, and, at the same time, they worshiped the dragon that gave power to the beast. That is, the Catholic church, though professing Christianity, still kept their Pagan traditions. And while men worship the two-horned beast and the image which he shall make, they will be keeping the same traditions, and, consequently, they will at the same time be worshiping the ten-horned beast and the dragon.
But I would that my friend could see that he occupies a position which he condemns in others. He is zealous and laborious, as his protracted effort evinces. Would to God he were engaged in a better cause than trying to stop the leaks in that old ship which will sink to oblivion in the lake of fire. R. F. C.