THE NATURE OF THE TESTIMONY.
By Editor
In the great questions concerning the nature of man, the state of the dead, and the destiny of the wicked, now extensively agitating the public mind, there are multitudes who profess that they can find no evidence that man is mortal, that the dead sleep, and that the wicked will be destroyed. While one class read this doctrine plainly from the word of God, another class claim that they can read just as plainly that man is immortal, that the dead know more than all the living, and that the wicked will be tormented to all eternity. In these few remarks we wish to call attention to one important point, and that is, the nature of the testimony which is adduced by those respective parties in favor of their positions. Those who believe in the immortality of man, the sleep of the dead, and the destruction of the wicked, can put their fingers on abundance of texts which speak out plainly and unequivocally, and whose meaning cannot be mistaken. “Man lieth down and riseth: till the heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep.” Job xiv, 12. Here is a plain and positive declaration. This is not figurative nor inferential language. If it means anything it means what it says. But on the other hand, is there a text which says that when man’s body lieth down his soul rises to realms of bliss? Again: the Psalmist, speaking of man, says, that in the day he returneth to his earth his thoughts perish. Ps. cxlvi, 4. Here again is plain and positive language. It is a truth that his thoughts do perish or they do not. Some say that they do not; but the Psalmist says they do. Now can any text be found which says that man’s thoughts do not perish, and that he does think between death and the resurrection? Let it be produced if in existence. We read again that the dead know not anything. Eccl. ix, 5. Can a text be found which declares plainly that they do know something? The next verse declares that their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished. But if they have gone either to heaven or hell, their love or their hatred certainly is not perished. Can there be found a text which asserts half so plainly that it has not perished as this text asserts that it has? In the 10th verse we also read that there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest. It is here asserted that the man goes into the grave where there is no knowledge. It would be absurd to suppose that the body merely, and not the whole man is addressed by this language. If then the whole man goes into the grave, and wisdom and knowledge ceases, he certainly has not gone to a place of knowledge and consciousness, either heaven or hell. These few texts will be sufficient for the illustration of our purpose. We now ask what the nature of the testimony is on the other side? Is there anything positive like the ones we have just adduced? There is not. Some claim, we know, that the required testimony is found in the promise of Christ to the thief on the cross. According to their construction of that passage perhaps it might be so considered; but their construction of it Christ flatly denies three days afterward. They are therefore obliged to yield this up. They pretend to find it in the testimony concerning the rich man and Lazarus; but that is a parable, and consequently not to be placed on a level with the positive scriptures which we have produced. They say that the threatening of Christ, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment,” is literal and positive language. We answer, Yes, but it is on our side and not theirs; for the death with which the sinner is threatened, as we hold, is certainly a punishment. They tell us the positive testimony on their side is found in the language, “shall be tormented forever and ever.” We admit that this language is plain and literal so far as it extends; but it is well known that the term forever is limited in its signification to the duration of the thing to which it is applied. The matter then stands thus: on one side we have plain and positive testimony, language which cannot be mistaken nor turned from its literal meaning; on the other side we have figures and inferences, none of them necessary, most of them far-fetched and inapplicable. Let the reader who is disposed to give this subject a thorough examination, notice this peculiarity. And let the matter be reversed. Let the believer in the popular theory imagine for a moment the testimony on his side which we have on ours; let him imagine that he could find a few texts reading like this: “The dead know more than all the living,”—“when a man dies his thoughts do not perish,”—“his love and his hatred, &c., do not cease,”—“into the grave nothing but the body goes,”—“the soul that sinneth shall not die, but live to all eternity in misery,” &c. We would ask him if candidly and sincerely he would not feel much better with a few such texts on his side, than he does at present. But as it is, until inferences shall have more weight than plain testimony, until the figurative language shall over-power the literal, until the indirect testimony shall triumph over that which is direct, the plain and scriptural view of this subject which the honest and devoted all over the land are rapidly embracing, must and will maintain its ground.