The Immortality of the Soul.
By G.
THIS is a staple doctrine with all the truly orthodox, and is persistently asserted in every print and sermon which comes within easy range of the subject. Thus obituaries, funeral discourses, and eulogies on the departed, in metre and prose, discant largely and eloquently on the immortal powers of the soul. Believers in the mortality of man are often rallied for their weakness, and gravely told that man has powers superior to those of the animal creation (!) as if they didn't know this, and needed to be informed of the fact. But when solicited for Bible evidence in favor of this dogma (for the proof is supposed to be both metaphysical and biblical,) Gen. ii, 7 is a passage commonly adduced to parry our error. So far as good; for this text speaks historically of the creation and nature of man, and if he is a duplex being, composed of an immortal soul housed in a material body, this text should acquaint us with a knowledge of the fact. Let us see. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Here, says my good orthodoxal friend, is proof that man is an immortal being. It says, "God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life," but does not use such language as this in giving an account of the formation of the beasts, but simply says, "God made the beast of the earth after his kind," &c. Those who have the truth can well afford to be fair, and although the Scriptures do say that "man is like the beasts that perish," that "they all have one breath," and that "all go unto one place," yet it is readily conceded that God does not anywhere say that he breathed into the nostrils of beasts the breath of life. But what of all that? what does this phrase mean? Let us look closely at this language and endeavor to arrive at its true meaning. Breathed into his nostrils. Now what is meant by that term—"nostrils?" Webster, the great American lexicographer, defines thus: "Nostrils, An aperture or passage through the nose. The nostrils are the passages through which the air is inhaled and exhaled in respiration." This is his complete definition, and to it agrees exactly the Hebrew word rendered nostrils. This is aphim, and is defined by Gesenius thus: "The nose. Properly 'the two breathing holes,' i. e., the nostrils, Gen. ii, 7." This is valuable information. We have now ascertained an important fact concerning our immaterial tenant, if indeed we have such a guest. Its location is in the nose! There is where it was lodged in the first living creature. Truly this must be precious information to those philosophical minds who have labored in vain to find the situation of this little entity. Medical writers and metaphysicians have queried whether it was in the skull, in the aura, or in the thorax among the circulatory organs, or down still lower in the region of the abdominal viscera. But now we may all swing our hats and cry Eureka! for here is the immortal, never-dying soul situated in the nose, or as Gesenius says, "in the two breathing holes!" All honor to this illustrious guest in its dignified position! But hold. We are further told by our antagonists that the soul is "that vital uncompounded, immortal, indivisible, immaterial, active substance in man whereby he perceives, reasons, thinks, and wills." (See Buck, Lee, and the catechisms.) But if the soul is "indivisible" how does it find its way into the nasal passages—the two breathing holes?! Either the soul is divisible, or else each member of the great social hive is endowed with two souls. How is it? It doesn't look quite clear; and, gentle reader, viewed in the orthodox light, we fear it never will. The point will not bear pressing. We will now give what looks to us like the true idea of the Scripture. "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," &c. This shows our humble, terrene origin. We are of the earth, mortal. God breathed into the nostrils of the first created being,—what? An immortal soul, or spirit? No, but simply "the breath of the spirit of life." Gen. vii, 27. There is a principle of life in the atmosphere. This caused Adam to respire, his lungs to play, the heart to beat, the life currents of blood to flow; the brain then grew active, and—the sublime phenomena of mind was the result, and Adam rose up a living, sentient being, endowed with conscious existence, in the image of his God, "a little lower than the angels." He then stood forth in his majesty, the noble prototype of the whole human family. But the phrase, "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," so far from asserting our immortality, is sometimes used in the Scriptures as an evidence of mortality and human weakness. Thus, "Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of? Isa. ii, 22. Again, it is sometimes assumed with an air of positiveness, as if this would wholly end the controversy, that the phrase "breath of life," Gen. ii, 7, is in the Hebrew, breath of lives, intimating, say they, that man has an animal life, in common with the lesser creatures, and also a still higher endowment, a spiritual life, or soul, which of course is immortal. This is merely confusing the subject, and may have been an objection with some. In reply we readily admit that the original reads in the plural, "breath of lives"—nishmath chayim. But this objection loses all its force, from the fact that this same term, in its plural form, is applied three times to beasts and living creatures in the immediate connection. Gen. vi, 17, and Gen. vii, 15, 22, are the instances. And though our translation does not there give it plurally, yet the phrase in Hebrew is so, and thus if it teaches that man has this two-fold kind of life, beasts and animals have it also. Another objection in our mind to the immortality of the soul is, that it virtually teaches the doctrine of election, and still worse, that the work of creation is not yet completed, neither of which we are very willing to admit. The Scriptures say that in six days God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. Now if the great Architect of souls at the birth of every human being creates a soul for the body, the above scripture statement is not true, for God is creating still. Again, if the Lord created all these immaterial entities in the beginning, and they are reserved in Heaven, or somewhere in the great pabulum of Nature, the world must stand till all these souls have bodies, or else the divine plan will be frustrated. Then may the end come, the Maker having foreordained and provided that just such a number of spirits should find corporeity. But why should we further examine a subject which is so at variance with scripture and reason. The true Christian will never appeal from the plain teachings of the Bible. That informs us that "God only hath immortality," 1 Tim. vi, 16, that man is exhorted by a "patient continuance in well-doing," to "seek for glory, and honor, and immortality," Rom. ii, 7, and that the faithful only will put it on at the resurrection, 1 Cor. xv, 53, 54, when the great Lifegiver shall appear in his glory. Col. iii, 4. Reader, you and I are not immortal now, but this desirable boon is a future gift predicated on our well-doing. G.