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Signs of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 5.

General Articles

Signs of the Times

Jan 30, 1879

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 30, 1879

General Articles.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

The Scripture Doctrine of a Future Life.--No. 3.

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

THE NATURE OF THE SOUL.

THE Bible is commonly supposed to teach that there is something about man which is immortal. We have searched thoroughly for this supposed entity, and have not found it. If there is such a thing, in what part of man does it reside?
The body? Certainly it is not the body which is immortal, for we know that this dies. All agree to this. God says, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3:19. The Bible frequently speaks of dead bodies. "Together with my dead body shall they arise." Isa. 26:19. We see the body die and putrefy. Indeed, it is declared to be mortal. "Shall also quicken your mortal bodies." Rom. 8:11. We find no immortality here.
The man? Some people make a distinction between the body and what the Bible calls the man. Is this what is immortal? Is this the thing that does not die? Hardly; for the man was made out of the ground. "And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground." Gen. 2:7. Then we frequently read about man's dying. "But man dieth and wasteth away." Job 14:10. So men die. We see them die. We know they die. More than that, the Bible often speaks of dead men. "Behold there was a dead man carried out." Luke 7:12. "Thy dead men shall live." Isa. 26:19. "I am forgotten as a dead man." Psa. 31:12. A dead body lies on the ground, the breath of life has left it, and is where you please and what you please. But the dead body is the man; the man is not the breath of life; that is something which has left the man. Make what you please of it, endow it with what attribute you like, locate it where you may imagine, it is not the man. It has left the man behind. The carcass it has abandoned is he. So we find no immortality here.
The person? Well, then, is it the "person" that is immortal? This word is often used as applied to individuals. But the Bible declares that the person dies, perishes, is slain. "I have occasioned the death of all the persons." 1 Sam. 22:22. "Wicked men have slain a righteous person." 2 Sam. 4:11. "The fool and the brutish person perish." Psa. 49:10. We also read about dead persons. "They shall come at no dead person." Ezek. 44:25. It cannot be the person, then, that does not die.
Proper names? It is according to universal usage, both in Bible times and since, to speak of men as "Joseph," "Lazarus," "James." Perhaps here we shall find that which does not die. Let us see. Upon turning to the Bible, we read thus: "So Joseph died." Gen. 50:26. "Lazarus is dead." John 11:14. "And Sarah died." Gen. 23:2. And so of all who are named. Was there such a man as David? Yes, but the Bible declares plainly and repeatedly that David "died"—that David is "dead." Again we are disappointed in our search. At every step we fail to find anything about man which does not die.
The soul? "There!" exclaims the reader, "now we shall find it. The soul is immortal—it can never die."
This has strangely come to be the popular belief. It is entertained by multitudes of real Christians; though such an error compels them to study the Scriptures to very great disadvantage. In the Old Testament the word from which "soul" is translated is the Hebrew term ne-phesh, with just two exceptions—Job 30:15; Isa. 57:16. Nephesh is never translated "spirit." It is translated soul, 473 times; life, 118 times; person, 29 times; mind, 15 times; heart, 15 times; body or dead body, 11 times; will, 4 times; also appetite, lust, creature, etc.,—in all 44 different ways. This will give the reader a fair understanding of its real meaning. The great Hebrew scholar, Gesenius, thus defines nephesh: "1. Breath. 2. The vital spirit, as the Greek psuchee; and the Latin anima, through which the body lives, i. e., the principle of life manifested in the breath. 3. The rational soul, mind, animus, as the seat of feelings, affections, and emotions. 4. (Concrete) a living thing, animal, in which the nephesh, life." Parkhurst, a distinguished lexicographer, says: "As a noun, nephesh hath been supposed to signify the spiritual part of man, or what we commonly call his soul. I must for myself confess that I can find no passage where it hath undoubtedly this meaning."
Soul, in the New Testament, comes from one Greek word, psuchee, which means the same in Greek as nephesh does in Hebrew. Psuchee is translated soul, 58 times; life, and lives, 40 times; mind, 3 times; heart, twice; us and you, once each. It is defined by Robinson to mean primarily, "The breath. Usually and in the New Testament, the vital breath. Latin, anima, life, through which the body lives and feels, i. e., the principle of life manifested in the breath. Hebrew, nephesh."
Greenfield says: "Psuchee, breath, life, i. e., the animal soul, principle of life, state of being alive, existence, spoken of natural life." "That which has life, a living creature, living being."
The first and most common meaning of the word soul in the Bible is person—the whole man. The next most frequent meaning is life—the vital principle in man or beast. After this it means the mind, the affections, etc. But there is not a single instance where it means an immortal, undying principle in man, which can live in a conscious state when the body is dead.
1. The soul was made of dust. The very first thing that we learn, on the opening page of the Bible about the soul, is that it was made of the dust of the ground. "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." Gen. 2:7. What became a living soul? The man that was made of dust. It does not say that God put a soul into the man's body, but that the man that was made of the dust became a living soul. Paul settles the matter in his comment on this very text. He says: "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul." 1 Cor. 15:45. Then he explains it thus: "The first man is of the earth, earthy." Verse 47. The first man was made of the earth.
Kitto, in Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, renders Gen. 2:7 as follows: "And Jehovah God formed the man dust from the ground, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living animal." On this he remarks: "We should be unfaithfully if we were to affirm" that "an immortal spirit" is "contained or implied in this passage." Vol. 1, p. 59. There is then no immortality here. The phrase, "living soul," is translated from the Hebrew nephesh chaiyah. The very same words are used in chap. 1:20, 21, 30. "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the [nephesh chaiyah] moving creature that hath life," (Hebrew, "living soul;" marginal reading, "that hath soul.") "And God created great whales, and every living creature [Heb., nephesh chaiyah—living soul] that moveth, which the waters bring forth." Verse 21.
"And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life." Verse 30. Margin, "a living soul," from the same original terms. "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them, and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, [Heb., nephesh chaiyah—living soul] that was the name thereof." Gen. 2:19. In verse 7, man is called a living soul; and in verse 19, all the beasts are called living souls too. See also Gen. 9:10, 12, 15, 16. Lev. 11:46.
Furst, perhaps the highest existing authority on the Hebrew language, in his concordance defines nephesh as "the soul, by which an animal lives, both of man and brute." It is too bad for the cause of truth that the translators have covered up these facts by rendering the same words one way when applied to man, and quite another when applied to beasts. "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:10. So every living thing has a soul. "A righteous man regardeth the life [Heb., nephesh—soul] of his beast." Prov. 15:10. "And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea." Rev. 16:3. Thus we see that every living animal on the earth, in the air, or in the water, is called a living soul, the same as man. Does this prove that all these beasts are immortal? No; neither does it prove it for man.
2. The soul eats natural food. "I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off." Lev. 17:10. "I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Luke 12:19. Of eating forbidden flesh, the Lord says: "The soul that eateth of that shall bear his iniquity." "That eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice, . . . even that soul shall be cut off." Lev. 7:18, 20. If "thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because my soul longeth to eat flesh, thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after." Deut. 12:20. We might quote any number of texts like the above, where it is said that souls eat blood, meat, food, and drink wine, water, etc. Then the soul must be a material thing. Some claim that the soul is an immaterial, immortal, intangible essence. These facts show that this cannot be true.
3. The soul hungers and faints. "Thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after." Deut. 12:15. "As cold water to a thirsty soul." Prov. 25:25. The soul thirsts for water. "Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted in them." Ps. 107:5. So the soul becomes hungry and thirsty, and faints if it is not fed. "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord." Jonah 2:7. Both of these texts speak of the soul which is within a man, and they say that this soul faints. This does not look as though the soul was immortal.
4. The soul dries away. "But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes." Num. 11:6. What caused their souls to dry away? Lack of the food they desired. It must be a perishable thing, then, as it is wholly dependent upon daily food for strength.
5. The sword can reach the soul. Speaking of war, the prophet says: "The sword reacheth unto the soul." Jer. 4:10. More than that, many a soul has been reached and killed by the sword. "And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was not any left to breathe." Josh. 11:11. Here were many souls utterly destroyed by the sword. Then the soul must be material, else how could the sword cut it? Souls breathe air as well as eat food, as the above verse shows.
6. The soul fails. "For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made." Isa. 57:16. God himself declares that the soul would fail, if he were always to visit his wrath upon it. This is positive proof that the soul could not endure eternal torment. It would fail and die in the trial. Then it is not immortal.
7. The soul is in danger of death. "Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee." Gen. 12:13. He feared they would murder him, and so his soul would die. So believed Abraham. And thus Lot plead with the angel: "Let me escape thither, . . . and my soul shall live." Gen. 19:20. His soul then was in danger of dying. And so the prophet warned the king: "Go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall be burned with fire; and thou shalt live." Jer. 38:17. According to God's holy prophets, then, a man's soul is in danger of dying. "And Samson said, Let me [margin, my soul] die with the Philistines." Judges 16:30. "Let me [margin, my soul] die the death of the righteous." Num. 23:10. Any Hebrew scholar knows that in the original the Holy Scriptures often speak of the death of the soul. Our common translation covers up this fact largely.
8. The soul must be specially preserved by God, or it will die. The Scriptures upon this point are numerous and decisive. We will quote a few. "O bless our God . . . which holdeth our soul in life." Ps. 66:8, 9. "None can keep alive his own soul." Ps. 22:29. Then it is quite liable to die. "Thou hast delivered my soul from death." Ps. 56:13. "To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." Ps. 33:19. If the soul cannot die, these texts are meaningless; but if it is mortal and subject to death, then they are easily understood.
9. God threatens the soul with death. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezek. 18:20. How then do men vainly say that the soul cannot die? Does not God know? If the soul were immortal, it could not die; but God says it shall die; hence it is mortal. Again: "When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." Verse 27. "For pieces of bread to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live." Ezek. 13:19. Who can doubt that the soul can die?
10. The soul can be destroyed. "He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul." Prov. 6:32. "The same soul will I destroy." Lev. 23:30. "Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. 10:28. Here again we see that the soul is not immortal, for it can be destroyed. Indeed, every wicked soul will be destroyed in hell. It will not simply be cast into hell, but it will be destroyed. That which is destructible is not immortal.

Daily Living.

By Mary Ogden

How many stars upon my crown, Shall shine forever bright, To show the souls that I have won From darkness unto light? From death, and wickedness, and strife, To joy and everlasting life?
How oft have I, in earnest love Of those in error's way, Pointed their souls to Him above Whose will they should obey? Who ever loves and waits to bless Each soul in error and distress.
How often have I sought the lost, And pleaded long in love, Beseeching them to take the cross, And seek a home above? Urged them with patience to endure, And thus eternal life secure?
Have I resisted every sin, With patience, day by day, And sought a starry crown to win, That fadeth not away? Pressed onward to those mansions fair Which Jesus promised to prepare?
And has my life a pattern been To dying sinners here, To lead them to forsake their sin, And for their Lord prepare? Whose vengeance soon will on them fall, If they obey not mercy's call.
O, Lord, forgive, that I no more Can show as work for thee; Since thou hast ever of thy store Blest me so bounteously. Since thou hast left thy home in Heaven, And died that I might be forgiven.
Oh! may my life, my all, be given Henceforth, dear Lord, to thee; And may I ever point to Heaven Each wandering one I see; That when my race on earth is run, My Lord may say to me, "Well done!"
Burksville, W. T. MARY OGDEN.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

By Mrs. E. G. White

BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS ANGELS AND SATAN AND HIS ANGELS.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE PLAN OF SALVATION.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
Sorrow filled Heaven, as it was realized that man was lost, and the world which God had created was to be filled with mortals doomed to misery, sickness, and death, and there was no way of escape for the offender; the whole family of Adam must die. The heart of the Son of God was touched with pity for the lost race. Upon his lovely countenance rested an expression of sympathy and sorrow. Soon he approached the exceeding bright light which enshrouded the Father, and he seemed to engage in close converse with him. The anxiety of the angels was intense while Jesus thus communed with his Father. Three times he was shut in by the cloud of glory; the third time he came forth his countenance was calm, free from all perplexity and trouble, and shone with benevolence and loveliness, such as words cannot express. He then made known to the angelic host that a way of escape had been made for lost man. He told them that he had been pleading with his Father, and had offered to give his life a ransom, and take the sentence of death upon himself, that through him man might find pardon; that through the merits of his blood, and obedience to the law of God, man could again have the favor of God, and be brought into the beautiful garden, and eat of the fruit of the tree of life.
At first the angels could not rejoice, for their Commander concealed nothing from them, but opened before them the plan of salvation. He told them that he would stand between the wrath of his Father and guilty man, that he would bear iniquity and scorn, and but few would receive him as the Son of God. He would leave all his glory in Heaven, appear upon earth as a man, become acquainted by his own experience with the various temptations with which man would be beset; and, finally, after his mission as a teacher should be accomplished, he would be delivered into the hands of men, and after enduring almost every cruelty and suffering, that Satan and his angels could inspire wicked men to inflict, he would die the cruelest of deaths, hung up between the heavens and the earth as a guilty sinner. And not merely would he suffer bodily pain, but mental agony. The weight of the sins of the whole world would be upon him. He told them also that after his death he would rise again the third day, and ascend to his Father to intercede for wayward, guilty man.
The angels prostrated themselves before their beloved Commander, and offered to give their lives. Jesus told them the transgression was so great that the life of an angel could not pay the debt; his life alone could be accepted by his Father as a ransom for man. But the work of the angels was assigned them, to descend with strengthening balm from glory to soothe the Son of God in his sufferings, and to minister unto him. Also, their work would be to guard the subjects of grace from the evil angels, and the darkness constantly thrown around them by Satan.
With a holy sadness Jesus comforted and cheered the angels, and informed them that hereafter those whom he should redeem would be with him, and ever dwell with him; and that by his death he should ransom many, and finally destroy him who had the power of death. And his Father would give him the kingdom, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, and he should possess it forever and ever. Satan and sinners should be destroyed, never more to disturb Heaven, or those who should inherit the new earth. Jesus bade the heavenly host be reconciled to the plan that his Father had accepted, and rejoice that fallen man could be exalted again, through his death, to obtain favor with God and enjoy Heaven.
Then joy inexpressible filled Heaven, and the heavenly host sung a song of praise and adoration. They touched their harps and sung a note higher than they had done before, for the great mercy and condescension of God in yielding up his dearly Beloved to die for a race of rebels. Praise and adoration were poured forth for the self-denial and sacrifice of Jesus; that he would consent to leave the bosom of his Father, and choose a life of suffering and anguish, and die an ignominious death to redeem the fallen race.
The Father did not yield up his dearly beloved Son without a struggle, whether to let guilty man perish or to give his Son to die for the lost race. It was impossible for God to change his law, or give up the smallest part of its claims, in order to save man; therefore he suffered his Son to die for man's transgression.
When the plan of salvation was revealed, Satan rejoiced with his angels that he could, by causing man's fall, pull down the Son of God from his exalted position. He told his angels that when Jesus should take fallen man's nature, he could overpower him, and hinder the accomplishment of the plan.
In humility and inexpressible sadness, Adam and Eve left the lovely garden wherein they had been so happy until they disobeyed the command of God. The atmosphere was changed. It was no longer unvarying as before the transgression. God clothed them with coats of skins to protect them from the sense of chilliness and then of heat to which they were exposed.
Angels of God were commissioned to visit the fallen pair and inform them that, although they could no longer retain possession of their holy estate, their Eden home, because of their transgression of the law of God, their case was not altogether hopeless. The Son of God had been moved with pity as he viewed their hopeless condition, and had volunteered to take upon himself the punishment due to them, and die for them that they might yet live, through faith in the atonement which Christ proposed to make. A door of hope was opened, that man, notwithstanding his great sin, might not be under the absolute control of Satan. Probation would be granted him in which, through a life of repentance, and faith in the atonement of the Son of God, he might be redeemed from his transgression of the Father's law, and thus be elevated to a position where his efforts to keep that law could be accepted.
The angels related to them the grief that was felt in Heaven, as it was announced that they had transgressed the law of God, which had made it expedient for Christ to make the great sacrifice of his own precious life.
When Adam and Eve realized how exalted and sacred was the law of God, the transgression of which made so costly a sacrifice necessary to save them from utter ruin, they pleaded that they and their posterity might endure the penalty of their transgression, rather than that the beloved Son of God should make this great sacrifice. The anguish of Adam was increased. He saw that his sins were of so great magnitude as to involve fearful consequences. And must it be that Heaven's honored Commander, who had walked with him and talked with him while in his holy innocence, whom angels worshiped, must be brought down from his exalted position to die because of man's transgression.
Adam was informed that an angel's life could not pay the debt. The law of Jehovah, the foundation of his government in Heaven and upon earth, was as sacred as its divine Author; and for this reason the life of an angel could not be accepted of God as a sacrifice for its transgression. His law was of more importance in his sight than the holy angels around his throne. The Father could not change nor abolish one precept of his law to meet man in his fallen condition. But the Son of God, who had in unison with the Father created man, could make an atonement for man acceptable to God, by giving his life a sacrifice, and bearing the wrath of his Father. As Adam's transgression had brought death and wretchedness upon the race, life and immortality would be brought to light through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, a sacrifice of such infinite value as to make a man who should avail himself of it more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
To Adam were revealed future important events, from his expulsion from Eden, to the flood, and onward to the first advent of Christ upon the earth. His love for Adam and his posterity would lead the Son of God to condescend to take human nature, and thus elevate, through his own humiliation, all who would believe on him. Such a sacrifice was of sufficient value to save the whole world; but only a few would avail themselves of the salvation thus brought to them.
The many would not comply with the conditions. They would prefer sin, transgression of the law of God, rather than repentance and obedience, relying by faith upon the merit of the sacrifice offered.
Adam was carried down through successive generations, and shown the increase of crime, of guilt and defilement, because man would yield to his naturally strong inclinations to transgress the holy law of God. He saw the curse of God resting more and more heavily upon the human race, upon the cattle, and upon the earth, because of man's continued transgression. He saw that iniquity and violence would steadily increase; yet amid all the tide of human misery and woe, there would ever be a few who would preserve the knowledge of God, and would remain unsullied amid the prevailing moral degeneracy. Adam was made to comprehend what sin is—the transgression of the law. He was shown that moral, mental, and physical degeneracy would result to the race, from transgression, until the world would be filled with human misery of every type.
The days of man have been shortened by his own course of sin in transgressing the righteous law of God. The race has so greatly depreciated as to become almost worthless. Because of the indulgence of the carnal mind, they are generally incapable of appreciating the mystery of Calvary, the grand and elevated facts of the atonement and the plan of salvation. Yet, notwithstanding the weakness, and enfeebled mental, moral, and physical powers of the human race, Christ, true to the purpose for which he left Heaven, continues his interest in the feeble, depreciated, degenerate specimens of humanity, and invites them to hide their weakness and great deficiencies in him. If they will come unto him, he will supply all their needs.
When Adam, according to God's special directions, made an offering for sin, it was to him a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which God alone could give. It was the first time he had witnessed death. As he looked upon the bleeding victim, writhing in the agonies of death, he was to look forward by faith to the Son of God, whom the victim prefigured, who was to die man's sacrifice.
This ceremonial offering, ordained of God, was to be to Adam a perpetual reminder of his guilt, and also a penitential acknowledgment of his sin. This act of taking life gave him a deeper and more perfect sense of his transgression, which nothing less than the death of God's dear Son could expiate. Adam marveled at the infinite goodness and matchless love which would give such a ransom to save the guilty. As he was slaying the innocent victim, it seemed to him that he was shedding the blood of the Son of God by his own hand. He knew that if he had remained steadfast to God, and true to his holy law, there would have been no death of beast nor of man. Yet in the sacrificial offerings, pointing to the great and perfect offering of God's dear Son, there appeared a star of hope to illuminate the dark and terrible future, and relieve it of its utter hopelessness and ruin.
In the beginning, the head of each family was considered ruler and priest of his own household. Afterward, as the race multiplied upon the earth, men of divine appointment performed this solemn worship of sacrifice for the people. The blood of beasts was to be associated in the minds of sinners with the blood of the Son of God. The death of the victim was to evidence to all that the penalty of sin was death. By the act of sacrifice, the sinner acknowledged his guilt, and manifested his faith, looking forward to the great and perfect sacrifice of the Son of God, which the offering of beasts prefigured. Without the atonement of the Son of God there could have been no communication of blessing or salvation from God to man. God was jealous for the honor of his law. The transgression of that law had caused a fearful separation between God and man. To Adam in his innocence was granted communion, direct, free, and happy, with his Maker. After his transgression, God would communicate to man only through Christ and angels. — Review

Nature in the Bible.

By Rev. George Rogers

Is nature in your Bible? Are the works of nature there? Are the beauties of creation there?
What! in a book that is inspired to reveal to us the things which are not seen and are eternal, and to lift the veil that hides God himself and all futurity from our view?
Yes, nature is there.
Is the sun there? Yes, it shines upon us in the word of God about 130 times. Is the moon there? Yes, it breaks from behind the clouds about 50 times. Are the stars there? Yes, in distinct constellations, in single stars, or in their united host, about 500 times. Are clouds there? Yes, more than 100 times. Are mountains there, and hills? Yes, the mountains rise to view about 200, and the hills 130 times. Is the sea there? Yes, it may be seen from different points of view 250 times. Are rivers there? Yes, 120 times. Are trees there? Yes, the palm-tree and the sycamore, the cedar and the oak, the olive and the vine, the fig-tree and the myrtle, the fir-tree and the box-tree together. Are flowers there? Yes, the rose and the lily are there; but flowers are not so abundant there, as the flowery preaching of some might lead us to suppose. Are springs and lakes there, dewdrops and floods, the winds and whirlwinds? Yes, and in all the changes of the seasons. There are minerals and precious stones in all their variety. There are animals, too, in their different tribes: “All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.” These are not always there as emblems, but still they are there; and, though in some cases historically only, they are frequently introduced for illustration of Bible truths and are inseparably connected with them.
We know that the Son of God has come in the flesh, by the print of his footsteps in the fields, in the wilderness, and on the mountain side. Going forth with his disciples one morning at sunrise, he said, “I am the light of the world.” After feeding the multitude in the wilderness, he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Sitting by the well of Samaria he said, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Passing by a vine-tree he said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” Observing a shepherd folding his flock at eventide, he said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
There is no need to visit Palestine to see the image which our Lord has left of himself in the natural world; to look upon the veritable well by which he sat, and the lake by which he taught, and the garden in which he agonized, and the spot on which he was crucified, and the mount from which he ascended to where he was before. He put himself in every rising sun, in all bread, in all rivers and fountains, in all gardens and cornfields, in all sheepfolds, and, in fact, in all nature; and there he is still, and there we may see him and converse with him still. —Rev. George Rogers.
Continue reading: Arguments Against the World's Conversion