Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 1, 1859
MORTAL OR IMMORTAL? WHICH?
By Editor
OR, AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRESENT CONSTITUTION AND FUTURE CONDITION OF MAN.
BY THE EDITOR.
WHATEVER we know of a future life, must come to us by direct revelation. Sternly has the grave closed its heavy portals against all the efforts of human foresight, philosophy or science, to penetrate the dark region beyond. The human mind has felt its weakness in this respect; and the noblest of its representatives, who have presumed, untaught by revelation, to inquire into man's futurity, have been obliged to confess the more than Delphic uncertainty with which alone their deepest researches have been crowned.
Says Prof. STUART: "The light of nature can never scatter the darkness in question. This light has never yet sufficed to make the question clear to any portion of our benighted race, whether the soul is immortal. Cicero, incomparably the most able defender of the soul's immortality which the heathen world can yet boast, very ingenuously confesses that after all the arguments which he had adduced in order to confirm the doctrine in question, it so fell out, that his mind was satisfied of it only when directly employed in contemplating the arguments adduced in its favor. At all other times he fell unconsciously into a state of doubt and darkness. It is notorious also that Socrates, the next most noble advocate, among the heathen, of the same doctrine, has adduced arguments to establish the never-ceasing existence of the soul, which will not bear the test of examination."
Who has not heard of the dying words of Socrates? "I am going out of the world, and you are to continue in it; but which of us has the better part is a secret to every one but God." It is further recorded of Cicero, that after recounting the various opinions of philosophers, he was obliged to say, "Which of these is true, God alone knows, and which is most probable is a very great question." And Seneca, on a review of this subject, says, "Immortality, however desirable, was rather promised than proved by these great men."
"Reason cannot prove man to be immortal. We may devoutly enter the temple of nature, we may reverently tread her emerald floor, and gaze on her blue, 'star-pictured ceiling,' but to our anxious inquiry, though proposed with heart-breaking intensity, the oracle is dumb, or like those of Delphi and Dodona, mutters only an ambiguous reply that leaves us in utter bewilderment."
"I am taking a leap in the dark," said Hobbes when about to die.
That the revelation of which man here stands so much in need, is found in that glowing volume of inspiration, which is given as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, we shall take for granted in this investigation; for with those who deny this we have, at present, no controversy. And if there is, as logicians affirm, "an antecedent probability in favor of a Divine revelation, arising from the nature of the Deity and the moral condition of man," just so there is a probability that in that revelation, if an uncontingent immortality is the unspeakably grand prerogative of the human race, the fact will be plainly set before us. With a passing glance, then, at the importance of the subject, since upon our views of man's nature depend in a very great extent our views of life, death, resurrection, heaven, hell, and all other subjects, in short, of divine revelation, we present our inquiries, direct, at the glorious temple of the Living Oracles: What is the nature of man? Must he necessarily exist forever; so that if he fails of securing happiness at the end of his probationary state, his destiny is an eternity of incomprehensible woe? Has he in his nature a principle so tenacious of life, that the severest implements of destruction which God can wield, an eternity of his intensest, devouring fire, can make no inroads upon its immaculate vitality? To these solemn and important questions, we shall here expect answers that will not perplex us by their ambiguity, nor deceive us by their falsehood.
The attention of every student of the sacred page has doubtless been arrested by that prominent declaration, "God only hath immortality." 1 Tim. vi, 16. The query arises, Can this be taken in its absolute sense? Is this a declaration that God is now the only being in the universe, who is in possession of immortality, or absolute exemption from death? Doubtless not. Our Lord declares of the angels that they die no more [Luke xx, 36]; and he says of himself, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore." Rev. i, 18. The meaning of the passage under consideration, must then be simply this: that God only is the great source of immortality; that he only has it in himself to bestow upon others. The fact that now the Father has conferred equal power in this respect upon the Son [John v, 26], affects in no wise this declaration. With this interpretation I Tim. vi, 16, is final and conclusive. This being admitted, we must also make room for the inevitable sequence, that those only are immortal upon whom God has, by a separate and distinct act, bestowed this immeasurable gift. We accept the issue here; and here we might rest, saying to all the believers in man's immortality, Show us the record that God hath bestowed upon man this, so glorious a boon, irrespective of character, and it sufficeth us.
We cannot however wait for their response to this appeal. We fear that to wait till they should find the record we call for, would involve too long a delay. And as we, equally with them, are in possession of the only source from which we are willing to admit that legitimate testimony can come, with them we will turn to the "opening page of a progressive revelation," and see if for ourselves we can find the prerogative of a never-ending existence in anywise inherent in the birth-right of man.
THE IMAGE OF GOD.
The first testimony of the Bible concerning man, is found in Gen. i, 26, 27: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him," &c. A claim is here instituted for immortality by the advocates of the popular sentiment. This image of God, say they, in which man was created, cannot refer to his body which is mortal and corruptible, but must refer to his soul or spirit, which is in this respect like God, immortal and incorruptible. Formally stated, their argument is this: 1. God only hath immortality. 1 Tim. vi, 16. 2. Man is created in the image of God. Gen. i, 26. 3. Therefore, man is immortal. If this conclusion is correct, it will be equally so in a parallel case: Thus, 1. God is omnipresent. Prov. xv, 3. 2. Man is created in the image of God. Gen. i, 26. 3. Therefore man is omnipresent! This syllogism, by bringing the conclusion, unlike the former, within the grasp of our senses, betrays its own utter falsity. We might also inquire, Is not God omniscient? Yes. Is man? No. Is not God omnipotent? Yes. Is man? No. What right have we then to assert that the "image" has respect to immortality alone to the exclusion of these other divine characteristics? None whatever. It is pure assumption. The argument which is drawn from this passage for immortality would clothe poor, puny, finite man, with all the attributes of the Deity;114and it is unnecessary to remind the reader that an argument which proves too much, proves nothing.
The image is further referred to in Gen. ix, 6; 1 Cor. xi, 7; Jas. iii, 9. In all these instances we give the term its most obvious and literal meaning, as applied to the material man. This application avoids all necessity of clothing man with those divine attributes which we know he does not possess. But it is urged that man cannot be in the image of God in respect to bodily form; for God is without form, body or parts. A grand mistake, reader; and one that has not been without its weight in giving rise to the interpretation of Gen. i, 26, already refuted. But to place the matter in a still clearer light, we shall be pardoned a short digression on the direct inquiry.
Is God a person? If language has determinate meaning, and Inspiration knows how to use it, he certainly is. An immaterial spirit, without body or parts, cannot be seen with mortal eyes; yet Moses did behold the Lord of Israel. Ex. xxxiii, 21-23. To say that God assumed a body and shape for this occasion, places the theory in a worse light still; for it is virtually changing upon God a double deception: first, by giving Moses the idea that he was a being with body and parts; and second, showing him something that was not himself. On another occasion Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders saw the God of Israel. Ex. xxiv, 9-11. No man, to be sure, has seen his face, nor could they do it, and live, as he has declared. Ex. xxxiii, 20. The harmony on this subject, therefore, between the Old and New Testaments, is undisturbed, skeptics to the contrary notwithstanding.
Again, Christ was bodily upon the earth. After he had risen from the dead, he bade his overjoyed disciples handle his immortal, though not then glorified, body, and satisfy themselves of the existence of flesh and bone. Luke xxiv, 39; John vi, 39. Bodily he ascended into heaven, where none can presume to deny him a local place and habitation. Acts i, 9-11; Eph. i, 20; Heb. viii, 1. But Paul, speaking of this same Jesus, says, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature." Again, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." It yet remains to be told how Christ could be in the form of God, if God has no form. Once more: "God who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," &c. Heb. i, 1-3. However unsatisfactory previous quotations may have been, of this testimony there can be no evasion. Here is an express declaration that God has a person, and of that person, Christ is the express image.
But is not God, it may be asked in objection, omnipresent? and how can this be reconciled with the idea of his having a physical form? He is everywhere present, we answer, by his Spirit, which is his representative. Ps. cxxxix, 7. Of the text which declares him to be himself a Spirit [John iv, 24], we shall speak when we come to an examination of the import of that term.
To return to Gen. i, 26. The leading definition of image is, "A representation or similitude of any person or thing, formed of a material substance; as an image wrought out of stone, wood or wax." Webster. And there is no definition given of the word, when applied to a material object like man, which will allow us to refer to it anything else but the outward shape, the physical contour. We hence conclude that Gen. i, 27, simply informs us that in this respect man resembled his Maker.
“NOTHING BUT LEAVES.”
NOTHING but leaves; the Spirit grieves
Over a wasted life;
Sin committed while conscience slept,
Promises made but never kept,
Hatred, battle, and strife;
Nothing but leaves!
Nothing but leaves; no garnered sheaves,
Of life's fair, ripened grain;
Words, idle words, for earnest deeds;
We sow our seeds—lo! tares and weeds;
We reap with toil and pain
Nothing but leaves.
Nothing but leaves; memory weaves
No veil to screen the past;
As we retrace our weary way,
Counting each lost and mis-spent day,
We find sadly at last,
Nothing but leaves.
And shall we meet the Master so,
Bearing our withered leaves?
The Saviour looks for perfect fruit—
We stand before him humble, mute;
Waiting the word he breathes—
“Nothing but leaves.”
[Christian Inquirer.
THE BREATH OF LIFE.
The text just examined makes no mention of the material of which man should be composed. Information on this point we find in Gen. ii, 7:
"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." Mark well the phraseology of this text: upon a right understanding of this much will depend. It is here declared that man, the creature, was formed of the dust of the ground; the next act of the Creator, after thus forming him, is also stated; and we are then told what man became. Here, if anywhere, we should expect to find the record of the bestowal of immortality upon man, if indeed it is a truth that it has been thus unconditionally bestowed upon him. But the words immortal or immortality are not found in the text; and if this glorious attribute is here brought to view as belonging to man, it must be found in the descriptive terms applied to him and to his creation—in the "breath of life" which God breathed into him, or in the "living soul" which he became. And since such a claim is actually based upon these terms, we will proceed to an examination of them.
The breath of life which God breathed into man, stamps him immortal. Such is the claim. Well, there was nothing naturally immortal, certainly, in the dust of which Adam was composed; and whatever immortality he had, after receiving the breath of life, must have existed in that breath, per se. Hence it follows that the breath of life confers immortality upon any creature to which it may be applied. Will our opponents accept the issue here? If so, we will introduce to them a class of immortal associates not very flattering to the vanity they are sometimes tempted to indulge in, on the ground of their immortality; for the same expression is applied to beasts of the field and every creeping thing, as well as to man. See Gen. vi, 21: "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing, that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died." To the same purpose see also Gen. vi, 17. If then, the breath of life proves immortality for man, it does the same for beasts: and any argument which thus proves too much, must be wholly and forever abandoned.
THE LIVING SOUL.
But man, it is claimed, was put in possession of a living soul, and this must be immortal. Says Prof. H. Mattison, "God 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul.' That this act was the infusion of a spiritual nature into the body of Adam is evident from the following considerations: The phrase 'breath of life' is rendered breath of lives by all Hebrew scholars. Not only did animal life then begin, but another and higher life which constituted him not only a mere animal, but a 'living soul.' He was a body before,—he is now more than a body, a soul and body united. If he was a 'soul' before, then how could he become such by the last act of creation? And if he was not a soul before, but now became one, then the soul must have been superadded to his former material nature."
That man became possessed of a living soul, or experienced the "infusion of a spiritual nature" into his body, the text does not affirm. The man formed of the dust of the ground became, it asserts, a living soul. Then what was the living soul? The man of course. The marble is taken from the quarry and under the patient and ingenious toil of the sculptor, becomes a statue. What then is the statue? It is the marble still. So, the man, and not a superadded and separate entity, is the living soul, of our text. He was then a "soul" before his endowment with life—a soul, though the eye had not seen, the ear heard, the nerves felt, the lungs inspired, or the heart throbbed. He was still the man, the creature formed of the dust, a perfect organism, but cold and motionless, till he should receive the vivifying influence of the breath of life. That influence was imparted, and he sprung to life, a living soul.
But it is asked, if he was a soul before this, how could he become such by this act? We answer, the antithesis is not based upon the word, soul, but upon the word, living. He was a soul before, but not a living soul. Before he received the breath of life, he would not be incorrectly described as a dead soul.
But the "living soul," like the "breath of life," proves too much, by being too general in its application. Like the breath of life, this also, is applied to the irrational brute, as well as to upright man. See Rev. xvi, 3: "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." What? creatures endowed with immortal souls inhabiting the sea? Easily, if a living soul is a guarantee for immortality. This is the only text, we believe, in our translation, in which the expression, living soul, is directly applied to irrational animals. But by reference to the original, we find the same original words many times applied to the lower orders of animals; a fact, by art or accident, carefully kept out of sight in the translation. From the Hebrew Concordance we learn that the original for living soul is neh-phesh ghahy. It occurs in Gen. i, 24. On this passage Clarke remarks: "Nephesh chaiyah; a general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations, from the half reasoning elephant, down to the stupid potto, or lower still, to the polype, which seems equally to share the vegetable and animal life." (Commentary in loco.) Of the many prominent passages in which it occurs, we may name the following: Gen. i, 21. "And God created great whales, and every (nephesh chaiyah) living creature, that moveth," &c. Verse 24 has already been noticed. Again, verse 30. "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 (marg., a living soul). Gen. ix, 10. "Every living creature," &c. Neh-phesh alone occurs in such passages as the following: Num. vi, 6. "All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body" [literally, says the Concordance, dead soul]. Also Num. xix, 13. "Whosoever touches the dead body of (lit. the dead, the soul of—Concordance) any man," &c.
Thus our friends of the popular sentiment invoke to their aid the expressions, breath of life, and living soul; and thus, as we have seen, these very expressions, like an unwelcome ally, utterly overwhelm them with their own weight; for they distribute the grand attribute of immortality, which these persons would fain arrogate to themselves, among all beasts, birds, fishes and creeping things.
SOUL AND SPIRIT—A FALSE ISSUE.
Those from whom we differ in relation to man's nature and destiny, would no doubt gladly make this the issue between us. They represent us as no-soulists, denying that man has a soul, &c., and then not unfrequently fancy themselves completely triumphant on finding the words, soul and spirit, applied to man. But is there any issue here? Do we deny that man has a soul or spirit? Not at all. Such an idea enters in nowise into our belief. We readily grant man all the properties, and all the attributes, which the Bible gives him. We are simply unwilling to grant him more. And hence the imputation of no-soulism to our belief, is a burning disgrace upon all those who will thus condescend to expose their ignorance or their malice. Be it understood then that there is no issue here. We admit that man has a soul. All Bible students, so far as we know, admit that; but all are not quite so well agreed as to the meaning of these oft-repeated expressions. Into this meaning we now propose to inquire.
The words, Soul and Spirit, occur many hundred times in the Old and New Testaments, the former from neh-phesh, the latter from n'shah-mah, and roo-ogh.115Neh-phesh is translated in the following different ways:
(1.) Soul. Gen. ii, 7. (2.) Life. Gen. i, 20, 30. (3.) Person. Gen. xiv, 21. (4.) Mind. Gen. xxiii, 8. (5.) Heart. Ex. xxiii, 9. (6.) Body (or dead body). Num. vi, 6. (7.) Will. Ps. xxvii, 12. (8.) Appetite. Prov. xxiii, 2. (9.) Lust. Ps. lxxviii, 18. (10.) Thing. Lev. xi, 10. Besides these, it is rendered by the various personal and reflexive pronouns, and by the words, breath, beast, fish, creature, ghost, pleasure, desire, &c.; in all, 43 different ways. Neh-phesh is never rendered spirit. One other Hebrew word, n'dec-vah, rendered soul, occurs only in Job xxx, 16.
Corresponding to the neh-phesh of the Old Testament, we have ψυχή [psuche] in the New. This word is rendered, (1.) Soul. Matt. x, 28. (2.) Life. Matt. ii, 20, &c., in all 40 times. (3.) Mind. Acts xiv, 2. (4.) Heart. Eph. vi, 6. (5.) Us. John x, 24. (6.) You. 2 Cor. xii, 15.
And the Greek word, πνέμα [pneuma], in the New Testament, has been chosen by Inspiration as the representative of the roo-ogh of the Old. This word is from πνέω [pneo], to blow, and is rendered, (1.) Ghost. Matt. i, 18, &c. (2.) Spirit. Matt. iii, 16, &c. (3.) Wind. John iii, 8. (4.) Life. Rev. xiii, 15 [margin, breath]. For full citations on the five words now examined, the reader is especially referred to the tract entitled, "Bible Student's Assistant," published at this Office.
From the above facts we gain something of an idea of the nature of the words translated soul and spirit. We see that the popular definition is not the Bible signification. We might further show this by citing instances where the soul is represented as being in danger of the grave; as in Ps. xlix, 14, 15; lxxxix, 48. Job xxxiii, 18, 20, 22. Isa. xxxviii, 17; also, where it is represented as being destroyed, killed, &c.; as, Gen. xvii, 14. Ex. xxxi, 14. Josh. x, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39, &c.
Parkhurst (author of a Greek and a Hebrew Lexicon) says: "As a noun, neh-phesh 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. Gen. xxxv, 18, 1 Kings xvii, 21, 22, Ps. xvi, 10, seem fairest for this signification. But may not neh-phesh in the three former passages be most properly rendered breath, and in the last a breathing or animal frame?"
Taylor (author of a Heb. Concordance) says that neh-phesh "signifies the animal life, or that principle by which every animal according to its kind lives. Gen. i, 20, 24, 30. Lev. xi, 46. Which animal life, so far as we know anything of the manner of its existence, or so far as the scriptures lead our thoughts, consists in the breath [Job xli, 21; xxxi, 39], and in the blood. Lev. xvii, 11, 14."
The mind of the reader has perhaps recurred to some passages where soul and spirit are both used in connection and applied to man, as furnishing an objection to the view we offer; as for instance, 1 Thess. v, 23: "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." A moment's consideration, however, will convince any one that whatever difficulty there is about this text, lies on the side of the advocates of a natural immortality; for they will quote a text that speaks of spirit, and tell us that means the immortal part of man; they will quote another that speaks of the soul, and tell us that also means man's immortal part; but in this text they are both used together, and unless there is here a useless repetition, our friends must be held to the conclusion that man has two distinct, immortal parts: a conclusion which they will not adopt. The words here used for soul and spirit are ψυχή [psuche] and πνέμα [pneuma]. The former, as we have seen, is often rendered life, such being the primary signification of the word; and it may be so rendered here. The latter may be rendered, mind, the intellectual principle. Robinson in his Gr. Lex. of the N. T. so defines it, and under this definition quotes this very passage, calling it "a periphrasis for the whole man." Paul simply desired for those whom he addressed, that their whole beings, their bodies with their vital and intellectual endowments, might be preserved blameless to the coming of the Lord.
The word spirit often signifies the whole person. See Heb. i, 14. Speaking of the angels it says, "Are they not all ministering spirits?" &c. But angels are certainly persons. Ps. lxxviii, 25. "And there came two angels to Sodom at even." Gen. xix, 1. Lot saw them and talked with them. He requested them to wash their feet and tarry for the night. They ate, they lay down, they took hold of Lot's hand, &c. Jacob on his return from Haran was met by the angels of God; and he said on beholding them, "This is God's host." Gen. xxxii, 1, 2. The whole history of angels shows that they are literal beings, vastly superior, of course, in their organization, to mortals composed of flesh and blood, but none the less personal on that account. Again, Jesus of Nazareth is a spirit: "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" [πνέμα]. But all will admit that Christ is a person. Just in this sense we believe it is that God is called a Spirit [John iv, 24], a being of a spiritual nature.
The signification of the words soul and spirit as used in the Bible, will certainly furnish our friends very little aid in their gigantic undertaking of proving man immortal. From the various meanings which they have, it is easy to explain all such expressions as "God of the spirits of all flesh," &c. And now we sincerely ask which it is of these uses that designates the little angel in embryo located somewhere in the corporeal structure of man? If it cannot be pointed out, the structure built thereon, of course falls. Before large talk is indulged in about the intelligence, deathlessness, and other attributes of the spirit, the existence of such a separate, conscious entity must be proved.
In closing our examination of the terms soul and spirit, we wish some very important distinctions to be kept in view: To deny the affirmation that is made that the soul or spirit is an entity separate from the body, and capable of existing in or out of it, as an independent creature endowed with consciousness, intelligence, responsibility, and immortality, is one thing; and to deny that man has a soul or spirit is quite another and a different thing. And even could it be proved that the soul is an entity capable of conscious existence separate from the body, there is even then, nothing, absolutely nothing, done towards deciding the main question, whether this soul is destined to continue its existence through weal or woe, forever and forever.
IMMORTAL AND IMMORTALITY.
From the incessant and fluent repetition of these terms by the popular teachers of the present day, we should be led to conclude that they were to be found in the sacred writings much more frequently than they really are. Almost invariably, in popular parlance, is the adjective immortal coupled with this soul-entity, which people have come to consider as capable of existence independently of the body; and we hear of deathless spirit, and never-dying and immortal soul in one unceasing round. It is indeed the very 'soul' of modern orthodoxy. It enters, as their very essence, into orthodox sermons and prayers. It is held up as the all-prolific source of comfort and consolation to those who are mourning the loss of friends by death. It is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. And yet, after all, when we search for the solid facts in the case, we find not one "thus saith the Lord" to warrant this imposing display of theological flourish. We find not one stone in this great edifice bearing a heaven-ordained inscription of "immortal soul." Is not this a building on the sand? Nay, more; is it not a "pyramid built upon a needle's point?"
We here commend to the attention of the reader, one stupendous fact: its bearing upon the question he cannot fail to appreciate. It is that although the word "soul," or rather the Greek and Hebrew from which it is translated, occurs in the word of God eight hundred and seventy-three times—seven hundred and sixty-eight times in the Old Testament, and one hundred and five times in the New, it is never once denominated an immortal soul; and although the words rendered "spirit," occur in both Testaments eight hundred and twenty-seven times—four hundred and forty-two in the Old Testament, and three hundred and eighty-five in the New, it is never once called a deathless spirit. Strange and unaccountable fact, if immortality is an inseparable attribute of the soul and spirit! Unpardonable silence, if the important fact be true that the spirit can never die! Where better could the soul's high prerogative be made known than somewhere during the seventeen hundred times of the word's occurrence. Earnestly we inquire if our souls are immortal or our spirits deathless. We are told that seventeen hundred times the volume of inspiration has recorded something concerning soul and spirit on its sacred pages. Where, if not here, shall our intense anxiety be set at rest? Seventeen hundred times we appeal to the sacred oracle, if, when speaking of the soul and spirit, it has aught to say of a deathless nature and unending existence; and seventeen hundred times we are met with a significant and impressive silence! Let the defender of an innate immortality retire abashed and confounded before this overwhelming fact! For surely no deluded prophet of Baal ever experienced more utter neglect at the hands of him who was 'no god,' than the holders of this unfortunate belief here meet at the hands of a full and sufficient revelation.
A word on the use of the terms immortal and immortality, since they are here introduced. The word immortal occurs but once in the Bible, and is then used, not to describe a soul in man, but with reference to God: "Now unto the King eternal, immortal," &c. 1 Tim. i, 17. In six other instances, however, the original word, ἄφθαρτος [apthartos] occurs, and is in every instance rendered incorruptible. Once in Rom. i, 23, it is applied to God; three times in 1 Cor. ix, 25; xv, 52, and 1 Pet. i, 4, it is applied to scenes beyond the resurrection; once, in 1 Pet. i, 23, to the word of God; and again 1 Pet. iii, 4, to the inward adorning, the meek and quiet spirit.
Immortality is rendered from ἄφθαρσία [aphtharsia] and ἀθανασία [athanasia]. The former occurs eight times. It is twice rendered immortality; viz. Rom. ii, 7, which declares that to those who "seek for glory, honor and immortality," God will render eternal life; and 2 Tim. i, 10, which declares that Christ has "brought life and immortality to light," &c. It is four times rendered incorruption, viz., in 1 Cor. xv, 42, 50, 53, 54, and twice sincerity, as in Eph. vi, 24, and Titus ii, 7. The other term ἀθανασία occurs but three times, expressing, in 1 Cor. xv, 53, 54, what this mortal must put on at the resurrection, and in 1 Tim. vi, 16, used in reference to God "who only hath immortality."
A moment's glance at these facts can but produce in any reflecting mind, the painful conviction that these terms are sadly perverted from their legitimate use.
(To be Continued.)
DYING WORDS OF SALMASIUS.
Salmasius, one of the greatest scholars of his time, saw cause to exclaim bitterly against himself when he came to die. "Oh!" said he, "I have lost a world of time—time, the most precious thing in the world! Had I but one year more, it should be spent in perusing David's Psalms and Paul's Epistles. Oh, sirs!" said he, addressing those about him, "mind the world less and God more!"
The Christian Love of Enemies
To love an enemy is the distinguished characteristic of a religion which is not of man but of God. It could be delivered as a precept only by him who lived and died to establish it by his example.