May 26

"Life and immortality."—2 Timothy 50:10.

INFIDEL writers tell us that death is the extinction of our being, and the grave the place of an everlasting sleep; but we believe that death is the threshold of eternity, and that we shall sleep only till the resurrection morn, and rise either to eternal happiness or never-ending woe. This is only the embryo state of our existence: "The dust shall return to the earth as it was," there is the death of the body; "but the spirit shall return unto God who gave it," there is the immortality of the soul. Let us bring forward some arguments in proof of the soul's immortality.

ITS NATURE. It is a spirit. How do we know this? Because it is capable of apprehending spiritual objects. It has been well observed, that a spiritual object can only be apprehended by a spiritual operation; a spiritual operation can only belong to a spiritual faculty, and a spiritual faculty can only be connected with a spiritual being. The Christian can commune with God. "God is a spirit;" he can hold fellowship with angels, "are they not all ministering spirits?" The language of Paul, in Hebrews 12:22—24, is to the point. He uses the present tense, "Ye are come" to the association of the blest in heaven. But in what sense may believers be said to come? Not with the body, that would be impossible; it is by communion "they are come." And what part of man holds communion with these exalted intelligences? It is his soul; if so, it must be spiritual; and if it is spiritual, where is the individual who will deny that it is immortal? Some say, that what we call a spirit is a mere attribute of life; but we ask, how is it, when life is sinking, and the body is decaying, the spirit does not partake of that debility, decay, and disease, of which the corporeal frame is the subject? How often have the operations of the mind been carried on with the greatest intensity, when the body has been hastening to dissolution, and thus the spirit has triumphed over the flesh!

"Pardon and peace through him abound; He can the richest blessings give; Salvation in his name is found; He bids the dying sinner live."