Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-06-29
THE TNTEE.I3,IEGENl ! { i. j J,
LRor .lhe wheeling IntellIgenser. ]
-. :. !: :. THE FUTUREl,.:.. !.

subject Of "the future state of existence ofthe1
soniII @if you think them worthy of insertion,
they are atYouri service, ,,-s,
So, yoh say, ,tny friend, that you cannot con-
ceiye of future state in which men and women
shall or do exist as such; that your ideas sres.
specting the state of souls hereafter, Is not at
all de6nite; you say that five exist hereafter
it is rs, spirits, no doubt, because the qBiblei
teachesyth thus, but Of what form those spirits are
oFwhsther they have, or viii have any Particu-
lar form. you cannotimagine. 40 '5..raT
1 think that few questions. carefully consi-'
desed and answered, will enable us to see q. e.,
comprehend1 this matter very clearly, And -.
list. Let us ask ourselves if we really believe
the Scriptures to be the word of God, or ofIn.
finite Love and Wisdom? ri w
2nd. II we believe, as is asserted in tho 1st
Book of the Bible, that manais lnndeg,inEthe
Image of God?
lSFd: Ifhe is.made in that Image, whether the
assertion has not reference to his spiritual.
rather than his natural part; to his soul, rather
than to his body?
4th.s.whether we Believe the soul is Immortal,
and why it is so2
AS regards our 1st question; it is doubtless
true. that our beliefin the Divine authorship'of of
the Scripture is tacit and negative, rather than
enlightened and positive; it is n matter Of mental
persuasion, rdther than of affirmativek knoWledge
and perception. Men have for the most part
assented to this truth partly because they have
from an innate feeling that it must be SO; but
they have not known and been able to demon
sttate thatit is firstly, because they have not
incorporated its life and precepts into theirown
lives, and partly because they have not been in
possession of the proofs of it," Divine origin
Yet these proofs are within their reach, when.
soever they shall be able and willing to avail
| themselves ofthem.
The Bible above all other books is'written on
a plan, in accordance with system, and with
an object; tits puzzle, and q series of enigmas
and contradictions to all but those acquainted
with the rule by, and the object for which it
was written. Assuming then, for the sake of
the argument, and because this is neither the
time nor place TO go into the proof Of its Divine
origin; that the Jewish word" is from God, we
then must acknowledge that God Himself teach;
es us.that we live as men hereafter; He is mot
the God of the dead but Of the living, of1Jacobl
of Isaac" and others who having once lived as
men on Earth, now live as Angels and Spirits
ina spiritual world In very many passages OF
the Scriptures, Angels are described as appear
| ing in the form Of men, and who; in sOne in.
stances ackno~ ledged their identity with the
race human. The Lord Himself appeared to
his disciples in the same form as that in which
| tie had been known upon the Earth, viz: that
Of man; so that If we admit the Divine author
ity of Scripture, we must at once and necessarily
admit the future state Of existence ol men, not
as formless spirits, but as actual human beings
in spiritual body instead Of a natural one.
End. Every property and quality has its pc:
| culiar form, nor can the mind conceive of
quality without it; think of what quality you
please, and at the same instant the form thereof
becomes visible either to your bodily or mental
eye--to your senses or your understanding. In
some sort all created things are in the image Of
their Creator; but man is super eminenty so,
because in the state in which he was SO de-
clared to be by his Maker, he had become by
regeneration, Qor previously he was, and is,
''witbout form and void, y form Of love and
wisdom, or goodness and truth; and these being
Divine qualities, and the very Divine Nature,
therefore man is then, indeed. in the image and
likeness of God. II, then, this be admitted,
man is as Coda spirit; buta linitc and recep-
tive spirit, ever sustained 1y his Creator; there
FORE such form MS God is, such a. form must
man be- yet finitely instead of infinitely; and he
becomes such solely through possessing will
| and Understanding. or the faculties Of willing
and thinking The infinite spirit-God-the
Creator is ever operant, incessantly active; man
(being in his image, be it reineinbered),. must
| be ever active likewise; but of what avail were
activity TO being without world and objects
in and on, and with which to exercise that nc.
| tiyity? How can one be active without feet,
without hands, without mind, without a;
heart without body, without surrounding obs
iects and incentives and exciting causes Z To
what could activity be directed inan unoccupied
void Therefore, spirits and angels live in a.
peopled world repIete with every variety Oh 90.
feet md circumstances allied to their natures and
aympatbies. To believe in God, the author Of
liScrfpture and the Maker and SaSior:of man,
and vet at the same time to deny that man lives
man after the death ofathe natural body, is to;
be religions ut the expense Of logic and sound.
reason and TO dishonor. the scheme Of creation
and satyationl - ,!....i1-. 80 80.
The answer to our third question requires
but little argument :: "God is spirit" the
human body. IS matter; yet5it We're well to re-
member that He.who declared Himself to be
the Lord of the Sabbath Day, (and therefore
was God himselE) commanded the nnbelieving.
disciple to reach forth his hand and feel Hihls-T
that 1t was indeed HezEthe same Christ who,
when on earth, taughtin the synagogo !, ,ISsalkl
ed and spake as men did, ate and drank as they
did, and in all things Sare one. was as other
men, and. who appeared ina glorious spiritual
body, and demanded Of his disciples someaOhGt
to eat. Let the lovers Of truth and reason, and
the seekers after spiritual knowledge, 1hfnk of
these thingsl s:ss.ii,.. -, 70
an. Argumentdtfve pr1oof of the immortality.
\ of the soul is Of deep wisdom, and not easily
deducible from nature or Analogies. i is as with
our belief Of the Divine origin of the Scriptures,
rather the result of education end tact habitual