The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-07-16
Ii Man Immortal

Inc HERALD claims ana Is cOncedeu 10 De
the most cosmopolitan religious journal in the
world. 1t treats all subjects in an unsectarian
spirit for which it has been abundantly ap-
plauded if not aattered. But in this regard
we have done nothing more than our duty
according to the measure of our ability and as
we conceive the interests of religion and hui
mainly demand. Our editorial comments on
social and religious topics have frequently
called forth responses from our readers, which
we are always glad to receive, whether they
coincide with our views or not. We want 1t
to be understood that we are not against truth
in any form, but for it, and if we have some
times severely censured opinions and religious
doymas it was because we believed them o
be opposed to truth, not only as that truth ap
pears 10 us in Revelation, but as it is in nature
ALSO And in this spirit we have criticised the
teachings of the Free Reli gion Association and
the utterances of its apologists, for which we
have been very kindly and gently called to
account by correspondent, who pertinently
raises the question which we have placed at
the head of this article and which, by the way,
has been repeatedly raised before, whether or
not man is immortal. Our correspondent has
looked through the scrptural references which
we made in an editorial in our issue of June
25 and is satisfied that there is not single
declaration of the souls Immortality among
them. We admit there is no such declaration
in words in any part of the Bible. But when
facts are stated which prssuppose and which
rest upon the immortality of the soul, we can
not see what additional force verbal declara-
ton would give to them. For instance, st.
Paul. in his great argument to prove
the resurrection O. Corinthians, XVI, as
sumes all through that man is immortal, and
in verse forty-four he makes an assertion
which has very little force upon any other
hypothesis than that of an Independent
existence of the soul: So also in II. Corin-
thiaus, ", he speaks of tae dissolution of the
body as an introduction into the presence Of
Christ, being confident, as he says, that
whilst we are at home in the body we are
absent from the Lord" implying, as we con-
ceive, the reverse that when absent from the
the body he should be present with the Lord.
In his letter to the Philippians, H., %, Paul
declares that he is 'in strait betwixt two,
having desire to depart and be with Christ,
which was far better" for himself, and ''to
abide in the hesh," which was more needful
for them. The inference can hardly be palmer
that death would have been to him the OPEN
ing of better life rather than an unconscious
sleep for ages until the last trumpet shall
sound. There are many other passages in
which this apostle bases either an argument
or an aspiration and hope upon the assumed
fact Of toe souls Immortality and its in de-
pendent existence. But two are as good as
twenty,
The Apostle Peter, in his first epistle ill.,,
Is, 20, and w., 6, makes a deliberate state
ment which amounts almost to blasphemy
upon any other assumption than that of the
souls immortality and consequent independent
existence. st. Matthew'S Gospel, xviii, con-
tains an account of the TRANSPORTATION of the
Saviour, on which occasion Moses, who had
been dead for one thousand four hundred and
seventy years, and Elias or Elijah, who had
| been translated to heaven more than nine hun
Jesus. We assumed, in our reference on a
former occasion, that the fact of their appear
ing at this time was evidence enou Oh of their
existence during the Interim without decla-
ration thereof in words. The same fact is
substantially declared of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob by the Saviour, who in Mark xiii, 81,
quotes from Moses thereby implying that the
| Old Testament scriptures, as we'll as the
| New, teach the doctrine of the souls immor-
tality And another of our correspondents
| claims that this doctrine is peculiarly Jewish
rather than Christian, which we readily
admit. Luke Xxx, 3S, is but repetition OF
the preceding reference, and, as we hav g
stated before, the book of Revelations is writ
| ten as if this truth was universally admitted.
| And if it can be successfully denied very
| much of what mankind now believes and has
| for ages believed must be cast aside as worse
than worthless-as positively mischievous.
So much, in brief, for our Scripture proofs
| of the immortality of MAJ. We agree with
our correspondent that the teaching of Paul on
this subject is the teaching of the Word OF
| God from Genesis to Revelations. And if, as
our correspondent declares, Plato and Socra-
tes and other heather writer's taught this doc
trine, the fact has no force against its belief
| now but rather shows that it is not a pecu-
liary Christian dogma, but is, as we contend il
| is, as universal as the race. And we find it
so at the present time as well as in past ages.
But our correspondent, very properly, does
not content himself with disposing summary
of our references. He presents some in sup
port of bis own assertion that ''man in his
present state is purely mortal, with nothing
within or about him that is not perishabe."
He quotes Ecclesiastes Ill 49, 20 wherein