Delaware Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1843-1874, 1873-09-22
MONDAY MORNING, sEPTEMBER22

the wayfaring man though fool, need not e
therein" Surely "blndness in part hat
happened to Orthodoxy. If they were wis
they might know what TO them Is now a d.,
found mystery. Oh that they were willing
learn, no matter from what quarter truth migl
come, they should never be ashamed to confe.
1t. For reasons best known 10 himself
pleases God 10 "hde some things from the wis
and prudent, and reveal them even unto babes.
"Worldly WISDOM" cannot get low enought
see the simplicity Of .he truth; high state {
Intellectual culture, and flow of high soundin
words, and phrases, coined and framed b
/ councils, synods, and conferences, have take
the place of the "form of sound words" "soup
speech that cannot be gainsayed." While trutl
and error are so systematically and PERSISTENT
woven together that they have made void tn
word of God by their traditions" This ma,
seem like strong language, and so 1t Is; but /
Is Just as true as II is strong and we are pre-
pared to prove it by tie concurrent TESTIMONY
! OF the bible.
Now what is the divine testimony ip reeart
to man when life became forfeited by disobedi
ence? "Thou shalt surely die. For dus
thou art and unto dust shalt thou return" Thi.
Is the penalty pronounced on man, and not 8
part of him. But again, "tLou takest away
their breath, they die,a return to their dust y
&C., man dies and returns to dust, not some.
thing which belonged to him. Again, man
uieth anu wasteth away, yea, man giyeth up
tne ghost, lnot turneth into ghost) no, man
glveth mp the ghost" and where Is he? Not
where Is the ghost no, the ghost Is not the
man nor any part of him. Once more, s.his
breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, In
that very day his thoughts perish" Now. II
"dust cannot praise God, !" then IL cannot think.
then it follows that there is no wisdom, or
knowledge, or work, or device in the grave
wither thou goest," and II must be also true,
that, "the dead knotc net anvthiug." Now II
they cannot think, and know not anything, it
must bd because mans brain has ceased to act,
Tor man cannot evolve thought In the absence
OF healthy, active brain, otherwise the crea-
lion OF man from dust, or the part of God
would bave been work of supererogat So
then without material organism, man cannot
think, and without the breath ofliie In mans
organic structure, there can be no "lyng souln
oil man. The breath or spirit Of life then Is no
art ot man proper, for man In death returns
70 his dust, and the spirit to God who. gave It.
But TO return, "if he set his heart up
on man, If he gather unto himself his
spirit and his breath, all flesh shall per-
ish together, and man shall turn again To
dust. Not his "shell, cage or prison." no but
man shall turn again TO dust. oh how sm-
phatic; can language be more positive. What.
but the most torturous twisting of language can
prevent the obvious meaning of these passa-
gess surely nothing but a persistent wilful
derplnation to save human theory at tho
sacrifice of simple bible truth. No, "man,s
foundation Is in the DUST" God "remembereth
our frame that we are but dust." Now how
much more evidence will any man require who
believes that "the bible is tho all sufficient rule
OF faith aud practice? ?" In order to prove what
10 man, will you take with this the testimony
OF Abraham when he says Of himself "who am
but dust and ashcs?" Oh what humiiatinp
view OF himself this "father Of the faithful" had.
How very unlike many who profess to have
the faith of Abraham to-day. "They are a
part OF God, ,"their old "shell, or cage, or pris-
on" is Of no consequence, nothing but dust,
they shall not die, only move out and go, they
know not where.
Such Is tue confusion of modern Babelites
that they do not know that on the promises
which God gave to Abraham, they with him
are now dependent, and that tins promise in
volvs the resurrection OF Abraham, and all the
And being Ignorant OF the IalJn oI AUrirIIilni,
and also the promise and oath of God,on which
his faith rested, they are seeking to climb up
some other way and as the builders of Babel
thought among themselves, TO build a tower to
heaven, so these modern inventors are expect
ing to go by the way of inherent immortality
right mp To heaven where Jesus tells them
plainly they ''cannot come," and the simple
reason is, death is realty there is no life In
death, and death being an unconscious state,
men must be raised from the dead in order to
live again and as none but the righteous are
the subjects of II future life, they are worthy to
obtain that life by = resurrection from the dead,
then, they shall be equal unto the angels, neith-
er can they die any more, and they are the
children of God, being the children of the res
direction, sand this resurrection is confined ex-
clusively to the "heirs of promise" Now from
the foregoing is it not manifestly clear, that
man is u creature made of, and returns to dust?
And also, that IL he lives again, he must be
raised from the dead? We see no way 10 escape
this conclusion. Then the breath or spirit of
life, or ghost, or soul, is no part of man proper;
though they may be in mans possession for
time, and when theologians can prove to q de-
monstraton that the breath Or spirit of life /,
SOUL or ghost had q conscious existence before
it was hreathed into man, 1t will be
time enough to assert its conscious existence
after God had taken IL away; till then, we hum
bly, challenge the combined wisdom OF eighteen
centuries of theolog ical invention, TO produce a
solitary passage from the old or new testa-
ments, where either breath, spirit or ghost of
man after death is ever spoken ofas conscious
entity. And ''shall the dust praise God ?' or
shall "they that sleep in the dust awake aud
sing?" Is the doctrine of the resurrection of the
dead, bible truth, or is it only the hallucina-
tiOas of credulous minds Here again, we bold
ly and solemnly challenge the entire hosts Of
splritism be they .orthodox,cr heterodox, to pro
duce single promise from the life given
in the future 10 any but his own sheep, and
that life only To be given to them by tho resur.
rection or translation at the last day. Talk
about your hopes of going to heaven when you
| die; where Is the basis of such a hope Car
you with meekness produce it.? Revelation
furnishes no such hope, if you fall asleep il
death, the resurrection Is your only hope thu
re ,urrection is 10 them that Sleep lust as essen
| tial as was the creation OF Adam TO his con
| scious existence, and as men can only hav
the present life by being in Adam the first, $
we can only have resurrection to life in th
future by virtue Of our being in Christ tho SCI
ond Adam.
We must 'pass from the law of sin and death
by virtue of the law of the spirit Of life in Chri
Jesus" or We can never SEQ life. Let splritisr
talk about spirits of the dead In cons,ioU
spirit land, they never learned 1t from God
word, they heard ministers talk that way unit
their theories developed and eliminated in the
cherished dogma. Death, with them, is eve
lasting lite in torment lie. God must kee
the wicked eternally alive in torment, so th,
they may be conscious that they are dead
they are determined to have dead men kno
something, ii 1t IS only Gods power to tortul
them. Oh no, mans nature Ia known to Go
aud he framed his law so that misery shou
terminate in death and dust, and "atilctlo
+ shall not rise up second time." Inspiratio
assures us that God will "make an end Of sin
not by perpetuating sinners in misery, but
, putting them where ''they shall be as thoue
they had not been :" that Is, returned fro
, whence they came. "There, shall the dust I
turn unto the earth as it was, and the spil
shall return to God who gave It," As II wa
deny It, who can But before dismissing IL
4, subject We propose TO introduce another pa
/ sage from the same author for the benefit
|, those who merely take superficial glance
4 isolated passages. Chapter III, IS tO2l incl
a sive, we read, II said in mine heart concerni
|, the estate of sons of men, that God might ma
. fest them That they might see that they the