The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1881-11-19

NJ, that we think we would have
been excusable had We come to the
conclusion that he had departed this
life, and from his standpoint, that
his immortal soul had gone to the
"Elysian Fields of the philosophers
the Happy Hunting Grounds of
the savages. or to that indefinite To-
cality Beyond the bounds of time
and space of the so-called Christ
ians, tor which he would have been
under eternal obligations to the
Devil who was the prime factor in
the introduction of death into the
world, by means of which his inn
mortal nonentity is enabled to extri-
cate itself from the grasp and con
troll of its mortal coil, and on the
downy wings of unseen angels to the
realms of bliss away to flee. We are
glad, however,to learn that he is still
in the land of the living, and has on
~ abandoned and removed from the
confined and narrow paths Of script
ural truth and taken up his abode on
the contentious and broad roads of
the domain of science, or rather, OF
the oppositions of science falsely so
called, where he can breathe an at
mosphere more congenial to his
mental and modern clerical constitu
ton, and escape the whitening blasts
of Jehovah's testimony, which, no
doubt, was not done without some
hesitation and time for reflection.
That Mr. M. is a scientist, if not
of the first water, one who knows
something about water and water
wheels is evident; for he has,at some
pains, demonstrated that he knows,
If a water wheel be properly con-
structed and suspended on an axle
under water-fa fall, it will revolve and
that the motion of the wheel caused
by the falling water-the force-is not
the falling water-force-that causes
the motion; in word, that the cause
is not the effect and Uicc cersa, the
effect is not the cause. These are
certainly very profound propositions,
and in their bearing on the question
of the truth as it is in Jesus, only to
be eomprehended by those highly
dcmolo2ically educated and purely
enthusiastically scientific minds. AL
though aside from the above men
toned bearings, as general PROPOSE
tions, we have seen small boys Of six
years old and under, who, with a
miniature water wheel in the nursery,
appeared to understand the differ
ence between the water and the wa
terwheel and its motion. 1t is pos
sible, however, they may have been
more precocious than the common
run. But none not graduates of
Bethany, or some other genealogical
seminary, or who have not had the
inestimable privilege and benefit of
clerical teaching could understand
how; after the wheel has decayed
and rotted away, and the water that
turned it is evaporated or absorbed,
there is spiritual and immaterial
wheel and spiritual and immaterial
water causing spiritual and inmate
rial motion in the land O spirits or
floating loosely in the atmosphere
around us.
We have heard of the laws of mo-
ton, of gravitation, of optics, of me-
chanics and Of physics generally,
which are positive and fixed by the
Deity, and are as immutable and I'M
ehangeable as Himself; but these
laws considered apart from their re-
spective proper associates are mere
distractions. ideal and substancecss.
The argument, therefore, or rather
the affirmation, of our scientific
friend is that, the powers exercised
over the body are the results of the
operations Of the abstract properties
of the soul; but this is a petitto
principles begging of the whole
question and an argument on the in
verse order Let him first define
definitely what soul is, scripturally,
what its properties are and the effects
of their operations upon the human
body, then we can, from observation
and experiment, determine as to the
truth of his propositions, as we do in
regard to other principles Of science.
Our friend, on the contrary, begins
at the wrong end. He declares that
the body is governed by certain laws,
that these laws are the properties of
certain entity and that entity is
the soul. He affirms and assumes
every division of his syllogism with
out attempting to prove any of them.
This line of reasoning may do very
we'll for the genealogical schoolmen
of the day and their dupes, but it
will not anwer people of even ordina-
ny intelligence who think for them
selves
Let us look for a moment, at Mr..
MS scientific conclusions from
scriptufal standpoint. 1t saith "the
soul that sinneth it shallidie. "-Ezel
xviii. 4. What is sin. The trans
gression of law; for where no law is,
there is no transgression.-Romans
iv. Is. What is the consequence of
the transgression Of law? Death;
'because the law worketh death"and
"the wages of sin is death. Rom.
vi. %. Now answer, what law has
Mr.. Ms scientific entity trans
crossed? if any, is it not sinner,
and it sinner, must it not die?