The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-05-31
IMMORTALITY VS.. ANNIHILATION

ITO the Editor: / have read with
great interest in the columns of the
News and Observer the able discussion
on the above mentioned subject. 1t is
high time that such veXed questions
be ventilated i'm the hearing of the
people, and if few broken sentences
bearing on the subject would be worth
a corner in your paper, their inser-
ton would much oblige.
In my opinion much of the difficulty
in the way of solution of this per-
picking question would be removed if
symbolic Scripture had not been inn
ported into the discussion of this liter
al subject
'The body shall return to the dust
and the spirit to the God that gave
i; :" ought to settle the whole dispute,
and no doubt would, if figurative scrip
ture was confined to symbolic subjects,
and this would have a tendency to
prevent the pickering disputation SO
frequently occurring on sacred topics.
Some of the correspondence is quite
emphatic on the creation of the spirit
or soul of man, whereas little care
full study of the sacred records would
show that that mysterious principle
being part and parcel of Deity itself
could not have been created, but
delegated for the purpose of energizing
and vitalizing that wonderful and di-
vinely modelled form just created from
the dust of the earth, when, according
to the translators, it became "a living
SOUL" but In coInmon-sens e Anglo
Saxon, became living man; and there
standing erect, not only in the dignity
of his mental and physical power, but
in all the glory of the moral image of
his creator, God. He at once became
subject to a given law, which, it dis
obeyed, his newly-giyen existence was
to be forfeited, when its component
elements would be returned to the
source from whence they were taken,
Of which the aforesaid scripture gives
a., explanations Not word is limited
about Immortality or everlasting life
in anguish, or in any other condition.
Death, not life, was to result OF disobe-
dience. With God Thousand years
are as one day." and vice versa. Adam
died within the Thousand year day at
the advanced age OF $50 years. We
learn from the sacred scriptures, as
well as from sad experience, that the
divine injunction was ddsregarded.
The breach was made, the law was
broken when the culprits were ar
raigned at the bar of justice, and the
first Judgment day was held. The
verdict was guilty, the sentence was
death-not life in any condition, which
sentence has been mswervingly in
ficted from that time to this, and
4. IL. Hnn lint 70
redemption of a Redeemer. Conse-
quently, that sentence, however ter
rible, we rejoice to know, is only tenn
porary, and by virtue of the atonement
is to be cancelled in a resurrection
from the dead; but not of the tradi-
tional diving dead who, according to
the general "say SO" are TO be peremp-
torily ordered back again, the majority
of whom Qhearken) would be at a
loss to know the awful reason; such
preposterous thought is too blasphe-
nous to mention. Those who hold that
immortal life in torment is the penalty
for sin ignore the law on the subject,
and pass on to the parallels and sym
bols of the New Testament, which are
only metaphors, and contain neither
law or doctrine, and if given a literal
interpretation, which is commonly
done. their grand symbolisms would
be destroyed. 1t would not require
far-fetched theological science to give
a symbolic definition, some of which
are now drawing to fulfilment, especi-
ally those symbolizing the wheat and
| tares" and Dives and Lazarus The
latter is now being fulfilled, more espe-
cially in Russia than in any other
| country. When that long predicted
storm, now brewing between capital
and labor, which, according to the
chronological dates is due to strike our
world a few years hence, when the
hitherto impossible gulf will be
bridged.
The penalty for sin has not been
conyexed through the medium Of the
parallels and symbols of the New Tes-
lament, but directly through a literal
law embodied in ten English words,
divinely enacted in the Garden of
Eden four thousand years before the
first word of the New Testament was
written; that sacred portion Of Holy
writ never did, and never will contain
the law on the penalty for sin; but II
symbolic texts are twisted into literal
definitions, we can have all the fire
and birthstone we want, but that
would not be rightly dividing the
word of Truth" If that short simple,
but important law be read as enacted,
then death, not life in any condition,
is the penalty; but since deaoh, as
in this case, has been construed INTO
life, perhaps the manipnlators VIII con"
descend b explain their "modus
operandi,' or possibly, they may make