CHAPTER XIV.

Eighth General Proposition Stated-The Relations of the Soul and Body to each other—May Exist Separately-Samuel, Lazarus, and others Raised from the Dead-Miracles Considered-The Soul is to the Body what the Operator is to a Factory-The Angel which Appeared to St. John in Patmos-The Spirit of one of the Older Prophets-The Spirit of Elijah the Prophet and of John the Baptist probably the Same-Eighth Chapter of John noticed-Soul does not Descend with the Body from Father to Son.

PURSUANT to arrangement for the discussion of this subject, I have now reached the eighth proposition, to-wit: "That the bodies, not the souls, the physical, not the spiritual part of subsequent generations, were created in Adam." This, as will be observed, is closely allied to the preceding proposition, and may be said to grow naturally out of it.

If the body only of man was created when the world was, and the soul which was sent to occupy it as a mere tenement, was a "pre-existent spirit," a number of interesting questions arise as to the relations of the soul and body to each other. Some of the most prominent of which I now proceed to notice.

First, then, attention is invited to their capacity of separate existence. Is it true that the soul and body can exist entirely distinct and apart from each other? I answer, it is.

If my theory is well founded, it is necessarily so. For, suppose the body of Adam to have been made, and the whole machinery necessary to the performance of all the functions of animal life, as well as the apartment for the residence of the proprietor, the operator, all to have been

prepared, manufactured, and set up in perfect running order, before the spirit entered the house of his tabernacle, and that the soul existed before that as a separate, distinct, and rational though miserable creature, of course they both were in existence before they were united together.

As we may conjecture, the body may not have been brought into even animal life, but lay, as if dead, on the ground. If that be so, yet he was in a state of existence no less real, before animated by "the breath of life,” than he was afterward. So we find the soul and body of the first man actually did exist altogether distinct and apart from each other, at one time.

Let us see if we can find scriptural authority for saying, that the essence of the body and soul is so perfectly distinct, the one from the other, that the spirit may depart from the body and remain absent days at a time, and then return to his late home, enter the body again, and set all his machinery in motion, and run it as successfully as before. If we can so establish that fact, we will be enabled to report progress in proving their capacity for separate existence.

The first authority to which I will refer, is that found in 1 Samuel 28. There we learn that when King Saul was hardly pressed by the Philistines, and in a perfect agony of fear, and wholly at a loss as to what he should do (his former friend and counselor, good old Samuel being dead), as his last hope, went in disguise to the Witch of En-dor, and tried to prevail with her to "bring me him up whom I shall name unto thee." The woman refused, on the ground that all who had familiar spirits had been ordered by the king to leave the country, and she feared to exercise her black art on account of the danger to which she would thereby expose herself. Her unknown patron having, however, given her satisfactory assurances that she could safely grant his request, she assented.

11. "Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel." She called him, and he arose from the dead. When she saw

Samuel she was alarmed, and cried with a loud voice. The King said to her, "Be not afraid."

"14. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.” "15. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?"

They then proceeded with the conversation for which he returned. How long Samuel had been dead, we are not informed; but from the narrative of passing events, it must have been two or three years. His body had, probably, been kept in such way as that it had not decomposed materially. Be that, however, as it may, his body and soul had existed apart, in some form or other, during the time which elapsed from his death to that of his being raised to life again, and that is sufficient for the present

purpose.

I will next refer to the case of Elijah, who raised the son of the poor widow: 1 Kings 17: 21. "And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into HIM AGAIN."

"22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he REVIVED."

The prayer was that "this child's soul come into him again." The answer was: "And the soul of the child came into him AGAIN, and HE REVIVED.”

How very much like the account we have of the first union of the soul and body of Adam. Of that it is said: God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Suppose Moses had gone on, and afterward said, that Adam became sick and died, and Eve prayed and said: O Lord, my God, I pray thee let this (man's) soul come into him again, and the soul of the man came into him again, and he revived; would we not have understood that the soul entered the body the second time just as it did the first? Certainly we would. And from the words, "and he REVIVED," we would have

thought of nothing else but that he lived on, soul and body together, precisely as before he died, as was the case with the child.

But I am wandering off again. I will pause here only to say further of this case, that it is another instance of the soul and body existing apart. The case of Jairus' daughter, who was raised from the dead, is another in point. Her soul and body had a separate being and reunion, after they had once been united and separated.Mark 5: 35-42.

The reader's attention is next invited to the death and resurrection of Lazarus: John 11. He had been dead and lain in the grave FOUR DAYS. Yet, at the bidding of Christ, his soul returned into the body, he arose, came out of his grave, and lived on as before his death.

Now, it will be observed that the soul of Lazarus was as perfectly distinct from his body immediately before it re-entered it, as was that of Adam just before entering his body. Why could God not have made another body for Lazarus as easily as he made that for Adam? It will be conceded that he could have done so. Then there is no difficulty in comprehending how it was that a spirit which existed before Adam's body was made, could have entered and occupied it.

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And as the soul of Lazarus existed while absent from the body, in some real and intelligent condition, or otherwise he could not have heard and obeyed the command of Christ, Lazarus, come forth," we find no cause of wonder at being told that the spirit of Adam existed in the same way before animating his body. The death and resurrection of Christ himself proves conclusively that the soul and body can exist apart, and that a living spirit may animate a dead body.

But to all this it may be replied that the cases cited were all miracles. Oh! were they? Well, I reply, the first one of these "miracles," is said to have been wrought by "an old woman." And what is the existence of this world, of man, beast, and every other living creature that lives upon it, but so many miracles? All wonderful things are miracles. Everything we see around us is, to the man of thought,

a subject for wonder and admiration. The very bodies in which we live, move and have our being, were said by the Psalmist to have been "fearfully and wonderfully made." God "worketh wonders." It is no valid objection, therefore, to anything which God is said to have done, or which it appears that He did, to say that it is wonderful, miraculous, or anything of that sort.

He has said to us: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." While everything may appear mysterious and wonderful to us, nothing is so to Him, The difficulty with us, in this life, is that our minds are so beclouded, and our capacity so limited, that there are but few things we can fully comprehend; and hence it is, that we meet with so many wonders, mysteries, and miracles. to be hoped that a brighter day awaits us.

It is

Whether we can understand how it is or not, there is nothing more clearly taught in the Bible than that the soul and body may not only exist apart, but that they can be separated and united again just as they were before.

Indeed, it would seem that the soul could, with God's permission, just leave his body at any time, remain absent as long as desired, and then return, and move on as if he had not left at all (provided his establishment has not dilapidated too much during his absence), as conveniently as the operator of a cotton-mill can stop his machinery, close up, and go abroad at pleasure, return at will, and fire up, raise steam, and go to work again, precisely as before he left. Certain it is, our Savior could have done so, for he says his life: "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”—John 10: 18. It is not so with us, however, for we are here as prisoners, and confined each within his own cell; but he was not a sinner or prisoner, as we are, but came and abode with us voluntarily.

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That the soul can live without the body, and that after death it is restored to an order of being far above anything conceived of while in this life, we have proof conclusive in the Bible. Passing by a great variety of passages in which this is intimated very clearly, I will call