region of sorrow, tears and death; consequently the descriptions can apply to no assembly this side the tomb. They are our happy brethren, who, like Moses, have crossed the flood, and entered Canaan, though their bodies still sleep in the vale of death. No oppressive heat they feel, From the sun's directer ray; X. Answering to the representation that the souls of the righteous are now happy with Christ in Paradise, we have the further representation that THEY ARE TO RETURN WITH HIM, when he comes to raise the dead and judge the world. Zechariah says, "And the Lord my God shall come, and ALL THE SAINTS WITH THEE," Ch. xiv. 5. St. Jude informs us that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these things, saying, "Behold the Lord cometh WITH TEN THOUSAND OF HIS SAINTS, to execute judgment upon all, etc.," Jude 14, 15, and St. Paul inculcates the same doctrine when he speaks of "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, WITH ALL HIS SAINTS," 1 Thess. iii. 13. Now what, we ask, are these "saints" that are to.come with Christ at his second appearing, if they are not the souls of his people who have been with him in Paradise during the intermediate period between death and the resurrection? They cannot be the bodies of his saints, for they will not be raised till Christ arrives, and therefore cannot come with him. It is plain, therefore, that they are the souls of the righteous dead who have been in Paradise with him for ages, and who now return with him as he comes to raise their bodies to glory and immortality. Hark! the Judgment trumpet calls! Soul, rebuild thy house of clay, And eternity thy day. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still lived in the time of Moses, though their bodies had long been dead. The penitent thief was with Christ in Paradise before the twelfth hour of the day of the crucifixion, though the bodies of both were on earth, under the dominion of death. Lazarus passed at once to Abraham's bosom, and the rich man to the torments of hell immediately after death. Men cannot kill the soul; for whether we sleep or wake we shall live together with Christ. Moses was with Christ on the mount, though his body still slumbered in the valley of Moab. The righteous depart at death to be with Christ; and the dead, who die in the Lord, are blessed from henceforth. A part of the family of God yet dwell on earth; but others are with Christ in glory. O blessed and glorious truth! One family we dwell in Him, One church above, beneath, Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death. The sainted dead are already before the throne, and serve God day and night in his temple; and when Christ shall appear in the clouds of heaven to raise the dead, and burn the world, and judge all men and angels, these "saints" shall attend him down his starry pathway, to re-enter their bodies, now made. incorruptible and glorious, and for the redemption of which they have so long waited. Rom. viii. 23. Thus fully redeemed from death shall they ascend to the heaven of heavens, to be forever with the Lord. Then shall the gates lift up their heads, and the everlasting doors be lifted up; and the King of Glory, with his people shall enter in, to dwell in God's presence FOREVER! May both writer and reader be found in that glorious procession! CHAPTER VII. THE ALLEGED SLEEP OF THE SOUL BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. BESIDES adducing the direct Scripture proofs of the soul's immortality, it is proper to notice in this connection, certain new and peculiar views upon this subject, recently promulgated in this country and in England. Heretofore, Deism has usually denied both the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body; not because these doctrines were not taught in the Bible, but rather because they were therein taught. Denying the truth of the Scriptures, and spurning all their teachings, it claimed to follow Reason and Nature, and thence to derive proof that when a man dies that is his end forever. But within a few years past an attempt has been made to unite the most pernicious features of Deism with one or two Bible truths; and to inculcate the whole as the veritable teachings of divine revelation. Thus we are told, by men professing to believe the Bible that man has no spiritual nature whatever distinct from his body; and that when that is dissolved by death, what is called the soul or mind goes out like an expiring lamp. Thus far they go hand in hand with the old Deists; and with these fatal errors they connect the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, when that which is called the "soul," say they, will be again evolved, and rewards and punishments will ensue. To this is added the notion that the punishment of the wicked will consist of their utter destruction of being, or annihilation, at the final judg ment. These are what we call new and strange doctrines -a sort of hybrid theology or cross between open infidelity and Bible Christianity. As the advocates of this mixed theory profess to respect the Scriptures, it is quite natural that they should attempt to press them into their service. It is altogether proper, then, in a treatise like this, to notice these anomalous attempts to prove the non-immortality, or literal death of the soul from the Sacred Writings. The present chapter, therefore, will be devoted to the alleged Scripture proofs that the soul or spirit of man is but a result of animal organization, and becomes extinct at the death of the body. It 1. It is alleged that, as a general rule, we are to understand the Scriptures in their literal sense. is also affirmed that the original terms rendered soul, spirit, and ghost, literally signify wind or breath; and that, therefore, when applied to man, they mean no more than the literal breath which leaves the body at death. In reply to this view we answer, that to give a literal interpretation to all the terms, and phrases, and figures of the Bible, is not only to understand it as we interpret no other book, but to turn it into nonsense. It is quite true that most of the terms employed to represent spiritual things were first used to represent material objects; but are they, therefore, to be taken in their literal and material sense? Take, |