159. II. The Immortality Of Mind.
II. The Immortality Of Mind.
1. Spirituality as Proof of Immortality.—The argument from the simple spiritual unity of mind, once so much relied on as a proof of immortality, is now reckoned of far less weight. It is not of much weight as direct proof; for the dependence of the mind, as of every other creaturely existence, upon God requires that the question of its immortality be viewed in the light of his purpose respecting it. With such dependence upon God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28), there is for us no immortality without his pleasure. Indirectly, however, the nature of the mind means much for its immortality. As a simple spiritual existence it is not subject to dissolution or death in the manner of compound or organic existences. Nothing in any such instance of dissolution or death can exemplify the extinction of the soul of man. Its extinction must be a virtual annihilation; and there is no natural evidence of such a destiny of the soul, but much against it. Only the clearest evidence that such is the divine pleasure could warrant the belief of it.
2. A Question of the Divine Purpose.—As the soul is naturally free from the common laws of dissolution and death, it may survive the body and exist in a future state. There is much natural evidence that it will; but as its very existence is dependent upon God, so, as we have seen, the question of its immortality can be determined only in view of the evidences of his pleasure respecting it.
3. Evidences of the Divine Purpose.—The further question then is. What are the evidences of the divine purpose respecting the immortality of the soul? These evidences lie partly in the endowments of the soul; pre-eminently in the economy of redemption.
God is the original of the soul, and of the intellectual powers with which it is endowed. Hence it is reasonable to think that he intends for it the opportunity of a development and attainment commensurate with its powers; indeed, it is unreasonable to think the contrary; for without such opportunity these powers can have no proper end in the plan of creation and providence. But the present life affords no such opportunity. Herein the most favored can only begin that intellectual life of which we are capable. With the many there is hardly a beginning. When will it be otherwise? The higher education of the masses is a remote futurity, with little promise in it. Our civilization is largely in an earthly plane, and imperatively demands much labor in which brawn has a much larger part than brain. Surely there is in the purpose of God a sphere of better opportunities for the intellectual life of man than the present life affords; a sphere which can be complete only with an immortal existence. The soul is morally constituted and subject to the law of duty and responsibility. No life ever attains a degree of perfection above such obligation: so high and exacting is this law. If it should follow that there is no perfect life, it may be for the reason that in our present state duty is beset with severe trials. Many strive after such a life, strive earnestly and persistently, and through great sacrifice and the loftiest moral heroism reach a high state of virtue. They come to the end of life in possession of the divinest graces. Shall such attainments perish in death? Shall the unyielding fidelity, the enduring fortitude, the conquering heroism, the pure flame of love, the charity which makes glad the heart of many, the graces which bless the vision of angels and merit the benediction of God—shall all these perish in the hour of death? No: reason and religion, the character of God and the interests of the moral universe, answer. No. There must be another life in which such graces shall still live, and such souls receive the reward of the heavenly Father, who is not unrighteous to forget their work and labor of love (Hebrews 6:10).
Even the fact of sin points to a future existence. Sin itself witnesses to the high grade of our endowments, and to the sacredness of our moral obligations. The consciousness of sin is anticipative of a future state of retribution. The many instances of unpunished sin in the present life unerringly point to such a future state. The divine equity confirms the anticipation of the awakened conscience.
It may be said, in the way of objection to the views above presented, that in the light of Scripture a future existence opens to the evil no opportunity for a perfected intellectual and moral life. This fact, however, cannot invalidate the inference of such an existence from the intellectual and moral endowments of the soul, as above stated. It is simply a case of the forfeiture of great opportunities. There is such a possibility in our responsible life. Moral freedom is inseparable from such a life; and the possibility of such forfeiture is inseparable from our freedom. The common aspiration for immortality is strong and persistent through all stages and conditions of life. Nothing can repress it except the hopeless sense of an unrecoverable forfeiture of future well-being. The truer and nobler the moral life, the clearer and wider the sweep of spiritual vision, the nearer the approach to God and truth, the closer the assimilation to the divine, the intenser is the longing for immortality. This longing must be a divine implanting in the soul, and hence cannot be a delusion. God must intend its satisfaction in a future existence. A future existence is the common faith of mankind. The notion of that existence is often obscure; still it is everywhere present and persistent. There must be a sufficient reason for such a belief. It must be either an instinctive faith, or an intuition of the reason, or an inheritance from an original revelation. On no other ground can its universality be explained. But from whichever, it must be from God in a manner which makes it an expression of his purpose of our immortality. The value of faith in immortality evinces its objective truth. We all need its practical influence. Society needs it. The state needs it. “Without this faith the motives of a true and good life are infinitely lowered. The true worth of man departs. There is no longer any sphere for that practical faith which may inspire and sustain any high endeavor either for one’s own moral good or for the good of others. The noblest characters of history, the statesmen of the loftiest patriotism, the philanthropists of abounding charities, have been the creation of a faith in immortality. The benevolent enterprises which bless so many, the charities so opulent in grateful ministries, have the same inspiration. The pre-eminent beneficences of Christianity evince the power of this faith. “Lucian, the universal scoffer, saw in Christianity only one of the numberless follies of his time. His mocking spirit, while contemning all religions, sobered into candor by acknowledging the benevolence of the Christians, and he testifies to the power of their belief in immortality to keep them steadfast, and cause them to abound in all helpfulness and kindness.”[846] How is this? Are we so constituted that faith in a delusion is necessary to all that is truest and best in human life? It cannot be. Hence our immortality must be divinely purposed, and therefore must be a truth.
[846]
There are few texts of Scripture in which our immortality is directly asserted; yet its truth is ever present in both Testaments, but with the clearer unfolding in the New (2 Timothy 1:10). Without the truth of immortality the deepest, divinest verities of Christianity must be denied. No place can remain for a divine incarnation in the person of the Son of God, or for an atonement for sin in the voluntary sacrifice of himself. If we are to perish utterly in the event of death we need no salvation from a future wrath, no Saviour who shall bring us to future blessedness. Hence it is that the central truths of our Christian soteriology mean the immortality of the soul.
Plato: Phaedon, or the Immortality of the Soul; Butler: Of a Future Life, Analogy, part i, chap, i; Addison:Immateriality of the Soul, “Spectator,” No. 111; Channlng: Immortality, Works, vol. iv, pp. 169-182; Drew: Immateriality and Immortality of the Human Soul; Perowne: Immortality, Hulsean Lectures, 1868; Paine: Soul and Instinct, Physiologically Distinguished from Materialism; Lee: The Immortality of the Soul; Nordhoff: God and the Future Life; Foster: Beyond the Grave.