Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/130

 It is remarkable with what frequency the Scriptures declare that death is no predicate of the real man. They set forth life as his eternal inheritance in terms too plain for the slightest evasion. Besides the passages just cited, the Lord said, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life;" "Every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life;" "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever;" "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life;" "He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." It is, indeed, true that those promises of eternal life are made to depend upon conditions; the reason is because the phrase, "eternal life," is intended to signify eternal happiness. But the life of the wicked is equally enduring; their worm dieth not, their fire is not quenched; he that is unjust will be unjust still, and he that is filthy will be filthy still;" "these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."

Death, then, is no destruction of that which is properly human life: it is simply the laying down of the material body, when it is no longer capable of being a habitation for the soul. The soul leaves the body to its own world: it is of the dust, and to dust it will return; but the soul itself, which is the real man, will pass on to another sphere more suited to its spiritual and liberated nature. The body is said to die; in truth the body never properly lived, since it is the soul which lived in it, and gave to it all the animation by which it appeared to live. When that animation ceases we see that the man is gone: this fact proves