ment, spiked down and stereotyped, of what he must find in the Bible, or be martyred. And does any one acquainted with human nature, need to be told that he studies under a tremendous pressure of motive? Is that freedom of opinion the liberty wherewith Christ maketh free? Rome would have given that. Every one of her clergy might have studied the Bible to find the Pontifical creed on the pain of death. Was that liberty? Hence, I say, that liberty of opinion in our Theological Seminaries is a mere form, to say nothing of the thumbscrew of criticism by which every original mind is tortured into negative propriety. The whole boasted liberty of the student consists in a choice of chains-a choice of handcuffs-whether he will wear the Presbyterian handcuff, or Baptist, or Methodist, Episcopal, or other evangelical handcuffs. Hence it has now come to pass that the ministry themselves dare not study the Bible. Large portions thereof are seldom touched. It lies useless lumber or if they do study and search, they dare not show their people what they find there. There is something criminal in saying any thing new. It is shocking to utter words that have not the mould of age upon them." The next great Christian doctrine that will claim our attention, and is in order in the plan of redemption, is

As we have noticed, the penalty of the law was death, consequently Adam lost his life, by his sin or transgression. Rom. 5 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. 1 Cor. 15:22. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Acts 17: 18. Because he (Paul) preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. 24: 15. And have hope towards God,

that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. As Adam lost his life, and entailed death upon all his posterity, we see at once the necessity of his life and body being redeemed.

It will be perceived also from the passages already quoted, that the resurrection-the resuscitation or reproduction of Adam and the human race-is founded on the fact that the dead are actually dead; that they are not in conscious being, and already in a state of happiness or misery. If a man die shall he live again? Job. 14: 14. That is, if a man die-if he ceases to be, to live-shall he live?-shall he come into existence again? There is no such thing as a resurrection of life, and to life, if there is not a cessation or extinction of life. When God said to Adam, In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die; He meant thou shalt surely cease to be, thou shalt become extinct. This is plain from the way God made man, and from the explanation he gave him of his death. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Dust thou art. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. How did he become a living soul? By God's breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. At this moment, and not till this moment, did Adam begin to live and have conscious existence.

Of what does it appear man is composed? Of a body, and spirit of life. These united make a living soul-not an immortal soul as some would have it. If man had become an immortal soul, he could not have died, let his moral acts have been what they would. Man's body, then, came from the dust, and his breath and spirit from God who gave it. In their original elements, neither part was a living soul, their union only made one living soul. What, then, is death? A

separation of the spirit from the body. The body returns to the dust as it was, and the spirit as it was, to God. They both go back to their original state or elements, and man ceases to be a living soul.

If the component parts of man dissolve their union at death, and each goes to their original, how perfectly absurd and contrary to reason and fact, is the idea that man has a soul that is alive and conscious after death, or this dissolution. Man is not pronounced a living nephesh or soul, till the ruah, or spirit, is united with the organism of the dust. In their separate and original state, neither of the parts can with any truth or propriety be called a living soul. There is no such thing, then, as a living soul, only when the spirit and body are united. To have a man die, to cease to be a living soul-is only to have that go forth, or out of him, that God breathed into him. Then he will be dead and unconscious, or in the same state he was before he had life.

Job 32 8. But there is a spirit in man, and the inspi ration (breath) of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Man's understanding came when God breathed this spirit of life into him, and of course goes from him when this breath or spirit leaves the body. 33: 4. The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. The same sentiment again. Man only has life and understanding when the two parts are united. 34: 14.

If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;

All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

Here the fact is plainly stated, and there need be no misunderstanding. If God gather unto himself again man's spirit and breath, all turn to dust and perish. 3:13.

Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept; then had I been at rest,

With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;

Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been: as infants which never saw light.

There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.

There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

Here Job also declares the state of the dead to be as though they had not been, and settles the question that the dead know not any thing, that all is over of suffering and oppression, and all like prisoners, rest together in the dust, waiting, as they are, for their trial, to be brought forth, resurrected, at the Judgment. Ps. 49: 12:

Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish.

This their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings.

Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death will feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me.

The body is properly the soul, and hence it is called a living soul, when the spirit and breath is in it. If the translators had observed this distinction as the truth requires, they never would have called the spirit and breath the soul, as they now have in many texts. In these verses it is asserted that man perisheth, or dies like the beast, and their bodies, or souls, are like sheep laid in the grave. But David is a believer in the resurrection. God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. No intimation here, that man has a soul that is conscious in a state of death, and hence there is no hope but in the resurrection that man shall live again. Ps. 88; 4, 5: I am counted with them that go

down into the pit, I am as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. In this state they are neither in happiness, or misery, or consciousness.

10th v. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee?

Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

Shal! thy wonders be known in the dark, and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

No! The answer is plain. Nothing can be shown to the dead; it is a state of forgetfulness, their mind and thoughts are perished. Ps. 115: 17:

The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

146: 3, 4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the earth, in that very day his thoughts perish.

Now, let the reader notice that the assertion, that the dead know not anything, that in the day their spirit leaves them, their thoughts perish-that they cannot praise the Lord that it is a state of forgetfulness, and where there is no exercise of the mind; is not my assertion, but the Scriptures'. If the Scriptures give us a correct account of the formation of man, and how he became a living soul, and how death is effected, viz.: by the separation of the two component parts of man, then the fact will remain an eternal truth, that the dead know not anything, the opinions of men to the contrary notwithstanding. The reader will probably say that there are passages that contradict such a sentiment. Then I would say, the Bible contradicts itself, and consequently is not entitled to credit as the word of God. But your passages do not contradict such a sentiment; there is not a passage in all the Scriptures that asserts that the dead do know anything-that there is an