not in a body made up of the very same atoms of matter as that which died. In that respect, even in this life, our bodies are not identically the same two hours together. The identity is in that which alters not, the individual, the soul, the living man, the being that conforms the body it inhabits to itself, and renders it capable of subserving the capacities of the spirit to think, will, and act. The fitness of the body to the soul being perfect, the body itself may hereafter possess a permanency, like a quality of the soul, and they may become wedded together in an indissoluble union, through an eternal adaptation to whatever sphere of existence they may enter in the exercise of all the spiritual faculties of will and thought. The resurrection, as expounded by the Apostle Paul, is not that of the body of flesh and blood, nor any part of it, for that cannot inherit the kingdom of God; but it is the re-standing of the being who, having passed through the change of condition named death, is rehabilitated in a life of consciousness with which is associated, by Divine Power, a body utterly in contrast with that of our humiliation, and expressly constituted to accommodate the fully developed soul. This doctrine is entirely in accordance with the words of our Lord to the Sadducees, who denied the future existence, or resurrection (anastasis), of those who had died.-Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him. From these words, and those connected with them, we learn that the anastasis is an entrance into a new and higher life-equal unto the angels, incapable of death, as children of God, being children of the resurrection.* * Luke xx. 26-38. To the question concerning the natural immortality of the soul, there is but one answer. If God, who alone hath immortality, confers it on the human soul, that soul is naturally immortal, because He who created it. perpetuates its existence. We are immortalised by the Divine Spirit as the result of redemption-For, as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The satisfaction of the Christian's faith is at least the highest that can be attained by any enlightenment of the intellect, or of the moral and religious nature of man. The Christian is in effect possessed already of all the best results which any philosophy can offer us. We have a natural immortality, because we are by nature united with the eternal Son of God, who is a perfect man, and we are to be blessed everlastingly in Him by being made like Him—perfect in body, soul, and spirit. THE POWER OF THE SOUL OVER THE BODY. PART II. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SOUL IN ATTENTION, MEMORY, AND IMAGINATION. PART II. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SOUL IN ATTENTION, MEMORY, AND IMAGINATION. CHAPTER I. THE POWER OF ATTENTION, AND ITS CONNECTION LET us again reflect on the power of attention. Is this a property of the body? Can the body produce a faculty capable of regarding its own wants and influencing its own sensations? Certainly not. The body cannot produce, nor direct, nor in any way make an effort to influence even its own functions, much less exclude an object in order to contemplate an idea. As matter cannot think, it cannot attend nor intend. Who for a moment ever thought that thinking was a mere quality of his brain, or that any part of his body gave heed to itself, or to objects or ideas, or was capable of discriminating between things and thoughts of things? If you cease to attend through the senses, you cease to be conscious of external existence; your body necessarily falls asleep, or you pass into a state of reverie, and the eye of the mind receives only the impress of past ideas again made present, but in new combinations. The body is not then needed for any of the voluntary acts of the mind, and therefore, until there occur some interference |