3 1 8 Life and Immortality. 



nephesh, breathing frame, is put for neshemet ruach chayim^ 

 which, when in motion, causeth the frame to respire. Hence 

 nephesh signifies not only breath and soul, but also life, or 

 those mutually affective, positive and negative principles in 

 all living creatures, whose closed circuits cause motion of and 

 in their frames. By Moses these principles, or qualities of 

 the same thing, are apparently styled the Ruach Elohim, or 

 by Timothy the Spirit of Him " who only hath immortality, 

 dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom 

 no man hath seen, nor can see," and which, when the word 

 was spoken, first moved upon the face of the waters, and 

 afterwards disengaged the light, evolved the expanse, gath- 

 ered the waters together, brought forth the green vegetation, 

 manifested the celestial universe, vitalized the breathing 

 frames of the dry land, the firmament and the seas, and 

 formed man in His own image and likeness. This ruach, or 

 spirit, was the instrumental principle commissioned by the 

 glorious Increate for the elaboration of the natural world, 

 the erection of this earthly house, and its equipment with 

 living souls of every species ; and it is this same instrumen- 

 tally formative power that, together with the neshemeh, or 

 breath, that keeps them from perishing, or returning to the 

 dust. " If God set his heart against man, He will withdraw 

 to himself ruachu veneshemetu, that is, His spirit and His 

 breath; all flesh shall "perish together, and man shall turn 

 again to dust." " By the neshemet el" or breath of God, " frost 

 is given." Speaking of reptiles and beasts, David saith, 

 "thou withdrawest ruachem their spirit they die; and to 

 their dust they return. Thou sendest forth ruheck thy 

 spirit they are created." 



From this cumulative evidence it is manifest that the ruach 

 is all-pervading. It is in heaven, in sheol, or in the dust of the 

 deepest hollow ; in the uttermost depths of the sea ; in the 

 darkness as well as in the light ; in all things animate and 

 inanimate. In the broadest, or I may say, in an illimitable 

 sense, it is an universal principle. It is the substratum of all 



