REV. A. R. WHAT ELY, D.h., ON IMMORTALITY. 21 



must appear the hypothesis of higher grades or planes of 

 organic functioning. Witness the still common prejudice 

 among ordinary scientists against psychical research. But, 

 from the broadest and deepest standpoint, the higher physical 

 sphere is more than a mere hypothesis, more even than a 

 theory based on investigation : rather the burden of proof lies 

 with those who deny it. 



In conclusion, let me say that the arguments I have tried to 

 put forward suffer greatly from their necessary isolation from 

 the wider ranges of thought to which they belong. But their 

 main drift and moral have, I hope, been made clear. " A cxlo 

 descendit <yv(x)9L aeavrov!' 



Discussion. 



Colonel Alves said : On page 9, lines 1 to 3, is the imphcation, 

 only too true, that the docitrine of Immortality is relegated by 

 religious thought to a comparatively subordinate position. 



Why should this be the case, seeing the great importance 

 attached to it by our Lord and the Apostle Paul 1 



The answer is not far to seek. Immortality, or undyingness, is, 

 to any mind, save that of a juggling schoolman, the same thing, 

 manward, as future, eternal (or never-ending) life ; and it is one of 

 the monopolies of Deity, entrusted to the Lord Jesus, see i Tim. 

 vi, 16. 



But most of us have been brought up to believe that, will we or 

 nill we, in grace or in wrath, we are born heirs of an immortality to 

 be passed either in bliss or in woe. We have been taught, not by 

 God's Word (theology) but by God's-Word-men (theologians), that 

 life does not mean life but happiness, that death does not mean 

 death but misery, that destruction does not mean destruction but 

 preservation, and so on ; in fact, that, in matters of Eschatology, 

 the Bible seldom or never means what it says. Protestants and 

 Papists alike endorse the serpent's lie — " ye shall not surely die." 



When to this is added the too general Arminian teaching that for 

 no one is future salvation a present assured certainty, can we 

 wonder that, with people who think at all, either immortality is 

 assumed as a matter of course, the only question being how shall I 

 escape hell, instead of — how shall I be fit for heaven ; or else the 

 mind is revolted from the whole subject % 



