REV. A. R. VVHATELY_, D.D._, ON IMMORTALITY. 



27 



29), life is his for ever, but with power to lay it down, or if in 

 Christ as One with Him, power to take it again (John x, 18). 



We can never cross the same river twice, for it is continuously 

 passing away and as continuously being renewed. Likewise man is 

 for ever passing away, so far as that which is human of him, in 

 body, soul, and spirit, is concerned. The river passes away and 

 dies in the sea, being swallowed up of the life of the sea. 



Though apparently it meets with death yet it does not die but 

 adds fresh life to the sea, and mortality is swallowed up of life and 

 death in victory of the living sea. 



Dr. Thirtle said : We are indebted to Dr. Whately for a paper 

 that is rich in thought. If, at the end, we do not seem to have 

 attained a firm foothold— if we have, after all, a fear that 

 immortality is hardly secure as a natural expectation and a 

 universal heritage — then that is the misfortune of the philosopher, 

 and not the fault of the Christian theologian. Our minds have 

 been stimulated by the paper, though the interest, in the precise 

 sense of the word, has been negative rather than positive. As 

 people of feeling as well as thought, as moralists as well as 

 intellectual beings, must we not say that, on the grounds of 

 philosophy, the assurance of a life to come is essentially i weak and 

 halting 1 



There were in the paper several points on which I should have 

 liked to ask questions ; but they may pass. I will content myself 

 with the expression of my own conviction, after many years of 

 close thought on the theme, that while philosophy may yield some 

 measure of encouragement to the hope of a future life, it can do no 

 more. Can we, for instance, imagine a man or woman, for the 

 reasons given by the learned lecturer, becoming strong in ho])e, 

 assured in faith, enthusiastic in devotion to the service of God 1 

 Assuredly not ! If philosophy had been able, in any conceivaljle 

 development, to make clear the way to God, then there would have 

 been no need for the coming of Him Who, in the fullness of time, 

 brought life and incorruption (i.e., incorruptible life) to light 

 through the Gospel. 



A doctrine of immortality can only be considered to profit in the 

 light of what man is in his present state and what the immortal 

 Saviour of man has undertaken on behalf of His people. For a 

 mortal to "realize" selfhood cannot lead to immortality ; but for 



