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is unity in the consciousness which attaches to them (or to 
which they are attached) and this points, of course, to the unity 
of the Psychical reality — that is the soul. The soul is not and 
cannot be an atom, or a group of atoms. Atoms of matter as 
we have learned, are atoms merely — detached, fragmentary, dis- 
missible particles without continuousuess. The soul, the seat 
of consciousness, thought, and feeling, must be a continuous 
and independent reality or substance, for unity is visible in all 
its phenomena. The soul once discovered, we discover what 
the Materialist fails to supply, because his atoms of matter fail 
to supply it, the * promise and potency ’ of consciousness and 
personal identity.” * 
Allow me now to apply these scientific facts and deductions 
to those elements of our Christian faith which scepticism has 
so persistently assailed : Man’s spiritual nature and his immor- 
tality. What bearing have they upon those elements of our 
faith? We do not look for moral and religious truth from the 
study of natural science. We do not go to the laboratory for 
our religion — nor do we seek for its essentials by the help of 
the crucible, the retort, the blowpipe, and the spirit-lamp. 
Put we arc confident that the teachings of true science will not 
contradict the teachings of true religion. And this confidence 
is not vain ; for we are able to see that if the latest revelations 
of science have any effect on our religious faith, they rather 
strengthen it, and in no way weaken it. For, reviewing what 
I have said : — 
(a.) As the two forces, the life-force and the spiritual force, 
are not dependent upon the presence and permanence of the 
same particles of matter now and here, they will not be in 
any other period or in any other state of existence. 
(A) As the consciousness of one’s personal identity is not 
dependent upon the presence and continuance of the same par- 
ticles of matter now and here, it will not be in any other period 
or in any future state. 
At this point I remind you of another canon of science, 
which says that no force, no substance, no existence can be 
annihilated. 
Therefore, with the approval of science, I affirm — 
( c .) That the soul- substance, or the soul-existence, will not 
cease when the dissolution of its union with the body arrives. 
It has been well said that self-consciousness may be confused, 
disturbed, or suspended by such an organic dissolution. But, 
let the interruption cease, and then the consciousness will 
* British Quarterly Review, July, 1874, p. 115. 
