A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin FranklinFranklin, Benjamin
Religion
A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin Franklin
Franklin, Benjamin
Churches of Christ
We are not to assume that, because we find _soul_ and _spirit_ used
interchangeably in some instances, they always mean the same, much less
that they always mean life. When Paul prays that the “whole spirit and
soul and body be preserved blameless,” he does not use the words soul
and spirit in the same sense, any more than he uses the words soul and
the body in the same sense. He does not use the spirit, soul and body,
in the same sense, or as meaning the _same thing_, but each having its
own meaning. The word soul is used with more latitude than the word
spirit. The word _soul_ is frequently used in the sense of _person_, as
“the soul that sinneth shall die;” “eight souls were saved in the ark,”
and other cases. The word soul is used in the sense of _life_, in some
instances. But it is used synonymously with spirit, in the following:
“Are not able to kill the soul.” Matt. x. 28. Man can kill the body and
the natural life, but the soul or spirit, man can not kill. The living
being that dwells in the body, or the “inner man,” does not die when
the body dies. This “inner man” may be “at home in the body, or absent
from the body and present with the Lord.” This “inner man” may be
caught away to paradise, in the body or out of the body. But we cannot
go into the discussion of these matters, now.
We do not receive the idea of men losing their identity, individuality
or consciousness; the transmigration of the soul, or the pre-existence
of the soul; nor the atheistic idea that “death is an eternal sleep.”
We can find better, and certainly more profitable themes than these, on
which to dwell, both in our meditations, preaching and writing. Let us
be careful and not get out where the water is too deep—we might find
it over our heads.
BELIEF IN THE BIBLE IS INFALLIBLY SAFE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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