We have now examined all those passages in which the word spirit is used in such a manner as to furnish what is claimed to be evidence of its uninterrupted consciousness after the death of the body. We have found them all easily explainable in harmony with other positive and literal declarations of the Scriptures that the dead know not any thing, that when a man’s breath goeth forth and he returneth to his earth, his very thoughts perish, and that there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor device in the grave to which we go. And so far the unity of the Bible system of truth on this point is unimpaired, and the harmony of the testimony of the Scriptures is maintained. We will now examine those scriptures in which the term soul is supposed to be used in a manner to favor the popular view. The first of these is Gen. 35:18: “And it came to pass as her soul was in departing (for she died), that she called his name Benoni.” This is adduced as evidence that the soul departs when the body dies, and lives on in an active, conscious condition. Luther Lee remarks on this passage:-- “Her body did not depart. Her brains did not depart. There was nothing which departed which could consistently be called her soul, only on the supposition that there is in man an immaterial spirit which leaves the body at death.” We may offset this assertion of Luther Lee’s with the following criticism from Prof. Bush:-- “_As her soul was in departing._ Heb. _betzeth naphshah, in the going out of her soul_, or _life_. Gr., ἐν τω ἀφιεναι ἀυτην την ψυχην, _in her sending out her life_. The language legitimately implies no more than the departing or ceasing of the vital principle, whatever that be. In like manner when the prophet Elijah stretched himself upon the dead child, 1 Kings 17:21, and cried three times, saying, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s soul come into him again,’ he merely prays for the return of his physical vitality.”--_Note on Gen. 35:18._ The Hebrew word here translated soul is _nephesh_, rendered in the Septuagint by _psuche_; and it is unnecessary to remind those who have read the chapter on Soul and Spirit that these words mean something besides body and brains. They often signify that which can be said to leave the body, as we shall presently see, rendering entirely uncalled for the supposition of an immaterial spirit which Mr. Lee makes such haste to adopt. What then did depart, and what is the plain, simple import of the declaration? We call the reader’s attention again to the criticism of Parkhurst, the lexicographer, on this passage:-- “As a noun, _nephesh_ hath been supposed to signify the spiritual part of man, or what we commonly call his soul. I must for myself confess that I can find no passage where it hath undoubtedly this meaning. Gen. 35:18; 1 Kings 17:21, 22; Ps. 16:10, seem fairest for this signification. But may not _nephesh_, in the three former passages, be most properly rendered _breath_, and in the last, a breathing or animal frame?”