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Page 10
[Sidenote: A Jewish Argument.]
[Sidenote: Kant's Reasoning.]
[Sidenote: Can Not Be Demonstrated.]
The next clause in the creed, "The resurrection of the body," if it
remains as a permanent article of faith, must rest on the declaration of
Christ and on His resurrection. It is confessedly dependent, not on a
natural, but a supernatural order. On this point it is again worth our
while to note a concession by Huxley, as showing the consistency of one
Christian truth with another. "If a genuine, and not merely subjective,
immortality awaits us, I conceive that without some such change as that
depicted in I Corinthians xv, immortality must be eternal misery."[8]
Surely, this is a great testimony to that famous chapter on the
resurrection. No scientific proof or probability can be adduced for the
resurrection of the body. The older theologians used to point out that
the caterpillar entombed itself that it might emerge to the higher life
of the butterfly. But we must not take from such a fact what suits our
purpose, and leave a fatal weakness in our argument. The butterfly does,
indeed, emerge from the coffin of the cocoon and the seemingly dead
pupa. But it is only for a brief day of life. Then it lays its eggs and
dies forever. It is born to no immortality, but to the most ephemeral
life. The early Church; yea, the Jewish Church, found rational warrant
for belief in immortality and the resurrection of the body, first in the
thought that it was unjust for those who fought for and brought in the
kingdom of God, to enjoy nothing of what they secured. So the doctrine
of the first resurrection appears as a contribution of justice to holy
life. Later on, similar reasoning demanded the resurrection of all. A
judgment is necessary, not to acquaint God with the merits of men, but
to acquaint men with the righteousness of God. This would be impossible
without the resurrection of all. Very close to this is the reasoning of
Kant, summarized as follows: "Every moral act must have as an end the
highest good. This good consists of two elements, virtue and felicity,
or happiness. The two are inseparable. But these can not be realized
under the limitations of this existence. Immortality follows as a
deduction. The moral law demands perfect virtue or holiness; but a moral
being can not realize absolute moral perfection or a holy completeness
of nature in this present life." It is wholly of faith that men are
immortal. It of necessity can not be demonstrated. The mass of mankind
have believed it, and do believe it, and it is one of the most
difficult of beliefs to escape from, returning to some skeptical
scientists almost as an intuition, conquering the logic of death and
decay.
[Footnote 8: Biography, Vol. II. p. 322.]
[Sidenote: How Faith Grows.]
It is also true that faith in immortality grows with the fullness and
intelligence of the spiritual life. It becomes a complete persuasion to
the pure in heart. Yet some scientific facts, as related to man, make
the idea of his extinction improbable, and separate him from the "beast
which perisheth."
[Sidenote: Men and Brutes.]
[Sidenote: What Brutes Have.]
It is true that much is common to men and brutes. They walk the same
earth; breathe the same air; are nourished by the same food, which is
digested by the same processes. Their life is transmitted by the same
methods, and their embryonic life is strangely similar. It is also true
that there are strong mental resemblances. Both love and hate; are
jealous and indifferent; are courageous and cowardly; they perceive by
similar organs; record by similar mnemonic ganglia; and are within
certain limits impelled by the same motives. Nor can a measure of reason
be denied to animals. While much of what appears to be mental life is
automatic and unconscious response to an external stimulus reaching a
nerve-center, yet within limits they deliberate; they exercise choice;
and determine routes and methods.
[Sidenote: Man Above Brutes.]
[Sidenote: Habits of Animals.]
[Sidenote: Limits of Brute Intelligence.]
[Sidenote: Limits Continued.]
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