[February 7th, 1864.]
The question, What is the soul, is not easily answered. 1. The answer of the materialist, who ignores the distinction between mind and matter, would refer to the functions of matter all the phenomena of the world, whether physical, vital or mental. Life is the result of organization, and not its cause. Thought and intelligence are mere functions of the brain. But this doctrine destroys the soul’s individuality and also its value.
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The pantheistic answer is that it is a form of God; a mode in which the general agency of God is manifested in connection with a given organism. This destroys moral character, responsibility and personal immortality. There is a dangerous approximation to this doctrine which refers all the operations of second causes in nature to the immediate agency of God. If it is God who burns when fire burns, why is it not God who thinks when the mind thinks? The difference between matter and mind may be arbitrarily assumed, but it cannot be proved on this hypothesis.
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The answer of the Realist is that the universal principle of humanity is manifested in connection with a corporeal organism. The difference between this and Pantheism is, that it assumes the existence of a distinct substance called humanity (of which there is no evidence). If this substance is a unity, then there can be no individuality of the soul, any more than there is of magnetism, or electricity, or vegetable life. If it be said that each individual soul is a separate part of this common humanity, then humanity and the soul must be material and capable of division. No man would say that his hand or foot was or contained a part of his soul. It is difficult to see how this realistic doctrine can be reconciled with the individuality or personal immortality of the soul.
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The common doctrine of men, of the Scriptures, and of the Church is, that the soul is a distinct individual subsistence, a substance having personality. This doctrine underlies all the representations of the Scripture, and is alone consistent with individual responsibility and immortality.
In determining the value of the soul, we must,
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Determine the class of beings to which it belongs. There are various orders, organic and inorganic, sensible and insensible, vegetable and animal, rational and irrational, mortal and immortal. The soul, as it belongs to the highest general class of beings, that of rational and immortal spirits, has a very elevated position in the scale of being.
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Although it may be lowest in that class, and therefore its absolute value less than that of the higher order of spirits, yet its inherent value, as determined by its capacities, by what it can know, enjoy or suffer, and by what it effects, is above all estimate. By this standard it is more valuable than all the irrational creatures combined. Less would be lost if a material globe, teeming with animal and vegetable life, should be blotted out, than if a single soul should perish.
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Its value is not determined, however, merely by the powers which it possesses, but by the unending duration which belongs to it. If it was to exist but for a few years, here on earth, or for a few centuries, or for millenniums hereafter, it would be comparatively worthless. It is because it is to exist in constant activity forever, with the capacity of unlimited development in sorrow and enjoyment that its intrinsic value does not admit of being estimated.
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The soul has in its moral and religious nature a higher element of value than that which belongs to its mere rational nature or capacity for joy and sorrow. It is because it is capable of partaking of the nature of God, of bearing his image in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, that its worth is unspeakably greater than it otherwise could be.
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As the great end, and therefore, the value of the creation is to manifest the glory of God, the value of any part of the creation is to be estimated by its adaptation to that end; and as it is in rational, holy, and immortal beings that the glory of God is most clearly revealed, they are, therefore, unspeakably the most valuable portion of his works.
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The estimate which God makes of the value of the soul is shown in the provision which he has made for its salvation.
The considerations above mentioned relate to the absolute or intrinsic value of the soul. They do not concern its relative value, that is, its value to us. This we can only muse upon. We cannot argue about, or estimate what is infinite.
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If we compare the soul to anything else, the world and all it contains, we see the two do not admit of comparison. The one is infinitely less than the other. The relation of a grain of sand to the material universe, of an insect to all animated nature, of a new-born infant to the whole intelligent creation, or a single moment of pleasure, a draught of cold water to a long life of the highest blessedness, fail utterly to indicate the disparity between the value of our souls to us, and all other things.
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If instead of comparing the soul with anything else, we try to estimate its value by what it may enjoy in heaven, or by what it must suffer in hell, if not saved, we are lost and overwhelmed.
Inferences
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Work out your own salvation.
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Labor for the salvation of others.
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