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purposes , no dqubt , but not for the gaze of man . We cannot , therefore , regard these restorations ( not of art but of nature ) with a light and thoughtless mind . There is something almost awful in the idea of a " graven image " of a once-created being not intended for the sight of man . As matters of science , however , they are monuments which are not less astonishing , as the result of human study , than the inimitable works of art which adorn the interior of the
Exhibition . They inspire the mind with an idea of the machinery of life , which no living object could suggest . The machinery of life is gradually dilapidated and destroyed by the agencies of chemistry , after life has once ceased to exist . The change which takes place in the human body after death , though slow in all cases , and in some , as in the case of the Egyptian mummies , protracted for centuries , yet ultimately reduces the atoms of
which the living body was composed , to their ultimate elements of oxygen , carbon , hydrogen , and azote . These , sooner or later , assume , either uncombined or chemically united with each other , the form of a liquid or gas : and , in one of these forms , unite with other elements , and serve to nourish the vegetable on which feeds the animal whose flesh serves to nourish other human beings . It follows of necessity that not only in the case of cannibals who feed directly
on human flesh , but in almost all other cases , the atoms which the nutrient system converts into human flesh and blood must have previously formed part of some other human body . And in some thoughtful minds this revolution of atoms has appeared to present a difficulty , an impossibility , indeed , to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead . Now the resurrection , being an article of almost universal belief , it may not be uninteresting to our
Brethren to inquire into the bearing of the mechanism of life upon the doctrine in question . In the first place , it appears to the superficial thinker an unlikely thing ( philosophically speaking ) that when the life of a human being has once terminated , and his hopes and his fears , with his component atoms , are laid in the dust , he should again
exist m ^ any conscious form ; and in the second place , it seems an impossible thing that the machinery of life should be so arranged during the ravages of dissolution as that the identity of each individual should be so preserved in the resurrection of all men from the dead , as to present each individual in his entire structure . Let us look these difficulties in the face .
1 . " If a man die , shall he live again ? " —The question is very natural , and it is here clothed in Scripture language . We see ail things around us die : none of them are individually resuscitated . " The grass withereth , the flower fadeth : " and we see no more the withered blade or the faded petal . So , "it is appointed unto all
men once to die , " and in common with every animal who returns to the dust , " Man giveth up the ghost , and wiiebe is he ? " We see him not again . Is there in the physical history of the universe , any single ground of hope that he will ever live again ? Apart from revelation , does philosophy suggest for man the privilege of a resurrection
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
purposes , no dqubt , but not for the gaze of man . We cannot , therefore , regard these restorations ( not of art but of nature ) with a light and thoughtless mind . There is something almost awful in the idea of a " graven image " of a once-created being not intended for the sight of man . As matters of science , however , they are monuments which are not less astonishing , as the result of human study , than the inimitable works of art which adorn the interior of the
Exhibition . They inspire the mind with an idea of the machinery of life , which no living object could suggest . The machinery of life is gradually dilapidated and destroyed by the agencies of chemistry , after life has once ceased to exist . The change which takes place in the human body after death , though slow in all cases , and in some , as in the case of the Egyptian mummies , protracted for centuries , yet ultimately reduces the atoms of
which the living body was composed , to their ultimate elements of oxygen , carbon , hydrogen , and azote . These , sooner or later , assume , either uncombined or chemically united with each other , the form of a liquid or gas : and , in one of these forms , unite with other elements , and serve to nourish the vegetable on which feeds the animal whose flesh serves to nourish other human beings . It follows of necessity that not only in the case of cannibals who feed directly
on human flesh , but in almost all other cases , the atoms which the nutrient system converts into human flesh and blood must have previously formed part of some other human body . And in some thoughtful minds this revolution of atoms has appeared to present a difficulty , an impossibility , indeed , to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead . Now the resurrection , being an article of almost universal belief , it may not be uninteresting to our
Brethren to inquire into the bearing of the mechanism of life upon the doctrine in question . In the first place , it appears to the superficial thinker an unlikely thing ( philosophically speaking ) that when the life of a human being has once terminated , and his hopes and his fears , with his component atoms , are laid in the dust , he should again
exist m ^ any conscious form ; and in the second place , it seems an impossible thing that the machinery of life should be so arranged during the ravages of dissolution as that the identity of each individual should be so preserved in the resurrection of all men from the dead , as to present each individual in his entire structure . Let us look these difficulties in the face .
1 . " If a man die , shall he live again ? " —The question is very natural , and it is here clothed in Scripture language . We see ail things around us die : none of them are individually resuscitated . " The grass withereth , the flower fadeth : " and we see no more the withered blade or the faded petal . So , "it is appointed unto all
men once to die , " and in common with every animal who returns to the dust , " Man giveth up the ghost , and wiiebe is he ? " We see him not again . Is there in the physical history of the universe , any single ground of hope that he will ever live again ? Apart from revelation , does philosophy suggest for man the privilege of a resurrection