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For though you speak of ' a spiritual body,' I cann understand an union of contradictories ; and a bodiless body, < a material spirit, has for me no meaning. Nor do I know wh matter is, except body. Thus you make Heaven a mere plac and our souls bodies, and the Infinite God a powerful ma HINDU 8PIRITUALISM. CHRISTIAN REPLY. 429 All tbis has a poor sound to us when we compare it with those infinite worlds through which our own thoughts expatiate, and with the entire freedom from every shackle of sense, which we think belongs to perfect spirit, and with the kindred of that which is immortal in us to the Highest and all-embracing Intelligence. Every argument which you used for the immor- tality of man's soul seems to be on the side of such a faith as ours, rather than of this confined doctrine, with which Chris- tians either express a higher truth in Jewish parables, or, as I should say, lose it in them. You have spoken, as if yon were not incapable of apprehending our grander views of in- finity ; but the Christian doctrine, as I have generally under- stood it, of a Heaven and an earth, and a great king, and a lifting of our bodies out of the grave, and an opening or shutting the gates of Heaven with keys, seems a falling back from the ftiU growth of the soul into childhood. So that, while you seemed to be right in taking the spirit against the letter of the Jews, when I compare your faith with ours, you seem to be Jews yourselves. For I suppose names make little difTer- ence, unless thoughts are changed. But I shall be glad to hear from you any explanation of the difficulties which I have ventured to suggest." (1) " It would have been a bad return for your patience with us, if I had interrupted you," here observed Mountain; " other- wise your misconception of the aspect of Christian doctrines would have inclined me to do so. In the first place, you will nowhere find it written in the Scriptures of the Old Testament or the New, that the disobedience of Eve is put down, as an act, to our account. But have we no principle in us partaking of that which made her disobey? What have you acknowledged yourself of sin, and of the need of penitence and forgiveness? But whenever we sin, as the conscience of better men owns that we do, so often we fall from our better mind, and so from the likeness of God. We disobey the law to which conscience testifies. Nor does our disobedience come of accident, but of 430 FALLING OF MAN A BEALITT, a division in onrselTes, which we lament and yet are guilty of, and 80 which attests an evil principle in us, warring with the good. But if any creature sins, of that which is in itself, or of a tendency which it inherits, then it so far has an evil nature, or a sinftdness bound up in its very origin. But such tendency goes on to act, and may suffer before act. We put our foot on the head of a young viper, without waiting till its fangs grow. But if one could change the nature of the viper, so that it should become harmless, or its poison prove medicine, we should save it for its better nature's sake. Thus Mankind have evil in them ; but in so £bu: as any one is cured of this evil, and fulfils the design of God which is our truer nature and His likeness, so far the man is healed, and deUvered from evil. ^' But it makes a great difference, imder what aspect such a doctrine is presented to the mind. If it is exaggerated, so as to deny our better conscience, and destroy that witness to the holier law of God, which he makes an instrument to heal us, then it becomes evil. But no such statement is taught as our doctrine in the Bible. On the contrary, some of the stronger sayings, which might seem to support so harsh an exaggeration, are expressly condemned. Some of them come from the mouths of those three illnatured friends of Job*, on whom Divine dis- approval is pronoimced. It is neither wise of friend, nor fiedr of foe, to make those wrong sayings a specimen of Christian doctrine. Again, some similar sayings are used only in reproof of a particularly evil generationf, as of that which sinned before the flood; or of strangers who oppressed the Israelites :(; or of tyrants and spoilers §, who got riches not by right. Words spoken in such a relation would naturally be strong, as there was great occasion for them. But the only passages in the Bible, which really express the general sinftdness of our race, are outpourings of penitence, or else of rebuke to men who • Job iv. 17—30; xi. 3, 11, 20 ; xxv. 4 — 6; xxxii. i— 3i. t Genesis vi. i. + Psalms xiv. 53. § Jeremiah xviL 9—1 1 ; zziL 3 BUT NOT TO BE EXAGGERATED. 431 pretended especial righteousness, and needed strong recall to humility. But penitence of heart is, like love or grief, a passion which does not weigh words nicely, but pours forth a feeling it cannot contain. Beholdy I was shapen in iniquity , might well be said by David, when fresh from the sin of adultery, into which fierce passion had carried him ; and every man, in so &r as he approaches a like sin, may use words of like fervour. But even the purest may in a way adopt them; for he who conceives most highly of holiness, will have deepest contrition for even a slight fSall from it. Hence it is that Christianity, having the strongest sense of the evil of sin, breathes such fervour of repentance. Our faith in that Holiest One, whom we cry out for, makes us feel most our fedling from His Will. Nor do we doubt, that such life-long falling from man's better nature is also &lling from what God intended him to be, and so from the Divine likeness ; for our conscience witnesses by fedth to no imaginary law. And as God is perfect in right, and infinite in goodness, so we ever fall short, but reach onward to attain that for which His better Spirit attains us. But neither Scrip- ture of old nor the Church now, teaches, that God pimishes us for any act, save our own. It may be, that when deep feelings come to be expressed in the uncongenial shape of forms, they become in danger of losing their truest aspect. Thus some would say, that Eve's sin is imputed to us, because we partake of its evil ; but the same persons would add, that the imputation is taken away, when we become partakers of Christ, and are baptized into His fold. Some lay more stress on the moral disease, and on the health of soiil by which we spiritually re- vive ; others lay more on our visible birth in a nature partaking that disease, and on the sacred rite visibly sealing our admission into* a covenant of the forgiveness of sins. But all agree, in what Scripture is express upon, that man is smitten of Gt>d for his own sinsfy and not for those of his fathers. They agree also, that in so far as we partake of Adam, or fallen man, we die ; * c/f , tnlD. NkeDe Creed. i* Eiekiel zTiii. 432 RELATION, ASPECT, FEELING, SACRAMENT. but in 80 far as of Christ, or perfect man and Image of Grod*^, we live. As we partake of flesh, we have natural death. As we partake of sinfulness, we are in danger of the death of the soul. As we partake of Christ's sacrifice, we have forgiveness ; and as of His Holy Spirit, we have eternal life. Even those Christians who lay most stress on visible baptism, as admission into the covenant of forgiveness, do so not from ascribing arbi- trariness to God, but out of reverent thankfulness for His health, and unwillingness to forget the disease which needs it. Nor would it be reasonable, or humble, to neglect the rite by which His gift is sealed to the soul. But yet our wisest teachers make the rite not a charm, but rather a moral instrument to man, as well as an ordinance of Grod. For by baptism, they say, we are consigned humanly to holy teaching, and prayers, and all instruments of training the soul ; while they doubt not the Divine blessing will, according to fit time and capacity, run along with these things, which have a promise to faith, and which express faith. '^ Unless then you say that there is no sin in human nature, or that it needs no recovery, I do not see how you can object to the Christian doctrine that man is fallen, and needs to be raised on his feet. Your own confessions come too near our doctrine for you altogether to reject it. We are not the first among mankind to call mortals sick, or weary, or pining. Even Sdkya, with his groaning over earthly things, acknowledged something wrong in the world.