Section V.

The Immateriality of Mind Proved from the Nature of its Desires.

The spirituality of the human soul may be inferred from the nature of its desires; from its thirst for happiness, which can be slaked only by drinking at the fountain of spiritual bliss. That all men desire happiness will not be denied; and that the greater portion seek it where it is not to be found, must also be admitted. The reason is, they seek it in the gratification of their animal propensities, and in the enjoyment of material objects, which can never feed and satisfy a spirit-soul. If the mind was material, right reason must teach us, that matter could answer all the demands of its nature, and satisfy its most capacious desires. Nothing can be more reasonable, than, that all beings should find the centre of their happiness, in the perfection and fullness of the elements of their own natures. If man were only matter, if his soul were only matter compounded of the elements of the material world, in the material world would exist his centre of attraction, and the fountain of his highest enjoyment. That matter should seek an alliance with the spiritual world, and seek for fountains of spiritual bliss, and pant for spiritual joys, is as absurd and unphilosophical, as to suppose it to be governed by other than its own essential laws, and, to act in violation of the essential properties of its own nature. The fact that the world of matter, never did, and never can satisfy the desires of the human soul, is one of the clearest proofs that the soul is not itself matter. The world in any and all its forms, cannot satisfy the desires of one human soul; give it all the elements of earth, sea and air, moulded into every possible form, and it will grasp the whole and thirst and famish still, and pant for higher bliss; there is still an aching void which God and love can fill. The reason of this is, the soul is not matter but spirit; were it matter, in matter would it find the element of its own nature, and the fullness of its own happiness; but it is a spirit, and in this respect like God. It originally came from God, and hence can be happy in God alone, as God dwells in us and we in God. But does God dwell in matter and matter in God Can matter have fellowship with the Father and the Son Can matter have communion with the Eternal Spirit Can matter drink joys from the fountains of the God head

The desire of knowledge, taken in connection with the capacity of the mind to improve, with the comparative progress of the body and mind, furnishes another argument in proof of its immateriality or spiritual nature. That the soul commences its career without knowledge is admitted; it has all to learn, but its capacity to learn furnishes the basis of the argument. The human mind is endowed with reason, which enables it to discover resemblances and differences, compare, judge, and deduce conclusions. This is the foundation of improvement, and distinguishes the human soul from the most intelligent of brutes, as well as from the material body in which it dwells. The mind in its present state is dependent upon the bodily organs for primary ideas; that is, the knowledge derived from seeing is received through the medium of the eyes, and the knowledge derived from hearing is received through the medium of the ears, yet such is the capacity of the mind, and such the manner of its improvement, as to furnish clear evidence that it is not one with the body, but in its nature, a distinct and spiritual element.

1. Its improvement is a distinct matter from the improvement of the body. The health of the body and mind frequently mutually affect each other, yet they are clearly distinct in their elemental nature. The body may grow and flourish in all the perfection of health, and the mind make little or no progress. Again, the body may be of exceedingly frail structure, pale and wan, and yet a giant mind may develope itself from within. Some of the greatest geniuses the world has ever produced, have had but just body enough to hold the soul. These facts certainly indicate that the soul and the body are not one and the same thing.

2. The body comes to maturity and begins to decline, at an age when the mind has but just commenced its career of improvement. The mind often makes its greatest advancement, after the body has commenced its downward course in the scale of being. The body usually possesses its greatest power and activity at twenty-five; at thirty it is in its full strength, but its activity begins to fail; at forty the whole physical system enters upon the downward course of life, and from sixty to seventy, it is generally superannuated. But it is otherwise with the mind; at twenty-five it has usually but begun to learn, its judgment is very far from being mature; from thirty to forty it begins to develop its powers; at fifty, sixty, and even seventy, the body being comparatively worn out, the mind is in its full strength and glory. This clearly proves, that the mind is not the body, that the growth of the one is not the growth of the other, and that the decay of the one is not the decay of the other.

3. The phenomenon of what is called dotage, or second childhood, which some may regard as overthrowing the above view, when examined, will be found actually to support it. The apparent decay of the mind in eases of second childhood, by their want of uniformity, proves that the body and the soul are not one and the same thing, and that the decay of the one is not necessarily the decay of the other. If the mind were material-if it were not distinguished in the elements of its nature from the material body, then would the intellect necessarily and uniformly grow with the growth, and decay with the decay of the body. This is not the case; mental imbecility is often discovered in those whose bodies are less impaired, and whose general health and vigor of body is far superior to others whose minds appear in their full strength. This could not be the case, if the mind did actually decay with the decay of the body.

4. The doctrine of Phrenology, which makes the size of the brain the measure of mental power, and the comparative size of its parts an index to the prevailing mental propensities, if admitted, would not prove the mind to be matter, or the brain to be the mind. The advocates of Phrenology will not make this the issue, and base their science on the doctrine of materialism, to stand or fall with it. All that can be claimed for Phrenology, is, that the brain is the material organ through which the mind acts and develops itself in its incarnate state, and that it will, of course, develop a power proportioned to the size or strength of the brain; and, that the prevailing direction of the mind will be indicated by the comparative size of the phrenological divisions of the brain. Admitting all this to be true, it does not, in itself; tend to materialism, since it supposes the brain to be only the organ of the mind, and Rot the mind itself.

5. The mind often develops itself in its greatest power and glory, just at the moment of death, shining out from an emaciated body, already wan and cold. These cases, of very frequent occurrence, clearly indicate that the mind is not the body; that it does not waste with it, and does not die with it. It is true that in some cases the mind appears to decay with the decaying body, but to prove that it is the body or any part of it, this would have to be always so without exception, which is not the case. To make the argument plain, we say that a single instance in which the mind kindles up at the moment of death, and blazes out with unwonted intellectual fires, while the body is cold and helpless, cannot be reconciled with the idea that the mind is any part of the material body, and that it wastes and dies with it. On the other hand, those cases in which the mind appears to waste with the body and go out like the sun, passing gradually behind a cloud, deeper and darker, until its last ray is lost, can be explained in perfect harmony with the theory of the immateriality of the mind, and even its immortality. Does the mind fail, as in second childhood-or does it grow gradually dim as the body wastes under the influence of disease The explanation is this: the bodily organs through which the mind communicates with the material world, in these particular cases, are impaired by age or disease. In many cases of death from sickness, the mind appears to waste away, or gradually sink into a state of sleep, merely because the will does not determine it in a direction to develop itself to the world without. But that the mind is there, distinct from the wasting, dying body, is clear from the many cases already referred to, in which the mind, being roused by the prospect of heaven, or seized with the terror of impending perdition, flashes with the fires of immortality, and sheds a living glare as it quits its house of clay and enters upon the destinies of the spirit-world.

This has often been witnessed in the dying moments of both the Christian and the sinner. There are but few Christian pastors who have been long devoted to their work, that have not in their visits among the sick and dying, more than once stood by the bed-side of those whose last moments left upon their minds a vivid impression of the undying nature of the human soul.