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Smmortalitu of Maw.

DISCOURSE

DELIVERED IN CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD,

ON THE EVENING OF EASTER, 1852.

BY THE REV. THOMAS M. CLARK, D. D.
Ill

HARTFORD:
PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY.
1852.

DISCOURSE.

I. Corinthians xv : 53. This mortal must put on immortality.
To affirm that there is any general and positive
unbelief in the community as to the immortality of
man, would be to make an assertion, which we
could not readily prove. But, if we should say that,
iu many minds, there is no such clear and firm belief
in this fact, as to exert a modifying and controlling
influence on the life and character; it is an affirma
tion, which a single glance at society will suffice
to demonstrate. If any individual were assured
that, on reaching a certain age, he would then be
elevated to a new and important station, where
he would be surrounded by peculiar responsibil
ities, called to the discharge of the most eminent
duties, and loaded with the highest honors: do you
think that he would make no preparation for that
great event, that he would take no time to qualify
himself for such a lofty post ? Would he not adjust
all his previous occupations, his business, his studies,
and his thoughts, with direct and constant reference
to his future elevation ? So, if men believed in their
immortal existence as a certainty, as a reality ; if it
stood before their vision as a fact ; why should they
say so little about it ? why should it enter so little, as
a vital element, into the processes of daily life ? why

should the affairs of this world be conducted with so
little reference to it ? why should men grasp so reck
lessly at the pleasure of the hour, utterly regardless
of the eternal consequence ? Perhaps they do not
actually disbelieve in the future state ; but they have
no belief, which is of any practical value; the future
is shadowy, undefined, unreal, altogether unlike the
present, which is tangible, practical and real.
What are some of the causes of skepticism as to
man's future existence ?
The absurd philosophy, which recognizes no essen
tial distinction between the soul and body, and repre
sents all the wonderful operations of the mind as only
the attributes of a certain form of organized matter, —
the nervous tissue developing thought as combustion is
supposed to produce heat, — can never attain any gen
eral hold upon the community. Against this gross
materialism, all our higher instincts rise in rebellion.
Even in respect of the vegetable and the brute, we
see at once that there must be a life-principle, flow
ing from the primal source of all life, — a power, lying
back of the mere organization to give it form; a
power, not evolved by chemistry or dynamics, but
forcing the laws of matter to subserve its purpose.
And to say that the brain itself can think, confuses
our intuitive conceptions, and would reverse all our
primitive ideas, if it did not begin with annihilating
them. But, without any theory on the subject, men
see that there is a degree of dependence in which the
body holds the spirit : the mind is feeble and imma
ture, while the body is immature and undeveloped ;
the soul may be reduced to temporary unconscious
ness by mechanical or chemical impression made upon
the nerves or the brain ; as the body decays in old

age, the mind generally becomes proportionably en
feebled ; and when in death, all corporeal vitality is
extinguished, — the terrible question intrudes itself,
why are not the mental activities now extinct ?
Is there any thing, in all this, to weaken our belief
in the continued existence of the soul, after the body
has returned to dust ? What is the relation of the
body to the soul ? In one sense, the body is a mere
piece of mechanism, which in our present imperfect
state, the spirit uses for the execution of its purposes:
the arm, for instance, is a lever, — the muscles are the
cords which move it, and through the nerves, what we
call the will, — which is only the soul acting, — regu
lates their contraction and extension ; so that when I
overcome the natural law of gravity by lifting a weight,
it is really my soul, and not my body which lifts it.
Now the power of the soul to act, through this mate
rial organization, depends of course upon the condition
of that organization ; just as the action of an engine
depends upon the proper disposition of its various
wheels, upon the strength of the material of which
they are composed, and the due connection of it*
several parts, as well as upon the quality and degree
ofthe motive power. This motive power is however,
in itself, an independent thing, and exists as such,
whether the mechanism, through which and upon
which it acts, be disarranged or not; and even the
destruction of the latter does not affect the former.
The soul of man is the motive power, the real entity :
its present development depends upon the condition of
the physical organism, but not its existence. And
although its decay generally seems to be correspond
ent with that ofthe body, if, in one solitary instance,
we can establish an exception to this general rule, it

6
is sufficient for our argument. Now it is a noticeable
fact that aged persons, who resolutely resist the nat
ural inertia of old age, and continue to cultivate
their mental powers, do often retain all their keen
ness of perception, their vivacity of thought, and
their soundness of judgment, long after the body has
become a total wreck : the soul, by its own inherent
energy, triumphs over the decaying structure, which
it inhabits, and only seems to need a better mechan
ism, to achieve nobler works than it ever did before.
There is an opposite extreme of immaterialism,
which also tends to weaken our belief in a future
state of existence. It regards the mind only as a
series of processes or thoughts, and as, under certain
conditions, these may be temporarily interrupted, —
so far as we are conscious, actually cease to be, — it is
inferred, that they may cease permanently, which is
equivalent to our annihilation. Now we should re
member that there is a spiritual substance, a real
entity, underlying this process of thought; which
though it cannot be felt, or seen, or weighed, by any
instruments now at our command, is just as much a
substance, a reality, an actual thing, as the outward
body. " There is a natural body, and there is a spir
itual body." It is this spiritual organism, which sees
and hears and feels, which suffers and enjoys, which
thinks and wills and executes ; which is, in short, the
real man. As perfect a picture may be formed upon
the retina of the eye, after death as before ; as com
plete a vibration produced upon the drum of the
ear ; but nothing is seen or heard, because the man
has gone, and these instruments are of no further
service. The fact, that the mind can recall sights
and sounds, when no impression is made upon the

senses, in the darkness and stillness of midnight, is
conclusive on this point. I once asked a person, who,
for nearly twenty years, had been cut off from all
communication with the outward world through the
sense of sight and almost entirely through that of
hearing, what resources she had to fill up the hours
of existence, and she replied, " I live over the past."
There was food for much thought in this answer.
When we say that the soul is immaterial, all that
we mean is that it is not formed of such material as is
cognizable by our senses. It does not follow that it
is an abstraction ; a mere thinking principle incapable
of being bounded by space and therefore incapable of
locality; it is the essential substance of man, about
which the corporeal structure forms itself; to be dis
pensed with and laid aside, when it is no longer ser
viceable. Another cause of skepticism, as to the fact of
immortality, grows out of the vague, shadowy and
unreal views which are entertained of the future state.
There are few minds, in which the fact of death is
not, to some extent, connected with the idea of ex
tinction : so that it is very common to say of one who
has left the earth, " he is no more." Not that it is
believed the individual has actually ceased to be, is
annihilated ; but it is felt that his completeness is im
paired, — he has become a shade, an object of awe
and dread, a ghostly and supernatural being, a species
of elementary soul, which when it dropped the body,
lost, in great part, the tastes and affections and mental
habitudes, which belonged to it, as a man. It is a
very common impression that death instantaneously
transforms the whole moral and intellectual being, to
that extent that we can hardly see how our identity

is to be preserved, or how there can be any variety of
character in the spirit world. The moment he passes
the threshold of eternity, it is supposed that the man
becomes another kind of being, instantly receiving by
intuition all the fullness of knowledge, springing at a
leap to the very summit of spiritual excellence, and
all this in entire independence of any intellectual and
moral processes, analogous to what we are subjected
to on earth. That wonderful combination of tastes and
affections and sympathies, which here constitutes our
interior being, is thought to be reduced at once to a
sort of elementary unity : the harmonious mingling of
various cords subsides into a monotonous unison.
Our multiform activities relapse into passive and
eternal repose ; we float in the ether like clouds, in
stead of working like men : we become receptacles of
supermundane happiness, instead of agents for the'
general increase of happiness : objects of Divine com
placency, instead of actors in the Divine employ.
No wonder that such an air of unreality thrown over
the future has induced skepticism as to the existence
ofthe future. We know indeed but little ofthe out
ward conditions, of the precise employments, of the
modes of thought, of the culture of the affections, per
taining to the heavenly state : as the little child has
no distinct conception of the excitements, the strug
gles, and the profound experiences which belong to
man's maturity. But we may infer enough from rev
elation and from the analogies of nature to satisfy us
that the essential laws of our being are eternal, and
vary only according to the outward condition of ex
istence and the degree of our development ; that the
elementary qualities of our nature are also eternal,
and can no more be annihilated than that nature it-

9
self; that we must therefore carry with us into eter
nity, whatever by culture and habit, have become the
dominant tastes, affinities, desires and thoughts, here
on earth ; in a word, that the character, intellectual,
moral and spiritual which we have cherished up to
the hour of our departure, accompanies us to the re
gions of the future. Do you fully apprehend this fact ?
You carried into your maturity the habits of your
youth : are you ready to carry into eternity the char
acter which you have now matured ? ¦
There is one thing further which induces skepticism
as to the truth of our immortality ; and that is a low
moral state, or exclusive devotion to the things of time
and sense. This earthly life incapacitates its subject
for the apprehension ofthe style of argument, by which
the certainty of a future existence is authenticated :
he requires sensible demonstration, in order to his
belief, — he has never seen a spirit, and therefore he
does not believe in the existence of such a being.
He has unbounded confidence in the evidence of his
senses, and but little faith in any thing else. Still
further, he may not wish to believe in a future state :
he would be glad, if the present life were without
end ; but inasmuch as it must end, and that is the
end of all in which he takes any delight, he has no
interest in believing that tliere is any thing beyond.
It is possible that he may not be simply indifferent as
to the existence of another state of being ; he may
strongly desire that there shall be no such future,
fearing that it may bring with it some dreadful recom
pense. But the more general effect of extreme sen
suality is to divert the thoughts from the future alto
gether ; it is a subject for which the imbruted mind
has no affinity, so that the man neither believes nor
2

10
disbelieves, but reposes in a state of stupid indiffer
ence. Such men never look upward at all ; but, like
the brutes, their gaze is always earthward, groping
about for something to gratify their appetites. It is
not worth while, however, to dwell upon their condi
tion, because they are not the sort of persons, who
would be likely to take any interest in such a discus
sion as the present.
In passing now to our positive argument in favor of
man's immortality, we are obliged to waive all proof
from revelation, because a firm belief in revelation
renders all argument superfluous ; and it is our pres
ent purpose to present an independent demonstration,
confirmatory of the declarations of Scripture.
1. We infer the immortality of man, from the fact
that he is competent to conceive of his own immor
tality. As man is the only creature on the earth,
aware of its own mortality and troubled with the fear
of death, so he is the only creature capable of con
ceiving of any other state of existence. I consider
this argument, simple as it may seem, to be perfectly
conclusive. The conceptions of all beings are limited
by the actualities within their reach : to suppose an
exception in the case before us is to argue against all
the analogies of nature. Where does the conception
of immortality come from, if there be no reality an
swering to it 1 Why is it implanted in our nature ?
What sort of a being must that be, which can con
ceive of its own immortality, and yet be liable, at any
moment, to be put out of existence by a puff of nox
ious air 1
Our argument is strengthened when we consider
that this conception becomes an aspiration, a desire,
the strongest wish of our nature ; so dominant and

11
all-controlling, that if it were made certain to us
that our personal existence would ever cease, even
though our annihilation were to be deferred for myr
iads of ages, the prospect of that future day when we
should cease to be, would turn every elevated pleas
ure into agony. Now what does this wish signify ?
Is it based upon nothing? Is it implanted in our
minds, only to keep us in order during the few years
of our mortal life ? Is our Creator mocking us with a
chimera ? Then let me believe that there is no God,
for it is better to have no opinion of God, than to sup
pose Him to be the Author of such a stupendous false
hood. Our argument is still further strengthened by
observing that belief in man's immortality, in some
form or other, is, and always has been universal. It
is an instinct of humanity, independent of argument,
and going before education. Neither the savage or
the child ever thinks of any final termination of his
existence. Now there is nothing finite so infallible as
instinct ; and to suppose an instinct pointing toward
a nonentity, is as absurd as to suppose a cause without
an effect. The philosopher who should pretend to
discover such an anomaly, any where else in the
kingdom of nature, would be sent to a mad-house.
When the French people wrote over the gate of their
cemeteries, " Death is an eternal sleep !" the French
people were insane, and their country was a Bedlam.
" 'Tis immortality deciphers man,
Arid opens all the mysteries of his make.
Without it, half his instincts are a riddle,
Without it, all his virtues are a dream."
2. Our second argument is this : the soul, the mind,
the life-principle, is a power ; the body is only a form

12
or a structure. All powers are eternal : all forms are
temporal. Or, as it is expressed by an Apostle,
" The things which are seen are temporal ; the things
which are not seen are eternal." The form is always
subservient to the power, takes its shape from the
power, acts under its control, and falls to pieces When
it is withdrawn. Forms are mere aggregations of dif
ferent particles of matter, drawn together by the vital
principle, but they do not evolve that principle.
Therefore that principle is not dependent upon them :
for it must have existed before the forms, in order to
shape them, and consequently may exist after them.
Here we encounter an objection : it is said, trees and
brutes are formed by the indwelling of a life-princi
ple ; when the tree falls and the brute dies, that
power or principle returns back to the primal source
of power or life, is there reabsorbed and lost sight of:
why may it not be so, with the vital principle of man ?
I answer, because the consciousness of individuality is
of the very essence of the human soul : man is a per
son, complete in himself: a self-moved power: so
that we get our idea of the personality of the Infinite
only from the reflection of God in that being, who is
declared to have been made in His very image.
There is nothing lost, when we think of the life-
principle of the tree as reabsorbed in the Great Cre
ative power : but when the individuality of man is
lost, the man himself ceases to exist.
The point to which I wish to direct you is this :
man is an individual power, and his body is merely a
piece of mechanism, developed by this power, and
then used like any other piece of machinery. And
the fact that one, who has lived for eighty years on
the earth, has actually changed the whole substance

13
of his bodily frame some five or six times over, con
clusively proves that the body is not the man ; for our
identity is in no way affected by these corporeal
changes. You will next observe that the power is the
reality, the form is only the accident : now if you sup
pose that the soul ceases to exist, when the body de
cays, you place the accident above the reality. For
there is no real destruction even in the decay of the
body, it is simply decomposed, that is, its particles seek
again those natural affinities which were arrested by
the superior power of the life-principle acting upon
them : but if then the soul ceases to exist, there must
be a positive act of annihilation, put forth by Him who
originally created the soul ; for it requires the same
Omnipotence to annihilate, that it does to create. If
I have succeeded in making this argument intelligi
ble, I think that you must allow it to be conclusive.
3. In the third place, we would argue, in favor of
man's immortality, from the fact, that, if there be no
future existence in store for liim, all the analogies of
nature are violated in this respect, — the process of
his development is prematurely arrested, and he is cut
off in an unfinished state. All other living organisms,
vegetable and animal, with which we are familiar, as
a general rule, fulfill their vocation, develop all the pow
ers of which they are capable, complete the purpose
of their existence, before they pass out of being. If
man is mortal, he is a solitary exception. Now you will
observe what havoc it makes with the first principles
of reasoning, to suppose him mortal. Induction is the
law of all reasoning, and of all increase of knowledge :
that is, we infer from what we know something which
we did not know before. It is thus that we find out
that there is a God : we infer a Designer from the ap-

14
pearances of design. Now if the inspection of a watch
shows that it must have had an intelligent maker, it
also indicates just as surely a certain specific purpose
to be accomplished by its mechanism. So, by the in
spection of nature, we reason back till wTe find a God,
who is the Author of nature, and then forward till we
detect certain special purposes to be accomplished by
all the arrangements of nature. The branch of a tree
is evidently constructed to develop leaves and buds,
the bud has wrapped up in it the germ ofthe flower,
the flower gradually expands into full beauty, the
leaves of the flower drop off, the petals wither, and
the germ of the fruit appears, the fruit gradually be
comes perfected, till at last it hangs in rich clusters
from the bough, and we find out the final purpose for
which this tree was created. Now, suppose that, in
the case of any one class of trees, this process of
germination were invariably arrested in some, stage of
its advancement ; there appears to be a perfect bud,
but it never becomes a flower, or there is a perfect
flower holding the germ of a seed, but the seed never
matures : it would be called a freak of nature ; there
are the marks of elaborate design, of careful contriv
ance, which come to nothing : an apparent waste of
creative wisdom. If man is not immortal, he is a freak
of nature ; for he always perishes, immature, undevel
oped, the evident design of his existence unfulfilled.
He acquires knowledge, which turns out to be use
less; he practices a discipline, which results in no
substantial benefit; he cherishes aspirations, which
are only doomed to disappointment ; he seems to be
made for immortal ends, while really his destiny is to
eat and drink and sleep and die. Do you believe
this ? Many men act as if they believed it, because

15
they cultivate those propensities by which we have
affinity with the brute, with so much greater assiduity
than they do those powers by which we have affinity
with the angels : but does your reason approve of
their habits, or of the creed to which those habits
point ? Do you believe that this young man, who has
wrestled with sin so sturdily, and done violence to the
passions of his nature, and disciplined himself for such
noble deeds, and stored his mind with precious
knowledge, and cultivated the loftiest tastes, and has
learned to love God with all his heart and his neigh
bor as himself, so that "his conversation is in heaven
even while his foot is on the earth, is liable at any
moment by the prick of a needle to be converted into
a handful of insensate earth ? Do you believe this ?
Then away with you ! Go out from the society of
men and herd with the beasts that perish. That is
where the law of your being would seem to place
you. Do you think that all the great and the good
who have ever lived, those noble men whose very
memory here is immortal, prophets, apostles, patriots,
philosophers; those men who gave their bodies to be
burned to save the world, who counted not even their
lives dear unto them for the sake of others, whose
voice once shook the world and echoes still through
all the generations, that they are now nothing but
dust ? Can you stand by the bedside of one, whom
you have loved dearer than your own soul, and see his
spirit kindling brighter and brighter as the hour of
dissolution draws near, hear from his lips words of
profoundest thought and intensest affection, and be
lieve that in the instant that his heart ceases to beat,
the being himself is extinct ? Is that piece of quiet
earth that is left you, and which you hasten to remove

16
from your sight, all that now exists of him you loved ?
Is that the man ? Was it that which wove the spell
of affection around your soul ? Was it that which
gave forth such lofty thoughts ? Was it that which
soared up so near to God, and is now to be returned
to earth ? O, if I thought this ; if I thought that all
those dear, departed ones, whose death has only
made them live more vitally in my heart, had ceased
to have a conscious being, and that the same fate is
hereafter in reserve for me, I would say, let the
blow fall upon me now, this very instant, that I may
not any longer live to anticipate my annihilation !
4. We derive a fourth argument in proof of the im
mortality of man from this consideration, — if he be
mortal, it is impossible to conceive of any adequate
object, to be attained by the creation of the world.
Looking through the dominion of nature, we observe
this general law, — every thing that exists appears to
subserve the purpose of some other thing superior to
it. Man being at the head of terrestrial things, the
mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms all
minister to his necessities : they exist primarily for
his benefit. Now for what does he exist ? Is it for
any thing which terminates with this short life ?
Then has there been a most elaborate arrangement for
a most insufficient end. So far as his bodily structure
is concerned, he is one of the frailest of all mortal
things. The crystal outlasts a thousand, yea, millions
of human generations: the tree which man plants, may
throw its grateful shade over descendants who have
lost the knowledge of his existence : the bird and the
beast may be young, when man is old. And then,
what is there, which he can accomplish during his
threescore years on earth, worthy of all the pains

17
which have been taken to provide for his existence ?
Can any sane man believe that God made the world
and all things in it, for man ; and then made man for
nothing ? What strange conclusions follow from such
a creed as this ! I do not wonder that disbelief in
man's immortality goes hand in hand with disbelief in
a God. 5. There is one further argument in confirmation of
our immortality, to which I need to allude but briefly,
as it has been so often and so ably set forth by others :
to suppose that man is mortal destroys the whole
structure of an equitable moral government. Looking
at this life as the sum of human existence, there are
difficulties in the providential allotment of happiness
and suffering, which are altogether insolvable. The
strange disproportion in the condition of the different
classes in society ; the misery in which the innocent
are involved by the sins of others ; the want of any
equitable adjustment of happiness, in accordance with
personal desert ; the sufferings endured by sinless in
fants ; the triumphs of fraud ; the persecutions of the
righteous ; all these things would confound us, if we
regarded this life other than as the mere childhood of
our being. The sense of justice, which is one of the
primitive elements of our being, demands a future life.
There are numberless instances, in which the mind
instinctively reverts to the court of heaven, as the final
tribunal, the last court of appeal, to make all things
right. This is, in itself, a foreshadowing of immortal
ity. While, in the physical world, we can perceive a
perfect adjustment everywhere, in the moral world,
it is not so. But is it not the same God, who orders
both ? Is the Divine plan in the one case so perfect,
and in the other, so imperfect ? What is the basis of
3

18
this consciousness which I have, of my own moral ac
countability ? It is the conviction of God's infallible
justice. Am I deceived by this consciousness 1 Can
I reason myself out of it 1 No more than I can out of
the consciousness of my own existence. Then there
must be an immortality !
I have now closed my argument, and would be glad,
if time allowed, to pass to the survey of another most
interesting question, what are the conditions of our
future existence 1 But as it is, I can only allude to
one or two general points, and then leave the subject
to your individual reflection.
1. In the first place, provision will undoubtedly be
made hereafter for the culture and the exercise of all
the intellectual and moral faculties of our nature.
Heaven will not be a monotony. All which belongs
to our nature, that is not sensual and sinful, will there
find free scope for its development. Nothing then
which we here learn, is lost. No elevated taste is
cultivated in vain. No healthy affection withers un
der the touch of death. There are strains of melody,
and sights of beauty, and holy friendships, in the spir
itual world. Every thing which God has made on
earth, and which man has left untouched by sin, is
only a symbol of something grander and more re
splendent in reserve for the holy hereafter. What
music will be heard in heaven ! What prospects will
charm the eye ! What thoughts will be uttered
there ! What emotions will be enkindled there !
What variety of employments, and yet nothing ser
vile, nothing selfish ! How is it then that we shrink
from the future 1 Why does eternity come before us,
as a cold, blank void : a sea, without a shore, moaning
and groaning under a starless sky, where the soul

19
floats like a helmless wreck, solitary and despairing 1
Because there is a stain of corruption on the soul,
which needs to be washed out : because the sense of
sin makes us afraid.
2. In the second place, we observe that to the
righteous, the future will be a state of constant and
unending progress. The law of this progress may be
essentially the same as it is now, only it will operate
under greatly improved conditions. We shall never
reach a point, where we shall stop and make no
further advance ; for then there would lie before us
an eternity without occupation. All mortal creatures
are capable only of a limited improvement, because
theirs is a limited existence : man must advance for
ever, because he lives forever. The time will no
doubt come, when we shall look back upon all that
we have acquired and done in this world, as we now
regard the experiences of our earliest infancy, and
we shall wonder that we then thought ourselves so
wise. 3. And, finally, our future destiny will be in precise
accoidance to our deserts and character: we shall
reap what we have sown. We shall begin our life
hereafter, as we close it here. There is no such
thing as separating the man from his character, and
there is no such thing as separating the character from
the destiny.
What a tremendous appeal therefore, sounds from
the other world, to those who are living in sin, and
alienated from their God ! Why does it not drive us
all, to instant faith and penitence ? To the cross, that
you may learn how to be rid of your sin ! To the
cross, that you may learn the true meaning of self-
sacrifice ! To the cross, that you may learn the evil

20
of sin ! Go and sit for a while at the feet of Jesus,
and he will make you wise unto salvation !
" O, listen, man !
A voice within us speaks the startling word,
'Man, thou shalt never die!' Celestial voices
Hymn it around our souls; according harps,
By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars
Of morning sang together, sound forth still
The song of our great immortality !"