To Correspondents

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 12
More than one draw attention to Mr. E. White's extracts from the second edition of Mr. J. N. Darby's “Hopes of the Church,” which I here reproduce:-
“With the immortality of the soul man can still connect the idea of self—of power in the body; but where the leading truth is the resurrection of the body, and not the immortality of the soul, man's impotency becomes glaring.” p. 30. “Before coming to direct proofs, we would express1 our conviction that the idea of the immortality of the soul has no source in the gospel; that it comes, on the contrary, from the Platonists; and that it was just when the coming of Christ was denied in the Church, or at least began to be lost sight of, that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul came in to replace that of the resurrection.” p. 32. “And finally (says Mr. W.), there is this note on p. 66, commenting on Matt. 25:46,46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:46) in order to show that that passage does not refer to the judgment of the dead, but of the living: ‘That which has given rise to the supposition that it is the judgment of the dead are these words—These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal; but this only means that the punishment of the living will be final, like that of the dead.'“
It is plain that it is the second extract (from p. 32) which most suits Mr. W.'s object. But would it not have been more candid if he had extracted the next few words which contradict, not Mr. D.'s previous statement, but his own object? “This was about the time of Origen. It is hardly needful to say that we do not doubt the immortality of the soul; we only assert that this view has taken the place of the doctrine of the resurrection of the Church, as the epoch of its joy and glory.” I quote the same paragraph from the same second edition; and I appeal to Mr. E. W. whether it was upright, by omitting words, bearing on the point immediately after, to give the appearance to the readers of the “Christian World” (who are very unlikely to know or to take the trouble of examining Mr. D.'s writings) that he ever held the mortality of the soul, when in fact he has invariably maintained its immortality. Nor is it correct that these paragraphs have been quietly dropped, or any one of them, out of later editions. I have before me now the latest form in which the work stands in his “Collected Writings,” and I find that all three appear, the first and third unchanged, and the second only so modified as to render such an effort as Mr. W.'s no longer practicable: “The idea of the immortality of the soul, although recognized in Luke 12:5; 20:38,5But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. (Luke 12:5)
38For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. (Luke 20:38) is not in general a gospel topic.” Otherwise all remain as before; and this, which was always the author's conviction, he no doubt put in to cut off a phrase misused by others, whether consciously or not, so as to insinuate or commend a notion which he from the first abhorred, and more than ever now that its frightful accompaniments and consequences cannot be hid.
 
1. “As to that expression (2 Tim. 1:1010But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:10)), brought life and immortality to light,' immortality signifies the incorruptibility of the body, and not the immortality of the soul.”
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