John Clowes

“ How wonderful is it, that these same spiritual principles can, at one time, influence the organs of speech, so as to produce articulate sounds, and thus convey ideas; whilst, at another time, they can act upon the arms and hands, and by putting them in motion give birth to actions! For on what ground, except that of the appointment of the DIVINE WILL and WISDOM, can we account for this otherwise inexplicable commerce between mental volition and bodily action,—in consequence of which commerce, the organs of the body are perpetually at the nod of the decisions of the mind? ”

“ Will not the thief, the robber, and the assassin be thus converted into a kind benefactor? For with such a Christian, what is his separation from a mortal and material body, but like the putting off a filthy and tattered garment that he may put on a robe of glory and immortality? What also is his separation from this lower world of sin, and sorrow, and shadow, but his introduction to the higher world of righteousness, and peace, and substance? ”

“ Allowing now the existence of the figurative character of these two bodily organs, what is the interesting language which they speak, and what the heavenly wisdom which they preach to us? Do they not cry aloud with a voice of thunder, that the spiritual life of man cannot be continued without the combined operation of will and understanding,—thus not by will alone, nor by understanding alone, consequently, not by affection alone, nor by thought alone, but by the united agency of will and understanding, also of affection and thought? ”

“ What, again, is the adieu which he bids to the society of friends, to the gratifications of sense, to worldly fame, property and dignity, but the welcome sounded in his ears by his angelic associates, attended with the delightful assurance, that his true friends are still with him, and that gratifications, fame, property and dignity, by death only change their names, from earthly to heavenly, from natural to spiritual, from temporal to eternal? ”

“ For without this organ, all the splendour and beauties of outward nature would be lost upon you; colour would be colourless, shape shapeless, and every glory and stupendous object of creation would be hidden under a veil of impenetrable darkness. Even the bright rays of the sun of this lower world would be deprived of all their cheering influences, and you would find yourself, to all intents and purposes of recreation, a blind inhabitant of a sun-less, moon-less, and star-less cavern. ”

“ For have you not often read, and as often been told, that bodily death consists in the separation of the soul from its body, and that when this separation takes place, the soul still continues to live in another world, but the body returns to its original dust, and is consigned to its mournful grave? Have you not often read too, and as often been told, that on this occasion all a man’s mere earthly interests, whether of science, of pleasure, of honour, or of property, are instantly annihilated ”

“ Man thus, with the Bible in his hand, and even in his memory, may be as great a stranger to its living and saving contents as if he had never heard of the HOLY BOOK; so that even the Divine precept, above alluded to, “Thou shalt love the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” would be totally void of spiritual nourishment, and more like a dead husk than the living kernel of Divine wisdom and salvation. ”

“ What eye cannot see, that if it remains there, without any elevation thence into the higher chambers of understanding and will, it gains no admission into the mind itself; and, consequently, lies buried as an useless precept, neither enlightening the mind with intelligence, nor enlivening it with wisdom? What eye therefore cannot discern further, that some additional process is necessary to give to the precept all that power of imparting to man the blessings of eternal life and bliss, which it was intended to exercise? ”

“ You are surprised perhaps to find, that you have so little to do in the affairs of your own body, and that so much is done for you by an agency distinct from your own; but how much more will you be astonished at hearing, that this wonder is not confined to your body, but extends also to your soul, or spirit, which latter has also its voluntary and involuntary motions! ”

“ Persons of this description, therefore, in beholding the exterior forms of the things of this world, see them, and yet do not see them, because they see only their outward forms, sizes, and colours, but do not see the wonders and the glories of that infinite and adorable goodness, wisdom, and power of the GREAT CREATOR which they were intended to display. They behold nothing, therefore, but the husk and shell of things, which in themselves are dead, whilst they are totally blind to the living principles within, of which the husk and shell are mere coverings. ”

“ Shall we say that those bodily organs are kept in motion by some power of their own? This would be to ascribe to matter (for both the heart and lungs are material) a prerogative which never did, and never can, belong to it. Or shall we suppose that nature, by virtue of some of her latent and mysterious qualities, infuses into the above organs their respective faculties of continual pulsation and respiration? This, again, would be assigning to nature an agency utterly inconsistent with every just idea which can be formed either of herself or her operations. ”

“ How ought we then to feel ourselves indebted to that bodily sleeping and awaking, which so powerfully presses upon our recollection the terrible consequences of this mental sleep! For if the body never slept, whence could we have derived an idea of the sleep of the mind? And if the body never awoke out of sleep, how impossible would it have been for us to have formed a just conception, or indeed any conception at all, of the blessings and advantages resulting from mental awaking! ”

“ I mean the benefit resulting from conversation and discourse, or that interchange of thought and affection which takes place amongst mankind in the ordinary intercourse and engagements of society. For what an ample store, not only of gratification, but also of useful and edifying instruction, is thus communicated, every day, from one mind to another, through the instrumentality of that small organ called the ear! Knowledge is thus brought into general circulation, and, like every other gift of the DIVINE PROVIDENCE, becomes, as it were, a common property. ”

“ I should be sorry either to form or to pronounce a hasty and severe judgment on the temper and spirit of any age, or any people, but surely it is impossible not to see, that animal gratification, at this day, is the object principally regarded in the use of our meats and drinks; and that thus the organs of bodily taste—instead of opening the doors, as they were meant to do, to the higher organs of intellectual and spiritual taste, and to the higher delights which these latter organs have a tendency to produce—only shut them more closely against both the organs and their delights. ”

“ The soul of such a Christian is therefore called a living soul, because he regards his life as a stream from a living fountain, the GREAT and HOLY GOD, and makes his provisions accordingly, by laying up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal. Would you know what these treasures are? They are the love, the wisdom, the favour, the blessing, the protection of the GOD Whom he daily worships, and to Whom he daily looks, as the DIVINE GIVER of all good, and the powerful preserver from all evil. ”

“ Can you believe it possible that the body, which is of itself a mass of mere matter, is capable either of designing or of accomplishing such stupendous purposes? Or is it to be supposed that what is called nature, which in itself is dead, being created for the reception of life, but not possessing any life properly its own, hath the ability to produce such living activities? ”

“ Whilst then, in the spirit of profound humiliation and adoration, we magnify that inconceivable goodness and wisdom, which devised and constructed the bodily organs of bodily digestion, absorption, and secretion, for the purpose of promoting bodily health and strength, may we ever be wise to recollect, that these organs and their operations are but figures of those more astonishing powers of the mind, by which it is enabled to exercise mental digestion, absorption, and secretion, in regard to that BREAD OF LIFE which is given in the WORD OF GOD for its daily sustenance! ”

“ Such then being the filthy and abominable character of an unsubmitted intellectual activity, is it to be wondered at, that the ALMIGHTY, in His adorable wisdom, should have devised the means of its purification by a temporary suspension of its powers during bodily sleep? For how forcibly is man instructed by this suspension, that his activities are not his own, but that he is continually indebted to other beings, not only for his faculty of intellect, but for every other faculty which lie enjoys as an intelligent and rational agent! ”

“ For why should not the objects of intellectual sight be regarded as of, at least, equal reality with those of bodily sight? You say that the sun of this world has a real existence, because you see it with your bodily eye, and you would laugh at any one who should dispute your testimony. But why then will you not say that another sun exists, with the same reality, called THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is presented to the view of your intellectual eye in the bright pages of the ETERNAL TRUTH? ”

“ Let me then ask you, whether, in these two single specimens of divine workmanship, you do not discover a skill and a wisdom as far exceeding all that is human, as heaven is above earth, or as Infinite is superior to finite. ”

“ For viewing it, in the first place, as an instrument of producing the sensation of touch, how multiplied and interesting are its spiritual and eternal benefits in regard to the mind, or spirit, of man, by reminding him of that higher and interior mental touch with which he is endowed, and by virtue of which he possesses an internal feeling, extending itself, not only to things merely speculative and intellectual, which relate to the present life, but to those more substantial concerns of another world, on which his everlasting happiness or misery depends! ”

“ It is not sufficient, therefore, that you cultivate in yourself the spirit of love and charity alone, nor yet the spirit of wisdom and faith alone, and least of all the exercise of works alone, but all the three are to be so united, as to make one angelic mind; in like manner as the head, the trunk, with the arms and legs, make one human body. ”

“ But here I must beg leave to address you as a man, who possesses, not only a bodily eye for the purpose of admitting into your mind all the grand objects of outward nature, but also an intellectual eye, capable of viewing those objects in the interior light of truth; and thus of collecting from them all that sublime and heavenly wisdom which they are intended to convey. ”

“ Can any thing then be more frightful than such an activity? For can any thing be more directly opposed to the DIVINE WISDOM, which, in making the scale of human blessedness, has been pleased to assign the highest rank to the poor in spirit, when it began its long catalogue of heavenly graces and virtues by declaring, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?” ”

“ Is it not a necessary consequence, therefore, confirmed by every day’s experience, that whensoever this connection is broken, as at the separation of soul and body by death, the blood of man instantly becomes subject, like other fluids, to the vicissitudes of heat and cold, so as no longer to retain the standard temperament which it possessed during its residence in a living body? ”

“ My Dear Sir, My Dear Sir,Some time ago I had the gratification of addressing you on the subject of the human soul, by endeavouring to prove its immateriality and immortality, and especially its grand characteristic, as being a spiritual substance and form, created to receive life continually from God, the DIVINE SOURCE of its being and of all its astonishing energies. ”

“ For bodily flesh, it is evident, is of itself dead, and consequently, as utterly incapable of healing its wounds as of restoring itself to life, when separated from its living soul. You are compelled, then, to resort to a higher principle than that of mere flesh, if you wish to explain satisfactorily even the healing of your finger. Yet what is thus true of your finger, is true likewise of every other part of your body, in which, it is manifest, a healing power is ever at hand, to restore to its wonted health and integrity what has suffered injury, or been the subject of disorder and decay. ”

“ It is the office, then, of the eye to supply the rich materials or rudiments of thought and intelligence, but of the ear to furnish the more valuable materials or rudiments of those numberless affections which enter into the composition of the human will. ”

“ Can spirit, in this case, mean any thing but that DIVINE INTELLIGENCE which, by the same DIVINE SPEAKER, is called the SPIRIT OF TRUTH? And can life mean any thing but the GOOD of that DIVINE LOVE, which is the only source of all INTELLIGENCE and TRUTH? ”

“ If then we believe in this revelation, we are constrained to believe also, that the harmony, of which we are speaking, hath its origin in the INFINITE and ETERNAL DEITY; that it is a stupendous effect of that Divine goodness, and wisdom, raid power, by which all things were originally created; and thus that it is a standing and striking memorial, existing in all ages, and presented to the view of all people, that the human body bears in it a Divine impression, which perpetually exhibits the undeniable marks and characters of Divine skill, contrivance, and workmanship. ”

“ To be content, then, with hearing the letter or history of revealed WISDOM, without paying any attention to its spirit and life, is like blotting the commandments from the table on which they are written, and being satisfied with a blank page, void alike of instruction and of edification. ”

“ Will you pardon me now, my dear Sir, if I venture to assign the above idea of a dead soul, as the true cause and ground of all that alarm and painful apprehension excited in the minds of the bulk of mankind respecting bodily death? ”

“ All I wish, therefore, to say is, that the LORD GOD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST is the FIRST GRAND SOURCE of all heavenly love and wisdom; and that the will and understanding of man are the first receivers of this love and wisdom, not for man’s own selfish enjoyment only, but for the blessed beneficent purpose of imparting to others, under the form of good works, the virtues and powers which have been communicated to himself ”