The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on the Scriptural Doctrine of
Immortality, by James Challis

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Title: An Essay on the Scriptural Doctrine of Immortality

Author: James Challis

Release Date: November 11, 2008 [EBook #27237]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY ***

Produced by Al Haines

AN ESSAY

ON THE

SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE

OF

IMMORTALITY

BY THE REV.

JAMES CHALLIS, M.A., F.R.S., F.R.A.S.

PLUMIAN PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY AND EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, AND FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE.

_Anagke gar moi epikeitai ouai gar moi estin, ean me euaggelzumai
--1 Cor. ix. 16

RIVINGTONS

London, Oxford, and Cambridge

MDCCCLXXX

RIVINGTONS

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Oxford . . . . . . _Magdalen Street_

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[_All rights reserved_]

{1}

AN ESSAY

ON THE

SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY.

Considering that under the existing conditions of humanity, disease,
and decay, and death abound on every side, it is surprising that the
word "immortality" obtained a place in systems of philosophy, the
authors of which must be supposed to have been unacquainted with divine
revelation. It is not surprising that in the absence of such aid the
belief of immortality should not have been firmly held, or that by some
philosophers it should have been expressly disavowed. Even in the
Canonical Scriptures, the words "immortal" and "immortality" occur only
in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, and consequently not till "life
and immortality had been brought to light through the Gospel." It is a
remarkable circumstance that these words are met with more frequently
in the Apocryphal Books, 2 Esdras, Wisdom of Solomon, and
Ecclesiasticus, than in the Canonical Scriptures. The {2} explanation
of the apparent silence of the Scriptures, especially those of the Old
Testament, on so essential a doctrine, will, I think, be found to be
given by the course of argument adopted in this essay.

It may, further, be noticed that, acc