s us that it is when "mortality" is "swallowed up of life."
But that is only at the last trump. 1 Cor. 15:51-54. If we are told about
the woman who had had seven husbands (Matt. 22:23-28), no hint is given of
any reunion till after the resurrection. If God calls himself "not the God
of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. 22:32), it is because he speaks of
"those things that be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17), and the
worthies of whom this is spoken, are sure to live again (Heb. 11:15, 16),
and hence are now spoken of as alive in his sight, because they are so in
his purpose. Texts which speak of the departure and return of the soul
(Gen. 35:18; 1 Kings 17:21, 22), are referable to the "breath of life,"
which is the meaning of the word in these instances rendered "soul."

Three passages only have been referred to, which declare positively that
the dead know not anything. It was thought preferable to answer certain
objections, before introducing further direct testimony. But there are
many such passages, a few more of which will now be presented, as a
fitting conclusion to this branch of the subject. The reader's careful
attention is invited to a few of the various texts, and the conclusions
that follow therefrom.

1. _Death and Sleep._--Death, in numerous passages is compared to sleep, in
contrast with the wakeful condition. See Ps. 13:3; Job 7:21; John 11:11;
Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 11:30; 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:14; etc. But there is only one
feature in sleep by virtue of which it can be taken as a figure of death;
and that is, the condition of unconsciousness which shuts up the avenues
of one's senses to all one's environment. If one is not thus unconscious
in death, the figure is false, and the comparison illogical and
misleading.

2. _Thoughts Perish._--So David testifies: "Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth,
he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps.
146:3, 4. The word "thoughts" does not here mean simply the projects and
purposes one has in view, which do often fail, when the author of them
dies, but it is from a root which means the act of thinking, the operation
of the mind; and in death, that entirely ceases. It cannot therefore be
the dead who come out of the unseen with such intelligence as is shown in
Spiritualism.

3. _Job's Statement._--Speaking of a dead man, Job (14:21) says: "His sons
come to honor, and he knoweth