up in store for many years." I will "eat, drink, and be merry." What a wretched portion for an immortal soul! God said, "Thou fool!" O foolish man! he had neglected to lay up treasures in heaven. He overlooked the one thing above all else needful.

As the evening shadows gathered fast, a horror took hold upon him. The whole scene began to change. Death like a grim monster enters his palace and seizes his mortal frame. The night winds moan and howl without, while wafted upon the breezes from the eternal world comes an awful summons: "This night thy soul shall be required of thee."

"He looked all aghast at the sound of that voice,
Then gazed on his rich earthly store;

But it melted away, he had made a sad choice,
He was poverty's slave evermore.''

How awful was this saying! He had just made the necessary arrangements for the gratification of his sensual appetites; and in the very night in which he had finally settled all his plans, his soul was called into the spirit world. What a dreadful awakening for a soul long asleep in sin! He is now hurried into the presence of his Maker; none of his worldly goods can accompany him, and he has not a particle of heavenly treasure!

"Out, out from his mansion he wandered away,

To the depths of eternity's night,

To beg for relief and to long for the day
Which shall gladden-no, never-his sight."'

Jesus said, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mat. 16: 26. The rich man gained the world, and lost his soul, and terrible was the loss. The soul is of more value than all the gold and silver of the universe. The rubies and diamonds of earth are not to compare with it. Those who neglect salvation until death's hour, have forever lost their soul. With these few thoughts we will pass on to consider the state of the spirit as separate from the body.

THE STATE IN WHICH HUMAN SPIRITS ARE SEPARATED FROM THEIR ANIMAL BODIES.

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2 Cor. 5:8. Paul here speaks of a time. when we shall be "absent from the body" and "present with the Lord." This can not apply before death, for, as observed in a previous chapter, the spirit lives in union with the body until natural death. Neither can this text apply after the resurrection, for then shall these bodies be raised immortal and we shall inhabit them forever. So the only time we can be absent from our bodies and present with the Lord is between natural death and the resurrection. This truth is clearly taught all through the Bible. Physical death does not involve

the spirit in its ruin, but only separates the "inner man [soul]" from the "outer man [body]." Nowhere in the Bible is it taught that the soul or spirit goes down in decomposition with the earthly house. But all Scripture teaches directly the opposite. "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." 2 Cor. 4:16. Here Paul teaches that as the body grows old and decays, the soul grows young, and is invigorated. The very decomposition of the body itself leaves the soul in the state of renewed youth. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." Mat. 10:28. Here Jesus taught that the soul and body are distinct principles, and when the body is slain the soul escapes. It follows that it is immortal; hence the murderers of the body are not able to injure it.

"Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." Psa. 55: 6. "The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four score years, yet is there strength, labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Psa. 90: 10. You observe that when life is cut off, when the body dies, "we [the real inner man] fly away.'

But where do we go? Thus saith the Word: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Eccl. 12:7. The spirit does not go down into the grave with the body, but returns "unto God," "be

cause man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets." Ver. 5. "Because man has gone to his eternal home, and the mourners have gone about the market. -LXX. Here death is described in unmistakable language. Then shall the dust (our mortal flesh) return to the earth as it was. "And the spirit [the immortal man] shall return unto God who gave it;" that is, man goeth to his eternal home.

How different the teaching of the soul-sleeping sect! They say the entire being of man goes down into the grave and remains in unconscious slumber until the resurrection morning. In this they squarely contradict the Bible, which says that at death the body returns to earth while the spirit returns to God-goeth to his eternal home. "And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." Gen. 35:29. "And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Gen. 49:33. At death both Isaac and Jacob were gathered to their people. This could not apply to the laying away of the body, for it is declared that at death they were gathered to their people, while their bodies were not buried until after this. It was long after Jacob was gathered unto his people that his body was buried in the cave of Machpelah. Read Gen. 49:33; 50: 1-13.

"And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Acts 7:59. There is no possible way under heaven to successfully deny the testimony of this plain text of scripture. It is a strong and full proof of the immortality of the soul. He could not have commended his spirit to Christ, had he believed he had no spirit; or in other words, that his body and soul were one and the same thing. Allowing this most eminent saint to have had a correct notion of theology; and that, being full of the Holy Ghost, as he was at this time, he could make no mistake in matters of such vast importance. Stephen in his dying hour believed that the soul was immortal, for he commended his departing spirit into the hand of Christ.

One Advent minister in our presence tried to escape the strong testimony of this text by saying that it was not Stephen, but the mocking Jews that uttered this language. Shame on such twisting in order to uphold a false doctrine! "And they stoned Stephen, as he was invoking and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."-Emphatic Diaglott. "And were stoning Stephen, as he was invoking and saying: Lord Jesus! give welcome unto my spirit."Rotherham.

It is clear to any mind not entirely befogged in the darkness of materialism that it was Stephen who said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And has not the dying testimony of Stephen been that of thousands and millions of saints? Yes; and this fact alone