Sermons Preached at Brighton - Third Series by Frederick W. Robertson
page 56 of 308 (18%)
page 56 of 308 (18%)
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"spirit."
It is our business, therefore, in the first place, to understand what is meant by this threefold division. When the apostle speaks of the body, what he means is the animal life--that which we share in common with beasts, birds, and reptiles; for our life my Christian brethren--our sensational existence--differs but little from that of the lower animals. There is the same external form, the same material in the blood-vessels, in the nerves, and in the muscular system. Nay, more than that, our appetites and instincts are alike, our lower pleasures like their lower pleasures, our lower pain like their lower pain, our life is supported by the same means, and our animal functions are almost indistinguishably the same. But, once more, the apostle speaks of what he calls the "soul." What the apostle meant by what is translated "soul," is the immortal part of man--the immaterial as distinguished from the material: those powers, in fact, which man has by nature--powers natural, which are yet to survive the grave. There is a distinction made in scripture by our Lord between these two things. "Fear not," says He, "them who can kill the body; but rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell." We have again, to observe respecting this, that what the apostle called the "soul," is not simply distinguishable from the body, but also from the spirit; and on that distinction I have already touched. By the soul the apostle means our powers natural--the powers which we have by nature. Herein is the soul distinguishable from the spirit. In the Epistle to the Corinthians we read--"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto |
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