"Yes, Walter."

"Then if life is real, its opposite, or death, must be unreal; can you
agree with me, father?" He always addressed his father, for his mother
was showing by the nod of her head that she fully agreed with him."

"I must say, Walter, that I do agree with you, to quite an extent;
but, I shall have to think it all over carefully before I will be fully
convinced."

Walter then continued: "We have found that the five senses do not
testify regarding a reality, now let us see if they testify regarding
an unreality. As we had agreed that death was the opposite of life and
that life was real and death unreal, we will take death as our example.
When a person dies, we say life, or the reality has flown, and the
unreality, the material or dead body, remains. Do our five material
senses testify anything regarding this unreality or dead body? Yes,
all five of them, for we can see this unreality with the eye. If we
move this unreality, we hear it move with the ear. If we reach forth
our hand we can touch it. After decomposition sets in, we can smell
it; and if we would put a piece of it into our mouth, as we do of the
dead cow or bird, we could even taste this unreality. This ought to
convince us of the unreliability of the knowledge transmitted to us
by the five senses; for, as I have shown, they all say the unreal is
real and that the real is unreal. St. Paul said, 'To be carnally minded
is death, and to be spiritually minded is life eternal.'"

"I know that St. Paul said this, but do not see as it has any bearing
on the question we are discussing," said the pastor. "On the contrary,
father, I think it is a verification of what I have been illustrating."