the natural world. I have endeavored to show that the reconstruction of the natural body out of the material elements of which it was composed, is absurd and unreasonable; and that such a doctrine receives no support from a spiritual and rational interpretation of the sacred scriptures. The material body is dissolved and dissipated by death. Its particles soon leave the form of a human body, and enter into other forms, and hence, in strict truth, it ceases to exist. For common sense teaches us that that which has no form has no existence. It must therefore be a vain and useless task to seek for arguments to prove the resuscitation or resurrection of the human body, and hence there is no possibility of the departed spirit's ever returning to the natural world, either to be present at a general judgment, or for any other purpose. There is no place here for it. The tenement in which it dwelt has been taken down and its materials converted to other uses. Henceforth its home is in the spiritual world, and there its judgment must take place.
In the second place, I have endeavored to show, on scientific rational and scriptural grounds, that the nature, use and destiny of this earth, are such as to render it impossible that it can ever be the theatre of a general resurrection or judgment. The arguments by which this doctrine has been supported, have been laid before the reader, and need not be again repeated. If he sympathises with the views that have been presented, and regards them as being in accordance with rational and spiritual truth, I will in the next place invite his attention to a brief consideration of the nature of that world in which the spirit is judged, as well as to the nature of the judgment which it there undergoes. The discussion of these subjects will constitute the remainder of this work.
It might perhaps be expected by some readers, that a considerable amount of labor would be bestowed upon proving the existence of a spiritual world. But this can scarcely be necessary. Such a proposition may safely be permitted to
