it must always have been designed to separate the soul, as the immortal man, from the body as his mortal covering. Hence this separation, which we call death, must have been among the merciful designs of the Omnipotent, at man's original creation. There is no law in revelation, no fact in nature, by which to show that integrity of mind is capable of maintaining a perpetual connection with the body. The most eminent saints have died; and the apostle plainly says, "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord," and intimates that to be "absent from the body" is "to be present with the Lord."[1] The body is the instrument created for the soul's residence and manifestation in the world of nature; it is fearfully and wonderfully made; but it has not, nor is there any evidence that it ever had, any of the elements of immortality, and, therefore, it never could have been designed for inheriting a Spiritual kingdom. As a material substance, it must necessarily be excluded from heaven, because that is an immaterial world!
Still, it may be said that the Scriptures represent death as a consequence of sin. Certainly the Lord said to Adam, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."[2] Now Adam did eat of the forbidden fruit, and yet he did not naturally die on the day of his transgression: he continued to live for a considerable period, and, therefore, it is plain that natural death is not the subject of the narrative. It is said that he would die in the day of his transgression, to indicate that he would sin by so offending. Death is spoken of in the sense of sin; this death did take place in the very day he sinned, and was the obvious result of his disobedience.
