hapes the spirit.

Death at length steps in, and tears asunder the flesh from the
incorporeal part of us; and soul and spirit, still united, pass together
to the life which awaits them in the world unseen.

IV.

"And when he had said this he fell asleep."

--ACTS VII. 60.

At death, as we have seen, the spirit and the soul are separated from the
body, and, still united together, are launched into the unseen world. For
though the soul is not the spirit, these two form the incorporeal parts
of our compound nature, are the two immaterial elements of that trinity
of life,--body, soul, spirit, which are united to make one human being.
They both survive death. For death is the separation of the soul from
the body, not of the soul from the spirit. But it must be remembered
that the spirit, when at death it is, in company with the soul, withdrawn
from the body, passes into the Intermediate State, shaped and stamped
with the impress which the life on earth has fastened upon it. The
spirit enters the new life, either enslaved, disfigured, degraded,
dishonoured by the sensual soul, or else strong, free, true, purified in
its victory over the flesh. It carries with it, in short, the character
which in life it has acquired.

It may be well to fall into the usage of ordinary speech, and speak of
that which survives death as the _soul_, so long as we keep in mind what
is really meant, viz., that it is the soul _united with the spirit_ which
survives death.

When, then, we say that the disembodied soul enters the Intermediate
Life, we are bound to consider in what condition it enters it. For
people sometimes argue thus: "Yes! I grant that there will be an interval
or waiting time between death and the Day of Judgment. But then, during
that time, is not the soul asleep? Surely the dying are said to fall
asleep. Then, if asleep, they are unconscious, and to the unconscious
soul the Intermediate State will seem to last but for an instant, and
will no sooner be entered upon than it will be practically at an end. For
complete insensibility to the passing and movement of time is one of the
effects of complete unconsciousness. And, in truth, is it not the case
that the Bible over and over again speaks of death as a state of sleep or
taking rest? {41a} Thus the Intermediate State is in fact a blank. The
eyes close in death, and they remain closed till they open to gaze upon
the glories of the Resurrection, an