, he is guilty of excuseless philological blundering. The
soul is immaterial. Immortal is applied to that which is material.
The words, "immortal," and "immortality" are never applied in the
New Testament to the soul--never! but always and exclusively to the
body.

To be immortal means to have a deathless, incorruptible body like
unto that of the Son of God.

This, and this alone--as related to man--is Scriptural immortality.
The Son of God came into the world to give this boon of immortality
to men.

This is the supreme objective of redemption.

Till that objective is obtained redemption is not complete and the
blood of the cross is not justified.

Do you call the redemption of Paul complete so long as his body lies
mingled with the dust of the highway by the banks of that yellow
Tiber where he was slain?

Do you call complete the redemption of those you love and I love so
long as the Devil like the strong man armed with the law holds the
mortgage on their bodies and keeps them in his dark and worm-filled
house--the grave?

It is true, blessedly true, thank God, the moment a believer dies he
is absent from his home in the body and immediately present at his
home with the Lord in the third heaven, in the beautiful country of
Paradise, in the Holy City, the place prepared.

It is true the dear departed ones are clothed with the white robe of
immaculate light woven on the unjarring looms of heaven, a temporary
clothing which preserves their form and makes them visible and
recognizable to one another; but with it all they are disembodied,
and in spite of the comfort and the consolation of it, in spite of
the fact that their state is "far better" than this at its best,
still they are souls whose vehicle is no longer body, but spirit
(wherefore after death they are sometimes spoken of as spirits);
nevertheless, the Son of God did not come to make us eternal, even
if happy--ghosts.

If Christians should continue to die and should remain as white
clothed ghosts in heaven forever they would be an incongruous
environment and abiding scandal to the immortality of the Son of God
Himself. A living, immortal man shining in a glorified human body
surrounded by bodiless souls forever! What a contradiction that
would be, what a scandal, indeed. It would be the declaration that
the Son of God had power to rise from the dead, make His own body
immortal, impervious to death, but in respect to those for whom He
died and who d