s fully into the meaning of words like
these: "She that liveth in pleasure is _dead_ while she liveth?" Who
allows adequate weight to the metaphor in the Pauline phrase, "To be
carnally minded is _Death_;" or in this, "The wages of sin is _Death_?"
Or what theology has translated into the language of human life the
terrific practical import of "Dead in trespasses and sins?" To seek to
make these phrases once more real and burning; to clothe time-worn
formulae with living truth; to put the deepest ethical meaning into the
gravest symbol of Nature, and fill up with its full consequence the
darkest threat of Revelation--these are the objects before us now.

What, then, is Death? Is it possible to define it and embody its
essential meaning in an intelligible proposition?

The most recent and the most scientific attempt to investigate Death we
owe to the biological studies of Mr. Herbert Spencer. In his search for
the meaning of Life the word Death crosses his path, and he turns aside
for a moment to define it. Of course what Death is depends upon what
Life is. Mr. Herbert Spencer's definition of Life, it is well known, has
been subjected to serious criticism. While it has shed much light on
many of the phenomena of Life, it cannot be affirmed that it has taken
its place in science as the final solution of the fundamental problem of
biology. No definition of Life, indeed, that has yet appeared can be
said to be even approximately correct. Its mysterious quality evades us;
and we have to be content with outward characteristics and
accompaniments, leaving the thing itself an unsolved riddle. At the same
time Mr. Herbert Spencer's masterly elucidation of the chief phenomena
of Life has placed philosophy and science under many obligations, and in
the paragraphs which follow we shall have to incur a further debt on
behalf of religion.

The meaning of Death depending, as has been said, on the meaning of
Life, we must first set ourselves to grasp the leading characteristics
which distinguish living things. To a physiologist the living organism
is distinguished from the not-living by the performance of certain
functions. These functions are four in number--Assimilation, Waste,
Reproduction, and Growth. Nothing could be a more interesting task than
to point out the co-relatives of these in the spiritual sphere, to show
in what ways the discharge of these functions represent the true
manifestations of spiritual life, and how the fai