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    THE BREATH OF LIFE

    The text just examined makes no mention of the material of which man should be composed. Information on this point we find in Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Mark well the phraseology of this text: upon a right understanding of this, much will depend. It is here declared that man, the creature, was formed of the dust of the ground; the next act of the Creator, after thus forming him, is also stated; and we are then told what man became. Here, if anywhere, we should expect to find the record of the bestowal of immortality upon man, if, indeed, it is a truth that it has been thus unconditionally bestowed upon him. But the words immortal or immortality are not found in the text; and if this glorious attribute is here brought to view as belonging to man, it must be found in the descriptive terms applied to him and to his creation - in the “breath of life” which God breathed into him, or in the “living soul” which he became. And since such a claim is actually based upon these terms, we will proceed to an examination of them.MOI 12.4

    The breath of life which God breathed into man, stamps him immortal. Such is the claim. Well, there was nothing naturally immortal, certainly, in the dust of which Adam was composed; and whatever immortality he had, after receiving the breath of life, must have existed in that breath, per se. Hence, it follows that the breath of life confers immortality upon any creature to which it may be applied. Will our opponents accept the issue here? If so, we will introduce to them a class of immortal associates not very flattering to the vanity they are sometimes tempted to indulge in on the ground of their immortality; for the same expression is applied to beasts of the field and every creeping thing, as well as to man. See Genesis 7:21: “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man; all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died.” To the same purpose see also Genesis 6:17. If, then, the breath of life proves immortality for man, it does the same for beasts! and any argument which thus proves too much, must be wholly and forever abandoned.MOI 13.1

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