DEATH A UNIVERSAL LAW OF ORGANIC BEINGS ON THIS GLOBE FROM THE BEGINNING.
Death has always been regarded by man as the king of terrors, and the climax of all mortal evils; and by Christians its introduction into the world has generally been imputed to the apostasy of our first parents. For the threatening announced to them in Eden was, _In the day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt surely die_, implying that if they did not eat thereof they might live. But _when the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat_. As the result, it is generally supposed that a great change took place in animals and plants, and from being immortal, they became mortal, in consequence of this fatal deed. But geology asserts that death existed in the world untold ages before man's creation, while physiology declares it to be a universal law of nature, and a wise and benevolent provision in such a world as ours. Now, the question is, Do not these different statements conflict with one another? and if so, is the discrepancy apparent only, or real? These are the questions which I now propose to examine, by all the light which we can obtain from the Bible and from science.
_The first point to be ascertained in this investigation will be, what the Bible teaches on this subject._
In the first place, it distinctly informs us that the death which man experiences, came upon him in consequence of sin.
The declaration of Paul on this subject is as distinct as language can be. _By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned._ This corresponds with the original threatening respecting the forbidden fruit. We know that our first parents ate of it; we know, also, that they died; and the apostle places these two facts in the relation of cause and effect.
In the second place, the Bible does not inform us whether the death of the inferior animals and plants is the consequence of man's transgression.
In order to prove this statement, it is necessary to show that the language of the Bible, which distinctly ascribes the introduction of death into the world, is limited to man. The first part of the sentence from Paul, just quoted, is indeed very general, and may include all organic natures. _By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin._ What terms more general or explicit than these could be used? Yet the remainder of the sentence shows that the apostle had man mainly in his eye; _and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned_. The death here spoken of is limited expressly to man; and, therefore, it is not necessary to show that the same terms, in the first part of the sentence, had a more extended meaning. Death is spoken of here as the result of sin, and cannot, therefore, embrace animals and plants, which are incapable of sin. But after all, the first part of the sentence may intend to teach a general truth respecting the origin of every kind of death in the world. It will be seen in the sequel, that to such a meaning I have no objection, if it can be established.