A continuation of the comments, critical and helpful, by our late colleague and friend Philip Wale, on the book THE GOSPEL OF THE HEREAFTER by J. Paterson Smyth, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D., D.C.L.
We proceed to examine Chapter 1. I shall preface my remarks by saying, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?”2 These words were God’s comment on the utterances of the three friends of Job; and they are just as applicable to the author of “The Gospel of the Hereafter.” For in this first chapter he multiplies words to prove that the real man—the “ego”—the “I” is not his body, in spite of the fact that Jesus said “Handle me, and see that it is I myself.”3 He tries to prove that it is not his brain, that it is not even a man’s thoughts! And to prove it he says that the “I” is behind all these things. He says that a man speaks of “my thoughts,” “my brain,” “my body,” and therefore the “I” must be behind all these, the possessor of them all; in other words the “I” is distinct from them all!
But, in reply, cannot a man, cannot I, for example, speak of my soul? my ego? Is there a second “ego,” a second “I,” behind the first “I”? When the virgin Mary, for instance, said “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,” was it some entity behind her soul that was speaking? something that possessed her soul and spirit? Was it not her very soul and spirit that were speaking? She herself? Of course it was! The words “My soul” are just an idiom for “I myself.” “I myself do magnify the Lord, and I myself have rejoiced in God my Saviour.” The other, however, is the more poetical and picturesque mode of speech. When I say “myself,” do I mean that something called “self,” which is not “I,” belongs to “me,” the real “I”? Does “yourself” refer to something which belongs to you, the real “ego”? No. It is the self which is the “I” and the “you,” as the case may be. So my soul is just “I”; and my spirit is just “I,” too.
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Author: Philip Wale
Keywords: soul, self, spirit, psyche, psuche, immortal spirit, immortal soul, life after death, after life, afterlife, going to heaven, lazarus and rich man, rich man and lazarus, Eternal spirit, eternal soul, punishment of the soul, damnation of the soul, soul sleep, near death experience, kill the soul, nephesh, ruach
Bible reference(s): Genesis 2:7, Genesis 3:19, Genesis 12:13, Genesis 19:20, Genesis 27:4, Genesis 27:25, Genesis 34:8, Ecclesiastes 3:19, Ecclesiastes 3:21, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Jonah 2:5, Jonah 2:7, Micah 6:7, Zechariah 11:8, Psalms 22:20, Psalms 22:29, Isaiah 55:3, Matthew 6:25, Mat 10:28, Matthew 16:26, Matthew 22:37, Mark 8:36, Mark 12:30, Mark 12:33-34, Luke 1:46, Luke 10:27, Luke 12:19-20, Luke 16:19-31, John 12:27, Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31, 1 Cor. 15:44-45, 2 Corinthians 1:23, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 4:12, 1 Peter 1:9, 1 Peter 2:11, 2 Peter 2:8, 3 John 1:2, Revelation 16:3
Source: “He Being Dead Yet Speaketh,” The Testimony, Vol. 18, No. 210, June 1948, pp. 200-3.
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