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I AM HERE. St. Matthew.
I have not written you for a long time, and I desire to say a few words on matters pertaining to the soul and its relationship to God and future life and immortality.
The soul is an image of the Great Soul of the Father, and partakes of features like this Great Soul, except that it does not necessarily have it in the Divine Love which makes the soul of a mortal or spirit a partaker of Divinity. The soul may exist in man and spirit in all receptive qualities and yet never have the Divine Essence to fill it, which is necessary in order to make man or spirit a new creature, that is the subject of the New Birth.
ONLY, THAT MORTAL OR SPIRIT WHO HAS RECEIVED THIS DIVINE LOVE OF THE FATHER CAN BE SAID TO BE IMMORTAL, ALL OTHERS MAY LIVE OR THEY MAY NOT. IT HAS NOT YET BEEN REVEALED TO US WHETHER THE LIFE OR EXISTENCE OF THESE SPIRITS WHO HAVE NOT THE CONSCSIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF IMMORTALITY WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE THROUGH ALL ETERNITY; BUT IF THEY DO IT WILL BE BECAUSE GOD SO WILLS THAT THEY SHALL LIVE. BUT THEIR EXISTENCE WILL BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND IF SUCH CHANGE SHOULD TAKE PLACE, ONLY GOD KNOWS WHAT ITS CHARACTER WILL BE. WHILE ON THE CONTRARY, THE SOUL THAT HAS ACQUIRED IMMORTALITY CAN NEVER DIE, ITS STATUS AS TO A LIFE THROUGH ALL ETERNITY IS FIXED, AND EVEN GOD HIMSELF CANNOT DESTROY THAT EXISTENCE BECAUSE IT IS THE POSSESSOR OF THAT DIVINITY WHICH MAKES GOD IMMORTAL.
"The soul that sinneth, sinning it shall die," means that the qualities which it is necessary for it to obtain to make it a part of immortality can never come to it, and hence as regards these qualties it is dying and dead.
The soul itself will live, for no spirit could possibly have an existence without a soul, and when men attempt to teach that when the spirit of life leaves the body the soul dies, such men do not state a truth. The soul will live as long as the spirit existence continues, and until the great change, should there be one, comes to that spirit. So all men must believe, that the soul which God gave to man is just as much a part of man as is the spiritual or physical body.
The soul is the highest part of man, and is the only part, that in any way resembles the Great Father, who is not body or spirit-body in form but is Soul, and the man's soul, as I have said, is an image of that Great Soul.
So you see, that when we speak of destroying the soul it does not mean that the soul which belongs to every spirit will be destroyed, but that the essence of the soul, or rather the potentiality of that soul receiving the Divine Love and Nature of the Father will be destroyed.
Of course, the soul can be starved and placed in a condition of stagnation so that all its receptive powers will be, as it were, dead, and only some great miracle or unusual ministration can awaken it, but to say that the soul ever dies is erroneous. In saying this I do not include the possibility of some great change in the spirit of mortal by which such spirit may be destroyed, and in such case the soul will cease to exist as an individualized soul or entity.
I do not know what would be the destiny of a soul in such event and, hence, can't prophesy, but, unless there be such great change, the soul will live, but not as an immortal soul possessing the Essence of Divinity, unless it has experienced the New Birth.
GOD, THE GREAT OVERSOUL, MAY NOT RECALL TO HIMSELF THE SOUL OF ANY MAN IN THE SENSE OF DEPRIVING THAT MAN OF HIS SOUL, BUT HIS RELATION TO THAT SOUL WILL BE MERELY THAT OF CREATOR AND CREATED, SUBJECT ALWAYS TO THE WILL OF THE CREATOR, WHEREAS, THE RELATIONSHIP OF GOD TOWARDS THE SOUL THAT HAS RECEIVED THE NEW BIRTH AND HENCE THE DIVINE NATURE, IS NOT ONLY OF A CREATOR AND CREATED, BUT ALSO THAT OF A CO-EQUAL SO FAR AS THIS GREAT QUALITY OF IMMORTALITY IS CONCERNED. THE SOUL OF MAN THEN BECOMES SELF-EXISTING AND NOT DEPENDING UPON GOD FOR ITS CONTINUANCE TO EXIST.
This, I know, is a subject not easy for mortal mind to understand, but when you shall have received the soul perceptions in addition to your natural mind, it will not be so difficult to grasp the exact meaning of my propositions.
I will not write more to-night.
I am
Your brother in Christ,
ST. MATTHEW.Vol. I, p. 122
