4. The rational spirit, mind, soul (Latin _animus_), generally opposed to
the body or animal (disposition) spirit. 1 Thessalonians v, 23; 1
Corinthians xiv, 14.
5. It implies will, council, purpose. Matthew xxvi, 41; Mark xiv, 38; Acts
xviii, 5; xix, 21; 1 Chronicles v, 26; Ezra i, 1.
6. It includes the understanding, intellect. Mark ii, 8; Luke i, 80, and
ii, 40; 1 Corinthians ii, 11, 12; Exodus xxviii, 3; Job xx, 3; Isaiah
xxix, 24.
7. A spirit, that is, a simple, incorporeal, immaterial being, possessing
higher capacities than man in his present state. Of created spirits, the
human spirit, soul, after its departure from the body and as existing in a
separate state. Hebrews xii, 23; that is, to the spirits of just men made
perfect. Robinson renders it thus: “To the spirits of the just advanced to
perfect happiness and glory.”
It is spoken of God in reference to his immateriality. John, iv, 24. Of
Christ in his exalted spiritual nature in distinction from his human
nature. In Hebrews, ix, 14, in contrast with perishable nature. “The
_eternal spirit_,” Holy spirit, spirit of God.—_Robinson’s Lexicon._
From all this it will be seen that it is impossible to limit the term
spirit to its ancient _physical_ currency. Our term _mind_ is, for two
reasons, a better word for its place in modern literature. First, it never
had a physical application. Second, the terms are used indifferently in
the New Testament when they relate to man. See Romans, i, 9 and vii, 25.
All spirits are _one_ in kind; in _character_ the difference lies; that
is, spirits are all _imperishable_. It is not in the nature of a spirit to
cease to be. If it is, then there is no imperishable nature that is
revealed to man. I submit for consideration the thought that there is no
difference in the final results between the man who denies the existence
of spirits altogether and the man who allows that spirits may cease to
exist.
“We are cognizant of the existence of spirit by our direct consciousness
of feelings, desires and ideas, which are to us the most certain of all
realities.”—_Carpenter._
“The body continually requires new materials and a continued action of
external agencies. But the mind, when it has been once called into
activity and has become stored with ideas, may remain active and may
develop new relations and combinations among these, after the complete
closure of the sensorial inlets by which new ideas can be excited ‘ab
externo.’ Such, in fact, is what is continually going on in the state of
dreaming.... The mind thus feeds upon the store of ideas which it has laid
up during the activity of the sensory organs, and those impressions which
it retains in its consciousness are working up into a never ending variety
of combinations and successions of ideas, thus affording new sources of
mental activity even to the very end of life.”—_Carpenter._
In death the spirit returns to God, who gave it, retaining, doubtless, all
its store of ideas and all its own inherent activities, which will
continue while eternity endures.