bere HORTLY after Edison's death
N—e there appeared in large headlines
as “Edison late in life
changes views on the soul’s immortality.”
The reporter said, ‘““ What brought Edison
to change his views may never be known.” In
an Interview, Edison is reported to have
said: “I cannot believe in the imfortality
of the soul. . . . This speculative idea of
the immortality of the soul needs but to be
analyzed to fall wholly to the ground.”
On another occasion he said: “Soul?
Soul? What do you mean by soul? The
brain? There 1s no more reason to believe
that any human brain will be immortal
than there 1s to think one of my phono-
graphic cylinders will be immortal.”
In reading the headlines calling atten-
tion to Edison's changed views regarding
the soul’s immortality, and the statement,
“What brought Edison to change his views
may never be known,” naturally I thought
of a letter I addressed to Mr. Edison several
years before this, at a time when the public
press came out with glaring headlines say-
ing Edison was conducting experiments to
prove the soul's immortality, and that if
this could be proved his next step would be
to communicate with departed souls. The
letter referred to, I have since re-read with
considerable interest. It reads as follows:
“My dear Mr. Edison:
“You have been accredited by the public
press with conducting a series of scientific
experiments, the aim of which is to com-
municate with the dead. As a friend, and
an admirer of the great service you have
been instrumental in rendering mankind,
and as a believer in the Bible as a communi-
cation from God to man to aid him in his
scientific investigations and research, I am
writing this letter.
“I understand full well that the almost
universal belief of both the Christian and
the heathen world is, that man is immortal
and 1s conscious after death. This is based
upon a fundamental error, for the Bible
teaches that ‘the dead know not anything,
. neither have they any more a portion
forever in anything that is done under the
sun.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6.) Again we read
that when man dies ‘his breath goeth forth,
he returneth to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish.” (Psalm 146:4.) This
state of total unconsciousness continues
until the resurrection. This makes the
resurrection a necessity in the great plan of
salvation. In fact it is the culmination of
the plan of redemption. Paul recognized
this, and said: ‘If the dead rise not, . . .
then they also which are fallen asleep in
Christ are perished.” (1 Corinthians 15:
16-18.) He says, ‘For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Verse 22. The resurrection is man's only
hope of eternal life. ‘But some man will
say, How are the dead raised up? And with
what body do they come [forth]?’ Verse 35.
He then gives the assurance of identity.
Using as an illustration the grain, its death
and resurrection, he says that as each
Page SIX
¥ A magician demonstrates his ability, by magnetism, to keep a ball twirling in the air, but the
careful observer will notice the small thread by which it is suspended. Mr. Edison had investigated
all the phenomena of magic and spirttism. His pronouncements as mentioned by Dr. Kress are
interesting.
THOMAS A EDISON
UN IMMORTALITY
By Daniel H. khress, M. 1.
seed’s identity is preserved, so will each
individual’s identity be preserved.
“When Paul, as a prisoner, appeared be-
fore Felix to answer to the charges brought
against him, he began his defense thus:
‘Touching the resurrection of the dead I
am called in question by you this day.’
Acts 24:21. Later he said to Agrippa:
‘Why should it be thought a thing incred-
ible with you, that God should raise the
dead?’ Acts 26: 8. If at death our friends
go to the place of bliss and are in an exalted
sphere, conscious of all that takes place on
the earth, why should there be a resurrec-
tion?
“The Bible teaches very clearly that not
until Jesus comes the second time will
those who have fallen asleep in Christ be
resurrected and taken to their heavenly
home. In His farewell address to His dis-
ciples Jesus said: ‘I go to prepare a place
for you. . . . I will come again, and re-
ceive you unto Myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also.” (John 14:1-3.)
This assurance led Paul to say: ‘The Lord
Himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up to-
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18.
We are to be comforted with the thought
that the sleep of the righteous is not eternal,
but that at Christ's second coming, and not
until then, there will be a resurrection,
and a reunion. The dead are not alive and
in heaven, they are unconscious in sleep.
The prophet Isaiah, referring to this decep-
tion of seeking to ‘the dead for the living,’
said: ‘When they shall say unto you, Seek
unto them that have familar spirits, . . .
should not a people seek unto their God?
for the living to the dead? To the law and
to the testimony: if they speak not accord-
ing to this word, it is because there is no
light in them.” (Isaiah 8:19, 20.)
“In the last days there will be communi-
cations carried on, not with the dead, but
(Continued on page 13)
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE