“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
      The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
    Hath had elsewhere its setting,
      And cometh from afar.”

Many Occidentals have believed in preexistence.  One of the most intelligent persons whom I have ever known once affirmed that she had had thoughts which she was sure were memories of events which had occurred in a previous life.  This answer only pushes the question one stage further back, and leaves us still inquiring, Where do the souls of men originally come from?

Another answer to our question affirms that every individual soul is created by God whenever a body is in readiness to receive it—­that when a body is born a soul is made to order for it.  An old poet wrote as follows: 

    “Then God smites His hands together
    And strikes out a soul as a spark,
    Into the organized glory of things,
    From the deeps of the dark."[1]

[Footnote 1:  W.R.  Alger, “History of the Doctrine of a Future Life,” page 10.]

The Greek myth of Prometheus is an illustration of this teaching, for “Prometheus is said to have made a human image from the dust of the ground, and then, by fire stolen from heaven, to have animated it with a living soul."[2]

[Footnote 2:  W.R.  Alger, “History of the Doctrine of a Future Life,” page 10.]

Another answer teaches that all human souls have been derived by heredity from that of Adam.  This is a speculation found in medieval theology, and in the Koran.

A fanciful theory suggests that all souls have been in existence since the universe was formed; that they are floating in space like rays of light; and that when a body comes into being a soul is drawn into it with its first breath, or first nourishment.  This is pure imagination, but intelligent and earnest men have believed it to be the true solution of the problem.

One other answer to this question of origin teaches that souls are propagated in the same way and at the same time as bodies; that when a human being appears he is body and spirit; that both are born together, both grow together; and then, some add, both die together, while others believe that the spirit enters at death on a larger and freer stage of existence.

I have recalled these speculations concerning the soul in order to show that in all ages this question has been eagerly put and reverently pressed.  How could it have been otherwise?  And what more convincing evidence of the spiritual nature of man could be desired than that he asks such questions?  Would a figure of clay ask whether it were the abode of a higher order of being?  Dust asks no questions concerning personality; but intelligence can never be satisfied until it knows the causes of things.

What is the teaching of the New Testament concerning this subject?  The attitude of Jesus toward all the great problems was the practical one.  He attempted to shed no light on causes, but ever endeavored to show how to make the best of things as they are.  Whence came the soul? we may ask of Him, but He will tell us that a far more important inquiry is, How may the soul be delivered from imperfection, suffering, and sin, and saved to its noblest uses and loftiest possibilities?