matter, but of spirit; as embodied spiritual existences we act on others, and with them, through the body, while it lives and moves. Hence, without metaphysical refinements, the words body, soul, and spirit are alike used to designate a human being: as when, on asking Was anybody at home? the answer might be, Every soul was at church; so, should it be said, What were the souls under the throne? the reply that described them as the spirits of just men made perfect would be right. Thus 'body, soul, and spirit' include every conception of the whole man in outward action, individual life, and personal character.

The ideas of life and soul are so nearly one in the Greek language and in the New Testament, that the same term xù must sometimes be understood to mean life, and at others the soul itself as the living being. The ideas of life and of soul are conjoined in revelation.

In asserting the dignity of the human soul, we claim for it incomparably higher qualities than any that can be predicted of other earthly beings. Though every animated creature is rightly called a soul, as an individual sustained by a life derived from spiritual and not from physical energy, yet the soul that is capable of loving his Maker is a soul, in the noblest, divinest sense. Is that but an ideal sentiment? It is, but then that ideal makes the true human distinction; it marks man as an especial order of being, in that he is a spirit, whose perfection is to love the Perfect One perfectly. A man may search all worlds, and find no rest till he sees what his soul wants for the satisfaction of his will, even the knowledge of God's will towards him, expressed in one word-Love. That man wants to know God loves him is a fact which can have no meaning, but in the revelation of the Divine Fatherhood through the Word, that said, 'I and the Father are one.' And that means nothing

if it mean not that the reconciling, atoning life of the Perfect Man includes the permanent gift of His own Spirit to all who seek it, that they may love God with the full enthusiasm of mind, strength, heart, and soul, and their neighbour as themselves; so fulfilling the law of life and spirit in a sinless will.

Lord help us, this and every day,

To live more nearly as we pray.

41

CHAPTER III.

THE ADAPTATION OF THE BODY TO THE SOUL.

NATURE everywhere bears the impress of Divine Wisdom, and whenever effects are traced to causes, and formation is considered in respect to its design, we discover a perfect adaptation of means to ends, without defect, without redundancy.

When surveying any living creature, we naturally inquire, why it is provided with such and such peculiarities of organisation. In answer to the inquiry, we learn that every peculiarity of formation is adapted to some instinct of the creature, or accommodates it the better to the circumstances in which the Creator has placed it. Every organ has its function, and every variation in special structure indicates some especial qualification, in respect to both the habitat and the habits of the creature which exhibits it. Monstrosities are rare exceptions, and only confirm the rule, for they too occur according to certain relations, which prove still more clearly than could be proved without them, to our intellect at least, that the Wisdom which designs, and the Power which executes, calculated on the disorder that created will, with its conflicting forces, produces, set bounds to its interference which cannot be passed, balanced its effects from the beginning, and pointed reason to the Divine remedy that demonstrates that the Good and the Eternal are the same.

One creature is not to be called monstrous or ugly, in comparison with another, for each is exactly fitted to its

place in the grand scale of existence, and therefore all are alike beautiful, as exhibiting the wonderful wisdom and beneficence of God. But creation is graduated, and every creature has its proper place. The totality of an animal's framework indicates its position in the scale of being. If we measure man according to this standard, his superiority is at once evident. Not that his body is distinguished by any marked excellence in those qualities which empower brutes, but rather by the symmetrical accordance of all its parts for superior purposes, under the direction of a mind that cannot truly sympathise with lower natures.

There is less of coincidence between the will of man and his means of fulfilling it than in mere animals. Their wills, bounded by their bodies, are without wishes. They desire no power but that which actuates their limbs; they need no other instruments to satisfy their wants. Their bodily nature is their limit and completion. Thus the bird's wing is so exquisitely formed to obey the instinct for flight, that each feather is ready to cut and press the air precisely as the inclination of the creature may urge it to proceed in its balanced movements; it is thus made in relation to the air, and the air to it. Man's body does not fulfil his desires, but his mind must work with his wondrous hand, to subdue nature as in a supernatural manner, to satisfy his wants and fulfil his purposes as a thinking being. He must invent his means of accommodation to this world, or receive them as a gift from other hands. He lives by art, and all his works demonstrate that once-appointed dominance over terrestrial nature, which science is endeavouring, with all her mighty powers, to restore.

Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri,

Jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.

This is a fine heathen sentiment, but not quite true;

for the eye of man was intended to search the earth as well as the heavens, and to behold Omnipotence in every part of the universal temple. The face is indeed the index of thought and sentiment, the medium through which mind most vividly communicates with mind, but yet the whole body acts together in the full expression of feeling:

Totamque infusa per artus,
Mens agitat molem.

Let us imagine a human figure as if now standing before us, like the Apollo of the intellectual Greeks when he gazed on the smitten Python. We seem to see the visible idea or image of the man who aspired to be a god. At length he stands triumphant over the temptation and the tempter; content in the consciousness of a renovated and perfect humanity. Passion and intellect are blended in calm unison; knowledge and affection are at peace; the attributes of feeling, thought, and action, are combined in one attitude, expressive of the delicate might of a living spirit. Mind reigns there. The incarnate Intelligence manifestly controls matter by his will, and appears as if conscious of being always resisted, yet never vanquished; but, inspired by the apprehension of his right, as vicegerent of Almightiness, he subdues resistance and surmounts difficulties by perseverance in the use of strength, that continually and spontaneously increases with every opposition to his purpose. Such is man, when sustained by the divinity which stirs within him; the only creature on which the Creator has shadowed divine perfections, and therefore to be honoured even in his ruin; for when his affections and faculties are restored, as they may be, to divine sympathy, he shall again stand upright, the conqueror of the mighty Serpent, and carry on the purposes of boundless Love and Goodness, at one with Heaven.