spiritual activities as those of thought, self-consciousness, and will. The subject or seat of these spiritual powers must itself be spiritual.

It is a substance, by which we understand that which exists per se, which subsists in itself independently of a subject of inhesion such as the body.

It is simple, because not composed of parts; it has no "extension," it does not occupy space.

It is therefore necessarily indivisible, since it is not in any sense composite, or the result of an aggregation of distinct atoms or parts.

It is a principle, i.e. the source from which something comes, or which produces something or makes it known; thus the soul is the source or principle of life.

We may then conclude that the human soul is a spiritual substance, simple or indivisible, that it is the primary principle of life, which exists per se or independently of any union with matter.

The increased facilities for the textual criticism of Holy Scripture that characterise the present day seem to lead Biblical psychologists to conclusions which, if they were eventually accepted, would to some extent alter these definitions that have hitherto been popular with theologians. At present, however, the speculations as to the precise shades of meaning of certain words of the Bible can hardly be said to have proved that such alteration is necessary.

While the holy Scriptures are accepted as containing the true doctrine, materialism must necessarily be

rejected. There have always been men of note who believe the soul to be merely the principle of life, and who deny that it is a spiritual substance in the sense that theologians-pagan and Christian-have attached to the words. They agree with Lucretius, who taught that the "soul is born with the body, grows and decays with the body, and therefore perishes with the body." But these materialists do not pretend that the sacred Scriptures support their doctrine.

The origin of the soul brings us face to face with the great and insoluble mystery that surrounds the origin of all life. At one time it was thought that life in its lowest forms might possibly arise out of inanimate matter, but the development of chemistry and the power of the microscope have proved fatal to the theory of spontaneous generation. Dr. Tyndall confessed that, "no shred of trustworthy experimental testimony exists to prove that life in our day has ever appeared independently of antecedent life." Professor Huxley acknowledged that the doctrine of biogenesis-life from life- is "victorious. all along the line at the present day." As a matter of fact, then, science can offer no explanation of the mystery of life.

The attempted solution of the question, whence life came on our planet, by the suggestion put forward some years ago by Sir William Thompson-that the first life-germ came to us on an aerolite shot from some distant orb-has not only no shred of evidence to support it, but even if it were true offers no sort of

The

solution of the mystery of the origin of life. question, whence came the germ of life on the aerolite, leaves the mystery exactly where it was. We must therefore either take up an agnostic position and say we know nothing about the origin of life, or accept the conclusion that enlightened reason has arrived at, that there is a self-existent First Cause, the Lord and Lifegiver, from whom life in all its forms has originated.

There have been various theories as to the origin of the soul. The ancient Eastern religions taught that the soul exists before the body, and is sent to inhabit one body after another until it works its way towards emancipation from separate existence, and is absorbed in the ocean of life. Plato in the West taught something of the same kind. According to his theory all souls were called into existence at some remote period, and for some fault a soul is sent to inhabit a body as a punishment. Only such souls as in their pre-existent state have contemplated truth and abstract "ideas" can dwell in a human body. It is by reminiscence of the beauties that the soul witnessed before its union with the body that it can hope to rise out of the degradation of incarnation and attain to a purely spiritual existence.

This theory of the pre-existence of the soul influenced many of the schools of thought that sprang up in the early Christian Church. It was, however, always vigorously opposed by the great Fathers of the Church, and fell under the condemnation of the second Council of

Constantinople. If we ask why the theory was condemned, the answer is that no shred of proof to support it could be adduced from the holy Scriptures. The same may be said of the theory taught by some of the Gnostic sects and by the Manichæans—that the soul is an emanation from the Divine Being.

Very little is taught as to the origin of the soul in Holy Writ. In the Book of Genesis we read that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Whatever may be the exact meaning of these words, they certainly imply that the living principle in man is due to some special communication of the divine life, quite unlike anything bestowed upon the brutes. When the beasts of the earth were called into being we read that “God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind";2 but when man is to be formed "God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." However figurative this language may be it is simply misleading unless it means that man stands in a unique relationship to God. Man is said to be made in the image of God; he is the visible likeness of the Invisible, and as such he has been given dominion over the lower forms of life upon the earth. "And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 2 Ibid. i. 24.

1 Gen. ii. 7.

3 Ibid. i. 26.

earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

It is one of the simplest commonplaces of Christian doctrine that man's likeness to God is chiefly in the soul. It must be so, since God is Spirit. We conclude, therefore, that the soul of man is a spirit, and that it resembles God in its spiritual personality—its self-consciousness and its moral freedom; that the soul brings life to the body, as God brings life to all creation; that the soul sees, hears, and remembers things long past, while God knows all things, past, present, and to come; that the soul has free-will and affections which enable it to choose and to reject, to love and to hate, while God is Almighty, and has made known that He is Love.

It is of course true that man falls infinitely short of the Divine perfection of which he is the image. The spirit of man can only do imperfectly and in absolute dependence on God, what God does perfectly and of Himself. The question, whether or no the soul is immortal and thus has another point of likeness to the Eternal, is one that will be touched upon in its proper place.

Among other passages of Holy Scripture that speak of the soul as a creation of God we may note the words in Ecclesiastes where-at the death of the body-the spirit is said to return "unto God Who gave it";1 and the verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews in which God is called the "Father of spirits," and men "the fathers

1 Eccles. xii. 7.