(Continued from page 23.)

CHAPTER II

Man's Place Among the Creatures of God

God has revealed Himself as an uncreated r Being-a living Personality, whose existence is from everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 90 :2). He has declared Himself to be the Author of all created beings and things. In Col. i :16 we learn there are two distinct created spheres-an invisible and a visible one, an immaterial and a material one. God is the creator of both; the Son of God made all things.

Man is the link of connection between the Immaterial and the material creations. By his very nature and constitution he belongs to both spheres, being a part of the material and visible universe and of the spiritual and invisible also.

Tn Gen. i, where the record of God's work in the material creation is given, there is no mention of any purely spirit-beings. Their creation forms no part of the material creation; it probably preceded the material one. The fact that angels as creatures are called "the sons of God," indicates this. In any case, all purely spirit-beings are a distinct creation.

In the material creation itself we readily see distinct divisions also. It naturally divides into two great realms-the inanimate and the animate. Each of these again subdivides into smaller spheres, with distinctive characteristics. The inanimate realm divides into gases, liquids and minerals; and these again have their smaller divisions, which we need not mention. The animate realm also has its divisions, as the kingdom of the unconscious, living plant, and the kingdom of the self-conscious, personal soul. Man belongs to this latter kingdom, as is evident. Plants have no soul-nature; they live, die and cease forever.

Turning to animals, we at once see they possess a higher nature than plants. They are free, self-determining, in a sense, yet it is not self-conscious and rational determination. This higher nature is the sentient or soul-nature. All living animals are called "souls" in Scripture. In dying, they cease to be "living souls"-the animal nature has perished.

Now in considering man, we see in him a higher nature still, having characteristics absolutely lacking in all animals. Articulate speech, language, art, induction, deduction, and other rational activities, mark him as belonging to a higher rank of being; they manifest him as a self-conscious, self-determining personality. How is this to be accounted for ? Scripture explains it, and its explanation is the only one possible. Man is the crown of God's visible creation and its head; made a little lower than the angels in the order of creation, to link thus the immaterial with the -material in an eternal embrace, so that the tabernacle of God should be with men. Never until the creation of man was there a creature possessing endowments making such a wonderful purpose possible.

Let us remember that all through the work of creation, whenever God introduced anything new, He spoke it into being. He said, " Let there be." This was the word of power-"He commanded, and it stood fast." But when the time arrived for God to produce a foreshadow of the end He had in view, He took counsel with Himself (Gen. i:26). This divine consultation over the new creature then to be introduced, clearly indicates his importance in God's mind over all His previous works. And not only this, but if the end God has before Him is to be realized, the creature He is now to make and introduce into His creation must be a figure of the incarnate Son of God. He must be in kinship with God-a man in God's image, with a spirit-nature as His own, while possessing a corporeal nature. He must have a material body, and a soul with the quality of spirit, otherwise he could not be in the image or likeness of God. The soul, or sensuous nature in his case is lifted to a higher sphere through its possessing the nature of spirit. Such is the creature whose introduction into the material creation is announced in Gen. 1:27:"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him."

But his rank or position among other creatures needs fuller elucidation. In Gen. i we have the fact of his introduction stated; in chap. 2 the manner of it is given. A study of this will throw much light on the nature and character of man's relationships to other creatures. In verse 7 we read :"And 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." This statement warrants our saying, Man has a double origin. First, as Scripture elsewhere puts it, he is "of the earth" (i Cor. 15:47). By his corporeal nature he is allied to other earthly creatures. He and the "living souls" around him, came from the earth -though not in the same way as he. They came forth at the fiat of the Creator. He was formed, or fashioned, and in breathed. No "living soul" ' other than man was in breathed. Still, in a true sense, he and they have a common origin-they are both of the earth.

In this sense, therefore, man and animals partake of the same corporeal life, connected with and belonging to the earth. But, unlike animals, man has a higher origin, and possesses a higher nature, which we must now consider. Man became "a living soul," not by the mere fiat, but by the in breathing of God. A widespread impression should be corrected here. Many think that God first formed man's body of the dust and afterward breathed the breath of life into his nostrils ;but the Hebrew does not admit of that explanation of the divine act. It represents a two-fold combined activity in the creation of man:the forming and the breathing being a united action, a single exercise of divine energy. This manner of man's creation shows that within his corporeal frame is an invisible, an immaterial element not derived from the earth. The in breathing shows that God imparted something; and it was by this impartation that "man became a living soul."

Man, then, has a double origin-an outer nature which is of the earth, and an inner one which is of God. But let us exercise care here, lest we exalt man to a position to which he does not belong. When we say, man's inner nature is derived from God we do not mean that he partakes of the essence of God's being, but that he possesses a nature like the nature of God. Angels too have a nature like God's nature, yet have no part, do not share in, the divine essence.

We have said that by the impartation of his immaterial, inner nature, man became a living soul _a soul element is in him then. But animals too have a soul element. Wherein does the soul of man differ from that of an animal? It ought to be clear that man's sentient nature, or soul, is of a higher order than that of the beast. He perceives arid feels what the beast does, but how much more! By observation we clearly perceive that the soul or sentient element in beasts is impersonal, not self-conscious in any rational sense as in man. It also lacks man's moral characteristics, and the religious element is altogether wanting. The beast has no sense of moral obligation, no capacity for the reception or acceptance of responsibility and guilt.

We need not press further the contrast of soul in man and in the beast. However true it is that in a sense men and animals are by nature allied, there is a wide gulf between them-a gulf so wide that the sentient nature in man is super-sentient. Undeniably the soul element in man has a quality altogether wanting in the animal.
C. Crain

(To be continued.)