(Continued from page 42.)

PART 1

The Materials and Framework of the Body -Anatomy

CHAPTER 1 The Materials forming the Body

"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" (Gen. 2:7).

Although couched in the language of daily life, the verse quoted from the book of Genesis gives us the exact scientific truth as to the material constitution of man. The elements which compose his body are those which also form the earth. There is nothing, so far as these elements are concerned, strange or unusual in the body. They #re in many ways a counterpart of the earth, as to their proportions, so that we can truly say, man's body is a microcosm, a little world.

How significant this material basis is! It shows that man is an integral part of the world he inhabits. He is not a spirit from some distant world, but linked with that from which his body has sprung. By virtue of his constitution, he is linked with the material creation, in contrast with angels who are pure spirit. He belongs to a different family or order of beings, and can never be mingled or confounded with them. Thus the expression "sons of God" in connection with taking wives of the "daughters of men" (Gen. 6:2) cannot refer to angels, but to the descendants of Seth, the family which did not apostatize like that of Cain.

What is matter as distinguished from spirit? We are at once face to face with a profound philosophical question with which the brightest minds have been engaged. It is not our purpose to enter into the discussion, but simply to point out that there is an immense difference, which keeps matter and mind ever in their two departments. Science has reduced the former to some eighty elements, most of which are extremely rare, and all of which can be practically grouped into a few families. Back of this the question is ever being discussed whether these elements may not be reduced to comparatively few "ions," and at last be brought down to one basic element from which all forms of matter have sprung. We cannot say, at least from the scientific point of view, what matter is, but Scripture gives us light upon two great facts:first, there is a Creator, by whom "all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers" (Col. 1:16). Second, matter is not eternal, but brought into being by divine power:"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb. 11:3). Matter, then, however many elements there may be which go to make it up, is God's creature, and distinct from spirit, equally His creature.

We may add just here that personality is connected with spirit. We cannot think of impersonal spirit out of which beings are brought. Spirit is the sum-total of all spirits. That which distinguishes matter from spirit is impersonality. However varied its forms-gaseous, fluid, or solid-it is unconscious, irresponsible. There are certain great laws which control it-laws established by the Creator-Gravitation, Cohesion, Chemical Affinity. The first of these finds its great display in the realm of Astronomy, the second in that of Physics, and the last in Chemistry.

And then comes life:first, vegetable; then, animal life. Who can tell us what life is? No definition which adequately describes its origin or character has ever been given. It seems as though God had hidden it from all the searching of man. We know life in its display, both in plants and animals. The microscope may bring us to the unit of life, the cell, and lay bare its nucleus, and; even the center of that, the nucleolus. But life is as far as ever from the knowledge of men.

Is not the statement of the Word of God the most satisfactory, indeed satisfying explanation? God gives life; it is from Him-"Every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew" (Gen. 2:5). He is the living, the self-existent One -"from everlasting to everlasting," and life is the display, in some infinitesimal degree, of His existence.

It has been found also extremely difficult to tell the exact difference between vegetable and animal life. In the lowest forms of organized existence many animal cells appear to be vegetable, or vice versa. One general distinction, however, seems clear:the vegetable cell draws its nutriment from unorganized matter, while the animal can be sustained only by feeding upon previously organized matter, whether vegetable or animal. This is in exact accord with the order in Genesis, where plant life, on the third day, is followed by animal existence, in sea and on land, on the fifth and sixth days.

We return, however, to our subject-the materials forming the body. By this we mean, first, those inorganic elements which are the basis of its structure; and next, the various grouping of these elements into the different tissues which make up the members of the entire body.

We give first a list of the various primary elements which are found in the body, in the proportion in which they occur.

Nitrogen….2.5 percent
Calcium …..1.3
Phosphorus . .1.15 Potassium …0.26 Iron ……… .01
Magnesium…. .012
Silicon ……. .0002
Oxygen …… 72 per cent
Carbon …… 13.5
Hydrogen …. 9.1
Sulphur …..0.1476
Sodium …….1
Chlorine ……085
Fluorine ……08

Traces of copper, lead, and aluminum.* *Kirke's Physiology.*

There are seventeen elements in all, by far the largest proportion being the four non-metallic elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, which in their various combinations form more than 97 per cent of the whole. The metallic elements, calcium, sodium, potassium, iron, magnesium and silicon with phosphorus and sulphur, and the two gases, chlorine and fluorine, with the traces spoken of, make up proximately the remaining three per cent, an apparently insignificant amount, but absolutely essential for the form and functions of the body. Indeed, we may fey that these apparently minor elements go to make up the characteristics of the more stable and bulky parts of the frame, as phosphorus and lime, so largely present in the bones.

We have already said that the human body is in a sense a microcosm, or miniature world, having in it the primary elements which form our earth. A comparison of the relative proportion of the principal elements forming the crust of the earth* will illustrate the correspondence. *Remsen's Chemistry.*

Oxygen 49.29 per cent
Calcium …. .3.77 per cent
Silicon…..27.21 "
Magnesium ..2.68 "
Aluminum .. 7.81 "
Sodium. …..2.36 "
Iron. ……. 5.46 "
Potassium …2.40 "

When we come to speak of the water and of the air, oxygen forms by far the larger portion of each, being; eight-ninths of the water by weight, and one-fifth of the; air by volume. These of course are connected with inorganic matter; the elements, carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen with oxygen, go to make up the organic or living, material in a similarly large proportion, as we have already seen to be the case in the human body.

But we must stop on the very confines of a most attractive and promising line of research, as taking us far be-, yond the limits of our present work, and for which we are at present unprepared. But the time will come-it may be before the coming of our Lord-when Chemistry, with the sister sciences, will lay her tribute at the feet of Him who is Creator and Redeemer too.

Returning, however, to the four elements which make up the largest part of the body, those indispensable to its organization and capacity for life, we would fain grasp, some hint of their spiritual meaning.

1. OXYGEN is the most widely distributed and the most abundant of all the elements. It is the active, vital element in the atmosphere, nitrogen being practically, inert, and serving mainly as a diluent to the oxygen with^ which it is mingled, and does not form a chemical compound. Oxygen also forms about eight-ninths of water, combining chemically with hydrogen to form that without which life could not exist. It is also the great supporter of combustion, hence the generator of heat and light, and is present we may say in practically all vital processes. It seems thus to stand at the head of all material elements in importance and in power.

If all matter is not only the creation of, but in some measure an expression of God, then oxygen must in some way be a symbol of His all-pervasive, almighty working, as the Source, Giver and Sustainer of life, and all that makes life possible. If man is made in the likeness and image of God, we need not be surprised to find in him as the prime element that which speaks thus of the presence and power of God. "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). "One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in us all" (Eph. 4:6). That oxygen uncombined is a gas, or "spirit," emphasizes this thought, for "God is a Spirit;" that it combines so readily with other elements suggests that God is "not far off from any one of us." God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. As we have already noticed, oxygen is the active element in the air we breathe.

Pantheism, at least that of the Oriental variety, tends to represent God as the All; there is nothing else but God-matter, plant and animal life, man, spirit-all are God. Bald materialism, coupled as it almost necessarily is with atheism, sees God nowhere. The truth declares that God is everywhere and in all. And this is God the Son. In Colossians 1, four prepositions describe His relation to His creation:"In" Him all things have been created-in His power, and in dependence upon Him; He is immanent in His creation, He has not thrown it off from Himself, as if disowning it.

Next, all things have been created "by" Him, as the Agent, and "for" Him as the End and Object of creation. He is "before" all things, as Head and Lord, and "By (literally, "in") Him all things consist." Have we not in oxygen a suggestion of this immanence of God in His creation? But everything is not oxygen. It is the great power that lays hold of and combines with everything as God does in His creation, yet distinct from it. It supports life and combustion, as all things depend upon Him for vitality and heat. But the distance is ever infinite between the eternal God and His creation. In oxygen we may have a type of His relation to all things. "The root error of Christian Science is this failure to distinguish between God and Creation, between God and man. The result is a blasphemous confusion that robs us practically of all truth.

2. HYDROGEN, as the lightest in weight of all known elements, is the standard of comparison between them all. It is, first of all, the indispensable ingredient in water, forming with oxygen that compound without which life could not exist, and which, like the atmosphere, and next to it, is the great necessity. Even the atmosphere itself is saturated with aqueous vapor. We may link the hydrogen with the general term moisture, and this gives us a hint of what it may symbolize. In the dew and rain we have symbolized those refreshing actions of the Spirit of God which render effectual all other divine ministrations. "As the dew of Hermon that descended upon the mountains of Zion:for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forever more" (Ps. 133:3)."As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven…. and watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater:so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth" (Isa. 55:10,11). Hydrogen is largely present in the blood, indispensable for all its functions in the circulatory systems, and indeed in the entire cellular life of the body. "My moisture is turned into the drought of summer" (Ps. 32:4), well expresses the absence of spiritual life in the
sinner, and the loss of communion in the child of God. Similarly the words applied to our Lord, "Thou hast the dew of thy youth" (Ps. 110:3), serve by contrast to show the presence ever in and with Him of the Holy Spirit of God, the freshness and vigor, too, of His own personal life, which could not be separated from the Spirit.

Hydrogen is also the necessary element, we may say, in all acids, and therefore essential in the digestive juices of the body. What would gastric juice be without the power given through the presence of hydrogen? It has, we may say, a distinct character as a solvent, and in cleavage. This reminds us of that action of the Spirit and Word of God in "dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow.. a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). We may also connect it with the various exhortations to "prove all things," "that ye may approve the things that are excellent" (or that differ, 1 Thess. 5:21; Phil. 1:10).

We can readily see from these few examples both the place occupied by hydrogen in the body, and its spiritual meaning; also the contrast with, and yet close affinity for oxygen, physically and spiritually. It need scarcely be said that this is the merest hint of what will yield a rich harvest of truth to the reverent seeker.

3. CARBON has a distinct place among the elements. It is "the central element of organic nature." Remsen's Introduction to Chemistry, p. 176. Its compounds form the basis of the science of organic chemistry, not that it is only found in organic life, but that it characterizes that life. It is, we may say, the building, the constructive element. Its spiritual significance therefore cannot be missed; suggesting Him who is the great Organizer who Himself as incarnate has set forth in His Person the perfection of this, and in His people its varied characters as manifest in them individually and collectively.

We may say then, in a tentative way, that in these three elements we have a suggestion of the Trinity; Oxygen, the sustainer of life, suggests the Father; Hydrogen, the diluent and separator, suggests the Spirit; and Carbon, the organizer and builder, the Son. In saying this we remind our readers of the safeguard already established-that creation is but the picture of deity, not deity itself, but glimpses of the "back parts" of the Lord (Exod. 33:23). "Lo, these are a part of His ways:but how little a portion is heard of Him" (Job 26:14). "There is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by Him" (1 Cor. 8:6). "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:4).

4. We come next to the fourth of the elements most prominent in the composition of the body-NITROGEN. We meet this element first of all in the air, mixed, not compounded, with the oxygen, in the proportion of four-fifths by volume to one-fifth of oxygen. It seems to serve here simply as a diluent reducing the energy of the oxygen to the moderation suited for the support of life and of combustion in a normal way. If the atmosphere were oxygen alone, many things would burn up at once, and it would be impossible to stop the universal conflagration which would ensue. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29).

The presence of Nitrogen restrains such a literal conflagration, and thus it seems fittingly to symbolize the patience and longsuffering of God, spoken of in this very connection:"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be turned up" (2 Pet. 3:9,10). In the atmosphere nitrogen is, we may say, absolutely inert. No one would dream that it had any power. So today men think of God as utterly indifferent, and indeed incompetent! Thus they despise "the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering" (Rom. 2:4).
But when we come to the part taken by nitrogen in the organic life of the world, and therefore in the human body, it is absolutely essential, forming as it does the basis of all albuminoid substances, protoplasm in its various forms. It is therefore as essential to life as the other elements of which we have spoken, indeed the most delicate of all these elements. Spiritually this shows us how the patience of God is not indifference. While He bears with men, sustaining life and health, He is building up the body; and in grace is forming those elements by which all our spiritual functions are organized. In this He stoops even lower than in the mixture of nitrogen with the air. We are told* that the nitrogen of the atmosphere is not directly assimilated by the body, but there are certain leguminous plants which assimilate it from the atmosphere, and through the medium of these it is prepared for its service to man. *Ostwald's Inorganic Chemistry, p. 347.* How suggestive this is of the Mediator, through whom all the service of divine love reaches us.

There is another set of nitrogen compounds, the most familiar of its chemical features, which are far removed either from the diluent properties seen in the atmosphere, or the delicate activities of the proteins. The pungent Ammonia, and the deadly Nitric Acid, HNO3 would hardly be associated, did we not know the truth, with the organic compounds. "Who may stand in thy sight when once Thou art angry?" (Ps. 76:7).

Similarly we may recognize a distinction, as we have already partly done, between the beneficial and the deadly activities of the first three elements. What more deadly action is there than that of Cyanogen, compound of Carbon (2) and Nitrogen (2), or the deadly Prussic Acid HCN? In Sulphuric Acid the prominent element is Oxygen (H2SO4). These will suffice for hints to show the divine beneficence in the structure of the literal body, and the more wonderful grace in the new creation fabric of the spiritual man, individual or corporate.

But we pass from this most attractive line of study, which could only be followed in a spiritual application of chemistry. Enough has come before us to make us hunger for more, and to learn at least a hint of the being and perfections of God as shadowed in creation, and of the chief spiritual elements which make up the new man, who is "after God created in righteousness and holiness of the truth" (Eph. 4:23 with Col. 3:10). S. R.

(To be continued.)