r, those of forming part of a so-called living
organism, they present phenomena of mechanical movement and molecular
change, and of transformation or transmission of force, which enable
them to transform themselves into various kinds of tissues, to nourish
these when formed, and to establish a consensus of action between
different parts of the organism; and these properties are vastly
varied in detail according to the kind of organism in which they take
place, and the conditions under which the organism exists. The
actually living matter presents no distinct structure recognizable by
the microscope, and can not be distinguished chemically from ordinary
albumen or protoplasm; but when living it must either exist in some
peculiar and complex molecular arrangement unknown as yet to chemistry
and physics, or must be actuated by some force or form of force called
vital, and not as yet isolated or reduced to known laws or
correlation. It does not concern theism or theology which of these may
eventually prove to be the true view, or if it should be found, which
is quite possible, that there is no real difference between them. In
any case it is certain that in the lower animals, and in the merely
physiological properties of man himself, living matter may act
independently of any higher spiritual nature in the individual, though
of course not independently of the higher power of God, which gave
matter its properties and sustains them in their action. It is farther
certain that in man the spiritual nature dominates and controls the
vital, except when under abnormal conditions the latter unduly gains
the mastery, and quenches altogether the spirit. In the language of
the Bible, the merely vital endowments of the man belong to the flesh
([Greek: sarx]), and to the rational mind or soul ([Greek: psyche]).
The higher nature which man derives directly from God is the spirit
([Greek: pneuma]). Either of these parts of the complex humanity is
capable of life ([Greek: zoe]) and of immortality. Either of them is
capable of being in a state of death, though the import of this
differs in its application to each. In Genesis, the body is composed
of the ordinary earth-materials--the "dust of the ground." The higher
nature is seen in the "shadow and likeness of God," and in the
inbreathing of the Divine Spirit whereby man became a "living soul" in
a higher sense than that in which the animals possess the ordinary
"breath of life." With these vi