ple which is the
crowning achievement of His creative power. For myself, I have never
had the least sympathy with a teaching that almost amounts to a
vilification of the body, and which is at the basis of much that passes
for religion, both Christian and pagan. Our body is a gift worthy of
the Giver. We can do much to mar it in ourselves, and through us for
others. Hitherto the one perennial idolatry of the world has been
destruction; and if one thing has escaped this insanity less than
another, it is the human body. But for all that, we do not deny that a
picture may be a work of genius, because any madman could destroy it in
less time than it takes to suggest the possibility.

Much is said and written about the duality that is in us; and many of
us are Manichean without knowing technically what the term means. The
two parts in the same self are represented as East and West, and "never
the twain shall meet." We must understand, however, what we mean by
this bisection of man. Between the carnal and the spiritual there must
be no compromise and there can be no peace. But carnality is not in
the body, it is in the principle that uses the body as its medium and
expression. We say much about "sins of the flesh"; as a matter of fact
there is no such thing. Sin is, before it is wrought out through the
flesh. It is not the body that commits adultery or gets drunk, it is
the creature which owns it. The same Apostle who tells us that the
"flesh lusteth against the Spirit," also speaks about the "redemption
of the body"; which means that as the latter can be degraded, so can it
be honoured by him who uses it. Hence the people who weaken the body
to strengthen the soul begin at the wrong end. Let them guard the
life, and the strength of the body will become an agent of pleasure and
service, not of sorrow and defeat. It is surely better to ride a fine
steed well under control, than find our safety only because we mount a
hack. I have heard young men complain bitterly about the disproportion
between their bodily passions and their will-power. They overlook two
things--first, that will can be acquired, that an act of will means
more will; and, secondly, that passion in itself can be, and is
intended to be, a great and precious possession. The absence of
passion may mean an anaemia, which virtually cuts us off from some of
the finest possibilities of human life. Our bodies are part, and the
highest part, of a cosmi