or a deliverer. God is the pledge of the
soul's victory over the body. For men floundering in the slough of sin
and despond these words, "Ye may, ye must be born again," are sweeter
than angel songs falling from the hills of Paradise.

Consider the uses of the body. It is God's schoolmaster teaching
industry, compelling economy and thrift, and promoting all the basal
moralities. It contains the springs of all material civilization. If
we go back to the dawn of history we find that hunger and the desires,
associated with the body, have been the chief stimulants toward
industrial progress. Indolence is stagnation. Savages in the tropics
are torpid and without progress. Hunger compels men to ask what food
is in the river, what roots are in the ground, what fruits are on the
trees, what forces are in the air. The body is peremptory in its
demands. Hunger carries a stinging scourge. Necessity drives out the
evil spirits of indolence and torpidity. The early man threading the
thickets in search of food chanced upon a sweet plum, and because the
bush grew a long way from his lodge he transplanted the root to a vale
near his home. Thence came all man's orchards and vineyards. Shivering
with cold, man sought out some sheltered cave or hollow tree. But soon
the body asked him to hew out a second cave in addition to the one
nature had provided. Fulfilling its requests, man went on in the
interests of his body to pile stone on stone, and lift up carved
pillars and groined arches. Thence came all homes. For the body the
sower goes forth to sow, and the harvester looks forward to the time
of sheaves and shoutings. For strengthening the body the shepherd
leads forth his flocks and herds, and for its raiment the weaver makes
the looms and spindles fly. For the body all the trains go speeding in
and out, bringing fruits from the sunny south, and furs from the
frozen north. All the lower virtues and integrities spring from its
desires. As an engine, lying loose in a great ship, would have no
value, but, fastened down with bolts, drives the great hull through
the water, so the body fastens and bolts the spirit to field, forest,
and city, and makes it useful and productive. Material life and
civilization may be said to literally rest upon man's bones and
sinews.

The body is also the channel of all the knowledges. How scant is the
child's understanding of the world-house in which he lives! There are
shelves enough, but they are all empty