nature is again and again affirmed. St. Luke, speaking of the second visit of Paul and Barnabas to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, describes their teaching in the words, Confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God' (Acts xiv. 22). In the letter sent by the Apostles and elders assembled at Jerusalem, to the Gentile Churches, they speak of the Judaizing teachers as having 'troubled them with words, subverting their souls' (Acts xv. 24); and St. Paul writes to the Romans, 'God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son' (Rom. i. 9).

It is held, indeed, by some, that the nature of man is threefold; and stress is laid by those who take this view, on the prayer of St. Paul for the Thessalonians: And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Thess. v. 23). This passage, however, must be viewed in connection with those cited above, in several of which the soul is recognised as that which thinks and wills, that which forms the seat of personality, and which survives the dissolution of the body. And when the general tenor of Scripture is kept in view, it seems more consistent to regard the Apostle, in the passage in question, not as indicating that the spirit of man is, in its nature, distinct from the soul, but rather as accumulating terms to give emphasis to the sentiment, that all the powers of our complex nature-our intellectual energies, our affections, our will, and our physical system-are to be pervaded by the sanctifying influence of God, and to be consecrated to His service. The passage is thus analogous, in one respect, to the first and great commandment : -Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength' (Matt xii. 30).

But the image of God,' in which man was created, while it included the possession of a spiritual nature, capable of reflecting the intellectual and moral glories of God Himself, implied

also that he did actually reflect those glories. His understanding was filled with spiritual light; his heart glowed with pure and holy affections. "God made man upright' (Eccles. vii. 29). There was no principle in his nature contrary to purity and rectitude; though he was capable of transgressing, and, alas! did actually transgress, the Divine precepts, and thus brought ruin on himself and his race. The references to the image of God in the New Testament sufficiently establish this more comprehensive meaning. St. Paul writes to the Colossians, 'Ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him' (Col. iii. 9, 10); and to the Ephesians he says, 'That ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man which waxeth corrupt, after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth' (Ephes. iv, 22-24).

The moral image of God has now been lost by man in his natural state; but the grand feature of his spiritual nature remains, and that nature may be restored, as St. Paul teaches us, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, so as again to reflect the holiness of Jehovah and enjoy communion with Him. It is instructive to observe that when, after the flood, the Most High permitted to man to use as food the flesh of some of the inferior animals, He guarded the sanctity of human life by the solemn declaration, And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man' (Gen. ix. 5, 6).

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The nature of man is everywhere represented in Scripture as possessed of a high and unspeakable value. Our Lord Himself has recognised this when speaking of the Providence of our Father in heaven; for, after adverting to the care of God over

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'Ye are of more

the humblest of the brute creation, He adds, value than many sparrows' (Luke xii. 7). So, too, in His Sermon on the Mount, He said, Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?' (Matt. vi. 26). Though in comparison of the vast fabric of the material Universe, any individual man may appear to be little, yet God has set His heart upon him to visit and to magnify him. It was in the spirit of devout gratitude to God for His distinguishing regard to man, that the Psalmist exclaimed, 'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour' (Psalm viii. 3-5). Every individual of our race is permitted and encouraged to approach God with the words, Our Father which art in heaven'; and this, of itself, shows the importance of our nature. But the crowning distinction of that nature is, that the Son of God has assumed it, has taken it into indissoluble union with His own eternal Personality, and that, through Him, we may become, in a yet higher sense, the sons of God,' and thus, too, may be 'heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.'

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CHAPTER II.

THE FALL.

THE Scriptural narrative teaches us that man was placed in a state of probation. While he was free from moral corruption, and was possessed of the essential principles of rectitude, these principles were, for a while, to be tested, and thus, had he continued faithful, to be matured and perfected.

The special prohibition under which our first parents were laid was one calculated to call into exercise their self-control, their reverence for the Divine authority, and their love to God, even when all the reasons of His injunctions were not perfectly clear to them. Had these principles been maintained, and the prohibition observed, they would not only have stood in the Divine favour, but would have risen to a state of confirmed and established goodness.

But they fell. Eve, yielding to the solicitations of the tempter, took of the forbidden fruit; and then Adam, not deceived, as Eve was, but apprehending fully the momentous character of the act he was about to commit, cast in his lot with his wife, and thus deliberately renounced the Divine friendship. 'Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression' (1 Tim. ii. 14).

In the narrative of Genesis, the tempter appears as 'the serpent'; but it is clear, from the whole tenor of Scripture, that this animal was the instrument of a great fallen intelligence, who stands at the head of the powers of darkness. In allusion to the history of the fall, the leader of the fallen angels

is spoken of asthe great dragon, the old serpent, the deceiver of the whole world' (Rev. xii. 9); and in another place as 'the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan' (Rev. xx. 2). But besides this, Satan is represented as having, by his fatal deception and falsehood, destroyed the happiness of man; and as having established on this earth a kingdom of evil directly antagonistic to the kingdom of God. Our Lord Himself said to the unbelieving Jews, 'Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father thereof' (John viii. 44). In refutation of the blasphemous suggestion, that He performed some of His miracles through being in league with Satan, He said, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: and if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?' (Matt. xii. 25, 26.) At a later period He repeatedly spoke of Satan as the prince of this world'; and His Apostles dwell on his unceasing efforts, and those of the hosts under his control, to counteract the purposes of Divine grace and to ruin men. St. John recognises his agency in bringing about the first transgression, as well as his constant efforts to uphold and diffuse the dominion of evil, when he affirms, 'To this end was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil' (1 John iii. 8).

It was the sin of Adam that brought ruin on our world. He stood, as St. Paul teaches us, as the Head and Representative of his race; and had he continued faithful, the fall would have been averted. The effects of his transgression on all his descendants will be considered more fully in the next Chapter, in which the doctrine of Original Sin will engage our attention. But we must here dwell on the immediate results of his disobedience.

The judgment threatened against transgression was expressed in the comprehensive words, 'In the day that thou eatest thereof