CARPENTER ON THE WILL.

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exhorts him to combat against his habit. "The struggle (he says) will be severe, but you can conquer if you will. You have every possible motive of the highest kind on the one side, and nothing but the attraction of a selfish custom on the other. Be a man and not a beast. Exert the power which you know and feel yourself to possess; keep your thoughts and affections steadily fixed upon the right; avoid the first step in the downward path; and when the moment of unexpected temptation comes, make a vigorous effort, determine to succeed, and you will come off victorious." All this is excellent; it would come quite well into a sermon; only there is one omission. These two philosophers seem to be in the case of the Ephesians when S. Paul first visited them, they "have not so much as heard whether there be any HOLY GHOST," who listens to the prayers of those who call upon Him, and aids their infirmities.

Is there a sincere and honest man who has not experienced, times innumerable, the operation of the Spirit of GOD co-operating with the spirit within him, enabling him to put from him evil thoughts and desires, strengthening his will, "leading him into all truth," "giving him the Spirit of Wisdom." If he had become enslaved to vice, and broken his fetters, does he not

1 See Contemporary Review, May, 1875, p. 954.

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MEN BECOME GOOD

acknowledge that it was the Spirit of GoD striving with his spirit, and that "where the Spirit of GOD is, there is liberty," that "the law of the Spirit of life in CHRIST JESUS hath made him free from the law of sin and death." If he is perplexed with difficulties, has he not been led to confess that "the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of GOD?" Do we not know that "the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of GOD?" And this will solve the difficulty which some psychologists profess to find with regard to the necessity of human actions. It is most true that when a man has got into evil ways, he will naturally go on from worse to worse. One evil deed will lead him on to another. An evil habit once contracted will seem to him insuperable and so it may be by his natural powers. No Christian philosopher will deny the doctrine of evolution in this sense. But then comes in the supernatural power of the HOLY SPIRIT, which GOD is ever ready to send to them that seek It. How many thousands of once ungodly men have been saved from destruction, have become holy and just and good, who once 'were immersed in sin! How many are ready to

bear testimony to the blessed influence of the HOLY SPIRIT which has converted them from the power of Satan to the faith and fear of GOD? How many saintly men and women have arrived,

BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

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through God's grace helping them, at degrees of holiness which were inaccessible to mere human efforts?

"Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed
His tender last farewell,

A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed
With us to dwell.

"He came sweet influence to impart,
A gracious willing Guest,

While He can find one humble heart,
Wherein to rest.

"And His that gentle voice we hear,

Soft as the breath of even,

That checks each thought, that calms each fear,
And speaks of heaven.

"And every virtue we possess,

And every conquest won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are His alone."

The psychologist may know nothing of these facts, but an innumerable company of saints and penitents will bear testimony to them. Psychology without the Spirit of GOD is indeed a poor affair.

CHAPTER XX.

MAN FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE.-BODY, SOUL, SPIRIT.-DISTINCTION BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS.-PROGRESS.-EDUCATION.

AND

How fearfully and wonderfully made is man! What a marvellous complication of contrivances is his body even apart from his soul and spirit. Look at the eye,-what an elaborate and delicate organ consider the blood-vessels, how admirably are they adapted to convey the principle of life to all the extremities of the body: then the alimentary organs, how ingeniously contrived: the nerves, though less perceptible, are even more delicate than the rest. All these organs man has in common with the animal race. And in some respects the inferior animals surpass man in the perfection of their bodily organs. The eagle's eye is more piercing than that of any man. The lion surpasses him in strength,—the antelope in swiftness the dog has a wonderful faculty of scent by which he tracks his prey: the wings of the

INSTINCT OF ANIMALS.

197

bird give it a power of locomotion which man

cannot attain to.

But these defects, if they be so, are abundantly compensated by reason. Other animals have the principle of life as well as the mere material body. But the reason or peculiar intellect of man distinguishes him from the rest of the animal race, and renders him far superior to every other living thing. Not but that many of the animal races have certain rudiments of intellect, which sometimes startle us by their near approach to reason. The bee provides in summer for the necessities of winter, and constructs her cells in which the honey is stored up with wonderful ingenuity: the spider spreads his net to catch his prey; birds form most beautiful nests, in which to hatch their young. But in all these contrivances there is a marked difference between the instinct of the mere animal and man. animals never improve their work. Birds make the same nests year after year. Bees construct their cells precisely the same way as they always have done. You seldom see any variation. If apparently by chance any variation or improvement is made, it is not repeated or imitated. The swallow's nest is the same every year. The spider does not improve his web. The silkworm weaves the same shroud in which to sleep before it comes forth again to renewed life. But the

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