of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth"; and now man has again the opportunity of attaining immortal life by accepting as his Saviour, our Blessed Lord and Master.

XXVIII. As the Church grows in ability "to comprehend what is the breadth and length, and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," she will ever find the appeal to the heart more powerful than the appeal to the fears of conscience. Terrible as Judgment and Hell are, the love of Christ is a mightier force by far. "Hear the Church-The

Spirit and the Bride say Come-Oh taste and see how gracious the Lord is-This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die-Why will ye die?"

Proofs from the Old

Testament.

"God said, Let the waters bring forth Gen. i. 20, 25. abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl . . . And God created great whales... And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind." Geology teaches us, that long periods of time passed in which the lower creation lived and died, before the race of man appeared on the earth.

"God said, Let Us make man in Our image." Gen. i. 26, 27. This cannot mean bodily likeness, but rather on the contrary. "God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. viii. 3) and also "Christ Jesus was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. ii. 5, 7.) Nor can the words mean likeness in soul, mind, or intellect. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. lv. 9.) The spiritof man also is not like the Godhead, as it is liable to err. "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding." (Isa. xxix. 24.)

B

Gen. i. 30.

Gen. ii. 7.

Gen. ii 9.

"Renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm li. 10) for "There is a spirit in man." (Job xxxii. 8.) May not the words "in Our image" mean, a threefold being, as is the Blessed Trinity, Three in One and One in Three. "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. v. 23.)

"To everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life (marg. a living soul), I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so." Death, in the vegetable world, is here recognized before the Fall.

"The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." (Job xxxiii. 5.) Note the body formed or developed from a previous creation; the soul, the same expression as that used for creeping things (Gen. i. 30), and the spirit, the gift of God. "Then shall the dust return to the earth

as it was; and the
God Who gave it."

spirit shall return unto (Eccles. xii. 7.)

made the Lord God to

"Out of the ground grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

"The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Gen. ii. 16, 17. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Death is the penalty of sin, not the death of the body alone, but of the whole man, body, soul and spirit. "If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever." (S. John vi. 51.) These are the words of our Blessed Lord, yet the Apostles, who eat of that Bread, died, so far as their bodies were concerned. So in both cases, the threat of Death, and the promise of Life, the death of the body ensued; therefore both the threat and promise must apply to more than merely the body of man. Note further, the words "in the day that" may refer to the Last Day, frequently referred to as "in that day" in the New Testament. See S. Luke x. 12, and other passages.

any

"Now the serpent was more subtle than beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman,

Gen. iii. 1-4.

Gen. iii. 17, 19.

Gen. iii. 22, 24.

Ye shall not surely die." We note that both the trees were in the midst of the garden: that the Lord commanded them to eat freely of every tree but one. They neglected to eat of the tree of life, and eat of the tree of knowledge, which eating resulted in death. They thus had choice of eternal life or mortal life. God said they should "surely die;" the devil said, "Ye shall not surely die." Can we hesitate whom to believe?" The devil was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him he is a liar." (S. John viii. 44.) He was the murderer of our first parents, as he led them into sin, thus destroying the opportunity they had of obtaining eternal life. On the other hand the Lord is. "a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He." (Deut. xxxii. 4.)

...

"Unto Adam He said . . . dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

"And the Lord God said . . . Now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: so He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword. which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." First mark how easy for man to have gained eternal life "lest he put forth his hand." From now man is mortal, his destiny might have been like that of our Blessed Lord.