By MARSHALL B. SHALLIS I STUDIED many other things,” wrote Flavel, “ but I knew not myself.” How true that is o f modern educated, industrious, healthy youth! You know your trade, profes sion, business. You study art and science, music and philosophy, medi cine and theology, but you scarcely know whether you differ from an ape. You do not seem sure o f your ante cedents or certain that you have a soul, or that you will live forever. What a heavy blow man must have received at the Fall when Satan trip ped him so that he cannot now re member who he is, where he came from, and whither he is bound! Your Soul’ s Reality “What profit is it,” says Jesus (who should know), “ if a man gains the whole of this world, but forfeits his own soul in the next? Or, what twin empire of your body and soul, (Lit. tr. cp. Mark 8 :36 ). Your soul is the chief part o f the twin empire o f your body and soul, simply because it is yourself, you. As the diamond outvalues its setting, and the “ old master” its frame; as the tenant is immeasurably more than his cottage or mansion, so your soul is infinitely more precious than the tent of clay, your body, in which you are temporarily housed and to which you are feebly linked by the thin', frail hair-cord, the breath in your nostrils. Your soul is the more important o f the two because it is the living, vital part. When the soul says “ good-bye” there is left but inani mate clay. Your soul is the chief part because it is the immortal part o f you, which cannot die by violence, famine or disease. “ Fear not them,” said Jesus, “ which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28). Your soul' is more than your body because it is spirit, a vital, in visible, intangible substance, not created out o f matter, and therefore indivisible and indissoluble at death, when it returns to God who gave it. Your soul has been endued by God its Creator with vastly superior A U G U S T , 1 9 5 0
faculties and nobler powers than your body. Your soul has an understand ing and a conscience, with powers of thought, reason and knowledge of good and evil, and a sense of God. Your soul is gifted with the capacity to worship, and the . power to love, hate, grieve, rejoice, agonize; to be sorrowful, angry, repentant, bitter, malignant and forgiving. Your soul has been given by God a will of its own, which loves dominion and lib erty. The will rules over the twin empire of your body and soul by the power of choice, sometimes choosing the way and course advised by the understanding and the conscience, sometimes ignoring that way. Your soul differs from the brute beast in its creation (Gen. 2 :7 ), its capacity (spiritual and intellectual), and its continuity (Matt. 10:28; 2 Tim. 1:10 ; Eccl. 3 :21 ; Luke 16:25). Your Soul’ s Responsibility Your soul, being a moral, re sponsible, created personality, is held utterly responsible by God to achieve and accomplish that for which He de signed and created you. Your respon sibility to God is heavy.
You owe Him the veneration due as a creature to its Divine Originator and Creator. You owe Him the re spect and acknowledgment o f owner ship, for you belong^ to Him, body and soul, made with His materials by His own hands in His own design. He is your absolute Owner. “ All souls are mine,” saith the Lord (Ezek. 18 :4 ). You owe Him implicit and prompt obedience as the supreme Sovereign who has revealed His laws and will in His book and by His Son. You owe Him for everything good that has ever come to you. He is your bounti ful Benefactor from whom every good and perfect g ift comes. He pro vides rain, sun, air, food and health, as well as the special gifts o f reason and a sound mind. You owe to Him as a righteous Redeemer the grati tude, devotion and service due to the Creator who became flesh and died on the Cross for ybur sins to ransom your soul. You are accountable to God as to a just Judge before whom you must inevitably stand to give an account o f the things done in the body (2 Cor. 5 :10 ). Page Twenty-one
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