into divinity, through the working of the Spirit of God in our souls, we must know the difference between the Spirit of man, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God. The Spirit of man is that intelligent essence called soul. The Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, is that high degree of knowledge and illumination possessed by souls which are in a nearer relationship with God, such as the soul of our Great Master, Jesus Christ. Such also are the "Seven spirits before the throne," mentioned in Revelations.

The Spirit of God is the God-power Itself, which, working in our souls, will naturalize us into His Divinity. It is the power of the magnet, which magnetizes the iron into its own nature.

We fully believe in our Great Master, Jesus the Christ, and in all his teachings. He is the highest among all the creatures in the great universe; the first begotten Son of God, and His Agent; the Creator is his God, and he is His dearest Son. But we know that our salvation is not through his death, but through the great mercy of the Father. We also know that all the iniquities of mankind are as nothing in comparison with the infinity of God's mercy, because the heavens of His charity and the oceans of His bounty, are so vast, that He has never rejected those who begged of Him, nor disappointed those who willed to come unto Him. To Him the majesty and the glory! And to His Son, the greatness and the exaltation, for ever and ever! Amen.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NECESSITIES OF THE SOUL.

We know that the earth is not our permanent place of abode. It is self evident that we cannot remain here. The body is but the temporary residence of the soul. As a traveler crossing a desert or forest, man journeys from birth to death; from the cradle to the grave. Generations preceding us have come and gone as we have come and as we shall go. The summons of death cannot be refused. To it, all mankind is alike subject. The dust of earth enshrines our weaknesses and our heroisms; the splendor of kings and burdens of the slave lie mingled beneath its pall. Evicted by death, their habitations destroyed, all soul-tenants of these bodies must stand alone before God. Death levels all earthly distinctions, and in the presence of God, we are equal supplicants for His mercy. The life of man is but an atom of eternity. God would be unjust if He allowed us to come upon this earth so short a time and live here subject to sorrow and suffering, without purposé. The nature of our existence here, the conditions to which we are subject, indicate the accomplishment of certain action for the attainment of a high privilege. The life of man, therefore, reflects the will of God, and human destiny is haloed by Divine solicitude.

Our necessities here, are of two kinds,-material and spiritual. Material necessities, or the needs of the body, are food, drink and protection. These bodily requirements do not affect the soul, except in the matter of condition and repair of its material habitation, yet two points in connection with them, demand consideration.

First: Although soul necessities are of eternal consequence to us, and the necessities of the body are merely temporal requirements, we find that the latter occupy most of our time and attention. After sleeping the body for the recuperation of its physical strength, we bathe it and prepare it for the work of the day; supply it with food, labor with it at our daily vocation, again renew its vigor with food, then rest it in sleep, completing the circle of twenty-four hours. A little reflection will show us that nearly all our time is spent in caring for the body, while the soul's necessities receive little or no attention. As the body is perishable, and the soul is immortal, should not this be exactly reversed? Should we not minister to the needs of the soul, supply it with its food, develop its spiritual power to the very limit of our time; only giving to the body the attention that is actually needful? Under the stress of human conditions, bodily needs are many, and necessarily make strong demands upon our time and attention, but the fact remains that the soul's welfare is, pre-eminently, our highest and greatest concern, and every moment spent in providing it with sustenance, is an eternal gain. Shall the immortal soul starve,

while the transitory residence in which it lives, is carefully nourished, ornamented and beautified, only to crumble into dust at the touch of death?

Second:-God in His All-Wisdom knew what the necessities of our bodies would be, before His Creative Hand fashioned us. Therefore, before the race of man came upon earth, He provided those necessities in limitless abundance. Having done this, He established natural laws which govern us, and under the operation of which we obtain the food, drink and protection, necessary for our material existence. Animals, grains, fruits, vegetables, etc., are provided in abundance for our food; water is plentiful, and the materials and facilities for clothing, shelter and safety, are everywhere about us. God has created the earth rich in resources, and endowed us with ability and intelligence to supply all our earthly needs, at a minimum expenditure of time. Man, however, by the invention of his own laws, and for the gratification of his own sordid desires, has surrounded himself by conditions which debar the great mass of humanity from free access to these bounties of our Creator, hence the difficulty in supplying ourselves with material necessities. The urgency and stress of these conditions do not result from the action of God, but are entirely the consequences of man's violations of God's perfect laws. If we destroy the forests of our country, and drought and agricultural impoverishment follow, the calamity is due to us, not to God. If famine, pestilence and horrors follow in the wake of war, God cannot be justly criti

cized for it. If the necessaries of life, such as wheat, coal, etc., are beyond the power of the poor to purchase, owing to combinations of capital and control of their output, such distress of conditions can only be attributed to man, and not to God.

Under His laws, is clearly visible the Divine intention of making material necessities comparatively easy to obtain, and so enabling us to devote the greater part of our time to spiritual development.

We see, then, that material necessities and the ability to obtain them, having been bountifully supplied us by our Creator, we have no further need of His help in that direction. Had He intended to continue to provide these things for us, He would not have endowed us with the power and strength to obtain them for ourselves. Shall we, therefore, kneel to Him and ask the gift of food or clothing, when He has already provided for us? The stress of material conditions, therefore; the thousand and one ills, woes and troubles which confront our lives; the numberless grievances which spring from aggrandizement of wealth and residence in communities; the consequences of greed and gain; practically all that makes the getting of our daily bread difficult and irksome, can be directly traced to our violation and misuse of the harmony of material conditions by which God has surrounded us.

The luxury of civilization is an abnormal condition which brings its corresponding demands upon our time and effort. The simple necessities of man, as a natural, normal creature, therefore,