ii Spiritual Life and Death. 9 



which is death ; * the latter is the state of childlike 

 innocence, like' that of Adam and Eve in the alle- 

 gorical tradition which until our own time was 

 mistaken for history, who had not committed sin, 

 and yet, not having eaten the fruit of the tree of 

 life, 2 were in a merely natural and not in a spiritual 

 state. Disease, death, and corruption are the appro- 

 priate symbols of sin. The state of the natural 

 soul, not yet born anew of the Spirit of God, may 

 no doubt be fitly symbolised by matter which is 

 not living ; but such matter may be of crystalline 

 purity ; and though a crystal is not living, it is in no 

 true sense dead. Yet the whole of Professor Drum- 

 mond's work is obscured by this confusion. Spiritual 

 Biogenesis, or the derivation of spiritual life in man 

 solely from the Divine Source of all life, is, however, 

 his characteristic doctrine : and we go on to inquire 

 in what sense it is true. I do not ask whether it 

 is true; for every one who believes in a spiritual 

 cosmos at all, however vaguely, must believe that 

 God is the source of all life 3 and the " Father of 

 Spirits." 4 



He maintains that the spiritual man is con- 

 trasted with the natural man, as a living organism 

 with un vitalised matter; and that the natural and 

 unregenerate soul is to the Spirit of God in the 

 same relation as mere matter to the vital powers. 

 Now this, like most analogies and parables, may 



1 James i. 15, Revised Version. 2 Genesis iii. 22. 



3 Psalm civ. 30. * Hebrews xii. 9. 



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