SOULS. 



ALL things were made by the Word of God. In this 

 Word was life, spirit or energy. Without it was not 

 anything made that was made. Hence, says Elihu, "the 

 Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty 

 hath given me life;" or, as Moses testifies, " the Lord God 

 formed man, the dust of the ground, and breathed into his 

 nostrils the breath of lives ; and man became a LIVING SOUL. 



Now, if it be asked what the Scriptures define a living 

 soul to be, the answer is a living natural, or animal body* 

 whether of beasts, birds, fish or men. The phrase living 

 creature is the exact synonyme of living soul. The words 

 nephesh chayiah are in Hebrew the signs of the ideas ex- 

 pressed by Moses, nephesh signifying creature, life, soul, or 

 breathing frame from the verb breathe, and chayiah, a noun 

 from the verb to live, of life. Nephesh chayiah is the genus 

 which includes all species of living creatures. In the common 

 version of the Scriptures, it is rendered living soul, and, there- 

 fore, under this form of expression they speak of all flesh 

 which breathes in air, earth and sea. 



From the evidence adduced a man then is merely a body 

 of life in the sense of his being an animal or living creature 

 nephesh chayiah adam. Therefore, as a natural man, he has 

 no preeminence over the creatures God has made. Moses 

 makes no distinction between him and them, for he calls 

 them all living souls, breathing the breath of lives. His 

 language, literally rendered, says, u and God said, the waters 

 shall produce abundantly sheretz chayiah nephesh the reptile 

 living soul;" and again, "kal nephesh chayiah erameshat every 



