WHAT is LIFE? 13 



place we shall examine particularly the differences be- 

 tween animate and inanimate bodies. (See Chap. II.) 



All such definitions and statements evade the real 

 question : that is, What makes the difference between a 

 living body and the same body a moment after death ? 



5. The cause of life is a mystery only to the mate- 

 rialist. To the Christian philosopher it is as plainly 

 revealed as any other fact of nature. The Bible asserts 

 that life results from the union of a spiritual nature with 

 the material body. In other words, life is the influence 

 resulting from the union of matter and spirit ; and this 

 dualistic theory is the only one which suffices to explain 

 the phenomena of living things. 



Moses declares of man that God " breathed into his 

 nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living 

 soul." In accordance with this view death is every- 

 where referred to in Scripture as a departure of the 

 spirit. The medical evangelist, St. Luke, when describ- 

 ing the resuscitation of Jairus' daughter, says, " Her 

 spirit came again, and she arose straightway." St. Paul 

 describes the body as a tent, or house, in which the spirit 

 may be present or absent. It is also remarkable that 

 the same Hebrew word which describes man as a "living 

 soul " is applied to animals in the same history of crea- 

 tion. Gen. i, 20, 30. They also are living souls. 



This view of the cause of life was also held by ancient 

 Grecian philosophy. Aristotle attributed organization 

 and vital actions to a series of animating principles, 

 (psychai^) different in each organized body, and acting 

 by power derived from the supreme animating principle, 

 (p/iysis) 



