DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 113 



new race, suddenly succeeding human- 

 ity, would view our steam engines. 

 These machines would certainly appear 

 very mysterious to the earth's new in- 

 habitants. But a growing civilization 

 would undoubtedly discover that all the 

 material used in the engine is taken 

 from ores to be found in nature. If now 

 somebody would draw the conclusion 

 that these ores themselves had made 

 the engine he would reason as do the 

 materialists today in regard to the or- 

 ganism. The parallel does not halt in 

 any respect, but it is sufficient in this 

 connection to call attention only to one 

 or two of the more important com- 

 ponents of the organism. 



Organic matter, or combustible sub- 

 stance, consists of carbon and hydro- 

 gen which in an organism are com- 

 parable to the iron in a steam engine. 

 But nowhere in nature is free hydrogen 

 or free inorganic carbon to be found. 

 The carbon was burned to carbonic 

 acid in earth's first combustion, and 

 similarly the hydrogen was burned to 



