60 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



tional mind, rendering him capable of moral ac- 

 tion, is almost as indisputable as that the cell 

 had not. The relation between these two, the cell 

 and the rational nature, constitutes one of the 

 most interesting and intricate problems of human 

 life. Whether the Bible holds to a tripartite or 

 dual nature for man is, I believe, an unsolved 

 puzzle. According to Franz Delitsch, in his great 

 work, " Biblical Psychology," (103), the Scrip- 

 tures make a sharp distinction between flesh and 

 spirit, and yet the flesh is endowed with soul. 

 This soul of flesh the child has; but there is as 

 yet no exhibition of the spirit. When is this 

 higher spirit born? 



Evolutionary philosophy can not furnish us 

 an answer. There are two things for which Evo- 

 lution has no explanation, nor can it give us the 

 slightest hint concerning their origin. They are : 

 the origin of life and the origin of spirit. Many 

 attempts have been made to deduce life from mat- 

 ter ; but they have always been unsuccessful, and 

 for the time being, at least, they are now definitely 

 abandoned. Just as little can Evolution account 

 for the introduction of spirit. This task, then, 

 we may place beyond human power to perform. 

 We can not, apart from revelation, give any ac- 

 count of the origin of the human spirit. Its ex- 

 istence we accept as a fact ; the evidences of it are 

 abundant; but whence and how it came to be we 

 have nothing to say, except that the Bible says 

 we are sons of God. If Traducianism be true, that 



