"God created man incorruptible (Wisd. ii. 23). It is a great wonder and a great privilege that one of the creatures of this material transient universe should be raised to immortality. This is the crown of the highest creature. Nothing more could be given than immortality of supernatural life with God. As man is raised to this, he is evidently the last term of creation; nothing higher remains to be evolved. The soul is bestowed directly by God on man; He "breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Gen. ii. 7). This alone can account for the rational soul; for everything must have an adequate cause; life can proceed only from life, as science tells us; so intelligence can proceed only from intelligence. Matter can no more generate mind than the inorganic can generate organic life. As one modification always produces others, (by the law of correlation of parts), so the special mode of communication of the soul involves the further likeness to God of the soul being separable from this body and immortal. The immortality of man brings the whole of being into relation in one great chain. Without this the universe would be a mere by-product, with no sufficient raison d etre, ending in nothing as it began in nothing. The obvious gap in the series of existence, the obvious need of an immortal class of creatures, proves that such a class must exist. Thank God for raising you to such dignity. Continue Reading.
