13.Unity and Variety in the Soul.

I. The soul is like to God in its unity. As God is one in the Trinity of Persons, as Our Lord Jesus Christ possesses a supreme unity in His two natures, the divine and the human, so the soul of man has a supreme unity. The soul is one, as being a spirit, a simple, uncompounded, indivisible substance. It is not composed of different chemical elements or of different atoms like the body; so its unity cannot be broken by decomposition and death. The soul is conscious of the different and contradictory impulses which proceed from the flesh and the reason, from nature and grace, but these do not constitute two souls or two personalities. It is one and the same spirit that exercises the different classes of vital functions, thinking, determining, remembering. It is ultimately one and the same principle which receives impressions through different senses, and puts the different members of the body into action. The soul, although different in its character and origin from the body, yet coalesces into an extraordinary unity with it, forming one person with one activity and one responsibility. Remember that your soul is one and your only one. Its life here is its one and only probation while it is in union with the body. Your unending future depends on your one present life, and the result can never afterwards be changed. Pray earnestly: “Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword, my only one from the hand of the dog” (Ps. xxi. 21).

II. In resemblance to the Divine Trinity, the one soul of man manifests itself in different ways and has a number of attributes. It is the centre, first, of a threefold life—the vegetative, the animal, the rational. The vegetative or simple organic life is that which accomplishes the functions of the lowest class of living beings, the plants. This is the life of things which grow by the assimilation of substances taken into the system, and not, as rocks or earth, by external accretion of other substance on their surface. They multiply their own substance and reproduce their life in other individuals. The sentient or animal life is that by which man receives impressions through the senses and nerves from the objects that surround him, becomes conscious of them, and sends back an impulse from the brain to the members in response. By the rational life, man, in addition to feeling these impressions, can reflect on them, revive them, balance them, and make his selection of the action which is to follow them. Under each one of these classes of operation are included a number of subsidiary powers and senses. God has made you in a wonderful manner. Thank Him for this, and consider all these faculties as so many ways of glorifying Him and working out your salvation.

III. The powers of the rational soul are again triple—the understanding, the memory, and the will. The understanding has a universal scope; it is content with nothing less than all knowledge, and aspires even to the knowledge of the Infinite. It has a marvellous acuteness for investigating, conjecturing, discovering the most recondite truths. The functions of memory store up past sensations and knowledge in immense number and variety, ready to be brought forth into use at desire. The will has an absolute mastery, and God Himself does not dispute its supremacy. It has the power of determining between the different impulses, and assigning the predominance to one impression over another, and of adhering to one object rather than another. These great faculties must be carefully exercised and controlled, and must not be indulged but trained. God has appointed certain limits to their use, and wishes them to be employed not for our gratification, but for His service. In the next world they will attain their fullest activity and satisfaction.