The Conversation of a Soul With God; A Theodicy

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1877 Original Publisher: Trübner Subjects: Fiction / Classics Literary Collections / General Literary Collections / American / General Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / American / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE BODY. O God, Thou hast clothed our souls in bodies as in a garment, bodies not less admirable in construction than in their subservience to the various purposes for which they are designed. Formed of but a few ingredients taken from the waters, the soil, and the ambient atmosphere, these ingredients are displaced and replaced ceaselessly. Ever changing in aspect as in reality, the living frame is as thus renewed and preserved in a condition of marvellous availability in respect of our ever- varying wishes and requirements. The body, indeed, not only gets rid of used-up particles, but redeposjts others instead, selected from a mixed fluid, the blood, exactest analogues of those that are taken away. These things, O God, are done by Thee -- are among the several incidents of birth, growth, and decay. In other respects the body, which we are led to look upon as so much our own, is distinct and separate from the soul. It is subject, when the soul is severed from it, to all the laws of matter, and perishable utterly, whereas the soul itself obeys the laws of spirit, endures, in truth, for ever. In the inferior animals the anterior extremities are32 THE BODY. little better than instruments of progression, whereas in man they have been made directly subservient to the higher uses of the intelligence. How wond...