covers the earth with a carpet of verdant green. The beautiful hills and valleys, the sparkling streamlets which dash down the mountainside, the fields of golden grain, the beautiful flowers, the singing birds-yes, all nature abounds with tokens of God's love, and these are blessings given to cheer our hearts and point us to him who is the giver of every good gift. The heavens, and beauties of nature declare the handiwork of God. Yet, while God has surrounded us with blessings innumerable, and gifts of great value, none compare in worth to the gift of life, which we all possess; without this all other earthly blessings would profit us nothing. Our life is in God's hands. In him we live and move and have our being.

There is a purpose in our having an existence here. God designs that our life shall glorify him. This present life molds our future and eternal destiny; hence, every moment is laden with weighty responsibilities. All along life's pathway we are scattering seeds of good or bad, and "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

As to the shortness of our natural life, it is compared in the Scriptures to a handbreadth, an eagle hastening to his prey, a swift post, a dream, a shadow, a vapor. It is soon cut down and we fly away. Before us lies an eternal world, an unseen state, which shall be the portion of all. With gigantic footsteps time is bearing humanity onward to the great ocean of eternity.

But before we lift the curtain and look at scenes eternal it will be necessary to first clearly understand the nature of man in his present state. First in order, then, I will consider the doctrine of materialism.

MATERIALISM.

Materialism, in a nutshell, denies that man possesses a spiritual, conscious entity, separate and distinct in substance from the body, and affirms that man is only a material being, composed of flesh and blood and breath and intellect.

In considering this doctrine, I shall give several reasons, based upon fact and truth, why it is unscriptural and positively wrong.

First. The doctrine of materialism is wrong, because it brings man on a level with the beasts that perish. This is contrary to all intelligent reason, and the uniform teaching of Scripture. Your horse possesses all that materialists claim for man. He has flesh and blood. He has breath and more or less intelligence. You can teach him. He learns to love or hate you. He can remember. But to say that man stands upon the same plane with him is to condescend to rank heathendom, and such teaching is obnoxious to all enlightened minds. Man in his nature stands upon a much higher plane. He is a

moral being, accountable to God. The Lord takes knowledge of him. He becomes morally defiled by sin, and morally purified by the cleansing blood of Christ.

Solomon, in Eccl. 3: 19, 20 mentions a few things in which man "has no preeminence above a beast." All have one breath; that is, man breathes the same atmosphere that the beasts of earth do. As the one dieth, so dieth the other. Just as all creatures die and return to mother dust, so mortal man "returns to the earth as it was." All turn to dust again-all go to one place.

This is all true with respect to man's physical being, but the same writer informs us of man, that at the very time the dust returns to dust, the spirit returns to God, who gave it, and "man goeth to his long home." See Eccl. 12:5, 7. Nowhere in the Bible is this said of the beasts "that perish.”’

When God made man he made him only a little lower than the angels. "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands." Heb. 2: 7.

What then, we may ask, is the nature of angels? Inspiration answers: "Who maketh his angels spirits. Are they not all ministering spirits?" Heb. 1: 7, 14. Angels are spirit beings, not mortal, not flesh and blood, but spirits, "ministering spirits." And Jesus plainly declares that "a spirit hath not flesh and bones." Luke 24:39.

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In this dispensation we have come innumerable company of angels." Heb. 12:22. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him." Unseen to the natural, eye, there is ever present angelic beings, who minister to and protect the people of God. These are not material beings, else we could behold them, but they are spirits.

In order to support their fallen structure, materialists even deny the immortality of angels. If angels are not immortal, then they are mortal. If mortal, they are subject to death. If not subject to death, they are immortal.

What saith the Scripture? "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." Mat. 22: 29, 30. "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels." Luke 20: 35, 36. Here the hammer of truth knocks out one prop which supports the heresy of materialism.

In the resurrection, after the corruptible body has put on incorruption, and this mortal flesh has put on immortality, then we shall stand wholly upon the plane of immortal beings, being "equal unto the angels." The result of their being equal unto the angels is stated in these words: "Neither can they

die any more." If these scriptures do not teach that angels stand wholly upon the plane of spiritual and immortal beings, then grammar does not teach grammar, nor arithmetic teach arithmetic.

Having seen the nature of angels, that they stand wholly upon a plane of spirit beings, being immortal, we will now consider the nature of man, who is declared to be but "a little lower."

"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. 6:20. "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit." 1 Cor. 7:34. "There is a spirit in man." Job 32: 8.

Without comment these texts declare in so many words, that man is a compound being of "both body and spirit," for "there is a spirit in man." The body is material, an organic structure; spirit is not of material substance, for "a spirit hath not flesh and bones." Luke 24:39. So man is not wholly a material being, on a level with the beasts that perish. Neither is he wholly a spiritual being, on an equal with the angels. Our body or flesh is mortal. "Your mortal body." Rom. 6:12. "Your mortal bodies." Rom. 8:11. “Our mortal flesh.” 2 Cor. 4:11. But inside these mortal bodies there is a spirit: "There is a spirit in man."

Spirits are not mortal. God is a spirit (John 4:24), hence he is eternal and immortal. 1 Tim. 1: 17. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity,