So God gave a non-material,
and therefore "spiritual," element to human nature; and this being of a
higher grade and capacity to that of the animal world, not only in its
union with physical structure, makes the man a "living soul"--gives him
an intelligence and a certain reason such as the animals have, but also
gives him, as a special and unique endowment; the consciousness of self
(involving--which is very noteworthy--a consciousness of its own
limitations) and the consciousness of God. Hence man's power of
improvement. If the man cultivates only the self-consciousness and the
reason that is with it, the Scriptures speak of him as the "natural or
psychic man;" if he is enabled by Divine grace to develop the higher
moral and spiritual part of his nature, and to walk after the Spirit,
not after the flesh, he is a "spiritual man."
[Footnote 1: 1 Thess. v. 23.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. x. 28.]
[Footnote 3: The well-known argument of St. Paul regarding the
resurrection in 1 Cor. xv. (ver. 45, &c.) is well worthy of
consideration in this connection. He deals with man as _one whole_;
nothing is said about a man being (or having) a spirit separate from his
soul and his body, and that spirit being given a higher body than it had
upon earth; but of the whole man, soul _and_ body, being raised and
changed into a man, also one whole, with a more perfect body--a body
more highly developed in the ascending scale of perfection.
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