Studies in the Atonement (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 Excerpt: ...plant's members and processes when as yet there was none of them? What is this mysterious thing we call "function," if not the Mind of the Spirit of Life--the Will of the living God? Function is spiritual purpose that guides in the organization of all living matter, an intelligent Something that gathers and molds inorganic matter to its will. Its immediate purpose seems to be self-preservation by nutrition; its final purpose is self-sacrifice for the lives of others. In the light of this result we see that the main purpose of the whole process from the beginning, though apparently selfish for much of the time, is at last to pour its life into the life of its offspring. The ultimate goal of the growing plant is not its own life, but the nurture of the seed. Every cell division, every differentiation of tissue into root, stem, leaf, flower, was for the one crowning event--the production and nurture of another living being. Some of my peach trees have literally laid down their lives in the effort to bear more fruit than their There is also another aspect of the vicarious principle in the vegetable kingdom. Why should plants live and grow at all? Is it worth while for them to go through this eternal cycle of growth and reproduction? No, unless some higher purpose is served. That higher purpose is the furnishing of food for animals. All animal life depends on vegetable life. The cow eats grass, and man eats the cow and drinks her milk. Herbage gives up its life to build a higher order of life. Professor William James, in his essay, "Is Life Worth Living?" has turned this fact of the sacrifice of the lower for the benefit of the higher to good moral advantage in this striking paragraph: "Realize how many innocent beasts have had to suffer...