that the Scripture only asserts facts when it attributes both to the
soul, as a spiritual element or nature belonging to the body. Man is
essentially one;[3] but there is both a material and a non-material, a
physical and a spiritual element, in the one nature. But, being a
spiritual element, that part of our nature necessarily has two sides (so
to speak). It has its point of contact with self and the world of sense,
and its point of contact with the world of spirit and with the Great
Spirit of all, from whom it came. _Because_ of that higher "breath of
lives" given by the Most High, man possesses the faculty of
_consciousness of God_ (i.e., the higher spiritual faculties), besides
the consciousness of self, or merely intellectual power regarding self
and the external world. Therefore, when an Apostle desires to speak very
forcibly of something that is to affect a man through and through, in
every part and in every aspect of his nature, he speaks of the "whole
spirit, soul, and body." To sum up: all that we know from the Bible is
that God gave a "soul" (nephesh) to the animals, in consequence of which
(when united to the physical structure) the functions of life and the
phenomena of intelligence are manifested. 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."