to God to-day, and to-morrow and the next day, because for these three nights we are joined to God: and when the third night is over, we will be in our own wedlock; for we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God. So they both arose and prayed earnestly both together that health might be given them. And Tobias said: Lord God of our fathers, may the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all Thy creatures that are in them, bless Thee. Thou madest Adam of the slime of the earth, and gavest him Eve for a helper. And now, Lord, Thou knowest that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity, in which Thy name may be blessed forever and ever (Tobias viii. 4-9).

Thus prayer and a God-fearing mind were the weapons of Tobias, as they ought also to be ours in our conflicts with the devil. We ought to be fearless in this contest, for the Church places within our easy reach abundant and powerful means to enable us to overcome every assault. For that purpose she blesses water, salt, oil, and other things, even the very house we live in, using prayers calculated to defeat all the devil's evil designs. The sign of the cross, too, is a powerful means of defense against bodily evils.

The Good Angels.

In our struggles against evil spirits we are assisted by the good angels. They love God and pray to Him for us. They guide us in a mysterious way, inciting us to good, upholding and preserving us in adversity. Thus they led Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrha and preserved him from destruction. The holy archangel Raphael conducted Tobias to Rages and back again

in safety. Each one of us has such a celestial guide, whom we call our angel guardian. One of these it was that rescued St. Peter from the prison into which he had been cast, and even the faithful, on first meeting St. Peter after his delivery, would hardly believe that it was he and said that it must be his angel (Acts xii. 15). Here we see the application of David's statement," He hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways" (Psalms xc. 11).

It is our duty to be very fond of our guardian angels and by our childlike innocence and reverence to show to them our gratitude, that they may be pleased to remain with us. Let us pray every day to our guardian angels and never do anything that may have the effect of turning them away from our side and causing them pain. Moreover, as every Christian has his own special guardian angel, we must honor these angels in the persons of our fellow-beings by respecting our neighbors and avoiding any act, deed, or thought that would trouble these blessed spirits. Like them we, too, should be the guardian angels of our fellow-creatures, for then our own angels will be the happier in guiding and protecting us.

VII. THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN.-THEIR FALL.

Creation of Man.-His Primitive Condition. THE creation of the first man and woman is thus described in the Holy Scriptures, " And God said: let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis i. 26). "And the Lord God formed man of

the slime of the earth; and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself. Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, He took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which He took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man (Genesis ii. 7-23). "And God created man to His own image to the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply and fill the earth" (Genesis i. 27, 28).

According to this biblical account it necessarily follows that:

1. Man consists of a body and soul, so that the spiritual and corporeal creation are united in him.

The body of man is taken from the earth and is therefore material, and subject to the laws of matter or the sensible world. Not so the soul. It is the breath of God, though not God Himself; it is not material but spiritual. The body was created rather for the natural life, the soul for the spiritual life. "The dust returns into its earth, from whence it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes xii. 7). Through his body man is in communication with other visible creatures, has to a certain extent the same needs, the same forces, the same weaknesses, while, with regard to his soul, he stands necessarily higher than all.

The soul of man is an element that we discover in no other visible being, and consequently can not possibly have had its origin in such created things. From

material things only material things can come, while a spirit must necessarily come from a spirit.

2. Man is the image of God, created by God, and for God.

Whereas, with regard to every other created being, God simply said, "Let it be," when about to create man He seemed to invite the cooperation of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity, for His words were, "Let us make man," as if to signify thereby that man was to be in a special sense a work, an image, and a child of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

The image of God in man in his primitive state was distinguished as natural and supernatural. The natural image consisted of such qualities as belong necessarily to the nature of man, and without which human nature can not be conceived. Among these attributes are immortality of the soul, reason, and free will. The supernatural likeness does not belong to the essence of human nature, as it is only granted or loaned to it by God in His love, for its fuller perfection and ornament. It consists of sanctifying grace, with its resulting virtues of holiness and justice. Man was a friend, a child of God.

That the soul of man is a reasoning, free, immortal essence, subsisting in itself, is proved not only by divine revelation, but by our own reason.

(a.) The human soul has an existence of its own, and, for that reason, is an image of the eternal God who exists through, of, and by Himself. I am sure, positively certain and convinced that my spiritual being exists, and exists separately from any other. I think, feel, and will freely for myself, and I know that I am not a part of anything else. Equally clear is it to me that my soul is one and indivisible, that it was the same yesterday as it is to-day and will be to-morrow. Equally

dc I know that it is essentially something other than the material body in the whole or in a single part of it. I know that this soul of mine is a spirit and that it is subjected only to the laws of spirit.

(b.) The human soul is endowed with reason and free will. Man possesses not only a material intellectual power of acquiring knowledge, but also an immaterial one, that is to say, he comprehends not only what is subject to the senses, but also that which can not be appreciated by the senses. By means of his spirit he forms judgments and ideas. He explores in the visible world according to invisible laws. He carries within him ideas, as, for example, ideas of good and bad, of right and wrong, of God, of time, and eternity, and such like-ideas perceptible to the senses, but which he does not find expressed in the visible world.

Man possesses also a free will. He may decide what side he will follow. He may pursue the path of iniquity simply because it pleases him to do so; or he can, if he wish, flee from vice and keep far away from it.

(c.) The soul of man is immortal. The Holy Scriptures teach this truth in many places, but especially in those passages where there is question of the everlasting happiness of man, or everlasting pain and punishment for sin. But the Holy Scriptures also teach expressly the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Thus we find in the 28th verse of the 10th chapter of St. Matthew "Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul;" and, again, in the 23d verse of the 2d chapter of Wisdom it is written, "God created man incorruptible, and to the image of His own likeness He made him."

3. A divine revelation, through the Holy Scriptures, teaches this doctrine; so, too, does our own reason prove the immortality of the soul.