spirit and matter, to form the composite man, is in nowise subject to man's choice, neither is his preservation in existence, which, after all, is but a continuation of the creative act. To assert that man, on attaining the use of reason and freedom of choice, may lawfully reject the gift of being, is to stultify the action of the Creator and arraign Him of tyrannous injustice in having afflicted us for years with existence without possibility of escape. Man is lord of the universe, yes, but his dominion over created things cannot be said to include his own life. In fact, dominion implying, as it does, two distinct terms, the possessor and the thing possessed, cannot possibly exist between factors so essentially one as man and his own being. Besides, the law of man's dominion over mundane things points, as to an end, to his own preservation in existence. Now, every schoolboy knows the ethical axiom, that the end of the law cannot fall under the law, and consequently no man can have over himself absolute powers of life and death. Man is for God, as the lower creatures are for man, and even as they acknowledge man's dominion, so must man acknowledge the dominion of God. God's words to the newly-created Adam are deeply significant. He placed him in the earthly paradise, " to dress it and to keep it," saying, " I have given you dominion over all creatures. Of the tree of life thou mayest eat, but of the tree of death thou must not eat." Man's function as high priest of the universe is not to destroy, but to preserve, not to disobey, like a faithless steward, the will of his master, and usurp his
