The term or phrase which I employ to designate this force is of less importance than the definition which is given to it, and upon this, of course, we must agree. I recognize in such an energy or power, the primal cause or force, behind and beyond the phenomena of nature. This force must be universal and omnipresent, hence _spiritual_; it must be the central source of supply for all spiritual things, so that the doctrine of Paul is scientifically in harmony with a rationalistic view of the subject, when he says “in Him we live and move and have our being.” The science of the _conservation of forces_ teaches, that forces are never lost, that they are indestructible and eternal. We derive our spiritual existence from this central spiritual sun and inherit the quality of eternity with it. Mind is spirit and the soul is mind; this is the view of Spinoza, who, in the second part of his work “Ethics,” employs the terms synonymously throughout the chapter “Of the Nature and Origin of the Mind or Soul.” Mind differentiates man from the inferior animal creations, and can make him what he will. Professor Carpenter in his “Principles of Human Physiology,” tells us, that when we first discern the primordial cell, which is to evolve itself into the human organism, we can trace nothing that essentially distinguishes it from that which might give origin to any other form of organic structure. The earliest stages of its development consist in simple multiplication of cells by “duplicative subdivision,” so that a mass of cells comes to be produced, amidst the several components, of which no difference can be traced; and this also finds its parallel among the simpler organisms of both kingdoms. There is nothing at this period to distinguish the germs of man from that of any other vertebrated animal, yet in the course of nine short months a human being is developed possessing all the faculties of its progenitor, and how could all this come to pass, if not instituted at the moment of conception? It is at this time and moment, that an _atom_ of the universal spirit becomes separated and individualized, and the germ of a human soul is implanted, deep in the dark recesses of nature’s laboratory. The ovum of the female and the germ of the male coalesce, imbued by the incarnation of the immortal spirit, and no time can be more opportune for that union than at the very inception of our being, because the soul and the body must interact, one on the other. In the reproduction of man, there is a higher purpose than simply to multiply the species. The Creator can only manifest Himself, if he has intelligent souls or spirits as his creatures, and the reproduction of the human species is the natural means of bringing this about.