s,
ignorant of divine religion and without knowledge of the kingdom of God.
The animal possesses no power of ideation or conscious intelligence; it is
a captive of the senses and deprived of that which lies beyond them. It is
subject to what the eye sees, the ear hears, the nostrils sense, the taste
detects and touch reveals. These sensations are acceptable and sufficient
for the animal. But that which is beyond the range of the senses, that
realm of phenomena through which the conscious pathway to the kingdom of
God leads, the world of spiritual susceptibilities and divine religion,--of
these the animal is completely unaware, for in its highest station it is a
captive of nature.

One of the strangest things witnessed is that the materialists of today
are proud of their natural instincts and bondage. They state that nothing
is entitled to belief and acceptance except that which is sensible or
tangible. By their own statements they are captives of nature, unconscious
of the spiritual world, uninformed of the divine Kingdom and unaware of
heavenly bestowals. If this be a virtue the animal has attained it to a
superlative degree, for the animal is absolutely ignorant of the realm of
spirit and out of touch with the inner world of conscious realization. The
animal would agree with the materialist in denying the existence of that
which transcends the senses. If we admit that being limited to the plane
of the senses is a virtue the animal is indeed more virtuous than man, for
it is entirely bereft of that which lies beyond, absolutely oblivious of
the kingdom of God and its traces whereas God has deposited within the
human creature an illimitable power by which he can rule the world of
nature.

Consider how all other phenomenal existence and beings are captives of
nature. The sun, that colossal center of our solar system, the giant stars
and planets, the towering mountains, the earth itself and its kingdoms of
life lower than the human,--all are captives of nature except man. No other
created thing can deviate in the slightest degree from obedience to
natural law. The sun in its glory and greatness millions of miles away is
held prisoner in its orbit of universal revolution, captive of universal
natural control. Man is the ruler of nature. According to natural law and
limitation he should remain upon the earth, but behold how he violates
this command and soars above the mountains in aeroplanes. He sails in
ships upon the sur