1 Q. Who made the world?  A. God made the world.

The “world” here means more than the earth—­more than is shown on a map of the world.  It means everything that we can see—­sun, moon, stars, etc.; even those things that we can see only with great telescopes.  Everything, too, that we may be able to see in the future, either with our eyes alone, or aided by instruments, is included in the word “world.”  We can call it the universe.

2 Q. Who is God?  A. God is the Creator of Heaven and earth, and of all things.

3 Q. What is man?  A. Man is a creature composed of a body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God.

“Creature,” i.e., a thing created.  Man differs from anything else in creation.  All things else are either entirely matter, or entirely spirit.  An angel, for example, is all spirit, and a stone is all matter; but man is a combination of both spirit and matter—­of soul and of body.

4 Q. Is this likeness in the body or in the soul?  A. This likeness is chiefly in the soul.

5 Q. How is the soul like to God?  A. The soul is like God because it is a spirit that will never die, and has understanding and free will.

My soul is like to God in four things.

(1).  It is “a spirit.”  It really exists, but cannot be seen with the eyes of our body.  Every spirit is invisible, but every invisible thing is not a spirit.  We cannot see the wind.  We can feel its influence, we can see its work—­for example, the dust flying, trees swaying, ships sailing, etc.—­but the wind itself we never see.  Again, we never see electricity.  We see the light or effect it produces, but we never see the electricity itself.  Yet no one denies the existence of the wind or of electricity on account of their being invisible.  Why then should anyone say there are no spirits—­no God, no angels, no souls—­simply because they cannot be seen, when we have other proofs, stronger than the testimony of our sight, that they really and truly exist?

(2).  My soul will “never die,” i.e., will never cease to exist; it is immortal.  This is a very wonderful thing to think of.  It will last as long as God Himself.

(3).  My soul “has understanding,” i.e., it has the gift of reason.  This gift enables man to reflect upon all his actions—­the reasons why he should do certain things and why he should not do them.  By reason he reflects upon the past, and judges what may happen in the future.  He sees the consequences of his actions.  He not only knows what he does, but why he does it.  This is the gift that places man high above the brute animals in the order of creation; and hence man is not merely an animal, but he is a rational animal—­an animal with the gift of reason.

Brute animals have not reason, but only instinct, i.e., they follow certain impulses or feelings which God gave them at their creation.  He established certain laws for each class or kind of animals, and they, without knowing it, follow these laws; and when we see them following their laws, always in the same way, we say it is their nature.  Animals act at times as if they knew just why they were acting; but it is not so.  It is we who reason upon their actions, and see why they do them; but they do not reason, they only follow their instinct.