CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM "rs.-.?edell Cornell University Library BT127 .W42 Way. the nature and means of revelation. nlin 3 1924 029 374 182 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029374182 THE NATURE AND MEANS OF REVELATION. THE WAY THE NATURE AND MEANS OF REVELATION BY JOHN F. WEIR, m.a.,n.a. DEAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS IN YALE UNIVERSITY BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Copyright, 1889, By JOHN F. WEIR. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge .' Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. PREFACE. The study of the Bible in the light of modern research has yielded results of great value : among other things it has led to a more discriminating criticism of the text of Scripture, and to a clearer understanding of its literary history. The modern critic has learned to approach his object with directness, in the interest of truth, and a closer scrutiny of historic remains is gradually freeing the mind from some beliefs which had become almost a superstition. Nevertheless there are certain tendencies in the prevalent methods of investigation, which, when applied to biblical criticism and scriptural exegesis, need a corrective. Recent naturalistic methods, having in some degree assumed the character of a reaction against the extreme supernaturalism of older estimates of the Bible, tend to subordinate Revelation to the historic elements of Scripture. This is manifestly a reversal of the old order of thought, and it cannot be doubted that the reaction itself is running to an extreme, and needs a counter- acting check by another mode of approach. VI PREFACE. Whatever be the nature of the literary and his- toric estimates originating in modern criticism, the Scriptures claim for themselves, in part, a divine inspiration: that which distinguishes them in gen- eral from other literature is the consistent and sus- tained assertion that they contain a supernatural Revelation. In affirming this claim the Scriptures designate the peculiar means which constitute a channel of Revelation ; and the Bible is, in part, a deposit of that which has been thus divinely dis- closed to man : it is on this ground that the Bible is termed the " Word of God." Thus it is claimed that there lies at the root of the Christian belief a deposit of truth supernatu- rally revealed, as the nucleus around which have crystallized the materials of a general faith pro- jected to the farthest reach of "promise." These foundations of belief are referred to in Scripture as " things seen and heard " in the form of revelations from God. By whatever agencies man is enlight- ened in the course of nature, the Scriptures plainly indicate that Revelation is a supernatural disclos- ure, apart from the means whereby man commonly acquires knowledge. It is to a digest of the general teachings con- veyed through this channel of Revelation, and to a critical inspection of the instrumentalities involved, PREFACE. VII that the following work is directed ; with a view to discriminate between the knowledge so gained and that acquired through the natural activities of man. Many things contribute to the belief that a new era of enlightenment concerning Revelation is dawning in the human consciousness. Where the ground is prepared, the tutelage of external authority is fast yielding to an inward spiritual apprehension of the truths of Revelation. Already the judgment of man is discriminating between Scripture and Reve- lation, or between the Bible and the Word of God. Reason and faith are becoming more closely coordi- nated ; nature and the supernatural more accu- rately discriminated ; truth more generally rever- enced for its own sake as the means whereby belief becomes knowledge. When faith is merged in sight, men no longer argue questions of' belief : they state positively, yet simply, the ground of their convictions ; affirming the truth, not as an abstract speculation, but as a practical experience. This is eminently characteristic of the scriptural method. The truths discussed in this work are not new ; they are the old truths of Revelation interpreted in the light of Scripture as the sole competent witness of their meaning or intention. The nature of the interpretation herein pursued necessitates this ex- clusive adherence to the original sources of light V1U PREFACE. comprised in the Bible ; and if the reader will sus- pend judgment until the various parts of this work are discerned as correlated under one general and uniform principle of interpretation, it is thought that the issue will not be disappointing. To the historical parts of the Bible little atten- tion has been paid, as the purpose of the work is confined exclusively to the teachings of Revelation. The Scriptures are freely quoted in attestation of the truths discussed, and for this reason the scrip- tural form has been followed by the omission of capitals to personal pronouns referring to the Deity, and elsewhere, for the sake of typographical uni- formity. In some instances the words of Scripture are quoted apart from their special context, but only when a universal principle was involved. In general it is presumed that the reader is familiar with the Bible and the use of a concordance ; this obviates the necessity of loading down the text with special references. The aim has been to exhibit the general teach- ing of Revelation as pointing The Way of salva- tion ; to sketch the plan of redemption as marking the unfolding of a moral and spiritual consciousness in man; and to explain the nature of the means which constitute a channel of prophecy. A general convergence of many forms of knowledge bearing PREFACE. ix on the Scriptures is a marked characteristic of the present time. Human prejudices are slowly but surely yielding to a spirit of tolerance and in- telligent insight as the true ground of spiritual freedom. The great doctrines of faith are again being clothed with a living investiture ; religion is once more rising from the earth with a revived energy of belief ; an inspiration calm and rational, yet spiritual, is manifesting itself in the conscious- ness of Christendom. The heavens, which had receded beyond the stars, are again drawing near with a revived belief in God's immanence in the world. The cry is renewed, the glad tidings of great joy,— "The kingdom of heaven is come nigh unto you," " The kingdom of God is at hand." CONTENTS. Pago I. The Beginning and the Ending .... 1 The Form or Vehicle of Revelation. — The Nature and Scope of Sacred Allegory. — The Allegory of Creation. — The Creation of the Soul and the Form- ing of Man. — The Edenic State. — The Symbols of the Fall. — Sin. — The Natural and the Spiritual Adam. — The Tri-personality of God and Man. — Jesus the Type of Man's True Estate. — The Last Day. II. The Seeks and Prophets 61 The Means and Instrumentalities of Revelation. — Angels and , Ministeriug Spirits. — Verbal Revela- tions. — An Order of Progress in the Means. — The Spirit and the Word. — Varied Nature of the Means. — Revelation, Inspiration, Illumination. — Times and Seasons. — True and False Prophets. III. The Old Testament in the Light of the New . 101 The Old Testament. — God's Covenant with Abra- ham. — The Revelation by the Three Angels. — Per- sonal Belief the Ground of Faith. — The Call of Moses. — From the Carnal to the Moral State. — God's Communings with Moses. — The Law, Moral and Ecclesiastical. — Sacrificial Worship. — Messianic Prophecy. — The Psalms of David. — Daniel. — Zech- ariah. — The Parable of Jonah. — The Prophecies of Isaiah. IV. The Son of Man 173 The Incarnation. — Birth and Childhood of Jesus. — Beginning of the Ministry of Jesus. — The Kingdom of God. — The Temptations of Jesus. — The Temple of xii CONTENTS. God. — Worship. — The Awakening of a higher Con- sciousness in Jesus. — Man's Destiny revealed in Jesns. — The Moral and Spiritual Consciousness. — The Spiritual Life. — He spake to them of the Kingdom of God. — The Transfiguration. — The Bread of Life. — Spiritual Discernment. — Nature and Spirit. — Spir- itual Disciples — Christ's Contact with the Greek Mind. — The Law of Sacrifice fulfilled in Christ. — The Lifting up of the Son of Man. — Prayer. — The Coming of the Kingdom.. — The Judgment. — The approaching End. — The Promise of another Com- forter. — The Glorified Son of Man. — Fulfilment of the Mission of the Son of Man. — The Son of Man in Heaven. V. The Risen Christ 263 The Resurrection of Jesus. — The Third Day. — Sheol, or Hades. — The Natural Man in Christ. — Eternal Life. — Manifestations of the Risen Jesus, — Natural Law. — Natural Law in a Psychical Realm. — Revelation of the Intermediate State. — The Con- stitution of Man. — Nature of the Form of the Risen Jesus. — The Resurrection of Jesus a Revelation of that which is common to Man. — A Progress in the Manifestation. — Variableness of the Form of the Res- urrection Body. — The Nature of the Resurrection Body. — Man not Glorified by Dissolution. — Minor Features of the Resurrection. — The Mind of the Risen Christ. — The Purpose of the Manifestation. VI. The Holy Ghost 311 The Promise of Another Comforter. — Natural and Spiritual Personalities. — The Spiritual Christ. — The Personality of the Holy Ghost. — Meaning of the Term Holy Ghost. — Nature of the Holy Ghost. — The Spirit. — Meaning of the Term Comforter. — The Man- ifestation of the Holy Ghost. — Natural and Spiritual Dispensations of the Christ. — Significance of the Term Person. — Conversion. — The Coming again of Christ. VII. Manifestations of the Holy Ghost . . . 351 The Day of Pentecost. — Man's Dual Organism.— CONTENTS. Xlll f The Power of the Holy Ghost. — Nature of the Power. — The Holy Ghost external to the Spirit. — The Manifestation of Gifts. — The Means of Manifesta- tion. — Psychical Gifts. — Tongues and Prophesyings. — Spii itual Gifts. — The Various Nature of the Man- ifestations. — St. Paul's View of the Gifts. — Posses- sion. — Hold fast the Head. — Faith merged in Sight. — The Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven. VIII. The Spirit of Truth 401 The Comforter. — A Living Faith. — Eternal Life. — The Ministry of the Spirit. — The Coming of Christ. Arise, Shine ! — A Witness of the Truth. THE WAY. " In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the chil- dren of Judah together, going and weeping : they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not he forgotten." — Jeremiah 1. " The wilderness and the solitary places shall be glad ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. . . . They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. . . . Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert : and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty laud springs of water. . . . And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The way of holiness : the unclean shall not pass over it, . . . the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein, . . . the redeemed shall walk therein ; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion ; and everlasting joy XVI THE WAY. shall be upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." — Isaiah xxxv. " Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier, ... he shall purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." — Malachi iii. Jesus said, " Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and bow can we know the way ? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way and the truth and the life : no man cometh unto the Father but by me." — John xiv. " And some were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way, . . . and there arose no small stir about that way." — Acts xiv. " The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was left standing : which was a figure for the time now present." — Hebrews ix. I. THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. " When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers ; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordaiDed ; what is man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that thou visitest him ? " For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands : thou hast put all things under his feet." — Psalm viii. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." — 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. THE FORM OR VEHICLE OF REVELATION. The historic word, or the revelation of God in time, like the earthly life of man, is as a span be- tween two infinite gulfs, a gleam between two mystical twilights — " there was evening and there was morning, one day." Genesis on the one ex- treme, and the Apocalypse on the other, draw the thought out into the infinite, into a region of mys- tery where the alpha and the omega are shadowed forth in allegory. The deeps below and above this present stage of life — " the waters beneath and the waters above " the physical firmament — are unfathomable ; from them the soul emerges in its brief earthly existence, and into them it sinks again, its natural life being quenched in the glory of a new day. It is variously conjectured where the historic word begins in scripture ; but a growing concur- rence of opinion tends to confirm the view that with Abraham the sacred record assumes an historic basis; all that lies before, as thus viewed, is deemed representative or s}'mbolic, while the first three 4 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. chapters of Genesis veil the truths of creation in an allegory. Allegory and parable are popular forms of ex- pression by which the truths of Revelation are tempered, as it were, to the natural understanding in the earlier stages of man's enlightenment. In them the spiritual intention lies hid until, in the fulness of time, it is brought to light in an awak- ened spiritual consciousness. Jehovah said, by the prophet Hosea, " I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets ; " and the prophetic Messianic utterance through David was, " I will open my mouth in parables." Thus under the figure of familiar things moral and spiritual truths, which constitute the word of God, lie hid. Revelation being ever in advance of the human understanding, it is a matter of necessity that its truths should be veiled in symbols having an out- ward or natural sense, as well as an inward or spiritual meaning, and it is by dwelling on the word, or form, and " pondering it in the heart," that its real depth of meaning is inwardly dis- cerned ; for the promise is, "knock, and it shall be opened unto you ; seek, and ye shall find; " and it is through this act of search that the ground is prepared for the acceptance of truth by a gradual opening of the mind and heart to its influence when brought to light in the spiritual consciousness. In the earlier stages of Revelation the employ- ment of allegory, or parable, is a necessity, for spiritual truths standing unrelated to the natural THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 5 understanding are meaningless unless spiritually discerned ; and until they can be so discerned they must be veiled in symbols. Especially is this true when the things so uttered have a far-reaching significance, the import of which lies hid in a re- mote future, the earliest premonition of which has not yet dawned in the human consciousness. Thus all the earlier revelations are apparently arbitrary and external, given through instrumentalities apart from the mind and heart of believers. But witli the awakening of a spiritual consciousness in the soul the divine promise is, " I will put my laws in their inward parts, and write them in their hearts." A spiritual order of enlightenment operates through intuitive insight, a direct light springs in the mind as a result of earnest seeking — we know not how or whence — and the truth is perceived ;is in a vision. It is the gift of grace, " a light which lighteth every man coming into the world," but with varying power according to the capacity of the mind and heart, and given "more abundantly " through the instrumentality of Jesus Christ. This means of enlightenment expands with ever-increas- ing fulness as man's capacity is enlarged through spiritual growth. Spiritual enlightenment is essen- tially inspirational, and this is that means by which the word of God is discerned through the " letter," or form of Revelation : it is the apprehension of the Spirit by the spirit, even as Jesus said to one who thus discerned the Master's mission, " Blessed art thou . . . for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." 6 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. Not by natural discernment was the truth per- ceived, but through direct spiritual enlightenment, and this inspirational means is the common inherit- ance of as many as will receive it; "for the Spirit searclieth all things, yea, the deep things of God . . . and they who have received the Spirit which is of God may know the things that are freely given them of God." By confounding the form of Revelation with the word of God, the spiritual efficacy of revealed truth is restricted in its scope, and its living quality de- stroyed. For a word of God, as a spiritual utter- ance, has in it the elements of infinity and eternity — its depths are never sounded. The fulness of the Spirit is only vaguely shadowed forth in human language, for "we have the treasure in earthen vessels." With the varying conditions of the spheres through which the divine will is external- ized, or brought down to the level of man's under- standing, when outwardly revealed, — transmitted as it is through the ministry of angels and proph- ets, — its form or vehicle is modified, even as a ray of light is colored or obscured by the nature of the media through which it passes. And as in human intercourse a word is but the crude symbol of a state of mind or heart, so is it with the Spirit, or word of God, when externalized in human lan- guage ; the truth, in its spiritual essence or divine intention, is not contained in the form, but may be discerned through the form, for "the letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive." By passing from the outward, or literal sense, to the inward spiritual THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 7 intention — from the form to the substance — the riches of Revelation are increased an hundred-fold ; that which was implied by " similitude " becomes a well of living water springing forth in a dry place. To confound the written scriptures with the word of God is to imprison the Spirit in a fixed and arbitrary form which renders it lifeless, or void of spiritual energy. As thus determined, a word of God may become identified with an historic record of things past ; whereas the things of the Spirit are never past, for they are eternal, the same yester- day, to-day, and forever. When the disciples of Jesus were once aroused to a spiritual discernment of the meaning of his words, the Master said, " To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" — of the spir- itual state — while of the multitude, whose spiritual perceptions were still dormant, he said, " but unto them it is not given. Therefore I speak to them in parables, that hearing they shall hear, and not understand ; and seeing they shall see, and not per- ceive." It is apparent, then, that there are natural and spiritual perceptions of truth, and " they who have received the Spirit, which is of God," have in them an order of discernment distinct from that of the natural mind or reason : through this newly received Spirit something has been added, ab extra, to the natural endowment of faculty with which the mind was provided in the order of nature ; and to them it is " given to know " that which cannot be otherwise known. But the natural reason is impatient of any claim 8 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. the grounds of which are not apparent to its own order of perception, and they who would discern the truth by that light alone are quick to deny that there is any interior sense in Revelation transcend- ing the scope of its plain moral teaching: "to the natural mind the things of the Spirit are as fool- ishness," or as idle speculation. Nevertheless the scriptures assert the truth that the things of the Spirit are not cognizable in their essence by the natural understanding, " for they are spiritually discerned." Pushed to the extreme of literalness in the form of a kaballa, certain " spiritual interpretations," falsely so called, are justly repudiated by the rea- son as worthless and misleading; for they are found to be even more pedantic than the strictest adher- ence to " the letter which killeth." Nothing is gained by substituting one arbitrary form for an- other, and the authority of "the letter" will rightly have the preference over all vagaries of opinion in scriptural exegesis. But the clue to a true method of spiritual interpretation may be found in the New Testament ; and in every case this order of inter- pretation should be made acceptable to the reason, the ultimate test of truth on the natural plane. Left exclusively to its own order of thought, the natural mind would resolve the allegory of crea- tion, as given in Genesis, into a collection of merely mythical fragments or traditions, embodying the earliest gropings of the human mind in its effort to grasp the truth concerning the genesis of things. But the utterances from Sinai, referring to the crea- THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 9 tion and to a day of rest, as well as the last verbal teaching of the Spirit, " speaking from heaven " in the A pocalypse, prove the allegory to be a veritable word of God. The former designates six days of labor and a sabbath of rest, as patterned on the order of creation ; while the latter uses these words : " To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Thus is the Ending distinctly related to the Beginning, as the truth is contained in the allegory of creation. These words, by employ- ing the same figures, imply that a fundamental principle of divine truth — a revelation — is con- tained in that earliest scripture, to which the Mes- sianic plan of redemption and salvation bears strict reference. The Epistles likewise contain many ref- erences to the figures of the allegory as symbolizing divine truths transcending the scope of its natural sense. One instance may be cited : " There re- maineth a rest for the people of God : for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." Which state of rest is elsewhere designated a seventh day, or sabbath, wherein all things are fulfilled in a " last day," when God shall be all in all. Thus in the light of the New Testament the truths enunciated in the form of allegory at the very dawn of Revelation are found to be significant of the forming, redemption, and salvation of the soul, through the creation of a natural and spiritual con- sciousness in man, to the end that he may become the temple of God, domiciling the Spirit — "a house 10 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. not made with bands, eternal in the heavens." This creation is now actually transpiring in the souls of men ; and in the earthly life man is still standing in the midst of it ; the creation not being consum- mated until the Spirit is imparted to the soul, when its heavenly destiny is determined by its entering upon " a day of rest in God." The scope of the allegory must be measured by that last utterance of the ascended Lord, speaking from heaven, which declares that he who descends into the vale of death by eating of " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," through which act the moral sense is aroused, shall in the end, when he has "overcome the world," be made a partaker of " the tree of life, which is in the midst of the para- dise of God," and " live forever." Who can doubt, therefore, that those symbols stand for the natural and spiritual affections of the soul ; that they desig- nate a moral and spiritual consciousness awakened through experience and grace? Thus viewed, the scope of the allegory is enlarged so as to foreshadow a creation the plan of which is consummated only when "the kingdom is delivered up to God." It treats, fundamentally, not of an outward or physical creation, already consummated in a remote past ; but, spiritually discerned, it refers to a creation now actually transpiring in the souls of men, in the forming of which the divine energies are cease- lessly active to the end of transforming the carnal creature into the perfect spiritual "likeness" of the Creator, that men may become angels of light, and angels of light be transfigured in " the form of THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 11 God," as in his Sou Jesus Christ, that " God may be all in all." THE MATURE AND SCOPE OP SACKED AXLEGORY. Allegory may be narrowly identified with a merely fictitious form, or figure ; a purely fanciful picture, or story, having a double sense. But a living allegory may be conceived, even as St. Paul regarded the experience of the " chosen people " as both real and typical of hidden truths concerning the moral redemption and spiritual salvation of the soul of man. That the Jews were a divinely " chosen " people implies that they were selected to enact a part under supernatural guidance, and this gave to their history the character of a realistic allegory, marking the passage of the soul from a state of nature to a state of grace. That the real drama of their history, the source and origin of events, was laid in a higher realm, under spiritual guidance, is clearly implied by the words, " Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." And what is revealed outwardly in the history of a " chosen people " is the common order of God*s providence for the race, and for each individual soul or " son of man." As many as will allow themselves to be led by the Spirit, they are " the elect," the "chosen " ones, the " sons of God ; " and under a heavenly guidance they are brought into "a large place" which God has " prepared for such as love him " and delight to do his will. 12 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. That which is most real for the natural mind the newly awakened spiritual consciousness regards as but a shadow of the true — an appearance projected forth from the truer realities of an unseen realm ; outward events being, as it were, the mere surface- drift on invisible streams flowing forth from inward springs of life. As the soul passes from a natural to a spiritual order of consciousness, the battle-ground of its wrestlings is transferred from outward and visible, to inward and invisible things ; even as St. Paul said, " For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Jesus taught that he that willeth evil hath already committed the act of sin ; the mere glance of carnal desire being one with the act. The scriptures, in general, view temporal things as a transitory mirage from which it is desirable to turn away the eye, and " look toward the things which are not seen, which are eternal." It is plain, from the example of Israel, that alle- gory, as employed in Revelation,- may include ac- tual persons and events, and be none the less sym- bolic for having an historic basis. In other words, its forms may be at once real and typical, and a living allegory may be conceived as the exponent of spiritual truths, unconsciously enacted by man. St. Paul's reference to this in Galatians iv. has been construed by some as due to his early rab- binical training, but in a general sense the thought is ever present in his mind and colors all his writ- THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 13 ings, receiving additional emphasis from the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Not only is the law regarded as a " schoolmaster to bring us to Christ," or as " a shadow of good things to come," but the supernatural guidance of Israel, throughout the civic life of the chosen people, is placed in the same category, as representative and symbolic. As thus viewed, the path of the Israelites from "the house of bondage," or a land of " flesh-pots," to " a land of promise, flowing with milk and honey," is typ- ical of the redemption of man by the passage of the soul from a carnal to a moral state, as preparatory to that spiritual regeneration which assures salva- tion. But that this moral redemption does not effect actual entrance to the "kingdom of God" until man is " born again, of the Spirit," is implied by the denial of entrance to Moses, to whom the promised land was shown from afar. Nothing less than the history of a whole nation, or "chosen people," would suffice to exhibit the soul's boundless capacity for good and evil; the brief earthly life of the individual would have been a wjiolly inadequate exponent of the nature of the potentialities bound up in the individual soul. Thus the redemption and salvation of man, as set forth in the scriptures, is a type of the redemption and salvation of the son of man, the individual soul. But the allegory of creation symbolizes a vastly more extensive survey of the soul's destiny than that covered by the historic word. Under an en- larged view of the spiritual significance of Revela- tion, the whole body of scripture, comprising the 14 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. prehistoric symbols, the historic word, and the Apoc- alypse, include the Beginning and the Ending, the Alpha and the Omega, as opened to the spiritual sight. Taken as a whole, these three divisions of the scriptures are representative of the forming, redemption, and salvation of the soul, to the end that " God may be glorified " in the creature throughout eternity. To accomplish this end, and hasten its fulfilment, man is instructed from above as to his origin, his descent into physical existence, his trials and temptations in the earthly life — whereby his energies and activities are called forth — and thence on, concerning his psychical " rising again" and his final spiritual "ascension" to a heavenly realm, as prefigured by Christ, whose mis- sion it was to manifest, representatively, the perfect life of the soul of man in all stages of existence, as incidental to his revelation of God. THE ALLEGORY OE CREATION. The allegory of creation as contained in Genesis comprises a general survey of all the " days," or states of being, through which the soul passes, from the incipient act of creation till it comes into the perfect "likeness" of God, who wills to dwell there- in " in all his fulness." The terms creation, days, earth, firmaments, waters, life, death, etc., once liter- ally construed in the narrowest sense as referring strictly to natural things, are now again regarded as the symbols of spiritual things ; and, as thus viewed, they stand for vastly enlarged conceptions of the truths of Revelation. In the light of Spirit THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 15 " old things pass away ; behold, all things are be- come new." Viewed in the light of the New Tes- tament, the scope of the allegory of creation tran- scends the earthly life of man and widens beyond the stars. The two scriptures included in the allegory are known as the Elohist and the Jehovist narratives. The former may be regarded as a general survey of all the stages of creation : not merely of a physical universe, but, typically, of the creation of a natural and spiritual consciousness in the soul, extending from the earliest movement of Spirit in the dark- ness and upon the deep, through " the evening and the morning" of the successive "days," — marking periods of time only when traversing the realm of nature in physical conditions, — and culminating in a " day of rest," or " day of God," when the soul is quickened by the Spirit, and God is " all in all." Thus the " earth," in the allegory, is but the type, or symbol, of a natural consciousness gradually awakened in the souls of men ; and which, at the dawn of a " new day," is destined to yield to the creation of a spiritual consciousness, resulting in the formation of " new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." To this end the natural and spiritual orders of the Divine Mind, or Logos, is going forth unceasingly — the natural creation, both in its physical and psychical forms, being but the matrix, or mould, for spiritual things. As but one will proceeds from one only God, and this will includes in its ends the greatest and 16 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. the least — the infinite as discerned through the finite, the spiritual as revealed in the natural — all things proceeding forth from God return again into the bosom of the Father : Spirit being the begin- ning and the ending of all activities, the origin and fulfilment of all things. In the successive days of the creation of a natural and spiritual consciousness in the soul, the Logos is outwardly tabernacled in the things of those days, as representative symbols of the successive states through which the creative impulse passes in giving outward existence to its conceptions. That which was once " hid in God " is thus gradually revealed and manifested in the natural creation, and finally is reflected back to the Creator through the soul of man ; the natural cre- ation being the means through which the sub-con- scious is made conscious, or the hidden things of Spirit revealed. In the earlier stages of this creation the Logos is but partially tabernacled in outward existence, but with ever-increasing fulness, until in man, who is " made in God's image," the end and consumma- tion of the natural creation, or natural conscious- ness in the soul, is attained ; for in Jesus, the Son of man, " all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily " ; thus the truth is revealed and manifested, that " the tabernacle of God is with men." While, therefore, all things are in their degree tabernacles of the Logos, and as such are declared " good •" in their nature and functions, a full mani- festation of the divine love and wisdom, on a nat- ural plane of being, was attained only at the dawn THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 17 of " the last day," when the " Redeemer stood upon the earth " revealing and imparting the Spirit to man. Thence on, the whole creation, under the guidance of the Son, returns into a day of rest in God : " Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father . . . and when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." Thus " the glory of God " hav- ing been " declared," " made known," " manifested," or " made conscious " in his creatures, in the souls of men, " the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God " is revealed ; " life and immortality are brought to light : " — " and God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it ; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made." Thus God re- produces the image of himself in his creatures ; for man is made in God's " image," and is destined to come into his " likeness " when " made a partaker of his nature" — that is, when endowed with the Spirit; and until this "gift of God" is received, the soul is as " a house left desolate." Man, as a created being, is destined to externalize the Spirit, by giving it outward existence even as manifested in Jesus, who spiritually is " in the form of God," " the very image of his substance." Christ externalized God, psychically, while in " that glory which he had with the Father before the world was ; " from that state the Messiah descended on his mission for the redemption and salvation of IS THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. man, and, by imparting to him the Spirit, he lifts man up to "sit with him in his throne . . . even as he is set down with his Father in his throne." Thus this creature, or creation, man, is the ground of a reciprocal affection which is no less a happi- ness for God than for his offspring — " whose weak- ness is the throne of his mercy, the seat of his om- nipotence ; " and through whom he wills eternally to manifest his glory, his wisdom, and his love. The spiritual interpretation of the Elohist survey of all the " days " of the creation of a natural and spiritual consciousness in the soul must be sought throughout the scriptures, and the key may be found in the Epistles and in the Apocalypse. The completion of the vast cycle of revealed truth is then perceived by joining together these outlying mystical extremities of God's word — Genesis and Revelation — as having but one spiritual or divine intention. Lying between these mystical extremes are the historical scriptures, as the earthly life of man lies between his preexistent psychical or edenic state, and his unrevealed spiritual future which is hid in God. The seven days of the Elohist scrip- ture have their correspondence in the Apocalypse in the "seven churches," which stand as representa- tive symbols of the seven successive stages of con- sciousness through which the soul passes from its edenic state to its final union of will and life with God : — " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 19 Thus in the latest scripture the mind is carried back to that earliest allegory as a true word of God. This suggestive interpretation of the general fea- tures of the allegory affords but a bare hint of its true scope and meaning, but it is in the direction of a larger spiritual outlook than is generally accorded that momentous word, and it assuredly marks a radical distinction between a spiritual and a literal interpretation of Revelation. For a spiritual inter- pretation aims to discover in the word the divine intention of the Spirit, while a literal or natural interpretation seeks the exact thought that was consciously present in the mind of the instruments of Revelation ; not discerning that this human order of thought cannot constitute a revelation, or word of God, for " the Spirit was upon them, and they spake as they were moved." The prophets them- selves, therefore, could discern the scope and depth of their divine utterances only according to their capacity. Jesus said to his disciples, " Many proph- ets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not ; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not : " the fulness of time was not yet come when the human intelligence was capable of receiving revelations of spiritual things face to face, or without a veiling. The Elohist scripture differs both in form and substance from the Jehovist ; the former is a gen- eral survey of all the " days " of the creation of both a natural and spiritual consciousness in the soul, including the psychical, physical, and spiritual 20 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. states of being ; while the Jehovist scripture is more particularly concerned with the origin and descent of man with respect to his natural constitu- tion and moral life. These two scriptures, like two strands twisted in one thread, or two streams min- gling in one river, flow onward through the sacred and civic history of the "chosen people." Contain- ing a revelation having both an outward and inward sense, a natural and a spiritual significance, these scriptures should not be regarded, as they are by some, as legendary fragments joined together with- out inspiration or divine guidance. Proceeding as they do, in their inmost spirit, from the Godhead, they are fundamentally and intrinsically spiritual revelations, and as such they are under the guidance of the Spirit even in their outward and related forms. For if the Angel of Jehovah guided the chosen people from their emergence from the land of " flesh-pots " to a promised land "flowing with milk and honey," typical of the kingdom of heaven, it is not straining the order of divine providence to infer that a similar guidance, having a no less momentous issue for the race, to say the least, is manifested in the order of the written word. In the Elohist scripture it is said that " God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them." But in the Jehovist narrative it is said that " the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life : and man became a living soul." That is, Elohim created the soul, and Jehovah gave it out- THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 21 ward existence ; for there are two divine personali- ties implied by these terms ; the distinction between Elohim, God, and Jehovah, Lord God, is generic, and not merely a verbal distinction of name or title. Recognizing the " chosen people " as a nation selected to serve as a type of God's dealings with men, in his mode of redeeming and saving the race — which redemption and salvation is an actual pro- cess of creation — it is proper to infer that their national deity is in like manner representative. Scripture says, " God spake unto Moses, and said, I am Jehovah : and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty : but by my name [character or personality] Jehovah I was not known unto them." Here it is distinctly stated that God was himself the author of that name, or title, by which thenceforward he was to be known; and that God had previously been oth- erwise known to man. Again, the Psalmist says, " Thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, art Most High over all the earth." And again, David says, in the Spirit, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I put all thine enemies under thy feet" — which Jesus himself quotes a3 referring to another personality than the Godhead. And Isaiah says, speaking the word of Jehovah, " I am the Lord thy God, the Holy one of Israel, thy Saviour. ... I, even I, am the Lord ; and beside me there is no saviour . . . and I am God, yea, since the day was I am he ; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. . . . Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for 22 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. I am God, and there is none else." Herein Elohim and Jehovah speak as one, even as Christ said, " I and my Father are one : " Elohim is manifested in Jehovah — the Spirit in the Logos — even as God is manifested in Jesus, the Christ : for Jehovah is one with the Word, and he serves as a means, or instrumentality, through whom the Spirit creates all things ; and he it was who said, " Beside me there is no saviour," for it is that divine Son, in- carnated in Jesus, who reveals and imparts the Spirit to man. Thus it is that in the allegory of creation the Elohist and the Jehovist narratives refer to two dis- tinct acts of God : to the creation of man, and to the forming of man, who was organically " formed of the dust of the ground." THE CREATION OF THE SOUL AND THE FORMING OF MAN. Man is conceived in a psychical realm, and formed in a physical world. This forming has reference to material conditions, " the dust of the ground," whereby the soul is "clothed upon" with a physical body. The authorized version likewise says, God "created every plant of the field be- fore it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." With respect to this external or- ganic environment, which gives the soul outward existence in material conditions, and through which man, already created, "became a living [or exist- ing] soul," it is said in the allegory, " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." These words THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 23 could not refer to the soul, " created in the image of God," which bears inherently and potentially the impress of divine attributes. The true " man " is not created " out of the dust of the ground," but he is formed, organically, of a physical substance, and this bodily organism naturally falls back, at dissolution, into its original elements ; while the " new man," the redeemed and sanctified soul, when " formed anew in Christ," ascends to a higher or heavenly realm of being, as a son of God. Thus the JElohi&t narrative clearly intimates that man, the natural " Adam," was created in a psychical state ; while the Jehovist narrative im- plies that, having thus a preexistence, man was afterward "formed" of the dust of the ground; for it adds, "and man became a living soul " — that is, an outwardly existing soul on the plane of nature, conditioned in a physical world. The true man, or "Adam," therefore, in every creature, is created psychically in God's "image," and formed physi- cally " of the dust of the ground," and this is the undeviating order of all creative activities both in God and man, for man images the deity ; the true conception, or actual creation, is first formed in the mind, psychically, and then bodied forth in a material substance, as the sculptor embodies his conception in clay. The physical organism is not the true man, " made in the image of God," but merely an organic instrument formed " from be- neath " — it may be through a process of evolution running through the whole realm of nature and 24 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. culminating in man; through this organism the soul thinks and acts, naturally. The natural Adam, therefore, in every creature is, fundamentally, a psychical creation, destined, after being fully formed in a physical world, eventually to become a spiritual being; for, "to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God." Man is made whole when the Spirit is finally taber- nacled in the soul, or when "the Lord from heaven " is domiciled in man as his light and life, with "all the fulness of God," even as was manifested in Jesus ; for the apostle Paul prays that the disciples of Jesus may "likewise be filled with all the fulness of God." It is with respect to the potentialities which slumber in the soul, therefore, that " man is made in the image of God." Within the soul the higher potentialities remain undeveloped until man is quickened and informed by the Spirit imparted by Christ. That which was formed "from beneath" is not divine; but it is capable of becoming divine through the presence of the indwelling Spirit when imparted "from above;" and until the Spirit is received man is but half created ; he is not yet "made whole," or "holy." The divine potentialities of the soul, therefoi'e, lie dormant until they are quickened by the pres- ence of the Spirit, even as the potentialities of the plant lie dormant in the seed until quickened by light and heat imparted from without. There is nothing in the seed, that is the equivalent of that which quickens it. Strictly speaking, the seed has THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 2o no life in itself but what it derives from the sun. And neither has the soul any spiritual light or life in itself save that which "abides" in it as "the Lord from heaven ; " as said in Zechariah, " the word of the Lord . . . which fonneth the spirit of a man within him," by the reception of which he becomes a son of God. That which raises the soul, therefore, is not its own life, but a divine life imparted to it from above, when man is " born again, of the Spirit." By its natural creation, therefore, the soul has merely a capacity for the reception of life : it is "dead while it lives," until man is born of the Spirit : for there is one only Spirit, which is God, and " he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." Man is thus destined to become a spiritual being, but he was not so created in the edenic state : he was then merely a psychic vessel, prepared for the reception of the Spirit when imparted by Christ: " and they shall be filled like bowls." The p?ieuma, or Spirit, the "breath of life," was not breathed into the soul until after it was " formed of the dust of the ground ; " for the Spirit is imparted to the soul only when man is fully formed, as was manifested at the baptism of Jesus. But once regenerated, under the quickening and informing light of Spirit, man grows gradually into the " perfect likeness of Christ," and eventually he is to share in that glory "which the Son had with the Father before the world was, when he was in the form of God : for in that celestial re- public, or City of God, all the sons of God will be filled with the divine fulness, and God will be all in all. 26 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. It is only in the last day, the "day of God," that man is made a partaker of the divine nature : he is then "given of the tree of life, and lives forever" through the indwelling presence of God, when the Spirit is imparted to the soul. Through this means the divine and the human are brought to a state of perfect at-one-ment of will and life; and the true nature of this at-one-ment is discerned in Christ. THE EDENIC STATE. The allegory implies that Adam was not created a " son of God," in the edenic state, for he was not then made a partaker of "the tree of life:" he was driven forth out of the garden " lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." The title which Jesus usually applied to himself was that of " Son of man : " it is with reference to the indwelling Spirit that he is designated " Son of God ; " and this distinction he himself points out with reference to " them that had received the word," of whom the scripture says, "ye are gods." Eternal life is withheld from the soul until it has passed through its edenic and carnal states, for it was not designed that either of these states should persist to eternity : both these states are of the order of a natural world, which is " not an abiding city to dwell in." The edenic state is a state of nature in its pristine purity, fresh from God's " hand ; " while the carnal or earthly state is the " pit and miry clay " into which the soul descends for the arousing of a moral sense. The edenic state is psychical, while the carnal state THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 27 is physical, and both are of the order of nature. It was not until God had fully formed man that " he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," and this imparting of life to the soul was again sym- bolized by the risen Lord when " he breathed on his disciples, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." When the soul falls from its edenic state through the knowledge of good and evil, by experience and the arousing of the moral sense, it is " made wise," and when redeemed and purified it is finally "made whole," or "perfect," by its reception of the Spirit ; and being thus "made wise unto salvation," it enters for the first time a spiritual state, or "king- dom of God." In that original psychic or edenic state, man was wholly unconscious of the blessings that were his, for the soul was ignorant of good as well as of evil. But after having been made wise through the arousing of his moral consciousness, and made alive through the quickening power of the Spirit, man eventually comes into his true inherit- ance as a child of God, and lives forever. The regenerate man may then exclaim with Christ, "I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive forevermore." The knowledge and love of God is infinitely enlarged and deepened by means of this moral experience, which gradually aroused to their full development the potentialities that once merely " imaged " the Deity in germinal form ; these are destined to grow, under the Spirit, into the per- fect "likeness" of Christ, being manifested in "the full stature of a spiritual manhood." Thus by the " fall," so called, man is disciplined 28 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. through suffering, and the lost innocence of the edenic state is eventually replaced by the sanc- tity of a redeemed and purified nature made fully conscious, or " alive." Man then for the first time becomes a conscious recipient of God's mercies. That this is in accord with God's plan from the very beginning is clearly implied by the prophet Malachi : " And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels ; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, be- tween him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." In other words, the moral sense will have been aroused; and of the redeemed it is said, "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." That is, they that are morally redeemed through "righteousness " shall be saved by the Spirit : "Be- hold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." John's moral baptism of repentance shall precede the baptism of the Spirit, through Christ. The allegory of Genesis, and the whole body of Revelation as well, imply that man is still in a process of creation, that he is but a "sojourner" in the earthly life. This is not through accident or ephemeral mischance, but in the order of God's plan and providence from the beginning; for the scripture says of Christ that lie was ordained to be the Saviour of men " before the foundations of the earth were laid ; " and the awful mystery of sin, THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 29 or the " knowledge of evil," was in order that man might " discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not," or between truth and error as the ground of moral righteousness. The two opposing natures bound up in every soul are essen- tial to its life: in order to its spiritual perfecting the soul must be touched with the feeling of its infirmity, for the sake of humility and patience, as the basis of regeneration. Through this means the desire for God is implanted in man, and he learns to perceive that his life is " hid with Christ in God ; " and this life is the Spirit which man is des- tined to receive when he is morally prepared for its reception. The Spirit is that divine life which the soul was destined from the beginning to receive, but which is breathed into man by Christ as the consummating act of his creation ; the soul being a house prepared to tabernacle this indwelling Spirit throughout eternity, and with ever increasing ful- ness. While there is both a natural and a spiritual sense in Revelation, it is the spiritual intention which is essentially the " word of God." The truths contained in the allegory of Genesis, there- fore, have only an apparent reference to times past : they are, as spiritual truths, above time and space; they are eternal. The truths therein hidden refer, spiritually, to the edenic state and descent of each individual soul, or son of man, through all time, in passing from a psychical to a physical stage of existence under a process of creation ; for CO THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. the symbols of the allegory are of universal appli- cation in the experience of all men. This truth is brought to light in "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants," and which " he sent and signified by his angel unto his servant John." And the day is already dawning when it will be yet more clearly understood that the mission of the Messiah was to reveal the destiny of man, by manifesting the life of the soul in its perfect state, in all stages of exist- ence ; marking its descent from a psychical to a carnal state, with the trials and temptations of the earthly life, its " rising again " after physical disso- lution, and its triumphant ascension (by the power of the Spirit imparted from God) to a spiritual or heavenly state, "in fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." THE SYMBOLS OF THE FALL. The " tree of the knowledge of good and evil," as it stands in the allegory, is the symbol of a divinely implanted natural propensity in man which craves wisdom ; and this wisdom is dearly pur- chased through " the knowledge of good and evil." It is the issue of that earthly conflict with " the prince of the powers of this world," the overcom- ing of which is essential to man's being made a partaker of " the tree of life." The conscious awakening of wisdom in the soul involves a knowl- edge of good and evil, or the arousing of the moral sense. The natural man is made perfect through suffering, through trial and temptation ; but the THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 31 promise of the Master is, " To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life." They that overcome, therefore, shall be made partakers of the divine nature. The arousing of the moral sense through partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is, in effect, the craving for a fuller life, a larger experience. The soul is obliged to descend before it can ascend ; but in this descent the moral sense is awakened, and man then first gains a view of his divine destiny : " Behold, he hath become as one of us, knowing good and evil ; " by the arousing of his moral sense through the knowledge of good and evil, man became god-like. In the edenic state man was nigh to God, but not of God. It is important to consider, therefore, whether the "death" which ensued from eating of the forbidden fruit was retributive, or simply a nat- ural consequence of this desire for knowledge. It is plain that the allegory marks a distinction between obeying divine promptings, the " voice of God " in the conscience, and obeying •' the evil one," the impulse of carnal desire and self-will. In yielding to the latter man falls from his edenic state, and enters a state of darkness, or of "death." The glory that was about him in his infancy then fades into the light of common day. The very in- stinct of the carnal state, personified by the ser- pent, " the prince of this world," apprehended what was in the order of God's plan, and proph- esied the truth concerning the inmost secret of the divine purpose, as implied by the words : " Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know that in the day 32 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened ; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." That is, the moral sense would then be aroused by the contrasted knowledge of good and evil. Here was a sure instinct compassing the inmost secret of the divine order, for the effect of the "eating" was according to the prophecy. That the tree was planted and the ground prepared before "Adam" was brought upon the stage, and that a " tree of life " was likewise " planted in the midst of the garden," imply that a discipline essential to the development of all the potentialities of the soul was prepared in accordance with God's plan from the very first act of creation. The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil " is partaken of under the old covenant, and the " tree of life " is par- taken of under the new covenant, through Jesus Christ ; and these symbols of the " trees " stand for the respective spheres of the natural and the spiritual man. That "the fruit was to be desired to make one wise," in the face of the command, " Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," implies that this order of activity, resulting in a knowledge of good and evil, involves a peril to the soul ; for by the very nature of the act it will " surely die " in obeying the promptings of self-will. This " death," therefore, is not retrib- utive, it is a natural consequence of the act; it is not physical dissolution, but the stifling of the soul's innocent or edenic life in carnal existence : for the THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 33 words of the r tempter, " thou shalt not surely die," indicate that the death implied is not actual, but a state of darkness, or of sin, which eventually is to give birth to an aroused moral sense that is godlike. The edenic life, therefore, is a state of childlike innocence, without knowledge, knowing not good or evil, incapable of " discerning between the right hand and the left." It is a purely psychical state of being, wherein the moral sense is dormant. It is, in fact, a state of innocent purity in which every child coming into the world still lingers for a time, but from which it gradually falls away through self-will, by yielding to a natural desire for knowl- edge and experience. Thus every child coming into the world is Adam driven forth out of Eden to learn of the earth, " to till the ground " from whence its bodily organism is taken : and this is but a figurative way of saying that natural knowl- edge is acquired by experience and toil, "in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread ; " whereas spiritual light is "the gift of grace." By toil, trial, and temptation, the soul is strengthened, purified, and perfected to the end of fulfilling its destiny, even as was said of Jesus, the Christ, " he was made perfect through sufferings." When, through the knowledge of good and evil, the moral sense is aroused, a further persistence of carnal desire and self-will converts evil into sin. There is a reluc- tance to hearken to the voice of conscience, on the part of man, while thus engaged under the rule of self-will : " And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness 34 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. rather than light, because their dee*s were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved." Gradually such a course tends wholly to submerge man in outward or carnal ex- istence, "the waters overwhelm the soul." By un- checked desire, in the form of self-will, a plunge is made in the dark stream of evil comprised in the earthly life, by whose swift current the soul is swept far away from its original state of innocence, which was nearness to God. But through moral redemp- tion and spiritual salvation man is finally brought into perfect at-one-ment with God, through regen- eration, when " born again of water, and of the Spirit" — that is, through a moral and a spiritual means — and is eventually " made a partaker of the divine nature." Man is not made a partaker of " the tree of life " until his moral sense has over- come carnal affections, " lest he eat and live for- ever" in carnal desires. Eternal life is not im- parted to the soul until it repents, or turns about from its downward course. But when the world is overcome by the resistance of evil, as it was in Jesus, through uniting man's weakness to God's strength, then, without respect to his outward en- vironment, man is raised spiritually to a heavenly state, and "lives forever." What was nearness to God in the edenic state, becomes of God when man is given of "the tree of life." In the edenic state God approached man from without, " walking in the garden ; " but in the spiritual state God dwells within the soul, the Spirit abiding in the redeemed THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 35 and sanctified man, who serves as its living temple, even as St. Paul said, " Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost . . . that the Spirit of God abideth in you ? " SIN. That the great fact of disobedience lies at the root of man's experience of sin in the earthly life can- not be slighted in this interpretation of the allegory of Genesis. The terms "voice of the Lord God" and " eating of the forbidden tree " are symbolic of conscience and sin, and their depth of meaning can- not be measured by the external forms of the alle- gory. A spiritual discernment is requisite for their true interpretation no less than for the words, "and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." The naked- ness of the soul is only consciously revealed through its experience of temptation and sin, and by its powerlessness to resist evil while man is under the dominion of self-will and carnal affections ; these draw the soul down from its edenic state, as implied by the eating and the shame. The allegory pictures Adam, in the edenic state, as innocent, even as the child is innocent before the moral sense is aroused, but the instincts of nature gradually asserting themselves in carnal desire, by feeding upon the forbidden fruit man is drawn down out of paradise, and a conscious distinction of good and evil is gradually awakened in him. Through obeying the impulse of self-will, the " voice of God " in the conscience is stifled ; and by descending 36 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. deeper and deeper into the carnal state " man is wholly gone astray." Then it is that a " baptism of repentance" must precede regeneration ; he must turn about morally before he can be " baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire." The arousing of the moral sense through the act of disobedience converts evil into sin, and guilt thenceforth stamps its impress on the soul. Carnal desire, embracing the lower state of the natural man, drives the soul forth into external existence as distinguished from life, and this desire is im- planted in the very nature of the "first Adam," in every man, to the end that the soul may be " made conscious " through knowledge, and " made perfect through suffering." This experience results in an inheritance of evils transmitted by natural descent, but there is no inheritance of sin by that means (see Ezekiel xviii.). Jesus said, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin ; but now ye say, We see ; therefore your sin remaineth ; " and again, " If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no excuse." And Paul says, "Until the law, sin [evil] was in the world: but sin is not imputed where there is no law." Sin, properly so called, is a conscious violation of the dictates of con- science, and is not a matter of inheritance beyond the aptitudes, tendencies, dispositions, and the like, implanted in the flesh, or in the "carnal mind," which induce evils in the form of " temptations " that may lead to sin. But the child of sinful parents, while still in the edenic state, is without THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 37 * sin. Of little children Jesus said, " their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven." And as there is no sin by natural in- heritance, neither can there be salvation by that means ; for eternal life is not by natural descent, but by a new birth, " of the Spirit : " that which came up " from beneath," through a natural "crea- tion," is then joined to that which came down "from above," through a spiritual or divine "be- getting," and these " twain form one new man, so making peace." If sin were transmitted by natural descent, then Jesus, as " Son of man," could not have been "without sin," through the inheritance from David and his descendants. Evils are imparted from gen- eration to generation ; and this great fact remains to be more plainly recognized in all its momentous issues, namely, that man can lessen the evils of the carnal state by transmitting to his descendants a purer inheritance through "flesh and blood," thus lessening for his descendants, through all time, the severity of their struggle for righteousness. By thus lessening the evils inherited through natural descent, the children and the children's children, "to the third and fourth generation," share in a degree in the virtue of their progenitors ; while evils engendered in the flesh, or in the carnal mind, persist often with unabated force, and are trans- mitted to descendants in the form of seeds of vice. Thus, apart from all higher obligations of love and gratitude to God, a righteous life should be the aim even of those who cannot rise above a purely 38 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. natural interest in behalf of their immediate off- spring, who are bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh. The race, as a whole, is thus to be outwardly raised through a gradual lessening of the evils which stand in the way of a spiritual sal- vation through Jesus Christ ; for the promise of the fruit of the tree of life is made only " to him that overcometh." Sin and evil, therefore, are distinct in their na- tures ; for while evils may be transmitted by nat- ural descent, sin is not by inheritance : " the soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him " — for sin stands wholly related to the conscience, or to an aroused moral sense. There may be secret sins; that is, sins of the " inward man," related to a deeper moral sense than that which has its standard in out- ward conduct ; nevertheless sin, as such, is funda- mentally an act or state of " disobedience ; " and unless this is felt to be the case, even in its most subtle and unexpressed forms, innocence and igno- rance are alike guiltless. That which converts evil into sin is the conscious reproval by the con- science, when evil is knowingly persisted in. The arousing of the moral sense is subject to a grad- ual development : what was permissible to the fathers may not be right for their descendants, for the moral sense is more and more quickened, until the standard of righteousness passes from THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 39 conduct to motive, from outward act to inward desire, as declared by the Messiah in the sermon on the mount. Thus the standard of morality is ever advancing with the march of progress, through increase of light and virtue, until the consciousness of sin eventually passes from a moral to a spiritual order of " judgment." As light increases, the sense of guilt deepens, until from the lips of the saintly the truest expression of its depth and power is heard, which some deem morbid and exaggerated, whereas the estimate is but just. For there is a consciousness still deeper than the moral sense: there is a spiritual estimate of sin which views it from the depths of a divine consciousness. The es- timate of the moral sense rests on law, and its viola- tion through disobedience ; but a spiritual estimate is formed when the soul is consciously standing in God's presence, beholding the divine purity. Then the moral law is no longer the standard of esti- mate, but God himself, even as Jesus said, " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven, is perfect;" and when addressed as "good Master," Jesus replied, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good, no, not one, but God." Again, Job says, " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear : but now mine eye seeth thee : wherefore I abhor myself." Still again, the prophet Ezekiel declares that his " comeliness was turned into cor- ruption " in the presence of the angel of the Lord ; and the awakened spiritual consciousness of the apostle Peter, in the presence of Christ, led him to say, " Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." 40 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. The eye of the spiritual consciousness is ever fastened upon God : it is no longer obedience, but love, which quickens the perceptions and the desire for purity. When a spiritual perception is im- planted in man, sin is then for the first time re- vealed in its deadliest aspect, as the destroyer of the soul's life, marring its divine end and destiny. The slayer, the liar, the hypocrite, the sensualist, though outwardly subdued in conduct, are then in- wardly encountered in their deadliest and most subtle forms when the propensity is recognized, when "the iron has entered into the soul" of even the righteous man. When the pharisee and hyp- ocrite are seen within, man then no longer judges his neighbor, but himself. But in all stages of moral and spiritual enlightenment, God is careful to shield man from an overwhelming sense of guilt, lest he be discouraged, or driven back in despair : for without hope man is incapable of rising from a lower to a higher plane of life. If God's judgment were not veiled, or tempered to man's present ca- pacity to bear the light, man would be disheart- ened by an unbearable sense of guilt : many souls are thus driven back in despair by the sternness of man's judgment. It is not the sinner, but sin, which man may justly hate. For the sinner, when touched with a sense of guilt, the Master always exhibited a tender solicitude ; and even for the hardened and reprobate, mercy was shown. When two of his disciples asked Jesus to " call down fire from heaven to consume " those who rejected him, "Jesus turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 41 know not what manner of spirit ye are of : for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." The soul must not be over- whelmed, therefore, with a sense of its own imper- fection, or man becomes powerless to " work out his own salvation," even by the promised aid of Christ. For when disheartened by despair it is impossible for man to take the first step which leads to moral reform ; much less can he then hope for regeneration. But with a hopeful change of heart the goal of the righteous state opens to the view, and the aspirations fly upward through will and desire, until man eventually is " born of the Spirit ; " and " they that walk in the Spirit shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh : " by the power of the Spirit they are drawn up into a heavenly realm, where the evils of the carnal state are in- operative. The world having been overcome in the disciple, as in the Master, there is then no further temptation : even as Jesus said, " The prince of this world cometh ; and he hath nothing in me." That is, having completely overcome the world within himself, Jesus was lifted spiritually above the earth ; all temptation was then at an end, for nothing remained in him that was not wholly sub- ject to the Father's will. THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL ADAM. The natural and spiritual orders of mind in every soul are at enmity with each other until they are reconciled in Christ : " for the natural man warreth 42 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. against the spiritual, and the spiritual against the natural." The "first Adam," or natural man — whose inheritance is the world— is conceived in a psychical state, and is formed physically " of the dust of the ground ; " he is " of the earth, earthy, and speaketh of the earth." But the "second Adam," the spiritual man in every soul — whose inheritance is God — is " formed in Christ." The first man is "from beneath;" the second man is " from above : " Jesus said, " Ye are from beneath ; I am from above." The first Adam rose up out of nature by the " hand of God ; " the second Adam came down from heaven as God's own Spirit in- dividualized in the soul ; and these two are " con- joined in one new man, so making peace." A "son of man," therefore, must be "born again, of the Spirit," that he may become a "son of God." Jesus said, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Through a natural birth man is but an existing soul, half created, not yet " made alive : " he is organically prepared for life, but not really quickened until he receives "the Spirit, which is of God." By this means a " new man " is formed in the soul — a " new creature," or creation : it is not the old man made over, but a distinct creation ensues, to which the old is " conformed," or " conjoined," as its out- ward or natural personality. This new man, ac- cording to the apostle Paul, is " Christ formed in you," in the creature — the Lord abiding in man. It is not a human spirit that is quickened into life, but the one only Spirit is imparted to the soul, THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 43 being individualized in man, as it was in Christ ; and this individualized or humanized Spirit is di- vine ; through this indwelling Spirit man is " made a partaker of the divine nature " and is " born of God." It is the soul that is quickened by the presence of the indwelling Spirit imparted from the Lord ; for the infinite capacity of the soul is coextensive with Spirit, which is externalized in a psychical creation; and it is the eternal destiny of the soul to reveal and manifest God in all his fulness. The powers of the human soul image the Deity in po- tentiality, and these powers are infinite in their ex- pansion when once actuated by that quickening and informing Spirit which arouses them to life. It was the immortality of the soul, therefore, that was revealed in the " Son of man ; " for the Spirit, which is of God, needs no proof or testimony that it is eternal. There had lurked a doubt in the hu- man mind concerning man's immortality, whether personal individuality persisted to eternity ; but this doubt was forever set at rest by Christ, by "the Son of man in heaven." The desire for eter- nal life, manifested in the love of self when trans- figured by a holy will, is a divinely implanted po- tentiality in man, which caused him to cherish the thought of his persistent personal identity through- out eternity, even when brought " face to face with God." That this is the true destiny of the soul, as revealed in Jesus, is implied by these words : " This same Jesus . . . shall so come in like man- ner as ye have seen him go into heaven." This 44 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. was the consoling word left with the disciples " when he was parted from them," after he had manifested himself as risen from the dead. St. Paul distinguishes these two orders of mind, or of man — the natural and the spiritual — as grounded in two orders of will and affection. One order of mind " looks at the things which are seen, which are temporal ; " while the other " looks at the things which are not seen, which are eternal: " one order of activity is concerned with that which is natural, while the other is concerned with that which is spiritual. The distinction may be drawn as follows : faculties are developed and various orders of mind formed according to the nature of the sustained impulse given to thought through observation and reflection. The natural mind is formed through the observation of natural things, and to the extent of its knowledge its accretions constitute an image of the natural world. In like manner, a distinct order of observation and reflec- tion, inspired by the Spirit when imparted to the soul, forms the spiritual mind, or man ; and these two orders of mind differ according to the distinc- tions existing in their objects of thought. When it is said in the allegory of Genesis that " Adam gave names to all creatures," this expres- sion symbolizes the character of the activity of the natural mind in learning of the earth, or in " tilling the ground ; " for natural knowledge is acquired by toil, and natural science is, in effect, the naming of things. But this "naming" implies a knowledge of their character and attributes. Spiritually dis- THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 45 cerned, the name of a person or thing is represen- tative of all that belongs to that person or thing, for it calls up in the mind an image, with all its associate characteristics, of whatever that name sig- nifies. Thus when it is said in scripture that " the Lord's name is to be praised," the expression does not mean that a mere verbal title is to be rev- erenced, but all that pertains to God, all things which manifest the divine love and wisdom or reveal the Spirit, are to be praised and reverenced ; and thus, in the allegory concerning Adam, the whole order of activity appropriate to the natural mind, to which the Jehovist narrative specifically refers, is included and symbolized by this naming of things. But the activities of the spiritual mind, inspired by its new life, are not concerned with " giving names to all creatures," or with the seeking of natural knowledge. In lieu of the wisdom of nature it seeks to know God : " for this is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." The spiritual mind seeks to know God, not as to his " handiwork," but as to his spiritual " fatherhood," for it finds in God himself its true inheritance. If the distinction be clearly grasped, it must be plain that the natural mind can- not find God, " though he be not far from every one of us." For natural thought cannot rise above the plane of nature or of the natural consciousness ; it cannot in the least apprehend Spirit : " man by wisdom knew not God." But "they that have received the Spirit, which is of God, may know the 46 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. things that are freely given them of God : for the Spirit searcheth all things; yea, the deep things of God." Adam, in the allegory, is typical of the natural man, whose mind is psychical; while Christ, accord- ing to St. Paul, is typical of the spiritual man, whose mind is divine — the mind of God. " As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." Again it is said, " The first Adam was made a living soul ; " but " the last Adam is a quickening Spirit." Still again, the Apostle says, " The first man is of the earth, earthy; but the last man is the Lord from heaven." These words imply that man, before spiritual regeneration, is but an existing soul, a "vessel" or "tabernacle," empty or void of Spirit, " a house left desolate ; " and the Spirit is breathed into the soul from heaven as the " gift of God." " If God set his heart upon man, if be gather to himself his Spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall return again unto dust." Thus it is " the Lord from heaven" that is imparted to the soul when man is " born again, of the Spirit : " " and to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." THE TEI-PERSONALITT OF GOD AND MAN. The Free Spirit is the Father — " thou wilt up- hold me with thy Free Spirit." The Spirit indi- vidualized in a divine soul is the Son : and that di- vine soul is the Holy Ghost. The Son is begotten THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 47 of God, and is of one substance with the Father, even as Jesus said, " I and my Father are one." The nature of the Holy Ghost will be discussed in a later chapter. That which was manifested in Christ in the highest form is manifested in his earthly " breth- ren " in the lowest degree : for all the sons of God are begotten of God, and in their inmost principle of life they are of one substance with the Father. This truth was revealed in Jesus, and it is on this ground that the Apostle says, " They that are joined to the Lord are one Spirit." The one only Spirit, which is the inmost of God, is imparted to the soul through that "baptism" which is by Jesus Christ, who said, " No man cometh to the Father except by me," and " No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son willeth to reveal him." When in- dividualized in the soul, the divine Spirit becomes as man's own spirit : thus Jesus said, while dying upon the^ross, " Father, into thy hands I com- mend my spirit, and having said this he gave up the ghost " — gave up his soul. The soul, therefore, is an outward investiture of spirit, even as the physical body is exterior to the mind ; and the natural and spiritual orders of mind are as distinct in their natures as are their respec- tive personalities ; this truth is plainly revealed in scripture by manifestations from a supernatural realm. And this truth should be clearly appre- hended if the nature of the triune personality of God and man are to be understood. When quick- 48 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. ened by the Spirit the whole man is spiritually transfigured, or glorified. The carnal propensities of the natural mind are all " of the earth, earthy ; " but when the spiritual faculties of the soul are " opened " from above, its propensities are all heavenly — in their highest nature they are di- vine. All the powers of the natural mind are re- lated to a natural world, but all the powers of the spiritual mind are related to a spiritual world, even as St. Paul said, "our conversation is in heaven, and among the angels." As with the mind, so is it with a change of bodily organism. The mani- festations of spirits and angels, as recorded in scrip- ture, evince a bodily organism identical in form with that of man, but wholly distinct in substance. What is external with angels corresponds to what is internal with man ; their perceptions are as much more perfect than man's as heaven is higher than earth, while all their endowment of mental faculty is correspondingly superior to man's natural endowment. For the natural man is a personal man- ifestation of the soul in a natural world, clothed in a physical body ; but the spiritual man, whose destiny it is to become an angel of God, is a personal man- ifestation of the Spirit in a spiritual realm, clothed in a psychical body. The physical body is a key to the forces and substances of the natural world, while the psychical body bears a similar relation to the spiritual world ; and these physical and psy- chical bodies, which coexist in man, are respec- tively the organs of soul and spirit — " bodies ter- restrial and bodies celestial," St. Paul terms them. THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 49 At dissolution the former falls away from the lat- ter, and reveals a corresponding organism, invis- ible to the physical eye, but of which the scriptures abound in illustration ; the " opening of the eyes " of seers and prophets, enabling them to discern the forms of a spiritual realm, is the uncovering of the psychic senses of this interior organism in man. It is through these physical and psychical organisms that the natural and spiritual personalities of the soul are outwardly manifested in natural and spirit- ual " worlds." Within both these orders of mind, or personality — not as regards space, but as to states of being — dwells the Spirit, when imparted to the soul by Christ. Looking outward upon the carnal state, the moral consciousness of the natural man "judges" it; and when man is "born of the Spirit " a spiritual consciousness in like manner judges the moral man. Thus while the natural man is judged by a moral standard, the spiritual man is judged by the Spirit, even by God himself ; and the prayer of the spiritual man is that he may ever be "conformed to a more perfect likeness with Christ." The soul, therefore, is the human ego, the basis of the natural man ; and the natural man is wholly an " unsanctified vessel." But when the soul is made whole, or " holy," by the presence of the in- dwelling Spirit imparted from the Lord, man may then speak " the word of God." Jesus said to the twelve, when he sent them forth, " It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speak- eth in you : " and again, " If I bear witness of my- 50 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. self, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness in me . . . and his witness is true." The natural mind even of Jesus could not give ut- terance to the perfect truth from itself, but through the Spirit abiding in him Jesus spake the word of God. Jesus acknowledged no strength or power but that which was "given him from above." And this same truth, manifested in Jesus, was likewise manifested in his apostles and disciples, for Paul says, " I have the Spirit of God ; " he declared that he " spake the word of Christ," who abode in him ; and this is the great inheritance of "as many as will receive him." The triune personality of man is only complete, therefore, when he has received the Spirit ; for it was to the regenerate man, or true believer, that St. Paul said, " May your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Until a spiritual consciousness was awakened in man there could be no clear per- ception of this truth concerning his tri-partite na- ture when quickened by the Spirit. Again, the Apostle said, " The word of the Lord is as a sharp two-edged sword, which parteth asunder soul and spirit." Thus the truth is plainly declared, by Revelation, that soul and spirit are distinct in na- ture and substance, " parted asunder, " and upon this truth is grounded a correct understanding of the triune nature of God and man — for man images the Deity. In Jesus, the Christ, this truth was representatively manifested once for all. For he who was "in the form of God, and counted it THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 51 not robbery to be equal with God in the glory •which he had with the Father before the world was" — the Holy One of God — externalized God, so to speak, in an infinite divine soul, in whom the Spirit was revealed and manifested with all the ful- ness of God. The Father is " glorified," or man- ifested, in the Son; and it is through this divine personality that outward creation is effected by the Spirit. All things are in subjection to the Son, and it is through him that the natural and spirit- ual activities of the Godhead proceed forth, being manifested by the creation of natural and spiritual "worlds" — for "by him were all things in heaven and earth created." It is through Christ, there- fore, that the soul of man attains to a perfect nat- ural and spiritual order of consciousness; "for as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." The Spirit, in- dividualized in the soul of the Messiah is God made outwardly personal, respectively, as Son and Holy Ghost. It is in Christ that God is made known as " a Spirit," who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. The Son, who is begotten of the Father, reveals the Father as abiding in all his fulness of wisdom and love in the soul of the Messiah. It was this divine soul that was incarnated in Jesus, as the Christ, when Jehovah became " the Saviour of men." It was not to Jehovah, but to Elohim, that Christ cried from the cross, for Jeho- vah was incarnated in Jesus : " Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed." That anointed soul, in the old 62 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. dispensation, was manifested as the " Word," which was " made flesh, and dwelt among us," in the Son of man, " full of grace and truth." In the " Son of man " the natural personality of Jehovah, Lord God, was manifested ; and in the " Holy Ghost " his spiritual personality is forever revealed. Thus it is that God is revealed and man- ifested in two outward personalities which exter- nalize the Spirit, revealing the Father to the nat- ural and spiritual consciousness of man. For Christ is God by virtue of the indwelling Spirit, as Jesus himself declares : " I can of myself do nothing; as I hear, I judge;" "the Son can do nothing of himself, but what lie seeth the Father do ; for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner;" "the Father is glo- rified [manifested] in the Son ; " " the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me . . . my Father is greater than I." God is revealed as abiding in the natural and spiritual personalities of the Christ, in the Son of man and in the Holy Ghost : the triune nature of God is thus made known to the human understanding, not as an insolvable mystery, but as a truth which Revelation aims to make clear, as the ground of spiritual enlightment. In like manner, the regenerate man is a triune being : the Spirit imparted from God is manifested outwardly through natural and spiritual orders of mind or personality, which St. Paul designates the "natural man" and the "spiritual man." These two orders of mind in man " war against " each THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 53 other in the earlier stages of regeneration, but are finally "reconciled in one new man," as in Christ, " so making peace." It is through a unity of Spirit alone that all spheres are bound in one, for thus God is " in and through all things." Through this oneness of Spirit God and man are reconciled by a union of will, when man is born of the Spirit, for then he is " born of God." A misapprehension of the natures of soul and spirit obscures the divine inheritance of man ; by confusing the natures of the psychical and the spiritual many truths of Revelation are clouded in mystery. When man is born of the Spirit, the inheritance of the soul is God, in all the divine fulness, according to the capacity of the "vessel." God reserves nothing of himself from his offspring. It is said of them that had received the word, ''ye are gods; and the scripture cannot be broken." Jesus revealed this divine inheritance of the soul in himself. The revelation in Jesus is a manifesta- tion of God abiding in man: and the " Son of man in heaven " is representative of the soul's ultimate destiny : " for it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren." 54 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. JESUS THE TYPE OF MAN'S TRUE ESTATE. That the end and destiny of the soul of man is revealed in Jesus is plainly declared in scripture : " The life was manifested . . . that eternal life, which was with the Father . . . truly our fellow- ship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." The inheritance of the soul is so over- whelming, so holy, so infinite — ending in " all the fulness of God " — that, to the natural mind, it appears blasphemous even to name it. When Jesus declared it, as manifested in himself, " then took they up stones to cast at him," deeming him " a blasphemer of God : that he, being a man, should make himself God." But Jesus answered, " Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken), say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest ; because I said, I am the £>on of God ? " The claim of Jesus for himself was even less than that warranted by what was " written in their law," in scripture which " cannot be broken," concerning the regenerate soul ; and yet it was for this claim of sonship to God that they put him to death. The apostle Paul says of the followers of Christ, " All things are yours ; whether life, or death, or things present, or things to come : all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's." And St. John says, " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 55 but we know that, when he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him puri- fieth himself, even as he is pure." Finally, Christ himself, speaking from heaven, says, " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." The spiritual destiny of man is " hid with Christ in God," for in him is the perfected life of the soul of man manifested in all stages of existence — in the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial states of being ; for he is " the way and the truth and the life " throughout all spheres, or states of being, until the kingdom is delivered up to God. " Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put clown all rule and all authority and power — for he must reign, till he hath put all ene- mies under his feet — and when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." And if God be all in all, then shall there be no soul in that final state that is not " filled with all the fulness of God ; " then the souls of all the sons of God will be " in the form of God, in that glory which Christ had with the Father before the world was " — before "the foundations of the earth were laid, and the corner-stone thereof . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." This, then, is the great inheritance of man 56 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. as revealed in Jesus Christ — to manifest God throughout eternity, to grow ever into the more perfect form of the Spirit, externalizing the divine love and wisdom, and " in fellowship with the Fa- ther and with his Son Jesus Christ." THE LAST DAT. All the " days," or states of consciousness in the soul, as prefigured in the allegory of Genesis, tend toward a final day of rest in God, a "sabbath " of the soul wherein God will be all in all, and this last day is revealed in Christ, : " For this is the will of my Father, that every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life: and I will raise him up in the last day." There are six "davs" of outward and inward consciousness preceding the " day of God," and all these states of being are elsewhere in scripture com- prised in three general days — the carnal, the moral, and the spiritual. By the prophet Hosea it is said, " Come, and let us return unto the Lord : for he hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smit- ten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us : in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight." And in the Apoca- lypse it is said " to him that overcometh," in the sixth church, " he shall go no more out," for in the seventh state they that overcome shall sit down with Christ in his throne, even as lie " over- came and is set down with the Father in his throne." Through the natural Adam the soul was brought low ; but through the spiritual Adam, the THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 57 Christ, man is raised up on high " in fellowship ■with the Father." "For as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." The attainment of moral righteousness is the form- ing of man as a preparation for the inbreathing of the "breath of life," which God only imparts to the soul after man is fully formed in the order of na- ture. To this end the prophetic cry is, " Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life;" for through Christ alone is the Spirit imparted to man. It is plain that from the very earliest to the latest word of Revelation there is but one will and purpose manifested in scripture, and this divine intention underlies all the forms and figures of the two covenants, revealing God and the true destiny of the soul of man, culminating in the manifesta- tion of the Spirit as abiding in Jesus : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son to have life in himself: and he gave him au- thority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man " — touched with the feeling of man's in- firmity. This creature or creation of whom it was written, " What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels [R. V. a little lower than God], and hast crowned him with glory and honor : thou madest him to have 58 THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. dominion over the works of thy hands : thou hast put all things under his feet " — this created being, " man," when born again, of the Spirit, when be- gotten of God, is destined to ascend through and above the angelic state, and share in " that glory which the Son had with the Father before the world was." This divine inheritance of man is expressed in these words : " For in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels . . . crowned with glory and honor." Until the way was opened by Christ " into the holiest of all," the souls of men, as manifested by Moses and Elias on the mount of transfiguration, were in an intermediate state, of which the earth and its interests still formed a part; for of those who had gone before, it was said : " God having provided some better thing for us, that they with- out us should not be made perfect." But the heavenly state of the soul is revealed in the Apoca- lypse, where the souls of men of "all kindreds and peoples and tongues and nations " are spoken of as " angels," and as " without fault before the throne of God ; " and where it is said, " Behold, the taber- nacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people," and God him- self "shall be with them, and be their God. . . . he that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." And the revelation is manifested once for all in the per- THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. 69 son of Jesus, the Christ, who reveals in himself the way, or the soul's path of progress, to the end that all who are begotten of the Spirit may be united in one common brotherhood in the City of God, " in fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ," being " filled with all the fulness of God." In the power of the Spirit, under the leadership of Christ, all press forward to that perfect day when the kingdom shall have been delivered up to God, who will then be all in all. And that last day is not wholly hid from man, for it is revealed in Christ, by the Spirit ; " for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God ; and they that have received the Spirit which is of God, may know the things that are freely given them of God." God then reveals himself, and all things in him- self, with ever-increasing fulness ; and in Christ, in whom the distant is drawn near, the end and con- summation may be partly divined, as manifested in " the Son of man in heaven." II. THE SEEKS AND PROPHETS. "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." — Exodus " There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High." — Psalm xlvi. " God, at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers, by the prophets." — Hebrews i. " No prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation : for no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." — 2 Peter i. " The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." — Hebrews iv. THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. THE MEANS AND INSTRUMENTALITIES OF REVE- LATION. " The world by wisdom knew not God : " God is openly declared by Revelation. The Free Spirit, or Godhead, is ceaselessly active in and through all things, for " in him we live and move and have our being;" but God is outwardly revealed by organic agencies, whereby is " made conscious the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God." When God would consciously reveal his will to man before the moral sense is quickened from within, he must first approach man through instru- mentalities normal to the natural understanding, through " seers " and " prophets," by means of " similitudes," or outward veilings of spiritual things ; and when by this means a moral sense is aroused, then through a still higher instrumental- ity, even by the Son himself, a spiritual conscious- ness is implanted in the soul, and the end of Rev- elation attained. Thence on, God is revealed as abiding in the soul, and the divine will is mani- fested from within. 64 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. Under the old dispensation man was approached from without, through outward or organic agencies, whether of angels or propliets ; but under the new dispensation man is approached from within, by the imparting of the Spirit to the soul, through Jesus Christ. There are, in general, three modes of operation by which moral and spiritual truths, which constitute the " word of God," are supernaturally disclosed to man, namely, by revelation, by inspiration, and by illumination. The first is by " things seen and heard " from a spiritual or heavenly realm ; the second passes the word, or teaching, through the mind of the " prophet ; " while the third raises the powers of the human mind to apprehend, as from itself, things which may be expressed in terms of natural thought. Revelations, when emanating from a spiritual or heavenly source, are the highest form of supernatural influence, while illumination is the lowest, or outermost, form of operation. Under the influence of modern science the ten- dency of recent biblical criticism has been toward the almost exclusive recognition of this lowest or outermost form of enlightenment as the only means of prophetic operation acceptable to the natural understanding ; practically both revelation and in- spiration are denied in any other sense than that of mere illumination ; hence the mind of the prophet is made the standard, or criterion, of the word of God, as to its scope and meaning. Viewed in this light, the expression concerning the prophets, that they "spake as they were moved," is made THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 65 to signify little more than a special exaltation of the prophet's own mind, to the exclusion of any foreign influence from without in the form of ver- bal revelations through the ministry of angels and ministering spirits. It is needless to say that a sharper distinction than this must be drawn be- tween the prophet's and the poet's order of in- spiration, if the former is to be designated a "word of God," to which distinction the utterances of the greatest of poets would not presume to lay claim, nor would a merely illuminated mind ever venture to say, without equivocation, " Thus saith the Lord ! " The confounding of mere illumination with in- spiration, in the scriptural sense, tends toward the denial of all that is distinctively supernatural in Revelation, by its identifying the " word of God " with human conceptions, which practically reduces the expression to a mere figure of speech. Illumi- nation having received its full share of attention in recent biblical criticism, as the exponent of the posi- tive idea in modern philosophy, and with valuable results, it is the aim of this work to consider, spe- cifically, the nature and means of Revelation in its higher, or supernatural, aspects. ANGELS AND MINISTERING SPIRITS. The Old Testament Revelation was the minis- tration of the Word to seers and prophets by angels, messengers of the higher spheres, beings organized in a psychic substance, even as men are organized in a physical substance, through whom 66 THE SEEES AND PROPHETS. the will of God was made known to man by an external means. God employed his angels and ministering spirits to this end even as Jehovah directs Moses to employ Aaron : " he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God ; " that is, Aaron shall speak the words, but Moses will inspire the thought ; and in like manner the angels served as a psychic mouth- piece for Jehovah. That the ministry of angels is by an organic means, and that these means are not spiritual but psychical, is a truth that must be grasped before it is possible to apprehend the nature of the higher instrumentalities involved in Revelation. And it is necessary to understand, in a degree, the nature of these various media through which the Word was manifested to man, in order that we may clearly distinguish that which is spiritual from that which is natural, or the word of God from the ver- bal form. The existence of other organic beings than those manifested in physical conditions is plainly taught by Revelation ; that the angels are spirits clothed in psychic bodies is abundantly testified by the manifestations recorded in scripture. Many regard the expression " in the body and out of the body " as the equivalent of organic existence contrasted with a sublimated essence that is without form. But that the beings of the higher spheres have "glorified" bodies which serve the spirit within, even as the earthly body serves the soul, is revealed in scripture as clearly as any other fact made known THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 67 by the prophets ; and upon this fact hinges a gen- eral truth, namely, that all outward, or conscious revelation is by organic agency on the part of angels and prophets alike. The testimony running through the whole body of scripture is concurrent on this point, and this concurrence, covering vast periods of time, and attested by innumerable wit- nesses, rests on no mere figure of speech, but on a fact objectively discerned. There are two ways in which the denizens of the higher spheres have manifested themselves out- wardly to man, according to the testimony of scrip- ture : by opening the psychic senses of the seer or prophet ; and, by manifesting themselves in condi- tions normal to the physical senses. When, as re- ported in scripture, angels were manifested as " men," this usually implied that the manifestation was outwardly material in form, and rendered cog- nizable by the bodily senses ; but when the mani- festation was spiritual, then the celestial visitor was discerned through the opening of the psychic senses of the seer, or prophet. The means of manifesta- tion in either case was psychical, the angel being either " clothed upon" materially, or spiritually re- vealed through a psychic agency. Whether, therefore, the word of God be revealed through the ministry of angels or prophets, the means in either case is an organic instrumentality, and without this organic means there could be no conscious intercourse between the spheres, or be- tween God and man. Even in Christ this instru- mentality is not wholly done away until " all things 68 THE SEEKS AND PROPHETS. are fulfilled," when, the Spirit having been im- parted to the soul, God will, in the end and con- summation, be inwardly revealed in all his fulness as the "All in all." VERBAL REVELATIONS. When it is once apprehended that the angelic ministry is by an organic means, or that the angels are spirits organized in psychic bodies, then it is plain that even a verbal form of revelation may emanate from that source. St. Paul declares that he was addressed "in the Hebrew tongue " when Christ was manifested to him " in the way." And when it is further understood, as revealed once for all in the apocalypse of John, that the angels, even the angel of His Presence, are the spirits of men, then it is no longer marvellous that they can speak with man in human language through the psychic ear, which fact is abundantly testified in scripture. The verbal form of Revelation may, therefore, in some cases, transcend the scope of the prophet's own mind, and emanate directly from beings above the earthly plane, as witnessed by the disciples of Jesus, when under the spirit of prophecy they spake in tongues with which they had no previous acquaintance. Nevertheless, a word of God is not to be con- founded even with the speech of angels, who serve merely as a higher form of "mouthpiece" for the Spirit. God's word is free and unconditioned, but the truth is given in psychic and earthen " vessels," and is outwardly formed by that means. It is THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 69 » proper, therefore, to discriminate the spiritual in- tention of Revelation from both the angelic and prophetite ministry by word of mouth, and this can only be done by judging it in the light of the whole body of scripture. Previous to the coming of the Messiah the Word was ministered by " servants " sent into the vineyard, angelic beings organized in a psychic substance, even as prophets are organized in a physical substance ; by this personal agency and organic means the will of God was externalized and gradually tempered to the human consciousness. Not only do the manifestations of angels, as re- ported in scripture, abundantly attest their organic existence in bodily form, but through the manifesta- tions of the risen Christ the persistence of personal individuality is confirmed as a fact, " This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." The soul of Jesus lost nothing of personal individuality by its ascension into heaven, being still a form, " in the form of God." Though enlarged in power and capacity according to the conditions of the spheres through which the soul ascends from earth to heaven, the organic life of the psychic form is still maintained, but is " glorified " by the change, and no fact is more pointedly attested in scripture than this. Enough has been said to suggest that even the verbal form of Revelation may, in some cases, tran- scend the range of the prophet's own mind, how- ever the angelic utterance may be modified by that medium. As individuality is plainly marked in the utterances of Isaiah and Jeremiah, or in those of 70 THE SEERS AND rROPHETS. Ezekiel and Amos, so a like individuality prevails among the angels, as evinced in their manner of prompting the prophets. The " dark sayings," veiled in "similitudes," were no clearer to the mind of the prophet than to other minds, and the veil is removed only by a general advance of human thought in the light of an awakened spiritual con- sciousness, brightening ever more and more to per- fect day. The denial of this angelic power to shape the forms of Revelation, irrespective of the prophet's own mind, has tended to restrict the word of God to the range of the human consciousness at the time the utterance was made ; this reduces Revelation to a merely human order of thought raised to the point of illumination, that lowest or outermost form of influence which must necessarily stop short of all prophetic inspiration, as well as of all possible revelation; for what the human mind can perceive for itself cannot properly be termed a revelation. The natural mind, even when under illumination, cannot rise above the natural world in which it is conditioned : hence until man is " born of the Spirit," a supernatural revelation is essential, in the form of "things seen and heard" from a heav- enly realm. That nothing is lost to individuality by the soul's subsequent life after physical dissolution is plainly taught by the appearance, after the lapse of ages, of Moses and Elias on the mount of transfig- uration. And that the personality of Jesus was not dissipated in an all-pervasive, sublimated essence, or absorbed in God, by his ascending to the Father, THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 71 is clearly attested by these words of Scripture : " The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass ; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John : who bare rec- ord of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ." Herein is clearly revealed, once for all, the nature of the instrumentalities involved in outward, or conscious, communion with the higher spheres, and with God himself. This is not a new order of ministration, but a revelation of that which had always existed, in part, from the begin- ning, but which was simply " brought to light " in Jesus. Revelation, in the scriptural sense, is an outward or objective means of communion, by which things " seen and heard " from above are distinguished from that inward or sub-conscious spiritual com- munion which is ceaseless throughout all worlds, but which is incapable of being distinguished from the spontaneous operations of the human mind itself. AN ORDER OF PROGRESS IN THE MEANS. In the old dispensation God was but imperfectly revealed, by " servants " sent into his vineyard ; but when God sent his Son into the world, then the Father was revealed face to face as abiding in Jesus, who said, " henceforth ye know him, and have seen him ; " for the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. The revelation of God was consummated in all its fulness in the Son : but through angels and prophets the Logos was verbally 72 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. expressed as modified by the finite nature of the mouthpiece, spiritual things being psychically veiled in " similitudes." That there was a gradual change wrought in the means by which the will of God was externalized and brought down to the level of the human con- sciousness is evinced by the nature of the gifts which respectively characterize the " seer " and "prophet." In the earlier form of conscious inter- course with higher spheres the teaching was in the form of '■ visions " and figurative manifestations. The psvchic organ of clearsight was " opened," re- vealing to the " seer," objectively, the things of a higher realm. But gradually this opening of the psychic senses of the soul gave place to a more sub- jective form of influence, by inspiration, and this distinguished, specifically, the " prophet " from the " seer." This change, marking a distinction of faculty in the organic instruments of Revelation, is plainly indicated by these words (1 Sam. ix.) : " Be- foretime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake. Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a prophet was be- foretime called a seer." The change marked a drawing near of the Logos in more familiar inter- course with man, by the substitution of inspirational speech for visions, through the ministry of angels ; and this progress was further emphasized when inspiration subsided into illumination, evinced by the words " Come now, and let us reason to- gether, saith the Lord." Finally this descent of the Logos was consummated in Jesus, when " the Word THE SKF.ES AND PROPHETS. 73 was made flesh, and dwelt among us — full of grace and truth." Through all the previous stages of Revelation there was an order of progress tending gradually toward this consummation, through which the mind of God was gradually brought down to the level of the human consciousness ; being tempered, as it were, to the natural understanding in anticipation of that descent of the Messiah " into the pit and miry clay" from whence the race was to be lifted up to the spiritual heights of God's presence, through his Son Jesus Christ. When the prophetic function was fully estab- lished all outward manifestation on the part of angels then became subsidiary to that more subjec- tive means by which verbal promptings took pre- cedence of visions and material manifestations ; the psychic sense of the seer was then subordinated to " the word of the Lord " spoken in the ear of the prophet, which then became the principal means of revelation in the place of figurative representations, as better adapted to the end in view, namely, the development of man's moral and spiritual conscious- ness from within, as from himself, when the will of God is manifested in man. And as this angelic ministry became more subjective, through an Inward prompting from an invisible realm, the heavenly guidance was less arbitrary; the free will and judg- ment of the prophet was respected, for " the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." This orderly relation marked a distinction between true and false prophets, the latter not necessarily being 74 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. mere pretenders, but prophets dominated by evil spirits who subverted their reason and judgment, and even deprived them of the exercise of free-will by an arbitrary "possession," and even "obsession" of the bodily organs. Much light is thrown on the nature of the pvo- phetic function in the Old Testament by the teach- ings of the New. St. Paul says, " Know ye not that we shall judge angels ? " That is, the teachings even of spiritual guides shall be brought to the bar of reason, in the light of Christ, and judged accord- ing to their intrinsic merits. It was by this means that the canon of scripture was formed, under the deliberate exercise of reason and judgment, by selecting or rejecting the various books claiming to be inspired of God. As the outward or arbitrary guidance of man from a supernatural realm would naturally tend to render his conduct merely automatic under authori- tative dictate, it was. desirable to approach him by a more subjective means so soon as the earlier order of manifestation had arrested his attention. Miracles served this arbitrary purpose, by arresting attention and directing the mind to inquire into the matter : thus Moses, seeing the burning bush, said, " I will turn aside and see why the bush is not con- sumed ; " by this outward means he was led into communion with the angel of God. That there can be no true redemption or salva- tion, by external rule, is well attested by the his- tory of the Jews : the law is powerless to save. Therefore the Spirit seeks ever to enshrine itself in THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 75 the heart of man as the very truth and life of tbe soul : " Behold, in that day I will put my laws in their inward parts, and write them in their hearts." When this is effected, man is then redeemed and saved, for he is then born of the Spirit. By pass- ing from external, or sensible, to a more inward means of manifestation, the Word, or Logos, grad- ually entered into the conditions of humanity itself, culminating in actual incarnation in Jesus, the Christ, being manifested as the " Son of man." Thus viewed, it is apparent that even the earliest stage of Revelation was an initial step in an orderly process of "incarnation" which only culminated in Jesus. The descent of the Logos was grad- ual, through all the heavenly spheres, through angels and spirits to man, in the nethermost pit and miry clay, that humanity and the whole cre- ation might be lifted up to God, the origin and fulfilment of all things. And the aim of Revela- tion was not the arbitrary guidance of man by outward authority, even though that authority were divine ; but to awaken within the soul a moral and spiritual consciousness, through the understand- ing, to the end that man might come into a reason- able, free, and spontaneous attitude of mind and heart toward God as his true inheritance. The reign of God in the heart is not arbitrary, nor is it like the authority of a ruler, but the end is " per- fect fellowship with the Father," even as man- ifested in Christ. That which was originally in- culcated outwardly under a tutelage of the soul, through obedience and sacrifice, is then fulfilled in 76 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. the perfect freedom of love, which is " the fulfilling of the law " : " burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin, thou desiredst not ; then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord ! " All moral obligation is then fulfilled in perfect freedom of Spirit, " for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The whole absorbing desire of perfect love is God ; to "glorify" him by the joyful manifestation of his will throughout eternity — this is the true destiny of the soul. Through the ministry of angels, seers, and proph- ets under the old dispensation, the word of God was but imperfectly declared, according to the nature and capacity of the means. By that instrumental- ity man had a sense of distance and estrangement from God, which is only done away in Christ, through whom man is brought face to face with God. To this great day all previous ministrations pointed as to the dawn of a " day of God," when man should come " into fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." When the Son was made man, then all subsequent angelic ministration be- came subsidiary to that supreme means, or Medi- ator between God and man. The angels thence- forth are never confounded with the Lord, nor do they receive worship as such. The angel " saith unto me, These are the true words of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not, for I am a fellow-servant with thee, and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God." Thus even the angel of His Presence is declared to be a " fellow- servant " with man. THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 77 Before the Messiah entered upon his earthly- mission there was revealed no organic means, " in the form of God," in whom the divine will was perfectly manifested and related to man. " For to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool : are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation ? " The angel of Jehovah, though personifying the Word, was not God. The angels, even the highest, are spirit messengers, sub- ordinate to One who is the sole exponent, so far as human consciousness is concerned, of that divine Sonship which is to he revealed in all its fulness only " when the kingdom is delivered up to God, even the Father," when God shall be all in all. THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD. In the Old Testament the expressions, " Thus saith the Lord," or, " I heard the voice of the Lord, saying," etc., seemingly imply a direct verbal com- munication proceeding from the divine mind with- out the employment of intermediaries. But it should be understood that when the angelic mes- senger was in the act of delivering the divine message, he spake in the first person, as the Lord, and the scriptures frequently merge the two per- sonalities in one, as in the account of Moses and the burning bush : " The angel of the Lord ap- peared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush . . . moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham," etc. The divine 78 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. will filling the angel, the messenger to all intent and purpose was God, to the apprehensive mind of Moses in its imperfect understanding ; for knowing no other will than God's, the angel, for the time being, appeared even as God : thus the angel seemed to Moses to be very God, while that alone which was truly divine in the manifestation was the Spirit externalized by the angel in the spoken word, and delivered as from God himself speak- ing " face to face " with Moses. In reality, how- ever, the message was communicated by such a mouthpiece as Moses was told he should find in Aaron, and in this manner the divine will was first manifested through the verbal utterance of angels and ministering spirits, by organic speech. The mind of God was thus externalized, or brought within the compass of the human understanding, by the only then available means, — by the interven- tion of spirit messengers, angelic " servants," who as beings psychically related to man, and having, organically, points of contact with man, were thus enabled to approach man through outward chan- nels, reaching the understanding from without, thus " making conscious the mystery" of God. A more direct means of conscious intercourse with God would have destroyed man in his weak- ness and imperfection ; for even in the presence of the angel the prophet " fell down as one dead." " And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish." The Israelites, terrified at the awful presence of the angel in the THE SEEKS AND PROPHETS. 79 mount, "said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear : but let not God speak with us, lest we die." God's mercy is shown no less in his with- holding the light, than by bringing man into it ; the process of enlightenment is gradual, the divine Pres- ence being tempered to the feeble human conscious- ness as to a frail reed that must not be broken, or as to smoking flax that must not be quenched. It is through Revelation alone that God is openly declared as a personal being, otherwise there could be no knowledge of God as such : conscious com- munion through this means reveals God's personal- ity to man, even as evinced in the words, "I am the Lord, thy God," as one being addresses another. This unity and personality of God is sustained, without ambiguity, throughout the scriptures ; and never, in substance, is the Godhead confounded with the natures of his chosen instruments, whether they be angels, or even the Son himself. That the angel of Jehovah was not a manifestation of God, " whom no man hath seen at any time, nor can see," but one nearly related to man, who is " made a little lower than the angels," is apparent from what has been said. And it is necessary that the " angel of His Presence " be distinguished from the Son of God, in order that the full significance of the incarnation may be apprehended as the means of a still higher form of divine manifestation than had ever before been given to man. Throughout all the various means by which God has revealed himself to man ; it is important, there- fore, if man is to know God as in himself he really 80 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. is, to distinguish clearly between the form and the substance, or between the outward manifestation and the inward and invisible Spirit, which alone is God. THE VAEIBD NATURE OP THE MEANS. Under the old dispensation there were various instrumentalities employed for revealing God's will to man by the ministry of angels, seers, and prophets. These instrumentalities include visions, dreams, ver- bal messages, signs, and symbolic manifestations: but all these media may be classed under two gen- eral heads, as spiritual and psychical manifestations. The former include all manifestations outwardly conditioned in a psychical substance, while the lat- ter include all manifestations outwardly conditioned in a physical substance. In the one case the ob- server was " caught up " into the superior condi- tions of a higher realm through the unveiling of his psychic senses ; while in the other case the angel or spirit was " clothed upon " with a material sub- stance, and rendered cognizable by the physical senses. With respect to the means employed, it is an " ascending " or "descending," as the case may be; prefigured in Genesis xxviii. 12, and again re- ferred to in John ii. 51. When it is understood that physical conditions are subservient to psychi- cal — as witnessed by the power of mind over mat- ter even in the earthly life — it is no greater marvel that a spirit can be "clothed upon," materially, and manifested as a " man," than that the soul may be " caught up" out of the body into paradise, as St. THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 81 Paul's was, before physical dissolution. Owing to the fact that the soul of man is an organic form, the Apostle was unable to say whether it was " in the body, or out of the body," that he was thus "caught up;" but that he heard, while in that state, " unspeakable words, impossible for a man to utter," implies that his perception was by organic means, though psychical; and this psychical organ- ism eventually he recognized as a "celestial body," as distinguished from "bodies terrestrial." With reference to this ascending of the souls of men, and descending of the souls of angels, various forms of illustration may be found in scripture. The celes- tial visitor appears as an angel in Numbers xxii. 31, and in Judges vi. 1 2 ; and as a man in Genesis xviii. 2, xxxii. 24, in Joshua v. 13, and in Acts i. 10. Sometimes the spiritual visitor is referred to, indis- criminately, as " angel " and " man," as in Judges xiii. But in whatever form, or in whatever condi- tions, the manifestation is made, the " word," or message, alone is spiritual and divine. Jesus de- clared this to be true of himself: "Of mine own will I can do nothing ; as I hear, I speak : the words which I speak are not mine, but the Father's which sent me ; and they are Spirit and they are life." When it is said in the Old Testament that "the Lord appeared" in a vision* it should be understood, therefore, that an angel is meant, a celestial messenger, for the term "Lord" is vari- ously used in scripture, being frequently applied to angels or ministering spirits. When the manifestations from a higher realm 82 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. were psychical, or outwardly conditioned in that order of substance, then the state of the observer essential to their perception is usually indicated in scripture as follows : " the Lord appeared to him in a vision," or " in a dream," or " being fallen in a trance," or " being heavy with sleep " (trance), or "their eyes being opened," or "being filled with the Holy Ghost," etc. Whereas, when the mani- festation was physical in outward form, and cogniz- able by the outer senses — the angel appearing as a man, eating and drinking and otherwise conduct- ing himself as a physically organized being — there is then no such abnormal state indicated on the part of the observer ; for the manifestation being wholly within man's own natural environment, it is perceived as of a part with the conditions of the natural world, divested of all " glory." The state of trance, in which psychical things are objectively perceived, is thus described in Genesis xv. 12, 13, "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram : and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And the Lord said unto him," etc. This deep sleep and horror of great darkness, of which the patriarch was sensible from his being able to describe it, is a transitional state between the closing of the outer or physical senses and the opening of the inner or psychic senses. That the change is organic, and not merely a change in mental state, is apparent from the fact that it leaves the mental faculties free to note the distinction and observe what follows. That it is an organic change is well attested by the experience THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 83 4 of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, and by many other examples recorded in scripture. The superior na- ture of the psychic senses, when thus opened, is indicated in Zechariah as follows : " the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou ? " Contrasted with the powers of the psychic organs those of the physical senses are as a state of sleep. During trance the physical senses are, as it were, temporarily paralyzed, but the superior conscious- ness may remain active ; and on recovery from the trance state the memory retains impressions received in a higher sphere. Though in some cases the soul of the prophet was caught up out of the body, in other instances a double consciousness was main- tained, the eyes of the soul seeing spiritual things, and the eyes of the body seeing natural things. An instance of this " double sight" is given in Numbers xxiv. 4, 16, where it is said of Balaam, that "he saw a vision of the Almighty ; falling into a trance, but having his eyes open." That these states of trance are not spiritual, but psychical, brings the means of Revelation within the realm of nature, for this realm includes both soul and body in man. That which is truly spiritual is divine — " the kingdom of God." A knowledge of that which is psychical, as distin- guished from that which is spiritual — as an inter- mediate realm of consciousness — tends to exalt the estimate of things really heavenly, or divine ; and likewise dispels superstitions. That alone which is purely spiritual, or supernatural, in Revelation, 84 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. are the " prophesyings," or teachings — the " word," or message — for, as Jesus said, "they are Spirit, and they are life." While, therefore, the psychic means, relating to an invisible realm, may be pre- ternatural, they are not necessarily supernatural ; that which is supernatural is above the realms both of body and soul, for the pure realm of Spirit is a realm of God. The physical and the psychical are but visible and invisible conditions of nature, the realm of nature embracing the natural mind as well as the physical body. It may be observed that the sacred record makes no distinction between words heard psychically by the prophet, and those heard by the physical ear : the sounds are just as sonorous and matter of fact in the one case as in the other, as in the call of Sam- uel. Upon a knowledge of the existence of these psychic senses depends a correct understanding of those passages of scripture which refer specifically to the means or instrumentalities of Revelation ; the allusions to which are plain and straightforward, treating them always as realities, and not as mere figures of speech. When the psychic senses were " opened," the things perceived were recognized as substantial and objective ; the beings so discerned were usually attended with certain "glories," indi- cated by " radiant light," " shining garments," or a " shining countenance," as said of all the higher angelic manifestations, and of Christ when trans- figured on the mount : " his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." But when the manifestation marked a descent THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 85 from superior to inferior conditions — when angels appeared as men, and were physically cognizable — then there is no mention made of any attendant glories ; to the carnal sense spiritual light is as thick darkness, for it is not discernible at all. Had there been others present, though not in the trance state, when Christ was "transfigured," no glory or outward change would have been perceived by them : while going in and out among men Jesus must al- ways have been observed as in this glorified form by beings of the higher spheres, who beheld his glory through a finer organism, for it is written, " he suffered not the spirits to speak, because they knew him, that he was the Christ." As some of these spirits are classed as "evil spirits," it must have been through some other means than that of spir- itual likemindedness that the Messiah was recog- nized ; probably through some outward and visible " glory," such as that observed by the three disci- ples who " were heavy with sleep," or in trance, on the mount of transfiguration. REVELATION, INSPIRATION, AND ILLUMINATION. That revelation is by a psychic means, external to the Spirit, and that this agency is organic, is clearly indicated in scripture. If it were by a purely subjective blending of divine with human thought, it would have been impossible for the prophet to have said plainly, " Thus saith the Lord." That it was a foreign spirit speaking through the prophet is plainly shown in many in- stances, as in the following : " the angel of the 86 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. Lord said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt thou speak." As evincing the prophet's subser- vience to that order of dictation, it is written : " Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee ; have I now any power at all to say any- thing ? The word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak." The prophet was clearly able to distinguish the " power " which came upon him, from an act of his own volition : through a psychic means the angel employed the organs of the man to give utterance even to verbal revelations ; and as the will and word thus manifested were external to his own mind, the prophet never confounded the message, or inspiration, with his own thought. They who " prophesied " knew that they were giving utterance to that which proceeded from a foreign source ; in- deed, in some cases, their own minds were opposed to the declarations thus made ; they were always conscious that the words were not spoken from themselves, " for no prophecy ever came by the will of man." A merely illuminated mind, having full posses- sion of its reasoning powers, and speaking as from itself, may project its natural thought to great heights, even to the very verge of inspiration, or of revelation. But beyond that verge it cannot pass, for it cannot rise above the world in which it is con- ditioned. Man is " lifted up above the earth " by that which comes down from above in the form of a spiritual witness ; and this is brought to his under- THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 87 standing by some organic means, even as beings in the earthly life commune with, one another by bodily agencies. The time has arrived when spe- cial emphasis should be given to this truth, in view of the naturalistic tendencies of modern criticism, lest all Revelation be swallowed up in a merely natural operation of human thought, or human ex- perience, as the outcome of merely human concep- tions. A verbal inspiration proceeding from beings standing on a plane above man may be regarded by some as a mechanical conception of the means of Revelation ; but it is not more mechanical than is the verbal transmission of thought between man and man. It is true that verbal inspiration is far more exceptional, or rare, in scripture, than is illu- mination, or the raising of the natural thought to a higher order of apprehension on the natural plane, nevertheless, it is a fact not to be denied. To ap- prehend the " word of God " in its essence we must pierce through the angelic ministry to the Logos, which reveals the Spirit to the heart of man. As an illustration of the way in which the prophet was used by the angel for the purpose of transmitting a divine message, the following may be cited from Ezekiel, who " beheld the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord : and when I saw it," he says, " I fell down upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee." Then followed a change in the order of manifestation, the vision was merged into prophesy ings : " and the spirit entered into 88 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. me when he spake with me, and set me upon my feet; and I heard him that spake unto me." The spirit who showed Ezekiel the vision by opening his psychic senses, then took possession of the or- ganism of the prophet and gave verbal expression to his message, saying, " Thus saith the Lord," etc. The prophet narrates the following as plain mat- ter of fact : " Then the spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, say- ing, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place ... so the spirit lifted me up and took me away ; " that is, like St. Paul, the soul of the prophet was " caught up " out of the body. Again, the following is cited in illustration of the nature of the means of Revelation : " a thing was revealed unto Daniel . . . and the thins was true," that is, it was a matter of fact : " I Daniel alone saw the vision ; the men that were with me saw it not; but a great quaking fell on them, and they fled to hide themselves. So I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned into corruption . . . And when I heard the voice of his words, then was I fallen into a deep sleep on my face, with my face toward the ground." Be it observed that though in a "deep sleep" the prophet is conscious of all that transpires. " And behold a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands . . . and he said, Understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright, for unto thee am I now sent; and when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling." THE SEEKS AND PROPHETS. 89 That the vision superinduced by the angel was substantial and real, and no merely imaginary image, is a truth which is abundantly testified in scripture, and emphasized by the word of the prophet Daniel. If the testimony of witnesses be discredited on this point, then there is no reason why the whole com- munication by that means should not be vitiated by doubt. Throughout the whole body of Revelation the testimony of witnesses is concurrent on this point, namely, that the things so perceived are "true," and that the words spoken by angels are verbal utterances when they are so designated in scripture ; at other times the communication was made by impression — by impressing the idea, which the prophet interpreted in his own words. Examples may be cited from the sacred record in illustration of a great variety of ways in which the prophet was influenced under the angelic ministry. In Zechariah the means are thus indicated: "The Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou," etc. He who is here designated "the Lord" was presumably an angelic being from the higher heaven ; while he who is termed an " angel " was probably a spirit nearly related to man ; for thus is the word, or divine message, transmitted through the spheres, from heaven to earth, as a revelation of the divine will by organic means. Spiritually God is not distant, for he is " in and through all things ; " but when he would externalize his will through the channel of Revelation, the "word" 90 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. proceeds outward by various organic ministries until it reaches man, and is expressed in human lan- guage. But it is needless to expand the subject fur- ther. That the ministry of angels is apart from the direct communion of the Spirit, which is free, though sub-conscious, is the point contended for in this place ; and this involves a recognition of the means by which it was alone possible for a super- natural Revelation to be made to man before the coming of the Messiah. TIMES AND SEASONS. That there are times and seasons favorable for spiritual intercourse, when there is a great "out- pouring of the Spirit," and, again, seasons of drought, — according to states of belief or of un- belief among men, — is plainly intimated in scrip- ture. When " the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli," that is, when the child served Eli as a means for holding conscious inter- course with a spiritual realm, " the word of the Lord was precious [or rare] in those days : thei'e was no open vision." The religious life had become a barren ceremonial, faith was merely historic and traditional. The heavens draw near, or recede, according to the conditions of belief or of unbe- lief. It is to the believing mind alone that the promises are given. For conscious intercourse with the higher spheres there must be a reciprocal rela- tion between heaven and earth, even for commu- nion with God himself: "draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you," is the condition of spir- THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 91 itual communion ; otherwise there is no channel of grace open between God and man. That the prophet is much more familiarly regarded in scripture than by the modern mind, as a man among men, possessing a peculiar gift but not thereby set apart from men, is clearly taught by the familiar way in which Samuel was approached by Saul. With the " man of God " there were times and seasons, brief and often widely separate, when his gift was employed as an instrumentality for divine revelations ; at other times the faculty was not wholly dormant, but was exercised on a lower plane. And it was customary to seek such a person, having " the gift of divination" — which occasionally rose to the exaltation of declaring " the word of the Lord " — as an occult means of en- lightenment, even in trivial matters. Thus Saul and his servant sought the seer Samuel to inquire the whereabouts of his father's asses ; the servant having told Saul of " a man of God " of whom it was reported that "all that he saith cometh surely to pass." The familiar expressions used in this con- nection, and the question that arose as to how they should pay the seer for his services, all indicate that the office of seer was regarded as a familiar clair- voyant means for seeking information personal to the inquirer. As out of the same mouth may pro- ceed blessings and curses, so through the same chan- nel, of seership or prophecy, there may proceed the " word of God" and the mere communings of "familiar spirits." Men sought such an one, "hav- ing the spirit of divination," as a means of inter- 92 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. course with the dead, even as Saul secretly sought the woman of En-dor, to hold communion with the deceased Samuel : " Then said Saul, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, There is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor." In the interview that followed, the gift of this woman is described as no less genuine than that exercised by the " man of God," who was the channel for divine communications, for the dis- tinction between the two was not in the gift, but in the uses made of the gift, the character and merit of the prophesyings marking the distinction, for no divine word " is of private interpretation." That which is merely personal proceeds from a lower plane than the heavenly, from an intermediate realm of spirits not far removed from earth. It was from this intermediate state that Samuel was " brought up " : " then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee ? And Saul said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice : and the woman said to Saul, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul ! " There was no spiritual or divine word communicated by this means, for Saul and Samuel spake merely as man to man ; therefore the commu- nication did not rise above the plane of mere "di- vination." The whole of the twenty-eighth chapter of 1 Samuel is instructive as to the nature of the means of holding conscious intercourse with the spirits of the dead, as a channel, or "open door," through which revelations are made from higher THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 93 spheres ; for this psychic means is one instrumental- ity for all orders of conscious communion, whether by " familiar spirits " or the " word of God." The scriptures plainly teach, by manifestation, that as man is organically related to the natural world through his physical body, so is he organically related to a spiritual realm by his soul : through the one instrumentality he reaches outward toward earth, and through the other he reaches inward toward heaven, " for the kingdom of heaven is within." But in neither case is the means a spirit- ual means, for the inward organism is psychical ; Revelation "parteth asunder soul and spirit," and the latter alone constitutes a realm of God. Whether, therefore, the means be physical or psy- chical, it is still a natural means, pertaining to visible or invisible realms of nature : a purely spiritual order of communion is through the heart and conscience, and it is by this more interior chan- nel that God, as Spirit, has direct access to the hu- man consciousness. By regarding psychical manifestations as spir- itual, man has often confounded preternatural things with heavenly, and it is from this confusion of mind that superstitions spring forth. But the day is not distant when the distinction between soul and spirit will yet be more clearly drawn with the progress of knowledge, and to the great gain of the spiritual consciousness. Those prevalent vague ideas which regard " the world of spirits " as an unknowable, formless void, without organic connec- tion with the earthly state, will then give place to 94 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. true conceptions based on the verified concrete evidence of scripture ; and the things which were true for the prophet will then be recognized as substantial realities for all time, though transcend- ing the scope of a philosophy which does not rise above the data supplied by the physical senses. Conceived as without externality, the spiritual world must continue to be regarded as unknowable and unthinkable, and therefore unreal. Such a state of being would never have fired the soul of the prophet with a vivid sense of the reality of that unseen world, nor would he have risen to a conception of its beauty and glory but for the be- ings who came out from it "to do service for them that should be heirs of salvation." In the visible presence of those heavenly beings the very " come- liness " of the prophet " was turned into corrup- tion ; " the sense of human imperfection was so manifest that the prophet cried, " Woe is me ! for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." To say that this was due to his having formed for himself an ideal conception of the perfect state, implies that man is sufficient unto himself and needs no revela- tion from God; or that man is God, — which is more than Jesus ever claimed for himself, who said, " My Father is greater than I; of myself I can do nothing." That the entire cessation of all conscious mani- festation from the heavenly spheres was regarded as a calamity, is plainly intimated by these words : " where there is no vision, the people cast off re- THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 95 straint." In a season of spiritual drought, it was written: "the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes, the prophets ; and your heads, the seers, hath he cov- ered : and all vision is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed." But a time was foretold when the Spirit would be " poured out upon all flesh," and the door no more closed : " the young shall see visions, and the old shall dream dreams ; and none shall say to his neighbor, Know the Lord ! for all shall know him, from the least to the greatest." TRTJE .AND FALSE PROPHETS. That " false prophets " were possessed of the gift of divination, but under the sway of evil or unprogressed spirits, is variously shown in scrip- ture. A manifestation in the form of a representa- tive allegory is given in 1 Kings xxii. and in 2 Chron. xviii. The prophet Micaiah saw, symbol- cally, in vision, " the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab, King of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead ? And one spake saying, after this manner ; and another saying, after that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also: go forth 96 THE SEEKS AND PROPHETS. and do so." Now this appears, superficially, to be a most startling disclosure, that God should thus countenance lying. But the manifestation is repre- sentative, and not actual. " God sitting upon his throne" is a symbolic figure adapted to the under- standing of the prophet : such symbolism is en- acted by spirits as a teaching means to convey spir- itual truths by representative forms. Through this figurative representation it is shown that God is over all his creatures, over the evil as well as over the good; and all, under his providence, directly or indirectly minister to his ends. Therefore, with- out subverting the freewill of spirits and men, God uses both the evil and the good as instruments for the accomplishment of his eternal purposes. Evil persons are permitted to work mischief, even as Jesus said of Pilate, " Thou couldst have no power except it were given thee from above." The very existence of the proprium of the creature depends on the maintenance of this freedom to act from himself ; thus man may choose " the way of life, or the way of death." It is essential to the crea- tion of a soul, whose destiny it is to come into " fellowship " with God, that it should be endowed with a will of its own ; and this will is to be brought into perfect harmony with God's will as a free and spontaneous act of love. But that God uses the instrumentalities of evil to accomplish his benefi- cent ends is no warrant for the assumption that he countenances evil, or that the divine will is in any way identified with evil. But as the moral sense is only aroused by the "knowledge of good THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 97 and evil," evil is permitted and even used for God's righteous purposes as indirectly ministering to good. That the evil and the good are alike under God's omniscient providence is implied by the Psalmist : "If I climb up into heaven, thou art there ; if I go down into hell, behold thou art there also." False prophets, therefore, were not necessarily impostors, but persons in whom the faculty was under the influence of evil or unprogressed spirits. A true prophet, by uniting a righteous character to the exercise of the gift, drew about him higher in- fluences, and was therefore termed a " man of God." But when associations of prophets were formed, it was upon the lower plane of " divination." These associations were bands of persons possessing the gift, but as exercised on a subordinate plane ; they correspond to the "augurs" and "vestals" of the pagans who ministered the oracles of heathen wor- ship. The true prophet, or " man of God," exercised his gift under a strong moral sense, which qualified him as an instrument for divine revelations. But sometimes, as in the case of Balaam, he was made the instrument of divine things when his moral sense was by no means adequate, for the end of all instrumentalities is to teach man the way of right- eousness and true holiness, and Balaam's history is an impressive lesson. But what particularly dis- tinguished the true prophet was the fact that he was not merely a passive instrument, but, on the principle that " he that watereth shall be watered in turn," being fed with the heavenly manna, he 98 THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. profited by it, pondering the word in his heart, and living it in his life. He thus became identified with a divine spirit of prophecy, and gave his name to the sacred books that are reputed to be the outcome of his special ministration. As the exponent of a higher and purer faith than the common, the prophet was often brought in con- flict with the existing order of things. Save in rare instances, he stood aloof from the priest, and the functions of the two ministries grew wider and wider apart as the organic life of the temporal in- stitution gradually subverted the dominance of the Spirit ; until finally the severest invectives of proph- ecy were directed against the priesthood for per- verting the truth. In short, the prophet was the means of infusing into religion a purer spirit, and into life a higher moral tone. Through this instru- mentality the " Word " breathed forth threaten- ings and predictions of calamity as the fruit of evil ways, mingled with merciful promises of a future restoration to divine favor if man would but turn again to God. Prophecy was not confined to fore- telling the future; that was merely incidental to its present teaching as a guide and stimulus to purity and righteousness of life : " He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." And for mankind in general, as distinguished from the individual, the truth is declared that "righteous- ness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any people." This is the substance of the teach- THE SEERS AND PROPHETS. 99 ings of the Old Testament, apart from Messianic prophecy. The witness of the truth of prophecy was the awakened moral consciousness under the Old Cove- nant, as the witness of its truth in the New Testa- ment is the awakened spiritual consciousness when man is born of God. " He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord. Is not mv word like a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? " And Jesus said : " He that receiveth my word hath the wit- ness in himself." 111. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness, . and many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob : and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths ; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." — Isaiah i. 27, ii. 3. " And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not ; I will lead them in paths that they have not known : I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." — Isaiah xlii. 16. " When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shult not be burned; neither shtill the flame kindle upon thee. . . . Fear not : fori am with thee. I will bring my sons and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name ; for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." — Isaiah xliii. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. THE OLD TESTAMENT. The Old Testament comprises the Patriarchal and the Mosaic dispensations, the substance of which is the inculcating of faith and obedience in man, — the two essentials in the form of preparation for eternal life. The historic life of the patriarchs, and of the children of Israel as well, will be passed by, while exclusive attention will be given to deter- mining certain fundamental principles of Revelation, with a view to bringing into clearer light the man- ifest intention of God's communings with man be- fore the advent of the Messiah. How the divine purposes were wrought out in the life and worship of a " chosen people," on the plane of nature, be- longs to another and distinct field of thought, re- quiring a distinct order of preparation. God's communing with the patriarchs, and with Moses, was by the ministi-y of angels, " the angel of his Presence ; " and these communings will be viewed, not as they were understood by the seer or prophet, but as interpreted in the light of the New 104 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. Testament scriptures. Revelation has in -view the gradual unfolding of a higher consciousness in man : it marks the passage of the soul from a carnal through a moral to a spiritual state, which is the " kingdom of God." In tracing this fundamen- tal principle of Revelation through its various stages of development, it forms no part of the plan of this work to enter upon a discussion of the nat- ural experience of man, nor to touch upon that his- tory, civil and ecclesiastical, which marked the pas- sage of the Israelites through a sea of blood in their emergence from a carnal to a moral state ; all of which, as has been said, may be regarded as one vast representative symbol of the moral redemption of the soul, preparatory to its being quickened by the Spirit imparted through Christ. As the moral man is formed by lifting the soul up out of a carnal state, so in like manner the spiritual man is formed by lifting the soul from a moral to a spiritual realm, or " kingdom of God ; " " for as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up." As first in the order of the soul's progress the revelations of the patriarchal dispensation, which had in view the instilling in man of faith in God, will be inquired into. That earlier state of man wherein Abraham " dwelt " before he was called by God, was a state of nature, the lower form of which is a carnal state, "Egypt" being the sym- bol of that state, as declared in the Apocalypse, " And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 105 and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." By faith man is raised above that carnal state, as the first step toward a moral redemption of which Moses and the law are representative ; and until the law was promulgated, " faith was accounted for righteousness," that is, faith stood in its stead, or was accepted as righteousness. GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM. At the very dawn of the historic word God made a covenant with Abraham as follows : " Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee : and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." God deals with both the natural and spiritual consciousness in man through Revelation. In the natural consciousness the word of God has reference to moral truths and temporal things ; but in the spiritual consciousness it has reference to divine truths and eternal life, to the kingdom of God. God is over all his works, and without God nothing exists ; but God himself, as Spirit, is the inherit- ance of the spiritual man : this distinguishes a child of God from a child of man. A quickened moral consciousness is the highest attainment of the nat- ural man ; but a spiritual consciousness is im- planted in the soul when man is " born of God ; " 106 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. and these two orders of consciousness in man are discriminated in Matthew xi. 11 and Luke xvi. 15. That Abraham may have understood these prom- ises of God as the natural mind ever understands them, as relating wholly to temporal tilings, is ac- cording to the nature of that order of apprehension which cannot rise above the conditions of the nat- ural world. But it is more than probable that Abraham understood them in that supernatural light in which his faith was conditioned ; for the exalted ground of that faith, which was " accounted to him for righteousness," trembles with mystical sugges- tion ; and men have ever inquired, whence came that faith in which all the nations of the earth are blessed ? No other man so fills the eye of the world, through the Jewish, Islamite, and Christian beliefs ; and no human faith has since attained such an exalted height as that of Abraham, in his read- iness to sacrifice wealth, country, kindred, and an only child, in obedience to a divine command which apparently mocked the very promises of God, in the firm belief that the reason of man is no gauge of God's power. Such a heaven-born faith tran- scends the scope of the natural understanding. In their natural sense, the promises God made to Abraham concerned temporal good — a land where- in both he and his descendants would be separated from idolatrous peoples, and where eventually a moral standard of righteousness would be set up, in which all the nations of the earth should be blessed. But in their spiritual sense the promises transcend the earthly life and reach far into the heavens. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 107 The words, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee," are typical of that moral and spiritual uprising of the soul above all that is national, domestic, and personal, into that common brotherhood of man which is revealed in Christ. For that part of man's nature which is " born of God " knows no country, or kindred, or family, save that alone which is comprised in the "kingdom" and "family" and "house "of God. That higher part of man's being, when he is born of the Spirit, rises above all temporal distinctions pertaining to the order of nature, and comes into a spiritual brotherhood which joins " all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues " in the common fatherhood of God. That the " spoils " and " riches " and " prom- ises " of these mystical transactions of the patriarch Abraham are all spiritual in their inmost signifi- cance, is apparent from their evident symbolism, as brought to light in the New Testament. The priest of the Most High God, " Melchisedek, king of Salem," — prince of Peace, — who " brought forth bread and wine out of Canaan, and blessed Abraham," was no mere earthly potentate, but a celestial messenger, without beginning of days or end of life, without earthly parentage or descent. Abraham, having tasted of this heavenly manna refuses to receive of the king of Sodom " even so much as a shoe-latchet, lest he should say, I have made Abraham rich." Herein is expressed that utter repudiation of all earthly riches in view of 108 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. the heavenly, which Jesus, by his word to the rich young man, taught is essential to the perfect state. For the Lord had appeared to Abraham in a vis- ion, saying, " Fear not, Abraham : I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." God is Abraham's providence and protection, and God himself is his exceeding great reward ; even as the Spirit is the ultimate inheritance of all who share in the promises. As the oak is hid in the acorn, so is the whole body of Revelation, when spiritually discerned, hid in the germ of this first covenant God made with Abraham ; for, though transcending the scope of the natural understanding, as the prophet said, " in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." THE REVELATION BY THE THREE AKGELS. The manner of revealing divine truths by sym- bolic representation is well illustrated in the visit of the three angels to Abraham as he sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day. The patriarch " lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him : and when he saw them he ran to meet them, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant." Throughout this extraor- dinary visitation are strown the seeds of a far-reach- ing revelation. There is perhaps no manifestation in scripture that is so deeply laden with spiritual significance, as first principles contain all the devel- opments that follow in the form of concrete illus- tration. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 109 That these spirits descended to the outermost conditions of the natural world, and manifested themselves physically as "men," is evident from the circumstantial narrative respecting their intercourse with the patriarch and his wife, even to their par- taking of the food which Sarah prepared for them, Abraham standing by, under a tree, while they ate. The three spirits are collectively designated " the Lord," the Word appearing to Abraham in that form of manifestation. Though severally distin- guished, the three are regarded as one ; and they are referred to indiscriminately in the text both in the singular and in the plural. They likewise speak as one, and yet one is clearly distinguished above the other two ; and with this one alone the patriarch holds direct communion, while the others proceed to "Sodom" to execute the divine will. We may see in this early manifestation a form of revelation containing the seed of a vast unfolding only consummated with the last word of scripture. That there is contained in this representative allegory a suggestion of that triune nature of God which was brought to light in Christ, is fully war- ranted by the interpretative method of the New Testament -when applied to the figures of the Old. It is not to be expected that there will be agreement of mind on this point, nor is it necessary that there should be, for truth is many-sided, and a " word of God," as a spiritual utterance embracing the ele- ments of infinity and eternity, is inexhaustible in " the depths of its riches and mystery : " that which in its essence is above time and space is incapable 110 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. of being wholly compassed by human thought. But that there is a strong probability that this tri- une manifestation foreshadows great mystical truths of infinite spiritual depth and far-reaching consequence is implied by every circumstance of the narrative, and is warranted by the gradual unfold- ing of the whole body of Revelation, especially when apprehended in the light of the Apocalypse. The teaching of the manifestation is various and significant. In the words spoken to Sarah by the three angels speaking as one, it is declared that God knows the secrets of the heart, and that he is over all his works, "for nothing is impossible with God." The divine will finds no obstacle in natural law, and when Sarah is incredulous of the promise of a son, it is asked, " Is anything too hard for the Lord ? " It is further declared to be God's inten- tion not to hide from his faithful servant the divine will and purpose, " seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken." If these words be interpreted in the light of the New Testament as referring to the faithful, and not, according to the imperfect understanding that may have been lodged in the minds of the patriarch and his natural descendants, as concerning " chil- dren of the flesh," it will be seen that a great THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. Ill principle of Revelation is herein declared, which found its confirmation and elucidation in the words of Jesus, spoken to his disciples: "To you it is given to know tbe mysteries of the kingdom of heaven ; " but unto the world it is not given : to the spiritual-minded God reveals himself freely, or without measure. Therefore " the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do ? " — and the angel discloses the divine intention to the faithful patriarch. Thus, at the very dawn of the earlier dispensation, God revealed his full pur- pose to man ; for, as the prophet Amos said, " Can two walk together except they be agreed?" The divine and human minds must be in accord if God's will is to be done in earth as in heaven. God declares, through this symbolic manifesta- tion, that he will himself go forth into the world, "• because the cry of Sodom and Gormorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous." In both the psychical and physical states man is wholly gone astray; in mind and body he is under the dominion of self-will and carnal affections. Whether God is concerned with certain cities termed Sodom and Gomorrah, which may or may not have had a veri- table existence in the time of Abraham, or with the natural world under that figure, is according to the light in which Revelation is viewed. A city, hav- ing its earthly prototype, is the accepted symbol of the kingdom of God, the heavenly Jerusalem; for a city is an expressive type of social solidarity. In the allegory enacted through this personal mani- festation of the three angels, two are sent toward 112 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. Sodom, while one remained, with whom Abraham argues for divine clemency on a plane so exalted that it places him in fellowship with God, as "the friend of God : " " And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked : shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " The moral sense implanted in man holds even God himself under obligation to do right — "to do justice and love mercy:" the words are laden with the weightest significance. Finally, the two other messengers in that triune manifestation having gone forth into Sodom, find the iniquity of the place exceeding all bounds. The door being closed by which the adulterous inhabitants of Sodom may approach the heavenly visitors, "the people, both old and young, are stricken with blindness, so that they cannot find the door ; " and the angels bring forth out of Sodom the few that are worthy of salvation, leading them by the hand. He who does not read between the lines is but a sterile seeker after light. This example of allegorical manifestation, as em- ployed in Revelation, is a striking one, blending the heavenly with the human, the allegoric with the historic, its figures appealing to two orders of mind in man, the spiritual and the natural. It is only when either interpretation would exclude the other that error ensues, for Revelation aims to redeem the whole man, naturally and spiritually, and to "form of these twain one new man, so making peace." THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 113 PERSONAL BELIEF THE GEOTJND OP EAITH. Whence did the faith of Abraham receive its in- spiration ? — a faith which the whole world finds rooted in one man : for it is written, " In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." The teach- ing of the patriarchal dispensation is to the effect that personal belief is the ground of a general faith ; that the faith of churches is grounded and rooted in the faith of the individual. For it is the indi- vidual soul that comes into intimate conscious com- munion, or personal " fellowship," with God ; and through this conscious communion the prophets were ever in advance of general beliefs. The churches find their bond of union, therefore, in the belief of the individual, — in Abraham, in Moses, in Jesus. The faith of the multitude ever moves forward on a lower plane where truth is gauged by the nat- ural understanding, and is outwardly sustained by dogma. To the multitude it is "not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven : " men, as individuals, must enter personally into the Holy of holies through a " communion of the Spirit." Jesus said : " If any man hear my voice, and will open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me;" there is no other condition requisite than that of opening the heart to God. To the children of the promise, through all time, it is said, as unto the patriarchs, " Behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and I will bring thee into this land : for I will not leave thee until I have done 114 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. that which I have spoken to thee of." The promise is for all time, and for every believing soul. In its passage from a state of nature to a state of grace, tLe individual soul, in effect, passes through the Patri- archal and the Mosaic dispensations of faith and obedience, before it arrives at a spiritual apprehen- sion of God as love. And thus it is that the whole body of Revelation comprises " the way of salva- tion," or the rising of the soul out of a carnal into a moral state, and thence into a spiritual state, which is union with God. Long before the truth was man- ifested in Jesus, it was foreshadowed to Abraham that the inheritance of man is God: "Fear not; I am thy exceeding great reward." The gift of him- self is God's reward for the faithful. And to this end and consummation, God's purpose in creating man is that he shall manifest the divine glory, " the glory of the Father," by externalizing the Spirit in the soul of man ; and to this end the carnal, moral, and spiritual states are, in their day and generation, all essential. The mystical symbolism of Revelation is too manifest to be denied ; invariably it colors all man- ifestations of heavenly things. Thus the liberation of the soul from its carnal bondage was symbolized by Jacob's wrestling with the angel "through the whole night," until the angel said, " Let me go, for the day breaketh " : this marked the dawn of a new day in the soul's consciousness. These sym- bolic manifestations contain the divine truth veiled in parables. Thus Jacob said to the angel, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." There THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 115 is no release for the angel in man until the carnal nature is purified, or until the outward man is re- deemed. Then Jacob said to the angel, " Tell me, I pray thee, thy name." This mystical symbol is thus referred to in the Apocalypse : " To him that overcometh I will give a new name, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it." What is im- plied by "name," in the scriptural sense, is evi- dently that which is associated with the inmost of character, through which all that is outward is known. The natural man in his moment of inspi- ration desires to know that which is above him ; the carnal nature by instinct, and the moral nature by intuition. Thus Moses, when in despair through the idolatrous backsliding of the Israelites, cries out to God, " I beseech thee, show me thy glory : " manifest thyself to me, " that I may know thee." And the reply is, " I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee : " "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." To the natural consciousness the ways of God are "dark," and his Presence "terrible." Thus when Jacob awoke from his vision in the way, he said : " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place ! " Likewise the manifestations on mount Sinai were terrifying to the people of Israel, who "stood afar off, while Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." But for the spiritual consciousness all is changed : in God is "no darkness at all, the night is as clear as the day." When spiritually approached there is no 116 THE OLD TESTAMENT IX THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. fear of God. for " perfect love eastern our fear," and they that love God grow into bis likeness. THE CALX OF MOSES. The call of Moses turns upon his beholding a sign, iu the form of a flaming bush, which he thought it worth while to inquire into : '• for be- hold the bush burned with fire, and rhe bush was not consumed. And Moses said. I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the I ush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see. God called to him out of the midst of the bush." This turning aside from the highway of the world to inquire into that which apparently contra- dicts nature, or the natural reason, may bring one face to face with *■ the sign of the Son of man in heaven ;" and that sign, however external, may serve to direct the thought inward toward higher truths, and eventually lead to the quickening, or salvation of the soul. Xo voice spoke to Moses until he had " turned aside to see why the bush was not consumed : " and this inquiring attitude of mind, doubtless, was the condition upon which the voice depended that it might be heard. The substance of the divine communication was to the effect that God had "come down " to deliver man from the bondage of the flesh, to release the slave from the yoke of sin, the captive from a carnal prison, and bring him into "a large place." into "a land flow- ing with milk and honey." a moral realm where man should be separated from sinful idolatries, and the bondage of the flesh. THE OLD TESTAMENT IX THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 117 < Redemption from the carnal state is through a moral awakening, by feeding on the truths of the moral law : - and they ate of that bread which Moses gave them . . . until they came unto the borders of Canaan." That bread, symbolized in the manna, Jesus said, was " not the true bread which cometh down out of heaven ; "' it was not spiritual. The law is a means whereby the carnal man is " redeemed " from sin and lifted to a moral plane, but he is not " saved "' by that means. Salvation is through the inheritance of the Spirit, imparted by One who came down from heaven to manifest " the way, the truth, and the life " in himself ; and who, when he returned again into heaven, by the power of the Holy Ghost " draws all men unto him." In the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, Moses symbolized this moral re- demption of the soul from a carnal state: they who cast their eyes upward to that symbol were u saved from the sting of the serpents ; " that is, from the torment of carnal affections. That Moses was in ignorance of what was being worked out through his instrumentality, except in so far as God's plan fell within the scope of his moral consciousness, is manifest from the very nature of his thought : his mind was the mind of the moral man. It is only in the light of Spirit, as manifested through Christ's mind, that the far-reaching scope of God's plan of redemption and salvation is truly discerned. Moses shrank from the task God set before him, and said : ■* Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children 118 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. of Israel out of Egypt? " But God promised to be with him, and to give him a token : " When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." Moses then asks God's name, that he may tell it to the Israelites as a credential of authority. " And God said unto Moses, I AM that I AM : thou slialt say, I AM hath sent me unto you." The revelation is then made to Moses that God designs to bring the children of Israel out of the house of bondage. But Moses said, " They will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice : for they will say, The Lord hath not ap- peared unto thee." Thereupon is revealed the means whereby the carnal mind can alone be reached, — through signs and wonders, through plagues and terrors, through disease and death. Signs were manifested privately to Moses to assure his faith, and publicly to the Israelites through the plagues of Egypt ; the motive being summed up in the word, " Let my son go, that he may serve me." Of Pharaoh, who stands as a symbol of the powers of the carnal world, God said, " In very deed for this cause have I raised him up, to show in him my power ; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." The whole experience of the " chosen people " has its foundation in that plan of redemption and salvation which was in the mind of God from the beginning, " before the foundations of the earth were laid," for the experience of the Israelites was symbolic of the forming of the soul as the temple of the Spirit : to this end the plagues of Egypt are THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 119 representative signs of the external means whereby the carnal taskmaster is driven to release the angel o in man, to " let my son go, that he may serve me." The first stages of a change of state in the soul are often disheartening, and apparently productive of evil consequences. The desire to get away from Egypt only increased the burdens of the children of Israel, and "the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land to gather stubble instead of straw;*' Pharaoh advising them "to hearken not unto vain words." And they said to Moses, " The Lord look upon you, and judge, because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pha- raoh, and in the eyes of his servants." This well expresses the ill-favor with which the carnal mind regards all moral reforms. God said to Pharaoh, " I will put a division between my people and thy people : " and the plagues which fell upon the Egyptians "fell not on the children of Israel." Finally these plagues culminated in darkness and in the death of the firstborn, thus consummating the means God had devised to effect the release of his son, that he might serve God: "darkness which may be felt . . . they saw not one another, neither rose up auv from his place for three days ; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings:" and by the death of his firstborn the heart of Pha- raoh was finalty touched. This is all within the common experience, for, spiritually discerned, these signs are representative of ills in the life of man : the soul is brought to a moral state only when the darkness of the carnal life 120 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. is manifest, so that it " may be felt; " and the heart is often softened only by the death of a child. God is dealing with every individual soul in the carnal state precisely as he dealt with the Egyptians : for these things were done, says the scripture, "that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things God hath wrought in Egypt, and the signs which he did among them ; that ye may know how that I am the Lord." Signs are not merely miraculous tokens ; primarily they are the symbols of moral and spiritual truths, and are so employed in Revelation : the carnal mind re- gards them as "wonders," but, spiritually discerned they are symbolic manifestations of the divine will in the working out of God's plan of redemption and salvation. " And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead, and he called for Moses and- Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel ; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said." FROM THE CARNAL TO THE MORAL STATE. When the soul emerges from its carnal state, the first truth revealed to the awakened moral con- sciousness is the appalling fact that the innocent must suffer for the guilty : the consequences of sin are so sure and widespread, through the organic re- lations of the family and of society, that no man THE OLD TESTAMENT IX THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 121 can bear bis own sin ; and tbe consequences of sin fall most heavily on those who are most alive to its stain. There is no escape from this while man is in the earthly life, where he is bound by family and social ties. The first truth, therefore, which the Israelites were instructed in, preparatory to their release from bondage, was the suffering and sacrifice that sin brought upon the innocent : they were directed " to take, for every house, a lamb without blemish," and "the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening;" the blood serv- ing forever as a symbol, for the carnal mind, that God requires the very life of man, not merely the fruits of that life, and they who yield up the life to him shall not be overtaken by " death." Among the people of Israel the first element of redemption from the carnal state had taken root : they inherited the faith of their fathers. It is true that this faith was external, and in a sense carnal, but an eternal principle is involved even in the most outward forms of truth. It was precisely be- cause this fundamental principle of redemption had taken root in the Israelites that they were "chosen" to serve as the type of God's dealing with man. They were a " stiff-necked," carnal-minded people, prone to idolatries, and in comparison with the Egyptians were of common clay ; but through that clay ran a thread of faith as a redeeming element of character : this made them " children of the promise." To Jehovah " belongs the praise " of moulding this people, taken from conditions of the 122 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. most abject slavery, that they might become heirs of the promises, "custodians of the oracles of God," that the "hope, of Israel" might be kept alive in them, which eventually was to give birth to the Saviour of men. They are denied any natural merit or special qualification of their own, " for by strength of hand the Lord brought them out from that place." In the midst of their fears and back- slidings, "Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, . . . the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." The promise God made to their fathers was re- affirmed even in plainer terms to the children of Israel: "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his com- mandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of those diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee." Hero it is plainly implied that these " plagues" were the signs of carnal diseases which spring from the lusts of the Ilesh ; and they who will come forth out of that carnal state and enter a moral realm — as implied by the " keeping of his commandments and his statutes" — shall be ex- empt from these plagues or diseases : and this is the first inducement offered to the soul in its upward path of progress. But when man emerges from a carnal " house of bondage," he does not come immediately into a land of plenty, " flowing with milk and honey ; " THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 123 he wanders in a " wilderness " for a season, and the soul is starved, longing for the " flesh-pots " of the old slavery : " And the children of Israel said unto Moses and Aaron, Would to God we had died by the hand of tbe Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Thereupon God fed them with manna " until they came unto tbe borders of Canaan ; " which symbol Jesus said was " not the true bread which cometh down out of heaven," for the Mosaic dispensation was not spiritual, but moral. And again, when the Israelites thirsted in tbe wilderness tbey mur- mured against Moses, who they said bad " brought them up out of Egypt to kill them with thirst. And Moses cried unto the Lord saying, What shall I do unto this people ? they be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses : . . . Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink." Of these symbols the apostle Paul says : " Breth- ren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and did all eat tbe same spiritual meat ; and did all drink of the same spiritual drink : for they drank of that spirit- ual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." They ate and drank of spiritual truths in 124 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. their most external forms, unconsciously, as mani- fested by signs to their carnal minds; but substan- tially, in essence, those signs were manifestations of " the hidden things of God," revealed to man through the spiritual consciousness of Jesus. The rehearsal by Stephen of God's dealings with the children of Israel was for the express purpose of revealing the fulfilment of that historic symbol in Christ : " This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in mount Sinai, and with our fathers ; who received living oracles to give unto us ; to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and turned back in their hearts unto Egypt. . . . Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye." god's communings WITH MOSES. The true character of the people of Israel is known, not by the voice of the " angel which God sent before them to keep them in the way, and to bring them into the land which he hath prepared," but in the history of their temporal experiences, in the nature of their worship, and in their proneness to idolatry. They were a people of low civilization, the slaves of an intellectual race, when Moses came to them in Egypt. But though far below the Egyptians in point of civilization and intellectual power, they nevertheless had implanted in them a THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 125 principle of faith, and it was this element of faith which alone made it possible for Moses to approach them with the hope of deliverance. There was im- planted in their character, as yet, not the first vestige of any moral principle : this could not be implanted in their minds until they were led forth out of that carnal state where they were " filled to the full from the flesh-pots." When, therefore, their leader — whom they followed with the unstable faith that has no moral root — had withdrawn himself from their eyes for a brief interval, they quickly lapsed into their old idolatries, both they and their priest. And they made of their vanities an idol: "Of the gold of their ornaments," Aaron said, when " they gave it me, I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf." They descended so low in their sensuous instincts that they became even " a shame among their enemies ; " and Moses put some three thousand of them to the sword, on one occasion, as the only means of expressing his moral abhorrence of their degradation; while they who thus chastised them were "consecrated" by the act, though of the same kindred. Bat with the shame and degradation of this chosen people, there is discovered in Moses a deep moral principle which appeals for divine clemency : " And Moses besought the Lord his God," and de- sired, in substance, that God should appease his wrath and remember that it was he that had " brought them forth out of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand;" and if he now destroyed the people the Egyptians would say that 126 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. he had brought them forth " for mischief, to slay them in the mountain, and to consume them from the face of the earth." He also brings to mind God's promise to the patriarchs, that he would "multiply their seed as the stars of heaven," and bring them into the promised land. Here again, as in Abraham, the divine potentiality within man argues with God himself, and holds even the God in heaven to a righteous course, in accordance with the divine nature. It is clear that the whole body of Revelation discovers the plan of God's design in creating man, that the Spirit may be manifested in him with ever-increasing fulness throughout eternity ; the soul eventually coming into " the form of God," even as was manifested in the Mes- siah. Under a moral dispensation God stands ex- ternal to the soul, as implied by the words: " Every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp." But under a spiritual dispen- sation the tabernacle of God is man himself, the Spirit then abides in the soul : " ye are the temple of the living God ; " " the kingdom of heaven is within you." This going forth to commune with God, under the old dispensation, is further symbolized as requiring a temporal ministry: "and it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. . . . And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 127 friend ; " the divine communion being by angelic manifestation. In like manner, under the Christian dispensation there is a natural and a spiritual order of communion with God, through temporal instru- mentalities and through the Spirit, which means are respectively adapted to a natural and spiritual consciousness in the souls of believers. But the slowly awakening moral consciousness, even in Moses, required a witness, or conscious token, for comfort and consolation : " And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people : and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight." The need of every soul is herein ex- pressed ; not only that God should know man, but man must know God; God must discover himself to man by some means other than by faith, by some "token" which shall be a reward of faith. And Moses said, "Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me thy way, that I may know thee." And God said, " My pres- ence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Moses replied, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. ... I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face ; for there shall no man see my face and live. And the Lord said, Behold, 128 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock : and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, and thou shalt see my hinder parts ; but my face shall not be seen." Not until the Son has "delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," shall God be seen face to face as in himself he really is. Then God will be revealed in all his fulness, Spirit to spirit, for God will then be All in all. And until that end and consummation, Christ shall reign as the form of God, as the Father individualized and made personal in the Son ; the Spirit dwelling in a sanctified and perfect soul with all the fulness of God. Throughout the various dispensations, or ministries of the Spirit, which are adapted to the order of man's gradual enlightenment, God is ap- prehended through various instrumentalities, — through the prophets, through the angel of his Presence, and finally through Jesus Christ. The revelation grew more and more perfect, advancing with ever-increasing fulness until, under the dis- pensation of the Holy Ghost, man is lifted up above the earth, and follows the Master into the heavens as a co-heir with Christ, sharing in the inheritance of God for all eternity. THE LAW, MOBAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. Law demands obedience : the end of the moral law is obedience of God's will; to obey is the root of all moral government, whether of the individual or of peoples. The reiterated command of the dec- THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 129 alogue is, " Thou shalt not." The law of mount Sinai inculcates self-denial : it uproots self-will, and aims to suppress evil by moral restraint. Jesus gave it a higher and affirmative impulse by his " two commandments which comprise all the law and the prophets," — love to God and the neighbor. Faith, obedience, love: these, in their order, are the substance of the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian dispensations ; and these principles stand in this order in the unfolding consciousness of the individual soul in its path of progress under the guidance of Revelation. The Mosaic dispensation, under the rigid forms of levitical law, marked a fall from that innocent state of faith which was " accounted to Abraham for righteousness ; " this descent inculcated the lesson of obedience as the next step in the soul's path of progress toward eternal life, for obedience added to faith marks the righteousness of the moral state. Nevertheless the law is a yoke, though less heavy than that carnal slavery which the will was powerless to break, and which made it expedient that " God should him- self come down to deliver his people ; " for nothing less than a divine sacrifice could redeem man from that carnal house of bondage. On the other hand, the ceremonial law was grounded in " the pattern of things shown in the mount : " spiritual truths were formed in a psychic mould, and the things thus shown were the pat- terns of the true, their spiritual reality being brought to light in Christ, through whom alone the glory of the Father is manifested. Under the Mo- 130 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. saic dispensation, man had not advanced even to the threshold of the kingdom of the Spirit : Moses saw the promised land only from afar; he, the ap- pointed leader, was not permitted "to enter in and dwell there." Not until the Son of man had car- ried the moral law beyond conduct, and grounded it in the heart and will, as revealed in the sermon on the mount, was man brought to the very threshold of God's kingdom, which then was first declared to be " at hand." But that man might be schooled in the discipline of obedience, to the entire subjection of his carnal nature, the law, both moral and cere- monial, was rigidly applied, in its severest forms, under the Mosaic dispensation ; and, ceremonial^, the things upon which that law was patterned were ground, as it were unconsciously, into the very outermost nature of man, without waiting for him to apprehend their meaning through spiritual dis- cernment, for to obey precedes knowledge : " they who do his will shall know of the doctrine." While, therefore, the moral law served to subdue carnal affections through repression, the levitical law brought the Israelite under a still heavier yoke of symbolism, as a further discipline of obedience to God's will. For the whole righteousness of the law was through obedience, as a means of deliver- ance from the carnal yoke. Morally and ceremo- nially, therefore, "the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ:" it is a teaching means by which the lower nature of man is subdued and dis- ciplined in preparation for the inheritance of the Spirit, through whom alone is perfect freedom, "for THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 131 where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." From Zion went forth the law, but the word of the Lord from Jerusalem ; and this "Jerusalem, which is above, is free : " within its gates, man comes into "fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;" obedience is then swallowed up in love, which is " the fulfilling of the law." The advent of the Messiah was to mark this new dispensation of the Spirit : all types and symbols were to find their fulfilment in Christ : worship was to be carried inward to the silent chambers of the heart, where spmtual communion is a perpetual fountain of life. Jesus said, " Verily the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers." But symbolism and various external means are essential while man is still in a natural state, before he is born of the Spirit ; and it is hurtful to his religious sense to remove those aids before his spiritual con- sciousness is fully awakened ; he will then manifest this awakening most truly by showing respect for those aids as serving a useful end ; for the truth must be veiled in symbols before it can be appre- hended face to face. But once clearly appre- hended, the truth is no longer dependent upon the symbol, but is become a matter of the heart and conscience in man's attitude toward God. When it is discerned that the essence and substance of divine truth, as a word of God, is not in the form or symbol, but in the Spirit, as Jesus taught, then the relative values of form and substance are 132 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. clearly seen : the form then suffers from no want of respect, but the Spirit is discerned to be the es- sential reality. They who confounded form and substance to the degree of mingling carnal and spiritual things indiscriminately, Jesus designated " an adulterous generation." That there is a pro- gressive unfolding of the consciousness from out- ward to inward forms of truth, St. Paul implies when he says, " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child ; but when I became a man I put away child- ish things." In like manner the teaching of Revelation begins with object lessons, and passing through symbolism it finally brings man face to face with the truth as manifested in Jesus. First dealing with a primitive and carnal understanding, conditioned in temporal things, the word of prophecy passes gradually on to higher forms of truth as rooted in the moral sense, and thence on to its spiritual fulfilment in the heart of man ; for "out of the heart are the issues of life." The form of Revelation is always adapted to the capacity of the human mind, or to its powers of apprehension ; the manifestations in the earlier ages were external and striking, as in the follow- ing : " Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel ; and they saw the God of Israel : and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sap- phire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand ; also they saw God, THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 133 and did eat and drink," — presumably with the angel, for it was by angelic manifestation that the Deity was representatively seen. So in like man- ner as prefiguring the New Testament revelation : " The Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day ; for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai." The " day of God," as the third day in the order of the carnal, moral, and spiritual states, is repeatedly emphasized in the New Testament un- der various figures, while the cleansing of " gar- ments " — the body and the mind — is referred to in the Apocalypse as the condition of " walking " with Christ. Again, it is written, " and the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them." That the " word of God " is not in these forms or figures, but in the Spirit that is behind these words when spiritually discerned, is manifest ; for only a child- ish mind would now construe them literally. When it is known that figurative symbols are employed throughout the Jewish ritual as types of " better things to come," then that outward service, as a means for bringing man und^r the discipline of a stern and exacting law of obedience, is seen to be essential for man's redemption from the bondage of the carnal state. And while the lifting up of 134 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. the " serpent " was the emblem of man's moral re- demption, this in turn served as a type of the lift- ing up of the moral nature into the spiritual in the person of Jesus: "for as Moses lifted up the ser- pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; " that is, the moral man must become spiritual, or divine. God's lessons are best learned through experi- ence. Though the moral law serves to lift man up out of a carnal state, it proves to be powerless to save : it can redeem man from the bondage of the flesh, but it cannot "lift him up above the earth," or above a state of nature. Salvation is effected through entrance into a higher kingdom, the king- dom of God, a realm of Spirit, where God rules the heart. Moses and the prophets, therefore, were the means employed for the redemption of man from a carnal state; but that he might inherit "salva- tion " a Saviour was needed, who should himself be heaven-born, and who, as a quickening Spirit, could impart life to the soul. In him the law found its fulfilment in love : " Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after : but Christ as a Son over his own house." When obedience is swallowed up in love, the servant has become a son, he then enters into " fellowship " with God. " Ho- liness to the Lord" being the end and aim of the soul's life, these words were engraved upon a plate of pure gold, and worn as an emblem upon the fore-front of his mitre by the high priest, as the symbol of that which in the end was to be graven THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 135 in the heart -when all that is representative in worship finds its fulfilment there. SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. " The times of their ignorance Gfod winked at," or overlooked ; for the forming of man is gradual : " first the natural, afterward then that which is spiritual." Through the various instrumentalities of the old dispensation the veil was but partially drawn aside, revealing God imperfectly to man as a Leader of armies, a Ruler of nations, a righteous Judge, a spiritual King. But " the veil was rent from the top to the bottom" by the manifestation in Jesus, who revealed the Father as abiding in man. By him the door was thrown wide open, dis- closing all the fulness of the Godhead ; " not by might, nor by power, but my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." The glimpses of the seers and prophets, though far in advance of the general conceptions of the time, were but partial and symbolic, as hinted in the words, " I have used similitudes by the min- istry of the prophets." Revelation ever has regard to man's capacity for discerning the truth, for "hearing the word." By a gradual illumination the moral consciousness is aroused ; but only in the fulness of time, or when man is morally prepared for the revelation, is the Spirit imparted to the soul; and until the time had arrived when the kingdom of the Spirit should be revealed, God dealt with man according to his nature : " for he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not deal falsely: so he became 136 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them : in his love and in his pity he redeemed them ; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." The mind of a later time glancing back at these earlier revelations sees in them the prophetic fore- gleams of a coming dawn, when "the bright, the morning star " should usher in a " new day " in the unfolding consciousness of man. But the eye that was still in darkness could not discern the deep sig- nificance of these prophecies ; therefore no " word of God " should be gauged by the understanding of the prophet, or his time. Righteous men of old desired to see and hear the things which were revealed to the disciples of Jesus, but the time was not yet come when divine truths could be discerned face to face, or without a veiling. Thus Revelation ever kept pace with the rise of the human understanding as the mind and heart of man gradually emerged from darkness into light. And though there be latent in the earliest scriptures the infinite hidden things of God, these are not made manifest until they are spiritually discerned in the light of Christ's mind ; who, when he had risen again, said to his disciples, "all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." What could be plainer than these words, which imply that the spiritual sense of Revelation is not opened to the natural understanding, but is revealed in Christ? THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 137 As man emerges from a carnal state, and passes on to the moral, and thence into the spiritual or heavenly state, many evils following in his train linger on in various dark forms of superstition. In the earthly life truth is ever mingled with error, and the tares are allowed to grow with the wheat until the harvest, lest the growing wheat be torn up if the tares be rooted out prematurely. Thus carnal conceptions often linger on in a moral realm, and what was deemed a truth on a lower plane, becomes a superstition in a higher realm of mind. Broadly distinguished, that which comes up through the flesh is instinct, while that which comes down through the soul is intuition. In its outward form the sacrificial rite is earth-born : the earliest symbol, concerning the sacrifice of Cain and Abel, reveals the offering as a spontaneous instinct, not divinely commanded, but acceptable, or not, accord- ing to its spiritual significance. God requires the life, and not the fruits ; and blood, as a symbol of that life, has ever flowed as an offering to the gods in the worship of the race. That this carnal offer- ing was an earthly instinct, and not a heaven-born intuition, is plainly declared by Revelation : " to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. ... I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?" This dark, earth-born mystery of bloody sacrifices was " done away in Christ," who, speaking through David, said, " Burnt-offerings and sacrifice for sin 188 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. thou desiredst not : then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord." The offering of " the blood of bulls and of goats " belonged to "the times of their ignorance which God overlooked," a heathen practice which, under the ministry of the prophets, was modified and employed as a symbol of divine truth ; while under a higher, heavenly guidance, man' was gradually led to form truer views of sacrifice, and of God's require- ments of man, than that of blood or sweet-smell- ing savors : " Is not the whole earth mine, saith the Lord, and all the fulness thereof." But it was long before the truth was discerned, as expressed in the following : " Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil ? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? He hath showed thee, man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Blood is a carnal offering, and this earth-born symbol, projected to the very cross of Christ, is for the carnal mind in its own order of redemption : discerned in the light of Spirit, " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world " is a sacrifice of self-will : " Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord ! " The real sacrifice was made in the life of Christ, and not in his death ; in his yielding up " the glory which he had with the Father " that he might become a " servant " for the salvation of the race. In the light of Revelation God requires no sacrifice, but a substitution of the divine will and THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 139 fellowship, for self-will and the possessions of the world. Thus it may be clearly discerned that the conceptions of the natural mind, concerning the re- quirements of divine justice, are unspiritual; for when the scripture says that " without the shed- ding of blood there is no remission of sin," this dark saying becomes clear as the day when inter- preted in the light of Spirit, as signifying that ex- cept man yield up his very life to God, sin is ever present in him. The shedding of blood, therefore, is but a symbol of the slaying of the carnal man and the surrender of his life to God : " gifts and sacrifices cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect, being only carnal ordi- nances, imposed until a time of reformation." Heb. ix. That which is deemed a sacrifice for the nat- ural man is discerned to be eternal life for the spir- itual-minded ; as in physical dissolution that which is death for the former is birth for the latter: thus is " the world turned upside down " by the gospel of the Spirit. Further emphasis is given to the truth that the prompting of sacrificial worship is earth-born by these words of Jeremiah : " For I spuke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concern- ing burnt-offerings or sacrifices : but this thing I commanded them, saying, Heaiken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own 140 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. counsels, and in the stubborness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward." MESSIANIC PROPHECY. The nature of prophecy is misconceived when undue prominence is given to its prediction of tem- poral events. Intrinsically and fundamentally prophecy signifies spiritual teachings, supernatural revelations of truth ; and it will be through a clearer knowledge of the meaning of the symbols of Rev- elation, than that which generally prevails, that a deeper consciousness will be awakened in man con- cerning the nature and mission of the Messiah. That Jesus studied prophecy as a source of light concerning himself is manifest from his frequent verbal reference to the scriptures : his mind was conditioned in a physical brain, and he must have sought light according to the nature and possibil- ities of the earthly life. The Epistles and Gospels testify to the careful study of the old oracles of God on the part of the first followers of Jesus, and that source of information, concerning the nature and mission of the Messiah, they deemed hardly second to the teachings of Jesus himself. In some respects the prophecies transcend the scope of the words of the Son of man, for they, are delivered from a plane higher than that on which the incar- nated Word then stood, and consequently their sweep of vision is more extensive. During the in- carnation of the Messiah in the person of Jesus, the understanding of his contemporary disciples was in a degree blinded by sense. But when Jesus had THE OLD TESTAMENT IN. THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 141 ascended up out of their sight, then it was discerned that his truest history, or biography — the picture of his inmost thought and experience — is given in the Psalms and Prophets ; every outward event of his life was then interpreted "that the scriptures might be fulfilled." It is plain that the Epistles of Paul derive much inspiration from that former voice of prophecy ; not only do the verbal quotations manifest this, but that older spirit of prophecy pervades all his thought, and seems to be the ground of Paul's deepest knowledge of Christ. Where the Apostle's knowledge was due to specific revelations he plainly indicates ; but in general his breadth of view was derived from the prophets. And it is by follow- ing his example that progress in Christian thought will again become marked. Interpreted in the light of Paul, the words of prophecy are perceived to refer but incidentally to temporal things : they have not, therefore, become a dead letter through the literal fulfilment of predictions ; as words of God they are inexhaustible in the depth of their spiritual riches and mystery. Under the figure of temporal things, such as names, cities, kingdoms, etc., eternal truths relating to the unfolding con- sciousness of man are clearly revealed by the prophets ; and the revelation of this forming, re- demption, and salvation of the soul is manifested in Messianic prophecy as coincident with the experi- ences of Christ in three separate states of being. A study of Messianic prophecy, therefore, will open the mind to new visions of truth concerning the 142 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. Messiah and his mission ; and in the place of a stationary or retrospective view, the insight thus gained will inspire an upward and onward move- ment of thought which will produce the conviction that man has only apprehended the smallest part of a great mystery which the ages are to unfold until the truth is apprehended in all its fulness. THE PSALMS OF DAVID. Christ, speaking from heaven, said, "I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star." He is that which led up to David in a psychical realm, and that which sprang forth from David in a physical world. In the Psalms there is poured forth the experience of that Messi- anic soul in its gradual descent from the heavenly to the earthly state. He who was "in the form of God in the glory which he had with the Father before the world was," " emptied himself " of that "glory ; " that is, he was emptied of the Spirit, that he might become man, and take on " the form of a servant ; " for it is written, " thou hast put out his glory, and cast his throne down to the ground." Being in the form of God in the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, " he counted it not robbery to be equal with God." But that he might descend into the earthly state, as Son of man, it was necessary that his divine light should be extinguished for a season ; in other words, that he should be emptied of that which was not himself, namely, of the Spirit, and descend into the conditions of unregenerate man, though THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 143 without sin. In this unquickened state the Mes- siah experienced a sense of the depth and power of sin, though himself sinless, for he abode in the con- ditions of sin, being "made perfect through suffer- ings," and was requickened by the Spirit at the be- ginning of his public ministry, as symbolized at his baptism. Thence on he " rose again " and ascended to the Father, and is seated "at the right hand of God " until all his enemies shall be subdued unto him. To discern the voice of prophecy in the Psalms it is essential that they be spiritually discerned ; apprehended not merely as the utterance of the Psalmist, but as the actual outpourings of the Messianic soul of the Redeemer, in its gradual de- scent into "an horrible pit and miry clay." For in this descent into man's unquickened state the Mes- siah experienced, for a season, man's distance and estrangement from God, being outwardly in the conditions of evil, though himself sinless ; and this experience is expressed spiritually even in the dark- est utterances of the Psalms that are designated " penitential." David, as a mouthpiece of Messi- anic prophecy, gives expression to the spiritual wrestlings and divine aspirations of the Messiah ; but David could only have interpreted these utterances vaguely, as " the voice of prophecy." Jesus said, " Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they do testify of me ; " and again : "then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures," as to what was " written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, 144 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. and in the Psalms concerning himself." These mys- tical utterances, which are unfathomable, and which picture the height and depth of the Messianic ex- perience in a psychical state, are no merely human voice, but the voice of the Son of God becoming Son of man through David ; for he said, " I am the root and the offspring of David," — that which led up to David psychically, and that which descended from David " after the flesh," to its actual incarna- tion in Jesus. And this divine consciousness, as revealed in the Psalms, could only have been appre- hended by David according to his light, of which his character is the gauge. In their external sense the Psalms may have indeed voiced the experience of David ; but inwardly, as a word of God, the source of the inspiration is far deeper : for " no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation ; for no prophecy ever came by the will of man : but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." In their natural sense the " Songs of Da- vid " may express even the king's desire for " re- venge upon his enemies," which, according to his light, manifested a certain righteous indignation against those who opposed his will. But in their spiritual and prophetic sense the Psalms are the mystical outpourings of the Messiah in his psychi- cal wrestlings and spiritual combats, not with flesh and blood, " but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this dark- ness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places," encountered in his " descent into the pit," and which St. Paul discerned as the ac- THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 145 tual evils against which shall be fought the good fight. These mystical utterances therefore, in their spiritual sense, are not in time : they are spoken from that psychical realm from which the soul emerges in its brief earthly existence, and thence rises, when quickened by the Spirit, to a heavenly realm of God. The Psalms, therefore, when spiritually discerned, are voiced from the deep : " Let not the deep swal- low me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. . . . Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. . . . Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depth of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side. ... I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore : but he hath not given me over unto death. The stone which the builders refused hath become the head of the corner. . . . He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth," — the " kingdom of God." " As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. ... I will declare thy name unto my brethren. ... I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. . . . Sacrifice 146 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. and offering thou didst not desire ; mine ears hast thou opened : then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God ; yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness to the great congregation," — to the world. " I have not hid thy righteous- ness within my heart : I have declared thy faithful- ness and thy salvation. . . . As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : when shall I come and appear before God. . . . For thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of thine Anointed. The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David : Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore. . . . Thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon One that is mighty ; I have exalted One chosen out of the people. . . . Thou hast ascended up on high, thou hast led captivity captive ; thou hast received gifts for men : yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. . . . When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. . . . This shall be written for the gen- eration to come," — for those who are born of the Spirit, — "and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary : from heaven did the Lord behold the earth ; to hear the groaning of the prisoner ; to loose those that are appointed to death ; to declare the name of the Lord in Zion. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 147 I will make him my Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. . . . Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." These utterances, selected almost at random, evince the trend and undercurrent of divine proph- ecy pervading the Psalms ; and the darkest sayings — as in the fifty-first Psalm — are still the voice of prophecy speaking from the depths of that " fallen state " which the Redeemer entered for the salvation of mankind: for, though without sin, he was " bruised for our transgressions " and " touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; " thus he " bore our sins for us " through the very conditions in which he was "formed" in the earthly life. That the natural mind may discover in certain passages in the Psalms prophecies of outward events, verbal utterances, or incidental transactions relating to Christ, such as the "parting of his gar- ments and casting lots for his vesture," which had their literal fulfilment in time, is according to the order of a natural discernment ; but when it was said, " then opened he their understanding of the scriptures," a spiritual order of discernment was im- planted in the minds of his followers which went far beyond the limits of a natural consciousness, and discerned in the scriptures the true " word of God." Studied in the light of the New Testament, it is clearly perceived that the whole body of Revelation, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, refers to Christ ; and there never was a biography so comprehensive 148 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. and minute, to the inmost experience of the soul, as that which the scriptures contain of Christ, in whom is manifested, representatively, the perfect life of the soul of man in all stages of existence. The Old Testament prophecies, which voiced the experience of God's Spirit " striving with man " from without, found their highest expression through David and Isaiah. But in the Psalms particularly is voiced that pre-natal experience which marks the gradual descent of the Logos into the earthly state. That there could be no such descent except that divine soul were emptied of the Father's glory, that is, emptied of the Spirit, is manifest from the words spoken to Moses in the Mount : " Thou canst not see my face ; for there shall no man see me and live." Therefore his glory was " put out," and his throne " cast down to the ground," and the Messiah entered "an horrible pit and miry clay " when the Word was made flesh. But long before that Messianic soul was incarnated in Jesus, it was prophesied through David : " Thou shult quicken me again, . . . and I shall be satis- fied, when I awake, with thy likeness : restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy Free Spirit." DANIEL. The Book of Daniel has given rise to much con- troversy concerning its date, the significance of its prophetic parables, and their literal fulfilment in time ; but when its prophecies are apprehended in the light of New Testament interpretation, as a rev- elation of spiritual things, — in that sense in which THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 149 they were referred to by Jesus (Mathew xxiv. 15), — all questions of merely external interest sink into comparative insignificance : spiritually interpreted, they are Messianic prohecies concerning One who termed himself " the root and offspring of David ; " in their inmost sense they refer to " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," and to " the kingdom of God." That Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, should have been the chosen instrument of revelations in some respects transcending the scope of the great prophets, is a witness of the truth that God is not a respecter of persons, and that his light was to lighten the Gentile world without regard to Jewish prejudices. These momentous prophecies, revealed in the form of symbolic visions, were interpreted by Daniel according to his light ; for interpreta- tion is not by revelation, nor yet by inspiration, but by illumination, or the quickening of the nat- ural perceptions : the time had not then arrived when man's consciousness was deepened through the indwelling presence of the Spirit imparted by Christ. Under the old dispensation, therefore, the interpretations of prophecy could not rise above the state of mind in which man was then conditioned, and which, compared with the Christian dispensa- tion, was an external state; consequently Daniel gave a wholly temporal interpretation to the visions <>f Nebuchadnezzar. But viewed in the light of the New Testament, these prophecies have a far deeper significance, as referring fundamentally to spiritual things, of which Christ is the origin and the fulfil- ment. 150 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. Thus apprehended, the visions of Nebuchadnezzar are comprehensive prophecies of a coming Messiah, and they contain a very explicit revelation of the nature of that coming, as well as of its scope and purpose. Outwardly, in a natural or external sense, as interpreted by Daniel, these prophetic words may relate to the prospective history of temporal kingdoms ; but inwardly discerned as the word of God, and as interpreted in the light of Christ's mind, they are types or symbols of profound Mes- sianic truths. The image seen in vision by Nebuchadnezzar, the various parts of which are designated as formed of different metals, ascending from grosser to finer, the uppermost part of which was "of fine gold," is a symbol of the natural world, which was to be- come " like the chaff of the summer threshing- floors " when " the stone that was cut out from the mountain without hands " smote its feet : " and the stone that smote the image became a great moun- tain, and filled the whole earth." By this dream, Daniel said, " God maketh known . . . what shall be in the latter days." That this symbol of the stone, which evidently stands for Christ, received a temporal interpretation by the prophet, is in accord with that same state of mind which led the apostles of Jesus, even after the close of his ministry, to look for a temporal kingdom which they thought his com- ing was to establish. Again, the king of Babylon said: "I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 151 strong, aud the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: the leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all : the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh fed of it." This evidently was that natural per- sonality of the Christ, as the " Root and offspring of David," which grew unto the heaven, and found voice through the prophets. The vision continues : "A watcher and an holy one came down from heaven : he cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the cattle get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches. Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field ; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him ; and let seven times pass over him. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones : to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men." That of which Nebuchadnezzar in the parable was the carnal type — who in his humiliated state was stripped of his temporal glories and given the heart of a beast — was, in point of fact, symbolic of the Messianic experience when the Son of God laid aside his divine inheritance, and " took . on the 152 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. form of a servant," or the nature of unredeemed humanity, " by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones." After the coining of the Messiah every word of God should be interpreted in the light of Christ, as witnessed in the Gospels and Epistles. The descent of the Messiah from the heavenly to the earthly state involved a change both of heart and mind, as the sequel will show : — " And the king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the king- dom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty ? While the word was yet in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken : The kingdom is departed from thee: and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field : and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar." In the above it is intimated, according to the spirit of this interpretation, that the natural crea- tion, of which Babylon is the figure in the vision, was made " for the house of the kingdom," — as a dwelling-place for the Most High. And that this end should be fulfilled, the builder of that house was charged with a mission, and sent out from God's presence that he might become man, and remain in man's estate " till seven times should pass over THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 153 him," — the seven " days " prefigured in Genesis, — for the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. And this was done that it might be known " that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men." " And at the end of the days I, Nebuchad- nezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting do- minion, and his kingdom from generation to genera- tion. ... At the same time my reason returned unto me : and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me : and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent maj- esty was added unto me." He whose " throne was cast down to the ground," who was emptied of " the glory which he had with the Father before the world was," who descended into "the pit and miry clay," and took on the heart of man, experiencing the temptations of the earthly life, was symbolized by king Nebuchadnez- zar driven out from man's estate to eat grass and dwell with beasts, to whom was given the heart and unreason of a beast. The simile is not too strong when it is remembered that he who was of " purer eyes than to behold iniquity " actually de- scended from the highest state of being to the low- est, to " the bottom of the pit," was conditioned in a physical organism, and dwelt for a season in the state of unregenerate man. The revelation is most significant, and it throws great light on the nature of the Messiah, and of his mission. 154 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. Again, Daniel himself had a vision : " Thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit . . . and the judgment was set, and the books opened. . . . The beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. . . . And behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." These selections serve to show the vast scope of the prophecies of the Book of Daniel, reaching from the beginning to the ending, from the day preced- ing that in which the throne of the Son of God was " cast down to the ground," when the Messiah de- scended for the redemption and salvation of man, to the final and triumphant establishment of his eternal kingdom in the presence of God. ZECHARIAH. In a primary sense Revelation refers to spiritual things, and in a secondary sense to natural things. Ordinary naturalistic interpretation reverses this order and thereby reduces Messianic prophecy to a subordinate position in scripture, if indeed it does not tend to deny it altogether. Neverthless the word of prophecy, as a divine word proceeding forth out of heaven, is fundamentally spiritual, even as Jesus said, " My words are Spirit, and they are life." THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 155 In contravention of all that may be said, or has been said, in the light of nature, which would give to the word of prophecy a wholly temporal signifi- cance, grounded in the fact that temporal figures, and even the names of living persons, are some- times employed as the symbols of divine truth, it is herein affirmed that it is the first intention of Revelation to disclose the hidden things of God. Under the figure of king and high priest, patterned on actual existing persons, the Messiah is prophe- sied in Zechariah : " Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion : for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. . . . Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord ; for he is raised up out of his holy habitation. . . . And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee : is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And the Lord answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy gar- ments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. . . . And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, say- ing, Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; if thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk 156 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. among these that stand by. Hear now, Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee : for they are men wondered at ; for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch. ... I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day." That therein is meant Jesus, that divine soul which grew like a great tree " till its branches reached unto the heavens," is manifest. Of the Spirit which went forth with that divine soul, it is written : " Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine Anointed." That anointed soul was manifested, first as Son of man, and then as Holy Ghost, as King and High Priest ; under the figure of Joshua the latter is signified, while under the figure of Zerubbabel the former is meant. "Then the angel answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain ? before Zerub- babel thou shalt become a plain : and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace, unto it. . . . The hands of Zerub- babel have laid the foundations of this house ; his hands shall also finish it ; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you." In a natural or secondary sense this prophecy may refer to the building of the temple at Jerusalem, and it may or may not have had a literal fulfilment under Zerubbabel, and so have become a dead let- ter. But spiritually discerned the revelation con- cerns that building of which Jesus Christ is the THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 157 corner-stone, "become the head of the corner," of which, as Son of man, he '' laid the foundations ; " and the finishing of it shall be by the same hands, by the Holy Ghost, — the glorified Jesus. " And I answered again, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be ? And I said, No, my Lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth," — Jesus the Christ, as Son of man and Holy Ghost. In the Apocalypse it is written : " I will give power unto my two witnesses . . . these are the two olive trees, and the two candle- sticks standing before the God of the earth." THE PARABLE OF JONAH. The symbol of Jonah stands as the type of Christ's mission, to preach repentance to the natural world, under the figure of Nineveh : " An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah : for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." This symbol Jesus applied to himself, but it equally applies to every son of man when these " days " are spiritually discerned as the three states of a natural consciousness — the edenic, the carnal, and the moral — through which every soul must pass in its process of formation to the end of receiv- 158 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. ing its divine inheritance of the Spirit. That the three days and three nights did not refer spiritually, but only superficially, to Christ's entombment in the grave, is evident from the discrepancy of the in- terval intervening between the death and resurrec- tion of Jesus. The " heart " of the earth has a far deeper significance than either the grave, or a bodily change, would imply. But that the soul of the Messiah was, as it were, entombed in the several states of a natural conscious- ness, previous to his rising again by the power of the Spirit which " descended upon him, and abode with him," — as symbolized at his baptism, — is clearly signified in the words that follow : " Then Jonah prayed unto his God out of the fish's belly, and said, Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas ; and the floods compassed me about ; all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight ; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about even unto the soul : the depths closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains ; the earth with her bars was about me forever ; yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. . . . And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." This is that same voice of prophecy which spoke through THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 159 David. The Psalms and the parable of Jonah re- fer to one and the same thing, — to the descent of the Messiah into psychical and thence into physical conditions, symbolized by the " waters " and the " fish," from which he was delivered by the power of the Spirit, that he might preach, from his own experience, repentance and salvation to man in the natural world ; and this is foretold under the figure of Jonah preaching to Nineveh. To regard this parable as historic, in the sense of an actual outward occurrence in the physical world, or as involving miracle, is needless ; the form of the story is wholly extraneous to the voice of prophecy. If literally construed the physical mar- vels therein narrated are far less miraculous than is the implied conversion to repentance, by the voice of one man, of several millions of souls within the space of forty days, of whom " more than six- score thousand could not discern between their right hand and their left," or between good and evil. One greater than Jonah as heaven is higher than earth, stood in the comparatively small city of Je- rusalem, the "holy city," and proclaimed his glad tidings, converting to his gospel the merest handful of his hearers, and was cast out and crucified by a professedly God-fearing people. Here are the ac- tual conditions in which " repentance," or the refor- mation of character, must work ; conditions so stub- born and " stiff-necked " that Jesus was powerless to effect a change in them save through the willing discipleship of the individual soul. If miracle could convert the world, doubtless that means would have 160 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. been employed, but that it is not so employed is a sufficient reason for supposing that it would not benefit even "a wicked and adulterous generation" to convert them by that means. It is necessary to discriminate between miracle in the form of an exercise of psychic " power " and the common conception of miracle as an arbitrary exercise of the will. Jesus fed the multitude and healed the sick through the agency of psychic power ; but that instrumentality, which thus dealt outwardly with physical things, was powerless to effect a change in character. In the moral world no arbitrary means are effectual ; therefore the di- vine Spirit "strove with man" through the ages, with a view to persuade him "to do justly, and love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God." The prophetic gift is psychic, and while in a state of trance the prophet may often confound psychical with physical things : especially is this true if the things thus shown him are, in part, familiar objects, or things designated by familiar names, as in the visions of Ezekiel, or in the Apocalypse where ref- erence is made to the seven " churches." To be in that state in which it was alone possible for " the word of the Lord " to reach the ear of the prophet — a state of trance generally — the events so expe- rienced would have the character of objective real- ity, and if figured upon things of the physical world they would appear to be actually those things. If not otherwise discriminated by the prophet, events so described would eventually come to be regarded by those through whom the prophecy was trans- THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 161 mitted — orally or scripturally — as actual occur- rences in the physical world. But it matters little how the form is regarded, whether as history or as allegory, according to the temperamental bias of the reader, provided the spiritual significance of the prophecy be discerned ; the Spirit is not in the form, but may be discerned through the form as its motive, or ruling impulse. Prophecy often takes on the coloring of history with a view to its address- ing the minds of those who are as yet incapable of spiritual discernment, and who must first receive the truth in its external sense, and these are bene- fited accordingly in the degree of its reception. God's word is ministered through the " voice of prophecy." Under the first covenant, Jehovah manifested the divine will from a psychical realm, through the ministry of angels and prophets. But a second order of divine manifestation is thus typi- fied by Jonah : " And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." The Messiah is thus prefigured as actually entering the carnal condi- tions of the natural world, — "a city of three days' journey." The parable says of Jonah that he " entered into the city a day's journey ; " that is, according to this interpretation, the second deliver- ance of the Word, through the Messiah, was not made till the first day was past, or till the carnal stage was reached, for it was the evil of the carnal state that made it necessary that God should " him- self come down to deliver his people." The burden 162 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. of the prophecy is that the " great city " shall be overthrown except it repent. In the parable of Jonah God is concerned for " both man and beast," — for both soul and body ; for both the inward and the outward man are to be brought to repentance. Eventually the whole natural world, under the figure of "Nineveh," is to be subdued by the Spirit, from its ruler to its least inhabitant, through the instrumentality of Je- sus Christ, even as the parable sets forth: "For thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness." And Jonah says, " Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country ? " — or, was not this the Messianic utter- ance through Moses and the prophets, and espe- cially in the Psalms? But a parable has its outward as well as inward sense, its human as well as its divine parts. Thus the prophet Jonah is chagrined that his prophecy should fail in the eyes of the world, and in the weakness of his pride he deemed his personal repu- tation of more consequence than the souls of the Ninevite multitude ; which temper of mind, of the natural state, is further emphasized by the prophet's extravagant regard for a mean product of nature, at the root of which lay a worm, but for which he showed far deeper concern than for the immortal souls of men, — a true type of the state of the affec- tions when dominated by self-love and carnal pro- pensities to the exclusion of God's Spirit. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 163 THE PROPHECIES OP ISAIAH. In Isaiah and the prophetic books that follow, it is plainly discerned that the experience which befell the children of Israel, though it planted in the soul a moral standard, nevertheless failed to re- deem it from the world, or save it to the inheritance of God. That long experience of slaveries, wars, ceremonials, and bloody sacrifices was unavailing to bring the soul under subjection to God. The ex- perience was not lost, for it revealed plainly the weakness and sinful propensity of man, and brought him to a state of longing for rest and peace, which quickens his desire for God. What befell the Israelites as a people is, in gen- eral, representative of the experience of the earthly life, of the vast capacity of the individual soul for good or evil, and of its forming, or moulding by the " hand of God." The potentialities that image the Deity and slumber unconsciously in the soul, are thus awakened to life, being disciplined and strength- ened to the end of perfecting God's work, as wit- nessed in Christ. Seeing, then, that the law had done its work, by implanting a standard of morality in man, though only in the outward form of conduct, it remained for Revelation to declare a still higher means of redemption, by which the standard of conduct should be merged into a more inward state in the heart of man, as a ruling ethical principle govern- ing the secret thought of man, and manifested in the will and affections : " Hear, O heavens, and 164 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW, give ear, O earth ; for the Lord hath spoken : I , have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider. Why should ye be stricken any more ? Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? . . . I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to ap- pear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts ? Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me. . . . Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth ; they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them. . . . Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil, learn to do well ; seek judg- ment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. ... If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be de- voured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." This, then, is God's word: the way of righteous- ness leads to rest and peace. " Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth ; " there is but one ruling providence for both. " Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him ; for they shall eat THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 165 the fruit of their doings." But " woe unto the wicked ! it shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given him." The kingdom of Righteousness must be entered before the kingdom of Peace can be discerned ; the fulfilment of the moral law is the gate of heaven : thence on, the Spirit rules in its stead through love. It is from an exalted plane of righteousness, as declared through the prophets, that Revelation an- nounces the coming of the Messiah : " and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots ; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord ; and shall make him of quick under- standing in the fear of the Lord ; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears ; but with righteous- ness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." And the pre- diction is, that under his sway " the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea . . . and ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation." He who will come shall not discern the truth in the light of nature, but in the light of Spirit ; and he shall declare the truth, not as manifested to the senses, but as inwardly discerned by spiritual in- tuition, by direct inspiration from God. The nat- ural mind shall no longer be the judge ; but " the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against 1G6 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. him," which shall make all things new. " As for me, this is my covenant with them, saitb the Lord ; my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever." Through that older voice of prophecy, the Mes- siah found even freer expression before he had ac- tually entered "an horrible pit and miry clay," before that divine soul had been shut in a prison- house of flesh ; and the words spoken through Isaiah and David are delivered from a higher plane than the earthly, while the soul of the Messiah was grad- ually descending into the outermost state of man, eventually to be born into a physical world as a sinless being come into the conditions of unregen- erate man at "the bottom of the pit," that he might redeem, or lift up, those who are sunk in misery and sin ; and thus he experienced the evil and the anguish of humanity in the broadest and deepest sense. " The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. O Zion, that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain ; O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength ; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the children of Judah, Behold your God ; . . . His reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his. bosom, and shall gently lead those that THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 167 are -with young," those who are just giving birth to the Spirit. " They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not be faint," for their strength shall be of God. Of the Messiah it is said, " Behold my servant, whom I uphold : mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the peo- ple, for a light of the Gentiles ; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness from the prison- house. I am the Lord : that is my name ; and my glory will I not give to another. Behold, the for- mer things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." The voice of prophecy is one voice throughout Revelation : it is the Spirit seeking manifestation in man, God becoming man ; even as man is be- come the form of God in Christ. The coherence of the whole word of prophecy reveals the unity of God, the one only Spirit speaking through many instrumentalities and revealing itself with ever-in- creasing power until "all the fulness of the God- head " is manifested in Jesus. God desires men to know their end, to inquire into his designs : " Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and con- cerning the work of my hands command ye me. 168 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. I have made the earth, and created man upon it. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways : he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward ; ... ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. . . . Look unto me, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else ... I am the first, I also am the last." There is but one Spirit speaking through all the various forms of divine manifestation. In the light of the New Testament the " voice of prophecy " un- der the old dispensation is the Father speaking through " Jehovah, the God of Israel," who speaks through " the angel of his Presence," who in turn speaks through " the prophet." And the Spirit filling these various instrumentalities is the God- head : " My glory will I not give to another." " Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen," that is, the Christ ; " that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, your redeemer, and beside me there is no saviour. Thus saith the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." The words, "before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me," refer to that di- vine personality, the Son, who " was in the form of God, and counted it not robbery to be equal with God in the glory which he had with the Father be- fore the world was." That filial personality was Jehovah, " the God of Israel," the God of the whole THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 169 earth," who became the Saviour of men -when in- carnated in Jesus. Before him there was no God " formed ; " but the Father was before him : " I will declare the decree ; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee." That forming does not relate to the incar- nation, but to the preexistent spiritual state of that "formed" God, or divine Son, before he came into the world. And he it was, the God of Israel, who said, " I have labored in vain. . . . Yet surely my work is with my God. And now, saith the Lord that formed me . . . though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." Of the incarnated soul of the Messiah it was said, " I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom men despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee," he who termed himself the " Son of man." And " I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cease to inherit desolate her- itages ; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth ; to them that are in darkness, Show your- selves." And of those who hear his voice it is said : " They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger 170 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. nor thirst, ... for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them." One God, even the Spirit, speaks through vari- ous personalities and instrumentalities ; and while so doing it is ever in the first person, whether in the angel, in Jesus, or in Jehovah — "I am God, and beside me there is none other." Of the promised salvation, through the Spirit that is to be revealed and imparted by Christ, it is thus prophesied: " I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them ; " concerning which St. Paul says, " Of the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God." The higher teachings of Paul were largely inspired by the prophecies of Isaiah ; from the latter the clearest spiritual light may be derived, for they are revela- tions from a psychic plane on which the Messiah stood before his actual incarnation. Of the spiritual things to be revealed in Christ, it is prophesied, " They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not ; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened ; for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously ; " therefore a knowledge of spiritual things was withheld from man until, in the fulness of time, the "revelation of the Spirit" THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. 171 was possible of acceptance: "Come ye near unto me, bear ye this ; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I : and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me." " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." It is needless to dwell upon that which is so abundant and circumstantial in the prophecies of Isaiah and the later prophets relating to the Christ, since it would require much space even to refer briefly to that with which the scriptures are filled to overflowing. The present aim is merely to em- phasize those fundamental truths of Revelation which bear upon the general plan of this work. That Isaiah stood upon a high moral plane, where- in, nevertheless, the Spirit was not yet clearly re- vealed, is well attested by the following : " For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath pre- pared for him that waiteth for him." To which, after Christ's coming, the apostle Paul was able to add : " But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ... Of the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely giyen to us of God, which things also we speak." 172 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW. The culmination of Isaiah's prophecy is in these words : " Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowl- edge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?" God's purposes are thus worked out in forming the soul of man ; and evil has its place un- der the divine providence as an instrument in God's hand ; for it is by partaking of " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil " that the moral sense is aroused as the ground of righteousness in the soul. In the fulness of time, when " first the king- dom of Righteousness " is fulfilled, then " after that the kingdom of Peace " is revealed by the Spirit ; and "the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord . . . and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." ... " And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord ; " for all the days, and the whole of life, throughout eternity, shall then be filled with " Holiness to the Lord." IV. THE SON OF MAN. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them , hath the light shined. . . . For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." — Isaiah ix. 2. " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." — Zechakiah iv. 6. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, . . . being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inherit- ance obtained a. more exceUent name than they. For unto which of the aDgels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the First- begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. . . . " Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity : therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." — Hebrews i. " Behold my servant, whom I have chosen : my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased : I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles." — Matthew xii. 38. " And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom." — Matthew ix. 35. THE SON OF MAN. THE INCARNATION. " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth." The natural creation reached its end and consum- mation in the " Son of man." The darkness that was between the evening and the morning was dis- pelled by the dawn of a new day : " for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive ; " and to " as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." There was a reconciliation of the natural and spiritual states of consciousness in Jesus, who *' abolished in his flesh the enmity " between the natural and spiritual orders of mind in man, " mak- ing in himself of the twain one new man, so mak- ing peace." This is the great outcome of the incarnation. The distinction between these two 176 THE SON OF MAN. orders of mind in man is thus stated by the apostle Paul : " The first man Adam became a living soul : the last Adam became a quickening Spirit. How- beit that is not first which is spiritual, but that •which is natural ; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is of heaven." Adam stands at the head of a natural creation, while Christ stands at the head of a spiritual creation. Thence on, in either case, there is a natural or spiritual order of descent, marked by a natural or spiritual order of birth : the natural man is born of Adam, but the spiritual man is born of God. The incarnation of the Word was not the abrupt entrance of the Messiah into earthly existence, but the culmination in Jesus of long ages of travail in a psychical state, for the Lamb was " slain from the foundation of the world." The process of incarna- tion was gradual, and only consummated " in the fulness of time," as witnessed by the prophets and in the Psalms. The Word incarnated in Jesus is "God manifest in the flesh." The descent of the Word, or Logos, was into the carnal conditions of the natural man. Jesus manifested the Word, which in turn revealed the Spirit. The Word was incarnated, not the Spirit, — "the Word was made flesh : " and the Word bears that relation to the Godhead that the soul in man bears to the indwell- ing spirit when imparted from above. Through a natural "creation" man became a living soul; but through a spiritual " begetting " man becomes a quickened spirit, a son of God. The Spirit could THE SON OF MAN. 177 only be manifested in man through a psychical in- strumentality ; the Father abides in the soul of the Son of man, in whom " dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, bodily." On entering on his mission the Messiah " emptied himself " of that glory which he had with the Father before the world was ; that is, he was emptied of all that was not himself, namely, of the Spirit ; for if the Spirit were strictly his proprium he could not have parted with it ; that " glory " which he had in common with the Father before the world was, is Spirit. His throne was " cast down to the ground," and he entered " an horrible pit and miry clay " in the natural state of man, and he entered those conditions as a sinless but unquickened soul : " Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depth of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and com- fort me on every side ... I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. . . . Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy Free Spirit. . . . Yea I will make him my First- born, higher than the kings of the earth," higher than the highest of created souls. And in the Epis- tle to the Hebrews it is written of him : " Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which 178 THE SON OF MAN. of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son ? " In descending on his mission the Messiah took " on the form of a servant, being made in the like- ness of men," even as unregenerate man, for it is written, " Out of Egypt have I called my Son." Thus the Messiah descended to the very bottom of the pit that he might lift humanity from its lowest conditions, from its carnal and evil state, to the vis- ion of its spiritual inheritance in God, as manifested in Christ. The emptying process of this descent was gradual, throughout the old dispensation, cul- minating in the " miry clay " and spiritual " death." In like manner his " rising again " was gradual, through trial and temptation ; for " he was made perfect through sufferings," and was again quick- ened by the Spirit while in the flesh, as symbolized at his baptism ; but not until the natural creation had attained its perfect moral fulfilment in Jesus, for it became him first " to fulfil all righteous- ness." Thence on, the symbol of his " ascension " marks the rising of that quickened soul to God, to remain " at the right hand of power " until he shall have put all enemies under his feet ; when, having "delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father . . . then shall the Son also himself be sub- ject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." The mission of the Mes- siah will then have been finished, and the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah will then be manifest in all its height and breadth and depth of mean- THE SON OF MAN. 179 ing : " Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord ; and beside me there is no Saviour." THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS. That Mary, the mother of Jesus, was one qual- ified by nature and hereditary antecedents for a mis- sion that has made her "forever blessed among women," is a fact not to be overlooked in connec- tion with the birth of Jesus, which was "in the fulness of time," or. when conditions were ripe for it. The " hope of Israel," extending through the preceding ages, found in David its carnal embodi- ment, and the beginning of a chain of hereditary influences which led on to the actual incarnation of a long-promised " son " who should " sit on his throne forever." These hereditary influences cul- minated in one who was well fitted to serve as a matrix, or mould, for the birth of a new creation ; one who had "■■ found favor with God : " this is apparent from that attitude of mind arid heart manifested by Mary when the divine messenger announced to her the glad tidings : " Hail ! thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee : " and Mary answered, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." God chooses his instruments not without regard to qualification : " Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called ; but God chooses the weak things of the world," who yet are strong in faith, for it was said of Mary, " Blessed is she that believed." The words spoken 180 THE SON OF MAN. by the Spirit of prophecy through the lips of Mary evince the union of her heai't with God : " my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour ; for he hath regarded the low- estate of his handmaiden: for behold ! from hence- forth all generations shall call me blessed." Shepherds " abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock, by night," are significantly chosen as the first recipients of the good tidings of the birth of One who " shall be called holy ; " they were witnesses of a heavenly vision : " and sud- denly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly Lost praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." Thus throughout the heavens there was centred upon this new creation that " unity of Spirit which binds all spheres in one : " and the vision reveals the nature of the higher instrumen- talities that ceaselessly minister the divine will, de- claring the sublime truth that throughout all worlds there is but one life, one faith, one hope and inheritance — even God. The earth is but a step- ping-stone in the path of progress from the inane to the divine, and the earthly life of man is but a span upon that path ; nevertheless the hosts of heaven are concerned in the care and welfare of man, since he is destined to come into God's like- ness, and manifest his glory. When Simeon, standing in the temple and "look- ing for the consolation of Israel," took the child Jesus in his arms, he said, "Behold ! this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel ; " as THE SON OF MAX. 181 an example of the fall and rising again of the souls of men ; " and for a sign which shall be spoken against . . . that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed : " or, that the aspirations of the human heart may find their fulfilment in him. At twelve years of age the youth is found " in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both, hearing them and asking them questions: and all they that heard him were amazed at his under- standing and his answers." To the chiding of his mother, who had "sought him sorrowing," Jesus replied, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?" or, where else than in the temple would you look for me ? From this time on to the beginning of his ministry, which was in his thirtieth year, Jesus is wholly lost to view: doubtless he was known simply as a man among men, " going in and out among them " as the Nazarene : " Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude? and his sisters, are they not all with us?" THE BEGINNING OP THE MINISTRY OF JESUS. As the season of his ministry approached, there was manifested in Jesus a certain psychic " power," of which, doubtless, his mother was aware even before the performance of his first public miracle, as may be inferred from the words of Mary at the marriage feast, in Cana of Galilee. That Mary should have regarded the mere lack of wine at the feast as a fitting motive for the display of her son's 182 THE SON OF MAN. newly discovered " power," may indicate that this had hitherto been manifested in familiar ways, as in the case of Elisha, whose power caused the axe- head to swim. The words of Jesus, " Woman, what have I to do with thee ; mine hour hath not yet come," would seem to imply that the power was not voluntary, or subject to human will, but both the prompting and the power were alike given from above, when his " hour was come." That the miracle wrought at the marriage feast had its spiritual significance as the initial public mani- festation of his power — transmuting the water into wine serving as the emblem of his mission — ranks this seemingly arbitrary display with those "works" which were manifestly consoling and be- neficent. As the psychic power through which Jesus wrought miracles differed in no respect, save in degree, from that exercised by the prophets of the old dispensation, it will not be necessary to dwell upon it further in this place. The feeding of the multitude, the healing of the sick, the curing of organic infirmities, the cleansing of lepers, the com- mand over the elements, even the raising of the dead, were all acts which had been performed by the prophets of old, though never before were these various powers manifested in one person, or with a like degree of energy. That they all had their spiritual significance, as well as their beneficent effects, is apparent when it is discerned that it is the spiritually deaf, blind, and dead that the Sa- viour makes whole, quickens, and raises up to God. Psychic " signs," " miracles," " wonders," or THE SON OF MAN. 183 " works " are credentials for the carnal mind : " he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." When called upon to work miracles, Jesus " sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, Why- doth tliis generation seek after a sign ? Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation, save the sign of the prophet Jonah," etc. The generation here spoken of is that of the natural man : the spiritual man needs no outward sign, for the revelation is within, in all its fulness. Without further reference, therefore, to the miracles of Jesus, the aim of this chapter will be confined to the unfolding of his gospel, or good tidings, for it is written : " He spake to them of the kingdom of God." THE KINGDOM OF GOD. The kingdom of God is a realm of Spirit, and the revelation of this higher kingdom began with the public ministry of Jesus. For it may be inferred that previous to his baptism of the Holy Spirit, symbolized outwardly by its descent in the form of a dove, Jesus was a sinless moral man, in whom the Word, or Logos, was incarnated as a divine soul. The thirty years of his natural life, up to the time of his meeting with John, were of that universal order which includes the whole race : " first the natural, afterward then that which is spiritual." After the Holy Spirit had "descended upon him" at his baptism, a change was wrought in the life of Jesus ; thenceforth a new power was manifested as abiding in the Son of man, a transforming Spirit, transcending the righteousness of even a blameless 184 THE SON OF MAX. moral life : " and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." His forerunner, John, had preached moral repentance: "repent, for the king- dom of heaven is at hand?" — that is, turn about from your evil way, for you are standing on the very threshold of eternal life. And they asked John, " What shall we do, then? He answered, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let him do like- wise." To public servants, he said, u Exact no more than is due, ... do violence to no man, ac- cuse none falsely." This was a moral preparation for that holy endowment of the Spirit which was to follow. The " baptism of repentance " is the arousing of the nmral sense; turn, and live a moral life, for the spiritual kingdom is at hand. A perfect moral life is but the threshold of a spiritual realm, for John says, "there cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed baptize with water unto repentance; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." And Jesus himself said, "The law and the prophets were until John : since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." And again, " Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist : notwithstanding lie that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Herein the distinc- tion between a moral and a spiritual realm is clearly marked ; the former is the consummation THE SON OF MAN 1 . 185 of the natural state ; the latter is a realm of Spirit, " the kingdom of God." Thus when Jesus emerged from seclusion he found the ground already prepared for his promul- gation of the good tidings of a realm of Spirit, or " kingdom of God : " for of John it had been pre- dicted that he should " prepare the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight ; " that is, open the way, by a higher moral life, for the new gospel of God's indwelling presence in the soul. Jesus then came to John to be "baptized unto repent- ance," saying, " for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," by confirming outwardly his per- fect moral life. Then it was that the heavens were first " opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him : and lo ! a voice out of heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." THE TEMPTATIONS OP JESUS. The manifestation of the Spirit, as distinguished from " signs," or psychical manifestations, is as " a still small voice," or, as " a wind that bloweth where it listeth: thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth." It is as a passing gleam, a breathing : when the " hour is not yet come," or when the Spirit passes by, man is apparently left to himself, and to the doubts and questionings that arise in the natural mind. John was told that a sign would be given : " upon whom- soever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the same is he that baptizeth 186 THE SON OF MAN. with the Holy Spirit." To John and to Jesus only was this sign given, for no other eye beheld it. But the natural mind "warreth against the spiritual, and the spiritual against the natural," and notwithstanding this outward form of evidence, — for which John was prepared by a special revela- tion, — when an interval of time had elapsed, and the Baptist was cast into prison, things looking out- wardly dark and unpromising, " John sent two of his disciples to inquire of Jesus, Art thou he, or look we for another ? " The prophet is not exempt from spiritual temp- tations which spring from doubt and distrust: indeed, these temptations are all the more severe and exacting for the reason that the sphere of their activity is interior and mystical, often contrary to that outward evidence of mind and sense which points emphatically in an opposite direction. Of the deepest significance, therefore, is the fact that the temptations of Jesus followed his baptism ; fol- lowed the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him, not- withstanding the sign, and the spoken word, " this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased:" for it was subsequent to his baptism that " Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Thus it is the Spirit that ministers temptation, the end of which is the form- ing and perfecting, through trial and temptation, of a righteous human will that eventually is to come into union with God's will. Conscious of extraordinary powers residing within himself, there naturally arose in the human mind THE SON OF MAN. 187 of Jesus suggestions grounded in temporal ambi- tions, a state of mind inseparable from the condi- tions of the " miry clay " into which the Messiah had descended. The allegory of his encounter with "the evil one" implies the temptation of personal ambition and self-will. A free choice of ends was open to Jesus, " who was in all things tempted like as we are, yet without sin ; " and the question natu- rally arose in' his mind as to the direction of his powers, whether this should be in the service of God, or in the indulgence of self-will. This temptation, which follows all newly discovered power, is common to man, and is fundamental and generic in determin- ing character. This test, or trial of faith, was in the solitude of self-questionings, in a "wilderness" of doubt to which Jesus was " led up of the Spirit ; " a bewilderment of mind that is the natural fruition of partaking of " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." That Jesus, in common with his brethren, had his understanding darkened by the conditions in which he was plunged, is evinced by the fact that he himself was aided, in forming judgment, by the written word of God: "it is written," he says, " thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." And it was faith in that word which aided him in forming a righteous judg- ment. If it be supposed that the mind of Jesus was overruled by an arbitrary influence from above, act- ing independent of his human judgment, or that his mind was not obscured by its carnal environ- ment, this would imply that his temptations were not real, it would render them a mockery. He 188 THE SON OF MAN. weighed them in his mind under the light of God's •word, and deliberately chose the better part, reach- ing his conclusion only after a prolonged struggle with himself, lasting " forty days," and finally de- claring his conviction in the words of Revelation : " man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God : thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God : thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." During his temptations no conscious external aid was extended to Jesus ; no ministration of angels supervened to bias his judgment, or influence his choice of ends : his will was free to choose between self and God, while all the doubts and obscurities of the earthly state were still upon him. But in the moment of his triumph over the evil promptings of his lower nature, then " angels came and ministered unto him : " all of which is strictly representative of an experience common to man, though not always " made conscious." For these temptations are rep- resentative, and inherent in human nature. There is no escape from them, they belong to the condi- tions of the earthly state ; and Jesus, as Son of man, was not exempt from their encounter. That the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted is in the order of God's providence in proving every soul : " thou dost try them even as silver is tried," for thus it is that character is formed, strengthened, purified, and perfected to the end of glorifying God by manifesting his Spirit. That the growth of a higher perception in the THE SON OF MAN. 189 mind of Jesus was gradual, that he "grew ... in favor with God and man," is inseparable from the belief that he was very man, that he was actually " come in the flesh," and was no mere psychical apparition hovering above the human plane, and exempt from man's frailty and weakness. In com- mon with the saints, Jesus was " tried in the fires," "made perfect through sufferings;" and being thus " touched with the feeling of our infirmities," he became a bond of union between God and man, for in him the divine and the human are "reconciled," or fused into one harmonious agreement of mind and will. Temptations are of a threefold order, — carnal, moral, and spiritual. The first relates to conduct, the second to desire, and the third to the will : and these are relatively deadly in their nature accord- ing to the depths from which temptation springs. Temptations of the carnal state are outward, and therefore less deadly than those which arise in the moral consciousness ; while the latter are in turn less trying than those encountered in a spiritual state, until man is " lifted up above the earth." The temptations which arose after " the heavens were opened " to Jesus reveal the nature of that deeper struggle the soul encounters when first illu- mined from above. Jesus recognized that there were "hours" when the Spirit was consciously manifested, while at other seasons it was seemingly withdrawn, and the natural mind asserted its su- premacy. Under such circumstances he resorted to prayer. There were seasons when " Jesus groaned 190 THE SON OF MAN. in spirit," when he was in agony of mind, when he felt the full force of the weakness of " the miry clay ; " when he said distinctly, " mine hour hath not yet come," — clearly intimating that there were times and seasons of conscious quickening from above, when the soul was " gone up into a moun- tain ; " while at other times he was " in the valley," and his human judgment apparently his only guide ; for in common with all men the Son of man must " wait on the Spirit." Temptations that arise after the heavens are opened — when it is spiritually discerned that " our wrestling is not against flesh and blood ; but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places " — can alone explain those words of Jesus while stretched upon the cross : " my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" There is such an apparent con- tradiction between the outward and inward states, between man's ways and God's ways, that all the powers of mind and judgment at times seem shaken as the ground is shaken by an earthquake. But he who said, " be of good cheer, I have over- come the world," revealed in himself the way by which any man may overcome the world through uniting his will to God's will: for by uniting man's weakness to God's strength all things are possible ; and unless the world be overcome in each individual soul as it was in Jesus, no man can inherit the promise, " To him that overcnmeth I will give of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." THE SON OF MAN. 191 THE TEMPLE OF GOD. An early act of Jesus was his cleansing of the temple by driving out the worldly-minded. It is impossible to miss the connection between this act and the teaching that follows, as relating to the cleansing of the human tabernacle. Man himself, when "born again," is "the temple of the Holy Spirit," for " the tabernacle of God is with men." It is not a house made with hands that domiciles the Spirit, for the true tabernacle of God is a liv- ing temple, the soul itself, and spiritually there is none other. Being asked for his credential of au- thority for this symbolic act, the driving out of the wordly mind, the reply of Jesus is a key to the new gospel : " destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." These words of Jesus were not understood until after his resurrection, and they cannot be fully apprehended until they are spir- itually discerned. Here, then, was the first an- nouncement of a fundamental truth of the good tidings of the kingdom of heaven, the new realm of Spirit that Jesus was revealing : the temple made with hands was to give place to a building "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;" the temple of the whole man, body and soul, when re- deemed and sanctified by the Spirit. The types and symbols of the natural state were thus to find their fulfilment in the divine realities of a spirit- ual consciousness. To Xicodemus Jesns unfolded the truth still further : li Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a 192 THE SON OF MAN. man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." The activities of the natural state serve only as a means for drawing nigh : to enter in, man must be " born of God ; " the soul must be quickened by the Spirit imparted to it by Christ. In the meeting between Nicodemus and Jesus there is first encountered that inevitable conflict of two distinct orders of mind, a natural and a spirit- ual consciousness. The ideas and conceptions of the former are all rooted in time and space, and the apprehension of Nicodemus was restricted by these temporal conditions : notwithstanding he was " a teacher in Israel " he could make nothing of the dec- laration that " man must be born again." Jesus therefore unfolds the truth more plainly: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit " — of re- pentance and of God — "he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. . . . That which is born of the flesh, is flesh " — or, that which is born of nature, is the natural man — " and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. . . .No man hath ascended into heaven, save he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." No natural birth, or power, or will, can bring man into the kingdom of God, " for no man can quicken his own soul : " he alone who came down from heaven has power to lift man above the earth. No powers of the natural mind, however serviceable on the plane of nature, are able to lift man above the natural state ; water cannot rise above its source. Except he be " born again, of the Spirit," man is powerless to effect a change of state ; to enter the THE SON OF MAN. 193 kingdom of heaven he must "become as a little child " in humility and docility of mind, then a spir- itual birth is effected from above ; and it is a veri- table birth of the spirit within the soul. _ When man is morally prepared, or fully " formed," then, and then onlv, is " breathed into him the breath of life." Jesus said, " He whom God hath sent speaketh the word of God ; for he giveth not the Spirit by measure." The Spirit is imparted to the soul ac- cording to its state and capacity as a " vessel pre- pared," and in "the Son of man in heaven" the Spirit is revealed in all its fulness. Jesus testifies concerning the kingdom of God, not from his own mind ; he reports that " he hath seen and heard from the Father." And this was the burden of the prophets ; they testified that they had seen and heard. The word of the Lord is not by illumina- tion, but by revelation and inspiration, by " things seen and heard." Spiritual truth is not attainable by the natural mind ; it is the gift of grace. WORSHIP. The next step in the unfolding of the gospel of the kingdom is the significant declaration made to the woman of Samaria : " If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. . . . Whoso- ever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst ... it shall be in him a well of water springing np unto eternal life : " it will be 194 THE SON OF MAN. the Spirit welling up within the soul as an eternal fountain of life, for the Messiah came to impart the Spirit to man, that man might be made whole, or holy. Except it be discerned that soul and spirit ai - e distinct in nature and substance, one created and the other uncreated, it is impossible to appre- hend the deep significance of these words of Jesus. It is the imparting of the Spirit to man which as- sures eternal life. Jesus aimed to make this clear through various similitudes and illustrations. In reply to the suggestion that worship is formally identified with place, or locality, Jesus advances the plain declaration that "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Not in any mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, in no way restricted by time or space, but in season and out of season, and in every place, God is henceforth to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, wherever and whenever any man turns to him as "the end of all his aspiration and desire." He who imparts the Spirit fulfils, by that gift, all symbolic worship ; and they that receive his word, and "walk in the Spirit," are themselves a perpetual offering, " whole and entire, unto God." The soul then enters a universal sabbath, a day of rest in God, and all things are thenceforth conse- crated by the evidence of God working in and through every act and purpose, " for from him and to him are all things." But so long as the soul THE SON OF MAN. 195 walks in the light of nature, or leans upon that staff, symbolic worship is essential to its well-being, and the fulfilment of that order of worship is only in the fulness of time, when the individual soul comes into conscious " fellowship " with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ through the presence of the indwelling Spirit imparted from God. THE AWAKENING OP A HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS IN JESUS. It must have been through a gradual enlighten- ment that Jesus recognized in himself the Mes- siah ; that is, his conclusion, doubtless, was reached through the concurrent evidence of Revelation and the experience of his own mind. As his was the representative life of the soul of man, the process by which he arrived at conviction must have been gradual. Omniscience cannot be identified with the earthly life, much less with that unquickened state into which the soul of the Messiah had de- scended. His light was put out that he might dwell in darkness in common with his brethren, and share their infirmities, for he " walked through the valley of the shadow of death." The dawning of the day of God in that sinless soul, therefore, passed through all those premonitory foregleams which foretell the coming day, and gradually he emerged from dark- ness into light. But when the presentiments re- specting his divine mission had resolved themselves definitely, Jesus then emerged from seclusion, and John's testimony, no doubt, gave to them the char- acter and consistency of a settled conviction. Jesus 196 THE SON OF MAN. then returned to the village " where he had been brought up ; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor : he hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," — the day of God. And when Jesus had finished reading, " he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down : and the eyes of all the congregation were fastened upon him." And he said, "To day hath this scrip- ture been fulfilled in your ears." The spiritually blind, deaf, lame, poor, and lep- rous are to be " made whole," and the " dead," they who are in a state of nature, are to be raised to eternal life through the quickening power of the Spirit. That the bodily infirmities of a few were actually healed by Jesus is not the consolation of this promise to mankind. It is the captive soul, held in the bondage of a carnal state, that needs release ; and the words of the prophet, echoing down the ages, find their fulfilment in One whose coming to the souls of men, with " healing in his wings," is ceaseless. This return to the place of his childhood to formally announce his Messiahship marks a set- tled conviction in the mind of Jesus, the earlier THE SOX OF MAN. 197 stages of which may not have been wholly free from doubt: for the human mind of the "Son of man " could only receive the light according to its nature and capacity, or by a gradual illumination which tenderly regarded its organic weakness while in the flesh, and this accounts for that long season of seclusion before Jesus began his ministry. For thirty years Jesus abode in a natural state of being, as a sinless moral man, going in and out among his fellows as " the carpenter " of Nazareth. Had the Spirit been upon him then, it would have been impossible that he could have remained in obscurity. That a season of moral preparation was essential to his entering upon a distinctively spirit- ual mission in revealing the Father and his " true kingdom" is also to be recognized; and this Jesns signified, when he came to be baptized of John, by the words: "for so it becometh me to fulfil all righteousness." This fulfilling all righteousness indicates the consummation of a moral preparation for the new gospel of the Spirit ; for moral right- eousness is the end of the natural creation : thence on, a realm of God, or "kingdom of Peace," is re- vealed, transcending the moral law, or " kingdom of Righteousness," and ending in the fulfilment of all things, when " the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son." When Jesus had reached this conviction, then the conception of his mission was raised above the moral standai'd, and he declared that it was the presence of the indwelling Spirit which makes clean the heart : " now are ye clean through my 198 THE SON OF MAN. word. . . . The words which I speak are not mine, but the Father's which sent me : and they are Spirit, and they are life. . . . My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Verity, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do : for what things soever he doeth, these the Son doeth in like manner." What the Father does spiritually, the Son externalizes in the soul and manifests outwardly through mind and body; what Jesus beheld in Spirit he expressed in word and deed ; for " the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all that himself doeth. . . . For as the Father raiseth the dead and qiiickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom he will." Through his union of will with the Father, Jesus performed psychically what he saw the Father do spiritually ; for the Son is the Spirit "formed" in a divine soul, and through this filial personality the Father " proceeds forth " in the cre- ation of all outward things. Gradually the will of Jesus, as the " Son of man," became so identified with the Father's will, as " Son of God," that eventually perfect at-one- ment was consummated, and he declared, " I and my Father are one." " Verily the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead *' — they who are in a state of nature — "shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live," for that divine voice is the Spirit speaking by the Son, re- vealing God. The Master clearly distinguishes be- tween himself and that which " abode " in him : " My Father is greater than I. ... I can of myself THE SON OF MAN. 199 do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." All of self-will hav- ing been uprooted and subdued, Jesus thenceforth manifests God's will as from himself : what he sees and hears from the Father in secret, that he pro- claims openly. And this is a revelation of the true inheritance of man, for the final destiny of man is revealed in Jesus, even as St. Paul hints in these words, praying, " that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God." A higher destiny for man than that known to Moses and the prophets was revealed in Jesus. The servant is to become a Son, obedience is to be fulfilled in love, moral righteousness is to find its consummation in spiritual peace : for " the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abid- eth forever." Jesus said to his disciples : " Hence- forth I call you not servants ; for the servant knovv- eth not what his lord doeth ; but I have called you friends ; for all things that I heard of my Father I have made known unto you." As sons of God, the children of the Spirit come into fellow- ship with the Father, even as was manifested in Jesus. man's destiny kevealed IN JESUS. When the " Word was made flesh," when the Son of God was manifested in the Son of man, in One who " was in all things made like unto his brethren," all-sufficient evidence was then given that man is indeed created " in the image of God," 200 THE SON OF MAN. and is destined to come into the divine likeness when born of the Spirit: for in the man Jesus " dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead, bodily." Jesus, as Son of man, in all things made and tempted like his brethren, revealed the Father as "abiding" in him, speaking and working through him. Jesus was not placed above, or outside of, the conditions of a common humanity, for that would have rendered his example of none effect : an example, to be effectual, must be wholly within the conditions wherein it is to serve as a pattern. Jesus, standing on the plane of unredeemed hu- manity, began his work at u the bottom of the pit,'' in carnal conditions, and it was by a natural and orderly process that " he grew in stature, and in favor with God and man." It was by a gradual process of transmutation, or transfiguration, by the power of the Spirit, that the Son of man became again the Son of God : " Behold my servant, whom I have chosen. ... I will put my Spirit upon him." It may be inferred from the reality of the incarnation — for he was "made man," made "like unto his brethren " — that the outward life of Jesus, during the many years of silence and seclu- sion passed at Nazareth, differed in no respect from the common lot of man, save only in the exalted moral aim which rendered that life sinless. This long season of seclusion was a moral preparation for a higher spiritual contest with the powers of darkness, " the prince of the powers of this world," the overcoming of which liberated the soul from its earthly bondage and gave free entrance to the Spirit THE SON OF MAN. 201 with all the fulness of God. Born into the condi- tions of a natural world and of unredeemed human- ity, the unfolding of the mind of Jesus, morally and spiritually, was not due to an arbitrary or miracu- lous overruling from above, for " he was tempted like as we are " and " made perfect through suffer- ings." The will of Jesus was free, free to choose the way of life or the way of death, the two paths God has placed before every soul. Under the car- nal obscurities of the earthly state, the temptations that beset Jesus were real and actual; otherwise his agonies and spiritual wrestlings remain unex- plained. It was no outside world that the Redeemer over- came ; for " he took our sins upon him, and bore our infirmities," and though himself without sin he entered into the full consciousness of the sinner, as witnessed in the penitential Psalms ; and being thus " touched with the feeling of our infirmities " he suffered even as the sinner suffers, until his soul was again quickened by the indwelling presence of God. In Jesus the soul of man was redeemed from its earthly state, and being quickened by the Spirit was united to God, who " raised him from the dead that he might become the first-fruits of them that slept." Thus through conjoining the will of man to the will of God, or that which is psychical to that which is spiritual, man is redeemed from a carnal house of bondage and is saved from spirit- ual death, being made a partaker of the divine na- ture through the presence of the indwelling Spirit imparted from God. 202 THE SON OF MAN. THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS. In preparing the ground for the good tidings of a spiritual or heavenly realm, " the kingdom of God," Jesus, in his sermon on the mount, projects the moral law into a more inward state than that of the Mosaic dispensation ; he passes from conduct to motive, from act to desire : he that willeth evil " hath already committed " the act of sin. After declaring the conditions most favorable for the re- ception of heavenly light, Jesus said, " Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished." The moral law stands forever as a foundation for the kingdom : the symbol of Melchizedek is, " first King of Righteousness, and after that King of Peace." Jesus proceeds to unfold the true essence of the moral law as of the heart and will primarily, to which all outward acts correspond as mere tem- poral effects. Thus the moral law, in the light of Spirit, judges the thoughts of the heart, and not conduct merely: the lust of the eye, or of the will, is one with the act ; evil conduct is spiritually not one whit more sinful than is evil desire, for in a psychical realm desire constitutes the act. Never- theless, though carried inward from a carnal to a psychical state, the moral law is not spiritual, but natural ; and in the kingdom of the Spirit it finds its fulfilment in love. THE SON OF MAN. 203 As transcending John's moral teaching, Jesus said, " resist not evil : whosoever smiteth thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also : if any man would take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also." To return good for good is nothing: " verily I say unto you, love your enemies ; pray for them that persecute you . . . that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven : be ye therefore perfect, even as he is perfect." Chil- dren of the Spirit have no rights, which the nat- ural mind contends for; for "all souls are mine saith the Lord." They that receive the Spirit, being made partakers of the divine nature, are ruled, not by law, but by love, for " God is love." The law, though governing conduct, is powerless to change the heart ; the Spirit alone subdues all things ; and they that " walk in the Spirit shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Evil is not overcome by resistance, or by punish- ment, but by love alone, by a good return : resist- ance only hardens and fortifies evil by driving it inward ; but a good return softens the heart and quickens the conscience. Love, therefore, rules the heart that is quickened by the Spirit, and spiritual love transcends all natural ties, and finds in God, as the Father of all, the holiest bond, uniting in one common brotherhood the whole human family, whose destiny is revealed in Jesus. THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. In approaching the Father, Jesus directs his disciples — they who are united to him in Spirit 204 THE SON OF MAN. and in truth — to pray and fast in secret : " But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber," withdraw from all carnal and worldly thoughts, " and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee." The king- dom of God is " not of this world," it is an in- visible spiritual realm ; and it is by withdrawing from outward things, and seeking that which is related to a spiritual consciousness, that God is directly approached. The natural mind finds support in external aids, but these are all symbolic or representative ; they are efficacious according to the sincerity of belief on the part of those who are unable to dispense with them. Jesus never failed to distinguish between the people, or " the multitude," and his disciples : to the former "he spake in parables," while to the latter he spoke " openly," as having " ears to hear " the word of the Spirit. It is plainly apparent that the Messiah came, not to establish religious forms, but to reveal in himself their fulfilment in an awakened spiritual conscious- ness : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life." They who rest their claim for divine favor on any- thing external to the "word," or Spirit, — on works, on alms, on ceremonial observance, or on psychical gifts, mistaking them for spiritual, — shall have no recognition in the kingdom of heaven. He alone THE SON OF MAN. 205 that " heareth the word, and doeth it," he who ad- mits the Spirit and allows it to guide and control all outward acts, shall build his house on a founda- tion that shall cause it to stand, which cannot be shaken. In all his sayings Jesus taught " as one having authority, and not as the scribes : " that is, he spoke from the Spirit within, and not from mere learning, or tradition ; the Spirit found free expres- sion through him, and the Spirit ever speaks with authority, for the Spirit is the truth — and "the common people heard him gladly." One thing alone, he declares, is holy, offences against which cannot be forgiven, and that is, the Spirit. Sins and blasphemies against all outward investitures, even against the Son of man himself, " shall be for- given ; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come." Spirit is the inmost of divine things, the Holiest of holies. It cannot be sinned against except it be known: and when known and rejected, there remains no further means of salvation. HE SPAKE TO THEM OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. The difficulty encountered in preaching the king- dom is, that to the natural mind it appears obscure, vague, and unsubstantial. Jesus caught at any cir- cumstance that might supply an illustration of that which was so real to himself, but so difficult of ap- prehension by other minds. When one blessed the natural instrumentality through which Jesus was 206 THE SON OF MAN. born, the Master replied, " blessed, rather, are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Again, while he taught the people, " one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he an- swered, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren ? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." The spiritual tie is " not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," the pure bond of Spirit. The new birth establishes a new relationship apart from all earthly ties, for all are brothers and sisters and mothers in the great family of God, who is the Father of all who know and love him. Christ would impress upon his hearers the truth that the kingdom of heaven is not a natural king- dom, but a spiritual realm : " my kingdom is not of this world ... he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Jesus en- deavored to awaken in the minds of his hearers a more interior perception of truth, but he could only quicken their souls gradually. He could speak to his disciples more plainly than " to them that are without," to the carnal-minded, but even his dis- ciples understood him vaguely, or imperfectly, often interpreting his words literally, as referring to tem- poral things. When he spoke to the people the parable of the sower, his disciples afterward in- quired of him, "Why speakest thou' unto them in THE SON OF MAN. 207 parables ? He answered, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven ; but unto them it is not given." There was no miracle in this; they that hung upon his words and opened their hearts to receive the Spirit were quickened by a spiritual order of per- ception divinely implanted in their minds, and they began to understand that " spiritual things are spiritually discerned." Of those who stood without, the natural - minded, who wilfully closed their minds and hearts to spiritual truths, Jesus said, " they come not to the light lest their deeds should be reproved ; " they prefer to remain blind, or they seek only to confirm their own errors of belief. To the natural-minded, whose spiritual per- ceptions are not yet quickened, Jesus speaks " in parables, that seeing they may see, and not per- ceive ; and hearing they may hear, and not under- stand," lest they profane or reject the truth if re- vealed openly, before they are ripe for it, or while they are still in their carnal desires. That Jesus had two ways of dealing with men — with the multitude by " parable," and with his dis- ciples "openly" — is plainly indicated, for it is written concerning the people : " and without a parable spake he not unto them." This was a ful- filment of the prophecy, " I will open my mouth in parables : I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." These hidden truths were not moral truths, as of " Moses and the prophets," but the things of the Spirit, the hitherto unrevealed " things of God." To those 208 THE SON OF MAN. who had but the smallest germ of spiritual appre- hension much shall be given ; for the kingdom of the Spirit is " like a grain of mustard -seed, which though the least of all seeds, when it is sown is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches thereof." In other words, that which is of the smallest conse- quence in the natural world, or is least respected by the carnal mind, is the very germ and root of an endless life. THE TRANSFIGURATION. The revelation of God and man in Jesus Christ is whole and entire : it comprehends " all the ful- ness of the Godhead," and the life and destiny of man as well. The revelation was not a miraculous disturbance of the established order of things, but simply an uncovering of that which is hidden from the outward eye, revealing the truth as it really is in all its divine fulness. If man would know " all things " he will find them in " the depth of the riches that are revealed in Christ." If he would know that the nature of man comprehends all worlds, he may discern this truth in " the Son of man in heaven." Through Christ the knowledge of man may reach out into the infinite; it is no longer confined to this earth, it follows the risen Son of man into the heavens, into the Holy of holies : for " in him the distant is drawn near," God is brought down to man and revealed through the Spirit in all his fulness. The transfiguration of Jesus was a revelation of THE SON OF MAN. 209 the truth that the rising of the soul is independent of bodily conditions : the process of transmutation of the natural into the spiritual is going on -while man is still in the flesh, immersed in the cares and trials of the earthly life. -The carnal mind asso- ciates all changes of state with the bodily life, and time and space govern its order of ' thought : its door of entrance to the higher spheres is through physical dissolution, for all its conceptions are rooted in sense. But the truth is revealed in Jesus, namely, that changes in states of being are wholly without reference to bodily environments ; it is a matter of inward transfiguration by the power of the Spirit. "And as he prayed the fashion of his coun- tenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold ! there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias; who ap- peared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." A bright cloud overshadowed the three disciples who were with Jesus, " and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only." It must not be supposed that this was a revela- tion to the outward eye, for the disciples were "heavy with sleep," or in a trance state, and they were recalled from a psychical to a physical con^ 210 THE SON OF MAN. sciousness by the touch of Jesus, when "they saw no man, save Jesus only." The revelation was by opening the psychic senses of the disciples that they might see the actual state of that Son of man who was walking in their midst. But the revelation in- cludes much more than this outward "glory: "it reveals the means by which the incarnated soul is inwardly informed of that which transcends its own limited powers of perception : it declares openly the means and the secondary sources of inspiration which guided the Son of man in his earthly min- istry. It relieves the path of the Messiah of that excessive snpernaturalism which, in the minds of many, wholly separates him from his brethren and renders his example of none effect. For if the soul of Jesus were not the soul of man, Jesus could not serve as a pattern for man, nor could his life be a revelation of man's true estate. The one great miracle of that human life was its sinlessness ; by virtue of his perfect purity of soul the Spirit had free access to fill and flow through Jesus in words and works that are all in perfect order, harmonious with the unalterable system of God's universe ; and this perfect order was simply revealed in the Son of man, in whom the sub-conscious was " brought to light." As Christ came in the Spirit and power of God, a revelation from heaven, so in like manner John the Baptist came " in the spirit and power of Elias," a revelation from that intermediate state from which Moses and Elias manifested themselves on the mount of transfiguration. For the plain THE SON OF MAN. 211 declaration of prophecy was that " Eliaa must first come." And Jesus himself said — intimating that this coming of Elias was in the person of his fore- runner, John the Baptist — " Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise also shall the Son of man suffer of them." On the mount of transfiguration Moses and Elias were manifested from the intermediate spheres as ministering to the advancement of God's kingdom on earth, through the Son of man. For "the way into the holiest of all," into God's own heaven, " was not yet made manifest " until Christ, " the first-fruits," rent the veil, and opened wide the door into the Heaven of heavens. Thus we find in this manifestation on the mount the solution of that word of scripture concerning those who had gone before : " these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise ; God hav- ing provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." And in verification of this mystical truth Moses and Elias were manifested, not as angels, or celestial beings, but as the spirits of men, actively engaged in assist- ing Jesus in the advancement of his mission. The manifestation of Moses and Elias, as aiding and advising Jesus, is a representative revelation of the order of that unseen ministry of spirits which is ceaselessly active in unison with the human mind, and through which means the progress of the world is advanced, or retarded in its course : for St. Paul recognized the " world-rulers " of evil as operating 212 THE SON OF MAN. from the same sphere, against which the souls of the righteous strive, as against " the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." When it is once clearly understood that these manifestations are a revelation, and not a special miracle, it will be perceived that all things in heaven and earth, are simply " brought to light " by Christ. Not only was the actual heavenly state of Jesus revealed in the mount as independent of bodily environment, and the unconscious ministry of spirits laid bare, but by the voice which came out from the cloud it was further shown that there is personal " fellowship with the Father " through the intercourse of soul and Spirit. That the pre- science of Jesus, concerning earthly events, is partly explained by his intercourse with the spirits of the departed, is plainly implied by the words, "they spake to him of his decease, which he should ac- complish at Jerusalem." And Jesus made known the fact, thus communicated, to his disciples, after " charging them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead . . . for the Son of man shall be be- trayed into the hands of men ; and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again." The " things of the Spirit " proceed forth out of heaven, and Jesus was cognizant of these divine truths through that which was " heard and seen from the Father ; " but of earthly or temporal events the source of his information was doubtless from those raised above the physical plane to a merely psychical realm, of which state the earthly THE SON OF MAN. 213 life still forms a part. Events hastening to their end in the physical world are plainly discernible from that higher psychic plane, as tbey might be disclosed to an eye which takes in a wider horizon of cause and effect than the incarnated soul can possibly discern : and thus these spiritual advisers of Jesus prepared him for the event which was to befall him at Jerusalem. THE BREAD OF LIFE. Jesus, speaking the word of the Spirit, said : " I am the bread of life : he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. . . . For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." The bread which Moses gave, the manna in the wilderness, was a psychic sign or symbol, not actually from heaven : Jesus said, "my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven : for the bread of God is that which com- eth down out of heaven, and giveth light unto the world. ... I am the bread of life. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven : if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever." Had the Master paused here, there would have been no occasion for stumbling on the part of his disciples; but Jesus wished to include the natural- minded as well as the spiritual among his followers, through faith, and therefore he continued: "yea, and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the 214 THE SON OF MAN. life of the world," — for the life of those who are still in the world, or in a state of nature. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life ; I will raise him up in the last day," — in the day of God, when the Spirit is imparted to the souls of " as many as will receive him." Until the perceptions are spiritually quick- ened, faith in the promise is wholly efficacious for those who are sincerely unable to apprehend the truth in its spiritual essence. Therefore, to include the natural-minded disciple among his followers, Jesus clothes his spiritual meaning with even a carnal form, and says: "yea, and the bread which I will give is my flesh. . . . Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in yourselves." But that flesh and blood which Jesus received through his mother was not " the bread of God which cometh down out of heaven and giveth light unto the world ; " the physical body of Jesus, in common with his brethren, was nourished from the earth, for he was " of the seed of David according to the flesh : " therefore it was not in a natural, but ill a spiritual sense, that these words were spoken, as symbols of " the Word made flesh," the natural Christ, upon whom the natural man feeds in the order of his apprehension until he is raised up to a spiritual consciousness " in the last day." The terms " eating " and " drinking," as employed in Revelation, have their spiritual significance, even THE SON OF MAN. 215 as the final promise to them that overcome is that they shall be given " to eat of the tree of life " in Paradise. Spiritually, men feed on Christ when they " receive his words " and " hunger and thirst after righteousness ; " or when they " partake of his nature " and are quickened and sustained by his Spirit. That his carnal nature was transmuted and glorified so that " he saw not corruption," but ascended bodily in fulfilment of the words, " What then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before ? " is the ground of his decla- ration, " Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." For in Christ the whole natural man, body and soul, was redeemed and sanctified by the power of the Spirit. His followers, therefore, are to feed on the whole being of the Christ, naturally and spiritually, that they may be made partakers of his whole na- ture, outward and inward; for he prayed "that they may be one, even as we are." Though bent on a revelation of the Spirit, Jesus never failed to recognize the infirmity of the out- ward man, nor did he neglect to provide a channel of approach for the natural mind ; a visible means of communion adapted to the need of those who cannot dispense with symbols. The old ceremonial, or law of sacrifice, was of that order, and though " done away in Christ," the natural mind cannot, even under the new dispensation, free itself from that necessity ; but Jesus reduced it to the simple elements of bread and wine, as a mystical means of communion " until his coming again." 216 THE SON OF MAN. This " coming again " is in the power of the Holy Ghost, " to as many as will receive him : " for the promise is, " If ye will love me, ye shall be loved of my Father, and I will love you, and will mani- fest myself to you." The fulfilment of this promise is a manifestation to the individual sou], and this is continued through all time : spiritually it has no reference to the future as to time, for it is not in time ; it relates wholly to a state of the heart. After experiencing that spiritual order of manifes- tation St. Paul said : " Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no more. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." Thenceforth, after his coming again in the person of the Holy Ghost, communion is not restricted to the outward means of bread and wine, but by an inward spiritual " fellowship " it is con- stant ; for the soul is then raised up to discern the truth face to face. When instituting the sacrament of bread and wine, Jesus said, " This do in remem- brance of me ; " and the apostle Paul adds, by this means " ye do show the Lord's death till he come." Thus this outward form commemorates the death of Christ until he is revealed again as alive in the souls of men : " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock ; if any man hear my voice, and will open the door, I will come in unto him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Embracing as one flock both his natural and spiritual disciples, according to the order of their understanding, Jesus instituted a means of com- munion that was susceptible of both an outward THE SON OF MAN. 217 and an inward apprehension, according to the con- sciousness in the believer. He that eateth and drinketh outwardly, according to his light, and in the sincerity of his faith, shall be lifted up to a spirit- ual order of discernment " in the last day," when quickened by the Spirit; for Christ will then be enshrined in the heart in open " fellowship," even as he was in Paul. While, therefore, the natural- minded disciple is not deprived of a means of access to God through the sacrament, according to his un- derstanding and belief, he is taught to discern the Lord's body in the bread and wine in mystical form, by faith ; the partaking of which, however, is not to be regarded as physical, "not as your fathers did eat, and died ; " but through the active exer- cise of faith, in union with the divine promise, the means are consecrated and rendered spiritually efficacious. No miracle is needed to convert the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ when the transmutation is effected in the heart of the believer, through faith in his word. Amazed at the literal or apparent meaning of Christ's words, concerning the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood, " many of his disci- ples said, This is a hard saying, who can receive it ? But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said unto them, Doth this offend you ? "What then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth : the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are Spirit, and are life." 218 THE SON OF MAN. Notwithstanding this plain declaration that his meaning was spiritual, "many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." They sub- sided again into their outward state, either from inability or unwillingness to follow his divine lead- ing ; for " the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Seeing many of his disci- ples forsake him because of his words, "Jesus therefore said unto the twelve, Will ye also go away ? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and know, that thou art the Holy One of God." SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT. About the time that Jesus began to foretell his end, he tested the belief of his disciples : " Whom say ye that I am ? Simon Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said, Blessed art thou . . . for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Not by natural discernment, but by a revelation of the Spirit, was this truth made known to Peter. Heretofore the disciples had trusted in Jesus be- cause of his wonderful words and works, and even now this inward recognition on the part of Peter was but a passing gleam of spiritual insight not yet fully established in the heart. The opening of the spiritual consciousness is a revelation of the Father: THE SON OF MAN. 219 then it is given the believer "to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven " by revelation, or by in- spiration, for it is the gift of grace, and not an intel- lectual attainment. When foretelling the coming of the kingdom, Jesus said, " the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, when he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, that there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." For the coming of the kingdom is the awakening of a spiritual conscious- ness in the soul ; and the coming of the Son of man is openly manifested by that means. That coming is not future, as to time, but, as has been said, it is relative to the state of the heart alone ; for Jesu3 said there are those who " shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his king- dom." Ideas rooted in time and space misrepresent Christ's teaching respecting the spiritual kingdom ; and this is made apparent in his conversation with Martha, at Bethany, concerning the resurrection: " Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. . . . Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life ; he that be- lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 220 THE SON OF MAX. That this " last day " is not in time, but is the day of the Spirit, or the " day of God," is plainly declared by the Master: the resurrection is ever at hand in the person of Christ ; and it is wholly a question of belief, or faith in his word, without ref- erence to bodily dissolution ; for it is the resurrec- tion of the soul from a natural to a spiritual state, whether the outward organism be living or dead. In like manner the coming of the Son of man is without reference to time, or bodily environments, be they physical or psychical, before or after death. His coming is to the individual soul, or to the souls of " as many as will receive him." And concerning the resurrection, the words spoken to Martha imply that they who are in a state of nature, if they will but believe in Christ, they shall live ; while they who are already quickened, and believe in him, shall never die. In other words, life and death, in the mind of Christ, are wholly apart from bodily changes, being dependent on the presence or ab- sence of the Spirit alone. Indeed, for the spirit- ually-minded, the grave, or physical death, is swal- lowed up in the victorious consciousness that it stands related to the soul as merely incidental to a bodily change, and is no more to be dreaded than is man's entrance upon the earthly life : that from which the natural mind shrinks, therefore, is ea- gerly welcomed by the spiritual as an infinite gain. But while all souls "rise," psychically, after phys- ical dissolution, none rise spiritually except they be quickened -by Christ ; when they are " lifted up above the earth," and enter the kingdom of heaven, without reference to bodily conditions. THE SON OF MAN. 221 When Jesus had declared himself to Martha as the resurrection and the life, he said, " Believest thou this ? " Martha, not understanding his mean- ing, fell back on her faith, and said, "Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world ; " and this reply of faith is acceptable for those who believe without spiritual discernment, for faith serves as a substi- tute for knowledge in spiritual things until it is given the disciples " to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven," when, with the apostle Paul, they may say, "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed," for now we know and perceive the truth. NATURE AND SPIRIT. Jesus said, "I came not to bring peace, but a sword ; " to create a division among men. It is in the bond of Spirit alone that unity is found : there- fore Jesus prays that " they all may be one, even as we are one;" and until that spiritual bond is established divisions are wrought. " The word of the Lord is as a sharp two-edged sword, which parteth asunder soul and spirit," the natural mind from the spiritual mind. Revelation marks a sharp distinction between the natural and the spiritual worlds, showing them to be two dis- tinct realms, — a kingdom of nature and a kingdom of God. Between the two there is a deep gulf fixed, which Christ alone makes passable; for in him the divine and the human are united in one will, and therefore he is "the way and the truth 222 THE SON OF MAN. and the life." Among those united by the closest ties of nature, ignorance or knowledge of the Spirit causes a separation of soul in the interior life, of which there may be no outward sign visible, but which is as wide as the east is from the west. The awakening of a spiritual consciousness in man is the soul's entrance into a new world, into " the kingdom of God." As the soul rises by the power of the indwelling Spirit, the old world is put under it and " a new heaven and a new earth " open to the view. Outwardly no visible change is wrought, but inwardly they who walk according to nature, and they who " walk in the Spirit," are in two dis- tinct worlds. As illustrating this distinction the intercourse of Jesus with his own brothers, before their conversion, affords a striking example, when they urged him to go up to Jerusalem, to the feast of tabernacles, to exhibit his wonderful psychic powers to the multitude; for, said they, " there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he him- self seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him." Though living in intimate and familiar intercourse with Jesus, his brothers probably saw in him only that which ex- cited curiosity or wonder, respecting his psychic gifts ; they knew nothing of that divine endowment of the Spirit which had caught his soul up into heaven. Doubtless his words seemed to them ex- travagant or fanatical, as they were regarded by the Scribes and Pharisees, — the pedants and the formalists of the time. Jesus therefore replied, THE SON OF MAN. 223 " My time is not yet come : but your time is al- ways ready. The world cannot hate you ; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up to the feast : I go not up, for my time is not yet full come." But when his brothers "were gone up unto the feast, then went he also up, not openly, but in secret." On the way a certain scribe desired to follow him " where- soever he might go; " but Jesus answered, " Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." In the wide natural world there was no place found for one " who came down from heaven : " he was the one being under heaven who seemed out of place, and of least value ; he whose mission it was to proclaim " the kingdom and heal all manner of infirmities." At a later day, when sending out the seventy to announce the glad tidings, "the kingdom of heaven is come nigh unto you," Jesus said to them : " if they receive you not, nevertheless be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of heaven is come nigh." To the natural mind nothing is more vague, or unsubstan- tial, than a realm of Spirit. The moral law is rec- ognized by the natural mind as a substantial entity, a power which makes for righteousness ; but a realm of Spirit over and above the moral world, a " king- dom of God " wherein " the things that have been kept secret from the foundation of the world " are openly revealed to the soul through "fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ," that is incomprehensible unless spiritually dis- 224 THE SON OF MAN. cerned. It is to the spiritual consciousness, there- fore ; that the heavens draw nigh ; where the nat- ural mind asserts its supremacy the heavens recede beyond the stars. To the natural-minded who stood before him Jesus said, " Ye are from beneath : I am from above : ye are of this world : I am not of this world. ... I speak to the world those things which I have heard of my Father," namely, the things of the Spirit. "I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me : he hath not left me alone, for I do always the things that please him. ... If ye continue in my word" — that is, if ye walk in my Spirit — " then are ye my disciples, . . . and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. . . . Verily I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Seeing that the things of the Spirit are not ap- prehended by the natural intellect, but are dis- closed spiritually through the heart and conscience, Jesus said, " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast re- vealed them unto babes." The things of the Spirit are hid from the wisdom and prudence of the nat- ural mind, but they are plainly revealed to spirit- ual babes, to those who are newly " born of the Spirit." Intellectual qualification has nothing whatever to do with entrance into the kingdom : it is purely a matter of the heart and will ; a yearning for the heavenly, a longing for purity, a desire for THE SON OF MAN. 225 God. And Christ's words are, " come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart : and ye shall find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." SPIRITUAL DISCIPLES. The disciples of Jesus having by slow and grad- ual steps come into a spiritual discernment of his teaching, that his kingdom is not of this world, but a spiritual or heavenly realm wherein God is en- shrined in the heart, the Master then said : " blessed are your eyes, for they see ; and your ears, for they hear ! Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not ; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not." The revela- tions made to the prophets were but the foregleams of that true " light which is come into the world." The revelation of the Father as abiding in the Son of man, and as abiding in the souls of " as many as will receive him," was more than the fulfilment of the hope of Israel. The righteousness of conduct was not sufficient to bring the Spirit to light, for many righteous men had desired to see and hear the things that were then quickening the souls of the disciples of Jesus by the power of the newly imparted Spirit; and this spiritual quickening made them "blessed" and ".holy," redeeming and sanc- tifying their souls by the power of an endless life. The natural world and the moral law are not 226 THE SON OF MAN. ends in themselves, but a means, a forming and dis- ciplinary stage in the soul's progress. When man is lifted up above the earthly state he passes on, ascending the heights of a spiritual realm. All the powers of outward manifestation belong to nature, and are thence derived, even to the Son of man in heaven, who glorifies the Father in a human soul formed in the likeness of God. Spirit alone is the Substance and the life, the origin and fulfilment of all things. Nature and Spirit stand forever related as form and substance ; and the soul of man is " a vessel prepared" to house and domesticate the in- finite divine love, or God himself. Jesus said, "what I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the housetops. . . . For whoso- ever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is heaven." If any man speaks directly from the Spirit, he speaks the word of God : if he speaks from his own mind he speaks by the light of nature. No true disciple can be an idle partaker of the heavenly mysteries, or of spiritual privileges : through all time, they that receive the Spirit are called upon to minister the same to others ; and Jesus intimated that the word of a disciple is efficacious in bringing souls into the kingdom ; for the Spirit alone does the work, and the Spirit flows forth from God, through his Son, and through the hearts of his disciples, to redeem the whole world. Christ renews himself in the disciple, working with ever-increasing power, " be- cause," as Jesus said, " I go to the Father," and THE SON OF MAN. 227 thus a way is opened that is more effectual from his having been " touched with the feeling of our infirm- ities." The word that Jesua spoke to his immedi- ate followers is equally applicable to his disciples through all time : to all who have received the Spirit, in ministering the glad tidings that " the kingdom of heaven is come near," it '■ shall be given them," without premeditation, what they shall say, " for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you," even as that same Spirit spoke in Jesus. The gospel of the kingdom, there- fore, is for all alike to declare who believe on the Lord Jesus, for " all are kings and priests unto God ; " all who open the heart to receive the Spirit are temples of the living God, and to the extent of their ability to receive his word, the Spirit is freely given, for "he giveth not his Spirit by measure," neither is God "a respecter of persons." While man is still in the bondage of nature this "freedom of the Spirit" is incomprehensible, for the natural mind requires an external and even visible means of approach, some form of inter- vening instrumentality that is representative, or vested with authority. Jesus recognized this need of the outward man, and respected it as having its place in the order of progress, not to be dispensed with until "the last day" when the spiritual con- sciousness is fully aroused. After cleansing the leper, Jesus said " see thou tell no man ; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." He who was outwardly cleansed, being in- 228 THE SON OF MAN. wardly still in a natural state, must comply with the appointed forms in the performance of outward acts that testify his gratitude according to his un- derstanding. As he was not a spiritual disciple he was incapable of spiritual discernment, and there- fore it was necessary that he should offer sacrifice according to his light, as a token of gratitude to God for the benefit received ; for the natural mind must be dealt with according to its understanding. And even his own immediate disciples, while their spiritual perceptions were but partially aroused, Jesus classed with "the multitude" when he said: " The scribes and pharisees sit in Moses' seat : all therefore whatsoever they bid you, do and observe : but do not after their practice ; for they say and do not." The Master would not have his disciples dispense with the law until it is fulfilled in the heart; for he "came not to destroy, but to fulfil." It is only when an outward or natural order of wor- ship is fulfilled in an aroused spiritual conscious- ness that the " freedom of the Spirit " is perceived to be the end of all outward or formal means for the individual soul ; for they who walk in the Spirit are perpetually praising God in every act and thought, their life is thence on one continuous wor- ship, and God is ever present with them, " eye to eye." That the morality of the natural state is not the true kingdom is plainly implied by the refusal of Jesus to administer temporal things. When asked to administer an estate, he said : " Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" His tidings THE SON OF MAN. 229 were of a spiritual realm, above conduct, above morals; a kingdom of God, in -whose presence, when abiding in the soul, all things are fulfilled. It is not an inactive sphere of contemplation, but a state in which every act and thought is quickened by the Spirit, and wherein man rises above nature and the moral law, and finds the fulfilment of his destiny in God. It is a state in which the soul is in fellow- ship with God ; in which the servant has become a son, knowing the mind of the Father. As mani- fested in Christ it is, while man is still in the earthly life, " God manifest in the flesh," the Spirit abiding in the souls and bodies of men, with ever- increasing fulness, and shining outwardly through every act and word ; it is God " glorified " by out- ward manifestation in the minds and hearts of his children, as in his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said : " I am come to send fire on the earth ... I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " In the light of Spirit the things that are honored of men are disregarded ; a new standard is applied, and Jesus is embarrassed in his task by man's dul- ness in receiving the light, for the natural mind cannot comprehend it. In order to its apprehen- sion the wisest of the earth must become as little children, willing and docile, for " a little child shall lead them." The standard of the Spirit, rising above the realm of moral law, gives even the Son himself a sense of imperfection, prompting the words, " Why callest thou me good ? There is none good; no, not one, but God. Be ye there- 230 THE SON OF MAN. fore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Christ's contact with the greek mind. As his end drew near, a more distinct revelation of the thought of Jesus respecting his mission was called forth by " certain Greeks, who came up to worship at the feast ; the same came to Philip, and desired him, saying, Sir, we. would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew; and Andrew and Philip come" and tell Jesus." This particularity has its meaning: it implies that this drawing nigh of the Greek mind was regarded as significant ; it also suggests that Jesus was approached through his disciples, that he was in a sense guarded from in- trusion. In the Greek mind there was a marked preparation for the perception of spiritual truths, and Jesus spoke to these Greek Jews with the free- dom and openness that was his custom with dis- ciples only : "Jesus answereth them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glori- fied. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit." The soul, in the earthly life, is as a seed cast into the ground. Much light is thrown on this passage by the words of Paul in 1 Cor. xv., " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive . . . that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die : and that which thou sowest, thou sow- est not that which shall be, but bare grain ; " and the natural mind bears that relation to the spiritual THE SON OF MAN. 231 that the seed does to the plant, the blossom, and the fruit. Spiritually discerned, divested of all carnal associations, these words do not refer to an outward or bodily change merely, but primarily to the soul's experience ; as " sown in corruption " in a carnal state, and as " raised in incorruption " in a spirit- ual state ; or as dying through Adam's natural inheritance, and as made alive through Christ's spiritual inheritance. In the day of God the souls of men are harvested ; but all that has gone before in the carnal and moral states was necessary to the strength and growth of the seed, or to its " bringing forth much fruit " when quickened by the Spirit. Jesus said, "He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Man is but a pilgrim and a sojourner in the natural world ; his home is in heaven, his destiny is the inheritance of God. They who mistake the means for the end, whose conceptions of the kingdom do not rise above the earth, are still in a carnal state. The "throne" of God is in the heavens, the earth is his " footstool," and the promise of the risen Lord is : " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." In the presence of these Greeks, Jesus continued to foreshadow the end of his trials and temptations in the approaching agony of his crucifixion : " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ? But for this cause came I unto this hour." The whole natural man, body 232 THE SON OF MAN. and soul, must be crucified, if he is to burst the gates of death and rise trium'phant into heaven. Body and soul must be redeemed, if the grave is to be " swallowed up in victory," if man is to ascend from earth to heaven. Jesus prayed for some token of the Father's sustaining love and overruling prov- idence, saying, " Father, glorify thy name," mani- fest thy presence. " Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people, therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered : others said, An angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world : now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." The audible voice was for the sake of those who needed a sign, for perfect communion of Spirit was fulfilled in Jesus, who needed no outward testi- monial. All things which befell Jesus are suscepti- ble of both a natural and a spiritual interpretation. In the light of nature, Jesus " lifted up from the earth " is interpreted as " signifying by what death he should die ; " and this is consistent with the divine order, for Jesus stretched upon the cross is the symbol of that entire self-sacrifice which draws all men unto him. But when man is drawn to the cross, and his carnal propensities are nailed to it, then it is no longer the dead Christ that has this power to draw the soul upward, but the living Christ, revealed through the Spirit as lifted up THE SON OF MAN. 233 above the earth by his ascension to a spiritual or heavenly realm, from whence he continues ever to "draw all men unto him "by the power of the Holy Ghost. THE LAW OP SACRIFICE FULFILLED IN CHEIST. The union of man's will with God's will raises man above the natural state into fellowship with the Father. The godlike capacity of the soul, when quickened by the Spirit, is revealed in Jesus. Through union of will with the Father the Son in- herits all things : and likewise of the spiritual dis- ciple, St. Paul says, "all things are yours; whether of life, or death ; or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's." Through the indwelling Spirit, when imparted by Christ, man is endowed with power and great riches, all of which is included in the will of God ; for of the Messiah it was written : " wherefore when he cometli into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offerings for sin thou desiredst not; but a body" — a vessel for the Spirit — "hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings and sacrifice for sin thou hadst no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." In the natural con- sciousness Christ is offered up, a perpetual sacrifice "for the sins of the whole world : " but in the spir- itual consciousness there is no need of sacrifice, "but to do thy will, God." To the spiritually- minded the death of Christ was not what God de- sired or demanded for the salvation of his creatures ; what God requires is that man shall do his will, 234 THE SON OF MAN. manifest his Spirit, and reveal his love. Spirit- ually, therefore, Christ came, not as a sacrifice for sin, but as the living exponent of God's will, mani- festing his light and love to man. It is of the car- nal mind that blood is demanded for the remission of sins, for " the blood is the life of the body," and it is the very life of the carnal man, in every soul, that is demanded while the understanding is still in darkness, or still in the bondage of nature. The mission of the Messiah to the moral man is a rev- elation of the Spirit, of the Father ; and, as inci- dental to this, the revelation in himself of man's heavenly destiny. He " turns the hearts of the children to the Father " by declaring the mercy and love of God, the infinite riches of the Spirit : " I hid not thy truth within my heart, but declared it to the great congregation," that is, to the great assembly of mankind in the world. When the soul is quickened by the Spirit man is " born of God," and thence on " he shall be taught of God : " even as was said of Jesus, " How knoweth this man letters, having never learned ? " The con- scious communion of the Spirit is by revelation, or by inspiration, by " things seen and heard from the Father:" this order of knowledge is not the learning of the scribe, but the knowledge of God. There are those who freely acknowledge this divine order of teaching in the past, as witnessed by the scriptures ; but when revealed in the living this truth is discredited: thus the Jews said of Jesus, " we know that God spake unto Moses ; as for this fellow, we know not whence he is." Not being will- THE SON OF MAN. 235 ing to judge for themselves of the truth of his words, they asked, "Hath any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him?" The carnal mind is incapable of perceiving divine truth in the common- place realities of the present ; therefore they said, " We know this man, whence he is : but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." This atti- tude of the carnal mind toward spiritual things is precisely the same in all ages ; the natural man is incredulous, or incapable of discerning divine truth in its essence. Jesus said, "Follow me," that the disciple may be with the Master : not as to place, but as to his attitude of mind and heart toward God. While standing in the presence of his disciples Jesus claimed nothing for himself that he did not declare to be equally the heritage of his brethren : "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." That same Spirit which quickened the soul of Jesus, shall quicken in like manner the souls of his follow- ers, and bring them, into their great inheritance. By ascending to the Father, Jesus, as the Son of man in heaven, reinforces the means of grace by his ghostly presence, coming to the souls of his follow- ers with all the fulness of the Spirit in the person of the Holy Ghost, that they, " being strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man," may " be filled with all the fulness of God." But " he that taketh not his cross and followeth after him, is unworthy of him; and he that is not ready to for- sake all for him, is unworthy of him." 236 THE SON OF MAN. THE LIFTING UP OF THE SON OF MAN. Jesus said, " now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out. . . . Henceforth I will not talk much with you : for the prince of this world cometh, and hath (or findeth) nothing in me." The world having been gradually and finally overcome in the soul of the Son of man, at the last there is found in him no further ground of temptation : his soul is wholly united to God by the power of the Spirit that had been imparted to it from God ; thus the Son of man is spiritually transfigured as the Son of God ; he is now ready to " ascend up where he was before." Having crucified the carnal nature, and fulfilled in himself " all righteousness," the grave of the earthly state is powerless to hold that purified soul " made perfect through sufferings ; " for the indwell- ing Spirit draws it upward by the might of God's power to the bosom of the Father. This is strictly typical of the experience and destiny of the soul of every son of man in its passage through time to eter- nity, wherein it is to manifest God " by the power of an endless life." Having overcome the world while still in the flesh, Jesus said, " and now I am no more in the world." Spiritually he had already risen above the world and had entered the kingdom of heaven. It was therefore of his outward or bodily ascension that he spoke when he said : " and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me ; " for when the soul of the Son of man had ascended into heaven bodily, he would thence draw THE SON OF MAN. 237 all men to him by a divine ghostly means, as well as by the power of the Spirit : for it is the living and not the dead Christ that will have that power. Absorbed in the order of natural events, the eyes even of his nearest disciples " were holden," that they could not perceive the full meaning of the Master's words : for it is elsewhere stated, as they drew near to Jerusalem, " they thought the king- dom of heaven should immediately appear," in some outward temporal form ; and even after the resurrection of Jesus, his apostles inquired, " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Time was necessary for the Spirit to do its work in redeeming their thought from the bond- age of nature, and doubtless a long interval elapsed before Christ's meaning was spiritually discerned. Jesus said, " while ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light," or children of the Spirit. Again he said, " I am the light of the world ; " and of those who believe on him he said, " ye are the light of the world." That same Spirit which shone in Jesus shines likewise in the souls of his followers ; and that Spirit is " the light of life," " the light which lighteth every man coming into the world ; " but which shines upon man from without, until it is enshrined in the heart. The seasons of spiritual illumination are not con- stant ; while man is still in the flesh his environ- ment may act independently of his will, and cloud his vision. At times the Master " went up into a mountain to pray ; " on some occasions " he con- tinued all night in prayer to God." Again, it is 238 THE SON OF MAN. said, " and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a soli- tary place, and there prayed." At times he said, " Mine hour hath not yet come," or " is not yet full come." He advised his followers, when the Spirit was clearly revealed in them, to " walk wbile ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you," or walk in the Spirit that the darkness of the natu- ral state " overtake you not." By so doing his fol- lowers eventually would " become sons of the light," and the Spirit would shine continually in their souls. While, therefore, the soul at times ascends into a mountain to pray, there are likewise sea- sons when it walks through " the valley of the shadow of death" in a natural state of being; or when, as it was said of Jesus, "he came down with them, and stood in the plain," performing works. PEAYEE. Jesus grounds the efficacy of prayer in faith: "have faith in God," he said. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that whosoever shall say to this moun- tain, Be thou removed, or be thou cast into the sea ; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith shall come to pass ; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye pray for, and desire, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." If there be the slightest doubt, or speculative test applied in prayer, that unfaithful attitude will vitiate its power and destroy its effect : for the sole ground of the efficacy of prayer is faith. The THE SON OF MAN. 239 power of the will can only operate positively through faith, and its force is ganged by that means even in temporal affairs. Great things are brought about in the moral and spiritual realms through prayer, and by the union of man's will with God's will, when these act as one, as in Jesus. The Master set no limit to the will-power when rooted and grounded in faith ; and it may yet be discerned that miracles, so termed, are the natural effects of " a will united to the divine ; " not a special endowment of power, but the common heri- tage of man, if he will " but believe." But no man other than " the Son of man in heaven " could manifest such faith as that of Jesus, for his was a soul " made perfect ; " while the souls of his breth- ren are still in process of being formed, not yet "made whole," for Jesus said, "ye are from be- neath, I am from above." But as the soul is gradually perfected in righteousness, and purified by the presence of the indwelling Spirit, faith passes from strength to strength until it embraces all the fulness and power of God. All the promises, from Abraham down, are made to believers : " Said I not unto you, if ye would but believe ye should see the glory of God ? " True believers are they who, having passed through the initial stage of a natural or historic faith, have come into a living, spiritual faith ; who say, with certain believers of old, " now we believe, not be- cause of thy saying : for we have heard him our- selves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." The believing mind is pre- 240 THE SON OF MAN. eminently that mind which is capable of believing from the witness within itself: Jesus said, "why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" By testing the truth in the crucible of the heart man will not go astray : they who look within need not fear being deceived or misled, for in the sincere heart truth asserts its sovereignty ; and every deep thought of truth leads the mind and heart to God. THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM. Jesus said, "the kingdom of God cometh not with observation," it is not in time or space, " for, behold ! the kingdom of God is within you." At its coming to the individual soul, the things of the natural world will go on in their accustomed order ; the change wrought is of the heart, "whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein." When a cer- tain scribe gave a right interpretation to the chief commandments, as grounded in love to God and the neighbor, — the spirit of which is " more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices," — Jesus com- mended the reply and said, " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God ; " for the perceptions of the scribe had passed beyond the ceremonial law and he discerned the spiritual essence of the religious life. The gospel of the kingdom was not to destroy the moral law, but to ripen it to its fulfilment in spontaneous love, as a higher motive than obedi- ence ; for " love is the fulfilling of the law : " "Doth the Master thank the servant, because he THE SON OF MAN. 241 did the things that were commanded ?" They are unprofitable servants who do only that which is commanded, or that which it was their duty to do. In the kingdom of the Spirit, God is not a taskmas- ter, but a Father, and the son and heir is no longer classed with servants; obedience is swallowed up in love. The new birth, " of the Spirit," and the " coming of the kingdom," are known by the awak- ening of a new order of affection in the soul, draw- ing the heart toward God and man through inward " fellowship," — fellowship with the Father, and with the Son of man as representative of that broad humanity which includes all souls : " now we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." In the absence of that test, man may be righteous, but he is not " born of God:" he may even be without sin, and yet not " born of the Spirit," as was the case with Jesus previous to the descent of the Holy Spirit, which thenceforth "abode in him." In that higher spir- itual state man enters into fellowship with God, as his Father and friend : " henceforth I call you not servants, but friends " — these are the words of the Father spoken through Jesus. The spiritual life includes the moral life, but moral righteous- ness does not necessarily include the Spirit, which is " the gift of God " to the soul. The moral man is still a servant, a righteous servant : but the spir- itual man is a son, a son of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. In that celestial republic all the sons of God will be, in their degree and accoi'ding to their individual capacity and personal 242 THE SON OF MAN. characteristics, in the form of God, but differing " as one star differeth from another star in glory." God will then be all in all, and the infinity of God will be revealed in the infinite diversity of character manifested in the souls of men, whose "forming" experience will have been such that no two souls shall be alike in that final state. THE JUDGMENT. As the end of his earthly ministry drew nigh, Jesus proclaimed the gospel, or good tidings of the kingdom, as manifested in himself, with greater ful- ness and directness : " Jesus cried, and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me." The Spirit is perfectly mani- fested in Jesus ; in him is the complete union of man's will with God's will, and this results in one- ness of life : Jesus said, " I and my Father are one." Emptied of all self-will, " the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son." The Son is a perfect manifestation of the Father in all his fulness. The Father's " name," or character, is " glorified," or manifested in Jesus. Jesus said, " I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and keep them not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day," — that THE SON OF MAN. 243 is, in tbe day of the awakened spiritual conscious- ness : man will then be constituted his own judge in the light of that " word," and condemnation shall proceed from his own heart, from -which there is no escape ; for Jesus said, " I have not spoken of my- self : but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life eternal." The revelation of the Spirit illu- mines all the dark chambers of the soul, revealing the " thoughts of the heart " in their true light ; man's eyes are opened to see and judge himself as he stands in the presence of God. Spiritual judg- ment is not to be likened to a human assize ; man is judged by the silent operation of the word of God in the heart and conscience, by the standard of Christ's life and words ; which words are not his, " but the Father's, and they are Spirit and they are life." Jesus having declared the truth, there is no ex- cuse for sin through ignorance when his words have once been heard : " If I had not come, they had not had sin, but now they have no excuse." Jesus declared that God judges no man : " the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." And the Son declares that he judges no man, but " the word that he hath spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." The Spirit is transmitted through the word, and when man is once spiritually quickened the "last day " has already dawned in the soul, and judg- ment begins. The last day is not future as to time, 244 THE SON OF MAN. but as to the state of the heart alone ; and if the heart be turned to God through repentance, the promise of the Messiah is, " I will raise him up in the last day ; " man will then come into a heavenly rest where sin and evil are no longer operative, where temptation no longer besets the soul, where " the prince of this world findeth nothing " in him, and where "they are without fault" before the throne of God. It is through the word of Revelation that this promise is made to man. Jesus trusted in that word, and his human mind was enlightened by it ; there are indications that he studied the written word attentively ; he quotes from it as the source of his information concerning the Messiah, and no doubt that word was his light until he was spirit- ually quickened again by the indwelling presence of God. He refers to the written and spoken word as the means of redemption and salvation for the souls of men : " Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." There is no sub- stitute for God's word, for by that word the sub- conscious is made conscious, and " the things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world " are declared openly to the understanding: man shall not live by his natural mind alone, but " by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Revelation, from beginning to end, is the food on which the soul is nourished to eternal life ; and the neglect of that quickening means is fatal to man's spiritual progress. THE SON OF MAX. 245 THE APPROACHING END. " And when the hour was come, he sat down with the twelve. And he said unto them, With longing have I desired to eat this passover with you, before I suffer ; for I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."' So imperfectly did his disciples, even at this late day, understand the nature of that king- dom, that •• a strife arose among them, which of them should be accounted greatest." In the earlier stages of spiritual enlightenment temptation assails the soul in the form of spiritual pride, the most deadly of sins, the most subtle of evils. When the perceptions are but partially quickened, praise is not given to God for the gift, but it is regarded as of personal merit that the intelligence is enlight- ened. This order of temptation is the more deadly because of the elevation of the plane on which it is encountered. Jesus reproved his disciples, and set an example of humility by washing their feet, say- ing, •• I am among you as one that serveth. . . . If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet ; " or, in other words. If I have humbled myself to cleanse and serve you, you should serve one another in like manner. With infinite patience the Master bore with the ignorance and short-sightedness of his disciples, sympathizing with their weakness and fears as events hastened to their end. A premonition of im- pending calamity had been gathered from his 246 THE SON OF MAN. words, and this filled the hearts of his followers with dismay. On one occasion, when Jesus had foretold his apparently ignominious end, Peter ven- tured to upbraid him for allowing events to so shape themselves ; and Jesus turned upon him with a sharp rebuke for tempting him to avert the end for which he was come into the world. But now that the consummation was at hand they were sad, and Jesus said : " Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me:" for the Son is a manifestation of the Father ; in him the Spirit abides with all the fulness of God. " In my Father's house are many mansions." There are many worlds other than this world, and there are more heavens than one, but all are bound together in the unity of the Spirit, and all are comprised in the Father's house. " If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And wliither I go, ye know the way. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and how know we the way ? Jesus said unto him, I am the way and the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Christ is the example, the means, the quicken- ing power; through him alone is the Father ap- proached. All other religions, including the Jew- ish, are religions of morality, of righteousness, of redemption from the carnal state : through Christ alone is the Spirit revealed, the kingdom of God, as the soul's divine inheritance. The end is not, as THE SON OF MAN. 247 some religions teach, the absorption of man in God. The revelation of soul and spirit, as distinct in sub- stance, precludes that. One is created, the other uncreated ; one forever remains human, the other is divine : the soul is destined to come into the form and likeness of God, but it can never be absorbed in God. The soul externalizes the Spirit in all its fulness, and man enters into an eternal fellowship ■with God, as manifested in his Son Jesus Christ. Of his teachings Jesus said, " these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full." The impending agony, to which the quickened sensibility of Jesus •was already alive, — for the more highly organized the creature, the greater is the suffering of which both mind and body are susceptible, — could not eclipse that intense joy that was fulfilled in him through the presence of the indwelling Spirit. The Master longed to have his disciples realize the joy of that inheritance, for they were his brethren, and theirs was the same divine inheritance of life from God. Jesus said to his followers, "ye are not of the world. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." It is the mission of the human race to mould the world to a likeness of the kingdom ; but it is not, and never will be, the true kingdom : the prayer of Jesus is, that God's will " may be done in earth as in heaven." But heaven, and not the world, is the Father's house, the true home of the Spirit. It is 248 THE SON OF MAN. not in the earthly Zion, but in the heavenly Jeru- salem, that Jesus prepares a place for his followers. The progress of the individual soul, and of "the brethren," is ever onward and upward, in more and more intimate fellowship with God in every stage of life. The soul presses on from height to height, ever attaining greater freedom and fuller life, until it stands in the " unveiled presence of God ; " even as Jesus passed through the world and rose again into the heavens, finding rest in the bosom of the Father. After foretelling the sufferings that would befall his followers while still in the world, Jesus said, " these things I said not unto you at the begin- ning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me ; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou ? " The Master longed to have his disciples inquire of him concerning that joyful consummation; but in their ignorance and sorrow they were unable to avail themselves of the opportunitj'. The things of the Spirit are drawn out by spiritual intercourse : " draw near to God and he will draw near to you." It is the seeking and knocking that opens wide the door of truth ; and unless there is a thirst for knowledge mani- fested on the part of the disciple, the Master is not prompted to speak. There is ever an intense yearn- ing to impart spiritual treasures, for all are blessed in the giving ; and the repression of this desire to communicate what he knew, must have been most painful to Jesus. It was this that rendered him a solitary in the midst of the multitude, and sealed THE SON OF MAN. 249 _ his lips even when alone with his disciples, on some occasions, when he longed to communicate that which they were unable to receive, or which they had not the intelligence to call forth. As the joy that was fulfilled in him was a knowledge of divine things through the conscious presence of God abid- ing in him, he longed to have his disciples inquire of him concerning those things, but they were silent. This silence must not be attributed to reverence, but simply to their inability to question him with intelligence concerning the deep things of God: they were still in a natural state, only partially awakened to spiritual consciousness ; their thought of the kingdom was still temporal and earthly, — the kingdom of Israel; to inquire of the things of the Spirit was beyond their depth. The natural mind stands dumb on the threshold of the spiritual world, and its ignorance is too often mistaken for reverence. For it is the very life of the spiritually quickened to inquire into '' the deep things of God; " this is the great inheritance into which they are called: "all things are yours, whether of life, or death, or things present or things to come," and not to inquire into them shows a lack of proper discernment, for it is through a knowledge of them that the soul is quickened in its march of progress. Jesus, knowing the weakness of his followers, and that their perceptions were dull, said, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." Again, he said, " ye now therefore have sorrow : but I will 250 THE SON OF MAN. see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you . . . Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. . . . Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." THE PROMISE OF ANOTHER COMFORTER. In taking leave of his disciples Jesus promised them " another Comforter, who will abide with you forever." In the day of the Holy Ghost, he said, " ye. shall ask me nothing. Whatsoever ye shall ask the, Father, he will give it you in my name." In the day of the coming of the spiritual Christ the dispensation of the natural Christ is fulfilled; Cod is then directly approached, and whatsoever is asked of the Father "he will give it you in my name," — that is, through the ascended and glorified Jesus, the Holy Ghost. Concerning the different methods of his dealing with man, in the earthly and in the spiritual states, Jesus said, "these things have I spoken unto you in proverbs ; the time corneth when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the father." Under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost the things of the Spirit will then be declared Face to face; Spirit to spirit. The Sou of man, in addressing the natural mind clothed the divine truth in symbols; but in the day of the, fully aroused spiritual consciousness the truth will be spiritually discerned. Jesus said, "I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you : for THE SON OP MAN. 251 the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." THE GLORIFIED SON OP MAN. When the disciples of Jesus fully recognized him as the Messiah, he said, "Do ye now believe?" Here was the long-delayed and earnestly hoped-for recognition, which was actually the fulfilment of his mission. Jesus had manifested God in the natural world, and the truth was perceived and acknowl- edged by man. The joy of the Master broke forth in a fervent prayer of thanksgiving: "lifting up his eyes to heaven, lie said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee ; as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him," — " to as man)' as received him : " " and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true (rod, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Here the Messiah distinguishes between himself and God; he is God by virtue of the in- dwelling Spirit. " I have glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was," — with thy Spirit. " I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them to me ; and they have kept 252 THE SON OF MAN. thy word. Now they know that all things what- soever thou hast given me are from thee : for tbe words which thou gavest me I have given unto them ; and they have received them, and know of a truth that I am come forth from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. ... I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep in thy name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are." The disciples of Jesus are now standing with their Lord within the kingdom ; eternal life is begun in them. The glad tidings of great joy that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand " is fulfilled in them; their eyes are opened to behold the glory of the " last day." Jesus said, " I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth : thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, even so send I them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word, that they all may be one ; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us : that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them ; that they may be one, even as we are one : I in thee, and thou in me ; that they may THE SON OF MAN. 253 be perfected into one, that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee, and these know that thou didst send me ; and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known: that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them." These words of Jesus concluded the good tidings concerning the kingdom. Outward events followed in their natural course, culminating- in the cruci- fixion of the Son of man. It was the third hour when they crucified him : " then said Jesus, Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do. . . . From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? . . . And when Jesns had cried again with a loud voice, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost." THE FULFILMENT OF THE MISSION OF THE SON OF MAN. The gospel, or good tidings of the kingdom of God, the realm of Spirit, having been declared by the Son of man. and received by his disciples, Jesus 254 THE SON OF MAN. gave vent to his joy in these words : " I have glori- fied thee on the earth, I have accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do. I have mani- fested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world, and they have received thy word." This implied the fulfilment of the spiritual part of his divine mission as Son of man: "offer- ings and sacrifice for sin thou didst not desire ; then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord." The Spirit of the Father, abiding in the Son of man, found free expression through that sinless soul, being manifested in divine words and works. In him was the light of life : and he came that man might have life more abundantly. The events which followed were in the order of trial and temptation to the perfecting of the en- tire sacrifice of the natural man, body and mind: "for as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- ness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up;" or, as Moses elevated the carnal mind to a moral plane, so Jesus raises the moral man to a spiritual plane ; the law finding its fulfilment in the self-sac- rifice of a loving heart. By crucifying the whole man, body and soul, man is purged and purified as the eternal temple of the living God. And as the serpent lifted up in the wilderness typified the bodily crucifixion of Jesus; so, in turn, does the bodily lifting up of the Son of man upon the cross symbolize the ascension of the soul of the Messiah to a spiritual or heavenly realm : Jesus said, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." THE SON OF MAN. 255 He who was emptied of the Spirit that he might "take on the form of a servant," descended "into the pit and miry clay," was incarnated as "the seed of the woman " that should " bruise the serpent's head," and when made perfect through sufferings, he rose again by the power of the quickening Spirit, ascending to God as the Son of man in heaven : and " this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." A revelation of the true relationship that exists between God and man was thus declared openly, by manifestation, in Jesus. As the Father raised Jesus from the dead ; so, in like manner, the Son raises the souls of his followers " from death unto life," that they may come into his fellowship with God. THE SON OF MAN IN HEAVEN. Jesus said, " no man hath ascended into heaven, save he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." Again he said, " what and if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before." And still again, " then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven." These words imply that the Anointed One is the Son of man in heaven ; for the Son of man as- cended " where he was before." In the light of this revelation the generic term " man " must be accorded a much broader and deeper significance than that put upon it by the narrow thought of this earth, since "the Son of man in heaven" is likewise " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 256 THE SON OF MAN. The earliest word of scripture declares that man is made in the " image " of God ; and later revela- tions announce the truth that he is destined to come into the divine "likeness " when " born again, of the Spirit." That which was imaged, potentially, in the creature, is to come into the perfect likeness, or form of God, in the begotten Son. The manifes- tation of the Son of God in the Son of man, as the Christ, is typical of the Spirit individualized and domiciled in the soul of man ; and this individual- ized spirit in man is of one substance with the Fa- ther, for "they that are joined to the Lord are one Spirit." Jesus thus reveals in himself the ultimate destiny of the soul of man, whose inheritance is God, as declared to Abraham : " I am thy exceeding great reward." Jesus gives voice to that indwelling Spirit, and prays, " and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." That is, the Messiah prays to be reendowed with all the fulness of God's Spirit, — " with thine own self," — not as outwardly symbolized at his baptism, but as perma- nently abiding in him through perfect at-one-ment of will, which was only consummated when Jesus declared that " the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." And all the sons of man, when born of God, are in like manner made partak- ers of the divine nature. The significance of the term " man," in the light of Christ, is so deepened and enlarged that it tran- scends all earthly conceptions, and stands as the generic symbol of a divine humanity which fills the THE SON OF MAN. 257 universe : " what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him : thou hast made him a little lower than the angels [a little lower than God], and hast crowned him with glory and honor, . . . thou hast put all things under his feet." Man must not be judged by the primitive or fallen type peculiar to this earth, but by the supreme standard of " the Son of man in heaven ; " man glorified as the Son of God through the power of the indwelling Spirit imparted from the Father. And as there is unity in the Creator, so likewise is there unity in the creature : God and man, as revealed in Christ, stand related as sub- stance and form, for the scripture declares that "the tabernacle of God is with men:" the Spirit is eventually domiciled in the soul of man, " a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Man's final destiny, as revealed in the Son of man in heaven, is a state higher than the angelic, for "to which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son ? And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." The Son is higher than the angels ; higher than all created beings : and when begotten in time, it was said of him : " I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I be- gotten thee." The expression, "Son of man in heaven," is in- dicative of the external or psychical nature of the 258 THE SON OF MAN. Son of God : and " when the sons of God are man- ifested," it is the Spirit individualized and mani- fested in the souls of men, even as in Christ the " Son of God " is manifested in the " Son of man." That indwelling Spirit, the Son, is of one substance with the Father, who is free, unconditioned Spirit, of whom all the children of God are "begotten." And in the end or consummation the First-begotten "will himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all : " for the Son will then have revealed the whole destiny of man as manifested in Jesus, the Christ ; and in that final state the Spirit alone will be discerned as God: "in that day shall the Lord be one, and his name one." The natural mind, in passing from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican system, outgrew the thought of this earth being the centre and glory of the whole physical universe around which all things were sup- posed to revolve. And in like manner the spiritual mind has learned to measure the full stature and destiny of "man" by Christ's standard, by "the Son of Man in heaven," and not by the imperfect creature in the earthly state of being. When this world, with all its attendant condi- tions, is perceived to be among the least of those innumerable worlds which fill the universe, — rela- tive to which it stands as a very subordinate body, of comparatively recent origin, — it must be evident that the conception of the height and breadth and depth of meaning that is hid in the generic term " man" is not compassed by the man of this earth, but is spiritually discerned in Christ, in the Son of THE SON OF MAN. 259 man in heaven. When " the sons of God shouted for joy " at the laying of the foundations of this earth, the universe was old, and doubtless had already performed its allotted task, from eternity to eter- nity, of forming the souls of men as temples of the Holy Spirit. The human soul that is formed on this small planet is probably related, generically, to many similar but infinitely more glorious creations, all of which are included in that great family of God which embraces all worlds : for " in the Father's house are many mansions ; " and many ranks of beings may very properly be conceived as included in the generic term " man." The expression, "son of man," as employed in Ezekiel, and as the name by which Jesus usually designated himself, stands for the individual human soul. However the phys- ical creation is regarded as a revelation of God, scripture declares that " the tabernacle of God is with men." That is, God stands face to face with his offspring in the souls of men : in all other created things there intervenes a secondary cause or instru- mentality designated the "hand of God." Once tabernacled in the soul, the Spirit eventually raises man up " in the last day " to personal fellowship with God, to " sit with him in his throne," not as a subject, but as a son and friend. Man, who gen- erically imaged the Deity, is then grown into the likeness of God, and is " without fault before his throne." " What then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before ? " A shining light wherewith to illumine these momentous words is 260 THE SON OF MAN. found in Messianic prophecy, for therein is discerned the true history of that " chosen" soul laid bare, in all its varied experiences in its passage through the psychical, carnal, and spiritual states of being. In the visions of Nebuchadnezzar the soul of the Anointed One is, as we have seen, pictured as a tree which grew till " its branches reached unto the heavens ; " when by the divine decree it was hewn down till only its roots remained in the earth ; and in the place of the heart of God he was given the heart of man. And in Zechariah it is further prophesied of that Messianic soul, that, having resisted Satan, and having overcome the world by descending into the pit and miry clay, and taking upon himself the evils of the unregenerate state, for the redemption of man, at the fulfilment of his mis- sion the divine command was given, " Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." For it is written : '• He shall bear our iniquities : " and again, " Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many : and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The fleshly garment, with all its attendant evils, or inheritance from the world, was to be laid aside ; Jesus was to rise in a " change of raiment," in a new and glorified form, to "judge my house, and keep my courts," — the house and courts of God. That the soul of the Anointed One is a natural personality, "the Son of man," is plainly taught in THE SON OF MAN. 261 scripture ; and this personality is not that of the Son of God, — the Spirit individualized and made personal in that divine soul. The " Son of man in heaven " is the Holy Ghost ; the soul of Jesus raised from corruption to incorruption, from weakness to power, from earth to heaven, and from glory to glovj until it is again in the form of God, "the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance." If the story of Joseph, in the Old Testament, be regarded as a symbol of divine truth, he who was let down into the pit, and was raised to the right hand of temporal power in Egypt, imaged the Christ. He who succored his brethren and became their saviour, and the saviour of famishing peoples, — before whom, as unto Pharaoh, all men, even his brethren, "bowed low with their faces to the earth," — eventually revealed himself as their brother : " Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him : and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me : and there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren ; and he wept aloud." And he said, " God did send me before you to pre- serve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." V. THE RISEN CHRIST. " He is despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief : and we hid as it were our faces from him. . . . He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep be- fore her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment : and who shall declare his generation ? for he was cut off out of the land of the living. . . . And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death." — Isaiah liii. " The Lord hath chastened me sore : but he hath not given me over unto death." — Psalm cxviii. " Thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol, nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." — Psalm xvi. 10. " Thou hast bronght me up out of the pit, and out of the miry clay." — Psalm xl. 2. " Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death : be- cause it was not possible that he should be holden of it." — Acts ii. 24. " Why seek ye the living among the dead ? He is not here, but is risen." — Luke xxiv. 5, 6. THE RISEN CHRIST. THE BBSTJBEECTION OF JESUS. " In the end of the sahhath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Mag- dalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. . . . and they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were perplexed thereabout, behold ! two men stood by them in shining raiment : and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead ? He is not here, but is risen. . . . And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy ; and did run to bring his dis- ciples word. . . . " The same day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the dis- ciples were for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. . . . But they were terrified and af- frighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do questionings arise in your hearts ? Behold 266 THE RISEN CHRIST. my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and he took it, and did eat before them. . . . Then were the dis- ciples glad, when they saw the Lord." The New Testament includes three distinct or- ders of divine manifestation, — by the Son of man, by the risen Jesus, and by the Holy Ghost. The second, that of the risen Jesus, during the forty days intervening between his resurrection and as- cension, forms the subject of this inquiry. The scriptures afford many hints that serve to inter- pret in part the nature of this special order of manifestation. THE THIRD DAY. At the end of the age a new day began to dawn in the consciousness of man ; " Behold ! the night is far spent, the day is at hand : " and the premo- nitions of that resplendent dawn are seen in the reflected glory of the risen Lord, whose bright effulgence was to bathe the whole earth in its direct rays when he had ascended to the Father. In order that we may understand the nature of the revelation made by the risen Jesus, it is es- sential that it be known that the natural creation includes as it were two worlds, a visible and an THE RISEN CHRIST. 267 invisible sphere, a physical and a psychical realm. Divested of its garment of flesh, the soul rises in a psychical realm, included in a natural state of being ; for this interior sphere, in its lower stages at least, is still of the order of a natural world. It is not through physical dissolution, but by spirit- ual ascension, when purged and purified, that the soul enters outwardly as well as inwardly a spirit- ual or heavenly realm. By confounding a merely psychical with a spiritual realm, erroneous views are formed of the state of the soul following the death of the body ; and it is through the revela- tion in the risen Jesus that a true conception may be formed, enabling the mind to distinguish be- tween psychical and spiritual things. The psychi- cal state, in which the soul rises after death, is an intermediate state, or sphere, intervening between the physical and the spiritual worlds. It is a pre- ternatural realm, not strictly supernatural. After dissolution the soul may find itself still in familiar surroundings, the change being marked by the order of substance in which all outward things are conditioned. This intermediate state is not a realm of Spirit, but a psychical realm, in which all the old propensities of the earthly life are still ac- tive, but with changed conditions. The order of thought and conduct are still concerned with the things of a natural world: man is not spiritually advanced by putting off his "fleshly garment," for man can only rise to a higher realm through re- generation, when the third, or last day, the day of God, dawns with an awakened spiritual conscious- ness. 268 THE RISEN CHRIST. SHEOL, OR HADES. During the forty days intervening between his resurrection and ascension, Jesus was in a preter- natural or intermediate state of being, a psychical world, or hades, — the abode of the departed. Ac- cording to the seers, or mystics, this intermediate realm between the earthly and the heavenly states, in its lower stages, is an unseen realm of nature, while in its higher stages it is the outward or visi- ble realm of Spirit. It fills ;t place in creation cor- responding to that filled by the soul in man, which intervenes between the physical organism and the spirit, being manifested as a realm of mind. It is further intimated by the seers, that in each succes- sive stage of existence, as in the earthly life, two spheres or states are blended in one " world." In the natural life the physical and the psychical are the outward and inward spheres of one world, and in the heavenly life the psychical and the spir- itual stand similarly related. In the earthly life a physical organism clothes the soul, and in the spir- itual world a psychical organism clothes the spirit ; the purified soul being then the form of spirit, even as was said of the Christ, "being in the form of God, he counted it not robbery to be equal with God." Through his physical organism man is brought in contact with a series of conditions constituting a physical world ; and through his mental faculties he is brought in contact with the conditions of a psychical realm ; while through his will and aflec- THE RISEN CHRIST. '269 tions, when " born of the Spirit," he comes into communion with a spiritual or divine realm, as a son of God. THE NATURAL MAN IN CHEIST. Christ, as Son of man, was wholly within the conditions of the natural world : " for he came not by water only, but by water and blood ; " that is, psychically and physically ; though a preexisting soul, incarnated from a heavenly realm, he never- theless was " born of a woman ; " and " he took on the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men." The Messiah was emptied of the Spirit in order that he might descend into the outward or carnal state of man, into " an horrible pit and miry clay." As Son of man, Christ was both psychically and physically formed in a state of nature when born into this world. Incarnated as Son of man, that divine soul entered conditions with which he w;iged a ceaseless warfare until he overcame them ; for those conditions were all opposed to the divine im- pulses of his being. It was thus " he bore our sins in his own body," as it was prophesied, " he shall bear their iniquities ; " for that divine soul entered an unregenerate state in which sin is a ruling pro- pensity, and evil the burden of life. Having risen from the dead, both as regards spiritual regeneration and bodily resurrection, Jesus manifested himself to his disciples for the space of forty days. And inasmuch as "it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a 270 THE RISEN CHRIST. merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertain- ing to God," Jesus revealed the actual state of the soul in that intermediate realm ; and this revela- tion formed part of his mission ; for in all stages of life he is the Revelator, bringing to light the hid- den order of things. Inasmuch, therefore, as he was in all things made like unto his brethren, it follows that in all respects he is the perfect exem- plar, the illustrator and revealer, of the soul's path of progress through all worlds, or states of being ; for he is the way and the truth and the life through- out all realms. All things in heaven and earth are revealed in Christ, and it is through a knowledge of him, and the imitation of his example, by his aid and power, that man is made an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, and of that life which is " hid with Christ in God." ETERNAL LIFE. It is a great mistake to suppose that he who was "in all things made like unto his brethren" abruptly terminated his identification with the hu- man family when he was laid in the tomb. The infinite and eternal destiny of the soul of man is re- vealed in Jesus: "this same Jesus " preserves his identity throughout all the higher spheres as " the Son of man in heaven." Therefore it was the com- mon experience of the soul that was revealed, out- wardly or consciously, by the manifestation of the risen Master ; and the words, " Why seek ye the living among the dead?" apply equally to every soul, or son of man, who has passed through the THE RISEN CHRIST. 271 valley of the shadow of death : the man is not in the grave, "he is risen." The scriptures teem with testimony asserting the truth that " eternal life " is not a future life as to time, but is the life of the Spirit when abiding in man ; and this life is not in the least affected by physical dissolution, however great that change may be for the outward man. They who have " no will but his abide where he places them ; " and all places are, for the spiritual-minded, equally under God's providence. If, therefore, the soul be once quickened, following in the Master's footsteps, man triumphs over sin, the world, and death, and shares in the inheritance of Jesus ; for the life and des- tiny of man were brought to light in every inci- dental circumstance relating to the mission of the Messiah. The manifestations of the forty days, therefore, are a distinct revelation ; they witnessed a universal truth, and revealed, even to the outward senses, the path of the soul's progress : for the life of Jesus was not a miraculous setting aside of the estab- lished order of things, but simply a revealment of that order in its truest form ; he " brought life and immortality to light." MANIFESTATIONS OP THE RISEN JESTJS. If the manifestations of the risen Jesus, given in the form of physical phenomena, bear no con- formity to natural law, but lie, as it were, athwart the path of man in the natural world, then indeed they must forever remain unexplained in terms of Z I Z THE RISEN CHRIST. natural thought, from the door of knowledge being closed. For it is through a knowledge of law that truth, on the plane of nature, is finally apprehended, as in itself it really is, apart from the outward ap- pearance of things ; and if the phenomenon de- scribed at the beginning of this chapter be wholly apart from that environment of law in which man is placed in the natural world, then there can be no possible clue to an understanding of the nature and conditions of the manifestation witnessed by the followers of Jesus, notwithstanding its physical substantiality as an objective fact, attested by the external evidence of the senses. The reason of man has already reached the con- clusion that where physical phenomena are involved there is necessarily present a basis of natural law, giving form, character, and material attributes to the things observed. Jesus insisted on the physical nature of the manifestation of himself, after his res- urrection, by allowing his body to be handled, and through his partaking of food in the presence of his disciples ; he likewise said : " a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Thus the manifestation was not a mere psychical apparition, but a perfect bodily organism, conditioned for the moment in a physical substance. Through his in- sistence on the physical materiality of the mani- festation — by allowing himself to be handled, by partaking of physical food, and by a reference to his " flesh and bones " — Jesus gave proof of the soul's immortality by a manifestation which brought the evidence wholly within the exterior conditions of THE RISEN CHRIST. 273 the natural world, making it apparent as a fact to the outer senses of man ; and this order of proof was designed to meet the need of those " who stand afar off," the carnal-minded, who can apprehend truth only through sense perceptions. Neverthe- less, while granting this outward form of proof for the benefit of those who must see and handle in order to believe, the Master said, " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." NATURAL LAW. Laws are modes of operation, and these are de- pendent for their cognizance upon the presence of conditions in which they may be manifested. Practically no law exists where the requisite con- ditions of manifestation are not present. Laws operating on the plane of nature are manifested in physical and psychical conditions, and these condi- tions are material and not spiritual. Natural law is projected into a psychical realm because the conditions therein existing are still material, how- ever sublimated : spiritual conditions are supernat- ural, belonging to a heavenly realm raised above nature. It was from an intermediate state, or psy- chical realm, that Jesus manifested himself during the forty days intervening between his resurrection and ascension ; and these manifestations are in the nature of a revelation of the conditions of that state. The bodilv form of the risen Jesus evinced the persistence of the organism in a psychical realm, complete in all its parts, in no way marred by dis- solution. The manifestation reveals the nature of 274 THE RISEN CHRIST. that substance in which the bodily forms of angels and spirits are organized, as they are sometimes seen by seers and prophets. The risen Jesus re- pealed this bodily form as variously conditioned, now visible and palpable to the physical sense, and then vanishing away before the eyes of the disciples. The testimony of the handling, the eating, and the audible voice reveals, by manifestation, the persist- ence of the organic form in a psychical realm, com- plete in all its parts ; it thus is demonstrated that the outward conditions of that realm are preternat- ural, but not supernatural. Phenomena that contradict the common experi- ence of man are usually deemed abnormal, super- natural, or miraculous. The known order of nature is grounded in man's present state of knowledge : phenomena apparently as fixed as the stars in their courses may, with the progress of mind, be found to be subject to change through the operation of newly discovered laws, even as the presence of an unknown body may swerve a planet from its course, the orbit of which was thought to be fixed for all time. The known laws of nature are but the merest fragment of a vast system the bounds of which trans- cend the present capacity of the human mind to grasp, and knowledge is rapidly extending the do- main of natural law far into a psychical realm. With the progress of knowledge it is not improb- able that many things once deemed miraculous, or supernatural, will be found to belong, in part at least, to the order of nature, when once the mind of man is qualified to observe and grasp the condi- THE RISEN CHRIST. 275 tions in which they may be manifested. Thus with the constant progress of mind the knowledge of nature will continue to extend the recognized do- main of law. A recognition of the correlation of substance, manifested in physical and psychical things, will eventually include within the realm of nature many orders of phenomena once deemed supernatural, and this extended knowledge will surely tend to the elevation of man's conceptions concerning that which is truly spiritual, as disiinguished from that which is merely psychical, or preternatural. This knowledge will bring into clearer light the truth of Christ's teaching, that the Spirit is life, " the flesh profiteth nothing." The term " flesh," in the scriptural sense, includes all things related to the body and the " carnal mind " in a natural state of being. The Spirit alone is free, unconditioned, uncreate ; law governs all else : but " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Jesus taught that the Spirit alone is holy, for Spirit alone is God. Offences against all things else shall be pardoned : " yea, whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come." All outward forms of Revelation, being of the order of nature, are proper subjects for scientific scrutiny : the ground is not holy ground, lying as it does within the domain of nature, and below the kingdom of the Spirit. Jesus plainly indicated this 276 THE RISEN CHRIST. when he permitted the apostle Thomas to apply his prescribed tests in order to establish his belief as to the veritable substantiality of the manifestation of the Lord's body. And there are similar orders of mind at the present day, of which the apostle Thomas is a representative, which cannot arrive at a settled conviction respecting the immortality of the soul, save by some similar form of outward or sensible attestation, some empirical " sign " that will constitute a basis of belief. Thomas declared that " he would not believe " except he had sen- sible proof of the fact. The testimony of the other disciples was unavailing : he must satisfy his own mind by such evidence as he himself deemed reliable and satisfactory. In all honesty of mind, persons of this temperamental constitution may desire to be convinced, but they require, as the ground of belief, some outward form of proof ac- ceptable to their own peculiar mental habit. If Thomas, standing so close to the person of the Lord, and knowing so well the character of the other disciples, declared he " would not " accept their testimony as to the fact of the resurrection of Jesus (though he might not doubt the integrity of the witnesses), it is not surprising that there are others " standing afar off " — remote both as to time and spiritual qualifications — who are in the same dilemma. Distance does not render belief more easy, or the grounds of proof more acceptable, to minds requiring experimental evidence of the fact. The Master did not scorn this order of mind as THE RISEN CHRIST. 277 unworthy of a knowledge of the truth : on the con- trary, he permitted the doubting disciple to apply his outward tests ; intimating, however, that they are more blessed who are able to discern the truth on interior grounds of evidence, for they are blessed by a higher order of discernment more reliable than any outward form of proof. But it is through proof of the physical objectivity of the phenom- enon of the Lord's manifestation — elicited by the apostle Thomas — that we are able to distinguish more clearly between psychical and spiritual things. These manifestations were not strictly spiritual : they were projected from an invisible psychical realm, or intermediate state. The apostle Thom- as, therefore, may be regarded as a providential means whereby the facts of a special revelation were called forth in illustration of a most important truth, and in a form peculiarly acceptable to the natural mind ; for Thomas stands as a representa- tive of that form of knowledge which rests on obser- vation and experiment. NATURAL LAW IN A PSYCHICAL REALM. Through the physical manifestation of his psy- chical form, as incidental to his higher mission, the risen Jesus revealed, experimentally, the momen- tous truth that natural law is projected into a psy- chical realm : for nothing could be more conclusive than the evidence resulting from the eating of physical food in the presence of the assembled dis- ciples in demonstration of the fact that the natural organism still exists in a psychic or invisible world, 278 THE RISEN CHRIST. with all its functions unimpaired, though differ- ently conditioned. The psychic organism of Jesus was " clothed upon " with physical substance in the presence of the disciples, after his invisible en- trance to the chamber in which they were as- sembled, "the doors being closed for fear of the Jews." In passing from an inward to an outward state, from psychical to physical conditions, a spirit may clothe itself, by force of will, with the material conditions filling the very atmosphere of the outer sphere into which it passes ; but this does not involve a change of form or organism, any more than thought itself is changed by being embod- ied in a material substance : it remains the same thought whether it rest in the mind, or is expressed in word or stone. So likewise all things psychical, even to the invisible organs of the soul, are perma- nent as to their organic structure, but rendered visible or invisible by virtue of the substance in which the organism is outwardly conditioned. Jesus passed back and forth from visible to invisible conditions, rendering his body palpable or impal- pable at will ; and this was in order to manifest the persistence of his outward personality in an in- visible realm, which fact was further emphasized by his partaking of food in the presence of wit- nesses ; this physical substance — broiled fish and a honeycomb — sharing in the transmutations of his own body. It is wholly erroneous to suppose that a physical organism was miraculously created, at will, on the instant of his palpable manifestation, and then THE RISEX CHKIST. 279 miraculously dissipated in air : there is no warrant for such a supposition, either in the light of nature or of Revelation. The body of Jesus underwent all the various stages of growth and development from infancy to full maturity as an organic product of nature. Once formed •• from beneath," it remained intact after his resurrection, though invisibly con- ditioned in a psychic substance, in that realm en- tered through the grave. The bodily form of Jesus, while invisible, was present with his disciples in all its completeness of parts, before and after his man- ifestation, for the psychic form is unimpaired by dissolution. This psychic form is the basis of the '* terrestrial body," which is framed upon it as a •• fleshlv garment." The bases of all the organs are psvchic in form and substance, and it is this in- terior organism which constitutes a channel of Reve- lation through prophets and seers. Thus there is, fundamentally, but one organism, variously con- ditioned in psychical or physical substances, and these various bodily conditions are equally included within the realm of nature, whether visible or invis- ible. TVTien psvehically manifested, the organism of man is a kev to the laws and forces of a psychi- cal world ; and when physically conditioned, the same organism is a kev to the laws and forces of a physical realm : one is a superior and the other an inferior stage of existence. The physical cannot exist, as a living organism, apart from the psychi- cal ; but the psychical may dispense with the physi- cal, and act independent of it. Thns the manifestations of the risen Jesus, dur- 280 THE RISEN CHRIST. ing the forty days intervening between his resurrec- tion and ascension, constitute a distinct revelation of truth concerning the general nature of that in- termediate state entered by the soul through physi- cal dissolution. There could be devised no form of evidence more positive or conclusive than these or- ganic manifestations, in proof of the truths herein discussed. The revelation was by manifestation, and it was conclusive. As herein explained, it af- fords reasonable and satisfactory evidence of the immortality of the soul as an outward investiture of the Spirit. THE REVELATION OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. The manifestations of the risen Jesus were, as intimated, a passing back and forth between the vis- ible and invisible realms of nature, now emerging into physical conditions, and then receding into a psychical state ; thus Jesus rendered his form vis- ible or invisible at will. This order of manifesta- tion may only have been possible during that brief period intervening between his resurrection and as- cension, while the soul of Jesus still lingered within the region of the earthly life ; for after its bodily ascension to a spiritual realm the soul doubtless is conditioned in a substance so infinitely subli- mated that it no longer is capable of manifest- ing itself physically : the manifestations witnessed by Paul, and by Stephen, -were wholly psychical and only cognizable by those whose " eyes were opened," whose psychic senses were uncovered from above. THE RISEN CHRIST. 281 In one important respect the manifestations of the risen Jesus have a distinct significance, apart from the manifestations of the old dispensation. The beings previously manifested as " angels," or "men," — with the single exception of Samuel, at En-dor, — were unknown to man ; they emerged from the inane, and vanished again, revealing nothing of their past history : apart from the single instance referred to, it is only on the mount of transfiguration, and in the apocalypse of John, that any intimation is given that the beings so man- ifested had once lived on the earth. But the manifestation of the risen Jesus fol- lowed immediately upon his dissolution, while every incident of his earthly ministry was . still fresh in the minds of his disciples. There had been given no such direct evidence of the immor- tality of the soul of man. It was indeed the dawn of a new day, "bringing life and immortality to light ; " immortality for the soul, as well as for the spirit. By making this momentous truth manifest to the external consciousness through the senses, the carnal mind is convinced on its own grounds of evidence. As a manifestation from a realm inter- vening between the earthly and the heavenly spheres, this order of phenomena is necessarily perplexing to the mind : now palpable even to the touch, and then vanishing away before the eye; en- tering invisibly through closed doors, and emerging into visible, palpable form, even partaking of food in the presence of witnesses, — what could be more startling and bewildering? Can it be doubted that 282 THE RISEN CHRIST. the disciples " were terrified and affrighted " ? All that was hitherto deemed orderly and familiar in the phenomena of nature was thus seemingly over- turned in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye ! But, though the reason was perplexed, the hearts of the disciples remained calm : "then were the dis- ciples glad when they saw the Lord ; " their love for the Master conquered all fear. THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. Body, soul, and spirit — or the physical, the psy- chical, and the spiritual — • are distinct in substance, though correlated, all are combined in the consti- tution of the regenerate man ; and a knowledge of these distinctions is the ground of a right under- standing of the nature of these manifestations from an unseen world. It is quite conceivable that, as the soul rises bodily from one series of conditions to another in the order of its progress, the lower condi- tions are "put under" it, or made subservient to the will that is associated with higher powers. A being outwardly conditioned in a higher order of substance than the physical, may gain in power in one direction and lose in another, and still be ca- pable of controlling many of the forces of a lower realm, provided the organic connection with that realm be not wholly severed. In advancing from one plane of existence to another, the soul carries with it the higher properties of the sphere it has left : if the physical be dropped, the mental is re- tained, and with the mental is still associated that order of substance in which natural thought is gen- THE RISEN CHRIST. 283 erated. Jesus manifested a clear distinction be- tween the " rising " and the " ascension " of the soul. The soul rises through dissolution, but it re- mains for a time in an invisible sphere of the nat- ural world, in an intermediate state. Only when purged and purified does the soul ascend to a heav- enly realm, as an " angel of light " as a messenger of Spirit. During the forty days intervening be- tween his resurrection and ascension Jesus was not manifested from a heavenly realm, but from an in- termediate state ; and this is that state in which all souls, in common with Jesus, rise after dissolution. All men rise from the dead, but all do not " ascend to the Father," or to a heavenly realm of Spirit. The ascension of the soul is grounded in a state of the will and affections : they who have been " made whole," by the Spirit imparted from above, ascend to higher spheres, according to their natures. The current impression in the minds of many, that the soul is advanced to a heavenly realm sim- ply through dissolution, is grounded in a very un- spiritual order of thought concerning the heavenly life. Bodily changes cannot influence the affections or the will ; man rises in the next stage of life with the same propensities that were dominant in this world: " he that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still : and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still : and he that is holy, let him be holy still." The mind and affections remain the same, whether conditioned or- ganically in a physical or in a psychical substance ; the old dispositions still persist if the will and affec- 284 THE RISEN CHRIST. tions remain unchanged. Thus, as intimated, it may be gathered from the manifestations of the risen Christ that a distinct revelation was made dur- ing the forty days, revealing the nature of that in- termediate state between the earthly and the heav- enly life, — the hades of the ancients. That Jesus rose from the grave in a natural state of being, and manifested himself as a man, and not as an angel of light ; and that he remained in that state during the interval between his resurrection and ascension ; and that his order of mind, determining his order of thought, was still within the earthly sphere during that period, — will be shown before the completion of this chapter. THE NATURE OP THE FORM OF THE RISEN JESUS. The presence of natural law in a psychical realm is evinced by the fact that the body of Jesus still bore the marks of the wounds inflicted in the flesh. But the scriptures imply that these marks were pe- culiar to that form in which Jesus first manifested himself to his disciples, with the intent of proving his identity of person. There is no reason to be- lieve that these outward marks were permanent, or that the form of the risen Jesus always bore the same outward appearance. Indeed, it is intimated that this form was, in outward appearance, subser- vient to his will, or mood of mind, by virtue of the superior conditions into which he had risen. This variableness of the outward form of the risen Christ is variously attested in scripture, even previ- THE RISEN CHRIST. 285 ous to that occasion when Jesus manifested himself for the special benefit of Thomas. That Marv did not at first recognize the risen Lord, at the sepul- chre, may have been due to the obscurity of the early dawn, the single expression, " Mary ! " awak- ening within her heart a recognition of the Master. But to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, in the afternoon of the same day, Jesus manifested himself in a form that was not recognizable, for he appeared to them as a stranger. It was, not till he "sat at meat with them," when "the day was far spent," that " their eyes were opened, and they knew him ; and he vanished out of their sight." Referring to this occasion, St. Mark says : " and after these things he was manifested in another form unto two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country." Thus these two disciples — one of whom, at least, was an intimate follower of Jesus — saw in the risen Lord nothing to identify him as the Master whom they had known and loved, so far as his external features were concerned. It was only after " their eyes were opened," when their psychic senses were uncovered from above, that thev recognized him " in the breaking of bread;" then they remembered how his words had " caused their hearts to burn within them, as he spake with them by the way." THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS A REVELATION OP THAT WHICH IS, COMMON TO MAN. It is possible, by mistaking psychical things for spiritual, to so supernaturalize the life of the Son 286 THE RISEN CHRIST. of man that it no longer stands as a revelation of the soul's true life and order of progress, both in- wardly and outwardly. An exaggerated idea of the miraculous in Christ's life may so separate his life from the life of man that Jesus is wholly parted from his brethren. This is contrary to his own teaching, and unwarranted by the facts when seen in their true light. The eye must not be blinded by appearances : Jesus revealed the divine order of things as in itself it really is for every soul that follows in bis footsteps with a like "faith in God." If the path trod by Jesus, as Son of man, were miraculous in the sense of supernatural, raised above man's possibilities by special miracle, then Jesus could not serve as a pattern for man, for he would be wholly separated from his brethren. It is distinctly said that "he bore our infirmities, and was tempted like as we are, yet without sin." An exaggerated view of the miraculous element in the life of Jesus has hid from view the real scope and meaning of the revelation by the risen Christ dur- ing the forty days, — a revelation which makes known the nature and conditions of that intermedi- ate state entered by all souls alike on the death of the physical body. Jesus revealed the immortality of the soul, which, once quickened by the presence of the indwelling Spirit, enters upon eternal life : but he likewise revealed the several stages of man's outward existence in psychical and spiritual condi- tions ; and this he did, not by subverting the order of nature to which all outward things belong, but by manifesting the truth through psychic or ghostly THE RISEN CHRIST. 287 " power," making the revelation apparent even to the carnal sense. If the facts of the resurrection were miraculous in this instance, the evidence would not serve as a revelation of the immortality of the souls of other men ; it would not, in general, serve as proof of the immortality of the soul of man, but only of the soul of the Christ ; one so raised by miracle above the plane of man that he could not serve as a pattern or example for man. But the revelation in Jesus was a truth that is common to man, and Jesus not only revealed the immortality of the soul, he likewise revealed the persistence of the bodily organism in an unseen realm, and showed that the soul lingers for an in- terval of time, according to its need and character no doubt, within the earth-sphere, after physical dis- solution. The revelation was also made that man, in the intermediate state, is still concerned with the completion of his earthly tasks, as witnessed by Moses and Elias on the mount of transfiguration, and by the Lord himself. Indeed, the completion of its earthly tasks may be essential for the soul's passage to a higher or heavenly realm. The mind and affections still working in the old channels under higher conditions, no essential tie is severed by death. The risen Jesus took pains to make this clear to his disciples. He remembered their indi- vidual weaknesses, their various infirmities of faith. He strove to establish the belief of Peter on the sure foundation of love, — love for the Master as the root of eternal life. His appi'oaches were all gracious, humoring their various infirmities of mind. 288 THE RISEN CHRIST. No friendly or social tie -was broken ; Jesus supped with them, he walked with them, he conversed with them, he came to them while occupied in their daily toil, he said, familiarly, "Come and dine." A PROGRESS IN THE MANIFESTATION. In his earlier manifestations Jesus was intent upon establishing in the minds of his disciples a con- viction of his continued personal existence beyond the grave ; he likewise took pains to show them that this identity of person was not in the least depend- ent on a similarity of external form : it is a matter of the mind and heart, and not of bodily feature. The true personality is determined on the ground of character alone. By first establishing in their minds his identity of person through bodily charac- teristics, by a variation of the form, Jesus gradually led them to identify him as their Master on more interior grounds of belief; thus these intermediate manifestations prepared the way for the advent of a spiritual Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who must be spiritually discerned when manifested in less pal- pable conditions, according to the nature of things spiritual. Had there been an abrupt termination of the natural life by physical dissolution, and an immediate ascension to a heavenly realm, the return of Jesus in a psychical form and spiritual state of mind, as the Holy Ghost, would not have made the Master recognizable to his disciples as the same Jesus whom they had loved and followed ; thus the personal tie between the Master and his disciples would have been abruptly severed. The promise THE RISEN CHRIST. 289 for all time is, that "this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like man- ner as ye have seen him go into heaven : " this is that comforting word which, after he had vanished in the heavens, assures the believer, till the world's end, that the Nazarene still lives as "the Son of man in heaven." That he might be recognized after his ascension as the same Jesus, though coming in the character of the Holy Ghost as the spiritual Christ, it was nec- essary that the Messiah should first manifest him- self outwardly in a state of nature, both as to mind and body, and in a form and order of thought with which his disciples were already familiar. In so doing Jesus incidentally revealed the nature and conditions of that intermediate state, or psychical world, in which his soul was detained, in common with the souls of all men, until prepared for its final ascension to a spiritual or celestial realm, when " lifted up above the earth " by the power of the Spirit. For the external-minded especially, some such mediate form of manifestation was necessary, in order that the mind might be led gradually to form higher and truer conceptions of spiritual things, and eventually be able to believe without seeing. For after Jesus was " received up out of their sight" no physical eye could ever behold him again : having entered a spiritual or heavenly realm, he is thenceforth revealed to the soul and spirit. The nature of that heavenly state was prefigured by his glorification on the mount of transfiguration ; but his actual ascension, when " received up in a 290 THE EISEN CHRIST. cloud," must be taken as symbolizing the bodily- passage of the soul into a still more interior state of the spiritual consciousness, " for the kingdom of heaven is within you." Entrance into that heavenly state is not by traversing space, but by " a renewal of the will," by man's will becoming wholly sub- servient to God's will. The truths of scripture cannot be rightly judged while the word of Revelation is viewed exclu- sively in its literal or natural sense ; it must be spiritually discerned as of a part with that divine source from whence it flows forth : it must be inte- riorily viewed, divested of all that is ephemeral and temporal, which blind the eye and mislead the mind. VARIABLENESS OP THE RESURRECTION BODY. When Mary, at the sepulchre, had " turned her- self and saw Jesus standing " before her, the Master said to her, " touch me not ; for I am not yet as- cended to my Father : but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto the Father ; and to my God, and your God." What could be plainer than these words, designed to establish in the minds of the disciples the Master's true relationship with them ? They are still his " brethren : " though risen from the grave, Jesus is still Son of man, and he had not yet ascended " unto the Father ; to my God, and your God." It would seem that, speak- ing from the plane on which he then stood, Jesus pointedly indicated that he was still identified with humanity ; that death had wrought no change ; that he was related to God as all men " born of the Spirit " are related to the Father. THE RISEN CHRIST. 291 Just what is implied by the words " touch me not, for I have not yet ascended unto the Father," as addressed to Mary, is not plain, for in St. Mat- thew's gospel it is stated that some of the women, returning from the sepulchre a little later, met the Lord in the way, who greeted them with the words, " All hail ! " and they " clasped him by the feet, and worshipped him." That there was an ascension from a lower to a higher state, and again a return to the external conditions of a psychical manifesta- tion in this brief interval, is hardly probable, though possible. Yet thereafter there seems to have been no prohibition respecting his being touched, save in the single instance in the case of "that Mary who first beheld the Lord." A week later the Lord himself directed the apostle Thomas to attest the physical substantiality of his manifestation by these words : " reach hither thy finger and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing." If Jesus ascended to the Father immediately on his rising from the grave, then the bodily ascension at the end of the forty days was but representative or symbolic. But in all probability there was no as- cension until the close of that period ; for it was the mission of the Messiah to reveal the truth by manifestation, to bring life and immortality to light bodily as well as spiritually, to reveal the immor- tality of the soul, as to its individualized person- ality, throughout all worlds. 292 THE EISEN CHRIST. THE NATURE OF THE RESURRECTION BODY. We come now to the consideration of a question which has been fruitful of extreme speculation, and upon which has rested the most material concep- tions of the resurrection from the dead, namely, in what body did Jesus rise again ? was it in that body of "flesh and bones " which was laid in the sep- ulchre, — with which at least two of the manifesta- tions of the risen Lord were apparently closely iden- tified, — or was it wholly distinct, in conformity with the conditions of an intermediate, psychical state, in which the soul of Jesus had "risen again?" It has already been intimated that, in the psychical state in which Jesus had risen, physical conditions were " put under him ; " that is, they were made wholly subservient to his will. When he willed to manifest himself in a form that was plainly recog- nizable and physical, Jesus did so : but the scrip- tures indicate that the visible features of this form were not permanent ; they varied with his moods of mind. At one time the form was visible and palpa- ble ; at another time it was invisible and impal- pable, capable of entering an apartment through closed doors and taking on physical materiality in the presence of the disciples. When visible and tangible, the manifestation spoke words audible to the outward ear ; and when invisible, Jesus over- heard the words spoken by Thomas and responded to them, a week later, through organic speech. It is plain, then, that the change wrought by death was not an organic change, but a change merely of out- THE RISEN CHRIST. 293 ward conditions, respecting the substance in which the organism was formed. By force of will or desire, the risen Jesus could clothe or unclothe his person with a physical substance, still leaving the organism intact, however, for mere visibility or in- visibility did not in the least affect that. For the psychical body, though invisible to the outward sense, is as substantial and real, according to its nature, as is the physical. By varying superficially the form of the manifestation, according to the pur- pose he had in view, Jesus demonstrated the fact that the resurrection body is wholly distinct from the earthly body as to its substance and powers, though identical as to its interior organism. " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven," nor can a physical substance enter a psychical realm, except by transmutation. We are not to infer, therefore, from these physical manifestations of the risen Jesus, that it was a " terrestrial body " which now mantled the mind of the risen Lord ; for, as we have seen, the resurrection body was subservient to his mental states, as indicated by its variations of form and feature. When Jesus desired to manifest himself to his disciples in a form that would be recognizable, in order to insure identification, that form then bore the marks of his crucifixion ; and the Master directed his disciple to test its physical substantiality by the most external of the senses, namely, by the touch. But to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, Jesus "appeared in another form," though that form was likewise physically manifested. This variation of the external fea- 294 THE RISEN CHRIST. tures of the resurrection body is further indicated by the appearance of Jesus to the seven disciples on the shore of the lake, where "a fire was kindled, with fish laid thereon," and they ate together. Here it was by an intuitive perception, rather than by the outward sense, that the Lord was recog- nized; this is plainly implied by the words: "Jesus said unto them, Come and dine, and none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord." A sure conviction of the heart, not in the least dependent on the physical sense, made this clear to their minds. These disci- ples were the Master's most intimate followers, in- cluding Peter, James, and John. Is it reasonable, then, to suppose that after Jesus had already mani- fested himself to them on several previous occa- sions, exhibiting his wounds, and establishing his identity of person, that such a question would have arisen in their minds had there been unmistakable external proofs of identity? The words plainly indicate that, as to his external form, the Lord was not recognizable on the shore of the lake, but a sure spiritual intuition deterred them from asking, " Who art thou ? " It was no obscurity of vision that prevented his being outwardly recognized, but the manifestation was probably given " in another form." The questioning attitude of the natural mind is herein happily contrasted with that higher intuition which overleaps all sensible and intellectual percep- tions, and knows the truth by direct spiritual appre- hension. The truth is perceived because of a readi- THE RISEN CHRIST. 295 ness to believe. That attitude of mind which is especially commended in scripture is the believing spirit. In spiritual things habitual doubt or dis- trust obscures the light. When Jesus " appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, be- cause they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen." The natural mind does not commend a believing spirit, deeming it credulous, or too easily persuaded. The natural reason is incredulous of the facts until they are proved. But if the two orders of mind, the believing and the unbelieving, be taken in their extremes of ten- dency as evincing credulity or incredulity, it may be claimed for the former that, while it receives truth not unmixed with error, the latter receives nothing for its pains, for it is wholly closed to the light; thei'efore to lean toward an extreme be- lief in spiritual things is preferable to an incredu- lous attitude of mind as a settled mental habit. Throughout his teaching Jesus insists that a con- dition of belief is essential for the reception of spir- itual things. As manifested in his healings, faith is the ground for the effective working of " power ; " they that "had faith to be healed" were healed; and it is promised that "these signs shall follow them which believe." An attitude of doubt frus- trates all action from above, for it dissipates psy- chic " power," which is conditioned in the will : " whatsover things ye pray for, believe that ye shall receive them, and ye shall have them." A sinless and perfect soul, by laying hold of God 296 THE RISEN CHRIST. and being in full accord with that divine will which is unchangeable from the beginning, may be con- ceived as having, through the indwelling Spirit, power to transmute the physical into the psychical, or contrariwise ; not miraculously, but within the established order of things. Jesus said, " I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again : " this the Messiah actually did, spir- itually, in coming into the world and ascending again to the Father. But while in the flesh Jesus had power to translate himself, even as he was " transfigured on the mount." Though he had this power he chose to fulfil his mission " even to the death of the cross." But when his earthly mission was finished, Jesus manifested this transmuting power by appearing to his disciples, and vanishing away before their eyes. And it was by this same means of transmutation that the body of Jesus "saw not corruption." This transmutation wns further evinced by the disappearance of the food which he ate while manifesting himself : when re- ceived into his body it partook of the nature of that body and vanished with it. Finally this faculty of the soul was extended beyond the ability to trans- mute the physical into the psychical, or vice versa, and by the power of the Spirit it transmuted the psychical into the spiritual, as symbolized by his bodily ascension when he was " received up into heaven." Jesus revealed the full powers of a human soul when quickened by the indwelling Spirit of God: he manifested the perfect order of a sinless life, and THE RISEN CHRIST. 297 the powers that flow thence when God's will has become man's will. That which from a human point of view may be deemed truly miraculous in the earthly life of Jesus, while in the flesh, was his sinlessness, for the miracle of miracles is absolute perfection in the earthly state. But for Jesus him- self there was no miracle associated with any of his acts, all was in perfect order and in conformity with that which is unchangeable from the beginning. Therefore he said, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto the Father." MAN NOT GLORIFIED BY DISSOLUTION. As a revelation of the soul's path of progress, outward and inward, bodily and spiritually, it is proper to scrutinize every incidental circumstance relative to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus ; for all things relating to the soul of man are brought to light in Christ. The seers and mystics declare the unseen world, into which man is ushered by death, to be a real and substantial world, wherein the soul is environed with familiar objects, and where man thinks and acts rationally, as in this life, but in vastly superior conditions if one is able to lay hold of them. Man enters that realm in pre- cisely the same state in which he left the earth ; the earth is with him still, until he has learned to rise above it by the power of the Spirit. Man is not "glorified" by any change wrought by death. And this testimony of the seers accords precisely 298 THE RISEN CHRIST. with the revelation in Jesus. There was no recog- nizable "glory" in the manifestations of the forty- days ; Jesus appeared still as a man, as one of " the brethren," manifesting himself in the form and habiliments of the earthly life. These man- ifestations were not invested with the glory wit- nessed on the mount of transfiguration. The face of the risen Jesus did not " shine as the sun," nor was his " raiment white as the light." There was, in the manifestation, not the slightest evidence of any resplendent glory, such as that which, under a meridian sun, blinded the eyes of Saul on the way to Damascus. The risen Jesus was still " Son of man," the natural Christ, the Redeemer of the natural mind, or man. What evidence could be more explicit than this revelation of the truth by manifestation, namely, that no spiritual change is wrought through physical dissolution, but by ascen- sion alone, or through the soul's elevation by the power of the Spirit? As elsewhere intimated, it is not from the cross, but from heaven itself, to which state Jesus was " lifted up above the earth," that he " will draw all men unto him." The physical type, which is sacri- ficial, was the lifting up of the body upon the cross ; and the psychical symbol was the visible rising of the soul into the clouds ; but the spiritual reality is the union of man's will with God's will when the Spirit abides in the soul as its ruling life, as Jesus said, " even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us." THE RISEN CHRIST. 299 MINOR FEATURES OF THE RESURRECTION. While the apparition of the risen Jesus proved the psychic organism to be unaffected bj' mere visi- bility or invisibility, according to the conditions in ■which it was formed, it likewise is suggestive of certain minor truths that should not be passed by, since they have their place in the revelation. The garments wherewith the risen Lord was clothed partook of his bodily transformations. The incident is particularized that the soldiers, at the crucifixion, " parted his garments, and cast lots for his ves- ture ; " and the body of Jesus was laid in the tomb "wrapped in a linen cloth." When Peter and John came to the sepulchre, after the Lord had risen, they " saw the linen clothes lying . . . and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself." These various particulars, so carefully narrated, are not without their significance. It is certain that the garments in which Jesus was clothed in the various manifestations of the forty days were other than those described above. Then from whence were they derived? of what nature were they that they should partake of the change incidental to the Lord's material manifestation of himself, and vanish away before the eyes of the disciples ? The inquiry is not an unworthy one if it can be shown that every incidental circumstance concerning the nature and means of Revelation has its significance. Of the real meaning that may lie in the clothing of the form with garments, little 300 THE RISEN CHRIST. is known. Common conceptions are founded on mere physical necessities peculiar to man ; but may there not be a spiritual significance far deeper than this, as shadowed forth in the scriptural refer- ence to " shining garments " in which angelic beings are clothed ? In the apocalyptic visions great stress is laid upon the clothing of seraphic beings : " I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned I saw . . . one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girt about the paps with a girdle." The lower or most exterior necessities of man's physical nature may well be regarded as typical of even the inmost things of spirit; for, in the scriptural sense, the clothing of the body corre- sponds to a clothing of the soul with flesh, and the soul itself is a veritable garment of the spirit : " the few who have not defiled their garments, they shall walk with me in white . . . clothed in white raiment." The far-off prophecy in the Psalms, therefore, concerning the parting of the garments of the Saviour, and casting lots for his vesture, which had its literal fulfilment at the crucifixion, may have a mystical significance deeper than that of serving as a mere test of the literalness of prophecy. THE MIND OP THE RISEN CHRIST. We come now to a final consideration, which identifies the mind of the risen Jesus, during the interval between his resurrection and ascension, with a natural state of being, as distinguished from that spiritual or heavenly state which he afterward THE RISEN CHRIST. 301 entered. The order of mind indicated by the words spoken by Jesus, under the abnormal conditions ot a material manifestation, is indicative of the nature of that invisible realm immediately entered at death. In the charge to his disciples, the risen Lord di- rects them to " go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things -whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." " And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is writ- ten that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead the third day : and that repentance for the remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Ye are witnesses of these things." " And he com- manded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which 302 THE RISEN CHRIST. the Father hath put in his own power : but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall be my witnesses. . . . And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight." With the exception of the special charge given to Peter, and the words spoken to that disciple to renew and strengthen his faith by love, the above is the substance of the utterances of the risen Jesus, and there is not contained in them the first ves- tige of any new spiritual teaching. The words in Acts i. 3, " being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," refer to the above order of teaching, as of a part with the dispensation of the Son of man, the natural Christ, and as merely supplementary to the words " which he spake while he was yet with them, that all things must be fulfilled which were written of him." This is significant. All further spiritual enlightenment, beyond expounding unto them the scriptures relating to the Christ, — " that all things should be fulfilled which were written of him," — was postponed until the coming of the Holy Ghost. The truth of the matter is, from what has been already shown in this inquiry, the mind of Jesus was still on that natural plane where it had already found full expression " while he was yet with them." The mission of the Son of man, so far as his verbal teachings are concerned, was actually consummated when the disciples finally recognized him as the Son of God, when Jesus was THE RISEN CHRIST. 303 again filled with the Spirit. In a fervent prayer to God, Jesus then uttered these words: "I have glori- fied thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do . . . I have manifested thy name unto men." The words spoken during the forty days, therefore, were supplementary to the dispensation of the Son of man, the natural Christ, without materially contributing to the spirit- ual teachings that had already been given "while he was yet present with them." Nothing further was to be known of the spiritual kingdom until "after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." It is not for the natm-al mind to apprehend spir- itual truths, which must be "spiritually discerned; " nor to "know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power ; " or, which the Spirit reserves to itself to communicate spiritually. Jesus had said, concerning his tidings of the king- dom : " These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs : but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father " ; and this he was to do after his ascension into heaven, through the Holy Ghost. The revelation of the risen Jesus during the forty days, as has been shown, is a revelation of an inter- mediate state, a merely psychical realm, as distin- guished from a spiritual or heavenly state of being ; and the revelation was mainly by a material mani- festation. The silence of scripture respecting the words spoken by the risen Jesus, "pertaining to the kingdom of God," — beyond the few recorded 304 THE RISEN CHRIST. utterances which indicate that they were merely a reflection of that which had already been said while the Master "was yet present with them," — has its significance: for this silence can only be ac- counted for on the ground of the abnormal char- acter of the manifestation itself; a physical man- ifestation from that unseen realm being abnormal alike both to the natural and the spiritual worlds. Words spoken in abnormal conditions, under such circumstances, would necessarily partake of the general uncertainty of the manifestation itself, which must have been perplexing to the mind. They who were witnesses of the manifestations were not always fully assured of their reality ; for it is related, at the very close of Matthew's gospel, that when " the eleven went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them," he there manifested himself to them, " and when they saw him, they worshipped him ; but some doubted." Apparently there were other of the apostles beside Thomas who had their misgivings, for of these eye-witnesses it is said that "some doubted." If, therefore, such was the nature of the manifestation itself, that it left the" mind in a state of doubt as to the outward fact, it is quite reasonable to infer that words spoken under such abnormal conditions would necessarily share in a degree in a like uncertainty, and perhaps even be regarded by some as not wholly reliable. Prob- ably it was for that very reason they were excluded from the record. THE RISEN CHRIST. 305 THE PURPOSE OP THE MANIFESTATION. The object of the physical manifestation was not to impart spiritual teachings by that abnormal means, but to reveal, even to the external sense of the carnal mind, by a material manifestation, the immortality of the soul, and to make known the nature and conditions of that intermediate sphere which lies between the earthly and the heavenly states of being. Revelation does not en- ter into minute particulars as to the things thus made known to man ; it marks out the path of the soul's progress as with a plow, and drops into the furrow merely the germinal seeds of truths, which are left to spring up and bear fruit in the mind of man : these are developed by " pondering them in the heart." While these material manifestations of the risen Jesus were far more extraordinary, as phenomena, than those which followed under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and consequently were likely to have made even a deeper impression than the latter on the minds and memories of eye-witnesses, the profound silence of scripture as to the " things pertaining to the kingdom of God," beyond what is given in the text, can only be accounted for on the ground that they were not essential to the general purpose of Christ's mission : they were per- haps personal to those to whom they were spoken, as in the case of Peter ; which single example suf- ficed for all. The supposition that general and authoritative instructions were given the disciples 306 THE RISEN CHRIST. with reference to the founding of a visible church, is wholly unwarranted ; for it is distinctly intimated that the utterances were " pertaining to the kingdom of God," or to the references to Christ contained in the scriptures, and not to those natural forms in which the human mind finds it necessary to invest the things of the Spirit as a matter of decency and order in associative worship. Had the words of Jesus, spoken under these extraordinary circum- stances, been of general import, they would not have been omitted for want of remembrance : their omission, therefore, must be accounted for on other grounds. It is safe to say that they were omitted from a wise discretion, for the reason that the condi- tions under which they were spoken were abnormal, and in a certain sense perhaps unreliable. This sup- position is warranted by the fact that the manifesta- tion itself, even after the convincing proofs accorded to Thomas, of which the eleven were all eye-wit- nesses, still left the mind in a state of doubt. For, as we have seen, respecting the manifestation in Galilee, for which the eleven were prepared by spe- cial direction, it is said that "some doubted." A phenomenon so abnormal and ephemeral, so contra- dictory of the common experience of mankind, and so unspiritual in form, necessarily is difficult of ac- ceptance by the natural reason. There must be some interior ground of belief reinforcing the out- ward testimony of the senses, to establish a convic- tion of its reality. There seems to be no escape from this dilemma, concerning the uncertainty of manifestations from an unseen world; when they THE RISEN CHRIST. 307 vanish away the mind is left in a state of doubt : thus the temptations of Jesus followed his baptism, where a " sign " had been given, and authoritative words audibly spoken : and, as we have seen, not- withstanding John's special preparation for this mystical form of evidence, when cast into prison " he sent two of his disciples to inquire of Jesus, art thou he, or look we for another." Doubt and perplexity of mind would necessarily follow in the train of manifestations so startling, so overwhelm- ing to the natural reason, so unverifiable on what is usually deemed acceptable grounds of evidence hav- ing the character of " proof." Therefore when the manifestation vanished, " some doubted " whether it were real, whether it actually had occurred : may not the senses have been deceived, or an expectant attitude of mind have conjured up an imaginary form ? Words spoken by the risen Jesus under these circumstances would have been received in an excited, uncritical, unreflecting state of mind, and they would have been quite secondary to the manifestation itself, and to the startling impression made upon the senses. Such an experience could only be viewed calmly from a distance, after a time had elapsed, when related to past and subsequent events. Then it would gradually emerge into clearer light and assume permanent form as a set- tled conviction, through its association with the general character and teachings of Christ. The great significance of the manifestations of the forty days lay in the fact that they established in the minds of the disciples the conviction that 308 THE RISEN CHRIST. they were not parted from their Master by physi- cal dissolution. By his sudden appearance and disappearance, before their eyes, Jesus accustomed his disciples to think of him as present, though invisible ; to think of him as living, as endowed with increase of life ; and by his words to Thomas lie showed that while invisible he was still cogni- zant of their thoughts and words. Through this intermediate psycho-physical order of manifestation Jesus gradually led his followers to form a more inward and spiritual conception of his presence. Thus he gradually weaned their minds from a dependence upon outward and visible manifesta- tions as the ground of their belief in his continued existence beyond the grave. He proved to them that the unseen realm which he had entered was a substantial world ; that his personality was still in- tact ; that his affections and interests remained the same, unimpaired by any change wrought through the death of the body. Thus he gradually accus- tomed the disciples to his being parted from them outwardly, so far as the senses were concerned ; and he directed their thought inward toward spirit- ual grounds of faith, as " the substance of things not seen," yet assuredly known to exist ; and when at the end of the forty days Jesus finally "ascended up out of their sight," to return no more in a mate- rial form to the outward sense, the disciples had al- ready grown accustomed to his being parted from them through a change of bodily conditions. Thenceforward his invisible presence was, for their minds, no less real than these sensible manifesta- THE RISEN CHRIST. 309 tions; a distinct step had been taken toward the apprehension of a still higher truth, revealed in the apostle Paul, when he declared, in substance, that Christ abode in him, and he in Christ: the ap- proach was no longer from without, Christ was known no longer " after the flesh." Thus this in- termediate form of manifestation was a revelation, and a preparation for the reception of that spiritual comforter, the Holy Ghost, when he should appear at the door of the soul, saying, "Behold I stand at the door, and knock ; if any man bear my voice, and will open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me." In order to establish the fact of his resurrection in bodily form, — a fact unverifiable on common grounds of evidence, therefore unacceptable to those who had not themselves been eye-witnesses, — it was necessary that all should be made wit- nesses of the manifestation of the risen Christ : " After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once." And finally, at the close of this special revelation of the intermediate state, it is said, presumably of the eleven : " And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them." He who had died upon the cross, and was laid in the tomb, rose again on the third day, and at the end of forty days he led his disciples forth to mount Olivet, " which is near to Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey . . . and while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their 310 THE KISEN CHRIST. sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white garments ; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." " And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy : and were continually in the temple, praising God." VI. THE HOLY GHOST. "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid : ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. . . . " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.'' — John xiv. " The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holy place was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing : which was a figure for the time now present.'' — Hebhe ws ix. 8, 9. " Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be witnesses of me." — Acts i. THE HOLY GHOST. THE PROMISE OP ANOTHER COMFORTER. " If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfort- less: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see me : be- cause I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. ... If a man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. . . . The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. "These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the 314 THE HOLY GHOST. Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance whatsoever things I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I go unto my Father: for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe. . . . " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. . . . " But now I go my way to him that sent me ; and none of you'asketh me, Whither goestthou? But because I have said these things unto you, sor- row hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And, when he is come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin because they believe not on me ; of righteousness because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more ; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them how. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth : for he shall not speak from himself; THE HOLY GHOST. 315 but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak ; and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me ; for he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine ; there- fore said I, that he taketh of mine, and shall mani- fest it unto you. A little while, and ye behold me no more ; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me. . . . " Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice : ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. . . . Ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father he will give it you in my name. . . . These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs ; the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but shall show you plainly of the Father." John xiv., xv., and xvi. In the above the Holy Ghost is foretold with ref- erence to his coming as a second Comforter to man : Jesus said, " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." The Son of man, the Com- forter of the natural mind, having been crucified, dead, and buried, rose again on the third day, and for the space of forty days manifested himself, at intervals, to his disciples, from a psychical realm, 316 THE HOLY GHOST. or intermediate state. During this interval Jesus was manifested as man, not as an angelic or glori- fied being, but as one of the " brethren." His words to Mary were, " Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father ; and to my God, and your God ; " clearly intimating that he still stood upon the human plane of life, and that God bore to the brethren and to himself a like fatherly relationship. That is, the quickened souls of his disciples stood in the same relation to God as did the soul of Jesus. There was nothing in the manifestation of the risen Jesus which indicated that a spiritual change had taken place by his passage through the grave. He rose again the same man, with the same mind, the same interests and affections ; apparently with the same body, bearing at first even the recogniz- able marks which identified him as the very same Jesus that had hung upon the cross. All the familiar characteristics were still maintained unim- paired in the earlier manifestations, and personal identity was assured by that means. But associated with these familiar features of his person were cer- tain powers peculiar to his change of state ; the ex- ternal features of his form were apparently modified by his moods of mind : by power of will the risen Jesus could render his form visible and palpable, or invisible and impalpable, according to his purpose. His will, or spirit, therefore, had attained to greater freedom in that preternatural state in which he had risen ; and this was manifested by his more com- plete control over the elements in which his soul THE HOLY GHOST. 317 was outwardly conditioned or formed. Nevertheless there was in the manifestation no indication that Jesus had risen above a natural realm through the death of the body. There was no evidence that the change partook of a celestial character ; there was no radiancy, or glory, in the manifestation. Con- trasted with the dazzling splendor of his transBgu- ration on the mount, or with the radiancy of angelic beings, as described by seers and prophets, the man- ifestations of the forty days were earthly in charac- ter, and physical in form ; preternatural, but not supernatural — not spiritual, as this term is rightly discriminated. Jesus himself directed the minds of his disciples to this fact by his saying, " Handle me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." The manifestations of the forty days did not em- anate from heaven, but from a psychical realm, or intermediate state ; a place of temporary rest for the soul immediately following dissolution, and where its character is more fully determined, its onward and upward course accelerated, or where it enters upon a " second death " in a psychical state, — if that world has been entered without repent- ance and regeneration. The intermediate state, in its lower stages, includes the earthly life ; man is not far removed from earth through physical disso- lution : it is the quickening power of the Spirit and the operation of the Holy Ghost that lifts the soul above the earth, and draws it into heaven. It is a truth well attested by the seers, or mystics, that when a man dies he carries with him into a 318 THE HOLY GHOST. psychical realm certain superior forces of the ner- vous organization, and even the more sublimated elements of matter, so called; and these forces and elements may serve for a time to enable the soul to manifest itself materially to the outward senses of man, when conditions favor it. Notwithstanding the persistent Sadduceeism of the natural mind, evidence confirmatory of this fact, attested by cred- ible witnesses, is abundant in all ages. But it would seem that such manifestations are not verifi- able on ordinary grounds of evidence, since they are dependent upon conditions over which man has not a commanding control: the phenomena cannot be called forth at will, but are dependent upon certain states designated abnormal, or preternatural. If the manifestations of the risen Jesus be regarded as a revelation of truth, — and according to the spirit of this interpretation it was the mission of the Mes- siah to bring "life and immortality to light," bodily as well as spiritually, — then every incidental cir- cumstance relating to the experience of Jesus, in all realms of being, was a revelation by manifestation; bringing the truth to light by simply uncovering " the things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the world." The revelation there- fore, as thus viewed, is not a miraculous dispensa- tion, however it may appear to be such in the light of man's present knowledge, for a revelation neces- sarily anticipates the understanding. But as knowl- edge increases, the realm of seemingly arbitrary miracle will continue to decrease, and God's uni- versal order will eventually be perceived and appre- THE HOLY GHOST. 319 bended as " without variableness or shadow of turn- ing." Jesus took especial pains to convince his disciples that his earlier manifestations were not spiritual. He suffered them to test the materiality of the phe- nomenon by the external evidence of the senses : he himself marked the distinction between a physical and a spiritual manifestation by the words, " a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Again, he said, " Have ye here any meat ? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and an honey- comb ; and he did eat before them." They felt of his wounds ; the sound of his voice was audible, reassuring, and comforting : " then were the disci- ples glad when they saw the Lord." A spiritual manifestation is far otherwise: it is the psychic organs, and not the physical, which then attest the reality and objectivity of the phenomenon: the eyes and ears of the soul being opened, man then sees and hears that which pertains to another world, to another realm of being. The soul of the crucified Jesus lingered for forty days in a preternatural realm, or intermediate state, from whence he was " lifted up " by his ascension to a spiritual or heavenly realm at the close of that period ; and thence on he is manifested, to as many as will receive him, as the Holy Ghost, or spiritual Christ, the Comforter of the spiritual- minded. 320 THE HOLY GHOST. NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL PERSONALITIES. It is impossible to apprehend the nature of the Holy Ghost unless the distinction of soul and spirit be clearly recognized, as these are " parted asunder " by Revelation. The natural and spiritual personal- ities in man are distinct in origin and substance ; one is born of Adam, and the other is born of God. And as man images the Deity, the Godhead is like- wise revealed and manifested in natural and spirit- ual personalities, — in the Son of man and in the Holy Ghost. The natural and spiritual creations stand related to the Godhead as body and mind are related to the will in man : they are as a physical and psychical organism for the Spirit, and God works through them in effecting the divine purposes, as man works through mind and body in manifesting his will. In general terms, the natural and spiritual per- sonalities in the creature are designated man and angel: in the natural world the soul is manifested as man, and in the«piritual world it is manifested as an angel, or spirit. The natural man is out- wardly organized in physical conditions, but the spiritual man is outwardly organized in psychical conditions ; and these physical and psychical condi- tions pertain to the visible and invisible realms of nature. This repetition is essential to a clear under- standing of that which is to follow : for it is thus that the human and divine natures of the Christ are outwardly discriminated. Corresponding to this change in outward environ- THE HOLY GHOST. 321 ment, whereby the physical is superseded by the psychical, the mind attains to greater freedom through the superior conditions in which the soul rises after dissolution : and as it passes from glory to glory in ascending through the heavens, the re- deemed and sanctified soul continues to grow into the form and likeness of God. Thus as the hour approached when Jesus was to put off mortality and be clothed with immortality, both outwardly and inwardly, through the redemption of body and soul, he prayed : " And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the gloiy which I had with thee before the world was." With this aspiration on his lips that sanctified soul began his bodily ascension into the heavens: first passing through the gate of death and the intermediate state, he ascended to the Father, and thence on is manifested to men and angels as the Holy Ghost, the Comforter of the followers of Jesus through time and eternity. THE SPIRITUAL CHRIST. That Jesus, as Son of man, was a Comforter to the natural mind is grounded in the fact that the Logos approached that order of mind on its own plane of thought, or consciousness, revealing the Spirit as abiding •' bodily " in Jesus, and manifested in conditions normal to the natural understanding. In like manner the spiritual mind is comforted by a revelation of God, as Spirit, in the person of the Holy Ghost, the ascended and glorified Jesus, the spiritual Christ, manifested in conditions normal to 322 THE HOLY GHOST. the soul — to as many as will receive him. For the approach of the Comforter may be retarded or re- sisted by unbelief, even on the part of steadfast be- lievers in the Son of man. A natural-minded be- liever may accept with readiness the historic Christ, and yet be unable to accept the spiritual and living Christ as a real existing person, a being with whom it is possible to hold conscious intercourse, as did the first disciples, and with whom Paul spoke face to face. Of such an one, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, " See that ye refuse not him that speaketh : for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." Inability to receive the "witness" of the Holy Ghost is due, in part, to the fact that, for most Chris- tians, the personality of the Comforter is vaguely conceived as an arbitrary dogma of belief, which hardly enters practically and understandingly into the consciousness of the natural mind at all. Con- ceived as a mere proceeding forth of a spiritual in- fluence, or operation, without externality of any kind, the Holy Ghost is not clearly discriminated as differing from that divine Spirit which was active from the beginning, "from whom and to whom are all things." But rightly conceived as the Spirit going forth in a divine soul, in the soul of the as- cended Jesus, as the spiritual Christ, there is then no difficulty in conceiving the Holy Ghost to be a distinct personality which may be manifested to man in ghostly form, as a Holy Soul, even as this THE HOLY GHOST. 323 was understood by the first followers of Jesus. By that instrumentality the Spirit gains conscious ac- cess to the souls of believers. To the redeemed and regenerate, who inherit the promises, the Apos- tle says : " Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a ser- vant, but a son ; and if a son, then an heir of God, through Christ." In the sanctified soul of the Redeemer, the " Son of man in heaven," the Father is manifested with far greater fulness and power than in the earthly life of Jesus : for that anointed soul in the heavens is perfectly coordinated to the omnipotence and omniscience of God. Through the Holy Ghost the Son goes forth and is revealed and manifested spiritually to the spiritual minded ; and of that ghostly Comforter, proceeding from the Father and the Son, Jesus said, " He shall abide with you for- ever." As in the earthly life of the Son of man all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, or physically : so likewise in the Holy Ghost all the fulness of the Godhead " dwelleth " psychically, as " the Leader of the armies of God's angels : " God thus abides in a soul raised up higher than all angels, " the chosen one of God." The revelation of God in the Holy Ghost, therefore, is the Spirit manifested in a sanctified or anointed soul ; and that divine person- ality proceeds from the Father and from the Son : from the Father as to the Spirit, and from the Son as to the soul ; blending the divine and the human 324 THE HOLY GHOST. through oneness of will and life. Thus the Son of man in heaven is the Holy Ghost. THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. Language is a record of the mind's history : as a vehicle of ideas language gives them outward body, or expression : but in doing this it obscures the thought in part. Speech is the incarnation of that which is perceived mentally, or psychically; and when truth is thus incarnated it is "seen as through a glass, darkly ; " it is seen in part, and apprehended only in part, for language veils as well as expresses thought. When, a new truth is pre- sented to the mind, especially if declared by Rev- elation, which anticipates the understanding, a dif- ficulty arises in making it communicable. At first the truth must find expression in current terms of speech, and only after the lapse of time, and by a general advance of knowledge, will it gradually emerge into clearer light, and find fuller expression through a more discriminating use of terms. Thus a truth may be intuitively perceived long before it is capable of being defined in terms that relate it to the understanding. In the prologue to St. John's Gospel, the term Logos, caught up from philoso- phy, is employed to designate " the Word," as that divine manifestation was understood in its broadest and deepest sense, and which was " made flesh " when incarnated in Jesus. That which the prophet designated "the Word of the Lord" thus became identified with a term of philosophy, caught up as already current in human language. But as so em- THE HOLY GHOST. 325 ployed by the Evangelist the terra is freighted with new meaning ; for its scriptural significance tran- scends its philosophical meaning ; as used in the Gospel the term stands for a divine personality hav- ing all the attributes of God in psychical form. In like manner the term ''breath " (Gr. pneuma, Lat. spiritus) was originally employed as the sym- bol of spirit, for the breath was the most sublimated substance of which the common mind was then cog- nizant. The breath may not have been identified with spirit, but it was the nearest approach to it as a sign or symbol. The Greek pneuma, as used in the New Testa- ment, has a double meaning, as the corresponding word "spirit" has in English: it may signify that all-pervasive essence, the substance of Deity ; or it may signify an angel, or apparitional manifestation — a disincarnated soul. The angels are spoken of as " ministering spirits," as organic beings of the heavenly spheres, persons in some instances desig- nated by name, as Gabriel, etc. Terms are more accurately discriminated as distinctions in thought become clearer, and where one word originally suf- ficed for general use, the demands of knowledge eventually call for finer distinctions which give birth to new terms of expression : thus language continues to grow with increase of knowledge and by the discrimination of ideas. In a significant parenthesis in St. John's Gospel it is said : " But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; because that Jesus 326 THE HOLY GHOST. was not yet glorified." Here the same word, pneuma, is translated " Spirit " and, when qualified by the adjective hagios, " Holy Ghost ; " for the translators of the New Testament understood pneuma to have been used in the original in two senses: first, as referring to the Spirit, "which they that believe on him should receive ; " and then as referring to the Comforter, or Holy Ghost. If un- derstood as used in these two senses, the English word "spirit" would apply in either case ; but in order to avoid confusion the translators doubtless felt warranted in marking a distinction of idea by the use of the term " Holy Ghost : " and it would be a great mistake, as some advised, to obliterate this distinction of idea, by substituting the term " Holy Spirit" for "Holy Ghost" throughout the New Testament, for the sake of mere literalness or verbal accuracy, since the use of the latter term marks more clearly a distinction of personality. In the revised version the passage reads-: "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive : for the Spirit was not yet given ; because Jesus was not yet glorified." Here another authority was followed, wherein the adjec- tive hagios, holy, was omitted. If this be a more correct text, then a fundamental truth insisted on throughout this work, — namely, that the Spirit was not imparted to man until the coming of Christ, — is sustained by that scripture. And it is further intimated therein that " the Spirit was not yet given " till Jesus was glorified, or until he had risen again. That is, the Spirit is not imparted to man THE HOLY GHOST. 327 under the dispensation of the natural Christ : but is given under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, the spiritual Christ ; and this statement is reinforced by the fact that it was not until Jesus had risen from the grave that " he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost," through whom the Spirit is imparted to the soul. Enough has been said throughout this work to warrant the conclusion that a divine psychical in- strumental! ty, or Holy Ghost, was needed to make it possible to impart the Spirit to man ; an inter- vening means blending the divine and the human in a sanctified soul perfectly coordinated with God : and it is through the " power" of the Holy Ghost, as symbolized by the risen Lord's " breathing " on his disciples, that the Spirit is imparted to man ; for Jesus said, " No man cotneth to the Father ex- cept by me : and no man knoweth the Father, save the Son ; and he to whom the Son willeth to reveal him." Jesus said : " My Father worketh hitherto ; and I work." The Spirit was always active, from the beginning, " striving with man : " but in the anointed soul of Jesus, through his glorified person- ality as the Holy Ghost, the Spirit is reinforced by a ghostly or psychic means, through whom it creates and sustains all things, and gains access to the hu- man soul. On the other hand, according to the au- thorized version, the giving of the " Holy Ghost " was made dependent upon the ascension, or glorifi- cation of Jesus, '"• when he was received up into heaven ; " and this truth is plainly taught by these words of the Master : " For if I go not away, the 328 THE HOLY GHOST. Comforter will not come unto you. . . . But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send unto you in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remem- brance whatsoever things I have said unto you. . . .Ye have heard how I said unto yon, I go away, and come again unto you." The words spoken to Jesus, from heaven, " I have glorified thee, and will glorify thee again," refer to his earthly and heavenly ministries as Son of man and Holy Ghost, wherein he is glorified by the Father in his natural and spiritual personalities. " When he, the Spirit of truth, is come ... he shall glorify me ; for he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." That is, the spiritual personality of the Christ will glorify his natural personality, and manifest it as the " Spirit of truth ; " therefore Jesus said, " I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." In the above the ghostly personality of Jesus is clearly distinguished from the indwelling Spirit: for the Spirit abides in the soul of the Anointed One as Son of God. The giving of "another Com- forter" was made dependent upon the going away of the first, as hinted in the Epistle to the Hebrews : " The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holy place was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing : which was a figure for the time now present." The natural per- sonality of the Christ, as Son of man, must give place to a spiritual personality, the Holy Ghost, the Son of man "in heaven," as Son of God. THE HOLY GHOST. 329 MEANING OF THE TEEM HOLY GHOST. As the breath was employed as a symbol of spirit, so, in like manner, the Saxon word "ghost," as understood in common language, and among plain people, was originally employed as the correlative of spirit ; and as so used it properly designates a disincarnated soul : and when to the common word " ghost " or " spirit " was prefixed the adjective "holy," its sacred or divine nature was signified. The original use of the term "'Holy Spirit," as commonly understood by the disciples of Jesus, was with reference to a spiritual personality, mani- fested from heaven, either personally, or by an un- seen agency designated " power." The disciples of Jesus were not learned in the subtilties of philoso- phy ; as said before, they caught up familiar terms of speech and stretched them so as to include new meanings. Thus the common word "spirit," in the sense of ghost, was used to signify the psychical personality of Jesus which was manifested from heaven : and which, being filled with God, is des- ignated the Comforter, or Holy Spirit, being ren- dered in English " Holy Ghost." But the vulgar term "ghost" was no less inadequate, in its limited significance as commonly understood, than was the term "breath" when used to designate the Spirit. The Greeks used the words pneuma and phan- tasma in a higher and lower sense, as the correspond- ing terms "spirit" and "ghost" are used in English: the term "spirit" usually applies to an angelic per- sonality; while the term "ghost" commonly signifies 330 THE HOLY GHOST. an apparitional form. The specific term phantasma, in the sense of ghostly apparition, occurs twice in the New Testament, relative to a single incident, a sup- posed apparitional form, for which Jesus was mis- taken as he walked upon the water. But the term pneuma was applied to spirits, or angelic beings, and as thus employed it signified a spiritual person- ality, the soul, and this Jesus commended to the care of the Father when he " yielded up the ghost." The Greek ekpneo, to expire, or breathe out the life, is used in Mark xv. and in Luke xxii., and is translated " gave up the ghost." But in the Acts (v. 5, 10, and xii. 23), the word ekpsuko, gave up the " soul," is used, and translated " ghost." Here the influence of Paul's mind is perhaps observable, for that apostle had attained to a clear percep- tion of the distinction between soul and spirit, which he declared to be " parted asunder" by " the word of the Lord," or by Revelation. In all prob- ability Luke derived this knowledge from Paul, and at a later day, when the Acts were written, he was able to mark the distinction properly. For that which is "yielded up" through dissolution is the soul: the spirit being joined to the Lord is one Spirit, or one with God. The Spirit "abode" in Jesus, but was not directly incarnated, "the Word was made flesh ; " and in the soul of Jesus the Spirit was enshrined without being joined to flesh, save through a psychic mediation. But at dissolu- tion the flesh and the soul are parted asunder, and the latter is yielded up as the higher nature of the natural man. THE HOLY GHOST. 331 As a true understanding of the nature of the Comforter is rooted in these distinctions of the natural and spiritual personalities, grounded in a true discrimination of soul and spirit, it is proper to emphasize this truth with some reiteration, as the basis of a right distinction of personality in the Holy Ghost. In all men, that which is born of Man, is man ; and that which is born of the Spirit, is divine. The soul is son of Man, but the spirit is son of God : the natural personality, therefore, is human ; but the spiritual personality is divine : the soul externalizes the Spirit, giving it outward exist- ence or manifestation. That the apostle Paul had a clear and accurate knowledge of the distinctions herein pointed out is manifest from his words in 1 Corinthians xv., where he replies to a supposititious question, " How are the dead raised up, and in what body do they come." The very language indicates that he spoke from empirical knowledge, and not from philosophical speculation : he had seen the spirit of the departed Jesus return, and therefore he could designate in what body he came. There is no other way of acquiring such knowledge than through actual manifestation ; in the absence of a revelation hu- man speculation on such points is worthless. Paul was able to distinguish " bodies terrestrial " from "bodies celestial;" that is, he could distinguish the physical body from the psychical : but he also rec- ognized the fact that these coexist in man, the soul being merely " clothed upon " with flesh ; for he says, " there is a natural body, and there is a spir- 332 THE HOLY GHOST. itual body : but the glory of the terrestrial is one, and the glory of the celestial is another." The ce- lestial body is the soul; and it was the immortality of the soul that was brought to light in Christ: for, the Apostle says, " If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is vain." Of the immortality of the spirit no man could doubt, for the spirit is of God. But that anointed soul " which is passed into the heavens " is the living witness of man's immortality, and the sure and cer- tain evidence of man's divine destiny. THE NATURE OP THE HOLY GHOST. The nature of the Holy Ghost, therefore, is out- wardly psychical and inwardly spiritual : God man- ifest in the sanctified soul of the Son of man : the Spirit individualized, or made personal, in the soul of the ascended Jesus : " in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, bodily " (Colossians ii. 9). That sanctified soul externalizes the Son, who in turn reveals the Father, " for the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father." The Son of man in heaven is God formed: "before me there was no God formed: neither shall there be after me." The soul of Jesus externalizes God, reveals and manifests the Spirit : and in his disciples " the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children then heirs of God, . . . and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And " the Spirit of his Son " is sent forth through the soul of the Anointed THE HOLY GHOST. 333 One, Jesus, who having passed into the heavens is thence on designated the Holy Ghost, the Com- forter, or Spirit of truth — " the Leader of the armies of God's angels." That anointed soul, being filled with all the ful- ness of God, is " in the form of God," and is " equal with God : " that is, God finds free and adequate expression through Christ; in whom God and man are perfectly coordinated, one in will and spirit and goodness and power : such is the nature of the Holy Ghost. The soul of Jesus, which was sown in weakness is raised in power, and placed at the right hand of God : that is, Christ is the means or in- strumentality through whom God is revealed and outwardly manifested. The Spirit, which was ceaselessly active from eternity to eternity, gains conscious access to the souls of men through Christ : and thus is revealed the inheritance of man, which is "fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." Before the coming of Christ in the flesh there was no means of knowing that such a soul was in existence ; and certainly not as the Son of man in heaven : " what and if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before." In order to reveal himself to man it was necessary that the Messiah should enter the conditions in which man's knowledge is formed. Once having manifested him- self face to face with men in the earthly life, that divine soul is thenceforth personally known to man, and his disciples follow him into the heavens. "The Son of man in heaven " existed before the 334 THE HOLY GHOST. foundations of the earth were laid ; but it was not yet given to man to know of the celestial state of that divine soul " until Jesus was glorified : " for previous to the incarnation and resurrection and ascension of the Messiah there was no ground of knowledge by which this great fact of his preexist- ence could be " made conscious " in man. The Holy Ghost, therefore, is the soul of the Son of man raised up out of nature by the power of the Spirit as Son of God ; body and soul being glori- fied " by the power of an endless life." He who was "the Only-begotten Son of God" is thence on the " First-begotten of the Father : " and " Jesus received up into heaven " is a sanctified soul in whom the begotten Son is revealed and manifested. Jesus said, " If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." That is, spiritually and psychically God, as re- vealed in Christ, will manifest himself to man, both by his Spirit and through his ghostly pres- ence, as these are conjoined and made one in the person of the Holy Ghost. THE SPIRIT. From the very dawn of creation, when " the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," the activity of the Godhead was manifested. Long before the Holy Ghost was " given " to the human consciousness, the Spirit "strove with man." Says the Psalmist, " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I THE HOLY GHOST. 835 ascend up into heaven, thou art there : if I make my bed in sheol, behold, thou art there/' The Spirit is that from whence all things proceed, and to whom all things return ; in other words, Spirit is the origin and fulfilment of all things. If, therefore, the Holy Ghost were a purely spir- itual proceeding forth, a wholly subjective operation, void of all externality, that divine personality would be indistinguishable from the Godhead, who is Spirit, whose activities are ceaseless, and " in whom we live and move and have our being/' But the Spirit is not spoken of as a " Comforter," whose function it is, specifically, to make conscious the mystery of God, to reveal that which hitherto had been kept secret, to approach man through some outward form of manifestation whereby God is revealed to the human consciousness. It is unreasonable to attribute a distinct per- sonality to a mere movement of the Spirit, to an operation, influence, or proceeding forth ; the mind requires that a means, or instrumentality, be em- ployed ; in short, a personality "in whom dwelleth all the fulness " of the Spirit : and that personality is the Holy Ghost. The Father's influence or oper- ation is subconscious in man in the earthly life : therefore "he sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And the Spirit of the Son is " sent forth " and made con- scious in man through the personality of the Holy Ghost, through the glorified soul of Jesus. Thus the Father is revealed in the Son, and manifested in the Holy Ghost: for the Free Spirit is made 336 THE HOLY GHOST. personal in the Son, and the Son in turn abides in the soul of the ascended Jesus. As thus conceived, the Spirit is distinct from the Holy Ghost, for the latter is a sanctified soul in ■whom God dwells in all his fulness. In the Apoc- alypse this truth is declared through the means therein designated for God's conscious communion with man : " The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants," etc. The phrase, "show unto his servants" implies a conscious manifestation of some sort, the means of which is Jesus Christ, to whom " God gave " that which was to be revealed ; and God is therein clearly distinguished from Jesus Christ, even in that heavenly state to which the Messiah had returned. Thus the Holy Ghost stands out clearly defined as a distinct personality, a quickened and sancti- fied soul in whom God dwells with all his fulness. That divine personality, therefore, as understood by the immediate followers of Jesus, and by all who witnessed its manifestations, was no mere vague abstraction, impossible of comprehension, in the denning of whose nature in terms of philosophy no two minds will agree; but one capable of being apprehended, as revealed through manifestation, even by the simple minds of Galilean fishermen who recognized in the Holy Ghost the ascended Jesus, according to the promise, " This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." As the Holy Ghost, Jesus was on several occasions manifested to the apostle Paul, and to Stephen in the moment of his martyrdom. THE HOLY GHOST. 337 No philosophic speculation could bring to light this truth as it is manifested by the Comforter : for the things of a heavenly realm are only made known by revelation : the natural mind cannot otherwise gain a knowledge of them. The Holy Ghost, therefore, is spoken of as '" a witness," or form of proof, of the reality of things declared by Revela- tion. MEANING OE THE TERM COMFORTER. As previously suggested, the term " Comforter " implies a conscious manifestation of the Spirit : a personal means by which God's presence is revealed in the heart, and manifested to the soul. The wit- ness of the Holy Ghost is a comforting and consol- ing manifestation for the reason that the sub-con- scious presence of the Spirit is by that means " brought to light." Jesus comforted his disciples " while he was yet present with them " in the flesh, because he declared the things of the Spirit to the natural understanding, though veiled in parable ; he manifested the truth by word and deed ; he abode with his disciples as a man among men ; he conversed familiarly with them ; he broke bread with them ; one who was near to him "leaned upon his bosom as they sat at meat : " he wept and prayed with them. Jesus was loved as a friend long before his disciples were convinced that he was their Lord. He " brought life and immortality to light " even to the outer consciousness of his fol- lowers ; " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with 338 THE HOLY GHOST. our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life ... de- clare we unto you." The disciples of Jesus were comforted because in him God drew nigh to man, being apprehended through the senses, as well as by mind and heart: for the words and works of Jesus were the manifestation of God abiding in man, speaking and working through man. The human and the divine were brought into intimate personal fellowship in Christ, in open, free, and familiar intercourse of soul with Spirit : Jesus said, " He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father ; for the Father is in me, and I in him." It is only necessary to contrast that loving communion and personal fellowship existing between Jesus and his disciples, with the manifestations on mount Sinai, to realize what is meant by a " Comforter," by God's drawing nigh to the heart of man through his Son Jesus Christ ; " Sing, O heaven, and be joyful, earth ; for the Lord hath comforted his people." And when Jesus had vanished from their sight, it was promised that " This same Jesus, who is re- ceived up into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." And when he so comes it is as the Holy Ghost, "the Com- forter, even the Spirit of truth, who will guide into all truth, and who will abide with you forever." The promise is, for all time, and for all disciples throughout the ages : " If ye will love me, ye shall be loved of God, and I will love you, and will man- ifest myself to you, . . . and your joy no man can take from you." THE HOLY GHOST. 339 THE MANIFESTATION OP THE HOLY GHOST. Jesus, after his resurrection, was first manifested to the natural consciousness of his disciples through the physical senses ; but as the Holy Ghost, after his ascension into heaven, he is manifested spirit- ually, to the soul : and the invisible agency of that manifestation is designated " power," which " fell on them that believed." This order of manifesta- tion was not the exclusive privilege of the first followers of Jesus : the promise was for his disci- ples through all time : " I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, who shall abide with you forever." And they who can re- ceive him are comforted and cheered by the fulfil- ment of that promise : for the Holy Ghost is mani- fested spiritually, and sometimes in a psychic form, as intimated in the Acts and Epistles. Though the Spirit of the Son abides in the soul of the ascended Jesus, and that soul may be mani- fested to the psychic senses, the power and func- tions of the Holy Ghost are not confined to that order of manifestation : a conscious psychical mani- festation is exceptional and rare, and given for some special purpose, as on the several occasions to which Paul alludes, when he says " The Lord stood by me, and said," etc. But when the Holy Ghost operates spiritually, in the heart of man, it is the " Spirit of the Son " abiding in that anointed soul, which approaches man invisibly, Spirit to spirit, and working in the soul of the disciple that un- speakable joy which is a witness of the presence of 340 THE HOLY GHOST. God : of that form of manifestation the lives of the saintly, in all ages, are a witness. It must not be supposed, therefore, because the external nature and powers of the Holy Ghost have been herein emphasized, in defining the nature and personality of the Paraclete, that the operation of that spirit- ual Comforter is wholly by a psychical means : that is one form of manifestation which will be particularly dwelt upon in the succeeding chapter. But when God sends forth " the Spirit of his Son into your hearts," this signifies a spiritual opera- tion transcending the psychical, even as the pow- ers of the Spirit transcend the powers of the soul, as a more inward witness of God's presence and abiding love. NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL DISPENSATIONS OP THE CHRIST. It is clearly distinguishable from the foregoing, and from what has been said in previous chapters, that there was an order of advance in the means of Messianic revelation. God was manifested psy- chically by the Word, in the old dispensation ; and God was "manifest. in the flesh" in the Son of man ; and God is manifested spiritually through the Holy Ghost : ■ the* means of manifestation in every case are distinct from the Spirit itself. The natural dispensation of the Christ is through the historic Son of man ; and the spiritual dispensation of the Christ is through the Holy Ghost : by these means God is revealed to a natural and a spiritual . consciousness in man. The ministry of the Son of THE HOLY GHOST. 341 man, as the natural Christ, terminated with the res- urrection of Jesus : while the ministry of the Holy Ghost, as the spiritual Christ, began on the day of Pentecost after his ascension into heaven. In a general sense, apart from that which is individ- ual and personal, Christianity has been fostered almost exclusively under the dispensation of the natural or historic Christ, as a form of preparation for that which is to follow when the souls of men are more universally quickened by the Spirit. Of the dispensation of the Holy Ghost it may be said that barely the first foregleams of that which is to come have as yet been manifested in the life of man. The individual believer, through all time, when born of the Spirit, will say : " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself." God may be known by " the hearing of the ear ; " that is, traditionally or historically : but a time was pre- dicted when " every eye shall see him," and when " the knowledge of him shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea." Jesus directed his disciples, whose spiritual per- ceptions were still dormant, to ask of him " what they will, and it shall be given them:" that is, Christ stands before the natural - minded believer in the place of God : he receives worship and sup- plication as God. But when a spiritual Comforter was promised, Jesus said, " In that day ye shall ask me nothing : whatsoever ye shall ask the Fa- ther, he will give it you in my name." That is, in the day of the fully awakened spiritual con- 342 THE HOLY GHOST. sciousness, when man is born of God, the Father shall be directly approached, spiritually; but Christ will still be made the means through whom the Father responds to man when he would make conscious in dnan the gifts of the Spirit : and that means or instrumentality is through the power and person of the Holy Ghost. Thus there is a prog- ress in the order of the divine means by which God and man are brought finally face to face ; or, as manifested in Jesus, " When the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son." When Jesus taught his disciples to " ask of him what they will, and it shall be given them," he implied that God could not be apprehended by the natural mind in his divine essence, or substance, as a purely spiritual being, but only as manifested in the Christ. But when a spiritual Comforter was promised, Jesus said : " He shall glorify me : for he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. . . . He shall teach you all things, and bring to your re- membrance whatsoever things I have said unto you. . . . He shall testify of me. . . . He shall not speak from himself ; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak ; and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come." Under the dispensation of the natural Christ the Spirit is ministered from the Son : " God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." For God "hath given to the Son to have life in himself," and " he quickeneth whom he will." But under the dispensation of the spirit- ual Christ, the Holy Ghost, supplication is made THE HOLY GHOST. 343 directly to the Father, and the Father's Spirit is sent forth through the Son : " For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." The Father is then directly approached, but ministers his gifts through the Son. For in that day the disciple has become a co-heir with Christ, and " all the fulness of the Godhead " is ultimately to be his inheritance, as this was mani- fested in Jesus. Then is the soul of man " raised up " in fellowship with God. The distinction between a natural and a spiritual enlightenment is measured by the distinction that exists between a human and a divine consciousness : and the relative capacities of the two orders of being correspond to the relative powers of earth and heaven. With the gradual unfolding of conscious- ness in the soul, as this passes from a natural to a spiritual order of enlightenment Revelation tempers the Spirit to the needs and capacity of man, and only gradually is he led from darkness into light. Every step forward in the soul's life has reference to the " fulness of time," and in the order of its un- veiling the truth is only gradually brought to light when man is prepared for its reception. But that unveiling goes on forever ; for Revelation is a cease- less flowing stream : " There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." Through- out eternity the truth will continue to unveil itself without end : " for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; or hid that shall not be made manifest." 344 THE HOLY GHOST. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEEM PERSON. When reference is made to the personalities of God, or man, as natural and spiritual personalities, it should be distinctly understood what is meant by the term "person." This word is derived from the Latin per, through, and sonare, to sound. It is likewise defined as a mask, or veiling. It is that through which the inmost of being sounds forth, or is outwardly manifested. In the scriptural sense the natural man and the spiritual man are two personalities of one being : in the natural man is comprised the body and the mind, and in the spir- itual man is comprised the soul and the spirit : the mind of the natural man is human, but the mind of the spiritual man is divine, even as St. Paul said, " I have the mind of Christ." The natural man is concerned with that which is temporal, ranging from that which is grossly carnal to the highest intellectual attainments ; while the spiritual man is concerned with that which is eternal, from the least or most external of heavenly things to the inmost of God, which is Free Spirit. The one order of intelligence is formed through the earth, and the other is informed of God : " Howbeit that •was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; and afterward, that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy : the second man is from heaven. ... As we have borne the, image of the earthy, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly." It may be seen, then, that the distinction of per- THE HOLY GHOST. 345 sonality evolved from a new birth, " of water and of the Spirit " — that is, of repentance and of God — is not a mere figure of speech, but by a new principle entering the soul as a direct emanation from God, a new man, or mind, is formed in the soul, which is distinguished by a new will and affec- tion : and this new man is actually " the Lord from heaven." This was revealed in Jesus ; and as his life is the representative life of the soul of man in its consummate purity and perfection, the final destiny of man is revealed in Jesus, whose spiritual personality is manifested in the Holy Ghost. St. Paul refers to this " new man," or spiritual personality, when manifested in himself, in these words: " I knew a man in Christ, . . . how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeak- able words, impossible for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory ; yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infii'mities." Of that " new man," formed in Christ, the Apostle would glory, but not of his natural self, as a son of the first Adam. Thus he refers to that " man in Christ " as other than himself, as to a distinct personality. In like manner the Son of man and the Holy Ghost are two personalities of the Christ, through whom the Spirit is revealed and manifested in natural and spiritual realms of being. CONVERSION. They who have been followers of the Son of man in his earthly ministry, who have " walked with Jesus " as disciples, who have heard his glad tidings 346 THE HOLY GHOST. of the nearness of the kingdom of heaven, and who memorialize " his death till he come," shall, in the last day, be raised up to a spiritual discernment of the truth by the power of the Holy Ghost, " and the truth shall make them free." Jesus said : " And when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. ... I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth." Thence on, the disciples, through all time, follow " this same Jesus " into the heavens. They do not wait for a bodily change to do this, for, their eyes being opened as to soul and spirit, they are not barred from that celestial realm, for they are then in conscious fellowship with Christ through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost. As was said of Jesus, "then were the heavens opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit descending as a dove, and it abode upon him ; " all of which is typical and rep- resentative of what is the common inheritance of man, if he will but believe : " Said I not unto thee, that, if thou would believe, thou should see the glory of God?" But man is "dull of heart, and slow to believe ; " and the natural mind narrows down its own horizon about the soul to prevent its soaring above the earth. Until the soul is spirit- ually quickened it is quite possible for the dis- ciple to follow the Son of man in his earthly min- istry for a long period without being "born of God ; " as did the apostle Peter, for three years, be- THE HOLY GHOST. 347 fore he was converted : " And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat : but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not ; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." It is not by an outward following, but through an inward change of heart and will, that the natural disciple is "converted" into a spiritual follower of Jesus. Peter was not yet fully " born of the Spirit," and therefore he was still liable to fall into the hands of Satan ; and this truth was attested by his denial of Christ with an oath, and by the searching in- quiry of the risen Jesus, " Lovest thou me ? " which the Lord repeated thrice, as if to drive the question down into the very heart of his disciple. It was by the power of the Holy Ghost that the disciples were finally drawn into the kingdom, " and to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,'" — children of the Spirit. For it was after Jesus had risen from the grave that "he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : " and when that gift was bestowed it was the means whereby the " gift of the Spirit " was communicated to the soul, as symbolized on the day of Pentecost. That " gift of God " was imparted to the disciples after Jesus had ascended to the Father : and that supreme gift was symbolized by a flame which " sat upon each of them." Thus was fulfilled the words of John : " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." That "gift of God" is not bestowed under the dispensation of the Son of man, for the 348 THE HOLY GHOST. gospel of the natural or historic Christ is, that " the kingdom of heaven is come nigh unto you ; " that man may enter in, another Comforter was re- quired, " even the Spirit of truth, who will guide into all truth." Jesus said, on taking leave of his disciples, referring to his teachings as Son of man : " These things have I spoken unto you in prov- erbs : the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but shall show you plainly of the Father." That is, when he has breathed on his disciple from a heavenly realm, as the Holy Ghost, imparting the Spirit to the soul, then spiritual things will be "spiritually discerned" in all their depth and fulness. God will then approach man from within ; the outward means, " by the hearing of the ear," will then give place to an inward spiritual " fellowship," whereby the Comforter will show the disciple " plainly of the Father ; " or reveal spir- itual things spiritually : and Jesus intimates that that Comforter is himself, in his glorified state, when he says : " the time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in proverbs, but shall show you plainly of the Father." THE COMING AGAIN OP CHRIST. Joyful as were the manifestations of the forty days, which brought life and immortality to light to the outer senses, it was not to that brief interval that Jesus referred, on taking leave of his disciples before his crucifixion, when he said: "Ye there- fore now have sorrow ; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man tak- eth from you." THE HOLY GHOST. 349 The physical manifestations of Jesus terminated forever when he was received up into heaven ; for that form of manifestation is only possible immedi- ately after dissolution, while the soul lingers near the earth, and is still vested with its forces. But Jesus referred to his " coming again " in the char- acter of the Holy Ghost : " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and he will abide with you forever." In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said : " Unto them that look for him Christ shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Not to all, but " unto them that look for him." But a warning is given : " See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. . . . For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame." They who have once tasted of these heavenly things, "of the powers of the world to come," if they reject them and turn back into the world from whence they have been spiritually caught up, and to which thereafter they give the preference, then there remains no other means by which the soul 350 THE HOLY GHOST. can be redeemed and saved, for if the highest gifts fail, then heaven itself is powerless to draw the soul up to God. The manifestation of the Holy Ghost is a reward of faith; "a joy and comfort to them which be- lieve." Jesus said, " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me." And again, "If ye will love me, ye shall be loved of God, and I will love you, and will manifest myself to you." The coming of the Comforter is to the individual soul, according to its need and power : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." That coming is not future as to time, but is dependent on the state of the heart, and the believing mind. "Watch, therefore, for ye know not on what day, or in what hour, your Lord com- eth : at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crow- ing, or in the morning : lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch ! " VII. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. " Thou hast ascended on high : thou hast led captivity captive : thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." — Psalm 63. " And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old meu shall dream dreams : yea, and on my servants and on my hand- maidens in those days will I pour forth of my Spirit ; and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth beneath." — Acts ii. 17-19. " But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal." — 1 Corinthians xii. 7. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. THE DAY OF PENTECOST. JESUS, after he had risen, " being assembled to- gether with his disciples, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence, ... ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." " And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of flame, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." In the above the Greek pneuma is used in two senses : the Spirit manifested through the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit is made personal in a divine 354 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. psychical personality as the Comforter, or Holy Ghost : a holy soul filled with all the fulness of God. It was the psychic " power " of the Holy Ghost which " filled " the disciples, and by means of that ghostly power they spoke "as the Spirit gave them utterance." For the purely spiritual could never appear as " cloven tongues of flame," or as "a rushing mighty wind," things seen and heard by the outward senses. It was long before declared by the prophet, that " God is not in the fire, nor in the whirlwind, nor in the tempest ; but in the still small voice," which is a silent voice in the heart and conscience : " no man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him : " that is, the Son has made the Father known to man as the invisible, unsearchable Spirit, who may be known through the Christ, as Son of man and Holy Ghost, but whom " no man hath seen, nor can see." These manifestations, therefore, on the day of Pentecost, were outward psychical signs, given through the "power" of the Holy Ghost, and man- ifesting the presence of the Spirit. They were of the nature of an outward or psychic manifesta- tion, emanating from the unseen world, given through various instrumentalities, and by means of "power" comprehended under the general dispen- sation of the Holy Ghost. For " all power is given from above," and there can be no conscious mani- festation made from one sphere to another without the knowledge and sanction of that divine Over-soul, who is designated the Comforter, the creator and sustainer of all things in heaven and earth. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 355 MAN'S DUAL ORGANISM. It has been already explained that there is united in man a dual organism, psychic and physical, ■which brings him in contact with the conditions of two distinct realms of being. In each separate stage of existence, man is suspended, as it were, be- tween two worlds. In the earthly life his physical organism reaches outward through a physical crea- tion, and his psychic organism reaches inward through a psychical world ; and these physical and psychic spheres are the seen and unseen realms of nature; the latter eventually becoming the outer environment of Spirit. Through his psychic powers man is directly related to that unseen realm which was revealed by Jesus during the period interven- ing between his resurrection and ascension; and though this truth is not always "made conscious" in man, it is amply attested by the seers and prophets. As there are visible and invisible realms of na- ture, so likewise are there visible and invisible realms of Spirit ; and these latter constitute what is termed a spiritual " world." The things seen and heard by the psychic senses of seers and prophets abundantly testify to the substantial, ob- jective reality of that outer world of spirits which is psychic. The psychic senses of seers and prophets being "opened," they cognized sensibly the ex- ternal things of a higher realm ; and invariably, in all ages, and with unconscious concurrence, they speak of those things as plain matters of fact, as 356 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. veritable realities. The beings who came forth from the higher or interior spheres, either psychic or spiritual, as the spirits of men and of angels, were invariably apprehended as real persons ; and the attestation of that which was witnessed by the seers and prophets was finally and once for all manifested in the person of Jesus, the Christ. The opening of the psychic senses is not strictly a spiritual gift ; it may be unaccompanied by any spiritual qualification whatever on the part of the one thus influenced. This is plainly implied by these words : " Thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the rebellious also ; that the Lord God might dwell among them." The gifts manifested through psychic " signs," therefore, may be wholly inde- pendent of spiritual qualification on the part of the receiver : they may, or they may not, be associated with a devout mind. It may be seen, then, that the forming of an intel- ligent estimate of these gifts depends upon a proper discrimination of soul and spirit. " Signs " are in- variably psychical, but " visions " and " prophesy- ings" are spiritual, provided they emanate from a heavenly realm ; for it was said, " I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth beneath." A proper understanding of the nature of these phenomena, collectively designated, in the New Testament, " manifestations of the Holy Ghost," especially when given in the form of " signs," or sensible manifestations, is grounded fundamentally in the distinction of soul and spirit, as these are " parted asunder " by Revelation. Many MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 357 erroneous and even mischievous views of scriptural truths spring from confusion of mind on this point ; therefore a proper discrimination of that which is psychical from that which is spiritual, in the so- called " manifestations of the Holy Ghost," is of the first importance in forming a correct estimate of these gifts. Through a proper discrimination of soul and spirit, the preternatural may be clearly dis- tinguished from the supernatural, the latter mark- ing a realm of spirit as a " kingdom of God." With the advance of knowledge, many kinds of phenomena once deemed supernatural or miracu- lous will be found to be comprised, in part at least, within the domain of nature, and thus of natural law. As the mind of man advances through a knowledge of the truth — as truth is variously revealed in the kingdom of nature and in the king- dom of God — the estimate of divine things will be enhanced ; conceptions of " the things pertaining to the kingdom of heaven," being then marked by a greater spirituality than usually prevails, will in- spire a deeper reverence, and faith will be gradually merged in sight as belief becomes knowledge ; even as the Apostle said, " Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed; " or now we know and are assured, being witnesses of the truth. THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. In order to a right understanding of the nature of that " power " which " fell on the disciples," it will be necessary to study in detail the various orders of manifestation described in the New Tes- 358 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. tament scriptures, comparing psychical things with spiritual. In this inquiry certain elementary facts must be grasped before passing on to higher con- siderations. It will be observed that all references to the operation of the Holy Ghost, as distinguished from the operation of the Spirit, imply an outward mani- festation, something capable of being sensibly cog- nized as " falling upon " certain persons, manifested by "signs" or "gifts" suddenly imparted through "power." That this "power" is distinguished from the Spirit, as a " manifestation of the Holy Ghost," is implied in the following : " Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Sa- maria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John ; who, when they were come down, prayed with them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them : only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost, and be- gan to speak with tongues, and prophesied." These words, " for as yet he was fallen upon none of them," imply an outpouring of "power" upon that which is external to the spiritual con- sciousness, even as the channel of its operation was by an outward means, through "the laying on of hands." The declaration that "thereupon they received the Holy Ghost " was grounded in some external sign, or sensible form of evidence, apparent to the eyes or ears of the observers. That which these " believers " received therefore, by this means, MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 359 was something added, ah extra, to the Spirit of grace ; for they who had " received the word of God," and had been " baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus," — thus fulfilling the generally recog- nized requirements of Christian fellowship, — could not have been without a knowledge of the Spirit, of whom Jesus said : " No man cometh unto me, except the Father, which sent me, draw him." Thus it was not the Spirit, but the Comforter or Holy Ghost, that was consciously manifested through the power " which fell upon " these Samaritan believers ; and which was accounted a "joy and comfort," be- cause of its being a conscious manifestation of the divine Presence. Again, when Paul came to Ephesus, " finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye re- ceived the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? and they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. . . . And when Paul kid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them ; and they spake with tongues and prophesied." These disciples " believed," and had even been baptized with John's baptism of re- pentance ; the very nature of which belief was grounded in a knowledge of the divine Spirit. But of the newly given Comforter, the Holy Ghost, these believers were wholly in ignorance; probably they knew nothing of the ascended Lord, for the disci- ples of John walked apart from the followers of Jesus. They certainly knew nothing of that com- forting manifestation impaired " through the laying on of hands." But they could not have been 360 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. termed " believers " had they been in ignorance of that divine Spirit which "strove with man " from the beginning, as witnessed in the Psalms and the Prophets : that " Holy Spirit " referred to by David and Isaiah, — Psa. li. 11, and Isa. lxiii. 10, 11, — ;md which is as "a wind that bloweth where it listeth." It is not the Spirit, but the "power" of the Holy Ghost, which is imparted by " the laying on of hands ; " for the Holy Ghost " makes conscious the mystery which hitherto was hid " in Spirit and " kept secret from the foundation of the world." The Holy Ghost operates outwardly by a psychic means, and thus the Holy Ghost is " another Com- forter" in that same sense in which the Son of man was a Comforter ; manifesting God to the conscious- ness of man, psychically as well as spiritually. Thus it was the Holy Ghost, or rather the "power" thence derived, which was conveyed to these believ- ers of Samaria and of Ephesus " by the laying on of hands ; " which tactual operation appears to have been the original means employed for the convey- ance of " power " to those not specially endowed with psychical gifts received by a more direct means, as in the case of Paul. The conveyance of the " power " by tactual con- tact was not always essential ; many examples might be cited where the gifts were manifested irrespective of the laying on of hands, as in the case of Agabus, and others, who prophesied. But they who possessed the gifts could impart them by that means, and this is borne out by the testimony of MANIFESTATION'S OF THE HOLY GHOST. 361 mystics in all ages. That the transmission of the Spirit is irrespective of the laying on of hands, and is reserved for God himself to impart to the soul through the Holy Ghost, was symbolized by the Lord's "breathing" on his disciples after he had risen. But the psychic symbol must not be mis- taken for the actual operation of the Spirit, for, though Thomas was not present when Jesus "breathed on them," that disciple was not thereby deprived of the gift. The anointing of Paul was irrespective of any such external agency, the sym- bol of the breathing standing for a sign of Christ's agency in imparting the Spirit to his followers. The Holy Ghost was imparted by his " breathing on them ; " but the imparting of the Spirit was re- served for the day of Pentecost, when it was sym- bolized by a flame " like as of fire, which sat upon each of them." The imparting of the Holy Ghost, therefore, is distinct from the communion of the Spirit ; it was the psychic " power " of the former that was conveyed and reinforced by tactual con- tact, and cures of all kinds were wrought by that means. As before remarked, the conveyance of power is not dependent upon the laying on of hands for its transmission, for the gifts of God overflow all ap- pointed channels, and manifest themselves without stint or hindrance in unexpected ways and places. That the mystical act of the " laying on of hands," therefore, was psychical and not spiritual, with respect to the nature of that which was thereby transmitted, is abundantly witnessed by the phe- 302 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. nomena which followed that act. The "power" thus conveyed is comprehended under the general dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and is only avail- able when " given from above." Though this may be transmitted irrespective of spiritual qualification, it nevertheless is of the order of God's overruling providence through the Holy Ghost ; for in the Holy Ghost all psychic powers are comprehended in all their fulness, and thus in general their opera- tion is properly designated "manifestations of the Holy Ghost." NATURE OF THE POWER. That the " power " is distinct from, and external to, a spiritual influence, both as to substance and in its mode of operation, is apparent from its peculiar manifestation, and from its laying hold directly upon physical conditions, striking one dead, or restoring to its normal form a crippled body. The manifes- tation of its operation was outward, in things sensi- bly cognized, evincing the presence of forces which wrought marked physical effects, seemingly mirac- ulous. The phenomena were objective: their ob- servation was irrespective of spiritual qualification on the part of the beholder, whereas " spiritual things are spiritually discerned." It is said of one Simon, given to necromancy, that on witnessing these things he desired to purchase the "power," as if it were some occult secret : " And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 363, whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost." Thus these things were regarded as mat- ters of fact even by unbelievers, or unspiritual wit- nesses. Simon was sternly rebuked for viewing the phenomena in the light of necromancy, and for re- garding the possession of the "power" as common merchandise. For such a one there was no dis- cernment of their true significance and awful mys- tical meaning, as a means of outward or conscious intercourse with the unseen world and with heaven itself. Nevertheless it will be seen, later on, that these so-called " manifestations of the Holy Ghost " were not all regarded as alike sacred in character, and the apostle Paul himself eventually was able to discriminate between them. THE HOLY GHOST AS EXTERNAL TO THE SPIRIT. That the manifestations of the Holy Ghost were external to the Spirit is evident from such expres- sions as the following : " And they were astonished that the gift of the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Gentiles also, ... for they heard them speak with tongues : " " For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost : " " Not by the works of righteousness which we have done . . . but by the washing of regenera- tion, and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly ; " " God bearing witness by gifts of the Holy Ghost ; " " Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us ; " " For the kingdom of heaven is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;" " That ye may abound in hope through the 364 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. power of the Holy Ghost ; " " The communion of the Holy Ghost," as distinguished from a communion of the Spirit, by its employing a psychical means, communicated by tactual contact ; " Then had the Church rest . . . walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multi- plied," etc. But as still more convincing, the following is significant : " As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." This indicates an expression of the will of the Holy Ghost by a direct verbal communication, and not by merely illumining the minds of the dis- ciples. A similar order of verbal communication is indicated by the words used in the letter of the apostles and elders, commending Paul and Barnabas to the brethren at Antioch and elsewhere : " For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things," etc. This manner of speaking of the Holy Ghost as having given a conscious expression of opinion apart from the mind of the apostles — as of two that agreed — is significant; for such words could never have been used had the manifestation been a merely subjective blending of two minds as one, through a purely spiritual influence : the words plainly indicate an outward communion of thought through some conscious means, by which the mind of the Holy Ghost was verbally expressed. Again, St. Paul narrates the following : " And it came to pass, that, when I had returned to Jeru- MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 3G5 salem, and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him, saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : because they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that I im- prisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee. ... And he said unto me, De- part : for I will send thee forth far hence unto the Gentiles." And again : they brought " Paul into the castle. And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer : for as thou hast testified concerning me at Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." Elsewhere Paul says : " The Holy Ghost testifieth to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me." This implies some outward or conscious conveyance of the knowledge of that which was to befall him. Again, the following is recorded of this apostle : " And the Lord said unto Paul in the night, by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace : for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee : for I have much people in this city," — namely, Corinth. While of his first expe- rience of this conscious and comforting manifesta- tion the Apostle says : " I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why perse- cutest thou me ? it is hard for thee to kick against the goad." Has the natural reason resolved this gracious Comforter into a sublimated, all-pervasive essence, symbolized by the breath? The apostle Paul was encouraged and sustained bj r a personal manifesta- 366 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. tion, in organic form, directing liis labors and en- couraging him by word of mouth, speaking face to face in human language, — a " Comforter " indeed. Was it intended that he of whom it was said, " and he will abide with you forever," should, after these initial manifestations, withdraw himself from all conscious means of approach, and thenceforth re- veal himself to man solely through the Father's sub- conscious means, by a purely spiritual " influence," " operation," or " proceeding forth " ? Was the promise of a Comforter alone for them that were near, and not for those afar off? or is it the privi- leged inheritance of spiritual disciples in all ages, if they will but believe ? The disappearance of this conscious means of communion is not due to men's minds having become more spiritual; on the con- trary, it is due to a persistent form of unbelief which denies, in effect, the true personality of the Holy Ghost ; even as in the earliest days of Chris- tianity it was denied by some that Jesus Christ actually came in the flesh. For it has become a settled conviction, even in the minds of devout Christians, that the beatific vision is no longer vouchsafed to man in the earthly life ; and this con- viction is the natural outcome of a prevalent im- pression that there is no organic externality to the Holy Ghost, no proper personality, such as that designated "the Son of man in heaven." A natural consciousness, rooted in the data supplied through the physical senses, practically denies the objective reality of phenomena revealed to the psychic senses, as witnessed by seers and prophets in all ages. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 367 These various phenomena, designated " manifesta- tions of the Holy Ghost," nevertheless attest the reality and objectivity of that unseen realm whose forces are thus projected into a physical world and whose forms are sometimes made palpable even to the outer senses. It was to these conscious man- ifestations that the apostle Paul referred when he said, " but to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal ; " and that manifestation was spoken of as " a joy and comfort to them which believe." THE MANIFESTATION OP GIFTS. Invariably they upon whom " the power fell " were distinguished by some outward token : by a new gift suddenly imparted to them, as of "tongues," " prophesyings," or " discerning of spirits ; " or by the evidence of some newly imparted " power " which was capable of operating even in physical substances ; which power, force, or psychic agency was usually communicated by the touch, or directed by the fixed attention of the eye ; as in the following instance, respecting a man who was deformed from his birth , and who was carried and laid at the gate of the temple, that he might ask alms : " And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And lie gave heed unto them, expect- ing to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none ; but such as I have give I unto thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up : and immedi- 368 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. ately his feet and ankle-bones received strength. And be leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God." It is a reasonable inference, borne out by concur- rent testimony, that this fastening of their eyes upon the cripple, and directing him to look on them, and the taking him by the right hand, estab- lished conditions for the operation of the healing power, apart from the command, " rise up and walk," which manifested an exercise of will-power on the part of the disciples, a spiritual principle that must always lay hold of some external psychic agency to effect its ends, even for the performance of works usually deemed miraculous. This " fas- tening of the eyes" on the person upon whom the power was to operate is frequently alluded to in scripture ; as in the case of Paul's healing of the cripple, impotent in his feet from birth: " The same heard Paul speaking : who, fastening his eyes upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, said in a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped up and walked." The " loud voice " was also a reinforcment of energy or will-power. Likewise of Elymas, the sorcerer, who sought to oppose the faith, it is said : " But Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, fastened his eyes on him, and said, . . . the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind. . . . And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness : and he went out seek- ing some one to lead him by the hand." MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 369 THE MEANS OP MANIFESTATION. That some means, some form of psychic agency, power, magnetism, — call it by what name we may, — was essential, apart from the exercise of the will, or Spirit, in working cures, is evident from numer- ous hints given in the scriptures. It was essential to establish conditions for the will-power to operate in, and faith was favorable for its exercise. It is said of Paul himself, after he had been stoned : the people, " supposing him to be dead, drew him out of the city. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city." This standing round about the person to be healed, and the union of the wills of all in prayer, as a means of drawing down "power" from above, is commonly reported of faith-cures in all ages. Various means as channels for the operation of the power are mentioned in scripture in connection with Christ's healings, usually evinced by the touch: while they who touched even "the hem of his garment " were likewise healed, provided they bad faith ; and the Master was sensible of having lost some " virtue," or power, by that means. The use of spittle, of clay kneaded with the fingers; or the taking of the person to be healed, or " raised from the dead," by the hand, usually " by the right hand," are suggestive indications of the employ- ment of means for transmitting power. It is true that the Master sometimes effected his object, though rarely, through merely directing the will toward the person to be healed, or raised from the 370 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. dead : but then it must be borne in mind that the ministry of spirits has its place in transmitting power. If the operation of the will be wholly indepen- dent of means or instrumentalities, then, it may rea- sonably be asked, Why was it necessary to provide, for the redemption and salvation of man, these nat- ural and spiritual Comforters — the Son of man and the Holy Ghost — by whom the Spirit is outwardly revealed and consciously manifested in conditions normal to man's physical and psychical natures ? or why, in other words, was the Messiah formed and organized, as to body and soul, first as a man, and again as a spirit, if the Father, who is " Free Spirit," may dispense with all means in making conscious his will, or for the performance of " works " ? If God works independently of means, why, then, does he permit anything to exist that is contrary to his will ? why is not the imperfect made perfect by divine fiat? and all gradual development swallowed up in an immediate consummation of perfection without pain, or suffering, or sin, or tra- vail, or growth, or ceaseless care ? Why, then, in short, since the spiritual kingdom is the end and goal, do the psychical and physical worlds exist ? If the elements and forces of these lower realms may be dispensed with by the Spirit, in those outward, conscious manifestations revealing the Father's will, why, then, have they been so wondrously and wisely devised to correspond to every conceivable motion of the will, to every conceivable impulse of life? It is manifest that God himself works through in- MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 371 strumentalities of bis own devising, and it is the end and consummation of the natural creation that it shall, when transfigured by the Spirit as "a new Leaven and a new earth," forever manifest the divine will, even as was prophesied of the M essiah : "Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord." For the end of all things is to glorify or manifest God ; to reveal all the fulness of the divine love and and wisdom ; this is done through the souls of men and of angels, who as ministering spirits minister the divine will under the dispensation of the Son of God. The conception of creation by divine fiat has, in the mind of man, finally given place to a more rea- sonable and vastly more sublime thought, namely, that of God working with infinite pains through various instrumentalities for the accomplishment of his purposes; and a conclusive witness of this truth is discerned in Jesus the Christ, who said, "My Father worketh hitherto ; and I work." As Re- deemer and Sanctifier, in consummating the crea- tion, the coming of the Messiah was a foreordained necessity. Without that instrumentality, as a means of "reconciling," or making one, God and man, the divine will could not have been manifested in man ; therefore the apostle Peter said : " he who was manifested in these last times, was foreordained be- fore the foundation of the world." That manifes- tation, as we have seen, included in its order the establishment of a divine organic means, " the Son of man in heaven," through whom the sub-conscious is made conscious, and God brought face to face with man, "eye to eye." 372 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. PSYCHICAL GIFTS. It is plainly indicated in scripture, in the Old Testament as well as the New, that psychical gifts, or " signs in the earth beneath," are not exclusively the inheritance of believers, or of devout minds. There were true and false prophets, as has been pointed out, both possessing genuine gifts; the dis- tinction did not rest in the faculty, but in the char- acter or quality of the " prophesyings " made through this psychic means. It is apparent, from a careful study of the nature of these " gifts," as described in the New Testament, that their possession is by no means an infallible sign of spiritual regeneration, although it is indeed promised that " these signs shall follow them which believe." The things of the Spirit are not thus outwardly judged. These psychical gifts that "fell on" the early disciples, and others, were originally regarded, in their en- tirety, as " manifestations of the Holy Ghost," who indeed operates by that means. But the apostle Paul finally came to regard them with a more just discrimination ; he saw that they were of various character, and that in their elementary forms they frequently led to injurious excesses: thus he even ventured to check them, saying, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all : yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." In some instances these elementary signs MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 873, led to such decided abuse that they brought dis- credit on the churches, and the Apostle strove to bring them within reasonable bounds by indicating that they who had the elementary gifts should look forward to something better : " If I come unto you speaking with tongues," he says, " what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine ? And even things without life giv- ing forth sound, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped ? " Here a still more elementary form of manifestation than " tongues " is alluded to, namely, sounds issuing from inanimate objects, — from " things without life," — a form of phenomena marking the initial step in a series of manifesta- tions susceptible of development, passing from lower to higher forms, and which the Apostle regards merely as a means for the attainment of something better : " Forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church." He that has an elementary gift, as of "tongues," "let him pray that he may interpret, that the understanding may be fruitful." Again, says the Apostle, " when ye assemble together, if all speak with tongues, and there come in men un- learned [in the mystery], or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad? But if ye prophesy and there come in an unbeliever, or one ignorant [of these things], he is reproved, he is judged: the secrets of his heart are made known." oli MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. TONGUES AND PEOPHESYINGS. The scripture declares that God often works by despised instrumentalities : " Not many wise after the flesh, are called," — not many leaders in the in- tellectual world are chosen for the revelation of spiritual truth, — but " the base things, and things which are despised, doth God choose to confound the wise, that no flesh should glory in his pres- ence : " in order that it should be distinctly recog- nized that spiritual truth is not of man's wisdom, but an inspiration, or revelation from above. The "unknown tongues," alluded to in the Acts and Epistles, were not always inspirational speech in human languages. They were sometimes merely an unintelligible utterance of strange sounds, a not uncommon form of manifestation that has more than once been erroneously mistaken for " manifestations of the Holy Ghost." This statement may need qualifying : for inasmuch as all things in the phys- ical world in a sense manifest God, so likewise all things proceeding forth from a psychical realm are manifestations of a ghostly " power," which, even in its least form, is properly included under a divine providence, since nothing can proceed thence without the knowledge and sanction of God. Nev- ertheless that Paul did not regard "tongues "as a sacred form of manifestation is plainly implied when he says, " I had rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand in an unknown tongue." " Tongues," he says, " are for a sign, not for them which believe, but for them that believe MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 375, not ; but prophesying serveth not for them that be- lieve not, but for them which believe." This lucid discrimination grew out of the Apostle's own obser- vation and experience of the working of these gifts. Teachings given through these psychic instrumen- talities, as a form of revelation, could not be accept- able to the minds of those who had no knowledge of the means, or who could not credit the genuine- ness of the phenomena: for them, "signs" were better adapted, as supplying a more tangible form of evidence, apparent to the outer senses, and serv- ing as a means of initiation into this mystical inter- course with the unseen world. Which intercourse, for the enlightened, was no mystery at all, but an orderly channel of conscious communion, in its higher forms designated in the creed of the apostles "the communion of saints." The lower or more external forms of intercourse were eventually sup- planted by a more spiritual form of communion, by an inward spiritual means, on the part of those whose " conversation is in heaven, and among the angels." " Tongues " are neither more nor less than the initial, and often ineffectual, effort of spirits to con- trol the human organs by " possession ; " and the scriptures amply attest the truth that when a spirit gains full control of the human organs he speaks through the man ; and when he has so gained " posses- sion " he speaks the language or dialect with which he was himself familiar while on earth, as witnessed on the day of Pentecost. The scriptures afford many illustrations of a foreign spirit speaking by 376 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. man's organs. Through this same channel " the spirit of prophecy " flows ; and " prophesyings," or spiritual teachings, given by this inspirational means, were regarded by the first disciples as " a joy and comfort to them which believe;" while the unbeliever, or the scoffer, was reproved and judged by them, and " the secrets of his heart made known." The strange utterances designated "tongues" were calculated to startle the careless unbeliever, prompting him to inquire further of the mystery, and thus be led into a more receptive state, better fitted for " prophesyings " when the gift should be further developed. But they who apprehended the nature of the elementary "signs" were to pass them by, giving preference to spiritual teachings, or " revelations of the Spirit," as more edifying and profitable. These prophesyings were not a forecast- ing of future events; that was incidental and excep- tional : they were inspirational revelations from above, and these were to be prized accordingly, especially when manifesting an enlightened spirit, and addressing the understanding with an exalted end in view. St. Paul urges the disciples to " covet earnestly the best gifts," meaning those which are spiritual and edifying. He says, " desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy : for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue, speaketh not unto men, . . . for no man understandeth him ; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 377 unknown tongue edifieth himself ; but be that prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all spake with tongues," — that is, that all had the ele- mentary gift rather than none at all, — "but rather that ye prophesied. . . . Forasmuch as ye are all desirous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret." That is, he that receives the in- spiration in a form that is unintelligible to others, let him interpret it in his own mind, and express it understandingly in terms of human thought. The epistles of Paul are a witness of this order of pro- ceeding on his own part, whereby "through the abundance of the revelations " that were made to him, he strove to so interpret them in terms of hu- man speech that they would address the understand- ing of his hearers. And this actually is a process of iv incarnation " of spiritual things, which " Jesus began to teach and preach ; " and this order of in- carnation is to go on under Christ's guidance through all time, being manifested in the souls of men. SPIPvITUAL GIFTS. It is needless to add that all these outward forms of manifestation, included in "signs" and '• tongues," or sensible phenomena such as that hinted in Acts xx. 8, were all psychical. The Apostle enumerates the fruits of the Spirit as " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : " these are " manifes- tations of the Spirit" in a true sense. Thus it is 378 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. that that which is spiritual may be distinguished from that which is psychical. It should be under- stood that the expression " manifestation of the Spirit " was used indiscriminately by the early dis- ciples, as embracing all orders of occult phenomena that were apparently miraculous in their nature. Their proper discrimination, determining the various nature of these manifestations, is for the growing intelligence of man to apprehend and search out in the light of Christ's continuous and unceasing reve- lations of truth, which will ever " brighten more and more to perfect day," under the ministry of the Spirit of truth. Already St. Paul had discerned between the lower and higher forms of manifesta- tion ; and St. John, in his epistle, implies their varied sources by the words: "Brethren, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God : because many false prophets are gone out into the world:" and again, "ye shall judge angels." By the light of Christ's mind all spiritual teachings, or " propbesyings," shall be judged; and therefore St. Paul says, Be not worshippers of angels, but hold fast the Head. Spiritual gifts proceed forth from heaven, and when the Spirit of truth abides in the soul even the angels are judged by " the mind that is formed in Christ Jesus." Such a mind is " taught of God," and is carried beyond fear and doubt into the open light of day, where it is capable of discerning spir- itual things spiritually. The apostles John and Paul refused to surrender their understanding to occult manifestations which failed to edify or in- MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 370 struct, and eventually they came to recognize the means as not essentially sacred, but as an open channel of intercourse available alike for spirits of various grades of intelligence, for the evil as well as for the good. " Every spirit that confesseth Christ, is of God ; and every spirit that confesseth not Christ, is not of God: " this was their test as to the character of the unseen intelligences communing through these psychical means, and hence of the value or worth of their teachings ; and except they were "of God," that is, spiritually minded, no con- fidence was to be placed in their utterances. THE VAEIOUS NATURE OF THE MANIFESTATIONS. A significant and striking form of manifestation is recorded in the Acts, wherein the spirit of a man was seen in vision : " A vision appeared to Paul in the night : there was a man of Macedonia standing, beseeching him, and saying, Come over into Mace- donia, and help us. And when he had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Mace- donia, concluding that God had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." Reasoning upon the vision Paul drew an inference, and acted upon it ; for Paul was a believer in " the heavenly vision," and it was upon that order of belief that he grounded his faith, "conferring not with flesh and blood " as to its reality, or worth, but proceeding by an inward spiritual conviction, which is the sure ground of faith in the kingdom of God. That this was actu- ally the spirit of a man, and no mere psychic image, is evinced by its speaking to Paul; for a psychic 380 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. image is as incapable of speech as is an earthly image or picture. But this is of no consequence as to the object of the manifestation, which was to direct the Apostle's thought to a certain quarter, to- ward Macedonia. The natural mind would regard such guidance as extremely dangerous, and in no case would it credit a vision until its reality had been attested by time and subsequent events ; but it may be seen, through the evidence of scripture, that there is a time when the believer must stand alone with God, and abide the issue of convictions within his own breast. The faith of the first disci- ples was grounded in the sure conviction that that inner or unseen world was a reality, and the things proceeding thence were often of deeper significance than the things pertaining to a physical world. This same psychic instrumentality, alike available for the communings of the spirits of men and of angels, was the appointed channel for that highest form of manifestation, the beatific vision. But be- fore venturing upon an analysis of the means of the higher or heavenly manifestations, which are spir- itual, it will be instructive to dwell somewhat fur- ther on the elementary psychic forms, in order that their true nature may be better understood. In his journey into Asia, Paul was delayed at Tyre, by the unloading of the vessel; "and finding disciples, he tarried there seven days : who said to Paul, through the spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem." It was not by the Holy Spirit that this message came, but through some inferior spirit. It makes all the difference in the world whether the word MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 381 " spirit " is rightly or wrongly capitalized. It may be asked, If this communication were designed for Paul, why was it not made directly to himself, rather than through these Tyrian disciples whom he accidentally met? If external intercourse with the unseen world be independent of means or con- ditions, why was this message delayed until it could be given through these Tyrian disciples? Can it be that there were certain psychic conditions found in these disciples which made this outward com- munication possible at that time? Whether this be so, or not, it is of far deeper significance to note that Paul disregarded the injunction, and held it to be in no way binding upon his conscience to obey its dictates. By this time the Apostle to the Gen- tiles had come to regard these manifestations of " the spirit " as of various character, and that they pro- ceeded from an occult source was no sufficient reason why he should yield his judgment to their dictation. He therefore gave no heed to this command, obey- ing rather the dictates of his own conscience. In short, he gave preference to those inward prompt- ings which are wholly spiritual, and through which means communion with the divine will is unalloyed by foreign influence ; for he was able to distinguish between the Spirit which prompted him to go to Jerusalem, and the spirit speaking through these Tyrian disciples, which commanded him not to go. Again, during the same journey, when Paul came to Csesarea, " he entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven ; and abode with him. And the same man had four 882 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. daughters, virgins, which did prophesy " — who were sensitives. " And as we tarried there many- days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these tilings, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye, to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done." Of what avail were these external communings compared with that divine prompting within his own breast, and which led the Apostle to declare that he had " the mind of Christ," that Christ was in him : all outward communion through the agency of prophets and spirits was a wholly secondary matter, operat- ing on a lower and less certain plane of conscious- ness. These outward manifestations, through signs and psychical gifts, were in the form of an initiation into a knowledge of that unseen realm which sur- rounds and interpenetrates the earthly life ; but once the clue is found by this external means, the outward manifestation is superseded by an inward and spiritual order of communion, Soul with soul, Spirit with spirit, in the intercourse between the MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 383 Son of man in heaven and his followers in the earthly life. That there is a gradual unfolding of the spiritual consciousness in the believer is plainly- implied by these words of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who, after referring to the food that is appropriate, respectively, to babes and strong men, says : " Wherefore let us cease to speak of the first principles of Christ, and press on unto perfec- tion ; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands," etc., implying that these were but the elementary steps in an upward path of progress toward that spiritual " fellowship with Christ," whereby his fol- lowers are all to " press on unto perfection." And with this advance in spiritual apprehension, the out- ward, or psychical, gives place to an inward and spiritual means of intercourse with heaven and the Lord, when Christ abides in the soul, and communes with man from within. That which came to Paul through these Tyrian disciples, and through this Agabus, therefore, was quite secondary to the spir- itual promptings within his own breast, which is the only sure and perfect means of intercourse with God ; for all else is exterior to the Spirit, and not unmixed with error ; thus Jesus said, " They that receive my word have the witness in themselves." st. paul's view of the gifts. The apostle Paul eventually came to regard this means of external intercourse with the unseen world as not in itself sacred, but as susceptible of 384 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. becoming a channel for that which is comforting, edifying, and quickening. He himself possessed the gifts in various forms, which he enumerates as a kind of credential of authority for those who ques- tioned his title to be called an apostle. But Paul himself does not dwell upon the possession of these gifts as a true credential of apostleship; he cites them in reply to those who are inclined to recognize the authority of that office only on that ground. Beside tongues, prophesyings, visions, and the like, it is said, " God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul : so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the dis- eases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." Similar things are credibly reported of the saints in all ages, for the "power" is always available in its higher forms where the conditions favor its exercise, and where a lively faith establishes an unobstructed channel for its operation. But Paul nowhere dwells on these things as in them- selves meritorious, or as indicative of personal piety, or grace. He never allows them to divert his mind from higher things, from that which is truly spir- itual ; and from " making known the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God," namely the Spirit, and spreading abroad the "glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven." When rightly used these psychic means consti- tute a channel of grace, especially by giving an im- pulse to thought and aspiration in the direction of heavenly things. But when "the true light" dawns in man, these psychic gifts are all subordinated to a MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 385 more inward " manifestation of the Spirit," reveal- ing God to the spiritual consciousness, and raising the soul above the earth and the intermediate state, to a heavenly realm of peace. While, therefore, the mind of " the multitude," and of the churches on some occasions, were unduly occupied with these " wonders in the heavens above and signs in the earth beneath," the mind of Paul was filled with the conscious indwelling presence of One to whom alone he was willing to yield himself, body, soul, and spirit. POSSESSION. There is abundant evidence given in scripture that spirits have power, under some circumstances, to possess the organism of man, and use it as their own, working through the usurped body " all man- ner of evil." One so possessed was termed a " de- moniac " — possessed by a demon or foreign spirit. Jesus " drove out" these usurping spirits, restoring the demoniacs to their self-possession : and his disci- ples did likewise, for " the evil spirits were subject unto them," as they are subject to all righteous souls. These expressions of scripture are not fig- urative, personifying diseases, they are plain state- ments of fact ; this is borne out by the concurrent testimony of the seers and mystics in all ages, who speak from knowledge. If the power of evil or unprogressed spirits may be thus forcibly manifested, it is but reasonable to infer that the power of good spirits is no less potent, with the distinction, however, that a wise spirit re- spects the freedom of the man with whom it may be 386 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. associated, and will do nothing to hinder or impede the exercise of the man's free will and judgment — which God himself respects. In like manner, but in perfect order with respect to the freedom of the Spirit, Christ stands at the door of the soul and knocks, and says, " If any man will hear my voice, and will open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me." Even as the lowest or out- ermost beings of that unseen realm have access to the soul of man, according to the nature of his affec- tions, so likewise the Highest may enter into fa- miliar intercourse with man Spirit to spirit, Soul to soul, as a Guide, Counsellor, and " own familiar friend." Spirits of all grades have access to man, and the nature of that invisible association of spirits is determined by the affections of the man. As re- vealed in Jesus, the ministry of angels afforded en- couragement and refreshment to the soul ; and the revelation indicated an order of intercourse which is common to man, though this is not always made conscious. But that the angels minister toward every good work is plainly attested by the word of scripture : " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " It is the very life and joy of the angels to serve in that capacity, as the messengers of God, for it is written, " How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings." This angelic ministry was witnessed at the sepulchre of Jesus, and again at his ascension, where the angels spoke words of cheer and comfort to the disciples; and the manifestation was a revelation of that which is ceaseless through time and eternity. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 387 But while it is plainly discerned that evil or unprogressed spirits may, for mischievous ends, rob a man of the control of his organism by posses- sion or obsession, and that angels of light are mes- sengers of encouragement and comfort, — there are doubtless many intervening ranks of spirits, filling the spheres of an intermediate state, 'whose moral nature is negative, and who, as in this life, may be foolish or indiscreet rather than evil-disposed. Of this class the following is cited as an example : "And it came to pass, as we were going to the place of prayer, that a certain maid having a spirit of divination met us. . . . The same following af- ter Paul and us cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, which proclaim unto you the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul, being sore troubled, turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." The spirit possessing the organism of this maid was not an evil spirit, but through its indiscretion, per- sisted in "for many days," it annoyed Paul, who, by the power of the Holy Ghost, released the maid from its influence. Had it been an evil spirit, Paul would not have delayed the exercise of his power " for many days : " the Apostle was doubt- less " sore troubled," because the experience was a new one, and he was not sure how he should deal with a spirit who thus persistently proclaimed the truth. Still another instance may be given in illustration of the various character of these possessing or obsess- 388 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. ing spirits : " Certain strolling Jews, exorcists, took upon them to name over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, which did this. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; but who are ye ? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." That this spirit obsessed the man, and that it manifested physical violence through his organism, is clear proof that it was of a lower order, though capable of distinguish- ing between mere pretenders and true disciples. HOLD FAST THE HEAD. As the result of a wide experience of these things, both as to good and evil spirits communicating with mortals by these psychical means, Paul advises the brethren as follows : " Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, dwelling in the things which he hath seen," — dwelling on these psychical manifestations, — " vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not hold- ing fast the Head." And again: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principali- ties, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wicked- ness in the heavenly places." Elsewhere the Apos- tle says, " Know ye not that we shall judge an- gels ? " That is, by the standard of Christ's life, MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 389. and by the Spirit when implanted in the minds of his disciples, all beings shall be judged, — angels, spirits, and men, — and no man should yield his judgment but to God alone, to that divine Spirit who manifests his presence through the heart and conscience. Be not worshippers of angels, much less of men, but hold fast the Head : " neglect not the gift that is in thee," but remember that " the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace." It is through an intelligent and unprejudiced rec- ognition of these manifestations as real, as orderly, and not at all miraculous, witnessing the power of good and evil spirits to influence men's minds, — either through orderly association, or by arbitrary possession, — that it is possible to distinguish the nature of that higher means by which the spiritual Christ, or Holy Ghost, may permeate and fill the soul of man with the divine Presence : for it is by the same organic law and psychic means that this divine operation is made conscious in man. There is but one mediate channel for the com- munion of saints and of evil spirits, even as there is but one law of gravitation for all things, great and small ; or, as out of the same mouth may proceed blessings or curses. The apostle Paul was con- scious of Christ's presence abiding in him, speak- ing and working through him. While emptied of all self-will, the disciple may be filled with the mind and Spirit of the Comforter, manifested Soul to soul, Spirit to spirit. Thus the apostle Paul terms himself " a chosen ressel " for the indwell- 390 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. ing Christ. The Spirit gains conscious access to the soul of man through the Son of man in heaven, through the Holy Ghost, and all conscious com- munion of the Spirit is by that means. Reasoning from the lesser to the greater, respect- ing the nature of this spiritual intercourse, from men to spirits, from spirits to angels, and from angels to the Comforter, or Son of man in heaven, it will be seen how positive and real may be the " manifestation of the Holy Ghost " to those who will receive him. But if there be doubt or denial of those elementary phases, which may serve as the distant " sign of his coming," and which are as " tokens " falling in the " outermost parts," how can that more sublimated spiritual manifestation be credited when given in the form of inward com- munings, heavenly visions, or through spiritual prophesyings? All these various orders of spirit- ual and psychic phenomena are under one supreme overruling dispensation, and they are all, from the lowest to the highest, in the order of God's provi- dence. But a good or an evil use may be made of them ; and if misused the penalty is appalling, as witnessed by those "possessed with devils," of whom the scriptures speak, not in the language of superstition, but in words of sober truth. FAITH MERGED IN SIGHT. The personal manifestation of the Holy Ghost, or spiritual Christ, was granted to Stephen, and to Paul on the following occasions : on the way to Da- mascus, where words were spoken in the Hebrew MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 39^ tongue ; in the synagogue during prayer ; in the castle in the night ; again when Paul was caught up into paradise ; again when words were spoken respecting " a thorn in the flesh ; " and still again when the institution of tlie Lord's Supper was ver- bally imparted to him. Other occasions there may have been, but these are specifically referred to by the Apostle. These were all divine manifestations by the power of the Holy Ghost, and made con- scious to the eye or ear of the soul of Paul. The Apostle refers to them briefly : doubtless he deemed them incommunicable, for when caught up into paradise he says he " heard unspeakable words, im- possible for a man to utter." Such experiences are not capable of being expressed in human language. But when the manifestation is resolved into a ver- bal form, in human speed), then the words so ut- tered remain as intelligible products of the expe- rience, as witnessed by the following : to the request that the Lord would remove from him " a thorn in the flesh," the apostle Paul says, the Lord gave answer, " My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." The weakness of man is the means whereby the mercy and power of God is revealed. Here was indeed a Comforter " whom the world cannot receive be- cause it seeth him not, neither knoweth him ; " for it was to his spiritual followers that Jesus said, "but ye know him, for he shall be manifest in you . . . and your joy no man taketh from you." This mystery is not revealed to the wisdom and prudence of the natural mind, but unto spiritual 392 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. babes, to the least of those who are quickened by the Spirit. They " who are witnesses of these things" believe because they know the truth; knowledge by hearsay, or tradition, then gives place to spiritual clearsight, when " spiritual things are spiritually discerned." All these various forms of psychical phenomena, from the elementary signs, which are psychical, to the spiritual manifestation of the Holy Ghost in the beatific vision, are spoken of in scripture as " a joy and comfort" to individual believers, and to the churches ; for they were "a witness," or form of proof of the truth of the gospel that " the kingdom of heaven is come near." They were a reward and confirmation of faith, even as St. Paul declares in these words : " it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed;" or, now of a truth we know that whereof we speak, for we have seen it witnessed by these things. And Jesus himself foretold this as- surance of belief, when faith would be resolved into knowledge, in these words : " at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." The Apostle to the Gentiles had a belief which transcended the initial stage of faith ; it was a cer- tain and sure conviction that Christ was in him : belief was become knowledge, verified in ways sat- isfactory to his own mind. When exercised with temporal matters, the Apostle was sometimes in doubt whether he had " the word of the Spirit," or spake according to his own judgment, as he himself MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 393 testifies. But when raised to a state of spiritual apprehension, he recognized a power not his own working by and through him ; and a mind, other than his own as abiding in him. Faith is indeed " accounted for righteousness " when the believer is taking the initial steps in the soul's path of progress leading into "the kingdom." They who walked by faith "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth . . . and declared plainly that they sought a better country, that is, a heav- enly : " but when born of the Spirit, it is then given the disciple " to know the mysteries of the king- dom of heaven.'" For there is a progress in the soul's higher life; faith ever brightens into sight until man comes into " conscious fellowship with Christ." While, therefore, the disciple " walks by faith and not by sight," at every new altitude attained, sight is the reward of faith, and belief becomes knowledge. Thus faith attains, and ever reaches on beyond, "passing from glory to glory."' From perfect childlike trust in the promises, the soul gradually attains to spiritual clearsight, and is " taught of God."' This spiritual attainment is under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, of which dispensation Jesus said : "at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you : " for faith shall have then become knowledge, and the disciple will then know and understand; for he is then no longer a servant, but a son and heir, " knowing the mind of the Master." This grad- ual enlightenment was apparent in the experience of the immediate followers of Jesus, in whom faith 394 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. grew steadily into a form of knowledge until it was " given them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." As the disciples passed from a natu- ral to a spiritual order of consciousness the heavens gradually opened to the view, even as it was opened to the soul of Jesus, the Christ : and so is it ever the experience of believers through all time ; when spir- itually enlightened they may say with those of old, " now we believe, not because of thy saying : for we have heard him ourselves, and know of a truth that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN IN HEAVEN. The premonitory signs of Christ's coming to the individual soul are distant and obscure, for his coming is " in the clouds:" the heavenly and the earthly are inextricably mixed in those elementary signs and gifts which are poured out freely on all men, " yea, upon the rebellious also," who " turn aside through fear:" for, as the Psalmist says, " they that dwell in the outermost parts are afraid at thy tokens; " though these mystical tokens are often a fulfilment of the words, "then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven." The dis- ciples who were with Jesus on the mount of trans- figuration " feared when they entered into the cloud." Jesus said, " be not afraid : " neverthe- less his disciples were still " in the spirit of bond- age to fear," from which they only gradually emerged, for when Jesus " appeai-ed unto them after he was risen," they " were terrified and affrighted, MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 395, and supposed that they had seen a spirit." But " perfect love casteth out fear," and when born of God they who "have the mind of Christ" know no fear, for they are conscious of all the strength of the divine Presence, and know that "all things work together for good to them that love God." The preliminary signs of the coming of the Com- forter, when that coming is by outward manifesta- tion, may be so distant, evanescent, or obscure, as- sociated with things weak and despised, that they serve as " a snare " for those who think they have a knowledge of God's ways. For there are signs and tokens which precede the advent of his mes- sengers, who in turn herald his coming : " for he will send his angels before him." Jesus therefore said : " but when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. . . . Take heed to your- selves that the day come not upon you unawares, as a snare," — as a test or trial of faith, — "for it shall come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." Jesus is speaking to every son of man who shall, in this life, experience in some form, the outward token of his coming, to which they may, or may not, give heed. For that obscure sign may easily be despised and rejected, especially if mingled with the vulgar or the commonplace in the earthly life : manifested perhaps " in things which are despised," for it will be in a cloud re- gion, intermediate of things heavenly and earthly ; in that which is psychical as distinguished from that which is spiritual ; or in the ordinary events of every-day life. 396 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. That the finger of God is manifest in human his- tory, and in every incidental circumstance relating to the life of man, the divine omniscience extend- ing even to the numbering of the hairs of the head, or the falling of a sparrow to the ground, is taught by Jesus, and needs no special emphasis here : the natural mind will recognize no other instrumental- ity than that evinced in the natural or known order of things. But the first followers of Jesus experi- enced, in great abundance, certain signs and tokens which revealed the kingdom of heaven as having "come near," outwardly or consciously, as well as inwardly and spiritually, through what were then designated " manifestations of the Holy Ghost." No inquiring mind has ever been able to designate the time when these manifestations ceased: on the con- trary, the evidence of history will show that this order of manifestation is a ceaseless flowing stream running through all ages, at times rising to the exalted height of manifesting the Spirit, and then again sinking into the darkest depths of supersti- tion. It is not a miraculous dispensation, but, in its better forms, it is an orderly but preternatural means of intercourse with the unseen realms, and with heaven itself under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. Both psychically and spiritually there is a universal solidarity which binds all worlds in one. A universal realm of intelligence interpene- trates all spheres, and is organically manifested through the sonls of beings outwardly conditioned in various worlds, physical, psychical, or spiritual. That which is common to all states of being are the MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 397 properties of the soul that in the earthly life are the inmost, but which in the heavenly life constitute an outward environment of Spirit. This truth once recognized, there is no hindrance to the belief that all spheres may be quickened into that higher order of conscious communion which was made manifest in the prophets. And as it was the desire of Moses that the Israelites should all become prophets, and of Paul that all should " desire earnestly spiritual gifts," so is it the ultimate hope of the true believer that the exceptional and the rare, in the order of divine things, will eventually become the universal, common to all souls alike, that "the knowledge of God may fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea." While Paul urges the disciples of Christ to "covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues;" and to " desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy;" directing them to "covet the best gifts " — meaning those which are spiritual, edifying, and comforting, — nevertheless the Apostle clearly emphasizes the truth that these manifesta- tions are but means to an end : for " to every man the manifestation of the Spirit is given to profit withal." As an instrumentality, or form of witness, and as a channel for spiritual teachings, these mani- festations are to be respected and earnestly desired, but not to the detriment of higher things. The Spirit is superior to all psychical instrumentalities, for the Spirit alone is light and life: outward mani- festations may blind the eye and mislead the mind and heart ; and when sought to the exclusion of that 398 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. which is " spiritually discerned," they are most dangerous, and even destructive of the higher life. For the kingdom of God is not revealed through the senses of man : it was asked of Jesus " when the kingdom of God should come. He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or, there ! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you." Not by the hearing of the outward ear, nor by the seeing of the outward eye, but by the quickening and unfolding of a spiritual consciousness within the soul itself, is the kingdom of God revealed as in it- self it really is, — a state of mind and heart wherein man is wholly turned to God through that bond of the Spirit which brings him into " fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." Not by " things without life giving forth sounds ; " not by a surrender of the judgment to the dictate of " familiar spirits ; " not by a " worshipping of angels," or by "gazing up into heaven," — is the spiritual life nourished to "the full stature of a spiritual manhood ; " but by the active ministry of love ; the love of God and man. While, therefore, the apostle Peter declares that the followers of Jesus have "a sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts ; " and the apostlo Paul likewise says, "quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesyings ; " adding these words, " prove all things, hold fast that which is good," — nevertheless after indicating the various ministries by apostles, MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 399 prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, diver- sities of tongues, etc., the Apostle says : " and yet I show unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all the mysteries, and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. . . . The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart." VIII. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. " Then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday : and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and sat- isfy thy soul in drought; and thou shalt be like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." — Isaiah lviii. " As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." — Romans viii. " He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." — 1 Corinthians ii. "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God." — 1 Peter iv. " Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." — Hebrews x. " Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." — Revelation iii. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. THE COMFORTER. Jesus said, " For this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." " If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed ; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, and he will show you the things to come." Under the guidance of the Spirit man rises above the earthly state and enters upon the heavenly life ; gradually, as he grows in grace, temporal things are subordinated to the Spirit, and the soul enters a realm of peace. This peace is of the Spirit : it is of the nature of that inward joy to which Jesus referred when in behalf of his disciples he prayed that his joy might be "fulfilled in them." The approaching agony of Gethsemane and the suffer- ings of his crucifixion, could not take from the 404 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. Master that inward joy and peace which he had from the Father by virtue of the indwelling Spirit. While still in the flesh the disciple " shall have tribulations," but by the power of the Spirit he will be able to bear them, and will learn, even to glory in them for the sake of their fruits. Thus by the power of the Spirit the world is overcome in the disciple, even as St. Paul says, "There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death ; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The carnal mind is enmity against God ... so then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. . . . And as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God." And St. John says, " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin," for a spiritual generation is in him, "and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the chil- dren of God are manifest." While in the Spirit, therefore, man is free from the law of sin and death. Jesus said, " Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you : while ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the chil- dren of light." In. Christ God is manifested as the Spirit abiding THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 405 in man : " Philip saith unto Jesus, Lord, show ua the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." God is made manifest in man ; for in the Son of man in heaven " dwell- eth all the fulness of the Godhead " throughout eternity. And when the children of Adam are raised up to fellowship with Christ, to " sit with him in his throne" as children of God, then the fulness of the Spirit will likewise be manifested in them, and " God will be all in all." The revelation of God is through "the Spirit of truth," and the revelation is infinite in " the depth of its spiritual riches and mystery." There can be no life where there are no further unveilings of truth, for life is the active pursuit of truth. There can be no future in which knowledge and truth are merged in a perfect vision, for then eternity must have an end. That is not life in which no new phase of truth ever dawns. The promise is, that " when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide into all truth, and he will show you things to come." Mounting from earth to heaven, and pass- ing from glory to glory, the revelation will go on forever, disclosing the hidden things of God, and manifesting the Spirit with ever-increasing fulness in the soul of man, of whom it is said, " he shall build my city : " this is the great inheritance into which the sons of God are called by Christ. Man advances ever by the united activities of mind and heart, by the knowledge and love of 406 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. God. A knowledge of the truth enables man to realize God ; to form God, as it were, in the con- sciousness ; while the love of God brings the dis- tant near, in personal "fellowship," giving life and energy to the ministry of the Spirit. Man must have a knowledge of that which he loves, and love deepens that knowledge by the energy and depth of its insight : thus by doing God's will man gains the clearest knowledge of God, and is " taught of God ; " even as Jesus said of himself, " The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth." A LIVING FAITH. Abundant as are the promises of spiritual out- pourings for those who will receive them, there are conditions necessary to their fulfilment. When " the door is closed through unbelief," Revelation is then " become as a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee : and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed : and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee ; and he saith, I am not learned." Thus the channel of in- spiration is effectually closed and sealed, and " the fear of the Lord is taught by the precept of men." For when an exclusively retrospective faith sup- plants the Spirit of truth, of whom it was promised that he should " guide into all truth," the mind is turned backward to the past for the sole evidence of God in the world. To see in the present the liv- ing witness of Christ's presence ; to perceive the THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 407 . same signs and tokens of his coming, the same "power " manifesting the Spirit that was granted the first followers of Jesus, demands a faith as liv- ing and trustful as theirs. There must come a time in the experience of every soul when the Christ of history yields to the living Christ, and the knowl- edge that was gained through the hearing of the ear is merged in sight. For " when he, the Spirit of truth, is come," it is no longer the natural Christ speaking "in proverbs," but the spiritual Christ " speaking from heaven," who " will show you plainly of the Father." To discern in the revelation of Jesus Christ, not a special or miraculous dispensation, but an orderly bringing to light of eternal truth, common alike to all who follow in his footsteps, will explain the meaning of his words : " Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." The Master plainly implied that his was a revelation of that which is the common inheritance of man, if man would but believe. The dispensation manifested in Jesus was not miraculous, not special, but orderly and universal, the inheritance of all who believe in him and follow after him ; and this is not to de- crease, but to increase : " and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father." ETERNAL LIFE. When the Spirit is imparted to the soul, man is then quickened by the indwelling presence of God, 408 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. and eternal life is begun. In that spiritual fellow- ship " the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven " are revealed : then is fulfilled the promise of a Com- forter " who will show you plainly of the Father : " for then the things of the Spirit are spiritually dis- cerned. The apostle Paul says : " when called of God unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ, ye are enriched by him in all utterance, in all knowl- edge, . . . your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, ... it is the Spirit that worketh in you." Again, it is said, "A great door, and effectual, is opened, . . . for God, who com- manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowl- edge of the glory of God. But we have this treas- ure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us : " while to the spiritually quickened St. John says : " I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it. . . . Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." The object of a written Revelation is to guide the soul until it comes under the immediate personal dispensation of the Spirit of truth. Thence on it is under a direct inspiration from God, Spirit to spirit. St. Paul manifested in himself not a special but a universal truth, when he became a witness of the Spirit thus manifested in man : the Apostle says, " I speak the word of wisdom to them that are per- THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 409. feet," — meaning those who had been " made whole," or holy, by the gift of the Spirit : for the forming of man is not consummated or perfected until he has received that divine gift. The Apos- tle does not mean to imply that the disciple is per- fect in the sense of being without fault ; for of himself, after he had received the Spirit, he says : " not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect : but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was appre- hended by Christ Jesus. I count not myself yet to have apprehended : but one thing I do, forget- ting the things which are behind, and reaching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded : and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall God re- veal unto you : only, whereunto we have already attained, by that same light let us walk." The Apostle likewise speaks of a time " when God shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be mar- velled at in all them that believe in that day," — the day of his coming to the soul through the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth. The very utter- ance of Paul and his fellow disciples is a manifes- tation of God thus " glorified in his saints : " even as Christ said, "I am glorified in them," and they are " sanctified through a knowledge of the truth." The first epistle of John is an exponent of the nature of the new birth, of the Spirit : " That which we have seen and heard declare we unto 410 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. you, that ye also may have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. . . . Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God ; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it dotb not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is : and every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." The test of this new birth is love ; for " the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart ; " therefore the apostle John says, " we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." However righteous in out- ward conduct, man is not born of God until love rules in the place of law, for " out of the heart are the issues of life : " " Brethren, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." The life of the Spirit brightens ever more and more to perfect day, until faith is merged in sight, when belief becomes knowledge ; and St. John says, " whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, be- cause we keep his commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. ... he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in Christ, and Christ in him. And hereby we know that he abid- eth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." Nothing could be plainer, or less ambiguous, than the meaning of these words, revealing the nature of that new birth, of the Spirit, whereby man enters THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 411, upon eternal life in " fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; " and which the Apostle says is revealed " by the Spirit which he hath given us," and manifested in " love of the brethren." THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. The ministry of the Spirit, of which Christ is " an high priest forever ... by the power of an endless life," is a ministry which derives all its in- spiration from God. That ministry is " without beginning of days, or end of life: " its generation is " without father, without mother, without ordi- nance or descent;" it is above all natural instru- mentalities, for it is the communion of the Spirit through the bond of the Spirit. Its worship is the doing of God's will, and " glorifying his name " by manifesting his Spirit — causing his light to shine forth among men as among the angels of heaven. " God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth : for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers." Christ ful- fils in himself all outward symbols: he is " the end of the law," — moral and ceremonial. In him the kingdom of righteousness is fulfilled in a kingdom of peace. They that would minister the Spirit, therefore, must be spiritual-minded : they must " walk in the Spirit ; " that is, live and think in the Spirit, man- ifesting the divine gift by word and deed. St. Paul says, "my speech and my teaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demon- stration of the Spirit and of power : that your 412 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. faith should not stand on the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Again the Apostle says, "we speak wisdom among them that are perfect," — the spiritual-minded ; " yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the powers of this world, that come to nought : but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery." The supremest product of the natural mind is wholly foreign to it ; for the word of the Spirit is the voice of God speaking through the soul of man, manifested in "love out of a pure heart." In the presence of that heavenly wisdom, the powers of this world and the wisdom of the natural mind " are come to nought." For, says the Apostle, "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. . . . Now we have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God, which things we speak, not in words which man's wis- dom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teach- eth." On sending forth his disciples, Jesus directed them not to " premeditate what they should say, and what they should speak ; for it is the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." To pre- meditate in anticipation of prophecy is, in effect, to deny the Spirit, to speak from the wisdom and pru- dence of this world. If the Spirit be really present in the heart, man cannot err ; for the Spirit is God's THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 413 own witness, and needs not that any man should testify of its presence. The apostle Paul says : " he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he him- self is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him ? But we have the mind of Christ." All, therefore, who are made partakers of the Spirit " are kings and priests unto God " under that spiritual order of which Jesus, as the " first-fruits," is the " High Priest ; " for, as Isaiah said, " ye shall be named the priests of the Lord : men shall call you ministers of our God." And the apostle Peter likewise says, " as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Of this spiritual order of consecration St. Paul says, as wit- nessed in himself: "not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." They, therefore, who are called to the ministry of the Spirit, as distin- guished from the ministry of the word, " confer not with flesh and blood," but with One " speaking from heaven." No outward credential is required ; for the ministry of the Spirit is above law and ordinance : it permeates and interpenetrates all temporal ministries ; it is with them, but not of them, for it is the ministry of God's love mani- fested "by the power of an endless life;" com- pared with which high credential of authority all other ordinances are but shadows of the true. The ministry of the Spirit proceeds forth out of heaven, bearing gifts to the soul ; and these gifts 414 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. are freely poured out upon all who will receive them. This spiritual ministry is under the dispen- sation of the Holy Ghost, " the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth ; " to which ministry " many are called, but few chosen." When so called, the Apostle says, "let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called : " for his outward occupation, if honorable, is equally of God's will, and the ministry of the Spirit is free, and independ- ent of all outward circumstance. Thus all tem- poral instrumentalities instituted under the dispen- sation of the Son of man are, under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, carried inward and transfigured under the ministry of the Spirit, " looking for the time when the sons of God shall be manifested with him in glory." THE COMING OP CHRIST. When it is discerned that the Holy Ghost is the spiritual Christ, then the " coming again of the Son of man, in the glory of the Father," is recognized as spiritual ; the words " in the glory of the Father " signifying in the Spirit. Concerning the time of his coming, there are two views which may be gath- ered from scripture. One looks to his immediate coming, while the other apparently regards that coming as a future event. But there is no discrep- ancy : both views are reconciled in one compre- hensive view of truth. Addressed to " them that are far off," to the carnal-minded, the words of Jesus refer to a future and even distant coming ; but addressed to " them that are nigh," to the spir- THE SPIRIT OF TROTH. 415 itual-minded, his words imply a speedy coming : "behold, I come quickly." Spiritually discerned, no word of God is conditioned in time, for it is above time, spoken from heaven ; and being beav- enly, " these things the angels desire to look into." In the spiritual estimate of a word of God, when the mind of the prophet is distinguished from the word of prophecy, due allowance must be made for human conjecture on the part of the first followers of Jesus : their human judgment was not miracu- lously overruled; they reasoned upon ••the word of the Spirit " according to their light, and that light was brightening more and more with ever-increas- ing power under the dispensation of the Spirit of truth. For the things which Jesus " began to teach and to preach," and which his disciples likewise be- gan to discern, under that initial outpouring of the Spirit, were not designed to be a bar to all further enlightenment : on the contrary, they are as " the elements of first principles " of a spiritual unveiling that is to go on forever ; they are as the seed-time of a more glorious ingathering of the harvest of truth '• when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."' The first coming of Christ was " in the fulness of time ; " but his second coming is " in the clouds of heaven," as the Holy Ghost. It was in this, his heavenly personality, that Christ appeared to the apostle Paul and others as a Holy Spirit, '• speak- ing from heaven." Jesus said, " if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert," — in the outward world, — " go not forth : or Behold, he is 416 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. in the secret chambers," — in man's own mind, — " believe it not : for as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be." That is, his coming will be confounded neither with that which is external, nor with that which is internal in the earthly life ; but when his coming is made manifest, the whole spiritual horizon of the soul will be il- lumined with a conscious visitation. Jesus said, " take ye heed, therefore, watch and pray always : for ye know not what day, or what hour, your Lord cometh." It is only in the outward physical state that all eyes see the same object, and necessarily under like physical conditions : in every succeeding stage of life, like sees like through like-mindedness, or through some internal qualification of mind or heart. Thus " the pure in heart shall see God ; " and St. John says, " we know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." When man- ifested in the flesh, Christ was seen and observed by the eyes of believers and unbelievers alike : they who reviled him were witnesses of his bodily presence. But that he might be seen by the physi- cal eye, it was necessary that he should be observed under the laws and conditions of a physical world. That " every eye " should see him at his " coming again " would be a physical impossibility if the man- ifestation were made in earthly conditions. There- fore it is above the earthly state, " in the clouds THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 417 # of heaven," that the manifestation will be made, and the revelation will not be to the physical senses, but to the soul and spirit. The " clouds of heaven " signify an interior psychic region intermediate of things physical and spiritual, wherein the things of the Spirit are externalized in psychical conditions, being made cognizable to the psychic senses ; the things of the Spirit are consciously manifested by that means, Soul to soul. Jesus said, " Take heed to yourselves that the day come not upon you unawares, as a snare ; for it shall come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." Not necessarily in the form of the beatific vision, but as the " sign of the Son of man in heaven," in one form or another, falling per- haps " in the outermost parts," in the commonest events of the earthly life. But in whatever form it comes, ib will be unmistakably " the sign of the Son of man in heaven ; " and the individual is directed to " watch and pray : for ye know not when the time is." If there be no preparation of mind and heart when the " sign " of his coming shall be manifested, then the soul is seen in its nakedness, and men cry out " for the mountains to fall on them, and for the rocks to cover them ; " which is figurative of the shame inspired by an overwhelming sense of guilt in the presence of tokens that fall " in the outer- most parts," inspiring fear and dread, as in calamity or death. Therefore, speaking from heaven, Jesus says, " behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he 418 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. walk naked, and they see his shame." Body, soul, and spirit must be " preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord." St. Paul himself refers to the heavenly vision coming upon him unawares, " as one born out of due time ; " that is, without a proper preparation of mind and heart, blinding his outer senses ; and doubtless a time elapsed before he could adjust himself to the light, that he might be- come a fit apostle of the Holy Ghost. Jesus said, " the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, and with his angels ; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily, I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coining in his kingdom." Nothing could be plainer than this declaration that his coming again would be spiritual, " in the glory of the Father ; " and that it would be speedy for some, and not all should see him in this life. But in the end and consummation " every eye shall see him : " when all are redeemed through like-mindedness with Christ, then " the pure in heart shall see God." A distant coming in a remote future, ages after the souls of multitudes had left the earth, would have little significance for man in the present stage of life. What is distant, as measured by the lapse of ages, man is content to leave to the future : " to- day if ye would hear his voice, harden not your hearts ; " the things of to-day are man's chief con- cern, " for the morrow shall take thought for itself." But Jesus spoke of his coming as immediate for some, and that speedy coming again was indeed THE sriRIT OF TRUTH. 419 # •witnessed by many of his followers while still in the flesh. In like manner, in all ages since that dav, there have been those who experienced his "coming in the clouds of heaven." who have " seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom." The promise is for all, and to the end of time : " said I not unto you, that if ye would believe, ve should see the glory of God?" One of his disciples asked him, " Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? Jesus answered, and said unto him, If a man love me, lie will keep my words ; and my Father will love him. and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. . . . These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you. I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe." That the coming of the Comforter is regarded by many as distinct from the second coming of Christ, is due to the fact that the Paraclete is not discerned to be the scorified Christ. But once that truth is apprehended, and a true conception of the Holy Ghost formed upon that basis, — giving to that 420 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. spiritual Comforter a veritable personality in the soul of Jesus, — then "his coming again" will be recognized as necessarily coincident with the mani- festation of the Holy Ghost, in whatever 'form that may be given. Necessarily, as based upon character, this second coming of Christ is individual and personal; adapted to the need and power of the individual soul. For them that are far off, the "sign " of the Son of man in heaven precedes the advent of his messengers, who in turn herald his coming. That coming may be " as a thief in the night," while the soul is still in darkness; or as " a snare " to prove the heart: " Take heed to yourselves that the day come not upon you unawares, as a snare : for it shall come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." In one form or another, in the events of the daily life, or in some distant " sign " or " token," the manifestation will be given. But " to every man the manifestation of the Spirit is given to profit withal," as a stimulus or incentive to re- newed effort in overcoming the world ; or as a re- ward of faith ; and to draw the soul heavenward. That the manifestation of Christ is not to the world, but to the individual believer, is implied by these words of St. Peter, referring to those scoffers who will say "in the last days, Where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." For " God is long-suffering, not will- ing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance : " therefore in the end, when the THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 421 souls of all are purified and perfected, " every eye shall see him," even " they which pierced him " •with denial or ignorant hatred, for they knew not what they did. As the revelation is spiritual, it is not governed by the conditions of time and space, and cannot be rightly apprehended by the carnal mind. But in the light of Spirit the truth is spirit- ually discerned. That apostle who said, "Am I not free ? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? " had himself experienced the coming of Christ in the per- son of the Holy Ghost ; for St. Paul had known Christ in no other way than as a spiritual Com- forter, manifested from heaven: " And lest I should be exalted above measure," he says, " through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, to buffet me: " while of his gos- pel of good tidings, he says, " I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revela- tion of Jesus Christ." For it has " pleased God to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen. . . . Henceforth let no man trouble me : for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Concerning the coming of Christ by a conscious manifestation to the individual soul, the Apostle says, " The mystery which hath been hid from the ages and from generations is now made manifest to his saints : to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Again he says, "Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the 422 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. . . . Follow peace with all, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. . . . Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heav- enly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new cove- nant. . . . See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." The Apostle does not say that the followers of Jesus will experience, at some future time, the joys enumerated above, but "ye are come:" that is, the spiritual minded have already entered a state of heavenly fellowship, which is made conscious in them. The Apostle prays that the followers of Christ may "come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . For what is our hope, our joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord at his coming ? . . . I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the com- ing of our Lord Jesus Christ." And St. James says, " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . For as the husbandman waiteth patiently for the fruits of the earth . . . be ye also patient : stablish your hearts ; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 423 ARISE: SHINE! When, through the Holy Ghost, the Spirit is breathed into the soul, then, as was said of Jesus, the divine command is, " Arise, shine : for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee : " manifest the light to those who grope in darkness and despair ; let the Spirit shine forth in word and deed ; cease all controversy, " be still and know " the truth ; go forth in the spirit and power of Christ, as living children of God, that his will may be done in earth as in heaven. For when the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, is come, love then reigns in the place of fear, joy in the place of sorrow, healing in the place of dis- ease, — "eternal refreshment is begun." Sin and death no longer haunt the mind as dark, vague shadows, hiding God ; for whatever be the nature of the trials yet in store to perfect the soul, in the Spirit all is then light and joy and peace. " Re- joice in the Lord always : again I say, Rejoice," — these are the words of one so quickened, and of whose shining his Epistles are a witness. A vir- tue of healing went out from Christ when he dwelt on earth, and a virtue of sanctification goes out from him now to those to whom he draws near. Through the Holy Ghost " power " is given to them that believe. In seasons of intellectual doubt or distrust, men stand in need of a living witness of the truth, of a Comforter who will guide into all truth, and reveal the things to come. Of such an one there is the sure word of promise, even the 424 THE SPIHIT OF TRUTH. Spirit of truth. In the light of that assurance, made doubly sure in Christ as Son of man and Holy Ghost, Revelation is spiritually discerned as the true word of God. "What is chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? " A WITNESS OP THE TKTJTH. " They who live in Spirit, in the light of the re- splendent City of God, need never shrink from his messengers, at whatever hour, or under whatever strange form they may come. . . . Live ever in the knowledge of the love of the Highest, for love turns the crown of thorns into one of gold, and un- der its light the wave of trouble flashes with heav- enly brightness. Love rules the Infinite Heart, and they who yield to the dominion of love bear the seal of sonship." " Commit j'our way to God, and stay your heart on the Eternal. Dwell here and now and ever in the true home of your waiting hearts, in the heav- enly Eden of Peace, and rejoice in the love of God with his living children. Let all earthly care be as nothing ; welcome as blessings the evils of life, see in its sadness joy, and in its thorns a crown : for by them the Hand of God is moulding you to do work in his higher kingdom. He purifies by out- ward fire the inward evil ; he draws the heart from a world of weariness and care, to find eternal peace and rest in him. His love is everywhere and al- ways round you, for he overshadows his children THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 425 with his personal Presence, and breathes on them power and life. In that Presence is fulness of joy, of glory, power, wisdom. Only the dim shadow can be seen, but all is there, abiding in him, pro- ceeding from him ; and in endless happiness you will one day receive it all through his love. In the calm moment of his Presence the clouds of earth will part, and reveal a glimpse of the heavenly land illumined with the pure Love of God." " Let the true Light find in your souls a quiet abiding-place, so shall it enrich the barren path- way of care which leads to the land of Peace, and shines ever more and more till dawns for you the perfect day. Soon shall you see what now you be- lieve, possess what you now desire, and attain to the joys of the life of the Blessed. Here the hunger of the spirit is stilled, here is found its peaceful rest, here, perfectly renewed, each power blossoms into fullest life, and is offered in service to the King of our love. Here the depths of the heart are sounded, here the forces of the spirit unfolded, here the aspirations of humanity attain their fullest perfection under the enkindling light of the Vision of God." " We, by the mercy and love of God, dwell in the land of light, in the kingdom of endless ages. Here is undying life ; here the peace which passeth understanding ; here joy wanes not, here beauty withers not, here love grows not cold, for we dwell in the smile of the Face of God. We, too, have 426 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. been as you now are, tossed on the waves of this troublesome world : now we stand on the eternal shore and see your peril as the billows of trial and temptation surge around you. And we hold up to you the light of love and truth to guide you home ; and we bid you remember that the day is coming, when in you, as in us, Patience shall have wrought her perfect work, when hope will be lost in frui- tion, and when you too shall know the fulness of joy that abides in the presence of God." " Peace, goodwill to men. Peace to the kindred of the saints, on whom shines the dawning of the day of God. Unite your wills to the will of God, so shall your peace flow as a river, and your puri- fication shall be perfected. " In this heavenly country where the King reigns in his beauty, we follow his will, we are wholly his, for no cloud can separate us from his love. We live only for him, we abide where he places us, we have no will but his, and he is our God forever and ever. God directs your way for his own glory, which is your highest good. He will have you live and labor for him, not seeing the fruit of your toil, content to know you are doing his work, that you prepare his way, and plough up the soil of the world for the seed of the future, knowing your rec- ord is on high. He makes of your weakness the throne of his mercy, the seat of his omnipotence. To you, and in you, he draws near, and gloom van- ishes before his bright Presence. We, in his name, strengthen and cheer you with the promise of the THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 427 home where he in his love and mercy has gathered us, and where he will surely bring all who live in love. There, in the land of eternal spring, of ever- lasting light, awaits you an inheritance incorrup- tible, an unfailing treasure, a life of perfect peace. Your waking souls can yet see only in dim vision that land of light, you can look only on the veils of the bliss to be revealed, on the shadows of the heavenly glory that overflows the Paradise of God. But look up, and lift up your heads, for your re- demption draweth nigh day by day. O blessed, endless Eternity, wherein shall grow continually the love of the Holy will of God." " I come in the name of the Light of the World, in whom the distant is drawn near, and before whose Presence darkness and sorrow and sighing have fled away. " Lif b up your hearts, for upon your seeking spir- its shines the Light of God, brighter, clearer, purer, diviner than hath entered into the heart of man to conceive ; and in that Holy Light each thought and act is revealed. Draw near to God, who dwell- eth in light, veiled in the brightness of his infinite glory from the eyes of his creatures ; fall down be- fore him and open your hearts to the influences of his Spirit. Set your affections on the things which are of God, on the infinite, the abiding, the eter- nal ; these only are worthy of your love, for you are made only for him, and to become like him is your heavenly heritage. Render humbly to liim the sacrifice of your will, striving for the angelic 428 . THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. constancy of obedience, and his love will draw you near and blend your wills in harmony with his di- vine will. Let the joys of earth become to you but the shadows of the true ; lay down your earthly cares, look up to that pure Light, the source of per- fectness and peace, and its beams shall kindle in your hearts the love of God, in whose presence and blessing you shall forever rest. So shall God show you himself, and all things in himself. He will dispel all darkness and ignorance and imperfection, and shall bring you out of the uncertainty of hopes and questionings into the desire and love and light of wisdom. There, in that celestial light, all joy, all happiness is found. Out of his treasury are shed forth heavenly blessings for the portion of all those who will open their hearts to receive the gift of his love, and to rejoice in the blessing of the Mighty God. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the plenteousness of his house, and he shall make them to drink of his pleasures as of a river. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee." " Behold the Love of God ! Behold him who is uncreated Love, unbounded by time or space, who has loved you with an everlasting love, who is the God of love, and worthy of all love. " Behold him whose Love is life, whose Life is love, who binds all spheres in one by the unity of the Spirit, by the bond of a common paternity, by the hope of a common inheritance. The home of his children is in the Heart of God, who fills all THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 429 worlds; realize his sacred Presence in the inner sanctuary of your secret life, so may you now begin to possess him, whom to know is the bliss of heaven. Press onward to the goal, the crown of reward, gazing steadfastly on the love of the Eternal Father till he receives all those who are perfected by pa- tience into the inheritance of the children of God. Then shall happiness be changed into heavenly joy when he makes manifest the glory that encom- passes his throne ; then shall you know the serene stillness of a soul that rests in God, the rapture of doing him service, the ethereal calm of a will united to the divine. Then shall you be tranquil- lized, gladdened, refreshed, and satisfied with the fruition of God; for he, the everlasting God, will be all in all. O King of all beauty and glory, we de- sire no inheritance beside thee.' " " Peace on earth, goodwill to men. Even the peace of God which shall possess and satisfy'your souls : for he is the end of all your aspirations and desires, the port of the wanderer, the home of the exile, the fulfilment of your love. " Lift up your hearts, fear nothing, for his love is around you. By purity and love prepare his taber- nacle ; walking in his Presence, go on to perfection, till your life, being conformed to his will, is no longer yours, but his. He makes you partakers of his nature ; in you he wills to dwell, that he may be made manifest to the world, and that his invis- ible glory may be revealed. Open your hearts to him, that he may rest and dwell in you, and fill 430 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. you with the gifts of love. Unite your weakness to his strength, your imperfection to his holiness; bear your human griefs with him who travelled the hard road of sorrow, even to the death of the cross ; trust all to his guiding hand, and rest in the peace of God. 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