B D 
 
 ^^\ 
 orSgin and nature 
 
 OF MAN 
 
 BY 
 
 S. B, G. McKlNNEY, M.A.. L.R.CP. (Edin.) 
 
 Copyright, 1905 
 By S, B. G, McKiNNEy 
 
 BUFFALO, N. Y. 
 1905 
 
Class:BP_42LL_ 
 
 Book hm 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE 
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURfe 
 OF MAN 
 
 /M 
 
 BY 
 
 S. B. G. McKINNEY, M.A., L.R.C.P. (Edin.) 
 
 Copyright, 1905 
 By S. B. G. McKiNNEY 
 
 BUFFALO, N. Y. 
 1905 
 
■^T^^ 
 
 L;BfiA??Y of Om^iiE'^iS 
 
 iwo iiopies jieceiv^ 
 
 APR 18 1905 
 
 A---.. --^^ , 
 
THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN 
 
 THE BIBLK 
 
 "For more than a thousand years the great 
 majority of the most highly civilised and instructed 
 nations in the world have confidently believed and 
 passionately maintain that certain writings, which 
 they entitle sacred, occupy a unique position in 
 literature, in that they possess an authority different 
 in kind, and immensely superior in weight, to that 
 of all other books/' 
 
 Such is the introductory sentence to Huxley's 
 essays on ''Science and Hebrew Tradition"; and it 
 correctly describes the attitude of all men of sound 
 intelligence and clear knowledge towards the Bible, 
 Not merely for more than one thousand years, but 
 for more than three thousand years, the greatest 
 thinkers have preserved Sacred Books with profound 
 respect and reverence. Confucius described himself 
 as one who loved and beUeved in the ancients; and 
 long before the days of Confucius the wise men in 
 Egypt and Asia treasured the wisdom handed down 
 
by the great primitive teachers of mankind. What 
 gives Sacred Books their unique position? Works 
 on agriculture and mechanics, which would teach 
 something of the nature of the material world 
 and of the physical laws governing phenomena, 
 seem to the human animal of much more import- 
 ance than theories respecting his origin and nature; 
 and yet the most ancient writings of every nation 
 that has an ancient literature treat of the super- 
 natural or the spiritual. Man is a spirit, and there- 
 fore cannot live by bread alone. The instinct to 
 seek harmony with the Infinite Spirit is more vital 
 to the normal man than the instinct to eat bread. 
 Multitudes have died for their religion. 
 
 Every Sacred Book deals, however imperfectly or 
 erroneously, with formal and final causes, which are 
 instinctively recognised as of permanent and supreme 
 importance, but which are of no concern to any 
 mere animal. The Whence, and Why, and Whither 
 are discussed. What is the ideal condition? What 
 are the means to be adopted in order to attain it? 
 What does the Creator desire us to do? These are 
 the questions of primary interest to the healthy mind. 
 Modern references to the Creator as the Unknowable, 
 or as a Power, or as Nature, are the result of artifi- 
 cial parasitical conditions and spiritual degradation; 
 for it is an axiom of consciousness that the Creator of 
 an intelligent being must be of higher intelUgence 
 than the creature. Men who stand alone never think 
 of Grod as mere mechanical power. 
 
The Bible treats of the nature of man as Man, 
 and as looked upon in comparison with the Perfect; 
 and in order to be able to appreciate its teaching 
 familiarity with its language is necessary. Those 
 who have used it for regular reading and study in 
 youth easily find in it a g\iide to the means of gaining 
 the absolute health of mind, or harmony with the 
 Creative Mind, which is called the possession of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven; whereas it is regarded as little 
 more than incoherent fragments of history and fable 
 by those who have neglected the cultivation of the 
 spiritual faculties, and who are not familiar with it. 
 
 The first three chapters of Genesis may be regarded 
 as the foundation of the Bible, and as containing the 
 most ancient philosophy of primitive man of which 
 we have any knowledge, dating back thousands of 
 years before modern literature existed, and telling 
 the relations of man to his Creator, to his wife, to 
 animals and plants, and to the universe. There is 
 no other document so intrinsically important and 
 interesting. 
 
 The first chapter of Genesis is as follows: — 
 
 "In the beginning the Elohim created the heaven 
 and the earth. 
 
 *'And the earth was without form, and void; and 
 darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the 
 Spirit of the Elohim moved upon the face of the 
 waters. 
 
 "And the Elohim said, Let there be light; and 
 there was light. 
 
>'And the Elohim saw the light that it was good J 
 and the Elohim divided the light from the darkness- 
 
 "And the Elohim called the Ught Day, and the 
 darkness He called Night. And the evening and the 
 morning were the first day (or, there wf^ evening 
 and there was morning, one day). 
 
 "And the Elohim said, Let there be a firmament 
 in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the 
 waters from the waters. 
 
 "And the Elohim made the firmament, and divided 
 the waters which were under the firmament from 
 the waters which were above the firmament: and it 
 was so. 
 
 "And the Elohim called the firmament Heaven. 
 And the evening and the morning were the second day. 
 
 "And the Elohim said, Let the waters under the 
 heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let 
 the dry land appear: and it was so. 
 
 "And the Elohim called the dry land Earth; and 
 the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. 
 And the Elohim saw that it was good. 
 
 "And the Elohim said. Let the earth bring forth 
 grass, the herb yield seed, and the fruit trees yield- 
 ing fruit after its kind whose seed is in itself, upon 
 the earth: and it was so. 
 
 "And the earth brought forth grass, and herb 
 yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding 
 fruit whose seed is in itself after its kind; and the 
 Elohim saw that it was good. 
 
''And the evening and the morning were the third 
 day. 
 
 ''And the Elohim said, Let there be lights in the 
 firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the 
 night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, 
 and for days, and years: 
 
 "And let them be for lights in the firmament of 
 the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it 
 was so. 
 
 "And the Elohim made two great lights; the 
 greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to 
 rule the night. He made the stars also. 
 
 "And the Elohim set them in the firmament of 
 the heaven to give light upon the earth, 
 
 "And to rule over the day and over the night, and 
 to divide the Ught from the darkness. And the 
 Elohim saw that it was good. 
 
 ' And the evening and the morning were the 
 fourth day. 
 
 "And the Elohim said. Let the waters bring 
 forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, 
 and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open 
 firmament of heaven. 
 
 "And the Elohim created great sea-monsters, and 
 every living creature that moveth, which the waters 
 brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every 
 'winged fowl after its kind : and the Elohim saw that 
 it was good. 
 
 "And he Elohim blessed them' saying, Be fruit- 
 
ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and 
 let fowl multiply in the earth. 
 
 ''And the evening and the morning were the fifth 
 day. 
 
 ''And the Elohim said, Let the earth bring forth 
 creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind : 
 and it was so. 
 
 "And the Elohim made the beast of the earth 
 after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and every 
 thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind: 
 and the Elohim saw that it was good. 
 
 "And the Elohim said, Let Us make man in 
 Our image, after Our Ukeness, and let them have 
 dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
 of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
 and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
 earth. 
 
 "So the Elohim created man in His own image, 
 in the image of the Elohim created He him; male 
 and female created He them. 
 
 "And the Elohim blessed them, and the Elohim 
 said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and 
 replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have 
 dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
 -moveth upon the earth. 
 
 "And the Elohim said. Behold, I have given you 
 every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of 
 all the earth, and every tree in the which is the 
 fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for 
 
''And to every beast of the earth, and to every 
 fowl of the air, and to everything the creepeth upon 
 the earth wherein there is Ufe, I have given every 
 green herb for meat: and it was so. 
 made, and, behold, it was very good. And the 
 evening and the morning were the sixth day.^* 
 
 Is it possible that this primitive account of the 
 origin of things can be in any sort^of harmony with 
 modern scientific knowledge? Can it be that prim- 
 itive man, without any of the advantages of modern 
 education, invented a theory of creation thousands 
 of years ago worthy of consideration by a modern 
 scholar? 
 
 According to the primitive teaching of the Bible, 
 the Divine Mind, or the Elohim, or the L. 0. M., 
 created the heavens and the earth ■ 'in the begin- 
 ning.*' So far as we can judge, science and imagi- 
 nation will strive in vain to get beyond this in the 
 contemplation of the origin of matter. 
 
 The earth is described as "without form and 
 void''; and there was darkness. The modern 
 scholar may say that all was in a state of primi- 
 tive nebulosity or homogeneous indefiniteness; and 
 some minds have a feeling of satisfaction when 
 using words of imposing length and sound, even 
 when they add nothing to the significance of those 
 which are simple. If no light was in existence we 
 cannot beUeve that there was force of any kind, 
 and therefore the matter must have been diffused 
 in its original atoms; for no twotwo atoms could com- 
 
bine without the existence of light, or force that 
 would imply Ught. whatever may be meant by 
 the heavens, we must take it that the primitive 
 iipilosopher intended to describe the earth as origia- 
 ally incoherent and formless, and that is all the 
 length that onr most advanced hpilosophers can go. 
 
 The next proceeding, according to the Bible, was 
 the creation of Ught; which must be understood 
 as implying the creation of all he physical forces, 
 since modern science proves that light is essential 
 to the union of atoms into visible matter, or into 
 the molecules, without which heat cannot be known. 
 When the light was created the atoms combined 
 into masses capable of producing shadows by inter- 
 cepting the light. Hence it is said in Genesis that 
 on the First Day the light was divided from the 
 darkness. 
 
 In order to understalid the Bible it is necessary 
 to study it as a series of pictures which the primitive 
 philosopher may have painted to express his thoughts 
 before he had elaborated any language. First, we 
 may suppose there was the All-seeing Eye; then 
 there was the gloomy mass, without form and void; 
 next there may have been the appearance of rays 
 from the Eye, causing some irregularities upon the 
 surface of the dark mass, and translated as the 
 Spirit moving upon the face of the waters, or the 
 sea of nebulosity; then there may have been the 
 representation of a Hand moving darkness to one 
 side and light to the other, so as t(? indicate a per- 
 
manent division. Science has now reached the 
 stage of trying to penetrate this mystery, and to dis- 
 cover how one body is made opaque and another 
 transparent, or to prove that there^ is no more dif- 
 ference between light and darkness than between 
 different species of animals. 
 
 There is then a break in the series of pictures to 
 indicate that this was the First Day^ but as we are 
 fnormed that the sun and moon were appointed 
 afterwards to regulate time, so that our day of 
 twenty-four hours could not have been instituted, 
 the Day of Creation must have meant an indefinite 
 period; and, as the period was supposed to be 
 appreciable by Omnipotence, we may suppose it to 
 have been may millions of years. During this 
 period the force was acting on the matter so as to 
 form the inorganic world. God does not hurry. 
 
 Next we are shown the matter accumulated into 
 enormous masses so as to iorm the earth and the 
 heavenly bodies. We may suppose that the teacher 
 painted a sky that appeared solid, and tried to show 
 the separation of the water in the sea from the i- 
 visible water which descends as rain. How was 
 the earth dried and hardened to the proper consis- 
 tency? The establishment of a proper balance be- 
 tween the moisture on the earthand the amount in the 
 air available as rain seemed to the primitive phil- 
 osopher such a marvellous display of careful fore- 
 thought that he described it as occupying the whole 
 of the Second Day. 
 
Is this less marvellous to modern science? 
 
 How many internal fires and external floods were 
 needed to form the paste into solid mountains sur- 
 rounded by vast oceans? If there was a molten 
 mass it had to cool; and if it was at the temperature 
 supposed by geologists, there could be no! possibility 
 of water remaining upon it. One might as well 
 expect water to lie upon the flame of a furnace. 
 Where did the water come from to fill the hollows? 
 Where did the hydrogen exist before it was burned? 
 Where was the oxygen? Is th^ere an unknown 
 store of water between the^arth and the sun? The 
 cooling of a volcanic mass is not considered a pro- 
 bable source of water. 
 
 When the earth was cooled sufficiently to permit 
 moisture to lie upon it the work of forming dry 
 land began. Some parts were elevated and others 
 depressed, so that the water might be drained off into 
 the hollows. Then no time was lost in utilising the 
 solid portion for the support of life. Some of the 
 inorganic material was converted into organic form; 
 and millions of years may have been employed by 
 microscopic fungi in preparing the earth for the 
 growth of forest trees. The soil was gradually 
 enriched by the decomposition of low forms of 
 vegetable life; and there is no mention of animal 
 life, which seems a mistake. Vegetable life must 
 have come first to support the animal, but how can 
 it have needed a whole Day to itself? Perhaps the 
 explanation of this is the necessity of forming stores 
 
of coal and petroleum; but there were animals iii 
 Existence when some of the coal was formed. Some 
 tnethod must have been adopted of allowing vege- 
 table growth to accumulate so enormously, and the 
 period occupied is described as the Third Day. 
 
 It is quite contrary to the common modern notion 
 of the proper order or events to leave the formation 
 of the Solar System until the Fourth Day; and yet 
 the primitive theory may be correct. We have learn- 
 ed to think of the movements of the heavenly bodies 
 as essential. Revelations of the ancient animal and 
 vegetable Ufe in the polar regions indicate that 
 the whole surface of the earth has been densely 
 occupied by animals in a manner which could not 
 have been possible if the present arrangements of 
 solar influence had been in operation. Heat must 
 have been diffused over the earth in a manner which 
 science does not explain. Geologists inform us 
 tha there was once a great glacial period for parts of 
 the earth now seldom visited by snow; while it has 
 also been proved that regions now doomed to per- 
 petual winter were at one time in the enjoyment 
 of tropical heat and luxuriant vegetation. Does 
 h Uttle alteration of the earth's inclination to the 
 sun explain all? Had the heavenly bodies not been 
 set spinning? Had sufficient force not accumulated 
 to maintain the various bodies in their revolutions 
 and rotations? The present division of time into 
 days, and nights, and seasons, was made by setting 
 all the wonderful machinery in motion, and the force 
 
needed may well have occupied a number of Days in 
 accumulating. It is possible that future philosophers 
 may come to the conclusion that the arrangement of 
 the Solar System was not completed until late in the 
 order of creation, and that the work was sufficient 
 to occupy the Fourth Day; but, m any case, the 
 profundity of the thought remains. 
 
 The Fifth Day of Creation is said to have been 
 spent in producing everything that lives in the water 
 and in the air, w^hile no land animals are mentioned; 
 and this statement is remarkable from the zoological 
 point of view; for it is only within the past few years 
 that the relation between birds and fishes has been 
 recognised, and before that relation was discovered 
 no one would have of thought of associating birds with 
 fishes as their companions in creation. It may be 
 that the primitive teacher painted fishes and flying 
 animals as the product of the Fifth Day; and thus 
 he would include, as by intuition, the gigantic flying 
 reptiles since found along with fishes in the fossil 
 records of the history of the earth. 
 
 The Sixth Day was occupied in causing the force 
 to act on the matter so as to produce all forms of 
 animal life; and after these had been produced man 
 appears upon the scene. In order to express the 
 magnitude of the work^ and the enormous duration 
 of each period, Omnipotence is represented as weary. 
 
 The Divine Mind is said to have ceased from work 
 on the Seventh Day.This seews to mean that no 
 further new creations were produced, and that every- 
 
thing was left free from manifest supernatural inter- 
 felrehce, so that man might work with confidence to 
 litilise all the stores pro\dded for his enjoyment. 
 
 We may suppose, if we please, that the atoms 
 of matter first formed were all of one kind, and that 
 they were all atoms of hydrogen. We may further 
 suppose that the Ught caused sixteen atoms of hy- 
 drogen to unite in some pecuUar manner to form an 
 atom of oxygen, and fourteen to combine to form an 
 atom of nitrogen, and one hundred and twenty-seven 
 to combine to form iodine, and so on. The rays of 
 light may have accumulated in the matter so as 
 to cause the molecular movements we recognise 
 as heat, and the incomprehensible influences we 
 recognise as electricity, and chemical action an 
 gravitation. Thus the formation of the earth, 
 according to the Bible, may have been the result 
 of the combinations of atoms of hydrogen under the 
 influence of hght. Science seems to show that the 
 atmosphere of the sun is composed of burning 
 hydrogen. Such combustion would require oxygen, 
 
 * and the result would be water, unless we suppose 
 some less Hkely form of chemical combination to 
 have taken place. 
 
 The account in the Bible will permit us to fancy 
 that the light caused the atoms to aggregate so as to 
 form nebulae; and that the nebulae united to form 
 comets; and that the nebulae and comets united to 
 
 . form planets. The intensity of the Ught and heat 
 given out by the bodies would be proportionate to 
 
their bulk, and the velocitk with which they rushed 
 into collision. Combinations may have been brought 
 about by violent collisions and intense heat, which 
 resulted in the production of unstable compounds' 
 like chloride of nitrogen in the centre of the heavenly 
 bodies; and the resulting explosion may have sent 
 the star or planet flying through space in showers of 
 meteors and meteoric dust, as the earth may be bown 
 up some day. 
 
 No theory can begin without assuming the exist- 
 ence of matter and force. The Creator had to keep 
 control of all, so that the atom of oxygen should 
 always consist of sixteen atoms of hydrogen and no 
 more so long as the earth and man endure; other- 
 wise there would be the possibility of change in 
 its composition, and there could be no science 
 of cheiltiistry. We may suppose the existence of 
 isomeric varieties of oxygen, and we may regard 
 sulphur as a polymeric form of oxygen, and say that 
 its atom is composed of thirty -two atoms of hydrogen ; 
 but however we may let our fancy wander, we must 
 believe that there was an original command which 
 fixed the composition of each element so that it 
 should always be the same under the 3ame conditions. 
 
 Philosophers even of modern times have been dis- 
 posed to regard the sun as the ultimate source of all 
 light and heat; but the primitive hpilosopher taught 
 that it was created after Ught, and is merely a special 
 means of storing force so as to allow the various 
 portions of the earth to receive supplies at regular 
 
intervals, and thus to facilitate the carrying out of 
 the jaw of nature that all labour must be followed 
 by a period of repose. The prodigality with which 
 the sun lavishes heat and light at all times and in all 
 directions is in keeping with the infinite abundance 
 of all ht stores of nature. 
 
 It is worth remarking that every day han its 
 ''evening and morning''; and this statement, so 
 carefully repeated, probably refers to the slow and 
 gradual mode in which Creation took place and it is 
 in wonderful contrast to the thought that comes 
 naturally to man that everything must have been 
 created instantiineously by a sudden command. Wd 
 should expect the morning of a day to be mentioned 
 before the evening; and as every word in the Bible- 
 and especially in this brief record, must be carefully 
 weighed, we must seek for the profound thought that 
 causes every day to begin with an evening and en(| 
 With the morning. There v/as no evening, as 
 generally understood, to any of the days of Creation, 
 for the day is taken as beginning when all hope of 
 life appears to reason without faith to have died; 
 and this period is succeeded by night of utter dark- 
 ness, so far as human wisdom can discern, but it is 
 really the period of incubation to be foUov/ed by the 
 steadily-increasing light of morning when life comes 
 forth. None of the days of Creation were assisted 
 by special act of Omnipotence beyond their ''morn- 
 ing,'' since they were intended to develop into the full 
 blaze of noon, so ^? to furnish material for the obser- 
 
vation and for the instruction and enjoyment of man. 
 
 The cessation in the ^Imorning'' may be used as 
 an argument in favour of a modified evolution 
 theory, involving only six distinct acts of super- 
 natural power, given as impulses to begin a long 
 series of evolutional processes; ,but this interpre- 
 tation would destroy the harmony of ideas involved 
 in supposing the work to be so great and continuous 
 that the Creative Mind requ red to rest, and we know 
 that the Creator did not rest for any interval until all 
 was finished, for science teaches us that no break in 
 the work is perceptible until every species had been 
 produced. 
 
 We may reasonably suppose that the conditions of 
 heat and moisture were at first particularly favour- 
 able for the loTest forms of vegetable life to carry 
 on their work of decomposing inorganic compounds 
 in order to build up organic bodies, which, by decay- 
 ing, would form a soil suitable for the maintenance 
 of higher forms of vegetation; and the delay in the 
 production of land animals may have had some con- 
 nection with the need of allowing vegetable life 
 special facilities for growth in order to store up force 
 for the future use of man. The elevation of the 
 parts of the crust of the earth that contained special 
 accumulations of the fruits of the work of vegetable 
 and animal Ufe may have been necessary either for 
 the development of special forms of animals, or for 
 the use and pleasure of man; and when lagoons and 
 swamps became replaced by blains and mountains. 
 
many species of animals that had served their pur^ 
 pose, or that might have been injurious to the new 
 species, were allowed to become extinct. 
 
 The account of Creation given in Genesis is very 
 commonly misunderstood and misrepresented. Few 
 people study it seriously for themselves. With, the 
 exception of the separate creation of man there is no 
 mention of original creation except of matter and 
 force. The Divine Mind is not said to have created 
 plants or animals, but to have commanded, ^'Let 
 the earth bring forth grass,'' etc. The force was to 
 act upon the matter so as to transform inorganic into 
 organic material. Thus it would appear that vital 
 force is not essentially different from the physical 
 forces, but is a peculiar combination of them; and 
 yet e must not forget that Omnipotence had to 
 give the impulse to begin the growth of the first 
 vegetable germ. It was just as easy for the Creator 
 to cause the production of a milHon varieties of 
 vegetable life as one; but all had to be connected 
 as the harmonious design of the Perfect Architect, 
 so that man might not be bewildered when studying 
 them. 
 
 Vegetable Hfe did not pass into animal life by 
 natural generation, though there is no essential 
 difference between them. The lowest forms of 
 plant life may have required ages to make the earth 
 fit to prouce higher forms; but millions of age 
 were of no consequence to the Infinite Creator 
 As soon as the necessary food was prepared, the 
 
Divine Mind said^ *'Let the waters bring forth 
 abundantly the moving creature," etc. Thus the 
 first animal life was in the water, according to th 
 Bible; and ages may have elapsed before the earth 
 was dry enough for the production of animals capable 
 of living entirely upon land. 
 
 There is permanent distinction between species 
 according to the Bible. We are told that the earth 
 brought forth grass and herb, yielding seed after its 
 kind; and that ''the Elohim made the beast of the 
 earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind.'* 
 The frequent repetition of the words ''after their 
 kind" signifies that a fresh command was given 
 every time the development of the earth warranted 
 the production of a new species. Evolutionists say 
 that it is difficult to beheve that the Creator inter- 
 fered for the production of each species; and then 
 they encounter the far greater diflSculty of attempt- 
 ing to believe that a particle of vegetable matter 
 went on steadily advancing from one stage of evolu- 
 tion to another until it ended in the production of 
 man. The demands on credulity do not even stop 
 here, for we must suppose that the Uttle vegetable 
 had a steady desire to develop into something higher, 
 which is more than most men have. The miracles 
 of the Bible are simple natural results when compared 
 with the utterly confounding miracle of evolution 
 without supernatural interference. The vegetable 
 germ would deserve oiu* homage as the Almighty. 
 
Why should the Creator have stopped at the pro- 
 duction of fungus, or atoms? 
 
 All animals are said to have been produced by 
 the earth in obedience to the command of the Ore* 
 ator. ''And the Elohim said, Let the earth bring 
 forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and 
 creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its 
 kind: and it was so/' The creeping things here 
 mentioned may have been small land animals, or 
 some reptile forms late in appearance, and distinct 
 from those shown in the picture of fishes, flying 
 things, and birds. 
 
 The earth did not bring forth man. There was 
 special creation needed, though he was formed of 
 the dust of the earth, and is in substance and in 
 structure one vAth the brutes. There is a gulf be- 
 tween man and animals such as does not exist 
 between different species of animals, or even between 
 animals and plants. 'The Elohim created man in 
 His Own Image: in the Image of the Elohim created 
 He him; male and female created He them.'* 
 
 If we are very anxious to keep as far as possible 
 from thinking clearly of the Divine Mind, we may 
 say that man was made of the dust by majestic laws 
 acting over vast epochs until he had become fit for 
 the inbreathing of a higher nature. That must mean 
 that there were once men who were not men, but 
 only animals, incapable of spiritual consctousness. 
 Such is not the teaching of the Bible, nor the teach- 
 ing of reason or of history. 
 
If men had preserved and studied in reference 
 the brief philosophy of the primitive teacher there 
 would ^never have been idolitary, or superstition, or 
 general degradation; but the foolish son neglects the 
 counsels of his father, and makes experiments for him- 
 self without the guidance of previous experimenters. 
 A fluent chatterer who has never stood alone will 
 condemn with confidence the most profound doc- 
 trines of ancient sages. In the very first chapter 
 of Genesis the complete subjection of animals, and 
 plants, and all material thitigs, to the Creator, is 
 plainly and emphatically affirmed; yet after thou- 
 sands of years we find intelligent men looking on 
 the new moon as a possible gcverncr of riches, and 
 standing in awe of charlatans who pretend to see in 
 the stars the power of dominating human destiny. 
 Whole nations have invested with mysterious sanctity 
 some mountain, or river, or grove, or tree; elephants, 
 /and cows, or apes, and even crocodiles have been 
 treated with reverential awe; and human beings 
 have been sacrificed to appease the demon of some 
 particular locality supposed to be able to blight or 
 bless. Those who have floundered in the mud of 
 Greek and Indian mythology until feady to cling 
 to any dogma of materialism or animalism may 
 well exclaim with Caliban when their eyes are opened 
 to the spiritual truth and beauty of the primitive 
 wisdom in Genesis:— 
 
^T\\ be wise hereafter, 
 And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass 
 Was I to take this drunkard for a god, 
 And worship this dull foolT' 
 
 According to the most ancient theology, the Creator 
 was well pleased with all His works, and declared 
 all to be very good. Man was His child, made in 
 His image, provihed for with parental care and 
 affection, and even given all things for his use and 
 enjoyment, but with the distinct understanding that 
 if he ate stones for bread he would suffer indigestion, 
 iu spite of all repentance and prayers. The primitive 
 teaching was that ''God is good, and His mere 
 endureth for ever^'; and the primitive man heard 
 the angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest, 
 and on earth peace, goodwill tov/ards men.'' 
 
 What was the consequence of neglect to study the 
 first three chapters of Genesis as guide? Thos 
 without the primitive wisdom could not help recog- 
 nising the Creator as Infinite Power, manifested by 
 earthquake, and storm, and pestilence, as well as by 
 sunshine, and shower, and harvest; Pov/er apparent- 
 ly dehghting in suflFering and destruction; and there- 
 fore appropriately symbolised by the car of Jugger- 
 naut demanding human victims. Without the primi- 
 tive guidance men v/orship demons of cruelty that 
 must be propitiated by self-torture and self-destruc- 
 tion; or they wander hopelessly among bewildering 
 forces and imaginary influences, so that they may 
 
even become so degraded as to dread a number' 
 whether seven, or nine, or thirteen. The modern 
 rationalist, with all his advantages of education, only 
 knows Nature as "red in tooth and claw," and knows 
 nothing of Jehovah conversing with Man in the 
 Garden. The Infinite Mind remains to scientific 
 recearch the Unknoable, because the Formal Cause 
 can only be known by those who cultivate the garden 
 of the soul. 
 
 Every part of the Bible was \\Titten to teach 
 spiritual truth, and not to prevent the existence ofX 
 spiritual truth, and not to prevent the exercise of 
 intellect. Man would have been a helpless, hope- 
 less orphan if alone upon the earth without con- 
 sciousness of communion with the Creator. Those 
 who quite lost the original teaching became at once 
 the slaves of unseen and unknowable powers, liable to 
 be terror-stricken by every novel sight of sound, as we 
 have abundance evidence of even in the present day. 
 Progress and happiness would never have been pos- 
 sible if the wise primitive man had not known the 
 confidence and security arising from knowledge of the 
 Creator. The Spirit witnessed with his spirit that he 
 was the child of God. 
 
 The materialist sees the earth as the mother of all 
 life, and, therefore, as a natural object of reverence; 
 but the primitive teacher pointed up to the Heavenly- 
 Father* What could the intellectual human animal 
 find more worthy of adc ration than light? Adam 
 taught that light had to come into existence and dis- 
 
appear at the bidding of the Divine Mind. Nothing is 
 conceived b}^ the materialist as superior to the sun, 
 moon and stars, and the expanse of the heavens; but 
 Adam taught that they are mere storehouses made by 
 the Creator to regulate the supply of light and heat. 
 
 All elementary teaching must be based upon the 
 phenomena which nature presents to the senses before 
 any artificial methods of study have been brought 
 into use. We must speak to a child of the rising 
 and setting of the sun, though we may believe that 
 the sun is stationary while the earth moves. The 
 primitive teacher may have beUeved that thesu 
 moves round the earth, or that the earth is flat, and 
 that the sun is moved by the direct interposition of 
 the Creator. He may have thought that there is a 
 soUd transparent material midway between the earth 
 and the sun, or that there is a vast expanse of frozen 
 moisture that needs to be restrained from thawing 
 and flooding the earth, or that there is a subtle 
 substance which modern science describes as ether. 
 Such beliefs or opinions would not affect his abiUty 
 to give an infallible revelation of the fundamental 
 truths regarding reUgion and morahty if he had a 
 perfect mind. He had the wisdom to avoid giving 
 any opinion on subjects he did not understand, and 
 to confine his teachings to the records of personal 
 experience by means of perfect symbols. 
 
 The second chapter of Genesis is supposed by some 
 critics to be inconsistent with the first, whereas it 
 ought to be regarded as a separate series of pictures 
 
dealing with man as a spirit inhabiting a mind. It 
 is ^s follows: 
 
 'Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, 
 and all the host of them. 
 
 ''And on the seventh day the Elohim finished His 
 work which He had made; and He rested on the 
 seventh day from all His work which He had made. 
 
 "And the Elohim blessed the seventh day and 
 hallowed it: because that in it He had rested from 
 all His work wi c the Elohim had created and made, 
 
 "These are the generations of the heavens and of 
 the earth when they were created, in the day that 
 Jehovah, the Elohim, made the earth and the heavens 
 
 "And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, 
 and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for 
 Jehovah, the Elohim, had not caused it to rain upon 
 the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; 
 
 "But there went up a mist from the earth, and 
 watered the whole face of the ground. 
 
 "And Jehovah, the Elohim, formed man of the 
 dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
 breath of life; and man became a living soul. 
 
 "And Jehovah, the Elohim, planted a garden 
 eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom 
 He had formed. 
 
 "And out of the ground made Jehovah, the Elohim, 
 to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 
 and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst 
 of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good 
 ^)fid evil. 
 
"And a river went out of Eden to water the 
 garden; and from thence it was parted, and became 
 four heads. 
 
 'The name of the first is Pison: the is it which 
 compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there 
 is gold; 
 
 "And the gold of that land is good: there is 
 bdeUium and the odyx stone. 
 
 **And the name of the second river is Gihon: the 
 same as that which compasseth the whole land of 
 Cush. 
 
 "And the name of the third river is Iliddekel: 
 that is it which goeth tov.ards the cast of Assyria. 
 And the fourth river is Euphrates. 
 
 "And Jehovah, the Elohim, took the man, and 
 put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to 
 keep it. 
 
 "And Jehovah, the Elohim, commanded the man, 
 saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest 
 freely eat: 
 
 "But 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. 
 
 "And Jehovah, the Elohim, said, It is not good 
 that the man should be alone; I will make him an 
 help meet for him. 
 
 "And out of the ground Jehovah, the Elohim, 
 formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the 
 air; and brought them unto the man to see what he 
 
would call them: and whatsoever the man called 
 every living creature, that was the name thereof. 
 
 ''And the man gave names to the cattle, and to the 
 fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but 
 for the man there was not found an help meet for 
 him. 
 
 ''And Jehovah, the Elohim, caused a deep sleep 
 to fall upon the man, and he slept: and He took one 
 of his fibs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 
 
 "And the rib which Jehovah, the Elohim, had 
 taken from the man, builded He into a woman, and 
 brought her unto the man. 
 
 "And the man said. This is now bene of my bones, 
 and flesh of flesh: she shall be called Woman, be- 
 cause she was taken out of Man. 
 
 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his 
 mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they 
 shall be one flesh. 
 
 "And they were both naked, the man and his 
 wife, and were not ashamed." 
 
 Many of the critics of the Bibhcal account of 
 creation forget their language was in its infancy a 
 few thousand years ago, and that profound thoughts 
 and moral precepts had to be taught by symbol and 
 allegory. He who uses a word already made has 
 seldom the clear mental vision of the idea impUed 
 which the inventor of the word had. "Intellect" is a 
 word now in common use by multitudes who do not 
 appreciate its deriyation or meaning; but the in- 
 ventor of it had to see the faculty of the mind select- 
 
ing concepts and weaving them into harmoniously 
 connected texture of thought in reasoning, so that a 
 picture of a weaver might have been used by him to 
 signify intellect. Before the word ^^intricate*^ was 
 invented the idea may have been expressed by a 
 picture of an animal in a net, or of a man in a maze 
 The root idea needs to be studied. 
 
 There are important differences between the first 
 chapter of Genesis and the second. In the first the 
 Creator is regarded simply as the Originator of all 
 things, and is described as the Elohim, or the Divine 
 Mind. In the second and third chapters He is 
 regarded in His relation to man as the Friend, the 
 Helper, the Moral Governor, the Saviour, the Judge; 
 and hence is described as Jehovah, the Elohim, 
 which is translated as the Lord God. 
 
 The first chapter deals with the origin of the uni- 
 verse, and teaches man his relation to the material 
 world, to light and darkness, to land and water, to 
 sun and moon, to plants and animals, and the 
 supremacy of God over all. There is no other such 
 original teaching with regard to these fundamental 
 questions; and no one who accepts the teaching can 
 possibly be an idolater. Have the sages of Rome, 
 or Greece, or India, or China, produced any such 
 account of creation, and of the relation of m.an to 
 God, even with the aid of the accumulated teaching 
 of thousands of years? Why not? The primitive 
 teacher, the prince of all philosophers, saw truth in 
 the clear light of spiritual vision before the learning 
 
of artificial words had produced confusion of thought 
 and before moral corruption had made him degene- 
 rate, so that he ceased to seek wisdom by sohtary 
 communion with the Creator. 
 
 The second chapter of Genesis proclaims the 
 nature of man. The animal man, one m substance, 
 and to a great extent one in structure, mth tne 
 brutes, has a spirit breathed into him, and is made 
 in the image of his creator. He is an elohim, or 
 mind; and he walks erect, with his face towards 
 
 heaven. j v, „^ 
 
 The second chapter finds the ground barren, 
 
 though the first chapter left it clothed in verdure. 
 
 In the first there is the material; in the second the 
 
 material is the symbol. The man had not awoke to 
 
 spiritual consciousness; and the earth was a bl. n ., 
 
 without meaning or use, until recognised by man as 
 
 the revelation of the Creator. We cannot form a 
 
 notion of an island created to remam for ever ^^i"i- 
 
 out any intelUgent being to take interest in it. lo 
 
 respect the mind in a state of unawakened <?nergie^, 
 
 when no passion had been aroused, and no dehmte 
 
 responsibility recognised, a picture of the ground 
 
 may have been painted mthout any hving thing, 
 
 or any product of life, upon it. No products of the 
 
 human mind had any existence until responsibility 
 
 was voluntarily assumed. There was not a »ian 
 
 to till the ground, or a human spirit at active worK. 
 
 If nothing had been shown in the painting but tne 
 
 barren ground it might have signified a s.ate ~c. 
 
death or the entire absence of all mental hfe, which 
 would not have been a correct description of the 
 mind at first. The vapour rising from the ground 
 indicated the existence of potential thought and 
 mental products as dormant in the mere animal 
 man; but since they had not taken definite form, 
 there could only be an indefinite mist. There never 
 had been prayer for assistance or blessing, si ce 
 there never had been consciousness of need; and 
 dence it is said that no rain had been sent down from 
 heaven. 
 
 The mist is described as ascending, and as pre- 
 paring the earth by watering it, not only before any 
 plant or herb had sprung up, but even before man 
 had been created out of the dust oof the ground. 
 The whole animal creation was in existence, manifest- 
 ing the degree of intelhgence bestowed upon it, and 
 so there was a mist; but the most highly endowed 
 animal cannot produce any thought ascending 
 towards heaven, or any aspiration worthy of repre- 
 sentation by the symbol of the tiniest herb. 
 
 How the man was produced out of the dust is the 
 problem that perplexes the materiaUst who beheves 
 in the production of speciess by a natural law of 
 evolution. There is no natural law that would ever 
 transform a sheep into any other animal; though 
 natural law will make it vary in size, and in other 
 respects, with change of environment. Each species 
 has been created to maintain permanent according to 
 its formal cause so long as mankind needs it. 
 
The Creator could have made an infinite number 
 of animal forms more and more closely resembling 
 man, and then could have modified a germ so as to 
 produce a perfect human animal. That would not 
 have been evolution by natural law, but a miracle 
 confounding natural laws by producing man with 
 perfect mind from animals v/ithout speech. However 
 it has done, we have the fact that the primitive think- 
 er was made capable of giving a more profound ac- 
 count of the ature of man than any modern philcsc- 
 pher could invent for himself, and was thus superior 
 mentally and morally to any man now existing. 
 
 The products of the spiritual nature were repre- 
 sented by the primitive teacher as vapour that has a 
 tendency to ascend towards heaven Uke incense, and 
 spiritual bless ngs were painted as the rain which 
 descends from heaven; while the products of the 
 mind, acting in obedience to the spirit after the 
 assumption of responsibiUty, were painted as trees 
 and plants. The mind is the Garden ini which the 
 spirit exists; and the spirit has the consciousness of 
 the possession of mind. 
 
 When man was in harmony with the Divine Mind, 
 every Tree that was pleasant to the sight or good for 
 food grew out of the ground; by which it was sig- 
 nified that every intellectual accompUshment, and 
 every emotional enjoyment that can produce un- 
 alloyed happiness, are possessed by the man who 
 acts in harmony with the Will of the Divine Mind. 
 The ''Tree of Life'' was then in the midst of the 
 
Garden, since perfect happiness and satisfaction vras 
 a central abiding possession of the ccnsciousness; and 
 yet the ''Tree of Knowledge of Gocd annd Evii'V 
 was also present in the Garden of llic nrdnd, since 
 man knew the good from the evil, and exercised his 
 will inichoosing the good, and in refraining from the 
 evil; so that perfect happiness existed along with 
 free will. 
 
 The Creator bestowed upon man the spirit rf activ- 
 ity, which prompts him to find enjoyment in the grat- 
 ification of his intellect and emotions, and to satisfy 
 his curiosity even in opposition to v;hat he knows to 
 be the command of the Elohim. The Ivlan was to 
 till the Garden; and this pict'jre condemmed in 
 anticipation the heresy of men like Buddha, wHo 
 regard the activity of the emotions and the will rs 
 an evil to be got rid of, instead of as a gift for which 
 to be thankful. 
 
 When man had thus become active in the per- 
 formance of works according to his own judgment 
 and desire, the painter taught that he still continued 
 in perfect happiness so long as his conduct was regu- 
 lated according to the dictates of his conscience; 
 and to describe this he made a painting representing 
 man as placed in a garden ''planted eastward" in 
 Eden. The spirit, or ego, or consciousness, or 
 whatever we may term the individual possessor cf 
 conscious existence, was pictured as a man looking 
 towards the light in a garden situated so that the 
 rising sun was shining on it; and therefore Moses^ 
 
or whoever interpreted the pictures, described it 
 ■as ^^planted eastward/^ and the condition of con- 
 sciousness was expressed in the v/crd ''Eden-/' 
 which means ^'dehghf' or ''bliss/' So long as the 
 Sun of Righteousness is shining on the Garden cf 
 the mind of man, the ''ego" placed within the mind 
 is in a state of perfect happiness. 
 
 The sense of happiness is increased by the cultiva- 
 tion of the mind; and the Creator intended men to 
 enjoy the fullest dehght that can be produced by the 
 satisfaction and highest development of 'all his facul- 
 ties. Reward is in proportion to the use made of the 
 talents; and he who tries to preserve his talent 
 treasured up will always find thai it beccmes corrupt, 
 and leads to his ruin. 
 
 The spirit, ego, or Man, depends upon the fertiUty 
 of the mind for all consciousness of happiness. How 
 could the teacher without words express this idea? 
 The life of the mind was represented as a River; for 
 its fertiUty, and even its existence as a Garden 
 depends upon the fertilising streams produced by its 
 own activity. No man finds happiness by the works 
 of others. 
 
 How could the primitive teacher give an analysis 
 of the mind? How could he refer to such abstract 
 things as memory, and intellect, and emotion, an 
 will? Artificial signs and sounds had not been 
 inventetl capable of conveying to others any notion 
 of abstract ideas. The phenomena of mind were 
 necessarily expressed in metaphors. 
 
Modern psychologists make the mistake of attem.pt- 
 ing to study the human mind \vithcut knowing the 
 Divine Mind. The great teachers of the past knew 
 that all wisdom existed first in the Creative Mind; 
 and, how marvellous it may seem to the modern 
 teachers who regard themselves as vastly improved 
 by evolution, primitive men knew mhat they meant 
 by the Elohm, and Athanasius had a perfectly 
 certain consciousness of the existence of God as the 
 Trinity of Persons. In proportion as man gains 
 kno:wledge of the Divine Mind he gains knowledge of 
 the' human mind, since man possesses the attributes 
 of his Heaven-Father. 
 
 An unlettered man can easily think of the Creator 
 as Governor, Judge, or Father, and may even have 
 an advantage over the scholar in facility of con- 
 ceiving the Ideal Man as Son of the Creator. Prim> 
 itive man, compelled to think in pictures, could see 
 in his own mind the ideas of the square, and the 
 circle and the sphere; and knew instinctively that 
 the archetypal ideas of them must have existed in 
 the Creative Mind. He saw the spiritual as the real, 
 and the material as the expression of ideas. By the 
 light of conscience the Ideal Man was seen just as 
 certainly as the idea of a square; and there could 
 be no more tendency to fancy the evolution of man 
 than the evolution of a square. 
 
 The River, which is the Ufe in the centre of the 
 mind, was painted as dividing into 'Tour Heads/' 
 ajtwi not merely iis giving of! four braiicbes. A 
 
branch of a river implies the previous existence of a 
 more complete river, which is independent of the 
 branch and superior to it; but no element of the 
 . mind can exist previous to the other elements, and 
 therefore the River was painted as rising at once in 
 Four Heads. 
 
 The First River of the mind was painted as en- 
 ling all the Land where there is ; Gold and Pre- 
 cious Stones; and those imagine that the account 
 in Genesis refers to physical rivers, forget that 
 no river would be likely to flow round any place 
 in a circle without branching, and also forget that 
 no river ever known rises in four heads to go dif- 
 ferent ways. The Gold and Precious Stones meant 
 all the knowledge that is valuable to man; and 
 the River which encircles all knowledge, and is 
 the essential support of his fertility and existence, is 
 the Memory. The simplest exercise of the intellect 
 is impossible without meory; the mother cannot 
 have the slightest love for her child without mmeory; 
 and the will cannot be exercised in performing a 
 moment^s wiork ^^dthout memory. Memory can 
 accomplish nothing of itself, and therefore the 
 painter represented it as a circle to produce fer- 
 tility, but flowing nowhere. 
 
 The Second River was also described as a circle, 
 and it enclosed the whole land of Ethiopia, or the 
 land which is always warmed by the sun, and is 
 symbolical of the emotional element of mind; for 
 love has in all ages been spoken of as a flame or 
 
as something vrarm. Hence the Second Ri\^er 
 painted is the Intellect, which is the parent of 
 emotion, and therefore shown as encircling it; and 
 which is shown as flowing in a circle, because in- 
 tellect, hke memory, can of itself produce no evidenc 
 of its existence. In order that we may know the 
 existence and the ability of an intellect, we must 
 have some display of emotion and of will. 
 
 The Third River differs from the t^vo previous 
 ones in not forming a circle, and it was painted as 
 flowing towards the East, and as bounding part of 
 Assyria. This river v/as Emotion, as revealed in 
 the active mind; and it was represented as flowing 
 towards the east, or towards the sun, in order to 
 convey the idea of warmth, and the longing for 
 fellowship with the Elohim. Since the painting 
 was that of the mind of a perfect man, or of one in 
 harmony with the Elohim, the only emotion that 
 was represented was love; for love in the perfect 
 miud is the dominant emotion. In the present day 
 the description would not apply to a very great 
 multitude, since the steady flow towards the east, 
 or the natural longing for the sympathy of the 
 Creator, has been lost, and the emotion is very apt 
 to flow away from the light and warmth of heaven. 
 
 There is no termination to the Third River, 
 since emotion is ever seeking new objects on which 
 to exercise itself, and love is intensified by exercise 
 and is always flowing into action. The symbol 
 which was used to represent that which is noble in 
 
action was aften\^ards adopted as the emblematic 
 symbol of the founder of the Assyrian empire; and 
 it was probably a llion with eagle's mngs, .for that is 
 the symbol which Daniel gives for Assyria, and his 
 language as a true prophet must have corresponded 
 with that of Hebrew hieroglyphics in order to be 
 accepted as part of the sacred writings. The Third 
 River bounded or influenced only a part of Assyria, 
 and that was the part towards the East; for action 
 is only partly under the influence of emotion in tho 
 perfect mind, and is for the greatest part under the 
 dominion of intellect. Only healthy emotion is in 
 harmony with the Elohim, or the Divine Mind. 
 
 The Fourth River did not form a circle, nor fxow 
 in any special directon, nor bound any particular 
 country, and it is simply said to be the ''Euphrates." 
 The Euphrates was the largest river ^^'ith which the 
 primitive teacher had any acquaintance, and he saw 
 in the source of fertiUty and blessing. In pro- 
 phetic language the ''drying up of the river" meant 
 the decay of strength and the diminution of resources, 
 while the continuous and abundant flow was em- 
 blematic of prosperity and power. Hence the 
 Fourth River is the Will, which cannot be con- 
 fined within any circular Umit, or by the boundary 
 of any particular collection of thoughts and desires, 
 but bursts all bounds by which it may be temporarily 
 fettered, and seeks the Qpen ocean of perfect free- 
 dom. It was the Euphrates that fertilised the 
 land, and it is only by the exercise of the will that 
 
the mind can be fertilised; for memcry cannot 
 be cultivated and improved unless by efToris of the 
 will to recall events stored up ; the intellect can never 
 be developed to perfection unless the vdll determines 
 that a steady course of study shall be followed; £nd 
 love itself becomes shrunken and diseased unless 
 exercised by the will upon suitable objects. It is 
 only by the exercise of the will in harmony with the 
 ♦Archetypal Will that the Eden of perfect happiness 
 can be acquired or retained. 
 
 The painter thus represeiited the human mind ^s 
 composed of Intellect, Emotion, and Will, with 
 Memory encircling them and forming the essential 
 condition of their fertiUty and their Uie; and to him 
 the memory bore the same relation to intellect, 
 emotion, and will, as the blood bears to the brain, 
 and nerves, and muscles. The blood is the essential 
 vitaUsing fluid, wishout which the brain cannot do 
 intellectual work, nor the nerves indicate emotions, 
 nor the muscles obey the will in producing movement; 
 the brain is the parent of the nerves, as the intelect 
 is the parent of emotion; and the action of the muscles 
 in performing work is partly governed by the brain 
 acting through the nerves, and partly by the nerves 
 acting independently of the brain, as the will is 
 partly governed by the intellect, and partly by the 
 emotion, while the exercise of the muscles is the 
 essential condition which must be obeyed in order to 
 have healthy blood, or brain, or nevers. 
 
 Primative man had not learned anatomy and 
 
physiology so as to see this revelation of the Trinity; 
 but he knew the rinity of Mind with an absolute' 
 certainty, which is independently cf confirmaticn by 
 physical science. It is only the spiritually degenerate 
 who need the Incarnatian. Patriarchs and prophets 
 saw the Christ by spiritual vision. 
 
 One of the greatest errors of reUgious teachers is 
 that which permits men to believe in the possibility 
 of passive happiness or spiritual health... It may 
 seem an indication of the highest spiritual life to 
 sing:— 
 
 *'0h to be over yonder, 
 In that bright land cf wonder, 
 Where the angel voices mingle, and die nngcl 
 
 harps do ring! 
 To be free from care and sorrow. 
 And the anxious dread to-morrow, 
 To rest in light and sunshine in the presonre 
 
 of the Kingr' 
 
 The sentiment is really unhealthy, or is evidence 
 of weakness, and is that of a person who reclines 
 languidly on a couch for fear of exhausting the 
 strength, when the true way to preserve and to 
 increase the strength is by v;orking all the muscles 
 up to their fullest capacity. Neither the intellect 
 nor the emotion can be healthy unless the v.ill is 
 regularly exercised up to its highest capacity in 
 performing works in harmonv with the Archetypal 
 Will. 
 
The symbolical pictures may have taught this 
 truth by a Blazing Star placed in contrast v.ith a 
 cold spot of dead Hght; and since the Blazing Star 
 indicated a living active mind, it was especially 
 appropriate to symboUse the Emotional Archetype — 
 the Life of the world. Moses taught that God 
 -demands action in His servants when he described 
 God as speaking out of a bush that burned without 
 being consumed. It is false and pernicious doctrine 
 to say that any man is a Christian loecause he gratifies 
 himself by going to church, and if^peating prayers, 
 and listening to sermons, aftd attefidihg sacraments. 
 Unless a man displays by his work that his will is 
 in harmony with the will of the Christ, he is not a 
 Christian. 
 
 Jehovah, the Infinite Mind, commanded Adam to 
 eat freely of every tree in the Garden, except that 
 which the inward monitions of conscience taught him 
 to regard as a source of shame and evil. Those who 
 try to discover the origin and nature of man for 
 themselves, without the guidance of the primitive 
 teacher, become the victims of every delusive gleam 
 of fight that flickers over the jungle of disordered 
 fancies, in which they seek a path of dcHverance 
 from ignorance and error. Some think it sinful to 
 be merry; some dread to appear in rich apparel; 
 some fancy they deserve special praise for living in a 
 <5ave, or for appearing extremely wretched. Some 
 even fancy the Creator will be pleased to see them 
 as silent » isolated beings, partaking of none of the 
 
pleasures of life, arid even torturing or mutilating 
 themselves. Some refuse to eat pork; others would 
 forbid the eating of any kind of flesh; some denounce 
 the use of alcohol, while others - lament the ruin 
 produced by slavery to tea. Tobacco and opium 
 have been regarded as equalin importance to the 
 Tree of Life by teachers who forget that truth and 
 love do not vary with food and drink. ''Not that 
 which entereth into the mouth defile th a man; but 
 that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth 
 the man.'' 
 
 The seer of the Apocalypse proclaimed that the 
 leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the 
 nations. The thoughts, emotions, and actions which 
 are produced by the pure mind have the attainment 
 of harmony with the Divine Mind as the central 
 object, and are sources of happiness and delight, 
 tending to banish all the wickedness arid cruelty 
 from which the nations su er. The only hope for 
 humanity is in the minds working in obedience to 
 the Elohim; for they have the consciousness of the 
 possession of the kingdom of heaven in the centre of 
 the Garden of the Soul. 
 
 The Sacred Books of the East are founded upon 
 the teachings of Adam, but, ovving to the absence of 
 central authority and responsibility, the tribes who 
 wandered to India and China permitted foolish 
 commentators and teachers to add their own fancies 
 and theories; so that an enormous mass cf confused 
 and contradictorv observations and discussions 
 
almost totally obscured the original truth. God was 
 with all who sought Him in every nation; but the 
 Levites were more faithful than the Erahmans, and 
 allowed nothing to be added to the sacred writings 
 without solemnly consulting Jehovah. The Hebrev/s 
 knew that no man could see truth except when con- 
 scious of the inspiration of Jehovah. The Braha ns 
 ceased to worship Jehovah, so that they had no 
 prophets among them, and every writer depended 
 on himself, with the inevitable result of producing 
 confusion. 
 
 The Hebrew Scriptures begin by stating that 
 L M created all things. The Sacred Books of 
 the East begin by saying, ''Let a man worship the 
 syllable A U M.^' 
 
 The importance attached to the syllable A U M 
 in the Vedas seems to be as puzzUng to translators 
 as the meaning of the syllable L M in the Bible. 
 It is plain that the two are essentially the same, 
 and signify the Divine Mind. 
 
 Monier Williams, in his Uttle work on Hindoism, 
 says that the Yoga system has for its object the 
 teaching of the means by which the human soul 
 may attain complete union with the Universal Soul; 
 and that repetition of the mystic monosyllable A U M 
 is supposed to be all-efficacious in giving knowledge 
 of the Supreme, and preventing the obstacles to 
 Yoga. He adds, 'The Yoga system appears, in fact, 
 to be a mere contrivance for getting rid of all thought, 
 
or rather for concentrating the mind with the utmost 
 intensity upon nothing in particular/' 
 
 It is never safe to assume that a man does not 
 himself knov/ what he means because we are unable 
 to understand him. We may be ignorant or stupid 
 Concentration of the thoughts upon Gcd is the 
 highest act of intelligence, and is a source of delight 
 so intense that when once experienced there is 
 nothing whatever that seems of equal importance. 
 
 Max MuUer, in his introduction to the translation 
 of the Upanishad, proves that he had pov.er to 
 sympathise with the devout Brahmans, and that he 
 knew nothing of what Goethe meant by saying that 
 it is in the Nothing we must find the All. The 
 physical symbol of the A U M may be said to be 
 the ether; and how many even among the greatest 
 teachers of science have ever abstracted thought 
 sufficiently from the material to grasp in imagination 
 any notion of that which is spoken of as the source 
 of all matter and of all force; but which can neither 
 be weighed, nor measured, nor Umited in any way? 
 It is necessary to get into the region of Nothingness 
 before we can think of the ether, the vibration of 
 which is supposed to produce in us the sensation of 
 light; and yet A U M is behind the ether, and 
 " employs it as His agent. 
 
 Max MuUer says, 'The Highest Self, which had 
 
 become to the ancient Brahmans the goal of all their 
 
 •mental efforts, was looked upon at the same time 
 
 as the starting-point of all phenomenal existence the 
 
root of the world, the onl}^ thing that could really 
 be said to be, to be real and true." The Bible 
 teaches the same of L M. 
 
 The highest aim of the Brahman of the Upanisha-d 
 was to recognise his own self as a mere limited 
 reflection of the Highest Self, and through that 
 knowledge to return to it, and regain his identity 
 with it. What is this but the teaching that man 
 was made in the Image of God? In the Psalms we 
 find it stated, ''I have said ye are gods (elohim), and 
 ye are all the children of the Most Highest." God' 
 the L M, is in the congregation of the 1 o m, and 
 is the Judge of the 1 o m. The Ideal Mind is wor- 
 shipped by the imperfect human mind. The finite 
 mind worships the Infinite Mind. 
 
 A U M is to the Brahmans the essence of every- 
 thing, the living principle of everything. Paul says 
 that in God, the L M of the Hebrews, we Uve and 
 move and have our being. By the Brahm.an, he 
 who meditates on A U M is said to meditate on the 
 spirit of man as identical with the Infinite Spirit. 
 All sacrifice and ceremonies are of no avail in the 
 end, and knowledge of A U M can alone produce 
 true salvation or true immortality. This is the 
 teaching of the Vedas, and is very different from 
 what is generally supposed to be Hindoo dependence 
 on priests and ceremonies. It is the teaching of 
 Adam which is repeated by Moses and Christ. Only 
 the Vedas speak of God as A U M, and the Hebrews 
 as L M; the difference being due to tk£ accident 
 
of t!he neglect of a teacher to make the closure of a 
 vowel sound with sufficient distinctness to form the L. 
 Christ warned his disciples to let no man nor cere- 
 mony come between the individual and Jehovah, 
 and to call no man a spiritual father ; though ^^ e 
 owe the deepest gratitude to teachers who help us to 
 know God. 
 
 There is no possible way by which God coukl have 
 revealed himself to Adam alone as Jehovah, the 
 Loving Saviour. The normal man is devoid of fear 
 under ordinary circumstances. If God had brought 
 terrible crushing calamities upon him in order to 
 evoke gratitude, the man would have shrunk from 
 his Creator as from a capricious tyrant. Eve ?lone^ 
 could reveal the Creator as Jehovah. When the man 
 stood in blank despair, unable to give any help in 
 her extremity to the woman on whom all his earthly 
 hopes and affections were centred, her agonised cry 
 went up to Heaven; but she did not utter the Mystic 
 Syllable revealed by the calm inquiring spirit of 
 Adam. Her cry was Ye-O-A; and women, in their 
 hour of dire uncertainty and fearful hope; still utter 
 the same cry to God when free from the unnatural 
 restraint imposed by conventional hypocrites and 
 artificial surroundings. 
 
 The cry ye-o-a was followed by the birth of a son; 
 and in their grateful adoration of the Author of 
 all life the joyful parents cherished as sacred the 
 cry which had brought them comfort and blessing. 
 L M was regarded as Jehovah, the Perec na] 
 
Saviour and Comforter. Every true man feels hy 
 instinct that the cry of a woman in travail is some- 
 thing to be kept sacred from vulgar comment; and 
 the ancient Hebrews v/hen reading the Scriptures 
 always refrained from attempting to utter the word 
 Jehovah. It is profanity to attempt to limit by 
 conventional pronunciation the cry of a suffering 
 soul to God; yet modern teachers discuss whether 
 Javeh is not the proper spelUng! 
 
 Man will most readily worship the Elohim as 
 Power, Intellect, Wisdom, Justice; but feels his 
 pride mortified when he has to confess his need by 
 worshipping Jehovah, the Merciful. The appeal for 
 mercy and help seems to be wrung from him against 
 his will. Woman seems to feel that it is her especial 
 prerogative to be the revealer of Jehovah, and the 
 worship which seems so difficult and distasteful to a 
 strong man satisfied with himself is easy and delight- 
 ful to the noblest woman. When a woman does not 
 worship God as the Personal Saviour, she is certain 
 to be a curse instead of a blessing to any m.an who 
 trusts to her for assistance and comfort in his distress. 
 
 The first step towards the formation of the alphabet 
 would never have been taken, and there could never 
 have been any knowledge of theology, or law, or 
 religion, or science, or art, if the first man and woman 
 had not been created perfect, so that they might be 
 able to reveal the true foundations upon which their 
 fallen descendants could with safety build. Until 
 he knows himself as the child of God man not only 
 
remains oh the level of the brutes, but has a per- 
 versity of disposition which leads to degradation and 
 internecine warfare, so that his extinction is inevit- 
 able. The brute creation is preserved by the instinct 
 which guards the purity of the females, whereas the 
 human female becomes the destroyer of the race. 
 Eve must either be the revealer of Jehovah or the 
 serpent poisoning the springs of life. 
 
 The animal can never know its self, since it has 
 no spirit. Mali must know his self or dit. Know- 
 ledge of himself can only be in proportion to know- 
 ledge of his Creator; and the Creator can only 
 be revealed in a Perfect Man. Each degraded man 
 has his own degraded conceptions, and no agreement 
 as to what is best is possible; but each has sufficient 
 of the original insight to enable him to recognise the 
 Ideal when revealed by Adam. Each must neces- 
 sarily see the Ideal in an imperfect manner, according 
 to his own peculiar defects and his limited field of 
 vision; yet all who are willing to learn from the Bible 
 can be shown sufficient of the revealed Perfect Form 
 to guide them in harmonious work for the restoration 
 of Eden. 
 
 ''Holy Bible, book Divine, 
 Precious treasure, thou art mine: 
 Mine, to teach me whence I came; 
 Mine, to tell me what I am.'' 
 
^» 
 
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