Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/141

Rh qualification to become a disciple of the. The genuine sense therefore teaches further, that man can never become a disciple of ,—in other words, can never be taught of Him, until he forsakes all his spiritual property, by acknowledging it, in humility and gratitude, to be really and truly the property of the. To distinguish then between these two senses, so as to elevate the spiritual sense into the understanding and will, and to discard the literal sense, is the proper office of spiritual absorption and secretion, so far as it regards the reception and incorporation of the into the mind and life of man. Secretion too, in a more extended sense of the term, may apply to all those natural affections and thoughts which, being grounded in self-love and the love of the world, have a tendency, if unremoved, to obstruct the elevation of the principles of the Divine love and wisdom to their due ascendancy and rule in the human will and understanding.

You see then, my good Friend, of what vast importance it is, that the operation of mental digestion, especially when applied to the precepts of the, be well attended to; since otherwise it is as absolutely impossible, that those