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 man bears to the inexperienced and innocent being he was when a child. The man is the same identical individual, but how changed from the little child! He has passed through deep waters and miry places; has had dark days and encountered fearful storms; has had many a battle with the hosts of hell, and exhibited at times, it may be, the loathsomeness of the abyss. But his rough voyage has taught him many things; and, in lieu of the ignorance and innocence of childhood, he now has attained to manly intelligence and the innocence of wisdom.

The Christian Church, from the time of its establishment, has passed through similar or corresponding states. During the first few centuries of our era it was in its childhood. Since that time its states, we are told, "have been as those of a man who grows in intelligence and wisdom." The primitive Church, therefore, was the New Jerusalem in its childhood. In its simple and innocent state it had some clear perception of spiritual things; and accordingly it is said that "some of the interior things of the Word, of the Church, and of worship were revealed by the Lord when He was in the world." And now, to the New Jerusalem—the self-same Church, observe, but arrived at a more mature state, and able, therefore, to receive higher wisdom—"truths still more interior are revealed," and in much larger measure.