Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/99

 it is discovered that this relation between the natural and the spiritual, is a universal one; that the natural world is infact an external expression of an internal and spiritual world. We need not therefore regret the necessity for describing spiritual things in language, which primarily denotes natural things. This is the way in which divine truth is revealed to us; and it is the only way in which we can at present learn any thing in regard to spiritual things. It is an old and settled rule of logic, that in order to learn any thing, we must advance from the known to the unknown. Some relation or connection must be seen, between the ideas which have been already received, and those which are presented. The application of this rule to the subject before us, is very plain. Our first ideas, as already remarked, refer to those things which are perceived through the medium of the natural senses. In order, therefore, that any thing may be learned in regard to spiritual things, a correspondence must be perceived between those things and the natural things with which the mind has already become conversant. If such a correspondence is not in some measure perceived, the mind remains in a merely natural and sensual state, and has no correct ideas in regard to spiritual things. It may hold in the memory, certain forms of doctrines which in some sense recognise the existence of spiritual realities, but those words are very little more than empty sounds, to which no definite ideas are attached.

No apology can be necessary therefore, for endeavoring to convey some idea of the nature of the spiritual world, by showing a correspondence between that world and the one in which we now live; let us then turn our attention, for a moment, to this natural world. What is this earth? From whence has it derived its existence? Whence come those organized and living forms with which it is covered? At first we behold an immense globe of matter, organized and held together in accordance with certain laws. But a second look shows us that there is something here besides cold