Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/129

Rh parable of the regeneration of the human mind. The five days were found to represent five advancing stages of spiritual progress, through which each individual must pass who seeks to gain the higher life. In other words, the states and experiences through which the regenerating man must pass are typified by the days of creation. He begins in a state of darkness with reference to spiritual things. The first advance which is made by his mind is into some light of truth, especially as to the higher value of a knowledge of God and eternal life. The second is to gain some ability to comprehend spiritual ideas. The third is to commence a reformation of the outward life under their influence. The fourth is to acquire that faith in the Lord, and that love for Him which is necessary to a truly spiritual walk with God. The fifth is to lead a true and noble life under a strong rational consciousness—an inward absolute intellectual conviction, of the glory and beauty of this higher faith and love.

These steps are each, in their turn, pronounced by the Lord to be good. And they are. But what is good in its degree is not always the perfection of its kind. A seed hid away in the damp, dark earth is good. The first shoot it sends upward into the realm of light is good. The noble trunk, its pillar of strength, is good. The spreading branches reaching far and wide around are good. So is its leafage.