Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/138

134 That beasts are symbols of the human affections is not only a fact easily deduced from Scripture, but it is a remnant of the ancient method of speaking which remains to this day. This is true both in an evil sense and a good sense. The bears and the wolves and the foxes of the world are the rude, the cruel, and the cunning. The swine of the world are those whose affections are set on sensual things. But the lion is the type of courage, the ox of meekness, the sheep of innocence. So the pure and gentle followers of the Lord are called in the Scripture the sheep of his pasture. He who is thirsting for the higher truth, not yet attained, is likened to the hart panting after the water brooks. And every animal is used by name in reference to its peculiar spiritual symbolism. So when the Psalm says, "Praise ye the Lord, ye beasts and all cattle," it is not that the dumb brutes are literally called upon to offer praises to their Creator, but that the affections of the heart, of which the beasts and the cattle are the symbols, are to go up in praise to Him. Thus also here, in the words of the Creation-parable, by the creation of the beasts of the earth is symbolized the bringing forth the most exalted spiritual affections of the mind.

But the culmination of all this is in the creation of man. To this end, from the beginning, every