Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/146

142 their unregenerate phases, ruled him. Now, he is to rule them.

To carry the idea a step higher; in the fully regenerated state, the whole nature is under the dominion of the Lord, who is, par excellence, THE MAN! It may also be said that the whole mind, with whatever is within it, is under the dominion of the regenerate nature, in which the Lord resides and of which He has gained control. The individual, however, is still left in perfect freedom, notwithstanding this control of the Lord. But it is a freedom in which the soul has, voluntarily and forever, chosen the Lord as his law, his love, his guide to all things good.

The concluding words of the chapter refer to the food which the Lord has provided for man and beast. The symbolism never halts or fails. The herb and the tree are symbols of the Lord's truth. This is the food of the spiritual nature. "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Truth feeds the mind of the spiritual man. The herb yielding seed is the truth that yields abundant harvests of use and good. The tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed is the same in a higher sense. But to every beast and fowl and creeping thing, every green herb was given for meat. All the affections and thoughts, and even the lower phases of duty which lie near our earthly work, are fed also by the Lord. The