Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/168

164 Sabbath for the purposes for which it was given will lose the spiritual benefits for which it was designed. Immersed, day in and day out, with no spiritual rest of mind, in business, in pleasure, in dissipation, in the thousand worldly things which draw our thoughts away from heaven, they will lose their way in the path of regeneration, and thus fail to reach the goal for which each and all were born.

But we approach the end of our task. That task has been to unfold the true meaning of this first chapter of Genesis. What have we found to be its value? Was it especially given to teach that God made the earth and the starry heavens? That is written all over the face of the holy Scriptures. It is inscribed in living light every where upon the face of the universe. Nay, its specific use is to teach us a lesson of lessons. It is one which the world heeds not, but from which he who will heed shall obtain blessings beyond the power of language to express.

The lesson is this: that man, in the order of his creation, is ushered upon the plane of earth in mental darkness and great voidness of soul. It is the design of the Lord that he shall be elevated from this condition, and that he shall be recreated into the Divine image and likeness. He has a part in this himself. The Lord gives the truth, but he must rationally receive it. The Lord presents the