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20 their uses; one by one he must bunglingly practice with them; gradually become more skillful in their exercise; and finally be able with perfect knowledge and skill, to chisel, hammer, saw and plane, and thus to turn out at last, in great variety, beautiful works of mechanical handicraft. The regenerating person must first learn truths of a spiritual nature and their varieties; he must then come into a comprehension of them and of their superior nature and beauty; he must then make his first bungling efforts at a spiritual life; and, gradually growing in an understanding and love of spiritual things, he will at last become an intelligent and affectionate citizen of the kingdom, living in its spirit, and performing its uses in the approval of the Lord. It is by slow degrees of advance only that we come into the perfect knowledge and practice of any thing; and the knowledge and practice of a spiritual life, or regeneration, is no exception to the rule.

But it is said, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The earth is a Scripture symbol, often predicated of man as a spiritual being, or what is the same, the mind of man; for the mind is the real man. Thus when the Psalmist cries out, "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice," he certainly refers, not to the planet on which we stand, but to the people who live thereon. Or when Isaiah exclaims, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,