Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/42

38 the little one in the dark as to spiritual knowledge, but as to all knowledge. Each man, woman or child is in the deepest darkness as to spiritual things, until they begin to comprehend them. The earth, therefore, being a symbol of the mind of man, its being without form and void, and the darkness that rested on the deep, are expressions which fitly represent the void and formless state of the human mind and its intensely dark condition, before the regeneration of the man begins.

Actual regeneration commences when the mind becomes enlightened as to the superiority of spiritual things over natural. Until this takes place we grope in utter darkness. The Lord has in constant view all the affairs of each and all of us, from the first moment of conception and birth on. While leaving us in freedom, so that we seem to be working along of ourselves and in our own way, He is supervising and overruling in the very least affairs of life. He desires that we shall be regenerated in freedom. No one can be forced to become spiritual. It is not in the nature of things that such should be the case. We were not born so to come into spiritual life. That only is part of our nature which we do voluntarily. An angel is an angel, because, of his own choice, he prefers the good. A devil is a devil, because, of his own choice, he prefers the evil. A man may be forced not to do