Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/48

44 and dark, we caught not a glimpse of, and in its first stage, when we were rejoicing in our early dawnings of light, we did not lift our eyes to.

But now there comes, as it were, another silent voice of God, saying, "Let there be a firmament." And God made the firmament and called it heaven. In other words, Let the regenerating man now see that he has a heavenly region or faculty of mind; let him perceive that he can withdraw himself from earth and earthly things and dwell in those above; let him realize that he is of a double nature and is possessed of a double mind, one degree of which is for the performance of his allotted part on earth, the other for his preparation for heaven; one by means of which he earns his daily bread, the other, within whose quiet realms he communes with God; one which renders him a natural man for the world's natural work, the other which renders him a spiritual man, and an heir of an eternal kingdom, whose wisdom, love and happiness as far exceed the earthly as light exceeds darkness, as heaven exceeds earth.

When, in the parable, we read the expression, "And God said," we must not imagine that an audible Divine voice resounded through space, bearing those words through its vast immensity. We must avoid all literal ideas as we would successfully grasp the spiritual purport. The voice of