Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/57

Rh of God as lifeless forms of expression and the same truths as the sweet refreshment of the inner life, then a division has been made for us between the waters which are under the firmament and those which are above the firmament, and the second stage of regeneration becomes for us a pronounced reality.

It is from evening to morning again; from a state of comparative spiritual twilight to one of new dawning brightness. Always from evening to morning! How much more lovely than to have it from morning to evening! In that case our movement would be from light into obscurity. But the regenerative progress is always from comparative obscurity into comparative light. So the Lord has given us the light which revealed to us the superiority of spiritual things. That was our first step. Now He has opened to our consciousness and our enjoyment the internal or spiritual mind—that degree or faculty which can grasp and enjoy spiritual ideas. And he has also rendered clear to us the distinction between natural views of things and spiritual; that is, between life and truth as the natural mind views them and the same as seen by the spiritual mind. This is the second step. Here, in the firmament above, in the spiritual man, is where we build our heaven. Earth in itself, earthly thought and earthly love, is no heaven. God does not call it so. But when the