Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/63

Rh of somewhat of light. The first dawn of light would consist, perhaps, only of an acknowledgment of the Lord and of the superior nature of spiritual things as compared with those which are merely natural. As without light earth could not have progressed into a condition where vegetation were possible, so without an acknowledgment of the Lord and of the superiority of heavenly things to worldly—without some light upon spiritual subjects, there can be no growth of the higher mind, no developments into nobler life, no flowers of the soul, no fruits of a religious spirit.

And as the great feature of the second day of creation was the development of the firmament of heaven, and the division of the waters which were under the firmament from those which were above; so the essential feature of the second state of the progress of the regenerating person is the opening of the firmament of the mind—its higher realm—its spiritual degree or faculty, whereby it is able to know, think and converse intelligently about spiritual things. The firmament of the narrative was called heaven; the mind's firmament is the region where heavenly thoughts prevail. Waters we found to be symbols of truths. The Divine truth presents itself in the beginning of this narrative in two symbolic aspects—as light and as water. Light symbolizes truth as illuminating the mind; water