Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/66

62, majesty? What realization has he of the marvelous ways of God in the creation and preservation of all things, of his wondrous influence as a potential presence in the soul? And what can he really grasp concerning these things until his mind is developed into such a faculty of spiritual thought as enables him to realize something of the nature of God? Until then God is little more to him than a name. The child's first theological lesson is a knoivledge of God, but the spiritual minded adult's matured idea is a comprehension of the truth. But knowledge usually precedes understanding, and is, therefore, good so far as it goes. Knowledge of spiritual things, however, is only of the natural mind. Realization of them is of the spiritual mind. Knowledge is only of the memory; understanding is a far higher faculty.

The waters under the heaven, then, symbolize the knowledge concerning God, heaven and eternal life, concerning goodness and love and the sacredness of spiritual things which we gain as knowledge merely. All the information concerning these things we gain in childhood is of this character. They are not realizations, they are not really things comprehended. They are believed only because our parents or teachers tell us so. And the same holds good with all truth of a religious character that we