Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/71

Rh shall be so filled for the soul's future use. If the man is himself opposed to the study of spiritual things, he is providentially led amid such circumstances and surroundings, as, unconsciously to himself, secure in some degree, the desired end.

It is said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." Here the natural thought at once reverts to the idea of a separation effected between the oceans and continents of earth. It is as though, whereas, all before was one vast sheet of circling water, the Lord now said, "Let the dry land arise above the waves." But the spiritual thought goes forth on different lines. A dry tree would be a dead tree. A perfectly dry physical human body would be a lifeless mummy. In the language of sacred symbolism that is called dry which is devoid of spiritual life. As earth or land signifies the mind, the dry land is the mind without spiritual life. When, therefore, in this parable of the creation, that is, of man's regeneration, the Lord exclaims, "Let the dry land appear," it is as though He had said, "Let now the regenerating man see how dry—how spiritually dead and lifeless is the land of his mind. Let its dryness appear to him."

There is no dryer task in life than that of pouring the waters of mere knowledge, of mere