Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/77

Rh made his first floundering exertions. Milton would never have penned his immortal poem if he had not made his first poor attempt at writing verse. And the fact that he might have deemed his first efforts at versification very exquisite when they were quite the contrary, does not in the least detract from their value as beginnings. The Lord never despises beginnings. But He puts them at their true worth, and values them only as beginnings.

Therefore, in this account of creation as a parable of regeneration, what the mind brings forth is still expressed under the similitude of what the earth brings forth. This third stage of regeneration is described by the springing forth of vegetation, first, in its lower forms of grass, then in the higher forms of the herb yielding seed, and at last in the highest form of the fruit tree yielding fruit. Thus you will observe that on the third day of creation the earth brings forth something that has life. The lesson of the similitude is that in the third stage of regeneration the mind develops somewhat of spiritual life. Let us see this in the proper order of the words of the parable.

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth." The earth is the mind. The grass or low growth of vegetation which it brings forth