Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/75

 only possible conclusion consistent with reason. It is the unvarying record of history that every distinctly new dispensation of superior truth and life proceeded from prophet or seer, or from some form of revelation, which corroborates the conclusions of reason and the declaration of the Word, that knowledge superior to nature must in the first instance be revealed. So strongly had the practical truth of this fact impressed itself upon the minds of all people, that when the channels of true revelation became closed through profaning it, and the consequent falling away from Divine order ensued, even in most heathen times revelation was sought through the consultation of oracle and as coming from God or from the spiritual world.

That instruction by means of dreams and visions was once common, and reliable because from the Lord, and that the Lord talked with people "face to face," is evident from the Word. The primeval condition and states of man made it possible for all to be instructed by the influx of life and truth directly from the Creator, and, afterwards, when the heavens were formed, through the angels, whereby the mind of each was opened to receive true love, and to perceive its character and the law of its operation. Such revelation would necessarily carry with it the