peace on earth and good will toward men? It most surely will. That glorious shout of the angels, at the birth of our Lord, was not made in vain. "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." (Luke ii. 10.) The Lord, at His second coming, as the light and life of the Word, seen by the law of analogy, will surely bring it to pass. The seals are already broken, and the Holy Spirit is going forth. The pure Truth, or the Lord as the spiritual sense of the Word, is coming in the clouds of heaven, or letter of the Word, into the human mind, with power and great glory; and every eye shall see Him. Yes, the glorious Bridegroom Himself is coming. Go ye out to meet Him; go dressed in the wedding garments of the New Jerusalem: go adorned with the precious stones of the Holy City; with the pearls and rubies of the blessed Word. Yes, let us arise, and go hence, that we may walk the golden streets of the New Jerusalem together, in peace and love. And let us thus hasten on the glorious day when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; and when all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. God, by the light of His Holy Word, is offering to us this blessed privilege. Is it worth the reception? Are heavenly light and life, and peace and joy-are a happy world and a heaven below, and an eternal heaven above worth the attention of men? Then, I beseech you, let us accept the boon of Jesus' Spirit, and work in His vineyard while the day lasts, that when the final morning of the resurrection comes

and we cast off the clay, we may feel in our hearts the warmth and brightness of the rising sun, and hear the plaudit of "Well done, good and faithful servant, . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (Matt. xxv. 21.)

CHAPTER IV.

THE LAW OF LIFE BETWEEN GOD MAN AND NATURE.

"When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, the sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back; the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs." (Ps. cxiv. 1, 3, 4.)

OUR subject for this evening is, The Divine Law of Life between God, Man and Nature. This law of life is the great law of Analogy. It is the divine rule of action between the Creator and the created. It is the way God gives life to all created things. Life in God is the Divine Love and Wisdom. The Divine Love or Goodness is the essence, and the Divine Wisdom or Truth is the form or manifestation of that Life to man. By the efflux of this Love and Wisdom God created and constantly sustains the universe. But in order for the affectionate reception of this Love there had to be human Will, and for the rational reception of this Wisdom there had to be human understanding.

But this Love and Wisdom could never have been affectionately and rationally received into the human will and understanding without language to teach or express the nature, character and qualities of this di

vine Life. The only language, in which it could be given, is the language of correspondences, for that is the speech of God; and it presents something of that Love and Wisdom in every word it utters. A people who should rationally and affectionately receive that language would know and love God, and possess His image and likeness. A people without any knowledge of it would have no true spiritual idea of God whatever; their thought would be only natural.

That language was once universally understood on the earth, and the world was in true order. And just in the degree that it was lost men lost true ideas of God's nature and character, misunderstood the true doctrines of the Holy Word and divided into various sects, with divers creeds and ceremonies. And when that language is rationally and affectionately received again, by the human family on earth, the world of mankind will be spiritually alive-in the true knowledge and love of God; for it is the eternal Law of Life between God, man and nature. God clearly speaks it in both His Word and His works; and, between the two, the language is definitely explained and rationally taught.

We will therefore now appeal to the Word Itself, in Its analogical connection with nature, in further verification of this law. Now the words earth and heavens are often used in the Word in such a way as to give no rational instruction, in the literal sense alone, but rather to involve the subject in obscurity, until the true law of life is seen; as where it speaks of the heaven and the earth passing away, and of God's

creating a new heaven and a new earth; of the heavens being rolled together as a scroll; of the stars falling from heaven as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind; or where it says, "The earth mourneth and fadeth away; . . . the earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved." (Is. xxiv. 4, 19.) "The earth opened her mouth." (Rev. x. 16.) "The LORD hath forsaken the earth." (Ezekiel ix. 9.) These are strange sayings. But as soon as it is clearly seen that the earth corresponds to man or to the human mind, there may be readily seen something of the beauty and propriety of all such expressions; for if we see that, in the most essential meaning, it is the human mind that is everywhere treated of in the Word, and that it is because the visible world corresponds to that mind, that it is so often mentioned, a most rational light will ever beam from the sacred page where the teaching is otherwise lost in obscurity. Thus we can see that, as the earth is warmed and illuminated by the heat and light of the sun so as to give germination and growth to every living thing upon it, so do spiritual heat and light, which are the love and wisdom of the Lord flowing from Him as the Sun of Righteousness, give germination and growth to every spiritual principle--every good thought and feeling which spring up in the mental earth or soil of the mind. And the cultivation and growth of natural things perfectly corresponds to the cultivation and growth of mental things. It is for this reason that there is so much said, in the Word, about breaking up the fallow ground, and sowing, planting, watering,