publicans and harlots attain to the Kingdom of God before these exploiters (Matt. 21:31).

The wily, the conceited, the subtle very often assume to be instructors in religion; they assume to know something of spiritual things. They who love the world; they who live the carnal life do not understand the word of God. The conceited and worldly wise have sought to devise ways and means whereby man may pass to the promised land by other ways than by the way of the Red Sea and Sinai. All who teach that there are other ways to the promised land, than by the way of the wilderness, are the teachers of heresies. Man must go to the promised land by the way of the desert; he must suffer; he must sacrifice his animals; he must overcome his animal nature, if he would be born into that kingdom which transcends the animal kingdom of the world. "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). Salvation is of them who have passed by the way of the wilderness; salvation is of them who live above the spirit of the sensuous animal world.

The children of Seth are they who have passed by the way of the desert; they are those who have "dwelt in booths for seven days" (Lev. 23:42); they are those who have cast out the bondwoman and her son; they are the children of the divine Sarah, the free woman. They who attain to the Kingdom of God, the kingdom that transcends the animal kingdom of the world, are those who have abandoned the spirit of the world, represented by the bondwoman and her son. Sarah, the Hebrew Minerva, is imperative; she proclaims the Law of Human Life, the Law of Evolution: "Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac" (Gen. 21:10). "Blessed are the poor in Spirit; for

they are the heirs of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). Blessed are they who are depleted of the spirit of the world, blessed are they that have abandoned Egypt, and passed by the way of the wilderness to the promised land; for they are the inheritors of the Kingdom of God. They that are dead to the carnal world are alive to God; they are the children of Seth that "call upon the name of the Lord."

III

THE BOOK OF THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM: THE BOOK OF REAL MEN

The fifth chapter of Genesis is a remarkable book; it is a record of "the generations of Adam." The fourth chapter of Genesis appears to be an allegorical description of the generations of the natural man; while the fifth chapter is a description of the generations of the spiritual man, as distinguished from the natural. The growth and development of the soul of man is a slow and orderly process; first in time is the development of the powers of the natural man, and lastly the powers of the Spiritual man. The unfoldment of the soul, as Paul has said, is "from character to character." "The inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16). Charles Darwin also said, that evolution proceeds by "numerous, successive, and slight modifications." The Scriptures describe and explain the nature of the human soul, and the mode and manner of its orderly evolution; and since this process is subjective and psychological, it is necessarily described and explained in symbols and allegories.

It is written that God created Man, mental beings, in His Own likeness, male and female, "and blessed

them, and called their name Adam" (Gen. 5:2). Since Adam, like Man, means mentality, or reason, it would seem that human kind was given a name suggestive of dominion. "Thou hast made Man to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet" (Ps. 8:6). It is reason that distinguishes the human from the animal creation; it is reason that renders one capable of acquiring knowledge, and the cultivation of the virtues, and the development of the social and the human. It is reason that leads the way to human felicity here and hereafter. Reason is spiritual; and in its purity is, we believe, the likeness and image of God Himself. "It is impossible," said Pascal, "that the principle which reasons within us should be other than spiritual." Knowledge comes as the result of thought; thinking is evidently a spiritual process. The Scriptures were written to teach, and do teach the deep truths of human nature. Knowledge of self is primary, and of things secondary. It is the will of Heaven that man should live superior to the things of the sensuous world, that he "put all things under his feet."

I affirm [said William Ellery Channing] that there is, and can be, no greater work on earth than to purify the soul from evil, and kindle in it new light, life, energy, and love. I maintain that the true measure of the glory of religion is to be found in the spirit and power which it communicates to its disciples. This is one of the plain teachings of reason. The chief blessing to an intelligent being, that which makes all other blessings poor, is the improvement of his own mind. Man is glorious and happy, not by what he has, but by what he is. He can receive nothing better or nobler than the unfolding of his own spiritual nature. The highest existence in the universe is Mind: for

God is Mind; and the development of that principle which assimilates us to God must be our supreme good.

"God is One Mind" (Job 23:13). The Scriptures teach that mentality is One and indivisible. Birds are a symbol of mentality. "Abraham divided not the birds" (Gen. 15: 10). "I and my Father are One."

"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth." It would seem that Adam here represents the spiritual man, as distinguished from the natural. "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45-48). The first Adam, the natural man, is worldly and sensuous; the last Adam is a spiritual being. The chapter under consideration, the fifth of Genesis, evidently deals with the "last Adam," the spiritual Adam, "the son of God" (Luke 3: 38). While all of the quickened, while all of the resurrected, are the sons of God, this chapter teaches that there are degrees of the spiritual man; for it is said of Enoch, who represents the seventh generation, or the perfected man, that he walked with God. "And Enoch walked with God; and was not; for God took him" (Gen. 5: 24). The natural man is the first-born in time; but the spiritual man is the first-born of God. "Israel is my son, even my first born" (Ex. 4:22). The Scriptures teach that there are varying degrees of greatness among the elect; for we read of those who are "anointed with the oil of gladness [who are receptive of the Holy Spirit], above their fellows" (Ps. 45:7; Heb. 1:9). It is the Holy Spirit that communicates real joy and gladness and peace to the soul of man (Gal. 5: 22; 1 Thess. 1:6). "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts

by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. 5:5). “Wisdom in all ages entering into holy souls hath made them friends of God and prophets" (Wisd. of Sol. 7:27).

Adam, the spiritual man, is here represented as begetting a son "in his own likeness, after his image," when an hundred and thirty years old. The evolution of the human soul is subjective and psychological; this process is ordinarily described and explained in ancient literature in symbols, and allegories, and parables. The Scriptures state principles; principles are forever true without reference to time or place; the principal office of history is to deal with events in time. Principles being eternal in their nature, have no anniversary; for they exist above time. "The roses under my window," said Emerson, "make no reference to former roses or better ones; they exist with God to-day. Man cannot be happy and strong until he, too, lives with nature, in the present above time." He lives "above time" whose life is conformed to religious principles; he who lives for eternity is not confounded or overwhelmed by passing events, by events in time. The story of the spiritual race, the generations descending from Adam "the son of God" (Luke 3:38), recorded in the fifth chapter of Genesis, appears to be an allegorical description of the possibilities of regenerate man. Man as we know him to-day is evidently in the infancy of his development.

Emerson in his essay on Politics, said: "We think our civilization near its meridian, but we are yet only at the cock-crowing and the morning star. In our barbarous society the influence of character is in its infancy." In his essay on Character, he speaks in like

terms: