This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

effects from their causes. Hence would originate noxious, poisonous, and destructive existences, in all the three kingdoms of nature.

Now, that this is not a mere fancy, a pleasant conceit,—but that it has its foundation in truth, and is based on the connection that exists between the inner and outer, the spiritual and physical, worlds,—may be clearly shown from the Book of Divine Revelation. Throughout the inspired volume, physical existences, as is well known, are constantly employed as types or symbols of moral existences, of thoughts and qualities both good and bad, in the mind of man. Thus the lamb is the emblem of innocence, while the wolf is the the emblem of cruelty, and the fox of cunning; "Go tell that fox[1]," said our Lord, speaking of Herod,—describing him, thus, by the animal which represented his distinguishing quality. So the dove is the emblem of faith or truth; hence, at our Saviour's baptism, a dove was seen, as representative of the Holy Spirit, or Divine Truth with its regenerating power. On the other hand, birds of night, such as owls and bats, are named in Scripture, as typical of a state of mental darkness, a state of falsity derived from evil. "There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay and hatch and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate."t[2] Here the desolate state of the Church is described, when truth has perished. So useless and poisonous insects and venomous serpents are distinctly spoken of as typical of man's evils of heart, thus: "None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and

  1. Luke xiii. 32.
  2. Isaiah xxxiv.15.