human form. And when in more ancient times He filled the body of an angel with his own Divine life, and thus became manifest to the spiritual senses of his chosen seers as "the angel of Jehovah," his form was always the human.
And it is a Divinely-revealed truth that man was created in the image and likeness of God. His form, therefore, is one capable of recetving and expressing, in a finite degree, something of that truly human life which flows from the Divine Humanity. This life when received, becomes in man the life of love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor. And this is the essential life of heaven. Other creatures below man may receive and enjoy lower degrees of life; but he alone can receive and enjoy this higher or heavenly life, because he alone is in the human form. And the more we receive of this life, the more truly human we become in our thoughts, feelings, dispositions and purposes; and the more faithfully do we express through our human form—by our looks, words and actions—the love and wisdom which are the essential constituents of true humanity. For the most beautiful and perfect human form is that which best expresses the purest and most exalted human love.
And as it is with a single individual, so with a society or community—with men in the aggregate. The more of true human life each member of a community receives, or the more each one suffers himself to be governed by the highest good and truth, the more orderly, industrious, united, healthy and happy is that community. The more truly human does it become in its form, organization and activities. It appoints its wisest men to preside over its
