the man of God said. Where fell it? and he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it." (ver. 5-7.) To an unreflecting reader of the Word of God, nothing very interesting or religious would appear in this account, other than that the prophet, to recover the head of the axe which had sunk in the water, performed a miracle in causing the iron to swim to the stick which the prophet threw in where the iron fell. The mind might be lost in wonder at the iron swimming to the stick, so as to be again recovered; but little relative to man's preparation for the vast change that awaits him at bodily death would be seen. It is, however, clear, that holy Scripture, to be the Word of God, must treat of heavenly subjects, given expressly to guide us all to the home of the blessed. In this sense, to build a house to dwell in, is to form the church in the inmost of the mind, where the soul might be blessed with the Lord's presence, and in which man might dwell as in his happy home. All things in nature are named in Scripture, as types and corresponding emblems of those two universal realities of good and truth; that by their everlasting union and combined power, the church and kingdom of the Lord in the soul of man might be formed. Iron, as a metal strong and powerful, has reference to truth; and wood, being a product of a higher kingdom than the mineral, is an emblem of that good in the human will which imparts a virtue and power to truth, just as the iron head of the axe is made powerful by its union with the wood or helve. Thus truth united with
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