Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/53

correspondence between natural and spiritual things, a correspondence which enables us to interpret the word of the Lord in a manner which is at once simple, rational, and beautiful, and which can scarcely fail to be recognized, as perfectly in accordance with the natural and intuitive perceptions of the mind. We regard all external and visible things as unalterable expressions of those interior and spiritual things, to which they correspond and on which they depend. Those spiritual things are revealed in the word of the Lord, which is filled with divine goodness and truth, and with the living realities of the spiritual world. We would not therefore go to the word of the Lord, for the purpose of learning natural or scientific truths. The Lord has revealed these to us through another medium. He has written them upon the external, and visible things of nature. But as all things in this natural world correspond to, depend upon and represent the more substantial realities of the spiritual world, it is very reasonable to expect that the word of the Lord would come to us, as it does, clothed in language taken from natural and external things. The divine word is thus given in language which will last as long as the sun and moon endure; as long as the everlasting hills shall stand. The sun, moon, and stars; earth skies, and waters; men, animals, and plants; rivers, fields, and mountains,—all these things and many more are brought into requisition to give an external, ultimate, and literal expression to the word of the Lord, to give the divine word a distinct and permanent form in the natural world, and thus to prepare it to be a medium of instruction to men in all spiritual states, and in all ages of the world. This principle of correspondence between natural and spiritual things cannot be more easily illustrated than by showing its application to the doctrine in question. It will readily be seen that with the most perfect ease, and in the plainest and most satisfactory manner, it removes the apparent discrepancy between the teachings of the word and the deductions of rational and scientific truth.