take some of these folk-lore stories too
literally, we of this "practical" age, do not take them literally
enough.

We have imagined that sex, and the sex function, began and ended in
the physical. This view is excusable in the case of the materialist,
if there really be such a person but it is obviously a stupid view for
the theologian, who regards this life as the door to spiritual life.
Since sex is the cause and the result of what we know of creation;
since it is the foundation of all the qualities that we know as
spiritual laws; friendship; unselfishness; fidelity; paternal
solicitude--it is absolutely certain that the most beautiful things we
know here must have a correspondence in the life hereafter. Of these
beautiful things in life, babies come first; with birds and flowers
and music as fitting accessories.

But to return to the ark of the covenant. The perpetual flame on the
altar (the center) is the undying Flame of spiritual love--and by that
we mean sex-love, let it be understood. If we seem to repeat this too
frequently it is because of the almost general habit of the race to
apologize for sex-love. The erroneous idea obtains, that spiritual
love is sexless. All too frequently we come across the phrase, "with a
love that has in it nothing of human love," the writer evidently
anxious to convey the impression of tremendous spirituality and the
consequent elimination of the sex function.

And so we emphasize once more, and we may do so again, the assurance
that the symbol of the never-dying flame upon the altar is typical of
the never-dying spirit of sex-love. Spirit is ever symbolized by
flame, as in the "flaming sword" of the archangel.

The Deity upon the seat of the altar symbolizes the bi-une
Sex-principle of creation.

The reason that the Jewish people have claimed that they were "God's
chosen people" is because, in their symbolism of the ark of the
Covenant, all Israel was grouped under the tabernacle. The formation
of the tabernacle proves that it typifies the mother's womb. The
tabernacle was guarded by the priests who _were sworn to purity_; thus
they symbolized the esoteric truth that the pure spiritual sex-union
bestows immortal god-hood.

Let us take another story, that of the life-token. This is best told
in the story of the Holy Grail, although it is found in all the
fairy-books of all nations, in the language and form befitting the
race to which it belongs.

In the original, that is