rce has been tapped. The discovery of the
Word of God creates and constructs an autonomous "kingdom of the
conscience" ("Reich des Gewissens"), gives us "a thousand-fold witness of
God," and becomes to us the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.[24]

In his little book on "the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil"--a
book which was destined to have a far-reaching influence--he declares
that the Garden-of-Eden story is a mighty parable of the human soul. All
that is told in the Genesis account is told of what goes on in the
mysterious realm within us. It is told as though it were an external
happening, it is in reality an internal affair. The Paradise and the
Fall, the Voice of God and the tempting voice of the serpent, the Tree of
Life and the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, are all in our own
hearts as they were in the heart of Adam. Heaven and Hell are there.
The one stands fully revealed in the triumphant Adam, who is Christ; the
other is {58} exhibited in its awfulness in the disobedient Adam of the
Fall.

As fast as the life comes under the sway of the "kingdom of conscience"
and a solid moral character is formed, the inner guidance of the Word of
God becomes more certain and more reliable. Only the good person has a
sure and unerring perception of the truth, just as only the scientist
sees the laws of the world, and as only the musician perceives the
harmony of sounds. Not only must all spiritual experience be subject to
the moral test, it must further be tested by the Light of God in other
men and in history, and by the _spirit of Scripture_, which is the
noblest permanent fruit of the Eternal Word. Every person must _prove_
the authority of his religion. He must have his heart conquered and his
mind taken captive and his will directed by his truth so that he would be
ready to face a thousand deaths for it,[25] and he must, through his
truth and insight, come into spiritual unity and co-operation with all
who form the invisible Church.

The invisible Church forms the central loyalty of Franck's fervent soul.
"The true Church," he writes, "is not a separate mass of people, not a
particular sect to be pointed out with the finger, not confined to one
time or one place; it is rather a spiritual and invisible body of all the
members of Christ, born of God, of one mind, spirit, and faith, but not
gathered in any one external city or place. It is a Fellowship, seen
with the spiritual eye and by