s to be a
man by the same process. But in time all that lives, mounts the ladder of
Being from the clod to the God. There is no limitation possible to the
spirit, and so at various stages in its unfoldment the Human Spirit works
with the other nature forces, according to the stage of intelligence which
it has attained. It creates, changes and remodels the earth upon which it
is to live. Thus, under the great law of cause and effect, which we
observe in every realm of nature, it reaps upon earth what it has sown in
heaven, and vice versa. It grows slowly but persistently and advances
continually.

_The Region of Abstract Thought._

Various religious systems have been given to humanity at different times,
each suited to meet the spiritual needs of the people among whom it was
promulgated, and, coming from the same divine source:--God, all religions
exhibit similar fundamentals or first principles.

All systems teach that there was a time when _darkness_ reigned supreme.
Everything which we now perceive was then non-existent. Earth, sky and the
heavenly bodies were uncreate, so were the multitudinous forms which live
and move upon the various planets.--All, all, was yet in a fluidic
condition and the Universal Spirit brooded _quiescent_ in limitless Space
as the One Existence.

The Greeks called that condition of homogeneity _Chaos_, and the state of
orderly segregation which we now see; the marching orbs which illumine the
vaulted canopy of heaven, the stately procession of planets around a
central light, the majestic sun; the unbroken sequence of the seasons and
the unvarying alternation of tidal ebb and flow;--all this aggregate of
systematic order, was called _Cosmos_, and was supposed to have proceeded
from Chaos.

The Christian Mystic obtains a deeper comprehension when he opens his
Bible and ponders the first five verses of that brightest gem of all
spiritual lore: the Gospel of St. John.

As he reverently opens his aspiring heart to acquire understanding of
those sublime mystical teachings he transcends the form-side of nature,
comprising various realms of which we have been speaking, and finds
himself "in the spirit," as did the prophets in olden times. He is then in
the Region of abstract Thought and sees the eternal verities which also
Paul beheld in this, the third, heaven.

For those among us who are unable to obtain knowledge save by reasoning
upon the matter, however, it will be necessary to examine