atural darkness into the heavenly light. Therein rests the virtue and
glory of the world of humanity. This is the perfection, honor and glory of
man; otherwise, man is an animal and without differentiation from the
creatures of that lower kingdom.

It is clearly evident that while man possesses powers in common with the
animal, he is distinguished from the animal by intellectual attainment,
spiritual perception, the acquisition of virtues, capacity to receive the
bestowals of Divinity, lordly bounty and emanations of heavenly mercy.
This is the adornment of man, his honor and sublimity. Humanity must
strive toward this supreme station. Christ has interpreted this station as
the second birth. Man is first born from a world of darkness, the matrix
of the mother, into this physical world of light. In the dark world from
whence he came he had no knowledge of the virtues of this existence. He
has been liberated from a condition of darkness and brought into a new and
spacious realm where there is sunlight, the stars are shining, the moon
sheds its radiance, there are beautiful views, gardens of roses, fruits
and all the blessings of the present world. How did he attain these
blessings? Through the agency of birth from the mother. Just as man has
been physically born into this world, he may be reborn from the realm and
matrix of nature, for the realm of nature is a condition of animalism,
darkness and defect. In this second birth he attains the world of the
Kingdom. There he witnesses and realizes that the world of nature is a
world of gloom, whereas the Kingdom is a world of radiance; the world of
nature is a world of defects, the Kingdom is a realm of perfection; the
world of nature is a world without enlightenment, the Kingdom of spiritual
humanity is a heaven of illumination. Great discoveries and revelations
are now possible for him; he has attained the reality of perception; his
circle of understanding is illimitably widened; he views the realities of
creation, comprehends the divine bounties and unseals the mystery of
phenomena. This is the station which Christ has interpreted as the second
birth. He says that just as ye were physically born from the mother into
this world, ye must be born again from the mother world of nature into the
life of the divine Kingdom. May you all attain this second, spiritual
birth. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit."

I pray that the c