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 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
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HUMAN DESTINY 
 IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 
 
HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LIGHT OF REVELATION 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN F. WEIR, M. A. 
 
 PROFESSOR IN YALE UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR OF 
 
 " THE WAY : THE NATURE AND 
 
 MEANS OF REVELATION." 
 
 Of THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1903 
 

 MAY b |U|| 
 GIFT , 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY JOHN F. WEIR 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published February, igoj 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The teaching of Revelation concerning 
 man's ultimate destiny is not vague or in- 
 conclusive, though it has sometimes been 
 made to appear so through metaphysical 
 interpretations ; systems of thought have 
 arisen by this means which from time to 
 time have been accorded a certain sanction 
 or authority. But it is now widely recog- 
 nized that such systems of metaphysical 
 definition cannot be final as statements of 
 truth, since they must ever be subject to 
 critical revision with the progress of mind ; 
 the changes or modifications to which they 
 have been subject in the past are an indica- 
 tion of what must follow in the future as 
 truth is gradually freed from error. 
 
 Some recent attempts have been made to 
 forecast the destiny of man by the light of 
 modern science, and in this light it may 
 
 213233 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 perhaps be possible to form a reasonable, 
 though necessarily vague, conjecture as to 
 what may be the nature of that perfected 
 earthly state of man toward which all the 
 higher activities of the present life appear 
 gradually to tend. But of that ultimate 
 destiny of the human soul which lies be- 
 yond the horizon of this world, Science 
 supplies no data whatever upon which a 
 conclusion may rest ; concerning that which 
 transcends the boundaries of the earthly 
 life Revelation alone supplies the key. It 
 has been the aim in this treatise, therefore, 
 to adhere strictly to the teaching of those 
 original scriptures which affirm a revelation 
 of human destiny by "the word of pro- 
 phecy " and as manifested in the person of 
 "Jesus, the Christ." 
 
 I am not aware that this exclusive aim, 
 of ascertaining the destiny of man by the 
 light of Revelation, has hitherto been at- 
 tempted, except incidentally, with reference 
 to some less single purpose and in a frag- 
 mentary form. The prophecies bearing on 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 this subject have had a profound signifi- 
 cance for devout minds in all ages, but the 
 teaching of the scriptures with reference 
 to man's moral redemption has had a ten- 
 dency to place the revelation of his ultimate 
 spiritual future in a remote and shadowy 
 background. 
 
 While a release from the conditions of 
 sin is the first and most pressing need in 
 the life of the individual, the supreme note 
 of joy which finds emphasis in the scrip- 
 tures is based upon the revelation of " Life 
 and Immortality," including the manifesta- 
 tion of this in its ultimate form in the per- 
 son of the Messiah. Few, comparatively, 
 realize how full and complete and perfect 
 is the revelation of human destiny. Many 
 imagine that the knowledge of this is with- 
 held from man ; that nothing is known, or 
 can be known, of man's ultimate future ; 
 while some would affirm that a veil should 
 be drawn over that future lest the activities 
 of the present be hindered by the contem- 
 plation of that which apparently is remote 
 and unsubstantial. 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 But Revelation presents another view : it 
 emphasizes the fact that the knowledge of 
 human destiny, once realized in the con- 
 sciousness, is a potent influence affecting 
 the life and thought of man, transfiguring 
 the darkest features of the present and 
 stimulating aspiration and joy. From the 
 earliest (Gen. xvii : 1-5) to the latest pro- 
 phecies (Rev. xxi : 1-8), it appears to be the 
 aim of Revelation to bring to the human 
 consciousness a full knowledge of the divine 
 purpose and ultimate end in the creation of 
 man, and to make this knowledge a reward 
 of faith and a means of drawing the human 
 soul onward and upward to the fulfillment 
 of its destiny. 
 
 The advanced thought of the time, in 
 many converging lines, is earnestly seeking 
 light on the nature and destiny of man by 
 the aid and methods of modern Science ; 
 this gives to the study of Revelation, in 
 this connection, a peculiar interest and sig- 
 nificance, which it has been the aim of this 
 treatise to present. And as no one order 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 of truth stands unrelated to other forms of 
 knowledge in the human mind, Nature and 
 Spirit have been discriminated in Part L, in 
 the light of Science and Revelation, as an 
 introduction to Part II., which treats ex- 
 clusively of the Destiny of man as revealed 
 in Christ. When the reader reflects upon 
 the vastness of the theme and the extent 
 of the ground traversed, he will apprehend 
 that only an outline was possible within the 
 limits of one small volume ; but with this 
 outline in mind the study of Revelation 
 will disclose with far greater fullness the 
 truths emphasized in this brief statement. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PART I. NATURE AND SPIRIT . . I 
 Science and Revelation ; Nature and the 
 Supra-x\z.\MX2\ ; The Creation of Man ; The 
 Order of Creation ; Temporal and Eternal 
 Life ; The Symbols of Genesis ; The Cos- 
 mogony of Genesis ; The Process of Form- 
 ing Man; Man's Natural Ascent; The 
 Travail of Nature ; The Edenic Man ; 
 Moral and Spiritual States ; The Spirit im- 
 parted to Man; Activities of Nature and 
 Spirit. 
 
 PART II. THE DESTINY OF MAN 
 AS REVEALED IN CHRIST ... 89 
 What is Man ? The Son of Man; The Mes- 
 siah ; Perfect Man ; The Son of Man in 
 Heaven ; The Man, Christ Jesus ; The 
 World to come ; The Spirit of Jesus ; Then 
 cometh the End ; A Little Lower than God ; 
 The Faith of God ; With Thine Own Self; 
 We shall be Like Him. 
 
 CONCLUSION 180 
 
PART I 
 
 NATURE AND SPIRIT 
 
 # 
 
" Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I 
 say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot 
 see the kingdom of God. . . . That which is born of the 
 flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is 
 spirit." — John iii : 3-6. 
 
 " The first man Adam became a living soul. The last 
 Adam became a live-giving spirit. Howbeit that is not 
 first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; then 
 that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, 
 earthy : the second man is of heaven." — 1 Corinthians 
 xv : 45-47. (R. V.) 
 
* 
 
 NATURE AND SPIRIT 
 
 SCIENCE AND REVELATION 
 I 
 
 It is affirmed as a fundamental truth of 
 Revelation that God is spiritual or supra- 
 natural Being, that he is over all his works, 
 and that he has variously revealed himself 
 to man, but more specifically through what 
 is designated his "word." It may likewise 
 be affirmed as a fundamental premise that 
 spiritual or supra-natural Being, to be known 
 as such, must be supernaturally revealed ; 
 not necessarily in the form of miracle, so- 
 called, but through the manifestation of that 
 which constitutes the supra-natural princi- 
 ples " substance " of that Being — which 
 the scripture affirms is " Spirit." * A "mani- 
 1 John iv : 24. (R. V., margin.) 
 
4 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 festation of the Spirit" 1 is therefore the 
 self-revelation of God, — the disclosure of 
 that which is above or behind Nature. 
 
 II 
 
 The discoveries of Science and the course 
 of human events are sometimes designated 
 "revelations," the term being freely applied 
 to whatever pertains to human enlighten- 
 ment ; but in its scriptural sense this term 
 has a more restricted meaning as implied in 
 the words : " God, who at sundry times and 
 in divers manners spake in time past unto 
 the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
 last days spoken unto us by his Son." 2 
 
 Likewise the term " Science " may signify 
 all that pertains to exact knowledge, of 
 whatever kind ; but as commonly understood 
 it refers more specifically to the knowledge 
 of Nature, and it is in this sense that the 
 term will be used in this treatise. Science 
 and Revelation therefore, as these terms<are 
 herein used, have a distinction in their 
 
 1 i Cor. xii : 7. 2 Heb. i : 12. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 5 
 
 methods and aims which it may be well to 
 define as a premise. Science may direct 
 the astronomer to point his telescope to a 
 quarter of the heaven where a hitherto un- 
 known planet will become visible at a speci- 
 fied time. The certainty of the fulfillment 
 of this prediction is due to the fact that the 
 presence of such an unseen body has been 
 ascertained through certain disturbances 
 observed in the movement of some known 
 body, the cause of which has been mathe- 
 matically determined. This is not properly 
 a revelation, but a discovery ; and it is im- 
 portant to mark the distinction between the 
 enlightenment that is due to the observation 
 of Nature, and the enlightenment derived 
 through a revelation of the Spirit. 1 
 
 Ill 
 
 For Revelation, in the scriptural sense, 
 implies an order of enlightenment differing 
 from the common, as manifested in "the 
 sure word of prophecy," of which means 
 
 1 Gal. i: II, 12. 
 
6 HUMAN- DESTINY 
 
 the scripture affirms that "no prophecy 
 ever came by the will of man, but men 
 spake from God, being moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." » 
 
 As thus defined the enlightenment de- 
 rived through Revelation differs from the 
 acquisitions of Science according to the dis- 
 tinctions in their respective sources of light. 
 Jesus said, " The word which ye hear is not 
 mine, but the Fathers who sent me." 2 . . . 
 "The words that I speak unto you, they 
 are Spirit, and they are life." 3 This dis- 
 tinction is further emphasized by the apos- 
 tle Paul as follows : " My speech and my 
 teaching," he said, " was not with enticing 
 words of man's wisdom, but in demonstra- 
 tion of the Spirit and of power : that your 
 faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, 
 but in the power of God. . . . We speak the 
 wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hid- 
 den wisdom, which God ordained before the 
 world unto our glory ; which none of the 
 
 1 2 Peter i : 19-21. (R. V.) 2 John xiv : 24. ( R. V.) 
 3 John vi : 63. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 7 
 
 princes of this world knew" 1 — or, which 
 was unknown to the philosophies of man. 2 
 Thus the wisdom acquired in the course 
 of Nature the apostle designates "man's 
 wisdom," by virtue of its being an acquisi- 
 tion of the human mind through the use 
 of man's intellect ; but " a demonstration 
 of the Spirit and of power " he designates 
 " the wisdom of God." 3 
 
 IV 
 
 In the light of the knowledge that all 
 things are fundamentally of divine origin, 
 the wisdom derivable from Nature is like- 
 wise the wisdom of God — but in a secon- 
 dary sense. For Nature is an organic ex- 
 pression of the mind of a Creator ; man's 
 last discovery through the observation of 
 Nature is natural law. The wisdom deriv- 
 able from Nature is therefore a result of 
 the mediation of natural law, and natural 
 law differs from "a demonstration of the 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii : 4-8. 
 
 2 Matt, xiii : 35 ; Rom. xvi : 25, 26. 
 8 1 Cor. i : 23, 24.. 
 
8 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 Spirit " as the creation differs from its 
 originating and sustaining Cause. For the 
 laws of Nature are not more truly God than 
 are the products of these laws : they do not 
 reveal " the Spirit of God " in a primary 
 sense, as God is revealed in " his word " or 
 in " his Christ." While, therefore, a crea- 
 tor and sustainer of the universe may be 
 inferred from the observation of Nature, 
 even to " his eternal power and Godhead," 1 
 as the maker of all things, God is known 
 as to his spiritual Fatherhood by Reve- 
 lation ; for in " a demonstration of the 
 Spirit " 2 God himself is present in the 
 manifestation in a primary sense. Thus 
 are Science and Revelation clearly distin- 
 guishable as of two orders of "wisdom," 
 proceeding respectively from Nature and 
 Spirit. 
 
 V 
 
 Revelation affirms that " God is Spirit ; " 3 
 and as already stated Spirit is supra-natural, 
 
 1 Rom. i : 20. 2 I Cor. ii : 4. 
 
 8 John iv : 24. (R. V., margin.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 9 
 
 — above or behind Nature. The most an- 
 cient symbol of Revelation affirms figura- 
 tively that " the Spirit of God moved " in 
 originating a creative act ; 1 then followed, 
 in the light of Science, an order of Nature 
 through which were formed the universe 
 and man. 
 
 For Science has already demonstrated 
 the truth that creation is by natural law ; 
 and while this " order of Nature," so- 
 called, proceeds forth from God — of whom, 
 through whom, and to whom are all things 2 
 
 — the originating cause, or divine imma- 
 nence, which is Spirit, is not discernible in 
 Nature as to his essential Being. It is an 
 ancient question, " Canst thou by searching 
 find out God ? " 3 The most acute scientific 
 scrutiny fails to discover anything back of 
 natural law, though it belongs to the neces- 
 sities of human thought to infer an intelli- 
 gent First Cause. 
 
 In the last analysis, therefore, Science 
 resolves the order of Nature into a system of 
 
 1 Gen. i : 1, 2. 2 Rom. xi : 36. 8 Job xi : 7. 
 
io HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 laws, a correlation of forces — impersonal, 
 comprehensive, immutable — which form, 
 differentiate, and apparently explain all nat- 
 ural phenomena of the physical and mental 
 realms. The existence of the supra-natural, 
 therefore, is not demonstrable by Science, 
 but through a revelation of the Spirit ; 1 and 
 in a revelation of the Spirit, God himself, 
 who alone is supra-natural, breaks forth, 2 
 as it were, through his creation and is mani- 
 fested in and through the soul of man, the 
 scripture affirming that " the tabernacle of 
 God is with men." 3 
 
 1 I Cor. ii : 4, 5. 2 Exod. xix : 22. 8 Rev. xxi : 3. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION n 
 
 NATURE AND THE SUPRA- 
 NATURAL 
 
 I 
 
 A " demonstration of the Spirit " is there- 
 fore the self-revelation of God, in and 
 through the soul of man. But so long as 
 man is wholly of the order of Nature, the 
 scripture affirms he is incapable of discern- 
 ing "the things of the Spirit of God." 1 
 The apostle Paul says, " The natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : 
 for they are foolishness unto him ; neither 
 can he know them, because they are spirit- 
 ually discerned." 2 And it is a fundamental 
 teaching of Christ's gospel that " Except 
 a man be born again, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God. . . . Except a man be 
 born ... of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God." 3 For Nature is ap- 
 
 1 i Cor. ii: II. 2 i Cor. ii : 14. 
 
 8 John iii : 3-10. 
 
12 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 prehended by that which is natural, and 
 Spirit is apprehended by that which is 
 spiritual ; like discerns like. That which 
 is born in the order of Nature is natural, 
 and that which is " born of the Spirit " is 
 spiritual or divine. 1 Therefore Jesus said, 
 " Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must 
 be born again." 2 
 
 For as formed in the order of Nature 
 man is a " creature ; " 3 the scripture says 
 he is made of the elements of the earth : 4 
 and it is likewise affirmed that this crea- 
 tion is not consummated 5 in man until he 
 is endowed with the Spirit, or " born of 
 God." 6 
 
 This teaching of Christ and his apostle, 
 through the distinctions and issues that 
 flow thence, will be found to be funda- 
 mental in the revelation of human des- 
 tiny. 
 
 1 John iii : 6. 2 John iii : 7. 
 
 8 Rom. viii : 19. 4 Gen. ii : 7. 
 
 5 Rom. viii: II. 6 1 John iv: 7-9. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 13 
 
 II 
 
 If man received this spiritual endowment 
 in the course of Nature it would have been 
 needless to say that he "must be born 
 again/' that he must be "born of the 
 Spirit." The teaching of Jesus likewise 
 has reference to the freedom of the indi- 
 vidual human will to accept or reject this 
 "gift of God." x Except a man (the indi- 
 vidual soul) be born of the Spirit, he can- 
 not " see," or " enter," the kingdom of God. 
 
 For "the kingdom of God" is a spirit- 
 ual as distinguished from a natural realm, 
 wherein "the things pertaining to God" 
 are spiritually discerned, without a veiling. 2 
 The scripture affirms that it is not until 
 man is "born of the Spirit" that he is 
 " born of God," or becomes a son of God : 
 " As many as received him, to them gave 
 he power to become the sons of God ; even 
 to them that believe on his name : which 
 were born, not of blood, nor of the will of 
 
 1 John iv : 10 ; Rom. vi : 23. 2 2 Cor. iii : 14-16. 
 
14 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God." x 
 
 While, therefore, in the order of Nature, 
 and by the light of Science, man may 
 vaguely discern a divinity in an inferred 
 first cause, or in a power which upholds 
 the universe, God is known as to his spirit- 
 ual Fatherhood through some other form of 
 knowledge. Jesus said, " No man knoweth 
 the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth 
 any man the Father, save the Son, and he 
 to whomsoever the Son will reveal him : " 2 
 and " no man cometh unto the Father, but 
 by me." 3 
 
 III 
 
 The revelation of God as Spirit is there- 
 fore in a sense distinct from his revelation 
 in Nature as the creator and sustainer of 
 the universe. And in order that man may 
 discern " the things of the Spirit of God " 4 
 the scripture affirms he " must be born 
 
 1 John i : 13. 2 Matt, xi : 27. 
 
 8 John xiv : 6. * 1 Cor. ii : 14. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 15 
 
 anew." * To them that were entering upon 
 this divine inheritance the scripture says, 
 emphasizing a distinction of the spiritual 
 and the natural in the order of the soul's 
 life, "The things of God none knoweth, 
 save the Spirit of God. But we received, not 
 the spirit of the world, but the spirit which 
 is of God ; that we might know the things 
 that are freely given to us by God. Which 
 things also we speak, not in words which 
 man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit 
 teacheth; comparing spiritual things with 
 spiritual." 2 
 
 In the light of this teaching the enlight- 
 enment that comes of Nature and the en- 
 lightenment which comes of Spirit are in a 
 sense distinct. One order of wisdom re- 
 lates to that which is created, formed, made, 
 and to the mind thence derived ; while the 
 other relates to God himself, or to that 
 which is "begotten of God." They who 
 are born of the Spirit are said to be " taught 
 
 1 John Hi : 7. (R. V.) 
 
 2 1 Cor. ii: 11-13. (R- V.) 
 
16 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 of God ; " 1 for when man has become spir- 
 itual-minded 2 God then guides and counsels 
 man Spirit to spirit, by an inward com- 
 munion that is spiritual or divine. 3 When 
 one of the disciples of Jesus first manifested 
 this spiritual enlightenment the Master said, 
 " Blessed art thou ... for flesh and blood 
 hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
 Father which is in heaven." 4 The disciple 
 was blessed because of his spiritual discern- 
 ment as well as in the special revelation that 
 was made to him. And it is upon this spir- 
 itual order of apprehension, through the 
 
 1 John vi : 45. 2 Rom. viii : 6-11. 
 
 3 Faculties are developed and various orders of mind 
 formed according to the nature of the sustained impulse 
 given to thought through observation and reflection. 
 The " natural mind " is formed through the observation 
 of natural things, and to the extent of its knowledge its 
 accretions constitute an image of the natural world. In 
 like manner, when inspired by the Spirit, a distinct 
 order of observation and reflection, pertaining to spir- 
 itual things, forms the spiritual mind, or " man : " and 
 these two orders of mind differ according to the distinc- 
 tions existing in their objects of thought. 
 
 4 Matt, xvi : 17. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 17 
 
 birth of a spiritual consciousness in man, 
 that Christ declared he would build his 
 church 1 or found his " kingdom," — a king- 
 dom of the Spirit, "the kingdom of God." 
 
 1 Matt, xvi : 18. 
 
18 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 THE CREATION OF MAN 
 
 I 
 
 But while " the natural man," or natural 
 mind — by which is meant the mind that is 
 formed exclusively in the order of Nature 
 — as the scripture says, "receiveth not the 
 things of the Spirit of God," 1 it has its own 
 proper function to exercise in the discern- 
 ment of that which is natural. When it is 
 affirmed in the parable that " the children 
 of this world are in their generation wiser 
 than the children of light," 2 a general truth 
 is implied ; namely, that wisdom on any 
 given plane has reference to the things per- 
 taining to that plane ; and while Nature 
 is apprehended naturally, Spirit is appre- 
 hended spiritually, — like discerns like : 
 therefore the scripture says spiritual things 
 are "spiritually discerned." 3 
 
 1 i Cor. ii : 14. 2 Luke xvi: 8. 
 
 3 1 Cor. ii : 14. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 19 
 
 That which engaged the mind of Newton 
 in his Principia and that which filled the 
 mind of Paul in his Epistles are not of one 
 and the same order of truth, though funda- 
 mentally both orders of truth are alike of 
 divine origin. But the truths of Nature 
 and the truths of Spirit are, respectively, 
 with reference to natural and spiritual 
 realms. Science is now affirming " the 
 unity of Nature," while Revelation affirms 
 "the unity of the Spirit ; " * and these uni- 
 ties agree in one only in the end and con- 
 summation of human destiny, when God will 
 be "all in all." 2 
 
 II 
 
 In so far, therefore, as Nature has minis- 
 tered to the creation of man Science is the 
 interpreter of the process, and Science is 
 gradually explaining this order of creation 
 through the discovery of natural law. As 
 thus explained — in so far as the scientific 
 mind is warranted in forming a conclusion 
 
 1 Eph. iv : 3, 4 ; 1 Cor. vi 117. 2 1 Cor. xv : 28. 
 
20 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 from the ascertained facts — man is an 
 organic creature "formed" through evolu- 
 tion and development. Science, as already 
 affirmed, is only cognizant of that which is 
 natural — the J7//ra-natural " Spirit " is not 
 included in her categories. Every form and 
 function of the human organism, apparently 
 every faculty of mind — as the forming of 
 these in the order of Nature is gradually 
 reduced to knowledge — attests man's re- 
 lationship to subordinate organisms, and 
 these in turn to lower or more rudimentary 
 forms of life. For in the light of Science 
 an order is found to prevail throughout Na- 
 ture which links the latest developments 
 with the initial stages of creation, and the 
 forming of " man " apparently is included 
 in this order. Though Science has by no 
 means solved the problem of man's ascent 
 in the order of Nature, the results of mod- 
 ern research already suggest the inference 
 that natural law preserves an unbroken 
 order, or chain of sequence, which con- 
 nects the latest with the earliest stages of 
 creation. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 21 
 
 III 
 
 Through the discrimination of genera and 
 species, through the development of facul- 
 ties and functions, there seems to have been, 
 in the light of Science, a gradual rising from 
 simpler to more complex organisms, from 
 lower to higher forms of life, until in " man " 
 the physical organism apparently reached 
 its final stage of development. Thence on 
 there follows an evolution of the mind and 
 the moral sense which differentiates " man " 
 from all subordinate, antecedent forms of 
 life, and apparently has no bounds of limi- 
 tation. As the struggle between the vari- 
 ous races of man becomes more and more 
 dependent upon intellectual and moral quali- 
 ties, the dominance of physical force gradu- 
 ally yields, though with exceeding slowness, 
 to these higher powers pertaining to the 
 soul. Hence when the physical organism 
 attained its final development in man, the 
 evolution of his psychic powers, as expressed 
 in mind, continued on independent of any 
 
22 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 further change of the bodily form ; for there 
 is "no indication that Nature tends to the 
 production of any higher organism than 
 that of man." While, therefore, in all living 
 creatures subordinate to man the physical 
 organism appears to have set a limit to their 
 psychic development, — as determined by 
 their mental range or intelligence, — when 
 the human stage was reached, thence on 
 there followed a seemingly independent evo- 
 lution of the mind and the moral sense, 
 which became a distinguishing human char- 
 acteristic, separating man, through these 
 higher attributes of the soul, from all that 
 subordinate creation which Revelation figu- 
 ratively designates in its totality " the dust 
 of the ground," of which the scripture 
 affirms " man is made." * 
 
 1 Gen. ii : 7. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 23 
 
 THE ORDER OF CREATION 
 
 Thus the results of modern scientific re- 
 search appear to agree with this symbol Of 
 Revelation as to man's origin and natural 
 descent, or with respect to the forming of 
 his natural mind and organism. The pro- 
 cess of man's creation in the order of Na- 
 ture is gradually being explained through 
 the discovery of natural laws ; which nat- 
 ural agencies Revelation symbolizes by the 
 anthropomorphic figure, " the work of mine 
 hands " 1 — the laws of Nature being re- 
 garded as an instrumentality. 
 
 Revelation, having another end in view 
 than that of supernaturally informing man 
 with reference to the natural history of 
 creation, merely outlines this figuratively, 
 in a few far-reaching all-inclusive symbols, 
 in Genesis, as a foundation upon which 
 
 1 Isa. xxix : 23. 
 
24 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 it was divinely purposed " in the fulness 
 of time " 1 — as discerned in the light of 
 the New Testament — to base a revelation 
 of the Spirit through Jesus Christ, 2 when 
 man was qualified to receive this divine 
 gift. 
 
 The " Spirit of prophecy " reveals no- 
 thing which man may discover of himself 
 by the use of his intellect, for it is by 
 searching out the truths of Nature, in the 
 widest sense, that man's intellect is formed ; 
 and to supernaturally reveal this natural 
 order of truth would have an injurious effect 
 upon the human mind by depriving it of a 
 proper exercise of its own natural faculties 
 in their development. The reference Reve- 
 lation makes to the order of a natural crea- 
 tion is therefore merely a figurative or 
 symbolic outline, indicating the divine im- 
 manence in the creative act, with special 
 reference to what was to follow when " the 
 divine nature " 3 should be imparted to man 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 1 Gal. iv : 4. 2 Rom. xvi : 25. 8 2 Peter i : 4. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 25 
 
 II 
 
 By the light of Science the inference may 
 now be drawn that all the activities of Na- 
 ture tended from the beginning toward that 
 final consummation which is expressed in 
 " man ; " and the scripture intimates as 
 much when it affirms that a " Saviour of 
 men " was " foreordained before the founda- 
 tion of the world." * In the light of this 
 revelation the divine purpose is made known 
 from the beginning ; namely, that the crea- 
 tion and salvation of "man" was in mind 
 before this world came into existence. 
 
 The scripture figuratively affirms that it 
 was not until " man was made " that the 
 divinity "breathed into his nostrils the 
 breath of life, and man became a living 
 soul." 2 Referring to the " natural man " as 
 distinguished from that spiritual manhood 
 revealed in Christ, the apostle Paul says : 
 " The first man Adam became a living soul ; 
 the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 
 
 1 1 Peter i : 20. 2 Gen. ii : 7. 
 
26 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, 
 but that which is natural ; then that which 
 is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, 
 earthy : the second man is of heaven. . . . 
 And as we have borne the image of the 
 earthy, we shall also bear the image of 
 the heavenly/' * By his use of the present 
 tense — " the first man is," etc. — the apos- 
 tle implies that this order of creation is 
 common to all men ; " first the natural ; 
 afterward, then that which is spiritual. " 2 
 
 For the making of man, in the light of 
 this teaching, was not an act consummated 
 in a remote past, but is still in process in 
 the life of the individual, as implied in the 
 words of Christ, " My Father worketh 
 hitherto, and I work." 3 . . . "My meat is 
 to do the will of him that sent me, and to 
 finish his work." 4 For it is through Christ 
 that the Father imparts his own Spirit in- 
 dividually to man, that man may become 
 " a living soul " 5 — that is, a soul quickened 
 
 l i Cor. xv : 45-49. (R. V.) 2 A# y. 
 
 8 John v : 17. 4 John iv : 34. 5 Gen. ii : 7. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 27 
 
 by the indwelling " Spirit of God ; " and the 
 sign of the consummation of this divine act 
 in the creation of man was when the risen 
 Christ breathed on his disciples and said, 
 " Receive ye the Holy Spirit" 1 — a sym- 
 bol, or sign, of that subconscious spiritual 
 experience which is common to his follow- 
 ers through all time. 
 
 1 John xx : 22. 
 
28 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL LIFE 
 
 In its ever-widening sphere of knowledge 
 Science indicates a gradual advance in hu- 
 man progress in the earthly life — morally, 
 intellectually, and materially ; but concern- 
 ing that ultimate destiny of the human soul 
 which transcends this present stage of life, 
 Science is necessarily silent, for Nature 
 holds no revelation of this. In the light 
 of Nature the individual man seemingly 
 emerges into existence at his birth and 
 sinks into oblivion at his death — the mo- 
 mentous question of his immortal future 
 remaining unsolved. But by the revela- 
 tion in Jesus Christ life and immortality 
 are brought to light ! in a comprehensive 
 "demonstration" 2 of the truth by actual 
 manifestation. This revelation in the Christ 
 
 1 2 Tim. i : io. 2 i Cor. ii : 4. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 29 
 
 is sup ra-natural in one sense, by its " reve- 
 lation of the Spirit ; " * and /r^ter-natural 
 in another sense, by its manifestation of 
 "the Son of man in heaven ; " 2 in whom, 
 the apostle Paul says, " dwelleth all the ful- 
 ness of the Godhead, bodily " 3 — for where 
 " man " is, in bodily form, there is neces- 
 sarily a natural environment corresponding 
 to that organism, however sublimated or 
 spiritualized : " Nature " not as known to 
 man in a physical world, but as known 
 to the angels in heaven. 
 
 II 
 
 The scripture affirms, in substance, that 
 the travail of the whole creation " in pain 
 together," in bringing forth man, was "until 
 now," or until in the fulness of time " God 
 sent forth his Son " into the world 4 to re- 
 deem the human soul from that earthly 
 environment incidental to its creation on 
 the plane of Nature, and to reveal and im- 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii : 7. 2 John iii : 13. 
 
 8 Col. ii : 9. * Gal. iv. 3-5 
 
30 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 part the Spirit to man. Concerning this 
 travail of "the whole creation," when com- 
 pared with that destiny which is reserved 
 for man, the apostle Paul says, " I reckon 
 that the sufferings of this present time are 
 not worthy to be compared with the glory 
 which shall be revealed in us : for the ear- 
 nest expectation of the creature waiteth for 
 the manifestation of the sons of God." 1 
 Hereby a distinction is clearly drawn be- 
 tween " the creature " — the man that is 
 made — and man when he is " born of God." 
 And there is added this further revelation : 
 " The creature itself also shall be delivered 
 from the bondage of corruption into the 
 glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 For we know that the whole creation groan- 
 eth and travaileth in pain together until 
 now. And not only they, but we ourselves 
 which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, 
 even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
 waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemp- 
 tion of the body." 2 
 
 1 Rom. viii: 18, 19. 2 Rom. viii : 21-23. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 31 
 
 III 
 
 For through the imparting of the divine 
 Spirit to man, as outwardly symbolized by 
 its descent upon Jesus " like a dove," 2 that 
 which was created in the order of Nature 
 is eventually merged, " by adoption," 2 into 
 that divine sonship which is spiritual and 
 eternal. In the light of Revelation, there- 
 fore, it is plain that man was not created 
 a child of God in the order of Nature ; for 
 it is said that " the creature waiteth for the 
 manifestation of the sons of God " — that 
 is, for that new birth, " of the Spirit," which 
 implants in man " the divine nature ; " 3 or, 
 as it is figuratively expressed in Genesis, 
 when the Deity " breathed into man the 
 breath of life." It is not until man is mor- 
 ally prepared that he is endowed with the 
 divine Spirit and becomes a son of God. 4 
 For the apostle Paul speaks of those follow- 
 ers of Christ who with him had " received 
 
 1 John i : 32. 2 Rom. viii : 23. 
 
 8 2 Peter i : 4. * John i : 12. 
 
32 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 the first-fruits of the Spirit," as waiting for 
 this imparted Spirit to redeem the whole 
 "creature," body and mind — to bring the 
 whole "natural man" "into the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God." 
 
 IV 
 
 It is through the presence of that in- 
 dwelling Spirit imparted from the Father 
 — prophetically symbolized by the Crea- 
 tor's "breathing into man the breath of 
 life " * — that man is spiritually conformed 
 to the "image" and "likeness" of God 2 
 when made a partaker of the divine na- 
 ture. 3 Whether, therefore, " perfect man," 
 made "in the image" and "likeness of 
 God," is discernible in " the Adam " of the 
 Edenic symbol, or in Jesus, the Christ, is 
 according to a literal or a spiritual read- 
 ing of the scripture — as to whether that 
 ancient symbol refers to a special historic 
 progenitor of the human family of this 
 
 1 Gen. ii : 7. 2 Gen. i : 26. 
 
 8 2 Peter i : 4. (R. V.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 33 
 
 earth, or to the genus honio, rilling all 
 worlds and " the heaven of heavens " — of 
 whom the sole perfect type known to this 
 earthly family of man is he who designated 
 himself "the Son of man which is in 
 heaven." l 
 
 1 John iii : 13. 
 
34 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF GENESIS 
 
 Read in the light of the New Testa- 
 ment, a key to the general trend of Reve- 
 lation may be found in the symbols of 
 Genesis. Prophecy employs parables and 
 symbolic figures to express spiritual or 
 divine truths ; through these simple and 
 familiar forms, pertaining to the mind of 
 the time, the Spirit prophesies in advance 
 of man's natural understanding. Jehovah 
 said, " I have used similitudes by the minis- 
 try of the prophets ; " 1 and Jesus gave as 
 a reason for his use of parable in speaking 
 to " the multitude," " That seeing they 
 shall see, and shall not perceive ; and hear- 
 ing they shall hear, and shall not under- 
 stand " 2 — until by searching the word and 
 pondering it in the heart the truth gradually 
 
 1 Hos. xii : 10. 2 Matt, xiii : 14. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 35 
 
 dawns in an awakened spiritual conscious- 
 ness. The symbols of Genesis have there- 
 fore a deeper spiritual significance than is 
 usually accorded them in the light of Na- 
 ture, wherein they are sometimes viewed 
 as merely mythical fragments, or conjec- 
 tures, expressive of the groping of the mind 
 of the ancient world in its speculative search 
 for the genesis of things. 
 
 II 
 
 Discerned in the light of the New Testa- 
 ment, the two narratives of creation in- 
 cluded in Genesis — known as the Elohist 
 and the Jahvist narratives — are respec- 
 tively symbols of spiritual and natural crea- 
 tions. The first may be said to refer to 
 what, in the language of Jesus, "the Fa- 
 ther himself doeth ; " and the second to 
 what " the Son also doeth in like manner," 1 
 — for the scripture says, God " created all 
 things by Jesus Christ." 2 The Elohist 
 symbol, which refers to the work of " God 
 
 1 John v : 19. (R. V.) 2 Eph. iii : 9. 
 
36 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 Almighty/' 1 implies a perfected spiritual 
 creation, not in time; while the Jahvist 
 symbol, which affirms the work of the 
 " Lord God," refers to a creation in time, 
 and in the order of Nature — a creation in 
 which the natural man is " formed." 
 
 Again, the Elohist symbol refers to a 
 spiritual creation in which all things in their 
 order are affirmed to be "good:" "God 
 (Elohim) said, Let us make man in our 
 image, after our likeness ; and let them 
 have dominion . . . over all the earth. So 
 God created man in his own image, in the 
 image of God created he him ; male and 
 female created he them. . . . And God 
 saw everything that he had made, and be- 
 hold, it was very good. . . . Thus the 
 heavens and the earth were finished, and all 
 the host of them." 2 
 
 This symbol refers to a perfected crea- 
 tion, and to perfect man — a creation con- 
 summated in a spiritual realm, or " kingdom 
 of God." It implies an eternal creation, 
 
 1 Exod. vi : 3. 2 Gen. i : 26-ii : 1. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 37 
 
 not in time, for the " man " referred to in 
 the plural is celestial or perfect man, the 
 genus homo, filling the " heaven of heavens " 
 as sons of God : 1 of whom Jesus, the Christ, 
 according to the scripture, is a representa- 
 tive, — " one chosen out of the people." 2 
 For, as discerned in Christ, the Elohist crea- 
 tion is a spiritual man, made in the " image " 
 and " likeness" of God; 3 "perfect man, of 
 the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ ; " 4 who himself is said to be " in 
 the form of God," 5 " the very image of his 
 substance " 6 — which the Elohist symbol 
 likewise affirms of man ; namely, that he is 
 made in the "image" and "likeness" of 
 
 God. 
 
 Ill 
 
 But the figures of the Jahvist symbol im- 
 ply another order of creation, in time, and 
 in the order of Nature ; in other words, this 
 symbol refers to the creation of the human 
 
 1 Job xxxviii : 7. 
 
 2 Psa. lxxxix: 19-28; 1 Peter ii : 4. 
 
 8 Gen. i : 26. 4 Eph. iv : 13. 5 Phil, ii: 6. 
 6 Heb. i: 3; Col. i : 15. 
 
38 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 family of this earth on the plane of Nature ; 
 and this, according to the apostle Paul, is 
 an initial stage of creation, as implied in 
 the words " first the natural ; " afterward, 
 "then that which is spiritual ; the first man 
 is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is 
 of heaven. ... As we have borne the 
 image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
 image of the heavenly." 2 
 
 The forming of man, according to the 
 Jahvist symbol, is continued on throughout 
 the Old Testament dispensation ; the record 
 being first symbolical and then historical — 
 from Abraham onward — until, under the 
 New Testament dispensation, man is finally 
 endowed with the Spirit through Jesus 
 Christ, "who breathed on them, and said, 
 Receive ye the Holy Spirit." 2 
 
 This Jahvist, or natural creation, in time, 
 is thus prefigured in Genesis : " These are 
 the generations of the heavens and the earth 
 when they were created, in the day that 
 the Lord God (Jahveh) made the earth 
 
 1 I Cor. xv : 46-49. (R. V.) 2 John xx : 22. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 39 
 
 and the heavens. . . . And the Lord God 
 formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 
 and man became a living soul : " * that is, a 
 soul indwelt by the Spirit of God. 
 
 The earthly, or " natural man," formed 
 by Jahveh, Lord God, " of the dust of the 
 ground," is not affirmed to be made in the 
 image and likeness of God. For this pre- 
 liminary forming of man in the order of 
 Nature is what the apostle Paul designates 
 " the creature ; " and the scripture says, 
 " the firiSt man Adam became a living soul ; 
 the last Adam became a life-giving spirit." 2 
 This last is discerned in Christ, who is 
 affirmed to be " the first-fruits of them that 
 slept," 3 " the firstborn among many breth- 
 ren," 4 " the Adam " of a new or spiritual 
 creation which is consummated in a heav- 
 enly realm, or "kingdom of God," wherein 
 all things, according to the Elohist symbol, 
 are affirmed to be "very good," and the 
 
 1 Gen. ii : 4-7. 2 1 Cor. xv : 45. (R. V.) 
 
 8 1 Cor. xv : 20. 4 Rom. viii : 29. 
 
40 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 whole creation and the " hosts " of heaven 
 are pronounced "finished." 
 
 IV 
 
 Concerning these two orders of creation, 
 the natural and the spiritual, the Old Tes- 
 tament deals with the former and the New 
 Testament with the latter — as foretold in 
 the Apocalypse of "a new heaven and a 
 new earth ; for the first heaven and the 
 first earth were passed away." 1 And like- 
 wise the New Testament treats of a " new 
 man," 2 " born of the Spirit," 3 " born of 
 God," 4 of whom Jesus is affirmed to be 
 " the first-begotten." 5 
 
 It is with the natural, or Jahvist creation, 
 in time, that Science is concerned ; for in 
 the Jahvist symbol it is said of man, " In 
 the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, 
 till thou return unto the ground ; for out of 
 it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and 
 unto dust shalt thou return." 6 
 
 1 Rev. xxi : i. 2 Col. iii : 10. 
 
 8 John iii : 6. 4 i John iii : 9; iv: 7; v: 4. 
 
 6 Heb. i : 6. 6 Gen. iii : 19. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 41 
 
 The Edenic man, according to the Jah- 
 vist symbol, is therefore not a heavenly crea- 
 tion ; the " garden of delights " does not 
 symbolize heaven ; it is not a spiritual but 
 a natural paradise, from the innocence of 
 which man falls away in the order of his 
 forming process, or for the implanting of a 
 moral sense in him through the knowledge 
 of good and evil : " And the Lord God said, 
 Behold, the man is become as one of us, to 
 know good and evil ; " 1 that is, the implant- 
 ing of a moral principle in man through the 
 knowledge of right and wrong made him 
 
 godlike. 
 
 V 
 
 In the Elohist symbol " man " and 
 "earth" and "heaven" are terms used in 
 a generic sense ; the " earth " stands for 
 the physical universe, " heaven " stands 
 for the celestial "heaven of heavens," and 
 "man" stands for the genus homo, "per- 
 fect man," as revealed in Christ. And 
 these generic terms of the Elohist symbol 
 
 1 Gen. iii : 22. 
 
42 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 stand for a perfected, or " finished," crea- 
 tion, coeternal with God ; " beginning " 
 only in the sense that it eternally originates 
 with God, but really, as a whole, without 
 beginning and without ending ; for it is 
 impossible to conceive of a time when the 
 Eternal was inactive, or when his divine 
 creations were not. 
 
 But the Jahvist symbol refers to a spe- 
 cial creative act begun and ending in time — 
 a creation formed through one who termed 
 himself "the Alpha and the Omega, the 
 beginning and the ending " 2 — the Creator 
 and Saviour of this special earthly family 
 of man, Jesus Christ, by whom " the world 
 was made." 2 
 
 i Rev. i : 8. 2 John i : io. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 43 
 
 THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 
 
 Modern science having enlarged man's 
 conceptions, an eternal and universal cos- 
 mic order may now be discerned as coinci- 
 dent with the eternal and universal Being of 
 God. And the cosmogony of Genesis, so 
 far as this is expressed in time-symbols — 
 or so far as a time-meaning may be applied 
 to the phrase, "In the beginning" — refers 
 to a special creative act in an eternal and 
 universal cosmic order, to the creation of a 
 special system of "worlds" which had its 
 beginning and will have its ending in time, 
 while the universe remains ; the whole sur- 
 viving the decay of the parts, being eter- 
 nally renewed by a ceaseless creation of 
 new systems and new worlds which appear 
 and disappear in a permanent cosmic order 
 that is eternal with God. For this eternal 
 
44 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 and universal cosmic order, termed "Na- 
 ture," — the eternity of which, as will be 
 shown in Part II, is revealed in " the Son 
 of man in heaven," 1 — is coincident with 
 the ceaseless revelation of the eternal and 
 universal Being of God. 
 
 II 
 
 The words, "In the beginning," there- 
 fore, as employed in Genesis, do not refer 
 to the origin of creative activity on the part 
 of the Supreme Being — whose creative ac- 
 tivity is coeternal with his own nature — but 
 in the Elohist symbol this expression refers 
 to the origin of all creative activity as cen- 
 tred in "the Spirit of God;" while in the 
 Jahvist symbol the words, " These are the 
 generations of the heavens and of the earth 
 when they were created, in the day that the 
 Lord God (Jahveh) made the earth and the 
 heavens," 2 have reference to a special crea- 
 tive act begun and ending in time. To 
 suppose it otherwise in the light of modern 
 
 1 Matt, xxiv : 30. 2 Gen. ii : 4. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 45 
 
 acquisitions would be like adhering to the 
 Ptolemaic theory of the universe after the 
 conceptions of the mind had once been en- 
 lightened by the discoveries of modern as- 
 tronomy. For a time-thought is no more 
 applicable to the origin of the cosmos, or to 
 the origin of Nature, than it is applicable to 
 the origin of the Godhead ; for to imagine 
 a time when the divinity was inactive is as 
 unreasonable as to imagine a time when 
 eternity began. 
 
46 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 THE PROCESS OF FORMING MAN 
 
 I 
 
 That Science has wrested from Nature 
 a momentous truth by the discovery of a 
 general law of evolution affirming the unity 
 of Nature, is apparent when its bearing on 
 Revelation is discerned, disclosing as it does 
 the process by which "man is made of the 
 dust of the ground " — as to his natural 
 constitution and organic life. When the 
 Jews boasted of their natural descent from 
 Abraham, John the Baptist replied, " God 
 is able of these stones to raise up children 
 unto Abraham," ■ and Science is verifying 
 the statement. 
 
 For in the light of modern scientific dis- 
 covery, as well as in the light of Revela- 
 tion, man is formed of the elements of the 
 earth. Up to the time of his receiving the 
 
 1 Matt, iii : 9. 
 
Of THf \ 
 
 UNIVERSITY ; 
 
 OF 
 ^4i£S5^ ,6 tlGHT OF REVELATION 47 
 
 Spirit through Jesus Christ, man is a " crea- 
 ture " formed in the order of Nature ; and 
 as thus "formed" he is related to a far- 
 reaching series of antecedent life, the total- 
 ity of which is symbolized in Genesis by 
 the expression, man is "made of the dust 
 of the ground." 1 
 
 II 
 
 The distinction between that which is 
 natural and that which is spiritual in man is 
 a teaching of Christ's (concerning man's 
 birth of the Spirit) which the apostle Paul 
 elaborates as a fundamental truth in the 
 revelation of human destiny. The scrip- 
 tures refer to the whole " natural man," 
 body and mind, as an " earthen vessel ; " 2 
 and this figure is insisted on when it is 
 affirmed by prophecy, with reference to a 
 future pouring out of the Spirit 3 upon man, 
 " They shall be filled like bowls : " 4 while 
 to this pouring out of the Spirit " upon all 
 
 1 Gen. ii: 7. 2 2 Cor. iv : 7. 
 
 8 Joel ii : 28; Acts ii : 17. 4 Zech. ix : 15. 
 
48 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 flesh " the New Testament makes further 
 reference as the fulfillment of that ancient 
 prophecy through Jesus Christ. 1 When, 
 therefore, the scripture says, " He remem- 
 bereth that we are dust," 2 it is upon this 
 earth-born creature, "the natural man," 
 formed by the " hand " of God 8 — to use an 
 anthropomorphic figure of speech — that 
 the Eternal Father purposes to bestow his 
 own Spirit when the individual human soul 
 is morally prepared and man willingly opens 
 his heart to receive the divine gift : " Fear 
 not, Abraham : I am thy shield, and thy ex- 
 ceeding great reward." 4 God himself is 
 the reward of the faithful ; for he purposes 
 to impart his own Spirit to man, to make 
 men " partakers of the divine nature." 5 
 And that ancient prophecy concerning the 
 imparting of the Spirit to man, which God 
 communicated to Abraham, was first ful- 
 filled on this earth in Jesus Christ, and is 
 
 1 Isa. xliv : 3 ; Joel ii : 28, 29 ; Acts ii : 17, 18. 
 
 2 Psa. ciii : 14. 3 Isa: Ixiv : 8. 
 4 Gen. xv : 1. 6 2 Peter i : 4. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 49 
 
 being fulfilled in his followers through all 
 time. 
 
 But this imparted Spirit, with which man 
 is endowed as a final act in his creation, 
 always remains the Father's ; for it is writ- 
 ten, "If God gather to himself his Spirit and 
 his breath, all flesh shall perish together, 
 and man shall turn again unto dust ; " 1 
 that is, to the state of that earth-born "crea- 
 ture " which in its totality is so designated 
 by Revelation. 2 
 
 1 Job xxxiv : 14, 15. 2 Psa. ciii : 14. 
 
5 o HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 MAN'S NATURAL ASCENT. 
 
 I 
 
 The term "flesh," as used in the scrip- 
 tures, stands for the whole " natural man," 
 body and mind ; and the expression, " I 
 will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh," * is 
 the promise of that consummation of the 
 divine purpose in creating man. This final 
 act, as already stated, is accomplished 
 through Jesus Christ, who is himself de- 
 clared to be the " first-fruits," 2 " the first- 
 begotten," 3 the " first-born among many 
 brethren." 4 
 
 Jesus therefore but voices his own ex- 
 perience when he says, "That which is 
 born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is 
 born of the Spirit is spirit." 6 He thus re- 
 fers to a divine order, in the creation of 
 man, which is of a dual nature — to that 
 
 1 Acts ii : 17. 2 1 Cor. xv : 20. 8 Heb. i : 6. 
 
 4 Rom. viii : 29. 5 John iii : 6. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 51 
 
 which Science teaches is "formed" through 
 natural law, and to that which Revelation 
 affirms is " born of God." For, in order 
 that man may partake of " the fruit of the 
 Spirit" 1 — or, as it is expressed in the sym- 
 bol of Genesis and referred to again by the 
 glorified Christ, 2 in order that man may 
 "eat of the fruit of the tree of life " 3 — the 
 scripture says he " must be born again," he 
 must be "born of the Spirit," he must be 
 " born of God." God is immanent in Na- 
 ture in a creative sense, but not strictly in 
 an indwelling sense ; of man alone is it 
 affirmed that he is God's "temple," 4 or 
 "tabernacle" — "a house not made with 
 hands," destined to become "eternal in the 
 heavens." 5 
 
 II 
 
 The term " flesh," therefore, in its larger 
 sense, as employed in Revelation, signifies 
 the whole earth-formed man, body and mind, 
 the unquickened "natural man" in every 
 
 1 Gal. v : 22. 2 Rev. ii : 7. 8 Gen. iii : 22. 
 
 4 1 Cor. iii: 16. 5 2 Cor. v : 1. 
 
52 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 soul — all that is below the Spirit when im- 
 parted from God. For in the flesh, and in 
 the mind thereby formed, inheres all the in- 
 stincts of Nature, and to the making of this 
 marvelous organic "creature " the whole 
 earth has contributed. Flesh, in a physical 
 sense, may be said to be the last and high- 
 est organic form of " matter," so-called, 
 and is capable of manifesting mind as its 
 perfect organ of expression. In the nour- 
 ishment of physical life the vegetable feeds 
 on the mineral, the animal on the vegetable, 
 and finally the animal on the animal — and 
 man is no exception. Through physical 
 descent instincts and propensities are trans- 
 mitted from generation to generation, and 
 heredity implies that mental traits are like- 
 wise so transmitted. Thus in " the natural 
 man " in every human soul there inheres 
 a persistent and seemingly indestructible 
 deposit of all that antecedent life, with its 
 instincts, aptitudes, passions, and propensi- 
 ties, transmitted through physical and psy- 
 chical descent in the forming of that or- 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 53 
 
 ganic "creature " which eventually became 
 " man ; " and thence on this is persistently- 
 transmitted in man, apparently without 
 abatement — unless restrained by the moral 
 sense — " from generation to generation." 
 All that has been separately formed through 
 subordinate organisms apparently is com- 
 prised in the soul and organism of man ; 
 thus man is capable of apprehending all of 
 Nature, because all of Nature has been 
 employed in the creation of man. For 
 Nature's method of building up organisms, 
 of discriminating genera and species, of im- 
 planting instincts, of developing faculties 
 and forming " mind," is all a process of 
 making man ; " everything tended from the 
 beginning to this end," and the man of this 
 earth is still standing in the workshop a 
 witness of the operation, which is still go- 
 ing on. 
 
 Ill 
 
 For in the light of the general tendency 
 of modern scientific discovery the forming 
 of man appears to have involved a continu- 
 
54 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 ous and selective activity which traversed 
 the whole realm of Nature from the dawn 
 of creation, through vast astronomical, geo- 
 logical, and biological periods, until the end 
 was attained and "man was made." And 
 as an indication of the divine purpose that 
 was behind this vast stretch of creative 
 energy, the scripture affirms that Christ 
 was " foreordained " to be the Saviour of 
 men " before the foundation of the world." 1 
 That is, the prophecy implies that before 
 the creation of this world was begun, the 
 forming of "man" was the divine purpose, 
 and Christ was " preordained " to redeem 
 the human soul from its earthly environ- 
 ment — or from the conditions incidental 
 to its creation on the plane of Nature — 
 and to endow it with that divine life of the 
 Spirit through which man is brought into 
 "fellowship" with God as a divine son. 2 
 Christ delivers the created human soul 
 from the " bondage " of that which is tem- 
 poral by imparting to it that which is eter- 
 
 1 I Peter i : 20. 2 1 John i : 3. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 55 
 
 nal, when that which was formed in Nature 
 is " born of God." 
 
 To repeat, therefore : Christ was ordained 
 to " finish " the Father's work ; Jesus said, 
 " My meat is to do the will of him that sent 
 me, and to finish his work ; " 2 and to this 
 end — for the consummation of the divine 
 purpose in creating man — he likewise 
 said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and 
 I work." 2 
 
 1 John iv : 34. 2 John v : 17. 
 
56 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 THE TRAVAIL OF NATURE 
 
 I 
 
 In view of that transcendent future re- 
 served for man, as revealed in Christ — 
 "of whose fulness," says the apostle, "have 
 all we received" 1 — it is important to know, 
 by the light of both Science and Revela- 
 tion, what it has cost to " form man of the 
 dust of the ground." That is, to use an 
 anthropomorphic figure of speech, it is im- 
 portant to know what infinite pains and 
 patience have been bestowed upon the 
 forming of an organic " creature " whose 
 destiny it is, when quickened by the Spirit, 
 to image the Deity and manifest forth the 
 divine love and wisdom as witnessed in 
 Christ. For that Christ's indwelling divine 
 " fulness " is man's inheritance is clearly 
 implied in the apostle's prayer, "That ye 
 might be filled with all the fulness of 
 
 1 John i : 16. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 57 
 
 God ; " 1 and in the light of Christ's reve- 
 lation of human destiny it is inconceivable 
 that anything less than a far-reaching ante- 
 cedent preparation — a process of creation 
 exhausting all the resources of Nature so 
 far as this world is concerned — would have 
 sufficed to accomplish the fulfillment of so 
 sublime an end ; namely, that of making 
 man " in the image " and " likeness " of 
 God when he is grown to the fullness of the 
 stature of that spiritual manhood revealed 
 in Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 Nature and Spirit, therefore, as thus dis- 
 criminated, do not reveal the same order 
 of truth ; for Science is concerned with that 
 which is temporal, while Revelation is con- 
 cerned with that which is eternal. The 
 distinction between the things which en- 
 gage, respectively, the natural and spiritual 
 perceptions in man is marked by the apostle 
 Paul in these words : " We look not at the 
 
 1 Eph. iii : 19. 
 
58 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 things which are seen, but at the things 
 which are not seen ; for the things which 
 are seen are temporal ; but the things 
 which are not seen are eternal." * One 
 order of truth has reference to a natural 
 creation, while the other has reference to 
 a spiritual consummation. The man that 
 is formed exclusively in the course of Na- 
 ture is but half made ; whatever be his 
 earthly attainments he is still far below 
 the estate of " perfect man, of the measure 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 2 
 For Nature and Spirit are coordinated in 
 "perfect man," in whom the human and 
 the divine are in perfect " agreement " of 
 will and life — in perfect "fellowship." 
 But in the order of man's creation the 
 natural precedes the spiritual, as affirmed 
 by the scripture, " That is not first which 
 is spiritual, but that which is natural ; then 
 that which is spiritual." 3 " Perfect man," 
 therefore, is not merely a perfected natural 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv:i8. 2 Eph. iv : 13. 
 
 3 1 Cor. xv : 46. (R. V.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 59 
 
 creation, but that natural creation endowed 
 with the Spirit of God, 1 with the "ful- 
 ness " and perfection that is manifested in 
 Christ. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The symbols of Genesis and the experi- 
 ence of the prophets indicate that previous 
 to the coming of the Messiah — in whom 
 " dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, 
 bodily " 2 — man was divinely approached 
 through instrumentalities other than those 
 pertaining to an inward spiritual conscious- 
 ness. The " ministry of angels " and " pro- 
 phets " was in a degree exceptional and 
 arbitrary, looking forward to the time when 
 the Spirit should "no longer strive with 
 man," 3 but be " poured out upon all flesh ; " 
 or when, by an interior means, the human 
 and the divine would eventually come into 
 perfect agreement of will and life and be 
 in perfect "fellowship." As already stated, 
 
 1 Gal. iii : 2, 3. 2 Co l. ii : 9. (R. V.) 
 
 8 Gen. vi : 3. 
 
60 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 Jesus was the first on this earth in whom 
 this indwelling of the Father's Spirit was 
 manifested ; and in him as " perfect man " 
 this indwelling Spirit is revealed in all its 
 divine fullness and power. 
 
 But Jesus is careful to discriminate that 
 which " abode " in him 1 from that which 
 constitutes his own human proprium ; for 
 he said, "I can of mine own self do no- 
 thing." 2 . . . "The words that I speak 
 unto you, I speak not of myself : but the 
 Father that dwell eth in me, he doeth the 
 works." 3 He thus distinguishes between 
 his human ego, his "own self," and that 
 indwelling Spirit, which is God ; and the 
 scripture is careful not to confuse the two 
 natures, the human and the divine. For 
 however closely allied in Christ are these 
 two natures, they nevertheless remain eter- 
 nally distinct and separable, though coordi- 
 nated in "perfect fellowship" in "perfect 
 man." 
 
 1 John i : 32. 2 John v : 30. 8 John xiv : 10. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 61 
 
 IV 
 
 To those who antagonized his revelation 
 of the Spirit Jesus said, " Ye are from be- 
 neath ; I am from above : ye are of this 
 world ; I am not of this world." * Herein 
 a distinction is clearly drawn between the 
 earthly man and the heavenly : one is 
 formed "from beneath," and the other is 
 "from above;" one is born of Nature, 
 while the other is born of Spirit ; and Jesus 
 marks the distinction with the precision of 
 an axiom of Science. For in the order of 
 creation the " natural man " 2 is the prelimi- 
 nary work of Jahveh, " Lord God," who is 
 none other than the Son of God — " Before 
 me there was no God formed ; " 3 while 
 the " spiritual man " is the " finished " work 
 of Eloi, " God Almighty," 4 who is desig- 
 nated in the New Testament " the God and 
 Father ©f our Lord Jesus Christ." 5 
 
 Of the natural man the scripture says 
 
 1 John viii : 23. 2 1 Cor. ii : 14. 8 Isa. xliii : 10. 
 
 4 Exod. vi : 3. 5 Eph. i : 3. 
 
62 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 he is " of the earth, earthly, and speaketh 
 of the earth ; " 1 that is, even his very 
 thought is thence derived ; but when "born 
 of the Spirit" man is "taught of God," 2 
 by a spiritual communion, and is become 
 an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. 8 
 
 1 John iii : 31. 2 John vi : 45. 3 Matt, xxv : 34. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 63 
 
 THE EDENIC MAN 
 
 In the order of man's creation, according 
 to the Jahvist symbol, the Edenic state is 
 representative of that unconscious inno- 
 cence of the childhood of man, knowing not 
 good or evil. "Eden," therefore, stands for 
 that innocent but uninformed natural state 
 of the soul before a moral sense has been 
 implanted in man through " the knowledge 
 of good and evil." For it is through the 
 knowledge of good and evil, or the sense of 
 right and wrong, that man becomes a moral 
 being ; then he becomes godlike : " The 
 Lord God said, Behold, the man is become 
 as one of us, to know good and evil ; " * this 
 was said of "the Adam" in the Jahvist 
 symbol, after he had " eaten of the tree of 
 the knowledge of good and evil." 
 
 That innocent but negative Edenic state, 
 
 1 Gen. iii : 22. 
 
 
64 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 therefore, in which every child coming into 
 the world lingers until a perception of right 
 and wrong is awakened through " the know- 
 ledge of good and evil," is not the state of 
 "perfect man ;" the perfect state is not re- 
 vealed in the natural Adam, but in Christ, 1 
 when the innocence of ignorance eventually 
 is replaced by the purified conscious know- 
 ledge of all things. 2 For the man that is 
 " made of the dust of the ground " — the 
 Edenic Adam — is empty of all that is char- 
 acteristic of the man that is " born of God," 
 as discerned in Christ. That heaven-born 
 man, the scripture says, was made "per- 
 fect through sufferings ; " 3 he " learned 
 obedience by the things which he suffered ; 
 and being made perfect, he became the au- 
 thor of eternal salvation unto all them that 
 obey him : " 4 who says to his brethren of 
 this world, " To him that overcometh will I 
 grant to sit with me in my throne, even as 
 
 1 Eph. iv: 13. 2 1 Cor. ii : 10. 
 
 8 Heb. ii : 10. 4 Heb. v : 9. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 65 
 
 I also overcame, and am set down with my 
 Father in his throne." 1 ... "To him that 
 overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of 
 life, which is in the midst of the paradise of 
 God " 2 — of which the Edenic Adam in the 
 Jahvist symbol was not a partaker. 
 
 For it is through Christ — who by the 
 power of the Spirit overcame the world in 
 himself, even as his followers must likewise 
 overcome the world in themselves — that 
 man is baptized " with the Holy Ghost and 
 with fire;" 3 that is, with "the Spirit of 
 God." The natural man in every soul, 
 therefore, in the Edenic state, may be nigh 
 to God in the unconscious innocence of 
 that state — even as Jesus said of little chil- 
 dren, "Their angels do always behold the 
 face of my Father which is in heaven ; " 4 
 but in the Edenic state man is not of God 
 in the sense of being "born of the Spirit" 
 — he is not yet "become " a partaker of the 
 
 1 Rev. iii: 21. 2 Rev. ii : 7. 
 
 8 Matt, iii : 11. 4 Matt.xviii : 10. 
 
66 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 divine nature ; * he is not yet given " to eat 
 of the tree of life," to which end he must 
 first become a moral being through the 
 knowledge of good and evil, by which 
 means he is made capable of distinguishing 
 between right and wrong. 
 1 2 Peter i : 4. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 67 
 
 MORAL AND SPIRITUAL STATES 
 
 I 
 
 The distinction between a moral and a 
 spiritual consciousness was first revealed 
 when Jesus said of John the Baptist, " This 
 is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send 
 my messenger before thy face, who shall 
 prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say 
 unto you, Among them that are born of 
 women there hath not risen a greater than 
 John the Baptist : notwithstanding he that 
 is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater 
 than he." 1 And Jesus adds this significant 
 revelation : " The law and the prophets 
 were until John : since that time the king- 
 dom of God is preached." 2 
 
 In the mind of Christ " the law and the 
 
 prophets " — which are representative of 
 
 a moral dispensation — are distinguished 
 
 from that " kingdom of God " which signi- 
 
 1 Matt, xi : 10, 11. 2 Luke xvi : 16. 
 
68 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 fies a spiritual or divine realm. This teach- 
 ing of Jesus concerning John is rooted in a 
 fundamental principle of his gospel ; namely, 
 that "man must be born of the Spirit." 
 John the Baptist was strictly a moral man, 
 practically sinless ; and yet Jesus implies 
 that he was not yet "of the kingdom of 
 God;" for he said the least of them that 
 are of the kingdom of God are " greater 
 than he." For the moral sense is not spir- 
 itual — it is rooted in obedience to " law ; " 
 and this order of righteousness is that of 
 " a servant : " but " the kingdom of God " 
 is spiritual, wherein "love is the fulfilling 
 of the law," l and the servant has become 
 "a son." (i John iv : 7, 8.) 
 
 II 
 
 The implanting of a moral sense in man 
 is the consummation of a natural creation ; 2 
 and in John, who is affirmed to have been 
 greater than the prophets, 3 this order of 
 righteousness was fulfilled. The scripture 
 
 1 Rom. xiii : 10. 2 Rom. ii : 14. 8 Luke vii : 26. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 69 
 
 says, Jesus came to be baptized of John, 1 
 saying, " For thus it becometh us to fulfil 
 all righteousness." 2 Thence on, after the 
 descent of the Spirit upon Jesus, the min- 
 istry of Christ reveals a spiritual realm, or 
 " kingdom of God," which is likewise termed 
 " the kingdom of heaven : " a state of " life M 
 wherein divinity itself "abides" in the hu- 
 man soul. It is not merely in a natural 
 sense, therefore, but in a larger spiritual 
 sense, which includes the natural, that the 
 scripture says, "As we have borne the 
 image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
 image of the heavenly." 3 
 
 When Jesus affirmed that " the law and 
 the prophets were until John," and "since 
 that time the kingdom of God is preached," 4 
 his teaching evinced a wholly new depar- 
 ture in Revelation, a wholly new truth was 
 then first revealed to man. Christ does 
 not stand in the line of the prophets as of 
 the same order of righteousness ; he even 
 
 1 Matt, iii: 13. 2 Matt, iii : 15. 
 
 8 1 Cor. xv : 49. * Luke xvi : 16. 
 
70 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 affirmed that John was " much more than a 
 prophet "* — one sent from God to prepare 
 the way 2 of the Lord. 
 
 Ill 
 
 John's ministry, therefore, was for the 
 arousing of a moral sense in the individual ; 
 for the baptism of "repentance from dead 
 works M 3 must precede in every soul that 
 baptism of " the Holy Ghost and of fire" 4 
 which is by Jesus Christ. For man can 
 have no experience of a realm of Spirit, or 
 " kingdom of God," except a moral sense 
 be first awakened in him ; and as it was 
 with respect to God's dealing with " a peo- 
 ple " in the order of Revelation, so is it with 
 his dealing with every individual soul — a 
 moral dispensation must precede the spirit- 
 ual, and Christ marks this distinction when 
 he discriminates between the righteousness 
 of " the law and the prophets " and " the 
 kingdom of God." 
 
 1 Matt, xi : 9. (R. V.) 2 Matt, iii : 3. 
 
 8 Heb. vi: 1, 2. 4 Matt, iii : n. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 71 
 
 IV 
 
 What then, in the light of Revelation, is 
 this "kingdom of God " if it is not "of the 
 law and the prophets " ? if it is not of the 
 righteousness of moral conduct as witnessed 
 in John ? The teaching of Jesus is — and 
 the truth may only be discerned as mani- 
 fested in Christ, in whom the distinction is 
 so marked that it has ever had a tendency 
 to separate Jesus from his " brethren " — 
 that the kingdom of God is a spiritual or 
 divine realm, wherein the moral law is "ful- 
 filled " in the very Being and Presence of 
 God ; a "kingdom of peace " wherein there 
 is no consciousness of moral restraint, no 
 sense of obligation or of obedience ; where- 
 in every thought and word and deed is the 
 free and joyful prompting and expression 
 of spontaneous love ; a state wherein all is 
 affirmative of the freedom of the Spirit, 1 of 
 the joyous consciousness of God's indwell- 
 ing Presence in the soul ; a state wherein 
 1 2 Cor. iii : 17, 
 
72 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 God and man are in Fatherly and filial re- 
 lationship, in perfect " fellowship." * 
 
 This momentous teaching affirms that 
 the ministry of Christ is something more 
 than a moral, or ethical, dispensation : "The 
 law and the prophets were until John : since 
 that time the kingdom of God is preached." 2 
 In the light of this significant teaching, 
 moral perfection does not fulfill the whole 
 destiny of man. For, as revealed in Christ, 
 man, when made a " partaker of the divine 
 nature," eventually is to come into the un- 
 veiled presence of God, spirit to Spirit ; and 
 when grown to the fullness of the stature of 
 that spiritual manhood revealed in Christ 3 
 man will then be " in the form of God," 4 
 " the very image of his substance : " 6 for the 
 human soul will then be filled and informed 
 with " all the fulness of God." 6 
 
 1 i John i : 3. 2 Luke xvi : 16. 
 
 8 Eph. iv : 13. * Phil, ii : 6. 
 
 5 Heb. 1:352 Cor. iv : 4. (R. V.) 
 
 6 Eph. iii : 19. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 73 
 
 VI 
 
 In his teaching on the mount Jesus be- 
 gan his earthly ministry by first spiritual- 
 izing the moral sense — pushing it deeper 
 than conduct, making it apply ethically to 
 the "thoughts of the heart." He affirmed 
 that the secret glance of carnal desire is 
 the act of adultery " committed already ; " 1 
 for in a spiritual realm it is the thought 
 which determines the sin. Natural moral- 
 ity, or right conduct, is the righteousness 
 of man, 2 and this is of the order of a nat- 
 ural world : but he who reveals the Spirit 
 discloses a spiritual order of righteousness 
 which transcends the righteousness of the 
 moral law ; for the scripture says, " The 
 gospel of Christ ... is the power of God 
 unto salvation to every one that believeth 
 ... for therein is revealed a righteousness 
 of God." 3 
 
 1 Matt, v : 28. 2 Rom. x : 3, 4. 
 
 8 Rom. i: 16, 17. (R. V.) 
 
74 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 Jesus said to his disciples, " Verily I say 
 unto you, that many prophets and righteous 
 men have desired to see those things which 
 ye see, and have not seen them ; and to 
 hear those things which ye hear, and have 
 not heard them." * For until revealed in 
 Christ, and in his spiritual followers, the 
 divine Spirit, as already stated, was not 
 manifested as abiding in man. 
 
 To repeat, therefore : before the coming 
 of Christ, God's word was ministered by 
 angels 2 and prophets, as instrumentalities, 
 and man was approached as a "servant," 
 from without. But Jesus said to his disci- 
 ples, " Henceforth I call you not servants, 
 . . . but I have called you friends." 3 For 
 of that earlier dispensation the scripture 
 says, " Moses verily was faithful in all 
 his house, as a servant, for a testimony 
 of those things which were afterward to 
 be spoken ; but Christ as a son, over his 
 
 1 Matt, xiii : 17. 2 Heb. ii : 2. 
 
 8 John xv : 14, 15. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 75 
 
 house " J — which is a realm of Spirit, "the 
 kingdom of God." 
 
 VII 
 
 Moral truths, as of the order of Nature, 
 may be apprehended clearly by the natural 
 understanding, but spiritual things are 
 " spiritually discerned ; " 2 and until this 
 spiritual order of discernment is awakened 
 in the mind " spiritual things " are deemed 
 " mystical " — the apostle says they appear 
 even "as foolishness." 3 But they are not 
 wholly mystical to the spiritual conscious- 
 ness, but normal or natural, as it were, 
 and are clearly apprehended. For when 
 a spiritual consciousness has once been 
 awakened in man these higher truths are 
 then discerned spirit to Spirit, for then like 
 discerns like. 4 To the spiritual conscious- 
 ness the moral law is then no longer the 
 standard of righteousness, but God him- 
 self ; even as Jesus said, " Be ye therefore 
 
 1 Heb. iii : 5, 6. (R. V.) 2 1 Cor. ii : 14. 
 
 8 1 Cor. ii : 14. 4 1 Cor. ii : 10-13. 
 
76 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 perfect, even as your Father which is in 
 heaven is perfect ; " * and when addressed 
 as "Good Master," Jesus replied, "Why 
 callest thou me good ? There is none good, 
 but one ; that is, God." 2 
 
 Matt, v : 48. 2 Matt, xix : 17. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 77 
 
 THE SPIRIT IMPARTED TO MAN 
 
 That John discerned in Jesus a higher 
 order of " life " than that which was ful- 
 filled in himself is manifest from his words, 
 "After me there cometh a man which is 
 preferred before me; for he was before me. 1 
 . . . One mightier than I ; whose shoe- 
 latchet I am not worthy to stoop down and 
 unloose. 2 . . . He shall baptize you with the 
 Holy Ghost, and with fire. 3 ... I saw the 
 Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, 
 and it abode upon him." 4 
 
 If this were a special or miraculous ex- 
 perience, wholly apart from what transpires 
 subconsciously in the souls of all men when 
 "born of the Spirit," then that special ex- 
 perience would have removed Jesus from 
 off the plane of that humanity which is 
 
 1 John i : 30. 2 Mark i : 7. 
 
 8 Luke iii : 16. 4 John i : 32. 
 
78 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 common to man, and consequently he could 
 not have served as an example for man. 
 But Jesus teaches otherwise, — " Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, He that' believeth 
 on me, the works that I do shall he do 
 also." 1 This believing on him implies re- 
 ceiving his teaching and following his ex- 
 ample in all things ; and as his anointing 
 of the Spirit 2 was his source of power in 
 " overcoming the world," so will it be with 
 his followers in like manner, even to that 
 consummation of human destiny when they 
 likewise shall be " filled with all the fulness 
 of God ; " 3 or when all things are " ful- 
 filled" 4 in "perfect man," and God is "all 
 in all." 5 
 
 II 
 
 It has been a subject of philosophical 
 speculation, in the light of Science, as to 
 whether there is discernible at any point 
 in the order of Nature the evidence of a 
 
 1 John xiv : 12. 2 Acts x : 38. 
 
 8 Eph. iii : 19. 4 Matt, v : 18. 
 
 5 1 Cor. xv : 28. 
 
^ Of THE > 
 
 UNIVERSITY J 
 of J 
 
 ^Sfi£i£9&B-%HE LIGHT OF REVELATION 79 
 
 supernatural intervention marking, for in- 
 stance, the divisions of the several king- 
 doms of Nature, or separating man from 
 a lower order of creation. The tendency 
 of modern scientific discovery is steadily 
 toward establishing the uniformity of Na- 
 ture through the unbroken continuity of 
 natural law. But in the revelation of Jesus 
 Christ his whole teaching is based upon a 
 .$7//ra-natural intervention through this de- 
 scent of the Spirit upon man. 1 The scrip- 
 ture says, " When the fulness of time was 
 come" — that is, when the natural crea- 
 tion was eventually consummated in time 
 — " God sent forth his Son . . . that we 
 might receive the adoption of sons" and 
 become " heirs of God through Christ." 2 
 
 Jesus having received the Spirit, as sym- 
 bolized at his baptism, imparts this same 
 " gift of God " to his followers, for the 
 scripture says, " He quickeneth whom he 
 will." 3 And that this " gift of the Spirit " 
 is added, ab extra, to the natural constitu- 
 
 1 John i : 32. 2 Gal. iv : 4-7. 8 John v : 21. 
 
80 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 tion of man is implied in the teaching con- 
 cerning Jesus ; ? namely, that at his baptism 
 " the heaven was opened unto him, and the 
 Spirit descended upon him " 1 — symbol- 
 ized by a dove : and thenceforth Jesus went 
 forth " in the power of the Spirit." 2 
 
 No conceivable act is so wholly apart 
 from the known order of Nature as this 
 opening of the heaven and descending of 
 the divine Spirit upon man. It reveals 
 a " new life," a new realm — the life of the 
 Spirit, "the kingdom of God." This ex- 
 perience of Jesus, as implied in the symbol 
 given at his baptism, reveals a .ra/ra-natural 
 imparting of the divine nature to man, 
 disclosing his divine destiny. And this 
 descent of the Spirit upon Jesus was the 
 fulfilling of that ancient prophecy, "Be- 
 hold my servant, whom I have chosen, . . . 
 I will put my Spirit upon him." 3 
 
 In the light of this significant teaching 
 there is imparted to man, through Christ, 
 
 1 Luke iii : 21, 22. 2 Luke iv : 14. 
 
 8 Isa. xlii : 1 ; Matt, xii : 18. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 81 
 
 not merely a higher ethical principle of life, 
 but a wholly new nature — of " the Spirit 
 of God." * This truth is insisted on with 
 constant reiteration in the New Testa- 
 ment, and with every variety in the form of 
 expression, because of its fundamental im- 
 portance in connection with the fulfillment 
 of human destiny ; for a knowledge of the 
 truth 2 is a means of hastening the con- 
 summation of that destiny. 
 
 1 Rom. viii : 9, 14. 2 John viii : 32. 
 
82 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 ACTIVITIES OF NATURE AND 
 SPIRIT 
 
 It has thus been shown from the testi- 
 mony of scripture that the revelation of the 
 Spirit is supra-natural 2 — over and above 
 Nature. The spiritual includes the natural, 
 but the natural only includes the spiritual 
 when man is " born of God." The revela- 
 tion of this truth is to the individual soul, 
 through Jesus Christ, who said, " I am the 
 way and the truth and the life; no man 
 cometh unto the Father but by me." 2 
 
 With reference to this spiritual enlight- 
 enment of man by Revelation, the apostle 
 Peter says, " We have a sure word of pro- 
 phecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take 
 heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
 place, until the day dawn, and the day-star 
 
 1 Eph. i : 17. 2 John xiv : 6. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 83 
 
 arise in your hearts." * For it is through 
 this " sure word of prophecy " that man 
 gains a knowledge of his true life and ulti- 
 mate destiny, the revelation having culmi- 
 nated in a manifestation of the truth in all 
 its fullness in Jesus Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 We may conclude, therefore, that Science 
 and Revelation are of two orders of know- 
 ledge, derived respectively from Nature and 
 Spirit ; and these two orders of knowledge 
 are coordinated in "perfect man." One 
 order of enlightenment relates to a realm 
 of Nature, while the other relates to a 
 realm of Spirit, or "kingdom of God;" 
 one is concerned with the temporal life of 
 man, while the other is concerned with 
 " eternal life " and man's ultimate destiny 
 — for " This is life eternal, that they might 
 know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ, whom thou hast sent." 2 
 
 1 2 Peter i : 19. 2 John xvii : 3. 
 
84 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 III 
 
 The natural history of creation, in the 
 light of Science, passes from the so-called 
 inorganic to the organic, from lower to 
 higher organisms, from unconscious to con- 
 scious life. Thence on, in man, physical in- 
 stincts are gradually subordinated to intel- 
 lectual and moral faculties until the body 
 eventually becomes the servant of a right- 
 eous and informed mind. Parallel with 
 this enlightenment of Science is the order 
 of Revelation, which traces man's passage 
 from a carnal to a moral state, as witnessed 
 in the Old Testament ; and from a moral 
 to a spiritual state, as witnessed in the New 
 Testament. While, therefore, Science ex- 
 plains the ceaseless activities of Nature in 
 the forming of man — as to his physical 
 organism and natural attributes of mind — 
 Revelation affirms the activity of the Spirit, 
 as striving with man 1 through the ages, 
 seeking to redeem the human soul from 
 
 1 Gen. vi : 3. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 85 
 
 " the beggarly elements " 1 of the world, 
 that God may impart his own nature to 
 man and thus consummate the divine pur- 
 pose of his creation — in a " kingdom pre- 
 pared for you from the foundation of the 
 world." 2 And if Science now sheds in- 
 creasing light on the natural process of 
 man's creation, Revelation discloses with 
 equal certainty, to say the least, the opera- 
 tion of the Spirit ; first through " the Spirit 
 of prophecy " and then through Jesus 
 Christ, " redeeming " the human soul from 
 the world and " saving " it to its divine 
 destiny. 
 
 IV 
 
 That these two orders of truth, consti- 
 tuting Science and Revelation, derived re- 
 spectively from Nature and Spirit, are des- 
 tined to become coordinated in a larger and 
 more comprehensive view of man's nature 
 and destiny than the human mind has 
 hitherto conceived, is a conclusion now 
 dawning in the human consciousness. 
 1 Gal. iv : 9. 2 Matt, xxv : 34. 
 
86 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 Speculation or conjecture, whether in the 
 guise of philosophy or of science, can never 
 become a substitute for Revelation, for 
 Nature affirms no truth concerning that 
 which lies beyond the temporal life of man. 
 The apostle Paul, alive to the tendency of 
 the human mind to substitute " man's wis- 
 dom " for the revelation of the Spirit, gives 
 this significant warning : " Beware lest any 
 man spoil you through philosophy and vain 
 deceit, after the traditions of men, after 
 the rudiments of the world, and not after 
 Christ." 1 
 
 But while Science continues to open new 
 vistas of truth through the discovery of nat- 
 ural law, and Revelation continues to dis- 
 close new heights to which the conscious- 
 ness of man may attain through Christ, 
 then must these instrumentalities ever con- 
 tinue to enlarge the horizon of the human 
 mind and afford a clearer vision of the 
 grandeur of human life and human destiny. 
 
 Man has already discerned that that is 
 
 l Col. ii : 8. 
 
 " 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 87 
 
 not life in which no new day of truth ever 
 dawns. The infinite springs of the wisdom 
 and mystery of Nature will never be ex- 
 hausted by Science, nor will the infinite 
 fullness of the Spirit ever be exhausted by 
 Revelation, or the depths of Revelation 
 ever be sounded by the plummet of human 
 thought ; for Jesus said, " I have yet many 
 things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear 
 them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit 
 of truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
 truth . . . and shew you things to come." 1 
 
 1 John xvi : 12, 13. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE DESTINY OF MAN AS REVEALED 
 IN CHRIST 
 
Jesus said, " To this end was I born, and for this 
 cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness 
 unto the truth." — John xviii : 37. 
 
 " I came that they may have life, and may have it 
 abundantly." — John x : 10. (R. V.) 
 
 " I am the way and the truth and the life ; no man 
 cometh unto the Father but by me." — John xiv : 6. 
 
THE DESTINY OF MAN AS 
 REVEALED IN CHRIST 
 
 "WHAT IS MAN?" 
 
 I 
 
 The world of nature, including the uni- 
 verse and man, reveals God as the creator 
 and sustainer of all things ; but as to his 
 spiritual Fatherhood the scriptures affirm 
 God is revealed through his Son Jesus 
 Christ, who said, " No man knoweth the 
 Father, save the Son, and he to whomso- 
 ever the Son will reveal him." 1 
 
 And in like manner, " man " may be 
 known as to his temporal capacities in the 
 earthly life ; but before human destiny was 
 revealed in Christ the mind of this world 
 was ignorant of what really constitutes man, 
 
 1 Matt, xi : 27. 
 
92 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 "perfect man;" 1 for the highest earthly- 
 capacity of the human soul is as nothing 
 compared with that celestial estate 2 to 
 which man attains when his destiny is ful- 
 filled ; for as revealed in Christ the horizon 
 of that destiny widens immeasurably, and 
 man is discerned to be, in the celestial 
 state, in "fellowship" 3 with God. 
 
 II 
 
 In the light of " the revelation of Jesus 
 Christ," therefore, it is evident that the 
 height and breadth and depth of meaning 
 that is hid in the generic term " man," as 
 this term is used in the symbol of Genesis, 
 is not compassed by the nature of man on 
 this earth, but may be discerned in that 
 celestial Son of man who descended out of 
 heaven ; for Jesus said, addressing the hu- 
 man consciousness of this world, " No man 
 hath ascended into heaven, but he that de- 
 scended out of heaven ; even the Son of 
 man which is in heaven." 4 Again, he said, 
 
 1 Eph. iv: 13. 2 Rom. viii: 18. 
 
 8 1 John i : 3. 4 John iii : 13. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 93 
 
 " What then if ye should behold the Son of 
 man ascending where he was before ? " 1 
 
 As used by Christ the term " Son of 
 man " is not simply a messianic title ; the 
 expression signifies, primarily, the veritable 
 existence of the Messiah as an individual 
 human soul ; and when he said, " No man 
 hath ascended into heaven, but he that de- 
 scended out of heaven," Jesus affirms that 
 the same man who eventually "ascended 
 again," had likewise "descended out of 
 heaven;" for he says that he is "the Son 
 of man which is in heaven." And this is 
 likewise affirmed in the scripture : " He 
 that descended first into the lower parts of 
 the earth, is the same also that ascended up 
 far above all heavens, that he might fill all 
 things, and for the perfecting of the saints 
 . . . till we all come into the unity of the 
 faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of 
 God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 2 
 
 ' 1 John vi : 62. (R. V.) 
 2 Eph. iv : 4-9. 
 
94 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 III 
 
 In the light of this significant revelation, 
 whereby the pre-incarnate existence of the 
 human soul of the Messiah is implied, as 
 well as his post-incarnate glorified state as 
 "perfect man," human destiny is found to 
 embrace a transcendant heavenly or divine 
 estate, which is only conceivable through 
 its revelation and manifestation in Jesus 
 Christ. When, therefore, it is affirmed in 
 the scriptures that Christ was " born of the 
 seed of David according to the flesh ; and 
 declared to be the Son of God, with power, 
 according to the Spirit of holiness," l it is 
 not implied therein that the Messiah was 
 first endowed with a human soul at the 
 time of his incarnation ; for of that incarna- 
 tion it was prophesied, " A body didst thou 
 prepare for me ; " 2 and when born of Mary 
 this was designated " that holy thing . . . 
 which shall be called the Son of God." 3 
 
 l Rom. i : 3, 4. 2 Heb. x : 5. (R. V.) 
 
 8 Luke i : 35. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 95 
 
 For in the light of the New Testament, 
 body, soul, and spirit * are all comprised in 
 perfect man ; and the apostle Paul affirms 
 that " there is a natural body, and there is 
 a spiritual body," 2 and " the creature it- 
 self also shall be delivered from the bond- 
 age of corruption into the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God." 3 
 
 1 1 Thess. v : 23. 2 1 Cor. xv : 44. 
 
 8 Rom. viii : 21. 
 
96 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 " THE SON OF MAN " 
 
 I 
 
 The expression, " Son of man," by which 
 Jesus insistently designates himself, stands, 
 therefore, for the individual human soul. 
 The term is applicable to Jesus because 
 he is indeed very man, even as that which 
 " dwell eth " ! in him with all the divine " ful- 
 ness " is very God. ""He knew what was 
 in man," 2 for human nature was fulfilled in 
 him ; he experienced this " at all points, 
 being tempted like as we are, yet without 
 sin." 3 " For," the scripture affirms, " both 
 he that sanctifieth, and they who are sancti- 
 fied, are all of one ; for which cause he is 
 not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, 
 I will declare thy name unto my breth- 
 ren." * 
 
 In the light of this teaching, " the Son 
 
 1 Col. ii : 9. 2 John ii : 25. 
 
 8 Heb. iv : 15. * Heb. ii : 11, 12. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 97 
 
 of man in heaven," as to his human soul, is 
 of one nature with his " brethren " of this 
 world; but in him is manifested human 
 destiny fulfilled in " perfect man " as Son 
 of God. For, as manifested in Christ, the 
 divine sonship consists in man's birth of 
 the Spirit ; * and the " Son of God " is the 
 Spirit of the Father, the one only Spirit, 
 "begotten" in man, imparted to man — as 
 revealed once for all at the baptism of 
 Jesus. 2 Through the revelation in Christ 
 it may be discerned, therefore, that there 
 is no divine sonship unassociated with the 
 human soul ; for in the " Son of man " the 
 divine Spirit is eternally individualized and 
 made personal as "the Son of God," as 
 affirmed by the scripture : " This man, be- 
 cause he continueth forever, hath an un- 
 changeable priesthood." 3 
 
 II 
 The words, "The Son of man descended 
 out of heaven," and " This man . . . con- 
 
 1 John iii : 5. 2 Mark i : 10. 8 Heb. vii : 24. 
 
98 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 tinueth forever," disclose to the mind of 
 this world a heavenly estate of man, re- 
 vealed in Jesus Christ. And by this same 
 light it may be discerned that the humanity 
 of the Messiah was not temporarily as- 
 sumed through his incarnation, but was 
 " made flesh " 1 by that means. This is an 
 important distinction ; for had the human 
 soul of the Messiah originated as a special 
 or miraculous creation, Jesus would then 
 have stood among men as an unrelated be- 
 ing, incapable of revealing their destiny. 
 Were not Jesus truly "man," and as he 
 insistently affirms, the " Son of man," he 
 could not have served as an example for 
 man ; for an example, to be effectual as 
 such, must be wholly within the conditions 
 wherein it is to serve as a pattern. But 
 according to his own teaching the Messiah 
 is affirmed to be " Son of man " before and 
 after his incarnation ; and the scripture 
 says he is " perfect man " 2 — as such he is 
 a revealer of human destiny. 
 
 1 John i : 14. 2 Eph. iv : 13. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 99 
 
 III 
 
 To apprehend the fullness, or complete- 
 ness, of the revelation of human destiny in 
 Jesus Christ it is essential that the human- 
 ity of the Messiah be discerned in his pre- 
 incarnate, his incarnate, and in his ascended 
 or glorified states of being ; therefore with 
 equal insistence the scriptures affirm that 
 it was " the Son of man " who descended, 
 was incarnated, and ascended again : for 
 Jesus said, "The Son of man will come 
 with power and great glory " * — in his fu- 
 ture heavenly manifestations. 
 
 The persistence of the human personality 
 of Jesus in the heavenly, as in the earthly 
 state of being, is further attested by the 
 words, " This same Jesus, who was received 
 up from you into heaven, shall so come in 
 like manner as ye beheld him going into 
 heaven " 2 — as symbolized by his visible 
 ascension. That is, the Messiah will reap- 
 pear in his future heavenly manifestations 
 
 1 Matt, xxiv : 30. 2 Acts i : 1 1. (R. V.) 
 
ioo HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 as a human soul in whom " dwelleth all the 
 fulness of the Godhead, bodily ; " l for the 
 scripture distinctly affirms the persistence 
 of that human personality — " this same 
 Jesus." 
 
 In the light of Revelation, therefore, it 
 may be discerned that Jesus, as the Christ 
 of God, is a human soul perfected — a celes- 
 tial "man," filled and informed with the 
 Spirit of God and individualized as "Jesus;" 
 of whom it is affirmed that " God hath made 
 him both Lord and Christ." 2 
 
 1 Col. ii : 9. 2 Acts ii : 36. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 101 
 
 "THE MESSIAH" 
 
 I 
 
 In order that the Son of God, as "the 
 Son of man in heaven," might reveal in 
 himself, or in his own personal experience, 
 " the way and the truth and the life " 1 — as 
 the means whereby this newly created fam- 
 ily of man is to attain to the end or con- 
 summation of human desthay — it was 
 necessary that he should descend, as the 
 Messiah, into their conditions and stand 
 beside his brethren of this world on their 
 own plane of experience. And that he 
 might so "descend " it was necessary that 
 he should be deprived, for a season, of 
 "that glory which he had with the Fa- 
 ther " 2 in the heavenly, or celestial state 
 of being. That "glory" was of the Fa- 
 ther's Spirit, which he relinquished in order 
 that he might, as prophecy figuratively ex- 
 
 1 John xiv : 6. 2 John xvii : 5. 
 
102 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 pressed it, " descend into the lower parts 
 of the earth," * or into the unquickened 
 natural state of man ; and that he might so 
 descend, the apostle Paul affirms, "He 
 emptied himself, taking the form of a ser- 
 vant." 2 
 
 Spiritually there is no other way con- 
 ceivable by which this " descent " of the 
 Messiah into the earthly state of man could 
 have been effected ; for this descent was 
 not through space, but by his being emp- 
 tied, or made void, of that indwelling divine 
 presence with which he was reendowed at 
 his baptism, when "the Spirit descended 
 upon him," figuratively, "like a dove." 3 
 
 II 
 
 That the descent of the Messiah into the 
 earthly life was gradual, culminating in his 
 incarnation, is apparent when messianic 
 prophecy is studied as a whole. And as 
 implied in the expression, " he emptied him- 
 
 i Eph. iv : 8-10. 2 Phil, ii : 7. (R. V.) 
 
 8 John i : 32. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 103 
 
 self," 1 this descent was effected by a will- 
 ing relinquishment of that divine endow- 
 ment which the Son of man in heaven, as 
 the Son of God, had from the Father, as 
 implied in his prayer to God at the close of 
 his ministry : " Glorify thou me with thine 
 own self, with the glory which I had with 
 thee before the world was." 2 
 
 The divine Spirit having been withdrawn 
 for a season from that celestial human soul, 
 the Messiah came as a "servant ;" that is, 
 in his own human proprium as " Son of 
 man ; " and in this natural, moral state, 
 Jesus remained until reendowed with the 
 divine Spirit at the beginning of his min- 
 istry. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Apart from speculative conjecture, dis- 
 cerned in the light of messianic prophecy 
 the descent of the Son of God as Son of 
 man was by his passing from a divine to a 
 human state of consciousness, from a spirit- 
 ual to a natural state of being ; and the 
 
 1 Phil, ii : 7. (R. V.) 2 John xvii : 5. 
 
104 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 figurative expression, " He emptied him- 
 self," signifies the means by which this 
 descent from the heavenly to the earthly 
 state was effected. 
 
 This withdrawal of the divine Spirit is 
 * likewise implied in the words, " In his hu- 
 miliation his judgment was taken away ; " x 
 for, coming in his own human proprium, as 
 " Son of man," the mind of the Messiah 
 was the mind of "perfect man "tempora- 
 rily made void of its heavenly endowment 
 of the Father's indwelling Spirit ; and he 
 was so "emptied," or deprived of his divine 
 inheritance, that he might stand beside his 
 brethren of this world in their unquickened, 
 natural state of being, to show them "the 
 way " by which they might be " redeemed " 
 from the conditions in which the earthly 
 man is formed, and to provide a means 
 whereby they might be "saved ".to that 
 divine inheritance for which they were 
 destined ; for Jesus said, " No man cometh 
 unto the Father, but by me." 2 
 
 1 Acts viii : 33. 2 John xiv . 6. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 105 
 
 This relinquishment of the Spirit is like- 
 wise implied in the words, " For your sake, 
 he became poor, that ye through his pov- 
 erty might become rich." * Thus, as figura- 
 tively foretold by prophecy, the Messiah de- 
 scended " into the pit " and " miry clay," 2 
 that he might approach this earthly family 
 of man consciously, or normally, on the 
 natural plane of life, face to face ; that by 
 his aid and example he might lift this 
 newly created human family up to God, as 
 affirmed in the words : " And I, if I be 
 lifted up out of the earth, will draw all men 
 unto me." 3 
 
 IV 
 
 In the light of both Old and New Tes- 
 tament prophecy, therefore, it may be dis- 
 cerned that the descending of the Messiah 
 as Son of man, and his " rising again " 4 as 
 Son of God, was solely with reference to 
 his having relinquished for a season his 
 
 1 2 Cor. viii : 9. (R. V.) 2 Psa. xl : 2. 
 
 8 John xii: 32. (R. V. marg.) * Rom. viii : 34. 
 
106 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 divine inheritance of the Father's Spirit, 
 and to his subsequent reendowment with 
 the same : upon this momentous truth is 
 based, fundamentally, his revelation of hu- 
 man destiny. 
 
 For it is inconceivable that any being, 
 God or man, could, so to speak, be " emp- 
 tied " of his own nature, of his own pro- 
 prinm. But the Son of God, as " the Son 
 of man in heaven " filled with the Spirit 
 of the Father, could have that indwelling 
 Spirit withdrawn l for a season and " de- 
 scend out of heaven " in his own human 
 personality as " Son of man," being incar- 
 nated " of the seed of David according to 
 the flesh." 2 And Jesus distinctly affirms 
 that it was the " Son of man " who so de- 
 scended. 3 Upon this fundamental truth of 
 his gospel, or "good tidings," is based his 
 revelation of man's ultimate destiny. For 
 by his descending from heaven as Son of 
 man, and by his ascending again as Son of 
 
 i " Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." — Psa. li : 1 1. 
 2 Rom. i : 3. 8 John iii : 13. (R. V.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 107 
 
 God, Jesus, as the Christ of God, 1 reveals 
 to the mind of this world the whole nature 
 and destiny of "perfect man," manifesting 
 " the truth " in his own person and show- 
 ing his brethren the way by which they 
 likewise are to attain to the same inher- 
 itance, as expressed in his prayer to the 
 Father, "That they may be one, even as we 
 
 are." 2 
 
 V 
 
 In that unquickened, natural state of 
 man into which the Messiah had descended 
 he remained for thirty years, known as 
 "the carpenter," 3 known as "Jesus of 
 Nazareth," 4 in no way differing in his 
 human nature from his fellow men of this 
 earth save as to his sinlessness, 5 and in the 
 fact that as his was the incarnation of a 
 preexisting human soul he was born of a 
 virgin. Emerging from that sinless, moral 
 state, no record of which was deemed es- 
 
 1 Rev. xi : 1 5 ; xii : 10 2 John xvii : 1 1. (R. V.) 
 
 8 Mark vi : 3 ; Acts ii : 22 ; x : 38. 
 
 4 John i : 45 ; Acts x : 38. 6 Heb. iv : 15. 
 
108 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 sential to his message of "good tidings," 
 the Messiah was reendowed with the Fa- 
 ther's Spirit at the beginning of his minis- 
 try, when "the Spirit descended upon him 
 . . . and abode on him ; and there came a 
 voice from heaven, saying, " This is my be- 
 loved Son, in whom I am well pleased " ! — 
 a fulfillment of the prophecy, "This day 
 have I begotten thee." 2 
 
 The sign of this imparting of the divine 
 Spirit, as given at the baptism of Jesus, 
 was a symbol of that regeneration which is 
 gradually perfected in the human soul ; for 
 at a later day Jesus said, " I have a baptism 
 to be baptized with, and how am I strait- 
 ened till it be accomplished." 3 For it was 
 not until Jesus drew nigh to the end of his 
 sojourn on earth that he said, "The prince 
 of this world cometh and hath [or " find- 
 eth," R. V.] nothing in me;" 4 for there 
 remained in him then nothing that was 
 
 1 Matt, iii : 17. 
 
 2 Psa. ii : 7 ; Acts xiii : 33 ; Heb. i : 5. 
 
 8 Luke xii : 50. 4 John xiv : 30. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 109 
 
 open to further temptation ; and then it was 
 that he prayed the Father to restore to him, 
 in all its fullness, the divine Spirit : " Glorify 
 thou me with thine own self, with the glory 
 which I had with thee before the world 
 was." 1 
 
 VI 
 
 What transpired, therefore, at his baptism 
 by John was but the symbol of that spirit- 
 ual baptism that was only fully consum- 
 mated at a later day when he had been 
 " made perfect through sufferings " 2 and 
 had " overcome the world " 3 that is set in 
 the human heart 4 in the forming of man. 
 Then it was that Jesus said, " The hour is 
 come that the Son of man should be glori- 
 fied ; " 6 that is, reendowed with the Fa- 
 ther's indwelling presence with all the 
 divine " fulness." 
 
 Signs are a teaching instrumentality, and 
 this descending of the Spirit upon Jesus in 
 
 1 John xvii : 5. 2 Heb. ii : 10. 8 John xvi : 33. 
 4 Eccl. iii : 1 1. 5 John xii : 23. 
 
no HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 the form of a dove warindicative of the 
 imparting of that to him which was not 
 himself, but the Spirit of the Father, in 
 fulfillment of the prophecy, " Behold my 
 servant, whom I have chosen ; I will put 
 my Spirit upon him, and he shall bring 
 forth judgment unto truth." 2 
 
 In the spiritual, as in the natural world, 
 growth is gradual ; and even as it was said of 
 Jesus in his earlier years, that he " increased 
 in wisdom and stature, and in favour with 
 God and man," 2 so likewise from that 
 initial spiritual experience at his baptism 
 by John, when "the heaven was opened 
 unto him," 3 Jesus eventually attained to 
 the fullness or perfection of that spiritual 
 manhood 4 of which his followers, through 
 his aid and power, are made partakers 
 when they likewise are " become the sons 
 of God " 5 through this same imparting of 
 the Spirit to them that are willing to receive 
 the divine gift. 
 
 1 Isa. xliii : 10; Matt, xii : 18. 
 
 2 Luke ii : 52. 8 Matt, iii : 16, 17. 
 4 1 Cor. xv : 45, 49. 5 John i : 12. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION in 
 
 VII 
 
 That unquickened, natural state of man 
 into which the Messiah had descended 
 — apart from all considerations of willful 
 sin — is designated a state of spiritual 
 " death:" "For to this end Christ both 
 died and rose and revived, that he might 
 be the Lord both of the dead and the liv- 
 ing ; " 1 that is, Lord of both his " natural- 
 minded " and " spiritual-minded " followers. 
 For the apostle Paul, in marking this dis- 
 tinction, says, " First the natural ; after- 
 ward, then that which is spiritual ; the first 
 man is of the earth, earthy; the second 
 man is of heaven ; ... as we have borne the 
 image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
 image of the heavenly." 2 
 
 That the " death " and " rising again " 
 of the Messiah is commonly interpreted as 
 referring exclusively to the bodily experi- 
 ence of Jesus — to his physical death and 
 bodily resurrection — is according to a nat- 
 
 1 Rom. xiv : 9. 2 1 Cor. xv : 45-49. (R. V.) 
 
112 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 ural understanding, to the exclusion of its 
 spiritual significance. But the terms " life " 
 and " death " are used in the scriptures in 
 both senses ; and as herein employed the 
 terms "living" and "dead" signify the 
 quickened or unquickened state of man 
 with reference to the presence or absence 
 of the divine Spirit, as when Jesus said : 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour 
 cometh, and now is, when the dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God ; and 
 they that hear shall live." J 
 
 VIII 
 
 The "death" experienced by that heav- 
 enly Son of man, who was the Son of God, 
 was, therefore, not alone with reference to 
 the termination of his physical life at his 
 crucifixion ; primarily it was with reference 
 to his having descended from the heavenly 
 or spiritual, to the earthly or natural state 
 of man. For the Messiah could not have 
 revealed himself, or his divine message, to 
 
 1 John v : 25 ; xi : 25, 26. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 113 
 
 his " brethren " of this world, except he 
 stood beside them on their own plane of 
 life, in their earthly conditions, being sub- 
 ject to like temptations with them, though 
 sinless. This, then, was his " sacrifice ; " 
 namely, that for their sake * the Son of 
 God laid aside "that glory which he had 
 with the Father " — that divine endow- 
 ment of the Spirit which was his "joy" 
 and " glory " in the heavenly state — that 
 he might descend into their earthly and un- 
 quickened state to " redeem " and " save " 
 them. In all its height and breadth and 
 depth of meaning this was that spiritual 
 " death and sacrifice " which the Messiah 
 experienced in the fulfillment of his mis- 
 sion. He who is "of purer eyes than to 
 behold iniquity " 2 descended, according 
 to the words of prophecy, into " an horri- 
 ble pit " and " miry clay ; " 3 he who was in 
 fellowship with God in that glory which 
 he had with the Father "emptied him- 
 self " of his divine inheritance, impover- 
 
 1 2 Cor. viii : 9. 2 Hab. i : 13. 8 Psa. xl : 2. 
 
ii4 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 ished himself, " that ye through his poverty 
 might become rich M1 — that he might re- 
 veal in himself the way and the truth and 
 the life, and, when reendowed with the 
 Spirit of the Most High, that he might 
 impart the " gift of God " 2 to his brethren 
 of this world, that they likewise may be 
 made "partakers of the divine nature" 3 
 and " become the sons of God." 4 
 
 1 2 Cor. viii : 9. (R. V.) 2 John iv : 10. 
 3 2 Peter i : 4. * John i : 12. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 115 
 
 "PERFECT MAN 
 
 Starting, therefore, as "the captain of 
 their salvation," 1 from that unquickened 
 natural state of man into which the Mes- 
 siah had descended, Jesus received the ini- 
 tial sign of his reendowment with the Spirit 
 at his baptism, when " the heaven was 
 opened" 2 unto him. Thence on he "rose 
 again," spiritually, for there is a progress 
 observable in the character of his teaching, 
 a gradual transfiguration of his mind, until, 
 toward the end of his ministry, he announces 
 that " the hour is come that the Son of man 
 should be glorified." 3 
 
 In manifesting "the way," Jesus himself 
 passed through the experience that all souls 
 must pass through, for he reveals the nature 
 and destiny of " perfect man " in all states 
 of being, as well as the spiritual Father- 
 
 1 Heb. ii : 10. 2 Luke iii : 21. 3 John xii : 23. 
 
u6 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 hood of God. His destiny is man's destiny, 
 for the scripture says, " Truly our fellow- 
 ship is with the Father, and with his Son 
 Jesus Christ." * But the destiny which 
 he reveals is so overwhelming to the mind, 
 so holy, so divine -*- ending in man's inherit- 
 ance of " all the fulness of God " 2 — that 
 to the natural understanding it seems blas- 
 phemous even to name it. When Jesus de- 
 clared the truth, as manifested in himself, 
 " Then took they up stones to cast at him," 
 deeming him a blasphemer of God ; " that 
 he, being a man, should make himself God." 
 But Jesus answered, " Is it not written in 
 your law, I said, Ye are gods ? If he called 
 them gods, unto whom the word of God 
 came (and the scripture cannot be broken), 
 say ye of him whom the Father hath sanc- 
 tified, and sent into the world, Thou blas- 
 phemest ; because I said, I am the Son of 
 God ? " 3 The claim of Jesus was even less 
 in its seeming than that warranted by the 
 
 1 i John i : 2, 3. 2 Eph. iii : 19. 
 
 8 John x : 31-36 ; Psa. lxxxii : 6 ; Isa. xli : 23. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 117 
 
 scripture he quotes, or that elsewhere is 
 prophesied of man ; namely, that when made 
 a partaker of the divine nature — eventu- 
 ally, when fully perfected — man is " in 
 the image and likeness of God." 
 
 II 
 
 This godlike nature of perfect man is 
 affirmed of those " unto whom the word of 
 God came," who are thus made " partakers 
 of the divine nature." * For this godlike na- 
 ture and divine likeness are spiritual ; and 
 the revelation of this truth concerning man 
 may only be discerned in the life and char- 
 acter of Jesus Christ, who is affirmed to be 
 " in the form of God," 2 the " very image 
 of his substance." 3 
 
 As taught by Christ concerning the ne- 
 cessity that "man must be born again," 
 or " born of the Spirit," the distinction be- 
 tween sons of man and sons of God is a 
 generic distinction ; the natural mind does 
 
 1 2 Peter i : 4. 2 Phil, ii : 6. 
 
 8 Heb. i : 3 (R. V.). 
 
u8 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 not become spiritual through any refining 
 process in the order of nature or of mental 
 culture. The natural mind is capable of 
 infinite refinements without becoming in 
 the least degree spiritual. Even as to the 
 perfect moral sense, Jesus said of John the 
 Baptist that he was less than the least of 
 those who are of the kingdom of heaven. 1 
 
 Christ manifested in himself these two 
 natures, the spiritual and the natural, the 
 divine and the human, as "reconciled in 
 one body," 2 as brought into perfect agree- 
 ment of will and life ; and this supreme 
 manifestation in him was the revelation of 
 a universal truth : all men, when " born of 
 the Spirit," are sons of God, from the least 
 unto the greatest ; for in Christ it may be 
 discerned that there is no divine sonship 
 unassociated with the human soul. 
 
 Ill 
 
 When Jesus stood upon this earth as the 
 sole exponent of that divine sonship which 
 
 1 Matt, xi: II. 2 Eph. ii : 14-16. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 119 
 
 is " born of the Spirit," 1 he was designated 
 "the only-begotten;" 2 but when his fol- 
 lowers likewise, through his aid and power, 
 were made partakers of the same Spirit, 
 Jesus was then discerned as the "first-be- 
 gotten : " 3 " Whom he did foreknow [that 
 is, the spiritual being which man is destined 
 to become], he also did predestinate to be 
 conformed to the image of his Son, that he 
 might be the first-born among many breth- 
 ren." 4 And Jesus tells his followers, who 
 are also made " partakers of the divine na- 
 ture " 5 through this gift of the Spirit, that 
 they likewise shall speak the words of God ; 
 for on sending them forth to proclaim the 
 glad tidings of man's divine destiny, he 
 said, " Be not anxious how or what ye shall 
 speak; for it shall be given you in that 
 same hour what ye shall speak. For it is 
 not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 
 Father that speaketh in you." 6 
 
 1 John iii : 5. 9 John i : 14. 
 
 8 Heb. i : 6. 4 Rom. viii : 29. 
 
 5 2 Peter i : 4. 6 Matt, x : 19, 20. (R. V.) 
 
120 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 IV 
 
 Thus Christ manifests in himself the 
 ultimate destiny of man ; for the scripture 
 says, " Ye are all sons of God, through 
 faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you 
 as were baptized into Christ, did put on 
 Christ. . . . For ye are all one man in 
 Christ Jesus." 1 
 
 Jesus claims nothing for himself that he 
 does not affirm to be equally the heritage 
 of his followers when they stand where he 
 stands : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He 
 that believeth on me, the works that I do 
 shall he do also." 2 He does not claim 
 for himself the generic title " man ; " he 
 affirms that he is the " Son of man " — an 
 individual human soul. Nor does he claim 
 for himself the generic title " God ; " he 
 affirms that he is the " Son of God." But 
 while his followers in the earthly life are 
 but as " spiritual babes," he is grown to the 
 full stature of a spiritual manhood — he is 
 
 1 Gal. iii : 26-28. (R. V.) 2 John xiv : 12. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 121 
 
 "perfect man," 1 he is "in the form of 
 God," 2 " the very image of his substance : " 3 
 that is, the perfect expression of the Spirit. 
 In him, therefore, is revealed "all the ful- 
 ness " of the divine and human natures in 
 perfect "fellowship," in Fatherly and Filial 
 relationship through oneness of Spirit and 
 will and life ; he is, therefore, a revealer 
 both of God and perfect man, manifesting 
 in himself the ultimate destiny of the indi- 
 vidual human soul when made perfect even 
 as he is perfect. 
 
 That the Messiah is truly man, " raised 
 up unto you of your brethren," 4 and that 
 his relationship to God is the same relation- 
 ship, and not another, as that which his fol- 
 lowers shall eventually bear to the Father 
 as "the sons of God," is attested by these 
 words of Christ after he had risen from the 
 grave : 5 "Go to my brethren, and say unto 
 
 1 Eph. iv: 13. 2 Phil, ii: 6. 
 
 8 Heb. i : 3. (R. V.) 4 Acts iii : 22. 
 
122 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 them : I ascend to my Father, and your 
 Father ; and to my God, and your God." 1 
 Though risen from the grave, the Son of 
 God is still Son of man ; though passed be- 
 yond the earthly life, he is still of "the 
 brethren " — he is still human ; his Father 
 is their Father ; his God their God. Death 
 has wrought no change in his relationships 
 to God and man ; physical dissolution has 
 not in the least affected the human soul of 
 Jesus. And he is eager to assure his breth- 
 ren that, though risen and glorified, he is 
 not parted from them. In point of fact, 
 this is for them the supreme joy of his 
 " glad tidings," the very heart and crown 
 of his revelation of human destiny. For 
 his tidings are of that heavenly estate of 
 perfect man wherein God is "all in all;" 2 
 and that ultimate destiny of man he is 
 actually manifesting in himself, in his 
 own person, for he is " the Son of man in 
 heaven." Recognizing this, the apostle 
 Paul says, " If Christ be not risen, then 
 
 1 John xx : 17. 2 1 Cor. xv : 28. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 123 
 
 is our preaching vain, and your faith is also 
 vain." * For through the manifestations of 
 the risen Jesus the revelation of human 
 destiny is projected into the heavens to the 
 very end and consummation of that destiny, 
 as manifested in the ascended and glorified 
 Christ. 
 
 VI 
 
 That the "Son of God" is the Father's 
 Spirit imparted to the human soul, indi- 
 vidualized and made personal in man, is 
 once for all revealed in Jesus Christ ; for 
 he is the type and example of that celestial 
 brotherhood of perfect man in whom God 
 is "all in all " and "they are without fault 
 before his throne ; " 2 that is, they are per- 
 fect even in the light of God's presence. 
 The God and Father of that celestial race 
 of man is likewise " the God and Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," 3 who so perfectly 
 images in character and voices in spirit that 
 divine indwelling presence that Jesus said, 
 
 1 1 Cor. xv : 14. 2 Rev. xiv : 5. 
 
 8 2 Cor. i : 3 ; xi : 31 ; Eph. i : 3 ; 1 Peter i : 3. 
 
124 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 "He that hath seen me, hath seen the 
 Father." l 
 
 VII 
 
 The expression "our Lord, and his 
 Christ " 2 marks a distinction between that 
 one only divine Spirit, which is God — for 
 Jesus affirms that " God is Spirit " 3 — and 
 the manifestation of that Spirit as abiding 
 in all its fullness in the soul of perfect man. 
 That this distinction was in the mind of 
 Paul is implied in his words, " There is one 
 God, and one mediator between God and 
 men, the man Christ Jesus." 4 Through 
 him " all things " with respect to the na- 
 tures both of God and perfect man are 
 "brought to light," or made conscious in 
 man. And the Revelation in him is com- 
 plete and final, as implied in his words, " I 
 am the way, and the truth, and the life ; " 5 
 for in him the divine will and wisdom and 
 love are perfectly manifested forth to the 
 
 1 John xiv : 9. 2 Rev. xi : 15. 
 
 8 John iv : 24. (R. V. marg.) 
 
 4 1 Tim. ii : 5. 6 John xiv : 6. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 125 
 
 world. For he is the " form " and " bright- 
 ness " * of that indwelling divinity "which 
 in other ages was not made known unto the 
 sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his 
 holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." 2 
 
 1 Heb. i : 3. 2 Eph. iii : 5. 
 
126 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 "THE SON OF MAN IN HEAVEN " 
 
 I 
 
 The human mind of • this world could 
 have formed no conception of that ultimate 
 heavenly state of being which is realized in 
 perfect man as the culmination of human 
 destiny, except it were enlightened through 
 some other means than that by which man 
 commonly acquires knowledge. For that 
 ultimate destiny of the human soul lies hid 
 in a transcendent future which only a reve- 
 lation could anticipate. And the scripture 
 affirms that the revelation was given " To 
 make all men see what is the fellowship 
 of the mystery, which from the beginning 
 of the world hath been hid in God, who 
 created all things by Jesus Christ." 1 
 
 That he through whom this special family 
 of man is formed, might redeem it from the 
 
 1 Eph. iii : 9. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 127 
 
 earthly state and save it to its divine in- 
 heritance, he entered their conditions and 
 shared their lot, undergoing the experience 
 that is common to man. For he " was in 
 all points tempted like as we are, yet with- 
 out sin," * " Who in the days of his flesh, 
 having offered up prayers and supplications 
 with strong crying and tears unto him that 
 was able to save him from death, and was 
 heard in that he feared ; though he were a 
 Son, yet learned he obedience by the things 
 which he suffered ; and being made per- 
 fect, he became the author of salvation unto 
 all them that obey him." 2 
 
 II 
 
 The Messiah brought to this earthly 
 family of man, as manifested in himself, 
 " tidings " of that heavenly family of per- 
 fect man which is in the " image and like- 
 ness of God " and " in fellowship with the 
 Father ; " of whom it had been prophesied, 
 "I said, ye are gods." Of that celestial 
 
 1 Heb. iv:i5. 2 Ileb. v : 7-9. 
 
128 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 people he is the " chosen one " 1 through 
 whom " God created the worlds " and this 
 special family of man, which eventually he 
 redeems and saves. Thus Jesus reveals 
 and manifests in himself the ultimate des- 
 tiny of the race and of the individual human 
 soul. He is for this world the sole " media- 
 tor between God and men, himself man;" 2 
 and as God's celestial vicegerent 3 he is " in 
 the form of God," even as it was expressed 
 of old through prophecy. " Before me there 
 was no God formed ; neither shall there be 
 after me." 4 For when the Father is re- 
 vealed, " whom no man hath seen, nor can 
 see," 5 God is then discerned as purely 
 spiritual Being 6 — "the God and Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." 7 
 
 It was by means of that anthropomorphic 
 conception of " God formed " in the Son of 
 man in heaven, who is indeed "the very 
 
 1 Psa. lxxxix : 19. 2 1 Tim. ii : 5. (R. V.) 
 
 8 Acts iii : 20, 21. 4 Isa. xliii : 10. 
 
 6 1 Tim. vi : 16. 6 John iv : 24. 
 
 7 2 Cor. xi : 31 ; Eph. i : 3 ; 1 Peter i : 3. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 129 
 
 image" of the divine substance, that the 
 Deity, in the order of Revelation, was made 
 apprehensible to the mind of the Israelites 
 while as yet the Spirit of the Father was 
 unrevealed. For a purely spiritual revela- 
 tion of the Deity would have been incom- 
 prehensible to the human mind just emer- 
 ging from its carnal state. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The " Spirit of prophecy " — which is 
 affirmed to be " the testimony of Jesus " 1 — 
 voiced by anticipation from a realm that is 
 above time what was to befall the Messiah 
 in the fulfillment of his mission ; not only 
 as to outward events, but as to his inward 
 experience as well, as expressed through 
 the prophets and in the psalms : " Thou 
 hast brought me into the dust 'of death " 2 
 — through his incarnation : but " Thou 
 shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me 
 up again from the depths of the earth 3 . . . 
 and I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with 
 
 1 Rev. xix : 10. 2 Psa. xxii 115. 8 Psa. lxxi : 20. 
 
130 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 thy likeness. ... I will declare thy name 
 unto my brethren. 1 ... I will declare the 
 decree, The Lord hath said unto me, Thou 
 art my Son ; this day have I begotten 
 thee" 2 — the fulfillment of which was 
 when the Spirit descended upon Jesus and 
 "abode on him." 3 These and other like 
 utterances of prophecy are actually the 
 words of the Son of man in heaven fore- 
 telling his future earthly experience, speak- 
 ing above time and in the first person, "by 
 the mouth of his prophets." 4 
 
 IV 
 
 Studying that earlier revelation, expressed 
 in Old Testament prophecy, the disciples 
 of Jesus perceived that it was the Christ 
 who was with the Israelites, 5 speaking by 
 " the angel of his presence," even as was 
 taught by the Messiah after he had risen 
 from the grave : " These are the words 
 
 1 Psa. xvii: 15; xxii:22. 
 
 2 Psa. ii : 7 ; Acts xiii : 23 ; Heb. i : 5 ; v : 5. 
 
 3 John i : 32. 4 Luke i : 70. 6 1 Cor. x : 4. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 131 
 
 wh'ich I spake unto you, while I was yet 
 with you, how that all things must needs 
 be fulfilled, which are written in the law of 
 Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, 
 concerning me. Then opened he their 
 mind, that they might understand the scrip- 
 tures " a — spiritually. 
 
 It was necessary that man, in the order 
 of his forming, should first be approached 
 on a natural plane, in his natural state of 
 being, before God could reveal himself 
 spiritually, " face to face," as he is revealed 
 in Jesus Christ " by the Spirit ; " who said, 
 " He that hath seen me, hath seen the Fa- 
 ther;" "The Father is in me, and I in 
 him." 2 But Jesus implies that this dis- 
 cernment is spiritual, when he says, " not 
 that any man hath seen the Father, save 
 he which is of God." 3 
 
 In the order of God's creation of the hu- 
 man soul it was necessary that the natural 
 state should first be fulfilled by implant- 
 
 1 Luke xxiv : 44-46. (R. V.) 
 
 2 John x : 38 ; xiv : 9. 8 John vi : 46. 
 
132 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 ing in the mind and heart a moral sense, 
 through the Old Testament dispensation, 
 before man could be quickened by the 
 Spirit imparted from the Father. For the 
 "carnal mind " is impervious to spiritual in- 
 fluences, and until a moral sense is awak- 
 ened in man there is no ground of pre- 
 paration for receiving the "gift of God." 1 
 
 1 John iv : 10. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 133 
 
 "THE MAN, CHRIST JESUS" 
 
 I 
 
 The life of Christ, therefore, is the reve- 
 lation, for he personifies the truth concern- 
 ing human destiny, being " himself man." 
 — "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of 
 God unto you by many mighty works." * 
 " This Jesus did God raise up. . . . Being 
 therefore by the right hand of God ex- 
 alted, and having received of the Father 
 the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath 
 poured forth this "... and God " hath 
 made him both Lord and Christ." 2 Again, 
 it is written : God " hath glorified his Ser- 
 vant Jesus ; " 3 " Repent ye therefore . . . 
 that he may send the Christ whom he hath 
 appointed for you, even Jesus: whom the 
 heaven must receive until the times of res- 
 
 1 Acts ii : 22. 2 Acts ii : 32-36. (R. V.) 
 
 8 Acts iii : 13. (R. V.) 
 
134 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 titution of all things. . . . For Moses truly 
 said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the 
 Lord your God raise up unto you of your 
 brethren, like unto me." 1 And again, 
 "God having raised up his Servant, sent 
 him to bless you in turning away every one 
 of you from your iniquities." 2 The Mes- 
 siah is elsewhere designated "thy holy 
 Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint." 3 
 " Him did God exalt with his right hand to 
 be [or to become] a Prince and a Saviour." 4 
 " Be it known unto you . . . that through 
 this man is proclaimed unto you remission 
 of sins." 5 And finally it is affirmed that 
 God "will judge the world in righteousness 
 by the man whom he hath ordained." 6 
 
 Next to the joy of his conscious presence, 
 the joy of this revelation of human destiny 
 in Jesus Christ is most capable of inspiring 
 and uplifting the minds of his followers 
 through all time as a message of " good 
 
 1 Acts iii : 19-22. 2 Acts iii : 26. (R. V.) 
 
 3 Acts iv : 27 (R. V. ) ; x : 34. 4 Acts v : 31. 
 
 6 Acts xiii : 38. 6 Acts xvii : 31. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 135 
 
 tidings of great joy which shall be to all 
 people." 2 
 
 II 
 
 This then was the understanding that 
 was lodged in the minds of the immediate 
 followers of Christ ; namely, that the Christ 
 of God 2 is truly man ; a Son of man 
 " anointed " with the Spirit of the Most 
 High ; 3 a " servant " who recovered his 
 divine sonship through the "gift of the 
 Spirit," as symbolized at his baptism. For 
 the ministry of Christ was delayed until 
 Jesus was reendowed with the Spirit, and 
 thence on, it is said, he went forth " in the 
 power of the Spirit" 4 — the initial sign 
 given at his baptism being confirmed in the 
 Mount, as affirmed by the words, " He re- 
 ceived from God, the Father, honour and 
 glory when there came such a voice to him 
 from the excellent glory, This is my be- 
 loved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 5 
 
 1 Lukeii: 10. 2 Rev. xi : 15; xii : 10. 
 
 8 Rom. viii : XI. 4 Luke iv : 14. 6 2 Peter i : 17. 
 
136 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 It is this indwelling of the divine pre- 
 sence in a human soul which distinguishes 
 the mission and ministry of Christ from 
 that moral dispensation of " Moses and the 
 prophets," which Jesus said culminated in 
 the order of Revelation with John. 1 For it 
 is this indwelling of the divine presence in 
 a human soul which distinguishes a " son " 
 from a " servant " of God ; 2 and this fun- 
 damental truth of Christ's message cannot 
 be reiterated too often, since it has been 
 obscured through metaphysical definitions. 
 Christ's life is the life of perfect man in all 
 states of being ; and in order to a discern- 
 ment of the fullness of his revelation of 
 human destiny his humanity must be dis- 
 cerned in his pre-incarnate, his incarnate, 
 and in his glorified states, as " the Son of 
 man in heaven." 
 
 Ill 
 
 The distinction between a moral and a 
 spiritual dispensation is implied in these 
 1 Luke xvi : 16. 2 Heb. iii : 5, 6. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 137 
 
 words of Christ : " The law and the pro- 
 phets were until John ; since that time the 
 kingdom of God is preached ; " * and it is 
 said of Jesus that "he spake to them of 
 the kingdom of heaven " — of that perfect 
 state wherein human destiny is fulfilled ; 
 and in order to a right discernment of the 
 distinction between the old and the new 
 dispensations, it is necessary to distinguish 
 between a " servant " and a " son " 2 in the 
 order of God's instruments of Revelation. 
 For it was through the revelation in Jesus 
 Christ that a glorified human nature was 
 first made manifest to the world ; he first 
 revealed that celestial state of man which 
 is the fulfillment of human destiny. His 
 was a revelation of that reward of the faith- 
 ful long ago promised to Abraham : " Fear 
 not ; I am thy shield ; and thy exceeding 
 great reward ;" 3 for his was a revelation of 
 that divine consummation when God is "all 
 in all" 4 — a revelation, by manifestation, of 
 
 1 Luke xvi : 16. 2 Heb. iii : 5, 6. 8 Gen. xv : 1. 
 4 1 Cor. xv : 28 ; 2 Peter i : 4. 
 
138 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 the way of " salvation, through sanctifica- 
 tion of the Spirit." 1 Had the revelation 
 ended with the termination of the earthly 
 life of Jesus, human destiny would have 
 remained unrevealed ; but it is Christ speak- 
 ing from heaven, 2 in his glorified person- 
 ality as " the Holy Ghost," which carries 
 the revelation forward according to the pro- 
 mise, " He will show you things to come." 3 
 
 1 2 Thess. ii : 13. 2 Heb. xii : 25. 8 John xvi : 13. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 139 
 
 "THE WORLD TO COME" 
 
 I 
 
 That celestial state wherein the human 
 soul is "glorified" by the indwelling pre- 
 sence of divinity is affirmed to be a state 
 of being more exalted than the angelic, for 
 it is designated " the holiest of all." * It is 
 a state so transcendently exalted, as mani- 
 fested in Christ, that for the mind of this 
 world it is indistinguishable from divinity 
 itself. It is a state of human destiny, nev- 
 ertheless, when discerned by the light of 
 Christ's mind ; for he who said, " My Father 
 is greater than I " 2 affirmed thereby his 
 own subordination to the Highest ; as when 
 he said, " Why callest thou me good ; there 
 is none good, but God ; " 3 while his com- 
 mand to his followers was, " Be ye there- 
 fore perfect, even as your Father, which is 
 
 1 Heb. ix : 8. 2 John xiv : 28. 8 Matt, xix : 17. 
 
140 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 in heaven, is perfect." 1 Nevertheless, of 
 the Son it is said : " Having become so 
 much better than the angels, as he hath 
 inherited a more excellent name than they. 
 For unto which of the angels said he at any- 
 time, Thou art my Son, this day have I be- 
 gotten thee ? And again, I will be to him a 
 Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And 
 when he bringeth in the first-born into 
 the world, he saith, And let all the angels 
 of God worship him. ... Of the Son he 
 saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and 
 ever; and the sceptre of righteousness is 
 the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast 
 loved righteousness, and hated iniquity ; 
 therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee 
 with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." 2 
 
 II 
 
 Nevertheless Christ speaking from hea- 
 ven, in the Apocalypse, says of him that 
 overcometh, he shall "sit with me in my 
 throne ; even as I also overcame and am 
 1 Matt, v : 48. 2 Heb. i : 4-10. (R. V.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 141 
 
 set down with the Father in his throne" 1 
 — which is a symbol of perfect " fellowship" 
 on terms of equality, as implied in the 
 words, "Truly our fellowship is with the 
 Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ ; " 2 
 and this is also affirmed by the words of 
 the apostle Paul, " We shall also reign with 
 him." 3 But this fellowship on terms of 
 equality, as manifested in Christ, is not an 
 equality of the human with the divine, but 
 is wholly by virtue of that indwelling 
 Spirit of the Father abiding in the Son ; 
 which is " equal with God," 4 and indeed is 
 very God from very God. That "fellow- 
 ship," therefore, between the human and 
 the divine is wholly of the Spirit. Apart 
 from that indwelling divine presence the 
 human soul of Jesus partook of the weak- 
 ness that belongs to human nature : " The 
 Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the 
 works ; " 6 " The word which ye hear is not 
 mine, but the Father's who sent me;" 6 
 
 1 Rev. iii : 21. 2 1 John i : 3. 3 2 Tim. ii : 12. 
 4 Phil, ii : 6. 5 John xiv : 10. 
 
 • . 6 John xiv : 24. (R. V.) 
 
142 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 " The words that I speak unto you, they 
 are Spirit, and they are life." 1 "The 
 Son can do nothing of himself, but what he 
 seeth the Father doing ; for what things 
 soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth 
 in like manner." 2 "I can of mine own self 
 do nothing." 3 
 
 III 
 
 The metaphysical speculation that in the 
 Messiah the divine Spirit was a substitute 
 for the human soul (not superadded to it, 
 as shown by the descent of the Spirit upon 
 Jesus at his baptism) would utterly destroy 
 or make void the reality of his human na- 
 ture ; for he then would have been human 
 merely as to his bodily organism — a mate- 
 rialistic conception. But through the pre- 
 'incarnate existence of " the Son of man in 
 heaven," which Jesus affirms, and by the 
 " lifting up " of the human soul of the Mes- 
 siah into a heavenly realm in the person of 
 Jesus — as witnessed at his ascension — 
 
 1 John vi : 63. 2 John v : 19-20. (R. V.) 
 
 3 John v : 30. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 143 
 
 the Son of God may be discerned as truly 
 man in that celestial state of being, and as 
 such he is a revealer of human destiny. 
 
 IV 
 
 A revelation of the truth by actual mani- 
 festation differs from philosophical conjec- 
 ture inasmuch as it conveyed this knowledge 
 to the plain-minded followers of Christ by 
 showing them the truth as it is actually 
 realized in the person of Jesus, who said, 
 " To this end was I born, and for this cause 
 came I into the world, that I should bear 
 witness unto the truth." ' For a know- 
 ledge of the truth fills an important part 
 in the redemption and salvation of man ; 
 and Jesus said, " This is life eternal ; that 
 they might know thee, the only true God ; 
 and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." 2 
 
 For to know God as the creator of all 
 things is a natural form of knowledge ; 
 but to know God as he is known to Christ 
 is a spiritual form of knowledge ; and to 
 
 1 John xviii : 37. 2 John xvii : 3. 
 
144 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 know God spiritually is to know him as in 
 himself he really is, to see him face to face : 
 for Jesus said, " God is Spirit : and they that 
 worship him, must worship him in Spirit 
 and in truth ; " * while St. Paul says, " God 
 hath from the beginning chosen you to sal- 
 vation through sanctification of the Spirit 
 and belief of the truth." 2 
 
 As discerned by Stephen in the moment 
 of his martyrdom, who said, " I see the 
 heavens opened, and the Son of man stand- 
 ing on the right hand of God ; " 3 and as 
 disclosed in the several manifestations at- 
 tested by the apostle Paul after the ascen- 
 sion of Jesus ; 4 and to John at Patmos ; 5 the 
 immediate followers of Christ discerned 
 even in the glorified state of the Son of 
 man a distinction between God "and his 
 Christ." 6 This knowledge was for them 
 not an intellectual acquisition but a revela- 
 
 1 John iv : 24. 2 2 Thess. ii .-13. 3 Acts vii : 56. 
 4 Acts ix : 3-6 ; xxii : 17-22 ; xxiii : 11 ; xxvii : 23, 24. 
 „£.. Rev. i : 1. 6 Rev. xi : 15 ; xii : 10. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 145 
 
 tion of truth by its actual manifestation in 
 Jesus, who makes no reference to the divine 
 sonship apart from its fulfillment in his hu- 
 man soul : " Now is the Son of man glori- 
 fied ; and God is glorified in him." 1 And 
 when he referred to the celestial state of 
 that sonship, in the future as well as in the 
 past, he said, the Son of man " shall come 
 in his own glory, and in his Father's " 2 — 
 which implies that in him is revealed all the 
 fullness of both the human and the divine 
 natures as manifested in the person of the 
 Son of man, even as was prophesied of men : 
 " Ye are the temple of the living God ; as 
 God hath said, I will dwell in them, and 
 walk in them ; and they shall be my people, 
 and I will be their God." 3 For the unity 
 of all human souls in one human nature — 
 including " Jesus, the Christ" — forms a 
 universal brotherhood of man in all states 
 of being, as revealed in the Son of man in 
 heaven. This unity of all souls in one 
 human nature, throughout all worlds, offsets 
 1 John xiii 1 31. 2 Luke ix : 26. 8 2 Cor. vi : 16. 
 
 
146 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 that unity of Spirit * which centres all in 
 God ; for the scripture affirms, " ye are all 
 one man in Christ Jesus," 2 and " he that 
 is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit." 3 
 
 VI 
 
 For the revelation of man's ultimate des- 
 tiny it was essential that the pre-incarnate 
 existence of the Son of man should be made 
 known through " the Spirit of prophecy," 4 
 and his glorified ascended state through 
 "the manifestations of the Holy Ghost," 
 if the whole nature and destiny of perfect 
 man was to be disclosed to the mind of this 
 world. For the earthly state, even as mani- 
 fested in the life of Christ, is incapable of 
 revealing all the glory of the divine destiny 
 of perfect man — the earthly conditions are 
 inadequate. Therefore the scripture says, 
 " The Holy Ghost, this signifying, that the 
 way into the holiest of all was not yet made 
 manifest while as the first tabernacle was 
 
 i Eph. ii : 18. 2 Gal. iii : 28. (R. V.) 
 
 8 1 Cor. vi : 17. 4 Rev. xix: 10. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 147 
 
 yet standing ; which is a figure for the time 
 now present " * — that is, after Christ's as- 
 cension into heaven. 
 
 In its outward sense this " first taber- 
 nacle " is sometimes construed as referring 
 to a temple made with hands ; but in its 
 spiritual sense it refers to the incarnated 
 Christ — to that " natural body " which is 
 temporal, as contrasted with that " spirit- 
 ual body " which is eternal ; and it was 
 not until Jesus had " risen again " and had 
 "passed into the heavens" 2 that he re- 
 vealed " the way into the holiest of all " 
 through his ministrations as " the Com- 
 forter : even the Spirit of truth," who will 
 "guide into all truth" 3 — of whom it is 
 said, " the Lord is that Spirit." 4 
 
 1 Heb. ix : 8, 9. 2 H eb. iv : 14. 
 
 8 John xv : 26; xvi : 13. 4 2 Cor. iii : 17. 
 
148 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 "THE SPIRIT OF JESUS" 
 
 I 
 
 As the time drew near when Jesus was 
 to be outwardly parted from his disciples 
 through physical dissolution, he said, " The 
 hour is come that the Son of man should 
 be glorified . . . and I, if I be lifted up 
 from [R. V. marg. "out of"] the earth, 
 will draw all men unto me." 2 Viewed in 
 the light of nature these words may sig- 
 nify " by what death he should die ; " 2 but 
 spiritually discerned in connection with the 
 related teachings of Christ and his final 
 " ascension," they also refer to that lifting 
 up of the Messiah to a heavenly realm, 
 symbolized when "a cloud received him 
 out of their sight." 3 
 
 To the natural understanding the cruci- 
 fixion and bodily resurrection of Jesus mark 
 
 1 John xii : 32. 2 John xii : 33. 3 Acts i : 9. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 149 
 
 the termination of his revelation ; but his 
 spiritual-minded followers are further en- 
 lightened when " made partakers of the 
 Holy Ghost," ! by the ministrations and 
 manifestations of that heavenly " Com- 
 forter," who continues the revelation ac- 
 cording to the promise, " He will abide with 
 you forever . . . and guide you into all 
 truth . . . and shew you things to come." 2 
 
 II 
 
 While, therefore, the historic Christ is a 
 Comforter for the natural mind, Jesus pro- 
 mised his spiritual followers " another Com- 
 forter, that he may abide with you forever" 3 
 — which is none other than Christ " speak- 
 ing from heaven " 4 as the Holy Ghost, as 
 implied in the following : " Having been 
 forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the 
 word in Asia, when they were come over 
 against Mysia they assayed to go into Bithy- 
 nia, but the Spirit of Jesus suffered them 
 
 1 Heb. vi : 4. 2 John xiv : 16, 17 ; xvi : 13. 
 
 3 John xiv : 16. 4 Heb. xii : 25. 
 
150 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 not." 1 And in his teaching concerning 
 that heavenly ministry of the Spirit which 
 was to follow his earthly ministry, Jesus 
 said, "It is expedient for you that I go 
 away : for if I go not away the Comforter 
 will not come unto you ; " 2 while it is 
 elsewhere written, " This spake he of the 
 Spirit, which they that believe on him 
 should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was 
 not yet given, because Jesus was not yet 
 glorified." 3 
 
 III 
 
 Thus the giving of the Holy Ghost was 
 dependent upon the glorifying of the Son 
 of man with the Father's Spirit — "with 
 that glory which he had with the Father 
 before the world was; " 4 which divine Spirit 
 he imparts to his followers, as affirmed in 
 these words : " Behold, I send the promise 
 of my Father upon you ; tarry ye in Jeru- 
 salem until ye be endued with power from 
 
 1 Acts xvi : 6, 7. (R. V.) 2 John xvi : 7. 
 
 8 John vii : 39. 4 John xvii : 5. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 151 
 
 on high." 1 "Wait for the promise of the 
 Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of 
 me. For John truly baptized with water 
 unto repentance ; but ye shall be baptized 
 with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. 
 . . . Ye shall receive power when the Holy 
 Spirit is come upon you." 2 
 
 IV 
 
 It is by means of the glorified Christ, 
 the "Holy Ghost," 3 that the spirit of the 
 Father is communicated to man in the 
 earthly life ; for Jesus said, " No man 
 cometh unto the Father, but by me." 4 "I 
 in them, and Thou in me," 5 is indicative of 
 the means by which the " gift of God " 6 is 
 
 1 Luke xxiv : 49. 2 Acts i : 4-9. 
 
 8 The "Holy Ghost" is the glorified Christ — the 
 spirit or angel of Jesus filled with the Father's indwell- 
 ing Presence. The terms " Holy Ghost " and " Holy 
 Spirit " are therefore interchangeable, according as the 
 emphasis, or idea, is associated with personality, or the 
 indwelling Spirit. 
 
 4 John xiv : 6. 6 John xvii : 23. 
 
 6 John iv : 10; Rom. vi : 23. 
 
152 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 imparted to the followers of Christ, or of 
 bringing to the consciousness of this earthly 
 family of man the Father's Spirit. And 
 when they were come together after his 
 resurrection, " He breathed on them, and 
 said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit." * 
 
 However exalted the revelation, it is 
 nevertheless the Son of man in heaven, 
 " one chosen out of the people " 2 of a celes- 
 tial realm, who serves as the channel for 
 this divine communion ; and it is still hu- 
 man destiny in its highest form that Christ 
 is manifesting in himself ; for the scripture 
 says, "We all, with unveiled face reflect- 
 ing as a mirror the glory of the Lord, 
 are transformed into the same image, from 
 glory to glory," 3 even as from the Lord 
 the Spirit. 
 
 That the heavenly ministry of the Mes- 
 siah as the Paraclete is a continuation of 
 
 1 John xx : 22. 2 Psa. lxxxix : 19. 
 
 8 2 Cor. iii : 18. (R. V.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 153 
 
 his earthly ministry as the Son of man, is 
 implied in these words of scripture : " We 
 have a great high priest, that is passed into 
 the heavens, Jesus the Son of God . . . 
 Not an high priest which cannot be touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities, but was 
 in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
 without sin." 1 While of his earthly min- 
 istry it is said, " Which at the first began 
 to be spoken by the Lord," 2 but is con- 
 tinued on " forever " by the glorified Christ, 
 as " the spirit of truth, who will guide into 
 all truth." 3 
 
 VI 
 
 That the fullness or completeness of the 
 revelation of human destiny may be dis- 
 cerned in Christ, it is important to recog- 
 nize this identification of the Paraclete with 
 " the Spirit of Jesus," who from a heavenly 
 realm opens the way into "the holiest of 
 all." 4 Christ's revelation of divinity in all 
 
 1 Heb. iv: 14, 15. 2 Heb. ii : 3. 
 
 8 John xvi : 13. 4 Heb. ix : 8. 
 
154 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 stages of existence is inseparable from his 
 revelation of human destiny ; for through- 
 out all worlds the revelation of God is 
 through the soul of man : " He wills to 
 dwell in you, that he may be made mani- 
 fest to the world, and that his invisible 
 glory may be revealed." And God's full- 
 ness and infinity is the measure of his reve- 
 lation of himself in and through that celes- 
 tial family of perfect man, of whom Jesus 
 Christ is a representative — " one chosen 
 out of the people." 2 For the revelation of 
 the divine in the human is infinite in mea- 
 sure and duration : apart from this special 
 creation the revelation is without beginning 
 and without ending ; for the scripture says, 
 "There is nothing covered that shall not 
 be revealed; and hid, that shall not be 
 known," 2 and the infinity of God is mani- 
 fested in an infinity of creations which re- 
 veal the eternal activity of his infinite and 
 omnipotent Spirit. 
 
 1 Isa. xliii : 10; Psa. lxxxix : 19. 2 Matt, x : 26. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 155 
 
 "THEN COMETH THE END" 
 
 I * 
 
 That Christ's manifestation of divinity- 
 is representative "until the times of resti- 
 tution of all things," 1 and that in him is re- 
 vealed the consummation of human destiny, 
 is affirmed in the following transcendent 
 revelation : " Then cometh the end, when 
 he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, 
 even the Father ; when he shall have abol- 
 ished all rule and all authority and power. 
 For he must reign, till he hath put all his 
 enemies under his feet. The last enemy 
 that shall be abolished is death. For, He 
 put all things in subjection under his feet. 
 But when he saith, All things are put in 
 subjection, it is evident that he is excepted 
 who did subject all things unto him. And 
 
 1 Acts iii : 21. 
 
156 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 when all things have been subjected unto 
 him, then shall the Son also himself be sub- 
 jected to him that did subject all things 
 unto him, that God may be all in all." 1 
 
 II 
 
 This is a revelation of ultimate truths 
 transcending the powers of the human mind 
 to have discerned by the light of nature ; 
 for it is a revelation of the consummation 
 of the divine purpose in creating man — a 
 revelation of that final state of man when 
 human destiny is fulfilled. It is likewise a 
 revelation of the truth that Christ's is a re- 
 presentative manifestation of divinity until 
 "all things shall be subdued unto him," 
 when he shall deliver up his workmanship 
 to God, who will then be "all in all." 
 Therein may be discerned the full signifi- 
 cance of that ancient prophecy, " before me 
 there was no God formed ; neither shall 
 there be after me." 2 For in "the kingdom 
 
 i i Cor. xv : 24-28. (R. V.) 
 2 Isa. xliii: 10, II. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 157 
 
 of the Father," 1 when Christ has delivered 
 up his charge to God, St. John says, " we 
 shall be like him." 2 And God will then be 
 known as he is known to Christ ; not only 
 as " formed " in perfect man, but spiritually 
 "face to face," 3 "eye to eye," 4 Spirit to 
 spirit ; for divinity will abide in every hu- 
 man soul in that celestial or perfect state, 
 as in his Son Jesus Christ. 
 
 Ill 
 
 And in that same collective sense in 
 which prophecy refers to a whole people as 
 " my servant Israel," 5 so may it eventually 
 be discerned, when God is " all in all," that 
 his celestial family of "perfect man" is 
 personified in the expression " my beloved 
 Son," when the " first-begotten " of the Fa- 
 ther is eventually discerned as the "chosen " 
 representative of that divine Sonship which 
 includes a celestial " people of God ; " for 
 
 1 Matt, xiii : 43. 2 1 John iii : 2. 
 
 8 1 Cor. xiii : 12. 4 Isa. Hi : 8 ; Rev. i : 7. 
 
 8 Isa. xli : 8, 9. 
 
158 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 the scripture says of them who have be- 
 come his followers, " Ye are all one man in 
 Christ Jesus." 1 
 
 IV 
 
 In the light of prophecy " the revelation 
 of Jesus Christ " may be discerned as whole 
 and entire; for in him "all things" relat- 
 ing to the nature of God and the destiny 
 of man are brought to light. For to know 
 Christ is to know God and man as they 
 are related in perfect fellowship in "the 
 kingdom of the Father." 
 
 That fellowship of the divine and the hu- 
 man, as manifested in Jesus, is one of con- 
 stant activity, implied in the words : " My 
 Father worketh hitherto ; and I work ; " 2 
 " The Son can do nothing of himself, but 
 what he seeth the Father doing ; for what 
 things soever he doeth, these the Son also 
 doeth in like manner." 3 What the Father 
 does spiritually from himself, the Son of 
 
 1 Gal. iii : 28. (R. V.) 2 John v : 17. 
 
 3 John v : 19, 20. (R. V.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 159 
 
 man in heaven, as God's living instrument, 
 bodies forth in a natural creation which is 
 consummated in time — excepting alone as 
 to the destiny of human souls. And con- 
 cerning that divine commission of which 
 Jesus Christ is the means and the fulfill- 
 ment, prophecy affirms, " I have put my 
 words in thy mouth, and I have covered 
 thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may 
 plant the heavens, and lay the foundations 
 of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art 
 my people." * 
 
 The divine commission thus outlined "ac- 
 cording to the determinate counsel and fore- 
 knowledge of God " 2 is accomplished by 
 One who termed himself "the Alpha and 
 the Omega, the beginning and the ending" 3 
 of a creative act effected through his instru- 
 mentality, to whom "all power is given" 4 
 for the accomplishment of God's will. All 
 
 1 Isa. li : 16. 2 Acts ii : 23. 
 
 8 Rev. i : 8. 4 Matt, xxviii : 18. 
 
160 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 of which is within the full significance of 
 those words of Christ concerning them 
 " unto whom the word of God came : I said 
 ye are gods." 1 
 
 It was within the scope of an inspired ima- 
 gination to have conceived, that when God 
 had so chosen from his celestial people — 
 who are "without fault before his throne " 2 
 — one to whom he committed the power 
 and the task of drawing forth a new system 
 of worlds for the creation of new families 
 of man, " all the sons of God shouted for 
 joy." 3 For every new creation is the 
 occasion for a further revelation of the in- 
 exhaustible riches of the Spirit of God, ever 
 manifesting forth the infinite divine love 
 and wisdom. Creation upon creation, from 
 eternity to eternity, is the ceaseless mani- 
 festation of that which is "hid in God" 4 
 until he so reveals himself in and through 
 the soul of perfect man ; every new crea- 
 tion effected through his chosen instru- 
 
 1 John x : 34, 35. 2 Rev. xiv : 5. 
 
 8 Job xxxviii : 6-7. 4 Eph. iii : 9. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 161 
 
 ments being eventually consummated "in 
 the kingdom of the Father," wherein, the 
 scripture affirms, all are " kings and priests 
 unto God." 1 
 
 1 Rev. i : 6. 
 
162 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 "A LITTLE LOWER THAN GOD" 
 
 As affirmed by ancient prophecy and con- 
 firmed by " the revelation of Jesus Christ," 
 the nature and destiny of perfect man tran- 
 scends even the glory of the created uni- 
 verse, as implied in the following scripture : 
 " When I consider thy heavens, the work 
 of thy fingers ; the moon and the stars, 
 which thou hast ordained ; what is man, 
 that thou art mindful of him ? and the son 
 of man [the individual human soul] that 
 thou visitest him ? Thou hast made him 
 but little lower than God, and crownest 
 him with glory and honor. . . . Thou hast 
 put all things under his feet." ! 
 
 The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 in quoting this ancient scripture with a 
 special reference to Christ's incarnation, 
 
 1 Psa. viii : 3-6. (R. V.) 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 163 
 
 changes the expression " a little lower than 
 God," as it stands in the Hebrew, and 
 renders it "made a little lower than the 
 angels for the suffering of death ; " that is, 
 for his descent into the unquickened earthly- 
 state of man. But that the writer of this 
 epistle recognized the original prophecy as 
 referring to man, in an ultimate or celestial 
 sense, is clearly implied in the following : 
 "For in that he put all things in subjection 
 under him [that is, under man], he left 
 nothing that is not put under him. But 
 now we see not yet all things put under 
 him. But we see Jesus, who was made a 
 little lower than the angels for the suf- 
 fering of death, crowned with glory and 
 honour." 1 In him, therefore, may be dis- 
 cerned an example of that ultimate destiny 
 reserved for man in the Heaven of heavens 
 "when all things are fulfilled." 
 
 1 Heb. ii : 8, 9. 
 
164 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 II 
 
 In the light of the revelation of human 
 destiny in Jesus, it may be discerned that 
 the divine purpose in creating man was not 
 restricted to endowing him eventually with 
 all the glories of God's heavenly kingdom, 
 as an earthly potentate might endow his 
 subjects with riches and honor ; the des- 
 tiny of man as revealed in Christ infinitely 
 transcends this earthly conception. For in 
 the light of Christ, God purposes to make 
 of the created human soul a "son," by 
 imparting to man the divine Spirit ; thus 
 the infinity and eternity of God himself is 
 the " great inheritance" into which all are 
 "called by Christ." And in him it is fur- 
 ther revealed that God uses the potentiality 
 of perfect man, to whom "all power is 
 given," 1 as his "hand," or instrument, for 
 all outward creations on the plane of nature, 
 as witnessed in him " by whom he made the 
 worlds." 2 To the earthly man is eventually 
 
 1 Matt, xxviii : 18. 2 Heb. i : 2. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 165 
 
 given dominance over the earth ; but to the 
 heavenly or celestial man, when grown to 
 " the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ," : is given " authority and power " 
 to create those worlds in which the earthly 
 man is formed — " according to the deter- 
 minate counsel and foreknowledge of God." 2 
 Jesus, therefore, confirms in his own experi- 
 ence and in his own person that scripture 
 which affirms " of them unto whom the 
 word of God came ; I said ye are gods " — 
 himself being the witness of that divine 
 " word " imparted in all its fullness to the 
 soul of man as " Son of God." 
 
 Ill 
 
 That Jesus manifested the indwelling 
 Spirit as its " very image " or " form " or 
 expression may be inferred from his words, 
 "Whatsoever I speak, even as the Father 
 said unto me, so I speak." 3 So freely and 
 fully does the divine Spirit gain expression 
 through that perfected human soul that 
 
 1 Eph. iv : 13. 2 Acts ii : 23. 8 John xii : 50. 
 
166 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 the words " Before Abraham was, I am " * 
 are the words of God himself speaking 
 directly through the soul of man. And 
 when betrayed in Gethsemane Jesus said, 
 " I am. ... As soon, then, as he had said 
 unto them I am . . . they went backward, 
 and fell to the ground," 2 the power of in- 
 dwelling divinity being felt even by those 
 who were without spiritual discernment. 3 
 
 This manifestation of the Father abiding 
 in and speaking through the Son is not 
 arbitrary, impairing the free will of the 
 human proprium : it. is a conscious " com- 
 munion" or "fellowship" of the divine and 
 the human, which belongs to the state of 
 perfect man ; it is God and man working in 
 union of will with reciprocal affection, with 
 free and spontaneous intercourse of soul 
 and Spirit. 
 
 1 John viii : 58. 2 John xviii : 5-6. 
 
 3 The words as given in the text are " I am he," — the 
 last word is added in italics in every instance, having 
 been deemed an omission. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 167 
 
 "THE FAITH OF GOD" 
 
 I 
 
 Jesus grounds all exercise of the divine 
 "power" in "faith" and "belief;" "all 
 things," he said, "are possible to him that 
 believeth." x For this power is of the 
 divine Spirit, and the fullness of this is 
 restricted only by the limitation of man's 
 faith and belief in God; for the scripture 
 says, " God giveth not the Spirit by mea- 
 sure ; " 2 and Jesus said, " According to 
 your faith be it unto you." 3 When faith 
 and belief are weak, the manifestation of 
 the Spirit is correspondingly weak ; for the 
 receptive conditions are grounded in a sure 
 conviction of the reality of the promise that 
 the Father will " give the Holy Spirit to them 
 that ask him." 4 Jesus therefore but voiced 
 
 1 Mark ix : 23. 2 John iii : 34. (R. V.) 
 
 8 Matt, ix : 29. * Luke xi : 13. 
 
168 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 his own experience of this truth when in 
 substance he said, " If ye have faith as a 
 grain of mustard-seed, 1 nothing can impede 
 your will ; " for the will that is united to the 
 divine manifests "the power of God." 
 
 II 
 
 The faith that Jesus refers to is indi- 
 vidual and personal — faith in the indwelling 
 divine presence in them that are born of 
 God ; this was his faith. " Have the faith 
 of God," 2 he said, " and nothing shall be 
 impossible unto you." For when the hu- 
 man will is united to the divine will, the 
 power of God is put forth. 
 
 Jesus affirms his human powerlessness in 
 the words, "Of mine own self I can do 
 nothing. 3 . . . The Father, that dwelleth 
 in me, he doeth the works." 4 Through 
 faith in that indwelling divine presence 
 Jesus wrought "works" that are deemed 
 miracles; and "in his name, through faith 
 
 1 Matt, xvii : 20. 2 Mark xi : 22. (A. V. marg.) 
 
 8 John v : 19, 30. 4 John xiv : 10. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 169 
 
 in his name, 1 " his disciples did likewise. 
 By thus laying hold of the divine, man's 
 weakness is united to God's strength, hu- 
 man imperfection to the divine holiness. 
 This is the open secret of Christ's life. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The gospel of Jesus Christ, his "good 
 tidings of great joy," is much more than the 
 deliverance of the human soul from the 
 slaveries of sin — that is merely its earthly 
 aspect : his tidings in their higher or af- 
 firmative teaching are a revelation of man's 
 divine destiny ; for his gospel of the Spirit 
 "is the power of God unto salvation to 
 every one that believeth." 2 For the apos- 
 tle Paul says, "When called of God unto 
 the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ . . . 
 ye are enriched by him in all utterance, 
 in all knowledge 3 ... for your body is a 
 temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, 
 which ye have from God." * And it is this 
 
 1 Acts iii : 16. 2 Rom. i : 16. 
 
 3 1 Cor. i : 5-9. 4 1 Cor. vi : 19. (R. V.) 
 
170 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 indwelling Spirit that makes perfect the im- 
 perfect ; for it is the source of all strength, 
 of all virtue, of all purity and perfection, of 
 all joy that endures and will not fade. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 171 
 
 "WITH THINE OWN SELF" 
 
 Christ's teachings on the Mount mark 
 the initial stage of his divine message to 
 his brethren of this world : in his final 
 prayer to the Father, at the close of his 
 ministry, is revealed the culmination of his 
 " good tidings " — the disclosure of man's 
 divine destiny: "Jesus lifted up his eyes 
 to heaven, and said, And now, O Father, 
 glorify thou me with thine own self, with 
 the glory which I had with thee before the 
 world was. I have manifested thy name 
 unto the men which thou gavest me out of 
 the world ... I have given unto them the 
 words which thou gavest me ; and they 
 have received them, and have known surely 
 that I came out from thee, and they have 
 believed that thou didst send me. . . . 
 Holy Father, keep through thine own name 
 
172 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 those whom thou hast given me, that they 
 may be one, as we are. . . . And now I 
 come to thee ; and these things I speak in 
 the world, that they might have my joy ful- 
 filled in themselves. . . . The glory which 
 thou gavest me I have given them ; that 
 they may be one, even as we are one . . . 
 that the love wherewith thou hast loved me 
 may be in them." 1 
 
 II 
 
 These words are a disclosure of that 
 divine destiny which the followers of Christ 
 are to share with him. A perception of 
 this must surely enlarge the conception 
 ultimately formed of that transcendent Be- 
 ing who is "the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; " 2 of that Eternal 
 Spirit who is the God of gods and Father 
 of spirits ; of whom it is affirmed that " no 
 man hath seen, nor can see ; " 3 but with 
 whom the Son of man in heaven is in open 
 "fellowship," in conscious "communion." 
 
 1 John xvii. 2 2 Cor. xi : 31. 3 1 Tim. vi : 16. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 173 
 
 To the mind of this world the Spirit of God 
 is vaguely conceived as a mystical presence ; 
 but for the mind of Christ this is a real 
 presence, a Being with whom he held con- 
 scious and joyful intercourse while on earth, 
 as between Father and Son, as between 
 friend and friend ; for the indwelling Spirit 
 of the Son discerns the " Free Spirit " of 
 the Father, as like discerns like. 1 
 
 1 For those who look for specific formulas in defini- 
 tion, it may be said that the " Free Spirit " is the Father, 
 — "Thou wilt uphold me with thy Free Spirit" (Psa. 
 li: 12), — the Spirit indwelling the soul of perfect man 
 with " all the fulness of the Godhead," is the Son, and 
 that human soul glorified in its celestial state as " the 
 spirit of Jesus " is the Holy Ghost. The Spirit indwell- 
 ing the soul of perfect man is " of one substance with 
 the Father " and is " very God of [or from] very God." 
 The Holy Ghost is from the Father as to the indwelling 
 Spirit, and from the Son as to the glorified human soul 
 of Jesus. The triune nature of the divine manifestation 
 is thus made known to the human understanding as a 
 truth of Revelation made apprehensible to the minds 
 of the immediate followers of Christ as the ground of 
 their spiritual enlightenment. 
 
174 -HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 "WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM" 
 I 
 
 Apart from the revelation of human 
 destiny in Jesus Christ, man's conceptions 
 of his ultimate future cannot rise above the 
 earthly experience or its analogies. The 
 knowledge of that which is " hid with 
 Christ in God " J is revealed to the spirit- 
 ual by the Spirit. 2 In the light of Reve- 
 lation that earthly life of man of which 
 Nature is the mould and Science the inter- 
 preter, is discerned to be but a span on 
 an endless path of progress, which passes 
 through the heavens 3 and mounts to the 
 unveiled Presence of God, where man is 
 affirmed to be void of all imperfection even 
 when judged by a divine standard. 4 
 
 Discerning in Christ the overwhelming 
 
 1 Col. iii 13. 2 1 Cor. ii ! 10. 
 
 3 Heb. iv : 14. 4 Rev. xiv : 5. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 175 
 
 greatness of human destiny, St. John ex- 
 claims, " Behold, what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we 
 should be called the sons of God." 1 In- 
 capable as the human mind is, in the earthly 
 life, for apprehending the full significance 
 of the revelation, the apostle adds, " It doth 
 not yet appear what we shall be ; but we 
 know that, when he shall appear, we shall 
 be like him ; for we shall see him as he is. 
 And every man that hath this hope in him 
 purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 2 So 
 great, indeed, is the variance between this 
 present stage of life and that ultimate 
 heavenly state of perfect man as revealed 
 in Jesus, that the mind of this world finds 
 it difficult to reconcile the two as constitut- 
 ing the beginning and the ending of one 
 continuous path of human progress. 
 
 II 
 
 It may be inferred, in the light of Reve- 
 lation, that human destiny will find its ful- 
 
 1 1 John iii : 1. 2 1 John iii : 2, 3. 
 
176 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 filtment in the form of an infinitely diversi- 
 fied " heavenly host " of perfected human 
 souls, glorified by the indwelling Presence 
 of God. For as the forming experience 
 has been in the creation of each separate 
 soul from its initial earthly stage to that 
 perfected heavenly consummation in " the 
 kingdom of the Father " — as revealed in 
 Christ — so will its individuality be marked 
 in that celestial state as in the earthly 
 life, revealing the inexhaustible fullness of 
 God's love and the infinitude of his crea- 
 tive power. The apostle Paul likens this 
 individuality of perfected human souls to 
 the distinctions in the heavenly bodies, 
 even " as one star differeth from another 
 star in glory ; " 1 and Jesus says of that 
 heavenly consummation, " Then shall the 
 righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
 kingdom of their Father." 2 
 
 1 I Cor. xv : 41-49. (R. V.) 
 
 2 Matt, xiii : 43. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 177 
 
 II 
 
 Not through speculative conjecture was 
 this knowledge of human destiny acquired 
 by man, but by a revelation of the truth 
 in Jesus Christ, who said, " To this end was 
 I born, and for this cause came I into the 
 world; that I should bear witness unto 
 the truth." 1 And St. John says, "The 
 life was manifested, and we have seen, and 
 bear witness, and declare unto you that 
 eternal life, which was with the Father, 
 and was manifested unto us. That which 
 we have seen and heard declare we unto 
 you, that ye also may have fellowship with 
 us : and truly our fellowship is with the 
 Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 
 And these things we write unto you, that 
 your joy may be full." 2 
 
 IV 
 
 The advanced thought of the time is now 
 largely occupied with questions concerning 
 
 1 John xviii : 37. 2 1 John i : 2-4. 
 
178 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 man's origin and destiny, studied almost ex- 
 clusively in the light of Nature. In marked 
 contrast with the acquisitions of empirical 
 science or of speculative philosophy stands 
 the revelation of human destiny in Jesus 
 Christ. He who said, " These things have 
 I spoken unto you, that my joy may be 
 in you, and that your joy may be full," 1 
 implies therein that he is himself a mani- 
 festation of " the way and the truth and 
 the life " in all that concerns human des- 
 tiny. Can it be doubted then that his 
 "good tidings," in their affirmative form, 
 are a means of implanting in the human 
 heart, through love and gratitude to God, 
 a nobler motive and a stronger impulse for 
 hastening the divine consummation of hu- 
 man destiny than any merely repressive 
 means could effect through moral restraint 
 alone ? St. Paul says, " All the promises 
 of God in him are yea " — that is, affirma- 
 tions of truth — " and in him Amen, unto 
 the glory of God." 2 Christ holds up be- 
 
 1 John xv : II. (R. V.) 2 2 Cor. i : 19, 20. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 179 
 
 fore the mind and heart of man that which 
 appeals to the nobler part of human nature, 
 that which lifts man above the earth and 
 transfigures the meanest things of the pre- 
 sent, when he says, " Come, ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
 for you from the foundation of the world." 1 
 
 1 Matt, xxv : 34. 
 
i8o HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 The foregoing statement, comprised in 
 Part II of this treatise, is an interpretation 
 of the revelation of human destiny as the 
 truth is affirmed by " the word of prophecy " 
 and manifested in " Jesus, the Christ." Its 
 aim is confined to the elucidation of a single 
 great truth of Christ's message of "good 
 tidings ; " namely, the destiny of man. 
 Some of the conceptions, as therein ex- 
 pressed, may be unfamiliar to those who 
 may not have studied the subject carefully, 
 but in varied forms they are all as old as the 
 Christian faith ; if they were not, this would 
 be just ground for doubting their verity. 
 The preexistence of Christ ; the nature and 
 personality of the Paraclete ; and God's cre- 
 ation of the world through "perfect man," 
 are all truths of Revelation that have been 
 apprehended with more or less clearness 
 since the time of the Apostles ; while the 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 181 
 
 gradualness of the perfecting of the human 
 soul in passing through many states of being 
 has engaged the thought of Christian minds 
 in all ages. Origen long ago expressed the 
 thought, derived from Revelation, that there 
 is " an advance in man, so that from his be- 
 ing first an animal being, and not understand- 
 ing what belongs to the Spirit of God, he 
 reaches eventually to the stage of being 
 made a spiritual being, and of judging all 
 things . . . ascending through those man- 
 sions, so to speak, in the various places 
 which the Greeks term spheres, but in the 
 Holy Scriptures are called heavens, and 
 thus passing through all gradations, follow- 
 ing Him who hath passed into the heavens, 
 Jesus the Son of God." And of that final 
 state wherein God is all in all, he adds : 
 God " will be all in each individual in this 
 way . . . that all the individual can either 
 feel, or understand, or think, will be wholly 
 God ; and he will no longer hold or retain 
 anything else than God, who will be the 
 measure and standard of all his acts. . . . 
 
182 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 This result must be understood as brought 
 about, not suddenly but slowly and grad- 
 ually . . . during the lapse of countless 
 ages, some outstripping others and tend- 
 ing by a swifter course toward perfection 
 . . . through numerous and countless orders 
 of progressive beings." 1 
 
 Of the preexistent Christ certain of the 
 Church Fathers, as well as spiritual teach- 
 ers in all ages, have written with more 
 or less clearness in the light of Reve- 
 lation : the earnest inquirer will find a 
 considerable literature on this subject. 
 Concerning the nature and personality of 
 the Holy Ghost, from Justin Martyr down 
 to the spiritual-minded Rothe of to-day, 
 the conception as herein stated, has been 
 apprehended in whole or in part, notwith- 
 standing the preference usually accorded 
 a purely metaphysical statement which 
 throws all the emphasis on the indwell- 
 ing Spirit common to the several phases 
 of divine manifestation, without attempt- 
 
 1 De Principiis. 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 183 
 
 ing to distinguish the nature of person- 
 ality. 
 
 The earnest seeker after truth, while re- 
 specting the acquisitions of the past, will 
 never be content to accept as final the in- 
 terpretations of a former time, the product 
 of minds equally fallible with the mind of 
 to-day. In theology, as in science, while 
 the acquisition of a body of truth neces- 
 sitates the jealous guardianship of former 
 conquests, the product of even the best 
 thought of the past must, with the advance 
 of mind, ever be subject to critical revision. 
 Many of the most careful inquirers, study- 
 ing Revelation anew, have found that some 
 of the rejected conceptions of former times 
 have contained much truth, but more or 
 less distorted by a misplaced emphasis, the 
 controverting of which has sometimes led 
 to formal definitions not wholly acceptable 
 to the modern mind. 
 
 Concerning the nature of a creator, or 
 of One " by whom God made the worlds," 
 the vague conception of a demiurge arises 
 
1 84 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 from time to time, in various forms, as 
 though it belonged to the necessities of hu- 
 man thought. Paley, in his " Natural Reli- 
 gion " — arguing from the evidence of design 
 in nature for the existence of God — inci- 
 dentally gives expression to the following : 
 " One being may have fixed certain rules, 
 and, if we may so speak, provided certain 
 materials, and afterwards have committed 
 to another being, out of these materials, and 
 in subordination to these rules, the task of 
 drawing forth a creation. . . . Nay, there 
 may be many such agents, and many ranks 
 of these." This he regarded as quite com- 
 patible with human reason and not foreign to 
 his argument. But the apostle Paul had no 
 uncertain conception in mind, derived from 
 Revelation, when he said, " God created 
 all things by Jesus Christ ; " whom yet he 
 affirmed to be "perfect man" and Son of 
 God : " God in Christ " as Creator, Saviour, 
 and Sanctifier ; from whom, through whom, 
 and unto whom are all things. 
 
 Whatever may be the ultimate destiny of 
 
IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION 185 
 
 human life in this world when the will of 
 God is done on earth as in heaven, that 
 future is not ours ; for the individual hu- 
 man soul, after its brief earthly experience, 
 passes into another world and eventually, 
 when purified and perfected, ascends to that 
 celestial realm wherein God is "all in all." 
 The ultimate destiny of human life on this 
 earth, therefore, presents another and dis- 
 tinct question not considered in this trea- 
 tise. It is with the ultimate destiny of the 
 individual human soul in the world to come 
 that this interpretation of Revelation is con- 
 cerned ; for the destiny of the individual is 
 the destiny of the race, and the perfecting 
 of the race is spiritually neither more nor 
 less than the perfecting of the individuals 
 comprised in the race. It is to the indi- 
 vidual, therefore, that the Gospel of Christ 
 makes its first and last appeal ; for the spir- 
 itual well-being of social solidarity can only 
 be promoted and fulfilled by that means. 
 
 According to the quality of that human 
 nature which is manifested in the individual, 
 
 ^ Of THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of 
 
186 HUMAN DESTINY 
 
 therefore, may we judge of the character of 
 a people ; and in like manner we may judge 
 of the character of that celestial " people of 
 God," in the Heaven of heavens, through 
 the revelation and manifestation of "the 
 Son of man in heaven " — this is the root 
 principle of .the exposition herein given of 
 the revelation of human destiny in Jesus 
 Christ. Once clearly apprehended that the 
 whole nature and destiny of perfect man is 
 included in the revelation, then the sacred- 
 ness and significance of every step and stage 
 of that life which is gradually moving for- 
 ward under a divine guidance to the accom- 
 plishment of God's purpose in creating man, 
 becomes manifest. 
 
 
Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton &* Co. 
 Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 
 
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