the haughty, conceited, imperious, and money-loving Egyptians. Ancient literature often describes states of mentality, states of human development, by referring to the predilections of this or that nation of people. The moral status of a people, or the absence of such a status, is determined by the things toward which their affections are directed. "Their abominations were according as they loved" (Hosea 9: 10).

Plato in his dialogue, The Republic, says that a nation of people, or State, represents the predilections, the principles, and habits of the people who compose such nation, or State.

Can I be wrong, I said, in acknowledging that in the individual there are the same principles and habits which there are in the State? for if they did not pass from one to the other, whence did they come? Take the quality of passion or spirit; it would be ridiculous to imagine that this quality, which is characteristic of the Thracians, Scythians, and in general of the northern nations, when found in States, does not originate in the individuals that compose them; and the same may be said of the love of knowledge, which is a special characteristic of our part of the world, or the love of money, which may, with equal truth, be attributed to the Phoenicians and Egyptians.

The book of Exodus, the book in which Moses is the great central figure, represents primitive, sensuous, godless man as an Egyptian; and it points the "way out" of this state of carnality and death, perhaps, as no other book has ever described it. Therefore, it is evident that Egypt, the desert or the wilderness, and the promised land, represent ascending states of consciousness, ascending degrees of human development.

CHAPTER VII

MOSES

"Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments" (Mal. 4:4).

MOSES is the name of him who was drawn out of the water. The dirty water of the Nile, out of which Moses was taken, is a symbol of carnal mind. Moses, we are told, was forty years in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness, and forty years the spiritual teacher of his people. "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming reproach for Christ's sake greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" (Heb. 11:24-26).

He who suffers for Christ's sake suffers the reproach of the world, to the end that he may attain to purity of mind and heart; he suffers that his soul may be made upright. He who is drawn out of the water; he who is resurrected from the dead must of necessity suffer. The psychological change whereby the human soul dies to the world and is born into the spiritual life is always attended with great suffering. This is the baptism with fire. "How am I straitened, says Jesus, till it be

accomplished" (Luke 12:50). "We know that we have passed from death to life" (1 John 3: 14).

"Moses was learned in the wisdom of Egypt" (Acts 7:22). Moses, it would seem, had every opportunity to be learned in the wisdom of Egypt; he was the adopted son of the daughter of the King of Egypt. The science of symbolism had no doubt reached its zenith in the days of Moses; the old temples and pyramids erected centuries before his time bear unmistakable evidence of this. But the most indubitable proof of his masterful knowledge of symbols is to be found in that portion of the Old Testament called the Pentateuch. We confidently believe that the day is near at hand when the Science of Psyche, or Psychology, will take precedence of every other science; and that the Pentateuch will then be regarded as the most profound and valuable contribution to knowledge ever given to the people of the world.

In the symbolism of the Scriptures, Egypt is the land of carnality; it corresponds with the lower principles of the soul of unregenerate man; it is the home of the primitive man, the irrational man; it is the land of strife, rebellion, and death; in the days of Moses the Egyptians were given to animal worship. This we learn both from the Scriptures and from history. "The Egyptians," says Tacitus, "venerate various animals. . . . The Jews acknowledge, and that with the mind only, a single Deity. . . . Theirs is the Supreme Eternal God, Unchangeable, Immortal. They therefore suffer no statues in their cities, and still less in their temples." Tacitus tells us in this connection that the Jews have never permitted images of God in human form. "They have never shown this mark of flattery to their kings. They have never done this honor to

the Cæsars." Strabo, when speaking of the greatness of Moses, said: He taught that "God was not to be worshiped by any image, and that He would reveal Himself only to the pure and virtuous." If Egypt represents the lower principle of the human soul, then Media, the wilderness region intervening between Egypt and the promised land, represents the intermediate principle of the soul.

The Scriptures tell us that God leads all his sons out of Egypt; He leads them into the wilderness to humble them, to prove them (Deut. 8:2, 3). All who repent of the life of Egypt are led into the wilderness to be educated (Deut. 32: 10-12). Egypt is the land of carnal pleasures; the wilderness is the land of adversity, of discipline, and of privation (Num. 20:5). Man attains to the higher life by suffering; he is destined to undergo a fearful and wearisome discipline ere he attains to the promised land. For centuries men have been taught that a mere form of belief does the work of salvation. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The Scriptures teach that man must be drawn out of the water of the Nile, that he must abandon the carnal life; and that he must sacrifice every worldly consideration; and must undergo a great discipline and chastening to inherit eternal life. They who find the Kingdom of God "are the poor in spirit." The poor in spirit are they who have abandoned the world, who are depleted of the spirit of the world. "A friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17). He who is in love with the world is more animal than human; he who ardently loves money, fame, and power is proud, conceited, and selfish. He who is dead to the world is humble, charitable, and just. "For he that is dead [to the animal world] is freed from sin" (Rom. 6: 7).

The Scriptures teach in their every individual experience that none attain to greatness except by suffering. All the great have graduated in the school of adversity. "The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death" (Ps. 118: 18). "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word" (Ps. 119:67). "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" (Heb. 12:6). All that have attained to the promised land, to the Kingdom of God, have gone by the way of the wilderness. Christ is said to be crucified both in Egypt and in Sodom (Rev. 11:8). All that live the carnal life crucify conscience and reason. When Lot escaped Sodom, and "entered into Zoar, the sun had risen upon the earth" (Gen. 19:22, 23). As long as man persists in living the carnal life, there is no spiritual help for him; by such a life he renders himself helpless. "Haste thee, escape thither: for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar" [the beginning] (Gen. 19:22). Every man who would realize the spiritual life must abandon Sodom.

The Scriptures tell us again and again that the carnally minded are dead and in their graves. "And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit upon you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord" (Ezek. 37: 12, 13; Hosea 13:14; John 5:28; Dan. 12:2; Ps. 31: 17; Ex. 12:33; 1 Tim. 5:6). Life and death are states of the soul, and not of the body. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing."