land (Deut. 8: 1-4). None attain to the higher life until they have paid "the uttermost farthing" (Matt. 5:26).

Elijah is the true and eternal type of the preaching prophet; he comes to restore Israel; he comes to restore the Law. All who are willing to suffer in the cause of truth and who seek to awaken their fellows out of a state of sensuality and death belong to the Elias ministry. Repentance is the first step in the reformation of man; he repents who abandons Egypt, who abandons the sensuous life. In the present state of man, his carnal desires are stronger than conscience and reason. Desire is the craving of the lower nature of man for things that afford sensual gratification; and so long as man is the victim of his sensuous-desire nature, he is dead and helpless, awaiting resurrection. Elias must first come and destroy the false prophets, and the worship of false gods; and restore obedience to the Law, and the worship of the One Living Almighty God. Elias must first come and awaken man out of a state of death. "We know what we worship: for Salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him" (John 4:22, 23).

"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). They who will behold the glory, the transfiguration of Moses, and of Elias, and of Jesus, are they who live worthy of the privileges of life, who live superior to the spirit of the sensuous animal world, and thus have overcome the world; none but the resurrected behold

the glory that God hath given to Moses, and to Elias, and to Jesus. God hath loved man, manas, through all eternity; for he is spiritual. God hath loved his only begotten "before the foundation of the world." "Man is the image and glory of God" (1 Cor. 11:7).

CHAPTER IX

THE STORY OF JONAH THE PROPHET

"No sign shall be given, but the sign of the prophet Jonas."

IN the twelfth chapter of Matthew, it is written that certain of the Pharisees said unto Jesus, "Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

The book of Jonah is the story of the prophet, and of every prophet. It is an allegory descriptive of the suffering, trials, and provocations which every human soul must experience which becomes a conscious organ of the Holy Spirit. Briefly speaking, it is an allegory descriptive of the evolution of the prophet, the servant of God. "God revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).

Jesus tells the Pharisees that no sign is to be given. but the sign of the prophet Jonas. What is the sign of the prophet? It is the sign of the resurrection. The prophets are the resurrected. They are those who have abandoned the Egyptian state of consciousness, and

have graduated in the school of adversity. They are those who have died to the world, and who live to God. They are the friends of God, the sons of God, the servants of God. They are pure and upright souls in whom the Spirit of God is said to be "awake" (Job. 8:6). They are holy souls into which the Holy Spirit, or Wisdom has entered. "Wisdom maketh all things new: and in all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God, and prophets" (Wisd. of Sol. 7:27). They are born of water, and of the Spirit; they are those upon whom the dove, the Holy Spirit has descended. The psychological fact, or change, which constitutes a man a prophet is the resurrection from the dead. It is his resurrection out of an animalized state of consciousness into a state of humanism, of spirituality, and of peace.

"My kingdom is not of this world." They that are related to the Kingdom of God are the conscious organs of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, like all the great Masters in Israel, demonstrated in his own life the resurrection; his life heralded the sign of Jonah the prophet. No sign is to be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas, the sign of the resurrection. Man, would he be a man, must attain to the stature of the prophet, to the fulness of Christ (Eph. 4: 13). Religion is not a matter of speculation; it is demonstrated in the life of the prophet. The prophets, the servants of God, are our elder brothers; they are our teachers and masters.

Every one who has attained to his true inheritance is a prophet. Joshua, the servant of Moses, told his master that two young men were prophesying in the camp; and said, "My Lord, forbid them." "And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? I would

to God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them" (Num. 11:29). The Lord puts His Spirit upon all the just; all power and virtue is of God. "Not by virtue of material strength and political power shall ye prevail, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord" (Zech. 4:6; Neh. 9:30; Jer. 9:24). All the great of Israel are prophets. When a prophecy fails, Israel is degenerate. "For it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem" (Luke 13:33). "I would that ye all speak with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except that he interpret, that the Church [the people of. God] may receive edifying." Paul would have us know that the interpretation of the Word of God is allied to prophecy. "Every scripture," says Emerson, "is to be interpreted by the same Spirit which gave it forth, is the fundamental law of criticism. A life in harmony with Nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the eyes to understand the text."

Wisdom says that God is good;
That He is known by what He is.
Let man from wiles and evil flee,
And seek by righteousness to see.

"Now the Word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh." Jonah did not obey this call; he was not yet a prophet; he had not passed by the way of the wilderness; he was not dead to the world. His life was not dedicated to the service of God and man; he was not careful to do the will of God. Jonah was neglectful of duty, and of moral purpose; and thus it is written, that he fled "from the