power of God is made manifest in him. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

Progress is the Law of Life,
Man is not Man as yet.

BROWNING.

The children of Shem are they that keep the covenant of which the rainbow is the token; they are a peculiar treasure unto God above all people; they are a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Ex. 19: 5, 6). The children of Shem, the children of the regenerate, are “the children of the promise, that are counted for the seed" (Rom. 9: 8). The Scriptures teach that the reformation of mankind is to be accomplished through the children of the regenerate. Men and women owe it to God and man to live clean and virtuous lives, that their children may be without blemish in mind, and soul, and body. How few there are who live above the spirit of the world, who sincerely and habitually seek to conform their lives to the high and holy ideals of the Scriptures. In a word, how few there are who live worthy of parentage; and yet every rational being must know that this is an heaven-imposed duty.

Egypt, "the land of Ham" (Ps. 105: 23), is the home of primitive man; this land like the Egyptians who abided there in the days of Moses, represents a low carnal state of consciousness. The desert, or wilderness, into which Moses led the children of Israel is intermediary between Egypt below and the promised land above, or beyond. The desert, like the children of Israel who were there disciplined, and chastened, represents a state of consciousness above the Egyptian; the desert is the abode of them that dwell in booths. The promised land represents an high and holy state of

consciousness; it is the home of the elect; it is the land of Shem. This land represents that state wherein man "shall not lack anything" (Deut. 8: 9). The sons of Noah, who went forth of the ark, represent those who have forever peopled the earth. "These are the sons of Noah; and of them was the whole earth overspread" (Gen. 9: 19).

CHAPTER III

THE STORY OF ABRAHAM, THE HEBREW

I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Gen. 17: 1).

¡N the eleventh chapter of Genesis, it is written, that

"Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot." It will be observed that Lot is related to Abram, as Canaan was to Shem (Gen. 9: 18), and Abram, like Shem, "holds fast to his integrity" (Job 2:3); but Lot is as "unstable as water." States or planes of consciousness are described and explained in the Scriptures, over and over, by contrasting the conduct and the utterances of individuals. Man does what he does because he is what he is. When man is faithful to reason and conscience his conduct can be predicted; but when he abides on the animal plane of consciousness, when he is the victim of anger, hypocrisy, superstition, falsehood, envy, greed, lust, malice, and revenge, then it is impossible to predict his conduct.

Abram is self-reliant; he is controlled of reason; he is controlled from within, and not from without. Lot is the victim of his desires. Desire is the craving of the lower sensuous nature of man for things that offer carnal comfort and pleasure; and Lot, like all the carnally minded, is led hither and yon by those objects

that offer carnal gratification; and it may be said that he is controlled from without, rather than from within. In a word, he who is absolutely faithful to reason walks upright before God and man; but he who is carnally minded disregards reason and is not governed by that which brings him into harmony with the divine order, but he is led in every conceivable direction by objects which promise carnal and sensual pleasure.

Reason in Man obscured, or not obeyed,
Immediately inordinate desires

And upstart passions catch the government

From Reason, and to servitude reduce

Man, till then free. Therefore, since he permits
Within himself unworthy powers to reign
Over free Reason, God, in judgment just,
Subjects him from without to violent lords,
Who oft as undeservedly enthral

His outward freedom. Tyranny must be,
Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.
Yet sometimes nations will decline so low
From Virtue, which is Reason, that no wrong,
But justice and some fatal curse annexed,
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
Their inward lost; witness the irreverent son
Of him who built the ark, who, for the shame
Done to his father, heard this heavy curse,
Servant of servants, on his vicious race.

MILTON: Paradise Lost, Twelfth Book.

"And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran . . . and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there" (Gen. 11: 31). It will be observed that Terah took Abram and Sarai, the wife of Abram, and Lot, and went forth with them, from Ur of the Chaldees, unto Haran, and that the place to which they migrated

bears the name of Terah's son, the father of Lot. "They came unto Haran, and dwelt there"; this language evidently describes a low state of consciousness, a state, it would seem, resembling the Egyptian. "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. . So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him." This is a splendid figure of speech; Abram is here represented as abandoning Haran; he goes forth to find the promised land, "a land that God will show him" (Gen. 12: 1). "And Lot went with Abram." We shall presently see how Lot falls into trouble and how Abram rescues him. He who lives on the higher plane of consciousness rescues him who lives on the lower. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Abram abandons Haran; he goes forth to possess the promised land, "a land wherein man shall not lack anything" (Deut. 8: 9), the land that is a symbol of the highest state of consciousness of which man in his present state has any knowledge. The Lord's command to Abram to abandon Haran, his country, and his kindred, and his father's house calls to mind that passage of Scripture which the ignorant and conceited have so often quoted and criticized, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14: 26). Abram is here represented as severing every tie that bound him to the carnal state; and Jesus says that no man can be his disciple unless he hates the carnal life, in father, mother, wife, brother, sister, or in himself.