And now perhaps we are in a way, wherein can be resumed more intelligently what was being discussed about Elijah as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And it should be remembered, that what is now being considered is in connection with the reign of the Spirit, made visible. During the transfiguration, the disciples saw Elias in the spiritual world, and so when Jesus referred to his death, as being perhaps not far off, “his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, and have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist." John the Baptist was a man like any other Jew, and yet also he was Elias. The philosophy of this matter is the same as that which was entertained by the sons of the prophets, after Elijah had vanished in heaven, when they said, "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him." And so according to this account, John the Baptist, in the flesh, may in some way possibly have been influenced by Elijah, while dwelling in a state altogether foreign to flesh and blood, and sun, moon and stars. For the spirit indeed, time and space are nothing, or nearly so; while sameness of mind or spiritual affinity may, under God, be almost everything.

But why should John the Baptist have been inspired by Elias, or in any way have been Elias? It was, no

doubt, because of the spiritual constitution of the universe. And thereby it was not an exceptional event, but was in conformity with other things, which concern us, and of which some perhaps affect us frequently. In Patmos, John received a revelation from an angel, which revelation the angel had received from Jesus Christ. And it was in a similar manner, probably, that Elijah was concerned with Christ, as making the Baptist "go before him in the spirit and power of Elias.” And indeed the whole ministration of the world, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, is largely by mediation. For when influences from above reach men, commonly it is through a certain few, who are like mediators for the rest. And according to St. Paul, not only was the law "ordained by angels," but also it was "in the hand of a mediator."

It was by the foreknowledge of God, and through the operation of spiritual laws no doubt, and of his own free-will also, that Elijah was the spirit and power of John the son of Zacharias the priest. But now Elias had left the earth nine hundred years, when he intervened through the Baptist. And yet also, nineteen hundred years before Jesus was born, there had been "preached before the gospel unto Abraham."

Often on earth, that which is a mystery of the kingdom of heaven had its beginning with the Spirit, and is outside of the reach of mere reason, and is what only the Spirit can ever show, or even hint about.

According to the Book of Revelation, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people." In a state of more or less intelligence Archbishop Fenelon, Jacob

Böhme, George Fox, and William Law, and Swedenborg, and Charles Wesley and his brother John, and multitudes, more or less like them, have entered into the court itself of that temple, during the last two or three hundred years. But nevertheless, one generation after another, for, now, a long time, while Christians. have been going up to the temple for worship, commonly they have had but a poor belief, and often none whatever, as to the holy of holies, and the positive, kind, familiar, human nearness of the Spirit.

The holy of holies! Now under Christ Jesus, the actual place of it is in the soul itself, if only men had faith in it, and could believe in the Spirit.

And indeed it is in the Spirit, and from the Spirit, that man is to live to all eternity, and even just as he does already. For, truly the human body is the highest formation of the Spirit which there is in connection with this earth. And indeed, optically, diamonds of the purest water are but ancient experiments in the workshop of nature, with a view to the human eye.

The recent discoveries, through which the powers of nature lend themselves to human use, and under the application of which the fields grow more fertile, and the depths of the earth yield up their treasures, are often spoken of, as nature unveiling herself. Nature unveiling herself, — what is that? O thou poor idolater of second causes, what is nature? Nature is but one of the lower titles of God. And "nature unveiling herself," if it means anything, means the Spirit of God, revealing itself of its own good-will on a plane which is level with human intellect.

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But, at its best, what is all that eases our bodily

life, or even that glorifies existence for us, as mere denizens of this earth, in comparison with that revelation of the Spirit, of which man spiritually is susceptible? Fearfully and wonderfully made as man is as to his body, he is yet more wonderful still as to his soul. And of all the creatures that have ever been on this earth, man only is what can answer, in any way, to the fatherhood of God. And we human creatures, at this late time, ought to be able to understand readily the meaning of St. Paul, when he asks, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

JESUS AND THE SPIRIT.

THIS essay is simply what it purports to be, and is

not a treatise on Christology.

During his stay in the wilderness, Jesus was qualified for his work, by having his spirit tried to the uttermost by what he was to preach against. His trial was probably like the trial of Abraham as to his faith, and was while his soul was in a state wherein it was exercised independently of his bodily senses, and irrespectively of geographical limitations. And if that condition should be called a state of vision, it should be remembered that a vision differs from a dream much more widely and profoundly than even waking does. From out of his inmost being Jesus withstood that concentration of all temptation, for which as to subtlety the word is Satan. "And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him."

On his reappearance, after his seclusion in the desert, he received a message from John the Baptist. The day of the Lord is light only for the children of light. And by some persons it is never known of while it is passing. John the Baptist was to be famous forever, in connection with the gospel, and yet for discernment, spiritually, of the time in which he was living, "he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater