The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-07-03

life. Nature, at this point, included
only the mineral force and the miner
al force cannot be converted into the
vital force. Hence the introduction
of this force was not natural. By no
natural law could life have come in
to existence for there was no life in
nature. Nature was void of life, there
fore out of nature, out of the "real-
lied world system" life could not and
did not come. 1t came from God. 1t
was a new creation. Its origin was
supernatural.
But the new creation did not an
tagonize the old creation; the super
natural did not oppose the natural.
On the other hand, it joined on to it,
har monized with it and made 1.-THE
medium of its realization. The con-
ditions were ripe. The mineral force
had done its work of preparing for
the vital force; the world was ready
for the coming of life. Hence when
the vital force came it fitted the con-
ditions, all things were ready and it
took up the material elements pre-
pared to its hand and built the or
ganic world, grew the vast and I'M
numbered forms of plant and animal
life.
And now nature is enlarged. 1t in
cludes the inorganic and organic
worlds. The supernatural has be-
come natural. Life has realized it
self in material forms, joined itself to
the mineral world and entered into
the kingdom of nature. The vital
force is created, joined to the mineral
force, and its laws established. So
all of its forms and processes belong
to the natural order.
Nature now includes all except
man. Man is not yet created. The
human soul has not yet appeared on
this planet. And when man does ap-
pear his origin is not natural. There
ir nothing in nature to produce him.
In the realized world system there is
no spiritual force and nothing that
can be converted into that force. The
world as yet is as void of spirit as
dead matter is of life. The soul, there
fore, is of God. Its origin is super
natural. 1t is divine creation in the
divine image. But it realizes itself
in material form, and so becomes a
part of nature.
The vital force had done it's work
1t had made full preparation for the
coming of the son of man. When the
spiritual force came, therefore,, | it
entered into organic relations with
the vital force. It realized itself in
the human form that that force had
built up. 1t took possession of the
house prepared for it and began to
build the world of the spirit The
spiritual now becomes natural.
1t is created, joined to the organic
world, realized in material forms and
so part of nature. Nature is now
enlarged again. 1t includes the spir.
itual force with all its ways and all
its works. Man, as we find him on
this planet, is a natural being, just
as much so as the horse or OK. He
belongs to the kingdom of nature.
He is a created being, subject to the
laws of matter and governed by the
laws of mind. His origin is super
natural, but when he is realized in
this world he becomes natural.
So far as this planet and it's in
habitants are concerned, the realized
world system is complete; nature is
finished Man is the highest of crea
ated things and we are assured by
the highest authority that there
never will be higher creature than
man on this planet.
We enter now, therefore, new
world. We leave the kingdom of
matter and all its forces and forms
and enter the kingdom of spirit. 1t
is man as spiritual being, his devel-
opment and progress, his ways and
his works, that we are to study. In
one word it is human history that we
are to read and and interpret. Shall
we be helped in this reading and in
depreciation by anything we have
learned as to the history of our
planet and its peopling? Shall we
find the laws of creation and con-
servation in this higher world as
we have found them in the lower2
In similar way shall we find the
natural and the supernatural work
ing together in the history of hui
mainly as we have found them in
the history of the earth and its in
habitants7 We shall see. Sc.
DORILUS MORRISON.
A dispatch from Minneapolis, June