March 26th. All organisms are living and dead--living to all within the
circumference of their correspondences, dead to all beyond. . . . Until
man appears there is no organism to correspond with the whole
environment. Natural Law, Death, p. 155.
March 27th. Is man in correspondence with the whole environment or is he
not? . . . He is not. Of men generally it cannot be said that they are in
living contact with that part of the environment which is called the
spiritual world. Natural Law, Death, p. 156.
March 28th. The animal world and the plant world are the same world. They
are different parts of one environment. And the natural and spiritual are
likewise one. Natural Law, Death, p. 157.
March 29th. What we have correspondence with, that we call natural; what
we have little or no correspondence with, that we call Spiritual. Natural
Law, Death, p. 157.
March 30th. Those who are in communion with God live, those who are not
are dead. Natural Law, Death, p. 158.
March 31st. This earthly mind may be of noble calibre, enriched by
culture, high-toned, virtuous, and pure. But if it know not God? What
though its correspondences reach to the stars of heaven or grasp the
magnitudes of Time and Space? The stars of heaven are not heaven. Space
is not God. Natural Law, Death, p. 158.
April 1st. We do not picture the possessor of this carnal mind as in any
sense a monster. We have said he may be high-toned, virtuous, and pure.
The plant is not a monster because it is dead to the voice of the bird;
nor is he a monster who is dead to the voice of God. The contention at
present simply is that he is DEAD. Natural Law, Death, p. 159.
April 2d. What is the creed of the Agnostic, but the confession of the
spiritual numbness of humanity? Natural Law, Death, p. 160.
April 3d. The nescience of the Agnostic philosophy is the proof from
experience that to be carnally minded is Death. Natural Law, p. 161.
April 4th. The Christian apologist never further misses the mark than
when he refuses the testimony of the Agnostic to himself. When the
Agnostic tells me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid, and dead to the
spiritual world, I must believe him. Jesus tells me that. Paul tells me
that. Science tells me that. He knows nothing of this outermost circle;
and we are compelled to trust his sincerity as readily when he deplores
it as if, being a man without an ear, he professed to know nothing of a
musical world, or being without taste, of a world of art. Natural Law,
Death, p. 160.
April 5th. It brings no solace to the unspiritual man to be told he is
mistaken. To say he is self-deceived is neither to compliment him nor
Christianity. He builds in all sincerity who raises his altar to the
UNKNOWN God. He does not know God. With all his marvellous and complex
correspondences, he is still one correspondence short. Natural Law,
Death, p. 161.
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