_3. Jesus the First Born of Many Brethren:_ Sure it is that God, the Father, is the Father of the spirits of men. "We," says Paul, "have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?" (Heb. 12:9). According to this, then there is a "Father of Spirits." It follows, of course, that "spirits," have a father--they are begotten. It should be remarked that the term, "spirits" in the above passage cannot refer to self-existent, unbegotten intelligences of the revelations, considered in the foregoing lessons; and certainly this relationship of father to spirits is not one brought about in connection with generation of human life in this world. Paul makes a very sharp distinction between "Fathers of our flesh" and the "Father of spirits" in the above. Father to spirits is manifestly a relationship established independent of man's earth-existence; and, of course, is an existence which preceded earth-life, and where the uncreated Intelligences are begotten spirits. Hence, the phrase "shall we not be subject to the Father of spirits and live?" Christ is referred to by the writer of the epistle to the Colossians, as the "first born of every creature" (i:15); and the Revelator speaks of him as "the beginning of the creation of God" (Rev. 3:14); and in the revelation already quoted so often (Doc. & Cov. Sec. xciii) Jesus represents himself as being in the "beginning with the Father;" and as "the first born." The reference to Jesus as the "first born of every creature" cannot refer to his birth into earth-life, for he was not the first-born into this world; therefore, his birth here referred to must have reference to the birth of his spirit before his earth life. The reference to Jesus as the "beginning of the creation of God," cannot refer to his creation or generation in earth-life; for manifestly he was not the beginning of the creations of God in this world; therefore, he must have been the "beginning" of God's creation elsewhere, viz., in the spirit world, where he was begotten a spiritual personage; a son of God.