PREFACE

In presenting this work, we are not unmindful of the great depth, extent, and importance of our subject, and that some of the best students and brightest intellectual minds of the ages have devotedly studied and extensively written of the humanity and divinity of man; but we have been encouraged to study independently, and are emboldened to write, by the prayerful statement of the greatest of teachers, to the effect, that the things we have been studying and are writing about have been hid from the wise and revealed unto babes. And we know that, in view of the great number and unbounded extent of the writings of a similiar nature extant, our effort will not be appreciated unless we have something new, interesting, and instructive to offer to thinking men and women.

Notwithstanding all that has been spoken and written, we come with a new message full of thot and spiritual food to gladden the bewildered hearts of humanity, removing the mystery that has surrounded carnate man in his relations to infinity and the rest of the creative world, simplifying and showing the application of the strange and mysterious history and teaching of the English Bible, and harmonizing the religions and religious teaching and religious practice of mankind in all parts and in all ages of the world.

The thots and conclusions presented in these writings have been gathered from the known physical, mental,

moral, and spiritual composition of man, and the civil and religious experiences, revelations, interpretations, and reasonings of and to mankind, as preserved and presented in the emblems and the sacred and secular writings of the past and present ages, together with our own intuitive and acquired knowledge of things, and our own experiences and observations in, and of, life.

In our careful study of the English Bible and a limited study of the other sacred and secular records and writings, as translated by qualified students and scholars, we have found that, treated liberally, what upon the surface appears to be vulgar and incongruous is, in the main in spirit at least, homogenous, and that the religions and religious teachings and practices of the world interweave into a consistent, harmonious whole, working out a divine plan for man.

Rightly understood and interpreted, in its narratives, of the creations, including man and woman; of the garden of Eden, with its provisions for the sustenance of life; of the disobedience of man, and the wickedness of the world; of the flood, and the Ark for the righteous; of a peculiar people; of Egypt and Pharaoh; of the bondage of Israel in Egypt, and a Moses and an Aaron; of the passage of the Red sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts; of the wilderness and the wonderings of Israel therein; of the passage of the Jordan, and the conquested settlement of the promised land; and of the internal and external, public and private, tribe and national, civil and religious life of the Israelitish people, with their relations to and intercourse with the nations by whom they were surrounded and with whom they came in contact;

In its prophecies of the coming of a Messiah, a New Dispensation, in "the Christ," and a universal Church of Jews and Gentiles;

In its narratives, of the coming, nativity, and ministry of Jesus, and his disciples and apostles; of the origin, conquests, and amplitude of the Church in the New Dispensation; and of the Revelations, the English Bible teaches, both symbolically and literally, the source, constitution, and purpose of man, with his relations to Divinity, and the rest of the created world, distinguishing man's life and intelligence from the rest of the creatures, and pointing out the way of and to Life Eternal.

We have found, that the subject matter of the English Bible covers three distinct dispensations of man in the world; that the first ended in the destruction of the created world by a flood, with Noah, the righteous man, as a connecting link reaching into the second; that the second ended in the rejection of Israel, with Jesus, the perfect Man, as the connecting link, reaching into the third and present;

That the first dispensation was creating and developing ing, the second law giving and ceremonial, and the third and present is the Christian, or Christ bearing and developing;

And that the biblical story, of these three dispensations, portrays the physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual elements of man; illustrates man's physical and intellectual endowments, and his moral and spiritual attributes; and demonstrates the working relations of the human and divine sides of man's life in the developments of a spiritual personality and its birth out of the body, as illustrated in the birth, life, ministry, and death of Jesus, and the

birth of his spiritual personality out of his physical body.

We have learned that man is the incarnation of a divine element, emanating from God, with physical functions suited to serve its purpose in the environments of the world without personal contact or exposure; that the purpose of thus incarnating divine elements, as represented in intellectual and soulful man, was and is that, thru the human and spiritual agencies combined in man, a spiritual personality may be developed and born out of the body, called second birth, for the Eternal Kingdom of God;

That the material world, in all its creations, emanations, agencies, and environments, serves nature in the production, maintenance, and reproduction of human temples and vehicles for the indwelling, and the development of divine elements to personalities-sons of God; that the human personality is the son of nature, and the spiritual personality is the son of God; that nature is exhausted in the production, maintenance, and reproduction of the physical man, and that personal infinity commences with the production of the spiritual personality.

Our object in this work is to reproduce here, in convenient form for reference, the evidences we have found sustaining these our conclusions in relation to the religions and religious teachings in the different parts and the different ages of the world, including the English Bible, and proving our theory of the humanity and divinity of man, and the purpose of the created world and carnate man in the Eternal Plan of God.

We know that the religious sea, upon which we have launched and set sail, in its borders is full of islands of

belief and faith, some above the surface, and many more submerged with irregular ragged outlines, obstructing the passage and besetting the way of would be mariners. And if it be that we have passed these religious shoals and can signal and guide some belated souls out into the deep blue sea of God, to enjoy the peace of mind and fortitude belonging to the children of God, we shall feel that our effort has not been in vain.

The extent of the necessary subject matter for this work, as taken from the English Bible and elsewhere and in an abridged form reproduced, with the necessary definitions, explanations, applications, and comments, would make a very large, expensive and inconvenient volume of more than a thousand pages; therefore, we have divided and will publish it in four small convenient volumes of about two hundred and fifty pages each.

In this division of the subject matter, we have been careful to have each volume complete and valuable in itself without regard to what may follow or precede it.

The first volume treats of Man's elements, attributes, and religion, and the book and bookless religions, giving a summary of each book of the English Bible, and the story of the Old Testament, with the prophetically declared sins of the people represented.

The second volume gives the prophetic judgment against the people, and the prophecies concerning the coming of a Messiah, a New Dispensation, and a Universal Church, as contained in the Old Testament; and the story of the New Testament, concerning Jesus, his ministry, his disciples and apostles, and the Church; and the Revelations.

The third volume is a sort of Glossary, explaining