Chauncey Giles

“ Sadness darkens the countenance and draws a veil over the features. Humility bows the head and softens the voice, while pride and disdain lift it up. Anger inflames the eye, clinches the hands, and gives harshness to the tones. Every feature and limb may express the same affection but each in its own way. The affections and passions cause these effects. There is nothing arbitrary or artificial in their production. They are not limited to particular persons. They are the same among all nations and in all ages. They exist in the nature of a human being ”

“ They are the forms in which those affections express themselves when they come down from the spiritual plane of being into the material. Therefore they perfectly represent them. They are the language of the soul in material forms. There is a most intimate connection between them, but a clear distinction. They are totally unlike, and yet the natural motion, form, tone is the perfect expression of the affection which caused it. A tear is not grief; a smile is not a pleasant affection; a blush is not shame; the clinched hand is not anger; laughter is not joy. ”

“ Correspondence is the relation between one discrete degree of the creation and another. As it man is an epitome of the universe, a microcosm in whose nature are gathered all its substances, forms, orders, degrees, and relations, we can find in him holds equally between small and large things, and as perfect examples and illustrations of the nature of Correspondence. We all know that man's affections and thoughts manifest or represent themselves in his looks, speech, and the motions of the body. ”

“ Every act of creation is effected by forces and substances which originate in the Lord, reach nature and man from within. Creation is not an arbitrary, mechanical work. A tree is not made like a house; an animal is not created in the same way as an engine. While it is true that one material thing is used as an instrument in creating another, the power which uses it comes from within. It is an influence, an inflowing, as light and heat from the sun, as affection and thought into the physical organs of the body. ”

“ The higher degree can create the lower, but it cannot become the lower. It can create it as an instrumental cause, as affection can create thought and move to action, but cannot become thought and physical motion. It follows from this law of discontinuity between the distinct degrees of the creation, that while God creates the universe of matter and being from Himself, He does not become the universe. Nature is not God though a constant emanation from Him. ”

“ The Lord calls Himself a vine. All plants, from the tender grass to the oak, cedar, and palm, are employed as symbols of the processes of spiritual growth. The Lord is also called a lion and a lamb, because the strength of the one and the innocence of the other are primary qualities of His nature. Nature is the created word of God. It is a revelation of His love and wisdom, of the laws of His order, purposes, and the means by which He attains them. The objects in nature are not arbitrary characters. ”

“ If man, by the perversion of his faculties, has become blind to the real meaning of the living characters which environ him, if he has become deaf to the Divine harmonies and the many-toned voices in which the Lord speaks to him in the sounds of nature, it does not invalidate the fact that they are a Divine language, and, consequently, full of infinite and specific meanings.
This doctrine of evolution does not banish God from the universe, or, having once created it, make Him a remote spectator of a work completed ages ago. ”

“ It is the embodiment of the love and wisdom He is exercising now before our eyes. It is not a creation effected by accident in the wild conflict of unconscious forces which originate in no intelligent purpose and have no meaning. Every substance has a Divine origin; every force is adjusted to the specific work to be done; every motion follows in the paths of a Divine order towards its accomplishment. There is no conflict and waste of power of one element with another. ”

“ As a tear corresponds to sorrow, as laughter is the effect of joy, of material forms and living beings is the embodiment of the Divine love and wisdom, corresponds to them, represents them, and expresses them in a natural and perfect language: In the sublime and scientific words of the Psalmist : "The heavens declare, the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." ”

“ Climate and soil and the state of matter determine the special form of creation, though they are only the materials out of which it is formed. The fish must have water, the bird air, the animal special vegetable substances to supply the materials for its organization. The same power that creates a plant, an animal, or a man constantly flows into the forms created and manifests itself according to the nature of the thing or being formed. ”

“ The plant has a form which inorganic matter does not possess, and consequently it can receive life and possesses qualities impossible to the mineral. The animal is not merely formed out of substances contained in the plant, but those substances serve as a basis for the organization of forms that can receive life in a higher degree. The animal can be endowed with consciousness and intelligence in the form of instinct which is a quality of life entirely distinct, discreted from the life of the plant. ”

“ As there is in quantities, a power that moulds it into spheres, and water and in every fluid, in the largest and smallest which does it when the world, or ocean, or globule of mist is left free to move, so there is in every substance and force a tendency constantly acting to organize it into the human form. Matter in every state, gaseous, fluid, or solid, is formed from this substance, and constantly retains qualities which fit it to become a part of an organized body. Organization is not effected by matter itself. ”

“ The atmosphere, from its motions and qualities and use in the creation of plants and animals, and especially in its relations to the material body and its agency in setting all its organic forms in motion and endowing man himself with consciousness, performs the same office as the Holy Spirit, which is the Divine truth, and, consequently, corresponds to and represents it. It performs the same office as water, which is also the correspondent of Divine truth, but on a lower plane of the creation. Divine truth is to man's spiritual organism as water to his physical organism. ”

“ Each has its own sun, consequently, its own light and heat, its own earth and sky, formed of its special degree of substance, and possessing its special qualities. There are three material atmospheres derived from the sun the aura, the ether, and the air. Nature is divided into three kingdoms : the animal, the mineral, and the vegetable. Three degrees or planes of organs in potency or actual creation compose the human spirit. These planes are organized of the substances of the three heavens; they partake of their nature. ”

“ His affections show themselves in the tones of his voice, in the changes of the muscles of his face, and in the various movements of the whole body. They do this naturally, that is, without any purpose or effort on his part. Grief will cause weeping; shame mantles the face with blushes; joy expresses itself by smiles and laughter. ”

“ As the rock did not this loss of energy and change in the nature of substance does not take place by a regular, constant, emanate from the sun as a rock, or water as water, but in some purer, more active substance, possessing qualities entirely distinct and impossible to solid matter, so the creation descends from its Infinite Fountain, and in its descent changes into substances and forces entirely distinct from those which first proceeded from their source. ”

“ We may give different names to the process by which one organized form is evolved from another; we may call it evolution, progress, development; but the change of name does not touch the constant fact that there is an unbroken chain of cause and effect, binding all things to each other and each to all. "Whatsoever is unconnected does not exist." The materialist and the Christian stand on the same ground in this respect, though setting out from opposite positions. ”

“ We can see how one discrete degree of the creation manifests itself in a lower degree and by correspondence binds the two together. We can see how a higher and a lower plane act as one while they remain entirely distinct. Let us apply this law to the relation of the Creator to the creation. ”

“ The universe is pervaded by these spiritual and Divine forces in constant operation, working to provide the inorganic materials and mould them into organic forms which are capable of receiving life. The result of the action of these influent forces is always determined by the state and quality of the materials into which it flows. It may be some form of a plant. It is a well-known fact that every plant has a specific form, color, and quality, and that no plant will grow in soil which does not possess the substances that enter into its composition. ”

“ Organization is the Divine method of creating forms that can receive the Divine love and wisdom, become conscious of their possession, recognize their qualities, and be made happy and blessed by them. ”

“ Water is a general solvent of substances of which plants and animals are organized and the means of life to them. As all life and the substances which support it come from the Lord in a constantly flowing stream, the ocean, the clouds, the rain, and dew, the springs which well forth from the hills and the flowing stream are perfect correspondents and representations of the methods by which He works in all planes of the creation. ”

“ We describe the qualities of the intellect by the qualities of light. The intellect is bright, clear, brilliant, luminous, or unenlightened, obscure, and dark.
In the same way, and for the same reason, heat corresponds to love, and represents it. ”

“ Degrees are of two kinds, discrete and continuous. Discrete degrees are related to each other as end, cause, and effect. Continuous degrees consist in the gradual increase of some quality of the same discrete degree of substance. The increase of light from the faintest indications to the most intense brightness; the change from cold to intense heat; all the variations of matter from soft to hard, fine to gross, dense to rare, weakness to strength, are examples of continuous degrees. ”

“ According to this law, the universe is a constant creation of the Lord by substances and forces which flow from Him. It follows as a natural and inevitable consequence that the universe, as a whole and in every particular that is in true order, corresponds to Him and represents His love and wisdom. ”

“ The rock which is the most stable of material things, and forms the foundation for land and water, corresponds to the immutability of the Divine purposes and methods of accomplishing them. For this reason the Lord is often called a rock. ”

“ The degree of life and the quality of life will be determined by the capacity of the object to receive and communicate it. And not only the measure and quality of the life on one plane, but the distinct degree of it. ”

“ As matter becomes fixed in the mineral kingdom and determines space and time, high and low, and the various spatial relations of one thing to another, we obtain a great number of correspondences that represent the relations and qualities of spiritual beings to each other and to the Lord. ”

“ Each lower degree is formed by a combination of the substances of a higher degree.
We find abundant examples of this universal law of creation in our own natures and in everything around us. A gas and a fluid are entirely distinct from each other in substance and qualities. But one is created from the, other. Two gases unite and form water, which is an entirely different substance from either. A grain of powder, which can be measured, possesses color and form, can be instantly changed into gases. ”