Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/70

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The Parable of Creation.

to have them sweeten the life, to bring their influences into practical bearing on every work and duty, to love the Lord and the neighbor with them, to rise into heaven by their means; why—this is quite another thing. But we must get knowledge before we can get understanding. We must store up what we learn in the memory before we can take it out and transfer it into ideas of use and beauty. It is on precisely the same principle that food must be gathered together in one place, the stomach, before it can be put to its proper use. There its life-giving essences are separated and preparations for their distribution made. Then they go forth through their proper channels to the making of blood, flesh, bone, muscle, nerve or brain, and contribute each moment to the constant re-creation of man's physical system. The memory is the store-house of the soul. Reflection gathers from it its food for thought. Reason selects from its treasures the best elements for the development of mind. Wisdom looks down into its treasury of facts and weaves from them a heavenly life.

So the waters under the heaven gathered together into one place are the knowledges of spiritual and Divine things which become stored in the memory. This storing of the mind is of the providence of the Lord. It is in the direct line of his way of doing things. He desires that the memory