THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



due time man shall leave the world and rejoin his 

 Father. 



What we have to bear in mind, however, is that 

 we cannot guess from the appearance or character 

 of any creature at one stage of its evolution what 

 its perfect state will be. The germ of an egg bears 

 no resemblance to a chicken, the grub is utterly 

 unlike the fly. So, when we try to think what the 

 nature of man will be when his evolution shall 

 have been completed, we must dismiss from our 

 minds all thoughts of the character of man in his 

 present stage. 



We have indeed one clue, offered to us both by 

 religion and science. 



We know that the evolution of man, in so far as 

 it is different from that of other animals, is the 

 result of the development of his mental and moral 

 powers. His advance is solely in the direction of 

 the control of mind over matter. He recognizes 

 his body as only the temporary vehicle of a con- 

 scious power of thought which has no limits in 

 space or time. His sympathies are world-wide, and 

 he is daily discovering and using new means for 

 bringing the minds of all men into sympathy and 

 union. We have little conception really of the 

 great pace at which this evolution of man is pro- 

 ceeding now. 



Every day records some new control established 

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