or he did not bury his dead
after the manner of those who later manifested this belief. But, after
the lapse of centuries, Neolithic man was found manifesting such a
belief. What has happened? This: the mortal mind was translating the
divine idea of immortality into its own terms and thus expressing it.

"Ages rolled on. The curtain began to rise upon what we call human
history. The idea of a power not itself began to filter through the
mist of mortal mind, and human beings felt its influence, the
influence that makes for righteousness. And then, at last, through the
mortal mind there began to filter the idea of the one God. The people
who best reflected this idea were the ancient Israelites. They called
themselves the 'chosen' people. Their so-called minds were, as Carmen
has expressed it, like window-panes that were a little cleaner than
the others. They let a bit more of the light through. God is light,
you know, according to the Scriptures. And little by little they began
to record their thoughts regarding their concept of the one God. These
writings became sacred to them. And soon they were seeing their God
manifested everywhere, and hearing His voice in every sound of Nature.
And as they saw, they wrote. And thus began that strange and mighty
book, the Bible, _the record of the evolution of the concept of God in
the human mind_."

"Do you mean to say that the Bible was not given by inspiration?"
demanded Reverend Moore.

"No," replied Hitt. "This filtering process that I have been speaking
about _is_ inspiration. Every bit of truth that comes to you or me
to-day comes by inspiration--the breathing in--of the infinite mind
that is truth.

"And so," he went on, "we have those reflections of the communal
mortal mind which we call the Israelites recording their thoughts and
ideas. Sometimes they recorded plain fact; sometimes they wrapped
their moral teachings in allegories and fables. Josephus says of Moses
that he wrote some things enigmatically, some allegorically, and the
rest in plain words, since in his account of the first chapter of
Genesis and the first three verses of the second he gives no hint of
any mystery at all. But when he comes to the fourth verse of the
second chapter he says Moses, after the seventh day was over, began
to talk philosophically, and so he understood the rest of the second
and third chapters in some enigmatical and allegorical sense. Quite
so, it appears to me, for the writer, wh