Spiritual Meaning of

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Gen 8:6-12

In discussing the story of the flood and the ark, we have purposely avoided calling attention to the discrepancies and contradictions and physical impossibilities that appear on the surface of the account. These things are apparent to all who read the story, and calling attention to them would prove a wearisome task as well as a fruitless one; and besides it might prove harmful to those who are unable to rise to the plane of the spiritual interpretation of the story. The New Church does not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Its work is constructive not destructive.

There are many simple-minded Christians in the world; and they are unable to bear the inner light of the Lord's Word; for which reason they must remain in the shade of its letter. As long as they do this, reading the Word and understanding it according to its natural sense, but with reverent minds the angels, as we are told, "instantaneously evolve the spiritual sense," as such reverent souls read it, "and thereby connect them with heaven and conjoin them with the Lord." This is a beautiful and catholic teaching.

But to all who have reached a plane in the development of their intellectual life where they must see and have a rational basis for faith, all that is necessary to lead them to an acknowledgment of the Divinity of the Bible is the simple and direct opening of the lessons of its spiritual sense. Truth is its own witness. Truth is its own authority. So of this story. It need only be opened in its spiritual sense to be seen and acknowledged by all who are prepared for a reasonable faith in revelation.

A man asked me the other day this question: "Why is it that nothing is said about the admission of air into the ark?" The ark is the symbol of the church, as it was formed in the people of the Noetic age; and it was formed in them by the slow process of spiritual regeneration. The air is wind in a gentle and quiet state and is the symbol of the spiritual influences which operate to regenerate man. These influences are continually supplied by the Lord as man Co-operates with Him, but no man is openly sensible of them, that is, they make no report to his senses. Spiritual life comes from moment to moment, but we are not conscious of its constant communication. The Lord is the giver of those holy and interior spiritual influences. He secretly, and in a manner wholly unknown to us, supplies the regenerative life. No man can do this. It was to represent this great fact that in this allegory nothing is said of Noah making provision for the airing of the ark. Here, then is the answer.

And the other question which doubtless has occurred to many: "Why were the two lower stories of the ark left in darkness? There was only one window, and that was in the top of the ark." Look within for the answer. The ark tossed on the waters! Don't you see that it is the picture of the people, in whom the church was being formed, undergoing severe trial and temptation? What of a state of deep spiritual temptation? In such a state of trial, are not the lower stories of the mind - the faculties that pertain to the merely natural and rational departments of the soul, in a state of darkness? Evil and false influences are operating upon them and the light of heaven is, for the time being, shut out. Who has not experienced this? At such times, the lower parts of the mind lose entirely their hold on religion. They are in darkness. But there is a window above in the ark. It is the intellectual faculty belonging to the spiritual mind. Light enters there; so that while in a state of temptation, the lower and more external planes of the mind are in darkness, light shines in the interior regions of the soul. If this were not true, no one could do otherwise than fall in temptation. But of the flowing in of this interior light, man is wholly unconscious, when in a state of temptation. While the trial lasts even this window seems shut. But when the temptation ends, this seemingly closed window appears open again to the spiritual consciousness. This is what is meant where it is said: "At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made."

The number forty stands for a full state of trial and temptation. When this passes away, the window - the interiors of the mind - opens and one is made conscious of the loving hand that upheld and guided the soul in the hour of temptation. This is true of the individual; and it was true of the collective man represented by Noah in the ark. Think now of the sending forth of the raven. The raven, unlike the dove, was not, in this allegory, sent forth to see if the waters were dried up. It was sent forth as a thing to be gotten rid of. The raven is a black and voracious bird, and it therefore symbolizes a false principle in the understanding. The raven in the ark! Don't you see that it denoted a false idea that adhered to the minds of the Noetic people, which was disclosed to them, when, after temptation, the spiritual part of their minds was illumined by the Divine truth?

Truth is spiritual light; and when this light shines in the mind it reveals falsity in all its horrid blackness and there comes an effort to expel it. This is what is meant by Noah sending forth the raven. But the raven did not go away at once. True it never got back into the Ark again; but it did go "to and fro." It flew away and then came back; and it continued to do this until finally it disappeared forever. Almost without being told, one sees what this means.

Take your own experience. Most of you have come to the new church from the denominational bodies. You were taught the old dogmas. You thought of God as existing in three Divine persons; of the atonement as the placating of Divine wrath by the death of Christ and of salvation by faith alone. What are these dogmas but ravens? You have learned to think of Jesus Christ as God in a Divine Humanity in whom is the Divine trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost as Divine essentials; you have learned to think of the atonement as man's union with the Lord. You have learned to think of salvation as the Lord's deliverance of your souls from sin and its power. In this way the Lord is forming His New Church in you. You have undergone much trial in the reception of the doctrines of the Lord's new advent. You have come out of it. Light has come. You see the raven - the false doctrine of the consummated church on these subjects, and you have sent it forth out of the ark. Let me ask you - did it go forth never to bother you again? Did it not go "to and fro"? The old ideas come back, you are distressed by them at times. One of you said to me: "If I could stay in church all the time I could shut out the old doctrine I was taught about God, but when I go home it comes back to me." This is what is meant by the raven going "to and fro" But we who have come into the New Church, if we are faithful, will see the raven go for good, never to return again. Now such was the experience of the people in whom the Lord formed the Ancient Church. They did not free their minds of false things suddenly. The raven, when sent forth from the ark, went "to and fro" for a long time. But finally it disappeared never to return again. The truth finally expelled it forever.

And then a new experience came to them. It is told us in the beautiful parable of sending forth the dove. The dove was sent forth to see if the waters had dried up. That was its mission. The dove represents the truth. But the truth is from the Lord; and to be effective, must be done in the acknowledgment of Him as its author. In the beginning of regeneration, man is not in this acknowledgment. He acts from his selfhood. He believes he has discovered the truth and that he has the power to execute its commands. This, in the beginning, was the state of the Noetic people. Thus is is said: "Noah sent forth the dove from himself." It found no place for the "sole of its foot." How could it? Truth believed and done from oneself has no power to change life. The dove came back and Noah pulled it into the ark, - so runs the story. There is still here the idea of a mental ownership of the truth - still, the thought that one is doing good of himself. The raven has gone, - falsity is expelled, but the dove of truth has not attained to full liberty of life.

It is sent forth again, and again it comes back to be taken into the ark, but it brings back an olive leaf! How beautiful this symbolism is! The olive tree, from which the holy oil was derived, is the symbol of the perception of the indwelling of the Divine love; and the olive leaf symbolizes the truth of the awakening of that love in man's heart. This had become, by this time, the spiritual state of the people of the Ancient Church.

Upon this return of the dove, it was not pulled into the ark. The selfhood was finding its true place; the Lord was being acknowledged.

The third time the dove was sent forth, it did not return. The waters had dried up and it found a place for the "sole of its foot." By the dove finding a place for the "sole of her foot" is meant that the truth found a resting place in the hearts of the people. It disappeared as truth in the forms of goodness which it produced.