104 SKETCHES OF GEEAT TRUTHS

Wisdom has; she has, as it were, a way tha
explains and helps and lifts you over th
ditches of doubt which in earlier days seeme
so very wide, nor does she do this dogmatically
for there is always plenty of room left fc
individual thought and for working out fc
ourselves the suggestions given by those wh
know and see and feel and understand more.

In the Jewish-Christian sacred Scripture w
have a story of the beginnings of things in th
first chapter. If taken literally (and I am sui
it was never meant to be taken literally), tir
story is childish, unreal, dissatisfying ; but rea
with the light of the Divine Wisdom, you wi
find presented by that simple story a great trut]

In passing I must remind you that there aj
three ways of reading sacred Scripture. Firs
as a child, reading literally, that is necessary i
a child, and belongs to the age when priestcra
is necessary, when the priest insists that eac
word is to be taken literally. Secondly, as or
of mature age would read whose intelle*
demands an explanation, and he takes it as a
allegory and seeks with the seer the truth behir
the simple story. Thirdly, as the spiritualma
the man made perfect, who reads the spiritu
Truth encased in the simple story by the help <