Signs of grace constitute the chief part of the symbolism of religion under the Old and New Testaments. Religion has never been presented to men in an abstract form as if they were simple intelligences. The incorporeal God has often made His presence known to human senses, in the burning bush, the pillar of fire, the thunders and voices of Sinai, the cloud that filled the temple. The ancient system was full of signs of some further reality. Such was the tree of life in Paradise, the sacrifice of Abraham, the covenant of circumcision, the Red Sea, the tabernacle containing the word of God and the bread from heaven, the continual sacrifice of the lamb at the rising and the setting of the sun. Actual persons were types of others yet to come Adam, Eve, Moses, David, Solomon, Esther, Judith. Symbolism is the mould in which God cast religious ideas so as to make them concrete to average men. The same principle prevails in the New Testament. It is not given to us as yet to see face to face with the spiritual eye; when invisible realities are presented to us, it is under the cover of some external sign or action, which at the same time manifests divine mysteries and veils them from us. The symbols of the present religion are much nobler than those of the former one. Study to discover all that underlies them. Cultivate the spiritual senses by which you may see God, and hear His voice, and be raised to a higher level of life and action.
