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There are three successive stages that lead up to the fulness of human development. First, man is called by God out of nothingness, he receives existence and the due faculties of his nature. The merely natural stage of existence is the first benefit of God; it is the first deliverance wrought by the Word of God, raising man out of the deep abysses of non-being, and imprinting on him the first seal of likeness to the Divinity. As a matter of fact man did not remain in this state; he was not left on the same natural level with the rest of creation, but was raised to a condition that was above ordinary nature. His perversity, however, deprived him of the endowments of the higher state, and thrust him down to the natural level, wounded and depreciated by the uprooting of the tree of supernatural life which had been implanted in his soul. Still we may dwell with wonder and gratitude on the endowments which God has attached to this lower sphere of life, existence first, conscious intelligence, freedom of will, mastery over all lower nature, aptitude for progress and the continual achievements of knowledge, and for an organized social existence with all the mutual aids that it opens to us. Admire the generosity of God; consider the greatness of even natural man; but take care that pride in the lower gifts of God do not make you incapable of appreciating and aspiring to those which are higher.
