Ii. Respecting Man.

(a) That nature is the only exponent of God, and man in his entirety the highest form and combination of principles and powers in nature, taking him in his various degrees of development, terrestrial and celestial. Therefore to understand God we must study man, as the highest revelation of his nature and will; all so-called literary revelations of God being through the instrumentality of the human mind, and no more a revelation of God than any other functional work of the human soul, all of which, with everything else in creation, are revelations of God.

(b) That the powers which constitute the human consciousness or soul are immortal in their individualised state. That the fullest and most perfect development of man's organisation gives the possessor an indisputable consciousness of this future life, to which all nations and tribes of men, with few exceptions, in all ages have shaped their lives and motives for action.

(c) That man is therefore naturally a religious being, and governed entirely by his moral and spiritual results and necessities; living for high, holy, and eternal purposes, and not for the gratification of individual functions and powers; thus living for the normal gratification of all his parts under the control of and in harmony with the highest and most enduring.