make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and upon His head were many crowns: and He had a name written which no one knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and His name is called, The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in linen white and clean: and He had upon His vesture and upon His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords." (Rev. xix. 11–16.) Thus the Lord is represented as to His Divine intelligence concerning the heaven of angels and the spiritual life of men; and upon those who now receive and follow Him He bestows spiritual intelligence in the interior things of the Word, and the truth which angels think and live, which is represented by white horses upon which they ride.1

One other representation we are now prepared to enjoy; which is, that when the Lord was born into the world, He was first laid in a manger.

1 Citations above, also A. R. 611.

In the manger, asses and horses find their food. In the best sense, asses represent the understanding of what is good and right in practical affairs, and horses intelligence in spiritual things, and this understanding and intelligence are nourished by instruction in truth from the Word. But the truth of the Word is from the Lord and is the Lord; and He first comes consciously to us when we, loving the rightness or the spiritual beauty of the truth of the Word, perceive that it is Himself,

His own thought with His life in it. To every one's consciousness He first lies in the manger.

THE MULE.

ANOTHER kind of understanding intermediate

between these two, is the understanding of natural truth in the light of spiritual intelligence. The animal which represents this understanding is the mule, the offspring of the ass and the mare. Mr. Wood remarks:

"It is a very strange circumstance that the offspring of these two animals should be, for some purposes, far superior to either of the parents, a well-bred mule having the lightness, sure-footedness, and hardy endurance of the ass, together with the increased size and muscular development of the horse. Thus it is peculiarly adapted either for the saddle or for the conveyance of burdens over a rough or desert country.' He adds, "The mules that are most generally serviceable are bred from the male ass and the mare, those which have the horse as the father and the ass as the mother being small and comparatively valueless."

The reason of this seems to be that this smaller mule has the spirit and desires of the horse with only the faculties of the ass; and must correspond to a mental state in which spiritual intelligence can exercise itself only through a knowledge of natural truth, seeing this, however, I should suppose, more intelligently, and using it more generously in the service of the spiritual man. The larger mule would have the more moderate ambition of the ass with the larger abilities of the horse, and would correspond to natural truth as considered by the faculties of spiritual intelligence, and thus to a rational and more comprehensive understanding of natural things in their relation to one another and to spiritual things. It was on account of this somewhat nobler understanding of natural things which the mule represented that kings formerly rode upon mules, as judges upon asses; and that Solomon was mounted upon David's mule, was equivalent to placing him upon the judgment-seat of the kingdom.

The mule is, however, in moral quality still

an ass. Mr. Wood continues his description

thus:

"That the mule was as obstinate and contentious an animal in Palestine as it is in Europe, is evident from the fact that the Eastern mules of the present day are quite as troublesome as their European brethren. They are very apt to shy at any thing or nothing at all; they bite fiercely, and every now and then they indulge in a violent kicking fit, flinging out their heels with wonderful force and rapidity, and turning round on their fore-feet so quickly that it is hardly possible to approach them. There is scarcely a traveller in the Holy Land who has not some story to tell about the mule and its perverse disposition."

Probably every one feels in his own mind the difference as to gentleness and charity between a rational understanding of natural things, though it be with a view to their spiritual relations, and an intelligent delight in spiritual truth for the sake of the life of Heaven. There is the same difference between the temper of both ass and mule and that of a good horse.