9. Of the literature of the people through whom came this organic evolution of the keystoning religion of earth what can we say but that it records a real revelation coming through genuine personal inspirations from on high!

Revelation is the opposite aspect of the mystery which we call discovery; the uncovering of that which was hidden; the unveiling of that which was not known; the coming on of truth into the light wherein man can see it.  “Discovery” expresses the human effort by which truth is thus uncovered and found out.  “Revelation” expresses the divine effort which lies back of all human aspirations and endeavors; as the Spirit within man stirs him up to seek for Truth, flashes in upon his mind strange hints of where and how she is to be found, allures him onward with the mystic whispers of her voice, until at length he stands upon the mount of vision whence her holy form is seen, and cries—­“I have found her!”

To him who believes in a Spirit of Truth, guiding men into all truth, the growth of ethical and spiritual religion into perfect form in Jesus Christ is a real revelation.  It is the oncoming of the Light which lighteth every man that is in the world; the dawning of the day of earth on the hills of Judea, over which has risen the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings.

This revelation came not to the mystic “man writ large” we call society, direct from heaven in abstract form.  It came to individual men, struggling for larger light and nobler life, and breathing their higher spirit on their fellows.  Religion is always life, the experience of souls.  We can name the individuals through whom each important advance was made.  The greater souls who led the worship of the host welcoming the rising Light, thrilled with the vibrations of a voice deeper and holier than the voice of man.  The lesser souls who formed the chorus of this anthem of The Dawn thrilled each alike with this mystic sense of God.  That which we must aver of every truth discovered or revealed, of every knowledge needful to man and won by man; that which we must affirm as the only rational interpretation of the mysterious suggestions rising below the conscious thoughts of man, and prompting to noblest benedictions on the race; that we must, with deepened awe, say of the holiest truths shown to the human soul,—­Inspired!

With sincere and reverent confession we must say then in the words of Holy Writ: 

   “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  “Every
   Scripture profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
   instruction in righteousness is God-inspired."[23]

The consciousness and experience of Israel could not have found fitter expression than in the words of our great seer: