the situation, training our strength, confirming the ideas thus far attained, and preparing ourselves in many ways to take position on yet higher spiritual levels, and to so perform this work that we can stand firmly there with no danger of losing again the vantage ground we have thus far gained. Not that we do this consciously or think to ourselves, "I am doing thus and so in order to promotion to a higher class in the ethics and life of the kingdom," but that it is so effected unconsciously to ourselves. Really and truly it is the Lord who does it all, because He is the instructor, overseer and promoting agent in the entire work, and we are never out of his sight or from under his watchful care for a single moment.
Due preparation thus being made then, due spiritual strength gained, we arise into a new state—a second stage of regenerative experience. This is typified in the biblical narrative by the second day of creation.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven.
We must remember that the first stage of spiritual progress out of the void and the dark, was a
