1 8 Preliminary Considerations 



statue. It is something different from, and more than, 

 the mere material, on the basis of which it is framed; 

 as the shape grows more defined we see a reflection of 

 the creative mind; it is the creator's work. But until 

 the free spirit comes into it, it is incomplete, and the 

 Creator's will and desire, which prompted the work, 

 remain unsatisfied. 



Let us repeat. We have before seen reason to define 

 matter or better, Nature as the expression of God's 

 self-limitation 1 . It is because God has limited Himself 

 that the achieval of freedom out of determined condi- 

 tions is possible for His creatures. His self-limitation, 

 then, provides the material. 



But when we regard the work we have to recognise 

 that two factors come in ; God, indwelling and inspiring 

 His creation, and the free spirits that come to be in the 

 world. Both of these are formative principles ; the final 

 product the human person depends on the one as the 

 environment, on the other as the developing organism 

 or to speak more truly, the developing spirit. The 

 immanence of God is thus closely linked with the im- 

 manence of man, as we see again and again. (Fuller dis- 

 cussion of this point may be reserved till we consider 

 the immanence and transcendence of man.) In other 

 words the completion the coming of living spirit is 

 a gradual process, determined primarily no doubt by 

 the urgent, loving Will of God, even as Galatea came in 

 response to the yearning of Pygmalion, but yet itself 

 the free response of a free impulse in the 'work.' Thus 

 it becomes clear that the Pantheists are in a measure 

 right, in so far as the material of the Universe is within 

 the experience of God as the expression of His self- 

 limitation, but they are wofully wrong in so far as the 

 universe itself is the work of free spirits as well as of God, 

 and is not altogether a part of God. The material is in 



1 Evolution and Spiritual Life, p. 168. 



