vin] The Evolution of Transcendence 231 



simultaneous series of Eternity simultaneous because 

 there is no before or after (Pringle Pattison's state- 

 ment that "the past and the future are essentially 

 relative, and indeed negative, conceptions, the no-more 

 and the not-yet; but the 'is' of the present, if we take 

 it as we do in action and in all direct experience, is not 

 infected by the same relativity, and hence there is in it 

 something comparable to eternity 1 ," exactly expresses 

 what we are striving to say) a series because the 

 activity is real ; not merely seen as such through the re- 

 fracting medium of immanent existence; and activity is 

 essentially serial. 



God is Transcendent and sees the Whole, and every 

 part fulfilling its relation to It. As such, He sees His own 

 Immanence as an integral and necessary part of that 

 Whole; and it is real to Him. More, its process in the 

 temporal series is real; and cosmic contingency the 

 constant reafnrmation of life's freedom to escape the 

 determination of a real past that is no-more in a real 

 future that is not-yet is present fact for God*. 



How can these two consciousnesses co-exist as one ? If 

 they do not, then God has two consciousnesses, and this 

 is an impossible contradiction. As before we will turn 

 back to the known, experienced, case of man, and argue 

 through this, and through the link of Christ God in 

 manhood to the absolute consciousness of God. 



We men find immanence real enough. The incorpora- 

 tion of matter for the purpose of discharging our activities 

 the disappearance of its otherness through purposive 

 subordination this is our every-day experience. 



1 Op. cit. p. 369. 



Cf . the statement (Preliminary Considerations, p. 3 1 ) that " the 

 end is before process for the Transcendent God. but the stages by 

 which that end is reached are not within His transcendent know- 

 ledge, for they are not in the plane of transcendence but of limita- 

 tion." 



