Social, and Religious Life of Man. 207 



Perseus was, before he can hope to get the better of the 

 Gorgon, or spirit of evil in one shape or another, whose 

 will it is to prevent him from gaining the object of his 

 hope, his Andromeda, by turning him to stone. Nay he can 

 not quite get rid of the fear that he is already punished 

 in this manner in some measure for failing to secure 

 these gifts, for may it not be that he is partially de- 

 vitalized, materialized, turned into stone, whenever he 

 persists in mistaking, as he does do continually, matter 

 for spirit, death for life, a dead idol for the living God ? 

 And if he can arrive at this point he has not to go much 

 further in order to be able to accept as true what is more 

 clearly revealed in Holy Scripture about faith and prayer 

 and spiritual gifts and the necessity for self-sacrifice, for 

 he will be quite prepared to allow that the many defi- 

 ciencies in human nature of which he is so painfully con- 

 scious can only be remedied when that is imparted by 

 which human nature is assimilated to the Divine Nature 

 when, in fact, the prayer of Christ for His disciples is 

 answered, even this " that they all may be one : as 

 thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 

 may be one in us that they may be one, even as we 

 are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be 

 made perfect in one." Instead of being staggered by 

 these words, he will cling to them as containing the 

 fullest assurance of the truth of the doctrine about which 

 so much has been said, the doctrine of unity in diversity 

 and diversity in unity, with the Divine Being as the 

 centre of unity. Instead of looking upon faith and 

 prayer generally as of necessity opposed to law, he will 

 recognize in these acts the natural means by which he is 

 to attain to his full stature as the "image of God." 

 Step by step along a firm pathway he will arrive at this 

 conclusion, and at every step he will feel less disposed 



