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REV. STEWART A. MCDOWALL, M.A., B.D., ON 



But it does seem to me to touch a chord in us that is only put 

 into vibration by true things. If this be so, must we then 

 give up the idea of the Absolute Unity, and say that Reality is 

 God plus the finite particulars He creates ? If we must, I for 

 one am prepared to do so ; but I am not convinced of the 

 necessity. It lands us in Pluralism, and though I believe 

 Pluralism contains a great truth, undiluted it seems to lead 

 straight to disaster for some things that are of ^-ital importance. 

 But if the ultimate destiny of the created spirit is complete 

 union with God and complete sharing of His Perfect Experience, 

 while yet it retains its self-identity, the Absolute being this 

 perfect experience of Love or intercommimion which is God's 

 Experience of Himself, I am not at all sure that we do not gain 

 the advantages, yet escape the troubles of Pluralism, except 

 in the time-process of development or becoming (where there 

 is no real difficulty), while yet securing the ultimate Unity 

 which is the aim of all philosophies of the Absolute. To discuss 

 this would take us too far, even if I were competent to do it, 

 but it was necessary to mention the point, because what I am 

 trying to say about the meaning of the aesthetic impulse has 

 its roots in the conception that God is Love, and that Love 

 is necessarily externally creative. From these two premises 

 we will now go on. 



Love, then, cannot be satisfied without sharing, not for its 

 own sake, but for the sake of those it can potentially create to 

 share its joy. Hence arises, as far as we can humanly judge, 

 its characteristic of external expression through creation, 

 involving, as it does, self-abnegation, because to grant to others 

 freedom, is to limit your own by gi^'ing up yoiu: powers of control 

 where they are concerned. Only on the basis of such freedom 

 can love grow in the creature. 



Xow comes the important point. God's creation must thus 

 express a relation, but, till love of God is born in that creation, 

 the relation is not reciprocal. It is God's expression of His 

 knowledge of Reality, which is Love, but that Reality is not 

 wholly and everwhere actualized. In fact, the creation is 

 not yet absolutely Real. It is, however, beautiful. It exactly 

 fulfils our definition of Beauty as the expression of an intuition 

 (or immediate knowledge) of relation. But it will only receive 

 its ultimate justification in love. 



If we have argued justly, we come then to this conclusion : 

 that the creation of God is designed for His purpose of entering 



