THE ONE IN THE MANY, AND THE MANY IN THE ONE. 133 



of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. To go back now 

 from Him to philosophy is like forsaking the meridian sun for a 

 rushlight. Plato's conception that ail sense-objects are but the 

 reflection of Spiritual Ideas in the Mind of God is striking. Whether 

 true of all sense-objects it would be hard to say. but the Levitical 

 economy of types and shadows is a remarkable illustration. The 

 tabernacle was., we know, the pattern of a heavenly reality. The 

 difficulty of translating sense-objects into their corresponding 

 ideas is shown by the fact that the major part of Christendom has 

 failed to translate the sense-objects of the old dispensation, and 

 we see them around us in all their crudity instead of the spiritual 

 ideas they represent — the shadows instead of the substance : for 

 the ideas are not less solid than the sense-objects [e.g., the resurrection 

 body of Christ ; tangible though spiritual), but infinitely more real 

 and lasting. Why this difficulty ? Plato ascribes it to the transitory 

 and fluctuating character of the sense-objects that they are 

 associated with matter. But this is the Buddhist, Gnostic. 

 Theosophist concept. There is nothing evil in matter 'per se. The 

 difficulty is in our spiritual being. One of the direct results of sin 

 is to deprive us of the capacity to translate sense-objects into their 

 corresponding Ideas. I think the suggestion of the Lecturer that 

 a " quality is a mode of self-manifestation " valuable, leading to 

 communion and unity : the many thus becoming one. But if 

 sfdritual unity is to be effected, the self, the ego must be indwelt 

 by the Spirit of God. Sin is a disintegrating force, and though 

 evil may unite temporarily for common ends, such unity cannot 

 last, for the tendency of selfishness is to create as many centres 

 as there are individuals. Poets may sing in their armchairs " All's 

 right ^vith the world ! " ; but it is only by ignoring that terrible fact 

 which the Bible calls sin and which can only be met by Di\'ine 

 Power on the ground of the Atoning work of Christ. 



Remarks sent by Dr. Schofield : It is a most luminous 

 piesentation of Plato, and the criticism of his views seems well 

 warranted if we are to attach its ordinary meaning to the word 

 *' Substance," and what the Professor adds seems to a learner like 

 myself on Quality and Character, most admirable. 



The dictum, on p. 118. " The mind does not create ideas. " of 

 Tiberghien might perhaps be better expressed " does not create aU 



