THE INCARNATION.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE INCARNATION.

I In a fine lecture recently given at York the Bishop of Manchester (Dr. ; Temple i said the clue to the meaning |of the world is in the idea of purpose. I The mind would be satisfied if it could jbe shown what is the good of every- ! thing. The explanation of things is to ,be found in the good or not at all. To say that the only satisfactory expla- ; nation of the universe must be in terms lof purpose is to come round once more ito theism. Here we reach, perhaps. I the greatest difficulty in the way of ' presenting Catholic Christianity to" the ! best in modern thought. Contpmporarv ; philosophy is definitely anti-materialist. , It sees God as the meaning and explanaI tion of all things. But it cannot be human and childlike enough to think iof Him doing anything in particular. I Dr. Temple emphasised the truth that ; the perfection of personality is revealed, not in a rigid consistency, but in the I varying but appropriate behaviour necessary to meet different circumstances as i they occur. This means that miracle must be part of a full theism, and in - that sort of picture of God all is ready fo the Incarnation. The Incarnation then, appears as a perfectly appropriate ] climax to evolution, although it could I not have been foretold beforehand. The ! New Testament view of our Lord's sig- [ nificance harmonises with this, it sees the Incarnation as the beginning of a new period in the history of the sons jof God. the revelation of a new I level in evolution. When we see the Incarnation in this perspective we understand that in the incarnate I life God is revealed through a quite j unmitigated humanity. Our Lord is not ! self-analytical, but self-revealing, revealI ing a Divine self in a purely human life. The Incarnation is not an episode, it is the revealing once for all in the language of what God eternally is. At every stage jof His human life — childhood, youth. ! manhood-—He was perfectly what tiie i stage required. In the complete life. I reaching its climax in the glory of the : Cross, God is revealed.