Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

RESURRECTION OF CULTURED HEATHENISM 137who is.1 No created being can of itself know anythingO of Him ;' if we would see Him, ' He must revealHimself to us.The attitude of Philo's mind to God may bemmed up in his own words. " Do thou therefore,0 my soul, hasten to become the house of God, Hisholy temple, to become strong from having been mostweak, powerful from having been powerless, wise fromhaving been foolish, and very reasonable from havingbeen doting and childless." Man's taste is to imitateGod: to follow God: " His supreme happiness tostand firm and unswerving in God alone."Union with God, as satisfying the mind of man,which nothing on earth, neither intellect nor sense, cansatisfy, is the ultimate point of Philo's system. Thisunion, like everything perfect in human nature, is animmediate gift of God. On the one hand vividlyconscious of human weakness, of our moral and intellectualhelplessness, Philo yearns after communion withthe infinite God.3 On the other hand he is convincedthat the needs which neither our own strength nor thefinite world will satisfy, will meet their full satisfactionin a power beyond the world, beyond man's heartand intellect. But the inseparable condition of attainingsuch a state is holiness on the part of man producedby grace on the part of God.Now Philo's conception of God is to be noted.Drawn from revelation, this God is one and infinite,yet personal. He is absolutely distinct from the world,yet its constructor. He is the maker, father, governorof mac, the very archetype of holiness himself, and the1 6 yap \iav KaTaXafl&v tavrbv \lav aireyvwKe rr\v tv Tracrt rov yevyrovxtDs irpoXap&v avdfreiav* 6 d'dTroyvws eavrbv, ywwcrxet rbv 6vra. DeSomniis, i. 10, p. 629.2 Ibid.) De Somniis, i. 23. 3 Zeller, v. 365.