no one could speak in a more stoical fashion. But this train
of thought is supplemented by something which limits it. Revelation does
retain its peculiar and unique significance. For no one who merely
possessed the "seed of the Logos" ([Greek: sperma tou logou]), though it
may have been his exclusive guide to knowledge and conduct, was ever
able to grasp the whole truth and impart it in a convincing manner.
Though Socrates and Heraclitus may in a way be called Christians, they
cannot be so designated in any real sense. Reason is clogged with
unreasonableness, and the certainty of truth is doubtful wherever the
whole Logos has not been acting; for man's natural endowment with reason
is too weak to oppose the powers of evil and of sense that work in the
world, namely, the demons. We must therefore believe in the prophets in
whom the whole Logos spoke. He who does that must also of necessity
believe in Christ; for the prophets clearly pointed to him as the
perfect embodiment of the Logos. Measured by the fulness, clearness, and
certainty of the knowledge imparted by the Logos Christ, all knowledge
independent of him appears as merely human wisdom, even when it emanates
from the seed of the Logos. The Stoic argument is consequently
untenable. Men blind and kept in bondage by the demons require to be
aided by a special revelation. It is true that this revelation is
nothing new, and in so far as it has always existed, and never varied in
character, from the beginning of the world, it is in this sense nothing
extraordinary. _It is the divine help granted to man, who has fallen
under the power of the demons, and enabling him to follow his reason and
freedom to do what is good. By the appearance of Christ this help became
accessible to all men._ The dominion of demons and revelation are the
two correlated ideas. If the former did not exist, the latter would not
be necessary. According as we form a lower or higher estimate of the
pernicious results of that sovereignty, the value of revelation rises or
sinks. This revelation cannot do less than give the necessary assurance
of the truth, and it cannot do more than impart the power that develops
and matures the inalienable natural endowment of man and frees him from
the dominion of the demons.

Accordingly the teaching of the prophets and Christ is related even to
the very highest human philosophy as the whole is to the part,[364] or
as the certain is to the uncertain; and hence als