wait: soon Reason discovers the wherefore of this--her activity is not
the activity of That Other. Only by that which is like in activity can
That Other be received: this "like" is not herself: finally she comes
to know this "like" as a higher part of the soul--Spirit. When Spirit
has received and given it to the soul, then it is afterwards the part of
Reason to attack from every side that which has been received, to
digest it, absorb it, and share it, in fact though not in act. According
to the health and strength of Reason so we shall successfully deal
with and use that with which the Spirit presents us. By comparison
with the magnificent Spirit-Activity or Spirit-Intelligence the
Reason is limited and frail as a new-born babe: this is no humiliation
to Reason, since she should not be expected to accomplish that
which is not her part.

Why do not all men apprehend God? It is very questionable if all
men desire to do so, because in the recesses of each man's soul lies
the consciousness that there will be some great price to pay.

But beyond this there arises the question, Is it desirable, price or no
price, that all souls should come while still in flesh to immediate
knowledge of, and contact with, God; and after long and close
thinking the experienced soul will answer No, and Yes. No, in so far
as the apprehension of the Godhead is concerned; Yes, and most
vitally Yes, for Christians, in so far as Communion and Contact with
Christ is concerned. Why this distinction? Because the apprehension
of the Godhead is beyond the requirements of salvation and
redemption, and the world and flesh were created for those purposes.
Though there is no limit to the heights to which the soul may aspire,
and all souls are invited eventually to behold the Face of God, if so
be they shall be able to prepare themselves to endure Him, there are
to a soul still in flesh the most terrible dangers in knowing the
Fullness of God even so far as His Fullness may be Known to Flesh:
never perhaps in all her history is the soul in such danger as she is
after coming (in flesh) to the apprehension of the Godhead: and this
danger may extend in an acute degree over a period of many years
and can never be said to cease altogether. The Soul Knows and feels,
when in its acute stage, this horrible danger without comprehending
its exact cause and nature, but it has about it the feeling that
a man might have standing balanced on a narrow pinnacle.
Unapproa