d, is the form in which he conceives the Messianic hope. God does
not come down to earth incarnate in man's form, but God's active
influence possesses the soul of man, and makes it live with God, and
if man be peculiarly blessed, carries it up to the ineffable Spirit.
Similarly his idea of the Messiah is more spiritual than that of the
popular belief. The ascent of man to God's height, not the descent of
God to man's level, will produce the age of universal peace.

There are various degrees of the Divine influence, stretching from
complete possession by the Deity Himself to the advent of single
Divine thoughts. These Philo regards as [Greek: logoi], words or
thoughts--for he does not clearly distinguish between the two--and he
resolves the realistic angels of the Bible into this spiritual
conception.[206] Thus he says, "the place" where Jacob alighted and
had the vision (Gen. xxvii. 11) is the symbol of the perfect
contemplation of God; the angels which he saw ascending and descending
are the inferior light of Divine precepts. These thoughts are
continually vouchsafed to all of us, prompting us to noble actions,
comforting us in times of sadness, inspiring lofty ideas.

"Up and down through the whole soul the Logoi of God move
without end; when they ascend, drawing it up with them, and
severing it from the mortal part, and showing only the
vision of ideal things; but when they descend, not casting
it down, but descending with it from humanity or compassion
towards our race, so as to give assistance and help, in
order that, inspiring what is noble, they may revive the
soul which is borne along on the stream of the body."[207]

Conversely, the rabbis taught that from each word that proceeded from
the mouth of God an angel was created, as it is said: "By the word of
the Lord the Heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath
of His mouth."[208]

Apart from these sudden and occasional emanations of the Divine
Spirit, the individual man has within him a permanent Divine Logos by
which he may direct his conduct aright. Viewed in this aspect, the
Logos, _i.e._, the activity of God, is conscience, the Judge in the
soul, which is the true man dwelling within,[209] ruler and king,
judge and arbiter, witness and accuser, correcting and restraining.
Rising to bolder personification, Philo, who loves to present a
spiritual thought in a concrete image, calls it the undefiled high