e_. Such a nature will never
become absolutely certain of the meaning and value of all that has led
up to this until the One obtains a self-subsistence. If this effort
fails, the whole effort of development towards unity and inwardness
fails. And when such a chain of effort snaps at its highest link of
spiritual development, everything that had entered into the process at
all the levels below it snaps along with it in so far as it had any
validity whatever in the light of what is higher than itself.

But the fact that this conception of the One, conceived as Absolute
Spiritual Life, has produced so many effects of the highest kind is a
proof of its existence. Qualities come into being which can never come
with such power in any other way. The spiritual experiences, revealed at
such a level, have something to say on this matter. These experiences,
[p.156] although aware of the meaning of universal concepts, have become
aware of something higher still: Knowledge has given place to Love; a
region has been reached beyond all the contradictions of the world and
beyond all the dialectics of knowledge. It is a region which includes
the good of all without injuring the good of any; and all the meaning of
the world and of life is interpreted from this highest standpoint. This
is the essence of "characteristic "or specific religion. On the level of
"universal" religion, God was seen from the standpoint of the world; in
"characteristic" religion the world is seen from the standpoint of God.
The appearance of the world is consequently different from each
standpoint. All must now be viewed and valued from the standpoint of
"characteristic" religion, from the standpoint of the One--the Godhead;
and if humanity is ever to be brought to this standpoint, the nature and
the meaning of the One have to be presented to it. And it is this, as
Eucken shows, which has been partially accomplished by the religions of
the world. Their founders were personalities who had scaled the heights
towards the "holy of holies" of the One; they descended into the plains
to reveal what they had seen and heard and experienced on the heights.
They had been able to commune with the Alone, and their natures had been
completely transformed. In passing thus from the stage of "universal"
[p.157] religion to the higher stage of "characteristic," men have
discovered a further security and spiritual evolution of their whole
being. Their views of man and the world have