fter vain philosophy. Turn we then to
Scripture. 'In the beginning was,' not the Son, but the Word. It is no
secondary or accidental title which St. John throws to the front of his
Gospel, and repeats with deliberate emphasis three times over in the
first verse. Thus the Lord is properly the Word of God, and this must
govern the meaning of all such secondary names as the Son. Then he is
not only the silent thinking principle which remains with God, but also
the active creating power which comes forth too for the dispensation of
the world. In this Sabellianizing sense Marcellus accepted the Nicene
faith, holding that the Word is one with God as reason is one with man.
Thus he explained the Divine Sonship and other difficulties by limiting
them to the incarnation. The Word as such is pure spirit, and only
became the Son of God by becoming the Son of Man. It was only in virtue
of this humiliating separation from the Father that the Word acquired a
sort of independent personality. Thus the Lord was human certainly on
account of his descent into true created human flesh, and yet not merely
human, for the Word remained unchanged. Not for its own sake was the
Word incarnate, but merely for the conquest of Satan. 'The flesh
profiteth nothing,' and even the gift of immortality cannot make it
worthy of permanent union with the Word. God is higher than immortality
itself, and even the immortal angels cannot pass the gulf which parts
the creature from its Lord. That which is of the earth is useless for
the age to come. Hence the human nature must be laid aside when its work
is done and every hostile power overthrown. Then shall the Son of God
deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that the kingdom of God may have
no end; and then the Word shall return, and be for ever with the Father
as before.

[Sidenote: The conservative panic.]

A universal cry of horror rose from the conservative ranks to greet the
new Sabellius, the Jew and worse than Jew, the shameless miscreant who
had forsworn the Son of God. Marcellus had confused together all the
errors he could find. The faith itself was at peril if blasphemies like
these were to be sheltered behind the rash decisions of Nicaea. So
thought the conservatives, and not without a reason, though their panic
was undignified from the first, and became a positive calamity when
taken up by political adventurers for their own purposes. As far as
doctrine went, there was little to choose between Ma