As I have shown at the beginning of this book the cosmic manifestation of
principles is not sufficient to bring out all that there is in them. To do
this their action must be specialized by the introduction of the Personal
Factor. They are represented by the Pillar Jachin, but it must be
equilibriated by the Pillar Boaz, Law and Personality the two Pillars of
the Universe; and in the One Offering we have the supreme combination of
these two principles, the highest specialization of Law by the highest
power of Personality. These are eternal principles, and therefore we are
told that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world; and because
"thoughts are things" this supreme manifestation of the creative
interaction of Law and Personality was bound eventually to be manifested in
concrete action in the world conditioned by time and space; and so it was
that the supreme manifestation of the Love of God to meet the supreme need
of Man took place. The history of the Jewish nation is the history of the
working of the law of cause and effect, under the guidance of the Divine
Wisdom, so as to provide the necessary conditions for the greatest event in
the world's history; for if Christ was to appear it must be in _some_
nation, in _some_ place, and at _some_ time: but to trace the steps by
which, through an intelligible sequence of causes, these necessary
conditions were provided belongs rather to an investigation of Bible
history than to our present purpose, so I will not enter into these details
here. But what I hope I have in some measure made clear is that there is a
reason why Christ should be manifested, and should suffer, and rise again,
and that so far from being a baseless superstition the Reconciling of the
world to God through the One Offering once-for-all offered for the sin of
the whole world, lays the immovable foundation upon which we may build
securely for all the illimitable future.