already existence of the thing in the thought that we have to lay
hold of, and as we find it true in an architect's design of the
house that is to be, so we find it true in the great work of the
Architect of the Universe. When we see this we have realized a
general principle, which we find at work everywhere. That is the
meaning of a general principle: it can be applied to any sort of
subject; and the use of studying general principles is to give
them particular application to anything we may have to deal with.
Now what we have to deal with most of all is ourselves, and so we
come to the consideration of Alpha and Omega in the human being.
In the vision of St. John, the speaker of the words, "I am Alpha
and Omega, the First and the Last," is described as "Like unto a
son of man"--that is, however transcendent the appearance in the
vision, it is essentially human, and thus suggests to us the
presence of the universal principle at the human level. But the
figure in the apocalyptic vision is not that of man as we
ordinarily know him. It is that of Omega as it subsists enshrined
in Alpha: it is the ideal of humanity as it subsists in the
Divine Mind which was manifested in objective form to the eyes of
the seer, and therefore presented the Alpha and Omega of that
idea in all the majesty of Divine glory.

But if we grasp the truth that the thing is already existent in
the thought, do we not see that this transcendent Omega must be
already existent in the Divine ideal of every one of us? If on
the plane of the absolute time is not, then does it not follow
that this glorified humanity is a present fact in the Divine
Mind? And if this is so, then this fact is eternally true
regarding every human being. But if it is true that the thing
exists in the thought, it is equally true that the thought finds