The growth of the philosophical side of the dogma of the Divinity of Christ is as clearly traceable in Pagan and Jewish thought as is the dogma of the incarnation of the Saviour-God in the myths of Krishna, Osiris, etc.  Two great teachers of the doctrine of the “Logos,” the “Word,” of God, stand out in pre-Christian times—­the Greek Plato and the Jewish Philo.  We borrow the following extract from pp. 19, 20, of the pamphlet by Mr. Lake above referred to, as showing the general theological position of Plato; its resemblance to Christian teaching will be at once apparent (it must not be forgotten that Plato lived B.C. 400):—­

“The speculative thought and the religious teaching of Plato are diffused throughout his voluminous writings; but the following is a popular summary of them, by Madame Dacier, contained in her introduction to what have been classed as the ’Divine Dialogues:’—­

“’That there is but one God, and that we ought to love and serve him, and to endeavour to resemble him in holiness and righteousness; that this God rewards humility and punishes pride.

“’That the true happiness of man consists in being united to God, and his only misery in being separated from him.

“’That the soul is mere darkness, unless it be illuminated by God; that men are incapable even of praying well, unless God teaches them that prayer which alone can be useful to them.

“’That there is nothing solid and substantial but piety; that this is the source of all virtues, and that it is the gift of God.

“’That it is better to die than to sin.

“’That it is better to suffer wrong than to do it.

“’That the “Word” ([Greek:  Logos]) formed the world, and rendered it visible; that the knowledge of the Word makes us live very happily here below, and that thereby we obtain felicity after death.

“’That the soul is immortal, that the dead shall rise again, that there shall be a final judgment—­both of the righteous and of the wicked, when men shall appear only with their virtues or vices, which shall be the occasion of their eternal happiness or misery.’”

It is this Logos who was “figured in the shape of a cross on the universe” (ante, p. 358).  The universe, which is but the materialised thought of God, is made by his Logos, his Word, which is the expression of his thought.  In the Christian creed it is the Logos, the Word of God, by whom all things are made (John i. 1-3).  The very name, as well as the thought, is the same, whether we turn over the pages of Plato or those of John.  Philo, the great Jewish Platonist, living in Alexandria at the close of the last century B.C. and in the first half of the first century after Christ, speaks of the Logos in terms that, to our ears, seem purely Christian.  Philo was a man of high position among the Jews in Alexandria, being “a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch [governor of the