62 THE KEY OF MYSTERIES

even though the union (إتّحاد) then formed will never come to an end. Great is the difference between the spiritual and the material, yet we all know that it is possible for one to become connected with the other, since this is the case in each of us. The spirit has some connexion with the body, though what it is we do not fully know, nor can we at all understand how such a connexion can exist. Still less possible is it for the finite human intellect to comprehend the manner in which the divine and the human natures exist in union in the Lord Jesus Christ. But truth is not limited by the degree of our ability to understand it. We have the proof of the incarnation of the Word of God given us clearly and plainly in the holy Scriptures, and that suffices for us.

Some men have said, 'Why did not Christ declare His Deity, so clearly as to remove all doubt on the subject?' In reply we point to the verses already quoted, in which it has been proved that the Lord Jesus Christ did declare His

[Footnote continued from previous page]
Muslims often introduced this word حلول in controversy, but as it is ambiguous and as there are suitable words for 'incarnation', it is better to reject it in this latter sense. Moreover حلول has one or two uses in popular language which render it undesirable for employment in theological discussion. The غياث اللغات gives practically the same explanation of حلول as that quoted above.
PROOF OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST 63

Deity, and that not in one manner only but in many. If any reader of the Gospel will cast away prejudice and bigotry and will study the teaching of Christ on this subject with earnest prayer for God's guidance, he will assuredly find that no doubt can remain in his mind. Otherwise he will discover that:

When prejudice enters, hid intellect lies;
From the heart rise a hundred thick veils o'er the eyes.1

Had Christ spoken a hundredfold as plainly as He did, He would not have convinced those who did not wish to believe, lest they should have to become His disciples and suffer persecution for His name's sake. On the contrary, such men would have hated Him all the more. The greater the light the severer the punishment of those who close their eyes to it, according as it is written: 'This 2 is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their works were evil. For every one that doeth ill hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.' The teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, gave about His true nature

1 جون غرض آمد هنر بوشيدة  شد * صد حجاب از دل بسوى ديدة شد
Mathnavi.
2 John iii. 19-21.