Many find their points of union and meaning in the One?[52] We have said
that infinitely much happens when the Many find their meaning in the
One. A need of the nature has arisen which demands this, and it has
arisen at its _highest possible level alone_. Such a nature will never
become absolutely certain of the meaning and value of all that has led
up to this until the One obtains a self-subsistence. If this effort
fails, the whole effort of development towards unity and inwardness
fails. And when such a chain of effort snaps at its highest link of
spiritual development, everything that had entered into the process at
all the levels below it snaps along with it in so far as it had any
validity whatever in the light of what is higher than itself.

But the fact that this conception of the One, conceived as Absolute
Spiritual Life, has produced so many effects of the highest kind is a
proof of its existence. Qualities come into being which can never come
with such power in any other way. The spiritual experiences, revealed at
such a level, have something to say on this matter. These experiences,
[p.156] although aware of the meaning of universal concepts, have become
aware of something higher still: Knowledge has given place to Love; a
region has been reached beyond all the contradictions of the world and
beyond all the dialectics of knowledge. It is a region which includes
the good of all without injuring the good of any; and all the meaning of
the world and of life is interpreted from this highest standpoint. This
is the essence of "characteristic "or specific religion. On the level of
"universal" religion, God was seen from the standpoint of the world; in
"characteristic" religion the world is seen from the standpoint of God.
The appearance of the world is consequently different from each
standpoint. All must now be viewed and valued from the standpoint of
"characteristic" religion, from the standpoint of the One--the Godhead;
and if humanity is ever to be brought to this standpoint, the nature and