far as he affirms that law, apart from {64} any
particular manifestation, is an eternal reality. The reconciliation of
nominalism and realism is found in God. Applying this to the case in
hand--you admit that the Ten Commandments are the ground of morality;
therefore, I say, they must be an expression of a thought of God, the
Author of morality. But you are puzzled to find that the most trivial
sanitary arrangements are considered by the Jew as equally a
manifestation of God. Need we be? In every little sanitary precaution
I recognise, or ought to recognise, an expression of that same mind as
I see it in the Ten Commandments. God is Light, therefore the clean,
the healthy, the decent is an expression of Him. God is Love,
therefore the social, the self-sacrificing, is an expression of Him as
well. But sanitary arrangements and the like, though an expression of
an unchanging principle, change according to state of civilisation,
climate, country. Therefore we take the principle, not the expression,
as the ultimate reality in the case of these sanitary laws.

I am afraid I am rather stupid, and cannot make my meaning plain. I
want to show you that the Jewish law only differs from English law as
being in some ways a more complete expression of God's nature. But in
all sanitary law, &c., _now_ we have God's nature expressed. And it
would be true to say, 'God spake unto England, saying'--_e.g._ in a
right decision in court; it would be true to say, 'God spake unto the
judge, saying.' Therefore, what holds good of Moses' law holds good of
all law, because all law is a thought of God. {65} Therefore St. Paul
uses indifferently _nomos_ and _ho nomos_, for what is true of God's
thought is true of every expression of it. In fact, he more often
perhaps argues about one particular expression of it. Why? Because we
can only tell what the thought is by studying the expression.

[Transcriber's note: The Greek words in the above paragraph were
transliterated as follows: _nomos_--nu, omicron, mu, omicron, final
sigma; _ho_--(rough breathing mark), omicron]

Don't be taken in by abstractions. An ideal is nothing--worse than
nothing--unless our ideal is God's idea. Then it is the only reality,
because God's idea will take effect. His idea is to make man in His
image, and be sure it will take effect. Commandments, judgments,
statutes, mean much the same in the Old Testament, I conceive, as we
mean when we use them. Th