We, who are the creatures of time and space, can indeed apprehend the Absolute only when He weaves about Him the visible garments of time and space.

Thus God reveals Himself to sense through symbols.

But it is as we regard these symbols in one or other of two possible ways that we class ourselves with the foolish man or with the wise.

The foolish man sees only the symbol, thinks it exists for itself, takes it for the ultimate fact, and therefore rests in it.

The wise man sees the symbol, knows that it is only a symbol, and penetrates into it for the ultimate fact or spiritual reality which it symbolises.
Remote as such a doctrine may at first sight seem to be from the questions with which men are commonly concerned, it has none the less many important practical bearings.