Plato said, for substance, that there can be no { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA AND OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} without something of the { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}. Harris, Philosophical Basis of Theism, 208--"By rational intuition man knows that absolute Being _exists_; his knowledge of _what_ it is, is progressive with his progressive knowledge of man and of nature." Hutton, Essays: "A haunting presence besets man behind and before. He cannot evade it. It gives new meanings to his thoughts, new terror to his sins. It becomes intolerable. He is moved to set up some idol, carved out of his own nature, that will take its place--a non-moral God who will not disturb his dream of rest. It is a righteous Life and Will, and not the mere _idea_ of righteousness that stirs men so." Porter, Hum. Int., 661--"The Absolute is a thinking Agent." The intuition does not grow in certainty; what grows is the mind's quickness in applying it and power of expressing it. The intuition is not complex; what is complex is the Being intuitively cognized. See Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 232; Lowndes, Philos. of Primary Beliefs, 108-112; Luthardt, Fund. Truths, 157--Latent faculty of speech is called forth by speech of others; the choked-up well flows again when debris is cleared away. Bowen, in Bib. Sac., 33:740-754; Bowne, Theism, 79.
Knowledge of a person is turned into personal knowledge by actual communication or revelation. First, comes the intuitive knowledge of God possessed by all men--the assumption that there exists a Reason, Power, Perfection, Personality, that makes correct thinking and acting possible. Secondly, comes the knowledge of God's being and attributes which nature and Scripture furnish. Thirdly, comes the personal and presentative knowledge derived from actual reconciliation and intercourse with God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Stearns, Evidence of Christian Experience, 208--"Christian experience verifies the claims of doctrine by experiment,--so transforming probable knowledge into real knowledge." Biedermann, quoted by Pfleiderer, Grundriss, 18--"God reveals himself to the human spirit, 1. as its infinite _Ground_, in the reason; 2. as its infinite _Norm_, in the conscience; 3. as its infinite _Strength_, in elevation to religious truth, blessedness, and freedom."