History of Religious Evolution 723 



world; by the aspect, motions, and relations of the heavenly 

 bodies as influencing each other and man; by the predominant 

 majesty and power that seemed to reside in the sun; and by 

 the sense of infinite intangible expanse, brightness, continuity 

 and power, connected therewith. 



One can truly say then, in the deepest, truest, and most 

 reverent spirit, that man in reaching the highest stages of 

 Heliotheism had approached very nearly to that simple, sub- 

 lime, and yet inconceivable definition of the Shorter Cate- 

 chism, "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; 

 in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and 

 truth." 



Therefore we would define heliotheism as *'A reverential 

 and reciprocal religious outlook and regard, that caused man- 

 kind to pass from polytheistic and other lower forms of re- 

 ligion to a summated and unified conception of the forces 

 and phenomena of the universe; so that the Sun became his 

 personified object and center of worship, since it seemed to 

 man the most perfect representation of that unified natural 

 energy which permeated all space and all objects in that space 

 to which he had access by the senses." 



