ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



ages. This view does not leave the Eternal out of 

 the universe; it puts Him in it so that He cannot be 

 got out. It makes Him immanent in it at all points; 

 it makes Nature transcend human reason and human 

 speech. As long as we think of God as a kind of 

 superman external to nature, we can deny Him and 

 cut Him out, but when we identify ourselves and all 

 things else with Him, there is no escaping Him. We 

 ourselves are a phase or a fraction of Him. When 

 we select or screen out what we name the good, the 

 fair, the divine, and call that God, what are we to do 

 with the residue? Call it the Devil? The Devil, too, 

 then is a part of the Eternal Good. I want no emas- 

 culated universe. I want the fiber and virility and 

 pungency and power and heat and drive which all 

 that we call bad gives it. 



Our mission is to tame and elevate and direct the 

 elements and forces without weakening them. 

 Thence comes our power. A perfect world would 

 not be one without sin or suffering or struggle or 

 failure. There can be no perfect world. But there 

 can be one more and more livable, more and more 

 in harmony with those laws that promote our well- 

 being. Approximations, approximations — that is 

 our success, and never complete fulfillment! When 

 we say that God is the All, we must have the cour- 

 age of our convictions and not flinch at the con- 

 sequences. He is all that we call bad as well as all 

 that we call good. What we call good is our good, 



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