THE FAITH OF A NATURALIST 



them, never suspecting that when we do so we dis- 

 count their divinity. The more human we are, — 

 remembering that to err is human, — the nearer 

 God we are. Of course good and bad are human con- 

 cepts and are a verdict upon created things as they 

 stand related to us, promoting or hindering our well- 

 being. In the councils of the Eternal there is appar- 

 ently no such distinction. 



Man is not only as good as God; some men are a 

 good deal better, that is, from our point of view; 

 they attain a degree of excellence of which there is 

 no hint in nature — moral excellence. It is not until 

 we treat man as a part of nature — as a product of 

 the earth as literally as are the trees — that we can 

 reconcile these contradictions. If we could build up 

 a composite man out of all the peoples of the earth, 

 including even the Prussians, he would represent 

 fairly well the God in nature. 



Communing with God is communing with our 

 own hearts, our own best selves, not with something 

 foreign and accidental. Saints and devotees have 

 gone into the wilderness to find God; of course they 

 took God with them, and the silence and detachment 

 enabled them to hear the still, small voice of their 

 own souls, as one hears the ticking of his own watch 

 in the stillness of the night. We are not cut off, we 

 are not isolated points; the great currents flow 

 through us and over us and around us, and unite us 

 to the whole of nature. Moses saw God in the burn- 



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