Functions of the Gods. 55 



will by bringing together in time and space all the 

 agents and conditions necessary for carrying it out. 

 There is only one supreme Will that guides the 

 universe, and that Will points steadily to progress, 

 to the goal set forth for the universe, the goal to- 

 wards which it is evolving. Unchangeable, stable, 

 perpetual, that Will knows no swerving ; to use a 

 Christian phrase, " there is no shadow of turning " 

 in that immutable Will. The universe rolls along 

 the road traced out by the Divine Will. It cannot 

 be diverted from that road ; it cannot change its 

 path ; that is the law of the universe, the law on 

 which we rest with faith unshakable. But in the 

 working out of the law in this universe where men 

 are evolving men in whom is the germ of that 

 same sovereign and imperial Will of God, man 

 being made in the Divine image and containing 

 within himself the germ of the Divine powers in 

 this universe, as man evolves, wills also evolve 

 which are separate, personal, individual. All the 

 confusion in the world of man is due to this evolu- 

 tion of the separated wills that do not recognise 

 their root in God, but try to follow their own diverse 

 ways, and want to move after their own separated 

 fashions ; so that in the world of man, as nowhere 

 else in nature, you have discord instead of harmony, 

 clash instead of peace, struggle and war instead of 



