Gobi. Eastern section of the 

 desert of Central Asia, mainly in 

 Mongolia, China. The fractured 

 tableland of Mongolia terminates 

 on the N. at a scarped edge over- 

 looking Siberia ; from this edge 

 the land rises towards the Inshan 

 and Khingan Mts., of which the E. 

 and S.E. slopes form an escarp- 

 ment facing the valley of the 

 Hoang-ho. The average level of 

 the plateau is 4,000 ft. 



The climate is one of great ex- 

 tremes, and is practically rainless, 

 with the result that there are no 

 large rivers. Nomad pastoral 

 tribes are the only inhabitants; they 

 find sustenance for their camels 

 and sheep at the water-holes-; but 

 vast expanses of sand dunes, 

 marked by a silence undisturbed 

 by any form of life, prevent com- 

 munication between China proper 

 and Siberia. 



Westward the desert area nar- 

 rows and leads between the Tian- 

 shan and Kuen-lun ranges to the 

 Tarim basin, which forms the 

 basin of internal drainage of Lob 

 Nor ; this is the Chinese province 

 of Sin Kiang, Eastern Turkistan 

 where the scanty rainfall ame- 

 liorates the harsher desert con- 

 ditions of the east. In the dim 

 geological past, the Gobi, known 

 to the Chinese as Shamo, was 

 covered by the eastern portion of 

 a great sea, of which the Caspian 

 and Mediterranean are modern 

 relics. To the N.E. was the 

 ancient continent of Angaraland, 

 and to the 8. that of Gondwana- 

 land. The tilting of the plateau 

 and the rise of the Kuen-lun ranges, 

 including the Khingan Mts., are a 

 more recent development. See 

 Asia ; Desert. 



Goblet, REN* (1828 - 1905). 

 French politician. Born Nov. 26, 

 1828, he became a lawyer at 

 Amiens. He also did some journal- 

 istic work, and in 1871 was elected 

 to the national assembly for the 

 Somme ; he soon made a reputa- 

 tion by his speeches, where, as in 

 his writings, he gave utterance to 

 advanced views. In 1882 he was 

 made minister of the interior and 

 in 1885 minister of education. In 

 1886-87 he was prime minister, 

 his short-lived cabinet having to 

 deal with the arrest of Schnae- 

 bele by the Germans and the 

 beginnings of Boulanger's agita- 

 tion. In 1888 he was foreign 

 minister, and he remained in public 

 life, although not taking office 

 again, until 1898. He died in 

 Paris, Sept, 13, 1905. 



Goblets, THE. Pair-oared boat 

 race rowed annually at Henley-on- 

 Thames. It was inaugurated in 

 1845, and its full title is The Silver 

 Goblets. See Henley Regatta. 



3573 



Goblin (Gr. kobalos ; late Lat. 

 gobelinus ; Ger. Kobold). Mischiev- 

 ous or evil being. The word is sup- 

 posed to derive from the Gr. kob- 

 alos, a sprite, a rogue, and to be 

 the same as the Ger. Kobold, spirit 

 or demon of the mine ; another 

 origin suggested is that of the 

 Gobelinus or demon which S. 

 Taurinus drove from a temple in 

 Normandy ; while yet another, and 

 somewhat ridiculous, derivation 

 has made elf and goblin to be but 

 Guelf and Ghibelline in a new form. 

 Goblin has come to be applicable 

 to any frightening phantasm. See 

 Folklore. 



Goby (Gob ins). Large genus of 

 fishes. Several species occur round 

 the British coasts, especially in 

 rocky neighbourhoods. Small in 

 size, the pelvic fins are modified to 

 form a sucker by which they can 

 attach themselves to rocks. The 



spotted goby (0. minutus) is often 

 found at a considerable distance 

 up the Thames, and constructs 

 a curious little nest in the sand 

 for its eggs. 



G.O.C. Abbrev. for general 

 officer commanding. Military term 

 to designate the senior officer of 

 general's rank in command of any 

 district or branch of the service in 

 that district. Thus, the G.O.C. of 

 the eastern command is the general 

 in command of that area, and the 

 G.O.C.R.A. eastern command is the 

 general commanding the artillery 

 in the same area. 



Goch. Town of Germany, in the 

 Prussian Rhine province. It 

 stands on the Niers, 66 m. from 

 Cologne. A railway junction, it 

 has several small manufactures. 

 In the Middle Ages it was part of 

 the duchy of Cleves, and a centre 

 of the linen trade. Pop. 11,000. 



GOD: THE SUPREME BEING 



Rev. H. L. Goudge, D.D., Principal of Ely Theological College 



Cognate articles in this work are those on Heaven ; Jesus Christ ; 

 Trinity, The. See also Christianity ; Deism ; Theism ; Theology 



For the best theists to-day the 

 word God stands for the one ulti- 

 mate personal ground of all exis- 

 tence, the source of the order and 

 beauty of the universe, and of 

 those ideals of truth, beauty, and 

 goodness which have led man thus 

 far upon his upward way. 



Religion, says Schleiermacher, 

 is the feeling of absolute depen- 

 dence, the immediate conscious- 

 ness of all that is finite as existing 

 in and through the Infinite, of all 

 that is temporal as existing in and 

 through the Eternal. God is thus 

 revealed in and through the ex- 

 perience of man, and, the higher 

 and fuller the experience, the 

 higher and fuller is the revelation 

 attained. Christians believe that 

 Christ is God's highest means of 

 revelation, but not His only means. 

 The knowledge of God is attained 

 by many paths. Thus, though man 

 is a religious being, and is almost 

 always found believing in a God 

 or gods, his conceptions of God 

 vary greatly, and the highest con- 

 ception reached has a long history 

 behind it. No adequate definition 

 of God can be given, since God by 

 His very greatness can be but 

 most imperfectly known. 

 The God of Israel 



The Christian view of God is the 

 result of a long process, which the 

 Bible enables us to trace. The 

 people of Israel, from whom Christ 

 came, began with a conception of 

 God differing little from that cur- 

 rent in kindred tribes. They 

 thought of their God at first as 

 peculiar to themselves rather than 



as the God of the universe, and 

 they learned to know Him in their 

 own national experience. His re- 

 velation of Himself had been in 

 facts, rather than in words. He 

 was a " living God," Who by won- 

 drous means had lifted them out 

 of slavery, bro\ight them to their 

 own land, protected them when 

 they obeyed Him, and punished 

 them when they disobeyed. But 

 from very early days their concep- 

 tion of God was a moral conception 

 as the conceptions of the tribes 

 around them were not. God had 

 shown Himself in their experience 

 to be a God of truth, and righteous- 

 ness and love (cf. Exodus xxiv., 6, 

 7), and He asked righteousness and 

 love from them in their dealings 

 one with another. In the best of 

 the Hebrews it was God's charac- 

 ter which was the primary fact 

 about Him, rather than His power 

 or knowledge. This moral concep- 

 tion of God was deepened and en- 

 larged by the teaching of the long 

 line of prophets in Israel's history. 



This people, long before the 

 coming of Christ, had learned that 

 their God was " the God of the 

 whole earth " (cf. Isaiah liv., 5), 

 but the moral conception held its 

 ground. It is still the character of 

 God and the nature of His purpose 

 which occupy the foreground in 

 the consciousness of Christians. 

 In the life and death of Christ for 

 men, in all that He has done and is 

 doing for them, the power and 

 wisdom of God are clearly revealed, 

 but His righteousness and love 

 are revealed more clearly still. 



