366 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874-1877] 



in a relation to God which is purely imaginary. And, 

 conversely, those who have accepted the pantheistic or 

 organic theory of Kuenen have in the very measure of 

 this acceptance ceased to be religiously intense and 

 productive. If Christianity is a reality among us now 

 its vitality is due, not to the lofty theories of advanced 

 thinkers, but to the personal hold of a personal God which 

 is still given to the believer by a truly supernatural work 

 of the Spirit of Christ. 



If these facts are consistent with Kuenen s theory, 

 the whole universe is a lie and all history a delusion. 

 If self-deception has done greater things than true 

 philosophy truth has no meaning at all. It is absurd to 

 say that the very feature in the religious consciousness of 

 the prophets which gave them their courage, their power, 

 the might to sway men s minds, is a mere accident in 

 their belief which truer insight sweeps away as false. 



In concluding these remarks, I wish to speak one word 

 of warning against the inference which some of you may 

 draw, that a man who holds views like Kuenen s can have 

 no true religion at all. The fact is, that the pantheistic 

 theory is so unreal that no man can live consistently in it. 

 In proportion as a man does live in it his whole personal 

 life must be lamed. But it cannot be carried out. Pan 

 theists do not live as if personality were a delusion. And 

 so men who hold a virtually pantheistic view of the 

 place of God in the universe may, in their lives, break 

 through their theory. A man s speculations are often 

 very remote from his practice. They may be better, but 

 they may also be worse. You must never allow yourselves 

 to take a man s speculative errors as the proof of an 

 absence of personal faith, which often is nourished from 

 very different sources and lives in spite of a blighting 

 philosophy. 



