THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



out sadly or happily upon the world around, al- 

 ways in his consciousness approving that which is 

 good and right, however bad his own conduct 

 may be. 



This is the " likeness of God " in man, which 

 will in time supersede and displace the animal in 

 him. 



For we know, of course, that, like all other 

 creatures, we are even now only passing through 

 a stage of our evolution; though our religions 

 date from times when evolution was unknown. 



It was, therefore, not possible for our great 

 religious leaders, however directly they may have 

 been inspired by the great truth, to express it in 

 words or even to conceive it in thoughts which 

 would stand the test of modern analysis. He who 

 was inspired to teach that man is made in the like- 

 ness of God his Father taught truth; but those 

 who accepted and promulgated the doctrine could 

 not understand the real meaning of the truth be- 

 cause human knowledge had not then reached a 

 stage in which the truth could be expressed in 

 intelligible words. Indeed, I am not sure that it 

 can be so expressed even now. 



Before we can express it, we must understand 

 it ; and before we can do this, we must get rid of 

 the idea that the " likeness of God " refers spe- 

 cially, if at all, to our physique our bodily 

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