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the outlandish word, begin to defend themselves against 

 anthropomorphism. 



Plainly we are incapable of anything which is not human ; 

 our thoughts, emotions, and actions are all human and nothing 

 but human. But the gentlemen who bring this charge do so 

 avowedly for two reasons. First, that all such modes of 

 thought are inadequate to produce any knowledge of God; 

 and, secondly, that they are derogatory to the divine nature. 

 But it must be remembered that their God is not the God of 

 common men. He is not the Creator and Sustainer of the 

 universe, but an abstraction of the human intellect, who is 

 presented to us as the Absolute, the Unconditioned, the 

 Infinite ; each and all of these and similar terms conveying 

 the notion of an existence without attributes, without relations, 

 without thought, without action, and therefore, to all normal 

 human thought, without being. And this they virtually 

 acknowledge, in declaring that all anthropomorphic, that is, 

 human, modes of thought cannot apply to him. 



Nothing can more clearly show the non-natural, and, there- 

 fore, worthless character of such speculations, than the 

 acknowledgment that human thought cannot apply to such a 

 conception any attribute of reality, as, indeed, it cannot. 

 How can we conceive of an infinitude which fills immensity, 

 and yet is nowhere; which comprehends all excellence, and 

 yet has no particular virtue or power ? Such a thing is simply 

 a human creation, and the creators find their production so full 

 of contradictions and absurdities, that they are unable to 

 present it in an intelligible form to others. But instead of 

 acknowledging their failure, as normal human modesty would 

 suggest, they repudiate human language and human thought, 

 because they reject the monstrosity. But let us never forget 

 that the Absolute, the Unconditioned, the Infinite of modern 

 philosophy has no existence but in the minds of the philoso- 

 phers themselves ; and there we may leave it, without any 

 alarm for the consequences. 



But, while they amuse themselves with abstractions which 

 are delusive and perverting, let us remember the Living God, 

 our Maker, and the bountiful Donor of our blessings. And 

 while we keep our eyes open to all the operation of His hand 

 in the physical sphere of His work, let us not fail to rnai'k the 

 effects of human action under His government, both on the 

 actors themselves and on others also. Thus we shall learn 

 much concerning His moral character, which will instruct and 

 help us in our endeavours to walk uprightly before Him. 

 But the more we study these questions, and the greater pro- 



