9 8 METAPHYSICS 



in the harvest field of knowledge, we observe, through 

 the eye of faith, aided by the telescopic powers of hope, 

 that the last state of the long generations of man may 

 finally attain that goal, dimly visible to every thinking 

 man, believed in by the most far-seeing and best, and 

 absolutely proclaimed as true by the teachings of all 

 religious systems worthy of the name, but more especially 

 by that religion which has dominated for the last two 

 thousand years, the progress of religious thought and 

 action of the leading "powers" of the world, at any rate 

 the Western world. Should this consensus of elevating, 

 purifying, and ennobling progress continue, and we see 

 no cause for doubt on the subject, then the regime of 

 seeing "eye to eye," and acting for the one great end of 

 universal good, will become apparent as the process of 

 evolution continues, until it must end inexorably with the 

 precision and certainty of the sequence of cause and effect 

 in the production and continuance of the reign of law, 

 so perfect in its working that every unit of the great 

 living and acting human governmental machine will spon- 

 taneously and affectionately take its place in the family 

 circle of absolutely united humanity. 



Quite naturally, therefore, and in accordance with the 

 laws of moral growth and development, the great problems 

 involved in the operation and cumulative effects of 

 brotherly sympathy or love will unfold themselves as the 

 human race becomes emancipated from the bonds of 

 cramping ephemeral beliefs and temporary barriers of false 

 systems, and as individual, racial, and international feuds 

 and frictions cease from out the machinery of human 

 progress. 



Progress, thus, will necessarily be aided in "the fulness 

 of the time" by the united influence of every such 

 emancipation, individual, communal, and national, and as 

 physical science has progressed, as intellectual and mental 

 activity have been brought to bear on its abstract and 

 applied problems by its votaries, the end amply justifying 

 the means, so will moral progress follow the efforts of the 

 intellect and the fully awakened moral consciousness of 

 humanity ; therefore, we claim that religion must in the 

 end, when freed from the thraldom of anthropomorphism, 



