14 A THEORY OF LIFE DEDUCED 



anthropomorphic character is wholly unobjectionable, by 

 very reason of the necessity under which we labour to 

 express finitely what only the Infinite itself can adequately 

 express. And now observe that it can constitute 110 valid 

 objection to this idea of God that it fails to satisfy the 

 needs of those who have been brought up to fashion the 

 Infinite after man. Whoever cannot accept it is at perfect 

 liberty to reject it ; but let no one suppose that its value 

 is to be tested by its capacity for satisfying the needs of 

 those who have been taught to degrade God to the level 

 of man. The point is not whether it can satisfy people 

 who have been brought up with orthodox notions, but 

 whether it cannot be made to satisfy the needs of a progres- 

 sive humanity whether, as society advances, the changes 

 in our way of looking at things which always accompany 

 social evolution will not make this view of God entirely 

 acceptable; and to these questions no one who has his eyes 

 open can fail to read the answers in the signs of the times. 

 God, thus conceived, though revealed to man through 

 phenomena, is nevertheless unlike anything in the universe 

 though revealed to man through nature is unlike any- 

 thing in nature. It is always this " Infinite and Eternal 

 Energy " that manifests itself to us, whether the revelation 

 comes through the calm stillness of a moonlight night, or 

 through the tempestuous fury of a gale ; whether it comes 

 through sunny fields and meadows, or through the angry 

 flames of a volcano. The relation in which we stand to 

 this " Infinite and Eternal Energy" may, nay, must be 

 relied on to call forth such emotions as are appropriate to 

 the religious consciousness. If, as some critics assure us, 

 the sentiments growing out of the Christian's present 

 attitude toward the Deity will not be found among the 

 religious emotions thus evoked, this is the best possible 



