16 A THEORY OP LTFE DEDUCED 



and ceremonies as no longer harmonize with the new 

 conception of God will make room for a genuine spirit oi: 

 reverence for noble ideals of manhood and womanhood 

 ideals which we shall strive earnestly to realize in our own 

 lives. 



To recapitulate, the point to be emphasized is, that in 

 place of the anthropomorphic notions of God now dominant, 

 there is here offered a theistic attitude that acknowledges 

 with unswerving consistency the complete inability of the 

 human mind to grasp the Infinite. From this point of 

 view, any representation of God that measures up to the 

 highest theistic conception possible to human beings is 

 wholly free from objection, when coupled with the frank 

 admission that all such representations are at best but 

 symbols totally unlike the incomprehensible reality for 

 which they stand. This conception of God can, of course, 

 gain general acceptance only so fast as the mass of men 

 are alike intellectually, morally, and emotionally prepared 

 for it; and with it will come all such changes in the 

 externals of religion as its acceptance demands. " ' Instead 

 of the present religious ceremonies and forms of worship/ 

 to borrow language elsewhere used, ' there will arise 

 observances tending to keep alive a consciousness of the 

 true relation in which we stand to the unknown cause, and 

 tending to give expression to the sentiment accompanying 

 that consciousness ' ; and as for the minister of the future, 

 he will be chiefly a moral educator, but while discussing 

 ethical questions, which must of themselves exert a highly 

 elevating influence upon his hearers, he will, at the same 

 time, have ample opportunity of ministering to their 

 spiritual needs by appropriate references to the mysteries of 

 cosmology, either for the purpose of quickening the religious 

 emotions and reinforcing the religious consciousness, or 



