HARMONY OF DETERMINISM AND FREEDOM 34 1 



it would seem, then, that they are all alike unde- 

 rived and self-subsistent. So that, even in the 

 best case, there is no monotheism, there is poly- 

 theism, or "every man his own god"; while, in the 

 worst case, we pitch into the pit of atheism, since 

 one may reasonably ask, Why call one of this circle 

 of gods preeminently God ? How strangely our 

 religious consciousness seems here to contradict 

 itself ! Feeling itself threatened with the loss of 

 God as eternal Justice and Love, because justice 

 and love cannot subsist unless the agents held 

 responsible are the free causes of their own con- 

 duct, it courageously sets up its spirits in eternity ; 

 but no sooner are these in their heaven than God 

 seems lost again, vanishing in the universal disper- 

 sion of the divine essence. 



IV 



Were this the authentic account of moral idealism 

 and its religious resources, our case as religious 

 beings would be bad indeed. For so fast as we 

 supplied our spiritual needs at one pole of our 

 nature, we should destroy the power of supplying 

 them at the other ; and they must be satisfied at 

 both. But it is certain that our moral-religious 

 demands must be and ought to be satisfied : better 

 the atheism of a lost First Cause, and a lost Sov- 



