410 APPENDIX 



III 



What constitutes a theist in this age is that a man should be 

 prepared to render up himself in faith and submission to God that 

 is, to the order of the world, however little he may hope to under- 

 stand it, and whatever his lot in it may have to be. Different ages, 

 involving different states of knowledge and different experiences of 

 human life, are forced to regard the one all-being, all- sustaining 

 inscrutable God in divers ways. David did not invent his God, 

 nor Sophocles his, nor St. Paul his, nor Cleanthes his, nor Marcus 

 Aurelius his, nor Mahomet his. No ; God was found by these men, 

 revealed to these men, thus and thus and thus. Yet some discoveries, 

 some revelations of God, are more consistent with the contemporary 

 possibilities of Theism than others. It is easier for us to cry with 

 David : ' put thy trust in God ; for I will yet give Him thanks, 

 who is the help of my countenance and my God ! ' It is easier for 

 us to say with Sophocles : ' Oh, that my lot may lead me in the path 

 of holy innocence of word and deed, the path which august laws 

 ordain, laws that in the highest empyrean had their birth, of which 

 Heaven is the father alone, neither did the race of mortal men beget 

 them, nor shall oblivion ever put them to sleep. The power of God 

 is mighty in them, and groweth not old.' L It is easier for us to 

 pray with Cleanthes : ' Lead thou me, God, and thou Law, the 

 daughter of God, whithersoever I am by you appointed to go ; for I 

 will follow unreluctant ; or should I refuse through sin or cowardice 

 upgrown in me, none the less shall I follow.' It is easier to exclaim 

 with Marcus Aurelius : ' Everything harmonises with me which is 

 harmony to thee, Universe 1 Nothing for me is too early nor too 

 late which is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me which 

 thy seasons bring, Nature ! from thee are all things, in thee are 

 all things, to thee all things return. The poet says, " Dear city of 

 Cecrops " ; and wilt not thou say, " Dear city of God " ? ' 2 It is 

 easier, I repeat, to think and feel with these men than to cast our all 

 of faith upon the die thrown by St. Paul : ' If Christ be not risen, 

 then is our preaching vain.' It is not true that we are ' of all men 

 most miserable,' even though Christ be not risen, even though we 

 shall not rise. Utterances like this of St. Paul, however serviceable 

 they may have been in a past age, lead mankind awry now 

 from the more virile religion, the purer, the deeper, the more 



1 Translated by Mr. Matthew Arnold. 

 " Translated by Dr. George Long. 



