184 THE UNIVERSE 



a Spirit," and " God is Love." As man is a spiritual 

 atom of deity. God has spiritual contact and in- 

 fluence with his spiritual children and they are 

 "moved by the Spirit," and "born of the Spirit," 

 as they accept and obey that spiritual influence 

 which leads to righteousness and truth. Religion 

 cannot exist without spirituality and the religious 

 concept. God has so constituted the human soul. 

 Without religion the soul could not dream of heaven 

 nor feel the sweet whisperings of faith and hope. 

 Neither could the heart thrill with spiritual joy and 

 truth. Without religion the heaven-bound spirit 

 could not soar to the altitudes of celestial bliss. 



Without religion and ideality there would have 

 been no gems of art or literature, no beautiful 

 pictures, no living statuary, no lofty temples or 

 inspiring thoughts. The grandeur of Shakespeare, 

 the sublimity of Milton, the poetry of Byron, Burns, 

 Tennyson and Longfellow, the romances of Scott, 

 Dickens and Hawthorne, the noble architecture of 

 Michael Angelo, the statuary of Phideas, Praxa- 

 telles and Canova, and the pictures of Raphael, 

 Murello, and Reuben had never been known. Ideal- 

 ity is the father of beauty and the inspiration of 

 all genius, goodness and nobility and the twin 

 brother of religious hope and faith. 



Without religion ideality would be a mockery and 

 a dream, hope would be a delusion and a snare^ 

 inspiration would wither, like Jonas' gourd, in a 

 night, and the mildew of selfish materialism would 

 convert the verdure of earth into deserts of despair. 



John Fiske well says, "Man "never would have 

 attained his present psychic powers but for reli- 

 gion," and without religion ideality would never 



