COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



Though theology has all along wrestled with 

 the insoluble problems presented by this su- 

 preme Mystery, and, by insisting on divers tan- 

 gible propositions concerning it, has implicitly 

 asserted that it can be at least partially known ; 

 the fact remains that only by being unknown 

 has it continued to be the object of the religious 

 sentiment. Could the theologian have carried 

 his point and constructed a "science of Deity ; " 

 could the divine nature have been all expressed 

 in definite formulas, as we express the genesis 

 of vegetation or the revolutions of the planets, 

 worship would have disappeared altogether. 

 Worship is ever the dark side of the shield, of 

 which knowledge is the bright side. It is be- 

 cause science can never explain the universe, it 

 is because the enlarging periphery of knowledge 

 does but reveal from day to day a greater num- 

 ber of points at which we meet the unknowable 

 lying beyond, that religion can never become 

 obsolete. Though we have come to recognize 

 the most refined symbols by which men have 

 sought to render Deity intelligible as inadequate 

 and misleading symbols ; though we sacrifice 

 the symbol of personality because personality 

 implies limitation, and to speak of an infinite 

 personality is to cheat one's self with a phrase 

 that is empty of meaning, yet our recognition 

 of Deity is only the more emphatic. Thus " the 

 object of religious sentiment will ever continue 

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