COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



served to supply a powerful sanction to the prin- 

 ciples of right action contained in the ethical 

 code. That " thy days may be long in the land 

 which Jehovah thy God giveth thee," or that 

 " thy Father which seeth in secret may reward 

 thee openly," therefore must thou do these things 

 written in the law. Along with the moral code, 

 embodying the principles of right action recog- 

 nized by the community, there has ever been 

 declared some theory of the relations of man to 

 the unknowable Power manifested in the Cos- 

 mos, which has furnished incentives to the ac- 

 tions regarded as right and deterrents from the 

 actions regarded as wrong. It is because reli- 

 gion has ever furnished this weighty sanction to 

 morality that creeds and conduct have always 

 been associated in men's minds ; and it is be- 

 cause of this that narrow-minded theologians, 

 unable or unwilling to admit that there can be 

 any other adequate sanctions than those sup- 

 plied by their own creed, so persistently argue 

 upon the assumption that those who do not ac- 

 cept their creed must of necessity be morally 

 perverse. We need not for the moment inquire 

 into the moral value of the sanctions established 

 by the various historic religions : whether they 

 appeal to the purest and highest of human feel- 

 ings or not, the essential point which now con- 

 cerns us is the existence of such sanctions as an 

 indispensable part of every religious system. 

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