GODS SYMPATHY WITH THE WORLD. 45 1 



implies a perception of the difficulty which is lack- 

 ing to those who glibly repeat their belief in the 

 eternity and immutability of God. Aristotle clearly 

 saw that any connection with the imperfect must 

 involve a sympathetic imperfection in the Deity, and 

 to avoid what he considered a degradation of the 

 divine nature, he denied that God could be con- 

 scious of anything less perfect than himself. And 

 then, lest this denial of the sympathy of the perfect 

 with the Imperfect should cut away the 7'atio cognos- 

 cendi of the perfect, he devised his extraordinary 

 doctrine of the Deity as unconsciously the object of 

 the world's desire ; i.e., as he could not deny the 

 connection of the perfect with the Imperfect, without 

 denying the existence of the former, he denied that 

 the connection was reciprocal ; just as though one 

 could build a bridge over which men could not pass 

 in either direction. But the revival of such a denial 

 of the necessary implication of action and reaction, 

 by modern Pantheism, is Impossible : an unrespon- 

 sive Absolute, as we saw In chapter x. (§ lo), which 

 is unaffected by the world-process, is nothing, and 

 certainly not God. 



And from the standpoint of religious emotion, It 

 is equally certain that the struggle of the imperfect 

 must be reflected In the consciousness of God. 

 God also cannot be happy while there is misery 

 in the world, God cannot be perfect while evil en- 

 dures, nor eternal or changeless, while the aim of 

 the world-process is unrealized. If we suffer, He 

 must suffer ; if we sin, He must expiate our sins. 



The conception of a Deity absorbed in perfect, 

 unchanging and eternal bliss is a blasphemy upon 

 the Divine energy which might be permitted to the 

 heathen Ignorance of Aristotle, but which should be 



