454 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. in. 



whole of the semi-barbaric mythology in which Christianity 

 has hitherto been symbolized, we shall find, nevertheless, that 

 we have kept firmly in our possession the ethical kernel for 

 which Christianity is chiefly valued even by those who retain 

 the whole of this mythology. 



If we inquire into the position which every theological 

 creed has occupied with reference to the ethical code by which 

 it has been supplemented, we shall find that in every case it 

 has served to supply a powerful sanction to the principles 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 recognized by the community, there has ever 

 been declared some theory of the relations of man to the 

 unknowable Power manifested in the Cosmos, which has 

 furnished incentives to the actions regarded as right and 

 deterrents from the actions regarded as wrong. It is because 

 religion has ever furnished this weighty sanction to morality 

 that creeds and conduct have always been associated in men's 

 minds ; and it is because of this that narrow-minded theo- 

 logians, unable or unwilling to admit that there can be any 

 other adequate sanctions than those supplied by their own 

 creed, so persistently argue upon the assumption that those 

 who do not accept 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, feelings or not, the essential point which 

 now concerns us is the existence of such sanctions as an 

 indispensable part of every religious system. 



What, now, are the ethical sanctions recognized by science, 

 and by that religious doctrine which I have here proposed 

 to designate as Cosmic Theism ? In what sense does 8 



