THE ABSOLUTE. 577 
in the mere idea of Existence, but that there is also an ABSOLUTE-RELATIVE, which has 
voluntarily placed itself in relation with its works.* 
461. Only under the conception of such an Absolute-Relative is it possible for us to 
believe in a Divine Love that works teleologically for benevolent purposes,—a Divine 
Activity, “ upholding all things by the word of His power,”—a Divine Wisdom by which 
all things were made,—and thus to form some idea, however feeble it may be, of that in- 
effable Divine Image in which man was created. Only under such a conception can we 
understand that in our ascent to the Absolute, we can never overstep that Highest Unity, 
which is at once Knowing and Known, and that the atheistical notion of a blind fate, an 
unreasoning power, an unintelligent “order of nature,” is opposed to the plainest deduc- 
tions of reason, as well as to the teachings of revelation. Only under such a conception 
can we feel that man has not been created in vain,—that all the needs of our toiling, strug- 
gling, suffering race, have been provided with the means of satisfaction,—that the Infinite 
Creator is “not a God afar off,’ but that He is “ Our Father” in heaven, with more than 
a father’s sympathy and love,— the Lord merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abun- 
dant in goodness and truth.” 
462. Under this conception, what a halo of glorious beauty is thrown around the Chris- 
tian Revelation! However imperfect may be our appreciation of the Divine mysteries,— 
however feeble and halting our faith,—however sad and desponding our hope,—or how- 
ever arrogant our self-sufficiency and impatience under fancied dictation,—the dignity, 
simplicity, and majesty portrayed in the inspired records, will be accepted as the manifest 
indications of that mysterious blending of the Absolute with the Relative,—the Divine 
with the Human, in which faith and philosophy both find their final resting-place. 
463. He who wept at the grave of Lazarus, gave eternal evidence of the intimate union 
between Divine love and human sympathy with suffering. The charity that, in the midst 
of the agony in the garden, forgave the weakness of the heavy-eyed disciples, will ever 
* «J will repeat my innermost conviction, that the existence of free will, in man as a fact of the consciousness, 
in God as an object of our faith, is the cardinal point on which all that is sound in philosophy or true in religion 
ultimately turns. Banish it from heaven and earth, and men become nothing more than the petty wheels in the 
vast machine, of which God is the involuntary motive power. But the engineer is absent, and he whom we then 
call God, is bound in the trammels of a merciless necessity,—no object of love, for he cannot hate, no object of 
prayer, for he cannot aid, no object of praise, for he is a tool in the hands of a higher fate... . . Restore free 
will, and where all before was death and darkness, all now becomes life and light. Then indeed does God cease to 
be the omnipresent automaton, the dead God of the dead, and becomes a spirit and a power, and the living God 
of the living. Then, indeed, are love, and prayer, and praise, His just meed and our high privilege, for of His own 
free will, and of no necessity, is He a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and His 
tender mercies are over all His works. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be 
glory forever.”  Solly, p. 282. 
