xxxiv INTRODUCTION 



heaven these descriptions only outline an exalted earth. 



The unlettered negroes of the far southern part of 

 the United States have implicit belief that Jehovah, 

 the hero of the Old Testament, is directly concerned 

 in their welfare. This conviction carries them joy- 

 fully through many labors and tribulations. Now the 

 Jehovah of the Old Testament is not to be dismissed 

 with a gesture of indifference, by any means. From 

 Genesis on through to Hosea he is a magnificent figure, 

 perhaps as magnificent a figure of deity as has ever 

 been described in the sacred books of nations. And 

 certainly the thought of deity as directly concerned for 

 a favorite people's welfare, seeking to make them 

 worthwhile men and women, trying all sorts of experi- 

 ments : the gift of Paradise, the terrible punishment 

 of all but extermination, direction to the Promised 

 Land, once more the discipline for wilfulness in a sad 

 captivity; and then learning at last that only vicarious 

 suffering will save the race, is one of the noblest stories 

 ever told. And surely nothing that has ever happened 

 In this world has set the human race further along its 

 way than the sublime self-denials of Jesus. 



All this has pointed the road. Jesus was a spiritual 

 genius, best exemplar of an eternal, merciful Reality. 

 If there is any proof of God in religion it is in Jesus 

 and in other heroic souls who have lived in imitation 

 of him. It is certainly not in theologies, creeds and 

 spectacular declarations, as an infallible Bible, a de- 

 cree-in-council, or a pronouncement ex-cathedra. 



We have had pantheism, deism, theism, agnosticism, 

 humanism, and other labelled schools of religious 

 thinking: one declaring God has been found and his 



