INEXORABLE LOGIC. 529 



future state ; will you tell them that they have lived 

 under an illusion, that they would have done better to 

 laugh, and to feast, and to say Let us make merry, for 

 to-morrow we shall die ? There are men whom the 

 fear of punishment in a future life deters from vice and 

 perhaps from crime. Will you dare to spread a doctrine 

 which unlooses all restraints, and leaves men to the 

 fury of their passions ? It is true that we are not de- 

 moralised by this belief in the impersonality of God and 

 the extinction of the soul; but it would be a dangerous 

 belief for those who are exposed to strong temptations, 

 and whose minds have not been raised by culture to 

 the religion of dignity and self-control." 



In the first place, I admit that the worship and con- 

 templation of a man-like but ideal Being must have, 

 through the law of Imitation, an ennobling effect on 

 the mind of the idolater, but only so long as the belief 

 in such a Being harmonises with the intellect. It has 

 been shown that this theory of a benignant God is 

 contradicted by the laws of nature. We must judge of 

 the tree by its fruits ; we must judge of the maker by 

 that which he has made. The Author of the world 

 invented not only the good but also the evil in the 

 world ; he invented cruelty ; he invented sin. If he 

 invented sin how can he be otherwise than sinful ? 

 And if he invented cruelty how can he be otherwise 

 than cruel 1 From this inexorable logic we can only 

 escape by giving up the hypothesis of a personal 

 Creator. Those who believe in a God of Love must 

 close their eyes to the phenomena of life, or garble the 

 universe to suit their theory. This, it is needless to 

 say, is injurious to the intellect ; whatever is injurious 

 to the intellect is injurious to morality ; and, therefore, 

 the belief in a God of Love is injurious to morality. 

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