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he calls God ; but at the same time his principles are practically those of 
Atheism, although not theoretically so, — I mean his is practical, as distinct 
from theoretical, Atheism ; a system of belief which teaches that I may go 
from one end of life to the other without any regard to the existence of 
God; and, further, a system which denies the moral freedom of man. 
But, turning to Dean Mansel’s book, there is one point which I 
think requires a little more elaboration than Mr. Lias has given to it. 
Dean Mansel denied that we can obtain any really abstract idea of 
God, because, as God is infinite and all our conceptions finite, it is im- 
possible that God can be conceived by the finite mind. But as he puts it, 
although we cannot get this conception by means of our natural faculties, 
we can get it by Revelation. This, I think, is a mistake that lies at the 
bottom of the Dean’s position. Let us take an illustration. He lays down, 
as a fundamental truth, that because God is infinite, and we are finite, we 
cannot get any real conception of God ; and I fully agree that all attempts 
to explain the ontology of God in terms of the finite intellect of man must 
be futile. Dean Mansel thought that he had proved through this position 
the necessity for Revelation ; but the same reason, which renders me 
incapable of forming a conception of God through the finite character 
of my intellect, would also render me incapable of forming a conception 
of God by Revelation. Let me take an illustration : a pint measure 
merely holds a pint of liquid ; and, because it is so conditioned that it 
is only a pint measure, it is impossible to get a gallon into it. Just in 
the same way, because the intellect is so conditioned that we cannot get an 
adequate conception of God into it, so must it be if we try to get into it 
the same conception by way of Revelation. Dean Mansel has also spoken of 
a regulative idea of God. Let us see what is meant by such a conception. 
The revealed conceptions of God, being inadequate representations of 
His actual character, are intended to be regulative of our conduct, i.e. f 
we are to act as though they were the adequate and true ones. But we 
do not, in the long run, require to know what duty is ; but what we want 
in Revelation is some spiritual or moral power to make the performance of 
duty possible. The essence of the Christian revelation is, that it has revealed 
a spiritual and moral power which has rendered duty a possibility to man, 
and which the whole range of pagan philosophy has utterly failed to reach. 
Some years ago, I quoted in this room the very words used by Aristotle, who 
tells us he did not think that his principles of ethics would have any effect 
whatever, except among the higher classes of mankind. The passage will 
be found in the seventh book. But Christianity has come and given us, in 
the Revelation of Jesus Christ, a moral and spiritual power which has ren- 
dered duty possible to all. What is the use of a regulative idea of God ? 
I cannot love a regulative idea of anything, and it is absurd to talk to me 
of doing so/ If you tell me that God’s justice is a mere regulative idea, and 
that the justice of God may be a very different thing from my conception 
of justice, then I say that no man can feel respect and reverence for a regu- 
lative idea of justice. I can only love realities, not shadows or delusions. 
