The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-08-28

the other is to sweep away all moral
ity and make religion delusion and
a cheat Man must be distinct per-
sonality, with freedom and accounta-
bility, and God must be distinct
personality acting from his own Volt
ton to make religion and morality
possible. These things cannot exist
and cannot be cultivated in any really
pantheistic form of thought. They
may appear to exist and flourish but
they are not genuine; or if they are,
they are so in spite of the pantheism,
no uncommon thing among pantheis-
tic peoples.
Now this tendency to destroy the
distinction between the natural and
the supernatural and make "every-
thing natural" is tendency towards
pantheism. If the created and un-
created, nature and God are one, then
there is all -God-ism or no-God ism.
If this zone" has none of the attrib-
utes of God, then there is no God and
if it has all the attributes in each and
every part then all is God, and athe-
ism or pantheism is the result. But
tendency to pantheism is, as we have
seen, tendency to the subversion of
all morality and religion. Hence
tendency to destroy the distinction
between the natural and the super
natural and make God and the world
identical is tendency toward the de-
struction of the very foundations of
morality and religion. Let this
tendency become reality; let natur-
alism be made out and God be iden
titled with the world and religion, and
morality sinks to zero. In such a
system of thought they cannot exist.
If l and God are one, then can
neither love nor obey God, but only
love and obey myself which would
make religion and morality farce.
This question of the supernatural,
therefore, is not mere matter of
speculation, but one of great practi-
cal Importance. 1t lies down at the
bottom of all we hold dear. If there
is no supernatural, nothing that
transcends nature and is not identi-
cal with it, then there is no founda-
ton for religion or morality. The
roots of these things are in person
al God, who is himself free and has
conferred that freedom on man and
holds man accountable for the use of
that freedom, and is in the world, but
also above and beyond it, and as this
doctrine of misrepresentation de-
stroys all this, it cuts morality and
religion up by the roots.
1t plays into the hands of goddess
! ness of which there is any quantity
in our land today. Men are every
where without God in the world"
That is the great sin Of our age. God
is out of mems thought and out of
mems lives, and this anti-supernatur-
alism plays directly into the hands of
this skepticism. 1t makes God very
uncertain quantity. He is SO mixed
up with everything else that he ceases
to be reality. We have seen many
| efforts to discover the secret of Mr..
Moody's power. 1t is all summed up
in the fact that he makes God real
to men. He has the faculty of max
ing men see and feel that God is
reality. Whoever can do that can
move men. But to do that God must
be made to stand out as a distinct
personality, moral ruler who recog-
nizes in man the ability to love and
obey him and who therefore demands
his love and obedience. All these
notions that mix God up with nature
tend to destroy this clear vision and
make God an uncertain quantity and
80 powerless to move men. In fine,
their tendency is to pantheism out of
which no true religion or morality can
grow. SC.