the sense of beauty has no function to perform in the struggle for existence. It is an end in itself. Upon the utilitarian theory we ask in vain for an answer to the question: What is the purpose of the appreciation of beauty which is implanted in man?'

Here, then, is something in ourselves which points beyond this world, which has the mark of eternity. We receive at last an intimation of what man was made for. For this love of beauty in us is not left unsatisfied. See how nature treats man here. She has left his moral needs unfulfilled. Not so his craving for the beautiful. She has moulded things in heaven and things on earth in forms of beauty, and has touched the sky and the sea and the land with colours, in which his highest faculty finds satisfaction. In that satisfaction we recognise the promise from God of immortality and another world. It is something more than poetic rapture, it is the expression of a deep truth, when Hawthorne exclaims: '

2

'I believe the sense of beauty is supposed to have served as a factor in "natural selection." But this does not impair the truth of what is said in the text. For while that use diminishes with advancing civilisation, the sense of beauty increases.

The train of thought in the text serves to show the folly of the exclusively altruistic view of life. It is often taken for granted that activity for others is the highest possible exercise of the human faculties; and one not infrequently hears expressions as if this was the only life worth living. Whoever lives in that spirit is making but a poor preparation for heaven, where surely there will be no more work for others and where, if we have not done so here, we shall have to learn to employ our faculties in a manner which will bring its own immediate satisfaction.

2 Mosses From an Old Manse, "The Old Manse."

"Our Creator would never have made such lovely days and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal. This sunshine is the golden pledge thereof. It gleams through the gates of paradise and shows us glimpses far inward." It is the lesson which Wordsworth learned from nature, as he tells us in his description of the Wanderer:

-he had felt the power

Of Nature, and already was prepared
By his intense conceptions, to receive
Deeply the lesson deep of love which he

Whom Nature, by whatever means, has taught
To feel intensely, cannot but receive."

The existence of beauty in nature is a hint, an intimation, of something beyond. Nature furnishes no proof of God, and natural theology would be a delusion but for the fact that it makes clear the sort of God man needs. Its claim to furnish the foundation for the conception of what God is, of being a factor in the Christian conception of God, is an unwarranted assumption. On the contrary, if we are to find the God we want, it must be one with attributes the very opposite of those to which nature chiefly gives evidence.

We turn therefore to the only other source of possible knowledge: Revelation. From natural religion we advance to revealed religion. We shall first try to answer the question, What is the Christian idea of God? And we shall then measure this idea by the two tests which we have adopted.

The popular Christian conception of God is dualistic. Two attributes claim equal consideration. On the one side is God's justice or righteousness. It is that quality which is generally identified with the first person of the Trinity. This attribute is fundamental. It expresses what is central in the being of God. Whatever we conceive of God's dealings with his creatures must be corrected by the criterion of his primary attribute of justice. On the other side is God's love. This is generally associated with Christ. It is an effort of which the theological mind has not usually been capable, to carry back this attribute of love into the being of the Father. The dualism shows its weakness here at the start. ever may be held in strict theory-we shall presently come to that-in practice, that is, in the theology of everyday use and in the minds of most men, justice is associated with the Father, love with the Son.

What

The biblical authority for the conception of God, which makes justice his fundamental attribute, is drawn mainly from the Old Testament. Ritschl has attempted to show that the word "righteousness," so much used of God in the Old Testament, denotes that characteristic according to which God acts in strict conformity to his purpose of upholding his covenant with Israel against all enemies, and is therefore synonymous with love.' Although his exegesis is frequently forced, and therefore is not convincing, yet he has adduced sufficient proof to oblige us to modify our ideas of the use of this term. 1 Vol. ii. chap. 14.

It is frequently used where justice would not be an exact equivalent, but where it conveys nearly the same conception as love or mercy. So in Psalm xxxi. 1: “In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion: deliver me in thy righteousness," and Psalm xxxvi. 10: "O continue forth thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness unto them that are true of heart." Exegesis is not, however, the decisive factor in the determination of the Christian idea of God, and the Old Testament is not the Christian's primary authority. We shall presently see that a more exact definition of revelation is required for the solution of the problem of God.

The idea of God and that which depends upon it, the ethical order of the universe, as it is expressed in the commonly accepted view, is founded upon the analogy of the state. God represents the authority of the state. We as his creatures are bound to recognise and observe his laws; this is the condition of eternal life. Representing the supreme power of the state, God is bound not only to reward man for his obedience, but also to punish him for his disobedience. This is the double retribution, by reward and punishment. I have already pointed out the danger of the use of analogy in matters of religion. The likeness which has been thoughtlessly accepted, between God and a human judge or lawgiver, has so fixed the conception of God that it is exceedingly difficult to prove that this conception, resting upon an imperfect analogy, is inadequate.

It is this analogy which gives to the conception the appearance of necessity. We have been so accustomed to thinking of God under the forms of a human state, as the supreme power in a human commonwealth, that we have come to regard any other way of conceiving him as impossible. The analogy has melted into the thing itself. But there is another analogy which Christ used far more frequently, that of fatherhood; and if we can accustom ourselves to follow his thoughts, abandoning Old Testament and Greek precedents, we shall gain quite a different conception of God.

tence.

God's justice stands for a certain limitation of his power. He could not do that which love would prompt him to do; there is a bar to his own action. This seems on the face of it to impose a restriction upon God which is inconsistent with his omnipoTo obviate this objection, it is said that the justice which prevents God's free forgiveness is a part of the nature of God himself; that the bar to his free action springing from his own essential nature is not an inconsistency in our conception of God. God's justice is therefore thought of as analogous to what in man we term honour or self-respect, that quality which carries with it the sense of man's own worth, the strength and persistence of his personality. This fundamental quality, constituting the essential personality of God, must be satisfied; God's love cannot act in disregard of it.

The first objection to this is that justice, as so