that, life direct from God flows into them from that.

Brothers, I bid you look, as through a lens, through that consecrated wafer. What the devout Catholic, looking into that, beholds for one exalted moment, in one sacred thing, do you behold in all moments, in all things. Then shall the earth itself, aye, suns, systems, galaxies, be seen as your consecrated wafer, as the very body and blood of the Infinite Love that gives itself away for you. Your bodies are part and parcel of the divine self-sacrifice, of the love all love excelling, of the love that obliterates itself for your sakes. The Infinite Power stands aside that you may have power, and exercise that power upon the worlds His power and wisdom have made for your sakes. Your souls are the offspring of that love itself. Sons and daughters of the Eternal One, you inherit all things in the one universe which He fills with Himself. It is your blest privilege to search out all things, even the deep things of God; for all power to do all things is given you in heaven and earth.

In a world like this, which is penetrated through and through by Spirit, we must not be astonished at any happiness that comes, any thought that clears, any vision that guides, any inspiration that suggests, any swift prophetic glance that, as with a lightning flash, illumines the darkness of the days to be. We must expect great things to happen, great discoveries to be made, great advances to take place along all the

lines of man's need or man's glory. Why should we be astonished if here and now our hearts burn within us as God talks with us by the way?

Father, Thy spirit fills all worlds and all spaces, Thy spirit fills this earth of ours, Thy spirit fills this house in which we now are sitting. May we breathe in Thy spirit now, inhale its love and wisdom! We are here to present ourselves before Thee. May we be part of Thine uplift, part of Thy divine message and greeting to the days to come! May we give ourselves up to social service, to the bringing in of the kingdom of God upon this Thine earth! Amen.

GOD MINUS MAN AND GOD

IN MAN.

There is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.-EPH. iv., vi.

THE word "God" has two quite legitimate but distinct and separate meanings, which must never be confounded with each other. The first meaning is "The All," and is necessary both to philosophy and science: the second and more popular meaning, in its best use, is "The Spirit who surrounds and interpenetrates all worlds and all existences." Endless confusion results from the jumbling together of the two. Both philosophy and religion have suffered from this fruitful source of error. By it philosophy has been condemned to a treadmill round of bad thinking, and religion has been cursed with a doleful amount of bad believing.

If, then, as philosophers, we are considering God as "The All," we must always mean the One Infinite Substance which not only pervades, but constitutes the whole universe,-the Substance which fills all spaces and all worlds, and includes all worlds and all existences in one all-pervading Unity.

If, therefore, as a philosopher, you speak of God as "The Absolute," "The Unconditioned," "The

Infinite," you must always mean God as "The All," or your deductions will be false, and you will be a blind leader of the blind.

"The Absolute" is defined to be that of which no possible relations can be predicated. It is a magnificent conception that God as "The All" is "The Absolute," for there can be nothing outside of God, "The All," to bear any relation to God; that God as "The All” is “The Infinite,” for, since His Being fills infinity full, there can therefore be nothing outside of God to limit His Being; that God, as "The All," is "The Unconditioned," for there is nothing outside of His all-containing Being to condition it. But "The All" is related to, is conditioned and limited by, all beings and all worlds inside of itself. Being surrounded is both a relation, a condition, and a limit; but surrounding is also a relation, a condition, and a limit. "The All" minus a single object ceases to be "The All": it becomes "The All minus that object." Volumes on volumes of high-sounding metaphysics can be torn up as waste paper when once the true definition of these three words takes the place of the false. It is not too much to say that both Hamilton and Mansel give a wholly false definition of each of these three words, and that they draw an absolutely false conclusion from each one of them. It is passing strange that Herbert Spencer really thought all his days that he had proved "The Unknowable" from the pseudo-metaphysics of these

two thorough sceptics, who posed as stalwart defenders of religion! "The Absolute,' as such, cannot be a cause," says Mansel, in his "Limits of Religious Thought." He imagines, in his foolish heart of unbelief, that he has included all finite minds under the impossibility of thinking of God as The Great First Cause. This statement is quite true, but not in the sense he uses it. God, as "The All," cannot be a Cause; for there is nothing outside of "The All" to receive any effect from "The All." "The Cause,' as such, cannot be 'The Absolute,"" continues Mansel. Quite true, again, for "The Absolute," being strictly infinite, cannot possibly be a Cause to anything outside of itself, for there is and can be nothing outside of itself. But "The All" is the Great First Cause to everything inside of itself; bears relation to, is conditioned and limited by, everything inside of itself, and would cease to be "The All" if any single existence were abstracted from it. And yet such poor stuff as Mansel's was supposed by Herbert Spencer to be the last word of philosophy! It is tragic to think that the higher life of our beloved and loving Huxley was checked and thwarted from his earliest manhood to his death by his persistent belief in Hamilton's false definition of "The Unconditioned." In the midst of the agony of bereavement, he replies to Kingsley's letter of deep sympathy that this has all his life been the keystone of his thought, and that it was this that made him "an agnostic."