In other words, the God of Christianity must be al- lowed not to be a God creating a world, and acting on a world from without, but a God immanent and energiz- ing in the universe which is co-extensive with him as its source; and dogmatic formulffi and Biblical repre- sentations irreconcilable with that doctrine must be ex- plained as metaphors or shadows, or cast aside — or oth- erwise Christianity itself must cease to be the religion of civilized humanity (Picton, in his essays on The Mys- tery of Matter [Loud. 1875, 8vo], has taken a like po- sition). This pantheistic sentiment floating about in the poetrj', criticism, theology, and even in the spec- ulative thinking of the present time is attributable principally, we think, to the ravages made by Biblical criticism and to the aggressiveness of the physical scientists, who, in the advances which they are mak- ing in the acquisition of knowledge, are determined to extend incjuiry also into the region of religious beliefs. Hence multitudes of men are puzzled what to think and what to believe. They do not like to face the fact that they have actually lost faith in rev- elation, and are no longer relying for help and guid- ance on the Spirit of God. but on the laws of nature ; so they take refuge from the abhorred aspect of the naked truth that they are "atheists" in a cloud of rose-colored poetical phrases, which, if they mean anything, mean pantheism. "Quid philosophus ac Christianus," said the rugged but sensible Tertullian in his day; and the same remark may here be made, " What has Christian- itj- to do with Pantheism '?" The personalitj'^ of God is a previous question which Christianity, in common with all historical religions, must assume. He that cometh to God must believe that he is. and that he is the re- warder of them that diligently seek him. Now the Pantheist repels with indignation the charge of athe- ism. Far from denying the existence of God, he pre- tends to recognise God in all he sees and hears and feels. In his creed all is God, and God is all. But the very essence of his system consists in the denial of a living personal God, distinct fnmi nature and presiding over it. This, if not atheism, approaches to the very verge of it. We may theoretically distinguish panthe- ism and atheism from each other, but the man who can look around him and say that the universe is God, or that he himself is an incarnation of God, a finite particle of the Infinite Being, makes assertions tanta- mount in meaning to the statement that there is no (lod. Christianity has no longer to maintain a con- flict with open, avowed, unblushing atheism, but with secret, plausible, proud pantheism. Nor can the re-
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suit of the conflict be doubtful. Cliristianitj' will as- siirctlly tiiiiiiii>li over this, as she has already done over all her lorincr adversaries, and men -will rejoice in rec- ogni.-.in,i,^ the old living personal God, who watches over them, to whom they can pray, in wliom they can trust, and with whom they hope to dwell throughout a bless- ed eternity.
The baneful effects of pantheism cannot fail to unfold themselves wherever, as among the Hindus, it lies at the foundation of the prevailing religion. Its practical fruits, in such circumstances, arc moral degradation, bar- barism, and cruelty. The natural consequences of a pan- theistic creed are thus ably sketched by Dr. Buchanan :
" The practical influence of pantheism, in so far as its peculiar teudencies are not restrained or counteracted by more salutary beliel's, must be deeply injurious both to the individual and social welfare of mankind. In its ideal or spiritual form it may be seductive to some ardent, imaginative minds, but it is a wretclied creed notwith- standing; and it will be Ibuud, when calmly examined, to be fraught with the most serious evils. It has beeu com- mended, indeed, in glowing terms, as a creed alike beau- tiful and beneticent, as a source of religious life nobler and purer tliau any that can ever spring from the more gloomy svstem of theism ; for, on the theory of pantheism, God is manifest to all everywhere and at all times. Nat- ure, too, is aggrandized and gloritied, and everything in nature is invested with a new dignity and interest ; above all, man is conclusively freed from all fantastic hopes and superstitious fears, so that his mind can now repose with tranq\iil satisfaction on the bosom of the Absolute, un- moved by the vicissitudes of life, and nnscared even by the prospect of death. For what is death ? The dissolution of any living organism is but one stage in the process of its further development; and whether it passes into a new form of self-conscious life, or is reabsorbed into the influite, it still forms an indestructible element in the vast sum of being. We may therefore, or rather we must, leave our future state to be determined by nature's inexorable laws, and we need, at least, fear no Being higher than nat- ure, to whose justice we are amenable, or whose frown we should dread. But even as it is thus exhibited by some of its warmest jiartisaus, it appears to us, we own, to be a dreary and cheerless creed when compared with that faith which teaches ns to regard God as our 'Father in heaven,' and that ' hope which is full of immortality.' It Is worse, however, than dreary: it is destructive of all re- ligion and morality; it is an avowed antagonist to Chris- tianity; it is not less hostile to natural theology and to ethical science ; it consecrates error and vice as being, equally with truth and virtue, necessary and beneticial manifestations of the 'infinite.' It is a system of syncre- tism, founded on the idea that error is only an incomplete truth, and maintains that truth must necessarily be de- veloped by error and virtue by vice. According to this fundamental law of 'human progress,' atheism itself may be providential ; and the axiom of a fatal optimism— ' Whatever is, is best'— must be admitted equally iu regard to truth and error, to virtue and vice."