The Heavenly Father | Page 3

dissolution, who apply themselves to this work.
They are too generous, no doubt, to make a violent attack upon a corpse;
and it is easy to understand, judging by the intensity of their exertions,
that in their own opinion they have something else to do than to give a
finishing stroke to the dying.
Present circumstances are serious, not for religion itself, which cannot
be imperilled, but for minds which run the risk of losing their balance
and their support. Let it be observed, however, that when it is said that
we are living in extraordinary times, that we are passing through an
unequalled crisis, that the like of what we see was never seen before,
and so on, we must always regard conclusions of this nature with
distrust. Our personal interest in the circumstances which immediately
surround us produces on them for us the magnifying effect of a
microscope: and our principal reason for thinking that our epoch is
more extraordinary than others, is for the most part that we are living in

our own epoch, and have not lived in others. A mind attentive to this
fact, and so placed upon its guard against all tendency to exaggeration,
will easily perceive that religious thought has in former times passed
through shocks as profound and as dangerous as those of which we are
witnesses. Still the crisis is a real one. Taking into account its extent in
our days, we may say that it is new for the generation to which we
belong; and it is worthy of close consideration. To-day, as an
introduction to this grave subject, I should wish first to determine as
precisely as possible what is our idea of God; to inquire next from what
sources we derive it; and lastly to point out, as clearly as I may, the
limits and the nature of the discussion to which I invite you.
In asking what sense we must give to the word "God," I am not going
to propose to you a metaphysical definition, or any system of my own:
I am inquiring what is in fact the idea of God in the bosom of modern
society, in the souls which live by this idea, in the hearts of which it
constitutes the joy, in the consciences of which it is the support.
When our thoughts rise above nature and humanity to that invisible
Being whom we speak of as God, what is it which passes in our souls?
They fear, they hope, they pray, they offer thanksgiving. If a man finds
himself in one of those desperate positions in which all human help
fails, he turns towards Heaven, and says, My God! If we are witnesses
of one of those instances of revolting injustice which stir the
conscience in its profoundest depths, and which could not on earth
meet with adequate punishment, we think within ourselves,--There is a
Judge on high! If we are reproved by our own conscience, the voice of
that conscience, which disturbs and sometimes torments us, reminds us
that though we may be shut out from all human view, there is no less an
Eye which sees us, and a just award awaiting us. Thus it is (I am
seeking to establish facts) that the thought of God operates, so to speak,
in the souls of those who believe in Him. If you look for the meaning
common to all these manifestations of man's heart, what do you find?
Fear, hope, thanksgiving, prayer. To whom is all this addressed? To a
Power intelligent and free, which knows us, and is able to act upon our
destinies. This is the idea which is found at the basis of all religions;
not only of the religion of the only God, but of the most degraded

forms of idolatrous worship. All religion rests upon the sentiment of
one or more invisible Powers, superior to nature and to humanity.
When philosophical curiosity is awakened, it disengages from the
general sentiment of power the definite idea of the cause which
becomes the explanation of the phenomena. The reason of man, by
virtue of its very constitution, finds a need of conceiving of an absolute
cause which escapes by its eternity the lapse of time, and by its infinite
character the bounds of limited existences; a principle, the necessary
being of which depends on no other; in a word a unique cause,
establishing by its unity the universal harmony. So, when reason meets
with the idea of the sole and Almighty Creator, it attaches itself to it as
the only thought which accounts to it for the world and for itself.
The Creator is, first of all, He whose glory the heavens declare, while
the earth makes known the work of His hands. He is the Mighty One