the good will in himself, a disposition; it is a mood that may change.  At any moment it may change.  He may have pledged himself to his own pride and honour, but who will hold him to his bargain?  He has no source of strength beyond his own amiable sentiments, his conscience speaks with an unsupported voice, and no one watches while he sleeps.  He cannot pray; he can but ejaculate.  He has no real and living link with other men of good will.

And those whose acquiescence in the idea of God is merely intellectual are in no better case than those who deny God altogether.  They may have all the forms of truth and not divinity.  The religion of the atheist with a God-shaped blank at its heart and the persuasion of the unconverted theologian, are both like lamps unlit.  The lit lamp has no difference in form from the lamp unlit.  But the lit lamp is alive and the lamp unlit is asleep or dead.

The difference between the unconverted and the unbeliever and the servant of the true God is this; it is that the latter has experienced a complete turning away from self.  This only difference is all the difference in the world.  It is the realisation that this goodness that I thought was within me and of myself and upon which I rather prided myself, is without me and above myself, and infinitely greater and stronger than I. It is the immortal and I am mortal.  It is invincible and steadfast in its purpose, and I am weak and insecure.  It is no longer that I, out of my inherent and remarkable goodness, out of the excellence of my quality and the benevolence of my heart, give a considerable amount of time and attention to the happiness and welfare of others—­because I choose to do so.  On the contrary I have come under a divine imperative, I am obeying an irresistible call, I am a humble and willing servant of the righteousness of God.  That altruism which Professor Metchnikoff and Mr. McCabe would have us regard as the goal and refuge of a broad and free intelligence, is really the first simple commandment in the religious life.

4.  Another religious materialist

Now here is a passage from a book, “Evolution and the War,” by Professor Metchnikoff’s translator, Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, which comes even closer to our conception of God as an immortal being arising out of man, and external to the individual man.  He has been discussing that well-known passage of Kant’s:  “Two things fill my mind with ever-renewed wonder and awe the more often and deeper I dwell on them—­the starry vault above me, and the moral law within me.”

From that discussion, Dr. Chalmers Mitchell presently comes to this most definite and interesting statement: