upon human soil. ...  Their works seemed to carry within them Divine energies; wonders surrounded their paths; their life and being bridged securely the gulf between heaven and earth."[61] Now, Eucken shows that it is of great importance to acknowledge these personalities in order that life may be brought into a safe track.  Enough has already been said of the impossibility of finding a sufficiency for life and death within the span of ordinary existence.  And as this is so, a whole span of past and present has to be taken into account.  The world cannot move a step towards the heights of the future without this.  The real future is the blend of what was and is forming the standard and the receptacle for what is to be. We have already noticed how such a standard [p.172] evolves; and how, when it is followed to its utmost limits, it merges into the conception of God.  But as all this is a conception spiritual in its nature—­devoid of flesh and blood as its clothing—­it becomes extremely difficult for the majority of mankind to hold fast to its reality in a world where flesh and blood mean so much.  Something more tangible is craved for by man as a proof of an over-world and of an over-personal life.  Such proof men are able to obtain in the great religious personalities of the world without having to go through the intellectual processes of discovering the grounds of religion.  Men are able to view this spiritual truth as they view a picture.  It becomes easy to understand how such personalities have been raised beyond all human valuations to a likeness to God and even to an equality with God.  Such personalities were the highest conceptions which men could possess of the Godhead.  This seems to have been a necessary stage in the evolution of the religious life as well as of religious conceptions.  And even to-day attention is not to be diverted from such personalities.  The question whether they were or were not gods has become meaningless.  What psychology is able to fathom the soul of any individual?  Every attempt at doctrinal formulation states less than was present within the souls of such personalities.  But, on the other hand, it does seem necessary, [p.173] according to Eucken’s teaching, to avoid confusing such personalities with the All.  They were great; they possessed elements above the world; but none of them possessed the whole that is in existence.

The truth concerning these founders of religion seems to lie in the fact that they realised a depth of life beyond the world, the intellect, and the span of ordinary life.  It is this fact that needs to be brought prominently forward in our day.  And such a fact becomes an experimental proof of the presence and efficacy of the Divine within the soul and points to an upward direction the total-movement of the world.  If such a fact does not succeed in holding for itself a primary place, other subsidiary facts will colour and weaken its true spiritual content and value.