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.