e surprised that when an idea is still inchoate its
expression should be inconsistent and imperfect-ideas will almost always
during the earlier history of a thought be put together experimentally
so as to see whether or no they will cohere. Partly out of indolence,
partly out of the desire of those who brought the ideas together to be
declared right, and partly out of joy that the truth should be supposed
found, incoherent ideas will be kept together longer than they should
be; nevertheless they will in the end detach themselves and go, if
others present themselves which fit into their place better. There is no
consistency which has not once been inconsistent, nor coherency that has
not been incoherent. The incoherency of our ideas concerning God is due
to the fact that we have not yet truly found him, but it does not argue
that he does not exist and cannot be found anywhere after more diligent
search; on the contrary, the persistence of the main idea, in spite
of the incoherency of its details, points strongly in the direction of
believing that it rests upon a foundation in fact.

But it must be remembered there can be no God who is not personal and
material: and if personal, then, though inconceivably vast in comparison
with man, still limited in space and time, and capable of making
mistakes concerning his own interests, though as a general rule right in
his estimates concerning them. Where, then, is this Being? He must be
on earth, or what folly can be greater than speaking of him as a person?
What are persons on any other earth to us, or we to them? He must have
existed and be going to exist through all time, and he must have a
tangible body. Where, then, is the body of this God? And what is the
mystery of his Incarnation?

It will be my business to show this in the following chapter.

CHAPTER VI. THE TREE OF LIFE

Atheism denies knowledge of a God of any kind. Pantheism and Theism
alike profess to give us a God, but they alike fail to perform what they
have promised. We can know nothing of the God they offer us, for not
even do they themselves profess that any of our senses can be cognisant
[sic] of him. They tell us that he is a personal God, but that he has no
material person. This is disguised Atheism. What we want is a Personal
God, the glory of whose Presence can be made in part evident to our
senses, though what we can realise [sic] is less than nothing in
comparison with what we must leave for ever u