se of the dialect of revivalism. In the
meantime, one would be sorry to seem to write without respect of the
depth of conviction which Mr. Wells throws into his account of the
supreme spiritual experience of finding God. "Thereafter," he says,
"one goes about the world like one who was lonely and has found a
lover, like one who was perplexed and has found a solution" (pp.
23-24). God is a "huge friendliness, a great brother and leader of our
little beings" (p. 24). "He is a stimulant; he makes us live
immortally and more abundantly. I have compared him to the sensation
of a dear strong friend who comes and stands quietly beside one,
shoulder to shoulder" (p. 39). It certainly takes some courage for a
modern Englishman, not by profession a licensed dealer in spiritual
sentimentality, to write like this.

And now comes the question, What does God do? What does he aim at? And
how does he effect his purposes? The answer seems to be that, in a
literal, tangible sense, he does nothing. He operates solely in and
through the mind of man; and even through the mind of man he does not
influence external events. This, it may be said, is impossible, since
all those external events which we call human conduct flow from the
mind of man. Perhaps it would be correct to say (for here Mr. Wells
gives us no explicit guidance) that external events are only a
by-product of the influence of God: that, having begotten a certain
spiritual state which he feels to be generally desirable, he takes no
responsibility for the particular consequences that are likely to flow
from it. So, at least, one can best interpret Mr. Wells's repeated
disclaimer of the idea that "God is Magic or God is Providence" (p.
27), that "all the time, incalculably, he is pulling about the order
of events for our personal advantages" (p. 35-6). Commenting on Mr.
Edwyn Bevan's phrase for God, "the Friend behind phenomena," Mr. Wells
insists that the expression "carries with it no obligation whatever to
believe that this Friend is in control of the phenomena" (p. 87).
Perhaps not; but it is a question for after consideration whether
lucidity is promoted by giving the name God to a Power which has no
power--which does not seem even to make directly purposive use of the
influence which it possesses over the minds of believers. Once, in a
coasting steamer on the Pacific, I nearly died of sea-sickness. A
friend was with me, the soul of kindness, such a lovable old man that
I wr