ices, with daily lessons, and with suitable
forms of prayer for persons who cannot trust themselves to extempore
communings even with a "great brother."

Well, there might be no great harm in this. Some solemn form for the
expression of cosmic, and even of mundane or political, emotion would
doubtless be useful; and if the "modern religion" could be saved from
degenerating into a hysterical superstition on the one hand, or a
petrified, persecuting orthodoxy on the other, it would certainly be a
vast improvement on many of the religions of to-day.

But the ambitions of the Invisible King go far beyond the mere
presidency of an Ethical Church on an extended scale. He is to be a
King and no mistake; not even a King of Kings, but "sole Monarch of
the universal earth." Autocracies, oligarchies, and democracies are
alike to be swept out of his path. The "implicit command" of the
modern religion "to all its adherents is to make plain the way to the
world theocracy" (p. 97). How the fiats of the Invisible King are to
be issued, we are not informed. If through the ballot-box--"vox
populi, vox dei"--then the distinction between theocracy and democracy
will scarcely be apparent to the naked eye. And one does not see how,
in the transition stage at any rate, recourse to the ballot-box is to
be avoided, if only as a lesser evil than recourse to howitzers, tanks
and submarines. We read that "if you do not feel God then there is no
persuading you of him"; but if you do, "you will realize more and more
clearly, that thus and thus and no other is his method and intention"
(p. 98). Now, assuming (no slight assumption) that the oracles of
God, the message of the still small voice, will be identically
interpreted by all believers, the unbelievers, those who "do not feel
God," have still to be dealt with; and, as they are not open to
persuasion, it would seem that the faithful must be prepared either to
shoot them down or to vote them down--whereof the latter seems the
humaner alternative. It is true that Mr. Wells's God is a man of war;
like that other whom he disowns but strangely resembles, "he brings
mankind not rest but a sword" (p. 96). But we may confidently hold
that this, at any rate, is but a manner of speaking. Even if the God
is real, his sword is metaphoric. Mr. Wells is not seriously proposing
to take his cue from his Mohammedan friends, raise the cry of "Allahu
Akbar!" and propagate his gospel scimitar in hand. It is hard to