n Him only their likeness is not to see Him
aright. It is not to be denied that the writers of the Old Testament
employ anthropomorphic language to vivify the justice and goodness of
the Eternal. They speak of His Eyes and of His Face, of His Hands and
of His Arm and of His Voice. They speak of Him walking in the Garden
and smelling a sweet savour. They speak of Him repenting and being
jealous and coming down to see what is done on earth. Such figures,
however, as a rule, have a force {69} and an appropriateness which
never can become obsolete or out of date. They even heighten the
Majesty and Spotless Holiness of God. They are felt to be, at most,
words struggling to express what no words can ever convey: they are the
readiest means of impressing on the dull understanding of men their
practical duty, of letting them know with what purity and righteousness
they have to do. It is not in such figures that any harm can ever lie.
The error of taking literally such phrases as 'Hands' or 'Arm' or
'Voice' is not very prevalent, but the error of framing God after our
moral image is not distant or imaginary. There is a mode of speaking
about Divine Purposes and Divine Motives which must jar on those who
have begun to discern the Divine Majesty, to whom the thought of the
All-Embracing Presence has become a reality.

{70}

II

The representation of the Almighty and Eternal as one of ourselves, as
animated by the lowest passions and paltriest prejudices of mankind, as
a 'magnified and non-natural' human being, is recognised as ludicrously
inadequate and terribly distorted. The representation of the Creator
as 'sitting idle at the outside of the Universe and seeing it go,' as
having brought it into being and afterwards left it to itself, as
mingling no more in its events and evolution, is utterly discarded. It
is, however, to such representations that the assaults of modern
critics are directed, and in the overthrow of such representations it
is imagined that Christianity itself is overthrown. The assailants
maintain that Christianity in attributing Personality to God makes Him
in the image of man, and separates Him from the Universe. But what is
meant by Personality? It does not mean a {71} being no higher than
man, with the limitations and imperfections of man.[2] Mr. Herbert
Spencer, who would not ascribe Personality to God, yet affirmed that
the choice was not between Personality and something lower than
Pe