ense of God. It is the
attainment of an absolute certainty that one is not alone in oneself.
It is as if one was touched at every point by a being akin to oneself,
sympathetic, beyond measure wiser, steadfast and pure in aim. It is
completer and more intimate, but it is like standing side by side with
and touching someone that we love very dearly and trust completely. It
is as if this being bridged a thousand misunderstandings and brought us
into fellowship with a great multitude of other people. . . .

"Closer he is than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."

The moment may come while we are alone in the darkness, under the stars,
or while we walk by ourselves or in a crowd, or while we sit and muse.
It may come upon the sinking ship or in the tumult of the battle. There
is no saying when it may not come to us. . . . But after it has come
our lives are changed, God is with us and there is no more doubt of
God. Thereafter 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.
One is assured that there is a Power that fights with us against the
confusion and evil within us and without. There comes into the heart an
essential and enduring happiness and courage.

There is but one God, there is but one true religious experience, but
under a multitude of names, under veils and darknesses, God has in this
manner come into countless lives. There is scarcely a faith, however
mean and preposterous, that has not been a way to holiness. God who is
himself finite, who himself struggles in his great effort from strength
to strength, has no spite against error. Far beyond halfway he hastens
to meet the purblind. But God is against the darkness in their eyes. The
faith which is returning to men girds at veils and shadows, and would
see God plainly. It has little respect for mysteries. It rends the veil
of the temple in rags and tatters. It has no superstitious fear of
this huge friendliness, of this great brother and leader of our little
beings. To find God is but the beginning of wisdom, because then for all
our days we have to learn his purpose with us and to live our lives with
him.

CHAPTER THE SECOND

HERESIES; OR THE THINGS THAT GOD IS NOT

1. HERESIES ARE MISCONCEPTIONS OF GOD

Religion is not a plant that has grown from one seed; it is like a lake
that has been fed by countless springs. It is a great pool of living
water, mingled from m