the
critics declare to be impossible of personality in general in relation
to God, they are affirming already of at least one personality, that of
Jesus. If Jesus was God and yet prayed to God, if His consciousness
was finite and yet one with the infinite, it is clear that in this one
instance the seemingly impossible was not impossible. Those who insist
upon the fundamental distinction between human personality and the
being of God are thus on the horns of a dilemma. Present-day orthodoxy
cannot consistently attack this position. The only telling criticism
that can be directed against it is that which proceeds from the side of
scientific monism. A thoroughgoing monist might reasonably contend
that up to a certain point I have been arguing for a monistic view of
the universe, in company with practically the whole scientific world,
and have then given the case away by admitting a certain amount of
individual freedom. I confess it looks like it; I have had to face the
antinomy. I see that there is no escape from the assertion of the
fundamental unity of all existence, and yet by the very constitution of
the human mind we are compelled to take for granted a certain amount of
individual initiative and self-direction. I think of the human will
much as I do about the mariner's compass. It is well known that the
needle does not always point steadily and consistently to the pole; its
tiny aberrations have to be taken into account. But these are no real
hindrance to the sailing of the ship, and the compass itself cannot run
away.

Again, some of my friends have been pointing out that, while the New
Theology regards all mankind as "Being of one substance with the
Father," our consciousness of that being is our own. I freely admit
this while maintaining that there is no substance but consciousness.
What other kind of substance can there be? Therefore I hold that when
our finite consciousness ceases to be finite there will be no
distinction whatever between ours and God's. The distinction between
finite and infinite is not eternal. The being of God is a complex
unity, containing within itself and harmonising every form of
self-consciousness that can possibly exist. No one need be afraid that
in believing this he is assenting to the final obliteration of his own
personality; if such obliteration were possible, our present
personality could possess no permanent value even for God. No form of
self-consciousness can e