s from a supernatural agency. Therefore he
looks for no fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice. But his religion
is nevertheless a practical expectation. He believes that God is good,
and that God loves him and sustains him. He believes that there obtains
between himself, in so far as good, and the universe _sub specie
eternitatis_, a real sympathy and reciprocal reenforcement. He believes
that he secures through the profoundly potent forces of the universe
that which he regards as of most worth; and that somewhat is added to
these forces by virtue of his consecration. The God of the Christians
cannot be defined short of some such account as this, inclusive of an
ideal, an attitude, and an expectation. In other words the God of the
Christians is to be known only in terms of the Christlike outlook upon
life, in which the disciple is taught to emulate the master. When moral
and intellectual development shall have discredited either its scale of
values, or its conviction that cosmical events are in the end determined
in accordance with that scale of values, then Christianity must either
be transformed, or be untenable for the wise man. If we have conceived
the essence of Christianity too broadly or vaguely, it does not much
matter for our present purposes. Its essence is, at any rate, some such
inwardness of life resolving ideality and reality into one, and drawing
upon objective truth only to the extent required for the confirming of
that relation.

[Sidenote: The Cognitive Factor in Religion.]

Sect. 34. We conclude, then, our attempt to emphasize the cognitive
factor in religion, with the thesis that every religion centres in a
practical secret of the universe. _To be religious is to believe that a
certain correlation of forces, moral and factual, is in reality
operative, and that it determines the propriety and effectiveness of a
certain type of living. Whatever demonstrates the futility, vanity, or
self-deception of this living, discredits the religion. And, per contra,
except as they define or refute such practical truth, religion is not
essentially concerned with theoretical judgments._

[Sidenote: The Place of Imagination in Religion.]

Sect. 35. But neither religion nor any other human interest consists in
essentials. Such a practical conviction as that which has been defined
inevitably flowers into a marvelous complexity, and taps for its
nourishment every spontaneity of human nature. If it be said that onl