we know that Thou art near.

Through all ages and in all peoples this sense of that which is other
than ourselves, from which our highest good comes, towards which our
ideals and aspirations strain, the ultimate force of our being, this
feeling after the infinite is universal. It is the essential and
determinative mark of every religion.

When those singers of long ago tried to express their sense of the
infinite life and love they used words which make it appear that they
thought only of some being larger, mightier, wiser than themselves,
yet, after all, like themselves, a great man deified because He was
great. Perhaps that really was their conception; still, we use
precisely the same language, even though our ideas are entirely
different.

It makes relatively little difference what their conceptions were, so
far as ours are concerned. Their words are not accurate, detailed pen
pictures of some being who can be described or photographed. No man
has seen the infinite at any time. The great thing is that ever and
everywhere men find themselves with a hunger after this sublime unseen.

One may use terms of personality and another terms of power; to one the
infinite may be but a local deity; to another, that which embraces all
spirit and being, and each may have all of the divine his heart is
capable of containing. Here none may dogmatize for others.

Religion does not depend on uniformity of conceptions of the divine.
It depends more upon universality of consciousness of the infinite and
openness of mind and life to whatever we may feel and know, from any
source or through any means whatsoever, of that life or energy which
lies back of all life and energy, of that love and light which cheer
and lighten every son of man.

Definitions determine nothing, but they do work great damage when minds
capable of being stereotyped to them agree to impose those definitions
on their fellows as final, authoritative, and essential to their
welfare. The divine is neither infinite nor sublime when you can say,
Here are His lineaments and He has no other likeness or appearance.

To the question, How shall we think of the divine? there can be but one
answer--in higher, wider, deeper, nobler, purer ways than yesterday.
The conception must be a developing one. A man's spiritual capacities
develop as his inner vision becomes more keen. The soul takes wider
flight, and in our deep thoughts we discover that which language canno