God," p. 237, Am. ed.]

The high and brilliant sky has, in many languages and many religions,
been regarded as the dwelling-place of God. Indeed, to all of us in
Christian times "God is above;" he is "the God of heaven;" "his throne
is in the heavens;" "he reigns on high." Now, without doing any violence
to thought, the name of the abode might be transferred to him who dwells
in heaven. So that in our own language "heaven" may still be used as a
synonym for "God." The prodigal son is still represented as saying, I
have sinned against "_heaven_." And a Christian poet has taught us to
sing--

"High _heaven_, that heard my solemn vow,
That vow renewed shall daily hear," etc.

Whenever, therefore, we find the name of heaven thus used to designate
also the Deity, we must bear in mind that those by whom it was
originally employed were simply transferring that name from an object
visible to the eye of sense to another object perceived by the eye of
reason. They who at first called God "_Heaven_" had some conception
within them they wished to name--the growing image of a God, and they
fixed upon the vastest, grandest, purest object in nature, the deep blue
concave of heaven, overshadowing all, and embracing all, as the symbol
of the Deity. Those who at a later period called heaven "_God_" had
forgotten that they were predicating of heaven something more which was
vastly higher than the heaven.[181]

[Footnote 181: See "Science of Language," p. 457.]

Notwithstanding, then, that the instinctive, native faith of humanity in
the existence of one supreme God was overlaid and almost buried beneath
the rank and luxuriant vegetation of Grecian mythology, we can still
catch glimpses here and there of the solid trunk of native faith, around
which this parasitic growth of fancy is entwined. Above all the
phantasmata of gods and goddesses who descended to the plains of Troy,
and mingled in the din and strife of battle, we can recognize an
overshadowing, all-embracing Power and Providence that dwells on high,
which never descends into the battle-field, and is never seen by mortal
eyes--_the Universal King and Father,--the "God of gods_."

Besides the direct evidence, which is furnished by the poets and
mythologists, of the presence of this universal faith in "_the heavenly
Father_," there is also a large amount of collateral testimony that this
idea of one Supreme God was generally entertained by the Greek pagans,
whether