t God transcends man, man has
transcended himself.

If we take any other doctrine that has been called old-fashioned we
shall find the case the same. It is the same, for instance, in the deep
matter of the Trinity. Unitarians (a sect never to be mentioned without
a special respect for their distinguished intellectual dignity and high
intellectual honour) are often reformers by the accident that throws so
many small sects into such an attitude. But there is nothing in the
least liberal or akin to reform in the substitution of pure monotheism
for the Trinity. The complex God of the Athanasian Creed may be an
enigma for the intellect; but He is far less likely to gather the
mystery and cruelty of a Sultan than the lonely god of Omar or Mahomet.
The god who is a mere awful unity is not only a king but an Eastern
king. The _heart_ of humanity, especially of European humanity, is
certainly much more satisfied by the strange hints and symbols that
gather round the Trinitarian idea, the image of a council at which mercy
pleads as well as justice, the conception of a sort of liberty and
variety existing even in the inmost chamber of the world. For Western
religion has always felt keenly the idea "it is not well for man to be
alone." The social instinct asserted itself everywhere as when the
Eastern idea of hermits was practically expelled by the Western idea of
monks. So even asceticism became brotherly; and the Trappists were
sociable even when they were silent. If this love of a living complexity
be our test, it is certainly healthier to have the Trinitarian religion
than the Unitarian. For to us Trinitarians (if I may say it with
reverence)--to us God Himself is a society. It is indeed a fathomless
mystery of theology, and even if I were theologian enough to deal with
it directly, it would not be relevant to do so here. Suffice it to say
here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an
English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly
quiets the heart: but out of the desert, from the dry places and the
dreadful suns, come the cruel children of the lonely God; the real
Unitarians who with scimitar in hand have laid waste the world. For it
is not well for God to be alone.

Again, the same is true of that difficult matter of the danger of the
soul, which has unsettled so many just minds. To hope for all souls is
imperative; and it is quite tenable that their salvation is inevitable.
It