Pantheism's destruction of boundaries - pagina 13

Methodist lieview. then the very law of thought compels

with ever greater prodigality.

arrangement in a fixed order of Thought, from its very nature,

it

to use this possibility

Our thinking occasions the the phenomena we observe. demands system. He who

thinks looks for general principles in particulars, in order to ex[)lain particulars

tagonizes

the

by general

processes

Every dualism an-

principles.

of thought,

and

tlmught

can

rest

upon its laui'els only when everything has been grouped under one idea. If now we deal with reality and render homage t<> its law of existence, then with our mode of thinking we arc re])ulsed, stroke upon stroke, by that which obstinately resists our generalization. But if we live as the pantheist lives, not in the real world, but in a gallery of portraits which we ourselves have i)ainted, then of course there is no opposition; then we tolerate no obstinate resistance from our brush and erase all lines which, as they were drawn, do not fit into our system. Pardon this somewhat dry demonstration. It was needed to show the inner motive as one of sheer necessity, M'hich compels pantheism everywhere to wipe out boundary lines. Declensitm and conjugation forms may remain, according to Spinoza's figure in grammar, which differ in time and in mood, in person and in case but all these forms are simple modifications of the primitive word, which always remains the same. ;

Or, as

it is

expressed by a

German philosopher:

All that ai)pear.s to our eyes as diirerence and distinction, consciousiu'ss insists upon nonidentity, is nevertheless in essence one and the same it is but the ])resentation, the formation, the diaracterization, the development, alteration, expression, revelation, or form of the single substance whicli alone exists.

however mucli our

;

This becomes manifest at once in the relation which is thought to. exist between God and the world. For centuries the Church of Christ has guarded its barrier against every open or crypto-pantheism by the solemn confession in the inaugural of

its

Articles of

Faith:

"I

believe in God,

the

Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;" and, in the third century, justly denounced the first M'cakening of the creation idea, together with the lirst elTort to eternal

by putting Origen under her ban.

make the world coThe most distinctly

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