Through man to God

Front matter

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Preface

Toward the close of his life Tennyson said to a friend, " My chief desire is to have a new vision of God." In this desire the great poet is the prophet of all serious men. What is final ? What is sovereign ? Who is God ? Up into these questions all other human questions are at length gathered. Man's destiny is in the keeping of man's Maker, whether that Maker be mud or mind, cosmic force or Eternal Spirit.

The ancient question ran, " When shall I come and appear before God ? " To-day we modify that question and ask, " How shall we appear before God ? " Is the character of the Eternal accessible to man? And if so, how? Along what path may we approach that character? Where shall we look for the greater witness ?

There are, finally, but two ways of approach to the character of the Infinite, — cosmic nature and man. It is true that these exist together in a kind of sacramental union. It may seem that in any attempt to regard them as opposites, there is a violation of the great law, what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

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Still, they stand to each other as higher and lower, and they speak a different word concerning the Mystery that is within them and behind them.

Some years ago John Fiske published an interesting book under the title " Through Nature to God." Many men whom I honor found light in that book. When I read it, I felt that my convictions were fundamentally opposed, not so much to the isolated ideas of the book, as to the plan expressed in its title. The title of my book originated in this fundamental opposition to Mr. Fiske's plan. " Through Man to God " is the expression that sums up my conception of the heart and soul of Christianity. Christianity is the interpretation of the Eternal, not through nature, but through human nature, not through the lower expressions of the creative power, but through man, the highest expression. The creation at its best gives us the Creator at his best ; the highest man is the supreme revelation of God.

The sermons in this volume have their unity here. They are variations upon this one persistent theme. The incarnation of God in Jesus the perfect man, in all men as moral beings, in all good men as the life of their life, is the fundamental idea in my philosophy of existence. In this volume that idea is presented in the free-

PREFACE IX

dom of discourse and in relation to the human needs which it is fitted to meet.

The justification for the publication of a volume of sermons is in the ideas that they contain, the vitality with which these ideas are pervaded, and the literary conscience with which they are expressed. If in this sentence I have not vindicated the appearance of the present volume, I have at least indicated my ideal, and I have further written the law in accordance with which my book may be condemned.

George A. Gordon.

Old South Parsonage, Boston, Mass. May 6, 1906.

Some Continuities of Individual

Existence

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