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THOUGHTS ON GOD
9

I hold the opposite view to be mystical; whereas this is the most intelligible and accessible reality.

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To the definition of God I find it necessary to add that of Matthew Arnold, which I have kept in mind as expressing one aspect, and that the chief, in which God presents Himself to us. (Matthew Arnold deduces his definition from the Old Testament prophets, and, indeed, for the time previous to Christ, it is sufficiently complete.) God is that eternal, infinite, "not ourselves" which "makes for righteousness." One may call it the law of human life, the will of God in relation to that part of men's life which is in their power. I say that this definition was sufficient up to the time of Christ, but by Christ it has been revealed to us that the fulfilment of this law, besides its external obligation to human reason, has also another and more simple inner motive which penetrates all man's being; namely, love: love, not of wife, or child, or country, but love of God (God is Love), love of love—that same feeling of kindness, sympathy, and joy of life, which constitutes man's natural, blissful, true life which knows no death.

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One knows God, not so much through