Article October 15, 1910 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from J. A. Ross, Charles F. Aked

[Christian Commonwealth.]

In these days the idea of God is undergoing perhaps the profoundest transformation in its history—from transcendence to immanence. This, we must remember, is a symbol, an image, a metaphor, just as much as the thought of God as a man limited and local, as a rock, a high tower, a refuge from the storm and heart of life. It is easy to point out the absurdity of the doctrine of immanence if you forget that it is a metaphor. Immanence means indwelling; but since God is Spirit He cannot occupy space and cannot be diffused throughout the world or dwell in the world. All symbols fail to express the ineffable. "Immanence" does not denote a particular metaphysical theory; it sums up and unifies the whole modern outlook upon life and the world. A great change is taking place in men's thought of God, but this change is not due to the influence of speculative philosophy merely, but to all the manifold and tremendous influences of modern civilization. It summarizes and unifies a great spiritual progress, it marks a great stage of race evolution, and measures centuries and ages of spiritual development.

[Rev. J. A. Ross in Christian Register.]

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