Chapter I: Preface

The foreground of this book has largely to do with the answering of vital questions that have sprung from the suffering souls of men and women with whom the author has been sympathetically associated. Considerable attention has been given to the natural sequence of these questions in order that the answers might form a more or less orderly line of discussion. While the method of answering a particular set of questions does not permit of a strictly logical treatment of the themes, yet in the background there is a definite and concrete picture of God, of the universe, and of man as he is enfolded in God's world.

The chapters on immortality contain a further discussion of God, man, and the universe as they move on in endless time. To know "what and where" God is, it is necessary to understand how man and the universe exist in God, and what God purposes to achieve through them.

If we are to reach people's minds, their questions are of supreme importance because they show where the mind is focused. The average person can, as a rule, proceed no farther with a subject until his main difficulty is removed. Therefore, we have preferred the question to the natural division of the subject, believing that the reader would be able to see the logic that is beneath it all.

The chapters on the Bible are not closely related to the rest of the book, but as the Scriptures contain the "specifications" and "blue-prints" from God, it seemed important to include a description of how we must approach them if we are not to misread their spiritual content.

Though the material of this volume has been given in extemporaneous addresses, yet no part of it has been reduced to writing until now. Its appearance in book form is in response to many requests. Especially helpful has been the encouragement of Professor Douglas Clyde Macintosh of Yale University who has kindly read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions.

R. L. S.

306 Golden Hill,
Bridgeport, Conn.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE

LOSING GOD, OR THE HONEST ATHEIST 1

This chapter is a case study showing how false experiences
of religion and erroneous conceptions of God may result in
agnosticism or atheism.

CHAPTER II

HOW SCIENCE SAVES RELIGION, OR MODERN KNOWLEDGE AND RELIGION 39

Introduction 39
1. What is God? 43
2. Who is God? 48
3. Where is God? 53
4. What does God do? 62
5. If the Ancients made their gods, how do we know that
we are not making our God? 71
6. May we not be communing with a mere idea? 73

CHAPTER III

DOES MAN HAVE A SOUL, AND WHAT IS HIS PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE? 75

1. What is man? 75
2. Who is man? 77
3. Would the absence of man cripple God? 84
4. What could an infinite God care for such a little speck? 87
5. Is not socialism the best religion there is? 90

CHAPTER IV

DOES GOD HAVE A BODY, AND COULD HE BECOME A MAN? 104

1. Introductory statement 104
2. The idea of the Trinity and how it came about 106
3. Was Jesus God or a good man only? 113
4. Can modern psychology any longer believe in the
Deity of Jesus? 116
5. Where does Jesus belong in the religious, social and
thought worlds? 132
6. Can God die? 135

CHAPTER V

LOSING THE SENSE OF IMMORTALITY 142

A general statement 142
1. The contagion of doubt 144
2. The inability to make a religious use of modern knowledge 146
3. The loss of a satisfying conception of the future life 147
4. The growing habit of classifying the future with things
unknown and unknowable 148
5. An inadequate conception of the kingdom of God 150
6. We automatically lose the assurance of the future when we
lose the reality of the present 153