Were  it  withdrawn,  if  the  things  themselves  ex-
isted, there  would  be  no  difference.  Imagination
and  poetry  may  endeavour  to  make  something  of
the  distinction  between  the  presence  of  a  merely
impersonal  God  in  nature  and  the  mere  presence
of  nature,  but  I  do  not  see  how  either  reason  or  a
reasonable  faith,  either  philosophy  or  religion,  can
attach  any  importance  to  it.  If  the  God  who  is  in
the  sunbeam  can  only  be  present  as  its  light  and
heat,  the  sunbeam  without  God  must  be  equivalent
to  the  sunbeam  with  God.  Only  when  God  is  felt
to  be  the  creative  and  legislative  Reason  —  the
supreme  Will,  free,  righteous,  and  loving, — can  His
presence  in  the  objects  and  processes  of  nature
acquire  a  real  religious  significance.  If  He  is  even
only  so  present  in  ourselves  that  there  is  no  dis-
2  B


386  AntiTJieistic  TJieories.
tinction  between  Him  and  us,  between  His  power
and  our  power,  His  presence  with  us  is  not  dis-
tinguishable from  His  absence  from  us.  Another
sort  of  presence  is  needed  before  the  soul  can  be
satisfied, — the  presence  of  one  spirit  with  another
spirit.  Religion  implies,  undoubtedly,  that  we
realise  God's  presence  with  us ;  but  it  equally  im-
plies, what  pantheism  denies,  that  He  is  personally
distinct  from  us  ;  that  He  can  have  affection  and
compassion  towards  us,  and  that  we  can  love  Him
with  an  unselfish  love;  that  He  can  guide  and
help  us,  and  that  we  may  trust  Him  as  we  can-
not trust  ourselves  ;  and  that  we  may  fear  Him  as
one  whom  we  can  offend,  and  pray  to  Him  as  one
who  can  hear  and  answer  us.
