But if evil be only apparent and not real, we shall surely, having gained this insight, be too wise to waste indignation upon the non-existent; if what we call misdeeds in reality fulfil God's own "requirements," a thoroughly enlightened public opinion will not seek to interfere with the sacred activities of the pick-pocket, the forger, the sweater, the _roue_, every one of whom may plead that he is but carrying out the Divine ordinances; if Alexander Borgia's perjuries, poisonings and debaucheries "break not Heaven's design," but are "ordained of God for some purpose," morality itself becomes an exploded anachronism. It is because these and such as these are the results in the fields of religion and conduct which flow from certain errors in the field of speculation, that these chapters have been written, and are now sent forth. Belief in a personal God, personal freedom, personal immortality--these essentials of religion are one and all endangered where the doctrine of Divine immanence is presented in terms of a monistic philosophy; it has been the writer's object to safeguard and vindicate these truths anew in a volume which, though of necessity largely critical in method, he offers as wholly constructive in aim. August 1st, 1909. [1] _A Pluralistic Universe._ [2] _Thessalonians, Galatians and Romans_, vol. ii. pp. 388-9. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION: DIVINE IMMANENCE . . . . . . . . . . 11 I. SOME PROBLEMS OF IMMANENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 II. PANTHEISM: THE SUICIDE OF RELIGION . . . . . . . . 41 III. THE ETHICS OF MONISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 IV. MONISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 V. THE DIVINE PERSONALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 VI. EVIL _versus_ DIVINE GOODNESS . . . . . . . . . . . 87 VII. EVIL _versus_ DIVINE GOODNESS (_cont._) . . . . . . 101 VIII. THE DENIAL OF EVIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 IX. DETERMINISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 X. MORALITY AS A RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 XI. PROBLEMS OF PRAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 XII. IMMORTALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 {11} INTRODUCTION DIVINE IMMANENCE