God was not always presented to humanity in his present guise. Oh, no; everyone with a moderate degree of intelligence who chooses to examine the records will find that God has undergone vast and important changes--changes in tendencies and character, conforming with the progressive or retrogressive forms of political and social life of the various communities, corresponding with the periods of the time in which they lived. The idea, in its primary conception, was slowly evolved, without special meaning or signification, dark, mysterious, incomprehensible. We may say, however, that this idea of God was endowed with characteristics best known to men, but of a higher quality than ordinarily then existing; largely reflecting their makers, an embodiment of their own powers and capabilities. There was a time, no matter how remote, when there were creatures resembling the present form of man but of inferior nervous development, that had no knowledge of either God or religion. Nor had man in those ages any more intelligence than he had acquired by experience, or was necessary for his immediate use. It improved as the exigencies of his wants arose, fresh experience leading to new observations, slowly adding to the already accumulated stock. The intelligence of to-day would have been useless a hundred years ago, to the same race even, and of less use still two hundred years ago, and so on. It is very doubtful whether man at first was even conscious of his own existence, any more than the higher type of brute life. This consciousness slowly dawned upon him as his intelligence increased. A child is not conscious of its own existence. It exists so long as the necessary material is contributed towards its existence, or until it has grown strong enough to contribute towards its own. It may after a while acquire intelligence sufficient to become conscious of its own existence or not. The same rule holds good among the types of man such as we find on earth at the present time. During the early stages of man's existence, the muscular powers were exercised most, we may say almost exclusively, the special senses serving in their function as a guide for those powers, with the degree of intelligence obtained from the number of impressions received. These senses had acquired their several experiences from the necessities that from time to time were made manifest. There are writers who make use of extraordinary expressions in regard to nature, as for example, that Nature is mighty, beautiful, wise, etc. Nature is mighty only under certain conditions. Peculiar combinations of elements are essential. The presence or absence of the sun's heat plays always an important part.