It is quite clear that the Universe was not made by man; it must owe its existence to some higher Power of which man has but an infinitesimal knowledge. Some primary conception of such a Power has been independently formed by every fraction of the human race, and is what under various symbols has been called God. It is sometimes asserted that God does not possess powers and faculties and attributes which we ourselves possess. But that is preposterous: for though we may be able to form no conception as to the particular form our powers would take, when possessed by a being even moderately higher in the scale of existence than ourselves; and although vastly more must be attributed to the Reality denoted by the term “God” than we can even begin to conceive of; yet such a term, if it is to have any meaning at all, must at least include everything we have so far been able to discover as existent in the Universe. It must, in fact, be the most comprehensive term that can be employed; though for practical purposes it may be permissible to discriminate, and exclude from its connotation, portions such as “self,” and “the world,” and sometimes, though with less excuse, even an abstraction like “nature”; considering these separately from the more purely personal aspect to which attention is directed by our ordinary use of the term God. It is convenient to differentiate the principle of evil also, and to reserve it for separate study. Sometimes the totality of existence is spoken of as the “Absolute,” and the term God is limited to the conception of a Being of infinite Goodness and Mercy, the ultimate Impersonation of Truth and Love and Beauty; a Being of whose attributes the highest faculties and perceptions of man are but a dim shadow or reflexion. In man, goodness is the path toward higher development, and a radiant beauty is the crown and perfection of life; so the trinity of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, often referred to in literature, may, without undue stretching, be considered as also equivalent to what is represented by the words, the Way, the Truth, and the Life; they are three aspects of what after all is one essential unity. That which is good, in the highest sense, cannot help being both true and beautiful. Nevertheless, for many practical purposes, these ideas must be discriminated; and the question is occasionally forced upon our attention whether vitality or beauty can possibly be enlisted in the service of evil; and if so, whether it is still in itself good. We have to learn that most good things can be misapplied, and that though they do not in themselves cease to be good, their desecration is especially deadly. That the corruption of the best abets the cause of the worst, is proverbial; the prostitution of high gifts to base ends is the saddest of spectacles. “Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”