------------------------------------------------------------------------ XVII THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS _Q. 17.  What is the significance of the “Communion of Saints”?_ _A._ Higher and holier beings must possess, in fuller fruition, those privileges of communion which are already foreshadowed by our own faculties of language, of sympathy, and of mutual aid; and as we find that man’s power of friendly help is not confined to his fellows, but extends to other animals, so may we conceive ourselves part of a mighty Fellowship of love and service. * * * * * CLAUSE XVII Here is opened up a great subject on which much remains to be discovered. It is probable that the action of the Deity throughout the Universe is always conducted through intermediaries and agents. In all cases that we can examine, it is so; and this is one of the many meanings of “Immanence.” Humanity is the most prominent, to us, among Divine agencies, and though it is probably only an infinitesimal fraction of the whole, yet it can be studied as a sample. Experience shows us that human beings have feelings of sympathy, pity, and love, and can be moved to act in certain ways by persistent urging and by definite requests. There is no reason to suppose that this faculty of hearing and answering is limited to our own comparatively lowly stage of existence. Man may be regarded as a germ or indication of far more powerful agencies, of which at present we know very little. The faculty of communion familiarly possessed by man is not likely to be exhaustive of all possible methods of mental and spiritual intercourse; and, in the undeveloped power of telepathy, we have an indication of a mode apparently not dependent on the machinery of physical processes, and not necessarily limited to intelligences inhabiting the surface of a planet. Why associate mind only with the surface of a mass of matter? Enthusiasts hope some day to be able to communicate with people on Mars, but there may be intelligences far more accessible to us than those remote and hypothetical denizens of another world. The immanent Spirit of nature is likely to individualise and personify itself in ways mysterious and unknown: all manner of possibilities lie open to our study and examination; and—until we have scrutinised the evidence, and thought long and deeply on the subject—our negative opinion, based upon long habit and tradition, must not be allowed undue weight. It must be remembered that the above is speculation, not knowledge; yet something like it has received the sanction of great philosophers. Here is an exclamation of Hegel:— “We do not mean to be behind; our watchword shall be Reason and Freedom, and our rallying ground the Invisible Church.”