instead of slowly traversing it once an hour, as with an ordinary watch. So a consciousness might have a time-span of one millionth part of a second, and thus be able to perceive complex events where we perceive nothing at all. In the same way we can think of consciousnesses having a vastly longer time-span than ours. Now the Absolute must have an infinite timespan, and hence to him all things, which to us are either present, past, or future, are combined in one vast conscious moment.

One other characteristic of absolute idealism should be specially noted. Its principal doc-. trines are all a matter of rigid logical necessity. Each step in their unfolding is one that we are forced to take, if only we will think consistently. As Professor Royce declares, to describe the nature of being in any other way results in a contradiction of terms. This applies equally to the doctrine that all things exist as parts of some consciousness, to the doctrine that all finite consciousnesses are parts of the Absolute, and to that which declares that not only what now exists, but the past and future as well, are alike completely present to

the Absolute Consciousness. The absolute idealist's whole argument is made to move forward by a rack-and-pinion process, and is represented as self-locking against any attempt to reverse its onward movement.

Such, then, in its most general features, is the highway of absolute idealism." Now let us turn to an examination of the outcome of this course of thought in the light of our general theme. How does absolute idealism bear upon human problems?

To begin with, we should note that this highway of absolute idealism is built in part out of the ruins of materialism. Its coursel eads directly over the site where the materialistic citadel was reared. It is true that the first honors for the overthrow of materialism go to the philosophy of Kant. But absolute idealism

does the work more thoroughly, because it not only undermines materialism by negative criticism, but goes on to construct a positive spiritual metaphysics. And after all, in practical effect materialism is completely vanquished only when some form of spiritual metaphysics. has been put in its place.

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But there is reason to fear that absolute idealism maintains its authority with the average lay student of philosophy altogether too largely by virtue of the overthrow of materialism, in which it has had a conspicuous share. Just as the Republican party has in the past sometimes maintained its ascendency, in spite of grave delinquencies, on the strength of the Civil War, so certain problems that absolute idealism involves remain in the background, particularly for the student of theology, because of its success in routing materialism. should proceed, therefore, to consider the more positive contributions of absolute idealism, if we would rightly appraise this point of view.

We

The main contribution that idealism makes to theology, and one which bears positively on the solution of human problems, is the idea of the immanence of God. The place of this conception in the idealistic scheme we have seen already in the doctrine that all things, including our finite conscious lives, have their being only in and through the being of God. As for the value of this doctrine for life, it is widely appreciated in our day. God immanent.

in his universe means that the world in which we live, however baffling to our understanding, is still our home. The stars are not merely lakes of fiery metal in the chill expanse of space; this earth is something more than the reeking battle-ground of animal species; man is not simply a gregarious animal endowed with superlative cunning; society must not be regarded as merely an Asiatic fair where the guileful blandish the unwary out of their means of subsistence. No, plausible as such views of our world may be made to appear, reason dictates a higher creed. This mighty universe, with its system upon system of worlds, pulsates with an infinite life; subtle waves of intelligence vibrate to its farthest coast; infinitely numerous attractions and repulsions, organic tendencies, instincts, conscious impulses, and moral strivings are being woven into the realization of one vast purpose, in which all that has spiritual meaning will find itself embraced. The veil of mystery hangs close about us, but it is shot through with light. Life has its grinding toil, its bitter defeats, and its appalling tragedies, but the immanent God who toils and suffers

with us has unmeasured resources for the accomplishment of his purposes; and he welcomes each toiling and struggling soul into the august fellowship of his age-long labors and achievements.

It seems impossible to deny the practical and moral power imparted by this faith in the immanence of God which I have just tried to describe, and the further meaning of which we shall have occasion to develop in the later lectures of this course. But that to which I ask your attention now is the relation between the idea of the divine immanence and the timeless character attributed to God by absolute idealism. My question is whether the notion that God is timeless does not tend to neutralize the religious and practical value of faith in his im

manence.

So long as we apply the idea of the divine immanence only to physical nature, this difficulty remains in the background. For the carrying through of this idea in the physical realm turns mainly on showing that space has only subordinate reality, and that consequently the world of material things in space