Page:Socialism and the great state.djvu/333

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The Church in the Great State

In spite of what might be called the pantheistic, or more accurately the polytheistic, elements in the religion of the Great State, it all roots down into an intense conviction of the Being of the One God. The ethics are lively and practical, because Morality is not worshipped as a fixed and abstract divinity, but is looked upon as dependent on and in relation to people. It is kept from becoming static and stagnant by the Communion of Saints. Behind these innumerable personalities of sinners and saints, personalities ordinary and extraordinary, there is believed to exist the ever-present and personal God. The term "personal" is bravely used, not because His Being does not escape the net of all language, but because He is felt to be in converse and communion with men. Transcending personality, He must yet be appropriately expressed in the highest terms they know, the terms of their own humanity in its most human moments. For the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.