"Though we cannot see this God or Good Principle, we can apprehend it through the signs or manifestations that we see. As we look about, we everywhere see the signs of life—not Life itself, but the signs of it—that tell of the presence of God or Good. Now Life is Good in and for itself.
"We often see the divinest love manifested through every deed of love, every heroic act of higher living, every grand sacrifice of self-comfort, pleasure, even life itself. Jesus says: 'Greater love can no man have than to lay down his life for his friend.' Such love is a manifestation of the one, only Love, which is God—Good omnipresent.
"Every glimpse of Truth which the whole world seeks to know and wherever found, is a realization of the omnipresent Truth, which is God.
"Intelligence, in its highest or lowest form, is but a manifestation of God as Intelligence; for whence comes our intelligence if not from the great and only Intelligence, which is ever flowing to us and through us, which is ever being generated in us, whenever and wherever we are willing to let it manifest itself.
"Emerson says: 'There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a free man of the whole estate. * * * * Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.'
"So we reason about health and strength and justice, or any of the divine qualities, which we may claim as a part of our inheritance, because they are inherent in the All, in which 'we live, are moved, and have our being.'
"Having something of an understanding as to the nature of this divine Creator, we can, to some extent, apprehend that the essence of all things manifesting it, and manifested by it, must be good like itself, must be of the same quality as itself; as light emanating from light, must be of the same essence and quality as that from which it emanates. God, like light, is always the same, and cannot send forth or create anything opposite Himself.
"The nature of God embraces every good quality of masculine and feminine character, as also the impersonal life Principle. It is therefore proper to use the masculine, feminine or neuter pronoun when referring to Deity. As different phases of the one Love, we see manifested, the strong, all-protecting, intelligent father-love, the tender, restful, patient mother-love, the innocent, confiding, trustful child-love, each complete in the whole, which can be recognized by all or one of these attributes.
"The great Mind of which the ancient philosophers tell us and which Emerson so plainly realized, is the the Origin and Force of all Creation, the Mind for which we have found so many synonyms and so many offices, the Great Invisible of which all visible things are but signs or symbols.
"There is but one great Mind, one great Thinker. All thoughts of this Mind, which is Infinite Goodness, must be infinitely good, and man is the crown and apex of the wonderful creation—is made in the image and likeness of God.