LECTURE VI.

THE CREATOR 297


LECTURE VII.

THE FATHER 340




LECTURE I.

_OUR IDEA OF GOD._

(At Geneva, 17th Nov. 1863.--At Lausanne, 11th Jan. 1864.)


GENTLEMEN,

Some five-and-twenty or thirty years ago, a German writer published a
piece of verse which began in this way: "Our hearts are oppressed with
the emotions of a pious sadness, at the thought of the ancient Jehovah
who is preparing to die." The verses were a dirge upon the death of the
living God; and the author, like a well educated son of the nineteenth
century, bestowed a few poetic tears upon the obsequies of the Eternal.

I was young when these strange words met my eyes, and they produced in