True, it has generally been declared that this God is an infinite
God, and an infinite God is a God without any bounds or
limitations; and a God without bounds or limitations is an
impersonal God; and an impersonal God is Atheism. But may not
this be the incoherency of prophecy which precedes the successful
mastering of an idea? May we not think of this illusory
expression as having arisen from inability to see the whereabouts
of a certain vast but tangible Person as to whose existence men
were nevertheless clear? If they felt that it existed, and yet
could not say where, nor wherein it was to be laid hands on, they
would be very likely to get out of the difficulty by saying that
it existed as an infinite Spirit, partly from a desire to magnify
what they felt must be so vast and powerful, and partly because
they had as yet only a vague conception of what they were aiming
at, and must, therefore, best express it vaguely.

We must not be surprised that when an idea is still inchoate its
expression should be inconsistent and imperfect-ideas will almost
always during the earlier history of a thought be put together
experimentally so as to see whether or no they will cohere.
Partly out of indolence, partly out of the desire of those who
brought the ideas together to be declared right, and partly out
of joy that the truth should be supposed found, incoherent ideas
will be kept together longer than they should be; nevertheless
they will in the end detach themselves and go, if others present
themselves which fit into their place better. There is no
consistency which has not once been inconsistent, nor coherency
that has not been incoherent. The incoherency of our ideas
concerning God is due to the fact that we have not yet truly