man within the kingdom of faith--all this is the greatest achievement
that has ever been undertaken and that has ever worked upon human soil.
... Their works seemed to carry within them Divine energies; wonders
surrounded their paths; their life and being bridged securely the gulf
between heaven and earth."[61] Now, Eucken shows that it is of great
importance to acknowledge these personalities in order that life may be
brought into a safe track. Enough has already been said of the
impossibility of finding a sufficiency for life and death within the
span of ordinary existence. And as this is so, a whole span of past and
present has to be taken into account. The world cannot move a step
towards the heights of the future without this. The real future is the
blend of what _was_ and _is_ forming the standard and the receptacle for
what is _to be._ We have already noticed how such a standard [p.172]
evolves; and how, when it is followed to its utmost limits, it merges
into the conception of God. But as all this is a conception spiritual in
its nature--devoid of flesh and blood as its clothing--it becomes
extremely difficult for the majority of mankind to hold fast to its
reality in a world where flesh and blood mean so much. Something more
tangible is craved for by man as a proof of an over-world and of an
over-personal life. Such proof men are able to obtain in the great
religious personalities of the world without having to go through the
intellectual processes of discovering the grounds of religion. Men are
able to view this spiritual truth as they view a picture. It becomes
easy to understand how such personalities have been raised beyond all
human valuations to a likeness to God and even to an equality with God.
Such personalities were the highest conceptions which men could possess
of the Godhead. This seems to have been a necessary stage in the
evolution of the religious life as well as of religious conceptions. And
even to-day attention is not to be diverted from such personalities. The
question whether they were or were not gods has become meaningless. What