sacrifice captives, &c., for the sake of propitiating diabolical
deities. The Jewish and Christian idea of sacrifice is doubtless a
survival of this idea of God by way of natural causation, yet this is no
evidence against the completed idea of the Godhead being [such as the
Christian belief represents it], for supposing the completed idea to be
true, the earlier ideals would have been due to the earlier
inspirations, in accordance with the developmental method of Revelation
hereafter to be discussed[67].

But Christianity, with its roots in Judaism, is, as I have said, _par
excellence_ the religion of sorrow, because it reaches to truer and
deeper levels of our spiritual nature, and therefore has capabilities
both of sorrow and joy which are presumably non-existent except in
civilized man. I mean the sorrows and the joys of a fully evolved
spiritual life--such as were attained wonderfully early, historically
speaking, in the case of the Jews, and are now universally diffused
throughout Christendom. In short, the sorrows and the joys in question
are those which arise from the fully developed consciousness of sin
against a God of Love, as distinguished from propitiation of malignant
spirits. These joys and sorrows are wholly spiritual, not merely
physical, and culminate in the cry,'Thou desirest no sacrifice.... The
sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit[68].'


I agree with Pascal[69] that there is virtually nothing to be gained by
being a theist as distinguished from a Christian. Unitarianism is only
an affair of the reason--a merely abstract theory of the mind, having
nothing to do with the heart, or the real needs of mankind. It is only
when it takes the New Testament, tears out a few of its leaves relating
to the divinity of Christ, and appropriates all the rest, that its