'When we say that God is personal, we do not mean that He is localised
by mutually related organs; that He is hampered by the physical
conditions of human personality. We mean that He is conscious of
distinctness from all other beings, of moral relation to all living
things, and of power to control both from without and from within the
action of every atom and of every world. This is what we mean by
personality in God. It is not a materialistic idea. It is essentially
spiritual. It is a breakwater against the destruction of the very
thought of God, or the submersion of it in the mere processes of
eternal evolution. There is a Pantheism which obliterates every trace
of Divine personality, which takes from God consciousness, will,
affection, emotion, desire, presiding and over-ruling intelligence.
But such Pantheism is better known as Atheism. It destroys the only
God who can be a refuge and a strength in time of trouble. It
annihilates that mighty conscience which drives the workers of iniquity
into darkness and the shadow of death, if possible, to hide themselves.
It closes the Divine Ear against the prayer of faith. It abolishes all
sympathy, all communion between the Father and the children. It makes
God not the world's life, but the world's grave. Therefore, against
all such Pantheism our being revolts.'--PETER S. MENZIES, _Sermons_
('Christian Pantheism').
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