Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/262

 of reconciliation, and by means of this internal process has attained to peace. And thus it comes to pass that Spirit here manifests itself in the subject as it truly is in its essential nature, and in conformity with its content, and that this content is no longer something beyond this world, but that free subjectivity has in it its own Essence as its object. Worship is thus finally the presence of the content which constitutes absolute Spirit, and this makes the history of the divine content to be essentially the history of mankind as well—the movement of God toward man, and of man toward God. Man knows himself to be essentially included in this history, woven into it. While in contemplating it he immerses himself in it, his immersion in it is the active intermingling of this content and process, and he secures for himself the certain knowledge and enjoyment of the implied reconciliation.

This working out of subjectivity, this purification of the heart from its immediate natural character—if it be thoroughly carried out, and create a permanent condition which corresponds with the universal end of subjectivity—assumes a complete form as morality, and by this path religion passes over into established custom, into the State.

Thus it is that that essential connection known also as the relation of religion to the State makes its appearance. With regard to this, we have now to speak with greater detail.

III.—The Relation of Religion to the State.

1. The State is the true form of reality. In it the true moral will comes into the sphere of reality, and Spirit lives in its true nature. Religion is divine knowledge, the knowledge man has of God, the knowledge of himself in God. This is the divine wisdom, and the field of absolute Truth. But there is besides a second