Page:The Moslem World - Volume 02.djvu/165

 Christ we are in blessed relationship with Him. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, because He is the Son of God.

God created man as a religious being, forming him in His likeness. This endowment gave him an indelible character - as God's offspring, which even the deepest degradation of his sinful estate cannot efface. This is the reason why savage tribes still possess a craving after God. How can this communion with God, which alone is eternal life, but which was lost in Adam's fall, be restored to man?

By a God, perhaps, who in majestic transcendence is enthroned on high, out of the reach of His creatures? Certainly not. Even if it were possible to be admitted to the court of this heavenly monarch and to have audience with Him for a few moments as Mohammed claimed to have enjoyed, would this be communion? The deistic conception of God excludes communion with God most rigidly. Or is it, perhaps, possible by a God, who, without being transcendent, is immanent in the monkey as well and in the same manner as in man, God's image bearer? Such an immanence, wherein as a rule modern Unitarians delight, does not constitute conscious communion between God and man.

Neither Deism nor Pantheism lead us up to God; the former is cold and unattractive, the latter attractive to a certain extent, but unreal. It is a fact, that the anti-Trinitarian conception of God forces Mohammedans as well as modern Unitarians, as a rule, to vacillate between Deism and Pantheism. No wonder these systems are rather philosophical than theological, hence they share the character of most of the philosophical systems, viz.: to be either deistical or pantheistical, either Kantian or Hegehan.

In Christian Monotheism alone the transcendence and immanence of God are so intimately joined together that the transcendence of God fills us with awe and reverence, which leads us to adoration, while the immanence of this transcendent God binds us to Himself with the cords of love, creating within us filial confidence and devotion. The unity of transcendence and immanence,