The God of a Democrat

a)	“When I was a child, I thought as a child.” Just as natural for a similar change to transpire in the race.
b)	Process is slow, owing to our system of training. New people who pass through the church Sunday school, and none are free to think. (Head in an iron cast)
c)	Yet there is ever present an inherent dynamic agent or progressive spirit, that ultimately breaks through conservative encrustations. Like the growing oak. Some of us are as impatient as children.
d)	To look back will show that we are not where we used to be. Things will never be the same again. We, today, are affecting a transformation.
e)	Systems of religion and philosophy are systems within systems. Like cells in a living organism.
f)	Religion as a system of thought is interdependent with all other systems of thought, with the range of human cognition. Conditioned by its environment. God is the nucleus of every religious system (God … —central thought.) The nucleus is formed from the general and practical thought-world of an age. Hence the connection between governmental ideas and god-conceptions.
g)	Our thought world today is predominantly scientific and democratic. At variance with the superstitions and autocratic thought world. In which the God ideals of yesterday were formed. Religious people must face this question fearlessly with a strong faith in Truth. Even gods are controlled by natural law. Certain environments in which they cannot live. There is a graveyard for the gods. Universal law is in operation. Animism. Polytheism. Monotheism. Genesis of a Saint. Worshippers and the passing of their idols. Lesson of the past should save us from fear. Leave the death-bed of a dying order. Visit the newly-born like the wide men of old.
h)	Our thought world - said is largely scientific and democratic. Better acquainted with the evolutionary idea than with the democratic. Religious teachers attempted to reconcile the evolutionary principle with religion. Little attempt to reconcile the idea of a Sovereign Deity with democratic ideals. My purpose is to show that religious thought cannot remain in a democracy as it existed in autocracy. A democratic God must harmonize or fit into the centre of his thought world. Religious life cannot remain in a democracy as it existed in autocracy. Man's experience determines his thinking.
i)	The relation of an Emperor or King to a people was considered the right relationship between God and humanity. Sovereign ruler made laws. People must obey or take consequences. He who served the King best gained privileges. There was a time when it was dangerous for a man not to have a master. Was liable to pillage at any time and no one would claim the right to defend him. Have touches of this even now. Free lance is a centre of common attack. Class distinction was recognized by every body The lower class felt its degradation, its dependency, and its obligation.
j)	[?]
k)	Is it not easy to see in religion a reflex of this? God was conceived as a great person (Phillip Brook’s Story) He created the world. Made laws to govern it. Those who kept those laws were considered favourites. Jews more favoured than Gentile. Elect of Calvin, then non-elect. Saved of evangelism - then unsaved. The Christian - then the heathen. Religion - as an Empire God - Emperor Bible and theology - our jurisprudence The church - army and policeman to guard the traditional glory of the faith. Worship consisted in a petition - sent through an ambassador to the sovereign ruler for pardon to be granted rebellious subjects.
l)	All this paraphernalia is repulsive to the democratic spirit. Whatever God there be must be expressed democratically. He has been called a shepherd, a judge, a king - a Father - why not a democrat? There can be no established authority outside the will and experience of a people, without the negation of Self-government. Political democracy as stated by President Lincoln. Industrial Democracy as articulated by Socialists. That wealth is produced by the people - should be distributed by the people, to the people. Religious democracy as I am trying to express it - says that the source of all religious life is in the nature of the people; that the structures and functions of this religious life are for the people and that it must of necessity be controlled by the people. We are told that God is a spirit. Also that we will be damned if we add or take from At the risk of being damned then I affirm this addition That God is a spirit and that spirit is none other than the spirit of humanity This is the God of a Democrat. Priests and councils were sure that nothing good could come out of Nazareth. We are slow to see that the only throne that God ever sat upon is the human heart. Human heart may be desperately wicked but all the good that ever lightened the burden of life or graced the world came out of it. Never build up healthy religion on a damned race.
m)	May be true that God has fashioned every age but every age has fashioned a God. God for us —Freedom - not a person that permits us to be free. —Beauty - not a person that is beautiful.—Justice - not a judge. —Love - not one who loves.
n)	The first effect of this will be to bring God to earth. Ways of God are the ways of humanity and the ways of humanity are the ways of nature. 1. God inseparable from natural law. 2. not laws of punishment but laws of power. Must know them and use them.