University of Virginia Library

God and nature

In one sense God is identical with nature, but this na- ture is spiritual and is not expressed in matter. The law- giver, whose lightning palsies or prostrates in death the child at prayer, is not the divine ideal of omnipresent Love. God is natural good, and is repre- sented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature of Spirit, God.