The greatest stumbling-block in the moral world lies in the threshold by which to enter it.
Such then are the moral difficulties, properly so called, that beset theism; but there are certain others of a vaguer nature, that we must glance at likewise.

It is somewhat hard to know how to classify these; but it will be correct enough to say that whereas those we have just dealt with appeal to the moral intellect, the ones we are to deal with now appeal to the moral imagination.

The facts that these depend on, and which are practically new discoveries for the modern world, are the insignificance of the earth, when compared with the universe, of which it is visibly and demonstrably an integral but insignificant fragment; the enormous period of his existence for which man has had no religious history, and has been, so far as we can tell, not a religious being at all; and the vast majority of the race that are still stagnant and semi-barbarous.

Is it possible, we ask, that a God, with so many stars to attend to, should busy himself with this paltry earth, and make it the scene of events more stupendous than the courses of countless systems?
Is it possible that of the swarms, vicious and aimless, that breed upon it, each individual--Bushman, Chinaman, or Negro--is a precious immortal being, with a birthright in infinity and eternity?
The effect of these considerations is sometimes overwhelming.

Astronomy oppresses us with the gulfs of space; geology with the gulfs of time; history and travel with a babel of vain existence.