[ p. vii ]
An apologetic preface is always apt to savour of unreality, as it naturally invites the criticism that what requires an apology need never have been printed. Yet it is difficult to publish anything upon a serious subject without some expression of one’s sense of its inadequacy. I will merely say, therefore, that the following lectures make no claim to originality ; they are simply an attempt to arrange and summarize what has already been expressed with greater amplitude and fuller authority elsewhere; in the hope of attracting some, whose leisure in these eager days may be limited, to reconsider the important question with which they deal. Their main contention is that, whereas physical science has nowise weakened, critical philosophy has distinctly strengthened the claim—the immemorial claim—of human personality, to be a spiritual thing; and, as such, the highest [ p. viii ] category under which we can conceive of God. And as this conception would lead us to expect a progressive revelation, the evidence of such a revelation is briefly traced, and its culmination in the Incarnation vindicated. Such notes have been appended as may serve to illustrate and emphasize the main position of the lectures, by reference to authorities where their various issues are more adequately discussed.