Give a prophet the God-idea of a nation, and he will write its history. The story of the growth of the God-concept in human consciousness, as it ascends the scale of infinite progression, approaching nearer and nearer the unchanging verities of eternal Being, is the basic history of man's advancement throughout all moral, religions, and civic environments.
A nation whose concept of the God-power is distorted, unjust, and cruel, will reflect distortion, injustice, and cruelty in its civic laws and religious rites; and conquest, war, murder, and rapine, when in the name of religion, will, in the eyes of such a nation, meet with God's divine ratification.
The history of the growth and maturation of the God-idea or concept, from its inception in the human heart to the present hour, may be said to have passed through six stages, conditions, or periods, which may be generally classified as follows:—
