In this dilemma (the same as ours) Christianity suddenly stepped in and offered a singular answer, which the world eventually accepted as _the_ answer.

It was the answer then, and I think it is the answer now.
This answer was like the slash of a sword; it sundered; it did not in any sense sentimentally unite.

Briefly, it divided God from the cosmos.
That transcendence and distinctness of the deity which some Christians now want to remove from Christianity, was really the only reason why any one wanted to be a Christian.

It was the whole point of the Christian answer to the unhappy pessimist and the still more unhappy optimist.

As I am here only concerned with their particular problem I shall indicate only briefly this great metaphysical suggestion.