I lectured on William James in yesterday’s class.  Here’s a passage of his that I like:

Most religious men believe (or ‘know,’ if they be mystical) that not only they themselves, but the whole universe of beings to whom the God is present, are secure in his parental hands.  There is a sense, a dimension, they are sure, in which we are all saved, in spite of the gates of hell and all adverse terrestrial appearances.  God’s existence is the guarantee of an ideal order that shall be permanently preserved.  This world may indeed, as science tells us, some day burn up or freeze; but if it is part of his order, the old ideals are sure to be brought elsewhere to fruition, so that where God is, tragedy is only provisional and partial, and shipwreck and dissolution are not the absolutely final things.

–William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902