The Living Word (1908)

THE LIVING WORD
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE
SAGE
ENDOWMENT FUND
THE GIFT OF
Henrg W. Sage
1891
Jr^.^^ârr.
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Cornell University Library
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The
living
word.
3 1924 031
olin.anx
223 880
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tine
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THE LIVING WORD
Copyright, 1908,
bi>
MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY
NEW YORK
All rights reserved hicluding translation
and reproduction
Published, November, 1908
Second printing, December, igo8. Third printing, February, 1910
The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.SA.
TO
MAYA
PREFACE
The
following pages contain certain
thoughts Nvhich have long brightened
yet for which I can claim
little
my
life,
originality.
This book owes
its
existence,
it
its
substance
and whatever merit

greatest
possesses to one of the
and
least
appreciated
thinkers
of
the
nineteenth
It
century,
Gustav
Theodor
Fechner.
was
my
privilege to
know FechThe
ner in Leipzig shortly before his death.

effect of his personality
and
in
of his thought
life,
marked a turning-point
influence
years.
my
and
his
has
deepened
like
with
the
passing
Fecliher,
Balzac, was so abso-
lutely original
and
so far in advance of his

"fell
time that his words
on unheeding
ears.
Only the
least of his
works has been transof
lated into English,

in the quaint
and most
in
vii
them remaih
form
which they wer^ ipub-
rR E F A
lislied forty
C'
E
This
is
or
fifty
years ago.
probAvhich
ably duo to the chariniuc:
t'aiu-ios
in
Fechner indulged himself as

plants,
rialistio
to the souls of to a niate-
and
stars
and men. whieh
age seemed seareely worth refuting,

Ave
but which
do not
find so absiu'd.
Feehner
t^bjee-
was
also at incredible pains to
answer
tions with
raries
arguments which to his contempohighly

fantastii-.
seemed
if
Yet
it
is
its
doubtful
Kurope during the century of
greatest philosophical activity jn-oiluced a }iro-
founder or a more
fruitful religious thinker.
The
peculiar
charm
of Feehner's writings
is
that he deals with (iod, the world soul as real
ami the
and
living beings, not as barren
abstractions.
'V\\c sini[)lii'ity of liis faith
and
the poetic beauty of his style are
iufinitely
refreshing to a
mind weary
of the fatiguing
literature.
terminology
of
most philosophic
The
greater of Fechncr's works can be coui-
pared
only with
the
Sacred
Books
of
the
nations.
They
are inspired,
and they contain
PREFACE
a true revelation of God.
of
As
lie
himself said
it
the
Bible,
is
"A
breath proceeds from
which
I
not merely living but life-giving."
can say of them what Schopenhauer said of
the Upanishads.
solation of
lation of
"They have been

Pfleiderer
the con-
my life and my death."

for
they will be the conso-
pronounced
Fechner's Three ^Motives of Faith the best
argument
tury
God which
the nineteenth cen-
produced.
Ebbinghaus
dedicates
little
his
great psychology to Fechner in a
poem
which runs
like this:
"Master,
if
I consider
the strokes of
my
pen, or the diligence with

written, I
I
which
this
book has been

But when
may
call
my whom
it
own.
it
remember from
it
all
comes and whither

it is
tends, I
must own that
thine."
With even deeper

Paulsen con-
humility I echo these words.

stantly alludes to
Fechner
in terms of respect
and admiration.
interestingly
of
Mobius has written most

him.
is
Professor
James'
splendid thought
saturated with Fechner.
1'
R E KA C E
of
tlie
A new
appcaird.
odilion
Z<mi(1
Av<\sla
has
loo
In
sliort,
;ige,
like
other
is
men
great for their
tli<>
world
overtaking
him and
lie is
coming
to his
own.
cost
The form
anxiety.
of this
hook has
1 desired to
me no little do honor to the memI
ory of a heloved teacher, and

to
wished also
wonderl'id
is
present
certain
of
Feclmer's
ideas to an audience which I helieve

for them.
wiiitiiig
At
first
intended to
make my
Work a mere
tations.
exposition and a series of (|uo-
'i'liis,
however, seemed to
me tame
he-
and unsatisfactory.
The thought had

some
come
too
much my own.
rej)r()duce
I therefore decided
that I
would
of
l<\'chner's
thoughts in the form which in the course of

years they had assumed in
employing
his
language
or
my own my own
I
mind,
as
it
occurred to me, and adding what
chose.
The
result
is
a book which belongs neither to

to
Fechner nor
useful.
mc, but which I hoj)e

it
will
be
In
preparing
have
consulted
PREFACE
Fechner's works very
little
as I preferred to
have
it
consist like the Gospels of
memories
I
to
too vivid to be forgotten.
On
reflection,
am
not sure that I

for
am more
thoughts
indebted
Fechner
these
for
than Fechner
the
his
was indebted
poet
his
them
to in
wonderful
turn drew
the
Ruckert.
treasures
of
Riickert
wisdom from
literatures,
silver
East,
ransacking
whole
for
and
giving
back
from
order
gold
the
the
he
abstracted
of
this
Brahmans.
not
originate
Thoughts
in
do
one
brain.
considerable portion of
mankind has worked
over them.
For the past generation men have been

groping for a theology which should approach
the old mysteries
God,
evil,
the
soul
and
immortality from the point of view of modern

scientific
and philosophic thought.
The
old
static aspect of
the universe has been sup-
planted by the dynamic.

ent conception of
The
old transcend-
God
has yielded to the
PREFACE
immanent.
ruler
The thought
is
of
God
as
mere
for
and judge
no longer
sufficient
men's religious needs.

ered
Science has discovreligion also craves a
God
at work,
and
spiritual
and an
active
Deity
who works
through laws and through us.
Although
solutely
this
simple
to
volume makes ab-
no claim
it
be a compendium of
with
theology,
does
attempt to grapple
some
of the greatest
problems of that great
science, the nature of
God, and God's
rela-
tion to the soul.
On
what does our

to
it
faith in
.?
God
is
rest,
and how do we come
How
evil of
.''
God's goodness compatible with the

.''
the world
Are there other
spiritual beings
What
hope
is
death, and on
it.?
what grounds do we
is
to survive
In what sense
Christ
the Mediator between

ple
God and man ?
Sim-
and informal as
is
this treatise, thinkers
will perceive that its
arguments are not

In writing
lightly
it,
conceived nor superficial.
have had two classes of persons in mind: the

xii
PREFACE
scientifically educated,
who
feel that rational
faith
must
of
rest
on
facts,
and that great comthink

desire
pany
men and ^Yomen who do not profoundly or systematically but who
a religious interpretation of the universe and

reassurance as to the supreme problems which
eternally press
on human
life.
I also
hope
that those
at stake
who have
a more personal motive
may
find consolation in the pages

life
which deal with death and the
after death.
Far from exliausting Fechner's thought these

pages are like a single goblet of water drawn
from a deep and
crystal lake.
Those who
to
find refreshment therein will
know where
go
to satisfy their thirst.
After days and weeks spent in quiet con-
templation of the ultimate mysteries or realities
with which
this
is
book
this
is
concerned, I ask
all
myself once more,
and are
similar
attempts to interpret reality absolutely vain.?
The answer
I receive is: not so, as long as
God
plants eternity in our hearts.
Not
so.
PREFACE
since I
cannot
if
deliver
I
myself
from these
well that
closes
musings
would.
know very
such a book as this
settles
no problems,
is
no questions.
At
best,
it
a,
but an approxiof
mation toward truth,

certain aspects of
new statement
man's destiny which
may
Yet
bring the final solution one step nearer.

the step taken I believe
tion.
is
in the right direc-
What we need
is
a cosmical theology
that does not lose the soul in
God, nor
sacrifice
the individual to the universal, nor the ethical

to the
merely speculative, nor
man
to Nature.
It is idle to say, let us

gies,
have no more theolo-
while
men
of
the
stamp
of
Haeckel
cannot help writing them.

religious
faith
Banish rational
to
and you open the door
superstition
and
to aberrations of every kind.
Deny
we
the soul,
and how can you expect

an animal
?
to live otherwise than as
man What
see to-day
is
a reaction from the scientific
materialism in which
revolt in the
we grew up, a general
name
of the soul, a desire for a
PREFACE
more
spiritual life
and a more
It
is
spiritual inter-
pretation
of
life.
with
on,
the
hope
of
helping this
little,
it
movement
though ever so
I have called
of
that I offer this volume.
"The
Living
Word"
in
memory
the
Zend Avesta which Fechner

that meaning.
believed to have
Elwood Worcester.
Emmanuel Church, Boston.
July, 1908.
XV
CONTENTS
PART
CHAP.
PAGE
Preface
vii
. .
The Three Motives of Faith in God II. The Traditional Motive III. The Practical Motive IV. The Rational Motive V. The Spiritual Nature of God VI. Man's Life in God VII. The Goodness of God and the Evil
I.
17
37
61
....
of the
83
105
World
VIII.
131
IX.
On Good and On the Angels
Evil
155 175
PART
X.
XI.
XII.
n
after
On On
Death and the Life

is
Death
185
What
Death
197
the Spiritual
Body
229
XIII.
Immortahty and the Brain
257 289
XTV. The Soul and Death
XV.
Eternal Life
of
313
XVI. The Word
God
331
PART
Ein Mensch sein ohne Gott, was
ist
das
fiir
ein Sein!
Ein bessres hat das Tier, die Pflanze,
ja der Stein.
Denn
Stein
und
Pflanz'
und
sind
Tier, die zwar
um
Gott nicht
wissen,
Er aber
weiss
um
sie, sie
ihm nicht
entrissen.
allein,
Sie sind nicht los
von Gott,
gottlos bist
du
Mensch, der du
fiihlst
mit ihm, und leugnest den Verein.
RtJCKERT, Die Weisheit des Brahmanen.
Th.
Ill,
s.
144.
CHAPTER
THE THREE MOTIVES OF FAITH

chief assumption I shall
is
IN
GOD
in this
The
and
I
make
discussion
as to the spiritual nature of God,

this
do not think that
assumption needs
the two forms of
reveals
itself
any defense or apology.

existence
to
Of
under which
reality
man,
spirit
and matter,
religion has always

spirit,
sought for
God
within the domain of the
and has rejected with abhorrence the thought

that
God
is
a material object.
Even
fetichism
does not adore the bare thing, but the invisible

potent presence supposed to lurk within that
thing.
For
is
religion the final
word on
this
subject
the saying ascribed to Jesus in the
fourth Gospel,
"God
is Spirit,
and they that

in spirit
worship
Him must
worship
Him
and
in truth."
By God,
then, I understand the
THE LIVING WORD

one eternal, all-comprehending Spirit within,
above, or behind this universe.
is
Our problem
but
it
not exactly
how
faith in
such a Being arose,
which would be a purely
historical inquiry,
is justified,
how
faith in
its
it
such a Being
how
acquires
power over the human mind, and

is
whether
itself in
likely
indefinitely to
maintain
life
the face of the facts of
modern
and knowledge.
is
In other words, our problem

of faith in
the roots
and motives
God.
Faith
^^'e
may
define in the largest sense as
the mind's acceptance of the tridh a)id reality

of those things
to
which con
ncitlicr be presented
the senses nor proved

is
by
logic.
In
this
large significance, faith

est things
one of the common-
on earth.
It is incredible
how many
things are believed in the world.

these innumerable beliefs there
belief,
is
But among
also a higher
faith
in the highest, greatest, last
and
in
deepest things,
faith
in
God and God's

its
providence, faith in the soul and in

destiny.
eternal
is
This higher and highest faith
not

essentially different
It
from other kinds
of faith.
only forms the apex of normal

faith in
human
behef
Without
many
other things
we should
not come to faith in God.

I
is
would next remind the reader that there
no inherent contradiction or quarrel befaith
tween
and knowledge, but that one
supplements and helps the other, faith continually leading the
way
to
new knowledge.
world which we
only believe.
There are many things

imagine we
In
fact,
in this
know but which we

domain
is
outside the
of
mathematics
and
logic,
our knowledge
very limited, and
even these sciences are unable to prove their
own
to
first
principles, but are forced to appeal
an inner sense
in
man,
to
which
faith also
appeals.
Perhaps I can sum up

if
their relations
by saying that
all
knowledge were with-
drawn from
the
grossest
faith nothing
would remain but
superstition,
and
faith
hardly
the
material for that, while
if all
were withpossess
drawn from knowledge we should
THE LIVING WORD

little
beyond the impressions

the
of our senses
and
void
of
mathematics.
Therefore
of knowlIs faith,
neither the
man
of faith nor the
man
edge can afford to despise the other.

then, merely
an imperfect form of loiowledge,

will
which knowledge ultimately

In one sense,
convert
so
yes.
supplant
.''
Faith
is
always trying to
it
itself into
knowledge and
it
is
never
happy as when
gains the ground of obSt.
served fact and experience.

that
Paul admits
"Now we
see through a glass, darkly,"
but looks forward to the time when we shall

see "face to face."
ever, faith
is
In another sense, how-
a larger, a grander thing than
knowledge,
and
it
produces
incalculably
in the soul.
greater effects in the world
and
Coming now
to
our subject, the strangest,
the most significant fact in regard to

his
religion,
man
is
his
recognition of a
power or
It
powers which altogether escape

is
his senses.
this belief that
has inspired his greatest discreations;
coveries,
thoughts and
that
has

united humanity as nothing else unites
that has
it;
had more
effect
on human conduct
all his
and human progress than

edge
other knowl-
and
beliefs
together.
Unquestionably,
the most important, persistent fact in regard

to
man
is
his
religion.
There
to,
is
only one
similar fact that
we can
point
only one other
persistent, invariable, incalculably fruitful belief in
an unseen
reality,
and
therefore only one

is
safe point of departure,
that
our belief
in the invisible soul, our faith in

spiritual principle in
an unseen
soul
man.
Our own
we
know,
if
we may be
it
said to
know anything
we know
whatever, but
is
the
I
only soul
in all the universe.
need not remind you

live
how two
persons
may
side
by
side for
years, each profoundly ignorant of the primary

facts of the other's existence;
or
how
the law
its
may
put forth
talents,
its
whole
its
force,
employ
keenest
set
vast
machinery
in
motion
in the vain effort to
wring some secret
from the human conscience.
The
soul
of
THE LIVING WORD

another
man
is
beyond
us.
It is a
world we
may
light
not enter.
like
It lies before us in its baffling
gold
buried
beneath the waves.
We
are disposed toward the soul as
we
are
disposed toward God.

long together; he
in the other,
God and
believes in
the soul be-
who
one beheves
and he who denies the one denies
the other;
and they belong together because
they are at bottom one, both are spiritual

beings.
of other
We know
men we
our
own
soul,
in.
but the souls
only believe
We
do not
see them,
we do not hear them, we cannot

"^Miat
touch them.
is
we
see
and hear and touch
only bodies, and, however strong the analogy

is
from ourselves, there
no law of
logic that,
^-ibra-
from the movements

tions in the air,
of bodies,
souls.
from
can prove
The
solution of our problem, then, lies in

If Ijelief in the little soul belief in the
is
this direction.
valid
is
and
justified,
Great Soul
believes in
also valid
and
justified.
He who
all
invisible spirits
and
souls
around him and

in
no Great Soul above him
is
superstitious,
as he
who beheves
in thoughts
and feehngs
but in no mind in which these thoughts exist

is
superstitious.
It
is
necessary to beheve
If
more or not
so
much.
we can determine
what reasons we
souls
of
on what grounds and

beheve in the
other men,
for
invisible,
intangible
we
shall find that,
on the same
grounds and for the same reasons, we believe

in
the
One
All-embracing
Spirit
of
God.
Following Fechner, I believe, on the whole,

that other
men have
is
souls for three reasons,
and probably there
not a fourth.
First, I believe in the soul
because I have
been taught to believe

world has believed
believes
it
it
it,
because the whole
before
me and
still
all
around me.
This I
call the
Traditional Motive.
Secondly, I believe that other

souls because
it
it is
men have
to believe
good and useful

doubt
it.
and dangerous
it,
to
If I refused to
believe
and, acting on
my unbelief,
I should
THE LIVING WORD

treat other persons like lay figures or
inanimate
all
bodies, I should cut myself off
from
human
companionship, from every avenue of spiritual

life,
and
in a short time I should
have to be
sequestered as a dangerous lunatic.

the Practical ^Motive.
This
is
Thirdly, I believe in the souls of other
men
This
because on the whole

lieve
is
it
it
is
reasonable to be-
and unreasonable
to
doubt
it.
the Rational Motive.
I do not pretend
that belief in the spirit of

the
God comes
men.
to us with
same overwhelming conviction as
faith
in the souls of our fellow
As the object
its
of our faith
is
higher,
more remote,
motives
is
operate less overwhelmingly, the analogy

less close,
and there
is
more room
is
for doubt,
but in other respects nothing

in the Infinite Spirit rests
changed. Faith
on the same ground
as faith in the finite spirit, neither of
which
can ever present
itself to
our senses.
Here we
of
see both the motive of faith
and the motive
unbelief.
We
renounce forever the attempt

10

to
make
the invisible visible.
We
smile at
the
the negations of those
who deny God on

let their
ground that they have
eyes range over
the visible heavens without seeing
Him.
is
If
God
As
is
here at
all,
He
is
here as the soul
in
the body.
these motives are independent in their
origin
and
action,
and as one appeals more
powerfully to one
man
or to one race,
and
another appeals to another, they cannot help
coming
arise
into conflict.
so-called
From
this
opposition
the
warfare of religion and
science,
religious
wars, controversies, strifes
without end.
In the course of these struggles,
one motive or the other seems to be wôrsted,

yet
it
quickly recovers and resumes

of
its
ancient
of these
sway over the minds
men, and out
conflicts arise progress,
new
life,
the religion
of the future.
The whole body and

is
substance
of
human
faith
the result of the combination

of these three motives.
and the opposition

There
is
and remains a mighty

11
resultant
which
THE LIVING WORD

is
kept fresh and living by the

its
movement and
just as
opposition of
the ocean
is
component elements
kept fresh and Hving by the action

currents.
of its tides
faith
is
and
The
abyss of
human
may
be compared to the sea, a sea that
ever restless, ever apparently evaporating

refilling
itself.
life,
away, yet ever

rivers secretly
From
it
all
draw
their
yet only to pour
themselves again into

there,
its
bosom.
Here and
is
an atheist
is,
arises
and says "There

little
no
God," that
belief
with the
dipp)er of his un-
he attempts to empty the sea of faith

will
which has existed from the beginning and

continue to exist.
until
it
The
little
dipper
it
may
dip
is
weary, but what
dips out runs
through the air and the earth back to the

sea.
On
of
its
the other hand,

this
it is
equally vain to atbelief to
tempt to reduce
complex of
one
constituent motives.
He who
believes
ever so firmly in the truth of his religion as a

direct revelation
from
God must know how

1-2
to

extract practical good from his faith
and
to
prove
its
reasonableness
if
he would benefit
it
by
it
himself or
is
it
recommend
to others.
He
and
who
finds
in search of the best religion of all in the religion of love
must ask himself

if
w hether he would have found this religion
he had not found

build
it
in Christ.
He who would
alone,
on reason and
experience
by
observing free thinkers and materialists, can

easily satisfy himself
this principle alone
how many
of
them by
have found
faith in
God
and
in eternal
life.
In other words, the action
of the Historic jNIotive alone leads to dead
traditionalism,
the
action
of
the
Practical
Motive
to shallow utilitarianism,
and the action

rationalism.
of the Rational INIotive to I call

to
weak
him a poor
all
it
religious teacher
faith
who
wishes
suspend
human
from one of these
threads, for the tree
will snap, or
who
tries to
make
will
grow from only one root which

it
;
not nourish
and
I call
him a wise and
useful
religious teacher
who
helps to reconcile these

13
THE LIVING WORD

great motives of faith
closely together.
and
to bind
them more
In order to examine these
motives separately, I
am
obliged to
unwind
them, but, having done

to twist
this, I shall
take care
them together again.
14
Wenn
das Erhabne staunt die junge Menschheit an,
Traum: das hat der Gott gethan. zum GefUhl des Schonen dann erwacht, Bekennt sie freudig stolz: Es hat's der Mensch voUbracht. Und wenn zum ^^'ahên einst sie reift, wird sie erkennen,
Spricht sie im hellen
sie
Und wenn
Es thuts im Mensehen Gott, der nicht von ihm zu trennen.

Th.
I, s.
15
CHAPTER
II
THE TR.\DITIOXAL MOTIVE OF FAITH
There
can be no doubt that to the great
men rehgion is simply inherited. However we may vork at our reHgious faith
majority of
later in Hfe, criticise
first
it,
remodel
it,
we must
receive
is
it.
That we have
a religious life
to-day
not due to our philosophers and
men
of science,
It is
many
of
whom had no
we
is
religion.
due
to the fact that
learned to believe
as children.
Xo
God
child
born into the world

its
with faith in
the child
is
implanted in
heart.
But
born with a strong and touching

it
tendency to believe what

retain forever
its
is
told,
and
to
early impressions.
The
child
does not have to learn faith, what the child

learns
is
unbelief.
it
We
17
do not believe
at first
because
seems to us good to believe or
THE LIVING WORD

reasonable
to
believe,
but because
is
we
are
taught to believe.
This
the normal
life,
and
natural beginning of a religious
and hence
Jesus Christ said,
"He
as a
that receiveth not the

little
Kingdom
enter
of
God
child can hardly

this
therein."
itself
And
in
way
religion
It
propagates
from age
to age.
comes
down
and
liefs.
to us in the
form of venerable symbols
traditional revelations
If
and inherited be-
you
tell
me
that this will not account
for the
way
religion began, I
must own you

it.?
are right, but

far as
what
will
account for
As
find
we can penetrate
into the past,
we
religion.
We
search through the world from

find
China
to
Mexico and we
sacred
everywhere
temples, shrines,
mounds, pyramids,
dolmens, which bear mute witness to man's

faith in the unseen.
We decipher the literature

and we
find that they
of vanished civilizations,
are almost wholly concerned with the

subjects,
same
God and
the soul.
Even
those sav-
ages of the Stone
Age who placed beside the

18
THE TRADITIONAL MOTIVE

dead warrior
his
weapon and bowl
of food
must have had some gUmmering

Hfe
of faith in a
beyond the grave.
But
if
this
it
does not
show how rehgion
originated,
itself.
does show
how how
labor
rehgion propagates
the
it
Who
knows
world began
.'
^Mio knows what

humanity, or
cost
God
to create
how
must
many hundreds
of thousands of years
to
have elapsed before a being worthy
be called
man
life
appeared upon
this earth
But human
a com-
once created propagates

It
itself in
is
paratively simple manner.

guao'e.
so with lan-
The most
learned academv in the
world could not create a new language, and

yet a child easily learns one
by imitation.
do not suppose that the best physician
in the
it
world could create a new disease, and
is
hard enough
So,
to cure the old ones.
how
faith in
God
arose no one knows.

it,
We may
remain
it
have our theories about

But, after faith
but they
created,
theories.
itself
is
propagates
by
its
own laws,
as language,
19
THE LIVING WORD

fire,
if
and disease propagate themselves.
And,
you ask a man who possesses a
religious
life
why he
believes,
no matter how much he

first,
is,
may have
thought about religion, the
the
deepest, the
most important reason
he
believes because other people believed before
him and taught him
to believe.
The more
mo-
men remain
of
tive
in
a childlike, uncritical attitude

this traditional
all
mind, the more power
has over them to the exclusion of
other
motives.
if
The same
is
true of churches.
But,
you think that

weaker and
faith
founded on
this
rock
is
less able to influence life

tell
than
enlightened faith, I must
you that you are
mistaken.
faith,
it
Though not
the highest form of
is
apt to be the strongest, the most

the
least
obstinate,
disposed
to
change.
all
Fanatics and martyrs have almost
been
men
of
childlike
minds.
ever
Very few highly

let
educated
martyred.
men have
Erasmus.
themselves be
"I have no vocation for martyr-
dom,"
said
20

If religion
had
to recreate itself
through the
action of the Practical Motive and the Rational
Motive
in individual minds,
it
how weak and

be.
intermittent a thing
of fact,
it
would
As a matter
these
does not depend

its
much upon
motives
for
transmission.
That takes
place automatically through the action of the
Traditional ^Motive, which acts exactly like

the law of heredity in plants
and animals;
it
transmits existing types.

INIotive
It is the Traditional
which acts everywhere and
at all times,
on a large
scale preserving the achievements

it
and
the
beliefs of the past, so that out of
grow
this
present and
religion
liberal
the
future.
^Mthout
Motive no
so-called
can long
exist.
Even
those
churches which have most
emancipated themselves from the Traditional
Motive are examples
of
its
powers.
Abandon-
ing the authority of tradition, they have nothing

to teach authoritatively to children,
who
learn
religion in
no other way.
21
As a consequence,
those churches are largely forsaken by their
THE LIVING WORD

children.
They
are unable to hold their
young
people, in consequence of which in a given
time they will cease to
exist.
Jesus expressed his position perfectly
when
after the magnificent cycle of parables recorded
by
St.
Matthew He turned
to
His disciples
all
and asked, "Have ye understood

things?"
these
They
say unto Him, "Yea, Lord."
Then
scribe of
said
He
is is
unto them, "Therefore, every

instructed unto the
which
Kingdom
a house-
Heaven
like
unto a
man
that
is
holder that bringeth forth out of his treasure

things
new and
old."
(St.
Matt. 13
51, 52.)
For years Christianity was scarcely more than

a sect of the Jewish Church.
intense
activity
Those years
of
internal
and,
as
it
were, chemical
were necessary to assimilate the new

If
to the old.
even Jesus had come forward
with an absolutely
new Gospel He would have

this earth at
found no point upon
which he
could attach that Gospel to the hearts of men.
He
might not have gained one follower. That

is
proved by the fact that Jesus' personal
disciples,
Judas only excepted, remained pious
Jews
to the
day
of their death, for the
most
part like other pious Jcaas, with one difference
they
believed that the Messiah

say,
had come.
citizens
But you
the great
how about
?
the
of
pagan world
To
Did
them, at
least,
Christianity
came
as an absolutely
it
new
come
first
thing,
.?
and yet they
believed.
so
On
and
Mars
Hill in Athens, Christianity
came
in contact
with the
intellect of
Greece;
the one thing St. Paul, in the most inspired
sermon
of his
life,
tries to
is
show
these philois
sophical Athenians
that Christianity
thing.
not
new
thing, but
an old
He
tells
them
that in his eyes they are already very religious.
He
the
is
assures
them that the God

Stoic, had
whom
Socrates,
Plato, and
Zeno the
sought and found,
God whose children they already are, the God he is come to declare to them.
St.
He,
Paul, standing in this citadel of skep-
ticism,
comes not
to destroy anything that 23
is
THE LIVING WORD

able to stand
of
St.
and minister
yet
it is
to the spiritual life

all old.
men.
And
not
Otherwise
Paul's sermon would be but a
little
resume
of the history of philosophy
which would not
have been remembered
five days.
The new
comes
in
due time, Jesus and the Resurrection.
And
a
yet the
new
is
not altogether new.
It is
new
revelation of the old
God.
the
attitude
of
Consider for
moment
Christianity to the
religion, be
religion,
religion.
it it
Roman
world.
The Roman
spiritual
remembered, was not a
was not a philosophical or teaching

It
was incredibly hollow and ex-
ternal,
and the Romans themselves were so

it
tired of
that they were ready to exchange
it
for almost
any
religion that could
speak to their
affair of
souls in the
name
of (lod.
It
was an
temples and material sacrifices, of shows and

processions, of festivals spread over the whole
year, in honor of innumerable deities.
it
But
was a wonderfully organized

it
religion,
simply
because
was the
religion 24
of the greatest

organizing people that the world has ever
seen.
It is interesting to see
how many
to
conto
cessions Christianity
was obliged
of
make
Rome, and how many

customs
Christianity
the
accepted
Roman bodily. To
old
read the writings of those
who
are learned in
these matters, one would suppose that Christianity
had invented hardly anything.

in accepting the
The
old
Romans
new
religion insisted
on carrying with them much

paganism, even
to
to
of
their
such an extent as seriously

original
compromise the Church's

idea.
mono-
theistic
For the gods and o'oddesses
she took away, the Church gave back saints,

to
whom
prayer
continued
to
be
offered.
Gradually, the "Church Year" was formed,

in
which the most important events were on

took
the the
celebrated
great place
Roman
of
festivals.
Christmas
Saturnalia,
the
Roman
gifts
and we give Christmas presents
primarily because the

the Feast of Saturn.
Romans gave
25
on
So the transition was
THE LIVING WORD

made
as easy for
them as
possible,
and
all
that could
be adopted by the Church was
adopted.
The
great temples of the gods with
a few alterations became Christian churches.
The sacraments became more

acquired an importance at
possess elsewhere.
material,
and
Rome
they did not
graduated priesthood
was formed.
Virgins;
Nuns
a
took the place of Vestal
and, in particular, the

of
single
Roman
con-
ception
co-ordinated
universal
ideal.
empire became the Church's highest
The
superb
organization
of
the
Roman
to the
Catholic Church
owes
its
inception
to
genius
of
Julius
Caesar
and
the
great
lawyers
who planned
The
the
Roman
Empire.
The Emperor,
the Pope.
Pontifex
legates
Maximus, became
and proconsuls, papal

the
ambassadors
of
and
nuncios;
governors
provinces, bishops
and archbishops; the
college of the senate
became the
In
short,
college of
cardinals,
etc.,
itself
etc.
Christianity
presented
to
the
26
Roman Empire
as

little
as
possible possible
new
thing,
and
to
as
much
the
as
an old
well
to
thing
which
Romans were
and
accustomed.
The
conits
Church was compelled

cessions
make many
to depart considerably
from
own
original plan;
and yet who can say that
those concessions were not absolutely necessary

to attach the heart of the great to Christ?
pagan world
Religions are not originated, they are not

invented.
They
is
are
transmitted.
In
this
respect religion
exactly like language.
No
if
man
can originate a new language.
A man
it
he has the genius
may
infinitely
develop the
resources of an old language and leave

as
Luther
left his
native tongue
an
entirely
different thing
to
from the thing he found.

first
But
do so he must
speak the language himis,
self.
The
reason of this
living things.
religion
and
is
lan-
guage are
(Religion
man's
relation with God.)

different
In
this they are entirely
from philosophy; and they prove

27
THE
that
LIVIN(i
ahve
WORD
living,
they
are
by
while
phi-
losophies die.
ing, they are
As long
as they remain liv-
capable of infinite growth and

in a purely natural
improvement, but always

way.
The new always grows from

religion
is
the old,
and because
the
soil.
alive
it is
attached to
It
comes down
to us
through the
It
is
ages without a break or a gap.

inheritance from the
piist.
our
It
is
the oldest
thing in existence on
the earth except lanit
guage.
it is
And
because
has lasted so long

Jf
likely to last longer.

is
language, the
thing most like n-ligion,
not likely to dis-
appear,
religion
is
it
not likely to disappear.

})e
But neither can

is
created anew.
If there
one thing, as Paulsen says, that
giv(!s
man
it is
of culture
and education a sense
of world-
weariness and that chills hirn to the bone,

to see
to
men and women
attempting consciously
'I'ln-y
found a new
religion.
can unite into
talking societies,
they can meet for ethical
culture, they can repeat the

28
commonplac(!S of
THE TRADITIONAL
science,
.AI
OTIVE
they can entertain themselves with

of
the
phenomena
morbid psychology; but

the
to create a religion that links the past to
present,
and that spans the
future, to invent
symbols and sacraments that inspire faith and

unite the soul to
God, they can no more do than
they can invent a tree.
As Religion comes
us.
It
is
to the
world
it
it
comes
to
transmitted.
We
learn
as
we
learn
to speak,
all
from our parents,
in school,
through
those channels that
make our
earthly en-
vironment.
to us
is
The religion that thus comes down

it
the old religion that comes to us as
comes
in
some way
to all, in the
form
of
solemn
to
symbols and venerable ideas in regard
God
and
Christ,
and the beginning and end

judgment,
of the
world,
resurrection,
and heaven
for religion
and
to
hell.
This
is
the natural
wav
come.
Then
the world claims us and the
Heaven
of our childhood vanishes,
and we
religion
difficult
learn to think
and
to doubt,
and the
we
learned as children grows more

29
THE LIVING WORD

to
believe
and influences us
life
less
and
less.
But then
God.
life
itself
begins to speak to us of
We
begins
see our parents die,

to
and the young

our
feet;
grow up around
in
or or
God
confronts us
or
some way,
in joy,
sorrow,
opportunity,
life
and the whole

life
vast problem of
and death, our
and
death, presses on us for an answer.

religious
life
So our
a per-
begins anew, only
now
it is
sonal question which another cannot answer

for us, but
which we must answer for ourselves.
The
back
great symbols, the great revelations of the
past, the beliefs of the

ô us;
whole
human
race,
come
but
now we must
wrestle with
those symbols, with those inherited beliefs of

the ages, until
we have made them

in
in
some
new way our own. So

mingle.
religion
us,
old
and new
Both are necessary.

is
The man whose
simply that which he l(>arned as a
child;
the
man who
is
simply prays the old
prayers he learned at his mother's knee, to
whom God
no nearer, no more wonderful

30

than of yore,
who
reads the Bible with no

is
deeper insight of everlasting truth,

if
just as
his
mental development in any other direc-
tion
had been
arrested
in
childhood.
is it
But
on the other hand, hard, hard

to
for the
man
it
whom religion has not come in the old

way
sweet,
in
natural
of transmission, to acquire
it.
later years,
so hard that few men do

is it
But. you say, what an argument this

all!
is
after
TMiat kind of faith
that propagates
fire,
itself
blindly in this way. as
language,
is
and disease propagate themselves, that
accepted most easily by children and childish

persons,
and
is
handed on from age

not believe
it ?
to age,
even by those
all
who do
Are not
human legends and errors propagated in the same wav It is verv true, the Traditional
.-
[Motive in itself
is
not strong enough to hold
the better portion of humanity indefinitely.
The
child
becomes a man, and a

is
man demands
its
a reason for the faith that
proposed to him.
develop-
Error at
last
reaches a point in
31
THE
ment beyond
the effect
of
LIVIN(;
it
WORD
But
still
wliich
early
cuiinot go.
education,
its
the
power
of
tradition, never wholly loses
influence over
error,
us;
and,
moreover,
along with
the the
noblest truths,
past,
the great revelations
of
on which generations of
men have
leaned
to us.
I
for their support,
have thus come down

last
is
The
faith
faith
you surrender
first.
it is
generally
lie
you learned
Where
three motives
is
are indispensable,
hard to say that one
greater or
more Important than another.
But
certainly, of these three motives, the Tradi-
tional
is
not the least important.
It
is
comes
down
crete
to us
hoary with time.
It
the con-
expression of the faith of millions of

l)eings
human
who have
it is
travei-scd this earth
before us.
Hecjiuse
it
so old, so holy, ;ind so

wliicli
venerable,
speaks with an authority
our private musings and speculations cannot

attain.
Yet
I agree with all

is
who
say that the
Traditional Motive alone

to hold
not strong enough
the better part of

S2
mankind
forever,

and
I
therefore
pass
on
to
the
other
two
motives, remarking
the
first
that in Christendom
champion
of the Traditional
Motive
is
the
Cathohc Church, Eastern and Western, and

in the Anglican
Church
its
champion
is
the
so-called Catholic party.
The
present distri-
bution of Christian churches can be understood only in the light of

differences
its
history.
The
They
which divide and cripple us are
dictated neither are
by reason nor by
utility.
due
to the operation of the Traditional
INIotive
which transmits
existing types long
after their reason for existing has disappeared.
33
Der Vater mit dem

Sie
Solrn
ist iiber
Feld gegangen:
Heimat nicht erlangen. Nach jedem Felsen blickt der Sohn, nach jedem Baum, Wegweiser ihm zu sein im weglos dunklen Raum.
die
konnen nachtverirrt
Der Vater aber
blickt indessen
nach den Sternen,
Als ob der Erde
Weg
er
woU'
am Himmel
lernen.
nichts.
Die Felsen blieben stumm, die Baume sagten Zur Heimat deuten
sie; wolil
Die Sterne deuteten mit einem Streifen Lichts.
dem, der traut den Sternen!

lernen.
Den Weg
der Erde kann
man nur am Himmel
RtJCKEKT, Die Wehheit des Brahmanen.
Th.
I, s. 29.
35
CH.\PTER
THE
PILVCTIC-U.
III
MOTIVE OF FAITH
of Faith
is
The
thus
:
Practical
IMotive
stated
to
I beheve because
it is
good and useful
believe
and dangerous
all
to doubt.*
We
can see
the truth of this, at

souls of our fellow
events, in regard to the
men.
Were I
them
off
to conceive
the idea that other

souls,
men and women have no

to treat
and were I
as senseless
automata, I should cut mvseK

the happiness of this
life.
from most
of
I could not indeed
cut myself off altogether from
my
fellow men.
They would
'
still
pity
me and
help
me
in
my
my
in
I call attention to the bearing of this discussion
on the theoiy
of
Pragmatism.
As
am
unwilling to be diverted from
exposition of Fechner, I shall not pursue this interesting comparison.
The
superiority of Feclmer's
argument seems
to
me
to
lie
the fact that he assigns only a relative, not an absolute, worth to
the practical value of belief.
37
THE LIVING WORD

bliiulnoss,
but the best
tlicy
could bestow on
nio I should lose.
So, should I
doubt or deny
the existence of
oft'
God,
I could not cut niyself
altogether from
Cod.
God would
in
still
bless
and help
has for
j)eace
lose.
me
in
many
ways, but the best
God
ence,
nie, love
and joy
His
j)res-
and communion
with
Him,
should
The
discussion of this motive
is
peculiarly
it
interesting
because of the
fact
IliaL
was
once examined by as acute and disinterested a
man
as
it
John Stuart
Mill,
who
indignantly
rejected
})elief.
as a worthy incentive to religious
You
on
reineinber that,
Utility
in
his
i'ainous
Essay
T\w
of
lleligion,
Mill
described the appeal to the utiiily of religion

as an appeal to unbelievers to j)raclise
a,
well-
meant hypocrisy; and.
Further, he says,
"The
value of religion as a supplement to

laws, a
human
an aux-
more cunning
sort of police,
ihary to the thicl'-catcluM- and the

is
hangman,
not that part of
its
cl;iims
on which the more
38
THE PRACTICAL MOTIVE

high-minded of
insisting/'
its
votaries
are
fondest of
I quite agree with Mill as to this,
but at the same time, in these words he

grossly misrepresents the kind of good that
is
done by rehgion.
sees
His
difficulty
is
this:
he
the
incalculable
is
good Christianity
in
has done
and
doing
the world
and
he
is
too honest to deny
it;
but he
is
already
is
convinced that Christianity as a religion

false
and that
in Christianity truth
and good-
ness are arrayed against each other.

his taunt
Hence
about well-meant hypocrisy; hence

that, of all struggles, that
is
he specifically says
between truth and goodness
the saddest,
and
that the
man who
is
placed in this de-
plorable situation will end by becoming indifferent to

interests
one or both of the most sacred

I
believe,
is
of humanity.
however,
that Christianity as a religion

believe
in
true,
and I
I
Christianity primarily true
because
think
it is
and not because

39
I think
it is
useful.
At the same time, the enormous good
THE LIVING WORD

Christianity has done the world
and can do
its
our souls
unless
is
no presumption against
truth
is ? it
wo
are so absurd as to say that
what
true cannot be useful.

'J'lic
How
if
about science
thino'
is
plain fact
is
that,
true,
;
cannot help being useful

utility is a
in the long
run
hence
presumption
in favor of truth rather
than the contrary.

I therefore consider that the
good
the
is
religion
has
done the world, good

it
primarily
moral,
a,
social, spiritual
has done,
it.
legiti-
mate motive
for believing in
And
the greater
the good any particular religion has done in
ameliorating and elevating the
life
of
man,
the stronger the claim of that religion. AVhether
we
like to
admit
it
or not, that
is
the truth.
religion
?
V\l\o
would be
likely to
embrace a
that promised to
do him nothing but harm

of Islam
The spread
no
of
Buddhism and
to this
rule.
forms
real exception
Each was a
marked improvement on
its
predecessors.
The
Practical Motive unquestionably forms one of 40

the greatest roots of
all
human
belief.
Its
strength
is
that
is
it
is
irrefutable.
Where no
argument
offered.
advanced, no refutation can be

fact
is
The
this:
]Man believes what
he
likes to believe.
He
believes willingly
what
makes him happy, and he
closes his eyes as
long as possible to that which disturbs his

peace.
for
We
are never at a loss to find reasons

to believe.
It is
what we wish
because
man
were
needs God, because he cannot be happy without God, that he believes in God.
If
it
not for this need, the creature's radical love

for his Creator, all the
arguments
to
in the
world
would not induce men

they have
make
the sacrifices
made
for their religion.
In dying
less
for their faith, they
have renounced the
that they might keep the greater.

in
If belief to us,
is it
an
invisible
God were
it
of
no use
probable that
would have persisted so long ?

of other things believed
There are thousands

in the world, to
many men more

^^hy
41
is it
certain than
the existence of God.
that
we
are
THE LIVING WORD

so indifferent to them, that
we
will not take
the trouble to learn whether they are true or

false?
Because we
feel
that,
even
if
true,
they are of no importance to us.
As
it
is,
we
see this strange fact.
In the
face of the imperfection, the cruelty, the injustice of
Nature and the world, men everyit
where affirm that the God who made

all-good, all-wise, all-merciful, because
is
man's
moral nature
cries out for
such a Ciod and canIt

is
not be satisfied with any other.

philosophers,
care
little
true,
live,
men who
this
think rather than
for
ar'gumcnt.
They
ignore
the needs of the people

tianity.
and the God
of Chris-
If they give us a
God
at
all, it is
an
abstract
God, a mere
idea,
the
Absolute,
Unending Substance, the Unconscious, the
World Order, the Unknowable.

by whatever
will
Such a CJod,
is
train of thought lie
reached,
of
never supplant the hving

is
God
idea,
the
Bible because there
no use
in believinc: in
Him.
If
you
believe in such
42
an
it
does

not
make you
it,
better, and,
if
you doubt and

tlie
deny
one
you can hardly be
worse.
Xo
God
who
has received into his heart the
of Jesus Christ can be forsaken
by that pres-
ence without moral

It
is
loss.
the
same with respect

as
to another
life.
Prove to
is
men
much
as you please that there
no
soul,
no
life
without a brain, and the
great majority of
them
will
not believe you.
They had
tions than
rather trust their
own dark
intui-
your
fine reasoning.
^lan requires
for this
life,
another
to give
life
to strengthen
him
him
a motive for
li\-ing at all.
life.
There-
fore he believes in another
Everyone
beheves in a Heaven
desires,
filled
with what he most
and
in
a Hell peopled with what he

their
most
fears.
^Mien the Mora^-ians began
mission in Greenland, they were amazed to

discover
that
the
to
highest
to Hell.
ambition
of
the
Eskimos was
tlie
go
They had made
great
mistake of telUng their converts

is
that Hell
warm
place. 43
We
smile at this,
THE
yet Pluto looked
1.
lVlN(i
WORD
It
l'()r\\;ir(l
lo the eoiitein[)lation
of eternal truth as his
Heaven.
has often
been remarked that
man
InÎieves in (Soil
most
when he needs (Jod most, and

trials
that the very
and sorrows and inexplieahle misforlife
tunes of
which would seem most
likely to
destroy our faith,

belief
commonly destroy our unfaith perfect;
and make our
and, on the
other hand, persons
who
feel
no need of (lod
or of immortality seldom believe in either,
and
is
they are equally sure that such a belief

valueless to the rest of
mankind.
To
1.
all this I
am
aware that two objections
can well be made.

Is religion, after all, so necessary to
it is
man ?
People think
so.
because they have been taught
Priests,
it
from obviously interested molives,

is.
insist that
All great
human
institutions
relicion.
have come down to us saturated with
Our
we
education, our social

life
r(>lalioushi[)s,
our
moral
are so intertwined with religion that

its
arc apt to think that without faith in 11

sanctions our higher
is this
life
would
cease.
But
true
Is
it
not the effect of the faith of
past ages, an application of that Traditional
Motive which, as
have already confessed,

evil
comes down
to us
hea^y with
its
and
error
On
account of
is
magnitude and com-
plexity, this
not an easy question to answer.
\Mien, however, through the ages two things
appear and disappear together with tolerably

constant regularity,
we soon
suspect that they

It
stand in a causal relation.
has been thus

of
with religion and the higher
life
man.
They
have
appeared
and
disappeared
faith
together.
at-
Every great outburst of
has been
tended, as Goethe says, by a great stride in
human
decay.
progress.
Every period
of skepticism
has been a harbinger of moral and social
The
old world went out in Pilate's
hopeless skepticism expressed by his famous

question,
"What
"I
is
truth
.^"
The new world
began
in
unbounded
faith in the afBrmation
of Jesus:
am
the way, the truth and the

45
THE LIVING WORD

life."
So
it
has been with other races.

the door of a
to
Moand
hammed opened
recreated
Asia,
ail
new
Hfe
of age-long progress
his people,
Buddha
of
Confucius was the soul

these gave a
faith.
China, and
new
existence
to their people
by
I will not point to the
innumerable abortive attempts of unbelievers

to
found
little
societies
and associations
which
the
fore-
doomed
to
failure,
of
heathen
Plutarch said,
city
"You
can more easily found a
without a wall than found one without
religion." tion
to
Let me, however,
call
your atten-
a really notable instance in

In
the
human
The
affairs.
year
1793
the
Christian
religion
was
ofBcially denied in Paris.
venerable Cathedral of Notre

the scene of sacrilegious insult
Dame became
unknown
of the
in the
history of our religion.
Many
It
l)irth
French
churches were converted into theaters, dancehalls,
drinking saloons.
was forbidden
to
date events from the
of Jesus Christ.
France had at
last
apparently broken with

46

the Christian rehgion forever.
the
Sunday and Over

the gate
week
itself
were abohshed.
of the
cemetery, the chief of pohee wrote:

is
"Death
six
an eternal sleep."
And
yet within
months, in the darkest days of the Terror,

all
Robespierre, of
men
in the world, uttered
these strange words to his colleagues in Con-
vention:
tell
"AMiat could have induced you to

is
the people that there

it
no God
to prate
^^Tiy
does
seem good
to
you
to
?
men
Does
that blind fate governs their destiny
the
thouofht
of
annihilation
bring
to
man
purer and better feelings than the thought of

his
immortality.^
And why
?
should not
for
the ideas of religion be true
I,
my
part,
cannot understand
how
nature can fabricate
falsehoods more useful to
men
than
all truths.
The thought
lasting life
is
of a
Supreme Being and
of everto right-
an eternal provocation
.
eousness
in the place
And what have you to give of the God you have thrown out
?
of your churches
^Miat have you to put in

47
THE LIVING WORD

Ilis
place but chaos, nothingness, and death ?"'

\\'ere
If
it
possible to find a satisfactory sub-
stitute for religion,
men
like
Napoleon Bona-
parte and Robespierre would have preferred
any substitute
crassest
for
icligious
faith.
But
the
Absolutist
and
the
faith
most
radical
to
Republican
both
found
necessaiy
maintain order in the State, and Voltaire,
who was
not
without
worldly
experience,
declared that he would rather live in a world
governed by devils than in a
^\()r]d
governed
by
atheists.
Religion,
therefore,
cannot be
regarded as an illusion of the

or as a temporary phase of
human mind human culture,

Were
this true
through
which men and nations pass and

ith
it
then are done w

the downfall
forever.
of
religion
would be the harlife.
binger of
new and higher
As a matter
it
of fact, in the history of the nations
has
been
death.
the
harbinger of spiritual
night
and
'Becker's WeltKCscliichte, XII,
s. 3'21.
48

'^.
The second
^Nlost
objection
is
mucli
more
serious.
intelligent
persons recognize
the great good religion has done, and they also
recognize the great
harm
it
has done.
Thev
remember
the seas of blood Catholicism has
shed, they have not forgotten the long tyranny

of the
Church,
its
bitter
hostility
to truth.
They remind
us of the savage and frightful

in
wars which have been waged

of religion.
the
name
TMien the Crusaders captured
Jerusalem, one hundred thousand Moslems

are said to have been put to the sword. "
They
spared
neither
sex
nor
age,"
all
as
Gibbon
denied
says, " until they had killed
who
the Saviour of the world, the Prince of Peace."

^^Tio
knows how many thousands were

?
tortured
to death in the Inquisition
It is
estimated
that
the Thirty Years"
War
cost
Germany
nearly three fourths of her population.

truth
of
this
The
indictment, the
religion
its
most serious
on which our
wickedness of
can be arraigned, the

past, cannot be denied.
own
49
THE LIVING WORD

Those atrocious
those
fearful
acts, that persecution of truth,
crimes against
God and man,

stains
must ever remain the darkest
upon
the
Christian rehgion, and to-day they constitute

the
most vahd objection
in
the
minds
of
educated
men
to
enroHing themselves under
Christ's banner.
Heavy indeed must be
the
good deeds that outweigh such a multitude

of crimes.
But though these deeds were
j)er-
formed
in the
name
of the Christian religion,

in
can any one pretend that they \\ere done

its
spirit?
^Vill
any one say that Jesus looked
with approbation on the Inquisition or the
Massacre
evils that
of
St.
Bartholomew's.?
All
the
weie \\'rought by Christianity were

All
wrought
in defiance of its real pi'inciples.

in
harmful elements
any
religion aiise
from
what
is
false in that religion.
Here we can
see deeply into the motive of faith I
am
dis-
cussing,
namely
is
that
50
the
practical
value
of a religion value.
generally accepted as a real

religions,
Other conquering
notably

Islam, have also a heavy
list
of sanguinary
crimes to answer
for.
But
in the case of
Islam
the statement I have just

tianity does not hold.
made
as to Chris-
On
the contrary, the
fanaticism, the indifference to the shedding of
human
blood,
is
part of the spirit and genius
of the religion itself
and may be traced
to its
founder.
If unfettered, to-day
Islam would
be just as great a menace to the peace and
freedom of the world as
ever.
No
self-im-
provement or
of
its
self-purification
from a study
its
own
sacred books and a return to
own
sources can be looked for in Islam, and that
one fact
fixes its
value as a religion, as an in-
strument of enlightenment and progress.

I do not hesitate to say that no matter
false
Yet
how
it is
and
foolish a people's faith

faith.
always better than no
may be You may say
that
without religion such horrors as the capture

of Jerusalem, the Inquisition
and the Thirty
Years'
War would
not take place.

religion,
That
is
very true.
Without
an
ideal could
51
THE LIVING WORD

not convert
tlio
world into a battlo-fiold

such idc;ds
;i.s
nuMi
would not
sion of an
fight for
the posses-
empty sepulcher, or
for liberty of
thought.
fought,
quisite
They would
for
lust,
fight as
our ancestors
for
tlie
for
of
conquest,
ex-
pleasure
last
shedding blood.
yeais.
I'hey
^^'ars
would not
thirty
would
be perpetual,
Assyria.
till
like
the
wars of
Rome and
to
They would never come

})ai-ty
an end
the weaker the

is
were reduced
to
to shiAci-y.
Therefore
atrocities
ligion,
\\ay
guard
against
such
re-
not to deslroy the Christian

it
but to purify
and
to follow
its
counsels
self-
of boundless love
inflicted
and forgiveness.
'Î^'he
tortures
and the absurdities
incul-
cated by
many
religions
have unquestionably
wrought great harm.
IJut just
on
this
account
yield
these religions cannot endure, but

to the religion of reason
must
and
of lo\e.
is
Although
this rraclical
Motive
complete
and
suflicient in itself, yet a strong
argument
r(>lii>i()n
can be drawn
in favor of the truth of a

which
is
able to
]MilI,
accompHsh
so
much
good.
John Stuart
contrary.
you remember, assumes the
He
this
sadly and miserably assumes
that in
world truth and goodness are

tliat
opposed
to
each other,
we
are
drawn
in
contrary directions by reason and by conscience.
This, however,
this conviction,
is
a false assumption,
and
it is
which forms the basis

which makes
his
of villi's religious philosophy,
religious writings, in spite of all their noble
honesty and eloquence, so utterly depressing.
The man who
sincerely believes that truth
and
goodness are at bottom enemies can never
know
happy day.
But, believing that these
highest attributes of
God
are in peace
and
harmony with each

ment
in favor
IMill
other, I
draw
this argu-
of
the
truth of
religion
which even
ideal
all
admits possesses the highest

It
is
of goodness.
an axiom among
is
thinking
men
that
truth
capable
of
practical
application,
and
53
that,
in the long
run, truth benefits
men and
serves
them
in
THE
every
LI VI NT,
error,
WORD
in
way,
while
the
long
run,
cheats men, disappoints them,
and does them

fair
nothing but harm.
Is
it
not
then to
is
infer that the converse of this proposition
also
true,
namely,
that
that
which
most
(i.e.,
benefits
faith in
man,
sustains him, exalts him,
God and
immortality)
is
likely to
be
true, while that
which humiliates man, para-
lyzes
his efforts,
makes him bad,

unbelief
in
hopeless,
and
unhappy
is
{i.e.,
(Jod
and
inmiortality)
likely to be false.
In single
instances and in the case of beliefs which last
but a short time this might not hold, but

if
belief
which has embraced humanity

lasted for thousands of years
lie,
and wliich has
were founded on a
is
it
possible that the
injurious effects of that
lie
would not have

appaix^nt
made
most
themselves
?
overwhelmingly
long ago
Is
it
reasonable to suppose that the
colossal untruth
man
has ever entertained

all
should do him more good than
truth,
so
much good
that
all
other truth without this

54

untruth
cannot
make man
either
good or
happy ? The greater

evil
the error, the greater the
effects
of that error; but even enemies
admit that behef
immortahty has
all
God and Christ and done man more good than

in
belief.
his
other
knowledge and
The
legiti-
Practical Motive, therefore, stands as a
mate motive
in
of religious faith.
^Nlan believes
God
because he needs God, and when his
needs are greatest believes most firmly.
The
is
good
religion has
done and
still
is
doing
it.
a legitimate motive for believing in
He
who
believes in a
God who
is
forever guiding,
directing all for the best, in a
God who
evil,
resists
and eventually overcomes
all
opposing forces,
is
who, no matter how great the

self greater;
Himbut
who
not merely in this
life,
beyond
this life,
has means to heal our wounds
and
to correct our faults

;
which He incessantly
employs
self is
he
who
believes in a
God who Himlife's
present in the storm which desolates
our
lives,
has a motive
in
struggle,
THE
ii
LIV
life's
INC;
WORD
tlie
refuge from
(iMoedy, a liopc for

in
future, and,
to
though the sun
heaven seem
it
be extinguished, yet for him
will shine
in
again.
in
But the man without
faith
(lod
the presenee of sueh
fearful trials, stands

his earthly
helpless
and despairing when

I
comlife
pass
\\e
fails.
know
that for our earthly
need earthly pmidenee and foirthoughl,

all
but beyond
lation
is
our
forethought and ealeu-
the
unknown, inealeulable future

is
where only one ealeulation holds, that

in Ilim to
faith
whom
nothing
is
uidcnown or un-
expected.
The champion
the Angelican
of (he Practical
is
INIotive
in
Church
the Kvaiigelical party,
but, in every spiritual religion, in every religion
that has [)ropose(l to

salvation of
itself
the redem|)tion
and
man, ihcrc has been an
evaiiirelical
party which, overwhelmed with the thought of

the value of the soul, has sought to save the
soul.
In no religion
sav(>
our o^^n has the

played
a greater
Practical
Motive of
faith
50

part thau in Buddhism.
spirit
It is the
its
evangehcal
phi-
of
Buddhism, not
nihihstic
losophy, that
makes
it
a rehgion,
and without
the Practical Motive, without the evangelical

spirit,
no
religion can exist.
57
Wer Gott nicM
fiihlt in sich
und
alien Lebenskreisen,
Dem
werdet ihr ihn nicht beweisen mit Beweisen.
Wer iiberall ihn sieht, was woUt ihr dem ihn zeigen ? Drum woUt mit euren Gottbeweisen endlieh schweigen! WoUt ihr mir auch vielleicht beweisen, dass ich bin ?
Ich glaubt' es schwerlich euch, glaubt' ich's nicht meinem
Sinn.
RucKERT, Die Weisheit
des
Brahmanen.
Th.
Ill,
s.
142.
59
CHAPTER IV
THE RATIO^-AL
IIOTITE OF FAITH
of
faith,
The
length.
third motive
the
Rational
^lotive, I shall not attempt to develop at such
Allien Tve reach the rational argument

less
for
God, we are standing on more or
familiar ground where each will take the
way
a
that his reason and culture suggest.
By
rational motive of faith I understand believing
what reason and experience

lieving.
justify us in be-
We
need reason for everything that

It
pertains to our spiritual Hfe.
took some
reason to discover even our other two motives.
Without reason
superstition.
logic
faith degenerates to a
pure
But by mere reason
alone,
by
and mathematics, we
shall never find
God,
as the great critical philosophers have abun-
dantly proved.
Two things
61
ordinarily prevent
THE
nion from
1,1
(J
AY
OK
1)
fiiulino'
the
liviiiy,'
(<oil
by ivnson;
this
oithor thoy irinaiii i)l)stin;itoly

finite
stiiudiii!;' in
world suiTOundinl by
tlu>
things of
st>Ms>
and
rofusinii' to i>o
oil'
bovond
tlicni.
or oiso Ihcv
cut thoniscivos
fact
from the honlthy world of

into
a
and plungv
maze
oi
abstract
thouji'lit.
As a matter
of fact,
all
our rational, living
ideas of (unl arise consciously or unconsciously
from the cxj)erience of our own

the need of satisfying our
lives or
from
This
own minds.
'I'his
thing
be.
is
so
and thai
is
so.
was, that will

Il
l\[y
house was
itself.
its
built
by some one.
could
not build
one.
fitted
'I'he
world was built by some
All
parts ne\er
came together and
themselves together by their

is
own motion.
wonderful
The world
than
greater, and
It
mire
my
liouse.
had
a gnâler
and more body

is
wonderful architect and maker.
INIv
moved by my
and
will.
feeling
and
will.
Sun, moon,
stars are I
moved by a
gr(>ater fei^ling
and
am
alive
now and
cluinge from day
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

to day.
I shall continue to live even after
death and shall go on changing.
wise and
good
man
is
pure, truthful, just, and merciful.
God who
pure,
is
wiser and better than

just,
man
is
more
more
more
his
true,
more
his
merciful.
of
Every King has

servants
court,
retinue
and messengers.
God, the King
of
Kmgs,
likewise has His.

is
This method of rea-
soning, which
based on analogy and vague

if
comparison,
for
is
is
seldom
ever conclusive, but

I
man
is
it
a necessity.
do not believe
there
a thought in regard to
fruit
God
that has
borne religious
natural
which did not
arise in this
wav from reasonmg on

life.
the experiences
this the
it
of every-day
Feuerbach makes
starting-point
of his atheism.
We make
the starting-point of faith.
This habit of drawing analogies from our
own
experience
prevails
ever}'T\-here.
We
find evil
evil
and destruction
in the world
and an
tendency in ourselves, and we conclude

63
that evil comes from an evil being, a Satan,
THE LIVIN
an Ahrinian.
C,
WOH D
we hegin
good
to see
After awhile
is
how
elosely the evil
bound up with
;
the gooih
how
often
it is
a condition of the
then we
are not so sure of our Satan, our Ahrinian.
To
an unspiritual people,
life
in the flesh
is
everything.
Death
robs
us
of
our
flesh:
henee
life
in all the great epies of antiquity the

is
after death
but
joy.
slnulow-life, devoid
of all reality
and
is
We
great
all
learn the lessc)n

life
that the sold

after
the great reality, and the
death
at
becomes
and
this
beautiful.
Looked
superficially,
may seem
to faith.
to lead to skepticism nuich
more than
We
remember
in the
the
absurdities
which
are
contained
mythologies of every people

spirits,
as to gods,
demons, witches,
heaven
and
hell,
which have found
far
wider accept-
ance than the greatest truths propounded by

the wisest heads.
stated
is
At
all
events,
what
have
fact.
Every one
of these beliefs
has arisen by reasoning on the experiences

of
life.
G4
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

We
see, then,
how
large a part the Rational
^lotive plays in giving form and coherence

to our belief.
It
puts the objects of faith
before us so that
we can grasp them with our

our conceptions of God, how-
minds.
It is
reason that unites our souls and

all
that gives us
ever unreasonable they
may appear
to others.
The lower
cruder
the
its
the mental capacity of a people, the

generalization on experience,
irrational
its
and
more
religious beliefs.
And
the higher the moral and intellectual develop-
ment
of
a people, the vaster and truer
its
inductions,
ceptions.
and the nobler
its
religious con-
I need not remind you that
we
are
deahng
with a very
difficult
problem, the problem

easy
it is
of all problems.
err in
We know how
to
our analyses and in our reasoning about

matters of every -day
life.
the
common
How
.-
then can
we hope
to reason with the least
success on divine
and
is
eternal things
if
Yet
to re-
the singular fact
that,
65
we wished
Til K LI V
nouiico the
tliini;'
N(i
WOlin
is
sivinrli
alter (iod, tlioiv
.somo-
witliiii
us
that
would
to
not
lot
us
of
do
tlie
so.
TNTau
is
pledged
the
[)ursuit
lufinite,
flights,
and,
though
wearied
h\
the
Ills
lonp;
disa}){)ointed
because
approxi-
mations toward truth are so slow, frightened

l>y
tlie
dragons that guard
all
fountains of
tliat
it
higher wisdom, he sometimes says

will give
he
up
the })ursuit altogether, yet

tire
does
not take him long. to
of this trivial
and
his
his
numdane
existence,
and again he turns

world that
is
face toward
true
is
that spiritual
home.
In
reality,
the Rational
Motive
exactly like the others, imperfect
and
yet
c>vil
necessary.
We
have seen the harm and
religion has inflicted
on human
life,
yet,
on
the
whole,
more good than

to
evil;
and also
that the
religion
way
is
remc>dy the
to
harm done by
but
to
not
destroy religion,
purify
it.
So
all
the c-rrors of reason are us
nothing compared with the blindnc-ss of unreason.

I
had
rather
live
in
an
immoral
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

world than in a world governed hx
fanatics.
is
The way
to correct the errors of reason
not
to forswear reason,
but to allow reason to
correct
its
is
own
errors.
There
render
indeed one view of Ufe that would

use
It
the
of
is
reason
tlie
superfluous
and
impossible.
things.
that
highest and last
God,
eternity,
immortality, have no
life
natural fixed relation to this

If that
is
and
this world.
true,
we can know nothins
of them,
If
is
and we have no
rational motive of faith.

if
God
of
is
not present in this world,
there
nothing in Nature and in the spiritual nature
man we
can compare with Him, reason has
nothing to work on.
We
must be content
with an irrational faith or with a rational

denial.
is
The charm
it
of evolutionary philosophy
h^-ing
that
seems to open to us a
way
to
God. Here, however, I abide by my argument.
The
only thing in this world to which faith
in the
One All-Comprehending
is
Spirit of
God
can be compared
faith in the finite
human
'IIIK
spirit.
I.IVINC^
is
WORD
(l<'|);irlurc\
;is
\\t>
iiii,;iin
Tliis, tlion,
our point of
;ni(], iip})i_vino' llio
nrouinnit
luivo
appliod
\v;iys,
tlie
it
Ih'I'oiw
living;;
wo
find tluit
it
odVrs ns two
llio
two
w;iys to
^\;ly
tlir
(uul;
tlu-
\\;iy
by
soul
(;in
and
llio
by
hotly.
I'îtlicr
we
pass from
world of our
own
soul
finite
ol"
through the world of innniiu-rMhlc othor

souls to thr
One
AII-(\)MiprelKMulini>' Soul
that
just
(lod;
or else
is
wo can show
as our
body
tho mirror and rovoalor of our soul,

is
so tho world
th(>
mirror and
n-voalor of
ar(>
Cod's
soul.
Whichovor way wo take wo

realities, not
doaling with
AVe aro
in
with
life,
mere words.
the
domain
of
and henee,
if
we
find
(iod,
wo
find
the living (iod, not
a,
more abstraction.
Our
ilseli",
soul
is
('(M'taiuly
a.
Utile
world
in
world
of
ehanging and oouflioting
thoughts, passions, instincts, and memories,

u wondoi'lul, a
})atlu>tlc,
a,
tragic,
a
a,
boanlirul
world, but
world ruled by
If
higher powcM-,
in the
will,
an
inlolligoiu-o.
what goes on
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

soul could be accurately recorded and repro-
duced, other books would cease to be written.
In comparison with
this
series
of marvelous
and
terrible pictures, the

life
attempt of the great
masters to portray
daubs.
would appear mere

is
And
vet our soul
but one of manv.
one of an innumerable multitude in which

collectively the
same thoughts, the same hopes,
motives, interests, memories

scale
work on
a grander
results.
and produce more enduring

tlie little
Just as in
world of our
spirit,
thoughts
and
feelings arise, strive, support or oppose
one another, so in the great world of

souls,
spirits arise,
human
strive,
cross each other,
unite,
support or oppose one another; and

ffoes
what
on
in the httle world
is
for the
most
part but the echo, the last result of what goes
on
in the great.
Yet, in another sense, the

indi^-idual soul
is
little
world of the
the root,
the source of the great world tlirough which
come
to
it
in a
mighty confluence aU those
ideas, discoveries, experiences, emotions whicJi

61>
'I
11
K LI V
N(;
WORD
sj)iritu;i,l
make
jnihlic
opinion, law, nior.ility, science,

short,
llio tlio
lilV
ol'
rolif>i()T),
- in
ImiiKUiity.
jrocs
And on
tlio
oilier
liaiid,
all
is
lliat
on
in
prcjit
world of souls
])eriii;iiieiil,,
hiit
In'^'luT,
deeper,
more
more
ii
unisoul.
versal
form of
said,
'I'liere
wlial.
ôes on
Sl;i.Le
in
is
our ow
but
As Plato
lai-ê."
"Tlie
is
man
in
writ
one thing,
lio\vev("i',
our
soul that seeins to have no counlerparL in the
great world of
human
souls: that
is
a,
higher
unity, a sell'-eonseious personality, a supi'eme

will
which unites
all
our
inij)ressi()ns iiilo
one
ol"
continuous experience,
;in(l
which,
in spite
the innumer;i.l)le coidliels which

soul, reconciles the
riige
in
the
comhatants,
j)ersisl,s
fi'oni
the beginning to the end, gives to us our sense

of identity, iind to
life
all
llie
it
moral
])urj)os(>
and
spiritual me;uiing th;it

first
it
possesses.
to
s|)e;d< of
At
s(>cnis
preposterous
such a consciousness, such a guiding, uniting

will
in
humam'ty
apjH'iii-s
;it
large,
every memb<>r of
which
to
be free to think his

70
own
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

thoughts and to go his
own way.
we
And
see
yet
when we look
a Httle deeper,
that
of
humanity does not
consist of a
number
its
independent units each working for

end, but rather
it is
own
a grand unity embracing

unities.
innumerable
thinks his
lesser
No
one of us
own
thoughts or
lives for himself.
From
in
the earliest
moment
of our lives,
human-
ity takes
life,
us by the hand, supports our bodies
spins into our souls the old knowledge,
the old faith, the old doubts, and sets us to
work with or
plishment of
of
against our will for the accomits
purpose.
So the great
results
human
life
slowly arise,
language,
law,
religion, science, poetry, philosophy, the sub-
jugation of nature, built up by the co-operation of innumerable
men, few
for
whom
or
what they were
whom knew working. When

of
we
see the
same thing occurring on a lower

the animals,
plane
among
when we
see bees
and ants
sacrificing their
own lives
for the
com-
mon
good, working together for an end they

71
Til K
I.
VIN(;
wo
II I)
do not know, we look

uniting principle
wlii(;li
at once lor
;i
liigbcr
we
call inslirict.
Foi-
And
what
is
instinct but a naiiie

?
uiiiliiig in-
telligence
So when we look at
Ininiaii history
and
see
how innnmerahle human

the
jxirpose
beings are
united by one great |)nrjK)se, and, thougli
men
and
the
and nations
die,
ctidun-s
resist,
gathers strength, and, though they
purpose moves on toward the
iiniveisa! goal,
then
is is
we begin
to
undersLaiid
what (iod
means when He
and what
it
says:
"All souls are min(>,"

'i'he
means
to be in (Jod.
task
greater, the time
immeasurably longer than

purj)oscs
required for the
little
and
sLriiggles
of our soul in this world, but the strcnglh of
God
I
is
greater, longer
is
lis
eternity.
in this
I wish to rest for a
moment
it is
thought.
wish to think what
to be in (iod, sure
(x-rl'ectlon
if
I
of
my
ultimate salvation and
do
not set
(jod.
my
I
will obstinately
against the will of
wish to realize that Clod knows

I
my
thought because
am
72
His thought, that lie
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

loves
me
as part of His spiritual nature so that

is
His victory
not complete
till
have con-
quered, that I
am
not alone but bound to
God
by every
fiber of
my
being.
It is
possible
of course to reject this view, well supported
as
it is
by
New
me
Testament
";
texts ("I in
live
them
and thou
in
"In Him we
and move
and have our being"), but no one can say

that
it
is
not a living faith capable of proin the life of
ducing incalculable results
him
who
seriously believes
it.
In every
human
soul there are these two
elements, unity and multiplicity;
above the
myriad impressions
of
our senses and the

is
ceaseless fluctuation of thought
the unity
of self -consciousness
feels
the I that thinks and

if
and
wills.
So
there be
an
infinite
Spirit, in
Him
these elements, of which spirit

lacking.
plurality.
consists, are not
In
Him
there
all
is
also
unity
and
Above
His
thoughts. His
spirits.
His worlds, which

spiritual energy,
is
may
the
be higher centers of
73
TH
E L
VIN
Ci
\Y
D
will,
unity of Ciod's consciousness
and
the
supreme
all,
iind eternal E'ô
which thinks through

all.
iVels
through
all,
acts through
is
Hcprove
niember once more,
this
no attempt
to
the existence of (lod; the materials for such a
demonstration are not given to us.
If
we
cannot know the soul of our brother,

can we know the Spirit of
all, this is
llie
still less
Eternal.
After
not an induction. but onlyaii analogy.

if
It
is
not as
we
really passed
by induction
through an
infinite series of iinite s[)irits to the
Infinite Spirit.
it
Our own
soul
in
we know, but
this universe.
is
the only soul
wc know
\el, just as the existence of a single electric

light
on earth points
fluid
to the existence of the
electric
dilfuscd through space, so the
existence of a single soul points at least to an
antecedent
This, then,
spirit
is
competent
to
account for
it.
the way, the living

the
way
to (iod
Têt
for,
and eternal
life,
way
of the spirit.
us
if
next sec what the body reveals to us,

there be such
a,
Spirit, lie nnist
have means
74
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

to reveal liimself to us. in a tree of
"Who would believe

leaf
which he had never seen a
or a twig?
of
No
if
one would believe in the soul
worm
worm had no way

Neither would
to reveal
his soul to us.
man
believe
in a
God who
let
could not reveal Himself to us.

that the infinite Soul
Only
of at
us
remember
God
can never reveal Himself altogether or

little
one time to the
soul of
man.
I shall not attempt to traverse the second
path by which reason comes to faith in God,

but I will merely indicate
is
it.
The
proposition
that just as our
body
is
the mirror
and
revealer of our soul, so the world, which
we
and
may
to
if
regard as God's body,
is
the mirror
revealer of the Spirit of God.
This
is
the
way
God on which
its
all
modern
science
moves
out,
ideas
are
consistently
carried
especially the idea of evolution.
The
argu-
ment
is
is
hke
this.
At the present time there

call spiritual
something on earth which we
life
which embodies
itself in
thought, science,
TIIK LIVIN(!
religion, philosopliy. niiisic,
WORD
I;iav.
rfc.
^^'lu>Io
did this spiritual
life
vouw from?
cMllod
It
(jiiiir
from
spiritual
Ihmiio's
men.
WIumv
So
-
did those spiritual

far as I can see,
heiugs
eome from?
two
ans\\ei's are j)ossil)le,

I)y a
cither they were ereated
higher spiritual
Being we are accustomed

were developed
to call (Jod, or they
from
from
the
the
animal
earth.
kiugdom
'Vhc
(irst
and ultimately
alternative reaches the goal al
once,
^^'llat
does the second point to?
According to the
beings c.dled
(>arth.
second ulternativ<\
s})irilMal
men
were developed out of the

the earth
^^'here did
come from?
?
Out
of
whal was
it
developed
of
a,
'I'he
earth
was developed out

by the sun. 'Chat
nebulous
gaseous ring
thro\\ii olV
ring broke
up and became
a s|)here of
matter.
Further than that we cjinnot m).

the conclusion
?
What
is
This
itself
sjlobe of
aaseous
matter contains within elements of

all
the
of
germs and
;dl
spiritual
life,
genius
and knowledge,
of
all
sci<Mice
and
religion, of
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

all
that
man
will ever
know
or think or feel,
for to that globe of gaseous matter, according

to the evolutionary view, not one
new element
But what
is
has been added from without.

this
but to say that
this globe possessed

itself,
a soul,
a soul that has gone on revealing
shaping
one beautiful object after another, and that

will
go on creating and revealing as long as

its
the earth retains
present condition.
If
it
be objected that this view leads to Professor
James's
theory
of
plurality
of
superior
it
spiritual beings, I
INIy
is
must admit that
does.
escape from polytheism, which I believe

forever,
lies
dead
in
the fact that these
higher spiritual centers are not independent
but co-ordinate and at
last
subordinated to a
thinks through
Highest
all,
who moves through all,

all,
acts through
according to one mighty
purpose and plan.

earth in
its
They may
Even
77
perish, as our
present form will surely perish,

the severest material-
but
ism,
He
if
endures.
carried far enough, leads to faith in
God.
Til K LI V
(i
WORD
We
of this
o(>iier;i-
There
tioii
is
the Mrûinent.
hiive
heurd and read

It
a s^reat
deal on the
snbjeet of agnosticism.
as one of
it is
has been unnouneed
tlie
great discoveries of onr age thai

I'or
impossible
man
to
know
(Jod.
If
we
confine knowledge to that which can be
})re-
sented to onr senses or proved
by logic or
Irne,
maihemalics, this
the discovery
is
is
nndonbledly
oi' ils
bnt
I'act
robbed
sling by Ihe
sonl,
is
that that which, after onr

to ns, the sonl of
own
near(>st
onr brother, we do not know

faith
in
either.
'I'liese
two things,
(iod and
faith in the invisible souls of other
men,
is
a.
rest
on
Ihe
same fonndalion, and
it
good
fonndalioii.
faith in ilself
No
is
one of Ihe three motiNcs of

strong enough lo hold
is
man-
kind forever, bnt the threefold cord

ily
not easwill
broken.
\\\[h
one man, one motive

with
weigh
more
heavily;
another
thes(>
man,
another.
This being the case,

help
conu'ng
inio
motives
cannot
collision.
Hence
and
arises the
slril'(>
of churches
78
and
parties,
THE RATIONAL MOTIVE

hence,
a
mucli more important thing, the
struggle of rehgious motives in our
own
per-
sonal
lives.
We
begin with the traditional
motive,
believing
what we were taught
to
believe, but
by and by our childhood's Heaven

old faith
vanishes.
The
no longer affords us
the necessary strength and support and be-
comes more and more

itself
difficult.
Then
life
begins to speak to us of God.
God
con-
fronts
us in joy or sorrow or opportunity,

vast problem of
life
and the whole
and death
the child
presses on us for an answer.
Or
becomes a man, and the

reason for the faith that
It is
is
man demands
proposed to him.
not enough to say
in the past.
He
will
men have believed this reply, men have believed

So the
conflict
faith, the
many
arises
legends
and
fables.
between traditional
needs of
the heart
and the
rights of reason.
But out
of that conflict proceeds religious development,
higher conceptions, a deeper peace, a faith

that cannot be shaken.
79
If the
young knew
THE
this
I >
NG
W C) R D
llu>y
sccToi,
11"
lu)\\'
iiKiiiy
sorrows
would
avoid!
of
bigoted partisiiiis and cliainpioiis

it,
one of those three good motives knew

nineli strife ancl {)erseenlion the
!
how
church
would avoid
In Cluislendoni the eluunpiou

is
of the Rational INIolive

in the
Protestantism, and
its
Anglican comnuinion
champion
is
the
Broad Church Party.
80
Gott
Gott
ist
ein
Denkender, sonst war' ich
iiber ihn,
Ich aber denke, dass ich unter ihm nur bin.

ist ein Wollender, sonst hatt' ich mehr als er, Mein Wollen aber kommt von seinem Wollen her. Mit deinem Denken sei, mit deinem Wollen stiU Vor seinem, liebes Herz! er denkt in dir und will.
RiJCKERT, Die Weisheit des Brahmanen.
Th. ni,
s.
128.
81
CHAPTER V
ON THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF GOD
By God
By
a
understand the
One
highest,
deepest, all-comprehending, conscious Spirit.

spirit I
understand what
it,
men
usually
understand by
namely, a being possessing

will.
consciousness and conscious souls of
To
suppose that the
men
are the product of a

is
being devoid of consciousness
an absurdity.
He who
lieve that
thinks of
God
all
worthily must bethat His creatures
God knows
also
know and
all
beyond and above what they
together know.
is
He must
also believe that
man's goodness
the reflection
and
fruit of
God's goodness; but as yet the pale
reflection
and the unripened

therefore,
is
fruit.
God's consciousness,
not a mere transcendent con-
sciousness that hovers over the consciousness
THE LIVINO WORD

of
man
as a cloud hovers over a mountain;

is
it
neither
a mere immanent consciousness
which
is
rises
no higher than that of man.
It
both the one and the other.

error
is
The
first is
the
of
most Christian theology;
the
second
the error of heathen .speculation.
Christianity speaks of an all-present, almighty
God, without
our head,
whom
no sparrow, no hair of
of a
falls to
the ground;
God
in
whom we
yet
live
and move and have our being;

acted
we have never understood, never

this belief.
on
as
We
deeply
have regarded the world

fallen
world
from
Ciod,
and
Nature as an
evil
thing or at best as a soulless

the
mechanism.
Christianity has preserved
unity, the majesty, the transcendence of
God,
but
to
it
has
lost the true sense of Cjlod's relation
the
world
and
to
ourselves.
Heathen
thought has found CJod in Nature only to

lose Ilim, to divide Ilim, to
its
swamp Him
is
in
manifold processes.
all
This
the difficulty
that confronts
religious
HI.
thought, to find
THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF GOD

the
One
without losing the many, to
rise to
the Transcendent without forsaking the
Im-
manent.
sense
God
we
is
not inaccessible to us in the

receive
that
nothing from
Him.
so
His riches surpass our power

that with
all
to receive;
our searching,
all
our capacity,
we cannot exhaust our

than
our
Creator.
God
any
is
nearer to us than the earth our mother, nearer

parents,
nearer
than
is
finite
being whatsoever, because
He
the source of
our
life.
^Mierever
we
go, whatever
we
do.
His
Spirit
confronts us.
He
sees
is
present as
thoughts are present, as joy and sorrow are

present in our soul.
seen.
He
and He
feels.
is
not
He
forget
not only sees.

is
He
All our
experience
a part of His experience.
We
forget
may
us.
Him, but we cannot escape Him. Him, but He does not

is
We may
The
invisible
forget
object of religion
to find in this
Companion no
accuser,
no haunting,
tormenting presence, but a friend, a Father
through
whom
all
blessing comes.
85
HE LIVING
WORD
and
little
So we conceive
find peace
of (Jlod in our hearts
and harmony and
unity, the
soul dwelling in but not extinguished
by the
Great Soul.
all
We
look out into the world and
we
see
is
disharmony and multiplicity and
contradiction, the everlasting splitting
up
of
Nature, matter scattered up and

rolled
down and
solidcst
into
thousand forms,
the
divisible into parts
and
particles, at last into
atoms.
thither,
Effects
are
to
propagated hither and
from body
body and from part

each
other
to
part.
Movements
cross
on a
thousand paths.
but where
in
is
Centers there are in plenty,

all
the center of
cucli
centers
Laws
abundance, yet
with application only

as
it is
to its
own
so
sphere.
is
it
And
also
in
in the
world of
bodies,
the world of souls.

to every other.
is
Every
spirit is external
No
own.
one comprehends (O mystery!) what

place
in
taking
the
soul
that
is
next his
it
None knows
whither
it
aright
whence
86
comes and
goes.
Principles there are enough,

yet
more
strife
than principles.
is
Purposes
all
without end, but what
the purpose of
our
is
purposes
No
day, no hour, no minute
sure of the next.
One
fashion to-day and

is
another to-morrow.
here
is
What
highly esteemed
accounted accursed there.
In short,
there seems to be nothing but an unending
play of individual forces; no unity, no whole,
no evidence
controlling
of
the
all-comprehending,
all-
Mind.
suggested to us only
Yet
this conclusion is
by the
superficiality of our glance.
We look
is
into the face of a friend
and we
see something.
Not without reason do we say

mirror of the soul.
is
the face
see all
?
the
But do we
too deep,
Much
too high,
much
is
much
too subtle
to
be read by such a glance.
We
look into the
face of Nature
see all
?
and we
is
see more, but
do we
Much
too high, too deep, too com-
plex to reveal
itself to
our gaze.
of unity
Yet the deeper
we go the more we find
and
of purpose.
We
look at the universe in space and

87
we
see
THE
how
way,
all
LlVINCl
iicl
WORD
in tlio
liciic*",
worlds
on one anotlicr
of niiU's
iifô.
.sumo
licrc
and millions
of years
now
l;i-w
and
millions
The
s;ini(>
pivvjiils \\vvv
and cvciywlxMr, now and lorcvcr.

uin'vcrsc in lime
jiiid
W(> look at
nni'oldin^
forces
llic
wo
sec
llic
of
nn'f^hty
[)lan,
iiummcrablc
condjiniiifr,
siij)j)ortinf^,
and opposing
;i.
one another
for
tli<'
achievemeiiL of
disUinl,
iinruKilled purpose.
\\v look wilhin ourselves

forever sirelcliiug out his
fa-el,
and we
hands
see
m;in
to (lod.
The
is
Ih.it
we seek Ilim,
must seek Ilim,

is,
the strongest proof that
He
al-
and
the
f;i,et
thiit
men
everywhei'e
is
;ui(l
ways have sought

that they
moi'e,
aflxM'
(!od
proof enough
iisk
must seek
Ilini.
We
hut
then no
does
(!o(l exist?
how does He
exist?
is
Alliiough
I
we
lis
its
helieve that the universe
inslinet with
;i.s
presence and His
spirit,
v;ist
tlieiii
althougli
far
we
ciiri
follow
tlie
Jiscending scale of
full of
ere;i,ted heiiigs
we
find
God, some
sl;ilr
moi-c
tli;iM
others, although
st;i,r
every
leads to
Him,
88
cyt'vy
f)oinls [o

Him, He
is
not merely the highest stair and

all stars.
throned above
In one sense
He
is
a Being solitary and apart, separate from

orders of being beneath
is
all
Him. In one sense He
one with them
all,
Father, Creator, Arche-
type,
above
all
space and time, and also the

fills
Eternal Spirit that
and sustains
all
by
His presence.
the two
Infinity
and Unity, these are
numbers by which man counts God.

the
God
units
is
One and
the All, the
One
of all
all
fractions, yet
Himself unbroken, the All of
where every unit numbers thousands,

all circles,
the center of
all centers,
the circumference of
the beginning, middle,
and end, the
solution of all contradictions, the final

of creation.
bond
But he who
uniting
will dissolve
God and
break
this
bond
falls
finds
nothing but
contradictions.
He
into contradiction
with the world, with himself, with every one.
Every
man
born into the world has one

one
ascends, the
father, yet as
number
of
his ancestors increases.

89
He
has two grand-
THE LIVINC WORD

fathers,
four
great-grandfathers;
and
with
every generation the
number
tlie
doubles.
How
many
fathers,
then, liad
infinile
luiman race?
Evidently an
nund)er.
On
the con-
trary, only one,
and the
woman
from
whom
ribs.
they
all
it
descended was made of one of
liis
So
might seem
th;i,t
the mnlliplicity of
worlds points to a mulll|)licily of divine beings.
Above man and
grcjilei-
than
is
lie
is tlic eartli.
One
step above the earth
the sun w ilh a few

is
planets.
One
sicp above the sun
a whole
milky way of suns united inlo a system.

ste[) ;d)()vc
A
it
the nn'lky wiiy
is
prol)ably
iiiiollier
system containing more hosts of suns than

has suns.
in tlie
How many
?
world systems
;irc llierc
highest heaven
Only one, one divine

is
vmivcrse.
The whole world

hosts,
one,
and
all
systems,
suns,
[)lii,ncts,
moons have
;ire
come from On(% and by
tlnil
One
united.
Again, however high any particular being

sliinds,
It
Inis still
itself
;i.
world outside
itself, otiici'
it.
beings like
above
Jind benciilh
Only

the higher a being
is
the
the
more
it
possesses
and
inckides within
itself,
more
it is
determined
by
itself
and the
less
by external circumstance.
JNIan
depends absolutely upon the earth, the
earth less absolutely
upon
heat,
the sun, the sun,

still less
which supplies
milky way.
all
its
own
upon
the
God, however, as the
totality of
being and action, has no world outside
Himself, no being external to
Him
to limit
His
freedom
and almightiness.
All spirits
dwell within His Spirit as parts of His universal
mind.
All
is
worlds form His
infinite
body.
He
alone
absolutely free; determined, led,
compelled by nothing outside Himself.
But however high God stands above His

creatures.
He
uses
them
as His instruments
of
and organs and
as the
means
His grace.
He
is
not blind nor deaf, for

all
He
so
sees with the

all
eyes of
His creatures and hears with
their ears.
No
it
creature
is
humble and
as a sphere
small that
of
does not serve
God
is
His action.
No
creature
91
so great
and
THE
high that
it
LIVINCi WOIID
not part of a
it
is
still
gtcalcr
its
and
prowill.
higher, through which
contrihulcs
portion
to
the
performance of (Jod's
united.
So
in
(lod
we
;ire all
Oui'
lillle
souls
are parts of His soul, which works through us

as a
mind works through
its
though Ls.
We
are conscious of this

us, the point at
iirfinite
(>lement within
which the
collective Will of the
Universe Louclies our

science.
'^Vo
will.
We
that
all
cji.ll
it
con-
know
(Jod as the Being whose

all
is
knowledge <om[)rehen(ls
can he known
If
is
known
or
the highest of
knowledge.
is
man would know
everything there
to he
known
that
in the world, lie
need only
is
know what
IJciiig
knows who
all
a,
above the world;
and did he know

that
lliei-e
is
else
and did not know

his
such
FJeing,
knowledge
would be but patchwork.

all,
Since
God knows
and
He knows
our
sorrows,
our sins
shortcomings.
He
surveys the world through

the sorrows of exislence
'I'lien^rore let
your eyes.
II(>
hn-ls
through your heart.
what you
92

think and feel and see and do be worthy of
His eyes and of His compassion.
To
direct our will consciously in accordance
with the will of God, beyond that
man
has
no power
are
to will.
God's
will is one,
and we
many, yet He holds us and
leads us as the
citizens of a country are held
by one code
of
laws, one system of morals, one standard of

truth;
and he who
is
still
strives
it.
against
God's
ordering
held by
We
the
are like a
flock of sheep, driven
by God on a long and

of
broad
way.
Every one
flock
has
liberty within limits to

will.
go where and how he
So they move on.

another to the
left.
it
One
turns to the
before,
flock,
right,
Some go
remains a
others lag behind.
Still
although a scattered
to
is
flock,
and
it
continues
move
in the general direction in

it.
which God
freedom
leading
And none
with
all his
can wander so widely from the way, or turn
back so
lost.
far, or
remain behind so long as to be

finds
93
The Shepherd
him and
drives
him
Til K
on.
flock
MVINC;
WORD
Iciul
And
not ono by his straying can
the
llu>
;i.sir;i,y;
but
the
niliuM- (lie
j)at]i
way taken by
whole floek
returns.
is
lo wliieh the
wanderer
flock
slorin arises,
is
and the whole
cowers and
drawn
logeliier.
Tiie slorni
passes and the flock

the Shepherd
Is all
then".
In the slorni
was
present.
lie
was
in
the
storm
Iliniseir.
^'(\s.
He was
the storm that cloudless

skies
drove together those
whom
He
is
had
scparatcMl.
is
You do
not see that Slu>pherd,

not behind you.
He
Is
not before you,
He
then unreal.^
You do
is
not see
Him
outside you because

in
Ho
within you, and not

the Hock;
you only, but also
iu all
and not
in
the flocks of earth alone, but also in the

lie
is
heavenly flocks.
not only
in
the flock, the whole
but
He
is
also the
way along which
flock
moves
it
lo <>terual life.
'I'hal fact
alone
makes
possible For the Heavenly Shej)her(l
to lead or drive
such a flock as His alono- so
broad and dangerous a way, without losing one

of His
slu-(>j).
He
could not lose a sheep of

His without losing part of Himself.
the thirst
He
feels
and hunger and weariness
of every
sheep as His own, and

in
He
will satisfy
each
His time.
There
is
no
satisfaction
higher than the
satisfaction of satisfying
God.
This
is
peace
true
is
of conscience
and joy
of conscience
and
us
blessedness.
The
highest joy for
to
find pleasure in the Highest, but the pleasure

of the Highest
is
the highest, most enduring
happiness of
every joy that
all
is
His children.
Therein
is
not the cause of a greater

is
grief, therein is
every grief that
the cause
of a greater joy, the healing of every sickness, the
correction of every fault,
and
after
punishment peace.
He who
will
attain the
highest inward blessedness must
work with
all.
God
to increase
the happiness of
is
To
seek our
own
find
happiness
not enough, since

only
we can
others.
our
happiness
through
Yet the smallest creature that does

95
not destroy a greater has a place in the King-
THE LIVINC WORD

dom
tlio
of (rod.
('X[)(Misc
To
seek our
own
luippiiuvss
;it
of anotluM''s jmin
and
sin
is
to
strive with (i!od

all.
who
desires
tlie
hii[)|)iness of
Woe
lo
to
Ihat
nnm!
(Jod will bring his

;iii
works
others
iijiiiglit.
To
set
is
example which
may
not follow
to place a stone of
stumbling
on
(lod's
gre;il
highway.
(>vil
To
it is
increase the
good and destroy the
necess;iry Lo bear pain
and sorrow and

sa,k(>
to light
manfully, not for the

the the
is
of the grief
and
strife,
p(>a,ce.
but only for the sake of the joy and
No
sacrifice
can please (lod that

gives us alwiiys
the
real
sacriticc.
He
gre;it for the little, the eternal for the
temporal.
No
for
life
sacrifice
its
can please (Jod that

sidvc.
is
a sacrifice
the
own
He would not accept
of Isaac lor
which no joy could atone to
Abraham.
All that
you
s;i,crifice
to
the good
of others will be returned to fold in their
yon a hundredbut
if
good
;ind
happiness;
you
think to
|)l(>;ise
yourself alone, (od rewards
you with
p.iln
and punishment.
00

Die
Seligkeit ist nicht,
nur
selig selbst
zu sein,
Die
Seligkeit
ist
ist
nicht allein
und
nicht zu zwein;
Die Sehgkeit
nicht zu vielen, nur zu alien;
Mir kann nur Seligkeit der ganzen Welt gefallen. Wer selig war' und miisst' unselig andre wissen. Die eigne Seligkeit war' ihm dadurch entrissen.
Und
die Vergessenheit
kann
ist
Seligkeit nicht sein,
Vielmehr das Wissen
die Seligkeit allein.
Drum kann
Und
Wer
der
die Seligkeit auf
Erden nicht bestehen,

Unsel'ge sehn.
Weil hier die Seligen so
viel
Gedanke nur
gibt Seligkeit auf Erden,

selig
Dass die Unseligen auch
soUen werden.
dieses weiss, der tragt mit Eifer bei sein Teil
Zum
allgemeinen, wie
zum
zu
eignen Seelenheil.
aller
Gott aber weiss den
Weg
Heil allein;
Drum ist nur selig Gott, in ihm nur kannst du's sein.^
All
good
is
a treasure
God
guards for
all,
but everything that you do moves in a

greater or smaller.
act goes
far
circle
Ofttimes the effect of your

into
it,
beyond you
the distance
it
it it
whither you cannot follow
but
call
returns
heavy with consequences.
You
your act
returns
when
with
it
departs, retribution
when
;
all it
has gathered on
it
its
way and though
the arc through which

>
moves be so great
RtJCKBRT, Die Weisheit des Brahmanen.
Th.
I, s. 58.
97
THE LIVING WORD

tliat it (It)os ni)t find
you
is
lioiv, it will find
you
there.
Txvist of
jill
that .sinner lo be envied

eseajies all [)unishnient
and congratulnted who

in this
life.
He
has
all his
punishment yet
asked
to
bear.
An
unbeliever once
Plutarch
why God
does not prove His
c>xistenct>
by
punishing the wicked with death, and the wise

Plutarch replied:
"God
proves
letting
Ilis existence
and punishes them by
them
live."
Then send out good

strength that they
deeds, launch Ihcnj with

travel far;
fail.
may
and your
reward shall by no means
(u)d re\\ards
in
you once
in the joy
you ex|)erience
doing
good, a second time in the good your deed

acc()in[)lishes.
Again lie rewards you by the

countcuauce.
for the love of
light
of
Ilis
KcuuMuber,
he
who does good

by the
love of
God
is
rewarded
all
God which
the
exc<>cds
other
rewards.
as
as
AVe often hear the sinner spoken of
the
God-forsaken,
(Jod-abaiidoned.
him whom (lod has

08
rejecliMl
and handed
is
over to a fearful doom.
Nothing
more
false.

God
eous.
is
present in the soul of the sinner even

in the soul of the rightof
more constantly than
Almost everything we know

is
God's
fatherly love
save.
is
taught us by God's desire to

is
The
sinner
in
in
God, but he
is
in
God just as the saint God in a diflferent way.
All the forces of God's being are set in the

direction of righteousness.
To
that mighty
stream of tendency the sinner stands as an

obstruction.
will of
His
will is
turned against the
God, and the

him.
It
will of
God
him
is
turned
against
bears upon
love,
heavily,
re-
chastising
him by
by memory, by
morse, and by the natural penalty of the laws
he has broken; not because

or wishes to destroy him,
loves
God
hates him,
but because
God
him and would turn him from
the evil
which would destroy him. So I understand the

divine
hearts.
commandments which are
written in our
They were
which
given to us not merely

all
for our good,
admit, but for our
highest happiness, which only a few will allow.

99
THE LIVING WORD

In
it,
spite of all the evil that
has been spoken of
happiness
is
the stone set at naught

to
by the
builders,
which turns out
be the headstone
of the corner; only to build safely

it
on
this stone,
must be placed on
its
broad side
that
is,
we must
consider not our happiness alone,
but the happiness of others.
So God's com-
mandment warns me
that I should not pur-
chase temporary happiness at the price of

lasting misery to myself or others, for not thus
can I please
to increase
God
but that I should act so as
my own
permanent happiness and

men.
In so doing I
the happiness of other
am
pleasing
for
in
God and
obeying His commandments,
God wishes to reap what He has sown me as much as in another man. Only beis
ware of thinking that sensual pleasure

God's pleasure.
whatever
for
all,
also
Beware
of
thinking
is
that
selfish
pleasure you enjoy
pleasure
and
also for
God.
Beware
of desiring,
life
with your feeble insight, to order your

otherwise than
it
has been ordered for you

100

above in the divine commandments.
last
it
At the
comes
to this:
whether I
will sacrifice
myself to others, or others to myself; whether

I will sacrifice the short pleasure that brings
remorse and sorrow to the joy of serving God,
which
is
followed by no pain.
is this
For above
all
lower joy there
higher joy and peace of
conscience that soars over lower pleasure as
a dove soars over the green

joy I have, and this joy
direct
fields.
This
I
God
has in
me when
my
life
so that in the broadest sense

it
and
for the longest time
serves to
promote the
happiness, health, and salvation of
my
fellow
men.
This happiness
in
God
I shall have so
soon as I realize that His

di^^ne
will.
His laws. His
Pro\"idence
can be directed towards
nothing else than the perfection and blessedness of
me and
it
all
mankind.
me, I
If
God demands
this rule of life of
will believe that

is
He
not
practises
Himself, that His happiness
a thing apart from the happiness of His

dren.
chil-
God
also suffers in
101
me.
He
suffers
THE
when
suffers I tun
I.I
VI N
(J
WORD
when
I
sin.
unluippy and
I
He
more when
torment mysoH' with

to
unavaihng remorse.
Yet He has means
remove
my
sorrow and
my
sin,
whicli
lie
incessantly employs.
I await
my
time.
102
Bedenke, dass ein Gott
in
sei
deinem Leibe wohnt,

der
Und
vor Entweihung
Du
krankst den Gott in
dir,
Tempel stets verschont. wenn du den Liisten frolinest,
Und mehr noch, wenn du

Gott
stieg herab, die
sollst
in verkehrter Selbstqual stohnest.
Welt zu schaun mit deinen Augen:
Ihm
Er
ist,
Drum
du Opferduft mit reinen Sinnen hauchen, fiihlt und denkt und spricht; was du schaust, fiihlst, denkst und sprichst, sei
der in dir schaut und
gottlich licht.
RijcKERT, Die Weisheit des Brahmanen.
Th.
I, s. 6.
103
CHAPTER
MAN
S LIFE IN
VI
GOD
is
The
secret of all spiritual religion
the
union of the
human
soul with the divine soul,
the belief that man's spirit and God's spirit

are in their essence one.
Without
this belief
man's relations with God become formal and

external.
The world robbed

of
of the haunting
presence
irreligious
an
indwelling
deity
becomes
result
and profane.
This was the
of the Neo-Platonic philosophy.
By
exalting
God
trial
far
above the sphere
of this base terres-
world and by representing

it,
Him
the
as defiled
by every contact with

unconsciously
Philo and his friends

to
spiritual
contributed
bankruptcy and
to the sense of
God -forsaken
loneliness that took possession of the world
shortly after the beginning of the Christian

105
THE
Era.
Christ's
LI V
INC
WORD
human
life
joyous recognition of God's
presence in Nature and in
and the
profoundly biological quality of His thought

successfully opposed this tendency
and brought
God back
in
to the world.
Yet again and again
the
history
of
His religion the spiritual
nature of
ties
that
God and the unspeakably intimate bind Him to His creatures have been
and
regal conception
sacrificed to the judicial
of the Ciodhead.
To
reconcile these claims
and
to preserve a just balance
between these
aspects of the Divine Nature, the doctrine of the Trinity
was
formul.it(>d.
It
endeavors to
His im-
express the transcendency of God,
manency, and man's oneness with (Jod as

revealed in Christ.
For us the
ject of
final
word
of religion
on the sub-
God's nature
Fourth
is
the saying ascii})ed
to Jesus in the
(JosfK'l,
"(Jod
is
spirit,
and they that worship

in spirit
and
in
Him must worship Him truth." Men have felt the

106
finahty of that saying, yet they have lu'sitated
MAN'S LIFE IN
to accept
it
GOD
become
in-
literally,
fearing to
of
is
volved
in
the
mazes
pantheism.
The
greater the Divine Soul

the nearer to us
represented to be,
and
to the course of Nature,
the greater the danger that the human soul

will
be swallowed up and
lost
in
Him, the
more immediate His

of the world.
responsibility for the evil

led
Yet what has
men
astray
here
is
false analogy, the
fundamental error
of all pantheism.
Forgetting the Apostle's
advice, they have been misled into comparing

spiritual things with physical instead of
comGod's
paring spiritual things with spiritual.
mind
is
not a vast chaotic sea in which every-
thing mingles and runs together in confusion,

as
many pantheists have
ridiculously imagined.
Du bist kein Tropfe, der im Ocean verschwimmt, Du fUhlest dich als Geist auf ewig selbst bestimmt. Vom hochsten Geiste fUhlest du dich nicht zur Verschwimmung
Im
hochsten Geist bestimmt, sondern zur Selbstbestim-
mung.
'
RtjCKERT, Die Weisheit des Brahmanen.
Th.
Ill, s. 115.
107
THE
It is
LI VIN(;
light,
WORD
its
a world of
an infinitude of ordered
thought.
The
higher the mind, the higher
organization, the
the
more permanent
its
its
memories,
more
distinet
spirits
thoughts.
in
If
we
in
^ôuId
closest
know how
exist
God
association with
Him and
with one another,
yet without losing their identity or responsibility,
we have only one
certain clue, namely,
to look within ourselves

exist
and see how thoughts

in
and are associated

this
our minds.
To
w(>
some
may seem
a bold inference, a hazIt'
ardous analogy, but we have no other.

desire to think of
God
as a spiritual being,
in
and we have no higher term

[)ress
which
;ill
to ex-
IIim,we must remember that
we know
of spirits
tlu>
and
spiritual beings
we know from
souls.
contemj)lation of our
own
Nor
is
this influence so
crude and antliroj)omorpliic
as
some may suppose.
Having learned the
general laws and properties of matter from

the insignificant particles which an> analyzed
in
our laboratories, we do not hesitate to affirm

108
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

that under the
prevail
same conditions those laws

Having
and
deduced
the
everywhere.
of logic
principles
of mathematics,
we
proclaim those principles to be of eternal and

universal application.
Having once
risen to
its
the height of the moral law,

validity in the highest
we
declare
Heaven.
The
plain
truth
is,
all
that
we know
or believe of the
moral and
spiritual nature of
God we know
own
of
and
believe through the experiences of our
souls.
Eliminate
this,
and the idea
God
becomes a mere vacuum, a conception without

content.
God and
Eliminate
the soul cannot be sep-
arated.
other.
one
and you
lose
the
No
one went further than Kant in
denying the legitimacy of applying to

all
God
the categories of
later writings
human
experience, yet
in his
even he was compelled
to
apply to
God
the attributes of morality with-
out which
God would
cease to exist for
man.
do
But what Kant was constrained

grudgingly,
to
we may now do
109
lovingly
and
freely.
THE MV1N(; WORD

Two
vent
things,
iis
we Imvc
findiiiji,'
iilrcudy sl.iicd,
llie
pre-
men from
living
(Jod
by
reusoii:
\\\^
either tliey icmiiin olwtinutely sliind-
in the
world of
finite
and sensible
objects,
which
itsell' sli;ul(\s
insensibly into the infinite
and the
spirilnal,
and refuse
to
allow them-
selves to rise to the height to
which the soul
so gladly wings
its
way; or
else they cnt
them-
selves olf from this
marvelous and wholesome

reality,
world of fact and
and phinge
into
a,
labyrinth of abslnut c()nce|)ti()ns which ton(;h

rc.dity at
no
jM)int.
first
)ne error
is ;is
great as
he
other.
The
denies (Jod altogether;

to
the
second reduces Ilim

a word
living
in
an empty abstraction,
is
a book.
to (lod:
There
that
is
but one
real
and
way
through
all reality,
life
st;u'.
through
in
i'very
main' festiU ion
of spiritual
oi-
worm
or plant or aninnd or niiin

error
of
The
strange
h;i,s
almost
all
religious
finite to
thought
the
been the o()posing of the
Infinite
finite
-as
if
an
it
Infinite
could
exist
with a
outside of
instc;i,d
of finding
no
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

a place for the
finite in the Infinite.
We
be-
heve or we profess to beheve in an all-com-
prehending
Spirit,
but in a Spirit which does

spirits
is
not comprehend our
but only confronts

the cause of
them
externally.
This
much
when
of the
morbid
fear with
which
religion has
inspired
man, the
fear of the finite spirit
confronted by the Infinite, without the sense

of oneness
and
of sympathy.
Spirit
truly infinite
and all-comprehending
within
eternal
itself
life
must include
just as a true
life.
all
finite
spirits,
all
includes
temporal
is
To
of all
think of
God
all
otherwise
to rob
Him
real attributes.
To
speak of
God
while deny-
ing
Him
is
inward connection with the real speak of nothing, a mere contramatter
world
to
diction.
No
how
high the tower,
its
base must rest upon the solid ground, and

the higher the superstructure the deeper the
foundation.
An
infinite
space must include

If the Infinite
it
within
itself all finite
spaces.
has need of the
finite to
make
real,
not
less
111
THE
does the
all
LIVINT.
WORD
without which
finite
all
need the
Infinite,
unity,
place, all association vanish
and
we have
soul, we
left
only the confused play of indiInstead of

a,
vidual forces.
cosmos, a world
have only a world of soul dust, monads,
atoms, what you please.

looking for
exalted
is
'Mw God we
arc
not a
all
(;liang(>less,
timeless deity
above
worlds,
filling
no space;
time,
all
but the
change,
of our
God who comprehends

all
all
space in Himself after the

soul.
if it
manner
own
People speak of faith as

nothing, as
if
it
ought
to rest
on
the less
is.
it
rests
on the more
tlie
meritorious
truth.
That
is
the reverse of
is
Faith which rests on nothing
j)iire
superstition,
to rest
and the more

it
facts faith
is.
can find
on the stronger
it
1"'he
oak grows
from the acorn, but

the acorn.
will
not grow without

lets his
The astronomer who
eye
range over the heavens by night sees only tiny

discs
and points
of light
and believes that the
heavens are
full of
great suns and stars.

112
Yet
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

did he not see the tiny discs and points of
hght he would beheve the heavens to be absohitely
empty.
of
So man's experience
is
of
the
mind
God
necessarily small, smaller

stars to the
by
comparison than the fixed

eye, but
it
naked
is
only on account of these small
experiences that
man
believes in a
I defy
God who
any one
has
transcends
all
experience.
to point to a conception of
God which
borne
religious
fruit
which did not spring

life.
from some comparison with human

It is true this
attempt to find
life
God
in the
experiences of
human
has been abused.

at
There are few

in their history
religions
which
some time
have not pictured their gods in

the cruder the religion,
its
the likeness of
men and
the
more
grossly anthropomorphic are all
conceptions.
There was
also a time
when
men
looked up into the heavens and saw or
thought they saw great bulls and scorpions and

fiery virgins.
Is that
any reason why we should

113
not use our constructive imagination in in-
THE LIVING WORD

terpreting
what we
see,
or shall
we meekly
accept what the eye reveals to us and affirm

that the heavens contain nothing but discs
and points
of light
Is that science
Is
it
not
rather a wise use of our imagination that gives
us science
religion
The
truth
is,
the very essence of

spiritual
is
man's sense of
kinship
with God.
At a low stage
of
man's developrelationship
child, igno-
ment, the real nature of
that
was wofuUy misunderstood.

rant of
all
The
things,
has supposed that rela-
tionship to be merely physical
and he has
drawn sad
But were
it
caricatures of his Heavenly Father.
not for a sense of kinship with God,

conviction that
like
the inalienable
man
all,
is
like
God and may become more

would be no such thing as
It
Him, he would
for there
not have drawn God's portrait at
religion.
may
be said, there
is
a great difference
finite
between passing from one

another,
Infinite,
object
to
and passing from the
finite
to the
The astronomer
believes in worlds
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

when he
sees discs
and points
of hght.
The
chemist on the ground of what he can see
beheves in the atoms which he cannot
see.
But
of
to
attempt to pass from

earth to the
all
the experiences
of the infinite
man on
mind
and
invisible
God
is
a wholly different matter.

the final
Has not our age spoken

subject
word on
that
that
when
it
declines to
make
com-
parison, to take that leap from the finite to
the infinite,
and
is
content
humbly
to
admit
that the highest, in fact the only, knowledge
we
possess of
God
is
that
He
is
incomparable
is
and unknowable, and
that
man
equally in
life
absolute ignorance of an eternal
which
can never be conjured out of threescore years
and ten
? is
In one sense there

of agnosticism.
self
much
truth on the side
"ÂTien
man compares
is
himall
with
God
the difference
so great that
our experiences go for
little
or nothing.
If
we cannot know directly the

still
soul of our brother,

spirit of the
less
can we know the

115
Most
THE
High.
life
L1V1N(;
WORD
an cternul
to
Wlicii
wo attempt
to inuigiiio
growing und developing From age

to century, wlieii
age
and from century

try to
we even
imagine ourselves as existing w ithout a
brain, without a body,
wv
find
it
for the
most
part impossil)le.
In both eases the compariyet not wholly.

long,
son seems to
fail,
fe(^t
Here
is
straight line ten
and here
is
a straight
line infinitely long.
It is true
we might go on
line
forever
applying
the
ten-foot
llie
without
is,
discovering
how long
infinite line
yet
they are both slraight

the ten-foot line
lines.
Every condition
in order to be a
must obey
straight line, the infinite line also
must obey.
In that respect we
know
it.
And can any one

it
study this universe without discovering
to
be
full
of
iulelligence
and reason
If
so,
where do the mathematics, physics, and mechanics
we deduce from
But a being
CJod
is
a,
the
universe
come
is
from
jjossessing intellect
spirit.
spirit.
Infinitely as lie transpirit,
scends us lie cannot be anything but a

IIG
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

and the more man's
spiritual nature develops
and the
his soul
better he understands the relation of
and body, the more he

of
will
understand
the
mind
God and God's

straight line
relation to the
is
universe.
Every
part of an
of time
infinite straight line.
Every moment
part of infinite time, every finite space part

of infinite space, every
body
is
part of the uninfinite
ending universe, every soul part of the

unity of
all souls,
life,
every temporal
life
a wave
of eternal
every
human
liberty part of
less liberty
God's
infinite liberty,
and not the
on that account.
As a
spirit,
God
has a relation to the mais
terial universe,
but what that relation
we can
learn only through the relation of our soul to
our body.
God
does not draw the world after
Him Him
soul
like
like
is
a horse.
He
does not push
it
it
before
as the
a perambulator.
He
If
is
in
in the body.
God
as a spirit also has
relations with other spirits.
He
is
indeed
the one infinite, all-comprehending Spirit, they

117
THE LIVING WORD

cannot
exist outside
Ilim and independent of

tcriris
Him.
it
This
is
a contradiction in
and
would lead
to the recognition of a plurality
of divine beings,
infinite.
none of which could be called

true
The one
God can endure no
other
God
all
beside Ilim.
spiritual
life
He
does, however,
include
within Ilim.
This
then
is
the conception I propose to sincere
seekers after God, to those
who
are unsatisfied
with a mere judge, an absentee deity, a Being
throned above the stars in timeless, changeless

idleness;
and who
is
desire a real
and working
is
God who
commune
present in this world as the soul
present in the body, a Ciod with

as thoughts
whom we
can
can
commune
with the mind,

feel
as spirit speaks to spirit, a
God who
Ilis
our sorrows and temptations as
own, a
God who
is
Himself seriously concerned with
the problem of evil, in
whom we
and
are
in
all
united
by the law
of association,
whom we
beyond
can look confidently forward to
life
death, to final perfection and delivc r;uiee.

118
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

Just because this conception
is
so vital, so
practical, so tremendous, the difficulties in the
way
to accepting
it
appear very formidable;
yet they are only apparent.

desire to feel
You
say, " I
do
and
I
realize
my
relations to
God
more
deeply.
to
do
desire a nearer
walk with
spirit
Him, and
in
be more conscious of His
my
heart, but I
to give
do not
desire to be lost in
Him,
up my own
individual
life,
my
personal responsibility."
objection too far.
preserve
Do
not press this
You do
this
indeed desire to
individuality,
your
freedom, your
your responsibility, and

of
view of
God and
your
life
in
God
preserves
them
to the utter-
most, while most other views sacrifice them.
But you do not
desire
to stand alone, un-
touched by spiritual influence from

other spiritual beings.
God and
You do
not care to be
an atom moved only externally or a monad

without a window.
of another
to find
it.
To
enter deeply the soul
is
not to lose our
own
soul,
it
is
To
lose ourselves completely in the 119
THE MVINCJ WORD

life
of luiin;iiiity
}KM'S()nality,
is
not to
is
l)o
(h'prixctl
of our
jiikI
own
our
life.
it
to ^jiin
u fîvnU-r
lli(>
liiglicr pcrsoniility.
lilV in
Jl"
To
realize to
lo roiilizc
iiliiiosl
(Jod
is
simply
(lod
in
our
we
are in (0(1
we
are in (<0(1 as parts

(Jod's
of Ilis s|)iriLual nature.
mind
is
firm;
His
lie
tliouglits
do not merge and mix together.

the
is
never
tliinks
same
thougiit
twice.
will
Your
individuality
iiiviolahie.
You
mind
not he absorbed in (iod, any moi-e than your
thoughts
are
absorbed
in
the
that
thinks them.
Del- (icisi
<!i'H
Mciiscluii
uiul
I'iilill
sicli
viillip;
zwcicrloi;
Abliiiiifjip;
iîiiiic
fi;iir,
uiul
iiii
iiiiiiMiiiiifriff I'lci.
AldLiirifîfr, iiisorcni
I
cr (ioll
Aiif^c
sicli
ciii
liiill,
'lid
llIml)lliirlf;lf^^
wo
I'iilill
cr vor
sicli
liiil
die
\V<-I|.
lliiiiH,
Vorin Vjilcr
iiiilrci
so
Soliii voiii
Sclhsliiiidii; iil)cr wolil, Hohiild cr Irill
liiimiis.'
Leibniz found saJisraclion

tliat
in
th(>
llioiiglit
our souls are
monads
(
able
to
reflect
externally the light from

'
Jod that
dcs
falls
on tliem
ItllciuoiiT,
l)if ll'n'.ihn'l
llrdliiiiiinrii.
'I'll.
II,
,-,.
47.
120
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

though
it
cannot penetrate them.

satisfaction
But how
find in the
much more
thought that
may you
God
Hves and feels and acts in

to
you and through you, that you are bound
Him by
finite
every fiber of your being, and not

all
only to Him, but to

spirits
the other hosts of
which
those
constitute
His
mind,
to
especially
to
who
are
bound
you you
through laws of association.

,
But
in all this
say " What becomes of my f i-eedom ?" It is preserved as no other religious philosophy is able to
preserve
it.
From
this point of
view the old
antagonism between God's freedom and man's
freedom almost disappears.
If
you
exist in-
dependently as a thing apart from God, and
God's
will
is
absolute and unfettered,

is left
it
is
hard to see what place
for
human
free-
dom. and
But
if
you are
God's
in
God and your
soul
will part of
is
spiritual nature,
your
freedom
simply part of God's universal

in
freedom which you employ and enjoy
Him
and under Him. Nor is
it
necessary to suppose
121
11
I-:
MV
(i
WORD
tliiit
the uiu'lianging laws of Naliirc imposo
IVltors
on
llic
IVccdom
ol"
(lod, siiico oiir bodies
arc governed by ecûally inflexible laws wliieli

W(>
employ
llie
lo
ol'
I'liKil
our jMirposes.
letter (iod;
Neither
they are
do
the
laws
Nature
means by which He
His habits are
attains
His purbecHUsc
poses.
to
a,
Inllcxible only
is
jHMlVct being there
only one perfect
The
tixlity
great jn'oblems
ol"
evil
and of imniora.
from
this [)oint
ol"
view accpiire
'I'lie
new
prob-
meaning, a new ho|)e of solution.
lem of
evil
liist
it
becomes
is
rational
when we
problem,
understaJid that
j)rima,rily (Jod's
(iod docs not stand apart as an idle spectator,

a,
judge of
this
the suj)reinc struggle of the

in
it
universe.
He
engages
will,
Himself, through
finilc spirits
His most holy

a-ud
is
through His
through the moral laws by which
this
world
governed.
I
This
tells
me
precisely the thing
which
wish most lo know: that
my
struggle
for purity
and enlighlcnment and perfection
aiAN'S LIFE IN
GOD
By
flesh
does not depend on myself alone.
myself,
weighted with the burden of the
and a
thousand
doubts,
infirmities of spirit,
surrounded by
foes,
pitfalls,
aged and crafty
what can
my
feeble
strength avail?
Apart from the
knowledge that God
will leave
no thought
of
His, no part of His Nature unpacified
and
?
imperfect,
If
what hope have

simply in
itself
I of redemption
my
life is
or
bound
to this
perishing organism, what hope have I beyond

the grave
?
If
my
soul has only this bare
physical
will not
universe
to
run to
if
after
life is
death,
in
it
run
far.
But
it
my
God,
I
God I know that

in
shall find
in a higher form.
the impressions of
my
senses soon
disappear and are extinguished, but that they
reappear in a higher and more permanent
form
in
thoughts and memories.
So
God
life
sends us forth during the brief day of

gather experience for Him.
to
He
its
sees the world
through our eyes and hears

through our
ears.
manifold sounds
But when we have gathered

123
THE MviN(;
enoiig-li
\Y()iin
us
for lliin, Ilr

;i
r;ills
I
homo.
r;ills
us
now
pl;uv
to
l\ii;'hor
[)l;mo of
lis
briuo- lo t;iko
our
iiiHoui;'
Ilis
pornKinonl
imMuorios ;nul
pliysiral
invisil)ly lo
in;iy
work
on.
Now
tlu>
hody
be dissolvod as our sense
ini[)rcssi()ns ar(>
hii^'her life.
dissolved only to liberate the
At
death
(u)d says
to
ns,
" Friend,
eonie
up
higher."
of (lod,
INTan
If I live in the
mind and memory

1
do not
fear
that
shall
I'oroej
})erisli.
I'oro-els
nnieh, the animals
more;
(lod
the
|)laiits
remember hardly
anytliini;';
foro'ets nothing'.
Lastly, this view ad'ords a
good
philoso|)]iy,
If
the only real philoso[)liy of pray(>r.

lives
in
nniii
(lod,
and (uxl
eonstaiilly speaks lo
him,
how
unnatural,
how
l'ac(>
nu)nslrous thai
to the
man
his
should never turn his

life
source
(i>f
and speak
lo
(lod.
What
is
delers uiauv
good man from praying

his
the didieullv of
understanding how
ear of (iod or what
prayer enlcMs into the

it
eil'eet
can ha\'e upon the

If
ordering of his
life
inward or outward.
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

this
world
is
a vast machine, complete in every

set
part,
which God merely made and

it
in
motion,
affect
it
is
difficult to see
how
prayer can
in the slightest degree.
The world
seems
like a
machine
to
you because you well
understand
its
mechanical laws, whereas you

its
know
But
little
or nothing of
spiritual laws.
it is
so your
body is a machine yet

;
moved,
nourished, supported, and controlled by your

soul,
it
and only
it
as long as there
is
a soul within
does
hold together.
It naakes
no difference
whether you regard your soul as the uniting

principle or as the product of
all
the forces of
your body, the fact

is
is
the
same
So this universe
moved, sustained, nourished, and controlled

spirit of
by the
such a
God, and only while there

it
is
spirit
within
is
does
it
exist at all.
But
one of those forces
you, and you are not alone,
but by spiritual law you are bound to the Soul

that animates
all.
So when you
in prayer
gather up your soul in a strong desire toward
God, that prayer
enters into God's conscious125
Til K
nrss
1,1
('.
WO HI)
Ilis
II
and hrconuvs
if
il
oiio
is
of
(IcU-nninin^'
likoly
to
motivrs, jnul
f>'0(Hl,
is
Uv
acted
oil.
W(" do
iiol
dream
llie
of asking (Jod to
(ixod
violate"
His
own
laws,
and eternal
a.
expression of
Ilis will, iH-eansc siieli
violation
would do more harm than

as yet hut
little
il"
n'ood.
)N'e
know-
of the law of prayer, hut W(>

|)rayer
is
a.
may
he sur(\
real
I'oi'ce
in
this
universe, (hat
it
has
its
laws which must hv

'The
oheyed
highest
if its
hlessin;s
would he ohiained.
|)ray
lor,
things
wc can
and
|H>ace
and
reeoneiliation
forgiveness,
faith
are
always
a {)ur("
given us
if
we pray with As
pia}'
and with
heart f(>rvently.
the oftener
for the rest,
we know
that
we
aud
tlu>
more earnestly
to
we
|)ray,
aud the more our heart goes out

<le(iuiU> direction, the
is
(lod in one
more hkely
(Jod
resisis
our prayer
to
!)(>
answcrt-d.
r<>sist
many
to
|)rayers just as W(>
or as
wc ought
r(\sist
many
thoughts, and haxiug prayetl

for th(> highest
ill
faithfully
wc should he content,
is
1^()
object of true prayer
to
bring our w
into
MAN'S LIFE IN GOD

harmony with
to
the will of
God, not
to attempt
bend the
will of
God
to the oftentimes blind
and misguided
Mensch,
so
will of
man.
was
redlich beten heisst.
Geist.^
du wissen
willst,
So geh' in dich hinein, und frage Gottes
God knows know. He knows also

Since
all
that
His creatures
their faults, their igno-
rance and their errors, though without sharing
them.
They
are but the limitations of a part
which does not know the whole, as the whole
knows the
in
part.
Many
God.
man
does not believe

of
God, doubts the very existence

is
God,
though he
that
in
This does not mean
God
does not believe in Himself, or that
He
doubts His
own
existence.
God
sees the
unbelief of
men
as well as their faith,
and He
has means to evoke faith and to destroy unbelief
which
He
if
constantly, though gradually,
employs.
But
you ask why God does not
at
once and forever destroy error and unbelief,
Angelus Silemis.
127
TIIK LI V1N(;
you must
destroy
WORD
In other words,
(loodncss of
also ask wliy (lod docs not at once

evil
all
generally.
is
our next
j)rol)Ieni
tlie
Cod
and the Evil
of the World.
128
right
saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cjtus whose I have even called thee by thy hand I have holden name, I have surnamed thee though thou hast not known me. I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside me, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and
Thus
create evil.
I the
Lord do
Isaiah
all
these things.
XLV,
part of verses
1, 4, 5, 7.
129
CHAPTER
THE GOODNESS OF GOD
VII
.VND
THE EVHj
OF THE WORLD
King Cteus
the
Great must have been
very mucli astonislied to hear these words,

if
for
no other reason, because they contraof his
diet
the fundamental principle
own
religion.
In saying
this I
assume that Cyrus

opinion,
was a Zoroastrian.
This
though
supported by excellent authority, I

is
it
am
aware
open to question; so I
to this extent,
am
willing to
modify
and say that though Cyrus
may
ligion
not have embraced personally the reof the great Zoroaster, yet he
could
hardly have been ignorant of the principles of

that religion.
tells
The
Persian historian Firdusi
us expressly that C;stus sacrificed daily

the beneficent deity in whose
131
to
Ahura Mazda,
'IIIK
LI V
INC
WORD
on
llic
iijune ZoroiistcT taiighl, Jiiid
Loiiib
ol'
Diirius,
who
iisccMidod
tlic
throne of
I'crsiii,
ri^fht ye;i,rs iifU'i- ('yrns' dcJiUi, Ihis inscriplion
stands written in
to this day:
tlic
I
old
l'ersi;i,n
cliiiracLers
"What
did I
(h'd
by the
^r.ixv
of
ol'
Ahura
Aluira
Maz(hi,.
O
is,
man, the
"Î'liiidv
coniinaiidnieiiL
(>vil,
Mazda
way,
no
I'oisnke
not the
rif^lit
sin not.'"
Moreover, the
languapje of the second Isaiah,
who
lived al
the
is
<'()nrt
ol"
Cyrns and evidently knew him,

little
so clear and so })ointed as to leave
room
for doid)t.
Now
are
the relifîon of Zoroaster

fôds,
is,
that there
Anjri'o
two
Ahura,
Mazda,
a,nd
Mainyu, or
as
we
say, Oritin/.d
eiif^rii.fred
and Ahrimaii,
in
a,nd that these
two are
a perpetual
deadly
is
strngf^le.
ol"
Ortmiz-d
is
good, Ahrlm;in
everything
to
spoil
light,
the soul
evil;
Ormuzd made
fair,
Ahrimun constantly endeavors

good creation;
the
his
Orirmzd made the
Ahrirnan
darkness;
in
Orniuzd
planted
good grain and
his whe;i,t
Ahrima,ti
sows
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

his tares;
Ormuzd
is
the god of truth, Ahri-
man
the father of Hes.
Ormuzd
loves
man,
Ahriman hates him, tempts him, and constantly endeavors to corrupt
and destroy him.
Both are
stronger;
strong,
in
but the good
Ormuzd
is
the
his
end he
will
triumph and
Ahriman and
will
wicked angels and friends
be burned up in a general conflagration
of the world.
Without describing the

further,
it is
religion of Zoroaster
easy to see
how
deeply
it
has im-
pressed
itself
upon our own

it
religious thought
and how
closely
corresponds to our
own
to
popular conception of the relation of

the devil.
God
"I
We
can see now plainly enough

said,
what Isaiah meant when he

Jehovah and there
beside me.
ness.
is
am
none
else, there is
no God
form the
light
and create darkI
make good and
create evil.
Jehovah
do
all
these things."
In other words, the old

it
problem
of evil confronted Isaiah as
con-
fronts us; the popular solution

133
was
at
hand
THE LIVING WORD

of a devil, a secondary agent
who
is
responsible
for the sin

will
and misery
to
of this world,
it;
and Isaiah
have nothing
it,
do with
he dcliheralcly
is
rejects
and declares that there

all
but one
God, one supreme Creator of

that as lie
It is
that exists,
and
all.
made
all,
He
is
res})onsible for
a comfort to
know
us,
that this battle has

this position
Iw'i'ore
beon fought before
and that
was taken
by one
five
hundred years
Christ
of the
most profound thinkers and
inspired writers that the old religion of Isniel
ever produced.
It
comforts me, because;
if
Isaiah fearlessly and unhesitatingly adopted

this position,
tion,
it
cannot be an irreligious posiit
and whatever doubts and misgivings

to, in
exposes us
the end
it
will
be found to
all
vindicate the honor of

is
God.
At
events
it
the position to
which thinking men the world
over are being rapidly led or driven, often

against their will.
Up
to comparatively
'i
few years past the

this subject
orthodox religious view upon
was
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

a very simple one.
Not more than
six or seven
thousand years ago,
a perfectly good,
an
absolutely wise and omnipotent
God made
a perfect
the world, finished, complete, and perfect in
every
respect,
and
in
it
placed
humanity, but the devil soon entered in and

spoiled everything.
Although there
is
is
much
that
that
is
it
childish in this view, there
no doubt
must
satisfy
some need
of the
human
the face
mind from
it
the wonderful tenacity with which

itself in
has been able to maintain
of all evidence
down
is
to the present day.
Even
lie
now
its
power
unshaken over minds that

circle of
is
outside the
charmed
modern
science
to
and philosophy.
There
no doubt that
many minds
of certain
it
offers a satisfactory explanation

diflSculties
profound
which confront
us every day and which otherwise seem without an explanation.

infinite
It is true its
God
is
neither
nor omnipotent, since otherwise
why
should he be so hampered by the Devil, but
on the other hand
it
leaves
135
men
free to believe
Til K LI
in the ;ibsolule
all, is
VINC won
ol"
1)
goodness
(nxl.
and
thai, after
the
main thine
in religion.
Between the
oninipotenee and the absolute goodness of the

Creator,
lieve in
it
is
far
more important
in
for us to be-
His goodness than
His omnipolenee.
it
But
fortunately, or unfortunately,
is
not
always possible for us
lo believe those things like to believe.

it
which we would most

belief
is
If
our
be
honest and wi)rth the name,

last
will
determined at
by truth and [)robabilily.
In other words, our attitude toward what we
do not know do know.
will
be determined by what we
the
Now
immense
|)laee
ex|)loration of
|)ast
Nature that has taken
during the
century, those brilliant and solid disco V(Mi(\s

as to
to
whose significance
are
all
minds competent
the
judge
agreed,
have established
unity of the (lodhend on an irrefutable basis.
but often apparently at the ex[)ense of (u)d's
goodness and His wisdom.

forward as
gives
do
iu>t
put
if
this
my own
opinion.
I ho[)e,
(lod
me
strength, to express myself did'erently.

13G
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

But I
in
am
sure this
is
the effect that immersion

studies
physical
and
evolutionary
and
familiarity with countless

to the
new
truths in regard
world have had on an immense number

minds.
of
religious
Whether science can

not,
it it
establish
monotheism or
which
is
the only
form
of theism to
lends the least

is
countenance.
The
visible
universe
com-
posed of the same elements undergoing the
same slow processes
of change.
The law
that
presides over the formation of a sun compels

the formation of a
dew
drop.
Light, heat,
gravity, electricity are apparently as boundless
and
as universal in their action as space
itself.
And
those great forces go straight to their
end, utterly regardless of
whom
or
what they
may
crush by the way.
The wind that wrecks

his course
an Apostle wafts a pirate on

Stuart Mill).
stars
(John
The power
that upholds the

fire
throws a child on the

it is
and holds
it
there while
slowly consumed.
Not only
have those laws no special clause for man,

137
THE LIVING WORD

but some of them appear to be framed almost
expressly to
afflict
and destroy
us.
Diseases
have their laws no
less
complicated and marvel-
ous in their adaptation of means to an end
than the laws of health.
Many
of
them
are
caused by the natural propagation of living
organisms which appear to have been created

expressly to prey on nobler beings than themselves
and whose motive

is
in the struggle for
existence
exactly
the
same
as
our own.
In a word, the world was not created [wrfcct,

but utterly imperfect.
the origin of
life,
If
we would seek
for
it
for
we must seek
in
some
humble organism
cells,
consisting of only
a few
but endowed with a marvelous power
of reproduction
and
of slow self-improvement
by means
of natural selection
that
is
to say,
the killing off of the weaker, the strong

selves.
and allowing only

them-
and successful
to propagate
Man
did not enter this world from
above as was formerly pretended, but as a

child of the dust he struggled
138
upward.
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

I
need not go on with

fill
this description, for
the reader can

can.
in the details as well as I
But what
is
the result of this
new
con-
ception of the world as far as our religious

life is
concerned
In the
first
place our idea
of the Almightiness of
God
has been won-
derfully broadened
and deepened.
We
is
find
that God, instead of
making
the world as a
watchmaker might make a watch,

it
making
now, that the making of
this
world has been
a far more difficult process than

that
we imagined,
it,
God
is
in the
is
world and not outside of
that Nature
far as
not dead but living, that as

see to-day there
is
we can
no
inter-
ference from without, either by miracle or by

the interference of a hostile power.
in the Devil
is
Belief
vanishing because there no
longer seems to be any place for the Devil.
Acts formerly ascribed to his malicious interference are
now
seen plainly enough to be
parts of the universal plan, results of natural
law, necessary shadows on the great picture

139
II
E L
c;
\V ()
1)
Cod
art,
is
painting', requiird
hy tho laws of His

stream of C.od's
back cunvnts
in 11k> groat
purpose which seem to make against His tondcnty of rightoousnoss for

the end the
for
a httlc while,
but
in
main current
j)roves loo strong
them and they are carried with onward toward

turns
its
(he rest of
the world
the everlasting goal.

search-lighls on Ibe
Then
criticism
Devil and explains him historically, psychologically,
and every other way; and

is
devil
explained
things
a devil
left,
dead.
So at
of
last
only two
are
a (Jod
enormous power
evil of Ihe
and incalculable wisdom, and the
world, the ferocity of nature, the rccklessnivss
with which death marks out his victims, the

sull'erings of animals,
the sufferings and the the violence and outsu|)erstition,
degradation of man,
all
rage, the savage wars
and black
the pestilence and famine, the slavery
and
tyr-
anny, the
vile Instincts
and impulses
lh(>
that have
first
dogged our footsteps from

that
v(>ry
and
dog them
still.
(Sc(>
Evil
and Evolution.)
140
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

There
is
the real scandal of religion to-day.
Speculative difficulties
or
ignore,
we might
get around
difficulty.
but not
this
practical
evil
In
this terrible
network of
and
cruelty
we
call
Nature, what has become of the good
God ?
And goodness is all we require. A powerful God we may fear, a wise God we may admire, but a God who is not good we can neither love nor adore. That is one reason why so many thoughtful men to-day are destitute of religion.
It is
not that they wish to be irreligious.
They
are not those branded souls that affect to be

clever
and laugh
at all sacred things,
base
and
terrestrial spirits,
jaundiced by egotism
and doomed
to perish of their
own nothingness.
They are rather like men,

their father's
sadly walking around
house at night, and afraid to
enter lest they should find a blood-stained
monster seated in their father's

to look
chair, afraid
up
to the kind eye of their Father in
Heaven,
lest
only the orb of the Infinite,

smite upon their glance.
141
blind and empty,
Til K IvlVJ
Stone by stone,
of (iod crnmhlc"
of the
I
NC
WORD
seen
llieir
tliey luive
Ji\v;iy.
temple
In place* of
vvilli
llie altiir
Criici(i(>(l,
bright
;iii
the flowers of
of
l)ra-ss,
lis
resuiTcclioii, rises
aU-Jir
drip-
ping
wilh
the
blood
all
of
eoiinlless
viclliiis,
against
vain.'
which
pniycr
shaUers
ilsclf
in
lis,
That
I
is
the j)rol)leni that conrronis
iind
if
can say one honest and

tli(\se
re;i,ssuring
word
to
men and women whose

I
pain
know
lull well,
shall be conteiil.
diflienllies scpiarely in
tlier(\
Let us then look our

the
r;ice.
it.
'^riic
evil
is
and we cannot
is
deny
At
tlie
it.
same
lime, there
no need
all
of ex;igger;i,ling
'i^liiii is liie
trouble with
is
pessimists.
p;issionat(>.
life
'Î'heir
;irr;iignmeut of (Iod
luis
loo
Any ouc who
studied aninuU
Ihiit,
in
;i.
shiLe of luiture
is
knows
on the
whole,
il,
a very haj)f)y life,

(IciUli,
untroubled by the
death,
thought of
comes,
'
and
th.it
when
it
is
usu;dly swift and attended by

wdhIh
ccIki a pnssaj,'!' of Ilciiaii'.s, l)Ut I
little
think
IIh'hc
ciiriMiit
r('rii('iril)rr \Nli('r"(' it
occurs.
542
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

pain.
Yet
is
admit that the problem of animal

all
pain
the most incomprehensible of
God's
secrets.
In spite of the
vital
terrible pictures
statistics
drawn
in-
by
evolutionists,
and
life
surance
companies
know nothing
and the
of
the
struggle for existence

fittest.
survival of the
In
the
this country, at all events,
we hardly
know
meaning
of the expression "struggle
for existence."
"^^Tiat
we
call the struggle for
existence
fort
is
usually only the struggle for comI have examined with care
statistics
and luxury.
tables
of
the
vital
of
two great
about
nations,
and
I find that people die of
the
same
diseases they died of before Darwin's
law was discovered, and that those diseases

are, for the
most
part,
no respecters
rich
of persons,
alike,
striking high
and low,
and poor
and that the average man

to
lives
long enough
if
marry and leave children behind him
he
cares to do so.
But
or less.
after
all,
this is not a question of
more
The
evil is there,
and we cannot deny
143

THE LIVING WORD
it.
Let us grapple with the problem

it.
if
we
cannot solve
But
it
is
a hard problem
too hard as yet for the world.

I reverently
1.
submit these two propositions
God created the pain and sin of man by His own deliberate will and choice, because That it pleased Him, He is an evil Deity.
If
was the contention

the Judge of
2.
all
of
Abraham, "Shall not

do
"
right.?
evil Tie
the earth
If
God
has permitted the
might
have prevented.
to say, this
is
He
is
a lazy Deity.
Strange
in the
the view
commonly taken
is
Old Testament.
justice,
is
Jehovah
good;
He
loves
but
He
is
;ilmost always asleep.
That
the reason
why wickedness
flourishes unre-
buked.
cies
Accordingly the Psalms and Prophecalls
resound with
priests fell
to
God
to
wake
up.
"Their
by the sword, their widows

Tlieii
made no
lamentation.
Jehovah awaked
as one out of sleep."
"\'ea, for thy sake

long,
we
as
are killed
all
the
day
we are counted
sheep for the slaughter.

144
Awake, why
sleepest
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

thou,
Lord?"
"Arise,
God, plead thine

the foohsh
own
cause.
Remember how
place, then, I
man
reproacheth thee daily."
In the
first
am
sure evil did not
come
into the world

it,
by the
will of will
God
because
He
it,
loves
for I see
His
everywhere
exerted against that evil to heal and correct
and when that

it.
is
impossible, to crush
it
and
annihilate
Neither do I think
necessary
to prove to the reader, acquainted with the
facts
of
modern
science,
that
He
is
not a
is
sleepy or a
there,
weak God.
But
still
the evil
and
still
I have not said a
word
as to
how
it
came
there.
Does
everything
then
that
takes
?
place
in our soul take place
by our
will
Do
not
innumerable thoughts,
in us without our will
feelings, passions arise
from the depths
of our
unconscious nature or from our lower

for
will
instincts,
which we are not responsible

only the highest ruler of
Is not
my
my
soul that
strives,
not always successfully, toward one

145
THE LIVING WORD

common
goal, the ideal of
my
life,
that per-
petually struggles to create
harmony and peace

between think-
between knowledge and

ing
faith,
and doing, and that constantly turns

chastises all that will not of
and changes and

yield to this
until
it
supreme necessity
my
nature,
has yielded and become a consistent
part of
my
life
purpose
And
God
is it
otherwise
with
God ?
Men
have been so carried away

is
with the great thought that
everywhere,
equally operative in dead matter, vegetable

life,
animal
life,
and human
life,
that they
is
have forgotten that here also there
a higher
and a lower.
When
is
they speak of
God
as
present in the dust of our streets and in our high

buildings,
there
true.
a sense
in
which these
point of
words are
From
is
the moral
view such language

leading.
confounding and misthe difference in the
There
is
all
world between God's presence in a
worm and
His presence in a godlike man.

pens
is
All that hap-
not equally the expression of the will

146
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

of
God.
of
There must be somethinQ- outside
tlie will
itself,
God on which
it
that will can exert

all,
otlierwise
could not act at
any
the
moi-e
than
the
lever
can
act
without
fulcrum.
tliat
Yes. are
we
not compelled to believe

is
in
is
God
too tliere
Supreme
AYill.
which
tlie
not the whole but onlv the highest,
leader and guide which strives to
draw
everything along to the great universal goal,

to
create
peace
and harmony between

between
all tliouo;ht
all
knowledge and
action,
faith,
and
however much individual elements
may
resist,
and which turns and changes and
chastises all tliat will not yield itself to His
supreme purpose,
until at last
a
it
does yield
We
tlie
do not hold
man
accountable for
all
tlioughts
and passions and impulses that

his conscioustlie atti-
arise
from the obscure depths of
ness or unconsciousness, but only for
tude of his supreme
will,
the vigor with which
he compels
all
these thoughts
and passions
and impulses
to serve the general

1-17
aim
of his
'I
11
MV
;is
(J
WO HI)
it.
litV.
the
a,(H)(l
ho
s<h\s
When
llio
(>vil
wliitli arises in his (onscioiisnoss is to

11
him only
inotivo
1)1'
i^'ood, a
Ihiii^'
lo
1h>
siipfjirsscd
ol"
and fluH'kod
aiul
made
to
is
.st>rv(>
the pui|)()sc
rightoousnoss, that
man
snrolv a
good man,
not a bud man.
Tho
greater the struggle", Iho

.Vnd so
hohor he
is
in
our eyes.
we
call
(lod
good
in s{)ite of all the indivi(hial Toruis of evil

if
that arise in this world,

is
Ilis
supreme
will
not the creator of that

of that
("vil,
hut the healer
and physician
further
("vil, if
the longer antl the

of
llu>
we
follow
the
course
world
through time and space, the more

it
j)urpos("
manifests, the
more
the lower yields to the

first
higher so thai that which at
and near hy
to
and
in
particular
instances
seemed
us
all (>vil,
turns out to he the temporal condition
of eternal good.
Is the origin of evil here ex[)la.ined ?
It
is
not, hecause
it
is
imj)()ssil)Ie
for
man
to ex-
plain
lies
any origin
whalrver.
'I'hat
myslery
concealed
in the de|)ths into
which the cyv
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

of the creature
may
all
not penetrate.
In the
mythologies of
father; that
evil
is
is
nations, the Devil has no

origin of radical
to say, the
incomprehensible to man.
We
can
but
build our explanations
up
to the skies,
above every explanation there towers a gigantic

question mark.
I offer here a thought that
seems to
me
to
throw as much
light as
any
will
other on this supreme mystery.
good
is
makes a good man, and

whole
yet the will

is
it
not the
man and
neither
the whole
God.
For that
will to act at all, there
must be someitself
thing: outside itself that is

it
not
on which
is
can
act.
We know how
true that
of us.
It is
only by resistance and struggle and temp-
tation
and the knowledge and
of evil that
we become
and peace.
light
spiritual beings
attain to liberty
According to Kant's beautiful image, the
dove winging her way across the heaven might

think that were
it
not for the heavy, impeding

rise
it
atmosphere she could

swiftly,
higher and
fly
more
but in reality
is
only the resistance
149
Til E
LlVIN(i
WO 111)
of tho atm().sj)li{Mr which ciiiihlcs licr to rise

Jit
all.
In a v;icinun our poor dove would
collapse into a haiuiriil of dciul reallicrs.

this
What
power
is,
that resists
the
will
of (lod,
whether
it is
spiritual, within ITiin or

it is
without
dull in-
Ilim, or whether
lodged in
lh(>
tractable nature of a matter lie did not create,
that (jtiestion each one

self in
must answer
for
himis
accordance with his ideas of what
possible^.
For
my
part,
will
never laugh at
anyone
while I
to
lor clinging to the Devil, for Fear thai
am
laughing
tlit^
Devil
may
be clinging
me.
Is then (od
unha,|)py?
Does
Are
lie feel the
pangs
ol"
all
Tlis erea-Lures?
their
agony
and
and shame and
loss Ilis sliaine
and
loss
agony?
all.
Tie does indeed feel all;

all
lie snllers
afflicted,
"In
their afriiction
He was
and the
atigel
of His presence" saved

is
them."
And yet, when our soul

overwhelmed.
lost
and overwhelmed
His soid
is
in l}\v night of sin arid suffering
not
is
To Him
150
tliat
night of ours
THE GOODNESS OF GOD

but a necessary shadow on His great picture.
He knows
that
He
possesses the
it,
balm
to heal
it
that soul, to cleanse
to save
it,
to present
at last without spot before
Him, whether here

and that
fills
or there
makes
little
difference,
Him with joy. He who has

ception of
once firmly grasped

will find in the
this
con-
God
thought of
God
even in his bitterest suffering a consolation

stronger than
all his
needs.
lives;
It
must be
better
with you since
God
God
lives in
you
and you
live in
God.
God
does not regard

indiffer-
your sufferings and temptations with
ence as something external and outside

self.
Him-
He
experiences them in you.
He
suffers
with you.
for
Above
all
your strength and means
removing your anguish
He
has greater
inces-
strength
and
better
means which He
santly employs.
Over your
little efforts,
over
your
little
hands below. He stretches His
mightier hand above.
you are
tired,
God and yet He

151
is
not tired
when
does not hasten
THE LIVING WORD

when you
are in haste.
Were His
life
as short
as yours, or were this Hfe your only Hfc, then
He would
wait,
hasten.
But the eternal (iod can

waits.
and He knows why He
The
longer the hunger, the sweeter the satisfaction

the harder the labor the greater the strength; the longer you resist the evil, the greater
tlic
reward of
evil
resisted
to
your own
not
live
soul.
God lives, and He What seems in vain

there.
does
lien;
in vain.
will
not seem vain

life
When
the sufferings of this

life
become
too great to be borne,

turn,
itself
takes a
new
and straightway
joy.
all
those sufferings are
converted into
little
Therefore be patient a
longer.
152
In Gott ruht meine
Seele.
Der
selber sundigt nicht,
Tragt doch mit seinem Kinde

In sich auch dessen Sunde,
Fiiiirt es zuletzt
zur Pflicht.
153
CHAPTER
^TII
ox GOOD AXD E^TL

If
God
is
the cause of
all
things, then, as
Isaiah did not hesitate to say.

of evil also.
He
is
the cause
is,
The problem
e^-il
therefore
how
is
the existence of
in this
world compatible
with the goodness of God.cHng, in behef at

DcAîl
.-
^Miy do men
least,
so earnestly to the
Doubtless because he seems to them
to afford
difficulty.
an easy and
practical solution to this

really
.-
But does he
That depends
is
on whether we beheve that the Devil

creature or God's equal.
is
God's
If the former,
God
responsible for the

is it
work
of
His hands;
neither
easy to see
how
the Creator could
bestow upon His creature moral quahties

Himself did not possess.
He
All serious writers

this difficulty.
on
this subject
have perceived
155
THE
IIoiu'o
slo[)
LiviN(;
ivmovod
woun
llir
tliov
Ikivo
didifully oiu>
hy
affiriniiio;
tVll
thai ovon Satiiii
was
fn^Jilod
good, but
will.
llirounh
tlu> oxiM-rist- ol"

I
his Troo
(|UJinTl,
Now,
lh;il I
willi this vi(>w
havo no
except
do not
ol"
find sneh convinciiifj^ [jioofs

S;il;in iis
of the existenc<"
some persons do;

Prince of
sense of
and as
am
aware that
in
heiiel' in (lie
Darkness, except
llie
fif>'nralive
is ra,f)idly
(loethe's I\r<>[)ln'sfopheles,
disappearIhinks.
ing from the portion of

It It
mankind
llial
may
is
he said
lliat
Jesus
heli("\'ed in
the Devil.
Iruc the syiio[)lic (u)S|)els r(>|)resenl

lo
I
him
as adapting his language
lie
con\iclioiis
of his times, as curing his patients
hy treating
the diseases they believed tlnMuselvcs snU'ering
from.
How
far
our blessed Saviour himself

it
personally shared those views

St.
is
hard
lo say.
b(>st
all
-lohn,
however, Ihe evangelist

the
who
rei(>cls
understood
those
mind
of
ChrisI,
popular
superstitions
which
ascribed
various forms of disease to the inducnee of the

Devil,
and admits no story of Satanic tcmptair>(i
ON GOOD AND EVIL

tion,
nor a single case of demoniacal posI repeat, however, I

still
session, into his Gospel.
have no quarrel with those who

in the Devil as the creature of
believe
God, although
slightest help
such a belief gives them not the

in
sohdng the problem of

is
evil.
My
only
quarrel
with those
who
practically believe
in the Devil as another
God, a responsible
of the world can be
being to
referred.
whom
And
the
e%'il
I object to their doctrine be-
cause I
am a monotheist,
a Christian, a behever
in the Bible, not a Zoroastrian.
The Nicene
creed and every creed in Christendom teach
us to say
'
I believe in one
God
'
not,
'
beheve in
God and
the De^-il.'
I look on evil,
therefore, as a possibility present in the very
nature of things, as something unavoidable,

rooted in the nature of
God
as all things are

of the abso-
there rooted, yet forming

lutely holy will of
no part
God, but forming,
rather,
the fulcrum of resistance on which that holy

will
can
act.
With
these words of preface, let

157
II
E L
(i
\v
ORD
us pass
ti) ;i
more
ooiioral oonsidonitioii of jôod
and
c\i\.
all
For
men
is
alike
llio
darkest qiiesliou of
llie
universe
and
remains
Wlienee
how
is
comes
the evil of the world, and
ils
existence
to be reconciled with the existence of a
oood
say,
(Jod
Only the other day
heard
man
"Nothing would hinder me from helieviug

in
God
if
so
much
said,
evil
did not exist in the
world."
TiCt
So he
and so thousands think.

is
us realize that this
the diflicnlly over
which the ages have stumbled.

is
The mystery
not
how goodness came
into the world.

that.
No
one has ever wondered at
Thai good-
ness should hv here every moral
man
is
feels to
be natural.
is
The
only thing that

iu)t
not mitural
that
there
should
be nu)re goodness,
all.
that evil should be here at
That Jesus
should
call
himself the Son of I\lan, that he
should stand unchallenged before the ages as

the typical
and
rej)resentative
to
man, even un-
believers feel
and admit
be natural and right.
158
ON GOOD AND EVIL

He was
which
absolutely good.
He
represents that
at our best
to
in our deepest selves to be,
and
moments we long
But
suppose
and hope
become.
reckless
some
brilliant
and
sinner should profanely arrogate to himseK

this title,
suppose on the ground that he had
tasted all
human
experiences good and
evil,
all
because he had sounded the depths of
carnal knowledge, he should give himself out

to
be the Son of
man and
the representative
his life
of our race.
Even though
resembled
ours far more closely than does the immaculate

life
of Jesus, with
what horror and indignation

!
would
his claim be repudiated
man!
He
our representative!
He He
the
Son
of
represents
the things I hate, the knowledge I would forget,
the base self I would lay off and lose forever.

I
will
not be represented by such a man,

will
because I
not admit that the
evil that cor-
rupts and destroys
me
is
a normal and eternal
part of
my
nature.
reality of evil,
So while admitting the

159
we
riiK
fjtiinot close
;i
LiviNC wo no
to the slniîi'lo
our oyos
with
evil.
striigi;'!^ tliat is goiiii;'

;i
on within our soul,

us throuji;h
ovil,
iind
on
l;uo(M- st;ilo
;ui
it
outsicK>
(iod's
it,
l;iws;
oll'ort
to
to
chock
hoiil
it
lo Uniit
\o
to
nuiko
snuill.
nud
is
to turn
it
riolilcousnoss.
One tcndcucy
is
as iral as the
other,
"^rhc
question
which
that
a
lonjj;
tentkMicv
is
prevaihno?
to
tliis
The answer
has
nuui
^'ives
(jueslion will iU^jhmuI largely

It'
on
his
own
Ills
a.
experience.
soul,
if
evil
lak(>u root in
lo
it
he has grown aecuslonied

if
as lo
familiar gut\sl,
agaiusi
struggle,
sin
has become has
master
lo
which
his
will
long eeasc^d
he will prol)al)ly believe thai his

is
dreadful exjierience
exj)erieuce of
thai
lost
all
openly or
sc'crelly
the
numkind, and consecjuently

of goodness
is
Ihe
battle
neccvssarily
a.
bailie.
On
Ihe other hand, the nuin

in
llu>
who
what
has crucided sin

(lod has done
in
(lesh
knows
Ihat
him
lie
can do
in nil; that
if
ev("U the vilest sinner
need nol hv
lost
in
any
way he can draw
into his soul the cleiuising,

KiO
ON GOOD AND EVIL

healing spirit of God.
So he looks hopefully
forward to victory.
Which
of these
two men, or which

right
is
?
of these
philosophies of
to goodness.
life, is
There
is
no
limit
life
There
of a
no point where the
and influence
is
good
man must
cease.
It
a seed, as Jesus said, capable of
infinite
multiplication.
life
Having extended
to
itself in this
its
it
from one
many, having planted
precious influence in
many
his
another heart,
life
looks tranquilly forward to the
to come.
As a good man goes on

of
way,
all
the forces
God,
all
the spirits of other good
men which
is strictly
he has invited to his home, help him more and

more.
The power
of evil, however,
it
limited, for
from the beginning
tends towards
death.
Very bad men seldom have very bad

Their children are imbecile rather
children.
than
bad,
childless.
God A man who

and
has
made
imbecility
has been detected in a
few
wilful untruths
is
no longer deceives anyone.
TMien he
seen to have
161
made shipwreck
of
THE
his
LIVINC;
its
WORD
warning,
is
own
;is
life,
he scmvos
n repellent
'I'liere
not
an alluring example.
ol'
in
the
great dnuiia
huniunily a poslerity
ol"
Cain
as well as ofxVbel; but (uul brands tlieni with
the
mark
to
ol"
the
nuinierer and
in
sends Ihein
Tiiose
great
luive
forth
wander
solitude.
destroyers, those scourges of (lod

swe|)t across the
pagcvs
ol'
who
history
brealhing
desolation,
NebueluulMez/.ar,
Attila.
Kubhi
Khan, Napoleon, -were not

their
all evil,
otherwise^
power would have been but

world grows better, such
little.
Hut
as
[he
characters
become more and more impossible.

sets limits to evil
So (Jod
on every
side.
In addition
aMg(>ls
lie
to all
God's other ministers and
has
a.
grim gardtMier, an onnn"()otent siMvant,

they camiot do.
is
who does what

is
That servant
Death.
He
(Jod's last messenger, which
(iod uses most rehictaiitly.
Only
al'lcr all
all
other
means have been exhausted, when

messengers, the Tiaw,
tlu>
other
[)rophels, even the

rt^jecled.
Son
himself, have been
heard and
ON GOOD AND EVIL

does the unwilling word go forth to Death
the
"Cut
it
down.
Why
has
cumbereth
it
ground?"
Again,
goodness
goal,
definite
tendency in a given direction.

its
We
can trace
to age,
solid
growth
it
in
humanity from age
in the ideals
sets
up toward which
see
the whole
world moves.
We
men
groping toward
these ideals throughout the heathen world;
and
in the Bible
we
off
see one ideal steadily
advancing, laying
one limitation and im-
perfection after another, until in Jesus Christ

it
shines forth in perfect beauty.
And
in
the end
to
it,
of this path, the light that
draws men
it,
the
power that
sustains
them
is
God,
in the direction of
whose
will the
whole creation
moves.
In
evil,
however, we see no such ideal

Evil sets before
for
and no such progress.

no grand uniting
are willing to
is
men
principle,
sacrifices.
which they
mission
the
make
Its only
it
it
to destroy.
it
The
longer
develops,
rises,
wider
stretches, the higher

163
the
more
II
K L
N c
^^
oud
certain
and imminent
it
is its
it
downfall; not oidy

its
because
carries in
the seeds of
own
the
destruction,
evil
but
because
over
against
God's forces
rise higher, strike their roots
deeper, spread wider
and
are
thev will over-
come.
Think
of
the
Roman Empire ami

all evil
Christianity.
Above and against

that
are
two great
with
it,
realities
not compatible
is
Ciod and eternity.
As great as
it
our
sin, as
its
long continued, as deep as
has struck
roots into our soul,
God
is
greater, longer
in
His eternity, deeper
is
He
rooted in our soul,
or rather
we
in
His soul.
is
Therefore, well for not a thing outsitle
us that even our evil

of
God and His

tried
hel{).
but rather in and under ^Ve

in
God. although no
have
part of His holy will.
our hand and our feeble power
this struggle,
and we kno\\ what we can do.

to relinquish
is
it
How
glad
we may be
to CJod,
only taking care that our will

sition to
not in oppo-
His
will, that
He may do His work

from the certainty
in
us the sooner.
A[)art
ON GOOD AND EVIL

that
will
God
will leave
no
evil unpurified, that
He
have no part of His being out
of
harmony
with other parts, no thought of His, no soul

of His, unreconciled with His holy will,
what
assurance have I of final purity and reconciliation
and peace
all, is
For
after
not this task of ours also

struggle against
in our very
God's task?
instincts
flesh
Must we not
and impulses implanted

in the
and
constitution of
our minds
by our Creator, which, used

highest happiness,
aright, lead to
used
amiss, to deepest
of the
misery
Are not many
temptations
which
visit
us either bequeathed to us by those

us, or
who preceded
in life
imposed upon us by a
?
lot
we
did not choose
In short, are we
life
is
not from the dawning of our moral

into the great world-conflict
plunged
God
waging
?
with
evil,
not only here but everywhere

this to
do not say
diminish our responsibility,

shares this responsibility
but to show that

with us, that
God
it is
His responsibility as well as

165
THE
ours.
All
evil
(^
woKn
in
its
in
the world,
Its
widest
rot)ts.
extension through sjkuv, in

in
its
deepest
densest
is
highest
its
heijihts,
uiU'e;isino'
in
its
eoniITis to
plexity, in
new
births,
overeonie.
Hut what
God
has to
t)veri'oine
in infinite spjiee.
He
ean
has
infinite
time in whieh
to
in
overeonie;
finite
and what must he overeoine

be done
it
time
only bv
finite
approximation, whieh,
is
true, rises higher

is
and higher.
Beeause
this eoufliet
so \ast,
it
naturally inelines slowly.
So slowly does the

impossible for thos(>
world improve that
it
is
who look but a

at
all.
little
is
w ay
to see that
it
improves
But
it
only ncnessary to look far

trav-
enough baek on the path humanity has

eled to see
how wonderfully
the world
has
been transformed.
In the days of chaos did
a blue heaven arch over a flowery earth, and
were there crystal seas were reflected as

in
in
whiih sun and moon

vast convex
mirror?
At the times
of the megatheria, cave-(lwell(M's

religion, morality,
and Swiss lake-dwcllers,were

100
ON GOOD AND EVIL

science,
and
art in existence
Does not every
age normally improve on the errors of the

past
?
If,
with
new
stages of culture,
new
evils arise, yet
they provide their
own
incentive
to struggle,
and every new stone

wings.
of stumbling
gives us
new
With
question
all this it
is
may
be said that the hard

little
only pushed back a

evil of the
further.
all.''
AMience comes the

If there is
world at
such a good and almighty God,

absolutely
first,
why
was
it
not
excluded
or
if
from His
creation
from the
we may presume
it
to ask the question, at

all.?
how
did
come
into being
is
If
God's
soul, as I believe,
if all
an
all-
comprehending
is
soul,
conscious existence
all
included in God's existence, so
sin,
pain,
sin
and error are
also included.
Only no
nor error can enter the higher regions of

will.
God's mind and
They can
dwell only
in the lower regions of
His being where perfect
harmony does not
yet prevail, but one thing

Is there not even in
167
rises against another.
man
THE
sual
1,
IV INC.
WORD
above
all
a higher region above a

impulses a
lo\\er,
sen-
higher purpose,
above the
seeing eye a elearer vision and insight, above
mere pleasure a higher, purer

whole soul
highest in
a
joy,
above our
yet
the
supreme
is
will
And
man
but a lower in God.
"My
For as
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways
the heaven
my
is
ways, saith the Lord.
higher than the earth, so are
my
ways higher than your ways and

than your tlioughts."
In thus representing
evil as
my
tlioughts
no aeeident, not
as suddenly introdueed
from without but as
present, in
its
possibility at least, in the very

it.
constitution of things, I re[)resent
I believe,
as
it
is.
In representing
evil,
God
as taking no
evil,
pleasure in
but as hating
as setting
His all-righteous
will against e\il, as seriously
engaged
in the struggle Himself,
and as workevil,
ing forever to heal
and change the
and
it,
only
when
that
is
impossible, to destroy
so far as
my own
moral nature informs me,

1(58
ON GOOD AND EVIL

my
faith in
God's goodness
is
absolutely un-
shaken.
Indeed I
may
say more.
The mere
thought of God's abstract perfection, untried
by
evil,
the thought of
God
standing apart
from the one great struggle beside which the

guiding of the stars
to feel the anguish of
is
child's
play, unable
His creatures, seems to
me cold and God engaged

struggle
unreal beside the conception of
with us, around us in the great
Himself.
No
rational
to evil.
being ever
It
voluntarily gives
itself
up
does so
only to avoid a greater

as
is
it
evil,
or not to lose,
supposes, a greater good.
In
this
man
evil
often mistaken, but

therefore,
God
is
never mistaken.
God,
neither
brought forth
it.
willingly,
it
nor consciously permitted

it is
If
is
there,
only because
it
it
could not be
avoided, or because
could be avoided only
by the
sacrifice of a greater good.

evil
So we look for the origin of
not in some
will of
being outside of God, not in the holy
God, but
in the very nature of goodness itself,

169
THE LIVING WORD

which decrees that \\ithout freedom there
is
no
virtue.
Just
as
light
inij)lies
shadow,
and height implies

implies
\\
d(>pth, so
moral goodness
without
instinct.
the
possibility
of
sinning,
hich
it
would be no more than blind
Does
this limit the
Almightiness of (Jod?
Is
God's Almightiness limited by the fact that he

cannot make two and two
five,
or that he
cannot alter the ratio of the diameter and the

circumference
of
the
circle ?
I'lie
logical
necessity of thinking
in a certain
is
certain
things forever
manner, far from limiting Cod,
the fundamental assurance on which (Jiod's

If (iod
eternal truth rests.

sionally did
could and occiifive,
make two and two
there
It
would be no such thing as eternal
truth.
does not limit (Jod's omnipotence to say that

without freedom, without something outside
His
will for Ilis will to act on, lie
might as
well have
no
will.
Even
for
Him
So
moral goodresistance
ness would be impossible.

of evil
is
tlie
the foundation of (Jod's eternal good170
ON GOOD AND EVIL

ness, at least
it is
the foundation of the only
moral goodness we can recognize.

Necessary then as
also
is
is
the
evil,
so necessary
the action of God's will checking, re-
deeming,
turning
it
overcoming the
to good.
evil,
and
finally
If everything
from the be-
ginning were the best possible, where should
we look
for the righteous will of
God ?
How
should we find in
of a righteous
life,
Him
If
the
truest
example
or indeed what would a

it
righteous
life
mean ?
were a mere ques-
tion of destroying the evil, doubtless
God could
to con-
destroy
vert so
it
in a
moment
of time.
But
much
life
evil into
moral good, bring forth
so
much
out of death, lead so
many
chil-
dren from darkness into the

be done in a day.
light, this
cannot
Nothing grows more slowly

It
than the immortal plant.

to
may
be repugnant
feeling the
some persons
to think of
God
inexpressible pain
and sorrow
of His creatures,
and
as in
any sense engaged

171
in their struggles.
is
But what
I cannot understand
how
man
THE LIVING WORD

c;in really love
and
trust a (iod,
who, holding
Himself
entirely
aloof
from
all
sullVrinff
and
crea-
temptation, bestowed them

tures.
upon His
The
Christian
Scientists say, "(<)d
cannot see
evil;
God
does not
know
evil."
If that is so,
then the most sacred, the most
solemn portion of
side the
my
life
li(>s
altogether out-
knowledge of (od and beyond His

I will
help.
That
never believe.
If
there
must
be suffering and sorrow, and only because there
must be
hends
also
in
is
there, then the
Being who compreexistence
Himself
all spiritual all
must
comprehend
the sorrows of that exist-
ence.
Stronger consolation in our suffering

Yes, (iod must have sor-
we cannot have.
rows and sufferings greater far than ours.
The
and
sufferings
peo|)les rest
of
whole generations,
heart.
iiges,
upon His
But so He
for
also bears the

their sufferings;
balms and compensations

above
all,
the joy of the phy-
sician
who
looks forward to the

suifering.
172
happy
termi-
nation of
all
In Gott ruht meine Seele;
Der Engel ganze

Lichtstralend
Seliaar
In seinen reinen Hohen

sell'
ich gehen,
Und
einer triigt micli gar.
Fechneb.
173
CHAPTER IX
ON THE AT^GELS
Every
to
element has
its
living
creatures,
which, by structure and instinct, are adapted

it.
The
its
earth has
its
worms and moles
below,
sheep, cattle,
its
and men above. The

its
water has
flies
crabs and fishes, the air
butter-
and
birds.
May we
not suppose, then,
that the heavenly sea of ether
the
its
purest
and
finest, the brightest

all
and
clearest, the
most
universal of
the elements, in which the
earth
itself
swims
has
also
it.''
creatures
that are adapted to live in
But where
are they, unless they are the worlds themselves

.''
These
creatures
are
absolutely
is
adapted
to their element as the fish

air
to the to a
water or as the bird to the
adapted
higher element to lead their higher,

175
more
THE
eiidiiriug
tiy
life,
LIVINC^
'riiev
WORD
tins,
swim without
they
without
wino's.
They wander through

They do not run
spaee great and stately.
here and there, at war with one another, or

anxiously seek their food.
light Avhich they
Satisfied with the
shed on one another, bound

tie
together
invisibly
by
mysterious
all
that
s[)reads
through
worlds, they obey one
another's slightest attraction,
and form one

If
harmonious, peaeeful fellowship.

of these bodies as
you think
masses
is
mere dead,
if
inert
of matter, ask yourself
the being that
the
souree of
living
all
life
ean be aeeounted dead.
A
a
mother may bear dead ehildren, but
dead mother bears no ehildren.
\Miat leads
us to believe that the worlds are living beings

is
the inexhaustible fulness of
life
which one
of the least of these heavenly
wanderers has
brought forth.
Have not men from

of angels
the earliest times fabled
who
dwell in the light and

necMJing
176
who
fly
through
heaven,
neither
food nor
ON THE ANGELS
drink ?
Have they not conceived
of the angels
as intermediary beings between us and God,
who
that
purely and perfectly
fulfil
the will of
God ?
and
But here are beings

fly
that dwell in light
through
the
heaven
in
absolute
obedience to the will of God, without fainting
and needing no earthly food or drink.

if
And
heaven
is
really the
house of the angels,
then
we must
look for the angels of heaven

for the heavens
in the stars;
have no other
inhabitants,
and the other
sort of angels
have
long since vanished, ceasing to appear altogether
when men ceased

It is true
to believe in their
appearances.
no one believes that
the stars are angels, because they have not

faces like
birds.
men
is
nor great feathery wings

it
like
But
reasonable to suppose that
unspeakably higher beings than
men and
birds,
dwelling in an unspeakably higher element,
should be constructed exactly like

birds
?
men and
belief,
According to an old and beautiful

177
THE
nil
LIVINC,
filled
'I'iio
WORD
heavens jho
with the praise of the
Eternal God.
angelic ehoirs raise their

the
adoring
song.
They surround
Invisible,
l;iy
throne
on high, behold the
hold of the
hem
of His garment.
And do
not the stars
gather in innumerable choirs of perfect har-
mony?
is
And do you imagine

only
is
that this earth
the
heavenly
body whose
highest
tliought
the service and the praise of (!od?
The
nor
earth sings not with one loiigue merely
with
one
small
inslniincnt,
flut(\s.
but
with
thousands of choruses, with

organs, orchestras, and bells.
trumjn^ts,
To
the
the
cjir
of
God
sound
the
earth
is
vocal
all
with
melodies
of {M-aisc,
and above
praise
it
in
His
ciir
silent prayers.
it is
As
is
on earth so we
may
believe
all
in all
stars in ;dl heav(>i)s.

is
In them
the thought of (Jlod
the highest
thought, the service of (Jod

service.
is
the highest
"
The morning
stars
sang together
and
all
the sons of (iod the
shouted for joy."

is
Among
angels
tliere
eternal
ordtM-,
178
ON THE ANGELS
eternal peace.
They go
their
way
as
one
flock under one shepherd, a shining example

to their creatures that they too shall
become
one flock united in the service of the Highest.
Looking up
at their tranquil courses,
man
perceives a higher path for himself above the
mutability of
human
things.
His hopes go
stars go.
through the night as high as the
179
ril
E L
(;
AVOll o
IN
(HVPT KlUrr IMKINK SKKl.K

'IMli:()l)(>U
I'KCUNKli
In (lod
1
my
soul
n'|i(is(>s,
live
by (iod nloiic;
vcvdIvcs
iilioiil
All
I
life
lliiii,
I'liiinot
live witlioiil lliiii,
111'
oiliiMol nil'
disown.
In (lod
II
Illy
lit
sonl ri'|mst'S,
dies
1
insi, yiiii
say;
Hill
no
rciir will clu-iisli,
'riic soul <'iin ncvci' pcrisli
Tliid lives in llini lo dny.
In (lod
my
sonl
liy
Icll
i'('|)os<'s;
'rriiiisroi'iiicd
His His
f;'nicc.
My
lilV
slmll
iiniiscs.
Until one dny \\c
iiiiscs
iiliicc.
My
sold to Mis
own
In (!od
my
sonl
llio'
r<'|)os('s,
In dni'kncss
l'"or
imiiu'iscd
llic
Lord (lod
dcfcnilinj^
'I'liroii!;-
wilni-ss(-s unciidiiiff,
And
("lirisi
the
l,if;lil
is
lirst.
In (iod
'riironjrii
my
I'm
sonl reposes;
if
eelcsliid Iniids
is
An
I
M.iiêl
liosi
sli'eiiminji;,
see Ihe
riuliiiiice lieiiminjj;.
One
Ix'iiis
me
in
liis
luinds.
IHO
ON THE ANGELS
In God my soul reposes; The bond of souls is He.
This secret comprehended.
Hope and Love descended From Heaven to dwell with me.

Faith,
In
God my
is
soul reposes;
He
Of
Himself the
Key
goodness, truth and beauty.
Giving an end to duty.
To
In
thought
its
unity.
God my
soul reposes;
How How
small a thing
fruitless
am
I!
my
endeavor!
Mourn
not,
soul, for ever
Salvation draweth nigh.
God my soul reposes, God shall its plan fulfil.

In
His purpose bounds existence.
In spite of
my
resistance
He
In
brings to pass His wiU.
God my
soul reposes,
sin
is
HimseK from
Yet bearing
free;
all.
He
bears
it.
And
with His children shares
it
Till perfect life shall be.
In
God my
in
soul reposes.
in
Oh! comfort
my
pain.
'Tis but a
As
sin
My sin
His possession
child's transgression
cannot remain.
181
THE LIVING WORD

In Ciod
my
soul reposes,
Tlie voyage will bo short;
Though storms from harbor swoop mo,

In quiet
I will
keep
nio,
Homebound
for Ilim,
my
Port.
IV.)
(TramlatedbijB.lt.
182
PART
II
Du bist kein Tropfe, der im Ocean verschwimmt, Du fuhlest dich als Geist auf ewig selbst bestimmt. Vom hochsten Geiste fuhlest du dich nicht zur Verschwlmmung
Im
hochsten Geist bestimmt, sondern zur Selbstbestim-
mung.
Th.
Ill,
s.
115.
183
CHAPTER X
ON DEATH
I
AjVD
THE LIFE AFTER DEATH

and
baffling subject
APPROACH
this old
on which the ages have mused or stumbled,

without any preliminary observations.
I pass
over the longings and misgivings of mankind,

the utterances of great poets, the sayings of the
founders
are
of
other religions;
not
full
that
of
these
not
weighty,
important,
significance, but that I hasten to consider the
mystery
our
itself
in the light of reason
and
of
own
religion.
In
this subject
is
convincing
proof and demonstration
what no educated,
no reasonable
man
looks for.
Immanuel Kant
used to say, "If any
man
is
can prove the imthe
mortality of the soul, he
man
want
to
meet."
All that
is
we can claim
185
for our argu-
ments
that they are rational in that they do
THE LIVING WORD

not contradict the facts of experience, but find
their
support in them.
for another
I
life
life,
call
that a good
argument
itself in
which intrenches
the facts of this
and which, while
shrinking from no fact of our present existence,
shows how those
facts point us hopefully on.

if
Let us remember, however, that
science
and
philosophy are powerless to prove the fact of
man's immortality, they are equally powerless

to disprove
it.
They may indeed

we judge
criticise
our
arguments, but the mystery

only judge as
it,
itself
they can
in the light of
our
earthly experience
and by the analogies
of our
present
life.
The motives
the
of our belief in another
life
are
same
as the motives of our belief in

believe
God.
Most men
because they have been

it,
taught to believe
lieved
it
because other
still
men
be-
before
them and
believe
around
it
them.
is
Many, very many,
believe because
good and useful

another
life
to believe.
They
believe
in
because they need the comfort

186
LIFE AFTER DEATH

and support
this hfe.
of such faith to sustain see
them
in
Here and there we
men
leading
noble
lives
apparently without any faith in
immortality, but as
Kenan
says, they are sus-
tained by the knowledge that their friends

believe
it
for them.
life
Lastly,
many men
believe
alter-
in another
because after weiarhing; the
native, in spite of all difficulties
and misgivings,
I
they
still
consider
it
reasonable to believe.
I
honor
all
these motives.
admit that normal

all.
human
belief includes
them
On
no
single
argument or thread would

of salvation, but only
I risk
is
my
hope
on what
most universal,
man's need,
God's good-
most enduring; on man's

man's reason,
ness,
faith,
Christ's revelation,
it.
would
I rest
Yet, as I have already de-
veloped at length the functions of these motives,

here I shall simply use them as I need them.
One
clusively
difficulty
that
life
confronts
us
is
this:
belief in
another
has depended too ex^lotive.

It
on the old Traditional
arose at a time
when
theories of
Nature and
187
rilK
LIVINC
WORD
It luis
of (ukI's i>-ovoiiiiiunit wciv eutortaiiuHl wliirh

Ikivo long since porislicd.
coiuc
down
to ns c'lotlied in fignres jind iinagos
which no
k>nger express our true thought, but which

to
most men seem mytlue;d, unre;d. outside

In this form
it
the sphere of wh;it happens.
has been seized,
critii-ised,
torn to pieces by
tlic
great phikxsophical thinkers and by

science until
it
men
a.
of
seems
less
to
have hardly
leg to
stand on.
much
wings on which to carry

belit>f,
us to Heaven.
If this great
wliich I
maintain
Christ,
is
is
second only to belief

its
in
Cod nnd
false
\\'e
to retain
it
power over us and our

from the
children,
nnist be se|)arated
of
tlu>
and out\\orn theories
world which
have rejected, and united, as Jesus and

Paul united
in
it,
St.
to the great processes of
Nature
which we
belie\'e.
life
Tlu're
ai'c
two ways of
robbing the next

is
it
of all |)ower over ns: one
to
deny
it
altogether;
the other
is
to laki>
out of
all
necessary and vital connection

INbuiy |)ersons believe or pro188
Avith this life.
LIFE AFTER DEATH

fess to believe in
another
life
but that we shall

lost ourselves
find ourselves there
where we
here, that our
new
life
shall be the continuance

life,
and development
of the old
they do not
altogether
believe, but assert that the

different,
new
we
life is
and that
old.
in
it
shall
remember
naught of the
So they break the only
bridge, the bridge of
memory, on which we can
cross the sheer abyss that separates that world
from this
pitiable,
What is the result ? Nothing is more

more
confused
and
contradictory
than the ideas which Christians entertain of

their
own
fate
and
of
what
befalls
them
after
life
death.
alive
Does
the soul pass into the next

?
and awake
or will
it
sleep profoundly
like a
bear until the Last Day.?
Will
it
be
.''
judged immediately on leaving the body

If so,
what
is
the need of a second judgment;

all ?
or will there be any judgment at
Must
we remain naked and

of years until the old
disconsolate for millions

rises
body
189
out of the dust,

for us;
or will a
new body be provided
and
rii K
i-i
V
?
(;
wou n
Iho soul
what
tlicMV
l)V
kiiiil
of a
it
body
lost
Dors
Hud
itsolf
whoiv
ilsrir lioro?
or dors doafli
magical and ivoii-moral rliarin suddenly

it
cany
dition
on to perfection or sink
Is
it
into {)er-
our eternal
doom
fixed by
our con-
dition at the
state in
will
it
moment
of (K>atli, or even by the

this brief s[)an?
which we lived
Or
is
eternity be filled Mith
"'ooduess,
and
given to us that
we may make atonement

Above
all,
for the sins

will
and errors of time?

life
our eternal
be spiritual or physical?
The mere
tive
fact that all llu'se
mutually destruc-
opinions are held and taught by Christians

ut sea.
shows how hopelessly

subject.
we
are on this
Nor
is
the outlook
more reassuring when we

are not Christians.
belief
tlu>
turn to those
materialist
who
The
lif(>
ridieuKvs
all
in
another
life
becaus(> he sees
conditions of
de-
stroyed by death.
Hut he does not
ridicule
the belief that every cause has an
(>ll'ecl,
or
that our bodi(>s after deatii go on |)ro(lueing'

!!)()
LIFE AFTER DEATH

effects
and that not one
of their particles
is lost.
^^'hy then should

soul,
he ridicule the
belief that the
which
also
is
the mightiest cause
upon
this
earth,
goes on producing effects
after
death, though
we may not
follow
them ?
Or
and
soul
in this case alone

effect
must the law

?
of cause
be broken
But, you say,
the
does go on producing effects after death in

the thoughts and other spiritual influences
leaves behind
different truth.
it.
it
That
So every
is
true,
but
it
is
man
leaves certain
effects of his physical life in the children
he
has begotten, the houses he has

that does not excuse his
built, etc.,
but
body from the slow

to Nature,
process of dissolution
it
owes
which
demands an exact account

of matter she ever loaned
of the soul
.'*
of every particle
it.
WTiat becomes
?
Does
it
vanish into nothingness

Pantheist
This
saying:
question
the
answers by
is
"The bubble
it.
has burst and that
the
end of
Xow
it
it is
taken back into the All
out of which
issued.
191
little
breath of air
Ill K
LI V lN(i
WORD
lias
got into that jKirtiiiihir walcr drof) aiul iiiado

it
a bubblo.
Now
water
the air
oscapod and
it
is a
drop
ot"
ajâin.
liial
'I^lio
world ô[ along

it
very
well
withont
bubble, and
will
is
get along just as well
when
the bubble
no
more.
The
stieani lasls, Ihe
waves disappear,
and out
of ihe old
waves new waves are made."
And
rises
yet the Pantheist

it'
knows
that no house
as
its
stones
and beams are torn away
fast as they are laid.
He
sees that the tree does

ils
not grow by reabsorbing
own
root
and
branches, that the very reason
why
the river
remains the old stream withont develoj)nient

is
because the waves born
in
it
run
l()g(>ih(>r
again.
Hut the stream of
life
does not remain
the old stream, but develops from age to age,
launching waves entirely dillVrent from those

it
launched a thousand years ago.
The
Pessimist does not ridicule or criticise
belief in another life so nnich as
he
rei>rets
it.
He
says: "Is
there not injustice
and misery
enough
this side the gra v(\

1!)2
but you nmst dream
LIFE AFTER DEATH

of greater injustice
and more misery beyond

affirm
the grave?"
But the very reason we
our behef
of earth
is
not that the misery and injustice
may
be prolonged, but that they may
be atoned
for, that the
Lord God
at last
may
wipe away tears from
off all faces.
However
discordant and stormy the theme, every earthly
composer knows enough end

in peace
to let his composition
and harmony.
let
And will
the
Mas-
ter of all
life
harmony
the music of
human
rattle
^
go out on the dissonance of a death

of pantheists
us.
The arguments
general
and pessimists
are only a
need not greatly disturb
They
life
way
of looking at
If
human
supported
their
by few
certain facts.
we do not accept
premises,
we need not accept

it
their conclusions.
With materialism
is
different.
The
argufacts,
ments of materialism are supported by

at least they
I
seem
to be so supported.
In argu-
ing against materialism
we
are not arguing
against this or that ungodly
man, but against

misgivings. I
our
own stubborn doubts and

193
THE LIVING WORD

believe
tluM'c
is
only one
siiccrssriil
wiiy of
l(n)k ils
arguing with
nijitcrialisin,
that
is
lo
facts squarely in the face
and see
\v(>
wliiit
they
aetually point to.
'riieii
riiiiy
he ahle lo
I'oi',
smite
iMJiteriiilisin
with
ils
own
weiipoiis,
to tell the truth, there are
no other weapons.
104
'Marvel not that I said unto you,
Ye must be born
St.
again.'
John,
III, v. 7.
195
CHAPTER
WHAT
IS
XI
DEATH ?
still
While Gautama Buddha was
wander-
ing through India, preaching his law of love,
a young wife, Kisagotami, came to him one
day
to ask
him
to
work
for her a miracle.
Kisagotami 's child had recently died.

love
Her
and her sorrow were
so great that she
could not accept her dreadful loss;
but she
wandered, weeping, from place

ing the dead babe
for
to place, bear-
upon her bosom, seeking

to raise
it
some great teacher

At
last
if
from the
dead.
she
came
to
Gautama and
Buddha,
I
asked him
he could work
this miracle of love.
"Certainly,
easy;
my
child," said
"it
is
your child
shall live again;
do but
as the
it,
need a handful of mustard-seed."

joyful
But
mother was departing

197
to
obtain
rilK 1,IVIN(;
WORD
house whiMr
Buddha added,
imistard-sotHl
" llemoiulHM-, Kisai;()taini, this

froui a
must couic
no
father, or mother, or brother, or sister, or
wife, or liushaud, or
eveu
a friend lias
died."
For some time she persevered
in
her seareh.
The
she
peopk^ were wilhng to

told
assist her,
but
when
them the eondition on which she

seed, they said, "
would accept the what

is
Wouian,
are few,
this
you ask?
The
At
living'
and the dead are many."

days, she gave
soled by the
it
last, after
many
u[),
and, already half conin sull'ering
connnon fellowship
she had
found evcM-ywhere, she returned

to tell
to
(uintama
him
of her fruitless s(>a.reh.

llic iimtcic
"Daaif^lilcr,"
quoUi ho,
ll\iil
"liiisl I'ouiul
lu-iii-t
st-od?"
And
Thou
she, "I (iml
ovciv
dolli blood,
"riml oven
"'riint
liouso of doiitli Imtli ImKom liood."

is
IJiiddhii snid. '"This kiiowlodfjo
lliy
onro,
sorrow soon or
Into lo nil
is
sure.
"I'lurororo,
my
ohild, bo pnlioni
and ondiiro."
The who do
mu'versalilv of death!
ai'(>
The
livine;
are
few, and the dead
ma uy.
will
Those
of us
not already
mourn
IDS
soon uu)urn,
WHAT
and others
is
IS
DEATH
to all
will
soon be mourning for us.
It
to all
who mourn,
who
fear death,
that these words are addressed.
They
are
based on the promises of Scripture, on the
ground
Nature.
of fact,
on the well-proved continuity
of
To
those
who
turn with a doubtful

live ?)
"whether" (do the dead indeed

replies
Fechner
by
telling
how they live.
Until
we know
the
"how," the dreadful "whether" cannot
help rising again and again, loud and tumultu-
ous in our breasts.

terrible to us.
It is
It is the
unknown
that
is
because we
make such
mystery, such a dark secret of Death that
we hate him.
an old man
Did we know him
better,
we
might almost love him.
"My
children," said
to his boys, scared
by a dark
will
figure
in the entry,
"My children,
you
never see
anything worse than yourselves."'
Almost everything that men have written
on death
Almost
all
suffers
from one serious omission.
writers
who
'
believe in immortality
Emerson.
199
THE LIVINC WORD

have assumed that
man
livos
only twico
luMV and in another world.

lives three
in
In realily
tliis
man
times
twiee
in
world, once
it
the
world to eome.
Now.
is
always
diffieult,
and often
inipossihle. to pass
from
a single,
known
series of i'aits to
facts.
another and
quite different series of
That
is
the
well-kno\Mi
argument by analogy.
It
was
never a very strong argument, and the more
remote the second
scries
is
from the
(irst.
the
weaker the argument becomes.
Bui
to pass
through two consct'utive and intimately connected series of fails to

stronger argument.
It
is
a.
third
scries
is
a.
an argument not
well-
based
on analogy merely, but on the

continuity of nature.
known
point,
GiviMi only one

ilo
and the best mathematician can

it;
nothing with
but show him the arc of a
curve, and he will at once construct the whole

figure.
is
The advantage
it
claim for this view
that
shows
tlu>
small arc of the curve.

once, under similar eir-
What has happened
WHAT
cumstances
will
IS
DEATH?
Like causes
like
happen again.
and,
produce
like
effects,
conversely,
effects follow like causes.
Now,
the
I see a
number
of causes preparing in
effects in
first life to
life.
produce their striking
the second
Certain organs are developed.

function, now.
They have no meaning, no They

eye
are
is
will
have a meaning hereafter.

its
The
created,
thirteen marvelous processes

is
all
elaborated before there
any
its
possi-
bility
of seeing.
The
ear,
with
of
infinite
is
delicacy for the apprehension
sound,
fashioned in the silence.

the
first
life,
They
are
made
in
not for the
first life,
but for the
second.
It
does not require fanatical faith

that a being
to believe
endowed with eyes

in the light
and ears
will
sometime walk
and
receive sounds
from the
air.
So when
in the
second
life
I see similar organs forming, great
spiritual forces that
can hardly be called into

life,
play in this short, uncertain
especially
on which
when
I look at those strong souls

201
THE LIVING WORD

generations and ages have leaned for support
without exhausting their strength,

there
is
I believe
a third
life,
in Avhich the spiritual eye
shall see clearly
and the
spiritual ear shall be
wholly unstopped.
I oven believe that

first life
by
comparison of the
with the second I
can infer to a certain degree what that third

life will
be.
this plainer
Perhaps I can make

illustration.
by a simple
In the Ilcbrow language the roots

thre(> lettcM-s.
of
words consist as a rule of only
One
as
day, in reading a manuscript of the Old

^^()^d,
Testament, I find an incomplete

it
which
stands, conveys no meaning.
From my
I
general
knowledge
of
the
book,
believe
I there-
every word should have a meaning.

fore infer that this
I set myself at
word
is
incomj)lete,
and
once to conjecture what the

If the first letter as well as
word should
the last
is
be.
absent,
my
task will be a difficult

will,
one; and choose what word I
shall
never be satisfied that

202
it
is
the right word.
WHAT
But
if
IS
DEATH
me
to
the
first
two
letters are given,
it
ought
not to be very hard for

third letter;
supply the
and
if
thereby I restore some
well-known Hebrew word that exactly supplies
the meaning I feel sure
the
passage
requires,
my mind
is
at rest.
I believe that
my
task has been done, and well done.

course, he
Of
who
believes that Nature's

is
word has no meaning,

for a third letter.
third letter exists.
not tempted to look
He will not believe that any He will accept the incomit
prehensible fragment as
stands, though he
believes that
cannot read
it.
But he who
Nature's word has a meaning will look for a

third letter
;
and he
will find
it
only in immor-
tality, for it is
immortality alone which makes
this
world
intelligible.
To
the child, birth
must seem exactly what

It is the violent
death seems to us.

the only
life
it
end
it
of
knows.
Like death
is
sudden event, accompanied with pain and

anguish.
The
child enters this world with a

203
THE L1V1N(J
mused and physicians haAo
hl'e is
WORD
smiled.
loud try,ovor whoso uuvining pliilosophers have

IMic
new
so ditt'erent from the old that Ihe child,

its
with
it
feeble,
undeveloped senses, even had
had any
intuition of that ehanf;e, could not

itself
;il
possibly have represented to

life
what
this
would
be.
Had
it
thought
clian<>;e
if
all, it
could
only have dreaded the

to the
from Ihe known

that chiingc" were
a picture of
unknown,
especially
{)ain.
accompanied by
What
man
child
standing and shuddering at the thought of

death, which
little
is
his
second birth!
The
its
knew what
a ^ôrld
was
to be
home.
itself
How
could the unopened cyr [)iclure to
the glory of the sun, the light breaking over the

sea, the
moon walking
in str(>ngtli,
;i
jew(>K-(l
flower, a woni.in's smile?
Or how
could the
llu>
ear that had never heard sound imagine
surging and sobbing of the sea, the sound of

the lunnan voice, or even the song of
;i
bird
So more
iiwaits us after
death than wc can
know
or think.
" Kye hath not seen, nor ear
WHAT
man
as
it
IS
it
DEATH
heard, neither hath

to conceive."
entered the heart of
The
is
imagination
in
is
as helpless in one case
the
other. of
its
We
can
return no
answers to
many
is
eager questions.
But
for the rest all

in the
supremely certain.
if
Nothing
were not.
world would be certain
this
Again, the child does not enter a world for
which
it
is
wholly unprepared.
Those
little
limbs were
made
to
move.
That
beautiful eye
was made
the world.
hear.
in the darkness to see the light of
The
delicate
ear
was made
to
And
its
so every faculty
we
possess will
have
are
employment.
The
spiritual
body we
making
will carry us far
and wide, and
will reveal to us
many
unsuspected wonders.
into this world a
it
The
child does not

it
come
to a
stranger; but
comes
home where
has
been desired and expected for a long time,
where many preparations have been made

to receive
it.
Nor do we go
205
to that
world
unwelcome or unexpected, but
as guests long
T II
and eagerly
home,
for
1-:
L n'
('.
AV ()
RD
desired, yes, as eliildren relurning
whom
the himps are Uglited and the

'^l"'here
family assembled.
are
many
in that
world
are
who
are eagerly longing for us,
and
there
some
\^hose happiness will never be quite
perfect until
we
are there to share
it
with them.
In one sense death does nothing, yet in
another sense
us,
it
it
does
all.
It
does not eliange does not merge
does not destroy us.
It
us in the All so that

life.
we
lose
our own individual
It
does not suddenly carry us forward
to perfection, nor sink us, as the ancients im-
agined, to the condition of weak, inane shadows.

It
transplants us.
Like our
first
birth,
it
is
the beginning of a
new
life.
But that great
ordeal
passed, that
narrow gate traversed,
\\e shall find ourselves exactly \\here
we
lost
ourselves;
and from that point our
develoj)silently
ment
as
it
will probal)ly
go on as calmly and
went on here.
is
Yet the Day of Judgment

shall
no
fiction.
We
be judged, simply because we shall be

20G
WHAT
known.
a veil of flesh.
possible.
IS
DEATH?
itself
Here the soul hides
under many
is
There no such disguise
He who
move and
has gone slowly here will
be lame there.
only to
lie
who has used
his
mind
to feed his body, of that
man little will remain over, and yet something. He who has closed his eyes to God's love and
goodness
will
be dazzled and blinded by

it
it
wdien suddenly
splendor.
breaks on him in
all
its
He who
has hidden falsehood and
corruption under a fair exterior will suffer
agonies of shame and compunction

disguise
is
when
his
torn
off,
and the pure eyes

for
of those
to be
who have
and
loved
him
what he seemed
in
^âs not, turn
from him
sorrow and
surprise.
In
tions.
this life
we
are too
weak
for such revela-
^^^len occasionally they
come
to
us,
they
inflict
on us wounds from which we may
never wholly recover.
They may even shake

But there the
our faith in
all
goodness forever.
sense that our guilt, our deceit and wickedness

207
THE
LIVIN(.
WORD
are naked and open to every eye. will certainly be the strongest incentive to us to purify
and heal ourselves. no perfect happiness,

of evil
Wo
shall find
no
rest,
until
is
the
last
vestige
that clings to us
for.
is
stripped otf and
atoned
That
hope.
the ground
is
of
our imperishable
Goodness
eternal.
Wisdom
is
justified of all her children, and,
on the other
itself.
hand,
evil
is
perpetually annihilating
Lies are always being found out and branded

errors discovered
folly constantly
and avoided.
Passion and
prove themselves to be mis-
takes.
life
So
if
man
has hidden away in his

truth,
only one mustard-seed of eternal

all
.')
(without which could he live at
it is
not
impossible to
God
that that
good seed may
grow
into a great tree
and crush the noxious
weeds that have overshadowed and choked

the good so long.
In that world where
all
is
known,
errors
and
false
judgments do not
208
exist.
That which
WHAT
was weighed
truly there.
IS
DEATH?
here
will
falsely
be weighed
be
first,
So,
many
The
last shall
and the
first last.
holy purpose, disap-
pointed and thwarted or cut short by death,

shall
have
its
reward.
Those who had nothing
to offer but their tears shall see those tears
moistening and refreshing

spot
of
earth.
many
a parched
Many who
perfect.
were unknown
here shall find themselves well
known
there.
God's
justice
is
Even
the babe
its
who
dies a
few days or a few
hours after
eyes have opened on the light
of this world
does not perish everlastingly.
Just as a melody once struck continues to

vibrate in the atmosphere for ages after
it
has
ceased to be heard, just as a wave, once
launched, propagates
itself,
crosses countless
itself,
other waves without losing
crosses the
broad sea until

shore,
lives
it
reaches at last the farther

is
so
on
the
it
soul
not destroyed,
at last
to
its
but
until
comes
209
own
place.
THE LIVIN
Kiiokert
(i
WOHD
After the death of his two Httle children
composed seventy KinderlolenUeder

ehildren), of
sixty-seven.
(songs of the dead

Uively verse
is
whieh
this
number
konuuen
(iliu'lv
Tiii;'
lout'
doii\o vior,
I'm
Zuiii
zu wiinsc'lion dir
dicli <^-bnr.
dor
Soclis
waron
os vorin
.Inlir.
Nim
Ks
tVlilt diis riiiiluii.
Noiii!
stollot
iiiit
sioli oiii.
Komiul horgoflogou
^ oni lliiiunol
auoii
wio cin llnucii
Uiul wiiusolut Cili'uk uiul Moil
Uir aufl\ an soiuoin

"
'iVil.
Audi
wir, fjcborou dir,

dir,
Siud uiivorlorou I'ud daukou
ids dciii
Kind,
Puss wir
gcliorcii sind,
(u-boroii niotit zur Sclioiii,
Zuui
nit'
wost'iiliiirioii Sciii,
Z(-it,
audoivii fur dio
^Vi^ fiir dio iMvifjkoil,
Sic
fiir
dcs
Ijclu'iis
Itiiius,
\Vir
fiir diis slillo
lliius.
Wo
wir in Friodcii niiin
Und
sopion doincn
'I'liun."
To
know,
attain that higher

to be ha])py,
to
and perfect
hfe.
to
is
be perfect, (hvith
210
WHAT
necessary.
to perfect
IS
DEATH
Just as the child could never
come
manhood
so
or
womanhood imprisoned
life
in the
womb,
we
attain our perfect

call
only
through that second birth we

this
death.
In
world the outer senses must sink to sleep
before the inner world of thought awakes.
The more
less plainly
objects distract the attention, the
we
see each.
The more we The deeper

deeper
con-
centrate our
minds on one, the more the others

the
retreat into the darkness.

sleep, the
more
perfect the waking.
The more
the
sleep.
perfect
the
waking,
the
And
yet in this world,
we never more than

little
half sleep.
Should we plunge a
old
deeper,
we should never wake. The

Death
gives us our
man
watches
beside us and hinders us from taking that
plunge.
first
perfect sleep.
The
old
man
at last has relaxed his watch.

to a
So when we wake, we wake
new
life;
life,
and yet
it is
but a continuation of the old
just as the old
man's body
211
is
the continuation
it
of the
body
of the child, although
now
con-
THE
tains not
LlYIN(i
WORD
Evou
one atom of the child's body.

Avill
so that Hfo
this life,
coutuin
all
the eonseiousness of
all ^\e have ever known, or thought,

That
\\
or
felt.
hieh
it
we have
forgotten,
we ha\e
it
forgotten because
is
has gone before us, but
there "waiting for us.
Once more, and
j)erha{)s this is the

all,
-
most
important thought of
forces before
its
the child's w hole

in
birth are
expended
form-
ing a body.
The
materials indeed tuv fur-
nished
it
by another, but the formatiê power
must
less
I'onie
from
it
itself.
From
the tiny, form-
germ,
goes on building and fashioning

until the
is
an organism,
can imagine
most perfect form we

its
ready to go forth into
new
is
and larger
given us to
life.
So our
life
in this
world
make
a spiritual
to
organism for
this
its
world and the world

real, its
ical
conie.
That
all
is
only ival purpose.
Just as
phys-
forces
air
-light anil darkness,
food
and
warmth,
and water
21 '2
are given us as
to
we
can use them to
make and
maintain our
WHAT
physical
truth
tion
IS
so
DEATH
all
bodies,
spiritual
forces
we
and goodness,
influence,
holy associa-
and example
are
given to us as
spiritual
itself
itself.
can use them to make our
body.
The
soul
cannot grow of
any more
than the body can grow of

lives
The
soul
on God wherever
it
finds
God;
is
yet the
soul does not lose itself in
God,
not abliving
sorbed
by God any more than the

absorbed in the
it
body
is
air
it
breathes, or
the water
drinks.
The
soul also
grows
by the intercourse and example
of the good.
Look back over your own

tell
life;
can you not

?
to
whom
you owe what you are
not,
we
cannot, live to ourselves.
We do We are
whom
united truly and forever to those by
our character has been formed, our torch has
been kindled.
We
belong to them, for they
have made us what we are;

others
and there are

are constantly
who belong
to us.
We
incorporating ourselves into the lives of others
by word and deed, by example and

213
writing.
THE LIVING WORD

This
is
the profound
of saints,
moaning
of
tlio
com-
munion
which many have talked
about and few have seen.
Even while Goethe

carried within
soul.
It is
lived, millions of
li\ino; s{)avks
men
dead.
this
them the
of his
not otherwise
now
that he
is
The
is
greatest, the only perfect
example of
the
Lord Jesus
Christ.
It
is
The
to
energy of His
all,
soul
still
vivifies us.
all.
Him we owe
or almost
It
was no hgure
I
of s[>eeeh
when
I
lie said
"Lo,
who
feel
am
with you always.
am
the vine, ye are the branches."

love
He
felt
lives
in the lives of all
Him.
in all,
who,
inspired
by Him,
and think as He
and
thought.
He
all
is
indeed the vine from which

life,
we draw our
which we
This
all
is
strength and
the vine
on
hang
like clustering grapes.
the cogent
and
I
sufficient ans\êr to
who ask
"Shall
I
s\\
see
the
loved
one
again?
AVill
Shall
be united to him again?

eet
life
the
old
ever
be
bless
renewed
Shall
we continue
to teach
and
and help
WHAT
and
IS
DEATH?
meet again,
be
to
love each other as in the days that are

to
gone ?" This longing

again those
know
more
we have
lost, will
fulfilled
perfectly than
Avill
we can
possibly imagine.
;
You
indeed see him again
you
will
know him
again.
You
will
be united more perfectly in

here.
heart and
first life
is
mind than you could be

sleep;
Our
life
was a constant
our second
an alternation between sleeping and waking

life
our third
life
shall
be
all
waking.
Our
first
was complete
life
is
loneliness
and
isolation; our
loneli-
second
an alternation between
ness and companionship;

all
our third shall be
companionship.
" Xow I
know in
part, but
then shall I
know even
as also I
am known."
Even now
you imagine.
as
the dead are nearer to you than
Do
not shrink from this thought
though
it
contained
something
all
terrible.
Emotions do not flow
in
one direction
they are reciprocal; they
flow"
from us
to the
beloved one, and from the beloved one back

to us, just as the
blow
215
is
felt
by the object
THE
smitten and
tlio
1,IV iN(;
woiin
AVlion
hand
that strikos.
t)f
yon
it
think Uivingly and oarncstly

is
the U)st one,
becanse he
is
near you.
The more
earnestly,
neartM'
the
more
hivingly,
\Aas
you think, the

once
a
he
draws.
There
\von\an Avho ran
every\\liere dislraitedly seeking* for the child
she carried
so Ave seek,
all
the while on her arm.

stretch
And
and so we
empty and
supplicating arms to an
empty
sky. whereas,
hearts,
would we but return

should soon find the
info our
lost
own
we
one there.
to all
We
shall also be unittnl
those great
to lo\c
and good men wc have learned

ajipreciatc
and
here.
We
arc
indeed
already
imited to those on whose thoughts and ex-
amples we
live;
but we shall be united
to
them
shall
more
find
perfectly,
more
personally,
and we
them
better, wiser,
and truer than the men

If
who once walked
this earth.
we think of th(>
rapid and marvelous development of IMalo's
powers during the ten

Socrates' death, what
a
'.'Hi
years
that
followed
IMaio might w> not
WHAT
IS
DEATH
expect to find after two thousand years of
untrammeled progress
^Mio could imagine to
himself a Shakespeare, a Dante, a Goethe,

or a Balzac, after having seen things as they
are for five hundred years are
?
And
yet there
many
lessons
only deep, personal
love
can teach, lessons we can learn only from

those
who have
instinct
loved us best.
of
It
was a pro-
found
truth that led Goethe to
commit
his world-wise, experienced hero after
death to the tutelage of INIargaret, the simple

girl
it
he had loved and ruined long ago.

of joy
:
And
was a glad song
and forgiveness that
burst from her lips

"Incline,
Maiden,
With mercy laden.

In
light unfading,
Thy
gracious countenance
loved,
upon
my
bliss:
My
His
my
lover,
trials over.
In yonder world, returns to
me
in this."
The
real
and important outcome

is
of all I
have been saying
this.
Death
is
nothing
217
TnE L V N
I
C,
WORD
it
more than
but
litcM'ally.
;i
second birth; not fignnitively

A\'e
nood dread
no more than
the ehikl need (h'ead to be born.
The
birth
pangs are
[)ainful,
but they are soon over.

HIV.
Then, new and greater

here, such
\\ithoiit
Such as we are
we
shall find ourselves there, yet not
the
hope
of
progress and of final

of
Ihis
life
victory.
'I'lie
lessons
must be
learned somewhere, somehow,

take another
is
Ik'Toi-c
we can
'Chat
sle|)
towards
perl'eclioii.
the [)roround truth imderlying the diabolical

ol"
doctrine
of this
Iraiisiuigraliim.
is
The
real
purpose
a,
life
lo
make
a,
a.
soul, to
it
fashion
spiritual organisui;
souk great
may
be,
but anyway sound, sweet, pure, and honest.
This
is
the on<' important thing in this
life.
Those who are mistaken on
this point, those
who
take pleasure or power or vice or frivolity

;iiui
for a suflicient
in life, are simj)ly
missing
the purpose of their existence.
IJut they shall
alone for their error by
many
sulferings,
by
many
regrets.
218
WHAT
The
for us
all.
IS
DEATH
creation of this good soul
is
possible
That
is
the great justice of
God
concealed in this world under the appearance

of injustice.
indifferent.
Circumstance
is
really almost
One cannot
is
say that one set of
circumstances
another.
to
better or
more favorable than
"All things work together for good

that love
life
it
them
God."
Epictetus attained
the divine
in a
slave kennel.
Marcus
Aurelius led
on the throne
it
of the world.
Yet
for
Marcus Aurelius
was probably
harder than for Epictetus.
Buddha
left
kingdom
to find holiness.
Louis the Ninth
converted his court into a sanctuary. Washington,
from a home of refinement,
affluence,
and
luxury,
became
the "Father of his country."
Abraham
lot,
Lincoln, untrammeled by a narrow
a deficient education and innumerable

the Republic
privations, saved
and created
a new type of manhood.

society of the
The example and

;
good cheer and help us

219
but
am
I thrown
among men whose lives and principles
THE
I
LIVINC^
WORD
my own
saw
it
cannot honor us tho host,
iniuM- ideal
stands hrl'oro
me
as I never
before,
il"
and
with commendalion
strono-, or
it
and
a{)j)roval
if
am
with
[)ily
and sorrow
with
am
weak,
looks
down on me
livino'
mul sympaj;ivcs
thetic
eyes.
To
the
sonic,
slrenj^lh
the
o{)portunity of noble labor; on others, \\cak-
ness imposes
duly of
|tatienl
is
sidl'crin{>\
Yet who can say that the one

better than the other? at last,
^reafer or
So we
attain the jôal

tiie
we
will not (|uarrel
with
way by
seek the
precisely
which (Jod leads us

great opportunity?
to
it.
Do yon
it
\'ou can (ind
where you are now.

After
It
is
all is said,
the soul
it is
is
tiie
main
tliinjjj.
that which endures;
that wiiich snll'ers
and enjoys.
fit
Those who
]\;\\c
been so happy
be thrown w
liiat
any time
in their lives as to
ith
really noble natures will
rcnuMubcr
more
touching, more" penetrating than the inspired
word or worthy deed were those direct

from the true
sold,
(lashes
gone
in a
moment and
yet
WHAT
never forgotten
IS
DEATH
light,
the face, suddenly illumined

instantaneous
appeal,
the
to
and radiant with loving

sympathy responding
every
cheerful courage firm as steel,

nized,
we
recog-
we hardly knew how,
absolute resigna-
tion, unfaltering faith expressed
by a glance, a
sigh, felt rather
than understood.
soul shining out through
its
That was the

cerement of clay.
And
not.
those pure souls shine
now
like stars in the better world.
Therefore,
in you,
fear not
and repine
Eternal
is
life is
eternal companionship
will find
it
before you, and you
sweeter and better than you can
know
or think.
But you say

after all!
If
what
set
an argument
this
is
you
your hope of immortality

of a soul before birth,
on the feeble glimmering
on the formation
of organs like the eye

all
and
ear,
then your hope must include

birds,
animals and
fishes, all
and even
reptiles, insects,
and
of
whom
undergo the same strange metamorIs not this a proof of the futility of
221
phoses.
HE
l.IV IN(^
WORD
point at most to
your reasoning?
a hijihov life in state that
Docs
tliis
it
not.
world
it,
tlian tlio
enihrvonic
procrded
but by no moans to an
lit'o
etornal
and
spiritual
beyond
this
world
I confess I
have never
feel
felt
the shrinking that
some persons
life
from prediealing anolher
for the brutes.
For
me
I
there
would be
something lacking
in a
world without our wise
and good animals, which

coxdd
fill.
doubt
says,
if
the ano'cls
As Augustine
I ask
w'c
are
all
God's brutes, but

find these hints
you
lo notice that I
and intimations
of immorlalily
not
in
the organs
and
instincts of animals,
but in the spiritual ca|)acilies of man.

as this
to the
tlie
As
far
argument
is
concerned,
it
points only
immortality of man, and lo that only on

of his
sj)iritua.l
ground
faculties.
merely
say that by looking buck to w hat

it is
man
has been,
ill
easier lo look forward to
what he w
be.
In
fact, the
very considerations which lead us to

life
predicate another
for
man
deter us from
predicating
it
of the animal.
What
impresses
WHAT
tat is its absolute
IS
DEATH
its
us most in the wild animal in
natural habiits
conformity to
environ-
ment,
its
its
perfect adaptation to the

its
life it lives,
contentment,
to
lack of progress.
It is so
conformed
this
world that
If it
it
it
needs and
live again,
seeks no other world.

it
should
could only repeat what
has done before.
And what
this world,
impresses us most in
man
is
that in
spite of the
innumerable ages he has spent in

is
he
never more than half at
home
he
here.
From
the
dawn
of his spiritual life
has been held in the grip of a mighty, uncom-
prehended longing.
this physical world,
Turning
his
back on
he has created an invisible

fears,
and
spiritual
world on which his deepest
his loftiest inspirations, his dearest
hopes have
been nurtured.
The
ideals
he has pursued,
the moral character he has developed, are

far
beyond what a
successful, enjoyable
life
in this
world demands of him.

to
In
fact, the
moral ideal
which we bow
223
is,
as even
Huxley
confessed, in sheer defiance of the law of
Na-
11
LIVING WOK
1)
tuio;
tliat
is,
tho law of our iikmii1)ois
and
jippetites.
Our
bodies indeed huve ceased to

of
develop.
speaking',
The term
still
our years,
the old
roughly
stands at
threescore
years and ten; but the lives of the best of our

rat-e,
their resolute self-sacrifice, their ulniost
infinite ca})a(ity for the
knowledge and love
of
God,
A\()uld
be the strangest contradiction
were they cut short after a

years in this world.
few
uncertain
"If there be reason and

this universe,
economy
souls
at the
bottom of
IMato,
such
as
Socrates,
Saint
John, Saint
Paul, and Jesus would not have been created
only to be destroyed."
In reality, the arguonly a new appHcation
ment
am
pursuing
is
of the
argument
of evolution,
following
of the life-history of the individual, instead of
the history of the race.
The one
is
just as
fruitful, just as legitimate as the other.
Just
as in our first of
lif(>
the creation of certain orirans

to a
no immediate use points

where they
will
second physical
life
be useful, so in our [)resent

224
WHAT
life
IS
of
DEATH
eternal
the
creation
and
spiritual
faculties
which can hardly be trained or
called
into play here, points to a third
spiritual
and
eternal
life.
225
Be not
deceived,
God
is
not mocked, for whatsoever a
man
soweth, that shall he also reap.
Gal.
6: 7.
227
CHAPTER
XII
ON THE SPIRITUAL BODY
The
this
first
thing forced on our attention in

St.
verse
life
is is
Paul's assumption that
man's
a part of those great natural
processes over which
man
bad.
himself has
little
power.
it
The
seed belongs to him; he can sow
in
good
it it it
fields or in
But
if
he does
sow
passes at once out of his control.

leaves
it
When
his
hand the
forces of the
it
universe take
up, they act on
in accordinflu-
ance with laws over which

ence at
all.
man
has no
He
only knows that the seed

it
sown
will increase so rapidly that

difficult to so,
will
soon
be very
check
its
growth should
he wish to do
will
and
also that the seed
sown
reproduce
itself.
The
in
harvest reaped will
be
strictly the
same
kind as the seed
THE MVINC WORD

sown.
Tlunv
is
no process known
c
to agri-
cultural chemistry that

into turnips,
an transform potatoes
into of
or Russian thistles
is
sugar
beets,
and there
no process
spiritual
chemistry that can transform a seedtime of

frivolity
and
vice into a harvest of happiness

If
and honor.
we have such seeds within us

them; but
r(>;ip
if
wc had
better destroy
wc plant
wc
them wc must
have sown.
ex[)eet to
is
the harvest
That
not
all:
(od only
knows
how much good wheat

tares.
shall
be ruined by our
<iro})j)C(l
Evil, like everything else
on the
rich soil of
human
life,
multiplies by a law
of
its
own.
Who knows
the
what old
first
sin of
some
forgotten
man was
occasion of his
own undoing?
Who knows
what happy
life
may
be blighted and ruined by our wicked

?
indulgences
"With
ciirlirs first clay Ihcy did llic last man knead And tlu'ii of llic lasl harvest sow'd the seed; And the first tiiorninp; of creation wrote What llic last dawn of rcckoiiiiif^ shall read."
230

This great
text of St. Paul's also contains a
thought of death.
itself alive
The
buried seed that proves
and works
its
way through
the dark
enveloping earth to the light of day, to a new
and transformed
bringing
favorite
life,
then and not

fruits,
till
then
the
forth
large
that
is
scriptural
It
image
of
death and the
resurrection.
St.
not only forms the burden of
Paul's great chant of victory which
we
read in the burial of the dead, but Christ

himself employed
it
when he
said,
"Except
die, it
a grain of corn
fall into
if it
the earth
die
it
and
abideth alone, but
bringeth forth
this
much
fruit."
Let us consider
little
further.
Unquestionably the Christian doctrine of

the future
tion
life is
the doctrine of the resurrec-
of the body.
AYe affirm
it
every time
we
repeat the Apostles' Creed.

this
Renan
con-
sidered
a more philosophical doctrine

soul, since
than the mere immortality of the

it is
impossible for us to imagine the soul ex231
THE LIVING WORD

isting
without an organ by which
it
can know
world,
and be known.
Christians, Jews,
Two
thirds of
the
and Mohammedans, believe

Outside a
in the resurrection of the body.
handful of philosophical thinkers,

people
believe
how many
in
on rational grounds
?
the
immortality of the soul

I shall
The
is
only question
the old quesare the
concern myself with
tion asked in St. Paul's
day
"IIow
dead raised up and with what body do they

come.P"
Now many
own
jxTsons are so taken up
with their
gross materialistic notions of
a resurrection of flesh and blood and bones

that they pay no attention to
really teaches
what
St.
Paul
on the
su])ject.
I will say, then,
that for an animal organism like this, a cellular
body, consisting of heart, lungs, digestive

etc.,
aj)j)aratus,
would not contend

is
for a
minute.
it
If
anything
certain in this world,

it
is
that
when
the heart ceases to beat,
ceases
that
is
forever.
The machine
232
is
worn
out,
why
it
runs no longer.

To
verse
change a word
of
James Thomson's
"Nothing
is
of us in the
mouldering
flesh
Whose elements
In earth,
air,
dissolve
and merge afresh
water, plants, and other men."
Moreover,
this is not the doctrine of the
New
who
Testament
at
all.
Jesus rebuked those
thought that the next world was but a continuation

of
the
physical
relations
of
this,
declaring that the children of the

are like the angels. Paul's doctrine really
the
If
is
new
birth
St.
we examine what
we
shall see that in
famous chapter
of Corinthians he exhausts
the resources of language in the antitheses he

establishes between the
body that
is
laid in the
earth here, and the body with which the soul

is
clothed there.
"Thou
fool, that
which thou
sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be,
but bare grain,
it
may
chance of wheat or of
I say, brethren,
some other
grain."
"This
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the king-
dom
of
God, neither doth corruption

233
inherit
THE
incorruption."
it is
LIVINC;
"It
is
WORD
in
is
sown
It
it is it is
corruption,
raised in incorruption.
it is
sown
in
in dis-
honor,
ness,
raised in glory;
sown
weak-
it is it is
raised in power;
sown a natural
body,
raised a spiritual body."
I accept these
words
literally.
I believe
that
fairly
interpreted
they
represent
the
highest truth on this subject, but just because
most persons do not accept them

but explain them away to
materialistic notions,
suit
literally,
their
tlio
own
not
to a
my
will
view of
subject
may seem
strange to some, though I

it
am
without hope that
approve
itscll"
it,
good many.
receive
St.
it.
He
that can receive
let
him
Paul's doctrine culminates in the asser-
tion that the
body that
This
shall
is
l)c
raised
up
is
wholly spiritual.
this
the only point in
passage I shall consider.

persons a
many
contradiction in
little
To a great spiritual body may seem a terms. To persons having

such a
234
faith in the things of the spirit,

body may seem no body
light wraith of a ghost.
at all, less than the

it is
In truth,
neither
a contradiction nor an unreality. world the body

soul in
is
In
this
the
home
of the soul.
lives in
it.
The
some mysterious way
By
our bodies we are known and distinguished
from every one
else.
By
our bodies we act
and receive impressions from the world.

are born in them, ^ê live in them, and
in
We
die
is
we
them.
Then we
body
is
leave them.
There
no
change as mysterious as the change that takes

place in the
^^Tien our
lie
at the
tired,
moment
we
of death.
body
are tired
and
down
to sleep.
But by and by the time

is
comes when our body
too tired to be re-
freshed by any sleep less profound than the

sleep of death.
lie
In death the soul does not

its
down
to sleep in
old bed.
The
old bed,
for
it
that
was too narrow and too short

it it
is
destroyed, and
distance,
is
driven out into the free
where
at once finds itself in a
new
and
larger house, as the Apostle says,

235
"Not
Til E LI V1N(;
that
WORD
lire."
wo should be unclothed, but clothed upon,
that mortality
may
be s\\allowed up of
in
What
is
this
new house
which the soul
finds itself?
It is not really a
new house,
it is
an old house, only hitherto
it
was concealed
by the
little
house of
clay.
Ever since you were
born, ever since you began to think, you have
been building
body.
this
Tiew house, this spiritual
Only
uj)
to the
all
moment
strangers.
of death
it
has been closed to
Over
its
threshold no foot but ours and God's has ever
passed:
now
it is
open to
all.
can only com-
pare
it
to the only other resurrection I
know,
when many
have
chrysales burst the cocoons that
sej)arat(Hl
them
so long
and
fly
together
as butterflies in the sunshine of a garden.
But
?
you ask me again, what
is
that s])iritual house

in
What, then,
is
the
home
which your soul

A[)art from your
its
has lived these

body, with
its
many
years?
sensations,
is
consciousness
of pain or well-being,
in
there not a larger house
which your soul has gone up and down,

23G

sleeping and waking, a house which you have
built yourself,
room by room,
story
by
story,
whose building stones are thoughts, hopes,

affections, in a
word the memories
of a life-
time
In that house you are never alone; you

to shut the outer
all
have but
door of sense, to
enjoy the society of
you ever held dear.

house contains
Young: or old, dead or
livino-, this
them
all.
All the truth your soul has been able
to abstract
from the universe
is
here.
All the
noble voices to which your heart has ever

thrilled
speak to you here.

life, all its
X\l the sorrow
of
your
sins to
and
pollutions, all
your
broken promises
(jod, arc likewise here.
man,
fly
from those haunted chambers,
lock their doors tight and never open them,
and perhaps the ghosts

dark
clay
if
will
starve
in
the
of
you do not feed them.

not.
The house
you know
Why
your heart beats

of the spirit
you know not: but the house
you
know
very well.
How many
have your
237
thousand times
feet
in joy or weariness
wandered
THE LIVING WORD

through
it!
You
are imprisoned in tliat house,
in the sense that
you eannot esea[)e from

so
Tree,
it.
But
it
is
so hirge,
so
wonikM-fully
it
adorned with strange treasures, that
seldom
it is
seems
to
you hke a prison house.
When
it,
too small you

it
can ahv;iys enlarge

it;
when
is
too poor you can enrich
;ind yet the
new
unites with the old so that
its
unity
is
not
broken,
it
all
remains one house.

in.
11"
you
cannot get out, others cannot get

not even to close the door.
far as the outside world
is
You have
it,
Enter
and
as
concerned you are

in the universe.
as
much
alone as
is
if
you dwelt
Nothing
there but w hat }'ou have put there.
It represents
you
perfectly;
it
contains
all
the
thoua;hts of (iod
all
vou have been able
to think,
the goodness
you have made your own,

to
all
the
knowledge you have been able

all
accumulate,
of this universe^
you have been
able to appropriate up to the hour of your
death, and
it is all
yours, in a sense in which

it if
nothing else
is
yours; you could not lose

238

you would. That
certain
is
the horror of
it.
You
to
lock
doors;
you resolve never
enter
those chambers again.
Some
day, after years,

find
you stumble
into
left
them and
it.
everything
exactly as you
In
all
those years no
hand has been present
to disturb anything.
That
is
our spiritual house, our spiritual

rise
body, in which we shall

shall
and which we
wear
forever.
Is this not in strict accord
with the
text,
"Be
'
not deceived;
God
is
not
man soweth that shall he also reap ? We may have deceived ourselves about this, but it is not God who has deceived us. We may have led our lives with
mocked;
for whatsoever a
'
a very different purpose, but what we have
done
is
to
weave a garment that we
shall
wear
forever.
We
shall carry into that

all
world
a world of memories that represent
we have
life,
been able to carry away from
this
all
we have been, and done.

spiritual
They make our

will
body.
Nothing
239
be changed,
only the inside has become the outside, and
THE LIVING WORD

wo
are seen and
is
known
for
what we
are.
This thought
both beautiful and
terrifying',
terrifying to those
who have
cannot
guilty secrets
to conceal that they
eoni'cal, blessed
beyond words
to look
to those pure souls wlio long to share each
on each other's hearts,
other's experiences, to live each other's lives.
Death does not break the bond that

us; death only breaks the
us.
unites
bond that separates

into the
The
conscience
we carry with us
lot
next world determines our

there.
and condition
are
Just as in this world
we
known by
known
it is
our features, in that world we shall be
by our conscience.
Just as in this world
our physical )>ody that distinguishes us from

every
human
Paul
being, in
th;i.t
world we shall be
distinguished by our spiritual body.

fore, St.
There-
said,
"One
star differeth
from
another star in glory."
If that
body
is
slrong
and beautiful we
shall be
happy:
if it is
weak
and deformed and hideous we

able.
shall be miser-
In
proportion
as
we become more
240

clearly conscious of our relation to
shall
God we
certainly feel
more our conformity or
our opposition to Him.
Even now we know by
the warnings of conscience whether acting with

is
we
are
God
or against
God, whether God
with us or against us.
But that
is
a weak
premonition of what we shall soon see with
our eyes, and
feel
with every part of our being.
The
will
clear perception of our relation to
God
dawn on
us like a great light, but whether
that light
brings us the joy and

lurid miseries of Hell,
It is
peace of
Heaven, or the
depends
on what
it
reveals in us.
not only that

^\'e
we
shall
be rewarded for our works,
are
rewarded by our works; our works are our

reward.
We
have already
many warnings
In
this
of
,
what
are
is
certainly coming.
world we
all
scourged by our memories.

first
Many
things please us at
that
do not please us
when they have become
part of our soul's
house of our permanent recollections.
We
judge them by a different standard, not ac241
THE LIVING WORD

cording to the momentary pleasure or pain
they have given us, but in relation to our whole
life.
So already
first last.
many
a last becomes
first
and
the
it is
The The
is
higher the soul, the better

life
able to wêigh passing objects against
as a whole.
great mistake Christians
have made
too
in separating the next world

this.
much from
That
is
why
the most
tremendous conception that can take possession of the heart of
man
if
has almost no power
over us.
in
to
Of
course,
the next world stands
no
relation to this,
if it is
it,
impossible for us
know anything about
then there
is
no
reason
it
whv we
should concern ourselves with
one way or the other.
But as soon as we
life
is
recognize that the next
but the develto see
opment
of this,
in
we have only
this
life
what
is
permanent
it
and
toward what
is
actually tending to enable us to
know a
great deal about the next world.
Develop-
ment never
destroys,
it
only
fulfils.
The man
who
in this
world has cared only for the cul242
ox THE SPIRITUAL BODY

tivation of his
own
spirit
and
lias
done noth-
ing for the world will find himself inwaixily

rich
and outwardly poor.
The man who has
done much for the world but has neslected

his
own
soul will be outwardly rich, inwardly
poor.
Do
will
not tliink
tlie
reward or the punishment

tliis
be shght because in
world your con-
science seldom rewards or troubles you.
Some-
times in the blackest soul there lurks a spark

that witli
tlie
extinction of sensuality breaks
into hve flame tliat can illuminate our inward
world
^^ itli
the brightness of Heaven, or that
can rage
until
it
^-ithin us
devouring and burning

all
has burned up
that
is
unworthy
of
Heaven.
Some persons
all
tliink that at the
judgment
our tjood deeds mil merelv be weighed our

cA-il
a:ainst
deeds,
and
that
to
we
shall
be
happv or miserable according

hea^-ier.
which weighs
hea%"ier,
If
our
good deeds are
our
evil
deeds are as nothing, and vice versa.
THE
Thoy
its
LIVIN
(^,
WOR
Every
U
shall
ovil
It
air wrong.
in
Evorv good deed
havo
dood
le^\ald
hajipinoss.
sluiU [)ay the penalty of suiYering.
cannot
be otherwise.
The
niost
abandoned sinner
his
lii'e
who
in the
whole course of
shall
did but one
good action
for that.
by no means lose his reward
But you
say, in all this

?
what becomes
is
of the
grace of (od
If
my
salvation
if
entirely of
my own
making, and
for
I uuist be punished
to the uttermost
my
wrong-doing,
if 1
will
thank myself
but
I will
for
my
salvation
am
sav<>d,
is this:
not thank (od.
The answer
AYe nuist be punished for our evil deetls.

greater the sinner, the
The
suffer
more he must
This
before his sin

eternal
is
destroyed.
lies in
the
nature of good and evil which
Cod
cannot change except by destroying Himself.

(loodness always leads to happiness, and
evil
always leads to misery,

lint
'i'his is
(iod's justice.
j)unish
on the other hand. Cod does not
us for the sake of punishing us, but that the
an

evil in
us
may
In
be destroyed.
this respect
Then we
is like
shall
be happy.
physician
He
the good
heal.
who wounds
left
only that he
may
God might have

until evil
us alone with our sin

us,
had destroyed
but that
He
else.
will
last
It
not do.
Therefore we shall be saved at

of
by the grace
is
God, and by nothing
not a matter of indifference, then, whether

for
we do our duty
the
love of
God, with
God
before our eyes.
sciously
from the love
of
He who acts conGod is rewarded by

all
that love which surpasses
other rewards.
In
this
\A
orld
man
it
leaves
many
not
a good work
undone because
costs a sacrifice.
He excuses
But
in-
himself by saying.
That
is
my duty.
duty or not duty, every good work done

creases our happiness
and blessedness; and

its
every good work undone leaves
gap.
There
of:
is
one other thing I wish to speak
the folly of those
who hope
to escape the
evils of life
by
suicide.
There are two kinds
of
men who
voluntarily lay
245
down
their lives.
TIIK LIVINCJ
There
is
WORD
down
his Ut'o to
the
man who
hiys
save others, or in the disehargv of duty; and

there
is
the
man who
The
takt\s his hfe. in the
hope
of eseajiino- from
its evils,
whieh may be only

into
temporary.
first
passes
the
next
world, strong in the strength of that supreme

saeriliee.
lie has
eonquered his snIVering

seeond,
all
in
that resolve.
The
his
power
of
resistance broken (low n, sneaks into that world
a shattered and a broken sold.
Alas for
tlios>
w ho twist ropes for their ow n necks, in the hoj)e

of saving tluMnselves
in all the
from
this life!
Hold out
misery that deserved or undeserved

shall be
overwhelms you here, and there

misery hereafter.
suicide but once.
to
no
After
all,
you can commit

this
is
Are you sure

tliat
the time
do
it P
.Vrc
you sure
you are not Hying

to
from one torture clunnber

torture chand)er,
until
another worse
fly
from which you cannot
you have
jtaid
the ultermosl farthing?

(Miougli, to
Are yon not strong enough, hard

bear the
i)res(Mit evil, to
do the
[)resent
good

Then you must be hardened, though
the stroke of the
it
be by
hammer,
until
you are strong

evil
enough, for do the good and bear the
you must, whether here or hereafter makes

no
you
difference.
Hold out a
little
longer and
will certainly
overcome the
evil
and save
yourself.
The
There
spirits
is is
of the departed act

that.
upon
us.
no doubt about
The
only
question
whether they act on us consciously
or unconsciously.
For
my
part, I prefer to
believe that they act consciously.
We
share
with these
receive
receive
spirits
innumerable things, and
from them much that we think we from ourselves.

Just as a thousand
memories interpret
for us a distant landscape

is
and
tell
us that that patch of green

silver thread
is
an ancient
river,
forest,
and that
a mighty
and that small hazy peak
Mt. Washington
spirits of the
draped in clouds, so a thousand
former world interpret for us humanity, history,

life
in general,
\\'hich
but for them would
247
THE LIVING WORD

appear to us absolutely unintelligible.
It is
through these illuminating intelligences which

in their generations
grasped the world, com-
prehended
life,
this
or that
problem of human
It is in their light
that the world shines.
that
we
see light.
The
longer the world lasts
the brighter this light becomes, because no
torch once kindled
is
ever extinguished, and

lighted
at
new
old.
torches
are
constantly
the
As we study
the history of the nations,
or fathom the height and depth of
human human
we
wisdom
or grasp
some new aspect
of
nature, or enter the world of art, in reality
are only holding

of the departed,
communion with
receiving from
the spirits
them what
we
did not know, and doing in their strength

in our
what we could not do
own.
Darwin
?
is
dead, but has his soul

not think so.
left this
world
I do
I see, at all events, that his great
thought
ing
is alive,
that
it is
growing and extend-
itself into
domains
of life into which

it is
Darwin
himself never penetrated, that

248
germinating

and bearing
fruits in fields
it.
where Darwin never
dreamed
thought
of applying
is alive,
Some
will say the

is
but the thinker

incredible.
not alive.
That seems
to
me
That thought
and
flesh
was Darwin's
of his flesh.
soul,
bone of
is it
his bone,
How
possible that
tlie
ex-
pression should be so strong and permanent

tliat
millions of
men
shall build
it
on
it
for asres,
and the soul that gave

lapse into nothing.
all,
birth should instantly

if
But
his soul
it
is
alive at
it
whatever other sphere
may
doing
a\
fill,
is
certainly alive here
where
it is
its
work.
\Mierever a
there
it is.
spirit
manifests
itself
ith
power,
This
is
tlie
only A'iew that gives the least
meanino; to one of the most fundamental conceptions of Christ, and to His most solemn
promises, namely, that though

to
tlie
He
returned
Father.
He
did not leave this eartli; yea,
that
liis
He would
be in
it,
always, and with

It is this behef,
disciples even to the end.
confess,
that gives
me
almost
my whole
249
THE
present Saviour.
LIVIN(^
WORD
sense of union with an ovor living and ever

If
it \\
ore not for this belief,
Jesus would fade aw ay from nie into a mere
shadow
of a
man, or
God, wlio trod
this
world two thousand years ago and then disappeared.
Such a memory
could love and
admire, but he would never be to

Brother,
me my
to
living
my
ever present
all
T\
[aster,
whose
diffi-
kind eye I can turn in

culties, in all
my
dou))ts
and
my
sadness and discouragement.
Jesus believed this so implicitly Himself, and

built so confidently
if
upon
on
it,
that I should
feai',
lie were mistaken
this point, lie
might
be mistaken elsewhere.
always,"
ciples,
"Lo,
am
with you
He
said, in taking leave of
His dis-
"even
to the
end of the world."
"He
in
that receiveth you rcceiveth
me."
"Abide
me, and
the
I in
you.
"
am
the vine and ye are
branches."
Where two or
three
are
I."
gathered together in
my
name, there
am
Many
think of Christ merely as a departed
being, as a (lod or
man who
250
once lived in the

world, but
who has
long withdrawn from the
sphere of earthly activity to the great nether
world of the dead, or to a throne on high

at the right
hand
of
God.
^^'e
have Christ
among
us no more.
We
need
Him
no more.
We
have indeed His remains, we are living on
the perfume of a broken vase, and divide His
inheritance
among ourselves. The
sayings and
the treasures of faith, hope, and love which
He
we
left
behind Him, they are our inheritance
that have taken His place and over which
strive
and quarrel
in His
name.
For them
we
are indebted to Christ, but only as to a

past.
it
man of the
We say indeed that His spirit

this in
lingers, that
dwells in us and in His Church,
but we do not
sense, for
mean
any
living
and
real
He
has taken up His dwelling place

if
in eternity,
is
and
any one
believes that Christ

in his heart
really present here
and now
and
in his
life,
that
man
true,
is
regarded as a
mystic, a fanatic, almost as a fool.
But
if
this
were really
then Christianity
251
THE LIVING WORD

would be but a hollow form, not
growing organism. a
living,
We
should be united in a
name,
in a cause, but only externally.
On
the contrary, Christ holds His

as
in
Church together
God
it.
holds the world together, by dwelling
Paul regarded the Church, the congre-
gation of believers, as in a mysterious but real

sense
i.e.,
forming the very body of the Lord,
the organism in which His soul dwells.
Otherwise we are only dividing His clothes
among
ment
blood
ourselves, for
Him we
have not.
With what
of the
?
force does this apply to the Sacraof Christ's

to us
?
Communion
does
it
body and
What
it is
mean
By
some,
I fear,
regarded almost as an act of magic.
Certain words are read by the priest over the
bread and wine, and a miracle

in
is
wrought
those
elements.
They
new
are
transubstanin
tiated,
consubstantiated, or
into
transformed
some other way

from
this view,
still, it
substance.
it is
I shrink
because
materialistic
and
magical;
recognizes a present Saviour,

252

and up
to that point I accept
it.
But
to a great
many
in
persons, logically to
SaA'iour, a
all
who
believe only
an absent
Saviour only at the

this feast is a
right
hand
of
God
in
if
Heaven,
mere
superstition, or
not a mere superstition,
then only an empty sign, a figure of speech

interpreted too literally.
But
that which has
been ridiculed so long by the contemners

of Christianity as
an absurdity, according
to
the view I
absurdity.
affront to
am
trying to
make
still,
plain
is
no
It is a
mystery
but not an
human
reason.
Yes, we eat Christ's
body,
literally in
the sense in which
we underof
stand His spiritual body,

the supper which
the wine indeed
of Christ to
when we partake
He
ordained.
The bread and

them
Christ,
become the body and blood

receives
in faith
him who
discerning the Lord's body.
who
lives,
is
present in so
many
events of our
is
present here in a higher sense.
The more
we draw
to
we
realize his presence the nearer
Him:
the
more present He
253
is,
the nearer
He
THE LIVING WORD

draws
to us.
Without
this
conscious desire
of union with Jesus, without faith, the bread
and the wine, as
all
the Fathers of the

flour
Church
have confessed, remain mere

juice of
and the
the grape:
but to the loving and
believing heart they are the

Christ.
spiritual
body and blood
of
They
sense.
unite us to
Him
in a purely
Christ
is
present.
Christ
comes
to us.
Christ enters into us.
Lastly, this thought comforts
me much
in
thinking of those I have

lieve that the
lost.
I cannot be-
dead are
infinitely far
away from
us, in
some
distant world;
I believe they are
near us, and that the more earnestly and lovingly
we think
of them, the nearer they draw.
In the light of
God
they live a
life
a thousand
times more real than
when
here below they
wrestled with feeble strength to live the divine

life,
to bear the divine will.
"Blessed are
the dead
who
die in the Lord.
Amen,
saith
the Spirit;
for they rest
from
their labors,
and
their
works do follow them."

254
In Gott ruht meine Seele;
Es
sei
das
letzte
Wort;
Ob
Er
fern
vom
ird'schen Hafen,
Ich kann doch ruhig schlafen;

ist
mein ew'ger Port.
Fechner.
255
CHAPTER
XIII
IMMORTALITY AND THE BRAIN
To restate my arguments: New Testament doctrine of

of the body, of Jesus
is
is
1.
I believe the
the resurrection
and
also the express declaration
and Saint Paul that the body that

is
raised
altogether spiritual.
That
to
me
the cardinal truth of the resurrection of the
body.
2.
I believe that just as in this
world the
soul has an outer house in the physical

in
body
which
it
lives
and by which
it
acts
on the
world, so
it
it
has also an inner house from which
cannot escape,
that
inner house consist-
ing solely of spiritual elements, of thoughts,
hopes, affections, in a word of the memories

of a lifetime.
this
We
are constantly adding to
spiritual house,
and yet the old unites

257
IMl K
LIVING WO
so that
its
IID
is
with the
turbcd;
3.
ii(>\\
unity
n('V(M- dis-
it still roniiiiiis
the sjiim- liouso.

a
Death, whieli I regard as

event precisely like
purely physdestroys
it
ical
birth,
th(>
physical body; but the s|)iritual house
docs
declad
not touch.
The animal organism being

itself
its
stroyed forever, the soul llnds

in a spiritual
now
body,
a,
body
of
own making,
and
that represents pcMTcclly or

felt,
all it
has ev(T known,

it
or sud'ered.
its
In that
I
body
rises
begins
new
life.
am
not embarrassed in
to,
speculating where the soul rises
for thai
body being purely

exist for
I
il.
spii'iLual,
s|)a-ce
does not
was once asked what

that ever cnteicd
1
is
the most iinf)ressive
truth
moment
said
"The
To
all
my
belief
mind.
tliiit I
y\ftcr
can never
I
escape from myself."

alone in
this.
know
that
atn not
this opinion
Huddha
race.
con-
verted one fourth of the

religions
human
th(>
"All
said
and
men
into
in
world,"
Buddha, "1 divide
two
classes.
On
the
W8
IMMORTALITY AND BRAIN

one side I place
all
those
who
believe that
by
praying to any god or
demon
they can escape

actions;
the consequences of their
own
and
they
on the other
side I place those ^\'ho
know
can never escape themselves."

philosophy defeats
itself,
Now Buddha's
it
because
looks
forward to the
final extinction of the individual
soul in Nirvana.
tion,
But
this Christian
concepTestait
borrowed directly from the

itself,
life
New
ment, does not defeat
because
looks
of
forward to the eternal

the
and preservation
human
soul.
It believes
that this world
exists for the

is
human
soul,
and unless that soul

its
saved
alive, the
world has no reason for
existence.
At the present time the world has
only two philosophies worth mentioning.

is
One
the philosophy of pantheism, that sacrifices
the
soul of
man
other
to
is
the the
blind processes of
nature;
the
philosophy of
personal
is
still
God and
doubt
its
immortality.
Evolution
hostile
in
it
to
which of these
camps
owes
allegiance;
259
for in spite of
THE LIVING WORD

the able efforts of
John Fiske and Lyman
Abbott, the religious philosophy of evolution
has not yet been written.
That work
will
require the eagle eye and the colossal strength

of a greater than
Darwin.
It
is
may seem
that
a philosophy on this subject
of
no importance
because so few persons read or understand

philosophy.
We
have only
to look to India,
cursed time out of

of
mind by the nightmare
pantheism and reincarnation, to see what

evil
wretchedness an
philosophy can
inflict
on human
life.
I venture to say that in
no
country whose real leaders of thought

the
belittle
human
its
soul
and deny
its
future existence
and
moral responsibility have the people
proved themselves capable of freedom and of

great
achievements.
think
we
are
not
without danger in this respect.
Evolution has
taught us too well the lesson of comparing ourselves with the animals.
But once convince

will live
man
like
that he
is
an animal, and he
an animal.
As Emerson
260
said
"If

the Devil
is
my
father, I will live
from the
Devil."
For two thousand years Christianity
has been trying to convince

the son of God.
man
that he
is
Now
this
it
is
an astonishing thing that up
to
time every attempt to establish the im-
mortality of the soul has been so weak.

believe, but in the face of a
We
thousand apparlike to
ently hostile facts
we should
belief.
have a
in the
confirmation of our
It
may
lie
very nature of the case that this confirmation

will
never be forthcoming.
Faith in immor-
tality
may
always remain one of those chival-
rous beliefs which
man
feels that
he owes to
God and
word
will
himself;
and yet we cannot help

the
great,
hoping that at
last
illuminating
be spoken.
to
Most attempts
establish
the
truth
of
immortality have proved too
much
or too
little.
What advantage
is
there in proving, as Leib-
nitz proved, that the soul is a
monad, a
unit,
an atom without parts
Who
wants to be an
261
THE LIVING WORD

atom without parts
destroyed,
in
it.
Such a soul cannot be

is
simply because there
nothing
For
my
part, I
had
as
lief
be a mathe-
matical point.
to save
Other writers who have wished

so at the expense of
relations
is
more have done

soul's
denying the
body.
real
with
the
Their physiology
the physiology of
the middle ages.
In the face of the facts of

saving the
facts.
modern
science they despair of

it
soul; so they think
best to
deny those
They pretend
that the body's relations with
the soul are very slight
and
superficial, that
the
human
spirit is the
body's guest or tenant,

its
or prisoner, or anything but
immortal
soul.
Even
those Christian writers
who
hold to
the belief in the resurrection of the
body have
embarrassed themselves
their cause
and
almost ruined
of the
by abandoning the doctrine
New
Testament and by looking for the resur-
rection of a material
body
of flesh
and bones.
As long
the
as the constant waste
and renewal of
full
body were not known, the

262
absurdity

of this doctrine did not appear,
though even
the Fathers of the
Church were troubled by

and
nails,
the growth of the hair

felt
which they
would be too
long,
and yet they did not

off.
dare think of cutting them
But the moof particles

lives
ment we consider
the vast
number
which in the whole course of our
have
made
the body,
we
see that unless
we
are to
rise larger
than elephants, larger than houses,

sacrificed.
some must be
If
Which
shall
it
be
.?
we
are to rise in the bodies in which
we
died,
we
by
shall all rise sick
men.
The whole concepis
tion of a physical resurrection

impossibilities
so surrounded
to
and so shocking
good
sense that I gladly
abandon
up;
all
it
to
anyone who
wishes to take
it
the
more gladly
because
it is
absolutely opposed to the teaching
of Christ
and Saint Paul.
We
life,
shall not
need
these bodies in our
new
and we cannot
take them with us.
It is the destruction of
the old home, of the old world, that admits
us to the new.
But on the other hand I do not

263
rilK LI V 1N(;
rob tho soul of one of
its
wo HI)
real
possossioiis.
According to
it
this belicl", the soul carries
with
into the next \vt)rld all that ever belonged

it.
to
am
not forced to deny the intimacy of

the
the relations of the soul and
body.
I
is
believe that for every event in the soul then>

a
corresponding event
in the
body.
The
closer
the relation, the better the urgunient holds.
And now,
without further preliminary,

IJefort^
let
me
present to you a strang(> lad.

life
we
say anything more of the

aCter, let
of
tlu^
soul herehere.
us look lor a
moment
at
its life
Let us sup})ose that you are now

old.
lil'ly y<>a,rs
IIow do you know thai you are
fifly
years
old? I
that
//()//
mean by
that,
what
[)roof
have you
have existed so long?

i)lace
'I'hink of the
in
all
changes that have taken

years in your soul.
those
little,
Once you were
ignorant, naughty chikl.

in
AVhat have you now
common
it
with that child's soul, whose emo-
tions
is
now
inijxjssible for
you
to recall ?
Think
of the gaj) of liiue, the changes,
the

sufferings, the experiences that separate
you
from that
Uttle
unconscious soul; and yet

in affirming that that
you have no hesitation

child's soul
it
was your
it
soul.
In
all
these years
has changed, but

is
has not
lost its identity.
There
not a point at which you can say
"Here
gan."
the old soul ended,
and a new soul be-
On
the contrary, as the years pass, you
see that soul
becoming more
full of personality,
self.
more
the
identified
with your present
Of
first
years you
remember nothing.
You
or
cannot imagine
felt.
all.
how
that infant thought
You cannot identify yourself with it at But now as you follow the little stream
course,
down its
objects.
you begin
to recognize familiar
In a vague, half-amused, half-pensive

the schoolboy, the
way you can imagine how

student, the lover, the
young husband thought
and
felt.
You
can identify yourself to a cer-
tain extent with him.
You
begin to
feel
certain responsibility for his conduct.
Still
the identity
is
far
from complete.
265
Much
of
THE LIVING WORD

that schoolboy, that student, that lover, that
young husband,
is
a mystery to you.
Heaven
forbid that you, a grave

feel
man
of fifty, should
Still,
and act as he
felt
and acted.
with
every passing year the resemblances become
more
striking,
and the differences

is
slighter.
long series of images
presented to you,
each more
like yourself, the last of
which
is
identical with
is
your soul at
are
this
fifty
moment.
years old.
That
how you know you
You have
hardly got over wondering at the
strangeness of this,
when
the thought flashes
on you that a precisely
identical process has
been taking place in your body.

need a physiologist to
tell
You do
not
you that the
stately
body
of the
is
man of
fifty,
weighing two hundred
pounds,
not the body of the infant weighing
ten or twelve pounds.
The
size is different,
the proportions are different, the expression of the face

is
different.
first
If
you saw a picture
of
yourself for the
time, taken
when you were

it.
one year old, you would not recognize

266
How

many outward changes must
go before
it
that
body underbody you
is
identical with the

if
wear to-day.
But
we look a
httle deeper,
we
shall see that
still
more profound inward

It is
changes have taken place.

the
not only that

its
form
of the
body has been changed;

not
substance
has been transformed,

times.
once
but
many
Of
the substance that
com-
posed the body of the child not one particle

remains.
now
How many times that body has been

to foot I
remade from head
do not know.
Shake-
Some persons say once
in seven years.
speare speaks of the "too solid flesh," but in

reality the flesh is not very solid.
state of
It is in
unceasing
flux, particles
united to-day,
particles
detached to-morrow.
size,
But
if all
has
weight, form, proportion, subHow can you stance what remains

changed
?
insist,
with the least show of reason, that you have
had the same body

at this
all
your
life,
that your
body
in
moment
is
identical with the

?
body
which you were born
267
Til E
I
LIVINd
up
like
WORD
to this point this
am
well awun^ that
argument may seem

puzzle,
a kind of foolish
to conFuse people
much more adapted
than to throw light on an important problem.

Nevertheless, where I stand I see the light
breaking only a lew steps ahead of us.
IF
you you
will
take those few steps with me, I think

it
will see
too.
The
mous
sist in
reason, then, wliy in spite of the enorehang(\s
body and soul undeigo wc per-
believing that
we have
that
the
same body
is
and soul through
life is
e;icli
change
the
direct nssult of all that has
gone before.
is
Not
cell is
formed
in \\\v
cell.
body that
not the child

arises in
of
some parent
is
Not a thought
the soul that
not directly linked to
some
former thought.
The
old elements
may
perish,
but their residts remain,
n'licrc is
no break
nor gap anyw!i<>re; our personal identity, both

of soul
and body,
consists in
one continued
of c;iuses
network, one unbroken chiiin

effects.
and
Even
those
first
faint glimtric rings of
208

consciousness that you have wholly forgotten
were not without their

hood.
effects
on your childof
Out
of childhood
came youth, out
youth manhood; and so their

served to this
effects are preis lost.
moment, nothing
life
These
life
two streams, the

of the body,
in the
of the soul
side.
and the
run side by
is
For every turn
one there
a turn in the other; for

is
every wave in the one there

other;
a wave in the
and yet they never mingle, not one drop
of one stream ever passes into the other.
The
law of the body

the
is
wholly physical
the law of
mind
is
wholly spiritual.
cells,
Cells produce
nothing but
movements produce nothing
but movements, thoughts produce nothing but

thoughts.
When
it
cell dies, it is
replaced by
is
cell
it
has produced; when a thought

is
extinguished,
extinguished
is
by another
I
thought.
So the unity
never broken.
do
not blame a physiologist for being a materialist
so far as he confines himself to his pro-
fession.
With the physicians

269
it
is
somewhat
THE
ditto rent.
1,1
c;
WOR D
well
lie should bo the physician of the
Avhole
boily.
man,
of the
soul as
as
of
the
The
t^YO processes are absolutely identical.

stej)
At each
the
new body
is
the result of
all
the chano'cs of the old body, and the

is
new
soul
the result of
all
the chauocs of the old soul.

strikes
us.
Suddenly
tleath
What happens
a,'oes
then to the body we very well know. It
on proilucing
cifects,
only in a
new
direction.
a
The
process of evolution has
become
of
its
pro-
cess of dissolution.
is lost,
Not one
causes
partii'Ies
not one of
its
fails to
produce an
?
eiVect.
is
But what becomes
of the soul
It also
cause and the result of
many
j)ret'cdins>-
causes, the mightiest cause that exists

this earth.
upon
in its
But unless the
soul lives
on
own sphere and

after
its
continues to produce fruits
kind, then in this one case in the entire

is
universe the law of cause and elTect

for, after the soul
broken;
has
left
the body, effects
we
see none.
But yon say another thing nniy

270

happen
to
it.
The body,
it
it is
true,
does not
cease to exist; but
ceases to exist as a body,

It is
as a Uving organism.
now
dissolved
and
it
reabsorbed in the great world out of which

issued;
and so may the soul be absorbed and

still
dissolved in a
greater world.
Ah, there
is
the difference between the soul
and the body!
That which
it,
is
^îthin the soul
cannot dissolve
because
it is
the soul
itself;
and that which

it
is
it
without the soul cannot affect
at all until of
it.
has got within
it
and become part
(^Miether the soul can be destroyed by

evil I
its
own
am
not
now
to fear
considering.)
?
Therefore,
what have we
The
soul, at all events,
cannot be crushed by a stone, or drowned in

the water, or dissolved by oxygen. things
All these
do not touch
is
it.
But
at the
moment
of
death, the soul
the result of
it
all it
has ever
all
its
been.
If it escapes,
escapes with
it
treasures.
As time
passes,
can only ac-
cumulate new treasures and become wiser,
more
spiritual,
more
individual.
271
THE
One
most
of the
(i
\V
ORD
arguments of Professor Ostwald.

is
fatal to immortality,
this:
after deatli,
man
or he
nuist either
remain
fixed
and ehangekvss,
must "o on
chaui-ino;.
In the former ease,
our immortalitv would be about as pleasant

as that of a Siberian
a block of iee.
mammoth
frozen up in
In the
latter ease, iunnortality
reduces
stautlv
itself to nothing',
because a being eou-
chanmnsr would soon cease to be the

I agree
same being.
with Professor (^stwald
as to the hrst alternative, but not as to the
second.
If these
changes were sudden and

if
cataclysmic in their nature,

the
continuity
of
they deslroycii
ire
t'ousciousness,
should
is
indeed cease to
the result of
life
exist.
But
if
every change
if
all
that has
is
gone before,
the
new
of the soul
but the unfolding of the old
life, \\e
find in such a process of
development
the very condition

here, in
which has confronted us

far
which thus
we have had no
diffi.\.s
culty in preserving our sense of identilv.
our spiritual nature develo[)s and integrates

we may
believe that this process
may go on
indefinitely without the
danger
to us of losing
ourselves, just as the massive
oak remains
through centuries the same plant which once
slumbered in the acorn.
As a swan swimming on
the
bosom
of
a lake
gives rise to innumerable waves
which are
continuous, so that the

last,
first is
united to the
so
man
passes through this world.

life
How-
ever broken his

it
and influence may seem,

effects.
produces one continuous series of

the
Now
swan has
risen
on
his
wings and has

Is his
settled
on a distant portion
?
of the lake.
path broken
series of
Not
at
all.
is
Between the two

a series of waves
waves
in the water
in the air
which unites them.

is
So man's path
through Hfe
launches,
all
one,
and the waves he

far
no
matter
how
they
may
spread, form one continuous series of influ-
ences which
shall
all
belong to him, and which we

trace
some day
from the end

273
to the be-
ginning.
THE LIVING WORD

The
chief difficulty
is
and always
will
be
how our spiritual life can go on without a brain,

in
which
all
our thoughts and memories are
contained.
You
tell
me
of the curious
is
little
box
in
which our treasure
stored, a piece of
mechanism
that
it
so wonderful, so subtly planned

itself.
sometimes seems to be the treasure
You remind me how

brain's growth, brain's disease,
to find
the soul grows with the

it
and how
suffers with the
and you ask
me
where I expect
this
another chest capable of holding
subtle treasure of thought,
and even
if
I find
one,
how
I expect to transfer
my
quicksilver
treasure
from one chest
to another.
And
admit at once I have no expectation of

ing another such chest, with
receptacles
perfectly
its
find-
ten thousand
to
adapted
my
every
thought and feeling.

it
You
ask, then,
how
is
possible for the soul to preserve the
memories
?
that
form
its
spiritual
house without a brain

place that
Let
me
say in the
is
first
we do
only
not
know
that this
impossible.
274
We
know

that in this
life
consciousness and
It
memory
are lodged in the brain.

sible for the
would be impos-
unborn
child to imagine itself able

first
to exist except
life;
under the conditions of the

it
and so indeed
would be impossible.
But
in the second life those conditions are not

it is
necessary; they are ended by birth; and
the destruction of the old organs that admits
the child into the
new
life.
So
it
may
is
be the
destruction of our old brain that admits us

to our eternal
life.
The
difference
child
that here
side of of the
we look on
life,
the
unborn
from the
and we look on the future condition

from the
side of death.
soul
is
That, I admit,
a great difference.
I
am
aware that
this is
an important ques-
tion,
a question by which
many
persons will
accept or reject our whole view of immortality.

It is true that
we can give no
conclusive answer
to this question, for the very
reason I have
stated.
We
view the whole subject from the
side of death, not
from the
275
side of
life.
But
THE LIVING WORD

let
me give you
we have
one or two examples of changes
that
seen,
which may make
it
more
easy to believe.
Wlicn you see the seed-corn
bursting and falling to pieces in order to give
room
for the
development of the new plant,

it
do you say that
has existed for no purpose
Has
life
it
not existed for that very purpose, to give
to the
new
plant
Neither has the brain

it
existed for
no purpose, but perhaps

purpose
has ex-
isted for this very
to give birth to
the
new
intelligence.
So long as the old brain

the old men.
exists,
we must remain we
suffer,
When
it
suffers
even to the point of losing our

it is
it,
intelligence.
it is
In old age
worn
out.
Then
time for us to leave

a
just as once b(>fore
we
left
home no
longer suited to our habitamaterialist has
tion.
More than one
compaicd
and
the brain to a harp, and consciousness
memory to the music
following from
its
strings.
When
music.
the harp
is
shattered by the
is
hand
of
death, they say that that
the end of the
The
figure
is
considered a good one
270

on
this
account;
is
it
is
the vibration of the

it
strings that
is
the cause of the music, and

cells of
the vibration, they say, in the

is
the
brain that
the cause of thought.
Here
is
an
example
these
of
how
easy
it
is
to
be deceived in
subjects.
Both these statements are
entirely false.
The
^'ibration of the strings
gives rise only to ^^brations in the air.
The
music
exists only in
our consciousness, not in
the air,
as
the thought exists only in our
mind, not in the brain.

figure,
But
see
let
us accept the
as danger-
crude as
it is,
and
if it is
ous to our claims as they think.

of the
The
tone
it.
harp sounds on the

is
air,
and you hear
The harp
shattered ;
for a
it
moment you
it
hear the music, then you hear
no
longer.
But one standing a

it;
little
further off
still
hears
the
It
but now, he too hears
no more.
?
Has
at
all.
strain then ceased to ^dbrate
Not
has only passed beyond the sphere of your

quarter-of-an-inch
ear.
Were your
ear as
large as the space those vibrations

277
now occupy,
THE
through the
air,
LI V INC. ^Y(MlD
them
as they
ii'o
or were you able to follow
and
thin,
not through the air
only, but through water, through stone walls,
through
thit'k
and
vou would
still
hear
tliem singing
on
their
way
to the stars.
Were
those vibrations self-conseious, like our intelli-
genee, they would

this
still
hear themselves.
So
imaffe,
whieh so manv doubters have
triumphantly urged, need not frighten us in the

least.
may
mention
next
Professor
James'
parable of the boiling kettle.

in his splendid leeture
Professor James,
on
Human
Immortality,
has enriehed this discussion with a new figure
and has
raised another diffieidty.

Its
It is
the
fioure of the boilini>; tea-kettle. of course

is
meaning
is
very plain.
tire is
The
kettle
life,
the
human body;
water
the forces of
main-
tained h\ food, and so forth;

is
the seethins;
the thrilling, vibrating
human
brain,
of the
and the stream pouring out of the nose

kettle
is
the product of that brain,

\!7S
all
that poor

man
fire
calls
thought and
soul.
As long
as the
burns and the water boils the soul mania

little
fests itself in
itself in
steam which quickly loses
the great world.

is
But when the
fire
of life cools, there

if
no more steam; and even

all
the
fire of life is
not cooled, after
the water
in the kettle has

it
been converted into steam

This appears to be a
it
will burst the pot.
rather crude figure, because
implies that the
substance of the brain
is
turned into thought,

is
as the substance of water
turned into steam.

if it is
But
as
let
us accept
it
and
see
as dangerous
many
In the
persons have imagined.

first
place, that steam remains as
indestructible as
kettle.
the
substance of the iron

it,
It is true
you cannot grasp

it.
but
neither can you destroy
Diffuse
it
to the
four winds, scatter
it
as widely as you can,
and
still it is
there.
For every unit
of water
there remains a unit of steam.

place,
if
In the next
you regard the vanished steam as an

after death, I
image of the soul
must admit
279
THE LIVINC WORD

that the wator lias uiidorgono a transroriiiallou
which might bo coinparotl with
doutli;
but in
couso(iuoiice of that tiaii.sforination, the stoaiu

is
Hghter, h\\-\\
it
more
ox[)ansivo than tho watiM-
was, and
can do a thousand things which

It
the water cannot do.

the eastern
forms chnids,
heav("ns,
it
paints
reveals
and the western
it
itself in rain,
thunder, and lightning;
il
wields
a force that
can disrupt mountains.
There
is
one thing, however, you

It
it
tell
me
its
it
has not done.

dividuality, but
has not })reserved
inall
has run together with

itself.
other steam and has lost

soul.''
How
about the
uniform
but you
it
It
is
very true;
all
the steam
is
and mingles with
other steam
forget that the water which })r()dueetl
is
also
all
uniform and mingles when

other water.
souls
in
is
it
can with
But the
peculiarity of
lunnan
that they are not nnirorm; every soul

dilTers
the world
from v\cvy other
soul.
Therefore, souls do
tea-kettle
is
"not
run logelher, and the

violin.
no more dangerous than the

So far as they prove anything, they point
the direction of our hopes.
in
When
we
the brain
is
injured in this world,

is
suffer.
But
if
the injury
so great that
injury.
this Hfe ends, that is the

It
end of the
life,
cannot follow us into the next

life,
since the
is
greatest injury to the old

is
which
death,
life
the
very thing that makes the
new
possible.
This
is
a consolation to those
who
have insane or weak-minded friends. Insanity

is
a disease of the brain, and
it
will cease
when
the brain ceases.^

the
You imagine
that because
it is
mind shares
it is
the weakness of old age,
a sign that
about to cease to
exist.
But
you might as well

ing
infer that because the
mount-
pendulum
of a clock
moves slowly and

still
heavily,
and almost stands
when
it
reaches
well-known
alienist recently told
a friend of mine that two
insane persons
who had
events
long been under his care recovered their
reason shortly before death, and that in this lucid interval they
mentioned
many
not
and sayings which

impression
at the time apparently
produced
intellects.
the
slightest
This
raises
upon their disordered questions with which at present we are
unable to grapple.
281
T II
tho limit of
E L
(^
W O U 1>
is
its
vibration,
il
it
about to stop;
on the contrary,
is
just [)ro[)ariuo' lo tako a
now
stroke.
T.et
me
present another analo<;v which
is
more than an analooy.
However eom[)lex
be,
il
and subtle the human brain may
is
hardly to be compared with the spiritual

of the world, that
life
marvelous
anil living- thing
which e\[)resscs
itself in religion. si'iiMice, art,

life,
music, poetry, i'amily

tainly rii-her
etc.
This
is
ccv-
and more com[)lex than any brain

the [)roduct of
of
all
because
it
is
brains.
Anil
yd
this
life
humanity which grows from
age to age has no physical organ, no brain in

Avhich
it
lives.
know
il
that
it
originated in
many
brains, but
did not die

is
when
those
it
brains perished.
gives
life
It
so uuich alive that
to every
man
born into the world
and spins
into the soul of every
new
child the
old knowledge, the old faith, the old doubts.
The
view
have taken preserves
in full
our
moral responsibility; we
shall reap to the last

ear the harvest
we have sown. ^Ye can escape

but ourselves we
many
things in this world;
cannot escape.
ual body
all
We
carry with us in our spirit-
that
we have we
been.
Is our lot in
the next world then unchangeably fixed by
the condition in which

believe
it.
enter
it
'i
I cannot
The
very argument by which

is
we
of
have come
progress.
short.
to another life
an argument
this life
Eternity
is
long,
and
very
^Miat should we think of a father
who
sent his son to school for one half -day, to pre-
pare him for the duties and responsibilities

of a
whole
life
'i
But
that half -day

life
is
long in-
deed, in comparison with this

against eternity.
measured
In the image of Christ and
Saint Paul, the buried seed bears grain above

for the bread of heaven.
And
a
yet,
even
if
we regard
it
the next
life
as
new
opportunity,
makes much
difference
how we enter that life. In all life the beginning

counts for much.
the development,
However long and

it is
glorious
conditioned strictly by
283
Til E LI V INC.
the capacity of the
WO U O
AVitli
ocriii that tioYclo[>s.

is
inorganic matter
it
entirely dilVerent.
Cnl
it
a piece of gold in two,
and you can nnite

is
again so that the loiiner division

ceptible;
it
not per-
is
inijiossible
to tell
whether the
gold was nuitilated yesterday, or in the days

of Julius Caesar.
But wound
young
lliey
tree,
or mutilate a
yomig animal, and
will
bear the marks of mutilation as

live.
lon}>'
as thev
Other branches may be put
forth, other
organs
may
be developed;
destroyed
I'or
but those oiuv

all
destroyed
are
time.
"^Phe
wound
I to
to
heals, but the sear remains.
And
vet
am
free to say that 1 eainiot

a
remember ever
was impossible
have known
man whom
in a
it
imagine better
better environnu-nt,
surrounded by those
who
love
him.
AVell,
Heaven
will give us that better

it
environmei\t,
is
and though
us,
may be
long ere
it
Heaven
to
and though we uuist

evil is
sulVer nuich before

is
our
evil
destroyed, yet good
stronger than
and
it
must
linally prevail.
'-'SI

In
this
world we see the great thoughts and
deeds of
men
purified
by time.
Is not that a
sign that the thinkers
and doers themselves
are
it is
growing greater and purer?

not only the great and famous
its
And
who
yet
carry
the world on to
in the general
goal,
and who have part
consummation. Renan describes

little
visit to
a forlorn cemetery outside a
town, where the forgotten dead lay buried
under ugly tombstones, some

standing,
fallen,
some
still
on which
their
whole
lives
were
summed up in two dates,

sight
birth
and death. The
affected
him profoundly.
They have
gone, he thought, with

tions of people just like
unnumbered generathem and have

left
nothing to show that they were once men;

the night of forgetfulness has completely over-
whelmed them;
names
tioned,
lived.
in a short time their very
will
be forgotten and never be menit
and
will
be just as
if
they had never
Later, having learned the value of the

virtues
humble
and the sweetness

285
of
human
THE
Tluiso
siin{)lo
i.ivixc;
Avoun
ho ^\as wrong-.
aiv
slill
atTootious. lie poiroivod
tlial
pooplo.
lir tluniy;lit,
on-
jinin<;' litV.
and evon
in this
world thrv havo
not perished, for thev hol[)od to

Uttlo eity
make
I'ity
tlioir
what
it
is;
and
after that
shall
be no more, Franee will be here, and people

will say that
was
noble eonntry; and after

will
Franee shall be no more, hnnianity

here,
bo
be
of
it
and
after
humanity on
this earth shall
no more, we
CuhI.
shall all live in the vast
bosom
And
they too did their part, though
was
huud>le part, and (Jod does not forget
them, though
promise
men may;
antl
we
shall see the
fullilled to the halter, that
no\ a eu[)
of eold water to the thirsty, uo\ a
word
that
has contributed to the moral nêneration of
humanity,
U'h
l)in
shall ever lose its
reward.
ttiuhiivh alloin,
(inll s^vwiissl /u
iisstsi-iii
si-iii.
von
tJolt gcwnssl, iiml

isl,
liiii
Moin
Iiii
Sclhslbowusslsi-in
vim
(.JoltKi-w Msslscln i;vlit niolit

I's
incin licw
luis;
Eiugi-lil
wio
oil!
Kiuil in sciiu's >!it(rs lliuis.'

W'l-inhiil
'
KiU-KKur,
/)('(
(/,',
ItriihiiHiiini.
'I'll.
111..
,s.
11!).
Then
shall the dust return to the earth as
it
was, and the
spirit shall
return unto
God who
gave
it.
EccLEsiASTEs
xii. 7.
287
CHAPTER XIV
THE SOUL
AJSTD
DEATH
little
When man
measures his
personality
against the unceasing change of the universe,
what reasonable hope can he have that

though everything
else
al-
passes away, he re-
mains
Even
if
the soul of
man is the
product
of a higher spirit, the Spirit of
God, does not
danger lurk for him in that very circumstance,

the danger, namely, that at death
we
return
to that boundless sea of universal Being, out
of
it
which at birth we arose

is
We know how
Our
with the products of our minds.
thoughts emerge out of the unconscious and

they sink into
it
again.
Amid
the incessant
flow of ideas, only the soul
itself
has some
perish.
permanence, but the thoughts of

Is
it
man
otherwise with the thoughts of God, one

289
T
of
II
I>
\' I
AN'
ORD
is
which
am ?
At
(kMtli
our body
oi"
lakcu
back into the

wliich
it
gviicnil
body
the earth out of
once arose.
The
Hltle
body
is
reab-
sorbed into the great.

the Httle
The great body endures,

All
body
[)asses a^Yuy.
through hfe
faithful beast
the
body has borne the soul as a

its
bears
master.
At
deatli the
weary animal,
lies
having com])leted his journey,

will not rise again.
ckiwn and
familiar
No
cmU from
lln
voice,
no
whij),
no spur can arouse him now.

lonij;
Can
on
the soul that has ridden so

Is
it
now "o
to
foot.!^
its
not in
its
s{)liere
about
share
faithful
servanl's fate?
How
c;in
there be
any doul)t when evi^ylhing poinis
in
the siiine direction,
-to the endur;nie(> of the

all
whole, to the evanescence of

parts
?
;is
individual
So the thought of death,

of
all
llic
extinction
that
we
call
life,
[)resscs
upon me.
keen
"^PIk^
Against
little
this grcâl
Icndency
in nature, the
reasons of
man
sihmu
very puny.
lo
arguments by which men seek
[)rovc the
THE SOUL AND DEATH

contrary are hard to grasp and easy to forget.
These great
facts,
however, grasp men:

its
the
soul remains, though
thoughts pass away;
the
body remains,
for a httle while,
though
its
particles
come and go;
the earth remains
while bodies disappear.
At
all
events
God
sort,
remains, while individual forms of every

thoughts, bodies, worlds, suns, perish.
But have
facts
?
I really grasped the logic of these
Is the
analogy between the fate of the
soul
and the
fate of the
body a
true analogy
it is
In one important instance I see that

In the course of
not once but
life
not.
the old
times.
body passes away,

After
its
many
particles
are scattered abroad they return no more.
But not
appear.
it
so
do the thoughts
sink
into
of
my mind
dis-
Tliey
unconsciousness,
is
true,
but they
rise again, either
volun-
tarily or
through some involuntary association,

I often surprise myself of
sleeping or waking.
by thinking or dreaming
291
some long past

Sometimes
event that seemed gone forever.
THE
LIVINC^
WORD
the delirium of iVvor. a familiar pcrfuino, Iho

peculiar lucidity that couics lo the drowninji;,
a
return to
the
scenes of childhood,
over-
whelms
the soul with u flood of menu)ries of
events that seemed to have disappeared forever.
In old age
we observe
that marvelous
brightening of the old images of childhood.
S(mewhere in the soul these memories liave

lain in the
dark for many, many years, but
whcTi they emerge into the light of consciousness
we
see that Ihey
have presiMved
fresh iiess.
all
their
original
delicacy
and
From my
own
e\|)erienee, I
s})iritual
It
am
persuaded that no imperisluvs, in this life at
portant
least.
event
remains either as a definite memory,

it
or in the change
has elfected in
my
whole
character and nature.

faculty of
Hut granting that the
memory
is
very dilfcrent in dill'erent

it
persons, and that with our other fatuities
shares the infirmities of old

follow that (Jod's
a<>e,
it
does not
memory
ar<>
is
equally d(>fective,
or that His thoughts
obliterated
and run
THE SOUL AND DEATH

together.
If,
as I
is
am
if
compelled to believe,
my
little
soul
the product of His all-comI
prehending Soul,
spiritually,
i.e.,
am
related
to
God
somewhat as
my
thoughts are
belief the
related to
my
mind, I find in that
consolation of absolute security both for the
present and the future.
Therefore I do not
fear that at death I shall be absorbed into
God
in
as bubbles are absorbed into a dark heaving

sea.
I believe that I shall live in

will,
Him,
peace and harmony with His
I trust,
and
with those good souls that are in accordance

with the will of God.
fear that
In
my place
have no
Again,
God will forget me. we know what becomes

It is
of the
body
after death.
subjected to a long process
of slow
decay in the course of which not one

is
of its particles
fails to
lost,
not one of
its
causes
produce an
effect.
The
long process
of dissoluis
of evolution has
tion.
become a process
That
is all.
Death, however,
It is
not a
slow process of decay.
an instantaneous
293
Til K LI V
INC
WO 111)
of a preit
fact, tlio suddoii sliarp toniiinatioii
vious condition.
spins
Dcalh builds no bridges,
no threads from the deparlino- soul

It
is
lo
other spiritual beinos.

disruption of the old
the sudden, shar|)
life.
The
soul which
was
here a
moment ago has
(h>parted with
all its
treasures leaving no trace behind.
IJut unless
the soul lives on in
its
own
sphere, and conits
tinues lo produce elVecIs afhM-
kind, then
here alone in the world, the law of cause and

effect
would seem
to
bi-
broken.
llie
is
In this
rv-
spect as in so
many
is
others,
true counteralso a
part lo death
birth,
which
lif(\
sudden
into
termination of
former
and entrance
a new sphere of existence.
Does not every

a.
human
soul enter
lliis
world of ours as
Is
new
not
creation, utterly inex})licable to us?

a,
it
new beginning bearing
in
some sense doubtand

yet not
less the
imprint of earlier
of
their
spirits,
?
composed
soul
is ;i
subslanc(>
Every new
it is
new
miracle.
will
In time,
true, the
okl
s{)irit
world
take [)ossession of this

.>!)
I.
new
THE SOUL AND DEATH

creation.
And
yet the old spirits are not the
material out of which the
new
spirit is
made.
The
souls of a father
and mother, passive and
unconscious instruments in a higher hand,

are the immediate occasion of the creation of
the
new
soul.
life
Yet they
lose nothing in
com-
municating
not
to their child.
Their
light is
dimmed
as the
new
is is
light
grows in strength.
The
parent's soul
not related to the soul of

related to effect, but souls
the child as cause
are related to each other very are related,
much as
thoughts
one leads forth another.

comes
into the world as thought
The
child
comes into our minds, through the organs

of sense.
Its spiritualization like the spiritis
ualization of our sensations
yet to follow.
real
Let
me try to make
this
more
by another
example, by an experiment.
Go
out into the
world of Nature and open your eyes. denly a new image

is
Sud-
presented to your soul,

for
an image that can be accounted

that
295
by nothing
you have formerly seen and known,
THE LIVING WORD

in short
an image that enters your mind as a

child
spirits
new-born
enters
this
world, different
it,
from
all
that have existed before
yet closely united to all that have gone before,
an image that
live
may become much, that may long and work many a change in your soul.
of that image, all the forces
all
For the creation

of of
your being were necessary,
the energies
your body, your nervous system, the wonder-
ful
mechanism
of
your eye, above
all
your
conscious intelligent mind.

of that
So for the creation

life, all
still
new
soul, of that
new
the forces
of earth
were necessary.
more marvel-
ous mechanism must be called into action,
and above
all
material energies which of them-
selves could never
produce a spiritual being,

is
the Spirit of the
God
necessary in whose mind
new
soul arises
and
is
in
whose
spiritual
nature the
new
soul
made,
just as the
new
else.
image
exists in
your mind and nowhere

is
So the image
eyes.
formed.
Now,
close
your
Instantly the image pales.

296
The warm,
THE SOUL AND DEATH

bright, sensible picture altogether disappears.
It
does not pass over into another picture.

materials out of which
it
The
was made run
together again in your body.

those elements again
?
Who
can find
Who
can put them
together again in that marvelous combination

that once represented to
earth,
face,
you the glory

your dead
of the
child's
and
sky,
and
sea, or
though he search your body through with

.''
a microscope So
is
Never, never; they are gone.
your death, sudden, abrupt, a severance
as sharp as the closing of an eye.

of death
The
night
draws
its
sable pall not merely over

all
your eyes, but over

senses
your senses, and those

forever.
are
extinguished
Together
with your limbs, your organs, the whole marvelous mechanism of your body, they run together
and you cannot
find
them
again.
in
Just as the
image in your eye was dissolved

that created
it,
your body
is
so at death your
body
dis-
solved in the great

it
body
297
of earth out of
which
issued.
THE
But
is
MV
(^
WCHll)
I
that all?
When
doso
is
my
so.
oyo and
extinguish the sensual picluiv,

of all
that the end
which
have seen?
Nol
Instead
of the transient monientaiy
image
memory
has arisen in
ing to
its
my
soul that will
endure aeeord1
importance as long as
endure.
Behind the
fleeting representation of the senses
there arises the higher, freer spiritual reality.
The image
on
of the glorious scene once painted
my
retina has vanished
and
a
it
may
never
be painted there again, but in

associated
still
higher form
vision
is
with
soul
of
noble
I
feeling
recall
the
it
in
my
and
can
when
I will.
The
I'ace
my
lost
child I can never again
behold with these

still
(\ves,
but that gracious image

still
dwells in
my
heart,
smiles on nie,
is
nearer to
me
than of old.
The memory may

in
seem
to
you pale and cold
comparison with
But thai
this
the rich
is
warm
picture of the senses.
because you are at })rescnt dazzled by
material show, just as a single electric light
can blot out the whole hcaviMi of
stars.
IJut
THE SOUL AND DEATH

at all events, the soul's treasures are real.
They
alone endure.
^Mien then our eye
closes in death
and
all
our
physical sense impressions are blotted out at

once,
we may
well believe that a world
of
memory awakes
^Miatever
in us to take its place, a world
that will be to us then the only real world.
may
be the surprises of the future,

Ave are
whatever further development

of,
capable
and I believe
it
to
be enormous, we shall
carry into that world a spiritual body, a body

that represents us perfectly, a
sists of all
body that consuffered,
we have been, done, and
a body of memories.
That
is
the great business of our lives, the

life
transformation of a fleeting animal
into
an abiding
spiritual character.
All our lives
we
are engaged in this task, the task of con-
verting the fleeting unrealities of this natural
world,
which run
like
quicksilver
through
our fingers, into spiritual

it
realities, or, to state
in terms of psychology, to transform 299
mere
THE LIVING WORD

sensations into
permanent memories.
is
In
this
task the whole soul
engaged.
God
has pro-
vided us with marvelous senses, the eye, the

ear,
etc.,
constructed with reference to the

live.
world in which we
In
this respect
we
are
even
less richly
endowed than many animals.

consists, not in
Our
true
dowry
our senses,
of these
but in the use we are able to

sensations
for
make
our spiritual
like
life.
Our
of life
eyes
and ears are
golden buckets by which
we
are enabled to
draw up water
from
the deep well of
life.
They
are treasure boxes
God
placed in our hands
when He
sent us
into this marvelous world that
we might
not
return to
Him empty
first
handed.
AVhen you
calls
have gathered enough for Him,
God
you
home.
But
golden bucket.
He He
places a cover
closes
upon your
and
seals fast the
treasure chest, that not a drop of the water

of
life
may
be
spilled, that
not one of your
treasures
may
be taken from you.
During the
long day, the laborers were scattered far and

300
THE SOUL AND DEATH

wide over the great vineyard
return together to the one
;
at evening they
Father's house.
How
gracious
is
our Lord!
What we have
gathered for Him,

blessing.
He
returns to us with His
Then
take heed what you carry

it
home, for you are carrying

self.
home
for your-
For the soul

wealth,
it is
to estimate or use its
inner
necessary to close the outer door

I close the doors
of sense,
and the more firmly
of the outer world, the brighter all
becomes
within, the
more capable
become
of putting
forth the whole strength of the soul.
Then
only
closes
memory awakens and

forgotten
pictures.
reveals to
me
a thousand
Death,
however,
closes the doors of sense a
little tighter,
them
so fast that they never reopen.

rises
Then
new sun
within us.
Then
for the first
time the light of the soul, the light of memory,

the light of conscience,
dawns on us
in all its
splendor.
This massive, palpable house of

301
flesh
must
THE
no longer go
feet.
LIVINM^
WORD
\ou
will
jniinfnlly
indeed cruinhle into notliinguess.

we;irily
and
on heavy
Yon
will
no longer how yonr slionlders
to liejiN V
hnvdens.
Yonr
hotly w
ill
no longer no more
give
you pain.
Yon
will ex})erienee
fatigue, weakness,
will
and the desire
to die.
You
not be separated
love.
hy death or distanee
Instead of walking on
will
from those yon

heavy
light
feet of flesh,
you
spirit,
he
home hy
the
wings of the
instead of separa-
tion
from those you love hy distanee or hy
the impenetrahle veil of Ihe flesh,
we
shall
look into each other's hearts,
we
shall read
each other's thoughts, anl though we seem to

lose something,
do we not gain
far
more?
So think of death as an exaltation

sphere.
to a higher
a
So think of thai ehange as

pnriM-,
trans-
formation into a lighter.

energetic
life
freer,
more
in
which the whole house of your
soul will he open to the light and yon will he
born into a new

the
life
that
you may continue

Iumt,
work you have begun

'MH
and labor
THE SOUL AND DEATH

with greater strength, with greater freedom,
with a clearer, brighter conscience in the great
house of your Lord on high.
Many
indeed beheve or profess to believe

life.
in another
But that we
shall find ourselves
there where
we
lost ourselves here, that
we
shall carry into the
new
life
our old memories, our
and that those memories

spiritual capital,
will constitute
and form our
spiritual body,
they will not believe.
Man, they
say,
must be-
come a new
a
creature.
He
will
find himself
life.
new being on
this
life
entering the
its
new
They
rob
of
greatest moral thought,
namely, that everything we do has an eternal

significance, that
we
are
making
for ourselves
a garment
we must wear
forever.
Instead of
understanding that by death alone
man
fully
discovers himself, fully comes to himself and

finds himself, they imagine that
by death
man
this
forever loses himself, escapes the consequences

of life
and becomes a new being.

303
It is
on
account the thought of immortality has so
little
T II E
power o\er
breath that
N G
AV
O 11 D
the
uicii.
Iiistoad
of sooing in
rises
out of the water, and into
whieh
the
Avhoh^
riseiv
water
hfe.
it
is
transformed,
to
n
to
pieture of our
disa[)pear
seems
with
them
totally
togvther
the
water.
aud the eloud

heaven seems
world.
that Hoats in the blue vaull of

to
them a new ereation

it is
in a
new
In reality
only the okl water muler
new form
of existeuee.
Not one drop has
perishetl, not
its elVect.
one cause has faiUnl to produce

will
it
So
be in our new
life.
It
is
tliis
that
makes
the thought of death
always serious.
of death
is
St. l*aul truly said,
"The
sting
sin,""
and Sliakespeare repels the

with the reflection, " Hut
temptation
in
to suicide
that
sleep
of
death,
if
what dreams may

is
come!"
But what
death
not a sleep.
but the great awakening of the soul that has

slept
it is
and dreamt so long?
^Ye
know how
us.
when we shut
the world
from
and
gc
to our beds at night.
Every one of
times
sot
us. I
have by
no doubt, has
at
been scourged
THE SOUL AND DEATH

memories.
The
unworthy deed,
the
evil
thought, the unkind word, the thing done that
ought not to have been done, and the thing
undone that ought
to
have been done, appear

forms and speak to us
to us then in different
with different voices than in the hours of our
gay
distraction,
when we can with
ease forget
ourselves.
No man
burdened with guilty

So death
will
memories
isolate
desires to be alone.
us more profoundly.
Death, which
world of sensual
closes the
door forever on
this
delights, passions, colors, sounds,
and perfumes
our
first
in
which we have
lived, will give us
perfect revelation of ourselves.
Having noth-
ing to distract us,
we
shall be forced to take
account of the spiritual treasures we have

gathered here, and the uses
those
treasures.
we have made
depicts
of
Hence Jesus
the
lost
extreme surprise of both the saved and the
when they
shall see themselves as they are.
Even now we
are warned by countless intima-
tions of our relation to

305
God, whether we are
TllK LIVINC
Avorkingfor
WORD
(uxl,
dod
i>r
;io;iinsl
wliolhor
iihriul}'
Ciocl's will is
with us or
jigiiinst us.
So
iiiany
;i
Hrst
becomes
last auil las! lirst.
Woe
wasted
then to him Avho carries into thai eternal world

only the recollection
oi"
an
to
allof;'etlier
and eorru})ted
lite!
Woe
a
him, as Jesus said.

I'cast
ol"
who
the
presents himselt" at the niarriai;(>
Land) without
nuist feel
wedding garuKMit, and

is
who
and see how unprepared he

to thai
evil
for that holy
company! Woe
man
to
whom
Cod
innocence awakens only

to
desirtvs,
and woe
him who brings home
at last to
only that which (<od nnist destroy before
Heaven can be Heaven!

has led his
life
Well for him
who
here in accordance with the
mind
of (<od.
Happy
is
he whose
evil
deeds
is
arc covered
up by good deeds.
IJlcsscd
his
he
whose good deeds enrich Heaven as

memories enrich
he
his
good
own
soul.
Most
blessed
who
shall
(ind
children in the
hail
Kinuxlom
of (lod to rise u[)
and
him
for
as tluMr father,
and
to tell
him that but

:U)()
him they would
THE SOUL AND DEATH

not be there.
As
the
memoiy
of trials
and
sorrows courageously endured gives us here

great satisfaction, and as the cessation of pain
is
to us a sweet pleasure, so in a
much
higher
sense shall
we
rejoice in the
burdens we have
borne, the sorrow

in that
we have
patiently endured,
tears
day when God wipes away
from
off all faces.
Let
me add
one word on the attempt to
communicate with those who have gone before

us.
To many persons the possibility of holding

is
intercourse with the dead
a thought
full of
sweetness.
If
they could assure themselves

of the reality of that spirit
by empirical proofs
world, they think
to believe in
it.
it
would be so much
easier
If
they could occasionally

it
communicate with
their departed friends,
would lighten the intolerable pain and tedium

of the separation.
I
suppose there are few

not
mourners
tempted to
who have
cry.
sometimes
been
307
T 11
Come down
mild
I- 1
(^
W () U D
C'oiiio
for a
nioiueiit!
oh, come!
serious
iiiul
And pule, as thou weit on this enrlh, thou luloriible ehildl One tender nnd pitying look of lliv tenderesi eves. One word of solenui iissuriuue and truth tluit tin- soul with
its
love never dies!
If
our dopartod
frioiuLs
could ronp[>oar to
in
us in the
to see
form and manner

if
which we desire
to us ahine in
them,
they coukl
come
stiUness
llie
and sanctity and whisper into our ear

hope
\\e
ilesire
messao'c^ of
^ê
so cjirnestly
in
to hear,
might he
justifietl
our wish. can enduie

the vidgar
or
But how any pure and h)ving

to seek the oi;itifieationof
lieart
its (h^sire in
atmosphere
of
spiriliiuUstic
meeting,
tlirough such
their
t'abiuets,
mediums, with
and
otlier satie
their chiptrap,
to
pafa|)heri\ahn
deceive,
or
how any
from
the
mind can
messaocs
I
(hM'ive
satisfac'tiou
ofoss
is
they
ascribe to the wise (hâd,
what
have never
been able to undersland.

or denying the reality of
Without discussing'
some
spiritualistic
numifestations, the truth seems to be this,

308
THE SOUL AND DEATH

the dead have laid aside their material bodies
they have entered a

relations
new
are
life;
henceforth our
relations,
with them
try to
spiritual
and
if
we
make our
relations carnal
at
all,
and
material, supposing
relation
we succeed
such a
must
of necessity be morbid,
abnormal,
and
injurious.
Can
the mother
communicate
?
with the soul of her unborn child

call it
Can
she
by name, and
will the child
hear and
say,
"Here
am
I"
The mother does indeed

of the
communicate with the soul

yes, mysteriously in
unborn
child,
God's hand she communi-
cates a soul to her
unborn
child,
and so the
dead communicate with us and communicate

to us.
So they surround us and teach

life
us, give
us spiritual
and consolation;
so
by
their
wisdom we know what we should not know

of ourselves
;
so by their virtue
we
lead a
life
we could not
lead by ourselves.
When we
to us
think of them they are near us.

us like a cohort of angels.
invisibly,
They surround
But they come
they speak to us inaudibly, they

309
THE LIVINC WORD

enter us mysteriously, as the soul
enters the
child
ol"
the
mother
she bears.
With that we
must be
satisfied until
life
death breaks the shell
of our old
and our
spiritual eyes are
opened
and our
spiritual ears arc unstoppeol.
310
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because
we have
testified of
God
that
He
raised
up
Christ:
whom
XV. 15
He raised
not up,
if
so be that the dead rise not.

I
COEINTHIANS,
311
CHAPTER XV
ETERNAL, LIFE
Saint Paul
Corinthians
the hfe of
to
is
in
this
superb
chapter
of
describing God's ordering of

in this world
man
and the world
come
The manner in which he approaches

most important with which
can deal,
is
this subject, the
the
mind
of
man
He
very interesting.
falls
He
quotes no authorities, he
back on no
traditions.
does not urge the sorrow and
incompleteness of
human
life
as a reason for
continuance of
life
beyond the grave.
On
the contrary, Paul lets his eye range over the
creation of God, and he finds
it all
so good,
so wise, that he believes the beneficent x\uthor

of our
Being
will not ^^dthhold
from
man what
man
desires
most
of
all.
Beginning with the
death and the resurrection of Jesus, he surveys

313
THE LIVING WORD

the great processes of death
and renewal in
life,
Nature.
He
life,
passes in review vegetable
animal
man's
life
and the
stars,
and
strengthened
by those processes and under
those purely natural images, he sets forth the
mystery of man's death and resurrection as part

of
God's universal plan.

It
is
This
is
not exactly
logic.
what we
call
to-day the inductive
method, by means of which we pass through
known
facts to their causes
and meaning.
itself
If
theology would ever re-establish

science,
it
as a
must return
to this
method and begin

At
again to look the universe in the face.

present
it is
an
affair of
words, "full of sound
and
fury, signifying nothing."

will
That
it.
is
why
let
men
of
have nothing to do with

tell
But
theology begin again to
the world the
mind
God, and
it
will easily re-establish itself
queen of the
sciences.
For there
is
nothing
the world craves so
much
to-day as a religious
interpretation of the facts of the universe.
Paul bases
his great induction
on the ground
314
ETERNAL LIFE
of
observed fact;
first
the fact of Christ's

of death of
resurrection,
and secondly the analogy

in
and resurrection
Nature.
the
great
processes
Let us also approach the subject

side,
from the same

that the further
remembering
this,
is
we can follow man's
life
in this
world backward and forward, the broader the

foundation
we
shall gain for the tower that
to pierce the stars.
At
best, life is all too short

it is
for
such an induction, but
longer than most
writers
on immortality imagine.
lives
They assume
that
man
only twice, once in this world,

;
once in the world to come
whereas
man
really
lives three times, twice in this
world and once

forget that
in the
world to come.
They
we
have already passed through one death and

resurrection.
this, it
But
in
such a barren
field
as
does not do to forget anything.
We look at human life in the hope of finding

something permanent in soul and body on
which to build but it all seems

;
flux
and change.
to day,
The whole man changes from day

315
THE LIVINd WORD

In the course of
yc;irs,
overv particle of his

is
body passes from him ami
scattered to the
four winds of lieaAên, and
new body
is
drawn
tooethev, frairment
bv
fi-aii-meut,
from
the outer world.
How
is
astonished
we should
be could we see where the body we possessed

twenty-five years ago
to-ihiy,
and how many

undergone
transformations
its
particles liave
since they left us.
The
soul also chanoes.

tlie life
and
the
more
closely
life
we study
of the soul
and the
of the body, the
more intimate
we
the
find the relationship to be.
That
is
one of
chief
errors
of
Christian
Science.
its
By
denying the
reality of the
body and
relation
to the soul, they
do not cause those
relations to
disappear; they only commit themselves to a

falsehood, and
render themselves incapable
of understanding citlier soul or boily correctly.
The
relations,
repeat,
are
V(My intimate.
AVhen the body changes most rapidly, the soul

also changes
most rapidly.
At
last
is
we come
to the
to this strange fact: 'llie soul
tied
ETERNAL LIFE
body
cord,
ing. to us
in this
life,
but
it is
tied
by a very long
and by a cord that
is
constantly lengthen-
All our knowledge, to begin with,
comes
through our physical senses, and the
more the eye has seen and the ear has heard,
and the further the body has
traveled, the
richer the store of our knowledge.
The
child
and the savage remain chained
for the
most
life
part to their physical sensations;
but as
becomes more
comes
spiritual,
our environment be-
greater, the soul freer.
The
soul
of
the astronomer
wanders out into the

stars,
infinite,
it is
and dwells among the

recalled
from which
by hunger and
fatigue.
The
body
historian
lives let
lives in the past.
Though
his
us say, in
Cambridge
at the beginning of the
twentieth century, his soul lives for the most

part
away
in
Greece or Judea, in a vanished

absent lover lives with his be-
world.
loved.
The
Now
our senses no longer direct our
thoughts, the eye no longer sees, the ear no
longer hears;
we have plunged
317
into ourselves,
THE LIVING WORD

we
At
are reemicting with the dead
scones on
which our mortal eye

certain times
shall never rest again.
and under certain circum-
stances the detachment becomes so complete

that
we
clearly perceive distant occurrences,
a faculty at present granted to but few, but
which
If
may
yet
become the possession
of
all.
we compare our condition
in this life with
our condition before birth, when our whole

soul's life consisted in the perception of a
few
organic sensations,
we
shall see that the soul,
though
free.
still
tied to the
body,
is
is
wonderfully
it
Its
environment
its
vastly larger;
is
enriched not only by
own
ten
experiences, but
by the experiences
spirits
of
thousand other
who have
surveyed the world before us

to us the fruit of iheir lives.
little
and bequeathed
Carry
this
thought a
is
further.
birtli,
Realize
that death
but a second
exactly like
to
our
life,
first,
which also was death

shall see that
our
first
and we
death opens to us
the door of a third
and
318
vastei- life, in
which
ETERNAL LIFE
the soul
is
altogether free
and our
relations
with other spirits will be more intimate and

delightful,
because we shall
all
be contemthe
poraries,
and no longer separated by

the
flesh.
barrier of
at least as
The change must be

enough
great as the change wrought by
our
first birth,
and that
is
to satisfy
us; although of course the change will not
come came
all
at
once there any more than

once here.
for something
it
all at
Again,
we look
life,
permanent
in our present
and we are disconcerted.
All seems to perish so quickly.
The images
presented to our senses so soon disappear.
We
survey an object with our eyes.

furnishes
The body
and the
taken, and
is
the
materials, the
fluids
is
energy by which that picture

the soul sees the picture.
That
another
is
blunder of
soul,
Christian
Scientists.
It
the
of course,
which
;
sees;
we do not need
them
ical
to tell us that
but without the mechanfluids,
apparatus, without the materials,

319
TH
K L
1 \'
V,
W C) R D
and energy furnished by the body, the soul

sees nothing.
The
pieture on the retina van-
ishes, the materials
out of wliieh
it
was made
run together again in the body; and yet the

pieture
is
not
lost.
it
It
reappears in a higher
form
of thought;
its
takes a permanent place,
according to
ories.
importance,
among our mem-
The
materials of our bodies at the time
that
pieture
was taken may disappear; the
whole brain
may
be dissolved and
made
oven-
again a dozen times; and yet that

remains.
memory
The
j)erception of
a truth which
is
dawned on
us on a certain
day
never
it,
lost.
Other experiences enrich and

they do not obliterate
it.
illustrate
but
So our
fleeting rela-
tions with the universe, as far as they enter
our spiritual
nent.
before,
life,
become
fixed
and permait
Extend
this
thought as we extended
to
and we have reason

life's
believe that
all
when
body's
})icture
vanishes,
fluids,
when
our
are
materials,
and
energies
dissolved and reabsorbed in the great

.'}20
body
ETERNAL LIFE
of earth
from which they came, the soul

all its all
re-
mains with
of this
treasures,
and we carry out
world
that ever belonged to us.

eternal
its
life
So
if
we approach our
it,
as Saint
Paul approached
on
life,
natural side,
it
we
see that that eternal
infinitely as
tran-
scends this
life
life, is
is.
but the continuation of the

of the tower
that
now
The foundation
rests firmly
which pierces the sky
on the earth
and the higher the tower, the stronger and

deeper the foundation.
Our wonderful
is
life,
which has a beginning but no end,
broken
lifts
by two grand
to a
events,'
each of which
of these events
call
us
new
world.
One
we now
but
call birth,
and the other we
death;
we
1
shall
soon see that they are both the same,

is
An
old and famous objection to immortality

If
that that which
has a beginning must also have an end.
we
try to prove this
of material objects, or even of geometrical lines and argument holds; but of spiritual things it does not hold. All the laws of mathematics were discovered at certain definite times. This circumstance, however, imposes no necessary A thought limitation on their future endurance and validity. rises in our minds as something absolutely new, yet it may endure
spaces, the
by the analogy
as long as
we
endure.
new
spirit arises in the
mind
of
God
lives.
as
one of His thoughts, and
it
may
live there as
long as
God
321
THE
VIN
(J
AY
(.)
U O
new.
death
There
is
to the old world, birth to the
therefore no reason ^\lly ^ê should
fear death
birth.
any more than

in reality
is
a ehild
need fear
Death
an old ncquaintanee.
life
who
into
returns not to destroy the beautiful
whieh he onee led
us.
but to streteh us
life.
helpino-
hand
into the eternal
The
old
its
ship,
our old body, has

it
now completed
voyage;
shore
of
has landed us safe on that happy

painless,
\\e
if
well-nigh
perfect
{)eace,
from which
AVliat nuitter
shall
never wish to return.
the old sliip
now
we
fall to pieces,
so that
we cannot return?
That only means

shall toil
that our voâoe has ended;
no
more, we shall sutfer no more, we shall be

parted no more on the storuiy seas of time.
Out
of that ship
we do
all
not go poor and naked,

tridy [)ossessed.
but enriched with
we ever
Even
the
little jtiys
and the freshness and inno-
cence of our childhood
we
thouiiht
we had
lost
forever begin to retm-n in old age,

sign that
a sure
we
shall lose nothing.

'.Vi-i
ETERNAL LIFE
On to that shore we do not come as strangers,
any more than the
child
comes
into this world
a stranger or unexpected.
No
ship draws
near for which someone
is
not eagerly waiting

there are eager
and
at this
moment perhaps
some
eyes watching for

sails,
sign of our approaching
and loving hearts praying that we may
soon come to them safely and happily.
To
this general view,
two objections may

child brings
well be
made.
its
First
^the
life
no
knowledge of
with
it.
former
into this world
How
then can we hope to carry out

life ?
?
of this
world the memories of our old
How
shall
we know and
is
love one another

child brought
The answer
knowledge
because
it
this:
The
no
of its
former
life
into this world

it
possessed no knowledge;
had no
memories;
preserved
first life
its
.''
how The
then could
child's
its
memories be
its
whole forces in
were devoted
life,
to fashioning a
body
for
second
and
it.
it
did bring that body into

this life are
the world with
So our forces in
323
THE
LIVIXMi \Yoiin
tliis
spent in fashioning a body for

the world to come.
shall
world
ixnd
spiritual body,
-and
wo not take
life
that spiritual Innly into the
now
with us
But
of
what does
a sjiiritual
body
is
consist but of spiritual olenients;
that
?
to say, of love, hope, thouoht.
and nuMuory
Therefore,
there those
why
should wo not
know and
love
?
we have known and

it
loved hero
if
Secondly
may
be askoil,
the organs
in this life,
of the spiritual
body are developed
why
the
is
death nooossary?
To
this I Tuay reply

it
wliy was birth necessary, since before

ehiKl's
all
?
oroans
in
were
perfectly
is
formed
The answer
Death or
is
both cases
very evident.
to call
life
it,
birth, as
we may choose
necessary partly to end the old

of
by the
destruction
organs which are no louger

\o
needed,
jiartly
provide a sphere,
a.
new
environment for an organism abvady

ence and ready to enter
never attain to perfect
it.
in exist-
As the
child coidd
manhood
or
womanattain
hood imprisoned
in the
womb,
so
we
344
ETERNAL LIFE
our eternal
life
only by the shattering of this
temporal organism at the touch of death.
There
ing,
is
one great and dreadful fact remainits bitterest sting,
a fact which gives death

its
and unbelief
most deadly weapon.
TVbile
we
are hving in this world
we cannot combefore.
municate with those

I
who have gone
do not mean that absolutely.
We can indeed
the departed.
hold blessed
communion with
We
can walk in their footsteps, we can think
their thoughts;
we
are
all
more influenced by
But
all
the dead than
by the
living.
our com-
munion
or
is
either in
memory
or anticipation,
by the undying power

could do
all
of spiritual truth.
We
by
that
if
our friends were parted

see
distance, not
by death. But we cannot
them, we cannot question them, nor assure

ourselves
by question and answer
of the cer-
tainty of their continued existence
and
their
continued love for us.

true,
That
is
absolutely
and
it is
it
vnll
probably be forever true;

it is
and
precisely because
325
true that the
T 11 E L n* N G
1
A\
ORD
is
whole subject of another

faith,
ht'e
matter of
not
knowledge,
anil
that
even
life
such
humble attempts
real
as this to
make
that
more
have their value, not bei'ause they are
convineing in themselves, but because thev

are the best
we ean
do.
For no luunan
in-
genuity ean ilraw that
veil aside,
no human
genius in this world will ever bridge that gulf.
Death
is
to this extent a real thing;
it
sets
an
absolute
passeil
barrier
between
those
who have
it.
and those who have not passed

exactly
like
Again,
birth.
Our
dull
eyes,
capable only of seeing

surfaces
of
light reflected
from the
not
dis-
material
bodies,
could
tinguish those angel faces,

in flesh,
no longer clothed
us.
even were they very near

attuned to the
air,
Our
few
grt)ss ears, &
j)eri'ej)tion of a
octaves of vibrating
can catch no note of
those voices which sound on the other side of

silence.
in earth,
To
this there
all
is
no perfect analogy
because
the transfornuitions
strictly
we
see
upon earth are
maltu-ial.
The
ETERNAL LIFE
child
lives.
is
born into the world in which the mother

In the same world in which the egg
caterpillar crept, the bird
lay,
and the
and
butterfly
now
fly.
But ask yourself whether the blind
caterpillar in the dust
knows aught
if
of the
life
still
of the butterfly in the air, or
the bird
imprisoned in the egg knows aught of the bird

flying in the vault of heaven.
The
butterfly
hovers over the caterpillar, he touches him, and

the caterpillar
knows
it
not;
or
if
he did
feel
the quiver of that wing, he would not recognize

his risen brother.
fly's
He must
blind.
have the butter-
eyes before he can see the butterfly; and

is
the caterpillar
The
bird in the egg

shell
has eyes, but until birth breaks the
he
cannot use them.

material
life is
So
it is
the shell of the old
which
closes our eyes to those
whose
life
wholly spiritual; and yet they
may be
near us, they
may
hover over us as the
butterfly hovers over the caterpillar, they
may
stretch their broad, protecting wings above
our heads, they
may
bless us in
327
many
ways.
In Gott ruht meine Seele, Die Seele sieht ihn nicht, Da, Gott den Herrn zu zeigen,
Die Zeugen niedersteigen,
Christus voran als Licht.
Fechneb.
329
CHAPTER XVI
THE WORD OF GOD
A FEW years
who had
and came
ago an old German missionary
spent his Ufe in working
among
him on
the
negroes of Central Africa stopped in Boston

to
me
to ask
me
to help
his
homeward way.
He remained
over Sunday
and attended church, and he was pleased with

the beauty of our services.
As we were saying
good-by, he dropped on his knees, uttered a

short prayer, and kissed
said:
if
my
hand.
Then he
"Dear
friend,
do not be angry with me
I tell
you something.
depends
The
the
success of any
church
upon
frequency
with
which
it
echoes the
name and
this
the praise of
is
Jesus Christ."
Although
book
specuit
lative in character, I
cannot conclude
with-
out a word of thanks to

331
Him
to
whom
all
my
THE LIVING WORD

faith goes out,
and from
whom
I derive
what
of
rehgious Ufe I possess.

this
The arguments
work
are not
all
taken from the Bible,
yet as Fochner himself earnestly contended,
they are not in opposition to Jesus
it.
Though
frequently
has
not
been
mentioned
in these pages, I trust that they are not
devoid
of His spirit.
For ^Yho
h;is
brought us to the
all-loving,
knowledge of the one all-knowing,

all-compassionate
God
Did the heathen,
with
all their
wisdom, know that?
Who
save
to us the
command
word
of love that binds

?
God and
man
when
in
one mighty bond

:
Who
spoke to us
that certain
all
All does not
end with thee

this life
seems
to end, but
beyond
thou art secure, thou bulkiest thyself a house

eternal in the heavens
?
Who
has guarded us
on those dangerous paths where so many have

lost their soul, their faith, their all ?
Thousands
know
not for what they have to thank
and therefore thank

and despise Him.
Him
332
not;
but
Him deny Him
They think
that everything
THE WORD OF GOD

is
as
it
was from the beginning.

it
Christ did
as often
His work so well that

as
it
conceals
is
Him
that
reveals
Him.
see
Christ
in
all
many
places
when we do not
created
is
Him,
yet
He
has
its
His.
We
see the great tree with
myriad branches,
fruits,
its
blossoms,
its
leaves, its
some good, some bad.

fall,
We
see the
blossoms
the fruit gathered.
The
leaves
fade and are carried

the root
away by
the wind;
but
we do not
see.
And
yet the root and

it
the sunlight of
God
are the cause of

is
all.
The
all
root of
humanity
Jesus Christ;
but
that hides itself under the

is
shadow
of that
great tree
not His.
You reckon
to Christ
the failings of Christians, but they are not His

failings.
falls
You
think
it is
His fault that that

is it
which was ripe
to fall ; but
not enough
that
He
.''
has established forever what must
stand
You
lay
on His head
all
the innocent
blood that has been shed by fanatics in His
name but you

;
forget that His
own blood was
shed in the same sacred cause.

333
You
say thut
THE LIVING WORD

many
of His ideas are to be
also
found among the
Jews and
itself is
among
If
the heathen.
That
in
nothing.
they are true ideas

?
why
new
should they not be found there

alone
But He
made
those ideas the source of a
humanity.
Only He had strength

Christ said
:
to carry
little
those ideas out.

children to
" Suffer the
come unto Me."
That you conBut are

?
sider proof of intellectual weakness.
we not
all
brought to Christ as children
Was
it
not then that we received His word

it
not questioning, not doubting, and with
an
imprint of piety and religion that a whole

after
life
of sin has not

all
been able to destroy?
He
holds you by
the good
He has
created
that will not let

let it
you go although you would

of Christ
go.
The name
you can deny
His achievement never; and though you

not follow
to
may
Him
willingly, yet are
you bound
Him by
all
the great
bond
of the ideal that

all
unites
of
Christendom.
of
334.
Above
the
the truths
heathendom and
Old Testament
THE WORD OF GOD

there rises a
new and
which
higher truth in Christ.
He conceived dom of God

houses of
the great thought of the Kingin

all
good souls should
dwell together in love.
Before Him,
many
God were scattered over the earth, of each of which man said, "That is my Father's house." He made the whole earth the house
of the
one Father; and, beyond
this earth,
he
told us of the heavenly

It is
home
that awaits us.
not merely the fact that

of
He was
the
best
and purest
men which
has gathered
His sheep from the four quarters of heaven

into His fold.
That must He have been,
yet
there have been other
men
of almost divine
nature.
It
was not merely that he strengthened

of
and deepened the old Hebrew conception

the unity of
still
God which had
stood and stood
so long in the
Old Testament. But rather
that he first conceived the thought of binding
men
that
eternally to
God and
to one another
and
He found
within Himself strength
suffi-
cient for
the purpose.
335
He
united
men
in
THE
the only point of
Ll VINC;
vioA\-
WORD
nil
in
which thoy can
be
united as children of one Heavenly Father,
and therefore
as
loving,
helping
brothers.
that none
it.
That none had done before Him,

could
before
great
tlo after
Him,
for
He had done
Who
Him had
thought of humanity as one

ties
body bound together by
of love
love,
and sympathy?
His person,
as the being
barriers
So with His truth, His

stands between
He
man and God

eternally
who broke down

So
the innumerable
that se[)arated
them and
united them.
as the great
He
stands in
human
history
bond that makes
anil ever
more
and more
or
for
will
make humanity
one.
No higher
more comprehensive or more saving idea

humanity
will ever arise
than that which
was revealed
remain
a.
in Christ;
i(k'a,
but in
it
Him
it
did not
meie
but
hastened on to
achievement and realization.
There
every
is
something that has pre-existed

being.
in
human
No
is
child
is
born into the
world as a thing that
absolutely new.
The
THE WORD OF GOD

materials of which
as the earth
itself.
its
body
is
made
are as old
^Vho knows what other
houses they have

other
built,
what bird or beast or
man
they have clothed in their strange

?
cycles of transformation
The
features, the
expressions,
that
all
those
personal peculiarities
are, are for the
make
us what
we
most
part inherited.
Through
those liquid eyes
another soul once looked out upon this world.
Nor does
the
mind enter
the world bare and
featureless,
of
its
but stamped with the achievements

living ancestors,
many dead and

course in
life is
by which
largely determined in the
cradle.
So
is it
with Christ.
The
river strong
all
enough, deep enough to carry the souls of
mankind
safely
through time into eternity
did not rise under our feet.
The
great tree,
with
are
its
myriad leaves and branches, which

nations,
is
men and
not
all
on the surface,
anchored by
open to the gaze of men.

invisible roots to the
It is
framework of the universe.

all
We
can see plainly that

337
the faith and love
THE
that
LIVINC;
WORD
the beginIlim,
had
ovcm- existed
on earth, the best and
purest U>ve for

jiini;-.
Cod and man from

together
into
slowly gre^\
and
without them
He
could not liave eome.
The
prophets of old,
Perfect
^^ho
saw so
[)lainly wliat the
One must
be,
did more than fore-
shado\\ Ilim; they did
more than prepare
the
way
before Ilim.
In tliem the spirit of Christ
dwelt and through them the
Word
spake.
And
take
yet
it
was needful that that AVord should
flesh, i.e., that the Sj)irit of
Cod
should
incai'uate itself in
human
The
life.
Otherwise, as
a.
with Philo,
it
would have remained

artist
barren
word, a mere idea.

tion, the
has his concep-
poet his inspiration, but unless they
arc clothed with flesh
and begin
matter,
their strusipje
with hard,
intiactable
a
they
vanish
is
and leave not
wrack behind.
llie
That
the
difference between
creator and the dreamer.

flesh, in the
In the one the word takes

it
other
does not.
generation or so ago the thought

in the air that
was generally
human
slavery
338
THE WORD OF GOD

is
wrong, that the souls and bodies of

sold
;
men
espe-
and women cannot be bought and

cially that
such an institution
is
a gross inconto
sistency in a nation
which professes
be
founded
in liberty,
and that a house so divided
could not stand.
The thought was
in the air
it
and
it
remained a mere thought.
Then
took
flesh in the great heart of
Abraham
Lincoln,
and
it
became an
issue for
which a million
In Lincoln
for
it
men
laid
down
their lives.
this
word took
it
flesh.
He
full
lived
rather,
demanded
freedom,
lived in him.
Little
by
little its
claims grew
of sacrifice.
it
even to the
It
last
measure
the
demanded more, but

more
it
more
the
gave
to
the
slave
to this nation a
new
birth in liberty, to Lincoln
himself imperishable immortality, an added

stature,
a claim on the heart of humanity
that he could have gained in no other way.
Bismarck dreamt
of a United Fatherland.
To him
and
the revelation was
made
of a united
glorious
Germany.
339
Suppose
he
had
THE LIVING WORD

contented himself with merely thinking about
it
or talking about
it
with friends over a pipe,

it.
or with writing about
Ten thousand
him
per-
sons would have proved to
the absolute
impossibility of such a scheme.

silence
So he kept
about
it.
For fortvyears that
man alone
For forty
Avrestled
with incalculable odds.
years he opposed his gigantic will to England,

Austria, France,
and Russia, not
to
speak of
endless opposition at home.
But
in the
end
he triumphed.
Why.?
else
Because he had the

had, and because in
word that nobody
him
it
was not a
vain, inoperative word, but a

first in
word incarnate,
in the hearts of
Bismarck's heart, then

million
some
fifty
Germans.
Charles Darwin, reading one day an old

half-forgotten
book,
came
across
an
idea.
I
Malthus, in his Principles of Population, ha
more than once expressed the opinion that the

hardships of life, cold, famine, war, and disease,
check the increase of the population,

sequence of which those
in con-
who are most sheltered
THE WORD OF GOD

from such
turity
It
evils are
most
likely to reach
ma-
and
to leave a
progeny behind them.
was an idea Darwin had long been looking
for.
Thousands
it
of
other persons had also

it
encountered
it.
and had ridiculed
and
reviled
Darwin, however, perceived
its
significance.
Suppose he had contented himself with merely

echoing
that
it
it,
and with expressing

true.
?
his opinion
was
Would
that
have con-
vinced anyone
slightest
effect
Would
that have
of
had the
thought.?
on the history
better than that.
It
Darwin knew
word took
In him the
flesh.
became from that moment
the motive of his

of his
life.
He
spent the remainder

to life in ten thouefforts
days in applying
it
sand forms, and by these
Darwin
suc-
ceeded in permanently modifying the thought

of the world as only four or five other
men
like
have done.
The problem
this.
of
Jesus
is
something
being
whom we
341
regard as a divine
being undertakes to mediate between us and
THE LIVING WORD

Cod, that
relations,
is
to say. to bring us
all.
in all our
physical and spiritual, into peace

in us
and harmony with God. by suppressing

all
that
is
opposed to God's
will, all that is
sinful, injurious,
and destructive
to us
and
to
others,
and by bringing
all that is
good
in us
to its highest perfection.
This
is
the problem.
life
To do
what
this
such a beinc must sound our
in every direction.
is
He must know
in us.
not only
is
best
and highest
but what
lowest and worst.
He must
be
all in all to us.
father, mother, brother, sister, friend, a soul
within our soul.
He must Himself
be Son of
be.
Man.
as
none
all.
of us ever
was or can
all in
He
must know
at last all
He must touch
order that
may know Him and touch Him and

this possible
it
act by His spirit and according to His purpose.
How
tell
it
is
rerhaps
can best
you how
is
possible by
showing you how
actually happens,
rise
^[any thoughts, many

in
all
motives
noble,
and sink
base, not
'Mi
our minds, some

equally important.
some
THE WORD OF GOD

But one day there comes a moment ordained
on high and winged by the Providence
of
God,
when a thought awakes

tance because
it
of everlasting impor-
gives direction to our whole

to which, little
all
subsequent
flow of
yield.
all
life,
by
little,
the
our thoughts and
our acts must
do not mean
to say that this higher thought
overpowers us at once, or occupies us exclusively,
but only that henceforth everything

or
we think
and
do
receives
an influence from
it,
in turn contributes to the leading motive

life.
of our
To some
this
leading motive
comes
early, to others later.
after long years of patient

it
To some it comes search. To others

af-
reveals
itself
suddenly in an unexpected
event,
fection
an unforeseen circumstance, a new

;
never without preparation, though the
purpose of that preparation

pletely
may have been comlast
hidden from
us.
In some way, at
life
the purpose of our
own
dawns on
its
us.
The
thought breaks out from

343
enveloping seed
THE
in
LI V IN
(5
\YORD
We
ivahzo
which
it
has shimbered so long.
that hfe
to
is
not a mere stnios of (hiys and yoars
be Uved through, a poor fluetuating. fruitless
thing that changes from dixj to day. but a purpose, a determinate
aim by which
\\e
grow
stronger and react
more powerfully on the

Yet
it
world from day to day.

before our whole
life
requires time
yields to this thought.
For a long time our
habits, our other thoughts,
the ten thousand weaknesses of the flesh, rebel
and threaten
infancy.
to
choke the inunortal plant

of this
in its
is
The image
part of
life
Hercules strangling the serpents that surround

his
cradle,
the
lazy
monsters
that
would
destroy the
inclinations
young
child at
his birth.
Our
draw us one way;

life
the revealed
purpose of our
draws us another.
?
Will
the thought conquer
And
if
it
iloes
not con-
quer,
what
will
become
of us
Shall m e find
another thought that

fall
will
conquer, or shall we
?
a prey to the serpents

life
But
just as far as
the purpose of oiu'
does conquer, peace
344
THE WORD OF GOD

follows
trols
;
and the more the higher thought conlife
our whole
the
deeper our peace.

this miracle.
all
Only goodness can work
Evil
knows no
spell that
can subdue
the powers
of our soul
and make them work
willingly
and
harmoniously for one end.
Therefore, every
sin is dissipation, i.e., the loosening of the
bond
that unites our energies.
Just as far as this higher purpose takes possession of our

ator,
spirit, it
becomes our medi-
our redeemer, our revealer.

its light.
The world
But
shines in
It rescues, delivers, saves
us from evil and unites us to God.
to so
many, you
say, this higher thought, this abidlife,
ing motive of
it
does not come.
Say, rather,
has not
won
the victory.
In spite of the
lives, is
emptiness and frivolity of our
there
any one who dares

the opportunity
to say that to
him
or to her
was never
given.?
Or
is
it
that the seed that springeth unto
life
eternal
was
choked
?
that
the
serpents
strangled
of
Hercules
that the word, the

345
word
God
in
THE
us.
LIVINC,
flesh,
WORD
was not made
but iviiuuned a bare
inoperative word, that haunts us sometimes,
but does not bless us has incarnated
But that word which

your Hfe, that higher
itseh" in
thought, that purifying ministry that has been
your mediator with God, your saviour from an empty and wasted
soul
hfe, is the fruit of Christ's
It
is
working
in you.
sim[)ly
one ex-
anipk^ in the httk" work! of
what God through
Christ
is
doing in the great workk in you and in
milHons of other souls.

thoughts,
is
As
tl\e
mind has
As our
its
life
God
has
llis
s[)irits.
dominated by a highest motive, God guides

Spirit
llis
and leads the world through His highest

which must be taberuat'led
in Hesh to
do
work, which must leave the Fatlier's house and
go forth into the world, \\hich must leave the
One
to save the
in
many.
life,
Whatever our motives

nuist }et
and purposes
we
measure them
of
and judge them by the supreme purpose
God
as revealed in Cluist.
clearly see
And though you
do not now
what Christ has had
34G
THE WORD OP GOD

to
do with much
of your
of
life,
you
will yet see
it.
Only that part
your
life
which cannot be
will
brought into harmony with Christ
be taken
from you;
only goodness
is is
eternal.
So
if
you would see how Jesus

all
the Mediator of
the world,
how He redeems
unites us to
us
all
from
sin,
how He makes
word He
evil serve the
good,
how
what
in a
God, you have only

life
to look
back over your own
and
see
He
for
has done for you.
you imperfectly
And what He now does He will yet do perfectly.
And what He now

do
for
all.
does for some

is
He
will yet
That
the
meaning
it
of Christ's
incarnation.
for the
That was why

to take flesh.
thirty
was necessary
yet that in-
Word
And
of
is
carnation,
those
years
wandering
concerned,
here below, as far as this world
was but the beginning
of Jesus, the seed out of
which, as he promised, has grown the tree that
overshadows the earth, and ever more and
more
will
overshadow
it.
That was
the light
lightens
then shining in darkness that

347
now
Til E LI
the AAorld
it.
YIN
(J
WORD
w'\]\
and ovor more and more

cross on
lighten
The
in
which He was raised now

thousands
of
cluirclies.
shines
gold
on
Kings, instead of perseculing and wishing to

kill
Ilini,
bow
before Ilim.
Wise men
east
the riches of their wisilom at the feet of Ilim
under whose banner every thinking
man
nuist
ultimately march, and every agt> cries confidently as

it
})asses in,
and more confidently
as
it
passes out:
"the Kingdom of
God
is
'.UH
THE WORD OF GOD

BETHLEHEM AND GOLGOTHA
In Bethlehem, aye,
He was
born,
light,
Who came to bring us life and On Golgotha He did not scorn

Upon
I journeyed
the Cross to break Death's might,
from the Western strand
To many
Nor
a distant Eastern land,
greater in the world I
saw
Than Bethlehem and
Golgotha!
The
old world's Seven
Wonders
great,
Behold how Time has laid them low, The pride and pomp of earthly state.
How
I
soon Heaven's power can overthrow;
Where'er
my
wandering steps might
stray,
saw but ruin and decay.

in strength
Alone
Time cannot mar
Stand Bethlehem and Golgotha!
What mockery
the Pyramids!
In them the darkness of the grave.
The
very peace of Death forbids
Their builders vainly hoped they gave,
The Sphinx
colossal could not read
Life's riddle in
man's hour of need.

shall bar,
Now
and none its light By Bethlehem and Golgotha!

solved,
Fair Roknabad, Earth's Paradise!
Where
Shiraz' roses breathe their balm,
Ye sea-girt shores perfumed with spice. And India's groves of stately palm!
349
THE
1
L1V1N(.
aisle
WORD
far,
Adown each
see Deatli's
and llowcry bed, dark and sloalthy Ireail.
Look up! liilV t-ouu's lo you - not Prom Betlilehcni and (iolf:;ol.lia!
Thou Kaaba,
black and dosorl slono.

foot of half
tlie
On
Still
whicli
llio
world
stumbles, guard Ihy moonlit throne.

to destrueliou
Ere
thou art
hurlinl.
The moon before llie sun shall pale. And Ihou before thy Conqueror quail,
Hero, to
whom
" Vieloria! "
Cry Bethlehem and Golgotha.
Thou, who
in
a manger poor.
lo lie.
Didst choose a helpless Babe
Didst shame and pain of Cross endure.
To
lake from us our pain thereby;

Miiufêr seeius loo base to pride.
The The
hauglily
still
llie
Cross deride,
While Virtues
all
with Meekness are,
Li Bethlehem and Golgotha!
The Wise Ihe Shepherds' star obeyed. And Kings in adoration stood. And many a pilgrimage they made
To
kneel before the Holy Rood.
And The
such a storm of
strife
was born.
saw,
world, yet not the Cross, was torn,

conflict
As East and West the
O'er Bethlehem and Golgotha!
350
THE WORD OF GOD

Oh! let us not with warring sword, But with the Spirit take the field.
And
fight for Jesus Christ our Lord,
With weapons He Himself did wield,
And with
the Apostle as our guide,

light
its
Send out the
on every
side.
Till all the world
light shall
draw
From Bethlehem and Golgotha!

With pilgrim hat and
staff I
sought
In farthest Eastern land to roam.
And from my
pilgrimage have brought
This faithful message to your home.
Oh! go not
forth with scrip
and stave
are
To
seek God's cradle or His grave.
there But look within you, lo! Your Bethlehem and Golgotha.
Heart,
why
fare to foreign land
His lowly cradle to adore.
Or, in rapt wonderment to stand
By
grave which holds thy Lord no more

in thee has
That He
had His
birth.
And that thou diest unto earth this only, And liv'st, to Him
ah.
Is
Bethlehem and Golgotha!
FrIEDRICH RtJCKERT.
Translated by Zitella Cocke.
351

The Living Word (1908)

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THE LIVING WORD

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

Cornell University Library

Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

the United States on the use of the

THE LIVING WORD

MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY

Second printing, December, igo8. Third printing, February, 1910

The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.SA.

This book owes

and whatever merit

possesses to one of the

ner in Leipzig shortly before his death.

Balzac, was so abso-

so far in advance of his

time that his words

works has been transof

lated into English,

which they wer^ ipub-

ably duo to the chariniuc:

Fechner indulged himself as

to the souls of to a niate-

and men. whieh

age seemed seareely worth refuting,

also at incredible pains to

arguments which to his contempohighly

Kurope during the century of

greatest philosophical activity jn-oiluced a }iro-

fruitful religious thinker.

that he deals with (iod, the world soul as real

living beings, not as barren

'V\\c sini[)lii'ity of liis faith

the poetic beauty of his style are

greater of Fechncr's works can be coui-

and they contain

breath proceeds from

not merely living but life-giving."

can say of them what Schopenhauer said of

"They have been

my life and my death."

they will be the conso-

Fechner's Three ^Motives of Faith the best

the nineteenth cen-

great psychology to Fechner in a

pen, or the diligence with

book has been

comes and whither

must own that

With even deeper

humility I echo these words.

Mobius has written most

saturated with Fechner.

great for their

me no little do honor to the memI

ory of a heloved teacher, and

ideas to an audience which I helieve

exposition and a series of (|uo-

The thought had

thoughts in the form which in the course of

occurred to me, and adding what

a book which belongs neither to

mc, but which I hoj)e