Part 36

From the opinions advanced, it is evident that the belief in God has been the ultimate outcome of belief in unseen spiritual agencies. There has been a gradual leading up through fetishism and polytheism to monotheism. If religion implies belief in unseen agencies, as well as belief in a personal agency in the universe strong enough to influence conduct in any degree, then it is obvious that there has been a progressive advancement in religious thought, each succeeding form of religion by its superior advantages over its predecessor tending to supplant it wherever and whenever its beneficent influences are felt. It is true that fetishism and polytheism still prevail among rude, uncultured peoples, as well as the worship of false deities and prophets, but with the spread of the civilizing and elevating influence of Christianity these religions in the fitness of time will disappear. Christianity, from its foundation in Judaism, has throughout been a religion of sacrifice and sorrow. It has been a religion of blood and tears, and yet one of profoundest happiness to its votaries. While fakirs hang on hooks, and pagans cut themselves and even their children, for the sake of propitiating diabolical deities, yet Christianity, which has its roots in Judaism, has no need for such practices. It is _par excellence_ the religion of sorrow, because it reaches to truer and deeper levels of our spiritual nature, and therefore has capabilities both of sorrow and joy which are presumably non-existent except in civilized man. They are the sorrows and joys which arise from the fully-developed consciousness of sin against a God of Love, as distinguished from propitiation of malignant spirits. These joys and sorrows are wholly spiritual, not merely physical. “Thou desirest no sacrifice.” God’s only sacrifice at the hands of sinful man is a troubled spirit.

Estimated by the influence which He has exerted on mankind, there can be no question, even from a secular point of view, that Christ is much the greatest man who has ever lived. That the revolution which His teachings have effected in human life is immeasurable and unparalleled by any other movement in history is unquestioned. Though most nearly approached by the religion of the Jews, of which it is a development, so that it may be regarded as of a piece with it, it is evident that this whole system of religion is so immeasurably in advance of all others that it may be truthfully said, if it had not been for the Jews, the human race would have had no religion worthy of serious consideration. Had it not been for this religion man’s spiritual side would not have been developed in civilized life. And although there are numberless individuals who are all unconscious of its development in themselves, yet these have been influenced to an enormous extent by the religious atmosphere by which they are surrounded.

Not only is Christianity so immeasurably in advance of all other religions, but it is no less of every other system of thought that has ever been promulgated in regard to what is moral and spiritual. Neither philosophy, science nor poetry has ever produced results in thought, conduct or beauty in any degree comparable with it. What has science or philosophy done for the thought of mankind compared with what has been done by the single doctrine, “God is love?” The Story of the Cross, from its commencement in prophetic aspiration to its culmination in the Gospel, is preëminently the most magnificent presentation in literature. Only to a man wholly destitute of religious perception can Christianity fail to appear the greatest exhibition of the beautiful, the sublime, and of all else that appeals to our spiritual nature, which has ever been known upon the earth. It is not only adapted to men of the highest culture, but the most remarkable thing about it is its perfect adaptation to all sorts and conditions of men. Its problems, historical and philosophical, open up to you worlds of material, over which you may spend your life with the same interminable interest as the student meets in the fields of natural science.

Whatever our theory of the origin of man, there can be no doubt that we all feel that his intellectual part is higher than the animal; and that the moral is higher than the intellectual, whatever our theory of either may be; and that the spiritual is higher than the moral, whatever our theory of religion may be. It is what is understood by his moral, and still more by his spiritual qualities, that make up what is called his character, and, astonishing to say, it is character that tells in the long run. Morality and spirituality are two different things, for a man may be highly moral in conduct without being in any degree spiritual in nature, and the reverse, though to a less extent. Objectively, the same distinction subsists between morals and religion. Intellectual pleasures are more satisfying and enduring than sensual, or even sensuous; and spiritual, to those who have experienced them, than intellectual, an objective fact, abundantly testified to by those who have had experience, which seems to indicate that the spiritual nature of man is the highest part of man--the culminating point of his being. That there will always be materialists and spiritualists, as Renan says, is probably true, inasmuch as it will always be observable on the one hand that there is no thought without brain, while, on the other hand, the instincts of man will always aspire to higher beliefs. If religion is true, and life is a state of probation, this is just what ought to be. It is not probable that the materialistic position, which is discredited even by philosophy, is due simply to custom and a want of imagination. Else why the inextinguishable instincts which we have thus shown to exist?

Evolution, not only of the earth, but of its organic machinery, by natural causes, is now no longer doubted. That this has taken place by degrees is equally unquestioned. Now, if there is a Deity, the fact is certainly of the nature of a first principle, and it must be first of all first principles. No one can dispute this, nor can any one dispute the necessary conclusion that, if there be a Deity, he is knowable, if knowable at all, by intuition and not by reason. From its very nature, as a little thought is sufficient to show, reason is utterly incapable of adjudicating on the subject, for it is a process of inferring from the known to the unknown. It would be against reason itself to suppose that Deity, even if He exists, can be known by reason. He must be known, if knowable at all, by intuition. If there is a Deity, then it seems to be in some indefinite degree more probable that He should impart a Revelation than that He should not have done so. As a mere matter of evidence, a sudden revelation might be much more convincing than a gradual one, but it would be quite out of analogy with causation in nature. Besides, a gradual one might be given easily, and of demonstrative value, as by making prophecies of historical events, scientific discoveries and other things so clear as to be unmistakable. But a demonstrative revelation has not been made, and there may well be good reasons why it should not have been made. If there are such reasons, as, for example, our state of probation, we can well see “that the gradual unfolding of a plan of revelation, from earliest dawn of history to the end of the world, is much preferable to a sudden manifestation sufficiently late in the world’s history to be historically attested for all subsequent time.” Gradual evolution, as has been said before, is in analogy with God’s other work. If Revelation has been of a progressive character, then it follows that it must have been so not only historically, but intellectually, morally and spiritually, for in such sequence could it be always adapted to the advancing conditions of the human race.

Thus it will be seen that all through the ages some mighty influence has been at work, directly or indirectly, in preparing this earth by slow and gradual changes for a steadily progressive succession of vegetable and animal life. That life best fitted to meet new and changing conditions of environment being preserved by a process of natural selection. And from a few primordial types, far simpler than the lowest of existing structureless moners, or from some living protoplasmic mass, elaborated by some form of energy acting upon inorganic nature, there have been evolved in the millions of years of earth-life our existing flora and fauna. Man, the pinnacle of animal life, has come up through the life that preceded him, and bears in the history of his development from the ovum to the adult state the line of his descent. Not only has his physical nature been evolved through the action of natural laws impressed upon living matter by Deity, but that subtle principle, termed mind, which has attained such a wonderful growth in his civilized condition, is but the outcome of the mind of a long line of life antecedent to his appearance on the globe. His moral nature was similarly acquired, and most probably in the manner already explained. Palæolithic man, like the Australian of to-day, was, as has been shown, but little superior in intelligence to some of the animals with whom he was contemporaneous. He lived the life of the mere animal, and as an animal could be said to have had no preëminence above a beast. Like the latter, he was a living, breathing frame, or body of life; a _living_, but not an _everliving_, soul. In time, as conditions became favorable, he passed _into_ the moral stage of his being, but not without increased intellectuality, and would thus have continued, but going on and adding to his mental and moral possessions, had not Deity, in the fitness of time, prepared the way through Christ, whereby his corruptible nature should be made incorruptible and immortal. Unless man is “born of the spirit” he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. He must be “changed into spirit,” put on incorruptibility and immortality of body, or he will be physically incapable of retaining the honor, glory and power of the kingdom forever, or even during Christ’s reign of a thousand years upon earth.

That there is a distinction between _a living soul_ and a _spiritual body_ cannot be questioned. Speaking about _body_, the apostle Paul says, “there is _a natural body_, and there is _a spiritual body_, but he does not content himself with simply declaring this truth, but goes further and proves it by quoting the language of Moses, saying, “for so it is written, the first man Adam was made into _a living soul_;” and then adding, “the last Adam _into a spirit_ giving life.” And in another place, speaking of the latter, he says of Him, “now the Lord is the spirit. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are changed into His image from glory into glory, as by _the Lord the Spirit_.” Therefore, the proof of the apostle’s proposition, that there is a _natural body_ as distinct from a _spiritual body_, lies in the testimony that “Adam was made into _a living soul_,” showing that he considered a natural, or animal body, and a living soul, as one and the same thing. If he did not, then there was no proof in the quotation of what he affirmed. Mortality, then, is life manifested through a corruptible body, and immortality is life manifested through an incorruptible body. Hence, the necessity laid down in the saying of the apostle, “this corruptible body must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality,” before death can be “swallowed up in victory,”--a doctrine of “life and incorruptibility” that was new to the Greeks and Romans, and brought to light only through the gospel of the kingdom and name of Jesus Christ. To them it was foolishness, and to many at the present day incredible, because they do not understand the glad tidings of the age to come. God could have created all things upon a spiritual or incorruptible basis at once, but in that case the globe would have been filled with men and women equal to the angels in nature, power and intellect, and hence would have been without a history, and its population characterless. And this would not have been according to His plan, for in it the animal must precede the spiritual just as surely as the acorn must precede the oak. The Bible has to do with things and not with imaginations; with bodies and not phantasms; with _living souls_ of every species; with _corporeal_ beings of other worlds, and with incorruptible and undying men, but is as silent as the grave about such _souls_ as men pretend to cure. For the sons of Adam to become sons of God, they must be the subjects of an adoption, which is attainable only by a divinely appointed means. It must be by a process of selection. “Since by a man came death, by a man also came a resurrection of dead persons. For as in the Adam they all die, so also in the Christ shall they all be made alive. But every one in his order. Christ the first fruits; afterward _they that are Christ’s_ at His coming.” Here it is obvious that the apostle is not writing of all the individuals of the human race, but only such that become the subject of _a pardon of life_. It is true that all men do die, but it is not true that they are all the subject of pardon. Those who are pardoned are “the many,” who are sentenced to live forever. The sentence to pardon of life is through Jesus Christ who in pouring out His blood upon the cross, was made a sacrifice for sin. “He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification,” that is, for the pardon of those _who believe the gospel_. As it is written, “he that believeth the gospel, and is baptized, shall be saved.” Hence, “_the obedience of faith_” is made the condition of righteousness, and this obedience implies the existence of a “_law of faith_,” as attested by that of Moses, which is “_the law of works_.” Having believed the gospel and been baptized, such a person is required to “walk worthy of the vocation,” or calling, “wherewith he has been called,” that by so doing he may be “accounted worthy” of being “born of spirit,” that he may become “spirit,” or a spiritual body, and so enter the kingdom of God, crowned with “glory, honor, incorruptibility and life.” From all the above, it must be obvious to the unbiassed mind, that all will not arise to newness of life, “for as many of you, as have been _baptized into Christ_ have put on Christ, and if ye be Christ’s, _then_ are ye the seed of Abraham, and _heirs_ according to the promise.” When they have been thus baptized, then they have received the spirit of adoption, or have been elected into God’s family, and then they can address God as their Father who is in heaven.

Thus adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ, it must not be supposed that they have attained to that perfect condition of knowing all that is to be known. New glories will continually open up to their admiring vision, and new facts be revealed through the eternity of futurity. Man will carry his earth-acquired knowledge into the other world, and little by little will he add to his fund. Those who have made the best of their time in their probationary existence, will rank as much above their fellows in the heaven-life as they did in the earth-life, and like the others will reach up to higher acquirements. There will be no equalization of talents, capacities and possessions, but each will be satisfied with his own, and all will endeavor to be as like unto Christ as the conditions of their heavenly environment will permit. There will be grades of ability and character in the new life, but all of the very highest standard when measured by what prevails in the earth-life. This is the teaching of the Scriptures. “_There is_ one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for _one_ star differeth from _another_ star in glory. So also _is_ the resurrection of the dead.”

Now as to the part that animals and plants shall figure in the new existence. Revelation, as has been seen, was given to man. This does not imply that the lower forms of life were not made “partakers of the divine nature.” When man was placed upon this earth, or rather when in the sequence of events, which was brought about by the prescribed scheme of Divinity, he appeared upon the earth, he was given the control of all the creatures of God’s hands, to rule them as his judgment seemed best. They were a necessary part of the plan of creation. God gave the man directions concerning them, and what they are, and we refer to the domesticated species especially, they have thus been made through man’s wise, intelligent and thoughtful selection. This has been the instrument through which God has worked in building up a history and a character for the humbler works of His hands. That they shall pass into the future life with him, at least such as have shown their fitness to endure, there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who pauses a few brief moments in the rush and turmoil of everyday life and considers the matter with all due seriousness. All existence, as we have elsewhere claimed, is a unit. All life, like all love, is divine. There can nothing exist that does not contain some sort of development of soul. There is no escape from this assertion. Instead of isolating ourselves then from the humbler creatures of God’s workmanship, let us recognize them as our kin and include them in the grand scheme of redemption, and as partakers with us in the future state of Divine Love and in higher and endlessly higher development and progress.

MAN’S PREËMINENCE.

There is a popular tradition that somewhere in the Scriptures we are taught that of all living denizens of the earth, man alone possesses a spirit, and that he alone survives in spirit after the death of the material body. Were this the truth, no room would exist for argument to those who profess belief in a literal rendering of the Scriptures, and who base their faith upon that literal belief. However much such a statement might seem to controvert all ideas of benevolence, justice and common-sense, such believers would feel bound to accept it on trust, and to wait a future time for its full comprehension.

Even the possession of reason is denied by many persons to animals, their several actions being ascribed to the power of instinct, and it is therefore not the least bit strange that all but a comparatively few should believe that when an animal dies, its life-principle dies too. The animating power, they claim, is annihilated, while the body is resolved into its constituent elements so as to take form in other bodies.

Two passages of Scripture, one in the Psalms and the other in Ecclesiastes, are almost entirely, if not wholly, responsible for this belief. The former, which runs in the authorized version, “Nevertheless, man being in honor, abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish,” is that which is generally quoted as decisive of the whole question. “Man, being in honor, hath no understanding, but is compared to the beasts that perish” is another translation, but differs not materially from the other. The second passage referred to from Ecclesiastes, reads: “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” Now, it is upon the strength of these two passages that we are called upon to believe that when a beast dies its life, like that of an expired lamp, goes out forever. Nothing is more dangerous in the exposition of Scripture than attempting to explain a passage, however simple it may seem to be, without reference to the original text, for the translator may have mistaken the true sense of the words, or he may have inadequately expressed their signification, or, owing to a change in meaning, the words of a passage may now bear an exactly contrary sense to that conveyed when they were first written.

But laying aside this point for the present, and accepting the passage as it stands, as well as the literal meaning of the words as generally understood, there can be no doubt that we must believe that beasts are not possessed of immortal life. If, however, we are to take the literal sense of the Bible, and no other, we are equally forced to believe that man has no life after death. The book of Psalms is full of examples. Let us take a few from the many that might be given: “In death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave, who shall give thee thanks?” “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Taken solely in their literal sense, there can be no doubt of their meaning. Nothing more gloomy, dreary or more despondent can be found in the entire range of heathen literature than these passages, and others that might be quoted from the inspired Psalmist, in the contemplation of death. In the very book from which the single passage was taken, which is claimed to deny immortality to the lower animals, there are five times as many passages that proclaim the same sad end to the life of man. We are distinctly and definitely told therein that those who have died have no remembrance of God, and cannot praise Him. Death has been spoken of as the “land of forgetfulness”--the place of darkness, where all man’s thoughts perish. Certainly no more than this can be said of the “beasts that perish.”

Other holy writers make similar affirmations. Speaking of mankind in general, who “dwell in houses of clay,” Job says: “They are destroyed from morning to evening; _they perish forever_, without any regarding it.” Again he says, and the passage is more definite than the preceding: “As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.” And still again: “Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not.” Chapters III and X tell of the piteous lamentations of Job over his life, wherein he complains that he ever was born, that existence was ever given to him, that he was ever taken from a state of absolute nonentity, and that even death itself can bring no relief to his miseries except extinction.