BISHOP L. H. HOLSEY, D.D.
autobiography,
SERMONS, ADDRESSES,
And Essays
OF*
BISHOP L. H.HOLSEY, D D.
Atlanta, Georgia :
The Franklin Printing and Pdbtjshing Co.
(Geo. W. Harrison, State Printer, Manager.)
' 1898.
CONTENTS.
page
PREFACE 3
INTRODUCTION 5/
AUTOBIOGRAPHY , 9
SERMONS.
SERMON I.
Man an Ideal Empire in Miniature.
Psalms 8 : 4.—"What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the
son of man, that thou visitest him ?" i 33
SERMON II.
The Irrepressible Conflict.
I. John 3 :8.—" For this purpose the Son of God was manifested :
that he might destroy the works of the devil." 43
SERMON III.
The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.
Romans I' 14.—" I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barba¬
rians ; both to the wise, and to the unwise." 57
SERMON IV.
Christianity Shiloh's Empire.
Genesis 49 : 10.—The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law¬
giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; unto him shall the
gathering of the people be." 67
SERMON V.
The Song of Believers.
Psalms 101: I.-*-"I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O
Lord, will I sing." 79
it
CONTENTS.
SERMON VI.
The Rich and the Poor.
Proverbs 22: 2.—"The rich and the poor meet together: the Lord is
the maker of them all." 91
SERMON VII.
The Perpetuity of the Name of Christ.
Psalms 45:17.—"I will make thy name to be remembered in all gener¬
ations : therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.' . . 101
SERMON VIII.
From Repentance to Final Restitution.
Acts 3 : 19-21.—"Repent ye therefore, and be ye converted, that your
sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come
from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ,
which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must re¬
ceive until the times of restitution of all things." Ill
SERMON IX.
Deep Concern for the Welfare of Zion.
Isaiah 62 :1.—"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jeru¬
salem's sake I will not rest? ufitil the righteousness thereof go forth
as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.".. 124
SERMON X.
Life and Death.
II. Timothy 1 :10.—" Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel " 136
SERMON XI.
The Insufficiency of the Wisdom of Man.
I. Cor. 2 : 5.—" That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God." 146
SERMON XII.
Why We Should Love God.
Matt. 22 : 40.—On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets." * 159
CONTENTS.
r
SERMON XIII.
The Work of an Enemy.
Matt. 13 : 28.—" And he said unto them, an enemy hath done this.".. . 172
SERMON XIV.
Holiness and Peace.
Hebrews 12 : 14.—" Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord." 181
SERMON XV.
The Unity of Christianity.
I. Cor. 3 : 21.—Therefore let no man glory in men ; for all things are
yours." 192
ESSAYS, ADDRESSES, Etc.
The Christmas 203
The Unity of Force 210
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church 214
The Origin and Place of Religion in Civilization 220
Amalgamation or Miscegenation 233
Speech Delivered before Several Conferences of the M. E. Church,
South 239
Beligion ■. 249
Southern Methodism and the Slaves 253
The Papacy 257
The Image of God in Man 266
The Trend of Civilization 273
The Great Presence 279
TJie Connection of the Spirit and Body 283
PREFACE.
This book is published with the hope of doing good in
more ways than will be expedient to state at this time.
It is intended not only to disseminate the truths and glory
of the gospel system, but also, as far as possible, to in¬
spire the Negro to think, and to encourage investigation,
literary advancement and authorship by men of my race.
The sermons, essays, etc., are selected from what I have
been preaching and writing for the last deca.de. Origi¬
nally, the sermons were not designed for publication, but
for private use. The lectures and essays, with few ex¬
ceptions, were designed for the public, and most of theni
have appeared in the public prints. I have written as I
have thought, always following what seemed to be the
truth, the conclusions of others, save the inspired Word,
to the contrary notwithstanding.
Rev. Prof. John W Gilbert, A.B., A.M., of The Paine
Institute, is the immediate cause of the appearance of the
book upon the arena of thought and action. Often he has
urged me to publish a book of sermons for the sake of
helping the church and race of which I am a representa¬
tive. He has gone so far as to become sponsor for its
publication. Also, he has, in collaboration with Rev. Geo.
Williams Walker, D.D., President of The Paine Institute,
read the manuscript and corrected the proof. Gladly do
I take this opportunity of thanking these two distin¬
guished scholars for the labor which they have so patient¬
ly and willingly bestowed upon these pages. I am in¬
capable of expressing the high appreciation and esteem
which their labor upon this book begets. Their labor, of
course, was confined to the mechanical make-up of the
4
PREFACE.
book. For its doctrines and sentiments I am solely and
independently responsible.
Twenty per cent, of the net proceeds of the sale of this
volume I shall give to The Paine Institute.
If by this book the kingdom of Christ and the uplift of
mankind are promoted even in the slightest degree, my
prayers will have been abundantly answered.
The Author.
Atlanta, Ga., March 31, 1898.
INTRODUCTION.
I take real pleasure in introducing this volume of ser¬
mons to the public. Not that a volume of sermons is a
rarity, but the present one occupies in several respects a
unique position, in that it represents the production of an
ex-slave, who without the aid of school, and, despite
untoward circumstances, exemplifies what aspirations
the missionaries to the slave awakened and that civil law
could not put down. This pleasure is enhanced by an
acquaintance with its author for fourteen yejirs that has
endeared him to my heart as an hohored friend.
Bishop Lucius H. Holsey was a member of the Metho¬
dist Episcopal Church, South. He represents a faithful
product of the ihissionary zeal of this church that was
awakened by Bishop Capers in founding the missions to
the^slaves. His fidelity to trust and zeal for the salvation
of souls caused him to be appointed a local preacher be¬
fore emancipation. So that when the changed conditions
that followed in the wake of the civil war came upon the
church he was an active exponent of that conservative
force that resulted in the organization of the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Not only is the
Bishop one of the organizers of his church, but he has ever
been promotive of its highest and best interests, and the
source by far of its public documents. He has supervised
the editorial work of all his church's literature, compiling
its hymn book, discipline, manual of the discipline, etc.
He discerns in slavery a providential blessing to both
white and black—a harsh measure to bring the ignorant
Negro in contact with the educated Caucassian. He as
firmly regards emancipation as the very best measure for
6
INTRODUCTION.
the development of the highest interest alike for the
white man and the black. His views are to be seen in his
autobiography and in his recent address delivered before
many of our annual conferences.
Deprived of the advantages of the school room, he has
been a close student of men and nature. He gives us a
partial insight to the manful effort he put forth to edu¬
cate himself as best he could. We see in his autobiogra¬
phy what books he read. What influence these books
had upon him is seen in many of his sermons. He was in
a situation to appreciate the great need of school train¬
ing. He has for years represented the foremost demands
and zeal of educational endeavor in the interest of his
own church. He presented the first plans for a school
for the youth of his church which developed into The
Paine Institute. He was the first colored man to give
money to the erection of such a school. While Rev. W.
C. Dunlap, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was
Commissioner of Education, just before Eev. W. M. Hayes,
of the same church became commissioner, Bishop Holsey,
by advice of Bishop E. R. Hendrix, of the Methodist Epis¬
copal Church, South, went before the Missouri Conference
of the same church, and presenting the claims of *The
Paine Institute, collected between three and four hun¬
dred dollars for a much needed building. Thus providen¬
tially thrust out he kept on before the conferences of this
church until he had collected about $3,000 from only a
few of the conferences. As it was largely through his
influence that the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
was aroused to the demand of the Colored Methodist
Episcopal Church for Christian education of her children,
so it was eminently fit for the burden of awakening a
deeper enthusiasm in the educational work to devolve
upon him.
Therefore- at the urgent solicitation of the Board of
Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
backed by appointment and request of the Board of Trus-
INTRODUCTION.
7
tees of The Paine Institute, the Bishop went before this
church with an appeal for $25,000 to erect a building at
this school to be known as the Haygood Memorial Hall.
He is not in any wise a commissioner of education, but
at the urgent solicitation of his brethren is actively ask¬
ing money for the erection of this hall. As if this were
not enough he contributes a handsome per cent, of the
sale of this volume to the erection of the Haygood Memo¬
rial Hall.
Bishop Holsey is the best known Bishop of the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church. He has represented his
church on several occasions, both by pen and person. In
the New York Independent his church has been presented
to the public by articles from his pen. At the Ecumeni¬
cal Conference in London, he represented his church as
her chosen delegate. His appeal to the General Confer¬
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in behalf
of a school for the youth of his church resulted in the es¬
tablishment and maintenance of The Paine Institute, at
Augusta, Georgia.
Bishop Holsey is an eloquent preacher whose mind has
a decidedly philosophical trend. He has appeared before
many large gatherings of the people, sometimes made up
wholly of white persons, as preacher, lecturer, orator. In
each sphere he has acquitted himself well and brought
about most beneficial results. He is the Munsey of the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
Without further delay I present this book to the public.
Whatever is found in it that is helpful and praiseworthy
attribute to the heart and mind of its author; whatever
of shortcoming or imperfection, attribute to the lack of
education, training &nd culturing development.
George Williams Walker.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
BISHOP L. H. HOLSEY.
I was born in Georgia, near Columbus, in 1842, and at
that time was the slave of James Holsey, who was also
mj father. He was a gentleman of classical education,
dignified in appearance and manner of life, and repre¬
sented that old antebellum class of Southern aristocracy
who did not know enough of manual labor to black their
own shoes or saddle their own horse. Like many others
of his day and time he never married, but mingled, to
some extent, with those females of the African race that
were his slaves—his personal property. My mother was
named Louisa, and was of pure African descent. She
was of fascinating appearance and comely parts. Her
father was named "Alex," and was an African of the
Africans. He was short, thickset, and of a stubborn
and massive build. He lived to be nearly a hundred
years of age. So far as I know, all his children were
daughters, of whom my mother was the youngest. She
was an intensely religious woman, a most exemplary
Christian, and belonged to the M. E. Church, South.
She had fourteen children, myself being the oldest. I
lived with her until about six years of age, when my
father died, and I became the property of Mr. T. L.
Wynn, who lived in Sparta, Ga. Mr. Wynn was my
second owner. I served 'him as body servant until 1857,
when he died. A few days before his death he called
me to his bed and told me that he was going to die, and
10
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
wanted me to choose one of two of his intimate friends
as my master. He named the two friends and I chose Col.
R. M. Johnston, with whom I lived until the emancipa¬
tion of the slaves. As he was a very kind man to his
slaves, I remained on the plantation with him one year
after the emancipation. From the fall of 1857 until the
emancipation I was his house servant, and looked after
his domestic interests in general. He had great confi¬
dence in me and trusted me with money and other valu¬
ables. In all things I was honest and true to him and
his interests. Though young, I felt as much interest in
his well-being as I have felt since in my own. I made
it a special point never to lie to him or deceive him in
any way. I felt that I could not afford to be false even
to those who appeared to be my enslavers and oppress¬
ors, and I have never regretted this course in after years.
The training that I received in the narrow house of
slavery has been a minister of correction and mercy to
me in all these years of struggle, trial, labor, and anxiety.
I have no complaint against American slavery. It
was a blessing in disguise to me and to many. It has
made the negro race what it could not have been in its
native land. Slavery was but a circumstance or a link
in the transitions of humanity, and must have its great¬
est bearing upon the future.
Col. Johnston, my last owner, had an interesting fam¬
ily of seven brilliant children and a brilliant wife. For
them I have the best wishes and the highest esteem.
In 1867-68 I cultivated a cotton farm in Hancock
county, Ga., on rented land. My wife and I labored to
make an honest living. Assisted by two young men
whom I hired, I made a competent living. My house was
built of skinned pine poles and contained two large
rooms and a hall. It was so constructed that every part
of the spacious building had windows, so that I was out
of doors while 1 was in doors. In my humble palace on
a hill in the woods beneath the shade of towering pines
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
11
and sturdy oaks, I felt as a king whose supreme com¬
mands were "law and gospel" to my subjects. Here I
dwelt for two years cultivating the cotton farm and
preaching at the same time. This was in the years of
1868-'69. Prior to this in 1866 I farmed on the old plan¬
tation of Col. Johnston. My wife then "took in washing"
and I ran "a one-horse farm." Col. Johnston, the owner
of the place, conducted a large boarding school, and my
wife was laundress for the students. By this combina¬
tion of interests we made a "handsome living/' and all
was well.
From my youth I felt a call to preach the gospel, al¬
though I saw no opening for such a thing in the days of
slavery; but still there was a hope and a lingering antici¬
pation that somehow, in the divine Arrangements, I
would ultimately have an opportunity to proclaim God's
truth. In the little church that stands beneath the oaks
and cedars, in the village of Sparta, Ga., I was licensed
to preach. It was in February, 1868, under the pasto¬
rate of Rev. A. J. Garrell, that I appeared before the
Quarterly Conference. Rev. W. H. Potter, D.D., was the
Presiding Elder. Bishop George F. Pierce being present,
I had to be examined by him. He was a wonderful
preacher, with wide influence, and august presence.
Everybody loved, respected, and some almost adored
him. Coming before such a high personage I was scared
out of my wits, and all that I had previously known
seemed to have taken the wings of the winds and fled
away. But I was examined pretty closely, especially on
the doctrines of the church, and the Bible, yet, somehow,
I came out all right. In 1862 I was married to Miss Har¬
riett A. Turner, a girl then fifteen years of age, who
had been reared by Bishop Pierce, and given by him to
his son-in-law, Mr. Turner, as a maid for" his wife. We
were married in the spacious hall of the Bishop's resi¬
dence by him on the 8th day of November, 1862. The
Bishop's wife and daughters had provided for the occas-
12
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
ion a splendid repast of good things to eat. The table,
richly spread, with turkey, ham, cake, and many other
things, extended nearly the whole length of the spacious
dining hall. "The house girls" and "the house boys''
and the most prominent persons of color were invited to
the wedding of the colored "swells." The ladies com¬
posing the Bishop's family, dressed my bride in the gay¬
est and most artistic style, with red flowers and scarlet
sashes predominating in the brilliant trail. As the gor¬
geous flashes of waving scarlet and white softly moved
across the spacious hall and stood in the glare of the
light, I thought I saw in my Harriett an angel in the
dwarfed splendors of heaven as if ornamented with gems
set upon a background of gold. In the vision of life that
then threw its brightness upon me, I saw nothing but
the roseate splendors of its triumphs and its glory. But
since then 1 have seen something of its opposite phases,
and know much of its trials, reverses and disappoint¬
ments. From the union thus formed fourteen children
were born, but only nine of them lived. One of them,
the first child, a daughter, died in her seventeenth year.
The others died at birth. I have at present, eight living
children, four of whom are boys.
After I was licensed to preach in 1868, I belonged to
the M. E. Church, South, as all colored people did who
were Methodists in the slave States. In 1868 and 1869,
I was on the Hancock circuit which covered the entire
county. Rev. E. B. Oliver and myself were the pastors.
I was senior and he junior. There were seven churches
,on the circuit, and we followed each other in rotation.
Brother Oliver was a great preacher, also great in prayer
and song. He was the popular man among the people
and their ideal man and pastor. He had a clear, loud,
high, ringing voice, with a rare depth of pathos and
sweetness. He could make his voice thunder, thud, or
scream, as the occasion required, and a few blasts, as it
were, of his silver clarion, in that "age of stone" was
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
13
considered a wonderful sermon. One of the most diffi¬
cult things with which I had to contend, was to get from
under the withering blight of his trumpet voice. The
man that had the loudest Voice and the most dramatic
emotions in pulpit or on platform, was necessarily, irrev¬
ocably, infallibly, and eternally in the estimation of the
people, the great preacher, the flying angel of the ever¬
lasting gospel. But as I was farming, and not depend¬
ing on the people for a living, I continued common sense
preaching, which was considered by the undiscerning
multitudes as very dry. My hearers would often take a
nap while I was trying to do my little talking. My voice
was very poor, weak, and defective, which greatly mili¬
tated against me as a preacher. As a preacher's ability,
in those days, was measured by his voice, a poor fellow
like I was in a bad fix. It was noise that moved the
multitudes, held the public ear, and like magic, swayed
the public heart. For a long time I did not know where
the trouble lay. I could not move the multitudes to
tears like the junior preacher, although it was under¬
stood by the people that I was "the deeper reasoner," as
they used to say, but was "no preacher." However, I
never was discouraged by the adverse verdict of the peo¬
ple, because I had higher aims, ambition, and an unflag¬
ging industry which never faltered, but pressed every
moment and opportunity into service that could be
spared from the farm and circuit work. But it was
voice that I needed more than learning or gospel. What
shall I do to make it thunder, scream, screech, howl, or
roar as did the junior preacher. I had heard of a great
Grecian orator, who, to improve his voice, p\jt pebbles
of stone in his mouth, and spoke against the loud roar
of waves on the sea shore. As I lived in the hill country
away from the great waters and as "there was no more
sea" for me, I often spent an hour in the woods, and from
a pine stump, serving as a temporary pulpit, I would
take the text to be used on the next Sabbath, and from
14
A UTOBIO GRAPH7.
it preach in a loud voice. I went through with all the
gestures and attitudes with some respect for silent na¬
ture as was to be given to the listening congregation.
A. stump was my pulpit, the trees, grape-vines, and the
smaller daughters of the woods were my congregation,
and the open heavens were the high dome under which
7 proclaimed the truth as best I could to a silent and
emotionless multitude. This practice helped me wonder¬
fully, and soon I began to thunder and rattle like the
other big preachers.
No salary was fixed for the circuit preachers. Each
man made his living in the sweat of his face, and
preached on Sunday as best he could. But at the end
of the second year it was proposed by some of the mem¬
bers of one of the churches to give the preachers a col¬
lection, and they willingly and generously gave us both
the magnanimous gum of four dollars for the two years'
services. We both were present, and a wide-awake and
generons brother paid us the money, and with a triumph¬
ant air on his beaming countenance, said to us, in the
tone of self-congratulation, "We are glad you don't
preach for money, but for souls." Thus ended my first
two years as circuit preacher. The memory of those
two years is still fresh and green with its romance and
"spiritual revelries." The following year (January 4th,
1869) Bishop Pierce called all the preachers of color, be¬
longing to the M. E. Church, South, in the State of Geor¬
gia to meet in Trinity church at Augusta. On the day
appointed, about sixty of the preachers assembled in
Conference, and here, under the presidency of Bishop
Geo. F. Pierce, the first Annual Conference was organ¬
ized. Up to this time, all the colored preachers were
merely local, and but few had received ordination. The
material was very raw and untrained, and the men pre¬
sented that uncouth appearance that belonged to the
earlier days of freedom. A few had on long coats, and
"plug" or "stove-pipe" hats, and all who could, wore
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
15
long hair so as to look venerable, which was thought to
be very becoming to ministerial dignity. To be in style
and maintain the exalted dignity of the venerable par¬
sons, I was adorned with a bushy head of red hair, parted
in the middle, and covered by a "stove-pipe hat" of in¬
definite length. Like many other young circuit riders,
fresh from the "bushes," I began to suspect that I was a
very wonderful personality, based especially upon the
length of my hat, and the enormous amount of "the in¬
sufferable wool" upon which it was pillared. I made
the same mistakes that I have often observed in young
preachers in later years. I was too big a fool to
know „ that 1 was a fool. But the wear and tear
of years will correct such errors, and force our erratic
manhood into line. Of this, conference of "raw re¬
cruits" I became a member. As there had to be a
starting point, all the preachers who attended became
at once full members of the Conference, and deacon's
orders were given to most of them. At this Conference
I was ordained a deacon by Bishop Pierce and sent to
Savannah, Ga. After I had received the appointment I
returned home, sold out my farming interests, abandoned
the plow, gathered my family, and went to Savannah to
take charge of the colored church known as "Andrew
Chapel." But this church was seized upon by the A. M.
E. Connection, and was then in litigation. As there was
no way for me to get or use the church, the white people
of Trinity church in Savannah gave me their library to
preach in, which was located up stairs in the rear of the
church. Lest we should come in conflict with the white
congregation because of our noise, we held our meetings
only in the afternoons on the Sabbath. Here I preached
and labored as pastor with a membership of about fifteen
for six months. As the church was in litigation and
could not be obtained until the decision of the court, I
returned to my home near Sparta, Ga. Up to this time
I was very deficient in that training that was almost
16
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
absolutely essential for successful work in the ministry.
I had a wife and three children to care for, and a very
little of this world's goods. It is true, it required but
little for their support, but then that little was essential.
Happily for us, we lived two miles in the country from
the town, where we had no rent to pay, no wood to buy,
and were surrounded by plenty of vegetables and fruits.
My wife milked a cow that was given to us by the owner
of the place. We had chickens and eggs besides. I had
learned to read to some extent in the days of slavery,
and I thought that I knew it all, but going to Savannah
was an "eye-opener," and I now had begun to see myself
in the true light. Savannah was too big for me, and I
wTas too little for Savannah. I learned by the dint of
adverse conditions that the world had more in it than I
had hitherto, calculated.
As stated before, in 1857, when my second owner, Mr.
T. L. Wynn, died, I became the property of Col. R. M.
Johnston. In the early winter of that year he went to
Athens, Ga., and became a professor in the State College.
As an important part of his effects, I was carried along
' with him and his family as carriage driver, house ser¬
vant, and gardeher. I was then fifteen years of age.
As soon as I arrived in Athens, I felt an insatiable crav¬
ing for some knowledge of books, and especially I was
anxious to learn to read the Bible. What must I do? 1
was a slave and could not attend school, and it was con¬
sidered unwise, if not dangerous for slaves to read and
write. But my owners, although strict, were very kind,
especially my master. So I determined to learn to read
at all hazards, and take whatever risks there might be
connected with it. There was a junk house in the city
where rags were sold. I gathered and saved all the rags
that I could, and sold them that I might get some money
with which to buy books. After weeks of toil and in¬
tense vigilance in gathering and watching for rags that
belonged to the first man that laid hands upon them, I
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
17
had accumulated about thirty pounds. These I stuffed
into the legs and seat of a pair of old white pantaloons,
the cast-off garment of a large and long-legged man. At
nights after tea, I was allowed to "go down town'- for
recreation. I hired a boy to help me carry the rags to
sell them to the* rag merchant. The boy put one leg of
the pants on one shoulder, and the other leg on the other,
and we both marched to town with bright dreams of
wealth. Reaching the store, I lingered in the darkness
in front of the door, and when the boy walked in with
something that had the appearance of a fat man on his
shoulders, the man said in a loud voice as if astonished
at the strange sight, "What in the h— is that you have
on your back?" "Some rags," replied the boy. "Well,
lay them on the scales," said the merchant. So we did,
the rags were sold and the money was mine. With this
money I bought books. I purchased at one time, two
"Webster blue back spellers," a common school diction¬
ary, Milton's "Paradise Lost," and a Bible. These then
constituted my full stock of literary possessions, a library
more precious than gold to me. There were several
colored people in town that could "spell to baker," in the
old speller, while others could go to "the a, b, ab's" or
to "the b, a, ba's." The white children and an old
colored man taught me the alphabet, after which I
fought my way unaided through the depths of my pon¬
derous library. Day by day I took a leaf from one of
the spelling books, and so folded it that one or two of
the lessons were on the outside as if printed on a card.
This I put in the pocket of my vest or coat, and when I
was sitting on the carriage, walking the yard or streets,
or using hoe or spade, or in the dining room, I would take
out my spelling leaf, catch a word and commit it to mem¬
ory. When one side of the spelling leaf was fin¬
ished by this process, I would refold it again with a new
lesson on the outside. When night came, I went to my
little room, and with chips of fat pine, and pine roots
2h
18
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
that ^ere grubbed up from the woods near by, I would
kindle a little blaze in the fire-place and turn my head
toward it while lying flat on my back so as to get the
most of the light on the leaves of the book. Thus lying
on the floor with pine knots at hand and my blankets
around me, I reviewed the lessons of the day from the
unmaimed book. By these means I learned to read and
write a little in six months. Besides, I would catch
words from the white people and retain them in memory
until I could get to my dictionary. Then I would spell
and define the words, until they became perfectly im¬
pressed upon my memory.
In 1858, in Athens, Ga., I was converted, and became
a member of the Methodist church. At that time Rev.
W. A. Parks was sent as pastor to the colored church,
while his uncle, Rev. H. H. Parks, was pastor of the
white people's church. During April and May of this
year, Rev. H. M. Turner, (now Bishop) came to Athens
and preached every night to appreciative congregations,
and under his powerful sermoijs I experienced a change
of heart, and became a zealous member of the church.
I was taken into the church by Rev. Mr. Parks, and bap¬
tized and fellowshipped by his uncle, the Rev. H. H.
Parks. i
In 1861 when the war began, my owners moved back
to Hancock county where I remained until freedom came
to the slaves. After returning from Savannah in 1869,
I began afresh my studies. That I might be retired and
placed in the best condition to prosecute my studies, I
purchased a number of school books and theological
works, and sought a convenient place in the woods near
by where I was then living. Every day when the-
weather Would permit I resorted to this place for study,
contemplation, and prayer. By the bank of a little rip¬
pling brook that came murmuring down the rocky hill¬
sides, I found an over-hanging boulder that ran up per¬
pendicularly, mildly facing the east. A cluster of maple*
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
19
trees, interspersed with sweet gum, that constantly
dropped their fragrance along the brook beneath, I se¬
lected as a silent boudoir. Wild grape-vines interlaced
with yellow jessamines, wrapt around the slim trunks
of the towering wood, and threw a crown of green and
tangled meshes of vines and flowers on the waving limbs
above. The murmuring brook that rolled below whis¬
pered to me the presence of God, the wonders of his prov¬
idence, and. the marvels of his hand. Here, in the' deep
solitudes of silent nature, retired and alone, I spent the
greater part of twTo years. Here I studied reading, writ¬
ing, geography, grammar, arithmetic, astronomy, history,
and theology. I read Milton, Dick's Works, Watson?
Wesley, Stevens' History of Methodism, and a number
of other books. Among them were "Barnes' Notes," and
"Newton on the Prophecies." I gave close attention to
the English language, as I would need that more than
anything else. When I came to a word that 1 did not
understand I would turn to the dictionary, spell it and
define it, and with a cedar pencil I would write down
every word thus acquired. On the next day 1 first had
a thorough review of all the words and all that I had
read and studied the day before. 1 cared nothing for
gold and silver, nor the presence and company of man¬
kind, nor anything that would divert the mind from its
deep thoughts of God or intense application. At the
end of about twenty months I was lost and bewildered
in the deep things of God. However, I rose from my her¬
mit home with spiritual powers and convictions that
have been % wonderful help to me through all these years
of struggle and toil. I became so intensely interested
and profoundly engaged that sometimes I seemed to have
been out of the body and in another sphere where God
and angels stood nearer to men. There are no months
and days in my life more precious to me than those days
of mental struggle and silent contemplation. Then it
was that my intellect was broadened and deepened, my
religious proclivities intensified, and my character fixed.
20
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
In the fall of 1869 the colored conference of Georgia
met in Macon, 'haying Bishop Pierce for its President.
Here I was ordained Elder and elected delegate to the
organizing General Conference, which met in Jackson,
Tenn., the 15th day of December, when the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church in America became a sepa¬
rate organization. I was present as a delegate during
the session of the conference and voted upon all the
measures that were put forth for the organization of the
C. M. E. Church into a separate body. 1 was also the
strongest advocate for the election of W. H. Miles, of
Kentucky, to the bishopric. I first entered his name as
a suitable person for the bishopric, and on the first bal¬
lot he was triumphantly elected.
In January, 1871, the Conference convened in Augusta,
Ga. Three Bishops were present, Miles, Vanderhost
and Pierce. Bishtops Miles and Vanderhost were the
presidents, ancl presided on alternate days. Bishop
Pierce was the distinguished and honored guest. When
the appointments were read out I was appointed to Trin¬
ity church, then the leading church in the conference,
and perhaps in the connection. Here 1 was pastor two
years and four months. In the fall of 1872 the confer¬
ence was held in Columbus, Ga. Bishop Miles presided,
and I was elected delegate to the called session of the
General Conference which met in Augusta, Ga., in March,
1873. I received every vote in the Annual Conference
cast for delegates to the called session of the General
Conference. When the General Conference assembled
in extraordinary session in Augusta, in 1873, I was then
pastor of Trinity church in which the conference was
held. The business for which the General Conference
was convoked in extraordinary session, was* the eloction
and consecration of three Bishops. Bishop Vanderhost
was dead, and the whole presiding fell, upon Bishop
Miles. Bishop Pierce was present by special invitation.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
21
Three men were elected Bishops, namely: J. A. Beebe,
L. H. Holsey, ana Isaac Lane. I was elected on the first
ballot with Bishop Beebe, and I think I received every
vote cast but two. I assisted Bishop Miles in preparing
the Bishop's message for the conference, and took a lead¬
ing part in all its work. Bishop Pierce preached the or¬
dination sermon on the Sabbath, and at that time 1 was
ordained Bishop by Bishop Miles, assisted by Bishop
Pierce. Here also, Bishops Beebe and Lane were or¬
dained. The respective fields of labor for the new Bish¬
ops were laid off, and I was sent to Texas, Arkansas, Ala¬
bama, and Tennessee. The Bishop's salary was fixed at
eight hundred dollars, his traveling expenses to be paid
by the work he served. The work was poorly organized,
and, indeed, was scarcely organized at all. I lia<l with
myselfy seven in family, It was hard to get bread to
live on and pay traveling expenses. My wife and chil¬
dren lived mainly on peas, bacon, and corn bread, having
biscuits for Sunday morning breakfast. None of them
had any shoes but went barefooted, and nearly naked,
and lived in only a two-room house in Augusta. The
first ten years was a struggle, a terrible struggle to keep
our heads above the wave. I 'have been so pushed for
fuel on a cold night that I would take the coal ashes and
wash them in water and drain out the burnt bits of coal
in order to make a fire. In these years of suffering and
almost starvation, my vegetable garden was the main
and real dependence for a living. My good wife being
strong and muscular stood by our1 garden, and often at
night when the moon was shining, she and 1 would put
the little ones to bed, and work until twelve o'clock.
She would often cut short the rations for the family that
I might have money to reach the appointments and build
up the connection. No one knows the anxiety, the sor¬
row, and the depth of suffering through which I have
had to pass for the church of ray choice. The annals of
God alone can tell. I cannot. But on I went, struggling
22
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
up the hill of difficulty, often staggering and trembling
beneath the heavy load. At an earlier period of my his¬
tory (1869-70) tny small amount of money once gave out
and 1 taught a little school that kept the wolf of hunger
from the door. This process of training to which I sub¬
jected myself, in its results, is, of course, infinitely better
than ignorance; but it is far inferior to a regular course
in the schools. I have found that it is patchwork, a kind
of crazy quilt education; and yet this form of train¬
ing has its blessings and advantages. It teaches a man
to rely upon his own efforts, and by experience he Is con¬
vinced that nothing is impossible for him to accomplish
by industry and faithful application. Since 1 have been
a Bishop I have been in the regular work. ] have tried
to do the work assigned to my hands with an eye single
to the glory of God, the good of the race, and the salva¬
tion of men. I have traveled and preached all over the
Southern States many times, and have been intensely
interested in the establishment of the Colored Methodist
Episcopal Church in America. Not because I thought
it to be the best church in itself, not because I thought
it purer and better than other such organizations, but
because I thought it to be the most fitted religious power
to meet the peculiar conditions that exist in the Southern
States. Harmony between the two races- is what is
needed. There can be n'o great progress in the better¬
ment of the people of color without peace and harmony.
The pulpit has much to do with human sentiment, and
consequently with the actions of men. A semi-civilized
people are necessarily greatly controlled by their re¬
ligious feelings and sentiments. Often they are very re¬
ligious, and at the same time very slow to comprehend
their true status and the best modes of procedure in the
chief things that make for their peace and prosperity.
Many conditions and facts come in to make the Negro
race unique in this country. The diversity of manhood
brought about by the diversity of character presents to
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
23
the calm judgment of the philanthropist intricate ques¬
tions that involve the life and safety of the race. Moral
purity and Christian excellence being equal, the best
church for them is that religious organization that can,
without compromising its great fundamental principles,
adapt itself to present conditions. From the time of the
emancipation of the slaves by the fortunes of war, I
have not seen any reason why the Southern people should
not be the real and true friends of the Negro race. The
very religion that they taught, and practiced, and
preached to the Negroes, directed them to be the friends
of the ex-slaves. Consequently, I can see no reasons
why they should not teach Negroes in the school room.
1 saw from the first no reasons for any feelings of hate
and revenge, either on the part of the one or the other.
Accordingly, at the Conference held in Macon in 18(59, I
wrote and offered a paper on Education, in which I ad¬
vocated the establishment of a church school by tjie M.
E. Church, South, for the training of Negro preachers,
said school to be taught by some of the good white peo¬
ple of that church. I knew that colored ministers of the
gospel were far behind in those accomplishments that
best fitted them for that important work, and that up to
that date there had been but few opportunities presented
to them for improvement. It was also clear to, my mind
that the white ministry was the only standard of excel¬
lence by which the colored ministers could be inspired
to reach a higher plane of fitness. True, the Bible lay
open before them, but in the conduct of the white minis¬
ters, the teachings of the Bible were displayed in visible,
tangible form, and in its best practical phases. I
thought then, and still think, the nearer the colored and
white preachers are to each other in the work of the
ministry, the better it would be for us all. This view of
things caused me to be a perpetual and persistent advo¬
cate of the establishment of a school for the training of
our preachers under the care and complete control of
24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
i
the M. E. Church, South, with teachers from the same
source. "The Paine Institute" is the outcome of this sen¬
timent. To enforce this idea I wrote a series of letters
upon the subject in 1870 just prior to the organization
of the Colored M. E. Church in America. The letters
were published in the Christian Index while Dr. Watson
was editing and publishing that paper for the colored
people. At that time, and for some years after, many
people, white and colored, thought that I was a "crank,"
and that it was the one thing impractical if not impos¬
sible.
Ill, 1.882 I was sent as Fraternal Messenger to the Gen¬
eral Conference of the M. E. Church, South, which as¬
sembled in Nashville, Tenn. I Was especially instructed,
first, to bear to them the friendly greetings of the colored
church, and then to ask them to establish a school for us
wherein our ministry might be properly trained and fit¬
ted for evangelistic work among their own people.
When the General Conference of that church was held
in Atlanta four years before, I addressed a rather lengthy
communication to them upon the same subject. Some
things I then said were thought to be a little reproach¬
ful, or reflective on them. Their noble endeavors to
preach the gospel in heathen countries, while they neg¬
lected the heathen at home, appeared to me to be incon¬
sistent with the teachings of Christ and the Apostles.
I meant not that the evangelical work in foreign coun¬
tries should be neglected, or left to perish, but that the
needy people at home should have, some attention given
to them as was done in the days of slavery. It was true,
there were many barriers in the way, but no more in this
country than in foreign lands. It ought to be said, how¬
ever, that after emancipation the Negroes held them¬
selves aloof from the Southern people to such extent that
no proposition made by the latter could reach the former.
Consequently, the margin for evangelistic labors among
Negroes by Southern white people was narrow. When
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
25
The Paine Institute became a reality, but few of the
colored people approved of it, and the men of my own
ufaith and order" were more against it than those on the
outside. My own preachers fought it bitterly as an un¬
timely and unwise measure. They fought il because
they thought that other Negro organizations would re¬
proach us for being under the Southern sentiment and
bowing to the verdict of pure prejudice upon the race
question. Already all the colored churches had branded
us as "Democrats," "bootlicks," and "white folks' nig¬
gers," whose only aim was ultimately to remand the
freedmen back to abject bondage. This was*, as subse¬
quent events have proven, a distorted view of a great
movement. But prior to the organization of the school
in 1883, I traveled over the states, agitated the question,
and spoke in its behalf in public and private. In the
early fall of 1882 I held the Virginia Conference in Front
Royal, and there 1 made a speech on the question, and
laid the first dollar on the table that was ever given to
it. Rev. W. T. Thomas followed with a like amount.
When I made my speech before the General Confer¬
ence of the M. E. Church, South, in Nashville, in 1882-, in
behalf of the school, it was well taken and highly appre¬
ciated by the large and intelligent audience. The ven¬
erable John B. McF^rrin put his arms around my shoul¬
ders and congratulated me for its timeliness. So did a
large number of others. While T knew that all was
agreeable and pleasant, yet I had a sense of fear and a
thrill of doubt, lest 1 should make a failure, and the chief
end for which I came should be defeated, and the whole
project lost. But the golden eagle of success perched
upon my staff, and 1 felt as a plumed knight beneath its
wings. I had but one object in view and that was to
help my fellowman. As this General Conference author¬
ized the establishment of the school, and appointed a
committee to put the thing in motion, Bishop Pierce
being the chairman, called that committee to meet in At-
26
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
lanta. In the summer of 1882 it convened in tlie First
Church* Bishop Pierce and Dr. Haygood, and all the
Bishops of the colored church were present. 1 wrote to
our Bishops and urged them to be present, and all agreed
to come but Bishop Miles. But I wrote him again to be
present, lest he should hinder the initiatory of a great
work, and to my surprise he came. The whole matter
was discussed pro and con. It was agreed to locate
the school at Augusta, Ga., and ask the church tor two
hundred thousand dollars for facilities and endowment.
Early in January, 1883, Rev. Morgan Calloway, D.D.,
then the vice-president of Emory College, and Rev. Geo.
W. Walker, of the South Carolina Conference of the M.
E. Church, South, came to Augusta and organized the
school. For this purpose ropms were rented in the heart
of the city, and I gathered up the students by personal
solicitation and public appeals until the number reached
about thirty. Still it was a dark day for the school.
Popular sentiment, among white and black, was wide¬
spread and bitter against it. But my friends were nu¬
merous, and Dr. Calloway used to say that 1 had more
friends than any man he ever saw. I paid the first hun¬
dred dollars that were ever* given for that purpose, a few
days before the organization of the school, and since that
time I have given myself, and.' collected, from others al¬
most continuously whatever I could for it.
In 1886, at the request of Rev. W. C. Dunlap, who was
then its commissioner, I wrote a strong paper upon The
Paine Institute, and sent it to him, and he sent it to the
Nashville "Christian Advocate" to be published. But
as it was so long before it appeared in the "Advocate," I
•concluded that it had found its way ta the waste basket.
Finally it appeared and I afterward learned from Mr.
Dunlap the reason for this delay. He told me that the
editor hesitated in publishing it, because he believed it
to be somebody else's production, and, consequently
"bogus." It was thought that the paper was an abler
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
27
one than 1 could produce. It was published on the first
page of the great church paper, a place where/>nly the
best documents appear.
In 1890 I was impressed that enlarged facilities were
almost essential to the successful work of the school, and
I started out of my own accord, with almost infinite mis¬
givings, to make speeches before as many Conferences
of the M. E. Church, South, as 1 might be permitted to
reach. This I did with good results, as to the aid given
the school. Although 1 was self-appointed, these con¬
ferences gave me the warmest reception and responded
librally to the. cause. This conference year (1897-'98) I
am out on the same work. The trustees of the school and
the Bishops ot the Colored Church, and others, thought
it wise, and so steadily urged me to take the field again
in behalf ot the school. This T have done, and have
spoken before fourteen of the Conferences. In 1886 the
General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episco¬
pal Church in America, met in Augusta, Ga., and at that
session I wrote our "Financial Plan" by which Paine In¬
stitute an0 the other schools have received a considerable
amount of money for their running expenses. I wrote this
financial plan with special reference to the support of
the schools of the church, which at that time were only
two—"The Paine" and "The Lane." Perhaps there is no
single act of legislation connected with the history of
the church so significant and far-reaching in its effects
as our "Financial Plan." Prior to its adoption in 1886
there was no way of a practical nature for the collection
and disbursement of the general funds or general reve¬
nue of the church; but since the "Financial Plan" has
been operated, the whole connection and the schools have
felt the advantages, and owe their life, in a large meas¬
ure, to its operation.
For twenty years I was the Secretary of the College of
Bishops, and kept the minutes of our meetings from year
to year at my own expense. Also, for the same length
28
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
of time, I was the statistician and corresponding secre¬
tary of Jhe connection, and replied to all communica¬
tions of a public nature. I have written every Message
for the Bishops except the one written by Bishop Miles,
in 1873, and I assisted him in that one. Only two of
these Messages have ever been changed in a single word
or sentence by the Bishops after I had written them, and
consequently nearly all of the acts and legislation of our
general conferences have been governed by them. I have
read and passed upon every book in manuscript that has
been published in our church from its organization until
the present time, and have written their introductions.
By authority of the General Conference, I have written
and compiled, the only hymn book and the only Manual
of Discipline that we have ever had, without any aid
from the church whatever.
In 1881 four delegates were selected by the Bishops
to represent the church in the Ecumenical Conference
that was held in London, England, and no one went but
myself. As yet I am the only C. M. E. representative
that has ever gone to a foreign port on an official errand.
I read a paper before that splendid and'' august body ac¬
cording to the program. While in London 1 preached
in City Road Chapel, the distinguished mother of Method¬
ism, from,the same little box pulpit from which John
Wesley preached the gospel of free grace. I did what I
could upon the same great subject. During my stay in
this the largest city of the world, I preached many times,
perhaps with more force than I have before or since. On
this trip to the first Ecumenical Conference of Method¬
ism, I visited Paris and spent a week in "sight-seeing,"
weighing and measuring the world's greatest civiliza¬
tion, which no, man can know until he comes in contact
with it. I was delegate to the Centennial Conference of
American Methodism that was held in Baltimore in 1884,
and wrote a paper that was read in that conference. I
was not present on account of ill health, but the paper
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
29
was read by Rev. F. M. Hamilton, M. D. I was also a
member of the last Ecumenical Conference that was
held in Washington, D. 0.
From 1870 until the present time (1898) I have written
a great many papers and public communications on the
history and polity of the church, a large number of which
have been published in the Christian Index, the official
organ of the church. 1 have given the reading public
the greatest part of what permanent literature the
church, up to the present time, has been able to produce.
A great deal of what I have written in the last twenty-
eight years never has been and never will be published.
Much of it has already been suppressed, the other in all
probability will be. I have often written sermons and
afterwards destroyed them. This I have regretted, bat
they are gone beyond recalling. ,
As orator or writer, philosopher or preacher, 1 leave
the estimate of myself to the candid judgment of those
who have known me. As a citizen I have tried to do the
right, no matter how far I have come short of it.
My history is the history of the church of which 1 am
a member. Its history cannot be written, nor its records
compiled without me as one of the chief actors in its
drama, and one who has deeply impressed himself upon
its character and productions.
At present, I am the editor-in-chief of "The Gospel
Trumpet," associated with the Rev. R. A. Carter.
A.M., who is the managing editor. I was elected to the
office of Bishop when I was in my thirtieth year of age,
and have held the position for twenty-five years. When
I was elected it was said by some1 prominent man that
I was the youngest man ever elected Bishop in any age
or church.
I have not sought to get rich, nor make money, and
have in no way made my office, position, nor the church
an instrument of power or worldly gain. All that 1 have
received above a bare living, I have made it a habit to re-
30
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
turn to the church, and to help on to a better state
suffering humanity. At this time I have no ''cottage in
the wilderness" that I can call my home, and I have been
in debt ever since I have been a Bishop. From youth to
the present, life has been an unremitting struggle and a
perpetual series of trials and conflicts. I have helped
every man, woman and child that I could, and have tried
to bear the burdens of others as the Scriptures direct.
L. H. Holsey.
Atlanta, Ga., February 23, 1898.
SERMONS.
Man an Ideal Empire in Miniature.
"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of
man, that thou visitest him?"—Ps. 8:4.
However small and insignificant man may appear to
be in physical par1,s and bodily proportions amid tlie
marvelous wonders of creation, and however insignifi¬
cant in weight, height, and girth, when compared with
the cloud-kissed hills or the towering mountains of eter¬
nal snows that lift their cones to the cloudless zones,
and however light and ponderable he may be, compared
to the infinite masses of tangible materialities that com¬
pose the universe in which he lives and moves, and of
which he is a part, yet he is an ideal and realistic em¬
pire within himself. He has not only a realistic and
enduring self, but he within himself is a real and ideal
empire composed of all those powers and elements and
inherent qualities that seem needful to complete the
same. As a great steam engine may be built in minia¬
ture with its wheels, cogs, pulleys, cylinders, boiler,
steam chests, piston rods, and gear, and as such a
miniature engine may be as real and as perfect as a great,
engine which it may represent, so man is as perfect an
empire as the little or model engine is an engine. As
extension of parts and immensity of. materiality have
nothing to do with perfection of quality and character,
so there need be no real difference in the two engines
except in degrees. Indeed, man is a perfect creation in
the fundamental facts and constituent elements of his
being; and in these respects he is an emanation of the
Divine. Humanity is divine, not in its moral purity and
perfection, but in its mental capacity and corporal de¬
lineations. In everything but moral standing, the men¬
tal humanity is made in the image of its Creator. Man's
3h
34 MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE.
mental humanity is the most real and the most conspicu¬
ous, indeed the only real enduring and essential attri¬
bute of his being. This mental individuality is in the
image of God, the Supreme Mentality, that universal
spirituality whose exterior building is the universe.
This universe is the temple of God—the empire of the
Supreme Mentality. Somewhere in this temple or em¬
pire, is the seat of universal government, authority, and
power, the central location of one almighty thrilling
force that acts upon and centralizes all the forces, ener¬
gies and activities of all the universe. Gravitation, so
called, can be nothing less than the operation of univer¬
sal mentality in perpetual activity, by whose coercive
energy the mindless elements and their infinitely various
combinations sustain their harmonious interrelations.
Thus God is the life and soul of the universe in the same
sense that man's soul is the life and light of his body.
In this high metaphysical sense God is the life of the
universe, the life of all the worlds, and the light of men.
Evidently man is the little God, the microcosm, an image
of the macrocosm, which is God's larger universe. J
need not dwell upon the indestructibility of human na¬
ture. It is as enduring as the ages. The tardy steps
of centuries and cycles, the abrasions and indentures of
all eternity, will leave the divinely imaged mental hu¬
manity fresh and green, forever blooming from its own
deathless inherent vitality, because it is the image of
God. Man's body is the temple of his soul. It is the
?j51endid swper-cosmopolite from the cosmopolitan center,
tenting and dwelling for a season on this sub-lunar
sphere. Its style and outlines and delineations are from
heaven. It is the human form divine from the skies.
The body isi materialistic, because there is nothing in
the universe other than matter of which it may be com¬
posed, and, therefore, desolation and decay shall over¬
take it. Its pillars and columns and towering arches
shall fall down, and its stately roof and star-crowned
MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE.
35
turrets shall be broken and buried, but the image of
God—the heavenly Visitant—that dwells within, in all
its divine completeness and ethereal brightness, shall
remain intact and untarnished amid the wonders of the
cycles and the evolutions and transitions of the endless
future. Truly man shall live forever. Death is simply
a removal from one sphere of being to another, a shuf¬
fling off a coarser and earthly coil, and a flight from a
lowrer to a higher, purer and sublimer altitude in another
sphere. It is the heavenly mentality abdicating an earth¬
ly throne, and reascending to its high place to be in per¬
fect unison with kindred spirits, and vie in the splendors
of the ethereal.
I. What is man in his physical constitution f
The psalmist says, "1 am fearfully and wonderfully
made." None but God can make man. No angelic fin¬
gers nor seraphic handicraft, nor wonderful mechanism,
though contrived and manipulated by the skilful touch
of angelic operators, can spin into threads and weave in
golden looms the warp and woof, and manufacture into,
grace and beauty the delicate fabric of .which man is
made. None but God could throw the silver shuttle and:
bring from the evolving intricate mechanism of nature
a mighty product like man. What a wonderful organ¬
ism is this man empire! In this man empire, there are
two hundred and sixty-three bones, five hundred muscles,
and three hundred millions of brain cells, about three
thousand of which are destroyed every minute. There¬
fore, every man has a new brain every sixty days. Every
man that has lived to be seventy years of age has had,,
therefore, four hundred and twenty-nine sets of brains.
Allowing that the average brain weighs sixty ounces, the
man of seventy years would have had two thousand five
hundred pounds of the precious thing. Every day there
are in each head more than four millions of the brain
cells destroyed and replaced by new ones. The alimen¬
tary canal is thirty-two feet long. Man has a heart six
36
MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE.
inches in length and four in diameter, beating seventy
times per minute, four thousand two hundred times every
hour, one hundred thousand eight hundred times a day,
and two billion six hundred millions in three score years
and ten. At each beat, two and a half ounces of blood
are thrown out of it at the rate of one hundred and sev-
enty-five^ ounces per minute, six hundred and fifty-six
pounds per hour, seven and a half tons a day, lifting it
two thousand one hundred and twenty-two feet in the
same length of time. We breathe twelve hundred times
an hour, using twenty-four gallons of air a day. The
breathing surface of the lungs is twenty thousand square
inches, equal to the floor space of a room twelve feet
square. There are ten millions of silken cables or nerve
cords that permeate and ramify the man empire, and
center in the brain or the seat of government, making
the greatest army of body-guards that ever defended a
kingdofn or assembled upon the field of battle. The at¬
mospheric pressure upon each square inch of the human
body is fourteen pounds, making the weight upon a single
human body of medium size forty thousand pounds.
There are three thousand five hundred perspiratory pores,
one-fourth of an inch long, making a little drainage canal
forty miles long. Beyond and beneath all of these there
is the great ganglia system of nerve tissues, so fine and
minute that the point of a sewing-needle covers a whole
system, in which there are thousands of little elastic
threads, too fine to be seen except by glasses of the high¬
est magnifying power known to man. Indeed, there are
thousands of wonders and marvels in the physical consti¬
tution and operations of the human organism that are be¬
yond the power of the mind to comprehend and explain.
As God, the Supreme Mentality, presides over the uni¬
verse, governing all its forces under the reign of law, so
man is presided over by the mind, which, is the supreme
king of the man empire, governing all its parts and forces
under the reign of law. As God's mind is everywhere in
MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE.
37
the universe as an all powerful and infinite activity, so
the mind of man is everywhere the infinite activity in the
man enlpire, filling all its parts and ratifications with its
own ineffable light and glorious power. The God empire
and the man empire are images the one of the other. The
first is absolute and infinite in fact and abstract; the sec¬
ond is only absolute and infinite within its prescribed
bounds. Both are the same in kind, but different in de¬
grees. Therefore, the mind of man is the reigning king,
the monarch and master of the man empire. Hence, man
is an empire in miniature, with all the elements and in¬
herent capacities of a kingdom, with its presiding mon¬
arch highly exalted upon the throne of the brain. Here
lives and rules the mind king from whose dictatorial
throne edicts are issued and commands sent forth into
all the realms, provinces and the ramifications of the uni¬
versal dominions. Indeed, man is an empire, having all
the realms, provinces and the ramifications of the uni¬
versal dominions. Indeed, man is an empire, having all
the elements, forces and powers of nature in co-operative
harmony, with its solids and liquids, and with its fiora
and fauna. It has lands, skies, seas, brooks, rivers and
sparkling rills, that convey life and light and vitality to
every part; from its fertile plains and golden fields, the
metropolis and seat of empire draws tribute and support.
The brain is the throne and seat of government and the
mind is monarch. At his command ministers fly, cables
hiss, sinews quiver, fluids dash, bones quake and sensa¬
tions play like electric volts on the strings of the nerves.
The mind king has eyes, ears, hands, feet, lips and
tongue. He is the real and divine personality, the mind
monarch whom God "from old times" has crowned, scep-
tered and clothed with the royal robe and • insignia of
state. He has judgment, discretion, tastes, will, choice
and sensibility. Around him are his courtiers, diplomats
and flaming ministers, hung on threads of gold and ca¬
bles of silver, ever ready in reverential attitudes to exe-
38
MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE.
cute his high beh.ests. By these space is blotted out and
time annihilated. They fly on wings of thought and
dance as it were on the lightning's flame, unifying and
binding the states of empire with his arm of glorious
power. God's powei; is absolute, and his government
executive, ministerial and dictatorial. "He maketh his
angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." As the
empire- of God moves about his throne as the center of
attraction, so the man empire moves about the brain as
the center of will force, rule and authority. This man
empire has reservoirs of blood, lakes of water, rills of
oil, and repositories of fluids that make up its gulfs, seas,
inlets and bays. It has cables of elastic steeHhat thread
and permeate all its parts, wrapt in silken integuments,
and of the finest mould. Over these elastic threads and
living cables, fiery dictates and high behests from the
throne of the mind king dance and play and preach his
will and proclaim his laws upon every hill, through every
plain and valley, till every leaflet, rock, and tree, and all
the deep gorges and mountain passes are resonant with
his voice and filled with his commands. Deep in its seas
there are flowing currents and boiling springs, from
whose agitated, waters come pearls of thought, folios of
science, books of wisdom, bringing up from their hidden
archives curriculums of study, deeper, vaster, broader
and higher than ancient sages, approximating the ken of
angels and the wisdom of seraphs. There are moun¬
tains of bone, hills of cartilage, ledges of gristle, and
ropes of sinew, to give form and beauty, and hold intact
the rolling, jostling empire, with its leaping rills, rest¬
less seas, agitated gulfs and quaking land. It has a fer¬
tile soil' of flesh and blood where roses blush and lilies
bloom, through which a thousand streamlets flow to per¬
petuate its virgin days of youth, and crown its high meri¬
dian with the flora of light, wisdom, and strength, and
its hoary years with a diadem of silvery harvest. This
man empire has its winds, storms, cyclones, hurricanes,
MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE. 39
typhoons and trade-winds, that roar among its caverns,
whistle along its dales, hum among its rocks, play
on its seas, shout over its hills, and strew its valleys
with awful wreckage and direful ruins of uprooted for¬
ests. This man empire has its sun, the central luminary,
meting its days and years, shining over its hemispheres,
continents, seas and islands, giving light and life to its
flora and fauna, producing towering trees of knowledge
on its mountains of wisdom, from whose sunny peaks the
mind king makes the sunbeams his horses and the ethe¬
real currents his chariot wheels. Or through the lofty
constellations of judgment, discovery, and golden thought
he flies toward God until his wings of flame sets aglow
all the widespread areas of air, sea, and land, until the
lakes and rivers and island homes are filled with the life
of God, the anthem of the ages and the symphonies of
the skies, until every granite bone, elastic cord, and.nerve
cable is filled with heaven, and suffused with songs of
seraphs and the melodies of the spheres. In orbital
grandeur, around the miniature empire's sun shine the
satellites of truth, virtue, will, purpose and the designs
of life, while each planetoid of disease—the fragment
of broken worlds—"walketh in darkness" through its
cities, states and provinces, corrupting its fountains,
contaminating 4ts seas, and planting the baleful seeds of
death and dissolution along its flowing currents and pro¬
lific soils. By flying fragments of broken worlds many
upheavals occur. Rivers overflow their banks, seas for¬
sake their ancient beds, volcanoes explode, islands are
submerged, mountains quiver on their rocky foundations,
isthmuses sink, the land quivers while all its elements
groan at the approach of the great catastrophe—death.
Yea, by these fragments of broken worlds (diseases) many
a joint is dislocated, cables of elastic steel are broken,
and silken links of ligaments, sinews of brass, and bones
of granite yield amid the general "wreck of matter and
the crush of worlds." But the text says, "When I con-
40
MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE.
sider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou hast ordained; What is man, that
thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou
visitest him."
II. What is man in Ms spiritual or mental nature?
Whence came he? It is said there is nothing great in
the world but man, and there is nothing great in man
but mind. Indeed mind is the man—the true hidden
man that thinks, conceives, judges and forms mental
images, measures time and space, calculates in numbers,
weighs even the imponderable masses of materialities,
comprehends the sublime majesties of the universe, and
has the power of will, choice, taste and thought, and in¬
definite continuity of individual consciousness. Deeply
pervading all the attributes of his nature, the faculty of
imagination like an angel of flame in splendid trim, with
his gplden sandals buckled on his feet, is ever ready to
sweep the azure floors of the skies, or pierce the illimit¬
able bounds beyond, where planets, stars and suns revolve
on their rounds. By thisi faculty space is blotted out and
time annihilated. * It is swifter than lightning, faster
than electricity and outflies its volts that dance, as it
were, on ethereal vibrations. In a moment, in the twink¬
ling of an eye this cherub of the airy deep leaps heaven¬
ward or hellward, rejoicing in the happiness of the saved,
or revolting at the horrors of the lost millions. It sweeps
the tracks of lesser stars, pierces the orbits of planets,
the belted splendors of Jupiter, the golden rings of Sat¬
urn, and visits uArcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the
chambers of the South," and wraps itself in the fiery
sheets of the sun. It delights to flee through "The
Milky Way" and the gem studded and constellated high¬
ways of Gk>d. Above stars, planets, suns, in the zone-
less seas and unhorizoned spheres where the wings of
seraphs battle for decades with the tides, the imagina¬
tion lingers not, but lifting its fiery eye as system after
system recede and sink in the shaded distances of eter-
MAN AN IDEAL EMPIRE IN MINIATURE. 41
nal space tie seems to cry to all the children of eternity,
"On to Alcyon, on to Alcyon," the greatest system known
to man, and which once seemed to be the center of uni¬
versal power, and the place of the throne of the Most
High. Here alone, at the throne of God, this wonderful
faculty is foiled and baffled, but still radiant in its glory,
and virgin strength. The wings of this mighty visitant
can carry thought no farther. Here all ends meet and
all explorations *end. And here she cries—
Eternal Power, whose high abode
Becomes the grandeur of a God :
Infinite lengths beyond the bounds
Where stars revolve their little rounds.
The lowest step beneath thy feet
Rises too high for Gabriel's seat;
In vain the tall Archangel tries
To reach the height with wondering eyes. ,
In the transitions of eternal wonders, or those spiritual "
metamorphoses and evolutions that await us in the fu-
"ture, this faculty will dwell with us as the great photog¬
rapher that never sleeps, but ever pictures upon the ex¬
panding canvas of the memory all the images with their
exact forms that have ever been presented to the mental
man.
III. But what is man in his moral constitution?
Man is a sinner, for the "Scriptures of Truth" declare
that "All men have sinned and come short of the glory
of God." Again, "Sin is the transgression of the law."
Not a visionary or arbitrary command, but it is the vio¬
lation of the law, the high, holy, and eternal law that
governs, the mental and moral universe. The law here
spoken of is the embodiment of those underlying princi¬
ples by which the universe is governed, and by which
it maintains its successive and harmonious relations.
By this law all of its elements, physical, and mental* act
in concord. Whoever violates this law, or, if you will,
these laws, is a sinner, a sinner against God and against
42
man an ideal empire in miniature.
all those spiritual beings^ or mental individualities that
have kept the laws of God, and thereby maintained their
perfect estate. But this man empire, like others in
which there is sin, is in perpetual throes, discord, and
agitation, through all the years of its sublunar existence.
Its restless inhabitants, with its rebellious states and
provinces, constantly threaten the dissolution and sub¬
version of its earthly domains. They threaten to trans¬
plant their interests and move the seat*of empire to sub-
limer realms in those sunny plains of eternal day, where
they may vie in the altitudes and majesties that live in
their bright abodes. On earth storms arise upon the
empire's seas, cyclones move and twist its mountains
upon their rocky bases, shake its hills, sweep down its
forests, filling its plains and valleys with howling de¬
struction and the broken ruins of his kingdom. This is
dying, so-called. As the mind king doffs his crown, lays
aside his royal insignia of state, drops the sceptre and
abdicates the throne, the silken cables and elastic corda
break, the chambers of the king's palace are closed. All
his courtiers, diplomats and flaming ministers cease to
do his biddings and sink in eternal muteness. The nerve
centers with their ten millions of body-guards in de¬
cadence die. On come the whirlwinds of death, over
the coagulated seas of blood, up the streamlets of oil and
channels of fluids. It climbs the vertebrated stairs of
the spiral mountain of sinews and the hills of cartilages,
crushing the granite of bones and scattering the parts of
the magnificent pile. Its sun ceases to shine, its moon is
turned to blood and all the stars of his lofty firmament
are covered with the thick blackness of the night. The
kingdom is demolished and the, strength of the empire
broken; but "the soul of man, Jehovah's breath,'? like
an eagle from its cage, soars away on its wings of flame
to dwell with God, to live and reign with Jesus, the
Christ, "and through eternal ages will shout beyond
the skies."
The Irrepressible Conflict.
" For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might
•destroy the works of the devil." 1 John III: 8.
The text brings before us the two most conspicuous
and renowned characters that have ever appeared in
the world, acted upon the theatre of life or written their
deeds upon the scroll of the ages. The annals of the
ancients and the records of the nations cannot produce
their equals in t^ie least degree whatever. Indeed they
stand out in bold relief of character and incomparable
individuality. In their respective relations and natures,
they are without a compeer. If all the greatness of man¬
kind that has been displayed in the wisdom of the
sages, the sagacity of statesmen, the valor and prowess
of heroes, the sweetness of poets, the melodies of
bards, were compressed into one great personality, he
could not be so great, so wonderful, so matchless in
consummate skill, profound wisdom, and exhaustless re¬
sources of those principles and things that make up the
«um of greatness, as to rival the great characters men¬
tioned in the text. Add to the control of such a per¬
sonality, the rubies, of kings, the diamonds of queens,
the scepters of emperors, the gems and gold of princes,
the sacerdotal scarlet of popes, the royal splendors of
imperial courts, and the wealth of the ages and nations;
jet such a character could not be compared to either of
the distinguished individuals mentioned in the text.
Then give such an individual a thousand years to display
all this mighty wealth and dazzling splendor, yet in
celebrity and influence, he could not approximate the
ideal representatives of the irrepressible conflict—the
Son of God and the devil. They both occupy the most
exalted, lofty and most conspicuous position in the
44
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
world, and in their work, influence and relations, they
affect every nation, people, tongue and age. Their in¬
fluence runs parallel with all times, epochs, and dispen¬
sations, ramifying all human governments, institutions,
orders, fraternities and administrations. They affect
the administration of all civil laws and the adjudication
of every lawsuit. The one or the other has paved the
pathway of every war, feud, conflict and revolution
that has swept the zones of human civilizations, and
fixed the destiny of men and nations. They affect ail
events in the world's written and unwritten history;
from its incipient civilization and birthday, until in
the sable drapery of its solemn requiem, the world
shall cease to be aglow with the burning cinders that
fly from the two great swords of Beelzebub and the
conquering Messiah. Their influence stops not in time,
but crosses the dark and trackless sea of death, and, re¬
kindling on the shores of the spiritual world, will con¬
tinue through all the great millenniums of eternal dura¬
tion. Heaven and hell, with their crowded intelligences,
will feel their potent and lavish influence by which
their unnumbered billions of indestructible individuali¬
ties will be forever swayed. Their imprint of character,
for good or for evil, for hell or for heaven, for life or for
death, will be made and deeply engraved upon the life
and spiritual nature of every man, woman and child that
has ever lived, or ever will live. They are not private
but public individuals—federal heads—and representa-
'tives and embodiments of the two great diversities of
the moral universe—good and evil. They are the repre¬
sentatives and heroes of the two great spiritual empires
of the world, representing the two great moral ideas of
the universe, which are founded upon the immortal prin¬
ciples of right and wrong, and of truth and falsehood,
and of life and death. There is an infinite distinctiveness
.—constitutional, innate and irrevocable—between these
two individuals, in their nature, work and the great out-
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
45
come of their career. This difference is essential, abso¬
lute and necessary. Therefore, it is as much impossible
to operate them together in harmony upon the same plane
so as to produce the same results, as it is to> bring the
north and south poles together. They are not only an¬
tagonistic, but antipodal. Two distinct principles inJ
spire the work of the one, and the efforts of the other.
The one is the principle of good and heaven, and the
other is the principle of evil and hell, each in battle array,
and perpetual conflict. The one is from heaven and the
other from hell; one is life, and the other death; one is
eternal happiness, the other eternal misery; one is
of God and godly, the other is. of the devil and devil¬
ish; one seeks the good of all, and one the death
of all; one dignifies and deifies human nature, the other
strips man of his glory, and leaves his prostrate form on
the ground—"a" splendid palace in ruin." Ever since sin
hath entered into the world, and death by sin, these two
great leaders and powers have exhibited themselves
in the children of men in all the departments and diversi¬
fied features of human society. In the courts of kmgs,
in the palace garden, in the halls of justice, on the ros¬
trum, in the realms of legislation, in commerce, field, and
store, their prowess is seen. On the battlefield, in pris¬
ons and camps of horrid war, in the diplomatic circles,
and stealthily along the quiet veins and avenues of
thought and learning, all along, and everywhere, these
two great majestiG powers and principles confront each
other and beset humanity round about. Hence, they have
made the children of men good or bad, right or wrong,
lifting them to heaven, or casting them down to hell.
Therefore, whatsoever exists in the moral world, exists
under the generic terms of good and of evil. Whatever
is good is not evil, and whatever is evil is not good. Good
cannot produce evil and evil cannot produce good. Life
cannot produce death and death cannot produce life.
Out of the depths of falsehood and darkness arise no
46
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
truth and light, and out of the depths of truth and light
come no darkness and no untruth. Darkness flees before
approaching light, and falsehood loses hold when truth
enters. Both cannot till the same moral space at the
same time, because they are moral spheres, filling the ut¬
most limits of the mighty circles of the moral universe.
But to our conception, good and evil are best known
• by their effects upon those who follow the one, and pur¬
sue the other. If certain actions of moral creatures—
whether they be ifien or angels—render them happy or
miserable, we know that those actions are good or evil,
and spring from the good or the evil one. The practice
of the two principles, in their respective relations and
tendencies, always and forever produces and reproducer
the same results in every case. They are eternal evolu¬
tions, but their evolutions never evolve out of them¬
selves so as to produce something different from them¬
selves. They produce their own likeness and super¬
scription. Heaven is heaven, and hell is hell, a thou¬
sand times so in all their intrinsic natures throughout
eternal duration. Good redeems her children, washes
them clean and white in the blood of the Lamb, and sends
them up the shining way to God and gives them the end¬
less felicity of heaven. But evil, hideous, dark, and
treacherous, sends her multitudinous squadrons to hell,
giving them the misery that hath no end. Every word
and work of men and angels, is, therefore, significant.
There is a meaning, deep, profound, and far-reaching in
every word, thought, and deed that enters the broad
realm of being. Our thoughts chisel their forms upon
the disc of the soul. Our words are written upon the
folds of the heart, and our actions are the pent-up fires
that leap out, leaving the dead volcanic cinders within.
Like causes produce like effects, and like effects are pro¬
duced by like causes. For every effect there must be a
cause, and the cause is best understood by the results.
In the moral world this is a truism. Now, every moral1
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
AT
action that takes place amohg intelligent beings, is act¬
uated by, and receives its momentum from the will and
volition. The will is the motive power—the sheet-anchor
of the soul—that moves and stimulates the actions.
Therefore, every moral action must have the consent of
the will, otherwise they cannot be moral actions for
which men and angels are responsible. All actions,,
"therefore, are good or evil, and must be classified as such..
The former lead to heaven, the latter lead to hell. At
the end of every man's road stands life or death, hell or
heaven, which is the inevitable and final destiny of alL
the living. When the sundering blade of death shall cut
the vital threads of life, the soul—the heaving spirit—
emancipated from its house of clay, shall then be trans¬
ported away and up to God, or away and down to hell,
and the day of preparation shall then be closed, when
the inexorable fiat of Almighty God shall forever seal
the irrevocable life of the one, and the changeless dam¬
nation of the other. No man can tell where hell is, but
it is, it does exist, and whatever it is, and wherever it is,
is a matter of small moment. But we are certain of two
things: (1) It is a state and place of punishment. (2)
That punishment is eternal in its duration. .This
arises out pf the nature of the case, and the nature of.
God's government. When the sinner lands in hell, he
will then be nearer to God, heaven, and life, than he will
ever be again in all the cycles and evolving millenniums of
eternity. Every surging wave and fleeing current of roll¬
ing years, will thrust him farther and farther out into-
the mid-ocean of hell's seething and boiling billows.
Every turn of the wheel of the centuries will but augment
his sins, and enlarge his capacity for transgression and
sink him lower and lower.
Man is a progressive being. Progression—eternal pro¬
gression—characterizes his innate constituency whether
in the human body or out of it; whether in a state of bliss
or state of misery; whether in earth, heaven or hell, or
48
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
whether as applied to the three realities of his nature—
physical, moral and mental. Change of place or condition
cannot change his nature and indestructible selfhood or
spiritual identity. Man is man in all the relations and
conditions in which he may be placed. The immortal
mind, the conscious self, with all the moral sensibilities,
are incapable of decay, and therefore, of necessity, he is
eternal in conscious duration. It seems, also, a truism,
that the functions of the moral and mental man are never
in a state of perfect quietism. There is a perpetual un¬
rest, or rather there is rest only in motion, progression,
and development. Absolute quietism is incompatible
with life, and there can be no such thing as vital energies
in absolute quietude. Activity, in a greater or less de¬
gree, is the law of all living and is operative in all intelli¬
gent beings, whether in a state of bliss or state of woe.
The saved will continue in obedience, the lost will con¬
tinue in sin, since mere punishment has no redeeming
qualities, and since obedience has no element of misery.
As one wave of the sea produces another, and these pro¬
duce others indefinitely, so one act of sin produces others
through the eternal rounds of the dreadful series of
transgressions. One hell will rise above ^nd crowd the
burning crest of another, each more dreadful.and press¬
ing harder upon the heels of the other, adding force and
fury to the mighty avalanche of the fiery flood.
This text, like others, gives us the key to the origin of
evil in the world, a question long debated by "the wise
and' prudent," and philosophic schools of the ancients.
"The devil sinneth from the beginning," "for in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," is the
plain declaration of holy writ. Long was the world in
darkness on this subject, and many were the vain and
absurd theories, entertained by the wisest of human kind.
They were greatly troubled, puzzled, and bewildered to
account for the advent and work of evil in the world.
The fertile imagination of the ancient thinker set about
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
49
to invent theories and invest probabilities with the
habiliments of truth, hoping thereby to explain the mys¬
tery. Hence, the necessitarians tell us that evil arises out
of the nature and constitution of things; and that the
Creator himself could not hinder its manifestation in the
world. The Manichean theory is that there are two
deities, the one good and the other evil; one the author
of the body and the other the author of the soul; and
that, therefore, the body is evil because it comes from
the evil deity, and that the soul is good because it' comes
from the good deity. How absurd! But this is the re¬
sult of human wisdom, when it sets at naught the word
of God. "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die." This positive command, given to Adam by
the Creator, placed him, as a free moral agent in a state
of probation and trial, clothing him with power to stand,
yet liable to fall, because he could not be free as an ag^nt
unless it was in his choice to obey or disobey. But he
fell. He "kept not" his first estate. By the influence
of the devil, he became a sinner, "and brought death
into the world and all our woes," because:
" She plucked, she ate,
Earth felt the wound,
And nature from her seat,
Gave signs of woe,
That all was lost."
Thus sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
Death, with all his howling furies came in pompous state,
drawing the dreadful phalanxes of hell at his chariot
wheels. Here then is that long and dreadful reign of
the king of hell, called in Genesis, "The seed of the ser¬
pent." The declarations of the Scriptures, his natural
character, and his real work in the world, prove that he
is a real being, possessing individuality, and identity of
personality. He is endowed with all the properties and
characteristics that constitute an intelligent being. He
is not the principle of evil personified, as some would
have it to be, by assigning to it all the qualities and ac-
50
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
tions of an individual. He is not a mere myth, a fable
or fabulous being—the outgrowth of man's fear, or prod¬
uct of human imagination. He is not an allegorical
being without body or parts, but he is a great and astute
being, mighty in power, skilled in wisdom, profound in
knowledge and is thoroughly acquainted with the history
of the world and the acts of the nations. In Genesis
(3:15) he is the seed of "the serpent," and the singular
personal pronoun is used to describe his personality and
unity of being. In Job he is called "Satan," the adver¬
sary, the great enemy of God. He is called '"the prince
of this .world" (John 10:31), "The prince of the power
of the air" (Eph. 2:2). He is "a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour." He is called "the God of this
world" (2 Cor. 4:4). He is said to be a "murderer from
the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh
of that which is his own: for he is a liar and the father
of it" (John 8:44). In Revelation he is the king of hell,
for says the Apostle, "And they had a king over them,
which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in
the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue
hath his name Apollyon" (Rev. 9:11). Moses, the vener¬
able lawgiver of Israel was well known by the Devil. He
knew also his relation to God and to Israel, and that
Israel venerated him above all men living or dead. But
Moses died, and was buried in the land of Moab, in a
valley over against Beth-peor. Satan knowing that
Moses was dead went in search of his body, that if pos¬
sible, he might devise some plan by which the body
might be given to the children of Israel, that they might
fall down and worship the lifeless corpse of a great man,
as was the custom in Egypt, and thus bring down the
wrath of God upon Israel, and nip the plan of salvation
in the bud. But God in his goodness, foreseeing what
would follow, placed an archangel there to watch over
the body, an<J defend it against the violence and intrigue
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
51
of hell's greatest legate. This is the work of a character,
and the diplomacy of hell.
St. Peter declares that "God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered
them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judg¬
ment" (2 Peter 2:4). Jude substantially declares the
same thing, using almost the same words. From these,,
and similar passages of Scripture, we learn:
, 1. That the Devil is not a principle personified, but
that he is a real substantial and individual character.
2. That he was in a state of happiness and probation
—under positive law, well understood by hirft, and his
fellows, or "the angels that sinned" and "kept not their
first estate."
3. That he rebelled, or "sinned" against the laws of
God and the government of heaven, and thereby lost his-
first estate and was cast "down to hell and delivered into
chains of darkness," awaiting the just vengeance of the
judgment day of'Almighty God.
4. That he is a powerful prince, a mighty king and a
great captain with an empire of spiritual darkness of
immense proportions, and that he stirs the hearts and
minds, and works through and in the children of disobe¬
dience.
Let us study his nature, work,, 'and history, as it is
written in the history of the world. He is wise, astute,
stalwart. Standing up like a spiritual giant of massive
proportions, and roaring like a lion when he thirsts for
blood, he sounds his clarion voice which, like an electric
shock, flashes along all the zones and parallels of the
habitable earth, convulsing the nations, and spreading
far an intensive discord through all the tribes of men.
His footprint and handiwork is seen and felt in every land,
state, and age—wherever men live and die. The oper¬
ations of his hand are simply marvelous—dark deep,
intricate, and profound. His devices are multiplex and
serpentine. His aim is one. He lives through the ages.
52
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
with illustrious strength, and indomitable will that for¬
ever spring with elastic and virgin strength which nerves
his spirit and inspires his obdurate soul with a fiery
zeal that "no langour knows." Changes in the world of
man make no changes with him. Yoking the whirl¬
winds to his rolling car he traverses the misty deep, plods
and plows the surging seas, and as a bold corsair in quest
of treasures new and old, he seeks the heathen in his jun¬
gle heath island home to pour hell and denser darkness
upon his moral and mental day. He throws the somber
pall of sin and death high upon the disc of his shield,
while his black pinions shade aqd darken the path and
contract the highway of the world's civilizations. As a
warrior, he stands at the head and is the dictator of a
multitudinous, powerful, and well organized army, epuip-
ped and skilled in all the military tactics of diabolical
and spiritual warfare. His soldiers are the bold spirits,
the thunder-driven and hell-bred legions from the infer¬
nal cave of the damned that kept not'their first estate;
being goaded on by the hell in their conscience, they are
ever ready for the scenes of war and carnage. The weap-
ons of their warfare are mighty, formidable and tried
Hipon the spiritual battle-fields of the nations and ages.
Each soldier-devil is armed with barbed spears and
•swords of adamantine steel whose dreadful play in the
-air shows that they are in the hands of spirits bold and
spirits daring. Their quivers are filled with winged ar-
tows, polished and tempered, and tipped with poison of
•asps and venom of serpents. Precision and dexterity
characterize the engagements of these diabolical archers
and sharpshooters of hell. But open war is resorted
to only when cunning and intrigue fail. The devil
is great in cunning and strategem. Hence the Apos¬
tle tells us that "we are not ignorant of his devices."
He* stirs the passions, lust and pride, and the baser
nature of kings, princes, rulers and potentates, and
perpetually foments civil and national strife among the
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
53
nations of the earth, causing the plowshare of de¬
struction to glide through the flourishing fields of human
society, unroofing the temples of civilizations and flood¬
ing their open halls with human gore, and piling
high around their fluted columns the broken bones
and bleeding bodies of the dead and dying, causing the
widow to weep and the orphan to sigh and clamor tor
bread. Often he seeks his seat in the church of God,
throwing discord and confusion among the saints of the
Most High. He is not omnipotent, nor omnipresent, but
mighty, and is the antipodal force and antagonistic power
against Christ, God and humanity. Messiah on the one
side and the devil on the other are great leaders and cap¬
tains. The battle began in the Garden of Eden six thou¬
sand years ago. Both have had varying success and de¬
feats upon the arena of the nation and rostrum of the
ages. Still the battle rages. Neither has entirely defeat¬
ed the other, but onward and fiercely rolls the battle cry.
But hush! hush!! I hear the silver notes of the golden
clarion of Messiah coming with martial tread and haugh¬
ty tramp. He is "clothed in a vesture dipped in blood.''
He rides upon the great white horse of truth and on his
head are "many crowns." By his side hangs a potent
double-edged blade of "heavenly temper keen" that never
turns back from the blood of the slain. His armies are
upon white horses robed in the bright and shining habili¬
ments of divine purity. Their swords are forged upon the
anvil of God in "the house of David," and made of the
best old Jerusalem steel dug out of the mountains of God.
Other blades may break or shatter, but these never.
Dreadful are the incisions they make in the rank and file
of the enemy. "How shall one chase a thousand and two
put ten thousand to flight?" "For the weapons of
their warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of the stronghold of the devil."
Christ cannot fail. Hell is great, but heaven is greater.
Christ is rich in all the fathomless depths and endless
54
TEE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
heights of eternal power. He is more than a match for
the Devil. "He is the same to-day and yesterday and
forever/'' and on through the eternal series of great and
glorious achievements he repeats his mighty deeds and
stupendous acquisitions in the redemption scheme.
While this and more is true, yet dark and dreadful were
the closing scenes of the world's greatest drama, for it
is said in Genesis by the mouth of God, "Thou shalt
bruise his heel." The "Thou" here spoken of is the Devil
himself, and the expression comes from the custom' of
pursuing an enemy so closely that the heels of the fleeing
are trod upon by the front part of the foot of the pur¬
suer. This implies that the contest was to be cfbse, fear¬
ful and irrepressible, and that Satan would pursue the
Son of God even to the gates of death. This is also the
turning point in the great and long struggle for the
mastery, and the ascending of the one over the other.
Here the Son of God must conquer or be conquered.
Here he must rise victorious over the power of darkness,
or he must fall under shame and defeat. Christ says,
"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in
me." He felt the dreadful tread of Satan crowding upon
"his heels," while his steps in the Garden of Gethsemane
were marked with his own blood, sweat, and tears. He
felt the powers of hell surrounding him on every side
and hedging in the pathway of the Son of God. Four
thousand years of conflict had passed, but now the culmi¬
nating hour is reached at last. Now is the dreadful hour
when his strength and power are tried and hope flickers
in the golden sockets of life. Now the Redeemer of the
world was to stand off no longer, and from the red mouth
of heaven's artillery rain hail and burning thunderbolts
upon the hideous head of the demon; but he must meet
him face to face, and arm to arm, and measure swords
and spears. Ten thousand devils peep up from the bot¬
tomless pit and hiss and howl and clamor for the blood
of the Son of God. Swift winged messengers pass in
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
55
rapid transition from earth to hell, and also from earth
to heaven, bearing dispatches and news of the dreadful
hour and of the culminating scenes of the great and irre¬
pressible conflict. O, dreadful hour, fraught with life
or death for the millions of the sin enslaved of Adam's
race! The Son of God now falls upon his knees upon the
■cold ground, while his humanity passes through the fear¬
ful ordeal and crucial test and the augmented sorrows of
the ages, but amid anguish, pains, sorrows and tempta¬
tions, he says, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
■death."' The sins of the world were upon him, and for
that reason he must be fearfully chastised by the hand
of his Father. But he went a little farther, and fell on
his face and prayed, saying, "O, my Father, if it be possi¬
ble, let this cup pass from me! nevertheless, not as I
will, but as thou wilt." This prayer he prayed three
times. He begins to sweat blood and bleed at every
pore, and his tears thrown up from the depths of an ach¬
ing heart fell in Gethsemane's Garden. Not only his
body, but his soul, the intelligent, the sensitive inner
man, was "exceedingly sorrowful even unto death."
How deep was that sorrow, and how painful the situa¬
tion! He looked up, and behold, Judas with his band
of ruffians came with swords and staves, and the Son of
man is betrayed into the hand of sinners and taken to the
judgment seat of the wicked. "Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." Having as¬
cended the hill of sacrificial death, he is nailed to the
cross. The rough iron spikes pierce his feet and hands,
and he is cruelly transfixed to the rugged wood. Every
sinew is stretched, every tendon distended, every joint
dislocated, and every nerve cable thrills with pain. Here
hangs in agony and blood the Prince of Peace, the incar¬
nate Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega of all creation.
But he dies! "It is finished." But the great tragedy is
not yet ended. Another scene is yet to be acted in the
56
TEE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
world's greatest drama. Joseph of Arimathea deposits
the dead body in his new tomb. The disciples scattered
and all seemed lost. Nature by her internal throes "gave
signs of woe." Hell laughs and shouts in triumph.
Hope seemed fled away upon the dying zephyrs of the
last breath of the expiring Messiah. But on the third
day, Messiah calls back and resumes his ancient power.
The bars, bolts,, and rock-ribbed jaws of the grave began
to swell and heave as if moved by the omniflc hand of
God. Death and hell heard the rattling chariot wheels
of the heavenly legates as they leaped from the heavenly
gates and fled to the rescue of the sleeping Jesus. They
pour the message of life from God into the dungeon of
death, and the Son of God rises from the dead. Heaven
laughs, he^l is astonished, and universal humanity is
thrilled by the triumphal declaration: "I am he that liv-
eth and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more,
amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood
of Man.
"I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to-
the wise and to the unwise."—Rom. 1:14.
From the language of the text, it is evident tliat the
great Apostle to the Gentiles designed to represent or
set forth the universal family of man as one whole and
perfect race in so far as a common humanity goes. But
when he comes to consider the civil, social and religious
status of humanity, he divides mankind into two very
distinct divisions, and grades the human race under the
appellation of "the Greeks," and "the Barbarians." This
view of the apostolic idea is emphasized and paraphrased
by the words, "The wise and the unwise." Hence, the
difference between "the Greeks" and "the Barbarians'*
is state or condition, and not a fundamental. The differ¬
ence between the two representative specimens of the
human family here presented is not constitutional or in¬
herent in the nature of man; but the evident or manifest
superiority of the one over the other, grew out of those
conditions, elements, and phases of civil and religious life
that proceed upon natural law, and have always char¬
acterized, to a great or less extent, the race of mankind.
Whatever aspect of human progress or retrogression
has presented itself to the student of ethnical science
and the philosophy of history, nothing founded on bot¬
tom facts warrants the conclusion that one man is, by
nature and certainly not by grace, superior to the other-
But there is a common humanity with a common inter¬
est, destiny and parentage that unify all the nations
and peoples of the earth. Manners, habits, customs, the
forms of governments and civil institutions change ac¬
cording to the tastes of men and the evolutions of human.
-58 FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.
nature; but the innate manhood knows no change in that
sense whereby one man or people is made inherently
superior to the other. Human nature is found by experi¬
ence as well as by history and philosophy to be the same
in quality and essentials, in all ages, states and condi¬
tions. State or condition, whether national, racial, or
personal, has nothing to do with those great immortal
and high mental parts or constituencies that belong to
the human individualism. All men are created with the
same number of mental faculties, the same number of
| ?
those attributes of mental and physical parts that have
characterized all the individuals of the race from its in¬
ception in the Garden of Eden to the present day.
Neither does time, in its steady and onward flow through
the centuries, nor do those advancing and changing forms
of government under which man has lived, have any
tendency to change his innate nature in the slightest
degree whatever. No improvement in civilized life, no
matter how far and how high it may advance the human
character in the scale of progress, can add to or take from
man one single faculty of his nature. So far as the kind
and number of the human faculties are concerned, they
are complete. And it seems that his present number of
faculties is sufficient to put him and keep him in touch
with the spiritual, mental and physical universe by which
he is surrounded, and of which he is a part, as well as a
citizen.' The capacity to do and to know and to compre¬
hend the phenomena of mind and matter on this plane of
life, or it may be even in the life to come, does not demand
new faculties or other innate constituencies, but only the
culture, the development and the indefinite expansion of
those that now belong to him. At present, man seems to
be in the morning twilight of his being. He is on the in¬
clined plane from the days of his infancy, ascending those
loftier graded altitudes of perfections of being and char¬
acter that are demanded by the very nature of his exist¬
ence. But so far as the real attributes of his nature
FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. 59
are concerned in their deepest and broadest realisms,
there will be no more change in him than there is be¬
tween the man when he is an infant and the same man
when he is grown to riper years. In the growth, training
and culture of such an individual, great changes have
taken place. His body has grown, enlarged and taken on
its majesty, beauty and stateliness. His mind has been
cultured and all the faculties have become active, keen
and incisive, and with the fulness of a finished and
rounded manhood, he is far different from what he was
when lulled to sleep by the sweet, soft melody of a
mother's song. But mark you, he is the same individual.
There has been added no new nature, attribute or
faculty, either in his physical or mental being, but he
is the same character with the added expansions and de¬
velopments of the human essentials. It denotes progress
in* the potentialities of the mental and immortal hu¬
manity that constitute the real man, whose continuity
of consciousness is eternal. If these statements are not
true, then man's identity is not possible, and his moral
obligations with his moral nature are destroyed, and
there can be no punishments or rewards. Indeed, man is
man wherever found, with the same connections, relations
and affinities of life and character. Every man is made
by the same hand, according*to the measure, mental con¬
tour and personal and original endowments. Neither
can racial distinctions, color, climatic or geographical
,eit\iation of birth and growth make any difference in the
characteristics of his real ijianhood. This proves the
unity of the race of man, the oneness of interest, origin
and destiny. What, therefore, is possible for one man
is possible for all men under the same conditions and
■circumstances. All are made in "the image of God,"
after the same pattern, in the sublime fundamentals of
the original. Hence the great Apostle says: '"I am
debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both
to the wise and to the unwise." In plain words, "1 am
60 FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.
in debt to all men, whether they be the polished, edu¬
cated, and refined philosophic Greeks, or the crude, wild
and untutored Barbarians." Again, there is but one re¬
ligion for all men. There is one God and Saviour—"Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and forever." God
has presented to mankind but one living, active and
forceful Christianity which is adapted to all states, ages,
and conditions of universal intelligence. God has adap¬
ted its requirements, tenets, doctrines, practices and all
its splendid elements and agencies to reach and save his
intelligent offsprings in any and in all the possibilities
of life and human probation.
I. What then is the greatest work to be done under heaven?
Answer: To save both the polished Greek and the igno¬
rant Barbarian. Both have souls that must be redeemed
or lost. This is a great work, the greatest that can be
done by men or angels. For this the great universal
church of God was established in the earth. For this
the great world of man has groaned, oppressed beneath
the heavy and sable bands that beclouded as with a
heavy laden pall of death his social and civil horizon in
the dreary and sluggish moving centuries of the past.
But dead centuries cannot save, nor sleeping cycles
atone for the sins and transgressions of men. Time can
do nothing of itself without the superior power and
agency of the Son of Go'd. We are all debtors one to all
the others, and all the others are indebted to that one.
God demands of all men to do all that they can to save
the race of man from sin. Our duty, in this respect, is
never accomplished until we have done our best to reach
the ends of the salvation of the one and universal hu¬
manity. All the great works, achievements, and wonder¬
ful discoveries of the centuries cannot be compared
to the work of redemption. Man is lost. The vital
threads and living strings that played in harmonious
relation between heaven and earth, threading and thrill¬
ing the deep ethereal seas, were broken off by the cruel'
FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. 61
hand of sin. Somewhere in the great ocean between God
and man, the ends of the broken cables lie buried in some
vast depth, sleeping embedded amid the unfathomable
mysteries in the wonders and plentitudes of those awful
seas of pandemonic and howling space. Over these
broad seas of unfathomable depths, tented Night threw
her canopy of thick darkness, heavier than mountains
of iron and stronger than hills of brass, over which the
thunders of God and the winged lightnings of wrath
played in gorgeous and awful splendors filling the space
of empire between God and man with all the obstructive
elements, agencies, and forces of sin and disobedience.
No seraphs bold, nor angels daring, ever penetrated the
darkened highways or flashed on flaming pinions over the
howling seas, gyral cataracts and leaping billows of that
wide and black waste that divided the empire of sin from
the empire of life. Man is lost. The planet on which he
lives has broken her moral relations with God, life and
glory. The silver cables and steel chains whose adaman¬
tine links were older than the angels and stronger than
the cycles and more wondrous than the centuries have
been broken. The rebellious planet is lost somewhere
in "the void immense," and rolling away far from God
and peace she wheels her flight covered with the thick
and unyielding nebulae of sin. God strikes the keys of
the diapason of being, and all the cords, pulleys, wheels
and threads of the universal mechanism are still attuned
but one. He strikes again all the keys, and pulls all the
lines and threads of the infinite and universal mechanism
and all respond to their God and their Maker but one.
There is a harsh soundf, a broken thread that causes a
discordant note in the mechanism of the moral universe,
breaking the melodies of the centuries, the harmonies
of millenniums, and severing from the throne of God and
the bosom of his love an alien planet. The cables break,
heaven feels the tremor, and the rocking chimes of a lost
empire of man and God come flashing on ethereal volts
62 FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.
faster than ever lightning flashed. They danced into the-
outer space of "the lost Pleiades," when God thundered
in the heavens and sent it in billions of flaming parts,,
broken shafts and splintered spars as flaming messengers
to execute his high behests in the illimitable empire of
space. He looked out on the extended seas of the
ethereal deep, counted the stars, weighed their impon¬
derable masses in scales and called them by name. Every
sun is still shining, and every star in the vaulted cham¬
bers of creation is twinkling in its orbit and dancing and
singing on its eternal lines, making schedule time. Hard
by the throne of God a thousand millions of sparkling
and singing worlds roll on in their awful majesty, and
yet in meek submission to their awful King. On they fly,
wrapping their belted splendors and burning webs of
golden flame around the throne of the great "I Am"—
all but one, and that is the one called earth. "Oh, earthy
earth, hear thou the word of the Lord." Who will go in
search of the lost planet called earth? unite the cables,
tie their broken ends and severed cords and again hitch
them to the throne of God? Who among the ancient
sons of God and the tallest archangels of eternity hath
the arm of power to sound the infinite mains, gather the
cables with hand omnipotent, and relink their broken
fibres? O, ye bright sons of heaven, ye morning stars
that sang together when "all the sons of God shouted for
joy," can you not go and do wonders and work the works
of gods in Jhe mighty deep? Heaven stood mute, seraphs
dropped their crowns, victors cast their palms, choirs
hushed their voices, the Te Deum of the cycles lost its
melody, and unstrung harps their euphony. Millions, of
towering spirits, each wrapt in the splendors of a morn¬
ing sun, with uplifted wings of sheeny brightness, with
eyes of flame whose focal gleam swept the orbits of a
thousand suns, measured the rims of moons and traced
the track of comets, stood in listening attitude but dared
not move. The temple of the tabernacle in heaven was
FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. 63-
opened and the house of the lords of creation ceased the
eloquent and profound deliberations upon the things,
which "the angels desired to look into." Bulls and briefs,,
edicts and behests, and all the wide commands of the
teihple court that flamed on lip and tongue, and glowed
in the hearts of the tall minds and intellectual majesties
of the universal metropolitan center, felt the tremor and
the moving forces of the approaching crisis. The crowned
and mitered -sentinels who stood on the jasper walls of
heaven while cycles perished and millenniums died, left
their golden towers, and like burning splinters of broken
suns, sweeping from the azure peripheries to the diamond
centers, they joined the heavenly perturbation and stood
with bated breath and uncovered heads in the great con¬
gregation. Fiery squadrons on electric steeds whose
thrilling circuits quiver with the living energy of heaven,,
faster than flashes of lightnings, thread and ramify the
illimitable "fields of light," the kingdoms, thrones, do-
minohs, principalities, powers, heights, depths, lengths
and breadths, and all the multitudes that dwell in tnose
eternal and extended areas under the gem-studded and
the arqh-tlaming concavity of heaven's high ceiling are
summoned to the tabernacle of the great congregation.
It was "a great multitude which no man could number"
of all the great personalities and eternal kings and princes
and queens of the ages that swept along the streets of
gold with sandals of rubies, crowns of diamonds and ama¬
ranthine robes of sunbeams, whose glorious forms and
splendid trim glittered like pyramids of incandescent
flame and glinted blushes of a sun sifting through the
seven colors of the rainbow. Mighty legates and pleni¬
potentiaries in their dazzling ermine and brilliant para¬
phernalia of state, with their broad phylacteries and em¬
bossed folios, containing the legal lore of the eternal an¬
nals, sat upon thrones of judgment. One hundred-forty
and four-thousand legations, representatives of as many
dominions, filled the diplomatic circles with their nodding
64 FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.
plumes and royal credentials. Far out in the open sea
towards heaven's impalpable periphery the loyal legions
of the royal dominions stand with stately mien and awful
muteness, while a thousand suns peep up from the hpri-
zon, uniting their blended splendors in graduating zones
of light as if pinned together by the sheeny tails of comets
and veiled with the radiance of the morning stars.
But "there was silence in heaven about the space of
half an hour." It was a silence whose mighty influence
was like the stillness that comes after the haughty steps
and heavy tramp of cycles and centuries have crushed the
nations, ground their temples to dust, broken the scep¬
ters of kings, calcinated cast-iron dynasties, corroded
and gnawed asunder empires of brass and monarchies
of steel. And still the world feels the iron heel of the
ages. The despot's spear is not broken, he still main¬
tains his throne, riding down the centuries, drinking the
blood of the nations and wielding the scepter of universal
dominion. So the profound silence and awful muteness
was deep, distinct, decisive, and heaved the deep bosom
of heaven as the ocean currents heave the, mighty
bosom of the deep. But a world is lost. A planet, like a
ship on the high seas that has broken its cable, thunder¬
struck and storm-driven, is tossed upon the ocean of sin
and the vasty deep of moral pollution. Who is able to
recover it? Who is able, oh, who? John says, "And I
saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who
is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof?
And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the
earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
And I wept much because no man was found worthy to
open and to read the book; neither to look thereon.
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep*not; behold
the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the root of David1, hath
prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals
thereof. " Again, "Then said I, lo, I come * * * to do
thy will, O God." Again, "Here am I, send me." This
FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. 65
is the voice of God the Son to God the Father, loud and
strong, and ringing high above all the mighty powers,
altitudes and massive conclaves and sublime actualities
of the assembled dominions, states and kingdoms of the
universe. Heaven was satisfied. God smiled, musicians
leaped to their harps, seraphs Hashed their wings, tuned
their ivory lutes and grasped their golden cymbals and all
the choirs and multitudinous hosts cast down their
crowns, regathered the silver chords of the ancient an-
thems and the eternal melodies of the spheres, waving in
sweet and dulcet octaves the mighty chorus, "Saying with
a loud voice, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto
the Lamb for ever and ever." Yea, "for ever and
ever," and the doxologies rolled and echoed, rever¬
berating over "the sea of glass," resounding along "the
river of life," until e^ery hill and mountain, valley and
plain, and all the wide arenas, highways and lofty
courts of the skies were filled with the music of his name
and resonant with the redemptive anthem. There is a
chorus in that song for you and for me. A golden harp
for every hand, and- deep sweet melodies for every lip,
tongue and heart, and a silver cord and ivory key for
every finger. There is a palm for every victor and a
crown for every conqueror. So he comes, and so he is
here. Behold he standeth at the door, he is at our elbows,
he is in this place.
Isaac Watts touches the central chord in the universal
diapason when he'sings:
Plunged in a gulf of dark despair,
We wretched sinners lay,
Without one cheering beam of hope,
Or spark of glimmering day.',!
With pitying eyes the Prince of grace
Beheld our helpless grief:
He saw, and (O amazing love ! )
He ran to our relief.
5h
FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.
Down from the shining seats above,
With joyful haste be fled,
Entered the grave in mortal flesh,
And dwelt among the dead.
O for this love, let rocks and hills
Their lasting silence break,
And all harmonious human tongues
The Saviour's praises speak.
A ngels, assist our mighty joys,
Strike all your harps of gold;
But when you raise your highest notes,
His love can ne'er be told.
Christianity Shiloh's Empire.
" Xhe sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him sfia.ll the gather¬
ing of the people be."—Gen. 49:10.
The text is a prophecy uttered by the Patriarch Jacob
upon his dying bed to his sons in the land of Egypt. Pass¬
ing through the troubles, of life, he came at last to his
dying day. The words that he spoke were inspired predic¬
tions respecting the things that 'should befall the house of
Israel in future generations. His prophetic vision being
touched by the finger of God, and enlarged by his Spirit,
he sang a song of triumph that he never sang before, and
threw the verses of its enchanting melodies down through
the illustrious line of great princes, priests, and kings, until
the great Messiah became haloed and wrapt in the brilliant
splendor of his expanding kingdom.
The Shiloh here spoken of is Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, and the son of David. He was the son of David , ac¬
cording to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God
with power. Jacob felt that power while the bright rays
of its light flashed upon his soul and strewed his pathway
to the grave with the leaves of the tree of life and the blush¬
ing petals of perennial flowers. Shiloh was his hope. He
looked through the kingdom of Israel to the kingdom of
Shiloh, that should come in the fullness of time, and by
whose ppwer the yoke of sin should be broken from the
necks of the nations, and the mild sceptre of Shiloh should
sway the life and hearts of men.
We need not produce any elaborate argument to prove
that the term Shiloh refers to Christ. From the scope of
the prophecy, the depth of its subject, and the nature of its
68
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE.
prediction, especially in its application to a person, Shiloh
can only refer to Christ, the Messiah of God. David and
Solomon were great characters. They were men of God,
and in their official capacity were symbols and metaphorical
representatives of Christ. The kingdom over which they
presided represented that which was to come. Hence it is
said, "The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his
father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." The
Shiloh then here spoken of is the same as he who should
"reign over the house of Jacob forever," to whose "king¬
dom there shall be' no end, because unto him shall the gath¬
ering of the people be/'
But the text says, "The sceptre shall not depart from
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come." That is, the theocratic government of the Jews
was to have its kings and rulers coming from the tribe of
Judah until Christ should come and tak6 the throne whose
by right it was.
1. Let us consider the Christian system as a progressive
force.
Christianity is a growth as well as a principle. While
its fundamental doctrines are eternal and form the basis of
eternal government, yet the application of its principles
and practices is adapted to all conditions of humanity,
whether collective or individual. It has the same power
over a single person that it has over a nation of single in¬
dividuals. Indeed, this is the first fruit of its operation. It
takes hold upon personal life and personal character. It
seeks the individual members of a nation and the distinct
characteristics of a people. It often begins with the small¬
est number, and sends them as messengers and forerunners
to open a highway in the wilderness and make a royal path¬
way for our God in the desert. Step after step, it adds one
by one to its army of, heroes, and princely warriors. It ap-
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE. 69
peals to each and every one as a distinct consciousness, and
calls upon the perceptive faculties and reasoning powers
to consider its claims upon tlie attention, presenting its
attractiveness to the sons and daughters of. men. It appeals
to personal interest and human consciousness on the highest
plane of the eternity of being, and proposes to solve the
profound and . intricate relations that exist between God
and man. It reaches deep into the moral and spiritual en¬
tities that relate to the incomprehensible and the incompar¬
able Deity. As a moving force, it threads our being, rami¬
fies the conscious individuality, speaks in thunder tones to
the sensibilities and all the properties and potentialities of
intelligent creatures. It stimulates, stirs and lifts the
legitimate aspirations of man to those sunny altitudes, where
alone God and man walk in peace, and blend in the splen¬
dors of reconciliation and a glorified union. It moves and
propels man upward to his designed dignity and the eternal
harmonies of the universal spheres, where the stars of God
"forever glow in the fervent warmth, of His love." Re¬
ligion is a secret power. It plies the currents beneath the
waves of human nature. Men may see you, they may think
of you, and speak of you, and weigh you in the scale of their
judgment. They may reach a true or false conclusion re¬
specting you as a man and a citizen; but there is a divinity
that dwells within, whose shape or form they cannot see,
whose stately steps and steady march through the deep
chambers and hidden receptacles of the soul they cannot
measure. It is a thing of personal possession and personal
experience, deep and resonant with the music of heaven
that fills the soul with the "reigning Shiloh, the living Christ
of God.
Again, Christianity suits every man, fits every age, and is
adapted to every sphere*of being in the universe. It iarthe
need of every being, the joy of every soul. It crowns life
with honor, embellishes its devotees, makes its followers
70
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPTRE.
conquerors and gives light in the darkest night and opens
the royal highway to the throne of God. It softens the
dying bed, bridges the river of death, and in chariots of
fire takes God's Elijahs to the paradisaical city of the
Great King.
2. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh
come."
That is, Christ was to come and grasp "the sceptre"
that Judah held. Judah was to hold it until Messiah should
appear on the scene and take his rightful authority. Christ
did come. He came at the predicted time, and "in the full¬
ness" of the purposes of God. Here he must stay, and
"reign until he hath put all enemies under His feet." This
is his earthly work, and his great mission in the world. It
will not be completed until this is done. "The sceptre"
here spoken of is the royal insignia of the Messiahship. It
is the emblem, or symbol of His authority, and His right to
reign over all the earth. Ancient kings and monarchs had
their sceptres, which signified their complete and extended
jurisdiction. Before them the millions prostrated the
body. With trembling heart and hand they bowed to
earthly masters. But their sceptres have departed, their
authority has gone, their empires are broken, and their,
kingdoms calcinated by the hot tramp of the centuries and
destroyed by the giant worm of time. Where are the proud
kingdoms of old, that rose, towered, and glowed in their
might and majesty? Where is the kingdom of David and
Solomon, that stretched "from the river to the ends of the
earth?" Where are the great kingdoms of the Babylonians,
the Medo-Persians, the Macedonians, and the iron empire
of Rome? Nay, my friends, they have passed away and
sleep the eternal sleep of death. Their sceptres are broken,
their crowns fallen, and all their greatness is gone; but the
sceptre of the Shiloh of God still abides. Why does it
abide? Because it "is a right sceptre," a true kingdom of
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE.
71
righteousness, harmony and peace, and presents to the
judgment and wisdom of men God's idea of government.
It is stonger than Bessemer steel, harder than adamant,
more incorroding than the gold of Ophir, and more endur¬
ing than the precious diamond. It is more enduring than
the schools and systems of thought and philosophy; for
while these perish amid the march of years and the death
of centuries, and fall in the grave of time with their dead
masters and hoary sages, Shiloh's empire still abides, and its
magnetic embodiment in the person of the,living Christ,
marches on in stately tread, traversing the breadth of cen¬
turies, measuring the decades, and wrapping the string of
days and the fibre of hours around his hand, and buckling
the aged cycles and the countless trend of years to his belt.
Columns, arches, mausoleums, pyramids and the im¬
mortal sarcophagi of famous heroes and dead philosophers
quivered and shivered and tumbled upon their rocky foun¬
dations at the command of conquering time; but the sceptre
of the "Shiloh" of God still sways in triumph above the
din of war, the clash of elements, and the stroke of years.
Seas shift their beds, rivers change their channels, conti¬
nents grow old with the weight of years and hoary crowns
bestud the islands, while ocean currents grind their ^ocky
feet to dust and scatter their flinty ribs in the secret cham¬
bers of the deep. But Shiloh, in the virgin strength of
eternal youth, abides at the head of the marching column
and the triumphant phalanxes, all dressed in white and
panoplied in the robes of truth. But the kingdom of Shiloh
is progressive. It is educative and consequently slow in its
progress. It is slow to the ideas and conceptions of men,
but not slow to God. An educative process must be slow.
The universe is a developing universe. Growth and decay,
expansion and contraction, struggles of life and death, are
universal, perpetual and ceaseless. ^Nothing essential tp this
development stands still or falls to the depth of sound sleep
72
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE.
or profound quietude. Nothing slumbers through eternal
duration. If death comes, life follows in the wake of years,
and that which now sleeps will rise again, and at some
period in the life of God, assert its right to live again.
Nothing comes but by slow degrees. The oak slumbers in
the acorn, the tree in the kernel, and the blade of corn in
the grain. The rose gradually unfolds its petals, and lilies
blush in the eveningtide. Gentle spring comes after the
sleep of winter, and the morning succeeds the night. That
which once was is pot now, but it shall be again. "The war
of elements and the crash of worlds" are constant, general
and eternal. The glory of systems fades, worlds in confla¬
gration die, and stars from heaven fall, and catastrophes pile
their oncoming catastrophes upon the burning decks of
waning suns and dying systems, amid the gush of chaos
and the death of stars. All is evolution, agitation and
change. Like the empire of physical nature, there is a
progressive process in spiritual nature, an agitating ele¬
ment, a native force or propulsion that awakes and stirs
the properties and engages humanity in the eternal strug¬
gles.
Again, it is conflict, labor, and struggle that make a man
as well as a world. Nothing can be made perfect without
this necessary struggle and conflict with internal and ex¬
ternal elements and forces. No conflict is without results
and products. Every conflict, whether in the realm of
physical nature or of mind, must have results and prod¬
ucts; for there is always some end to be attained. A grain
cast into the "faithful bosom of the earth" struggles to break
its shell, and by the force of natural selection, or elective
affinity, throws' off its effete properties and gathers and
assimilates those things that are needed for its perfect de¬
velopment. The purpose of the struggle is to make a per¬
fect grain of wheat. The oak struggles in the acorn till it
breaks its prison walls. It then arrays its friends against
CHRISTIANITY SHl^LOH'S EMPIRE.
73
its foes in a struggle for survival, until it is crowned with a
green wreath, of leaves and acquires a sturdy trunk of wood.
The waters are purified by their constant ebb and flow,
and the germs of disease are killed in the atmosphere by
the jarring thunders. Society is purified and humanity is
made better by the revolutions and the conflicts of moral
and political forces. Corrupt States and depraved munic¬
ipalities sink beneath the heavy tread and the iron reign of
sin; but the innate spirit of a progressive civilization, elec¬
trified by religion and virtue, collects its forces, reassembles
its agencies, rises from the dead past, gathers the broken
threads and continues on the highway of progress. Nothing
can be purified and made better without struggle, and no
struggle can be without an end.
- Struggle implies three things—time, progress and pro¬
cess; but the end is the perfection of character. Every¬
thing has all time to be made perfect; and all the time that
is necessary for the process, and the changes and accessions
toward perfection are progress. The perfection of character
is the ultimate end for which time is given, and the process
and progress toward perfection cannot cease until the effort
is coronated with the brightest gems of nature. The king¬
dom of Shiloh cannot stand still, because its very life is in
its thrift and activity. Israel's God neither sleeps nor
slumbers, but watches the forces of the moving spheres,
regulates their order, directs their courses, controls their
elements, and forces recalcitrant members into orderly
lines and harmonious relations. Therefore, every action
in the moral and physical worlds has a meaning that may be
interpreted at some time in the future, and somewhere in
the line of action and of evolution and change. God scat¬
ters broadly, but gathers again, and the focal center of all
actions is the ultimate will of God, the intricate designs of
the Most High. How, then, can Shiloh's kingdom stand
still? How can its propulsive forces, its Godlike energies
74
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE.
stand still? Can God sleep, or Hi's Son die? Have the
cables of tlie universal mechanism been broken, its ship
stranded and the helm of the universe taken from His
hand? Say, ye elements, forces, agencies, natures, and all
ye star-crowned immensities and light-begirt intellectuali¬
ties of heaven, has the King of Saints lost the equilibrium
of the spheres, the balances of heaven, or the end <5f the
bright curves? Nay; God reigns as of old, and all the ele¬
ments are the witnesses of His power and of His presence.
He touches the octachord of nature with fingers of fire and
hands of power, and at once the thrilling God vibrates the
threads, and every part and ramified relation of the
universal spheres He fills with His tremendous presence,
commands the molecular entities, and the listening sisters
and kindred sires to stop to hear and fly at his be¬
hests. All things are in His hands. Even the wrath of
man, the rebellion of angels, and all the old sinners of the
ages are to fulfill some great design or lofty culmination in
the executive government of the Most High. Their mad¬
ness and rage, their hardness of heart and obdurate pride,
their lust for place and power, their violent and headlong
assaults upon the high castles of heaven's King, and their
fierce, demon-like onslaught of the truth and the progress
and expansion of Shiloh's empire, are all made to praise the
Lord and magnify His wisdom, justice and truth, while
unwittingly they are carrying forward the golden threads
and silken strands of the Shilohic empire. Fallen devils
and wicked men, the devices of hell and whatever spirit,
being of character that fights agaiDst God and His
anointed Shiloh must" ultimately fail and sink beneath the
direful wrath of "the Thunderer." But the kingdom of
Shiloh is to take the place of all others by the process of
hybridization, or that smooth and gentle flow of His love,
presence and power that is exhibited in the nature, charac¬
ter, work of the ministry of Jesus Christ. "The Son of
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE.
75
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." His
embassy to earth was not in pomp and splendor, nor kingly
majesty. He did not come heralded by the sound of trum¬
pets, the blowing of horns, and the metallic clash of loud
cymbals and bands of music. No royal robe, nor gem-set
crown, nor flash of golden sceptre, nor awaiting throne of
ivory marked His coming. ~No horses and chariots, nor
thundering legions of armies, nor tramping hosts of sol¬
diery marked His appearing; but "as a root out of a dry
ground" he broke the stony soil of the hearts of men and
pushed His way up through the hard and callous surface of
human prejudices, hate and depravity, and the meek and
lowly Galilean stood forth in the humility of a prophet,
the garb of a mendicant and the demeanor of a servant.
There was no visible greatness, nor dictatorial air, nor mani¬
festation of earthly power or kingly authority. The silent
chambers of the woods were His home, the earth was His
bed, the heavens His covering, and His pillow was a
stone of the hills. No long-drawn* aisles, nor architectural
shafts of marble, nor Parian slabs, nor polished flint
adorned the temple of His slumbers, nor flashed upon His
morning vision; but from the rugged hills and silent plains
the divine Master of the ages and the eldest creations,
walked into Jerusalem and about Galilee to plant the
seeds, and in deeper soil to sow those effervescent germs of
truth and nuggets of power and love that were to permeate
the nations, cover the hemispheres, ramify the ages, and fill
the world with the Shiloh empire.
3. The abstract and concrete empire. "Unto him shall
the gathering of the people be." There is something won¬
derful and beautiful in the Shiloh empire. It is wonderful
both in abstract and in concrete. In abstract there is
neither phase nor form nor tangibility of character. It can¬
not be bought, nor sold, nor bartered in the markets of the
world as a commodity in human commerce. It laughs at
76
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE.
gold, spurns the diamonds of queens and treads the em¬
bossed gems and pearls of kings and millionaires beneath its
steady move. Real estate, landed lords, the wealth of
dynasties and the gilded'splendors of courts and palaces
cannot procure it, nor bring it near. But its spiritual dy¬
namos are plenipotent in power, and its strength lay deep in
the bosom and nature of Deity. In the abstract, it is the
government of God, and has His image and superscription.
In every age and phase of civilization it has its magazines of
power, its living energies and undying individualism. It is
separate and distinct from all other kingdoms that seem to
have preceded it, and there are none to follow like it, or
comparable to it. In its character, aim and great ends, it
stands out in bold relief and incomprehensible indi¬
vidualism. The agencies employed, the elements and
principles by which it acts and moves upon the feel¬
ing and judgment of men, are absolutely different from
and high above the conceptions and calculations of
the unaided reason and any discoveries possible for men to
make. To "bring forth the headstones" of its ex¬
panding empire, with the shoutings of "Grace, grace,
unto it," is the sole province of divine revelation. Wo
man can find out God to perfection. He is the ever present,
and yet the ever'undiscovered, beyond that degree where
the mind of man may rise and take hold upon the things
of God and know what are those duties and relations that
make for the peace of the intelligent creation. All that
we know of God and the divine administration is mostly re¬
vealed to the sons of men, either through the elements of
nature, or by His Word. All along through the ages and
the nations of the earth the Lord hath declared His pres¬
ence, His goodness, and His power to the children of men.
He talks to us by day and by night, in the deep resonant
tones of a unique empire of thought and action, whose
vibrating circuits and electrifying majesty are as deep as
CHRISTIANITYt SHILOJI'S EMPIRE.
77
human nature, high as heaven and enduring as the years of
eternity. Everywhere Shiloh's empire touches the deep
chords of human nature and human hearts, moving, stir¬
ring, revolutionizing and unifying its forces and agen¬
cies, exhibiting those far-reaching plenitudes of power
and throbbing energies and plenipotent activites that
make up its irresistible character. Every day the em¬
pire of Shiloh is making its onslaughts and encroach¬
ments upon the ramparts of sin and hell, gathering
its forces, collecting its army, disciplining its troops, drill¬
ing its agencies and coercing the erratic sons and rebellious
daughters into line, and demanding obedience to the sov¬
ereign God and His supreme command.
"TJtito Him shall the gathering of the people he." All
people shall come to Him, and the" congregating millions
shall gather at His feet and crowd to the sacred shrine and
bow before the center of universal power and the majesty
of the universal King. Here comes Shiloh, skipping on the
mountains and dancing on the hills and filling the plains
with the bright halo of His awful presence and the roseate
splendors of His power. His voice is resonant, round and
full, ringing in seraphic tones through the empire of
humanity, calling all his subjects and long-lost children
back to their ancient estate, and back to their ancient God.
Shiloh is coming! Nearer and nearer He approaches. The
thunders of music are rattling through the spheres, and the
lofty tramping legions and the heavy treading white squad¬
rons are coming down the line spreading through all lands,,
wrapping the hemispheres with the light of God and the
blessings of His presence. He crushes the thrones of kings,
demolishes iron empires, breaks asunder republics, subverts
monarchies, throws down "thje powers that be" and slays the
dragon of sin in his ancient isle. Heathen superstitions,
rotten philosophy and godless systems of thought and prac¬
tice fall before His keen, cold steel of "the truth;" and they
78
CHRISTIANITY SHILOH'S EMPIRE.
"with, their ancient gray-haired sires and grandsires and
mitred priests with hoary locks, and all their deluded
devotees, sink beneath his wrath and the power of his sov¬
ereign rod. Church of God, get ready, stand up; don't be
alarmed! Shiloh is coming, he is coming, coming to reign
until the stars of God pale their light, "till moons wax and
wane no more," and suns lose their flame and planets die on
their track and scatter to the utmost poles their incinerated
dust. "Hallelujah! 'tis done," our king is on the throne of
universal empire.*
The Song of Believers.
"I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, 0 Lord, will I
sing."—Ps. 101:1.
Whoever reads the history of man, weighs his sorrows
and measures his joy, will read the history of songs and
anthems of his 'days. Indeed, his pilgrimage through
life's thorny mazes is a pilgrimage of song inspired by
the lights and shadows that ever shine and shade his
pathway. Age or nation, clime or condition, cannot take
from him this plaintive or joyous melody that permeates
his individuality, and fills his moments with this God-
given and heavenly flame. There is in man a golden
harp of a thousand sympathetic chords whose deep and
resonant tones evolve from the golden strings which
vibrate to the music of the spheres and the melodies of
the heart. Whether plodding the lower walks of tears
and sorrow, or on the joyful wing of prosperity, or hear¬
ing the dull thud of tfre funeral dirge, the carol of the
sweetest note will stir the soul, revolutionize the heart
and lift the drooping spirit to the altitude of God and the
sunny plains of heaven. Song is an antidote of the bur¬
dened heart, the laboring soul and the broken spirit.
But the song of redemption is preeminently "the song."
It is the song of songs. It is the sweetest note on angels'
lips, and the sweetest anthem of the skies. Indeed, the
song of redemption is the thrilling cry that has stirred
the ages, ramified the centuries, filled the decades, in¬
spired the prophets, fired the tongues of bards, poets and
seers and cheered the millions with the music of God
and of his Christ. Touched by the omnific finger of
God's love, and set to the dulcet strains of joy, the song
of redemption shall go ringing through the nations, down
80
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
the declivities of time, thread the centers of civilizations,
cross the howling sea of death, and ring on up to God
and heaven through countless ages and evolving cycles
of endless duration.
1. But what is song?>
Song is the mugic of the soul, the harmonious' vibra¬
tions of the deep chords of the heart and the melodies of
the spirit life. It involves the elevation of the affections
and the utterances of the lips by which some theme, doc¬
trine, or topic is proclaimed aloud and exultingly in the
presence of others. In a broader sensp, it is the vibra¬
tion of the musical harmonies of the empire of God, agi¬
tated and active. It is the effort of a kindred spark to
return to its native sun, and be rehabilitated in its native
clime. It is the divinity in man rising to God its source
and parent head from whom it came to earth. It is the
better and higher nature of man springing forward and
leaping heavenward. It is the soul flying through the
deep blue ether upon its fiery pinions in search after
God its "maker who giveth songs in the night." Song
implies harmony in sentiment and strain. Strain is the
vehicle—the chariot wheels of song, but sentiment and
doctrine are the life and spirit. But song is more. It
is a spiritual animation, a flame that stimulates, revives
and quickens the moral, mental and spiritual manhood.
It is true, song, like speech, may be greatly improved by
the processes of culture and practice, and should be cul¬
tivated by the whole human race; for no system of train¬
ing can be complete without it. Yet there is in man an
innate attribute of song, an attribute which when
touched by the hand of sorrow or joy makes the chambers
of the soul resonant with the symphonies of angels and
the euphonies of heaven. It is an essential quality of
his spiritual and religious instinct—a part of his organic
spiritual constituency. It is organic and God-given. It
is a part of his individual and indestructible selfhood.
Music is harmonies expressed, song is the vehement act
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
81
of expression. This attribute of song in man has its
■counterpart in creation. Creation is a system of musical
harmonies combining in a common unity, and that com¬
mon unity is the unit of all units—God. He is the grand
total of all the totalities ii\ the universe. All the threads
and lines of days and years, of events, acts, facts, natures,
beings, agencies, entities-, and things, center in his will
and power, glory and majesty. The millenniums, with
their creative acts and facts, with their mighty ponder¬
able and imponderable realities, are yoked and linked to¬
gether by the indissoluble bands and bonds of his high
and majestic authority. At his command, angels fly,
devils fall, comets flash, suns burn, stars twinkle, and
systems live. Around him, all things dance and fly in
the inimitable beauties of magnificent harmony, or dash
their splintered shafts and shattered spears at his feet,
and tremble at his voice. Man is most in harmony with
the universe and the music of the spheres when the deep
and dulcet tones of the octachords of the soul are attuned
and set to the music of God "and of his Christ" by the
Holy Spirit. The innate principle of song in man is the
gift of God in a like sense as speech is the gift of God.
When God made man, he placed within his duplex nature
certain elements and faculties that compose his inde¬
structible selfhood, and that are essential parts of him.
These elements and faculties were in perfect harmony
the one with all the others. There was no clashing, nor
discord, nor want of harmony in the diapason, but the
octaves of man's being were filled and thrilled through
and through with the seraphic flame of love and the
music of God. It is true, some of the faculties of
his nature were more prominent than others, neverthe¬
less, they all were there. They existed, and will exist
as long as man is man. Place or condition, age or state,
cannot destroy or annihilate these elements of his being.
Man is finished in the fact of his being. He is fully man
in all those powers and principles that imply a finished
6h
82
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
work of God. No new property nor attribute is 10 be
added in this or any other state, because his being is fin¬
ished in all its parts. It is true, there may be deep and
latent powers of the soul of which we are not conscious,
and which are yet to be developed in a future state; there
may be possibilities of endless progression, development
and expansion that await us in the great beyond. Our
time in this life is too short, and the hemispheres of
earth too narrow, for the excursions and expatriations
of the soul—the vital flame of life. Yet these facts do-
not imply that new faculties and elements are to be added
to the manhood of man, but imply progression, thrift,
go and indefinite development. Indeed, man is but im¬
perfectly known in the present state. He knows but
little of himself and his fellow pilgrims, because this is
the twilight of his being, the infancy of his life, and the
morning of the primal day of his years. The strongest
are weak and the wisest sons of m,en are ignorant.
Therefore, the difference is in the extent of his faculties
in expansion, application and development, and not that
new faculties are to be added in another and future state.
The canon was closed in the first act of his creation.
True, there is to be, and must be a change, but only such
a change as implies physical, mental and spiritual reno¬
vation. This renovation does not take in any new con¬
stituency, but is a purification and readjustment of that
which was put there in the day of his creation. Yet, it
seems true that those faculties and agencies that are
best fitted for his immediate uses are most developed,
and exhibit a grace and prominence that seem to oblit¬
erate, or at least to greatly crowd and overshadow the
others, and there is an apparent want of harmony in the
extent of their uses. But this does not prove that any
new principle is necessary to complete his nature.
Speech, knowledge, volition, memory, taste, appetite, and
all the faculties come in the totality of his inherent and
native selfhood. Every constructive element, every
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
83
fiber and line of his nature is necessary for the ultimate
end and completion of the whole. To extract one of
these parts or faculties of his nature would unbalance
the Tinity of his being and destroy its harmonious rela¬
tions; therefore, man has a whole and completely de¬
fined status in the fact of his being. But'in this nature
there must be an association of each of its parts with,
each and all of those other parts that compose his being-
There must be an elective a,ffinity to penetrate and join;
together the several parts, and give grace, beauty and
symmetry to the finished man. Thus song is the golden
sunlight that gilds the horizon of the ages with the glad¬
ness of the day of Christ, making every flower of hope
bloom, the hills smile, and every lily, rose and violet
blush in maiden sweetness amid the universal gush of
joys.
But song is old. It is older than our physical earth,
and was used in heaven before used on earth. Long
anterior to the heavens and the earth that rose out of
chaos, it was pressed into the service of the eldest chil¬
dren of eternity who tuned their golden lutes in the em¬
pyrean of the heavens and sang glorious anthems to the
all powerful and all glorious God. Long before a ray of"
light had pierced the primeval darkness that covered
earth and sky, when, as yet, the morning star had not
been hung as a pendant lamp in the orient, nor the sil¬
very goddess of the evening had snuffed her candle on?
the Occident's setting sun, eternal beings were sinking
the praises of God. Yea, there was song when as yet
our earth and heavens were held by the iron grip and'
sable bands of king Darkness who had reigned for
myriads of millenniums, but was finally exiled by the?
Almighty's irrevocable fiat of his power.
'Ye shades dispel, the Eternal said,
At once the involving darkness fled,
And nature sprung to light."
84
TEE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
Darkness fled "and nature sprung to light," while
mighty and majestic systems rushed on the immortal
paths of their burning orbits as if blazing around the
throne of God. Where once all was dark and void, there
were glory and beauty and the displays of almighty
power and everlasting joy. Then it was that "The morn¬
ing stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted
for joy."
But song is universal and is inherent in nature.
Creation is God's great harp of eountless living strings
that join the universal harmonies in one grand chorus.
Creation sings of God, the Creator—the ages sing of his
eternity, the heavens sing of his glory, the earth of his
power, and hell of his justice. From the burning lips of
the lost to the enchanting melodies of blazing seraphs,
song rises to God without stint or limit from every part
of creation. All nature sings, especially when its gol¬
den chords are struck and vibrated by the plenipotent
finger of God. There is music around us, above us, and
beneath us. The mighty orchestra with rocking chimes
sends its thrills through the ages, stirs and stimulates
the nations with hope, joy and faith. But man must
die. The doleful song of death lulls the nations to long
and sound repose, only to t}e broken by the funeral dirge
of time, when the stentorian lays of the archangel in
measured verse and solemn strains shall revivify all
that have fallen in sleep. Go, take your stand upon some
high rocky promontory by the raging sea, and listen to
the great bass drum of God—the winds blowing, the sea
roaring and spitting froth of its anger into the murky
clouds above, and agitating its own deep and pebbly bed
as if stirred by the fiery blasts of hell. The plenipotent
finger of the omnipotent God strikes the combustible ele¬
ments of the air, and his red lightnings flash along on
their burning cables, sending their soprano anthems to
hiss and howl and join the bass strains from the sea be¬
low. High above all the sounds just mentioned are the
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
85
screaking, hissing and crashing of the angry storm, with,
as it were, its mottled, scarred and dusky-faced triumph¬
ant King rolling upon wheels of torrid amber mixed with
fire and blood, and in Ms wake lay the shattered greatness
of nature's might and virgin strength. His thundering
chariot rolls in the clouds, while from his burning
brazen car incandescent forked tongues leap out. A
thousand golden cymbals are being simultaneously
struck by the hands of a thousand archangels in heav¬
en's aerial sea. The bosom of the clouds are recharged
with electricity—the subtle vitality of nature—and their
sable bands yield and in sunder break, baptizing herb,
sea and land with the blessing of heaven. When the
harsher notes of the storm have flown away upon the
wings of the cloud, then nature, in sweeter and softer
music of praise and joyful lays, is still heard striking
the silver strings of her golden lute, emitting harmonious
melodies which dance through the multiplex octaves of
the spheres. Blow, ye1 heavenly zephyrs, blow, agitate,
oscillate and vibrate your grand old octachords until
oceanic isles and rock-ribbed hills and smiling plains join
in the mighty chorus and the gush of thrilling joys.
But song is sentiment and doctrine, and has its heroes.
The song of creation has God for its hero, and the song
of redemption has Christ for its hero, the charming em¬
bodiment of all melodies. In creation the harmonies of
the spheres sing of God, the Hero of its preservation and
the Master of its magnificent parts, forces, properties
and powers. Every part is filled with God and instinct
with music. "The whole earth is crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God." "The heavens
declare his glory, and the firmament his power." "All
thy works shall praise thee, O Lord," says the sweet
singer of Israel. Again, he says, "Praise the Lord from
the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow,
and vapors; stormy winds fulfilling his word: Mountains,
and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars; Beasts, and
86
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl; Kings of the
earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth;
Both young men, and maidens; old men and children; Let
them praise the name of the Lord:" Here God is the
Hero of creation's song, the vital Center in which all of
creation's melodies, anthems and choruses meet in eter¬
nal celebration and forever pour their orchestral thun¬
ders at his feet. Christianity is the ethical system, the
high moral code of the universe and has Christ for its
Head, its Song and its Hero. He is the ransoming and
heroic "prince of peace" of which the ages have sung.
The song is old and long, but sweet, soft, inspiring and
thrilling. "Of him who did salvation bring," the first
archangels sang. Living coals of heavenly fire dropped
from the golden censers of angels, and started David's
harp afresh with deeper notes and softer tunes de¬
scriptive of Messiah and his triumphs. Indeed, the
Old Testament Scriptures were largely written in verse,
the whole of which was a part of the mighty anthem of
redemption. The Christ of the prophets is the Christ
of the ages. He is the life and subject of all their song
and the joy of our salvation. He cheered the hearts,
fired the tongues of bards and poets, and dwelt in sweet¬
est strains upon the lips of priest and prophet, prince
and king, while the rough seers and shepherds in the
wild and weird desert took up the thrilling cry, and sent
it back to the walled city, its gleeful notes up to heaven
and its joys on to God. While the ages were pouring
their verses on the templed hills of God angels Jieard and
awaited "the day star from on high." It is night.
Shepherds are in the plains watching their flocks. An
angelic legate from heaven's high arch appears. A halo
of splendor encircles his dazzling face and his voice,
wrapt in the soft accents of peace and love, was thrdwn
out upon the wing of a heavenly carol. His theme is
the culmination of the long and hoary decades of wait¬
ing. And the angel said unto them, "Fear not, for be-
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
87
hold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall
be to all people." . . . "And suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, prais¬
ing God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, and good will toward men.'" How glo¬
rious is this song. What impulses does it awaken in the
heart of man! "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, and good will toward men."
But the text says, "I will sing of mercy and judgment ;
unto thee, O Lord, will I sing."
But what is mercy? Mercy is a compound of goodness,
patience and kindness to a lost and sinning race, to whom
it is extended as a method of escape. God is good to all,
to men, angels and inferior creatures. But to man his
goodness is extended until it becomes more than mere
goodness—it is mercy. It is melting pity borne away
from God on the wings of his love and goodness
to all the signing race of Adam. It is an invention
of Deity to reach and rescue that which could not be
reached and saved by other methods. It presents to the
world of man the only gateway of redemption from pun¬
ishment and eternal "banishment from the presence of
the Lord and the Glory of hi» power." Mercy has no
existence except in its exercise, and therefore is not an
attribute or perfection of Deity. Now, an attribute is
an essential quality or part of the eternal mind of God
without which God would not be God. Eternity, self-ex¬
istence, all-power, all-knowledge, immortality, fore¬
knowledge, infinite wisdom, etc., are attributes of God,
because they are essential parts and elements of his
character. Without these, or any one of them, he
could not be what he is—the only and eternal Je¬
hovah. We can conceive of God without the exist¬
ence of mercy, but we cannot conceive him to be the Eter¬
nal Mind without those natural perfections that we call
attributes. Could his power be taken away, he would
88
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
cease to be God. Take away his wisdom, or goodness,
or his eternity, and he ceases to be what he is, what he
always was, and what he always will be—the eternal
Jehovah. But take away his mercy and he is still "the
same yesterday and to-day and forever." Adam before
the fall was morally pure and perfectly holy, and there¬
fore, in that state, was not a subject of divine mercy.
He was not in a state to need mercy, and, therefore, none
was exercised toward him. The same principle applies
to all the tribes of holy angels that maintained their
original state of purity and integrity of character. But
all creatures, whether men or angels, or other intelligen¬
ces of the universe, needed the existence of the attri¬
butes and were dependent upon them for their own being,,
perpetuity and happiness. They needed his mighty
power to perpetuate their days and supply their wants.
They needed his love, his goodness, his wisdom, justice,
omnipotence, and all the attributes, even while they were
in a state of perfect purity and happiness. But in such
a state they did not need any mercy, because that could
only be extended to a fallen and sinning race of beings.
Mere power could create, preserve, or annihilate, but
could not save the sinning race. Justice could condemn,
but could not forgive, justify and purify. These were
necessary for the redemption of the fallen race. The
province of justice is to condemn the guilty as well as to
clear the innocent. The province of power is to execute
the dreadful sentence upon the former, and execute and
announce the happy acquittal of the latter. And thus
might we reason concerning all the perfections of Deity.
The attributes of God hold their respective functions
and operate their several and wonderful offices, but none
of them, and all of them could not, and do not save one
guilty sinner. No; the complex government of God
needed a provision of softer terms* to reach and save the
sinning and the lost. It needed the invention of Deity,
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
and an assemblage and combination of attributes so ad¬
justed and balanced as to harmonize with the nature,
plan and the whole government of God. Man is to be
saved. How shall it be done? All the attributes of God
were silent, and profound muteness sat on every tongue.
All the wheels of divine government stood still amid
the dying echoes of receding centuries, as if the clat¬
tering machinery of the universe had unhinged its spin¬
dles and ungeared its pulleys and stopped every rolling
belt and whizzing wheel, and had broken every bar and
bolt that united them together in one harmonious whole.
But Mercy, like an archangel, wrapped in the seven
colors of the rainbow, stood before God with pacifica¬
tion written on her brow. A tablet of solid carbuncle
fringed with purest gold covered her heart, and in bold
letters set with diamonds and engraved with the signet
of love, was written, "Melting Pity." Around her gol¬
den-crowned head flashed a halo of heavenly light, as if
the graces of a thousand queens had gathered about her
to beautify her glorious self. Her feet were covered
with amber sandals as if electrified by the affinity of po w¬
ers that continued to move while she stood. Her wing&
of fire were outspread, ready to fly at God's command.
The thunders of wrath are hushed. Justice half sheathes
her bloody sword. Angels and all the ranks and files of
the heavenly world crowd about her to wonder and ad¬
mire. There stood Mercy. Who is she? She is the queen
of heaven, the gift of God to man, the grandest contriv¬
ance and the crowning conception of Deity. Slowly,,
but surely, through all the sinful ages of man she has-
gathered up the tears, the woes and sighs of men, and
carries them to heaven, and to God. The whole earth
with its crowded intelligences once cried and travailed
in pain to be delivered and saved. Through all the ar¬
teries of the human heart and soul, death, eternal death,
pulsated in every flowing current, playeS on every string,
■90
THE SONG OF BELIEVERS.
gnawed asunder every silver cable and golden thread
that ramified and cemented the entities and eternity of
man with God. The night of the world was long, dreary
and dark. A heavy leaden cloud in which the slow,
dull mutterings of wrath were heard threw its dark
shade of death and ashy penumbra athwart the space
in which revolved the mental and moral hemisphered
globe. Now and then, a red current of flame would leap
from the darker center and flash across the leaden zones
only to exhibit the stronger and sabler bands that held
in awful solitude the pent-up wrath of the angry storm.
Should God touch one wire, or send a flash of fire through
the whole, like a cloudburst, his wrath would deluge the
moral sphere and sink the sinning race to ruin. But
Mercy stands before the throne of God and waves the
white flag of peace and a truce intervenes. Then stretch¬
ing her golden pinions she views the leaden cloud of
wrath and death, as with steeds of flame and chariots
of fire, she sweeps on and down from the throne of the
great king. But in mid-air she seems to pause for a
moment to survey the1 continents and islands, to count
the slain millions and the dying thousands, to measure
the depths of sorrows, and the exceeding sinfulness of
sin. Her chariot wheels roll along the defiles of blood
and death, where the prisoner dragged his chain, where
mothers wept for their slain sons and daughters, and
starving children cried for bread because their fathers
and brothers fell in battle. She stands by dying man
and his ruined race. Over his bleeding corpse she
spreads her mantle of grace, recovers him from his sins,
and establishes him in the Eternal, reconciled, sanctified
and saved.
The Rich and the Poor.
"The rich and the poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of
them all."—Prov. 22: 2.
In all ages of the world, mankind has been divided
into two distinct classes, "the rich and the poor." While
these distinctions are merely artificial, yet the wisdom
and intelligence of the masses have always regarded them
as permanent and enduring. Even the Father of mercies
lias recognized these differences that exist between man
and man. These distinctions or differences are not fun¬
damental, but conditional. They grow out of the state of
society, and those environments that always accompany
every age and phase of civilization. So far as science
and revelation go, there has not been found any remedy
to equalize wealth, or those belongings and personal
achievements that have lifted one man above another in
those things that add to their happiness. But in spite of
all the precaution, the wisdom, and the foresight of the
best and wisest of men, the great majority of the human
race will be poor in this world's goods; it seems a matter
of impossibility to prevent suffering arising from a state
of want, and establish any universal rule by which all
men may become equal in the comfort and common dis¬
tribution of wealth. Hence, there is always room for
charity, and the exercise of those noble virtues that not
only help the poor, but also add to the greatness of hu¬
man character and the expansion and development of
the noblest faculties of human nature. We need not
now argue the fundamental causes of these differences.
It is enough for the present purpose to recognize the
fact of their existence and possible permanence, at least,
until the triumphs of the gospel system shall change the
heart of man to that degree where the truth shall force
92
TEE BICE AND TEE POOR.
his erratic nature to obey its teaching in the fullest sense
of its letter and spirit. It is convenient to be rich, but
not sinful to be poor. Nor is it sinful to be rich. Solo¬
mon says, "Give me neither riches nor poverty/' and he
further says, "If riches increase, set not thy heart upon
them." Both riches and poverty have their advantages,
the one in this life, the other in the life to come. Here
it may be said that "the rich and the poor" do not "meet
together," though the Lord is still "the maker of-them,
all."
1. The commonness of origin and character.
The phrase, "the rich and the poor," refers to our com¬
mon origin in the creation and construction of our men¬
tal and physical character. Man is a genus and not a
species. All are made alike in all the constituent ele¬
ments of their nature. The basic principles upon which
character rests are always the same in kind, but different
in degree, according to the respective conditions under
which they may have lived. The outward appearance
and even the varied civil aspects do not affect the mental
and moral standing, nor the real fundamentals of char¬
acter. All have the same number of faculties, or attri¬
butes of mind, and the differences we see in mankind
are not in the fundamentals of their being, but in degrees
of culture and development. If there were any real dif¬
ferences in the nature of humanity as regards the mental
ability, then there must have been different laws of both
God and man to suit the different capacities. There
must have been one law for the naturally superior
and another for the naturally inferior. Otherwise, the
ends of justice would be defeated, and rewards and pun¬
ishments could not take place on equitable grounds.
But as there is one God and one moral code by which
all are to be governed, there is a single and a one human¬
ity standing upon one moral foundation and with one
moral responsibility. There is a difference in mental
accomplishments and achievements, but this is in de-
THE RICH AND THE POOR.
93
grees, and not in kind. One is as much a man as the
other in the facts of his being, but not in the facts of de¬
velopment. Hence, "the rich and the poor meet to¬
gether" in a common humanity. But "they also meet
together" in the common wants and needs of life. Every¬
where man is man, and according to the history, prac¬
tices and experiences of the life of man, he is one and
the same in the substantial realities of his nature. Hu¬
man nature is always the same, no matter in what part
of the globe man lives. The various forms of his civil¬
ization, or those improvements that come to him by
means of his own efforts, are born of the same principles
and the same aspirations, and have always the same end
in view, namely, the betterment of his earthly state.
"The rich and the poor" are conceived and are born alike.
Childhood, youth and growth, manhood, old age and
death, come alike to all. They have the same tastes, feel¬
ings, appetite, passions, desires, pains and sorrows, and
are perfectly the same in their physical and natural pro¬
pensities. In all these things, "the rich and the poor
meet together."
2. But the rich and the poor meet together in a common
religion.
They have not only a common fatherhood, and conse¬
quently a common brotherhood, but they have a unitary
religion. The great thoughts, the high moral ideas, and
the lofty conceptions that permeate and pervade the
spiritual nature of man, had their germs and inception
in the ancient revelations of God, assisted by sober de¬
ductions from nature. It is hard to investigate nature
without seeing its Creator, or that energy by which all
things move and have their being. In some sense, nature
reflects God. Creation is the material image of the im¬
material God. The universe is a reflector in which the
majesty, glory and power of the invisible spirit are dis¬
played. Everywhere an active presence is near, filling
the infinite operations with intelligence and the highest
94
THE RICE AND THE POOR.
ideals of perfections and demonstrations of wisdom^
Everywhere the mind is overwhelmed with wonder and
amazement, until the living manhood is instinct, ramified
and baptized with the spiritual essence. Creation and
Eevelation tell the same story, and "the invisible things
of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead." The very personality of
our manhood takes in and assimilates the universal
'"Godhood," and the life of man is but the product of
another and a higher life, and can but reflect its "image
and superscription."
The ancient revelations of God run parallel with the
ever-present testimony of creation. So far as they go,
both are chapters in the eternal economy, and are the
witnesses and loud proclaimers of an unbroken line of
control and a unitary system of government. In senti¬
ment and doctrine, the corner-stone of religion is always
the same. As there is but one God and Father, there i&
one government, and consequently, one great religion.
As this one government has been perverted by men, so
this one religion has been corrupted and perverted by
the same power. But its great pillars of truths remain.
Idolatry itself is only a fearful perversion of original
religion, or ancient Christianity; but as a false coin
proves the existence of a true Coin, so false religion
proves that there is a true religion. The coin may have
lost its image and superscription, but the solid metal re¬
mains. Here "the rich and the poor meet together," be¬
cause on the spiritual plane they are compelled to meet
in a common religion.
3. The solemn doom will make them meet.
But Solomon intended more especially to emphasize
the solemn doom that awaits all the sons and daughters
of men—that awful and tremendous catastrophe that
involves the dissolution of the body, the flight of the
spirit to another clime, and the silent chamber of the-
THE RICH AND THE POOR.
grave. What is more serious? What is death? And
why must I die? There is nothing in the mere physical
change that we call death, but the issues involved, or
consequent upon it, are momentous, tremendous, and
far-reaching in their effects. Death changes the estate
of man, decides the issues of life's conflict, transports,
exports, and dissolves relations and dispatches the spirit
as a swift courier to the seat of God, the cfenter of univer¬
sal power. Death involves a mysterious transition be¬
tween the spheres, since it takes us from one place to
another, or from this to another world. Millions have
passed over life's boundary line and made the mysterious
exit, but not one has returned to describe the way or the
place to which he has gone. No voice comes back to us
from that far off country, or that unseen realm where
God and angels dwell. i
No man has, as yet, discovered any remedy or method,
to stay the hand of death, or stop his fearful ravage and
devastating inarch through the ages. But step by
step, and day by day the grim monster encroaches upon
the children of men in every clime, kindred, and people.
Triumphantly he reigned from Adam to Moses, and
claimed those children of men who had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression. He marched
captive an unbroken line across the flood, ravaged the
postdiluvian ages, swept through the rising generations,
crushed the empires of the Mediaeval dispensations, cor¬
rupted the streams and broke the trend of modern civil¬
ization, and ever defies the discoveries of materia medico,
and the deep ken of modern sciences. All the sons of
men quail before him, bow at his command, and fall be¬
neath his fitful rage and outstretched rod. Solomon
descanted upon the science of life, and the wise men of
the east fled from him. David sang of him, and the
prophets of God heard his voice. Job felt his keen cold
lance. The struggling millions obey his behests, grand-
sires submit to his edicts, queens lay their jewels at his.
■96
THE RICH AND THE POOR.
feet, kings lay their scepters in his path, and monarchs
pile the ashes of their shattered thrones and the dust of
their empires upon his calcinated highway. He stops
the reign of empire, numbers the days of the mighty,
breaks the oppressing dynasties, strips the beggar of his
rags, the rich of his riches, silences the lyric of the en¬
chanter, and hushes the noise of battles and the tocsins
of war.1 His bow is of steel, his arrows are adamantine
javelins sharper than the fangs of serpents, and more
poisonous than if covered with the blood and filled with
the venom of asps. Always his "sword is bathed in
heaven," by whose double-edged blade, tears are drawn
and mingled with human blood. His deadly work goes
on always, his havoc is universal, and his reign eternal.
No king is like this king, no reign so long, no dominion
so wide, no lord so cruel, and no ruler of the nations so
exacting. All who owe him must pay in full principal
and interest in the awful crisis. Every cent must be
paid at the time of maturity, every bond liquidated, and
every obligation met. There is no forgiveness nor mercy
nor long suffering. He is deaf to progress and to the
resonant eloquence of song and the golden strains of in¬
strumental music. No bars of ironj nor gates of steel,
nor triple-plated armor, nor barricaded palace, though
rock-bound and defended by the frowning artillery of all
the nations, can stay his awful hand. He is the relent¬
less enemy of all the living, and plants his waving colors
of eternal sleep over all the dead. He proclaims no ar¬
mistice, nor lifts the white flag of truce. Eloquent ora¬
tors have proclaimed against him; philosophers, sages,
scientists and sanitarian councils have fought against
him with all their main and might; but as steadily as
the flow of time or the roll of the ages, the haughty mon¬
arch rides in victory, whitens the bones of the nations
in his dreadful wake, and shouts in triumph over the
fallen millions. Onward he ever comes crushing the
diamond centers of human greatness and laughing at the
THE RICH AND THE POOR.
97
waitings and bitter cries of the children of men. 0
death, how dreadful is thy reign! What terrors follow
in thy path! Here "the rich and the poor meet together."
In the cities of the dead they shall dwell together until
the judgment day. But we are told by the Word of in¬
spiration, "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in
the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with,
a great noise, and ithe elements shall melt with'fervent
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall
be burned up." But there is a great center to which all
things move, and a focal point where all things meet.
It is the judgment day, the culmination of all days.
Jesus Christ is the supreme Judge, and God the Father,
is. the eternal Usher. All that move in heaven, earth
and "the deep track of hell" are hastening to that day.
Every day with its contents, every age with its thought
and action,and the centurieswith,their chapters of blood,,
violence and death, shall crowd to the awful assize, "For
—evil." "For God stiall bring every work into judgment,
with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it
be evil." Every age has its history, every people its rec¬
ords, every man his thoughts and acts. All of these are
written in the day-book of time and recorded in the ledger
-of eternity. Earthly records may disappear, annalists
may perish "with their inkhorns dry and their golden
styli bereft of their artful touches," and the dusty leaves
of their fading folios may be forgotten, or yield to the rav¬
age of years; but all things come to the judgment, "the-
day of the Lord." All the toiling elements, all the groan¬
ing factors, and all the faculties of mind and matter, are-
the servants of God, and the instruments of his execu¬
tions. His Word must be fulfilled, and the eternal plan
of government must meet all the requirements of his
ultimate designs. All the universal propellent and re¬
pellent agencies, all forces, contingencies, activities
and powers of the infinite spheres of being are but the
obedient servants of the Most High to bring all things
98
THE RICH AND THE POOR.
into judgment at the last day. All the high powers
of heaven, all the low powers of hell, and all the
creatures of space and time are traveling to the judg¬
ment. While they sleep, and while they are awake,
whether they rest, roll, wabble, or soar, or move on
lightning wings, or dart on electric threads, they move
on to the great day with irresistible momentum and exact
precision. There are no 'broken tendencies, nor severed
relations, nor shivered bonds, nor lost motion in the won¬
drous whole. Every star, every sun, every shining sys¬
tem and brilliant orb, and every broken planet and burnt-
out world, with their flying fragments of hissing lava,
with their dying satellites and perishing kings of the
deep and "the lost sisters of the erstwhile seas," shall
terminate the long courses of their mighty rounds, fold
their wings of flame, stop the flight of their ethereal
chariots, break their contracting zones, lose their orbits
and plunge into the universal holocaust in sight of the
throne of God. Here their forces die, their forms change
and their equipoise is lost amid "the wreck of matter
and the crush of worlds." Here suns set to rise no more,
moons pale their silver faces, stars leap from their sock¬
ets, comets take off their sheeny robes, and the trooping
rsteeds of "the milky way" roll up to the end of their long
•courses, bow at the throne of God, fall in death and leap
5nto the infinite chasm of chaos, and amid the rumbling
thunders and howling elements, they sink into the dark¬
ness and death of eternal night. Hence, the Saviour
says, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the
powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall
appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall
see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory. And he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather
THE RICH AND THE POOR.
99
together his elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." But the judgment is coming and
its approach is to be heralded forth by "a shout" and with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,
and "we shall all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ." The circumstances attending his appearing,
and the awful signals of his approach are wonderful be¬
yond the power of human description, and are worthy of
the great occasion. Ten thousand thunders rolling and
filling the spheres with awful tremors, and the heavy
tramp of the martial tread of the judgment millions en¬
gage the attention of universal humanity. The universal
summons sends its deep thrilling sensations along all the
-depths and heights of the living and of the dead, and all
that sleep in their graves shall hear the voice of the JSon
of God. "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye
shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, Amen."
High above the ancient tracks of planets and the burn¬
ing paths of melting worlds and incinerated systems, the
great white throne of Jesus, the Christ of God, appears.
Around him bright conclaves and concatinated files of
the unbroken ranks of the eldest children of eternity
glitter as if colored by the lightning's flash. Millions of
angelic golden leagues, like threads of fiery currents and
tongues of liquid flame, girdle the throne of the eternal
with the congregated citizenry of heaven. Around him
cherubic legions and the ever deepening trains of sera--
phic files radiate the circles and cover the widespread
seething seas of living spirits with the scintillations of
their wings and the beamy splendors of heaven. The
deep rolling thunders shake the mansions of the dead,
stir the sleeping millions, and "from the center to the
utmost poles," universal humanity, both living and dead,
breaks the adamantine links of its long slumber and rises
to the judgment bar. No names will be forgotten, nor
100
THE RICH AND THE POOR.
lost sight of, but every dead son of Adam's race shall be
there. The lost thought and the scattered memory of
the whole circle of all humanity shall come up with the
precise characters and individuals to which they belong,,
and every man, woman and child shall still be a real
conscious self, an eternal moral personality. "All
things" shall be brought into judgment. Kings shall
bring their crowns, monarchs the histories of their
reigns, conquerors their bloody swtirds, and annalists
the records of their people. All the works of the human
race, both public and private, shall be brought into judg¬
ment and weighed in the balances of truth and equity,
and judged by the justice of God and the inexorable
law of righteousness. Oh wondrous day! It is the day
of days, the culmination of all days, the center where all
things meet, the place and date of all final decisions, and
the destiny of all men.
"He comes! he comes! the Judge severe !
The feeventh trumpet speaks him near;
His lightnings flash, his thunders roll;
How "welcome to the faithful soul!
From heaven angelic voices sound;
See the Almighty Jesus crowned!
Girt with omnipotence and grace,
And glory decks the Saviour's face.
"Descending on his azure throne,
He claims the kingdoms for his own ;
The kingdoms all obey his wprd,
And hail him their triumphant Lord I
Shout, all ye people of the sky,
And all the saints of the Most High :
Our Lord, who now bis right obtains,
Forever and forever reigns.'*
The Perpetuity of the Name of Christ.
"I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: there¬
fore shall the people praise thee forever and ever."—Ps.45:17.
Originally, this Psalm has reference to king Solomon,
the great son of great David, because the kingdom of
Solomon, as well as Solomon himself, represented the
spiritual and physical empire of Messiah. Solomon in
his glory was a fit anticipation and prefiguration of the
Christian system in its progressive development and
universal sway. Though Solomon was great, yet a
greater than Solomon is here spoken of. The name to be
perpetuated through all the coming ages is not the name
of Solomon, but the great name of Jesus Christ. As the
sun, with its piercing and brilliant rays gilds the horizon
with its bright light, and fills the world with his golden
splendors, so Messiah has arisen upon the dark sphere
of human depravity. Though slowly and gradually, yet
steadily he will climb the ecliptic of the world's civiliza¬
tions until a halo of saving grace shall electrify, purify
and save the millions from sin and ruin.
It is said of Christ that "on his head were many
crowns" and "that he had a name written that no man
knew but himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood; and his name is called the word of God."
So he is distinguished by sublime titles, indicative of his
nature, work, and character. Like the stars of heaven,
they beset and bestud the oracles of truth, and will for¬
ever shine and glitter through all the ages of the nations
until every tribe of man shall be bedecked with the gems
of truth, and every lip and tongue shall glow with his
praise. How wonderful is his name! In Genesis he is
said to be "the seed of the woman." He is called also
102 THE PERPETUITY OF THE NAME OF CHRIST.
"Shiloh." In Job he is called the Redeemer. In Isaiato
he is called the ''child born," "son given," "and his name
shall be called, Wonderful Counsellor, The mighty Godr
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Is. 9:6.)
In Zechariah he is "The Branch," for, says the prophet^
"Behold the man whose name is the Branch; and he shall
grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple
of the Lord: Even he shall build the temple of the Lord;,
and he shall bear the glory and shall sit and rule upon
his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne,,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them
both." (Zech. 6:12, 13.) In the prophecies of Haggai
he is called "the Captain of our salvation." In Dan¬
iel he is called "the most Holy." (9:24.) In Jeremiah
he is called "the Lord our Righteousness." In Hosea he
is called "David their king." In Matthew he is called
"Christ." In Luke he is called "the Day Spring from on
High." In John he is called "the Lamb of God." In
Acts he is called "Lord of all," and "Prince of life." In
Hebrews he is called "the Captain of our salvation." In
Romans "the Deliverer." He is called "the Alpha and
Omega," "the beginning of the creation of God," "the-
faithful witness," "the root and offspring of David," and
"the lion of the tribe of Judah." But the especial and
preeminent n,ame of the Redeemer, is Jesus, and in con¬
nection with this, is "Christ," the anointed of God. He
is appointed of God to till a great office. He is a Priest
to offer up sacrifices for us—for all the sinning nations
of the ages. He is a King, for, says the prophet, "Behold
a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall
rule in judgment." He is the Prophet of God to man, to-
teach him the deep things of God and the mystery of sal¬
vation.
I. His name is great because it is significant of a great
character. "What think ye of Christ?" Who is he? and
whence did he come? For what did he come? Hia
THE PERPETUITY OF THE FAME OF CHRIST. 103
word records the work of human redemption. He came
to seek and save that which was lost. He came as the
God-sent, the heavenly Legate, with the instrument of
peace written by the linger of the King of heaven. He
came to bind up the broken-hearted, and to cheer the
millions with the music of God and the message of love.
He gave sight to the two blind men at Capernaum by
the word of his power, and at the same place the dumb
demoniac was healed. At Gadara he made the deaf and
dumb man hear the sweet accents of love and speak the
praise of the Most High in Decapolis. At Nain he gave
life to the widow's son and joy to a mother's heart. At
Samaria ten lepers were cleansed of the most loath¬
some of all diseases. At Gadara the legion of devils
fled at his command and plunged headlong into the sea.
The raging storm upon the sea of Galilee heard his in¬
vincible fiat, and the waters ceased to dance to the music
of the winds. At Jericho blind Bartimeus saw the
bright light of heaven for the first time by the healing
power of Messiah. At Bethesda five thousand were fed
by the incarnate Son of God. He raised Lazarus from
the grave, expelled the palsy, scattered fevers, dried up
issues of blood, and restored the withered hand. But
his name is to be perpetuated because of the doctrines
he taught, "for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as the Scribes and Pharisees." It is said that
i "he spake as never man spake," but no man knew the
truth as he knew it. He taught the truth—preeminently
the truth of God. His doctrines dropped "as the rain,"
and his "speech" distilled "as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass,
because he published the name of the Lord; ascribe ye
greatness unto our God." What would we do without
the words of Christ? To what school of science and law
should we go to learn what we have learned from the
blessed words of Jesus? Can human wisdom find
104 THE PERPETUITY OF THE NAME OF CHRIST.
out God to perfection? The world without a Christ!
How dark and desolate1! "Thou hast the words of eter¬
nal life, unto whom shall we go?" Nay, the world be¬
longs to Jesus Christ. It is his by redemption. "Ye are
bought with a price," and that price was the blood and
tears and sorrows of the Son of God; "being rich, he be¬
came poor, that through his poverty ye might be made
rich." He is at work to-day for you and for me—for
every child of man. His doctrine is being distilled as
the dew upon the delicate violet, the fragrant lily, the
blushing rose, the lofty pine, and towering cedar. His
sweet words of truth and love still play on the harp of
life, and ring out and spread over the world, crossing
seas, oceans, islands, piercing continents, sweeping
through the gates of kingdoms, and the melodies of his
name are chanted in palace halls and ivory temples. On
his name flies as if winged with the zephyrs «of Ceylon's
isle, laden with the breath of flowers and the melodies
of the spheres. The name which angels adore and wor¬
ship, the name so full of consolation to the sinning and
lost race yf Adam is Jesus, the Christ of God.
"I will make tliy name to be remembered in all generations,
because all great events are connected with it." *'The
Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before
his works of old. 1 was set up from everlasting, from
the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were
no depths, 1 was brought forth; when there were no foun¬
tains abounding with water When he prepared
the heavens, 1 was there; when he set a compass upon the
face of the depth: when he established the clouds
above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
when, he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters
should not pass his commandment: when he appointed
the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one
brought up with him: and 1 was daily his delight, rejoic¬
ing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part
• THE PERPETUITY OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 105
'of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men."
(Prov. 8.) The Apostle in Hebrews says, "By whom also
he made the worlds." Thus he is identified with the cre¬
ation of the world. In Revelation he is styled, "The be¬
ginning of the creation of God," and "the first born of
every creature." He is the Lamb slain from the foun¬
dation of the world. He was with God the Father when
he said, "Let us make man in our own image." He is the
Angel of the covenant which appeared to Moses in the
burning bush in the wilderness, and said, "I am that 1
;am." He it was who smote the first born of Egypt's
rebellious sons and overwhelmed her haughty king and
his hosts in the Red Sea. He was the rock smitten in
the wilderness which gave the sons of Israel drink; for
says the Apostle, "That rock was Christ." He was the
fourth one that looked like the Son of God in the fiery
furnace with three Hebrew children, and by his power
he quenched the violence of the fire, so that they came
out without the smell of fire upon their garments.
As the Great Redeemer, he "cometh from Edom, with
dyed garments from Bozrah." He "is glorious in his
apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength" and
hath trodden in the winefat alone. As the Redeemer,
he came to establish his church by organizing its
spiritual forces, uniting its energies and inspiring the
millions with hope, causing them to call him blessed.
Onward he drives his chariot wheels. They are thunder¬
ing and rumbling along every commercial channel, dart¬
ing into every little trading cave, and rolling through
the streets of the great cities, while rural plains and
flowery dells rejoice at the sound of his coming. Hp is
the Hope of the world, the Light of the nations. He is
moving and stirring the public heart and changing sen¬
timent and thought. Ancient superstitions and modern
infidelity are trembling at his approach, while the evo¬
lutions of society are moving upward to the mount of a
106 THE PERPETUITY OF TEE NAME OF CHRIST.
purer faith and a higher standard of morality. The light¬
ning carries his word, and winds transport his name
across the seas, and ocean cables quiver with his truth
and dance with his praise. But the remembrance of his
name cannot be blotted out. It cannot be lost or forgot¬
ten among the vast assemblage of great names. He
stands not as a star in the zenith that bestuds the "Milky
Way," but as a great shining sun superlatively luminous
and alone flying along in his own glorious orbit, and
with an undimmed lustre he shall shine on through end¬
less days. But few names have outlived the centuries
and none have been so universal as Christ's. Many
whose names have been remembered by posterity have
been remembered because of their wickedness, mon¬
strous crimes and diabolical acts, as Nero, Antiochus,
Domitian and Herod. Others have their names kept
alive because of military prowess and warlike achieve¬
ments, as Caesar, Hannibal, Alexander and Napoleon.
Some are remembered on account of discoveries in
science and art, or because of their philosophical and
literary productions; others on account t)f their vir¬
tues and philanthropy. The nations extol their he¬
roes and praise their greatness in verse, song, and
national airs. They celebrate their birth and death,
and perpetuate their memories in shafts of marble, pil¬
lars of stone and monuments of bronze. The mother
endeavors to perpetuate the memory of her darling child
by wreathing its grave with garlands of flowers and
softening of the sod by showers of tears. The children of
dead fathers carve in solid marble, enduring epitaphs
of love and esteem. But verse and national air shall
cease amid the clash of nations and the wreck of king¬
doms. Shafts of marble, pillars of stone and monuments
of bronze shall tumble and crumble and perish under the
heavy tramp of the ages. The graves of parent and child
though wreathed in flowers and wet with tears, shall be
THE PERPETUITY OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 107
forgotten, yet the name of Christ shall be remembered
in all generations. It shall be remembered because of
his personal purity, his gracious words, his wonderful
miracles, his unbounded love, his sufferings and vica¬
rious passion and death, his glorious triumph over men,
devils, earth and hell. He will be remembered as the
Founder of Christianity, the universal Saviour, and the
ever reigning King. His name cannot be Wotted out by any
earthly power. Earth and hell have conspired against
his name. Kings and rulers have covenanted against
him. Learning, philosophy, power, wealth, influence and
the arms of nations have all been employed against him,
but all in vain.
But says the text: "Therefore shall the people praise thee
forever and ever."
Some men have said in effect the time will come when
the name of Christ shall be forgotten! This cannot be.
God has said, "His name shall endure forever." Again
he says, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and eyer, a scep¬
tre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom, there¬
fore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil
of gladness above thy fellows." How can his name be
forgotten, when "the people shall praise him forever and
ever?" Can the sun be forgotten while he pours his
burning rays on the earth? Indeed, his name is the sym¬
pathetic chord in the octachord of the ages and nations.
His praise vibrates all the fibres of the heart, plays on
every string, flashes on every nerve, quivers on every
golden thread and fills every chamber of the soul with
his love. He has been praised by prophets, lawgivers,,
priests and kings, by shepherds, seers and bards. From
the temple hill of God, his praise rang out from the hosts
of Israel, and thrilled Judah with the music of his name-
Solomon calls him "the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the
valley." David said of him, "Thou art fairer than the
children of men; grace is poured into thy lips; therefore
108 THE PERPETUITY OF THE NAME OF CHRIST.
hath God blessed thee forever." The celebration of his
name began of old. Each generation will continue to
praise his name. The fathers will die with his praise
upon their tongues, but his praise will not cease. Where
the fathers may leave off, their sons and daughters will
•<?ome forth with youth's enlivening fire and chant his
blessed name to the next generation; and then that gen¬
eration will swell the high sounding chorus until at the
base of the imperial throne of the judgment day, all the
choruses of the ages, though old and gray with the
weight of centuries, will fall upon the ear of an assem¬
bled universe. Nay, more, they shall go ringing on
through the cycles over the mountains of God, and over
the hills and wide extended plains of heaven, until again
all the morning stars shall sing together, and all the
sons of God shall shout for joy. Where will the cele¬
bration of his name stop? Who can set bounds to it?
"SirS, if these hold their peace, the very stones would
ery out." Sweet carols would spring from the earth,
and songs of praises from the rocks of the hills. The
rivers would murmur it, the rills would dance it, the
seas would hum it, the storm would howl it, and the
winds would whistle among the trees of the wood, until
leaf, bud, flower, and trunk would quiver with the melo¬
dies of his name and the joys of his salvation. Before
his name should cease to be praised by "the people,"
Jehovah, his Father, would evoke all the powers of the
universe, because he hath declared that "the people shall
praise thee forever and ever." Yea, he would raise to
life every dead prophet and sleeping saint, gather the
broken strings of every harp, reassemble every choir,
call up from the dead past every lost song, and revive
afresh all the melodies of the centuries and the anthems
of the ages. He would touch all the golden strings of
nature's great harp and fill' them with the music of his
name and the praises of his great Son. Think what it
would require to erase his name. Every Bible must be
THE PERPETUITY OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 109-
burned. Every book, page, and tract that contains Jtiis-
name must be destroyed. Every church must be torn
c^own. The tongue of every Christian must be hushed
in death. Every Sunday-school must |be banished and its
songs annihilated. All the harps of heaven must be bro¬
ken and all the angels destroyed. All the saints in heaven
must be silenced in eternal muteness and the heavenly
tabernacle of the most high left without a note of praise.
David and Asoph, the sweet singers in Israel, must be
brought up from their long repose, their hymns and
songs gathered and burnt to ashes. What will you do
with Milton and Watts, Toplady and Charles Wesley?
Their songs will outlast the ages, and are to-day ringing
around the globe, warming the hearts of believers, in¬
spiring the laboring sons of God, and filling the world
with joy and gladness. What will you do with the Te
Deums of the ages and the melodies of the spheres? Be¬
fore the name of Christ can cease to be praised, seraphs
must lose their joys, angels their songs, and all the sym¬
phonies of the redeemed in heaven and ,on earth must be
struck dumb with silence of the grave. Bards and proph¬
ets, philosophers and sages, must all be annihilated, and
their names and songs and melodies wiped off the face
of creation and erased from the annals of the ages. But
man is a harp of a thousand strings. In his redeemed
state this harp, with all its strings and scales, vibrates
the name of Jesus Christ. His name fills all the sym¬
pathetic chords in the octaves of his sou,l and in the octa-
chbrd of the nations and ages. We are taught in the
Scriptures, that if men are repressed from praising the
name of the great Redeemer, the stones would cry out.
The idea is, Christ's name must be praised, for the word
and promises of God must be fulfilled, and therefore, be¬
fore his word is allowed to fail, he will make the stones
praise the name of his great Son. Yea, my friends, be¬
fore the promises of God can fail, he would give every
rock a harp, every tree a song, every flower a melodyr
110 THE PERPETUITY OF THE NAME OF CHRIST.
every hill a verse, every breath of ether a symphony,
every sunbeam a carol, and every streamlet, river, sea,
bay and gulf an anthem. He would fill heaven and earth
with hymns whose choruses would praise the name of
Jesus Christ. Stirred by the breath of God, the saints
would arise from the dead, take up afresh the name of
Jesus and thunder it through the vaulted mansions of the
skies. The stars would hand it down, the moon would
kiss it, and the sun would shine it through all the planets,
while ethereal currents would waft it away, until "Arc-
turus, Orion, Pleiades and the Chambers of the South"
would start all the celestial inhabitants of the "Milky
Way" to the celebration in sublimest strains of the name
of Jesus Christ.
But his name is to be remembered in all generations, in
the sense of including all the nations of the earth. His name
is to be as widespread as the human race itself. The
millions of earth's inhabitants are to join in the universal
jubilee and know the universal salvation. The wheels
of commerce are to roll it along their iron highways. The
steel-clad "grayhounds" of the seas, dancing on the foam-
crested paths of interoceanic traffic, must bear his name
to millions who have not yet learned all the verses of the
mighty chorus. Cables that sleep on the pebbly bottom
of the deep must hum the syllables of his name to China,
Japan, Africa, Australasia, to the "Latin States" and the
great islands of the seas. Telegraphy and Telepathy are
his winged messengers that stand ready to do his bid¬
dings. These fly and dart at his command and quiver
with the celebration of his name. Shall the praises of
his name stop here? Nay, my friends, in heaven it shall
be continued, while the millenniums shall roll on their
eternal cycles. Moons may wane, suns change, stars
perish, and the centuries burdened with the weight of
events, may die, but his precious name will still be the
theme of angels and all the redeemed children of God.
From Repentance to Final Restitution.
" Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be
blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the pres¬
ence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was
preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times
of restitution of all things."—Acts, 3:19-21.
The text is designed to cover all those periods and dis¬
pensations of time through which and over which the Gos¬
pel kingdom should extend, and to cover those ages and
arenas that compose its fields and areas of activity. In its
organized capacity and character, the heavenly kingdom
has its external and visible coalition of forces and its con¬
federation of progressive and active entities and elements,
a3 any other kingdom. Consecrated manhood with its wis¬
dom, experience and achievements, makes up a great
part of those factors that must always be an essential part
of the visible body of the church of Christ. In one sense
the church is a kingdom of men, since men must constitute
its subject and present that plan of operation in which the
splendid rule and power of the living Christ is manifest.
But this part of. the heavenly kingdom in which man
is the active subject is but a part of the invisible and
far-extended empire that covers the deep steps of the In¬
finite and that lives and acts upon the broader planes and
the boundless spheres of being. On earth we only see and
comprehend a diminutive phase of the power and majesty
of that glory that lies in the beyond. It is only in the
ages to come and in those wonderful transitions of power,
goodness and grace that the whole kingdom of the Most
High ean be revealed. As creation rose by the touches and
112 FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION.
successive wonders of the hand of God, so His spiritual
and visible empire must rise until the evolutions and relays
of His hand "make all things new." As creation had its in-
cipiency—its first step and its first day—so the expanding
"kingdom of heaven" has its beginning in the bosom of the
children of men. Rising from the darkness of the past, like
the first morning star of the oldest creation, it began its up¬
ward climb upon the ecliptic of the world's humanity in the
shadows and mists of mental night. Though apparently
slow, yet upward amid the din and roar, the hiss and clash
of displaced elements of reigning sin and triumphant hell,
the Son of God piles stone upon stone, arch upon arch, until
golden turret and flaming spire gild the universal horizon
with light and truth, and the majesty of His love. As all
the stones in a building are cut, polished and fitted, so every
one who becomes a member in this heavenly kingdom,
must be changed by the operations of His grace, love and
power^ and made to fit his place in the heavenly temple.
There must be a perfect harmony of parts with parts, and a.
perfect harmony of relations. There must be a homogen¬
izing of heterogeneous parts, principles, natures and agen¬
cies with divine equanimity and the invisible fullness of
Deity. There must be that plenitude of power and co-
hesiveness of elements to solidify all parts and immortalize
the whole. This kingdom must be God-made and God-
given. It must be like God.
But the text says: "Repent ye, therefore, and be con¬
verted."
1. Repentance and conversion. In what do they con¬
sist? And why are they necessary? In the very nature
of the laws of God, and in the very nature of man, re¬
pentance is absolutely and indispensably requisite. The
illustrations in the above show the reasons why there must
be a change in human nature before entering the king-
FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION. 113
dom of God. Not only do the Scriptures declare, but his¬
tory, fact and experience declare, man to be a sinner, a
woeful sinner, and therefore needs repentance and conver¬
sion that there may be a peace-offering and reconciliation
between him and ]^is God. 1STothing can be done for human
redemption and the peace and happiness of mankind unless
there is some way, means, or plan by which man and
God can be brought on terms of reconciliation. We are
taught in the holy Scriptures, that "sin is the transgres¬
sion of the law," the violation of God's command, and the
natural consequence is the punishment of death, "for the
soul that sinneth shall die." And this applies to all the
intelligences of the universal empire of God, whether they
be men or angels or any other rational creatures. If angels
sin, they are cast down to hell and overwhelmed by the
burning floods of death and darkness to await the judgment
day of Almighty God. If man sins, then he also must
be punished, because for every transgression and dis¬
obedience there must be a penalty attached, and as surely
as there is a law to be obeyed or violated, there is of
necessity, a penalty, a sure penalty, that will fall where
it belongs, unless through mercy there is made a way
for forgiveness. Mercy, therefore, is the gateway of
man's escape from death or that punishment due his
sins. ISTow, mercy is not an attribute of Deity. It is
not a single inherent quality or part of God, but it is
Tather a combination or mingling of some of the attributes
of Deity. It is an invention of God, tto reach and save the
lost. "Wisdom, power, love, goodness and pity united
and formed the splendid scheme of redemption, and selected
the Son of God as the living embodiment of the divine
combination.. Hence, mercy is a harmonious combina¬
tion of deistical elements so attuned and balanced
that the universal diapason plays in unison in the govern-
8h
114 FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION.
ment of God without friction. Every wheel and cord,
every band and cog, with all the listening elements and
obedient forces conspired to reach the ends of government,
save the sinner, and "justify the way of God to man."
Therefore, the plan of salvation, is a plan of mercy, the
best of schemes, the crowning work of God, and the divine
ultimatum in the skill of government and the loftiest and
the sublimest executive wisdom. Power was infinite and
stood ready to create worlds or to execute the^ vengeance of
God and spread his wrath upon the heads of the rebel com¬
pact, but power could not save the sinner. Love, the sweet¬
est, the softest, the superlative attribute of God had no
power to save the sinner. It had the will, the' wish and
desire, but had no means to reach the sinking culprit. The
will of God was chained by the dictates of Justice who
clamored for the death of the sinner. Omniscience, on his
speedy wing of flame, swept the spheres, sounded the depths
of space, weighed the elements in the balances of judgment,
but could not reach the sinner. The Eternity of God, robed
in the belted splendors of the cycles, with the dead centu¬
ries and the broken wheels and severed cables of the decades
piled at his feet, spoke and said, "Kay." But Love called
a council of all the Attributes of God, and "Wisdom
said, "Let us form Mercy," and at once all the splendid
qualities, faculties and harmonies of Deity glittered around
the shining center of Love and Goodness, and gave birth to
divine Mercy, and then crowned her ithe Darling of God,
the Queen of heaven and the conquering Mistress of the
centuries. "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted," that
you may obtain this mercy, that is, be sorry for your sins,
forsake them, "and do work of righteousness."
2. But what is conversion? It is regeneration. Xhe
making of a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is a reforma¬
tion or a work done in us by the Holy Spirit. It is the im-
FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION. 115
partation of tlie divine nature to that of tlie human, and is
instantaneous. Man repents, but God regenerates. The
work of regeneration or conversion is, therefore, divine and
superhuman. !No man can regenerate, or recreate, or pardon
sin. This is the work of God alone. Every pardoned soul
must he conscious of it, he must know what the Lord hath
done for him, otherwise he would be devoid of that knowl¬
edge that is essential to his keeping the law of God and liv¬
ing obedient to his commandments. This is the ground¬
work of salvation, the beginning of the kingdom of God in
the hearts and lives of men. It is the essential badge and seal
by which we enter the kingdom of God, both in earth and
heaven. Sin expatriated man from the family of God, re¬
generation matriculates him, and brings him into naturali¬
zation with the government of God and the family of
heaven. Hence, the Saviour says, "Ye must be born again,"
that is, "born" from above, so as to reflect the perfect image
of the invisible God. "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he
is a new creature," or a new creation.
S. Each regenerated soul is an ixnage of God. This is
"the restitution of all things" mentioned in (the text.
The declarations of God must be fulfilled. His word
cannot return unto him void, but it must accomplish
that whereunto he hath sent it. Every knee
shall bow, and every (tongue shall confess. ISTow, "the
restitution of all things" is a process. It is the out¬
going of the divine power, the manifestations of the
truth of God in human life and in the ages of humanity.
The ultimate design of the gospel system is the radical re¬
construction of human nature, and consequently the pre¬
dominant reign of the truth by organized Christianity.
The things to be restored are the things lost. Christ came
to .save the world, to regain the long lost ones, and to re¬
establish God's ancient authority over the children of men.
116 FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION.
"The restitution of all things" is to put man back in
favor with God and in harmony with the laws of God, both
in his spiritual relation and in his personal and physical
conditions. God "made him a little lqwer than the angels,"
"crowned him with glory and honor," placed hie image
upon him, and made him lord of creation. In the ascending
chain of creation man'stood next to angels. The first links
in the chain of creation were the formless and insensitive
elements that slumbered in crudest shapes and deadest chaos.
Darkest forms swept the bosom of the deep. Black squad¬
rons of burning clouds and howling thunders hissed and
roared and sported in gyrated rills, and rose in splintered
shafts and broken spars and threw billions of their liquid
tongues across the highest empyrean and died in writhing
agonies hard by the throne of God. The' eternal seas, impreg¬
nated with ancient night and impenetrated by angelic wing,
or thought, covered all the unmeasured spaces and dis¬
tances from naught to God. The oldest eternity left the
oldest creation without a zone or a hemisphere, and played
about its own shifting centers, unconscious of order, and
unconscious of its God. No sun shone, no star twinkled,
no comet with fiery tail and burning disc flashed across
the mighty deep, nor cut the ambient rims of darkness by
its majestic sweep or godlike steps'through the fields of
night.
But the second link of creation's chain began. God
touches the elements^ with omnific finger. Material for
the second link is laid upon the anvil of almighty power.
The trip-hammer of wisdom plays on the burning material
while ten thousand worlds, and ten thousand more, fly out
into space, seek the golden threads of their orbital rounds,
and like battalions of blazing seraphs, crowned and robed
in the splendors of omnipotence and the power of the eter¬
nal, they dance on in space to'the command of God, the
FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION. 117
song of the cycles, tlie chime of the ages, and the music
of the spheres. The oldest children of eternity, the tall
archangels, and the heavenly princes and "morning stars
that sang together," stepped out from their places in the
lofty house of God, and with golden cymbals and high-
keyed organs all the thundering orchestra of heaven
touched the deepest chords and dug from the spheres
the sweetest melodies and the ascending scales of the
euphonious vibrations of all the ages known to immortal
spirits and immortal singers.
Thus the second link of creation rose from the sparkling
anvil of God to the crowned melodies of heaven and the
jubilees of angels.
The third link in creation was man. Creation rose from
the insensitive >to the sensitive—from the non-thinking ele¬
ments to the conscious, thinking man. He was made "in
the image of God." He was. made like God in the facul¬
ties of his moral and spiritual nature. Like God, he was
endowed with a mental constitution that should always re¬
flect the image and nature of his Creator. And this part of
his being is its most essential characteristic, and is the real
fundamental elements of his individual character. "We
cannot conceive the idea of some, that man is like God in
his physical personality. God is not flesh and blood and
bones and sinews, like the children of men. He has neither
body nor parts after a physical sense. "God is a spirit, and
they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and
in truth." He is the incomprehensible Deity in his sub¬
stance or in the mode of his existence, as well as in the
grandeur of his power and sublime perfection of his being.
How, then, is "man made in his image?" Evidently "man
is made in the image of" his Creator in the mental and
spiritual faculties of his being. As God is a spirit, man is
a spirit, and as He is a mental character, so man is a mental
118 FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION.
character. As God cannot cease to be, neither can man
cease to be. As Go.d will live forever1, bo will man; for he
is eternal in the fact of his being. He is an entity, and
never can be a non-entity. He is an existence that cannot
become a non-existence. His conscious humanity is
capable of decay, and incapable of annihilation. ^'The
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele¬
ments shall melt with fervent heat," but "the new heavens
and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" shall
find the mental humanity of man unharmed and indestruct¬
ible. Age upon age, cycle upon cycle, century upon cen¬
tury, may flow on in their streams through the shore¬
less ocean of eternity; but man will live on in his con¬
scious existence, and rise above all the changing scenes
and diversified elements, conditions and powers that may
come upon the plane of being in the spheres of the
universe. Man may be lost in hell, or saved in heaven, but
in neither place can he die the death of annihilation, or fail
to be himself in all the power, fullness and plenitude of
his Godlike personality.
Jf.. "The restitution of all things." Creation is a system
of harmonies, as well as a system of melodies. Though
one star differs from another star in altitude, magnitude,
power and glory, yet each and all work in harmony with the
God-made plan of creation, fulfilling His will and His pleas¬
ure. The imperceptible and incohesive elements that swim
the airy seas, or sleep in their gulfs, or linger in space, are
in harmony with the plan of God and the scope of creation.
The small dust of crushed worlds, the scattered cinders of
burnt out suns and dead planets, the broken stars and
groaning systems writhing beneath the heavy steps of
centuries, the massive tread of cycles and the grind¬
ing hand of Omnipotence, are yet in harmony with
the eternal decrees and the immortal fiats of the im-
FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION. 119
mortal King. They play on their own pivots, dance on
their burning curves, keep their eternal chronologies,
thread their long lines with angelic precision, coerce
erratic forces into line, belt their splendid onflow to the
throne of God, and weave in mysterious webs their in¬
comprehensible transitions around the seat and center of
universal power. Every floating molecule, every winged
atom, every breath that glides on sea and air, or leaps the
mighty channels of space, is in harmony with the Creator,
God. Every strihg, cord, thread and silken fibre of the
universal mechanism is in place. Every spindle, wheel,
piston-rod and cylinder moves on in splendid flight and
Jehovic harmony, and all is well, and all obey the high be¬
hests .of the imperial mandates. The centuries, as the
crowned kings of the cycles, and the decades as the crowned
queens of the centuries, tabulate their chronologies upon
the mind of God, and write their feats upon the eternal
ledger of the eternities, and every system is in its place,
and ultimately reaches its great ends and wonderful de¬
signs. Our earth is the servant of God. It is a spark from
the anvil of his omnipotence and practical mandates. God
made it and threw it upon its belted rim of fire and told it
to play on its orbit and sing on its winged track around
the King of day. He covered its continents and islands
and towering hills, with trees, flowers and grassy land¬
scapes, and said to its flora and fauna, "Bud and bloom and
blush on forever." The billowing waves of the seas, the
thundering torrents leaping and screaming over the shoul¬
ders and giant bones of the eternal rocks, roll on in their
majesty and splendid trim as if impelled by the presence of
God. Night and day, winter and summer, spring and au¬
tumn, and the windy blasts of the seasons, move at his com¬
mand, keep his law, and sleep upon their dusky pillows at
his will. All the elements, forces and Agencies are held as
120 FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION.
golden strings in his hands, and every part of the universal
mechanism is filled with his power and plethoric with
the music of his great name and the melodies of his love.
He "maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of
fire." The beasts of the field, the birds of the air, with all
the finny nations of the deep, and the billions of the insect
tribes that rest, creep or soar, sing in their sportive glee,
and in sweet obedience chant the name of God in
the forest and on the high keys of the air. Every
winged lightning, every breath of ether that fans sea
or land, and every ray of lighlt that dances the plains,
and all the trooping wonders of the ethereal ways,
run and return at God's command, covering the hemi¬
spheres with his smile, yoking the moving caravans to their
centers of action and their dynamic thrones. The centuries
and cycles, stepping through geological chronologies and
the genealogies of worlds, have Jaithfully kept the ways
of God, and in the sealed book of fates have recorded their
acts in the annals of his providence and have written the
history of their life, work and character, in the eternal
ledger. The name of every dead child, and of every living
spirit, the recorded birth of worlds and the death of planetfe,
and the funeral dirge of sinking systems -that have lived and
finished their mighty rounds in awful spage, have been piled
at his throne, and laid at his feet in obedience to his word.
He speaks, and all the elements, agencies, and the living and
erratic forces of eternal duration crowd to their places, re-
gather their threads of construction, take up their appro¬
priate rounds, and crown the whole law of God with the
silent splendors of perfect obedience, fulfilling his will and
pleasure.
But who, then, are sinners? What vile hand or puny
arm has been lifted up against the law of God and the
omipotence of the Moslt High? What rebel in the vast
FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION. 121
domain of being has risen up and assaulted the ramparts
of heaven and defied the King of saints ? Let creation an¬
swer ! Standing on the rocky promontory, at the flinty base
of a mountain, where the emerald lips of the foamy seas
kiss its bony feet, and where the dashing currents from
every island, land and shore bring back the tidings of na¬
tions, and hum the music of the spheres, I ask them the
story of their being, and in loud acclaim, accentuated with
the harmonies of God, and the dictates of his love, they re¬
ply that we have all kept "thy law" from youth" to hoary
years, and from their natal day, when God "set bars and
doors" to the seas, and said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but
no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." I
ask the winds whence they came, and with united breath
they whistle the name of God, thunder his commandments
over earth, air and seas, and hide beneath the sable bands of
death. Walking down the azure paths of the seasons, rose¬
ate spring with bursting bud and blushing flowers is seen
breaking the icy fetters of winter, expelling the hoar frost
and crowning creation with a wreath of flowers, and wrap¬
ping her in silken robes of queenly trim and dazzling
beauty. This is "the unity of nature and the reign of law."
On the outside of this "unity and reign of law," there is
a discordant element, and aij. inharmonious string in the
common diapason, composed of a rebel host, a sin-
smitten earth and a perverse humanity. Great was
the fall of man, because it involved the fundamentals of
government, the moral harmony of the universe, and
affected the physical spheres. It affected the spiritual,
moral and indestructible nature of man to an extent that
changed his relations to God, and the regular order of
his divine administration. A new combination of ele¬
ments, including the federation of great totalities, must
be evoked, and brought upon the drama of government, and
122 FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION.
operated on those planes and lines in total and strict ac¬
cordance with truth and righteousness. The great God
could not do wrong, but he could have mercy and send it to
earth in the person of his Son. Hence, Christ came not to
destroy, buit to restore; not to condemn, but to save; not to
bring hell, but to bring heaven; not darkness, but light;
not disease, but health; not death, but life; therefore, he
came to "restore all things." He came to recast and set
up the fallen temple of a broken humanity, reassemble its
scattered parts and thrill its entirety with the ancient
Shehinah. Humanity is to be restored, but how? "Not
hy might, nor by power," but by Jesus Christ—the living-
vital Christ—who is to take charge of the forces of nature,
the elements, agencies and all the powers, natures, combi¬
nations, federations, fraternities, leagues, societies, constitu¬
tions, and all the active potentialities and grand totalities
that operate upon the expanding horizon of universal
humanity, (jrod said to his Son, "Ask of me, and I will give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possessions." Again, "Behold, a
king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in
'judgment. And a man shall be as a (hiding place from the
wind and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a
dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears
of them that hear shall hearken." All things shall hearken
to his voice, dance at the touches of his fingers, and vibrate
at the majesty of his power. Every element, quantity, fac¬
ulty and quality in the intricate mechanism of the uni¬
versal order will be manipulated, wrought into beauty and
harmony and made to assume its ancient relations by the
-coercive hand of the Eternal.
"The restitution of all things" includes the suspension of
war, the nullification of corrupting institutions, and the
FROM REPENTANCE TO FINAL RESTITUTION. 123
overthrow of tlie massive conclaves of sin and infidelity
that have poisoned the nations, slain their millions and left
their writhing bodies, broken bones and bleeding carcasses
in their track of death. It means the close of the saloon, the
overthrow of drunkenness, the destruction of the opium
traffic, the fall of 'slavery in every form, the purification of
human society, the breaking of th,e prisoner's chains,
and the freedom of the long-bound captive. It means the
destruction and the total overthrow of all the forms, codes,
teachings and ungodly practices of heatheii priests and their
superstitious systems of ill-founded theories and false re¬
ligions. It means the fall of empires, the dissolution of
kingdoms, the disintegration of states, and the perishing
of municipalities, and the obliteration of every opposing
foe and antagonizing power. Who can stand before the
power of the Eternal, stay his hand and stop his kingdom?
Look up, ye sons and daughters of God, get ready for the
coming of the bridegroom. Fill your vessels with the
oil of his truth, "trim the golden flame," buckle on your
sandals, girt your habit and march out to the music of
his voice, and the choruses of his love. Look up, he
is coming! I hear the tramp of horses, the hum of
chariots, the blasts of bugles, bands of music and the thun¬
ders of a moving army. Swift-running feet skip lightly
along the horizon, and wings of majesty flash on the
zones, and inflame their parallels with his presence and
the light of his countenance. The throne of earth's
new King is set "on Zion's hill." Around him flash the
crowned princes, the dignitaries of state, the majesties of
empires, the governors of provinces, and the mayors of
cities. These bring up the threads of government, make
them fast to Jehovah's chair and bind them to the foot of
his throne. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof." Hallelujah! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Deep Concern for the Welfare of Zion.
" For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's
sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as bright¬
ness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."—Isaiah 62:1.
The language of the prophet involves a deep concern
respecting the Zion of God, the spread of the truth and
the extension of an organized Christianity. Every true
believer in the gospel of Christ, and especially every min¬
ister, should feel the same impulse and burning desire for
the extension of the kingdom of Christ that glowed
in the prophet's heart and flamed upon the prophet's
tongue. It is a most healthy and significant fact that
characterizes all the true children of God, that they have
an ardent desire and a consuming zeal to spread the
truth and make others feel, hope, and live as they do.
The first impulse of the young Christian is to tell others
that he has found the Christ of whom the prophets wrote,
and who, in subsequent years died upon the cross to de¬
monstrate and seal the truth of his mission and doctrine
by his death. "Zion" and "Jerusalem," are used as repre¬
sentative of the earthly city of God—the capital and me¬
tropolis of the Jewish theocratical kingdom. It was
Jewish, because its subjects and inhabitants were
of that race. It was theocratic because God was
the only and legal King thereof. As a capital and me¬
tropolis, it represented more than its mere own existence
and form of government. In the highest and fullest
sense it represented a kingdom yet to come—a spiritual
empire that should fill the whole earth with the glory of
God in the triumph over sin and the salvation of uni¬
versal man. "Zion" is the templed hill from which the
DEEP CONCERN FOR THE WELFARE OF ZION. 125
divine word and laws should be issued for the govern¬
ment of man and the propagation of those edicts and
stern decrees that claim the allegiance and obedience
of all intelligent beings. For says the Scriptures, "The
law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem."
1. Let us consider the spiritual "Zion" with Christ
its reigning King.
We must repeat here the fact that Christ is the reign-,
ing and true king of Zion, though not reigning in a hu¬
man or physical sense. In this sense, he does not appear
in regal splendor and as dictator over the earthly affairs
of men. As yet, he has neither throne, nor crown, nor
earthly dominion. These are to come in his glorious fu¬
ture." For the physical earth and heavens, with all the
elements and resources of endless nature, belong to Christ
in as true a sense as the spiritual and invisible. The seen
and the unseen, and even the unseeable, with all their
tangible and intangible entities, are in the range of his
touch and his controlling power. But for the present,
and a specific time measured by centuries, his operative
forces are those that lie in the field of spiritual power and
that divine energy by whose formative and mysterious
operations creation sprang into being and man into light
and life. How long his reign is to continue spiritual and
invisible as it is at present is a great and profound ques¬
tion that the great future alone can fully answer. But
according to the Scriptures, he is to reign until "he hath
put all enemies under his feet." "Then shall the Son also •
himself be subject unto him that put all things under
him, that God may be all in all." Again, says the Apos¬
tle, "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall
have put down all rule and all authority and power." So
that from the Word of God we learni that the spiritual
reign of Christ is restricted to the length of certain pe-
126 DEEP CONCERN FOR TEE WELFARE OF ZION.
riods or centuries, when in some vital form the phase of
his kingship shall be changed, or, in other words, "He
shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father,"
"that God may be all in all." Christ will not cease
to reign, no matter what may be the change or peculiar
transformation of his spiritual and physical empire.
Evidently, the Scriptures present to us at least two forms
of his reign. The lirst form is purely spiritual and in¬
visible, and is the formulative and transforming period
of the human church state. This is the state in which
we now live, familiarly known as "the gospel dispensa¬
tion." This gospel dispensation was fully developed on
the day of Pentecost, when an organized Christianity
became intensive and extensive by being endued with
power from on high. This is the beginning of the me¬
diatorial reign of Christ in the shape and capacity of a
redeemer. ' This mediatorial reign is to continue to "the
end" of the restricted period when he shall have finished
the work of human redemption, in the destruction and
overthrow of every foe and every opposing element and
power that hinders the spread and success of the gospel
system. Now, Christ is the Apostle and High Priest of
our salvation under whose direction is the organized
church, with its living ministry, with the silent, yet
powerful spirit operating in the world, reproving "the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."
The processes of the redemptive scheme to human con¬
ception seem slow, creeping along the paths and high¬
ways of the ages and the civilizations of man, contend¬
ing with perverse human nature, and the obstructive
forces of sin and Satan. Yet gradually and surely "the
end" cometh when he shall put down all rule and author¬
ity—kll organized forces, powers and elements— of wick¬
ed men and devils, and at "the end" of the prolonged
struggle, Christ shall present to his Father the world re¬
deemed and the finished church as a chaste virgin without,
spot or wrinkle.
deep concern for the welfare of zion. 127
2. Christianity is first intensive and then extensive.
Intensive because it involves the greatest interest of
man, and plays upon tlie deepest chords of his being, and
thrills t'he resonant depths of his soul with God and
heaven and an endless salvation. In the text it is called
"brightness" ahd "a lamp that burnetii." Says "the
sweet singer of Israel," "Thy word is a lamp unto my
feet, and a light unto my path." The blessed Saviour
says, "I am the light of the world." The prophets wrote
of the gospel age as "light." "The people which sat m
darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death light is sprung up." He is
a light for the Gentiles; "to open the blind eyes, to bring
out the prisoners from the prison, and them thai sit in
darkness out of the prison house." "And the Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the bright¬
ness of thy rising." All these passages adumbrate the
intensive forces of a nascent Christianity. Entering the
arena of thought and action, it glows, sparkles, and flames
as "a lamp that burneth." From the intensive elements
of Christianity, from its heat and flame, throwing its
bright light along the centers of social and civil life,
comes that force and spiritual power by which the church
is extended, and the gospel of truth is sent to the remot¬
est parts of the habitable earth. As light and Jieat are
the greatest forces in physical nature—the creators of
energy—so spiritual li^ht and the heat of God's love are
the greatest forces in spiritual nature—the creators of
thrift and go, bringing into active service all the latent
powers of the church and ministry, to extend its influ¬
ence and its saving grace to all the race of Adam. Man
needs an intensive or forceful Christianity. Any reli¬
gion that is beniflcent and calculated to elevate and save
the human race, must be forceful and capable of adapta¬
tion to all the ages and conditions of men. It must be
commensurate with their spiritual needs and ethical re-
128 DEEP CONCERN FOB THE WELFARE OF ZION.
quirements. It must be accessible to the poor and un¬
learned as well as to the learned, the rich, and the power¬
ful. The very fact that the Christian religion has all
the needed elements in richest profusion, demonstrates
its divine origin, and proves it to be of heavenly extrac¬
tion. The goodness, the wisdom, the love, and the power
of God are thereby exhibited in the system.
But why should it be forceful and glow with intensive
fire? Because it proposes to do what nothing else can
do. It proposes to save man from all of his foes, such
as sin and Satan and "his own crooked and perverse na¬
ture. It proposes to renovate and restore the" human
kind to God's favor, enable man to regain his lost pres¬
tige, purify and give chastity and dignity to human na¬
ture and the civilizations of the world. And this is a
more wonderful work which Christianity proposes to do,
when we consider the vileness, the hardness, the deep
depravity and perverseness of the human race. Man is
a sinner. His race is the sinning race. He rebels
against the laws of God and nature because he wills to
rebel. It is not within the range of possibilities for him
to cure and restore his fallen and depraved self. Intel¬
ligence and personal culture, with all the accomplish¬
ments and possibilities of his own efforts cannot reach
the deep-seated malady that dwells within and contami¬
nates the fountain of his being, corrupting every stream
and poisoning every spring of life. Is not man a sinner?
Man is a sinner. Misery is the proof of sin. "If thou
doest not well, sin lieth at the door," is the declaration
of the oracles of God. If there is misery, such as
sickness, pain, sorrow, poverty, want, suffering and
death, it is the evidence that some law of God has been
violated, and these come to the violater as a righteous
penalty from the jealous and sin-avenging God. Who
then can say there is no misery in the earth? Yea,
there is no end to the suffering of mankind in the world.
DEEP CONCERN FOR THE WELFARE OF ZION. 129
Every page of history and the annalist of every age,
tell of the horrors of wars and the mighty death-roll of
those who have fallen upon the field of sanguinary strife.
Every battle of warriors is with confused noise and gar¬
ments rolled in blood. Keligious persecution and strong
drink count their victims by the millions, crowding the
open gates of death with the pale caravans of nations.
The fever, the plague, the epidemics, sweep from the sur¬
face of the earth the great and the small alike. A mighty
stream of the dead forever rolls on in silent rush to the
unseen and "the great beyond." It is the business of the
human race to come and play its part upon the stage of
life but for a few short days, and then make its exit by
death along the downward plain into the grave and dis¬
solution. Great rivers may be diverted from their
courses, lakes may be drained and despoiled of their
waters, isthmuses may be cut asunder, and peninsulas,
may rise from their submarine recesses and assume the
grandeur and proportions of a continent upon whose
ashy face and bony structure a thousand cities with
their mighty civilizations mayjexist; but none can change
the awful course of the mighty phalanxes of those mil¬
lions that traverse the moribund ways of human life. It
is the irrevocable fiat of the great God, and the change¬
less edict of nature, that all who live must die. Who*
can tell what is in the great beyond where spirits live
and move? Who can describe the place and topography
of that land covered ^yith deepest shades and wrapt in
the dark bosom of mystery? Who can photograph its
mountains and landscapes, measure its rivers and sound
the profundity of its oceanic depths? What are the dis¬
tinctive features of its social life and civilization, if
civilization there be? Yea, my friends, "the gates of
death" are "open" to all the living for their ingress, but
closed against the egress of the millions of the dead.
These are awful questions full of interest to every living
9h
130 DEEP CONCERN FOB THE WELFARE OF ZION.
man upon the face of the earth, and without the solution
of the revelations of God are a productive source of
misery and distress to the sober and comtemplative mind.
But there is hope. The power of the gospel stretches
beyond the shady land, and pierces its deep gorges of
night, sounds its oceanic depths, plows up its submarine
caverns, breaks up its bony structure, and thrills its val¬
leys with the song of the resurrection, covers its dark
mountains with light, shatters the kingdom of the dead,
breaks the bands of the sleeping millions and lifts them
up to God and his Christ. Let us sing then,
Hope Joobs beyond the bounds of time,
When what we now deplore,
Shall rise in full immortal prime,
And bloom to fade no more.
2. Organized Christianity is diffusive and extensive.
This is expressed in the phrase: "Salvation thereof as
a lamp that burneth."
Christianity is not designed to be the religion of the
few, but of the many, indeed of all. The author of man's
being is the author of Christianity. Man is made, but
Christianity is not made in the sense that man is. Man
had a beginning, and is an organized intelligence; Chris¬
tianity is a native truth founded upon the divine nature
of God. The fashion of its ministration and its external
organizations may change in its phases, and its forms of
worship in one country may differ from that of another.
It is the state-church in one country, and the non-state-
church in another. It may cause peace in one country
and civil revolution in another, but everywhere it is the
same in nature, origin, spirit and effect. The same great
fundamental principles and truths lie at its base and
support its indestructible superstructure. The cen¬
tral and unifying principle is the Christ of God, and its
adaptability to all the spiritual and religious needs and
DEEP CONCERN FOB THE WELFARE OF ZION. 131
-conditions of men is proof of its divinity. As sucli, it
•cannot stand still. It cannot live domiciled or national¬
ized in one country while other countries and nations are
in the darkness of ignorance and heathenism. It lives
by propagation and its diffusive elements, an<l is essen¬
tially missionary in its nature. It cannot rest at home.
Its home continents and islands are too narrow for its
extensive and expansive operations. Its life is in its
activity and agitation. The ways of the world's develop¬
ments are the high plains of its achievements, and the
national lines of progress are its channels. The climates
of the world are its inheritance, the mountains are its
thrones and the valleys its palace gardens. The high
arch of heaven is its temple, and the spacious earth its
footstool. Its chariot wheels roll along the arteries of
•commerce, and its ships plod the veins of ocean trade.
It yokes the winged lightnings to its car and whispers
the music of its Christ over the steel cables of commerce,
and shouts its sweet accents of peace from isle to isle,
and from ocean to ocean, and back to its thundering '
shores. It ticks in telegraphy and hums upon its galva¬
nized threads of iron, calling nations to councils of peace
and good will, and staying the bloody hand of war and
international conflict. It penetrates the continents)
rsearches the forests, navigates the seas to ameliorate and
save the lost and dying sinners of Adam's race. It is
the soul of progress, the life of civilization, the quicken¬
ing power of thought and the guiding star of human
judgment. It explains the intricate problems of biologi¬
cal science and those far-reaching and important spiritual
relations that exist between God and man, and that exist
between man and his fellow-intelligences. It explains
man to himself, leading him through himself to God,
his Maker, and on through all those subtle questions
and profound inquiries that have agitated and perplexed
the thoughtful heart of man in the ages of the past. It
132 DEEP CONCERN FOB THE WELFARE OF ZION.
directs his feet along the ways of life, and develops his.
mentality and spiritual manhood as nothing else can do-
3. Organized Christianity appeals to all men for the con¬
secration of themselves and their wealth as a means of saving;
the world. t
"I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth
as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth."
This is an appeal to the church and the living ministry
for perfect and thorough consecration of themselves and
all that they are for the spread and universal diffusion,
of Christianity. Nothing but such a consecration and,
such a ministry will do or can do the great work assigned
to it by the Author of our salvation. As instruments in.
the hand of God, the ministry of the Word and the propa¬
ganda of his truth must be adapted to the ends in view..
As instrument, the ministry must partake of the spirit
and nature of the message which it is to declare. Min¬
isters must know Christ to preach him successfully to the^
nations and peoples of the earth. They must know him
in the fulness of his love and in the fulness of his power
and grace. As such, they must know him historically,
philosophically and in his redeeming grace and functions,.
They must know him by personal experience and spir¬
itual commission. They must know him in his power to*
save from all sin in a deeper, profounder, and more prac¬
tical sense than they know him in his mere historical life-
and character. They must know him in a higher and'
broader sense than mere philosophical sylogisms and
premises evolved from systems of thought and reason. To--
them he—the Christ of God—must be more than a myth¬
ical character or allegorical hero without body or parts.-
To them he must be more than Moses to the Israelites,,
more than David to the Jews, and more than Solomon to*
the house of David. To them he must be more than Alex¬
ander to Macedonia, more than Csesar to Rome, and more*
DEEP CONCERN FOB THE WELFARE OF ZION. " 133
'than Napoleon to Prance. To them he must be higher
-and greater than the princes and kings of the earth, and
•greater than the angels in heaven, and all the universe
besides. They must know him as he is—the full and
plenipotent Son of God, in whom "all the fullness of the
Godhead" dwells "bodily," and as the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. The living ministry
must know him as the dying Saviour, as the risen God,
the ascended Prince, the reigning King, and the offici¬
ating High Priest of our salvation.
The work of the ministry and the operation of organ¬
ized Christianity requires not only personal consecration,
but the setting apart of a large share of the wealth and
material interest of man. God's plan of human redemp¬
tion is largely dependent upon second causes, such as
the expenditure of money, the devotion of talent, bodily
labor, and physical exertion. Nothing can be done un¬
less there is an effort made by those who are in charge
of the affairs of the church. The law of labor and activ¬
ity is the law of nature, and applies to physical and men¬
tal achievements alike. The systems of nature and grace
are in perpetual agitation that arise from, and out of
their own innate elements. The ebb and flow of the
oceans purify the waters of the seas, and give life, vi¬
tality, glory, and beauty to the face of the earth, crown¬
ing the mountains with the trees of God and the smiling
valleys with the blushing rose and the blooming lily.
Let the ocean stand still; let its bosom be smooth as
■glass and cease to lash its tide into madness, the world
would soon be denuded of its people, and vegetation
w ould droop and die. The howling winds would no long¬
er whistle across the plains to carry the fresh ozone to
'the nations and living tribes of beasts, birds, buds, and
flowers. The chariot of the clouds would cease to roll
along the skies with terrific clangor and with passive, re¬
pulsive obedience fall back on the pla,cid bosom of a dead
134 DEEP CONCERN FOR THE WELFARE OF ZIOX.
sea, from which would arise a vapor of poisonous breaths
unendurable by any living thing. The great sea is the
breath of the world, the respiratory organs of the globe.
By its Jiving breath and dancing spray, the parallels and
zones breathe the breath of life and stir the.febrile tor-
ridity of earth's /Saharas. Every respiration that ex¬
pands our lungs and fills the blood with oxygen is a fly¬
ing wave of living air from the mighty deep, chanting as-
it comes the music of the seas and the melodies of God.
"O, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowl¬
edge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and
his ways past finding out."
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in the unfathomable mind,
With never failing skill,-
He treasures up his bright designs,-
And works his sovereign will.
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trem¬
bling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and
do of his good pleasure." This, then, i's the law of cre-
atioip.—work. Organized Christianity" comes to work..
It is the soul of labor and the sun of evolution. What
the sea is to the physical earth, the religion of Jesus is
to the moral and spiritual world. Its. influence is felt
in every civilization, and is building its temples and lift¬
ing its blood-stained cross in every land". Already its
golden anthem flashes along upon its- cilvern threads of
truth, begirting the globe with the sunbeams of his
love. "Ask of me/' says the great Father to the great
Son, "and 1 will give thee the heathen for thine inherit¬
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses¬
sion." "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'r
DEEP CONCERN FOB THE WELFARE OF ZION. 135
"Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O, Zion, put on thy
beautiful garments, O, Jerusalem." How thrilling is
this cry from the hill of Zion! Let the church awake,
and stand up for Jesus. Let the rich pile their wealth
at his feet. Let kings bring-their crowns, their broken
scepters, their hoarded wealth, and coffers of gold and sil¬
ver, and lay them dawn at the cross of king Messiah. He
has use for them all. ''Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to
the children of men!"
Life and Death.
" Who hath abolished death, and hath brought Jife and immor¬
tality to light through the Gospel."—2 Tim. 1:10.
In the wide realm of human thought there cannot be
any questions of profounder concern than those involv¬
ing the great and absorbing themes of life and death,
and their fearful consequences. Life and death are the
antipodes of our existence upon the face of the earth,
and constantly appeal to our consideration of their great
moment and awful concern. The tongue of man, the pen
of the philosophic scientist, the rapt visions of seers,
the songs of the Muses, and the anthems of angels cannot
bring to the contemplation of man a greater theme,
more engrossing or charming than that involved in the
text. Indeed, it is not possible for the mind of man to
dwell upon matters of more interest and deeper import¬
ance than that of life and death. Like a shock of elec¬
tricity it flashes on every wire, plays upon everything and
ramifies all the detep gorges and labyrynthian chambers
of the moral, physical and mental man.* It directs the
thoughts and mind to those solemn realities, and those
fascinating conditions and relations that meet him in the
present, and await him in the endless future. It is
worse than useless for man to attempt to reject those
premonitory thoughts that open to his view the stern
decrees of God, the Irresistible, the Inevitable. Life is
the normal condition of man, death is the abnormal.
Man was made for life, and not for death. He was made
to live and not to die. Death is the result of sin and dis¬
obedience. It is condign punishment for crime commit¬
ted against the majesty of heaven and the law of God.
A state of perpetual felicity, with the faculty of progres-
LIFE AND DEATH.
137
sion and development is the law of his being and the ob¬
ject of his creation. This view is anticipated by the won¬
derful construction of his physical constitution. The
upright bearing of his body, its symmetrical beauty and
enchanting charms, the radiance of the sparkling eye
and beauty of the glowing cheek, the wonders of the hu¬
man foot, and the greater wonders of the human hand;
the astounding miracles of the voice, the communication
of thought and feeling by word, the towering mind, the
massive, expansive, and versatile intellect, all present
man as the masterpiece, the highest ideal of God's con¬
ception of all his earthly creations. Indeed he is the
crowning architrave of heaven's architectural skill. By
these high attributes of greatness he stands at the head
of all earthly creations and sublunary wonders.
But the dignity of man is augmented and multiplied
many times when we consider that ethereal spark and
diviner subtle force which we call the soul. And this soul
is the master of sovereign man.
Whatsoever the soul of man may be, as to its nature
and functions and those peculiar powers enabling it to
subsist apart from the body, it is the source, the founda¬
tion and spring of life. While the soul is not life itself,
yet there can be no life without it. Thus the soul of man
is the precious gem, the indestructible jewel "that keeps
two worlds at strife"—the world of hell and the world
of heaven. In fact, there is a constant and perpetual
struggle between heaven and hell for this precious gem,
this substantial, yet spiritual entity. Two spiritual pow¬
ers—antipodal and antagonistic—assemble their aggres¬
sive and gigantic hosts in battle array upon the broad
arena of every man's existence, and with jarring tread
and heavy tramp of war, seek to lift the soul to heaven
or cast it down to hell.
But there are many theories as to what the soul of
man is, in its nature, attributes and origin. The mate-
138
LIFE AXD DEATH.
rialistic theory is, that the soul of man is not a substance
or reality, but a mere result of the combination of matter
so attuned and refined as to produce results, and there¬
fore, is not a thing with sensible properties in the sense
that matter has properties. The manistic theory is sub¬
stantially the same, in the final logical results, both de¬
nying the existence of spiritual substances in the Scrip¬
ture sense. But the Scriptures declare that "the Lord
'God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul." This "living soul" in man, was created by
the breath of God, a flame kindled within by the power
of the ^Creator.. We observe, too, that it is a distinct
creation from that of. the body, the two creations being
distinguished by two separate fiat acts of power. He first
made his body "of the dust of the ground," and made his
soul by "the breath of his lips," so that both body and
soul are creations proper, and not the mere result of any
peculiar combinations of matter, so adjusted as to pro¬
duce all the phenomena and; wonders of the human mind.
Then man has two parts, the mind or the soul, and the
body. This makes man an ideality, an eternal entity.
He cannot be more than he is, he will never be 'less as to
the nature and number of his faculties. Time or eter¬
nity, condition or place, can never change the nature of
man-so as to make him anything other than he is—man.
The abolition of death is the hope of man.
This is the work of Christ, and Christ alone. He has
abolished death, in the sense that death can do the be¬
liever no real harm. It is the abolition of that death
that involves the punishment for sin and transgressions
committed against God and the moral code of the uni¬
verse. This abolitipn of death involves the forgiveness
of sins, the reconciliation of God and man, and the re¬
demption and salvation of all who come to Jesus Christ
as the Saviour of the world. Christ came as God's Inter-
LIFE AND DEATH.
139'
preter, a heavenly Legate with plenipotentiary powers,
to make plain the will and laws of God to sinful and re¬
bellious man. He uncovers the mystery of God that
could not be explained by the wisdom, research, and
learning of man so as to annul the power of death and
take away its terrors. He does not come to destroy
natural or corporeal death, but to remove the sting of
death, and release us from punishment eternal, and give-
us joys everlasting. Hence, "he taught them as one hav¬
ing authority and not as the Scribes." Death, then, is the
first great foe to be overcome or destroyed. This was a
work that all humanity combined could not do. It was
not in the capacity of the dying to remove or destroy a
power greater than itself, and there was no process or
method known to mankind to remedy the defect or evade-
the results of sin. The sinner cannot heal himself of a
spiritual malady that requires more skill and power than,
was in the sinner. Again, Christ has a complete knowl¬
edge of the state of man. He had the most perfect and
minute comprehension of all those principles and ele¬
ments that existed in man, and which had been dis¬
jointed and confused by transgressions and sins. Be¬
ing man himself as well as God, he comprehends the-
remedy as well as the disease. To destroy death he must
die himself, and to raise the dead, he himself must rise,
and to break the force of the grave, he must enter its-
dark and cold precincts and tread the dark "valley of
the shadow of death." To save man, he must become
man with all his pains, his sorrows, his tears and all those
death agonies through which every man must pass. "For
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and"
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that
through death, he might destroy him that had the power-
of death, that is, the devil; and deliver those who through-
fear *of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.""
But what is deathf
140
LIFE AND DEATH.
Death is. the antithesis of life, the removal of the spirit
from the body, the extraction of the moving and ani¬
mating principle from the material machinery. It is a
profound quietism and the disintegration of all of the
bodily parts. This is natural death, pure and simple,
This, Christ did not come to abolish in the immediate
sense. But spiritual death is the death of the soul-^the
punishment of the spiritual and mental man, in a state of
consciousness and personal identity. There is no death
in the sense of annihilation. Dead men are not annihi¬
lated. Their bodies are disintegrated, and their souls
are in the spirit world, but they still retain all the facul¬
ties of their being. Indeed, death cannot shake off human
character or personal identity, or utterly obliterate
those distinguishing features that characterize intelligent
existence. Even man himself cannot devise any means
to destroy himself in the sense of annihilation, because
he is a stern entity, whose eternal decrees forbid his
nonentity. Could an intelligent creature thus make his
place a blank in creation, the will of God would be de¬
feated, and his moral government could not be main¬
tained. iNo, when the sinner lands in the state of pun¬
ishment, he will still be all that he was in life and char¬
acter. He will carry with him all the consciousness and
vividness of memory that he ever had in this state of
trial and probation. State or condition cannot change
character nor mental personality. He will be himself
in spite of himself, and in spite of all the efforts he may
make to become nothing. He may treasure up unto
himself "wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God," yet he cannot remove
himself from the Creator, and thus evade "the day of
wrath" and those awful responsibilities that belong to
him as a moral being, because of his free moral agency.
The elements and properties of man's being make him an
everlasting entirety as a part of the permanent fixture
LIFE AND DEATH.
141
of the universe, a real part of the most real elements—
the mental part. No other being can fill his place in the-
eternal series and concatenations of the endless crea¬
tions of God. He is an essential part of the moral uni¬
verse that cannot be extracted or sepatated from it, and
every single individual of the race must fill his own place-
in the mighty series of responsibility. There 'is a per¬
sonal responsibility and moral obligation involved in hu¬
man existence that cannot be escaped or evaded by shift¬
ing it upon the shoulders of others, or by sinking it in.
some deep and unknown part of the universe. We can¬
not hide our obligations any more than we can hide our
sins an.d crimes which are written upon the tablets of
the heart and wrapt up in the convolutions of the souL
Man cannot hide from God any more than he can hide
from himself, and he can as soon flee from himself as he-
can flee from God or the moral universe of which he
forms an essential part and an inextricable force. He
makes one in the vast number of intelligent individuals,,
and is a link in the great chain of being that threads the
fiat acts of God, making each man a part of every other
in the most minute and mutual relation. Because
of the high dignity, spirituality and indestructible in¬
dividualism of man his annihilation (if such were possi¬
ble) would unbalance the moral sphere, and throw out of
harmony the moral government of God, affecting every
interest and part of moral and intelligent existence.
The great chains of creation's symphonetic links would
become disorganized and stripped of those consonant
and responsive octachords that have for interminable
ages made the universal diapason a system of wonderful'
and amazing harmonies, transcending the comprehension
of men and angels and all the towering intellects of the
universe. How, then, can man be annihilated any more
than the universe can be? Is he not an important part of
the great whole, made in the image of God? Nay, nay,,
142
LIFE AND DEATH.
friends, the stars may fall, and heaven and earth may-
pass away as they must in the coming ages, but mail,
the offspring of God, will hold his place in the economy
of God, and the native eternity of his being. Since he
lias begun to be, and since he does exist, creation would
be without its crown and the preponderating element in
the absence or man. Man, then, is an important element
in the creations ot God, comprehending in his being the
physical, spiritual and mental parts that belong in com¬
mon to all the kingdoms and dominions of God. And
because of these relations in his origin and nature, he
must be an interesting object to all other intelligent
creatures of the worlds of the universe. •
But man is immortal. He shall live forever in some
place in the universe. In the onflow of his days, four
great facts surround his being. These are, place, state,
development and his service or religion. These are the
main and central facts of his future. The place that he
shall occupy in the potency of his being is designated
under the relative terms of heaven and hell—the two ex¬
tremes of the moral pole. Whosoever is in heaven is
not in hell, and whosoever is not in heaven is in hell. At
the end of every man's physical life stands the open gate
of heaven or the open gate of hell, and nothing can divert
his rapid course to one or to the other. Propelled by his
eternal destiny, and forced on by inexorable decrees, he
traverses the dark and cold territory of death, and enters
his everlasting habitation. His home is found, and his
place is fixed, and he begins his eternal rounds in the
infinite domains of place and space. Man may not be
confined to a small hemisphere, either in heaven, or in
hell. Wide, deep and high may be the prison house of
the lost—a world of darkness where no suns burn, no
•stars twinkle, no comets flash, no meteors blaze, and no
"pale empress of the night" smiles on a darkened world
—a world where no orb of fire ever sent a rippling rill of
LIFE AND DEATH.
143
flame across its dark "mountains, nor plowed those abys¬
mal depths of interminable night. The place may be a
house with steel gates and adamantine floors, with rock-
ribbed mountains of impassable heights, from whose liery
summits sentinels of towering blasts forever play upon
angry floods and burning seas—a place where every man
is against every other man, and where envy, anger, ha¬
tred, malice, lust and pride fill every heart, and falsehood
and slander ride supreme on every tongue—a place of
perpetual strife and endless war, endless in duration and
endless in the depth of its vileness and infamy—a place
where spirits bold and daring meet in dreadful conflict
and battle array with clashing sabres playing upon the
bosom of the deep in the plenitude of power and the
darkness of the night. But hear it, prison house of
the lost, with your gates of steel and adamantine floors,
where no suns burn, nor stars twinkle, where no comets
flash nor meteors blaze, no "pale empress of the night"
smile on a darkened world, where no orb of fire has sent
a rippling rill of flame across thy dark mountains, nor
plowed those abysmal depths of interminable "night.
Hear it, ye spirits bold and daring, with your clashing sa¬
bres playing upon the bosom of the deep in the plenitude
of power and in the darkness of hell. Man is immortal,
and has endless development and endless progression,
whether he is in heaven or in hell. Man, then, is a gem.
He belongs to those bright stars in the galaxy of God
whose unfading lustre and brilliant corruscation will
shine on through endless days. Christ came all the way
from heaven to seek and save him. He is lost. His place
is vacant in the twinkling galaxy of heaven. His value
is measured by the price paid, and that price is the blood
and tears and the death of the Son of God.
But death is a conqueror. He is the proud and haughty
king of the ages. He reigneth over the kingdoms of the
earth. His hand is on the land, and his atm is in the
144
LIFE AND DEATH.
seas. His triumphant chariot rolls along on the declivi¬
ties of the ages and through the cities and rural plains
of all the people, breaking the bones of the nations,,
crushing out the life and vital powers and spattering the
blood of the dead and dying millions on his own gar¬
ments amid the shrieks and cries of weeping thousands
and the lamentations of the people. His track along the
ages is marked by painted sepulchres, mausoleums, sar¬
cophagi and widespread cities of the dead. Cruel and re¬
lentless, he invades the sacred precincts of every family,
greedily plucking the blooming infant from the mother's-
breast, and the darling "child from the downy lap of ease,
transporting them to the eternal city of ineffable bright¬
ness far beyond its narrow sea. Before him, thrones,
topple, crowned heads fall, empires quiver, sceptres
break, kingdoms disintegrate, and States crumble into
dust. At his command warriors bow, armies flee, swords
are sheathed, and belching cannon cease to play on the
bloody arena ot death. His quivers are filled with ar¬
rows poisoned with the venom of serpents and the pangs
of asps that fly thick and fast from his bow. The
winds are his horses, the zephyr his chariots, and the
blushing rose and smiling lilies of the plains his
boudoir. He "lurks in every flower," ripples in the curl¬
ing flood, whistles in the winds, screaks in the storm,,
thunders in the air, and bellows in the earthquake,
sweeping the zones and parallels of earth with the dense-
shades of Hades and the smoke and fumes of Tartarus.
He has plucked crowns from kings, jewels from queens,
gold plate from emperors and gems from princes and
rulers. Who can stand before him and resist his power?
"Who can open the doore of his face?" "He esteemeth.
iron as straw and brass as rotten wood." "The arrow
cannot make him flee; sling-stones are turned with him
unto stubble; darts are counted as stubble; he laugheth.
at the shaking of a spear."
See, see, he cometh over the hills, over the mountains,.
LIFE AND DEATH.
145
over the plains, through the streets, and his heavy tramp
is heard on the door-sill. The latch flies, the bolts roll
back and whisper sadly to the affrighted inmates, saying,
Arise, my love, make haste away,
Go get thee up and die.
But death, the conqueror is conquered by Jesus Christ.
He opens "the doors of his face" and unhorses the proud
rider, for he "hath abolished death," broken his long
reign, taken away his terrors, demolished his throne,
scattered his kingdom and rent his empire into pieces,
and set the captives free. "If the Son therefore shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed." "Death hath
no dominion over" the believer. But the abolition of
death means that all the children of God shall be beyond
the reach or possibility of death in that blessed place
and future home. We know it is a future, and accord¬
ing to the Scriptures of truth it must be a place, a place
of all the realities, perfections, splendors, glories and
magnificences that are befitting in its wonders and elabo¬
rate arrangements for the throne of Christ, with all the
equipages, powers and necessities that belong to a city
of the greatest of all kings. "There God the Son forever
reigns, and' scatters night away." There are no "cities
of the dead," nor grave-diggers, nor coffin-makers, nor
black hearses, nor mournful wails of the funeral train;
for death is absent—slain by "the Prince of life"—his
kingdom dissolved, his scepter broken, and heaven shouts
on through the ages, and fills the rolling cycles with the
anthems of redemption and the glories of Messiah's tri¬
umphs. Amen! Amen!
10h
The Insufficiency of the Wisdom of Man.
"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God."—1 Cor. II: 5.
The author of this epistle is the Apostle Paul, who
was, at that time, in the great city of Ephesus. He had
spent nearly two years of his apostolic life in Corinth,
at which place he had planted that important church,
to whom this first epistle was addressed. Having lived
in Corinth for nearly two years, and having become fa¬
miliar with the people, he was peculiarly prepared to in¬
struct them in all the doctrines, principles, and practices
of the Christian religion. There was much in the church
that was contrary to the plainest principles, doctrines,
and precepts of Christ. Under these conditions, it be¬
came the imperative duty of the Apostle to correct those
errors which were then prevalent in the Corinthian
church. Parties and divisions had grown up among
them, and schism and discord began to do great damage
to them as followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. For
those who recommended to the unbelievers the great
truths of Christianity which they professed, should them¬
selves show it by their well-ordered conduct. "Every one
of you" says the Apostle, "saith, T am of Paul, and 1 of
A polios, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." Here we have
four distinct parties in the Corinthian church. The first
party was made up of those Christians that had been con¬
verted from Paganism. This was the St. Paul party.
The second party or division was that of Apollos. These
were made up of those who wanted to mix religion with
Grecian philosophy, and engraft upon the Christian sys¬
tem those philosophical tendencies that then pre-
INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WISDOM OF MAN.
147
vailed in Greece and Alexandria. The third party was
for Peter. They favored the mixing of Judaism with
Christianity. They thought that a little sprinkling of
Judaism over Christianity would make the doctrine and
precepts of Christ more acceptable to the unbelieving
Jew. How much like our modern ritualistics. They
are blind to the substance, but grasp at the shadow, and
are content to live in the mere shade of the tree of Chris¬
tianity without enjoying its wholesome fruits. The
fourth party was for Christ. They wanted no leader
but Christ. They seemed to have thought that Paul,
Apollos, and Cephas had transcended the powers delega¬
ted to them by Christ, and, therefore, it would seem best
to them to throw off and discard their authority. Some
of oup modern religious partisans still retain this fourth
party spirit. Extremes are dangerous, especially when
driven by the storms of partisan interests. When we
follow men, we should follow them only as they follow
Christ. When they cease to follow Christ it is the part of
wisdom, and will add to our happiness and peace to
leave them to themselves. Paul, Apollos and Cephas
were all servants—ministers of the word. They could
sow and plant, and they could dig the soil and cast in the
seed, and water, but Christ alone must give the increase..
How different is this from the Corinthian idea of propri¬
ety! Corinth was a place n'oted for its learning, wisdom.,
and erudition, but it was "the wisdom of men." It con¬
sisted in philosophizing upon those wonderful and pro¬
found subjects that belong alone in the province of Reve¬
lation, into whose mysterious precincts none but God cani
enter. The city was renowned for its wealth, luxury and
refinement, as well as for its learning and the ingenuity
of its citizens. Equally noted and attractive was the
magnificence of its buildings. Splendid palaces, theaters,
elegant temples, and other public buildings, beautified
and adorned with the greatest architectural skill, rose
148 INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WISDOM OF MAN.
to the height of sublime altitudes in every jJart of the
city. Statues, columns, capitals, and bases, were the
pride of the inhabitants, and the admiration of strangers.
The citadel was built upon a mountain which overlooked
the city, and was called "Acro^Corinthus." The temple
of Neptune, celebrated for having a thousand slaves,'or
prostitutes, devoted to licentiousness and the lewdness
of the people, had its influence upon the morals of the
Christian Church, and gave it lax ideas respecting the
true spirit, nature, and practice of the precepts of Chris¬
tianity. iAs Corinth was celebrated for its marvelous
schools of philosophy and rhetoric, it was easy for the
church to suppose that the great truths of the gospel
should at least be clothed in the magnificent parapher¬
nalia of philosophical and rhetorical diction. The
sciences and the arts were carried to such great perfec¬
tion, that Cicero terms it, "The light of all Greece." Flo-
rus called it "The adornment of all Greece." When we
take a survey along the centuries of Grecian life and civ¬
ilization, taking in the city of Corinth as the best speci¬
men of that civilization* we form some conceptions of
the true character of its being and life. While looking
into the social, civic, and religious life, two things are
particularly prominent, and that is, that learning and
licentiousness, both great in degree and kind, should
be so closely Wedded, and go hand in hand, amid
great learning and social refinement. In other words,
it is remarkable, how, under the influence of so much
learning, that there should continue to exist so much
debauchery among its learned and intelligent inhabi¬
tants. The temple of Neptune, situated in the cen¬
tral part of the city, with its thousand vile prostitutes,
threw its dreadful and polluting contagion over the
whole of that populous and proud city, contaminating
the entire social state. Strangers from all parts came
to her as to a mart of science, law, and art, and likewise
INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WISDOM OF MAN.
149
fell under the moral plague that was then destroying
their great civilization. Splendid orators, magnificent
public speakers, made the great halls of the theaters ring
with powerful eloquence upon theories of science, law
and art. Symphonious notes of the muses and melo¬
dies of the spheres, throbbed and thrilled the enchanted
souls of the spectators, and wrapt and ravished their
spirits in visions of pleasure and ecstasies of delight.
Situated on an isthmus between two seas, she became a
great commercial emporium, and in consequence of which
her merchants became princes, and her people opulent,
while luxuries poured in and held universal sway, bring¬
ing with them that ease and fulness of bread which ac
company a debased, profligate, and declining civil¬
ization. Taking this view of the subject, how reason
able and appropriate it was for St. !Paul, being fully ac¬
quainted with Grecian life and the errors and the weak¬
ness of Grecian philosophy, to exhort: "Your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God."
1. The wisdom here spoken of is called "the wisdom
of this world," "the wisdom of men." This wisdom con¬
sists in the theories and the philosophical reasonings that
obtained in the Grecian schools respecting those things
that can be only subjects of Revelation. The rules that
govern it, the subjects discussed and the conclusions
reached by the unaided faculties of man, are "of this
world" in contradisitinction to the wisdom of God set
forth in the Scriptures of truth. The mere term, wisdom,
is of great latitude, and includes the wise application of
knowledge so used as to reach and accomplish the best
ends. Wisdom and knowledge are often used inter¬
changeably, when, in truth, they are two distinct things.
Knowledge is to know, or understand the relation of
things, while it is the province of wisdom to select the
best means to accomplish the best ends. In the Script-
150 INSUFFICIENCY OF TEE WISDOM OF MAN,
ures it often means "right judgment and feeling" respect¬
ing "religion and moral truth." "Behold, the fear of the
Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is under¬
standing." (Job XXVIII. :28.) A man may have a great
deal of knowledge and yet be imprudent, impractical, and
unwise. He may see the ends to be reached, but how to
reach them he cannot tell. Knowledge hews the rough
stones for the building, wisdom piles the whole into a
majestic temple of beauty and symmetrical proportions.
Knowledge is the prepared materials, wisdom is the
house built and made ready for habitation. But "the
wisdom of men" here spoken of may mea*n any system
or code of ethics, or moral philosophy, taught by "the
wise and prudent" of this world, and in this particular
case, has reference to the systems of religion and phi¬
losophy that then prevailed in Alexandria and the Gre¬
cian cities.
2. There is a profuse religious tendency existing in
the moral nature of man that cannot be smothered or
eradicated. Its voice is stentorian, continuous and elec¬
trifying in spite of the wickedness of his heart. It is a
part of him—an element of his moral stamina. It is
natural for him to be religious, and unnatural for him co
be irreligious, and he comes nearest to occupying his
original and ancient relation with his Creator, when he
is worshiping God in spirit and in truth. Since the fall
of man, this relation can only be attained by the atone¬
ment of Christ and the plan of reconciliation instituted
by him. Since man is a sinner, and has departed from
God by his own chosen way, he must, if ever he does, re¬
turn to God according to God's plan, for except God di¬
rects his return, he can never get back again to enjoy the
smiles of his countenance and the warm' sunshine
of his love. He is a worshiping being, and an ador¬
ing servant. He will seek and give his affections and
esteem to some real or supposed supernatural being,
IXSUFFICIENCT OF TEE WISDOM OF MAN. 151
whether such be real or imaginary. He has adoration
to give; to whom shall he give it? He has petitions to
be presented; to whom shall he present them? He has
•sorrows, pains, and grievances to be redressed; to what
power or authority shall he present them? He has a
lieart and a whole nature to give; to whom shall he give
them? He has an eternity to spend; with whom shall he
spend it? Some one has the property right in man, and
it is the design of revelation to direct him through the
meshes and labyrinthian windings to his rightful Lord
and legitimate Master—God.
The insufficiency of human wisdom to make the world
wise unto salvatioh, appears in its efforts and nature,
and in the fact that it has always proved a failure to
supply the moral and spiritual necessities of the human
kind. We are taught that "the world by wisdom knew
not God." It could not attain unto the Most High. Such
wisdom was too great for the world to discover and di¬
gest to the satiety and satisfaction of the hungry soiil of
man. Nothing can be more important to man than his
■eternal destiny and spiritual interests. The philosophy
of the schools and the wisdom of the wise and prudent
utterly incapable of managing the moral and spiritual
interests of the human race, and in such things the wisest
of men have made the greatest blunders. In the midst
of so many religious proclivities, it would amount
to the greatest catastrophe to commit the world's
spiritual, moral, and religious interests to the vague,
subtle and unreliable theories of human devices and
philosophical calculations; besides there are a thousand
reasons why our "faith should not stand," or depend
upon "the wisdom of men, but in the power" or capacity
■"of God," "who is able to save to thie uttermost" every
rsinning and repenting'child of Adam.
3. Religion is man's avocation. It is his chief work
on earth, and there is nothing for him to do in the great
152 INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WISDOM OF MAN,
world to which he must go, but to worship and adore
that Supreme Being who is the author of his existence,
and by whose power and will he will be perpetuated
through the endless cycles of his being. The highest
designs of his creation, the inspiring and noblest ends
of his personal entity and eneffaceable identity, lit him
for the place of eternal service in the ever expanding
phalanxes of the worshiping and the adoring hosts*
His nature—the attributes and faculties of his being—
cannot fulfill their functions and operate in their legiti¬
mate sphere if he is otherwise engaged. He is made forr
and suited to worship, and when in true devotion to God
alone, it is the only possible relation which he maj sus¬
tain to the Creator and the universe for the development
and highest evolutions and possibilities of his being.
Time and place, and even the mode of his existence can¬
not nullify these natural, organic, God-given and eternal
relations between the Creator and the created. The
modes and methods of his service to God do not touch
the indissoluble bands that hold him in eternal relation
to his Maker and preserver. Lost spirits with changed
state and conditions are still the servants of God in the
sense that they still belong to him, and are a part of his
kingdom and dominion; because, in a high and important
sense, they still glorify the great Creator by demonstra¬
ting to the universe the justness of their punishment
and the equity of his government. Even in their state
of sin and rebellion they Hot only feel the power and
wrath of God, but they must admire, if not adore, that
inexorable fiat of justice and equity that sent the rebel
hosts pell-mell into hell. His justice is as great as his
goodness. He is infinite in both. And the goodness
of God is as wonderfully demonstrated in the punish¬
ment of the finally disobedient" as it is in the sav¬
ing and the protection of the obedient; for when the sin¬
ner—be he man or spirit—is punished for crime, the in-
INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WISDOM OF MAN.
153
terests of the intelligent universe are protected thereby
and the executive God is vindicated in himself and by the
judgment of his moral creatures. The great end of cre¬
ation is the glorification of its creator, and this object
can best be attained when the physical and moral ele¬
ments are coerced into line and made to reach their
original designs. Of course God loves all his creatures.
He takes no pleasure even in the death and punishment
of the wicked. But" since they are wicked and disobe¬
dient to the laws of God, his own love of order and right¬
eousness demands that force and restraining power be
exercised to preserve the union and peace of his empire.
This is to be done at all hazards and in any sphere of
the universe where there are sins and outbreaks against
the laws of God. All intelligent beings are necessarily
and constitutionally religious, because wherever such
creatures or beings exist, their existence is dependent
«apon a higher and pre-existent being. Since their ex¬
istence depends upon a pre-existent being, they must be
under certain laws known to them as the product of a
higher power. Intellect carries with it the conceptions
the rule of actions and its author as the giver of that
tule of action. None can live in absolute ignorance of
God since they are in contact with tangible objects and
mental conceptions, both of which can only lead up lo
the Creator, in a greater or less degree. The heavens
declare his glory, and his invisible parts are seen in
the creation of the world; yet the wisdom of man, un¬
aided by the light of the Bible, cannot find out God to
perfection, or in those details and degrees of his will and
uature to that extent that is necessary to approach him
in a manner that is most conducive to his glory and the
happiness of man.
4. "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God." That is, we must not
rest our hope of salvation upon the philosophy, the
154 INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WISDOM OF MAN.
theories and conclusions of men, no matter how wise,
learned, or erudite they may be, because after all they
would be certain to be in error respecting the most im¬
portant things that can possibly enter the mind and
being of man. In short, in the very nature of things, if
we would be saved, we can only be saved by a reliance
and trust in the atonement of Christ and the mercy of
God,
Christianity begins and reaches its ends in faith,
because "it is impossible to please God" without faith,
for "he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Again, says the Apostle, "Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Faith is that belief and trust which brings us to God,
and causes us to live according to the precepts of Christ
and his Apostles. It implies: (1) That the teachings and
doctrine's of Christ are true; (2) That since they are true a
reliance or a trust in them for salvation, through Christ,
as the atoning Saviour of men, is true faith, or that faith
that saves. The fruits of faith are the inner consecra¬
tion of man to Christ and his teachings, and a consistent
life in the world. "By their fruits ye shall know them,"
says the Saviour; for if there be no fruits there cannot
be any true faith, or that faith that saves. Faith, then,
is necessary to human salvation, since, say the Script¬
ures, without it, "it is impossible to please God." The
grounds and reasons for faith are in the«very nature of
man and God. God is necessarily a spirit—an incompre¬
hensible and indivisible substance. He is intangible in
spirit and essence, and consequently cannot be grasped
by the human mind in any possible state or condition in
which the mind of man may be placed. He always was,
and is, and always will be the incomprehensible Jehovah,
and when the disembodied spirits of men shall ascend
the scales of a thousand billions of rolling cycles in their
advancive and serial .development, they—the mind of
IXSUFFICIENCT OF TEE WISDOM OF MAN. 155
man or angels—will never reach that stage in their in¬
tellectual evolutions where they might become familiar
with the Infinite. He is the intangible, the unknow¬
able, the immeasurable essence of all space and time.
He is so near, yet he dwells in an infinity so vast, deep
and broad, that no lofty creature's thought has ever de¬
scended to his depth, measured to his height, or crossed
the seat of his high and holy place. To what degrees the
intelligent mind of a creature may know the Creator in
the onward wake of mental progression, is an unknown
quantity in the cycles of endless ages. The question
itself is astounding and overpowering. It is the unthink¬
able part of eternal progression. Its endless threads of
evolutions and translations are ungatherable and hide
in the unzoned and nameless future. How then shall
men or angels or any, draw near to God? How shall
they reach the unreachable and know the unknowable?
How shall they approach unto the dwelling-place of the
Most High? "Not by might nor by power, but by" faith.
On its bright pinions we can soar along the great outlines
of his ineffable parts, cut through' the clouds of darkness*
and doubt and sit £own under "his banner of love" in his
bright abode.
But man himself needs faith. What is impossible to
knowledge, wisdom, and philosophy, is possible to faith.
Human wisdom is what we do for ourselves, but faith'
does for us,' through God, what we cannot do for our¬
selves.
5. This faith must stand "in the power of God/' and
not "in the wisdom of men." "The power of God" is his
.ability or capacity to do, and to execute his will, and ful¬
fill his pleasure. Nothing is of greater pleasure to the
Almighty than the salvation of sinnfers, and the redemp¬
tion of that part of his intelligent offsprings that have
violated his laws and rebelled against the government
of heaven: The moral "power of God," (or those convinc-
156 INSUFFICIENCY OF THE WISDOM OF MAN.
ing and persuasive methods which he has adopted) shows
that man has the power of choice, the ability to accept
or reject any proposition laid down by the Almighty.
This, of course, makes man largely responsible for his
own salvation, since he cannot be saved unless he does as
God commands, and comply with those requirements set
forth in the gospel system. In the nature and fitness of
things, the gospel system presents for man's acceptance
the only possible plan of salvation, and to stand aloof,
or go outside of that plan, leaves him in a state and con¬
dition where divine mercy cannot reach him. Christ is
the only Saviour of men, the only gateway to God, to
heaven, and reconciliation, and all must come through
or by this way if they be saved at all. Hence "he tasted
death for every man;" that is, he has prepared the way
for the salvation of all whether they accept it or not.
Not only has he made provision for the salvation of all
men, but has made it most ample, full, and free. And in
the wisdom and plenitude of this provision, the worst
of rebels and "the chief of sinners" can be saved.
"The power of God" here spoken of, is not mere physi¬
cal, arbitrary force, that acts upon tbe material world
with propellent and repellent forces, but is that capacity
that inheres in the Divine Being by which he sustains
those of his offsprings that obey his law and "keep,his
commandments." When we "keep his commandments,"
then he engages his infinite and exhaustless resources
to "save to the uttermost" all who "call on the name of
the Lord." "The power of God," then is the foundation
upon which the man of God hangs the cable of hope and
the threads of his salvation. These are strong, uniting
God and man together in the strong bands of his love
and power, forming a spiritual compact of harmonious
relations, unanticipated by the wisdom of man and un¬
known to the philosophical research of the schools and
the keenest conception of the wise men of the ages.
INSUFFICIENCY OF TEE WISDOM OF MAN. 157
Many have established themselves upon their own
wrought systems of religious thought, while ignoring
the truth of God, that great system of Divine .Reve¬
lation which presents to men the only solution of the
mighty problems of life and death, of the present and the
future. Everywhere, the power of God is exhibited in
his works as the wonderful and all-resourceful governing
creator. "The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heav¬
ens, and his kingdom ruleth over all;" over all things in
the visible, invisible, and .the spiritual divisions of the
universe, from the highest heaven to the deepest hell.
Creation in its marvelous amplitude, with its contending
and extending forces of precipitant elements, is held in
space and place by ''the word of the Lord," and the in¬
vincible fiat of his power. He is the coercive God that
throws around rebellious planets, broken systems, and
sinking suns, his golden arm of power, and adamantine
peripheries of nardest and unyielding bands of steel,
triple-decked and serrated with mountains of flint and
valleys of liame. At his command, shattered suns, cor¬
roding orbs, and dead planets mount from their "funeral
pyre on wings of flame" and sing on their eternal rounds
as fiery arrows from the bow strings of God. From his
hand a thousand moons, the pale princesses of a thou¬
sand worlds, dazzle into space, kiss the hem of burning
circumferences and*fly on their cold silver tracks in the
unfathomable bosom of space. God speaks again, they
hear, skip, leap, and move along their bright curves lor-
ever, the maid-servants of radiant orbs, the sisters of
kings and the daughters of God. But this is a changing
universe with an unchanging God. Eternal ages corrode
and melt the hardest bands of steel, break asunder every
cable, shatter every cog and bolt, take off the rim of every
wheel, destroy every connecting link, crush in the keel of
every floating world, blow out the fires of every orb,
unhinge every star, dim the lustre of every sun, cut
the wings of every comet, cast down every moon from
158 INSUFFICIENCY OF TEE WISDOM OF MAN.
her silver track, put out the fires of heaven, and take
the lights from every soaring beamy car, and every
sparkling gem from heaven's high dome, and every glit¬
tering pearl from the unmeasured palace of God. Yet
he is king over all.
" Star after star from heaven's high arch shall rush,
Suns sink on suns, systems systems crush,
Headlong extinct to one dark center fall,
And night and death and chaos mingle all,
Till o'er the wreck emerging from the storm,
Immortal nature lifts her changeful form,
Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,
And soars and shines another and the same."
But high above the crash of "the wreck of matter and
the crush of worlds," the mighty God, whose "kingdom
ruleth over all," maintains his power, keeps his own in
perfect peace in his bright abode, in a clime whose ele¬
ments and entities and component properties are inca¬
pable of dissolution and decay. Amid the transition
of matter and the clashing of diverse elements and forces,
"the power of God" is pledged to keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is staid on him. "Let not your heait
be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In
Day Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so,
I 'would have told you." These ^re the blessed words, of
the Christ. Oh! brethren, your faith should stand, not
in "the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
Why We Should Love God..
" On these two commandments hang all the law and the proph¬
ets."—Matt. 22 AO.
The gospel of Christ is a system of divine ethics. Its
philosophic and fundamental principles are few knd sim¬
ple, and it has its claims upon the attention and con¬
sideration of mankind, because it affects his happiness
in the present and for all time to come. It is a system
reared upon few pillars, yet these are but the stronger
and more enduring and far-reaching because of their
foundation and simplicity. It is not a mass of unintelli¬
gible enigmas whose intricacies cannot be understood
or explained; but it is simple, convincing, comprehensiye-
teaching, fitted to instruct, elevate and save the race of
man. Its scope embraces the moral code of the universe
in its governmental theory and practice, and is a tran¬
script and photograph of its moral phases. The system,,
as such, is presented to our judgment,, and appeals to-
our reason, and then demands our faith in its Author
and in its doctrines. Faith is essential to its acceptance
and fair'consideration, for "without faiths it is impossible
to please God." It is a system that breathes "the spirit
of life from God," and quickens and brings into lively
play all its parts, spirit and elements of that life. It
defines the moral faculties, and locates God and man m.
their native and true relations* As a code of morals, it
is best understood when we examine its separate parta
and primary principles, and observe those results that
flow from its practice. It has three great properties—
morals, doctrines, and faith. We can have no proper
conception of any ethical code without its elements and
primary principles. These compose the- bone and frame-
360
WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD.
work upon which sinew, tiesh and skin are laid, and then
the purple current of life is seen to ramify, vivify and
dance through every part, diffusing light and activity
and filling its spheres with God. If we would be
the devotees of any system of religion, we must first par¬
take of its spirit, become^ imbued with its life, learn its
idioms, dogmas, and demands. The life and power of
the one must be infused into the life of the other, and
then the outlines of our life and character must accord
with the spirit and teachings of the same, otherwise we
cannot be true disciples of the system. To meet the
spiritual necessities of the devotees, the system must not
only be true as to its real existence, but must be true
within itself. Its promises, doctrines, and predictions
must rest upon truth in such a manner as to bring sure
and certain realization to its followers and adherents,
and thereby verify itself as true. If there is a failure
here, all else is failure, intrigue and irreparable loss.
This position is more apparent when we think of the stu-
penduous fact that it may promise more than it can
verify. That is, it may promise us heaven and give us
hell. It may proMse us life and give us death; promise
good, and give us evil instead. It may pierce the heart
with a thousand pangs of demons, and pour into the soul
the poison of asps and the venom of serpents, and leave
the soul with blasted hope and withered spirit. For in¬
stance, Mohammedanism is a system of error mixed with
truth and gilded with glittering promises that it cannot
fulfil; yet it is a fact that such a thing as the system of
Mohammedanism does exist, but its existence or power to
le does not prove that its doctrines, dogmas and idioms
are true. Yet it has the same persuasive effect upon
the mind, life and civilization of its millions of votaries as
the system of Christianity has upon its followers. Both
obtain their hold and power over their respective fol¬
lowers upon the same principles of faith, theory and
WHY WE SHOULD LOYE GOD.
161
practice. The one is as conscious that his religion is
true as the other, notwithstanding the one is false and
the other true. Because of these conditions the follow¬
ers of Mohammed are as devoted to their religion as the
followers of Christ are devoted to theirs. If a man be¬
lieves a thing to be true, when at the same time it is false,
the same devotion and earnest faith is given to it as if
it were true. Therefore, a system of religion does not
destroy the faith and devotion, of its candid believers,
whether true or false within itself. How important
then it is that a system of religion, presented to the
world of man for- his faith and practice, should be true
in itself, and true in its promises, predictions and realiza¬
tions. We need not enter here upon the divine original¬
ity, truth and authenticity of the Christian system, its
reasonableness, its powers, nature, and adaptations to
meet the spiritual needs and the practical necessities of
mankind in all ages and conditions, are a sufficient refu¬
tation of the infidel and those who doubt its truth. Man¬
kind will seek only that that they believe to be, and such
exertion depends upon faith and hope and realization.
Faith is the connecting link between God and man, be¬
tween heaven and earth, between the visible and invis¬
ible, between the finite and infinite. By this we see the
unseen, and approach the unapproachable. It brings
ns to God; it brings God to us. It humanizes God with¬
out making him less God, and deifies man without
making him more than man. Christianity then is more
than a name, more than a theory, more and greater than
even faith and practice. It is a revolution, a transforma¬
tion, and a process of redemptive restoration, by which
man is evolved from and out of himself, to, and into God.
This redemptive restorative process not only changes
the moral status between man and God, but imparts td
man a new life, a new nature, and the infusion of the
Deity himself. If, then, we would be Christians, we must
llh
162
WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD.
go farther than a mere profession, a mere assent to and
practice of the formulas of the religion of Jesus. My
friends, without the work of God in the soul, there
can be no true, vital, spiritual and soul-saving Chris¬
tianity on earth. True, we may read its history, memorize
•its language, repeat its dogmas, and chant its melodies
and shout with its heroes, yet there are depths and
heights, lengths and breadths, still farther on in the
great redemptive, restorative process, which by mere
formalities can never be attained. Still farther on, be¬
yond sky-blue tops of the cloud-covered mountains and
the deep gorges of repentance, are the sacred precincts
of a perfect salvation. We cannot be half Christian and
half alien. We must be the one or the other. In the
shining phalanx of the living God, there are no mongrel
progeny, half-breeds and cross-bloods, but all are shaped
in the same heavenly mold, and healed by the same
cleansing blood. In this earthly pilgrimage of song, there
are no mutes, no unstrung harps, or silent choristers.
You must sing the enchanting melodies of heaven, or the
bacchanalian songs of sin, moving up to heaven, or mov¬
ing down to death. There are no neutral grounds in this
great warfare, but fight you must. And you must light
for God, and against the devil, or fight for the devil and
against God. Two kings cannot reign upon one throne;
neither can God and Satan reign in the same heart, for
they are antagonistic and antipodal principles. If ever
in the onward wake of the ages the world shall ever be
redeemed from the thraldom of sin and darkness, it can
only be accomplished by the gospel of system. Christ
alone supplies all the wants and necessities of man in
this and in the future state.
The Jewish people are a standing miracle and living
'attestation to the truth and Divine authenticity of the
holy Scriptures. They are the most peculiar and most re¬
markable people that have ever lived upon the face of
WHY WE SHOULD LOTE GQD.
163
the earth. God selected them from all the idolatrous
nations of the earth to serve him, and to preserve the
oracles of truth as delivered to them from time to time.
Amid the moral and mental darkness that covered the
earth, the Israel of God had light from heaven to guide
them in the way of truth and moral rectitude, and in this
respect the Jew served a great end in the salvation of
mankind, though this "peculiar people" has been scat¬
tered, and its polity broken into a thousand fragmentary
parts. Their kings reign no longer. Their "temple hill
is desecrated by the Mosque of Omar and the abomi¬
nation of the Mohammedans. They have been driven by
the storms of persecution into every land and clime, from
the cold north to the torrid south, and from the orient
to the Occident. The Jew lives with every nation, but
mixes with none; and under all the varied conditions
that have tried him through the ages, he maintains his
identity and is still what he was three thousand years
ago—a Jew. Though his people have been despised, re¬
jected and slain by the hundreds and thousands, and
their blood has flowed down the declivities of the ages;
though aspersions, calumnies, and vile indignities have
been poured in fury upon their heads, still he lives amid
them all—a Jew. The Jew can trace his historical pedi¬
gree through the fleeing circles of the ages and the dis¬
pensations of the past. The storms and howling tempests
have rained hailstones upon his quivering bark for three
thousand years. Empires have arisen, kings have
reigned, states have grown up, towered and fallen, hoary
dynasties have been broken upon the wheel of time, great
rivers have changed their beds and have cut their path¬
way through the hardest rocks, filling seas and gulfs
with their drifting matter. In the wake of the ages and
the march of time, the bodies of the millions have fallen,
and their bleaching bones and ^cities of the dead" tell the
sad story of death. The tall cedars of Lebanon, and
164
WHY WE SHOULD LOYE GOD.
proud oaks of Bashan, have withered by the blight of
age; still the Jew is the same. He has outlived the ages,
outlived the ravages of war and persecutions. He has
lived through flood and flame, through famines, pesti¬
lences, endemics and epidemics. Like the Gulf Stream,
he flows on in his own channel without mixing with con¬
tacting elements, whether they be Japhetic or Hamitic.
They are God's ancient people—the repository of the
oracles of truth—and he will punish the world for the
slain of his chosen Israel. In the economy of Providence
he stands as a gigantic tower of strength to attest the
truth and the Divine authority of Kevelation. This is
the standing memorial of Christianity and the miracle
of the ages. Infidelity may rage and vent its keen shafts
of spleen against the ramparts of God, but here is a truth
whose impregnable parts stand the rage of the enemy
and the assaults of hell.
X'Then, one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a
question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the
great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment. And the second is like unto
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Let us observe then, three reasons why we should love
God: (1) Because he commands us to love Mm. (2) Because
we cannot be happy without loving him. (3) Because he first
loved us.
We should love God (1) Because he commands us to love
Mm.
God is a sovereign. He has the undivided authority
to command all creatures in earth, heaven and hell to do
his biddings—to do or not to do certain things. He pos¬
sesses the unquestionable right to dictate to the con¬
sciences of men and all intelligent beings. It does not
WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD.
165
affect the case whether we understand the reasons why
or not. These1 may be given, or they may not be given.
They may be positive moral commands or mere edicts
of the king immortal, yet if they are from him and apply
to us, we cannot disregard them without condign pun¬
ishment and destruction to our happiness. As a Father,
Master and Ruler, he commands. As a Father, we are
his children; as a Master, we are his servants, and as
a Ruler we are his subjects. Whether he speaks to us as
Father, Master or Ruler we are his subjects and are bound
to obey. We may not know at all times why he commands
this, that, or the other. To know this is the province of
the sovereign God, and not the province of his subjects.
With consequences and results we have nothing to do;
these belong to God alone. Christianity is a temple of
truth of sublime proportion and changeless principles,
whose stones have been hewn and polished by the hands
of God, and placed in glorious beauty and symmetry one
upon another in ascending scales and eternal harmony.
"Thou shalt love the Jjord thy God" is the changeless
and faultless command—changeless because founded
upon the equity, the justice and will of the Creator.
"The law of the Lord is perfect." Nothing can be added
to it or subtracted from it. There can be no review, sup¬
plement, nor second edition, nor amendments. It "is per¬
fect" in all its parts, parcels, and ramifications. His
"statutes are right" in their native and constitutional
inherent qualities. True, they are the dictations of a
Sovereign, yet they are none the less righteous and
equitable within themselves, since they involve the "eter¬
nal fitness of things." Thus we should love God—(2) Be¬
cause we cannot be happy without loving him. This is
axiomatic. We have every evidence that the race of man
was made to be happy, that the Creator originally de¬
signed that all his intelligent offspring should remain
in such a state, and pursue those lines of avocation that
166
WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD.
would redound to Ms glory and the greatest degree of
their perpetual well-being. Consequently, happiness is
the natural and universal desire of the human race.
This also applies to all sentient and intelligent creatures,
whether they be men or angels, and it may not be going
too far, when we assert that even devils and lost spirits
would repent and regain their lost estate and revert to
bliss, if they could. Misery and pain must be utterly at
war with the feelings and desires of all intelligences, no
matter in what part of the universal dominion they may
live. Even the lower animals and the non-intelligent
parts of creation, give evidence that show that they have
the instinct of happiness-impressed upon their nature.
The worm of the dust wriggles beneath our tread; the
wild beasts of the forest flee at the approach of man, and
the finny tribes of the deep elude his presence; all have
some natural means of defense and exercise a vigilance
that shows their apprehension of danger. They fear
death because of the pain and misery that is connected
with it. If this is true respecting the non-intelligent, it
is so in a larger degree among those who are "made iu
the image of God." Man clesires happiness. It is the
natural prompting of his heart and the proclivity of his
being. The Creator made him to live, and not to die; he
made him to be happy, and not to be miserable. The
faculties of the mind, the attributes of the soul, the con¬
struction and ease and grace of the operations of the
physical and perceptive attributes are splendidly fitted
to promote his peace, ease and comfort upon the plane
of his being. It has been very properly said, that "death
is a foreign foe," an alien and an unlawful invader into
the kingdom of life, except as man forfeited the protec¬
tion of God by his rebellion and the violation of those
laws and uncompromising principles upon which alone
his continued prosperity depends. If we would be happy
and fulfil the natural proclivities of our nature—as it
WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD.
167
was originally intended—we must obey the laws of God,
"and keep his commandments." If the subjects of earthly
governments cannot be happy without obedience to the
laws under which they live, much less can we be happy
without obedience to those laws and changeless rules
that the all-wise and supreme Creator has prescribed as
the norm of action laid down for us. The end of law,
therefore, is the glory of God in the happiness of his
creatures. One of the plainest things in the world is the
fact that no intelligent being can be happy when he is
violating the principles in the universe by which alone
it is possible to reach the goal of bliss. The Christian
system presents to the world the only foundation of
substantial peace and enduring bliss, because there
can be no such thing without reconciliation with God.
Whether in heaven, on earth, or in any other place in il¬
limitable space, the same principles and facts must apply
with undiminishing and equal force to all localities and
beings. God is God, truth is truth, love is love, and
fear is fear. Time or place or conditions cannot alter
or change these. Truth on earth is truth in heaven and
in hell. Christianity, therefore, is not the religion of
men on earth only, but is the only true God-serving and
God-adoring system that can exist, because it absorbs
all those great underlying principles of love, obedience,
and truth upon which the government of 'the Almighty
is founded. No, my friends, there is but one .remedy in
all the wide domain of God for human misery and human
recovery from sin and death,'and that is, "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind." It is not possible for
any intelligent creature to be happy without Christianity.
Let a man be placed in the most propitious condition
possible in this life, yet he would be unhappy with¬
out the love of God and man. He may recline upon
couches of down with ivory posts, studded and bedecked
163
WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD.
with rarest gems and precious jewels and hung with the
richest damasks of the east, while frescoed walls and
fluted columns ascend in awful grandeur, covered with
gold and glinted -with silver. Let him eat the lambs of
the flock and feed upon the fat of stall-fed beasts. Let
his steeps be washed in butter, and his teeth be white
with milk. Let his maidens sing, and with sweetest voice
and dulcet strains of harp and organ lull their enchanted
lord to soft slumbers. Let him be a king upon a royal
throne whose empire covers a continent with teeming
millions to do his biddings. Let him be secure from fear
and danger and the rampart^ of his rocky castle be de¬
fended by the invincible legions of the Caesars and the
Napoleons. Let his granaries be filled, his wealth bound¬
less, and his cattle cover a thousand hills, feeding upon
the living green, richer in beauty than all the productions
of the Persian looms. Let him in the splendors of courts
quaff to uttermost satiety the cup of pleasure. Let ob¬
sequious millions bow the knee to honor and admire their
great Lord and master. Let annalists with pen in hand
and ink horn by their sides stand to record the words of
wisdom and the mighty acts of the king. Yet with all
this, and more, he cannot be happy without the love of
God, and the power of the religion of Jesus. For amid
all this marvelous wealth, honor and greatness, there is
an accusing or excusing monitor—conscience—within
that tells him that he is a sinner going to death and to
hell. "The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth" and
"are like the rough sea when it cannot rest, whose waves
cast up mire and dirt." Nay, there is no place, no real
substantial happiness and peace without God in the soul,
Christ in the heart and life, and the whole man converted,
changed, and thoroughly consecrated to God, and sepa¬
rated from the pollutions of the' flesh, and the contamina¬
tions of the world. How can you escape or set at naught
these obligations? How can you or I throw off the yoke
WHY WE SHOULD LOYE GOD.
169
of God and evade the momentous issues? Go, take the
flight of the eagle to his lofty aerie, and build your secret
chamber in the highest cleft of the granite peak, and
dwell solitary and alone out of the reach of your fellows.
Leave.your feet in the cloud and stand upon the celestial
pyramid with careless indifference as to human affairs,
yet without Christ in the soul there is a burning hell
within that is incompatible with peace and ease of con¬
science. Even in heaven, were it possible for the sinner
to be carried there, he could not be happy without the
love of God, because he could not enjoy the glory and
pleasures of the redeemed and sanctified. There con¬
genial spirits meet in the raptures of redeeming love to
celebrate in lofty anthems the praises of God and the
Lamb, saying, "Amen." Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be
unto our God forever and ever, amen. And one of the el-
7 ♦
ders answered, saying unto me, "What are these which
are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?"
And I said unto him, "Sir, thou knowest." And he
said unto me, "These are they which came out of great
tribulations and have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb." Here are the congre¬
gated millions of congenial spirits. They "have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb." They have passed through "great tribulations,"
swept through the zones of life's fiery trials, entered the
city of the great king, wrapped in the shining robes of
beauty and clothed in the bright habiliments of eternal
salvation.
(3) We should love God because he first loved us.
"Behold what manner of love the Fatter hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the s6ns of God."
What a lofty title is this, and yet it is true—"The sons
of God!" John says, "Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us." But "In this
170
WEY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD.
was manifested the love of God toward us, because that
God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him." ''For God so loved the world
th&t he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lieveth in him, should not perish but have everlasting
life." "He first loved us," with that love that stirred
his heart and moved his arm of power. But man is a
sinner. He is wretched, vile and polluted, lost, ruined
and broken by the fall. An outcast alien under just
condemnation. A smiling heaven and a laughing para¬
dise receded from his vision, since God, the gracious
Father, was offended. Epochs and dispensations rolled
on, chronicling the rise, growth and death of ages and
nations. Darker and blacker grew the mental and moral
night of the world, and as man multiplied sin did much
more abound. Now and then a meteor flashed across
the dark hemispheres, and here and there altars glowed
and priests officiated. The ages, old and gray, traveled
slowly down the declivities of time and space until the
dying Jacob heard the rumbling of Messiah's chariot
wheels, caught the whispers of his coming and the flash
of his eye. When he said, "I have waited for thy salva¬
tion, O Lord," he spoke the sentiment of universal human¬
ity. But the law must be given and the foundation of the
Jewish polity of types and shadows must be laid, and its
superstructure reared, and the blood of sprinkling must
antedate the blood of cleansing. Jehovah descended
from heaven in clouds and flaming fire. The trumpet's
awTful blasts and the jarring appeals of thunder an¬
nounce the awful presence of God in his kingly majesty.
Onward, in appaling grandeur descends his chariot of
flame. Louder, longer, and louder still, swells the high
trump of God. Israel looks up and the heavens are dark
with sable bands and thick clouds. Lightning sparkles
in fantastic and vivid glare, and play upon the burning
waves of the air, as if the atmosphere in chaos trembled
WHY WE SHOULD LOYE GOD.
171
under the mighty tread of Deity. The legislative God
descends, th6 earth quakes and an empire of solid granite
dances beneath his feet, while wreathing columns of
smoke mingled with flame are the curtains of his sanctu¬
ary. The walls of the royal sanctuary were amber flames,
fanned by the swift moving wings of mighty seraphs and
great archangels, attending the royal presence. And so
terrible was the sight that Moses said, "I exceedingly fear
and quake." "The law was given by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ." The law1 could not save.
Jesus alone can do that. He loved us first and poured
out his soul unto death. See him as he lays aside his
crown, his kingly scepter, his robe, and the glory of
he'aven for you, for me, and for all the sinning race of
Adam. O, come to Jesus and be saved. Why not? Hath
he not loved you? Did he not give himself for you? O,
ye sons of Adam, arise, stand up and flee the coming
wrath of Grod. O, praise his name, ye his saints!
The Work of an Enemy.
"And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this."—Matt.
13:28.
When we contemplate the history of man and view him
in his physical, moral and spiritual relations and conditions,
and then compare his nature and career with the dealings
of Divine Providence and the requirements of Revelation,
we must admit that there is "an enemy" strong and mighty,
cosmopolitan, universal and profound in his operations,
affecting every age, people, and individual. Whether
we stem the tide of the rolling ages and ascend the
stream of time, or take our' stand upon some lofty
eminence of the present dispensation, an<T view the whole
circle of earth's teeming humanity, the same verdict will be
reached »by the impartial mind in regard to the existence
and work of an enemy in human society. His name is
carved on every brow, his hand hath touched every heart,
his image is stamped on every soul, and his footprint is in
every land, and his blood-curdling banner floats over every
stream and on the rolling waves of every sea. All along
through the ages, malevolence, destruction and the utter
subversion of human happiness have characterized his dia¬
bolical designs and distinguished his mighty operations. He
it is who hath sowed tares among the wheat and corrupted
the whole field of the moral spheres. Who can count the
millions slain by him, or number the carcasses of the bleed¬
ing victims and the fallen tribes? What stream can contain
the tears of the heart-broken and sorrow-stricken? Behold!
men count the stare, number the planets, measure the side¬
real heavens, traverse the wilderness, pierce the profundities
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY.
173
of earth's deep bosom and weigh, the mountains in scales,
but they fail to compute the misery of man and the num¬
ber of the dead slain by our great foe. On a thousand
battle-fields, in^the political arena, in the palaces of great
kings, in the revolutions and evolutions of human society,
and on the broad fields of false religion, of investigation and
discovery everywhere, the great foe is active, wise, astute,
and sways the hearts and consciences of the nations. Let
us beware of his artful hand, of his nimble power and wide¬
spread and all-permeating influence". Let us contemplate
the great foe under the following divisions:
I. The origin and advent of the enemy.
II. His nature and powers.
III. The ends designed.
IV. The agencies employed.
I. The origin and advent of the enemy; that is, of Satan
or the devil. 1st. He is a being, a living creature, because
he was created by the Almighty. 2d. He was in heaven,
in a state of bliss and happiness, but in a state of probation
and trial, and consequently the perpetuation of his happi¬
ness was contingent upon his obedience to the divine com¬
mand. 3d. Being in this state or condition, it was possible
for him to sin, which he did, and thus he lost his place in
heaven among the sons of the Most High, and. by the
Almighty power was cast down to hell, and with him legions
of other mighty flaming spirits were cast out; for, says St.
Peter, "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast
them down to hell and delivered them unto chains of dark¬
ness, to be reserved unto judgment."—II Pet. 2:4. Jude
makes substantially the same statement. The time of his
fall and advent is not known, but the fact of both his advent
and fall is a stern reality, demonstrated by all his dreadful
and terrific acts and mighty doings upon the face of the
earth.
174
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY.
II. Ilis nature and 'power. 1. He is spirit, incapable of
decay and dissolution, of course. The Eather of spirits
can dissolve and annihilate any and all organized beings,
whether they be men, angels, mighty spirits, or powers;
thrones, dominions, principalities, or all things in heaven,
earth and hell. But God's methods are otherwise ordained.
However, Apollyon's power is great—that is, his capacity
to do, to perform wonders, to execute mighty deeds.
Though fallen and cast down to hell and restricted to cer¬
tain limits in the diviiie arrangements, yet to an astonish¬
ing degree he is still in the possession of mighty power.
Smitten by the omniflc hand from the fair fields of the
paradise of God, hear him cry as he flies like a mighty
scintillating spark struck off from its native sun, as Milton
describes:
"Farewell, happy fields, where joys forever dwell;
Hail horrors! Hail, Infernal world! and thou profoundest hell:
Receive thy new possessor; one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time."
But he is a spirit, though he may be possessed with an
ethereal, cotporeal frame, suited to the spirituality of his
nature. He must be gigantic in stature, magnificent in per¬
son, and possessing much of his original comely propor¬
tions.
The fact that he fell from hip high estate does not neces¬
sarily imply that he lost all of the might of his strength
and the glory of his power. Since he is the chief of devils,
a leader of a mighty flock, and the governor of dethroned
powers, dominions and principalities, it is fair to infer that
he is possessed of many of those noble traits of character
and appearances which distinguish him as a great leader
among the millions of fallen spirits. Lifting his lofty crest
in the councils and assemblies of the mighty in arms, he is
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY.
175
at once the center of attraction and action, and leader of
rebellions millions. His power, though limited and re¬
stricted within certain degrees, is yet very great'. The
essential elements of durability, versatility, accompanied
with a capacious mind and varied accomplishments, makes
him a most remarkable and wonderful creature. It is true
there may be somewhere in the universe* of God mighty
spirits more gigantic in form, more comely in symmetrical
proportions, possessing a higher range of knowledge and
greater powers of activity and alertness; yet we have not
been informed in regard to them. But we know Satan.
"We are not ignorant of his devices." His history is writ¬
ten in the annals of the nations and upon the world's civ¬
ilizations. He is great in power, mighty in strength, won¬
derful in knowledge, profound in wisdom, exhaustless in
the ability to plan and endowed with a marvelous capac¬
ity to execute the desires of his heart. He is a great scholar,
with ripe experience. He is acquainted with the history of
the nations, the sciences of the ages, the philosophies of the
schools and the great men of the world. His power of
locomotion and celerity of flight are most remarkable. The
Saviour sayls, "I beheld Satan fall from heaven like light¬
ning." He walks up and down the earth, traverses the
zones and hemispheres, and plows the briny main, bent on
high-handed mischief, seeking his victims in every clime,
seeming to be almost ubiquitous. Let us watch the manoeu-
verings of the great foe, the mendacious leader of hell, sin
and death.
III. The ends designed. His aim is to defeat the glory
of God in the happiness of man. And since the Almighty
is invulnerable and flanked about with infinite power, he
knows that it is impossible to do Him harm. This would be
a hopeless undertaking and incompatible with wisdom
and the skilled tactics of a wise and sagacious leader.
176
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY.
Having no hope of success here, Satan turns his
multiform machinations and operations against man,
the intelligent creature of God. If happiness could
dwell in his hell-stirred heart, he would enjoy the
greatest proportion of happiness when he has rendered
man the most miserable. The desire to render others miser¬
able because he is miserable is the quintessence and climax
of wickedness and diabolical abominations too intricate
for the human mind to conceive of. If such procedure
would add one single item to his own well-being, or in any
way lessen his sorrow and ease his pain, or if it were possible
to gain anything thereby, there might be some palliating cir¬
cumstances in the case. But there are none. Yet the natural
proclivities of his wicked heart urge,, him on with uncon¬
trollable momentum to do his black and cruel deeds of
violence, crime and shame. His object is to rob God of
his glory, man of his happiness, heaven of its wreathed
victors, and populate hell with the slain millions. How
cruel is our great foe! How obdurate and callous is
his heart! How foul is his spirit! And how has he suc¬
ceeded? Would you know? Go view his tracks from the
Garden of Eden down the steep of ages. Go read his
history of the peoples of all realms, of every clime, of
every tongue. Go count the kingdoms broken, the empires
destroyed? Go count the wars and battle-fields, and meas¬
ure the tears and blood of the dead and dying. Go count
the groans and sighings of the widow and orphan, the
friendless, the naked and the poor. Go number the de-
oauched hordes and superstitious ranks that crowd heathen
temples and pay their homagefto gods that are no gods. Go
follow the blood-stained track of this great Moloch, crested
with fiery plume and direful hate, into the Courtrooms, the
jails, penitentiaries, and gallowses. Go, traverse the burning
track of hell, and number the black millions of the lost, and
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY.
177
then consider the eternity of their damnation and their
■banishment from the presence of the Lord and the glory
of his power. Over these slain the heart shudders, the
"blood curdles, and trembling takes hold upon the frame.
Oh, what hath this enemy done?( Who, oh who, can com-
-pute the lost of these thousands of years of the long reign
of sin and Satan?
IV. The agencies employed. These are varied, extensive _
■and exhaustless. In his selections the fittest are chosen to
•accomplish the ruin, the marvelous work of human
destruction and the subversion of every institution whose
aims and designs are to soften and ameliorate the condi¬
tions and rugged circumstances of suffering humanity. All
the instruments, ways and means of human happiness and
man's promotion from a lower to a higher state of "morality,
Teligion and social refinement, are eagerly sought, and when
obtained, are polluted and diverted from their proper chan¬
nels, and made to do what they were not designed to do.
Let us briefly flote some of these. Diplomacy and war,
from the most remote ages, have been employed by the
great enemy of God and man to destroy the peace and
break the harmony of all the families, tribes and nations of
the earth. ISTo instrument employed by him has done more
"to hinder the progress and civilization of the world than
war. Goaded on by the powers of darkness and lead by
4;he prince of the aliens, it takes but a little to fire the public
heart and kindle the nations into strife and carnage that
cover the earth with blood and the broken bodies of the
■slain and dying. Indeed, the world has often appeared as
one great battle-field, sinking billions of money, exhausting
the flower and strength of the people, bankrupting gov¬
ernments and destroying the resources of the public reve¬
nue. Ambition, the lust of power, the love of display
and wealth along with hatred and malice have character-
l'ih
178 THE WORK OF AN ENEMY.
ized the great kings and conquerors of the nations. In?
diplomacy, what treachery, perfidy and deception! In war,,
what cruelties and human butchery have been displayed by
the conquerors! When we see an Alexander, a Xerxes or*
a Napoleon making war on surrounding nations, apparently
with no other object than to get gain and extend their
power and slake their greed for human destruction, we must
conclude that there is a power behind the agent that en¬
gages in such hideous deeds of death and horror. In their'
track of destruction, what a train of evils follow! Kings
are dethroned, dynasties destroyed, states and kingdoms sub¬
verted and disintegrated, cities, towns, villages, hamlets-
and the rural plains filled with the broken ruins and the*
smoking debris of houses, mansions, palaces, forests; weep¬
ing widows, sighing orphans and those institutions of learn¬
ing and science that have been put on foot to promote the-
happiness of man and lift him to a higher plane in the civil'
state, are overwhelmed in ruins. The ingenuity of man has;
been wrought up to its highest pitch to invent missiles and
diabolical machines for the wholesale murder and destruc¬
tion of the humankind. What a black train of evils fol¬
lows war! Society is upheaved, the wicked and the base are
brought to prominence, and all the Worst elements of de¬
pravity are put into active and lively play upon the stage of'
life. Famine, pestilence, disease, poverty, the stagnation
ot every branch of industry, arid ten thousand other ills too*
numerous to mention follow. Surely "an enemy hath done
this."
Learned, capacious minds have been perverted in the*
hands' of this foe. "God haith made man upright; but they
have sought out many inventions." The human intellect
has often been prostituted to unholy and unsavory ends.
It has been so darkened by the enemy, that they
have put truth for falsehood, and falsehood for truth,.
THE WORE OF AN ENEMY.
179
light for darkness and darkness for light. It has made
heaven hell, and hell heaven. One of the first things
done by the perverted learning of man is to seek
to disprove the truth, the authenticity, divine inspira¬
tion and originality of the Bible. At all hazard, and at any
cost, the unsanctified mind strives to uproot the oracles of
God and thus increase unbelief and destroy the devotees
ol' truth, religion, and virltue,and ruin the eternal well-being
of man. The God of nature is made to contradict the God of
the Bible. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God." False religion has always been a powerful instru¬
ment in the hands of Satan to blind and obscure the mental
vision, to corrupt the heart and to vitiate the moral and
social tastes of mankind. Half truths are the most insinuat¬
ing and deceptive form of falsehoods. A little truth mixed
in with a great deal of error is more palatable to the'
vile and sinful heart of man. To establish a falsehood,,
therefore, there must be put into the otherwise untooth-
some bait some truth. Hence all false religions are
a mixture of truth and untruth, and the shades of light and
darkness, of life and death, of hell and heaven are so>
blended that the unpracticed mind and heart unhesitatingly
take in the deadly venom. All false religions, therefore,,
are the counterfeit pieces of one great and only true re¬
ligion—Christianity. !No where in the history of sin has
Satan succeeded more admirably and universally than here.
Here, in error's chains the millions of blind and deaf vota¬
ries soundly sleep and have slept for ages. Here is the
smooth road and the wide gateway of death.
Song, the music of the soul, and the melody of heaven
has been perverted and used to rally the forces of hell and
inflame the basest passions of wicked men, and stimulate
the blind votaries of superstition and diabolical intrigue.
On her swift pinions of gold she has been the herald, the
180
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY.
grand messenger to waft tlie mandates of hell around the
globe into all the nooks and corners of human society.
The flute, the harp, the bagpipe, the horn, the trumpet,
the pianoforte, the soft notes of the organ and the trained
voice have for many an age made up the minstrelsy of hell.
Man will sing, though he sing going hellward. Oh, stop!
hush the loud mouth of the bacchanalian!
Learning, money, influence, precious gems, eloquence
and poetry, all have been pressed into the service of Satan
and the cause of - hell. Master minds, towering and great
with their marvelous productions, have worshipped at the
shrine of the great deceiver and done homage to the prince
of darkness. Millions of money is poured at the base of
his throne, and his exchequer is filled with heaps of gold,
and yet he clamors for more. The pillars of his temple are
embossed with the gems of earth's kingdoms. The lavished
influence of the mighty and noble force the weak and igno¬
ble to follow in their mad daish for death and hell.
But is Satan always thus to reign and triumph over the
earth and tyrannize over the sons of men? God forbid.
"The kingdom is the Lord's." It belongs to Jesus Christ.
It is His by right of His death and sufferings, by His
agonies on the cross, by his blood and tears, his groan¬
ing and shame, and the multitude of sorrows which He
bore for you and me, and for all the dead and living-sons of
Adam and daughters of Eve. The enemy is great,
but Christ is greater. He is the "Prince of the kings of the
earth," "the bright and morning star," and " the Alpha and
Omega." "Oh, that men would' praise the Lord for his
goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of
men." Oh, that he may come, "whose right it is" to reign
forever and ever. Amen!
Holiness and Peace.
"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord."—Heb. 12:14.
Every system of morals and ethical science presented to
the judgment and consideration of men has its supposed
or real central truths. It matters not whether the doctrines
taught be true or false, good or evil, they come, resting
their claims upon pillars of brass, blocks of marble, or banks
of sand. But it may be asserted, without the fear of con¬
tradiction, that every system of religion, philosophy, or
science is best known by the effects it has produced upon
society and those followers and devotees who obey the man¬
dates and precepts of such a system of doctrines and teach¬
ings. This is the rule laid down by our Saviour when He
says, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." As a good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit, so a good system of religion
or philosophy cannot produce evil converts and a corrupt
or-pestilential progeny, since the religious faith, views and
practices make up the moral life of peoples and individuals.
A man's theory,of morals and religion may be right or
wrong, and in results may be destructive to the best
ends of society, yet he will follow the theory upon
which his faith is founded. So deeply seated are the re¬
ligious faculties and proclivities in human nature that they
demand not only faith and belief, but demand that in their
essentials they should be correct >and true within themselves.
If we look into the history of the past ages, and scan the re¬
ligions that have existed and contemplate, their forms and
aspects, we shall find that their theories and practices went
hand in hand, and the development of the religious life
182
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
was a recapitulation or reproduction in tangible form of
their faiths and beliefs.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a system of revealed re¬
ligion, presented to us with claims of divine authority and
divine originality. It matters very little as to the mere
authenticity of the divine Revelation, for a thing may be
true, and yet not authentic. As to the essentials of Chris¬
tianity, it matters not who wrote or compiled the Pen¬
tateuch, or who wrote the book of Job or the books of the
!N'ew Testament; but it is a matter of infinite concern
whether the essentials taught therein are true or false, right
or wrong, since the life and character of men and nations
are to be shaped and governed according to the doctrines
and commands therein revealed. On the other hand, if
men can shape and form and even reform the essentials of
the religion they profess, it shows the falsity and insuffi¬
ciency of the system to meet the eternal and substantial
needs and aspirations of men. !No man or set of men, nor
school of science, nor of philosophy, no matter how wise,
ancient and venerable they may be, has the right or capac¬
ity to make a religion and present its claims to men. They
could have no authority nor power 'to dictate the faith
and consciences of men. And even if they could go that
far, yet their systems would fall short of that high and
awful sanctity that God has bestowed upon the divine reve¬
lation found in the Scriptures of truth.
As the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a system of divine truth
and morals, instituted and revealed to man by the infinite
Deity as a standard of faith and conduct, so it has its
fundamental and essential truths and principles. As such
it comes to enlighten, cheer, strengthen and guide the
judgment and tastes of men and nations, and to lift up,
sanctify and save. As the sun is the essential force of light
and heat in the planetary system, so Jesus Christ, shining
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
183
in and through, the gospel system, is the essential element
of force, light and heat by whose bright rays and shining
•.gems of truth and power the whole race of man is stored
•and stimulated to seek that life and salvation which He
came to make manifest to all the children of men. But,
rsays the text: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness,
•without which no man shall see the Lord." For conve¬
nience we invert the text.
I. What is implied in the holiness here spoken off
II. What is implied in peace9
"The holiness" here spoken of as an essential of the
■Christian life, "without which no man shall see the Lord,"
"is that moral purity that is absolutely and indispensably
requisite for the redemption and salvation of every man.
It is that high and holy state of moral purity and sanctifi-
cation that every man, woman and child, and all the intelli¬
gences of the universe must possess, before they can reach
•or obtain that happiness and peace that make up the pres¬
ent or the future state of bliss. It is the sanctification. The
•sublime, unique and eminent, truth, lifting its lofty cone,
•as Mount Everest, high and alone, towers in gigantic
form and heavenly majesty up above the clouds and storm-
li,ne in the serene and clear atmosphere of a happy realization
of its spiritual power and vital force. The new translation
has it, "Follow peace with all men, and the sanctification
"The sanctification" is the great act in the redemptive
process, because moral purity is the only ground upon which
it is possible for men ultimately to be saved. A
pure life, a pure heart, a thorough consecration of one's
self to God and his service, as well as a purification of the
heart and soul, must be obtained. Hence sanctification is
not a process like the growth of a tree or plant, neither is it
the collection or congregating of those accretions of decent
.•acts and amenities that give the life a consistent and an
184
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
agreeable appearance. But it is the deeper work of the*
Spirit of God in cleansing of the Adamic soul, or the-
cleansing of that nature that is imputed, and really
given to us because of our descent from Adam, our sin¬
ful father, and Eve, our sinful mother. We cannot grow
into holiness any more than we can grow into regeneration^
Both are acts in the redeeming process, but acts that none-
can perform but the Holy Spirit. Regeneration or justifi¬
cation is the work that God does for us, but sanctification i&
the work done in us. The former is the pardon of sins, the
latter is the washing out the inbred or Adamic sins. When
God pardoned us of sin, he did not pardon us of Adam's
sins, or that sinful nature which we have received from him
as his children, but God did pardon us of our own sins,
those sins which we have committed against His law and''
against His revealed Word. As to the acts of justification
and sanctification, they follow each other as ithe acts of a1
judge upon the bench follow the justifying of a prisoner
who, having been indicted for crime, was cast into prison by
the public authorities. But when the judge pronounced the.
sentence of "not guilty," that is justification. This is one
act. When the sheriff opens the prison doors, takes off the-
chains and shackles, and lets the prisoner out, this is analog¬
ically sanctification. The prisoner is, therefore, free. He
is ,not only pardoned, or justified, but free. Eree from
natural, in,bred or Adamic sin.
"He breaks the power of cancelled, sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me."
Thus far the great majority of Methodists are agreed"
upon this fundamental doctrine of the Bible. But as to*
the time between the acts in the process of redemption,,
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
185*
there is a great controversy and constant agitation. Some
"believe a man is both pardoned and justified in the same act,
place and time, while others believe that after justification,
the act of cleansing, or purifying, must take place; that in'
the act of justification there was no cleansing or purifying,
and therefore, the cleansing, purifying, or the act of
sanctification, must be sought after justification. But it
seems to me that the truth lies between the two extremes.
A man that is converted to-day, or justified, may be sancti¬
fied in the next hour, the next day or next year, and, there¬
fore, sanctification is to be sought as we sought regenera¬
tion or justification; for he may be justified and not have a
perfect and distinct knowledge of it. !No man knows that
his sins are pardoned until the Spirit "bears witness with
his spirit that he is a child of God." The knowledge of our
acceptance with God can only reach us by His Spirit in¬
forming us that we are sanctified, and, therefore, .pardoned.
Why do I say this? Because the Holy Spirit of God will
not come into the heart or soul when it is unclean or un-
sanctified. I am not so anxious to prove the method of
procedure in the redemptive process as to prove the fact and
philosophy of the case, as it is taught in the Bible. We
want to know the Word and will of God, so that we may do>
his will and conform to the requirements of the divine
commands.
We might take up the subject and treat philosophically,
or from a metaphysical standpoint prove the truth of the
Bible doctrine that "without holiness no man shall see the
Lord," or enjoy that perfect love and reconciliation with
Him and in His holy and divine presence that are the only
inherent and fundamentals of happiness. What is demanded
of men in respect to moral purity is also demanded of
angels and all spiritualities of the universe. The conflict
of elements and the war of forces are inharmcny, and
186
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
however that strife or inharmony may come, and no
matter whatever else an intelligent being may have, or
whatever may be his exalted station in the degree and dig¬
nity of being, we cannot see how he can be happy or enjoy
God unless he is in harmony with the great; "I Am." Hence,
holiness, or that moral purity that God demands, is the only
/.ground of harmony, of happiness, and of heaven. There is
no place in the universal dominion of being for the unholy,
the impure and the unsanctified heart or soul to be happy,
^neither in this present state of being nor in that which is to
come. The wicked and polluted soul could not be happy,
even in heaven; for he would be without those principles
rand elements of character that are indispensable for his
peace and the enjoyment of those pure, holy, and throng¬
ing millions that compose the company of heaven, who
•came "through great tribulations," and had "washed their
robes, and made them -white (pure) in the blood of the
Lamb." We believe that it is possible, and in many cases
-a fact, that thousands are sanctified without ever having
sought for it or having any knowledge of it, since we
must suppose that many ignorant and illiterate people are
truly Christians, lived and died as such, and went home to
heaven. There are thousands to-day, as of all past time,
who are incapable, and who have neither time nor oppor¬
tunity of understanding fully the essentials of Christian¬
ity, yet they love God, love their neighbors, belong to the
-church and are willing, obedient servants of the Most
"High. They have a vivid experience^ if not a perfect
knowledge of their conversion; they well remember the
struggles, groanings, sorrowings under the heavy load of
•sm; they well remember the day and plaice when and where
they felt their hearts changed, and their feet plucked out of
the mire and the clay and a new song put into their mouths,
'evenpraises unto God; but they know nothing of the special
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
187
•and specific work of the cleansing, or the act of sanctifica-
tion. They are- the children of God as much as the
theologian who, because of his calling and superior ad¬
vantages, understands many of the deep and intricate things
•of God and the religion of Jesus. Shall we say that these
poor, ignorant and uncultured children of God are not
saved to the ,uttermost, because they were unlearned and
untutored in the philosophy and fundamentals of Chis-
tiianity? JSTo, not all. But since they must be holy before
they can enter heaven and enjoy God, they must have been
sanctified and made pure, as well as pardoned somewhere
and at some time, between the natural birth and the moment
* '
of entering the paradise of God. But you say God winks
at ignorance, and that when we have the opportunity to
seek sanctification and fail -to do it, He will hold us re¬
sponsible for it, and, therefore, we should seek it. That
is true. Every word of it is to the spirit and letter of God's
commands; but that does not alter or change the fact that
many are sanctified without their having any specific knowl¬
edge of either seeking it or having obtained it; yet they
have it, because they show all the fruits of the Spirit, and
gain heaven in the end. The predominant idea of holiness,
or moral cleanness is that it fits us for the awful presence
of the Infinite Deity. It is the clean'clothes, the pure and
'"bright raiment" "without spot or wrinkle," that fits lall
comers to the heavenly tabernacle to enter and to be en¬
tertained by Jesus Christ, who is "the Prince of the kings
of the earth," and "the bright and morning star." What
elaborate preparations are made by the great men of earth
to meet their kings, emperors and crowned heads! What
studied programs, magnificent pageantry and splendid
equipages to meet their earthly masters and human lead¬
ers! These are men of state, governors, lawyers, doctors,
judges, clothed in the bright ermine of their office, sena-
188
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
tors, representatives, and statesmen; laborers from field
and forest, artisans from shop and forge, tlie painters
from the studios of art, women and children and old
men bent under the toils of life and the weight of years;
philosophers, scientists, mathematicians and metaphysicians,
old and gray with struggling thought, whose souls aflame
have "walked the solar paths" and driven their chariots of
silken sunbeams over the high domes of the "Milky Way"
hard to the universal center. All, all, come to meet their
earthly lord and reigning king, and amid booming cannon,
and stately cordons of national armies men stand in awful
silence, with bated breath and uncovered heads. The king
is passing by.
But what is this compared to the infinite and high
presence of the King, immortal? How weak and in¬
significant is this earthly grandeur and majestic dis¬
play of a nation compared with the greatness of the majesty
of the court of heaven? If an earthly monarch de¬
mands such high and respectful allegiance from his
subjects as to awaken the keenest interest and profound-
est attention, how is the interest and attention heightened
when our moral and mental manhood shall stand in the
awful presence of the Infinite Creator, before whose all-
discerning eye every heiart is open, and all the inner con¬
sciousness is discovered in its multiform and intricate ac¬
tions, relations and conditions! But a clean heart and a
pure, blood-washed soul can tread the holy courts of God
and dwell in His high, holy and majestic presence.
II. What is implied in peace?
As holiness is the fundamental and the cardinal principle
(of reconciliation between God and man, so peace is the
product or resultant factor in the redemptive scheme. It
ushers in that period and brings us into that relationship
with God where there is perfect harmony, and that parental
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
189
relation that is more real, more splendid and beautiful
than that of the tender babe and the loving , mother. It is
the deep and abiding consciousness that there is nothing
between God and ourselves but an unclouded vista,
wreathed with flowers all fragrant with His love and replete
with the bright and beaming sunshine of His face, filling
the soul with the radiance of heaven and the music of the
angels. This is personal peace, spoken of by the Saviour,
when He said, "My peace I give unto you, not as the world
giveth"—a peace that ramifies the soul, filling all its
•chambers and deep recesses with an unearthly calm and
heavenly assurance that belongs only to the true children of
God. Whoever has this peace is a child of God; for none
-can have such a priceless jewel but the true children of the
Most High. But as there was a struggle before personal
peace came, so there must be a struggle and a conflict of
forces before national, international and world-wide peace
shall fully prevail on the earth. There must be a con¬
flict of opposite and diverse elements, agencies of spiritual,
mental-, civil, social or economic forces. Christ came
to stir, agitate, and set in active operation all the attributes,
natures, things, principles, and powers that pertain to all
the great concerns of the glory of God in human redemp¬
tion. For he says, "Suppose ye that I am come to give
peace on earth? I tell you, nay; but rather division."
Again, "I am come to send fire on the earth; and what
will I, if it be already kindled?" Again, "There is no peace
to the wicked saith my God." That is, there can be no com¬
promise between good and evil, between the forces of Chris¬
tianity and the forces of sin and the Devil. There must
be a struggle, a long and dreadful conflict for the mastery
•and control of human hearts, human governments, and
■all the spiritual, moral and mental empire of the chil¬
dren of men. And this struggle for the mastery, in the
190
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
very nature of the case, is necessary and indispensable. It
is a natural consequence of the long and dreadful reign
of sin. It is the irrepressible conflict of the centuries, that
cannot cease its fearful hostilities until peace is declared in
favor of that just and holy administration which Jesus
Christ came to establish. This universal peiace cannot be
established until the Word of God shall have been preached
in all the earth; until all the vile and depraved and black!
squadrons of sin and hell shall have been overthrown, and
the beautiful and majestic reign of Messiah shall cover
every land and se&, and sit enthroned in every heart, and
in every tribe and nation; "for He must reign until He
hath put all enemies under His feet." But how? "Not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord."
Not by the might of nations, nor the concentration of
armies, or stringent laws, nor yet by national and inter:
national treaties; not by fire, war and blood, nor the arbitra¬
ment of the sword, but by the preaching of the Gospel,
the conversion of sinners, and the Spirit of God permeating,,
reforming and sanctifying human hearts and consecrating
the mental faculties of intelligent humanity to His ser¬
vice and His love. These may be deemed the spiritual ener¬
gies and those deep and silent forces that act beneath the
surface of society and human tastes and agencies. But as
man has a tangible existence as well as an intangible real¬
ity, the physical and mental forces and powers must co¬
operate in the redemption of universal humanity. Not
only will the people of God cooperaJte with His Spirit with
this end in view, but the widespread phvsicalities of nature,,
under the control of inter-racial and international barter
and trade, are to be the able, although not efficient, agencies
under real and sentimental Christianity. But the relations
of nations, with the interchange of thought, learning, and
all the powers of increasing civilization, are to be swift-
HOLINESS AND PEACE.
191'
running couriers to bear to distant lands the glory of His-
kingdom, the greatness of His truth, the sweetness and
melodies of his name.
Let us remember that "the earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof," and that we are looking for "a new heaven
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." "Let not"
jour hearts troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in.
me."
O, ye saints of God, look up, He is coming, he is coming
to do justice and judgment in the earth. Hell is great,
but Christ is greater. Behold, he cometh skipping over the-
hills and mountains of broken decades, dying years and
dead centuries. Before Him the dead and stupid gods of
the nations are falling and the empire, of sin upon its an¬
cient base is trembling and rocking. I see Him rising,
above the surging waves of space and time and ascend¬
ing the horizon in His chariot of flame, with the great¬
ness and the indescribable majesty of His kingdom fol¬
lowing in his train. I see men, women and children, with
harps find cymbals, drums and golden lutes, and all stringed
instruments of music playing with nimble fingers, and
singing the great doxology of triumph. "The Lord God-
omnipotent reigneth."
The Unity of Christianity.
"Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours."—
1 Cor. 3:21.
In the second chapter of this epistle the apostle begins it
'by saying, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you
.the testimony of God," etc. Again, he speaks of the wis¬
dom of this world as being "foolishness with God, for it is
written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness," etc.
But let it be understood that neither God nor his inspired
-apostle designed to discourage (the culture of the brain nor
the pursuit of knowledge or wisdom. But the apostle de¬
signs to show !the folly, the uncertainty, and the mental
darkness under which the ancient schools of science and
philosophy labored; and that because of human weakness,
and mental depravity, the learning and product of Grecian
philosophy then prevalent, could never solve those religious
and profound questions that have, in a greater or less de¬
gree, stirred and agitated universal humanity. In this
:sense, "the wisdom of this world," or the old system of
Grecian dogma and philosophy, "is foolishness with God."
On the other hand, God designs and religion comes not to
make men fools or less wise, but it is sent from God to man
to enlarge his sphere of knowledge, quicken the mental
faculties, clear with the bright sun of righteousness the
moral atmosphere, making mankind "wise unto salvation."
Indeed, among the forces and agencies of God which he
lias put into operation on the human plane, none is
more essential, befitting and resplendent with the redemp-
THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
193
tire elements than the niental faculties. Knowledge is an
essential element in human salvation, as much as if is an
essential element in human progress and the world's civili¬
sation. Christianity comes to expand and extend the
moral, mental, and physical horizon, to lift the mists and
clouds, giving to the honest and true believer an untram¬
melled highway and an unshaded view in the deep vistas
beyond. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Knowledge is given us to know the right, to comprehend
the majestic, and to fathom the ways of God, that we may
praise and adore him. Indeed, the universe is his grand
temple, the court of his justice, the field of his power,
and the gilded empire of his glory. Ear, far beyond blazing
suns, shining orbs and trembling systems, he rides the
winged flame, treads their burning currents, buckles the
systems to his belt, wreathes his brow with stars, and
chains the sisters of the Milky "Way to his feet, and bids
them do his will. Also, "he maketh his angels spirits and his
ministers a flame of fire." Spirits are his servants, and
angels are his messengers. Around him they stand as if
hung on threads of silver, play through all parts of the
universal mechanism as sunbeams play on the face of the
earth. At his command they ramify his wide domains,
sweep the studded chambers of the vaulted dome, and chain
the swift-running lightnings to their native spheres.
Around him, the universal Center, systems play and cast
their shivered crafts, and flying boulders, and splintered
worlds at his feet, and in awful chaos praise the eternal
thunderer "that bids them roll." "Oh, the depth of the
riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How un¬
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding
out!" But, says the apostle, "All things are yours; whether
Paul, or Apolos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or
13 h
194
TEE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours,
and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." That is, the
church with its living ministry, its divine oracles of truth,
or all the forces, elements, and agencies of organized and
unified Christianity, with the physical and civil creations
belong to you. They are all your servants and your friends
to bring you to God, and perfect your manhood, advance
your happiness and give you heaven in the end, while they
give humanity glorious perpetuity and resplendent activ¬
ity throughout the ages to come.
1. The unity of Christianity.
Nothing proves the divine originality of Christianity
'and the authenticity of its cardinal doctrines more than its
unity and perfect harmony with itself and with the ends
and aims that it has in view. All through the ages, and all
through the nations and the world's greatest civilizations,
religion has been the universal and most prominent factor in
the tastes, feelings and aspirations of men. The political, na¬
tional and social forms that have obtained in human prog¬
ress and developments have circled around its standard of
morals, and received their force and propulsion from the
germ seeds and grains of truth that have been evolved or
brought from the great mine of the world's great religions.
Though often mixed with error and covered by the dust of
ages, though its symbolisms and external faculties have
been perverted, prostituted and made to reach unholy ends,
yet these religions carry with them some grains of truth,
and in their fundamentals, when properly interpreted,
point to God as the great Author and Founder of their cen¬
tral truths and vital principles. They show a unification of
nature, intent, and purpose that make up a consistency and
harmony in their respective parts which declare themselves
to be of the one God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is
one Lord," and so it might be said, "Hear, all ye religions
THE VISITS OF CHRISTIANITY.
195
of the nations and ages, the Lord thy God is one God and
one Father." From him all truth must come, since he is
"the only true God," and the only One in the universe that
can dictate to the will and conscience and moral and re¬
ligious proclivities of men and angels, and whatever other
intelligences may reside in his dominions. All truth is
from God, and must lead to God. Every thread and line
and living cable that ramifies and thrills the living enti¬
ties, though sometimes hidden and broken and covered
with the debris and scoria of the wear and tear of the cen¬
turies, will take us back to God, the great Original, chaining
all to the rock-ribbed mountains of the eternal shore. If
there were ten thousand religions, and ten times ten thou¬
sand forms of worship, to be true and beneficial to mankind,
they must all point to God and own him as the true and
only proper and rightful object of prayer, praise and adora¬
tion. "All things are yours," to lead you to God and plant
you on the solid rock of truth and the eternal shore.
2. As there is a unity in Christianity, there must be a
unity in the government of God.
As there is but one God, there can be but one universal
government, founded upon principles of oneness, uniform¬
ity and justice. The eternal form of government is nothing
compared to its principles, those fundamentals upon which
the kingdom may rest. God's? Government is always right,
and just, and uniform. In the simple ground-principles,
upon which it rests, and by which it is perpetuated, there is
a complete, full, and perfect conformity. It is a system of
universal harmonies, so full and replete with its own Crea¬
tor, that no true government can exist except the gov¬
ernment of God. Human governments, because of
their weakness, depravity and sins, are not true govern¬
ments, but are merely legalized mobs and perversions of the
great original—the government of God. As religion be-
196
THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
comes corrupt by the additions of men, so human govern¬
ments become corrupt by a departure from moral rectitude
and the administration of justice. There should be no
difference between the government of God and the govern¬
ment of men, except in degrees. But in nature and kind
both should be the same, and steadily maintain the same
ends in view, namely, the happiness of the governed. Now,
the government of man is an image or a reflection of the
kingdom of God. He is the great ideal, the ne plus ultra
of mental, moral, and physical conception. He, with his
government, is the highest standard of excellence. No
thought, act, being, form, or conception, can go beyond
him. He dwells in the loftiest altitudes and the sub-
limest wonders of the possibilities of being. Manhood is
a struggling image of the infinite and triumphant God, and
perpetual struggle is the price of eternal life. We reach the
immortal fixedness by labor, toil, and the fierce ordeal of
death.
3. But the government of God is dictatorial, ministerial,
£xecutive.
* He dictates^ he sends forth his ministers and agencies,
and by them iie fulfills his will in the armies of heaven, earth
and the myriads of the deep. He dictates to all the elements,
forces, agencies, and the incomprehensible majesties, both
material and immaterial. His will is the law of being and
his commands are the immovable statutes of their mode and
motions. Whether they roll, rest, or soar; whether they
sing, hiss, or sigh—they are his servants and trembling
ministers, bent on their eternal rounds to bring to their noble
and glorious ends the great designs of his love and power.
Every angel in heaven, every man on earth, and all the
devils, lost men and fallen spirits in hell, are his ministers,
and in some mysterious way fulfill his high behests and Ma
wise commands. Men may rebel, infidels, sceptics and scof-
TEE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY,
197
fers may swear and oppose the truth, and hate the kingdom
of God; they may make war on the Bible, persecute the
saints, and seek to destroy the whole of the united forces of
Christianity and subvert its organized forms; yet their mad¬
ness and rage c^n only intensify the friends of the truth,
unite the armies of God, and solidify a nascent and an ad¬
vancing Christianity. The will and purposes of God can¬
not be defeated, nor fail to reach the ends which his wis¬
dom, love and goodness have proposed. Hence the govern¬
ment of God is dictatorial, ministerial, and executive.
Jf. We are in the presence of some great agency, power,
or personality.
We are in the presenc of an influence and an expanding
energy, that are stirring, agitating and moving the forces
and elements of nature as nevetr before in the history of the
world. The nations are all aglow with the ardent flame
of progress, development, and expansion. This age is the
culmination of ages. The concentration of centuries is
shaping and fashioning universal manhood into a total
unity of a personification that is wonderful and unique.
This great agency is Christianity, this power is God, and
this great personality is Jesus Christ'. This triune char¬
acter or trinity of forces is drawing "all things" toward the
center, to a social, civil, political, commercial and inter¬
racial manhood, whose empire of brotherhood must and will
rule over all. Indeed, we are living in an age of blending
interests, when the great capitals of the world are getting
nearer and nearer, and by reason of rapid transit and the
quick transmission of thought, time is blotted out and space
is annihilated. New York, London, Paris, Berlin, St.
Petersburg, Pekin, and Canton, the great commercial cen¬
ters, speak to each other daily and on hidden cables of elas¬
tic steel. The lightnings vibrate the sympathies and feel¬
ings of the nations, ajs if universal humanity were hung
198
THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
on one solid nerve cord, or as if there was but one
great heart of the world of man. Racial prejudices
national hate, tribal distinctions, together with all friv¬
olous conventionalities, must yield to the martial steps and
massive tread of a newer and better civilization, quickened
and made resplendent by an active and reformative Chris¬
tianity.
5. "All things are yours " to make you a man.
Men are not made in a day, nor a year, nor a dozen of
years. It takes nearly a half of a century to make a man.
His physical constitution matures in less time, but the real
man, the true, hidden man, is made by slow process and by
degrees. As the skilled mechanic frets and belabors a piece
of pig iron into a useful and beautiful instrument, or as he
makes all the parts of a steam engine or some other
mechanism with its delicate and intricate parts, wheels,
cylinders, springs, axles, cogs, pulleys, bands, steamchesta
and piston-rods, and as they are properly adjusted, each
working in perfect harmony with all other parts, so all the
faculties of humanity must be fretted, belabored and cul¬
tured, until the full, matured and perfect man comes from
the hands of the master. It is true, man is finished in the
fact of his being. He is finished in the nature and number
of the mental, moral, and physical faculties. Nothing new
in kind can be added to his being in this or in another state.
He cannot have two memories, two or more judgments, or
have a duality or multiplicity of moral ideals. Neither can
he have comprehension or perceptions differing from those
that he now has, because this would be to change his being,
divert him from his original channel, and throw him out of
himself where he becomes another or a different self. If
such were possible with the nature and state of a personal,
conscious being, moral responsibility would be impossible,
and the rebellious and intelligent would escape punishment,
THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY. 199
and the righteous lose their reward. As-, also, the justice of
God would be a mere sham, the ends of his government
would be defeated, moral order subverted, and his kingdom
which should rule "over all," a failure. !No, the complex
mechanism of humanity was completed in the number of
its faculties and essential elements in the first fiat act of
liis creation. Hence, no property, faculty, attribute, or
fundamental can be added to his b£ing. Again, he is made
in the image of God. His mental and moral manhood
is like its great Creator—spiritual, ethical, fixed in its stat¬
utes, and dwelling in altitudes and on a plane above all
other things and powers that may produce death or bring
decay. Hence man, as are all intelligent creatures, is nat¬
urally and constitutionally immortal and imperishable.
"What, then, is culture? Culture is the enlarging and ex¬
panding of those faculties and powers already given. It is
development and the bringing out and putting into useful
activity all that mental manhood that we call mind. The
advancements and improvements of the'intellect are not
the attachments of new essentials or fundamentals achieved
by culture, but they are old powers and latent forces put
into activity. The intellect, then, is capable of perpetual
and indefinite improvements and advancements. Step by
step, evolution after evolution, the mental humanity as¬
cends the rounds of the ladder of development, gaining in
experience and self-force, until in the galaxy of its own per¬
fect nature and purer light of God, all the powers and fac¬
ulties will be in perfect balance and in full and endless
harmony with all of its self and with its perfect ideal
God.
6. But "alt things are yours " to bring you to a better
and higher self.
The world was made for man and God. The Garden of
Eden was made for Adam and his sons, and for Ev© and
200
THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
her daughters. The universe was made for the temple of
God, and a house and dwelling-place for all his children.
The vaulted dome, bedecked with gems and cities of stars
with the countless "hosts of heaven" that make up "the
shining frame," were made for you. They were made to-
lift your aspirations, inspire your hope, nerve your effort.
The rainbow bends over you, and, spans the cerulean arch
to give you patience and hope, and the lightnings flash to
quicken your steps and clear the physical and moral at¬
mosphere of the pestiferous seeds of sickness and death.
The thunders remind you of the presence of the awful
God, great Jehovah who makes " the clouds his chariot"
and the winds his horses. The thunderbolts are his
winged arrows from his bow of fire, and his grape and
canister from the pent-up magazines of the skies. The
dewdrops are gejns of blessings and silver crown of glory
set in heavenly trim upon leaf, bud, petal and ripening
fruit to remind us of the crowns of heaven. Seed time
and harvest, spring and summer, the alternating seasons
with their refreshing changes, are all yours. The sun
shines to warm you and give you light, the winds blow
to waft you on to God and make you a perfect man
and a perfect woman; the seas roll, and rivers play on their
rocky beds, and like cables of gold, tie the mountains to the
seashore, that you may know there is an eternal anchorage
hard by the throne of God and held by his hand. For you
the stars revolve, comets flash and meteors fly in the open
skies. "All things are yours." Deep in the bowels of the
earth there are mines of richest ores and living veins of
gold and silver. There are beds of jewels, sleeping
diamonds, and undiscovered urns of brightest gems to
crown our queens in brilliant stars, and bedeck the royal
insignia of our kings with the beauties and studded grace
of angels. There are magazines of oil, empires of iron,,
THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
20?
and kingdoms of coal to keep us warm in winter, cook our
food, move our machinery, turn our wheels and spindles,
propel tlie mighty iron-clad monsters and "swift-running
greyhounds" across the surging seas, that we may speak to
our sisters and brothers of the islands and continents. There
are mountains of stone, with giant bones of granite and
massive ledges of unpolished marble to cover our streets,
build our houses and temples of honor, and halls of pleas¬
ure. At the voice of the thunder and the flashing of the
lightning, the melting clouds pace along the skies on the
chariot wheels of the wind and play upon the heaving
bosom of the air, as if they were the fleecy cars of heaven,
drawn by troops of angels, that there may be seed to the
sower and bread to the eater. The whole kingdom of na¬
ture, with its scenes of beauty and charming embodiments
of delight, with its robes of living green, and crowns of
brilliant flowers, blushing lilies, and bursting petals of
fragrant roses, is for you and for me, to help us on to God,
and to the sublime heights of a better, even a perfect self.
All the listening elements, the faculties and sleeping pro¬
pensities of the universal spheres, ■vyith their countless
billions of molecular entities and atomical relations, unite
their forces and combine their energies to make a sinless
man, a sinless humanity. Every thread and fibre, every
string and wire, every cord and cable, and every golden
nerve and silver strand, and all the wheels of the universal
mechanism, are our willing servants and God-driven steeds-
to land us all in heaven and crown us with immortal green
and the blushes of eternal youth. Civilization, with its forms,
relations, institutions; achievements, and discoveries, is
made for you and all the sons of men. Its flourishing cities,
its moving millions, its laws and customs, its codes wis¬
dom, books of learning and folios of experience with the
arts and sciences, are the beacon lights and polar stars to
'202
THE UNITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
catch the radiance of the Sun of righteousness and scatter
its warmth and sparkling beams to the utmost length and
breadth of the royal highway to the city of God. Organized
Christianity, with its living ministry, its temples of song
and worship, with millions of consecrated men and women
•and little children, is your helper and comrade on the
highway of light and truth. All things in the heights and
depths and the rimless and measureless expansions, with
their unknown and infinite capacities, realities and possi¬
bilities, and whatever else may exist in the concrete or in
the abstract universe, are ready and waiting to gather up
the reins and buckle up the habit and yoke on the pinions
^f flame and cut the belted and burning peripheries of the
outermost glories of ethereal currents, that they may crown
the royal hosts of Christ with the wreaths of conquerors and
the gems of kings.
But Calvary is yours, with its dying Savior, its forsaken
■Son, its bleeding Victim, its smitten Shepherd, its scattered
flock, and the uplifted sword of the executive God. "All
.things are yours." Amen and amen! So let it be.
The Christmas.
No anniversary or celebration of any great event in
the history of man contains within its significant parts and
high symbolism, greater interests and broader and deeper
relationship to the intelligent inhabitants of this earthly
sphere than that which Christianity brings to remembrance
by the annually returning Christmas. The wheels of ages,
the revolution' of planets, the flight of comets that spin and
dance and wrap their golden trails around sidereal wonders,
and carry the news of God from the seat of eternal power
to the utmost periphery, bear no greater news in their eter¬
nal mail car than the birth of Christ, and the advent of
the Son of Mary. In the history of God and man, and all
the angels besides, there can take place no event of greater
moment, of vaster, deeper, and more infinite import to^the
Adamic race. What event, era, age, cycle, or dispensation
in the history of God and creation can be compared to it?
What physical catastrophe, or mental evolution, or spiritual
transition in the depth, of being, in the wonderful universal
mechanism can be compared to it? Far back in the misty
deep of the cycles, before Aurora blushed at her halo of the
morning flame, or the Polar star kissed her gorgeous trail
on the Northern seas, and when as yet Alcyon had not
stepped from the deep precincts of her boudoir and chained
her burning sisters as sandals on her feet, when as yet the
fiery mists rolled, soared, 'hissed, and in serpentine splendor
moved about their own center, our Christianity, of which
Christ is the active, forceful embodiment, sat in eternal
enthronization in -the bosom of God, as the only possible
moral principle of His universal empire.
204
THE CHRISTMAS.
Again, we say there is no event in the history of man
ancl God, whether physical or mental, that can be compared
to the advent and birth of the great Messiah. The fall of
the great Lucifer from the imperial empyrean, succeeding
the great conflict of the loftiest majesties of the spheres and
of the towering intellectualities of the universe, was a great
event. It was the battle of the eternal ages, the culmination
of majestic insolence, the beginning of the sinful era, and
a desperate effort of rebellious, sagacious, and powerful in¬
tellectual activities to take the reins of empire and the seat
of God. It was the battle of gods in the heart of the em¬
pire, and at the seat of government. Proud Lucifer had
been the tall archangel^ the prime minister of the court of
heaven, crowned with the belted cycles. . He wore the robe
of honor, the insignia of state—a thousand suns pinned to¬
gether by a thousand comets, which threw back their burn¬
ing tails in majestic folds and wide-spread seas of pyramidal
light from pole to pole, high above his head; and expanding
over all was the rainbow, radiant in the beauties of its seven
colors, the God-given and sacred memento of universal and
eternal peace. But the crisis is approaching. The relation
between the oldest and mightiest sons of God is strained.
The cables break, civic volcanoes explode, and the interne¬
cine and political convulsions unhinge the harmonies of the
centuries. Fiery conclaves on steeds—ethereal currents,
like flashes of lightnings—thread and ramify the kingdoms,
thrones, dominions, principalities and powers. All the
heights, depths, lengths, provinces, and eternal eras, with
all their multitudes, are summoned to the battle of the
cycles. But proud Lucifer, the first, the greatest and the
oldest of sinners, fails, as all must fail who fight against God
and challenge the throne and authority of the Most High.
"How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning." This is a great event, the beginning of sin. But
THE CHRISTMAS.
205
Christ is born, and a greater event enters the record of the
ages and the history of being. His nativity marks an era
more distinguished, more interesting, and more universal
than the loss of planets, or of the sinking suns and lost sys¬
tems. In the starry frame of the constellated tracks of
space, suns have ceased to shine, moons have waned to cal¬
cined dust, and old worlds have been honeycombed by the
giant worm of decay. In the mid-ocean of the galaxies of
sidereal systems, our proud earth, with her cold, chaste
moon, the uncrowned pale empress of the night, is making
her trip on the high seas of time. She belongs to an imme¬
diate system, and with each of her sisters is moved and
warmed by the great' sun; but the best message that ever
fell upon her heart, in her onward flight through space, is
the nativity of Christ, the Annointed of God, the Heavenly
Legate, the Savior of men, and the Preserver of angels.
His name is the charm of centuries, the wand of the
ages, the anthem of the nations and the inspiring melody
of the spheres. God says, "I will make Thy name to be re¬
membered in all generations, therefore shall the people
praise Thee forever and ever." Quickly and strongly down
through the days of the onflow of the multitudes of aspiring
millions, His name, like burnt incense ascending from the
golden censers of adoring seraphs, shall be the chorus of
the redemption anthem, the life of every song and the
sweetness of every verse.
Annalists and recording scribes may forget the name of
the Caesars, the Napoleons, and the noble founders and
protectors of empires. Peoples, nations, monarchies, and
republics may pass from the drama of nations. Bards,
poets, and seers,, and the skillful touchers of the organ
keys may forget their national airs and the names of their
glorified and deified heroes of a thousand battles,, and their
quivering strings of gold may lie silent upon their broken
206
THE CHRISTMAS.
harps iand lutes. The eternal shafts and marble piles of
fretted stone and towering columns, and all the dreamers
that sleep in "the rock-ribbed" and bronze-bound sarco¬
phagi may be forgotten, and the letters of their illustrious
names erased by the abrasions of centuries; yet the name of
Jesus—the Christ—will never be forgotten, but will go
ringing down the declivities of the world's civilizations,
sweeping on in the radiant splendors of its own. effulgent
brightness, until every lip shall lisp His name, every tongue
spread His fame, yea, until every heart is a throne, every
soul a temple, and every child of man a polished gem to
stud and bedeck a trophied empire, gathered and sorted out
fro;m the perverse and rebellious majesties and actualities
of sin and darkness.
But the time was approaching for the great nativity. The-
purposes of God were ripening fast. The prophets had
waited long, sung of His coming, dreamed of His triumphs,
descanted in solemn lays upon their stringed instruments
and played on their high-sounding cymbals the preludes to
His dramatic majesty upon the public stage of nations. The
magi in far distant climes of the ^East had calculated upon
tablets of golden plate the time of His appearing. 'The
flight of stars, the flash of comets, and the position of plan¬
ets, w;ere studied and catalogued, and the lost Pleiades,
called up from the infinite plentitudes of their long disap¬
pearance, read the predictions of His coming from their
fiery rings and the flitting phantasmagoria of their sheeny
trails. The philosophical archives of ancient lore, and the
hieroglyphics of occult syllogisms were laid open to the
oalm visions and the cold judgment of the deepest and the
keenest occultism. The fall of meteors, the dance of the
aurora borealis in awful display around the northern hemi¬
sphere, thfe dull cold thud of earthquakes, the howling seas
and the hum and stately tramp of receding centuries were
TEE CHRISTMAS.
marked, and the hands upon the dial plate of time were
watched, and their epochal relations measured and weighed
until the high-born beauties and majesties of the universe
spoke to men in the language of the stars, and told of Tfia
coming. The last of the four great monarchies—the four
great acts in the drama of human government—Rome—
was quivering upon its ancient foundations, and the king¬
dom of the Tiber with its hoary locks of the ages was
stooping to the weight of years. "The scepter had departed
from Judah," the Jewish polity was broken, and the throne
of David and Solomon was a thing of the past. Up, up,
the days of the centuries climb, angels watch, cherubs drop
their wings, all harps are unstrung, cymbals cease to vibrate
their symphonies, and the diatonic chords of the universal
diapason lose their music in the sea of silence. The court
of heaven is open; awful muteness that could be felt my¬
riads of leagues from center toward circumference seals
every Hp and tongue, rblaxes every harp sting, and the im¬
mortal celebration is hushed.
So He came, and so He was born in Bethlehem of
Judea. "And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not, for be¬
hold I bring good tidings of great joy, which shall'be to all
people, for unto you is born this day in the City of David,
a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.'" *• * * "Glory"
to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will to¬
ward men." Blessed nativity! blessed birth of "the Prince
of Peace!" Blessed Legate from the court of heaveti.!
But what of His work? He is here to stay, not in His
physical manhood, but in spiritual power. He is here to
deal with the nations, to elevate humanity and purify the
civilizations of the world. Christmas ever calls to memory
Tfia advent, nature and work. But how sweet is the name
of Christ, and of Jesus! It is associated with human happi¬
ness and human redemption. It is the light of the nations,.
208
THE CHRISTMAS.
the guiding star of the millions, and the balm for every
aching heart. Some man has said in effect, that the time
would come when the name of Jesus Christ would be blot¬
ted from the face of the earth. But how can it be? Who
can blot it out? Who can hush the millions and erase from
their "heart of hearts" the beauties of his grace, or the
melody of his name? Sirs, if men should hold their peace,
the very stones would cry out. Sweet carols would spring
from the earth,, and songs of praise from the rocks of the
hills. The rivers would murmur it, the little rills would
babble it, the seas with a thousand bass drums would roar
it, the storms would howl it, and the winds would whistle
among the glades and valleys and trees of the woods, un¬
til every leaf, bud, trunk, fruit, and flower would
quiver beneath the melodies of His name and the joys of
His salvation. Yea, every dead prophet, bard, seer and
evangelical poet would leap from his grave, tune his golden
notes afresh, call up all the choirs of the nations, and gather
the broken chords of the centuries. Before His name can
be blotted out every Bible must be burnt up, every church
' torn down, every Sunday-school annihilated, and every
minister and working saint and pious heart crushed to in¬
sensibility. What will you do with David and Asaph, the
sweet singers in Israel? What will you do with Milton,
Watts, Toplady, Charles Wesley, and the other tens of
thousands who tuned their harps on Calvary, and from its
crimson summit caught the inspiration of heaven in their-
hearts, and poured their anthems with plastic fingers in the
bosom of the rhythmic rills of heavenly lays? What will
you do with the redeemed soul fresh and green in the tran¬
scendencies and beatific transitions of the new life? When
rightly played man is a harp of a thousand strings, keyed,
and attuned by the holy name of Jesus Christ. This harp
was made after the heavenly pattern. It is the lyre of
THE CHRISTMAS.
209
God. Its strings are of tlie loftiest cast and of the finest
mould, whose threads never break, whose music, though
old, is always new. Its songs are long,. deep, melodious,
sweeping down from heaven to Calvary in melting softness
and dulcet strain which thunders in awful refrain in the
depth of the spheres, causing to vibrate every quivering
thread and living octave. Blot out the name of Jesus? It
cannot be done. !N"o! The stars would hand it down, the
moon would kiss it, the sun would shine it through all the
planets, and ethereal currents would waft it on wings of
flame, and the lightnings of God would hurl it and burn it
across the bosom of "Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades and the
chambers of the South." Then let the inhabitants of the
earth take up the thrilling cry and with lip and tongue, with
harp and fife and drum, chant the Te Deum of the ages and
the melodies of His name forever and forever.
14h
The Unity of Force.
It is evident from the teachings of the Bible, and spir¬
itual and physical activities, that there is but one moving,
-all-pervading, central, living energy. Deep down beneath
;and passing through and rising above all principles, things,
:and agencies, there is an intelligent reality, a forceful, in¬
herent and active life. This active life is before all things,
in all space, permeating every particle of universal matter
and spirit, guiding, directing and controlling the countless
and eternal activities. There may be rest, but not real
quietism. There can be no quietism in a moving uni¬
verse. Life itself is activity, and that that acts is
life. Since life is activity there is nothing else to
act. The life of the universe is the central or universal
mentality, and is the unit of force. Force is only a part of
the universal mentality, that part, or that property, or fac¬
ulty, that agitates, oscillates, or stirs the elements and con¬
stituencies. Nothing can move or vibrate except as it is
moved upon or vibrated by the universal mentality.
One of the most wonderful and distinguishing proper¬
ties or faculties of the universal mentality is wisdom, that
perfect knowledge of all the entities, results, and facts of
"being. State or condition has no effect upon universality.
State or no state, condition or no condition, cannot destroy
or annul the property of universality any more than state
or condition can destroy or annihilate being. Nothing can
anihilate being. It is an eternal, an indestructible, and
divine entity. Being is a reality that is independent of mat¬
ter, even in its highest possible mode of existence, or in its
greatest volatile or ethereal vitality. There is no living
a
THE UNITY OF FORGE.
211
factor in the universe but mind. All else is dead, mute and
inert. The universe around us, above us and beneath us,
acts only as it is acted upon by the spiritual, universal in¬
telligence—the incomprehensible mentality. Matter acts,
therefore, because it is acted upon by a power that is above
it in degrees of those constituent properties that character^
ize its superiority belonging only to itself. If there were
a mental force equal to another mental force, with equal
intelligence, there could be no unity of force any more than
there could be "the unity of nature and the reign of law."
Hence ,all the phenomena in nature harmonize with the
highest concepts of wisdom and lead us unto the temple of
the enthroned and incomprehensible intelligence. There is
no real inherent force, life, or action in matter, and conse¬
quently none in the universe, except this, or the universal
intelligence, and all that we see or comprehend in physical
nature is the product of universal mind. To comprehend
the measure and the mode of the existence of mind, or even
to hint at the unknowable and infinite deeps out of which
it rises in resplendent unity of being and action, would
eventuate in nothing, and a thousand billions of centuries
would leave us as far from the solution as we are to-day.
It is not a province of thought or comprehension, for in
these mighty deeps and unzoned seas of mental reality, the
wing of thought, or the pinions of the imagination never
can rest, roll, or soar. The presentation of metaphysical
syllogism teaches us that there is but one reality in the uni¬
verse, and that is mind. There is no other reality in the
sense that it has its own inherent and self-activities.
In othing can be a true reality but that which has self-action
and unified personal proclivities and spiritual individuality.
The doctrine that teaches the unity of force does not in
any sense teach the doctrine of monism, because the unit of
force has intelligence that is plainly to be seen in every
212
THE UNITY OF FORGE.
part of the universe. There can "be no design without in¬
telligence, or that power that designs and chooses the best
and fittest means to accomplish the best and fittest ends.
"Wisdom is the property of mind, that mental unity of
character or individualism; and since mind must act in
harmony with itself, it is of necessity a unit. Monism
teaches the unity of force, (but a force that is in itself blind,
and has no intelligence, no personality of being or design,)
and that the, vast results and products of the universe
arise out of the precipitant elements and the fortuitous
vibrations of its parts. It denies all mental intelligence and
spiritual activities, except such as arise out of the fortui¬
tous combinations of precipitant forces and vibratory ele¬
ments; it denies that there is any such thing as mind or
mental character beyond that which has been produced by
physical nature, and asserts that the mental faculties of man
(or spirits, if there be any) are the products of mere molecu¬
lar force or action "with chemical combinations under happy
conditions. This view leaves the universe without a de¬
signing mental individualism that we call the universal
intelligence, and shuts us up to ill fatalities and capricious
chance, and allows the universe, like an unguided ship upon
some vast sea, to float in space without chart or compass,
leaving the boundless and unnumbered worlds to ply on
their own chosen orbits without let or design. Think of it.
A universe running away with itself. Possibly it may come
in contact or collision with another. Then what? The
I
thought is ridiculous and also stupendous. Under it, the
stoutest must quiver and the souls of towering spirits must
quail as the unthinkable catastrophe photographs its shape¬
less image upon the undying mentalism.
So far as science is concerned, the unity of force is proved
by the form or shape of all the known systems or worlds
THE UNITY OF FORCE.
213
that float in space. Kone of them are yet proved to be
square, oblong, ovate, octangular, or rhomboidal, but all
aje round, or spheroidal. And so far as we know, the very
molecules, or the atomic aggregations of bodies, in their
most subtle particles, and in themselves, are round. One
is made to correspond to all of the others in the vast ma¬
chinery of the universe. It seems apparent that in no other
way could perfect harmony be produced and maintained.
It is believed that planets have, by some marvelous and
eruptive force, been broken to pieces and forced into space,
and that in process of time they have become round, because
in no other way could they regain and maintain those har¬
monious relations and conditions that are essential to the
order and happiness of the intelligent universe. If nature
was the author and creator of itself, which is incapable of
designs, why is it that all these worlds and systems of worlds
are made round? Why is it that none of them are square,
oblong, rectangular or some other shape besides the globu¬
lar? Why they are formed thus, is because the universal
intelligence, the infinite mentality so-designed them that
the beauty and harmony and glory of the universe might
be a dwelling-place and a magnificent temple for "the
Father of Lights" and His intelligent offsprings, the shin¬
ing phalanxes and legates of Hiis love.
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
(Published in The Independent, March, '91.)
This, the youngest branch of American Methodism, was
organized under the auspices and authority of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in the city of Jackson, Tenn.,
December 15th and 23d, 1870. As far back as 1866, its
organization was contemplated and desired by both classes
of those who composed the membership of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. In this year (1866) the General
Conference of the Mother Church requested their bishops
to ordain colored men to the ministry, form them into con¬
ferences, preside over and superintend the colored work in
assemblies, separate and distinct from those of the whites.
It was also provided "that when three or more annual con¬
ferences of colored ministers were organized and presided
over by the bishops" of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South; an$ that also when thought befitting and agreeable
to both classes of members, "a separate and independent
ecclesiastical jurisdiction should be established for the col¬
ored people," with all the regularities and outfits of estab¬
lished Methodism.
These initiatory provisions, being agreeable to both
classes of persons concerned, and being consistent with
what was conceived to be the harmony and best interests of
both and all, the separation was authorized—legal, formal,
and productive of the best feelings and results.
It is simply justice to state that the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, at the beginning of the late war, had over
two hundred thousand members of color within her pales,
THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 215
having churches of their own, and ministers sent to them
regularly from the conferences. Often one pastor served
both the white and the colored members, preaching to the
whites in the forenoon and to the colored in the afternoon.
Of this two hundred thousand, the great majority inform-
ally dissolved their relationship with the Methodist Episco¬
pal Church, South, and went into other branches of Meth¬
odism, the African Methodist Episcopal Church receiving
the largest share of them. However, there still remained
about forty thousand who adhered to the Methodist Episco¬
pal Church, South, and who could not be induced to dis¬
band their church relation and enter others which came
upon the ground immediately after the emancipation. For
some years after the war the reduced number of members
of color who still remained adherents of the Methodist Epis¬
copal Church, South, was looked after and cared for as was
the case during the years of slavery. As the General Con¬
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which
met in New Orleans, May, 1866, had authorized the bishops
to organize conferences of colored ministers, so, four years
after, the same body held its quadrennial session in Mem¬
phis, Tenn.; and upon the petition of some of the leading
colored ministers, the General Conference of the Mother
Church delegated their bishops, with other distinguished
ministers and laymen, to organize the colored members
into a separate and distinct body, which was satisfactorily
consummated in December of the same year (1870).
The organization of this branch of our common Method¬
ism seemed necessary for several reasons.
Among them we may note the following: As a result,
the war'had changed the ancient relation of master and
servant. The former, though divested of his slaves, yet
carried with him all the notions, feelings and elements in
his religious and social life that characterized his former
216 THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
years. On the other hand, the emancipated slave had but
little in common with the former master. In fact, he had
nothing but his religion, poverty and ignorance. With
social elements so distinct and dissimilar, the best results
of a common church relation could not be expected. Har¬
mony, friendship and peaceful co-operation between the
two peoples in the propagation of a divine and vital Chris¬
tianity, were among the essential elements of a successful
evangelization of the people of color. Social religious
equality, as well as any other kind of social equality, was
utterly impracticable and undesirable, and coveted by
neither class of persons composing a churchship.
With this state of things steadily in view, we had but
one horn of the dilemma left us, and that was a free,
friendly and authorized separation from the mother body.
Although we are become two bands, yet it is, and was un¬
derstood that this does not, in any sense, release the Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church, South, from those duties and obli¬
gations that Providence seems to have imposed upon her,
in aiding the American African in his Christian develop¬
ment.
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America
has had :a remarkable career. As a branch or product of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, it has been opposed by
strong hands and accomplished leaders among the colored
people, from its birthday to the present; 'though, happily
for us, these oppositions are now subsiding and the young
organization is taking on a firm and expanding aspect that is
most interesting and extraordinary. To sustain and propa¬
gate such an institution amid so many opposing forces as
- those that have presented themselves for the last twenty
years, seemed, at first, to be a forlorn and hopeless under¬
taking. Green from the fields of slavery, raw in the expe¬
riences of church tactics, in membership and ministry,
THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 217
without houses of worship or literature, with many of its
organizing feats being performed out of doors and under
trees, it overcame difficulties that make it more than a
mere experiment. Being in the dews of its youth, it has
not yet attained its destined dignity and power for good
among the colored race. But it is advancing in every de¬
partment.
Its aim is the evangelization of the colored race. First,
by preaching the pure and simple gospel of Christ to the
masses, in the simplest form of speech. Second, to do this
in the best and most effective manner, we aim, as far as
possible, to establish and maintain schools for the imparta-
tion of Christian education among our people, and especial¬
ly among the ministry, and that part of the race who are
expecting to be teachers. As we cannot expect to do a
great deal at present, by Way of educating the masses, we
begin with preachers and teachers, carefully and patiently
training and indoctrinating them in those great moral and
religious principles that lie at the base of an elevated and
sound moral manhood. It is said that man is naturally a
religious being. The sense of a Supreme Power intrudes
itself upon all his spiritual and moral functions, and if men
in general are thus religionists, the colored man is particu¬
larly so. He seems especially susceptible of religious cul¬
ture and of reaching those spiritual climaxes and benedic¬
tions that have characterized the .most pious of men. While
these seem apparent facts, it is also apparent that all these
safeguards of the gospel, and those that have grown out of
the experiences of men, should be thrown around him, lest
his Christian or religious zeal should subvert, cover or hide,
the weightier matters of the moral law, and those principles
and practices that constitute the vital flame of the reforma¬
tory moral power of Christianity. Christianity pure and
simple is what he needs. As a church, we come upon the
218 THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
stage of being to propagate the gospel along these lines and
no others. To sustain this position we have always stood
aloof from politics, not as individuals, but as officials repre¬
senting an organization for a certain and specific purpose.
While our ministry and members represent all political
parties and creeds, yet, as ministers of the gospel, we make
no stump-speeches and fight no battles of the politicians.
We think it better to "let the dead bury the dead." while we
follow Christ. Of course we have no control over any
man's vote; whether he be minister or member, he is free
to vote as he pleases. We regard Christianity not only as
reformatory and redeeming, but as a moral power of civili¬
zation. At present, it must be acknowledged that Negro
civilization is yet in its infancy and cruder evolutions.
He is now laying the foundations upon which future gen¬
erations are to build those institutions that are to make him
and his progeny solid Christians and'valued citizens. We
regard him as a part of the people, a permanent fixture in
the United States of America. It is true, we hope, that
many of the race will, some day, go to Africa—their native
land—but the masses will fight the battle of life here, and
live and die on the American continent. We also recognize
the fact that he is, and will be, singularly and collectively, a
separate and distinct race from the others.
Friction in church or state cannot be productive of good
to him and his children, and we think it is a legitimate part
of Christianity to ameliorate and soften those cruder condi¬
tions under which he finds himself as an element in society;
hence, we seek the friendship of all, and especially
and particularly the fatherly directorship of the Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church, South. Beyond and behind the
immediate work of the christianization of the colored race,
there lie a faith, a principle, and a practice, that seem pecu¬
liar and interesting; and as these factors have done much to
THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHTJRCH. 219
"unite the races in harmonious co-operation and exile any
hostile feelings that may have existed in the South between
the two. Their aim is to bring about peace, and perpetuate
the era of mutual brotherhood and concert of action.
We claim that the spirit, nature and practice of the Col¬
ored Methodist Episcopal Church in America have done,
and are doing much in this direction. Some have thought
that Providence has placed it where it is for this pur¬
pose. Already it has enlisted the special attention of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which by legislative
action has appointed a Commissioner of Education for the
purpose of establishing and maintaining schools for "the
education of preachers and teachers," for the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church in America. This educational
interest is controlled by the two churches jointly for the
benefit of the Colored Church. It is the aim of this church
to prosecute the work along these lines in the fear of God
and in the love of a common humanity.
The Origin and Place of Religion in Civilization.
Religion may be defined as that service, consisting in
worship, adoration and sacrifice which, man renders to a
supreme, or some being or beings that he supposes to be
superior to himself—superior to himself in wisdom, power,
knowledge, and indefinite existence.
The consciousness of a supreme, enduring, and all-per¬
vading Energy is a faculty of the human mind,. It is an
ineradicable and indestructible element of man's nature. It
is Grod-given, inherent, and not acquired by practice, rea¬
son, or learning. This religious faculty in man generates
those elements of moral conceptions upon which the moral
government of God is founded, and is the means of com¬
munication between the finite and the Infinite, and is that
ever-present and far-reaching medium by which the voice
of the Creator ever rings in the hearts of the created intelli¬
gences.
That man in his native elements is a religionist, not only
accords with the history of the race, but is reasonable and
consonant with his nature and the highest ends of his
being.'" It is not necessary to be sinful before being relig¬
ious. Had there been no sin in the universe, or no infrac¬
tion of the laws that govern it, whether these laws be physi¬
cal, mental, or spiritual, the religious faculty still would be
a real and constituent part of all intelligences. As man is
a thinking, free moral agency, he is necessarily a part of the
great whole—a part of the great intelligent system. So far
as the moral nature of man is concerned, it must be like that
which all other moral beings have. The different spheres
in the great moral system of the universe have no tendency
ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION. 221
to change the moral constitution so as to make it different
in one class of moral beings from that in another, unless
there could exist two moral systems in one, which is an ab¬
surdity. As there can be but one God, there can be but one
government presiding over the whole. The moral laws are,
therefore, the same in principle, and have the same ends
in view in every part of the intelligent creation. It is also
evident that the different modes of intelligent existence have
nothing to do with the inherent qualities of their moral
natures. Man would be man without his body or corporeal
delineations, and angels would be none the less angels if
clothed in mortal parts as we have. There may be lower
and higher degrees of moral capability, as there are in in¬
telligent capacity, but the innate and controlling principles
are the same. As place and mode of existence cannot
change moral law and moral nature in their inherent quali¬
ties, neither can the siege of ages nor the extending cycles.
In other words, conditions cannot change the moral uni¬
verse so as to make it something else different from what it
is. It is what it is because it is the moral system. The
system cannot be changed, any more than right can be
made wrong, and wrong can be made right. It may
be possible to annihilate the subjects of the moral
system, and any physical part that may be connected
with it, but not its inherent qualities. These are
what they are because they cannot cease to be, nor
grow into something else. Thus the moral system must
remain forever intact in all the plentitude of its primary
elements. If these premises are properly taken, then the
government of God is necessarily a unit. It has an eternal
oneness in nature and execution in all places and times, and
is unaffected by mere conditions. While the moral system
itself is distinct and different from its subjects or partici¬
pants, yet it presupposes their existence, while, if they do
222 ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION.
exist, they cannot evade its obligations any more than they
can evade the realization of their own being. Wherever there
is intelligence, there must be consciousness and moral force
and sense of obligation and responsibility. These are prom¬
inent faculties of the mind, and prove the existence of it,
and force the thinking creature to think of his conscious
moral obligations. Here, in the virgin soil of his nature,
man finds those promptings, desires and proclivities that we
might well call the religious faculty—faculty of his being,
or attributes of his mental constitution. It is no argument
against this position that some few have been found who
are destitute of moral ideas and religious proclivities, if,
indeed, there ever were such beings in existence. It is not
to be denied that it is possible, in some cases, to suppress
to :a degree that is almost latent the religious faculty, yet
in such cases these are no more silent and latent than the
other faculties that are as little used. In any state below
and on the line of civilization the human intellect will use
those faculties that are most productive of the present and
greatest good, because they are factors and manufactories
of his immediate wants and daily needs. Forced by hunger
and thirst, and the desire for the comforts of life, man, like
the birds of prey or the beasts of the field, makes every effort
to supply and provide himself with the things that seem
needed for his happiness and well-being. Thus all his
faculties that are useful for this purpose are especially
aroused, cultivated, and stimulated to high degrees. By
their use they are made more prominent and distinct. So
with the religious faculties. They may be active or dor¬
mant to a greater or less degree by culture or less culture.
So it is with all the attributes of the human mind. The
Creator gave the mind complete in all its distinct attributes
or characteristics, but its progressive development is left to
conditions. How far mankind is responsible for favorable
ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION. 223
or unfavorable conditions in which to culture the mind
need not now be elaborated. But sufficient has been said
to disprove that, because the religious faculties are not
particularly active in all, they do not naturally exist in any.
Ihe fact that all the great peoples of the earth have been
religious is clear evidence that man is naturally so, and it
also proves that every man is religious, except where the
faculties and proclivities have been overshadowed by arti'
ficial means, as in the case of the atheist.
So far as we have come, we have dwelt upon the inherent
emanations of religion in its origin, and we conclude that
man is naturally a religious being, that the religious fac¬
ulty is organic, God-given, and is an essential element of his
being, and is just as enduring and abiding as any other at¬
tribute of his nature. H6 is, therefore, most natural when
he is religious, and most unnatural when he is not religious.
False religion, so-called, is only a part of religion cor¬
rupted by superstitions, .false additions, mutilations and
erroneous interpretations. From the beginning it was not
so. All the different forms of religious beliefs and faiths
must have had the same beginning and the same parent
stem. They must be branches of the same vine, or ramifi¬
cations of the same great original. All their great moral
ideas that have come down to us through the ages came
through different channels, but came from the same true
and pure fountain whose great original is the Creator. He
first gave to His human offsprings, by symbolic and oracu¬
lar demonstrations, as well as by internal emanations, what
He would have them do, and as the generations dispersed
"into different climes they carried with them the germ
thoughts of religion. But being corrupted, these germ
thoughts of religion did not reproduce their exact originals,
and as time rolled on, the originals were more and more
corrupted until complete reproduction was impossible.
224 ORIGIN AND PLAGE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION.
Then liuman additions were made to take their places.
Hence we have the so-called false religions. But let it be
remembered, that one and all of these must have had a
common origin.
The name of God, in some form, is common in
all known languages, and is spelled with four let¬
ters in almost all of them, indicating the unity and
oneness in the origin of religion. For instance, it
is in Latin, Deus; Greek, Theos; Hebrew, Adon; Syriac,
Adad; Arabian, Alia; Persian, Sjra; Tatarian, Idga;
Egyptian, Aumn, or Zeut; East Indian, Esgi or Zenl; Jap¬
anese, Zain; Turkish, Addi; Scandivanian, Odin; Walla-
chian, Zenc; Croatian, Doga; Dalmatian, Rogt; Tyrrenian,
Sher; Etruian, CKur; Margarian, Oese; Swedish, Gud:
Irish, Dich; German, Gott; Erench, Dieu; Spanish, Dios;
Peruvian, Lian; English, Deity, God.
As religion has a oneness in its origin, so the oldest form
of it must have been monotheistic, and not polytheistic.
And when God proclaimed himself to Israel as "one God,"
He merely reaffirmed the more ancient truth delivered to
the first of his human offsprings. He uncovered what, in
many instances, had been hidden for long ages, and the
broken lines of the first principles of religion were gathered
and rejoined in the brighter light of the ascending centu¬
ries. It is true that God represents himself by many names,
but never as more than one Being. The Elohistic and
Jehovistic views presented in Genesis present to the mind
only an individual God. The first conceptions of His
character and individual Being by His intelligent creatures
was that of oneness. We could not suppose God to be
more than one individual Being, and yet proclaiming him¬
self to be more than one. That is, we could not suppose
He would teach His natural offsprings what is not true, or
false. God can only speak truth.
ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CITILIZATION. 225
Again, as God is one, and religion has a oneness in origin,
so its first great moral idea is one, which, is the conception
of Deity. The first thing in worship or adoration is the
attraction of the one to be adored. And if there are, in the
religions of the world, polytheistic .ideas (and there are),
they are subsequent additions or interpolations. But no
matter what may have been the changes transpiring under ,
varied conditions and diversified experiences of mankind,
adoration has always been the central moral idea of re¬
ligion. So far as we know, it is so in all religions, among
all peoples and ages. And so far as this central idea goes,
all religions are true when directed to the only one true
God. The term, "false religions," is a misnomer, if we
include the honest adoration of the heart. The object may
be false, but not the adoration or the religion. It is possi¬
ble for a man to be honest, even when he adores a false
deity, if he knows no better way to be religious. To that
extent all religions are true. The cardinal idea, then, is to
worship or to adore the Supreme Being, or any being whom
the worshipper supposes supreme. This is the first great
moral idea in religion, whether it be the Christian or any
other religion. And this great moral idea, found in all re¬
ligions, and in all ages, takes us back to the oneness of
origin, where God first gave His commandments to the sons
of men. Religion rests, not only upon the nature of man
as regards his needs, but rests equally upon philosophical
bases. Of course, there is much connected with religion
that is not religious, nor religion. When we go out into the
kingdom and vast domain of religion, and view its subjects
and the results of its long and continuous administration
through the ages, we conceive that it has^ a powerful and
indestructible grasp upon human nature. This is so, not
only because religion is a fixed faculty in the nature of
moral beings, but also because it rests upon philosophical
15h
226 ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION.
bases, found in the needs of man and the government of
God. If there is a supreme moral Governor of the uni¬
verse, then men and angels, or all intelligences come within
the limits of that supreme moral government. When,
therefore, adoration is demanded by the Creator, it is the
most reasonable service, and the greatest that may be ren¬
dered to the great Author of being. Man is not his own
creator. He did not make himself nor institute the laws
by which he came into being; he has no power to create or
to spring from elements already in existence. Eo affinity
of co-operative forces, controlling precipitant elements,
could produce and round into the masterly parts displayed
in the constitution of man. That which did not previously
exist, could not, of itself, begin to be. If it began to be,
there must have been a creative force and fiat that lay
deeper and beyond. Hence, intelligent creatures are all de¬
pendent—dependent upon that creative force and fiat that
gave them being. What, then, is more reasonable than the
praise and the adoration which mankind is required to ren¬
der to God? By this we acknowledge his supreme greatness,
his authority, power, and glory. By this the moral organs
and mental sensibility come in contact with the Creator, and
the harmonious relations of the finite and Infinite are kept
in unison throughout an indefinite line of being in the
moral system. Remove religion from the intelligent
sphere, and the harmonious relations between God and His
intelligent creatures are broken off, and sin and rebellion
are the natural results.
So far we have dwelt upon religion, pure and simple, as
to the oneness of its origin, and as a faculty of the human
race.
Christianity is all of religion, and more than mere relig¬
ion. Religion is a part of Christianity, but not all of Chris¬
tianity. Religion is the nucleus of light in the moral system.
ORIGIN AND PLAGE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION. 227
Christianity is the meridian sun of its day. One is the seed
planted and germinating, the other is the ripening corn in
the ear. Yet, as the seed and ear are the same, so is re¬
ligion and Christianity. They are two parts of a great
whole in the developing and expanding moral system.
Christianity reveals God and His government, not in a
contrary nature, but in the more radiant splendors of the
rising day and ascending centuries. Christianity is not only
the doctrines and precepts of Christ, but a farther definition
and clearer interpretation of the moral faculty and ador¬
ing proclivities of intelligent agents. It calls man to the
worship and service of the Supreme Creator in stronger
tones and deeper accents of love. It gathers up the broken
threads of the ages, and rallies the moral forces to one
bright center, and by its elective affinity, gathers all the
gems of truth, and wreathes them about the brow of Christ.
But religion is a sleepless active force in civilization.
It is not bound by continents or ages. It is more than
national, and more than cosmopolitan. As it is superhuman
in its origin, it is universal in its operative function. Every¬
where it has left its imprint upon individual character and
national life. Christianity is not an ethnic religion, but the
real and absolute religion of mankind. It is the religion
of the universe, because it is obedience to God, love, and
righteousness. It is an unchangeable fact, and abides for¬
ever the richest inheritance of man and angels. Its career
is coeval with all the intellectual offsprings of God, and
cognate with their incipient conceptions of Deity. They
cannot think of themselves nor contemplate the dignity and
wonders* of creation without contemplating the masterly
Hand that gave them their being. Everywhere God im¬
presses himself upon His works. Every spring of the in¬
telligent mind bounds toward Him. Ethereal splendors and
terrestrial wonders attract every mind and thrill every
heart.
228 , ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION.
■ As a factor and element in human civilization, it is the
strongest, and tlie most vivacious of all tlie regenerative
forces among men. Step by1 step, it has weighed the na¬
tions in its scales, and measured the civilizations of. the
. world. All the virtue and respect for law and order that
have prevailed among "the civilizations of man, have had
their foundation in his religious proclivity. It awakens the
most astounding inquiries respecting the greatest interests
of man and God. It gives wings to the imagination, faith
to the life, and light and energy to the understanding, and
reveals to man that which he could not discover. It en¬
larges the desire, quickens the spiritual force, and expands
the spiritual entities. Christianity is the only system that
rplaces man in his real and true relation to God, his Father,
and man, his brother. All the great moral ideas that underlie
the governments and institutions of mankind which have
stood the shock of ages and the ravages of time, have lived
because of those grains of religion that have more or less
been prominent in their constitutional and executive fitness.
The strength and durability of human governments do not
lie in their mere capacity, force or power, arising from
numbers, wealth and intelligence. Of course these elements
are" essentials of government, but not the preservatives.
Back of these there must be a dominant force—a silent
energy—far more reaching and widespread than mere
■ capacity founded upon the devices and achievements of the
■•intellect. The cornerstone of enduring institutions must
necessarily be founded upon truth- and rectitude—the love
of virtue and the fear of God—which are the essential parts
or ideal contingencies of practical religion. To pi*t the case
in clearer light, we point with a sigh to the decay of all the
great governments and empires that have acted their part
T in the* ages and the dramas of nations. They were great,
• strong,"rich and mighty in word and deed, but they passed
ORIGIN AND PLAGE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION. 229
away because they violated all those great principles,
promptings and practices that are the only fundamental
basis of enduring institutions. No law of right, whether
in heaven or earth, can be violated by intelligent beings
unless they suffer at some time and in some place condign
punishment. Religion in civilization is, therefore, not the
criterion and revealer to aspiring humanity only, but it
presents the reasons why kingdoms fail and governments
perish. There is nothing in the nature and theory of human
government why they should not continue indefinitely. In
themselves they are neither sinful nor useless. They are
the God-given instruments to promote the greatest good
and the universal well-being of mail. But when they de¬
feat the ends of righteousness, only one thing can follow^
and that is, "eternal sleep.". Still, as from the broken i
trunks of fallen trees, new growths repeat the acts of sires,
so new nations arise upon the stocks of their predecessors,
in which is continued the civilizations of the world. Civil¬
ization is but the product, or offspring of religion. Among
the earliest of religious thoughts, come those efforts and in¬
ventions that have laid the foundation for civil and social
comfort, and the employment of those resources and powers
of mental and physical nature by which mankind has tri¬
umphed over difficulties and made obstinate elements yield
their richest treasures to his happiness and glory. While
religion is adorative in its primitive emanations, operating
in the deepest centers of character, yet it begets a lively
hope and struggles for the larger goal beyond, where all
the elements of expanding character and mental growth
seek and use the fittest means to accomplish the fittest ends.
Civilization is the difference between the kingdom of
Dahomey and the British Isles. In the beginning both
were alike—crude, low, vulgar, and beastly in their prim¬
itive modes. The best explanation that may be given re-
230 ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION,
specting the long distance between the two is: One is Chris¬
tian and the other heathen—one religious intelligently,
and the other religious superstitiously. The one has great
intellectual light, which is largely the force of Christianity,
while the other has less light with but the alphabet of civil¬
ization. Indeed, religion and civilization are so near akin
that to destroy religion or remove it entirely from the state
and the thoughts of men, there would remain no more of
the one than of the other. The native constitution of man
with his environments forbids him to be truly civilized with¬
out religion, or the prominence of the religious faculty.
The place of religion in civilization is, therefore, to force its
quickening energies along its lines and serial developments,
and expand its golden peripheries amid the sleepless evolu¬
tion of the ages. Its office is to elevate the standard of
taste, direct the moral propulsion and dignity of humanity
in all its phases.
The prominent features of Christianity are its progressive
and aggressive forces. It cannot absorb, but it disinte¬
grates. It cannot change its teachings, practices, nor phases
any more than it can change its origin and nature.
Its momentum and agencies may be variant, but its in¬
herent elements are changeless and eternal. There are
depths and heights in the evolving problems of Christian¬
ity that can only come in the fulness of its career among
the peoples of the world. Its inventory of successive mani¬
festations constantly presents the moral and physical sys¬
tems, in more exalted fitness, as the only instrumentality to
bring out the highest and purest forms of social and civil
life. Everywhere its theory of morals and purity of life
present the highest ideal of perfection. It is the universal
code without a codicil. It is so universal and minutely ap¬
plicable that there is no room in the boundless sphere of
being for another. ISTo other system can take its place
ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION. 231
among intelligent beings, because it has all tlie place that
can be occupied. It forces man to think of God, of heaven,
of hell, and those solemn and substantial realities that await
him in the endless future. All of its proposed measures,
tenets and doctrines are directed toward the amelioration
of the race of main. Man could not expect any richer in¬
heritance from the Almighty Parent; for he had nothing
better to bestow upon his offspring.
Christianity is never the foe of man, but is always the
foe of his foes, and as an armed sentinel it exists to guard
all the interests of the children of men, in all those great
concerns and multiform relations that make up the history
of being. It is not only progressive,' but aggressive. It
comes to assault sin and evil in all their rock-ribbed and
steel-clad ramparts. It has an arm of power, backed by
infinite resources, even the whole breadth, depth, and
height of the changeless Absolute. Slowly but surely it is
at work upon the world's civilizations, transforming society,
changing sentiment and human thought, correcting judg¬
ment, enthroning reason, imparting justice and crowning
wisdom with the diadem of truth. It hushes the din of bat¬
tles, breaks the iron sinews of bloody strife, stops the pur¬
suits of war, and as sweetly and softly as fall the silent rays
of the setting sun, it calls the nations to the legitimate avo¬
cations of life. Christianity is here to stay as long as this
terrestrial sphere is the arena of thought and action. It
seeks not the favor of the rich, nor the hand of the power¬
ful, nor does it need the doctrinal skill of the philosopher,
nor the metaphysics of the metaphysician. Neither does
it lean upon the arm of kings and princes, nor the subtle
diplomacy of skilled statesmen. It seeks not the palaces of
the great and noble lords of earth, nor the hoarded treas¬
ures of the miser. It lives with, or without the sacerdotal
robe, and is often driven from the paraphernalia of priestly
232 ORIGIN AND PLACE OF RELIGION IN CIVILIZATION.
dignity and ecclesiastic authority. It lives through the
fiercest ordeals, sparkles in the furnaces of afflictions, com¬
ing out without the smell of fire upon its garments. It
lives in caves and dells, sings from the tops of mountains,
shouts from the lions' den, and presides in the gorgeous
palaces of kings and princes. It thrives in the midst of
famine, lives in the path of blood and revolution, and shines
and glows in the luster of itfe own diamond brightness when
civil and political systems perish and dance on to annihila¬
tion. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof."
Amalgamation or Miscegenation.
Nothing has such a tremendous and powerful influence
upon racial and human destiny in their final results, as to
national phases and political conditions, as the passions -and
unbridled lusts of men. This is especially true of that class
or people that rules oyer another class or. people. !No mat¬
ter how great the social chasm between the upper and the
nether people dwelling together in the same country or ter¬
ritory, the upper will seek the lower at that point of con-
tactability and clandestine intercourse where there is mix¬
ing. The craving, heaving and impulsive passion of men,
goads them on to blacklisted indulgences that even racial
prejudices, many of which are stronger than death^ cannot
restrain. Even when the two peoples live in separate climes,
divided by wide seas, high mountains and extended plains,
they will seek each other in that way so as to produce
another race and a new progeny. It matters not what dis¬
tinctions, racial or national, there may exist between the
peoples dwelling together, those who are regarded as in¬
feriors will be sought after and will be debased by the supe¬
rior. They proceed upon the theory that those who are
already debased and contaminated cannot be more de¬
bauched or. lowered in the moral scale than they are, and
therefore it is a matter of small import to add to the sum
of villainy, vileness arid crime. ITot that it is a crime for
the races to intermix according to the laws of the land, as
it may be done m almost all the countries on the earth, but
the way amalgamation has been brought about in these
Southern States is enough to make the bushmen in the wild
jungles blush with shame. There is nothing in amalga-
234 AMALGAMATION OR MISCEGENATION.
mation sinful or wrong, providing it is legal, or done ac¬
cording to the laws of the land. So far as we can see, there
is nothing in the nature of the different races of mankind
to prohibit legal marriages between them. There is no real
fundamental or inherent constitutional differences that can
be urged as an objection. It is true that many claim that
some races of men are constitutionally superior to others;
that the white man is naturally, inherently, superior to the
African and the Negro; that Indians, Malays and Chinese
are really and constitutionally the deficient races, and can¬
not1 measure or cope with the Caucasian intellectually, and
are therefore inferior in their creation. If they are in¬
ferior in their creation, then they are incapable of reaching
that high moral intellectual status that seems inherent in
the Caucassian. But there are many things connected with
this question that contradict this position: 1. It is to be ac¬
knowledged that there are degrees of differences among the
races of mankind; but these differences are conditional and
circumstantial rather than constitutional. No man is born
higher, purer, and better than another, so far as his real
nature and the faculties of his humanity are concerned.
One man may be superior to another in degree of learning,
refinement; and intellectual acquisitions; but this is in de¬
gree and not in kinds. The difference is the same as that
which is between quantity and quality in any two given
substances. The difference is not in the constituent ele¬
ments that make up the one or the other, but in the degrees
in the best elements that have the largest and most extended
part in the substance. There is a great difference between
the cultivated and the uncultivated mind, and in some
instances there seems to be an almost infinite differ¬
ence. That is, one seems almost infinitely above the
other in degrees of mind culture and mental ability;
but this does not show natural or native superiority.
AMALGAMATION OR MISCEGENATION. 235
It only shows superior training, higher culture, and
better conditions. The untrained and the uncultured
have as many faculties of the mind as the refined and the
intelligent. Both characters have the same mental and
metaphysical constitutions. The province of knowledge is
not to create, but to discover, or uncover and set in their
native light the things that are already in existence. It is
above the power of the human mind to create, or bring
from naught to being a single atom in the universe. If
new things appear to the learned and the cultured, they are
not new in their elementary parts, but new only in their
relations and discovery. That is, they existed and had their
relations to other things before they were seen by the mind,
or comprehended by the reasoning faculties. If it was
possible for. one mind to create—to make 'substance from
nothing—and impossible for another mind to create, then
the former would be inherently and really superior to the
latter. Upon this hypothesis men would not be created free
and equal, but one constitutionally superior to the other.
2. The highest culture, discovery and learning of those
whose ancestry have had superior advantages for centuries
(not excepting the greatest minds that have acted upon the
arena of. life), have never been able to make or add a single
new faculty to the human mentality; but men have been
found in all ages and countries and nations and conditions,
to have the same kind of minds and the same number of
faculties, physical and moral. Whatever, therefore, is
possible for one man, is possible for the generality of men,
sc far as their mental qualities are concerned. All the supe:
rior intelligence and the achievements of culture that are
apparent among men are not founded on a higher native
ability, but on the degrees of culture and intellectual
altitudes that have been attained by education and
training. They are the natural result of labor be-
236
AMALGAMATION OB MISCEGENATION.
stowed "upon the mental man. Culture not only de¬
velops tlie mind and extends the domain of thought and
widens the mental possibilities, but, as a natural conse¬
quence, the mental actions and the mental forces have much
to do with the physical stature, both directly and indirectly.
Directly, because the body is the outward or physical in¬
strument of the mind. It acts as it is acted upon by the
spiritual and living reality that dwells within. Ambition,
•desires and aspirations, like perturbation, melancholia and
hypochondria, all have their mighty and changing in¬
fluences upon thfe physical and bodily proportions. Equally
is it true that joy, hope and anticipations, like angels, bring
the light of heaven upon their golden wings to the despond¬
ent and unhappy, physically as well a3 mentally. Indi¬
rectly, men are under attending influences of which they
are not always cognizant. Many things are done from the
force of habit, taste and custom, when there is no real
reason for it. Men are partakers of the influences that sur¬
round them in spite of any resistance which they may make.
Hence, one type of social and civic life may be easily en¬
grafted upon another, until the former loses its identity in
the engulfing personnel of the latter; and what was once
two distinct phases of civil life becomes one unconsciously.
It is by this absorbing and assimilating process that all civ¬
ilizations are to become one in fact, if not in type and
phase. The aims and bottom principles of civilization are
always the same, since they must act upon human na¬
ture with the same ends in view. Civic, social and religious
regeneration can only reach or attain its ends by this absorb¬
ing and assimilating process, and this process is accelerated
when the introduction of the better elements is made and
the evils are eliminated. Iience, men yield to the condi¬
tions that surround them, and yield unconsciously.
3. If there were any real constitutional differences in the
AMALGAMATION OR MISCEGENATION.
237
races of mankind, the process of amalgamation could not
proceed at all. The great disparity between the very supe¬
rior and the very inferior would prevent, on natural and
philosophical principles, the possibility of a progeny. There
could be no half-breeds, nor cross-bloods, nor mongrel races
or peoples, but there would have been but one race; and
that one race would have maintained its perfect identity
and individualism through all the decades and centuries.
Vile Sodomy, for which "the cities of the plains were over¬
thrown," has never yet produced a single man or woman,
nor is it a thing that is possible to be done. "The reign of
law and the unity of nature" forbid the monstrosity. This
goes to show, not only the superiority of man over the
beasts, but it shows also the unity of the human race.
4. It is in the conception of mankind that "all men are
created free and equal," because the moral requirements,
at least in civilized countries, are the same for all men. The
same law that presides over the intelligent, the educated and
the learned, presides over the ignorant, the uneducated and
the unlearned alike. Ignorance of the moral and civic
features of the law makes no difference whatever on ac¬
count of race, color, or condition. This is not only true as
regards human laws, but the Divine government in its
righteous requirements makes no difference in its applica¬
tion of the law on account of a man belonging to this, that
or the other race. All are treated as equals before the law,
in their punishments and in their rewards. From this it
seems clear that if one race of men were innately superior to
another race then more than one law would have to be
established and executed for the one in distinction from the
other. Or, if the same law, as now, is to be applied to all
men, one race being superior to the other, then there must
be degrees in the same law to be applied according to the
238 AMALGAMATION OR MISCEGENATION.
guilt or innocence of tlie persons concerned. But we see
the beauty of human and divine law executed alike upon
all classes and races of men with 'the same ends in view,
namely, to preserve the government of God for the happi¬
ness of the universe.
In the Southern States the colored man is treated and
regarded as an inferior. The public conscience has been
educated under distorted views and a vicious sentimental-
ism by which nearly all of his civil rights have been
abridged, if not entirely destroyed; yet the shameful prac¬
tice of illegal and damnable miscegenation goes on without
let or hindrance. "While we deplore this state of things, and
while we know of no practical remedy, yet we believe that
the hand of God will overrule it all in such a way as to
promote the national and international harmony, peace and
prosperity of universal man.
Speech Delivered Before Several Conferences of
the M. E. Church, South.
Mr. President and Brethren of the Conference:
It is with great pleasure. and profound respect that I
appear before you on this occasion. I count it an honor as
well as a pleasure to meet and to greet those lofty characters
and princely heroes who bear the name and do the work
of Methodist preachers. They are not only princely and
heroic, but they constitute the world's greatest, and the
most active moral force that comes within the limits of
human agency. In their reformative movements; they are
like "the living creatures" of Ezekiel's wheels who run and
return at God's command, thread and ramify the zones of
civil and uncivil man, filling the world with the light of
God, the majesty of His love, and the splendors of His
grace. It is by your grace and Christian charity that I
shall attempt to speak to you upon a question of vital in¬
terest, both to your people and to mine.
In 1882, the General Conference of the M. E. Church,
South, authorized the establishment and maintenance of a
school for the training of preachers and teachers for "the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America," and ac¬
cordingly in the winter of 1883 the school was organized,
and the Board of Trustees gave it the name of "The Paine
Institute," in honor of the then venerable Senior Bishop of
the M. E. Church, South, who also, with the assistance of
Bishop McTyeire organized the Colored branch of the
Church, and ordained its two first Bishops. Augusta, Ga.,
was selected as the place of its location. Eor several years
240 SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES.
the school was taught in rented houses, but by the fortunate
turn of events we went near the suburbs of the city and
purchased the place that we now have, a beautiful site of
ten acres of ground on an eminence overlooking the beauti¬
ful city of Augusta. This place was the home of a wealthy
citizen, and contained his residence -and outer buildings,
v/hich were his barn's and stables. These were fitted up at
small cost for dormitories and recitation rooms. Here the
school has been taught for more than twelve years, and
here it is still being taught.
Dr. Morgan Calloway, who was the Vice-President of
Emory College, was its organizer and first principal, hav¬
ing as his assistant the Rev. George Williams "Walker, of
the South Carolina Conference, who has always been with
the school, and is its present faithful and honored Presi¬
dent.
The establishment and maintenance of this school is the
official work of the M. E. Church, South, and the only
official work which that great church is now, doing for the
Afro-Americans in this country. We have reached that
period in its work and history where its facilities for con¬
tinued service and usefulness must be enlarged or else the
prosecution of its work must stop. A building is indis¬
pensable and absolutely necessary. Seeing this condition
of things, the Board of Education of the M. E. Church,
South, at its last session, "being fully persuaded of the im¬
perative need of a new building at Paine Institute, Au¬
gusta, Ga., determined to undertake at once the erection of
the new building," and I have been sent out by that board
and the Board of Trustees to solicit your aid and co-opera¬
tion, that the great work of Christianization of the ISTegro
race may be enlarged and continued by the Christian peo¬
ple of this country.
SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES. 241
The greatest single factor in *the happiness of universal
humanity is ideal Christianity, and the greatest work that
can be done by man is the propagation of its truths, and the
practical application of its principles. You need no especial
argument to prove this position to be scriptural, philoso¬
phical, and divine. Christianity is the people's religion, and
<5omes to the great world as God's greatest gift to all the
long centuries of suffering humanity. It belongs to man in
the broadest sense and in its minutest and deepest ap¬
plication. It belongs to man in every phase of life, and
in every phase and zone of his cosmopolitan character.
It has like effects upon all the branches and divisions of the
human race. Zones and parallels, and the character of
civil, and the modes of incivil life, may change the physi¬
cal aspect of man, beast, and flower, but divine Christian¬
ity knows no change, but, like the rose of eternal truth,
forever buds and blooms upon its own native stock, kissing
the ages of God in its own diamond brightness. Every¬
where Christianity is emphatically Christianity, and every¬
where it is propagated and planted in its purest forms and
highest ideals, it produces itself in its native plenitude,
bringing forth the cornerstone of its expanding empire,
crying, "Grace, grace unto it." There is no work like that
of human redemption. There is no avocation beneath the
sun or amid the awful tread of the cycles that can be com¬
pared to it. Indeed, as w6 have said, the greatest work that
m?m can do is that of seeking and saving the lost. Jesus
Christ himself set the example when he came as the Apostle
of human salvation; for, says he, "The Son of Man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost."
Whatever people, nation, or race, has Christianity in its
highest ideals and purest forms, it is to that extent responsi¬
ble to Go.d and to humanity for the salvation of the world
and the redemption of man. It is a joyous truth, as well
16*1
242 SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES.
as an efficient agency, to solve all great problems, to reform
all civilizations, banish, the errors of men, clear the moral
atmosphere of the pestilential seeds of falsehood and men¬
tal debasement, and save all men from sin and that death
that never dies.
On all great occasions, and in every crisis of evolving
humanity, it has met the demands at the threshold of con-
flicting elements, adjusted the jarring forces, and filled the
centers and ramified the expanding peripheries with its own
greatness and ineffable fulness.
It is also a happy thought that Christianity knows no
distinction of race or color or previous condition. It knows,
no racial lines nor national boundaries, but leaps the con¬
tinents, plays on the silver-crowned waves of the seas, kisses
the islands with the kisses of truth, sweeps the plains with
its wing of flame, spreading its heavenly insignia over all
the sorrowing sons of Adam and the weeping daughters of
Eve. But as human work or labor is the greatest factor in
the spread of the Gospel, and is the God-appointed method
of its propagation, all Christians are called upon to con¬
tribute their quantum to the world's salvation.
Christian Europe and Christian America are at present
the gr6at receptacles of the Christian religion, the reposi¬
tories of "the truth," and are the spiritual and physical
dynamos that must thrill the world with its propulsions
and redemptive entities and agencies. From what other
point of the compass, in the moral hemisphere, shall Chris¬
tianity gather its strength and radiate the circles and
traverse the lines of human development?
The Negro is here and en masse he is here to stay. He is
an important part of the body politic. He belongs to it as
the foot or hand belongs to the human body. As such he
is a factor in the growth and development of this great civ¬
ilization. Providence placed him here on the American
SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES. 243
continent, and has suggested no way for his exit or elimi¬
nation. Evidently lie is here for a purpose. Slavery was
only the occasion by which he came, It was not the end.
Nay, God had greater ends in view. As there are somer
thing like two hundred and fifty millions of heathens in
Afnca, and as it seems evident that the educated and Chris¬
tianized black man is best fitted for the preaching of the
Gospel in "the Dark Continent," so Christian America, out
of its eight or ten millions of Negroes, must produce that
massive band of ebony-hued heroes by whom their father¬
land is to be redeemed. More and more it seems apparent
that American slavery was providential. It matters not
how deeply hidden or intricate the threads and lines of
Divine.Providence may appear to be in the human concepts,
one thJhg is clear, and that is the Negro race has lost
nothing by it, but has gained a thousand pounds sterling
where it lost a penny. It is true that the Master enslaved
himself, and was a slave of slaves, but the asperities of the
now defunct institution were struck off and wonderfully
mitigated by that beautiful and lavish hand of Christian
charity and evangelistic labors bestowed upon the sons and
daughters of Ham by the Southern Methodist people. The
Negro did not march out of slavery empty-handed, but,
like Israel of old, came out with the rings and jewels of a
better civilization, and with the crown of truth upon his
head, and with a wreath of grace upon his brow and the
golden cup of salvation in the mouth of his sack. He came
out with deep touches of your Christianity and flashes of
your civilization, and received an upward propulsion that
he could not have obtained in his native land.
But emancipation did not abrogate moral obligation. Re¬
lations were changed, but humanity and Christianity re¬
mained intact, and the Negro is yet in the twilight dawn
of a Christian civilization. He still needs help. He needs
244 SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES.
Christianity in purer phases and broader morality and
higher forms in its reformative and practical ends.
We admire that noble spirit and broad Christian charity
that sends your heroic and consecrated men and women
flashing across the vasty deep to preach the Gospel in the
regions beyond. We admire and almost adore that Christ-
like devotedness shown by those who go or by those who
send. It is high, holy and angelic and resplendent with the
seraphic flame of love. This, it is clear, is your plainest
duty, and we thank God that you are doing it. Every day
you are preaching and singing to the heathens "the old, old
story of Jesus and his love." You are sowing the vital
seeds of the vital truth in foreign lands, and the living
propagators are heralding the melodies of the redejnptive
scheme, and unfurling the blood-stained banner "of the
cross, and as ,the word of God cannot fail there must be
fruitage in approaching days; but here at your doors, in
your streets and lanes, in your great cities and rural dis¬
tricts, are heathens who sit "in darkness" and "in the re¬
gions and shadow of death," that need your aid, and have
rfirst claims upon your liberality and Christian charity. As
i;heir representative, I come to rehearse and to reverberate
ihe thrilling and all-awaking Macedonian cry.
Eut you know the Negro. He is no stranger to you.
He has been with you all along through the diversified and
changing decades of two hundred and fifty years. He is
still the laborer, the mudsill of society, and the crudest
part of the social fabric.
In the early decades of the American empire of sovereign
and independent States, and when this now mighty empire
of States was an infant of days, the Negro stood by its
cradle, and helped it to break and unwind its swaddling
bands of childhood, and labored to crown its youth witli
glory, and its manhood with a diadem of golden stars. Ho
SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES. 245
Has been and is still a powerful factor in the development
of this country, and the expansion of its civilization. His
strong arm felled the forests, dried the swamps, cleared the
bogs, threw the sunlight upon its shady dales, made the
deserts to blush with flowers, the fields to smile with plenty,
and threw up a royal highway for a triumphant civilization.
He clothed your daughters with scarlet, your sisters with
gowns of silk, and your queenly ladies and "high-born
beauties" with jewels, and pinned the wreath of diamonds
upon their brow. When the war came, and the flower of
the land were slain upon its high places; when blood flowed
and carnage and death swept the Southern tier of States;
when your fathers, sons, and brothers were at the front upon
the field of battle, the Negro stood by you. He planted the
fields, sowed and reaped, and bent with devotion and silent
energy over the plowshare, and made bread and clothing
for the armies and the defenceless mothers, sisters, and little
children at home. The black women—the sable daughters
of toil and of song—nursed your children, gave them the
milk of kindness from their own breasts, and with tender
care, and the soft touches of love, and the dulcet strains of
sweetest carols in cadence low, they sang the child angel
to sweet repose. In kitchen, hall, dining room, and sick
chamber, these black maidens of love and tenderness carried
the sunshine of God, filled ten thousand homes with hope
and comfort. Likewise "the brother in black" cared for
your sick, buried your dead, wept over your slain, and with
arms of iron and fingers of steel wrote angelic deeds of
kindness upon the open scroll of two centuries and a half.
The Negro shared in your sorrows and rejoiced in your
prosperity, and in the great civil onflow of the age he is
your armor-bearer. W hen freedom came, it came without
his seeking or any effort on his part, for it was in the divine
decrees that he should be free. Even then he did not for-
246
SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES.
sake you nor the land of his nativity, but regathered the
broken cords of an ancient civilization, and like the mov¬
ing phalanx of a great army, or the steady flow of the Mle,
he continued with the even tenor of his way. Nowhere
has he broken friendship with you, or left the old landmarks
of love and esteem. Though we are two distinct peoples,
or two great bands in one great nation, there is a common
interest and a common destiny. "Whatever results may
come from such a combination, it must take place in our
Common country. Whatever affects you, affects us. What¬
ever advances your interest, must, in a greater or less de¬
gree, advance ours. We live in the same zone, bom on
the same soil, breathe the same vital air, drink from the
same streams, bask in the same sunshine, and in the silent
cities of the dead we shall dwell together until the trump
of the Archangel and the deep rolling thunders of the judg¬
ment shall summon us to stand before the Great Judge of
all. We profess the same religion, read the same Bible,
sing the same songs. Indeed, your religion is our religion,
your church is our church, your God is our God, your
Christ is our Christ, your heaven is our heaven, and your
hell is our hell.
You need our brawn and muscle; we need your brain and
culture. You need our sinews of brass and bones of iron.
We need your steady hand to prosecute the noble ends of
life, and the triumphs of a Christian civilization. You
have the mental force, we have the physical power, and I
come to plead for a combination of both, united in a grand
national manhood, so attuned and attenuated that the
national mechanism may play in harmony as the mechanism
of a great steam engine. Why not?
Of course you know our church was organized by your
great church,, and we delight to honor our parentage and
are proud of 6ur origin. In 1870, we were "set up" as a
SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES. 247
distinct and independent branch of the great Methodist
family by and under the authority of the Methodist Episco¬
pal Church, South. I understand that we were "set up"
and not "set off." In no sense does this "setting up" business
destroy, neither was it intended to destroy the religious
inter-racial relation that had obtained in days of old. We
are the same sable sons and sable daughters whom your
noble sires and princely men taught the way of life, and
who in the sugar zones, the rice belts and the cotton empires
of the South labored to make them sons and daughters of
the Lord Almighty. We are the "offspring," the legitimate
ecclesiastical children of the church of which you are repre¬
sentatives. We have kept "the faith once delivered to the
saints; and as yet" there "is no variableness nor shadow of
turning." Radiating from the central sun of Wesleyan
Methodism, and glowing in the heat and activity of its
power, like an arrow from its bow we are striking off in
straight lines of truth and love, preaching the simple Gos¬
pel of the Cross.
The new building that is now in process of erection at
Paine Institute is to be called "The Haygood Memorial
Hall," as a monument to that great man, who stood for so
many years as a wall of brass in the defense of the Negro
race in this country. In him, the Negro race had its
strongest, its broadest, its truest, and its most eloquent and
sincere friend. He was our Martin Luther, who with pen
and voice, and with the deepest flow of soul, stood at the
foot of the cross, and amid the declining decades of the
dying century wrote his theses and nailed them upon the
door of public opinion, and changed the tide of public senti¬
ment in this country in behalf of the Negro race. He is
not dead. He has only ascended to the city beyond the
stars of God, while his thundering theses, so ably advocated,
are ringing through the decades and over the' surging waves
248 SPEECH MADE BEFORE CONFERENCES.
of the expanding civilization, appealing to tlie considerate
judgment, the patience and Christian charity of the Chris¬
tian people of this country. Negroes should build a monu¬
ment of steel to his precious memory higher than the Eifel
tower, covered with gold and tipped with diamonds.
But there is a higher motive, a loftier impulse, to which
we appeal. The Negro is a man, an immortal soul. Like
the balance of the human race, he must be saved or lost.
Christ died for him, as he died for all others. He is within
the limits of the covenanted grace, a lost jewel carved out
by the hand of God. He is an indestructible, self-conscious
entity, "made in the image of God." Thousands, if not
millions, of them were preached to and taught the way of
life by the Southern Methodist preachers. They were not
wise, gre&t or rich, neither could they fathom the profundi¬
ties of the intellectual deeps, or span the zones of thought^
philosophy and research, but they understood the spiritual
power and the essentialities of simple Christianity, and the
power of saving grace. Day by day, through the long
years of sweat and toil, their simple Christianity spoke to
them in golden sentences, and brought to them the cheer¬
ing news of God and the joys of his Christ. Tens of thous¬
ands lived in the truth of the Gospel, died in the triumphs
of a living faith, and on the burning wings of the planta¬
tion melodies they swept the airy path of the ethereal seas,
and fled to heaven and to God.
Religion.
Whatever may be the various phases or aspects of reli¬
gion that have existed among the different branches of the
human race, and which present themselves for the consid¬
eration of the thoughtful and philosophic, to be true in
itself and of itself, must be of one origin and of one nature.
Not only is this true, but all religion must spring from
a common center, and must rest upon the basic princi¬
ples, strike the same chords in human nature, and have
the same ends in view, namely, to please God and to benefit
and bless intelligent natures in the highest possible degree.
Religion was not made for man, nor for angels; but men
and angels and all the high intelligences, of the intelligent
systems were made for religion. Hence, there is a fitness
of corresponding ladaptedness of the first and second sub¬
jects. This view of the subject must be true since the
ground principles of religion are increatable and exist be¬
cause of the nature of God and the principles upon which
His government rests. Form and symbolism in religion
have no real connection with its principles and its inherent
elements. Principles and natures have no forms, although
they are important agencies and powerful factors in pre¬
serving, developing, and propagating original religious
ideas. Every form in religion at one time, and in some
state or condition, had a meaning and was a symbolic repre¬
sentation of an impressive idea embodied in religion, whose
intent and purpose looked deeper than the mere surface.
The digits are not principles themselves any more than
the rainbow is peace. The former represents mathematical
principles in the science of the universe,,while the latter is-
:250
RELIGION.
an emblem, in its seven-fold arch, of pacification, founded
"upon certain natural attitudes of matter. Both, are mere
representatives of abstract ideas, while their material out¬
lines are the sensitive vehicles and exterior preservatives.
So the symbolisms of religion are the sensible or tangible
representatives of deeper truths or basic principles that lay
in the realm of the abstract. All things not only come
from the center, but all things tend toward the center. All
actions, elements, and forces have objects and ends to at¬
tain, although their threads of relations and infinite intrica¬
cies, with their respective bearings upon the center and the
circumference are beyond the limit of human or angelic
concepts. In harmonious relations and mutual conditions,
they £>lay on all the threads of infinite design to magnify
their functions in those depths, expansions, and altitudes
where none but the Infinite treads the golden sands or
traverses the open seas of limitless spaces, forcing the enti¬
ties and activities to their centers or designed ends. From
this view, the principle and fundamentals of religion lay be¬
yond their symbols and are in, the central zone of the ab¬
stract. The commands of religion may not always be un¬
derstood by those who are commanded to obey its precepts;
neither does that class always understand the symbols or
reasons why, yet they must obey, because it is possible that
they have not the full capacity to understand the whole na¬
ture and design, should they be explained to them. Per¬
haps, also, there are things in the establishment and ■econo¬
mies of religion that none can understand, and in the notion
of the Deity and divine things, that none can comprehend;
therefore, obedience upon presumptive faith is the only
prerogative of intelligent activities. Accordingly religion
is of faith or reliances upon those subtle substances that be¬
long to the fundamentals ill the abstract.
RELIGION.
251
All ideas of God came from God, independent of the
•creatures who received them. Their perfect ideals and
-concepts are not only grounded in the dual nature of man,
hut they are the perfect emanations of a full and perfect
God or perfect original. All the ideas of men and angels
liave their first perfect parts in the Deity, and as they are
grasped and apprehended, they are woven into the warp
and woof of creature comprehension and must he obeyed.
Everywhere the threads <jf God and religion interramify
■all intelligent natures. It is God that acts upon the sphere
of being and pours Himself into the activities of force and
universal existence. We cannot hide from God, nor from
being, nor nullify the personnel of the self-consciousness,
and therefore must assume all the responsibility that be¬
longs to intelligent personalities. To obey the precepts of
religion is, therefore, to obey the law of our being and the
laws that govern all being. God is more obedient to the
principles of religion than men or angels. That is, the
laws of righteousness that He conmmands us to keep are
binding upon Him in the highest degree, as well as upon all
the intelligent offsprings of the universal system. He does
not want us to do what He does not do. He loves and
obeys all righteousness. He requires us to do nothing more,
and we must do nothing less. Nothing is more natural than
religion, .and nothing is more unnatural than irreligion.
There is no such thing as supernatural religion, if we mean
by that term that religion, in its nature, requirements, and
principles, is contrary to or above nature. It is not even
superhuman, nor superangelic except in its degrees and
effects. That is, no intellect nor mental capacity, God ex¬
cepted, can comprehend the depth and infinite scope of
religion in those endless and countless contingencies that
operate in the government of God. Religion's eternal and
unending principle begins in Deity, and lingers in the end-
252
RELIGION.
less cycles, uniting all the depths of being, intensifying
their forces and activities. In essence, native Reality, and
requirements, religion is not only always the same, but is
as universal and as extensive as the peopled empire of God.
It is the law of being, the natural law of the intelligent
creation, bearing upon all in a greater or less degree. There
is no heaven or hell, and no punishment or rewards with¬
out it. To obey its precepts is heaven, to disobey them is
hell. The mental character is s<£ constituted in the eternity
of its native elements that it carries hell and disobedience
together in the same bosom, while heaven and obedience
iare always found in the same place. In short, the funda¬
mentals of religion are the moral code of the universe, as
well as the inherent law of being in its moral capacity, since
the moral nature has much, if not everything to do with
mental purity and development. As the internal influences
the exterior, giving shape and tone to life, and ameliorating
the public aspect of society, so the mortal force expands
mentality, accelerating its momentum toward the heaven
of full capacity. The moral universe is an inclined plane
along whose highway countless multitudes struggle up the
steep ascent of development, experiencing the wonderful
transitions that lay in the road to those galaxies of mental
and moral acquisitions where the eldest children of eternity
are crowned and glorified in the "Father's house of many
mansions." Onward the struggling multitudes and spiritual
caravans of the universe move, while sinking suns1 and
crushing systems perish, and cycles upon cycles pile, and
ages crumble beneath the tread of the universal armies,
marching to the music of the spheres and the drum tap of
the ages. Progression, eternal progression, is the order and
law of being and intelligent natures, and, consequently, per¬
petual evolution and struggle for personal fitness and per¬
fection.
Southern Methodism and the Slaves.
Living in the dimness or the days of slavery, few, if
any, could prognosticate the future as to the social, po¬
litical or religious outcome of the system of American
slavery that then prevailed in the "Union of States."
However unrighteous or repugnant to a Christian civiliza¬
tion the institution seems to have been, and whatever
changes have come over the public mind since its aboli¬
tion, one thing is clear, and that is, the Negro race has
lost nothing by it, but has gained a thousand pounds ster¬
ling where it has lost a penny. It was one of those mys¬
terious acts or permissions of the Divine administrations
whose complicated connections and results we could not
comprehend, but one in. which was displayed the wisdom,
power, and goodness of Him who doeth all things well.
It is a trite saying, "all is well that ends well." It is a
case where it seems that disease upon the body politic
was necessary to heal. Both parties—the slave and slave¬
holder—were at fault. For some sins unknown to us in
the Hametic line, perhaps coming down through the cen¬
turies of awful sweep, culminating in national dissolu¬
tion and tribal confusion, the black man of Africa, when
his iniquities came to the full had to suffer; and for every
transgression the God of nations demanded principal and
interest. The debt had to be paid, for "the wages of sin
is death." But in enslaving the Negro, the master en¬
slaved himself, and was himself a slave of slaves. His
loss in the final settlement—God being the arbiter—was
more, perhaps, than that of the man of black skin. But
the system of slavery was wonderfully mitigated, and a
heavy percentage of its asperities struck off by that beau¬
tiful and lavish hand of Christian charity and evangelis-
254
METHODISM AND THE SLATES.
tic labors bestowed upon the slaves by the Southern.
Methodists. Everywhere the sons and daughters of Ham
were preached to, looked after, and sought out by a class
of Methodist preachers with a care and pure simple de¬
votion that were angelic, heavenly, and unparalleled in
the annals of Christian charity and Christ-like devotion.
In those days there were intellectual giants and blaz¬
ing seraplis of oratory whose piety was deep, all-spread¬
ing and bright as the morning star. None of them were
afraid or ashamed to preach the gospel to Negroes. There
was nothing like the simple gospel in those days, and
nothing more beautiful and consistent than those faithful
and true Negro veteran Christians that were the fruit of
those great and noble men's labors for the salvation and
Christianization of the Negro race. When the war came
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, had more than two-
hundred thousand persons of color in her membership,
besides there was a large number of Sunday-Schools, in
which the best blood, both male and female, engaged in
catechising and teaching the young Negroes the simple
and fundamental principles of the gospel. Thousands
of churches were built especially for the colored people,
and-often a pastor was seht to them as to the whites.
Sometimes the Negroes got the best preacher and the
most talented man. No matter what Methodist Church
has come into the Southern States, it has simply built on
the old foundation laid by "the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South." That church justly claims the ground
against all comers, all invasions and invaders. It laid the
foundation deep, strong, and wide, upon which all sub¬
sequent buildings have been reared as religious and in¬
tellectual institutions established for the elevation and
advancement of the Negro race. Every question has two
sides to it, and whatever may be said about slavery and
slaveholders does not concern us at present. To recall
the past with its sleepy memories of strife and bitterness,
METHODISM AND THE SLAVES.
255
recasting its shapeless forms into post-bellum thought,
and thus confusing and confounding the present, is not
only unwise and suicidal, but detrimental and obstruct¬
ive to the progress of the colored race in too many ways
to be mentioned. The earnest, consecrated and noble
Southern men who proclaimed the gospel of salvation to
the aspiring sons and daughters of Ham, were doing all
they could under prevailing conditions, and the estab¬
lished laws, customs, and institutions of the land. Neither
did they whine, nor sulk in the tents of idleness, nor con¬
sult the whimsical in human nature; but they consecrated
their lives, their ease, and wealth, and, as apostles of the
fullest and freest salvation, went forth to the black sons
of Ham and founded enduring monuments to their great¬
ness, and built a power-house of strength whose living
and propulsive energies still thread and thrill the evange¬
listic forces and redemptive activities of all denomina¬
tions. It may be truly said that the simple Christianity
impiessed upon the Negro race by these men of God in
ante-bellum decades was the purest, the sublimest, and
the most apostolic since the days of Pentecost, vieing with
that of the Waldenses, the Huguenots, and those devoted
Piedmontese who dwelt in their rock-bound land of the
skies. There were Christians in those days. Black men
and white men, black women and white women, lived for
God and heaven, and the pure and simple Christ of the
New Testament was the only most exalted and consum¬
mate ideal of the Christian life, while his death of per¬
fect resignation was the plenary gauge by which they
died. While other denominations helped to some small
degree in preaching the Gospel to the slaves, yet the
Methodists led the way, cleared the ground, and burnt the
stubble with the ardent flames of love and sacred, far-
reaching devotion that was pure, splendid and heroic.
By their preaching and evangelistic labors, thousands,
if not millions, of Negroes lived and died in the ecstacies-
256
METHODISM AND THE SLAVES.
of a living faith, and in "the mysterious translation," that
awful flight to the celestial center, they fled on the burn¬
ing, wing of the plantation melodies to hymn in eternal
anthems that Saviour preached to them by the Southern
Methodist preachers.
The Papacy.
Whatever may betide the peace, the happiness, and the
development of man in the onward trend of his civiliza¬
tion; whatever civil forms, social aspects, or religious
tendencies may claim the attention of mankind, one of
the most powerful and potent agencies that is to influence
the destiny of nations is that wonderful and aged organi¬
zation known as the papacy or the Catholic hierarchy.
While we have no hatred or malice toward any man or
set of men because of their church, faith, or religious
opinions, yet, because of the doctrines, claims and fearful
record of the Catholic church, it presents to-day, as of
old, a profouiid study and the deepest concern. It is not
denied that there are millions of honest hearts, pure souls
and good Christian people in that church. Throughout
its long tramp through the ages, amid the birth and death
of years and the mutations of centuries, many of its he-
hoic devotees and pronounced followers have stood as
monuments of honor, piety and virtue. Many of its,
sainted heroes and majestic apostles shine in the galaxy
of blazing suns and golden stars with an enduring and
unfading lustre that shall outlast the roll of years and
the flight of centuries. Their ancient priests with rosary
and cro^s have traversed sea and land, and stood among
the evanescencies and reversions of states and empires,,
and with tenderness and love have sought to bind up the-
broken-hearted and dry up the tears of the widow and!
orphan. They have stood amid contagions, epidemics and
the wide sweep of endemics and the wild play of even "the
black death." In the track of blood and revolution, and
the debris of broken kingdoms and shattered empires,
they have remembered the sons of toil and the daughters
of misery.
17h
358
THE PAPACY.
The papal regime has produced scholars, poets, states¬
men, historians, inventors, explorers, lawyers, doctors,
philosophers, discoverers, painters, and sculptors. Thus
far the papacy has been an aid to mankind in his better¬
ment and the expansion of the world's civilization. But
perhaps one of the most noticeable and distinguishing
characteristics of the papacy's history and procedure is its
skill in art and sublimity in architecture. Grandeur in
style, loftiness in dignity, and immensity in height and
extent, are the ponderous faculties by which the multi¬
tudes of its blind and besotted devotees are overshad¬
owed and a^ed into a profound reverence that makes
the physical church everything, the invisible spirit of
Christianity a little thing, and the freedom of the people
nothing. Mountains of superstition rise, the church is
greater than Christianity, and the Roman See the only
lord and potentate. If there are seven wonders of the
ancient world and seven wonders of the modern, the
papacy is seven times more wonderful than each, and in
its stability and blind assumption stands out in greatness
and singleness of a sublimity that has awed the masters
of the world. The multitudes of its followers eschew
reason, surrender the rights of conscience, and implicitly
obey the iron mandates and cosmopolitan edicts of the
Roman See. In other words, the church is everything,
principles and people nothing. As an organized institu¬
tion, all the rights of conscience and the rights of men
and nations are held subordinate to the rule, usages, his¬
tory and doctrines of the church. Throughout its wide
sway and long reign it has presumed to be the only
church on earth, and the Pope is the vicegerent of Christ,
the master of states and empires, the ruler of kings as
well as the supreme ruler and pontiff of the universal
church.
Now, it is not the individual persons of the Roman
Catholic church that Protestant nations fear, neither can
THE PAPACY.
259
any reasonable man who believes in religious liberty and
freedom of speech and conscience object to the church
nor its peculiar doctrines and forms of worship. Every
man is free, arid ought to be free, to select any church,
believe any doctrine, or espouse any form of worship
which seems right to him. But this freedom certainly
gives no license to go to the extent of interfering with
the rights, privileges, and freedom of others, and when
the church, so-called, attempts to limit or prescribe the
faith and consciences of men, it becomes non-churched,
and claims more authority than Jesus Christ himself.
None but God, the Master and Supreme Ruler of the uni¬
verse, can dictate to the consciences of men or prescribe
their religious proclivities and aspirations. Eternal con¬
formity to established forms of religious obligations,
based on the mere demands of ecclesiastical legalism, is
in no sense religion nor Christianity. To bow the knee
and subscribe to dogma, leaving the heart untouched and
the conscience unmoved, is not only irreligious, but is
also the basest form of Pharisaism, a profane prostitution
of the noblest powers of manhood and the sacred func¬
tions of religion.
From whatever standpoint we view the Catholic hier¬
archy, it presents to the considerate mind marvels that
approximate the miraculous. To the superficial view it
has the appearance of a perpetual and continuous mir¬
acle. It has a wonderful amount of tact, and an extent
ot versatility and adaptedness of strategem that surpass
anything that has occurred in the historic transactions
of men. It lives while it is dead, and is dead while it
lives. The defeats, repulsions and deadly wounds which
it has received from the edicts of governments and acts
of reformations, have never destroyed it, nor even par¬
alyzed its life and energies. After all its baptisms of
blood and fire, it has risen from the ashes of its death,
stood upon the brink of its grave and smiled in triumph
$60
THE PAPACY.
in the face of its powerful foes. It yields for a time in
meek submission to Protestant thrones, reserving it»
latent forces ahd energies to rekindle its fires upon the ex¬
panding arenas of advancing civilizations. It is always
rising and coming amid changeful evolutions and event¬
ful dispensations. It is ever the same in design, but ever
changeful in its methods to reach its ends. Its propogan-
da is unscrupulous, besotted, superstitious and full of
that blind bigotry that knows nothing but to demand
obedience to the papal head. Its slogan is: "The means
are sanctified by the ends." It is not a question of holi¬
ness and purity of the public morals, and freedom of the
conscience, but with them the only question is, the exten¬
sion of the Roman See and papal authority. In its lust
for power and greed for universal conquest, anything and
everything is right, and nothing is worth redemption but
the church and the iron rule of the supreme Roman pon¬
tiff.
Romanism is a factor in human history, government
and progress. Its effects and influence upon the political
status of nations and kingdoms is weighty, far-reaching
and immense in results. It is the greatest antagonist of
freedom of speech, of a free press and of a free religion.
It is a grand oligarchy, with immense force and push—
with cunning and skilful intrigue—in whose plenipotent
fingers the threads of the universal octopus centralizes
its splendid capabilities in a papal head.
The Roman Catholic church is incapable of progress
except so far as it is necessary to preserve the church.
It antagonizes higher education for the masses, and is a
deadly foe to the public school system unless the public
school system is entirely and completely under the control
of the priests and bishops of the Catholic regime. Igno¬
rance and mental darkness (with them), is better than
light and freedom of thought and investigation by the
masses better than that education that reaches those de-
THE PAPACY.
261
grees of mental endowments and capacities, where the
-enlightened manhood may think for itself. It is a curious
fact that the so-called "Church of God" should be afraid
of the light of knowledge and the keenest investigation
by an intelligent citizen. If it is "the true church of God,"
and is the pillar and ground work of the truth, why should
i<: fear investigation? Truth has nothing to fear, but in¬
vites the keenest investigation and the profoundest criti¬
cism. There must be something wrong in the men or those
doctrines and establishments that are afraid of calm re¬
view and the crucial test of keen criticism. If it is afraid
to be weighed in the judgment of men and measured by
the legal tests of enlightened reason, then it must have
something about" it that is inconsistent with the best in¬
terests and the highest aims and aspirations of man.
But it,is certain that the nations of mankind have a
subtle, schemeful and powerful foe to deal with—a foe
whose gigantic arm of power sweeps the seas, grasps the
islands with an iron grip, and wraps the belted zones of
human civilization in the meshes of its nimble fingers,
and with cords of steel and bands of iron ties them on to
the papal car. Papal diplomacy is the most skilled and
artful, and full of that cunning and manipulation that
plays on human nature and pours itself into its supersti¬
tions, thrilling its religious faculties with the grandeur,
augustness and bright paraphernalia of its orders and the
tinsilized symbolisms of its public worship and service.
Romanism claims all the churchism and prelatical au¬
thority that is worth claiming. There is nothing true,
heavenly and divine, but that that is from the Roman See,
or emanates from the pope and his great conclaves. His
bulls, encyclicals and edicts, as ecccathredra, are the es¬
sence of unerring mandates and infallibility, and "the
high arcanna" of "the Most High" is profanely assumed
by the Bishop of Rome.
262 TuE PAPACY.
*
No man of common judgment, with any degree of ac¬
quaintance with the history of the Roman church, doubts
the sagacity, the wisdom, the farsightedness of its popes,
premiers, statesmen, cardinals, bishops and leaders. They
have astonished the world with feats of diplomacy and
an eternal series of brilliant intrigues that seem at times>
to be almost superhuman. Its 150,000,000 of devoted
followers embraces all nations, and the sun never set?
upon this politico-religious empire of the Roman pontiff.
He is the highest ruler and the greatest king on earth,,
and the only one that wears the triple crown and dictates
to the hearts and consciences of men.
But the most fearful thing connected with this gigan¬
tic power is its claims to universal power and authority,,
both in church and state. This is not only a spiritual, but
political kingdom as well. The Pope claims all the king¬
doms of the \jj:orld, and looks forward to the day when he
alone shall hold all crowns in his hand, and wield the
golden scepter of universal sway, and dictate to all
the governments of the world. The church of Rome
wants nothing less than supreme political power. It will
be contented with nothing short of it, and wherever and
in whatever part of the habitable earth it shall gain this
power, it will persecute and seek to accomplish by phys¬
ical force what it cannot do by moral suasion. Where
it has the control, it will not hesitate to resort to cruel
tortures upon the wheel and the rack, and by fire and
sword, put to death thousands and even millions who may
dissent from its teachings and usages. This accords with
its history and practice through its steady march of a
thousand years, and there are no signs or probability of
a change of doctrine, nature or practice. It is true, at
present, its'endeavors to put on a decent appearance and
hold its political aspirations in abeyance, and politely
bows to "the powers that be," but it is the same old
bloody Monarch and gay beast that has scattered the
THE PAPACY.
263
bones of innocent men and women through its long reign
of tyranny, persecution and death. Its "Spanish Inqui¬
sitions," its great court of death, has written its history
in blood and reddened the soil with human gore. No¬
where in the annals of human history has there been pre¬
sented to men, devils, or angels, greater cruelties and a
more shocking, diabolical regime than those of the hellish
and damnable Court of the Inquisition.
The enormity of vileness, the plenitude of the outflow
of blood and tears, the multitudes of the slain and the
valleys of bleaching bones, the dark, damp pits and rock-
bound dungeons, the weeping widows and sighing or¬
phans, and the burning highway and smoking track of
this so-called church of God, is enough to put a tingy
blush upon the cheeks of the world's civilizations and
make mankind forever hate and execrate this blood-thirs¬
ty Moloch of the centuries. All this, too, is done in the
name of the religion of love, and in the hame of and for
that meek and lowly Son of Mary that died on the cross
to save the world of sinneys. If the Roman hierarchy in
its history and practice during ages past is a true expo¬
nent and illustration of Christianity, then the world is
infinitely better off without it, and its utter annihilation
or total banishment from the abodes of men will be not
only a riddance of intolerable evils in the name of God
and man, but also a blessing of unmeasured depth and di¬
mensions. To-day, as of all days, she is laying plans, forg¬
ing chains for the sixty millions of American freemen and
American Protestantism, and doing it in a way so as to
excite as little apprehension and uneasiness as possible.
Quietly and silently she is stealing the hearts of men,
proselyting and adding converts to her already enormous
membership of nine millions of duped and devoted follow¬
ers. Great schools and immense churches, nunneries and
cathedrals rise in splendid trim and tower upon their
mighty foundations in the heart of empire, holding the
264
THE PAPACY.
hub of American life and civilization in embrace and belt¬
ing its arenas with its iron arm of power. Representa¬
tives, senators and presidents, with governors of states,
mayors of gr^at cities and councilmen, are bowing the
knee, making concessions and confessions, and finally kiss-
ihg the big toe of the Pope. "What fools we mortals be!"
One of these mornings the American people will awake
to find themselves fettered and chained and bound hand
and foot and made to do homage to the Roman See.
What is the remedy? How shall the encroaching power
of this mighty octopus be curtailed? Who can stand be¬
fore the beast? We would reply by saying that there is
no power on earth that can stop this encroachment of
Rome but the civil power, and that can only be done while
the mighty Roman pontiff is in the minority. In great
Britain, in Germany and the United States of America,
Roman Catholicism is making rapid- progress, especially
in England. And, so far as we can see, she is doing much
more to bring the world to herself than all of Protest¬
antism is doing to bring the world to Christ. Every¬
where she is earnestly, if not honestly, at, work to con¬
quer the world for the papal head, and to bring universal
humanity under the control of the Pope. As in Britain
and Germany, so in America, special efforts are being
made to reach a safe majority in political influence and to
control the public school system of the states and mu¬
nicipalities. The public press, which should be free, im¬
partial and untrammeled as moulders of thought and pub¬
lic opinion, are cringing, bowing and scraping, and mak¬
ing concessions to a power whose aim is to make slaves
of the souls and bodies of men and tread and crush the
nations of man beneath the iron heel of the greatest des¬
pot that ever sat upon an earthly throne or reigned over
an empire. It is truly astonishing when we see great
men—senators, governors, renowned writers, Protestant
ministers, political parties, and the mighty men of the
THE PAPACY.
265
nation—allowing, and even encouraging, the growth and
expansion of a power that is seeking to destroy their lib¬
erty and reduce them to a foreign monstrosity nominally
Christian, yet truly and intensely political.
Viewing this whole question from an impartial stand¬
point, we see a fearful conflict approaching—a conflict beT
tween the Catholic power and the civil power—unless
there is at work beneath the trend of events some un¬
known element or force that will set bounds to Popish
aspirations and the subtle intrigue of the Eoman See.
Of course, this is a Protestant country at present, and a
government of the same phase, but it may not be so very
long. Evidently two diverse elements and powers, >or two
antagonistic forces, are moving beneath the civil and re¬
ligious surface, and there are indications of an increased
ratio of procedure and concentration, or an intense ag¬
gregation of opposing elements and forces. So greatly
.are these forces and elements being intensified that agi¬
tation is continuous, and at the end of another decade
there may be an explosion of the internal fires of the civic
order. Protestants will have to fight for liberty, govern¬
ment and religion, and as the strife is to be internecine
and intensified by the freedom of conscience on the one
hand, and the blind and bigoted assumptions of the Ro¬
man pontiff on the other, the conflict will beN short but
fearful, bloody and dreadful beyond description, com¬
pared to which the French Revolution will be a baby.
In the meantime the same sort or similar forces are at
work in England and Germany, and the results, in the
culmination of events, may be very much the same. At
any rate, it seems clear, not only in prophetic vision, but
in the quiet contemplation of the thoughtful, that some¬
thing will soon have to be done to check the encroach¬
ments of the Roman church and save the people of several
nations from a flow of blood unparalleled in the history
of the world, and unanticipated by the wisest of mankind.
The Image of God in Man.
Whatever else may exist in the human personalityy
apart from its tangible attributes and component ele¬
ments, it has in some way the image of the Absolute In¬
telligence. That intelligence is more than coextensive
with matter which must within itself live above and be¬
yond its own material creations. No matter how exten¬
sive and calculable the tangible parts of the universe may
appear to human conception, there are no faculties pos¬
sessed by man or any other created intelligences to
measure its depths and heights and weigh its imponder¬
able masses. Everywhere we look, conceive, or think,
thought quails before the wonders, powers, forces, in¬
finite varieties, and majesties amaze us. In this category
of splendors, this endless chain of wonders, there dwells
a "soulful life," a splendid and all-subduing actuality,
whose potentialities are infinitely absolute. For the want
of a better name, or rather the want of a capacity in man
to use a better name, we call it God. In this image man
is made. In Genesis it is declared that "God created man
in his own image—in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them." St. Paul tells us that
"he is the image and glory of God." St. Paul makes the
"glory" here referred to an attribute of "the image." The
glory is not the "image" of the Great Original, but is a
product of that original. There is a "glory of God" and
a glory in God. The former is a product "of God," the
latter is an attribute, or an inherent quality, or part of
his being or nature. If there is a seen and tangible uni¬
verse, there must be an unseen and intangible universe,
and the former must be the product of the latter. In
other words, the unseen must have produced or brought
THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN.
267
into being the seen and the thinkable. Thus "In the be¬
ginning God created the heavens and the earth." The
earth is a part of the seen, also the heavens that shine
above us. But the Creator, or the invisible Universe,
must be forever hid from man and all his intelligent as¬
sociates. Now an image is the likeness of a thing either
in form or substance, or in both, but not in the sense that
the image is a part of or a dissepiment of the original.
In that case there could be no image at all. It would
simply be a part of the original, or a part of the first part,,
and not a product or creation of the first part. The possi¬
bility of making a perfect likeness of a thing in kind, pos¬
sessing the same elements and attributes of the original,
is an indispensable faculty of power that belongs to, and
must inhere in the Creator alone. None but God can
create, and the creative fiats and acts can only proceed
from this unseen Intelligence that was always the un¬
thinkable, the unknowable, and infinite embodiment of
concepts that had no time, place, or condition from which
to start into being. This is the universal Original in
whose "image" man is made. To be made "in the image-
of God," is the only passible way that man and all intelli¬
gent creatures can be, or could have been, made or cre¬
ated. Angels and men, all spirits, whether they be in
heaven, on earth, or in hell, or in any other part of the
habitable spheres of the universe, are made " in the im¬
age of God," and therefore are like man, or man is like
them. They are images of one another, just as a thousand
photographs drawn from one face at one sitting are im¬
ages of that face. Each one of the thousand is precisely
like every other one of the nine hundred and ninety-nine.
If there were but one man in the universe, and these one
thousand images were the likeness of his face, and if this
man should die and all his pictures be lost or burned in
the flames, it would be impossible to reproduce them ex¬
cept from the negative, or the glass plate upon which hi&
:268
TEE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN.
face was formerly photographed. This is the original
from which all the thousand photographs were taken.
Let us particularly note the fact, that every one of these
thousand photographs was exactly alike in their funda¬
mental outlines and constituents. In other words, every
single one of them would correspond to or have those
characteristics that distinguished the face from which it
was taken; and every one, to all intents and purposes,
would be an image of that man. If any of them should
become blurred or soiled, that would be a condition, and
would have nothing to do with the fundamentals. It is
still a photograph, although soiled and changed in the
externals, and, in that sense^ is bleared or dimmed, but
not lost.
The mind of the universe is a mirror. It reflects and
absorbs images. If an angel flies through the skies, he is
mirrored in the deep track of space, and in the deeper,
^broader, and perfectly receptive mind of God. An angel
or man may blend in the most subtle ether, or in the most
attenuated elements of the nebulae, but he is himself still,
#nd is the same in image, and consequently retains his
personal reality to that degree where he is forever him¬
self and eternally no other self.
Every man is photographed in the absorbent universe,
both in his mental and physical personal outlines. He is
not only the highest (God excepted), but also a distinct
rationality, equal in mental quality, if not in degree, to
any other intelligence that inhabits the spheres of the
universe. Everywhere man is man. Conditions dwarf
his mental stature, or enlarge it, blear or clarify it, but
do not, because they cannot, change his real self and vital
humanity. Paradise, nor hell, nor the corrosions of cen¬
turies can have any effect upon the innate possibilities of
mind, because that is the image of its Creator, and the
only possible image of the Creator that can be made or
can exist. God made man in His "own image," because
TEE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN.
269
there was in the nature of things no other way to make
him. To be was to be made this way, and not to be made
this way was not to be made at all. This brings us to the
conclusion that man, like all other intelligent creatures,
was finished in the fiat act that gave him the birth of his
being. He was finished in his creation, and in those
higher and deeper finalities where he became a living soul
or an intelligent actuality. His nature is full-orbed in
all those essentials upon which all subsequent possibili¬
ties must rest. If this is not so, then there must have
been not only one creation, as in the first fiat act of his^
being, but there must still be subsequent creations and
consequently additions to his being, and soon the real
self must become another self, and a distinct ego from
the original personality. This would not only destroy
the nature of man, but it would unbalance the unseen uni¬
verse, subvert "the unity of nature and the reign of law."
Men and angels, and all the intelligences of the universe,
would lose their identity of character and their moral
responsibility.
Neither do actual developments nor possibilities imply
a change in the fundamentals of being. These simply
imply progress, those intellectual expansions where new
conditions arp attained. On these lines and principles
there may be infinite lengths, depths and heights. There
are broad areas for the mental force. They are open and
clear for the eternal transitions of mind. Indeed, our
mental humanity may not only have the power of per¬
petual development in endless space, but for all that we
know there may be sleeping forces and even latent facul¬
ties that have not as yet reached those planes in evolu¬
tion and those arenas in endless progression where they
are needed in the mental sphere. All the powers of na¬
ture used for the improvement of mankind are not new
energies or forces in themselves, but old forces and en¬
ergies newly discovered, and together with new combi-
270
THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN.
nations and new uses they make up the discoveries of
science and the inventions of civilization. Steam and
electricity are as old as creation, and ether is as old
as the heavens in which it floats, and all minerals
were here from the foundation of the world. So noth¬
ing in creation is new in itself. If, then, man is made
"in the image of God," and that image is the mental
constitution, then all the intellectualities of the universe
are images or photographs taken from the same negative,
or, in other words, made like God. But they are made like
God how? Man is not made like God in his physical prop¬
erties, nor those delineations of his material embodiment
that we call the body. As yet there is nothing discovered
in science to prove the truth of the doctrine of anthro-
pomophism. "God is a spirit, and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth." This is. not
only a declaration of Holy Writ, but is a scientific cer¬
tainty and an absolute necessity. God cannot be God un¬
less he is spirit or mental individualism, including all the
faculties of the universal intelligence. He can be noth¬
ing lower and nothing less than spirit or mind, and we
are taught that he has neither shape nor form, nor bodily
parts. That is, if he has these faculties at all, they are
on a plane too high and 'exalted to be conceived by His
intelligent offsprings. ' In the very nature of the meta¬
physical universe, we cannot see or handle spirit any
more than we can see or handle thought. It exists every¬
where as the all-pervading life and activity of the uni¬
verse, but nowhere, so faT as our knowledge goes, has it
any perceptible parts or tangible properties. Rising
higher and incumbent upon all space and all things there¬
in contained, spirit is the finest, the most subtle and at¬
tenuated substance that can possibly be. While it is the
highest form of existence possible, yet it exists, not only
independent of all other things and beings, but because
it cannot cease from existing. In other words, the uni-
TEE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN.
271
versal intelligence cannot become annihilated, because it
is not an entity in the sense that it ever began. It had no
time, place, or conditions upon which to enter. It was
here before all entities. It is the entirety of the unbegin-
ning and universal actuality, whose qualities and altitude
of faculties are too high to be reached by others.
The moral sense is only a part of the mental. If man
loves, hates, obeys, or fears, it is the action of the human
mentality, and not anything separate and distinct from it.
All of the mental natures of the universe are alike in
the constituent elements of their being. Not only are
they alike in this particular, but they are alike because
they are made in the image of the Creator. This being
the true metaphysical nature of beings in the sphere of
life, all are related to each other, not only because they
are the common inhabitants of a common universe, but
especially because they are made in the same image in
their mental constitution, and of the same substance.
There exist between them the closest, the nearest, and
highest function of affinity and kinship. Angels, devils,
men, and all the intelligent inhabitants of the universe,
whether they have fallen from any state of purity, or kept
their state of obedience and happiness, are all our nearest
and dearest brothers. All are of the same Father, pos¬
sessing in common the same nature, with all that is im¬
plied in the term. Adam was the father of his children,
but not the father of their spiritual humanity. Spirit
can only come from spirit. Flesh can beget flesh, but it
cannot beget spirit or mental humanity. This is God's
specific work, and belongs in the realm of the spiritual.
The views here presented are substantiated from the facts
of history, respecting man's nature in all ages, nations
and conditions. In the fundamentals of human nature,
Asiatics, Europeans, Africans, Americans, with all the
people of Oceania, no matter how distinct in their
habits and customs, present to the considerate judgment
272
THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN.
of all the same proclivities and mental aspects. The cli¬
mate and the modes of life may change the color of the
skin, distort the features, giving the whole physique an
appearance of marked differences, but still the mental
nature remains the same in all. If it can be shown that
there have been several creations of man, or that the fam¬
ily of man had different starting points in their lower
physical generation, yet this would not affect the human
relation in any of its phases, nor destroy that intimate
kinship that of necessity belongs to all intelligent creat¬
ures. No individual can evade or destroy the duties and
relations which the constitution of his being imposes upon,
him, any more than he can get out of the universe. There
is no way in the nature and fitness of things for any
mental character to get off the spEeres of being and re¬
sponsibility any more than he can get out of himself or
the eternal ego. As a citizen, he is one, and only one, but
all of one, and can never be any less than one, or any less
than the present self. The image of God cannot be lost
or annihilated. The individuals themselves, whether
men, angels, or devils, have no power or capacity to bring^
on total death to their mental being or destroy their per¬
sonal identity. Mirrored in the universe, and engraved
upon the potentialities of the eternal possibilities of the
spiritual activities, each one of us shall ascend the scales
and planes of evolution, transition and development^
through long ages to come, forever retaining the image-
of God and the conscious self.
The Trend of Civilization.
Whatever may be the distinctions of one race from
another in the qualities and inherent elements that con¬
stitute those distinctions, there is one civilization and one
common destiny for all the human race. In essential
qualities and characteristics, mankind is one and the
same. The different phases of social, civic, and indi¬
vidual life that have presented themselves to the con¬
sideration of the student of history and philosophy are
mere ramifications that radiate from the same centers,
or parent stems. The foundation of civilization is found
in the nature, conditions, necessities, and aspirations of
men. Because of the desire to better his condition and
to make the way of human life pleasing and joyous, he
seeks to bend the powers of nature to his wants and co¬
erces its forces and agencies along those lines and planes
that will produce the greatest amount of those results by
which he ascends the altitudes of civilization. The very
construction of his native constituency that permeates
"the human form divine" involve those agitative and
sleepless precipitants that ever stir, stimulate, and woo
him on to investigate, to weigh, and measure principles
of the universe that draw his chariot from the in¬
dividual center to the impalpable periphery. Man
is nothing if not agitative and exploring. The men¬
tal attributes are the restless aggregates of divine
sunbeams formed into the sphere of mind whereby
man seeks those lofty climes and grasps those splendid
qualities which make men become as gods, "knowing
good from evil." To what extent the elements of nature
and the mental and physical forces of the universe may
be made to serve and develop the earthly side of humanity
or to develop mankind as we see it in this state of being,
38h
274
THE TREND OF CIVILIZATION.
can only be determined by the output of the ages and the
wonders of the cycles. Like the universe around us, no¬
where does man stand still. He is coming and going, liv¬
ing and dying, rising and falling, ascending and descend¬
ing, on the ladder of evolution, dissolution and revo¬
lution. He springs forth to the depth of his own
center, and from it rebounds to the utmost limits
of his hemisphere, widening his own sphere of action
and mental ebullitions, gaining every step he takes
towards the great center of a unified and common
civilization. What is wonderful to-day may be lost as
insignificant to-morrow, and the raindrops of the morning
may be the cloudbursts of the night. In the mental and
physical immensity human expansion, in degrees of ciyil-
ized life, is in its infancy. Its greatest possibility lies in
the undiscovered depths of metaphysical science. There,
are latent forces whose vital cords are still untouched
by the occultist or the metaphysician. There are gems
of thought and jewels of wisdom in the bays and gulfs
and deep seas of the manhood of humanity that shall be
set to "the music of the spheres" and the song of the ages,
in the day of their coronation amid the jubilees of an all-
conquering, centralized, and unified civilization. All
things move toward the center. It is the generous, free,
and full combination of the elements and agencies that
deify humanity and make men princes and kings, and
women and little children angels.
Slowly, but surely, the oneness of civilization, like the
oneness of humanity, is everywhere asserting itself and
gathering its momentum until all its holding points shall
center in a common unit of a civic, political, and inter-
commercial metropolis, from whose brightness the earth
shall be enlightened with "the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man."
The first great obstacle in the way of the unification
of the world's civilizations is the want of the unification
of the human race. As long as there are broad and deep
TEE TREND OF CIVILIZATION.
275
racial distinctions, produced by the various conditions
under which the different wings of the human kind have
existed, there will be those racial antipathies and preju¬
dices that have so long been the bane of sbciety and the
curse of the nations. Everywhere the blighting ajid
withering blasts of caste and prejudice have left their
deep imprint upon the social, civic, moral and political
records of the peoples of the world. Race hatred is the
strongest, the most enduring of all hatred. It is a de¬
spicable culmination of the hatred of all the individuals
of a race or people, collected and crowded into the heart
and life of many individuals of another race or people.
They'despise each other, not because they are the lower
class of the same race, but they despise because they are
of a different and distinct race. In the instincts of-man,
as in the instincts of the lower animals, there is, appar¬
ently at least, an inherent or natural propensity for class
to seek its class. Hogs do not like the company of goats,
nor horses the company of cows. The rich and the edu¬
cated will not seek the association of poor and ignorant
because they are of different tastes, feelings and practices;
in the social sphere. They live on different planes in the
same country, and there is a manifest incongruity and a
want of harmony in the social state that prevent that
close personal contact that exists between social equals.
If, then, there is such a difference among individuals of
the same race, merely because of their class, then there
will be a greater difference between individuals of two
or more distinct races; and as long as these real and sup¬
posed differences exist between man and man, there will;
be a conflict of forces and interests, so directed in their
exhaustive regime as to delay, if not despoil, the world
of the speedy redemption from the evils that have grown
up from the pestiferous soil of human prejudices. Be
it understood that we do'not want to make the impression
that because one man does not associate with another
on account of the difference of race or class, he neces-
276
THE TREND OF CIVILIZATION.
sarily hates the other. This is not necessary, neither is
it alwayjs the ease. On the contrary, there are thousands
of people in all classes and races l°ve classes and
races, and thousands have given their lives to ameliorate
and better the condition of others. On the other hand,
race hatred is perverse and criminal, and proceeds from
the depraved and "downright cussedness of human na¬
ture."
Why should one man hate another because he is of a
different race? Who does it, or who can it help or bene¬
fit? It makes no one better, but always makes the man
who hates worse and more depraved in his nature and
proclivities. Hatred contains the essential elements of
murder, and the Scriptures of Holy Writ substantiate
this when they declare: "He that hateth his brother is a
murderer." As human nature is one and inseparable as
to its real substantial qualities and tendencies, civiliza¬
tion is destined to become so changed and revolutionized
in its work and effects that this race prejudice is to be¬
came a thing of the past; because it is in the way of those
aggregated interests and intellectual propulsions that
liave given the world its present degree of advancement
in the social state. The world moves. It dips its expand¬
ing horizon into out-lying seas and oceanic fathoms to
disgorge from the deep the hidden treasures and unpol¬
ished gems that seem to sleep on the pebbly bottom.
These when polished by human' culture shall bedeck the
crown and bestud the heavens of a triumphant and uni¬
fied civilization. Nothing but physical disaster and ma¬
terial dissolution can absorb the force, or subtract that
driving universal intellectual energy that now collects
its agencies and moulds the thought, the life, and the sen¬
timent of ages into one great intellectual, international,
and inter-racial man. Then a mighty force is driving
the wheels of a new civilization in a new age. Not new
is it as to its ground principles and native elements, but
new in the facts discovered, the truths revealed, and the
THE TREND OF CITILIZATION.
277
exhibition of hidden life, by the touch of whose fingers
the rocks are turned to silver, silver into gold, gold into
diamonds, and diamonds into those lost jewels that fell
from the crown of angels in the conflicting transition
from the old to the new. The age itself is full of energy,
drawing man upward and upward to himself—his more
and perfect self. The selfhood of self is becoming more
asserted. Man is rounding into that high and ethereal
realization that himself is one, that he is an entity with
an ineffacable identity, whose essential and divine per-
so'nale shall outlast the stars, and glow in its ineffable
splendors amid the ages of newer domains and brighter
dispensations.
So forcible and widespread, so deep and earnest are the
movements of the spiritual and intellectual energy to
reach and conquer the powers of nature, in behalf of her
thinking exponents, that wide seas lose their terrors, high
mountains are bored through, commerce harnesses the
waves, and the lightning flashes.the accents of truth
around the globe.
The advancements and discoveries of science have
brought all nations near together, and so far as inter¬
course—commercial, political, and religious—is concern
ed, they speak to each other daily—almost face to face.
The markets of London, New York, Paris, Berlin, and Can¬
ton are so intermit, so near each other, and each so full of
all the rest, that whatever affects one affects all the commer¬
cial centers of tlie great family of man. There are now no
more strangers and foreigners, but all are of the house¬
hold of the same civilization to an astonishing degree;
and this tendency must increase as the interests of the
world demand. Nothing will be allowed to stand in its
way.
Here racial prejudice must fall and bow to the better
and higher interests of man.
Nothing seems more apparent than the tendency of all
the nations to become one in blood as well as in interest.
278
THE TREND OF CIVILIZATION.
Shem, Ham, and Japhet ar6 all nearly in the same house
and eating at the same table, saying the same prayers,
singing the same songs, and worshipping the same God.
These are the children of a common mother and a com¬
mon sireship with a common destiny.
In the onward trend and rounding out of this great
civilization, white and black, red and swarthy, with all
the seven cqlors of the rainbow, shall be ground to dust
and calcined by the stately tramp of a golden civilization,
culminating in the eternal fixedness of the golden stand¬
ard and crowned with the age of diamonds.
The Great Presence.
That we are in the midst of some great, all-pervading
and extraordinary influence, is a most touching and signal
fact. We have reached that period in the step of centu¬
ries and the cycles, and that degree of spiritual and men¬
tal development, where we seem to touch the hem of the
Great Master's garment. We seem to sit at his feet, feel
his throbbing heart, hear his thrilling "voice, while the
halo of his countenance fills the whole human hemis¬
phere in the twilighted splendors of a majesty that comes
from beyond the stars of God. The Great Galilean is Vis¬
iting the islands, treading the- waters and walking
through the continents of human consciousness as never
before in the long history of nations and ages. The very
air that we breathe, and the sunbeams that gild the hori¬
zon with golden light, bear fiim gently, though strongly,
to human consciousness, and the intelligence of universal
humanity. The winds are His chariot, the clouds His
throne, and the mists of the foaming deep His pavilion.
Indeed, there is a universal presence of an increasing
and centralizing force that is stronger than nature, more
pungent and deep-throbbing than electricity or the subtle
activities of ethereal currents. Beneath the active force
and energies of human progress, there is an arm of power,
a thrilling somewhat that is silently at work sending its
awakening influence to all parts of the mental and con¬
scious humanity. We are in the presence of the great
Christ—not the Christ of modern or ancient days, but the
universal and eternal Christ of God, crowned from eter¬
nity and sceptered before the sun blazed, stars twinkled,
or angels played on their harps. He is the God-sent, the
•divi&e Legate, who is to propagate and diffuse His in¬
spiring spirituality until the august and adorable Son of
280
THE GREAT PRESENCE.
Man shall stand in the presence of all men, and pour Him¬
self into the entire drama of human life. Evidently,,
Christianity is crystalizing its forces, concentrating its
energies, so as to give the greatest momentum to the evo¬
lutions of thought and actions. We see, as we never saw
before, the moral concept and the spiritual comprehen¬
sions stricken off in clearer lines and more radiant with
distinctiveness of character than in former ages. Faith
is becoming more and more a tangible matter of fact, and
with its spanning arches is seen to rest upon the fundamen¬
tals of the spiritual universe. Christ was a great philoso¬
pher as'well as a great prophet. His teachings, along
with the demonstrations of power displayed in the healing
art, were based upon the laws or governing principles of
nature. He took hold of nature in its deepest mental and
physical phases, tied its broken cords and cables, belted
their disobedient elements about His arm of power, co¬
erced their rebellious fragments into line, commanded
the molecular universe, and its activities obeyed the voice
of the Son of God.
All through the long ages of human darkness He has
been their rising Sun and the living Power from whose
central throne the peeping and glinting rays of resplend¬
ent hope that have inspired their upliftings and aspira¬
tions have sprung. His voice is the music that wooed and
thrilled the human spheres, vibrated the human mechan¬
ism and taught respondent souls the ways of divine provi¬
dence, and cheered the millions with the truth of God
and the realization of the eternal future. He is drawing
nearer and nearer to all human hearts and human con¬
sciousness. Onwards the overshadowing presence climbs
the ecliptic of the busy world, dislodging from its high
places the subtle children of hell and the black squadrons
of Sin and darkness. The great presence—what is it?
What is that mysterious force that seems to play on the
universal harp of universal humanity? What is this won¬
drous power, this magic wand that sweeps the zones of
THE GREAT PRESENCE.
281
human devices and plays with almighty momentum on
the social and civil planes of organized society? What is
this that is changing the sentiment of men, expanding the
mental vision and enlarging the moral periphery in the
sphere of thought, philosophy and philanthropic activity?
Is it mere science, progress and discovery, or the mere pro¬
duct of human genius? Or is the force of age upon age
filing its victories upon victories, and achievements upon
achievements? Nay, these are the fruits of the great pres¬
ence—of the active Christ in personal transition, the liv¬
ing embodiment of truth and the active Jehovic Dispenser
of the reforming and transforming kingdom of heaven.
"The whole earth is crammed with heaven, and every
common bush is afire -with Grod," in the great personality
of His Son. Mark the steps of modern civilization, read
the signs of the times, and measure the strength and
weigh the momentum of the trembling forces of evil. A
mighty Prince with signal power and the dynamic forces
of the spiritual arcana is standing at the end of the dying
century, and, like the rising sun on a calm sea, the soft
rays of His bright and resplendent light adumbrate His
coming and depict His majestic presence. The Song of
Solomon says, "The voice of my beloved! Behold he
cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the
hills." Already we are immersed in the fullness of His
joy and the plenitude of His presence. But as He ad¬
vances upon the sphere of human thought and activity,
both good and evil are intensified. The wicked grow more
wicked, and the righteous more righteous. As the con¬
flict approaches active engagement, and as the two dis¬
similar powers line up in battle array, the lines of de¬
marcation are more fully drawn. The devil will be more
devilish, and the Christ more Christly. Reserved powers,
latent activities, and long pent-up magazines of force will
explode, and the onslaught will be more dreadful and
fearful as the Great Presence permeates the moral massr
and vibrates the centers of the human arena.
282
THE GREAT PRESENCE.
Who is it that has not felt the Great Presence? What
zone or parallel is there in the habitable earth that does
not feel His wondrous touch, the thrilling force of His di¬
vine magnetism and the impressiveness of His unique
personality? The entire kingdom of men "is the Lord's."
"His kingdom ruleth over all," and he will come "whose
right it is." Say what you please and do what you please,
"the kingdom is the Lord's." "It is not by might, nor by
power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord." Hence, it "is not
power" by which the process of redemption is carried
on. Not by armies and navies or the unsheathed sword,
or the skilled diplomacy and intrigue of wise statesman¬
ship, is it carried on. No flourish of trumpets, no bugle
blasts, no rattling of drums, no high-sounding clarionets,
no metal ring of cymbals, no chariots of iron with pranc¬
ing steeds and amber wheels stajned with human gore
.and rolling in the blood of the slain, mark His coming.
Nay, verily, His coming is in silent power of the wonder¬
ful God. His steps are softer than the fragrance of the
rosebud, and as gentle as the evening zephyrs laden with
the music of the spheres and the breath of flowers. "The
kingdom of God cometh not with observation," but like
the noiseless flow of a river He treads the veins of com¬
merce, walks the royal highways of the world's greatness
unobserved, and is found in the palaces of kings, the dia¬
mond chambers of queens, the secret precincts of pre¬
miers, and in the chair of national executives. Surely we
are in the midst of a Great presence. How wonderful is
this age! How forceful and resourceful is the Divine
Presence! Then, children of God, look up and look
around you. He is here in your midst, in the highways
»f your cities, plains and rural districts. He stands at
your doors, turning the knob or pulling the latchstring.
"Behold a Stranger at the door,
He gently knocks—has knocked before!
Has waited long—is waiting still—
You treat no other friend so ill."
The Connection of Spirit and Body.
It is evident that there is a spirit and that there is a
body. The oldest, the most real and most extensive is
spirit. The difference between the two is the difference
of life and death, or that that is self-active, and that that
is not self-active. Spirit acts without matter or body,
or acts when there is nothing to act upon, by, or through.
Where there is action there must be spirit, since nothing
can act without its presence, either mediately or imme¬
diately. If matter moves, takes form, or assumes condi¬
tion, change, or progression, its activity is dependent upon
a deeper, broader and more sensitive force, which em¬
braces the elements or properties of a perfect entirety,
or an eternal reality. As the human body is the mere
instrument of the soul or spirit, so God, the Spirit of
spirits, is the hidden or indwelling Life of all life, and the
active forces of nature are but the instruments, as well
as the manifestations, of the divine presence and power,
and are the only means by which the intelligent universe
can behold the power and presence of the Infinite. There
are first and second causes, or rather there is a first and
central cause, and all else are but second causes, results
or emanations of the only cause. All second causes in the
physical spheres and immensities are nothing but the
moving changes or precipitations of the molecules of the
whole or parts of the universal system; and as precipitant
elements move as they are moved upon by the causative,
they constitute molecular force. This molecular force is
the tangible activities of the world and the universe which
we call nature. In this sense nature, in its multiform
and complex mechanism, is as much the instrument of
God as the human hand or foot or tongue is the instru¬
ment of the human mind. Strictly speaking, spirit is the
284 TEE CONNECTION OF SPIRIT AND BODY.
only perfect reality in the universe, because it is the only
thing that has attributes of perception and is utterly in¬
capable of annihilation. It is incapable of annihilation
because it is not an entity in the sense of limitation. That
is, it has all the faculties and properties of perfect self
and perfect realization without beginning, growth or ac¬
cretions of parts or combination of elements. Hence,
spirit has neither body, nor parts, nor tangibility. Or, in
other words, if spirit has form, or any kind of molecular
constituency, its peculiar nature is so high, ethereal, and
attenuated in itself, that we, in common with all intelli¬
gent creatures of the universal spheres, have no faculties
by which we can comprehend its nature. This rests upon
perfect and true philosophical grounds, since nothing can
be greater than the greatest, and before the intelligent
personalities of the universe can comprehend the Spirit
of spirits, these personalities must have existed prior tor
and independent of, the Eternal. The opposite conclu¬
sion is splendidly absurd and presents a solecism that
distresses thought and tortures the imaginary faculties.
In their real nature there is no difference between those
atomis or molecules that compose the human body and
those that compose the bodies of the inferior animals, or
even those that enter or compose the vegetable or mineral
kingdoms, and the bodies of men are as much of earth
and air as the hills, mines or other material forms and
elements that compose the universe.
Hence form has nothing to do with the inherent prop¬
erties of matter any more than it has to do with the na¬
ture of spirit or mental individuality* Change of state,
condition or relation, cannot affect the nature, or the in¬
herent qualities of spirit. Punishment may bring re¬
pentance and obedience to the laws of God and the re¬
quirements of righteousness in this or in some other state
of conscious existence, or disobedience may bring on sin
and inject the virus of wickedness into the spiritual or
mental reality; but none of them can produce deteri-
THE CCWN&VTION OF SPIRIT AND BODY.
285
oration, or change the real mental conscious individual.
If it were otherwise, there could be no such thing as eter¬
nal or indefinite punishment. Even human laws presup¬
pose the continuous personal conscious identity of the
mental character, since men are often punished upon the
supposition that they will remain the same person, or the
same mental character to the end of natural life that they
were when first adjudged guilty and assigned to life com¬
mitment.
There must be something in the character or nature
by which every spirit or mental individual will be known
or distinguished from every other such character in the
universe. The very nature of government, whether it be
of God or man, presupposes that every single individual
is separate and distinct from every other one in the great
whole, and it is a special and particular attribute of jus¬
tice in the administration of government to avoid the in¬
fliction of punishment upon the innocent, and withhold
rewards from the unworthy. The greatest scrutiny and
care are exercised in the distribution of rewards and pun¬
ishment lest the wrong person should be dealt with. In
their fundamentals, there is no difference in the govern¬
ment of God and the government of men. Both are based
upon righteousness, equity and justice. Mercy is not an
attribute of government any more than it is an attribute
of God. There may be a government without mercy, but
there can be no government in the strict sense of
the term without justice, equity and righteousness.
This is government and all else is anarchy. No trans¬
gressor can claim mercy as of right or justice. It does
not belong to him as a part of his inherited right,
but justice belongs to him because he is a citizen of
the universe and under the protection of its govern¬
ment and laws. Again, every intelligent being has an
inherent claim on justice, because he is a conscious
intelligence, and because he is in no way responsible
for his being or his creation, or those eternal mental
286 THE CONNECTION OF SPIRIT AND BODY.
endowments or faculties of which he is possessed and
which he cannot destroy or reduce to nonentity. No at¬
tribute of intelligent natures can disappear or be annihi¬
lated by any power less than itself, and therefore it is in¬
capable of decay or inaction. Presuming that the above
is predicated upon sound metaphysical reasoning, we
reach the sequence that man, in common with all other
intelligent existences, is an eternal conscious fixture in
the universal circle of being. He is an eternal citizen
with an indestructible identity, forever dwelling on a
plane where annihilation can never come. This plane is in
his being, or his being is in or on this plane. Here dwell
in ethereal marvels and empyrean splendors all the ex¬
pansive personal majesties and towering intellects in
their universal home, forever aspiring 4n the highest,,
broadest and profoundest spheres of the countless and in¬
finite activities. But as matter is incapable of punish¬
ment and rewards, and as it has no principles or faculties
as a basis for responsibility, it is agreeable to truth and
philosophy when we say that nothing is and nothing can
be punished, or can receive rewards, but the mental or
spirit man, and those capable spiritualities that belong
to the intellectual sphere. Every spiritual reality must
be a capacity, that is, it must have capability to that de¬
gree of volition that involves personal responsibility, and
consequently this responsibility is upon the moral plane.
This not only makes them subjects of rewards and punish¬
ment, but involves that high degree of individualism by
which one mental character is distinguished from every
other. Since this is the case, there must be some outline
or characteristic inherent in all intelligent beings by
which they are to be known. It may not consist in vital
or constitutional properties, but it may consist in some ex¬
terior delineations through which the piercing art of in¬
tuition may comprehend those differentia that must exist
among the' individuals of the populous universe. We
could not perceive the identification of things or persons
THE CONNECTION OF SPIRIT AND BODY. 287"
if every one were exactly alike; neither could we distin¬
guish one place from another if all places were precisely
alike in all that make up each of all the places. Intuition
itself presupposes a differentiation among a multitude of
individuals—those necessary distinguishing features by
which one person may be known from every other person,
or mental individual. Indeed, personal identity seems to
be an essential part or element of intellectual natures, as '
without it one person cannot be known from other con¬
scious intellectualities. When an individual is disrobed
of his earthly habiliments and wrapt in the habit of the
spiritual, there can be no essential change in character
because of the transition. He is still himself in all the
plenitude and fundamentals of his being. He does not
become an impersonal reality or a mere thing because of
the change. In this world, expressions that consist in
many things form those features or idiosyncracies of
character and person by which one person is known from
all the rest, and who knows but that spirits, men, angels
and devils, and all the intellectualities of the universe,
are clothed in ethereal integuments, though impercept¬
ible to human vision and contact, yet suited to their na¬
ture, plane and occupation? Yea, "He maketh his angels
winds and his ministers flames of fire." Then we reach
the conclusion, upon philosophical deductions, that we
carry with us into the mysterious realities beyond not
only all the personal consciousness of tangible and intan¬
gible being, but we carry with us the shape, form and
expressions that were given us in the creation, and which
we had from the beginning of our being. The human
form is divine, not in its inherent or native qualities, but
in its chartered shape, expression, features and outlines.
The contour of the personality is divinely appointed and
stereotyped as an essential part or element of being. It
cannot be thrown off, covered or disguised, and wherever
the individual moves, speaks or acts in the sphere of
being, he will be known as that special and specific per-
288 THE CONNECTION OF SPIRIT AND BODY.
sonality. As every living actuality is a self-acting entity
under law and responsibility, his history is registered i&
space and all the personal data are reflected and wafted
in and through the radiating spheres and immensities.
The acts and facts of his being cannot be obliterated, lost
or forgotten, neither can they be extracted from the en¬
folding records of the progressive spheres. Man is a book,
a history within himself. On and in the mental inlays of
growth and development he engraves himself upon him¬
self, and unconsciously he writes his own history, records
his own acts and thoughts, and his life keeps its own
register. As he is self-acting, he is self-registering, and
the universe, with its faithful records, is a duplicating
mirror in which every man and mental activity can find
himself faithfully portrayed in the eternal archives of
the eternal sDheres.