[Rpamee UE GATE O TNE ANB REE SEP CASED 0 AIRES DAMRTE CY: Ch OBC, CHALLENGE OF THE. CHURCH. | RATIONALISM REFUTED | . [ [ t | a i | GEORGE H. BENNETT : iil CRAY 6 5 ITE” ( EEO SPD) ED ere eter eat -—- oe ay 7 fi ae i alae U viii ist 7 eA ; “i 4 ¢ ve oe ‘ ; 4 , ‘ . ‘ j ‘ - : = , bg . i *. Fi k 5 a 2 , . Fr : vk, : ib ; ss ‘j : ? . ° i —n. a ie pe hail) : f bel a t ’ ? ‘ CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH RATIONALISM REFUTED A Repty to THE OREGON RATIONALIST Society, CONTAINING EXPosiITIONS OF CosmMoGony, INSPIRATION, PRAYER, EtTCc., Wauicu Orrer PRAcTICAL SOLUTIONS OF CERTAIN GREAT IssuES BETWEEN SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE. BY / GEORGE H. BENNETT, Former Professor Systematic Theology, Portland University. Member of the Oregon Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church. 1914 sy CINCINNATI: PRESS OF THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN CopyriGHT, 1914, By Grorce H. BENNETT. Reberently Inscribed TO THE MEMORY OF ALL WHO HAVE SUFFERED FOR THE WORD OF GOD. Contents. ¢ PAGE I. Tse Brste—Is rt INsprrep ? (1) A Human Book, - - - - eae (2) A Divine Book, - - - - - 13 (3) Divine Insprration LimitTep IN ScrRIPTURE, 19 II. Cosmocony Artests INSPIRATION. (1) Moses tHE Fatruer or Evoxortion, - 24 (2) ADAM AND PreE-HIsToRIC MAN, - - 36 (3) OrntcIn or Eartuty Lirg, - . - A483 III. Propecy FuiFintep ATTEsTs INSPIRATION, - 50 IV. Triumpss or Brste ATTEst INSPIRATION, - - 54 V. Is Jesus Gop? - te - - - 60 VI. Is Prayer «a FatLure? - - - - - 81 VII. Is tae Cuurcnu a Farwure? - - - . 113 VIII. Genesis or Matter, Mind, AND Forcn, - - 127 IX. Ortern anp Nature or Law, - - - 138 X. ScreENcE AND IMMORTALITY, - - - - 145 PREFACE. Turis volume is presented to the thoughtful public in response to a challenge to the Church issued by the Oregon Rationalist Association. The challenge of the Oregon Rationalist Society to the clergymen of Portland included the following: (1) The Bible; (2) The Christ; (3) The Church; (4) Character and leadership; (5) Practical applica- _ tions. It is with the hope of aiding in the correction of some errors of Biblical interpretation, and of defin- ing the position of the Church in a manner at once Scriptural, scientific, and defensible. GrorcE H. BENNETT. Dallas, Oregon. CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. i? ts ran Ve ins 4% and the lakes became seas. Science plainly points to that time, mentioned in Genesis as the “beginning,” when “the earth was waste and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The First Day. That era of darkness was des- tined to end. Cooling continued, and a new, feature was to be added to the system of nature. With the deepening of the seas and the withdrawal of water from the atmosphere, the volume of cloud became less dense. As this work progressed, a time finally came when the vapor-mantled earth became light in the dawning of a morning. The sun had been shining in all preceding eras of world-history, but the sun- light had just penetrated the mantle of cloud. That morning was dim and weird in the light of those feeble rays, but it ushered in the first day in all the history of the earth. Comparative geology teaches us the succession of day and night began on a first literal day. Genesis records: “And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light; and the evening and the morn- ing was the first day.” The Second Day. During many millenniums after this beginning of the succession of day and night, the days were dim, the fogs were dense, and the rains were incessant. Meantime the seas were becoming deeper and were spreading over the earth. At last the waters covered all the desolate shores, and the world was covered by a universal ocean. Ages passed, and at last a morning came when the fogs were lifted from the expanse of waters and an eye might have 28 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. seen the circle of the horizon. What would this world be without a visible horizon! How important was the addition of this new feature to the world-scheme! Science declares there was a day when for the first time the horizon became visible, and in this Genesis fully agrees, for we read, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters; and God divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and there was evening and there was morning, a second day.” The Third Day. Millenniums rolled away during which the atmosphere was washed of many impurities by the incessant rains, and the ocean steadily freed its waters by precipitation. A new and stupendous work now began. It was the upheaval of portions of the ocean bed. The constant cooling and shrinking of the earth caused the crumpling and upheaval of the rocky crust in places. Then came a day which was made notable by the rising of the land above the surface of the ocean. The geologist points to that day. But notice how perfectly geology agrees with Genesis in this. In the “beginning” mentioned by Genesis, dry land and ocean were in existence. Then followed an era in which the land disappeared be- neath the waters. A time now comes when the land is lifted above the surface of the sea. Genesis declares, “God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered unto one place, and let the dry land ap- pear.” Genesis is not unscientific in this. A new feature was thus added to the growing scheme of nature. 29 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. The land which arose from the sea at that time was no longer the naked rock which was submerged ages before, but was covered with detritus and a slimy ooze precipitated by the sea—a primitive soil. The era of inhabitableness had now come. Geology plainly teaches us there was a time when no terres- trial vegetation existed. It also points to a day when that form of life actually began to spread over the land. Genesis also points to that time when it says, “Let the earth put forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree bearing fruit after its kind wherein is the seed thereof.” Thus in the evolutions of natural forces a new feature was added to the system of nature. It has been objected that Genesis intro- duces the highest and lowest forms of vegetation at the same time, while science teaches us the lowest forms appeared first. Evolution comes to the rescue of Moses, however, for science teaches all terrestrial plant life was comprehended in the types sown in primeval days. This also is the teaching of Genesis. The Fourth Day. Progress was the rule of the world. Several new features had been added to the system of nature, but the end was not yet. Another feature was to be added; and after the lapse of ages, a morning came when the great mantle of cloud which had so completely veiled the skies since the beginning of the planet era of the world was broken and parted after a night of storm. The majestic sun then arose to look for the first time upon the verdant fields and to flood the hills with glory. The visible appearing 30 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. of the sun and the quickening power of the direct sunbeam alone could replenish the world with the highest forms of vegetable and animal life. And so the world-wide storm of cloud and rain at last was broken, the days of gloom were over, and the glorious sunlit day was followed by the serene, starlit night. Genesis and science are in strict accord in teaching that the visible appearing of the sun, moon, and stars occurred at a definite time, a literal day, which marked the beginning of definite signs, seasons, and years. Genesis records: “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and years. And there was evening and there was morn- ing, a fourth day.” The Fifth Day. Time now moved on in triumphal procession. The land and sea and the firmament had now become suited to higher forms of life. Genesis tells us of the literal day on which marine types of life appeared, or at least the types that appeared when birds were introduced into the scheme of na- ture. It says, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” Birds thus made their appearance at the time when certain types of marine life were introduced into the world. Paleon- tology points to the era of Mesozoic saurian reptiles— an era when the sea swarmed with monsters—as the time when bird life first appeared. Paleontology seems to confirm the statement of Genesis in this. 31 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. So again new features were added to the growing cosmic scheme on a definite, literal day,—‘‘And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.” Science teaches us that vegetable life was intro- duced into the world in groups of comprehensive types. This is said to be true of animal life as well. The characteristics of several modern orders were blended in a single individual of earliest times. Sci- entists to-day trace two types of modern birds—run- ning and flying—back along two distinct lines of evolution to saurian reptiles of the Mesozoic period. The ancestral comprehensive types had their origin in the divine agency, while their development and specialization were brought about by the processes of evolution. Genesis agrees with the evolutionist in tracing birds and aquatic animals to a marine lineage! The Sixth Day. The grand march of progress was not yet at an end. Another notable feature was to be added to the cosmic scheme. It was the ap- pearance of terrestrial animal life. Science has brought up from the rocks of the later geological ages the remains of terrestrial animal life, long ex- tinct. It has also discovered human remains and works of art which belonged to an era long preceding the time in which the Adam of Genesis made his appearance in the world. It seems, moreover, that the words of Genesis place the appearance of ter- restrial animal life and Adam on the same day— whereas it is certain animal life appeared long ages before Adam. Let us remember, however, the dis- crepancy in time is unimportant, for Moses is speak- 32 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. ing to the Hebrews in an allegory. Genesis refers, for religious reasons, to the rise of Adam, a higher type of man, and incidentally to the terrestrial animal life contemporary with Adam. The crowning feature to be added to the growing system of nature was the appearing of Adam, a man of higher type than the pre-Adamites, for to Adam was given dominion and divine inspiration and divine revelation and the promise of a Redeemer. The alle- gory of Moses reached its splendid climax with the rise of Adam and the beginning of a human career to be made glorious also by invention and discovery, the spread of knowledge and righteousness, and the mental, moral, and physical emancipation of mankind. This crowning event in the evolutions of physical nature occurred on a literal day—‘“And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” The Seventh Day. The literal day following the ~ rise or calling of Adam and Eve from among the pre-Adamites as heralds of an advancing civilization, was hallowed by the Lord as a Sabbath. The Seven Days were thus employed in his allegory by Moses as the symbol of a week, to teach the Hebrews the observance of a Sabbath. Moses opened his allegory of world-building at the time in world history when but four features of nature were in existence—land, ocean, atmosphere, and darkness. He then traces the passing of that system of nature and the introduction of a new system which comprises many new features, such as the suc- cession of day and night, the visible horizon, the : 33 i THE.CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. kingdom of plants, visibility of the heavenly boilies, the introduction of marine and bird life, the appear ing of animals, and the rise of Adam and the dawning of civilization. The days of Genesis do not represent long periods of time, but are widely separated days upon which new features were added to the growing system of nature. Tur ALLEGORY OF CREATION. The allegory is a legitimate figure of speech in the Scriptures, like the parable, simile, and metaphor. Saint Paul, in writing to the Galatians, spoke in allegory (Gal. 4: 22-26), “Which things are an alle- gory.” Moses in this allegory traces the lower forms of animal life and terrestrial vegetation to a terrestrial lineage, for he declares they were “brought forth” by the “earth.” He traces birds and marine animals to a marine lineage, for he declares they were “brought forth” by the “waters.” This certainly is evolution. The striking fact remains, however, that he does not trace Adam back to either a terrestrial or to a marine lineage. He does not say Adam was “brought forth” either by the “earth” or by the “waters.” Moses is silent here. Here he points to the divine agency. But when Moses points to the divine agency, that is not saying Adam was produced by a new and distinct act of creation. Moses also points to the divine agency when animal, plant, and fowl were “brought forth” by the “earth” or by the “waters.” If Moses had said Adam was born of the cave-men, 34 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. the Hebrews would not have revered Adam. If he had told them Adam was descended from the ape, they would have worshiped the ape, according to the custom of Egyptian idolatry, with which they were familiar. | Moses would teach them to worship God, and he would also stir their national spirit. This could be done best by telling them the story of creation as an allegory, according to the custom of Oriental thought. In this way he gave to Adam, their ancestor, a peculiar and commanding dignity. Many nations point in a similar way to some noble trait or achieve- ment of their founders. Moses thus carried their thought to God, whom they ought to worship. We must remember the Oriental to this day lives and moves and has his being in an atmosphere of allegory and poetic symbolism. The national spirit of the Hebrew slaves was aroused by this allegory of Moses. They were taught the proud lesson of the Fatherhood of God and their origin in the divine agency. They were shown that Adam and Eve, their ancestors, were the first among . mankind to receive divine inspiration and divine reve- lation. They were first to receive the promise of a Redeemer. Moreover, they were taught by allegory the dependence and the nobility of woman, together with her equality with man in his dominion over nature. Genesis does not teach, therefore, that Adam was the product of a new and distinct act of creation; it does not teach that Adam was evolved from a 35 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. brute ancestry; nor uoes it teach that he was born of a savage human ancestry. While Moses was cer- tainly the pioneer evolutionist, he adroitly evaded the question of Adam’s natural ancestry, and for the best of reasons fixed their attention upon God, whom they should worship and obey. We venture the opinion that Adam was born of human parents, and that he and his descendants did not differ from the pre Adamites so much in physical characters or intel- lectual powers, but rather in mental and moral il- ‘Jumination due to divine inspiration and revelation. It is not incumbent upon any one to believe Adam was born or ascended from a low or degenerate type of humanity, for the man of Cromagnon and some others of the oldest members of the human family are known to have been of the greatest mental and physical capacities. The great difference between civilized and uncivilized men of modern times is a difference in ideas and in mental and moral illumina- tion. Savage tribes become civilized under the in- struction of the civilized. Likewise did Adam, under the power of divine inspiration and revelation, become the founder of a higher type of mankind and the herald of an advancing civilization. (2) Apam anp Prenisroric Man. The rationalist scoffs at the Mosaic cosmogony as unscientific. However, its profound truth certainly attests its claim to inspiration. The antiquity of mankind is a most fascinating problem. It has been given new interest by recent 36 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. discoveries of human relics in Europe of very great age, and by the fact that the latest conclusions of scientists find the human race much older than the Adam of Genesis. It is a well-established fact that early representa- tives of the human family inhabited Europe in times contemporary with the mammoth and other great mammals, long since extinct. Obermaier presents some very interesting conclusions of his investigations into the presence of man in central Europe during Quater- nary times (Smithsonian Report, 1906). He de- scribes the discovery of numerous archeological and skeletal remains in many places in Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, and Germany. The glacial period in Europe is divided by Obermaier in the following chronological order: 1. Glacial epoch, (a) Interglacial period. 2. Glacial epoch, (b) Interglacial period. 3. Glacial epoch, (c) Interglacial period. Warm era, Chelleen culture. Cool era, Achelleen culture. 4. Glacial epoch, Mousterian culture. Post-glacial time, (a) Solutrean culture. (b) Magdalenian culture. There were two great centers of glaciation in Europe, one in the Alps, and the other in the north ; and from these centers vast ice sheets spread out over the greater part of Europe during four different periods, consituting four glacial epochs. North Amer- ica seems to have passed through similar epochs of glaciation. 37 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Obermaier says: “The Quaternary archeological deposits of Austria-Hungary are divided into two large groups, namely, those which occur in the loess which covers a great portion of the surface of the empire, and those which are found in caves. ‘Those which are found in caves are divided into two classes, one, the more ancient, belonging to the lower layers of the cavern deposits and characterized by only the lower-paleolithic implements of a very primitive type —the other, distinguished by the presence of flint implements of definite and much varied forms, as well as by bone implements, and belonging to the more recent Magdalenian culture. “The industry represented in the articles found in the loess is typically Solutrean and belongs chrono- logically between the two groups found in the caves. This fact has been established by stratigraphic ob- servations, particularly in western Europe, and is supported by the clear separation between the objects of the cave and those found in the loess, even where such deposits existed in immediate vicinity.” Obermaier assigns the relics of man which were found in the cavern Sipka, in Moravia, consisting of 3,000 implements, together with a piece of human lower jaw, to the Third Interglacial period. They were scattered among the bones of eleven arctic- alpine species of animals. He declares there is no doubt this lower jaw belongs to the layer in which it was found, and is the most ancient human bone from the Quaternary era in Austria. He also assigns the human relies found at Taubach, Germany, to the 38 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. Third Interglacial period. The base of the deposit found in this locality was formed of sand and gravel, which were partly glacial in their origin. Above this was a layer of tufas, which contained in its lower part the remains of animals contemporary with Ele- phas antiquus and Rhinoceros Mercki—warm climate fauna. Here, at a depth of sixteen feet, the tooth of a child was found, together with implements, broken and burned bones, and fireplaces. The upper layers of the deposit showed fauna of a cold climate, the mammoth and hairy rhinoceros—but no traces of man. The caves of Freudenthal and Kesserloch, in Switzerland, have yielded many interesting relics of ancient men. It has been demonstrated, however, that man did not appear in that country until long after the maximum stage of the Fourth Glacial epoch. They are Solutrean or Magdalenian in character. Six other deposits found in Austria-Hungary, and one in Germany, are unquestionably Quaternary, and are assigned to the Fourth Glacial epoch, or to Post- Glacial times. However, as to man in America there appears to be no unequivocal evidence that man ap- peared in North America during the Glacial epochs. He seems to have made his appearance at the close of the last Glacial epoch, during the period of glacier decline and flooded streams. European man is vastly older than American man, but the geologist is unable to fix the date of his appearance in the world, even approximately, owing to the utter lack of reliable data. The year of the men of Sipka and Taubach, who lived between the Third and Fourth Glacial 39 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. epochs, is buried in the darkness and mystery of antiquity. The human remains found in Sussex, England, in 1911, belonged without question to early Pleistocene times, and near enough to Pliocene times to render it certain that the immediate ancestry of that ancient individual lived during the pliocene era. The weapons and implements of this man of the Pleistocene era are known as the Chelleen type of culture. The scientific investigators have, therefore, as- signed to man a far greater antiquity than is assigned to Adam in the Book of Genesis. But, let us remem- ber, the antiquity and the social status and the origin of the pre-Adamite are not problems of Genesis. Genesis takes up the story of human life with the advent of Adam into the world. This conclusion concerning the antiquity of the human race, which places the first man in the world tens of thousands of years before Adam, should not appall the lover of the Bible, however. No, do not be alarmed! Remember, facts must stand, though former interpretations of the Bible have to be aban- doned. It seems certain, in fact, that the true in- terpretation of Genesis on this subject has been over- looked. It should be remembered also that the ques- tion of human antiquity, with many other questions arising in the Scriptures, lies wholly outside the circle of divine inspiration within the Scriptures as Christ and Saint Paul have defined it. The genealogy of man goes back in Genesis to Adam—about 7,500 years, according to the Septu- 40 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. agint. But it does not carry us back to the man of Sipka, or Taubach, or Sussex, of the Third Inter- glacial epoch. It seems evident, therefore, that the genealogy of man found in the Bible does not, and probably was not designed to, carry us back to the days of the first man of the human family. But why should Moses give the Hebrews a gene- alogy back only to Adam, and not onward into the past of the first man of the earth? The Hebrews looked back to Abraham as the founder of the Hebrew nation, and to Shem as the founder of the branch of the human family from which Abraham descended, and back to Adam as their earliest known ancestor. But more than this, Moses pointed to Adam as the _ founder of a higher type of mankind. A new era had been reached in the history of earthly life. Mankind had lived among the creatures of the earth, but not as a conqueror, and not as exer- cising dominion, and not as rising superior to the law of natural selection. A higher type of human life was now to appear. The pre-Adamite bears evidence of having been endowed with a complex nature like men of modern times, though deficient in culture and mental and moral illumination. The men of Sipka and Taubach and Sussex and Heidelburg were like the members of many wild tribes of modern times, no doubt, and had similar social and religious customs, and used similar implements and weapons. But the higher qualities of a moral and religious nature espe- cially had not reached high development. The pre- Adamite was not capable of the highest moral or re- 41 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. ligious culture without the aid of divine revelation and the stimulus of divine inspiration. The pre-Adamites had received no revelation from God. They had not received the impulse of divine inspiration. They worshiped, if at all, according to conscience. While they lived in righteousness or sin, they had no revelation of the character of sin or its penalties from God, nor had they any revelation of the merit of virtue. They were like the wild tribes of the present day in this respect. They had not been illumined by divine inspiration or revelation. They had no revelation of a Redeemer. Civilization bad not yet dawned. But now a time comes when man shall enter a higher plane of life. This new era in human life and history was to be characterized by the appear- ance of a new man of higher type. “God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” The new man was, therefore, “made'in the image of God.” Like God, man was to exercise dominion, he was to enter the region of higher intelligence, he was to make grander achievements, he was to have knowledge and illumina- tion that were divine, and he was to have a deeper religious experience. The new man was to occupy a station above the supremacy of natural selection. He was to be a conqueror, and exercise dominion and control over the forces of nature, and the resources A2 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. of the world. The new man was to enter a realm where he would have communion with God. It was a station in which he would be imbued with God’s thoughts, and participate in God’s plans, and recipro- cate His love. Why did Moses trace human lineage back only to Adam? Because Adam was the founder of the higher type of man. He was the first member of the human race to be moved by divine inspiration. He was the first to receive divine revelation. Adam was the first man of the race to receive the promise of a Redeemer. Moses, therefore, very properly traced the Hebrew lineage back only to Adam. He was their progenitor. God established in Adam a line- age through which descended Shem, Abraham, the Hebrew nation, and Jesus Christ—a lineage through which divine inspiration and revelation should be given the entire human family, and have their con- summation in Christ and His gospel. Moses, there- fore, carried their thought back, not to man of the Third Interglacial period, in whom the Hebrews had no interest, but to Adam, their noble ancestor, and to God, whom they ought to worship. (3) Tue Origin or Earruty Lire. Herbert Spencer defined life as being “the defi- nite combination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with external co-existences and sequences, the degree of life varying with the degree of correspondence.” Life was also regarded by him as the product of 43 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. ‘ evolution. Moreover, he defined evolution as “an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion, during which the matter passes from an in- definite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation.” Just so. And thus the scientist and philosopher juggles with words, and ‘“‘darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge.” He declared that “it is impossible by the laws of thought to conceive of matter becoming non-existent, or to conceive it coming into existence.” Spencer, therefore, holds to the view that matter is eternal and had no beginning of existence. We may admit that matter is as eternal as God. We may agree with Spencer as to “the existence of an unknowable Power (unknowable in essence) of knowable likenesses and differences among the manifestations of that Power— as ego and non-ego, or mind and matter.” But we prefer the Biblical explanation of the origin of earthly life rather than the explanation offered by Spencer. He seems to exclude God from creation, but sees in evolution the origin of earthly life. “The absolute beginning of organic life on the globe I distinctly deny,” said Spencer. ‘The affirmation of universal evolution is itself the negation of an absolute com- mencement of anything. Construed in terms of evo- lution, every kind of being is conceived as a product of modifications, wrought by insensible gradations on a pre-existing kind of being.” So the materials of all organic life were so small, and consisted of so many parts, and were so widely diffused, and came 44: COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. together so slowly and after so many modifications— that there was no beginning at all! Here is philos- ophy gone to seed! But organic life, as such, had a beginning in this world. We like the words of Genesis, which declare, “God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures—and, Let the earth bring forth liv- ing creatures after their kind.” These words seem to explain the beginning of organic life more scien- tifically than do the words, “The joining of stuff into a lump, then the equal unjoining and sending out of movement from it, the making stuff pass from a no- sort-of unstickiness into some-sort-of holding-together- ness, while the movement not sent out undergoes a like change of no-sort-of keeping-togetherness into some-sort-of sticking.’ If we recognize and admit the eternity of matter, we do not thereby deny God’s supremacy over nature. It is the wisdom and power and purpose of God, not of mere matter, that we find exhibited in nature. Argyll, in “Unity of Nature,” declares: “Let us not forget that life, as we know it here below, is the antecedent or the cause of organization, and not its product; and that the peculiar combinations of matter which are the homes or abodes of life are prepared and shaped under the control and guidance of that mysterious power which we know as vitality; and that no discovery of science has ever been able to reduce it to a lower level, or to identify it with any purely material force.”’ “We never see the phenomena of life dissociated 45 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. from organization. Yet the profoundest physiolo- gists have come to the conclusion that organization is not the cause of life, but, on the contrary, life is the cause of organization—life being something, a force of some kind, by whatever name we may call it, which precedes organization and fashions it and builds it up. This was the conclusion come to by the great anatomist Hunter, and it is the conclusion endorsed in our own day by such men as Dr. Carpenter and Professor Huxley.” “Science has cast no light on the ultimate nature of life. But whatever it be, it has evidently funda- mental elements which are the same throughout the whole circle of the organic world.” Life is, therefore, something apart from the cell. It existed before the cell. Huxley, in “Lay Sermons,” declared: “The chemist regards chemical change in a body as the effect of the action of something ex- ternal to the body changed. A chemical compound, once formed, would persist forever if no alteration took place in the surrounding conditions. “But to the student of life the aspect of nature is reversed. Here incessant and, so far as we know, spontaneous change is the rule, while rest is the ex- ception. Living things have no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium.” Matter, therefore, is inert. It is incapable of effecting change in itself. But the living thing has no inertia, and is capable of originating activity. Hunter, Carpenter, Argyll, and Huxley unite, there- fore, in the opinion that if Spencer’s idea that organic 46 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. life had no beginning because it has come down to us after evolutions that have been eternal in their operations, be accepted, still, life is something apart from matter and something apart from the cell. Life it was which effected the organization of the cell in all the eternal succession of cells. This is the teaching of Scripture. Life effected the organization of the first organic cells in the his- tory of this world—a link in the eternal chain of organic life in the universe—and that life we call God. Moreover, if organic life exists on the planet Mars, or on any of the distant worlds, such organic life constitutes other links in the eternal succession of organic life in the universe. Genesis recognizes three agencies in the history of earthly life: first of all is God, the ultimate Cause; next to be mentioned is environment, which was previ- ously prepared; and last to be recognized is the vital element, which was endowed with the power of repro- duction. The biologist raises no voice in objection to the second and third factors in the cosmic scheme, though efforts have been made to eliminate God from the problem. This has been attempted by declaring nature’s laws are capable of explaining their own existence, and that the chemical elements possess in themselves the promise and potency of all earthly life and its activities. The materialistic biologist, however, has found his position untenable. Tyndall and Pasteur and Liebig have completely shattered the hypothesis of spon- taneous generation, and Tyndall has declared, ““The AT THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. true man of science will frankly admit his inability to point to any experimental proof that life can be developed, save from demonstrable antecedent life.” Professor Dastre, in a fine article on “The Life of Matter,” in the Smithsonian Report of 1906, says, “Never up to this time has there been formed a single particle of living matter, except by the inter- vention of a pre-existing organism.” Biology has been utterly unable to discover any secondary cause which is adequate to produce even the humblest form of life from inorganic, lifeless matter. Did earthly life have a beginning? Geology pro- vides an answer. Louis Agassiz declared: “The un- stratified rocks are the oldest, and they contain no traces of the remains of either plants or animals. They certainly furnish evidence of a time when the world was not inhabited, at least by any forms of life known to science. A study of geology compels us to admit every form of life known to that science had a beginning.” It is the opinion of the scientific world that the incandescent sun is without one living atom within its stupendous fiery bulk. It is also the opinion of the scientific world that the moon—arid, atmosphereless, arctic in temperature—is lifeless. It is also the conclusion of the scientific world that the earth, which has passed from the incandescent stage onward through some of the lunar stages, passed like- wise through a long period of lifelessness. Earthly life had a beginning. Whence came this earthly life? Charles Darwin, in his “Origin of Species,’ expresses the opinion, “I 48 COSMOGONY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. believe that animals are descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.” He further declares, “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms, or in one; and that while this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms, most beautiful and most wonderful, have been and are being evolved.” On this much mooted question Professor J. S. Mill completes the testimony of science concerning earthly life when he says, “If the universe had a beginning, by the very conditions of the case, its beginning was supernatural; for the laws of nature can not account for their own origin.” Science thus frankly admits the origin of earthly life was supernatural; and in this, science fully agrees with the teaching of Genesis. III. PROPHECY FULFILLED ATTESTS DIVINE INSPIRATION. Tue divine inspiration of the Bible and its claim to acceptance by the civilized world are attested by the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies. The human mind, unaided, has no power of prescience. Our predictions are always such as are based upon well-known facts or principles, and are most likely to occur. But many of the prophecies of the Bible were concerning events in themselves most unlikely to occur. ‘They were often uttered when nothing in the past or present conditions made such an event probable. In many instances, prophecies foretold events centuries before their fulfillment. | The Bible contains some startling prophecies, and there have been some striking fulfillments. The first recorded prediction was that in which God foretold the bruising of the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman. This referred to the triumph of truth over error by the power of the Redeemer. Four thousand years elapsed before He came. Why this long delay? That prophecy might be employed as a proof of His divinity and the divine origin of Christianity. Dur- ing this long period God would have ample time to found a nation to become the custodians of divine 50 PROPHECY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. revelations and evangelists of mankind. Prophets could then foretell events of a personal, local, or national character, and with ages before their ful- fillment. Inspired writers could record important events and principles belonging to the divine system of redemption in literary form as a means of instruc- tion. In this way religious truth has been revealed and preserved, and given evidence of genuineness. The Bible contains interesting prophecies concern- ing Christ, and also Ishmael, Babylon, Egypt, and Jerusalem. We are familiar with their fulfillment. But notice some predictions that are unmistakably accomplished before our own eyes. Moses in his part- ing address (1450 B. C.) to the Hebrews made a remarkable prophecy: “The Lord shall scatter thee among all people from one end of the earth unto the other, and among those nations thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest. And thou shalt become an astonishment, and a prov- erb, and a by-word among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee away. And the generation to come, and the foreigner that shall come from a far Jand shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses wherewith the Lord hath made it sick; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth—even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? Then man shall say, “Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord.’ ” Moses spoke these words just before they entered Canaan in triumph. This prediction, made so long 51 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. ago, has been conspicuously fulfilled, and is fulfilled to-day. Literature contains no greater tragedy than that found in Jewish history for the past nineteen hundred years. The prophets describe the complete- ness and continuance of their dispersion, their perse- cutions and sufferings, their helplessness and spiritual blindness and avaricious tendencies and indestructi- bility as a distinct people. They have been perse- cuted in all European countries, by the Moslems, and Church of Rome. They have outlived their ancient enemies. The existence of the Jewish people to-day— a people without a prince or country, yet distinct and non-assimilating—is a perpetual miracle. This trag- edy of Jewish history which we see enacted before our eyes, and which was predicted by the ancient prophets, is a living demonstration of the divine inspiration of those men of God. Prophecy has another interesting fulfillment in these times. About twenty-five centuries ago Daniel the prophet recorded, “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Also another prediction, “Many shall be purified and made white and tried.” Two great movements of reform were predicted here. One was a great intellectual awaken- ing, the other a great moral quickening. Moreover, the date was fixed by the prophet when these things should be fulfilled. He said, “And from the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomina- tion that maketh desolate set up, shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.’ A day is regarded here as the symbol of a year. Consider well the next 52 PROPHECY ATTESTS INSPIRATION. statement, “Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred five and thirty days.” A mighty mental awakening should begin in the world 1,290 years after the ending of the daily sacrifice, 135 A. D., and 1,335 years from that date of the ending of the Jewish polity the world would witness a great religious awakening. Twelve hundred and ninety years after the dispersion of the Jews, about 1425 A. D., the Dark Ages came to an end and the Renaissance began. Thirteen hundred and thirty-five years after the dispersion of the Jews, about 1400 A. D., protests against religious corruption in the mother Church began to be heard. They culminated in 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door—and the Reformation was launched. Thus the Renaissance and the Reformation, the two great turning points in modern history, when the era of science and discovery and invention and when Protestantism was born, were clearly foretold in an- cient prophecy. 53 | IV. INSPIRATION ATTESTED BY BIBLE’S TRIUMPHS. Tux Bible lives after nineteen hundred years of per- secution and criticism. Why? Because its moral and religious tenets are founded in truth. It demands holiness of heart and righteousness of conduct. It recognizes sin, and provides a remedy which is ade- quate. It proclaims the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice. It deals candidly with history, and presents the facts, whether honorable or dishon- orable, in the records of Biblical characters. The Bible offers us most consistent and satisfactory ex- planations of the origin of the world and of mankind, the rule of human duty, and the destiny of man that are to be found in the literature of any nation. Its transcendent morals are what we would expect to find in a volume given by divine inspiration. The ethical and religious teachings of the Bible work out beautifully in human experience. The Bible appeals to the religious element in human nature, and satisfies it with its sublime conception of God and of the dignity of the human soul; it satisfies it with the offer of pardon and regeneration. It appeals to the reason and satisfies it with its truthful refer- ences to nature and history, and its lofty motive in presenting the plan of redemption. It appeals to 54 BIBLE-TRIUMPHS ATTEST INSPIRATION. the ethical nature and satisfies it by giving man the true rule of duty, by promoting personal righteous- ness, public security, and the ideal home life. It appeals to the physical nature and satisfies it, for it teaches temperance as well as diligence. It appeals to the emotional and esthetic elements in human na- ture and satisfies them, for Christianity is the religion of life and of song and of beauty, expressed in per- sonal conduct and worship and in Christian art. The Bible is supreme among the sacred books of the na- tions to-day because it demands holiness of heart and life, and punishes sin, both of which conscience and reason approve. Heathendom has its sacred books. The sacred books of the Hindoos and Chinese and of the God- worshiping Moslems are entitled to credit for much that is praiseworthy among them in moral and re- ligious life. But they are also responsible for certain crying evils. Under the teaching of Confucius the four hundred millions of China have remained sta- tionary for two thousand years. Under the teaching of Buddha the three hundred millions of India have groped in superstition and the curse of caste for twenty centuries. Under the teaching of Mohammed the two hundred millions of Moslems have warred against Christendom in a cruel and bootless warfare for twelve hundred years. Under the teaching of Plato and Socrates the Grecian and Roman Empires fell into decay and passed away. Under the teaching of Papal Rome, which obscures Christ and closes the Bible to its people, the Spanish-American States have 55 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. groveled in vice and superstition for four hundred years. While under the teaching of Protestantism, with its open Bible, the sinning and suffering race is reaching better moral and material conditions. The Bible has triumphed in the passing of old idolatries, war, intemperance, polygamy, and the spread of lib- erty and altruism. So its inspiration is attested by its living triumphs. The Bible triumphs over its enemies. Twenty- five years ago Col. Robert Ingersoll declared the Bible was an exploded Book. He said its sales were falling off rapidly, and that within ten years it would not be read any more. Since that day, however, six Bible houses have been established, and the sale of Bibles has more than quadrupled. Since 1904 the British and Foreign Bible Society has published two hundred and twenty-two million copies of the Scrip- tures. They have all been sold. The American Bible Society has issued over eighty-seven million copies of the Bible. It is at present the best seller, ten to one, of any book in the markets of the world. It is because the world thinks. It is because the world prays. It is because the world finds in the Bible something that meets the needs of the soul. The Bible is published in five hundred and twenty- six languages and dialects. It reaches nine-tenths of the human race. The rationalist may well con- sider the words of Professor Huxley in his great lec- ture on “Science and Education: ‘I have always been strongly in favor of secular education—education without theology; but I must confess I have been 56 BIBLE-TRIUMPHS ATTEST INSPIRATION. seriously perplexed to know by what practical meas- ures the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, is to be kept up in the present chaotic state of opinion on these matters without the use of the Bible. “Take the Bible as a whole, make the severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate for short- comings and positive errors, and there still remains in this old literature a vast residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. And then, consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this Book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary form; and finally, it forbids the veriest hind to be ignorant of other countries and civilizations of a great past. “By the study of what other book could children be so much humanized, and made to feel each figure in that great, historical procession fills, like them- selves, but a momentary space in the interval between two eternities, and earns the curses or blessings of all time, according to their efforts to do good and hate evil. I am in favor of reading the Bible, with such grammatical, historical, and geographical explanations as may be needful; and with the rigid exclusion of any further theological teaching than that contained in the Bible itself.” This was the tribute Professor Huxley paid to the Scriptures when defending their use in the public schools. He perceived a Divine 57 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Presence and authority in that Book which awakens the recognition of a Supreme Being back of duty and conscience, enforcing their demands. He saw in the Bible a force and power prompting young and old to the best life, humanizing children, and keeping alive among men the religious feeling which is the basis of the purest conduct and noblest character. The Bible has but one mission and purpose in the world. It is to uplift mankind. It is to turn the sinner from the error of his ways; and to change the environment of men from superstition, ignorance, and vice to the Christian environment of godliness, knowledge, and virtue. Has the Bible done this? Only the ignorant or prejudiced will deny it. The Bible has penetrated savage lands and given to benighted minds moral and religious truth to awaken them. It has enriched their lives by giving them a broader field of thought. It has transformed barbarous and cannibal tribes into sane and upright and industrious people. The Bible has aroused men to greater charity and humanity. It has moved men to found hospitals for the afflicted, to endow homes for the orphan and the aged, and to establish retreats for the unfortunate. It has been the inspiring force stirring great reforms in society. It is the evangel of liberty and education and human redemption. Has the Bible done you any good? It has made it possible for you to be born of Christian parents— the highest type of parents, and in a Christian home— the highest type of home, and amid Christian influ- 58 BIBLE-TRIUMPHS ATTEST INSPIRATION. ences—the best environment the world knows. It has placed about you restraints and safeguards to develop in you the best character, the highest usefulness, and the noblest citizenship. The Bible has made it pos- sible for you to obtain a liberal education in schools where only the best mental training was afforded, and by teachers of the highest mental and moral equip- ment and character. The Bible has united a vast body of humanity into a common brotherhood whose avowed purpose is to keep the moral law, to recognize the brotherhood of man, and to transform all society into Christian society. The Bible has given to mankind a gospel which has been set to music, and the hymnology of Chris- tianity comprises the noblest thought, the sweetest harmonies, and the profoundest moving power ever produced by tongue or pen. And so the Word of God is leading the millions into the life of holiness of heart, uprightness of conduct, fruitfulness of en- deavor, and perennial happiness. It places upon modern civilization the crown of love and peace. 59 V. IS JESUS GOD? 1. Profane history testifies Jesus was not a myth. 2. Testimony of God in prophecy witnesses Christ’s divinity. 8. Fulfillment of prophecy a proof of Christ’s divinity. 4. Testimony of John the Baptist. Jesus declared His divinity. His enemies understood Him to claim divinity. His friends asserted His divinity. He was crucified for claiming divinity. 9. His divinity attested by miracles. 10. Miracles facts of sacred and profane history. 11. Christ’s divinity attested by His religious teachings. 12. His divinity attested by His ethical teachings. 13. His divinity proven by Christian experience. oe ae aa (1) Was tHe Curist or THE New TesTaMENT A CoMPposITE oF OrIENTAL Myrus, or Was He THE Divine Son or Gop. Was Jesus a real character of history? The coming of Jesus into the world was not unlooked for. It is a fact of history that not only in Palestine, but throughout the entire East, was entertained the ex- pectation of the coming of a universal Prince and Re- 60 IS JESUS GOD? former (Suetonius, Vesp. 4; Tacitus, Hist. V., 13). The Hebrew prophets and Roman historians agreed in announcing the coming of a great King. Christ was that King. Tacitus, in language which proves his hostility to Christianity, related that Nero “in- flicted the severest punishments upon a class of people held in abhorrence for their crimes, called Christians. The Founder of that name was Christ, who suffered death in the reign of Tiberius, under the procurator, Pontius Pilate. This destructive superstition thus checked for a while, broke out again, and spread not only over Judea, where the evil originated, but through Rome also.” Pliny was one of the most elegant writers of his time. He said, in a letter to the Emperor of Rome about thirty years after the death of Christ, speaking of the persecutions he was inflicting on Christians in his province: ‘They de- clared the whole of their guilt or error was that they were accustomed to meet on a stated day before it was light, and to sing in concert a hymn of praise to Christ as God, and to bind themselves by a sacred obliga- tion, not for the perpetration of any wickedness, but that they would not commit any theft, robbery, or adultery, nor violate their words, or refuse when called upon to restore anything committed to their trust. After this they were accustomed to separate and then to reassemble to eat in common a harmless meal.” These passages prove by the best possible historical evidences the great facts of the existence, time, and death of Christ; also the sufferings, the purity, the religious worship, the belief in Christ’s 61 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Deity, and the sacramental meal of the ancient Church. Profane history thus teaches us that Jesus Christ was not a composite of Oriental myths, but was a real Person and, moreover, that He was be- lieved divine by the earliest Church. (2) Tue Testimony or Gop 1n PRropuHeEcy. Is Jesus God? If He is, it is not a fact made known by inductive science. If He is, that fact must be made known to mankind by the testimony of God Himself, and the testimony of Jesus. God has testi- fied in prophecy. Jesus has testified by His words and His works. God has testified of Christ in prophecy. “No prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.” This is the Biblical announcement of divine inspira- tion. Prophecy by divine inspiration is God’s testi- mony. The fulfillment of such prophecy is the verifi- cation of God’s testimony. Christ was Deified by the ancient prophets in many of their prophecies. Those prophecies were fulfilled in Christ. Hence, God testified by those prophecies that Jesus is God. It has been asserted by rationalists that Christ was a composite of Oriental myths, a Man simply Deified by His deluded disciples. We shall find, how- ever, that Christ was Deified hundreds of years before His advent by the Hebrew prophets. The Christ, and Christianity which He founded, were the con- summation of Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament contains several startling 62 IS JESUS GOD? prophecies concerning Christ. His coming was one of the earliest promises of God to Adam and Eve, the founders of a higher type of mankind, and the first to receive divine inspiration and revelation and the promise of a Redeemer. God’s words, addressed to the serpent (a symbol of Satan), “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel,” were the prediction of a coming vic- torious Redeemer of the fallen race. Gen. 22: 18—“And in thy seed shall all the na- tions of the earth be blessed.” This promise of God to Abraham is fulfilled in Christ. Gen. 49: 10—‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.” This prophecy was fulfilled 1,872 years after it was made, when Jesus, the only legal claimant to the scepter of Judah, died without issue. The Romans already held dominion over the Jews, and there remained after Jesus’ death no legal heir, in a temporal sense, to the throne of David. The tem- poral dynasty of David was ended. However, Christ, who sits on the throne of David in a spiritual sense, is gathering the people of all nations unto Him in loving obedience. Isaiah 7: 14—“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” AI- lusion is here made to the miraculous birth of Jesus, as recognized by Matthew and Luke. The miraculous 63 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. conception is a Biblical fact founded upon the in- spired testimony of Isaiah, Matthew, and Luke. Daniel 9: 25—‘‘Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks.” From the issuing of that command to the coming of Messiah would be 483 years. Messiah came or was manifested to Israel at His baptism. After that He was to “confirm the covenant with many” for “one week,’ of seven years. The covenant was confirmed by His ministry and the call of the Gentiles. This one week of seven years completed the seventy prophetic weeks, or 490 years, from the issuing of the commandment. In “the midst” of that last week, however, as Daniel says, in the middle year of the seven, being the four hundred and eighty-sev- enth year from the commandment, Messiah “caused the oblation and sacrifices to cease,’ when He was “cut off’ in death on the cross. The prophecy of Daniel was literally fulfilled. Micah 5:2—‘“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting.” The world well knows it as a fact of history that Christ was born in Bethlehem. Isaiah 9:6—‘For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonder- ful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 64 IS JESUS GOD? Father, the Prince of Peace.” The Christian world points to this prophecy as an unmistakable allusion to Jesus Christ, in which His essential Deity is recognized and the character of His Kingdom. Isaiah 35: 5—“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” The prophets saw the Messiah as a worker of miracles. Isaiah 1: 6—“I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheek to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” This allusion to the suffering of Jesus was fulfilled, as the Gospel of Matthew declares. (Matt. 26: 27.) Psalm 22:18—“They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture.” Psalm 69: 21—“They gave Me also gall for meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.” Psalm 109: 25—“I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon Me they shook their heads.” These prophecies had their fulfillment at the crucifixion of Jesus. Psalm 22: 16—‘“For dogs have compassed Me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and feet.’”’ The hands and feet of Jesus were pierced on Calvary. Psalm 16:9, 10—“My flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.” The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is here foretold. . 65 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Psalm 68: 18—‘Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” The ascension of the risen Messiah was foreseen by the prophet. The Messianic prophecies reached their climax in Isaiah. Seven hundred years before its fulfillment that prophet, under the power of divine inspiration, described the details of the passion of Christ. The fifty-second and fifty-third chapters of Isaiah must stand forever as irrefutable witnesses of the Deity of Jesus and the efficiency of His atonement for sin. (3) Propuecy aNp FULFILLMENT. Isaiah 52:13—‘‘Behold, My servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.” My servant. Matt. 20: 27—“Whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Shall deal wisély (prosper). John 12:19—‘‘The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Behold how ye prevail nothing; lo, the world is gone after Him.” | Shall be exalted and lifted up. Matt. 12: 41, 42— “For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south . . . came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” 66 IS JESUS GOD? Heb. 3: 5—“For He hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honor than the house.” Mark 2: 28—“The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” ; John 10: 30—“I and My Father are One.” Isaiah 52: 14—“Like as many were astonished at Thee (His visage was so marred, more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men). Isaiah 52: 15—“So shall He startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at Him, for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.” His visage was so marred. Matt. 27:28-30— “And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe. And they platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head—and they spat upon Him, and took the reed and smote Him on the head.” Shall He startle many nations. 1 Cor. 1:23— “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto Gentiles foolishness.” Kings shall shut their mouths at Him. Luke 23: 13-15—“And Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people, and said unto them, Ye brought unto me this Man as one that perverteth the people; and behold, I, having examined Him before you, found no fault in this Man, no, nor yet Herod: for he sent Him back unto us.” That which had not been told them shall they see : and understand. Mark 15:10—‘‘For He perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered Him up.” 67 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Isaiah 53: 1—‘‘Who hath believed our message? and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been re- vealed?” Who hath believed our message? John 12: 37— “But though He had done so many signs before them, yet believed they not on Him.” Isaiah 53: 2—‘‘For He grew up before them as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness. A root out of a dry ground. John 1: 46—“And Nathanael said unto him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” No form nor comeliness. Phil. 2: 7—‘‘But emp- tied Himself, taking the form of a servant.” Isaiah 53:3—‘‘He was despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; as one from whom men hide their face He was de- spised; and we esteemed Him not.” — Despised and rejected. Luke 23: 18—‘“But they cried out all together, Away with this Man, and re- lease unto us Barabbas.”’ A Man of sorrows. John 11: 35—‘‘Jesus wept.” Hide their face. Mark 14: 50—‘‘And they all left Him and fled.” Mark 14: 72—“‘And Peter called to mind the word, how that Jesus had said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And when he thought thereon he wept.” We esteemed Him not. Luke 23: 36—“And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offer- ing Him vinegar.” Isaiah 53: 4—‘“Surely He hath borne our griefs 68 IS JESUS GOD? and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” Borne our griefs. 1 Tim. 2: 5—“For there is one God, one Mediator also between God and men, Him- self man, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a Ransom for all.” Stricken, smitten of God. John 18: 14—“Now Caiaphas was he that gave counsel to the J ews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.” Isaiah 53:5—“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him: and with His stripes we are healed.” Wounded for our transgressions. Rom. 5:6— “For while we were yet weak in due season Christ died for the ungodly.” Chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Rom. 5:8, 9—“But God commandeth His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more then, being justified by His blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” With His stripes we are healed. 1 Peter 2: 24— “Who His Ownself bare our sins in His body on the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we were healed.” Isaiah 53: 6—“‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Like sheep have gone astray. 1 Peter 2:25— 69 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. “For we were going astray like sheep; but now are returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.” On Him the iniquity of us all. 1 John 2:2— “And He is the Propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” Isaiah 53:7—“‘He was oppressed, yet when He was afflicted He opened not His mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter and as a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” He opened not His mouth. Matt. 27: 12-14-- “And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest Thou not how many things they witness against Thee? And He gave him no answer.” Isaiah 53:8—‘By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due?”’ By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Matt. 26:14—‘“Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priests and said, What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? And they weighed him out thirty pieces of silver.” Matt. 26:59—‘‘Now the chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus, that they might put Him to death.” 1 Cor. 15:3—“‘For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Isaiah 53: 9—“‘And they made His grave with the 70 IS JESUS GOD? wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.” Made His grave with the wicked. Matt. 27: 38— “Then there were crucified with Him two robbers, one on the right hand and one on the left.” And with a rich man—Matt. 27: 5'7-60—And when even was come there came a rich man of Ari- mathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: this man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. . . . And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb.” No violence—neither any deceit. John 8: 46— “Which of you convinceth Me of any sin?” 1 Peter 2:22—“Who did not sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, threatened not.” Isaiah 53: 10—“Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief; when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hands.” Pleased Jehovah to bruise Him. Rom. 3: 25— “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteous- ness for the remission of sins that are past, through ‘the forbearance of God.” His soul an offering for sin. Gal. 3: 13—“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” 71 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Shall prosper in His hands. Acts 2: 41—‘Then they that received His word were baptized; and there were added unto them that day about three thousand souls.” Isaiah 53:11—‘He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of Him- self shall My righteous servant justify many: and He shall bear their iniquities.” Shall be satisfied. Rom. 8: 1—‘‘There is there- fore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Justify many. 2 Cor. 5:17-——“If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” He shall bear their iniquities. 2 Cor. 5: 18— “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him- self, not reckoning unto them their trespasses.” Isaiah 53:12—“‘Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death; and was numbered with transgressors ; yet He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” A portion with the great—divide the spoil with the strong. Phil. 2:9, 10—‘‘Wherefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him a name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and on earth— and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Was numbered with the transgressors. Matt. 27: 44—‘And the robbers also that were crucified with Him cast upon Him the same reproach.” 72 IS JESUS GOD? Made intercession for the transgressors. Luke 23: 34—“And Jesus said, Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” (4) FurrinitMent or Propuecy a Proor or Curist’s Divinity. God has borne witness to Christ’s divinity by the word of many inspired prophets. These prophecies were fragmentary in most instances, but this is char- acteristic of Biblical prophecy. The prophecies were uttered by different persons, and in times and places widely separated. There could have been no con- spiracy among them. The prophecies thus brought together and fulfilled in Christ did not constitute a composite of Oriental myths, but a historical Divine Person, Jesus Christ. The prophecies thus fulfilled certify the divine inspiration of the prophets. They also certify the actual Deity to Jesus Christ. More- over, the prophecies of John the Baptist complete the testimony of God concerning the divinity of Jesus. (5) Tue Testimony or JoHNn THE Baptist. The Deity of Jesus was announced by John the Baptist. This prophet was himself the subject of inspired prophecy, as was also the message he de- livered. His utterances concerning Christ were in- spired, for we read, “The word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” He declared Jesus to be the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” 73 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. He prophesied of Christ, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” He also proclaimed Christ’s office of Divine Judge when he said, ““Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with un- quenchable fire.” John did not mistake the true import of Old Testa- ment prophecies, but recognized in Christ a true God- man. (6) Jesus Decrarep His Divinity. Is Jesus God? If He is, He certainly would claim divinity. He did make that claim. There can be no mistake about this. What did Jesus mean when He said, “Before Abraham was, I am?” What im- port had His words when He said to the palsied man, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee?’ What did He mean when He declared, “I and My Father are One?” Jesus claimed the dignity and prerogatives of the Eternal God. (7) Tue OPINION OF THE JEWS. The Jews understood Jesus to lay claim to actual Deity. When Jesus said, “I and My Father are One,” the Jews took up stones to stone Him. When He asked their reason for stoning Him, they replied, “For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy, and because that Thou, being a Man, makest Thyself God.” When Jesus said to His hearers, “Before Abra- 74 IS JESUS GOD? ham was, I am,” they also took up stones to hurl at Him. He was then understood by them to claim eternity, which belongs to God. When Jesus declared the sins of the palsied man forgiven, the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘““Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Blasphemy was a sin and crime the Jews would not excuse; hence when charged with it before the Sanhedrin, Jesus could not escape their vengeance. — (8) Curist’s Friznps Assertep His Divinity. While Jesus’ enemies understood Him to claim divinity as God, it is undeniable that His friends also so understood His teachings. The Deity of Jesus at once became the great central doctrine of the gospel they preached. Nathanael voiced his profound conviction of that great truth when he said, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.” Peter declared the same conviction when he said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Martha expressed the same deep conviction, at the death of Lazarus, when she said, “I believe Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world.” The skepticism of Thomas was overcome when the risen Christ invited him to examine His hands and side. Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord, and my God.” The great truth dawned upon him, Jesus was Lord God. 75 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. (9) Curist Cruciriep ror Crarmine Divinity. The Jews conspired against Christ, accused Him, and brought about His death by crucifixion as a blas- phemer because He claimed divinity. They said to Pilate, in His trial, “We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” When the high priest questioned Jesus and urged Him to tell whether He were the Christ, the Son of God, He answered, “Thou hast said; nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, “He hath spoken blasphemy.” And when the high priest asked the opinion of the Jews concerning Jesus, they all asserted, “He is guilty of death.” (10) Divrniry or Jesus ATTEsTED By His Mirac es. Is Jesus God? If so, His deeds will attest the fact. We would expect the career of a God-man to be something moré than commonplace. If Jesus had come not working miracles, the rationalist would on that ground deny His divinity. So would we. The events of the birth and infancy and career of Jesus are what we would expect of a real God-man. Would the career of a God-man in the world be like the career of the ordinary mortal? Would His life be commonplace? Must we then be astonished, and regard as unexpected, and be ready with denials, 76 IS JESUS GOD? when the God-man performs miracles? Certainly not. We would expect Him to exercise power over the forces of nature, and walk on the sea, and command the winds, and calm the tempest. We would expect Him to heal the sick, and open blind eyes, and unstop deaf ears, cleanse the lepers, and raise the dead. Yes, we would expect Him to forgive sins, and purify hearts, and restore ruined souls. No miracles, no God-man. The rationalist scoffs at miracles as impossible under the present system of nature. He is simply assuming to know just what is possible under the present system of nature. The intelligent world de- rides his conceit. It pities his incredulity. Every- body who has given the matter intelligent thought knows that a miracle is never without a cause. That cause is divine. Its operation may be new or un- known to us. But no man should deny a thing because it is incomprehensible to him. No man should deny a thing on the ground of what he does not know about it. This, however, is the position of the rationalist. No man is competent to declare a miracle is im- possible. Some recent achievements by scientists and inventors would have been deemed miracles in ancient days. We may yet discover the divine process of healing disease. The miraculous works of Jesus were fulfillments of distinct prophecies uttered hundreds of years be- fore Jesus’ birth. Prophecy and miracles here unite in certifying Christ’s divinity. 77 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. (11) Curist’s Mrractes Facts or History. The claim that Christ performed miracles is not a mere invention of His disciples. His miracles are facts of New Testament history. They are con- firmed as historical events by profane history. Lucian, a Greek writer, the Voltaire of his day (53-117 A. D.), never called Christ an impostor, but a crucified sophist. He attributed His miracles to magic and jugglery. Celsus, who wrote about the time of Lucian, did not deny the miracles of Jesus, but, like Lucian, at- tributed them to magic. The miraculous works of Jesus, therefore, stand as events of history, both sacred and profane. (12) Divinity or Jesus Arrestep By His RELIGIOUS DoctTRINES. The sinlessness of Jesus is what we would expect of a God-man. He taught the doctrine of the redemption of sin- ners by His atonement for sin. The observance of exact justice in moral government would forbid the arbitrary discharge of the guilty from penalty. The mercy of God would suggest the pardon of the guilty. How could the guilty be pardoned while justice re- quired their punishment to preserve the majesty of the law? This may have been the question arising in all rational minds. God must, therefore, offer a sufficient warrant to all questioning minds for His offer of pardon to sinners doomed to the penalty of the law. Sin was a matter that lay between the Law- 78 IS JESUS GOD? maker and the lawbreaker. No angel or other dis- interested third party could intervene. A fine could not be paid by God to satisfy justice—as it would be no sacrifice. The guilty could not be arbitrarily pardoned. Therefore, if God would preserve the dig- nity of His broken law, and at the same time offer pardon to the guilty, God Himself must suffer in be- half of the sinner and so atone for his sin. God then would be justified in offering pardon to the sinner. (13) ONLy THe Surrerine Gop Can Aton. Human redemption rests upon the divinity of Christ. If God did not atone in the person of Christ, then every sinner must atone for his own sins. If Christ is not God, then we have no redemption. (14) Divinity Arrestep py Curist’s Eruics. The ethical teachings of Jesus are what we would expect of a God-man. They everywhere recommend themselves. He did not assail the great national evils of His day, but gave the world those moral prin- ciples and precepts, in the laws of love and the Golden Rule, which form the basis of the highest type of per- sonal character, of home life, of social intercourse, and national existence. Under the power of Christ’s teachings crying national evils are passing away— idolatry, slavery, polygamy, and intemperance; educa- tion is lifting all classes to higher planes of intelli- gence and usefulness; arbitration and peace are sup- planting war; and the human race is recognizing the brotherhood of man. 79 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Jesus teaches holiness of heart and righteousness of conduct. He everywhere places a premium upon every gentle virtue, faith, hope, love, justice, tem- perance, prudence, and fortitude. He everywhere places a ban and stigma upon every sin and vice. He inculcates the heroic virtues, courage, strength, and patriotism, under the controlling power of love. The ethical teachings of Jesus are the germs of noblest personal character and of the highest type of citizenship. (15) Divinity ATTESTED BY CurisTIAN EXPERIENCE. Jesus taught the doctrines of repentance, and faith in God, and restitution, and obedience to the moral laws. Obedience to His teachings results in pardon and regeneration, peace, and a new life to the sinner. These results constitute Christian experience—some- thing the Christian world everywhere recognizes, but something the unregenerate know nothing about. “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.” 80 VA IS PRAYER A FAILURE? Prayer and spiritual gifts. Prayer and the discipline of suffering. Prayer and natural government. Religious sphere of prayer. ee (1) Prayer aNnp SpirituaL Girts. The rationalist declares prayer is a failure. It is because he mistakes its true sphere and fails to comply with its proper conditions. Many crimes have been committed in the name of religion, and many errors have been committed in the use of prayer. The Biblical doctrine of prayer is greatly misunderstood even in this twentieth cen- tury; and the errors concerning its true sphere, as taught in many pulpits, are largely responsible for the faith-healing delusion which is sweeping over the Christian world at the present time. The theory of prayer which is prevalent to-day regards it as really a means of securing God’s miracu- lous interference in temporal and secular affairs for the attainment of results otherwise impossible. This is a most grievous error. It has its origin in the mistake of confounding the Biblical instructions for the use of miracle-working powers, called “spiritual gifts,’ with the instructions for the use of prayer P 81 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. proper. It is an unmistakable teaching of the Scrip- tures that the prophets possessed powers which were not possessed by ordinary individuals. It is also clearly taught their prophetic utterances and miracu- lous works were due to the possession of these peculiar powers by them. Soon after calling the disciples to the apostleship, Jesus endowed them with miraculous powers. This fact is clearly stated in Matt. 10:1, “And He called unto Him His twelve disciples, and gave them au- thority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases and all manner of sick- ness.” These miraculous powers are called “spiritual gifts” by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 12:1. The disciples had been called to an important mis- sion. ‘There was abundant reason for their endow- ment with spiritual gifts. Miracles were employed by the Savior as credentials attesting His claims to a divine office and divine character. They must also be employed by the apostles in establishing Chris- tianity in a heathen world. Ommnipotence was actually placed at their command. But did Christ give His disciples instruction in the use of their new powers? It would be absurd to suppose He did not. He gave them ample instruction. We find the formula for the use of spiritual gifts quite clearly defined in the New Testament and in Christ’s own words. It comprises six factors: (1) “Whatsoever ye shall ask.”" §(2) “In My name.” (3) “With fasting.” (4) “That they may believe Thou hast sent Me,” must be the sole motive. (5) “Believe that ye receive.” (6) 82 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? “And ye shall have.” It will be observed this formula differs from the formula for prayer proper. The spiritual gifts in existence in the Church in apostolic days were of two classes. To one class, called the inferior class by Saint Paul, belonged the various powers requisite to performing signs, wonders, and deeds of might. While to the other class—the superior—belonged the gifts requisite to the great work of preaching and teaching. Paul speaks of these two classes of spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. 12. He says, “God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues.” Then the apostle asks: “Are all proph- ets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” Why did Paul ask those ques- tions? It was because some Christians then sup- posed, as many do to-day, that God endows all Chris- tians with miraculous gifts and powers. Paul would save the Church from that dangerous error. In further discussion of this subject Paul plainly dis- tinguishes, in the thirteenth chapter, between the “grace of faith” and the “gift of faith.’ He ex- plicitly teaches that all Christians do possess the grace of faith, though all may not possess the gift of faith. Jesus twice sent the disciples out on missions of preaching. In the first instance, mentioned in Matt. 10, He gave them “power” to perform miraculous works. He gave them instructions for the use of 83 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. their new powers. He often chided them for not using them. We find several instances of this. When He stilled the tempest He said to them, “O ye of little faith, why are ye fearful?” They should have exercised the spiritual gifts He bestowed upon them. Here was an opportunity for them to test their powers. Another case is found in the instance of feeding the five thousand. Christ said to the disciples, “They need not depart; give ye them to eat.” But their faith wavered, and they answered, “We have here but five loaves and two fishes.” Jesus then said, “Bring them hither to Me.’ Another instance is found when Jesus appeared to the frightened dis- ciples walking on the sea. Peter sprang from the boat to walk to Jesus, but his faith failed and he began to sink. Jesus immediately rescued him, and chided him with the words, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” At another time the disciples forgot to take bread for their journey, so they “reasoned among themselves, saying, “We took no bread.’” Jesus at once chided them with the words, ‘“O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves because ye have no bread? Do ye not perceive, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” This was to show them that they possessed the miraculous power to supply the bread they lacked if they would only follow the di- vinely given formula. The disciples attempted to heal the epileptic, but failed. Jesus spoke with some 84 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? vehemence when He said to them, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you?” Jesus then healed the afflicted child. The disciples inquired of their Master why they could not cure him, and received the reply, “Because of your little faith.’ Then Jesus gave them words of instruction and encouragement in the use of their “spiritual gifts,’ when He said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be im- possible to you.” Just before His ascension into heaven Jesus gave the apostles their final commission. It is found in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Mark. They had already received miraculous powers from Him. He now ut- tered a prophecy concerning them and their imme- diate converts. ‘And these signs shall follow them that believe: in My name shall they cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” This prophecy was literally fulfilled, as the Biblical record shows. Its fulfillment was recorded as a matter of history after the signs ceased. The signs certainly ceased, for if it were not for the Biblical record we would not know from the events of to-day that the maimed, blind, deaf, insane, the leper, and the dead had ever been restored visibly and immediately by miracle. The spiritual gifts for working signs, wonders, and deeds of might belonged 85 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. to the apostolic era, and evidently disappeared with it. Christianity, once established, would win on its merits and would not need miracles as credentials attesting its divine origin and authority. Jesus gave His disciples instructions in the use of their miraculous powers. We find the apostles gave their converts instruction also concerning the signs which Jesus had predicted. The most striking ex- ample of apostolic advice on the subject is found in James 5:14-18. Saint James refers to the Prophet Elijah. He encourages them with the fact that as Elijah, a man of like passions with themselves—and who was endowed with heavenly gifts—could perform signs and wonders to confirm the divinity of his prophetic office, so they should be encouraged to claim the promise of miraculous signs, that Christianity be firmly and quickly established among the heathen. SPIRITUAL GIFTS REQUISITE. These instructions of Saint James applied to the immediate converts of the apostles, according to Christ’s words. ‘The formula given by the Lord for the use of spiritual gifts in miracle-working can be applied only by persons previously endowed with the spiritual gifts. If God has endowed any one in our own times with such spiritual gifts, he may follow the formula and perform the miracles, and even , “oreater works than these,” as Jesus promised. Do you possess such spiritual gifts? It is not a debatable question. If you possess them, your visible and im- mediate works of miracle will unmistakably prove the 86 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? fact. Note this fact also, if those spiritual gifts be lacking, you may agonize and pray until doom’s-day and utterly fail to perform a miracle. Death came to the camp-meeting of the “Come-outers” at Wood- burn, Oregon, and swept several children into eternity. They perished in spite of the prayer and agonizing and consecration and faith of those devout Christians —and why? Not because they did not ask according to the New Testament formula for miracle-working gifts, but because they totally lacked the gifts pos- sessed by the prophets and apostles. The prevalent opinion in the Church to-day, that all things are possible to the Christian by prayer if he only has enough faith, is thought to be supported by the many examples of miraculous answers to prayer recorded in the Scriptures. A critical ex- amination of these cases, however, proves every such miracle has really occurred in connection with some individual who had been endowed with certain spir- itual gifts. There is not an exception to be found in the Scriptures. Such were the petitions of the patri- archs and prophets, and of persons associated with them. Those events no doubt occupied an important place in the scheme of divine revelation. In some cases they fulfilled the promise of God to the founder of Israel; in other instances they attested the divine mission of God’s chosen servants. Such were the prayers of Jacob, Hagar, Hezekiah, Hannah, Moses, David, and others. Those wonders belonged in every case to times characterized by visions and dreams from God, the visitation of angels, prophetic utter- 87 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. ances, and works of visible and immediate miracle— times which have no parallel in our own era. Such answers to prayer can not be cited as proving “all things” are possible to the Christian through prayer. The miraculous results were all wrought through the agency and office of some person endowed with prophetic or spiritual gifts. But can not God per- form miracles in response to prayer apart from spir- itual gifts? He certainly can; but the miracles re- corded in Scripture do not warrant us in expecting Him to do so. Such miracles, if ever wrought, are extra-Biblical! Spiritual gifts and miracles wrought through their agency have their proper place in the plan of salva- tion. Prayer also has its proper place and sphere. The formula for the use of miracle-working gifts must not be confounded, however, with the formula for prayer proper. The subject of spiritual gifts seems to have been overlooked completely in the many dis- cussions of the vexed problem of prayer and miracles. Let it be remembered, therefore, that miracles in Bib- lical times were not performed apart from some ap- propriate spiritual gift, bestowed for the purpose by the Holy Spirit, and the errors of faith-healing will in great measure disappear. Let the Christian discrim- inate between the formula for the use of spiritual gifts in miracle-working and the formula for acceptable prayer, and the whole subject will be shorn of its difficulties. 88 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? SIN AND SUFFERING. The first mistake of the faith-healer is failure to perceive that some “spiritual gift’ is first requisite before miracles can be performed. The second error consists of mistaking the formula given by Christ for miracle-working, for the Bible instructions on prayer proper. The third error consists of sup- posing the grand mission of Christ and of the Church to-day is to heal the sick. This last error rests upon several unfounded no- tions. It is supposed that all human suffering is caused by the sin of the sufferer or his parents. Is all suffering caused by the sin of the sufferer? If so, then all suffering must be a penalty. But if it is a penalty, it must be deserved in every case by the sufferer. We know, however, that innocent babes often suffer. It can not be a penalty in such cases. As a penalty, suffering must always follow only in- tentional wrong-doing. But unintentional mistakes often cause great suffering. As a penalty, suffering can be justly inflicted only when the guilty recog- nizes his guilt. But the innocent often suffer without any sense of condemnation for wrong done. As a penalty, suffering can be inflicted only on the guilty; and it must cease the instant pardon is granted. But we know pain often continues even after pardon is granted for sin. There is, then, a difference between suffering as a penalty and suffering as a simple conse- quence of the human constitution. Most of our suf- fering has no reference at all to retributive justice. 89 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Suffering has a legitimate place in nature. It awakens the sense of self-preservation and the love of life. Without it life would become extinct. God permitted the devil to afflict Job. It was not because Job had sinned, but to prove to the devil and all other observers the power of God’s sustaining grace in affliction. SUFFERING NOT THE WORK OF THE DEVIL. Scripture says the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Faith-healers sup- pose suffering is the work of the arch-slanderer, hence Christ came to abolish suffering. It follows, of course, if this be true, that it is the mission of the Church to abolish pain by miracle. This is an error. The mission of Christ directly concerned sin, and suffer- ing, the penalty of sin; but all suffering is not re- -tributive. Scripture traces sin and both natural and retributive suffering to an event in Eden. Analyze that event. In it we find the slanders of the slan- derer—devil means slanderer. We find man deceived by those slanders and led to disobedience. The sin- ner is doomed to spiritual death. A Savior is prom- ised. However, with the promise of a Savior, God pronounced the laws of labor, disappointment, pain, and physical death upon mankind. What, then, was “the work of the devil?’ It was slander. He slan- dered God, the intentions of God toward man, and the law of God. Christ came to refute those slanders. Sinners can be redeemed from the power of the slan- 90 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? derer only when his slanders against God have been refuted. God must be vindicated before the victim of the deception will love Him. Christ, in His sym- pathy and doctrine and suffering, has vindicated God. The “works of the devil” are, therefore, actually de- stroyed. The suffering which afflicts human bodies is not the work of the devil. It occurs rather in conse- quence of the divine laws of labor, disappointment, pain, and physical death. These laws have been enacted by the Almighty for the discipline of a race of sinners. It was not the purpose of Christ to dis- turb these laws. Jesus said, “I am not come to de- stroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill.” HOLINESS AND SUFFERING COMPATIBLE. The faith-healer commits another mistake. He supposes all suffering will cease in the event of a holy life. When God promised mankind a Savior, however, He also at the same time enacted the laws of labor, disappointment, physical pain, and physical death. Man may attain holiness, but it must be attained under the discipline of suffering. Holy men in all ages have endured suffering. The hardships of Elijah and of Paul were truly pathetic. The gentle virtues were brought to maturity in the hu- manity of Jesus “through suffering.” Perfection of the Christian graces in us is, therefore, to be attained in the same way. 91 | | | THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. THE PURPOSE OF MIRACLES. Christ relieved suffering by miracle, hence the faith-healer thinks it was His chief mission among men. But did Christ heal the sick, being moved only by sympathy for the sufferer? If so, why did He confine Himself to Palestine—did not the whole world lie in anguish? Was the abolishment of suffering in- cluded in the promise of a Savior? Why then delay His coming 4,000 years, only to depart after three short years of active work? If the gospel was really intended to abolish all suffering among mankind, it has proven a stupendous failure, even among faith-healers. They become sick; they suffer; and they die, just like other people, and all in spite of their belief, their theories, and their prayers. What, then, was the purpose of miracles? In Old Testament times it was to prove the divinity of Jehovah, the divine authority of His law, and the divine mission of His prophets. The miracles of Moses, Joshua, and Elijah prove this (Num. 16: 28). Miracles had the same purpose in New Testament times. Why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead? Was it purely an act of sympathy? Not at all. But for the purpose, as Jesus said, “That these may know Thou hast sent Me.’ Miracles served as proof of the divine personality and office and authority of Jesus Christ. They were afterwards employed by the apostles for the same purpose, in establishing Christianity in a heathen world, “the Lord confirming the word with signs following.” 92 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? Paul doubtless understood the purpose of miracles. In his letter to Timothy he advised him to “use a little wine [not as a beverage, but as medicine] for his stomach’s sake and for his infirmities.” Paul pre- scribed medicine. Why did he not prescribe a mir- acle? It was because miracle was designed, not for selfish or personal ends, but for attesting divinity only. Paul was even accompanied by Luke, the “be- loved physician.” But the faith-healer rejects medi- cine and trusts in miracle for selfish and personal ends. FAITH-HEALERS FAIL. The faith-healer claims to perform miracles to- day. He may do so if he has been endowed with the “spiritual gifts’ of the prophets and apostles. But it is a fact, the faith-healer displays no superiority over the heathen charm-doctor, or the magnetizer, or mind-curist. All his wonders have been equaled by performers who made no claim to divine aid at all. It is undeniable also, the faith-healers utterly fail to accomplish the works of the prophets and apostles as they accomplished them. It is claimed by them, however, “the power to do such miracles results from growth—and we are growing.’ But this is not the Scriptural method. The disciples did not “grow into” the power of miracle-working. Christ endowed them with that power one day, and they went forth heal- ing the sick and casting out demons! Such miracles as bringing fire down from heaven, causing drouth, and rain, and earthquake; such won- 93 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. ders as restoring withered limbs and curing all kinds of diseases and infirmities instantly and visibly are utterly unknown to-day. Why? Not because prayer is a failure. Not because men are less holy. Not because God has lost power or interest in mankind. But because Christianity has become established in the world; and because it is designed to win its way on the merit of its truths; and because the “spiritual gifts” of apostolic days for miracle-working are with-_ held from men. If any one has the “gifts” of Moses or of Peter, he can surely do their works. Here is a Scriptural test—‘‘If they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.” Let the faith-healer try it. The failure of physicians to cure their patients is often quoted to confuse thought on this subject, and to relieve the faith-healer from contempt; but the enlightened world understands why medicine often fails. But no physical condition ever stood in the way of men endowed with “spiritual gifts” when they followed the divine instructions. They even raised the dead. Alexander Dowie posed as a prophet. He claimed supernatural powers. But why did he fail to save his daughter from death by fire? He claimed to be Elijah. Did not Elijah have power over fire? Elijah of old was tested by fire, and triumphed— Dowie was tested by fire. It was the supreme test of his life—but he failed miserably. Why did he fail? Simply because he totally lacked the “spiritual gifts” of the Prophet Elijah. The camp-meeting of the ‘“Come-outers” was visited by a blind woman. They advertised to heal and restore all who would 94 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? come. But she was compelled to go away to her home, blind. The agonizing and consecration and pleading and holiness of those Christians did not open her eyes. They prayed according to the New Testa- ment formula for “spiritual gifts,’ but they lacked those “gifts.” Hence they failed. But imagine Elijah or Paul or Peter sending the poor woman home in everlasting darkness! The faith-healer claims more for himself than the Bible warrants. This error is due to the fact that he overlooks his lack of the “spiritual gifts” of apos- tolic times. It is due also to confounding the formula for the use of those gifts with the formula for prayer proper. These errors and the preposterous claims of the faith-healer occasion scoffing at the Scriptures, and are a great obstacle to the triumph of Christianity. Faith-healing is widespread in its hold upon popular belief, and all owing to the general acceptance of Scripture as of divine authority. It will have its day, but reaction will set in when the failure of the faith- healer is recognized and many devotees will land in infidelity. (2) Prayer anp THE DiscrpLine or SUFFERING. In the discussion of this phase of the subject we shall find it is not the province of prayer to avert or minimize the suffering which comes to us under the laws of nature. God has enacted certain laws to which fallen man is subject. They have been enacted for purposes of moral government. Human disap- pointment, sorrow, pain, and death overtake us in 95 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. consequence of these laws. We will notice these divine laws. In the day of God’s judicial treatment of the sin of man, God decreed, ‘“‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” In this decree, labor was made the price of success in every earthly pursuit. The price to some seems high, but labor has many valuable lessons for man. It teaches him the lesson of human dependence, and also the lesson of self-reliance. Without labor the mind must remain undeveloped in its powers, the body must remain weak and unfitted for the struggles and competitions of life, and the health and happiness must be very greatly impaired. The sinner has always been a burden-bearer, subject to this law. Prayer is not designed to interfere with it or to annul its operativeness. Christ did not come into the world calling men away from the problems and tasks of daily labor, but from the burdens of a sin-cursed life. He promised to the weary soul rest from its spiritual burdens. Experience plainly teaches that the universal law is this, Sink or swim— work or famish. 'The Creator expects us to reach the higher planes of secular knowledge and achieve- ment not by miracle or by prayer, but by work. The sphere of prayer in no way encroaches upon the sphere of labor, but by prayer the drudgery of daily life may be given that dignity and sanctity which perfects the soul in the gentle virtues of patience and humility. God also enacted the law of sorrow. He said, “In sorrow shalt thou eat of it—the fruit of the 96 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? -ground—all the days of thy life.” Sorrow is a needful factor in the discipline of a sinful race. God does not expect sinners to find soul-rest in any worldly pursuit. If soul-rest could be found in the business or the pleasure of this world, man would never seek after holiness of heart. He would be content with a base spiritual condition. God craves the best things for His erring and wayward children. Sorrow is a divinely chosen means of turning away the heart from wordliness to godliness, that it may find peace. The many sorrows which embitter human life in spite of riches and honors and pleasures, testify that this divine decree is still in force. Prayer is not intended to abolish sorrow, but to sanctify it. We must triumph over the sorrows and vexations of life not by abolishing them, but by enduring them pa- tiently and without sin. Sanctified sorrow promotes the soul’s perfection. The physical world, with its varied soil, climate, seasons, and productions, has under the law of God become our schoolmaster. ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake” is the law which was early pronounced upon the world. The earth withholds her strength and the productiveness of the ground seems to be re- duced in consequence of this enactment. The ground from that day, we are taught, brought forth thorns and thistles to mingle the fruits of toil with disap- pointment. History is but a repetition of man’s strug- gles with the elements of nature. This world is not an Eden. The curse upon the ground is not with- i 97 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. drawn, as the famines, floods, and drouths abundantly testify. Disappointment is ordained for our dis- cipline. It turns our thought and hope toward that higher, divine source, from which no soul ever turns away in disappointment. Prayer is not designed to save Christians from the chastening effects of this law of God, for Jesus declared, “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” While Jehovah showed Israel special favors and providences in the old times as a reward of obe- dience, the universal law, as Jesus shows, is a law of impartiality in the administration of these laws. While prayer may not be employed to exempt us from its discipline, or to lessen its severity, it may sanctify the law with all its consequences to the high- est welfare of the soul. “To them that love God shall all things work together for good.” . We are living also under the law of physical death. God has said, ‘““Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Physical death has a legitimate place in nature. The law of death was in operation before the advent of mankind. Pain and the fear of death awaken in us the sense of self-preservation and the love of life. It would certainly be better that many creatures should live a brief time subject to pain, though in the enjoyment of a life in which pleasure far exceeded suffering, than that few should live forever in the world without suffering. Hence there is wisdom even in the laws of pain and death. Prayer is not to be employed as a means of escaping 98 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? the power of physical death. While it is not the province of prayer.to baffle death, yet by its power the trembling soul is calmed and death is shorn of all its terrors. These laws of the Almighty are indispensable factors in the moral government of sinners. We cer- tainly may not hope to escape their consequences through prayer, for prayer has no such sphere or purpose. Medicine and surgery are ordained to re- duce human suffering to a minimum and to prolong life to the limit consistent with the laws of. nature. Many are under the impression this is the office of prayer, but it is a great mistake. If, however, it is the office of prayer to reduce human suffering to a minimum, and to prolong life to a maximum length, then prayer is the most stupendous failure the world has seen! We must contend, therefore, that Scripture does not give prayer any such sphere or purpose. We must adhere to the opinion that Biblical miracles, wrought through the agency of prayer, have always been in attestation of divinity, and have been wrought through the agency of some “spiritual gift’ bestowed by the Holy Spirit for that purpose. The discipline through which we pass under these laws of God be- comes, through the sanctifying power of prayer, a preparation for the world to come. 99 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. (3) Tue Retation or Prayer to Naturat Gov- ERNMENT. There is no conflict between the legislative and the executive functions of the Supreme Ruler. A miracle is perfectly consistent with both these functions of God. The healing of the sick by miracle is no more a contradiction of divine law than is healing by the use of medicine. In one case the sickness is cured by direct divine agency, while in the other case it is cured by a secondary agency. We must remember, however, that the miracle and the medicine were not both employed for the same purpose, although both had the same result. Medicine is ordained for uni- versal use in reducing suffering to a minimum and prolonging life to a maximum length. But “spiritual gifts” and the miracles wrought through their agency were not ordained for universal use, or for any such purpose. They have been ordained for attesting di- vinity only. “And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men—then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the ground open her mouth and swal- low them up—then ye shall understand that these men have despised the Lord.” ‘Thus was the house of Korah destroyed, and the divine office of Moses was vindicated, and the authority of Jehovah proven to be divine. (Num. 16:28.) This point is also supported by the declaration of Jesus, “But because 100 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? of the multitude which standeth around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me.” (John 11: 42.) In miracle-working the possession of an appro- priate “spiritual gift’? was the first requisite. This “spiritual gift” could be used only for attesting di- vinity. It must be used only in Jesus’ name. The request must be made with implicit confidence in the promise of God to comply. “Believe that ye receive” was the last injunction. The “will” of God was not a factor in this law of miracles. The result did not depend upon any choice or caprice of the Supreme Being. When the conditions were complied with, the results were just as certain as in mathematics. God has so ordained. The law of miracles operated just as surely as did the law of gravitation; hence to the one possessing the requisite “spiritual gift’ it was possible for Jesus to say, “Believe that ye receive, and ye shall have.” How shall we reconcile the doctrine of prayer, as generally held, with the universal reign of in- variable law in nature? The present order of the physical world is founded upon the reign of immutable law. The order of nature is established and has sta- bility. The doctrine of prayer commonly held really declares all things are possible through the agency of prayer. If this doctrine of prayer is Scriptural, it brings Scripture into conflict with the laws of na- ture, for it offers the hope of annulling at will, tempo- rarily or permanently, for some particular purpose, any law of nature, such as the law of light, heat, 101 if THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. motion, electricity, or gravity. It would offer those who pray the hope of annulling at will the decrees of God by which labor, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and physical death were pronounced upon mankind in the time of Adam’s fall. It would really place them at will beyond the pale and power of the laws of nature, and take from God the reigns of govern- ment. Experience proves that prayer has no such office. Prayer, however, can be easily reconciled to the reign of physical law, and reconciled only by removing prayer from use in the physical world for _ mechanical results, and employing it only in the — moral sphere for spiritual ends. Humanity is subject to needs of two classes, the temporal and the spiritual. The Creator has made ample provision for supplying both classes of human needs. Ample provision has been made for supply- ing our temporal needs through the ordained laws of nature and in our own natural powers. The needs of the lower animal:kingdom have been provided for in the same way. We may learn a lesson from the birds. The Lord has provided for the birds, as Jesus shows in the Sermon on the Mount, and all without prayer and anxiety on their part for such things. Jesus here plainly teaches that our temporal needs are not properly the subject of prayer. Some contend that in the Lord’s Prayer the Savior prayed for the supply of temporal needs when He said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is declared, if He thus prayed for literal bread, so should we. But does He here teach us to ask for temporal 102 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? food in the face of His own declaration, just made, “After all these things do the Gentiles seek?” Could He consistently ask God to bestow upon us, without toil, the things which cost labor, according to the law, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread?” Could Christ properly teach us to implore God for a favorable season and fruitful harvest when God had already decreed, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake?” No. Jesus prayed for those things which pertain to the spiritual nature, to that “Kingdom” which is “not of this world,” and for that “living Bread which cometh down from heaven.” The sphere of human activity in every earthly pursuit is limited by human capacities. Our temporal lives are limited by these capacities. This is in perfect accord with the teaching of Jesus in the par- able of the talents. We certainly may not expect to accomplish by prayer anything we can do for our- selves; nor may we hope to do, through prayer, those things which lie beyond our mental and physical capacities—unless perchance God has bestowed upon us some “spiritual gift” for the purpose. But this does not exclude Divine Providence from human his- tory, nor does it exclude divine inspiration from in- dividual life! Divine revelations of human duty are perpetual witnesses of Divine Providence in human history. And divine inspiration awakens ideals in every mind, in keeping with their capacities, which may be wrought out in results and achievements by personal genius and skill. The history of civilization seems to confirm these opinions. 103 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Work has been the price of progress in secular life, hence the march of progress has been slow and laborious. But if prayer had the sphere and purpose which some attribute to it, prayer would have led the way of progress in leaps and bounds. History, however, teaches that the increase of knowledge has been by fragmentary discoveries and by slow growth, not as the result of prayer, but of observation, study, and hard work. Work has been the key which has opened the doors of geographical knowledge and dis- covery, and of perfection in the industrial and fine arts, and of triumph in medicine and surgery, and of civil liberty and purer government. Experience teaches that prayer can not take the place of either muscle or brains in the struggle for existence, and that it does not encroach in any way upon their spheres of activity. But while God has provided for the supply of our temporal needs in the established order of the natural world, and in our own native powers, we must not forget that we are ordained to live in this world subject to the divine laws of labor, disappoint- ment, suffering, and death. These are factors both in natural and moral government. When we reach the limits of our capacities for battling with disease or disaster or defeat, as all are destined, we then must bow to the inevitable. It is the law of nature. We may not expect, in time of sickness, or in the day of disaster or defeat in secular affairs, to avert or escape these physical ills by means of prayer. Prayer has no such office. Strength and wisdom and 104 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? skill prevail in the affairs of secular life, while prayer prevails in the higher spiritual kingdom, for Jesus said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” Prayer is useful in the day of sickness and adversity, how- ever, for it is the means of obtaining divine forgive- ness and the sanctification of the woes of life to the enrichment of the soul in all the gentle virtues. At such times prayer will bring to the soul the heavenly manna and living water which the physical world can not supply. Prayer will turn great physical adversity into great spiritual prosperity! Every devout Christian laments the widespread defection of the people from the Church and the growing apathy and indifference to religion so ap- parent everywhere; and many are earnestly seeking after the cause and the remedy for these conditions. In offering a possible solution of this vexing problem, we would mention a factor which has been over- looked. The growing indifference of the people to the demands of religion upon them is due very largely to the fact that confidence has been lost in the value and efficacy of prayer as a result of giving to prayer a sphere and province which does not belong to it. Jesus insisted, “My Kingdom is not of this world,” and yet a great body of Christians has been strug- gling to get into that spiritual Kingdom all the secular kingdoms as well. Jesus declared, “My Kingdom is not of this world,’ and yet the Church has insisted on diverting to secular and material uses prayer, which is an agency and power belonging to the re- ligious and spiritual Kingdom only, And what has 105 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. been the result? The result has been that prayer has failed wherever employed outside its proper re- ligious sphere; and with the further result that the disappointed ones have lost confidence in the value and efficacy of prayer. When confidence has once been lost in the value and efficacy of prayer, the de- cline in religious interest and life will be rapid; for prayer is the foundation of true religion. A long step will be taken toward a real revival of religious interest when the Church everywhere confines prayer to its proper use. It is commonly held by Christian people that their prayers are often answered by the Lord in ways they did not expect or wish, and all because the Lord could not grant them their desires—yet He honored their faith by answering their prayers in an unexpected manner. This, however, is a poor makeshift and miserable evasion which is really de- manded in explaining the failure of prayer in many instances. The theory which holds that all things are possible to us through prayer must fall back upon some such subterfuge to explain the failures of prayer. Jesus repudiated just such subterfuges in the use of prayer when He said, ‘Or what man is there of you who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?” Jesus clearly teaches that God does not give us one thing when we ask for another, any more than the “man” mentioned would give a stone to the son who asked for a loaf of bread. Rather than seek refuge in such an excuse for the failure 106 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? of prayer, and rather than offer such an evasion to make a failure appear to be not a failure, it would be more sensible and more Scriptural to concede that the prayer offered did not comply with Scriptural conditions, or was offered for something outside the proper sphere of prayer. Christian consistency will go a long way in commanding the world’s respect for Christian doctrine. Let fanatical adherence to the false theory of prayer cease, and let prayer be given its proper sphere and place, and there will be no failures to bring discredit upon the Christian re- ligion. (4) Tue Rexicious Spuere or Prayer. Human nature is complex. It comprises six or more factors. They include the physical, mental, social, wsthetic, emotional, and religious elements. Each of these elements of the human nature has its sphere of activity and its needs, and each is de- pendent upon outside agencies for its highest develop- ment and usefulness. The physical nature depends upon the external world and the forces of nature for its life-sustaining food. The social nature is de- pendent upon intercourse and association with others for its refinement. The intellectual powers could not reach their highest development and achievements were it not for the external world with its myriad of facts for observation and study. The esthetic element in mankind craves the beautiful, and finds satisfaction in the study of nature and in works of art. The emotional nature depends upon the influ- 107 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. ence of sights and sounds and activities in the world around us for its culture. God has ordained the laws and processes of the physical world by which are supplied the various needs of these elements in human nature. But there is also a religious element in human nature. What provision has God made for supply- ing the needs of this element in our nature? The law of labor has been ordained as a means of sup- plying our physical needs; and in a similar way the law of prayer has been ordained as the means of supplying the needs of the soul and ministering to its religious life. Human life pertains unto two king- doms—the physical and the spiritual. Labor pro- vides man his food and wins for him dominion over the physical world and its forces; but it is prayer which finds the way of pardon, and the regeneration of the sinful heart, and fellowship with God. The physical world with its forces and processes sup- plies all the needs of man except the needs of his religious nature. These are supplied from God through the agency of prayer. Prayer, therefore, has only a religious sphere, and belongs to the moral realm and kingdom of conscience. Prayer really concerns only those things which be- long to the moral Kingdom which Christ has founded and over which He reigns as King, for He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” But may we not offer prayers concerning temporal and secular things? Let us remember now the words of Jesus when He said, “Be not therefore anxious. saying, What shall 108 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” These things are not the proper objects of prayer, for they are to be obtained by labor. Let not Christians continue to pray as did the Gentiles, therefore, for the “King- dom of God and His righteousness” are the proper objects of prayer. However, God will deal with every prayer according to His own will—either by granting or withholding the object of our petitions. However, prayer is admissible in all the affairs of life, yet not for the purpose of bringing about mechanical results in secular things, but for the sanc- tification of both fortune and misfortune, that they may all minister to the soul’s welfare. Prayer is not to be employed to save us from the discipline of labor, disappointment, suffering, and from death, but to perfect in us every Christian grace while enduring that discipline, and in the hour of death. Prayer is intended to promote our spiritual perfection in this world that we may be fit for the next. Christians should pray as Jesus prayed. When He prayed for His disciples—John 17—shortly be- fore His death, He did not pray God to preserve their physical health, or to prolong their lives, or give them success in the ordinary affairs of life, as Chris- tians pray to-day; but He prayed for their preserva- tion from spiritual enemies and dangers. He prayed the Father to sanctify all their powers to the life and work of righteousness, and keep them in peace amid 109 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. evil and adverse surroundings. The Lord’s Prayer is of a similar deep spiritual import. Its threefold petition, “Give—Forgive—Deliver,” covers the three great needs of the human soul. The prayer for pardon is the prayer of the soul guilty and unforgiven. It must be in strict compli- ance with four well-defined conditions: 1. The guilty soul must exhibit a proper rever- ence for the law of God. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” 2. The prayer for pardon must be accompanied with a proper conception of the sinfulness of sin. “Tf I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” : 3. The prayer for pardon must be offered with repentance. “Repent therefore of this thy wicked- ness, and pray the Lord if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee.” 4. The soul seeking forgiveness must manifest a forgiving spirit toward others. ‘But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The petitions “Give” and ‘Deliver’ are the prayers of the soul forgiven. They concern the deepest needs of the spiritual nature in the trials and triumphs of the Christian life. These requests must be made in accord with four clearly defined condi- tions: 1. Faith in God is requisite. ‘But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh 110 IS PRAYER A FAILURE? to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” 2. The wisdom and purpose of God must be con- sulted. Jesus said, “Father, if Thou be willing, re- move this cup from Me: nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.” 3. The prayers of the Christian must be accom- panied with humility and patience. “I waited pa- tiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry.” 4. They must be attended with thanksgiving. “Rejoice in the Lord alway: again I will say, Rejoice. Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. In nothing be anxious; but in every- thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” This Scripture is often quoted as teaching us to pray for secular ends, as well as for spiritual results. It is a serious mistake. The Philippians were anxious concerning certain spiritual errors and evils which menaced their faith and purity. Paul exhorted them not to be anxious, but in everything which threatened their salvation they were, by prayer with thanksgiv- ing, to find that peace with God which guards the heart and the thoughts. Prayer thus becomes the source of strength and consolation to the godly soul, and insures the final triumph of the tempted and tried over the wiles of the evil one, 111 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Let the formula for the use of “spiritual gifts’ be carefully distinguished from the formula for ef- fective prayer ; and let prayer be confined to its proper religious sphere, and it will never be found to be a failure. The universal beliefs are the truest. If an act is universal among mankind, it is because it is founded in some universal fact or experience. Prayer in some form is universal among mankind. The cry to the Unseen for aid and blessing wells up from the race universal in time of need. The nature of man com- prises several elements. Among them will be found the physical, intellectual, ethical, emotional, esthetic, and religious factors. Mankind is religious by nature. It is by the agency of prayer that we commune with God and worship Him. Men become like the God they worship. In the worship of the Creator who is infinite in all moral perfections, man, through the agency of prayer, becomes imbued in some measure with the gentle graces, faith, hope, love, justice, tem- perance, prudence, and fortitude, which inhere in the Divine Being. The man who is sincere and who re- nounces evil will find in prayer to God a sure solace and the impulse to a holy life—to that man prayer will not prove a failure. 112 VII. IS THE CHURCH A FAILURE? The rationalist assumes it is. He tells us the Church is not a divine institution and, moreover, that it has retarded progress more than it has helped it. “Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt. 28:18, 19.) Jesus plainly declared His divine authority over the moral kingdom ; and upon the basis of that authority He sent forth the disciples with His gospel and commanded them to disciple all nations. Moreover, He gave them His pledge to sustain them and give them success even to the end of the gospel era. The Christian world acknowledges the divinity of Jesus, and believes the Church which He founded to be of divine origin and authority. The rationalist, however, denies the divinity of Jesus and, as a matter of course, denies the Church any divine element. The Church, as an institution, is both human and divine in its elements. Its clergy and laity consist of human beings, to be sure, and its polity and gov- ernment are human devices—but the Spirit inspiring the Church and the ethics and religion taught by the Church are divine. » 113 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Is the Church a failure, then? What is the avowed mission of the Church? Its mission, based upon the authority of Jesus, is to disciple all nations. The Kingdom of righteousness assumed organic form in God’s revelation to Moses when the civil, moral, and ceremonial laws were given; when the priesthood was established, and when the Hebrew nation took the covenant of obedience to God. The Mosaic Church, or Judaism, thus organized, was established in Palestine, which was crossed by the caravan routes from all the civilized world. The Hebrews, a people possessing in a peculiar degree genius for religion, were thus placed at a strategic point, as the custodians of divine revelations, to become the evangelists of the human race. The rejection of Jesus by the Hebrew nation re- sulted in giving the gospel to the Gentile world and the rise of the Christian Church among the Gentiles. The Gentile world was the heathen world in the days of Christ. How great and hopeless must have appeared the task of discipling the Gentile world when Paul turned to the Gentiles with the gospel! The Church at once encountered the idolatrous sys- tems of the times, but the gospel of Christ has con- quered them all. The old gods of the Mediterranean countries and the countries of Northern Europe are without a worshiper to-day. With the passing of the old idolatries, with their thievish, lustful, and mur- derous deities, and bloody and immoral rites, Chris- tianity became established with its lofty ideals of Deity, its noble forms of worship, and exalted type 114 IS THE CHURCH A FAILURE? of moral character and personal conduct: for men always cultivate the moral qualities of the god they worship. The triumph of Christianity over those old idol- atrous systems was a most momentous event in the history of religion and philosophy. It must be re- membered that the philosophies of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle—systems of truth mixed with error, yet withal, noble systems of philosophy—had been completely overwhelmed and submerged by the vile idolatries of Greece and Rome. Those sages of old certainly spoke by divine inspiration in many of their utterances, and were far in advance of their times. While the great doctrines of a Supreme Being, infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness: human duty to know God and imitate His goodness; virtue not attained by art, but by communication from God; and immortality, —were taught, still they lacked the power of Chris- tianity. It was because they failed to point the way from sin to God by the way of repentance and faith and regeneration. It remained for Christ to expound the complete doctrine of salvation and to lead men from sin to regeneration and to the new life of which Plato dreamed. Yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure. Christianity, of which the Church was the ex- ponent, comprised all the ethical and religious truths taught by those early philosophies, but excluded their errors, such as the dogma of the world-soul, the pre- existence of man, the plurality of gods, the com- munity of women and property, and the malignant, 115 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. occult property in matter which is antagonistic to God. Moreover, Christianity teaches something more than was taught by those old philosophers; such as repentance, faith, forgiveness, regeneration, and the facts of Christian experience. The Church, thus min- istering to the moral need of mankind and satisfying that need, has also conquered the false doctrines of the Stoic and the Epicurean, and the wild beliefs of the nations of Northern and Western Europe with their idolatries. The struggle with idolatry and false philosophy was long and bitter, just as we would expect it to be, but the Church emerged victorious at the close of the Dark Ages. The overthrow of those false systems of ethics and religion by the hunted and persecuted Church was the miracle of history. The prophecy recorded in Daniel was fulfilled in the Reformation, which marked the close of the Dark Ages. The era of mental, industrial, moral, and re- ligious activities then began, and the age of discovery, invention, and knowledge was ushered in. The Reformation and Renaissance were the triumph of the gospel of Christ over the spirit of idolatry and ignorance, which had been opposing the march of truth and progress from remotest times. And yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! It is not difficult to perceive the truth in the parable of the leaven when we consider the trials of the early Church and her triumphs over the horde of ancient and modern enemies. When Christ gave His disciples their great commission to disciple all 116 IS THE CHURCH A FAILURE? nations, there were but five hundred Christians in the world—but to-day we may look out upon a mighty host of five hundred million people who are nominally Christian and live within the Christian environment. At the present rate of evangelization throughout the heathen world, it will be a matter of but a few dec- ades when the human race will have been brought under the benign influence of the gospel, and every home will be placed in a Christian environment— and this is the mission of the Church. Yet the ration- alist tells us the Church is a failure! Slavery was universal in the days of Jesus. It flourished in spite of the philosophies of Confucius, or Buddha, or Plato. The Church did not make war upon the institution of slavery with fire and steel, but made war upon it by teaching the Golden Rule and the law of love. It quickened the public con- science and created public sentiment in favor of hu- man liberty—and the Church has so well fulfilled her mission that to-day slavery is abolished in all civilized lands, and exists only in some remote corners of bar- barous lands. And yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! Polygamy was practiced throughout the civilized world at the beginning of the Christian era, and in spite of all the wisdom of the old philosophers. Christ, however, announced the law of monogamy as of divine origin and sanction. The Church has stead- fastly taught this doctrine of Christ—and wherever in the world Christ is honored and His gospel obeyed, there polygamy is abolished. The Christian home 117 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. to-day is established in all the civilized world. The Church has led in the great warfare of reform, and as a result womankind has been uplifted and emanci- pated. She now enters upon her rightful inheritance of equality with man in his dominion over the king- doms of the world. The Christian womanhood of the twentieth century is the highest type in intel- lectual, moral, and social qualities which the world has seen. And yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! True to her mission, the Church has been a leader in all moral reforms. No backward step has been taken since the day of Pentecost. The saloon has been the greatest curse of modern times. It has pol- luted business, corrupted every department of govern- ment, impoverished manhood, degraded womanhood, blighted childhood, until, led by the Church, the busi- ness, educational, and social forces of the Common- wealth are now arising in their might—and the saloon is doomed. The Church likewise has led in the war- fare against the opium traffic, the cigarette, and white slavery, until at last, through the agency of public opinion and legal processes, these crying evils are surely going the way of other National vices. And yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! The Church is still marching on to even greater victories. International conventions of the laymen of the Church have been held to devise ways and means of bringing the world up to higher ethical and religious planes of life. Great sums of money have been given, large numbers of volunteers have gone 118 IS THE CHURCH A FAILURE? forth to the work, and the slogan of the laymen’s movement is this, “The evangelization of the world in this generation.” Past successes encourage re- doubled activities. The spread of the gospel has proven a great blessing to mankind. The business man acknowledges this, for it is known Christianity softens the asperities of heathenism, it reforms say- ages, it teaches them the habits of industry, and so adds to the world’s commerce. We will cite a few facts: The Hawaiian Islands in 1820 were occupied by a people sunk in barbarism. They had no written language. They had no commerce or intercourse with the outside world. Fifty years of missionary work among the natives cost twelve hundred and twenty thousand dollars. As a result the people were lifted out of barbarism. Hawaii became a region of schools and churches, of cultivated fields and orchards. The people were given a written language by the mis- sionaries. The natives have produced two hundred works of real literary merit since they emerged from savagery, less than one hundred years ago. This great transformation, which cost $1,200,000, has paid from the commercial standpoint, for in 1896 the exports and imports amounted to nearly twenty-three million dollars. One hundred years ago the Society Islands were inhabited by degraded savages. Captain Cook de- clared Tahiti ‘‘could serve neither public interest nor private ambition.” But the Christian missionary found his way among that benighted people. Sixteen 119 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. years were spent without a convert from heathenism. Then a great transformation took place. The old ideas and cruel orgies gave way to the power of the teachings of the gospel, and those barbarous tribes took their places among the civilized. The annual trade of those islands amounts to more than two mil- lion dollars. Statistics prove that from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars enter the channels of the world’s trade every year for every Christian missionary ever sent to the islands of the Pacific. Under the wholesome influence of the gospel, ignorant and vicious savages have become intelligent, industrious, self-respecting, law-abiding people, the producers and buyers of commodities entering the commerce of the’ world. Yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! Science owes a great debt to the Church. The work of the Christian missionary has added very materially to the domain of human knowledge. Writ- ten languages have been created for many remote peo- ples, and a sacred literature prepared for them through the untiring efforts of the missionaries. The Bible has been printed in five hundred and twenty- six languages and dialects, so the sacred volume can now be studied in the tongues of nine-tenths of the human race. The educator and scientist can not fail to be impressed with the scientific value of the Church to humanity, when it is remembered the Methodist Epis- copal Church alone has educational institutions in the United States, including universities, colleges, 120 IS THE CHURCH A FAILURE? professional schools, secondary schools, Southern schools, institutes, and training schools, numbering 116; while its educational institutions in foreign lands number 240, a total of 356 throughout the world. These have 4,192 in Faculty, 74,044 students, and property and endowment valued at $56,822,000. The Church is doing a marvelous work in the field of literature. The Methodist Episcopal Church, for example, issues twelve great weekly periodicals, be- sides a bi-monthly magazine. It also issues forty- six other publications devoted to departmental work of the Church. Its semi-official and unofficial weeklies comprise 16 papers published in the United States, 13 in Europe, 4 in Africa, 5 in China, 12 in India, and eleven in other parts of the world. Since its organization the sales of The Methodist Book Concern have reached the grand total of $86,332,177. The field of benevolent endeavor has been rich in results. During the eighty-nine years of its exist- ence the Board of Foreign Missions of this Church has received and disbursed $46,485,597—and not one dollar has been lost or diverted from its intended use. William Carey baptized his first convert from heathenism in India in 1800—and to-day India boasts of four million native Christians. China, Japan, Korea, Turkey, and many other lands are in great religious awakenings. Intolerance, foot-binding, vile marriage customs, the evil system of caste, and many superstitions are breaking down under the power of the gospel of Christ. Thirty years ago Uganda, Africa, was a heathen State where cruelty and super- 121 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. stition held sway. The Church through its activities, however, has changed all this, for at present 360,000 of its inhabitants—more than half its entire popula- tion—are Christians. The Medical Missionary Asso- ciation, which recently met in Peking, reported five hundred medical missionaries in China. Christian hos- pitals in heathen lands are giving medical and surgical attention to a million sufferers each year—and a great part of this service is without money and without price. A monster Sabbath school rally was held in Korea this year, the largest meeting in the history of modern missions in the Orient. It was attended by 14,700 scholars and workers, besides 5,000 visitors. And so the Church is steadily penetrating all distant lands, from the equator to the poles, and with its open Bible, its hospitals, and its schools is lifting the benighted millions out of their degradation into a Christian en- vironment—and yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! | The Church has a mission to the individual and to the nation. It urges the individual to repentance and the new life to be found in God’s pardoning grace and regeneration, It leads in national reforms by quickening the public conscience and by education. The Church has thus done much for the improvement of the condition of labor, for the abolition of child labor, the betterment of the condition of the working woman, an honest day of labor, an honest wage, and a weekly day of rest for the toiler. The gospel has opened the doors of liberty to an oppressed race, has fostered democracy to the downfall of tyrannical goy- 122 IS THE CHURCH A FAILURE? ernments, and has brought forth fraternalism to bless and comfort the widow and the fatherless. And yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! The Church is fulfilling her mission, for the Chris- tian environment grows apace and the era of uni- versal peace draws near. The Hague Tribunal, the Palace of Peace, the treaties of arbitration signed by fifty countries, the annual settlement by arbitra- tion of the international disputes, and the growing public opinion in favor of disarmament, all surely certifies the end of war is near, when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and the nations shall learn war no more.’ The Church stands for the moral law. It has been waging a winning warfare for the moral law for nineteen centuries. To-day the financial strength of the world, the military power, the intellectual su- premacy, the moral superiority, and the industrial leadership, all are in the possession of Christendom. And so the Church, though launched in weakness and without force of numbers or social, financial, legal, political, or military standing, has conquered the world—and yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! The map of the world has been changed many times since Pentecost, but the Church has taken no backward step. The gospel is winning its way in the world upon its own merits. The rise of denomina- tions has been decried as a weakness in the Church. Not so, however. The rise of denominations, together 123 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. with the several systems of theology and forms of government, has all been due to the fact that Christ, the Head of the Church, did not formulate a definite creed, or prescribe a set form of worship, or estab- lish a distinct type of government for the Church. The rise of denominations has been a logical and legitimate development of the Christian system from the embryonic state in which Christ left it with His disciples, and it must have been foreseen by Him. When the Church consisted of but one denomination, the greatest evils were given the sanction of the Church and the most vicious doctrines were based upon the Scriptures; but the rise of denominations has thrown a safeguard around the Scriptures, and has exposed the evil practices and unholy dogmas of the mother Church—so the Church has not lost step with the march of progress. The rise of denomina- tions has led to greater activity in evangelizing the nations and in promoting great national reforms; and the competition among the denominations has proven a boon to the sinning and suffering world, for they now vie with each other in works of Christian charity. Still the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! But, when driven to his last ditch, the rationalist retorts, “The Church is a failure—for look at the vacant pulpits!”” Just so. But there are also some vacant farms, and empty houses, and abandoned mines, and deserted factories, and broken-down news- papers, and railroads in bankruptcy—but all this proves nothing against the progress of the twentieth century. These things have only a local bearing. 124 IS THE CHURCH A FAILURE? And so, although some pulpits are vacant, and some congregations are small, and some prayer-meetings are discontinued, and the camp-meeting is no longer popular—it all proves nothing against the efficiency of the gospel the Church proclaims. The old methods and activities have simply given way to new and more fruitful efforts. A score of Christian activities now take the time and money and attention of the Christian worker, where a generation ago the oppor- tunities for effective service were few. Moreover, where the people more and more ap- proach the Christian standard of morals, the revival will be much less startling in its results than in the days when but few people measured up to the high Christian standards. But this proves nothing against the Church, for it has been the faithful work of the Church which has brought the public up to the high standards of the gospel. Therefore, in view of its noble triumphs over idolatry, false philosophy, hea- thenism, slavery, polygamy, war, and the saloon; and in view of its lofty ideals of God and human duty and destiny, we are bold to declare the Church is the grandest institution and the most notable success the sun ever shone upon! Moreover, the divinity of Christ, the divine mis- sion of the Church, and His divine presence with the Church as it disciples the nations, are all attested by the triumphs of the Church! The American Institute for Social Service recently sent a questionnaire to a large number of persons engaged in social and philanthropic work, in an effort 125 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. to ascertain what per cent of these active workers in humanitarian causes might be presumed to owe something to the inspiration of the Church. A total of 1,012 persons responded, and of this number sey- enty-six per cent were communicants in some Chris- tian Church. It may be interesting to know that twenty-one per cent belonged to the Episcopal Church, sixteen per cent were Congregationalists, fifteen per cent Presbyterians, fourteen per cent Methodists, six per cent Universalists and Unitarians, and five per cent were Roman Catholics. Let it be remembered, moreover, that the remaining twenty- four per cent, who were not members of any Christian Church, were nevertheless reared in a Christian en- vironment and under the influence of Christian teach- ing and example. Colonel Ingersoll, the great infidel, was reared in a Christian environment and was in- debted to the Bible for every noble principle he advocated. Where the heathen world has produced one Socrates, it has produced a hundred Neros. Where the Christian world has produced 1,012 philan- thropists, all of them are either Christians by pro- fession or are the products of a Christian environ- ment. Gladstone declared he had come into contact with sixty master minds during his public career, and all but six of them were professing Christians—and yet the rationalist tells us the Church is a failure! 126 VIII. THE GENESIS OF MATTER, MIND, AND FORCE. A stupy of the kingdoms of nature discloses the ex- istence of a mighty trinity—matter, mind, and force. Are matter, mind, and force realities, or are all illusions only? Ask yourself the question, Do I exist, and if so, how may I know it to be a certainty? The answer of Des Cartes is irrefutable, “I think—there- fore I am.” To be sure, man must exist before he ean think. How, therefore, may I know that matter exists? I may be certain of the real existence of iron, because by the application of force to a piece of iron I change its form and state of being. These changes are per- manent, or until it is again acted upon by some ex- ternal force. Therefore change wrought in matter by the application of force demonstrates the existence of matter. And is the existence of force demonstrable? Change wrought in matter by the application of force stands as a demonstration of the existence of force. But how may we know God exists? Human con- ception, reasoning, and judgment, which are purely mental acts, attest the existence of the human mind. It logically follows, therefore, that the many exhibi- tions of conception, reasoning, and judgment which 127 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. we perceive in the kingdom of nature around us, and which certainly are not the products of any earthly or finite mind, attest to the existence of that imminent and transcendent Mind which we call God. The kingdom of matter comprises some seventy- eight simple elements. These substances or their compounds enter into the great host of organic and inorganic forms found in the natural world. These simple elements possess a variety of physical prop- erties, but all have one notable characteristic—they all are inert. The kingdom of mind in the world, so far as known, has its basis and seat in the organic, animate kingdom. This kingdom of mind displays certain characteristics peculiar to itself, such as life and the power of reproduction, consciousness, thought, mem- ory, volition, and will; together with conception, reasoning, judgment. The kingdom of force, as observed in the world, is known to us by a great variety of activities and by the exhibition of a variety of powers known as motion, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, actinism, and chem- ical affinity. The doctrine of conservation of energy, which considers the universe as a whole and the sum of all its forces as being a constant quantity, is recog- nized; and the correlation of energy, which refers to the convertibility of one form of energy into another, is also accepted. It is but natural that the inquiring student should desire to know something of the origin of the members of this great trinity of existences. From whence 128 GENESIS OF MATTER, MIND, AND FORCE. came the seventy-eight chemical elements of which the world is composed? The elements of nature were not self-created, for it is apparent at once that something can not produce itself from nothing. Moreover, noth- ing can not produce something from nothing. It is equally certain that abstract force was not the creator of these elements, for force does not exist in the abstract; and moreover, even force could not produce something from nothing. God Himself could not have produced the chemical elements from nothing, as some have supposed. In this problem of the origin of matter we find two alternatives before us: The simple elements of nature are eternal, or they were created. If the ele- ments of the physical world are co-eternal with God, it does not limit or affect the supremacy of God in the physical kingdom. The material elements of the world are inert, while God has power, volition, and will. The elements of nature are but passive elements which God employs in numberless activities in build- ing His material kingdom. The conclusion that the elements of matter are eternal, and had no Creator, does not give to natural law independence of God. The inert elements of nature are passive in His hands, subject always to the laws of nature, which are His behests. But if the other alternative be accepted, and it be declared the elements of nature were created by the Almighty, we are led to inquire, Since nothing existed but God, then of what did God create the material elements of the world? If nothing existed but God, ° 129 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. it is apparent the elements of the world must have been created from the essence of the Divine Being Himself. We venture the opinion that the ether is identical with God. God created the elements of nature, if at all, from the ether, and gave to them their various properties according to His will, and made them subject to His power and His law. It is the dream of physical philosophy that all the chemical elements will one day be resolved into the single original element from which all have been evolved. We would behold the wonderful spectacle then of the elements of the material world returning to the orig- inal spiritual element from which all were evolved by divine power—and “God becomes All and in all.” Who shall tell us something of the origin of the kingdom of mind which reigns in the material world? The materialist would have us believe the animate kingdom of nature, in the creatures of which earthly mind has its seat, was created by force, which operated in some mysterious way upon the chemical substances. But science plainly teaches that all earthly life orig- inated in some form of antecedent life. It originated, therefore, in God, who is in the world, though not a part of the world. The existence of every plant or animal begins as a single cell to which life has been imparted. Its growth is but the division of the original cell into parts, and the specialization of those parts. The vital powers have their seat in the cell. They are not merely phenomena of some chemical compound, but belong only to the organism or living machine called 130 GENESIS OF MATTER, MIND, AND FORCE. the cell. The physical foundation of life is some- thing more than a chemical compound. Life is more than a mere problem in chemistry. Chemical com- pounds are formed in the world by natural agencies, but these agencies are wholly unable to produce a living organism or explain the origin of a living cell. We can conceive of Mind applying force to the chem- ical elements and producing organic and inorganic forms. We can also conceive of Mind applying force to these elements and producing the living cell, the animal and vegetable form, and man—in whom matter, mind, and energy inhere. But we can not conceive of force applying itself to matter and producing man, for earthly life proceeds from antecedent life. That antecedent life from which the carthly animate king- dom sprang is uncreated. It is eternal, and is known to us as God. But from whence came force, which is exhibited in so many forms of activity in the world? Force does not exist in the abstract. It has no existence apart from substance to which it may have been im- parted, or from the cause in which it originates. Force originates in either mind or matter. Let us trace it to its origin. It will be observed that work is wrought by the agency of the natural forces. The processes of the natural forces are intelligible. Forces and materials are adjusted to each other in certain ratios and relations. Means accomplish given ends. All this gives evidence of forethought and purpose. Forethought and purpose found in the works of na~- ture prove that Mind exists somewhere, as forethought 131 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. and purpose are mental products. An_ intelligible process is the product of intelligence. Work is a product of force, but intelligence, forethought, and purpose are products of mind. Work is a product of force operating upon matter, and the intelligence and forethought and purpose seen in that work does not originate either in matter or force, but in mind. That Mind is God. In his contention that force has its origin in mat- ter, the materialist meets another difficulty. We may spread out before us the seventy-eight simple ele- ments. Each has certain properties, yet in itself and apart from all other substances and external forces not one of them can originate any of the forms of force. Every one of them is inert, whether it be at rest or in motion. “Every body continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless acted upon by some external force,” is the law of physics. If the materialist is correct, then these separate substances ought to be able to inaugurate the various activities seen in the world. But the simple substances, unaided by electricity or mag- netism or some other external force, have no such power. It has been suggested that radium, by its new and amazing power, will confirm the theory of the materialist. But radium does not act independ- ently of external forces. Its operations are electro- lytic. Professor Bequerel, of the Paris Academy of Science, finds the emanations from radium are due to electrical agency, which gradually reduces the mass of radium. So radium is not the creator. 132 GENESIS OF MATTER, MIND, AND FORCE. The energy of the bent spring has been thought to point to the molecules of simple substances as originating force. The spring, when bent by some external force—and it can not bend itself with- out first being bent by an external agency—tends constantly to recover its position of least resistance. This tendency and struggle is due to the elasticity of the molecules, one of the properties of steel. The molecules resist bending and constantly tend to return to the position of least resistance. In such an example do we find, perhaps, the nearest approach to the inauguration of force by the molecules themselves. But it is of no value to the materialist, for it makes even more apparent the impossibility of force orig- inating in the molecules of any of the simple sub- stances, for they can not move, or transform their potential energy into kinetic energy, without the aid of some external agency. It seems clear, therefore, that the simple substances of the world are not the seat and origin of force. In seeking the origin of force we traced force through work, intelligibility, intelligence, forethought, purpose, and end accomplished, to Mind as the seat of power. Let us seek the origin of force by another route. Consider your own physical body. Its growth and functions and activities depend upon food. The food supply is produced by the earth under the in- fluence of the sunbeam. The potent elements in the sunbeam are light and heat. From whence do light and heat originate? We know of but three methods of producing heat and light, namely: friction, com- 133 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. bustion, and electricity. Assuming there was a time when the elements of nature were at rest and widely scattered in space, like dust sprinkled throughout im- mensity, it will be seen that friction in its production presupposes some external force or agency which originated the movements causing the friction in bring- ing the particles together. Combustion also pre- supposes some external force or agency which brought the elements of combustion together. Likewise does electricity—itself a product of friction or combustion or motion—presuppose some external force or agency causing these activities. Meanwhile, we must remem- ber, matter is inert. Where, then, is seated that cause which lies back of friction, combustion, and electricity, and other activities, and which is apart from the chemical elements themselves? It is seated in the Divine Mind. But on the other hand, if we assume the primordial elements of the world as being widely scattered in space, though in motion, and that one form of energy may be converted into other forms of energy—still it is a fact that none of the forms of energy can be converted into a living cell. It is a fact also that force can not transform inert matter into a living organism. The firefly produces motion, heat, and light; but motion, heat, and light can not be converted into a firefly; neither do dead oaks produce live acorns. Our personal knowledge of the origin of force con- nects it with volition. However, our volition has its limitations. We are capable of originating only sim- 134 GENESIS OF MATTER, MIND, AND FORCE. ple motion by our volition. It is an interesting fact, however, that the electric eel by its volition produces both motion and electricity, and the firefly by its voli- tion produces motion, light, and heat. These powers have been delegated by the Supreme Mind to His creatures. This fact suggests that the Supreme Mind not only originated motion in the universe, but is also the origin of heat, light, electricity, magnetism, actinism, and chemical affinity, together with the ani- mate kingdoms of nature. The natural forces operat- ing in the world are but exhibitions of His inherent energy. We have a knowledge of immediate and personal causation in our own mental sense of effort whenever we do anything. This can not be denied. In these cases of personal knowledge of the origin of force we find force connected with volition, and also with purpose and mind. It is, then, a logical deduction that the exhibitions of forces in physical nature are ultimately connected with that Supreme Volition and Purpose and Mind. Man, by means of motion, which he originates in his own volition and power, has set in operation the thousand activities of civilization; and likewise did God set in motion the elements of nature, which, under His guidance and activity, have resulted in the multitude of activities and living forms in the world. By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which ap- pear. But what is God, and how shall we think of the Supreme Being? We are apt to think of God 135 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. as in the form of a gigantic man; and to think of Him as possessing hands and feet and eyes and brain. Such conceptions of God are erroneous, however. When we think of God as in the form of a gigantic man, it becomes incomprehensible to us how He could fill the universe with His presence and be efficient in all places. It also becomes incomprehensible to us how He could with His huge fingers ever fashion the microscopic creatures of this world. We must, therefore, think of the all-present God, not as having hands or feet or eyes or brain, as a man, but as being formless, like the atmosphere, which fills the firmament. We must think of this formless Being as endowed here and everywhere with life and voli- tion; with sight, hearing, feeling, and every physical and moral power in their perfections. But is it con- ceivable that God, a Spiritual Being, who is invisible, impalpable, and imponderable, and yet who is the seat of moral and physical power, really occupies the universe? The materialist scoffs at the idea. But listen: This same skeptic, however, believes implicitly in the existence of an all-pervading luminiferous ether, which is invisible, impalpable, and imponder- able, and yet is said to be more compact and elastic than any material substance we can see and handle. He implicitly believes in the existence of this in- scrutable medium, which is said to pervade the uni- verse, and even all material substances, yet he knows the luminiferous ether not by induction, but only by deduction—just as the theologian knows the existence of God. But listen: Is it not possible the materialist 136 GENESIS OF MATTER, MIND, AND FORCE. has right here discovered the God of the Christian? Is it not possible—nay, is not probable—that the luminiferous ether which science recognizes is, after all, that Infinite Spirit and Mind which is recognized and worshiped as God by the Christian world? Yes, the materialist has at last discovered God, for God and the ether are identical. 137 IX. THE ORIGIN OF LAW. Ir is the claim of materialism that law is eternal, and exists independently of God; that law, not God, rules the world; and that God is not needed in the universe to account for its existence or activities. Let us consider, then, the origin and nature of law in morals and in physics. In seeking the origin of law we must, first of all, discriminate between laws and determine their specific differences. We shall then be able to classify them and so avoid confusion. Laws are legion, yet they may be classified under three general heads, viz.: (1) the laws or modes of being, (2) the laws of action, and (3) the laws of relation. 1. Let us consider the laws of being. “God is a personality.” This is a law of being—of moral being. It is the law of His essential existence. It is grounded in the necessities of His eternal nature; hence it is uncaused, it is eternal. “Man is a personality,” is also a law of being— of moral being. Man has not always existed; he had a beginning; hence this law existed subjectively, in God’s thought, before it existed in the world, ob- jectively. However, this law had no existence in God’s thought apart from the conception of man, more than it had existence, objectively, or in the 138 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LAW. world, apart from man. This law had no existence in the abstract. It had no existence apart from the Divine Mind which conceived it, either in time or space. We do not think the law of man’s moral being was eternal in the thought of God, but was a creation of the Divine Mind, which operated according to the laws of divine thought, when the occasion for it was reached in God’s activities. We do not conceive the Divine Mind had the universe, with all its laws fully elaborated, eternally in subjective thought, but that they unfolded according to the laws of the Divine Mind as His work progressed. This does not mean, however, that God increases in knowledge, but that He is infinite because He is the ground of all knowl- edge. It is not necessary to suppose God has forever carried all science, fully elaborated, in His thought, but that His mind is the eternal ground of all knowl- edge. The unfolding and elaboration of knowledge is complete and perfect in the Divine Mind, while it is imperfect and incomplete in the human mind. The laws of being, then, of all that is not God, whether it be matter or spirit, have their origin in God, their ultimate Cause—they had no existence in the abstract. 2. Notice the laws of action. In the realm of morals action always has reference to authority, but in physics action always has reference to cause. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” is one of the moral laws. It supposes at least two personalities, the actor and the acted upon. It has not existence, either subjective or objective, apart from the actor 139 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. and the acted upon. It has no abstract existence. We may say it did not exist, even in the mind of God, until it was there elaborated, according to the laws of the Divine Mind, when the occasion for it was reached in His creative work. As a law or mode of moral action it was not eternal, except as having its ground in the inherent qualities and powers of the eternal mind of God. There are also laws of action in physics. They always have reference to cause. ‘Light varies in- versely as the square of the distance,” is such a law. Time and space are involved in it, and so are the four “causes” of Aristotle. In this law of action something is acting. Change is wrought by it. This change occurs in time and in space. We may call this “something” energy or “efficient cause.” In this law something is being acted upon. We may call it “sub- stance” or “material cause.” We also find another factor here. Let it be called “mathematical truth,” to satisfy the materialist. It is, however, one of the laws belonging to another category—it is one of the “laws of relation.” We may properly call it “formal cause.” It is the relation of quantity to space, ex- pressed in the mathematical ratio, “inversely as the square of the distance.” We also see that this law of light is intelligible. By this law change always proceeds according to the same mathematical ratio. This intelligibility points to intelligence as its origin; and this intelligence points to personal mind as its source. Intelligible action of an intelligent mind al- ways is proof of an object or end in view. Here, 140 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LAW. then, is “final cause.” But this law is not eternal, it does not exist in the abstract, nor was it self-made. Motive or end—the “final cause’”—points unmistak- ably to an “ultimate cause” back of all as the origin of the law. God is the ultimate cause of this law, and of all laws of action in physics. This is not affirming that God made the “formal cause” or mathematical truth found in the law of light, however. But it is saying that God formulated the law of light. Some scientists have confounded the laws of action in physics with the laws of relation. It has led them to erroneous conclusions. These two kinds of law are widely different in nature and origin, and should be distinguished from each other. Having dissected the law of light, we may put it together again; and what do we have? We have the law of action in physics, “Light varies inversely as the square of the distance’—a law involving efficient, material, formal, final, and ultimate causes, together with time and space. We would say the law of light and other laws of action in physics are not eternal, except as having their ground in the inherent powers of the Eternal Mind. We do not think they existed even in the thought of God until they were conceived, according to the laws of His mind, when the occasion was reached. If the laws of action in physics are “necessary laws,” and could not have been otherwise than they are, they are so only in their relation to the grand scheme of the universe, which was adopted by the 141 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. Creator. The Creator might have adopted some other plan and so have elaborated some other set of physical laws. This also holds true of the laws of being, of all that is not God. But it is not true of the laws of action in morals, for they are what they are by the very necessities of the divine nature itself, and not by any act of the divine will or choice. 8. Let us now consider the laws of relation. “Transgression of the law is sin,” is one of the laws of relation in morals. It is a truth. It supposes personality and authority. Just authority inheres in the nature of God and is eternal. As an act, con- sidered subjectively or objectively, transgression orig- inates in the rational decision and elective choice of a morally free being. But transgression is also a mode of relation in morals. It is the relation of the trans- gressor to authority. Obedience is the relation of the obedient to authority. But why is obedience good, and transgression evil? The choice or will of God is not the ultimate ground of difference between good and evil; for if it is, then there can be no essential difference between the two acts. It would only be a difference between good and evil. The moral quality of the act and’the moral relation of the actor are, therefore, determined by the moral quality of the divine nature. Evil and good are what they are by the necessities of the divine nature; and the law of relation between the transgressor and authority is what it is by the necessities of the case. But this is not saying the law of relation is eternal. It may be necessary, but not eternal. No such relation ex- 142 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LAW. isted, even in the thought of God, until the occasion for it was reached in His work of creation. It did not exist in the abstract. It could not exist anywhere in thought—and much less in space—apart from its own terms or the persons themselves. Now, what is true of the laws of relation in morals ‘is also true of the laws of relation in physics. We often speak of the laws of relation in physics as “mathematical truths.” They are what they are by the necessities of the case. They are not eternal, however, except as they are grounded in the powers of the Eternal Mind. ‘The circumference of a circle is 3.1416 times its diameter,’ is a law of relation in physics. It is what it is by necessity. But such a law has no existence in the abstract. It is eternal only as it is grounded in the powers of the mind of God. Now let us sum up. It is evident (1) that the laws of action and the laws of being in physics, and the laws of being in morals—of all that is not God— are what they are by the will of God. They are “necessary” laws only as they are related to the present plan of the universe—a relative necessity. (2) The laws of action and the laws of relation in morals are what they are, being determined by the nature of God and not by His acts of choice—an absolute necessity. (3) The laws of relation in physics are what they are, being determined by the qualities of the things themselves or their terms—an absolute necessity. But let it be remembered these “relative neces- 143 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. sities’ are not eternal, nor are all the “absolute necessities” eternal. They have no existence in the abstract, or apart from the things themselves, or their terms. They may be said to exist first, subjectively, or in God’s thought. The conceptions of God have their ground in the inherent powers of His infinite mind ; hence these “relative necessities’ and “absolute necessities” are eternal only as they had their possi-~ bilities in God’s mind. But since personality is the ultimate form of being, and since thought is the ulti- mate form of action, it follows that the law of divine being and the law of divine thought only may prop- erly be said to be both “necessary” and “eternal.” In conclusion, therefore, we may affirm that the position of those scientists who declare natural law is eternal, and exists independently of God, is found to be untenable. 144 X. SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. Is MAN immortal? This question is one which can not be solved by the experiments of inductive science, as the chemist ascertains facts in his laboratory, for the soul is invisible, intangible, and beyond the power of chemical analysis. However, we have the testi- mony of dying saints who speak of seeing friends long dead, and angels, and the Savior. Little chil- dren at the moment of death have spoken of be- holding persons and scenes which belong to another world. The dying children certainly were not preju- diced in this matter, as they had no knowledge of the contentions of materialism, but spoke with honesty and truthfulness. Their testimony fully accords with the words of Revelation 6: “I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And there was given unto each one a white robe; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, which should be killed, even as they were, should be fulfilled.’ The testimony of the dying and of the Scriptures agree in affirming the 5 145 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. conscious existence of the soul after death. It may be objected this is the testimony of the living and not of the dead, but it seems altogether possible for man to behold both worlds when he stands on the border-line between them. We often behold visions of our loved and lost ones, but it proves but little. “Sometimes it seems thy face, thy long-hid face, Looks out on me as from a passing cloud, Till I forget they clad thee in thy shroud, And laid thee sleeping in thy far-off place. So once again the tender, healing grace Of thy dear presence is to me allowed: Wilt thou not bless the head before thee bowed, Will not thy voice shrill through the empty space? How lone and cold the world without thee seems; Regaining thee, how warm it is, and bright! Yet all in vain to reach thee do I seek, And then I wake to know I have but dreamed, And thou art silent as the silent night: With tears I call thee—but thou dost not speak.” So we visit the grass-grown graves of our dear ones; we behold them in visions of the night; but they do not return to solve the mysteries of the great unknown. The great general law laid down both by science and Scripture is, ‘““They have no more a por- tion forever in anything done under the sun.” Some may have returned by miracle for some special pur- pose, but this does not affect the general law. If 146 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. the dead could return at will, the murdered man would disclose his murderer; great truths and precious secrets buried with the dead would be made known by the disembodied soul; mothers would return to comfort broken-hearted children and exhort wayward sons—but the universal fact is, they do not return. We can not, therefore, look to the dead for in- formation on the deep mystery of immortality. There are open to us but two sources of information. God Himself might tell us. Deductive science may be able to inform us. God affirms human immortality in Scripture. Human immortality as a fact of de- ductive science rests upon certain well-known facts and principles. Let us, therefore, consider some of the facts and principles upon which the doctrine of immortality, as a purely scientific doctrine, rests. Among them we notice: 1. The idea of immortality is practically universal among men. While the conceptions of the human estate after death widely vary, and while among the heathen peo- ples of both ancient and modern times they are in many instances very crude, still the idea of the sur- vival of the soul after death seems to be everywhere entertained. It is worthy of note, too, that as pagan- ism, whether ancient or modern, becomes more perfect in its ethical ideals and in its intellectual refinement, the conception of immortality more and more ap- proaches the Christian idea in its excellence. 147 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. 2. The idea of immortality is intuitional. The universality and the persistence of this idea among men must be founded in some sufficient reason. Some have tried to account for these facts by regard- ing the idea as an inheritance from a primitive reve- lation to mankind, and handed down by them from generation to generation. It seems, however, that the very nature of man requires that such an idea should be intuitional. There are some things which man, as a moral being, should know by immediate knowl- edge. His responsibility demands in him an adequate sense of self and of supreme authority, of duty and its recompenses, and of destiny. All these ideas are actually possessed in greater or lesser development by the whole family of man. Now, while immortality as an idea may be intu- itional, most—if not all of us—get it not by intuition, but from our teachers; and while all normal minds are capable of possessing the idea by immediate knowledge, revelation is indispensable to its highest development. 3. Human immortality is a fact which is funda- mental to moral government. The proper consideration of this phase of the subject requires attention to the relations of the three classes of individuals—the infant, the righteous, and the wicked—to moral government. Man is a rational being, endowed with freedom and with a moral sense, and therefore is capable of moral obligation and character and reward. Mortal 148 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. life, in its relation to the demands of moral obliga- tion and to the possibilities of moral character, seems to be an unfinished existence. On the other hand, moral government, in its relation to man’s capacities, is an incomplete system without immortality in man. As the subject of physical laws and the government of nature, the life of man has reference to this present world; but as the subject of moral law and govern- ment, his life has reference to the higher spiritual kingdom. In the death of the infant its physical existence may have proven a failure, but it does not follow that its existence as a moral being has proven a failure. The possibilities of the physical nature have their realization in this world and concern this world, but the possibilities of the higher moral nature have their realization in the higher moral kingdom. The cutting off of the infant’s relation to this world does not presuppose the cutting off of its relation to the moral sphere. Death is simply its release from the testing of a moral probation. All the possibilities for virtue and the blessedness of virtue which lie before that soul may still be realized without that test. The adaptation of the soul, even in its em- bryonic moral state, to existence and activity in a purely moral realm, where its high possibilities may only be realized, presupposes its immortality. Virtue; when subjected to the testing of a proba- tion, is rewardable; and vice, the dishonoring of vir- tue, is punishable. It seems to be beyond question that the righteous and the wicked do not receive the 149 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. recompenses due them in this present life. Virtue may be its own sufficient reward if in a realm where it is not impugned or dishonored—but, once dishon- ored, its only sufficient reward is in its vindication. Virtue is often trampled upon and dishonored in this life and goes unvindicated. Vice often flourishes and goes unpunished. We know that vice deserves pun- ishment and virtue deserves vindication, but when may we look for a final allotment of recompenses? If death ends all, it should occur before death—but we know it does not. How often do the wicked flourish like a green bay tree, while the virtuous pass their lives in weariness and sorrow, the victims of slander and bigotry. Generations pass away and, so far as they are concerned, virtue has no vindication and wickedness no just reward. Again, if death ends all, then death itself must be the reward of the wicked; but death thus becomes also the only reward of the righteous. Under a just moral government, the righteous and the wicked can not have the same identical rewards. Under a just system of moral government, the immortality of the righteous at least seems to be demanded. Now, as déath itself can not be regarded as the reward of the righteous, neither can it be regarded as the reward of the wicked. Physical death is simply incidental to human existence. If annihilation awaits the soul at all, it must be inflicted after death and not at death. Existence after the death of the body is clearly demanded in the case of the infant for its realization of character, unattained and unattainable 150 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. in this life; it is demanded in the case of the righteous and of the wicked for the vindication of virtue and the just treatment of vice. Without an existence for man after death, human hope and duty and history have no reasonable ex- planation, man is a misfit in the system of nature and his creation inexplicable. 4. The dogma of human immortality has met many denials, not however so much from the opposers of natural science as from the enemies of religious doctrine. Perhaps the latest and most potent objection of- fered on scientific grounds to the doctrine of human immortality is that which declares the soul to be but a product of the union of the male and female reproductive cells—the spermatozoon and the egg. Since the existence of the soul has its beginning in the union of these two elements, it follows, so it is affirmed, that its existence must end with the death or dissolution of these elements. This objection leads us at once into the profound- est depths of the mystery of human life. In groping our way into this realm of mystery we may take, as our point of departure, one of the old landmarks: “The earthly life of man had a beginning.” Every animal and every plant begins its existence as a single cell. Its growth is simply the division of the original cell into parts, accompanied by a specialization of those parts. The fundamental powers reside within the cell. They are not phenomena merely of some 151 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. chemical compound, but belong only to the organism or machine known as the cell. The physical founda- tion of life is something more than a chemical com- pound. Life is something more than a mere problem in chemistry. Chemical forces and agents exist in nature, to be sure, and they might be able to produce any kind of a chemical compound, but they are totally inadequate to produce a living organism or explain the origin of the living cell. The origin of life is not hidden merely in some secret formula of chemical compounds; it lies back of all such formulas. Life proceeds from antecedent life. The living cells, as we observe them, have been produced from similar living cells. They are not the product of chemical forces alone. The child is like its parents, because both child and parents have come from two particles of the same kind of germ plasm. This germ plasm has been handed down from generation to generation. It was originally created of certain chemical elements by the Creator, and was by Him given an organic structure, together with the power of reproduction. Within this organic germ plasm in mankind, how- ever, was incorporated an element which is subject not to physical laws, but to the laws of mind. For convenience we may call this peculiar element the soul plasm. It was not created of any of the chemical elements, but was derived from the divine essence— which we conceive to be identical with ether. It was an atom of the ether. It was incorporated within the male reproductive cell or spermatozoon, and be- 152 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. came the origin of the activities of the germ plasm. It was the living element. God and the human soul are identical in their essence. St. Paul says, “We are His offspring.” But God and the human soul differ in their attributes and properties, both in number and degree. When God created man, He endowed an atom of the ether or divine essence with the attributes which belong to the soul; He clothed it with a physical organism, and so man had his beginning. The vital element in all living things in the king- dom of nature is identical in essence in every Case, but with the difference that among the different forms and types of life there is a wide variation in the qualities and attributes with which the Creator en- dowed them. Each has been peculiarly endowed and fitted for its own sphere of life. This vital element, or soul plasm, of whatever degree of endowment, was derived originally from the Creator. What, then, becomes of the vital element of the plant or the ani- mal when death overtakes it? The physical organism returns to dust, to its original chemical elements; and it is conceivable that the vital element returns to the ether from which it was derived. We shall, however, point out a well-founded exception to such absorption by the ether in the case of mankind. Let us now turn to the question of human genesis. The egg, or female element of reproduction, is a cell which consists of vital substance, nucleus, chromo- somes, and nucleolus. The spermatozoon, or male re- productive cell, is smaller than the egg, and is of dif- ferent form. It contains cell substance, a nucleus 153 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. with chromosomes, and a centrosome. The male cell is also provided with a tail, by means of which it moves about. When these two reproductive cells are brought into contact, the spermatozoon buries its head in the egg; the tail by which it has propelled itself is afterward dropped off, and the head, which contains the centrosome and the chromosomes, passes on into the egg. The chromosomes constitute the only por- tions of the fertilized egg which are derived from both parents. The chromosomes form that part of the cell which contains the hereditary traits handed down from the parents to the offspring. The cell substance is handed down from the mother. The centrosome is derived from the father. The centro- some contains the vital atom, while the egg, or female reproductive cell, contains the physical man in poten- tial form; the spermatozoon possesses life, volition, and power, together with all those basal principles which belong to the soul. This living, moving soul- germ is not a product of chemical forces and agents alone, but is derived from living soul plasm in the generative organs of the male parent. The human soul, therefore, is not a mere phe- nomenon produced by the union of the male and female elements of reproduction, to perish when that union is dissolved by death. It is the creation of the male parent from soul plasm, which has been handed down from generation to generation, and had its original descent from the divine essence. It has a real, though primitive, embryonic existence. Let it be noted, this existence began before the union of 154 de) eatin. SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. the egg and spermatozoon took place. It may, there- fore, continue to exist after that union has been dis- solved by death. Science affords no proof of the death of the soul, but by many deductions seems rather to establish the fact of its persistent life even after physical death. But what becomes of this vital atom, or soul, after death? The physical organism returns to the chemical elements. Its elements are not lost. Nothing in the universe is ever absolutely lost or destroyed—hence the vital atom does not perish from existence. The soul either returns to the ether from which it was originally derived, or it continues to exist in new relations to the universe, as a distinct personality. The superior endowments of man, his moral freedom, and his existence under moral law subject to rewards and penalties, all point with un- deniable force to a continuance of his distinct personal existence after he has fallen a prey to physical death. 5. The dissolution of the body in death does not pre- suppose the destruction of the soul. The relation between soul and body is that of co- existence, not of identity. The abstract possibility of the existence of the soul apart from the body admits of no denial. Every real existence must be assumed to continue until its annihilation has been proven. The burden of proof thus will be seen to lie upon the advocates of annihilation. The annihila- tion of the soul, however, has not yet been proven. In the endeavor to prove it, however, it is said that thought is a function of the brain; hence if the brain 155 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. be destroyed the soul must perish. The error here is due to failure in distinguishing between a form of being and a form of action. The destruction of the brain serves only to prove the ending of a par- ticular form of the soul’s action, namely, the act of thinking. The cessation of some particular form of the activity of the soul or personal being does not presuppose the annihilation of the being itself. Personality is a form of being—it is the ultimate form of being. It has several native, inherent prop- erties. Among them may be mentioned life and self- consciousness. Thought is a form of action. It has its origin in the soul itself. The brain is simply the mechanism employed by the soul in producing this form of action. Thought and all other forms of the soul’s action, exercised through the agency of the brain or physical organism, may cease without affect- ing the personal being itself, its life, or any other of its native properties. The disembodied soul may live and be self-conscious and may know without the act of thinking. Thought by means of a brain may, indeed, be one of the limitations placed upon the soul which is removed at death. The soul still pre- serves its identity, and is still capable of acting through the agency of the brain, if it should again inhabit a brain. In the endeavor, further, to prove the annihilation of the soul in the death of the brain, it has been claimed that life is a function of the brain; hence, destroy the brain and the soul must perish. The error here is due to failure in distinguishing between 156 2 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. the personal being itself and one of its native, in- herent properties. Life is a property of the soul. The brain lives simply because the living personality resides within it. The brain dies when the living personality goes out of it. Life has no objective ex- istence apart from personal being. To be is not a function of the brain, but to do is its function. Hence the function of the brain may be destroyed at death without affecting the personality itself or its capacity for action. 6. In our conception of God, we think of Him as a living, self-conscious, personal Being, who ewists and acts independently of any physical organism. Assuming God’s existence—and we are compelled to assume our own—it is not inconceivable that man may also exist and act apart from a physical or- ganism. The necessity for the physical in man is a mark of human finiteness. He requires a brain and physical senses that he may interpret the facts of the world and be able to realize its possibilities. Man acquires knowledge through consecutive thought in the processes of conception, reasoning, and judgment. God does not acquire knowledge, but the Infinite Mind is in itself the ground of knowledge. Knowledge is the relation of living, self-conscious personality to reality—the relation of the knowing to the know- able. Knowledge may be mediate or immediate. Di- vine knowledge is immediate. Human knowledge is both mediate and immediate. When a store of knowl- edge has been acquired mediately or by sense-percep- 157 | THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. tion, it may be possible for man to continue in a self-enclosed rational life apart from a brain. But even though all mediate knowledge should perish with the brain, still the soul itself and its immediate knowledge, together with its capacity for acquiring mediate knowledge, may not be affected. If God, a purely spiritual Being, knows and acts without the agency of a physical organism, it is conceivable that man in a disembodied state may be capable of similar action. It may be objected, however, that God in a purely spiritual state is in His normal state of being, while man in his disembodied state is in an abnormal state of being, thus breaking down the analogy. But it may be urged that the physical life in man is simply preparatory to a final spiritual existence; hence, since God in His perfect estate is capable of life and action and knowledge, it seems certain that man in his per- fected estate must also be capable pt life and action and knowledge. 7. The indestructibility of matter points by analogy to the indestructibility of the soul. The chemical element bears the same relation to the physical world that the soul does to the moral world. The chemical element, as gold, may be com- pounded with other elements; yet it still is gold. In a similar way the spiritual element, as the soul of man, may be united with a physical nature, yet it still is a soul. Then, again, the assayer may separate the chem- 158 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. ical elements. He does not destroy them. He simply separates them. Their relation to each other is now changed. The compound no longer exists, but the chemical elements still exist. In a similar way death may separate the soul from the physical body. It does not destroy the elements of the body—it simply separates them; and it does not destroy the soul—it simply liberates it from union with the body. The compound of chemical and spiritual elements no longer exists, though the elements themselves are not destroyed. Their relations to each other have merely changed. Furthermore, since the properties of the gold in its simple state are more easily distinguished and more perfectly displayed than they are in its com- pounded state, it follows that the properties of the soul may in some degree be masked and undiscovered in its union with the body. Death may be the un- masking of the soul, just as assaying is the unmasking of the gold. In any event, the gold and the soul both survive the process of assaying and of death. 8. The present existence of the soul warrants the assumption of its continued existence in the ab- sence of proof that death destroys it. We do not know just what death is. We know only its effects, or some of them. As the soul and body co-exist, but are not identical, proof of the dis- memberment of the body by death is not proof of the destruction of the soul. As death is not the destruc- tion of the simple chemical elements composing the 159 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. body, it also is not the destruction of the soul, or simple spiritual element. Death seems to be rather the open door to man’s higher estate of being, much as birth is to his lower estate. 9. It is often objected that human immortality must also suppose the immortality of the brutes, or some of them. So far as I am concerned, I hope they are im- mortal, or some of them at least. Much of the charm of the forest and field is lost here without them; and if man in the hereafter has endowments and capacities as in this present time, much will be added to the charm of the Elysian fields by their presence. The home of the perfected man must be something more than a place of wandering minstrels, or a state of inactive ease. It must be thoroughly adapted to man in all the powers of his perfected nature. We find sweet communion and sympathy with God as we study nature and sympathize with the creatures He has made; and so, in the regions of the blessed, we may even know God better in the unhampered study of His works and in the more perfect sympathy with His humbler creatures. But human immortality does not necessarily pre- suppose the immortality of the brutes. The argument for human immortality, based upon the fact of the present existence of the soul, proves as much, perhaps, for the immortality of the brute as it does for man; but the probability of human immortality is not argued so much from the fact of the soul’s present existence 160 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. as from its adaptation as a moral being to immortal life. If the brute possesses no moral quality, and is not subject to moral government, there appears. no reason why it should share, for its own sake merely, with rational beings in immortality. However, we conceive that it might do so for the sake of rational beings, or even on purely sentimental grounds. 10. The existence of a First Cause presupposes im- mortality in man. The infinite perfection of the First Cause in wis- dom and power is in itself the promise and guarantee of a universe illustrating and in keeping with that wisdom and power. Man is in himself proof of a disposition and purpose and power in the First Cause to create him. Man, with all his physical and mental and moral possibilities, is simply the fulfillment of a prophecy. As a rational and responsible being, ca- pable of immortality, his existence and destiny are entirely consistent with the wisdom and power of his Infinite Creator. Since the First Cause is what it is, man is what he is; and since man and the First Cause are what they are in their relation to each other, immortality is a necessity in man. If God, as Eternal Mind, be admitted a place in the universe, immortality in a being capable of receiving it must be admitted. If, on the other hand, God, as Eternal Mind, be denied a place in the uni- verse, and eternal matter be claimed as the seat of all energy and life, still all the facts of infinite power and wisdom in the First Cause, together with all the hy 161 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. facts of the created physical and moral universe, re- main the same, and immortality must be admitted in beings capable of receiving it. Again, the inherent powers of the First Cause— without reference to the question of its identity— was the promise and prophecy of all intelligible forms of being and of action. If we but knew all the facts of the created universe, we might know the First Cause most fully, for they illustrate the char- acter and attributes and powers of the First Cause. And again, if we but knew the First Cause to per- fection, we might know all the facts of the created universe, for in the powers of the First Cause was the possibility and prophecy of those facts. In the First Cause was the promise of mortal life to the brute—that form of being capable of re- ceiving only that form of life. In the First Cause was the promise of immortal life to the angel—that form of being capable of receiving only that form of life. And in the First Cause was the promise and possibility of man, the creature of both mortality and immortality. Moreover, the facts of human life and duty and character point to human immortality—they actually demand it. Whatever is demanded for the completion of an intelligible plan may be rationally expected; and whatever is consistent with an all- sufficient First Cause can not be reasonably denied; therefore, since man exists, the creature of a Creator, immortality must not be denied him. 162 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. 11. The denial of a First Cause is an acknowledg- ment of human immortality. If the existence of a First Cause be denied; if all creative acts as beginnings be denied; and if it should be affirmed that the world is eternal, having passed successively through vast cycles of development and change from apparent chaos to orderly forms—which cycles ever recur, like the oscillation of a swinging pendulum, from everlasting to everlasting—even then, man, the spiritual element, has existed from the most distant eternity, just as has the gold or simple chem- ical element, and, like the gold, is destined to exist forever. That this is true, we think, is incontro- vertible, or at least can not be successfully denied. If the soul has existed forever as an element in the world-scheme and has not lost its identity in all that past eternity, with its many changes of relation, from the time of the whirling fire-mist to the era of the perfect physical man, it certainly is not incon- ceivable that man should continue to exist after death in new and even unsuspected relations to the universe. Moreover, even if, after all, there prove to be no God or First Cause, still all the facts of human life— physical, mental, and moral—all the facts of human obligation, of virtue, and of vice, together with their recompenses, remain wholly unchanged. If a First Cause exists but should be destroyed, many of these facts would be lost in that destruction; but if there actually be no First Cause all these facts exist, and continue to exist irrespective of our speculations upon 163 THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH. the subject. And who shall say that these facts, grounded as they assuredly are in human conscious- ness, are not consistent with the eternal world-scheme, which is sweeping on to the consummation of another splendid cycle in cosmic history—a cycle so vast as to be beyond the calculation of our mathematics and beyond imagination? Wisdom, whose excellent impress is stamped in all the forms and features of the world around us, forbids that man, her noblest work, shall prove a sad misfit at last, stamping Wisdom with the name of Folly. Power, which is everywhere exhibited in the king- doms of this world, forbids that man, who sways Om- nipotence, should, after all, prove weakest of the weak. And Love, whose tender sympathies are so woven into all the fabric of earthly life, forbids that man shall utterly perish from existence and in death be robbed of future activity and joys of which Love has dreamed. 164 Re “> os oe a = Aa eon pim aie hse Be 4% oy. '’ - - - eae ; on. tng! oe Be | ry a Aves 4 site i ahs te Ve ea, a i. ‘i ee io : (se Fe hed (tay nate of S00 ot bees te Rae Ph Tp Sint) see tik je inl ae en a * es roy on a kig it Our a 5 ova a 7 i ‘ + ey | Ny nh Shi af ad Neen pan ae iv aa sad Blake