(h ,// Jffmm % SItbrarg *rf Prnfraanr Sfettjamtn Imkittrftg* JiarfWft InjMatljei by Ijtm to % IGthranj of Prtnrrtott (Fhrnlngtral 9?mtttarg BR 100 .M54 1892 Miller, Emory, b. 1834. The evolution of love THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE THE Evolution of Love BY / EMORY MILLER, D.D., LL.D. CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 1892 Copyright, By A. C. McClurg and Co. a.d. 1S92. CONTENTS. Introduction vii Part first. IMPLICATIONS OF BEING. CHAPTER PAGE I. Being, as Perceived 19 II. Being, as Conceived 38 III. Being, as Conditioned 72 Part &Ecrmti. IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE. CHAPTER PAGE I. Creation 107 II. The Genesis of Evil 168 III. The Solution of Evil 190 IV. Atoning Fact 267 V. The Revelation of Atoning Fact . . . 298 VI. ESCHATOLOGY 328 INTRODUCTION. Superstition, opinion, discrimination ! Three epo- chal words ! The first has had its day, the second its noon ; the sun of discrimination is dawning. The spirit of our day indulges no remark with more complacency than this: "The age of superstition is past." Though a doubt may exist as to whether super- stition is vanquished or has only changed its forms, we may safely believe it broken in some departments of life and largely superseded in others. But it may be well to observe what has taken its place as the mental temper in modern culture. But slight inspection is needed to convince us that the ground once held by superstition is now occupied by partisan opinion. Just as in ancient days a few tall spirits discerned great, dominating truths, set in a narrow horizon of intelligence, so now a compara- tively few discriminate the solid ground of verified accu- racy from the quagmire and quicksands of opinion. Not unfrequently we hear the most valid truths ques- tioned, and the crudest opinions positively asserted ; and how rarely found is he who, having ascertained real knowledge in one department of thought, is wise enough not to speak oracularly in other, though unstudied de- partments. It is much more easy to a lazy, dishonest, or cowardly man to accept as knowledge the assertions g IN TROD UC TION. of smart or ponderous opinion than to undergo a pains- taking ascertainment of verities. The honesty required in the search for truth seems as rare a quality now as in the days when superstition held the place now occupied by flippant opinion. Yes, the domination of superstition is past, the reign of opinion is upon us ; when will the age of discrimina- tion come? That it will come we have not the slightest doubt ; that it has more representatives now than in any former historical period is quite certain. Perhaps opin- ion is the transition from superstition to accuracy. Moral honesty has long been held as the rightful rule in action ; when it becomes the rule in thinking, men will demand as thorough conscientiousness in forming, as in carrying out an opinion. Then the badge of intelligence will be, not information, but discrimination. Men will not ask how much does he know, but how well does he know ? Society will then be possessed of the spirit of accuracy, as now by that of novelty. How little honesty there is in the world is seen in that but few, comparatively, " hold fast what is good," while al- most none " prove all things." It is only half of honesty to adhere firmly to one's belief; the other and better half is to struggle that our beliefs be correct. To this lower stratum of honesty comparatively few dig down. The surface stratum is sufficient for popular commendation. This apotheosis of opinion in our day seems a repeti- tion of the state of things among the Greeks when Socrates arose in mighty protest against its frivolity, in the time of the Sophists. Then, as now, there had been the failure of materialistic philosophy ; then, as now, a reaction from superstition; then, as now, the "popular rage " was a show of information, readiness to talk on the IN TROD UC TION. g surface of any subject. Then, as now, truth, justice, and good were regarded as mere conventionalities, while reality was thought to be in proportion to smartness of individual opinion. No better description of many modern leaders of popular opinion can be given than Schwegler's account of the Greek Sophists. He says : " The Greek Sophists, like the French illuminati of the last century, displayed an encyclopaedic universality of knowledge. Their relation to the cultivated public, their striving after popularity, notoriety, and pecuniary emolu- ment suggests the inference that their studies and activi- ties were, for the most part, directed and determined, not by any objective scientific interest, but by external consid- erations. Wandering from town to town with that migra- tory tic so characteristic of the later, more special Sophists, announcing themselves as thinkers by profession, and look- ing in all their operation mainly to good pay and for favor of the rich, they naturally chose questions of general interest and public advantage, though at times also the private fancies of certain men, as the objects of their discourse. Their special strength, therefore, lay much more in formal quickness, in subjective displays of readiness of wit, in the art of being able to rhetorize, than in positive knowledge. Their only instruction in morals consisted either in dispu- tatious word-catching or in hollow rhetorical show ; and even when their information rose to polymath y, mere phrasing on the subjects remained the main point. We cannot wonder that they descended in this respect to that empty external trickery which Plato, in the ' Phcedrus,' subjects to so keen a criticism, and specially because of its want of seriousness and principle." Recognizing the retirement of superstition and opin- ion, and the advent of discrimination, we recognize that one of the first suggestions made by this ruling word is IO INTRODUCTION. the correct use of tests of truth. Beliefs, of all thought- ful times, have usually been cast in the same generic forms, five in number. These five forms have been termed philosophies. In the railroad switching-grounds there is a man whose duty it is to move a bar of iron the space of two or three inches. By this means he directs one train upon its course to San Francisco, another toward New Orleans, or another to the Atlantic seaboard. Thus the philoso- pher operates the switch in the mental world, and largely determines the course of thought throughout the net- work of science, literature, politics, law, morals, and manners. A mistake at the switch means wreck to the train. Failure and corruption of manners, morals, and government, with their calamitous results, are largely due to inaccuracies of thought in the domain of philosophy. The differences between the five forms of philosophic systems depend upon what each takes as a test of truth. It is therefore of no avail to advocate one system of belief or oppose another unless a reliable test of truth is ascertained. If I take the senses as the sole test of truth, I must become a materialist, sensationalist, or positivist with Spinoza, Mill, and Comte. If I take the intuitional consciousness or feelings as the only test of truth, I must become a mystic with Boehm and Schelling. If, again, the logical consciousness be my only test, then, with Berkeley or Fichte, I must dis- credit the reality of all external things and be an ideal- ist. Or as an eclectic I may apply the tests of " pro- gressive common-sense " and thus join hands with Main, DeBiron, Cousin, and Jouffroy. Or finally, I may reject them all and be a sceptic, with Pyrrho in ancient, Hume and De Maistre in modern times. These old schools INTROD UCTION. x j of philosophy have wrangled for centuries, but the only outcome is to make belief a matter of choice. The adopting one class of truth-tests to the exclusion of others is the vitiating germ of each system ! But may we not find valid tests of truth upon which to found true "all-around " philosophy, and abiding knowledge? That self-evidence is the ultimate test of truth goes almost without saying, but the validity of the means by which self-evidence is recognized is the disturbing ques- tion. When a thing is seen to be self-evident we cannot ignore its truth, without conscious mental or moral degradation. But how may we practically come at things so that their self-evidence may appear? The means by which self-evidence is recognized are, then, the Practical Tests of Truth. — We may safely say that the organ or faculty through which knowledge is gained is, in a general way, the test of the correctness of that knowledge. The difference in sounds cannot be de- cided by the eye, but by the ear. The sense of smell cannot discriminate colors; this must be done by the eye. In like manner the correctness of perceptions and relations must be tested by the reason ; and the facts of personal identity, freedom, and moral sense can only be known through the intuitional consciousness. Then we say that the practical tests of truth are of two classes, generally termed consciousness and the senses, — when applied in departments of knowledge in which severally they are the organs of knowing ; not otherwise. The old wrangle of materialism, for exam- ple, arose from taking the senses as the only test of truth; and because personal identity, free will, moral obligation, or God could not be tested by the senses, I2 INTRODUCTION. these truths were questioned or denied. This is the whole gist of the infidelity vented by rhetoricians and second-hand thinkers, who do not discriminate suffi- ciently to know what is the pother. The idealists, on the other hand, taking the logical consciousness as the only test of truth, could not affirm objects of sense. Thus these two schools shoved each other out of existence. Each denied the existence of what the other was sure. Right application of truth-tests is the way of escape from these indeterminate systems. It consists in (i) the application of the testimony of the senses in verifying knowledge externally derived; (2) the test of con- sciousness in mental or spiritual phenomena; (3) the agreement or mutual corroboration of these where both classes of phenomena are concerned. Admitting this to be a true putting of the case, how can I be certain that these tests are valid in their re- spective spheres? We answer: (1) Only by their use can we acquire knowledge ; (2) They are felt and acted upon as necessary and final by all men ; (3) Without them there can be no progress. Art, industries, and sciences could never have been achieved except by this use of them. The progress of the world has been in spite of the old philosophies, which abused these tests by misapplication. Instinctively, or as a matter of course, men accept truth as it appears self-evident, — through the senses on the physical side, or to the inner consciousness on the spiritual side ; and where self- evidence arises from mutual corroboration of both sides the result is felt to be demonstration. If disagreement arise as between these poles of truth, it simply leads to the detection of inaccuracy in the perception of original facts. IN TROD UC T10N. x 3 But now comes up the question, Are these criteria of knowledge real? That is to say, these tests decide what is true to us, but, if we were otherwise constructed, might not truth be other than what we find it to be ? Or, in other words, how can we know that what con- forms to our consciousness and sense is truth, indepen- dent of our structure ? We answer : Science, arts, and industries projected and carried out in accordance with these tests, yet having for their subject-matter things and forces outside and independent of our structure, nevertheless result successfully ; that is, bring about progress. Substantial progress is a practical test of tests. The law of gravitation and our consciousness of mathematical relations are true among the stars. A few years ago the planet Uranus was supposed to bound the solar system with his orbit, but his wabblings were eccentric beyond what, according to the law of gravi- tation, could be accounted for by the influence of known bodies. Hence, astronomers believed there must be some large, unknown body hovering beyond Uranus and thus affecting him. No telescope, however, had as yet discovered such disturbing force. Where- upon Leverrier set about reducing, by mathematical calculation, the excesses of Uranus to definite mental conceptions ; and upon these conceptions of the logical consciousness he determined at what point in the heavens the unknown but disturbing influence should be located at a given time. By his direction the observatories turned their telescopes upon that point, and at the designated moment the hitherto undiscovered planet moved into plain view of the observers. Thus the rational consciousness of Leverrier, conspiring with data furnished upon the testimony of the senses, " de- I4 INTRODUCTION. tected the silent footsteps of Neptune as he trod the solitudes of immensity." Thus, it is evident, these tests are valid, not only in us, but in the existing structure of the physical universe about us. They are, therefore, the practical tests of truth. Admitting, now, that these tests yield certitude in the relative universe, — that is, the truth as it is embodied in the structure of all dependent or relative existence, — may the practical truth, as ascertained, be affirmed as identical, or in harmony with absolute truth ; is truth in man one with truth in God? This is one of the weightiest questions of speculative philosophy. German philosophy, following Kant, held that no such affirmation can be made. The philosophy of the conditioned, as expounded by Hamilton and Mansel in Great Britain, followed on the same line ; and the sensational philosophy of Mill suggested that " there may be worlds in which two and two make five." Of the tests we have named, manifestly none can be brought to bear on this question except pure reason, the rational, or logical consciousness, — unless by revelation it might be submitted to the other tests. How much and what can reason decide on this question? We answer : — i. That the existing constitution of things harmonizes with absolute truth is, at least, probable. 2. This existing structure has the binding force of absolute truth until an opposite system is demonstrated. 3. The rational conception of truth is this : Truth is the rational system which may be explicated from an ideal or a perfect thing. " Absolute truth " is only another name for the infinite ideal ; hence, to suppose that there might be opposite or inharmonious systems of INTROD UC TION. j - truth is to suppose other than one infinite ideal, which, of course, is absurd and impossible. Hence, the truths which are implied in " the existing structure " are affirmations of absolute truth and must be regarded as the essential implications of being. part fttjst IMPLICATIONS OF BEING. Love is something more than the desire of beauty. . . . He who has the instinct of true love, and can discern the relations of true beauty in every form, will go on from strength to strength until at last the vision is revealed to him of a single science, and he will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty, in the likeness of no human face or form, but absolute, simple, separate, and everlasting. — Socrates. THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. CHAPTER I. BEING, AS PERCEIVED. Most ignorant of what he 's most assured, — Shakspeare. " The Evolution of Love "is a brief outline of our conception of Being, infinite and finite. It is offered, modestly, we hope, though confidently, as a self-sustain- ing system which arises naturally upon the mind when freed from imposing preconceptions. It offers a view of being which, better than any we have hitherto found, shows the meaning of human life, duty, and destiny, furnishes a ground-plan upon which other knowledge and culture maybe built, in right relation and just signifi- cance, and renders the heart more susceptible to those motives which alone can make " life worth living." It is a conception which, we believe, affords clear vision both to thought and faith, and exposes the unworthiness of that bigotry which antagonizes reason in the name of faith, and that charlatanry which antagonizes faith in the name of reason. It is important to place ourselves in a favorable at- titude to receive truth ; an attitude at once humble and hopeful. Humility may free us from false assumptions 20 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. and the pretentiousness of acquired lore. Hope may re- lieve us from dread of that sanctimonious mystifying by which crudity silences inquiry ; and both may give scope to faith and culture, which have been cramped by inade- quate, but cherished systems. That our use of terms should be the plainest and clearest at command is desirable, though we admit, in advance, that the defects of the writer, the nature of the inquiry, and the brevity of this brochure may impose, at times, a difficult terminology. As no small proportion of our labor preliminary to this writing has been to clear our way of the rubbish of old argumentation, we shall not unnecessarily encumber ourselves with its terms. The best we can do with many of them is to forget them. Nor shall we exhibit the metaphys- ical struggle of the clearing process, but simply attempt to outline the resulting conception. We have sought, at all hazards, a clear view of the truth, freed from the shirking and shifting of partisan statement ; the shrine where, in moral purity, logical accuracy, and emotional bliss, the soul may find rest. The method of this book is very simple. It is merely to recognize facts and what they unavoidably imply, — the method by which mankind have about all their abiding knowledge. This method is intolerant of surmises, plausible fancies, and "legal fictions." We find, too, but little use even for probabilities, but hold ourselves amenable to the question, What must be thought ; what does reason require ? Facts are enacted realities. Truths include, beside facts, the relation of facts and their inferences, but it is with facts as distinguished from other forms of truth we would chiefly deal. Fact, in our use of the term, in- BEING, AS PERCEIVED. 21 eludes enacted realities, both perceived and implied. Facts which we directly perceive imply other facts which we cannot perceive, but which the mind recognizes, and we must accept along with the perceived facts, in order that the latter may be intelligible. Otherwise the per- ception must be surrendered, which is to surrender knowledge. For example, here are two bodies, one living, the other dead ; so termed because motion, the evidence of life, is perceived in one, but not in the other. But the perception of this evidence is not the perception of the fact we term life. Life is the chief fact which differentiates the two bodies, but it is a fact that cannot be perceived. It is an implied fact which must be accepted with the perceived facts, or these bodies cannot be thought of either as living or dead. If it be not accepted, then the perceived motions signify nothing as to life or death ; and knowledge of such things must be given up. But such folly regarding life is not found among men, though it is often manifested regarding implied facts of another class. All recognize and act upon the implied fact, life, though it eludes perception armed with scalpel and microscope. All treasure it as antecedent to all that is precious in its perceived manifestations. "A dog, living, is better than a lion, dead ! " As thus recognized, life is not merely a quality or a relation or an inference, but an enacted reality, or fact, implied in the beating pulse and heaving chest. The questions of whether and how pulse and breathing evince life, are matters of relation and inference, but the thing, life, is thought as a fact. This implied fact is of far greater importance than the perceived facts which evince its presence \ it is the enacted reality on which 22 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. they depend. Perceived facts are but the declarations of their implied meanings, and are worthless for knowl- edge when isolated from them in thought. Implication is but a term which comprehends all facts, relations, and inferences which must be thought in connection with admitted perceptions ; hence, implied facts, as well as perceived ones, are essential data in prac- tical affairs, as well as in constructing a rational system. For data which we think and use as fact enter into our knowledge, as fact with equal strength and validity whether they be perceived by consciousness or sense or come by implication. Physical science, that boasts its basis of fact, could not subsist as science, with all its store of perceived facts, but for its chief fact, force, which is supplied only by implication. Only by the facts which they imply can perceived data be built into science. We may term them truths or principles, but it is our use of them as facts which enables us to construct science. It cannot be affirmed that in perceiving material ob- jects we really perceive all their properties, nor can it be claimed that all, or even many, of the phenomena of mental operations are noted by consciousness. Enough, however, are perceived to enforce definite discrimination of one material or mental fact from others ; hence, when it is said we perceive a fact, it is this definite discrimi- nation which is meant, not a perception of all that the fact contains. And, in the case of implied facts, it is not claimed that they force upon our recognition more than what distinguishes them as definite facts. These facts of implication may draw after them other, even a whole train of implications, and so may give us a well-defined conception of an object which is not in BEING, AS PERCEIVED. 23 any way open to perception ; hence there are objects perceived, and objects co?iceived. The latter may be greater in every way than the former, but our apprehen- sion of them can arise only in connection with what is perceived. Hence, in attempting to trace the evolution of love, we must begin with some perceived fact, or facts, which must imply the facts and conditions of such evolution. If in the tangled morass of ignorance and doubt, termed human life, we can perceive a solid bank of fact from which to spring an arch that by its self- sustaining coherence may lift its extending curve until it rests firmly upon the shore of destiny, let us not mourn the structures which have fallen. Nay, better, if such arch already exists, and our task is but to locate it and try its firmness, not too soon can we set about the work. If such firm structure exists, it must be found in the implications of our being, and the base from which these implications are projected can only be "Being, as perceived." Perception is knowing. The question upon which many differences have arisen among philosophers is really this : What is perceived ? Connected with this are other questions : What is necessarily implied in the things perceived? and what is merely apparent, or at most but possibly implied ? It were a weary and worth- less task to point out all the theories which have been wrought from different views of these questions, hence it will not be attempted here. Let us be content with what all are compelled to admit, with what is perforce common ground, namely, that within ourselves we have the direct perception of being. This much, at least, is reality. We do not have this perception of each other, but each for himself, alone, knows himself as being, 24 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. He may from this perception infer that there are other beings, but he knows, positively and directly, one ; and that is himself. He does not know how he can be as he is, but simply perceives directly that he is. This knowledge he cannot deny, he does and must directly perceive it, it is his perceiving self ; he perceives him- self as perceiving. Sensational philosophy has tried to show that this self-conscious action results from sensations externally given. But this is an attempt to show how we are as we are, but it does not account for the fact of a per- ceiving agent by whom the sensations are known. At best, this philosophy can only locate the perceiving agent in the sensations, and thus require the sensations to per- ceive themselves. But in this move it does not get rid of a conscious actor, or the reality of being. Besides, when the past and now impossible sensations are, in memory, called up and reflected upon, this philosophy has no sensation to which this recollection and reflec- tion may be attributed. The self-centred being who consciously perceives sensation, recalls sense-perceptions after the sensations have ceased, reflects upon them, often acts emotionally and volitionally concerning them, and perceives himself as so acting, is the one being whom I directly know. Thus the fact of being comes to me as direct and unavoidable knowledge. It is the first, deepest, and broadest of perceived facts. This knowledge is knowledge of action ; action which knows itself only in action. The act of knowing itself is consciousness, or self-perception. The absence of ac- tion is, hence, the absence of knowing, and for aught I know, the absence of being. If there are beings without action, I know nothing of them, inasmuch as I BEING, AS PERCEIVED. 2 r know myself only as acting, others by reaction and in- teraction, but have no evidence of my own or any other's being, save action. Thus it is seen that the foundation of all knowledge of reality is the fact of my individual action. Stripped of everything of which I cannot know the reality, this stands out, a definite, conscious power. This is Being, as perceived. The term "being" does not, then, stand for an ab- straction which some have styled "pure being." An abstraction is nothing, and nothing can come out of it. An acting, determining thing can alone be a real being. Self-perceiving action, conscious power, can in no way be questioned, avoided, or spirited away. Nothing but annihilation can rid me of it. All efforts to avoid, or call it in question are only attempted re-locations, — re- locations in sensations of assumed external origin. "The science of being," Ontology, properly begins with this known reality, and proceeds to trace its im- plications and recognize the questions it raises. The mind, or soul, as I know it, is this conscious power, an acting unit. If asked, "What is mind-substance?" the only answer I can give or need to give, is "power," that which acts. I confidently give this answer, because this power knows itself as action, knows itself as enacted reality, a constant fact. It is not worth while to ask a man " how he knows he has a soul," for the only thing it is impossible for him not to know is that he is a soul ; and this nothing but annihilation, non-being, can prevent his knowing. But there could be no science of being were this the only fact that could be known of being. For, when I attempt to think of the general fact of being, I am shut 2 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. up to one view, namely : I am a self-existent being. Existence implies self-existence, somewhere ; and, self- sustained being is a fact given in the perceived fact of being ; and, if I know nothing to the contrary, I am that self-existent one. But when I think further, that a self- existent being must be independent, then I must infer that I am independent. But I find, as a matter of fact, I am not independent, and therefore am not self-exist- ent. So, thought is confounded and brought to naught unless other facts of being may be known. Such knowl- edge, to be valid for me, must come in the conscious action which I know as myself; hence, I search myself for further facts. The nature, as well as the fact, of the being whom I know and each knows for himself is also given in our conscious action. That is to say, we are conscious of an order of action in our being. This order is what I recognize as the nature of the agent, myself. For exam- ple, I know myself as acting in self-perceiving, in sense- perceiving, in reasoning, feeling, intending, choosing, doing, etc. Hence, I say it is my nature to perceive, reason, feel, to will, to do. Moreover, I know that in most, if not all, of these classes, or orders, my action is limited, and hence know I am not only a causal power, but know that this order and limitation are imposed upon my actions, giving me the knowledge that I am depend- ent, — dependent upon conditions. The persons may be few who logically define or describe this nature ; its various classes of action may not be clearly or similarly traced by different thinkers ; nevertheless, all men alike have these classes of action, and know themselves as thus acting ; and equally well experience the conditions which limit their action. BEING, AS PERCEIVED. 2 ~ Doubtless all men, equally well, know themselves as limited, dependent. Dependent being is the reality which I perceive. That there must have been a time when I did not exist, that there are places where I do not and cannot exist, that I cannot perceive anything except as conditioned by time or space, that my knowledge is limited to action within myself and what is presented to me by sensation, that my volitions are carried out by means of reaction and interaction with forces external to me, which con- dition their efficiency, I am forced to recognize in my knowledge of my own being. Limitation is as surely known to me as is being. The order of my action, termed my " nature," gives me, first, self-perception, or consciousness. This fixes my knowledge of individual identity. This individual iden- tity abides unmoved through all the changes of feeling and thought which I undergo, and all the varied sense- perceptions and volitions I perform. Whatever changes have taken place in my physique, actions, feelings, or states of knowledge, this has remained unchanged. My deepest, clearest, and permanent perception of my being is as an individual unit. I perceive also, in what is termed " sense-perception," that there are activities or forces other than mine which affect me, — that change my states of knowledge and modify my feelings and activities. These give sharp discrimination to myself as limited by externality. Ex- ternality as here recognized is not an empty abstraction, such as the " non-ego" of Fichte, or the "not-me" of certain other writers, but forces which impose upon me the knowledge of reaction and interaction, — knowledge that I am acted upon. 2 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. In some classes of my action I know myself as simply recognizing and interpreting, but not originating, the action recognized. For example, consciousness, or self- perception, is but a recognition of the fact, my being ; but the action which establishes and maintains the con- ditions of my being, I do not perceive ; it is not my action. In sense-perception my action is simply recog- nizing and interpreting sensations of sight, sound, odor, taste, and touch. In reason I compare perceptions, note their likenesses and differences, and draw conclusions from such comparison. The act of comparing is my act ; but the action which gives likeness and difference to the things perceived, and fixes the forms in which I must know and compare them is independent of me. In like manner, the sense of moral authority is imposed upon me, sometimes much against my desires, yet my action regarding its rise within me is but that of recognition and interpretation. In all these modes of action I know myself as but recognizing and interpreting that which I do not posit or cause. Thus, my nature is known by me as a self-evident effect, dependent upon forces which evince themselves as external to myself, the agent who recognizes and interprets them. It is not claimed here that my interpretation of exter- nality discovers the nature of the external, but simply the fact of its existence. But this fact is as directly known in my acts of recognition and interpretation as the fact of my being. The interpreting act is part of my action ; and the fact that I know this action to be merely recognition and interpretation fixes upon me the knowledge that I am in interaction with and dependent upon some external action which founds me. Hence, I know my nature is that of an mdividua/, but dependent power. BEING, AS PERCEIVED. 2 9 But though the knowledge of myself is that of a de- pendent power, it alone gives me the general fact of existence. It is impossible to take up the thought of existence without implying self-existence. Nor do I derive this implication as an inference from my own causal power, but it is directly given in the fact of being. My direct knowledge of my being is that of simple self- existence, but it is modified by the further perception of my dependent nature. A discrepancy arises here between two perceived facts, — namely, simple being and dependent being, to the atheist an impassable gulf. I cannot by any possi- bility entertain the idea of existence without including in that idea a self-existent energy. Self-sustained existence is necessarily in the general notion of existence. No matter how far backward I may suppose a series of dependent beings to extend, the notion of being is not filled out unless I find a self-dependent actor who more than merely recognizes and interprets his own being and nature. I must find action somewhere which exists of itself, and founds its own order of action. The self- perceived being, myself, whom I know as dependent, does not satisfy the notion of self-existence which is given with it. Though all limited beings stand along- side me, each knowing himself an acting reality, and though the number were indefinitely multiplied and the reality of their existence demonstrated to me, yet all these fail to fill out the thought of self-existence which it is impossible to drop from the perceived fact of exist- ence. Thus, though the being whom I directly perceive is dependent, the general fact of being, thus known, is impossible to thought without independence. The fact of my being is seen to be impossible without implying 30 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. its dependence upon an independent being. There is no difficulty in thinking of self-existence, once the fact of any existence is perceived ; it cannot be avoided. We cannot get rid of it. But the real difficulty is to think how any being came to be. This " how," which is impossible to solve, lies outside of human inquiry ; but however impossible it is to know how being is, the fact that it is, is the most unquestionable of all facts. A bright young girl in Sunday-school said to her teacher, " Somehow I do not get hold of the idea of an independent, or self-existent being." The teacher replied : " You are perfectly sure of your own existence?" " I certainly am." " You are sure you are a dependent being ? " " Yes, surely." " Can you get hold of the idea of the dependence of all being?" " No ; it is impossible." "Then being must be independent somewhere?" " Yes, certainly, I see the fact of being must, some- where, stand alone ; and that must be independent being." "Then, having the fact of being, given in your own being, it cannot be doubted ; and the implied fact of independent being, which cannot be separated from it, is equally free from doubt?" " Yes ; I see the fact of an independent being is given in the simple fact of being, which I perceive in myself." "But a little further. You say you are certain you are a dependent being ? " " I certainly am." " How do you know that fact ? " BEING, AS PERCEIVED. ^1 " I perceive it in my nature." " But can you think of dependence without implying an independent upon which it finally depends ? " " I cannot." " Then you perceive two distinct facts, being and de- pendence, in each of which is given the fact of independent being." That I cannot perceive the independent actor is nothing as against the fact of such actor ; I am unable to perceive any actor but myself. Hence the implied fact of an independent being is not placed in doubt by my inability to perceive it. But on the other hand, the implied fact, independent being, is all that can be thought from the two perceived facts, — namely, my be- ing and my dependence. Nor can one or the other of these perceived facts be thought, any more than the two jointly, without implying independent being as a fact. This I must accept, or strangle thought at its birth. To a theistic conclusion the line of thought from this point is short, direct, and decisive. Perceived dependent being implies an independent ; independent being is perfectly self-determining ; self-determination is person- ality ; and perfect, or infinite, self-determination is infinite personality ; hence the independent is the perfect, infi- nite or unconditioned person, God. This is not claimed to be a demonstration, but is claimed as the only view possible to thought ; and since it shuts us up to the alternative of accepting theism or wholly renouncing thought, it has all the argumentative force of demonstration. We must resign thought and play the fool, if in heart we say there is no God. While the atheist can adduce no evidence to prove 32 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. there is no God, he queries, What is the origin of God ? But this is not the whole question. The real question is, " How does being come to exist ? " To this question of how, human thought can give no answer ; yet the fact of being is the first, largest, and surest of all facts, — a fact which we all perceive. This perceived fact has in it the implied fact which cannot be gotten rid of, and with- out which the perceived fact of being is unintelligible ; namely, that being is at some point self-existent, inde- pendent. I perceive the general fact, being, in perceiving myself; and this general fact cannot be thought except as self-existent, yet it must be accepted as perceived, — a known fact. As being is at some point or in some mode self- existent, it is independent, — that is, unconditioned, — and hence perfectly self-determined. Perfect self-deter- mination is infinite freedom, infinite self-determination ; and this is an infinite person. Hence, atheism is not a debatable question. It has no standing-ground in thought, but is the renuncia- tion of thought. Between the theist and the atheist the question is : Thought, or no thought, — reason, or folly ? Thought, contemplating the fact being, has self- existent, independent being on its hands. The only way to get rid of it is to resign thought, abnegate reason. Agnosticism is the rejection of theism because God, as God, is not perceived by us. The blunder of agnosticism is in looking for this fact in the range of perception, in- stead of in the realm of implied fact. It overlooks that God is an unavoidable implication forced upon reason by the perceived fact of being. Pantheism is not so readily disposed of for the reason that it has apparently more ground than atheism or BEING, AS PERCEIVED. 33 agnosticism upon which to stand. This is because pan- theism is implied in the fact of self-existent being as given in the general fact of being as perceived in myself ; until I perceive that I am a dependent power ; other than that upon which I depend. The burden rests upon the theist to show this. It must appear that to God, my action is objective, external. Objection has been made to the idea of an infinite person. Spinoza first, in modern times, and finally Matthew Arnold advanced the criticism that the infinite is limited by regarding it as personal ; that is, personality is necessarily finite, limited. But this is an oversight in this class of thinkers ; an oversight which comes of regarding the infinite as the aggregate of all things. This is the same as supposing there can be an infinite quantity, which supposition is, of course, absurd and a contradiction in terms. Quantity is identical with limitation, and to speak of an infinite made up of limited things is but a contradiction in terms. ♦ Another oversight into which these eminent thinkers have fallen is in regarding personality as quantitative. Their charge of anthropomorphism and fetichism, upon theists, is because they suppose personality to consist in certain defined limits, personal organization, physical or mental. Anthropomorphism, the conceiving of God as a man on a large or infinite scale, is certainly a fatal notion in theology when the personality either of man or God is supposed to consist in quantitative dimensions or qualita- tive degrees. Fetichism, the attributing life or personal identity to material objects, organic or inorganic, comes of the same quantitative notion of personality. Nor is there any radical change in the notion as it exists in the mind of the child who kicks the chair for tripping him, 3 34 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. the Bushman who worships his "gree-gree," the panthe- ist who has the cosmos for his God, or the atheist who rejects a personal infinite, lest personality may impose quantitative limitations upon the infinite. We can dis- criminate the infinite only as unconditioned action, absolute freedom. So, also, personality is not a quantity or an organization of quantities, not a quality or a col- lection of qualities, subject to degrees, but is purely a matter of original action. Size, weight, form, or physi- cal organization do not make man a person. Neither do thought or feeling. He may have all these, and still be a mere animal or machine if all his qualities are determined in kind and degree for him by some other power. But it is because man determines himself in cer- tain respects, that he is entitled a person. He can sur- mount and throw off many of his limitations, if he choose, or can impose upon himself other or greater limitations, but in either case he originates his choice, and initiates the process by which he is determined upward or down- ward in the scale of limitations. He alone forms his intentions : he may intend injury to others, but may be restrained from effecting such in- jury ; yet he affects and degrades himself by such in- tentions, which none other can prevent. He may de- velop or abuse his qualities of mind and body, and so elevate or degrade his nature, while his free choice either way determines his character. That character, good or bad, reacts favorably or unfavorably upon his natural qualities, and so gives them higher uses or deeper abuses, as he may decide. Because of self- determination, man forms a character, and character is made up of those qualities, so determined, upon which men estimate human worth. BEING, AS PERCEIVED. ^ Again, progress is that which is attained, by individ- uals and communities, by comparing simple facts and from these drawing conclusions. These conclusions in turn, are compared, and from this comparison higher conclusions are drawn, and acted upon. So sciences are built, governments are constructed and improved, culture is amplified, and progress in every way achieved by man's self-chosen use of himself and his environment, and his self-determining power to transcend his elementary conditions. Being a person, he is capable of rising from the limitations of savagery to the wider limitations of the masterful conditions of refinement ; being a person, he can abuse the enhanced advantages of refinement and thereby bring upon him the limitations of a brute. Self-determifiation is personality. A mere thing which is determined in all respects by action external to it, as a grain of sand, a block of wood, or a graven image, is wholly without personality. Brutes, being but creatures of impulse, volitionally, never devoting themselves to self-improvement, or deemed blameworthy for lack of such devotement, likewise fall short of personality. Person is distinguished from thing or brute in being able to determine itself to be this or that, in any or all respects. I am free to form my intentions, and deter- mine my character, but am limited in resources from which to contrive or gain objects concerning which to choose and intend ; and also limited in my instrumen- talities, by which to realize intentions. But these limi- tations are simply hedges around my personality; merely limited resources and instruments. In the use of such resources and instruments as I have within me I am arbiter. In this respect I am free ; without limit in the freedom of choice. 36 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. Personal consciousness resides in self-determination. Hence, I am a person and realize my personality, not in degrees or quantities, but in actual freedom in certain respects. But I am not a perfect, or infinite person, for these reasons, namely : I am dependent for my ex- istence, I have not determined my own nature, have not adjusted my environment and am dependent upon forces external to me for my interaction with all that is external to my conscious power ; in these respects I am an effect, and hence, a dependent, or finite person. An infinite person is thought as one who determines himself in all respects ; his nature, character and envi- ronment are dependent in no respect. Independent action, or unconditioned action, however it may be phrased, is perfect, or infinite, self-determination ; and since self-determination is personality, infinite self- determination is infinite personality. That independent action is unconditioned is axio- matic. That the independent is an infinite person is the same as to say he is the unconditioned person. He has no characteristic of an effect other than what is self-imposed. Whatever he is, he is by his own self- determination, limited by no pre-existing conditions or principles. We hear sometimes of "eternal princi- ples," but there are no such things apart from the action of the Infinite Being. A principle is nothing but an order or relation in actions, established by the actor; without action or actor, the principle vanishes. Moreover, we can discriminate nothing as infinite ex- cept self-determining power, nothing unconditioned but freedom, and all talk of anything being infinite except self-determining action and its qualities is but a jumbling of terms, — a use of the word " infinite " in the sense of BEING, AS PERCEIVED. ~* " indefinite." The infinite cannot be pictured to our imagination, nor in any way be grasped by our minds, except by logically discriminating it as an independent actor, the personal infinite. It is therefore impossible to think of primary being as other than the Infinite Person. These are implications contained, unavoidably, in the fact of being, as perceived. We close this chapter with the theistic formula : — Perceived, dependent being unavoidably implies inde- pendent being. Independent being is infinitely self-determining. Self-determination is personality ; and infinite self-de- termination is infinite personality. Hence, the perceived fact, my dependent being, un- avoidably implies the Infinite Person, God. "lam, O God; and surely thou must be" -8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. CHAPTER II. BEING, AS CONCEIVED. No man hath seen God at any time. — Saint John. Our use of the word " conceived " or "conception" does not imply a picturing God to the mind or imagin- ing how he might appear to our vision. Such idea of conception must be wholly renounced. It is the snare in which those thinkers are caught who lay down the proposition : " The infinite is inconceivable." To use the word in this pictorial sense, to set aside the dis- criminations which reason makes regarding the infinite, is merely to play " fast and loose " with the term. Only a logically discriminated conception is to be counte- nanced in reasoning. Such conception arises when we discriminate the rational implications of facts. A true conception answers to the question, What must be thought ? Perceived facts are worthless when isolated from the facts which they imply. These implications are the enacted realities ; the perceived facts are but such per- ception as we have of these enactments or of their effects. Perceived facts may imply in them a whole train of implied facts ; and these, with their relations to each other, may force upon us a definite conception of an object which is in no way open to perception. Hence, there are objects to be conceived as well as objects to be perceived. Scientists, for example, say BEING, AS CONCEIVED. , g they perceive physical phenomena, which they account for by the conceived facts which they term forces, which they clearly discriminate as facts, but never attempt to picture. In discriminating the fact of being and its implica- tions we do not attempt to transcend the limits of human reason by trying to picture the infinite ; but we simply recognize such contents of the perceived fact of being as are unavoidably, that is, self-evidently, implied, and hence must be affirmed. In our use of them the terms "infinite," "absolute," " independent," and '-'un- conditioned," have a rationally discriminated meaning; and like use is made of the term "conceived " in the title of this chapter. The significance of the title would be preserved if written, Being, as Discriminated. It is vain to say that we can have no conception of God; for indeed, all men have a conception of such being, which they themselves form or accept from others. Some may say they have no such conception, when they only mean that they have not formulated their conception and decline to do so. There are writers, even, who suppose they have disposed of all con- ceptions of God by terming him " The Unknowable ; " but in this they simply declare that he is not perceived ; and that it is not to the interest of their theories to admit their conception as a fact, or that it is too in- coherent for definition. All sane men, both crude and cultured, are more or less conscious of the implications of their being ; and from this consciousness they expli- cate the more or less crude conception of an indepen- dent or supreme power which underlies their beliefs and practices. There is no surer method by which to expose the 40 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. fallacies of a system, the baselessness of a theory, or the false trend of a line of practice than to lay bare the false conceptions on which it rests. Therefore, since God is the first, deepest, and surest implication of our being, it is a matter of the greatest moment that our conception of him, so far as it is acted upon, especially, should be correctly discriminated. It may be claimed that "revelation has already given us the true con- ception of God." Without our disputing or affirming this claim here, the thought suggests itself that, as mat- ters have stood for several centuries among believers in revelation, it would be worth their while either to define or harmonize the various conceptions which men have read into that revelation. Having seen in the preceding chapter the necessary implications of being, as perceived, we now seek to ascer- tain the necessary implications of being, as conceived ; or in other words, having seen that the perceived fact of being, and the perceived fact of dependence com- pel us to accept the implied fact of an independent per- son, we now proceed to ascertain what is implied in this independent, or infinite person. In accepting him, what further must we accept? Perfect action, simply, is what we recognize as infinite being. This conception is not made up of several ideas pinned together, but stands out as the primary power, which we must recognize as the independent, uncondi- tioned unit. This conception implies that — i. Being is acting, and acting is being; and ceasing to act is ceasing to be ; and that — 2. Perfect action is perfect being, a consciously self- sustained nature, an order of action which is wholly self-dependent, — that is, independent. BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 4I But we desire to ascertain what kifid of action is per- fect action. There are some kinds, or classes, of action which cannot be perfect, or unconditioned, however powerful or free, simply for the reason that they are of a kind which is necessarily conditioned or related. Per- fect action must imply more than merely dynamic per- fection, mere almightiness. Reality is action, action is life, or being, but it takes perfectly adjusted action to fill out the notion of perfect reality, perfect action, per- fect life, or being. That is to say, it must be thought perfect in quality, as well as without degree. Uncondi- tioned freedom realizing qualitative perfection can alone satisfy the conception of perfect action. This implies that this conception includes an idea or notion of the nature of that action. The next step, therefore, in our outline is to define this notion of the nature of perfect action. We think of a human mind, not as an aggregate of sensation, perception, consciousness, reason, memory, imagination, feeling, and will, but as a single being who acts in these various modes or orders. In the same sense the infinite person may be regarded in various orders, modes, or classes of action. Hence we recog- nize two general classes of personal action, Subjective and Objective. Subjective action is that which we identify with being; objective, with doing. The former includes all that pertains to self-determination, or in any way determines the subject, the person ; the latter, all that pertains to choices, intentions, or volitions which are directed exter- nally, or determine objects. In common usage the terms "act" and "action" generally signify objective action. For example : " We judge a man's character 42 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. by his actions." But in exact usage all being is action. In thinking of reality we think of action, without which being cannot be. It is in this exact use of the term we speak of subjective and objective action. The nature is usually identified with subjective action. To speak of the nature of the infinite Person relates, primarily, to his subjective or egoistic action. We do not conceive of his nature as an order of action pre- scribed by any thing or principle external to himself, to mould this nature, but we discriminate that independent action is consciously self-determined ; an order or nature of being, concerning which it is competent for us to inquire : What kind of a being is he ; what is his nature ? Such inquiry may take either of two directions : first, as to what nature is implied in an unconditioned or infinite person; or, secondly, What do his objective activities in the world indicate regarding his nature? The first question is ontological, the second, cosmological. The latter inquiry involves two assumptions, namely : that world-phenomena are his objective activities ; and that these are in harmony with his nature and constitute an intelligible exponent of the same. We eschew this cosmological inquiry for the reason that in itself it is indeterminate, and must at last depend upon ontology. Its course is strewed with many failures. For the present we pursue the ontological method. What does reason affirm as to the nature of perfect action? or, what is the nature of the unconditioned person ? As volition, in me, has to do with intentions and objective activities, I distinguish that action from my nature as given in my consciousness. That is to say, BEING, AS CONCEIVED. ^ the order of action which constitutes my being is my nature, and is not established, or posited, by me. That order of my action which is termed volition determines the qualities which make up my character and is pos- ited by me. My nature is an effect, dependent in the fixed form of action in which I consciously perceive it ; while, on the other hand, my volitions are my free, self-originated action. My nature is given me. My character is determined by myself. But, when we think of the independent One we must conceive his nature, as well as character, as being volitionally self- determined. Hence, we must think of him as existing according to his self-chosen order. That is to say, nature and character are one in him ; hence, — Perfect action, conscious and volitional, is the highest generalization, the ultimate unit, the un- conditioned nature of infinite being. The preceding sentence is distinctively a corner-stone in our system. Perfect action is here recognized as ultimate unity, the goal of philosophy, — infinite, uncon- ditioned reality. It is perfect being, perfectly self- conscious, the perfect person. Perfect action is perfect self-determination, or the independent realization of a perfect egoism. This affirmation scarcely needs to be thus reiterated, but, perhaps, needs a more explicit notice at this point. A work of art is termed the actualization or realiza- tion of a conception when it fixes that conception as an enacted thing in perceptible form. The Eiffel tower existed at first as a conception in the thought of the architect, but this conception was not a real tower. A very minute description of this tower was published, but this description was not a tower, and could serve none 44 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. of the purposes for which the tower was intended. Only the actual building of the tower made it a reality. This was its determination. The action which thus fixes a conception, or practically carries out a definition or description, is determination. When a conception, or ideal, is thus actualized it is a determined, a real thing. Thus practically carrying-out, realizing, actualiz- ing, or determining is simply enacting that which may be thought, either as a previously formed conception or as the self-consciousness of what is being enacted. When a person enacts in himself that which he thinks or desires to be he determines himself in that respect. His thought or desire is no longer a mere conception or wish, but a reality. This is self-determination. The person who conceives what manner of person he would be has, in this conception, an ideal self; and his effort to act out that ideal is his self-determination. If he succeeds in bringing his actual self up to the stan- dard of this ideal self his self-determination is successful. This is conditioned self-determination ; conditioned by the previously formed conception, or ideal. It is this power of self-determination, thus and otherwise condi- tioned, that constitutes conditioned, or dependent personality. Perfect action is not conditioned by a previously formed conception, or ideal, which it seeks to realize, but its self-conscionsfiess, as in our thinking we separate it from the action, is the absolute, or infinite ideal. Hence, we have a clear conception that perfect action is unconditioned even by an objective ideal. It is perfect self-determination. The "ultimate unit" we find in perfect self-determi- nation. As perfect action is independent of interaction BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 45 or any condition, it must be a unit. It is not an inter- action of several forces ; for that would be related ac- tion, and hence not independent, but conditioned. The existence of more than one infinite being cannot be thought ; for that would imply mutual dependence and limitation. Neither can perfect action be objective action ; for the reason that it must then act in relation to its object. Perfect action must be thought a self- realizing subject. Perfect, in the sense of independent, or unconditioned, action it is without interaction and without relation. It is simply a perfectly self-deter- mined unit. In a unit which is perfectly self-determined is the one- ness of " thought and thing ; " or, rather, the oneness of thought and action. Finite minds find it difficult to identify thought and act. This difficulty arises from the fact that their self-determination is conditioned ; and prominent among their conditions is that of the separate actions of judgment and will; involving the acquirement of sufficient knowledge to form a conception or judg- ment upon which by their will to determine themselves. On this account their determining intentions succeed their thought ; and the thought is but an ideal or defini- tion, not a reality, not a real thing until it is enacted. Nevertheless, when we discriminate independent self- determination we recognize that perfect reality in which perfect thought is self-conscious, that perfect action which is perfectly conscious of itself. The self-con- sciousness of perfect thought is, identically, the self-con- sciousness of perfect action. Consciously perfect action and consciously perfect thought are only other phras- ings of consciously perfect bei?ig. We admit that we may well hesitate to claim that we 46 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. find here the ultimate oneness of " thought and thing ; " since failure in this attempt has been honored by some of the greatest names in the history of philoso- phy. Our finite minds naturally query, How can thought and act be one ? But this impenetrable " How " of being is distinctly what has nothing to do with this matter. The truth is we cannot see that the facts can be otherwise than as stated above. As Professor Bowne has pertinently said, it is asking " how being is made ; " a question which, perhaps, only an infinite thinker can ever understand. However, we see no flaw in the reasoning which leads us to affirm that perfect self-determination is per- fectly self-conscious. Certainly, action or being cannot be perfect if it is not perfectly conscious of itself. Hence, we must say, action cannot be perfect without perfect thought; and perfect thought cannot exist ex- cept in perfect action. The perfection of either is in their oneness. We cannot see otherwise than that un- conditioned, perfect self-determination is one in thought and act. 7/ is the consciously pe?'fect reality. From this unit we explicate thought and thing. We separate, in our thinking, the affirmations of qualities, or properties, which this unit implies or founds. Hence we may affirm that, as the consciousness of perfect reality, it is the perfect thought, or infinite ideal. But in the supposed absence of infinite consciousness it cannot be affirmed as perfect action ; neither can infi- nite consciousness be affirmed in the supposed lack of perfect action. Although perfect action is not compound but simple, yet we may affirm of it or explicate from it various phases or qualities of this simple unit, without impairing BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 4 y our conception of it as an unconditioned unit. Al- though perfect personality is included in the affirmations we have already made, it may maintain clearness of view to emphasize at this point that — Perfect action is perfectly intentional. — We affirm of this unit both absolute will and absolute purpose; by which we mean that it is absolutely free action, free as caprice ; and yet has a fixed, eternal intent. Self-deter- mination is essentially intention. In the various classes of our action there is none in which we are self-deter- mining, except that in which thought and act are united ; and this is the action which we term intending, or the intent or inner purpose. But, with us, there are many conditions and classes of self-conditioning action which are needed as preparatory to forming an inten- tion ; and many in giving it effect. Yet we do not accomplish self-determination without intention, no mat- ter how full and favorable our conditions may be. And although we are often prevented from carrying out our intention externally, by external restraint, or by lack of means or opportunity, yet it determines our inner char- acter. An intention to murder gives a man the character of a murderer although he may never have had the op- portunity to shed a drop of blood. Intent is, subject- ively, the union of thought and act. It determines the ego, the inner real self. But we are conscious of having constructed, formed, this intention ; of having united thought and act, or desire and will. Hence we praise or blame each other for only what we have intended. But in perfect being inten- tion is not conditioned, not made up of preliminary or accessory self-conditioning, but is unconditioned, and hence is perfect or independent self-determination. 48 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. We easily see that if we were thus independent of all conditions, needed nothing by which to form or effectu- ate our self-determination, we should be in our nature as well as character as we intend. Our intent would be our nature, as now it is our character. Hence it is cor- rect to say that the nature of perfect action is uncondi- tioned, eternal intent. The habitual intent of a man's life is that which he would be, and accounts for what he does or would do. It is the determining force in each person. One is intent upon fame, another on wealth, and another upon pleasure. It determines his character and accounts for his minor intentions and external acts. It is the su- preme intention of his life. It is in this sense that we say concerning the nature of the independent person : The unconditioned intention is the self-determination of perfect being. Inte7ition is realization with him. To be less were to be conditioned. Hence the nature of perfect action, perfect self-determination, the absolute reality, the independent person, is intentionally perfect being. // is devoted realization of perfect being. When the intent involves the entire being, determines all his quali- ties, and contemplates neither change nor end, it may be termed devotement. And if this intent realizes itself immediately, achieves its realization exclusive of every other order of action, it is unconditioned, independent devotement. It is at once devotement and achieve- ment, devoted achievement. Thus independent it is not compound, but simple, — action which is at once the life in which are infinite thought, wish, and will. Unconditioned devotement cannot be thought except as purely egoistic, perfectly free, perfectly self-conscious, BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 49 perfectly self-chosen, definite, and supreme. It has in it nothing aimless, fortuitous, or fatalistic. As devote- ment is central in conditioned personality, it is single and eternal in the unconditioned person. It is neither obedience on the one hand, nor caprice on the other. Independent, it obeys neither necessity, instinct, nor con- ditions. Devoted, it is of infinite meaning, interest, and purpose. It is in no sense or degree without inten- tional significance. In man, devotement is the self-disposing force which can adjust all the energies of his being. For example : Here is a man led out to be beheaded. This catas- trophe has not been unforeseen by him. It had been contemplated in his self-adjustment ; and the course of life which has led up to this scene has been one of almost unrivalled hardship. Its sufferings have been equalled only by its renunciations ; for the sufferer is of gentle breeding, scholarship, and saintly character. His was high caste, but he renounced it ; repute, but he for- feited it ; political promise, but he turned his back upon it ; wealth, but he chose to be an outcast. As a preacher he made long tours of the Roman Empire, paying his way from the earnings of his own hands. Nothing in the circumstances of this lawyer and scholar, nothing of worldly gain or ambition can explain his self-determined attitude as a preacher. He had, though in chains, argued and taught with Roman thinkers ; though hun- gry, instructed philosophers at Athens. Friendless and buffeted he had, by his eloquence, disarmed mobs at Jerusalem ; and though a prisoner, had made kings and courts quail under his persuasive power. Neither insan- ity nor depravity can be a solution of this marvel of self- abnegation. Back of every other order of action, back 4 cjo THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. of suffering, labor, speech, reasoning, planning, praying ; back of all these must be found the determining action which disposed and sustained the subject of this career of restless and apparently wasteful endeavor. He him- self disclosed the secret which had puzzled friend and foe. Devotement to the realization of an ideal self, that ideal self for which he had been " appre- hended of Christ," he declared was this self-determin- ing force in his life. In this devotement there was nothing aimless, fortuitous, or fatalistic. It was free, self-conscious, wholly purposed, all-absorbing, self-deter- mining. This was simply a life of devoted realization of ideal character. In the same sense, but unconditioned, the perfect self- determination of God must be thought of as infinite intent, devoted self-determination. No account can be given of the perceived facts upon which this inquiry be- gan, namely, my own being and dependence, until I recognize that which is implied by them, namely, the source of all reality in action which is consciously and intentionally infinite perfection. Thought, feeling, and will may be explicated from it, or may be affirmed of it, but neither nor all of these terms adequately express its own generic unity. It is independent being devotedly realizing its own perfection. It is perfect devotement for the reasons that it is perfectly self-conscious, per- fectly purposed, and perfectly free. It is simple devote- ment for the reason that it is unconditioned. Being unconditioned, it is self-realizing. It is devoted achieve- ment. The perfect devotement of any person is his supreme devotement ; and hence the perfect devote- ment of an independent person is supreme devotement, the infinite experience of perfect being. BEING, AS CONCEIVED. ^ But this is to say that God's nature is devotement to perfection in himself? Precisely ! Perfect self-love is the nature of perfect action. — Self- love is not only the first right of being, but it is in finite persons the worthy, and in the infinite Person the supremely worthy devotement. Since in himself alone can unconditioned perfection be realized, supreme self- love in him is the infinite and infinitely worthy nature. In this there is the abiding realization of perfect egoism. If it be suggested that an independent person might determine his own nature to be somewhat inferior to perfection it must be admitted that in such case he would be conscious of being imperfect. This conscious- ness of imperfect being would be imposed by conscious failure to realize the infinite consciousness which would be the differentiation of thought and action ; and thought would condition and condemn his actual being. But this is a contradiction which would compel us to think of the independent as morally dependent, the uncon- ditioned as conditioned, the inseparable unit as divided. It is therefore clear that the notion of perfect action must be conceived as a being of consciously infinite perfection. Selfishness is a mode of self-determination which should be sharply discriminated. It is a form of devo- tion to self which is in detriment, or antagonism to another. This implies that the one is related to that other, and is thus conditioned by him. Selfishness, therefore, cannot be thought except as relative and con- ditioned, and consequently has no place in perfect self- determination. Since perfect action, realizing perfect being, is not and cannot be in derogation of any other, his devotion to perfection in himself is purely self-love ; - 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. it is the supreme devotement of perfect egoism. We have no occasion to deny that infinite freedom can be thought as able to determine itself as a malevolent nature, but this would be to resign infinite freedom. Such a nature cannot be thought as realizing perfection of being, cannot be unconditioned. The nature of perfect action cannot be thought as other than de- votement to self-perfection, and this is independent self-love. Self-love is the nature of supreme self-determination. When we consider self-love as devotion to perfection in one's self it appears plainly as the nature of supreme self-determination. In the perfect One it is perfectly, or infinitely, self-determining. In him it differs from self-love in man in that it is a self-established nature ; not instigated or influenced by any force or object external to himself, but is his self-determined nature. Self-love founds the infinite ideal. It does not copy, obey, or seek the infinite ideal as subject to an obli- gation thereto, but is that action the self-consciousness of which is the infinite ideal. In independent self- determination the infinite ideal is self-conscious in the infinite reality ; hence self-love, as the realization of the infinite, is the actualization of a perfect self, whose consciousness of himself is the infinite conception, or ideal. I can conceive an ideal self which I may labor to attain, actually. When I have actually realized this ideal it is no longer a conception which I seek to copy, but has become one with my self-consciousness or con- sciousness of myself. But when we think of the uncon- ditioned Person we necessarily think of an actual perfection who does not seek to attain, but is actually BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 5 3 conscious of infinite perfection. This consciousness of perfection, as in our thought we distinguish it from action, is the infinite ideal. For the purposes of our thinking, an ideal may be contemplated as such whether it be the self-conscious- ness of perfect action or an unrealized conception. In me the thought or ideal precedes the enacting, and it thereby conditions my action, but the perfect action is conscious of itself as perfect. This consciousness of its perfection is what we term the perfect thought in perfect action, the ideal in the real; but in fact both are real because one. In the highest generalization the infinite conception, or ideal, is the self-consciousness of perfect action, the infinite Person's knowledge of him- self. The best definition, then, which we can give to self-love is this : 7? is that kind of action which in a perfect being actualizes, in a finite being seeks to actualize, a perfect or ideal self. " The ideal " is a phrase which has especially two different applications. First, it is used to represent the unreal, that which is not actualized, or perhaps may sometimes be thought incapable of realization ; hence it is often applied to ideas, plans, or conceptions which are regarded as chimerical, Utopian. Secondly, it has the sense of the perfect when applied to thoughts, plans, or mental conceptions. We may have a conception of a perfect house. This we term an ideal house for the reason that it is only a conception or plan of what would be a perfect house were it built. But this ideal house is unrealized until built, when it may be termed a perfect house. Hence, we speak of God as perfect because he is actual perfection ; and of finite persons as seeking to realize an ideal self because their self-deter- 54 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. mination is a process toward realizing a conception or ideal of their best selves. Self-love, by realizing a perfect egoism, founds per- fect altruism. Egoism which is determined by inde- pendent self-love must be thought unsusceptible to impairment. So thought, this ego has no object to attain, or attainable, greater than his own perfection. Secure in his perfect realization of being, he is able to lavish the excellence of being upon any and all objects which he may choose to posit, or create, that they may be the objective expression of such ex- cellence, may be the sharers of that excellence, sharers with him whose perfection cannot be impaired through any possible extension or multiplication of finite being. Thus indiminishable in egoistic perfection, he alone is in a position to realize the " self-forgetfulness " of perfect altruism. He has no occasion to protect his own self-assured perfection. Perfect egoism is the only possible condition to perfect altruism ; and hence, infinite self-love must be the only kind of action which is capable of altruistic perfection. Not only is his nature the occasion, but must be thought the perfect self-assurance which, if he choose to act objectively, must warrant unreserved unselfishness ; maintaining the highest egoistic self-consciousness throughout a perfect altruistic determination. A powerful, expert swimmer, in apparent self-abandon- ment plunges into the sea and rescues a drowning man. But what seems to inexpert observers as self-abandon- ment is, really, the fullest consciousness of his powers as a swimmer. It is this full consciousness of his powers which frees him from attention to himself and con- centrates his attention upon another. One less able BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 55 must divide his attention between the safety of himself and that of the other; but perfect ability, perfectly devoted, is perfectly self-conscious in the self-forgetful- ness of altruistic devotion to the rescue of the drowning one. The highest self-consciousness of the swimmer is present in the highest self-consciousness of the rescuer. The swimmer and rescuer are one. Conscious perfection of either is in the perfect self-consciousness of the other. Thus perfection of being must be thought as a perfect egoism consciously capable of a perfect altruistic life. The independent devotement which realizes a perfect ego conditions in his own perfection a complete altruism. The highest self-consciousness of perfect being is present in the spirit of limitless altruism. A perfect egoism is requisite to perfect altruism ; and perfect altruistic freedom is requisite to perfect egoism ; and the perfect determination of self-love is requisite to both. And this is why self-love is the only thinkable nature of perfect action. The conception of perfect being, then, is that of the ego so secure and independent in the realization of perfect being as to be free to limitless altruistic devotement. Love and self-love are subjectively one. Self-love differs in no respect from love in the subjective nature or character of any being. Under either name it is the nature of supreme self-determination. Self-love is but a convenient term by which to confine the attention to love's action when considered subjectively. The action is the same, and love is its simplest and most exact designation. Love is termed self-love when it is de- voted to perfection in one's self, but since it may determine forms of manifestation objectively, the term 56 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. " self-love " becomes inappropriate. The true definition of these terms is as follows : — Love is that action which is conscious of an ideal which, unconditioned, it realizes ; conditioned, seeks to realize. Self-love is that action which is conscious of an ideal self which unconditioned, it realizes; conditioned, seeks to realize. Thus it is seen they are subjectively the same, but the term " self" must be dropped when the action is viewed in altruistic freedom and spirit. And this is true of love whether in the infinite Person, who founds the infinite ideal in his perfect action, or in man by whom an ideal self is objectively contemplated. My self-love, if pure, is devoted to the realization of an ideal character in myself. If I perceive that ideal character realized in another person I love that person. My devotion to that ideal, my love of that character is the same whether realized in myself or in another, although in the one case it is termed self-love , and in the other simply love. My supreme devotion to that other person may work the highest self-determination in me. I realize my highest self-love in my love of that person ; and so long as my self-love derogates nothing from that other, it is pure love toward him. When it derogates or detracts from him it is neither love nor self-love, but selfishness. It is devotion to an actual self which rejects the ideal. Supreme devotement is love, whether it be that of an infinite or finite being. Whatever degree of devotement any being may have for himself or any other, whether respect, obedience, admiration, or love, his supreme devotement has no higher, fuller mode than love, de- votion to the realization of the perfect. It may thrill BEING, AS CONCEIVED. ^ the narrow conditions of an animal, may concentrate the self-determining powers of man, harmonize the as- pirations of seraphs, or be the nature of the infinite. Conditioned or unconditioned, it is the actualization of its consciousness of the perfect, simply and only love. Greater simplicity, perhaps, in exhibiting love as the nature of perfect action may be attained by a regres- sive statement. For example : — i. Love objectively manifested is beneficent altruism, benevolent, unselfish, or disinterested action. 2. Infinite benevolence, or perfect altruism, can be realized only in perfect altruistic freedom. 3. Perfect altruistic freedom can exist only in perfect egoism. 4. Perfect egoism is realized only in perfect devote- ment to perfection of being. 5. Independent devotement to perfection of being is the nature of perfect action. Hence : — Love, which, when objectively developed, is unselfish- ness, benevolence, beneficent altruism, is the nature of perfect action. Every step of this statement is so transparent, and the leading back of love, as unselfishness, to love as perfect action so self-evident, that a further discussion of them would be superfluous. The line of development which we have adopted, how- ever, is not the regressive, but the progressive method. This is, in brief, as follows : Perfect reality is perfect action; perfect action implies perfect self-conscious- ness ; the self-consciousness of perfect action is the infinite ideal ; that kind of action which has in it an ideal which it realizes is love ; love's self-determination ^ 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. is an egoism that has in it perfect altruistic freedom ; altruistic freedom in action which is devoted to the determination of being affords the spirit, or spontaneity, of perfect altruism, perfect unselfishness. When the nature of perfect action is thus developed objectively no one can hesitate to recognize it as love. Yet it is equally clear that such development of love could never originate except in the nature of an infinite being. It is that action which founds in itself a perfect which it devotedly realizes. It is not essentially related action, but is self-realizing; and has occasion for objects of love only as they represent its own ideals, or may be instruments of their realization, for finite beings. Such occasion for objects of love is a need of only dependent beings. In the independent, love actualizes conscious self-perfection. Love is the grand involution of all qualities which must have their origin in independent action. We can say of love, as of God, it is good, true, holy, and beauti- ful, but none of these qualities are love. We can expli- cate from love, as we do from perfect action, thought, wish, and will, but neither nor all represent its absolute singleness of act. Poets and orators have thrilled the world with their marvellous sayings about love ; but when we would state what love is the difficulty is the same as that which is encountered in the effort to define the nature of the infinite, namely, the difficulty of repre- senting action to which the relation of subject to object is not essential. The good, or goodness, in the sense of beneficence, the metaphysical sense, means no more than a practical quality or result. We may say, " De- votion to the perfect achieves the highest good," but this does not define perfect action. It only states one BEING, AS CONCEIVED. ^ of its results or qualities ; that is to say, devotion to perfection is of a good quality, for the reason that one of its results is the highest good. Thus " the good," in this exact sense, can only express a quality or result of this action, but it is not the action. The moralist, in his generalization of positive qualities, often rests in what he terms the "Absolute Good." But absolute good, beside being an unintelligible expression, is, and does no good except as it is founded as a quality or grouping of qualities of perfect action ; and then it is a quality or set of the qualities of love. Used in this moral or religious sense, " the good " simply stands for holiness, truth, and happiness, merely a group of quali- ties and results. In Jike manner, holiness, beauty, and truth, severally, are in one way or other incident to perfect action ; but none nor all of them give us the essential nature of this action. But love, which is not a property, quality, or result, is self-determining action which founds qualities and results. Another traces the beautiful to "its source in the absolute ideal," but the " absolute ideal," which can be beautiful only because of its pleasurableness, is an empty abstraction which cannot be pleasurable, except as the consciousness of perfect action ; and then it is love's consciousness of actualizing the perfect. Others make much of " eternal principles," but these can be clearly discriminated only as properties of perfect action, which thoroughly knows itself; and this is but the self-consciousness of infinite love. As to the " infinite ideal," we have seen it is simply the perfect being's consciousness of himself. Separated, in our thinking, from his action, it is the infinite ideal ; it is that which men are groping after when they speak of " eternal principles." They fail to 60 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. grasp it, and therefore deny it, because they seek a theoretic system, instead of an ideal unit. Jesus said he bore witness unto the (ideal) truth, the divine con- sciousness ; while Pilate sceptically queried, " What is (theoretic) truth?" We recognize this consciousness of perfect being as the infinite self-consciousness of love. The true, or absolute truth, is, as we have seen, the infinite ideal. We cannot distinguish it from the con- sciousness of perfect action ; and, as said before, this is identical with the self-consciousness of unconditioned love. Love has in it, not only practical perfection, the good, but also the infinite ideal, the true. An ideal is a conception of a unit from which ray out various qualities and implications which are implicit in this unit. The truths or principles thus implicit in the ideal are dependent upon it, and have their significance only as implications of the ideal. " Eternal principles " are true only because the infinite ideal is truth; and are eternal only because perfect action is eternal. They bear no part in constructing the truth of that ideal, but are constructed as phases or affirmations of it. As an ideal is a unit, it comprehends in unity that which may be analyzed or studied as its contents. A complete and systematic knowledge of these contents would be a theory, or science, of that ideal. The in- finite ideal is truth in the absolute sense of a unit in which is all theoretic truth. None but an infinite thinker, we must presume, can understand a theory of the infinite ideal ; that is, have a theoretic knowledge of absolute truth. Relative truth arises with objective action on the part of God, in establishing dependent being and its incident BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 6 1 relationship ; and then relative truth is right relation to, or harmony with the infinite ideal. One may ask, scep- tically, Might not truth have been constructed differently from what it is ? Or, with that acute thinker, Mr. John Stuart Mill, he may suggest that truth, in some worlds, may be so different from what it is in this that "two and two may make five." Let such an one reflect that these suggestions are the emptiness of folly, unless there can be other than one infinite ideal ; unless there is other than one perfect consciousness of the perfect action. Holiness, or the holy, is the perfectness of intention in free action. Hence the intended, or purposed, per- fectness of perfect action, or the perfect being, is in- finite or perfect holiness. It is that quality of being which stands out to our thought when we contemplate the intentionally perfect self-determination of God. If his nature were necessitated it could have no moral quality. Or if it could be thought perfectly free, yet capricious, aimless, or fortuitous, it would be destitute of moral quality. But free self-determination is moral, and is perfectly righteous, or holy, because of its freely purposed perfection. We have already recognized purpose, or intent, in love, the devoted nature of perfect action, and hence may affirm the quality, perfect holiness in the purposed per- fectness of love. When we affirm that God is holy, we mean to say that he is intentionally perfect. Perfect personality, perfect egoism, is infinitely holy. Perfect action, being, egoism, personality, cannot be thought except as intentionally what it is, and wholly so. Hence, as we have seen before, perfect action is wholly ethical ; and its ethical quality is perfect holiness, since love is purely devotement to the perfect. 62 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. Moral authority arises in purposed perfection. The holy 'is an authoritative sentiment which intentionally self-achieved perfectness imposes upon all other inten- tional action. Love, because of its perfection, is the criterion, standard, or authority which indicates what all other action ought to be. Figuratively it is the wheel to which all other action must be adjusted in order to achieve its highest being and welfare. Hence a universe of dependent persons must find the true significance of their being in conformity with love. If love act objec- tively in evolving a universe, for example, this action must impose the authoritative sentiment of holiness in all which it determines or conditions. Holiness, inten- tional perfectness, is imposed as the authority of an ideal which thus demands that it ought to be actualized. Though this objective action be subject to conditions, limitations, opposition, or possible defeat, yet if it pur- pose the best, that purpose is perfect, and therefore holy. Perfectness of intention, the holy, is, then, the authoritative sentiment which love founds in all which it determines, conditioned or unconditioned. Art aims to copy certain ideals in material forms, that is, seeks to copy mental conceptions. To the extent it succeeds in actually representing, on the canvas or in marble, for example, these mental structures termed "ideals," the artist's work is said to approximate perfec- tion. In the respects in which the material copy fails to fully represent the ideal, such material copy is defec- tive. The ideal, therefore, is the criterion or authority according to which action approves or disapproves itself. Thus, also, in conditioned self-determination the ac- tion recognizes the ideal as the sacred, which cannot be marred, however much the realizing action may fail to BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 63 interpret or copy it. This sacredness of the ideal in the intentions is one with the holy, that which is untarnish- able. The copy or model may be defective, marred, or destroyed, but the ideal is unimpaired. Hence the ideal personal nature or character is holy, though the enacted realization may be or may become unholy. But this authority of the ideal is not because of its unreality, but because of its conceded perfection. But ideal perfection cannot be authoritative unless it is realizable, or has been actually determined. That is to say, there can be no such reality as moral authority or obligation in the universe without the ultimate oneness of perfect act and thought. I may picture to myself an ideal manhood to which I would gladly measure up in practice, but I can feel no obligation to measure up to it, or condemnation for neglect or failure to actualize it, if actual perfection exists nowhere, not even in God. And men would never dream of actualizing an ideal self but for the fact that its moral demand is pushed upon the conscience of each one of them by an actualized perfect who conditions their dependent being. This " moral imperative " arises in the structure of the human soul without giving any account of itself other than that it is the sentiment of the independent action which posits and maintains in men the conditions to intentional self-determination. But the Independent, whose action maintains the structure of dependent persons, cannot impose this moral imperative unless he himself is actually perfect. Actual perfection, or perfect action, alone places the independent Being in a position in which his nature imposes what ought to be the nature of all other action. If perfection could be nowhere determined, realized, en- 64 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. acted, there could be no such thing as moral authority. Authority based upon anything else than actual perfec- tion is not moral. We err if we suppose that morality derives its authority, or imperative character, from its being " capable of universal utility." Universal utility is an assumption which can be verified only by accumu- lating universal data ; hence, without such data it is a gratuitous assumption. The moral imperative which is perceived in that best self, which each human being re- cognizes, is precedent to any assumption of utility. It is the absolute sentiment of perfect intention evincing in us the actual perfection of the Being on whom our being depends. No moral authority can be thought or felt except as the imperative sentiment of perfect action. It is the authoritative sentiment of perfection which the Independent actualizes in each dependent person. God, by actualizing conscious perfection in himself, realizes absolute moral consciousness. Absolutely free to be as he is, the unconditioned One, or else to deter- mine himself as falling short of the infinite consciousness, beneath an infinite ideal, and thereby be conditioned and condemned by it, his perfect holiness appears in his purposely realizing conscious perfection. Hence love, his perfect action, which purposely actualizes his perfec- tion, establishes and maintains the authority of perfect holiness. To the extent to which I am determined by forces external to me I am necessitated; in what I am per- mitted to be I am conditioned ; in what I choose I am free. Entire necessity is found in my physical nature, the conditioned in my physical and intellectual, freedom in my moral nature. But the independent nature, freely determining conscious perfection, must be regarded as BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 65 in all respects a purely moral nature. He is subject to no necessity, no condition ; he is absolutely a law unto himself. In this conception of being we see that the unconditioned nature is a "wholly ethical," or moral nature ; that perfect action is purely ethical. The moral, the intellectual, and the aesthetic elements, which are seen separate and largely independent of each other in man, have their original oneness in the ethical nature of perfectly self-determined being. Moral authority has, as seen above, its original ground in God's actual perfection. This perfection is the ulti- mate moral authority to the universe, in both its crea- tive and created elements, independent and dependent. To the dependent it is superimposed, to the independent it is self-realized, and hence self-imposed. The infinite awe, termed the " holy," is the authoritative sentiment of the perfect. The moral imperative in God or man is the authority of a realized infinite, an actual perfect. A sentiment has no efficiency to compel obedience, but cannot be ignored or disobeyed without a resulting deg- radation to the being who rejects it, though the sentiment abides unimpaired. The holy is authoritative in that it imposes upon finite persons the obligation to be or do as in accordance with the perfect. Its authority is practical, since the person must experience defect or fault to the extent he neglects or rejects it. Its authority is wholly ?noral, for the reason that it does not compel attention or obedi- ence ; the person may attend or neglect, obey or dis- obey, at will. Its authority is independent in that it is the self-sustained sentiment of perfect being. It is the sentiment of God, the absolute imperative for all eternity. Hence we must recognize the absolute ground of moral 5 66 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. obligation in the actual perfect ; and since the sentiment of holiness arises in actual or actualizable perfectness, it is clear that free devotion to perfectness of intention, in God or man, is holy. Disobedience to the sentiment of the perfect, by choosing to determine his nature as beneath perfection, cannot be thought of the unconditioned person without thinking of him as having abandoned unconditioned being. For did he reject his conception of perfect being, he must become conscious not only of self-degradation, but also of a moral authority over him in the rejected conception, which, though abandoned, abides unimpaired as a realizable ideal, abides as the criterion of what he ought to be, and thus conditions and condemns him. Therefore, to think of the unconditioned nature, we must think of unconditioned action as purposely enact- ing a perfection in which holiness is founded and duty anticipated. Thus love, the unconditioned nature, founds the holy as the quality of its intention. To say, What God ought to be he must be, ex- presses his holiness as imposed duty. But, to say, God is what an unconditioned person must be, implies absolute holiness as a quality of unconditioned being, a quality of infinite love. In man's dependent nature is the consciousness of an ideal self, obedience to which is duty, but supreme devotement to which is a love which anticipates duty. The beautiful is that in perfectness which gives pleasure. Pleasure is derived from contemplating an ideal, but especially from the possession or achieving of that ideal in realization. Doubtless there is a satis- faction or appreciation derived in " the good," when it is attained in the practical realization of an ideal. But BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 67 pleasure, rightly discriminated, results from such practi- cal realization, not because it is a good, but because of its perfectness. Perfectness, whether ideal or real, thus distinguished as pleasurable, is the beautiful. The fact that it is perfectness which gives pleasure, irrespec- tive of practical good, shows that the beautiful is a sentimental quality of the perfect ; and that love, the perfect nature of God, has in it " the perfection of beauty." That the beautiful arises as a quality, or property, of the perfect is further evinced in its close association with the holy, — so close, indeed, as to make it almost a question if it is not a sub-quality of the holy. As the origin of moral authority is found in the perfect, we find also in that authority the primary differentiation of pleasure and pain. Conscious self-degradation, which comes of ignoring or disobeying the perfect, has the ab- sence of a positive pleasure, and also, the presence of displeasure, — in human terms, pain or agony. The ne- cessary implication of intrinsic pain in the consciousness of self-degradation by rejection of the perfect, implies the alternative that the realization of the perfect is the source of intrinsic pleasure. Hence we conclude that love, the nature of perfect action, has, consciously, in it both the authoritative sentiment of holiness and the pleasurable sentiment of beauty. It is impossible to think of God as perfect action without thinking that he experiences infinite rapture. The good, or goodness, though an expression often used in the sense of the perfect nature, falls short of expressing more than a quality of that nature. We may say, God is good ; but not, The good is God. The latter phrase expresses merely the empty abstraction of 68 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. an impersonal deity. To say, The nature of God is good, is correct as to a single quality of his nature, but the good is not God, nor the nature of God. It is but one of the qualities which infinite love, his nature, founds. In like manner it may be said, he is holy, sublime, or all- wise, but these terms merely affirm cer- tain qualities or manifestations of his nature. It cannot be made clear to thought that goodness, holiness, truth, or beauty is God or his nature ; they are not, one or all, identical in thought with love, his self-determining action. Since the good is only a quality of action, it is not real, except when determined by some reality. As a quality is nothing other than a property of some ac- tual being, it is a chimera unless it is realized in action. Chief good is the satisfaction of love. It is the high- est practical excellence, or worth, of being; the highest practical satisfaction of the perfect nature to himself, and of finite beings to themselves, individually and as a whole. Being, alone, has positive good. Non-being, or non-existence, is nothing, contains no possibilities, is worthless. It cannot be thought good in any but a nega- tive sense ; in which it may be deemed a less evil than abused, self-degraded being. But it cannot be a positive good, although there may be modes of being which are so evil as to be worse then worthless. Any type or mode of being which has in it a satisfaction, interest, or possibility better than non-being has the quality of goodness or the good. And any such being which realizes perfection of its type attains its chief good. Hence, chief good signifies the highest practical satisfaction or worth of true being ; and it is, therefore, correct to affirm of the perfect Being that he realizes infinite good. Since the possibility of good can be thought only BEING, AS CONCEIVED. 69 of- being, it subsists for dependent beings in two factors, namely, the conditions of such beings, and their self-determination in the use of these conditions. Hence, the good of being is achieved subjectively. For the independent being the possibilities for good are in but one factor, self-determination. Inasmuch as the unconditioned person must be thought as real- izing infinite being, his action must found the infinite good. The infinite good, then, is not identical with love, but is its satisfaction, a practical quality or prop- erty of absolute perfection. But all these qualities, the true, the holy, the beautiful, and the good, must each and all be but illusions unless they are enacted ; each and all must be merely conven- tional unless they are founded in independent action. If they are nowhere so realized it must remain an open question whether they are real or realizable. Hence, without action of a nature which realizes them as its qualities they must remain in the region of myth. Since a quality is nothing but a property of action, " the highest good" can mean nothing other than the highest prac- tical worth of being. " Absolute truth," the conscious- ness of perfect being, the infinite ideal, cannot be essen- tial truth except as realized in perfect personality. We may say that relative truth is harmony with absolute truth, but both are only as our minds construe things unless absolute truth is realized in perfect action. So, also, the holy would be a superstition and beauty a dream unless founded in actual perfection. It is equally plain that unconditioned action cannot realize them, as obeying or seeking them as objects; for in that case such action would be conditioned by them, and hence could not be the unconditioned y Q THE EVOLUTION OP LOVE. nature. Therefore, action which can realize these infi- nite qualities must be the action which founds them. But, inasmuch as the fact of my own dependent being pushes upon me the fact of the independent being, and the independent must be unconditioned, or perfect, being, and perfect being is perfect action, and perfect action is love, nothing can be more real than that perfect nature, love, whose practical satisfaction is the supreme good, that self-consciousness which is absolute truth, that authoritative sentiment which is the holy, or that fountain of pleasure, infinite beauty. Love is not to be classed with these qualities, but is that unconditioned action in which they are founded. Love is the only kind of action which we can think capable of unconditioned perfection ; hence, it is our only possible conception of the nature of an uncondi- tioned being. Any other kind of self-determining action falls into conditions ; love, alone, is all- sufficient. It is independent, infinite. It is at once the achieve- ment and conception of the infinite reality, — perfect being, rejoicing in infinite truth, goodness, holiness, and beauty. Love, immutably self-assured, independently realizing perfect being, gives those qualities living reality. Moreover, it is not only unconditioned, but all-condi- tioning action. While it is the fulness of self-assured perfection it is adequate to conceive, realize, and sustain a perfect system of dependent being evermore. Only that which is perfect, independent self-determination can be the primary conditioning-power. And since love is the nature of the unconditioned it is the nature of the action which establishes original conditions. Love is the answer to the question raised in the former part of this chapter, " What kind of a being is BEING, AS CONCEIVED. ^ he ? " It is that action which realizes perfect being. It affords the only and ample occasion for an objective creation, and renders to each dependent person a full account of the one imperious fact, — his own dependent, yet self-determining being. Reality is action, action is life, perfect action is love ! 7 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. CHAPTER III. BEING, AS CONDITIONED. In Him we live and move and have our being. — Saint Paul. The implications of being have forced upon us the conception of an unconditioned person whose nature is love ; action which is a simple unit, at once the con- sciousness and realization of infinite, perfect being, — perfectly self-conscious in perfect self-determination. As it is self-conscious it is the supreme devotement, or self-determining act. We have been compelled, also, to recognize in this conception a life which is a perfect ego, capable of perfect altruism ; or, in other words, an egoism which, perfectly self-dependent and self-assured, is perfectly free to evince his changeless perfection by unreserved devotion to other beings. This unreserved devotion to others is what we mean by "perfect altruism," a manifestation, the highest and clearest, of independent egoism. It is a love which implies such perfect con- sciousness of egoistic independence that it can manifest its ineffaceable perfection in all the abandon of an unre- served external devotion ; a manifestation which is an eternal beneficence and an infinite glory. Altruistic freedom, let us term this feature of infinite love. Failure to grasp this characteristic of perfect being, we suspect, has been a vitiating weakness in much of the philosophizing of the past. It has ren- BEING, AS CONDITIONED. ^ dered thinkers unable to think their way out from an unconditioned God to a conditioned universe which is objective to God. They have argued that, to human thought, a finite universe which is originated by an infinite or unconditioned being is a contradiction. Hence they have either denied the reality of an objective universe, which denial is pantheism, or they have failed to affirm the reality of the unconditioned being, which is atheism, or, like the school of Sir William Hamilton, they have denied that God can be an object of human thought. We are not unaware that the difficult question of con- ditioned being is : Can the unconditioned be thought to erect objective being, without himself becoming condi- tioned? And, further, Becoming conditioned, can he be thought as abiding in unconditioned self-conscious- ness ; or must he pass into conditioned self-conscious- ness, and so subside as an unconditioned being? To these questions it were sufficient to answer : — i. He assumes these conditions by himself establish- ing them ; and only an unconditioned being can be thought capable of thus assuming them. 2. The same independent self-determination which can be thought without them must be self-conscious in the action which founds and sustains dependent being. The fact that he consciously establishes the conditions to objective being, and that this objective action is wholly determined by him keep before our thought his abiding consciousness of his own uncon- ditioned nature. It is certainly plain that human thought is condi- tioned, but how this argues that an unconditioned being cannot be thought by us as acting in relation 74 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. to an object has not been shown. That we are unable to discriminate that an absolutely self-determined being can conceive of relationship and act in relation to objects* without our losing the conception that he consciously and perfectly determines his own nature, is certainly an unwarranted surrender of reason. True, he must be thought as a subject who is related to an object, but he must be thought as the consciously independent subject whose nature is absolutely self-determined and who is independent in choosing to establish that object. If the conditioned nature of human consciousness were wholly the result of man's objective action we might be prone to think that the divine self-consciousness might, similarly, be the effect of his objective action. But there is not even this ground for our thinking that his objective action must efface the self-determined nature or consciousness of God. If a human being could by any means attain to unconditioned action or thought, it does not follow that his consciousness of that nature wherein he is conditioned and dependent would be lost. It would only show that he has deter- mined in himself a mode of knowing and acting dis- tinct from his relative and conditioned mode. Can we not clearly think of an independent being who, though consciously unconditioned in the determination of his own nature, may determine in himself a relative mode of knowing and acting without his being dependent upon it, or his nature conditioned by it. The only valid conclusion of this matter, arising from the limitations of human thought, is that we must think of God's nature as consciously independent and perfect, and also capable of conceiving and maintaining a consciousness of all possible dependent objects, relations, and conditions. BEING, AS CONDITIONED. 75 Moreover, much of the difficulty of this question results either from a confused or whimsical use of the terms "infinite," "unconditioned," "absolute," etc. Most of these thinkers fail perfectly to emancipate their thought of the infinite from the notion of quantity. Hence it is not surprising that they should aver that they cannot think of the infinite with the finite " superadded," for- sooth. But quantity is identical in thought with limita- tion, and hence a quantitative infinite is unthinkable and absurd. The infinite, in our thought, is perfectly free action ; hence it is action which is perfectly independ- ent, perfectly unconditioned and absolute, in relation to nothing in its self-determination. These terms can be strictly applied to only perfect action and its quali- ties ; hence, only to a perfect person and his traits. But these terms do not, in strict use, apply to his objective action, as thought by us, but only to an ego whose action is perfectly self-determined in unrestricted freedom. And when we think of his determining a rela- tive mode of consciousness in himself, that conscious- ness is dependent upon him, not he upon it. Re- lation which may subsist between him and this relative mode of knowing and acting has no previously con- ditioning influence upon his determination of his nature, but simply expresses the form of his act in conditioning its existence. He is consciously independent, whether in omitting, establishing, or dismissing finite conceptions, conditions, and relations. They are incident to his determination of altruism; and altruism is dependent upon egoistic perfection. If his altruistic determination could be thought as in some way at the expense of egoistic perfection, or an abridging of infinite per- fection in himself, there might be some ground for the 76 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. position taken in Hamilton's philosophy of the uncon- ditioned. But since love may exercise unrestrained benevolence because of its realizing self-perfection, there appears nothing in love's objective action to modify its unconditioned self-consciousness. All that Hamilton's school can validly affirm is that the determination of divine altruism, or benevolence, must be conditioned. This we affirm, in advance, by having said that, while altruistic freedom is in independent love, the deter- mination, realization, carrying out of altruism must be by objective action, and therefore must be thought as conditioned. But none can deny that love abides ego- istically perfect, even when it determines conditioned benevolence. An egoism which is perfect action must be thought unsusceptible to impairment ; and such egoism alone can have perfect altruistic freedom, which is the con- dition to perfect benevolence. An immutably perfect ego only can be thought as infinitely free, or as possessing perfect objective freedom. But the fact of an ego immutably perfect implies in it perfect objective, or altruistic freedom. Hence perfection of being must be thought as a perfect egoistic life, perfectly free to an altruistic life. It is requisite to the notion of a perfect ego that there is nothing in him- self that is short of perfect freedom to act objectively, to freely choose what he will do, and in what method and according to what plan, if any, he will act. Our thought of the perfect freedom of God's self- determined nature is quite a different conception from that of his objective action j the former is independent, absolute, the latter is relative and conditioned. Altruistic freedom is in the former. It is perfect freedom to act BEING, AS CONDITIONED. yy objectively, or not, as the independent being may choose. If he choose to act objectively it does not change our thought of his independent nature, but simply requires us to think his objective action is relative and conditioned. Hence we must conclude that the question of harmonizing absolute being with his objective, relative action is a question of differing modes of consciousness in God, — the absolute con- sciousness and the relative consciousness ; thus carrying the question back into the independent nature, as a philosophic question, where it belongs. If we bear in mind that the aim of human philosophiz- ing cannot be to discover " how being is made," but that its true object is to form a conception which harmonizes and unifies the facts of being, we may get on with this question of absolute and relative modes of consciousness in God. It is not our task to show how they subsist, but to keep our thoughts clear of con- tradictions while we recognize the fact that they do subsist. The positions of all systems of thought, ancient and modern, which have failed here have taken for granted that such contradiction is unavoidable ; their position is substantially this, namely : The consciousness of re- lation, in God, must cancel his consciousness of absolute being. But this is a gratuitous assumption. They who hold to the doctrines of Nescience must make good this assumption before they can rationally advance their theories. Relative consciousness, or consciousness of relation, is knowledge of that which is, or is known, in relation to other things or thoughts. The absolute is that which can be and be known of itself without the existence of 7 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. any thing or thought other than itself. Nothing can realize this latter definition except action which is per- fectly conscious of itself as perfectly self-determined reality. Hence, the absolute is the only consciously and perfectly self-determined unit. It is unnecessary and absurd to think that this unit must forfeit or abate his consciousness of his own nature because of any conceptions which he may have of any or all other modes of being. Further, he must be thought less than perfect if he is not conscious of every possibility and implication of thought or act or of every significance and minutia of a theory of his own being. This is the same as saying that he must be less than independent if he cannot be conscious of a perfect relative conception ; and he must be thought less than perfect action if he cannot be con- scious of such theory or conception without losing con- sciousness of himself as the self-determined unit. Then, what ground is there for saying that if he act objectively, project a universe, for example, in accordance with this conception, he can no longer be thought by us as ex- isting in all perfection, independent of all objective action condition, or relation? His objective action cannot be thought to exist without him, but he must be thought as perfect being, independent of it. In a word, he cannot be thought to exist in external activities except as dependent upon internal perfection. This internal, or egoistic, perfection is realized in absolute conscious- ness. All comes to this : He is absolutely self-deter- mined ; hence, in our thought, his nature abides consciously absolute and as independent of all external action which, however vast, he may put forth. God's determination of relative consciousness in him- BEING, AS CONDITIONED. 79 self appears in his freedom to form a relative concep- tion, and thus consciously differentiate thought and thing. This differentiation, as we must see, is logically the true beginning. Is it clear to our reason that the absolute unit, the perfectly independent person, who in infinite freedom determines his own nature, is also free to form a con- ception of the relative ? If he cannot he has no mode of knowledge except self- consciousness, and this only as he acts it, and only in the one mode of action, the absolute. This is a notion of the self-determined One so cramped and stiff that he cannot even conceive of anything other than action, or of any mode of action other than absolute. This is infinite freedom of being which is under bonds to a finite necessity to think or do nothing. He is shut up to a necessity, — is neither inde- pendent nor infinite. The fallacy of this whole matter is in thinking of God's nature as being subject to modification by his objective thought or act, and thus dependent upon these in the same sense in which a dependent nature is gradually developed by interaction with external forces. But the only clear thought of his nature is that it is absolutely self-determined ; and this absolutely self-de- termined nature is self-conscious in positing any thought or action which he wholly determines, and which is wholly dependent upon him. It is a degrading an- thropomorphism to suppose that he cannot even con- ceive of aught less than himself without modifying his absolutely self-determined nature, as human thoughts and doings modify human character. But the one is independent being, the other is dependent becoming. Can the being who is a perfect person conceive of So THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. any other than perfect action? Only an affirmative answer to this question is thinkable. Yet this answer decides the entire question of conditioned being. For, the moment we recognize that the being who is the unit of act and thought conceives that which is other than absolute self-determination, we thereby accept the fact that he is conscious of distinguishing this concep- tion from the action which may give it determination. If our thoughts are clear in recognizing this we can easily see that he is able to view thought and thing severally, as concept and content, ideal and reality, and related to each other as such. In a word, God, the self-conscious unit of thought and act, may be re- garded as also conscious of unrealized conceptions, and hence must be conscious of thought and act as dual, separate and correlated. And since in his perfect nature there is perfect altruistic freedom, he may be thought as conceiving a perfect altruistic scheme. Such a scheme is a concep- tion of an objective universe, and implies a universe of dependent persons who shall be objects of his action and beneficiaries of his altruism. Their personality, however, implies that, within conditions, they are self- determining ; and this is the same as to say that his conception of a universe is a scheme of thought which, in part, depends upon others to make it an actual thing. This differentiation of thought and its actualization is consciousness of form, as distinguished from the action which shall determine it ; and consciousness of their re- lation, each to the other. It implies consciousness of the relative, the limited, conditioned, — a relative con- sciousness. There is nothing in the nature of human reason to prevent our affirming the statement that God, BEING, AS CONDITIONED. gl as the absolute unit, determines in himself the con- sciousness of distinction and relation between thought and thing. The determining the relative consciousness is the dependent result. Hence, the relative consciousness in God is determined by his perfect action, love. This is the initiative of relation and plurality ; logically, the true beginning, or founding of conditioned existence. It is also the origin of limitation, or quantity, and the starting-point of succession. This determination of a dependent mode of con- sciousness in God implies that he may, in his infinite freedom, determine in himself many distinct modes of consciousness, all consciously dependent; yet in his absolute nature he is self-conscious as the independent founder of all. The two modes of consciousness, the absolute and the relative, stand boldly out to our reason because of our unavoidable recognition of (i) the absolute nature of the independent self-determination of God, and (2) the determination of relative consciousness implied in his conception of relationship. The absolute self- consciousness is not conditioned by, or dependent upon, the relative, but abides in its distinct mode of being. The relative is posited by, and dependent upon the absolute. It is the child of the independent, " the begotten of the Father ; " and so far as we can know or think, " the only begotten." In the order of God's relative consciousness is the going forth of his objective action. Hence, the crea- tion of an objective universe must be thought as the action of God, according to his relative consciousness, — the action of " the only begotten." g 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. We must think of the independent as at once uncon- ditioned and yet free to be ever in process of relative self-determination. The consciousness of this relative self-determination we have designated "the begotten," the formal expression, " the Logos." Nor can we see that any violence to thought is committed by designat- ing this mode of conscious self-determination by the term "person." The relative consciousness in God is the nexus be- tween the infinite and the objective finite ; the bridge by which thought passes out from the infinite unit to the finite many. To find this passage has been the grand effort and failure of philosophy in ancient and modern times. No triangulation of regressive thought has ever been able to span this chasm. The relative consciousness in God is the primus of serial being, the first in the order of succession, the pri- mary consciousness of conditioned being. It is the real beginning, the " Word " that was " with God " and " was God." "The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him ; and without him was not anything made that was made." But we find this the logical beginning simply, but do not assign it a chronological date. We can assign no period when the Absolute refrained from objective action. But we must, nevertheless, think of his conception of relation and conditions as dependent, though eternal ; and therefore the relative consciousness must be thought as only logically subsequent to and dependent upon the absolute. Perhaps a more difficult question from our point of view is : Can love be thought as perfect action without altruistic determination ; can love be complete without BEING, AS CONDITIONED. g~ practical benevolence? This question, however, is an- swered in a former chapter substantially as follows : Love, or supreme devotement to perfection, is complete whether as self-love it realize perfection independently or as benevolence, indirectly. The difficulty which attends the effort to see this is a certain anthropomor- phism which regards love as not complete unless it is lavished upon some object. Because men need an object to love, as an instrument through which to realize their ideal, and thus experience their highest self-deter- mination, purged of selfishness, we are apt to regard God as in need of a similar process by which to realize his own perfection. In man the same need of objects is experienced in every department of self-realization, physical, emotional, mental, and moral ; but the inde- pendent needs no indirect or related method by which to realize perfection in himself. Love is complete as devoted realization of the perfect, whether that realiza- tion be wrought directly or indirectly, with or without instrumentality. Perfection in God must be thought as directly self-determined, while man's perfection is deter- mined by his devotement to an object which represents this perfection. Infinite love realizes the infinite ideal in itself. If the independent being choose to form a conception of a perfect system of dependent being, that conception must be thought as dependent upon him and conditioned by him ; it is a conditioned concep- tion, while his nature is unconditioned. Perfectly self- determined being must be thought as perfectly uncon- ditioned love ; and must be thought such before he can be thought capable of perfect altruism. If we but bear in mind that love is purely self-determining action we cannot fail to see that its highest mode is subjective, 8 4 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. egoistic. And if we strictly adhere to this pure notion of love, the supreme devotement of perfect self-deter- mination, we shall have no difficulty in seeing that in an independent being it must realize perfect self-determi- nation without need of objective instrumentality. Perfect self-determination must be thought absolute in knowledge and power, hence can actualize perfection directly, not conditioned by time, space, or means. It is not dependent upon objects of love as indirect means of realizing perfection. Dependent persons, such as we are, must be led to apprehend our ideal self and actualize it in our highest self-determination by means of altruistic methods. We must " lose our lives that we may find them." All our love for others reacts to achieve our highest self-determination, and thus proves to be pure self-love purged of selfishness. And this pure self-love, which is the best possible for ourselves, is realized by our being the best possible for others. This exhibits the subjective oneness of love and self- love, — exhibits the unselfish freedom of a perfect self- love, pure altruism. But as the independent self-love of God is directly self-determined, it is independently the best for himself, and independently capable of being the best for a de- pendent universe. Hence it is clear that altruistic determination in an objective creation has nothing to do with developing love as the nature of God, — is not a necessity or a condition to God's egoistic perfection. But on the contrary, his perfect being, in its independ- ent altruistic freedom, is the condition and opportunity which account for the objective nature of the universe ; account for the universe as other than God. Love, the only thinkable nature of an unconditioned being, is in BEING, AS CONDITIONED. gc its perfect altruistic freedom the only thinkable condi- tion which is adequate to the projectment of objective being. Here we shake off the last shred of pantheistic philosophy, Hindoo, Greek, or German. Pantheism is but a confession of inability to think its way out from infinite to finite being ; and hence surrenders the solution of finite being and stultifies the individual self-consciousness of man. Whether as a theory that the universe is God, or God is the universe, or that God and the universe are necessary, co-existing phases of being, it cannot be held without contradic- tion. According to pantheism there is either no inde- pendent or no dependent being. Its teachers have failed to recognize unconditioned being as perfect ac- tion, failed to see that perfect action is perfectly devoted self-realization, failed to recognize this as infinite self- love, and failed to see that infinite self-love has infinite altruistic freedom, is infinite love, and implies the infinite freedom of perfect unselfishness. They have made their failures by regarding the universe as in some way necessitated ; regarding the infinite as in some way im- pelled or driven to phenomenal methods to attain self- consciousness. They have dragged the infinite into finite conditions, and yet have accounted for nothing ; or, like Fichte, have concluded that finite being is but a dream, and human knowledge " but the dream of a dream." The first thing to account for is the fact of finite being, the individual self-perception of man ; not the reason why man or the universe exists, but the condi- tion upon which they can exist. We find this condition in the perfect altruistic freedom of independent self-love ; a freedom which neither abridges, impels, nor determines, 86 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. but illustrates infinite self-love, the unconditioned na- ture of an ego whose perfection is not susceptible to impairment through endless altruistic determination. We find in this unconditioned love no necessity nor compulsion to altruistic benevolence. Compulsion can- cels benevolence. We find nothing in God's objective action that is a condition to his perfect self-determina- tion. We find, simply, an infinite love which needs no indirect methods by which to achieve perfect self-deter- mination, as man needs, but which, in its direct, un- related, independent realization of perfect being, is perfection for himself; and is hence capable of perfect beneficence to others ; and this love, in its egoistic independence, is identical with perfect self-love, the self-sustained egoism which is adequate to endless altruism. This is perfect altruistic freedom, as implied in infinite egoistic love. We have said that a perfect, that is, a perfectly free, altruism is, to our thought the highest exponent of egoistic perfection. But this does not imply that ego- istic perfection is determined by means of it; but it does imply that egoistic perfection is self sufficient, self- secure, so as to be infinitely free to determine love's altruistic benediction, without subjective reserve, for- ever. Thus love appears to our thought as determining a higher and a lower life, — the higher life of independent being, the lower life of finite self-determination in rela- tion with dependent being. The higher is the perfec- tion of unconditioned, the lower is the perfection of conditioned consciousness. Then let it be steadily held in view that the grand demand upon our system is to account for our personal existence ; and that this fact is accounted for in finding BEING, AS CONDITIONED. 87 in independent self-love the freedom to create or not create ; and in either case to be self-determined perfec- tion in himself. The perceived fact of our dependent existence evinces that he chooses to create ; his freedom so to choose offers a full account of our existence, — a full account of " Being, as Conditioned." The reason why he chooses to create dependent beings is not concerned in this question, or in any way needed that we may see the co-existence of conditioned with unconditioned action in God, or the co-existence of conditioned beings with the unconditioned One. " The reason why " concerns the intention, or meaning, of our existence, but not the fact. Doubtless pantheis- tic theories are prompted from supposing that dependent being must be accounted for by showing some necessity for it, and hence place that necessity in a necessitated unit, which may be termed either God or universe, and of which dependent beings are but temporary phenom- ena. Thus self-conscious, dependent being, which is the grand problem to be solved, is not solved, but ignored. Now that we see, in self-love's perfect self-determina- tion, the freedom of the unconditioned ego to determine an objective system of being in harmony with that love, we might offer the implied reason why he chooses so to do, but this we defer to the discussion of "The Implications of Love," Part Second. The Altruistic Spirit. — It is impossible for us to think of that Person who is immutably perfect — perfect for the infinite good and pleasure of his own being and perfect to afford the highest good of other possible beings — without recognizing in him the spontaneity, or spirit, of infinite benevolence ; a spirit prompting to his 88 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. objective determination of conditions upon which may arise any and all forms of being that may realize a beneficent existence. But to be more explicit : We have seen that love, his nature, is supreme devotement to perfection of being. Take this with its realization of God's uncon- ditioned egoism, in which is perfect freedom to altruistic determination, and the fact stands out to our view that his nature, love, is devotement to all being in which it may realize an ideal. Hence, we must recognize a tendency in love to action which can realize an ideal objective life, — indeed an objective life which may com- prehend all ideals which may contribute to the realiza- tion of perfect objective being. The term " spirit," is used in at least two different senses : first, it means the self-determining ego, in which the consciousness of personality resides. The term has this sense in the sentence, " God is a spirit." Secondly, the term " spirit" represents the synthetic senti- ment, general disposition or tendency of the intention and qualities which are established by self-determination. This is the general out-flow, or spontaneity, in which every trait of the nature and character is represented, not in severalty, but as a whole. Since love is devotion to perfection of being, and ex- periences the practical good of love-determined being, and enjoys perfect altruistic freedom, it has the general sentiment of devotion to the realization of all possible forms of love-determinable being. Take the practical good which God knows there is in the satisfaction of love, and the practical good to other beings which love may attain in the realization of the several ideals which may be comprehended in the realization of an ideal ob- BEING, AS CONDITIONED. 8 9 jective life, as a whole, and we have the benevolent ele- ment in love's altruistic spontaneity. This " altruistic spontaneity " is an altruistic spirit in the second above described sense of that term " spirit." But it is only a spontaneity, not a determination, unless it actually prompts to objective action. If it so prompt it is then a self-conscious determination, self-consciously prompting, or urging; an objectively directed energy ; *' the altruistic spirit " in the first sense as above described. If, according to the prompting of this spirit, God ac- tually creates dependent objects, then, we must think, the altruistic spirit is definitely self-conscious in all his objective action, — self-conscious in love, prompting and urging its entire evolution. This prompting to objective being has in it, of course, love's devotion to perfection, love's enthusiasm for ac- tualizing the ideal. Hence it is the prompting of inten- tional perfection, albeit of conditioned perfection. It is the intent to realize a perfect objective life. And since the holy is perfect intention, or intended perfectness, its prompting is wholly to perfectness in all objective action. Although the working out of love's ideal objec- tive life may involve a vast amount of weakness, defeat, delay, or opposition to its perfect determination, the spirit which prompts to it must be thought true to the ideal, in its intent, throughout all the vicissitudes of the realizing process. Hence the altruistic spirit is, dis- tinctively, a holy spirit. Although the objective, condi- tioned system of being may involve much of imperfection before its perfection is attained, the spirit which urges it is holy so long as it does not demand a departure from righteousness or the infliction of essential ill upon oo THE EVOLUTION OP LOVE. any being in order to condition the ultimate success. We have seen in the preceding chapter that intending, or purposing, the perfect is the holy in God ; and in- tending a best or true self is holiness in a finite person ; hence we can readily see that the spirit which prompts to the conditioned perfection of God's objective action is the spirit of holiness, or the " Holy Spirit." We discern, then, in our discrimination of the altru- istic spirit of love, that its prompting will be an authorita- tive sentiment at every point in conditioned being where self determining intention shall arise, — an authoritative sentiment, urging to intentional devotion to the realiza- tion of the ideal, the true life. This sentiment of holy intention must abide as a moral condition to every in- tention, divine or human, which bears upon the deter- mination of personal character or the attainment of essential good. Whether, then, we think of God's objective action as creating and arranging primal chaos, or adjusting the conditions of the nicest shades of human responsibil- ity, or witnessing his acceptance of human faith, there must be thought the self-determined presence of the altruistic spirit, urging holy intention in all conditioned being. The inference to which this matter comes is that we identify the u moral imperative " in man, termed the authority of conscience, with the authoritative sentiment of the altruistic or holy spirit, which, in God's infinite nature prompts to objective holiness and benevolence, and is self-evident as moral authority which conditions man's conscious intentions. Since it does not determine formal thought or action, in man or the objective uni- verse, but merely imposes a moral condition upon inten- BEING, AS CONDITIONED. 9I tions, it is purely moral in its prompting, its condemna- tion, or its approval. The Determination of Altruism is necessary to give it objective reality. Without such determination it must be thought as simply comprehending an infinite altruistic freedom and the altruistic spirit. It is nothing more than the occasion for objective action unless God shall choose to realize it in objective fact. Thus there is in- volved in love the original possibility of objective reality. And, upon further consideration, we may see that it im- plies motive to the creation of real objects. But since it is clear that we need not think the nature of perfectly self-determined being is changed or affected by his con- ceiving or founding objects, we must regard God as at once unconditioned and yet free to be ever in process of relative self-determination. Pantheism cannot realize altruism. A universe which is not objective to the power that projects it is not a universe, but an ego ; does not determine objective realities. Love, which realizes perfect being and hence can afford unrestrained altruistic action, implies in that action objects which shall be consciously other than the unconditioned being, — objects toward which, also, the Unconditioned shall realize that he establishes, or posits, them as external to himself. This is his conditioning of externality. A point in God's action where he erects conditions from which may arise a spontaneous self-conscious act, other than God's act, is a realization of externality ; and is action which must be thought as objective to God. That self-conscious external action gives indi- vidual unity to the group of conditions upon which it has arisen. This actor, or agent, that shall thus act 92 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. originally — that is, for himself — consciously choosing to do this or that, or in any way originating change in and of himself, becomes thereby conscious of himself as a being other than God; and God is thereupon conscious of a person external to himself. This new, self-conscious being may not be definitely conscious of the conditioning action which constitutes his nature, nor apprehend how his own power to act arises ; but he is conscious of himself in acting for him- self. This definite self-conscious agent, who, though dependent, is conscious of selfhood as an individual actor, self- determining within his conditions, is a real object, external to God, which meets the demand of divine altruism. In him the divine love realizes actual altruism. Love's benevolence finds a real object, and acting in relation to him, is consciously beneficent. It is only a universe of such self-conscious, though de- pendent beings, that can be such a universe as the free altruism of God implies. Although we might suppose the existence in the mind of God of a concept of a perfect universe, this concept could not be the determination of altruism until such concept became an objective reality; until a person or persons, definitely other than himself, were established. This otherness must consist in a definite, though dependent ego, — a real being who is a self con- scious actor. He may be conscious of action which is not his own, and yet conscious of his own self-origi- nated action ; and also that it is the one same con- sciousness which distinguishes the action which is self-originated from that which is not his own. I am conscious of charming sensations of sight and sound which arise in me by no choice or act which I exert ; BEING, AS CONDITIONED. 93 but I can avoid their charm by choosing to divert my attention from them, and thus, by my own act, con- sciously ignore them. Not only do I distinguish self- originated action from posited action within me, but I abide the same individual, perceiving and purposing, and remembering past perceptions and purposes. This finite ego, my self-perceived being, is conditioned by that class of action termed above " not my own." It is action which is established by a power other than myself. It is my nature ; but in the action which I originate I am selt-conscious and free, appropriating and modifying my nature, building upon it or of it my self-determined personality. It is of no consequence to ask how original action arises spontaneously upon certain posited conditions, or passes from spontaneous into self-determining action ; for that is but to ask how being comes to be, — a ques- tion which is impenetrable to human thought, and besides has no weight as against the perceived facts of spontaneous action all around us, and self-determination within us, arising upon posited conditions. God's objective action is conditioned actio?i ; con- ditioned by him as the subject who acts toward an object, and also conditioned by the object of his action, thus establishing the relation between subject and ob- ject. His relative consciousness founds succession, and is, logically, the beginning point of successive events. Hence love, when devoted to others, can be realized as conditioned. Until altruism is so realized it can be thought only as the altruistic spirit. Only by objective action can it find determination. Without this it is benevolence that is not beneficent. For an objective universe there is ample scope in the altruistic freedom 94 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. of love ; but its determination must always imply condi- tioned action. God must be conscious of acting under conditions when he acts with reference to a proposed object, and hence must be thought as acting accord- ing to his self-determined relative consciousness. It is clear to our thought, then, that love, which is the divine nature, and is perfectly self-consciousness as infinite egoism, expresses itself externally in restless, boundless activity ; and this objective activity, with all its objects and conditions, is the universe. The endless process of the universe is implied in its existence. All theories which suppose a cyclical return of the relative to the absolute, of the finite to the infinite, in the sense of suspension or completed end of finite being as a whole, imply a limit or ex- haustion of the infinite, beyond which he cannot con- dition dependent being. Of course, such implied limitation is contradictory and absurd. But because no such exhaustion can be thought, we must think of conditioned being, as a whole, as an endless develop- ment. We positively affirm God's objective action upon the ground of individual human consciousness alone. For aught we can positively know, all other world-phenomena may be part of his subjective action. In forming such a conception of the independent as our thought requires we do not find anything which we can positively know as external to God except ourselves, whom we perceive as individual conscious power. By inference from our own conscious unity we may and do conclude that all objects which manifest themselves after our manner, or order, in any degree, — things, men, or animals, — are, like ourselves, individual beings. Further, we think of the BEING, AS CONDITIONED. gc material world as being a part of God's objective action because we observe it as conditioned. Possibly there is in us an instinctive conviction that our perception of external objects is more real and valid than any exist- ing philosophy of perception has definitely established. Certainly the last word has not been said on that sub- ject. But in the knowledge of our own definite unity and free action, we have firmly fixed the fact of objec- tive being, objective to God. This fact prevents our thought from finding rest in any form of pantheism. How much of what we term the universe is God's objective action, it is impossible for us to decide. Where the line should be drawn that distinguishes the divine ego from the universe, it is not ours now to know, for the reason that we have direct perception of no other beings but ourselves. It is true that by sense-percep- tion we perceive the earth, the heavens, clouds, conti- nents and oceans ; the seasons with their snows and verdure, their flowers and fruits ; the animals, great and small ; the sounds and songs of nature ; the human family with all its busy activities, its signs of joy, suf- fering, ambition, disappointment, achievement, and quenchless longing. But it is by inference we decide that these are real objects ; and that inference is based upon our individual consciousness. When I observe objects which reveal to my expe- rience and reason that they are self determining, like my- self, I am convinced they are persons. Upon such conviction we treat each other as free, responsible beings. Hence the responsible qualities which dis- tinguish persons, maintain relationship through the whole family of man, and develop all forms of government and law. Though this reasoning is valid in all practical 9 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. affairs, yet in deciding what may be directly known we must be guided by the facts of which we are directly conscious. Confined to these we can at least affirm our individual being, dependence, and free action ; in a word, our individual personality. This selfhood is the first fact which we directly know as objective, or external to God. We know it as objec- tive to God because of our consciousness of perceiving, choosing, purposing, willing. " Natural law " can be thought as only the observed order in which God acts. It can give us no insight as to where that action in the world passes from subject to object, or whether it is subjective or totally objective. Natural law is simply a recognition that there is about us an actor, not ourselves, who observes a regular order in his action, observes harmony everywhere. Relative order is relative truth ; and love is the content which determines the form of relative truth. This form of truth, or order, is not imposed upon, or accepted by love ; nor is it made in an arbitrary sense which implies it might have been made differently. But it is a conception which love de- termines as its formal expression. Let it be steadily borne in mind that the nature of perfect being is perfect action, and perfect action is love ; and that such a being, when acting with reference to an object, acts in the relation of subject to object ; and hence the relations established by his objective action must be the forms of love's objective expression. Relations are what they are, and relative truth is what it is, because love is love. The han7io?iy of relative being within itself, and its harmony with the absolute being, has its ground in the initial harmony of absolute and relative consciousness in God. Harmony of relations imply the possible harmony BEING, AS CONDITIONED. o 7 of beings who exist in relation to each other. Rela- tions are harmonious as they accord with the relative consciousness of God ; and their absolute basis of har- mony is in the compatibility of his relative with his abso- lute consciousness. This must be thought for the rea- son that love is the one determining action in God's egoistic and altruistic determination. Thus love appears as the nature of that ultimate unit in which alone thought can find the basis of an har- monious and possibly successful universe. It is that action in the universe which is self-sustaining and self- harmonizing in all forms, complexities, and extensions, forever. It is this alone which can assure the philoso- phers' claim that " truth is a unit," or justify the saying that " there is in history a force, not our- selves, which makes for righteousness," or inspire the poet to sing : — " Truth crushed to earth shall rise again ; The eternal years of God are hers." Disharmony may arise in conditioned being only at the point where dependent beings are free to originate action. Material things, which never break the harmony of natural order, must be referred to the action of God. All that we can affirm of them is that they must be thought by us as points or groups of points at which his action is perceptible to us. Hence, in all contact with the world and our own nature, our conscious action must be thought as in interaction with him. Around and in us at every point are his conscious activities, surrounding and filling us with ceaseless changes, yet transcending all change with immanent harmony. Our action must interact with him or react against him ; 7 9 8 THE EVOLUTION OP LOVE. acting upon his action, and thus, as we purpose, pervert- ing it or building into it. To the extent that our action intimately articulates with his we determine our progress and realize his concept, or ideal, of our being. Failure to so interact must be to antagonize our conditions, pervert our nature and defeat his plan in us. Thus we are free in this conditioned self-determination. Inferior beings may exist solely for the purpose of con- ditioning the development of superior classes of being, as vegetables afford conditions for the development of ani- mals, and certain classes of animals condition the develop- ment of others ; and any or all of these, again, furnish conditions for the life and development of persons. All the vast scheme of sensitive nature may thus be concerned in conditioning the maturing splendors of the personal universe ; and wholly, too, in accord with love, provided the degree of good realized by these inferior creatures compensates them for the sufferings incident to their being. Our position that the universe is the product of love implies this compensation. Besides, there is nothing in our knowledge of the lower animals to show that they do not derive this compensation. But there is much to show that they do ; which might here be pro- duced if it pertained to our line of inquiry. The "slaughter-house" argument of atheists, in which they dwell with so much sentiment upon the feeding of man upon animals and animals upon each other, has no significance until this question of compensations is set- tled in their favor. That the lower animals suffer agonies in the process of their contributing to the life of others we do not question, but that the pleasures of their being far outweigh these agonies is not only alto- gether probable as fact, but is a necessary inference from BEING, AS CONDITIONED. gg love's demands. And love's demands are affirmed upon higher and firmer grounds than any cosmic argument can afford. The main factors which dominate all the ques- tions of being, as conditioned, are those which establish it as a fact ; namely, the nature of God and the deter- mination of finite beings. Conditioning and Determining make up the whole of related action, — the grand summary of " Being, as Conditioned." They are the two functions of all action in which the sovereignty of God and the personal freedom of dependent beings are conserved and harmonized. Failure to observe this discrimination has been at the bottom of the theological worry of centuries over the supposed inconsistency of the " sovereignty of God " and the " freedom of the human will." But bearing in mind that objective action is necessarily and always conditioned, and that the evolution of divine love is the conditioning process to the development of a self-determining of a finite, personal universe, there is no need to suppose that God must in any instance over- ride the personal freedom of dependent beings in order to be thought "almighty," or able to achieve the evolution of love. Moreover, the divine altruism, seek- ing the highest perfection of dependent beings, must find its highest determination in the largest freedom possible to their dependent nature. Divine interference with their personal self-determination would be the defeat of altruism and a confession of its failure to achieve a successful universe. The true scope of divine sovereignty and its glorious success are in the affording conditions upon which the perfection of a personal universe shall be self-determined. The affording these conditions is the evolution of IOO THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. divine love ; a grander sweep of divine power than the compulsion or annihilation of a universe. The deter- mination of their own destiny, in the midst of these con- ditions, is the sphere, the responsibility, and the glory of finite persons. These determinations may, indeed, modify, distort, pervert the conditions which love provides ; hence its infinite altruistic freedom must afford further and ampler conditions upon which such perversions may be sur- vived and corrected. Thus, while he posits conditions which finite persons may modify, God must find him- self unfavorably conditioned in his effort to realize his altruistic purpose. But these unfavorable conditions but afford occasion for surmounting them : not by over- riding the personal freedom of finite persons, but by evolving further and wider conditions upon which they may remedy past abuses. Such has been the history of our planet and race. Such is the only view, clear to thought, which accounts for the long continuance of mixed good and ill. Such the suggestion of " the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God." To sum up : From the two facts, our being and dependence, we have endeavored to trace their im- plications. In our progress we have been compelled to recognize : — i. An independent, perfectly self-determined ego, or infinite Person. 2. That he is perfect action, the unit of "thought and thing," the conscious actualization of infinite perfection. 3. That love, and love alone, is the nature of that action. BEING, AS CONDITIONED. IOl 4. That love, realizing the infinite, is the grand involution of all being ; hence : — 5. Love involves absolute truth, as the infinite ideal, realizes the supreme good, the holy and intrinsic beauty. 6. That in love is perfect altruistic freedom ; hence it is capable of perpetual objective beneficence ; hence is free to condition the rise of an objective universe. 7. An objective universe is one composed of beings who are self-determining within conditions ; which im- plies that the Creator forms a conception of their being, leaving the actualization of such conception to condi- ioned beings themselves. 8. This conception in the divine mind implies the differentiation or dividing of thought and thing, of ideal and its realization, and their relations to each other ; hence it evinces consciousness in God of conditions and relations, the relative consciousness, the initial of successive being, the formal, the logical discrimination of being, — " the Word," " the Begotten of the Father." 9. In the order of the " relative consciousness " must be the putting forth of all God's objective activities, all evolution. Hence " the Creator, " is God acting ac- cording to his conception of logical relations ; hence his logical consciousness, or " begotten " consciousness, " the Son." 10. In infinite love there is not only altruistic freedom, but the u altruistic spirit," which is a self- conscious prompting, or urgency, in the infinite ego ; a definitely self-determined force, or mode of conscious- ness which prompts to the determination of altruistic being. And since it is a prompting to the realization of an ideal, or perfect altruistic life, it discriminates and I02 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. determines the holy intent of altruism, whatever may be the vicissitudes, mishaps, abuses, or woes attending its conditioned determination. Hence he is the Holy Spirit. ii. The determination, or actualization, of altruism is the evolution of love, the realization of an objective, or personal universe. 12. The process of love's evolution determines the conditions upon which dependent beings spontane- ously arise and gradually realize self-determination and consequent personal identity, as dependent, or condi- tioned, persons. The entire universe is conditioned in love ; although the relation of many classes of beings may be but to condition the determination of other classes. 13. Dependent persons are beings who are con- sciously free in their intentions and in the use which they make of all their conditions, hence within their conditions are self-determining. 14. Capable of intentional self-determination, they are capable of determining themselves as either in harmony or disharmony with their conditions, able to use or abuse them, and thus realize the intention of divine altruism, or pervert its auspices. 15. Freedom of intention in human beings is con- ditioned by a moral authority termed " conscience," or "the moral law," or "moral imperative," which, though it may be neglected, cannot be corrupted as can other conditions. It is an independent sentiment, which imposes the obligation of moral purity upon human intentions wherein those intentions pertain to self-deter- mination, and imposes altruistic benevolence wherein our intentions pertain to other beings. BEING, AS CONDITIONED. IO ~ It is independent in that it cannot be corrupted or modified. It is authoritative in that it imposes the au- thority of the ideal upon the actual. It is wholly moral in that it does not compel obedience. It is practical in that personal innocence, if obeyed, guilt if disobeyed, result from its moral behest. It is holy in that it prompts to perfect intention. It is altruistic in that it prompts to benevolence toward others. It is identical with the altruistic spirit in God, in that it prompts to holiness and benevolence of intention in all self-deter- mining and objective action. It is the " holy spirit," in that harmony with its prompting implies the determi- nation of perfect altruism, the perfection of the personal universe. 16. Thus the independent, altruistic spirit, which prompts to practical altruism in a perfect universe, main- tains the conditions to harmony of intention, leading to harmonious self-determination in all persons by disclosing the intention with which their being is posited. 17. The universe is a system of conditioning and de- termining action, — action of the Creator and dependent beings in relation to each other, objectively conditioning each other, — dependent persons subjectively determi- ning themselves upon these conditions. Conditioning and determining construct objective being, and hence make up the warp and woof of human life, history, and destiny. 18. The interaction of the Creator with dependent beings, and their interaction with him and each other, is " Being as Conditioned." 19. Free self-determining being, or personality, per- sonally external to God, yet interacting with his action in their nature and environment, is a full account of io4 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. all the facts of human consciousness, experience, and history. 20. The grand fact revealed to thought in these " Implications of Being " is the evolution of love. The grand significance of man is his position as an exponent and beneficiary of that evolution. With this view of Being, we confidently proceed to the " Second Part " of our task. I&att ^econO IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE. There is a love unstained by selfishness, Th' outpouring tide of self-abandonment, That loves to love ; and deems its preciousness Repaid in loving, though no sentiment Of love returned reward its sacrament ; Nor stays to question what the loved one will, But hymns its overture with blessings immanent ; Rapt and sublimed by love's exalting thrill, Loves on, through frown or smile, divine, immortal still. — Fragment. IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE. CHAPTER I. CREATION. The ideal, stable type of ever-moving progress. — Victor Hugo. In outlining the " Implications of Being," we have proceeded from the perceived facts, being and depend- ence, to the recognition of love as the nature of that perfect action which is the independent ego. In this perfect ego we have found perfect altruistic freedom for objective action. Hence we have clear scope in which to trace the " Implications of Love " in its evolution. Such evolution brings us to consider the natural world as a creation, and God in the capacity of his conditioned consciousness as Creator. That our thoughts at this point may be entirely clear to the reader, we use the term " creation," in order that we may not seem to entertain the notion that the Creator wrought the universe from supposed pre-existing material. Nor do we take upon us to affirm anything of matter, substance, or reality, further than to say it is action and what action unavoidably implies. Without possibility of doubt or gainsaying, action is real. This we can and must affirm. Hence we affirm of substance io 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. that it is at least action, — whether it is the action which merely exists, or that which moves, is conscious, thinks, wills, feels. And all we affirm of matter is that there are points and groups of points, greater or less, at which action, or force if you please, is perceptible through our senses. The fact that we perceive persistence and a certain regularity or fixed order in these manifestations of force or action, leads us to regard them as being perma- nent. This permanent order of persistent action we term "nature," or the natural world. We may suppose, or imagine, or even assume, many things of the sub- stance, properties, and phenomena of nature, but there is one thing which we can and must affirm as certain, and that thing is action. The term "creation," therefore, can certainly signify to our thought nothing more nor less than those divine activities which consist as a system of conditions upon which spontaneous and self-determining action, that is, objective being, may and does arise. And because these divine activities are put forth with reference to and for the purpose of conditioning the spontaneous rise of self-determining beings, they are termed the objective action of God. These classes of beings, which arise spontaneously upon the conditions which the Creator thus posits and maintains, constitute dependent being. They must be thought as objective to God in so far as they are with- out consciousness of God. If they are consciously self- determining, as is man, they are consciously other than God. While this self-determining action arises in a nature which consists of the Creator's action, it is not conscious of that nature further than it is conscious of using it. By its conscious use of that nature it appro- CREATION. 10 g priates and incorporates it into the self-consciousness of its own being. The self-determination of a being who is thus free to use, select, modify, develop, repress, or pervert the elements of his nature is what constitutes dependent personality, or a finite person. A definite conception of creation or the natural world may be stated thus : — i. Creation is a system of conditioned Divine activi- ties which constitute conditions upon which dependent beings may arise and may determine their perfection, and so determine a perfect universe. 2. If the perfect universe is developed in essential harmony with the conditions posited in creation — not- withstanding the rise of errors and accidents — it is a natural universe, naturally developed. 3. If essential disharmony arise, modifying natural conditions, the world becomes thereby preternatural, that is, " aside from natural." 4. If thereupon divine love evolve further or other conditions upon which the perfect universe may be achieved — notwithstanding the existence of essential disharmony — this evolution is supernatural. 5. The line between the conditions posited in crea- tion and those which may be added for recovery from essential disharmony, is the line which distinguishes the natural from the supernatural. Correction of errors and irregularities must be thought attainable upon natu- ral conditions, but self-determined antagonism to love and its purpose in nature, perverting natural conditions to malign ends, is essential disharmony, unnatural, pre- ternatural, and may require extra natural or supernatural conditions to compass its correction or elimination. With the above view of the objective action of God, II0 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. we may properly term the natural world a creation. Whether or not the method of creation is that of " evolu- tion " as held or opposed by scientists, does not concern us here. For whether the method of God's objective action may have occupied millions of centuries extended through numberless stages of nebulae, organism, and life, building conditions upon which new forms of life arise to condition the rise of still succeeding forms, before con- scious self-determination breaks forth in a personal uni- verse ; or whether he directly posits the conditions upon which races of finite persons arise and determine their development ; or whether he created dependent persons in a full-orbed finite perfection which they have degraded, cannot influence this question. In any case these objec- tive activities are but the goings forth of love's evolution devoted to the realization of an ideal universe. But to return to the above statement of our concep- tion of creation, its first item is of chief importance in this chapter : — " Creation is a system of conditioned divine activities which constitute conditions upon which dependent per- sons may arise and may determine their perfection, and so determine a perfect universe." This statement affirms that God conditions, and finite persons determine the universe. It implies also that the creation is perfect in that it affords the conditions upon which finite persons may determine their own per- fection and a perfect universe. Hence the fact and form of the natural world must be conditioned by the nature of the creator and the dependent freedom of the creature. We will therefore consider — I. Love, as the nature of the conditioning action and purpose of creation. CREATION. IIX II. Dependent freedom, as the nature of the deter- mining factor of the world. I. Under the first of these grand conditions we note that creation is chosen action, a step or movement in the evolution of love. The world is not a pre-existing thing, but is the dependent, objective product of creative will. Nor is it a necessary step in God's self-determination. Such a view cannot discriminate his unconditioned being, but must imply that the original agent, God, is depend- ent upon the universe as a means of his own self-con- scious perfection. " Unconditioned being " is essential to any rational view of being, and the only view consist- ent with the unconditioned being of God and the fact of conditioned finite being is that the latter is the chosen product of God's objective effort. He is absolutely independent ; the universe is dependent upon him. Having found too that the nature of unconditioned, in- finite or independent being is love, we have been able to see that such nature is unconditioned perfection in itself; and that there is in it infinite freedom to act objectively or not, as he may choose, without implying augmentation, impairment, limitation, or abrogation of his infinite egoistic consciousness. Therefore we view creation as simply the evidence that he who is infinitely self-sufficient chooses, in his perfect altruistic freedom, to put forth objective and eternal activities in establish- ing and maintaining finite being. This choice implies an intention. Contemplated as an object of our thought, Creation is a matter of choice with the Creator, which implies an intention which accounts for the existence of the universe. The evo- lution of love is the method by which the divine II2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. intention is disclosed and carried out. The fact that it is an evolution does not preclude the fact that it has a motive for its disclosures. We distinctly admit that this intention may comprehend much more than we can discern. Yet even we can recognize that in love which amply accounts for the creation of a system of dependent being. We are indeed compelled to recog- nize in love a motive to such a project. We have seen in a former chapter that infinite being must be thought as having the spirit, or prompting tendency, to realize all possible being which may subsist with itself. And since in its realization of independent egoism there is the absolute freedom and prompting to altruistic action we must recognize the altruistic spirit of infinite love. We must recognize the perfect freedom, potency, and disposition of a love-per- fected egoism to realize eternal and limitless altruism. Since his nature is devotion to the realization of ideal being he must be thought conscious of a conception of a perfect conditioned universe, an ideal from which may be explicated an indefinitely extended relationship, and which can be actualized only by objective beings. Hence he must be thought to possess an altruistic spirit, which seeks the realization of every relational, conditioned, perfection, the actualization of all forms of truth, the determination of all benevolence. We cannot think of infinite egoistic love without including in the thought this eternal spirit of boundless altruism ; the spirit which seeks the realization of all ideals of being, every type of perfection, developing every line of beneficent relationship. It is the spirit of objective perfection. Since, as we have seen, the intending the perfect is CREATION. II3 holiness, this altruistic spirit of love which determines itself as prompting to the realization of every perfection must be recognized by us as identical with what the Scriptures term the " Holy Spirit " or " Spirit of holi- ness," — not the formal or relational action of God, creating finite beings, but the concrete sentiment of infinite love, ever realized in the unconditioned perfec- tion of God, and ever prompting the realization of all conditioned ideals. If it is asked why or how there is in perfect being this spirit which prompts to a divine life of objective perfection, we must answer we cannot tell. Which is the same as to say we cannot tell " how being is made," or how God is as he is. Why or how there is in his perfect action the spirit, or active tendency, to realize finite or conditioned ideals, we do not attempt to answer further than to say that love is devotion to the realization of perfect being and is benevolent; and that is the same as to say that perfect egoism has, not only the capability, but the spirit of perfect altruism. We might say in a concrete, popular way that a being whose nature is love naturally desires objects to love, — objects that can know and prize and reciprocate his love, — hence he creates a world of persons. This statement, correct enough, provided we understand by the phrase " naturally desires " that God, knowing the good, the value, of love-determined being, and the ability of his love to successfully condition a universe of such beings, naturally, in the spirit of benevolence, desires to bestow this good upon others by creating them. What love is, in kind or quality, as subjective inten- 8 I14 THE EVOLUTION OP LOVE. tion, it must be as objective purpose. The practical goodness of love-involved being is the practical quality of love-evolved being ; and hence is implied in love's creative purpose. Since the purpose thus implied in love is the practical realization of the perfect it is the implied purpose in the creation of all being. The purpose of creation is the realization of a perfect uni- verse, and thus, benevolently, the bestowal of the good of being. A being whose nature is love cannot be thought as giving existence to other beings in an aimless, acci- dental, or blind experimentation. But love, as altruistic spirit, is intention as to objective being; and the evolu- tion of love is the process which achieves the full deter- mination, or carrying out, of that intention. Hence, the realization of the ideal, which is implied in this intention is the teleological end sought in love's object- ive action. The Creator, conscious of love's resource, is conscious that the ideal universe which is compre- hended in love's altruistic intention can be realized by an evolution of love. The evolution of love in creation, therefore, is not to be thought as a purposeless demon- stration of force, but as love's method of realizing its objective ideal. Hence the evolution of love is teleo- logical ; it is projected with a definite end in view. That end must be the realization of a perfect universe. It is in love that we find that creation must have an adequate purpose which fully justifies the choice to create dependent beings. Nothing can be created which is not implied in the grand intention of love. Since love only, because of its infinite altruistic free- dom, can afford the conditions to a creation, love alone is able to assure an adequate result in creation. Any CREATION. JI 5 creation therefore which is possible to thought must be prompted and projected as an objective determination of love. All created beings and all phenomena must be thought as in pursuance of such determination. We cannot evade the implication that the motive of love's evolution is not a capricious demonstration of force, but the creation of beings that they may realize a great purpose. This purpose is implied and conditioned in love. It is the benevolent altruism of love choosing objective determination. The highest good of conditioned being, as God knows and prizes it, must be included in the purpose of his giving being to others. We affirm that the " highest good " is the object of creation on the ground, only, that love is the nature of God and of his creative action ; and that the greatest good must be the practical value of perfect action ; and that all action must be a good in proportion as that action approximates per- fection. More explicitly : God's purpose in creation is to realize the finite or objective ideal, "the truth." He, as the Son, is conscious of it in thought ; the universe must determine it as thing. It is the realiza- tion, or actualization of the ideal of finite, relational, being. This intended perfection in creation is holy, its practical realization is the highest finite good ; and this is affirmed on the ground that love, as action which seeks the realization of the ideal in being, is both per- fectly holy and perfectly benevolent. Hence the pur- pose is the realization of ideal, or perfect finite being ; and the benevolent quality of love implies that this purpose is a bestowal of the highest conditioned good. Therefore the purpose in projecting finite being is to actualize the finite ideal, achieve the highest objective n 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. exercise of love, the satisfaction of which is the realiza- tion of the greatest finite good. What is the chief good 7 Our answer must be: the practical satisfaction of love is the supreme good, or self-determining action which realizes the highest quali- ties of being. But what are the highest qualities of being? Unquestionably, those qualities which are founded and perfectly realized in the unconditioned nature of God, and may be realized, in kind, by con- ditioned persons. This is the same as to say that the highest mode of life, perfectly adjusted life, conditioned or unconditioned, actualizes the supreme good. And since love is the nature of perfect action, which deter- mines the highest qualities of being, love is the highest mode of life ; and its self-satisfaction is the supreme good. It can be satisfied with nothing, however pleas- urable, but the determination of the highest qualities of one's being. The pleasure, however great, which results from de- grading action, or is not incident to exaltation or excel- lence of being, is not a good and cannot satisfy love's spirit of self-determination. Thus, the kind of action which determines the perfection of its own qualities in the unconditioned being or achieves it by process in conditioned being must be thought the highest good. While we may have the utmost faith that love will afford the largest and most enduring pleasure, as incident to its action, processes, and qualities, we are quite sure that pain is often incident to the best achievement of its conditioned activities. Hence, when we speak of the highest good of finite being, we do not imply that good is to be measured by the degree of pleasure which may be incident thereto. CREA TION. j j 7 The good, then, is the practical quality of perfect action or being ; practical quality of God. Harmony with God is a matter of quality, and to be conscious of harmony with the perfect being is, in kind or quality, the consciousness of the highest mode of dependent per- sonality. This is consciousness of the supreme good, in kind. Its degree is modified by conditions. It is love's perfect, though conditioned action. A mother who toils and watches that her children may have health and comfort, scarce takes a second thought as to whether they will ever repay her, or be able, indeed, to contribute anything to her comfort. It is not the thought of remuneration which prompts her toil, solicitude, and undying interest for them ; it is love. Love is her supreme, motherly good, — all the more tender and precious if the loved ones are helpless to repay her. " There is a love, unstained by selfishness, The outpouring tide of self-abandonment, That loves to love: and dee?ns its preciotisness Repaid in loving" Good is a quality of love, — not a quantitative result which is sought as an object, or end, to which love is a means. This is the dividing line, or differentiating point be- tween Faith and Utilitarianism. Faith recognizes that the perfection of being is the supreme good ; and from this position subjects the actual self, which the finite person is, to the ideal self which he would become. Thus, in a finite person's life, faith conditions his action, love, which realizes perfection of quality. Utilitarianism seeks quantitative satisfaction for the actual self, and terms that the good. Faith seeks love, and accounts its n 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. qualities and powers as the supreme good. Utilitarian- ism, as a mode of life, is systematic selfishness ; faith conditions devotion to the perfect life. Men speak of " acting on principle " and " doing right because it is right." That is to say, by doing right they enact the truth ; and the truth is of the divine ideal. This is devotion to the ideal, in the faith that the infi- nite ideal is actualized in God; and is therefore the supreme criterion of right quality, righteousness. What is termed policy, as opposed to principle, makes present, actual self the criterion of good, and implies that in the degree the demands of this self are met is the good at- tained. This ignores the authority of the ideal as crite- rion of conduct ; and ignores that the good is found in realizing an ideal life. Faith holds that love to God, as to the perfect, and love to fellow-beings, with a view to their perfection, is the highest mode of life. Utilitarian- ism makes the quantitative satisfaction of one's actual self the highest mode of life, and gratitude for received benefits the highest mode of finite love. With the former, righteousness is the actualizing of truth. With the latter, righteousness is the promoting of comfort, pleasure. The God of faith is an actual perfection to be loved, communed with, and copied as the absolute crite- rion, exemplar, and inspirer of personal perfection. The God of Utilitarianism is but a convenience. With the one, quantitative possession is but a means by which to achieve quality of being. With the other, quality of be- ing is desirable only to accumulate quantitative satisfac- tion. It is the old question, as between Abel and Cain, Stoic and Epicurean, the Sermon on the Mount and Jewish greed, and as between those who still think that the universe exists for the perfection of finite being and CREATION. Iig those who hold, on the other hand, that its object is pleasurable satisfaction. Of course, the " Evolution of Love " sustains the Faith-view. Since love seeks to realize the perfect, it follows that the perfection of finite being is the grand object to be accomplished. Hence the highest mode of life, the highest determination of character is by de- votion to the true, the perfect, indifferent as to whether greater good could be otherwise attained. u For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." The qualitative perfection of the universe must be attained before the degree of good possible to finite beings can be intelligently estimated, or the attainment of it be free from all embarrassments. Nothing, it seems, can be clearer than that living, not possessing, is the true excellence ; and that right living, living in interaction, communion, companionship, with the perfect must be the supreme good. Nor can any affirmation be more confidently made than that Utilita- rianism is, after all, nothing but readjusted selfishness. The universe must attain perfection in kind before it can be free from disadvantage in determining the de- gree of its good. When perfect harmony and perfect security are achieved, then the largest freedom for good will begin to be realized. These affirmations are made, of course, upon the ground that the good is but a practical quality in love which is the perfect mode of being ; and benevolence, the bestowal of good, is its incidental outcome. It cannot be thought that any addition to his own nature or good is sought by the infinite One in the crea- tion. The Independent cannot be thought to depend in any sense upon anything ; especially not upon de- I20 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. pendent or conditioned action or being. Hence we affirm that the creation is purely a bestowal of being upon those created ; and since love is the nature of the Creator and his objective action is an evolution of love, it must follow that this bestowal of being is purely benevolent. The perfect altruistic freedom, the infinite unselfish- ness, must find in this purpose ample incentive to create and sustain other beings to share its good. Dependent being, which is a positive good which is, upon the whole, better than non-existence, is such being as love can benevolently authorize. Since love is action which is devoted to the realization of the ideal, an ideal system of dependent being must be thought a worthy object of such devotement. If God can conceive a system of dependent being which may not, upon the whole, impose wrong upon any portion or person in it, but place it within the power and conditions of each being therein to make his existence a positive good, benevolence would prompt to the creation of such a system. Or if, in his absolute knowledge of love, God sees that it is a kind of action which can develop such a system of good, then benevolent reason appears why love which attains infinite egoistic good should also be devoted to attaining the highest altruistic good. It seems impossible to see that love would purpose other- wise. Not for his perfect good, but for his glory, the manifestation of his perfection and goodness, he has created all things. It comes then to this : The bestowal of perfect finite being and all it may achieve is the purpose to which infinite love is the motive in creation. Here that su- preme devotement to perfect being which appears in CREATION. I2I God as infinite self-love sweeps out into the objective process of maintaining the perfect conditioned being of finite creatures, and illustrates the infinite and insepar- able holiness and benevolence of perfect egoism. Love, the perfect action which realizes the infinite in God, seeks to achieve the perfect finite. Inasmuch as non- existence has no possibilities and is worthless, and in being only is the possibility of good, the founder of finite being founds it for all its possible good. Love does this in founding beings which may actualize an ideal in their individual being, and an ideal universe as a whole. It is because his nature is love that the independent One is the all-supporting author of dependent being. This is to say that the infinite Person has, in his perfect action, love, a perfect egoistic life and chooses also a perfect altruistic life. One is the consciousness of un- conditioned perfection; the other is the objective or altruistic life in which he has the consciousness of con- ditioning perfection in others. His perfect egoism has the spirit and potency of perfect altruism, realizes the infinite unconditioned being in himself, and determines the fact and form of the dependent universe. Perfect in himself, he is perfect for all others. When we speak of perfect objective action or being, it is to be understood that perfect conditioned action or being is meant. It is in this sense that we affirm crea- tion must be perfect. Love's creative action must project the highest ideal of conditioned being, — a perfect universe. It must be the possibility to the highest finite personality, and by implication, to the highest conditioned good. Devote- ment to ideal perfection is, in creation, devotement to I22 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ideal conditioned perfection. What love is, in kind, in infinite self-determination, must be its character in finite determination. Since it is perfect action, it must be thought perfect in its objective activities, with no ex- ception, save as limited by the conditions which are implied in its relation to its object. It must be thought to project none other than a perfect conditioned uni- verse, the maximum excellence of conditioned being. This is to say that love is not only supreme devotement to egoistic perfection, but, in the creator, is supreme devotement to the realization of altruistic perfection. Without impairing or perverting itself, but in direct ac- cord with its own ineffaceable perfectness, it creates and sustains a ceaseless universe of dependent being. It abides in the consciousness of unconditioned perfec- tion while determining its self-consciousness of perfect conditioned being ; abides in the consciousness of abso- lute reality while consciously real in all its objective relations ; abides in the practical experience of infinite good, and also bestows the highest finite good. Perfect action in itself, it is perfect as it relates itself to objects. God's objective action, then, must be regarded as the conditioned goings-forth of love in relation to objects. Creative love only conditions perfection. Being the nature of the force which expresses itself in the creation of dependent beings, it is the content which determines the forms of creation. These forms and their relations to the creator, toward each other, and within themselves are results founded by love. Hence, love's holiness, or perfectness of intention, must have in it the highest ideal of dependent being; and its objective action aims to realize that ideal. The creation, then, must be the highest type of conditioned action, realizing the CREATION. I23 highest conditioned good, as a whole. The creator must be able to say of his work : " Behold it is very good." Since, as seen in chapter three, Part First, " condi- tioning and determining " comprehend the whole of conditioned being, it is clear that creation is a system of activities which only establishes conditions for the rise and development of finite beings. And since we have seen that creative action is conditioned, it is both conditioned and conditioning. It seeks to realize the highest form of finite being ; but as such " highest form " must include persons who, though dependent, are self- determining within their conditions, it is plain that creative action is confined to establishing conditions simply. It establishes conditions upon which finite beings may themselves determine their perfection and experience their highest conditioned good. And since the whole universe in its entire history is interrelated, it must be viewed as a whole which conditions each of its members ; and the whole term of his career and scope of his relationship must be considered when we estimate the excellence or perfection of any finite being. Hence it is the highest type of dependent being, as a whole, and the perfecting of each being as conditioned by the perfecting of the whole, which we affirm when we say that creation is perfect conditioning action, at all times and places affording to all beings the best conditions to their perfection which perfect objective action can posit. Since created beings must be conditioned beings, and also conditioning each other and conditioned by each other, lower orders constituting conditions to the higher, love's choice is to create them of such type and upon such conditions as will afford the highest good, upon I24 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. the whole, to each and all. Such is the perfect crea- tion ; and love, seeking the perfect, seeks the highest conditioned good possible to each and all, and at all times. The highest type of perfection for the universe, as a whole and forever, must condition the type and the good of individuals and the universe at the various stages of their development. Hence the degree of ex- cellence, however great or small at any moment, is con- ditioned by all the influences which are concerned in realizing the highest good upon the whole. Whatever influences there may be which hinder, retard, or ac- celerate the actualization of the ideal universe, they are parts of the conditions upon which the perfection of finite being is to be realized. These conditions may be more or less influential at one time than at another, and by so much will influence the degree of good realized at such time. But the fact remains, as an implication of love, that the degree of good realized by finite beings at any particular stage of their being is the highest possible to them at that stage, considering the determining forces and the conditions which, as a whole, can afford a perfect universe. An evolving force which is holy and good would provide that the beings who are creatures of its evolu- tion should be conditioned at all times and at all points for their greatest possible good. But "their greatest possible good " means the greatest good possible to all and to the entire term of their existence ; hence this greatest sum of good must condition the degree of good possible to each person at any given time or place. All comes to this : A Creator whose nature is love will secure the greatest good, upon the whole, to which his creatures as a whole may be made receptive. CREATION. 125 Since the objective action of God must be thought as always seeking to realize his ideal, the creator must be regarded as actualizing an ideal world, so far forth as the world is his action. This implies that the creative action is not only perfect as conditioned action, but is perfect conditioning action also. This, however, does not imply that the universe is perfect. The creation is perfect, but the universe is not. A perfect universe must at least be one in which every dependent being who has any degree of self-determina- tion acts in harmony with the conditions of his being, perfectly interacts with the creator's action; one in which beings of conditioned freedom act in harmony with the conditions assigned by the Creator. The ac- tion which founds them and their natural conditions constitutes the creation; but their self-determined selves and their assigned conditions, as used or abused by them, constitute the universe. The Creator's action affords the conditions in finite beings upon which their intentions arise, and upon which their action proceeds in all respects. If their action is in accordance with the intention implied in those conditions, they may be said to articulate, or act in harmony, with the creative action ; that is, in harmony with their nature. They may choose to articulate with that creative action, or they may neglect or abuse it, and so pervert it. The Creator's action is " very good ; " but if neglected, abused, per- verted by the action of dependent beings it must fall very far short of being good. The perfection of the universe is in the perfect interaction or articulation of the creature with the Creator; but the perfection of creation is in the possibility of such interaction. The possibility of harmonious interaction of depend- I2 g THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ent with the Independent, then, must be the perfect creation. Such perfect creation does not exclude the possibility of disharmony, nor does an inharmonious universe argue an imperfect creation. A creation that is proof against disharmony is but a machine, and can never develop into an ideal universe. The perfection of creation is that it has the possibilities, affords the condi- tions of a perfect objective universe ; and it is these possibilities that render it liable to disharmonies. The possibility of the perfectly harmonious interaction of dependent with independent being is the possibility of universal harmony. Love's perfect action is the basis of implied harmony between the independent subject and the dependent objects, who, as subjects or actors, may harmonize with the Creator and with each other. Thus, as divine love is the basis of universal harmony, the loving reciprocation of divine love by finite persons is the harmonizing action which is to determine a per- fect universe. But as dependent persons are free to reciprocate the creative love or not, they may deter- mine their action and development, determine them- selves, so as to produce defect and disharmony within the bosom of a perfect creation. What types of dependent being shall be created are implied in love. Love's ideal is the law which decides what these types may be. Thus, love implies that no beings will exist except such as may actualize an ideal which implies their highest good. Whatever may be their type it must realize good to them in the degree the type is practically attained. The full actualization of the ideal of any type of being must yield the highest good possible to such being. Actualizing their ideal according to their type is the method of attaining their CREATION. 127 chief good. Whatever may be the form of devotement by which each actualizes his ideal, that is his form or mode of love. It thus appears that love is the perfect or supreme determining action in all conscious beings. It is, in all, the action which realizes their ideal. Without such perfect action within their conditions dependent beings do not actualize their ideal selves; hence cannot achieve their highest good, but must incur condemnation from their ideal. The discrepancy between their ideal and actual self is the measure of their condemnation. Discrepancy between the ideal and actual self of which persons are conscious is con- sciousness of failure, misfortune, or guilt, or of all com- bined. The perfection of the individual, like the per- fection of the universe, depends upon realizing the ideal which love's creative action prescribes in his type. In the measure this perfection is approximated is the good of each achieved. It is vain to speculate whether the creation, as we perceive it, is a perfect creation. The limitedness of our perception of it or of the entire career of even one being prevents our forming a judgment from the world- point of view. We hold all optimism and pessimism based upon an attempted balance-sheet of the world's good and ill, as most shallow and vain wrangling. Only from ontological implication can a judgment be ration- ally ventured ; and that judgment must rest upon the nature of absolute reality. And since reality is action, and the nature of perfect action is love, and the crea- tion is an evolution of love, that creation must be an evolution of real beneficence. It must be upon the whole benevolent and good, — perfect in the determi- nation of an order or form of dependent being. I2 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. Whether that perfect form of dependent being must be thought as created full-orbed or progressively devel- oped through a series of stages will be considered later. Let it suffice to recognize here that a positing power whose nature is love, and therefore true and good, holy and benevolent, must ultimately achieve such perfect world, — a world not ultimately true and good, but al- ways true and good, always of the highest beneficence within the conditions imposed by the essential factors of a perfect universe, namely, the love that cannot rest short of realizing the ideal of all finite being, and the self-determining freedom of dependent persons. Perfect altruism implies that every type of being which may be founded in holiness and benevolence may, per- haps must arise at some stage in the creative process ; and that none other can arise than such as may be made participants in the harmonies of perfect finite benefi- cence. If disharmonies arise, disturbing the right relations of created beings, it is because some or all of these be- ings are able to determine themselves otherwise than as purposed by love. Yet these disharmonies are within the all-conditioning embrace of love's limitless altruism, and will be rendered either self-correcting or self-eliminating. What are termed physical disturbances and animal antagonisms may or may not be real disharmonies in the world order. Like the questions of optimism and pessimism they are indeterminable by us, for lack of full data. Inasmuch as the lowest forms of conscious being may have, and, for aught we can know, do have an instinctively sought perfection, in attaining which the interest, the joy of being is realized ; inasmuch as the lowest type of person has his ideal to actualize, his chief good to attain, his sacred to adore, his beautiful to CREATION. I2 g enjoy, this love-projected type of being must be thought intrinsically good. All other things are good only as related to being. Non-being is nothing, has neither quality nor worth. Evil or undesirable being is abused, debased being. Being may have its pangs, its woes, but conditioned in love they are incident to attaining higher excellence. Non-being is without a pang, but it is with- out a thrill. The self-determining agent of lowest type finds a charm in his being which makes him strong to endure all hardship so long as his self-determination is not degrading, but upward, toward self-perfection. It is only when self-determination sinks toward its entire loss in complete dependence that the charm of being can be lost, or existence cease to be a good. Hence, we say that in being only are the possibilities of good ; and all forms of being must be objects of interest with that divine spirit which we have termed " supreme devotement to the determination of being ; " perfect being in the independent, perfect conditioned being in the dependently self-determining, instinctive being in the instinctively determined. A study of cosmic phenomena may indeed develop a probability that the Creator is benevolent and his action harmonious, but it cannot decide these questions. Religious experience may deepen this probability into a profound conviction, but this amounts to nothing more than to corroborate what has been primarily implied in the divine nature. This corroboration, it is true, may amount to a spiritual demonstration, but a demonstration wrought upon a previous acceptance by faith of the point in question, the benevolence of God. The more we learn of his cosmic activities, and the more accurately we articulate with them, the more successful are our in- 9 j.,0 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. dustries, the more perfect our arts, the more accurate our sciences, the sounder our finances, the more pro- gressive our civilization, the better our health, and the more symmetrical and strong our characters. This is, however, the full height of the cosmic argument for the benevolence of the creator. It argues that if all dependent persons were perfectly self-adjusted to the creator's action, there is the highest probability that their greatest good would be realized. But it is only in the fact that love is the nature of the co-ordinating action of the universe that we have independent assur- ance that the creation is perfect. The holiness of love assures that God's intention in his objective action can- not fall below his ideal of a universe. This implication is as clear as that the self-determined nature of God cannot fall below infinite perfection without being condi- tioned and condemned by his infinite conception, or ideal. A perfect God implies a perfect creator ; neither can be realized except in the unconditioned and all-conditioning perfect action, love. The moral authority of love's per- fect action must condemn any form of creation which falls below the possible realization of an ideal universe. The perfect action of love implies a perfect conception and a complete achievement of dependent perfection. The ideal universe, God's ideal, his conception of perfect finite being, must be quite beyond all that human imagination can picture. No attempt to describe it can be tolerated. Yet concerning it there are certain implications which reason must affirm. Since love is devoted to realizing the perfect, it is a perfect universe only which its evolution can have in view. This action^ though conditioned, is perfect within its conditions. God's action, which is the going forth of love only by CREATION. I3I virtue of its devotion to the perfect, cannot be self-con- scious love if it seek less than to realize the ideal. Not only does love realize the absolute perfect in the independent being, and the relative ideal in the " Eternal Son," the creator, but, having chosen to create a universe, love must be thought devoted to the realization of an ideal universe. Moreover, an ideal universe when actually realized is a perfect universe ; a perfect universe realizes the highest conditions of good ; and divine love acting objectively, though within limited conditions, cannot imply less than this highest conditioned good. However the perfect universe may be or become, it must, nevertheless, be conditioned by the relations of subject and object, and dependence. But since love is the nature of that action which creates and carries on the universe, love is the all-comprehending condition which assures a universe which shall be a perfect realization of ideal finite being, the object of a perfect determination of divine altruism. On this account the ideal universe must condition the creation and carrying on of the actual universe, the natural world. All that is created and all that is de- veloped on the part of nature has reference to the ideal universe, and must be estimated according to that criterion. Whatever may be the degree of good or ill actually experienced in the universe, the implication of love is that it is the highest good of which existing con- ditions will admit ; and existing conditions at any given time are imposed by their relation to the actualizing of love's ideal universe. At each point in the history of the universe the highest good is realized which can be upon the conditions which ultimately afford a perfect I3 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. universe. Hence, the creation is perfect and good because it affords the natural conditions upo?i which the ideal universe ?nay be realized. All this implies that the ideal universe which love seeks in its evolution very far transcends any that power can create outright. If creation, as evolved by love, is not the full-orbed, unalloyed good of perfect finite being, it is owing, not to a defect, but an excel- lence in creation. This excellence is that creation affords, not a perfect mechanism, but a stable basis from which divine love perpetually evolves conditions upon which finite persons may determine ever- progressing companionship with each other and with the infinite person, — love's ideal universe. The perfection of dependent personality cannot be created ; hence a perfect universe cannot be created. Personality consists in self-determination, dependent personality consists in dependent or conditioned self- determination. Hence dependent persons must deter- mine their own conditioned perfection. To suppose the creation of perfect dependent persons would be to suppose a contradiction, hence it is impossible to thought ; persons determine their own perfection. This they may do, dependent upon the conditions which the creator affords. Perfect creation is simply the af- fording perfect conditions upon which dependent per- sons may determine their perfect being, and thereby determine a perfect universe. II. Dependent freedom, or dependent self-deter- mination, being one of the factors which determines the universe, that factor, as well as creative action, must be recognized as essential to the perfecting of the universe. These two main factors comprehend and express all CREATION. the conditions incident to the project of a universe ; and since love is the nature of the divine action which affords the original conditions of finite being, we are assured that these original conditions are afforded for the purpose of achieving a universe of perfect persons. These two factors co-operating, the ideal universe will be realized. The perfectness of the natural world, created with reference to love's ideal world, has its chief exponent in the free self-determination of finite persons. While this is an excellence without which there could be no objective universe, it may, of course, menace the order and harmony of the world, and baffle the realization of the ideal universe. Inasmuch as each person is free to choose what his action shall be, in all those respects in which he determines himself, it is plain that the perfection of the universe must depend upon the will of each finite person as well as upon the will of the creator. Accepting the creator's action as the co-ordi- nating ground with and upon which all his creatures may harmoniously interact, it remains for dependent persons to determine the perfection of the universe by determining themselves in harmony with him. But since dependent persons may or may not harmonize with the conditions which creative love posits as the co-ordinating ground of their action, it is clear that the most which creation can do toward achieving a perfect universe is to establish the most favorable conditions upon which the harmonious action of dependent per- sons may be secured. Hence love implies that their nature and natural environment are created in the form most favorable to their perfect harmonization. The creation is perfect, then, for the reason that it affords THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. adequate conditions upon which dependent persons may determine perfect dependent personality. But since one person cannot determine the self-deter- mination of another, but can only determine conditions upon which another may or must determine himself, it is also true that the conditions thus imposed may be modified by the persons who act upon them, using or abusing them, or determining themselves otherwise than in harmony with them. It is evident that in condition- ing the finite perfection of dependent persons the creator enables them to condition his own action. Hence we may affirm of the conditions to a perfect universe that they must be the joint product of the Creator and his creatures ; and this is the same as to say that the perfectness of creative action implies original conditions which, though modified by dependent per- sons, may yet serve as a basis upon which errors may be corrected, and dependent persons may realize the divine ideal of dependent personality. Since, then, the two factors which determine the universe are divine love, affording the original condi- tions, and dependent persons, determining themselves upon these conditions, — or upon these conditions as modified in and by themselves, — since these factors determine the universe, the perfection of it depends upon the willing interaction of dependent persons with the independent. But the determining themselves in co-ordination with the conditions which divine love posits in their nature is simply to reciprocate that love by devotion to God as absolute perfection. This is their highest devotement to the perfect, — pure, unalloyed love. Self-love, which is devotement to self-perfection, is CREATION. j^c not only in harmony with this supreme love of God, because he is infinite perfection, but is anticipated and comprehended by it ; its highest realization results as incident to this supreme devotement to the absolutely perfect. For a dependent person to love the infinitely perfect one supremely, trusting that his own best self will be attained incidentally therewith is trusting that his devotion to supreme perfection will determine self-per- fection. The supreme action, love toward God, reacts as the determination of pure self-love. Love of the infi- nite ideal which is actualized in God comprehends de- votion to the ideal in one's self, and realizes the ideal self. This voluntary committing the fortunes of self-love to his supreme love of God, by a dependent person, is the highest form of faith ; next to it is that faith which risks the interests of actual self by seeking them only as incident to the realization of his ideal self. Love toward fellow finite beings, which is devote- ment to their perfection, is likewise of a piece with this same supreme devotion to the perfect. Moreover, supreme devotion to the perfect, steadfast love toward God, comprehending and developing pure self-love and universal mutual love is holy, because of its perfect intention. It achieves also the supreme good, because it realizes practical perfection. It is perfect dependent being, in companionship with inde- pendent being. These affirmations concerning the actual universe which shall realize love's ideal warrant the affirmation that the perfect universe must be (i) harmonious as unity, (2) free as caprice, yet (3) secure as fate. These three grand characteristics are all self-conscious in love, and are to be enacted, determined, by finite persons, 136 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. perfectly loving God upon the conditions which creative love affords. 1. If I were the only person in existence I would be at liberty to do as I please ; but as soon as another person exists, the perfection of our existence implies that our action shall be harmoniously adjusted toward each other ; and if I have established the conditions of his existence he is dependent upon me, and he must determine his harmonization with me by acting in har- mony with these conditions. This assumes, of course, that the conditions of his being which I have established are essentially harmonious in themselves and with me. So also when another and another person come to exist upon the same conditions, the perfection of this community of beings is determined by their choosing to act in harmonious adjustment to each other; and such action is accomplished by their acting in harmony with the common conditions which I have established for their existence. Hence it is clear that perfection im- plies complete harmony in all the action and inter-action of persons who exist in relation to each other. How- ever vast may be the number of persons composing the universe, the same truth applies ; the perfection of the universe necessarily implies complete harmony in all their multiplied relations, and each one bears his part in determining this harmony. 2. Freedom, the largest self-determining freedom possible to dependent beings, must be affirmed of the perfect universe. Since personality consists in self- determination, and perfect personality is perfect self- determination, or independent being, perfect dependent personality is the greatest degree of self-determining freedom consistent with dependence of being. And CREATION. I37 since a perfect universe is one of the highest interaction of finite with infinite being, it follows that the highest degree of self-determination possible to dependent persons is requisite to a perfect universe. Bat the self-determining freedom of a conditioned person means freedom to act upon his natural condi- tions ; he may use or abuse these conditions. If he abuse them he may modify them and thus impair them as conditions to his interaction with the infinite, or with his fellow dependent beings, and thus debase his con- ditions, render them more limiting to his freedom, and thus narrow its scope. Free action may be circum- scribed in the scope of its operation, but is never modi- fied in the quality of freedom. Self-determination is free. If it is not free it is not self-determining. Re- striction of scope limits the extent to which freedom may be exercised, but does not impair its free quality within the scope where it is exercised. There may be action which is free in some respects but restricted in others. In the respects in which it is free it is com- pletely so ; in the respects in which it is restricted it is without freedom. Hence it follows that as a person may, by abuse, impair his natural conditions, he may in- crease his limitations, restrict and ultimately crush his freedom. Thus it is that the highest range of freedom possible to each dependent person must be self-deter- mined. If he were created at that altitude of freedom it must be maintained by his self-determination. If creation places him in a lower and narrower scope of conditions which he may gradually outgrow, and thus progressively rise to the highest and widest range of freedom possible to a dependent person, he must ac- complish it by his own self-determination. i38 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. It is clear, then, that a perfect universe, harmonious in the action and interaction of Creator and creature, must be determined finally by the creature. The theo- logians of a past day contended much over the harmo- nization of divine sovereignty and human free-will. Had they clearly considered that the Creator's objective action is but to maintain the conditions upon which dependent persons may arise and determine a perfect universe, it could not have been difficult to find scope for human freedom ; and since this conditioning action is self-chosen by the Creator, they could just as easily have seen divine sovereignty, independence, exercised in imposing upo7i himself the obligations and conditions which human freedom implies. 3. Security, the assurance against disharmony, not- withstanding the largest finite freedom, must characterize a perfect universe. A person who is susceptible to evil temptations is not perfect, nor is a universe perfect which is liable to discord and defection. It does not realize perfect conditions to companionship of finite persons with each other or with the infinite Being. Nor can it realize his ideal to the Creator or achieve his purpose in creation. Perfect interaction of finite with infinite cannot be thought as tainted with a shade of apprehension or suspicion of ill. Here, indeed, is a dilemma. The largest freedom of dependent persons is requisite to the thought of a per- fect universe ; yet this freedom cannot but be thought a continual menace to its harmony, and a menace to harmony is imperfection. The perfect universe must be harmonious, must be free, yet must be secure against the dangers of freedom. This security cannot be attained by any necessitative measures. It must be maintained CREATION. I39 along with the largest finite freedom. But it must con- tain an improbability of defection so great as to be practically equivalent to an impossibility. Or, to state it positively, the probability of steadfastness must be practically equal to certainty. Moreover, such perfect knowledge of his relationship toward God and his fellow-beings as will preclude dis- cord by error, mistake, is implied in each person, in order that the perfect harmony of the universe may not be marred by harmful inadvertence. Such is the moral security which is implied in the conception of a perfect universe, — a security which is not the result of force or fate, though it render the improbability of discord or defection practically equal to fate. The fact that it is a moral security implies that it is determined by dependent persons themselves. It must be that experienced demonstration of faith of which perfect love toward God is conscious, and which comprehends the realization of self-love. After this de- monstration is achieved the supreme devotion to God as absolute perfection, which had demonstrated this faith, abides in augmented intensity and power. Hence it appears that the supreme love of finite persons toward God determines their eternal security in universal har- mony, — a personal harmony of which they can be fully conscious only in the consciousness of the fullest freedom of dependent beings. This perfection of finite persons in harmony, freedom, and security may be deter- mined by and in themselves upon the original conditions which creation affords. But this perfection of the universe is simply perfec- tion in kind, not in degree ; in quality, not in quantity. Though unspeakable good as well as unutterable ill may I4 ? HE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. have attended its development, yet the object of crea- tion — namely, the highest possible conditioned good — has not yet been realized. The conditions adequate to achieve it have just been established. The objective scope for God's altruistic freedom is only now attained. In his personal perfection God is conscious of perfect altruistic freedom ; but in a perfect universe, in kind, he finds perfect objective altruistic freedom. The altruistic spirit is perfectly self-conscious in the Creator, but it does not realize perfect objective self-consciousness until conscious of the perfect harmonization with itself of the dependent persons who are its objects. This conscious- ness of their perfect harmonization must include the consciousness of their fullest freedom and self-deter- mined security. The perfect universe, perfect in kind, is thus opened to the practical altruistic freedom of divine love. The qualities and powers which are capable of endless progress are implicit in the universe of dependent per- sons, now perfect in their harmony, freedom, and security, and constitute but the unembarrassed opportunity for that good which it is the purpose of love to bestow. Creation, whatever may have been the method of its process, even though incalculable periods of the Crea- tor's objective activity may have preceded a period of fire-mist which scientists suppose, only evinces how deep and wide this foundation is laid. This perfect universe, perfect in self-determined harmony, freedom, and secu- rity, is the completed foundation which intimates how massive is the superstructure of good which love purposes to build thereupon. " The good of being " has a composite meaning. What it comprehends we cannot tell. We only use the CREA TION. 141 term "good " to express what is of real interest, benefit, value, satisfaction. It is the being or possessing that which gives value to one's self. Hence it may be in- creased or diminished in finite beings. Of the abso- lutely perfect Being we say he is the infinite good ; and the communion or harmony of finite beings with him yields to them their supreme good. It does this be- cause it exalts them to their highest realization of them- selves and their highest appreciation of all others, and hence gives to their existence its greatest value. Hence it is true that "love is its own reward," the supreme good. But since love is perfect action, the infinite re- source, its evolution implies limitless development of good. To finite beings who are secure in their amplest freedom and harmony, there opens up an endless pro- gress in the experience of good. Harmony, freedom, and security are thus the imme- diate conditions to the highest conditioned good. Upon the natural conditions which the Creator's action posits, dependent persons determine these as characteristics of a perfect universe. These self-determined character- istics of a universe thus perfected in kind become con- ditions upon which the universe is elaborated in degree. The perfection of creation, or nature, is in the affording the primary conditions upon which these characteristics can be determined by finite persons. The perfection of the universe consists in the adequacy of these self- determined characteristics to condition the unalloyed and largest good of dependent being. That they are adequate conditions readily appears. Harmony implies the perfect interaction of dependent persons with their own natures, and perfect harmony of action with each other and with their environment. I42 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. Since love is the nature of the Creator's action, loving reciprocation of that action by dependent persons, in common, renders their relations to God and each other entirely holy and beneficent. With love as the all-con- ditioning and co-ordinating action, dependent persons interact and thus harmonize each with all. Perfectly harmonious interaction of dependent with independent must be able to realize the highest and most real good of which a dependent universe can be thought capable. Harmonious personal adjustment, carried forward with- out interruption, either by error or wilful disharmony, is the only thinkable basis upon which dependent persons can realize their highest good as individuals and univer- sally. The creative nature being the common condi- tioning ground, their perfect adjustment to it must assure that good which is its grand creative purpose. Moreover, this harmony secures the right of self-love, individual devotion to ideal selfhood in all. Pure self- love implies the perfection of each for the perfection of all. Love, devotion to realizing the ideal, enacting the perfect, being the law of universal adjustment, carries with it that devotion to the ideal self which is self-love. Hence, love, dominating all personal interaction, implies the harmonization of all individual self-love. Love, as self-love, is able to attain its highest good, not only because it actualizes its ideal self, but because its ideal self actualized is its best practical self. This actual- ized ideal or perfect self is an egoism which affords the largest altruistic freedom, is capable of the greatest objective unselfishness. This is to say that one's best self is his best, not only for himself, but for all others ; and that self-love, which is devotement to one's best self, is at one with all love, not only in that it seeks to CREATION. I4 , realize ideal being in one's self, but in that it is one with unselfishness toward others. That perfectly har- monious interaction of dependent and independent being must condition the highest good is evinced by this implication of love, namely, that the highest good of any dependent being is attained only in harmony with the highest good of all being. Again, if this universal harmony have in it the con- sciousness of the largest freedom possible to dependent persons, and also the consciousness of perfect moral security, the conditions to the highest good must be thought complete. What purpose or purposes, what definite activities may give form to the highest good, it is not ours to affirm, but we may be sure that love to God, that the pursuit of communion with and deeper knowledge of God, will be the grand devotement of all who would realize the supreme good. No matter how high or low may be the nature of finite persons, the actual perfection of God must always and to all alike be the infinite ideal to which they may be forever supremely devoted, which they may forever commune with and be assimilated to, and which will ever be the supreme moral criterion in the faith, hope, and love of the universe, — the reality and glory of all its exploitation and achievement. This devotement to the infinite ideal is the love which, in finite persons, includes devotion to an ideal self, realizing pure self-love, and is devotion to the true in all things. Devotion to the infinite ideal reacts in their characters and expresses itself in their activities, and realizes the supreme good of dependent persons. This companion- ship with the infinite affords the further objective deter- mination of divine love, and is the grand purpose of creation. I44 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. A progressive universe, only, can achieve these three grand characteristics which condition the highest good. Perhaps it may be urged that perfect intelligence should preclude disharmony ; and that God might create de- pendent beings with such perfect intuitions and vast susceptibilities and powers that they could grasp at once the entire finite conception and full significance of divine love, and reciprocate that love in the full measure of dependent being. Some such creation is what certain sensational philosophers, such as Mr. John Stuart Mill, argued is necessary to prove from the world that it is the work of a perfect Creator. Persons, it is supposed, who are created in such perfection of powers might avoid all error in the exercise of their freedom. Created with the highest finite ability to know and do, they could avoid all error, and in the fullest detail accomplish the highest harmonies of being. All this is very fine for the imagination, but has nothing for the reason. In the first place, it assumes an insight into " how being is made ; " a question totally beyond the scrutiny of human thought. It assumes also that the personal character, or what is the same, the qualities of personal action of one person can be determined by another, which, as we have seen, is a contradiction. That a being of perfect finite nature can be created, we do not deny, but personal character, the quality of personal action, is self-determined. Although we may not deny that persons may be created with perfect perceptions of their entire con- dition and relation, so as to be free from error, and with the largest freedom to act accordingly, affording the greatest natural facility to continue in harmony with these conditions, yet it cannot be affirmed that CREATION. I4 e these persons cannot or will not selfishly choose to enjoy the pleasures and powers of their actual selves rather than continue in supreme devotion to the ideal. Such an affirmation is made upon the assumption that perfect intelligence which will preclude error will also preclude wilful wrong ; that there can be no such thing as an entirely wilful wrong. This is not a merely mod- ern assertion, but it is just as absurd, hoary as it is, as any new-born fallacy. A person of perfect finite nature cannot choose to enjoy his actual powers rather than de- vote them to loving and serving the infinite, forsooth ! But though this is a groundless assumption, the fact must always remain that even to a person created with the highest conditioned powers there must be unex- plored, perhaps ever inscrutable mysteries in the abso- lute perfect. Finite thought finds no parallax between the humblest and mightiest conditioned powers with which to measure the distance to the unconditioned One to whom they turn in spiritual devotement. The question is, can the one be created more steadfast in his devotion than the other? The field for faith must ever abide. Will the highest created intelligence make that faith more steadfast? The greatest finite pow- ers may be proportionately as great a temptation to their selfish use as the lowly capabilities of the hum- blest person. The pleasure and ambition incident to the selfish enjoyment of these lofty natures cannot be thought less, in proportion, than those of lover types of being. Not less, but perhaps more probable is it that they would choose the splendid gratification of the actual self rather than devotion to the ideal infinite. Still, it may be argued that in their perfect percep- tion of their entire relationship they must be thought I4 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. incapable of error as to the complete advantage of right and the disastrous result of wrong. For them to abide in harmony is to enjoy clearly perceived good, and to avoid self-evident ruin. This reduces their motives to those of merely hope and fear ; and not one such per- son can be conscious of security in devotion to the right, were this knowledge of results removed. Their security is the security of circumstances. Yet self- determined superiority to circumstances is the exact measure of perfect personal security ; and it is essential to complete consciousness of personal freedom and har- mony. These requisites of a perfect universe and essen- tial conditions to the highest conditioned good must be self-determined; and finite self-determination is progress. Self-determination of superiority to circumstances, superiority to motives of hope and fear, cannot be thought possible to conditioned beings except as de- votion to right. Rising superior to experienced good for the sake of higher communion with infinite per- fection is the exercise of faith, — an exercise which confirms the love and gives higher determination to per- sonality. Love toward a perfect God, whose infinite perfection is believed in, and that risks the interests of self-love as incident thereto, is a self-determination above known circumstances and superior to known satisfactions. Upon this faith in God, as the uncon- ditioned perfect, the conditioned person determines the secure steadfastness of his love as devotion to the perfect, conditioned and unconditioned. But where all that a conditioned mind can ever grasp or commune with is openly and at once perceived the only conceivable scope for faith would be for him to break away from the pleasurable spontaneities of his circum- CREATION. I4 ~ stances, and for the sake of determining a conscious superiority to them, plunge into certain ruin. Thus the highest realization of conditioned personality could be reached only through disaster. From this " bad emi- nence " a devil thus self-determined might truly say — "that strife Was not inglorious, though the event was dire." Nor could this supposedly perfect universe of happy utilitarians ever parry his grim sarcasm, " Doth Job serve God for naught?" In a word : i. The creation of an unconditioned person or universe is not possible to thought. 2. The creation of a perfect conditioned person or universe would be the creation of perfectly self-determined char- acter ; which is a contradiction. 3. The creation of a person or universe in the highest conditioned perfection implies that they cannot determine themselves as any- thing other than their nature, except worse ; implies that the danger of the abuse of their freedom is can- celled by their perfect perception of good and ill results. 4. This, again, reduces the universe to one in which fear and reward are the highest motives ; hence not one of love. In such a universe love can exist only as following an instinct or spontaneity, not as supreme, self-determined devotement. To thus choose to drift spontaneously with their nature has no security except devotion to actual self, selfishness. It might protect against mere error in judgment but evinces no security against deliberate choice to abuse power or privilege. There is nothing to indicate that the choice to pass from pure self-love to selfishness is not immanent and easy in the highest as in the lowest I4 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. finite person ; and this is the passing from harmony to disharmony. No matter how nearly infinite finite per- sons might be created, their free choice to love or refuse to love God and each other, to use or abuse their powers, is nevertheless an essential condition upon which the harmony of the universe depends. Nothing can protect the Creator's purpose, the highest bestowal of the good of being, from utter defeat if they so will. Since there is no ground upon which it may be affirmed that a self-determining person or universe created at the highest possible point in intelligence and power would be secure against disharmony, it must be admitted that such cannot be thought the perfect creation ; cannot condition a perfect universe. Moreover, it must be admitted that disharmony upon such conditions must be complete disaster. To sin in the light of the highest possible finite intelli- gence leaves no motive upon which the sinner could be recovered. Hence there is nothing to prevent the utter defeat and overthrow of the object of creation. Their sinning in the midst of the highest finite intelli- gence and motivity exhausts all susceptibility to incen- tives which might induce their recovery ; and must leave them incapable of honest repentance or gracious restor- ation. Absolutely nothing remains by which the utter disintegration of the personal universe can be averted save force and fear ; and this, as we have seen, would be an utter failure of the purpose of love's objective determination. To destroy the erring or sinning one by exercise of power in any way would make fear of destruction the highest motive to righteousness among all finite persons ; would make personal safety the highest good. It is CREATION. I49 needless to argue how impossible it is to instigate love in any high degree by fear, but it is perfectly clear that a universe in which hope and fear are the highest motives can never realize an ideal universe. Under such motives perfect finite personality cannot be attained. Though created in the highest finite perfection of knowl- edge and power it would not be a perfect universe the moment its security consciously depends upon hope and fear as its highest motives. Love could not appear as self-sufficient, as able to realize its objective ideal or achieve perfect beneficence ; hence not as the nature of perfect being. Moreover, the suspicion that selfishness may be capable of greater power and pleasure than love, that it is the chief good, would haunt the universe for- ever, — a suspicion which God would appear unable to meet, and love unable to settle. Is love the nature of the independent, unconditioned, perfect being? Is God the best God that might be? Is a love-determined universe the best universe ? Is the moral authority which his love imposes a reality? Does it rightfully dominate conscience? May not both the obedient and disobe- dient despise him whom only might " hath made greater " ? These are the questions which dwell in the bosom of that suspicion, which, unanswered, must eat out the moral fibre of the universe. But a perfect creation, by love, must not only condi- tion a perfect universe, but must imply in case of dis- harmony the least possible suffering of calamitous results ; hence we must affirm that — The lowest point of intelligence and power at which moral action can arise is that at which dependent per- sonality should originate. This, in order (i) that their disharmonies may have the minimum of ill-result, — i5° THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. capable of inflicting the least possible harm upon them- selves or each other; (2) that they may have the largest susceptibility to corrective conditions and the widest field for remedial motives. At this lowest point of intelligence and power their errors and moral antagonisms are less potent to inflict woe upon themselves or the world. Their experience of the ills of disharmony will thus find them in the con- ditions most susceptible to its corrective tendency. The regretful experience of its pains and disadvantages becomes the opportunity for higher motives, and thus the largest scope for moral recuperation and remedial measures is secured. But were persons created at the highest stage of finite intelligence and power, the pro- bability of disharmony would be as great, if not greater. If they choose disharmony their power, for evil, is the maximum while the highest incitements to harmony will have been exhausted. No remedy remains but punish- ment of the offenders, no higher motive to the unoffending than fear, and that in its most selfish form. The highest created heaven of such beings could become at any time an irretrievable hell. Since, then, a perfect universe is one which cannot be created perfect nor forced into perfection, but must be self-determined and therefore must be progressive, the created conditions upon which it is determined must be regarded perfect in that they afford the mmimum of ill and the maxi?num of good which are incident to the process. The perfection of creation is in its affording conditions upon which a perfect universe can be evolved from the lowest stage, in order that every irreparable ill may be avoided, every abuse corrected, every wound healed, every error eliminated, and every disharmony CREATION. K! remedied by rising to higher harmonies. All this is implied in love, ever evolving its conditioning activities along the lines of holiness and benevolence. The divine benevolence can find complete deter- mination only in a progressive creation which founds dependent personality at the lowest degree of intelli- gence and power at which personality can arise. Although the errors of dependent persons in such a deep vale of ignorance and weakness may be many and great, those errors are schools of instruction in the experience of the bad tendency of wrong and the excellence of right. This, too, with little or no guilt on the part of the erring. Moreover, their experience thus gained is the greatest possible in proportion to their intelligence in other respects. Thus their innocently gained knowledge of the merit of right and the demerit of wrong is the great- est possible to their stage of development ; and by so much are they proportionately better armed against the liability to intentional wrong than if created in the full-orbed powers of finite being. Further, in the event of their committing intentional wrong they experience in this lowly state a correspond- ingly low degree of guilt. The turpitude of their sin is the minimum of moral evil which may result from wrong intention ; and the depraving influence which such guilt may impose upon the general character is the least possible. Added to these considerations, it is evident the power to harm each other must be of the lowest practi- cable degree. It must have the least subtlety to beguile, the least skill to injure, the least efficiency to dominate the actions and interests of others. It may, indeed, 1 c 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. have more of the crude violence of the brute, but must have far less of the malignant finesse of the fiend. The susceptibility to recovery by renouncing wrong as such, and the devotement to right under these circumstances is the greatest possible. Such recovery comes to the erring or sinning when they have sustained relatively the slightest degree of damage to their natures, and when there is before them, relatively, the largest term of discipline and development in which to become confirmed in devotion to right, to undo the damage of past wrong and develop the greatest degree of adaptation and habit in righteous being. True, the process is beset with great ignorance and attended by many failures and lapses, but the will is sovereign and efficient in the moral intentions of the most ignorant as well as in those of the most enlightened of finite persons. The mistake, the lapse, the fall, occurring within the arms of that benevolence which provides that it shall take place in the simpler and least harmful con- ditions, encourages to righteous endeavor and affords corrective wisdom. Ignorance and weakness, from the above considerations stand out as important conditions which love imposes as essential to the determination of perfect finite person- ality. By means of error the moral discipline gained is immeasurably greater, in proportion to the degree of intelligence and power, in a person who has been progressively developed to a high stage of capability than it can possibly be in one who is created at once at the same altitude of natural powers. Though he be weak and ignorant as a peasant, he may love with the sincerity of a seraph. This preponderance of the moral over the natural personality facilitates the spiritual de- CREA TION. *53 termination of the person vastly in advance of his formulated knowledge ; and by so much is his arrival at the point of moral security in advance of the attainment of his largest scope for freedom ; and by so much less is the harmony of the world menaced by personal freedom. Acids, razors, and engines, in the hands ot infants are weapons of destruction, but in the hands ot the skilled and strong are instruments of utility. So, also, great intelligence and power, in the hands ol infantile moral development, would be weapons of destruction, but in the hands of securely self-determined love are instruments of good. Hence, the greatest preponderance of devotion to the good over capability for evil is gained by a person or universe created in the lowest conditions possible to moral development. Moreover, the corrective discipline of error by its pains and inconveniences which result from collision with all-conditioning love, must tend to dissuade from intentional wrong-doing, deter the rise of sin. And should intentional sin arise, its self-defeat is facilitated by its blundering incoherence when ignorantly or feebly perpetrated. Thus ignorance and error have a mission in the natural world, affording the conditions to the earliest realization of the harmony, highest freedom, and security which must characterize the perfect universe. Not only is it true that " to err is human," but to err is natural. " For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." This is the true " bitter-sweet " doctrine. It differs i54 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. from the doctrine, so-called, which includes sin, inten- tional wrong, as natural. Sin is thus made a necessity to the universe, and God is under obligations to it for the realization of his purposes. This we repudiate wholly as having no foundation or natural place in the evolution of love. Sin is unnatural, and must be dis- posed of as such. But error is naturally incident to the dependent objects of love's evolution, which conditions the rise of moral consciousness at the lowest possible stage of personal intelligence and power. This is the only sense in which there is a divinely authorized " min- istry " of ignorance, weakness, and pain ; and this is the sense in which ignorance, and feebleness of mind and body, and an environment of hardship are imposed by creative perfection, as conditions to the development of perfect finite personality. The greatest of innocent errors is the hope of finding a permanent finite ideal ; the pursuing a finite ideal, ex- pecting it to be a satisfying perfect in kind and degree when once realized. Whether it be a babe, weary of its rattle-box but supremely devoted to a newly possessed hobby-horse, or a millionnaire devoted to the acquisition of additional millions, the story is the same. The con- quest of the world, realized, is not the ideal for which the conqueror weeps. " We gather shells from youth to age ; and then we leave them, like a child." The worn-out pleasure seeker is puzzled to understand how it was that he could ever have pursued with such intense ardor the objects for which now he has only satiety and loathing. The secret is simply this in every case : his love sought satisfaction in only finite ideals. But even this greatest of errors has its mission. The cloying sweets, the weariness of toys, the disappoint- CREA TION. 155 ment of wealth, pain, and pleasure, teach that " One is good, that is God." There is One perfect, — the actual- ized, infinite ideal. This alone can afford the absolute authority of the ideal, and hold by its infinite charm and motives a steadfastly progressive, eternal devotement of a free universe. " Love is its own reward," and to in- teract in progressive companionship by supreme devo- tion to the unconditioned perfect, can alone be to finite persons their supreme good. To attain to freely self-determined security in con- scious harmony with him is to achieve, incidentally, an ideal selfhood, which is the goal of a pure self-love. But we can affirm it is an actualized ideal self in kind only. It realizes unwavering security in the largest scope of finite freedom ; but is just now wholly fitted to achieve the unqualified good of progressive companionship with God. Naturally irretrievable wrong can only be in the case of those persons who cling to error, though conscious of its erroneous nature. To correct the supreme wrong of supreme devotion to finite objects, when its erroneous- ness is disclosed, is to restrict it to the category of inno- cent error, which does no violence to the person's essen- tial adjustment to the Creator's purpose. But to indulge the practice of wrong for the enjoyment of its temporary interest is to do intentional wrong, is to break with the natural harmony, and pervert all his natural conditions by self-determined devotion to his actual self. This is selfishness, the antagonist of love. A machine in which all the centres of motion are in true adjustment is essen- tially harmonious, and will eventually wear down and smooth off the rough and uneven surfaces and edges of cogs and pulleys, and finally wear to perfect and perma- i56 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. nent harmony. So, also, supreme love to God and mutual love among themselves is the true adjustment of dependent persons which constitutes the essential har- mony of the world. If this harmony is maintained, the errors and misfortunes incident to a weak and ignorant world are superficial inequalities and rough edges of conditioned life which will be eventually worn away, and their ill results neutralized by the harmonious tendency of love's adjustments. Thus the creation perfectly con- ditions dependent persons in essential harmony, which, if maintained, will constantly develop more intimate and elaborate harmony with God's perfect action, and ultimately realize security in the perfection of universal personal adjustment of finite with infinite being. The chief difference between the machine and the universe is that adjustment in one is maintained by its maker, while in the personal universe the essential ad- justment is only conditioned by the Creator, but is de- termined for himself by each dependent person. Because of this self-determination in each person the superficial inequalities and errors resulting from ignorance and weakness are not the only disturbances to which the world is liable. The Preternatural. — We use the term simply in the sense of " aside from natural," or perverted nature. The power of finite persons to change their adjustment toward God and toward their fellow-men, and abuse and pervert their own natures and natural relations, enables them to render the entire scheme of their conditions unnatural. Fire affords conditions to comfort, health, manufacture, commerce, and wealth, but if abused affords the most horrible conditions of disaster and torture. So the Creator's love affords the conditions to the deter- CREA TION. 157 mination of the greatest good, but if abused, perverted by maladjustment, these conditions may be made vast, organized forces for evil. But the change is not in divine love, the action which posits natural conditions. Natural conditions are modified by the false self-adjust- ment of dependent persons. Hence, if restoration to the natural is ever achieved by such persons, it must be by their changing their attitude to one of true harmony with the creation. By self-perversion dependent persons may organize illusions which obscure their consciousness of the cardi- nal facts contained in their conditions, although disaster and defeat frequently recall them to a sense of these facts. They may curse nature and fight natural law, but natural forces will keep right on, maintaining the fact of the Creator's independence. Neither can they always avert their attention from the fact, conscience, the au- thority of the perfect which morally conditions their intentions, until, " in their thoughts, they accuse each other " according to this criterion. But because of their self-determining freedom it must be thought possible for them to so pervert and debase their personality as to become unsusceptible to the beneficent motivity of love as expressed in the natural world. So elaborately organized, complex, and fascinating may selfish forms of pleasure, culture, and enterprise become as to mislead or beguile sincere minds for in- definite periods of time. The wilful wrong of one age may become the conventional habit of succeeding ages, and the selfish excesses of one generation mould the natural instincts or establish the tastes of their descend- ants. The universal prevalence of selfish desire and practice may establish a general devotion to actual self, ^8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. which, in its most alleviating forms of utilitarianism, may hopelessly displace all faith in the ideal, and discard all devotion to abstract truth as visionary and fanatical. Utilitarianism in every form may, within the benevolent forbearance of love's natural conditions, systematize alle- viations to this riot of selfishness. It may boast of this as chief good, forgetting or ignoring that all its benignities are owing to the benevolence of the Creator, and its garnished thrift of readjusted selfishness is only tolerable because it is permitted to nestle in the bosom of love's forbearance. Thus dependent persons may condition themselves by modifying their natural susceptibilities and external conditions, totally obscuring all incitement or motivity to loving devotion to the perfect. If this obscuration of susceptibility and incitement to the ideal fail to become total, it must be because the rational demand for the Independent, — the actual ex- perience of dependence and the authority of the perfect in conscience, — assert themselves more or less in the midst of all finite perversion and sham. Their essential dependence upon the Independent, demonstrated ever and anon in the self-defeat of selfishness, ever reminds dependent persons of the self-sustained independence of natural forces. Likewise the persistent authority of the holy, the perfect, can never be bribed to approve wrong intention in the personal conscience. But in personal self-determination there may be the entire perversion of all perception of the real good, and total obliteration of its motivity to incite love toward the Creator. Moreover, the prosperity of selfishness must tend to establish a sincere conviction that the Independent is indifferent to good or evil, and that perfection is but a chimera, while the bitterness of conditions, as perverted by selfishness, CREATION. !^9 tends to obscure the benevolence of the Creator and even suggest a questioning of his existence. Human history illustrates these implications of pos- sible distortion and defeat of natural conditions by self- determined devotion to actual self, or selfishness. When devotement to actual self is thus determined upon, all the natural methods of divine love's interpretation are refracted like light when passing through a dense medium. Not only the secret feelings of individuals, but often the philosophies, enterprises, and collective sentiment of mankind evince their perversion. Their desire for God is only a desire for an almighty con- venience, and when this convenience is not apparent their faith in the benevolence, or even existence, of God is shaken. Selfishness demands that divine action shall give up its ideal, and devote its energies to mere alms-giving to man as he actually is, — claims that to bless himself as he actually is is man's first right, and to extort benefits from his fellow-men is a proper use of his intelligence and power. This is human welfare as viewed by the philosophies of selfishness. Hence they complain that human life is " the worst possible " because of the dis- comforts experienced by actual self. The perfection of self, toward which love conditions all human striving, and to achieve which any sacrifice it demands of actual self is small, is ignored. Since the evolution of divine love conditions all persons with reference to their sub- jecting the actual to the ideal, the friction and hardship which come to man by his misappropriating his condi- tions are beyond computation. The spleen of a Cain is nothing but devotion to the actual self which will recog- nize God only as a servitor to selfishness. Idolatry is !6o THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. but the apotheosis of actual, imperfect self. Its gods are merely large men as men actually are, not as they might and ought to become by devotement to that ideal man- hood which is authorized by the actual perfection of the unconditioned Person, God. Pessimists think this the worst possible world because the satisfaction of their present actual self is their crite- rion of good ; and because our natural conditions are not favorable to selfish satisfaction. The atheist insists that if the world were the creation of a perfect being, it and our race would have been created in the highest finite perfection ; and hence would be perfectly happy. In his view actual being of any type is the criterion of what is, or ought to be, good. All these views are from the standpoint of selfishness, which only wishes to place the actual, imperfect self in a position where it may be wholly a recipient, and but selfishly a factor, of beneficence. In a word, they ignore the need of a progressive actualization of the ideal in order that per- sonal perfection may be actually attained and forever secured. They fail to recognize that neither power, knowledge, nor pleasure, but love, is the nature of per- fect action, and alone can yield a perfect universe. Because love is love and is capable of mercy it has conditioned the continuance of our selfish race. Nay, more, these conditions of mercy in which sin is per- mitted to make a full demonstration of itself, — con- ditions which can correct, discipline, and recover the sinner, — these conditions afford at least temporary prosperity to sin and success to selfishness. Nothing in our world, it is true, seems more successful than selfish- ness, nothing more jubilant and arrogant than the triumphs of selfish devotement. On this account the CREATION. !6i benevolence of divine love becomes the privilege of sin. Benevolence is made, by man, to abet selfishness. Love becomes the servant of its enemy, and its activi- ties are used as the instruments of his crimes. Not only does it afford scope for sin's continuance, but en- courages it. That " the goodness of God leadeth to repentance " is overlooked. It tends to establish the conviction in the race that the creation is indifferent, perhaps favorable to selfishness. Thus the determina- tion of the Creator's benevolence conditions, for a period, at least, the prosperity of the wicked. Nothing but faith in God prevents the best men from conceding the triumph of selfishness. How often in the history of man have thoughtful persons expressed their despair of the ultimate triumph of right, how often deplored the triumph of wrong, — " right ever on the scaffold, wrong ever on the throne ! " Supernatural intervention is here irresistibly forced upon us as an implication of conditioning love. It is here that we are compelled to recognize that in order to condition the realization of a perfect universe, love must evolve other and further than natural incitements to devotion to the perfect. If the finite universe or any person or portion of it is preternaturally condi- tioned by the general defection, so as to be destitute of the means which naturally lead to devotion to the per- fect, there is no recourse but supernatural means. The least and lowest form of action which love can take is to be just. But justice would require that the Creator must in this juncture cease to tolerate the existence of persons where they maintain these preternatural conditions ; or else he must supplement the perverted, and hence inefficient natural, with supernatural condi- r 6 2 the evolution of love. tions to ultimate harmony. Love must end them in some way when conditions become so entirely preter- natural as to collide with the independence, obscure the moral authority and pervert the benevolence of God. Either, in justice, love must permit the preter- natural conditions which finite wickedness and weak- ness have established to work its own immediate destruction ; or, in mercy, it must reassert and maintain the natural conditions to perfection by supernatural intervention. The former would be a surrender of the object of creation ; the latter would be directly in the line of love's evolution of a perfect universe. It is easy to see what divine love will do. The whole matter may be stated in a sentence, to wit : the natural conditions of dependent persons, which express to them the independence, moral authority, and benevolent pur- pose of the Creator, are superseded by preternatural conditions which these persons, by their self-determined perversity, have interposed ; and which may justly be permitted to condition their self-destruction ; and which can be avoided only by a merciful supernatural dis- closure, which will make good to them the original conditions to the determination of their perfection. It is not indeed a question of what love can do, but what love as objective determination must and will do. When the free abuses of dependent persons construct in them a false nature, and around them a false environ- ment, love must maintain the conditions to finite per- fection by transcending nature. Were our philosophy of creative or natural forces merely one of impersonal dynamics we should be puzzled, indeed, to find a basis for the supernatural. But as "creative force" stands in our thought for the action of an independent person CREATION. ^2 whose nature is love, we have no such puzzle on our hands. We simply inquire, What must divine action, in devotement to perfect being, do? When human perversity misappropriates the benevolence of love by making it the occasion for selfishness ; and prosperous selfishness encourages the conviction that the creation is favorable, or at least indifferent to it ; or resulting adversity begets despair, what manifestation does the evolution of love imply. This is the whole question ; and there can be but one reply : The supernatural ! Does this argue, after all, that the creation of depend- ent persons at the lowest point of intelligence and power at which self-determination may arise is imperfect? By no means. The impairment of their natural conditions is not the impairment of the divine action in nature, but their self-determined abuse of the divine action. As ob- served before, their freedom is the only menace to essential harmony, and, at first glance, might seem a defect in the creation, but is, in fact, an excellence, — the grand excellence which constitutes them persons, distinguishes the objective universe, and renders possi- ble the eternal companionship of finite and infinite being. The perfection of creation stands out, also, in that it is the basis upon which dependent persons, through a schooling of weakness and innocent error, may avoid sin, intentional wrong, and determine their perpetual harmony, largest freedom, and perfect secur- ity. For aught we know, our own race furnishes the only class of persons who have failed on that basis ; and possibly more of them than we are aware of have main- tained or recovered essential harmony without definite intelligence of supernatural motives ; that is, by renun- ciation of selfishness. 164 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. Further, by its lowest conditions of personal self- determination it affords the whole determination and defeat of disharmony, caused by either error or design, at the lowest stage of its power to inflict evil on the world. The earlier demonstration of evil affords the earlier intervention of the supernatural. This also affords, in the case of the wilful sinner, the greatest opportunity that wrong-doing may, either in natural or supernatural conditions, prove self-corrective and not retributive. The possible determination of stead- fast love toward God is at the earliest, and possible incorrigibility at the latest stage of personal develop- ment. That this supernatural intervention, as seen above, has an object altogether worthy of it needs no argument. If the question of the form of supernatural disclosure is raised, by way of objection to miracles, for example, then we must make the following affirmations: (1) the only respect in which we can affirm that the activities of God in nature cannot be changed is in their essential character as conditioning the free determination of human perfection, by evincing the independence, the perfect moral authority, and the changeless holiness and mercy of God ; (2) any supposable revealment of super- natural motives must reiterate or accord with these ; (3) the phenomenal form in which it may vary from the natural order of phenomena, as perceived by those to whom it is given, does no violence to nature, but dis- tinguishes it as supernatural. This is merely a question of method and adaptation to the persons addressed ; and disbelief in miracles, regarded as mere departures from the usual phenomenal order of God's action in nature is but a quibble ; (4) if such departure reiterates and CREA T10N. 165 emphasizes the essential conditions expressed in nature it bears prima facie evidence of its validity. In the conditions which divine love maintains in all its objective action, natural and supernatural, it makes good to the objects of its effort its own independence, its devotion to the perfect, its beneficence, or supreme good, and sacredly recognizes the self-determining free- dom of dependent persons. In these conditions it affords the means of their supreme devotion to the per- fect and their realization of companionship with God. Pressing forward to the realization of its objective ideal, the perfect universe, love must be thought as lengthening and widening its benevolence until its majestic ideal is realized. Its benevolent conditioning of progressive life renders evil corrective, not necessarily retributive. If it shall ever become retributive it must be by the fixed de- termination of the wrong-doer, who, though convinced of the excellence of love and the despicable nature of selfishness, persists in his ill-chosen course. This he may do, notwithstanding infinite love ; -and divine force cannot intervene to save him, nor to inflict upon him aught but his own self-determined perversion, his mal- adjustment to a love-conditioned world. This is but to say that love cannot be thought to reverse its own nature and all its evolution in order to avoid a collision which must be ruinous to the sinner who incorrigibly rejects or perverts its saving conditions. Incorrigi- ble determination in selfishness is not only the evi- dence of self-induced limitations of one's personality, but is the continued process of limitation, until per- sonality may be sunken into the limitations of a brute, fiend, or thing. This matter, however, is treated more fully in a later chapter. It is only noticed here as a j 66 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. corollary to the progressive achievement of a perfect universe. That an independent being determines himself as infinite love, and projects a universe which in its pro- gressive development settles every question, casts off every crudity, wears out every abuse, outlives all antag- onism, outgrows all but necessary conditions, and persists, composed of persons fitted by the highest con- ditioned self-determination to be the finite counterpart of infinite love ; that eternity shall be given to the unem- barrassed unfolding of love's resource of goodness, power, and glory, in the harmonies of the progressive finite with the perfect infinite, — is the only self-sustaining philosophy of the universe. The divine conception, or ideal, of conditioned being having been wrought by man's reciprocal action into the perfect self-consciousness of freedom, harmony, and security, God will doubtless continue his altruistic life, as " from the beginning," Creator, Upholder, Revealer, and Benefactor, without exhaustion of resource or arrest of finite progress. The structure and history of the uni- verse, physical, mental and moral, continually rounding into a synthesis of love, will continue to illustrate the infinite egoism and limitless altruistic freedom of God. Companionship is the term which perhaps best ex- presses these implications of love, — companionship of the finite with the infinite. This companionship, thus seen to be the bestowal of the highest conditioned good, is implied as the purpose of the creation. Since com- panionship is the first form of relationship as subsisting between the absolute and the relative consciousness in God, it must be thought as underlying and conditioning all other relations which arise in the process of condi- CREATION. 167 tioned existence. Hence this companionship is prime motive to finite minds, and must be the criterion by which to estimate the meaning and value of finite being. When we think of the infinite Person seeking to bestow an endlessly progressive companionship, we are hurried on to the conception of a universe of dependent persons, in endless variety of powers, who, sometime and somewhere, may know and enjoy God as nearly as friend does friend ; reflecting in relative detail the imaged phases of the divine nature. And as the love of finite persons, reciprocating that of the infinite, shall develop the being and doing of eternity, faithful in a few things or rulers over many, the splendors of love's evo- lution will vindicate the creation and prove to all that the greatest of blessings is BEING. !68 the evolution of love. CHAPTER II. THE GENESIS OF EVIL. An enemy hath done this. — Jesus. The preceding chapter closed with the thought of companionship — companionship of finite beings with the infinite Being — as the method of the supreme good, the purpose of creation, the realization of a perfect uni- verse. Instead of absorption of the finite by the infinite, which is the outcome of pantheism, we find ever-pro- gressive companionship with the infinite to be the out- come of the evolution of love. We recognize this as the divine conception, the divine ideal, of conditioned being, — God's finite ideal actualized by finite beings. We recognize that, upon the conditions which divine love evolves, dependent persons may attain a develop- ment which will be perfectly free, except in so far as their existence depends on God. This freedom will be a self-determining which is conscious of no restraint from without, but will be secure in the consciousness of perfect intention, holiness. Perfect intention, the holy quality of love, will assure the harmony of all. Perfect companionship implies perfect mutual confidence as to each other's intention. It can be perfectly self-con- scious only in freedom. Security in this free compan- ionship is the grand problem of free being, yet this security is essential to that companionship which realizes ideal being. The perfect personal universe, free as THE GENESIS OF EVIL. ^9 caprice, harmonious as unity, and secure as fate, is what we must recognize as essential in the ideal universe which love seeks to realize in its evolution. This ideal universe carried out practically will achieve the highest conditioned good. This good must be thought such that each person, individually, and all persons, universally, may make their being better upon the whole than non-being ; that their existence may be a positive blessing ; and that failure in this can come about only by their own determination. This is the lowest and least degree of good which can be thought in accordance with love as the nature of the force which has chosen to evolve the dependent world. Conscious that love is perfect action, God chooses to evolve from it the conditions upon which free, though dependent persons may determine dependent perfection in them- selves, and thereby determine a perfect universe. The teleological character of the world which love evolves is in this choice. It seeks the perfection of finite being as a requisite end. In this choice, also, is implied the immortality of all persons who cannot find in a limited term of life the conditions upon which they can determine their perfection, and achieve that degree of good which such perfection can attain. Since perfect benevolence is love's motive for creation, and the bestow- ment of the highest good, perfect beneficence, is its purpose, it is clear that their realization is guaranteed in love as consciously perfect action ; guaranteed by its conscious ability to afford the highest conditionable good to dependent beings. As finite persons are self-determining, within their conditions, it follows that their highest good can be de- termined by their free conformity to those conditions of j 70 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. their being which love evolves. The faculties and sus- ceptibilities with which they are endowed and the envi- ronment in which they are placed constitute part of their conditions, and are means and instruments which creative love furnishes. These means and instruments have their use in achieving the excellence and satisfaction of their being, and hence are elements of their good. This use is in their true adjustment in interaction with the Creator. The benevolence of the Creator appears in the fact that the highest good of dependent persons results from a true use of these elements. If in this use their being prove better, more desirable, than non-existence, then their being is good. Further : if by ignorant misuse of themselves or of their environment they debase these con- ditions which love has posited, and yet may determine a life which upon the whole is better than non-being, then their being is a beneficence, a blessing. Yet again : if they or others by wilful abuse may pervert and deprave themselves and the general environment, and yet find it possible to determine a personal reform and ultimately find their way to a true use of their conditions to the extent that their being is upon the whole better than non-existence, then is their being a good so far as the Creator is responsible. And in so far as their existence in either of these cases is more desirable than non-exis- tence just so far does the graciousness of the creative choice transcend justice. If, on the other hand, finite persons should realize in their use of these elements an undesirable existence, worthless upon the whole to them, then their being is not a good. Or if it prove worse than worthless their being is a positive evil. Further : if by misuse of them- THE GENESIS OF EVIL. 1 ^ 1 selves or their environment they realize that their life is not worth living, then is their being a positive evil. Hence evil is that practical result which would arise either through failure of a creator to condition good to finite persons or by their misuse of their conditions. But since love is the nature of that action which con- ditions the existence of finite persons, it implies that the true use of these conditions by them must result in their good. If, therefore, this good upon the whole is thwarted or prevented in any degree it must be by their determination, their free misuse, abuse, of their condi- tions. This practical result, which renders finite being a doubtful good, or even worse than non-being, is what, in the largest sense, we term evil. The questions which arise regarding evil are forced upon us by the experience of evil as an historical, fact. But. aside from this fact, the evolution of love, in conditioning the existence of personal beings, consis- tently implies the liability of the abuse of those condi- tions by the free self-determination which constitutes them persons. Hence evil which must result from this abuse is a question which must be met. Up to this point in our outline the evolution of love has disclosed a Creator and creation that are wholly good. But now right across the path of this development there opens to our thought a chasm of wellnigh infinite terror ; and in both finite consciousness and human history arises the appalling fact of evil. This fact imposes two leading questions which demand solution. The first is : How does evil arise in a universe which originally is wholly good? The second is : How are the difficulties which evil presents to be met and overcome by love, so as to realize perfect benevolence ; 172 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. that is, so as to accomplish a degree of good to finite beings, each and all, which is sufficient to justify the cre- ation ; even more, to actualize an ideal universe ? More succinctly : How does love in its evolution proceed to determine perfect benevolence, notwithstanding evil? These questions make up " The Problem of Evil." The first which confronts us, then, in attempting the solution of this problem is — The genesis of evil. How can evil arise in a universe which is wholly good? There is nowhere discernible an original germ or factor of evil in the divine nature or its evolution. There can be no evil in this world except by the dis- ordering of good elements ; and this disordering must come through the misadjustment of themselves to all- conditioning love, by dependent persons. The notion of a conflict of good and evil as eternal forces is a hoary myth. That evil is an " original principle " is a crude assumption. To define evil as being a free perversion of self-love, which disorders good elements by wrong adjustment of personal nature and relationship, resulting in dis- proportionate use, abuse, takes up all there is in the notion or knowledge of evil. This definition contains a full account of the genesis of evil in a universe which is originally good throughout. The whole con- flict betwixt good and evil is a question of right adjustment of persons, — within themselves, each, and among themselves, all, — and the resulting use or abuse of faculties and susceptibilities which are good in themselves. If we contemplate a person in process of devel- opment we must see in his conditions these phases THE GENESIS OE EVIL. !^ of love's evolution ; we must see him as the imper- sonation, the personal enacting of these definitions : (i) Love is devotion to the realization of ideal being. (2) Self-love is devotion to the realization of an ideal self. (3) Ideal being is an imperative criterion for actual finite being. (4) Love's actualization of abso- lute perfection in the independent being, God, is the source of love's authority in the ideal as the criterion of dependent being. (5) Faith is that supreme con- fidence in love's ideal, the truth, which subjects the actual to the ideal in all self-determination. This impersonation, though finite, is an ego who is capable of entire benevolence, unselfishness. He is his best self in being his best for others. Losing his life he finds it. By intentional conformity to the ideal, he is holy. In practical conformity to his ideal he is wholly benevolent. History records one such man, at least, the man of Nazareth. His undeviating subjection of actual self, amidst boundless provocation to the contrary, was that perfect faith which operates by love ; the evidence of an all-dominating, though unseen ideal ; the actualiza- tion of all that is " hoped for " in a pure self-love which, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising shame." Even if the world could be per- suaded that this record is mythical, its portrayal of these characteristics as the requisites of a perfect man, requi- site to a life which is wholly good, reflects the deepest convictions of human consciousness. The readiness with which sincere thought everywhere yields the first place to this man over all heroes, real or fictitious, is but the common acknowledgment that his was a truly adjusted life; that if all dependent persons were like 174 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. him in their self-adjustment, the universe would be wholly good. The law of universal adjustment is devotion to perfec- tion of being, the conformity of dependent persons to the independent. It is the principle which the Stoics dimly apprehended in their "conformity to Nature." But when we recognize nature as the activities of divine love which constitute the conditions upon which de- pendent beings develop themselves, we recognize it as personal companionship of finite with the infinite, or independent. This is only stating that as law which is the spontaneity of love as action, — the actualizing of conditioned perfection in finite persons. The whole philosophy of being, as involved and evolved by love, is expressed in this law. Reality is action, action is life, perfectly adjusted life is love, and love is devotion to the realization of perfect being. The practical evo- lution of progressive being according to this law shows that self-love and love toward fellow-beings, and supreme love to God are subjectively one. They are identically devotion to perfection of being. Pure self-love, though necessarily the first develop- ment of love in a progressive being, eventually de- velops love to fellow-beings and to God. Hence it naturally evolves harmonious universal adjustment. This is to say that the harmony of the personal universe is not dependent upon a theoretic knowledge in each person of the relations of his being or of the nature of God, but depends upon the instinctive prompting of self-love. Universal harmony does not depend upon a high degree of intelligence, but is spontaneously evolved by self-love. It spontaneously prompts a pure, though ignorant being to seek to realize his best self. THE GENESIS OF EVIL. r ^ The fact of conscious existence gives birth to self- love ; the fact of dependence upon others, and the fact of inter-dependence with others leads to the reciprocal adjustment of self-love ; and the fact of the dependence of all gives the sense of common dependence upon a common independent ; the fact of the independent is the fact of God. Dependence upon the implied fact, the independent, is the simplest form of faith ; and faith is the condition out of which love spontaneously arises. My experience of an abidingly interacting force in my physique, consciousness, sensation, perception, rea- son, feelings, and moral sense gives me the constant basis upon which I achieve the claims and aspirations of self-love. Interacting with the activities thus given in my nature I develop a personal egoism in the direc- tion of self-love, and find by experience that they are, each and all, factors of good in me. Not only do I find a resulting good, but also a constantly enlarging conception of higher good than as yet attained. I am "saved by hope" from satisfaction with present good and my present self, and am prompted to the attain- ment of higher good and a nobler personality. Thus, self-love instigates progressive development. Experience of the past assures me that this hoped good must be realized, if at all, by my personal develop- ment into it ; that it must come to me in the form of enlarged personal capabilities and diminished limita- tions. Thus, naturally, spontaneously arises in the vision of self-love a conception of what manner of being I desire, may, and ought to become. This is my ideal self. Persons may be ignorant, crude, and weak, but all who have a definite consciousness of I7 g THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. themselves do have and use, however unscientifically, the facts, being, self-love, and an ideal, or best self. This best self, which aspires to association with the perfect, is chief motive to self-love in a rightly adjusted, progressive being. It is this to which self-love is devoted. A perfect self, within my conditions, is an object of devotement which is consistent with all other rightful objects. Love never asks of me real self-degradation for the sake of another. The devotement of self-love, in that it ever seeks to realize perfection, is one with pure love. In it is nothing derogatory to others, but, on the contrary, it finds its best disposition toward others in being its best self. Seeking the highest possible egoism it realizes the greatest possible altruism. Pure self- love, in a dependent person, gives birth to pure love toward others. Or, what is the same, devotion to the achievement of a perfect self spontaneously loves others, because love and self-love are subjectively one. But this same instinctive self-love must practically lead to the recognition of self-love in others as the primary right and guiding devotement of their self-determination. And its natural benevolence must realize in them a love for each other. Their interdependence in attaining the practical interests of self-love must, in a practical way, develop and crystallize as the habit of their being and the central basis of individual and universal good. That which intuitively holds sacred the rights of self- love, in all their relations to each other, must recognize its identity with pure love ; its identity with unselfish devotion to the self-perfecting of others. Thus, in practice, uncorrupted self-love is nothing other than love egoistic and altruistic, — the harmonizing basis, or THE GENESIS OF EVIL. 177 law, of adjustment for all dependent persons. Thus self- love, in all its grades as a subjective impulse, instinct, intuition, affection, or devotement, develops love in its al- truistic form as the leading and harmonious mode of action among fellow-beings. It spontaneously actualizes that rule of perfect morality, " As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even also unto them." But when the elements of my nature, which are at once the action of the Creator and the basis of my interaction with him, are appropriated by my self-love they lead to a yet higher good than what is realized in my relations with finite beings. As ultimate depend- ence upon God comes to be recognized, love toward God, as supreme, is developed from self-love. And as conscience discloses the authority of the perfect, as a moral condition upon which alone my intentions can be self-satisfying, I identify the divine source of that author- itative ideal self. By so much as self-love apprehends its ideal, and by actualizing it realizes practical good, by so much it develops appreciation of being ; and by so much it recognizes and reciprocates the love of its author, God. In striving toward the actualization of ideal selfhood it thus becomes conscious of pure love toward all upon whom it depends. Finding thus, in the fact of dependence and the desire for highest good and the moral imperative of conscience, a changeless basis for the ideal self in his nature, as posited by the Creator, man is assured of the harmony of self-love with the love of God, and is reassured in his aspiration to companionship with the perfect. Thus, from the lowest consciousness of personal being, instinctively and spon- taneously it is the nature of self-love to develop supreme love toward God. 12 178 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. In this process each mode of love, self-love, love of fellow-beings, and love of God, retains its object and characteristics ; and all are wholly good. They each and all realize in the consciousness of the progressive person the definitions given above, namely : (1) Love is devotion to the realization of perfect being. (2) Self- love is devotion to the realization of a perfect, or ideal, self. (3) Ideal being is an imperative criterion for actual finite being. (4) Love's actualization of absolute per- fection in God is the source of authority, the ground of moral obligation, felt to be in the ideal criterion of actual being in man. (5) Faith, the subservience of the actual to the ideal. In all these definitions the subjective unity of self-love with love of fellow-beings and love of God is maintained ; and the natural order of their development in rightly- adjusted, progressive life must be, first, self-love; secondly, love toward fellow-beings ; thirdly, love toward God. Each has in it the law of universal personal adjustment, devotion to perfection of being. Fidelity to one of these modes involves fidelity to all. Treachery in one is treachery in all. It is clear, then, that self-love is not only holy, but has in it that which can keep it holy. As long as a person aspires to actualize his best self his self-love abides at one with love, and realizes in practical ways that this companionship with the perfect is his highest con- ditioned good. A universe of beings, each maintaining a true self-love, maintains essential harmony throughout, and is wholly good. Disordered self-love must disorder the personal de- termination and misadjust the entire relationship. Thus it must break up companionship with the perfect, and THE GENESIS OF EVIL. x yo obstruct the method of supreme good. While one dependent person cannot determine others he does determine himself within his conditions. He deter- mines his love, or supreme devotement, and what he will seek as his supreme good. To intend his best self, devoted to realizing self-perfection, can alone be that pure self-love which becomes consciously one with love of fellow-beings and of God. Hence the free inten- tion to become his best self, or to be something other and lower than this, must decide whether or not he will keep his self-love pure, — one with love toward God and fellow-beings. We remember that the self-determining intentions of dependent persons, though free, are conditioned. These intentions are formed by the use of the preliminary means of faculties and susceptibilites which are awak- ened in our nature by external circumstances. Also, their intentions are dependent upon supplementary effort, often continuous and repeated, to give them full determination. Their self-determination, in a word, is by use of preliminary and supplementary means. We bear in mind, too, that this is necessarily the nature of conditioned being ; not an arbitrary whim of creation. None but the independent person can determine him- self without means or conditions. Susceptibility of self-love to perversion, within these faculties and susceptibilities, is the point of evil incep- tion. Free will is capable of choosing evil, but it is not sufficient to account for the genesis of evil in the ab- sence of susceptibility to motives which incite disorder. One is capable of choosing as a matter of will a serpent instead of fish for food, but there is not the slightest probability that he will do so while he has no suscepti- !8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. bility, appetite, for serpents. But if he has an appetite which is susceptible to perversion he may come to de- sire such food. If we must account for his making such choice it is not sufficient to say, He is free to will it. We must find in his demand for food the possible appetence, or susceptibility, which may be excited and gratified by such food. So, also, the freedom of the will may account for the possibility of sin, but not for the probability. The improbability of the rise of evil is practically equal to an impossibility, but for the sus- ceptibility to selfishness which may be developed in the righteous satisfaction of pure self-love. Self-love is susceptible to perversion, naturally and innocently. The good and pleasure of actually pos- sessed powers afford a stand-point from which self-love may deem it a hardship to forego them for the sake of attaining other good and pleasure which may be realized in a higher and different, but untried self-development. Hence arises the liability to abide in the enjoyment of actually attained good, exercising and developing to ex- cess those feelings which it gratifies, rather than to use them as the preliminary means, the stepping-stones, to unrealized, but higher modes of life. This excessive development of the lower, and the dwarfing, by neglect and violation, of the susceptibilities to higher motives disorders the whole system and office of susceptibility, and substitutes an actually attained self for the ideal self which a progressive being must ever hold as the criterion of action, and which is essential to the purity of self-love. The probability of the departure of innocent persons from the purity of self-love lies in this susceptibility to temptation to undue gratification, which arises from THE GENESIS OF EVIL. !8i naturally and innocently acquired good. Yielding to it they determine an undue development of some of their feelings and powers ; and this, too, at the expense of neglecting and violating others. Thus they distort the whole system of motivity which subsists between subjective affections and the objective means of their use in the development of personal character. Thus they pervert their relations towards God and fellow-beings. They determine themselves otherwise than according to their created nature. This self- determined distortion of their nature is devotement to the gratification of the actual, the imperfect self. It is the neglect and rejection of that ideal self which is present to them, backed by the authority of conscience in their progressive nature; and it is the rejection of the method of higher good. Hence it is that the innocent pleasure or ambition which affords a probable choice of the excessive indulgence of actually attained powers may prevent the attaining higher powers and higher good which are to be realized in progressive harmony with universal adjustment in devotion to per- fection of being. By such perversion of a person and of his relations to other persons he assumes to be a centre to which he demands the interests of all others shall be accommo- dated ; and he becomes an incitement or snare to like perversion in others. Thus selfishness may be estab- lished, not only in his determination of himself, but in the world. Thus a pure finite person finds in what he actually is a motive which may lure him from what he should become, — lure him into a selfish and therefore vicious life. Thus this susceptibility in all finite per- sons menaces the harmony of the universe with mo- x82 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. tivity to evil. Thus the " freedom of the will " finds the occasion upon which its determination for selfish- ness is not only possible, but probable. Human history affords practical illustration, in a thousand ways, of the innocent susceptibility of self-love to a guilty and offensive disorder, which we have seen must be thought incident to any class of conditioned persons. The primary conditions of human existence, which are established by divine love, provide for the progress of human personality toward conditioned per- fection, but in these conditions of progress is the incep- tion of disorder. The knowledge of susceptibility to evil, in conditioned persons, is disclosed by conscious- ness of their progressive life. It is not dependent upon human experience of evil, but is merely corroborated by it. Human history evinces that the rise of evil in an innocent self-love is not a difficult or far-fetched con- ception, but an overshadowing fact, illustrated in the excessive indulgence of some, and the repression of other natural and innocent susceptibilities and faculties. This is their abuse. The question of good and evil as known to the human race is wholly one of use and abuse. Use is the harmonious employment of faculties, affections, and objects with reference to progressive per- sonal development. Abuse is their disproportionate employment, some in excess, others in repression, and hence, in disordered relation. Self-love is the self- determining devotement which decides whether in use or abuse it will seek its highest good. Clinging to ac- tual self and its good, self-love becomes selfishness ; and this perversion is the origin of all that has issued in disorder, abuse, and degradation. Whatever of poetic or allegorical setting may be THE GENESIS OF EVIL. ^3 claimed for the Mosaic account of the " fall of man " it contains the data of a real fall. The real fall is the dis- tortion of inner affections which, had they been exer- cised and gratified in their proper relation to a true self-love, would have developed harmonious character. The gratification of curiosity or appetite, as means, could not be otherwise than innocent and good while subject to a better self which was maintained by har- mony with their Creator, in the simple form of obedi- ence. But, made an end to be attained at the expense of their affection for God, this gratification was an abuse, which excessively developed the lower and dwarfed or abolished the higher susceptibility of self-love to the ideal. In this action self-love is turned from its devo- tion to an ideal life in :ommunion with God, into devo- tion to actual self and its desires. This is a real fall, which rejects interaction with love and assumes vassalage to an actual but imperfect and now morbid, depraved self. Nor need we go back to Eden to know the reality of this fall. It is around and in us daily. Selfishness or perverted self-love is the acknowledged source and energy of all the other abuses under which humanity groans. As self-degradation has come about by abuse of subjective endowments in their relation to external means, these have been wrought into mighty forces for evil : insomuch that the physical and mental as well as the moral world are filled with evil energies. The pos- session of the soil and mine, the appropriation of their products, the very air and sunlight are subjected to abuse by man's false ethical adjustment toward them. As to how much present human selfishness and evil bias is hereditary, or how much is individually self-in- 184 THE EVOLUTION OP LOVE. duced, it is not pertinent to discuss here. We know that our conditions are largely awry by reason of the modifications which human selfishness has imposed upon the original conditions which the Creator posits for our progressive being. Yet science sustains no truth more firmly than that the more thoroughly we know and nicely interact with the Creator's action, the order of which is termed " natural law," the greater good and the greater progress in all that is good do we realize. Not only does this corroborate the fact of divine ben- evolence, but evinces that harmony with the divine action is the true use, and antagonism to that action is the abuse, of both ourselves and our environment ; evinces that use is the law of welfare or good, while our miseries are born of abuse. Whether we regard man as a fresh creation when he appeared as represented in Eden, or as a gradually evolved moral being prior to such appearance, the pic- ture of Edenic loveliness seems an appropriate environ- ment to his unsullied state, seems so as an exhibition of love's creative harmonies. By so much also, when he is fallen, does an unsubdued and riotous natural world seem an appropriate arena which may discipline him into a true use of himself by his effort to subdue it to his ser- vice. More accurately stated, — the hardships of his natural environment result from his false adjustment to it by his abuses, and by their corrective tendency they reprove these abuses and suggest his reformation to pro- gressive development as the remedy for these hardships. The ground "cursed for his sake" — that is, cursed on account of his false attitude in relation to it — yet vital with the activities of love's creative energies, invites man to return to the true use of himself that he may recover THE GENESIS OF EVIL. 185 it to right adjustment and Edenic loveliness. But while man clings to the abuses of selfishness the whole crea- tion must continue to " groan and travail in pain, await- ing the manifestation of the sons of God." The historical realization of selfishness illustrates its genesis and effect as a disturbance in the evolution of love. It is equally clear that such disturbance or dis- ordering of originally good elements cannot have taken place except as the chosen act of finite persons. A person who thus falsely adjusts himself disturbs the original harmony of being. He is a perverter who puts a false meaning into his relations to God and fellow- beings, assigns them the false character of enemies or servants, and abuses their action toward himself. He is a "false accuser," and the person who chose to be the first perverter of good may well be termed, by bad pre-eminence, the Devil. Much sceptical ado has been made in ridicule of the fact of a personal Devil, but this only raises the suspicion that these sceptics have never thought far enough into the question to discern that they must either accept this fact or hold to the doctrine that evil is a principle, or quality, of independent being ; hold to the eternal coex- istence of evil with good ; which doctrine, of course, has no rational support, but is one of the crude supersti- tions of Dualism. If, of these two qualities, only good is from eternity, then evil has originated as a perversion of good elements ; and if so, this perversion is the act of a person or persons ; and the first of these persons thus guilty may be styled the Devil, or " false accuser," with entire propriety. But, name him what we will, his personal agency and identity must be admitted, as a logical necessity. Moreover, the first of sinners may jSS the evolution of love. with equal propriety be referred to as in a representative capacity ; and the whole course of evil which has suc- ceeded his initial perversion of good may be, in this sense, termed the "works of the Devil." To sum up at this point : Perfection of personal being consists in freedom from conditions ; hence God alone is absolutely perfect. Dependent persons must always be dependent for their existence, but may become per- fect within the conditions of this dependence. The whole evolution of love affords conditions to the pro- gressive development of dependent persons ; hence their right adjustment to these conditions is in using them for progress toward their dependent perfection. The pro- gress of developing personality from the most limited personal consciousness consists in the mastery of limit- ing conditions, and throwing them off as they are tran- scended by progressive self-determination. All condi- tions to progress incite to progressive determination by affording motivity thereto. In the term "motivity" we include both objective incitements and the inner suscep- tibility which may be awakened, exercised, and satisfied by objective incitements. When personal determination progresses beyond the need of any class of conditions, the incitements of that class should be dismissed from their motivity. The child who is old enough to appre- ciate a drum or gun, yet clings to his rattle-box, is sus- pected of idiocy. Or a man who is sane enough to distinguish excellence of character from physical pleas- ure, yet continues supremely devoted to the latter, is convicted, not of idiocy, but moral depravity. Hence experienced progress teaches self-love that these tempo- rary conditions are but means to higher self-develop- ment, — stepping-stones to the higher and wider condi- THE GENESIS OF EVIL. 187 tions of a nobler personality. But such may have been the interest, the enjoyment of these outgrown conditions as to make them still alluring objects ; and such may be the hardship of new and higher conditions as to render them, in themselves, uninviting, — only desirable for the better self-development to be attained by using them. The charm of progress toward a better life, devotion to perfection of being, a better self, is the only motivity that can be depended upon in such a crisis. Faith and love, in some form or other, can alone afford motivity by which the soul may transcend this besetment. But to continue in the exercise and satisfaction of those means which have fulfilled their use is to make the en- joyment incident to them the object of self-determina- tion. Self-determination chooses not to progress beyond them ; and the actual self, now attained, is the object to which self-determination is now devoted. The ideal, or better self is ignored, rejected. Perfection of being and companionship with the perfect are set at naught. Self- love chooses its good in whatever may gratify this actual, but imperfect, self. It is no longer devotion to the perfection of self, to the realization of an ideal self, but is devoted to the attained, actual self. This is selfish- ness ; and this, in a progressive personality, is violation of his being, the essence of sin. Thus the normally in- nocent susceptibility to lower motives is made an object of supreme devotion, is excessively exercised and grati- fied, and thereby rendered overgrown, morbid, and vicious. It becomes the lap of Delilah in which personal self-determination, the giant, dallies until, shorn of de- votion to the perfect, he is bound by degrading limita- tions. The susceptibilities to higher motives are unawakened, or, if awakened in any degree, they are x g8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. rejected, violated, and ultimately abolished. Thus the good elements in progressive being are disordered, the true relations to other persons and to divine love are perverted, and the right adjustment of life is lost. In a word : Self-love in progressive self-determination, seeking the realization of an ideal self, is right and pure. But it may become perverted into devotion to an ac- tually attained, but imperfect self. This is depraved devotement, or a depraved, unholy self-love, which ( i ) renders the actual, lower, or imperfect self morbid by exaggerated importance and the gratification, exercise, and development of the lower means of self-determina- tion ; making them the end, or object, of that self-deter- mination. (2) It thus perverts these means from their rightful use as conditions upon which to develop higher conditions to a higher self-determination. This is to say, perverted self-love corrupts the actual self; and disorders the rightful relations of self toward God and the world. This is the genesis of evil in a person, or a world, originally good. Thus self-love is the pivotal fact upon which personal harmony is adjusted, for the highest good ; and the perversion of this pivotal fact, from devotion to self- perfection to devotion to actual self is the genesis of evil. This perverted self-love is selfishness. Sin and self- ishness are different names for the act of rejecting the ideal self which I ought to become and substitut- ing the actual self which I am, as the object of self- devotion. It is the apotheosis of self, the " covetous- ness which is idolatry." Self usurps the throne of God in the soul. Conscience, the consciousness of the authority of the perfect, condemns this action by im- THE GENESIS OF EVIL. 189 posing the consciousness of self-degradation. It in- volves the consciousness of offence toward all to whom I stand related ; and consequent guilt, which is the complement of offence. It is, therefore, the cardinal violation of being and all the relationship of being. The disrupting of true adjustment, it is the introduc- tion of strife, the antagonist of all good by its dis- placement with eviL It is radical contempt for the actual perfection of God and its moral authority ; and hence, the enemy of holiness and the corruption of being. Selfishness, sin, is the grand disturbance to the evolution of love, and therefore presents the essential " problem of evil." I90 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. CHAPTER III. THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. — Moses. " The problem of evil," in its second phase, is the question, How does love in its evolution attain the perfect determination of altruism, — perfect benevolence notwithstanding evil? or, What course must the evolu- tion of love be thought to take in view of the rise of either error or selfishness? What has gone before exhibits the divine being as perfect, the human being as progressive, and that love is the nature of the action which determines the perfec- tion of the one and the perfect progressiveness of the other. Divine love determines the perfect being, and conditions the self-determination of progressive beings. While human love upon these conditions determines progressive human being, progressing toward an ideal, dependent personality which, when realized, is the high- est type of conditioned being, — perfect dependent personality. Evil in general is the practical obstruction or antag- onism to good. It results either from error in carrying out devotion to the ideal, or from intentional lapse from that devotement. In the former case it exists in the person as error or mistake, and objectively as trespass and misfortune. In the latter case it is a rejection of love and a substituting of selfishness as the mode of THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. I n I self-love. This, subjectively, is infidelity to ideal being, and rebellion against the sacred authority of the perfect. Objectively, it is the disharmony, abuse, and debase- ment of all the conditions to which it is related. This mode of evil will be considered later. It is clear that evil is the defeat, for the time being at least, of possible good, in varying degree, at any point in the career of any person or persons. Evil of either form mars, temporarily at least, the otherwise harmoni- ous universe, and retards the development of the highest possible good. Error must beset a person or a race whose exercise of self-love arises at the lowest stage of intelligence and power at which it is possible. This, indeed, to such a degree as to defeat the benevolence of the Creator, but for two implied considerations. These are, first, the fact that error does not imply a lapse or break in the love of the creature for his Creator, or in the devotement of self-love to his own highest ideal. The harmony of in- teraction with the conditioning action of divine love is unbroken. Error is a matter of misjudgment or unskil- fulness, but has no place in the inner intention of love, and does not necessarily induce selfishness. Hence simple error is action in detail in the preliminary and supplementary means of a true intention. But it may clash with one's environment of divine or human action and interests. For example, a most loving man, devoted to God and his fellow-beings and striving to be his best self for God and man, may, through error of judgment, practise that which injures his own health and that of his neighbors. Yet in all this, his personal devotement to universal good is the same, and his spirit is morally pure and benevolent. jq 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. This fact is the foundation for the second relieving consideration, — namely, the evil result of his misguided action educates him to a correct judgment ; and his undisturbed moral harmony with love prompts him to correct his practice. Thus mere error conditioned by love is corrective in its tendency. It affords also the conditions for a more exalted exercise of love in benefi- cent reparation toward his injured neighbors, and in a nicer future interaction with the divine activities in his own nature and environment. Moreover, a progressive development which gradually evolves moral freedom at the earliest possible stages of intelligence and power, though it must be most fruitful of error, nevertheless not only results in the least evil pos- sible and is corrective in its tendency, but develops the greatest possible degree of innocent experience of good and ill. Error is thus made to strengthen the person against temptation to intentional evil. The highest consciousness of the excellence of right and of the obnoxious character of wrong, in proportion to the harm sustained, is thus acquired by finite persons. A long term of innocent error may so educate finite persons in the goodness of right and the harmfulness of wrong as to secure them forever against liability to intentional wrong. In a progressive universe error is made by benevolent conditions to have a mission, but sin has none. Error, rendered self-correcting under the auspices of love, is the true "bitter-sweet" of human life, and is able to eliminate the bitter and perfect the sweet. If, in the history of a vicious race, it must be acknowledged that "there is a force, not ourselves, which makes for right- eousness," how much more could the same force, in the THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. ^3 history of a race which may ignorantly err yet is devoted to truth and goodness, maintain essential and realize universal harmony. This force is the Creator's love, which, true to the ideal, posits an ever-present basis of correction, recovery, and harmony to dependent persons in all their errors. The unbroken reign of love is the element of perfection in a progressive universe. This perfection is not impaired by errors of detail. These do not disturb the reign of love, but can only occasion a change in the line of its development. Hence the dis- turbance to superficial harmony which may come about through innocent error is not an essential evil, but may become a good in progressive being. But there is a class of error which may arise as inci- dent to intentional wrong, — as the natural result of thinking from a selfish stand-point. The perversion of self-love to selfishness is a personal misadjustment toward one's entire relationship, which must be fruitful of incalculable error and consequent evil. For example, that least malignant form of selfishness termed egotism, or exaggerated self-esteem, leads the person who is afflicted with it into endless absurdities, and often ex- ceedingly calamitous results, to others as well as himself. To plead that these evils were the result of mere mistake will not excuse him in the judgment of his injured fel- low-men, but they hold him blameworthy and curse his inordinate self-esteem which betrayed him into these harmful blunders. Thus, but on a much larger scale, inordinate self-love guiltily augments the evil of the world by its unintended incoherencies and errors. Many who have simply intended to gratify an appetite for stimulants have become debauchees or murderers. The informing power of a good heart and the misleading 13 I94 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. bias of a bad heart are such prominent forces in forming the judgments of men that centuries of human experi- ence have stamped them, severally, as wisdom and folly. This class of error is that which arises from ignoring God and devotion to perfection of being as the law of universal adjustment. Some of the ablest minds among men have perpetrated the most gigantic and hurtful follies through selfishness. The effort to possess the largest possible satisfaction to actual self is illustrated in the follies as well as crimes of a Macbeth or a Napo- leon, as in the fool who ignored his soul's nobler possi- bilities when he decided to " pull down his bams and build greater." This class of error must be assigned to selfishness, and can only be disposed of along with the solution of the problem of moral evil. The Problem of Moral Evil. — According to love, all being is sacred. The ideal which is self-conscious in love is truth ; enacted truth is righteousness ; intention to enact truth is holiness ; and the practical satisfaction of love is the good. Selfishness practically ignores all these facts. Ignoring the perfect, independent reality of God, it rejects the authority of the perfect, the ground of moral obligation, the supreme criterion of all action and being. Man, ignoring self-progress toward self-perfection, rejects the authoritative ideal which he should actualize, and thereby rejects the independent perfection which main- tains the authority of this ideal. He thus refuses to be the best he might be for himself, for God, and for fellow- beings. He rejects companionship with the perfect and thus determines himself in derogation of all others. In this abuse of his being he also abuses the conditions of THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. ! 9S his being. This abuse disturbs the order of the world, and corrupts the conditions of human life in general. It ignores that there is an intrinsic nature or indepen- dent reality in which are truth, right, holiness, and good ; ignores that there is anything essentially sacred. Hence the line which discriminates good and evil is the question, Is love perfect action, or, on the other hand, can self-love, as the first right of being, determine for itself greater power and pleasure, find a better existence, a higher good in selfishness? And if not, has it aright nevertheless to choose satisfaction in a self-determination which is derogatory to others ? Hence selfishness is the attempt of the dependent to ignore the independent, the effort of malevolence to disparage benevolence, which it appropriates and perverts, and to corrupt the conditions upon which others must determine themselves. Thus the rise of selfishness, moral evil, or sin, raises many most difficult questions. Whoever was the first of sinners was the author of one of the most weighty problems known to human thought, — a problem upon the theoretic solution of which depends a true philosophy ; and upon the practical solution of which, by love, de- pends the success of the personal universe. And every sinner revives the same questions within his own rela- tions to God and the world. Some of these questions we here venture to state : — i. Is there an independent reality? 2. Is love the nature of independent reality, perfect action ; and therefore the criterion of all action ? 3. Does it realize absolutely perfect being in God; and therefore an authoritative criterion for all being ? 4. Is love's ideal, as self-conscious in God, the infinite ideal, absolute truth? I9 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. 5. Is love, the nature of God, intentionally determined by him, and therefore holy? 6. Is love-determined being capable of the highest possible good, under all circumstances ? 7. Is a God whose nature is love the best God that can be? 8. Is the universe, as evolved by love, the best that might be, capable of the greatest power for good in both quality and degree? 9. May not finite persons determine a higher self-love, greater good, power, and pleasure for themselves by selfishness than by supreme love for their Creator and equal love for each other, and to that extent be independent? 10. Is love the only kind of action which determines the highest good in any class of conditions ; or may we not be satisfied, if we choose, with a life which is in- different to God and may corrupt the conditions of fellow-beings ; may we not sin and prosper? These questions suggest how all-comprehending is the issue between a pure self-love, which is supreme devo- tion to perfection of being, and selfishness, which is supreme devotion to actual, but imperfect being. But they all centre in this : Is love perfect action, the nature of the absolute or independent reality? Or is it but an arbitrary determination which God chooses as the structure of things, which he upholds by mere power and thereby imposes hardship upon all which does not harmonize with this convention ? If it is the latter, then the pursuit of truth, holiness, and good, on the part of men, is nothing better than a wise utilitarianism ; and selfishness is nothing worse than a mistake, or a wrong self-determination which one may deliberately choose THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. jgy without blame, provided he accepts its ill results. But if it is the former, the nature of perfect action, then truth, holiness, and real good are intrinsic qualities of being, have an absolute basis which is independent of all relationship, structure, or conventionality. Man's pursuit of them is a matter of progressive companion- ship, with God as independent, infinite ; and man's rejec- tion of them is a matter of essential self-degradation, and a guilty violation of the rights of self-love in others. Therefore it appears that the solution of evil must be a question of permanence, or persistence, — the persist- ence of a personal universe. And this persistence must survive all susceptibility to disharmony and disintegra- tion. If a personal being can persist indefinitely, yet susceptible to evil, it follows that a perfect finite per- sonality or universe can never be attained. Hence the evolution of a perfect universe by love implies that its grand requisite is to cancel self-love's natural suscep- tibility to evil and eliminate all selfishness. The issue which evil presents is, then, one of conflict, antagonism between love and selfishness. The original sin is the displacement of love by selfishness, as the nature of individual self-determination. Hence what has been termed " the conflict of good and evil " is really the conflict of love and selfishness. It is a con- test for the supreme determination of personal being. All questions which arise between good and evil, the true and the false, right and wrong, are essentially in- volved in this. Upon the solution of this issue between love and selfishness depends the perfecting of the per- sonal universe. Hence the evolution of love implies that this question must be met and settled. How shall it be accomplished ? I9 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. How does the evolution of love condition the perfec- tion of the personal universe, notwithstanding the rise of moral evil? The answer to this question is implied in former chapters. What is needed now is to render more explicit here what is implicit there, touching this question. Hence, a considerable repetition of what has been stated may appear in this chapter, though the object is different. Motivity, conditioning self-determination, can and must afford the solution of this question. Elsewhere we have defined motivity as comprehending both subjective susceptibility and objective influence, inciting to a choice of self-determining action. Hence motivity is the in- fluence which their conditions afford to conditioned persons, and with reference to which they may freely act, adopting or rejecting them as the ground of their intentions. Thus motivity continually recognizes the moral freedom, or self-determination of conditioned persons. To render finite persons eventually unsuscep- tible to selfishness, and finally settle all the beguiling questions which sin has raised, and also to settle them by sin's total loss of objective motivity through its self- demonstrated failure and turpitude, and by the self- demonstrated persistence and excellence of love, is the grand end to be attained. We may therefore expect the evolution of love to take a course that will condition these two objects, namely : to cancel all susceptibility to selfishness, and neutralize all objective motivity to evil. We will con- sider them under the following heads : — I. Subjective motivity ; or, in other words, inner susceptibility. II. Objective motivity; or outer incentive. THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. igg I. The question plainly recognizes that two things have to be accomplished, namely : the perfection of human character, and, secondly, the abolition of evil. The question also implies that the evolution of love cannot solve but can only condition the solution of moral evil. Since the question at issue is one of personal determi- nation, it leaves to the evolution of divine love to deter- mine nothing other than the conditions upon which dependent persons may determine the perfection of their being and the abolition of all evil. As their self- determination is the determining factor for the universe it must be held inviolate in this solution. Compulsory power cannot solve this question. It may be asked : Should not the Creator destroy each person who perverts his nature, by withdrawing at least his supporting power, and thus permit that person to lapse from being? Some, with amazing lack of thought, ask : Why did not God destroy the first sinner, and indeed every sinner, and thus prevent the con- tinuance and accumulation of sin and sorrow ? A mo- ment's reflection should suffice to show that such a procedure could never answer, to finite minds, the questions originated by sin, or abolish the suscepti- bility of self-love to selfishness. Indeed it would render it impossible ever to accomplish these cardinal ends. God would appear as maintaining his independence by sheer force ; hence force must be the highest manifes- tation of his nature, must be the ground of moral obli- gation ; and how low such morality would be, main- tained by force as chief incentive, is readily seen. Their harmony, personal freedom, and good must then be limited to the degree to which they might be secured by obedience under duress of abject fear. Thus God 200 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. must appear to conditioned persons as but a dynamic independent maintaining himself by mere might, never evincing moral perfection or intrinsic excellence of character. Since no motive higher than fear of force could then appeal to finite persons, they would be incapable of higher than enforced obedience, and thus the determi- nation of a moral universe would be at an end. More- over, since God had not ventured to meet the question that selfishness may be more excellent than love, with any other solution than that of interposed strength, this solution would afford consolation and even prestige to the condemned ; would continue to beset the obedient, encourage the wicked, and threaten the disintegration of the personal universe ; would haunt the throne of God evermore. " Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe." Not upon conditions of justice ; limiting the evolu- tion of love to the demands of justice. To secure that the existence of finite persons may be simply better than non-existence is merely just ; that is to say, this much is requisite to justify the Creator in his having chosen to create dependent beings. But this is not the object of love's evolution, cannot achieve a perfect universe, is not a determination of the degree of good which can be attained by only persons of the highest qualities, is not a complete realization of the divine benevolence. Just conditions imply, of course, the immediate elimination of sin, whether by death or other punish- ment of the sinner. This must be for the reason that THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 20I even justice must maintain the conditions to good, and eliminate incitements to evil. But such conditions cannot be maintained if any person or number of per- sons may practise disharmony and yet be continued in association with the obedient, and enjoy, as well as abuse, their benign conditions. The example of this impunity would constantly tempt others to sin. The fact as well as the appearance of justice would be wholly lost. Their evil action and influence would inflict injury upon innocent individuals and must corrupt society in general. Thus the conditions to good must be im- paired, incitement to evil enhanced, and the least of evil result not secured. This course of things must corrupt the entire race and defeat all good. Justice has no alternative but to maintain a process of casting out the factors of evil as they arise. It is a necessary implication that dependent persons, conditioned in holiness and benevolence only to the extent of justice, must be crushed immediately upon their practising or intending evil. It is true, harmony can thereby be assured; the obedient would have no motive but to continue obedi- ent. Evil would be suppressed, the creative and supportive action of God would be preserved from per- version or abuse, the creation would stand justified, and the Creator's authority undisturbed. But this would be a universe of fear. Might would be necessary to sus- tain right. Mere strength would be the ground of obedi- ence, the basis of motives. It cannot inspire motives of a higher order than dread. Universal selfishness would be the highest type of character. This limited evolution of love cannot be perfectly holy, for the reason that it does not realize the ideal person or 202 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. universe ; nor can it be perfect benevolence for the reason that it fails to determine complete altruistic benevolence. If this just conditioning of dependent persons were the limit of love's evolution, then either of two results must follow : the rise of evil by error or sin must corrupt the universe and defeat love, or else the wrong- doer must be immediately eliminated, crushed out, from its conditioning forces. In either case the question of the possible excellence of selfishness is not met, but remains installed as a powerful enterprise and has a prestige which discredits the moral authority of truth. The continuance and accumulation of sin must degrade the conditions which favor good, and enhance the con- ditions which favor evil, resulting in the entire displace- ment of the former by the latter. In a word, there can be no means of preventing the disintegration and defeat of a personal universe upon conditions of justice, except by a process of casting out the factors of selfishness as they arise. That the Creator has an arbitrary right to create finite beings in conditions of justice, where their de- fection would be their disaster and where fear of destruction would be the highest incentive to obedience, is not disputed here. There are, for aught we know, such orders of being, " servants that do his will," " living creatures " that confess his power, " angels that kept not their first estate," but, though there are such beings they are not the highest representatives of a personal universe. They do not know the highest conditions afforded by divine benevolence. They may know his righteousness, realize his justice, but such beings, con- fined to such conditions, cannot determine an ideal THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2Q ^ universe. They are not of the highest order of finite personality, not exponents of perfect altruism, not capable of the highest conditionable good. They are beings whose functions may form conditions to higher orders of beings, as the vegetables and animals of this planet form a portion of the conditions to man's being and development. By observation of higher motives as exemplified in the higher conditions of other orders of being they may learn to share the motives of those higher beings, and so attain to the highest personal character. The conditions of human salvation, which, perhaps, " these angels desire to look into," may inspire in them similar motives to those which condition man's rise from a position " a little lower than the angels " to one above them, " crowned with glory and honor." And such orders may be needed to condition the perfection of others and of the universe as a whole. But on the basis of justice alone the highest personality cannot be attained. On justice alone a perfect moral universe cannot be thought. Even if persons were created at the highest point of finite intelligence and power possible, they would nevertheless have no experience of evil, and would yet be free to sin. Of the infinite excellence of love they might, indeed, have the widest faith incident to the highest finite intuition, but the susceptibility of their self-love to choose their good in a selfish use of their magnificent powers would still be open before them. Hence, as stated more at length in the chapter " Creation," their security in righteousness is by no means assured. And in the event that they choose this selfish course, their power for evil would be the great- est possible, and the maximum of ill result must follow. And since their sinning would transpire in the midst of 204 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. the highest finite intelligence and motivity, their over- throw must be immediate and final. Thus, again, the supreme motive to obedience would be selfish fear. Incapable of realizing its ideal on conditions of justice, love pushes its evolution into higher and wider modes of benevolence. The rights of justice all must admit. They can condition an evolution of energy, but cannot adequately condition an evolution of love ; can- not afford scope within which the divine choice to determine perfect unselfishness, perfect altruism, can be realized. The highest good possible to conditioned being cannot be achieved, because the highest self- determination possible to dependent persons, cannot be attained while limited to motives of hope and fear. Justice has its place, as indicating the rights of depen- dent and independent beings. It marks the level below which a God of love cannot create or condition sentient beings, and above which they have no claims upon him. They have no claim upon him for more than is just, but love, in seeking to realize its ideal universe, bestows upon them a degree of good far greater than justice could provide. Dependent persons may demand justice, but not grace of the independent. They cannot demand, but the Creator can bestow gracious conditions far above what justice requires ; and this he does in evolving the ideal universe. Grace does not violate justice, but transcends it. Justice marks the lowest plane, mercy the highest, upon which a universe may be projected. Upon the plane of grace God chooses to bestow the good which he realizes there is in being, the good which love is able to condition in a universe of dependent persons who are morally free. The evolution of love is essentially gracious, merciful. THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 205 Further : In the question of love's perfection it is clearly its altruistic freedom which is put to trial, — not as to the capability of God's perfect egoism to afford perfect altruism, but as to the susceptibility of free, finite persons to afford it scope for perfect determination. If God visits sinners with forceful compulsion to obedience he confesses inability to condition full, practical deter- mination to altruistic benevolence, and thereby confesses the imperfection of his love-determined creation ; and this is to confess the imperfection of his nature, love. Hence it is that love cannot resort to force to disclose the intrinsic authority of moral obligation. God may have the arbitrary right to destroy the rebellious directly upon their sinful act, but the evolution of love is thereby estopped. Love, in sheer self-sufficiency, as indepen- dent self-determination, must meet rebellion with further benevolent conditions if it would condition the deter- mination of its perfect altruistic freedom. Let it be steadily held in our thought that an evolution which determines a perfect altruism is one which gives full development to the motive of creation, namely, benev- olence, in its proposed purpose, namely, the highest good of being. To attain this purpose, it is self-evident that benevolence must have all the scope of infinite altruistic freedom. With equal tenacity let it be remem- bered that this purpose is the same as a determination of a perfect objective ideal ; and that in the love which seeks to realize this ideal is the moral authority, or ground of moral obligation, in all the objective action of the Creator and to all finite being. Holiness can be thought only of action that is in accord with ideal per- fection ; and ideal perfection alone can fill out the thought of the highest good of being. Hence benev- 2 o6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. olence as the motive to the realization of the highest good can only be thought as a motive prompted by holiness. God is benevolent as he is holy. He is holy and benevolent because his nature is love. Therefore the benevolent action of God must always be holy action. Holiness is, therefore, the law unto benevolence, as the ideal is the law unto the practical. It is clear, then, that the achievement of highest good to finite persons has for its motive a holy benevolence. As benevolence, therefore, is a motive born of that perfect egoism which realizes absolute holiness in God's perfect self-determina- tion, this benevolence, as motive to the determination of an objective universe, must be holy in all universal determination. Divine holiness that is not benevolent, divine benevolence that is not holy cannot be thought. But when holy benevolence is misappropriated and abused, made the occasion and interacting abettor of sin by the persons to whom it has given existence, the question is, what must be the course of divine action that it may realize its holy benevolence in true fidelity to its ideal of a perfect universe? The ideal of being which is implicit in love's perfect action, whether that action be the self-determination of God or his determina- tion of the universe, must abide as the moral imperative in both egoism and altruism. Any action of God which might impair that moral authority would concede the failure of love and limit its altruistic freedom. Hence the thought of such action cannot be entertained. It is perfectly clear that holiness, as the law of action which develops benevolence, establishes the rights of benevo- lence ; and that benevolence is not a course of action which has no rights except to submit to abuse. It is equally clear that the benevolent action of God might THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2Q j rightfully cease at any and every point where it is abused by finite persons ; might, to conserve moral purity, with- draw its positing and interacting power at the first attempt of any dependent person toward selfish deter- mination. This would be, in legal terms, the limit of justice. But it would also be the failure of a moral uni- verse, the failure of altruistic freedom, the failure of love as perfect action, because it is a benevolence that can survive abuse only by force, and inspire reciprocity only by fear. If the divine ideal of a universe is thus to be limited by arbitrary right, and thus requires the support of force, it is clearly not the realization of ideal con- ditioned personality ; it is not and cannot become a perfect universe. The evolution of love has in it no place for coerced reciprocation. All degradation of being and all suffer- ing which comes by degradation of being must be inflicted by persons other than God. The good of be- ing, the good of every being, is the purpose of creation. From the bosom of love all creative forces steadily pour their energies in the direction of that purpose. Only by man's false self-adjustment, self-perversion, can his real degradation be induced and its sorrows experienced. Destruction of being can be thought to come to persons only by self-infliction. If persons in a love-created uni- verse become incapable of recovery it can only be self- induced. The railroad affords the best facility by which to travel over long distances, but if one adjusts himself falsely to that road by standing or walking before the engine and disputing the right to the road, this admirable railroad action will override and crush him. But, if he board the train the same harmonious and persistent action which would have crushed him, in his false ad- 2 o8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. justment to it, will prove the greatest facility to his journey. No ! It is evident from the nature of this problem, from the nature of dependent persons, from the nature of God, that force cannot solve the problem of evil. Again, how may it be solved? Grace alone can condition the ideal universe. That is to say that the ideal which imperatively demands realization in love's evolution is a universe of persons who shall attain to the highest self-determination, or free- dom, possible to dependent beings ; that they shall achieve this in harmony with divine love, and shall be able to attain security from danger of discord or defection ; and that the practical realization of this ideal is alone capable of the highest conditionable good, which is the benevolent purpose of love's evolution. Further, that is to say that this security of free persons can be achieved only by neutralizing all motive to evil, and affording the highest incitement and susceptibility to good. And all this is to say that the gracious evolu- tion of love, an evolution beyond the limits of justice, conditions not only the rise, but the remedy of evil. Grace is a necessity in the realization of a dependent moral universe. This is not to say that God is under necessity to create a universe, but having chosen to create he imposes upon himself certain necessary con- ditions ; and one of these is mercy, a degree of benevo- lence beyond the boundary of arbitrary right. It is that degree of benevolence which conditions the maintenance of dependent persons, though such persons are out of harmony with love by either error or intention. Since progressive development is the essential mode of attaining ideal conditioned being and its lower stages THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 209 are most liable to error, it is evident that grace is a necessity to the evolution of love. Sin, the intentional perversion of self love into selfish- ness, arbitrary right would demand should be estopped by the withdrawal of creative, or positing power from the sinner ; thus permitting him to perish. But we have seen that this intervention of force, by whatever mode, cannot meet the questions which sin raises, and the moral necessities it imposes. Such action would end an evolution of love, extinguish a moral universe except in the bare form of choosing between fear and penalty and would utterly cancel the moral sacredness of truth. Benevolent altruism, the motive to creation, would be defeated. The problem of the excellence or non- excellence of love and selfishness must be worked out upon their merits as rival methods of self-determination. Hence, grace is a necessity as affording scope in which this solution may appear. Thus a successful evolution of love must be able to condition the moral recuperation of sinners ; must de- monstrate love's ability to outlive all possible disaster in attaining a perfect universe, and thus yield to all finite persons the consciousness of its perfection in all it im- plies. Hence, gracious forbearance is a necessary con- dition to the evolution of love. Mercy, though not a necessity to divine personal perfection, is a necessity to a successful moral universe ; a necessity in realizing the highest objective good proposed by infinite benevolence. The infinite pathos of God's mercy has its germ in his benevolence as the primary motive to creation. It is not an afterthought ; it is lk from the foundation of the world." Since only the gracious benevolence of divine love affords ample scope in which to condition motivity 14 2io THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. to the ultimate solution of evil we come to consider more explicitly : What are the implied processes or forms in which love affords complete motivity to the solution of evil? Two words comprehend the answer to this question : Faith, and Persistence. By affording the conditions which will lead to faith the evolution of love furnishes to finite persons the form of motivity by which to cancel self-love's susceptibility to selfishness. Faith is man's self-determined condition upon which his love, his devo- tion to an ideal life, arises and determines his perfection. Thus love gains scope within which to inspire reciprocal love in man, and to demonstrate its merit. The gracious benevolence of divine love, which af- fords the conditions of faith, thereby gives scope also to selfishness in which to demonstrate itself, to modify natural conditions to suit its own ends, and to appropri- ate the lenience of grace in making full determination of its results, — a determination more favorable and im- posing than it could make but for the gracious forbear- ance and kindly conditions which divine love affords to sinners. By thus conditioning the thorough self-demonstration of their merit or demerit, their persistence or self- destruction, the objective motivity of love is enhanced and that of selfishness is abolished. This outcome must afford a universal conviction that love is perfect action, perfectly adjusted life ; establishes susceptibility to mo- tives of love, and aversion to selfishness ; and thus settles all disturbing questions and secures universal harmony. We will be helped, however, in gaining a more ex- plicit view of this solution by a succinct grouping of the leading points or stages in the process. THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2II The Process of Faith. A. i. Love posits, in nature, or maintains by super- natural intervention, the conditions to faith. 2. Faith cancels the susceptibility of self-love to self- ishness ; and conditions the progressive determination of dependent persons by conditioning hope and love in them. 3. The complete development of their faith, exercised by love, establishes in them the highest finite experience of personal freedom, harmony, and security ; and estab- lishes in their self-love entire susceptibility to the mo- tivity of the ideal self, the ideal universe, and the moral authority of the perfect in divine love ; that is, suscepti- bility to love and aversion to selfishness. 4. These self-determined qualities, harmony, largest freedom, and security, are the essential conditions to the achievement of the highest good. The Process of Persistence. B. 1. This determination of love, upon the basis of faith, eliminates evil (1) by repentance of evil intention, (2) by the corrective discipline of ill results. 2. The opposite or selfish determination eliminates uncorrected evil by self-defeat. 3. The result of this process, confirming faith by de- monstrating the progress and persistence of love as per- fect self-determining action, and demonstrating the turpitude of selfishness, settles all the questions which sin had raised and abolishes all objective incentives to evil. The importance of these forms of motivity, however, demands a fuller elaboration of this scheme. 212 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. A. i. The natural conditions in which man is placed by his Creator render him conscious of certain always conditioning facts : being, dependence, self-love, reason, conscience, and self-determination, or will. These are the abiding conditions upon which faith arises and is maintained. The first three give rise to the impulse or demand for progressive development, the last three con- strue what that development should be and the manner of realizing it. Upon the facts being and dependence, reason unavoidably recognizes the independent ; and in the independent readily recognizes the infinite, the per- fect, the absolute. To self-love, with its love of being and desire for highest good, conscience promptly unites the demand to be one's best self. All these find har- monization in the effort of self-determination to harmon- ize the dependent with the independent. This effort to find the best adjustment of being, an effort which is spontaneous in all mankind, gives rise naturally to the question, what is the ideal, or perfect life ? And what- ever any one may judge to be the ideal, or true life for him under his circumstances, is the ideal which con- science insists he ought to actualize. This moral author- ity which conscience gives to the ideal of life is wholly inexplicable, except as the independent sentiment of a perfect being. This ideal of life, or ideal self, is not an object of perception and need not be rationally defined, but the demand for it is felt in the sense of dependence and self-love, its moral authority as a criterion for actual life is felt in conscience, reason grasps it as an implica- tion of the independent, and self-determination seeks to actualize it. In a word, these facts impose the convic- tion that present being has its only significance and satisfaction in becoming. " Man never is [fully], but THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 21 ^ always to be, blest." Acting upon this conviction is ad- justing the existing self as a becoming self, seeking per- fect selfhood. And this is only saying that it is acting upon the facts which consciously condition our being. This is living, active, practical, natural faith, the subser- vience of the actual to the ideal, of the present to the becoming, the imperfect to the perfect, the dependent to the independent. It arises naturally upon natural conditions ; and must arise just as naturally when the same conditioning facts are revealed to the human con- sciousness by supernatural methods. 2. Faith cancels the susceptibility to self-love ; and conditions progressive self-determination by hope and love. The susceptibility of self-love to be beguiled into selfishness is the weak point, so to speak, of the personal universe, as it is of the individual person. This for the reasons that they are (i) self-determining, (2) their steadfast harmony must be progressively self-determined, (3) this progress must be incited by desire or affection, (4) desires and affections are susceptible to abuse by excess or neglect. A pure self-love, with but finite knowledge, may be lured by the gratification of one class of desires or affections to the neglect of others, which if not neglected would incite to further progress. Thus devoted to the satisfactions of an imperfect self, self-love sinks into selfishness. Thus self-love, condi- tioned by incitements to progressively actualize an ideal self, is liable to choose satisfaction in the ac- tual enjoyment of those incitements and discard the ideal. To fortify this weak point in self-love is a work which only each person can do for himself. To do this is to accomplish security by abolishing all personal susceptibility to selfishness ; and thus a person 2i 4 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. or a universe may become secure in the steadfast harmony of love. There are but two possible conceptions in which a free being can be thought securely unsusceptible to evil. One is that of his omniscience, — a perfect knowledge of the infinite excellence of love and the non-excellence of selfishness. But this conception can apply only to an infinite person ; it is impossible to created beings. The other conception is that of self-love rendered unsuscep- tible to selfishness by subjecting actual self to the pro- gressive realization of an ideal life. Since the suscep- tibility of self-love to selfishness lies in satisfaction with the attained good of actual self, faith cancels this sus- ceptibility by subjecting the actual self and holding it subservient to the progressive realization of a better and ideal self. This progressive realization is accom- plished by supreme devotion to God, as the perfect, and devotion to finite persons, as possessing the rights and interests of self-love in common. Faith risks the rights and interests of self-love upon its essential identity with love, believing that love toward God and fellow-men will realize the ideal life which a pure self-love contemplates. Faith thus gives an outlook to hope, and affords scope for the exercise of the largest conditioned self-determination. Theoreti- cally this faith contains the conception, first, that love, as the nature of God, is actual perfection or perfect action, in which absolute truth and perfect good are self-conscious ; secondly, that dependent being exists in accordance with truth and good ; thirdly, that hu- man love toward God realizes essential harmony with absolute truth, and will achieve the highest conditioned good ; fourthly, that the highest interests of self-love THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 215 will in some way eventually fall in with supreme love to God and love toward fellow-men. When we say that the purpose in creation is to real- ize the greatest possible conditioned good it is said on the ground that love determines perfect benevolence by seeking to realize the highest ideal of a universe ; and that this ideal actualized will be the greatest possible conditioned good. All this is held on the ground that love is perfect action, conscious of the infinite ideal and of the ideal universe, and hence the unit in which are absolute truth and perfect good ; and on the ground that the highest good, conditioned or unconditioned, is love's realization of its ideal. The belief that what is true is essentially good, and what is good is essentially true, is in the last generaliza- tion the belief that absolute truth and perfect good subsist in the nature of perfect being. And since love is the nature of perfect being, it is the ultimate unit in which are perfect truth and good. Hence the highest generalization is implied in "faith in God." But the rise of selfishness questions this unity of highest beneficence and perfect truth in love. It re- gards truth as an arbitrary structure, to be accepted only as it may be indicated by experienced utility ; and util- ity is estimated according as it satisfies the present, actual self. Thus selfishness is based upon unfaith, or unbelief. On the other hand, love, in the form of human de- votement to God or of love to fellow-men or of pure self-love, implies the subjection of present, actual self, with all its utilities, as being but a point of departure for progress toward finite perfection. And this perfection need not be perceived or comprehended in advance as 2I 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. a matter of knowledge, but believed to inhere in love ; and that it will be evolved by the harmonious inter- action of human love with the all-conditioning love of God. Hence that attitude which man takes in which he subjects his actual self, with all present interests and utilities, to love of God and fellow-men, is actual or living faith. Practically, then, faith is man's complete self-subjec- tion to God, and consciously contains, first, entire de- pendence upon God for the conditions of the highest well-being ; secondly, entire freedom in practically re- cognizing this dependence ; thirdly, security in moral strength derived from purity of intention, alliance with the independent, and acting from infinite motives. Hope arises spontaneously upon these contents of faith. When faith is complete the sentiment of hope takes the form of defined progress, and love arises as the nature of personal determination. The subjection of the actual man to the realization of an ideal manhood kindles the aspiration for progress. Maintaining faith which constantly thus subjects the actual to the ideal, he can say at any stage of his experience : " One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and stretch- ing forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal." In the experience of faith and hope, progress is righteousness, harmony, freedom, and secur- ity. Unbelief is fossilization, and fossilization is sin. Love arises immediately and spontaneously when man's sense of entire dependence and his free self-sub- jection to the ideal is complete. It is supreme devotion to God as an absolutely perfect person, perfectly holy, true, and benevolent. This supreme devotement is the outcome of faith's adjustment of those conditions which THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 iJ the Creator's love originally affords for his interaction with dependent persons. It is an adjustment which subjects the intentions of man to the moral authority of the perfect as expressed in conscience. Practical faith, which thus operates through love, im- pliedly takes as an hypothesis, takes for granted, that God is perfect being, — perfect because he is love, not love because he is perfect. This is not logically defined in faith but is its spirit, the concrete sentiment of its action. Yet the truth thus hypothetized is not gratui- tously assumed by dependent persons, but is consciously recognized by them as imposed by the six great facts which we have seen, permanently conditioning their lives, — the facts which impose the conviction that our present being has its only meaning and real satisfaction in becoming. Faith in this hypothetic form contemplates that its adjustment to those conditions which impose the con- viction of God's perfection, and all that can be hoped for as implied in that perfection, will elicit the spirit or active sentiment of these conditions. Especially that the action of God which imposes the authority of perfect intention in conscience will respond to faith's adjustment. This response of the spirit, the concrete sentiment of the conditioning action of God in us, "wit- nessing with our spirit " that God is love, ever in wait- ing to respond to our self-subjection, is the demonstration of faith's hypothesis. The consequent consciousness of harmony between conscience and passion, harmony among a community of persons thus faithful, and harmony of dependent with independent, progressive with perfect, conscious- ness of awakened susceptibility to the intrinsic motives 2I g THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. which inhere in the nature of the independent, such as holiness, truth, and good ; consciousness of enlarged freedom, exalted self-determination, and increased moral strength, — are practical developments of this demon- stration. Faith thus conditions actual progress from the present to a better self, the conscious passing from selfishness to love, from guilt to moral purity ; progress in actualizing an ever-advancing, ideal selfhood ; progress in appro- priating gracious conditions, as a tree appropriates the resources of the soil ; and progress in knowledge of the truth, as the tree extends its branches and unfolds it leaves to breathe a higher and wider atmosphere. 3. The complete development of their faith, exercised by love, establishes in progressive persons the highest finite experience of personal freedom, harmony, and se- curity, and establishes in their self-love entire susceptibil- ity to the motivity of the ideal self, the ideal universe, and the moral authority of the perfect in divine love ; that is, susceptibility to love and aversion to selfishness. In this life of faith which is elaborated by love, a life which is elaborated upon the highest and widest gener- alization, personal character is not trammelled by mech- anism or restricted to the narrow limits of perceived facts, but has the scope of all the implied facts of being and love. Devoted to the realization of an uncompre- hended, ideal selfhood, it lays hold of the infinite motives which are implied in the all-conditioning independent ; the limitless benevolence and the moral authority of the perfect. Whether these data of faith are presented to the human consciousness by natural or supernatural methods, they constitute the broad platform upon which human love determines the largest finite freedom and THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 21 g highest harmony. By habitual faith, confirmed, stead- fast, inwrought by devotion to God in the midst of temptation, self-denial, and duty, human beings oblit- erate, cancel permanently all susceptibility to selfishness, and thus determine their security. Moreover, this se- curity is buttressed by the intensely developed suscepti- bility to all motives of love, and the aversion to selfish- ness. These results are attained in the process of faith's demonstration of love's perfection and the turpitude of selfishness. Susceptibility to love and aversion to selfish- ness are the lines of eternal fortification to the security of free, finite beings ; and these are established by that progress which faith conditions, hope desires and ex- pects, and love determines. Thus it appears that the freedom, harmony, and se- curity of finite persons are all implicit in the steadfast faith of even the least of those who trust in God. It is not a philosophy or a culture, though it affords both the largest philosophy and culture, but it is the enactment of a concrete sentiment which is inspired by the facts which God's conditioning love discloses, naturally and supernaturally, to the human consciousness. It is the enactment of a concrete sentiment which adjusts the actual to the ideal, as the essential condition upon which to realize that ideal. It is the consciously free self-subjection, or self-adjustment of the determining dependent, to the conditioning independent being. It is the arena of proof in which finite action gains assur- ance of the implications of the infinite. Hence all the questions which sin raises are settled by the progressive development of personal harmony, freedom, and secur- ity upon the conditions of faith. Hence it is in faith that the solution of evil is found. 220 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. 4. These self-determined qualities, harmony, free- dom, and security, are the essential conditions to the achievement of the highest finite good. We have seen in a former chapter that the benevo- lence of love implies that the greatest good in kind and degree possible to conditioned beings is the divine ob- ject, or purpose, in creation. What are the forms in which that purpose is to be ultimately realized, we have not presumed to say. But in whatever form or forms or in whatever degree this object is ultimately developed, love implies that it is wholly beneficent, and that it is the highest conditionable good. This is merely saying that the highest good, conditioned or unconditioned, is the practical realization of love. We have seen, also, that this highest good can never be realized, except as the product of a universe which is per- fect in certain characteristics or qualities ; a universe con- sisting of finite persons whose qualities, or character, are incident to their perfect interaction with that divine action which affords the conditions of their existence. It is utter folly to suppose that the greatest possible good may be achieved by factors who are imperfect in quality, and im- perfect in their interaction. Hence we have seen that the supreme good, unalloyed in kind and limitless in de- gree, is utterly unattainable by finite persons until their qualitative perfection is attained. The realization of the good, then, is conditioned upon the quality of persons who are disembarrassed of all disharmony, all unessential limitation, and all susceptibility to defection, or selfish- ness. The thinkable degree of good which is possible to the highest thinkable finite person or persons cannot be thought attainable except on these qualitative conditions. Hence we reaffirm that the supreme good of the universe THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 22I must be conditioned upon the perfection which love realizes in God, and the perfected quality, or character, of the persons who compose the universe. The essential characteristics of finite perfection, we have seen, are the largest finite consciousness of freedom, perfect harmony in this freedom, and perfect security in this harmony. These, then, are the qualitative perfections which are the essential conditions to the supreme good of the universe. We have seen, also, that these qualities of free beings must be achieved by their cancelling all susceptibility to selfishness. We have seen, too, that not only freedom and harmony, but security, by cancelling this suscepti- bility, is determined by these persons themselves. In a word, the conditions to the highest good cannot be at- tained, except in the self-determined character of God's creatures. Hence it is clear that to determine their largest freedom, complete harmony and steadfast secur- ity is the only method by which the highest good can be attained. It has been made clear, also, that these qualitative conditions are determined in each person by perfecting his love to God, his pure self-love, and his love to his fellow-beings. In other words, by his devotion to a perfect God, to the realization of a perfect self, and to the perfecting of all others, — the perfect companionship. Thus it appears that these characteristics, — freedom, harmony, and security, — which each conditioned person may determine in himself, are the matured conditions upon which such persons may be living factors, inter- acting with God, to achieve the grand purpose of the universe. They are a set of conditions which God could not create. Even if he could create dependent persons in the highest harmony and freedom, yet he could not 22 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. create them secure in that harmony and freedom, un- susceptible to beguilement, — unsusceptible to beguile- ment in the use of those affections and powers which are essential to instigate their development of highest finite personalty. These qualitative perfections of finite persons, which they must determine in themselves upon the conditions which God posits in and about them, en- able them, interacting with God, to achieve the purpose of creation, unmarred by any suspicion of selfishness, unalloyed with evil. Moreover, these self-determined perfections, the essen- tial conditions to the supreme conditioned good, are attainable by persons of the least intelligence who act upon faith in God. And thus is established among men, though weak and ignorant, that practical character which is possible only upon the ground that love is perfect action, the nature of perfect being, and that the realization of its ideals is the highest good. This establishes perfect subjective motivity to good in all the faithful ; and thus is established the nucleus of a self-determined universe, free, harmonious, secure, and eternal. II. Objective motivity, or external incentive, is to be understood as comprehending every influence which may appeal, as an object of either affection or aversion, to the inner susceptibility. As the subjective motivity is perfected by the cancelling of all susceptibility to selfish- ness, on the basis of faith, so also is the objective motivity to love completed by the persistence of love and the failure of selfishness. This persistence is in two princi- pal forms, — the persistent conditioning process of divine love, and the persistent determination of human love, — both evincing perpetual personal life and altruism. THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 22 ^ Persistence, the true " survival of the fittest," is the test of perfect action, hence a test of personal excellence. It is a question between love and selfishness upon which their claims to excellence must be demonstrated. If the nature of perfect action is love, a mode of self-deter- mination capable of perpetual personality, eternal life, it will persist. If selfishness is capable of persistent and progressive personality it must abide evermore. But personalty is self-determined freedom, hence the ques- tion of persistence depends upon the power to maintain or extend personal determination. If love were a mode of personal action which would increase its limitations and diminish its freedom, or self-determining power, it would only be a question of time, when in the exercise of love, personality would be wholly sunken and lost. If, on the other hand, it throws off limitations, obtains mastery of conditions, makes use of them to rise to higher con- ditions, and survives their use, it thus not only maintains, but enlarges its sphere of self-determination, and enacts a persistent personality. So, also, if selfishness, as a mode of self-determination antagonistic to love, increases personal limitations, diminishes personal freedom, it is only a question of time when, by selfishness, personal freedom will be wholly sunken. And, on the contrary, if it can determine a perpetual personal existence, it must continue evermore. Hence it is plain that the excellence of personal being consists not in pleasure, but in exalted personality, self-determined persistence. This is the supreme good. It is found in that mode of action which realizes persistent personal development in companionship with the immortals. The exponents which indicate the degree of personal self-determination are personal persistence and altruistic 2 2 4 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. freedom. Love, the action which realizes perfect egoism in God, affords perfect altruistic freedom and subjects itself to a test of this freedom in creating and upholding a universe of persons who are free to antagonize and pervert its action. It maintains the conditions of their existence, freedom, and progressive development. And nothing but their own free determination can impair these conditions or debase their own personality. And if the benevolence of the Creator endures, uncorrupted and unimpaired, any strain which the freedom of the universe, can impose upon it, the universe thereby demon- strates the perfect altruistic freedom, and this demonstra- tion implies the perfect self-determination, of his love. Thus the universe becomes conscious of the fact that love is perfect action. Love, by creating a personal universe, professes to be the nature of independent be- ing, perfect action, infinite energy perfectly adjusted, which is infinite personality, and permits the universe to demonstrate to itself this perfection. Moreover, for persons who shall by means of loving devotion to others determine a progressive personality in themselves, their altruistic devotement stands as the exponent of their personal excellence. The degree to which they are capable of devotion to the welfare of others is the measure of their personal greatness. Thus each person has in himself the means by which to demonstrate the persistent and progressive quality of a loving self-deter- mination. He, therefore, demonstrates for himself that love has in it eternal life. On the other hand, selfishness says : " Live for your own pleasure and ambition. Use your strength of frame and brain to subdue others and appropriate their rights and service." Self-satisfaction is the criterion of per- THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 225 sonal excellence which selfishness affords. Each person possesses the conditions upon which he may prove his personal exaltation or degradation in the degree he is capable of altruistic devotement. If he must absorb the resources of others to maintain his satisfaction, secure his good, he is to that extent dependent, personally limited. Though he have the material and intellectual might of a Caesar or Antony, or the splendor and admi- ration of a Cleopatra, and yet requires them all to satisfy his passion for pleasure or power, he simply evinces that all his resources are absorbed by his lowest and narrowest subjective wants. Selfish egoism is an ever hungering, but unsatisfied self-limitation. In the security gained by cancelling self-love's suscep- tibility to selfishness we have the first cardinal point of love's persistence in successfully fortifying the weakest point in finite persons. The point now to be noted is the disposition to be made of the evil which has resulted to human nature by selfishness ; and the evils of human environment in the form of perverted social, civic, and religious conditions ; evils which have been developed through the physical, mental, and moral perversions which have arisen from self- ishness. Centuries of abuse have given apparently perma- nent hold to these evils and made them the hereditary lot of mankind. They have the seeming, at least, of persis- tent forces ; and many have been led to regard them as a part of the essential structure of human nature. But their permanence is only apparent, not essential. The fact that faith, working by love, is practicable with all human be- ings, with the crudest as well as the cultured, evinces that personal determination upon the conditions of grace can uproot them all. Hence, "the process of persistence." *5 22 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. B. i. The determination of human love upon the basis of faith eliminates evil, (i) by repentance of evil in- tention ; (2) by the corrective discipline of ill results. This is to say that essential harmony maintained or restored by repentance persists in its ability to correct all ill results either of error or sin ; just as truly adjusted machinery wears away and corrects all superficial rough- ness or inequalities. A universe evolved by love can neutralize, make away with, or turn to account all in- accuracies. (1) Of wrong actions, all is of the nature of mere inaccuracy, except bad intentions. These alone constitute self-determining action. Therefore, in a uni- verse of persons, ultimate harmony depends on harmony of intentions alone. A sin once committed can never be recalled ; it is an enacted reality, existing now inde- pendent of the will or wish of the perpetrator. But since the intention in sin may be recalled, repented, confessed, renounced, the original harmony of pure intention be- tween God and the sinner may be restored; and this personal harmony will ultimately correct the ill effect which the sinner may have otherwise sustained. Hence, upon repentance of intention, faith affords personal re- adjustment and reparation, in the sense of forgiveness and moral recuperation, to sinners. (2) The objective evil effects of their former sinful actions fall into the category of inaccuracies, errors, or superficial maladjustments, and are transcended by reparation or by being otherwise turned to account as means of corrective chastisement and discipline, or in mutual neutralization and self-defeat. They have be- come a part of the general environment, in which they ultimately neutralize each other. Physical death, the culmination of these ills in a change of environment, THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 227 ends them for individuals. The corrective and dis- ciplinary tendency which love-given conditions, natural and supernatural, impose upon error and sin, conditions all persons with means of personal recuperation. The overmastering for good which love's world-sustaining ac- tivities give to all objective results of finite action are but "that force not ourselves" which, as history wit- nesses, " makes for righteousness." Man's personal de- termination in faith and love co-operating with divine love, in and around him, thus not only persists as against the evil results of former abuses, but as counteracting, neutralizing, and outliving them. Again, if alongside of selfishness and in spite of its obstructions love is able to demonstrate its merit as a mode of self-determination, it will successfully condi- tion their mastery of limitations, and enlarge the scope of self-determination for individuals and communities who accept it, giving real progress ; if it afford them, each and all, an altruistic self-love ; if it advance them to clearer knowledge of truth and wider domi- nance of pure intention ; if it give them increasing susceptibility to unselfish motives, and aspirations to per- fect personal character; if, in a word, it enable them to " partake of the divine nature," which is supreme devo- tion to perfection of being, then human self-love be- comes, like that of God, unsusceptible to selfishness, averse to all evil, and morally incapable of questioning the infinite merit of love or the entire demerit of sin. Further, if love accomplish this demonstration, not- withstanding the utmost antagonism of sin, notwith- standing the strain, so to speak, which the free course of selfishness has put upon it, then love becomes self- conscious in the universe as the nature of independ- 22 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ence ; proves itself to be perfect action in conditioned being by its self-sustained persistence. With this universal consciousness that love is perfect action will appear that its ideal is absolute truth ; that this truth is the ground of moral obligation, that ethical being, or personality, is the highest mode of existence, that a universe evolved by love is the perfect universe, and that God is the unconditioned, infinite, perfect person, who alone exists in his own right, and by whose grace, only, all finite beings exist,— and hence, to whom is due, by infinite obligation, the supreme love and confidence of all dependent persons. 2. Selfish determination eliminates uncorrected evil by self-defeat and self-limitation. This is to say that uncorrected selfishness and its corruption of conditions render those conditions retributive. Retribution is a change of conditions which results to conditioned persons either as reward or punishment, accordingly as they determine. We have already recognized that justice is the lowest plain upon which love can be thought to condition the existence of per- sons. Hence, when individuals or communities by selfish determination debase themselves and the gen- eral environment beneath all susceptibility to recovery, and assure like debasement to all sincere persons who may appear among them, children and youth for ex- ample, justice, the lowest form of love, must in some way eliminate them from conditioning forces. When they render themselves unsusceptible to love, are mor- ally incapable of faith or reform, love cannot permit them to condition the ruin of persons who, in these conditions, cannot but be overwhelmed. Furthermore, they are, in this incorrigible character, no longer objects THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 22 g of gracious recovery, and their continuance in such gracious conditions would indicate imbecility in divine love to maintain itself or sustain the innocent. They are objects of retribution. Retribution must, in some way, take place. But this does not necessarily imply that supernatural or miracu- lous infliction must intervene to punish obdurates. Nor does it imply a suspension or violation of their personal determination. On the contrary it means that their conditions must change, or rather that they have, by self-perversion wrecked their relations to the faith-con- ditioning quality of divine love's activities in and around them ; and that now these activities, by reason of their perversion and man's false attitude towards them have become retributive. Retributive suffering is wholly a matter of abused conditions, whether those conditions are naturally or supernaturally given. All retributive suf- fering must come about as a revolution of conditions, nat- ural or supernatural ; and these revolutions are brought about by dependent persons themselves, in either their individual or collective capacities, or both. The physi- cal elements, though inestimable blessings in their use, are sources of unspeakable danger and calamity in their abuse. A man's attitude in relation to them must deter- mine whether they shall be to him a blessing or a curse. So, also, the most intense conditions to human exaltation which divine love affords, naturally or supernaturally, must be rendered by man's self-perversion the most intense conditions to retributive disaster. Man may make them the home of peace and good will, or the den of beasts and fiends. In the former case, peace, progress, ideal truth and beauty will be realized by communities and individuals ; in the latter, they must perish. 230 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. We recognize at this point that as the conditions of human life are in three general forms or classes, men's retributive changes of condition are, correspondingly, three : — (a) Race retribution. {b) Social, or community retribution. (V) Individual retribution. (a) The first are the race conditions according to which generations of individual beings have their successive continuance and qualities in common. It is not accurate to say that " man is born an animal," if we use the term " animal " synonymously with " beast " or « brute." He is born a personal nature. The babe is not a mere animal nature upon which a personal nature may be developed ; any more than the dainty egg in the nest is a seedling of the honeysuckle from which a humming-bird may be developed. He is born a personal nature upon which self-determination may arise and develop conscious per- sonality. But upon a brute-nature, however perfect, a personal self-determination can never be developed. The human race is a race of beings whose natures are conditions to personal self-determination, — a race of personal natures. They are naturally animal only in the sense that they exist upon and have some common race conditions. The abuse of race conditions by any individual must debase those conditions for succeeding members of the race, just to the extent he may have race-relationship to them. And if he happens to be the first of a family or tribe or of the whole human race, his abuse of race conditions must deprave the nature of all succeeding him unless there may be some method of amelioration. This debasing of race conditions must also corrupt THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 23 1 and impair the conditions of personal determination for both individuals and communities. And if, instead of resorting to ameliorating methods, his descendants con- tinue the abuse of their race-conditions, this abuse, un- corrected, must be ultimately self-limiting and self- defeating, — in other words, retributive by way of physical disorders and the enfeeblement and death of individuals and communities as racial factors. Racial retribution is developed in various ways, es- pecially in disease, shortening of the term of physical life, and in physical death. The implication of love at this point is clearly this : if the original adjustment of the race to its divinely appointed nature and environ- ment had been maintained, — that is to say, if selfish self- determination had not been adopted by man, thereby abusing and perverting his nature and misadjusting it to his environment in racial respects, — individual develop- ment would have ultimately transcended all race condi- tions. A change of environment, progressively, would also have been developed by the progress of the race as a community. An individual transcendence of race nature, or an exaltation of that nature to higher capabil- ities and fitness must have resulted from individual progress in interaction with God. Race relations, hav- ing been used in the determination of higher relations to God, must have been eventually superseded. To pass to more intimate interaction, communion, with him who is purely a spirit, and to determine a quality and degree of love which is free from physical or merely racial con- ditions, imply a change of environment which corres- ponds to that which physical death, in the perverted conditions of our race nature, brings to the faithful. But, though a change from physical conditions might 232 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. have taken place in case of no maladjustment, but be- cause of a personal development from original innocence by which the present bodily conditions should be tran- scended, yet the further implication remains that death, as we know it, is a catastrophe which has been precipi- tated by man's abuse of his nature and environment. The personal transcendence, or translation, of members of a sinless race may be thought as a sublimation quite exalting and glorious, — quite other than death as we know it, — " Stretched in disease's shapes abhorred, Or mown in battle by the sword." Such development, it is probable, may sometime ob- tain in the latest generations of men, when " they shall not all die, but shall all be changed." Such change of individual conditions may be termed translation, or exal- tation, but not death. Death is a catastrophe which, though it cannot prevent the passage of faithful persons to higher conditions of companionship with God, is, nevertheless, a horrid illustration of the self-limitation and self-defeat of racial evil. Physical death fastened upon racial conditions, while failing to intercept the per- sistent personal progress of the faithful, is but self-limi- tation and self-defeat to the selfish. This physical catastrophe which results from moral obliquity has, for aught any one can see, become hereditary because the physical maladjustments, con- tinued and multiplied, have been made hereditary. Nor can any one affirm that if the human race, or any of its members, shall at any time, recover complete readjustment to the Creator's physical activities they may not find immunity from disease and death. A THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 ^ witty scoffer has said, " In a perfect world good health and not disease should be catching." And so it may, with perfect adjustment. To urge that physical death is natural, inasmuch as it prevails as a law in the natural relations of plants and animals, is nothing to the purpose, since these have no discoverable object other than to constitute some of the conditions to the development of personal life. Death by age or infirmity is the wearing out of the bodily energies by an attrition which, when in earlier ages it was less, occurred after longer periods than in the more complex and multiplied abuses of later generations. That physical calamities, such as earthquakes, storms, etc., would have taken place, we do not dispute. But it is by no means certain that dangerous exposure to these things would have occurred, had the propagation of the race and its spread upon the face of the earth pro- ceeded according to the promptings of a righteous ad- justment to its environment. Whether the occasion be a Noachian deluge or the physical destruction of a Sodom, there is every reason to believe that human exposure to these catastrophes might have been naturally avoided had the locating and pursuits of communities proceeded according to the promptings of aright adjust- ment of man to his conditions. Nor can it be denied that the appropriating the earth by men, in righteous adjustment to God and each other, might have pro- ceeded in such a way, in all cases, as to find these physical convulsions harmlessly correlated with the progressive preparation of a fit environment for a progressive race. Death by want, war, or crime is, also avoidable by righteousness ; would never have taken place but for 2 34 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. selfishness; and will cease among men through the persistence of love. In all this we can see nothing in physical death from either disease, old age, famine, violence, or physical catastrophe which evinces that it is anything other than a change of environment hastened and rendered appall- ing, if not brought about, by the continuous mal- adjustment of man to his natural conditions, — a change which love's evolution is made to effect by this mal- adjustment, and by which love avoids injustice in conditioning the personal determination of man. It is a calamity which no individual of the race can prevent in himself, for the reason that the maladjustment is racial. Though death by violence is often immediately caused by individuals or communities, yet these causes are conditioned in race and society abuses. Ancestors have induced, largely, the individual's physical maladjust- ment. Its correction, like its induction, must be racial. It is a racial, not individual, retribution. It is a change of environment which can inflict no irreparable injustice upon the innocent, but protects innocence from a fatal domination of corrupted conditions. It serves the cor- rective discipline of the corrigible ; and is retributive to the incorrigible only because his selfishness has sought its good in these racial abuses and sacrificed spiritual to racial conditions. The sum of what can be affirmed of this whole matter of physical death is this : There is that correlation in love's activities which conditions either the innocence, the progressive development, the corrective chastisement, or the just retribution, of man, as a race, a community, or an individual. But man determines which of these results it shall be. THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 ,e (b) Social retribution, or retribution to communities, is that revolution of this class of conditions which men, as communities, determine. Personal associations growing out of individual and race conditions, and taking the form of households, tribes, nations, or the entire popu- lation of the earth, sometimes, we term communities. Persons determine themselves as communities as well as individuals. And, as communities modify the condi- tions of individuals, so do individuals modify the condi- tions of communities. Hence the self-determination of communities, as well as that of individuals, is susceptible to discipline and capable of progress or retrogression. Communities may be guilty of abusing their conditions, or they may properly use them ; and hence are suscepti- ble to the corrective tendencies of divine love, or may incorrigibly abuse them. Hence the uncorrected sel- fishness of communities and its corruption of conditions are eliminated by self-limitation and self-defeat. The worth and strength to persist of any type of society or civilization consists in the degree to which it conserves the conditions to individual personal progress. Accord- ing to this criterion communities must progress or retrograde ; must go forward or backward. If they go forward the general scope of individual freedom, con- sistent with harmony and security, is enlarged. If they go backward individual progress is repressed. Hence the measure to which communities condition the pro- gress of individuals in self-perfection is the criterion according to which these communities must rise or fall. Thus moral resources constitute the only disinfectant which can prevent the social, civic, and material decay of a community. However great may be the develop- ment of mental and material resources in a community, 22,6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. their abuse, impairment, and ultimate destruction must — and according to history do — follow upon the neglect or corruption of moral resources. Progress in the development of mental and material resources may be attained to a degree by the efforts of both the righteous and unrighteous, — jointly, but from different motives. The righteous by altruistic endeavor, the unrighteous from motives of power, gain, and pleas- ure, will elaborate utilities and refinements. But be- cause of this difference of motives, these objective advantages are to the former occasions for higher determination of faith and love ; to the latter they are occasions for a more inveterate and complex selfishness. With the one they tend to unification, with the other, to segregation. The preponderance of the better ele- ment tends to the preservation and order of society, but the prevalence of the bad is the prelude to disorder and disaster. Though under the impulse of virtuous motives a nation may rise from barbarism to civilization, from civilization to refinement, yet if its moral resources be- come neglected or corrupted it will pass from refine- ment to effeminacy and thence to barbarism again. The whole conflict of the ages is reducible to that of the spiritual and the physical man, — faith and selfishness ; and in every case in which society has fully yielded to the dominance of selfishness, decay and disaster have followed. The amenities of divine love in and around them, the prolonged mercy of God, and the amplified advantages incident to the general progress are appropriated by the selfish ; and instead of this " goodness leading them to repentance," they make it their opportunity for continued and adept determination in selfishness. Thus selfish THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 ^y society, as such, must attain incorrigibility in wicked- ness. Though, like Babylon and the Roman Empire, nations may require centuries to work out their dissolu- tion, yet it is inevitable. Divergence, clear and radical, as between individuals and communities, as between communities and nations, must result from these two lines of self-determination. The data of faith which are implicit in the original con- ditions of our being must become explicit in the life and practice of the faithful. Hence the antagonism to these conditions must become pronounced in the life and practice of the selfish. The self-developed persis- tence of a life of love based on faith, on the one hand, and the constructive persistence of selfish life based upon the sufferance of divine mercy and the patience of the faithful, on the other hand, must result in the divergence of these two elements in society, politics, and trade. The faithful must become radically so ; the wicked, more con- firmed and implacable in wickedness. Crises must be brought about by the essential antago- nism of the two becoming thus sharply defined. Though an endurable balance of influences may delay a crisis for a long time, and the hopes of the faithful and the fears of the wicked may construct temporary conciliations and conventions, yet inevitably the rupture must come when the pure must renounce the vile, the vile must detest the pure. These crises must come to individuals, neighborhoods, nations, and eventually to the entire population of the earth. To individuals it may be as an outlaw forsaking the associations and restraints of a well-ordered com- munity ; or a Noah, Abraham, Lot, Timon, Luther, or Roger Williams ; the Huguenots or Puritans, separating 2 3 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. themselves from incorrigible social, civic, or religious corruption or oppression. Or it may be the vileness of public sentiment crucifying Jesus or crushing by vio- lence a Socrates, a Jeremiah, a Stephen, a Paul, a Huss, or a Savonarola. To communities and nations these crises bring either revolution or overthrow. " Revolutions never go back- ward " is a true saying only because wickedness, even in prosperity and dominance, works its own defeat, while the data of faith and the self-sustained resources of love persist. Such crises must be limited or far reaching in proportion as the issue is developed in greater or smaller forms of collective life. That faith gains, and selfishness loses, essentially, in every revolution implies that the antagonism is widening in area. That revolutions never go backward evinces also the progressive tendency of the race toward the ultimate triumph of love and the final failure and defeat of evil. Progress from the segregation and antagonism which have prevailed by reason of selfishness toward harmony and love among peoples foreshadows the ultimate com- munity of interest and association of all the nations of the earth. The common weal will embrace, not only the people of one tongue or land, but the entire popu- lation of our planet at the time. This result will be the necessary result of that age-long struggle between love and selfishness, upon their respective merits or demerits, in which love, based upon faith, will have amplified human freedom and harmony, and the aggressive ben- evolence of exalted individual and national character will have gathered up as one the interests of all men. Upon this wide arena selfishness will doubtless make long and stubborn contention for persistence. But here, more THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 239 than ever before, the divergence between society based on love and that based upon selfishness must become sharply discriminated, their antagonism recog- nized and actively pressed on all hands, — the righteous unequivocal in righteousness, the wicked implacably, violently wicked. This supreme crisis of human history must come. The demonstrated merit of love in human progress will leave no pretext or ruse for selfishness ; the selfish must choose selfishness in undisguised self-degradation. The demonstrated failure and turpitude of selfishness must expose its devotees to universal shame and contempt. This culmination is not only the relentless behest of ontology, but the common goal of all the forces, social, political, commercial, and religious, which have shaped and continue to shape human history. Each of these crises, domestic, national, or of the entire population of the earth, is an epoch of adjudica- tion, a conscious realization of results, the beginning of a harvest to which former sowing and growth have led up. If results could show that a finite person and commu- nities of finite persons realize a higher and better deter- mination by selfish devotement than they can by supreme devotion to that true, that ideal life which is implicit in their natural conditions, then selfishness might win for itself a valid right to exist as the supreme devotement of personal being ; win a valid standing as self-determining action ; and become a self-conscious excellence. But since selfishness in even its greatest prosperity fails of self-conscious excellence, the universe is without the consciousness that evil has a right to exist. 24 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. This has become more definite as society has pro- gressed. Further, since selfish action increases the limitations of dependent persons and decreases the scope and power of their self-determination, thereby re- ducing their freedom and sinking them toward complete dependence ; since it despoils them of susceptibility to progressive motives, sinks them in degrading affections and desires, rendering them mutually destructive in their ambition ; since it reduces individuals and communities to conditions in which existence is but a doubtful good, or positively worse than non-being ; since, in a word, it proves only degrading and disastrous, it is not only a self-conscious failure and must perish, but a self-con- scious crime, a universal outlaw, and deserves to perish. The magnitude of the interests which it thwarts and of the motives against which it offends, render it conscious of the degree of its turpitude. This is the true " survival of the fittest/' — a survival which illustrates that love, perfect action, is the fittest ; that it is self-persistent and must survive evermore ; and that its qualities, holiness, or pure intention, truth, and righteousness, constitute the fittest personal character ; and each crisis but illustrates the faith which cancels selfishness, and trusts love and its qualities to realize the highest good because they are, in themselves, the fittest. The " survival of the fittest " is only another phrasing of what the sacred Scriptures term " the judgment." Either phrasing embraces, essentially, three ideas : crisis, criterion, and retribution, or change of conditions. Judgment necessarily implies authority, — natural, basal, intrinsic authority ; and this is the authority of an inde- pendent criterion. It is independent, not because of power to destroy, but because of its power to be perfect, THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 24: because of qualitative perfection. It is authoritative be- cause perfect, fittest because of perfect quality, of perfect quality because it is perfect action, perfectly adjusted being. It cannot be affirmed the fittest because it pro- duces the greatest possible good or pleasure, as the utili- tarian or agnostic would say. None but the infinite mind perceives what can produce the greatest possible good or pleasure. With finite minds this is altogether a matter of inference and faith. It is faith in God, as perfection, which leads the faithful man to expect that love will yield the highest possible good. The proof of his faith he finds, not in grasping a knowledge of the highest good, but in the effect of faith upon his inner life, affording per- fection of intention, and progress in self-determination. And now, in the final crisis of a community which em- braces earth's entire population, the wreck of evil society again demonstrates that selfishness is not only not the fittest, but that it is wholly unfit to exist, and hence never had a right to exist. And at the same time it is demon- strated that of all the forces and qualities ever known to man, love, based on faith in God, as the perfect, is self- persistent, self-progressive, self-perfecting. It actualizes the ideal community. Thus, on the earth, motivity to selfishness will be ulti- mately abolished. Human love, purified and exalted upon the basis of faith in God, will have developed the ideal community for this earth. Faithful society in its progress will more keenly apprehend, more strikingly perceive and interact with the activities of God's all- conditioning love. With this will have been regained the true and highest use of their environment. No mo- tivity to evil can survive this solution. No motive, nothing but obdurate aversion to holiness, fixed unsus- 16 2 42 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ceptibility to truth and right, self-determined limitation to selfish motives, can remain as incitement to evil. This does not necessarily imply that the whole mass, or even a large proportion, of earthly society will have become faithful. The implication is that such will have been the progress determined upon these opposite lines, love and selfishness, that however large or small their numbers, the respective parties will have become so widely differentiated that the excellence of one and the worthlessness and turpitude of the other will strip sel- fishness of all motivity, and hence of all power to tempt the innocent and ignorant. Those who maintain evil society must do so upon no pretence but incorrigible aversion to love and devotion to selfishness. Hence their retribution must ensue. The breaking-up of selfish society must naturally result. Selfishness, now all-dominating, openly pro- nounced and socially isolated, its followers must be without the restraints of good society among themselves, but like a den of beasts or fiends are left to mutual degradation and destruction. Further, supernatural conditions may now develop their full force. This final divergence of society will have been reached upon the basis of supernatural con- ditions which have supplemented or republished the data of faith by the Christ-revelation of the facts, — the being, the independent supremacy, the holiness, and the benevolence of God. These conditions have been abused and perverted to the ends of this final incorrigibility. Hence we are carried by ontological implication to the fulfilment of the seer's vision of the explicit immanence or perceivable presence of the Christ, the glory of whose coming shall consume the wicked. THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 ^ Although human perversions had dimmed these data of faith as naturally revealed in the human conscious- ness of dependent life, reason, conscience, and will, they have been re-established supernaturally " as a wit- ness unto all nations ; " and now in the culmination of their full development they constitute the forces which are as necessarily retributive to selfish society as the white heat of the refiner's furnace is resolvent to reject and cast out the dross. This is the final revolution of social conditions, the final disaster to organized selfishness among men. In- dividual defection may possibly arise among men after this revolution which leaves all social organization har- monious and morally pure. But the social conditions upon which such defection shall arise must imply that it will soon run its course and doubly emphasize the failure and crime of selfishness. Thus upon the social conditions afforded by divine love, self-limitation and self- defeat will rid the earth of selfish society. (c) Individual retribution, like racial and social, is simply a revolution of personal conditions brought about by individual use or abuse of those conditions. It is not to be thought as a resentful infliction which God may arbitrarily impose or withhold, but as a result which must be implied in a collision with love, the nature of the all-conditioning God. The decay and disaster which befall families, peoples, nations, and the race, as such, do not involve, necessa- rily, the personal retribution of individuals, except to the extent of their relations to these collective bodies. Many innocent and many positively righteous individ- uals, such as children, parents, creditors, or citizens, suffer in the wreck of those collective relations, but not 244 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. in the fortunes of individual character. Many noble lives are burdened and physically and mentally limited by the abuses of former generations, but individual faith or a pure intention is not thereby prevented. Yet the decay or overthrow of collective associations illus- trates the same principle which must obtain in the indi- vidual relation to all-conditioning love. The downfall of Rome, " childless and crownless in her voiceless woe," and the despair of the pleasure-seeker, the infidel scoffer, or the man of either crude or cultured selfish- ness, alike incapable of faith, are subject to the same retributive principle. The main difference between man's retribution in his collective capacities and that of individual concern is that the dissolution of collective organizations, as such, is the end of their collective self-determination, and hence concludes their retribu- tion ; while individuals retain their self-determining power in the midst of social and even physical dissolu- tion. Either they are capable of a yet unrealized ideal life, or their selfishness is not yet satisfied or repented. Hence the change of their racial or social conditions is not an interruption of their personal being. A future state of individual relation to God and the universe persists in our thought. It is not necessary to elaborate an argument here on a future state. For of course if there be no future life for man our solution of evil is complete with racial and social retribution. Many reasons, aside from revelation, have been given for belief in a future state, but usually the essential rea- son is overlooked. It is as follows : — Love implies a future state for persons. We readily see that when the Creator posits the existence of a per- son he conditions a self-determining power, and commits THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 245 himself in honor and truth to the maintenance of these conditions as long as that self-determination exists. And although this self-determining being may revolutionize those conditions in relation to himself and render them retributive, they must continue as long as he can deter- mine their use or abuse. Since from the beginning of man's sinful self-determination love's conditioning action has been placed at his service it cannot be withdrawn while he entertains a self-determining purpose concerning it. He must upon these conditions be permitted to work out that purpose so long as he is conscious of it. We say " must " for the reason that creative love cannot be thought to draw back from any possible result to which it is committed by the original choice to condition the existence of persons. Love's conditioning action is put into their hands by virtue of affording them personality ; and hence their self-determination must be permitted to work out its purpose. By creating free beings love sub- mitted to their proof of its possible worst as well as its possible best. If, in the lowest depths of self-degrada- tion, a dependent person can develop aught which im- peaches love's purity, truth, or goodness, aught which indorses or connives at selfishness or wrong, aught of essential imperfection, then love is impeached through- out. Its right to create or morally dominate a universe is fairly disputed, its morally authoritative basis for per- sonal determination is exploded ; and selfishness has gained standing-ground as a principle upon which per- sonal character may be rightfully determined. To cre- ate beings of conditioned self-determination implies the continuance of the conditions as long as that determina- tion is self-conscious, whether it be in moral harmony or disharmony with the conditioning action. The same 246 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. principles upon which the evolution of love conditions the continuance of a race of self-determining sinners in this life are those upon which it must continue to con- dition their sinful self-determination, notwithstanding physical dissolution. Moreover, in the case of the faithful, physical dissolu- tion finds them in essential harmony with divine love and in process of progressive self-determination. In many cases, too, their conscious steadfastness in love and aversion to evil have been achieved. Such has been the trial of their faith that subjection of the actual to the ideal life has become habitual with them long before death ; it has been the high standpoint from which they have performed their duties and endured their ills. One who could say of his actual life, " One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal, unto the prize of the high calling of God," is entirely philosophic when, summoned to exe- cution, he says : " Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." The confidence of Socrates was not a mere fancy, but the conscious persistence of a life of devotion to the ideal, which led him to say to his weeping friends, " You may dispose of my body as you like, but I shall be with the gods." The divine philosophy, as expressed in view of persecution for righteousness' sake, is, " He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." We have seen in a former chapter that the self-deter- mined freedom, harmony, and security of the universe are the essential qualities of its perfection and the con- ditions to the highest good which love can evolve. Hence the persons who in this life have achieved these THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 47 qualities, or are in a way to determine them, are among the agents who alone can actually accomplish the pur- pose of the universe. Personality which has attained these qualities, or is in an attitude to attain them, and has, by physical death, cast off the physical heritage of racial abuses, has simply gained the starting-point for untrammelled personal progress. And so long as the innocent and the faithful who must determine the uni- verse can amplify their personal being, can determine a higher development, can aspire to a yet unrealized ideal self or attain a higher good, love, the nature of that action which conditions their being, implies their immortality. This is but the process of realizing the divine altruism ; which, being based upon the perfect altruistic freedom of God, is the limitless measure of universal good. At what time in an individual career conscious self- determination may first arise, it is difficult, if not im- possible to detect. But when it does arise it is the beginning of the individual use of one's personal nature, the actual discrimination of individual from racial life. There are times when the farmer says he can " almost see the corn growing," but there are processes of growth which even the microscope cannot detect. So also we can definitely observe evidences of conscious self- determination in infants, but this cannot be assumed to indicate their earliest conscious individuality or will. Preceding this rise of self-determination the infant can- not be thought to have developed any but racial life. Not having exerted an act of self-determination, it does not become conscious of individual identity, or selfhood. Hence, should physical death take place, which is simply a form of racial retribution, a catastrophe to race con- 24 8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ditions, it suffers no individual retribution. Indeed, we know of no implication or datura, of any kind, upon which we can say that such infancy can survive physical death, can live in a future state. After self-determining action is once begun, however faintly, the personal nature is individualized, and indi- vidual self-consciousness takes its rise, and retains per- sonal identity through all subsequent changes ; until, by self-determined abuse of the personal nature it may be sunken in complete self-limitation and ultimately lost. The rise and earlier development of personality is doubt- less in accordance with circumstances and instinctive im- pulses, and trusts its conditions with entire sincerity. This is the faith of childhood ; and it maintains the innocence of childhood, although the circumstances and impulses upon which it acts may have been depraved by ancestry and social factors. Its debased racial conditions npay impose upon it disease, feebleness, defective physical organization, or death ; and social surroundings may afford it little but villanous incitements. Yet the im- plicit sincerity with which it personally acts in accordance with these conditions is an innocent, yes, virtuous, use of its personal nature, and determines its character as one of innocent and virtuous intention. Not until it is sufficiently advanced to deliberately and of purpose reject pure intention and adopt selfish intention does it abuse its personal conditions or form corrupt character. Hence, if retribution in its racial or social conditions overtake it while in this character of individual inno- cence, it must be thought to persist in a future state as an innocent person of morally pure intention. It takes rank with that class of beings whose further develop- ment will be in the absence of temptation, who " do THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 ^g always behold the face of God, " who must depend upon environment for consciousness of moral security until it is acquired by association with those whose conscious security has been sell-determined " through much tribulation." When a child is sufficiently advanced in a knowledge of his conditions to recognize the moral criterion of intentions in conscience, he may then have a self- conscious faith; he may then determine to subject him- self to what he understands to be true ; and may feel, as a result, that this faith purifies or keeps pure his inten- tions as he advances upon an ever-widening scope of self-determination. Although he may not grasp a logi- cal definition of faith, yet just as surely does he enact " the subjection of the actual to the ideal ; " and just as surely does he cancel selfishness and lovingly determine himself toward spiritual harmony, freedom, and security. On the other hand, a child at this stage of personal advancement may begin a deliberate rejection of conscience and faith ; and in case death intervenes, his appearance in a future state must be thought that of a person suffering individual retribution. His conscious- ness of the magnitude of his motives to good, which he has rejected, must be the measure of his retribution. In adults, individual persistence in a selfish life may be, in many cases, but an idle or undiscriminating drifting with circumstances. And it may thus take the form of a merely racial life or result in the ultimate sinking of personal consciousness into the helpless dependence of a mere thing. This view assumes that there are persons who are so entirely content with the bare satisfaction of physical needs, and whose interest in existence is so far below the normal aspirations of a 250 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. child that they fail to discriminate themselves as other than parts of a common herd. They live and die with- out reflection as to any definite purpose of individual life or destiny. This may be largely owing to circum- stances and their weakness to rise above circumstances, even to the extent of asserting individual responsibility of any kind or degree. Though they may have felt at some time the assertion of conscience, yet this has been so habitually yielded to the behest of circum- stances that it is practically swamped. The consciousness of guilt in such persons must be very faint, and the consciousness of moral sincerity equally indefinite. They seem conscious of nothing which could be termed self-determination except a weak surrender to natural impulse as dominated by circumstances. Personality is surrendered during racial life ; and racial life yielded in physical death. The opportunity of personal determination, like the talent hid in the ground, is soon taken away and they perish. If one live merely a racial life he lives only as a brute lives, and his may be termed a brute life. The essen- tial difference between brute life and personal life is that a brute lives for its nature, a person lives for a mode of life which he can build upon his nature ; using his nature as means and conditions by which to deter- mine its qualities. The sum of these qualities is char- acter. By persistence in this action he fixes his character, or quality, of life upon so much of his nature as does not perish in the using. This modified nature becomes the means for the further development of character ; and thus, eventually, self-determination may realize perfect conditioned personality. Brute life is living for his nature, to follow its impulses and make THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 25 1 the satisfaction of its desires the object of life. While this is, perhaps, the most crude form of incorrigible selfishness it is readily eliminated by self-limitation and self-defeat. There are other classes of persons whose selfishness is a living for their nature in its intellectually higher and more ambitious propensions. Nevertheless, they live for their nature as an end, ignoring that it is but the means for a higher type of life which they may superadd, and into which all of their nature which does not perish with the using should be incorporated. Many of this class give a quasi recognition to the facts disclosed in their natures, and which afford a basis for faith, — such as the perceived facts of being and de- pendence, and the implied fact of the independent, which we cannot get rid of, and also self-love, reason, and conscience. They harbor also an expectation to act, sometime, in accordance with these data of faith. But living in present neglect of the great object of personal life, they devote themselves to the immediate satisfactions of natural appetite, passion, and propension. Though they may be highly intelligent and often pos- sess great will-force, their life is only a highly endowed animalism. This for the reason that they are devoted to the satisfying of their present selves, and are rejecting the true, the ideal self which their reason and con- science tell them they ought to actualize. Their char- acter is deliberately self-determined selfishness ; and, consequently, the intervention of physical death re- moves them hence with characters of uncorrected sin. Dying without having actualized their " quasi expecta- tion " to "sometime," as a matter of convenience, turn to repentance and faith, they must be thought to have 252 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. entered upon a future state of retribution. Obdurately impenitent while enjoying immunity from retribution, their quasi intention to sometime reform for conveni- ence' sake is only a selfish forecast which can never be capable of faith. It is simply a form of moral incorrigibility. Incorrigible selfishness definitely purposed is brought about by habitually putting aside the authority of con- science, diverting the attention from it, and thus deter- mining fixed unsusceptibility to motives of faith and love. The person who can choose to continue in selfishness at any stage or reject love in any degree of its incentives, is capable of persisting also in his choice of selfishness, and rejecting love at that stage when he knows that the one is wholly false and the other true. This is total, moral incorrigibility, the total abuse of his conditions. Thus continuance in sin until the incorrigible stage is reached is clearly practicable. Prior to this, even when the false tendency of sin and the true tendency of love are perceived, he must abandon the one and adopt the other, or else must deliberately choose antagonism to love. Persistence in this choice determines his perversion of the conditions of individual faith and must establish in his nature a fixed aversion to love. If, in the experience or observa- tion of any individual, community, or age, fixed indif- ference to the moral behest of love has been reached, there can be no motivity to their self-determination, except the desire of selfish satisfaction. This indifference is wholly a matter of purposed, practical infidelity, — infidelity to the true, and positive aversion to holiness and God. To this aversion the THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 c* undeviating activities of love which condition him must be a constant offence ; and in changed circumstances, when he can no longer make all-conditioning love serve his selfishness, it must be to him torture. Selfishness, for the reason that it is self-love in dero- gation of self-perfection and the perfection of others, finds its supreme object of aversion in God. Nor can such a person repent his selfishness from any other mo- tive than its unpleasurable results ; and this, of course, is not moral repentance at all, has in it no moral contri- tion, has no motive but selfishness. That a person thus selfishly determined will regret his disaster cannot be doubted, but selfish motivity to this regret can never work moral purifying. He is still morally incorrigible. Previous to a retributive change of conditions selfish motives may be appealed to for the purpose of arousing attention to the moral enormity of sin. This is possible so long as the authority of conscience is not discarded, and may incite to genuine repentance. But to a person in whom selfishness has reached the point of self- determined indifference to the data of faith, especially the demand of conscience, there can be no remedial or recovering conditions. Future Pj-obation. — The question arises at this point whether persons, after having, by physical death, under- gone racial retribution, must, by necessary implication of love, find themselves subject to individual retri- bution. Or may they not continue in probationary conditions, individually, notwithstanding physical death has removed them from the racial and social conditions of this life ? Or, again, may all-conditioning love imply individual probation in a future state ? The answer to this question cannot include the case 54 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. of children or multitudes of adults, who, innocent of self- determined rejection of love, have passed into a future life of development in the " presence of God." Doubt- less these will occupy conditions to development, but not in a sense that implies the moral possibility of failure or defection. Their conditions will be those of over- whelming motives to love and entire absence of tempta- tion to evil, because associated with the innocent and the faithful, and freed from corrupt racial and social conditions. But such conditions will afford no proving by self-determined conquest of their natural susceptibility to selfishness ; nor can such conditions yield a con- sciousness of moral security as against supposable temp- tation to sin, except as such consciousness may be eventually acquired by association with those who have through discipline of evil determined their own security. It has been urged : If the children go to the " pres- ence of God" directly, why does not God have them all die, and thus end human propagation in the sinful con- ditions of this life ? This is equivalent to asking : Why have a human race at all? The answer to all this is : The evolution of that ultimate security in personal harmony and freedom which is essential to the perfection of the universe can be attained only by the develop- ment of an unsusceptibility to selfishness by the determi- nation of finite persons themselves. The self-elimination of one's susceptibility to evil is requisite to a perfect personality, and hence to the perfect universe. Ab- sence of temptations or incitements to evil may secure the harmony of innocent or unfallen beings, but it can- not develop the highest order of moral character, for the reason that susceptibility to evil temptation may remain in them ; at least, they can have no consciousness of THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 255 perfect security in themselves, as against possible temp- tation. To this class of persons may belong angels who have ever " kept their first estate, " and children who die and enter upon association with angels, who " always behold the face of God," before they have consciously renounced their sense of dependence and rejected the authority of conscience. But these alone, and in these conditions, can never realize a perfect finite being or universe. Perfect harmony of persons can be realized only by beings of perfect moral freedom ; and perfect moral freedom can be realized only in conscious- ness of perfect moral security ; and this security can be realized only by the self-elimination or neutralization of personal susceptibility to selfishness ; and this sus- ceptibility can be eliminated only by the person himself in confirmed faith and love. Angels, infants, and innocent heathen may see and associate with the faithful who have determined their own security, and may thus themselves ultimately attain to a like security. This is not probation, however, but is only their development into this unsusceptibility by observation and association and sympathy with the faithful, who constitute the nucleus and main body of the perfect universe by having determined their own conscious security against selfishness. But we return to the question : Is a future state necessarily one of individual retribution? That retribu- tion is a revolutionary change of conditions, we have already seen. That physical death is such a change, not only of race conditions but also of social and indi- vidual environment, must be admitted. Now, must pas- sage into a future state imply a loss of all conditions to personal correction and recovery to the individual who 256 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. has been unrepentant or incorrigible in this life ? We do not aim here to give an extended argument ; es- pecially is it aside from the method of this work to invoke Scriptural exposition. Our answer must aim to give the implications of love which, at this stage of its evolution, are decisive of the question. We have seen that love, in creating dependent per- sons, requires that the rise of their personality must be conditioned at the lowest point at which progressive self-determination is possible. Now. if this racial and social life affords the lowest and easiest conditions which all-conditioning love can posit for the rise, progress, and perfection of finite persons, then the debasement of in- dividual life in these conditions must be thought such a debasement as to be totally unsusceptible to any con- ditions to personal improvement which love can ever afford. To those who have perverted and debased these lowest conditions of personal development physi- cal death must be thought a change which renders them conscious of conditions more desperate and hopeless. By no line of reasoning can we conclude that the abuse of our present nature can result in an improved, more susceptible, future nature. And if individuals continue to debase these conditions which are most favorable to progressive motives, perverting them from the moral susceptibility of childhood innocence to self-determined depravity, death must be to them a change to a rad- ical and hopeless maladjustment toward love and God. The present bodily conditions must be thought requi- site means by which man begins and in this life con- tinues his personal interaction with divine love, whether that love be naturally or supernaturally disclosed. By these means he is able to enter upon the lowest condi- THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 257 tions of faith ; and, upon faith, he becomes able to love God and determines himself in harmony with God. If physical death takes place at any point in the process of this innocent or faithful self-determination he con- tinues in harmonious interaction with God, notwithstand- ing the falling away of bodily conditions. He must be classed with disembodied persons who are in either in- nocent or faithful harmony with love in the future state. But if, while in these bodily conditions, he has deter- mined himself selfishly he must be thought as not only out of harmony with love, but as morally below the lowest form of faith. As long as he is in possession of bodily conditions he has contact with the means of cor- rection and recovery to the lowest stage of faith ; and may begin again the process of faithful self-determina- tion. But, if physical death supervenes when, by sel- fishness, he is sunken to the lowest point at which faith may arise, he is left without means or conditions of cor- rection and recovery to the lowest form of faith. He must be thought a disembodied person to whom faith is out of reach ; hence, incapable of corrective chastise- ment and harmonization with love. If the lowest form of progressive interaction with divine love, in this life, requires these bodily conditions, certainly a lower form cannot be posited without them. There is no need of talking about any means of moral purifying or develop- ment other than faith ; and if the lowest forms of faith can arise only upon those conditions which divine love affords as the lowest upon which personal determination may arise, it is clear that the lowest forms of faith are impossible without those conditions. And it is exactly those conditions which physical death removes. As long as he is in this body, aided by its needs and its 17 258 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. racial and social sympathies of faith and love, as also by the direct incarnation of divine love in Christ, he has contact with the conditions to spiritual recovery. But, disembodied, this bridge between his self-degraded spirit and the conditions to faith and love is gone. " But if a supernatural intervention, as in Christ, avails to give renewed conditions of faith to depraved men in this life, may not love imply further supernat- ural revelations which may in a future world condi- tion saving faith to those, at least, who have died unrepentant?" This plausible question is neutralized by the following considerations, namely : It is based upon a miscon- ception of the Christ revelation ; which sought, not the obdurate, but the ignorant and degraded. Secondly, he who has determined positive aversion to faith in himself has no susceptibility which any revelation can incite to spiritual reform. When, by racial defilement and social perversion the natural motives to individual faith have been obscured from those who are yet suscep- tible, supernatural interposition reiterates them. These motives to faith, always implicit in man's nature, are the grounds upon which mankind always praise or blame each other. They are never replaced as motives to moral purifying. No supposed revelation which ignores them can make good its claim to divine origin. What were the ancient disclosures of Jehovah, the indepen- dent, holy and gracious, or guiding the retributive storm of abuse and revolutionized conditions, but the reiteration of these data of faith ? What were the words and works of Christ, but reminders of the dependence of man and the independence of truth, moral authority, and merciful solicitude of God? All supernatural revelation has its THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 259 value in maintaining man's recognition of these motives to faith. Moreover, if supernatural intervention to renew and intensify the motivity to faith in this life is a fact it implies a negative answer to the above question. If, in a future state, better conditions to faith may be had by the selfish, then all supernatural revelation in this world, including the ministry and atonement of Christ, are superfluous and are discredited. The incarnation of God in Christ, assuming our racial and social conditions as a medium of contact with our race, implies that these are essential to condition saving faith. When physical death removes our bodily conditions this medium is lost. The evolution of love had doubtless developed the conditions to individual self-determination in their essential order; and if self-determination has sunken the person's susceptibility beneath the lowest, simplest and most direct conditions to faith he cannot be thought more susceptible to them in the more advanced stages of that evolution. Obdurate selfishness in this life, as against these con- ditions, sinks the personal susceptibility to them and establishes aversion toward them. Hence it renders the person incapable of corrective probation, though heaven and hell were perceptibly open before him. The chasm between his self-determined unsusceptibility to the ideal and the higher conditions to the realization of an ideal life must be thought impassable. It is the enlightened selfishness of this world that is the most obdurate. Those who are selfish amidst the most highly intellectual perceptions of the ideal are the most incapable of faith. This incapability is owing to the widened chasm between their intelligent discrimination 2 6o THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. of an ideal life and their sunken susceptibility to its motives, induced by selfish determination. Those who are not won to a life of faith when young rarely are when old, — owing to the widened discrepancy between their debased susceptibilities and the motives to faith. The discrepancy between the selfish affections of the obdurate and love's higher disclosures in the future is a chasm which our thought cannot bridge. Nothing but an undebatable revelation from God can afford ground for a belief that it is possible. Hence we find no ground upon which to hope, much less affirm, possible conditions in a future state in which the impenitent of this present life may become susceptible to motives to faith and love. But as their selfish life has narrowed the scope of their moral free- dom, increased their limitations, and diminished their personality, we can neither affirm nor hope anything better for them than a gradual, though appalling, agoniz- ing process of the sinking of personality until personal, perhaps all consciousness is lost. As surely as love is love, it implies that the conditions of this life are the most favorable to man's laying hold of eternal life. And the incarnation of God in Christ implies that these conditions are necessary to human salvation by faith. To sink himself below their reach is to perish. The process of self-limitation. — This fact which marks selfish life is implied in conditioned personality. The progressive nature which love has afforded to all con- ditioned persons, and which by innocent self-determina- tion gives rise to individual self-consciousness, followed by conscious enlargement ot freedom while faithful deter- mination continues, is reversed and undone by selfish determination. The process of self-limitation closes in THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 2 6l upon the will like the fabled prison-walls which, ample at first, shrank until they crushed the prisoner in their em- brace. Step by step the conditions to self-determination have been wasted by abuse, and now it abides only as a fixed, stolid sentiment of personal malevolence, power- less to do aught but nurse its self-consuming hatred. The sinking of personality in a future state is a plain implication of love, and is manifested in the same sink- ing process which is begun in this present life. It is not to be thought a positive infliction, but a result which is implied in the nature of dependent personality. It is brought about by the dependent person himself, by his narrowing the scope of his self-determining freedom, — by ignoring the independent truth, right, and good which God represents. All determination of his life in harmony with these infinite motives to faith is inter- cepted. Moreover, his susceptibility to them is destroyed. Selfishness, even in its most amiable or imposing ex- ternal form, is nothing better than personal devotion to racial and social conditions, either in their use or abuse. In their use it is personal devotion to no motive except those which are temporal. It ignores those which are eternal, and consequently abuses personal conditions by subjecting them to that which is beneath essential per- sonality. Having, like Dives, sought his " good things " in this world, he has sunken his personality beneath all capability for the good things of a future state. In their abuse, he not only subjects his personal conditions to his racial and social interests, but to these in the most insignificant and brute-like form, making the incidental pleasures the objects of his pursuit. He thus not only subjects his personal determination to racial and social enjoyment, but to the most limited scope of these con- 262 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ditions. By subjecting his mental and moral capabilities to the behests of appetite, passion, avarice, — indeed, selfishness in any and all forms, — he becomes their prisoner. As a man by physical and mental abuses limits his physical and mental capabilities, so by the abuse of his entire nature, he imposes limitations upon himself which close in upon his will on all sides. His self-love having become wholly selfishness finds no scope for self-determination, except in the gratification of its means and instruments. Having rendered himself un- susceptible to any but selfish motives, he is incapable of determining himself unselfishly, even when disaster over- whelms him with the consciousness of disharmony with all his conditions. Having made himself the slave of perverted circumstances, he has become wholly depend- ent upon them for satisfaction. Now that they are exhausted, their absence leaves him a morbid embodi- ment of selfish desire. The tide of earthly circumstances over which he might have directed his course to a happy port, but upon which he chose to float idly or to play the pirate upon the common welfare, avoiding every port, now leaves him stranded on an unexplored and uncongenial shore. Self-determined aversion to love has positive self-con- sciousness within him. The respects in which progressive determination has been afforded him by the gracious conditions of his earthly life were, devotion to a perfect personal life, a perfect universe, and companionship with a perfect God, — either implying the others. He has re- jected them all. Now that he has established aversion to love in himself, his woe is not only the loss of pro- gressive personality, substituted by an established process of self-limitation, but the torture of existence amidst the THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 263 prevalence of a perfecting universe and a perfect God. The spirit of perfectness, the " Holy Spirit," present to his consciousness, — but which he had evaded, rejected, despised, hated, blasphemed, while it sought to woo him, — is now the all-pervading atmosphere of love in which he writhes with agonizing aversion. How long the process of the sinking of personality may continue is a question which we have no exact data from which to answer. The relative persistence of differ- ent persons in the agony of perishing by self-limitation is implied in the nature of personality. One's personal self-consciousness must be thought persistent in pro- portion as his selfish purpose is definitely determined. Hence selfish personality, in its most elaborate determi- nation, may be expected to cling to its purpose longest, and therefore persist longest in the agony of the perish- ing process. " He shall be beaten with many stripes." But all-conditioning love cannot be affirmed to continue the personal nature in conscious torture after the con- sciousness of self-determination is lost. Thus the ultimate extinction of the personal con- sciousness of the obdurate is implied in the nature of personality and the evolution of love, — 1 st. In the complete self-limitation and sinking of selfish personality by the uncorrected abuse of all-con- ditioning love. 2d. In the realization of the perfect universe, the com- panionship of the finite with the infinite, in undisturbed harmony, freedom, and security. In all this conflict be- tween love and selfishness, love has been nothing other than all-embracing, all-conditioning love ; but, antago- nized, outraged, blasphemed, perverted, a consuming fire. (This question is considered further in " Eschatology.") 264 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. The self-determined wreck of evil by the sinking of the personality of the impenitent will demolish all ob- jective motivity to selfishness. This utmost demonstra- tion of selfishness, establishing a universal conviction of its utter worthlessness and entire turpitude, must abol- ish its power and place in the realm of motivity. It must fix in all minds a total aversion to selfishness. It must fill all with a changeless, unqualified conviction that love alone is perfect action, infinite in uncondi- tioned egoism, eternal in exhaustless altruism. Limitless benevolence realizes a perfect objective exposition of the perfect altruistic freedom of God. This is the " glory of God." It must inspire in each finite person a self- love so firmly devoted to the realization of love's ideal of their personal life as to render them forever unsusceptible to selfishness. No motives to induce the innocent to sin can survive this solution. No motives but such as love discloses can arise in the universal consciousness. That a progressive universe conditioned in ignorance, weakness, temptation, and mercy, is the only conceiv- able ideal universe, has been sufficiently set out. That such progressive universe is by its nature exposed to error, sin, and sorrow, is fully recognized. That error, sin, and sorrow, must be possible to any personal uni- verse which is fit to be created is an unavoidable con- clusion. The divine choice to create is vindicated in its holiness and benevolence. We have seen the glori- ous aim, a holy, loving, good, free, and secure compan- ionship of finite with infinite being. We have more than hinted that this companionship is but the founda- tion for wider and nobler realization of the possibilities of being, and that the eternal range of progressive development, conditioned in harmony, freedom, and THE SOLUTION OF EVIL. 265 security, will be but the perpetual realization of the Creator's ideal. The realization of this ideal vindicates the action which conditioned the long, weary curse of sin that obtained in preliminary stages ; vindicates it by having afforded holy and merciful conditions upon which each person could not only abide in harmony with divine love, but find correction and recovery from evil. We have seen the innocence of ignorant error, the minimum of guilt and harm attending error and sin, the corrective and disciplining tendency which love imposes upon error and sin, conditioning all persons with hope and help. We have recognized also that to each indi- vidual all the suffering of corrective chastisement is over-compensated by the resulting recovery of purity, strength, and endless development of character; that the ills imposed by heredity and environment cannot pre- vent his spiritual exaltation, but are made to contribute to it. The outraged consciousness of martyrdom, too, has its compensating triumph in the more immediate actualization of an ideal life. All this wild and awful scene of suffering and wrong has its compensation only in love. Love, with its power to inspire and glorify the conscious spirit, to realize to that spirit the perfection of holiness, truth, beauty, and good ; love, with its rapture ever surviving its pang, en- during its torture only to burst forth in proportionately larger development ; love, with its implication of immor- tality and an ever-advancing ideal, — is the consolation, as it is the source, of the universe. As love is the self- sufficient nature of the unconditioned reality, it is self- sufficient as the nature of a conditioned universe. Love, and immortality for love's sake, are the surviving, all- compensating factors which can weave every error, 2 66 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. sorrow, and repentance into the will's "armor of light," the knightly long-sufferer's cloth-of-gold. Then let it be clearly recognized that however great may have been the sum of error, sin, and sorrow in the universe, it is the least that could be secured by the Creator, in proportion to the highest possible good of dependent persons, and that the greatness of its volume is due to these persons themselves, who alone could have made it less. Let it be remembered also that wherein it could not be prevented by divine love, it is held within conditions which provide for either its merciful remedy or its self-extinction. Nothing but unreasoning, perverse devotion to sin can prevent its corrective, chastening use in any individual soul. Thus it appears that the Creator, in choosing to create finite beings, but indulges love's eternal, altruistic spirit, and gives it the most beneficent, because perfect deter- mination. He develops the ever-increasing good of his altruistic life as he ever realizes the infinite good of his unconditioned, egoistic life. The evolution of love, advancing in its eternal process of altruistic determina- tion, maintains the original unity of holiness and benevo- lence, and assures the ultimate oneness of the actual and the ideal universe. THE ATONING FACT. 267 CHAPTER IV. THE ATONING FACT. The ideal, to this summit God descends, man rises — Victor Hugo. In perfect action, which constitutes perfect being, — the unconditioned, or infinite person, — we have found the original unit. The nature of that action we have found to be an unconditioned, infinitely free life ; which unconditioned life, of perfect adjustment, is the realiza- tion of absolute perfection; and that this self-enacted and perfectly adjusted life is love. We have seen, in a word, that the nature of perfect action is love ; and that love is an order of self-deter- mining action in which is realized infinite self-conscious- ness, or unconditioned egoism. Moreover, this perfect, love-achieved egoism conditions perfect altruism without being conditioned by it, and thus the existence of per- sons or a universe of persons, other than the infinite Person, is possible and probable to our thought, as also certain to our experience. In the determination or carrying out of perfect altru- ism we have seen the rise of relative consciousness in the Deity, — the divine sonship, — and also the putting forth of objective action by the divine Son in the crea- tion of an objective universe of dependent persons. We have also seen, in a former chapter, the genesis of evil, and the necessity of merciful benevolence as a 2 68 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. condition to the existence of a perfect personal universe and its solution of the " problem of evil." It has ap- peared too that this solution, whether in individual character or collective forms of life, is one in which through a long series of ages sin demonstrates its total lack of merit, its infinite demerit ; and love proves its limitless altruistic capability, sustaining the utmost test imposed by sinful freedom, outliving the full determina- tion of sin, and affording the conditions to the develop- ment of a universe regenerated, purified, harmonious, and secure in the utmost freedom possible to dependent persons, — thus realizing the eternal companionship of infinite and finite being. In a word, love is able, unim- paired, to posit the conditions of a universe of perfect finite persons. We have seen, further, that through all this evolution of love its immaculate ideal abides uncompromised, its devotion to that ideal unwavering, its eternal altruistic spirit unabated, holy. But hitherto we have said nothing of the subjective strain, so to speak, which is experienced by a love which, though holy because of its devotion to the perfect, pours out unfailing mercy to sinners, affords conditions for measureless sin and sorrow, gives scope for the self- demonstration of sinful freedom, endures incalculable abuse ; yet is unimpaired in holiness and benevolence. In this strain upon the evolution of love must be found, if found at all, the atoning fact. All theories of atonement which involve a " legal fic- tion," a criminal substitution, or a commercial transaction are crude and unsatisfactory because an atoning fact nowhere clearly appears in them. All theories of atone- ment by martyrdom or " moral influence " are superficial THE ATONING FACT. 269 and evaporate when analyzed, — evaporate because they contain no atoning fact. To affirm an atonement is to claim that there exists the force of atoning fact in the relations of God to the universe ; and to teach a philos- ophy of atonement is warranted only by such fact hav- ing been clearly discriminated as implied, disclosed, or both, by love. Hence a treatment of the subject should develop, first, an atoning fact, and secondly, its relation to man as implied in divine love. The simplest definition of atonement is " a bringing together," but as habitually associated with religious sacrifice it includes also the idea of suffering on the part of the one by whom this bringing together or reconcilia- tion is accomplished. In addition to these contents of the term, the fact or idea of vicarious sacrifice on the part of the atoning one is insisted upon by some and rejected by others as essential to complete the notion of atonement for sin. The incompatibility between the notion of a holy God and the fact of his upholding a world of sinners in mer- ciful conditions turns all thoughtfully religious minds toward a reconciliation either maintained or at some time achieved in his action toward them. But how maintained, or at what point achieved and at what cost are questions upon which there has been much disagree- ment. Lack of clear discrimination in philosophy must result in great discrepancy and lack of clearness in the interpretation of data, whether these data be natural or revealed. To pursue the line of love's evolution seems to the writer the only safe method by which to ascer- tain what of atonement it implies, — whether atonement is a fact, and what is the form of that fact. Having found such fact it may then appear whether it has been 2 y THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. originally maintained or supplementarily achieved ; whether or not it involves reconciliation and suffering ; and whether that suffering is sacrificial and vicarious. Hence reconciliation, suffering, sacrifice, vicariousness, each or all may be recognized as contents of the ques- tion. Do any or all of them exist in fact, or are they mere figures of speech ; and if all really exist, do they fill out the notion of atonement for sin? A true answer to these questions must decide as to the fact and phi- losophy of atonement. The notion of atonement must imply, — i. That there is an absolute authority, a sacred im- perative in something. 2. That this imperative is propitiated, satisfied, by somewhat. It may imply, — 3. That suffering, agony, is incident to this propitiation. 4. That this suffering may be undeserved by the sufferer, and is therefore a sacrifice. 5. It may be, in some sense, a displacement of suf- fering in others, whose suffering should result from the same cause, and therefore this displacement is vicarious. Some of these contents are recognized in some form in every theory of atonement, but may have been erroneously distributed, or cumbered with crudities imposed by systems. Two things, at least, ought to appear, namely : whether in the evolution of love there exist facts which are essentially atoning in their char- acter ; and what is their true relation in their evolution. As we set about this inquiry let us reiterate that love is action which is conscious of an ideal, to the realization of which it is devoted. It is devotion to perfectness. It is the only kind of action of which we THE ATONING FACT. 271 can conceive which is capable of realizing unconditioned perfection ; the only conceivable nature of perfect being. In the infinite ego it is unconditioned intention ever realizing absolute perfection. And in finite beings it is supreme conditioned intention, the only kind of ac- tion known to us which can determine conditioned perfection. In its unconditioned action it can experience no obstruction, friction, or delay, but constantly actualizes infinite perfection ; but when we think of its evolution in an objective universe we must think of it as condi- tioned devotement, — it achieves its ends by means of supplementary effort. It is devotement to the realiza- tion of a finite ideal, which, when aohieved, will be a perfect, though dependent universe. In seeking to actualize such ideal universe it is related to that ideal as subject to object ; hence its action is conditioned by that object, and by the means and supplementary agencies by which that object is attained. The manner and extent of its action are mainly decided by the type, or kind, of universe it seeks. This type is that ideal which it strives to actualize. Since love is devotion to the perfect it is a perfect universe only which its evolution can have in view. This action, though conditioned, is perfect within its conditions. God's action, which is the going forth of love only by virtue of its devotion to perfection, cannot be self-conscious love if it seek less than the ideal, the perfect. Not only does love realize the absolute ideal in the independent Being, and the relative ideal in the " Eternal Son," — Creator, — but having chosen to create a universe, love must be thought as devoted to the realization of an ideal object, the ideal universe. 2 j 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. Moreover, an ideal universe when actually realized is a perfect universe. A perfect universe realizes the highest conditioned good : and divine love acting objectively, though within limiting conditions, cannot be thought as implying less than this highest condi- tioned good. The essential conditions upon which love can realize a universe are clearly of two classes : — i. The ideal sought to be realized. 2. The action which achieves this realization. i. We find in the first, the ideal, the sacred authority which decides what manner of universe must be evolved. This sacred authority of the ideal is the first datum in atonement. A former chapter treats at some length of the authority of the ideal, and hence it is only needful to remember here that the sacred or the holy is the quality of intentional perfection ; that whether it be the actual perfection which is intentionally realized in God or the ideal perfection which is intended to be realized in the universe, it is still the intending or purposing perfection that is the holy. Further, the ideal could have no authority, no moral imperative, if it were impossible to actualize. But since love does actualize the absolute ideal in the infinite being, its ideal is absolutely authoritative in all being. We may think of the ideal as already actualized, practi- cal perfection, or as actualizable ideal perfection. In either case its authority is absolute ; it is the holy, or moral imperative. Because love only is perfect action and intentionally realizes the perfect, conditioned or unconditioned, its ideal is holy and authoritative. All other action is subject to love's moral authority, and its fitness or unfitness is adjudged by the criterion of love's THE ATONING FACT. 273 perfection. This, for the reason that love is the only action which can and does achieve actual perfection of being. It is plain, then, that the ideal must be a changeless condition in the evolution of love. It is the sacred, uncompromisable imperative. 2. Action which satisfies the requirements of its ideal is propitiation, — action which propitiates the per- fect in behalf of the imperfect. Now, since God has chosen an evolution of love, that evolution must satisfy love's holy imperative by actualizing love's ideal, — real- izing perfection both in individual, finite persons and in the universe. This is the same as to say that love is devotion to the perfect in the process of evolution as well as in the perfect nature of God. Then, if love's evolutionary action is devoted to the realizing of ideal finite personality and thereby an ideal universe, that devotion propitiates the ideal. Though this action may be conditioned, modified, limited, abused, perverted, by finite persons, yet if it maintains conditions upon which the perfect finite person and universe may be achieved, it thereby propitiates the holy imperative of its ideal. The sacred ideal which is actually implicit in love is the imperative fact; devotion to that ideal is the propitiating fact in love's evolution of the universe. The action which affords the conditions for the perfec- tion of finite being, and hence a* perfect universe is the propitiating, satisfying, atoning fact. Again, let it be kept in mind that an ideal universe, when practically realized, must afford the highest con- ditioned good, and hence it is the realization of perfect benevolence. Thus love, which realizes absolute holi- ness and infinite good in the divine egoism is not only perfectly holy, but also perfectly benevolent. Love's 18 274 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ideal, the changeless imperative, is holy and benevolent in all personal determination. And its devotion, which seeks to realize the i,deal in a universe, is not only holy, but benevolent to the highest degree of conditioned per- fection. Hence its devotement is the satisfaction which the ideal requires. To thus devote its action to the maintenance of the conditions upon which all finite per- sons may realize ideal finite personality is to propitiate the ideal in behalf of those persons. If God were simply and singly altruistic, wholly de- voted to conferring advantages upon others, regardless of the use or abuse to which those others might appro- priate these advantages, he would thus ignore the ideal and become a willing party to such abuse ; a willing party to selfishness in others. He would have no per- sonal, subjective interest in thus giving out, save the gratification of his power to give ; which, in such case, would be a selfish and wicked satisfaction. His giving would lose the quality of benevolence, as well as that of holiness ; and would, therefore, cease to be love. It would be a vain prodigality of resources fraught with degrading tendency to its recipients ; and hence, a con- nivance at their degradation. It could realize no higher self-determination than a vainglorious exhibition of power. In the event any one of its recipients should regret his own degrading abuses and aspire to some- thing better, he could find no sympathy or incitement in God's action to help him back to moral purity ; it could not condition moral recovery. Hence love, regarded as simple, unqualified altruism, omnipotent alms-giving, would be unable to achieve a perfect personal universe. Altruism without intention to promote excellence in its recipients is simply universal selfishness ; and must drag THE ATONING FACT. 275 Creator and creature down to common selfishness and hate. Yet all the imperfections which infidels think they see in the world, and all the complaints of pessimists arise from this absurd view of divine love. But love, in its devotion to the practical realization of an ideal universe, is essentially holy, perfect in its inten- tion, and this very holiness is the guaranty of beneficent altruism. But if love had no method of bestowing but to create beings with the largest capacity to receive and to pour upon them the largest gifts, it is impossible to see how it could achieve a universe of higher motives than hope and fear. Hope and fear, as supreme motives, are the inspiration of selfishness in dependent beings, and the exponent of selfishness in the independent ; and so love vanishes. When, then, on this sin-cursed planet, we say, by authority of either reason or revelation, that " God is love," that affirmation implies that his action intends perfection — he is holy ; and also that this perfection is achieved by beneficent altruism and for a beneficent end — he is benevolent. Action fails to be or express love when either of these qualities is absent. It has abandoned the ideal, their ground and guaranty. Action which satisfies the requirements of its ideal is propitiation. Its propitiatory character may be incon- spicuous amid the harmonies of uncrossed love, or within simple self-imposed conditions. But when love is crossed, the realization of its ideal obstructed and baffled by complex conditions imposed by other and antagonizing forces, its purity traduced, its benevolence made the opportunity of selfishness, its conditioning action made to serve organized evil; and, above all, when it gra- 276 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ciously conciliates and blesses its self-debased foes, restor- ing them to the harmonies and realization of perfect being, — J t is then that it demonstrates its propitiatory character by persistent devotion to its ideal, notwith- standing these obstructions. The periodic overflow of the Nile has been for cen- turies the most marked condition to life and wealth for the swarming peoples of Lower Egypt. But this over- flow has ever been supplied by the action of mysterious and long-hidden sources which satisfy an imperative measure of repletion in the solitudes of central Africa. Vainly did the idolatrous people seek to propitiate that imperative measure with prayers to the mighty river, when its hidden sources withheld their wonted action. Only their action which swelled the bosoms of Africa's silent lakes could propitiate that imperative condition. In the placid bosom of the lake is the heart-beat of the Nile. Is it less potent than where its pulsations burst its throbbing arteries in Lower Egypt? This mighty action, which for hundreds of miles pours and storms with deliverance and wealth upon the famished lands, is but the evolution of the peaceful action of those long- undiscovered lakes. The wealth of the Nile may be made to serve oppres- sion and degradation, yet its tides roll on, and will continue until the neglect and abuse of the conditions to prosperity which it affords shall cease. Its benefi- ciaries will ultimately, through unselfish intelligence, recognize and honor the persistent propitiation which in distant solitudes affords the conditions of their well- being. But this second class of conditions demands a more explicit consideration. These conditions are those which THE ATONING FACT. 77 are evolved by love, seeking to achieve the highest con- ditioned good in a perfect universe. Since one person cannot determine the character of another, but can only determine conditions upon which another may or must determine his own character, love's propitiation of the ideal for dependent persons can only consist in affording the conditions upon which they may realize their perfect being. Unlike the first condition, the ideal, which is a changeless imperative, this second class includes chang- ing conditions which arise in the actions and relations through which the perfect universe is evolved. Since the evolution of love can be thought as striving only toward that which satisfies its ideal, its action must be thought as providing those conditions only upon which free, finite persons may actualize a perfect finite exist- ence. Hence the question : What is a perfect finite personality and universe ? And what are the conditions requisite to a perfect finite personality and perfect universe ? The first of these questions has been answered in a former chapter, substantially thus : A perfect finite per- sonality is a free and undisturbed progressive compan- ionship of finite persons with the infinite Person ; or, progressive interaction of dependent with independent being. Analyzed, it is dependent persons who within their conditions have (i) perfect harmony with God, and consequently within and among themselves ; (2) the largest freedom to determine themselves ; and (3) perfect security in this self-determined harmony. 1. Love implies universal harmony, the harmony of the dependent person with the conditions of his being which are posited by the independent Person ; and as a consequence, the harmony of dependent persons with 278 THE EVOLUTION OP LOVE. each other. This consequence follows from their com- mon harmonization with the conditions of their being which divine love posits. Love is the basis of uni- versal adjustment. Such perfect harmony is the freest and fullest reciprocation of love which is possible be- tween all finite persons, and between them and God. It assures the right of a common devotion to ideal self- hood in each individual and to the realization of the ideal universe. Pure self-love implies the highest per- fection of each in harmony with that of all ; while sel- fishness, the right of none, and the enemy of all, implies the degradation and ultimate destruction of all by uni- versal disharmony. Universal harmony in reciprocation of divine love is essentially implied in a perfect universe. 2. As to freedom, it is scarcely necessary to say again that a universe can be known only as one of beings who are consciously other than the Creator ; self-determining and therefore persons. But a perfect universe must be composed of persons whose power to determine them- selves is the greatest possible to dependent beings, the largest freedom possible to dependent existence. Such freedom must be thought essential to the highest reali- zation of finite personality, the highest conditioned good, the highest capability for their development of love in companionship with the infinite. 3. Again, perfect finite personality, or a perfect uni- verse must be perfectly secure against disharmony, not- withstanding its widest freedom. A universe which is liable to discord and defection cannot be deemed per- fect, does not realize perfect dependent being to its members or his ideal to its Creator. Nor can it assure undisturbed progress, but must embarrass the achieve- ment of the highest conditioned good. The danger of THE ATONING FACT. 2 ^ discord which is incident to the freedom of dependent persons must be averted without impairing that freedom. This security cannot be thought attainable by any necessitating measures ; it must be achieved consistently with the largest freedom possible to dependent beings. But it must attain an improbability of defection so great as to be practically equivalent to an impossibility. This security, though not in the least degree the result of force or fate, must be practically equal to fate. Such is the moral assurance of harmony implied in the thought of perfect finite personality. Motivity, not coercion, is the only means by which this security is attained. Susceptibility to motives of love, and aversion to motives of selfishness in any form must be the elements of this security. These are the lines of eternal fortification against discord, the terms of eternal reassurance to companionship between finite beings and the infinite. Since men are free in the sphere of conditioned self-determination, divine love can secure their reciprocation only by incitement, or, as we have termed it, motivity. By motivity we understand outer influence and inner susceptibility, each affecting the other, and both, as so affected, constituting motivity. Only by motives and susceptibility, or aversion thereto, can persons be influenced in the respects in which they are free. Only by means of these can their persistence in any given course be perpetually assured. We are perfectly sure that men will never feed upon stones, for the reason that they have no appetence for stones, and that God will never be tempted to evil, since he is un- susceptible to such temptation. So, also, a universe of finite persons, conditioned by permanent motivity to love and aversion to selfishness, will abide in love's holy em- 2 go THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. brace evermore. In the realm of motivity, then, the holiness and goodness of free being is to be achieved and secured in whatever degree such achievement is possible. If the nature of finite persons, which constitutes one class of their conditions, were so fixed and unalterable as not to be susceptible to modification by their use or abuse of that nature, their harmony with the Creator's action might have been secured by the Creator's deter- mination, just as their physical susceptibility assures that they will never feed upon stones. But in such case their freedom would be nothing more than animal ne- cessity, incapable of self-determined character. Hence they would not be persons, hence not able to realize an ideal personality. Or if, having all the elements of personality, all per- sons were environed with external conditions which so fully manifest the truth, glory, and power of God as to preclude the possibility of error, — such, for example, as infants and idiots, who pass from this world without probationary development, are thought to enter upon, — they might be thought to be practically secure. They might develop a love of God and a harmonization with their environment truly delightful ; but they could never be conscious of unsusceptibility to selfishness, never conscious of a self-determined character, secure in the exercise of the largest freedom of dependent personality, hence never could realize a perfect finite personality, or a perfect universe. Since, then, finite persons are free in their self-deter- mination of what they shall be as to the use of their susceptibilities, and in their determination of what they will do as to their environment, it follows that their THE ATONING FACT. 2 gl motivity is largely self-determined. That is to say, that divine love cannot determine, but can only condition, the motivity of other persons, which shall secure them in perfect harmony. Creating them persons — self-deter- mining — was to make them liable to disharmony. That liability is implicit in self-determination. But that self- determination is so conditioned that it is able to elimi- nate the liability to disharmony by determining in itself a susceptibility to love and aversion to selfishness which can never be disturbed. To afford the conditions upon which all dependent persons may determine their own perfection is, it is clear, the work of divine love. This work is love's de- votion to the realization of the perfect finite person and the perfect universe, — the atoning fact. If love's inter- action with each dependent person is such as to con- dition motivity to love, if to the erring and sinning who have not chosen fixed antagonism to it love evolves conditions to recovery from evil, and if upon these con- ditions dependent persons shall attain fixed motivity to good and aversion to evil, then does love successfully propitiate the ideal in its evolution. This is actual atonement for sin. But since harmony, freedom, and security are essen- tial to perfection in a universe, it is evident that in evolving such universe the Creator goes to the greatest length in hemming himself about with conditions and obligations. In conditioning the finite perfection of de- pendent persons, he enables them to condition his own action to the extent that whatever they may determine in the use of themselves, he must maintain their exist- ence and respect their freedom in working out such results as they determine in interaction with his activities 2 8 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. in and around them. This is implied in the develop- ment of perfect finite freedom. This alone can afford the conditions upon which they may either rise to se- cure companionship with God or sink to self-determined destruction. But we can easily see that the moral freedom of de- pendent persons which shall thus appropriate the benev- olence of love may abuse, misappropriate, and pervert that benevolence, and thereby introduce disharmony and even disaster. By creating free persons the Creator has put it out of his own hands to prevent the rise of evil. One person can only condition another ; that other alone can determine himself upon such conditioning. The self-determining power of persons is power for evil as well as for good. They are able to pervert their nature and environment, and that is to pervert the action of their Creator, and thus make him the servitor of their ini- quities. They are able to organize his activities, which constitute their nature and natural environment, into vast sources and systems of sin and suffering, — able to turn his benefits into inflictions of wrong upon each other. Moreover, as seen in former chapters, he must permit this abuse to run its course, or else he must shrink from the attempt to realize his altruistic deter- mination, — must forego the bestowal of infinite be- nevolence, — abandon the evolution of love. Thus the determination of perfect benevolence furnishes the con- ditions upon which finite self-determination can baffle benevolence, and set at naught holiness in the world. Unlike God's personal perfection, which is simply self- determined, the perfection of the universe must be de- termined eventually by all the persons who make up that universe. And this must be done upon the conditions THE ATONING FACT. 283 which love evolves, however modified by the use or abuse which may be imposed thereon by the actions of finite persons. These conditions being holy and benevolent in aim and tendency, love's evolution, to be unimpeached and untarnished, must be successful, however much of evil may arise in the process of realizing a perfect universe. Action which takes chances of disaster must, to be holy and beneficent, provide for either the prevention or remedy of such disaster. If it fail in this it is respon- sible for the disaster, and hence blameworthy ; no matter how pure and benevolent the impulse which prompted the action. Hence it is true that only love appears as the nature of action which can account for the existence of a personal universe. For love only can successfully evolve the conditions to perfect finite personality. Though it condition the possibility of evil, it also con- ditions the remedy of evil, and this, too, without injus- tice to any being. Since the self-determination of finite persons cannot be violated, but is in their own hands, yet the conditions to their self-perfecting must be afforded by the action which evolves their being, the following statement is clear : Love's devotion to ideal finite being, individual and universal, propitiates the ideal by affording the con- ditions upon which dependent persons may achieve per- fect finite personality and determine a perfect universe. That justice cannot, but grace alone can condition the development of a perfect universe, has been shown in a former chapter. Enacting the perfect in the evolu- tion of a universe, love can contemplate nothing less than persons who may attain to the highest self-deter- mination possible to dependent being; that they shall 284 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. achieve this in accord with the universal right of self- love and thereby realize universal harmony ; and that they shall be able to attain security from all liability to discord or defection. Moreover, the practical realiza- tion of this ideal is the highest conditionable good ; to bestow which is the benevolent purpose of love's evolu- tion. All this is to say that the gracious evolution of love — an evolution beyond the limits of justice — con- ditions, not only the rise, but the remedy of evil. It thus conditions the realization of the perfect universe, and hence propitiates the imperative ideal. The question, How does grace accomplish this ? has been answered in outlining the problem of evil, — sub- stantially thus : the ideal finite person must be a progres- sive person ; the progressive person must begin as an ignorant and feeble person ; an ignorant and feeble per- son must be conditioned in grace ; and gracious condi- tions are evolved by love's devotion to the realization of a perfect personal universe. Dependent persons may thus settle for themselves and for all intelligent observers and associates the questions, doubts, and pretensions which ignorance or selfishness may have originated. They may settle them by demon- stration of their deceptive and despicable nature ; and may acquire an aversion and hatred toward selfishness that will render them forever unsusceptible to its tempta- tions ; while, on the other hand, by experience of love's purifying, exalting, remedial grace they will apprehend it as the nature of perfect being, limitless in resource ; and will acquire an ever deepening susceptibility to infinite motives, the charm of the perfect. Thus they may de- monstrate that love, perfectly holy and benevolent, is the nature of perfect self-determination ; that in actual- THE ATONING FACT. 285 izing its ideals they have the open sesame to the highest determination of finite freedom and excellence ; and that a holy God and a holy universe are the in- finitely and only worthy modes of being. If love, sub- jected as it must be to the abuses, perversions, and conditions which finite freedom and evil can impose, shall nevertheless achieve successful conditions to this universal susceptibility and devotion to the ideal, and aversion to selfishness and selfish motives, it will thereby realize a perfect universe, — a universe of persons in har- monious articulation with the divine activities. And if in the meantime it shall maintain the conditions of such motivity to all persons, it will have propitiated the holy imperative of the ideal. Action which should create a person or a universe of persons in the highest form of finite powers, not being able to remedy sin except by exercise of justice in the in- fliction of punishment, cannot render evil self-corrective, cannot inspire devotion to ideal personality, hence can- not propitiate the authority of the perfect, and hence can- not make an atonement upon which sin could be forgiven or the sinner recovered to loving harmony with God. But the evolution of love, in a universe of progressive persons, because it maintains in each person the authority of the ideal, and affords him merciful conditions upon which to actualize an ideal self, can achieve ultimately perfect finite personality and a perfect universe. And because it can and does do this, love's devotement to the ideal atones for all the evil incident to a progressively self-determin- ing universe. It atones to the ideal by maintaining the authority of that ideal, and by conditioning its realiza- tion. It conditions the realization of its ideal, not by re- pressing, but by remedying evil. It achieves security in 2 86 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. the harmony of perfect finite freedom, not by eliminat- ing freedom, but by conditioning the self-elimination of all susceptibility to the abuse of freedom, and by incit- ing universal devotion to the perfect. In a word, it discloses the nature of perfection, and conditions a universal motivity to enact the perfect in what persons should be and do. The evolution of love, advancing in its eternal process of altruistic determination, maintains the original unity of holiness and benevolence, and assures the ultimate one- ness of the ideal and actual universe. The holy, which is the quality of intentional perfection ; and the good, which is the practical satisfaction of perfection ; and benevolence, the bestowing of good, — are perpetually at one. Neither moral impurity nor failure in benevolence appears in this process, although dependent persons may fill its bosom with unspeakable selfishness and wrong. No reconciliation is needed in love's action, other than that which exists unbroken in the original and indivisi- ble unity of the holy and the good. This inviolable unity reconciles, in love, the amplest determination of benevolence with ideal holiness. Love is the unity which holds in reconciliation the factors of its evolution, the holy imperative of the ideal, and the limitless ben- evolence which affords the conditions for the realization of this ideal. This realization will be the universal one- ness of the actual and the ideal. Love's devotement to the ideal, the atoning fact, is the power and pledge of that oneness. The implicit oneness of holiness and merciful benevolence in love becomes explicit in the ultimate oneness of the actual and the ideal in the per- fection of the universe. Thus God's devotement to the perfect is the satisfy- THE ATONING FACT. 287 ing fact in the placid harmonies of the infinite conscious- ness, the propitiating fact in his relative consciousness amid the disharmonies of his abused and perverted mercies, the atoning fact in conditioning the recovery and security of the harmonies of a perfect universe. Verily love's devotement to its ideal is the atoning fact. It realizes full determination only in action which is per- fect, — perfect in purpose, and unlimited in the benevo- lence which compasses that purpose, — like a mighty river whose onward action, hedged, dammed-up, turned awry, conditioned by abuse and perversion, rises, widens, and bears the universe on to a shoreless, fathomless per- fection of being. The agony of love. — This is that consciousness of soli- citude which is implied in conditioned effort to realize the ideal. Unconditioned action realizes perfection in itself; hence in his unconditioned self-determination God cannot be thought conscious of solicitude in real- izing absolute perfection. But as the " Eternal Son," the relative consciousness in Deity, he must be thought con- scious of solicitude in his objective effort to evolve a perfect universe, conditioned as his effort is by the free- dom of the persons who compose that universe. Hence this solicitude must be recognized as one of the impli- cations of divine love in its evolution. This solicitude is subject to be deepened into indefi- nite degrees of intensity by the perverse determinations of the dependent persons whose perfecting is the object of love's devotion. The Creator's activities, put forth to condition the development of dependent persons, may be so baffled and perverted as to defer for indefinite ages the object of his devotement. The degradation and sorrow also of his children which must result from 2 g8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. this disharmony must vastly enhance the anguish of love's devotion to their highest good. Hence love in this evolution must experience that which in human experience and human language is agony. Though we may not affirm actual pain, we must recognize divine iove as being in that attitude which to human love is the very rack of anguish. And if, in any event, this divine consciousness were expressed through the medium of human nature it must be a revelation of agony. The solicitude of love must be borne until the actual universe shall realize the ideal ; until love's devotion to the ideal is crowned with universal success. Until then the activities of divine love are subject to abuse and perversion, which baffle and retard the practical realiza- tion of the end to which it is devoted. This devote- ment is subject (i) to possibility of the rise of error, selfishness, and suffering in the world ; (2) to the actual existence and world-wide prevalence among men of sin and suffering. Moreover (3) these activities are subject to their being made to co-operate with sin and sorrow and afford scope and power for their domination ; (4) selfishness arises in rivalry with love and usurps its throne in the human heart ; (5) the good of being is for ages abridged by actual evil ; and (6) there is finally a final rejection of love's effort in the incorrigible, which love can remedy only by conditioning the self-defeat, per- haps self-extinction of the conscious sinner. All these facts and considerations, while they do not tarnish the di- vine purity or benevolence, constitute subjection, offence, agony to love. Although love so conditions them with corrective, remedial, and exalting tendencies, yet they condition love, obstruct its benevolence, and offend its purity ; hence must be thought as of unspeakable THE ATONING FACT. 289 offence and agony to love. Although the Creator might in the exercise of arbitrary justice destroy each sinner, and thus forego the development of finite character to a higher type than force and fear could incite, although God might have chosen to dwell in unalloyed bliss with- out creating a universe, yet this conclusion abides un- moved : His nature, love, " naturally desires " objects to love ; objects that can know and feel that love ; ob- jects that can reciprocate that love ; hence objects that are free persons, able to reject, revile, and abuse that love. Love can manage these only by surrounding them with conditions of mercy. This management is subject to ages of the continuance of evil, and this con- tinuance imposes ages of antagonism, offence, and prac- tical subjection, which condition and therefore agonize love. Hence it is evident that love's choice to create a universe of persons is the choice to accept the vast cycle of agony which it must undergo on account of error, sin, and sorrow which it must permit. Perhaps sin and sorrow could have been avoided by creating a universe of a low order, — and thus love's agony avoided : but such could not have been love's universe. It might have served to display divine power and maintain divine supremacy undisputed, but it could never achieve divine companionship, never be worthy of divine love. Could love in any way dissolve the original unity of holiness and benevolence and maintain its own existence as devotement to the perfect, it might avoid its agony. But since it is what it is, it must agonize until devotement to the perfect is assured throughout the conscious universe. Devotement to the ideal, which is the bond of reconciliation throughout the entire evolution of love, the bond which holds an 19 2qo THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ignorant, sinful, and suffering world in the arms of a holy benevolence until it shall develop its own security in holy freedom, — this all-reconciling devotement is the agonizing factor in love. If in the exercise of their self-determination, God's children abuse his beneficence by making it an occasion for selfish satisfaction in sin of every kind, it would cause no regret in him if his love were without devo- tion to the perfect, without the quality of holiness. But because of this quality in love, such abuse of his beneficence results in agony to love. Hence, in order to carry out the highest benevolence, perfect altruism in ideal finite being, by abiding holy it must continue to agonize. This is the agony of devotement. This is the sphere in which the intense strain between the ideal and the actual appears. Devotement to the ideal is unswervingly holy. That ideal demands ever-enlarging benevolence toward the erring and selfish, in order to its realization by their correction and redemption. This larger benevolence is in turn appropriated by sinners as opportunity for further, wider, vaster evil. The discrepancy between the actual and the ideal world becomes a breach, the breach becomes a chasm, the chasm an antagonism. The actual world is at war with its ideal and with the forces which condition its existence and perfecting. Yet love's devotion enlarges its benevolence to cir- cumvent that antagonism ; multiplies benefits to its enemies, gives them standing-room, fighting-room, supplies them with the instruments of their warfare, replenishes their commissariat, and still offers them amnesty, pardon, fellowship, eternal companionship. All this ever-widening benevolence it gives that they THE ATONING FACT. 2gi may perceive its excellence, may find incitement and opportunity to recover from selfishness, and that sin may defeat itself either in the sinner's self-loathing and renunciation of it, or by means of his incorrigible self- degradation and perhaps entire loss of moral freedom and personality. Thus through ages upon ages, baffled, abused, perverted, apparently defeated, its activities turned against itself, helplessly sustaining sin by lovingly sustaining the existence of sinners, meeting greater emergencies with greater mercies, yet unswerving in devotion to the ideal, hence atoning to the ideal, love's atonement is an atonement of agony. This is not the agony of correction, for that would imply, in love, fault and dependence. It is not the agony of punishment, for that would imply its moral degradation. It is not the agony of defeat, for that would be destruction. It is an agony which persists because the quality and efficiency of the agonist are maintained unimpaired. Because its quality and effi- ciency can and do abide in unwavering devotion to the ideal, throughout the process of evolving a perfect universe, it atones. Because unimpaired in quality, it can afford to maintain the attitude of forgiveness, and is efficient to achieve the recovery of the erring and sinning. It atones in conditioning the ultimate harmony and security of dependent persons in the largest finite freedom. It is the one fact in which love evinces to finite minds its infinite sufficiency to await the deter- mination of its ideal, notwithstanding the most difficult conditions which the largest freedom of a conditioned universe can impose. The benevolent father who sees his benevolence made the occasion and instrument of crime and shame 2 9 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. by his son would experience no sense of agony if he were indifferent to moral purity and honor in himself or his son. But because he is a pure, as well as benevo- lent father, it is grief to him to witness this abuse and perversion of his benevolence. And while his love to his boy cannot prevent that boy's wickedness in any way except, by greater lenience, to render that wicked- ness corrective and provide that it shall have the least disastrous result, it must be to himself a cause of inexpressible agony. But because of this very agony which is at once the exponent of his purity, his benevolence, and his boy's turpitude, he is in the best possible position to forgive, help, and ultimately recover his wayward son. It is this agony that evinces to the son that his repentance will meet with forgiveness and be moral uplifting to him. This agony could be avoided in either of two ways : by abandoning either his child or his moral purity. Either would be the defeat of love. If an ideal family government were the type of gov- ernment in our thought when characterizing our view of the atonement, we should unhesitatingly term it a " governmental theory." But the " governmental theory," so termed, is so cumbered with the crudities of civic forms and political preconceptions that, to avoid misunderstanding, we prefer to term it the Par- ental Theory. 1 Sacrifice. — This is necessarily implied in the evolution of love. In choosing to bestow the greatest good of finite personal existence, by conditioning a world of persons, love places itself in a position where it is subjected to 1 Since this chapter was written there has appeared "Abbot's Commentary on The Romans," in which a somewhat similar though dimly defined view of the divine agony is suggested. THE ATONING FACT. 2 q 3 agony. This agony, willingly assumed by love, that it may bestow the highest good possible to a dependent universe, is its sacrifice, because undeserved. God might have chosen to dwell in no mode of conscious- ness lower than the unalloyed enjoyment of his infin- itely perfect egoism. Or he might have chosen, in his perfect altruistic freedom, to create a universe of persons in the highest possible degree of finite intelli- gence and power, to be dealt with upon the conditions of arbitrary right and justice ; each person being de- stroyed in the first inception of selfishness ; each sinner thus suffering his own ill-desert. The moral purity of the Creator or of the universe might thus have been main- tained without agony or sacrifice on the part of God. But this, as we have seen, could not realize a world of dependent persons of higher type than force and fear could incite, hence, not a world capable of highest good, not an ideal world, not love's world. But since it is in love that God has chosen to create persons who shall have the greatest freedom possible to dependent beings, in order that they may realize the highest good possible to dependent personal existence ; and since he maintains the conditions requisite to such realization through his agonizing devotement ; and since this agony is imposed by the free abuse of these conditions by dependent persons, it is clear that this agony is not deserved by love, but is a gracious sacrifice which it makes to achieve their perfection and to bestow upon them the resulting good. Hence we may say that love's agony is unde- served, (i) because God is under no obligation to create other persons ; and he gains nothing to himself by creating, as it is not requisite to the perfection of independent being, but is chosen in perfect freedom. 294 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. (2) Having chosen to create, he imposes upon himself the obligation to be just, only. He is under no obliga- tion to secure to created beings a larger degree of good than that which will compensate them for such incon- venience or ill as may be naturally incident to their type of being. (3) But having chosen, from motives of love, to create and condition a world which, in order to achieve the highest possible good to his creatures im- poses upon him the agony of atonement, that choice is a choice of agony. Choosing agony as the path to the limitless good of others, others whose existence con- tributes nothing to his own perfection, is the unspeak- able sacrifice of love. The evolution of love in the personal universe is but a process of positing conditions. Upon these condi- tions dependent persons rise into being and determine their destiny. Love, in its evolution, constantly holds the conditions to highest good to all, and persistently widens and deepens them that it may condition the perfection of the most lowly and vile. Persistently does it support the purest and most aspiring with conditions to yet higher attainment. In all this, love places the determination of its evolution in the hands of the creatures whom it conditions. If they so determine, that evolution will be rapid and upward ; if they deter- mine otherwise it will be slow and degrading, taking wide, tortuous, and agonizing detour to condition the possession of a promised land which might have been reached by a short and direct route. To voluntarily place the determinations for which one is ultimately responsible in the hands of others is the very essence of sacrifice. Its determination is thus placed in their hands when love's evolution, which posits gracious THE ATONING FACT. 205 conditions of holiness and good, is subjected to the wrong and abuse to which it is perverted by a race of sinners ; and this must be until the self-correction and self-defeat of sin constrain them to acknowledge its perfect excellence. When love's objective action sub- mits to be conditioned by every error and sin of each member of a world of sinners, and its grand aim is, without right or reason, deferred, baffled, and antago- nized by their freedom, which love sacredly respects and upholds, its entire evolution is an unspeakable sacrifice. When each error is a check, and each sin a grief to love's devotement to the perfection and highest good of all, the determination of that good is sustained in agony ; and that agony is an agony of sacrifice. That all this is involved in the original project of a universe does not change the sacrificial character of love's evolution, but enhances the benevolent motive by so much as this sacrifice was known to be inevitable to carry out that motive. Through this cycle of sin, shame, insult, and perversion, love proves a ready and able interaction with the recalcitrant sinner, nation, world, — to forgive, cleanse, and reform them whenever they so determine. Its flame burns only to warm, cheer, and mature them ; though they, by their free, but false adjustment to it, make it a torture. Yet love en- dures this vast sacrifice in order that when they relent it may be able to recover and save them. Is love benevolent, its beneficence is made by sinners the instrument of malice. Is love gracious, that grace is made the occasion for vast schemes of injustice. Is love holy, that holiness is made the pretext for oppres- sion. Is love true, that truth is clipped and carved into lies. Is love beautiful, that beauty is made the decoy 296 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. of lust. Is love pleasurable, sin drugs that pleasure with misery. On the altar of an ideal universe every quality of divine love quivers in sacrifice because the high priest of finite being is devoted to the realization of that holy ideal. By this sacrifice the authority of the ideal in the actual is maintained, for the world and for each finite person in their conditions. And the unity of the ideal and the actual is assured in the ultimate development. The existence of error, sin, and sorrow is compatible with divine purity and benevolence because love endures this sacrifice in order that wrong and sin may be self- correcting, self-defeating, and self-exhausting ; and that sorrow may be made self-compensating by the chastening and disciplining office to which it is conditioned by love. Vicariousness, or substitution, is also implied in the atoning agony of love. The agony which love endures displaces the suffering which sinners must, upon con- ditions of justice, endure as the result of their selfishness. The unrestrained result of selfishness is the correct notion of punishment; hence it is correct to say that the punish- ment of sin is displaced by the agony of love which is endured in maintaining merciful conditions for the re- covery of sinners. This agony is caused by sin ; but sin, without the merciful conditions to which this agony is incident would instead cause hopeless punishment to the sinner. Hence the agony of love is a true substitute, vicarious agony for the hopeless disaster which would justly result to every sinner. Instead of sinners being abandoned to the selfish course which they have chosen and to the sufferings of which it must be the cause, mercy affords conditions for pardon and the recovery THE ATONING FACT. 2 gj from it, and gives chastening effect to the ills which they may have already incurred. The agony thus incident to a " covenant of grace," love's devotion to the perfect, can fail as a substitute for sin's result, only in the case of the sinner who ignores it, tramples upon it as though it were " an unholy thing." Thus the agonizing devotement to the perfect which maintains the original unity of action and ideal, in all the evolution of conditions to a personal universe, reconciles the amplest development of benevolence with the im- perative behests of holiness, and bounds the vast sea of evil with a " ministry of reconciliation." The evolution of love discloses — i . An absolute authority, the sacred imperative of the perfect. 2. The propitiation of that authority by devotement to the perfect in all love's action which conditions finite being. 3. The agony of love in its subjection to the free and full demonstration of evil. 4. Sacrifice in undergoing this agony undeserved. 5. Vicariousness, in that its agony displaces disaster which would justly result to sinners by their own action. Thus stripped of fictitious statements, symbolic forms, and modes of revealment, " love's devotion to the per- fect," agonizing because conditioned by evil, is an atonement for sin, a ransom for sinners, the atoning fact. 298 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. CHAPTER V. THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. The great problem is to restore to the human mind something of the ideal. — Victor Hugo. The revelation of atonement is our next movement in outlining the evolution of love. Full consideration of this subject would constitute a complete Christology. But our present limits forbid the attempt to more than briefly indicate two things, namely, — 1. The occasion for a revelation of atonement. 2. The fact of such revelation, in Christ. The occasion, or need of a revealment of atoning facts must be regarded as being a state of human conditions which demands a supernatural intervention by divine love in order to make good to man those conditions which afford the basis of human faith and love. We have seen in former chapters that men may debase their natural conditions by abuses. This may be done to an extent that will obscure, perhaps obliterate, the facts upon which human faith can arise. Abuses wilfully and wickedly practised by one person may corrupt the conditions of a family or neighborhood. The sins of a generation become the debasing tendencies of succeeding genera- tions, who, though less guilty, may become more gross, materialistic, and brutal. Rejection of the ideal and devotion to actual self is a brute-like life ; and the ten- dency of it is to render man unsusceptible to spiritual THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. 299 motives. It increases his desire for material good and pleasure, and deepens his unbelief in spiritual interests. Spiritual development depends upon faith in the unseen, the ideal perfections, and hence is impracticable when the implied facts in which faith confides are obscured by that abuse of perceived facts which makes them objects of covetousness and brutality. Thus, eventually, the authority, the need, and the means of an ideal life be- come obscured from those who, under better conditions, would sincerely follow and appropriate them. Persons and communities who by reason of superior position and power can elevate or depress their fellowmen, by selfish abuses, place in jeopardy the ultimate welfare of these fellow-beings. Keeping the "key of knowl- edge" they refuse to enter and prevent those who would. Thus it is possible to debase the conditions of finite life until they are not only abnormal, but wholly preternatural. Love must as a matter of justice permit these debased conditions, which human wickedness and weakness have established, to work the immediate destruction of mankind, or, in mercy, reassert and maintain the condi- tions to human perfection by supernatural intervention. The former would be to surrender the object of the uni- verse ; the latter would be to uphold it by a further evo- lution of love. " It is not, indeed a question of what love can do, but what love, as an objective determina- tion, must and will do." " When human perversity misappropriates the benevolence of love by making it the occasion for selfishness, and prosperous selfishness encourages the conviction that the creation is favor- able or at least indifferent to it, or resulting adversity begets despair, what manifestation does the evolution , 00 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. of love imply? This is the whole question ; and there can be but one reply : The supernatural " (chapter i., Part II.). Victor Hugo seems a philosopher, as well as poet, in such sentences as these : " The great problem is to restore to the human mind something of the ideal ; " " The ideal, stable type of ever-moving progress ;" " The ideal, to this summit God descends, man rises." An ancient poet, who acknowledged his deep trouble from having observed the prevalence of the wicked, found relief when he paid his devotions at the shrine of ideal perfection. He says : — " When I thought to know this It was too painful for me Until I went into the sanctuary of God ; Then understood I their end." These poets, living amidst the most civilized and in- fluential peoples of their day, perceived the human need of something to preserve the conditions of moral recu- peration, but did they recognize the method by which it must be disclosed? As the development of human selfishness advanced, becoming more expanded, complex, and intense, and more powerful to dominate human destiny, the test of love's ability to maintain its recognition in the human consciousness became more strenuous. It would be in the order of our outline to note the stages of this process, and to emphasize the points at which darker-growing phases of human depravity have evoked higher supernatural manifestations of love. Especially would it be pertinent to distinguish the points in human history where the natural manifesta- tions of divine love which afford the facts upon which THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^ ol faith is based have been eclipsed or wholly perverted by their abuse ; and where supernatural revealments became the method of love's effort to condition faith among men. But, as other portions of this work sufficiently outline these points, they will not be con- sidered here. It is sufficient to note, for example, that human his- tory has been largely determined with reference to facts which did not exist at the time of such determination, but were supernaturally furnished to those who acted upon them and assigned as the data of the religious and political institutions which they founded and maintained. The knowledge of these unborn facts and persons, though it could not be gathered from existing data, was given in the form of prophecy. Its object was to con- dition the then present conduct of those to whom it was revealed. A distinguished illustration of history which has been determined upon conditions of the supernatural form is seen in the present existence and characteristics of the Hebrew people. It is undeniable that the cen- tral meaning of their prophecies and history has been the Messianic, or Christ, idea. It has been their bless- ing or bane accordingly as toward it they have been faithful or recreant. The Christian peoples of the earth, numbering about five hundred millions of souls, with institutions and re- sources of unequalled quality, power, and beneficence, can give no adequate account of their rise and progress, their civilization, and the superior character of their in- stitutions upon wholly natural conditions. The central force in the conditions upon which their progress has been determined is, undeniably, the Christ ; and this central force is wholly unaccountable except upon the 302 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. supernatural disclosure and authentication of divine atonement by Jesus of Nazareth. To say that these most influential movements in human history to afford common conditions to the people for individual purity and progress in personal character cannot be accounted for upon other than supernaturally given data is the same as to say that divine love has resorted to supernatural means to avert the hopeless decay and destruction of humanity, and to do this has thus re-established the conditions to faith and love. And all this is equivalent to saying that these conditions, as naturally given, have been so obscured at times as to establish occasions where love must super- naturally intervene ; further, that the supreme crisis in the existing conditions to human determination was the occasion for the revelation of atonement in the Christ. It was as though not only the natural, but the su- pernatural evolution of love, which had afforded the conditions to human faith in past history, had been thoroughly perverted. The people who had enjoyed the most advanced supernatural evolution of love, fitting them to lead the human race in the determination of personal character, had abused these conditions, had become mercenary and oppressive. Priest and teacher had by covetousness " altogether gone out of the way ; " had become politically and religiously devoted to tem- poral things, instead of making temporal things subserve an ideal life. The Roman Empire, which now dominated the civilized world, had become the foe of the ideal and the devotee of the actual. "The creature rather than the Creator" was the object of their devotement. Though the Stoic bewailed it, the State and the people THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. 3 03 were Epicurean. A few held that the life, but the many and the powerful held that to possess the pleasures of life, was the chief good. It was as though a benignant father had lavished treasure and care upon wayward children, which implied his solicitude for their reforma- tion and love ; had gone even further and declared in words, what his gifts had implied, his plans, his power, and his wish for their highest welfare, and forewarned them of disaster. But at last, when care and treasures, promises and warnings had exhausted their power to lead them to repentance, the inner, but infinite solicitude of love bursts forth in an agony of tears and blood. It was the solicitude of divine love which when disclosed to a human consciousness revealed itself to the world in the anguished appeal of a broken heart. The fact of such revelation in Christ. — We come now to consider that most conspicuous declaration of divine love which had hitherto arisen in human history. The Christ idea seems to have been one of the oldest ideas in possession of the human race. It seems to have been held, in some form or other, by so many tribes and nations, ancient and modern, that it is a question whether any tribe of men is without it in legend, song, or story. Its dim outline haunts the mists of prehistoric times ; and though floating like a distorted wraith, far back in unchronicled ages it holds a weird identity, apart from the myths which mingle there in shadowy indistinctness. Whether it be regarded as a reflected consensus of human need in all ages, or the more or less corrupted form of a revelation, given first to the first of our race, its most distinguishing characteristic is that the Christ is both divine and human. Trace the idea wherever you will through legend or myth or in the Pentateuch, the 304 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. Hebrew Prophets and songs, or the teachings of Jesus himself, or those of the Apostles, and you are ever con- fronted with the " Son of God " and the " Son of Man." Out of this manifold, two faces ever look upon you ; one so high-born that it screens its majesty within the other, which, in turn, yields itself to give human expression to the divine. The sacred Scriptures have a clear meaning when regarded as chiefly a human record of the Messianic revelation of love made by the Creator. Our view is simply that the divine personality in the Christ is the Creator, the " Only Begotten," " The Eternal Son," the true and living God, according to his relative mode of self-determination. This relative self-determination in God is distinctly set out in the chapter entitled " Being, As Conditioned ; " hence need not be further defined here. The human being, Jesus, we regard as a creation, a " second Adam ; " a person who, in his distinctly human self-determination, maintained a sinless life in faithful subjection to and loving interaction with his Creator, in the same sense in which man in his original state did, or was intended to do. Moreover, in his harmony with this interaction and along the line of its development, there came to him the privilege of becoming the inter- preter of the subjective consciousness of divine love ; not only the perfectly interacting companion, but the embodiment and expression of the divine consciousness, the Creator, in the same sense that he was the embodi- ment and expression of his own human consciousness. We have said "it became his privilege" to have the divine consciousness, his privilege to interpret to man the subjective consciousness of divine love. In THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. 3°5 saying this we do not forget that he was created for this very purpose. Nor do we know that any human being, in the purity and accuracy of an untarnished nature, might not become a similar interpreter. But there was found among men no other " arm to save." But we must not forget that he was entirely self-determining, as a man ; that, as such, he determined his human charac- ter without sin ; and that his interpreting the divine con- sciousness was by the consent of his human volition. " He offered himself unto God." The gospel records contain a record of the life, teach- ings, and acts of Jesus as the Christ ; and if we regard these as records of a movement in the evolution of love, their true meaning and the secret of their world-wide dominance will appear. They are simple memoirs of words and acts which have remodelled civilization and directed the current of human history for over eighteen centuries, and are rapidly increasing in potency. The prevalence and prominence of the Christ idea in ancient thought naturally gave rise to pretenders to Mes- siahship. We have sacred and secular records of very early and frequent claims of this kind. Indeed, history and poetry are full of the claims of mighty heroes whose success encouraged, and the people flattered them into either the pretence or belief that they were demigods. Alexander the Great, it is said, sought to make this claim. If so, he was among the later warriors who claimed the double nature. But many among religious teachers had appeared. Indeed, the general expectancy of Messiah which prevailed in the civilized world in the day of the Caesars seemed to beget a mania for Messianic preten- sions. Because of this state of things some writers have jumped to the conclusion that Jesus was simply one of , o6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. these pretenders. But such a conclusion implies certainly a very superficial view of the case ; and these writers seem merely to have " lost their heads " amid the abundant and curious information on this subject. The widely extended knowledge of the Christ idea, and the widely felt need of authoritative or other valid teaching in both religion and philosophy, together with the general under- tone of dissatisfaction with Rome, had doubtless inten- sified this expectancy. But the widely diffused knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures, and the notorious Jewish expec- tation of a deliverer had already reduced the vagary of public opinion to the accuracy which conceded that " sal- vation is of the Jews." Hence an appeal to the Jewish Scriptures found the original stock of prophecy and promise which, by force of its antiquity and its logical and ethical coherency, is manifestly that which had founded the idea, the literature, and general expectancy, as well as afforded all the corruptions and false pretensions which have clustered around Messiahship. The identification of the Christ became naturally a question of importance, in view of the rise of so many pretenders, and the alacrity with which the expectant people took up with them. Scepticism regarding the Messianic claimants had also become well developed among the thoughtful and educated. But an appeal to the written records of the actual promises and proph- ecies was the means of escape from myth and sham. Saint Paul, in the opening of his Epistle to the Romans, recognizes that in announcing himself as an apostle of Jesus the question which will arise in the minds of the people at Rome is this : How are we to know that the Messianic claims of Jesus are genuine? He squarely anticipates and answers this question in the outset, by THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^ j stating that Jesus is identified as true Christ in both the human and divine natures of Messiahship ; that in the human department he is shown by the concurrence of prophecy to be the chosen of the house of David ; and in the divine nature designated by the exercise of power, in his resurrection from the dead, to be the Son of God. These statements evince the alertness which existed regarding this question of true Messianic identity, and also of the methods and standard by which it must be decided. The Messianic records made the requisite characteristics so minute that it was impossible that more than one claimant could meet their requirements. They unfold a vast series of facts, beginning with the announcement of a Redeemer to Adam and ending with Malachi's vision of the rising " Sun of Righteousness " with healing in his beams. So full, so minute, though incompatible with human anticipation, were the facts predicted of the Messiah that one has well said : " By a change of tenses prophecy may in many cases be turned into biography, and so peculiarly that in Jesus only, of all the human race, can the lines of Messianic promise meet." The family, time, and place of his advent are given by different prophets in different ages, but concur in identifying the " Babe of Bethlehem," of the family of David, at the appointed time, the dissolving of Judah's nationality. In the Gospels Jesus is identified at his birth as chosen for the Messiahship, so definitely as to leave no possible ground for the pretensions of any other. His being a special creation, "a second Adam," untainted by racial evil, is not only stated as fact, but emphasized by circumstantial and collateral facts. To any one who accepts the Messianic records, these external designa- tions of Jesus as the true Christ are conclusive. 3°8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. But to all, of any faith, Jesus evinced internal evi- dence that his life, teachings, and acts marked an advance in the evolution of divine love in its effort to condition human faith in love's ideal life. And this is the same as to say that he was identified as the Son of God. As a man, his faith was perfect. That is to say, he perfectly subjected his actual life to the ideal, and consequently developed an ideal manhood. He is regarded to-day as indisputably the one perfect man of all history. In him self-love, devotion to the actualiza- tion of an ideal self, is complete, — without a taint of selfishness. Thus he maintained perfectly harmonious interaction with his Creator, and was, consequently, " holy, harmless, undefiled." Inasmuch as truth is the theoretic which may be explicated from the ideal, his was a true life in every aspect and relation which he held. Thus he illustrated the evolution of love in its human conditions. " The character of Jesus as it is depicted in the Evangelists is one of unequalled excellence. This is universally admitted. It is not a character made up of negative virtues alone, where the sole merit is the absence of culpable traits. It has positive, strongly marked features. It combines piety, an absorbing love and loyalty to God, with philanthropy, a love to men without any alloy of selfishness, and too strong to be conquered by their injustice and ingratitude. It unites thus, in perfect harmony, the qualities of the saint and of the philanthropist. It blends holiness with compassion and gentleness. There is no compromise with evil, no consent to the least wrong-doing, even in a friend or follower. But with this purity there is a deep well of tenderness, a spirit of forgiveness which never fails. With the active virtues, with an intrepidity that THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^oq quailed before none, however high in station and public esteem, there are connected the passive virtues of pa- tience, forbearance, meekness. The world beholds in Jesus its ideal of goodness." 1 " It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character, which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love, has shown itself capable of acting on all nations, ages, temperaments, and conditions, has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice, and has exercised so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the dis- quisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists." 2 But in addition to the ideal human character of Jesus there was manifested by him a class of actions which he himself professed were the actions of the u Son of God ; " and these were actions which were recognized as at least superhuman by all who witnessed them. Ration- alism has sought to dispute the supernatural character of these actions ; apparently blind to the impossibility of a person of moral and mental accuracy professing their supernatural, their divine origin, if such it were not. But rationalists have successfully shown up one another's failures to account for Christ and Christianity, without admitting the supernatural ; and have neutralized one an- other's theories. Baur exploded Strauss' theory of myth, and Strauss exposed the failure and evasion of Baur's historical theory ; while Renan's romancing was a mere 1 Professor Fisher, Manual of Christian Evidences. 2 Lecky's Hist, of European Morals, vol. ii. p. 9. 310 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. parasite of Strauss ' theory, and perished with that theory. The mutual neutralization of rationalistic theories is the grand outcome of rationalism. This self-confessed failure may be thus stated, — i. It is conceded that its writers have not adhered to the records. 2. They have failed to explain the moral and religious revolution produced by Christianity. 3. Their solution of the person of Christ is inadequate. 4. They fail to account for the Christ idea. 5. They fail to replace to the heart the power of the gospel. 6. They were forced to abandon the Christian idea of God and adopt that of deism or pantheism. (After Christlieb.) Later rationalistic attempts, especially in Great Bri- tain and America have been in the nature of efforts to gather up and revive the shattered remains of Ger- man failures. A few magazine writers, novelists, and lecturers, probably unaware of the true line of living issues, have patched together the rags of worn-out and cast-off German failures, and have strutted in what they have conceived to be an array of "advanced thought." Perceptions, intuitions, judgments, affections, and vo- litions which must have been divine, made him, with his consent and co-operation, their interpreter to the world. Along the line of this subjection of his nature to God these divine actions were put forth. They superseded his human need of learning, answered the queries and silenced the arguments of the learned, and compelled all to recognize him as a perfect teacher, though he had never been a pupil, but always a master among men. He read the inner thoughts and intentions of men as an THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^1 open book. If there were nothing else to mark the divine intelligence in his teachings, the wonderful fore- sight of his conceptions would be sufficient. They teach an inner character and outer practice for man toward which humanity has been growing for eighteen centuries, but has not yet reached. All must admit that when civilization shall realize these teachings the "golden age," the ideal age, will have been attained. His insight rejected the methods by which the wisest of men seek success. He adopted those methods which, in the eyes of human wisdom, stamped him as a weakling and cow- ard, but are now seen to have been dictated by the only possible conditions to universal and perpetual dominion, — the dominion of ideal being, the ideal universe. Miracles were a class of his actions to which he re- ferred his critics as the ultimate proof that the Creator was revealed in him. The object of this class of actions was, first, to enable men to identify their author as the Creator ; secondly, to place men in possession of the fact that the nature of the Creator is love, that the Cre- ator is a merciful Saviour. This was done in miracles purely physical; then in physico-spiritual miracles, in which diseases were healed and sins forgiven. Thus in physical miracles was begun a progressive system of divine revealment which passed from physical miracles to physico-spiritual, and thence to the purely spiritual manifestation of divine love as a purifying agent in the human affections. The possession, by sincere men, of these two facts, the personal Creator and Saviour, gave them the condi- tions of recovery from selfishness and of return to com- panionship with God. The sincere were conscious of the need of access to the actualized ideal, the perfect. ^12 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. The actually perfect was revealed in these two facts ; and his sacred authority was reasserted to them. More- over, the means of recovering devotement to the ideal, by accepting the Creator as a loving Saviour, was placed within their reach. To settle, for the people, then and there, the fact of the Creator, wielding the forces of nature and the fact that the creator is a God who saves from sin by means of love, settled for them the founda- tion of "faith that works by love." When his followers should be sufficiently weaned from the actual and wooed to the ideal life which he con- stantly kept before them, by word and deed ; when, in other words, their hopes were turned from the formal to the spiritual, they should not need the continuance of physical miracles. Their faith should then be able to grasp the purely spiritual reality of God and his love ; and a work greater than physical miracles results to their spiritual experience, restoring them to conscious har- mony with the Creator. Upon this purely spiritual phe- nomenon all that makes Christianity worth preserving has been propagated. It contains in it the facts of God as Creator and Saviour, self-dependent, holy, and be- nevolent. It is the restoration to man of ideal being actualized in God and actualizable by man. The gradual manifestation of the divine consciousness in Jesus is to be noted. Doubtless, such gradual mani- festation to those among whom he worked was needful for them ; and it is a natural inference that as God thus gradually unfolded love's supernatural declaration to men, through him, his consciousness of God in him should be gradually developed. The mysteriousness of our spiritual nature is, of course, acknowledged on all hands, yet the fact of our THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. 3I , conscious being is the first, broadest, and surest knowl- edge we have. Although we are " most ignorant " of the mode " of what we are most assured " as a fact, yet the significance of the facts it reveals to us cannot be slighted because we do not understand the mode in which they subsist. Consciousness is the knowledge of these facts ; and as we become conscious of these facts we recognize and act upon them as our own selfhood. The rise of this selfhood is gradual and systematic. It is a self-conscious unit, gradually becoming conscious of its powers and susceptibilities. From the dawn of conscious sensation we progress into the consciousness of perception, com- parison, reason, emotion, self-determination and moral consciousness. Thus gradually different phases of consciousness arise within us, as occasions in and around us call them into exercise. They arise, not one after another, by abrupt divisions, but rather running into, gradually superinducing and overlapping one another; one in process of arising while another is definitely exer- cised ; some gradually affording the occasion for the gradual rise of others. While they are simply different classes of action of which the one person becomes con- scious, yet these actions are so distinct in our conscious- ness of them that they are, severally, termed orders, or forms, of consciousness. But when so designating them we do not profess to understand the modes of their sub- sistence or differentiation, but we simply and unavoid- ably recognize and act in pursuance of them as facts of which man gradually becomes conscious. In the same sense, when we speak of the divine consciousness in Christ, it is not an attempt to explain the mode of its subsistence with the human person in whom the divine 3 J 4 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. consciousness arose, but we simply and unavoidably recognize the fact of the gradual development of divine self-consciousness in him and the manifestation of divine powers and susceptibilities by him. Psychologically, it seems only a question whether the action of the Creator, which constitutes our nature and sustains the conditions upon which our own personal action arises, may not himself act volitionally also, as we do, upon and by this same nature. What we term our natural powers are simply the actions of our Creator, of which he is perfectly conscious. The use of these powers is our own personal action ; and it is only in their use that we become aware of them. This use is our interaction with the Creator ; and our consciousness, in whatever form it may be, is simply our knowledge of our part of this interaction. Now there is no ground upon which we can deny or doubt that the Creator may not only consciously afford these powers for our use, but also use them for himself. There is one exception to this statement that the Creator may use as well as furnish our natural powers. It is this : such of these powers as are used only as we will are powers which the Creator has put it out of his hands to use, except with our consent. That is to say that our will is out own action, and that which we only can do cannot be employed by the Creator unless we consent to act with him. Hence, for example, the attention we give to our sensations in order that we may have definite perceptions, and which we give to comparing these and forming judgments whereupon emotions are aroused in us, is our own voluntary act. The intentions which are formed by selection of motives are also purely our personal act ; and the carrying-out THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^* of these intentions, which is determination, belongs to the same class. Attention, intention, and determination, in any person, are his own acts which constitute uses of his created powers and render him conscious of those powers. Hence it is correct to say that while the Creator's action posits our natural powers, he cannot determine their use without our consent. Assuming, however, that a man consents to the use of his powers by the Creator, there is no ground or datum upon which any one can say it is impossible, impracticable, irrational, or improbable that, upon fit occasion, they should be so used. It is quite apparent, also, that the Creator's reasoning, devotement, sympathy, and energy, when employing the natural power or faculty of any man as an instrument, must render that man conscious of them. They must become self-conscious in that man, as certainly and definitely as though they were his own acts. God's con- scious perceiving, reasoning, wishing, loving, intending, determining must develop in the consciousness of the man. This is just as natural and inevitable as it is that the forms of human consciousness develop by man's own use of his powers. Hence it must also be clear that the human choice which consents to this divine action with him will main- tain a clear discrimination of the divine consciousness through all its developments. Now, we do not say that the divine consciousness becomes a unit with the human consciousness, nor say what the two, as self- discriminated, hold in common. This would be to attempt what we distinctly regard as beyond our pene- tration. But we do say that there is no ground whatever for scepticism regarding the possibility or prob- 316 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ability of the Creator's expressing his thought, intention, wish, or will from the same point in his own action at which he conditions the rise of a man's consciousness and volition. Nor is there ground for denying that such expression by the Creator is the using of the nature of a conscious human being ; that such use must be con- ditioned upon the consent of such human being ; that such conceded use must render that human being conscious of the divine perception, thought, intention, love, or energy thus expressed through him ; or that this condition, namely, the man's consent, must maintain in his own consciousness a discrimination of what is divine and what is human. Possibly some may assert that creative action in us has not posited the conditions of any forms of human consciousness other or higher than what men usually develop. How can we know that? Our only means of knowing what powers are conditioned in us is in becoming conscious of our powers by exercising them. Until exercised we are unaware of them. We can affirm what we have consciously acted upon, but can neither affirm nor deny what our action has not, as yet, developed to consciousness. In his present animalism it is a marvel and mystery that man should develop the higher modes of rational consciousness. Why man should transcend the brute which is conscious of sen- sation, perception, comparison, and volition, and yet does not become conscious of logic or moral sense, is as mysterious to us as that a sinless human being should experience the divine personality self-conscious within him. No man is in a position to deny that any human being, who, in the clearness and correctness of his created nature, carries forward his self-determination THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^If in harmonious interaction with his Creator may not de- velop the conditions of a divine consciousness within himself. Since the various forms of human consciousness are not developed at once, but gradually and by use, it is easy to understand that the divine consciousness would arise in Jesus, only as he should become the instrument of divine action of various kinds and degrees. Hence, to think upon the subject intelligently is to think of Christ as a created, sinless, human being, who con- sented, or yielded himself to be the instrument of the Creator's personal revealment to men. Though he was created for this mission, yet he was not necessitated to it, but freely " offered himself unto God " as the inter- pretation or expression of the "Only Begotten," the Creator and lover of man. It seems clear, then, that the creator gradually dis- closed himself in Jesus, in the process of revealing his love to man. Jesus, thus gradually becoming conscious of the divine consciousness, gradually developed the effect upon himself of that God-consciousness. He spake, acted, and endured as God, though he continued to often speak, act, and suffer, as a man ; yet recognizing the divine " Sonship " when speaking as God. The Gospel records note this " effect " from time to time. His own professions and doings plainly evinced the graduality of this development. At the age of twelve he showed divine perceptions to the " doctors," in the temple, and was conscious that he was "about his Father's business." In his baptism he publicly professed to be set apart to the Messianic mission ; professed his consent, as a man, to be used as the medium of special divine ministration. 3i8 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. This man, Jesus, conscious now that he had " offered himself unto God " to be his instrument of personal communication to men, sought a period of isolation, wherein, for forty days of fasting and prayer, he reas- sured his faith and settled himself in adjustment to this unique and exalted capacity. In this peculiar relation to God peculiar temptations must have beset him, but these were met and repelled by that unswerving faith which was the perfect subservience of his actual self to the promptings and behests of that Messianic ideal which was gradually disclosing to him. To have this ideal gradually unfolded to him, that he might actualize it, " the stable type of ever-moving progress," was his life- scheme, — a life which lived upon " every word that pro- ceeded out of the mouth of God." As new advances of divine action, upon occasion, arose upon his con- sciousness, new cares and more strenuous tests of his faith pressed upon him. In seasons of solitude and prayer he ever and anon brought himself up to the intent of these new revealments. As he went forward and demonstrated them to the world his spirit triumphed and rejoiced in the achievement. We see him thus in what has been termed his " mediatorial prayer " (John xvii.), rejoicing in such harmony of divine and human consciousness that he speaks as the " Eternal Son " who had completed his earthly ministry. The complete and rapturous appropriation of the human by the divine nature seems the grand feature of his exultation. The divine Son exclaims through the human Jesus : " O Father, glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." But this does not evince the entire revealment of the Creator and Saviour. It only shows a completed stage THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^g or gradation, in the process of the Creators revealing himself in the consciousness of Jesus. It is a long psychic distance from this stage to that where he de- clares to his disciples, " All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command : and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Between these widely differing degrees of the divine consciousness in Jesus he manifested definite advances. But a brief time passes after his exultation because of having finished his ministry, before we find him in Geth- semane weighed down with mental agony. Although the divine Son had definitely and openly prompted him to speak of " the glory he had " with the Father " be- fore the world was," now, we are told, " he began to be greatly amazed and sore troubled." He said to his disciples, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death ; " and falling on his face he exclaimed, " O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me." Whether Jesus had upon former occasions, when new phases of divine consciousness unfolded in him, expe- rienced such a severe test of his willingness to interpret God, we are not informed. We are told of his many long seasons of fasting and prayer, but the circumstan- tial character of the record here leaves no doubt that he was appalled to a degree that tested his devotion to the utmost. Nor was it the simple imminence of death that terrified him. He had known and spoken with composure of his death, as a fact which was soon to transpire, but when he began to be conscious of the 320 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. infinite stress which divine love sustained between per- fect devotion to ideal being and saving benevolence to sinners he was amazed and appalled. Its interpretation was more awful than death. It was more agonizing than contemplated crucifixion. He seemed to pause in his great undertaking. But when by persistent, agoniz- ing prayer he had become adjusted to this new evolu- tion of love in him he was able to say : " Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." An unfaltering actualization of his ideal as a human instrument of divine disclosure marks his course from this point until we find him in the agonies of crucifix- ion. So complete was the subjection of the human to the divine, and so great had the preponderance of the divine manifestation become, that his human nature seems now but actuated by the divine mind. It seems so because of the perfect surrender of his human will and the sympathy of his human feelings, now wholly pre- occupied with interpreting the divine consciousness rapidly and overwhelmingly unfolding within him. He had told the high-priest of his approaching divine sov- ereignty and glory, and had announced to the Roman governor that he should lay down his life of himself, and that no man had power to take his life from him ; that he held an independent life, and could lay down or take up its human revelation at will. He permitted the crucifixion to proceed, but he knew that the divine agony of love must reveal itself in him before the cross could cause his physical death. And on the cross he manifested an agony to which he had yielded himself, which contrasted strangely and immeasurably with that of the thieves who were suffering crucifixion beside him, or with the uncomplaining endurance he had previously THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. 32I evinced as " a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." The words in which he expressed his state of mind while undergoing this suffering show : — i. As a man he died faithful to God. 2. He died of mental agony. 3. This was the revelation of divine love in its agony of devotion to ideal being while conditioning the salva- tion and perfection of sinners by extended benevolence. He had formerly rejoiced in revealing the divine con- sciousness of truth, — rejoiced in exhibitions of divine power in proof of his Christly mission ; but now the divine consciousness fills him with a sense of the agony of divine love, that love which has exhausted argu- ment and cannot invoke power to enforce reciproca- tion, belief, or obedience. That love, which is the unit in which perfect holiness and perfect benevolence in- here, must simply endure man's free perversion of its amenities in order that it may maintain the position in which it can pardon the sinner and help him back to a holy and loving companionship, when he voluntarily shall renounce his sin. This is the hour of the revelation to man of this help- less divine agony. In the interpretation of this " aton- ing fact " Jesus derives no relief from it by means of the divine power or prevision which had at other times sus- tained him. He exclaims : " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Yet he does not waver in his will as the interpreter, the revealer of God's atoning attitude, love's deepest consciousness in its evolution, but freely "offers himself unto God." Having said, " Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit," he closes the dying agony with the exclamation, " It is finished." Thus in agony he revealed divine love's devotion to 322 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. the realization of a perfect universe. Thus "he was delivered " to set before men the solicitude which divine love endures because of "our offences." Thus he translated the great " atoning fact " into human terms, that it might condition the salvation of the world by its full revelation of love's ideal life, the unimpaired au- thority of that ideal and the beneficent means of its realization. But the evidence that this death is atoning suffering is afforded to man in order that it may effectually re- establish the conditions to human recovery from sin. The object of divine revealment to men, we have seen, is to evince that divine benevolence, which permits our race to continue its sinful course, does not renounce holiness, has not surrendered perfect intention, is not lax in its devotion to ideal being, but is at one with holiness and is intended to "lead to repentance." It is to evince that although mercy affords all but limitless opportunity to evil, it is nevertheless a protest against it and an infinite motive to renouncing it ; to evince that, upon renunciation of sin, the sinner may find help in divine love to return to purity and companionship with God ; and thus evince infinite love as a motive to man's eternal security in freedom and harmony with an ideal universe. That this divine agony may thus be clearly identified to human intelligence as " the atoning fact," in all its phases, its atoning quality must be de- monstrated. In a word, dependent man must find in it the independent basis of salvation. The resurrection of Christ is this demonstration. " He was raised again for our justification," — our proof, or vindication. To Pilate, who had sentenced him to death, to the soldiery, who had executed the sentence, THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. 323 to the priests and mob, at whose behest sentence and execution were accomplished, his agony seemed but punishment. To some, of more kindly mood, it prob- ably seemed a pitiably disastrous ending of a noble life. There are those even now who regard it as but martyr- dom inflicted by his enemies ; and yet others who argue that it was the punishment due him as a substitute for the sins of such as a divine predetermination had elected to be saved. But each and all of these views of his agony imply quality and efficiency in the sufferer quite the contrary of that independence which he had pro- fessed before Pilate. Nothing but the agony of a devote- ment which can endure, without impairment of quality or power, until it fully conditions the ultimate defeat of sin and the triumph of love, the realization of an ideal uni- verse, can be the agony of atonement. Suffering is an atonement, in fact, if willingly endured until the sufferer, unimpaired in character and power, achieves the end which involved his suffering. But the sufferer fails to atone by his sufferings if they imply helpless infliction, correction, or penalty, on account of the cause for which he suffers. The self-sufficiency of the atoning one is disparaged to the extent he is thought conscious of cor- rection or penalty. It was requisite, therefore, that if the sufferings of Christ were more than the physical pangs of crucifixion, were the revelation of a strain or stress upon the divine consciousness which was developed in the agony of Jesus, an agony incident to love's unswerving devotion to the perfect while affording merciful permission of sin's complete self-development, — if, in a word, his sufferings revealed the divine " atoning-fact," — it was requisite that these sufferings should be clearly exhibited as self- 324 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. imposed. They must evince that they were not correc- tive or penal sufferings, but were voluntarily accepted with an undertaking to achieve a self-proposed end. Hence, his self-submission to this death afforded the utmost human interpretation of divine love's essential agony and its uncompromising antagonism to sin, but unfailing benevolence to the sinner. His resurrection exhibited his shame and death as having neither im- paired his character or power nor as having implied im- perfection in his devotement to perfection of being, but as a self-imposed and successful interpretation to the world of the holiness and benevolence of a love which endures unimpaired until it can "save to the uttermost." His resurrection declared that his sufferings were for neither correction nor punishment, but atonement. Raised from the dead, his moral attitude and quality un- impaired, his power undiminished, he demonstrated that atonement was a fact in God and was now truly, fully revealed to man. He is in an attitude now to proclaim moral recuperation, spiritual purifying to the world. The divine agony evinces that perfect holiness and benevo- lence are one in love's ideal universe. This divine agony, interpreted to men in the sufferings of Christ, makes the divine benevolence evident as a motive to holiness in men. The divine lenience, instead of intending oppor- tunity and encouragement to evil, is re-installed in the consciousness of men as loving forbearance, a motive " which leadeth to repentance." The incompatibility of benevolence from a holy Creator to a world of the wicked and vile is explained by the agony of love. The way back from guilt and moral degradation is cleared, and every sinner may "come boldly to the throne of grace." THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. , 2 r Enough, perhaps, has been presented to clearly set out the atonement as revealed in Christ. It is doubt- less clear that this is not a " satisfactionist theory," a " moral influence theory," nor a "commercial theory." Nor is it the " governmental theory " in the ordinary sense of that title. But it is a governmental theory in the sense of an ideal family government. Hence, if we term it a theory at all, it is the Parental Theory. But above all, it is the Atoning Fact, the agony of love in the Creator, which he endures because he will neither falter in the perfect determination of benevolence nor his perfect devotion to the holy; because, in a word, his nature is love, eternal devotement to the perfect — in which perfect holiness and benevolence are at one — at any cost. That love which is the nature of independent action in the self-determination of the infinite ego, and pro- jects an ideal universe, discloses in the atonement its independent ability and purpose to maintain the condi- tions upon which a free but sinning world can cast off sin and achieve eternal security in free companionship with God. By enduring, unimpaired in character and power, its unspeakable agony, it maintains in holiness its devotement to the realization of its ideal, and maintains its limitless benevolence, however perverted and abused ; until the free universe demonstrates the futility of sin and the independence of love, and at every point in the history of each sinner affords the conditions of re- pentance and return to righteousness. Every returning sinner finds the remedy for his past sins and present guilt, not in any compensation he can offer, but in the agony of divine love which endured them, — endured un- impaired in holiness and benevolence ; and hence, con- 326 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. tinues " mighty to save." Every heathen who offers a sincere prayer, or in his heart turns from what he deems evil to what he deems righteous, thereby recognizes and appropriates the divine mercy ; turns from the actual to the ideal life, from the dependent to the independent. By thus appropriating divine mercy he acts upon the conditions which the divine agony has afforded him ; even though he is ignorant of the historical interpreta- tion of that agony in Christ. The knowledge of that historical interpretation would, doubtless, vastly increase the motives to righteousness and exalted character among the heathen ; hence, the reasons for gospel mis- sions among them. But more of this further on. Every soul, whatever his belief, who sincerely deprecates his selfishness and cleaves to conscience implies, though unwittingly, in such action the authority of the ideal over the actual, and appropriates the ''atoning fact." Thus the " atoning fact " answers the burning question of the universe, Does love realize perfect unselfishness and yet maintain the moral authority of its holiness? Thus, also, the revelation of the atoning fact in the suf- ferings of Christ puts man in possession of the full in- centive force of both the moral authority of God's perfect holiness and his perfect benevolence. The ob- scured natural implications are in Christ personally declared to man. The mutual subsistence in love of moral purity and the perfect carrying out of benevolence cannot be thought without implying the agony of love. Nor can atonement be thought a reality, except as that action which continues true to the perfect throughout the con- ditions and abuses of a free universe. And, in disclos- ing to man this awful dominance of the ideal, love THE REVELATION OF ATONING FACT. ^ 2 y reveals its independent self-sufficiency as the projector and upholder of a free universe who is at once holy and perfectly beneficent. This revelation of independence and unswerving de- votion to the ideal, the true, furnishes man with the con- sciousness of (i) God's devotion to perfection of being; (2) assures him of the presence of a power that is equal to the renovation and perfecting of the universe ; and (3) imposes upon his conscience the absolute moral authority of this revealed criterion. By the first this action enables the world to discriminate its sin ; by the second, exhibits the opportunity and power for right- eousness ; and by the third, " sets judgment in the earth." Moreover, this atoning action evinces the ever-extend- ing arms of divine benevolence, beckoning and wooing sinners, able and willing to save all. Thus is revealed, in Christ, the divine attitude, which is the real " mercy- seat," with its awful agony, the real " blood of sprink- ling." Acceptance of these by the sinner is that faith which subjects actual to ideal life. The sin-burdened soul, saying, " I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," finds here the "throne of grace." 328 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. CHAPTER VI. ESCHATOLOGY. And they shall become one flock, one shepherd. And they shall never perish. — Jesus. Eschatology, the doctrine of " ]ast things," is a term which has generally been applied to the events which are expected to mark the ending of human affairs on the earth, and the establishing a fixed destiny for all dependent persons. Our use of the term, however, can only apply to certain states of personal development which will characterize what we have termed the ideal, or perfect universe. The perfect universe is the goal of love's evolution in its present cycle ; but we do not contemplate that perfection as a fixed end or state, but a perfected equipment for future, ever-advancing cycles of personal progress, — the disembarrassed companionship of finite persons with the infinite person. This perfected equipment will be the outcome of forces which are now in operation, the final resolution of questions which are now in process of being determined ; and hence our eschatology is made up of the corollaries of this resolution. It does not threaten an arbitrary intervention of almighty power to reward friends and punish enemies in a special or extra-vengeful sense. It is the sum of results which will have been determined by the personal universe upon the conditions evolved by love. All-conditioning love is no respecter of persons. ESCHA TOLOGY. , 2 g Our planet, the earth, is of course a small affair in the world of quantities, and our race may be but a small company in the universe of persons. But our planetary life signifies this much, at least : it is a form of the lowest conditions to the origin and development of personal creatures. How long the planet will continue to serve that purpose, and whether its functions will undergo a change or have an end, must be matter of speculation in the absence of a definite revelation. But this much seems clear : our race will continue this earthly life until the final crisis, which is stated in "The Solution of Evil," is reached, when, on the one hand, racial and social abuses will have been corrected by the progress which will result from faith and love ; and when, on the other hand, physical and social retribution will have destroyed the uncorrected and incorrigible elements of earthly society. Moreover, the crisis passed, such will be the common consciousness of love's excellence and of the turpitude of evil that the lower tutelage of race conditions will be wholly superseded. Their flesh-and-blood form will be superfluous, and unable to contribute anything to the perfection of personal life, will disappear. Whether this disappearance will be gradual, by the process of racial retribution in physical death, or a sudden and simulta- neous transformation of all then upon the earth, is a question of mode, and hence is a mystery which may be a matter of revelation, but the fact is implied in the evolution of love. The faithful persons thus changed — probably "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" — will join "the goodly company " who like them have attained to the common consciousness of universal companionship with 33 O THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. God. When race conditions are thus cast off we shall probably have no use for the planet, at least in its present state. There still lingers, however, a suggestion that the planet may continue in some form to be a theatre of interest to human spirits. This suggestion arises from the interest in the complete solution of evil which only members of the human race may have in common. The forms in which the persistence of faith and the final self- defeat of evil shall be accomplished by our race may give its members a planetary grouping until each individual shall have entered upon the full consciousness of the perfect, universal companionship, or shall have sunken into the complete isolation of selfishness. How- ever this may be, the utter self-defeat of evil, the persist- ence of faith and love, and the resultant ideal universe abide as the essential eschatology of love's evolution. In whatever grouping the sometime members of the human race may find themselves, they are, nevertheless, factors in this mighty problem, and their several destinies are the corollaries of its solution. Individual destiny is the question which " stands highest in our hopes and sinks deepest in our fears." This, because of natural, rightful self-love. Where, or in what conditions, does the solution of evil place each per- son concerned with it ? This ground has virtually been surveyed in the chapter, " The Solution of Evil," hence we need only sum up here the results there reached. Four general classes comprehend all the members of our race : the innocent, the faithful, the selfish, and the incorrigibly selfish. The innocent include, first, idiots, and perhaps "in- fants of days." Their innocence is not moral, but natural, ESCHATOLOGY. 1$! like the innocence of a bird or a lamb. Never having exercised self-determination, they have not attained to individual self-consciousness. They are persons only in the sense of a bundle of personal conditions. Their life has not been one of self-determined per- sonality, but merely the spontaneity of race conditions. Hence physical death, which is merely racial retribution, the dissolution of race conditions, must, so far as we can affirm without a revelation on the subject, end their being. As to the idiotic, this statement applies only to those who are wholly so. There are some classed as idiotic who are but partially so unfortunate, but who are consciously self-determining. Yet their self-determina- tion is exercised upon such distorted conditions that they do not discriminate moral motives. Although they have by self-determination attained positive personality, they must be classed as innocent persons who will survive physical death, relieved of the defective organism which occasioned their idiocy. Again, some of the idiotic have evinced moral discrimination, and developed positive moral qualities, and hence, according to their moral determination, must be classed with either the faithful or the selfish. There are tribes of men who, we are told, scarcely evince moral discrimination. Excepting a few in- dividuals among them, they seem to have no personal determination, manifest none but racial qualities, and herd or mate from force of merely race conditions. Their selfishness is not more positive than the spon- taneity of race instincts, nor is their sincerity distinguish- able from the simplicity of natural impulse. If this is a true representation their personal existence must be thought to end with the collapse of race conditions in 33 2 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. physical death. But we are prone to discredit these representations and believe them to be rather hasty conclusions affected by laying undue importance upon external culture as the basis of moral character. The elements of moral character are not largely derived from external culture, but chiefly from intuitional facts ; they are born in us. And because they are intuitive they are universal ; as a rule, all men have them ; and for the same reason, they are uniform in all men. Since innocence and guilt, piety and impiety, arise from internal elements and outer universals which in no way depend upon ex- ternal culture, it is easy to underestimate the moral strength of the uncultured. The morbid "animalism" which they derive from the degradation of racial and social conditions which ancient idolatries have imposed upon them, doubtless renders gross and dull their spiritual perceptions ; insomuch that they do not personally transcend infantile and idiotic conditions until much later in life than is the case among en- lightened peoples. Hence a larger proportion of them will probably perish with the dissolution of physical conditions. Many individuals, not idiots or infants, who seem to never exercise any considerable degree of self-deter- mination may be found in all tribes of men. Their physical death must be thought as either a passing into the future state of infantile innocence, or having sunken in personal consciousness to the level of merely race- conditions, or perishing in physical dissolution. The less ignorant, who practise self-determination in very crude conditions, as the great mass of the heathen world for example, may develop a feeble flame, emitting no light but evincing life, like a wick of " smoking ESCHATOLOGY. ~„ flax ; " they nurse within them a faith in something upon which they persistently depend as God. It is a some- thing in which they hope for better conditions ; some- thing which they invoke in the hour of trouble or suffering or death ; something for which, indeed, some of them are willing to suffer or die. In such crude conditions, renouncing selfishness they attain to har- mony with all-conditioning love, either as innocent or as positively faithful. Children and all of any age, in all lands, who have exercised personal determination in any degree, have attained individual personality, but have not sufficient intelligence to have intentionally chosen selfishness, as such, will survive physical death as innocent persons. We have stated substantially in "The Solution of Evil : " After self-determining action is once begun, however faintly, the personal nature is individualized, and indi- vidual self-consciousness takes its rise and retains its per- sonal identity through all subsequent changes, until, by self-determined abuse of the personal nature it may be sunken in complete self-limitation and ultimately lost. The rise and earlier development of personality is doubtless in accordance with circumstances, and the instinctive impulses upon which it acts may have been depraved by ancestry and social influences. Its debased racial conditions may impose upon it disease, defective physical organization, feebleness, or early death ; and social surroundings may afford it little but villanous in- citements. Yet the implicit sincerity with which it personally acts in accordance with these conditions is an innocent, yes, virtuous use of its personal nature, and determines its character as one of innocent inten- tion. Not until it is sufficiently advanced to deliber- 334 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. ately and of purpose reject pure intention and adopt selfish intention does it abuse its personal conditions or form corrupt character. Hence if physical death over- take it while in this character of personal innocence it must be thought to persist in a future state as an innocent person of morally pure intention. All of any age, in all lands, who have exercised personal determination in any degree, but have not sufficient mental development to have chosen wicked- ness, as such, are innocent and in essential harmony with divine love. They take rank with that class of beings whose further development will be in the absence of temptation, who "do always behold the face" of God. They must depend upon environment for con- sciousness of moral security until self-conscious security is acquired by association with those whose security has been self-determined " through much tribulation." The faithful, — a class which comprehends both those who have attained steadfast security in faith and love and all who, even through much of failure and waver- ing, still persist in the endeavor of self-conquest ; as also those who, while advancing in the consciousness of an ever-widening horizon of knowledge and trial, ascend to higher altitudes of faith, realizing deeper harmony, en- larging freedom, and approaching entire security in com- panionship with love's motives, sympathies, and spirit. From the weakest craft which rocks on the sea of life, but bears for the same port to which the erect and steady steamer points her prow, there floats the ensign of the faithful. " Him that overcometh ! " Those persons who, by that faith which subjects the actual to the ideal, have overcome their susceptibility to selfishness, will have ESCHATOLOGY. 235 determined themselves in harmony with divine love to a degree which renders their companionship with God self-persistent. They need no objective demonstration of the failure of evil, need no removal of objective mo- tives to sin. They have cancelled selfishness by faith. Their faith has overcome the world in its sinful power and splendor. When wickedness " did abound " their love did not grow cold. They have determined their largest freedom in moral harmony and perfect security. They have demonstrated their faith in the self-deter- mining perfection of love. They have actualized an ideal egoism by practising an unselfish altruism. Los- ing their life for love's sake, they have found it. But perhaps there are pure persons who have ever dwelt in an environment of unmarred love. They have never known sin nor a temptation to sin ; never, even, a hurtful error. They could, for aught we can see, con- tinue to develop securely under such circumstances. But, as among themselves, they could never experience self-determined security. Their susceptibility to a selfish development of self-love, if exposed to temptation, could never be beyond question. Nor can we conceive that their self-determination could, in the absence of disci- pline by error and temptation, ever attain the widest freedom which is possible to a person whose faith, love, and progress have been developed and confirmed amid the strenuous exigencies of virtuous hardship. A secure and free universe cannot be thought possible, except as self-determined ; hence the grand nucleus of a perfect universe must be the " triumphant host " who shall have " come up through great tribulation " and " have right to the tree of life." In association with this " triumphant host," and wit- 2^6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. nessing the demonstrated failure of evil, angels who may have hitherto known only conditions of justice, dwelling only in an environment of divine glory, may " desire to look into " and learn such lessons of demonstrated faith and love ; and may thus determine in themselves a con- scious aversion, hence unsusceptibility, to selfishness. Children who have passed from human conditions without human temptation or probation into the con- ditions and associations of the blessed, dwelling ever in the environment of overmastering incitement to love, will also, by association with self-determined saints, attain to the same transcendent security which is realized by the faithful in their self-determined unsusceptibility to selfishness. To afford to these pure but undeveloped ones the means of determining a self-conscious security, as against possible selfishness, something is requisite. That requisite is in the objective motivity afforded by association with the self-determined security and the intimate harmony which are evinced in the wide freedom of the faithful ; and, also in the universal consciousness resulting from the persistence of love and the self-defeat of sin. This we deem the true solution of the relation of all persons who in innocence pass, by death, from this world's environment of temptation without having at- tained to steadfast self-adjustment to moral conditions. This includes not only deceased children, but many of maturer years who have attained conscious, individual personality, but who, because of extreme ignorance, natural stupidity, or other defective conditions, may never have consciously determined for or against a life of faith. But the discipline of error and temptation, such as ESCHATOLOGY. 337 human life here is intended to afford, is essential to the development of that subjective aversion to selfish motives which, along with confirmed faith, establishes the consciousness of eternal security in finite persons. Hence, that consciousness of security could never be attained if, like infants and imbeciles, or possibly angels, all finite persons were to determine their characters amidst that immaculate environment which we term heaven. Hence the struggle of human life, so far as it is a struggle with temptations, ignorance, and weakness, is only that without which a perfectly secure universe could never be attained. And when once sin has arisen this struggle must include the demonstration of faith and love, as against sin, in order to achieve ultimate security. Consequently, individuals who, from any cause, miss the probation of error and its incident temptations, do not belong to the securely self-determined universe, but must rise from their mere innocence to self-conscious security by determining their characters with reference to the universal public consciousness which has been established by the faithful who have wrought out the practical solution of evil. Remember that the development of securely pure character is but the discipline of self-love in devotion to self-perfection, in harmony with the perfection of others. Remember that this devotion is complete susceptibility to the ideal, the true, the perfect. Remember that it precludes devotion to the pleasurable satisfaction of means, — that is, precludes selfishness. Remember that the rise and self-defeat of selfishness have stripped it of all plausible illusions, exposed it as infinite crime, and abolished its objective motivity. Remember that de- votion to the realization of perfect being is the estab- 33^ THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. lished ambition, the enthusiastic public sentiment of the faithful, established upon their faith and determined by their love. This intimate companionship with God, the steadfast purity and all but boundless freedom of their spontaneity, are but the exponents of a pure self-love, rendered unsusceptible to selfishness by their devotion to perfection of being. Remembering these things, it will be easy to see that innocent persons developing in the midst of such associations must readily mature a self-love which is wholly in harmony with these asso- ciations. The sentiment and activities of a universal life which results from the demonstration of love's perfection and sin's infinite failure and disgrace render the temptation to evil impossible. That question has been settled forever. Hence it is clear that these innocent but undeveloped persons must develop into a like unsusceptibility to selfishness and a like devo- tion to perfection of being. Security in devotion to self-perfection is the only ob- ject of probation ; and since this devotion may be at- tained by innocent persons when associated with the faithful, we can see no occasion for a " future probation " for children and innocent heathen. Unless we accom- modate the term " probation " to mean this progressive development of the innocent in association with the faithful there appears no standing-ground for the suppo- sition termed " future probation." Failure of the inno- cent to develop the highest susceptibility to love and all its qualities, and aversion to selfishness, in such an envi- ronment is inconceivable. To obliterate the liability of their self-love to perversion is to establish their perpetual moral harmony. Hence to secure this obliteration is the only significance of probation. There could be no ESCHATOLOGY. .™ occasion for a probation, no liability of self-love to selfish- ness, if persons could be created with a " ready-made " experience that love is perfect action, that its ideals are essential truth, that the realization of its ideals is the highest good ; and, on the contrary, that selfishness is demonstrably infinite folly and turpitude, an object of universal aversion and contempt. But in a community which is a demonstrated result of all these facts a sup- posed probation is equally superfluous. Knowledge of the infinite infamy of selfishness, the self-sustained per- sistence of love, and the actual and evident strength and freedom of the faithful constitute conditions of a civili- zation in the midst of which the faith of these innocent persons is exercised. Constant fellowship with such transcendent type of society incites and informs their self-love, and leads it up from the consciousness of security from sin by means of association to the con- sciousness of self-determined security. Future punishment of the selfish is simply the self- defeat of uncorrected evil. As this self-defeat has been outlined in " The Solution of Evil" we need only con- sider here its main aspects. These are the fact, the mode, and the duration of the perishing agony. In much of the theological discussion of this subject these questions have been strangely mixed. Affirming future punishment as a positive infliction of special tortures by divine resentment, Biblical expressions, which employ accommodated language to express the effect upon man of his right or wrong adjustment toward the changeless nature and invariable action of God, have been construed in the most literal sense. Whether representing God as in the petulant mood of ranting fury toward the wicked or in the ridiculous attitude of , 4 o THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. spewing the luke-warm out of his mouth, this method of interpretation is alike crude and absurd. In the same way it affirms the fact, mode, and duration of the catas- trophe of sin as an eternal fit of divine choler in process of irate satisfaction. The theological revulsion from these teachings has been equally undiscriminating. Stumbling at such views of the mode, it has blindly denied the fact and duration of final penalty. While the former view exhibits God as a raging and pitiless tyrant, the latter implies he is a doting imbecile. The average religious character induced by these views in those who have accepted them has generally evinced narrow though virtuous severity in the one case, easy- going sentimentality in the other. The Fact. — Insomuch as the all-conditioning love of God maintains the conditions to human innocence, faith, and love, whether by natural or supernatural modes or both, selfish self-determination rejects the object of these conditions, perverts the conditions in their use, and hence limits and degrades the person who so deter- mines himself. Whoever perishes does so by his own act. All who appropriate the conditions to faith " wash their robes " and are saved. All who reject and pervert them " defile themselves " and are lost. Having arrived at a state of maturity sufficient to reject righteousness, as such, they drop away by physical death from these conditions to faith and love, and thus lose contact with the means through which their harmony with divine love might have been determined. Their self-deter- mined persistence in selfishness is their self-defeat. Their characters are deliberately self-determined selfish- ness, and consequently the intervention of physical death removes them hence in uncorrected sin. Dying ESCHATOLOGY. , „ without having actualized their quasi expectation to "sometime," as a matter of convenience, turn to re- pentance and faith, they must be thought to have entered upon a future state of retribution. Obdurately impeni- tent while enjoying immunity from retribution, their quasi intention to reform at some convenient time is only a selfish forecast which can never be capable of faith. It is simply a form of moral incorrigibility. We have seen that love, in creating dependent per- sons, requires that the rise of their personality must be conditioned at the lowest point at which progressive self-determination is possible. Now if this racial and social life affords the lowest and easiest conditions which all-conditioning love can posit for the rise, progress, and perfection of finite persons, then the debasement of individual life in these conditions must be thought such as to be totally unsusceptible to any conditions to per- sonal improvement which love can ever afford. To those who have perverted and debased these lowest conditions of personal development, physical death must be thought a change which renders them conscious of conditions quite hopeless. By no line of reasoning can we conclude that the abuse of our present nature can result in an improved nature more susceptible to correc- tive faith. And if individuals continue to debase earthly conditions which are most favorable to progressive mo- tives, perverting them from the moral susceptibility of childhood innocence to self-determined depravity, death must be to them a change to a more radical and hope- less maladjustment toward love and God. The mode of future penalty is expressed in the " sink- ing of personality," which is outlined in the " Solution of Evil." The consciousness of disharmony with the 342 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. conditions of his personality, and the absence of an environment which can minister to his morbid desires must make it a situation of unrelieved despair to the lost soul. In his earthly life he had given morbid development to affections for merely social gratifica- tion ; had determined himself upon the assumption that this life is the whole of his being, and gave to it his chief devotement. This practical infidelity to his per- sonal being not only rendered his race affections morbid and brute-like and ignored or perverted his spiritual nature, but acquired a false, ungodly, vicious, personal character. He is not only unsusceptible to godly mo- tives, but to the extent his personality is determined, he impersonates aversion to the qualities and motives of love-determined life. Having by physical death lost the facilities for selfish gratification which race conditions and perverted social life had afforded, he is now a mor- bid energy, destitute of those sources of satisfaction. He is now insatiate, appalled, tormented by the reac- tion, retribution, of all-conditioning love, " the wrath of God." Prophet, poet, and teacher have thrown around these realities much of imagery to picture to our minds the dreadful nature of this catastrophe. Some have sought to render them more horrible by materialistic interpre- tation, but our object is to simply trace the main facts which are implied in personal being. The elements of our God-given personal nature which we have incor- porated into our personality and made our own in perverted use may give us greater agony in their retrib- utive process than would the stretch and strain and burning by externally applied tortures. Love is the most intense flame ever kindled, — hot enough to fuse ESCHA TOLOGY. ,43 and crystallize the harmonies of an immortal universe and to consume the dross of selfish ages. " Ah, love ! Love ! Stainless life of God ! Man's will Alone avails to mar thy universe ! Still lov'st thou man ! — though he by chosen ill His self-perversive selfishness doth nurse ! Ever thy blessing turns he to a curse ! Till fixed in Self's insensate hate of God, To him a torment is love's sweetest verse. Thy flame burns on, as on the ages plod, But seems, in sin's perverted realm, the wrath of God." The mode of final retribution is not definitely de- scribed in the sacred Scriptures ; hence different views are held by those who accept them as containing super- natural revelations regarding the mode : first, that it consists of eternal consciousness of misery or torment ; secondly, the tendency of sinful life is seen in this world to be self-limiting to personality, and will result in final extinction of the personal consciousness of the sinner, and so be eternal. The statements of the Bible may be interpreted perhaps by the first view, but clearly and certainly by the second. But the fact of eternally irrevocable penalty is the obvious teaching of these sacred writings, conspicuously and unflinchingly the teaching of Christ, although there is difference of opin- ion among " orthodox Christians " as to mode. " The Evolution of Love " sustains the second view. This is not annihilationism nor restorationism, but the self- sinking of personality. The Duration of personal retribution is final, forever. Different degrees of personal depravity must result from difference in the degrees of definiteness with which different persons recognize and abuse the conditions to 344 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. faith and love. Hence among the selfish there must result different grades of personal development in selfish intention, and correspondingly different degrees of tur- pitude and ill-desert. Everything which enters into motivity, whether of inner susceptibility or outer incen- tive, affords occasion for the exercise of personal deter- mination, and according to this motivity does personality make itself positive and persistent. And according to the magnitude, so to speak, of the motivity to righteous- ness is the degree of his turpitude who sins against it. This accords with the general principle that the merit or demerit of any personal act, good or bad, is in propor- tion to the magnitude of opposing influences. It is obvious, then, that according to the degree of motivity three things are equally determined in the lost sinner, namely : the persistence of personal conscious- ness ; the depth of turpitude ; and the degree of ill- desert. The agony of perishing, therefore, will be grad- uated, in both intensity and duration, by the individual self-determination of the lost ; " and to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required." " But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." The self- wrought catastro- phe of selfishness will not be more terrible than its own antagonism to love shall make it, nor more bitter than its own self-induced aversion to that love which will condition its despair. " If I make my bed in hell, be- hold, thou art there." " How long the process of sinking personality may continue is a question which we have no exact data from which to answer. The relative persistence of different persons in the agony of perishing is implied in the nature of personality. One's personal self-consciousness may be ESCHATOLOGY. 345 thought persistent in proportion as his selfish purpose is definitely determined. Hence, selfish personality in its most elaborate determination may be expected to cling to its purpose longest, and therefore persist longest in the perishing process. ' He shall be beaten with many stripes.' But all-conditioning love cannot be thought to continue the personal nature in conscious torture after the consciousness of self-determination is lost. A person has perished ! " (See " Solution of Evil.") Thus the evolution of love affords the realization of a harmonious universe by the self-determined security of the faithful, the conditioning of the innocent in the society of the faithful, the lapse of non-determined natures, and the sunken personality of the obdurate. The ground having been cleared, in the universal con- sciousness, of all question of love as perfect action, the perfect adjustment of being, the moral possibility of any falling away of the innocent or faithful, in the presence of infinite motives to love and the total absence of selfish motivity, is forever transcended. The Harmonized Universe will become a matter of universal consciousness. We emphasize that this state of self- secured freedom and harmony will be known by all as the self-determined universe. The evolution of love implies it as an object ; and it is the outcome of the solution of evil. Hence, in this respect at least, the personal universe is destined to be one community. This is the perfected equipment for future, ever- advancing cycles of personal progress. Whether it has been for our race, alone, or for the universe, the solution of evil, incident to the evolution of love, must establish an all-pervading consciousness which will afford new conditions to personal development, — conditions in the 2 4 6 THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. midst of which innocent though inexperienced millions may be created, without dread of their defection. They may be safely launched upon a life of personal freedom, created in higher types, perhaps the highest type, of in- telligence and power which it is possible to create. The need of planetary, racial, or physical conditions of any kind, may be wholly superseded. The self- determined harmony and security of a personal world or universe having been established, like the foundation- walls of a majestic temple, there will be no further need of " scaffolding from the ground " to carry up the still ascending superstructure. The " weak point " of finite personality, self-love's susceptibility to selfishness, is now bridged and buttressed forever. For aught we can see, the physical orbs will, gradually or simultaneously, dis- appear. The divine activities which have constituted their phenomena may cease ; their splendor " dissolve like the baseless fabric of a dream ; and leave not a wreck behind." The real, the personal universe will have been established ; and the evolution of love will press on, without a jar, to determine altruistic perfection. A New Cycle is begun. It is the opening of a new stage of development, upon which the resources of love, the nature of universal self-determination may unfold in ever-progressing self-consciousness. Those who under besetment of selfishness had regained the devotement of love by being " faithful in a few things " are now equipped to be " rulers over many." It is the dawn of eternity's "golden age," the undisturbed companion- ship of finite and infinite, the enlarged condition and opportunity of perhaps hitherto unexploited creative energies. Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 01014 8668