JAM 14 j BR 100 .G76 1915 G 1953 ,Ge ° r9e Richmond ' 1869- Religion and the mind BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGION 12E30. Net, 75 Cents Religion and the Mind By GEORGE RICHMOND GROSE President De Pauw University THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1915, by GEORGE RICHMOND GROSE CONTENTS Chapter Page Foreword 7 I. Christ and the Intellect 9 II. Education a Religious Obligation . . 19 III. The Task of Christian Education . . 26 IV. The Failure of Intellectual Cul- ture 36 V. The Place of Religion in Education 42 VI. The Growing Mind and the Chris- tian Ideal 53 VII. Intellectual Honesty 61 VIII. The Religion of the Mind 69 IX. Education and Vision 78 X. Does Education Endanger Faith ? . . 87 XI. The Limitations of Knowledge 97 XII. The Goal of Christian Culture. . . . 106 FOREWORD THIS little book is the outgrowth of twenty years' contact with young people who want to have faith in God and to keep on their feet intellectually. They have both the will to believe and the unwillingness to quit thinking. Honest doubters are asking, "Can religion and culture live together?" The question is not chiefly academic or speculative. It is vital. Unless religion can be made intelligent, and intellect can be made religious, either is barren. In these pages the writer seeks to express his ever-deepening conviction that education and religion must unite in making an all-round man. The aim is to set forth the meaning of Christian education. These studies make a plea for fervent piety and fearless thinking. They also seek to impress it upon young people that mental culture is not merely a privilege, a luxury for those who feel they can afford it, but is a high moral duty. If we are responsible 7 FOREWORD for the use and enlargement of material wealth, we are even more responsible for the cultivation and consecration of our mental powers. We need to stress also the dominance of moral rather than material motives in education. The writer was honored with an invitation from the late Dr. John T. McFarland, a few months before his death, to furnish a series of articles for the Adult Bible Class Monthly on "Christ in the Intellectual Life." The author is indebted to Dr. Henry H. Meyer, editor of the Sunday School publications of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and to the publishers for the privilege of publishing these studies in their present form. They are sent forth again with the hope and prayer that the reader may be helped to find that the things of the mind and the things of Christ are most worth while. George Richmond Grose. Greencastle, Indiana, July, 1915. 8 CHRIST AND THE INTELLECT THERE is a popular affectation that learn- ing and religion are divorced. It is fash- ionable in some circles to tolerate religion as a harmless superstition, to regard worship as fu- tile, and to treat the teachings of the Christian faith as if they had no intellectual standing place. In the general break-up of conventional ideas many intelligent people are sitting in the seat of the scornful. Consequently, they are missing the significance of religion for life. On the part of others there is an opposite attitude. They attempt to exalt religion by discounting culture. The college is supposed to detract from the glory of the church. The things of the mind are sneered at while the things of the spirit are lauded. Here are two present-day tendencies running 9 RELIGION AND THE MIND side by side, the one glorifying the intellect, the other glorifying Christ. Irreverent culture sets itself over against ignorant piety. The result is alike unfortunate both for culture and for religion. Education without ethical sense or spiritual motive develops a one-sided character. Mental keenness and power without right guid- ance and moral responsibility is a peril to society; while ignorant goodness is a barrier to all progress. Though the statement may be exaggerated, Newman Smythe was at least look- ing in the direction of an important truth when he declared that the most dangerous man is the ignorant good man, whose goodness floats his ignorance, while his ignorance does its deadly work. What is the relation of culture and religion? What has education of the mind to do with Christian character? Is there vital connection between intellectual efficiency and spiritual ex- perience? Has culture moral obligations and spiritual tasks? Is there a religion of the mind as well as a religion of the heart? Has Jesus a message for the mind which is indispensable to higher living? The answer to these questions 10 CHRIST AND THE INTELLECT is the task to which the writer will address him- self in this series of studies. In considering the place of the mind in reli- gion it is, first of all, important to avoid a clumsy sort of psychology which divides up the human faculties into so many closed compart- ments. When we speak of the intellect, and emotions, and will, we do not mean that there is any hard and fast separation of these human powers. The intellect is the whole man think- ing. The heart is the whole man feeling. The will is the whole man determining. By the religion of the mind, then, we simply mean religion in relation to a man's thinking. But 'does Christ address himself specifically and definitely to a man's thought-life? There can be no question about the appeal of Christ to the heart. The symbolism of religion, the rituals of worship, the hymns of the church, and the prayers of the devout, all appeal might- ily to the emotions. Nor is there any doubt that religion has to do with the will. If Mat- thew Arnold is right in saying that conduct is three fourths of life, it is equally true that what a man wills is the larger part of religion. "He 11 RELIGION AND THE MIND that wills to do his will shall know of the teaching whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself" is the Master's test both of religious truth and life. While religion appeals to the will through the emotions, its first ap- proach is to the intellect. Jesus's first word was "Come and see." "Investigate, examine, make the experiment. My teaching is to be tested in the laboratory of life." The New Testament bristles with apostolic appeals to the mind: "Think on these things"; "Test the spirits"; "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the truth"; "Ye shall know the truth"; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind." These are only representa- tive scriptural declarations of our religious re- sponsibility for the use of the mind. Further: the life of Jesus illustrates the vital relation between intellectual culture and spirit- ual character and efficiency. He was not educated in the schools, but his mind was thoroughly disciplined. For eighteen years at least he was in close contact with nature, with the life of his country, and with the great 12 CHRIST AND THE INTELLECT minds of Jewish history. The Gospel of Luke contains a biographical clue to the marvelous intellectual grasp and spiritual influence of Jesus. "And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men." This is the story, not of a human prodigy, but of the normal physical, intellectual, and spirit- ual development of a perfect manhood. His matchless insight into truth, his grasp upon the. principles of the higher life, his power of in- vigorating and transforming the lives of men are a tribute to a cloudless mind and a stainless soul. Now to be more specific, what has Christ to do with the intellect? Or, what is the place of the mind in religion? First of all, the facts of Christian experi- ence must be intellectually interpreted. The doctrines of Christianity are primarily thought problems. The eternal hope is constantly challenged to give a reason. Every genera- tion must make its own creed, and every individual must think through and work out his own faith. A living faith cannot be handed down by inheritance. We no sooner come to 13 RELIGION AND THE MIND an experience of spiritual things than the mind must relate this experience to other facts of life. In other words, religion cannot live and grow strong without a theology. Character must have some basal creed upon which to rest. Life springs out of truth. The supreme task of the mind, therefore, is to discover the truth which makes men free, and to interpret the truth which will create and sustain the fullest and richest life. There is manifestly, then, no more important thing to do than to discover the essential teachings of Christianity and to set them ablaze along the common ways of men. To seize the cardinal doctrines of our holy faith, and to distinguish them from the accumulated growth of nonessentials, until men come to know Christ — that is a work of supreme urgency. And that is just the task of the Christian mind. There can be no vigorous religion without a vital theol- ogy, and theology cannot be vitalizing unless it is rational. If there is lack of the heroic and the sacrificial elements in Christian living to- day, it is because the religious thinking of the time is flabby and boneless. When Christian 14 CHRIST AND THE INTELLECT believers think intensely and sanely upon the mystery of godliness, then may we expect to see the wonders of redemption multiplied. Again, the duties of the Christian life, none the less than the doctrines of Christianity, are primarily problems for the mind. Take, for example, the foremost duty which Jesus com- mands — the love of our neighbor. When the impulse toward Christian neighborliness has been implanted in a man's life, what specific things is he to do? And how is he to do them? The spirit of good will and of helpfulness which discovers the victim of robbers by the roadside is the supreme thing, of course, but what will love command the good Samaritan to do for the bleeding sufferer? Dressing wounds and caring for the injured is a task requiring thought and skill. It is not enough to love the wayside victim with pitying sentiment; he must be loved with thoughtful care. In other words, the very first steps in Christian duty require hard, earnest thinking. In the doing of the plain everyday duties there is a large place for the mind. And how else than by the eyes of an en- 15 RELIGION AND THE MIND lightened understanding do we discover the mighty tasks of Christian civilization? Many evils are challenged, many customs are under the ban of public sentiment, many improve- ments in industrial conditions are demanded be- cause men are loving God with the mind. The impulse of brotherly love demands freedom for the slave; but how to use his freedom is a problem for the mind to work out. How to destroy the saloon and the traffic in human honor and virtue, how to distribute equitably the profits of industry, how to cure the wretch- edness of poverty, how to make the waste places of the earth blossom with roses, and to build highways for the righteous — these are problems for the Christian mind. Jesus at twelve years of age is hearing the learned men of the temple and asking them questions. At the same time he announces the inmost conviction of his life — his allegiance to the divine will. "I must be about my Father's business." Hofmann's famous painting, "Christ in the Temple," finely interprets this incident in the life of the Master. The youth with up- turned face and eager eye is seeking after 16 CHRIST AND THE INTELLECT truth, while at the same time he is in his Father's house. The light of learning and the joy of divine fellowship are both in Jesus's face. This is both history and parable. That early temple incident in the life of Jesus must be reproduced in the life of every man. Open- minded inquiry, earnest seeking for the truth in the presence of the scholars, a determination to know all that can be known, the intellect fearlessly pushing out into the farthest bounds of human knowledge, and yet, taking every step in conscious obedience to God — this was the spirit of the Master. And this is the spirit of Christian culture. If religion is to be kept sane and strong, the mind must not cease to ask questions. The problems of life cannot be outflanked, they must be met. They can be met only by hard, earnest thinking. It is mere cant for men to pray for a solution of their problems when they ought to think. On the other hand, life cannot be lived hopefully and triumphantly by asking and answering ques- tions. God must be its background and its foreground. From him we must take our com- 17 RELIGION AND THE MIND mands. Learning and piety must never be divorced. The college and the church must stand near by each other. Eager for truth the reverent intellect evermore utters its deep- est conviction — "I must be about my Father's business." 18 II EDUCATION A RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION THERE is no longer serious doubt as to the value of education for the practical ends of life. The trained mind and the skilled hand are in demand because they produce results. And because education puts into men's hands keener tools for doing the world's work, and educated labor turns out a larger and better product, the practical mind of the age is calling for the school and college. There is no escap- ing the fact that to-day the uneducated man does not have one chance in a hundred for business and professional success. The ma- terial conquest of the earth which has been made in the last century would have been impossible but for the power of the trained mind. The enormous multiplication of wealth, through the application of scientific knowledge 19 RELIGION AND THE MIND to the problems of manufacture and production and distribution, the rapid extermination of disease by medical science and surgery are the achievements of the educated mind. The trained intellect is the one indispensable instru- ment of success everywhere. It is the recogni- tion of these facts which has led the state to provide in our day a magnificent system of public school instruction. The obligation to extend learning for the sake of efficiency in doing the world's work is quite universally recognized. But it is a misfortune that education has been so largely regarded as an expedient, or as a means to a material end. The utilitarian conception of education has made for coarse materialistic views of life and for cheap and superficial educational methods. It is true that thorough intellectual discipline is indispensable as a preparation for the tasks of life. It is tremendously true that the culture of the mind is a moral and religious obligation. The moral obligation of intelligence springs, first of all, out of the mind's possibilities of de- velopment. There is no question about the 20 EDUCATION A RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION value of physical training for equipment for certain practical tasks. But, beyond this, the very fact that the human body is capable of the athlete's strength and the soldier's en- durance and the charms of beauty calls might- ily upon everyone to develop the physical powers. And just because no limit has yet been set in the development of the human intellect education is an inescapable moral obli- gation. It would be a crime against civilization for a landowner to attempt to hold a vast tract of land in the heart of a fertile country, refusing to cultivate it, or to grant a franchise to high- ways and industries. And yet that offense against society is as nothing compared to the moral trifling of one who neglects or refuses to open the mind to truth, and to send it forth upon its limitless destiny. If one has undevel- oped capacities, or unrealized possibilities, his first great duty is to find himself, to make himself, to become a man. Man is still in the making. Again, if we take the life of Jesus as a guide, the obligation to enrich the mind becomes high and commanding. We are apt to overlook his 21 RELIGION AND THE MIND education. The evangelists set his three years of public ministry in the foreground and his eighteen years of preparation in the back- ground. They devote scores of pages to a record of what he spoke and wrought, but only one sentence to the story of his education — "And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Here is the biographical clue to his matchless life. He spent eighteen years in God's best schools in prepara- tion for three years of work — six years of preparation for every one of work. There is no indication in the Gospels that his matchless powers were a prodigy. They were rather a growth. "The child grew and waxed strong, becoming full of wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." His youth was a period of intellectual culture and spiritual enrichment. Never has any human life been so rigidly held to the great task of self-becoming and self- enriching, and self -sanctifying. The eighteen patient, silent years of Jesus mean nothing more significant to us than their emphasis upon the religious obligation of thorough self- development. 22 EDUCATION A RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION The religious obligation of personal culture becomes even more impressive when we con- sider it from the standpoint of the service we are called upon to give to the world. Culture is not to be sought chiefly as a means of ma- terial success nor as a personal adornment. Rich as are the joys of a cultivated mind, education is not for its own sake. The glory of the scholar is in his consecration to the service of his fellows. This was Longfellow's ideal of the educated man. "Where shall the scholar live? In solitude or in society? In the green stillness of the country, where he can hear the heart of nature beat, or in the dark, gray city, where he can feel and hear the throbbing heart of man? I make answer for him and say, Tn the dark, gray city.' ' And this was the Master's thought of his own obligation. "For their sakes I sanctify my- self." "I set myself apart — I educate myself. For what? For their sakes — for the service which I can give to the world." Is not this the law of all true life? It is the largest self- realization, and the richest culture for the sake of the greatest service of our fellow men. If 23 RELIGION AND THE MIND society is to be served, and if the world is to be saved, it must be done by men who come to their task with mind enriched by knowledge and character nurtured by religion. There is no human enterprise that calls for so thorough preparation as the service of our fellow men. The highest art is the art of doing good. Bishop Vincent, apostle of modern culture and Chris- tian faith, once said in a college chapel talk: "Young men, don't be in such a hurry to get out to save the world. Take sufficient time to complete your preparation for your work. The world will need saving four years from now, and you will then be more capable of saving the world." There is no place to-day for ignorant goodness. Men must not only be good, but they must be good for something. If the workman of God is not to be ashamed, he must be thoroughly fitted for every good work. The great movements of human uplift have centered about some high-souled person- ality. The new epochs in philanthropy, in re- form, and in religion have been created by minds that first made themselves strong. The missionary crusade of the first century sprang 24 EDUCATION A RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION out of the imperial mind of the apostle Paul. The leaders of the Reformation were men of eminent learning. The Wesley an revival of the eighteenth century had its beginning in an Oxford Club. The measure of a man's service to the world is the fullness of his own life. Achievement never rises higher than person- ality. What a man does is never greater than what he is. 25 Ill THE TASK OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION WHAT is the chief aim of all education? There is a wide difference of opinion. One answers, "The purpose of the schools is to fit men for vocational efficiency." Another says, "Culture is for its own sake." Still another holds that the main business of learn- ing is to enrich life and to develop character. Now, it makes a vast deal of difference whether our educational institutions are seeking to pre- pare men for a livelihood or for the living of life. If the college is a mere "adjunct of the shop and the farm," its claim is altogether different than if it is set to furnish men for worthful and heroic living. What is the su- preme task of Christian education? The first aim of learning is to make men intel- lectually efficient. The latent energies of the 26 TASK OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION human intellect must be aroused and developed. The thing of first importance is for a man to discover his mind and then "learn how to make full and productive use of his discovery." There is no need more imperative than that men should be able to think through things for themselves, and to be able to discriminate between the essentials and the nonessentials, and prove the things which are of permanent worth. It is not enough to stock men with knowledge; they must be able to reason soundly and constructively. The student's first task is to develop the power and acquire the habit of clear, strong, fearless thinking upon life's problems. We only need to face the conditions of mod- ern society to discover that the one hope for healthy and permanent progress everywhere lies in the increase of "moral thoughtfulness." The one solitary hope of the hour is in men who can and dare think independently and respon- sibly. The difficulties of democracy are grow- ing increasingly heavy; and the only way to meet these difficulties is to teach men to find and to use their minds. If democracy is not n RELIGION AND THE MIND to become a reckless mob, our citizens must be thinking men; if industry is not to be brutal- izing, our workers must be thinking men; if religion is not to become fanatical, or senti- mental, believers must be thinking men. Presi- dent Woodrow Wilson makes this timely ob- servation: "The modern world is an exacting one, and the things it exacts are mostly intel- lectual." The first high aim, then, of all liberal education is to give men the power to see clearly, to imagine vividly, to think soundly and enthusiastically upon the things which are pure and just and true. "Where there is no vision the people perish." And there can be no vision where there is no responsible thinking. If the Christian school is to hold a worthy place to-day, it must exalt intellectual training and activity, giving to men and women an appre- ciation of the joys of the mind and a zest in thinking through and working out the prob- lems of living. A second task of education is to relate culture to life. While knowledge is its own exceeding great reward, beyond itself it has a greater reward. While learning brings rich satisfac- 28 TASK OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION tions to life, beyond these there are the noble ends of life which learning may serve. The glory of a rich, strong personality produced by broad culture is in serving the high uses of life. The institutions of learning are performing an inestimable service in raising up a generation of men and women with cultivated imagination, with an appreciation of art, with powers of observation, and with the joy of intellectual exercise. But beyond and above this education has a more serious purpose. It must serve all the intelligent ends of living. There must be the "union of learning with the fine art of living." Life must be made safer, healthier, happier, more prosperous, and more satisfying. Now, it is the failure to relate itself to these great practical uses of life that has provoked much of the criticism of higher education. If the college and the university do not educate men for something, their work is discredited, and rightly so. Beyond the decorative value of knowledge is its serviceableness when translated into life. Culture not for its own sake, but for life's sake, is the watchword of the present day. A distinguished teacher of Greek once said to a 29 RELIGION AND THE MIND student who was making a blundering recita- tion, "What are you here for?" A moment later the professor answered his own question: "For two things: first to get Greek, second to get character." To get Greek so as to get character and personal power is the first achieve- ment of all education. The new ideal which is pulsating in the educational movement of the present day is the vital relation of learning to life. The rapid development of the State univer- sities of the West is, in large measure, in re- sponse to the popular demand that knowledge shall serve the practical needs of our common life. The vast enterprises of our modern civili- zation cannot be advanced by men whose sole interest is in the cultural studies. Men must be trained for doing the rough work of the world, clearing the forests, building the high- ways, operating the mines, and constructing the bridges. The college is to teach the principles and foster the ideals which will make for better streets, more sanitary houses, richer farms, safer travel, more prosperous livelihood. But there is danger of learning devoting itself 30 TASK OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION chiefly to the material side of life. Knowledge is dangerous when its aim becomes coarsely materialistic, when it cares for skill chiefly for the sake of piling up wealth. It is highly im- portant to fit a man for some specific industry or calling. It is a far greater thing to fit him for intelligent, purposeful living of life. A skillful worker is not so valuable an asset in society as a strong man with a reserve of intel- lectual energy and a background of personality upon which everything he does may draw. The whole task of modern education is not in train- ing farmers, or mechanics, or teachers, or preachers, but the training of men for clear, accurate thinking, for earnest and heroic action in every field of human effort. And the chief duty of education has not been performed when the youth of the nation have been vocationalized and set in the straight road to financial pros- perity. Christianity utters a vigorous protest against the bread-and-butter theory of educa- tion. The stern prophecy of Emerson must yet be fulfilled: "The sluggard intellect of this continent will look from under its iron lids and fulfill the postponed expectation of the 31 RELIGION AND THE MIND world with something better than the exertion of mechanical skill." In this day of emphasis upon utility in edu- cation there is grave danger of vocational train- ing dwarfing the man and of his losing In action's dizzying eddy whirled The something that infects the world. The multitude is blind to the fact that mere skill in production and the increase of income will not serve the most urgent problems of society. What is the foremost need of our day? Mechanical experts or creators of public sentiment? More men of skill in mechanics and agriculture and in the other fields of human labor are not so greatly needed at this hour as an intelligent citizenship, with wise leadership in industrial, political, and religious life. We have a thousand men with a good livelihood to one who can think and make men think. "Not the men who add to our quantity of materials, but the men who deepen the quality of our living, are the real benefactors of the world." The age imperatively requires expert ability, but the expert must know how to relate his 32 TASK OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION talent to the deeper life of his age. Skill must be added to character; the man must be grown and then the worker. It is important to store men's minds with facts, but it is quite as important to keep alive their idealism and their public spirit. The high function of Christian education, therefore, is not chiefly to train men for making a living, but, rather, to inspire and guide them in the making of a strong and purposeful life. The third task of Christian education is to dominate all culture with moral earnestness and with spiritual passion. If it is important to "link learning with life," it is quite as im- portant that all culture should be consecrated to the spiritual uses of life. Men with superior learning sometimes prostitute their abilities in promoting corrupt undertakings. To give a man a disciplined mind and the power to lead and command, without any fixed moral prin- ciples, without unswerving integrity, without a first devotion to good causes, is only to multiply the perils of civilization. The practical ineffi- ciency of a "godless knowledge" in promoting business prosperity and in strengthening the 33 RELIGION AND THE MIND institutions of free government lias already been proved. Our national resources are being rap- idly developed. Wealth is multiplying. Great empires of material power lie at our feet. The result is an increase of luxury, an ambition for the accumulation of property, and a temptation to seek satisfaction in things. The transcendent task of Christian culture is holding before a people who are promoting the material interests of the nation the spiritual uses of their wealth and power. And unless our colleges and uni- versities stand for "plain living and high think- ing" and make men care for learning and for integrity and for public virtue, they fail utterly. The new economic reforms, the crusade in the interests of a purer society, the civic move- ments in municipal and national government, are trumpet calls to men of learning and light to serve the world. The highest ideal of edu- cation is that of the Master Teacher, 'Tor their sakes I sanctify myself" — culture not for its own sake, character not for its own sake, but both culture and character raised to the highest point of efficiency for the service of the spiritual ends of life. Whenever culture centers 34 TASK OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION in itself, whenever character becomes an end in itself, strength passes into weakness. The pages of history are full of the pathetic story of men of genius, with trained minds and rich imagina- tion, whose lives were not felt in the world. The reason is they were lacking in moral earnestness and in consecration to spiritual ideals. The ultimate test of every work of genius, of every book that is written, of every state that is built, and of every character that is formed is this: Does it serve with moral purpose the spiritual interests of life? Unless men from the schools take on their shoulders the burden of humanity, saying to the world, "Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake," education cannot long hold its high place. 35 IV THE FAILURE OF INTELLECTUAL CULTURE IN this mind-crowned age we point with just pride to the achievements of learning. The mastery of the material forces of nature, the development of the physical resources of the earth, the rapid production of wealth, the progress in communication and travel, the ad- vance of medical and surgical science — these are achievements of the educated mind. Truly, one of our twentieth-century days is more wonderful than all the Arabian Nights. And in all these mighty doings the trained intellect is the indispensable tool. But in our praise of learning we must not forget that knowledge has its failures as well as its successes. Intellectual culture alone is insufficient for the needs and tasks of life. Education is only an instrument. A fine tool in the hands of a workman does not guarantee 36 FAILURE OF INTELLECTUAL CULTURE a worthy product. Quite as much depends upon the character of the workman as upon his skill. The mind alone, however rich its attainments, is not sufficient for all the neces- sities of life. First of all, culture fails in making an all- round manhood. It increases power. It opens the treasures of the arts and sciences. It dis- covers new worlds of enjoyment and achieve- ment. But the great task before the individual and before society is the making of a man, the development of personality. Keen and ac- curate thinking does not insure lofty character. One may be accomplished and yet brutal, bril- liant and at the same time vicious. John Stuart Mill, apostle of modern culture, before the close of his career came to the strong con- viction that life needs religion. There are "evils that culture cannot cure; there are blessings it cannot bestow. It cannot give peace to the conscience; it cannot shield life from sorrow; it cannot lessen the anguish of the human heart or dispel the shadow of death." Some months ago there appeared in a popu- lar magazine an article making a wholesale 37 RELIGION AND THE MIND charge of immorality and irreligion in the American colleges. The article is a libel. No higher average of character can be found any- where among our youth than is to be found in the students of the colleges and the univer- sities. But there is this basis of fact in the charge against the colleges — learning alone does not give men strength to resist temptation and to live nobly. Life must have the inspiration, the guidance and safeguards of religion to insure lofty character. Symmetry and balance are quite as indispensable as learning. The failure of culture is that it often produces men who are clear-minded, but cynical; keen, but cold; strong, but arbitrary; wise, but bigoted; positive, but intolerant. Culture alone is not sufficient for the development of an all-round symmetrical manhood. Another failure of education is in fitting men for the practical tasks and for the everyday work of the world. Perhaps the most common criticism made against the schools is that their graduates are not fitted for useful work. But this shortcoming is not so much a matter of method as it is of motive. Talent and skill 38 FAILURE OF INTELLECTUAL CULTURE are no more indispensable for inefficiency in doing the world's work than vision and sym- pathy and courage. Theodore P. Shonts, speaking from the standpoint of a man of affairs, declared, "The educated man who lacks character has a far more serious handicap than the uneducated man with character." The great enterprises of trade and industry are safe only when they are in the hands of men of intellect and character. Our material great- ness is threatened unless moral conviction keeps pace with intellectual culture. Vast piles of steel and stone do not make a great civiliza- tion. Greed is as corrupting, licentiousness is as deadly, drink is as degrading among the learned as among the ignorant. Knowledge alone has no power to save the individual or society. Through all the streets of our civiliza- tion must flow the river of life. This alone is the guarantee of a better day. In business it is not enough to have educated experts. The need is for men who will not fatten on luxury and use their power for oppression, but men who can see the relation of things to character and who will make and use wealth for the well- 39 RELIGION AND THE MIND being of their fellows. The problems of po- litical life have no hope of solution except as our public servants become men of vision, in- corruptible in integrity and sensitive in honor. In religion it is becoming increasingly evident that the light of learning alone cannot guide men into life eternal. The man of culture alone is not big enough for to-day's tasks anywhere. For the stupendous tasks of the twentieth century we need men who are trained by the college and inspired and fashioned by the church. God give us men; times like these demand Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before the demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking. Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the mists In public duty and in private thinking. For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions, and their little deeds Mingle in selfish strife, lo! freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps. Culture and learning have always united in making the great leaders of our race. The 40 FAILURE OF INTELLECTUAL CULTURE learning of Erasmus never could have kindled the fires of the Reformation. The burning heart of Luther must be added. The greatest force of the eighteenth century for human up- lift was not Goethe, the man of letters, but John Wesley, in whom learning and piety finely united. Mr. Huxley has said that civilization is far more indebted to George Fox, the mystic, than to Benjamin Franklin, the practical sage. Knowledge is power, but to be a power for good it must have the pure heart of religion. The library and the laboratory are indispen- sable, but they have little moral value. If so- ciety cannot be saved without education, no more can education be saved without religion. The power to brace men's wills and to purify their hearts is not in the schools. In all the halls of learning the Divine Voice must be heard — "This is the way of life, walk ye in it." If so- ciety is to be saved from being mammonized, if the iron hand of industry is to be softened, if righteousness is to become a resistless power in the land, learning must seek religion, and religion must evermore be kept sane and strong by learning. 41 THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN EDUCATION IT is clearly evident that education and reli- gion are the foremost interests of human life. They have to do with personal character, with business, and with all the institutions of society. While this statement would be gen- erally accepted, there is in the popular mind the haziest idea of the relation of religion and education. Historically, the connection between educa- tion and religion has been close. During the mediaeval centuries learning was kept alive by the monks in the monasteries. The first Ameri- can colleges were founded and nurtured by churchmen. The seals of the oldest colleges and universities were stamped with the in- signia of the Christian faith. The early colon- 42 RELIGION IN EDUCATION ists laid at one and the same time the founda- tions of the church and the school. Religious instruction was an important part of the cur- ricula of all the schools. But when the popula- tion of America became religiously so diverse, religious instruction in the schools of the state ceased. With the complete separation of church and state, and the disappearance of all religious teaching in the public schools, there has developed an increased interest in the question of the relation between education and religion. More than ever before both education and religion are being defined in terms of life. Whatever the method of education may be, its aim is to fit men and women for life. The most popular appeal that can be made for learning is that it issues in larger life. A half dozen leading American educators writing re- cently have set forth the purpose of education in the following striking phrases: "education for efficiency," "to fit men to deal with the affairs of life," "to assert individual capacity in terms of rational activity," "to equip the indi- vidual for life," "to train citizens for citizen- ship." RELIGION AND THE MIND It is interesting to note that the dominant conception of religion also has to do with life. Creeds and theologies, ceremonies and rituals are instruments for the promotion of a deeper spiritual life. Religion rejoices in the largest life. Its deepest purpose breathes in the words of the Master: "I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." As Jesus conceives it, religion is life in and by the will of God. It is the union of the personal will with the will of God. Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, to make them thine. Jesus looked upon the laws of nature as expres- sions of the will of God. So, when he taught men to pray, "Thy will be done," he set them on the highway to the discovery of truth. The determination to do the will of God opens the eyes of the understanding, sweeps away sophistries, and clears the judgment. The in- tellectual processes of a bad man are not re- liable. "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see" is a beautiful beatitude of the intellectual life as well as of the religious. 44 RELIGION IN EDUCATION There is a most valuable educational principle in the Master's declaration: "As I hear I judge; my judgment is righteous, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me"; "If any man will to do his will, he shall know of the teaching." The fullest discovery of knowledge waits upon our determination to be utterly faithful to the present light. If, then, religion is interpreted not in terms of doctrine or of emotion; if it is not chiefly a matter of ritual or of rule, but rather of life, it is linked inseparably with all true education. Education and religion are united in one supreme task. Education seeks to discover the laws of the world and of one's own being; religion seeks to enthrone the will of God as the very essence of life. To find oneself and the possi- bilities of one's world is the aim of all educa- tion. And this discovery is never so certain as when we pray to God reverently and joy- fully, "Father, thy will be done." But to be more specific, what has religion to do with a man's education? First of all, it will carry the aims of education up to completeness. As was set forth in the previous chapter, intel- 45 RELIGION AND THE MIND lectual culture alone fails to realize the ideals of character or to perform the tasks of con- duct. Education gives one fullest possession of his powers; religion must give self-mastery. Education makes for the mastery of situations; religion keeps dominant the spirit of unselfish- ness. Education makes life larger and stronger; religion makes it deeper in meaning and more satisfying. If the final aim of education is not culture for its own sake, but for the sake of living the largest and most worth-while life, learning reaches its goal only by the help of religion. Why? Because the effectiveness of life depends not alone upon capacity, but also upon character; not alone upon power, but also upon motive; not alone upon light, but also upon leading. Again, religion is indispensable to the edu- cated man in giving to life a spiritual meaning. Science has told us how the earth was made, but not what it was made for. Learning has disclosed the secrets of the human body, but it has no word concerning the destiny of human life. The scholars have written the history of the human race, but they have not measured 46 RELIGION IN EDUCATION the spiritual value of man's life. The only rational interpretation of these deeper prob- lems of our life is to be found in religious faith. What avails it for men to increase their wealth, and multiply inventions, and master material forces, if these things are not shot through and through with spiritual meaning and purpose? There is a realm of spiritual life close to us. There are invisible realities which we may know. There are voices which speak to an inner sense messages of cheer and strength. The Bible, with its tides of spiritual life, meets the deepest instincts of the human heart. "Man cannot live by bread alone." There are wants deeper than those of the physical senses. Man's inmost nature cries out for the living God. Keener than the cravings of hunger and thirst is the soul's sense of the Eternal. Now it is because religion meets life's deepest ques- tions with an answer, and its inmost cravings with satisfaction, that it brings to the man of culture life indeed. Professor Eucken has well said, "Not suffering but spiritual destitution is man's worst enemy." The greatest problem of society is not to multiply riches and comforts, 47 RELIGION AND THE MIND and cities and institutions, not to produce art and literature, but to enrich and transform life with faith and hope and love. That is the task of religion. It is becoming increasingly evident that these deeper needs of life can be met only as the insti- tutions of society are developed. The institu- tions upon which civilization must depend for its ideals and moral force are the home, the church, and the state. This trinity guards and fosters the most precious things in human life. The efficiency of any one of these divinely or- dained institutions of society depends upon the moral ideals and the spiritual force of religion. The home is jeopardized by the tragedies of lust and crime unless it is filled with the sweet influences of religion. The state will become corrupt, and civilization coarse and vulgar, unless there is a divine life permeating their whole being. Education alone cannot save the institutions of the nation from decay and destruction. Education must have a moral dynamic at the heart of it. From still another viewpoint we may see the vital relation of religion and education. Reli- 48 RELIGION IN EDUCATION gion alone can save men from the peril of their success. No severer test comes to the indi- vidual and nation than comes in prosperity. It was no mere religious truism that Jesus uttered when he said, "How hardly shall they which have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" The disclosures of recent years have empha- sized the magnitude of the perils of wealth both to individual and to national life. Our prodigious national prosperity is the product of our science. And this vast power is a good beyond doubt, if it is used for high service, if it is consecrated to noble ends. But if our gigantic material interests are not dominated by great spiritual ideals and enterprises, then our wealth becomes our tilth. An American editor makes this keen arraign- ment of our national life: "That we are passing through a great moral crisis becomes every day more clear. That crisis has come not a day too soon, if the soul of the country is to be kept alive; it cannot be too severe in its arraignment of baseness, too thorough in the punishment it inflicts, too drastic in the methods of cleansing and reinvigorating which it adopts. There has 49 RELIGION AND THE MIND never been a more shocking story of dishonor told among any people, nor one which makes the reader or hearer more indignant or ashamed. In whatever direction the light searches, in- stantly mean little men of great financial posi- tion come into startling light, and are seen managing affairs with great financial ability, but with the moral ideas of semi-savages. An undeniable moral vulgarity stamps them as men of large brains and little souls; capable of great material achievements, but with rudi- mentary spiritual development. On this group of betrayers of trusts the great mass of Amer- icans looked first with incredulity, then with astonishment, and lastly with deepening indig- nation. Sound at heart, but dull with pros- perity, and overtaken by a kind of moral sleeping sickness, the nation opens its eyes, looks about with dismay, and gathers its forces for a passionate fight against the vices that have brought shame and disaster to it." The only hope of saving the nation from its vices is in religion. Exposure and denunciation will not do it. Campaigns of instruction and agita- tion will lay the ax at the root of hoary evils, 50 RELIGION IN EDUCATION but society can be redeemed only by planting the seed of the new life. In George Washington's Farewell Address he utters a truth never more timely than now: 4 'Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity religion and morality are indispensable supporters. Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and ex- perience both forbid us to expect that rational morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles." In our enthusiasm for education, if the religious training of our youth is withheld, the home is imperiled, the church is doomed to decline, and the foundations of the nation are shaken. God is not an elective. Religion is indispensable. Reverence for law, obedience to conscience, the recognition of God in history and in nature, the place of Christ in civilization, the value of the Bible for literature and for life — these things are far more vital to good citi- zenship and to the permanence and peace of the nation than any scientific formula. Presi- 51 RELIGION AND THE MIND dent Faunce has said, "The Bible has performed in modern times a vastly greater service than the entire classical literature of the Greeks and Romans." If this be true, the prevailing neglect of religious instruction both in the home and in the school is alarming. No one who knows the place of the Bible in the history of civiliza- tion and the influence of religion upon intel- lectual progress will ever think lightly of religion. Let the youth of the nation seek skill in the arts and trades; let them master the sciences, and always in the quest of the largest life; let the capacity of the mind be developed to the utmost. But let the young men and women never forget that learning finds its fulfillment in unselfish service, and that reli- gion alone will guide and keep life forever in purity and in strength. 52 VI THE GROWING MIND AND THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL THE wonder of modern times is the increase of knowledge. Every day the adventur- ous mind of man announces some new discovery. The sciences are multiplying their treasures with bewildering profusion. A superficial survey of scientific progress during the past half century reveals new worlds of knowledge whose exist- ence was not dreamed of. But the greatest wonder is not the startling discoveries, it is the daring discoverer; not the accumulation of knowledge, but the growing mind. Important as are the achievements of learning for the practical uses of life, the fact of supreme im- portance is that by the increase of knowledge the intellect develops unsuspected powers. It is worth while to add to the treasures of the 53 RELIGION AND THE MIND arts and sciences, but it is really more worth while to increase the mind's capacity to think and to know. And the glory of all true educa- tion is that it meets life's problems with a clearer insight, with a more unerring judgment, and with the larger outlook. The eager mind discovers some new truth to-day, and to- morrow, larger in capacity and keener in zest, it pushes out into wider fields in quest of more truth. Goethe's dying cry, "Light, more light!" is only the prayer of an earnest soul growing forever in its appreciation and grasp of the truth. This spirit of intellectual pioneering is the dominant characteristic of modern educa- tion. The belief that truth can be found, and that it is to be sought at any sacrifice, is driving men in every field of knowledge into earnest, heroic quest of the truth. There is no tale of heroism on the seas more thrilling than the stories of men in medical science literally laying down their lives to discover the secret for the conquest of some disease. Now, this same spirit, believing that truth can be known, and that the truth is for life, and that the truth is to grow from more to 54 THE GROWING MIND more, is the very heart of the Christian ideal. Jesus again and again startled his wondering disciples by the announcement: "Greater things than these shall you do." "I have yet many things to say unto you." In other words, the Christian ideal of life is a growing revelation of God; it is an ever-increasing development of spiritual capacity; it is going from strength to strength until we appear before God. Does not this fact of the growing mind, matched by the enlarging ideal of the Christian life, give a new significance both to our intel- lectual progress and to our religious problems? We get into religious troubles if the mind be- comes stagnant. On the other hand, if the intellectual powers become masterful and faith is weak and sickly, life loses its strength and peace. This is the point of view of that ad- mirable little book of Bishop William F. Mc- Dowell on The Religion of a Man. A growing mind and an increasing faith are the essential elements of the religion of a man. But a one- sided intellectual development presents one of the problems of personal religion. Faith is often cast aside in the hasty conclusion that 65 RELIGION AND THE MIND religion has been discredited by the advance of learning. The difficulty is a man's trying to get along with a child's faith. The Christian ideal of life is not something set and stationary. Christian truth is not a definite deposit once and for all delivered to the saints, unchanging and unmodified by the growth of moral per- ception and intellectual outlook. As the mind grows faith must grow. Men must just as certainly put away childish things in religion as in play. A graduate student in an American univer- sity said with a deep pathos in his voice: "I do not believe anything any more. If I only had the faith of my childhood!" But the faith of his childhood was intellectually impossible to him, and it would have been just as inade- quate as impossible. The root of this young man's difficulty was this: his mind had been busy with the teachings of science and of philosophy for half a dozen years, and he had neglected the proper feeding of his spiritual nature. He was thinking with a man's mind of the things of science, and with a child's conception of the things of religion. He was 56 THE GROWING MIND bringing his childhood conceptions of God and of prayer and of the Bible to the problems and tasks of a man. And out of this came his spiritual despair. He had not lost faith. But his intellectual conceptions of religious things were not satisfying. Is not this the explanation of much of the alleged doubt of our time? Men must put away childish things. It is natural and normal in childhood to think as a child, but in manhood childish things must be put away. A child's faith is beautiful for a child, but it will not do for a man. The child's joy in play and in the home is beautiful, but the growing powers of a man demand the tasks and the pleasures of a larger world. How may the man, bewildered by intellectual doubts, regain his faith? Can the student of the sciences and the philosophies get back his Bible, his confidence in prayer, and his faith in God? He can if he is given a man's faith instead of a child's. He needs a man's faith, a man's God, a man's Bible, a man's task. He may believe in the religious authority of the Bible vindicated in his own experience, just as the mariner believes in his sextant and 57 RELIGION AND THE MIND the astronomer in his telescope. He needs a church that is doing something more than ministering to spiritual foundlings, that is doing something more than feeding its own emotions by its altar sacrifices. He needs a church that sets for him a task big enough to call forth the heroism and the self-sacrifice of the manliest souls. He needs a God as much greater than the God of his childhood as the capacity and need of a man are greater than the need and capacity of a child. Professor William James once said, "The modern world needs a moral equivalent for war." Some heroic thing to be done, some heavy burden to be borne, some great sacrifice to be made, some gigantic evil to be overcome call for a faith that is large and ever growing larger. If thinking men would save their faith, they only need to recognize the fact that the Christian ideal must grow to meet the needs of the growing mind. To become a master in science will not make a religious doubter if there is a corresponding growth in one's conception of spiritual things. If the scholar becomes a skeptic, it does not mean that something is wanting intellectually 58 THE GROWING MIND in the matters of faith. In most cases it means that the mind has been fed while the spiritual nature has been starved. Furthermore, it is heartening to the Christian believer to discover that the scholar has not really lost faith in God, but only in his child- hood or traditional thought of God. He does not deny the truth of the Bible; he doubts his childhood interpretations of the Bible. He still believes in prayer, but not in all prayers. When the deep, universal needs of human life reassert themselves men cry out for ''the evi- dence of things not seen." Subtlest thought shall fail and learning falter, Churches change, forms perish, systems go. But our human needs they will not alter, Christ no after age shall e'er outgrow. Christ is not outgrown, but some of our con- ceptions of him are outgrown. A man's reli- gion for a man's task; a man's Bible for a man's world — a growing man and an ever-growing revelation of God — is not this our supreme need? Yonder in the green fields of childhood is the God of little children. Lo! here in the 59 RELIGION AND THE MIND gloom and struggle of the street is the great God of men! If the contention of this chapter is true, faith has nothing to fear from the growth of knowledge. On the other hand, learning need never be ashamed to confess faith. Open- minded, courageous pursuit of truth will ulti- mately lead to Christ as its goal. The Christian ideals need perpetually the new interpretation and fresh embodiment which will be given only by growing minds. While the growing mind is creating new sciences, and commanding new forces, and investing the world with new mean- ings, it must ever be pressing forward toward the mark for the prize of life's highest calling in Jesus Christ. 60 VII INTELLECTUAL HONESTY A SQUARE deal" and "Fair Play" are the slogans of the day. They indicate the trend of popular thinking. Fairness in deal- ing and truthfulness in speaking are high moral obligations which have come to be recognized as fundamental in all the activities of civilized society. But this popular demand for honesty is often superficial. There can be no guarantee of honor in conduct unless there is honesty in thought. The first demand, therefore, which re- ligion makes of the mind is honesty in one's thinking. "Whatsoever things are true, think on these things." The most outstanding characteristic of the Bible is its absolute fidelity to the facts of life. Open the Old Book where you will, and you find a cross-section of human life. The events 61 RELIGION AND THE MIND which are recorded are presented in a plain, simple narrative, and are never arranged for dramatic effect. Its characters never pose. Its heroes and saints are men with temptations and struggles like our own. The utter intellectual honesty of the Bible in portraying the expe- riences of men who are dealing with God is the hall-mark of its inspiration. In the character of Jesus this trait of intel- lectual honesty is even more conspicuous. It was the background of all the other elements of his personality which made him so divinely fair. He had a passion for reality. He has much to say about the truth — believing the truth, know- ing the truth, and living the truth. His whole soul seemed in revolt at sham of any kind. His denunciation of the Pharisees is an unsparing arraignment of pretense and unreality. He struck straight at the evils of his time. He never juggled with words nor temporized with moral issues. Jesus shows the same high quality of intellectual sincerity in dealing with his disciples. He wanted followers, but he never painted the life of discipleship in rosy colors to win men. He spoke plainly of the 62 INTELLECTUAL HONESTY hardships and persecutions which were to be the lot of the builders of the Kingdom. He always set the cross in the foreground. He was so utterly candid in dealing with men that he would not allow a rich man of noble character to become a disciple without facing squarely the responsibilities of discipleship. He deliberately scattered the crowds by the mystery of his teachings, rather than allow them to build their hopes upon a false conception of his mission. This passion for reality is not only the work- ing principle of the Christian faith, it is also the dominant characteristic of modern learning. Science makes a relentless quest for facts. The man of science approaches every problem of life with one question — "What are the facts?" He is willing to revise his theories, or to re- nounce former creeds and to accept new ones, if the discovery of facts demands it. And in this utter fidelity to facts both science and religion agree. There is no more hopeful omen of moral and social progress than this burning passion for reality everywhere. If science is sometimes ar- rogant in its claims, the scientific spirit is pre- 63 RELIGION AND THE MIND paring the way for the coming of the Lord by its tremendous emphasis upon reality. If there is a dearth of religious enthusiasm to-day, there is a mighty insistence that religion shall be genuine and that life shall ring true. What does intellectual honesty demand? First of all, it insists that there is an everlasting distinction between truth and error. It also insists that the truth can be known, and that men are to be judged by the way they use the truth. Furthermore, intellectual honesty de- mands fidelity to one's own thinking. It will not tolerate verbal jugglery for the support of a pet theory, nor pious mouthing with no reality in experience. The frank determination to see things and to report things as they are is the very essence of intellectual honesty. The lack of intellectual honesty is nowhere more apparent than in the handling of political issues. The rule of the demagogue would be short-lived if the citizen approached civic prob- lems with utter open-mindedness. The greatest barrier to good government is a lack of intel- lectual candor in meeting the problems of the state. 64 INTELLECTUAL HONESTY Men come to the Bible in the same partisan spirit. They have some theory to support, or some doctrine to prove, instead of seeking for the teaching of the Bible regardless of what becomes of their personal views. It is abso- lutely fatal to true religious character to make doctrines an end in themselves. The true dis- ciple goes to the Bible, not with the real issue prejudged, but with the prayer, "Teach me thy truth; show me thy way, O God." And if the discovery of new truth demands it, he must be ready to change his beliefs any day. The general break-up in religious beliefs at the present time is an indication, not of mental instability, but, rather, of an open-mindedness and an enthusiasm for the truth which is the very soul of religious progress. Intellectual honesty demands also that we live out in conduct the truth we believe. Our thinking on any subject is of little consequence unless we are willing to act upon our conclu- sions. What one thinks soon becomes an im- pertinence unless he acts. The empty pretense of feeding religious emotions that do not issue in moral conduct is the shame of religion and the 65 RELIGION AND THE MIND break-down of character. The scandal of reli- gion is that Christian believers often feed the deepest emotions on the soul, and then allow their energy to be dissipated in singing the "Glory Song" or indulging other spiritual ecsta- sies. The inner stirrings of our holy faith ought not to be despised or repressed. They are to the human will what steam is to the machinery. But they must be harnessed to serious tasks; they must be given worthy work to do. Every generation of religious believers needs to be stirred by the spirit of the Hebrew prophets. Their appeal is for reality. They heap a withering scorn upon ceremonialism, upon rites and prayers, and upon all machinery of religion that does not link itself closely to the tasks of life. What then follows? Manifestly, this: The importance of a man's thinking depends upon its candor. The accuracy of one's thought processes cannot be trusted unless he is domi- nated at every step by a determination to know things as they really are. Intellectual keenness alone cannot frame a sound policy for the state or a true doctrine of religion. Sincerity in 66 INTELLECTUAL HONESTY thinking is at the bottom of personal character and of all noble moral endeavor. In no other way than by the absolute soundness of the inner spirit can truth and righteousness prevail. But the Christian faith has nothing to fear so long as men accept the intellectual and moral challenge of Christ, "Come and see." President King, of Oberlin College, has well said, "Truth is not truth until it has been earned." And if this is true, the highest obligation of the Christian mind is to face the facts, to work over and to assimilate truth from whatever quarter it comes and thus make it our very own. The supreme achieve- ment both of education and of religion is the possession of guiding ideals and dominant con- victions. When young people stand upon the threshold of life's undertakings the questions with which to greet them are not: "Have you a diploma?" "What is your wealth?" "What is your vocation?" These are important, but a thousandfold more important is it to ask: "Have you any ideals that are your own? Have you any convictions for which you would die before you would surrender them? Have 67 RELIGION AND THE MIND you a mission in the world which puts upon you a mighty compulsion? Have you any burning indignations, and fiery enthusiasms which stir you to the very center of your being?" If so, rejoice, O young man! These are your strength. 68 VIII THE RELIGION OF THE MIND THE climax of the great commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind." What do we mean by the reli- gion of the mind? The phrase has a strange and unnatural sound. The religion of the heart we know. But is there some reality in human experience for which the subject of this chapter stands? "Loving God with the mind" — what can that mean? The mind investigates and forms judgments and discovers truth. It is not easy to think of the mind as loving. And yet, unfamiliar as may be the phrase "loving with the mind," it stands for something vital in our experience. Love does not belong to the emotional nature alone. There is such a thing as the affection of the mind. For example, analyze our love for the 69 RELIGION AND THE MIND old home. The imagination fondly pictures the house in which we lived, the lawn, the trees and brooks. All the surroundings of the child- hood home take hold upon our sentiment. The memory of these early associations is an un- failing fountain of delight. The thought of the sacrifice and noble character of father and mother stirs the soul and it pours forth its grateful love. But the home appeals to another part of our nature. It invites thought. The buildings must be cared for, grounds must be kept, instruction and training must be provided for the children; the aged must be given com- fort and happiness. The home has a multitude of interests which the mind must serve by hard, sober thinking. What will minister to the higher life of the home? What books, what art, what amusements, what associations will realize for the family the noblest ideals of the home? No one loves his home genuinely until his mind grapples with these questions seriously. Is not the same true of patriotism? Love of country is a fine sentiment. The heart of every normal man beats a little faster at the sight of the fields and rivers, the lakes and mountains of 70 THE RELIGION OF THE MIND his own land, as he says, "This is my own, my native land." But deeper than this feeling of delight is the patriot's admiration of the insti- tutions and opportunities of his native land. When he reads the history and enters into the struggles of the nation, and undertakes to solve its problems, it is then that he genuinely loves his country with the mind. Whatever else it may be, patriotism is loving one's country with the mind. There is likewise a love of the mind for God. This great commandment says to men: "You owe to God something more than gratitude for his mercies, and reverence for his character, and obedience to his will. Search out the truth which he has revealed. Find out his ways; try to understand him. Your hymns of praise and adoration are not enough; give him the earnest thoughts of your minds." This con- ception of religion makes it a larger and a nobler thing. It is not chiefly a bit of devout sentiment or ecstatic feeling, or even benevolent endeavor. It is heart and soul and mind — the whole man — bowing in allegiance at the feet of God. There are no outlying districts of human 71 RELIGION AND THE MIND nature unclaimed by the Lord of life. And the crowning act of allegiance to God is loving him with all the mind. But this is not the popular idea of religion. In the minds of many the domain of religion is limited to the moral duties and spiritual experiences of men. The things of religion are shut up as in so many tight compartments, while the tasks of the intellect are relegated to the secular. In spite, however, of a crude psychology and a vicious theology partitioning life into the sacred and secular, the clamorous wants of men and the voice of the Bible call for a religion that has in it mind. One cannot be truly religious unless he loves God with the mind. The Christian's intellect is not shackled. To become a Christian does not mean that reason is to be either vacated or flouted. The Christian ideal is to make the mind clear and strong while the heart perpetually soars up to do with the things that are eternal. There are two considerations which enforce the command to love God with the mind. First, it is the mind's love for God which gives vitality and efficiency to religious character. 72 THE RELIGION OF THE MIND Unless the mind feeds upon the great truths of our holy faith the emotions of religion soon die out. The truths of the Bible — the Fatherhood of God, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the de- structiveness of sin, the glory of immortality — these are the fuel which have kept burning the mighty enthusiasms of Christianity. Not till a man's mind takes hold of the fact of his respon- sibility to Almighty God does he take up earnestly the moral duties of life. When we leap to the sublime conviction that Jesus Christ is the Son of God we are ready to take upon our hands the tasks of the Kingdom. If the mind strongly lays hold upon the truth of immortality, we have the mightiest inspira- tion for holy and courageous living. It is a false reverence which shuts the mysteries of religion out of the region of fearless, earnest thinking. Some are afraid to bring the teach- ings of religion to the test of a searching intel- lectual investigation. When the doctrine of evolution was first proclaimed by the scientist some feared the faith of the Bible was imperiled. Still others dare not raise questions as to when and how the Bible was written, and as to its 73 RELIGION AND THE MIND literary form, and its use, lest its truths may be jeopardized. What a mistake! If the Bible cannot stand the brightest light which the intellect can turn upon it, it is not good enough for the heart and soul. And no religion will long survive and serve effectively the deep needs of life that does not treat the sacred things of life with intellectual honesty. Now, it is this unwarranted fear that the Christian faith cannot bear the searchlight of the intellect that is responsible for much of the prevailing skepticism. Sober and reverent thinking upon the moral duties of life will bring a new day for the things of the spirit. But this does not mean that men by their wisdom are to find out God. The mysteries of spiritual life are not disclosed by intellectual searching alone. The methods of the expert in psychology or of the scientific laboratory will not open to us the secret of conversion and of peace with God. Nevertheless, the great problems in life are not to be dodged in our thinking. Faith is never so secure as when the mind faces reverently but fearlessly the mysteries of God in the world, trying to under- 74 THE RELIGION OF THE MIND stand their meaning. Mere busyness in doing good is not enough. The contempt for the doctrines of Christianity which leads one to say, "Never mind what you believe, whether you believe anything or not; come and let us do a lot of good," is most superficial. Men will not stay by their duty till the end unless they are sustained in their enthusiasm by the mighty beliefs of religion, and these fundamental Chris- tian beliefs ground upon intellectual convic- tions. The religion of the mind, therefore, makes vital and permanent the religion of the heart. There is a second consideration. The works of Christ claim the highest energies of the mind. The moral and spiritual tasks of the church are at bottom intellectual problems. If some duty is to be done, it is mere cant to talk of praying our way through, expecting an answer to prayer to relieve us of the responsi- bility of sober thought. The poverty of society must be challenged by Christianity. But by what means is the poverty to be cured? Men ought to confess Christ, but by what kind of confession? Men must be won to discipleship, 75 RELIGION AND THE MIND but how are converts to be made? Gigantic evils are to be overthrown; but what means will be successful? The young life of the community must be claimed for the Kingdom, but what sort of teaching and training will be most effective? Men ought to worship God, but how are adoration and devotion to be ex- pressed? All these are questions with which the mind must grapple. In the presence of the hard things to be done in the saving of the world there is a deal of lazy indifference which assumes the name of piety. If a be- setting sin is to be overcome, prayer without honest thinking will avail little. No amount of prayer will correct the moral standards of one who is self-indulgent. Worship will not cure a mean man of stinginess. He must see the dis- proportion between his income and his giving. The problem of higher personal conduct and of better society can be solved only by an "acute perception of the difference between right and wrong, a clear conception of duty, and an appreciation of the solemn obligations of a trust." The great enterprises of the Kingdom wait for men who love God with all 76 THE RELIGION OF THE MIND the heart and with all the soul and with all the mind. Henceforth, O God, let me love thee with all my mind! 77 IX EDUCATION AND VISION THERE is a splendid phrase in the writings of Saint Paul which suggests a good work- ing definition of Christian Education — "The eyes of their understanding were lightened. " The mind is the seeing faculty of the soul. Its chief function, like that of the eyes, is to see. But accurate, discriminating sight depends upon training the eye and judgment in determining the color, the quality, and the location of a thing. There is a popular demand everywhere to-day for trained leaders. Vision makes leadership, and leadership is the hope of democracy. It is a false theory of democracy that depreciates the value of educated leadership. The voice of the people is the voice of God only when the judgment of the people is instructed and guided 78 EDUCATION AND VISION by men of high ideals and clear vision. The popular mind has an instinct for the right, but it must be guided. It needs a discriminating foresight, else it is blind and unreliable. James Russell Lowell was right: "In the long run the judgment of the plain people is reliable." But in the short run their judgment is not trust- worthy. The great questions of government and of religion can be handled wisely by the common people only when they have the in- struction and guidance of good men as leaders. A leader is one who interprets the people to themselves, and the power to interpret the mind and the heart of the people to themselves belongs only to the men of vision. Democracy imperatively needs such leadership. Without it democracy becomes a mob. What fits men for leadership among their fellows? Not goodness alone, not learning alone. Something more in- tellectual and spiritual and virile than either piety or learning — the power to see and to make others see. According to George Adam Smith, the vision of the Hebrew prophet was the power of forming an ideal, or seeing the possibilities in a thing, the power to discrim- 79 RELIGION AND THE MIND inate between what is true and false, and also to discern the consequences of conduct and the future trend of events. In every age the leader has these three powers: the power of forming an ideal, the power to see the everlasting dif- ference between right and wrong, and the power to discover the will and the way of God among men. The classical illustration of the power of vision is the well-known story of Moses. He was a prosperous shepherd in Midian. To Moses the burning bush which he saw became vocal with a divine message. To the people of Midian who passed by this was only an ordinary bush. Moses saw a meaning in the bush which was hidden from other eyes. The eyes of his understanding were lightened. He saw yonder on the banks of the Nile his own people with their higher life being crushed out by intolerable industrial wrongs. He saw in them a capacity for moral leadership and spiritual idealism. He had a vision of the sympathy of the divine Hand outstretched in wonder-working power for the deliverance of his people. For Moses, the horizon of the 80 EDUCATION AND VISION centuries was pushed back, and he saw the glory of a spiritual empire which was hidden from other eyes. It is this power to see the invisible things of life which gives creative ability of every sort. The richness and the promise of life are bound up intimately with the power of vision. It is the quality of spiritual vision which determines the direction and the success of every human life. The difference between the youth who is seeking an education and the scores who are enjoying the pleasures of the day is, one has a vision of the future, while the other sees only the present. There is no higher form of faith than that of the young man or woman who is forsaking the pleasures of the present for the higher joys and achievements of the future. This same power of vision is the secret of business success. In the world of trade and of industry one man lives from hand to mouth, while another capitalizes the present, doing business to-day in the light of the economic principles which reach far out into the future. The same law is illustrated also in the field of invention. Every great inventor sees how the 81 RELIGION AND THE MIND material needs of life can be met by the mastery of the forces of nature. The difference between the Wright Brothers, of the city of Dayton, and a hundred other mechanics working with the same steel and wood, was, the Wright Brothers saw a vision of men flying through the air. We see the same principle operative in the history of races as well as of individuals. The American Indian lived only for the present. He roamed the forests and fields, fished in the streams, and gathered the fruits of the land, unmindful of the future. The white man lived for the future. He cleared the forests, broke the prairies, built homes, and founded schools and churches. He constructed highways and laid the foundation of vast empires of wealth and civilization. He supplanted the Indian by his vision of the future. He said, "I will look out for the generations to come." The result was, the race that lived from hand to mouth, like Esau, caring chiefly for to-day's mess, was driven before the face of the white man. Sec- retary Shaw, of Iowa, once said, "There is a divine fiat which decrees that the race that EDUCATION AND VISION will not civilize must get off the earth." The driving out of the Indian from the plains and forests of America was more the working out of this divine principle than the ruthless cruelty of the white man's greed and extortion. Ben- jamin Kidd, in a remarkable book, The Prin- ciples of Western Civilization, explains the growing power of the Western nations. He declares that the Oriental nations root their civilization in the past, that their peoples are always looking backward, hence there is no progress. The second stage in the world's civilization was marked by the secularists or the utilitarians, who built up a civilization on the present. Present interest, present happiness, present strength were the ideals of the utili- tarian. Mr. Kidd contends that Western civili- zation did not accept either the view of the secularist or of the Oriental. Instead of basing civilization in the past, or in the present, the Western nations rooted their civilization in the future. The thing which characterizes the Western nations is faith. Their eye is upon the future, not upon the past or upon the present. What Mr. Kidd calls the "principle 83 RELIGION AND THE MIND of projected efficiency" in the Bible is called faith. And it is this vision of the future that explains the forward leaps of Western civiliza- tion. The Proverb writer of the Old Testa- ment puts it in these graphic words: "Where there is no vision the people perish," or "be- come a mob." The mind must be enlightened in order to see accurately and reliably. To give this train- ing in mind enlightenment is the high task of ed- ucation. True education aims to lead forth or to unfold the powers of the higher life. To educate is to lead forth and to line up for efficient action the inherent powers of the human soul. The old conception of education as a cramming process, or the filling of a mental vacuum with facts and information, is both crude and unworkable. Of course the schools must sharpen the tools with which men are to do the world's work. They must impart technical knowledge and mechanical skill. But of far greater impor- tance is guiding the seeing faculty of the soul. To give to life ideals and power to make ac- curate moral discriminations, to impart a noble sense of honor and an appreciation of God's 84 EDUCATION AND VISION working in human progress — in short, to make men of vision — is the chief business of Christian education. The principle of wireless telegraphy holds in the higher life. The wireless instrument is so adapted and so adjusted as to take up and transmit the wingless messages flying through vast spaces of air and ether. But the instru- ment will not receive and transmit the wireless messages until it has been constructed and sensitized according to a definite plan. Men who are to receive and interpret the divine messages to their fellows must be men of high ideals and sensitive honor. The crying need in all planes of our common life to-day is for men of vision, for educated leaders. In business the remedy for ruthless greed and cunning craft and rank dishonesty is in educated men who will not bury themselves, nor sell themselves in the superficial business of buying and selling things. Society needs men who will look upon wealth as a means of well-being, men who will know that they were not meant to be slaves of things, men who will know that wealth was meant to be an instru- 85 RELIGION AND THE MIND ment for spiritual ends; men who "will put gold where it belongs, where it is in the New Jerusalem, a shining pavement beneath the feet, upon which the higher uses of life may move smoothly to and fro on their errands of human service, instead of beating it out into a firma- ment until it hides the sun, moon, and stars, aye, and the very face of God himself." Above all, we need men of high ideals and clear dis- cernment and sensitive conscience, who will al- ways heed the call of duty as the voice of God. The world waits for such leaders in business, in government, in religion — and everywhere. 86 DOES EDUCATION ENDANGER FAITH? THERE is no greater question confronting us to-day than this: How can education and Christian faith go on in harmony together? A recent college graduate gave the writer this personal confidence: "Since I went to college my faith has changed completely. I used to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Since my study of science and philosophy I believe he was only a great and good man — the greatest religious teacher who has ever lived. I still believe in the Bible, but not in the way I used to believe. I have not given up my faith entirely, but O! it is so changed." It is such an experience as this, which is by no means uncommon, that makes the question raised by this chapter all the more vital — "Does 87 RELIGION AND THE MIND education endanger faith?" Unquestionably, some education does endanger faith. For ex- ample, the first steps in scientific studies are quite likely to unsettle religious beliefs. It is inevitable that the increase of knowledge should modify our childhood conceptions of religion. This process of readjustment of faith and knowledge is always a trying experience. There are two temptations which every earnest student experiences. The first is to dispute the facts of modern learning in the fancied interest of sav- ing one's faith. But this is the way of intel- lectual dishonesty and moral bankruptcy. The second temptation is hastily to abandon all faith out of a mistaken fidelity to the facts of science. This is alike unsatisfactory, for life must be lived. It has interests which are larger than the laboratory or the market. Life has questions which can be answered and interests which can be safeguarded only by a living faith. What is the way out? First, in a fearless recognition of the facts of science as facts. Nothing is to be gained by ignoring or try- ing to explain away undoubted scientific facts. 88 DOES EDUCATION ENDANGER FAITH? Secondly, by discriminating clearly between a living faith, and our interpretation of the teachings of religion. Now, in order to find the way out, holding to all that science has to teach reliably, and at the same time keeping the faith, we need to see that there must be a division of labor for science and religion. Each has its own field. To science belong such questions as these: What is the nature of the world? By what process did it come to its present form? What is its history? To religion belong questions as to the cause, and purpose and destiny of the world and its life. The chief questions are: What? When? Why? and Whither? When the physical sciences have spoken their last word in biology and geology and evolution, the questions as to the ultimate end of all things, and the meaning and purpose and destiny of all things, remain unanswered. The answers to these questions belong to reli- gion. The religionist, therefore, is not to de- spise the work of the scientist. Neither is the scientist to discredit the things of faith. The simple fact is that life is higher than laboratory methods or religious creeds. There is a place 89 RELIGION AND THE MIND for the use of both the test tube and religious insight. And neither is in any way discredited by the findings of the other. Further, we are not wholly brain. There is a side of our nature which we call moral and spiritual that has unutterable longings after God. The proper development of the mind through education will not tend to suppress these spiritual yearnings, but, rather, to give them intelligent direction and expression. As the mind becomes clearer in its perception of truth, and stronger in its grasp of the facts of life, fanaticism disappears and religious faith is seen to be the irresistible outgoing of our souls after love and righteousness. The old Greek philosopher reached a view of the world which is essentially spiritual. And so when the intel- lect most truly finds itself it turns toward God. The Hebrew poet's thirst of soul for God is an expression of what is universal in human ex- perience. The whole human nature, intellect, and conscience is essentially religious. When the fact is recognized that religion belongs to a normal human experience, education, which is only the highest and fullest self-expression, will 90 DOES EDUCATION ENDANGER FAITH? no longer be looked upon as unfriendly to true religion. The faith of the Christian student often loses its ardor in the schools for another reason. Spiritual culture is sacrificed in the interest of intellectual tasks. In the new environment of the college or the university the early habits of Christian worship are sometimes abandoned. Sunday, like any other day, is often used for study. The routine of the library and the laboratory is given right of way. Prayer, Bible-reading, and public worship easily become matters of convenience. Religion is not aban- doned deliberately, but it is carelessly neglected. The penalty of this neglect is an inevitable loss of spiritual vigor and enthusiasm. Then, again, the atmosphere of the school tends to develop a critical habit of mind. This is but natural. The mind must be trained to discriminate. The open-minded student goes everywhere with an interrogation mark. He is not a caviling doubter, but a fearless inquirer. He insists upon evidence before belief, upon testing everything by laboratory methods. But if this habit of mind is allowed to crowd out 91 RELIGION AND THE MIND the seasons of the soul for prayer and for spiritual culture, leanness of faith is inevitable. The life of devotion can be smothered by an exaggerated intellectualism. There are holy mysteries and visions of the deeper things of life which can be perceived only in the atmos- phere of reverence and obedience. Emerson once said: "I find a plant in my nature called reverence which needs to be cultivated at least once a week. For that reason I am a regular attendant upon public worship." We may have no satisfactory philosophy of prayer, but in spite of the logic of unbelief men will believe and pray and hope. Education may be made a valuable ally of religion. True intellectual culture prepares the way for the richest spiritual experiences. Ig- norance is everywhere the parent of super- stition. The advance of true learning will reveal the limitations of learning. The scholar is always the reverently modest man. He recognizes that life has meanings and values which he cannot measure. His determination to find the truth and to live by the truth is close akin to the spirit of obedience to the 92 DOES EDUCATION ENDANGER FAITH? heavenly vision. Further, education prepares the way for the Christian interpretation of life. The educated man's world, with its vast physical spaces and forces, with its ages on ages in preparation for human life, with its millen- niums of history and of progress, is an utter bewilderment without a God, who is the Cause and Father of all. Without the faith and hope of religion man loses his bearings in the world. The north star is no more necessary to chart the seas for the mariner than the Bible's view of the world is necessary to give to human lives meaning and direction and hope. To give to life moral impulse and spiritual purpose is quite as necessary for successful living as is sharpening the tools with which we are to work. The best refutation of the charge that educa- tion makes for unbelief is to see the stream of stalwart believers pouring forth every year from the schools. Thousands of the picked young men and women of the colleges are offering themselves for missionary service, for the Christian ministry, and for various forms of social service. The trend of both scientific RELIGION AND THE MIND and philosophic thinking in the universities is more pronouncedly Christian than ever before. There is a superficial intellectualism that sits in the seat of the scornful. But as learning be- comes more thorough it also becomes more reverent. There is too in institutions of learn- ing that make only a formal recognition of religion imminent danger of faith becoming dead. But wherever there is a frank recogni- tion of Christian experience as one of the facts of life, wherever men tie up their lives in loyalty to Jesus Christ as Lord and Master, the college is a mighty promoter of moral char- acter and religious faith. The highest scholar- ship is never hostile to true religion. They are mutually dependent. No one comes to the fullest appreciation of the reality and power of the spiritual life unless he cultivates an in- quiring love for truth everywhere. The precious things with which religion deals, because they are infinitely precious, must be illuminated and interpreted by the light of pure learning. There is no truth that is at war with any other truth in any part of God's universe. There is no truth of science or of philosophy or of history 94 DOES EDUCATION ENDANGER FAITH? that can impair the reality or the power of religious truth. And so religion need not fear the most searching investigations of scholarship, because all truth is of God. Scholarship dare not scorn religion, because religion proclaims truth which is vital to the most worth-while life. True learning does not destroy faith; it, rather, invigorates and reenforces it. The teaching of the modern sciences has placed the unique authority and inspiration of the Bible upon a securer foundation than ever before; it has given a new vindication to the facts of Christian experience; it has deepened our belief in the imperishable honor and worth of human life, and has quickened once again the ever- lasting hope of the race. "Learning has not been the foe of the spirit, but has given to our faith a new expression, a new interpretation, and a new apologetic." The only real danger that religion suffers from education is in the neglect of learning. Ignorant piety can never conquer the kingdoms of this world. Indeed, it is quite certain to become a nuisance. On the other hand, a false intellectualism does endanger faith. To neglect 95 RELIGION AND THE MIND the means of spiritual culture through devotion to the pursuit of knowledge is to imperil faith. To refuse to recognize the findings of modern science undermines the foundations of moral integrity and religious character. But true education prepares the way of the Lord. Scholarship, like religion, finds its highest aim in meeting the needs of human life. To inter- pret the needs of mankind and then to serve these needs effectively with a reverent scholar- ship, and an intelligent faith — that is the supreme business of Christian education. 96 XI THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE IT is always disquieting to discover that there is so much we do not know in com- parison with what we do know. Naturally, the suspicion arises that if more were known, our present knowledge might prove to be worth- less. This is especially true in matters of religion. The fear prevails that if we knew more about the Bible, its teachings might be discredited. If we knew more about the mys- teries of life, we might believe less in prayer, and in divine forgiveness, and in the immortal life. In other words, may not our knowledge of spiritual things be so incomplete as to render it untrustworthy? This persistent misunderstanding comes from the failure to recognize the fact that Chris- tianity is not a formal science. The facts of 97 RELIGION AND THE MIND religion are not to be discovered and dealt with like the truths of mathematics and chemistry. Religion is an attitude of soul. It is a way of life. It has to do with the experience of men in the actual living of life. The worth of reli- gion, therefore, has to be tested, not by formu- las, but by living life in obedience to its teachings. If this is true, our religion is in no way discredited by the fact that our knowledge of spiritual things is incomplete. The apostle Paul gives a rare insight into the significance of the limitations of religious knowledge in these words: "When I was a child I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child; now that I have become a man I have put away childish things." That is, to childhood belong the alphabet, the toys, and the games; to manhood belong the tasks, the problems, the sciences, and civilization of men. The A B C's of the alphabet are not to be despised because they are the beginning of our knowledge of literature. "Two times two are four" is a small part of the science of mathe- matics, but it is a part. In childhood we know, but only in part. So with respect to spiritual 98 LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE things. The childhood stage of spiritual things is not to be despised. We know, though it is only in part. There are three facts concerning religious knowledge that should always be borne in mind. First, there is much that is not known, yet some things are certain. If the believer is honest with himself, he frankly says, "There is much that I do not know." He believes in God, yet how little he really knows about the nature of God! He believes in the care of the divine Father for his children, but he has no philosophy of Providence that satisfies even himself. He believes in prayer, but he has no adequate explanation of the helpfulness of prayer. He believes in immortal life, but he has no knowl- edge of the great beyond which satisfies his cravings. Concerning every great doctrine of the Christian faith he says, "We know only in part, but we know." We see as in a mirror darkly, and yet we see. We see something, not ghosts, not empty nothings, they are realities. They are invisible things, but not unreal. The religious man accepts certain facts in human experience, such as truth and righteousness, and 99 RELIGION AND THE MIND duty, and conscience, because in the living of life they are inescapable. These spiritual facts commend themselves to sane reason because they are known for the practical ends of living. There is a vast region of the unknown sur- rounding every great fact of spiritual ex- perience. We know only in part, but we know. We do well also to remember that incomplete knowledge is not peculiar to the things of the spirit. Multitudes are using with satisfaction the electric car and light who have but little scientific knowledge of electricity. The im- portant thing is to know how to find and utilize this unseen force in serving the intelli- gent ends of living. In like manner there are a few great religious truths which are demanded for strong, helpful, victorious living — such as God, prayer, forgiveness, immortality. We know in part, but "we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." We know only in part, but "we know him whom we have believed." We know only in part, but "we know that if our earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God." Again, we do well to remember that what we 100 LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE do know is not discredited by what is not known. The persistent mistake which is made by many cheap critics of religion is in thinking that because Christianity is not fully known, or cannot be reduced to hard and fast scientific statements, its teachings are untrustworthy. We look through the telescope at the planet Mars and ask the astronomer what is known about Mars. He tells us the distance of the planet from the earth, its size, its movements, its atmosphere, and so forth. But, after all, this knowledge is incomplete. It is only a small part of what we want to know about the planet. We ask is Mars inhabited? If in- habited, are its inhabitants like the men and women on the earth? And if inhabited by human beings like ourselves, what is the char- acter of their civilization? Have they institu- tions of government, religion, and education like ours? To all such inquiries the astronomer makes no answer. We soon discover that what he really knows about Mars is very small in comparison with what is not known. But these unanswered questions in no way affect the reliability and value of the things that are 101 RELIGION AND THE MIND known. The important thing is that we know certain things about the heavenly bodies which have to do in a practical way with our life on the earth. The movements of the stars and the regularity of the seasons are in no way affected by the fact that our knowledge of the celestial worlds is so limited. So it is respect- ing God, duty, and human destiny. We can- not comprehend the nature of the Infinite God, but we know the new strength that comes into a life when the human will is brought into harmony with the divine will. We cannot ex- plain the mystery of the incarnation, but we find in the face of Jesus Christ an unapproached revelation of the mercy of God. We cannot explain the mystery of sorrow, but we see in the experience of life things working together for good to them that love God. The Christian believer reverently says: "What sin and sorrow and death may mean, I do not know; but I have passed from death unto life. I know the peace of God which passeth understanding. I have entered into the life which is infinitely worth while." The certainty and satisfaction of these great spiritual experiences are in nowise 102 LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE affected by what we do not know. The ex- perience of religion is not invalidated by our lack of complete knowledge about religion. There is another statement concerning the limitations of religious knowledge which is of immense practical value, namely, What we do know is the usable part of knowledge. All knowledge is more or less valuable, but the essential knowledge is that which is used in the living of life. A little child of only a few years bounds into the arms of his father. He knows but little of his father's occupation or his companions, or the real problems of his father's life. But he knows his father, and out of this acquaintance rises the child's beautiful confi- dence. Though his knowledge of his father may be little, what he knows is the usable part. Many a Christian disciple of limited theological knowledge finds infinite comfort in the invita- tion of the Master: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The question of first importance is: Has he done it? What does one really most need to know in religion? That God is an Almighty Father, that he lives and cares for his every 103 RELIGION AND THE MIND child; that man may be delivered from the guilt and power of sin; that human sorrow may be sanctified and converted into blessing; that the life after death inspires the life here with courage and hope. We do not need to com- prehend the mystery of the Trinity or of the incarnation; we do not need to know the occu- pation of the angels and the redeemed. These things would not make for courage and fortitude and trust. We do need to know that Infinite Mind is back of all things, and that Infinite Heart is in all things. What we know is real and reliable, even though it is not all. Now, if the above contentions are true, the important thing is to postpone the considera- tion of the nonessentials in religion and begin to use what we know. The moral imperative of living the best life we see — Jesus's kind of life — is inescapable. The need of a guide and helper is always with us. None better than Jesus has ever been found. Every philosophy of prayer may be unsatisfactory, but there is certain help in prayer. Every theory of inspiration may be inadequate, but there is comfort and strength in reading the Bible. Arguments for immor- 104 LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE tality may not seem conclusive, but there is immense advantage in facing the fact that what a man sows he shall also reap. All this we know. It is only a part, but it is the part supremely worth while, because it is usable and leads to the abundant life. 105 XII THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN CULTURE AN all-round man. The phrase is not a scriptural one, but it happily describes a New Testament type of character. In his vigorous style the apostle Paul characterizes the Christian as a "full-grown man." He sees in the symmetrical life of the Master the ideal of every complete life. The New Testament por- trait of Jesus presents always a man of poise and balance. The parts of his nature were so symmetrically developed that it is difficult to characterize him. In him all the elements of human nature came to such normal and complete development that the master-minds and the saints of the ages adoringly cry, "Behold the Man!" There is a certain balance of human qualities which produces poise and symmetry of life. There is a certain adjustment of physical forces which re- sults in equilibrium. So there may be such an 106 THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN CULTURE harmonious unfolding of one's faculties and such a relation of all one's powers as to make an all-round man. The final aim of both education and religion is to produce a fully developed, symmetrical manhood. The distinctive task of Christian culture is to reproduce the Christ-type — a "full grown man." In the face of this aim of Chris- tian education no fact of life is more evident than this: that, in the main, men and women lack symmetrical development. The average man is one-sided, overdeveloped in some parts and lacking development in others. The man of poise whose whole nature has grown to ma- turity is a rare type. A physical deformity is not a common spectacle, and is always an object of pity. But the underdevelopment or the overdevelopment of a physical organ is of small moment in comparison with an intellectual or spiritual deformity. No task is more diffi- cult, and none so important as to give har- monious and well-rounded development to all the human faculties. Indeed, it seems that weakness in some of the powers of the soul is the price which must be paid for strength in 107 RELIGION AND THE MIND other faculties. For example, the nature that is full of enthusiasm easily runs into fanaticism. The temperament rich in emotion easily de- generates into hysteria. The practical are al- ways in danger of becoming prosy and dull. The courageous are apt to become reckless. The man of prudence is peculiarly tempted to cowardice. Originality easily passes into ec- centricity, and sympathy into sentimentalism. Even piety must guard against superstition or sanctimoniousness. Any quality which enters into strong character developed beyond a cer- tain limit becomes a defect. Many a vice is only an exaggerated virtue. And many of the evil characteristics of life, the ugly faults and failings of human nature, are the result of a lack of development of the good qualities. The beauty and erTectivensss of many a life are marred, not by outright sin and base wicked- ness alone, but also by immaturity or a one- sided growth. How frequent the spectacle of one noble quality being exalted at the sacrifice of another, so as to result in an impaired man- hood. A noted preacher once said: "There are two young men who walk our streets, both of 108 THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN CULTURE whom have their admirers, each of whom seems in some eyes to be an admirable fulfillment of humanity; both of whom, judged by the fullest judgment, are pitiable failures. One of them is the young student who has burned out the strength of his body in the midnight oil. The other is the young athlete who has given away to muscle the care and culture that were meant for mind. The staggering scholar and the stupid athlete, what failures they both are! What sad and helpless fragments of humanity!" Over against these and all other distorted and one-sided men we need to set the all-round and complete life of The Man. He "advanced in wisdom"— intellectual power; "and stature"— physical development; "and in the favor of God and men" — spiritual capacity and social grace, until he came to a full-orbed, symmetrical manhood. Now, it is because of the fine balance of his faculties that it is so difficult to characterize Jesus as a man. He was burning with en- thusiasm, but he never became fanatical. His great heart was throbbing with emotion, but he never became hysterical. His mind was 109 RELIGION AND THE MIND aglow with imagination. He saw truths and worlds and human possibilities hidden from other eyes, but he never became flighty and visionary. He was intensely practical and sane, but never prosaic and dull. He was the em- bodiment of noble courage, but never reckless; prudent, but never cowardly; original, but never eccentric. Out of his heart poured forth vast streams of human sympathy, but he never became sentimental. He was pious with never a suggestion of sanctimoniousness. He was profoundly religious, living constantly in close communion with God, but with never a trace of superstition. Undertake to characterize his temperament so as to catalogue him with other men, and you realize that his development was so symmetrical, his faculties were so finely balanced, that we cannot characterize him as being distinctly intellectual, sympathetic, ener- getic, emotional, nor practical. He stands in history as the one full-orbed, symmetrical Man. Note how the poise of Jesus is exhibited in his teaching. The words of Jesus in the New Testa- ment always leave one impression. They are the utterances of a man so complete in his de- 110 THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN CULTURE velopment as to see the various interests of human life in their proportion. The Master always saw the big things of life as big, and the little things as little. He focused men's atten- tion upon the great things. He cries to the multitude: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and yet he is not indifferent to the hunger of the crowds that follow him. He is about to institute the me- morial sacrament of the Christian Church, but he pauses to make comfortable the tired and dusty feet of his disciples. He hangs a-dying on the cross for the world's redemption, but he does not fail to make provision for his mother's future home in the family of John. He is teaching men about God, human salvation, and eternal destiny, but he does not forget the little children, the heart-broken widows, the helpless cripples, and the beggars along the way. He opens men's eyes to the unspeakable glories of other worlds, but he will never let them forget that their feet are standing on the earth. The glory of Jesus is that he not only saw the truths of life, great and small, the interests of human life, eternal and temporal, the relations of 111 RELIGION AND THE MIND human life, divine and social, but he saw all these things in their right proportion. Now it is this ability to appreciate the varied interests of human life that is the distinction of Christian culture. To develop the mind may greatly increase one's ability to do, and to ac- cumulate, and to control. But a human life is narrow and barren unless it has developed a broad sympathy for men and a Christlike in- terest in their well-being. But stronger than the call of our fellows for the consecration of culture and character in service is the call of the Infinite God to communion and faith and hope. Our human life comes to its fulfillment only in God. The all-round life cannot be separated from the earth, nor from men, nor from God. It lives in the world, but is not of the world. It seeks for every truth of science; it has to do with every interest of men; it soars up perpetu- ally to do with heaven. This, then, is the goal of both culture and faith — "To attain unto a full-grown man" — in whom both Mind and heart according well May make one music as before, But vaster. 112 1 1012 01246 9542 Date Dae 4