iii'iiii;!!i;iii!:(!;!ii!i;i:i':;in:;!iii!nii iXHE IM (I i m\\ IIIU /lllil III III lliilliiiiii' ii Ml'.(l'iHf . TO PRJSOHERS C .AH LIBRARY OF PRINCETON JAN 14 2004 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY t>\, $^.. di© Oi'SPTiijj'sii GENEVA ^wLiiztrauitiO) THE IMMORTAL LIFE BELIEF IN IT WARRANTED ON RATIONAL GROUNDS BY REV. LUCIUS Q. CURTIS, A.M. HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT KaAov TO a.B\ov koX 17 cXtti? fjuiyak-q. Ph/edo PRIVATELY PRINTED LIBRARY OF PRINCETON JAN U 2004 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Ube Unfcfterbocfiet press, 'ftew Borft Copyright, igoi BY EMILY CHAUNCEY CURTIS TO MY WIFE WHOSE UNSELFISH AND DEVOTED LOVE HAS BRIGHTENED SO MANY YEARS OF MY LIFE AND TO William C. Gulliver and Edward C. Bogert WHOSE FRIENDSHIP AND GENEROUS AID HAVE BEEN AN INSPIRATION IN PREPARING THIS WORK THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONA TEL Y DEDICA TED THE IMMORTAL LIFE The evening hour has come, the fainter light Of closing day doth call me to my rest. The landscape darkens to my fading sight And golden tints are dying in the west. Yet night uplifts the curtain day had drawn, To show the stars and bring the brighter dawn. " Ethereal hopes are part and parcel of us." Wordsworth. "Those mighty hopes that make us men." Tennyson. PREFACE SEVERAL works have recently been given to the public on the subject of Man's Im- mortality, — works of far greater learning and ability than the author of this can think of claiming. He attempts a humbler task, — that of stating, and, so far as seems necessary, of establishing, certain facts which, taken in their proper connection, may not only warrant belief in immortality, but may make the denial of it irrational. The subject is here treated induc- tively and on purely rational grounds. The facts wMch are the basis of the argument are those which prove the greatness and worth of man, — as seen in his interpretation of nature, in the marvellous character of his environment, and his kinship and ethical relation to God as the moral Governor of the world. Sometimes a clear and consecutive statement in a court of justice of facts bearing on the case in trial, is sufficient to determine the verdict, without eloquence or special pleading by the counsel, the facts carrying with them their own logic. X Preface Of course, on such a subject demonstration, as the term is commonly used, is out of the question. We start with tli e single assumpti on, now accepted universally as the basis of all ] (science, that the world is rationally order ed. But this involves important co^rrelative truths, which must be received with it, among which are the following : First, a world rationally ordered is ordered by a rational Intelligence. Second, such an Intelligence as rational is also ethical, holding as supreme and in inseparable union righteousness and truth, as essential to aJrulyj;ationanife. Third, m^aTrconstructTve work such intelligence has an end in view, as the formative principle giving unity and mean- ing to the construction. Fourth, a world so vast and complex, yet possessing unity and being the work of one holding truth and right supreme, must not only be consistent with itself, but in harmony with the purpose of a wise and righteous Creator. It follows that the course of nature cannot be cruel and unjust, as Mr. J. S. Mill asserts, nor the enemy of righteousness in man, as Prof. Huxley assumes. It is more probable that these distinguished men erred in their inter- pretation of some adverse appearances than that the fact, universally acknowledged and the Preface xi basis of all science, namely, that the world is rationally ordered, must prove false. This presumption is confirmed by two facts manifest in the system itself. First, its highest out- come, in which all the cosmic forces are seen to have been co-operative, is man, whose crowning endowments, reason and conscience, are plainlvj;i^n2^hjrn_J o^ atta ining, trutk_aad righteousness. Second, man's environment, the world itself, has a rational and moral order so correlated to those endowments that to seek and realize truth and righteousness should be man's proper life. Hence a kingdom of righteousness is the logical outcome of such a system. Such is the basis of our argument, to be sustained in the following discussion. The real greatness of man, his ethical relationship to God and his correlation to a vast environ- ment which is a medium of divine self-revelation to him, show that he is made for fellowship with God and that his true life, being a par- ticipation in the life divine, is itself divine, and therefore immortal. For it is irrational to be- lieve that a life that is one with the life of God will perish. A thorough discussion of the points taken would require far more space than we can here give. But it is hoped that even this imperfect xii Preface presentation of the subject in the following discussion may confirm in some doubting and troubled mind the conviction that the immor- tal life may not only be hoped for, but con- fidently accepted as a reality taught in the order of creation, as well as in the written word and in harmony with all truth. The writer is under obligation to many authors, but among them he cannot fail to specify the following : President Mark Hop- kins, my revered and beloved instructor in Williams College ; Dr. Herman Lotze, the eminent German scholar and philosopher, and Dr. James Martineau, whose recent departure from this life has ended on earth the fruitful labors, but not the fame, of one of the most gifted minds of the Nineteenth Century. Nothing in this volume has been previously given to the public except portions of the chapter on " Man above Nature," which was published in the Andover Reviezv, August, 1 892, and an essay on the " Relation of Evolution to Christianity," published in the New Eng- lander, September, 1880, and soon after re- published in an English theological quarterly. But so far as the contents of either appear in this volume, they are so modified as scarcely to be recognized as old acquaintances. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE Introductory : The Form of the Argument .... 3 CHAPTER II Man above the Animal, in a Superior Kingdom . . . 2i CHAPTER III Man above Nature ......... 39 CHAPTER IV Man a Personality Belonging to the Spiritual Kingdom . . 61 CHAPTER V Human Capacities Correlated to an Infinite Environment . 79 CHAPTER VI The Proper Human Life, One with the Life of God . . 99 CHAPTER VII As a Religious and Ethical Being, Man Sustains a Relationship to God which means Permanence . . . . .117 xiv Contents CHAPTER VIII PAGE If Death Ends Man's Existence, the Great Law of his Life is Nullified and the End of his Existence is a Failure . .133 CHAPTER IX The Expectation of a Future Life Essential to Normal Develop- ment and to Well-Being in the Present . . . .153 CHAPTER X The Resources of Modern Life no Substitute for Personal Re- lationship to God and the Future Life . . . .171 CHAPTER XI Cosmic Forces as Related to Man in Harmony with the End of his Creation, as Made for Righteousness . . . 197 CHAPTER XII Suffering in Men and Animals as Related to Divine Beneficence, 219 CHAPTER XIII No Proof that the Dissolution of the Body is the Extinction of the Rational Spirit 241 CHAPTER XIV Summary and Conclusion ....... 261 THE IMMORTAL LIFE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY FORM OF THE ARGUMENT ALL the forms of life known to us are of brief duration. Plant, animal, and man alike pass through certain stages of growth and development, but sooner or later the forces of dissolution prevail over those of life, till functional action ceases, and death ensues. Accordingly, for the myriads of living creatures to which the earth gives birth, it furnishes only a grave. Genera and species continue for longer periods, but the individual soon perishes. Germinal life, indeed, passes over from parent to offspring, but it does not carry forward the individual life. In the succession this disappears and is lost. Such is the estab- lished order of Nature. In other words, death stands over against all individual life, by a law which is inevitable and universal. This universality of death awakens serious 3 4 The Immortal Life foreboding in many thoughtful minds concern- ing their own destiny. Not a few feel com- pelled to anticipate complete extinction at the touch of death. With all their love of life, and their longing for immortality, they have come to look upon death as the termination of their conscious being. They see no excep- tion to the law, and no possible escape from its dominion. If they put the question of their immortality to science, they get no as- suring response. They dare not trust the affirmations of their spiritual nature, where all evidence of life disappears with the dissolution of the body. Willing or unwilling, they look upon death as the sundering of all ties of affection, the blotting out of all memories, and the extinction of their conscious being. Now, aside from the testimony of a special revelation, must this conclusion be accepted as final ? I f science is silen t, i f Nature, (m stead of giving promise of a future life^ holds every living creature subject to the laws of death, must not the extinction of man, as of all other creatures, be received as the teaching of Him who h as orde red the course of Nature, and who speaks through her laws ? At least, is^ it not so far conclusive as to make incredi- ble any s upposed revelation to th e contrary. The Immortal Life 5 since we are to look for harmony, and not for contradiction, in the totality of the divine revelations ?~^Tn~other wor3s^ is the question of man's immortality, as determined by the universality of death, to be accepted as the final word on this subject ? We do not so believe, and we here raise the question whether the course of Nature, as thus interpreted by the senses, is in fact the ulti- mate teaching of Nature herself. She certain- ly holds truths in her keeping which jhedo^s jiot a ddress to the senses , bu t to the rational unde r^g jldiDg ',/ and what she communicates through th is mediu m often reverses their testimony. \ Every scientist knows that the sens es are not the best interp reters of reality. To them a straight line as seen in the water is crooked ; the sun rises and sets, moving around the earth as its centre ; wood consumed by fire leaves not hing but ash es ; and forms of energy once expended, go out of existence as a candle when its fuel is exhausted. In all ythese cases, an d in a thou sand others, the truth is exactly the reverse of the testimony of the^ ^enses. We find, in fact, that the most im- portant truths, those which are the guide of our rational life, come into our possession only through the exercise of our rational intelligence. 6 The Immortal Life Hence, in our quest of reality, we have oc- casion every day to revise and often to reverse the testimony of the senses by the superior authority of the rational mind. The most im- portant secrets of Nature do not lie on the sur- face. Our interpretation of phenomena would be shallow and often false if not corrected by careful investigation and by the deeper insight of the rational and reflective mind. Moreover, it is the special function of the rational intelli- gence to apprehend principles and realities that are in their nature invisible. Nor can the scientist who is true to his calling refuse what the understanding thus supplies, since princi- ples never recognized by the senses must enter into all his constructive dealing with phenom- ena. They, in fact, underly and condition the whole fabric of science. Besides, Nature_ is eve£soliciti ng this _dg£^er interpretatijpn of her appearances, giving hints of things unseen [and disclosing them to the rational mind only after patient and searching inquiry. This is true even in the department of physical sciences, and it is emphatically true of the phenomena and laws of the human spirit. Whatever our theory of the origin of the rational mind, whether by evolution from a The Immortal Life 7 lower order of intelligence or directly by crea- tive act, it is certain that we are qualified in some way to deal with supersensjble_realities. Such, in fact, is our_mai n vocati on, or we fail to realize the true rational life. The physical organism does not constitute the man, nor does the material world constitute the uni- verse. The orderly and harmonious relations that bind the world together in unity, — the truth, beauty, law, and moral order we see em- bodied in it, revealing the Supreme Intelli- gence that orders all, — these are the great realities with which we deal, as rational beings. They constitute in fact our true environment in correspondence with which we may realize a life immeasurably superior to that of sense and appetite. The human body is a structure of marvellous grace, illustrating the most per- fect development reached in the organic world, and yet it is but the instrument of the mind, which is the crowning work of creation. This it is that gives man his dignity and worth. It is a true saying, — " On earth there is no thing grea t but rtia n ; in man there^is nothing g reat but mind."/(7yi><^.., '^cL(uj^,Ch^juti'^ i^o^jftJ^i'c^ j Taking mto view man's rational endow- ments, his vast and magnificent environment, and his ethical relation to God, we can but see 8 The Immortal Life his greatness and his evident possibiHties of a Hfe truly divine, and therefore immortal. We show that man is, in fact, akin to God in his spiritual nature, and is capable of participation in His manifold life, as shown in the fact that he interprets the divinejanguage expressed in the rational order of the universe, and it is un- reasonable to believe that a mind sustaining such sublime relations to God and this uni- verse is destined to come to nothing. The facts on which we base our argument are generally accepted, but we hope to make them evident to all, and thus to reach our con- clusion on purely rational grounds. But the ^Mntj^^^t^^^ / form of our argument, s trictly speakin g, proves"\ ^ I the i mmortality only of those who answer the/ /^^ /^ \ end of theix. being — that is, who enter into their / ^proper element in sharing the divine life 4^/^-^. c^^ through divine fellowship. The immortal ity p^'C'^ /uifyC^ of all may doubtless be maintained on oth er ' grounds. We barely note here the opinions thaTliave been current on this point. Some afifirm the annihilation of those who refuse their high privilege and their plain obligations. Others believe they will have continuous exis- tehceT^being subjects of moral government, and that they will be treated according to their deserts. Others still cherish the hope that all The Immortal Life 9 will ultimately be reclaimed to righteousness tn a future gracious economy. ^ That our benevolent Creator sincerely de- sires the holiness and happiness of all, we can- not doubt. But the e thical life requires as a condition that moral freedom, or a delegated sovereignty, be entrusted to the subjects of nioraP^government. Now, how^ far any will exercise that sovereignty in resisting all gra- cious influence, no man can determine. It does not, therefore, become us to dogmatize on a question of this nature. But we may feel assured that the Most High, who has seen fit in His wisdom and love to create moral beings, that He may realize as the result a^_vast king- dom established in righteousness — of _indi- viduals whose sovereignty He will not invade, will not tailTh His great purpos e. ' We assume that His great object is to estab- lish such a kingdom, bec ause, a s explained in the Preface, He has ordered the world after the niethods of a Rational _Intelligen ce. Such in- tel lig^en ce. inTITs very nature loving truth, must aj^o lov_e righteousness, for righteousness is the highest for m of t ruth. The truly rational being is therefore an ethical be ing, holding in supreme regard and in inseparable union both truth and righteousness. We do, indeed, ac- lo The Immortal Life count men rational, though some may disre- gard both truth and right ; still, so far as they thus pervert and debase their nature, they practically disown it and become irrational in conduct and character. But this cannot be true of God. He who has everywhere em- bodied truth and moral order in His creation, shows on the broadest possible scale a char- acter in which the love of truth and ricfht is supreme. Accordingly, as Ruler of the world, He rules in the interest of righteousness ; and in creating men rational He endowed them with precisely the powers that qualify them for attaining a righteousness like His own. As benevolent. He could bestow upon rational creatures no higher good. He may have peopled other worlds with beings more largely endowed, and therefore capable of a deeper Ijfe^ but not of_ one higher in_kind. For the supreme love of truth and right, which is possible to man, is the glory of God, and a kingdom of rational beings in whom this love is supreme is an end worthy of the All-wise Creator. It is an end the highest possible to conceive. Such love in man renders him god- like in character. That such is in fact the end of man's creation, we shall assume from facts to be established in future discussion. It will be The Immortal Life n safe to conclude that a life that is one with the life of God is immortal. Our argument must, therefore, be jndnrtive and tele ological ; inductive, as founded on facts to be^established, and teleological, as showing that the facts, if established, involve this conclusion. Induction is the method of science now universally accepted as valid for reaching those generalizations of phenomena that are another name for law. But t eleology only a few years ago,^^ as a method of interpreting nature, was thought by some evolutionists to be out of date. It was affirmed, that, at least in the organic world, natural selection, which was assumed to be in large measure fortuitous in its operation, so determined the course of organic development as to exclude all evidence of purpose or design within its range. This method had, indeed, often been unwisely ap- plied, but this was not a sufficient reason for banishing it as an outlaw. Opin ions have changed. Instead of being sent into exile it ~ha^ now cgmejnto^special favor, to be applied freely on a broad scale. The most eminent advo cates of evoluti on, holding as firmly as ever to natural selection, now use it without questioning its validity in the interpretation 12 The Immortal Life y^^^ of natural phenomena. Among these are Dr. Q „ John Fiske, Alfred_Rus sell Wallace, and Pro- y^^^i-s**^^ /><^ ^essor^Joseph j^e Conte. Indeed, to affirm, as / . &very scientist must, that the world is ration- Y ally ordered, and yet ordered for nojend, and I by no method for attaining an en d, is to affirm \a most irrational procedure. The fact now- established, that the creation has been histori- cally progress ive and systematic, its cosmic forces so co-ordinated that the whole move- ment has been toward higfher and higher result s, for which previous conditions were the evi dent preparation , is an object lesson on a large scale, illustrating clearly the method of teleology, as applied practically in the creative work. Dr. Weinman says : " Beyond the co- operative 'Torces~ of nature, which aim at a purpose, we must admit of a cause, of which we can only say, it is teleological." — Theory of Descent, ii.. Sec. 708, Nor is it presump- tion to think of ascertaining the end for which so vast and complex a system and so full of mystery was created. We need not know all the facts and processes of a system to deter- mine its purpose. Few persons understand all the machinery of a cotton or a woollen factory. But they know its end when they see the finished products of its combined movements. The Immortal Life 13 Many do not understand the parts and work- ing of a steam-engine, but when they see it flying on its iron track, taking freight and passengers to their destination, they know its purpose. So we may know the meaning of the world when we see the highest outcome of all its co-ordinated movements, "Those portions of nature," says the Duke of Argyle, " which are wholly dark to us, do not neces- sarily cast any shadow upon those other por- tions which are luminous with inherent light. The new discoveries which science is ever making of adjustments and combinations, of which we had no previous knowledge, impress us with the irresistible conviction that the same relations to mind prevail throughout. It matters not what may be the philosophy or theology of the inquirer. Every step he takes he finds himself face to face with facts he can- not describe intelligently to himself or others, except by referring them to that function and power of mind which we know as Purpose and Design," — Reign of Law, p. 36. Dr. John Fi ske not only assumes an end of creation, but asserts most definitely and em- phatically as follows : " Man is the termin al fact in that stu pendous proof of evo lution whereby things have come to be as they are. 14 The Immortal Life . . . In the deepest sense it is as true as it was ever said to be, that the world _:w:aa_„iiiade fo r man , and that the bringing forth in him of those qualities which we call highesiL-aadJjoli- est is the filial cause of crea tion." — Idea of Uod, p. 31. The fact that the lower kingdoms which are prior in the order of time are conditional, each of the next succeeding, and that all are made tributary to man, who represents the last and highest, fully warrants the conclusion of Dr. Fiske that the cosmic progression toward man as the outcome, through the systematic co- ordination of its forces, meant man from the beginning as "the final cause of creation." It is found, also, that those kingdoms have passed over to the human organism their most advanced products for loyal service, under the command of man as a rational being. Fur- thermore, his supreme functions, as rational, are fulfilled through reason and conscience in apprehending and appropriating the True, the Beautiful, and the Good, as his vocation, and thus, not merely in the interest of science, but as a spiritual being, to find God in His self- revelations and to enter into His manifold life. All the kingdoms of Nature, are therefore, plainly tributary to man, that he may make The Immortal Life 15 his Hfe divine. No higher good than this can man receive or God bestow. This seems not only a worthy end, but the actual end, toward which the creation has for ages been moving. We do not, of course, claim that the whole creation is ordered exclusively for man. We see countless worlds in space, far greater than our earth, many of which are doubtless to sus- tain some forms of life. Organized life is higher in the scale of being than inorganized matter, and this world teems with many grades of life — from the microscopic cell to animal and man. By the spectroscope we learn that the far-off stellar worlds are constituted of the same materials as our earth, and they are governed by the same general laws. It is natural to conclude that many of them, at least, and as many as possible, will be inhabited by creatures possessing similar life. But since we can conceive no higher order of life than the rational, the personal, and spiritual, and since men are capable of this, the inhabitants of other worlds, though they may far surpass men in the measure of their endowments, cannot possess a life higher in kind. This earth is the nursery of that life which is spiritual and divine, and we may well 1 6 The Immortal Life conjecture that from countless worlds may be gathered a vast spiritual kingdom possessing the same generic and divine life, but with in- finite variations, all moving in harmony under the law of love, as the stellar worlds move under the law of gravity : But moral beings may reflect the glory of God with a radiance far surpassing all material splendors. Respecting other worlds we can only con- jecture, but since the Most High has bestowed upon man Godlike powers for attaining Godlike excellence, we cannot well suppose that His infinite love, which embraces all worlds, has limited His bestowments of good to our race. Worlds of matter cannot be the objects of His love, except as the conditions of life having value. It is not reasonable to suppose that He was content to create so many worlds, and systems of worlds, of mere dead matter, totally unresponsive, with which He could have no converse, and which He could not love or value, except as means for a life of intrinsic worth. Here we find a world that for ages has been preparin g for man as a creature who can respoj id. to the Creator, with some apprecia- tion__ of His character and work, and in sympathy^with His manifold life. Such life , truly divine in man, is a worthy ^nd oT~crea- The Immortal Life 17 tion,and is the normal outcome of his spiritual nature as correlated to his spiritual environ- ment. It must be of more worth in the esti- mation of God than all the material worlds. As the true and final end of His creative work, it is p repostero us to suppose that, after mill- ions of years of such preparation for it. He will, when at lastiFls~reached, pu t it out o f existence ^ag^fjio value. It would contradict the rational meaning of the whole cosmic pro- gression. Accordingly, we find the promise of immortality in man's high place in nature as not only above all animal life, but in the spiritual kingdom above nature, in his capacity for the infinite set in intelligent relationship to avast environment of rational and moral order and to the Infinite Intelligence, who has made that order a medium at once of His self-revela- tion to man for his fellowship and for enlar- ging and educating the human powers for attaining a corresponding divine life. It will also be shown that this conscious ethical relationship to God, and the expecta- tion of a future life as a reality, are essential to the normal development and well-being of man in his present state, and that the multi- plied resources of modern life can by no means be a substitute for them. 1 8 The Immortal Life In the above facts, and others which we hope to estabHsh, together with the absence of any proof that the death of the body ends the Hfe of the spirit, we find ample evidence on rational grounds of the life immortal. MAN ABOVE THE ANIMAL IN A SUPERIOR KINGDOM " We, like all other living creatures, have part in pain and pleasure in a natural impulse to seek the one and avoid the other. But the self-jud ff inp ; conscienc e and the ineradicable idea of binding duty which in us accompanies action and feeling, distinguish human crea- tures as members of a realm of mind from brutes whose vital activity depends upon feeling." Dr. Lotze, Microcosmos, ii., p. 714. " Pronaque quum spectent animalis citera terram, Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri Jussit et erectas ad sidera tollere vultus." Ovid, 19 CHAPTER II MAN ABOVE THE ANIMAL IN A SUPERIOR KINGDOM. OOME eminent scientists have denied to ^ man his place in a distinct kingdom above the animal. Professor Huxley says : " Bone for bone, muscle for muscle, nerve for nerve, man corresponds to the highest animal organism, the anthropoid ape." For this reason he de- termines his place in the animal kingdom. All agree that man has the animal nature, but has he not also a higher nature which dis- tinguishes him as man and which should de- termine his classification ? If he is an animal merely, he has the destiny of the animal, so that his classification is a matter of importance. Those who relegate man to the animal king- dom determine his place as specialists, basing their classification upon the tests applicable to their particular science and overlooking those characteristics that distinguish him from creatures of a lower rank. As an anatomist. 2 2 The Immortal Life Professor Huxley may have made a correct classification, basing it upon structural forma- tion, "bone for bone, muscle for muscle, and nerve for nerve" in man corresponding more or less closely with the structure of the anthropoid ape. Moreover, he would doubtless claim that evolution, as working gradual modifica- tions in organic structures, eliminates the dis- tinction of species altogether, so that man is not distinct, even as a species, from the ape. However this may be, there are con- clusive reasons for asserting that the evolu- tionary process does not abolish the distinction of kingdoms, since they have a permanent place in nature. In the progression from plane to plane, we find the sudden incoming of new forms of energy, and higher principles of life establishing distinct economies under superior law. These transitions are not by slight modifications on the same line of de- velopment, but they present an entirely new order of phenomena, ruled by a superior form of energy. We do not question the continuity of the evolutionary process, but this continuity is apparently effected by the new and higher agency from above and not by potencies pre- viously existing below. Each plane has its own ruling energy, which not only determines The Immortal Life 23 the character of its own phenomena, but subor- dinates and overrules all processes from below for the higher ends of its own plane. Accord- ingly, the ascent of the physical elements to the plane above is not gradual, but with the sud- denness of a flash of light, by the agency of the chemical energy which seizes upon the physical elements and imposes upon them its own law of affinity. The transition from the chemical to the vegetal plane is also effected by a higher form of energy, which introduces and rules a new order of phenomena — those of organic life. In like manner, the ascent from vegetal to animal, and from animal to rational, life, is through the incoming of higher principles of life, each establishing a new order of phe- nomena and overruling, under a new regime^ the forces and products represented in the organism from the planes below. Furthermore, let it be noted, that as these forces and products from below are taken up as factors in the higher planes, they retain their peculiar functions and their relative rank. When incorporated into the higher organic unity they are not merged or lost. In fact, it is their ascent through all the planes, keeping to their own functions and rank, that illustrates the continuity of the upbuilding process. Of 24 The Immortal Life course, there could be no continuity of the higher principles and energies unless, poten- tially at least, they existed from the first. In any case, the continuity of the upbuild- ing process does not exclude sudden transi- tions and the establishment of entirely new regimes as new and higher forms of energy put in appearance. This brings us to speak of the origin, num- ber, and rank of the several kingdoms which belong to the permanent order of nature. What is this principle, or law, and how does it originate and determine the number and rank of the several kingdoms ? Dr. Mark Hopkins defines it as "The law of the conditioning and the conditioned." It may be interpreted as follows : When one form of energy is conditioned by others and at the same time overrules and subordinates them in establishing a new order of phenom- ena under a higher law, it proves the superior in rank and the founder of a new kingdom. Thus vegetal life is seen to be conditioned by the forces and products of the physical and chemical planes, and also that it appropriates and overrules both under a higher law in the upbuilding of living organisms. Animal life also shows its superiority to vegetal life, and The Immortal Life 25 rational, in like manner, to animal life, by sub- ordinating and overruling all the forces and principles below represented in the organism under a higher economy. Accordingly, we find in organic life regular gradations of rank, that the elements and principles of the lower planes are taken up into the higher to be subordi- nated and overruled for their higher ends under the law of a higher economy. The last and highest form of energy, with its superior principle of life, that has appeared is the^ ra- tionaly as seen \nman. It is the kingly energy, and in the divine economy it has, by organic law, the prerogative to subordinate and over- rule the forces and principles of all the planes below incorporated in the human organism for the ends of rational life. Thus, " the law of the conditioning and the conditioned," or, as we prefer to express it, the priiiciple of subor- dmation, runs up through all the planes, giv- ing to each form of energy in the advance the command of all below, and placing man at the head of all, with prescriptive right to command all for rational ends. It is the same principle that organizes an army — with its companies, regiments, and higher divisions — and puts the general-in-chief in command of all. It is at once the principle of division and of unity. It 26 The Immortal Life creates the distinctions of rank and at the same time unites all into one body under one head. The unity of the human organism is the most complete of any that we know, and yet it is the most complex, the forces and products of all the kingdoms being marvellously incorporated in it. The physical, the chemical, the vegetal, and the animal are all represented in man, and the gradations from lowest to highest are strictly conserved and belong to the perma- nent order of nature. The chemist and the physiologist recognize all and each in its place. Of course, in a unity so compact and complex, the dividingHnes^are not Jo be recognized by the se nses. Vegetal life in certain forms is scarcely distinguishable from the lowest forms of animal life, as animal life in its highest de- velopment seems almost identical with the lowest specimens of rational life. For this reason some have assumed that the higher kingdoms are but modifications of the lower, by a process of development. However this may be, it is certain that e ach kingdom in the adv ance reveal s an_en tirelv diff erent^. form of enfiigy and the inauguration of a new and dis- tinct economy o f a super ior order, subordinat- ing all below to its higher end. This is the proper test of a distinct kingdom in nature. The Immortal Life 27 It applies to each kingdom in the advance — the chemical, vegetal, animj.1, and rational — and no modifications, by development or other- wise, abolish these fundamental distinctions. As the divisions of an army remain distinct, each under its own head, when brought to- gether into corporate unity under the common head, so the elements and forces of the lower planes retain their rank and functions when incorporated into the unity of the human or- ganism. There is no breaking of ranks, no conglomerate mixture of elements and princi- ples, whether the unity be brought about by continuous development from below or by the accession of new principles and forms of en- ergy from above. Atoms seem to have their inherent affinities and to take the first step upward into molecules and chemical combina- tions by virtue of such affinities. But beyond this, science cannot at present afifirm. Dead matter is not yet proved to become living by any inherent potency of its own. It must first be touched by the life-principle already exist- ing. Who can tell whether, in the original progression of world-building, the higher forms of energy and of life were derived from the lower by transmutation and development, or whether the ascent from plane to plane was 28 The Immortal Life effected by the sudden incoming and agency, in fitting conditions, of new principles and laws from above ? But it is certain that, by some agency, the progression has been carried forward to higher stages only as new and higher forms of energy have put in appearance, and, furthermore, in the advance to the higher forms of life and unity, the gradations of rank have been uni- formly conserved by the principle of subordi- nation that runs through the whole economy of organic life. It is, therefore, by organic law that the dis- tinction of kingdoms exists, and also their unity in man ; while, as possessing the high- est form of energy and giving law to a new order of phenomena — that of rational life — he has also the prerogative to subordinate and overrule all the forces of his organism for the higher ends of rational life. Hence, he sup- plies all the tests which determine his place in a distinct and superior kingdom. No lower grade of energy or of life can lawfully break in upon the established order. If the animal in man assumes command, it is by usurpation. All are important factors in the human life and have their rights, but only as they keep their place and fulfil their subordinate functions. The Immortal Life 29 Professor Joseph_Le__Conte, a distinguished evolutionist and scientist, makes the same classification of the grades of energy, reckon- ing five distinct kingdoms ; and he also recog- nizes the sudden transidons or "lea^s/' as he terms them, from lower to higher planes as higher forms of energy appear and inaugurate a superior kingdom. We repeat here the decisive tests of a new and superior kingdom — namely, a higher form of energy ruling a new order of phenomena and subordinating all inferior forces and prin- ciples to the end of a higher economy. Now, the transition or the departure at the inaugu- ration of the kingdom of rational life is im- measurably greater than that of any kingdom below. On this point Dr. Jo h-Q_Ji ske, an evolutionist, says : " Through those co-opera- tive processes the differences between man and all othe r crea tures has come to be a dif- f ere nee injdad^ transcending all other differ- ences." — Idea of God, p. 162. Professor Huxley, in relegating man to the animal kingdom, on the basis of anatomical structure merely, overlooks these fundamental differe7tces and takes no account of what char- acterizes man as man in the totality of his being. In such a classification he may have 30 The Immortal Life been true to his knowledge of anatomy, but he was false to any proper estimate of man as man. It is Nature's method of continuity to take the physical elements and the lower forms of energy above their own level, to co-operate with their superiors, on all the higher planes. But in this co-operation they do not break rank, and are kept faithful to their appropriate functions. They do not give to man his distinc- tive character, and it is contrary to both science and common sense for them to be the basis of classification. For example, the vegetal principle which is incorporated into the human ■organism do es not make rn an^ vegetab le, nor does the animal nature which he inherits con- stituteTTTm an animal. T he highest prin ciple belonging to an organism^nojt the lowest;> de- termines its character as a unity, and it should det ermine its proper classificat ion. The chem- isT^douBHessliriHs^iirthe^riy-fish, on analysis, the same elements that he finds in the human body — carbon for carbon, oxygen for oxygen, nitrogen for nitrogen, but would Professor Huxleyas ^a chemist^ prov\o\inc& man a jelly-fish ? Why should he not, when, as an anatomist, he puts man in the category of animals because he finds him "bone for bone, muscle for muscle, nerve for nerve," corresponding to the an- The Immortal Life 31 thropoid ape ? The distinctive character of man as a totaHty is determined by his rational and not by his animal nature. He should, therefore, be ranked as man and not as an animal. Each kingdom has its distinctive character, though all are brought into a compact and marvellous unity in man. The transition from one to the other through the whole ascent is still a mystery. Eminent scientists have at- tempted in vain to bridge the chasm between non-livi ng and living matter by natural law. The same mystery meets us at every succeed- ing plane. Who has explained the origin of the sentient principl e ^^jipf the animal or of the ra- tionaljntelligence ? Each of these marks the beginning of a distinct kingdom and gives it its peculiar character. Was each originally derived from a lower principle by develop- ment ? If so, why the sudden transition and " leap " upward, as Professor Le Conte terms it, and a departure on a new line of development under a higher law at the very start ? Does the development theory, as defined, account for this sudden change to a new economy ? Does it account for the incoming of a new principle by any natural law yet discovered ? Dr. Caird, in speaking of continuous iden- 32 The Immortal Life tity in the course of development, says : " The identity of a being that lives and develops is shown, above all, in the fact that, though it is continually changing its whole nature, yet nothing absolutely new is introduced into it." — Evolution of Religion, ii., p. 149. Professor Tiele says: "The object under- going development is a unity. The oak already exists in the acorn." — Elements of the Science of Religion, p. 30. Professor Le Conte thus defines it : " It is a continuous, progressive change according to certain laws and by means of resident forces." — Relation of Evolu- tion to Religion (last chapter). Herbert Spencer regards evolution or some form of development as the method of all change and constructive movement in the cosmic system, beginning with the diffused nebulous atoms or the chaotic "fire-mist." We offer no criticism on the use of the term evolution, as vaguely used to cover all cosmic changes. But a s evolution implies a previo us involution, so dev elopment impl ies the_unfpld- ihg of sometlnn^_already_potentially_^>ds^^ And since, according to the accepted meaning of these terms, nothing absolutely new is added in the unfolding or evolutionary process, we are to infer that the existingr Universe, as we The Immortal Life 33 find it, organic and inorganic, sentient or in- telligent, existed potentially in the diffused chaotic fire-mist. But whence the fire-mist ? Was it also derived from some ethereal element, and this from something else, more elementary still, or are we to regard it as the ashes of ex- tinct worlds, that had had their day and their history and bequeathed to us the fire-mist as their last will and testament, as material for another cosmic reconstruction ? These are but fanciful conjectures, and scientists are assuming that evolution, or development, be- gan with atoms in their diffused chaotic state. But ajtorn^ have their likes and di sljkes, their ^Z^2^y^_. repulsions and affinities, which play an impor- tant part, not only in laying the world's foun- dations, but in its superstructure, in its style of architecture, and in all the structures of organic life. In fact, they are so exactly suited to these purposes that Herschel, Clerk Maxwell, and the authors of the Unseen Universe see in them all the marks of " manufactured articles ." sporadic in their origin^y creative act. Now, whether they are a legacy from extinct (jJiyn,^ worlds or came into being directly by creative ,act, in either case their perfect fitness for cos- mjc u pbuild in.g_stamps_them as the product of ^creative irvteliigeftce. If these creative acts 34 The Immortal Life were put forth at the beginning, can we assume that the Most High then laid aside His creative power to engage in merely constructive and evolutionary processes, carried forward accord- ing to the strict regime of natural law ? This can be assumed safely when all the processes of upbuilding can thus be accounted for. But it is now understood that, instead of acting on the world from without, God is im mane nt injt as its operative energy. May He not be im- manent in it as a creative as well as a con- structive power, especially at those stages of advance where new forms of energy appear, and sudden transitions and departures to higher economies mark the inauguration of new and higher kingdoms ? These inquiries are suggested by the fact that atoms and molecules are not known to possess the potency, by any combination or transmutation, to originate even the lowest forma of life. What shall we think, then, of iEhelr^sumed potency to originate reason and conscience and the spiritual and divine life in the human soul? Has nothing absolutely newLjmd^dififirentJnJ^ind come into being since the fire-mist^jDegan its spiral movement ? Why may not the immanent divine energy be creative as well as constructive, in the origina- The Immortal Life 35 tion of the great kingdoms of Hfe, as well as in the production of atoms and molecules ? We do not presume to answer these questions. The point on which we here insist is that, whatever the agency, or the method, of the cosmic upbuilding, there is, as a permanent order in nature, a succession of kingdoms of ascending grades ; the lower conditioning the higher, and the higher subordinating and over- ruling the lower. Each has its own ruling energy, and its distinctive character. The same tests that determine the number and rank of the several kingdoms assign to man his place in a kingdom of his own, and give him the prerogative, as rational, to command them all, as incorporated in his organism. He possesses an anjmaL nature, but he proves his superi or r a nk by the divi ne commission given him to_sub]£ct and o verrule the animal in him, in tTie interes t of the j nai^. If he allows the animal to get the upper hand he is false to his prerogative and disowns his proper nature. MAN ABOVE NATURE " Man rises out of Natu re and has to assert his in finite superio rity Qi£^ it." Professor Seth, Studies of Ethical Principles, p. 190. ",Know man hath all which nature hath, and more, And in that more lie all his hopes of good : Man must begin, know this, where Nature ends. Nature and man can never be fast friends, Fool, if thou canst not pass her, rest, her slave." Matthew Arnold. 37 CHAPTER III MAN ABOVE NATURE O Y the term Nature, we mean the established *— ' order of things instituted by the Creator and carried forward by his immanent energy. This energy is revealed in different orders of phenomena that take the form of uniform law. Those who recognize only matter and force as factors in the world's evolution, setting aside the creative energy, still have common ground with us in the uniformities of Nature for de- termining whether given phenomena do, or do not, come under natural law. It is ad- mitted that the reign of law is universal, but not the reign of natural law, since there may be a kingdom in which neither the divine energy nor impersonal forces are the sole factors. The lower kingdoms, of course, be- long to the domain of Nature and man is grounded in and conditioned by it. In fact, the elements and forces of those kingdoms are incorporated into his organism, carrying with 39 40 The Immortal Life them their own rdgime. It is not strange, therefore, that some scientists, in their fond- ness for broad generaUzations, have assumed the universaHty of Nature and excluded the supernatural, not only from man, but from the universe. But while the natural economy is represented in the human organism we hope to show that within a given sphere of his ac- tivities, man is qualified to put forth action under a higher than the natural law, and, in the proper sense, S2i^ernatzi7^al. Our proof shall not rest altogether upon consciousness, as its validity, without other support, may be questioned. We accordingly approach consciousness, from below, or from the natural order, to the point where man puts in appearance and is evidently commissioned to take up and carry forward that order by the exercise of functions not before existing, which involve responsibility under ethical law, and therefore freedom from bondaofe to Nature. The entrance of man upon the world's stage was evidently after the physical, chemical, vegetal, and animal kingdoms had prepared the way for his appearance. There had been an orderly system of upbuilding, for there was brought into being not merely a suspicion of kingdoms, but of kingdoms rising in rank, the The Immortal Life 41 one above the other, the lower conditioning the higher, and the higher subordinating and overruHng the lower under a superior law. Thus the principle of subordination runs through all the kingdoms, giving them unity like that of a well-organized army, all the lower in regular graduation coming under the command of the highest. Finally^_man ap- pears, conditioned by all below and subordinat- ing all to his superior command. The creation of the world, as we find it, was not instantaneous, as was once supposed, but progressive, through long periods of time. It is plain, too, that in the ascent from kingdom to kingdom, higher and higher grades and functions of matter and energy came into operation as factors in the upbuilding process, carrying the progression up to higher and higher planes. Each plane in the succession is inaugurated and ruled by a new and higher form of energy, which subordinates and over- rules all below. Consequently, there has been a growing complexity of forces and products, and the attainment of a higher order of unity at each stage of advance. These complex and progressive movements, of course, hold in their keeping mysteries not yet solved. But there are certain facts and principles of order open 42 The Immortal Life to our inspection that give a clue to man's place in the system, and show the grounds of his superiority to all the kingdoms below, and even to Nature, as the term is understood. Now, the principle of subordination, which subjects the lower to the higher, and all to the highest, places man at the head of all the king- doms ; and as he possesses the highest form of energy, which is the ratio?ial, he has by organic law the prerogative to subordinate and com- mand all the forces represented in his organism. No higher form of energy has appeared, and the combined forces of Nature, as represented and incorporated in his organism are com- mitted to him for direction and command under the supreme law of rational life. There is ev ery re ason to believe that man is the goa l of Natu re. Dr. Fi ske, as already quoFed, says : " The world was made for man." Professor Le Conte, in the last chapter of HTs work on evolution, expresses the convic- tion that the evolution of organic forms has reached its consummation in man, and that future progress is to be in the development of the higher psychical life upon which he has already entered. This being true, a turning- point of great importance has been reached in the transition from animal to rational life, the The Immortal Life 43 life that does not centre in the physical organ- ism, but in the interests of a higher realm. We are now to examine t he law of this higher kingdom, to show that it differs materially from natural law, and that the functions by which it is administered involve an agency above that of Nature. It will be admitted by all that the supreme law of rational life is that which is regulative and sovereign over all the principles of human action. As conscience is this regulative prin- ciple, the law of conscience is the supreme law of human life. By conscience, we do not here mean a mere sensibility or sentiment, but the sensibility that is associated with the intuition of reason and the power of moral judgment. Its function is to command right ac tion in those conditions in which wrong action is at the same time possible ; in other words, to give authoritative judgment for the claims of the highest principle of action when a lower, at the same time, is in competition with it. This judgment carries with it the principle of _du£y, or the conscigusiibligatiQiLto determine action accordingly. The law is therefore ethical in its character, dema nding righteousnes s in pur- pose and conduct. When the issue is not directly between competing principles of 44 The Immortal Life action, but between possible courses of conduct, which may prove wise or unwise as affected by- variable and uncertain conditions, the law re- quires candid judgment and intentional XoydXty to the highest interests at stake. Now, this obligation of loyalty to the highest interests shows that the same principle of sub- ordination that rules in Nature is to be the governing principle in human life. It is the principle of unity in any organic system, and if applied by man, he is in harmony with the principle that governs the order of Nature and he realizes unity and harmony in his own life. But while the principle of order is the same in Nature and in human life, the energy and the functions by which it is carried into effect are totally different. This difference should be especially noted at this point. In the move- ments of Nature the energy is div inj^ and the functions are those we attribute to natural law, under the operation of impersonal forces. These make it uniformly effective by no intel- ligence or choice of their own, but as instru- ments of the divine agency. BuJL-in— the rationa l life of man the effe£jt^e_^agency is Jiuma m, and the functions by which man carries the law into effect are those of rational action put forth v oluntari ly as a responsible agent. The Immortal Life 45 Here we begin to see the radical difference between Nature and man, and between natural and ethical law. Natural law has indeed a wide range in the human organism, since the physical and chemic forces, together with the principles of vegetal and animal life, are in full operation within it for the sure and uniform fulfilment of their natural functions. The various processes of circulation, secretion, as- similation, and others go on independent of human exertion and below the range of con- scious volition. But ethi cal law is addressed directly to the ratigjQal intelligence and the conscj^ence, and it is not operative, except as man vo/un^arzly ^ccepts and enforces it over himsdf! If he fails to put forth this action the law fails to be operative. Hence the law breaks down because of a neglect of duty. Now there is no such failure in the domain of Nature. Every natural law is sur e and uni- for m^in its operat ion, because the Creator, in [or dering its forces, is always true to Hfs own \economy. Accordingly, the principle of sub- ^dination, the lower to the higher, uniformly prevails in all the kingdoms below man. For example, the physical and the chemical are subordinated to the vegetal and the animal, in loyal service for the growth and development 46 The Immortal Life of living organisms. Moreover, as soon as principles of action become factors in the pro- cesses of animal life, the same principle is made effective, the lower instincts and appetites being subordinated to parental love and the continuance of the species. But in the transi- tion from animal to man we see a change of a singular and even revolutionary character. Here lower principles are often dominant over higher, appetite over natural affection, avarice over justice, passion over reason, and all man- ner of selfish desires over benevolence and righteousness. It is certainly_remarkable that the great principle of unity and harmony in Natu re sho uld break"~d^wn and faitTo"be op- erative in human life. This is not only a depa rture fro m the cosmic order, but a plain violatfon of it s governing pj-ix iciples, when loyaltyToTtis quite as important as in the lower realms. For such failure on the part of man results in his debasement, in the petver- sion of his rational powers, and in detriment to all human interests. Such a change in the order of things may well excite wonder, when we reflect upon the fact that man is the latest, and presumably the highest, outcome of the cosmic progression. The wonder is that man alone should fail to conform to that principle The Immortal Life 47 of order which prevails universally in Nature, and which is so essential to all the interests of humanity. Yet man is called "the heir of all the ages," the "paragon of the world." But as, under natural law, he is a failure, since natural forces do not make the principle of cosmic order effective in human life, conse- quently man is out of harmony with that order and with himself. Is there any possible explanation of this break in t he world's order and of the conse- quent degradation of human life ? At this point we come to the testimony of consciousness from the nature or cosmic side, and we find it supported by the whole previous order and by the natural endowment and the conditions that demand of man precisely those functions which would fill the break and bring him into harmony with the world's order and with the law of rational life. Note, here, the following facts of experience : ist. In allowinor lower to dominate hiorher principles of action, man violates the funda- mental principle of the cosmic order. 2d. For this violation he is conscious of debaseinejit and guilt. 3d. The same experience brings the sense of responsibility for not summoning a power to 48 The Immortal Life overrule and set aside the claim of the lower principle in the interests of the higher ; and whenever this is done there is the satisfaction of fulfilling a duty. In these conditions, men are brought face to face with themselves as responsible powers, under obligation to order their lives by the same principle that God makes effective in Nature. Hence, this principle, which is thus passed over into the keeping of man, becomes an ethical principle, as every conscience testi- fies. It belongs, in fact, to the dignity of man, since it is the dictate of reason, as well as the demand of duty, to subordinate the lower to the higher principle whenever they come into competition. There can be no reason given for sacrificing what is of superior quality and worth to that which is inferior. Accordingly, the cosmic principle of order is a righteous principle, and the Creator manifests His right- eous character in incorporating it into the very structure and movements of the world. Nature, of course, is non-ethical, but He who orders the forces with uniform preference of the highest and best end must be righteous in character. Now, if, as some affirm, man is wholly a child of Nature, acting only under the domi- The Immortal Life 49 nance of her laws, why does he so often vio- late the fundamental principle of her economy ? As a child of Nature, man should conform to her laws. The unity which the scientists find everywhere in the natural world forbids the supposition that Nature is divided against her- self. It would be a strange happening if her ruling principle should be found to break down in her highest product, unless there is some provision for carrying it into effect by some other agency. Now, it is significant that where the cosmic forces make this divine principle of order effective in all their domain, even in the lower nature of man, they do not enforce it in the sphere of man's rational life. Here they withhold their customary agency, as in deference to a sovereignty and prerogative they are bidden not to invade. The whole aspect of things, therefore, seems to mean that at that point where natural forces no longer make this principle effective in human life, it is transferred to the keeping of man, to be carried into effect by his voluntary agency, on his own responsibility. This is precisely what we might expect from the nature of the en- dowments given him. For, as possessing rea- son and conscience, he is qualified to assume responsibility in directing his activities for the 50 The Immortal Life higher of competing ends. In fact, it belongs to the normal functions of one possessing rea- son and conscience to give the order of reason to his thoughts and the order of ricrhteousness to his actions. For the one he has the law of truth, and for the other the law of righteous- ness, in his own keeping. The lower king- doms were evidently preparative for a kingdom of rational intelligence for beings who could receive more richly of the divine goodness, and whom the Most High could exalt into con- verse with himself. Matter could give no re- sponse. The animal creation could not even know their benefactor. Until man appeared there was no being on the earth who could ap- preciate the beauty and sublimity of creation or the glory of its Author. All were uncon- sciously working out ends prescribed for them, with no freedom and no aspiration for any- thing above the level of Nature. Man alone could interpret the world and come into intelli- gent communication with the Most High, with capacities for seeking the highest possible ex- cellence and of realizing the supreme good, with freedom to refuse it under ethical law. Here was a manifest departure from the order of Nature to that of the moral life. Moral power takes the place of physical and organic The Immortal Life 51 forces in determining the ends of Hfe, and in accepting or refusing to carry the principle of subordination as the principle of righteousness into the sphere of rational life. Natural forces now decline to fulfil their high function for man. He must himself fulfil it or it fails, and he fails to fulfil a plain duty. Such is the testimony of consciousness : remorse and a sense of guilt inevitably following such failure. Now, such consciousness strikes deeper than any other. It cannot be trifled with. Nor has it any meaning if man is but a creature of natural law. Everything tends to confirm the fact that responsibility is laid upon man by his Maker for not accepting the principle of the cosmic order, to give it effect in the sphere of his rational life : his endowments qualify him for it ; he condemns himself for failing to do it ; the occasion plainly de- mands it, and the fact that God suspends the action of the natural forces just at the point where man knows he is under obligation to assume the function they lay at his feet, and fulfil it voluntarily for himself, — all these con- siderations give validity to the testimony of the human consciousness that man is a moral and responsible being, and, in respect to the 52 The Immortal Life duty of subjecting lower to higher principles, he is under ethical and not under natural law. In other words, man has been qualified and commissioned to overrule the forces of his organism and to carry out the divine principle of order in his own life, according to the same law of truth and right that God enforces in the natural domain. To be righteous in the way of self-government, as God is righteous, is the true vocation of every man. To do this requires just that sovereignty and prerogative over the principles of action that belong to his nature, that are given him through his endowments and by the organic law of the cosmic system. For by that law the highest form of energy is, by prescriptive right, the dominant factor in any given organ- ism. In man, of course, the rational is the kingly energy, and should overrule all inferior forces of his organism, under ethical law as the supreme law of human life. This requires earnest and decisive individual effort, in the way of moral judgments as to the merit of conflicting claims and in the determining choice. There seem to be wise reasons why it is not easy and natural to originate and maintain a righteous life. Doubtless the Creator might have so constituted man that The Immortal Life 53 the principle of righteousness might be made effective through natural forces, as it is in Na- ture. In this case conformity to it would be sure and uniform under natural law, as the falling of a stone under the law of gravity. But such righteousness would possess no moral quality. There is no scope for ethical law where natural law has full sway. Man so con- stituted would have been innocent, as the birds are innocent. But a constitution thus per- fectly adjusted to the divine order would be divinely ordered, like the movements of the planets, not ^^^-ordered by human agency. There would be no temptation to prefer a lower to a higher good, and therefore no call for self-denial, nor even for moral judgments and choices when natural proclivities are the determining forces. Constitutional tendencies do not fulfil ethical functions. Under their dominance one cannot originate a character of his own, distinct from that given by the Crea- tor, and human history would be simply a chapter in natural history, a record of the un- folding or evolution of organic life. No one in these conditions would be brought face to face with himself as a moral and responsible agent. Whatever other excellences one might possess, the highest and the crowning one of 54 The Immortal Life all, moral excellence, would be wanting. But this very excellence, above all others, the Most High desired for His rational creatures, since He qualified them for its attainment and fur- nished the conditions suited to this end. Only in its possession could they realize the highest possible good in blessedness and worthiness of character. In the preceding chapter we referred to the union in man of a lower and a higher nature, and of the consequent presence in conscious- ness of their conflicting claims urged at the same time. Such a constitution, which some have thought an unfortunate arrangement, furnishes, nevertheless, the occasion for those peculiar experiences which are the fit introduc- tion to what may be termed the distinctively moral, in place of the natural, life. For the opposing claims, higher and lower as pre- sented in consciousness, reveal moral distinc- tions, and such revelation is the condition for exercising moral judgments of their relative claims as the basis for those choices which determine character. It will be seen, there- fore, that the union of the two natures, with their competing claims, gives occasion and de- mand for precisely those functions which are ethical, and which distinguish the rational ac- The Immortal Life 55 tions of man from those of creatures which are under natural law. Now, to recoofnize moral distinctions as presented in a concrete case, to adjudge the merits of the competing claims, as right or wrong in the given conditions, and to give preference to the claim which is just and right under ethical law — these are rational functions above the range of natural law. One may, indeed, yield passively to a prevailing im- pulse or to natural inclination, and let natural forces determine his action. But this is irra- tional and wrong, when the true and the false, the right and the wrong, enter into the case. The call is for the exercise of a reserve and superior power to intervene and govern natural inclination, according to the demands of duty. It belongs to the rational manhood to over- rule the claim of the lower principles and give effect to that of the higher. It is not for the natural principles themselves, lower or higher, to determine one's action independently of his rational judgment and choice. This would be like determining action by the heavier weight in the scales. There is a power in man su- perior to his principles of action, and it is his prerogative and his duty to exercise that power in overruling them. It is the power of moral sovereignty over all the forces of his 5^ The Immortal Life organism, and he becomes master of himself only by its exercise, as under ethical and not under natural law. This sovereignty is a trust committed to him, with liberty to exercise it as he will, but as under the obligations of duty to use it for ends that are high and worthy in preference to those that are low and sinful. Liberty of choice between such alternatives is an essential condition of the ethical life, since without it, as under natural law, men's actions are determined/^r them, not by them. Hence, a twofold nature presenting in consciousness such alternatives, through competing principles of action, which are to be adjusted to the de- mands of ethical law by the determining choice of the individual agent on his own responsi- bility, is a condition divinely provided for originating moral character and achieving the highest possible excellence. Such an arrange- ment does not indicate an oversight of the Almighty, but rather a purpose to make possi- ble for His rational creation the highest possible good. For, as connected with this arrange- ment He confers on man a sovereign and causal power, distinct from the natural forces of his organism, and superior to them, by which he can overrule all his forces for the highest and best end, and thus by a Godlike power The Immortal Life 57 can achieve a GodHke character. The Lord of the world does not want the services of slaves, but of those who can freely command their own loyalty. Nature He rules by His own efficient energy, for an end above and beyond itself. That end is a vast kingdom of righteous souls whose acts shall not be sequences in a chain of natural causes, but the agency of free and loyal subjects, estab- lished in integrity through their own intelligent choice. To be made capable of this supreme good is the highest privilege and dignity. But the sovereignty required for it may be used for unworthy and base ends. There is a moral system from the nature of the case ; truth and falsehood, the highest excellence and blessed- ness, and debasement and ruin stand over against each other. Of course, the choice be- tween these alternatives determines character. The mystery is that a rational being should ever make the base and ruinous choice. Cer- tainly no one can be master of himself and give rational unity to his life except by assert- ing the prerogative given him to overrule all the forces of his organism according to the law of Truth and Right. In this way can he assume his legitimate rank as above Nature. For it is by asserting this prerogative over the 58 The Immortal Life natural and impulsive principles of his organ- ism that he shows his superiority to them. But, beyond the control of his organic forces, man is more and more learning to command the great forces of Nature to attain his ends. It is not by matching his strength against them, but by learning and conforming to the laws of their movement that he makes them the pliant instruments of his will. In this way he not only proves his dignity, but multiplies his power a thousand-fold. He can bid the waterfalls turn the wheels of his factories, the winds and steam to carry his ships at sea, elec- tricity to propel his cars, to light and heat his dwellings and to run on his errands around the world. The mines of coal and the precious metals, the riches of the forest, of the soil and the sea, are all his for use and comfort in his daily life, with the high privilege and duty of subordinating all to the supreme interest, the life of righteousness. He may be said to have dominion over all things, that he may make them tributary to the highest possible good. MAN A PERSONALITY BELONGING TO THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM " There is a spirituality in man, a self power or Will at the root of all his being." Coleridge, " The moral activity is an end in itself. What is being accom- plished in the moral life is therefore always an invisible and spiritual result," Seth, Studies of Ethical Principles, p. 450. " There is in man a spiritual element in which the brute has no share. His power of indefinite progress, his thoughts and desires that look onward even beyond time, his perception of a spiritual existence, and of a Divinity above, all evince a nature that partakes of the infinite and divine." Dana's Geology, p. 574. 59 CHAPTER IV MAN A PERSONALITY BELONGING TO THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM TN the preceding chapter we endeavored to * show that man is a responsible being under ethical law, and that as such he is above Nature, and can overrule her forces for his personal ends. As conscious of responsibility, he is face to face with himself as a moral per- son, invested with causal, self-determining power. Hence his actions cannot be mere sequences in the chain of natural causes, nor can his consciousness be identified with the molecular processes, in brain substance, nor with automatic responses to external stimulus, reported to nerve centres of the cerebral organ. Rational life does not come under the laws of mechanics, which allow no scope for responsibility under ethical law. The con- sciousness of responsibility is direct testimony to its reality, and is the basis of a connection too clear and persistent to be set aside by any speculative theory. We have shown also that 6l 62 The Immortal Life this testimony is confirmed from the cosmic side, inasmuch as the great principle of cosmic order is not carried into effect in the rational life of man by impersonal forces, and that it utterly fails, unless man voluntarily accepts and enforces over himself as an ethical princi- ple, which, as every man knows, lays upon him the obligation of obedience to its de- mands, as the supreme law of his rational life. Besides, this law is not made operative by natural forces, and as it is as indispensable to the normal order and well-being of rational life as it is to the unity and harmony of Nature, it is evidently passed over from Nature to man as a trust committed to his keeping. The fact that he cannot depend upon impulse, or any natural force, to carry it into effect, with the certainty and uniformity of natural law, but that its operation depends wholly upon his voluntary acceptance, and enforce- ment by moral judgments and choice, is proof that it is not a natural law, but a law of duty for the rational and moral life. It brings to him obligation but not compulsion, for liberty is always associated with responsibility. It is a necessary condition of that moral excel- lence which is the end of creation and which is beyond the reach of Nature. The Immortal Life 63 We do not claim for man the freedom of a perfect or absolute personality. This, as Dr. Lotze affirms, belongs only to God. Man has the limitations of a finite nature. He is sub- ject to laws and conditions beyond his control. But these limitations do not encroach upon his moral freedom, which pertains especially to his choice of ultimate ends. In walking he must conform to mechanical laws, in thinking to the laws of thought. But the end for which he walks and thinks he determines for him- self, and it is this choice of ultimate ends that determines his course of life, and his charac- ter. We are not called upon to explain how man, grounded in nature, can rise above it in asserting his moral prerogative. But two things are plain. ist. As possessing the highest form of energy, the rational, he has, as we have seen, the prescriptive right to over- rule all the forces of his organism, according to the supreme law of rational life. 2d. This law in its nature is ethical, which, in imposing moral obligation to fulfil it, involves responsi- bility, and the liberty which always goes with it. Herbert Spencer has given to the world an able work on the Data of Ethics, but at the same time advocates a philosophy which, in denying human personality, allows no scope 64 The Immortal Life for ethical functions. In his definition of life, also, "The adjustment of internal relations to external relations, or the correspondence of the organism to its environment," there is no recognition of the essential characteristic of rational life. It applies to vegetal and animal life only. Rational life is of a higher order, and requires the adjustment of voluntary ac- tivities to the demands of ethical law within. In the struggle for physical life, man, like the animal, must adjust his organism to its environ- ment. But his struggle for moral and spiritual life demands the adjustment of purpose and choice to the requirements of an inner spiritual law in the way of self-government. This is the very struggle that characterizes manhood. If man has no self-conscious, self-directing Ego to order his life by the inward law of right- eousness as well as in correspondence with en- vironment, there are no " data of ethics in the man," and a work assuming such data, but denying the power to fulfil ethical functions in the way of self-government, is like giving us the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. Man has rational powers, a delegated sover- eignty, as we have shown, for the very purpose of riofhteous self-sfovernment. Had the Creator given a constitution that would of itself carry The Immortal Life 65 out the principle of subordination, leaving no liberty of moral choice, the progress of crea- tion would have ended in Nature, and amoral kingdom, the crown of all, would not have come into being. So long as one cannot deny his obligation to choose the true and the right, rather than the false and the wrong, he must know himself subject to ethical law and condemn himself for its violation. To deny his liberty of moral choice, is to disown his manhood and to drop from the realm of per- sons to that of things. Rational endowments carry with them the obligations of rational action, and they therefore bring him face to face with himself as a personal living being, bound to exercise righteous sovereignty over himself, in obedience to ethical law. Such is the nature of self-government, and it implies not only the exercise o{ personal functions, but also those of a spiritual being. This determines his place in the spiritual kingdom. This will be manifest when we consider the ends he is to seek, the law he is to administer, the functions exercised in administering it, and the general character of the rational life. First, the ends he is to seek are spiritual. Life has many subordinate ends, not in themselves spiritual, but chosen as means for 66 The Immortal Life attaining those that are uUimate and spiritual. It is the choice of ultimate ends which is properly ethical and determines character. In both the lower and higher nature are princi- ples of action correlated to special objects or ends. The lower nature has its cravings, which are of course unspiritual, but innocent when their claims do not conflict with those of superior rank and value. But we crave objects that are not material, and which have nothing to do with the body. They are objects that address our spiritual nature and meet our higher wants. For example, we seek for spiritual realities, or for the deeper mean- ing of phenomena, which does not address the senses but the rational understanding. We seek for invisible principles for causes, laws, and ends that open to us the rational order of the world, and that unity which is one with truth. Truth is a spiritual reality, meeting the deep wants of our spiritual nature. It is divine, as representing divine thought and purpose. It is the very sustenance and guide of the rational and moral life, and as such is an im- portant endoi the spiritual life. Beauty also ad- dresses our spiritual and aesthetic nature and is a spiritual reality. Spiritually discerned, color, form, and sound have no beauty until The Immortal Life 67 they are made to express those harmonious relations that touch our finer sensibilities. The profusion of beauty, in all its varieties, that gives to Nature its inexpressible charm, and the great masterpieces of Art, that are the admiration of the world, would be as a blank, unheeded, without that power of spiritual dis- cernment which belongs to oursesthetic nature. Furthermore, the moral qualities that give elevation and worthiness to the ethical life are all spiritual in their nature. Justice, purity, humility, patience, faith, love, righteousness, are some of the qualities to which we refer. They do not centre in, or belong to, the physi- cal organism, but they are correlated to the higher psychical and spiritual life which uses the body only as its instrument for the up- building of character and the perfection of the moral life. This is the supreme end to which truth, beauty, and the whole education of life should lead. Again, ethical law, requiring the subordina- tion of lower to higher ends when in compe- tition, is a spiritual law, and it is the great law of the spiritual life. It is not only invisible, but it addresses man's power of spiritual dis- cernment and of moral judgment as inherent in his reason and conscience. 68 The Immortal Life It addresses the will, not as a form of physi- cal energy but as a moral power, competent to subordinate physical and organic forces from a higher plane, for the ends of the spiritual life. Again, the functions by which the law is made effective are spiritual. Those which were referred to in the previous chapter are essentially as follows : the acceptance of ethical law as supreme and imperative, the ap- plication of this law to conflicting principles of action through moral judgments, the actual preference of the higher principle, and, finally, the giving effect to that preference by voli- tional action. Not one of these functions comes under cosmic or natural law. They are all functions of the inner, psychical life, for the ends of righteousness. The term "spiritual," is not easily defined, but it applies to those functions that are purely psychical, correlated to invis- ible realities, and to ends that are subjective and spiritually apprehended. The above functions answer to these tests. Finally, to live rationally is to live and move in a spiritual world ; dealing habitually with spiritual realities. Such a world is within and around us. The fact that the world is ration- The Immortal Life 69 ally ordered means that through its phe- nomena we see the invisible and the spiritual Power that ordered it, even the thoughts, pur- poses, and attributes of the Creator. Through phenomena we see invisible law as the method of the divine agency ; through the combined operation of laws and forces in Nature, we see the divine thoughts embodied in systems, and in the combination of systems we see the Living Unity to which all truth leads, and which the totality of truth must represent All these phenomena, laws, systems of truth, represent the great, living, spiritual Reality to which our spiritual nature is correlated. The marvel is that any rational person should lack this spiritual insight, and look upon the world as a fortuitous aggregation of things without spiritual meaning, when the very idea of rational order, of beauty and truth, means an unseen rational Intelligence as the original cause, and the very soul and significance of the world in which they live and move. If some persons, in looking at the heavens, do not discover this spiritual Reality, it is because only their physical eye is open and the spiritual eye is closed. Not only do the orderly movements of the heavenly bodies declare the higher glory that shines through yo The Immortal Life them, but not less do the affinities and com- binations of the infinitesimal and atomic world, and the orderly ways in which they lend their service to the higher forms of energy in the complex processes of organic life. These all declare the presence and working of the same spiritual and omnipresent Intelligence. Professor Jevons, with whose scientific attain- ments the world is familiar, expresses the be- lief that even a molecule of iron has in its little sphere of operations an order of rotary movements that surpasses the complexity and harmony of the movements of the planetary system. In all molecular movements on the lowest plane, what obedience to law ; in crys- tallization, what conformity to geometric ideals; in the ascent of elements and principles of life from lower to higher planes, what uniform subordination of the former to the latter, in loyal and co-operative service, of the highest spiritual ends ! The fact that thoughtful and discerning minds in all ages have recognized these spiritual manifestations as the most real and impressive of all things, shows that there is a spiritual element in man answering to that in Nature. And certainly the correspondence between them is the source and condition not only of science, but also of the deepest spiritual The Immortal Life 71 life. In fact, how superficial and narrow would human life be without this access to and correspondence with what is highest and best in the Universe ! It was this consciousness in Tennyson that led him to say, with emphasis : " You may tell me my hands and my feet are only imagi- nary symbols of my existence, and I can be- lieve you. But you can never, never convince me that the /is not an eternal reality, and that the spiritual is not the true and real part of me." — Life of Tennyson, ii., p. 90. If men did not exercise their spiritual func- tions — intellectual, aesthetic, and moral — in cor- respondence with their spiritual environment, their highest culture would be comparatively coarse and vulgar. A materialistic age is of necessity one of blunted sensibility and low ideals. It sees nothing to adore, scarcely any- thing to awaken wonder. One to whom the world is but a soulless mechanism, has little use for his higher endowments. He sees in creation not even the solemn grandeur of the silent sphinx. It holds no secrets. It keeps silence because it has nothing to say. The ages come and go, bearing no message, bring- ing to view phenomena, and only phenomena. A false theory hides the great realities, a 72 The Immortal Life glimpse of which would bring flashes of in- sight, awakening awe and worship. There is a broad and shining firmament, though the blind see it not. And as beyond the reach of the telescope there are worlds and systems of worlds, revealed on the sensitive plate of the astronomical photographer, so to the sensitive spiritual mind are revealed the realities of the Infinite, shining from unfathomed depths. They touch affinities, and stir emotions that seem to break through present limitations into clearer and broader vision of the Infinite. It is significant, notwithstanding the blind- ness of some, that the human spirit has such affinities for the spiritual in a world unseen by the senses, that even the most trivial inci- dents suggest it, and instrumentalities that in themselves are simply mechanical become the medium of its revelation. To how many do the mechanical vibrations of the atmosphere become spiritual harmonies in the soul, or visions of realities that belong to a higher world ! That mechanical vibrations to the ear should thus touch spiritual chords within, and be the medium of revelations that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and that uplift the soul to a realm purely spiritual, is a startling revelation of hidden capacities and powers The Immortal Life Va awaiting development into larger and higher life. We respond to the words of Tennyson, when he speaks of " The tides of music's golden sea setting toward eternity." We are sure, too, that such tides lift one out of self into the experience of a purer, higher life of love. " Love took up the harp of life and smote on all the chords with might, Smote the chord of self that, trembling, passed in music out of sight." Even Horace felt "things worthy of a sacred silence " that " must sound across the under- world." When under the power of spiritual realities we seem to be taken up above the world of time and sense, where we do not reckon time by the pendulum of the clock, but by the depth and fulness of the inward life. Ages are thus compressed into an hour, and certainly an hour of such life is better than an age of dul- ness. Though it may be well that such experiences are rare and of short duration, lest they shatter the frail bodily organism, they give plain indication of capacities that transcend the limitations of the present state 74 The Immortal Life and reveal a oreatness of which we are ordi- narily unconscious. And if, as toward the silent tomb we go, Thro' love, thro' hope and faith's transcendent dower, We feel that we are greater than we know. Wordsworth, River Duddon. Is it not strange that those combinations in form, color, and tone, through which we begin to realize the beautiful and sublime, should so touch our inward nature with overpowering emotion and spiritual vision as to be a revela- tion of affinities within that are ordinarily latent, but which are awaiting the removal of present limitations for the full realization of that of which we have occasional glimpses ? An ideal of beauty, partially expressed, sug- gests the perfect. It is this partial embodi- ment of spiritual ideals in various forms of excellence — intellectual, aesthetic, and moral — that gives to Nature its meaning, and to man his power of uplifting communion with the great Reality it both veils and reveals. With- out the apprehension of the spiritual in the world, human life would be low and trivial, if not entirely sensual. Poetry, art, philosophy, would be but body without spirit. Men be- come men only as the spiritual in them The Immortal Life 75 responds to the spiritual in the creation of God. That so many have this precious in- sight, and find in it the development of a purer and nobler humanity, is proof that man belongs to a spiritual kingdom. HUMAN CAPACITIES CORRELATED TO AN INFINITE ENVIRONMENT " Man is made for the Infinite." Pascal. "Devout feeling embracing its object and losing itself therein, develops an infinite fulness of life which it is totally unable to measure or express." Professor Caird, Evolution of Religion, ii., p. 292. 77 CHAPTER V HUMAN CAPACITIES CORRELATED TO AN INFINITE ENVIRONMENT IN estimating the range of human capacities ^ we are not to base our judgment upon the lowest of the species nor upon the average man, but upon those who have attained the highest development. Aristotle, in his Ethics, gives the true standard in the following defini- tion : "The nature of a being is that which it has become, when its process of development is over." Our race being progressive, not only do the lowest specimens fail to represent its capabili- ties, but the most advanced are seen to have possibilities not yet realized. We are, there- fore, likely to make too low, rather than too high, an estimate of what man may become. The animal soon reaches full development, and each individual may be said to represent its species. This is by no means true of man. As Emerson expresses it: "Every lion is a type of all lionhood, but no man is a type of 79 8o The Immortal Life all manhood." Miss Frances Power Cobb ex- presses a similar thought : "The best and the greatest men have been imperfect types, of a single phase of manhood — of the saint, the hero, the sage, the poet, the philanthropist, the friend ; never of the full-orbed man who should be all these together." See her Life, ii., p. 381. But in rare cases many excellences and even opposite qualities may be found in the same individual; e.g., the speculative and the prac- tical man, the scientist and the philosopher, the poet and the mathematician, all in one. That such apparently opposite qualities may be united in one person enlarges our concep- tion of the possibilities to be realized. In fact, no one can now foretell what the race may become in the distant future. The human body reaches full development in a few years, say, at forty-five, and after that gradually de- clines. But a Gladstone and Martineau at ninety are in full possession of their mental powers. It is significant that when the physi- cal organism had reached its highest stage of development, there was a departure in the line of progress from physical to psychical and rational life. To the latter we can assign no limit ; for its environment, as related to every The Immortal Life 8i department of that Hfe, — whether intellectual, aesthetic, ethical, or religious, — opens toward infinity. Dr. Lotze well says: " The capacity of being conscious of the Infinite, is the dis- tinguishing characteristic of the human mind." — Murocosmos, ii., p. 714. Certainly the environment of his rational nature is boundless, and if life is the corre- spondence of man with his environment, he is "capable of indefinite progression." Science, beginning with phenomena and ascertaining the laws of their coexistence and succession, proceeds to discover the interrelations of forces, and kingdoms, and advances toward a higher and broader unity, embracing the whole circle of the sciences. But philosophy looks beyond phenomena and law to causes, princi- ples, and ends, till it reaches the highest possi- ble unity, in the creative thought and purpose which orders atoms, kingdoms, and worlds as parts of one cosmic system, the Universe. But the departments of science are many, and each is found to be too broad to be com- pressed by man into his three-score-and-ten years. In fact, the thorough scientist has to forego the study of any science in its broader relations and confine his studies to narrower boundaries. It is said of a German professor, 82 The Immortal Life a noted philologist, that on his death-bed he confessed sorrowfully to his son the great mistake of his life : " I ought to have con- fined myself to the Dative case." Whether true or not, it illustrates the fact that one who would perfect himself in any department of study must restrict his inquiries to very nar- row quarters. In fact, the more searching the inquiry the more need is seen of further and further specializations. New fields are con- stantly opening. While the telescope is opening to view countless worlds in the depth of space, the microscope is making revelations in the infinitesimal world, if possible, still more wonderful. And beyond the range even of microscopic inspection Science now postulates an ethereal element, filling space, whose marvel- lous vibrations give us light, heat, and color, and so paradoxical in apparently extreme tenuity and in its admantine compactness as to challenge as yet all scientific explanation. Thus our material environment is not only boundless in its extent, but so various and mysterious in many of its manifestations that the most skilful and advanced scientists can, in the present life, only begin the study which ages cannot complete. Agassiz, Gray, and Tyndall each in a different department, had a The Immortal Life 83 like experience of limited attainment and of boundless unexplored fields opening before them. Beethoven entranced the world with his symphonies and sonatas, but he felt that he had only entered the world of musical combi- nations and harmonies. " Music," said he, " ushers me into the portals of an intellectual world, always ready to encompass me, but which I can never compass. I feel that there is an eternal and an infinite to be attained." A like sentiment was expressed by Sidney Lanier, who possessed in rare measure the sen- sibility and the genius of both the musician and the poet. Dying in early manhood, while his powers were yet unfolding, he left a manu- script, published in the Boston TransciHpt July 27, 1895, from which we make the follow- ing extract : " There is a constant effort in man to relate himself to the infinite, not only in the cognitive but also in the emotive way, and just as persistently. We wish not only to think it, but to love it. It may be that our love can reach nearer to its object. As a philosophic truth, music does carry our emo- tion toward the infinite. It must be that there exists some sort of relation between pure tones and the spiritual man, by reason 84 The Immortal Life of which the latter is stimulated and forced onward toward the great end of all love and admiration. Thus, music becomes a moral agency." Such is the testimony not only of men of keen sensibility but of profound philosophical insight. " The consciousness of finiteness," says Lotze, " has always oppressed mankind." It is a saying of Carlyle : " Man's unhappi- ness comes of his greatness. It is because there is an infinite in him, which, with all his cunning, he cannot quite bring under the finite." — Sartor Resartus, p. 121. The Duke of Argyle treats of the same subject from the philosophical standpoint, as follows : " The limiting bars against which we beat could not be felt unless there were something which seeks a wider scope. It is as if these bars were a limit of opportunity rather than a boundary of powers. The animals and the lower nature of man, seek nothing beyond and beside the objects they desire. They are satisfied with their attainment. But with the appetites of the mind it is different. We feel our ignorance and helplessness, not because we have reached the limits of our intellectual power, but because we cannot reach them, and The Immortal Life 85 because the desires which correspond to them are not satisfied. This is true of all the higher powers of the human mind, viewed in relation to the objects of their desire. They are never fully attained, nor is the desire for them fully satisfied. In physics, the existence of any pressure is the indication of a potential energy, which, though doing no work, is capable of doing it. So, in the intellectual world, the sense of pressure and confinement is the index of powers which under other con- ditions are capable of doing what they cannot at present. Not only are the bars such as can be removed, but they offer in certain directions no impediment to a boundless range of vision. It is said the finite cannot comprehend the in- finite. But we apprehend a reality which we cannot comprehend, as when we negative all limits. It is one of the most familiar appre- hensions of space and time." — U7iity of Nature, p. 127. Men love to deal with the vast in space and time, matching their powers with the world's immensities. The geologist traces the earth's changes backward through millions of years, to chaos, the assumed starting-point of the present order. Even beyond this, he makes the interrogation : " Is the chaotic fire-mist 86 The Immortal Life the absolute beginning, or is it the ashes of previous worlds whose story had ended, and at the same time a baptism into fresh life for a new career of evolving worlds ? " This re- gression into the remote past only stimulates Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, to fore- cast, if possible, the future of the present sys- tem. Finding the data for determining when the cosmic forces will have exhausted their working power, and the system, like a worn- out chronometer, will have stopped movement, he endeavors to ascertain the period of its life. If, indeed, the Creator has furnished data for such computations, it would seem to be an in- vitation to use them, that we may in so doing follow His footsteps far back into the past and on into the future, till in both directions we come face to face with His eternity. It is doubtless His purpose that, by the study of His works, we grow in mental and moral stature and enlarge our conceptions of Him till we realize that our short lives here, and the great epochs of human history, are but moments in the life of the Everlasting. Indeed, it belongs to the rational mind, so far as possible, to search out the great things of God and not give our lives to mere conventionalities and things of trifling moment. " Give me a great The Immortal Life 87 thought," said the poet Pindar, "that I may Hve upon it." The author or the orator who takes men out of themselves and lifts them above the commonplace of a humdrum life into larger sympathies and broad ranges of thought, is a benefactor. Nor does the con- templation of things majestic and sublime be- little man's estimate of his own nature. The mountain summit that commands the widest expanse may at first seem to dwarf him into insignificance. But, on surveying the scene, its very sublimities at length give a sense of power and of larger life. In fact, it is the ma- jestic that touches the deeper emotions, and brings into consciousness the greatness of man, giving elevation and repose even to a depressed and troubled spirit. The experience of F. W. Robertson, when in a fearful thunderstorm in the Alps, well illustrates this fact. We can here give only a brief extract from his own eloquent description of it. He was in a deep valley, entirely alone, when the storm suddenly came upon him: "The vultures at once took alarm and came plun- ging down from the heights, and flocks of chamois startled the solitude with their cries of fear. The mountain suddenly grew dark, 88 The Immortal Life and took apparent motion from the flying clouds that were wreathing the summits. Then came the blinding flashes of the blue lightning, that streamed down the mountain sides, with crashing peals of thunder, as if the mountain must give way. It was a scene of awful grandeur." But, instead of being prostrated with abject fear, a strange sympathy, with mingled emotions, took possession of him. " Awe and triumph, defiance of danger and contempt of pain — pride, rapture, and intense repose." He had been passing through a period of depression and conflict bordering on despair. The warring elements brought relief and re- stored him to himself. In the very stress and rage of the storm he cried out: "There! there ! all this was in my heart but it was never said out till now." The very violence of the scene seemed to give expression to the storm that had raged within, bringing thereby strength and repose. — Lectures and Addresses, p. 124. The varying moods of the human mind have their counterpart in Nature, which not infre- quently gives expression to states that have not risen unto distinct consciousness, and thereby reveals man to himself. Thus the The Immortal Life 89 multitudinous aspects of Nature are suited to different temperaments. A thunderstorm in the Alps would not have given expression and relief to Wordsworth, especially after his im- pulsive and adventurous youth had passed into the calm and contemplative habit of mature years. It was in the vale of Grasmere, with its lake unruffled by the winds, reflecting as in a mirror the green meadows, the lofty Helvellyn, and the blue sky, that he was at home and at rest. And whatever the out- ward aspect, it was to him a medium through which the higher realities, unseen, infinite, and spiritual were revealed, giving " A sense sublime of something far more deeply in- terfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns And the round ocean and the living air And the blue sky, and in the mind of man." The supreme function of Nature is its spir- itually suggestive and revealing character, and sometimes the revealing object, however sub- lime in itself, quite vanishes from sight by rea- son of the greater sublimity of the object it reveals. This was the experience of Coleridge when gazing upon Mount Blanc from the vale of go The Immortal Life Chamouni : " Ah, dread and silent mount ! I gazed upon thee till thou, still present to the bodily sense, didst vanish from my sight. En- tranced in prayer, I worshipped the Invisible alone." Even Tyndall and Voltaire confessed that, under the solemn heights of Matterhorn, they felt an almost irresistible impulse to wor- ship. They saw in those majestic heights the symbo of the Infinite, and they bowed in wor- ship. The deep emotions awakened by the sublimities of Nature seem to give clearness and force even to intellectual convictions be- yond the power of logic, and even without its aid. The heart, in its fulness of power, can and often will dispense with dialectics, as the electric light can dismiss the candle. Without conscious reasoning the spirit may go straight to its object. At any rate, if sensibility with- out interpreting thought is often vague, thought without sensibility is empty of con- tent. We can feel an infinite we cannot measure. Many a man who had not learned to worship the God of the Bible has in his heart erected an altar " to the Unknown God." The imagination, as well as feeling and in- tellect, is correlated to the Infinite. Lord Bishop Westcott says of the poet : " He is one who sees the Infinite in things. Life and The Immortal Life 91 Nature have an infinite and eternal meaning, and the poet makes us see it. The office of art is to present the truth of things under the aspect of beauty ; to bring before us the world as God made it, when all was beauty." But the imagination also creates ideals of its own, rising nearer and nearer to the perfection which is not reached in this mortal life. As Beethoven was wont to revel in " a world of harmonies that always encompassed him, but which he could never compass," so Michael Angelo, at eighty-nine, was creating ideals he could not embody in concrete form. Nothing he had completed was the measure of his capacity, for there were in his brain, statues, frescoes, and cathedral domes he could not yet realize in fact. This constant progression of the ideal life, this broader and broader out- look into the realm of possibilities — what is it but the prophecy of a career begun but not completed ? This that turns present failures into courage and hope, — "What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me." " On the earth the broken arch, In the heavens the perfect round." It is well known that men in oreneral have a sort of subconscious sense of truth and 92 The Immortal Life realities, which they do not distinctly recognize until men of deeper insight have given them utterance. A Shakespeare, a Wordsworth, and a Tennyson give clear expression to truths to which multitudes give ready re- sponse. " Yes, that was in my mind, but I could never give it shape in words. " The poet and the seer are often the unconscious inter- preters of what belongs to humanity, but which lies hidden, awaiting disclosure by some mas- ter-mind. But who can tell how much is latent in the mind of the poet and the seer, that, by some incident or flash of intuition, is to come into clear consciousness ? Further- more, all deep penetrations into the hidden mysteries of the Universe are also further dis- closures of the capabilities of the human mind, — the Infinite without calling to the Infinite within. We have spoken of the boundless range open to our intellectual and aesthetic life and to the creative imagination. But who can assign the limits to human affection? It is a common experience that the death of a friend, instead of extinguishing, intensifies the love of survivors. Jean Paul Richter went from the grave of his son to his chamber, and wrote his Kasse- The Immortal Life 93 perrer Thai. Death had deepened his assur- ance that the separation was not final, and his work was an expression of deepened affection and of hope he wished others to share. The eminent theologian and philosopher, Schleiermacher, was, for a time at least, so far under the influence of pantheistic ideas as to lose his faith in a continuous personal life after death. It was to be lost as an individual life, and merged in the divine and impersonal life of the world. This disqualified him to give con- solation to those deeply afflicted. This he felt to his sorrow in the case of a very near friend, Henriette von Machenfels, who had lost her husband three years after her marriage. She had revered Schleiermacher for his great- ness and had trusted implicitly in his counsel. Dr. Marti neau, in Studies hi Religion, gives ex- tracts from the correspondence between him and his friend, who had besought him to give her some assurance of a future life and of a possible reunion in another world. We can only indicate, by brief extracts, the character of this correspondence. She writes : " Give me if you can the assurance of finding and knowing him again : it is for this that I live. It is the only outlook that sheds light on my dark life. When I think his soul is quite 94 The Immortal Life resolved into the ' Great All,' that the old is quite gone by and will never come to recogni- tion again, — Oh ! Schleier, this I cannot bear. — That dear personal life which is all I know, he is Ehrenfried no more ! Gone to his God not to be kept safe, but to be forever lost in him ! " Schleiermacher's attempts at consola- tion seemed but mockery of her intense love. She asked for bread. He gave her a stone. Two souls had become one in an intense and common life, and to extinguish one was to blight the other, leaving the tenderest affection without an object. See Martineau's Shcdzes in Religion, ii., p. 336-9. Will it be said such affection is excessive, and that time soon heals the wounds of the heart? But a loveless demonstration may be as deep and persistent. As these lines are being written, a friend near by is looking with moistened eyes at a little piece of needle-work wrought by a sister fifty years ago. The needle remains just where it was left by the hand that then ended its work with her life. It was unfinished and valueless in itself, but it is kept as a sacred treasure. The half-cen- tury has wrought great changes in individuals and in empires, but this little memento wit- nesses to an unchanging love that takes no The Immortal Life 95 account of time or space. Coleridge said of Dorothy, the sister of Wordsworth, — " Her spirit was a mansion for all lovely forms, a dwelling place for all sweet sounds and harmo- nies." She gave the treasures of her mind and the wealth of her love to her brother, making any sacrifice for him a delight. This affection was fully reciprocated by him. In a letter to her he writes : " The happiness I experience in communion with you makes the moments worth ages." What measure is there for such love ? It is infinite. Nor is such affection abnormal or excessive. On the contrary, as men grow into larger and nobler manhood we are to expect that their affections, which are the crowning glory of men, will grow in depth and tenderness. Thus every part of man's rational nature — intellectual, aesthetic, and social — seems made for the infinite. This is emphatically true of man as a re- ligious being, made in the image of God to share His infinite life. This will be the subject of the next chapter. THE PROPER HUMAN LIFE, ONE WITH THE LIFE OF GOD " Religion is the life of God in the soul of man." Maine. " The soul of man in the liighest sense is a vast capacity of God."' Professor Henry Drummond. " The human blossoms into the divine, and thereby perfects humanity." Wood. 97 CHAPTER VI THE PROPER HUMAN LIFE, ONE WITH THE LIFE OF GOD IN the Bible account of the creation (^Gen. I : 27) we read : "So God created man in His own image." This is a remarkable record, made in very early time. It attributes to man a dignity and worth above all other creatures. Man the image of God ! At first view, this seems pre- posterous, especially as the same record exalts God as the Creator of the world, the Eternal, the Almighty, and as possessing all moral perfec- tions. It seems strange, therefore, that man — who is of yesterday and may die to-morrow, who is not only frail but sinful, and who often debases himself below the animal — should be given in the same record so wonderful a dis- tinction. Can there be any possible evidence, outside the Bible, that confirms this testimony ? There is a still older record, not only contain- ing such evidence, but furnishing positive proof 99 loo The Immortal Life of its truth. This record is creation itself, — a volume direct from the hand of the Creator. This proof rests on a twofold basis, the soundness of which few persons will now question. First, the order of the creation reveals a Rational Intelligence as its author. Second, the fact that men interpret this order in terms of human thought, shows that their intelligence, as rational, is similar in kind. The first posi- tion, that the order of creation is a rational order, revealing a Rational Intelligence as its author, needs here no proof. All science takes it for granted in claiming to interpret it. For unless this order is the expression of an intel- ligence that is rational, in the common use of the term, science could have no standing what- ever. All sound philosophy affirms that a ra- tional product shows a rational intelligence as its cause. Our purpose now is to establish the proof of the second position. Of course it is the mind, not the body, of man that bears the divine image, and our claim is that the soul of man, as rational, can enter into and share the divine life and so far can be one with it. It will be conceded that when one mind ex- presses itself in some form of language which The Immortal Life loi another mind interprets in terms of its own consciousness, there must be the relationship of Hkeness between them. For example, we in some manner interpret the mind of animals, as expressed by them, in various forms of natural language, and the}^ in like manner interpret us, because we have a like animal nature. But they cannot enter with us into the realm of truth, which is the realm of spiritual realities, because they possess no spiritual nature. For the same reason, if the Most High has a realm of thought and life that is absolute and unconditioned, we cannot enter with Him into that realm, since it is out of all relation to our finite intellieence. But the world's order reveals an intelligence an- swering to our own, since we can interpret it in terms of human thought. Here, then, the human and the divine intelligences correspond, and are in communication as truly as when two persons, through some form of language, communicate with and understand each other. Now, if the world is God's creation, it answers to His creative thought and is therefore truth to Him ; and, so far as we interpret it rightly in terms of human thought, it is truth to us. It follows that in the order of the world and in the structure of our mind as correlated to it, I02 The Immortal Life there is such correspondence as to imply com- mon principles of intelHgence, and within the cosmic order a common standard of truth. There is, then, so far, a likeness between the human and divine intelligences. Furthermore, we see distinctly in both Nature and the human mind, the same essential characteristics of ra- tionality. It belongs to the rational mind to seek higher and higher forms of unity. For example, we, as rational, interpret and combine our sensa- tions, as given by external objects, into broader conceptions, comprising the various qualities of an object. Accordingly, we combine the form, the color, the flavor, etc., of the orange into a single conception, representing the orange as a concrete unity. A still higher unity of thought associates the orange with its surroundings, — with the seed and soil from which it springs, with the climate where it grows, and the conditions of its development and its practical uses. It is in this way we enlarge our rational knowledge, including many particulars in one conception and many conceptions in judgments more and more comprehensive, until we reach the broadest possible generalizations. By these processes we attain higher and higher unities of thought, corresponding to unities of fact in the world The Immortal Life 103 without. Were our mind, through larger de- velopment and wider knowledge, capacious enough to unify all the facts and relations of the world, we could comprehend all in a single thought, the thought representing in conscious- ness the one cosmic system. We cannot suppose the Most High attains omniscience by these laborious processes. They are our slow steps of progress, as finite creatures. Still, in this world of space and time we see a like progression, to higher and higher unities. Matter, it is believed, was at first diffused and chaotic, and by evolutionary process was brought in course of time, con- structively, to various forms of unity. We see this in the lower kingdoms, in chemical union, in crystallization, in the simple vegetal organ- isms. But there was also advance in com- plexity and unity, till all the kingdoms with their manifold relations were brought into the marvellous unity we call the Universe. This progression we now see has been from the first toward a spiritual kingdom, and toward one supreme end in that kingdom which is of ethical and absolute value, and all these king- doms subserve it, so that the mind, which is large enough to construct such a unity, must comprehend all in a single thought. We see, 104 The Immortal Life therefore, in the progressive upbuilding of the cosmic system on a vast scale, the same deci- sive stamp of rationality , which is the charac- teristic of the human mind in its constructive processes of thought and work. Now, it is the especial function of the human mind to interpret the divine order of Nature into these unities of thought and fact. Such is the work of science itself. Accordingly, as men shall realize these divine unities embodied in the world, the human and the divine intelli- gences will come into closer contact, and into more complete communication and realized correspondence. So man is fitted by the very structure of his mind to share what we may term the intellectual life of God, as manifest in the ordered relations of the world. But there is a higher form of the divine life than the intellectual which men are made to share. This is revealed in the finer propor- tions and harmonies of the world — in those forms, colors, motions, and tones that address our aesthetic nature, and awaken the sense of beauty. Such harmonies give a keener de- light than those relations that address only the intellect. Though they reach us through the senses, and in some measure also through the intellect, they strike deeper and stir spirit- The Immortal Life 105 ual emotions. They are in fact spiritually dis- cerned. Animals with keener senses than ours have no sense of beauty because they lack the sensibilities of a spiritual nature. The dog feels the sensational thrill at the strikingf of a bell. The thrush utters sweet musical notes and the peacock spreads his tail of gorgeous colors. But having no spiritual sensibility and no ideal of beauty they have no appreciation of the beautiful in what they see, hear, or display. Man finds himself in an environment of beauty, and in its appreciation he realizes a nobler life than that of the sensuous or the intellectual. We wonder at the affluence of beauty that is lavished upon this once form- less and chaotic world. We find it every- where, and not as a mere fringe or decorative bordering of the useful, or a surface adorn- ment for the superficial observer. It enters into the structure of the world, into its secret processes, and into its general economy. The lowest kingdom has its manifold forms of crystallization after geometric ideals. The snow-flake and the frost-work on the window- pane, show the same tendency, as if it were a passion in Nature to embody ideals of beauty. The law of gravity is a law of harmony : alike for atoms and for worlds. The mightiest io6 The Immortal Life forces in their interplay and the vast magni- tudes in their movements in space, take lines of grace and beauty. If one on a summer even- ing stand under the open sky and contem- plate the whole aspect of things, he is impressed by the order, the silence, and the repose in which the great Universe with its resistless energ-ies moves on. The ethereal element that from remote dis- tances touches our eyes with light and color, in its infinitesimal vibrations of different lengths but of accordant movements, seems a vast musical instrument attuned to the finest har- monies and touched by the finger of God. In thus bringing to us the splendors of light and color, by appliances so vast, so minute and exact in their movement, does He not manifest His own love of harmony and is He not in sympathy with the delight He gives to His rational creation? But what a wealth of beauty He appreciates that is beyond our reach ! We think of primeval forests, lifting their verdure and bloom far from the abodes of men, often spanned by rainbows and flushed by sunsets that no human eye be- holds ; of rare flowers in wilderness places ; of myriads of insect voices that on a summer's night break its stillness with rythmic and The Immortal Life 107 happy responses, when the rest of the world is asleep. How manifest that He, who thus fills space and time with beauty and song and ex- uberant life of which He alone can be the appreciative witness, must Himself delight in them. The flowers hidden from us He tints as sweetly as those we see by the way side. Many a wild bird of the wood is more beauti- ful than those that sing in our cages ; and the leaves of the forest are woven as deftly after their pattern as those that throw their shade upon our lawns. Beyond the utmost range of our senses, away in the measureless spaces, He works out His ideals of beauty as perfectly as before our eyes. In fact, this infinity of beauty which we cannot see, but which we know He has brought into being, and which He enjoys, gives us a sense of the fulness of its aesthetic life that has no measure but infinity. We are sure that He loves beauty for its own sake, as well as for the pleasure it gives to us, and that His satisfaction in it must be infinitely greater than ours. But He has qualified us to appre- hend in imao^ination what our senses cannot reach, and by this inner vision to know of a vast wealth of beauty which God directly sees, and so, in thought, we share in the fulness of His aesthetic life. io8 The Immortal Life Nor can we be too grateful for this high privilege. If our environment were crude and repellant, meeting only the wants of our ani- mal nature but devoid of beauty, this would be to us an unlovely, desolate world, out of harmony with our nobler nature. We could never be at home in such a world. But now we feel on every hand the touch of a kindly Spirit in sympathy with us, seeking to refine and ennoble us by gentle and delicate minis- trations in the smallest things, and to uplift us by the grandeur of His mountains and His firmament. But He does not minister to us as mere passive observers of His beautiful crea- tion ; he qualifies and inspires us to create a world of our own, and to put into our ideals the same principles of beauty and harmony that He applies in His great cosmic upbuilding. We can never, indeed, equal the Divine Artist, but our conscious failures intensify our love of the excellence we do not reach, and we set our faces toward the perfect beauty which dwells only in the mind of God. This spiritual vision takes us above our own ideals, above all concrete forms of beauty, into the spiritual realm, to enter into that divine aesthetic life that can have no finite expression. But there is still another form of the divine The Immortal Life 109 life, far transcending the intellectual and aes- thetic. In this, too, we are made to share with the Most High. It is His ethical life, comprising those moi^al qualities — justice, righteousness, mercy, love — which belong only to personal beings. When all these qualities of character are united in perfect harmony, they may be called the " Beauty of Holiness." But while a symmetrical character is beautiful, we are not to identify the ro fxa\6v of the Greeks with holiness. Beauty, of the highest order, has its place in the moral realm. No character has right proportions unless right- eousness is the dominant element. But righteousness is conformity to ethical, not to aesthetic, law, and while God delights in beauty, yet righteousness and love are supreme in His character and His administration. Now, right- eousness and love, as ethical qualities, properly belong to all rational beings, of whatever rank or in whatever world they may dwell. They are essentially of the same nature, whether in men, angels, or God. Accordingly, so far as men are righteotLs, they are like God in char- acter and possess a kindred life. There is evidence of God's righteousness in the moral order of the world. Matthew Arnold thus expressed the common conviction of mankind : no The Immortal Life " There is a Power, the Eternal, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness." This conclu- sion he seems to have reached by observing the Providential order in human history. But the very structure of the world illustrates the same fact, inasmuch as its kingdoms are so ordered as to embody the true ethical prin- ciple, the lower being subordinated to the higher and all to the highest. Thus, though Nature itself is non-moral, the Power that orders it has conformed strictly to the princi- ciple of righteousness, for the lowest kingdom, the mineral, is made subordinate to the vege- tal, the vegetal to the animal, and all to man. Now, since the supreme end of man is to be- come righteous like his Maker, it is of great interest to see that the whole structure and movement of the world is ordered in the in- terest of righteousness. Thus the formative and governing principle of creation illustrates the righteousness of the Creator, so that this important truth rests not merely on the gen- eral course of human history, but also on the world's structure and foundations. Indeed, men of insight, whether theists like Carlyle, or atheists like Strauss, have on some ground recognized the same fact. Such revelations are distinctly made, whether through the The Immortal Life m moral nature of man or the divine order of the world. Still, the most effective revelations may be supernatural. God, while immanent in Nature, transcends its limitations. Man also, as a moral being, as we have shown, is above Nature. It would be unreasonable, therefore, to assume the impossibility of divine revelations on this higher spiritual plane, as if the revealing agency of Nature exhausted the divine resources for communicating with man. Certainly the natural order does not limit the aspirations of men for divine fellowship. What devout mind, in interpreting Nature, does not recognize a spiritual presence dis- tinct from and above Nature, and come into fellowship with it ? Is not the experience and the fellowship thus attained, in fact, the most intimate and transforming-, enterino- most deeply into the life of God ? Knowing that He understands our inmost thought and feel- ing, we can give forth to Him our thought, feeling, and affection, not expressed in lan- guage, not to be uttered in words, but which the Omniscient One knows and accepts as the offspring of the heart. The natural order may have led up to this communion of spirit with spirit, but, having served its end, the natural drops out of sight and mind, giving place to 112 The Immortal Life the purely spiritual. What if, in this fellow- ship of the finite with the Infinite, man re- ceives a fulness and power of life that clears away all obstructions, overflowing all the natural channels of communication ? It is not the less real because divine forces and illumi- nations have wrought a deeper consciousness, and lifted the spirit above instrumentalities that have before served it. Nay, is not the best life of man purely spiritual ? When Beethoven apprehended and longed to ex- press the infinity of musical combinations and harmonies, which he said always encompassed him, but which he could not compass or shape into definite thought, had he not an inner con- scious life that was real, and deeper than any to which he could give expression ? Why may not the saint, who has tried to in- terpret to others his thoughts of God, have felt a sense of the fulness of the divine life that encompassed him, but which he could not compass or shape into a definite thought ? From the depths of his consciousness he could give response, as "deep calleth unto deep." Still, the highest moral perfections of God must take a higher form of revelation to man- kind than Nature. It must be distinctly Z^/'- sona I a.nd Jmman. And since the Most High The Immortal Life 113 evidently desired to come into close and inti- mate communication with mankind, we might expect him to supply such a medium for his self-revelation. Everything points to Jesus Christ as the supplementary revelation thus needed. Even Mr. Mill saw in Christ a divine manifestation superior to that of the natural order. The personal life of God could be best expressed in the pure, holy life of Christ as a perfect ina7i. He was not only a superior man, but he spake and lived as one in close fellow- ship with God, so that the term ^' Immanuel, God with us,'' seemed to express His nature and character. At least, in our present state we can expect no clearer manifestation of the divine moral perfections. And since He was man in direct fellowship with the divine life it shows that man as man can attain to a life that is one with that of God. We do not mean that men may experience a life the same in measztre, but the same in kind. Now, if man may realize in himself a life that is one with that of God, he is a being of worth and dignity beyond our highest conceptions. This supreme life, for which the world was made, cannot be orig^inated to be forever extingfuished. The divine life in man, the highest in kind and most precious to God, He will not destroy. AS A RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL BEING, MAN SUSTAINS A DIRECT AND FUNDAMENTAL RELATION TO GOD, WHICH MEANS PERMA- NENCE " In every country, with all people, in all races we find the belief in beings superior to man, and influencing his destiny, for good or evil. Everywhere we find belief in another life succeeding the actual life. These two notions lie at the foundation of all religion. We can say then of man that he is certainly religious." QuATREFAGES, Natural History of Man ^ p. 135. " Fellowship with the Eternal cannot but be eternal, and such fellowship is of the very essence of the moral life." Seth's Ethical Principles, p. 460. 115 CHAPTER VII AS A RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL BEING, MAN SUSTAINS A DIRECT AND FUN- DAMENTAL RELATION TO GOD, WHICH MEANS PERMANENCE IN the preceding chapter we showed that, in interpreting the rational order of the world, man comes into intelligent contact with the divine life, as revealed therein, and thus proves his kinship with God. But his religious and ethical nature involves a more direct and fundamental relationship to God, not merely as qualified to interpret His life in Nature, but, as a child of God, to know Him more in- timately, and to respond to His personal au- thority and paternal love. That God is a personal being we know from His ethical char- acter, as seen in the moral order of the world, and in the religious and ethical nature He has given to man. But, as intimated in the close of the preceding chapter, there is above Nature a direct relation of spirit with spirit, as the source of man's deepest and purest life. 117 ii8 The Immortal Life To this relationship, the religious and ethical nature of man bears witness, for he has ever been seeking after God for more perfect knowledge and direct intercourse. We are now to consider what is involved in this religious and ethical relationship to God as 2L persona/ being. That man has a religio2is as well as an ethical nature, is now almost universally conceded. If Quatrefages could affirm, a half-century ago, that man is by nature a religious being, cer- tainly the more thorough explorations since made, in every corner of the world, confirm his conclusion. Professor Tiele, in giving a broad definition of religion, says : " By religion, I mean those manifestations of the human mind, in words, deeds, customs, and institutions, which testify to man's belief in the super- human and serve to bring him into relations with it." He then adds : " Religion is cer- tainly rooted in man's nature ; that is, it springs from his inmost soul." " Though con- scious of the superiority of our religion, let us hail this religious disposition as a proof of man's higher origin, as a proof that the finite being partakes of the Infinite and the eternal." — Gifford Lectures, pp. 4, 9, 264. Professor Caird on the same point says : " To The Immortal Life 119 sum up the whole matter in one word, every rational being, as such, is a religious being." — Evolution of Religion, p. 68. Instead of accounting for the origin of re- ligion, as Mr. Spencer does, in dreams, ghosts, and the like, it is now affirmed to be the out- come of man's rational nature, as correlated to the world's rational order. Whether man be- came rational, and therefore religious, by the slow process of evolution or by direct creative act, we need not determine. In either case it was by divine agency, since the cosmic process is as truly divine as the creative act. Still there are those who would put religion in the background, substituting ethics in its place, or at least subordinating the former to the latter. But if either has precedence in time, it is not ethics but religion, since what are called nature-religions appeared before those that were ethical. Both are essential as united. Morality may, indeed, be separated from re- ligion, as based on conscience, but such morality lacks two essential elements : vital, persistent forces, and integrity, or complete righteous- ness. Man's sufficiency to rule himself rightly may well be questioned. A merely self-sus- tained will is unequal to the task. Religion, with its divine sanctions, is the surest and I20 The Immortal Life strongest support of morality, reinforcing the moral endeavors as nothing else can. Besides, morality itself, rightly viewed, has a religious basis. "All moral precepts," says Professor Wundt, " originally possess the character of religious command. Morality, law, and religi- ous worship are in the first instance inseparably commingled." — Ethics, p. 121. In very terse but expressive language. Canon Aubrey Moore says : " Human nature craves to be both religious and rational, and the life that is not both is neither." — Lux Mtmdi, p. 109. The categorical imperative of Kant presup- poses divine authority as its basis. Man did not ordain, and cannot repeal, the law of con- science. If the cosmic forces enthroned it, they did not consult his wishes, and its solemn sanctions are independent of his will. His sovereignty is a delegated sovereignty, a trust committed to his keeping, accompanied with a grave responsibility which he cannot alienate. Much as reliofion has been misunderstood and perverted, it is the strongest support of the ethical life. Such life, to be either dominant or complete in righteousness, must be sus- tained and more completely vitalized by the life-blood of filial reverence and love inspired by the holy character and boundless benefi- The Immortal Life 121 cence of God. Such affections move exactly in the Hne of a righteous will. They are the secret of its strength. Religion rightly under- stood furnishes not only the most effective motives, but the highest ideal for the true ethical life ; and the expectation of a future life, instead of marring its simplicity by selfish or prudential motives, intensifies the longing for the purity that shall fit one for seeing God in the heavenly state. The truth is, religion and morality belong together. They are mutually supporting, and cannot be separated without serious detriment to both ; for a religion that is not ethical is a superstition, and a morality without religion lacks both vital efficiency and integrity. The weakness of humanity in presence of the world's temptations must be taken account of by those who are in earnest for the righteous life. If the Stoics, with their reverence for virtue as the chief good, and their assumed self-sufficiency for its practice, not unfrequently confessed defeat and despair by suicide ; if every man of high ideals is conscious of morti- fying failures, certainly the aid of religious motives should be a welcome support. Moral- ists in ancient Egypt and Babylonia appealed to the Supreme Authority to give sanction and 122 The Immortal Life force to moral precepts. The following words of Professor Tiele give instructive warning to schools of ethical culture that would decline the aid of religion altogether, or would subor- dinate it to morality. He says : " A particu- lar civilization that disrep-ards the religious element, and is content with the progress made in other departments, bears no lasting fruit, and soon stagnates and declines ; or, briefly, the development of religion is the necessary consummation of all human develop- ment, and is at once demanded and promoted by it." — Gifford Lectures, 1897, pp. 102, 233- Through the affinity of human nature for religion, it has been from time immemorial the dominant factor in the world's history. The family, the tribe, the city, and the state, have had their sacred altars and their worship. Its solemnities have been invoked at the mar- riage festival, at births, and at funerals. Kings have been invested with its sacred functions, when assuming their regal authority, and even in the republics of Greece and Rome, the Archon in the former and the Patrician in the latter, on state occasions presided over its rites, with titles of royalty. The ethical ele- ment, while indispensable in all true religion, The Immortal Life 123 cannot be its substitute. The progress and well-being of humanity require their insepara- ble union. In fact their separation involves not only the neglect of a most important class of duties, which men owe to God, but a vir- tual mutilation of human nature. For it de- prives the crowning principle in the human constitution of its correlative object, which is the source of its life ; and such is the inter- dependence of functional action in the living organism that, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Who, then, can esti- mate one's loss, both in fulness and quality of life, in living without God in the world? In- deed, the whole cosmic order is correlated to man, as a religious being. We have shown that the intellectual, aesthetic, and moral order is a medium of divine manifestation to the mind and heart of man, and is the school for his mental, moral, and religious education. Thus the Most High comes into contact and communication with man's whole being, and is his true environment and the source and sub- stance of his proper life. For his true life is not realized in observing and classifying phenomena, or in studying the world as a vast mechanism, but rather in recognizing, in all truth and beauty and moral order, the sublime 124 The Immortal Life manifestations of God, that in beholding His glory he may become like Him. Linnaeus might have been an excellent botanist, sensitive to the beauty of flowers, before seeing their deeper significance. It was when he saw the glory of the Invisible in them, and knelt in holy worship, his soul suf- fused with grateful and reverent emotion, that he realized his deeper life. It is one thing to recognize the moral order, "the stream of ten- dency that makes for righteousness " and another thing to appropriate the principle of that order in the government of one's daily life. Accordingly, the inseparable union and dom- inance of these two elements in the life of man is indispensable to that intimate relation- ship to the Most High which conditions the true knowledge of Him and participation in the fulness of His life. True, the life of God is infinite, and cannot be fully manifested to finite intelligence. But " the soul of man," as Professor Drummond has well said, " is a vast capacity for God," and men can know Him and become like Him, through His progressive and ever -varying manifestations of His perfections. Hence, the goal of man is no fixed point of attain- ment, but a continuous approach toward the The Immortal Life 125 infinity he cannot reach. Indeed, the religious and ethical life of our race has been pro- gressive hitherto, though with many sad re- gressions. Whether we accept the evolution theory or not, human history shows, on the whole, great advance in men's conceptions of God, and the application of ethical principles to human conduct. Not to speak of other peoples, this is emphatically true of Israel, the people most favored with divine relevations. When the Hebrews began as a nation at Mt. Sinai, hating as they did the religion of their op- pressors, they seem to have had none to take its place until, at the holy Mount, they were led by Moses to choose Yahveh, the deity of the Kenites of Midian, to be their God. But at that time, and for hundreds of years after- ward, their conceptions of the true God and their standard of morality were very low. He was in their view a local deity, the " God of the sacred mountain," and the " God of bat- tles." Still, in the judgment of Professor Karl Budde of Strasburg, their religion was in some measure ethical, "because it rested on 2Lvoiun- tary decision which established an ethical rela- tion between the people and its God for all time." — See Religio7i of Israel to the Exile, p. 38. 126 The Immortal Life But their ethical standard was low compared with that of the prophets of righteousness, and that of the prophets was far below that of the great Founder of Christianity. This brings us to the new era of spiritual progress. The revelations of Jesus Christ concerning God's being and character are the most exalted ever given to mankind, and the ethical stand- ard taught by Him and illustrated in His own life furnishes the highest ideal of righteousness. Now, it is a fact of experience that near contact with pure and great souls, while it humbles the beholder and convicts of sin by the evident contrast, at the same time touches the noblest springs of action and inspires reverence, and often the passion, for like excel- lence. If man can thus inspire the love of goodness when imperfectly manifested, what may not the near vision of God, in His sublime and holy attractions, do for receptive minds ? Many *' seekers after God " have doubtless found Him, and, in a measure, en- tered into His life under the teaching of Nature and their own conscience. But im- personal Nature cannot reveal the highest moral perfections. Even Socrates and Plato, with all their spiritual insight, earnestly de- The Immortal Life 127 sired and looked for further divine communi- cations. Indeed, those who see in the order of the world the evident attempt of its Author to put Himself in communication with men, may well look for supplementary revelations of His character and His relations to men, that His intercourse with them may be inti- mate and transforminof. The methods of Nature do not, as we have seen, exhaust the resources of God for His self-revelation ; and since man is above Nature, as a spiritual and moral being, we cannot assume that this divine intercourse must be restricted to the natural order. Certainly God, as a personal being, can be best represented by a person who is His image, especially by one who is pure and holy and on such terms of intimacy as to qualify him to know His purposes of good towards men. The Most High, having revealed Him- self in the majestic order of Nature and in the varied forms of life below man, could give a more direct expression of His highest perfec- tions and purposes in a perfect humanity. Jesus Christ, whatever we may think of His origin, is without doubt the most worthy rep- resentative of the divine perfections, and by His intimate relation with God, and His pro- found insight into spiritual realities, He was 128 The Immortal Life best qualified to be the medium of the needed revelations which supplement those of Nature. He had not like other men debased His nature by sin. In Him, the Sinless One, the Divine Spirit of truth and love and grace was so mani- fest that His proper name was ''Immanuel, God with us." Even John Stuart Mill saw in Him a more worthy expression of the divine perfections than in the course of Nature, and the highest ideal of a complete humanity. The wisdom of His teaching, His profound insight into spiritual realities. His sublime idea of a universal kingdom of God brought nigh to men. His fidelity to their highest interest, His fearless utterance of truth, and His gentle spirit, His readiness to make any sacrifice to save men from their sins. His near sympathy both with God and men in the whole spirit of His life, illustrated in His case not only the close union of the divine in the human, but His power to create this union in all who would receive His spirit. The proffer of this divine union and communion, on the part of God, through such a messenger as Christ, may well inspire faith and grateful response on the part of man. Indeed, in the actual experience of great multitudes, it is found that the cordial acceptance of that proffer brings man and God The Immortal Life 129 together in an ennobhng and transforming fellowship. It is that union of the divine with the human which is the besfinningf of the highest possible life, and it must lead on to the perfection of humanity as its proper goal. This is no speculative theory. The Christ character is the perfection of humanity, and those who truly receive and follow Him par- take of that divine life which He is able to impart. He added new spiritual forces supple- mentary to those of Nature, and created a new era which has proved a turning-point in human history. The leaven He put into our race is slowly but surely spreading far and wide, and shows its divine nature and power not only in individual characters, but in a purer and nobler civilization, and a growing ideal of social, moral, and religious life. Thus we see that the revelations and the spiritual forces supplied by Christ, together with those of Nature and the human conscience, bring men into direct and intimate relations with God and create a life at once human and divine, and since men are called to share the life which is divine, they are called to share a life which is eternal. IF DEATH ENDS MAN'S EXISTENCE THE GREAT LAW OF HIS LIFE IS NULLIFIED AND THE END OF HIS CREATION IS A FAILURE. "We desire immortality," said Jean Paul Richter, "not as the reward of virtue, but as its continuance." " The doctrine of immortality is of infinite value, alike as afford- ing an absolute sanction for the efforts and sacrifices of virtue, and as yielding strength to human nature in its anxieties and solace in its bitter bereavements." — WEhBO^'s //ope of Immortality, pp. 149, 222. 131 CHAPTER VIII IF DEATH ENDS MAN'S EXISTENCE THE GREAT LAW OF HIS LIFE IS NULL- IFIED AND THE END OF HIS EXISTENCE IS A FAILURE SINCE creation has a rational ground and order it has, as we have seen, an end for which it exists. This end, so far as man is con- cerned, is plain ; for since man is made in the imageof God, tolivein His fellowship, he should become like Him in character, possessing the dignity and excellence which belong to that fel- lowship. Now the prime characteristic of cre- ation is its unity. This unity is the postulate of all science ; and its meaning is that the world is consistent with itself, working together as one harmonious system. We think it can be shown that if death ends all, the fundamen- tal law of the divine economy is practically nullified and the purpose of man's creation fails. We have shown that the chief end of crea- tion, as indicated by its rational and moral 133 134 The Immortal Life order and the nobler endowments of man, is the establishment of a kingdom of righteous- ness. Accordingly, the fundamental law of the system and of human life is ethical as ordained to demand and promote righteousness in the moral creation. Let us suppose, what may often have oc- curred, that two persons, one righteous, loyal to truth and to God, the other a malignant and cruel murderer of the other, have died together and dropped at once into non-exis- tence. Death has on this supposition can- celled every claim. Both have the same destiny, eternal extinction. The most guilty murderer might, indeed, have cancelled every claim against him at any moment by taking his own life. But under a moral government, are there not two parties, one the subject of the law, the other the authority that ordained it? Now, if the relationship between the two is real and of any importance, is the case closed at death ? Moral law is as indispen- sable in the moral world as that of gravity is in the material. Both are essential as laws of harmony and well-being. In the material world no change of condition puts even an atom beyond the grasp of its law. This law is permanent and universal or chaos would re- The Immortal Life 135 turn. Can we suppose a moral person can at any moment put himself beyond all jurisdic- tion by taking his life ? His high endowments presuppose corresponding obligations. A rational personality, the highest outcome of creation, belongs to the spiritual kingdom for which all other kingdoms were preparative, and its law is the supreme law of the world. Can this law be maintained and administered in the interest of righteousness, if its claims can be first repudiated and then blotted out forever at the will of the guilty subject ? A law whose claims can be annulled any hour by the subject, cannot be respected as the su- preme law of a righteous administration. Ac- cordingly, thoughtful men, irrespective of any special revelation and on purely rational grounds, have had the firm conviction that the present life is probationary and that man's account with his Maker is not closed at death. Dr. Lotze well says : " The function of earthly life in this coherent infinity of existence seems to be of the nature of 2. probation, of an edu- cative probation, not aimless and empty of significance as a vanishing present unconnected with any future." — Murocosmos, ii., p. 116. Dr. Martineau expresses emphatically the same conviction : " Liberty to go right, liberty 136 The Immortal Life to go wrong; can it be a mere haphazard gift, an unmeaning institution of contingency, as if from some curiosity to see what will turn up ? And when the experiment is over are the actors dismissed, the curtain dropped and the theatre closed? Such an issue would con- tradict the very essence of moral freedom, which surely loses all significance if no differ- ence is to be made between those who use it well and those who misuse it. When the two possible ways are thrown open to human choice it is already anticipated that not all will take the same, and provision must be made for treating those who do as they like, otherwise than those who do as they ought. We are not upon our trial unless there is a future that depends upon ourselves. The alternatives of a trust have their sequel in the alternative of a reckoning, so that wherever conscience is, there we stand in the foreground of existence ; and a moral world cannot be final unless it be everlasting." — Shidy of Re- ligion, ii., pp. 360, 361. But if the dropping of the guilty into non- existence at death, virtually nullifies the administration of the moral law, the annihila- tion of the righteous after a life of loyal and trusting obedience seems, if possible, still The Immortal Life 137 more at variance with a righteous administra- tion. Conscience, as the divine voice in the soul, utters this inspiration : " Choose the true and the right, rather than the false and the wrong. Hold fast to Righteousness above all thinors." There are exigencies when loyalty to this command involves the sacrifice of life. If such loyalty to the supreme authority may involve the extinction not only of body, but of spirit, it is also the extinction of the very loyalty that is demanded. Such a sacrifice is very strange as made in the interest of riorhteousness. Think of an economy that demands the exercise of loyalty in an act of obedience, which at once extinguishes the loyal spirit and makes the highest possible expression of fidelity and love to God the sundering of every relation to Him. It may be said that such loyalty is not in vain because its influence in promoting like fidelity in others may be wide and lasting. To say nothing of the contingency or uncertainty of such influence, it is certain that the virtue sacrificed is of intrinsic and absolute worth. A world of matter is but dust in comparison with it. It was precious to him who achieved it as his own best possession. It was precious to the Most Hi^h who had longf soug-ht to realize 138 The Immortal Life it in His creation. Will He allow the one who sacrificed everything for it to be deprived of it, perhaps by some miscreant, and dropped out of beinor as of no further use ? But the relation of this loyal person to God is not merely to the Lawgiver, but to his Father. The Father has trained His child to esteem virtue above all price, and loyalty to Him to be the highest virtue. He has drawn His child to Himself till in mutual afTection they have become one in the bonds of a com- mon life. The child, in the spirit of loyalty, is prompted to a course of action that sunders their union by death, and drops him forever out of existence. Now in demanding such loyalty, is there not an Implied pledge of protection and of even closer union in mutual love ? Socrates, when about to die for his loyalty to truth and right- eousness, said with firm conviction : " He can- not be deserted of God, who has earnestly striven to be just. No harm can come to the good man." This has in all ages been the conviction and the support of those who have accepted torture and death for righteousness sake. It raised them above the fear of man, and inspired in them that sublime heroism which is the crowning glory of humanity. The Immortal Life 139 Under apparent defeat they appealed from the injustice of man to the tribunal of God for the ultimate vindication of His own cause. It has been said, " It is the glory of England that her entire army and navy are used for the protec- tion of the humblest of her subjects." Is it not the especial function of the divine moral government to foster and protect the interests of righteousness by discouraging the trans- gressor, and inspiring loyalty and confidence in the hearts of the faithful ? Is this function fulfilled if the righteous man is put to death by wicked men, and thrust forever beyond the divine jurisdiction because of his very loyalty to truth and to God ? What then must be the natural inference concerning the supremacy of law, the sacredness of moral obligations, and even the existence of a righteous or paternal administration ; for in the very exigency when the faithful, trusting soul needs assured sup- port, its very loyalty puts it beyond any pos- sible recognition. Assume that, under the divine economy, the most saintly man and the miscreant that tortured him to death are alike dropped out of all jurisdiction into non-exist- ence and you unsettle moral convictions, and undermine all confidence in a divine adminis- tration. History abundantly testifies that the 140 The Immortal Life human will rises to its maximum for self-sacri- ficing and manly achievement for truth and righteousness when in assumed alliance with God. The Creator seems to have put into the reason and conscience of a good man, as in the case of Socrates, the assurance that in loyalty to truth he has the divine favor and support. If such alliance fails when most needed to inspire the loyal endeavor, is it not a delusion to depend upon it, and utter folly to try to enter into it? The Most High cannot inspire confidence in His justice or faithfulness if He prove false to faithful and trusting souls in their extremity. He cannot be less true than sinful men are to one another. But if death thus ends all as pertaining to the indi- vidual, what ground have we to expect that in the conflict between truth and error, right and wrong, in the moral world, righteousness will be finally established ? The assumption that death ends all virtually nullifies the law of the moral world, on the part of God, by nullifying its administration, and, on the part of man, by taking away the motives that inspire loyalty to Him. We have seen that the Most High has given ample proof of His love of righteousness, and of His purpose to give it supremacy, in the world. He has wrought the principle of The Immortal Life 141 righteousness into its very structure, and has established a moral order as seen in the history of the race, giving to transgressors the con- sciousness of ill desert and often defeating their counsels, while giving fortitude and satisfac- tion to the virtuous even when suffering for righteousness' sake. The whole cosmic pro- gression was toward man, as a moral being, and so toward a spiritual kingdom whose glory should be moral excellence through divine fellowship. The manifest end of the system and the unity that characterize it forbid an assumption which, if true, would destroy that unity and defeat the end of creation. Some persons, indeed, profess satisfaction with a brief term of life, and to find ample motives to virtue and to altruistic affection while assuming that death ends all. They have no concern about a future administration, thinking that life's account is squared day by day. But if man has no future life, he has no permanent worth or intent and he perishes like the animal. In fact, as a personal being he becomes of less account than the dust he treads upon, for that is indestructible, while person- ality the highest product of creative power goes out of being and with it all that has value in life and character. 142 The Immortal Life Furthermore, this subjection of spirit and character to the conditions and laws of a lower plane is contrary to the general economy which subordinates the lower to the higher, using means for ends and all below for that which is supreme. Still the extinction of spiritual life, it is said, should not abate our altruistic love for man, or our regard for virtue, however brief their exis- tence, since kind ministrations and a virtuous life promote valuable interests, not only while we live, but after we are gone. Yes, and the whole sentient creation has claims for sympa- thetic and kind treatment. Cowper might well give wide range to his sensibility, saying — " I would not enter on my list of friends (tho' grand with polished manners and fine sense, yet wanting sensibility) the man that needlessly sets foot on a worm." But it should be remembered, that altruism must diminish both in force and quality as its object is low and insignificant in the scale of being. You cannot feel the same interest in a worm that you do in a horse, nor in a horse that you do in a child capable of large develop- ment. For a like reason, you cannot feel the same regard for man if assured that he turns to dust to-morrow, that you can knowing that The Immortal Life 143 he is the image of God and destined to a life of unending progress. The fact that he has capacities for such a Hfe, and that you can minister to its permanent well-being, gives not only zest but a higher quality to your altruism. Now, if every individual is to perish forever, and this earth, instead of being a training school for a broader and higher life, is to be only the cemetery of an extinct race with no residuum but dust and ashes, our estimate of the worth of the race is greatly lessened, and our motives for benevolent and heroic sacrifice for it in like measure lose their force. But the assumption that death ends all is unreasonable. It is contrary to all our ideas of proportion and consistency, that through countless ages there should have been stages of evolutionary progress, each successive stage revealing additional values, or higher and higher forms of life, to end at last in nothing ! On this point Professor LeConte says : " With- out immortality this beautiful cosmos which has been developing into increasing beauty for so many millions of years, when it has run its course and all is over, would be precisely as if it had never been, an idle dream, an idle tale, signifying nothing. I repeat, without immortality the cosmos has no meaning." — 144 The Immortal Life Evolution in Relation to Religiotts Thought, p. 329- In such a progressive movement we natu- rally look for its culmination in something of absolute and permanent worth. The dispro- portion between a scale of progress so vast and an outcome that is worthless cannot be- long to a rationally ordered system. There is a like disproportion between man's large capacities and his boundless environment, natural and spiritual on the one hand, and a short, scantily developed life on the other. His outlook on all sides is toward infinity. As rational he is made to seek and love truth, but truth is infinite and everlasting. As a moral being his goal is complete, Godlike righteous- ness, but on all lines of duty and progress how far he is from his goal. If he is to perish to-morrow why attempt such tasks ? Why, like Pindar and Goethe, should he crave "great thoughts that he may live upon them " ? What messaofe have the mountains or the firmament for him ? Why seek any high ideal, or concern himself about the deep problems of creation which have always at- tracted the interest of thinking minds ? The Egyptian, even in the earlier dynasties, con- ceived the visible universe to be but the The Immortal Life 145 shadow of a superior world, whose light is the splendor of truth, and whose laws are the laws of a spiritual and eternal life. Why dream of such great realities, or anticipate a high spiritual destiny, if all that belongs to us is a perishing body which has nothing to do with the laws of a spiritual life ? Now, if the dissolution of the body is the termination of human existence, it is plain that man has little use for his higher rational powers, since he has no practical concern for those things that properly engage them, and therefore no scope for their exercise. The consequence is that a man of high and large endowments in such conditions must experience a powerful revul- sion, a fatal collapse that turns the unexpended energies inward into morbid self-torment or cynical complaining. This fact has a striking illustration in the case of David Strauss, as in many others that might be mentioned. Strauss confessed that when he had lost his faith in God and immortality he lost his interest in human life and in the world he in- habited. The meaning of both had dropped away and he saw nothing to live for. He had parted company with all values. Why attempt to solve problems of the world and of human life with which he had wrestled in vain, finding 146 The Immortal Life them but riddles, with no clue to their mean- ing ? He had made large attainments in knowledge and culture, but they could answer no worthy end. Art, music, speculative in- quiry, dramas, even friends could not fill the place of faith in God and immortality which he had lost. He was trying to live in a vacuum. Of course a healthy ethical life was impossible. His education and refined tastes were safe- guards against low vices, but there was little motive to reach after a high ideal of moral ex- cellence, when all excellence would soon come to nothing. The universe afforded no object that could inspire those affections that lift one above himself and ennoble his earthly life. He had but two abiding convictions, — that he was miserable in the present, and that in the near future he would go out of existence. Hope, the last friend to forsake the living, had departed. The case of George J. Romanes is very sim- ilar, and is well known, as his death but re- cently occurred. He early parted with his religious faith, and soon after leaving the uni- versity published a volume thoroughly atheis- tic under the pseudonym " Physicus." Before he recovered his faith he made this striking declaration : " I am not ashamed to confess The Immortal Life 147 that with this vital negation of God the uni- verse to me had lost its soul of loveliness. When at times I think, as think I must, the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of the creed that once was mine and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it, it is im- possible to avoid the sharpest pangs which my nature is capable of. The precept ' know thy- self ' has become transformed into the terrific oracle of Qidipus, ' Mayst thou never know the truth of what thou art.'" — Thoughts on Religion, pp. 28, 148, 149. Thus the sundering of all relationship to God and the future life means levelling man to the dust on which he treads. There are few who can face eternal nothingness with composure. Gifted and noble minds cannot endure it. The shrinking of values that some- times occurs in the marts of trade under the influence of widespread disaster is nothing compared with that which follows the loss of faith in God and the future life ; the painful re- vulsion which great and thoughtful souls have felt as they felt compelled to face the eternal darkness is the protest of a rational nature against the loss of its birthright. What a her- itage has man, as the image of God, made for His fellowship, and with so vast and wonderful 148 The Immortal Life a universe as his environment ! What possi- bilities of deep and even progressive life are open to him ! Truth, beauty, harmony, the sublimities on which his eye has already opened, the society of kindred spirits, the vision of the Divine Glory and Majesty — Mrhat is there not to inspire gratitude for such a heritage ! But to turn one's face toward eternal extinction that may come to-morrow — what a blight it casts on what remains of a brief and hopeless life. What motive to high achievement in knowl- edge or virtue or any form of excellence ? All high ideals are smitten and disappear as illu- sions. What becomes of the dignity and worth of man and of his high place in creation ? Instead of lifting his head above Nature he is dwarfed into insignificance by her magnitudes : " Mountains and ocean waves Around me lie, Tower the mountain chains Forever to the sky : Fixed is the ocean immutably — Man is a thing of naught, Born but to die." " A life of nothing, nothing worth. From that first nothing ere our birth To that last nothing under earth." Specimens of Oriental pessimism. The Immortal Life 149 Children build houses of sand to scatter them. They blow bubbles to see them break in the sun. It is the sport of children. Does the Eternal build worlds for no resultant good ? Does He sow His broad harvest fields to gather dust ? THE EXPECTATION OF A FUTURE LIFE ESSENTIAL TO NORMAL DEVELOPMENT AND TO WELL-BEING IN THE PRESENT "It is indispensable both for man's happiness and for his persistent moral endeavor that a faith in Immortality shall be accessible to the human mind and heart." Upton's Hibbcrt Lectures , 1893, p. 243. " No great art could ever live if it ceased to regard beauty as one with truth and goodness. No poet ever touched the deepest spring of human emotion who regarded himself as the idle singer of an empty tale." Professor Caird, Evolution of Religion^ vol. i., p. 243. 151 CHAPTER IX THE EXPECTATION OF A FUTURE LIFE ESSENTIAL TO NORMAL DEVELOP- MENT AND TO WELL-BEING IN THE PRESENT GOD, Duty, and Immortality are closely linked together in the human mind. Moral relationship to God carries with it the idea of both duty and immortality. As Dr. Dorner pithily expresses it, " Destined for religion, man is destined for immortality." These three ideas once fastened in the human mind must Qrive direction to human life and become the mainspring of human action. Professor Huxley has well said, "No man and no body of human beings ever did, or ever can, come to much without the love of an ethical ideal." But if the ethical ideal is to be not an empty vision, but an inspiring and effective force, it must be patterned after a high con- ception of the divine character and be associated with religious sanctions. Dr. Martineau says 153 154 The Immortal Life of moral ideals : " Nothing is so sickly, so paralytic, so desolate, as moral ideals that are nothing else. Their whole power is in abey- ance till they present themselves in a living, personal being who secures the righteousness of the Universe and the sanctification of each heart. The whole difference on which I have dwelt between morality and religion, hangs upon this conviction of an eternal Holiness in correspondence with the individual conscience.'' Study of Religion, ii., p. 34. But our especial object in this chapter is to show that the same conviction of God, Duty, and Immortality which is essential to a sound morality is also essential to all the great in- terests of humanity in the present life. An eminent author, whose name cannot here be recalled, after a wide and careful survey of human history, says: "Where the belief in immortality has for a time disappeared or fallen away from the foreground of human consciousness, there has been a simultaneous decline in the noblest elements of civilization, in Poetry, Art, Philosophy, and even in Science. Especially have the affections of human nature suffered, their delicacy and tenderness blasted. If they have only mundane ties, snapped at death, even their temporary significance is The Immortal Life 155 lessened. Duty becomes an affair of custom and fashion. Motives for self-control and self- discipline are changed. That we do, and shall, always live under an Infinite Intelligence and Personality acts powerfully on the per- sonal life, uplifting it for all excellence. This conviction removed, friendship degenerates to a casual acquaintance, moral life, with its sub- lime struggles toward a destined goal, shrinks into commonplace, within the limits of the secular. What use to toil and struggle to reach a higher life if we are soon to sleep in darkness and cease to be ? ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' " That such results naturally follow the dis- belief in immortality might be inferred on phil- osphical grounds, since the great diminution of the values and significance of human life which it implies must lessen the motives to all high achievement. History abundantly shows that what has inspired the highest productions of the race in art, literature, and philosophy, and has led to the highest development of human powers, is religion with its correlative doctrine of immortality. In proof of this we refer briefly to well-known facts in the history of national and individual life. Egypt's high place in ancient history is uni- 156 The Immortal Life versally acknowledged, and her earliest faith, which was monotheistic and closely associated with belief in a future life, was a dominant factor in her life through many dynasties and in her best days. In fact, the polytheism that subsequently appeared did not displace in the minds of her wise men faith in one supreme power. Through all periods of her history the doctrine of a future life was prominent in her faith. It took form in her Book of the Dead, and was expressed in her national cus- toms, in funeral rites, and not less in those massive temples and imperishable monuments that symbolize an eternal life. Her moral pre- cepts and the general ordering of daily life had direct reference to the future, for which the present was a probation. The Supreme Ruler was a being of infinite majesty dwelling in the splendors of the " Eternal Day," and only the righteous could be admitted to share its transcendent glory. Their sublime concep- tions of God and of the life to come gave char- acter to her civilization. Her temples and monuments seem built for eternity. Even the scarabee beetle emerging with its wings sym- bolized the future life. Astronomical science, the minute observation of the stars, gave posi- tion to her earthly structures, and the deep The Immortal Life 157 problems of creation and of her religious faith, which engaged her profoundest thinkers, de- veloped a " wisdom " which the philosophers of Greece and of other nationalities came to learn as if it contained sacred oracles from the gods. Her wisdom, her art, and her highest prosper- ity date back thousands of years before our era, when her faith was most vital. The pantheistic Aryans of ancient India were not so definite in their religious concep- tions nor in their notions of the future life. But while vague and dream-like in their pro- foundest moods, they sought earnestly to pene- trate the mysteries of being, and by self- abnegation to qualify themselves for ultimate union with the mysterious life-principle of the world. With these spiritual tendencies was developed a subtlety of speculative thought, tinged with poetic feeling, which raised them far above the levels of a sensual life. In their sacred hymns, which are of very ancient date, in their Vedic literature, and in their philoso- phy, not a few scholars of to-day find, as they believe, rare treasures of thought. Though long hidden from the world, their resurrection to new life shows a marvellous vitality. In- deed, with some change of form these ancient speculative dreams from an ideal world seem 158 The Immortal Life to have entered largely into the philosophic idealism of the nineteenth century. Their Nirvana, whatever it might mean, was something in the far future which was to be hoped for and at last attained by the persistent denial of self and the extinction of human de- sires and passions. A regimen so extreme and unnatural led, of course, to a perilous reaction, but, with all its imperfections, the influence of their faith upon literature, philosophy, and daily life was immeasurably superior to the materialism which sees and hopes for no future but extinction at the death of the body. The teaching of the Persian Zoroaster, though not so profound, was not Pantheistic, and in other respects was superior to the Indian philosophy spoken of above. Though holdino- to two antaoronistic Powers or Princi- pies, Ormuzd and Ahriman, as explaining the existence of good and evil, he taught the final triumph of Ormuzd in the triumph and vindi- cation of righteousness. Holding also to human responsibility and to the future life with its just awards, his faith promoted per- sonal virtue and national prosperity. His followers became a mighty power among the nations of the East, and though for a time subjected to Parthian rule they regained their The Immortal Life 159 former position under the Magi and became a strong dynasty, holding their own even against the forces of the Roman Empire. After a brilliant career, in which their faith and morals seem to have approached nearer than those of any other people to Christianity, they were at last crushed by Mahomet. Still a remnant of this people, it is said, is now found in India loyal to their primitive faith, and far superior in intelligence and in morals to those among whom their lot is cast. Their faith in the future life and in the final triumph of light over darkness, of truth and justice over error and wrong, was an element of strength in indi- vidual and national character. It inspired courage for moral endeavor and for persistent opposition to injustice and oppression in time of national extremity. The tendency of the Grecian mind to iden- tify the morally good with the beautiful, if not to put the latter in the foreground, weakened their moral sense and was incom- patible with the highest ethical ideals. But the Greeks were by no means without religious and ethical teaching of a high order. Hesiod was not the only one who, very early in Grecian history, gave the impress of his strong and healthful religious convictions to the Grecian i6o The Immortal Life mind. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, together with the great dramatists yEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, did much to inculcate religious truth. In fact, the Grecian stage as repre- sented by the above-named dramatists was not, as to-day, mainly for entertainment and diversion but a school of virtue and religious education. In front of the stage stood the sacred altar on consecrated ground. Their dramas were pervaded by the religious spirit, unfolding the divine purpose and bringing sure and merited retribution for the sins and follies of men. This was expressed in the following well-known translation : " ' Tis true, the working of the gods is slow, But it is sure and strong." Euripides anticipated Wordsworth in recog- nizing the divine immanence in Nature, giving fit expression to his sublime conception : "The Self-Existent, who in heaven's expanse Holds in His large embrace all things that are ; Round whom the light, round whom the dusky shade, The checkered night, and the unnumbered host Of stars, move gladly in unceasing dance." yEschylus especially seems to have been a prophet of the Most High. Lord Bishop Wescott, to whom we are indebted for the The Immortal Life i6i above translation pronounces these great dramatists " not far behind the great pro- phets of Israel. " {Religious Thoughts in the West.) With the subsequent decay of the ethical and religious spirit came degeneracy. Poets, philosophers, statesmen, and citizens lost rev- erence for things sacred, and society dropped to a lower level. In place of the noble aims and lofty themes of the great dramatists came the low comedy, with its cynical and frivolous conceits and its ridicule of sacred things, till at length there remained little power even to ap- preciate the glory that had passed away. The Romans in the early stages of their his- tory had strong religious convictions, and the expectation, though vague, of a future life. Though inferior to the Grecians in philosophi- cal acumen and artistic sensibility they had a stronger sense of justice, which took expres- sion in their codes of law and in their judicial proceedings, and even their conquests, by ex- tending their sway over warring tribes, gave order and unity to society in place of the pre- ceding chaos. But the display of wealth and luxury, side by side with a slave population and squalid poverty, were dangerous and dis- turbing elements. Furthermore, the decay of 1 62 The Immortal Life religious faith and the growing scepticism, es- pecially among the educated classes, respect- ing the future life, tended to loosen the bonds that held society together. This scepticism was made especially manifest in the Roman Senate when that body was determining what punishment should be inflicted upon Cataline and his fellow-conspirators. Caesar, the official minister of religion, but an epicurean in phil- osophy, advocated imprisonment and torture, because in his view " death dissolves all the ills of life, and beyond it is no place for either pain or pleasure. Wherefore, keep these crimi- nals alive to suffer fitting punishment; after death there is no more punishment of sin, neither is there any reward for virtue." Cato, the rigid Stoic, next gave his opinion, and was followed by Cicero, but neither of these ex- pressed dissent from Csesar, in his denial of the future life, though Cicero took opposite ground in his philosophical discussions. Thus the Roman Senate on this grave occasion, in- volving the safety of the Republic, in deciding a practical matter, showed that they had in great measure lost their faith in a future life. Sallust gives the substance of the speeches on this memorable occasion, and Plutarch, though more brief in his account of them, The Immortal Life 163 does not question the essential truth of Sallust's representations. We cannot wonder at the scepticism of educated minds, in view of a mythology inter- woven with so much poetic fiction and ab- surdity, and the opinions entertained by such men would of course soon become prevalent among all classes. Augustus on taking the supreme power saw the necessity of religious reform, as Domitian did a century later. But such reforms for prudential reasons, and con- sisting mainly in stricter ceremonials, but lack- ing sincere and vital faith, had no regenerative or restoring power. When the primary and fundamental relationship of the citizen is to the state, and not to God, a strong and vital religious faith is impossible. It was nearly four hundred years after Caesar, as High Pontiff and official interpreter of religion to the people, had affirmed in the Roman Senate that death puts an end to human existence, that the Christian faith was enthroned in the Empire. It gained the ascendency, after bloody perse- cutions, mainly through the pure and devout spirit of its adherents, and those strong con- victions which raised them above the fear of man in unswerving loyalty to Christ. Constan- tine, indeed, took up arms for the new faith, 164 The Immortal Life and was victor on the battlefield. But the conquering power was the new spirit of faith and life imparted by Christ, which gave moral power and made even death for His sake but the entrance into a higher life. Such a spirit coming in contact with the corruptions of a decaying empire, from which faith had de- parted, was a regenerative power. Revealing in the Christ the loving and merciful Father, willing and ready to grant free pardon and eternal life to all repentant souls, it inspired fresh hope for humanity. There was power to conquer both sin and death, and it was pre- cisely the power needed by lost and hopeless man. Professor Cook says of Christianity : " Regard now the Christian religion merely as an external fact, as an existing spiritual, intel- lectual, and moral force independent of all supernatural sanction and superhuman obliga- tions, and all must admit that it is the greatest power in the world. However originated or however appointed there is no power over men's minds and hearts to be compared with it." — The Credentials of Science the Wari'ant of Faith, p. 291. The above reference to historical facts is brief and very imperfect, but it may suffice to show that faith in God with the expectation of a The Immortal Life 165 future life has not only been the most important factor in the elevation and progressive devel- opment of mankind, but that the loss of it has resulted in loss of moral and intellectual power and of inspiration for those high achievements which show the real greatness of man. If, as Dr. Lotze, says, " History is the edu- cation of humanity," the history of humanity is the history of its religious life. In giving greater significance to the present life it has not only furnished loftier ideals, but worthier motives for their attainment, and lent an importance to human actions that has given to human life its divine sanctities. It has raised art from the plane of sensuous beauty or servile imitation to that of spiritual and cre- ative power. Without it philosophy would have spent its force on idle and speculative themes, with no clue to the meaning of crea- tion or of human life, and literature instead of unfolding and expressing the deeper life of man would have little to deal with but triviali- ties and frivolous conceits or the ingenious collocation of words. Take from ancient Egypt her sublime conceptions of God and the future life, and her massive temples and monuments would never have risen from the 1 66 The Immortal Life earth and she would have attained no wisdom to attract from all lands the seekers after truth. Take from ancient India her sacred hymns and her Vedic literature and her profound idealism, all inspired by religion, and little would be left to interest modern scholarship or to benefit the race. Take even from ancient Greece the works of her great religious thinkers, from Anaxa- goras and Pythagoras to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and of her great dramatists, ^schy- lus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and of her artists that built her temples and created the majestic statues of her gods and you take away the great products of her genius and the chief glory of her splendid history. Furthermore, take from the world the Jew- ish and Christian faith, as recorded in the Old and New Testaments, and the results of what have followed its reception, as seen in individ- ual piety, in the higher forms of civilization, and in the progressive development of humanity, where its influence has been felt, and you set the world's dial back to the time when the old empires had spent their force, and humanity, disorganized and desolate, was groping in darkness — The Immortal Life 167 " Crying for the light, And with no language but a cry." " Rise, happy morn ! rise holy morn ! Draw forth the cheerful day for night : O Father ! touch the east and light The light that shone when hope was born." Even sceptics bear testimony to the marvel- lous power of Christianity to give meaning and value to human life by inspiring larger senti- ments and hopes that give strength for sacri- fice in the service of humanity. The following is from John Stuart Mill : " The beneficial influence of such a hope is far from trifling. It makes life and human nature a far greater thing to the feelings and gives greater strength as well as greater solemnity to all the sentiments that are awakened in us by our fellow-creatures and by mankind at large. It allays the sense of that irony of na- ture which is so painfully felt when we see the exertions and sacrifices of a life culminating in the formation of a wise and noble mind only to disappear from the world when the time has just arrived at which it seems about to begin reaping the benefit of it. . . . But the benefit consists less in the presence of any specific hope than in the enlargement of the general scale of the feelings, the loftier aspira- 1 68 The Immortal Life tions being no longer kept down by a sense of the insignificance of human life by the disas- trous feeling of 'not worth while.'" — Three Essays, p. 249. We close this chapter with a few words from Professor James Orr : "Can we believe that God will spend a lifetime in perfecting a char- acter, developing and purifying it — as great souls always are developed — by sharp trial and discipline, till the very best has been evoked, only in the end to dash it again into nothing- ness." — Kerr Lectures, p. 158. THE RESOURCES OF MODERN LIFE NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP TO GOD AND THE FUTURE LIFE "Through all time it has been true that a nation's strength is found in the sanctuaries, the temples and institutions and organiza- tions, by whatever name called, that enshrine the truth, protecting great principles of righteousness from pollution and corruption. When these have fallen the nation has fallen." — President Raymond, Union College, Independent, July 13, iSgg. " The ultimate root of Art strikes downward till it feels and drinks the life-giving air of the Infinite and Divine ; and, once severed from this it shrivels into husk and semblance, a subjective pleasure of our senses, not a report of the soul of things." — Martineau, Studies of Religion, ii., p. 354. 169 CHAPTER X THE RESOURCES OF MODERN LIFE NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PERSONAL RELA- TIONSHIP TO GOD AND THE FUTURE LIFE SOME have imagined that religion, though suited to the children of our race, is out of place in an age of scientific progress, when intelligence and culture have improved the conditions of life, and raised society to a higher plane. It is a well-known theory of Comte, that our race passes through three suc- cessive phases or stages, — the religious, the metaphysical and the scientific, and that the latter, which is the final goal, is to supplant the others. Accordingly, the only religion of the future will be the religion of Humanity, in the ab- stract, or rather the worship of heroic men ; that is, a religion without a God. Science, art, literature, and improved conditions will so occupy and enrich human life, that problems 171 172 The Immortal Life concerning the future, the unseen and the in- finite, even if it were possible to solve them, will have little place in human thought. It is certain that this experiment has been tried by individuals, and to some extent by nations, but in neither case has the result been such as to encourage its repetition. Professor Romanes, to whom we have already referred, says of his own experiment. " The nature of man with- out God is thoroughly miserable. ... I have known from experience the intellectual distractions of scientific research, philosophical speculation, and artistic pleasure, but am also well aware that even when all are taken together, and well sweetened to taste, the whole concoction is but as high confectionery to a starving man." — Congregationalist, May 6, 1894. When Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 1453, Greek scholars were driven from that city and dispersed through Europe. But they carried with them the love of Grecian art and literature, and choice specimens of each were scattered here and there through the continent. But it was the Italian genius that first and gladly welcomed Grecian culture, and inaugurated the splendid Renaissance, which has since borne the Italian name. The Immortal Life 173 Though the Latin language had been read and spoken by scholars in the Middle Ages, there had been little knowledge of Greek, as it was the language of heresies that had been condemned by the Church. It is said there was not then a single Greek professor in the University of Paris. The ascetic and ex- clusive spirit of the dark ages, with various forms of repression, had begotten a sameness and fixed uniformity of temper and manners that had in great measure stifled the spon- taneity of individual and personal life. This order of things was at once changed by the Renaissance. The reaction was even violent, and the determination "to live out one's own nature in one's own way," free from all shackles — ecclesiastical, religious, and moral — became suddenly a passion. The reaction was natural. Art, Freedom, and Nature, were the watchwords. All that was needed was litera- ture and artistic culture, with freedom to con- form to Nature, as each might interpret it for himself. This was to be the new religion. The future life, and all things sacred, were lost to view, eclipsed by the splendors of the Renaissance. But the passion for culture to the exclusion of religion was soon found to lead to all sorts of license, and to neglect even 174 The Immortal Life of the decencies of life. Free conformity to one's own nature often proved to be con- formity to one's lower nature, under the dis- guise of sensuous beauty, without conformity to reason and ethical law. Mr. Symonds in his admirable work on the Italian Renaissance, to which we are much in- debted, speaks of art and literature as " sensi- tive to the state of morals and religion." When the Renaissance had culminated in the great masters and the national spirit had blos- somed into the fulness of artistic splendor and was revelling in beauty, as the very substance of its life, it was at the same time sinking into base sensuality. The hierarchy was corrupt. The inferior dignitaries of the Church were full of intriorues and low ambitions. The masses, while trained to love pictures, statues, frescos, enamelled furniture, and bodily adorn- ments, had no distaste for the coarsest vices, and gave loose reign to brutal passions " As illustrating the spirit of the time he mentions Benvenuto Cellini, an artist of much repute, who in his autobiography boasts of his own vices and murderous assaults, giving at the same time a picture of society, high and low, in the chief Italian cities. This revolting pic- ture Mr. Symonds regards, on the whole, as The Immortal Life 175 " a veritable picture of the time drawn by one whose familiarity with the different phases of Italian life qualified him for such a task." (See his Italian Renaissance, i., p. 453.) " With the exception of Michael Angelo," he continues (pp. 384, 453), "there was no great master light who still pursued an intellectual ideal. The Romans and Venetians simply sought and painted what was splendid and luxurious in the world around them. The capacity for perceiv- ing and reproducing what was nobly beautiful was lost, and vulgarity and coarseness stamped themselves upon the finest work of men like Giulio and Romano. . . . Michael An- gelo was encompassed with deep philosophic thoughts, with ideas of death, judgment, and the stern struggles of the soul, so that with him beauty was serviceable to religion. Cellini was the creature of the moment, the glass and mirror of corrupt and enslaved, yet resplendent, Italy. Michael Angelo was the vehicle of lofty soul-thoughts. Cellini brought the fervor of an inexhaustibly active nature to the service of sensuality, and taught his art to be the handmaid of a soulless paganism. In these two men therefore we study the aspects of the _ >» age. We quote thus largely from this learned and 176 The Immortal Life gifted author to show that the passion for art and classic culture, however it may adorn life, cannot save it from debasement and corruption, and that the great works of art are not the products of genius alone, but of genius inspired by those religious and ethical convictions which lay hold of essential truth and which are at once the basis of character and the soul of art. Michael Angelo was the " Prophet of Power" because of his clear and reverent vision of spiritual realities and his companion- ship with the Almighty. He wrought his great works in silence, as under the shadow of the solemn mysteries that encompassed him. It is significant that those productions which have perpetual life and power over the human heart are those which are inspired by the high- est themes and appeal to what is deepest in the human spirit. The Phidian Jupiter, the temples of the ancient, and the cathedrals of modern times, the epics of Homer, Dante, and Milton, and the soul-stirring harmonies of the great masters in music were not merely the products of genius, but of genius under the power of great spiritual realities. Titian and Raphael in their Madonnas, Leonardi, "the Painter of Adoration," and Millet in his An- gelus, all put into their canvas the spirit of a The Immortal Life 177 devout life, which has made their works im- mortal. " There is no beauty," says Symonds, " with- out truth, and goodness is the highest sort of truth." Yes, truth, beauty, and goodness are elements of the divine life, and he whose soul is possessed by them is not far from the vision of God. Modern life subsequent to the Italian Re- naissance might furnish abundant illustrations of the consequences of separating art, literature, and general culture from the religious spirit, and the accompanying thought of the future life. We can only refer to the reign of Louis XIV., which was at its zenith a. d. 1678, about two hundred years after the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. In the meantime, France had made progress, and early in the reign of Louis there were in his kingdom many men of wide renown, — philosophers, theologians, poets, and artists, — a constellation of unusual brilliancy. Among these were Des- cartes, Pascal, Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Fenelon, Racine, and Boileau. In the administration of affairs were Richelieu and his two ablest minis- ters, Colbert and Louvais. These, with many others, shed a brilliant lustre upon the reign of Louis XIV., and he, though inferior in his 178 The Immortal Life education, was able by his talents, as well as his position, to make himself the central figure among these illustrious contemporaries. He was also the liberal patron of art and litera- ture, making lavish expenditures for their promotion. Having absolute power and ac- knowledged popularity, perhaps no sovereign ever had a better opportunity to build up a strong and prosperous kingdom on lasting foundations. But his absolute authority and love of power were strangely associated with a fatal weakness, a susceptibility to be dominated in the most important matters by unworthy counsellors, by men and women to whom a man of sound judgment and chaste or humane sentiment could not have listened. His most influential adviser in a very important crisis was Madam de Maintenon, and the most dis- astrous and cruel measure of his reign was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in accord- ance with her persuasive counsel. Perhaps history does not record any measure of state more horrible and inhuman. In the butchery and banishment of hundreds of thousands of noble men and women it depopulated the king- dom of its best blood. In the enforced exile of the Huguenots it impoverished France of its most thriving industries ; but it enriched The Immortal Life 179 the nations that gave them refuge. It was also the banishment of the purest morality and the sincerest piety. In 1678 Louis XIV. had the most brilliant Court and the most formidable kingdom in Europe. Nor in this age, when Pascal, Bossuet, and Descartes lived, was the religion of the state wanting in men and women of religious conviction and devoted piety. But in general, while the forms of religion were observed, its spirit lacked depth and sincerity. The tone of morals was low, and literature re- flected the prevailing license in the moral life. Art was losing sight of high ideals and minis- tering to sensuality. The men of genius and renown who had given lustre to this " Augus- tan Age " of France, were passing away, and the soil had become too sterile for the growth of men that could fill their place. The atmo- sphere was tainted and the shameless im- moralities of King and Court, the waging of unnecessary and exhaustive wars, and the god- less persecution of the most worthy and right- eous subjects rapidly hastened the decadence of both kingdom and people. The inevitable consequence was, that the reign which had been the most brilliant and illustrious in Europe ended in pitiable weakness and decay. The griefs that towards the close of his life i8o The Immortal Life weighed upon the King could not recall his fatal mistakes ; and the frank confession of his follies and sins could only emphasize the warn- ing he gave to his grandson as his successor, not to follow his example. And what is still more sad, his late repentance and acceptance of the rites of religion for the dying could not atone for the neglect of its precepts in the day of his power, nor could it cut off the sad heri- tage of evil which he transmitted, and from which France, after more than two centuries, has not recovered. History abundantly confirms the truth so admirably expressed by Mr. Symonds, that " literature and art are sensitive to a low state of morals and religion," and the same may be said of all that pertains to individual and national well-being. For it is certain that, as the ethical and religious spirit goes into de- cline, all serious and earnest work for the present life is over, because this main stimulus to hia-h achievement has failed. In fact, the significance of life and the worth and dignity of man depend upon his conscious, vital rela- tionship to God and the life to come. Dr. Henry Van Dyke in his volume on Tennyson well says : " Only of those men who can bring a meaning into life, touch it with The Immortal Life i8i glory, and link it with immortality, will the world say : * These are my great poets.' " Tennyson's high place in literature is not owing so much to his matchless art as to his profound and serious dealing with man's rela- tion to God and the future life. His native bias and his early experiences in life made these high themes the chosen subjects of his contemplation. He had wrestled with doubt. His nearest companion and friend, Arthur Hallam, a youth of the purest character and of great promise, was suddenly taken from him by death. That such a life should have been thus cut short was one of those mysterious events that awakened serious questionings respecting Providence, and the meaning and issues of the present life. Is there a divine oversight and purpose in human affairs ? Are friendships and affections blotted out by death, or with deeper warmth and tenderness do they persist in that immortal life? His "In Memoriam " reflects the grief of a bereaved heart ; and his strug- gles with doubt reveal an undertone of sadness, with alternate hopes and fears. But at length he emerges into light and peace, with a faith that was quickened and guided by the yearn- ing and logic of the heart. To this experience he gives the following beautiful expression : 1 82 The Immortal Life " If e'er when Faith had fallen asleep I heard a voice, ' Believe no more,' And heard an ever-breaking shore That tumbled on a godless deep, " A warmth within the heart would melt The freezing Reason's colder part, And, like a man in wrath, the heart Stood up and answered : ' I have felt ! ' " Nor can we deny the right of the heart to anticipate the conclusion of its slower partner, reason, and with the assurance of a sharper vision, to affirm the true solution of such a problem. We are persuaded, too, that Tenny- son's whole rational nature, as an accordant unity, gave utterance to these emphatic words : " Life and love are not worth living and lov- ing unless they are continuous ; and only in continuance is the problem of life's troubles solved." If love has no permanent object and life's troubles have no meaning in the disci- pline and growth of character, what, indeed, does this short term of life and love amount to ? Browning with like assurance gives a similar interpretation of the true meaning of life when he declares : " Life is probation, and this earth no goal. But starting-point of man, To try man's foot if he will creep or climb. And make the stumbling-block a stepping-stone." The Immortal Life 183 Wordsworth in his youthful enthusiasm had anticipated great things for humanity in the issues of the French Revolution. Ending as it did in scenes of anarchy and blood, instead of fulfilled hopes, he realized only a staggering revulsion and utter despair. What must have been the effect upon his future course if this state of mind had been permanent ? Allowing that his youthful dreams had savored of ro- mance and that his schemes of life in the new western world were altogether fanciful we can at least admire his love of liberty and his hope for man under better conditions. There is something pathetic in the sudden collapse of all hope of humanity, all faith in Providence, and all that interest in nature which in his school days in Hawkshead had awakened the wonder and aspirations of a poetic soul. Thus shut up in himself, and feeling that the universe was bereft of all value, his soul would have been as empty as he imagined the universe to be. Had not a discerning sister, seeing him smitten into silent and cold scepticism by a great disappointment, touched the fountain of his sympathies and affections by tender and wise ministrations and re-established his faith in Providence and humanity, English literature and the world's thought to-day would have been 1 84 The Immortal Life much the poorer. The scepticism which for a time took possession of him would have de- spoiled the universe of its values, and no wealth of genius could have originated those sublime conceptions that took form in the " Preludes in Tintern Abbey," in the "Ode on Immortal- ity," and in certain of Wordsworth's poems and sonnets which the world will not soon tire of reading. Whoever by scepticism empties the world of its rich spiritual meaning must empty himself of inspiration and of all thought worthy of utterance. It was his insight into the divine immanence in nature and in man that gave to the one its glory and to the other its immortal worth. In his view it gave a charm to the humblest cottage and a meaning to the most common aspects of nature. Without it he would have seen "the primrose by the river brim," but it might have been said " A yellow primrose was to him A primrose and it was nothing more." By his spiritual insight into nature, Words- worth did much to inspire the deeper interest since felt in natural scenery. He contributed not a little to give to English poetry a deeper spiritual tone. Even the sublimest scenery of the Alps had awakened no special interest for The Immortal Life 185 English travellers. Thomas Gray may have been an exception, but even Walpole, after making the Pass of Mont Cenis, said " he hoped never again to see such uncouth rocks and unseemly inhabitants." How different the feelings of Wordsworth even as he looked from mountain summit in western England — " In such high hour of visitation from the living God, Thought was not, — in enjoyment it expired ; Rapt in still communion that transcends The imperfect offices of prayer and praise, That mind was a thank-offering to the Power That made him : it was blessedness and peace." His " Ode on Immortality " has been said to indicate the high-water mark of English litera- ture in the nineteenth century. In the very rhythm and movement of some of its lines one seems to hear the music of the far-off murmurs of the immortal sea : ** Tho' inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which bro't us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sporting on the shore And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore." Professor Shairp says of the highest poetry : " It is the continual reference of those great poets, tacit or expressed, to a higher, unseen 1 86 The Immortal Life order of things, which gives to all their thoughts about man, depth, tenderness, and solemnity. Two thoughts, admitted, change the whole view of this life, — the belief that this world is but the vestibule of an endless state of being, and that Him in whom man lives shall live hereafter. These assumptions of natural religion are hardly less the ground tones which underlie all the strains of the world's highest poetry. Some would have us believe that, for artistic purposes at least, hu- man life, with its hopes and fears, its loves and enthusiasms, is a thing complete in itself ; that it can maintain its dignity, even if con- fined within visible horizons, concentrated en- tirely on this earthly existence. Duty to humanity, piety without God, is to supply to sensitive hearts all they need for high en- deavors, pure morality, ardent devotedness and consolation. But no poet has ever made or can make much of life, even poetically, who has not regarded it as standing on the thresh- old of an invisible world, as supported on divine foundations ... If the ideal light which poetry sheds on things has nothing an- swering to it in any world, men who are serious minded would not waste time on it. But imagination is an organ of the true. This The Immortal Life 187 faculty, cut off from the truth it represents, pines and dies. He is the wise poet who, ac- cepting the limitations of time, yet feeling that they are only for a time, bears witness to the eternal perfection, and by the beauty of his songs wakens others to the sense of it." — Princeton Review, March, i860. What is true of poetry is emphatically true of music, which appeals most directly to man's spiritual nature. The ancients appreciated melody and the power of accordant voices and instruments. Pastoral songs had their sweet attraction and martial strains kindled courage in the warrior. But the harmonies of the Christian anthem and oratorio were be- yond their reach. It is from Christianity that the great masters have drawn their inspiration. Haydn said : " When I think of God, the notes fly off as from a spindle." In a concert given by him in Vienna, when that sublime passage in his "Creation," "And there was light," was rendered, the enthusiastic applause of the audience drew from him the secret of his highest power. Pointing his finger heaven- ward, his eyes filling with tears, he ex- claimed, " It came from there.'' All profound experiences seek some form of expression, and the deepest and purest that 1 88 The Immortal Life have stirred men's souls, those of the Chris- tian faith, may be said to have created a lan- guage for their expression. Christian music in its highest development is that language. The humble, broken spirit, rising from the depths of penitential sorrow into trust and peace, and grateful love, voices itself in the widest range of musical composition. The richest of all music is the outcome of the Christian revelations, not merely of the Divine majesty, but of redeeming love and grace, in delivering from sin and in giving the life eter- nal. Without this faith, what possible human experiences can take expression in uplifting song ? What congregation can be lifted in transport into the very vestibule of the heav- enly temple, with the glory from within re- flected from their faces, when without hope and without God they are face to face with eternal darkness ? Whoever fancies himself in a godless world, to be dropped back into senseless dust to-morrow, can seek no expres- sion in musical harmonies. No one questions the genuineness and depth of Horace Bush- nell's experiences when, fresh from the obser- vation and study of Niagara, he wrote thus to a friend : " One ocean plunging in solemn re- pose of continuity into another ; the breadth, The Immortal Life 189 the height, the volume, the absence of all fluster as when the floods lift up their voices, still bending itself downward to the plunge, as a power that is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Verily my soul reveled within me to-day, as never since I was a conscious being, in contemplation of this tremendous type of God's eternity and majesty. I could hardly stand, such was the sense it gave me of the greatness of God." In another letter he writes : " How little do we know as yet, my dearest earthly friend, of what is contained in the word God! We put on great magnifiers in the form of adjectives, and they are true ; but the measures they ascribe, certified by the judg- ment, are not realized, or only dimly realized by our experience. I see this proved to me now and then by the capacity I have to think and feel greater things concerning God. It is as if my soul were shut in within a vast orb made up of concentric shells of brass or iron. I could hear even when I was a child the faint ring of a stroke on the one that is outermost and largest of them all ; but I began to break through one shell after another, bursting every time into a kind of new and wondrous and vastly enlarged heaven, hearing no more the dull close ring of the nearest casement, but 190 The Immortal Life the ring, as it were, of concave firmaments, and third heavens set with stars ; till now so glori- ously has my experience of God opened His greatness to me, I seem to have gotten quite beyond all physical images and measures, even those of astronomy, and simply to think God is to find and bring into my feeling more even than the imagination can reach. I bless God that it is so. I am cheered by it, encouraged, sent onward, and in what He gives me begin to have some very faint impression of the glory yet to be revealed." — Hunger's Life of Bushnell, pp. 176-177. Dr. Bushnell had what Professor Drum- mond aptly termed " A vast capacity for God." How evident that by contemplation his capa- cities were enlarged toward the vastness of the Universe that environed him till wholly spirit- ualized he no longer needed a sense-medium, but entered into immediate communion, spirit with spirit, suffused beyond measure with the divine life. That one in the presence of the sublimities of Nature can, like Bushnell at Niagara, and Coleridge in Chamouni, lose sight and thought for the time being of the visible in the sublimer vision of God, shows that man has a spiritual nature correlated to the Divine and that the natural world, having The Immortal Life 191 fulfilled its highest function as a medium of communication, drops out of mind, leaving the spirit virtually detached from all that is mate- rial in the direct vision and worship of God. Is not this the gfoal and consummation of the present rational life and the foretaste of the life hereafter ? With this reception of the divine there comes a new and superior power to all human faculties, giving even to the voice a divine spell and sway over the souls of men. Jenny Lind had indeed by nature a sweet and powerful voice. But Lord Bishop Holland, after frequent interviews and familiar acquaintance with her, expressed the conviction that her supreme excellence and power came from her sincere endeavor to honor God with the voice he had given her. Had her ambition been for admiration in mere self display, her voice could not have attained that supreme quality which was divine in its source, and which touched what was deepest and best in her audiences. There is higher inspiration in the thought of God than in the thought of self. Norman MacLeod was at one time charged with heresy and was threatened with deposition from the ministry by the General Assembly of Scotland. Being permitted to state his own 192 The Immortal Life case before that body he manifested in his ad- dress such candor, such honesty of conviction and such supreme regard for God and truth, that he disarmed their critical and narrow spirit and so inspired their confidence and admiration that instead of deposing him they chose him Moderator of the next General Assembly. In that address he was lifted to the plane where true eloquence begins and ends, where self disappears and only truth and God are seen. But our point must be evident without further illustration. In the absence of faith in God and in the life immortal it is plain that what is deepest and best in man, whether in the intellectual, the aesthetic or the moral life, cannot be realized. Not only is the soul in large measure sterilized, but the Universe itself is impoverished and made empty. The high- est development must go with the highest inspiration. This is found in the religion that brings Life and Immortality to light. Prof. Clifford after losing his religious faith said : " We have seen the sun shine out of an empty heaven, to light up a soulless earth ; we have felt with utter loneliness that the Great Companion is dead." Sully on Pessimism says : " To abandon hope of a future life is a The Immortal Life 193 vast loss not to be made good, so far as I can see, by any new idea of service to humanity." The following sentiment has been expressed by both Maurice and Tennyson : " The real hell is in the absence of God from the human soul." COSMIC FORCES AS RELATED TO MAN IN HARMONY WITH THE END OF HIS CREATION AS MADE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS " The entire Universe, the totality of the conditioned and depen- dent existence, animate and inanimate, material and spiritual, is one system, integrated by one thought, unfolded by one purpose, and tending through all stages of development to one end, the perfection of humanity, the conformity of rational and free beings to the image of God." Professor Cooke, Michigan University, Princeton Review, January, 1879. 195 CHAPTER XI COSMIC FORCES AS RELATED TO MAN IN HARMONY WITH THE END OF HIS CREATION AS MADE FOR RIGHTEOUS- NESS EVERY rational system, as rational, has an end in view which determines its general economy. Accordingly, Creation, as such a system, is ordered in consistency with an end, the best possible, and worthy of the perfec- tions of its Author, viz. : a kingdom of rational intelligence ennobled by His Fellowship and partaking of His life. We have seen, thus far, that the general ordering is apparently for this end, since man has been created in the Image of God, and is organized into an environment which is a medium of divine self-revelation fitted to ex- alt men into fellowship with God and there- fore into His likeness. We have seen that the religious and ethical nature of man involves his direct relationship to God, a relationship which carries with it the obligation of obedience 197 198 The Immortal Life to His authority and also the high privilege of intimate fellowship with His perfect life. But notwithstanding the evident purpose of the Creator to promote righteousness as the supreme end of His system, two very grave objections have been urged against this view. One of these by Professor Huxley, asserts that the cosmic forces operate in man as the enemy of righteousness, the other by Mr. J. S. Mill is a virtual impeachment of the Au- thor of creation as Himself unjust and cruel, as shown in such ordering of the course of Nature as involves a vast amount of suffering in men and animals. Now there are certain aspects of Nature which at first view give plausibility to those objections. If they are valid, our main con- tention in this entire discussion cannot be maintained, for if the cosmic forces operating in the lower nature of man make righteous- ness impossible ; or if the Author of the course of Nature in its relation to men and animals proves Him to be unjust and cruel, a kingdom of righteousness cannot be assumed as the end of His creation. Such is the im- portant bearing of these objections upon our main position that we need fully to state and fairly to meet them. In his Romanes Lecture The Immortal Life 199 Professor Huxley says : "The persistent opti- mism of our philosophers hid from them the actual state of the case. It prevented them from seeing that cosmic nature is no school of virtue, but the headquarters of the enemy of the ethical nature. The logic of fact was necessary to convince them that the Cosmos works through the lower nature of man not for righteousness but against it. And it finally drove them to confess that the ideal of ' wise men ' was incompatible with the na- ture of things ; that even a possible approxi- mation to that ideal was to be attained not only at the cost of the renunciation of the world and the mortification of the flesh, but of all humane feeling." ^ Now the " ideal " of which Professor Huxley here speaks is plainly that of a mediaeval ascetic now repudiated by sensible men. It ought to be impossible to man. But he further affirms that the " Cosmos working in the lower na- ture of man is the enemy of righteousness and that the ethical nature may count upon having to reckon with a tenacious and powerful enemy, so long as the world lasts." But doctors disagree. Mr. Herbert Spencer predicts that in the course of evolution the ' Evolution of Ethics, pp. 75, 76, 200 The Immortal Life cosmic forces within and without will be in such accord that the ethical life will require no self-denial, and that virtue will become an automatic movement like breathing or the beating of the heart. Now if the cosmic forces make the ethical ideal which requires the extinction of all human feeling an impossible task, so much the better for the cosmic forces. But in affirming that they are so hostile to the ethical life as to make righteousness impossible, he virtually affirms incompatibility and contradiction in the divine economy. For, through human reason and conscience, the divine command is for righteousness, but through the ordering of the cosmic forces it is made impossible. These forces, working through the appetites, and lower propensities overmaster the nobler nature and defeat all endeavor to fulfil right- eousness. There can be no such contradiction in a rationally ordered system. It is remarkable that Professor Huxley and Mr. Spencer, with essentially the same psychology and the same general philosophy, should assume ethical premises in direct op- position. One assumes that righteousness is impossible because of the perpetual hostility of the Cosmos ; the other, that the Cosmos, The Immortal Life 201 by progressive evolution, will bring righteous- ness to pass, without individual effort or care, as an automatic movement. But an auto- matic virtue under natural law has no ethical value. Both, therefore, from opposite pre- mises seem effectually to banish virtue at length from this planet. For in the one case the opposition of the cosmic forces will make it impossible, in the other the same forces will become so friendly as to take from man the fulfilment of ethical functions, thus relieving him from all moral efforts and responsibility and making virtue a necessity and a certainty under natural law. We do not doubt that race progress and heredity may in some measure tame human passion and remove some outward obstruc- tions to virtue now existing in the social en- vironment. But as the animal nature' will always be associated with the rational, its com- peting claims will bring temptations to evil, so that neither ethical law nor ethical func- tions will become obsolete. In fact, in the early stages of the moral life, temptations tend to the development of moral character as giving occasion for those judgments and choices which determine the issue of opposing claims. "Temptations," says Schubert, a German 202 The Immortal Life author, "are the gymnasium of the con- science." It is in deahng with them that we learn the very alphabet of morals, for only when conflicting claims, lower and higher, bring to view different values in kind, do we have the data for perceiving moral distinctions and recognizing the obligation to determine the issue according to ethical law by judicial and volitional action. They furnish the op- portunity for that personal and moral action by which ethical character is originated and strengthened till, by discipline and habit, it be- comes firmly established. We have no warrant, therefore, to assume either that the Cosmos will always prevent the achievement of righteous- ness, or so supersede ethical functions as to make it automatic. In other words, the cos- mic forces are not so ordered as to defeat the end of man's creation, either by effective op- position to righteousness or by making ethical functions and law obsolete, thus connecting the future story of human life with a mere chapter in natural history. Man, as the bond- slave of Nature, has no ethical character and no proper history of his own. Great moral issues are indispensable to both ; and those that call for heroic self-sacrifice, if responded to, give occasion for the loftiest virtues which The Immortal Life 203 make a history that is the glory of humanity. Without them human affairs might flow on with- out revolutionary changes, and the only strug- gle for existence would be on the physical plane, the ethical life being swallowed up in the cosmic order. Holding, as Professor Hux- ley did, to the fatal hostility of the Cosmos, we cannot wonder that he coveted transformation into a machine that would turn out truth and righteousness as sure products, as the mill grinds out flour. But we wonder that one so self-poised in judgment, so pure in morals, and so successful in the attainment of truth in his scientific inquiries should wish to exchange so splendid a mind for a soulless mechanism, to be operated by springs or turned by a crank. It would seem a far less sacrifice to be liable to occasional mistakes of judgment and choice than to be dropped in the scale of beings be- low the oyster and the cabbage, with no capa- city to either know truth or to practice virtue. The idea of machine-righteousness and knowl- edge is so absurd that we credit the concep- tion to that jocose pleasantry in which he could well indulge to give zest to his " Lay Sermons." But he could deal seriously with the rational and ethical life, as in his nota- ble Romanes Lecture, in which he pleads 204 The Immortal Life eloquently for the pursuit of an ethical ideal as essential to real manhood. Still an ethical ideal can be of little service if the cosmic forces operating in the lower nature are sure to overmaster the ethical endeavor, thus handi- capping and defeating every one at the start. But there is a different interpretation of the operation of the cosmic forces even in the lower nature of man which is possible and is not so depressing. For in fact these forces instead of being hostile to virtue, making it impossible, serve indirectly in normal condi- tions, as we have before shown, to promote the highest order of moral excellence. We might as truly say that Nature is the enemy of man, because she imposes the necessity of care and labor in contending with weeds and in subduing the soil to obtain the needed har- vests. If these could be simply gathered as a spontaneous growth without toil or foresight it would not favor the well-being of mankind. Those living in tropical climates, not compelled to labor for a livelihood, are by no means the best specimens of humanity. It is a wise economy that the great values of life are to be obtained and appreciated only at some cost, and that the idea of " something for nothing" does not enter into the order of the world. The Immortal Life 205 The noblest races and the strongest men are those that, in the struggle for existence, have contended with great obstacles. Why should we demand that a strong, pure character, the most precious of all things, should cost us nothing but should be the free gift of Nature ? Virtue reaches its highest excellence and finds best appreciation through self-sacrifice. Moral, as well as intellectual manhood, grows to large proportions, not by indolent ease, but by ener- getic action. Doubtless there may be moral as well as intellectual imbeciles ; those who by heredity or some malformation are over- weighted by low tendencies. Those are exceptional cases of arrested development through disease or other causes unknown to us. But in general, virtue is not only possible, but it is man's proper vocation to achieve it as essential to all rational life. Cosmic forces do not work against it but for it. As Matthew Arnold well says : " There is a Power, the eternal, not ourselves, that makes for right- eousness." Often the very forces in the lower nature, that seem to work against it, con- tribute to its highest excellence. For exam- ple, one having an impulsive nature with downward tendencies may seem to be the victim of inherited and hostile forces, while 2o6 The Immortal Life another having an inoffensive, amiable tem- perament, requiring little effort at self-mastery, may seem to be far more highly favored. But the former, by watchfulness and resolute deter- mination, overcomes his tendencies to evil and builds up a character richer, nobler, and more firmly established in righteousness than the latter. The apparently hostile forces call into action the higher powers of manhood, and by conflict with them, not only is victory achieved but a stronger and purer character is the result. Moral power and a worthiness of manhood is gained by these struggles for self- mastery that can be realized in no other way. Indeed, Professor Huxley's own experience in his pursuit of truth and in the virtues of his daily life is a refutation of his position. But Mr. J. S. Mill urges another objection to our main contention. In his Three Studies of Religion he affirms that the sufferings and miseries infiicted by the course of Nature upon innocent animals and upon men, involve cruelty and injustice on the part of the Creator. If his assertion is true, our argument in this entire discussion is a failure, for the Most High cannot consistently require of men to be just and kind, nor can He be said to rule the world, in the interest of righteousness, if He The Immortal Life 207 Himself is cruel and unjust in its ordering. Even the suspicion that He is unrighteous must strike dismay into the minds of thoughtful men and weaken the ties that bind them in loyalty to Him and to duty. Unquestionably the course of Nature by some necessity brings pain and suffering upon men and to animals. We cannot pretend to solve all the deep problems in the divine economy touching this subject. Omniscience alone can see them clearly. But our purpose is to state some considerations that in good measure meet the main objections urged, and tend to reassure our confidence in the divine wisdom and benevolence. First, the general laws of the cosmic system do not indicate cruelty in the Creator but beneficence in their uniform operation. For example, that of gravity was not intended to dash men and animals to destruction but to enable them to walk safely on firm foundations. It gives, in fact, stability and harmony to the Universe. That men and animals sometimes come under its destructive operation does not disprove its beneficent character, since the suffering thus occasioned is incidental, while its general operation is for the well-being of creation. Certainly its abrogation would be 2o8 The Immortal Life infinitely more destructive than its continu- ance. Men and animals are made more alert and are stimulated to healthful exertion and development by the very necessity of careful adjustment to this, as to other laws. We know of no law of Nature which in its general operation is not in harmony with a benevolent purpose. It should be remembered too that any crea- tion in time and space must have its limitations. Indeed, it may be impossible for Omnipotence, in ordering so complex a system for general good, to secure individuals against incidental evils without a kind of intervention that would be detrimental to the general interest. In other words, incidental evils occurring under necessary and beneficent laws cannot disprove the wisdom and beneficence manifest in the ordaining of these laws. Again, the endowment of sensibility which conditions all suffering, is in fact the condition of all enjoyment, and it was plainly bestowed not to cause suffering but enjoyment. In the nature of the case the sensibility to pleasure is a liability to pain. Accordingly, the sufferings which are experienced cannot disprove wisdom and beneficence in the endowment of sensibility unless it can be shown that in some cases it The Immortal Life 209 was intended to give pain rather than pleasure. In other words, an endowment which is indis- pensable to enjoyment and which in normal conditions either produces it, or makes pain a wholesome and timely warning against fatal exposure or unlawful indulgence, is a plain in- dication of benevolence and not of cruelty. It shows that the general economy provides for enjoyment rather than pain, and no one can suggest any other general ordering with proof that it would be superior to the present. But there is a worse evil than pain which has come into the world by divine permission. We refer to the violation of ethical laws, which means sin. While its commission is the act of the creature and not of the Creator it is true that the sinning race of man came into exist- ence by the creative act of God. One objection brought by Mr. J. S. Mill against the wisdom and goodness of the Crea- tor is that he gave existence to "this race of sinful and miserable creatures when other pos- sibilities were before Him." The other possi- bilities conceivable are, that He might not have given them existence at all, or He might have given them a higher nature or better condi- tions. Professor Huxley also assumes that God might have imparted to men the knowledge of 210 The Immortal Life Himself directly, and thus prevented sin and secured holiness. But He saw fit, for reasons we cannot wisely question, to create different orders of beings, and to treat each according to its nature. Even Omnipotence cannot rule the planets by the moral law, nor men as moral beings, as He does the planets, by force. The former He holds in their places by His own efficient energy, but men He commissions to rule themselves by the law of truth and right implanted within. If it was wise to create both planets and men it is wise that they come under the law of their proper nature. To impart to men knowledge and righteousness directly by creative act, as Professor Huxley suggests, would be in harmony with the professor's idea of mechanical knowledge and virtue, but not with a moral administration nor with man's rational and ethical life. Men indeed know cer- tain first principles by intuition, but the practical knowledge of truth, justice and righteousness, as we have before shown, is not a direct gift from God, but the achievement of the personal agency of each through his own judgment and choice, according to the laws of constructive thought and of the moral life. The qualities that belong to character and that constitute the highest form of excellence are moral, not The Immortal Life 211 mechanical, and in the nature of the case they cannot be a gift from without but an achieve- ment within. The exercise of Omnipotence in originating them in man would be as much out of place as in giving moral law to a comet. Such is the established order of the world, and who can prove it unjust or unwise ? But Mr. Mill charges the sin and misery of mankind upon the Creator, because, as he says, "He brought into being such a sinful and miserable race." Now a sinner is one who becomes such by his own responsible choice and act, never by the act of another. In the nature of the case, beings made capable of choosing the right must be capable of choosing the wrong. In either case the act is personal and the respon- sibility attaches to the agent. Whether the original endowments and conditions of the race for the beginning of the moral life are the best possible who but the Omniscient One is qualified to judge. Professor Huxley and Mr. Mill thought it unwise to incorporate the lower with the higher nature of man, thereby making certain and necessary that competition and con- flict between them which brings the liabilities and the perils of the sinful choice. But through this union of the two natures man is 2 12 The Immortal Life put into organic and sympathetic relations with the entire Universe as his environment and made capable of the widest range of knowl- edge. The same union, as we have seen, conditions his practical knowledge of moral distinctions, and furnishes the occasion for strictly personal action in the exercise of those moral functions in judgment, and determining choices which originate character and constitute men moral agents. If this arrangement in- volves the liability to sin and misery it also carries the possibilities of the highest excellence and blessedness. Furthermore, those who, like Professor Hux- ley, claim that man is developed from the ani- mal nature, cannot condemn this union without condemning the whole order of creation as evolutionary and progressive. For the cur- rent theory of evolution assumes the connection of the present and future with all previous stages in a unity which is organic and all-com- prehensive. Besides, does not one who con- demns his affinity with the lower nature as debasing, not only pronounce against the general order but show ingratitude which is unfilial toward an ancestry to which so much is due ? A deeper knowledge of the broad econ- omy which embraces the Universe and makes The Immortal Life 213 it one consistent system, would doubtless lead to a retraction of such conclusion against the wisdom of the Almighty as hasty and un- warranted. The world was not created mature and per- fect at the start, as Professor Huxley thought the wiser way. It is a progressive creation from darkness to light, from chaos to cosmos. All agree that the progression has been through a succession of kingdoms ; each in the ad- vance superior to the preceding in both rank and value, until at last the kingdom of rational and spiritual life to which man belongs has been reached as the culmination and crown of all. We have shown that man was made in the image of God for participation and fellowship with His divine and perfect life, and that the very conflict between his lower and higher na- ture in normal conditions are fitted to pro- mote the highest order of excellence which is truly divine. The divine economy, therefore, instead of working against righteousness, is plainly ordered for its sake, as of supreme ac- count and the final end of all arrangements. The evidence for this, the broader view, is too strong to be set aside by critical conjectures based on surface appearances and on a very 214 The Immortal Life imperfect knowledge, even of appearances, and especially of the place and bearing of the whole as a broad consistent system. Men are to progress in moral strength and excellence as in physical and intellectual development by contending with obstacles. Strong endeavor to subordinate lower to higher principles of action is as necessary to the development of the moral life as physical and intellectual exer- tion is to a robust and healthy body and a disciplined mind. This method of growth and attainment is in harmony with all the laws of life. Unity, the converging of all forces and arrangements to one supreme end, is the prime characteristic of God's Universe. In other words, He constituted it a rational system, and therefore ethical, as its supreme law and outcome. Hence there can be no warrant for assuming that forces in the lower nature of man, or elsewhere, are so ordered as to defeat the end for which creation exists. On the contrary when men are faithful to their trust these very forces are found to promote the highest order of moral excellence. Of course in a system so vast and complex there are appearances which seem to show a movement contrary to the general course of things, as a broad, deep river has its eddies that run The Immortal Life 215 against the current, when, all together, eddies and current are moving on toward the same destination. The counsels of God are broader than our narrow vision, and are not to be pro- nounced contradictory or unwise by any one who does not take in the whole sweep and compass of the divine economy. When such an one appears he will not judge the Almighty by mere surface appearances, but by the pro- gressive and combined movement of the whole scheme toward one and the same end. Who is now warranted to say that both the end and the movement of the whole is not in harmony with the divine perfection ? But it is true that the course of Nature as ordered by Providence involves pain and suf- fering on the part of both men and animals. This subject will be considered in the next chapter. SUFFERING IN MEN AND ANIMALS AS RELATED TO DIVINE BENEFICENCE " 'T is sorrow builds the shining ladder up Whose golden rounds are our calamities, Whereon our firm feet planting nearer God The Spirit climbs and hath its eyes unsealed." Lowell. " It is the lot of all superior natures to suffer as a part of their training and as the price of their gifts ; but this suffering has often no thorn of outward loss thrust into its sensitive heart. The anguish of the Cross has always been the prelude to the psalm of deliverance and the world has made no new conquest of truth and life except through those who have trodden the via dolorosa." Hamilton W. Mabie, My Study Fire, p. 36. 217 CHAPTER XII SUFFERING IN MEN AND ANIMALS AS RELATED TO DIVINE BENEFICENCE THE problem of suffering has always been one of deep interest to thoughtful minds. The wide prevalence of so many forms of pain and suffering, together with the frequent occur- rence of great calamities through the opera- tion of natural forces, has given a tragic element to human history, awakening in some persons bitter complaints, in others painful doubts and misgivings, and in reflecting minds the desire to solve the mysteries which such an economy presents. From the times of Job and the Grecian dramatists down to Shake- speare, Tennyson, and Browning this tragic element has given its deep coloring to dra- matic literature. But the mystery of the divine ordering is as great to-day as ever ; and who will attempt its complete solution when the profoundest minds in all the ages have been unequal to the task ? After all, the mystery 219 2 20 The Immortal Life pertains not so much to the general purpose of the divine administration as to the con- sistency with it of particular events in their bearing upon it. Our vision is short and dim, and only Omniscience can comprehend the bearing of all events upon the purpose and end of so complex a system. But as it is plainly rational and ethical we are sure it is not self-contradictory, and that unity is its prime characteristic. In the preceding chapter we have endeavored to show that the cosmic forces operating in the lower nature of man, while they seem hostile to virtue in their im- mediate action, do in fact condition virtue of the highest excellence. We are now to con- sider the suffering of men and animals in its various forms, as related to their well-being and to the divine wisdom and beneficence. We speak first of sufferings in their proper influence upon men under their divine allot- ments. Euripides, the Grecian dramatist, like Brown- ing in modern time, felt that nothing is of such deep interest as " the education of the human soul," and they affirmed that "the painful discipline of life gives a truer and larger sense of men's powers and duties." Hinton, in a small volume. The Mystery of The Immortal Life 221 Pain, has given some of the best thoughts on this subject. We quote the following : " When we know pain is willingly borne for another's sake, it not only passes into the category of good, but it becomes emphatically the good. The pain of martyrs and the losses of self-sacrificing devotion are never classed among the evil things of the world. They are the bright places rather, the culminating points at which humanity has displayed its true glory and reached its perfect level. . . . Without endurance life ceases to be enjoya- ble ; without pains accepted, pleasures will not be permanent. A life from which pain is banished becomes a life not worth living, or worse, of intolerable tedium and disgust. Man's true and proper life is of such gran- deur, of such intensity and scope, that it would absorb and turn into the service of joy all that we now find intolerable pain, all agony and loss It is such life, so large, so rich in love that in these sacrifices it can find its perfect satisfaction. It is a life so truly lived in others, so participant with them, that utter and unbounded sacrifice is possible. It is the life of Heaven." (Pp. 11, 46, 47.) Mr. J. S. Mill regarded the character of Jesus Christ the most pure and exalted that 222 The Immortal Life has appeared in this world, furnishing the highest ethical ideal for humanity, and at the same time being the most worthy manifesta- tion of divine perfections. But we read in the New Testament account of Jesus Christ that He " was made perfect through suffering." As illustrated in the best men, suffering has been called " the fuel of love." It certainly tends to change the hardness of our nature into a warm tenderness and sympathy as nothing else can. " Pain in man Is the high mission of the frail and few." This truth finds its expression not only in the best poetry but in the ripest Christian experience and in the deepest philosophy. Professor James, of Harvard University, in an admirable volume says : " It is a remark- able fact that sufferings and hardships do not as a rule abate the love of life ; they serve on the contrary to give it a keener zest. The sovereign source of melancholy is repletion. Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us, and our hour of triumph is what brings the void. Not the Jews of captivity, but those of Solomon's glory were those from whom the pessimistic utterance of our Bible The Immortal Life 223 came. . . . Will not every man declare that a world fitted for fair-weather human beings, susceptible to every passing enjoyment, but without independence, courage, or fortitude, to be, from a moral point of view, immeasur- ably inferior to a world formed to elicit from them every form of triumphant endurance and conquering energy." — The Will to Believe, pp. 47, lOI. It is certain that this was not intended to be a stagnant world. Even the plant creeps toward the light. The instinct of animals leads to the strenuous activity of self-support, and the higher the order of beings the greater the demand and the wider the range for their activity. It is true the frequent repetition of certain forms of action, till they become ha- bitual, gives release from any volitional effort and becomes almost unconscious. But the object of this provision is not to relieve from exertion but to give opportunity to rise above mere manipulation to higher forms and broader ranges of mental activity. Professor Bruce makes the inquiry, " What is the happiness God meant for us ? Should it be that from which the painful is banished, or that in which pain is swallowed up in joy ? Through sacrifice is given the opportunity to 2 24 The Immortal Life self-directing love, that transforms pain, lends dignity to the most ignominious lot, and decks the rudest crop with flowers." — Gifford Lect- ures, 1897, pp. 118, 324. In a progressive creation we are not to judge a particular stage of progress by itself, but as related to the whole of which it is a part. It is the final outcome that explains all. To an observer the primeval fire-mist would have been meaningless. The earlier kingdoms take their significance and supreme value as tribu- tary to those that follow. The germ is ex- plained by the ripened fruit. And the hard conditions of our race, that in themselves seem wholly evil, make known their value in the strong manhood and ripened character which is their proper outcome. Life and life more abundant and of the best possible quality is the goal of creation. The whole cosmic move- ment has been toward that goal. Multitudes have testified to priceless blessings hidden in the most painful experiences. They were led in ways they knew not but through darkness and conflict they emerged at length with shin- ing faces standing upon lofty heights. Their characters were patterned after ideals they did not create, and their lives were made immortal by experiences they could not have chosen. The Immortal Life 225 Thus ^schylus, Dante, and the bHnd Mikon were quaUfied in the school of sorrow " to en- rich the life-blood of the world with their song." Some of the sweetest hymns, whose melodies seem the very pulses of Christian joy and triumph, came from hearts made sweet and pure by the baptism of sorrow. We read of Plato the "sad " and of Michael Angelo "the silent man." The one wrestled with deep and solemn problems that overmatched his thought, the other reached after lofty ideals beyond his power to realize, but they became greater by their struggles and the world of thought and art is richer through their achievements. Few can imagine the humihations of Dante and his anguish of spirit from hopes deferred and from persecution and banishment ; but there came to his bruised and sensitive spirit at length that sweet and restful union with God, not gained by his own striving or by his soaring imagination, but through flashes of divine love, as he has beautifully told us in his immortal " No wings were mine to compass such a flight Till in a lightning flash from God on me The consummation of my longing came, How all my powers of soaring phantasy Fainted within me ; only this I knew: 2 26 The Immortal Life That like a wheel that neither hastes nor rests My will revolved under the sway of Love — The Love that moves the sun and every star." See Dr. Caird's Evolution of Religioti^ Vol. ii., p. 272. Prof. J. P. Cooke of Harvard University gives expression to similar ideas : " As then in the struggle for existence, perfection is reached through suffering, so in the spiritual world men rise to higher things through sorrow ; and though as they rise their power of suffering is increased, yet in the beauty of holiness their sorrow is at last turned into joy." — TJie Cre- dentials of Science, the Warrant of Faith, p. 318. Many of the so-called evils of life would turn to blessings if met with fortitude and trust in the divine order. Temptations instead of de- basing humanity and enslaving it to sin would bring the higher powers into action, thus con- tributing to strength and freedom. They would be stepping-stones to a higher life instead of stumbling-blocks to an ignominious fall. Ac- cordingly we find that a great part of the suf- ferings and miseries of mankind and the worst of all, men bring upon themselves by their vices, their greed, their selfish ambitions, and cruel oppressions. The darkest of all mysteries is that of sin and there is no remedy for the The Immortal Life 227 worst evils but that which takes away sin. On this point we need not dwell, since it is evident this world would be a happy world if this cause of wretchedness were removed. But the highest qualities of character and the richest blessings cannot be thrust upon men without their consent and co-operation. Truth, wisdom, virtue are not the gift of cosmic forces, but the outcome of earnest per- sonal endeavor under the guidance and obliga- tions of ethical law. Action, as well as thought, is the law of the divine economy. Action solves more hard problems than speculative thought. It clears away the mists that dim the spiritual vision and gives practical insight into reality. It brings strength to wrestle with obstacles and healthful zest and enthu- siasm for life's great work. We have shown from facts of wide experience that the ten- dency of pain and various forms of suffering, if wisely accepted, is to purify, enrich, and ennoble character. This is the highest good and as this, not pleasure, is the end of ex- istence, since pain contributes to it, it has, at least,, a partial explanation. But the sub- ject is broader and leads us into wider re- lations which this view does not compass, and which possibly no finite mind can at present 2 28 The Immortal Life comprehend. There are evils which men do not bring on themselves, which are neither strictly retribution for sin, nor in the proper sense educative and disciplinary for character. Tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tidal waves come irrespective of human agency, sudden and resistless, often sweeping thousands, the evil and the good together, to instant destruction. We might speak also of what the innocent often suffer from heredity, in the way of mal- formation, disease, and in constitutional pro- clivities to hurtful indulgence, which fatally overmaster the will. Furthermore we think of the exposure of individuals and families to various forms of evil in their relation to human society. Many are born into conditions of civil and social life subject to unjust legisla- tion and oppression, or to men of violence and blood. For such a state of things they have no responsibility and yet they suffer all man- ner of injustice. Such conditions greatly try our faith in any overruling power. Such dis- order in the course of things has at least its mysteries which we cannot fully explain. But there are certain considerations which may well deter us from hasty judgments. Since science assumes that the Universe has a The Immortal Life 229 rational order, it must also assume its unity and solidarity as a consistent system. But since every part and movement is related to every other part and to the supreme end, the fact of the rational order of the whole be- ing assumed, it follows that what seems at first view to be out of place and contradictory is after all in harmony with the general purpose and economy of the system. As the ascent of light bodies through the atmosphere seems in contradiction to the law of gravity, but is by wider knowledge easily explained as in harmony with that law, so the evils spoken of above may find their reconciliation with the divine purpose and the beneficent end of cre- ation. Hence we speak of the solidarity of the system and of the human race. If there was to be a Universe at all it must have inter- relations that bind all together under general laws and in such complexity might of neces- sity work unavoidable evils to individuals while promoting the general good. Such was the judgment of the wisest of ancient philoso- phers, Plato and Aristotle, and also of Leib- nitz, Martineau, and others in modern time. We quote a few lines from Dr. Martineau, who has treated this subject with his usual profound insight and clearness : 230 The Immortal Life "To every finite method (and to create is to enter the sphere of the finite) this partial disability, this unequal approximation to the ideally perfect, inevitably clings : . . . It is vain, therefore, to appeal to the almightiness of God unless you mean to throw away the relations of any established universe, and pass into His unconditioned infinitude ; in the cos- mos He has abrogated it, and there is a limit for what you may demand from it as within its scope." — Study of Religion, pp. 80, 81. We must take into view the limitations which belong to any finite system projected into time and space and brought into unity for a given end. Of course it must possess soli- darity, by which each part or individual is re- lated to the whole under the operation of general laws. For example, there are laws of heredity which render the individual liable, through no fault of his own, to inherit dis- ease, malformation, or constitutional tenden- cies too strong to be resisted. But while the working of the law is often hard on the indi- vidual, still, on the whole, it is for the benefit of the race, since it carries forward all previous progress attained, passing over from ancestor to descendant what required ages of effort to gain. To annul the law would destroy the The Immortal Life 231 solidarity of the race, and even its suspension for the relief of individuals would require an interference in the established order which might be a serious detriment to the race. There is no question that the evolution of the race through the ages has been progressive, physically, intellectually, and morally, and the transmission of its gains through the law of heredit}^ while conserving its solidarity, has set the race forward. At the same time the operation of the law in given conditions may be injurious to individuals through limitations inherent in a system of fixed and definite relations. Again, this race solidarity is liable to occa- sion suffering and loss to individuals through their exposure to imperfect and hurtful condi- tions in human society. By no fault of their own, they may come under oppressive laws, or into a community of low aims and corrupt- ing influences, to be the prey of sharpers or of revolutionary violence, and yet contact with human society is a necessity of human nature. Only in its social, civil, and moral relations does it find scope for development, for the upbuilding of character and for breadth and fulness of rational life. Isolation from society is far worse than exposure to its evils. 232 The Immortal Life Besides the advantages it brings in ordinary conditions counterbalance its evils a thousand fold. Every generation accumulates and trans- mits great values in knowledge, in experience, in institution of law and government, in maxims of wisdom, in philosophy, and art. These attainments, together with progressive discoveries and inventions, which pass on from generation to generation, are cumulative values that give breadth and momentum to the ad- vancement of society and greatly enrich the life of humanity. Many things which are now among the necessaries of the poor would have been luxuries for the rich in a past age. Be- sides the common interests of mankind furnish motives to each individual to improve the condition and character of the race. But again the solidarity of the broad sys- tem, which connects men organically with ex- ternal forces, exposes them to earthquakes, tornadoes, and conflagrations which often prove the destruction of multitudes, with no power of resistance or escape. Such disasters do not appear to be retributive or disciplinary, like the evils which men bring on themselves. They come alike upon the evil and the good. We may assume, with Dorner, that this world was adapted to beings morally imper- The Immortal Life 233 feet, with natural conditions in harmony with their foreseen moral state. Or, with Dr. Mar- tineau, we may regard such disasters as in- evitable in a system of definite relations under general laws which, notwithstanding inciden- tal evils, work out the general good. What- ever explanation we attempt, we find men exposed to great evils as related to the great world-forces. Shall we, therefore, give up our faith in the divine beneficence ? In this connection let us remember certain evident facts. First, such disasters are inci- dental, exceptional, and very rare. Second, the great world forces are often all so ordered that the movement of our planet through space is quiet, rhythmical, and safe, as if it were cradling children of parental love. Third, the elements in which we live, mighty as they are, ordi- narily are gentle, easily controlled, and really doing us ready service in a thousand ways. They spread our sails, they turn our wheels, they carry us from place to place, they run on our errands with lightning speed, they bring to our doors the products of all lands, they put us in communication with all nations and peoples, giving swift wings to thought, broad- ening our sympathies, and faithfully serving us in our far-reaching beneficence for the 234 The Immortal Life welfare of our race, and in the reflex benefits that ennoble our character and enrich our life. And future discoveries will doubtless reveal still other forces awaiting our command. The energies that move the world must, of course, be powerful, and in a sense resistless. The wonder is not that we should occasionally experience harm from their complex move- ments, but that in their combined operation they should be so harmoniously adjusted, so pliant and tractable, as if tamed and harnessed like faithful and trusty steeds for our com- mand. Instead of complaining at our hard- ships we have occasion to be grateful that such mighty forces are for our convenience and comfort, entrusted to our habitual use. It is a mistake to see only the evils incident to our lot, which after all may be unavoidable in the best system, while the system itself in its combined operation is so largely beneficent. The solidarity essential to the system, which makes us liable to evils from the law of hered- ity and exposes us in occasional conflict with natural forces, secures to us advantages that a thousand fold outweigh the evils coming with it. The pessimistic spirit is emphatically nar- row, one-sided, and superficial. The more com- prehensive our view the more evident on the The Immortal Life 235 broad scale is the bountiful and loving care of our Maker. We have left but small space, though pos- sibly all that is needed, to speak of suffering in the animal creation. Mr. Mill gave em- phasis to this, seeing clearly that the sinfulness of men often brought upon them merited retri- bution ; but the infliction of pain on innocent animals he pronounced ''cruel and unjust.'' In this judgment he differed widely from men whose opportunities qualified them for a wiser judgment. A. R. Wallace on this point says : " On the whole we conclude that the popular \ idea of the struggle for existence entailing \ misery and pain upon the animal world, is the \ very reverse of the truth. What it really ) brings about is the maximum enjoyment of life with the minimum of suffering and pain. Given the necessity of death and reproduction (and without these there would have been no progressive development of the organic world), it is difficult to imagine a system by which a greater balance of happiness could have been assured." He quotes from Darwin as follows : "The poet's picture of Nature as 'red in tooth and claw with ravine ' is a picture of the evil read into it by our exaggerations, the reality being made up of full and happy lives, 2^6 The Immortal Life usually terminating by the quickest and least painful of deaths." See Wallace's Darwinisju, pp. 39, 40. Life is superior to non-living matter, and we find numberless grades of it, from the lowest of the vegetal to the highest of the sentient creation. It abounds everywhere in the waters and in the atmosphere. In fact matter is use- less except as ministering to life. The lower grades condition the higher, and while the low- est have their measure of good, and while all below are subservient to man, all, with as little suffering as possible, share the bounty of the Creator. We quote briefly from Dr. Marti- neau. " The real question is simply this, whether the laws of which complaint is made work such harm that they ought never to have been created, or whether in spite of occasional disasters in their path, this sentient existence of which they are the condition has in its his- tory a vast excess of blessing." — Study of Re- ligion, ii, p. 78-79. This question admits of but one answer. That the animal creation do in normal con- ditions enjoy life, is manifest in their affection for offspring, in the playful sports of the young, in the song of birds and in the many ways in which they express their love of life. Nothing The Immortal Life 237 is created for the sake of pain. It is wholly incidental and all the ranks of sentient exist- ence according to their measure find life a blessing. Finally while the divine beneficence is mani- fest in all the lower forms of life these at the same time are made tributary to the nobler life of man. For all the lower kingdoms are represented in the animal, and man by possess- ing the animal nature, is linked organically to all the kingdoms and is thereby qualified to appreciate and sympathize with animal life and to make all the forces of Nature subservient to his rational and ethical life and therefore to serve the interests of righteousness. NO PROOF THAT THE DISSOLU- TION OF THE BODY IS THE EX- TINCTION OF THE RATIONAL SPIRIT " The only scientific plea on which the possibility of immortality can be denied to us, is based on the fact that mind in this life is so intimately bound up with physiological conditions. Once grant, how- ever, that the thinking principle in man is distinct from the body which it uses as its instrument, and no reason can be shown, as Bishop Butler demonstrated long ago, why it should not survive the shock of the dissolution we call death. Death need not even be the suspen- sion of its powers." Professor James Orr, D.D., Kerr Lectures, 1890-91, p. 152. 239 CHAPTER XIII NO PROOF THAT THE DISSOLUTION OF THE BODY IS THE EXTINCTION OF THE RATIONAL SPIRIT OUR main purpose in this discussion is to show that the world as a rational system is ordered in the interest of righteousness. We have shown that the expectation of the future life, tends to promote it and that the denial of that life, by taking away the most effective motives to virtue must greatly hinder its practice. The same denial by taking from man his chief dignity and value and emptying the world of its meaning, tends to paralyze all high endeavor and drop human life to a lower level. But it may be asked, what have we to do with consequences, since the question at issue is one oi fact and the fact to all appearances is, that nothing survives the death of the body. Before showing that there is no ground for assuming this as fact we hope to show that the i6 241 242 The Immortal Life consequences of such assumption have an im- portant bearing upon the truth we are seeking, especially if they would tend to defeat the very end of man's creation. It is true that at death what we term spirit life disappears from the range of the senses. But the senses can give only negative testi- mony, and those principles which are the basis of all reality are beyond their reach and can be grasped only by the rational understand- ing. Men are moral beings, and as such they are under ethical law which is the supreme law of rational life and which involves their ethical and spiritual relationship to Him who ordained and administers it. Now if death ends all, it not only severs this relationship of man to ethical law and to Him who ordained it, but it drops man from the spiritual realm to which he belongs and makes him altogether subject to physical law as the supreme law of the world. This would reverse the whole cos- mic order which subordinates the lower to the higher in rank and worth, and would anni- hilate those ethical and spiritual interests which are of supreme value. Now to drop man to the physical plane and to take from him by his extinction all permanent interests and obligations not only puts an end to all the The Immortal Life 243 sanctities of life, but to the proper worth and significance of the noblest of the creative work. By thus depriving man of all permanent worth and interest you diminish the motives to virtue and righteousness becomes compa- ratively of little account. Body and spirit alike, with all human interests soon turn to dust and come to nothing. This materialis- tic theory is totally at variance with that which we term rational and ethical, for their postulates are directly contradictory. The one denies the moral order of the world and the possibility of the ethical life. The other affirms the reality of both with the implication of a continuous life beyond the grave. Mat- thew Arnold expressed the general conviction in affirming, " There is a Power not ourselves that makes for righteousness." Every thought- ful man knows his solemn oblisfations as under moral law. Human society recognizes the same law as underlying all human legislation and that there is no real stability or prosperity on any other basis. So the moral order of the world and the necessities of the spiritual nature of man are in harmony and this harmony is the highest test of truth. We quote the following from Professor Seth of Edinburgh University : 244 The Immortal Life " To understand the world is not merely to unravel the sequences of its intricate facts, so long as we cannot bring the order of things into harmony with the moral sense of mankind we cannot be said to have made existence in- telligible ; the world still remains as in Hume's words a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mys- tery." — Mans Place in the Cosmos, p. 28. Now a theory which contradicts the moral sense of man, by denying his ethical relation to God and his worth as in His image, subject- ing his spiritual nature to mere physical condi- tions, thus enthroning the material over the spiritual, and the temporal over the eternal, not only reverses the divine order but defeats the end of man's existence. It cannot there- fore be in consistency with a rationally or- dered world. What so belittles man, depriving him of any permanent interest in anything, must tend to paralyze every high endeavor to which his nobler nature would prompt him, must be false as contrary to the system to which he belongs. We affirm therefore that consequences must be taken account of in our determination of fact and truth. Professor Le Conte affirms : " Whatever in the lone run and in the final outcome tends to the bad,\n human conduct ought to be received. The Immortal Life 245 even by the honest lover of truth with distrust as containing essential error." — Evolution and Religious Thought, p. 277. The artist in painting a portrait seeks to ex- press what is highest and best, as true to his subject. Why should we assume the lowest and meanest interpretation of man and the majestic Universe of God, expresses the true outcome of His creative wisdom ? We have shown that man is in fact the im- age of God, and that the Most High has made this vast Universe a medium of His self-revela- tion for intelligent and ennobling intercourse with man, to exalt him into His fellowship and likeness. This cannot mean that a creature made to be one with God is to be one with the dust of the earth. The fact also that the world has ever been progressing toward higher and higher ends, should teach us that man as the chief outcome is to have a nobler destiny. This view is well expressed by Dr. John Fiske : " The glorious consummation toward which organic evolution is tending is the pro- duction of the highest and most perfect psy- chical life. When from the dawn of life we see all things working together toward the evolution of the highest spiritual attributes of man, we know, however, the words may stumble 246 The Immortal Life in which we try to say it, that God is in the highest sense a inoral being. The evolu- tionary course of phenomena is none other than the Infinite Power that makes for right- eousness." — Idea of God, pp. 261, 262. Our purpose in this chapter thus far has been to show that the ethical view of the world has a firm basis m fact, and this as it excludes the materialistic and mechanical view gives it no standing whatever. But notwithstanding man's moral relation- ship to God, and the evident divine purpose to make this relationship one of fellowship with the life eternal, it is asserted by some that man has no life or spiritual nature distinct from the body, and that they perish together. We come then to our special point, — Is there any ground, scientific or otherwise, for assum- ing that the dissolution of the bodily organism is, by any known necessity or in fact, the ex- tinction of the rational personality ? All admit that what we call the rational mind is in rank and dignity immeasurably supe- rior to the bodily tissues. Furthermore these, comprising the senses, nerves, muscles, and the whole framework, are plainly instrumental for the psychical life as the crowning endow- ment of humanity. True the body and spirit The Immortal Life 247 are closely united. But their functions, their laws of action, and their environment are to- tally different. No one can identify thought, feeling, will, and character which belong to the one, with mechanical motion or chemi- cal action, or the tissues which belong to the other. They have nothing in common. The body lives on material food ; it moves from place to place by physical laws ; it has to do only with the physical, the material. The mind, on the contrary, lives on truth, on beauty and harmony, and has to do with ethical and spiritual laws. These are all spiritual reali- ties. The body has its limitations in time and space ; its action is confined to present time and to particular localities. The mind has its broad range in the past and the future and in excursions to the stars. It grasps the princi- ples, the causes, and relations of its vast environment, the Universe. Having thus en- tirely different functions, dealing with different orders of realities, acting under different laws, and seeking different ends, they belong to dif- ferent realms. Thus differing in their nature, ends, and laws of action, what warrant is there so to identify them as to assume for them the same destiny? "It is a mistake," says Dr. Lotze, "to imagine that the mere organic 248 The Immortal Life history covers the whole field of the problem, and by its termination demonstrates conscious- ness to be extinct. There is no such known conjunction between the bodily organism and the mental life as to bind the two factors in indissoluble unity." Physiological psychology has been made the basis of various assumptions concerning the nature and functions of the psychic life. One is that mental processes, thought, feeling, and willing are identical with molecular changes in brain substances. Another is that all forms of consciousness are but the inner aspects of brain-changes, and that these inner aspects or shadowy attendants have no function or agency as factors in the psychical life. Now these are simply conjec- tures, or speculations that have no scientific basis. They do not explain a single phenome- non of the mental life. Professor Tyndall, after attempting to give a physical explanation of consciousness, says frankly : " The passage from the physics of the brain to the corre- sponding facts of consciousness is zmthinkable. Granted that a definite thought and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simul- taneously, we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor apparently any rudiment of the or- The Immortal Life 249 gan, which would enable us to pass by a process of reasoning from one to the other. They ap- pear together but we know not why. Were our minds and senses so expanded, strength- ened and illuminated as would enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain ; were we capable of following all the motions, all the groupings, all the electric discharges if such there be, and we were intimately ac- quainted with the corresponding states of feel- ings, we should be as far from the solution of the problem, how the physical processes are connected with the facts of consciousness : the chasm between the two classes would still remain intellectually impassable." — Fragments of Scie7ice, p. 420. If then, as all agree, there is a chasm be- tween the physical and the psychical life which no man can bridge, who can affirm that they are so inseparably linked together that they may not part company, the spirit unharmed seeking its kind, the body resolved into its native dust ? There are substantial reasons for adopting this conclusion. In the first place the physical organism, as we have said, is the instrument for the service of the rational mind. Its senses present outward 250 The Immortal Life phenomena for the mind to interpret into truth as a permanent possession after the phe- nomena have passed away. We find indeed that the loss of one sense quickens the mind to a sharper use of those that remain. Fur- thermore, such loss is the occasion of summon- ing into more vigorous action the powers of memory, imagination, and constructive thought. Why may not the spirit, after part- ing with all the bodily senses, yet retaining in the form of interpreted fact and truth what they had been the means of supplying, be summoned to still higher and more vigorous activities with a wider grasp of truth ? This would but continue a form of life already experienced in earthly conditions. In the second place, the union of the spiritual mind with the physical organism brings it into those relations, social, civil, and religious, which make for its development. In these re- lations to human society, and to Nature, it is placed in a school of intellectual and moral education and of practical training and dis- cipline for the formation and upbuilding of character, the product of absolute value. Fur- thermore, since all the lower kino-doms are represented in the physical organism, it is brought into sympathetic contact with univer- The Immortal Life 251 sal nature as a divine manifestation. The field thus opened is broad. The education which should be preparative for something permanent and progressive is only begun. The goal, whether it be knowledge or charac- ter, is far off and is not reached in present conditions. " We must believe for still we hope That in a world of larger scope What here is faithfully begun Will be completed, not undone." A. H. Clough. In the third place, when the bodily organ- ism has attained its full development and has ended its instrumental service, the rational spirit seems only to have begun its career. The scientist, the poet, the artist, the philoso- pher and the philanthropist, the saint, when the death of the body approaches, are all reaching forward to higher attainment. Not one of them has realized his ideals. From every direction come solicitations for further and better achievements. The Perfect is still in the future, and even present failures intensify the longing to reach it. Professor Hitchcock, the eminent geologist, when near his end, is reported to have said : " I hope the Lord will give opportunity to 252 The Immortal Life study with the hammer the rocks of Mars and of other worlds." Agassiz, as death approached, was full of enthusiasm in his study of types of animal structure, for amid infinite variations he saw in the persistent type the thought of the Creator, and he thus linked scientific with divine know- ledge as one and the same. This passion, whether for knowledge or goodness, does not reach its goal in this life, and the sudden ending of all pursuit of knowledge or character at death would be out of harmony with the progressive order of the world. This assump- tion, there being no scientific ground for it, is irrational. "By no possibility," says Dr. Fiske, "can thought and feeling be in any sense the product of matter. Nothing could be more unscientific than the famous remark of Cabanis that ' the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile.' It cannot even be correct to say that thought goes on in the brain. What goes on in the brain is an ex- ceedingly complex series of molecular move- ments, with which thought and feeling are in some unknown way correlated, not as effects or causes, but as concomitants. The material- istic conception that the life of the spirit ac- cordingly ends with the life of the body, is The Immortal Life 253 perhaps the most colossal instance of baseless assumption that is known in the history of philosophy." — Destiny of Man, pp. 100, 109. The distinction between body and mind is fundamental. As was said above, the phenom- ena, the laws of action and the ends, are totally different in the two cases, and they belong to different kingdoms. Molecular motions and changes of brain substance doubtless accom- pany all mental action. But in all rational pro- cesses, the mind, the intelligent agent, takes the initiative, using the brain, as it does the senses, as its instrument. In reasoning, for example, logical relation or the connection of one fact or truth with another requires an intelligent thinker, who orders his thought and draws his conclusion, not according to physical or chemi- cal laws operating in brain movements, but ac- cording to the perceived relations of fact to fact and truth to truth. Who is warranted to assume that molecules care for logic, or that the laws of chemical or electric action in the brain are one with the processes of logical thought, or with delight in beauty, or with adoring rever- ence in holy worship ? . . . Do not physical and chemical laws belong to a lower plane ? Have material molecules, in their changes under physical and chemical laws, a spiritual 2 54 The Immortal Life and ethical character, or are they the pliant ser- vants of an intelligent and personal power, who determines his own ends of action under a higher law ? The servant does not do business on his own account, nor should he assume the prerogative of his superior. It would be a strange solution of an ethical problem to charge our guilt upon forces that operate on the lowest planes of natural law. Even science and philosophy, as well as ethical life, depend upon a personal agent, who puts forth action from his own centre of consciousness and puts a rational interpretation upon his past experi- ences by recalling them as his own and recog- nizing in them his persistent identity. Who can interpret and shape into the unity of rational thought his past experiences, except as possessing the unifying power of one and the same thinking and acting personality ? To at- tribute the profoundest rational insight, the loftiest sentiment, and the holiest purpose to brain changes under mechanical and chemical laws is to drop man from the plane of rational and ethical life and resolve manhood itself into the play and pull of irresponsible atoms ! We quote in this connection from an eminent Ger- man scientist, Du Bois Reymond : " It is absolutely and forever inconceivable The Immortal Life 255 that a number of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms should be otherwise than indifferent to their own motions and positions at present and in future. It is utterly incon- ceivable how consciousness should result from a form of motion. It has lost every char- acteristic of its original nature, and its former acquaintance will not own it as of their kith and kin." Having shown that there is a broad dis- tinction between body and spirit, that they have totally different functions, that they act under different laws and for different ends, and so belong to different kingdoms, we seem warranted to anticipate for them different destinies. For the spirit, when its earthly body drops away, we may expect a higher form of life and an orgfanism suited to its new conditions. What if we know not its new conditions or the precise nature of the body that is to be the instrument of its higher life ? The embryo life never knows the world it is soon to enter ; nor does the caterpillar know the body that is to lift it from the earth into freer movement in the sunlight. The Most High has not exhausted His resources in providing for worms and insects. The vital principle itself has organific functions, and 256 The Immortal Life the living spirit may, for aught we know, be qualified to put forth such functions and take to itself a fitting organism. Scientists tell us of an ethereal element, of inconceivably fine texture and of amazing elasticity, that now in some ways ministers to our spiritual life. With marvellous swiftness and delicacy it now touches our sensitive organism with revela- tions of light and color, bringing messages from the stars. It seems allied to spiritual natures, and the service it now renders may be but the beginning of what is in reserve. It may put us in communication with in- telligences now invisible, and with distant worlds. He who transforms the worm into a winged creature, resplendent with colors, to move freely in an atmosphere of light, and to live on the nectar of flowers, can exchange these earthly bodies for organic structures so finely textured and elastic that they may play in the ethereal element as the insect's wing plays in the enfolding atmosphere. Of course, in the absence of positive knowl- edge of matters of this nature, we can only conjecture. But, knowing that the spirit is distinct from the body, and that, as made in the image of God, it is to partake of His life, every rational consideration favors its con- The Immortal Life 257 tinuance, in some organic form and with new and higher functions. Aheady we possess some power of intuitive insight into invisible realities ; for example, into first principles and into spiritual relations never revealed by the senses. Still higher forms of intuition may introduce us to other and higher realities of the spiritual world and to mysteries now hidden from us. The present organism, as made to serve the spirit as its end in the way of disciplinary education, falls away. But the spirit has in itself the end of its own existence. It is not instrumental for a higher end, but it has affinities for a higher form of existence and a worth transcending all material values. The assumption that rational consciousness is the mere appendage of brain-changes, or the ghostly shadows of molecular movements, without agency or reality of its own, has no scientific basis and is contrary to all rational probabilities. This attempt to change man- hood, personality, spirit, the most substan- tial of all realities, into the mere motion of molecules in the brain, carries on its face an absurdity which is a refutation of the theory. All material nature is instrumental for spirit. It was millions of years before the progression of Nature reached its goal in man. That 258 The Immortal Life goal having been reached, the affinities, the evident capabilities and the intrinsic value of man, made in God's image, mean a larger career. Spirit life, the highest outcome of creation, was evidently not made to end its history with that of the body that for a time rendered it service. An ethical nature which belongs to the spiritual kingdom is not the equivalent of heat or mechanical motion, to be resolved back into the common reservoir of physical forces. Its interests are those for which creation exists. Its alliance is with God. Its true life is divine and therefore immortal, in its destiny. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION " We need to be convinced of some intellectual connection in which we trace the destiny of human life and the eternal significance of all moral effort. There is a view of self-sacrificing effort for a better condition of things in which we shall not participate ; but what gives unity and meaning to the process is, that the benefits gained in time are not lost for those who helped to win but did not enjoy them." — Lotze, Alicrocosinus^ ii., p. 484. " I do not know that there is anything in Nature (unless it be the reputed blotting out of suns in the stellar heavens) which can be compared in wastefulness with the extinction of great minds ; their gathered resources, their matured skill, their luminous insight, their unfailing tact, are not like instincts that can be handed down ; they are absolutely personal and inalienable, grand conditions for future power, unavailable for the race and perfect for the future growth of the individual ; if that growth is not to be, the most brilliant genius bursts and vanishes as a firework in the night." — Martineau, Study of Religion^ ii., p. 356. 259 CHAPTER XIV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION THE object of this discussion is to show that the inherent greatness of man's ca- pacities, correlated as they are to infinite envi- ronment and especially his kinship and moral relationship to God, involving the possibility of likeness to his character and of participation in his eternal life, implies that man is made to attain a life of absolute worth, one with that of God, and therefore immortal. We have assumed what all now admit, that the world is rationally ordered, that is, ordered by a rational intelligence like that of man, since man as rational interprets its order. But a rational system presupposes an end in view as its constructive principle, and a rational mind has a supreme regard for the right as well as for the true, so that, in the nature of the case, the presumption is that the world has a moral order, in which all things are made subservient to the establishment of truth 261 262 The Immortal Life and righteousness as the supreme interest and end. This presumption, based on the principle which is fundamental in a rational system, namely, that it is ethical if rational, should greatly weaken, if not entirely nullify the force of objections as urged by Professor Huxley and Mr. Mill, which are based on imperfect knowledge of surface appearances. Besides, the object of the system is properly judged by the end which its chief outcome was made to answer. Now, if rational beings, or men as rational, are the chief outcome their supreme endowments, reason and conscience, are given for the attainment of truth and righteousness. Their environment also, as rationally or- dered, must be fitted to educate and discipline them for the same end. This is made evident when it is seen that man's essential environ- ment is that immanent and divine Intelligence, which is self-revealing in the entire cosmic order, and precisely fitted to educate men in divine knowledge and to exalt them into fel- lowship with the divine life. It seems plain, therefore, that man, as capable of interpreting the divine order of the world, thus showing his kinship with the divine intelligence and his capability for attaining the divine likeness, has The Immortal Life 263 an incipient greatness and the conditions which would lead him on in the way of indefi- nite progress. We show also that man is a personal being entrusted for his self-govern- ment, with the same law of truth and right by which the Most High rules Himself and the world He has made. Thus exalted above Na- ture to a sovereignty over Himself, He is placed in a position of high privilege and of grave re- sponsibility and peril, for the liberty to choose the true and the right, in the way of self-gov- ernment, implies freedom to choose the false and the wrong. Actions to be virtuous at all must be personal and free, for such are the es- sential conditions of the moral life, and only to such life is the highest of all excellence pos- sible. The law of that life, which is strictly ethical, differs, therefore, from natural law, both in its nature and operation, since it is not, like the latter, sure and necessary in its operation, but is committed to the rational person as a trust, to be freely accepted and enforced over himself on his own responsibility in the way of self-government. Accordingly, through his own free accept- ance or rejection of it he may become godlike in dignity and character and realize the highest possible good, or he may debase himself by 264 The Immortal Life irrational and sinful choice and incur the greatest possible evil, sin. In the one case he puts himself in harmony with God, and with the moral order of the world, in the other, he finds himself in opposition to both, conscious of shameful discord, within and without. We are not, therefore, to charge moral dis- order and the sin of men upon the cosmic forces as operating in their lower nature in fatal opposition to righteousness, but to their own failure to subordinate their lower to their higher nature, by asserting their prerogative, as rational beings. In attributing men's un- righteousness to the working of the cosmic forces in their lower nature so as to make righteousness impossible. Professor Huxley takes all responsibility from man and charges it upon the Creator. He also, in the same position, denies the rational, as well as the moral order of the world, since it cannot pos- sess rational unity, or the consistency of truth when working fatally against the end for which it exists. A just and benevolent Creator is not true to Himself, if, while commanding righteousness. He so orders His economy as to make it impossible. The world itself would be a jargon, instead of an embodiment of truth and love. " The fact," says Dr. Lotze, " that The Immortal Life 265 truth exists at all depends upon the principle of Good, which is Living Love. The eternal sacredness and supreme worth of living love is the basis and principle of the world's order and essential to give it the significance of truth." — Microcosmus, ii., pp. 721 et seq. Every scientist assumes that the world is the embodiment of truth. If otherwise, his search for it must be in vain. We may also assume that men as possessing the rational endowments, reason, conscience, and the higher sensibilities, are so correlated to truth, beauty, and the moral order as environing realities, that they may progressively realize a life in harmony with these realities. But these reali- ties are manifestations of the life of the Creator, so that by fellowship with that life men may progressively be transformed into His moral likeness. This we assume is the intended and the normal result of man's true nature in correspondence with his environment as a manifestation of the life of God. This is the crucial point in our discussion. In a previous chapter we have shown that man is the image of God and that he may, accord- ing to the measure of his capacity, attain a life which is one with the divine. Now, it is altogether irrational to assume 266 The Immortal Life that God will destroy a life that is one with His own. Besides, it is evident that He so ordered the world as to make it a revelation of Himself to men, that they may enter into and share His life and so be exalted into His fel- lowship. This is the highest good possible for Him to bestow. Man therefore has a high place in creation. Allowing that in other worlds there may be creatures of larger endowments, there can be none capable of a higher life in kind. Hence the realization of the divine life by rational creatures is the end of creation. All the lower kingdoms have worked together for it, con- tributing their most highly evolved products to the human organism so incorporated in it as to be subject to man's noblest functions and his highest prerogative for ruling all in the interest of righteousness. Thus placed above Nature and constituted a rational person, that is, a self-ruling being, he is to determine his own ends with a godlike sovereignty. Accord- ingly, he is shown to be a spiritual being, the supreme law of his life, the functions by which he administers it, and the environment in which he properly lives and moves, being spiritual in their nature. His true place, there- fore, is in the spiritual kingdom, for which all The Immortal Life 267 other kingdoms exist. In keeping with his spiritual nature and his vast environment, he has capacities for the infinite, whether in knowledge, art, or moral excellence. Thus correlated to the Universe and to God mani- fest in it, as its soul and life, he is a religious being to find, in his relationship to God, the possibilities of unlimited progress in all ex- cellence and the culmination of his manifold life. Now, how far does the outlook of such a being transcend the domain of the physical ? The material world, with all its magnitudes and immensities, is but the gateway to the higher invisible realm in which, as his true element, he is to realize his real life. Immeas- urably, therefore, does the scale of his being transcend the limitations of his physical life. Indeed, when his body has attained full de- velopment, and goes into. decay, his spirit has only begun its career. The scientist, the phi- losopher, the artist, the philanthropist, and the saint, when the body fails, find their work not only incomplete, but indefinitely enlarging. The goal they seek is far away, in the future. Does such incompleteness belong to human life that its worthiest ends must prove failures ? Every creature below man may be said to attain its end when its conditions answer to its 268 The Immortal Life physical wants. If man is but a physical being, why is he not satisfied with proper physical conditions ? What has he to do with a spirit- ual environment, with the invisible laws and interests of the spiritual life ? If all values to him perish with his body, why has he instincts and affinities for the spiritual, the perfect, the permanent, the infinite? He cannot find his satisfaction or his true life in ends that centre in his body. How many, for the sake of real- izing their nobler life, have sacrificed their bodies in their devotion to truth and justice ! It is the glory of humanity to hold the body, and all temporal good, subservient to spiritual interests, forgetting self in the love of God and the permanent well-being of humanity. Why do men revere and honor the life of self- sacrifice and build monuments to those who in great crises, when all is at stake, throw them- selves into the breach in unselfish devotion to the righteous cause, and count them the heroes of the race? You cannot root out from men's hearts the conviction that such devotion be- longs to real manhood. But it is wholly at variance with man's actual condition and des- tiny if death ends all. It is strange that God should have so constituted man that he truly lives only in seeking the spiritual, the per- The Immortal Life 269 manent, the perfect, if there is nothing in his environment and destiny corresponding to such a nature. Such an anomaly cannot be- long to a system of rational order. Given these two facts, a vast Universe, rational in its order and therefore spiritual in its character, and an all-wise Creator immanent in and tran- scending it, as man's real environment and suited to his capacities, and how exalted and sublime should be his corresponding life ! How distinct from and superior to a physical life, that to-morrow ends in dust ! That the spirit of man should for a time be united to a phys- ical body for education and discipline in the higher life and in preparation for a future sym- pathetic interest in its broad relationship with universal being, we can understand. But that a spiritual nature whose scope is the infinite, and whose end is to share the life of the Eter- nal, should end its existence with that of the perishing body, is contrary to rational thought and to the whole cosmic economy, which uni- formly subordinates the lower to the higher, and progresses toward that which is highest and of imperishable worth. This principle of subordination which runs up through all the kingdoms as the principle of unity, becomes in the moral kingdom the ethical principle. 270 The Immortal Life requiring the subjection of lower to higher prin- ciples of action whenever they are in com- petition. Now, if the lower nature should not dominate the higher, certainly it should not control its destiny by putting it out of exist- ence. This would subject personality, the highest outcome of creation, to forces that operate on the lowest plane in Nature. Does the Most High commit the highest interest, even His own life as implanted in the souls of men, to the keeping of blind, impersonal forces whose proper function is to serve it ? Or does He not regard it worthy of preservation when for millions of years it has been the end of His creative work ? It cannot be that the work of the Almighty and the Eternal is a failure. Let us consider for a moment the possibili- ties inherent in human nature placed in the existing environment, remembering that these possibilities, great as they are, have in multi- tudes of cases been realized as fact. First, take into account that the human personality is the most compact and persistent unity that we know of in Creation. Notwithstanding its marvellous complexity and the constant changes of its outward conditions, and in the body it- self in the course of its development, from childhood to the stage of decay we see it hold- The Immortal Life 271 ing fast to its own identity. Think of its diverse and manifold experiences in its three- score and ten years, under all the allotments of life, gathered up into the unity of the one conscious life ; thoughts, words, and deeds stored in the memory, all to be identified as his own and answered for at the bar of con- science ! Everything else is in constant flux. The elements work changes everywhere, re- moving old landmarks, changing the course of rivers, levelling the hills, and changing the boundaries of continents. The one thing that persists in retaining its unity and identity is the personality of man. He can lose hands and feet ; his muscles may shrivel and his senses grow dim or fail, but the years as they pass leave untouched the unity of his conscious, personal life. He changes his garments, he can alienate his property, he can disown his children, but he cannot alienate or disown himself. All his bodily tissues have gone to waste time and again and have been replaced. The elementary forces of his organism have interchanged constantly into equivalent forms. But his rational personality is not interchange- able. It has no equivalent. It is the same self- conscious, self-directing unity, the constant witness to its own identity and responsibility. 272 The Immortal Life Through all changes it is under one and the same law of duty. Though encompassed by the great forces of Nature not one of them can interfere with his moral sovereignty. He is above Nature and acts down upon it, com- pelling the swiftest of its forces to run on his errands, and the mightiest to yield him its strength in humble service. Furthermore, he is a creator ; in art he originates his own ideals, and in the moral sphere, when conflicting mo- tives urge their claims, he determines his action from his own centre of power by an inherent sovereignty. Into the texture of his character he interweaves principles more stable than the hills, and lasting as the throne of God. In imagination he constructs a world of his own, shaping his ideals into fact, whether in the in- tellectual, artistic, or moral sphere, after the same principles of order, beauty, and rectitude that the Almighty has put into the structure of His Universe. True, man must work ten- tatively and on a small scale, but with all his limitations he can enter into the divine order and direct his efforts to divine ends. Think, too, of the intrinsic worth and of the moral power of the man who habitually mani- fests the spirit of love and truth and rectitude, — does he not, according to his capacity, reflect The Immortal Life 273 the glory and incorporate in himself the very- life of God ? Such an one cannot move among- men without revealing the highest order of power. In his meek and quiet spirit men see the repose and dignity of inward strength with a serenity and peace that are divine. In his loyalty to truth and right we see the inflexible purpose united to the docility of a child. In his integrity is the harmonious blending of all the virtues, as the sun's ray blends the colors of the rainbow. Nothing diverts or hinders his progress toward the highest goal of hu- man attainment. From trials he comes out the purer, and through difficulties he gains strength. Times of darkness do not obscure his faith ; enmities and opposition do not em- bitter his spirit. The vicissitudes of a chang- ing world find him self-poised and constant in his fidelity to God, as the earth in its path around the sun. He may be smitten, im- prisoned, crucified, but in his persistent loyalty to truth and God he is the one power that is unconquerable. His very death gives impetus to the cause for which he dies, and ensures its triumph. While he seems to perish, he is the most effective power in human history. The great epochs that mark the world's progress are created by such men. Socrates, Paul, 2 74 The Immortal Life Wickliffe, Luther, Savonarola, are permanent forces in the world, strengthening and multi- plying like spirits to achieve larger conquests for the triumph of truth and right. There is no ultimate defeat to such champions of right- eousness. The court that condemned Socrates is itself condemned by the verdict of mankind. What he put into Grecian thought has entered into the ethics and thought of the race. His heroic spirit, that preferred death rather than deny the truth he saw, will shine like a star in the constellation of noble spirits. What he and all such men sought, but failed then to realize, is becoming more and more the her- itage of mankind. All the nations of power and progress are accepting it as their birth- right. Its attainment is ever attended with the stir and shocks of great conflict. " For all the past of time reveals The bridal dawn of thunder-peals Whenever thought hath wedded fact." It is certain that the endeavors put forth by such men are in line with the great world- forces which are ordered by the Almighty. They must ultimately prevail, and those who set themselves in opposition will be ground to powder. Truth and right are eternal veri- ties. They are attributes of God and they will The Immortal Life 275 prevail. Napoleon said to Josephine : " I will not be bound by moral obligations. I will act out my own infinite will." But the armies of Europe that conquered him were made strong by good and great men who, be- fore the mustering of those battalions, had won victories for justice and liberty in the moral field. The champions of right, though they may have done their work almost alone, and passed from human sight, have long after- ward spoken their word of power through the cannon's mouth. And though they have passed from the scene of their labors, are they to have no per- sonal share in the results of the moral vic- tories in which they ennobled their character and matured their strength ? Are the per- sonalities in which such virtues were enthroned to perish ? Is nothing left of them but their posthumous influence, animating those who have succeeded them ? Does God conserve only their influence and leave them and their virtue to perish forever ? Righteousness is not an abstraction : apart from the living personality it has no existence. Annihilate him, and his righteousness is ex- tinct. Does the Creator care neither for him nor his virtue, and suffer them to go out of 276 The Immortal Life existence together? The great values of this or any other world are perso7is, persons living, not extinct. Material suns and systems, in intrinsic worth, bear no comparison with them. Does God preserve every atom of matter, and annihilate every soul as of no value ? Besides, it is certain that this is an ethical world, ordered by an ethical Creator, and that ethical law, which is supreme in human reason and conscience, is the supreme law of the world. Does not this mean a moral adminis- tration, as sure and universal in the moral and spiritual world as that of natural law is in the material and organic ? But if the holiest saint and his brutal mur- derer are alike dropped into non-existence, their obligations cancelled, and their account squared by removing them beyond all possible jurisdiction, the administration of law in the moral world is a failure. In the winding up of earthly affairs, no difference is made in the treatment of the most loyal and the most re- bellious. Character is not taken into account. The same destiny is allotted to all, irrespective of justice, equity or mercy. While in the nat- ural world the reign of law is universal, in the moral world, the highest department of cre- ation, the supreme law of the world is nullified. The Immortal Life 277 Righteousness counts for nothing, the forebod- ings of conscience have no meaning, those slain for their very loyalty to truth have no vindication, and the sanctities of life vanish like a dream in the nip-ht. We have spoken of the world as ordered by a Rational Intelligence. This is the assump- tion of every scientist. But a rational mind holds Right as sacred as Truth. Both are essential elements of rationality. We must therefore deny to the world a rational order unless there be also a moral order in the divine administration. Or shall we affirm a rational order in the physical world, and chaos in the spiritual realm ? Then there could be no unity in creation as a whole, and the apparent attempt to construct a consistent Universe is a failure. But such a conclusion brings confusion into the rational mind and despair of ever realizing truth or righteousness in the Creator of such a world, since His work as a whole violates the principles of both rational and moral order. This conclusion is contrary to the evidence, and to our strong^est conviction. Our hig-her nature is certainly correlated to truth and righteousness. It would be a strange anomaly if we, of all creatures, have not an environment 278 The Immortal Life suited to our nature, ministering to our true and proper life. Besides, creation itself, in its progress from kingdom to kingdom, has ever been tending to prepare for the highest order of spiritual life as its goal ; and the very essence of that life is the realization of truth, righteousness, and love. And such, in a vast number of cases, has been the actual outcome, the highest possible in kind in this or any world. So far, therefore, the Most High has stamped His rational and ethical character on His work. He shows His love of the highest order of goodness, and His purpose to make it the final glory of His creation. He is more and more imparting His own divine life. It is for this end that He created beings capable of receiving it, and came out from absolute Being, putting Himself in the relations of time and space, that through marvellous revelations of His manifold life, in ways suited to us, He might educate and exalt us into His fellowship. True, great multitudes do not appreciate His condescension and His benevolent purpose. They use the sovereignty given them contrary to His will and to their own well-being. But God's years of preparation were long, and His patience is enduring. But His purpose moves on, and the race, still in its infancy, will at The Immortal Life 279 length respond to His love. Love, which moves all the world's forces, will finally have its way. It now is effective over matter ; it will overrule rational mind by the omnipotence of truth and love. Numbers without number will enter into the life of God, His kingdom of rightousness will be firmly established, and the end of His creation will be attained. Think you the divine life in the souls of men gathered in that kingdom will perish ? It is that which is most precious of all things in the sight of God. It is of infinite worth. The whole cosmic movement for ages has been toward it. Has the Almighty expended His energies for millions of years, and made all things to work together for it, to put it out of being as of no value when at length He has realized it ? Does He not care for those who bear His image, or for those who have given up their life, and all in loyalty to Him ? Does the Eternal and the Almighty, from all the harvest-fields of the world, gather nothing of permanent value ? Will the highest outcome of all be turned to dust ? This cannot be in a rationally ordered world. It must reach an end worthy of so vast a preparation, and worthy of its all-wise Author. And what is so worthy as the communication of His own 28o The Immortal Life excellence and blessedness to creatures made in His image ? We close in the words of Dr. Lotze : " That will last forever which by reason of its excellence and its spirit must be an abiding part of the Universe ; that which lacks this preserving worth will perish. If anything has preserving worth, is it not that for which cre- ation itself exists?" THE END Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01269 5476