Glass__..,.._. -Q, Book Jeg CofiyrightN? __: COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. Utbme ^election ft++ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ vV ♦♦♦♦♦♦ Qlflt &ttrbtbal of TROLOGUE TO Jl SYSTEM OF THILOSOPHY FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE THEIST George Henry Dole NEW YORK THE NEW-CHURCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION 3 West Twenty-Ninth Street 1903 ^ ; J3LA*R It YYo. No. *)«-« It Copyright, iooj, by George Henry Dole P %E F *A C E IN ATTEMPTING to search out first causes, science, fearing the introduction of the uncer- tain, has rejected all contributions from reli- gion. Indeed, this feeling has been carried so far, that God is not mentioned in science, ex- cept as unknowable or unnecessary. Religion, fearing the destruction of so-called "faith," and the overthrow of favored doctrine, has rejected ^science, and slowly and stubbornly granted concessions to its conclusions. This separa- tion and antagonism reduce science to gross materialism, and religion on one hand to irra- tional dogmatism, and on the other to scien- tific skepticism or even agnosticism. MORE RECENTLY, under the influence of the new renaissance and the feeling that all truth is a unit of harmonious parts, there has been a growing tendency to recognize that true science and genuine religion are in per- fect agreement and mutually helpful. 4 PREFACE IT is not the intention to elaborate here a system with its details, but merely to state some fundamental principles, and to add a few thoughts in the line of the general position to which advancing times are progressing, and where may be realized a greater and even satisfying light. GEORGE HENRY DOLE. Bath, Me. CONTENTS Preface page 3 Chapter I Evolution .... 7 II Harmony in the Cosmic Process 17 III The Moral Motive in the Cosmic Process .... 24 IV Divine Selection . 38 V Projected Efficiency 43 VI Internal Realities . 50 VII The Last Link 60 VIII Reality of the Unseen World 71 IX 82 X God Knowable 90 XI The Absoluteness of Right anc I Wrong .... 100 XII The Office of Revelation . 113 CHAPTER I Evolution IT HAS been the work of the last century to present a nearly complete theory of Evolution, and to formu- late a chain of reasoning that up- holds the do6lrine that every genus and species of plants and animals are derived from simple forms through gradual modification of functions. The first suggestion of this doclrine threw the religious world into conster- nation. At first its advocates did not openly attack the fundamentals of reli- gion, but with ominous reticence in re- gard to the spiritual and the Divine, or with the subtlety of cautious but facti- tious wisdom pleading them unknown, they proceeded to elaborate a theory that, if true, not only undermines all religion, but so thoroughly denies God as to render Him unnecessary. 8 DIVINE SELECTION The religiously inclined saw in Evo- lution, with its theories of " natural se- lection " and " survival of the fittest," a most dangerous enemy, threatening to do away with religion, spirituality, the Scriptures, and God, as the impressions of superstition made in the childhood of our race. Evolution was too formidably in- trenched behind apparent fact and crafty reason to admit of absolute defeat Avith the weapons then at hand. Some scoffed, others ridiculed ; but never in the world's history have these resorts stayed the progress of good or evil. Yet here and there a stalwart nature has risen and dealt the theory a stag- gering blow, from which it has tried to recover by shifting position or by re-intrenchment. Nevertheless, Evolution has extended its lines until it is accepted by many among all thinking classes. There are many of the religious who accept it, EVOLUTION 9 in one form or another, as the Cre- ator's method of bringing the universe into existence as it is to-day ; though it is a little difficult to comprehend how a system of creation that is all- sufficient in itself could be a method employed by any one. Yet there has ever been a feeling of dissatisfaction, a sense that Evolu- tion is not all, that it is sadly inade- quate. Consequently Evolution has made its way against a reluctance al- most universal, and has been accepted, openly by some and tacitly by others, because backed by so formidable an array of apparent fact and contrived reason that no one has been found who could satisfactorily defeat it all along the line and at the same time offer a better solution of phenomena. In this regard it may be said that the favor with which Evolution is met exists more from the lack of any other well- defined system than from its own merits. io DIVINE SELECTION The most prominent defecl: in Evo- lution is that it does not go deep enough. It is too superficial. It pur- ports to give a history of outward effects, but openly avows that it can- not explain their inner causes. And so far as the causes are approached, the explanation is ridiculously inade- quate to the effect, involving even a greater mystery than the cause itself. For it is easier to conceive of the gov- erning intelligence, order, power, truth, love, and righteousness as existing in a personal God who creates from Himself, than it is to imagine these wonderful things existing in the " primeval units," which hypothesis assumes the very thing to be proved. That society with its marvelous developments, scientific, civil, and spiritual, should have started by the " fortuitous concourse of atoms," is more strange than the creation which it cannot explain. And when we come to the application of the principles of EVOLUTION ii Evolution to social problems, and wit- ness the final conclusions in regard to the origin of right, good, spirituality, conceptions of God, and the like, we are led so far away from the possible, and so deeply into the absurd and pro- fane, that only the most sordid devotee, the shallow, and the credulous can en- tertain the do6lrine. The same causes that started cre- ation have continued it, even to bring- ing forth its final form, which is the righteous and holy Christian, with a rational comprehension of a spiritual world, aspirations for eternal life, a liv- ing faith in God, and inmost desire to become more and more His image and likeness. Now if fortune began creation, it has been by luck and chance that each step in the upward development was made ; and luck, chance, and fortune are the sum of all intelligence, design, wisdom, love, and life that is or is to 12 DIVINE SELECTION come. In which case the essential na- ture of the creative power and the supreme intelligence is luck, for the first cause must terminate in the last effect. The first cause and all deriv- ative or subsequent causes must be the same in essence. If luck and chance had failed in one instance in the long line of develop- ment, creation would have ended in chaos. If chance started creation it is by chance that oaks bear acorns and not beech-nuts, and that beech-nuts grow into beech-trees rather than into oaks. It is by fortune that of the myriads of plants and animals each bears its kind, and not one mistake ever occurs. It is by luck that the universe is kept in its order, and law itself is merely such good fortune that it never varies. These are legitimate, inevitable conclusions from the premi- ses of Evolution, to which every close and consistent thinker must be forced. EVOLUTION 13 It is creation itself upon which the scholarship of the world should cen- ter, and of which it should seek a rational explanation, for the evident reason that the same principles are applicable to each step in its develop- ment. Since the superstructure can be no more stable than the foundation upon which it rests, we should not be surprised at the revulsion that the theory of Evolution meets among the more discerning thinkers. For it is this irrational quality carried throughout Evolution that causes a great body of the religious and intelligent to hold the theory in abeyance as something yet inadequate and unsatisfactory. The unmodified law of the " survival of the fittest " is instinctively seen as pure selfishness. It does not answer back to the unselfishness in human kind. It is not a human explanation. God is good, we feel. His works are good. But if the cold and cruel strug- 14 DIVINE SELECTION gle for self-existence is the energizing and inmost thing, nature's beauty is false, the song of the stars is a dirge, and the grand anthem of the universe is a rasping chord. If Evolution, with its theory of " natural selection " and " survival of the fittest," with its theory of the " fortuitous concourse of atoms," and the final dissolution of the uni- verse into the nebulas from which it sprang, and the consequent obliteration of human kind, tells the whole story, mankind has been all wrong, and they who rejoice in beauty, love, righteous- ness, eternal life, and God, are doomed to final disappointment and sorrow, for what they hold most dear, and regard as an expression of the wisdom and love of their Creator, are but as the smooth fur and soft purring of ravenous animals, rending not only the body, but tearing apart the tenderest feelings of faith and love, and devouring all human hopes. If such theories were to pre- EVOLUTION 15 vaii, the Harpies and cannibal Cyclops are not fabulous creatures of ancient times, but real monsters dwelling in civilized countries, still satiating their cruel appetites with human flesh. Mr. Drummond saw this, and endeav- ored to repair the dei'ecl: by supplement- ing the struggle for self by the strug- gle for the lives of others, as observed in the surrender of life-force by plants and animals in the propagation of their kind. And others, feeling deeply the wrong of Evolution as taught by the school of Messrs. Darwin, Huxley, Tyn- dall, Spencer, and Haeckel, have worked to modify the theory ; so that already, in these rapidly changing times, the old school of Evolution is quite antiquated. Strong and godly men have taken the more likely part of Evolution as devised by the Sensists, and used it not to confirm materialism and excuse agnosticism, but as a means of advanc- ing nearer to the Divine, into clearer 16 DIVINE SELECTION light, and into more intelligent faith. With unsurpassed skill they have used Evolution more effectually in proving what it was intended to disprove than did its inventors in establishing mate- rialism. It is not only gratifying, but surpris- ingly so, to notice how righteous men have step by step gone on. Modifica- tion upon modification has produced in advanced thought as much difference between evolutionary reasonings now and a few years ago as Evolution is claimed to have wrought between man and the ape. A few more Drummonds, Mivarts, Fiskes, and there will be left none of the sad conclusions of ma- terialistic Evolution, which regards man soulless, the universe Godless, and crowns development not with the break of a radiant world of eternal life and beauty, but with the black pall of " omnipresent death." M CHAPTER II Harmony in THE Cosmic Process R. HUXLEY, in his address at Oxford in 1893, says that •'the cosmic process has no sort of relation to moral ends." In commenting' upon this Mr. Fiske says : " Most assuredly survival of the fittest, as such, has no sort of relation to moral ends." * That Mr. Huxley should fall into this error is not surprising, but that Mr. Fiske should pass over its fatal conclusions without bringing to the surface its self-stultifying fallacy is dif- ficult to understand. The position is rightly taken that, if the moral motive is not found in Evo- lution, it does not exist in its produces, * " Through Nature to God," page 77. 18 DIVINE SELECTION consequently the moral motive does not exist in man. Or, if the moral motive does not exist in Evolution and does exist in man, Evolution is fundamentally a fallacy, for that which has no moral motive in itself could never produce one out of itself. The least knowledge of the relation of cause and effecl; pro- hibits one holding at the same time that there is a moral motive in any created thing and none in the cosmic process that produces it. Yet Mr. Huxley clearly sees that there is a moral motive in man, though he designates it by so superficial a word as " ethical." He admits the self- ishness in " natural selection " and the moral in man, and explains the exist- ence of the two by saying that " the so- cial progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step, and the substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical process." The fallacy of such a theory lies in THE COSMIC PROCESS 19 the fa6t that there would then be two processes of development in nature that are fundamentally and diametrically op- posed. And need we go further in un- folding this illogical proposition than to say that the second process is even evolved out of the first? If God made nature and man, and God be good, the moral motive is as fully present in all natural processes as it is in man. It may not be so evident ; it may not be so quick in operation ; but it is there as surely and fully. A right view of nature forbids that we draw conclusions from superficial observations, and requires that we look deeply into it and broadly upon it. In its mode of growth a tree may be said to be selfish, because it regards only itself. But the tree has no power over its growth. It is absolutely a thing of condition, receiving and swell- ing with life over which it has no con- trol. In determining its relation to 2o DIVINE SELECTION selfishness we must look to the source of its life and observe whether self- ishness is there. This is determined by inquiring into the uses to which a tree is put. Are its uses all for itself, or are they all for other things ? When we search this question deeply the appearance changes entirely, for we come into the reality. The tree is of no use to itself except that it may grow, which self-use is fundamental to all use. Further, the tree spends its whole energy in forming alluvium, in pro- viding shelter and food for animals, and in multiform uses to man. The greater law of usefulness to others comprehends the law of self-use, and makes the ex- istence of a tree absolutely unselfish. We may look at the subject in an- other way. As a matter of fact the tree regards nothing, neither its own growth nor its unselfish uses, for it has no mind essential to conscious thought, from which comes regard. The selfish- THE COSMIC PROCESS 21 ness or unselfishness is in the Creator who made it and propagates it. Since the tree serves itself only that it may serve others, that is, its existence is wholly one of service to other things, we are forced to conclude that the Creator is unselfish, and the law of the tree's existence is unselfish. The same reasoning applies to ani- mals. Though they are of a higher or- der of life, they are as bound to their instincts as a tree is to its roots. They can no more transcend their instincts than vegetation can its order. Their self-love simply perpetuates their exist- ence, which is fundamental to their unselfish uses. The greater law of use here also nullifies selfishness, and makes nature, because of her universal service, as unselfish as her uses are general. It ought not to be difficult to per- ceive that an infinitely good Creator can make neither nature nor man self- 22 DIVINE SELECTION ish in their broader and essential rela- tions, and that no unperverted power or law that is from Him is other than unselfish. There is nothing clearer to rational intelligence than that, if the moral mo- tive cannot be seen in nature strug- gling as in man for the ascendancy and step by step securing its purpose, we may know our view of nature is yet superficial and its language an un- known tongue. For the reason that compels the acknowledgment of a Di- vine Being as the Supreme Architect, equally forces upon us that when cre- ation was finished, " God saw that it was good." And good can be predicated of nothing that is without a moral mo- tive, or essentially selfish. The doctrine of the "unity of plan" in creation, which Mr. Huxley and other Evolutionists have urged and il- lustrated, and which is generally ac- cepted, cannot be true if man is devel- THE COSMIC PROCESS 23 oped by a process contrary to that under which other things are devel- oped. Creation is not then essentially a unit, but a dual. Not only is it dou- ble at the foundation, but being double and antagonistic, there is no such thing as a cosmic process, giving " cosmic " its right meaning of harmonious. It seems that Mr. Huxley has finally worked out two antagonistic yet fun- damental elements in nature, quite in keeping with the old notion of a per- sonal Devil from eternity and a per- sonal God, which to the serious can be none the less ludicrous. CHAPTER III The Moral Motive in THE Cosmic Process M AN believes in God intuitive- ly because God is. He does not doubt His existence and government until he has im- bibed falsities from without. When moral men began to give way to the claims of Evolution, they im- mediately asked, "What relation does the theory bear to the Creator ? What relation does He bear to it ? Where is the moral motive in the cosmic pro- cess?" Certainly if Evolution is of God, His hand is there. The moral motive must be sought, like all motives, with- in the law as the end in view. The motive is the soul of law. The law is the means through which the motive is accomplished. The moral motive THE MORAL MOTIVE 25 must exist in the first incentive, and be demonstrated in the final purpose. " Every tree is known by his own fruit." That natural selection, or as expressed in the less apt phrase, survival of the fittest, is, with right interpretation, a law of nature, there is no question. It is even a law of the spirit. Natural selection, or survival of the fittest, may, in special cases and in lim- ited degree, work out results in a short time ; but the greater results, both in nature and in spirit, extend over cen- turies and even ages. Natural selection operates in the natural and the spiritual world in a similar way because all law is an in- strument of the Divine will and serves the Creator's purpose. The Creator does nothing arbitrarily. Since He acts through law on each plane, whether low or high, law appears to do its own selecting and to work as of it- 26 DIVINE SELECTION self. With the meaning that the Cre- ator works through constituted agen- cies natural selection is a true state- ment of a fa6l. If one can bring him- self to see that God is essentially in- finite love, in which all power initially is, and that infinite wisdom is simply His love's mode of action, in which all law is contained, there will be no substantial error in his conception of natural selection. In accepting survival of the fittest as a law, it is important to know and define what the " fittest " is. What is it that nature saves? If the fittest sur- vive, such it is her purpose to save, for surely nature's purpose is wrought out as well in securing all her designs as in the exaction of penalties for not fulfilling her laws. We cannot understand by survival of the fittest merely the fittest to sur- vive in the sense of the fittest to exist in and for self. If this were what it THE MORAL MOTIVE 27 means, development would have stopped long ago. Progress would have been checked in the first instance. For the conclusion of Evolution is that the uni- verse, having run its course, will re- turn to the nebula from which it came. In which case nebula is better fitted to survive than anything formed from it. Again, it is axiomatic that the sim- pler the form the better fitted it is to exist. That nebula is better fitted to survive (in the sense of existing) than rock, and rock than plants, and plants than animals, need no comment. Very early, therefore, in the applica- tion of the principle we come upon well defined limitations, which could be multiplied almost without limit. The phrase, " survival of the fittest," is more suggestive of the struggle for existence than is the term " natural selection," and refers ostensibly rather to that phase of nature's fa<5ts. There also it has extensive limitations. 28 DIVINE SELECTION There are degrees and kinds of life that are brought but little, or not at all, into competition. For example, be- tween grass and the animals that feed upon it, there is practically no compe- tition, for the more grass the more an- imals, and animals do not diminish the grass-growing area. There is no con- flict between rock and the vegetation that grows upon it. It should also be observed that the struggle for existence naturally tempers itself in certain cases ; for, if the herbiv- orous animals are too much diminished, the carnivorous must suffer correspond- ingly for want of food. Such extensive limitations to the universality of the law of the survival of the fittest should be taken into consideration. Survival of the fittest applies with less qualification to the many seeds that cannot all grow, to plants strug- gling for space, and to animals seeking food in times of scarcity and want. THE MORAL MOTIVE 29 The struggle then is even unto death, though much less general than it is severe. Desperate as the struggle may be, there is yet a moral motive within it. Says Mr. Fiske, " Beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice are alike to it " (Sur- vival of the Fittest).* This in special cases may be an apparent truth, but as a general principle it must be denied, even as an appearance. Survival of the fittest, so far as it is a law, saves the strongest, the hardiest, the best of both plants and animals, and in so doing it saves the best fitted for use. Herein is the moral motive, for it would not be moral if it saved the ill-fitted rather than the best-fitted in the kingdom of uses. The law op- erating among plants and animals has saved those that respond most fully to human uses. Operating among mankind it brings human powers, faculties, and * " Through Nature to God, "page 77. 30 DIVINE SELECTION energies into action whereby they are developed and advanced, and brought by the very laws of nature more into Divine order, for he is most in Divine order who is best fitted to survive. Survival of the fittest, in the sense in which it applies, is not only a means of development, but it is also an ex- pression of Divine economy and mercy and the all-governing law of use. It removes the debauchee, the enemy of society, the sickly, the weak, the licen- tious, the habitual transgressor of any law, natural or spiritual — for these can- not propagate their kind as can the strong, the healthy, the righteous. The idle, sinful, and debauched are the first to succumb to disease. Mr. Fiske sadly misses the truth and falls into grave er- ror in thinking that beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice are alike to the law of the survival of the fittest. For it is by this very process that the vicious are slowly but surely eliminated and the or- THE MORAL MOTIVE 31 derly and the suitable are saved. It should be very clearly distinguished that survival of the fittest is true, not in the sense of fittest merely to exist, but fit- test for use. Natural law, as it is but the outward expression of spiritual law, works out the fulfillment of the Divine law that " Evil shall slay the wicked," " The righteous shall inherit the land." The struggle for existence among the healthy, law-abiding, energetic, and wise is a means not only of develop- ment, but a source of the greatest en- joyment through activity and the con- quest of difficulty. We can see in the law a Divine provision for human as well as for general development. It is a merciful law, because it eliminates the unfitted, lessens pain by removing the weak and the sickly, and provides the minimum of suffering. The moral motive in cos- mic processes is everywhere present in nature's processes, because there is no 32 DIVINE SELECTION law that does not work out a final good and the highest welfare of man, who is the end of creation and for whose service all things are and were created. We are obliged, therefore, to conclude, if we look over a greater area of phenomena, that " beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice " are not alike to natural selection, but that the true interpretation of the law is that it ex- alts beauty and removes ugliness, and that it perpetuates virtue and eliminates vice. If we confine our view to the small arena of one plant struggling for ex- istence against another, or one animal fighting against another for his food, our conclusions must be as erroneous as our horizon is narrow. We must look over considerable territory to as- certain the dire<5t course of a river. We cannot judge of the moral motive in cosmic processes from a battle be- tween wolves. We must look to the THE MORAL MOTIVE 33 general and final result to know the meaning of the struggle for existence. Can we judge mankind to be without moral motive because of a street fight between ruffians, or competition in trade, or because one drives the crows out of his corn, or gets his bread by the sweat of his brow ? It has been well suggested that the moral motive is evident in plants and animals surrendering their substance and life in the reproduction of their kind. But there is a moral motive deeper and broader than this. Viewing nature from the beginning we observe in the vaster plan that em- braces all, the strongest evidence of the moral motive. The rock surrendered itself to the sea and the atmosphere to form soil. Myriads of plants and animals daily surrendered their bodies to form alluvium ; and the sacrifice to nature's purpose was so complete that nothing was wanting to form the basis 34 DIVINE SELECTION for the final life-forms. The earth pro- duces vegetation; vegetation provides food and shelter for the animal king- dom ; and all offer themselves for the service of mankind, the crowning form in the ascending scale. And moral man offers himself as the servant of Him who " came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." There is set to every created thing the seal of Him who holds the servant of all the greatest of all. No other conclusion can be rightly drawn than that a plan of use runs through all things and binds them in mutual serv- ice and unity. Forms have come and gone, but the useful in each age sur- vive for their use, and in the end the useful for the end survive. It is an inexorable law that what does not yield to use in the kingdom of mutual serv- ice is eliminated. It does not seem to require a very deep insight into the operations of na* THE MORAL MOTIVE 35 ture to discern back of all the central motive, the will of God, working at every point for the final good of human kind, and bringing forth and saving that in society which is capable of receiving, and will receive in most perfect form, the human essentials of His own na- ture. It is concluded, therefore, that the survival of the fittest is truly a law, if by " fittest " is meant the useful. Sur- vival of the fittest has its limitation, but the Survival of the Useful is a statement of universal law that is true and absolute. When we see the gov- erning principle of cosmic processes working out this purpose, the Sur- vival of the Useful, the moral motive is everywhere present and evident in cause and effect. But, it may be said, there are the useless thistles and thorns, the vulture and the tiger. Yet this should not ob- scure the law. Thorns and thistles in 36 DIVINE SELECTION human character do not take away the moral motive in man. The vulture and tiger in human disposition do not make men all ravenous and fierce. They rather give the ground for re- sistance, against which is reaction and development. The do6lrine of contrasts is now well known and generally rec- ognized. Were there not the selfish and immoral, the moral would not ap- pear. Nature which is a parable of man, must, like him, have both wheat and tares; yet alike in both the moral motive has the ascendancy. A right standpoint of view enables us to see clearly that the moral motive in all times has struggled through nature in all respects as it does through mankind, and has caused to survive the useful in fulfillment of the Divine purpose. We must not linger in the single isolated struggle for existence, nor must we mistake a long succession of strug- gles for the interpretation of the cos- THE MORAL MOTIVE 37 mic process, but rather search for the motive that works out through the struggle. The mind must comprehend not only individuals, generations, and ages, but also whole periods of time. Then the moral motive, which is the service of man, naturally and spiritually, and thus the will of God, is as surely present and dominant in nature as it is in man or in God's kingdom. Finally it may be said that since the cosmic process secures moral ends, it must recognize the moral. The better and eternal expression of its law is The Survival of the Useful, CHAPTER IV Divine Selection THE Survival of the Useful be- ing a true statement of the law, rather than " survival of the fit- test," as Mr. Spencer has called it, suggests that Mr. Darwin's compan- ion phrase, " natural selection," is also wanting. Yet Mr. Darwin's expression is more fitting, for it presents one phase of an undeniable and a funda- mental truth. Because the Creator effects His purpose in nature by the instrumentality of nature, it follows that nature appears to do her own selecting. That distinguished and conscientious scientist, Asa Gray, thus pointedly sug- gests the wanting factor in natural se- lection, " Given differences and an in- ternal tendency to differ more, i.e., DIVINE SELECTION 39 given variation as an inexhaustible factor, and natural selection should suf- fice for the preservation and increase of the select few as a consequence of the destruction of the intermediate many. . . . For in each variation lies hid- den the mystery of a beginning."* Nat- ural law is but the ultimate and ex- ternal expression of spiritual law. By spiritual law is to be understood the law of the spiritual world, of the soul, and of the mind ; the law of true reli- gion ; the law that made and governs all things superior to matter. Natural law is a material picture of spiritual law. The Creator never acts abstractly or arbitrarily. He always secures His purposes in nature through her laws. It may be truly said that natural law is as the body of which spiritual law is the soul. The arm moves from a spirit- ual power in the will ; the countenance * " Natural Science and Religion," page 72. 40 DIVINE SELECTION smiles from a spiritual power. Man loves, thinks, and performs every act: from a spiritual power in the soul. Likewise nature, being the body of which the spiritual world is the soul, performs all her operations in minutest particulars and most general aspect from the forces of the spiritual world, which world the Creator fills with life and power from Himself. Then Mr. Darwin was, in one sense, right in speaking of natural selection; for, as we have said, when the Creator would effect a purpose in nature, He does it through natural law. Indeed, natural law is the way the Creator acts on the natural plane. There is yet a more comprehensive view of this fact suggested in the con- ception that the Creator is fully in spiritual law, just as cause is within effect ; hence His purposes must be worked out there. And as natural law is the outward expression of spiritual DIVINE SELECTION 41 law, or the spiritual law descended and operative in matter, He is also in natural law, which likewise and as fully serves His will. Now, since natural law is such ulti- mate expression of Divine law, natural selection is Divine selection. So, while Mr. Darwin was right in speaking of the creative process as natural selection, he was equally wrong in thinking that the power to select is innate in nature. For natural selection expresses only half the truth — the outward, lower half. For the completion of the truth we must supplement it with the inner and higher half — Divine selection. Natural selection being supplemented by Divine selection, the cloud over the tabernacle lifts and we can see to proceed on our journey. The mystery of creation is largely dispelled, for then it is realized how nature has selected so wisely, why she has never made a mistake, and why she never can err. We can then 42 DIVINE SELECTION understand how nature could select to form the seas and the dry land, the simplest forms of primeval flora and fauna, and advance so orderly and surely to the creation of man, and lastly work at every point, besetting man be- fore and behind, to make him righteous and holy as the heir to the wisdom, love, and blessings of Divine life itself. It is this perception of things com- monly felt, though vaguely expressed, that will not permit thought to rest in the inadequate and misleading doctrine of natural selection and survival of the fittest, and that is seeking to give ex- pression to the grander fact of Divine Selection and Survival of the Useful, the perpetual proof and exemplification of which the universe is. CHAPTER V Projected Efficiency SINCE the foregoing chapters were written, a new work has appeared from the pen of an avowed Evolutionist.* Its bold and startling assertions may warrant its consideration here, for it repudiates the governing principle in Evolution that has heretofore prevailed, and pro- poses a new basis for the solution of the very effects whose causes we are seeking. Furthermore, it is the first of a projected series on evolutionary philosophy, whereby it is hoped to re- vive faith in the cause, and by a new treatment adapt the theory to twentieth century thought. The argument serves our purpose * "Western Civilization." Benjamin Kidd. 44 DIVINE SELECTION most efficiently in two ways. First, it is in harmony with these chapters, and reinforces its purpose in refuting the governing principle in Evolution as heretofore expounded. And second, the new governing principle of the evolu- tionary process offered, not only shows the inadequacy of evolutionary philos- ophy in general, but it also proposes a solution that, from one point of view, is separated but a step from the con- clusions of the Theist. The philosophy of the English Soci- ologists, which is nothing other than the doctrine of Evolution applied to the social status, Mr. Kidd thus rele- gates to antiquity, " There has been no system of ideas that has ever held the mind of the world from which the intellectual basis has been so completely struck away. That theory of human religions which so many minds have followed and surpassed Mr. Spencer in developing merely as a theory of sur- PROJECTED EFFICIENCY 45 vivals in the present; that theory of psychology, developed from Hume to Huxley, in which the content of the human mind is viewed simply as a con- dition in which the present is related to past experience either in the indi- vidual or in the race ; that widely prevalent conception of social progress developed from Voltaire to Marx as a movement towards a state in which the self-conscious present is to be finally organized towards the complete expres- sion of its own ascendant interests; have each passed definitely into the background, nevermore to receive the authoritative assent of the human intel- lect to its premises.'' * In a summary, Mr. Kidd's theory is that natural selection operates, not to favor the individual or even the pres- ent, but that its interests are always in the future. Throughout the long ages of struggle, " efficiency in the future is * " Western Civilization," page 12. 46 DIVINE SELECTION the determining quality." * Mr. Kidd's theory of the governing principle in Evolution differs as widely from preva- lent theories as he would have us be- lieve. For Evolutionists have held hitherto that the controlling principle is in nature itself, seeking perpetually to preserve the present and to perpet- uate it. How fundamentally Mr. Kidd differs is evinced in these words, "The con- trolling center of the evolutionary proc- ess in our social history is not in the present at all, but in the future. It is in favor of the interests of the future that natural selection continually dis- criminates." f This principle he calls " projected efficiency." In analyzing this idea we are led to ask, What is " projected ef- ficiency ?" Mr. Kidd's clearest idea ap- pears in the following words, " It is a world in which, with the passing of * ibid, page 53. t ibid, page 6. PROJECTED EFFICIENCY 47 the present under the control of the future, there is being accomplished for the first time in the development of the race the emancipation of the future in the present." * Mr. Kidd strenuously maintains that natural selection does not operate alone to the advantage of existing individu- als, but that efficiency in the future is ever the end in view. The essence of projected efficiency is that the present is governed with ref- erence to the future. It comprehends the greater use to which all things are subjected. But we still have to ask, What is the future? Is it an entity? Is it in existence? If not an entity in existence, how can it govern? We can get no nearer the solution of the controlling agency by shifting it as an undefined thing into the future. If it is the future that rules, " the future " must be defined before we have ad- * ibid, page 342. 48 DIVINE SELECTION vanced one whit in wisdom or one whit nearer an explanation. There is only one sense in which "projected efficiency" has any sane meaning, and that is that the govern- ment of the future is the government of Him who inhabits the future, and to whom the future is as the present. With this definition of " projected efficiency " we can rationally agree, for then the governing principle in natural selection is, as we have shown, Divine selection or the good of the future, as determined by Him who sees the end from the be- ginning, and governs all things accord- ingly. Present progress is, in this sense, the perpetual emancipation of the future in the present, the perpetual emancipation of higher thought and life in the minds of men, unfolding out of the Spirit of God, in whom the future is in po- tency. But since it is impossible for the fu- PROJECTED EFFICIENCY 49 ture to have any power in the present, or for the present to project anything into the future before the future be- comes the present, the term " projected efficiency " is misleading and inadequate. Since all advancement is from the un- folding of things that are in potency in the Spirit of God as it is received in nature and the hearts of men, it now only remains for some one again to as- sign the do£trine of "projected efficien- cy " to a " past and unenlightened age," and to formulate a modern doctrine of zVje<5ted efficiency commendable to twen- tieth century intelligence. CHAPTER VI Internal Realities DARWIN did not live to see the extent to which the basic principle of natural selection, which he formulated, would be carried. The development of the theory of Evolution, to which he first gave definite shape, has been quite commensurate with its acceptance. The geological record has been great- ly improved, evidence has been sifted, and a chain of reason forged that, of its kind, is quite complete until the ques- tions are taken up that appertain to man, society, and moral development. The inadequacy of the evolutionary explanation of cosmic processes in this regard, Mr. Huxley concedes. For, says he, " Social progress means a checking of the cosmic progress at INTERNAL REALITIES 51 every step, and the substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical process." It is remarkable that so keen a think- er as Mr. Huxley should not at once see that the existence in nature of two creative processes is as impossible as the existence of two Creators. Evolutionary reasonings in regard to the cosmic process are brought to an abrupt end when moral questions are taken up, because the theory of Evolu- tion is constructed without recognition of the moral, and can therefore in no wise account for it. It is far easier to amend the conception of the cosmic process than it is to conceive of two processes in creation diametrically op- posed. The tendency of modern think- ers, therefore, is in the direction of re- forming the conception of the cosmic process. As Darwin eliminated the inconsist- encies of Lamarck that the theory of 52 DIVINE SELECTION Evolution might advance, others will modify the mistakes of the school of Messrs. Huxley, Spencer, and Tyndall. In this regard Mr. Fiske, in his "Through Nature to God," performs an admirable service. Says he, " When Huxley asks us to believe that the cosmic process has no sort of relation to moral ends, I feel like replying with the question, Does not the cosmic process exist pure- ly for the sake of moral ends?"* Cer- tainly moral ends have been secured. Creation has brought them forth. And taking into consideration the relation between cause and effect, it can be concluded positively that the cosmic process is nothing other than the means through which moral ends have been secured ; first in bringing forth a being sufficiently high to be capable of morality, and second in inspiring him with moral ideals and ambitions. The moral motive that is in the first cause * Page 113. INTERNAL REALITIES 53 terminates in the effect or the final cre- ated form. It can be concluded cer- tainly that not only is there a moral motive in the cosmic process, but also that the moral motive in the First Cause, or the Creator, flows through all His agencies into the last effect, and binds all to Himself in unity. If Evolution, as an explanation of phenomena, merits longer serious con- sideration, it must at least be so revised that there shall be no break from the creation of the moneron to the finest specimen of religious man. When it is known that the evolutionary concep- tion of the cosmic process cannot be applied alike to matter and mind, it can no longer command the favor of thinking men, and must stand as a monument to the memory of great but misguided genius. Mr. Fiske aptly suggests a readjust- ment of Evolution that is a forecast of what is to come, and in doing so he 54 DIVINE SELECTION lays down a principle before which all theories must give way, or accommo- date themselves to it. "To suppose that during countless ages, from the sea-weed up to man, the progress of life was achieved through adjustments to external realities, but that then the method was all at once changed, and throughout a vast province of evolu- tion the end was secured through ad- justments to external non-realities, is to do sheer violence to logic and com- mon sense So far as our knowl- edge of nature goes, the whole mo- mentum of it carries us onward to the conclusion that the unseen world, as the objective term is a relation of fun- damental importance that has coexisted with the whole career of mankind, has a real existence."* The conspicuous error of Evolution for which it must now pay the penalty is, that it has never acknowledged the very objective term, * "Through Nature to God," page 189. INTERNAL REALITIES 55 real or unreal, toward which the cos- mic process is moving. But here Evo- lution has at least been consistent with itself, for how could a theory have an end in view that had its beginning in the "fortuitous concourse of atoms?" The reality of the unseen world offers a rational solution to the whole prob- lem. For how much easier it is to think of the ascent in creation being brought about by adjustment to inter- nal realities rather than by adjustment to external non-realities! If we stop to think what words mean, we shall know that external non-realities are nothing, and that adjustments to ex- ternal non-realities are adjustments to nothing. The cosmic process regards two things, external realities and internal realities. There is the external reality of the natural world, to which mate- rial creation must conform. The eye is adjusted to the ether, the ear to 56 DIVINE SELECTION the sound, the lungs to the atmos- phere, the fin to the water, the wing to the air. We have no difficulty in acknowledging the reality of the nat- ural world, because it is cognized by the senses set in the body. It is a cor- poreal organism perceived by the corpo- real senses. To complete our under- standing, to advance at all, we must introduce the other fa<5tor of a real, spiritual world. Introducing this term need suggest nothing vague, evanes- cent, or strange. A common-sense view of it will make it both real and already quite familiar. The spiritual world is the world of man's spirit, or of the world proper to it. Its evidences are of daily experience, for as to our spirits we are ever inhabitants of that world, deriving from it our thoughts, affec- tions, states of mind, and life. Nor could the spirit be an occupant of any other. We can distinguish the faculties of INTERNAL REALITIES 57 the spirit from those of the body. For no less certainly does the mind see in spiritual light than does the body in natural light. The spirit sees, feels, tastes, perceives, and hears spiritual forces, as surely as the senses of the body cognize natural things. The in- ner eye sees truth, an inner sense feels kindness, an inner sense tastes love, an inner sense perceives a Divine Provi- dence, an inner sense hears the voice of righteousness. These are all spiritual forces proper to the spiritual world, and are the effects of spiritual entities, though not natural, yet as real as those of heat, light, odor, or matter in any form. Should it be said that these spiritual forces do exist, but that they are predi- cated of the mind, let it be remembered that they do not originate in physical sensations, but are purely mental in their primary a6lion, which shows that the mind is not an organ of the body, but 58 DIVINE SELECTION of the spirit wherein spiritual forces act; and that the body is simply the mind's instrument of consciousness and action in the natural world. Let such a factor, a real, spiritual world, be introduced into our reason- ings, and surely we have every cause for believing that the development of natural organisms has taken place through adjustment to external reali- ties, and in a similar manner the mind is developed by adjustment to internal re- alities, which are properly called spir- itual. The intellect is adjusted to knowledge as surely as the fin is to the sea. Un- derstanding bears the same relation to truth as the eye does to light. Love bears the same relation to the spirit as heat does to the body. The will hears as well as the body. The sense of right is adjusted to righteousness as feeling is to matter. Is it too unreal a thing to believe INTERNAL REALITIES 59 that as the material organism is framed and developed in adjustment to the external, natural world, so the spirit is developed by adjustment to the internal, spiritual world ; and that the develop- ment of man is a perpetual adjustment to the Man in God, the Creator? CHAPTER VII The Last Link IT IS well known that the vibrisae or whiskers of the cat, which ter- minate in sacs about which nerve fibers cluster, serve as delicate or- gans of touch. Embryology tells us that cat-whis- kers are merely specialized forms of hair, like that on mammals, and which, in germinal form, are found upon man imbedded in the skin. It is claimed that the eye and ear are developed from the same vibrisas. We are told that in the process of evolution, while the differentiations of dermal tissue formed scales, feathers, and hair, some differentiations went to- ward the production of eyes and ears. Then the bulb of the eye and the audi- tory chamber of the ear were, to start THE LAST LINK 61 with, hair sacs. They are now meta- morphosed hair sacs. The crystalline lens of the eye is also, we are told, a differentiated hair sac, and the aqueous and vitreous humor are liquefied, der- mal tissue. Says Mr. Fiske, in commenting upon this, "One can seem to discern how in the history of the eye there was at first a concentration of pigment grains in a particular dermal sac, making the spot exceptionally sensitive to light ; then came by slow degrees the height- ened translucence, the convexity of sur- face, the refracting humor and the mul- tiplication of nerve vesicles arranging themselves as rectinal rods." * In other words, the eye was formed by the im- pact of light rays upon pigment grains in a dermal sac. The ear is represented to have been formed in a like manner by adjustment of other dermal sacs to the sound wave. * " Through Nature to God," page 183. 62 DIVINE SELECTION The reality and substantiality of the spiritual world, together with the fact of a Divinely Human God, supplies us with the last link in the chain of as- cending creation. If light falling upon pigment grains in the hair sac can form the eye, the activity of intelligence within the soul can form the organ of human intelli- gence. If sound waves form the ear, the activity of spiritual light can form from cells of the soul the organ of mental sight. Divine Love acting upon initial forms in the soul can form the organs of human love. Likewise the Divine Understanding can form the human understanding, and the Divine Will can form the human will. In short, the activities of the Divine Hu- man operating upon elementary cells of the soul can form all the faculties of the finite human. In a similar way to the formation of the eye and ear by adjustment to the external world, the THE LAST LINK 63 human of the spirit can be formed by adjustment to the Divine Human through the spiritual world. And is it going too far to say that it is the un- defined consciousness of this that has fixed so fundamentally in the Christian faith the belief in the Divine Humanity, the Personality of God, that has in all time been so resolutely defended? If we regard the spiritual world not material, but real and substantial as the natural world, having corresponding substances and forces, yet purer and higher, if we will use the same, sound sense in thinking of that which is invisi- ble to the corporeal senses as we do of the visible, the formation of the spirit with its special organs and faculties is as rationally, easily, and clearly con- ceived as is the development of the material organs of sense by the impact of natural forces. The line and purpose of developing forms were to take on an ever more 64 DIVINE SELECTION perfect correspondence with nature. The eye developed to light, touch to obje6ts, the ear to sound, the taste to flavor, the nostrils to odor. The acme of forms possible through adjustment merely to external realities is reached in the brute, which has all these facul- ties. Yet there is truth, purity, char- ity, righteousness, holiness, godliness ; but adjustment to sound waves, flavors, odors, light, and material objects does not produce these, for the brute is as unaware of them as if they did not exist, although his natural senses are incomparably keener than man's. When development had reached its height through adjustment to external reali- ties, then commenced the development by adjustment to internal realities — to the Divine Human. Through this ad- justment came the human, as a super- structure to the animal. If the eye developed by adjustment to light, the ear to sound, and the animal THE LAST LINK 65 to nature in general, is it unreasonable to ask what did the human develop in adjustment to? Certainly something! What this something is we surely know. The faculty of perceiving truth devel- ops by adjustment to Truth , the sense of purity to Purity, charity to Charity, righteousness to Righteousness, godli- ness to Godliness, humanity to Hu- manity. We have but to consider the spirit- ual world as real as nature, and capa- ble of spiritual powers as nature is of natural powers, and to think of the Divine Human of God filling the spir- itual world full of human power as the sun fills nature with sun-powers, to have a rational, tangible basis for pro- gressive study. Should this seem to be a statement too large for human grasp, let it be said that we do not have to enter strange territory to confirm this. We are not required to believe anything 66 DIVINE SELECTION that is not in harmony with physical fa<5ts. We need not accept anything that is not similar to that with which we are already familiar. In fact the very opposite is imperative. We are request- ed to think in harmony with physical facts ; to reason just as we do about things with which we are familiar, and to disbelieve everything that is not in harmony with a broad and true concep- tion of nature and her laws. We know how the sun imparts activ- ity to nature and fills it with sun poten- cies. We are continually impressed with the complex and numerous forms of the activity of ether as displayed by the prism and photography. If there are so many varieties of electric activ- ity that there are developed not only such different things as heat, light, and power, but also many particular activi- ties, exemplified by the X-ray, wireless telegraphy, and radio activity in gen- eral, how much more probable it is THE LAST LINK 67 that there are still more numerous and complex activities, still more potencies in the Human Spirit that flows into the universe from God ! How conceivable it is that His Spirit, bathing the soul of man and the spiritual world like sunshine, should produce in man by its inherent forms of activity all the essen- tials that distinguish man from brute ! The introduction of the factor of the spiritual world, in adjustment to which the spiritual faculties of man are formed and developed, certainly solves the prob- lem in a conceivable way. Nor does it stand on this basis alone, for it solves the problem in a rational way, and also it is confirmed by the analogy of all that we know. Even Materialists acknowledge a realm of invisible, material substance, called ether, as absolutely essential to the explanation of the simplest phe- nomenon of nature. One of two things must occur : either men must refuse to 68 DIVINE SELECTION think, or the same logic will force into our reasonings the introduction of an unseen, spiritual world. Therefore men of the higher rational order cannot deny what they see, and so urge as the only means of progress in intelligence the acknowledgment of the reality of the unseen world. There is no reason that can be urged against the fact that the impact of the activity of the Spirit of God, in which there are infinite potencies, gives the sense of spiritual beauty, the inspiration of divine grandeur, the perception of moral law, the sense of purity, love, righteousness, holiness, divinity ; and produces in the soul the aspiration to know God and to come more fully into His image and likeness. Certainly the same logic is used to explain how the body comes into correspondence with nature, and it equally shows how the soul comes into correspondence with the powers of the unseen world. THE LAST LINK 69 Viewing creation from the first to the present day, we see it to be a fact that forms took on successively nearer perfect correspondence with nature, and that when the animal in which there was at that time the nearest complete corre- spondence with nature became per- fected, then came man, who has con- tinued in the upward development, and little by little has come gradually into nearer perfect correspondence with the spiritual world and the Creator. This being the fact proves by all the logic there is in the course of events that it was the design in the beginning, and the final purpose throughout develop- ment. If we admit the cause that the effect demonstrates, our vision will clear at once, " For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal 7 o DIVINE SELECTION powers and Godhead ; so that they are without excuse." Therefore it rests upon those who see, to put together the fa&s of nature that the hewers of wood and drawers of water in Israel have gathered, and leave them still hewing and drawing, if it must be, while the men of God advance in the understanding of things that, though invisible to the senses, are yet real, and to the mind and soul are tan- gible and knowable. CHAPTER VIII The Reality of THE Unseen World IT HAS been thought that through scientific research would come an explanation of the motor power of the universe and of the cosmic process in particular, so that there would be no need of resort to the thought of a spiritual world or of a Divine Being. But research has re- sulted in the reverse. The further we go, the more evident does it appear that nature is not sufficient unto her- self. The more we learn, the more certain we are that nature is only an effect of which an interior world is the cause. If science shows that one hair sac is developed into an eye and another into an ear, it does not tell why; and the 72 DIVINE SELECTION facl: of the development is even as great a mystery as ever. For there is as much mystery in conceiving how and why nature develops an eye from one tissue and an ear from another as there is in imagining similar development from pure protoplasm. There is no intelligence in sound waves or ether vibrations. They can neither hear nor see. They are deaf and sightless things, and can therefore give neither the con- sciousness of sound nor sight, much less can they form the organs of these senses. Though no other reply had been given to the reasonings that ma- terialize spiritual phenomena, a suffic- ient answer is involved in those ancient yet trenchant words, " He that, planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?" If materialistic Evolution fails to ex- plain the causes in matter that form the physical organs, how much more must it fall short in accounting for the REALITY OF UNSEEN WORLD- 73 life that animates them, which we desig- nate as human, and which is manifested in intelligence, the aspiration for eternal life, the worship of God, and the desire to know and to fulfil His laws. Spiritual things are as surely the objects of spiritual desires as material things are the objects of the senses. The wing of a bird is proof of an at- mosphere ; the fin of the fish is evi- dence of the sea. The ear is a proof of sound, the eye of light, the olfactory nerves of odors, the hand of objects external to it. We do not find in na- ture such a contradiction as a wing and no atmosphere, lungs and no air. It does not exist in the imagination of man to conceive, or in the power of God to create that which has no rela- tion to anything. Everything is in cor- respondence with something. Likewise every desire of the human heart must have not only a real object, but a pos- sible one. It is impossible for it to be 74 DIVINE SELECTION otherwise, for in correspondence with something is every living thing made. There is no orderly appetite for which there is not a satisfying food. Of the mind's appetites it is equally true that the desire is sufficient evidence of the reality of its object and of the possi- bility of its satisfaction. Evolution emphasizes the theory of a development from the unicellular form to the complex structure of man. The creating energy has been so persistent that it has persevered to bring forth the perfect form, even by infinitesimal increments. It has developed a type of being whose understanding gives him an immovable faith in the existence of God, whose inmost and all-controlling life is to know God, whose chief purpose of existence is to become like Him, and who, in the exercise of this life, finds the highest, sweetest, most blessed and precious joy that is known. There are many who will say that it does not stand REALITY OF UNSEEN WORLD 75 to reason that such a being could be created and brought to this state of life, and yet there be no reality in it. Moral intuition dictates that the human form could not be so perfected and endowed with sublime aspirations simply for dis- appointment. Since science holds that every animal organ, sense, and faculty, are developed through their relations to something, is it possible for the dis- tinctively human senses and faculties to be developed if they are in relation to nothing ? Is it not a violation of every principle of scientific reasoning to as- sume that human aspirations are devel- oped in relation to non-realities, or to nothing ? We may conclude with logic as sound and certain as is used in any scientific deduction, that every sense, faculty, and hope of the human soul has an objective reality in relation to which it is developed as surely as the wing argues an atmosphere, or the eye an ether. 76 DIVINE SELECTION That there is a substantial, spiritual world in relation to which the faculties of the human soul are developed, is not too great a thing to conceive nor too remote to be urged as an esssen- tial basis of philosophical reasoning. Considering the wisdom and power of the Creating Agency displayed in the universe, can we conceive of its final failure through attempting that which is too much for it? Man may lay a foundation upon which he is un- able to build, but we cannot conceive of the Supreme Architect making false calculations, and Himself ridiculous in the understanding of His own creatures, through inability to complete the struct- ure upon the foundation which He has laid. It was once a grievous question what we should do for oil when the sperm whale becomes extinguished. Coal oil was found. Yet mankind took up the same childish dirge, What shall we do REALITY OF UNSEEN WORLD 77 when coal oil gives out ? Electricity has now revealed an inexhaustible supply of light. In whatever field man has wrought, nature has been found replete in her provision, and all experience goes to show that she amply supplies, in the best way and forever, the devel- oping needs of mankind, giving him more and better than he had hoped for. If nature is so perfect in her ministry to the external and lower desires of mankind, how much more must the spiritual world be able to satisfy the internal and higher desires ! The sense that tells us that nature could not have been started by fortune, nor continued by chance, nor perfected by selfish strife, reveals not only that there is an intelligent, designing, loving God, but also a world within the ma- terial, which gives shape and life to the natural world, and is able to serve with full satisfaction the aspirations that are planted in the spirit of man. 78 DIVINE SELECTION In asserting the existence of a real, spiritual world, we do not carry mate- rialism into the spiritual realm. Ma- terial applies to the passive, dead, sub- stances of the natural universe, includ- ing the substances that enter into the composition of the sun down to the most fixed rock of the earth. The sub- stances of the spiritual world are supe- rior and interior to all of these. We recognize that water has a prop- erty of plasticity superior to that of rock. Air is still more plastic than water, which constitutes it the medium of sound. Ether is still more plastic than air, which enables it to be the medium of light. No scientist can doubt or fail to conceive of the material substance of ether, so subtle as to penetrate mat- ter of a lower degree and be univers- ally present. We can as easily con- ceive of a spiritual world likewise sepa- rated from the material. We are obliged to introduce into our higher reasoning REALITY OF UNSEEN WORLD 79 a substantial, spiritual world, a form as real to the faculties of the soul as na- ture is to the senses of the body. The whole difficulty with the science of the day is that it refuses to acknowledge in its reasonings what is not discerni- ble by the bodily senses, yet which reason clearly discerns. And as spirit must ever elude the senses of the body from its superiority to them, it must be introduced as a rational conclusion of scientific thought. In which case spiritual or mental phenomena are as readily explained as natural phenom- ena, and by analogous principles. Materialism has never explained a pri- mary cause. It is safe to say that the realm of interior causes can not be en- tered until science admits the rational deductions that every cause originates in a substance, that every force is the activity of a substance, and that all su- pernatural powers are from a substan- tial, spiritual world. Indeed, it may as 80 DIVINE SELECTION well be admitted now as at any time that there can be no interior knowl- edge of anything if an explanation is desired that shall do away with the acknowledgment of God, who is the Creator and the life-power itself. Sup- pose it to be true that there is a God, in whom is life itself, who is a Creator because He can put forth from Him- self substance, and form spiritual and material objects. Suppose that things external to the Creator, both natural and spiritual, were so formed that they could receive their respective kinds of life perpetually from Him. What then would be the mental status of him who, denying this, should try to account for creation apart from the Creator? Would not the present materialistic and agnostic conditions necessarily en- sue? In this the origin of Evolution, together with all its modifications and adaptations, is clearly apparent. The materialism revived by Mr. Dar- REALITY OF UNSEEN WORLD 81 win, and pressed so zealously by his followers, is in substance the rejection of God, the same as that of which Jeremiah long ago wrote: "Saying to a stock, ' Thou art my father,' and to a stone, * Thou hast brought me forth.' ' ! And the reason of it is the same as in the lines following : " For they have turned their backs unto Me, and not their faces." CHAPTER IX A Law of Creation IT IS argued that the impact of light rays and sound waves formed respectively the eye and the ear. Then, according to the same prin- ciple, odors formed the sense of smell, flavor the sense of taste, and material objects the sense of feeling. But since taste and feeling are not acted upon except they act, for appetite or desire must precede the act, the conclusion cannot be drawn, and the principle fails ; and failing as to one sense it fails as to all. No more potent are light rays to form the eye, or air waves to form the ear without the introduction of another factor. The object of a sense cannot form the sense. Nowhere in all the realms of life did an object form its subject. If it were possible for the A LAW OF CREATION 83 object to form the subje6t, it would be an inevitable fact that creation made the Creator. Whatever service nature renders in forming the senses, which truly is great, there is yet something back of nature. Before we can locate that something, it must be understood that the organ of sight is not the sense of sight. The organ of any sense is not the sense. The seat of sensation is admitted to be in the brain, which reaches to the eye by the optic nerve, to the ear by the auditory nerve, and throughout the body to all senses and parts by exten- sion of telegraphic nerve-lines. If the external organ, as the eye or ear, is impaired, or the connecting nerve in- tercepted, the sense cannot operate, yet the faculty remains the same ; for when the obstruction is removed, the sense again operates. The blind have in po- tency the mental faculty of sight, but not the organ of sight. The deaf have 84 DIVINE SELECTION the faculty of hearing, but not the organ of hearing. Sensation is a faculty of the brain exercised through the sense organ, for the eye does not see nor the ear hear unless attention is given. Go a step further. The brain itself is not the primary organ of sense. The soul within is the real person of sense and faculty. The brain is as much an organ of the soul's faculties as the eye is an organ of the brain's faculties. Physiologically the eye is an organism put forth by the brain that it may sensate rays of light. Likewise the brain and the whole material body are an organism put forth by the soul that it may live in and sensate nature. And this occurs that the soul may have a beginning on the lowest and outward plane, and com- mence its development. So it is neither the eye that sees, nor the brain, but it is the person, in whom is the faculty of sight, that sees in nature through the instrumentality of brain and eye. A LAW OF CREATION 85 Of course there can be no faculty with- out an organ of faculty. But the po- tency of all the faculties is primarily in the human essence. The soul, nec- essarily a complete human form, hav- ing organs for all its faculties, is the real, sentient being. This basic prin- ciple is not new. Paul says : "There is a natural body, and there is" (not will be) " a spiritual body." This is but another way of saying that man is the soul and has a body. If any sense is wanting, as in the blind or deaf, it is not that the faculty is not in the person of the soul, but it is because the physical instrument is out of ad- justment to the inner faculty, to which the sense organ bears the same relation as an impaired lens to the eye, or a broken ear-trumpet to the ear. Correct the material eye and the soul will see; repair the ear and the soul will hear. Now if we have succeeded in draw- ing the distinction between a merely 86 DIVINE SELECTION material organism and the mind, or soul, in which is all faculty, and which uses the external organ as its instrument of action, we can proceed still further. We are told that the hair sac is de- veloped into an eye by the impact of light rays, or into an ear by the im- pact of sound waves. We have noted the unsatisfactoriness of this as an ex- planation of either, because we know that in light or in sound waves there is no adequate power of design. The senses of seeing and of hearing not be- ing in ether or air, ether and air have no power to form these organs, much less are they able to impart the facul- ties of seeing and of hearing. The essential faculty of seeing proper to the soul not only sees through, but forms the organ of sight in the body. That light did not form the eye ought to be evident from the fact that the eye is now formed before the animal comes to the light. If it needed the A LAW OF CREATION 87 impact of light to form the first eye, there would be the same requirement now. The first eye must have been formed according- to the same laws and by the same forces that all subsequent ones are. The same of the ear and of every sense organ. The essential sense- faculty of the soul forms its organ of use in the body. Yet the activities of nature's elements are essential, not to form the sense directly, but to co-oper- ate with the sense-faculty of the soul in the perfection of the material organ- ism by use. The eyes of the fish in Mammoth Cave are mere specks, and their nerves senseless threads, because there is no co-operation of light waves with the sense-faculty. The rudimentary eye is formed by the sense-faculty, and it is developed into complete form between the sense-faculty and the medium of light by use. The organ of any sense- faculty is formed by the sense-faculty 88 DIVINE SELECTION itself, and is developed to its fullness by the sense-faculty using it in nature. The eye of the Cave-fish is sightless, not because of the absence of the es- sential sense-faculty, but it is due to the absence of the plane of reaction that use in nature provides, and has, following the law of non-use, suffered atrophy. That both the eye and the ear are developed alike from the sensitive hair sac, does not indicate that the senses are derived from one, that of feeling. It only reveals that the eye and the ear are developed from the same material substance and planes. It only argues that the faculty of seeing uses the same mat- ter to form the organs of the eye as the faculty of hearing uses to form the organ of hearing. Because the whole human body is made of protoplasm does not argue in any degree that all its faculties are derived from one. Because a house and a church are built of brick does not indicate that both were built by the A LAW OF CREATION 89 same architect. If the finger is cut, and the inner and outer skin, the mus- cles, membranes, and nerves are repro- duced from the same material, it does not argue that all these are one, and are developed immediately from the same unit. It only shows that the soul uses the same material to build different parts of its earthly dwelling. It shows that there is a substantial framework within that remains intact when the body is wounded, and proceeds to re- clothe itself when it is laid bare. If it were the purpose here to enter into a psychological discussion, it might be shown that seeing and feeling are es- sentially very different faculties, seeing being a faculty derived from the soul's mental function or the understanding, and feeling being derived from the other division of the mind, or the will. CHAPTER X God Knowable IT IS universally acknowledged that God is infinite. That man is finite is equally clear. That the finite can- not comprehend the infinite is also beyond dispute. But no graver error can be made than to draw the conclu- sion that since man is finite and God is infinite, God is unknowable. The essential nature of a rock is just as unknowable as God is, yet we have the science of geology. But because the essential nature of a rock is un- known no one of sound mind questions the existence of a rock. The essential nature of land and water is unknow- able, but no one doubts the existence of land and sea, or questions the laws of navigation. The essential nature of the earth is unknown, but there is ab- GOD KNOWABLE 91 solute faith in the science of geogra- phy. The essential nature of an animal is unknowable, yet no one doubts its existence nor does the fact interfere with the science of zoology. So of botany, chemistry, medicine, and all the sciences. Science and art are as infinite as God is, yet they are not absolutely unknowable. There is a belief in rock, the earth, the seas, the animal, science and art, because they are objects of the material senses. But there are faculties higher and more trustworthy than the corporeal senses. Intelligence is a men- tal faculty of seeing, and gives knowl- edge of surer kind than can vision, or any corporeal sense, for intelligence not only directs the senses, uses them, and corrects sensual impressions, but it sees in its proper light upon its own plane. Intelligence reveals the existence of God, a spiritual world, a soul, and a life after death, as surely as the eye discloses a sun, an earth, a material 92 DIVINE SELECTION body, and a natural life. The assertion that there are " ears that hear not " and "eyes that see not" is not a mere hy- perbole, but a real fa6l based upon the existence of a whole set of interior fac- ulties, though they be yet undiscovered and undeveloped. If the eye and ear set in the body are not used as a means of opening the inner vision and of unstopping the inner sense of understanding, human life cannot rise higher than animal life. The eye and ear set in the material body are primarily intended as the means of developing the inner, human faculties that beasts have not. When the inner eye of mental vision is opened and the inner ear of understanding is unstopped, the material senses become not rulers, but servants. But if the eye and ear of the body are not made to perform the office of opening the eye and ear of the soul, the human mind becomes blighted and closed to GOD KNOWABLE 93 interior forces, and the man becomes a Sensist possessed of no higher life than that which flows in through the body. Truly he can then reason, but his rea- sons are as false as he is sensuous, and his conclusions are as lightless as his mind is sightless. Man is then simply an animal that thinks, or one whose mind is full of hallucination. Instead of regenerating into the image and like- ness of God, man may degenerate below the animal, becoming first sceptical, then agnostic, and at last an Atheist. He is then lower than an animal be- cause the animal never sinks below its instinct, always keeping in the order for which it is created ; while man may, because of his free-will, fall out of his order and fail to realize the purpose of his creation, which is to know and to love God. He is then lower than an animal because he is out of the or- der in which he is created and has neither instinct nor intelligence to guide 94 DIVINE SELECTION his life according to any order, while the animal, has an instinct that keeps it in its ordained plane and purpose. Not only can we know God, but so fundamental is that knowledge that only so far as we know Him can any true philosophy be known. True knowl- edge starts with a knowledge of God, and only so far as He is known have we any definite understanding of any- thing. A knowledge of God reveals His relation to His creation and the rela- tion of one thing to another. With- out a knowledge of God one would not know whether he were a man or a thought of a man. He would not know whether the earth were actually exter- nal to himself or merely projected from his imagination. He would not know whether disease were disease or a thought of disease. He could not tell appearances from facts or facts from appearances. All healthy knowledge GOD KNOWABLE 95 rests upon such an understanding of God that His relation to creation is comprehended. This makes nature her- self a revelation of God. Law, or- der, intelligence, power, beauty, grand- eur, and use, that are seen in nature, then speak of His beneficence ; they tell of His character, for then " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the fir- mament showeth His handiwork." Man created in the image and like- ness of God is the special field of the revelation of Him. Animal forms in- creased in completeness until man, who is a form adopted to receive from God the divine nature and character that we call human, was produced. The word human is not used in the sense that "it is human to err," but as mean- ing that in man which distinguishes him from the beasts, and makes possi- ble in him the image and likeness of God. The understanding is fashioned to receive wisdom from God, and the 96 DIVINE SELECTION will is formed to receive love from Him. From wisdom and love unfold all the elements of the human, (the hu- man form being- the mechanism through which it is done,) just as heat, light, and power are derived from a single current of electricity. Man is created for no other purpose than to know God. To regard God unknowable is to defeat the fundamen- tal purpose of creation. God is a self- revealing Being, and the human mind is the particular plane of that revela- tion. Indeed, the sole purpose of hu- man creation is that God may reveal Himself therein by the gift of divine wisdom to the understanding and di- vine love to the will, from which the kingdom of heaven comes within. For centuries animal and vegetable forms were created. Matter was gath- ered together and material bodies were made. This was for a purpose. God is more than a mere potter of clay. GOD KNOWABLE 97 He was working, as results show, to bring forth a being having so high a form of mind that His creative power might ascend higher than matter. The creation of varying material forms is now substantially ended, but creation continues on the plane of the human mind and is in essence the development of the divine character in man. The Garden of God is now composed of human hearts. Once creative forces were directed to the making of lands, seas, mollusks, fishes, birds, plants, an- imals. Now it is centered, as prepara- tion has been made, upon the devel- opment of justice, reason, judgment, purity, honesty, understanding, right- eousness, holiness, spirituality, love — in short, all that we know under the name of the Divine Human. Man being formed in the image of God that God might give Himself to man and unfold His nature to him, makes all true advancement to be pro- 98 DIVINE SELECTION gress in the knowledge of God. Yet we should not regard such knowledge the mere intellectual grasp of His love and nature, but also the interior know- ing of Him through sensating His Di- vine Human nature in our lives among mankind. The godly loves for father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, wife, neighbor, country, church, made hal- lowed by the consciousness of their sa- cred relations and uses, are God's love sensated in the human heart. As we experience these, attributing them to their divine source, God is known, for such are of God's nature. Not to know God is not to know anything worth knowing, for the knowl- edge of God gives all other knowledge its value. Knowledge is permanently useful in the degree that it leads to and reveals God. For how much better is a white man with a gun than an Indian with a bow if his weapons are GOD KNOWABLE 99 put only to the same selfish purpose? The superior knowledge of science and art is superior only so far as it opens the understanding to God and to the virtues that are of His Divine Hu- manity. To know God is life eternal, not only in the sense of life to come, but also of life here, and of the true life itself. ,fC. CHAPTER XI The Absoluteness of Right and Wrong EVOLUTION, which offers nat- ural selection as the explanation of the origin of living forms, consistently with itself accounts for moral things in a similar way. For says Mr. Spencer : " Advancing a step further (than the evolution of structure) we have to frame a conception of the evolution of condu6l as correlated with this evolution of structure and func- tion." * We are told that right and wrong have their origin in human relations, and are developed as new conditions of society make additional demands. If there were only one person on the earth, whatever he desired to do would * " Principles of Ethics," vol. i., page 8. RIGHT AND WRONG 101 be right. But as soon as another comes into the field, his equal rights must be respected. As the number increases, land is occupied, food is scarce, and social relations are developed, right and wrong have an increased meaning. Right and wrong, good and evil, are therefore considered as merely relative terms, having no absolute existence. Mr. Spencer illustrates the origin of " good " and " bad " by these words as applied to " a good house," " a bad um- brella," or "a bad pair of boots," affirming that there is no intrinsic character in good or bad.* He concludes that justice is developed from revenge through bal- ancing aggression and counter aggres- sion or compensating life for life in early times. The same author reasons that as in despotic countries lying is prevalent, and in free countries truthfulness is more general, lying and truthfulness f " Principles of Ethics," i., ch. ii. t ib., ch. vi. 102 DIVINE SELECTION are due to " the coercive social struct- ure which chronic external enmity de- velops, and to the non-coercive social structure developed by a life of inter- nal amity."* Even chastity has no intrinsic virtue, is given a materialistic origin, and shares the same fate as other virtues. " Among men as among inferior creatures the needs of the species determine the rightness or wrongness of those or these sexual relations." f If virtues have their origin in con- ditions of society, and are primarily based upon the customs of social com- pacts, it is true that adultery, polyga- my, polyandry, and all forms of lasciv- iousness can be ethically supported equally with the virtues, as Mr. Spen- cer claims. These lamentable conclu- sions of materialistic reasonings are the inevitable results of the non-acknowledg- ment of God, in whom truth and good * ibid, vol. i., page 409. t ibid, vol. ii., page 448. RIGHT AND WRONG 103 exist, not merely relatively, but intrin- sically. The evil in evolutionary reasons would never have appeared so clearly if evolutionists had stopped before they attempted to apply their principles to moral questions, and offer them in ex- planation of the spiritual development of man. Evolution is apparently inno- cent in its beginning. Eventually it throws off the sheep's clothing, and appears in its execrable profanity. It seems that the only charitable way of excusing the acceptance of Evolution by the religious, is to attribute their credulence to a superficial knowledge of its principles and to a total igno- rance of its vicious conclusions. Truth and goodness are the essential nature of God, from whom they orig- inate, together with every idea concern- ing them. Indeed, if the virtues had not an absolute existence in the Divine Being, they never could have been so i<>4 DIVINE SELECTION much as thought of. The intuition by which we know that we could have no sense of cold if there were not heat, no sense of light if there were not dark- ness, no sense of joy if there were not sadness, no sense of harmony if there were not discord, equally assures us that we could have no knowledge of even relative virtue if there were not abso- lute virtue. Right and wrong, therefore, do not have their origin in the social relation, though they appear there by contrast, but in God and in the relation of man to Him. In ascertaining what right and wrong are, it is necessary to carefully distin- guish the meaning of some words, for these terms in their essence are not so loose as is their use. From the shifting, varying use of these words one may become confused, and think that good- ness and truth are no more fixed than are the words that give them names. RIGHT AND WRONG 105 That a thing or action is right or wrong, necessitates a standard of com- parison, The Creator Himself is that standard. Not only are His qualities good and true, but He is primarily Goodness and Truth itself. The thought is very inadequate that God is good only as an " umbrella " or a " pair of boots " is so regarded. Goodness and Truth are the names of His substance, just as land and water are the names of the two great elements of the earth's substance; just as flesh and blood are the names of the two general substances of the body ; just as soul and body are the names of the two essentials of a person. His "flesh is meat indeed," and His "blood is drink indeed," because all goodness and truth that nourish the soul are from Him alone in whom they are absolute. Essential goodness is His flesh. Essential truth is His blood. It is this spiritual character of God that the Lord endeavored to convey when 106 DIVINE SELECTION He said, " Except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood, ye have no life in you." Goodness and truth being infinite in Him, these names of His attributes are the only names that have a mean- ing suitable to the substance itself of the Creator. " His flesh is meat indeed," and " His blood is drink indeed," be- cause all goodness and truth that nour- ish the mind and soul are from Him alone in whom they are absolute. It ought to be seen intuitively that the qualities of good and truth could not exist if there were not absolute good and truth from which such quali- ties are derived. For we know that no natural quality can exist without mat- ter, of which it is a quality. It is equally evident that no spiritual qual- ity can exist without a substance in which it inheres. Having the starting point that the Creator is goodness and truth itself, RIGHT AND WRONG 107 less degrees of good and truth are not perplexing. God being essential good- ness, truth is the way His goodness acts. Good as a quality is that which is after the pattern of the goodness of God. Right is that which is in har- mony with creative truth. Right is the way that mankind is created to live. It is the divine order in creation. It is the way God would do and that He would have us do that we may fulfil the purpose of our creation. Wrong is the way mankind is not created to live. It is the disorder that is, by the very nature of things, contrary to di- vine order. Wrong is disorder, and the way in which, if we live, the ends of creation will be defeated in us. Good and evil with man originate in a similar way. Good is the effect of right living. Evil is the effecl; of wrong living. Good is the state of life that God has created us for. Evil is what He did not create us for. Goodness and 108 DIVINE SELECTION truth are the nature of God and what is in harmony with Him. Evil and wrong are what is not of the nature of God and not in harmony with Him. Goodness and truth are absolute in the nature and substance of God, from whom originates the idea of goodness and truth, together with all their qual- ities that appertain to mankind. Wrong and evil have their existence in the free will of man, whereby he can, if he choose, deny God and live in nat- ural and spiritual disorder. It is from such perceptions of inevi- table fa6l that it can be asserted with- out reservation or qualification that nothing ethical or moral has a materi- alistic or natural origin. Truly it may so appear, as a stick seems bent when immersed in water ; but the primary cause is the absoluteness of good and truth in God. Now if Ave ask what can we know of the Goodness and Truth of God, RIGHT AND WRONG 109 which are infinite and consequently in- comprehensible to the finite, the reply is that goodness and truth are known by revelation from God in whom they are. As goodness and truth exist only in and from God, they can be known only by revelation from Him. So must have originated the truth and good in every religion, howsoever much it may subsequently have become adulterated. The religion of progressive civiliza- tion of to-day is founded upon the rev- elation of the goodness and truth of God in Jesus Christ, which is a pre- sentation of the divine nature so vast, so sublime, so complete, that no man can fully fathom it. The infinite char- after of absolute Goodness and Truth, the infinite nature of God, in no wise precludes the possibility of finite and accommodated revelation of divine na- ture and life, and of God : nor is it thereby made impossible for the infi- nite goodness and truth of God to be no DIVINE SELECTION so embodied in revelation that man- kind may get finite, yet true presenta- tions of the goodness and truth of God. If infinite Love could not reveal itself, it would not be infinite. To the ques- tion, How can the finite know the infi- nite, or God, the reply is, the life and character of Jesus Christ is a revela- tion of God, a revelation of His good- ness and truth, accommodated to every possible state of willing receptivity. Knowledge of the absoluteness of good and truth in God makes clear the origin and nature of wrong and evil. Wrong and evil have their origin in the misuse of the free will of man, whereby he can, if he choose, deny God and live in disorder. Wrong is the vio- lation of divine order in which God created mankind to live. Evil is the effect of disorder. There can be no virtue conceivable without its opposite, for the possibility of the opposite with man makes virtue attainable. Or it may RIGHT AND WRONG in be said that wrong is the opposite of truth or right, and evil is the opposite of good. As right is the way good does, wrong is the way evil a<5ts. The question may here arise, If good- ness and truth are absolute in God, they being His substance and form, have evil and falsity an absolute existence? Certainly they could not exist as qual- ities unless there is something sub- stantial of which they are qualities. Yet their origin is far different from that of goodness and truth. While goodness and truth are absolute, eter- nal, and infinite, because God is, evil and falsity are finite, and have their beginning in time. For they are not absolute in themselves, but derive their existence from the perversion of good- ness and truth from God. They now have their permanent existence in the substance and form of perverted hu- man nature. The essence of evil and wrong is therefore the substance and H2 DIVINE SELECTION form of evil things and of the mind of evil persons. The many grades of right and wrong and of good and evil appearing in the complexity of social relations may give the appearance that good and bad, true and false are merely relative terms, orig- inating in human fancy, while a more searching mind will see that goodness and truth are fixed in the eternal sub- stance and form of God's Divine Hu- manity. CHAPTER XII The Office of Revelation THE field of Revelation is the spiritual. Its office is to make known the otherwise unknow- able. The soul, the spiritual world, life after death, and God, can be known in the first instance by rev- elation only. As long- ago as the days of Job it was of general knowledge that man unaided by revelation could know nothing of these things. Says Zophar, " Canst thou by searching find out God?" If by scientific investigation spiritual things could be searched out, revela- tion would be unnecessary, and the economy of creation would have with- held it. If it were true, as some urge, that only the scientifically demonstrated ii4 DIVINE SELECTION can be known, there would be an abso- lute bar to any progress in things higher than the grosser material, for only the natural and external fa<5t is subject to scientific proof. How thoroughly the limitations of scientific proof would forbid progress and dwarf faculty, can be appreciated only by those who recognize that there is a mind higher than the natural part of man that deals merely with natural science and ponderable things, a mind to which the invisible and spiritual are as real and comprehensible as matter is to the corporeal senses. The exist- ence of faculties that perceive and han- dle spiritual things as the senses do material things, makes the natural mind the mere handmaid of the higher and in- terior mind, in the power of which it is a menial servant doing on the material plane the bidding of the man himself. It is not because spiritual things are uncertain and vague that science does OFFICE OF REVELATION 115 not appertain to them, but for the rea- son that spiritual things are above the material to which science by definition is confined. The facts of science are the evidence addressed to the corporeal senses. Spiritual knowledge, the knowl- edge of causes, is addressed to the senses of the soul. Paul gave definite expression to the principle involved in the discernment of interior causes. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spirit- ually discerned." Yet if " scientific " is used in the sense of rational, reason- able, or knowable, there is nothing more scientific than the knowledge of spirit- ual things and interior causes. For not only must spiritual knowledge be mentally grasped and seen through, but it must be in harmony with nat- ural science, receive its full support, and be illustrated by it. Spiritual knowl- n6 DIVINE SELECTION edge, to be knowledge, must be clear, comprehensible, and as conclusive as any knowledge. Because science, in the generally ac- cepted sense, does not reach up to spir- itual things, does not deal with that invisible and intangible to the corpo- real senses, revelation is imperative, and for this reason it is given. Reve- lation brings to the perceptions what reason can confirm. Revelation is the guide of reason and the goal to which it should ascend. Primarily the spiritual is the subject of revelation, because reason unaided by revelation would never suggest even so much as the existence of the spiritual. Because the spiritual lies beyond that plane of the mind which science occu- pies, it should not be thought that the spiritual is more uncertain, speculative or imaginative than science itself. There is another plane of the mind as much higher than the scientific plane as the OFFICE OF REVELATION 117 scientific plane is higher than the sen- sual plane. Science appeals to the senses of the body. Its facts are gathered by the physical senses and are put together by the lowest order of reasoning. The sensual mind can draw accurate con- clusions on the natural plane, but not a single conclusion can the sensual mind form in regard to causes on a plane higher than that material plane on which the senses operate. If we had no other faculties than those of the senses and sensual reasoning, human development must have stopped with science. But such has not been the case because the corporeal senses and the natural-rational are but the lowest agen- cies of the mind. They are to the in- ternal mind what the hands and feet are to the body. Revelation is not addressed to the corporeal senses, but to perception and judgment. It appeals to the human, n8 DIVINE SELECTION and implies a higher development of man and a more interior opening of his facul- ties. Revelation is addressed to what in the Sensist are the " eyes that see not/* the " ears that hear not," and the " un- derstandings that do not understand." There is a perception from interior enlightenment that is the guide of rea- son. The office of reason is relatively lower than perception, for reason does not lead perception, but follows it. Reason neither discovers nor sees, but confirms what perception recognizes as true. Perception sees through reason, arranges its facts, and corrects its er- rors. The conclusions of reason are the beginnings with perception. The office of reason is therefore not to lead perception, but to confirm its observa- tion. If reason controls perception, the man is bound down to the senses and is their servant. If perception leads reason, the senses become the servant, the man is the master, and the way is OFFICE OF REVELATION 119 open for a higher enlightenment. The difference between a false reasoner and a true reasoner is that in the former the senses are above and rule the rea- son. In the latter intelligence is above and rules the reason. Unaided by revelation it can but be concluded that all our sciences, " all our art, Plato, Shakespeare, Newton and Raphael, are potential in the fires of the sun." * Revelation rescues us not only from ancient sun-worship, but also from this equally dangerous sun-worship of modern times. To enlightened rea- son the doctrine that the sun will burn out and the earth freeze, is as pitiable a faith as the most fanciful superstition of the savage. That man's career is ended by death is as impossible as the creation of the earth by itself. That material force could evolve the universe by natural selection is more ludicrous than the healing power of fetiches. * Professor Tyndal, " Fragments of Science," p. 163. 120 DIVINE SELECTION It is the office of revelation to ad- dress the higher faculties of intelligence and judgment and to provide spiritual fac~ts and things that rescue from the inevitable conclusion of sensual reason- ings. Revelation shows us that science, art, and human ability are not poten- tial in the sun, but that they and all faculty and power are absolute in the Creator, coming to us from Him and unfolding out of the spiritual sunshine that He sends upon the evil and upon tne good. Revelation not only opens a new world of interior causes and realities, but it also discovers human faculties that can cognize them and en- ter a life of spiritual understandings and blessings through intelligence from Him who is " the light of the world." It is evident from history that there has never been a time when man did not claim to have revelation in some form, and even spoken "by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been OFFICE OF REVELATION 121 since the world began." There is no reason for doubting and every reason for believing that the world has ever had revelation adapted to its condition. The fountain of revelation in the world to-day is that Sacred Scripture, called the Bible, or, more reverently and ap- propriately, the Word. Its own claim is that it is the Word of God from God to man. It may appear imperfect from the literal and historical stand- point, yet it does not purport to teach historical fa6ls, but rather by means of facl: and fi6lion to embody spiritual principles in a form accessible to man. This the Word does without error as to spiritual truth, to which the literal his- tory is accommodated when necessary. Though the Word appear faulty to some, it is what should be expected, for even the providence that is good to all is criticised adversely, and the laws that govern human kind are called unequal in the dispensation of justice. 122 DIVINE SELECTION Perfect man would find the Word per- fect as a medium of the revelation of spiritual truth. It is a necessary con- sequence that the non-spiritual, looking from the standpoint of self and meas- uring with false standards, should re- gard the Word of God erroneous and inadequate ; but the errors are in the view-point of the individual, and not in the Word. The Word is a perpetual source of revelation. In the Old Testament particularly the relation of God to man obedient to His law and disobedient is fully exempli- fied, and the principles of the provi- dence over us are set forth. However barbarous the story may appear, the spirit and the truth are there. In the New Testament, the laws of life here, the nature of death, the spiritual world, the resurrection of the person unchanged, the life everlasting, the love of God, are as fully defined and declared as OFFICE OF REVELATION 123 infinite wisdom could express them. The Word is the fountain of all such conceptions. If these things were not set forth in Scripture through revela- tion, or if no record of their revelation had been made, we would know no more of them than do the beasts of the field : but being set forth in the Word, or in revelation, human knowledge of spiritual things gets its start. There man obtains his first conceptions of things that are above the animal. The Word has met opposition from its beginning, cunning and subtile as well as open and blatant, from avowed enemy and pretended friend. When infidelity, working under one guise, has been found out, rendered unpopular, and rejected, it has been quick to ar- ray itself in novel garments and assume a new name. The term agnosticism has now, in public esteem, become quite synony- mous with infidelity, and few care to 124 DIVINE SELECTION be included in that class. And so the same spirit reappears under the new name of " Higher Criticism." At first the so-called "higher criti- cism " was mild and tentative. But a short time only has been necessary to dis- close that in essence, spirit, argument, and conclusion, it is nothing other than the old-time infidelity of the Atheists, with whom it originated, clothed in a new vesture that it might appear respectable, and gain entrance into Chris- tian lives. The errors of the " higher criticism " originate in an absolutely wrong con- ception of the fundamental principles upon which the Word is written and of what it is intended to teach and to do, as well as of how it is to do it. The divinity of the Word in no wise rests upon the validity of reputed, finite authorship. It proclaims its own au- thorship and penmen in sufficient par- ticularity. " The Lord gave the Word : OFFICE OF REVELATION 125 great was the company of those that published it." Its divinity rests in the spirit of truth contained in and re- flected through the literal narrative. Its purport is not to teach historical facts, but by means of historical facts and fiction to weave a garment that invests otherwise inexpressible, divine truth, and reflects it as the clouds do the colors that are in the sun. The office of the Pentateuch would not be affected if there had never been a Moses, and the five books had been written by John the Baptist. Nor would the Word in one iota fail if it should be proved that Josephus wrote the en- tire volume, any more than the story of the Prodigal Son would lose its import if its historical facts were entire fiction. The essence of the Word is entirely above and within the human author- ship and form, just as a nut-meat is within the shell. Yet its essence rests upon the external form as the teach- 126 DIVINE SELECTION ings of an allegory are founded upon the words and elements of the narrative. Strange that it cannot be seen that though the Word is criticised, ques- tioned, and doubted ; though it be called antiquated and unsuited to pres- ent needs, it yet goes on, the most po- tent, effective, inspiring, and living of all things, doing its work of enlighten- ing, comforting, and blessing as per- fectly as infinite wisdom and love can, and at the same time give to each in- tellectual and spiritual freedom to be- lieve or to reject and to crucify. The first requisite of judgment in re- gard to the Word is that we ascertain the true purpose that it is intended to fulfill. A correct conception in this regard shows that it does not return void unto Him who gave it, but that as gently and quietly as nature brings forth our bread, so the Word accomplishes what the Father pleases and prospers in the thing whereto He sent it. OFFICE OF REVELATION 127 The value of the volumes that we know under the title of Shakespeare are instructive and valuable primarily because they so vividly, accurately, and fully portray the affections, thoughts, and passions of the natural man, which we call human nature. But is their value as a teaching force one whit less- ened if it should be proved that they were written by Lord Bacon ? If their authorship were thrown into doubt, who wrote them would be a matter of idle and worthless curiosity to him who cared only for their intrinsic worth. The Word is valuable because it vividly, accurately, and fully portrays the affec- tions, thoughts, and passions not only of the natural man, but also of the spiritual man and of God. It reveals not only human nature, but spiritual nature, angelic nature, and the Divine nature. The Word ought not in the least to be diminished as a teaching, spiritualizing power if Providence had 128 DIVINE SELECTION formed the same through the agency of any other than the reputed pen- men. To those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of its spirit, who were the mere scribes is a matter of idle and worthless curiosity ; for the tests of its divinity are in the light, joy, and peace of God's presence in the universe and in the heart, revealed by the humble, reverent, prayerful living of its teachings. No one is competent to question the divinity of the Word until he has found it wanting in its self- imposed proof, " If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." Nor can the truth of the Word be ad- equately tested from any other stand- point than that of individual obedience to its principles. No one ever honestly made this test and failed to find through the Word peace and God. Whatever errors may appear in the letter of the Word, when viewed from a natural, scientific, or historical stand- OFFICE OF REVELATION 129 point, its internal is spirit and life. From the standpoint of its spirit and life it should be determined whether or not the Bible is the source of revela- tion from God to man to-day. When studied as a book whose purport is to teach history and science, it is natural that one should become agnostic or fall into the sophistry and the consequent apostacy of the pseudo-learning of the higher criticism — a costly fad, but one whose days are already numbered. But when the Word is viewed as a book whose purpose is to teach spiritual truth ; to teach each that amount of spiritual truth that he will live up to, and at the same time withhold what he will not live up to and so bring upon himself the guilt of profanation ; when it is read as a means of leading men away from evils and into a true life whereby he may receive in his heart the love of God that cannot be expressed in type; when its letter is 130 DIVINE SELECTION taken as an avenue to that other and internal revelation of the wisdom and love of God to the heart; when it is put to the self-imposed tests of its Di- vinity—the living of it— it is sufficiently evident that the Word is the source of Divine Revelation, accommodated to the eternal needs of human kind, and ever yielding to them the wisdom and love of God in ratio to their as- cending states of regeneration. DEC 9 1903 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Dec. 2004 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 . LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 652 573 6 i^r I