Teach your children to think of and to love the divine Soul that pleaded their cause. Teach them that in all the words He uttered there can be found only love for them. No threats, no warnings-- only love.
STUDY OF THE CHARACTER OF G.o.d
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said . . . .
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if thou hast understanding."--Job x.x.xviii. 1, 4.
Since men have lived on earth their feeble intellects have struggled to realize the majesty of G.o.d.
Succeeding nations and civilizations have expressed through laws or religions their puny conceptions of the power that controls the universe.
As mental and moral standards have improved, there has been constant improvement in the conception of G.o.d.
The Greeks and Romans imagined a variety of G.o.ds, and attributed to these the vices and weaknesses of men.
The Fijians worshipped a G.o.d who devoured the souls of the dead, inflicting torture in the eating, but mercifully releasing souls from pain when the meal was ended.
The ancient Mexicans went to war "because their G.o.ds demanded something to eat." Their armies fought "only endeavoring to take prisoners, that they might have men to feed those G.o.ds." ----
Even with the birth of the one great idea--THE UNITY OF G.o.d--the personality of the universal Creator was but a reflection of His worshippers.
He was a "jealous" G.o.d, a "man of war." "G.o.d Himself is with us for our captain."-- Chron. xiii., 12.
G.o.d dwelt in a city made of nothing cheaper than gold and precious stones. For His own glory, He maintained a court Oriental in form, with strange beasts to sing His praises, and He tortured forever and ever creatures that He had made.
The present conception of an omnipotent G.o.d has changed greatly since the old days, when cruelty was the rule and was admired.
There is to-day insistence on G.o.d"s LOVE, on His JUSTICE, on His MERCY that "endureth forever"--there is practically no teaching of the old belief that a creature, born of circ.u.mstances, and good or bad as circ.u.mstances may determine, is to suffer endless torment under never-changing conditions of horror. ----
The writing of this editorial is based upon frequent reading of the book of Job. In that ancient and wonderful book, as in no other writing, the Jewish forces of poetry and of prophecy are exhausted in the effort to portray G.o.d"s majesty.
All of the old prophet"s knowledge of the world, all of his mystic notions of sidereal government, are used in the effort to glorify his Creator.
"Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days?
"Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?
"Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow?
"Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peac.o.c.ks?
"Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?
"Will he make many supplications unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto thee?
"Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?"
Thus through chapters of greatest beauty the primitive mind seeks to portray for the benefit of other primitive minds the omnipotence of the world"s Ruler. ----
What hope has man of conceiving, even approximately, the great law-giving Force that rules the universe? Shall we ever do more than attribute to Him those qualities which our own pygmy minds admire? Shall we forever conceive Him as a glorified "individual"?
We believe that in the Book of Job there is suggested the method of studying G.o.d that alone can aid us to a better, higher conception.
The study of G.o.d must be prosecuted through the study of astronomy, and this the old prophet foreshadows clearly:
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
"Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?"
Long years ago children were taught to admire a G.o.d who created a leviathan, a unicorn, and "Behemoth."
Children of the future will be told:
You live on a globe twenty-five thousand miles round. It travels ceaselessly through s.p.a.ce at a speed of eighteen miles a second.
Compared to the huge sun that lights and gives us life, our earth is but a pinhead, and the sun itself is but one tiny dot in the ocean of s.p.a.ce. Through that s.p.a.ce the sun rushes on an errand unknown, carrying us with it.
Everything moves, revolves, rushes ceaselessly, yet a balance registering the one-thousandth part of a grain is not adjusted as nicely as these huge behemoths of limitless s.p.a.ce. Laplace shows positive proof that the earth, travelling eighteen miles per second, has not changed the period of its rotation by the hundredth part of a second in two thousand years.
The mind of the future, imbued with respect for the Force that controls, conducts and makes the laws for the universe, will attain more nearly to a conception of G.o.d. But a study of G.o.d will remain man"s chief and constant effort while he lives here.
That study is never-ending.
THE FASCINATING PROBLEM OF IMMORTALITY
(If you read this you will probably feel that you have wasted time.)
If you travel back far enough you can see in your mind"s eye a primitive man with long, red hair, shivering in some icy pool.
He has taken refuge there from a pursuing bear or other foe. He sees that he must die of cold or of the bear"s teeth. His dark mind--product of a brain primitive and poor in convolutions--contemplates vaguely the prospect ahead of him. He hopes that after death he may through some mysterious kindness be permitted to meet again the red-haired women and the wolfish cave children left behind.
There, in the cave man"s mind, is the first craving for immortality. Born in that poor brain long centuries ago, it has steadily grown stronger with man"s mental development. ----
No man looks at death without looking beyond it. None but has a craving for a future life, with consciousness of his personality AND WITH RECOLLECTION OF FRIENDS, FACES AND DEEDS HERE.
Say to a man, "You shall be immortal, but you shall not know that you are you." He will not give you thanks for such immortality.
So strong is man"s craving for personal, individual immortality that h.e.l.l with its fires would be preferred by many to annihilation. The strongest argument against immortality--weak and ignorant at best--is but a frantic attempt of the mind to prove negatively the existence of what it covets.
Fortunately for human happiness in general, FAITH, covers the requirements of millions. They live and die contented, the instinct within them fortified by the teachings of a faith not to be questioned. ----
But what of the men and women who ask for evidence, or at least for plausible argument, proving the reasonableness of immortality? What can be said to please them?
Not much, alas! Probably because we are still so undeveloped that it would be, for many reasons, unsafe to let us know how great a future is before us. Strongest in hope is the argument of Charles Fourier, based on what he declared to be a natural law.
"Attractions are proportionate to destinies."
By this Fourier meant that a universal longing among human beings was certain proof that their ultimate destiny involved the fulfilment of the longing. The little girl fondling a doll foretells maternity. The hectoring boy foretells the soldier"s career. No universal attraction, save with a destiny proportionate. ----