The pavement on which we walk is the power of the Great Will bearing us up. Likewise, the buildings along the street are more of His beneficent energies, providing shelter and rest for His loved ones. Our bodies are also His energies, highly sensitized, through which we become beautifully aware of our surroundings. All the vitality in the quivering beams of ships, and all the propelling force in their engines, is but the power of a Will, and that Will is the Father of our spirits. Leaving out of mind for the present the thought of the vast universe, measure, if you can, the ocean in its breadth and depth, which in its ceaseless rising and falling raises and lowers ship-cities as if they were snowflakes; and then remember that, if rightly applied, there is power enough in each cup full of water to destroy a ship, and that all the energy of the boundless worlds is but the will of Him in whom we "live and move and have our being." Having done this, if you are not something less than a man, you will fall down and adore in wonder, love and praise. To be brought face to face with G.o.d in the beauty and awfulness of nature is the only cure for the irreverence of this generation.
But some one says, "This makes G.o.d too great. Have you looked, and staggered before the limitless heavens?" Yes, but is it not claimed that G.o.d is Infinite?--and we have not yet found the equal of infinity. With all our insistence upon the infinitude of G.o.d, perhaps it offends some to think of Him as being equal to His universe,--or even to the little part of it that we can imagine. However, G.o.d must be greater than all His works.
This is pantheism, says another. No, pantheism though containing many beautiful truths is, nevertheless, a golden mist. Its advocates have eliminated personality, they have broken the mast of their ship, and all the riggings have fallen down with it. Being the perpetual cause of all things, Self-conscious Will is the greatest fact in the universe. There is a clear distinction between G.o.d and His deeds, even as there is a distinction between myself and what I am now thinking and doing. This Creative Will is what the intelligent Christian means by the term G.o.d.
He conceives of this Will of the universe as being the Father of all other wills. We are not to think of G.o.d as making a dirt planet which He has tossed off into s.p.a.ce as something separate from His will. He never put His children on such an isolated Earth as that would be, to roam about and care for themselves as best they might. The world is the complex energy of His will never-ceasing, with which He enfolds His children. He carries them in His loving powers and will not let them go.
This is His cosmic relation to us; but it is by no means the only relation which He sustains to His children. His more personal relationship is equally beautiful and necessary.
Something like this twofold relationship exists between man and man. We know that it is best for us to build railroads, though many are sure to be killed by them however careful we may be. Yet we should be something more than railroad operators; we should be personal friends and, if occasion should arise, minister to the wants of those who are injured by our railroads.
So G.o.d must either will a cosmos, or not will it. He cannot obliterate a part of the world, every time one of His wilful or ignorant children gets in the way. It is not even best for His children that He should do so. It is far better to have a definite and orderly world, though it may hurt many. Yet G.o.d never forsakes His injured children, but leads them out of their injuries into something better, if they are willing.
Comforting as these thoughts are, we must yet travel a long way before we come to a completely satisfying idea of G.o.d. However, this is not discouraging, because we like to travel when the prospect grows more pleasing at each stage of the journey.
Some think there must be a dirt world because they see it. In a way I seem to see my wife when I look at her picture; yet I only see a bit of paper irregularly faded. Likewise a shining light appears to be a complete thing in itself, whereas the sun, doubtless, is as dark as blackness. The light which the scientist studies is waves of energy, traveling at the rate of one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second, but that is not the sweet something that we experience as light.
The light coming from the sun is not shiny until our sensations are added. And even then, it is our feelings that are brilliant because our nerves were struck by these rapid waves of energy. When we think we see a real face, it is only a shadow on the retina of the eye; which eye is only another bundle of energies, and not the substance that it appears to be.
We live in a picture world, produced by G.o.d"s energies beating upon other energies which He has intimately a.s.sociated with our wills. We thank G.o.d for these pictures because they are the visible language of "loving intelligent wills," wills that in themselves are silent and invisible. Yet these wills are known in consciousness as a bit of final reality. They are like unto G.o.d who causes the vital energies that result in the pictures of a living, rational experience. Experience, therefore, with its inner consciousness and its outer symbol, or picture, is all we know. So when they would take us out of personal experience into a universal "substance" called spirit, they are offering to take us out of the known into the unknown; for they do not know whether there is any substance.
"Why, then," some may ask, "does G.o.d combine His energies to form a poisonous rattlesnake?" G.o.d has expressed everything imaginable; the beautiful and ugly, the safe and harmful, the pleasant and painful, the gentle and terrible, and all these are but the alphabet of a soul. If He had given us nothing but abstract definitions, we never should have learned the meaning of anything; and scarcely more, if He had given us only the beautiful and pleasant without their opposites. But He has made us _feel_ the meaning, so that it may be real to us. From this marvelous alphabet which He has provided, we learn to spell, then to read, and finally to live. When we have learned the meaning of poison and its opposite, we may kill the rattlesnake, or cause its energies to dissolve and pa.s.s into something more beautiful and safe. Thus we become more and more immune from all that is ugly and harmful, and more appreciatively attached to all that is beautiful and good. The ugly and harmful were desirable things to know in contrast with the beautiful and good, that we might reject the one, and cleave to the other. The deeper meaning of things thus learned will give significance to our beautiful world long after we have pa.s.sed beyond the evil which we have come to loathe. I am entirely convinced that this so-called evil world with its epidemics, earthquakes, and cyclones is the best conceivable place in which to _begin_ a soul; not the best possible world as yet, for it is our business to help make it better. Neither should we forget that the terrible is often the overture to us of some mighty, beneficent energy which we have not yet learned to use.
Again we affirm that G.o.d is doing everything that occurs in the universe, except those things which are being done by His children.
Nothing ever occurs that is not directly or indirectly the act of some will.
5. If the Ancients made their G.o.ds, how do we know that we are not making our G.o.d?
Doubtless, the great fallacy in this question is the supposition that the Ancients made their G.o.ds. No one ever made his G.o.d or his G.o.ds; for all men have the same identical G.o.d, living and moving and having their being in Him. They have Him regardless of whether they know either His name or His character. Since there is no other G.o.d or thing to have, all must have Him. Neither can they avoid being conscious of Him, nor escape having opinions concerning Him. All religious opinions, however sane or grotesque, are about the same G.o.d. The Ancients, being conscious of our G.o.d and their G.o.d, were sometimes comforted by His presence, while at other times they were greatly frightened. As they could not escape Him they tried to explain Him; and in the act of explaining, they made a theology and not a G.o.d. Whoever expresses a religious opinion is guilty of starting a theology. Even the Ancients were moved by an objective reality, and not by a mere idea. Though their idea often failed to describe the reality with accuracy, yet if the reality had disappeared, the idea would have perished from among them. It seemed to them that there was a G.o.d of thunder and, according to our interpretation of the universe, there was; for if our G.o.d had not been there thundering, they never would have thought of a G.o.d of thunder. Neither were they mistaken when they thought there was a G.o.d of harvest; because our G.o.d was there making their harvests grow as He does ours, and was feeding them as He feeds us. We all make worse mistakes than that. These crude men may be excused for thinking that a crashing thunderstorm was a big enough task for one G.o.d; or that the fructifying of all vegetation was ample employment for another.
Those early men worshiped our G.o.d in divided form simply because they could not think of a G.o.d great enough to carry on all the diverse activities which they beheld. Another reason why these crude children conceived of Him as many G.o.ds was that they could not understand how one person could be so gentle and terrible at the same time. Nevertheless, they would not have had gentle and terrible G.o.ds if our G.o.d had not been both gentle and terrible. They, therefore, no more made their G.o.ds than they made their stars. Their G.o.ds were our G.o.d, and their stars were our stars. We call their theology mythology, and their astronomy astrology.
Yet mythology is crude theology, and astrology is unscientific astronomy. Astrology arose because men were influenced by real stars, and were impelled to offer such explanations as they were able. Without astrology we never would have had astronomy. In like manner men were disquieted by the same Infinite Power that disturbs us to-day, and were moved by that Power to offer their best interpretation. But without their mythology we never would have had our theology. The development of astronomy will never cease while there are intelligent men for stars to shine upon. Nor will the idea of G.o.d cease to expand while men are enfolded in the vast purposeful energy called the universe.
Our early brothers were trying to comprehend and interpret our G.o.d who was as present to them as He is to us. And here we are in the year nineteen hundred and twenty, A. D., still trying to expound Him; because the need is not less now than then. Those who know most about G.o.d best realize the need of knowing more. When we no longer try to increase our knowledge of G.o.d, we shall cease to love Him.
6. May we not be communing with a mere idea?
No, that is impossible. Because, whatever it is, it is at least an objective reality. Its grip is that of the universe. We can not let it go because it will not let us go. We are worshiping more than an idea; we are worshiping what we live in; we call it G.o.d; we think it is "Loving Intelligent Will." We believe that the power that enfolds us knows itself and us. And that we are not mistaken in this, our a.s.surance deepens as our knowledge increases. We find that if we do not neglect or stultify any portion of our nature, our insight grows. If we invest our all on the conception of a spiritual universe we get astonishing results to the individual and to society. Then follows more insight and the incentive to invest again our talents that have doubled in the using of them. Of this, however, we shall have more to say later. For the present suffice it to say, the object of my worship is the great reality; all the reality there is, except my will and the other wills whom I call brothers. To state clearly what we mean, before trying to tell why we believe it, is of the utmost importance. With an experimental knowledge of G.o.d, and with ideas of the universe that harmonize therewith, our heads and hearts are thoroughly anch.o.r.ed in Him. If our every line of vision converges to this end, our insight gives us G.o.d as the great enfolding reality. Our further task is to make the idea of G.o.d clear and to show how the lines of vision converge. In this task, modern knowledge is the Christian"s best ally.
CHAPTER III
DOES MAN HAVE A SOUL, AND WHAT IS HIS PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE?
_What is man?_
_Who is man?_
_Would the absence of man cripple G.o.d?_
_What could an infinite G.o.d care for such a little speck?_
_Is not socialism the best religion there is?_
1. What is man?
We do not fully know "what" and "where" G.o.d is until we know what man is, and how G.o.d and man are working through each other. Our knowledge of G.o.d grows with our knowledge of man. We can understand neither without knowing both. At every stage of the discussion our subject is made complex by the intertwining of the human and the Divine. Hence, this chapter--while introducing man--takes us deeper into the life of G.o.d.
Man does not have a soul. Neither does the sun set. Though we know better, yet for convenience, we continue to speak of the sun as setting.
For the same reason we still say that man has a soul when we mean that he is a soul. Soul is person, body is instrument. The instrument does not have the person, the person has the instrument. The soul is the child of G.o.d. How strangely, therefore, it would sound to ask: Does a man have a child of G.o.d? The reverse question, however, is perfectly fitting: Does a child of G.o.d have a body?
Man is a spirit, a soul, or a person. All men are alike in that which const.i.tutes them personalities, or self-conscious wills. It is in their individuality that men differ. In the first place, some are more developed than others; and then they have different tastes, different knowledge, different temperaments, and different occupations. This diversity of individuality clearly distinguishes one man from another, and at the same time greatly enriches society.
Like his Father, man is _a loving intelligent will_. Like Him, too, he is always silent and invisible, save as his instruments express his thought and wish in time and s.p.a.ce. So far, Father and child should be defined in the same terms; for however they may differ in other respects, they are alike in being self-conscious. If either is below self-conscious will, he is something less than a person. Though man, as we find him, is not always so very loving, nor so very intelligent, yet that is what he is in his best estate. So far as we can understand, the sinless man soul lifted to the infinite power would be the same as G.o.d.
This spiritual definition does not imply that either G.o.d or man exists, or could exist, without form and outward expression.
2. Who is man?
We think of Man, the soul, as a child of G.o.d, or a G.o.d-child. Therefore, he is worthy of his brother"s highest esteem, and his Father"s tenderest affection. He is a very son of the infinite G.o.d; and all created spirits, being his brothers, are members of one family. Again we say, "O G.o.d-child, how wonderful you are, and what a pity it would be if you failed to recognize your divinity, or allowed anything to drag you down from your divine possibilities!" Man must know himself if he would attain unto the goal of life.
Though man _is_ a soul, yet without the body he cannot so much as come to self-consciousness. Just how or when a soul begins, we do not know; but it does not appear until some time after the body is born. A new-born babe can neither see, feel, nor hear, with any intelligent meaning of the words. It will stare into the most glaring light without intelligence enough to shut its eyes. It does not recognize objects for some time, and when it does, misses the object for which it reaches. The infant is likewise slow in distinguishing sounds or names. If the soul exists when the body is born, it is only a latent personality which has not yet come to self-realization. Personality is self-conscious will, and this the child has not yet achieved.
Let us here consider the relation of a new-born _body_ to G.o.d and the universe. G.o.d begins His creative activities in what the scientists call stellar ether, where His energies combine and recombine in a more and more complex world, until the solar system appears with planets in the condition of our earth. After more combinations and recombinations, out on the surface of all things His activities blossom in the finest bit of organism, the sensitized thing which we call the human body. This body, the flower of all G.o.d"s activities in nature, requires all nature for its support. Furthermore, the chemical energies const.i.tuting the body itself are what G.o.d is thinking, and feeling, and doing. Strictly speaking, it is His body, the first instrument in the whole order of development, the only body on earth capable of articulate speech and loving deed. If G.o.d did not continually will the body and all the supporting energies of the universe, the body would cease to be. Before the man soul appears at all, we have G.o.d"s world culminating in what we call the human body. When a man soul awakes, it is in G.o.d"s own bosom, in His own body. Man awakens in G.o.d"s enfolding energies, and not outside them; for outside of G.o.d he could not exist.
It is amusing to hear a little boy speak of his father"s automobile as "my car"; but it isn"t his, even though the father is pleased to see the little fellow spread himself in it and claim ownership. Yet it is his too, in the sense that the father gladly shares it with him. And some day when the child is too big to be a little boy, and too little to be a big boy, he may take his father"s car and run it into the ditch. But even the wreck is his father"s wreck. In the same way, if we live at all it is in our Father"s enfolding instrument. His body is ours because He gladly shares it with us. However, if we do not use it in harmony with His will, we wreck it in the ditch.
G.o.d wakes His child to consciousness in His own body, by making all kinds of impressions upon the sense organs. There are many rappings on the door, and flashes of light through the windows until the soul wakes.
And when the soul becomes conscious, G.o.d may not cease beating upon the instrument with myriad forces, lest His child fall asleep.
Some morning when a loved form bends over the infant body, the baby smiles, and the soul begins to appear. That is a wonderful day when the baby gives its first smile. Little by little the child becomes aware of itself and of its mother. Should the baby be fortunate enough to have two or three brothers and sisters, he will learn some day, when he is a little older, that they all want the same thing at the same time. Then he will be very conscious of _other wills_.
We know that other wills exist because they live in our enveloping world, and constantly use it in a way that we approve or resent. If they did not know and disturb our world, we should not be aware of them even if they existed. We know that other wills exist because they sell us coats that they have made, and cut down trees in our forests, and shape them into things that have meaning for us and them. They modulate the atmosphere in which we live, producing sounds that stand for objects with which we are familiar. They learn our words and facial expressions, and use them to make us feel happy or uncomfortable. Nature is the common instrument of all wills.
As we cannot come to the consciousness of ourselves, nor of other wills, except through the body and its environments, _neither can we develop the soul without cultivating the physical instrument and that which surrounds it_. There is always a corresponding development between soul and body. As Browning says,
"We know not whether soul helps body more than body helps soul."
We simply know that soul and body develop together, and that if either is injured the other is harmed. A physical change in our bodies takes place with every thought. We cannot silently love without disturbing the gray matter. We make paths through our nervous system with every thought and deed. If we had a means of photographing all the muscular and nervous conditions wrought in our bodies by our thoughts and actions, they would correspond to every growth of spirit. The face becomes beautiful with a beautiful soul, and the body becomes refined by every improvement of the spirit.
I once shook hands with the great French organist, Guilmant. When I clasped his hand I forgot everything else; the hand was so soft, and yet so firm! All the inspiration and purpose of his soul had been registered in his body. And what a hand it was! I shall never forget that touch. It gave new meaning to Tennyson"s beautiful line, "Oh for the touch of a vanished hand!" Our looks, smiles, accents, and very gait become the expression of the soul.
We once had a maid who came home in the dejected state following intoxication. When I appeared she said:
"I has me faults the same as others, but me heart is all right." Now, could her heart be right and her body wrong? Can we have a pure soul and an unclean body? Can we have an honest heart and a pilfering hand?
Certainly not. For as the pure soul cleanses the body, so the degraded body pollutes the soul. Soul and body must grow together,--and alike.
Sometimes we speak of a purely spiritual experience apart from all physical excitability; but such a thing is impossible, because every spiritual thought has its beautiful, physical accompaniment. The physical may run riot, as with some musicians who are princ.i.p.ally noise and bl.u.s.ter; but the fact still remains that the most bilious and cold philosopher enjoys his gentle nervous thrill.