KVi ... €mmll Wimvmxi^ §ih«g THE GIFT OF . Franklin. Deborah ) 178- to be placed over us both," so IMMORTALITY. per, the presswork as the essential elements of the book ; yet we must be aware that they are not its soul. The soul of the book is its contents. That All- being, in whom we live and move and have our being, publishes one edition after the other, and when one copy is destroyed, the book itself, i. e., the soul of the book, is not lost. If but the contents of the book are valuable, if they contain truth, it will reappear in a new edition, perhaps in a more elegant binding, but certainly revised and corrected and enlarged. What are the contents of the soul ? The contents of the soul form, in a word, a world- picture, the most important part of which, for human beings, is the relations that obtain and that ought to obtain in human society. The world-picture of the soul, however, is not a mere image of our surroundings painted in glowing sensations. Man forms a systematic conception of the facts of nature so as to behold the laws of their being. The world of which we are parts is permeated by law. All events are concatenated and interrelated by causation, and every act of ours has its definite con- sequences. Through a long process of evolution we have come to be what we are. Our surroundings have impressed themselves upon our sentiency and have moulded all our ideas and the motives that prompt us to act. Our ideas and motives are the quintessence of our being ; they are our veriest self, our soul. If and IMMORTALITY. Si in so far as our ideas are true and our motives right, they are the highest and best and most precious part of our existence, they are the divinity of our being, they are the incarnation of God in us, they are the soul of our soul. Is there a prototype of the soul ? Rational beings here upon earth might, in many re- spects, have developed otherwise than they did. It is not impossible that rational creatures on various other planets are in possession of different physical constitu- tions than we. They may have developed wings ; they may have tong-like organs unlike our hands for taking hold of things, etc., etc. Yet it is certain that they cannot develop another kind of reason. Their arith- metic, their mathematics, their logic must be the same as ours. Nay, more than this, the basic maxims of their ethics cannot be essentially different from those which are the factors underlying the growth and evolution of human society upon earth. In other words : The con- stitution of the universe is such that certain features of man's soul are necessarily such as they are and cannot be different in any other kind of rational beings. There are not prototypes of beings, as Plato maintained, but there is, nevertheless, something analogous to proto- types. The nature of rational beings is foreordained and conditioned by the very nature of things, and thus the biblical saying appears in a new light, that man has been created in the image of God, 52 IMMORTALITY. The eternal in nature, the universal in the changes of the world, the law that pervades facts, has taken its abode in man; briefly, it is the truth which appears in his soul, and the truth is a correct representation of reality, it is a picture of God. Religious truth is not merely a scientific cognition of the parts of the world and a comprehension of all the details of natural laws ; it is a comprehension of our being in its relation to the whole, to God. And this comprehension must not be theoretical, it must per- meate all our sentiments, it must dominate our entire being and find expression in all the acts of our life. Why is the scientific view of the soul not readily accepted ? There is one great difficulty in this theory of the soul, of its divinity and of its immortality, as the re- ligion of science propounds it. There is no difficulty about its truth. We can readily see that it is undeni- able ; it can be positively proved. The facts upon which it rests are beyond dispute. But the difficulty is of another nature. We have great trouble, not so much in understanding, but in feeling that our soul is not our individual self, but God in us. We are so engrossed with materialism that we look upon the externalities of life as our real self, and this materialism finds expression in the forms of tradi- tional religions now. The binding, paper, and general appearance of a book is in the sight of most people that IMMORTALITY. 53 which constitutes its essential and entire being. Man finds it very hard to rise in his emotional life to that purity of abstraction which distinguishes between the contents or soul, and the present make-up or body, of a book, of a man, of ourselves. The question of immortality is a moral question. It requires a man of moral fibre to see the solution in its right light. It is not enough to understand the prob- lem ; we must live it. Our natural habits still tend to re- gard the unessential of our bodily existence as our real self, and all our emotions, our hopes and fears are ex- clusively attached to this present copy of our soul. We have not only to change the mode of our think- ing, but also the mode of our feeling. We must de- velop the higher emotions, which are in sympathy with the true essence of our being. We must unlearn the errors that make us lay too much stress upon incidents that have only a passing value, and we must regulate our actions from the standpoint of our spiritual nature. We must feel ourselves to be not the make-up of the present edition of our soul, but the soul itself. What is the natural standpoint of the unreflecting man? That attitude of a man in which, heedless of his soul, he takes his present make-up as his true self is called egotism ; and the man with egotistic tendencies views the world from a standpoint which does not show matters in a correct perspective. 54 IMMORTALITY. The whole world and his own self are pictured to the egotist in distorted proportions. All his feelings, his sympathies, and antipathies, too, become perverted. Why must we abandon the standpoint of egotism ? It is apparent that all the purposes of a man which are designed to serve his egotistic desires only, will be vain, and if he were ever so successful in his efforts, death will step in at last and annihilate the very pur- pose for which he lived. Nature does not want egotism. She suffers it with forbearance, leaving a man time to find the narrow road to life, but then she cuts him down and selects from the harvest which he had gathered in for himself that which she can use for the progress of mankind, leaving him only the bitter knowledge that the fruits of his work are taken from him and that he has sowed what another shall reap. Unless a man's entire emotional life be centred in his soul, his life will be a failure. Is the abandonment of the egoistic standpoint a resignation ? This view of the soul appears to those who still cling to the conception of an ego-soul as a resignation ; and in a certain sense it is a resignation. We have to give up the idea that our real self belongs to ourselves. Our soul is not our own, but mankind's ; and man- kind in its turn is not its own ; the soul of mankind is IMMORTALITY. 55 from God, it develops in God, and all its aspirations and yearnings are to God. Yet the characterisation of this view of the soul as a resignation will produce an erroneous impression. There is as little resignation about it as when in a fairy-tale a shepherd-lad finds out that he is a prince. The resignation consists in resigning an error for truth. What we regarded as our self is not our self, but only a fleeting shadow, and our true self is much greater than we thought it was. The shepherd-boy in the fairy-tale might with the same reason say that his very existence had been wiped out, as some psychologists speak of the annihilation of the soul, when only the ego-conception of the soul is surrendered. When our sphere of being becomes widened we should not speak of annihilation, and when we grow beyond that which at first blush we seem to be, we should not represent it as a resignation. He who regards this view of the soul as a resigna- tion only indicates that his sympathies, his hopes and fears are still with the externalities of our existence. The moment the very consciousness of our selfhood is transferred into our soul-existence, we shall cease to feel any resignation in this change of view. What objection is made to the abandonment of the ego-soul ? The objection has been raised that there is neither satisfaction nor justice in the idea that others shall 56 IMMORTALITY. reap the fruits of our labors. But this objection has sense only from the standpoint of an ego-conception of the soul. The truth is that the future generations of mankind are not "others"; they are we ourselves. We have inherited in the same way not only the bless- ings of former generations, but their very being, their souls : we are their continuance. It is not an empty phrase to say that the former generations of mankind are still alive as a part of our- selves. For suppose that the soul-life of the past were entirely annihilated and no vestige of it left, would not our own existence at once sink to the level of mere amoeboid existence ? The thought of this will convince us how truly real is the continuance of soul-life after death ! The souls of our beloved are always with us and will remain among us until the end of the world. What does the new conception of the soul imply? Our spiritual nature imposes duties upon us ; it teaches us to regard our life as a phase only of a greater and a more complete evolution, and commands us to rise above the narrowness of our transient and limited existence. As soon as we rise above the pettiness of our indi- vidual being, the boundaries of birth and death van- ish, and we breathe the air of immortality. But this change of standpoint is of great consequence. It af- fects our entire existence and brings about a radical change of our world-conception. It is like a new birth IMMORTALITY. 57 which will above all be felt in our conduct. The higher standpoint of immortality introduces a new principle which will almost reverse our former habits and intro- duce a new criterion of what is to be regarded as right or wrong. The moral commandments are rules of action which appear as a matter of course to him who has been born again, who has raised himself to the higher plane of soul-life, and whose sentiments and expressions of this attitude are what Christianity calls "love." The moral commandments are forced upon the egotist, and the egotist naturally regards them as im- positions. However, he whose attitude is that of love, does not feel in this way. He fulfils the command- ments of his own free will. Our sympathies must be the sympathies of our better self, and if they are, our course of action will, without any interference of the law, lead us to do any- thing the law and the rules of equity demand. There is no resignation in truly moral conduct. Moral conduct should be the expression of our char- acter; it should flow naturally from the nature of our being. MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. What is the attitude of the religion of science to- wards other religions ? The religion of science is not hostile to the spirit of the traditional religions : on the contrary, being their matured product, it regards them as harbingers that prepare the way. The dogmatic religions are mythologies which at- tempt to teach the truth in parable and allegory. They are prophecies of the religion of truth. Is mythology injurious ? Mythology in itself is not injurious ; on the con- trary, it is a necessary stage in the evolution not only of religion, but also of science. Man's mode of con- veying thought is essentially mythological. All lan- guage is based upon similes and we shall perhaps never be able to speak without using figures of speech. The religion of science does not come to destroy the mythologies of old religion ; it does not come to destroy but to fulfil. What is the nature of the mythology of science ? Science no less than religion had to pass and, in many of its fields, is still passing, through a mytholog- 62 MYTHOL OGY AND RELIGIO N. ical period; and this mythological period is often marked by fantastic notions and extravagant vagaries. Astrology preceded astronomy, and alchemy preceded chemistry. It is a great mistake of the chemist to look down upon the alchemist, and of the astronomer to speak with contempt of the astrologer of former ages. It is a sign either of narrowness or of a lack of information to revile our ancestors because they knew less than we. Baron Liebig was the greatest chemist of his times ; yet he speaks with profound respect of the aspirations and accomplishments of the alchemists. Those upon whose shoulders we stand deserve our thanks not our contempt. Let us not despise the anthropoid from whose labors man has risen to the height of a human existence ! The mythology of science still clings to us to-day. When does mythology become injurious ? Mythology becomes injurious as soon as it is taken as the truth itself. Mythology thus produces that self- sufficient spirit of dogmatism which prevents further inquiry into truth. What is the origin of the mythological religions ? The historical religions were founded at a time when science and its methods of inquiry did not as yet exist. Yet religion was wanted. People cannot live without spiritual support and solace and guidance. And as the MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. 63 old Egyptians instinctively discovered such tools as the lever and other simple instruments helpful to them in their work long before they understood the princi- ples of these contrivances ; as mankind in general in- stinctively invented language as a means of communi- cation without having any philological knowledge, and even without the least inkling of the laws of grammar and logic : so some prophets rose among our ancestors preaching to them some simple rules of conduct which they had instinctively found when pondering on the miseries caused by criminal and ruthless behavior. The nobler conduct, preached by prophets and en- forced by the evil consequences of sin, raised man- kind to a higher ground. Men learned to feel and appreciate the truth of the religious authority which proclaims the moral commands ; and the religious convictions thus established proved even in their im- perfect form an invaluable source of solace and help in the tribulations of life. Does the law of evolution apply to religion also ? Religion develops according to natural laws. Not only the human body and all living creatures, but also such intangible and spiritual entities as science, law, language, and social institutions are products of evo- lution, and religion forms no exception. The hypotheses of science are often formulated with the help of analogies, and these analogies contain figurative expressions. We speak for instance of elec- 64 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. trie currents, as if electricity were a fluid. This method of using analogies which is of great service in scientific investigations must not be taken as real science : it is the mythology of science. The mythology of science is no less indispensable in the realm of investigation than it is in the province of religion ; but we must not forget that it is a means only to an end, the ideal of scientific inquiry being and remaining a simple statement of facts. While we may be able to free ourselves from the shackels of mythology in science and philosophy, must we, perhaps, still retain them in religion ? The progress of religion in this direction will be the same as in science and philosophy. Progress of science means the formation of new ideas, and the purification of our old ones. The myth- ological elements must be separated from the pure statement of facts, the latter being the grain, the for- mer the chaff ; the latter are the truth, the former our mythologies, being the methods of reaching the truth. The chaff is the husks, and grain cannot grow with- out the wholesome protection of the husks. The truth contained in mythological allegories is their all-im- portant element, which has to be sifted out and pre- served. The rest is to be discarded ; it has served an educational purpose and will have to be relegated to the history of science. Religious progress, no less than scientific progress, MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. 65 is a process of growth, it is an increment of truth, and also a cleansing from mythology. Religion is a world-conception regulating man's conduct. Our world-conception grows with every new information, and all those new ideas from which we derive moral rules of conduct become religious ideas. As science began with the crude notions of primi- tive animism, so did religion begin with a mythology full of superstition. And the ideal of religion is the same as that of science, it is an increase of truth as well as a liberation from mythological elements. The more complete our knowledge is, the less is our need of hypotheses, and mythological expressions can be replaced by exact statements of fact. Both science and religion are to be based upon a concise but exhaustive statement of facts, which is to be constantly enlarged by a more complete and more accurate experience. The ultimate goal of religious development is the recognition of the truth with the aspiration to live in conformity to the truth. Mythology which is conceived to be the truth itself is called paganism. Paganism is the notion that the parable is the mean- ing it involves, that the letter is the spirit, that myth- ology is the truth. It is certainly no error to believe that virtue, jus- tice, beauty, love, and other ideas have a real and true existence in reality. They whose spiritual eyes are too dim to see and to understand their being, will be 66 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. greatly benefited by the representations of the artist and the poet, who present those ideals to us, the former in our imagination, the latter visibly in marble as per- sonal beings, as gods. There is no wrong in similes, there is no fault to be found with parables. But he who believes that these gods are personal beings, he who takes the mythology to be the actual truth, is under the spell of a gross misconception, and this mis- conception is paganism. Paganism leads to idolatry. He who worships the symbol is an idolater. The dogmatic religions of to-day are still under the spell of paganism ; and even Christianity, the highest, the noblest, and most humane of all religions, is not yet free of idolatry, — a fact which appears in many various customs and ceremonies. Sacrifices have been abandoned, but prayer, adoration, and other institu- tions still indicate the pagan notion that God is like a human being, that he takes delight in receiving honors, and that upon special considerations he will change his decrees and reverse the order of nature for the sake of those whom he loves. The religion of science does away with paganism and idolatry. The religion of science rejects the religion of adora- tion, and prescribes only one kind of worship — the worship in spirit and in truth which consists in obeying the authority of moral conduct. MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. 67 The religion of science rejects all the vain repeti- tions of such prayers as attempt to change not our will but the will of God. Those prayers only are admitted by the religion of science which set our souls in har- mony with the authority of conduct, which consists in self-discipline and teach us to say with Jesus of Naza- reth " Not our, but Thy will be done ! " What are the sources of religious truth ? The religion of science knows of no special revela- tions ; it recognises only the revelation of truth, open to all of us, as it appears in our experience, viz., in the events of nature surrounding us, and also in the emotions of our own heart. Religion is not due to a supernatural revelation, • but to the same natural revelation to which science owes its existence. The form of the established religions is mytholog- ical, for its founders spoke in parables, and the alle- gorical form of their teachings was quite adapted to the age in which they lived. New problems have arisen with the growth of sci- ence. The mythology of our religions has become palpably untenable, and we are no longer satisfied with the dogmas extracted from parables. Is there any conflict between religion and science ? True science and true religion can never come in conflict. If there is any conflict between religion and 68 MYTHOLOCy AND RELIGION. science, it is a sign that there is something wrong in either our science or our religion, and we shall do well to revise them both. This is the conflict that at present obtains between science and religion. The infidel laughs at the im- postures of religion, while the bigot demands an im- plicit surrender of reason. The infidel as well as the bigot are under the er- roneous impression that the mythology of religion is religion itself. What is to be done ? The bigot demands that science be muzzled, and the infidel proposes to eradicate religion. Shall we follow the bigot who wants the errors of paganism to continue ? Or shall we follow the infidel ? Shall we root out science, because it is not as yet free from mythology ? Shall we eradicate mankind because there are traces of barbarism left in our institutions, even to-day? Shall we abandon religion because it still retains some of the superstitious notions of pa- ganism ? We follow neither the bigot nor the infidel, but propose confidently to advance on the road of pro- gress. It is the course prescribed by nature, which willingly or unwillingly we shall have to pursue. The ideal towards which every religious evolution tends, is to develop a Religion of Truth. And this ideal can be reached only through an honest search for the MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION. 69 truth with the assistance of the scientific methods of inquiry. Christianity possesses an ideal which is called "the invisible church." Even the most devout Christians are aware of the fact that the present condition of the church is not the realisation of its ideal. The ideal of the invisible church can find its realisation only in the religion of science. CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS; A CONTRAST. CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS ; A CONTRAST. For the sake of convenience, let us distinguish be- tween Christ and Jesus. While the name Jesus de- notes an historical man, who, as we have good reason to believe, lived about two thousand years ago, we understand by Christ that ideal figure, which has been the main factor in forming the Christian church and which is represented in the gospels. Whether Jesus was Christ, in other words, whether the account of the gospels is historical or mythical, is a problem which we do not care to discuss in detail here. The problem is of a purely scientific nature and has nothing to do with practical religion, except as it may open the eyes of those who are as yet under the spell of the paganism which still prevails in our churches.* It is quite immaterial whether or not the accounts of the * The problem of Jesus can now be regarded as solved, and the results of all the laborious researches into the accounts of the gospels have been summed up by H. Holtzmann, Professor of Theology at the University of Strassburg i. E., in his Hand-Commentar zunt netcen Testament. Professor Holtzmann's works are the more valuable as they are the statement, not of a Freethinker, but of a Christian and a theologian by profession. They are reverent, but scientific and critical. Holtzmann's results remain positive. Jesus is, in his opinion, an histori- cal person, whose human character and fate can best be traced in Mark, the oldest of the gospels. 5-4 CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS, gospel are historical ; yet it is not a matter of indiffer- ence whether or not the Christ-ideal is true ; and we say that it is true ; and so far as its truth has been rec- ognised, the spirit of Christ lives and moves and has its being. The belief in the miraculous, which existed at the time of Christ, quite naturally entered into the gos- pels, and we cannot regard it as an absolutely injuri- ous element, whose presence ought to be deplored. On the contrary, miracles and the belief in miracles indicate the power of the Christ-ideal. All great his- torical movements are soon surrounded by more or less beautiful legends, and these legends frequently reflect the meaning of history better than the histori- cal facts themselves, for the legends reveal to us, in a poetical vision, the thriving power of historical move- ments. There we peep, as it were, into the minds of mankind ; we see their yearning, aspiring, wondering, and we learn their conception of the ideals that move in their hearts. Christianity would have been insignifi- cant and insipid, if it had not produced such a myth- ology as we possess now. There is no fault to be found with the mythology, but only with those who misun- derstand the part which mythologies play in the evo- lution of religious ideas. We have to accept the results of science in its in- vestigation of the historical pretensions of the gos- pels, yet at the same time we insist on the fact that Christ is a living presence even to-day, and our whole CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. 73 civilisation is pervaded by his spirit. ■ Christ is the key-note of the historical evolution of mankind since the second century of the Christian era, and it seems improbable that the influence of this ideal will ever subside, or that its glory will ever be outshone by a greater star to come ; for the Christ-ideal is a tendency, rather than a type ; it indicates the direction of moral progress, and not a special aim ; it represents an as- piration towards perfection, and not a fixed standard. Thus, with all moral rigidity, nay, sternness, with all definiteness and stability, the Christ-ideal combines an extraordinary plasticity ; it is capable of evolution, of expansion, of growth. Christ is an invisible and superpersonal influence in human society, guiding and leading mankind to higher aims and a nobler morality. Christ is greater than every one of us, and we are Christians in the measure that his soul has taken its abode in us. The Christ of the gospels, however, who has be- come the religious ideal of Christianity, is very different from the Christ of the Christians — or, let us rather say, of those who call themselves Christians, who worship Christ in a truly pagan manner. Those who call them- selves after Christ are, upon the whole, the least worthy of the name, for, if he came unto his own, his own would receive him not. The so-called faithful Christians have made them- selves a religion little better than that of fetish wor- shippers and practice in many respects an ethics exactly 76 CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. opposite to the injunctions of Christ. Their worship consists in adoration and genuflections and other hea- thenish rituals, but they violate his commands. They believe in the letter of mythological traditions, and fail to recognise the spirit of the truth. Let us here briefly pass in review some important religious issues which present a strong contrast be- tween Christ and the so-called Christians. * * * Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, but those who in public life ostentatiously set themselves up as Christians bar the way, dim the truth, and impede life. They demand a blind belief in confessions of faith and other man-made formulas, while they trample under foot any one who dares to search for the truth or walk in the way of progress. Christ is the way, which means, the spirit of evolu- tion, of a constant moral perfectionment; but the Chris- tians, in name, have become a clog on the feet of man- kind, so that they are known as the chief suppressors of truth, liberty, and progress. Says Christ : "Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites as is written, ' This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.' " Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. "For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men I . . . Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition." — Mark, vii. CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. -jy Which is the will of God : the injunctions preached by preachers and priests, or the everlasting revelation in the book of nature ? The former we have to accept on trust j the latter every one can find out for himself by experience. The former are inconsistent, varying and unreliable j the latter can be investigated and veri- fied. The literatures of all nations, including espe- cially the scriptures of our religious traditions, have been written in order to assist us in deciphering the revelations of God as they appear in the immutable laws of nature. Let us search the scriptures, and let us study the works of our scientists. But always bear in mind that truth is God's revelation, be it pronounced by Isaiah or Darwin, and not this or that formula, or holy writ, or sacred tradition, and, least of all, a qui- cunque. When certain of the Pharisees said to the disciples of Jesus the same things that in recent times were said to the directors of the World's Fair at Chicago : "Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days ? " Jesus, answering them said : "What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out ? "How much then is a man better than a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. . . . " The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sab- bath : " Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." 78 CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. The Christians of the first . century abolished the Sabbath and introduced Sunday as a sacred day ; and their Sunday was not a day of rest, but a remembrance of Christ's resurrection. The Christians of our time, however, know not how to celebrate the day. Although they believe in the myth of the resurrection, Christ has not risen in their souls. The name-Christians revive the old pagan notion that the Sunday is to be regarded as a dies ater, an ominous day on which it is not advisable to undertake anything. They make of man the slave of Sunday; they close places of harmless pleasures and useful in- formation, and in such efforts they find a strong sup- port by men of evil enterprises, who offer to the people more exciting and less innocent amusements. Must Christ come again to repeat the question : " Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil ? to save life or destroy life ? " Is there any one who doubts that museums, libraries, and the World's Fair furnish recreations which exercise a strong influence for good upon the development of man's mind? They provide a wholesome mental food, educating without the toil of study and broadening our views. They are not idle pleasures ; they are building up and life-saving, and Christ teaches that it is right to heal, to help, and to save on the Sabbath. Some of the early Christians continued to celebrate the Sabbath after the Jewish fashion, and the apostle St. Paul suffered them to do soj yet he insisted vigor- CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. 79 ously upon liberty in such matters. We read in the epistle to the Romans : ' ' One man esteemeth one day above another : another esteem- eth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. ' ' He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord ; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." In his letter to the Galatians, however, who piously abstained from the desecration of the Sabbath, the apostle writes : " Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain." A wrong conception of the Sabbath is an indication of paganism ; and wherever paganism prevails the spirit of true Christianity bestows its labors in vain. Woe to ye hypocrites, who make religion ridicu- lous! Woe to ye Sabbatarians, who make of Christian- ity a nuisance! Ye are blind leaders of the blind, a dis- grace to the holy name which you write upon your altars. We do not mean to abolish Sunday, or to deprive the laborer of his rest on the seventh day. On the contrary, we insist on keeping Sunday as a religious and also as a secular holiday. But we object to a wrong usage of Sunday, as- if it were the Sabbath of the Pharisees. Wq protest against the barbaric regu- lations belonging to pre-Christian ages which have been given up by all Christian nations with the sole exception of the English, who, in the beginning of the 8o CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. middle ages dug them out of the misunderstood re- ligious traditions of a remote past. We want a Sunday, but not such a Pharisaic Sab- bath as is foisted upon the nation by modern Phari- sees. We want a day of rest, of recreation, of edifica- tion, and not that superstitious /ar niente, which means a cessation of all wholesonie activity. We want a lib- eral, a religious, a spiritual, and truly Christian Sun- day. * * * Christ never requested his disciples to eradicate reason, or to believe anything irrational, or to accept any of his doctrines in blind trust. On the contrary, he wanted them to examine things, to discriminate between the false and the true, and to discern the signs of the times. Our senses should be open to in- vestigation, and our judgment ought to be sound in order to comprehend things. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, and he who has thoughts to think, let him think. How different are Christians ! Christians demand blind belief ; they do not want investigation ; they have a distrust of sense information and place no re- liance upon reason. What in the world shall we rely on, if reason ceases to be trustworthy? If the light of reason be extin- guished, all our sentiments, our enthusiasm, our aspi- rations, avail nothing, for without reason, we grope in the dark. Says Kant : CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. 8i "Friends of mankind and of all that is holy to man, accept whatever, after a careful and honest inquiry, you regard to be most trustworthy, be it facts or rational arguments, but do not contest that prerogative of reason, which makes it the highest good upon earth, viz., to be the ultimate criterion of truth. Otherwise you will be unworthy of your liberty and lose it without fail." (Kant, " Was heisst : Sich im Denken orientiren." Edition Har- tenstein. Vol. IV, p. 352.) * * Christ abolished prayer in the sense of begging God to do our will, for he truly knew that God, unlike man, is immutable, and his will cannot be altered by supplications. Christ makes no supplications, no praise, no glori- fications of God ; he demands no genuflection or self- humiliation. He does not beg for miracles or excep- tions or special favors, and in the most wretched mo- ment of his life he remains faithful to this spirit, which lives in his prayer, saying : "Not my, but Thy will be done." Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount : ' ' When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do ; for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. " Be not ye therefore like unto them : for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. "After this manner therefore pray ye : Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. " Give us this day our daily bread. " And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 82 CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. " And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.* ' ' For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you : " But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." There is but one prayer for our bodily needs — not for our comforts, merely for the needs which, as we must not forget, nature supplies out of her wealth only when we work for them. There is no prayer for the fulfilment of our particular desires, and all the other requests are variations of the third prayer, which says, " Thy will be done." The name-Christians actually do use "vain repeti- tions," so that prayer has almost ceased to have the sense in which Christ used the word. While recognising the error that obtains in the Christian's habit of praying, we do not mean to dis- courage the Christian when he wants to pray, for prayer is the moving of the spirit of Christ in the souls of those who know not what Christ is. If their prayer be honest, it will help them, it will mature them, it will calm their anxieties and make them composed, it will strengthen them, it will make them grow and develop out of their paganism into the Christianity of Christ. The more they grow in their spiritual life, the more will they cease to prattle to God in childish talk ; they will learn to pray like Christ, until their whole being becomes a performance of God's will. *The words, " For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen," are a later addition. CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. 83 Any sincere Christian who proposes to himself the question, What shall I pray ? in order to pray in the spirit of the Lord's prayer, will come to the conclusion that to ask for special favors is childish as well as use- less. Prayer must be made not with a view of altering God's will, but our own will. We grant, however, that in a certain sense it is true after all that prayer has an influence upon God. Prayer affects our attitude to- ward God, toward the world, toward our fellow-men, and in so far as our attitude is altered, the attitude of our surroundings will be altered, too. Whether we are impatient and afraid, or calm and self-possessed, makes a great difference, and the whole situation in which we are may change when we pass from one con- dition into the other. The facts which we face, the dangers which we confront, the duties which we have to perform, assume another countenance ; and this change may and very frequently will be the most de- cisive factor in the final result of our actions. Take, for instance, our knowledge of nature. The laws of nature have remained the same ; but while the savage trembles before the forces of nature, we utilise them to our advantage. The same electricity which was so formidable to our ancestors is to us beneficent. Truly, there is no change in the laws of nature, but a change in our own attitude changes the situation in such a way that it amounts to a most radical change of nature itself. 84 CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. If knowledge can bring about such wonderful changes^, should not the goodwill of a religious atti- tude have the power to reform, to bless, and to save ? * * * Should prayer mean supplication, it would be bet- ter that all prayer ceased. And, indeed, the Lord's prayer contains the injunction that we must cease to ask God to do our will. While Christ's prayer is an act of self-discipline which attunes our will to the will of God, the Christian's prayer is, as a rule, a beggar's supplication, which tries to work miracles. The Christian's prayer may be more refined, but it is actually of the same nature as the medicine-man's incantation, which is supposed to take effect by some mysterious telepathy. The great Konigsberger philosopher uses the word "^ prayer, " not in Christ's sense, but in the sense in which it is used by the name-Christians. He says : "To expect of prayer other than natural effects is foolish and needs no explicit refutation. We can only ask, Is not prayer to be retained for the sake of its natural effects ? Among the natural effects we count that the dark and confused ideas present in the soul are either clarified through prayer, or that they receive a higher degree of intensity ; that the motives of virtue receive a greater efficacy, etc., etc. "We have to say that prayer can, for the reasons adduced, be recommended only subjectively, for he who can in another way attain to the effects for which prayer is recommended will not be in need of it. "A man may think, 'If I pray to God it can hurt me in no CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. 85 wise ; for should he not exist, very well ! in that case I have done too much of a good thing ; but if he does exist, it will help me. ' This Prosopopoia (face-making) is hypocrisy, for we have to presuppose in prayer that he who prays is firmly convinced that God exists. ' ' The consequence of this is that he who has made great moral progress ceases to pray, for honesty is one of his principal maxims. And further, that those whom one surprises in prayer are ashamed of themselves. "In public sermons before the public, prayer must be re- tained, because it can be rhetorically of great effect, and can make a great impression. Moreover, in sermons before the people one has to appeal to their sensuality and must, as much as possible, stoop down to them.'' It is especially noteworthy that Kant says "he who has made great moral progress ceases to pray"; and he adds the curious observation "that those whom one surprises in prayer are ashamed of themselves." The Lord's prayer is no prayer in the common sense of the word. It is not an incantation that exercises a supernatural influence through "vain repetitions." The Lord's prayer must be lived, rather than spoken. We need not pray it, if we but live it. Its spirit must be- come patt of our soul, so that our whole life becomes an exemplification of the sentiment, "Thy will be done." ' ' Further, psychology teaches that very often the exposition of an idea, weakens the efficacy it possessed, while still whole and entire, although dark and undeveloped. ■■And, finally, there is hypocrisy in prayer ; for the man who either prays audibly, or who resolves his ideas internally in words, regards the Deity as something that can be grasped by the senses, while it is only a principle which his reason urges him to assume. 86 CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS. While Christ's prayer means resignation to the will of God, the Christian's prayer is a superstitious trust in miracles, in the hope that they will be performed for his advantage. Christ's prayer is an effort to change our own will, not God's will ; it is a self-exhortation which helps us to be satisfied with God's will and to perform our duties. These are striking differences between Christ and Christians, between Christ's faith and the Christian's faith, between Christ's prayer and the Christian's prayer, between Christ's religion and ecclesiasticism. Christ is a savior, a liberator, a reformer; the typical Christian is a stumbling-block, and a cause of an- noyance. There is a wonderful saving power in the words of Christ, but the name- Christians do not know it. They walk in darkness and are not even aware of it them- selves. They believe themselves to be saints, and are in fact the spiritual successors of the scribes and Pharisees. If ever the name of Christ be dimmed in its glory, it will be done by the vices of his followers in name, and the freethinker will have to be called upon to re- store the lost halo of the greatest reformer and the staunchest defender of free thought and liberty. The religion of science is not and cannot be the Christianity of those who call themselves orthodox Christians, but it is and will remain the Christianity of Christ. THE CATHOLICITY OF THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. THE CATHOLICITY OF THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. The old traditional religions take, as it were, a bee- line in advancing man to the benefits and blessings of truth. They make it possible for man to feel the truth without knowing it ; the truth is given him in a mix- ture with mythology, so that even minds incapable of scientific inquiry can possess and apply it in practical life. Religion will naturally appear to neophytes who have not entered into its sanctissimum and have never had a glimpse of its esoteric spirit as a mystery ; and to those, who, blind to its truth, see its mythology only as a medley of human fraud and folly. In the assurance of devout piety there is a wisdom that is not discarded by the religion of science. We can have, and we should have, a resolute confidence in the unbreakable and unbroken laws of existence. We can have, and we should have, an intimate and truly personal relation to that All-being in which, through which, and to which we live. This All-being in its wonderful harmony of law surrounds and per- vades our entire existence. We cannot withdraw our- go CATHOLICITY OF THE KELIGIOUS SPIRIT. selves from its influence, and, truly, it is grand and sublime and perfect beyond description. It is the source of all blessings, and it encompasses us with a beneficence that can be compared only to a father's love. It is greater than a father's love ; and is greater than any particular thing we know of, for it comprises all things, and a father's love is only one brilliant ray of its sunshine. When we regard our own being as a revelation of the All-being, so that our very self is felt to be an in- carnation of nature's divinity, and that our will is identified with God's will, we shall learn to look upon the troubles and anxieties of life with quietude. A heavenly rest will overspread all our being. Whether we struggle and conquer or stumble and fall, whether we are in joy or in sorrow, whether we live or die, we know that it is a greater one than ourselves who suf- fers and struggles and has his being in us and in our aspirations, and his greatness sanctifies the yearnings of our heart and consecrates even the trivialities of life. We do not exist for enjoyment, for truly pure en- joyment is an impossibility. We live to perform work. We have a mission. There are duties imposed upon us. And we can gain satisfaction only by performing our work, by complying with our mission, by attend- ing to our duties. There is no genuine happiness, unless it be the rapture of the God moving in us. CATHOLICITY Ofi Till!: HELIGIOUS SPIRIT. 91 When we consider the letter in which truth is ex- pressed, we find an unfathomable abyss between the religion of science and the dogmatic religions of the established churches. It is the abyss that separates mythology from truth, paganism from sound science, idolatry from self-reliance, superstition from religion, bigotry from righteousness. When we consider the spirit in which the truth is felt, we find that the spirit is the same in the old his- torical religions as in the religion of science. The spirit of almost all the words of the great teachers of mankind is the same as that which must animate the religion of science, and the most beauti- ful, the profoundest, and sublimest of all sayings are those spoken by the great Master of Galilee. The spirit of religion is true and noble, but dog- matism affects, like a deadly poison, the religions of mankind. How many of the keenest and most scien- tific thinkers have been, and are still, through its in- fluence, estranged from the church! Dogmatism warps the sentiments of men and takes away the natural charm that surrounds the holiest enthusiasm. Nevertheless, even in orthodox churchmen the light of true religion sometimes shines undimmed. One .of the founders of Christian dogmatism is St. Augustine. But he is not so narrow as are his follow- ers. Although he sometimes appears narrow, his con- ception of Christianity is broad, so that he might call it the cosmic religion, the religion of truth, or that re- 92 CATI-tOLICTTY OP THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. ligion which the scientist will find to be founded in the constitution of the universe. Christianity is to him only a name which was recently given to the cosmic religion of universal truth. He says : "The very same thing which now is called Christianity ex- isted among the ancients and was not absent in the beginning of mankind until Christ himself appeared in the flesh, whence the true religion, which already existed, began to be called Christian." (Retr. I, 13.)* We are, furthermore, strangely impressed with the remarkable agreement that obtains, not in the letter, but in the spirit, between the teachings of the religion of science and those of Johannes Tauler. The quotation of a few short passages will suffice to set this agreement in a clear light. The chapter which is to be considered as the quin- tessence of all his preaching, "containing the doctrines of Tauler in three points, discusses the subject, "how we shall perfectly go out of ourselves and enter God." It must be observed that Tauler's terminology is different from ours. While "nature," in the termi- nology of science, is identical with reality, including all that exists, also the laws of nature and the reality of our spiritual being, it means to Tauler only the lower desires of man and that which is apt to elicit them. "Nature" means to Tauler what "Sansara" means to the Buddhist. It is the sham of our indi- * Ipse res qucE nunc Christiana religio nuncupaiur, erat apud antiguos nee defuit ab initio generis humani, qttousque ipse Christus veniret in came, unde vera religio qua "jatn erat, ccBpit appellari Christiana, CATHOLICITY OF THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. 93 vidual existence, the delusion of egotism, and the Van- ity Fair of our transient pleasures. Says Tauler* : ' ' We now propose three points which contain briefly all that on which we have expatiated in this book. "The first point is this : He who wants to make progress in his sanctification, to become a real and affirmed friend of God, to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind, and his neighbor as himself, and to truly feel God's presence in his interior, in his heart, all earthly love of and inclination toward anything that is not God must be slain and must remain dead." We have to remark that there may be a difference of opinion as to what God is and what God is not. For instance, the duties of family life, energetic enterprise in business, admiration of art may have appeared, if not to Tauler, but to any average clergyman of Tau- ler's time, as ungodly. The religion of science finds God in all things. The religion of science has over- come the error of negativism and has freed us from the shackels of asceticism. But this difference of view as to the nature of God should not prevent us from seeing the concurrence in principles. Tauler continues : " The second point demands that if we wish here in time, and there in eternity, to attain to the cognition of the. highest truth, we must in all things rid ourselves of all pleasures of the spirit, in which the spirit seeks and means itself. It is so common, alas ! * Medulla Animee, Chap. XXVI in Surius's Latin edition, Chap. XXV in the German edition, Chap. XXXIX in Cassender's modern translation. The quotations above are translated from the Cassender edition (Prague, 1872, 2d ed., F. Tempsky). 94 CATHOLICITY OF THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. that having abandoned all the externalities of life, the pleasure of the spirit in us begins to awake. The spirit is pleased with certain fancies and certain ways which it loves as its alter ego, which it seeks and aims at ; and thus the spirit is captivated in these things and shut out from the true light so that the latter cannot give any eqlightenment. The self-loving lust of the spirit to which the spirit loves to surrender itself hinders and dims the rays of divine truth. The exercises, whatever they may be, contemplation, thought, activity, intuition, etc., are not used as means for a pure seeking God, willing God, and meaning God. The spirit rather seeks in them its own self. Their purpose is the ego and not God." Is this passage not true of all those arguments which are brought forth in favor of an individual im- mortality of the ego ? How often is it claimed that any other immortality but the ego-immortality is un- satisfactory. Truly, the immortality of the soul as taught by science must be unsatisfactory to every one whose religion has not as yet reached the height and purity of Tauler's doctrines. Those who find satisfac- tion only if they have an ego-immortality, do not seek God in religion, but themselves. Tauler's second point finds further explanation : ' ' In this state (of seeking God, willing God, and meaning God) nature must slaughter and sacrifice its pleasure ; its seeking self must die entirely. . . . This means in the proper sense of the word, to die off to one's self. It is a real entwerden (a becoming nothing), an annihilation, a losing, a resignation. Nothing remains but God ; nothing is retained but He ; there is no rest but in Him ; so that God, in and with man, can do His will, so that God alone be willing, working, illumining, and moving in man, man being noth- CATHOLICITY OF THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. 93 ing of his own accord, neither willing, nor working, nor illumining, nay, even not existing except as that which God is in him ; so that man is nothing at all in his ways, works, and objects ; i. c , in all things man should seek himself neither in time nor in eternity." "The third point of the whole doctrine is this : When man has freed himself externally and internally of any and all pre- tensions, when he has reached the state, in the way we have indi- cated, of standing upon his nothingness, then alone can he freely enter into the highest and simplest good — into God. His entrance however, must be thorough and not in part. . . . O, what bliss lies in such moments ! . . . . One such entrance into God is sublimer and more excellent than many other and often so-called great ex- ercises and works outside of it. In it alone is real divine life and true peace." Tauler took Christianity seriously and extracted its quintessence. Let us take Tauler seriously, and we come to an agreement with Christianity. Cling to the meaning of your mythology, O ye faith- ful ; and you will naturally walk on the right path! There is this constant objection made, " If the reli- gious doctrines are not literally true, if God is not truly a person, if my ego is a mere illusion, if heaven and hell are conditions of our being and not places somewhere in space, what do I care for the meaning of these parables ? " We answer : The substance is better than the al- legory, the meaning is deeper than the mythology, truth is greater than fiction. He who does not see that the substance is better than the allegory, the meaning deeper than the myth- ology, and truth greater than fiction, had better cling 96 CATHOLICITY OF THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. to the allegory, mythology, and fiction, lest he lose the substance, the meaning, and the truth. His mind is not as yet sufficiently matured to receive the truth. We cannot feed the babes with meat, we must give them milk. * * The main secret of the innumerable blessings and benefits which can be derived from religion lies in this : that by learning how to live we learn to understand the meaning of the world. The mystery of being is revealed only to the man who actually lives a moral life. Religion on the one hand demands a surrender of all egotistic desires, it teaches us the right spirit in which we must regulate our conduct ; and on the other hand religion gradually accustoms us to viewing life from the higher standpoint of the divinity of nature. We see that which is transient as transient and iden- tify our being with that which is eternal. And the air we breathe on the heights to which religion raises us is bracing, refreshing, and healthy. The religion of science is not a substitute for the dogmatic and mythological religions of our churches. On the contrary, the church-religions are a substitute for the religion of science ; they are a mere temporary expedient proposing mythologies so long as the truth is not as yet forthcoming. When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. The mythology is of a passing value but the truth will abide. INDEX. INDEX. Adoration, its pagan character, 66. Affliction, comfort in, 3 ; its benefits, 14. Aim of life, 3, 42. Alchemists not to be despised, 62. All-being, its paternity and perfec- tion, go. Allegory adapted to certain ages and states, 67, 95. Analogies useful in scientific formu- lations, 63. Annihilation of the soul, 55. Anthropotheism, 22, 23. Artist, function of, 66. Asceticism, 30, 93. Astrologers not to be despised, 62. Atheism, its definition, 22. Augustine, St., cited, 92; his breadth of conception, gi. Authority for conduct, 21, 23, 27; its basis, 12, Being, a revelation of All-being, 70. Blind faith, g. Book, a simile of man, 49. Buddha, in invisible church, v. Buddhistic ethics, 29. Catholic religion, the true, 10. Catholicity of the Religion of Sci- ence, iv, 8g. Ceremonies, according to Religion of Science, 11. Changes brought about by knowl- edge, 89. Christ, a living presence to-day, 80 ; an ideal figure, 73 ; cited, 76, 81 ; distinguished from Jesus, 73 ; his spirit, 74 ; in invisible church, v ; his teaching on Sabbath question. 77, 78 ; not an enemy of reason, 80 ; the key-note of historical evolution, 75 ; the spirit of evolution, 76. Christ-ideal, a. tendency, 75 ; its im- portance, 74. Christian departure from Christ- ideal, 75; ethics, 29, 75; representa- tion of continuance of soul-life, 48. Christianity, called cosmic religion by Augustine, 91, 92; injured by Sabbatarians, 79 ; its ideal, 69 ; not free from idolatry, 66; the best of religions, 66. Christians contrasted with Christ, 76, 86. Church, the invisible, 6g. Civilisation, its moral effect, 38 ; per- vaded by spirit of Christ, 75. Comfort in affliction, 3. Confucius, in invisible church, v. Convictions the result of experience, 47. Cosmic religion identified by Augus- tine with Christianity, gi, 92 Creation in image of God, 51. Creed contrasted with faith, 9 ; its definition, 8. Day of rest desirable, 80. Deism, its definition, 23. Disposition, inherited from ances- tors, 47. Divinity, in man, 51 ; in the universe, 23; of nature, the standpoint of re- ligion, 96. Doctrines of Religion of Science, 10, II. Dogma, its definition, 8; rejected by Religion of Science, 10. INDEX. Dogmatic religions, prophesies of re- ligion of truth, 6i ; under the spell of paganism, 66. Dogmatism, its evils, ^i. Duty arises from every truth, 32 ; ethics of, 27; implied in the con- ception of soul, 56. Ecclesiasticism not Christ's religion, 86. Ego, an illusion, 95; its contents changeable, 40 ; its definition, 39. Ego-soul not the real soul, 41, 94 ; ob- jection to its abandonment, 55!^ Eleusinian mysteries, their repre- sentation of immortality, 48. Emotional life should be centred in soul, 54. Enjoyment not the end of existence, go. Entheism, its acceptance by Religion of Science, 24 ; its definition, 23. Epitaph of Benjamin Franklin, 49, Established religions, their form mythological, 67. Eternity in laws of nature, ig. Ethics, a branch of science, 13; es- sentially uniform throughout uni- verse, 51 ; religious and irreligious* 27. Everlastingness in laws of nature, 19; its ultimate authority, 21. Evils of life, how to combat them, r4. Evolution, cosmic, 24, 56; historical, Christ its key-note, 75; human, 29, 48, 50; of religious and spiritual entities, 63, 68. Faith contrasted with creed, g. Feeling, necessity of its education, 53. Franklin, Benjamin, his epitaphs, 49, Galatians, Epistle to, cited, 79, Goal of religious development, 65, 68, God, as viewed by science, 21, 22 ; his immutability in will, 81 ; his incarnation, 51 ; in what sense one, 23; not a person, but superpersonal, 23, 95; of paganism. 66; the eter- nity of nature, 24; the source and destiny of the soul, 55, 95; various views of, 22, 93. Gods, their true significance, 66. Gospels, their historical character, a purely scientific problem, 73 ; the miracles in, 74. Guidance in vicissitudes of life, 3. Habits, how acquired, 35, 47. Happiness, in union with God, 95 , its purport and value, 28, 31 ; only possible through religion, 90. Harmony of natural laws, 20. Heaven and hell, conditions, not places, 95. Hedonism, 27, 29. Holtzmann, cited, 73, Hypocrisy in prayer, 85, Ideal of religious development, 68, 6g, Ideals embodied in legends, 74. Ideas, definition of, 36 ; implanted by education, 47; their relation to the ego, 39. 48, 50. Idolatry, in the churches, iv ; its def- inition, 66. Image of God, 51. Immortality, amoral question, 53, 57; a scientific truth, 48 ; its nature, 47, 56 ; its various representations, 48 ; necessary to evolution, 48. Immutability of natural laws, ig. Impulses, definition, 35, 36. Incantation, true prayer not an, 85. Incarnation of God, 51. Indifference, religious, 9. Inquiry a religious duty, 10. Invisible church, its nature, v; its significance, 6g. Jesus, cited, 4, 77 ; his historic char- acter, 73. Kant, cited, 80, 84. Knowledge, cause of wonderful changes, 84, 85. Laws of nature, 19, 20, 21, 50, 83. Legends a revelation of ideals, 74. INDEX. 101 Liberty, advocated by St. Paul, tj\ Christians its enemies, 76. Liebig on the alchemists, 62. Lord's prayer, no prayer in the com- mon sense, 85; quoted, Si. Luther, Martin, cited, iv. Man, his creation in the image of God, 51. Mark, cited, 76; the oldest of the Gospels, 73. Meaning in feelings, 37. MedullaAnimEB, of Tauler, cited, 93 Method of finding a religion, 4. Mind, its origin, 37. Miracles indicate the power of the Christ-ideal, 74: not besought by Christ, 81. Monotheism, 1% Moral law of nature, 20 , life a condi- tion of revelation, 96 , standards of the Religion of Science, 12, 57. Morality the expression of character, 57- Moses, in invisible church, v. Motives and ideas are the soul, 50. Mystery dispelled by science, 42; its function, 14 ; of being, to whom re- vealed, 96. Mythological religions, their origin, 62. Mythology in religion, 68 ; in science, 61, 64 ; its nature and functions, 61, 74- 93i 95 '' now untenable, 67, when injurious, 62. Natural revelation the foundation of religion and science, 67. Nature, hostile to egotism, 54 ; in- creased knowledge of, 83 ; its inex- orable law, 21, 83 ; the medium of revelation, yT. New birth by changed conception of the soul, 56. Object of life, 3, 42, Open Court Publishing Company, its work, iii. Open questions in science, 13. Orthodoxy, the true, 10. Paganism, its definition, 65; its evil 65: its inconsistency with true Chris- tianity, 79; its prevalence, iii, 73; its view of Sunday, 78. Pantheism, 22, 23. Parables, their usefulness, 66. Paul, St., cited, 79. Personal relation to God possible and imperative, 89. Personality, its conslituent elements 47, its contents changeable, 40. Pharisees, name-Christians their suc- cessors, 86. Planets, their inhabitants, 51. Pleasure, ethics of, 27. Poet, functions of, 66. Polytheism, 22. Prayer, abolished by Christ, 81 ; in the Religion of Science, 67, 82 ; its pa- gan significance, 66; not supplica- tion, 84 ; not to be discarded, 82, 83; should be an act of self-discipline, 84; that of Christ and the Christian contrasted, 84, 86. Preachers, their teaching unreliable, 77- Precepts of Religion of Science, 32. Priests, basis of their authority, 12; their teaching inconsistent and un- reliable, yy. Principles of Religion of Science, 8 Progress, Christians its enemies, 76; religious and scientific, v, 64, 68, Prophets, basis of their authority, 12. Prototype of soul, 51. Purpose of life, 3. Questions of science, 13, Reactions of impulse, 36. Reason, its uniformity throughout the universe, 51 ; not opposed by Christ, 80, Redeemer, the only, g. Religion, its basis, 8 ; its beginning, 65; its definition, 3, 7, 65; its de- mands, 96; its development, v, 63, 64, 68 ; its unity, v ; not due to su- pernatural revelation, v, 67 ; not in conflict with science, 67 ; of Christ lo2 INDEX. not ecclesiasticism, 86; purified by science, 42 ; secret of its benefits, 96 ; the Christianity of Christ, 86 ; to some a mystery, 8g. Religion of Science ; church-religions its temporary substitutes, 96; com- pared with others, gi ; its character, iii-vi. Religions, not to be abolished but purified, iii ; viewed by the Religion of Science, 6i. Religious truth, 52, 67. Resignation of idea of self-ownership, 54 ; the true spirit of prayer, 86. Resurrection, belief of Christians in its mythic form, 78 ; of the body, its significance, 48. Revelation, a synonym for science, iv ; in the book of Nature, iii, 77; the true, in experience, 67. Revelations, special, unknown to Re- ligion of Science, 67. Revision of doctrines, 10. Ritual, according to Religion of Sci- ence, II ; in Christianity, 76. Romans, epistle to, cited, 79. Sabbatarians make Christianity a nuisance, 79. Sabbath, its abolition by first Chris- tians, 78; its misunderstanding a sign of paganism, 79; question, opin- ion of Jesus on, "jy. Sacraments, 11. Sansara and " nature," 92. Science, a synonym for revelation, iv; its authority, 13; its definition, 7, 13; its influence on religious life, iv; its methods, 4 ; its progress, 64; its verdicts to be accepted, 12; its view of God, 21 ; not in conflict with religion, 67; religion of, 4, 7. Scientific conclusions, why not ac- cepted, 52. Scientists sometimes their own Pope, 13 ; their authority, 12, 13 ; their place in the Religion of Science, 12. Scribes and Pharisees, name-Chris- tians their successors, 86. Scriptures, their function, yy. Sectarianism disappearing, iv . Self, an incarnation of nature's divin- ity, go; how constituted, 39, 50, 55, Sensations are signs, 37. Sermon on the Mount, cited, 81. Settled questions in science, 13. Similes, their usefulness, 66. Sociology, a branch of science, 13. Soul an idiosyncrasy of ancestors, 48; from, in, and for God, 55; its ele- ments and sources, 47, 50 ; its im- mortality, 47, 56; its nature, 35, 41 ; its prototype, 51 ; its unity, 38 ; its value, 43 ; not our own, 54 ; not the ego, 41 ; of a book, 50. Sources of religious truth, 10, 67. Spirit of religion always the same, 91. Spiritual nature of the true self, 48. Sunday, its true and original charac- ter, 78 ; not the Sabbath of the Pharisees, 79 ; pagan view of, 78 ; question at the World's Fair. 78. Supernatural revelation not the foun- dation of religion, V, 67. Supplication not true prayer, 84, Support in tribulations, 3. Symbols, their true nature, 11. Tauler, Johannes, cited, 92-95. Telepathy in supposed operation of prayer, 84. Temptation, its benefits, 14. Theism, 22. Theories, worked out by reflection, 47. Thought, definition, 37, 47. Toleration, g. Traditional religions harbingers of the true, 61, Tribulation, support in, g. Truth, a picture of God, 52 , destruc- tive in appearance only, 42 ; God's revelation, yj; its definition, 14, 19; itsrelation toduty, 31 ; name-Chris- tians its enemies, 76 ; not yet com- plete, 10; religious and scientific, 8. Unalterability of truth, 14. Union with God, Tauler's teaching concerning it, 93-95. Unity of tne soul, 38, 39. INDEX. 103 Vain repetitions used by Christians in prayer, 82. Will, its definition, 36; of God the true object of prayer and aspira- tion, 82, go. Work, the object of life, 90. World-picture in human soul, 50. 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