iiii CHRISTIAN Pi C m. -V M ahi^ atliara. Nrm fork Philoaopliical S«view ~'"*^''*Tire'*rtr-BJ.*«»--wh « en this volume was taken. To renew this book copy thp rail No. and givp to the librn un. jH^wflsjPii^^ HOME USE RULES All Books subject to recall All borrowers must regis- ter in the library to bor- row books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs. Limited books must be returned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students must return all books before leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the hbrary as much aa possible. For special pur- poses they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for the benefit of other persona. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not al- lowed to circulate. Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. B1641.G98TC5""""""""'"^^" olin 3 1924 029 046 759 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029046759 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY BY THE SAME AUTHOR SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY, considered in its Bearing on Science, Religion, and Psycho- logy, and as affording a Key to some of the Problems of Evolution. 8vo, "js. 6d, net. INTERPRETATION OF THE SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY. Crown Svo, 8j. 6rf. net. SOME THOUGHTS ON GOD, AND HIS METHODS OF MANIFESTATION IN NATURE AND REVELATION. Crown Svo, 4J. net. A COMPANION TO THE PSALTER, con- sisting of Introductions, Notes, and Medita- tions contributed as a Help to the Devotional use of the Psalms in Daily Public and Private Worship. Crown Svo, 5J. net. THE MORALS OF SUICIDE. Two Vols. Crown Svo, JJ'- net each. LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY. CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY DISCUSSED UNDER THE TOPICS OF ABSOLUTE VALUES CREATIVE EVOLUTION AND RELIGION BY REV. CANON J. GURNHILL, B.A. VICAR OF EAST STOCKWITH MORAL SCIENCE PRIZEMAN, EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE HON. CANON OF LINCOLN AUTHOR OF " A COMPANION TO THE PSALTER," " MORALS OF SUICIDE," "the spiritual PHILOSOPHY," ETC. LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS I92I AU rights reserved ^s\^c|2,s INSCEIPTION TO MY DEAR WIFE IN GRATEFUL RBCOaNITION OF MUCH VALUED HELP IN PEEPAEING THIS VOLUME FOE THE PEESS. East Stookwith Vicaeage, Sept. 26th, 1921. PEEFAOE The connection between the three subjects which form the title of this volume, will not, I imagine, be obvious to many of my readers ; and my object in writing it is to show that this connection is a true and real one. I believe, with Dr. Eelton,'^ that any system of thought, whether philoso- phical or theological, must aim at an ultimate unity of all existences. But is there an ultimate reality, in which all our knowledge, aU our experiences, however acquired, can be co-ordinated and harmonized as parts of the one united whole ? My hope is that what I have written may help in some small degree toward the solution of this question. I should be sorry if it were thought that my volume was intended mainly, or solely, for advanced students of high philosophy or theology. This is not the case. For though some of the problems and topics may sound abstruse and difficult, I have * " Some Postulates of a Christian Philosophy,'' Theology, for March, 1921 (p 119). vii viii PEEFACE tried to show that they have a practical bearing on the life of the humblest citizen; and to treat them in such a manner as to bring them so far as is possible within the reach of every earnest inquirer after the truth. J. GUENHILL. East Stookwith Vicabagb, August, 1921. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I ABSOLUTE VALUES CHAPTEE I PAGE A Discursus on Absolute Values and their relation to the Spiritual Philosophy ,1 CHAPTER II Absolute Values — What are they 7— Plato's Idea of them — The Platonic argument as to their source and similitude — The Good — Justice — Dean Inge on Existence — Life and Consciousness — Light — Love — Truth — Beauty 5 CHAPTER III Absolute Values regarded under their twofold aspect : (1) Ideal or Theoretical — (2) Practical or Pragmatic — Their assistance in forming more worthy conceptions of God — Who is God? — The Completion or Summary of all Absolute Values — Dr. Belton on Eeal or Absolute Values 15 CHAPTER IV A Digest of Walter Pater's Treatise on the Platonic Doctrine of Ideas and Absolute Values — Observations thereon .... 22 PAET II CEEATIVE EVOLUTION CHAPTER I Creative Evolution and Absolute Values — Increasing Consciousness of Environment, the mark and index of Evolution — Bergson's Elan Vital in reality the Creative and Immanent Spirit of God — Balfour on Creative Evolution 26 X TABLE OF CONTENTS OHAPTEE II Two principles or energies involved in Creative Evolution, Matter and Spirit, and their relation to each other — Prof. Bergson's view — Dr. Temple on the Atomic Theory, and suhsequent de- velopments — Electrons and Badio-Aotivity — The two Energies not antagonistic, but complementary and contributory factors in Creative Evolution 3* CHAPTEE III Materials at our command for a system of Spiritual Philosophy — The Elan Vital of life — The Creator both Transcendent and Imma- nent — Homo Speculum Dei 38 OHAPTEE IV Matter and Spirit — The most recent results of scientific research and the modifications of previous theories as to the relation of Matter and Spirit — The Materialistic Theory — The Spiritualistic modifications and revisions necessary in both, recent investiga- tions and their result 43 PART III KELIGION CHAPTEE I Connection between Values, Creative Evolution and Eeligion — The argument— What is religion ? — Man a religious animal — Birth of the religious instinct 48 OHAPTEE II Limits of Enquiry — Christianity, the Eeligion of the Incarnation — Its origin and antecedents — Two questions : (1) Is the religion of Jesus consistent with the doctrine of Spiritual Philosophy ? — (2) Is it calculated to advance the moral and spiritual interests of mankind ? i 53 OHAPTEE III Section I. : Characteristics of Christianity — Section II. : TheEeligiou of Jesus long foretold and anticipated of the spiritual order — The Incarnation and its import , 58 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi CHAPTER IV FAGi; What has Jesus done for maukmd ? 64 CHAPTER V Immortality as involving Section A : The Resurrection of the Body — Section B : The Immortality of the Soul — Section A : Some Texts and teachings of Jesus — The Besurreotion of Jesus, a type and pattern of our own — Section B : The eternal life of the soul — St. Paul on the Survival of the Soul — ^The intermediate state — Inferences and conclusions ....... 63 APPENDIX Thb Incabnaiion and Modebnist Attacks ofon it, fbom a BEiiiaions AND Philosophic Point op Vibw ... 85 Sebmon pbeached in Lincoln Cathedbal. Trinity XVIII., 1920 89 CHEISTIAN PHILOSOPHY PART I ABSOLUTE VALUES CHAPTER I A Disoursus on Absolute Values and their relation to the Spiritual Philosophy In the first place I desire to thank Dr. Inge, the Dean of St, Paul's, for having given prominence to the subject of Absolute Values, and called attention to its importance in one of his Outspoken Essays, that on " Immortality and Survival." His valuable remarks and dissertation have led me to look more carefully into the subject of Absolute Values than perhaps I should otherwise have done ; aiid more especially to trace their intimate connection with the Spiritual Philosophy. Meaning of the Teem Let me begin, then, with an attempt to define what is meant by Absolute Values. What values are, we know well enough. They denote something that is considered good and desirable. But what are we to understand by Absolute Values ? 2 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY A thing is said to be absolute when it has an independent, unconditioned existence of its own ; when it is free from external and material restraint, or limitations of time, space, or matter. It de- notes an eternal and changeless idea or principle. We say, then, that values are absolute because they are fixed and changeless as opposed to the ephemeral and transient ; noumenal and spiritual as distiaguished from the phenomenal and material ; eternal as opposed to the temporal,' In what sense Absolute? But when we have thus defined Absolute Values we are stiU very far from exhausting the subject. How, for example, must we regard these Abso- lute Values, such as Love and Truth and Beauty and the rest ? We have a right to ask, What is their source and origia and author ? Are they absolute in the sense of being self-caused, self- created, and independent of aU personality, even that of God Himself?' ' In Plato's Cratylws, recording the dialogue between Socrates and Cratylns, the question is raised whether there are eternal forms or ideas which remain themselves absolutely unchanged. But in the Symposium and Phssdo, which were written later, all doubt on this question is definitely dismissed. 2 In the Platonic Dialogues they are sometimes called " Abstract Concepts." It is thus the Dean speaks of the first three (p. 372). " The goal of Truth, as an absolute value, is unity, which in the outer world means harmony in the intercourse of spirit with spirit, . and in the inner world, peace or happiness. ABSOLUTE VALUES 3 In answer to such, questions, I cannot enter- tain the view that they are absolute in this sense, or should be recognized as such. Dean Inge would associate them with the ideas of the Good, the True, 'and the Beautiful (p. 272). The Chief Absolute Values, four in Number, Goodness, Truth, Beauty, and Love But there is at least one more which should on no account be omitted — the idea of Love. We would say, then, that the Absolute Values are in the main four — Goodness, Truth, Beauty, and Love. I take it that in themselves Absolute Values are only names for ideas of the moral and spiritual order. But even ideas are not self-created and causeless. They do not spring out of the earth, nor drop down, Uke th© rain, from heaven. Ought we not rather to regard therti as the attributes and characteristic expressions of some supreme spiritual Personality ? And if so, ought they not to be considered in their relation to His Personal Being, and in connection with His purpose in " The goal of Goodness as an absolute value is the realization of the ' right-to-be ' in victorious moral effort. " Beauty is the seM-reoognition of creative Spirit in its own works ; it is the expression of Nature's own deepest character. Beauty gives neither information nor advice ; but it satisfies a part of our Nature which is not less Divine than that which pays homage to Truth and Goodness" (p. 272). 4 CHEISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Creative Evolution ? And the inference seems fair and reasonable, that values are not absolute in themselves, but only because they spring from, and are the characteristic expressions of the One and Only Absolute Value, which is God. CHAPTER II Absolute Values— What are they ? '—Plato's Idea of them— The Platonic argument as to their souioe and similitude — The Good — Justice — Dean Inge on Existence — Life and Consoiousness — ^Light — Love — Truth — Beauty Retaining for the present the expression Absolute Values, let us next try to ascertain what are those Values — or the chief of them — which may be termed Absolute in the modified sense above indicated. There is and has been much diversity of opinion on this point, and there are several claimants for the honour of deciding. Plato himself spent much time and argument in the discussion of it. Let us remind ourselves of what he has said on this subject of Ideas and Absolute Values. The GrooD and the Just First of all, in the constitution of his Republic, he places the Idea of The Good; this is his first and chief Absolute Value. The Idea of The Good is to be the crowning • It is almost unnecessary to point out that the absolute, or real values of life form an extensive category, of which only the more important can come under review in this section. 6 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY glory of the whole edifice ; next to that comes the Idea of Justice. It is thus that Plato in the Theatetus (176 a.b.) speaks of Justice : " The wisdom of man is to fly from this world to the spiritual world, and this flight consists in becoming holy and just and good. We should endeavour to flee from this region to that with aU speed; and by flight is meant to resemble God as far as possible, but to resemble Him is to become just and holy with wisdom. The truth we may put in this way. God is iu no manner of way unjust, but utterly and absolutely just, nor is there anything more like to Him than whosoever among men becomes as just as possible." Existence ? Dr. Inge would claim for Existence a place amongst abstract values. That which has - no existence has no value. But does the converse always hold good? Does it follow as a logical inference, that aU that exists has value ia the sense in which we are using the term ? I should hesitate to say so. For this reason, I doubt if the idea of Exist- ence, in its abstract unqualified form, should be placed amongst the Absolute Values, It may be valuable, or the reverse, according to its condition and contents, and according to the use we make of it. Should we not rather regard ABSOLUTE VALUES 7 it as the arena on which values are displayed and experienced. If Existence is a value, it is true also that annihilation itself is sometimes a value, when it comes as the release from a life of pain and suffering and sorrow- But there is another and more definite expres- sion for existence which is not open to the same objection and which perhaps brings it within the range of Absolute Values. It is Life as Consciousness And Life, Professor Bergson has taught us to regard as Consciousness. " As thus regarded, Life is the prime charac- teristic common to God and all the creatures He has made, be they physical, psychic, or spiritual. " He Himself is the focal source and centre of all life. Nor is this all. He, through the Holy Spirit, is the ' Lord and Giver of Life,' to aU the creatures of His hand : for ' In Him we live and move and have our being,' and ' by Him aU things consist.' Life is the very bond which unites the Creator with every vital organism' with which this mighty Universe abounds. Without doubt, then, Life as Consciousness, should be placed in the foremost rank of Absolute Values. And this wiU appear more abundantly manifest, when we come to consider these values in their transition- from the ideal to the actual and pragmatical stage. 8 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Light Though light is not classed amongst the Abso- lute Values of life — in fact it is frequently over- looked — its claim to a place in the foremost rank cannot be denied. This at once becomes evident when we consider that life without light would be impracticable if not impossible. But there are other reasons why Light may justly be regarded as one of the essential attri- butes and prerogatives of the Deity, " He dwelleth in the light unapproachable." The formation of light was the first act of the Almighty in Creative Evolution. Of aU the emblems or figures used in the sacred writings, either to foretell or describe the Divine Manifestation, none is more frequent and expressive than that of light.^ Think, too, in how many senses light is used : ideal and actual, physical and metaphysical, moral, spiritual, and religious.^ In all these departments and senses light is used, and found to be an emblem most descriptive and intelligible. Sometimes we find it associated with truth, as in the Psalmist's beautiful prayer, " O send out Thy light and Thy truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to Thy holy HiU." Sometimes with Hfe itself, as in another Psalm, 1 " I will give Thee for a light to the Gentiles. " " Arise, shine ; for thy Light is come." 2 " The path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." ABSOLUTE VALUES 9 •' With Thee in the well of life, and in Thy light shall we see light." And when at length Jesus came there was no figure or emblem He used more frequently, and found more instructive as to the object of His Incarnation and the nature of His service than that of light. Not only did He call Himself " The light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of Hfe." But to His followers He said, " Ye are the light of the world," i.e. Ye are to reflect the light, which I shed upon you, on all the world ^ Love Love has been styled the greatest thing in heaven or earth. And, judged by its motive and constraining power, so it is. For there is nothing that is good which God or man can do that Love wiU not urge him to essay. Of all the noblest deeds which history records — deeds of heroism, self-sacrifice, and benevolence — it will be found that the Idea of Love has been the inspiring motive. The converse is also true. The deeds of shame, oppression, and cruelty, which have stained the pages of humanity, have occurred when the Idea of Love has faded from the soul 1 Or as St. Favl difEerently expresses the same doctrine, "To give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ Jesus " ( 2 Cor. iv. 6). 10 CHEISTIAN PHILOSOPHY and given place to the spirit of ambition, hatred and selfishness. We have heard it said that Love is strong as Death. But the comparison fails to do justice to Love. For Love is stronger than the fear of Death. And the history of civiliza- tion, and especially Christian civilization, shows how often Love has proved a blessing to man- kind, and triumphed over the powers of sin and darkness. " A gift of God ! Would man could see its worth ; Would value it, and seek it for his own ; Would let it rule and govern all his life. A gift of God ! No greater power than love Can man possess, if he would benefit The human race, would cheer man's heart, and draw Man heavenward." i Tbuth If Life and Love should occupy the first and second places in the rank of Absolute Values, Truth, I think, should come next in order. But what is Truth ? What is implied in the Idea of Truth ? Shall we not say, that the aim and goal of Truth is to penetrate below the out- ward, superficial, and phantasmal appearance of all things, and so to gain a sight and knowledge of the thing as it really is. Every form of hypocrisy, deceit, and falsehood involves the unreal and fictitious, and therefore is a violation of the spirit and idea of Truth. ' Eev. C. Bailey, Love and other Poems. ABSOLUTE VALUES 11 False opinion, biassed judgment, prejudice, misconception, all are forms of untruth ; and how many are the errors and mistakes involving the most serious and often fatal consequences none can tell. The idea of truth is to the soul what the mariner's compass is to the seaman. It will enable him to steer clear of the hidden rocks of error, and the shoals and quicksands of delusion, and make his voyage safely across the troubled and dangerous sea of life. Truth, then, I think, should come next in order to Life and Love in the rank of Absolute Values. Beauty I used at one time to be at a loss to account for the innate instinct and love of Beauty in man on the one hand, and the wonderful provision made for the gratification of that instinct in the countless forms of beauty with which the world abounds, on the other. The doctrine of Absolute Values has made all this plain to me, so that I wonder no longer. Let me explain. What is Beauty as an Absolute Value ? Dr. Inge thus defines it : " Beauty is the Self- recognition of Creative Spirit in its own works. It is the expression of Nature's own deepest character. It gives neither information nor ad- vice ; but it satisfies a part of our Nature, which ]2 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY is not less Divine than that which pays homage to Truth and Goodness " (p. 272). To a part of this description I must respect- fully demur. Beauty I would rather prefer to call the language of God, ia which He is ever speaking to us of Himself and telling us what He is. Would Jesus have pointed His disciples to the Klies of the field and the birds of the air if they had nothing to tell and teach us ? I cannot think so. In the Symposium Plato describes the ascent of the soul towards the perfect beauty. " Suddenly she wiU behold something marvellously beautiful ; not beautiful by parts or by seasons, as is the case with material beauty, but itself abiding true to itself for ever." Further on in the same Dialogue Socrates is represented as discussing with Parmenides the relation of values, such as justice, beauty, the good and things of such a kind, to the species they each resemble. The discussion is long and somewhat intricate, which I wUl not follow in detail, about " The One and the Many." But, in the end, Parmenides asks, "Is each of these mental conceptions of Justice, Beauty, Goodness, and the like, one ; and is there a mental conception of nothing ? This," said Socrates, " is impossible. It is, then, of some- thing. Yes. Of a being or of a non-being ? Of a being. Is it not of some one thing which that ABSOLUTE VALUES 13 mental conception understands as a One certain idea over all things. Yes. Will not, then, that species which is understood to he One be always the same over all things. . . , But will not that, through the participation of which the similars become similars, be species itself? Entirely so.^' This, then, seems to be the conclusion and inference to be drawn. AU kinds of species and real values, such as the just, the beautiful, the good, are what they are because they participate in and resemble the One central source from which they are aU suppHed. God, who is Himself the source and centre of aU Absolute Values, is therefore the Author and Source of all that is beautiful. But the Universe is the reflection of His Image. His creatures must resemble Himself, and they too must share His ovm absolute value of Beauty. This is to me a sufficient explanation of Man's intuitive perception of the beautiful.^ It is the creature's response to the Creator's perfection, and at the same time the mark and proof of the affinity between the two. The love of beauty is the unconscious yearning of the soul after God, ' As also of all trne aesthetic taste. "Beauty," says Sister Agues Mason, "is a part of the Nature of God ; and because we are made in the image of God, because we have a Kinship with God, we have also a Kinship with beauty. And so far as this Kinship is realized and developed, and so far onljy, are we able to perceive the reality of beauty." — Essay on '■ The Way of Beauty," Longmans. 14 CHBISTIAN PHILOSOPHY as the Psalmist of old so eloquently expressed it. " My soul is athirst for God. Yea, even for the Living God. When shaU I come to appear before the Presence of God?" " The essence of all beauty I call love, The attribute, the evidence and end, The consummation to the inmost sense Of beauty apprehended from without I still caU love." ' ^ E. B. Browning, Sword Glare. CHAPTER III Absolute Values regarded under their twofold aspect : (1) Ideal or Theo- retical — (2) Practical or Pragmatic — Their assistance in forming more worthy conceptions of God — Who is God ? — The Oompletion or Sum- mary of all Absolute Values — Dr. Relton on Real or Absolute Values Theeb are two stages, or aspects, under which Absolute Values must be regarded — (1) The ideal and theoretical. (2) The practical or pragmatical stage. It is not to be understood that in their transi- tion from one stage to the other they cease to exist in their ideal stage ; but it is that in being adopted by intelligent self-conscious spirits such as the souls of men, they find a field of activity and usefulness they did not previously possess. In themselves they are only purely spiritual ideas. And, so long as they remain in that stage, they are inoperative for good in the world of moral and spiritual activity such as that in which our lot is cast. The difference is somewhat analogous to that between pure and mixed or applied mathematics. The house-builder, or mechanic, knows little perhaps about Euclid or Algebra, etc., but never- theless he is using them day by day. 16 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Were these Absolute Values, then, always to remain in their ideal stage ? By no means. For to say so would be to divest them of their prac- tical value for beings like ourselves. We must ask, For whom are these Absolute Values to be of use, and how are they to become so? These are questions which demand careful consideration. To the first question we would reply : They are to be real values to intelligent personalities who are, or have become, capable of recognizing and appreciating their value as ideas. In answer to the second : They are to become real values when those personalities can adopt them as rules and principles of life in a sphere suitable for their activity. The transition or development of Absolute Values from the ideal and abstract, to the actual and prag- mutical stage. These Absolute Values, then, of Life and Love, of Truth and Beauty and the rest, must be con- sidered in relation to personal beings : both the Divine Pe1:sonahty of G-od, from whom they spring, and whose essential attributes they are ; and the human, and all other spiritual personalities, for whom they are intended and whose characteristics and attributes in a life of moral and spiritual activity they are to become. The Divine Being is not to be conceived of as ABSOLUTE VALUES 17 a Sublime Love sitting aloft in the heavens, in solitary glory and with a magnificent indifference to this nether world of time and space and matter. If we believe in Him at all we must believe in Him as the Great Creator of aU things. What said Plato on this point? In the Timseus he tells us that God made the world, because He was free from all jealousy, and desired to share His own perfection as widely as possible with His creatures.^ And so to the same effect, and with a correspondence which is remarkable, said one of the great Christian teachers, " Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above and Cometh down from the Father of lights. . . . Of His own Will begat He us that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."^ Absolute Values and a Eight Conception of THE Deity The theory and doctrine of Absolute Values will assist us in forming more worthy conceptions of the Nature of God. In the first place, I contend that the Incarna- tion, and the religious Hfe and sentiment which it has evoked, should be regarded as a further exten- sion and development of the process of Creative Evolution in the sphere of spiritual life and con- sciousness. 1 PlMo and Christiwnity, p. 29. 2 James i. 17, 18. 18 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY AU the spiritual activities of the soul of man, its instincts, its intuitions, and aspirations, are the work of the Immanent Spirit of God, Who is the Author and Giver of Hfe, But Absolute Values such as The Good, the True, the Beautiful, and the rest, are not man's creation, nor are they caUed into being by the process of Evolution. They are the timeless and eternal attributes of the Divine Being. How, then, it may be asked has such a creature as man been brought into touch with them ? This I shaU endeavour to explain in Part II. on Evolution. The Docteine of Absolute Values will assist us in foeming woethy and adequate conceptions OF God We have called these Absolute or Abstract Values the attributes of God. But who is God ? And in what sense is it true that they are His attributes ? Can it be in any other sense than that He is a personal, seK-conscious, intelligent Spirit, existing, not only as the One transcendent Absolute Value from which aU other real values proceed, but by His creative energy manifesting Himself by His attributes in the works of His hands. These Absolute Values, then, become for us the marks and characteristics of a Personal Creator. And the higher and worthier our concept of God ABSOLUTE VALUES 19 so much higher and more adequate should our concept become of His divine Personality. The more we can absorb of these Absolute Values, embody and exemplify them in act and life and conversation the closer will the soul of man approach to the image and hkeness of his Creator.^ This, surely, must have been what Plotinus meant, when, as his djdng precept, he exhorted his disciple to bring the God that was in him into more perfect harmony with the God who is in the AH. The following extracts from Dr. H. M. Relton's article on " Some Postulates of a Christian Philo- sophy " are deserving of careful consideration. " Christian Theism lifts the whole problem up into a higher range of thought, and deals with relationship between finite (personal) spirits and the Father of spirits. It rejects an ontological in favour of an ethical relationship, and thinks in terms of personality, with the corresponding concepts of affinity, and kinship." ^ " Christian Theism refuses to deny a measure of real freedom to the individual (finite human personality) in ethical and spiritual relationship, on the ground that communion involves duality — ' The process and progress of this transition could not he hetter expressed than hy the Apostles Peter and Paul : " But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Saviour Jesus Christ . . . till we all come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness (vKvpa/ia) of Christ." 2 Theology, April 1921, p. 177. 20 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY God and the Soul; that the realization of our truest freedom as a matter of experience is found in kinship with that Other in whom we live and move and have our being, by virtue of our differ- ence from as much as our affinity with Him : that in communion we enjoy a. real existence in Him, with such a measure of separation from Him, as may conserve our finite human personality in relationship to, though * not in identity with God." ' The doctrine of Christian Philosophy with re- gard to the Divine Being claims for Him both Transcendence and Immanence. Dr. Eelton finds an analogy between the human and Divine Per- sonalities, which to some extent justifies this doctrine. " We infinitely transcend as living spirits the material bodies in every particle of which we immanently dwell. What we are to our bodies, that God is to the whole creation — immanent in the whole, and in every minutest part, yet trans- cendent above the whole as the sole condition of indweUing in any part." ^ It is through the activities of personal spirits, that the real values of life pass from their ideal stage to their actual and practical stage, and manifest themselves in concrete form. The idea of Love displays itself in words and works of benevolence ; the idea of Beauty in the enraptur- ' Theology, April 1921, p. 279. ' Ibid., p. 181. ABSOLUTE VALUES 21 ing triumphs of art and loveliness. And as with the Creative Personal Spirit of God, so mth the created spirit of man made to bear and reflect His image. If God were not a Personal Spirit, we might perhaps conceive of Him as a Complex of abstract ideas and values, but, were He not also a Personal Creator, such He must for ever remain, for His ideas could never have blossomed out in the real and concrete values of human life. This important aspect of the re^il Values, I think, has been well and tersely described by Dr. Eelton. " Values, then, so we suggest, are meaningless if divorced from a Personal Life, in which they inhere, and for which they have meaning ; in other words, Christianity is truest to Life when it stakes its claim upon the supremacy of Personality, Human and Divine." ^ 1 Theology, Ibid., p. 184. CHAPTEE lY A Digest of Walter Pater's Treatise on the Platonic Doctrine of Ideas and Absolute Values — Observations thereon ^ Plato's "ideas " are not mere abstractions — for an abstraction is a form that our thought makes use of for the sake of convenience. But an abstraction is something that has really less interest for us than the particular concrete instances — ^bravery, than a brave act. But still, the more we know about abstrac- tions the more interesting do particular concrete instances become, e.g. the more we know about Geology the more interesting would any particular belemnite become. The Platonic doctrine of Ideas is not so much a doctrine as a way of speaking or feehng about certain elements of the mind — a poetic way of thinking, and scarcely a definite statement of theory. General notions {i.e. abstractions) become in Plato's theory of ideas separable entities from the particular and concrete instances from which we ^ For this Digest I am indebted to my son, the Rev. C. J. Gurnhill. I had hoped still further to curtail it, but I am convinced this cannot be done without serious injury to its value as a whole. ABSOLUTE VALUES 23 have gathered them. The "ideas" of Plato are these universal definitions as seen in Plato's own peculiar way, in his house of thought. Hitherto, in the Socratio disputations, the ideas had been creations, serviceable creations, of men's thought, of our reason. With Plato, they are the creators of our reason ; no longer are they the instruments by which we tabulate and classify and record our experience — mere " marks " of the real things of experience, but are themselves rather the proper objects of all true knowledge, and a passage from all merely relative experience to the "absolute." In pro- portion as they lend themselves to the individual, in his effort to think, they create reason in him ; they reproduce the eternal Beason for him. This is the first step of Platonic transcen- dentalism. In the second stage we see that Plato instinc- tively finds anima, the condition of personality, in whatever preoccupied his mind : he locates the movements of a Soul like his own in every object which impresses him with a sense of power (of. animism), just as the primitive savage sees the power in a gun, and immediately thinks it is alive. " To speak, to think, to feel about abstract ideas as if they were living persons ; that is the second stage ia Plato's speculative ascent. Abstract ideas themselves became animated, 24 CHEISTIAN PHILOSOPHY living persons, almost corporeal, as if with hands and eyes." " Thus the idea of Beauty becomes for Plato the central idea ; the permanently typical instance of what an idea means, and just as Beauty is the clearest, the most visible thing in the world (lovers will always tell you so) — real with the reality of something hot or cold in one's hand — it also comes nearest of all things, so Plato assures us, to its eternal pattern or prototype." Philosophers are lovers of truth, and of that which is — impassioned lovers. This is the " enthusiasm of the Ideas." Thus Plato voyages towards that " inteUigible world" — opposed by him so constantly to the visible world — in which the ideas become veritable persons. For him the Socratic " universals," the notions of State, Tree, Justice, Couch and the Kke, are become, first, things in themselves — ^the real things ; and secondly, persons, to be known as persons must be, and to be loved for the perfec- tions, the visible perfections, we might say — intellectually visible — of their being. "It looks upon Justice itself; it looks upon Temperance, upon Knowledge, as personal en- tities." ABSOLUTE VALUES 26 Obseevations We see from the foregoing Digest what was Plato's theory, or doctrine, of Abstract ideas, and their partictilars — for example, the idea of Beauty, and the concrete expression of the idea in beautiful things. This corresponds, to a certain extent, with the doctrine of Absolute Values in their two stages, the ideal and the actual or concrete, as held and taught by the Spiritual Philosophy. As to the origin or source whence these Abstract ideas and Absolute Values proceed, Plato made no definite pronouncement. Never- theless, it is evident that his view or theory underwent a course of development, until at last he came to regard these Abstract ideas as possessed of a superhuman or divine character, and even personality. And it is at this point where we notice a diver- gence between his view and doctrine and that of the Spiritual Philosophy, which is that also of Christian Philosophy and Eeligion. For, according to the latter, Absolute Values, so called, are of a Divine Order, and instinct with a Divine Nature, inasmuch as they are emanations from and attributes of the Divine Being Himself. But they are not to be regarded as distinct personalities, but only expressions of the One Absolute Value which is the Personality of God. PART II CREATIVE EVOLUTION CHAPTEE I Creative Evolution and Absolute Values — Increasing Consciousness of Environment, the mark and index of Evolution — Bergson's Elan Vital in reality the Creative and Immanent Spirit of God — Balfour on Creative Evolution In the first part of this work we have been dis- cussing the subject of Absolute Values with the view to discover, if possible, their nature and origin. In this Part II. I propose to consider the same subject with reference to man as the product of God's method of creation by Evolution. Creative Evolution, as the late Professor Romanes demonstrated, has from the first dis- played itself in a double form of Activity and Vitality : the first, material, physical, and physio- logical ; the second, mental, psychic, and spiritual. In these two parallel streams or columns crea- tive energy has been chiefly manifested. Not that the two streams never combine or iutermingle, but that in their main and essential characters they are distinct. But there are some very important points of CEEATIVB EVOLUTION 27 difierence between them, which' must not be lost sight of. Vital organisms of the purely natural and physical order may possibly have reached their highest point of physiological development under Creative Evolution. Many species we know have done that and again disappeared. But the same rule does not invariably hold good in the other — the psychic and spiritual order. The genus homo is a notable exception. In the human race alone of all terrestrial creatures has the stream of con- sciousness been flowing onward and upward in ever-increasing volume as the soul of man has become more and more conscious of his environ- ment, and of those Absolute Values which form such an important part of his spiritual environment. Moreover, to the extent and duration of this onward and upward progress no limit can be assigned, because the values themselves are limit- less. The Truth is the truth of God, which em- braces all Knowledge and all reality, the Love is the love of God which is over all His works and passeth knowledge, and the Beauty is the beauty of God which fiUeth heaven and earth with His glory. Ceeative Evolution and Absolute Values The prpcess and progress of Evolution, as reach- ing its climax so far in man, has ever been marked by a growing consciousness of his environment, not only in regard to his physical and sensuous. 28 CHKISTIAN PHILOSOPHY but still more in regard to his metaphysical and spiritual surroundings. And amongst the latter we must reckon what we call the real and Abso- lute Values of life. As I have already observed, man does not create them, Evolution does not call them into being. But man, through the growth of consciousness, is enabled to perceive, to appreciate, and admire them. And herein is the marvel and glory of that Creation that it has evolved a creature such as man with mind and soul able to perceive, admire, and assimilate those Absolute Values, which in truth are the Ideas and Attributes of God.^ Ceeative Evolution, Absolute Values and Conscience Of all the results which have accrued to man- kind under the process of Creative Evolution, there is none, I think, which bears more clearly the marks of its divine origin and inspiration than this gift or faculty of Conscience. There is none, moreover, in which the claims of Philosophy and Eeligion are more clearly and closely associated. For if life be consciousness, and Creative Evolution in its psychical aspect means the gradual and ever-increasing growth in conscious- 1 " The capacity to apprehend the Eternal Ideas mark the soul of man off as akin to the Eternal world which is its real home." — W. Temple's Plato and Christianity, p. 17. Cp. " There is a spirit in man : and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding " (Job xxxii. 8). CBEATIVE EVOLUTION 29 ness, then the Conscience is the very acme and high-water mark, so to speak, of psychic and Spiri- tual Evolution, because it recognizes and approves those Absolute Values which are the characteristics of the Deity Himself. With such a faculty may we not truly say, that man bears the mark and impress of his Divine Creator ? Natuee oue First Teachee About G-od Nature I hold to be our first teacher about G-od.^ And this doctrine of the Divine Immanence in the Universe, coupled with that of Creative Evolution, has explained to me many problems connected with the moral and spiritual faculties of man, which I failed formerly to understand. Instinct and Intuition Take, for example, (1) the presence of Instinct in the vegetable and animal worlds, and (2) Intuition in mankind. I. Instinct"^ What widely different theories have been advanced to account for Instinct? ' That this is true seems abundantly proved by the fact that there is hardly a single race of men discovered, so far, which does not possess some rudimentary forms of Faith and "Worship. It should also be remembered how Jesus ever pointed His disciples to Nature to teach them about God. ^ From Lat. in and stigare and stingnere — to prick and then to insert by pricking. Root siig. Derivatives, instinct, distinguish, extinguish, stick, etc. 30 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY (1) That it was acquired in some pre-natal stage of existence ; which, beside being mere hypothesis, explains nothing, but only throws the difficulty of explanation one step farther back. (2) That it is inherited reason, which sounds very like putting the cart before the horse. Let those who hold this theory watch a garden spider con- structing its web with mathematical accuracy and engineering skUl, and then ask themselves, " Was this done by inherited reason ? " I shall be sur- prised if they do not abandon their theory once and for ever. (3) Doubtless instinct is subject to the general law of heredity which prevails in so many departments of biology and psychology. But I imagine its true source must be the same as that which explains the gradual development of consciousness in aU vital organisms ; namely, the active impulse and inspiration of the Immanent Spirit of God. II. Intuition^ What is Intuition? I have sometimes found it difficult to gather from a book of philosophy what the writer himself understood by the word. And yet it is a word of immense importance in the psychic and spiritual evolution of mankind. It is, we beUeve, a faculty peculiar to man, which is not ' From Lat. in = upon or into, and tueri = to look. Hence tutor, tuition, and intuitive perception. In Mod. PMlos. : Tte immediate apprehension of an object by the mind, without the intervention of any reasoning process. CREATIVE EVOLUTION 31 possessed by any creature below Mm in the terres- trial scale of life. Instinct is wonderful. But Intuition is far more so; for it is the power of direct spiritual insight into the reason of things, which is acquired neither by knowledge nor experience, and which is therefore superior to both. How, then, are we to account for the possession by man of this wonderful faculty ? I confess I see no way but to regard it as a Divine gift imparted to the spirit of man by the Creative and Immanent Spirit of God. Under the continuous and cumulative action of the process of Evolution, which Prof. Bergson terms the Elan Vital, but which we Christians hold to be in reality the work of the Immanent Spirit of God, Consciousness in man has reached its climax so far, not only in the intuitive percep- tion of Absolute Values, but in the consciousness of God Himself.^ Thus do science and philosophy unite in con- firming the substantial truth of Holy Scripture, that God made man in His own image and likeness, and the Via hominis has led him to the Visio Dei. Hence Natural religion in mankind. Hence the religious instinct and aspiration of the Hebrew psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven ^ The Psalmist of old realized aU this, as we gather from Ps. cxxxix., which reads like an anticipation of the modern doctrine of Creative Evolution. 32 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY but Thee, and there is none upon Earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. My heart and my flesh fail me, but Grod is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." " How dear are Thy counsels unto me ! Oh, how great is the sum of them!" Such is the teaching of the Spiritual Philo- sophy. Evolution, physical and psychic, leads us up to man. And man with his soul and spiritual faculties and aspirations becomes a revelation of G-od. But all through there is the operation of the Elan Vital, the Immanent Spirit of the Almighty. The following passages in A. J. Balfour's essay on "Creative Evolution"^ are so apposite, that I cannot forbear to quote them. " Let it suflBoe to say, that I see in the whole evolution of life on our planet an effort of this essentially creative force to arrive, by traversing matter, at something which is only realized in man, and which, moreover, even in man, is realized only imperfectly." Again — " I doubt that the evolution of life will ever be explained by a mere combination of mechanical forces. Obviously there is a vital impulse (what Pro£ Bergson has named the Elan Vital) : what I was just calling an impulse toward a higher and higher efficiency, a something which ever 1 Hibbert Jcmrnal, October 1911, pp. 38 and 40. GEEATIVE EVOLUTION 33 seeks to transcend itself, to extract from itself more than there is — in a word to create. Now a force, which draws from itself more than it con- tains, which gives more than it has, is precisely what is called a spiritual force ; in fact, I do not know how, otherwise, spirit is to be defined." And, lastly, on p. 43 he states the conclusion of his argument thus. Assuming the truth of the foregoing, " We shall have no repugnance in admitting that in man, though perhaps in man alone, consciousness pur- sues its path beyond this earthly life." CHAPTEK II Two principles or energies involved in Creative Evolution, Matter and Spirit, and their relation to each other — Prof. Bergson's view — Dr. Temple on the Atomic Theory, and subsequent developments — Elec- trons and Badio-Activity — The two Energies not antagonistic, but complementary and contributory factors in Creative Evolution When we look within ourselves to ascertain, if possible, ,what we are, our introspection assures us we are vital organisms, not of a simple nature, but wonderfully compounded of two elemental priuciples. Let us call them matter and spirit, body and soul; the first physical and material, the second metaphysical, psychical, and spiritual. But the discoveries of science, especially of Geology and Biology, and the study of Spiritual Philosophy, lead to and support two inferences or conclusions : first, that aU vital organisms, and our- selves as the most highly-developed examples, have been elaborated under the system of Crea- tive Evolution ; and, second, that this system is the result of the contiuuous and harmonious co- operation of these two forms of energy, matter and spirit. CKEATIVE EVOLUTION 33 Peopessob Bebgson's View On this point of the relation in which these two principles or energies of Matter and Spirit stand to each other, I am sorry to say I cannot entirely agree with the antagonistic view adopted by Prof. Bergson, viz. that the two are hostile and opposed to each other. Matter, he says, is that force which descends and is destructive of Ufe; Spirit is that which ascends and generates life. Only by one narrow channel or outlet, that of humanity, has Spirit been able to make its escape through the opposing mass of matter, to continue its onward and upward course of vital development. But I still cherish the hope of ultimate agreement with Prof. Bergson on this important point. For the Spiritual Philosophy, of which I hold him to be the champion, ought to be able, I think, to reconcile the rival claims of two such essential contributory factors to Creative Evolution. Note. — When I wrote the foregoing section on the relation of Matter and Spirit to each other, I had not read Dr. W. Temple's Lecture on the same subject dehvered in the Church House last October before the Guild of Health, Now that I have read it I am pleased to find that in the main points his view is almost, if not quite, identical with my own. The following brief extracts will show that this is the case. 36 CHKISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Db. W. Temple's Lecture "The old Greek Atomic Theory held that atoms differed only in such qualities as hardness and softness, roundness and angularity. The atom remained as an indivisible unit until quite lately, and consisted of ninety-two different kinds of elements. Then there came the electrical in- vestigation of matter and the atom was dissolved into electrons. Every atom was regarded as a solar system, but without a sun. That, in turn, was now being modified by the discovery of radio-activity." " What we meant by mind and spirit we knew to some extent by the activities of our being. What was claimed when we said that there was a spiritual power behind the spiritual universe, was, that there was behind this universe something akin to the spirit in ourselves. That implied Theism ; it meant that this universe was rational in its ordering. There was a correspondence between it and Mind. " Spirit had always to express itself in matter ; spirit came to itself through taking possession of matter and using it. The Christian view was neither materialist nor spiritualist in this special sense. The Christian view of life was sacramental : that matter could be taken and used by spirit as its instrument. There were certain persons (materialists) who would repudiate this ; believing that spirit and matter were opposed. " There was no antithesis of spirit and matter. We only knew what matter could do when spirit began to dwell in it, and we were now learning far more of what was possible in the way of spirit dwelling in matter, and shaping it for its own needs." ' 1 See the Gum-dian, October 15, 1920, p. 961. CREATIVE EVOLUTION 37 • The Two Enebgies These two forms of Energy, Matter and Spirit, though they are distinct and diverse, are not opposed or antagonistic, for both are oo-operant and harmonious factors in the method of Creative Evolution. If this be so, the logical inference is that they both proceed from the same Source, which can be none other than the Creator Himself who is at once Transcendent above all things and Immanent in all things. But though they are thus united we must not suppose they are of equal value. Spirit, as the home and source of intelHgence, thought, and will, is supreme. Matter, with its inherent physical energy, is but the instrument and material made use of by the Creator Spirit for His Self manifestation, for the embodiment and expression of His design, and the working out of His will. CHAPTBE III Materials at our conunand for a system of Spiritual Philosophy — The Elan Vital of life — The Creator both Transcendent and Immanent — Homo Speculum Dei " Give me a fulcrum," said Archimedes, " and I will Kft the earth." Similarly I think the seeker after Truth might say, Give me a reasonable soul, perceptive and conscious of its environment, and it will be possible to construct a System of Philo- sophy which will go far to account for, and explain the Universe. Of course this sounds like the foolish boast of a visionary enthusiast. And yet I believe that in a certain sense, and up to a certain point, it is true. At any rate I crave my reader's indulgence, while I endeavour to explain my meaning and justify my statement. Every earnest seeker after Truth is a philosopher. For a philosopher is a lover of wisdom, which ultimately means the Truth. But the first question to be asked and answered is this : What means have we at our command for ascertaining the truth ? Assuming nothing in the first instance, and taking nothing for granted, but that I am a CREATIVE EVOLUTION 39 rational being endowed with faculties of perception and observation, I find myself living in a wonderful world and in the midst of an Environment teeming with works and proofs of marvellous intelligence, power, and beauty. How am I to account for this Environment ? How came I into it, and in what relation do I stand to it ? It is one of the axioms of my reason, that for every effect produced there must be a Cause, if only I can find it ; and, moreover, a Cause ade- quate in every respect to the effect produced. Therefore, I am justified in believing that this wonderful Environment in which I find myself placed is the work of an intelligent Personal • Spirit, who is at once Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Beautiful. If we are asked what name we are to give to this Creative Energy, we would reply, it is a matter of minor importance whether He be addressed as Father Nannar by the Babylonian psalmist, or Yahveh (Jah) by the Hebrew poet, or Jove by the Greek and Latin mythologists ; for under all these names, there is implied the belief in one Supreme and transcendent Deity, whom we Christians call God. This, then, is the first inference, which my reason teaches me to draw with regard to the Environment in which I find myself placed. But it is only the first ; the foundation stone, 40 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY so to speak, on whioli the fabric of the Spiritual Philosophy is to be erected. For I have an irrepressible curiosity and desire to know more about this wonderful Environment, about its maker and myself. I must look into it more carefully. I must go to Nature and see if she has anything to tell me on these important subjects. I must call in the aid of scientific research. I must study the heavens, which "declare the glory of G-od," by Astronomy; the earth, on which I tread, by the help of Geology ; and life itself by that of Biology. And the result of aU this scientific study and investigation has been, for me, that Nature, which is my Environ- ment, and man himself, who stands for the highest form of terrestrial life, did not spring into existence ready made by one Almighty fiat, but by the method and process of Creative Evolution. And the fact that under the working of this method and process, there has been produced an intelligent self-conscious being, such as man, capable of perceiving and appreciating Absolute Values, both in their ideal and practical stages, is one of the utmost significance as weU in regard to the Creator God as the Creature man. The Elan Vital of Life If life be consciousness, as Prof. Bergson asserts, and as I believe, then Creative Evolution, from a CREATIVE EVOLUTION 41 biological point of view, means the gradual growth and development of animal organisms into a higher and higher form of consciousness. The agency by which this gradual growth has been effected is what Prof. Bergson has called the Elan Vital. The name itself means nothing more than the Vital Thrust ; but, beyond a doubt, it denotes a spiritual energy or principle which pervades the whole of Nature and the Created Universe. In short, a Creator both Transcendent and Immanent. Thus does Creative Evolution throw further light on the problem of Creation. If Nature and the Universe be the work of a Transcendent Deity, not only must He transcend all things but also be Immanent in all things. But not only does Creative Evolution throw Hght on the Nature of God, it has much to teach us about man, the masterpiece of the Divine Artificer. Homo Speoulum Dei Wonderful are the marks of intelligence and instinct in the varied forms of animal and physical life. But they are immeasurably sur- passed by the marvels of man's psychic and spiritual nature. For we must remember, that this process of evolution has been going forward simultaneously iu both stages or departments of life and consciousness — the physical and the psychic. 42 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY The Bame Elan Vital, which we must remember is the Immanent Spirit of God, which called into life the lichen and the amoeba, at length has pro- duced through successive increments of conscious- ness, extending over millions of years, the soid of man able to perceive and admire Divine ideas of Justice, and Truth, of Love, and Beauty, and which raise him to the topmost pinnacle of terres- trial creation, and bear the clearest witness to his Divine origin. CHAPTEE IV Mattel and Spirit — The most recent results of scientific research and the modifications of previous theories as to the relation of Matter and Spirit — 3?he Materialistic Theory — The Spiritualistic modifications and revisions necessary in both, recent investigations and their result The recent discoveries of science in regard to the composition of matter have completely revolu- tionized the ideas which prevailed until quite modern times. It used to be thought that Matter and Spirit were principles ia nature diametrically opposed and antagonistic to each other. The Materialist held that Matter, in one or other of its forms and potencies could account for all the phenomena of life and mentality. In short, there was no need to caU in any other energy such as that of Spirit to explain the mysteries of nature. The Matebialistic Theoey This is the Materialist's view. But, like the atomic theory, it is bound to disappear. There is no radical antagonism between Matter and Spirit. Both are forms of Energy proceeding from the same source ; the one physical, the other spiritual. Both are necessary as contributory and 44 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY co-operating factors in carrying on the work of Creative Evolution, though each has its function and sphere of operation. To use a familiar illustra- tion : Matter may be compared to the plastic clay in the hands of the potter, which he moulds according to his will to give expression to his purpose and design. And the Potter is the Immanent Spirit of God, who is the Mens Creatrix, the Lord and Giver of life. The Spieitualistic Theoet The Materialist must give up his idea that matter will suffice to account for all the forms of energy, aU the phenomena and noumena of which we are conscious in our varied and com- plicated Environment both physical and meta- physical. And the Spiritualist must cease to regard Matter as a principle in nature, obstruc- tive and repressive to the upward tendency and aspiration of spiritual life. Kecent Discoveeies This change in the scientific opinion and beUef as to the constitution of Matter is of such great importance in several respects, that the following account of the steps by which it has been brought about will not, I hope, be deemed superfluous. To Clerk Maxwell, who was one of the first to devote himself to this branch of natural science, we owe the more modern ideas of the nature and CREATIVE EVOLUTION 46 composition of Matter. As to the size of a mole- cule, ^consisting of the combiaation of two or more atoms, Sir Arthur Eucker and others calculated the thickness of a molecule to be not more than two-millionths of an inch. Light, which at one time was thought to be immaterial, was found to be composed of molecules of almost infinite tenuity, and was calculated to be able to exert a pressure on the earth of TO million tons. Eadiant Mattee Then came Sir W. Crookes with his wonderful discoveries made by passing electric charges through vacuum bulbs or tubes. He ascertained that these charges exercised the same pressure as light from the rays of the sun. He also discovered that something was flying across the bulb, which was neither molecules nor atoms, but a new form of Matter — the Fourth State ; neither solid, liquid, nor gaseous, but, as it has been named, Radiant Matter. It was after- wards discovered that this Eadiant Matter was the very material of which atoms themselves were composed, and which, therefore, was held to be the basis of the Matter out of which the whole Universe is built up. Eadium Next came the discovery of that remarkable substance Eadium, which is always giving out 46 CHBISTIAN PHILOSOPHY heat and energy, without apparently receiving any. The matter thrown out appears to be of three kinds. (1) Atoms of Helium, a substance rare upon the earth, but abundant in the sun. (2) Eays which seemed like light, but were not light, and were afterwards found to be the same as the radiant matter of Crooks' vacuum bulbs. (3) Eays of a still Ughter character and believed to be the same as the Eontgen rays. Such is a very brief and imperfect sketch of the history of the atom and the discovery of the elements of which it is now believed by the best scientists to be ultimately made up. And the result and conclusion from aU this scientific investigation which is of most interest to us in our present enquiry is this : that matter event- ually turns out to be a form of energy (physical) owing to the incredible speed at which the electrons are moving and revolving within each atom. The Atom has had to yield its position of supremacy to the Electron and Eadio-activity. And whether that is the final word, who shall say ? But what we must admit is, that it has com- pelled us to revise our previous notions and theories in some important points, as to the nature and composition of matter. We must not talk of Atoms and the Atomic Theory, but of Electrons and Eadio-activity. Matter is no longer to be thought of as very minute particles of solid substance, such as wax, or carbon, but as " a form CEEATIVB EVOLUTION 47 of physical energy." And beyond that definition we do not seem for the present able to go.* 1 " On this (the most modem) conception of the Atom as con- sisting of groups of corpuscles, revolving in concentric rings or spheres and arranging themselves in such rings, according to their number and speed, we can explain many or most of the phenomena of Atoms." — Popular Science, Part II. p. 1268. PART III EBLIGION CHAPTER I Oonueotion between Values, Creative Evolution and Beligion — The argu- ment — What is Beligion ? — Man a religious animal — Birth of the religious instinct I SHOULD be much disappointed if any of my readers failed to grasp the reason which has led me to couple together the three topics of Absolute Values, Creatiye Evolution, and Eehgion, which form the subjects under discussion in this volume. They may seem to differ widely, but, in fact, they are closely connected as integral parts of a system of Philosophy which embraces them aU. More- over, we can scarcely fail to observe a law of progressive development running through them all, and binding them together in still closer union. Thus, for example. Absolute Values lead us to the contemplation of the Nature and Attributes of the Divine Being, the one and only Absolute, In Creative Evolution we behold this Being, stepping forth, so to speak, and manifesting RELIGION 49 Himself, and His attributes in countless forms of beauty and goodness, and calling into existence spirits Kke Himself capable of bearing His image and responding to His love. EeUgion is the subject which is necessarily brought under our notice, when we come to consider the relation in which the two previous subjects stand to each other, the Creator and the creature, the Life-giving Spirit of God, and the life-bearing Soul of Man, the Divine and Human PersonaUties. Beief Outline of the Akgument Creative Evolution has for its mark and index an ever-increasing consciousness of Environment, and that, not only as consisting of the physical phenomena perceived by the senses of the body, but still more of the spiritual noumena, the metaphysical facts which only the faculties of the mind and the soul of man can perceive. Amongst the latter we must certainly include what are termed the Absolute or real Values of human life. These Absolute Values, such as Love and Truth and Justice and Beauty, I have already endeavoured to show must be regarded as essential attributes and characteristics of the Deity, and therefore, like Himself, infinite and eternal.^ We ^ Dean Inge calls them swpra-tem/porcil. " These Values are eternal and iadeatructible." — Outspoken Essays, p. 272. E 50 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY call them Absolute Values because He is Absolute, and the One and Only Absolute, and they form part of His Nature. What is Religion ? Various definitions have been given of it. And even the derivation and etymology of the word has been the subject of debate. Cicero connected it with relegere, "to read over again." Another later and more probable view favours a verb of similar sound but quite different meaning, religare, " to bind over or back." This latter view certainly accords better with the meaning the word bore in its earliest usage, to denote a state of life bound by monastic vows, or even matrimonial ties. A religious man was originally a man thus bound ; and, then, a man in holy orders. Religion has been called the people's meta- physic. And this is true in a certain sense ; for religion itself is based on metaphysical doctrines and truths, without which it could not exist. And religion, we may say, is the expression of those doctriues and truths in language " understanded of the people." Again, man has been termed a religious animal, because of aU animated and sentient terrestrial creatures he is the only one that has come to possess religious instinct, sentiments, and aspira- tions. Such has been the result and climax of RELIGION 61 Creative Evolution that it has brought the soul of man into a possible union and communion with the Parent Spirit of God. Nor must we lose sight of the fact that this religious instinct in the soul of man is one of the most powerful and convincing witnesses to the existence of a Divine Being from whom all life proceeds and Who is the Father of the spirits of men. Let us now turn to consider briefly what light the Spiritual Philosophy can throw on the birth of this wonderful instinct. Life means consciousness and response to environment. It is evident, too, that as animal life has assumed higher forms, these, too, have increased in range and perceptive power. The consciousness of lower forms was limited to the physical and material objects of their environment. But as the perceptive and discriminating power increased in the soul of man he became conscious of metaphysical and spiritual truth and reality. BlETH OP THE EeLIGIOUS IkSTINCT As Creative Evolution is the history of the birth and gradual development of consciousness, which is life, proceeding from the Spirit of Grod, who is the Lord and Giver of life ; so this gradual increase of consciousness has ever been bringing man to a fuller and clearer perception of his 52 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY environment, physical, moral, and spiritual : that is, into a closer touch with God, and a deeper insight into and appreciation of those Absolute Values, which are His essential and characteristic attributes. And this in turn discloses the scien- tific reason, if I may so term it, why Eehgion is so great a boon and blessing to mankind when practically accepted as the rule of life.^ 1 The following extract from H. G. Wells' Outline of History is both, sigmficant and instructive : — " That curious exceptional disentanglement of religious teaching from formal education is a distinctive feature of our age ; and we have traced the consec[uences of this phase of religious disputation and confusion in the reversion of international politics towards a brutal nationalism, and in the backward drift of industrial and business life; towa>rds harsh, selfish, and uncreative profit-seeking. There has been a slipping off of ancient restraints, a real de-civiliza- tion of men's minds." CHAPTEE II Limits of Enquiry — Christiamty, the Beligion of the Inoarnation — Its origin and antecedents — Two questions : (1) Is the Beligion of Jesus consistent with the doctrine of Spiritual Philosophy ? — (2) Is it calcu- lated to advance the moral and spiritual interests of mankind ? Mt object in Part II. was to show how Creative Evolution, regarded as God's method of Self-mani- festation, has called into existence the personal spirit or soul of man; the very climax of the Elan Vital, and the chef d'ceuvre of the Creator's works. This human soul, conscious and per- ceptive of its environment, and capable of reasoning u|pon it, became at length endowed with moral, spiritual, and religious instincts, intuitions and aspirations which pointed unmistakably to, and could be satisfied by nothing less than the existence of a Personal Creative Spirit, Transcen- dent above all things and yet Immanent in all things. Such in briefest outline was the general con- clusion to which, I venture to think, we were led by our consideration both of Absolute Values and Creative Evolution. And in this way, I imagine, the universal pre- valence of the religious instinct and aspiration 54 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY amongst nearly all races and nations of men is best explained. To attempt a description of even the principal forms of faith and worship which the rehgious instinct in mankind has led them to adopt, is of course out of the question. My object in this third part is of a far more limited and specific character. It is to enquire whether that form of Eeligion, which goes by the name of Christianity, and which, to give it a more accurate description, may be called the Religion of the Incarnation, will conform to and harmonize with the demands of the Spiritual Philosophy. The theological basis on which both the Jewish and Christian forms of faith and worship repose is set forth in outline in the first few chapters of Genesis; and a literal interpretation of the figurative, anthropomorphic and allegorical language in which those doctrines and positions are expressed is quite unnecessary. It is not the outward form, but the inner and real spiritual significance which underlies these forms, we are anxious to ascertain. Let me briefly indicate what I conceive these fundamental doctrines or theses to be. (a) The existence of a Transcendent Creator of all things ; but Who is yet, by virtue of His Spirit, Immanent in all things, and the Lord and G-iver of life to all His creatures. RELIGION 55 {b) A gradual method or process of creation, which has reached its climax in the soul of man, through successive increments of spiritual and psychic consciousness, so that it is not untrue to say, that man, as we know him, has been made " in the image of God." ^ (c) The Story of the Fall, together with the intrusion of sin and evU into the world of human experience, is I humbly believe one of the mysteries beyond our power of solution and which we must accept in faith and humility, until we receive more light. But we may go a step further and say, that the existence of good and evil, and generally the positive Good and the negative Evil, which form so large and so real an element in our environment, is both in the Jewish and Christian Eevelations represented as the very condition and medium through which we may advance upward to perfection. Without attempting to recapitulate the argu- ments on which our conclusion must be built up, let it sufl&ce if I briefly summarize the main points in the discussion. 1. Nature, including therein all that is known, or can be known of the Cosmos, whether the Microcosmus within, or the Macrocosmus without ourselves, must ever be our First Teacher both in Philosophy, Theology, and Religion. 2. Nature, through the process of Creative 1 Cp. also Gen. ii. 7, " God breathed into man's nostrils," etc. 66 CHEISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Evolution, due to the Energy of the Immanent Spirit of God, has resulted in the momentous fact of the personal, intelligent, self-conscious soul or spirit of man, endowed not only with religious instincts, intuitions, and aspirations, but also with ethical or moral perceptions and discriminations between good and evil, right and wrong. A crucial and convincing proof of this fact is afforded us in the sacred writings of Babylonia and Ohaldsea. 3. The Hebrew and Jewish system of EeUgious belief and practice was really the outcome and more definite expression of the rehgious senti- ments implanted in the personal souls of men by the Immanent Spirit of God the Author and Giver of Hfe. 4. Christianity, the Eeligion of the Incarnation, we may truly describe as the legitimate Heir, the further development and fuUer realization of the hopes and promises held out to mankind in the Old Testament Scriptures. 5. Now if this be a faithful record of the credentials with which Christianity has been handed down to us, I ask is there any alternative for the candid enquirer after truth but to confess that, indeed, there is no other name under heaven given amongst men, whereby we must be saved, but only the Name of the Lord Jesus.^ Such, I believe, is the main conclusion to 1 Acts iv. 12 and 1 Cor. iii. 11. EELIGION 67 whioh we are brought, by observation and con- secutive logical reasoning upon the two inoon- testible facts of man and his environment. Men may scorn and scoff at Keligion as though it were outside the realm of Philosophy ; but, nevertheless, it is true that Eeligion is the legiti- mate offspring and the very climax of true philo- sophy. For Eeligion opens out a field for the limitless growth and expansion of that conscious- ness, which forms the chief characteristic of life, and reaches its fullest development, so far, in the spirit and soul of man ; a field in which he may ever and eternally become more and more percep- tive and possessed of those Absolute Values which are the characteristics of God Himself. CHAPTER III Section I. : Characteristies of Christianity — Section II. : The Eeligion of Jesus long foretold and anticipated of the spiritual order — The Incar- nation and its import. Christianity is more than a religion. It is, more correctly speaking, a religion based upon, and springing from a Philosophy, and that the Philo- sophy of Spirit. Nature and the facts of the Universe, which form our environment, are its starting point. Behind and within them we see both energy and intelligence, which demand a Spiritual Power and Personality to account for them. If we can be sure of anything, we are sure that these things must have a Cause. And that Cause Christianity claims for its God. Section I. Chaeaotebistics of Chbistianity The Eeligion of Jesus is indeed a remarkable Eeligion in several respects. It consults for the welfare and happiness of man, not merely as a creature born to spend a few years more or less on this earth, and then fall back again into the soil from which it sprang ; but as an immortal soul endowed with instincts and faculties which fit him and bespeak for him an existence after this life in a higher sphere of spiritual activity. RELIGION 59 For consider : if man has somehow developed into a being endowed with such moral and spiritual faculties that he can perceive and appreciate those real and Absolute Values, such as love and truth and beauty, in preference to the sensuous and ephemeral values of this earthly life, then the Eeligion of Jesus is that which above aU others tends to encourage and foster the growth of mankind in these higher values, Jesus lost no opportunity of placing His imprimatur upon them by word or deed. Is life itself in question? What does Jesus say ? " What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? " Is it love ? " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." But He did it for His enemies, and He said, " By this shall all men know . . . that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another." Is it truth ? "To this end was I bom, and for this cause came I into the world, that I might bear witness unto the truth." " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Again, If these Absolute Values so called are something more than abstract ideas — mere anoma- lies in the world of moral speculation, coming we know not whence nor why — if, on the contrary, they are characteristic attributes of a Divine Personahty, a Heavenly Father ; then Jesus claims to be the revelation to man of this Divine Being, this Heavenly Father; nay, more, to be Himself 60 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY the way to the Father. " No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. I and the Father are One." Stupendous claims, indeed ! and such as surpass the limits of human conception and comprehen- sion ; but such, nevertheless, as, when taken in connection with all that Jesus said and did and taught. His followers accept in humility and faith. Such is the Religion of Jesus — the Religion of the Incarnation. May we not say, it is the one and only Religion which adequately meets the varied wants and capacities of human nature, for it embraces body and soul, mind and spirit, time and eternity, earth and heaven. Section II. The Religion op Jesus of Nazabeth LONG FORETOLD AND ANTICIPATED 1. The Religion which Jesus of Nazareth came to preach and to teach was claimed by Him as the fulfilment of a long series of promises and prophecies, extending over many centuries from the time of Abram, and many of them of a very specific character, pointing unmistakably to the rise of a Saviour, in Whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. " I came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them." 2. Moreover, His Religion in its theological and doctrinal aspect was an endorsement, in the main, of the doctrines which formed the basis both of the Jewish Religion and Hebrew Sacred Literature. EELIGION 61 3. The prophecies which foretold His Advent were attributed to the Spirit of God speaking through the mouth of His prophets.' So when He came, He claimed to be " the Anointed Servant of Jehovah," foretold by Isaiah, "to preach glad tidings to the poor, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord " (Luke iv. 21). Op the Spiritual Obdeb 4. Another point that should be carefully borne in mind is this : from first to last His Eeligion, as He taught it, was of the spiritual order. His Theology was that of the Spirit. " God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." "It is the Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. " The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are hfe." The new hfe He came to quicken in His Disciples was to be the work of the Spirit. By the same Spirit alone could it be kept alive and carried on to perfection, and to this end He promised an unfading supply of the Spirit to the end of time ; and the blessed future they were to hope and strive for was to be one of unbroken union and fellowship with Himself. " That where I am, there ye may be also." * " Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Grhost " (II. Pet. i. 21.) 62 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY The Incarnation and its Import What do we mean by the Incarnation ? What is the correct view to take of it? I think it would be a false and mistaken view to suppose that it denoted the introduction of a new Divine and Spiritual Energy, which had not previously been in operation in the creative councils and intentions of the Almighty in relation to mankind. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," " I came not to do Mine own wUl, but the will of Him that sent Me." And "I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day." Such was Jesus' lofty ideal of His work and office. God had been working hitherto in the hearts and consciences of men by His Immanent Spirit, the true Elan Vital, the Lord and Giver of Hfe ; quickening in the human breast the consciousness of those real values which are not only the attri- butes of the Divine Nature, but also the brightest ornament and blessing of our human Hfe. And ought we not rather to regard the Incarnation as a further step in the Divine scheme of Creative Evolution, in furtherance of the happiness and salvation of mankind, to be consummated at length in the perfect union of man with God. Such was the hope which Jesus bade His followers entertain, and for which He Himself prayed.^ And that this is the view of sound Christian 1 John xvii. 20-23. RELIGION 63 Theology is abundantly evident from the utterances of the great Apostles Peter, Paul, and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It was the voice of G-od Who spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets. It is His voice we hear stiU speaking unto us in the Incarnation, i.e. in the Person of His Son, the Eternal Word of the Father by Whom also the Heavens and the Earth were made. The voice is the same and the message is the same. But there is this important difference. The message must now be taken up and repeated by each of the faithful followers of Jesus. Jesus says to each one of them, "Go ye into aU the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." " Ye are My witnesses in every land and to the end of time; so that My Church may be the Catholic Church not in name only but in reality." "Did I come to be the long promised ' Blessing ' ? Then you, too, must each one be a blessing to those around you. Did I come to com- fort all that mourn, to give them the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness ? ^ Then this, too, must be your role of duty and privilege." " That they may be one, even as we are one; I in them and Thou in me, that they may be perfected unto one." Such was His noble con- ception of the work the Father had given Him to do. And such must be ours also. 1 Is. Ixi. 1-3. CHAPTER IV What has Jesus done for mankincl ? Jesus by His Incarnation has conferred blessings on mankind of incalculable value, which are yet but imperfectly understood and appreciated. What are they ? 1. He has carried forward the process and work of Creative Evolution to a further and far higher stage of development, by quickening the faculty of consciousness to perceive and appreciate the real and Absolute Values of human life, truth, love, beauty, and the like, which are the essential attributes of God. 2. By His doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, He has taught us the Brotherhood of Man, which itself is the most effectual stimulus and incentive to the moral, social, and spiritual progress of mankind.^ 3. By His spotless life and example of self- ' If this spirit of Christian Brotherhood had been recognized and displayed by masters and men, by coal-owners and miners, in aU probability the recent disastroxis coal strike would hare been averted. Never were truer words spoken than these, " Righteousness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any people." — Aug. 12, 1921. KBLiaiON 66 saorifioing love He has begotten a sense of the beauty of holiness, and true nobility of character. 4. By manifesting Himself to men in His two- fold nature, Human and Divine; and by His relation to the All Father as His only begotten Son and to the Holy Spirit— the true Elan Vital — ^the Lord and Giver of life, He has laid the foundation on which the whole fabric of Christian Theology has been built up and centralized in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. 6. The mystery of sin, indeed, remains. But by His Incarnation, and all it implies, Jesus has provided the means whereby its deadly effects may be averted, and the sinner restored once more to the favour of God, and fitted to become a partaker of the Divine Nature. 6. Another blessing which, through the Incar- nation of Jesus, has accrued to mankind must not be forgotten : the manifestation of His Sacred Heart, so fuU of tender love and sympathy. He took upon Him our nature, not only to show Himself " the Friend of publicans and sin- ners," but of every one in sorrow, suffering, or distress. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." None so low and downcast but He can lift him up. None so friendless who may not find a Friend in Ham. Where would our Hospitals and Charitable Institutions, our Prison Gate MissioJas and Peni- tentiaries have been, had not Jesus, by taking our 66 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY nature upon Him, made Himself the Brother of all men? He did all this to show us what humanity might become when sanctified and brought under the influence of the Holy Spirit. . Yes. And in the manifestation of His Sacred Heart, so full of love and sympathy, Jesus has conferred a boon of priceless value on the whole race of mankind. Such are some of the blessings which Jesus through His Incarnation has procured for man- kind. When Socrates was discussing with Simmias and others the great difficulty of acquiring a clear and certain knowledge, and not mere matter of opinion, about things true and divine, he went on to say : " He who would know the truth about these matters must do one of two things : either he must learn or discover (for himself) the truth about them, or, if that be impossible, he must take whatever human doctrine is best and hardest to disprove, and, embarking upon it, as upon a raft, sail through loss, and in the midst of dangers, unless he can find some stronger vessel, some divine revelation {\6yov Oetov twos) and make his voyage more safely and securely." ^ In this interesting dialogue of the great philo- sopher, I think we detect the presence of two sentiments — confession and hope. First, a con- 1 Phrodo, 85. O, RELIGION 67 fession of the inability of men to arrive at a true and certain knowledge of things divine -without some help from above. Secondly, a hope secretly cherished, that possibly such assistance, by means of a further revelation, might be given hereafter. I would ask. Could this hopeful expectation have been more completely realized than it has been by the Incarnation and religion of Jesus Christ, Who showed Himself to be "the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world"? If this be so, methinks there should be nothing unreal in the following expression of gratitude and devotion : " Jesus, of Thee shall be my song, To Thee my heart and soul belong, AU that I have, or am is Thine, And Thou, blest Saviour, Thou art mine. Jesu, my Lord, I Thee adore. Oh ! make me love Thee more and more." CHAPTBE V Immortality as involving Section A: The Resurrection of the Body — Section B : The Inmiortality of the Soul — Section A : Some Texts and teachings of Jesus — The Besurrection of Jesus, a type and pattern of our own — Section B : The eternal life of the soul — 3t. Paul on the Survival of the Soul — The intermediate state — Inferences and con- clusions The doctrine of the Eesurrection of the Body is more difficult to accept and understand than that of the Immortality of the Soul. And yet as Christians we are pledged to the acceptance of both. Section A. Eesureection of the Body The former doctrine is mysterious and mystical. It is attended with difficulties we are unable by human reasoning, knowledge, and experience either to explain, or remove. But it is not to be doubted or denied on that account. What we do know is, that death means the dissolution of the union of body and soul, and Eesurrection means the resumption of that union — the redin- tegration of body and soul, of flesh and spirit. But how that reunion and redintegration is to be brought about is too great and mysterious and difficult a subject for a detailed discussion in this RELIGION 69 place. All I shall attempt must be to offer for my reader's consideration some of the main facts and factors which must be taken into account and which afford for me, at least, the most assuring and comforting evidence of the truth and certainty of the Resurrection of the Body: 1. The belief in the Resurrection in the sense that the same identical body, which dies and is laid in the grave, is raised up again to be reunited to the soul must, it would seem, be abandoned. The material elements which composed it may have been consumed by fire, or dissolved in water, or otherwise destroyed, so that it is not possible to put a literal interpretation on those passages and texts which foretell a bodily resurrection. Nor, indeed, is it necessary that we should. For the Preacher tells us that at death " the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God, who gave it " (Ecoles. xii, 7).' The soul, or spirit, is the personal Ego and real life of man, for it is the Breath of God. "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." * " Resurrection is the uudoiag of death. If, then, death is the disintegration of man, resurrection will be his redintegration. He is restored to the completeness of his natural formation, body and soul. There seems to be only one way in which this can be understood. As in life the soul, the controlling entity, gathered constantly changing elements for the construction of its organism, so we must suppose it, aMev death, to gather new elements, perhaps of a wholly different kind, for reconstruction. And again, as the body before death was identi cally the same through all its changes, so it is identically reproduced, with whatever degree of change, in the resurrection." — Rev. T. A. Lacey, " Survival and Resurrection," Theology, April 1921, p. 171. 70 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Some Texts and Teachings of Jesus bearing on THESE Subjects Either by His doctrine, or example, He has much to teU as as to the part the body, the soul's companion (and tenement), is destined to play in the Kfe after death. Christ claimed not only to assure His followers of the eternal life of the soul, He claimed also to confer on the body a similar immortality. " I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that beheveth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he Hve " (John xi. 25). He bade His followers expect His return, when " AU that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth : they that have done good unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." And for the further confirmation of their faith He gave them what we might call an ocular demonstration of the certainty of His prediction, by showing HimseK alive on several occasions after He rose from the dead. Before His death He had asserted His power both to lay down His life, and to take it again. And this claim He justified by His own Resurrec- tion. But what He claimed for Himself He claims also for His followers, " Because I live, ye shall live also." Now if Jesus was what He claimed to be, and RELIGION 71 what we confess that He was, " the Son of God " as well as " the Son of Man," is it for us to doubt the truth of His promise, or place limits to His power to fulfil it ? Surely not ! This, then, must be our Second Inference : The mortal body is destined to share the life of the immortal soul. "There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." He who had power to rise again from the tomb of Joseph, must also have power " to change the body of our humilia- tion, that it may be made like unto His glorious body " and meet for the Mansions He has gone to prepare for them that love Him (John xiv. 2). After all, our belief in the resurrection of the body will stand or fall by our faith in the Incarna- tion of Jesus. For, if we believe He was the Son of God, we may not doubt the truth of His Resurrection, nor the certainty of our own.^ The post-Resuebection Body and Life of Jesus A Type and Patteen op oue own After He rose from the dead the connection between His human body and soul was not broken, though the former had evidently undergone a mysterious change.^ The Jesus who showed Himself alive after His ' See Appendix, on " The Incarnation and Modern Chnrchmen." ^ Mary Magdalene in the Garden, and the two disciples going to Enunaus, failed to recognize Jesus at first. See also Matt, xxviii. 17, " And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted." 72 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY Resurreotion was no phantom or disoarnate Spirit, for He still possessed human faculties and percep- tions as speech, sight, hearing. He held converse with His disciples, and on one occasion, it is recorded, h"e even ate and drank with them after He rose from the dead. " Handle Me and see : for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have " (Luke xxiv. 39-43). And with the same human body He ascended into Heaven, as He foretold, " Now to appear in the presence of God for us " (Heb. ix. 24). If, then, the post-resurrection life of Jesus may be regarded as the type and pattern of our own, the inference seems fair and conclusive, that what- ever may be the nature of the life of the soul when separated by death from its partner the body, the resurrection body itself will have some features and quaUties and capacities similar to those of its present earthly and temporal existence. Even here and now we are in touch with the Infinite and Eternal. Though we are only inhabi- tants of this puny speck of dust we call the earth, yet, even now, the boundless Universe is our Environment, and all its contents claim our study and admiration, " The heavens declare the glory of God : and the firmament showeth His handiwork." This earth may be exhausted and become Hke a parched scroll; but that such a fate awaits the Universe we cannot believe. This life on earth is the school in which our RELIGION 73 souls are being trained for the life beyond. Will Heaven be less beautiful, less full of happy willing service for God than earth has been ? We cannot think it. And if the beauty of this lower world can fiU the soul with such rapture how much more the world to come ! Even here and now the life Eternal is begun for those who have been born again of the Spirit. For, said Jesus, " The Kingdom of i^eaven is within you." Survival cannot mean the arrest or extinction of life, but only a clearer vision of the glorious works and attributes of the Creator. It was the Spirit of God in Jesus that quick- ened and raised His human Body from the dead.' And it will be by the same Spirit that those resurrection bodies, which God of His mighty power will provide, must be quickened and raised to life again. Section B. The Etebnal Life of the Soul " The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting of the soul" are twin articles of the Christian Faith, which we are loyally bound to accept. Let me now invite my readers to the second of them, the survival of the soul after death. ' Kom. viii. 11 : " If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus dwell in you, He who raised up Christ shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." 74 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY « In one of his remarkable " Outspoken Essays," that on Survival and Immortality, the Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Inge, after quoting from Prof. Pringle-Patteson that " all claims on man's behalf must be based on the objectivity of the values revealed in his experience (here on earth) and brokenly revealed even here " goes on to make the following remark : — "In this world of values we find our own immortality " (p. 271). And a little further on : " In so far as we can identify ourselves in thought and mind with the Absolute Values, we are sure of our immortality " (p. 272). Now I feel, for myself, that these are very pregnant utterances and that they contain a deep spiritual truth of the utmost importance to every one of us. At the same time I feel that they need a little explanation to make their meaning in- telligible to, and therefore appreciated by, the ordinary reader or hearer. Explanation What, then, is the real strength of Dean Inge's argument and assurance, that to become identified with these Absolute Values is to be assured of our survival after death, and our immortality in another and higher sphere of existence ? Perhaps we ought first to ask what is meant by becoming "identified with them." RELIGION 75 Surely it can mean nothing less than this : that — (a) They must be so accepted and assimilated, as to become part of our moral and spiritual con- sciousness. Life is consciousness, and therefore the higher and more perfect the consciousness the higher and more perfect the life of the soul, and the nearer our approach to God. "We must accustom ourselves," as Dr. Inge remarks, " to breathe the air of the Eternal Values, if we desire to live for ever." (b) These Absolute Values must be more than beautiful concepts of Divine ideas. They must find their concrete expression in the character and conduct of those who entertain them. They are in truth " the things above," which the Apostle Paul tells us those who call them- selves the disciples of Jesus and claim to be risen with Him, must ever be seeking. The following is an extract from my Diary, June 1, 1920 : "I am distressed and alarmed by what I see going on around me in the social, political, and religious life of our people at the present time. It seems to me we are drifting down to some great national disaster. I wiU only mention one or two causes for my apprehension : the growth of selfishness, the love of pleasure and luxury, materialism, and religious indifference." What can save us ? What can stay the down- ward rush which is heading straight for disaster ? 76 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY I venture to think there is one thing, and one thing only. It is the practical appreciation and adoption hy the people of the Absolute Values of Love and Truth, of Justice and Beauty. " No man hath seen God at any time." " He dwelleth in the Light unapproachable," etc. The only way in which we can know G-od is by those attributes in which He has revealed Himself to us. Through the method and process of psychic and spiritual Evolution man has obtained the faculty of moral consciousness and discrimination which enables him to perceive and appreciate the things that are " excellent " (PhU, i. 10).^ Already, true Christians are not the heirs only, but the possessors of Immortality. " Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that, when He shaU appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John ii, 2). The life which has been begun upon earth shaU still be carried forward and perfected in Heaven. Advancing from one degree of perfection to another, and, perhaps, by the same method of Creative Evolution, he wiU gain deeper and more joyous insight into the Love and Truth and ' 'Eis t!) SoKtlid(ui' u/tSr ra Siai(it'povT«, lit. " Put to the test the things that differ." , RELIGION 77 Beauty of Grod, "in Wlioae Presence is fulness of joy and at Whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore." The Vjew and Doctbine op St. Paul on the SUEVIVAL OF THE SoUL AFTER DeATH The life of the soul, when separated from its partner the body at death, must evidently be that of a discarnate spirit, until such time as the two may again be reunited, i.e. at the resurrection of the body, whenever, and however, that may take place. We find the apostle entering into the dis- cussion of this subject in 2 Cor. v. 1-4. Let me quote his words — " (1) For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a build- ing of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: (3) If so be that being clothed, we shaU not be found naked. (4) For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burthened; not for that we would be un- clothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." By "the earthly house of this tabernacle" St. Paul, no doubt, referred to " the body " ; and by " dissolved " (broken up like a tent) to its 78 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY dissolution at death. When this happens, early or late, " we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Death he regarded as the unclothing of the soul which wiU remain naked, untU it is re-clothed at the Resurrection with " the spiritual body." " The thought," says Bishop BUicott, " is that of one who thinks that the coming of the Lord is near." The Inteemediate State The doctrine and belief in an Intermediate State between death and the general Resurrec- tion follow as a natural consequence. Paul was mistaken in his expectation that the Great Day of the Lord was at hand. Nevertheless, however this might be, he states his confidence and willingness "rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord, which is far better." And in this connection, the descriptive forecast of the Heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. zii. 22) should not be overlooked. Ye are come, says the writer, to " the city of the Living God . . . the general assembly and Church of the first-born," and amongst those who form that company, he makes special mention of " the spirits of just men made perfect." Though, as yet, they had not been "clothed upon" with the spiritual resurrection body, they are members BELIGION 79 of " the general assembly and Church of the first- born," they enjoy the presence and friendship of Jesus and find their honour and delight " in doing Him service." ^ / If, then. Evolution of the pyschic order means, as we contend it does, an ever-increasing con- sciousness of our spiritual environment, it means also a closer approximation and assimilation to the image and attributes of God, which are infinite and inexhaustible. But, said our great Teacher, " This is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." " Sanctify them in the Truth ; Thy word is truth." ' Can we believe that the spirits and souls of the righteous, which are capable of perceiving, loving, and assimilating these real values of human life, are doomed to perish as though they had never been ? Is Creative Evolution, upon which the Almighty has bestowed such boundless wisdom and power and beauty, to end in such a fiasco ? The idea would seem not only incredible, but even dishonourable to the loving Mind of God. That which partakes of the Eternal must surely itself be eternal. 1 Ps. ciii. 21. 2 John xvii. 3, 17. 80 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY The Object of the Inoaenation For this end the Word was manifested in human Form, to quicken and deepen our con- sciousness and love of the Absolute Values which are the very glory of God, and so make us " par- takers of the Divine Nature,"' The eternal life of the soul in its future stage of existence must also be a life of happiness and joy transcending our highest conception. This theory of the continuous advancement of the soul secured by clearer insight into, and con- sequently truer appreciation of these real values of human hfe, have enabled me, I think, to place a truer and more scientific interpretation, if I may say so, upon several of those descriptions or fore- casts of the future life which we find in the sacred Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testaments. For even here, in this Hfe, what is the source of our truest and purest satisfaction and joy? Does it not spring, I ask, from the conscious perception and appreciation of these Divine attributes, when we behold them embodied and expressed in some concrete form of earthly love- liness ? Infebences and Conclusions By the process and method of Creative Evolu- tion we understand that the Creator has called KELIGION 81 into being the souls of men, which are self-con- scious, personal spirits, capable of entering into a close relationship with Himself. Capable, too, of understanding, of appreciating, and even assimilating those Absolute Values we have been considering, and which form some of the chief attributes and characteristics of the Creator Himself. Such has been the result and outcome of Creative Evolution. And now I ask, "Is it possible to believe or think that the personal spirits and souls of men, which have been raised to so high a dignity, and become sharers, in a true and spiritual sense, of the Divine Nature, are doomed to perish at death ? " Is Creative Evolution, upon which such infinite pains and patience have been expended, to end in Nihilism, or a fiasco ? for, if the personal, seK- conscious soul of man is to perish, what is there that will endure ? This, then, is the first Inference to be drawn : that the soul of man is immortal. And, if the first Inference is that the life of the soul is deathless and eternal, what will be our second Inference as to the nature, condition, and employment of that life ? Shall we not he justified in believing that the same process of psychic and spiritual evolution, which: was begun on this sublunary sphere, and has eventuated in the creation of personal spirits. 82 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY capable of entering into communion and fellow- ship with their Creator, the Lord and Q-iver of life, will still go forward to ever-increasing perfection ? If in this life we are fain to take up the words of the Psalmist and say, "How dear are Thy counsels unto me ! Oh, how great is the sum of them ! If I should tell them, they are more than I am able to express," can we suppose that any- thing less enrapturing and beautiful is in store for the soul in that higher state of existence which awaits it beyond the grave ? Is the upward, heavenward progress of the soul, so marked iu time, to be suddenly closed for aU eternity by the death of the poor perishable body ? Such a supposition, as it seems to me, is not only contrary to our Christian Faith, but repug- nant to our ideas of the wisdom, the power, and the love of God. Shall we not rather believe that " the life beyond," while in some respects it will resemble our life here on earth, wiU far transcend it in others ? That it wiU stiU be a life of active, happy service in the cause of our Heavenly Father ; a life, not only of clearer, deeper insight into the matchless attributes of His nature — His Love and Truth and Beauty — but fuller opportunities for their exercise, we may not doubt. Dr. Hailton, in his excellent analysis of the main features of the Christian doctrine of "Eternal RELIGION 83 X«/e," says, " The life of God, and therefore our Eternal Life, is not a life of * sublime self-satis- faction,' but the life of a victorious Spirit, wrestling still in the army of God against sin and death." ^ ' See Review of " King's College Lectnres on Immortality," in Theology, November, 1920. APPENDIX The Inoaenation and Modernist Attacks upon it, from A Eeligious and Philosophic Point of View I should like to state my reasons for dissenting very strongly from many of the statements and arguments put forward by some of the speakers at the Cambridge Conference of Modern Churchmen. But this is impossible within the limits of the time and space at my disposal. I must therefore content myself with the following observations. The attack which has been made on the Catholic Faith is of a general and sweeping character. But it seems specially directed against the doctrine of the Incarnation, as it has hitherto been generally understood and accepted. And I think, if half the destructive criticisms and argu- ments which have been adduced could be substantiated, it would mean casting Christianity as a revealed and traditional Eeligion into the melting-pot of doubt and uncertainty. Christianity is a great religious movement. But, like all other movements, it must have a cause and that cause adequate to the effects produced. Such a Christ as that which the Modernists would have us accept, does not answer to these requirements. Such a Christ could neither have fulfilled the role predicted of Him, nor become the Pounder of the greatest, purest, and most beneficent Religion the world has ever seen. It is not that the Divinity in Jesus is denied, but His humanity is exalted to such a degree that it seems to overshadow and obscure the Divine Personality in Him. 86 APPENDIX Jesus is Divine, or becomes so, only by virtue of His moral and spiritual perfection. All men are in a measure divine, because all men, in a certain sense, bear the image and likeness of God. And Jesus, it is said, possessed a greater share of Divinity than other men, because He was more conformed to the image and likeness of God. Doubt- less there is a certain amount of truth in all this. But I think it must be evident that such a theory of the Incarna- tion falls far short of the Catholic doctrine as expressed in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds ; namely, the union of two whole and perfect natures, the Godhead and the Man- hood, in the person of Jesus Christ, " not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person." Such is the doctrine of the Catholic Church. But now we are told, " the old Orthodoxy is in ruins," and a new one must be found. And when we ask What is this new Orthodoxy, and where is it to be found ? it is by no means easy to ascertain. For while one prominent speaker is indignant because his fidelity to the Catholic Faith is impugned, another speaker tells us " there must be a com- plete abandonment of the dualism between man and God which underlies the whole ecclesiastical system." How, then, do the Modernists propose to restate, or reconstruct, this article of the Incarnation ? The contention is set up that Jesus never claimed Divinity for Himself ; that when He used the expression " The Son of Man " or " The Messiah " or " Christ " He did not use it as denoting Himself but some other Person, who was hereafter to come, and that when He did so use it, it was a mistake on the part of the Apostles themselves ; that never in any well-attested sayings of Jesus is there any evidence that His conscious relations to God were other than those of a man towards God, and that the speeches in the Fourth Gospel, where they went beyond the Synoptics, could not be regarded as historic, and may therefore be set aside. Now Dr. Eashdall is doubtless aware that the Gospel of St. John does contain abundant evidence of the most unequivocal character that Jesus did APPENDIX 87 claim Divinity for Himself. For example, " I and the Father are One," "Before Abraham was, I am" (Johnx. 30; viii. 58). And so the evidence of the Fourth Gospel is calmly swept aside as " unhistorical." But is the Dean justified in this contention? Prom the last quarter of the second century to the last quarter of the eighteenth the writing was accepted, almost without question, as the authentic witness of the Apostle John. IrensBUs at Lyons, himself a dis- ciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of St. John ; TertuUian at Carthage; Clement at Alexandria, and many others, bore their witness to the Johannine authorship of this Gospel. Men like these were neither morally dishonest nor intellectually incapable. These men lived nearer the time when the Gospel was written ; and they had means of enquiry and evidence on which to base their judgment such as no modern critics can possess. Is the unanimous witness of our great English divines and theologians, such men as Liddon and Lightfoot, Hutton and Sanday, Westcott and Ellicott, and a host of others too numerous to mention, to be set aside to make way for a modern doctrine of the IncarnatioUj which in some respects bears a suspicious resemblance to the ancient Arian heresy ? What was the Arian doctrine of the personality of Jesus? "Although He is called God, He is not so in truth, but was deified in that sense in which men who have attained a high degree of sanctity may attain to a participation of the Divine prerogatives." I ask, is there not a striking similarity between this view of the Incarna- tion and that which underlies the statements of several of the speakers at the Cambridge Conference ? But even supposing we were to admit the contention that the Fourth Gospel is unhistoric — which means, I suppose, that its authenticity is doubtful and therefore unreliable — I would ask, will the historic Jesus of the Synoptics be more easy to reconcile with that view of His Divinity which the Modernists are seeking to establish? 88 APPENDIX For my part I cannot think so (cf. Matt. xvi. 16, 17 ; xxvi. 63, 64; Luke ix. 20, 22). In the foregoing chapter on the Incarnation * I ventured to express the opinion, that it should not be regarded as an entirely new departure on the part of Almighty God in the creation of mankind; but should rather be co-ordinated, as a further extension and development, in the now recognized method of Creation by Evolution. From beginning to end, from the amoeba to the man, that method owes its efficacy, we believe, to the Ehm Vital, which in reality is the Spirit of God, the Lord and Giver of life. Jesus was truly man in every respect. But He was truly God as well, because that "in Him dwelt all the fulness {TrXvpwfia.) of the Godhead bodily." And the Christian Philosophy teaches us that He became Incarnate, through the operation of the same Holy Spirit, " God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God." > Part III., Chap. II. FINIS SERMON ON PSALM VIII. vv. 3-5 6 2 92 SEEMON ON PSALM VIII. vv. 3-5 " When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man (Enosh = man in his weakness) that Thou art mindful of him, and the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him ? " What a contrast ! The Contbast The infinite universe on the one hand, puny man on the other — yet both proceeding from one and the same source. Both the work of the same Divine Artificer. Both the result of the same spiritual energy — the Elan Vital of the Philosopher — and working by the same method — the secret, silent method of Creative Evolution. And yet how widely different the result ! The one physical, material, mechanical : the result of the combination and interaction of what are called the laws and forces of Nature. The other psychic, mental, spiritual, endowed with instinct, intuition, and an ever-accumulating consciousness of those Absolute Values, such as Love and Truth and Beauty, which constitute the very attributes and characteristics of God Himself.^ V. 5 (R.V.).— For THou hast made him but little (ySpaxu rt) lower than God. * " What, indeed, are the heavenly spheres, emblems though they seem of glory and permanence, as compared with one immortal soul, one self-conscious spirit which can address the Creator of AU as ' Abba Father ' P They shall perish, but this remaineth. They shall wax old as doth a garment, and wither away like a parched scroll; but the soul of man contains the germ of immortality."— Coinpanion to the Psalter, Ps. viii. 4, 5. SERMON ON PSALM VIII. w. 3-5 93 The Scripture record of man's creation (Gen. i. and ii.) and the view which science teaches us to take appear at first sight to be somewhat con- tradictory. But the difference is only imaginary and superficial. There is no real discrepancy be- tween the voice of inspiration and the teaching of true science. Nor, indeed, can there ever be. For science is, or ought to be, the result of the study and investigation of Nature. And Jesus, be it remembered, ever pointed His disciples to Nature, as their first and infallible teacher about God. "Consider the liUes of the field," etc. "Yet Solomon, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." " Behold the fowls of the air ; they sow not, neither do they reap. Yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them." The laws and operations of Nature are His. " He, the God of Nature, causeth His sun to rise on," etc. " He sendeth rain," etc. " Not a sparrow," etc. " Be ye therefore perfect," etc. The heavens and the earth are His creation. And He cannot belie Himself. He Who in the beginning created the Heavens and the Earth, made man also by a method of His own, not indeed by one momentary fiat of omnipo- tence, but by the gradual influence of the Im- manent Spirit of God, Who is the Lord and Giver of life — the true and only Elan Vital. We call this method by the name of Creative Evolution. When first it began to be taught, it was received with suspicion and alarm, as destructive of the traditional behef in verbal inspiration of Holy Scripture. 94 SERMON ON PSALM VIII. w. 3-5 But such fears have proved to be groundless. We see now that man is a creature whose ever growing and accumulating Consciousness — for Life is consciousness — has at length brought him into closer touch, so to speak, with his Creator; a creature capable of knowing, loving, and worship- ping G-od as his true spiritual Parent. Aye, and more than this, of sharing those Absolute Values of Truth and Love, of Beauty and Groodness which, as I have already said, form the essential attributes and characteristics of His Divine Majesty. The inference. — If such has been the result of Creative Evolution on this tiny planet, what may have taken place in other parts of the Universe. Those mighty orbs which people space, may they not have been, and still be, the birthplace and the home of intelligent self-conscious spirits like ourselves ? And thus the whole Universe may be one grand Temple of the Almighty in which we and aU " the company of Heaven " may unite in hymning His praise and doing Him service. But to return. When thus we learn to think of man, the disparity between the two members of the Con- trast, which, at first filled the Psalmist with such astonishment, disappears, and the inequality between the two will appear to change places. The marvellous beauty and magnificence of the celestial orbs is only material, temporal, and emblematic. " They shall perish, but Thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment." But the soul of man is spiritual, deathless, and SERMON ON PSALM VIII. w. 3-5 95 eternal : a temple which may become " a habita- tion of God through the Spirit." * The Inoaenation " What is man that Thou visitest him and the Son of man," etc. Even this aspect of humanity, so dignified and ennobling, so full of hope and promise for the future, fails to give us the true measure of God's love for man, and the worth of one single soul in His sight. " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son," etc. God has ever been visiting man. " Thou visitest the earth and blessest it. Thou makest it very plenteous." VerUy " He left not Himself without witness of His loving-kindness, in that He sent us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, fi.Uing our hearts with food and gladness." But it is only in the Hght of the Incarnation that we can rightly gauge the love of God to man. Did not Jesus, though He was God, yet love to call Himself " the Son of Man " ? Did He not claim all mankind as His brethren? "Inasmuch as," etc. So now we can claim a divine relationship, " For God hath visited and redeemed His people, and raised up a mighty Salvation for us in the house of His Servant David." " Whereby are given unto us exceeding great ' " Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost ? " (1 Cor. vi. 19). 96 SERMON ON PSALM VIII. vv. 3-5 and precious promises ; that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature " (2 Pet. i. 4). We may doubt if even the Psalmist himself realized the full and prophetic import of his words, " Thou visitest him." But we, in the light of their fulfilment, can see how true they were. The Saceifice op the Cboss Does any one ask, " Why, if man be so beloved and honoured of his Maker, so great an act of condescension and self-sacrifice was necessary in his behalf? Because sin has entered into the world, and death through sin. We must not shut our eyes to the fact that there is a mystery of evil as well as of godliness which we cannot fathom ; and that, only by the grace and strength which has come to us through the Incarnation, and all it implies can we gain the victory over our spiritual enemies, and attain the high destiny which is in store for those who are victors in the strife. " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the world ruler of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." . And never, surely, was the call more urgent than now, that all who call themselves the followers of Jesus, should fight manfuUy under His banner and in His cause against the powers of darkness. SERMON ON PSALM VIII. vv. 3-5 97 Our privileges are great; but great also in proportion are our responsibilities and duties. England has a very great work to do for God — witness the late Lambeth Conference — and great opportunities for doing it if only she will. Work at home amidst our teeming population, and work abroad in spreading the Gospel. Let us remember the Master's words : " Ye are the light of the world." "Ye are the salt of the earth." " Herein is My Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit. So shaU ye be My disciples." But only by the united co-operation of all His faithful followers can that work be done. And if the words I have been privileged to speak to you this morning may have quickened in you a deeper sense of your high destiny and calling in Christ Jesus, and a firmer resolve by God's help to walk worthy of it, I shall thank God, for I shall not have spoken in vain. INDEX VERBORUM Absolute Values, 1 Their number, 3 In what seuse absolute, 4 Timeless and eternal attributes of a Personal Creator, 18 Anima, the' condition of person- ality, 23 Appendix, 85 Atoms and the Atomic Theory, 46 B. Balfour, A. J., on Evolution, 32 Beauty, 11 Its source, 13 Agnes Mason on, 13 Bergson, 31, 35 Brotherhood of man, 64 C. Christian Theism, 19 Its characteristics, 58 Its basis, 54 Conscience, 28 Consciousness the index of life, 67 Creative Evolution, 26 ff. E. Elm Vital, 31, 41 Electrons, 46 Energies, Two, 37, 42 Environment, 27, 55 Eternal life, 73, Sect. B F. Fatherhood of God, 64 Fourth state of Matter, 45 G. God and the soul of man, 20 Good and Evil, the problem of, 55 H. Holy Trinity, 65 Homo Speculum Dei, 41 I. Immortality, 81 Incarnation, S3, 80 Its import, 62 Instinct, 29, 30 Birth of religions, 51 Intermediate State, 78 Intuition, 31, 32 J. Jesus, the claims of, 60 L. Life as consciousness, 6, 7 Light as an absolute value, 8 Love as an absolute value, 9 100 INDEX VERBORUM M. Materialism, and Theory of, 43 Modem Churclmien, Appendix, 85 ff. Mystery of sin, 65 N. Names of the Deity, various — Nannar, Jove, Yahveh, 39 Platonic doctrine of Ideas, 22-25 Parmenides, 12, 13 Plotinns, 19 E. Bailton, Dr., on Eternal Life, 83, B/adinm and Radiant Matter, 45 Religion, its meaning, 48 ff. The people's metaphysic, 50 H. G. Wells on, 51 Bioligious Instinct, hirth of, 51 Resurrection of the body, 69, Sect. A. Romanes, Professor, on double form of vital activity in Evolution, 26 S. Sooratic Dialogues, 17 Timsens, 17 Dialogue with Simmias — Figure of the raft, 66 Spiritualistic theory, 44 Temple, Dr. W., on the relation of Matter and Spirit to each other, 35 The One and the Many, 12 Truth as an Absolute Value, 12 Values, absolute, abstract, or real, 4 God Himself the Source and Centre of all, 13 THE END PRIKTED IH GKBAT BBrTA.lN BY WILLIAU CLOWES AND BONS, LIUITBD, BECCLES. I x^M