SSSrSSSS^^SSSk^sSSsSsSskS Zl BL 240 .S55 1916 Simmons, Daniel A. The science of religion The Science of Religion The Science of Religion Fundamental Faiths Expressed in Modern Terms By DANIEL A. 'SIMMONS Judge of the Circuit Court, Jacksonville, Florida New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 191 6, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street Preface THE most important question in the world is propounded in the book of Job, which book is probably the oldest piece of litera- ture now known to mankind. The question was doubtless hoary with age even in the remote days of Job, and the onward march of evolution and education has constantly accentuated it. Here it is : "If a man die, shall he live again ? " If it be a fact that men and women continue to live as self-conscious individuals after the death of the physical body, that one fact is of more vital and tremendous importance to mankind than all the other facts of nature taken together. It is, always has been, and ever must be, the one theme in which a death-shadowed race is more keenly inter- ested than in any other. If interest seems some- times to abate, it is merely because men and women have despaired of getting a satisfactory answer. The world-old question is always there, looming up like a mountain range on the mental horizon, though attention is sometimes momentarily de- tracted from it. The importance of the question raises to a place of immediate and vital interest any dependable collection of established facts which in any way tends to answer it. The world so urgently needs 5 6 Preface the answer ! Human history is a record of the fluctuating issues of life and death. The expecta- tion of death shapes all human activities and re- tards all human achievement. Doubt as to whether or not physical death ends individual existence af- fects every intelligent human being and shadows the lives of the noblest men and women. The prospect of death influences individual acts and sits as an unbidden spectral guest in the coun- sels of nations. Death confronts us wherever we turn. It injects its virus into the heart of the germinating oak, breathes its withering breath upon the budding flower, and sets its seal upon the new-born child. Its sombre shadow falls across life's every pleasing prospect, and its skeleton hand adds a drop of gall to every cup of pleasure. It is a party to every human contract, and love's joys and privileges are held subject to its caprice. The fear of it springs up with every form of intelligent life, and remains until at last the quivering heart is still. Very few people have escaped its ravages. Nearly all have stood helplessly by and seen the last breath of a loved one gasped away, leaving the dear face pallid and expressionless, and the once winsome e}^es glazed and immobile. The certainty of physical death lashes all intelli- gent life into restlessness. It forces into men's minds an ever-present sense of the fleeting imper- manency of all human accomplishment. It dis- courages purposeful living by bringing into every life the certain prospect of reaching the end. It Preface 7 inflates the value of time, excites haste, and inspires a feverish and fitful struggle for immediate attain- ment and reward ; entailing the bulk of the evils that afflict the human race. These unhappy conditions are all either produced or accentuated by the uncertainty which obscures the issues of physical death. If men and women could only know, or even rationally believe, that there is no such thing as death, and that life here and hereafter has a common development and a common purpose, what rapid and radical changes would be wrought in human lives and affairs ! Human Intuition has always and everywhere whispered of a life beyond physical death, and this whispering is the master-tone of all religious beliefs. It holds religious organizations together; builds churches, mosques and temples ; stimulates philan- thropy ; inspires morality ; and gives men and women strength to meet the vicissitudes of life. Intuition is supported and encouraged by the teachings of religion. But the teachings of relig- ion come from a dead past and a vanished civiliza- tion. Keligion is Oriental in its spirit and methods of treatment, and even its most modern Orientalism is nearly two thousand years old. Its methods were all-sufficing to the Oriental intelligence in the midst of which it had its birth, and if the numer- ous accounts are to be credited these methods led many men and women to actual spiritual knowledge and illumination whereby they received personal and conclusive proof of the existence of a realm of 8 Preface super-physical matter and of the continuity of life after physical death. And, again, if these accounts are true, such proof was obtained through com- pliance with natural laws still in operation, because natural laws are changeless. The truths of religion are, of course, unchang- ing, just as natural laws are unchanging ; but the people of the western hemisphere have outgrown the ancient Oriental manner of expression and methods of treatment. The methods of thought and reasoning employed by western progressive intelligence in this age is almost the exact opposite of the methods of thought and reasoning employed by eastern intelligence two thousand years ago and more. And modern western intelligence de- mands methods of thought, expression and reason- ing that will conform to itself and take into ac- count its vastly augmented store of knowledge. Ancient eastern intelligence was idealistic, and de- manded idealistic teaching. Modern western intel- ligence is practical and analytical, and demands practical and analytical teaching : it is rational and scientific, and must be met with rational and scien- tific explanations of the phenomena of life and death, or it cannot receive the teaching. When Religion announces to modern western in- telligence that God is Love, and asserts that He created the heaven and the earth and everything in them, it propounds an unsolved riddle in a dead language. Physical Science has proved to the satis- faction of the vast majority of our educated people Preface 9 that the earth has tediously evolved from a mass of white-hot gases, and that its phenomena are gov- erned by natural laws of uniform operation. Mod- ern western intelligence therefore demands of Religion that it shall set forth and explain those principles, elements, laws and forces which will rationally and scientifically prove that God is Love, and show how such a God might move upon gase- ous incandescence and evolve it into the teeming world of life and intelligence which we know to- day. When Religion says, in this day and to this gen- eration, " There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," coupled with an assertion that the spiritual body continues to live after the death of the other ; it controverts the findings of an arro- gant, all-conquering, miracle-working Physical Science which asserts that it has traced physical matter to its very ultimate without finding any place for soul or spirit, and clinches the argument with the axiom that two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. The progressive in- telligence of modern Europe and North America is demanding of Religion that it either challenge this finding of Physical Science by propounding those principles, properties and potencies of matter which will at least show that such dual existence is possi- ble, or else withdraw its claims and leave men and women free to work out their own destiny. In response to these rational and reasonable de- mands Religion produces a religious literature thou- l o Preface sands of years old, asserts that the mysteries of God and Immortality are past all human under- standing, and exhorts to faith. This response, however honest, sincere and commendable it may be, does not meet the issue. The net result of all this conflict and uncertainty is that, as a rule, the best intelligences in western civilization are either not in the churches, or else they are loosely affiliated with them as a matter of form and convention ; leaving the active work to be carried on by mentally undersized zealots and ambitious seekers of place and power. This may seem blunt, and even inconsiderate ; but its truth will be attested by any educated minister of reason- ably wide experience. I say this condition prevails as a rule, and readily and gladly admit that there are many notable exceptions. These exceptions are noble and refined men and women whose intui- tion surmounts the difficulties and uncertainties that have been briefly set forth. These are some of the big problems with which this book grapples, and the aim has been to lay hold of them at their gnarled and sturdy roots. Its chief purpose is to prove, through a collection and coordination of the mass of pertinent facts discovered by Physical Science, and a system of reasoning based upon those facts, that the real dis- coveries of Science and the fundamental teachings of Religion are harmonious and mutually supple- mental. In order to intelligently carry out this purpose it has been found necessary to translate the Preface 1 1 technical language with which Physical Science clothes the facts discovered by it into the every-day language of every-day men and women, so that people of average education and intelligence might readily understand it. The book proclaims and describes a Universal In- telligent Force which it is hoped will at once con- form to the scientist's conception of Natural Law, meet the religionist's idea of God, and reveal the First Cause which the evolutionist has been unable to discover. It attempts to show the utter irrele- vancy of the scientific axiom that two bodies can- not occupy the same space at the same time, and points out an unexplored realm in the domain of matter where may lie a great world of spiritual material abounding in life and controlled by intelli- gence. Then additional evidence is brought for- ward tending to prove the actual existence of such a world, and its habitation by men, women and children clothed upon with the spiritual bodies the existence of which St. Paul asserts as a fact. Other and collateral subjects are treated, as will appear bj- reference to the table of contents, but they all bear upon the two chief topics. The idea that morality is an exact science, and that one's acts and thoughts mechanically register their ef- fects upon him, will be new to many readers. To some it may seem preposterous ; but if so, then they are respectfully asked to suspend judgment until they have read the entire book in the sequence in which it is written. 1 2 Preface Any effort to properly accredit the material which has been used would be worse than useless, because the sources are too many and too often un- known. It seems almost needless to say that the author is not entitled to credit for the many dis- coveries dealt with ; not even for the ideas of a Universal God-Force and a world of super-physical matter. The material has been drawn from many sources and many ages ; so that this book is but the humble channel into which many streams of knowledge converge, and from which it is hoped there may flow out a composite stream of thought running away to the Eiver of Life. Greetings of hearty sympathy and fraternal good will to the great men and women of science who are doing so much to alleviate human suffering, and to make the world better and happier. To the noble men and women of religion who are so un- selfishly giving themselves and their substance in an effort to point out the way which leads onward aud upward to the Light : Greetings of faith and hope and brotherly love. D. A. S. Jacksonville, Fla. Contents i. ii. in. IV. v. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. The Crisis and the Challenge Matter, Life and Intelligence Established Facts Force Genesis . Evolution The Great Plan The Genesis of Animal Life Wide Open Doors . " How Can These Things Be? Old Gems in New Settings God . The Eclipse Looking Forward Spiritual Matter, telligence . Morality Sin and Redemption The Divine Purpose Life and In- 15 29 36 44 53 69 75 80 9i 96 no 117 122 135 161 184 196 211 13 Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.'* I THE CRISIS AND THE CHALLENGE FOR many years it has been generally sup- posed that Science and Eeligion are natural enemies and incapable of dwelling together in harmony. It seems to have been the consensus of opinion, shared by the votaries of both Science and Religion, that scientific discovery is hostile to religious belief. Science has insisted upon the ac- curacy of its findings, and Religion has contended for the sacredness of its beliefs. When a scientific discovery has apparently con- flicted with a religious belief, Religion has usually branded the announcement of the discovery as a sacrilege, and Science has brushed aside the belief as a superstition. These assertions are made as to Science and Religion in the aggregate sense, and with due allowance for many individual exceptions on both sides. As a result of this conflict of authorities, there has come into the world a spiritual unrest which is at once a serious problem and a great opportunity for Religion. Science has made its strongest appeal to the educated and highly intelligent, because its actual demonstrations are mathematically exact, and its 15 16 The Science of Religion deductions are based upon critical analytical reason ing ; and in the proportion that education and in telligence have increased, in just the same pro portion has it strengthened its hold upon publi< opinion. Keligion, on the other hand, has depende( largely upon intuitions which have been conimoi to all peoples, in all ages, and which intuitions i has sought to sustain and strengthen by the au thority of various sacred writings passed alon^ from a remote past. It has not been able to mak< any demonstrations, and most of its efforts at ana lytical reasoning have been failures. Those wh< have demanded a "sign" have been rebuked an< turned away disappointed, and those who hav made bold to ask, "How can these things be? : have been told that it is all a great mystery beyon< the power of the human mind to comprehend. PHYSICAL SCIENCE In treating the subject in hand, the term " Sci ence " is intended to mean Physical Science, becaus all the scientific discoveries which will hereafte be taken into account have been made upon th purely physical plane of life. And if Physica Science would confine its deductions and speculg tions to its own legitimate physical plane, upo which it operates and for which its implements ar fashioned, it might be left to run its course. Bui while all of its discoveries have been upon th physical plane, while its implements are fashione for use only upon that plane, and while it has nc The Crisis and the Challenge 17 yet reached the ultimate of matter there existing, it has nevertheless indulged in speculations and propounded dogmas concerning things and con- ditions which lie altogether outside of and beyond physical things and conditions. The scientists have never seen an atom. They have seen the fiery trail of helium atoms passing through a vacuum under pressure of a high-tension electric current, but the atom itself they have never seen. While they know of the existence of atoms, and are acquainted with many of their manifestations and characteristics, they do not know of what they are composed and understand but very little about their structure. But Science has not hesitated to assert, upon occasion, that there is nothing beyond the physical plane. The scientific gentlemen who make this assertion in such grave and erudite manner may be likened unto a man gazing upon a dimly seen mountain, beyond which he has never gone, upon the summit of which he has never stood, and sol- emnly asserting that the mountain top is the very limit of the universe. Valleys may actually lie beyond, with rills and rivers, and happy homes in which there are music and laughter and love ; but he has never seen them, and therefore they do not exist : at the limit of his vision the earth rises up to meet the bending sky, and beyond that there is nothing else. It is not proposed to thus briefly conclude the whole case against Science. Before any final judg- 18 The Science of Religion ment can be justly and rationally reached we must first employ a delicate and difficult process of reasoning and coordination of facts. It is intended merely to challenge those scientists who assert that there is nothing beyond the physical, and that all life and action and intelligence are but phenomena of physical matter. Science has been able to exactly demonstrate the correctness of many of its findings of physical fact, and to elucidate the causes lying behind many of its achievements. It has been able to give " signs" to the doubters, and its " miracles " have delighted and benefited the people of all lands. And those who see these signs and benefit by these mira- cles are not generally able to discriminate between the discoveries and deductions of Science in its legitimate realm and its dogmatic speculations con- cerning things which lie outside of that realm, of which latter it cannot possibly know anything at all. It is just here that Eeligion faces a situation the gravity of which can scarcely be overesti- mated. The same Science which can converse through the open air across an ocean and a conti- nent tells our educated young men and young women that everything is physical matter ; that life and force and intelligence are but the by- products of this physical matter ; and that individ- ual existence ends at death. Against these asser- tions Eeligion, which can give no sign and perform no miracle, must rest its case upon intuition and exhort to faith. The men and women who are The Crisis and the Challenge 19 now about to assume charge of the world's pro- gressive activities are in danger of believing that every assertion of Science is true, because it is able to prove so many of its assertions. The intuitions of our young men and young women are not waning. Quite to the contrary, our intuitions keep pace with the onward strides of evolutionary human development, and we are all the more ready to accept spiritual teachings which corroborate them. But this is an age of analytical reasoning, and we are prone, though reluctantly, to examine our intuitions in the cold light furnished by Science ; and if that light be blurred and stigmatic, our intuitions may appear to be merely the ghosts of dead superstitions and vanished traditions. THE CONFLICT Just here is the field upon which Eeligion must battle for its very life ; and be it known, frankly and in all calm candour, that the bayonets of the enemy are at its heart. Here is the foundation from which rises the superstructure of unrest, uncertainty, lax morals and world-weariness which manifest themselves everywhere. Here is the soil in which is rooted the bitter-apple-tree of Doubt, flowering with sensuality and greed of the things of to-day, and fructifying with personal vice and public unrighteousness. What are you going to do about it, you men who have been specially trained for the service of 20 The Science of Religion Religion? Tou men of Science who realize that your fellows have juggled facts and dogmas ; what say you ? And you sturdy young men and young women whose mothers coached your infant lips to pray and soothed your childish cares with sacred songs of faith and hope and love ; where, seems it to you, lies the path of duty ? THE STRENGTH OF TRUTH We are prone to take some measure of assurance from the supposition that truth must prevail merely because it is truth, and to rely upon our intuitions and religious teachings as embodying the truth. But we cannot ignore the fact that God works in the affairs of men through human agen- cies, and that Truth is no stronger in battle than the arm which wields its sword. Truth never has been, and never can be, destroyed ; but great civilizations have crumbled and great institutions have failed because the truths upon which they were founded were not properly defended against their enemies. While truth cannot be destroyed, it can be put out of the counsels of men, institu- tions and nations, leaving them to the avenging sword of Retributive Justice. History bears elo- quent witness to all of these things. The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Babylon and Rome were founded upon the great moral principles of Equity, Justice and Right, and the men and women who gave them their glory and power recognized and were guided by the great precepts which have been The Crisis and the Challenge 21 fundamental in all religious systems worthy of note. Their decay set in only when later genera- tions departed from these principles, and substituted materialistic error for moral truth. Great wealth engendered selfishness and greed, and large knowl- edge of physical things obscured the spiritual vision. Then came degeneracy, devolution and decay. Keligion is now confronted with the task of battling against these same tendencies in modern civilization. It cannot destroy true scientific dis- coveries ; it cannot even ignore them. Its task is rather to classify and coordinate such discoveries, making them a part of its larger system. The future of our present civilization depends upon the manner in which it shall perform this task. If general education and dissemination of knowledge means an ever increasing belief that there is noth- ing in the universe but physical matter and its phenomena, then our present civilization, like its predecessors, is headed for destruction. THE CHALLENGE The gravity of the situation is thus freely con- ceded. The crisis is thus frankly admitted. Never- theless, the following pages are to be a challenge to " Materialism " in all its forms. It is proposed to demonstrate that Science has not made a single dis- covery which even tends to refute the fundamental conceptions of Eeligion. The purpose is to go even, further, and demonstrate that many scientific dis- coveries strongly corroborate religious beliefs and 22 The Science of Religion intuitions. In these attempted demonstrations there will be no reliance upon any sacred writing or religious creed. The battle will be offered in the enemy's country, and the weapons will be those which Science itself has chosen. Such references as shall be made to religious teachings and sacred writings will be made merely for the purpose of showing that scientific discovery corroborates them, and not for the purpose of using them as evidence. GLOSSARY And since we are about to invade the enemy's country, it is necessary that we know a little some- thing about the language spoken there. In other words, this is to be largely a controversy with Science, and in order to conduct it intelligently and rationally we ought to know the meaning of a few of the most important scientific terms that must be employed. Therefore, this first chapter will be con- cluded with a brief glossary of such of those terms as seem pertinent. Electron. The smallest particle into which man has been able to divide matter. An electron is gen- erally supposed to be a very small particle of elec- tricity, and it is also generally supposed that a number of them revolving around another small particle of something called a nucleus compose the next larger particle of matter called an atom. All forms of matter, regardless of how firm and solid they may seem, are built up of these very small particles called atoms. They are so very The Crisis and the Challenge 23 small that they cannot be seen, even with the aid of the most powerful microscope. Molecule. A particle of matter next larger than the atom, and being merely a grouping of two or more atoms. Water is composed of molecules built up of oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms. Sand and the various kinds of flint are composed of mole- cules built up of oxygen atoms and silicon atoms. And so it is with all material substances ; they are all mere aggregations of molecules built up of vari- ous kinds of atoms. Ion. A fractional part of a molecule. In chem- ical changes and modifications, and especially in those changes and modifications that are aided by electricity, the molecules are sometimes broken up into smaller groups of atoms called ions. The ions still contain two or more atoms, but there are not enough of them to constitute a molecule. Crystals. The hard, irregular bodies of which the entities of the mineral kingdom are built up. Crystals are merely large groups of molecules so arranged as to manifest straight lines and abrupt angles. All of the solid entities of the mineral kingdom are built up of crystals. They occur in many diiferent forms and sizes. Some are so large that we can see them and handle them, and some are so small that they can be seen only by the use of a powerful microscope. Cells. The small plastic entities of which the vegetable and animal kingdoms are built up. Cells assume many different shapes under different con- 24 The Science of Religion ditions, but they never take the rough irregular form of crystals. While they are in process of growth and multiplication they are always soft, but they often become hard and rigid in their later stages, as in the bones and hoofs of animals, in hard wood, and so forth. Some cells can be seen by the unaided eye, but the great majority of them are so small that they can only be seen by the aid of a microscope. Cells, like crystals, are composed of molecules which in turn are composed of atoms, the difference being only in form. Ether. A substance very much finer than air which seems to be everywhere, and which passes freely through all known forms of matter. The light and heat which come to us from the sun are merely waves in the ether, and the same is true of all kinds of light and radiant heat. The atmosphere ends a few hundred miles above the surface of the earth, but the ether continues for hundreds of mil- lions of miles to the remotest star, and beyond. So far as we are able to judge, its presence is without limit. There is also a drug called ether, to which reference may be made later, and with which the all-pervading ether should not be confounded. Homogenous. Perfectly solid and without par- ticles. All known forms of matter are composed of particles, but the ether is supposed to be homoge- nous. Wave-Length. The length of any particular wave moving through a medium. If a stone be dropped into a placid lake, waves w r ill move away The Crisis and the Challenge 25 in all directions, and will have definite lengths. If a piece of metal submerged in water be struck with a hammer, waves of a particular length will radiate from the point of contact in all directions, and if a suitable diaphragm be lowered into the water at a distance these waves will impinge upon it and re- produce the sound of the stroke. Likewise, various sounds proceed through the air in various wave- lengths, according to the nature of the sound. If these air-waves move in regular trains, all of the same length, and with all of their undulations the same distance apart, the sound will have tone. But if the waves go forth in irregular pulses, the sound will be merely noise. Amplitude. The "height" of a wave. The middle C string of a piano always gives off the same lengths of waves into the surrounding air, regardless of whether it be struck gently or with considerable force; but if it be struck with con- siderable force, the amplitude of the waves will be greater — that is, they will have a wider range of undulatory motion — and the sound will be louder. The waves in the ether which we know as " heat " are likewise always of the same length, whether the heat be merely a warm glow or the blast of a furnace. Intense heat is produced by greater am- plitudes of the heat-waves. Science is rather in- clined to the opinion that the heat given off by very hot bodies, such as our sun, contain heat- waves which are shorter than the waves of ordi- nary heat, but if this be true, it means merely that 26 The Science of Religion there are forms of heat with which we are not ordinarily familiar. Polarity. That principle of magnetic bodies which causes them to attract or repel each other. We have all seen horseshoe magnets, and many of us have seen bar magnets. There is really no dif- ference between these two kinds of magnets except their shape. One end of the piece of metal is a " positive pole," and the other end is a " negative pole," regardless of the shape. If the positive pole of one magnet be brought near the negative pole of another, they will be mutually attracted ; but if similar poles of two magnets be brought into close proximity, they will be mutually repelled. It will be said, in subsequent chapters, that certain kinds of bodies are of " opposite polarity." In order that our scientific friends who have specialized in the realm of magnetism and electricity may not lay the book aside in disgust as soon as they see this statement concerning "opposite polarity," it is necessary to explain to them in advance just what is meant by it. Scientists know, of course, that, literally and technically speaking, two entities cannot be of op- posite polarity ; because every magnetic body, be it large or small, has two opposite poles, so that the polarity of every magnetic body is alike. This is not disputed. But when it is stated of two kinds of atoms, for instance, that they are of opposite polarity, the statement means merely that one of the atoms is actively and aggressively magnetic, The Crisis and the Challenge 27 and that the other is passively magnetic. "When the actively magnetic atom presents one of its poles to the atom which is passively magnetic, the latter also becomes actively magnetic by induction in such a way that it presents an opposite pole and thereby sets up a mutual attraction. If the ac- tively magnetic atom presents its positive pole to an atom which is passively magnetic, the passively magnetic atom at once becomes actively magnetic by induction and presents its negative pole to the positive pole of the other. A steel magnet is a fair example of active magnetism, and a bar of soft iron is a fair example of passive magnetism. But all magnetic substances do not act in the manner here described. If a piece of bismuth, for instance, be brought into close proximity to an actively magnetic substance, such as a magnet, the bismuth will become actively magnetic by induc- tion, but it will present a pole similar to the one presented to it, thereby resulting in repulsion in- stead of attraction. There are many other mineral substances which act in the same way as the bis- muth, and they are said to be " diamagnetic." This treatise cannot very well be repeated every time it becomes necessary to refer to these char- acteristics ; but whenever it shall hereafter be said that two bodies are of opposite polarity, that state- ment will be intended to mean that one is actively magnetic, and that the other is passively magnetic in such a fashion that if it be brought into prox- imity to an actively magnetic body it will become 28 The Science of Religion actively magnetic by induction, and will present a pole opposite to the one presented to it, thereby resulting in mutual attraction. And whenever it shall be said that two bodies are of similar polar- ity, that statement will mean that one of the bodies is actively magnetic, and that the other is diamagnetic. These definitions and explanations of scientific terms may seem to the reader to be going far away from a consideration of religious teachings. But we are here seeking to know something about God and Immortality, and the search will be futile unless we know something of the principles, po- tencies, properties and powers through which God is expressed and upon which Immortality is based. If the reader is of that nondescript type of in- telligence which is willing to have some one else do its studying and thinking, he might as well lay this book aside here and now. It is not intended for him. It is addressed to those red-blooded, clear- thinking men and women who are anxious to know and willing to learn the great truths upon which religious beliefs rest. Such as these are earnestly invited to proceed with the author through a con- sideration of the force through which the all- creative God expresses Himself, and of the matter upon which that force acts. II MATTER, LIFE AND INTELLIGENCE WHENEVER a scientist undertakes to demonstrate, as scientists sometimes do, that the phenomena of life and intelli- gence are all but so many complex properties of physical matter, he soon brings into action an array of established and assumed facts which he himself must admit baffles the profoundest intelli- gence of the age. He makes no attempt to solve many of the riddles, and much of the material at hand is left in a state of bewildering chaos. Piec- ing together such data as he thinks he can under- stand, he is able to prove conclusively that physical matter is not soul nor spirit. Having followed physical matter into the realm of ultra-microscopy, and having discovered that in its last estate it is composed of very small particles which he calls " atoms," he concludes that it and its phenomena have a monopoly of the entire field. He finds that a certain combination of the atoms called " oxygen " and "hydrogen" and "carbon" result in sugar; that certain other combinations of the same atoms produce starch ; while yet other combinations of the same atoms produce fat, alcohol and ether. Why the same kinds of atoms combine in these different forms, and why, having so combined, 29 30 The Science of Religion they produce substances possessing such widely differing properties, he has not the slightest idea. He finds that our physical bodies are composed of a few very common substances, and that so long as those substances are replenished by food we live and think. He concludes, therefore, that the human body is merely a machine which consumes food as raw material and turns out motion and life and hate and love. Absurdly simple, isn't it ? Just mix together a little carbon, oxygen, ni- trogen, hydrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and iron ; and, presto ! you obtain life, intelligence, reason and love. Disturb the equilibrium of the com- pound, and all these magical qualities disappear, leaving the few simple ingredients to disintegrate. Injure the brain, and consciousness is flicked out as a candle in a gust of wind ; and when conscious- ness returns there is no memory of what transpired during the lapse. Hence, all is physical matter, and nothing more : else why should not the soul or spirit remember what was transpiring while its brain was out of order ? " Answer me that, if you can ! " he challenges. And yet there are a few minor things which are very annoying to the " materialistic " scientist. When he gets down to the atoms of which all phys- ical matter is composed, he finds that those atoms are constantly vibrating with wonderful rapidity, and from no apparent cause. He is very sure that he has reached the end of all matter, and that there is no force except such as matter generates ; and so Matter, Life and Intelligence 31 he solemnly contemplates this wonderful vibratory motion of the atoms for a while, and then comes to the conclusion that they are " self-moved." He also finds that a certain mineral salt always manifests as a crystal having six sides, while another salt mani- fests as a crystal having eight sides, and so on through the whole range of crystallization ; but he can discover no reason for this variation, nor even for crystallization in any form. Then, too, he finds that certain groupings of chemical substances known as " seeds " have a habit of growing into plants and trees of the same kind as those on which they grew, while his exact chemical duplicate of the seed re- fuses to grow. He is fully convinced that all the phenomena of germination and growth are but prop- erties of the physical matter of which the seed is composed, and cannot understand why the cause produced in his laboratory should not produce the same effects as the same cause produced by the plant. All these perplexities, and a few thousand others, are encountered by the scientist when he undertakes to prove that there is nothing in the universe except physical matter and its properties. He can demon- strate, as has already been conceded, that physical matter is not spiritual matter, nor soul, nor any- thing else than just physical matter. If that is first blood in the combat, place the score to his credit. But demonstrating that physical matter is not soul nor spirit falls something short of demonstrating that there is no such thing as soul or spirit, as may 32 The Science of Religion more fully appear when we delve deeper into the subject. THE OLD, OLD QUESTION The vitality of this discussion lies in the fact that it deals, ultimately, with the destiny of man as an individual intelligence. Eeligion is a world-wide and age-old characteristic of humanity, and belief in individual existence after death is the master-tone of all religious teachings. The book of Job is the oldest in the Bible, and probably one of the oldest literary productions in the world ; and from that remote past comes the troubled query : " If a man die, shall he live again ? " This same question, in different forms, has been anxiously repeated again and again as the ages have rolled away, and is still the most vitally interesting question in the world. All forms of religion propound the doctrine of some kind of existence beyond the event of physical death, and they all address themselves very largely to the problem of teaching men and women how to so regulate their conduct while in the physical body that their future existence may be a happy one. The desire for life and happiness is the predominant desire of humanity, and the fact that Eeligion promises these things in greater abundance is the secret of its wide-spread prevalence. The uncertainty of life, and doubt as to the issues of death, are responsible for the major portion of earth's wrongs and suffering. Consciousness of the constant approach of death, accompanied by doubt Matter, Life and Intelligence 33 and uncertainty as to what, if anything, lies beyond it, enhances the apparent value of time and tempts us to gather the most of pleasure and profit from the present, thus fostering feverish haste, worry, greed, and lack of consideration for the rights and prerogatives of others. The sombre shadow of Death falls athwart life's every pleasing prospect, and its skeleton hand adds a drop of gall to every cup of pleasure. All this would be wonderfully and gloriously changed if we could only know that physical death is merely the beginning of a larger life, in which life our happiness and well-being will depend upon our conduct while in the physical body. If Science can reach and lay bare the very ulti- mates of all matter, force and intelligence, then Eeligion will be either scientifically corroborated or scientifically destroyed. If it can be shown that life and force and intelligence are but phenomena of physical matter, then Eeligion must be aban- doned, and codes of human ethics ought to be materially revised. On the other hand, if it shall be found, when the ultimate of physical matter has been reached, that it is acted upon by some extra- neous force, intelligently applied, then Eeligion will still be pardonable, and may be justified upon other grounds than that it is supported by intuition, faith and sacred writings. To endeavour to show by a review and correlation of facts, and by deductions based upon the facts, that this latter is true, is a part of the task here in hand. 34 The Science of Religion THINGS WE DO NOT KNOW But let us agree, before attempting to proceed further, that there are some things which we do not know. In order that dispute may be reduced to the minimum, the list will be short and simple. "We do not know when nor how matter came into existence. We do not know when nor how force first began to act upon matter. We do not know when nor whence intelligence came into the universe and set its parts in order. But we do know that matter, force and intelligence are facts of nature, and since we do not know their respective beginnings, we must commence our consideration by accepting them as facts. For many years after Dalton discovered that all physical matter is composed of very small particles called " atoms," it was supposed that these atoms are little round hard things like marbles, which are perfectly homogenous, or solid, and which cannot be broken. This theory never did make a very strong appeal to reason, because men were inclined to believe that little round hard things like mar- bles, however small, might be smashed into smaller pieces. This theory of the absolute homogeneity and indivisibility of the atom has now been generally discarded. There is fair scientific evidence that the atom is, in fact, a very complex little thing composed of a central nucleus and many revolving electrons, the arrangement of central nucleus and rotating electrons forming a combination very simi- Matter, Life and Intelligence 35 lar to a solar system with its sun and revolving planets. There has even been speculation as to whether or not the known positive and negative magnetic qualities of the atoms may depend upon the relative direction in which the electrons revolve around the nucleus, as the direction of the electric current in the winding of an electro-magnet deter- mines the positive and negative poles of its iron core. Whether the nucleus and electrons of the atom are matter, as we generally understand that term, is a question concerning which there are different and conflicting theories. Some scientists incline to the opinion that these nucleii and electrons are but small eddying currents of force, thereby not only explaining matter, but explaining it away. Others have suggested that atoms are but small whirlpools in the ether which fills all space and pervades all substances. Still others incline to the belief that electricity is itself a very subtle fluid, the positive and negative particles of which group together to form the atom ; whence comes the electrical theory of matter of which we have heard much in recent years. Those scientists who are committed to the theory that the atom is complex in its structure (and among them are some men of international reputa- tion) are strongly inclined to the opinion that, like everything else in nature, it is subject to the re- fining processes of the general evolutionary scheme. m ESTABLISHED FACTS FEOM what has already been said it is evi- dent that the problem of the structural composition of the atom is an unsolved problem. But Science has learned many practical things about atoms which lie far short of their structural composition. Among other things, it knows that some atoms are magnetically positive, and others negative ; that some are comparatively heavy, and others comparatively light; that they continuously vibrate with varying rapidity, their vibratory rates being determined, under a given condition, by their weights ; and that positive and negative atoms having harmonious vibratory rates combine to form the various elements and com- pounds which we know as physical matter. We are here considering things which lie in the realm of the infinitely small. We have reasoned upon the ultimate structure of the atom, briefly refer- ring to one widely entertained theory that it is com- plex ; and yet the smallest particle which could be broken from the point of the finest cambric needle would contain many thousands of atoms. When one makes this comparison with the ordinary con- ceptions of size and weight, it is quite a mental feat to conceive of one of these atoms as being 36 Established Facts 37 itself composed of other particles, " each separated from all others by distances comparatively as great as the distances which separate the planets in a solar system " ; this latter being one of the possibil- ities proposed by those scientists who hold that the atom is complex. The accomplishment of this mental feat is not necessary in the present consid- eration, but an effort in that direction may be of some help in becoming accustomed to the realm which we are here trying to briefly explore. COMPRESSIBILITY Whatever may be our conception of the size and characteristics of the ultimate particles composing matter, Science holds, and we are bound to admit, that those particles are not in contact with each other. All physical matter is compressible ; that is, any physical object can be made smaller by pressure. This would not be so if the ultimate particles were in contact with each other. It was long supposed that liquids were not compressible, but it is now well known that they are. Water, for instance, when subjected to a pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch, loses only five one hun- dred thousandths of its volume ; but if the pressure be increased to fifteen thousand pounds to the square inch, it loses one-twentieth of its volume. That water literally " has holes in it " is positively proved by the fact that a small quantity of pure alcohol may be added to it without increasing its volume. That this compound of water and alcohol 38 The Science of Religion still " has holes in it " is proved by the fact that a small quantity of ether may still be added to it without increasing its volume. In other words, a glass filled with water to the limit of its capacity does not overflow by reason of the addition of al- cohol and ether in limited quantities. " But," says some one, " these facts may not be conclusive proof that the ultimate particles of mat- ter are not in contact; for it may be that those ultimate particles are resilient little bodies, like small rubber balls, in which case their aggregate volume would be reducible under pressure even though they were in actual contact, just as a cubic foot of rubber balls might be made smaller by pressure." This point is well worth considering, because we cannot afford to ignore any possible factor which might impair the soundness of the deductions to be made in later chapters. It is admitted that if the molecules of water are resilient bodies which may be forced out of their usual form by pressure, re- gaining that form when the pressure is removed, this fact would account for its compressibility. And it is conceivable that those molecules, being composed of separate atoms, are in fact resilient. But, even admitting that molecules of water may be resilient, how shall we explain the strange blend- ing of alcohol and either with water without in- creasing its volume ? One who is not acquainted with the facts might suggest that the molecules of alcohol and ether may be smaller than the mole- Established Facts 39 cules of water, and that they may slip through as shot might slip through a measure of marbles. But are they smaller ? Let us see. A molecule of water is composed of a certain number of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, and a mole- cule of alcohol or ether is composed of a larger number of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, with some carbon atoms added. Therefore, when the alcohol and ether sink down into the water, larger mole- cules slip between smaller ones without increasing the aggregate volume, which proves that even in water, one of the least compressible of all sub- stances, the distances which separate the molecules are much greater than their individual diameters — how much greater no one knows. If it be sug- gested that the atoms composing the molecules may interblend, so that a molecule of water and a molecule of alcohol can each occupy the same space at the same time, then that would prove that the atoms in the molecule are themselves separated by distances greater than their diameters, and we are merely going a little farther afield in order to ac- complish the same result. The important fact is that, turn where we may, when our last argument is exhausted we are forced back to the fact that all physical matter is composed of very small particles each separated from all others by distances com- paratively great, these distances apparently varying in different substances. What is true of water is also true of all other substances, be they gases, liquids or solids. Gases 4-0 The Science of Religion are highly compressible, it being possible, by the use of an ordinary bicycle pump, to force several cubic inches of air into one cubic inch of space. When we look upon a piece of granite, or a blade of polished steel, it is difficult to realize that it is, in its last analysis, composed of very small particles which are not in contact with each other. But such is undoubtedly the case. Those small particles hold their respective positions by reason of the at- tractions and counter-attractions of positive and negative magnetic poles and the affinities of har- monic vibratory rates. If the atoms are of a highly magnetic class, and if there is almost perfect har- mony between their respective vibratory rates, the resulting substance will be a very hard solid. In such case the particles strongly resist any force which tends to displace them. If the attractions of the particles for each other are too weak to form a rigid solid, or if the harmony between their vibratory rates is imperfect, they form various less rigid substances, ranging from elastic and malleable solids to liquids and gases. Although Science fully agrees with the findings here made as to the compressibility of matter, we cannot afford to leave this great truth until we have grasped its full significance, and at the risk of seeming tedious it will be again stated. All physical matter is composed of very small particles which are not in contact with each other, and in most cases, if not in all, the distances between them are greater than their individual diameters ; all of Established Facts 41 which particles are continually vibrating at almost inconceivable rates of speed, these rates being de- termined by their weights and probably influenced by the tension exerted upon them by the magnetic pull of other atoms around them. A full mental grasp of this great fact is indispen- sable to a rational understanding of much which will follow in later chapters. As already pointed out, we are here considering things in the realm of the infinitely small, and unless one is accustomed to think in the terms of that realm, he may not be able to grasp the full significance of those open spaces between the ultimate particles of physical matter. Possibly the point may be more easily conceivable if we can raise it to a realm in which the entities are not so small. If we could use a magnifying-glass which would so magnify the small particles of matter that they would seem to be as large as buckshot, and if we could look through such a glass at a small piece of stone, such as might be used for a paper-weight, we would see a towering boulder larger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt. But instead of appearing to be a solid, rigid mass, it would be a seething swarm of small round particles, each separated from all others by distances greater than their individual diameters, and all vibrating at such enormous rates of speed that the great bulk would manifest to our sense of sight as a kind of hazy mist. This transition from the realm of the ultra-microscopical to a realm with the sizes and distances of which we are acquainted 42 The Science of Religion is a rather long step, but it serves to bring the sub- ject within the range of comprehension without changing the actual conditions. Considered in this latter aspect, the truth is not so difficult of comprehension. In fact, all true scientific discoveries are comprehensible to average human intelligence when aptly explained. It is only when we attempt to go beyond the actually discovered facts and grope after ultimates that we are baffled and confounded. It may be that man shall some time reach and know the very ultimate of matter. If so, it may be that he shall find that ultimate to be a homogenous mass of ether from which all things else are precipitated, and through which they move without friction ; or it may be he shall find that what appears to be solid matter is, in its last estate, nothing but an interplay of forces. The one of these possibilities is about as inconceiv- able to present human intelligence as the other. So far as we know, either or neither may be true. But we can intelligently pursue the subject as far as the atom of physical matter, as already set forth, and that is entirely sufficient for the present purpose. Only let it be understood that Science has just barely reached the atom of physical matter, and knows nothing of what, if anything, lies be- yond it. When it undertakes to say that there is nothing above and beyond the plane or realm of physical matter, it is talking about something of which it is utterly without knowledge. It may seem that too much time and space have Established Facts 43 been devoted to this undisputed fact that the fine particles of physical matter are separated by com- paratively great distances ; but the importance of it will more fully appear when it is stated that those same distances are the open doors through which Keligion may escape from the wall of facts with which Science has endeavoured to impound it. We are here merely recruiting the facts, the mar- shalling of them being necessarily deferred until the recruiting process has been completed. H IV FORCE AVING briefly reviewed human knowl- edge of the ultimate of matter, consid- ered apart from the phenomena arising through the operation of force, we will now con- sider our knowledge of force itself. There is but little to consider, because we know but little. All our knowledge of this ultimate may be summed up by saying that there is in nature a mobilizing, vitalizing, animating principle which we call force. This principle is co -existent with matter, in either an active or a passive form, but it is not always dependent upon what we usually call matter for its transmission. Light is one manifes- tation of force, and it passes freely through the most perfect vacuum — a fact of which we have a complete demonstration in the ordinary incandes- cent light bulb. Light and heat are examples of the active state of force, and cohesion in the stone and molecular strain in the steel spring and the storage battery furnish examples of latent or pas- sive force. In many instances we can sense the force itself, as well as its effects upon matter ; for one instance, we can feel heat, and we can also see its effects upon matter. In many other instances we are not U Force 45 sensible of the force itself, but are sensible of its effects upon matter ; for one instance here, none of our senses can detect magnetism, and yet it runs our machinery, propels our street-cars, and exerts its power in thousands of other ways equally open to observation. And who will be bold enough to say that there may not be other forces which are not only themselves beyond the limits of our con- sciousness, but the effects of which also lie beyond the range of our ability to perceive ? In this dawn- ing age of wireless communication every animate and inanimate thing upon the face of the earth is almost constantly bombarded by the electro-mag- netic waves crackling forth from the thousands of wireless stations, and those waves are constantly working changes in many of the objects upon which they impinge ; but unless one be equipped with the proper mechanical apparatus he is insensible alike of the waves and of their accompanying phenomena. THE AWKWARD POSITION OF SCIENCE Science has experienced even more difficulties in dealing with the subject of force than it has en- countered in the realm of matter. It long since conceived the idea that force is only a phenomenon or property of physical matter, to which idea it is still wedded " for better or for worse." Its fidelity to this idea has led it into some rather awkward places, and has made it say some rather remark- able things. Having traced matter back to its 46 The Science of Religion vibrating atoms, it says : " In the world of molec- ular physics the molecules and atoms and electrons are self-moved, and are in perpetual motion." Self- moved ? So far as our physical senses advise us, yes. In a world teeming with force in a thousand different forms, sensed and unsensed, and in which nothing else moves except through the application of force, electrons and atoms and molecules bob- bing up and down of their own accord ! If a man knowing nothing of wireless telegraphy should observe the coherer of a wireless receiving instrument in operation, he would see the iron or nickel filings alternately cohere and fall apart. Upon examination he would find nothing but a wire extending from one end of the little glass tube con- taining the filings into the air, and another wire extending from the other end into the earth. No mechanism, no magnets, no batteries. Just plain metal filings, " self -moved " ! Self-moved ? So far as our physical senses advise us, yes. In a world teeming with force in a thousand different forms, sensed and unsensed, and in which nothing else moves except through the application of force, metal filings bobbing up and down of their own accord ! But in this instance Science happens to know that the filings are moved by a force playing upon them, so that the " self -moved " theory need not be employed. If it be true that the vibration of atoms is not produced by extraneous force, it seems passing strange that their vibratory rates should be so Force 47 easily influenced by forces with which we are fa- miliar. At freezing temperature the molecular and atomic vibratory rates of water are so modified that it assumes the form of a solid ; at 212° F. its molecules widely separate; and if we raise the temperature high enough the vibratory harmony between the atoms of the molecules will be des- troyed, thus resolving the water into its constituent gases, oxygen and hydrogen. If we subject air to great pressure at low temperature, its atomic vi- bratory rates will be so modified that it will become a liquid. These two common materials, air and water, are bland and harmless under ordinary con- ditions, but if we subject a mixture of them to the intense vibratory heat of an electric arc, their vi- bratory rates will be so disturbed that they will rearrange themselves into groups forming molecules of nitric acid, a powerful chemical which breaks down all organic matter and many metals. These facts do not fit in very well with the theory that atoms vibrate independently of force ; but Science has not yet admitted the possibility of force not generated by physical matter, and is therefore com- pelled to the conclusion that the atoms are self- moved. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM This scientific dictum that the ultimate particles of matter are self-moved may not at first thought seem to be of any great importance ; but it is really the parting of the ways for Science and Religion as 48 The Science of Religion they exist to-day. True Science and true Eeligion are one and the same thing. No scientific truth can conflict with any religious truth, for the very ade- quate reason that no one truth can ever conflict with another truth. But the Science of to-day maintains that the phenomena of force, life and intelligence are but so many properties of physical matter ; that when the ultimate of physical matter is reached the outposts of the universe are attained, and that the particles of matter there existing are self-moved. The Religion of to-day, on the other hand, maintains broadly, without scientific methods of treatment, and with no rational nomenclature, that the phys- ical realm is vitalized by force not inherent in physical matter, and that at the outposts of that realm begins a realm of finer matter which is in- tangible to our consciousness because of the com- parative coarseness of our physical organs of sense, in which latter realm man continues to exist as an individual intelligence after the event of physical death. The lines are tightly drawn. The issue is squarely presented. Science holds that physical matter is omnipotent and self -moved, and that there is nothing beyond the horizon of the physical world ; while Religion contends that physical matter is impotent except as an instrument of expression for extra-physical force, and that at the horizon of the physical world stand the portals of another and finer world. For a long time Intuition was allied with Religion, and Reason was allied with Science ; but since we are learning more about the subtle forces Force 49 of nature it is not uncommon to find Intuition allied with Science, and Keason fighting the battles of Keligion. Many eminent scientists have refused to respect the barriers which their fellows have raised against them, and many progressive religion- ists have discarded as " non-essentials " some of the purely dogmatic tenets which have been passed along from an unlettered and unscientific age, and which are not supported by either Intuition or Keason. During the past fifty years Science and Keligion have fought many battles on these disputed fields of matter and force, and as a result of those battles there has come into existence the beginnings of a scientific conception and interpretation of Keligion which is the basic theme of this book. In other words, there has been an occasional effort to blend to- gether and harmonize some postulate of Science and some cardinal teaching of Keligion, and the system of reasoning and deduction thus employed has some- times been termed " Scientific Faith." Mr. Henry Drummond was an ambitious pioneer in this field, his most notable effort being " The Ascent of Man," a book which attempted to modify " The Descent of Man," Charles Darwin's great book on Evolu- tion. But Mr. Drummond was not always able to distinguish between Mr. Darwin's real discoveries and his speculations and deductions. He accepted as true some of those speculations and deductions which afterwards turned out to be false, and in trying to fit them into a religious system he made ^o The Science of Religion many serious and sometimes ludicrous blunders, which detracted from his otherwise great work and posted a caveat against other religionists who might otherwise have been tempted to follow his lead. Latterly, however, the issue has been raised in the ranks of Science itself, and there have been several notable efforts of scientists to show that Religion and Science hold much in common. But such scientists are in the hopeless minority, and their efforts have generally been labelled by the majority as " curious mixtures of scientific fact and theological moon- shine." The battle still centers, as it has centered from the beginning, around the question as to whether or not force is merely a property of physical mat- ter. If Science should ever admit the existence of force acting upon physical matter from without, its inner fortress would be breached, and the hosts of Religion would pour through unopposed. For, once admit the existence of extra-physical force, and the possibility of super-physical matter looms large in the foreground. If Religion will but take advantage of the pres- ent opportunity ; if it will but join with those sci- entists who are willing to assist it in coordinating scientific discoveries and religious beliefs, and in the formulation of a rational nomenclature for the expression of the results thus obtained ; it will probably win the battle. Reason and human ex- perience and observation seem to dictate that the present manifestation of physical matter, under Force 5 1 whatever combination of circumstances it may- have come into existence, must have come through the agency and operation of some preexistent force ; because all things in the universe the gene- ses of which we can understand are thus effectuated. So far as we have been able to comprehend the great plan of things, it is founded upon a university of law, and not a diversity ; and the theory that sticks and stones and things move only when acted upon by force, while electrons and atoms and molecules are self-actuated, is inconsistent with the idea of a university of law. For atoms and molecules, like stones, are ponderable things having weight and volume, and probably, like stones, move only under the impulse of force. If it be asked : " Whence the force ? " we but come again to the ultimate and unknown. And when at last the battle is won, if it so be that Eeligion shall win it, Science and Religion will coalesce and go forth to explore new realms, discover new truths, and solve world-old enigmas. One enigma which is pressing for solution, and which some great pioneers in scientific faith be- lieve to be near a solution, is the old, old question of the continuance of individual existence after death. Spiritualism, long overvalued, often honey- combed with fraud, and subject to an infinitely varied assortment of uncertainties, mistakes and inaccuracies, has been taken in hand by Science and is contributing some interesting data. Spiri- tualism has not yet furnished any conclusive proof $2 The Science of Religion of individual existence after death, but Science, in order to prove that it has not done so, has been compelled to admit some very wonderful things; one of those admissions being that a human mind can instantly transmit its thoughts to another human mind in a remote part of the world, with- out employing any tangible means of communica- tion. Mediumship has been condemned from the earliest ages, and is undoubtedly immoral and de- structive in its effects ; but there is now a tendency towards independent development along psychical lines, as contradistinguished from the subjective and dependent methods of mediumship, in the hope and with the expectation that the results thus ob- tained will be more satisfactory and conclusive. In other words, the effort is to employ the methods of Elisha, instead of those of the medium whom Saul visited at Endor. Just what progress has been made along this new line the general public has not been advised, but there have been some intimations which are calculated to arouse interest, to say the least of it. Nothing contained in this chapter should be con- strued as an assertion that force may exist inde- pendent of all matter. It may so exist, but we have no knowledge upon this point. All that is here intended is to point out that what we know as physical matter is controlled by force moving through a finer medium. GENESIS JUST what form the new Science-Keligion will take, in case the tendency towards coalition should bear fruit, is a subject very inviting to speculation ; and the absorbing interest of ' the theme ought to be sufficient excuse for an effort to formulate some forethought as to just what trend it may take, and to discover in advance, if possible, some of the high landmarks along the probable way of its investigations and deductions. Hence- forward this book will be devoted to such effort. The aim will be to show that the real discoveries of Science and the cardinal beliefs of Keligion are harmonious and mutually supplemental; and if this can be done, then the way will be cleared for coalition and cooperation. At present, Science begins its creed thus : " In the beginning matter . . ." while Religion be- gins : " In the beginning God. . . ." As has al- ready been indicated, Science will be compelled, if the present advantage is followed up, to substitute something else for that word "matter." What that substitute shall be is of no consequence, but it must be a term which will mean a universal, intelligent force. Since the name is of no importance, and in order that we may rationally discuss the subject, 53 54 The Science of Religion we will arbitrarily substitute the word " force " for the word " matter" in the beginning of the creed of Science. Only that one small change will we make — only that one stinted concession to Keligion. To this slightly revised creed we will add the present knowledge and logical deductions of Science, and then use the resulting formula in grouping the material for a new cosmic concep- tion. With this slightly revised creed before us, we will now proceed to add the pertinent findings and logical deductions of Science, one by one, and thus endeavour to forecast the postulates, deduc- tions and philosophies of the new Science -Keligion which may occupy and fructify the realm in which the old Science and the old Keligion have been but crude pioneers. To many good people this may seem to foretell an effort to tear down the old land- marks and force them away from things which have been held sacred for generations. Let such good people be reassured. There will be no effort to destroy the Old Time Keligion, nor to blast the Kock of Ages. On the other hand, the aim will be to find a reason for the Old Time Keligion, and to relieve the Kock of Ages of its overburden of doubt and dogma. GASEOUS INCANDESCENCE It is undisputed and indisputable that this earth, by whatever combination of circumstances it may have come into existence, was once hot to the point of gaseous incandescence. Clearly, no form of life Genesis $$ now known to us could have existed under those conditions, and its remoteness from other worlds precludes the possibility that such life might have been transmitted across interplanetary space. COMPLEX VIBRATORY FORCE A complex vibratory force, apparently universal in scope, and manifesting as waves in the all-pervading ether, played upon the super-heated mass, tending to cause all atoms of the same weight to vibrate syn- chronously — that is, at the same speed. This com- plex vibratory force may be likened unto the atmos- pheric condition which would result from the simultaneous striking of all the " c " strings of a piano, the longer waves tending to mobilize the heavier atoms, and the shorter waves tending to mobilize the lighter ones. It is just possible that this all-pervading force is as complex in its wave- lengths as would be the waves in the atmosphere of a room upon the simultaneous striking of all the strings of a piano the tones of which will harmonize ; but that would not affect the principle, and for the sake of simplicity and clarity it will be assumed that each shorter wave is just half as long as the next longer one, which would be the atmospheric condi- tion produced by striking all the " c " strings of a piano. This at once accounts for the vibration of the atoms and for the fact that some of them vibrate more rapidly than others. But the long and volumi- nous heat waves pulsating through the gaseous mass produced a discord which made vibratory har- 56 The Science of Religion mony between any two atoms impossible, so that there could be no chemical compounds — no solid earth, no water. It is curiously interesting and puzzling to note that the writer of the book of Gene- sis says that in this stage of creation " the earth was without form, and void." The proposing of this hypothesis of an all-pervad- ing force again invokes the danger that some of our scientific friends may pronounce the terrible judg- ment that this book is unscientific. Some of them may say that no ethereal wave-force, however com- plex, could penetrate to the center of the earth and move the atoms there — that such waves would be refracted, diffracted and absorbed far short of such great penetration. And yet such scientists might be willing to admit the possibility that an atom at the center of the earth is itself nothing but a whorl of force in the ether. They would be bound to admit that certain substances are transparent to certain wave-lengths of force — that is, certain substances, such as air, water and glass, permit the complex ethereal wave-force which we call " light " to pass through them with practically no interference. If the atmosphere could be cleansed of all water- vapour, smoke and dust particles, sunlight could pass through a stratum of it piled up almost to infinity. The same thing might also be said of water, if it could be cleansed of its impurities. Air contains a large percentage of oxygen, and oxygen enters into the composition of water in the proportion of nearly ninety percentum, Glass is largely composed of Genesis 57 silicon and oxygen, and so is the solid earth. Sili- con combines with fluorine to form a perfectly transparent gas. We observe, therefore, that the elements of which the solid earth is built up are, in certain states and conditions, perfectly transparent to certain ethereal wave-lengths — that is, they permit those wave-lengths to pass through them with practically no interference. It follows with irresistible logic that in certain other states and con- ditions those same elements would permit certain other etheral wave-lengths to also pass through them with practically no interference. MAGNETISM While we do not know very much about magnet- ism, we do know that it is a form of force which exerts itself through the most perfect vacuum, thus demonstrating that it moves through a substance not usually classed as matter. All known substances are perfectly transparent to the waves of magnetism, which fact stands stubbornly between man's ingenu- ity and the achievement of " perpetual motion." If some substance could be found which would absorb (stop) the radiating waves of magnetism, a powerful battery of permanent magnets could be so arranged that they would draw a soft iron armature nearly to their poles, whereupon a sheet of the absorbent sub- stance would be so moved by the motion thus pro- duced that it would drop between the magnets and the armature, thus stopping the attraction. Then, if another battery of permanent magnets should be 58 The Science of Religion set up opposite to the first battery, with another soft iron armature in front of them, and with an- other sheet of the absorbent substance so placed that it would rise as the other sheet dropped, and if these two soft iron armatures should be connected by a piston ; the whole would constitute a magnetic en- gine which would run until its parts were worn out, with no consumption of fuel and no abatement of its energy. But the substance which will thus in- terfere with the radiating waves of magnetism re- fuses to be discovered. If a substance could be found which would even slightly interfere with the magnetic waves, a delicate engine could be con- structed which would go, even though it could not be made to produce power in commercial quantities. X-EAYS AND RADIUM We find, therefore, that one known form of radi- ating waves can pass through all substances with- out interference. Since the discovery of X-rays and radium we have learned that certain other wave-lengths can pass through substances which were once supposed to be " opaque " to all wave- lengths. We have already learned many strange and in- tricate things about radiating ethereal wave-lengths, although our knowledge in that interesting realm is still in its early infancy. As to the waves which we have actually detected, there are many collateral and subsidiary things which we do not know, and we must admit in all humility that there may be Genesis 59 very many other waves which we have never de- tected at all ; all of which will be frankly conceded by any scientist who is not afflicted with blinding egotism. It is hoped that this brief review of some of the known facts concerning ether-waves may induce our swift-judging scientific friends to suspend final sentence for yet a little while. Heat-waves seem to be discordant to all the other waves which impel atoms to vibrate ; because heat disturbs the atomic activity of all known forms of physical matter. If the amplitudes of the heat- waves are low, the atomic disturbance produced by their resulting discord manifests itself to our senses merely as "warmth"; but if the amplitudes be high, the resulting discord manifests itself to our senses as " heat," and causes various compound sub- stances to break up into their component atoms and rearrange themselves. nature's formula for evolution As the fiery globe gradually lost its heat through radiation, the light and high-floating hydrogen cooled sufficiently to permit some of its atoms to reach a harmonic vibratory rate with some of the underlying atoms of oxygen, thus effecting earth's first marriages — polygamous unions between one positive oxygen atom and two negative hydrogen atoms. Incidentally, the first compound entities (molecules of water) thus came into being, and nature's formula for evolution was ex- 60 The Science of Religion pounded. Two kinds of atoms had responded to shorter waves of vibratory force than any to which they had theretofore responded, and as a result of this response they combined into a new form of matter having an appearance and qualities entirely different from anything which had theretofore ex- isted in the environs of the earth. Gaseous incan- descence thus took the first step towards conditions that are known to us to-day. The molecules of water formed by the union of the oxygen and hydrogen sank into the fiery globe beneath, there to be again disrupted by the intense heat and their component atoms sent forth upon another round of the cycle. And thus the tedious round continued age after age, nature's complex vibratory force establishing harmonic vibratory rates between various kinds of atoms, and uniting positive and negative atoms into compound entities ; these entities sinking down into the more intense heat to be disrupted, and their atoms rising again to be reformed, until the entities of the mineral world were at last permanently established and the solid earth appeared. Even the solid earth was very hot for a long time, so that no water could collect upon its sur- face, and all the water now in our streams and oceans, and all that percolates through the earth, hung about it in dense clouds of steam and vapour. These clouds poured down great torrents of rain upon the heated earth, and the steam into which this rain was converted helped to dissipate the heat Genesis 6l more rapidly. The planet Jupiter is still in just that stage of evolution, so that when we look at it through a telescope we see nothing but its dense envelope of clouds and vapour. At last a thin crust on the surface of the earth cooled to a temperature below the boiling point, and water began to gather upon it. Having solidi- fied from a molten mass, the world was a smooth globe, its interior not having yet cooled and shrunken sufficiently to cause its surface to crumple into mountains and valleys and continents and ocean-beds. Hence, there was no dry land. Again we are compelled to note the strikingly curious fact that the writer of the book of Genesis describes this stage of creation by saying : " And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered to- gether in one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was so." If the atom is indeed complex in its structural composition, and itself subject to evolutionary change and refinement, as many scientists now be- lieve, then this constant grinding, heating and cool- ing, integration and disintegration, disruption and re-formation, continued through such inconceivable reaches of time, must have resulted in a marked re- finement of all atoms and their consequent response to higher vibratory rates playing upon them. HARMONICS A brief analysis of this subject of vibratory harmonics will help us the better to understand the 62 The Science of Religion great principle here immediately under considera- tion. If two pianos be tuned to the same pitch, and then placed on opposite sides of the same room, they may be used to fully and completely demon- strate the selective character of vibrations in their action upon matter in the medium through which they are moving. Of course, the medium of trans- mission will be air, instead of ether, and the piano strings are infinitely coarser and heavier than atoms, but the principle is the same. Now, having placed the pianos and opened them, stand near one of them and have some one else strike a key — say middle C — on the other. The middle C string of the piano by which you stand will immediately respond by giving out the same sound, and all the other strings will remain mute. The key of middle C is arbitrarily chosen ; the result will be the same whatever key may be em- ployed — that is, the corresponding string on the unused piano will respond, and all others will re- main silent. This means merely that the string which is struck is thereby set to vibrating at a certain rate determined by its weight and tension, and that these vibrations send out air- waves of a certain length into the surrounding atmosphere. These waves strike all the strings of the other piano, but they start only one of them to vibrating, and that is the string the weight and tension of which are such that it will respond to a wave of the particular length sent into the air by the string which has been struck. There will be a feeble Genesis 63 response by all the "c" strings above the one which has been struck, owing to shorter waves transmitted by " secondary vibrations " of one-half of it, one-fourth of it, etc., but it is here merely intended to illustrate the principle involved, and not to go into all the technical mathematics of its collateral phases. It sometimes happens that a church window is of such weight and size that it will make vibratory response to one of the deep notes of the pipe-organ, and in many instances the glass has been thus shattered, or jarred from its frame. Other windows in the same church are not affected at all. Applying these principles to the subject here under consideration, we can understand that a certain ethereal wave-length of the complex vibra- tory force which we have thrust into the creed of Science would cause a hydrogen atom to vibrate, while another longer wave-length would in like manner affect a heavier oxygen atom ; and so on through the whole list of atoms. There seems to be practically no limit to the capacity of a medium, such as air or ether, to carry different wave-lengths at the same time, provided each shorter wave is just half as long as the next longer one. So long as these respective ratios are maintained, there are shorter waves in longer ones, and ripples in the shorter waves, and shorter ripples in the longer ones, and so on ; no one wave interfering with any other. In Music we call this a " harmonic." In Physics and Chemistry, when 64 The Science of Religion we speak of " harmonic vibratory rates " between two atoms, reference is had to the same principle, but here its application is a little more complex, and we mean that the number of vibrations of one of the atoms during a given time is such that if expressed in figures it may be equally divided by some number greater than 1 which will also equally divide the number of vibrations of the other atom during the same time. If the vibratory rate of one atom is such that it may be represented by 3, it sustains a harmonic relation to any other atom the vibratory rate of which may be represented by 6, 9, 12, etc., and does not sustain a harmonic relation to atoms having vibratory rates which may be represented by 4, 5, 7, etc. If two atoms have harmonic vibratory rates, and if they happen also to be of opposite polarity, they will combine into molecules of matter. Groupings of two kinds of such atoms form the various simple compound substances, such as water (composed of oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms), and sand (composed of oxygen atoms and silicon atoms). Atoms not having natural harmonic vibratory rates are often found in complex compounds containing three or more different kinds of atoms, but in such com- pounds the two slightly discordant atoms are " tied together " after some fashion by the interposition of a third. It also sometimes happens that dis- cordant atoms thus closely tied together by a third have their natural rates so modified thereby that they will remain united even after the third atom Genesis 65 has been removed. Oxygen and nitrogen furnish an example of this latter kind. These two gases mix together to form air, but the nitrogen merely dilutes the oxygen, just as water dilutes syrup. Their atoms do not group together to form molecules. But in the complex compound known as solid ammonium nitrate the oxygen atoms and the nitrogen atoms are tied together by hydrogen atoms into molecules of the compound. However, if the compound be heated and agitated, some of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms " slip out " to form molecules of water, and the nitrogen atoms and remaining oxygen atoms are yet grouped into molecules which then manifest as nitrous oxide (" laughing-gas ") which dentists sometimes use as an anesthetic. It is just possible that in those complex com- pounds containing three or more different kinds of atoms two atoms having harmonic vibratory rates first combine to form an ion (fractional molecule), and that the third atom then sustains a harmonic vibratory rate to the ion. We can never know just the relations which the atoms in a complex compound sustain to each other until we know more about the atoms themselves. It may even- tually be ascertained that harmony is established between otherwise inharmonious atoms in the complex compound by reason of increased tension produced by the increased magnetic pull caused by bringing so many atoms into one molecule, thereby quickening the rates of some of the atoms upon 66 The Science of Religion which the pull is most powerfully exerted; but any attempt to elucidate such a possibility would be very technical, and could serve no useful pur- pose here. It is probable that very few of the different atoms sustain perfect harmonic vibratory relations to each other. That is to say, the exact vibratory relation of 3 and 9 rarely, if ever, exists. The ex- act relation would probably be more nearly ex- pressed thus : 3 and 9 T sW, or 3 and 8 \%%\ If it had been possible for all the atoms to attain a per- fect harmonic, they would probably have attained it long ago, and would have thus brought to an end all chemical change, all growth, and all life. Plants and trees grow, and men and animals live and move about, because the atoms of which they are composed are constantly seeking perfect har- monic vibratory relations, just barely failing to attain them, separating in the presence of a little more perfect harmonic for one of them, and recom- bining with other atoms into other compounds. This constitutes " marriage and divorce in the min- eral kingdom," without which chemical change and life and growth would be impossible. A PURELY MINERAL WORLD Having paused for the purpose of agreeing upon the exact meaning of some of the terms employed, we will now proceed to a further consideration of the effects of the complex ethereal wave-force upon the mineral world after the dry land had been cast Genesis 67 up from the water by the shrinking of the earth's interior and the consequent "wrinkling" of its hardened surface. We have already seen that the earth began its career as a mass of white-hot gases. We have now briefly traced the slow and tedious evolution of that gaseous mass into the solid earth, with conti- nents and islands, mountains and valleys, rills and rivers, and lakes and oceans. But our present con- sideration is still confined to a period when con- ditions were hostile to any form of physical life. Science still admits, as it has ever admitted, that it cannot explain the beginnings of life upon an iso- lated world which was at one time in such a con- dition that life was impossible ; but for the purpose of these deductions we are thrusting upon it a factor the existence of which it has heretofore denied. To what it has already demonstrated and convincingly deduced we are adding the dictum of a vibratory force playing upon physical matter from without. We are denying that the atoms are " self -moved," and are asserting that they are impelled to vibrate by the play of a vibratory force, just as the piano string is impelled to vibrate by the play of air vibrations upon it. Begin- ning with the mass of hot gases, we have dis- covered the genesis of the first compound entity (a particle of water) and the cause lying immedi- ately back of that genesis. Still further applying this new dictum of a complex vibratory force play- ing upon the gases from without, we have seen 68 The Science of Religion that while one phase of it caused oxygen and hy- drogen to unite to form water, other phases, or wave-lengths, caused other gases to unite into the solids which compose the earth. We have re- viewed the drenching of the solid earth with water, its gradual cooling, and finally its assump- tion of something like its present geographical form. But we are still contemplating a world millions of miles from all others, and upon which there is no smallest form of life. No fish swims in the tepid waters of any of its seas, nor urchin crawls upon their bottoms. No bird flies through the air, and no animal (not even the smallest microbe) moves upon the earth. There is no tree nor plant anywhere, not even the smallest bit of mould. In short, it is a purely mineral world, made up en- tirely of solid minerals, liquid minerals, and gase- ous minerals. But even as we contemplate it so, we realize that it has evolved far away from gase- ous incandescence. The stage is thus set for the great drama of Life ; but there are no actors within millions of miles, and those millions of miles span chasms which they cannot cross ! And yet to-day the drama is being enacted through the very thick- est of its maze of plot and mystery. The actors have come in troupes the numbers of which no man can estimate. Whence ? and yet again, How ? YI EVOLUTION WE have seen how response of the atoms to the vibratory influence of certain ethereal wave-lengths caused them to combine into the various entities of the mineral kingdom, and we know that the structural charac- teristic of the solid mineral entities is the crystal. The formation of certain crystals has already been briefly referred to, and we have seen that Science does not know why the crystals of one substance should have eight sides, while those of another have only five or six sides, nor even why matter should assume a crystalline form at all. But it now becomes necessary to go into the matter a little more fully. All purely mineral solids, whatever their nature or outward manifestation, are built up of crystals of various shapes, colours and sizes, some of them so small that they can be seen only by employing a microscope. These crystals, however small they may be, contain many molecules, and each molecule is composed of numerous atoms. It thus becomes clear, upon a moment's reflection, that vibratory re- sponse to certain ethereal wave-lengths of force causes atoms to so group together as to form crys- tals. Just why response to those certain wave- lengths causes the atoms to so group themselves, we 69 yo The Science of Religion do not know, any more than we know why it is that snow-crystals retain the general form of irregu- lar discs with six points or spangles through all their various modifications. This is a secret locked in a compartment of Nature's great storehouse of wisdom to which man has not yet found the key. One crude experiment with the operation of this un- known law has been worked out with a drum, a violin, and a little sawdust. The sawdust is sprinkled lightly on the drumhead. Then a deep note of the violin, such as will cause the drumhead to vibrate, is sounded in close proximity to it. The sawdust vibrates in response to the drumhead, and soon begins to gather in groups the general outlines of each of which bear a crude resemblance to all the others. These groups will not break up so long as the same note is sounded ; but if the note be changed to another key, they will break up and re- form into other groups having general outlines materially different from the outlines of the first groups, but crudely similar to each other. This experiment is so crude as to be of but little practical value. But crude though it be, it does demonstrate the general principle that when small particles of matter are agitated into rapid vibration they tend to group together in certain forms, and that these forms are determined by the rate of vibration. VEGETABLE CELLS While we know that the structural characteristic of the entities of the mineral kingdom is the crystal, Evolution 71 and that the entities of the vegetable kingdom are composed of atoms drawn from the mineral king- dom, we also know that the structural characteris- tic of the entities of the vegetable kingdom is the plastic cell. The mineral crystal is a hard, irregu- lar body, with straight lines and abrupt angles, while the vegetable cell is usually globular in form, smooth in outline, and plastic in its general nature. And yet the vegetable cell is constructed of the same kinds of atoms as go into the structure of the crystal. Carbon, occurring almost pure in the form of graphite, and as a constituent of a compound in marble and many other mineral substances, assumes the crystalline form. Occurring again almost pure in cotton, and as a constituent of many other organic substances, it assumes the cellular form. And what is here said of carbon may be said with equal truth of all other mineral substances utilized in vegetable growth. We have already noted that the entities of the mineral kingdom were built up long before there were any vegetable entities, and we now observe that the various atoms assumed the crystalline forms appearing in mineral building because of their vi- bratory response to the longer waves of the complex force playing upon them. "We have also observed that Science is ready to admit that the atoms are in process of evolutionary modification and refinement. We have reasoned that if the atoms are really sus- ceptible of refinement, they must have undergone marked refining changes after their first response to 72 The Science of Religion force and during the inestimable ages through which they struggled against " a hostile environ- ment " for harmonic matings among themselves. We have also sensed and crudely demonstrated a natural law which impels small particles of matter to assume one form of aggregation upon response to a particular vibratory rate, and to assume a differ- ent form of aggregation upon response to a different vibratory rate. And now we are confronted with the momentous question: What happened when the atoms at and near the surface of the earth were so modified and refined that they responded to shorter wave-lengths of force than those which caused them to aggregate into mineral crystals ? The answer forces itself upon us with such unerring certainty that we cannot escape it. They began to aggregate in the form of vegetable cells ! The transition from simple mineral compound to complex vegetable cell was not accomplished at a single bound. As the atoms of the mineral king- dom were gradually refined and quickened their groupings became more and more complex, the re- sulting compounds becoming more and more un- stable, until at last such mineral media appeared that it was but a step to the vegetable cell. This new entity, the vegetable cell, possessed a characteristic which was also something new in the world. It had a strong affinity for certain mineral atoms, which it absorbed ; and, absorbing, grew. Then it " nucleated " and split into two cells, and Evolution 73 these absorbed and grew, and split again. In short, it could reproduce its kind. A great scientist once said that if he could ex- plain the genesis of a single vegetable cell, he could account for all the life in the world ; because he could show how it would be possible for that one cell to develop into all the forms of life, both vegetable and animal, which have appeared upon the earth. But he could not explain the genesis of that one cell. He denied the existence of force acting upon matter from without, and could find no logical reason why dead mineral matter should, of its own inherent potency, become living vege- table matter. We have here reasoned out his " miss- ing link " (the genesis of the vegetable cell), using the findings and deductions of Science, with noth- ing added except the one dictum of force acting upon matter from without, which added dictum Eeligion has always proposed, and which many eminent scientists now accept. If our only interest were in the subject of phys- ical evolution, we might stop here; because the evolutionists have henceforward fully covered all the debatable ground. But be it remembered that one of the primary purposes of this quest is to find some kind of a satisfactory answer to the question, " If a man die, shall he live again ? " Therefore, while we are vitally interested in the evolution of the matter of which our physical bodies are com- posed, the knowledge we seek in that field is only incidental, our principal purpose being to deter- 74 The Science of Religion mine whether or not there is any place in the known realms of nature for other things than the purely physical. If we should find that there is room for other things than physical matter and its phenomena, then the fundamental beliefs of Ke- ligion will stand unrefuted, even though they may not be deemed to be corroborated. VII THE GEEAT PLAN WE have now deduced the genesis of vege- table life, and have found that it was the next evolutionary step after the formation of the entities of the mineral kingdom. If we can further demonstrate that it was necessa- rily the next step, our deductions will be consider- ably strengthened. The writer of the book of Genesis says it was actually the next step, but so long as we are merely striving to show the prob- ability of extra-physical force and the possibility of super-physical matter, we have promised not to rely upon the authority of any sacred writing, and to " carry the fighting into the enemy's country." TEMPERING HARSH CONDITIONS When the earth's temperature had dropped to a degree at which vegetable life was possible, its at- mosphere was still in such condition that it was not fit for animal respiration. Some carbon prob- ably then existed in precipitate form, but the great mass of it now appearing in our coal and oil fields, and in animal and vegetable entities, was still in a gaseous state and so polluted the lower atmos- phere that no animal could have lived in it. Furthermore, no animal can subsist upon the crys- 75 76 The Science of Religion talline mineral kingdom. One animal may subsist upon another, which in turn subsisted upon yet an- other, and so on through a long chain ; but at the end of the chain there must be a victim which sub- sisted upon vegetation. Therefore, it was necessary that vegetable en- tities should immediately succeed mineral entities, for at least two reasons ; first, in order to purify the air of its carbon ; and, second, in order to pro- vide food upon which animals could subsist. No one knows whether vegetation came into the world through the medium of a few cells capable of growth and reproduction, or whether it had its beginning in profusion ; but we do know that there was wonderful profusion during the Carboniferous Period, and that the dominant specimens were coarse, immense and grotesque. And here, for the first time, we get a glimpse of Nature's great Evo- lutionary Plan. The events under consideration begin to assume order and to evince the rudiments of some kind of a purpose. FURTHER REFINING Although the atoms must have been considerably refined during the time in which the earth was cooling and solidifying, as already pointed out, thus fitting them for vibratory response to shorter force- waves which caused them to integrate into vegetable forms, they were still too coarse and sluggish for vibratory response to the still shorter force-waves which might impel them to integrate The Great Plan 77 into higher forms. Therefore a still further and wholesale refining at and near the earth's surface was the next orderly step. This additional refine- ment was accomplished by means of a great profusion of simple and immense forms of vegetation which gathered up from the earth and pulled down from the air vast quantities of mineral matter, the atoms of which matter it ground in a veritable Mill of Life and tied together into more highly complex molecules than any which had appeared in the mineral kingdom. This grinding process, and this grouping into more complex entities, must have still further refined the atoms and prepared them for vibratory response to yet shorter force- waves. Knowing, as we do, that all physical bodies at- tract each other, unless some repellent force inter- poses, and having found that atoms are peculiarly susceptible to this law of attraction by reason of their mixed positive and negative character; and knowing, furthermore, that if the mass be increased, either by increasing the size of the body or increas- ing the number of bodies, the attractive pull upon each waxes stronger ; it seems not beyond the range of possibility that the increased number of atoms oc- curring in the more complex molecules which came at the latter end of the purely mineral period, and at the beginning of the vegetable period, might have resulted in a stronger magnetic pull within the molecule, and a correspondingly increased tensile strain upon each individual atom ; thereby hasten- ing the vibratory response of the atoms to higher 78 The Science of Religion vibratory rates through an increase in their tension, just as a piano string may be made to respond to higher or shorter vibrations by increasing its tension. But if we attempt to fit such a theory into the known facts concerning the properties of matter, we encounter actions and reactions of which but little is known, and are confronted with apparent contra- dictions which cannot be reconciled by anything short of a course of long sustained and highly tech- nical reasoning covering all those known and par- tially known things which Physics elaborately treats under such sub-titles as " Gravitation," " Periodic- ity," " Elasticity," "Viscosity," "Kenetics," "Kadia- tion," etc. Manifestly, such treatment is both im- practicable and undesirable in a work of this kind. Such a theory, while its correctness is possible, and while it is very inviting to speculative reasoning, is not necessary to show the persuasive possibility that matter has evolved from stage to stage, and from form to form, under the mobilizing influence of force- waves acting upon its particles through the medium of the all-pervading ether. Mere refinement of the atoms from age to age accounts for this evolution- ary progress, regardless of whether or not their tension increased as they grouped into more com- plex forms, and average intelligence can easily com- prehend the possibility of such refinement. EVIDENCES OF REFINEMENT Evidence of the gradual refinement of physical matter is everywhere apparent, to whatever cause The Great Plan 79 we may see fit to attribute such refinement. Many of the minerals have been refined into compounds, so that they have become available as food for plants and trees, whereas in their pure state they were not available as such food. As instances : ni- trogen has been combined into nitrates ; phosphorus has been compounded into phosphate ; and metallic potassium has blended into potash salts. The earth's geological strata show that vegetation has gradually become more refined, delicate and com- plex. There were no cauliflowers, nor Easter Lilies, nor strawberries, nor roses, during the Car- boniferous period; because there was no mineral matter then sufficiently refined either to produce or sustain them. But the giant ferns and mosses which dominated the vegetation of that period were tem- pering harsh conditions against the time when the finer forms should be needed. As the general outlines of the great Plan thus begin to assume form and connective sequence be- fore our amazed contemplation, we are awe-stricken by its immeasurable scope and infinite wisdom. We begin to understand that there was method in the movement of force upon gaseous incandescence, and that each step was apparently taken in pursuance of an intelligent plan. Kealizing that there was a plan, we are compelled also to realize that there must have been a purpose, and to wonder what that purpose was. YIII THE GENESIS OF ANIMAL LIFE HAYING accepted the dictum of a complex wave-force pulsating through the all-per- vading ether and playing upon the super- heated gases of which the earth was once wholly composed, we have brought order out of the chaotic findings of Science concerning the mineral kingdom, and have brought to light the working plans accord- ing to which the solid earth was builded. Now, still holding fast to the idea of a university of law, we have found that a little different phase, or wave- length, of the same force which caused the atoms to group into mineral crystals caused those same atoms to group into vegetable cells, thus covering the solid earth with vegetation. But in the period now immediately under consideration there was no ani- mal life, not even the smallest microbe. However, we have had a glimpse of the general outlines of a plan for so controlling the modes of motion of the small particles of matter as to cause them to inte- grate into ever finer and better forms ; and we have observed that this refining process was still at work in the vegetable kingdom. We are thus led to sur- mise that when the refining process wrought out during the purely vegetable period had reached a certain point, a still finer phase, or wave-length, of 80 The Genesis of Animal Life 81 the complex vibratory force found vibratory re- sponse in the refined atoms, and so caused them to integrate into even more complex and improved forms of cells. According to all the deductions and findings of Science, this latter is exactly what hap- pened. Science admits all of this, save only the play of force from without. It admits all these stages and transformations, and the working out of all these forms, in the exact order named ; but it contends that all these changes and transformations occurred by reason of some potency inherent in phys- ical matter itself, which potency it does not even pretend to understand, much less explain. Accord- ing to its view, the vibrating atoms and molecules are " self-moved," and in some mysterious and un- known way they have worked out all the different and complex phenomena of integration, life and growth. ANIMAL CELLS As the refining process continued in the realm of vegetation, the vegetable forms continued to grow more and more complex in structural composition, and finer in form and texture, until they were ca- pable of being utilized as food by a higher form of life. This refining process, traced to its founda- tion, rested upon a gradual refinement of the atoms and their grouping into more and more complex vegetable cells. When a certain stage of refine- ment and complexity had been reached, the same atoms which were once components of incandescent 82 The Science of Religion gas, and which had successively integrated into mineral crystals and vegetable cells, refined and quickened by each new experience, began group- ing themselves into animal cells, resulting in the production of entities which not only had the power to absorb and grow, but which could also feel and move about. COARSE ANIMAL FORMS We do not know whether the first animal cells were but vegetable cells evolved, or whether they were entirely new aggregations of atoms. Neither do we know whether animal life began with a few cells, or whether it came with immediate profu- sion ; but we do know that in its early stages it was very profuse, and that its dominant specimens were coarse, immense and grotesque. Finer forms were yet to come, and additional refinement of physical matter must needs be first accomplished. Man could not have subsisted upon the vegetation which fed the first mastodon, and a dinosaurus steak would probably have proved a poison, rather than a food. The mammoth, the mastodon and the dinosaurus were quite otherwise than beautiful, according to our present aesthetic standards; but their immense bodies were capable of assimilating vast quantities of coarse physical matter and grind- ing it through another mill of life, thus preparing it for finer manifestations. Thus does the great Plan further unfold as we pro- ceed. The mastodon and the dinosaurus are gone ; The Genesis of Animal Life 83 and gone are the giant ferns and mosses which once enjungled the earth ; but at last we are learning the secret of their existence, and that they did not live and die in vain. Hideous and £ro- tesque though they undoubtedly were, they never- theless filled their little place and served their little turn in the great scheme of things, and were indispensable links in the chain of events which transformed gaseous incandescence into the teem- ing world of life and intelligence which we know to-day. During the age in which they lived there were no cows, no poodles, no hogs, no canary birds ; because physical conditions were still too crude for the production of these higher forms — the environment was too " hostile " for such battle as they could have offered. Possibly these later and finer forms were evolved from progenitors that were contemporaneous with the huge animals here under consideration; but if so, they have evolved very far from them, whether we try to trace such evolution upward in point of size, or downward. THE LAW OF NATURAL SELECTION But the refining process continued in the animal kingdom, just as it had continued in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. In the mineral kingdom the only bond between the positive and negative entities was magnetic attraction, and their unions were barren of offspring. In the vegetable king- dom the rudiments of sex appeared ; and thus came 84 The Science of Religion into the world the "Law of Natural Selection" of which the evolutionists make so much, and which resulted in the reproduction of ever finer and more varied forms. In the animal kingdom this principle of sex, faintly foreshadowed in the division of the atoms into positive and negative, and becoming more marked and potent in the veg- etable kingdom, reached a much higher develop- ment, and the consequent improvement and vari- ation through reproduction was all the more rapid. And so it was that the forms of animal life grad- ually increased in refinement and variety. Such forms as were modified to meet changing condi- tions survived and variegated, and such as failed to keep pace with changing conditions perished. And thus was evolved the fauna which we know to-day. MAN Finally, when physical matter had been suffi- ciently refined and quickened, came that superimpo- sition upon the animal kingdom who chooses to call himself Man. He is the best individual ex- pression of the great Plan, being the last in an ever-improving series. He is the result of shorter force-waves than those which integrated all the forms of life below him; that is, those peculiar traits and characteristics which make him Man are the result of response by the atoms of which he is composed to those shorter and more rapid force- waves. He may be merely an involved ape, or he may be a special creation. That he has greatly The Genesis of Animal Life 85 improved and variegated through natural selection there can be no doubt. But he is moved by higher forces and impelled by finer impulses than are the rounds of sentient life below him. He can not only feel, and move about, and think ; but he can also will, and reason, and choose contrary to his im- pulses. He is not only conscious of his environ- ment, but is conscious of himself, and reasons upon his individual relation to the universal scheme of things. Tried out in the chemical laboratory, the composition of his body is not notably different from that of animal bodies ; considered from the purely physical standpoint, he is merely an aggre- gation of the same atoms which were once in the fiery cloud-ball, and which have successively inte- grated into mineral entities, vegetable entities and animal entities, with all of which entities he shares much in common. But we see in him potential- ities of which there is no sign of inherence in the physical matter of which those other entities are composed. While he is closely related to the ani- mal, he is animal with something added. He is an animal the particles of whose body have at- tained to a degree of refinement and complexity enabling them to respond to force-waves which find no response in the particles of which other animal bodies are built up. HANDMAIDENS OF EVOLUTION In the realm of humanity the Law of Natural Selection is quickened in its selective evolutionary 86 The Science of Religion impulse by those characteristics found only in that realm. In other words, each finer characteristic which Nature has developed has become its hand- maiden, and has lent its potency to more rapid and complex evolution. When the vegetable cell was developed, it did not passively wait for food until the surrounding mineral atoms were fully refined to its own degree: it possessed a refining power and local vibratory radiation of its own, and it ex- erted this power in refining the partially refined mineral atoms to its own degree, thereby utilizing them as food and producing the phenomena of growth and reproduction. And, similarly, the animal cell, when it came, possessed and used the power of refining vegetable matter to its own de- gree. The blind and indiscriminate attractions between the positive and negative particles of the mineral kingdom developed into a selective affinity in the vegetable kingdom which was almost as blind and indiscriminate, but the functions and activities of these two kinds of particles were greatly accentuated. In the mineral kingdom harmonic matings were the result of chance meet- ings. ~No one atom made any effort to meet an- other. In the vegetable kingdom the active parti- cles began to seek the passive particles, and the passive particles waited to be sought. The passive acorn- and nut-cells on the oak and hickory, for in- stance, remained stationary on the twig where they grew, while the active particles of pollen from the tassels of the same trees left their parent stems, The Genesis of Animal Life 87 drifted about in the air, or were carried on the legs of insects, and one of them chancing to come into contact with the orifice of a passive cell-duct, it trav- elled along that cell-duct until it reached and com- bined with the passive cell itself, thus forming the beginnings of another tree of probable finer quali- ties than any other which had theretofore appeared. In the animal kingdom the active and passive character of the two kinds of entities became more marked, and there entered the additional and some- what discriminate elements of passive desire and active will and choice. The female was still passive and receptive, and the new element of desire which had its genesis in her kind was a desire with some slight range of discrimination — she was generally more susceptible to the wooing of some males of her kind than to that of others. And among the male entities of the animal kingdom active will took the place of the chances incident to fickle wind-currents and capricious insects. When humanity appeared upon the earth, its two kinds of entities had inherent in them all the ele- ments of attraction for each other which had gov- erned the entities in the realms below them. The female was still passive and receptive. She was still very largely governed by desire, but her range of discriminatory choice was much broader than had been its range in the animal kingdom. The male was still active and aggressive, but those pro- pensities were largely directed and controlled by the power of will and the faculty of reason. 88 The Science of Religion Thus the Law of Natural Selection gathered re- cruits at each new accomplishment. It gathered force, momentum and scope as it proceeded. And through the cooperation of these recruited forces, and the consequent increase of its scope and power, its products became ever finer until present condi- tions were attained. Speculation as to whether physical matter may some time respond to yet higher forces, and thus aggregate into still higher forms, would carry us far beyond the field which we are here trying to briefly explore and partially comprehend. The writer of the book of Genesis says that when God had created man and woman " he rested from all his labours," and apparently this is true. So far as the physical world is concerned, the end of the Plan seems to have been thus reached. LOVE And what is this force which we have traced from atom to man? We have already conceded that we do not know whence it comes. But upon a moment's reflection we realize that it is a vibra- tory principle in nature which impels every entity to seek harmonic mating with another similar entity of opposite polarity. We find the first faint manifestation of this great force in the magnetic attractions and vibratory affinities which impel atoms to unite into mineral substances. In the vegetable kingdom we see it manifesting as selec- tion ; in the animal kingdom it assumes the form The Genesis of Animal Life 89 of lust ; and in the human kingdom it is evolved iuto love. Darwin concluded that evolution was the result of feeding and breeding and battling against a hostile environment, and nothing more. Drummond set out to refute some of Darwin's conclusions by- showing that Love, which he rightfully concluded is the greatest thing in the world, could not be ex- plained under the feeding, breeding and battling theory ; but he finally lost his way in a maze of inconsistencies, and concluded that Love came through so much suffering and sacrifice that it might be said it was thrust upon the world at the point of a sword. According to the hypothesis under which we are here proceeding, evolution is the result of cooperation and harmony, and Love is the force behind it. While Darwin concluded that evolution is unmindful of the individual, looking only to improvement of the species, we are forced to the conclusion that it aims at the well-being of the individual, improvement of the species follow- ing as a necessary result. Evolution thus seems to be predicated upon something other than feeding and breeding and battling. Viewed in this light, Love cannot be the mere result of suffering and sacrifice, nor can we agree that it was thrust upon the world at the point of a sword : on the con- trary, it is indeed the greatest thing in the world, and is the impelling force back of all action, life and intelligence occurring as concomitants of matter. 90 The Science of Religion nature's final products From the last alembic in Nature's complex labo- ratory came these two final products — Man and Woman. They are all too often marred in the making, physically, mentally and morally ; but the ideal is frequently very nearly approached, and since we are seeking the end of the Plan, we must look to the ideal. As we contemplate the ideal man and the ideal woman, standing before us as the very embodiment of strength and beauty ; pul- sating with life ; self-conscious in the exercise of their wonderful faculties and powers of will and desire, reason and intuition ; so unlike in their es- sential natures, and yet having their destinies so closely bound up together ; and when we remem- ber that they are the final products of so many tedious millions of years of refinement and prog- ress, beginning with the atoms in the fiery globe and running through all the changes we have tried to trace : we can but wonder if they are nothing else than aggregations of physical matter which must soon be resolved back into the elements from which they came. Science sentences them to swift and eternal death: Keligion can only bid them hope. Is the sentence imposed by Science a legal sentence ? Is it supported by the law and the evidence ? IX WIDE OPEN DOOES IT was said in a previous chapter, during a dis- cussion of Compressibility, that the known distances intervening between the ultimate particles of all physical matter are so many open doors through which Religion may escape from the wall of facts with which Science has tried to impound it. We now approach those doors. SUPER-PHYSICAL MATTER Until now we have devoted our attention to the problem of extra-physical force and its effects upon physical matter, hurriedly tracing its working out of ever finer and higher physical forms. JS T o effort has been made to prove, nor even to deduce, the existence of super-physical matter. The existence of such super-physical matter cannot be either proved or disproved by the present methods and appliances of Science ; because, as has already been noted, those methods and appliances have not yet enabled it to reach the end of physical matter. It has just barely attained to knowledge that all physical matter is composed of very small particles called atoms which are not in contact with each other. It does not know of what the atoms are composed : its savants are still bickering over vari- 91 92 The Science of Religion ous theories touching this point. These same limi- tations which make it impossible to prove the ex- istence of super-physical matter also make it impossible to prove its non-existence. So there ! The net of experiment which Science has set to catch the atoms of physical matter is of such large mesh that they pass through it; but in passing through they cause the cork-line to bobble, and scientists are thus advised of their passing. If there are smaller atoms than those which compose phys- ical matter, they freely escape without registering any sign of their passing. We have observed that the ultimate particles of physical matter are, in most instances, if not in all, separated from each other by distances much greater than their individual diameters. We have seen that water, one of the most nearly incompress- ible substances in the physical realm, is composed of particles which are comparatively far apart. What, if anything, occupies those spaces between the ultimate particles of physical matter ? Science does not know ! Do the smaller atoms of a ma- terial finer than physical material gambol across those uncharted fields ? Science is utterly unable to answer ! We thus come at last to the very end of scien- tific knowledge concerning matter, and at this point the great majority of our scientific friends will probably bid us farewell. They will return to their culture-media and alembics, their micro- scopes and spectroscopes, their chemical formulae Wide Open Doors 93 and tables of atomic weights. May all the powers of good attend them in their great work of eman- cipating humanity from the bondage of ignorance, superstition and disease, and making this physical world a better place for human abode! Never- theless, they are most cordially invited to remain with us yet a little longer ; for, although we have admitted that we cannot prove the existence of super-physical matter by the employment of their methods and implements, we shall still continue to employ their facts and findings and methods of deduction in an attempt to reason out the probable existence of such matter. HUMAN INTUITION Be it remembered that human Intuition has al- ways whispered of the existence of a realm of matter finer than the physical, and of life and intelligence in that realm. Wherever men and women have been found, regardless of the marine leagues or the thousands of years which have sepa- rated them from other men and women, there has also been found some kind of a belief in individual existence after death ; which belief necessarily im- plies some kind of a duality of matter, one phase of which is finer and more permanent than the other. If it be contended that this belief might have had its origin in a community from which all races and peoples are remotely descended, its world-wide persistence after the development of such widely divergent racial types, and after the 94 1 ne Science of Religion rise of so many totally different languages, is no less marvellous than the idea that it has separately sprung up in each race. Sometimes this belief in the duality of matter has assumed crude forms ; but the important fact is its wide-spread prevalence, and not its form. Belief in the literal resurrection of the physical body is a comparatively recent addition to belief in individ- ual existence after death, and is merely an effort of expanding reason to harmonize the whisperings of Intuition with the observable facts. A SCIENTIFIC BOGIE For a long time Science tried to frighten away this intuitional belief in the duality of matter and the persistence of the finer body by exhibiting that old bogie labelled, "Two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time." And even yet that same old scarecrow, with sleeves now frayed and disclosing its wooden arms, with the tuft of hay protruding from beneath its weather-beaten hat, is sometimes pressed into service. How reluctantly do men yield up their dogmas ! And yet, frayed and weather-beaten though the old bogie may be, and though its pitiful sham is so apparent, the label speaks the everlasting and unalterable truth. Everything here depends upon our conception of a body. A bee and a gnat cannot occupy the same space at the same time, and in that sense the label speaks the truth ; but if we consider a swarm of flying bees as a body, and likewise a swarm of flying Wide Open Doors 95 gnats, then two bodies can occupy the same space at the same time, for the two swarms can interblend and fly along together ; and, moreover, a man with poor vision would be able to see the swarm of bees, but could not see the swarm of gnats. Is there really such a realm of finer matter, the smaller ultimate particles of which occupy the spaces between the larger ultimate particles of phys- ical matter ? We have seen that the existence of such matter is entirely possible. We have also seen that Intuition whispers of such a realm to every normal human being. Literature is replete with legendary tales of such a " fairyland " and the people dwelling there. Eeligion rests upon belief in such a world, in which it bids men and women to expect a righting of all the unrighted wrongs of earth, and its own peculiar literature, coming from all countries and all ages, abounds with recitals of how men still clothed with mortal flesh have ra- tionally communicated with the living entities who there abide. For long these legends, creeds, be- liefs and records, all sanctioned by the finer ele- ments and nobler impulses of humanity, and form- ing a part of our conception of the fitness of things, have been confounded by the towering wall of physical facts with which an aggressive and con- quering Science has surrounded them ; but at last the wall is found to be largely a mass of portals through which they pass unopposed, while Science stands agape. "HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE?" HAYING discovered that the existence of super-physical matter is possible, and hav- ing added to that possibility a modicum of inconclusive evidence, we will now adopt the existence of such a realm of matter as "a working hypothesis," and endeavour to correlate it with the known facts. INTERPLEADING BODIES Let us again resort to the hypothetical magnify- ing-glass which caused the stone paper-weight to appear larger than the Great Pyramid, with its vibrating atoms as large as buckshot, each separated from all others by distances comparatively great ; and let us turn this glass towards the physical body of a man. We see a giant form towering far above the clouds, with a girth greater than the base of Mount McKinley, its various atoms ranging in size about the same as in the stone, separated by about the same distances, and behaving in about the same manner. If this great giant should meet another giant constituted in like manner as himself, each could plainly see the bulk of the other and descry the general outlines of his form and features, but neither would be able to see the small particles of 96 " How Can These Things Be ? " 97 which the other is composed. They might shake hands with a firm and friendly grasp, and exchange comments on crop conditions or the fluctuations of the stock market. Their hands would not blend together, because the atoms composing the one, be- ing of a certain size and vibrating at a certain rate within a limited space, would resist the intrusion of other atoms of the same kind ; and this resistance would constitute the sense of touch. But if the first giant man, instead of meeting another constituted as himself, should meet a man of the same size, but built up of particles no larger than birdshot, vibrating at a much more rapid rate than the larger particles in the body of the first man, and each separated from all others by such distances that a particle the size of a buckshot could pass between them ; the giant composed of the larger particles could not see the other at all. And if the different sized particles of which their respective bodies were composed should happen to possess such respective magnetic and vibratory qualities that they could inter blend and come very close together without actually coming into con- tact, then the two men could literally walk through each other without the knowledge of the coarser man — possibly without the knowledge of either. If the magnetic attractions and vibratory agitation among the atoms of the coarser man should result in an induced magnetic field within his body which w^ould be attractive to the atoms in the body of the finer man, inducing the two 98 The Science of Religion kinds of atoms to interblend and assume and main- tain certain relative positions without contact ; and if under these conditions the two men should come into contact with each other ; then their bodies would coalesce and remain interblended as long as the in- duced magnetic field should remain unimpaired. If the first giant man here under contemplation had grown up from the first nucleated cell in a realm containing both kinds of atoms, blended to- gether in all his food and drink, then he would have been two interblending bodies at all stages of his existence, instead of one. And if the finer body be assumed to be the more permanent of the two, and capable of a separate existence, then the failure of the coarser one to properly function would cause the induced magnetic field to break down, and the two bodies would separate. The first giant man was merely an ordinary man highly magnified, so as to reveal the conditions existing in his physical body as shown by the ex- act findings of Science. The second giant man was merely the spiritual body of an ordinary man, composed of finer particles than is the physical bod} 7 , and intangible to the physical organs of sense. The induced magnetic field in the physical body is a well established fact, commonly designated as "animal magnetism." WHY ELECTRICITY KILLS This illustration of the two interblending men is confidently submitted to such of our scientific " How Can These Things Be 2 " 99 friends as have been patient enough to yet remain with us. They may not believe that two bodies do actually so interblend, but they will not be able to bring forward any scientific discovery which even tends to prove that such inter blending is not possible. If they can accept the illustration as showing exact conditions, and if they can realize that the life of the physical body is dependent upon the interblending of the spiritual body, they will be able to solve a mystery which has until now refused to be solved : they will be able to ex- plain the cause of death by electrocution. Ever since it was learned that electricity kills, Science has been vainly trying to find out why and how it kills. In the body of an electrocuted man or ani- mal no tissue is disrupted, and no cell is out of place. If man is really constituted in the dual manner just illustrated, it is quite obvious that a powerful current of electricity passing through his physical body would destroy the harmony and constancy of the induced magnetic field which binds the two bodies together, thus causing them to separate and resulting in the death of the phys- ical body. In such case the physical body would be just as sound and perfect as ever, but its vivify- ing spiritual body would be gone, and with it would go the mind, soul, or consciousness, leaving the physical body to decay and disintegrate. The spiritual body would not be affected, because the electric current is a physical force acting only upon the induced magnetic field within the physical body. loo The Science of Religion THE DUALTY OF MATTER Eetaining the hypothesis of two kinds of matter interblending, and adding to it our conception of a university of law, we are persuaded that in the finer realm of matter, as in the coarser, there are varying grades, degrees and stages of refinement, and many different kinds of atoms, the material of that realm interblending not only with the phys- ical matter of human bodies, but also, in its coarser forms, aggregating into interblending counterparts of all the entities below the human kingdom. We are also persuaded that in this finer realm of mat- ter there is evolutionary progress and refinement keeping pace with the progress and refinement of physical matter. We thus get a conception of matter in a truly dual state, one state of it com- paratively coarse, the other comparatively fine, and both interblending into a constantly evolving whole under the influence of an all-pervading force which is so complex that it has a wave-length suited to every atom and molecule in both realms. The moving-picture machine has served to bring out with wonderful clarity, and in many variations and shadings, the fact that men and women every- where already entertain this conception of two interblending bodies, notwithstanding the failure of Religion to explain it in any rational way, and notwithstanding the dictum of Science that two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. One illustration, selected almost at random from many available ones, will be sufficient. In a 11 How Can These Things Be ? " 101 motion-picture dramatization of a well-known poem, the principal aotor reclines, near the end of the last scene, in an armchair in a quiet room. An angel, through whose filmy form may be seen the tapestry and furniture of the room, enters and beckons to the man reclining in the chair. There- upon a likewise filmy form of the man slowly arises from the reclining body and goes away with the angel, leaving the body in the chair to collapse and tumble to the floor. The making of such a picture is a very simple problem in " trick photography." The room and the reclining man are first photographed in a series of " snap-shots " covering several yards of the film. The machine is then reversed, and the portion of the film which has been subjected to these snap- shot exposures is wound back upon the reel, the man in the chair all the while remaining in the same position. Then the machine is again started for- ward, the " angel " enters and beckons, and the man rises and walks away. Each snap-shot is thereby double-exposed, and the forms of the actors moving around during the time the second expo- sures are being made produce pictures through which may be seen the pictures of the room and furniture taken at the first exposure. After the " spiritual man " and the " angel " have walked away the machine is stopped and the actor resumes his position in the chair. Then the machine is again started, and the actor collapses and tumbles to the floor. This complete film, when run through the 102 The Science of Religion reproducing machine, makes the picture above de- scribed. We are not so much interested in the technique employed in the production of these " ghost pic- tures," but we are interested in the conception which inspires people to make such pictures in a country preempted by a religious system which, while it teaches generally that death does not end individual existence, has not been able to rationally refute the dogma of Science that two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Such a conception, so generally entertained, and passing unchallenged as a matter of course, is a powerfully persuasive argument that, notwithstanding the ref- utation of Science and the inability of Eeligion to explain, men and women nevertheless intuitively know the truth. If there is indeed such a world of finer matter as has been here hypothesized, of which a spiritual counterpart of the physical body is composed, the two bodies blending together during the life of the physical and separating at its death, we may readily realize that in the realm of spiritual matter the entities there manifesting, while intangible to the coarse physical organs of sense, are very real and very tangible to intelligent individuals having sense organs composed of that finer matter and un- clouded by the obscuring veil of physical flesh. Therefore, in that realm we would expect the fra- grance of flowers to be as sweet as in the physical realm ; we would expect its scenery to be at least " How Can These Things Be " of all branches of science can only make general suggestions, calling attention to the fundamental principle, and must leave the details to others. SPIRITUAL MATTER The pertinent and embarrassing question pro- pounded by our hypothetical friend, the biological chemist, has thus led us quite far afield ; but we will now leave him to ponder the proffered sug- gestions, while we proceed to a consideration of the subjects enumerated in the title. Let it be freely conceded and understood that, with no further evidence than has already been considered, it is now going to be assumed that there is a realm of matter finer than physical matter interblending with the physical matter of this present physical world and possibly extending far out in space beyond it ; that man possesses duplicate interblending material bodies, one composed of the coarser matter and one composed of the finer ; that all the entities of the physical realm likewise have interblending ethereal or spiritual counterparts composed of the various grades of matter in the finer realm, thereby introducing into that realm the comparisons of heavy and light, coarse and fine, large and small, hard and soft, far and near, action and inaction, living and non-living, and so forth; and that men and women and children continue to live in that finer realm after the death of the physical body, in full possession of their individual intelligences, the general appearance of Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 169 their spiritual bodies being about the same as the general appearance of their duplicate physical bodies. These things are assumed because men and women everywhere have believed them since the very dawn of human intelligence; because they are the fundamental postulates of all religious teachings ; because wise men in many different countries and ages have left records of actual communication with such a realm; because they comport with many known facts, and appeal to conscience and reason as being proper; and be- cause Science has made no single discovery, nor any number of discoveries considered in the aggre- gate, which in any remotest degree even tends to prove them untrue. It will be observed that the enumeration of things upon which the assumption is based does not include any of the exhaustive experiments with Hypnotism and Spiritualism conducted by the English and American Societies for Psychical Kesearch, which experiments have convinced many eminent scientists of its truth. Neither does the enumeration include the personal findings of many great men now living, who have from time to time confided to such as they deemed ready to receive it the information that they have rationally, inde- pendently and in full possession of their wits, come into conscious communication with this finer realm and its people. Such evidence would not be fair, because those great men are not avail- I/O The Science of Religion able for cross-examination, and the probable truth or falsity of their testimony has not yet been sub- jected to the tests of time, changing conditions and expanding knowledge. All this mass of mod- ern testimony is out of the case. All that we have heard and learned in recent years about " Spiritualism," " Occultism " and " Psychic Phe- nomena " is stricken from the record. The assump- tion of the existence of a realm of spiritual matter, life and intelligence is rested upon conceptions, intuitions and convictions which are time-tested and everywhere proclaimed, rather than upon discov- eries which purport to be new, and which are corroborated by the testimony of only a few men. This may seem a perilous position to assume ; but the aggregate of human intelligence is so shrewd at discerning the truth, and so prompt in discard- ing unmixed error, that it were better to rely upon the truth of world-old fundamental beliefs than to accept sporadic evidence which has not yet passed through the crucible of Time nor been sufficiently subjected to the searching flame of Keason. If such sporadic evidence happens to corroborate the world-old beliefs, it thereby becomes of interest ; but until such time as our modern seers feel at liberty to give the public some details of the formula by which they have proceeded to build prophetic wisdom, their testimony should not be used in a controversy of the kind being waged here. It is conceded that they could not prove their assertions to average men and women, even Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 171 though they be abundantly true ; for proof of the existence of a realm of spiritual matter, life and intelligence can come only through seeing that realm, observing the intelligent arrangement of its parts and functions, and communicating with the people who live there. Such proof is not available to average men and women of this age, and there is no recorded intimation that it ever has been available to average men and women in any age. Suppose an eagle living in a valley shut in by mountains should say to a ground-hog, also living there : " Beyond these mountain peaks there are level plains, and undulating hills, and green forests, and great rivers, and wonderful cities which are ablaze with light even after the sun has gone down." "No," the ground-hog might say, " such things cannot be. I have care- fully scrutinized every cliff and peak many times, and I am quite sure there is nothing beyond them but empty space." "But," the eagle might in- sist, " if you will but soar with me I will prove what I have said." Since the ground-hog cannot soar, he could not receive the offered proof, and might crawl into his hole in disgust. It is not intended to intimate that there is such disparity between the natural endowments of men and women that some may be compared to soaring eagles, while others must be compared to creeping ground-hogs ; but the rank and file are eagles who have never learned to use their wings. It is no part of the purpose of this book to prove 172 The Science of Religion the existence of a realm of spiritual matter, life and intelligence. Its chief purpose is to show, by deductions from well-known facts and unquestion- able scientific discoveries, that the world and every- thing in it was integrated and evolved, and still integrates and evolves, because it is acted upon from without by a great complex vibratory God- force, and that there is plenty of room among and between the ultimate particles of physical matter for the vibratory interplay of the ultimate particles of a finer realm of matter, which finer matter could not possibly be detected by the physical senses nor by any instrument made of physical material. If such a Force and such matter have been logically and rationally deduced, with no evidence to the contrary, then Science is out of the controversy, and Religion occupies the field — with all its rich treasure of ancient lore and sacred writings, its intuitions and deductions for the guidance of men and women over the difficult w T ay of this present life, and its faith and hope and love for the edi- fication of the living and the inspiration of the dying. Having thus placed and conditioned the two realms of matter, life and intelligence, we are forced to realize, as perhaps we never realized before, that so long as Science remains Physical Science, and so long as Religion remains Spiritual Religion, the two must occupy entirely different fields. How foolish, then, is all this hurling of invective against invective, and launching of dogma Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 173 against dogma across the boundary line which separates them ! The next great truth which obtrudes itself upon our rapt attention, and which produces a shock of glad surprise, is the realization that the spiritual realm is no less material than the physical. It is merely composed of smaller particles, responding to shorter force- waves with more rapid vibrations ; and in its aggregate manifestations to sight and touch attuned to sense it, it is just as firm and real as are the manifestations of physical matter to the physical senses. If natural law operates uniformly throughout the universe, and if like causes always produce like ef- fects, the aggregate spiritual realm is composed of matter of varying degrees of comparative fineness, manifesting in realms corresponding to the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms of the phys- ical realm, the living entities of which are probably all but one time inter blending counterparts of phys- ical entities, the physical realm being generally conceived to be the seed-bed of individual life. The downward pull of gravity would not affect the finer matter of the spiritual realm to the same ex- tent that it affects physical matter, and it is just possible that it may arrange itself in layers, or planes, with similar entities on each plane, one plane differing from another only in point of fine- ness and not in the general character of its entities. This latter conception of different planes is a lit- tle difficult to intelligence accustomed only to the 174 The Science of Religion things of the physical realm, but it can neverthe- less be reasoned out by finite intelligence, and such arrangement corresponds with the several " planes * of Spiritualism, as well as with the idea of a "third heaven " which Paul intimates that he visited. An illustration will be attempted which, though crude and omitting many of the probabilities, may help us to understand the fundamental principle of those superimposed planes. AN ILLUSTRATION Suppose that into a jar or other vessel we should first put some chlorine gas, which is so heavy that it may be poured like a liquid ; and suppose we then add some carbonic acid gas, then some oxygen, and finally some hydrogen. Of course, the hydrogen is lighter than air and would not stay in the vessel, unless the experiment should be conducted in a vacuum ; but for the sake of the illustration we will suppose that it would stay. These four gases, each being lighter than the other in the order named, would arrange themselves into four distinct and clearly defined planes. Now let us suppose that certain very small animals and plants should be built up of the chlorine, and that they should grow and move about upon its surface. The car- bonic acid gas could not be sensed by such animals, although it would be all around them. And let us suppose that yet other small animals and plants should be built up of the carbonic acid gas, and should grow and move about upon its surface. The Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 175 oxygen could not be sensed by these animals, al- though it would be all around them. And suppose that yet other small animals and plants should be built up of the oxygen, and should grow and move about upon its surface. Such animals could not sense the hydrogen surrounding them. It is again cautioned that this crude illustration is not proposed [as showing the exact conditions in the realm of spiritual matter, but it does exemplify known principles upon which the possibility of di- vision into planes may be predicated. If we can conceive the possibility of each of these gases being many kinds blended together, instead of one, and of each possessing the characteristics of mixed solid, liquid and gaseous, so that their surfaces might be configurated, we get an alluringly beauti- ful picture of many planes superimposed upon each other, each manifesting hills, and valleys, and rivers, and trees and plants, and each suited to a particular degree of animate life — a veritable " house of many mansions " with a place prepared for each child of nature according to his fitness to inherit. If the spiritual realm is in fact so divided into planes, the lower ones are probably inhabited by very " undesirable citizens," and if it be conceived that those lower planes occupy the vicinity of the earth's surface, with the material of which they are composed in closest coordination with physical matter, we can no longer wonder that " evil in- fluences " are so rampant among men. Neither can we wonder that attempts to get into communi- 176 The Science of Religion cation with really great and good men and women after their death, through the processes of Spiritual- ism, have usually resulted in failure or disappoint- ment ; nor can we longer wonder that the spirits who attend seances are so often ignorant and vi- cious, and prone to resort to subterfuges and false impersonations. SPIRITUAL LIFE AND INTELLIGENCE It is obvious that on planes of the kind here pic- tured there is work to be done, lessons to be learned, responsibilities to be discharged, pictures to be painted, music to be written and rendered, songs to be sung, and people to be loved ; the higher and happier activities here enumerated being confined, of course, to the higher planes. On the lower planes life is beset with trials and difficulties, and is conditioned to environments more terrible in the abandonment of their depravity than mortal man can imagine. " Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth " are about as strong words as can be used to describe the hopelessly penitent side of life in the lowest strata of the spiritual realm, and its hopelessly aggressive and defiant side probably could not be depicted in any terms which mortal men could understand. Whether the wretched men and women who dwell in those lower regions may yet evolve, through payment of the "last farthing " and compliance with the laws which they have thitherto violated, is a question which is vari- ously controverted in the ranks of Religion itself, Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 177 and renews the clash, already referred to, between the dogma of Eternal Damnation and the concept of a university of law. Let us trust that of such as these were " the spirits in prison " to whom Peter tells us Jesus preached, and that His message was one of love and hope. CHILDREN OF HEAVEN Since children are constantly dying here in the physical realm ; and since their spiritual bodies, being counterparts of their physical bodies, must still be children on the spiritual planes to which they go, innocent, ignorant and helpless, needing loving hands to care for them and loving arms to cuddle them ; the one activity alone of caring for the children and bringing them up to manhood and womanhood must require the services of a vast number of people on the higher planes. But service amid the happy and exalted conditions of those planes, where men and women have learned the great secret that happiness can be attained only through service to others, must be considered such a glorious privilege ! Many children, of course, find mothers and other loving kinspeople ready, able and willing to care for them, but in the majority of cases there probably is no one both willing and able among the little stranger's kins- people, and it must therefore go into other care. There are numerous Biblical references to chil- dren in the spiritual realm, and one of the prophets said of the heavenly city that the children played 178 The Science of Religion in its streets. Certainly such children are not waifs and outcasts in that glorious realm of abounding love. Surely there are those who love them, and cuddle them, and train them. This may come to the notice of some disconsolate mother who has recently kissed two cold chubby hands for the last time, and brushed into place upon a lifeless little forehead the baby curls which were once her joy and delight ; and it may be that upon reading it her conscience and heaven-born intuition shall approve it, so that her tears of sorrow shall be washed away by tears of gladness through which she shall look up and thank God that there are glorified mother-hearts and mother- hands in heaven. She did not want her baby to be an angel with wings and a golden harp. She pre- ferred to think of it as her own sweet baby boy or girl. What has here been said may help her to realize that her preference lays hold of the truth, and that her baby went into the care of some sweet and gentle woman whose love and kindness pass human understanding, in whose mind there is no lodgment for impure thoughts, envy, jealousy, or anger, and who will keep and care for that baby against the time when its now broken-hearted mother shall join it in the realm of which the Lord God Himself is the glorious and unfailing light. DEATH Since both the physical and spiritual bodies of a man are apparently operated and controlled by a Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 179 separate ego, or soul, which seems to use them merely as its instruments of expression, and which passes away with the spiritual body at the death of the physical, it becomes apparent that the individual man or woman is neither better nor worse immediately after the death of the physical body than immediately before. Since this soul- entity is the seat of wisdom, the man recently entered into independent life in the spiritual realm would know nothing more than he knew in the physical body, excepting only such small knowledge as he might have gained in making the transition. And the amount of knowledge gained in the actual experience of death must usually be nil, because the average human being is totally unconscious of what is transpiring during this rather important process. He has never learned to use the organs of sense of his spiritual body, and is therefore uncon- scious of things in the spiritual realm. For vary- ing lengths of time before the actual separation of the two bodies, his physical organs of sense are " out of commission," and he is therefore uncon- scious of things in the physical realm. In other words, he is in the same condition as the man pictured in a previous chapter as having only the two senses of sight and hearing, and having his eyes bandaged and his ears stopped. There are some notable exceptions to this general rule of unconsciousness during the event of death. Men and women sometimes live long lives of purity and morality, and thereby develop their spiritual 180 The Science of Religion organs of sense to a point at which intuition be- comes almost actual knowledge. Then " senile debility," or some slowly wasting disease, wears away the tissues of the physical body to a point at which it is but a " veil " separating the spiritual realm from the spiritual senses. In such a case the near approach of death is usually heralded by a marked "damping" of the physical senses. The surface of the body grows cold, and the sense of touch becomes sluggish. The sense of hearing grows dull, and the sense of sight becomes dim. But the subject is often in full possession of his wits ; he asks his friends to speak louder, and complains of darkness even at noonday. At just this stage the spiritual eyes sometimes peer through the " veil," and the spiritual ears pick up the sounds from the spiritual plane. The dying man is then no longer in darkness, but proclaims the breaking of a great flood of light by which he discerns some of the outlines of the splendid world which he is approaching, and sometimes recognizes the forms of friends who have thither preceded him. Cases of this kind have either come under the immediate observation of all of us, or else have been reported to us by those who did actually observe them. Some day the silver cord will break, And I no more as now shall sing ; But, oh, the joy when I awake Within the palace of the King ! When the venerable and saintly Fanny Crosby Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 181 wrote the lines just quoted, she propounded a wis- dom which is something other than a mere product of physical matter. Such sentiments are no part of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur and iron. Her faith and intuition had reached a stage so closely approaching actual knowledge that she thus briefly stated the most important scientific fact in the world. JUST THE OLD TIME KELIGION Considered singly, the different statements and deductions of this chapter concerning spiritual matter, life and intelligence, may seem strange and weird. But considered in the aggregate, they are merely " The Old Time Keligion." Men and women have not been accustomed to talk and think Eeligion in scientific terms. While they have believed these things all the while, in a gen- eral sort of way, it has not usually occurred to them that the spiritual realm, in which individuals live and move about, must be a material realm, occupying space and havi rig parts. ISTot being able to sense such a realm, nor to see any material en- tity withdraw from their dying friends ; and being unwilling to admit in the face of Intuition, Faith, Hope and Keligion that death ends all ; they have loosely entertained a half-formed idea that a spirit is a kind of a filmy something made of nothing. Such a conception will not stand the light of rea- son, and so it is that many good men and women who have dared to reason have become doubters, 182 The Science of Religion or worse. The anomalous spiritual beings thus loosely conceived of by religionists have been vari- ously represented as having wings and flying through the celestial atmosphere ; as wearing bejewelled crowns ; as twanging harps and singing hozannas; as enjoying everlasting rest and inac- tion ; as forever bowing before a great white throne and lauding its occupant; and as march- ing about over the streets of a city paved with gold. None of these occupations appeal very strongly to normal men and women, but they are so far better than being forever barbecued in a caldron of lire and sulphur that they have never- theless been striven for in various ways and with varying degrees of zeal. And yet, so great is the ability of human reason and intuition to discern the truth, that, despite all these imaginative and allegorical frills and furbe- lows which have been from time to time draped about the fundamental fact of life after death, men and women have intuitively hoped, and dreamed, and believed that the spiritual realm is a place where old friends meet, where severed ties are mended, where love comes into its own, and where people will have an opportunity to do the work and learn the things which they wanted to do and learn here — a glorious land where happy dreams come true, where ideals become realities, and hopes materialize. Keligion is thus glorified and exalted by being expressed in rational scientific terms. How truly Spiritual Matter, Life and Intelligence 183 must Paul have spoken when he said man had not sensed, nor had his mind even imagined, the great and good things which God has prepared for those who obey His laws ! XVI MOEALITY BY a process of gathering facts and reasoning from them, and by adopting the fundamental postulate of Keligion that there is a realm of matter, life and intelligence finer than the phys- ical realm, we have been led to the conclusion that man is a combination of two interblending ma- terial bodies, both operated and controlled by some kind of an intelligent ego, soul, or mind. We have also hastily observed that this intelligent ego exercises a powerful influence, for weal or woe, over the bodies which it operates. MIND Just what the soul or mind is, we do not know. But we do know that its states, phases and condi- tions determine, in large measure, the condition of its physical body. We know that it can con- sciously transmit messages from the brain over cer- tain nerves to the different parts of the body, just as men transmit messages over telephone and tele- graph wires, and that it employs for this purpose a vibratory force called " nervous energy " which is very closely related to magnetism and electric- ity. We know that it unconsciously, or subcon- sciously, sends a vast number of messages to vari- 184 Morality 185 ous organs of the body, and that these uncon- sciously transmitted messages also travel along certain other nerves in the form of nervous energy. It consciously transmits a message to the muscle controlling a finger, instructing it to move. It also unconsciously sends out the thousands of messages directing the heart to beat, the muscles of the chest to move, the liver and kidneys to act, etc., etc. If the trunk nerve leading to any muscle or organ be severed, that muscle or organ, be its action of the voluntary or the involuntary kind, is immedi- ately paralyzed and its functions cease. We have never been able to discover the subtle difference between the messages transmitted con- sciously and those transmitted unconsciously, ex- cepting only that the messages which are trans- mitted unconsciously are sent from the lowest part of the brain, consisting of the medulla oblongata and the base of the cerebellum, while the messages that are consciously transmitted are sent from the higher and more frontal parts of the brain. Con- sciousness and Intelligence dwell in the higher and more frontal parts of the brain, and seem to dictate the messages sent out from those points, while the subconscious part of the mind, or soul, occupies the rear and nether portions, and dictates the mes- sages which are sent from those stations. It is all very mystifying ; but the division of labour is nev- ertheless wise, for it leaves the greater portion of the brain free to think, and learn, and attend to the many voluntary activities of life. ]86 The Science of Religion STATES OF MIND And yet the conditions of the conscious, intelli- gent part of the mind exercise a marked influence over the subconscious, sub-intelligent part. The smell of food affects the flow of saliva and digestive fluids ; fear and anger so modify the beatings of the heart as to blanch or flush the face ; and con- stant worry and dread so affect the functions of the kidneys as to produce Bright's Disease. Some- where in this wonderfully delicate machinery the wires are so strung, or the batteries so placed, that the passage of currents of nervous energy over the nerves of the conscious and voluntary system pro- duces " induced currents " in the nerves of the un- conscious and involuntary system, in something like the same manner as the passage of a current of electricity along a wire induces a current in a par- allel wire, or as the bringing of a body charged with electricity into the presence of another body induces a charge in the latter. THE SCIENCE OF MORALITY And we here come to another ultimate — another one of those things which just are, and that is all we know about them. Such states of mind as purity of thought, sense of innocence, honesty and benevolence of purpose, kindness, humility, gentle- ness and love, send through the two bodies of the individual vibratory impulses of such wave-lengths and amplitudes as make for the refining and well- being of those bodies. These vibratory rates har- Morality 187 monize with the all-pervading force- waves, and give an added impulse to their evolutionary and refining influence. But such states of mind as impurity of thought, sense of guilt, malevolence of purpose, un- kind feeling, vanity, anger, jealousy, fear and hate, send through the two bodies vibratory impulses of such wave-lengths and amplitudes as make for the coarsening and ill-being of those bodies. These last mentioned vibratory rates do not harmonize with the vibratory rates of the all-pervading wave- force, but produce discords which defeat their evo- lutionary and refining influences and tend to undo the work already done. Therefore, the " workers of iniquity " are not kept out of the kingdom of heaven by any arbitrary ruling, nor by any angel with drawn sword, but because they are inherently unable to enter and unfit to occupy. Many good people, intuitively sensing the funda- mentals of the great law here immediately under consideration, have attempted to carry its applica- tion further than the known facts would seem to warrant, and have assumed that all physical ail- ments have their source in the mind — that they are but errors of thought. That this conception is cor- rect in many instances, there is no slightest room for doubt. That it is correct in all instances, the known facts seem to controvert. Heart disease may be, and often is, caused by mental conditions ; but it is also often produced by the entry into the body of the germs of typhoid fever, and by other causes equally as distinct from mental processes. 188 The Science of Religion The same things may be said with equal truth con- cerning many other physical ailments. The germs of diphtheria and measles enter and poison the bodies of children too young to have formed habits of wrong thinking, while malaria and smallpox and yellow fever attack the saint and the sinner with equal virulence. The physical bodies of moral lepers are often remarkably healthy — and brutally coarse in form and fibre ; while the physical bodies of the most saintly people are not infrequently frail and pain-racked — and remarkably refined in form and fibre. It therefore seems that while wrong thoughts and motives may produce physical disease, they do not always have that effect ; and that while phys- ical disease may come by reason of wrong thoughts and motives, it is not always attributable to that cause. Maybe the mind of man shall some time evolve to a state at which it will be able to regu- late all the internal affairs of the physical body, and also to repel the invasion of germs and poisons of disease which attack it from without; but at present it has not attained to that ideal condition, and we must here deal with the facts as they actu- ally exist. But the wrong thoughts, motives and mental states which have been enumerated always register their effects upon the two bodies, and those effects, while not always the same, are always harmful. They may be disruptive in some cases, but they are always coarsening, degrading and devolutionary, Morality 189 driving the individual backward on the evolution- ary way over which he has come to the soul-in- spired estate of man, and unfitting him for habita- tion of the mansions which have been prepared for him. And the right thoughts, motives and mental states which have been enumerated also always register their effects upon the two bodies, and those effects, while not always the same, are always beneficial. They may be literally constructive in some cases, but they are always refining, uplifting and evolutionary, impelling the individual forward and better fitting him for citizenship in the king- dom of heaven. PHILANTHROPY It may occur to the thoughtful and analytical reader that in this scheme of " scientific morality " all of charity and benevolence and philanthropy must go for naught. A full treatment of this phase of the subject would require considerably more time and space than can be devoted to it here, but one illustration will be given which will lay bare the fundamental principle. In the illustration the lights and shadows will be brought out in sharp contrast, but the principle runs through all degrees of shading. Suppose a well-to-do man who could enter his home on a cold evening, eat a bountiful dinner, retire to a cozy room to read and smoke, and finally lay himself down on a warm and comfortable bed to sleep; all the while unheeding the fact, well known to him, that a sick widow and her three 190 The Science of Religion little children, living in a hovel of a house just around the corner, had no food, no fuel, and no sufficient clothing. There would be something so radically wrong with such a man that any normal person would ob- serve it at a glance of the situation. And that " something wrong " would be one or both of two things : he would be either grossly selfish, or else carelessly indifferent to the welfare of others — or both. In either case his mental state or condition would be in violation of every principle of pity, compassion, mercy, love and altruism, and would generate and transmit to every fibre and atom of his body vibratory streams of nervous energy in jangling discord with the natural vibratory force which tends to refine men and make them God- like. The people and the conditions in this illus- tration may be changed in an almost infinite num- ber of ways, but so long as we maintain the relation of those who need and those who know and are able to help, the principle remains the same, whether the need be of food or of kind words. CODES AND CREEDS This idea of reducing morality to a scientific proposition of force acting upon matter will be new to many readers, but it fits in snugly with the known facts and falls exactly in line with the major hypotheses upon which this book is founded. Moreover, it appeals to Eeason, and is sanctioned by Conscience. It will be observed that it deals Morality 191 altogether with things which are right or wrong in their inherent nature, and altogether ignores those things which are merely commanded or prohibited in codes and creeds. Codes and creeds command the doing of many inherently right things, and prohibit the doing of many inherently wrong things; but the mere fact that a thing is com- manded or prohibited does not make it right or wrong. However, there is one phase of this sub- ject of codes and creeds which cannot be neglected. Many people have been so taught and environed that they depend very largely upon codes and creeds for their moral standards, and when they violate them, believing that they are thereby doing wrong, there comes into their consciousness a sense of guilt which is degrading and devolutionary, without reference to whether or not the act was inherently wrong. Paul understood this problem in scientific psychology quite well. He said that, so far as he was personally concerned, he did not be- lieve it wrong to drink wine in moderation, nor to eat meat which had been sacrificed to idols, and that he could do these things without sin ; but that many people believed it to be wrong to drink wine, or to eat meat which had been sacrificed to idols, and if he should set the example they might follow it against their consciences and thereby commit sin. WRONG IS ALWAYS WRONG There is another phase of this great subject of morality which demands attention. Wrong is al- 192 The Science of Religion ways wrong, and is always harmful, regardless of the belief or ignorance of the wrong-doer. Fire burns the hand of the innocent and ignorant child just the same as it burns the hand of the experienced adult. Poison swallowed by mistake kills just as surely and just as swiftly as if swallowed with suicidal intent. This idea may also seem new, and even harsh, to many good people ; but as a matter of fact it is so universally sensed and recognized that in the affairs of men it has crystallized into the world-wide legal maxim, " Ignorance of law excuses no man." It has sometimes been supposed that Jesus pro- claimed a principle antagonistic to this conception of responsibility for ignorant violation of moral laws, and His reference to the servant who knew his master's will, and to the other who did not know it, has been often cited to show that in mat- ters of morality ignorance of law is a complete defense. He said : " The servant who knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes ; but the servant who knoweth not his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with few stripes." It will be noted He did not say that the ignorant servant would be vindicated on account of his ignorance, but that he should also be beaten, his ignorance availing only to reduce the degree of his punishment. If a man ignorantly violates a moral principle, he thereby injures himself. A drunken debauch, or a self-abandonment to lust and sensuality, are injurious and debasing, regard- Morality 193 less of the actor's ignorance of the wrong he is committing, and for these things he shall be beaten with the number of " stripes " which the moral law of nature prescribes as a penalty for them. The attitude or phase of mind which prompts him to do such things is wrong, regardless of his ignorance of moral principles, and this wrong mental state transmits coarsening and devolutionary forces to his entire being. But if he should do these things in spite of knowledge that they are wrong, then there would come into his consciousness a sense of guilt and self-condemnation, which is also degrading and destructive, and which would inflict many " stripes " in addition to those inflicted by the mental attitude which prompted the wrong-doing in the first instance. It may seem, at first thought, that a law which imposes penalties upon those who ignorantly violate it is a harsh law ; but all human laws are of that kind, and it is a matter of common knowledge that ignorance of natural laws is responsible for the greater part of the suffering and misery of the human race. Man is confronted in life by a laby- rinth of ways, some of them right, and some of them wrong. If he chooses a wrong way, either ignorantly or knowingly, he sooner or later finds himself in a bramble-patch or a bog, and may thereby be made to realize the mistake or folly of his choice. It is then incumbent upon him to de- cide whether he will remain in the bramble-patch or the bog, or whether he will retrace his steps and 194 The Science of Religion get on the right way. If his choice of the wrong way be a mere mistake, he is usually prompt in re- tracing his steps and diligent in repairing the in- jury he has sustained. But if his choice of the wrong way be with knowledge that it is wrong, he is slower in returning, and his initial injuries be- come infected with the poisons of the realm into which he has gone. In either case, however, he has learned something. If he chose the wrong way by mistake, he has learned that such ways are wrong ; and if he chose it knowing it to be wrong, he has learned that wrong ways lead to disaster. These things are lessons in the School of Experience, and some people can be educated in no other. Since knowledge of one's being and well- being is necessary to that full growth and develop- ment requisite to citizenship of the kingdom of heaven, these lessons may be put to good use. If the man who ignorantly chooses the wrong way should be spared the penalties on account of his ignorance, he might spend his entire life in pur- poseless wandering; but the bramble-patches and the bogs reveal his error while there is yet time and opportunity to return to the right way and make heavenward progress. Therefore, the law which at first thought seemed harsh is really a benevolent and corrective law, tending to keep men upon the way which leads onward and upward to light and life and happi- ness. Morality is thus reduced to an exact science, and Morality 1 95 the laws upon which it is based are brought within the range of human comprehension. And it is all wrought out of the fundamental proposition that matter is acted upon and refined or coarsened by force playing upon it from without. It is all very wonderful and \ery beautiful, and when we once comprehend its fundamentals, we are able the more fully to appreciate the possibilities lying before the soul-inspired free moral agent equipped with everything necessary to enable him to work out his own salvation and become inherently worthy of immortality. XVII SIN AND KEDEMPTION MAN early realized that Nature keeps books against him, and that in some mysterious way he is personally re- sponsible for his acts. He found that " he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword," and that " whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Then there developed something within his mental equipment which he calls " Conscience," which constantly reminds him of his misdeeds and shortcomings and warns him of penalties entailed. He found that every time he wronged his neigh- bour a sense of guilt fastened itself upon him, and that indulgence of greed, sensuality, lust, hate and anger sowed the seeds of discord and produced a crop of weeds and tares which tended to choke those higher impulses that make for happiness and well-being. From these beginnings he worked out a moral code consisting largely of inhibitions. Later on he realized that his moral duties and obligations were not all negative, but that some measure of service was demanded of him ; and then he enlarged his moral code accordingly, and is till enlarging it as he comprehends his duties and responsibilities more clearly. 196 Sin and Redemption 197 But notwithstanding the inhibitions and com- mands of this moral code, men found that they continued to do many things they ought not to have done, and did not many of the things they ought to have done. Alluring temptations be- guiled them, the sharp passions of unguarded mo- ments were stumbling-blocks, and when they willed to do good evil was present with them. SACRIFICE FOE SIN Kealizing, then, that certain kinds of conduct were wrong, and invoked penalties which must be paid in full some time, somewhere, in the currency of some realm ; and finding that it was exceeding^ difficult to leave off wrong-doing; man faced a very disquieting situation. There seemed to be just two courses open to him. He could follow the difficult path of rectitude and morality, thus incurring no penalties; or he could do his dance and pay the fiddler. He naturally sought dili- gently for some third way, and finally hewed one out through the jungle. The scheme he worked out, and the processes of reasoning employed in evolving it, were very ingenuous. Kealizing that sin entailed a penalty of suffering, and that only a certain amount of suffering could come as a penalty for a certain sin, he concluded to have some one else suffer in his stead. This " some one else " was usually a goat or some other animal, but was some- times a human being. Death being the most ter- rible penalty he could conceive of, and in order 198 The Science of Religion that there might be no underestimate of the amount of suffering necessary to pay the penalty for his sin, the victim was always killed ; and, in order to be entirely unselfish in the transaction, its dead body was presented to God in the form of a sacrifice. This first more or less well-reasoned idea of vi- carious atonement developed into various forms, with many modifications, until the original reason and purpose of it were largely lost sight of, and it became a mere ritualistic ceremony passively ac- cepted as a method of obtaining forgiveness of sins. The prospect of an easy and unscathed escape from the penalties of sin is very enticing, and the men charged with the duty of shaping and administering the policies of Religion have made the most of it. It forms a part of nearly every religious system in the world. In the Christian Keligion there is no longer any slaughtering of bulls and goats as a sac- rifice for sin, but it promises immunity from the penalties of sin through the sacrifice of its Founder, the theory being that He was so good and so great that His death was sufficient to relieve all men for all time from the consequences of their sins, if they will only accept a share in the sacrifice made by Him. It is no part of the purpose of this book to attack any cherished religious creed, but we are here con- sidering Religion from a scientific standpoint, and in order to be consistent we must apply the same tests to every question which it becomes necessary to consider. The doctrine of vicarious atonement is a beautiful doctrine, containing much that ap- Sin and Redemption 199 peals to the loftier natures of men and women, and having many parallels in every-day life. Like every other tenet which has ever come into wide popu- larity, it has an element of truth in it ; but in the very nature of things it would indeed be strange if it had not been overdone. While it has in it an element of truth, yet the generally accepted idea that it offers an immediate and ever ready escape from the penalties of sin does not fit very well into a conception of things containing the postulate that a man's actions and thoughts register their effects upon his individual being, giving him a certain high or low degree of inherent fitness. Without in any way disparaging the noble life and loving sacrifice of Jesus, it is possibly not too early in the day of Divine Knowledge for some one to undertake the delicate and unwelcome task of timidly suggesting to men and women that they carefully examine the time-honoured teaching that they can hide their devilment behind the Cross and rid themselves of the stains of sin by calling for an application by the blood of the Lamb. Deep down in their innermost consciousness they already have some doubts about it, but the doctrine is such a convenient solace that they are inclined to scoff their better judgment in order to retain it. Since the days of Calvin and Luther, at least, it has been recognized that " hell-scared Christians " are a very poor sort. Those who are driven to Keligion merely because they are frightened at the gather- ing doom which their sin has invoked, and in the 200 The Science of Religion hope of finding an easy way to escape that doom, are very poor recruits, and the fact that they nearly always desert strongly indicates that they fail to find what they seek. Considered from a scientific standpoint, the true remedy for those who are afflicted with sin would seem to be to send them out into the sunshine of Divine Love and the pure air of morality, there to learn, and do, and become, until they attain to the healthy stature and fineness of being assigned to them in the great scheme of things. So long as men and women continue to believe that they may run a long course of immoral con- duct, with the privilege of mending their ways at any moment and getting an " immunity bath " against the consequences of all that has gone be- fore ; just that long will sensuality, and lust, and greed, and dishonesty, and hate, and neglect of the rights and happiness of others, run riot through the world — just so long will private vice and public iniquity be the shame of the people. But let them once come to fully and conscientiously believe that they are bound to pay the penalties of their evil conduct, sooner or later, some time, somewhere, and that they can never be cured of the injuries caused by sin until they have literally worked out the penalty by right living, right thinking, and service to others ; and a wave of reform will sweep the earth, the like of which has never been seen before. Such a revolution would put Eeligion out of the business of dispensing nostrums and cure- Sin and Redemption 201 alls ; but if it should prove worthy of the oppor- tunity thus presented, it would come into immediate recognition as the great consulting specialist in soul sickness and sin-injury. It would prepare and promulgate plans for moral sanitation, direct the localizing of vice-infections, and point out natural and efficient methods of healing sin-sores. More- over, men and women would hear it gladly, and would vie with each other in complying with its directions ; whereas, under the present general con- ception of the doctrine of Atonement, they feel that, since the " immunity bath " is ever easy of access and certain in results, there is no hurry, and so plod along in the evil tenor of their ways. THE LAW AND THE KEASON There is an all-sufficient reason why individual " regeneration " and " salvation from sin " must be wrought out by the individual himself, and that reason is nothing other than man's rightfully boasted Free Moral Agency. The individual mind is the initial point of infection by sin. The mind infected by dishonesty of purpose, greed, lust, anger, fear, or hate, is not "in tune with the Infinite." It is in a discordant state, and its dis- cord spreads out to every tissue, fibre and atom of the material instrument occupied by it. This dis- cord destroys the harmony which makes for well- being and progress, causing the evolutionary proc- ess to double back upon itself and become a devolutionary process. We all know how dread 202 The Science of Religion and worry and anger interfere with the functions of appetite, digestion and nutrition, and how they sometimes produce fatal diseases of the heart and kidneys and other vital organs. Selfishness, and dishonesty of purpose, and lust, and greed, and hate, and envy, and malice, all make their initial attacks upon the mind and find their first lodg- ment there ; and then they transmit their discordant vibratory influence to the material instrument occu- pied and controlled by the mind, registering those discords in lasting injurious effects. Some of the dis- cordant mental states which seem slowest in regis- tering their effects produce injuries, disintegrations and coarsening which are most difficult to remedy. And so it is that sin, in its essential nature and last analysis, is a mental condition ; and the overt acts which are usually recognized as " sins " are but the evidence and manifestation of its exist- ence. Jesus was thoroughly familiar with this great scientific truth, and proclaimed it in no un- certain terms. Said He : " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer " ; and " Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already in his heart." But the commission of the overt acts usually called " sins " also produce mental states which are harmful in their effects. They either engender a mental state known as " a sense of guilt," or, what is still worse, if long persisted in they produce a callous indifference which drags the individual far down the devolutionary declivity. Therefore, Sin and Redemption 203 while hate is murder, and lust is adultery, the commission of the overt acts which are the efflores- cences of this " original sin " creates other mental states which add to the aggregate burden. Thus the sinner who manifests his sin by action creates within himself that condition which the doctors call " a vicious circle." By every wrong act he augments his stock of sin, and each augmentation of his stock of sin inspires fresh outbreaks of wrong acting ; so that he literally " goes from bad to worse." Since sin is essentially a mental condition, pro- ducing ill effects in all parts and departments of the individual, it is obvious that the only channel through which those ill effects can be reached and remedied is the mind itself. If a man's hand is being crushed by a heavy weight, liniments and lotions will avail nothing unless the weight be first removed. And whenever a man's mind is reached and controlled, he loses his free moral agency and drops down the evolutionary scale to a point far below the estate of humanity. Wisdom and ig- norance and good and evil may be placed before him for his choice, and the advantages of a certain choice pointed out to him ; and he may choose, however unwisely, and still be a man possessed of free moral agency ; but whenever his will is over- come and a choice, however wise, is thrust upon him, his free moral agency is gone. And it is the inflexible law of the great scheme of things that free moral agency shall be one of the badges dis- tinguishing man from the rounds of life below him. 204 The Science of Religion Take away that badge, and you do him a greater injury than his sin can ever do him ; for you thereby cut him off from among men and plunge him back to the level of the unmoral, irresponsible and impermanent brute. This is the monster crime of Hypnotism and Spiritualism, and sin can be " for- given," in the commonly accepted sense of the term, in no other way. There are probably spiritual men and women wise enough in their understanding of the subtle forces of nature that they could take control of the individual mind and force upon it an attitude which, all things else being equal, would result in repairing the ravages of sin. But all things else are not equal, and the remedy would be worse than the disease. The operation might be success- ful, but the patient would die — mentally and mor- ally. The effort would be to improve his mo- rality ; the result would be to destroy it. The penalties of sin can be worked out only by the individual mind, or soul, and moral regeneration must begin with mental regeneration. And yet, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. His blood was shed as a ransom for many. He was born, and lived and died, in order that men and women might obtain forgive- ness of their sins, and thus escape the terrible pen- alties of Retributive Justice. He came to teach men how to repair the havoc wrought by sin within themselves, and how to live and act and think so as to prevent this havoc. Men had supposed God to Sin and Redemption 205 be a jealous and vengeful creature. Jesus came to teach them that God is all-creative Love, and that the penalties of sin are merely inherent individual results of violation of its principles, rendering men and women unable to enter and unfit to occupy the kingdom of heaven. And in order to exemplify the all-serving, all-sacrificing character of the Love whose special envoy He was, and in order that the story of His work and teaching might be perpetu- ated among men, it was necessary for Him to for- feit His life. He did not come in order that a man might have license to steal his neighbour's horse, or elope with his neighbour's wife, with assurance that his sin would be washed away by the blood of the Lamb at any moment he might choose to have that blood applied. He came, rather, to inveigh against sin, and to teach men how to go about repairing the damage done by it to themselves and to others. His mission was not to destroy natural law, but to fulfill it ; not to place Himself as a shield between men and the consequences of their sin, but to teach them the disastrous folly of sin, and to give them a moral formula for repairing the damages wrought by it. THE PRINCIPLE ILLUSTRATED Suppose a man should negligently or wilfully plunge his foot and lower leg into boiling water, thereby violating one of the natural laws governing his physical body and invoking a severe burn as a penalty. And suppose he should call in the family physician, and a consulting physician or two be- 2o6 The Science of Reli gion sides. Those learned physicians, understanding but little about the real nature of a burn, would proba- bly apply a dressing of linseed oil and lime-water ; but the peculiar torturing pain incident to the burn would continue, and the adjacent tissues would keep on breaking down and generating toxins to endanger the patient's life by attacks upon his kid- neys and intestines. The emollient dressing would do some good, though it would not take away the peculiarities of the burn. But suppose there should come upon the scene a scientist possessed of the knowledge that heat is merely one form of ethereal radiation, and that if its greater amplitudes be played upon animal or human flesh it disturbs the harmonic vibratory relations between the atoms and molecules of which the cells of flesh are built up, thus setting up an induced radio-active discord which continues after the heat has subsided, just as the induced radio-active effects of the X-rays re- main in the bean-vine long after the rays them- selves have subsided. And suppose the scientist to be possessed of the further knowledge that one part of pure lard and one part of gum turpentine heated together until they are fuming hot, and then sup- plemented by the addition of one part of spirits of turpentine, blend into a highly complex compound which is itself radio-active to just the degree neces- sary to break down and neutralize the radio-activity induced in the flesh by the heat. And suppose he should impart all this knowledge to the suffer- ing man. If the materials should happen to be at Sin and Redemption 207 hand, and if the man should be sufficiently impressed to induce him to try the experiment of preparing this compound, and applying it when cool in the form of a thoroughly saturated cloth or gauze, closely binding it up with another cloth so as to exclude the air, all the peculiar torture of the burn would disappear within a few minutes. And by a renewal of the dressing once a day for two or three successive days, the burn would be made to assume the form of an ordinary injury of the same extent. The physicians would probably tell him that the scientist's talk about vibrations, and atomic har- mony and discord, and induced radio-activity, was all just so much " pure mush " ; that the very idea of treating a burn with hog-fat and pine-juice is ridiculous : and that, anyway, the application of so much turpentine to the injured surface would result in the absorption of that drug and the consequent disintegration of his blood. Now, the man with the burned leg may be likened unto mankind suffering from the effects of sin ; the doctors, ignorant of the real cause of the trouble, and applying linseed oil and lime-water, may be likened unto the priests and elders who pottered around with sacrifices, and burnt offer- ings, and purifications; and Jesus, knowing the real cause of the trouble and the remedy for it, may be likened unto the scientist. And thus it is that " he taketh away the sin of the world." He knew that sin coarsens and stupefies and disrupts the very fibre of the spiritual body, as well as of 208 The Science of Religion its physical counterpart, thereby dooming it to un- happy environments. He knew that the remedy lies in living a life of purity and righteousness, in words and thoughts and deeds ; and so he pro- mulgated a code of ethics ranging from the simplest rules of conduct to standards so sublimely high that men cannot even yet understand their full meaning and significance. His Gospel does not force men and women to remain perpetual mendicants at the door of Grace and Mercy, but instructs them in methods of self-help which will make them strong, and courageous, and worthy. Hear His words of wonderful wisdom thundering down the corridors of Time : " Not every one that saith unto me, ' Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name done many won- derful works ? ' And then will I profess unto them, ' I never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' " Calling upon God and acknowledging Jesus as Lord will not get sinful men and women into the kingdom of heaven; they must do the things which the great God of all being requires of them, and thereby become the things which alone can enter that kingdom. They that work iniquity have all their ritualism and professions and prayers for naught. Sin and Redemption 209 How beautifully simple ! How simply beauti- ful! Just a matter of doing and becoming, ac- cording to the moral formula for which Jesus shed His blood. Just a matter of trying to live up to our highest ideals every day. Just a matter of loving, and laughing, and singing, and serving, as we wend heavenward over the road along which play the splendid lights of the Transfiguration and the sombre shadows of the Cross. The author is not afflicted with the delusion that this chapter will meet with general popular ap- proval. Quite to the contrary, it is well known in advance that it will meet with much bitter dis- approval and hostile and aggressive criticism. By many it will be regarded as a sacrilege, by many others as a pernicious intermeddling with things that are sacred, and by not a few as the very sin against the Holy Ghost. The great majority of the men and women of Religion have too long relied upon the merit and sacrifices of others to take away the consequences of their sin to be thus easily shaken from such reliance. But we have seen that the whole scheme of evolutionary growth and development depends upon individual harmony with the all-pervading Force. We have observed that Man has been made a free moral agent, with power either to comply with the great law or to violate it, and that his compliance or violation registers effects upon his inherent individual being. We have also seen that spiritual light and knowledge can come only 210 The Science of Religion through individual compliance with the immutable natural laws which have to do with morality, and that through an understanding of and compliance with those laws a man or woman may so evolve and develop as to come into independent and rational communication with the realm of spiritual matter, life and intelligence, thereby attaining to prophetic wisdom and verifying the continuance of individual life after death. We also know as a matter of common knowledge that at the present time men and women are not attempting to ration- ally and purposefully comply with the natural laws of morality, and that it is not generally understood that such rational and purposeful compliance leads to knowledge of spiritual things. These are the reasons which prompt the writing of this chapter, and not a vain desire of the author to adversely criticize any religious belief. The sug- gestions here made are put forward in all humility, and with all respect and reverence for the beliefs, sentiments and feelings of others. The matter is of the utmost importance to every man and woman. The most important question in the world is the troubled query in the book of Job : " If a man die, shall he live again ? " And the second in impor- tance is the one propounded to Jesus by the rich young man : " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " This chapter is intended as some kind of an humble answer to this second question, couched in modern language and phrased in the terminology of Science and Keason. XVIII THE DIVINE PUKPOSE ALL preceding chapters have dealt with the Divine Plan of things. Some things have been said which seem to be very much in the nature of wild speculation ; but this seeming may be largely due to the fact that in saying those things Eeligion has been ex- amined from the standpoint of Science, the en- deavour being to bring some of the " unknown " things into the realm of the known, and to show that many of the " unknowable " things ought more properly to be catalogued merely as " un- known.'' So long have men and women supposed that Religion is made up of doctrines and dogmas concerning very mysterious things which God has securely concealed from human understanding, that any effort to gather some of the facts and correlate them into a rational system will quite naturally appeal to them, at first thought, as being mere speculations, notwithstanding the well-known facts upon which the system may be based, and its pow- erful appeal to Reason, Intuition and Conscience. FUNDAMENTAL HYPOTHESES Let it be again and finally understood that this book rests upon only two fundamental hypotheses, 211 2 1 2 The Science of Religion viz. : an all-pervading Force moving in the form of complex waves through the omnipresent ether, which, beginning with a state of gaseous incan- descence, has created and evolved, and still creates and evolves, everything in the world ; and a realm of matter, called spiritual matter, which is finer in particle than the physical, which in some of its forms iuterblends with every physical entity and forms a counterpart of it. Everything which has been said rests squarely upon one or the other of these two postulates, and the entire book is made up of a consideration of them in the light of scien- tific discoveries and world-old religious beliefs. These intuitional and rather irrational beliefs, and these sporadic and largely unsystematized scientific discoveries, come far short of being all that might be desired in the way of light ; but none other is available, and against the time when " that which is perfect shall have come " we must be content to " see as through a glass, darkly." This book is a pioneer in the field it attempts to occupy, and, like all pioneers, it must needs be more or less crude. Many writers and thinkers have dealt severally with the subjects that have here been treated, and some have dealt with a number of them collect- ively ; but there seems to have been no previous effort to coordinate the fundamental aggregate of scientific discoveries with the fundamental aggre- gate of religious beliefs, and to mould them into a scheme of things having a beginning, working ac- cording to a plan, and moving towards the accom- The Divine Purpose 213 plishment of a purpose. The task is admittedly a stupendous one for an humble finite mind, and the opportunities for minor mistakes of reasoning and errors of deduction are many ; but the author is convinced that the two fundamental postulates can never fall, and if this be true then minor mistakes and errors are of no particular importance. REVIEWING THE FACTS From time to time, in the course of considering the Worker and His Plan, we have had fleeting glimpses of His Purpose. An effort will be made in this closing chapter to make that Purpose more fully to appear. Limiting consideration, in point of space to this world and its environs, and in point of time to the ages which have passed since the world first flamed out in the firmament as a fiery cloud-ball of gases, we have seen how a mighty Intelligent Force, moving upon matter from without in the form of complex ether- waves, caused its atoms to unite into the solid earth, and then proceeded to build up and evolve all of life and growth with which we are familiar in this age. We have also seen that this growth or evolution has been and is dual in opera- tion, being the result of cooperation between two interblending realms of matter. We have seen that all aggregation, life, growth and evolutionary development, came through the establishment of harmonic vibratory rates between similar individual entities of opposite polarity, such harmony impel- 214 The Science of Religion ling them to unite into refining and constructive matings. We have followed this great harmonic principle from the mineral kingdom to the human kingdom, noting its increasing scope and power as we proceeded from stage to stage. We have be- gun with the active and aggressive tendencies of the positive mineral atom, and following the trail of these tendencies through the vegetable and ani- mal kingdoms, have come at last to Man, active, aggressive, and searching for Truth by the light of Reason. We have begun with the passive and yielding tendencies of the negative mineral atom, and following the trail of these tendencies through the vegetable and animal kingdoms, have come at last to Woman, passive, yielding, and seeking for Love in the light of Intuition. When we thus arrived, in the course of consider- ation, at the estates of Manhood and Womanhood, we found them also responding to the same mighty Force which had impelled all the entities below them. They, also, are generally attracted to each other by sheer force of the attraction of positive for negative and negative for positive. But this general attraction is not sufficient to produce Love- matings. It must be supplemented by harmonic vibratory rates in one or more of the departments of their respective beings, just as harmonic vibra- tory rates were necessary to bind mineral atoms together. But there are so many and more com- plex " departments " in the individual beings of men and women that harmony in all of those de- The Divine Purpose 215 partments is much more difficult to establish than in the mineral kingdom. We have already noted the rise of the law of Natural Selection, and ob- served that it became more discriminative at each forward step in the production of higher and more complex forms. In order to produce an ideal mating between two human beings there must be harmony in the departments of the physical bodies, in the depart- ments of the spiritual bodies, and in the depart- ments of the minds, or souls. If these various harmonic requirements are to be met, or even closely approached, men and women must have a larger range of choice in selecting their mates than is required in the kingdoms below them. In actual practice attempts at mating are predicated, all too often, upon harmony in only one of these depart- ments, and even in that department the harmony is not always perfect. These attempts at mating are predicated upon harmony in various depart- ments of the two individuals, ranging from the physical body to the mind; but ideal matings, based upon harmonic relations in all departments of the individual beings, are at present very rare. Kealizing this, we can readily account for all the domestic unhappiness and sorrow that men and women everywhere either silently endure or scandalously repudiate. Having discovered that the Force which created the solid earth out of chaos, and which built up and evolved everything upon the earth, is the same 216 The Science of Religion Force which produces the ecstatic happiness of perfect human love, we came face to face with the great fact that this Force is nothing other than God. We then discovered that the net result of all our tedious and high-tension mental processes is stated very simply in three little New Testament words of one syllable each, viz. : " God is Love." And so it is literally true, after all, that " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and that " All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." It also seems to be true that after God had created Man and Woman, He " rested " from His creative labours. He had brought forth in- dividuals so equipped as to be self-sustaining and self-evolving. Being able to reason, and to inde- pendently choose, they were constituted free moral agents, and their further evolution was made to depend upon whether or not they would comply with the laws and forces which had brought them thus far, and which were all-sufficient to carry them still further forward. He placed before them Good and Evil, and Life and Death, and left them free to choose for themselves. He gave them phys- ical bodies for use during their studentship on the physical plane, and He gave them spiritual bodies for use on the spiritual planes. By the operation of immutable law their physical bodies sooner or later wear out and decay, and it rests entirely with them whether they will so live as to fit their spiritual bodies for a happy immortality in delight- The Divine Purpose 217 ful realms, or whether they will so live as to rele- gate those bodies to the regions of outer darkness and to the pains of a " second death." Human love having been found to be the highest present individual manifestation of the God-Force which creates and evolves all things, it ought also to be true, if our major hypothesis of the all-per- vading Force be correct, that this same love is a powerful factor in evolutionary advance and refine- ment, registering its effects upon the children of true love-marriages, as well as upon the parents themselves. That this latter is incontrovertibly true, a great abundance of evidence is ready at hand. In those countries where caste distinctions limit men and women in contracting marriage, and in those other countries where marriages are ar- ranged by third parties, the human race has fallen behind in the evolutionary march. India and China furnish striking examples. The same is also true of the people of those countries where the sensu- ality of polygamy has choked true love. Turkey furnishes an example of this kind. Among those families whose members contract marriage as a matter of policy, the children are prone to be de- ficient. The old aristocratic families perish from the earth, and royalty degenerates. To the limit that Eugenics undertakes to prevent reproduction by the hopelessly unfit, its work is constructive and conservative ; but all of its efforts which tend to induce men and women to select mates merely upon the ground of their mental and 218 The Science of Religion physical fitness are destructive and profligate. It were better that a child be born of defective par- ents who are really and truly in love with each other than that it be born of parents who are men- tally and physically perfect, but who have merely patched up a cultured and refined truce under which they live together as husband and wife. Love has created and evolved everything in the world, from mineral molecule to man, and in all the kingdoms below the human it operates almost automatically. Man, being a free moral agent, endowed with the faculties of reason and choice, can cast love out of his personal equations ; but whenever he does so he gets results which are bound to be disappointing. He may violate the laws of his being, but he thereby invokes penalties which are sometimes visited upon his children even " unto the third and fourth gen- eration." Since we are here considering Keligion in its scientific aspects, and since marriage is one of its oldest and most sacred rites, it will not be out of place to give a little more detailed consideration to the scientific aspect of marriage itself. The basic principle has already been propounded ; in fact that basic principle was propounded when the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen united into molecules of water; but we will now proceed to a brief con- sideration of the workings of that principle. Some of the very ancient and very devout Chris- tian artists painted a halo, or aura, as emanating from the body of their patron saint ; and this cus- The Divine Purpose 219 torn is more or less in vogue at the present time, although it has long been considered as merely a token of veneration and respect. Now, however, in the light of modern scientific discoveries, there has arisen a question as to whether the halo or aura may not be true to life. We have often met peo- ple whose very presence was distastefully disturb- ing, and for no apparent reason. The presence of other persons is pleasant, running in degree from " pleasing personality " to " love at first sight." There must be a scientific reason for these things. At the time of this writing it has recently been announced through the public prints that a French scientist has wrought out a chemically treated " screen " which he interposes in a camera between the photographic plate and the subject, and by means of which he has been able to photograph the " magnetic radiations " from the human body. The report goes on to say that these radiations are very similar in general appearance to the halo in ancient paintings and bas-reliefs, and that they vary greatly in extent and appearance in photographs of different people. This report may turn out to be merely " newspaper talk," but it is interesting, to say the least of it. According to one of the minor deduc- tions of a previous chapter there must be an induced magnetic " field " in the physical body which acts as a tie between it and the interblending spiritual body; and if there be such a magnetic field it would necessarily radiate beyond the surface of the magnetized body, just as do all other magnetic 220 The Science of Religion fields. Such radiation would also necessarily vary- in form and extent in different individuals, accord- ing to different states of vitality, mental attitudes, etc. Therefore, if the learned Frenchman has not actually photographed " haloes " it is just possible that he or some one else may yet do so. If we but pause here to realize that such terms as " animal magnetism," "personal magnetism," and "mag- netic personality," are very commouly and gener- ally used by people in all walks of life, this effort to get at the very facts may not seem so strained or far-fetched. It may now be realized that each individual human body has its own peculiar magnetic " body- tone " ; which, being interpreted in the terminology of Music, means the master-key with which all the minor magnetic vibrations of the body are pitched in harmony. These body-tones would naturally vary in different individuals, the range of varia- tion being almost as wide as is the variation in personal appearance. Man and Woman are at- tracted to each other in a general sort of way by reason of tendencies to opposite polarity. When it is said that men and women tend to opposite po- larity, it is not meant that they literally and phys- ically attract each other as the positive pole of a magnet would attract the negative pole of another magnet. When we come to consider the estates of Man and Woman, we have progressed very far away from the heavy and sluggish forces which impel the phenomena of the mineral kingdom. It The Divine Purpose 221 is only intended to say that there is something in the active, aggressive nature of Man which fills the same place in the human realm as positive polarity fills in the mineral kingdom, and that there is something in the passive, yielding nature of Woman which fills the same place in the human realm as negative polarity fills in the mineral kingdom. We do not know just what this something is, but it was traced, in a preceding chapter, from the mineral kingdom to the human kingdom, and some of its principal manifestations in each kingdom were there discussed. It is called " polarity " because it is a link in the chain of which mineral polarity is a part, and because no better name has been found for it. If the general attraction existing between an in- dividual man and an individual woman chances to be supplemented by harmony between their respect- ive magnetic " body-tones," the attraction is vastly increased. A great many legal marriages are con- tracted upon the basis of this one harmony alone, all the other departments of the two individuals being more or less in discord. Such marriages bring some measure of happiness for a time, but the several discords will eventually result in mental states and attitudes which will break down the one harmony, and then the matter resolves itself into a choice between the divorce court and " toughing it out for the sake of the children." In the present state of human development men and women are compelled to more or less " leap in 222 The Science of Religion the dark" in settling these personal problems. Love is their only guide, and true love will never lead them astray. The danger lies in mistaking partial harmony for complete harmony, and in mis- taking near-harmony for exact harmony. Mar- riages should not be contracted in haste, and all attractions should be carefully analyzed in the light of Eeason and Intuition. These are the only pre- cautions that can be taken at the present time. Young people should carefully examine and ra- tionally analyze the ecstatic feeling which fires them when they meet those of the opposite sex who are in some way attuned to them. Harmony even be- tween their physical natures may produce what to them appears to be true love, but marriage based upon such harmony alone will result in disaster. If a man and a woman are unhappily married, and if the coming of children has cast upon them the moral obligation to remain together for the sake of these innocent third parties, they may find much greater happiness than they imagine to be available by coming to mutual understanding upon as many points and grounds as possible ; because each bond of sympathy and understanding tends to create other bonds of the same kind. THE PURPOSE REVEALED "When we had reached the end of our reasoning as to the Divine Plan, we came at last to Man and Woman, and we there paused to contemplate the ideal which is so often and so nearly approached. The Divine Purpose 223 And again, at the end of our reasoning as to the Divine Purpose, we come at last to Man and Woman. All too often the individuals of this present age and realm are marred by ignorance and sin and disease, but nothing short of the ideal can satisfy the Divine Purpose. Some time, some- where, somehow, this ideal must be wrought out in each individual who shall persist until that time, place and end. And so it is that we again con- template the ideal, and look to these two wonder- ful beings as they stand before us in all the splendid grandeur of their strength and beauty ; inherently divine in their essential natures; collaborators of the great God of all being; endowed with the faculties, capacities and pow r ers requisite to work- ing out and enjoying a mutual and most ecstatic happiness ; possessed of the secret of immortality ; and holding passports to the kingdom of heaven. So unlike are they, this aggressive Searcher for Truth and this yielding Seeker of Love ! and yet with their mutual destinies and happiness so closely bound up together! Their physical bodies may grow old and decay, but their souls shall remain forever young, and in the spiritual realm "they shall renew their strength like eagles." In the w^orld towards which they move they will be free from many of the things which have marred and blighted them here, and will learn to invoke the operation of wonderful laws and forces which will enable them to become masters of their own des- tinies. As we contemplate them thus, can we won- 224 The Science of Religion der that the great and all-creative God, imbued with all wisdom and endowed with all power, was content to rest from all His labours when He had evolved them ? It is a far backward cry from them to the fiery cloud-ball, with many tedious millions of years intervening ; but does not the re- sult glorify the Plan and justify the means ? and would we change the Purpose if we could ? A beautiful land on high, where " there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain," inhabited by such as these " made perfect in love " ! A land of glori- ous opportunity, where happy dreams come true and hopes are realized, still further glorified and gladdened by the talents, arts and goodness of the great and good men and women of all ages ! This seems to have been the Purpose with which the all-pervading, all-creating God-Force moved upon gaseous incandescence, and for the accomplishment of which it has striven throughout the intervening eons of time. How do the petty cares and worries and sorrows of earth fade away before the light of this re- splendent vision ! How paltry is all of wealth, and pomp, and heraldry, and power, when com- pared with the infinite richness of a treasure such as this ! Printed in the United States of America