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Some Studies In Religion 
 
 Portions of Christian Evidences Translated 
 
 out of the Technical Terms of Theology 
 
 into those of Popular Science 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. Louis Tucker, M. A., 
 
 •■■ 
 
 Rector of Grace Church, St. Francisville La. 
 
 Milwaukee 
 
 THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. 
 
 1903 
 

 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
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 1903 
 
TABLE OF COXTEXTS. 
 
 I. — Ox Technical Language - - - - 5 
 
 II. — Ox the Nature of God - - - - 19 
 
 III.— Ox Faith --------- 22 
 
 IV. — A Theory of the Nature of God 31 
 
 V. — Ox the Nature of Man - - - - 47 
 
 VI. — Further Inquiry ixto the Nature 
 
 of God --------- 60 
 
 VII. — Eelatioxs between God axd Max 77 
 
 VIII. — The Experimental Method ix Ke- 
 
 ligiox --------- 95 
 
 IX. — Tfie Nexus of Eelatiox - - - - ill 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 OX TECHNICAL LANGUAGE. 
 
 PERHAPS the hardest thing in the world 
 is to get men who have been trained in 
 the technical language of one pursuit, which 
 they know thoroughly, to listen to ideas 
 couched in the technical language of another 
 pursuit which they dislike. Thus the anger 
 of a sailor at a legal document and his de- 
 spair of ever understanding it is only to be 
 matched by the despairing anger of a judge 
 who is expected to understand a series of 
 rapidly-issued orders on shipboard; or the 
 mental position of a soldier who has casually 
 remarked to a farmer on the strategic value 
 of a certain hill is to be compared only to that 
 of the farmer who has failed to convey to the 
 soldier any clear idea of the advantages of 
 the same hill for raising turnips. It is, of 
 
6 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION*. 
 
 course, trite to point out that law and sailing 
 are both valuable or that turnips and strategy 
 have each their uses. 
 
 The truths of the legal document, when 
 stripped of their verbiage and laid before the 
 sailor, interest him as fair and just; while 
 a judge, having gotten a clear idea of the 
 purpose of commands on ship-board, sees that 
 they are what he would order done himself. 
 Thus there seems an inborn sympathy in 
 the normal human mind with truths of all 
 kinds, even the truths of the most specialized 
 and technical pursuits; together with an in- 
 tense impatience of the pursuits themselves 
 and especially of their technical language. 
 Hence a conversation between a schoolma'am 
 and a horse- jockey as to the real value of 
 training would be likely to show genuine in- 
 terest, together with much superficial misun- 
 derstanding and annoyance. 
 
 This mental repugnance to unfamiliar 
 technicalities seems incurable. If the law- 
 yer, to return to that illustration, wish to 
 convey legal ideas to the sailor he must throw 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 7 
 
 legal phrases to the wind, and put clear-cut 
 technicalities into clumsy common speech. 
 If the sailor explain sailing orders to the 
 lawyer he must make plain in many devious 
 sentences what is hit off in one word of his 
 own lingo ; or else the sailor must study law 
 and the lawyer sailing ; and both with a cer- 
 tain impatience. 
 
 Within the last two centuries, and es- 
 pecially within the latter half of this present 
 one, there has grown up a specialized body of 
 men with a highly technical vocabulary and 
 a sharply-defined mode of thought ; a body as 
 remarkable for cultivation along some lines 
 and neglect along others as were the barons 
 of the feudal ages; steel-clad soldiers whose 
 bravery and skill in war were beyond dispute, 
 but whose ideas of letters and the rights of 
 property were confused. This body of men, 
 having specialized and in some sense created 
 a mode of thought and expression, naturally 
 listen with impatience to ideas couched in 
 technical language foreign to their own. For 
 their purposes their own language and mode 
 of thought are best. 
 
b SOME STUDIES IIsT RELIGIOX. 
 
 Now there grew up about eighteen cen- 
 turies ago another specialized body of men, 
 whose language and mode of thought have 
 since become highly crystallized and tech- 
 nical. These also are equally remarkable 
 for cultivation along some lines and neglect 
 along others, and they listen with equal im- 
 patience to ideas expressed in a method for- 
 eign to their own. Thus the scientist feels 
 impatience with the theologian, and the theo- 
 logian with the scientist. It would probably 
 be trite to point out that the acts, such as the 
 imprisonment of Galileo or the enthrone- 
 ment of the Goddess of Reason in Notre 
 Dame, into which this impatience has hur- 
 ried the more violent of either side, however 
 blameworthy they may be, do not in any way 
 affect the abstract truth or falsehood of the 
 belief of either party. Nor, indeed, does 
 their much more common and therefore more 
 regrettable abuse of each other. 
 
 Yet a country clergyman, although lift- 
 ing up his hands in holy horror, is really in- 
 terested in the central truths of science ; and 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 9 
 
 the professor of Biology, though with up- 
 lifted hand and averted face he deprecate the 
 hopelessly illogical assumptions of the theo- 
 logian, is really interested in the central 
 truths of religion. In fact there have not 
 been wanting promptly suppressed spirits 
 who dared refer to the proverb of the two 
 sides of the shield and suggest that the two 
 were identical. 
 
 There exists, and has existed for ages, 
 a mass of people, not theologians, whose ideas 
 are cast in the theological mould of thought 
 and expression; and there has sprung up 
 within the last century a class, not scientists, 
 whose ideas are cast in the scientific mould 
 of expression and thought. Each feels in- 
 terest in the truths of the opposite method, 
 much as a sailor does in the justice and fair- 
 ness which underlie the jargon of a good 
 law; but each has a truly sailor-like impa- 
 tience of that opposite method itself. Ob- 
 viously, to convey the truths, that method 
 should be dropped and as near an approach 
 made to the other as is within the power of 
 
10 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 the writer. Such an attempt could not, in 
 common justice, address itself to theologian 
 or professor; any move toward teaching the 
 teachers being at once illogical and assum- 
 ing. But to those who are not teachers in 
 either camp such an attempt might have the 
 same interest that a poet's criticisms of 
 poetry have to a critic, or a doctor's strug- 
 gles to express a diagnosis in plain English 
 have to the mourners. 
 
 There seems, then, some opening for a 
 work putting some of the trite and well- 
 known truths of religion into scientific lan- 
 guage and modes of thought. When it is 
 remembered that science is well-arranged 
 knowledge, and that all truth can be ar- 
 ranged, it is seen that there should be no con- 
 flict between the method and the subject. But 
 the mental difficulty of taking alternately two 
 points of view, of translating, so to speak, 
 from one mental mode to another, is not 
 small ; while even the best translation is not 
 so good as the original. 
 
 The ideal writer of such a work should 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 11 
 
 plainly be a master of both modes of thought, 
 the theological and the scientific. The worst 
 permissible writer should at least be master 
 of one. There may seem some logical 
 objection in this to the making of such an 
 attempt by one who is master of neither ; 
 but when it is considered that the work in- 
 volves the incurring of the strongest rebukes 
 from those of both sides who love manner 
 more than matter, and that its success is 
 doubtful, it is evident that the less reputa- 
 tion such a writer has to lose the better ; since 
 his insignificance is no bar to the final success 
 of the work if it really answer to a need of 
 the times; while if it do not so answer a 
 need, that same insignificance keeps it from 
 doing harm and shelters the writer ; much as 
 in the old days a midshipman was sent home 
 in charge of a naval prize, since he could 
 sail to port or, meeting an enemy's ship, 
 could run away as well as a post-captain; 
 while, if caught, a midshipman more or less 
 was no great matter. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 OK" THE NATURE OF GOD. 
 
 CO ONE who has read the introduction — 
 prefaces and introductions, by the way, 
 are usually left unread, for which reason 
 they have been here printed as chapter one 
 of the text — there has probably seemed a 
 vague charm in the idea of the transference 
 of theological facts into scientific language, 
 but a very plain incoherence as to what facts 
 are to be transferred and how to do it ; a prob- 
 lem not unlike that of an African collector 
 who wishes to transfer a choice selection of 
 wild animals from the equatorial forests to 
 his cages, but has not caught the animals. 
 The difficulty of the transference of the facts 
 is increased by a modern habit of religious 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 13 
 
 teachers which may be illustrated as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Let us imagine a young clergyman saying 
 to himself: "The doctrine of sacraments is 
 logically bound up with that of miracles and 
 of the resurrection of the body ; but if I tell 
 my people so, those who do not believe in 
 miracles and doubt the Resurrection of the 
 body will not come to Communion ; which is 
 certainly a bad thing. Therefore, I had 
 best keep quiet about the logical connection, 
 and trust that their faith will be strengthened 
 by repeated communions so that they can see 
 it for themselves. " The motive is good, but 
 when anyone attempts to give a logical theory 
 of sacraments to such people, he is in the 
 position of a professor who tries to explain 
 the nebular hypothesis to a class of students 
 who are incredulous concerning the theory 
 of gravitation. 
 
 This partial teaching is one of the reasons 
 of the dislike for dogma. For the last fifty 
 years it has seemed only necessary to brand 
 a thing as a dogma in order to have most 
 
14 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 Christians, and all the rest of the world, re- 
 gard it as a kind of horror. The origin of 
 dogma would, perhaps, throw some light on 
 the subject. The scientific method may be 
 roughly defined as the collecting of all the 
 known phenomena, and from them inferring 
 an hypothesis ; which hypothesis, if it explain 
 all new phenomena discovered, rises to the 
 dignity of a theory ; which theory, until dis- 
 proved, is treated as true. The theological 
 method consists in collecting all known in- 
 spired sayings on the subject, and from them 
 inferring a doctrine ; which doctrine, if it 
 explain all other inspired sayings afterward 
 shown to bear on the subject, becomes a dog- 
 ma; which dogma is declared true. Dis- 
 senters from either dogma or theory are re- 
 ceived by the orthodox with reproofs which, 
 while different in degree, are probably not 
 essentially different in kind. The inspired 
 sayings being limited in number, the con- 
 struction of dogma practically ceased some 
 fifteen centuries ago; that is, the logical in- 
 ferences were all drawn and tested. Differ- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 15 
 
 ent inferences from the same facts have since 
 been drawn, but it is a question open to in- 
 vestigation as to whether they are logical. 
 
 It is plain that the omission of phenom- 
 ena or of texts invalidates a dogma or a the- 
 ory. Theology, by the way, assumes the 
 existence of God and the inspiration of cer- 
 tain documents; which assumptions, if un- 
 verified, are of course unscientific. 
 
 The partial teaching before complained 
 of greatly hampers the work undertaken. 
 For instance, to quote the Fathers as patient 
 investigators to persons who look upon them 
 as radiant saints or as fanatical monks, is 
 of course lost labor. "They may be saints," 
 says the Sunday School superintendent, "or 
 religious maniacs/' says the medical student. 
 "But," chime in both, "they are certainly not 
 investigators." It is equally idle to speak of 
 theology as the formulated deductions from 
 practical religion to men who regard religion 
 as theology put into practice; very much as 
 they regard military drill as tactics put into 
 practice, or Edison's experiments as the 
 
16 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 science of electricity put into practice; not 
 seeing that the tactics sprang from the 
 drill, and the science of electricity from 
 the experiments. As a matter of fact 
 theology sprang from religion, and religion 
 is the name for the relations between God 
 and man. 
 
 Here, then, are four basic principles. If 
 any one of them does not exist there is no 
 possibility of theology. If there is no God 
 or if man does not exist there can be 
 no religion. If nothing is known of the 
 nature of man or of the nature of God, the 
 relations between them, or religion, must be 
 unknown, and theology therefore unknown, 
 also. 
 
 Now the existence of man we may regard 
 as proven — (As a matter of fact certain 
 forms of philosophy doubt it). The nature 
 of man can be investigated and submitted to 
 experiment. The existence of God has been 
 exhaustively and recently examined by the 
 scientific method, Matthew Arnold coming 
 to the conclusion that there is "A Power not 
 
SOME STUDIES IX RELIGION". 17 
 
 ourselves that makes for righteousness/' and 
 Herbert Spencer holding that there is an 
 Unknowable, and speaking of it as "The 
 power that manifests itself in the universe 
 and in the consciousness as the Supreme 
 Reality" ; and again, "An Infinite and 
 Eternal Energy from which all things pro- 
 ceed . . . the laws of nature being the 
 modes of action of the Unknowable." 
 
 It is noteworthy that he denies that this 
 Unknowable is a person, not because its na- 
 ture is lower but because it is higher than 
 personality; "Personality" being therefore 
 an unworthy term to apply to it. 
 
 There is a certain element of humor in 
 such an investigation not unlike that which 
 would be found in an attempt to measure the 
 distance of a fixed star in inches; and a 
 certain Biblical ring about the conclusions 
 which recalls such sayings as, "Righteous art 
 Thou, O Lord" ( Jer. xii. 1) ; "Canst thou 
 by searching find out God?" (Job) ; "With- 
 out Him was not anything made that was 
 made" (Jno. i.). But this, of course, is 
 
18 SOME STUDIES 13" RELIGION. 
 
 mere accident. For our purpose it is enough 
 that it is not unscientific to say that there is 
 an Infinite and Eternal Energy from which 
 all things proceed; which energy appears 
 to "Make for righteousness," whatever that 
 may mean ; and of course there must be some 
 relation between man on the one side and this 
 Infinite and Eternal Energy on the other. 
 If anything can be known about this relation 
 the knowledge can be arranged, and when 
 arranged becomes science or theology, which- 
 ever you like ; the two being in this case two 
 names for the same thing. 
 
 So far this work has been plain enough. 
 Theological writers have so often and so 
 justly been accused of assuming unverified 
 premises, and triumphantly building up log- 
 ical arguments on a false basis and then de- 
 claring that their conclusions are true, that 
 the attempt has been made here to assume 
 nothing that may not fairly be called a scien- 
 tific conclusion. The reason is plain. Sup- 
 pose a New York policeman to be arguing 
 with a Polish anarchist — if the imagination 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 19 
 
 can grasp such a case. The policeman as- 
 sumes that Government has the right to pre- 
 vent law-breaking and with triumphant logic 
 proves that the anarchist, who has been 
 smashing windows, should be arrested. The 
 logic is unanswerable — provided that Gov- 
 ernment has such a right. But the anarchist, 
 whose rioting w^as undertaken to emphasize 
 his belief that Government has not such a 
 right, is not only unconvinced, but angered 
 by his arrest. In like manner any argument 
 which assumes a fact denied by science is 
 quite useless when addressed to scientists. 
 
 But to return to the fourth of the basic 
 principles mentioned — the nature of the Un- 
 knowable. Is it possible to know anything 
 about the Unknowable % It will be taken as 
 a contradiction in terms amounting to sheer 
 impudence to answer "Yes." 
 
 This contradiction, it will be noted, is 
 found in Christianity, which tells us that 
 the nature of God is deep, past all under- 
 standing, and that no man can know Him; 
 and in the same breath gives us a whole Bible 
 
20 SOME STUDIES IX RELIGION. 
 
 full of information about Him, including 
 minute statements of what He will do to us 
 under certain circumstances. The same con- 
 tradiction is also found in Science, which de- 
 clares that force is based on the Infinite and 
 Eternal Energy, that the attraction of grav- 
 itation, for instance, is utterly unexplained 
 and a mode of action of the Unknowable. 
 We are not sure that it is an attraction, and 
 we do not know what gravitation is ; and yet 
 we have concise laws of its nature and as- 
 tronomies full of minute statements of what 
 it does to us under certain circumstances. 
 Therefore this contradiction, since it is 
 found in science, cannot be really unscien- 
 tific. 
 
 An analogy to this is not impossible. Let 
 us suppose ourselves in a court-room, spec- 
 tators of a trial in which a lawyer who is a 
 personal friend of ours is speaking. Another 
 lawyer, who is unknown to us, has been 
 jumping up and interrupting his speech in 
 a way we do not understand, but feel sure 
 must be illegal. Our friend sits down, the 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 21 
 
 other lawyer begins a speech, and, lo, our 
 friend also jumps up and interrupts. We 
 are at once assured of the legality of inter- 
 ruptions. We will suppose, then, that it is 
 not unscientific to hold that something can 
 be known about the Unknowable, and that 
 therefore some form of theology is possible. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 OST FAITH. 
 
 BEFORE we can make any advance in re- 
 ligion or theology we are told that we 
 must have faith. Why any man with brains 
 can assent to an absurdity like this the man 
 of scientific training cannot see, since it 
 amounts — he says — to saying that before the- 
 ology can prove anything to us, we must be- 
 lieve the thing it is going to prove; a great 
 saving of labor, but hostile to the scientific 
 method. 
 
 The theologian is naturally impatient of 
 scientific criticisms of theology for the reason 
 that they omit faith. Why any man with 
 brains can logically criticise a conclusion 
 when he has left out one of the reasons for it, 
 they fail to see. Eor example, one of the 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 23 
 
 conditions of answered prayer is faith. That 
 a man not having faith can complain that 
 prayers are unanswered, seems to him as 
 illogical as that a mathematician, who is ex- 
 amining the proposition that one two and 
 three added together make six, should call 
 it false because one and three do not make 
 six, but four, and he has refused to count 
 the two in. 
 
 This clash of opinions is fortunately due 
 to differences in mode of thought and tech- 
 nical expression, and not to the nature of 
 faith. The theological method, as well as the 
 scientific, requires what is sometimes called 
 "Scientific Imagination/' — which seems 
 to be a certain logical vividness of mind. 
 Thus the earlier biologists knew perfectly 
 well a mass of biological facts, and could 
 make neither head nor tail of them. Dar- 
 win, with the same facts before him, formu- 
 lated the theory of evolution. 
 
 But behind the scientific imagination lies 
 another mental quality — an acceptance of 
 the facts. 'No scientist has ever verified 
 
24 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 every experiment upon which he bases his 
 investigations. Darwin, for instance, never 
 verified by personal observation every anec- 
 dote of the actions of wild animals which he 
 uses. The ordinary popular writers on evo- 
 lution have not personally verified one-tenth 
 of Darwin's own experiments. A certain 
 common-sense acceptance of other men's ex- 
 periments and statements is not unscientific. 
 
 There is a third mental quality presup- 
 posed in the scientific method — a desire and 
 love for truth. This may be a mere senti- 
 ment which leads a man to read scientific 
 works : or it may be a grand and boundless 
 enthusiasm, such as has made many a man 
 lay down his life for his convictions and has 
 produced martyrs of science who laughed at 
 death as a light thing in comparison with 
 truth ; and this too is a mental quality neces- 
 sary to the success of the scientific method. 
 
 Js T ow these three mental qualities have 
 no name in scientific language that includes 
 them all. In religious language there is one 
 word that means all three : and that word is 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 25 
 
 "Faith." A mental condition that does not 
 shrink frorn considering any, even the most 
 seemingly improbable, hypothesis which will 
 explain the facts ; that accepts the facts them- 
 selves on reputable human evidence verified 
 wherever possible; and that has a real love 
 for truth strong enough to influence the 
 man's life; such a mental state is necessary 
 to the existence not only of the religious but 
 also of the scientific method ; and in the lan- 
 guage of the religious method it is called 
 "Faith." 
 
 This subject of "Faith" was at one time 
 a great annoyance to the scientific mind and 
 to that part of popular opinion which that 
 mind moulds, because of a mistake often 
 made by parish priests and other teachers of 
 theological truth. In like manner the term 
 "Unscientific" is a great annoyance to re- 
 ligious people on account of a mistake often 
 made by scientists. An illustration of the 
 mistake is easy. 
 
 An old woman entered a train and 
 planted herself and her bundles by a window. 
 
26 SOME STUDIES I^T RELIGION. 
 
 When the conductor took her ticket she asked 
 him to tell her when she got to Decatur. On 
 his return through the car she asked him 
 again. Both times he courteously assured 
 her that he would. On his next trip through 
 the train she asked him if they had not 
 passed the place, and was told that they had 
 not. She repeated the question five minutes 
 later, and was again calmed by the assurance 
 that they had not passed it. With great nerv- 
 ous anxiety she asked it again on his next ap- 
 pearance, and was again calmed as before. 
 She repeated this some six or eight times, 
 the conductor calming her with an author- 
 itative assurance each time. 
 
 A gentleman on the next seat, seeing that 
 the time of arrival at a certain station was 
 later than that given in his time-table, asked 
 the conductor if the train was on time and 
 was told that it was. He pointed out the 
 difference between printed and real time of 
 arrival, and was still told, with some show of 
 temper, that the train was on time. He was 
 annoyed at this and later on complained of 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 27 
 
 it to the superintendent of the road, learning 
 then that the schedule had just been changed, 
 and his time-table was wrong. 
 
 The doubt of the old woman was irration- 
 al and emotional. It was quieted by author- 
 itative assertion of the opposite. The doubt 
 of the man was rational and sensible. It 
 was not quieted by mere assertion, but re- 
 quired reasons. The conductor failed to dis- 
 criminate between rational and irrational 
 doubt, and met both with assertion. 
 
 Now, in both religious and scientific af- 
 fairs, irrational and emotional doubt can 
 only be met by assertion. The thing is true 
 and must be believed; and the defying of 
 the irrational doubt and believing in spite 
 of it is an act of scientific perception — or, 
 in religious matters, an act of faith. For 
 instance, in Haggard's novel, King Solo- 
 mons Mines, an account is given of a party 
 of Englishmen (it is an old but vivid lit- 
 erary device) who staked their lives on the 
 occurrence of an eclipse foretold in a nautical 
 almanac. Thev had most uncomfortable 
 
28 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 doubts as to the accuracy of the mathemat- 
 ical calculations in the almanac, but they 
 stifled those doubts and went on in spite of 
 them. This was an act of scientific judg- 
 ment — good common-sense belief in the ac- 
 curacy of mathematics ; but in what way does 
 it differ from an act of faith \ 
 
 Now, scientific men — University profes- 
 sors, for instance — having continually to deal 
 with absurd and windy objections to their 
 discoveries, dub such objections "Unscien- 
 tific" and answer them, as they should be 
 answered, by showing that the objector 
 knows nothing of the rudiments of science 
 and lacks scientific perception. Occasion- 
 ally, as might be expected, they make a mis- 
 take and answer some sensible and valid ob- 
 jection in the same way instead of answering 
 it by sound reason. In such a case they are 
 wrong; and not infrequently are publicly 
 proved to be wrong. In the same way theo- 
 logians and clergymen have continually to 
 deal with senseless and irrational doubts 
 and answer them, as they should be answered, 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 2d 
 
 by saying that the doubter does not know his 
 Bible and lacks faith; and they also often 
 make mistakes, and try to answer rational 
 and sensible doubts by assertion, and the 
 statement that the doubter lacks faith. They 
 are naturally often publicly proved wrong in 
 this. 
 
 In both cases the mistake is a confusion 
 between emotional and rational doubt; the 
 proper answer for emotional doubt being 
 assertion, and for rational doubt being argu- 
 ment. Thus, when a man in a Bible class 
 objects to miracles that they break the con- 
 tinuity of nature and hence are impossible, 
 the objection is a rational argument from 
 analogy, and is to be met by showing that 
 they do not break the continuity of nature. 
 But when another man objects that they are 
 incredible and therefore impossible, the ob- 
 jection is irrational (Mill's Logic, Fallacies, 
 Chap. iii. § 3.), and to be met by assertion. 
 For the fact that we cannot conceive of a 
 thing is no proof of the impossibility of the 
 thing itself: as is shown sadly enough every 
 
30 SOME STUDIES IN KELIGIOX. 
 
 day by innocent children who cannot con- 
 ceive of the world's evil till they suffer 
 from it. 
 
 One element of faith is an enthusiastic 
 love for truth. When, upon investigation, 
 truth is found to be inseparably connected 
 with a Person, the enthusiastic love for 
 truth becomes an enthusiastic love for and 
 belief in that Person. It logically follows 
 (the scientific method is the method of logical 
 reasoning) that the sayings of that Per- 
 son are to be implicitly obeyed and acted 
 upon: which is the Christian position as to 
 faith. 
 
 Faith, then, may be defined as a mental 
 condition which shrinks from no hypothesis, 
 however startling, if it logically explain the 
 facts ; which receives the facts themselves on 
 reputable human evidence verified wherever 
 possible ; and which shows an enthusiastic 
 love for truth. And this mental condition is 
 self-evidently necessary, not only for enter- 
 ing upon the study of religion, but upon that 
 of science. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A THEORY OE THE MATURE OF GOD. 
 
 CHERE is a fact which Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer and the prophet Isaiah, work- 
 ing apparently quite independently of each 
 other, have been equally anxious to impress 
 upon their several generations : namely, that 
 what Herbert Spencer calls the Anthropo- 
 morphic, what Isaiah calls the Heathen, and 
 what we may for convenience call the Pop- 
 ular idea of God, is in fact false. Mr. Rob- 
 ert Ingersoll did much good in this matter by 
 pointing out the various absurdities, illog- 
 ical statements, and contradictions which the 
 popular idea of God involves. But it is to 
 be regretted that he allowed many to go away 
 from his lectures with the feeling that all 
 their ideas of God are false, and that there- 
 
32 SOME STUDIES IX RELIGION. 
 
 fore there is no Gocl : which might not inaptly 
 be compared to a number of farmers who, 
 having heard a sailor talk of the ocean in a 
 way that upset all their ideas about it, drove 
 away from the village store with the convic- 
 tion that there is no ocean at all, and that 
 the world is all land. 
 
 This false popular or anthropomorphic 
 idea of God can be best explained by an illus- 
 tration. Let us take some great and good 
 man — George Washington, for instance. Let 
 us suppose this man to die and become a 
 spirit; to be rid of his body, but not to be 
 changed in any other way. Let us suppose 
 this spirit to study the universe until he 
 knows all about everything in it. Since he 
 knows all about everything he will know how 
 to do everything, even how to be present 
 everywhere. He was a just and a merciful 
 man; let us suppose him to become so just 
 and so merciful a spirit that there is no limit 
 to those qualities. In conclusion, let us over- 
 come the logical difficulties, and suppose that 
 he goes off somewhere and makes a world. 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 33 
 
 Such a supposed spirit would be the 
 maker of a world and present everywhere. 
 His knowledge, power, justice, and mercy 
 would be infinite. In all other respects he 
 would be a man like ourselves. 
 
 This is, roughly speaking, the popular 
 idea of God. It is held directly or by impli- 
 cation by nine-tenths of Christendom. It is 
 taught implicitly or explicitly from almost 
 every pulpit. And it is denounced by Her- 
 bert Spencer as anthropomorphic and by the 
 Bible as heathen. 
 
 He in whom there is no variableness nor 
 any shadow of turning is not changeable as 
 human beings are, nor is He to be pro- 
 pitiated, offended, or conciliated as human 
 beings are conciliated or offended. He 
 neither rewards nor punishes in the human 
 sense of those terms. He is above and be- 
 yond human understanding and human meas- 
 urement and man's conception. He is un- 
 knowable, and the term personality does not 
 apply to Him any more than the term planet 
 applies to the sun, or the term river applies 
 
34 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 to the ocean. The sun is not a planet; but 
 is greater than one. The universe is not the 
 solar system; but includes it. The ocean is 
 not a river; though it gathers all rivers into 
 itself. In the same sense the Unknowable is 
 not a person ; but is something greater. It is 
 greater than we are along the lines of acting 
 and feeling and thinking. 
 
 When a scientist obtains a number of 
 facts about an unknown thing he proceeds 
 to construct an hypothesis as to the nature 
 of the thing which will explain the facts ; and 
 he tests that hypothesis by any other facts 
 which present themselves. 
 
 It is not impossible that the insolence 
 of an attempt to apply this method to a study 
 of the Unknowable may attract some atten- 
 tion not unlike that attracted by the first 
 astronomical proposals to weigh and measure 
 the sun. Yet it is also not impossible that a 
 logical hypothesis which explains the known 
 facts in regard to the Unknowable has been 
 formulated, even as the sun has been weighed 
 and measured. The facts have been touched 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 35 
 
 upon. Is there any hypothesis that will ex- 
 plain them ? 
 
 Let us assume an hypothesis as to the na- 
 ture of the Unknowable, and test it by the 
 observed facts. 
 
 It would be idle to represent the hypoth- 
 esis here assumed as really deduced by the 
 writer from the facts mentioned. It can be 
 so deduced and the deduction seems to have 
 been foreshadowed, as have many of the other 
 primary truths of theology, by the Indo- 
 Aryan Buddhists and Brahmans. But as a 
 matter of fact the hypothesis seems to have 
 been first advanced by a man named John, 
 who is now known as Saint John; and it is 
 borrowed here since the source of any hy- 
 pothesis in no way affects its scientific truth 
 or falsehood. The hypothesis itself (stated 
 by St. John as a revealed truth, which is of 
 course an unscientific way of putting it) is 
 this— "God is Love." 
 
 Let us provisionally assume, then, that 
 this Thing, this Infinite and Eternal Energy, 
 
36 SOME STUDIES IX RELIGION. 
 
 "which is the source of all power and the basis 
 of all personality and knowledge, is Love. 
 
 Of the way that this view of the nature 
 of God transforms the world to a man it 
 would be unscientific to speak, since the 
 scientific method refuses to consider emotions 
 and feelings and requires facts. It is per- 
 haps worth remark that emotions and feel- 
 ings are important phenomena of existence 
 and that any method which refuses to con- 
 sider important phenomena of existence is 
 somew r hat unscientific. The matter is not 
 without an element of humor on this ac- 
 count, as also on account of the contrast be- 
 tween the logical deductions from St. John's 
 hypothesis and the usual and illogical ones 
 made by men to whom it is first presented: 
 ■which may be parallelled by the illogical de- 
 duction made by a Russian immigrant from 
 that clause in the Constitution of the United 
 States which says that all men are born free 
 and equal — namely, that he may invite him- 
 self to dine with the President ; and the log- 
 ical deduction — which puts a guard at the 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 37 
 
 door that the President may eat his dinner 
 in peace. 
 
 Let us, however, test this hypothesis that 
 the Infinite and Eternal Energy is Love. 
 
 It would be idle to claim that the tests 
 to follow are in any way conclusive, being 
 as they are too few in number to establish 
 any certainty; but they will serve to point 
 out the line along which other tests are pos- 
 sible. We know something about Love. We 
 do not know what it is, and we often and wil- 
 fully confuse it with passion and lust; but 
 every man who has had father or mother or 
 child, knows something of its real nature 
 and how it acts. Thus, if the hypothesis be 
 correct, the nature of the Unknowable is not 
 something outside of human reach, but can be 
 investigated by experiment. It can, if men 
 do not shrink from such treatment of such a 
 thing, be studied by the scientific method. 
 
 It may or may not be wise to note here 
 the usual and popular confusion of terms 
 by which the word "Love" is applied not 
 infrequently to phenomena of passion, of 
 
38 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 selfishness, or of lust. A man of intellect is 
 free from such confusion, and to men with- 
 out intellect it would probably be useless to 
 point it out. 
 
 Perhaps the plainest logical inference 
 from the hypothesis is that of law. We 
 know by observation that when love does any- 
 thing it does it in the best way it knows. As 
 we are dealing with an Infinite Intelligence 
 we see that the best way It knows is also 
 absolutely the best way. When It comes to 
 do the same thing over again It does it again 
 in the best way. But there are not two ab- 
 solutely best ways to do the same thing, so 
 It does it in the same way. We call this 
 repeating of the same way of doing a thing 
 a law of nature. 
 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer concludes that 
 "The laws of nature are the modes of action 
 of the Unknowable." The hypothesis agrees 
 with this and adds to it a reason why the 
 modes of action of the Unknowable are al- 
 ways the same. If it were necessary to add 
 emphasis to the teaching of science as to the 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 39 
 
 "Invariable sequence of phenomena/' "The 
 continuity of nature/' "The reign of Law/' 
 theology could do so. 
 
 This hypothesis also explains the exist- 
 ence of man and of evil and the toleration 
 of evil men by an infinite power hostile to 
 evil; for we know experimentally that love 
 desires answering love — if the statement be 
 doubted it can be submitted to experiment. 
 Hence the existence by evolution or creation 
 (evolution is one of many possible modes 
 of creation) of beings possessing the ability 
 to love; ourselves, for instance. 
 
 We know experimentally that a forced 
 love (the phrase is a contradiction in terms, 
 but not in fact) is not satisfactory to the 
 receiver. It must be voluntary and capable 
 of being withheld. Hence these beings pos- 
 sessing the ability to love are necessarily so 
 made that they have the power of choice and 
 a field for choice — the power to withhold love 
 without forfeiting existence. By the law of 
 chances (a scientific principle) we are as- 
 sured that some of these beings will exercise 
 
40 SOME STUDIES lis RELIGION. 
 
 that power adversely. Thus by the hypoth- 
 esis the mystery of evil is reduced to facts 
 of ordinary experience, and incidentally a 
 definition of evil is furnished. Beings hav- 
 ing the ability to love are necessarily so or- 
 ganized, as has been pointed out above, that 
 they have the power of choice and a field for 
 choice ; that is, that they have both the ability 
 and the opportunity to do things contrary 
 to the will of God. Evil is the exercise of 
 that power by choosing and doing those con- 
 trary things. Conversely, good is the exer- 
 cise of that power by choosing and doing 
 things not contrary. 
 
 As to the toleration of evil men by an 
 infinite power hostile to evil, we know exper- 
 imentally — the case of a father and a prod- 
 igal son is a trite but accurate example — 
 that the being which refuses to love its 
 Maker is not hated and not destroyed; but 
 is restricted in powder and permitted to exist ; 
 and loved none the less because of its disobe- 
 dience, only loved differently, with sorrow 
 mingled in the loving. Hence the hypoth- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 41 
 
 esis that God is Love explains the existence 
 of men, and of evil in men, and the creation 
 of a universe so arranged as to give us the 
 opportunity to do evil — facts which we have 
 observed and which we can explain upon no 
 other hypothesis. Since God is Love, evil 
 is a discord of some person with the Infinite 
 and Eternal Energy. Since both parties are 
 sentient this discord causes pain to both : and 
 greater pain to the greater party. In this — 
 the causing of pain to Infinite Love — lies the 
 sinfulness of sin: just as the fault of a boy's 
 running away to sea lies not in the going to 
 sea — which may be a good thing — but in the 
 pain inflicted upon those who love him. 
 
 It is noteworthy that the tests applied 
 to the hypothesis that God is Love have so 
 far been its solution of problems which, al- 
 though recognized by science, may (except 
 the first) fairly be called theological. It 
 might be pleaded that this is a fair applica- 
 tion. An hypothesis dealing with one branch 
 of science cannot fairly be required to ex- 
 plain problems in another branch, but only in 
 
42 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 its own. For instance, a naturalist's hypoth- 
 esis as to the origin of species cannot fairly 
 be expected to solve for an astronomer vexed 
 questions in spectrum analysis, nor can an 
 hypothesis as to the nature of God be called 
 upon to stand or fall by laboratory experi- 
 ments in inorganic or even in organic chem- 
 istry. It can be tested by experiment, but 
 the experiments must be in its own depart- 
 ment. 
 
 It will be observed that only three tests 
 of the hypothesis that the Infinite and Eter- 
 nal Energy from which all things proceed is 
 love have been given. Scientifically to estab- 
 lish the hypothesis, it would be necessary to 
 test it by every fact known as to the nature of 
 the Unknowable. This has been done in the- 
 ology and also in practical or "experimental'' 
 religion from which theology springs, in a 
 way analogous to the tests which verified the 
 undulatory theory of light; but the results 
 are recorded in technical theological lan- 
 guage in theological books and especially 
 books of devotion: with which literature mod- 
 
SOME STUDIES IIST RELIGION. 43 
 
 era science is rather impatient than familiar. 
 It is self -evidently impossible to repeat those 
 tests here, both because of the space required, 
 and also because the purpose of this work is 
 merely to translate the A B C of theological 
 doctrine from one technical mode of thought 
 and expression to another. Enough has, 
 however, been given to outline the method of 
 examination. 
 
 One out of many lines of investigation, 
 however, may be noted: that of prayer. 
 When a prayer is unanswered it proves noth- 
 ing, for one of the requisites of answered 
 prayer is faith, and faith is a variable and 
 unregistered element which may be wholly 
 lacking. When a prayer, on the contrary, 
 is answered it proves nothing, for coinci- 
 dences are common. Thus whether any sin- 
 gle prayer is answered or unanswered, has no 
 bearing on the question. 
 
 Take a man, however, who is striving 
 for what he wishes, and record his successes 
 and failures. They vary with the circum- 
 stances and the ability and energy of the 
 
44 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 man, but the percentage of success rarely 
 reaches fifty. Usually it is below forty. 
 Most such men fail in nearly two-thirds of 
 what they undertake. 
 
 Let this man adopt as a working hypoth- 
 esis the idea that there is a God who answers 
 prayer, and continue his work, praying for 
 what he wants. Record his successes and 
 failures. They vary with the ability, energy, 
 and opportunities of the man, but the per- 
 centage of successes rarely falls below fifty. 
 Usually it is above sixty. Such a man suc- 
 ceeds in nearly two-thirds of what he under- 
 takes. This experiment has been repeated 
 for centuries. It is tried by nearly every 
 "converted" man. It is trying now. Its 
 results are recorded in hundreds of books of 
 devotion — unknown to science. But the ex- 
 periment is open to anyone to try. Is it to 
 be wondered at, that to those who are famil- 
 iar with its success, the position of men who 
 doubt that there is a God who answers 
 prayer, is remarkably like that of the negro 
 preacher who holds that the earth is flat and 
 that "The sun do move !" ? 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. *0 
 
 It is worth notice that St. John's hypoth- 
 esis no more furnishes ultimate explanations 
 of the problems mentioned than the theory 
 of gravitation furnishes an ultimate explan- 
 ation of the movements of the stars. We 
 are not sure that it is an attraction, and we 
 do not know what gravitation is. But just 
 as the theory of the attraction of gravitation 
 enables us to solve innumerable problems as 
 to star-movements, and can be studied and 
 experimented with on earth, so St. John's 
 hypothesis enables us to solve innumerable 
 problems as to the actions of the Unknow- 
 able, and is subject to earthly experiment. 
 
 The matter may be carried back a step 
 further when we inquire what "Love" is ; 
 for though human research as yet gives no 
 answer, it has found that real love (the 
 phrase is used to shut out the loose applica- 
 tion of the word) is invariably connected 
 with what we call self-sacrifice ; a fact which 
 the newly-coined word "Altruism" expresses 
 in a shadowy way. We do not know that 
 love is self-sacrifice. We do not know that 
 
46 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 self-sacrifice is love. But we do know that 
 they are invariably found together. This 
 self-sacrifice, however, as has been pointed 
 out in another connection by many pessim- 
 istic philosophers, is not really pain-giving 
 but joy-giving, not sacrifice in the usual 
 sense, but happiness: so that a third thing 
 that accompanies the two is joy. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 ( 
 
 ON THE NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 TT WAS with a natural wonder, not un- 
 like that of a backwoodsman at a circus, 
 that the world stood agape a few years since 
 on hearing from grave and irreligious pro- 
 fessors that immortality was very common 
 upon earth — that, in fact, in every frog-pond 
 are beings, millions of years old, to whom 
 death is an unknown thing except by violence 
 or accident. To be sure the wonder was some- 
 what dimmed when we learned that these 
 beings were bits of living jelly — Amoebae — 
 but the fact remains that there are such bits 
 of live jelly dignified by a name, which when 
 they grow larger than convenient split in 
 two and each half swims off, a perfect being. 
 Each has thus been alive since the creation; 
 
48 SOME STUDIES IN KEEIGION. 
 
 and those that do not meet violence or acci- 
 dent will be alive at the "day of judgment." 
 
 It is a matter not without its pleasing 
 side to know that life started immortal. 
 Death was an innovation — a later develop- 
 ment. Its introduction tremendously hast- 
 ened the process of evolution ; but it is not in 
 itself a necessary adjunct to life. By rue- 
 ful experience we have come to think of it 
 as part of the foundation of things ; but as a 
 matter of fact it is an innovation. 
 
 The practical point in the matter, how- 
 ever, is that the innovation has gotten hold 
 of us. We must die. We are accustomed 
 to look on this as natural, but in the deepest 
 sense it is abnormal and unnatural. 
 
 Every good biologist hopes that in time 
 stress of competition will evolve a being 
 which can adjust itself to all changes of the 
 external world. We all look for that happy 
 outcome of the doctrine of the survival of the 
 fittest, a perfected race. Some great world- 
 disaster may intervene, but if it does not, 
 every good and faithful materialist looks for 
 
SOME STUDIES IIST RELIGION. 49 
 
 the time when, by continual survival of the 
 fittest, the race shall have become so fit that it 
 can guard against all changes and thus elim- 
 inate death. In the meantime, however, we 
 ourselves are not fit, and must go down, and 
 it is with only a melancholy pleasure that we 
 can congratulate ourselves upon the glorious 
 destiny of the race ; much as a man who has 
 missed his train can congratulate himself 
 that the train will get there anyhow. 
 
 In short, as we and every other individ- 
 ual of the race that lives or has ever lived 
 are among the unfit, the chance of final death- 
 lessness of the race is of little or no interest 
 to us. It does not concern us personally. 
 By the mismanagement of someone, or it may 
 be by a combination of impersonal laws of 
 nature, we are condemned to die ; and as we 
 have a strong dislike for dying, we could 
 wish to find some way to escape that imported 
 and abnormal fate. 
 
 The matter is complicated by the fact 
 that we have inherited a certain inborn twist 
 or inclination towards violating the laws of 
 
50 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 nature ; not only the physical, but even more 
 so that section of the laws of nature which 
 we usually call the moral law. The out- 
 come of this violation is a lack of harmony 
 with our surroundings — an inability to adapt 
 ourselves to certain changes in them. When 
 theses changes chance to occur the organism 
 is eliminated; that is, we die. The exist- 
 ence of this inborn twist toward breaking 
 the laws of nature is a matter which can be 
 and is submitted to experiment. Like all 
 degenerative tendencies it is progressive; 
 vieldins; to it increases it. The materialist 
 explains it as a survival of the instincts of 
 our animal ancestors, and points out that by 
 process of evolution the race will be freed 
 from it in time. This, however, does not 
 personally concern us, for we have it, cannot 
 hope to escape from it, and shall at last be 
 destroyed by it. It, too, seems to be an inno- 
 vation, since its invariable observed result 
 Is death and the amoebae do not die. What 
 we could wish would be some method of evo- 
 lution, not of the race, but of the individual, 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 51 
 
 by which to eliminate from our own organism 
 this twist, so that we might have no inborn 
 tendency to break the laws of nature. If 
 this could be done we should, like our distant 
 ancestors the amoebae, be potentially im- 
 mortal. 
 
 The unfortunate condition of partially 
 evolved man — that is of ourselves — is made 
 worse by a lurking feeling that the body is 
 not all of us. It would be much more com- 
 fortable to die and be done. Life would be 
 simpler if we could be sure that death ended 
 it. In the earliest savage ages of mankind, 
 when the power to collect observed facts and 
 draw deductions from them was still small, 
 this seems to have been the usual opinion 
 and man lived down to it. Very early, how- 
 ever, its certainty began to be doubted. A 
 number of observed facts seemed to hint that 
 man is more than mere body. The phenom- 
 ena of consciousness, the curious instinct of 
 guilt after those violations of the laws of na- 
 ture which we call "sins," and, in another 
 sphere, the fact that a man's body is built up 
 
52 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 of food eaten in the past and that its sub- 
 stance is often changed, yet he is still the 
 same man — these, with many other facts, 
 when collated and compared, led to a strong 
 presumption that man is something more 
 than his material body. "The Soul" has 
 never been discovered by chemical analysis 
 or found in the dssecting room; but neither 
 has "A Thought," or "Life." Yet life and 
 thought exist. This non-discovery may be 
 because chemical and anatomical investiga- 
 tion has mostly dealt with specimens without 
 thought and from which the soul and life 
 have fled — namely, with corpses ; which 
 might not inaptly be compared to an investi- 
 gation settling that there are no such things 
 as oysters because the oyster shells in city 
 trash-barrels are invariably found empty. 
 
 This hypothesis — that man has a soul — 
 explains so many facts which can be ex- 
 plained in no other way that it is the gener- 
 ally accepted opinion all the world over. 
 The great World-religions, Heathen as well 
 as Christian, all agree on man's having a 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 53 
 
 soul because it is the best working hypothesis 
 yet found to explain the observed facts. 
 They disagree on so many things, by the way, 
 that anything they agree on must have con- 
 siderable evidence for it. 
 
 It is perhaps worth remark that the exist- 
 ence of the soul is here spoken of as an 
 hypothesis. Many scientific men deny its 
 existence as a fact, because the scientific ver- 
 dict about it is that it is "not proven," but 
 the logical fault in such reasoning is plain. 
 Moreover, to any person noting only empty 
 oyster-shells, the existence of oysters is "not 
 proven." There can be no doubt that whether 
 proven or not it explains more of the ob- 
 served facts about man than any other 
 hypothesis known to us; and it is a good 
 scientific principle to adopt the thing that 
 best explains the facts for a working hypoth- 
 esis ; at least until a better one is found. 
 
 We have to face, then, the somewhat un- 
 comfortable probability that man has a soul. 
 This complicates life. It would be much 
 simpler to live if it were certain that we were 
 
54 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 soulless. We could then gratify certain mor- 
 bid tastes which we have all inherited or ac- 
 quired, and which lead' us to break the laws 
 of nature, knowing that the worst that could 
 happen to us would be to die and be done 
 with life a little sooner than otherwise. As 
 it is, however, the weight of evidence goes to 
 show that man exists after death; and an 
 eternity spent in gratifying morbid desires 
 which break natural laws, and in bearing the 
 punishments nature always inflicts for her 
 laws when broken, is as terrible as the most 
 lurid pulpit descriptions of hell. The prac- 
 tical concensus of opinion of mankind is that 
 the evidence is strong enough to make the 
 risk too great to run ; and as a result the vast 
 majority of mankind is engaged in more or 
 less successfully combating those morbid de- 
 sires or that innate twist toward breaking 
 the laws of nature. 
 
 There is, of course, a bright side to the 
 possibilities of the case. By practical ex- 
 periment we know that we are unable to rival 
 the deathlessness of the amoebae, and must 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 55 
 
 die. What we should like would be some 
 method of evolution, not of the race but of 
 ourselves, by which we could get rid of this 
 morbid twist toward breaking the laws of 
 nature; but we have found by experiment 
 that death cuts the process short. There are 
 several methods by which it is claimed that 
 men may advance some way along the path 
 of this personal evolution, but none of us 
 has time to reach the goal. We die first. 
 If, however, death does not annihilate a man, 
 there is room for the process to continue, 
 so that in time he may become free from this 
 morbid twist inherited or acquired, and may 
 stand, free, without any wish to violate nat- 
 ural laws. Such a man or "Soul" would 
 be in a most enviable position; happy, be- 
 cause not in conflict with any law of nature, 
 and free to make an unbiased scientific in- 
 vestigation of the Cosmos and, as accurate 
 knowledge gives power, able in time to con- 
 trol it even to the point of assuming a body 
 again, and also able to gain some knowledge 
 of the Infinite and Eternal Energy which 
 supports it. 
 
SOME - _ .DIES XX I2FT.TGI*: 1" 
 
 It is worth, incidental mention that 
 
 "_ — 7 :_t"_: i= :: -_r:~ :-:-.'. t~ :.■.:::::: ir-f ill 
 ~::-_1t- :: :lf pr~> TiTf iifi :_^: 1t/"Ji 
 ends all he correct. We hare proved by ex- 
 
 ;t:;_t^" :1j.: z :_t _:? -:/_t rillj :: ivs: 
 out from his nature the tendency to break 
 natural laws*. Death comes and cuts the proe- 
 
 - il:r Zztlz 7~rr7 zit _ _ 1 Is L:«:ne: 
 
 : ill '" : ;- in :li= : ~ - I" is : _1 _tL. : _ l. - 
 
 ""t_-::_ 1= 1::;-t^ :■; :lr :; : il'- :li: 
 
 :i — _ : :_ L ill ■ _ '. ----- e-i : : r :i : 
 
 there is room for personal evolution to wort 
 
 : - ' . t- -_. ■ - _t"_ : 1- :: ' r_ ~ :_:! r~:l~ :•- 
 
 zif : -J ..._--: -~- :■; ~ : — 1_r Ln:er- 
 
 - : ... " " . t : - _ - - _ . ~ ~ ? :•: zl is _ r 
 
 Li.5 .- ^ t . -__-- : - :lui: _ :lf ^;:t_-:-; 
 
 ._.:.• _- : . . ziz-z ~_t ~_ii_^ :li: :e>: ti:- 
 
 " . liii "_t : :s - . ~"_^:;__ _~ ::~_t-> ~_t 
 
 _" _ ~_t-> : ".. -T : ;y-v : :7f > "/._ is 
 
 Z:::^7_t- ifre: '- ^ .r - i: 7 r-^: 7." .7 
 ii ~ :>ez : : is : '_ _"" ::lir^i= 1" is ■_ :: : v.".'." 
 
 ■ _ — ri_ :~ -_: — :: : _ - zii~ei .~ -;:t_:7 
 
 . zi t l " : : '_ - : _ 7 : - ';.."_ t ~~- : ~ f : _ : f - ~ : * 
 
N. ■ i 
 
 sh to be so shallow a th: 
 
 : is - shallow 
 a thinker as not to know that it is : the 
 most probable hy] rthesis. I" is more likely 
 
 :h than that not 
 
 — :■ y more likely. And - : men 
 
 upon this with more or less wisdom : just g 
 men knowing that tc -m.L: will probably 
 be foil." to-morrow, make their - 
 
 arations for that morrow, some with folly 
 and some with good sense. 
 
 It is not hoped by the -writer that the 
 foregoing presentation of the doctrines of 
 Original S::_. Damnation, I mm ortality of 
 the S Resurre i n and the Beatific 
 
 Vision, will revolutionize the views or the 
 character of an; whc may chance to read it 
 
 r is it even supposed that it will greatly 
 affect any one: it takes far more to affect 
 a man's life than a few words printed 
 in a book. Bnt if the paragraphs h 
 
 red tc -Low tha; 3ome >f tie great theolog- 
 ical doctrines as to the nature of man. — :!■: :- 
 trines from which most men nowadays in- 
 
58 SOME STUDIES IN EELIGIOX. 
 
 stinctively sheer off as a schoolboy does from 
 an abstruse problem in mathematics — if they 
 have shown that these grand, turgid, won- 
 derful, involved and generally-to-be-avoided 
 doctrines, when translated out of theological 
 language into more familiar speech, really 
 sound very simple and even more or less true, 
 then the purpose of this work is served ; and 
 if the method accomplish so much, some abler 
 hand may take it up and so use it as to bring 
 home the truths of religion to the nation. 
 
 Summing up the matters treated of so 
 far: we have arrived at the conclusion that 
 an Infinite and Eternal Energy exists. It 
 is a power not ourselves, and makes for 
 righteousness. It is the basis of all things. 
 Its nature is something unknown to us and 
 greater than personality, not less, so that it 
 is an inaccurate but not an unfair use of 
 words to say that It is more personal than 
 personality, or the only real Person. The 
 most logical hypothesis, rising to the rank of 
 a theory, is that the essence or nature of the 
 only real Person is Love. Man is one of its 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 59 
 
 products. Death, to which man and most of 
 the lower animals are subject, is an innova- 
 tion. Experiment has shown that there ex- 
 ists in man a tendency to violate the laws of 
 nature, which violation causes suffering and 
 death, and these can only be gotten rid of by 
 getting rid of the tendency. Experiment has 
 shown that to be impossible in this life. Ex- 
 periment has shown, however, that it is a 
 tenable hypothesis rising to the importance 
 of a theory that man exists after physical 
 death. It is a scientific principle to take 
 that which best explains the facts as a work- 
 ing hypothesis. The theories that God is 
 Love, and that man exists after death, best 
 explain the known facts. Thus the scientific 
 sanction for acting upon them is perfect. 
 
 All of which very triumphant logical 
 work is not expected to be convincing. Few 
 are convinced by logic — at least, by good 
 logic. But though not convincing, yet care- 
 ful thought will show it to be true. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 FURTHER INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OE GOD. 
 
 HAT that hypothesis which best explains 
 the facts should be assumed as a basis 
 for further investigation is good science; to 
 handle a working hypothesis as if it were an 
 infallible truth, however, is unscientific. 
 Thus the working hypotheses that God is 
 Love and that man exists after death have 
 the strongest possible scientific sanction when 
 used merely as working hypotheses; that is, 
 when used as guides for action and experi- 
 ment. The strictest scientist and the most 
 fervid Christian can have no rational quarrel 
 in regard to the necessity of squaring all 
 action to these two things : that God is Love, 
 and that man is immortal. The quarrel 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 61 
 
 comes on whether these things are to be styled 
 working hypotheses or revealed truths. 
 
 This quarrel is essentially one between 
 two highly specialized modes of technical 
 expression which are irreconcilable. But it 
 is possible to avoid both modes of statement, 
 and merely to say that the highest commands 
 of both science and religion equally require 
 a life assuming that God is Love, and that 
 man is immortal. 
 
 It is a further fact that hardly needs 
 demonstration that man is not at present 
 able to adjust himself to all changes ; but is 
 subject to partial or complete lack of har- 
 mony with environment: that is, to pain 
 and death. Discord with the physical en- 
 vironment produces physical pain and phys- 
 ical death; discord with that part of the en- 
 vironment which we call moral or spiritual 
 produces moral or spiritual pain or death. 
 This discord is not without cause, since no 
 phenomena are causeless. The cause of this 
 discord is inherited, and we learn experi- 
 mentally that in some cases it is added to. 
 
02 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 It has no technical scientific name. In 
 theology it is called Original Sin. 
 
 These things being so, there follows from 
 them a necessary inference. The Infinite and 
 Eternal Energy, as is well known, has pro- 
 vided a method of race-evolution by which 
 the cause or causes of this discord may be 
 eliminated from the race ; but because Its 
 nature is Love, and we know experimentally 
 that love cares for the individual, it is a 
 necessary inference that there is also some 
 method of evolution by which this discord 
 and its causes can be eliminated from the 
 individual. Since we know experimentally 
 that no method is complete before death, the 
 inference that its completion is at or after 
 death is unavoidable. 
 
 Xow it is the law of evolution that it 
 works from a mysterious beginning (who has 
 solved the mystery of biogenesis?) by an 
 orderly sequence of cause and effect. This 
 particular kind of evolution should follow 
 the law. There are two ways of bringing 
 about harmony of an organism with its en- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 63 
 
 vironment. One is by doing away with 
 changes in the environment. The other is by 
 infusing new vitality, energy, and power of 
 adjustment to change into the organism. In 
 regard to man we note experimentally that 
 changes in environment are not done away. 
 Since, as Mr. Spencer points out, the Un- 
 knowable is the basis of all energy, it follows 
 that any infusion of energy must be an in- 
 fusion of the Unknowable which is its basis. 
 Mr. Spencer was not the first to hold that 
 the Unknowable is the basis of all energy, 
 and hence to imply that fresh energy, vital- 
 ity, and powder of adjustment must be in some 
 way caused by an infusion of that Infinite 
 and Eternal Energy, which is the basis of all. 
 The fact is obvious and has not escaped the 
 thoughts of men from the earliest times ; and 
 it is a point not without its humorous aspect 
 that Mr. Spencer, presumably quite without 
 intention, follows the lead of both the 
 Upanishad and the Old Testament in an- 
 nouncing it. In regard to this statement 
 as to the Upanishad, see the meditations on 
 
64: SOME STUDIES I3T EEEIGION. 
 
 Om, in the first ten pages of Max Miiller's 
 translation. 
 
 It is, then, a necessary inference from 
 known facts fairly called scientific, that God 
 has furnished some method of individual evo- 
 lution in this life, completed at or after 
 death, starting from a mysterious beginning, 
 working by orderly sequence of cause and 
 effect and infusing new energy, vitality, and 
 power of adjustment into the individual by 
 infusing into him a greater portion of the 
 nature of God, the final outcome of the pro- 
 cess being the elimination of discord and the 
 production of permanent or "eternal" har- 
 mony with environment. A reference to the 
 deductions from the hypothesis that God is 
 Love will show that the steps in such evolu- 
 tion will naturally spring out of the condi- 
 tions, and will not be forced upon the indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 Lest this conclusion should seem to be 
 claimed as a new discovery, it is worth while 
 to point out that there are few more univers- 
 ally admitted or older. Every nation origin- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 65 
 
 ally based pride of race on the claim that it 
 had more of God in it than had the other na- 
 tions. Birth was traced from an inspired 
 patriarch, or else a demi-god. In fact, if for 
 "God" we substitute the phrase "Infinite and 
 Eternal Energy," it will at once be seen that 
 the present race-pride of the Anglo-Saxons is 
 based on the belief that we have by inherit- 
 ance more of the infinite and eternal energy 
 than have other races. The perception of 
 this law antedates history, and those first and 
 sternest old puritans who called themselves 
 "Children of Light — Aryans," recognized it 
 fully. 
 
 Before going further it is perhaps well 
 to consider another deduction from the hy- 
 pothesis that God is Love. It is that God 
 never .alters any action, His own or that of 
 any other person. 
 
 The fact that this is a deduction will be 
 seen by a little thought. It is merely a mode 
 of stating the fact that God works by law. 
 Effects follow causes in a determined and not 
 an irregular manner. If the final effect is 
 
66 SOME STUDIES IIST RELIGION. 
 
 to be altered some new cause must be brought 
 to bear. The force and exact meaning of 
 the deduction can perhaps be shown by an 
 illustration. 
 
 Let us imagine a man who has just placed 
 the proper proportions of sulphur, nitre, and 
 charcoal in a mixer, and started the machin- 
 ery. In a moment of remorse he decides that 
 he does not want to make gunpowder. jSTow 
 he may either stop the machinery or intro- 
 duce some new element — say sawdust. 
 
 Stopping the machinery is intended to 
 parallel altering the action. God never 
 stops the machinery. In other words, it is 
 an observed fact that the chain of law, of 
 cause and effect, is never broken. New ef- 
 fects are produced by the introduction of 
 new causes : not by any change in the law of 
 causation. It was possibly from an observ- 
 ance of this fact, which is a very easily noted 
 one in natural religion, that some legislator 
 drew the idea of the laws of the Medes and 
 Persians, which were proverbially never re- 
 voked. Thus when a massacre had been or- 
 
SOME STUDIES IJST RELIGION. 67 
 
 dered by Ahasuerus for a certain date, the 
 order was rescinded, not by cancellation, but 
 by command that the victims should resist. 
 The massacre did not succeed. 
 
 The working hypothesis that God is Love 
 involves, then, the almost mathematical in- 
 ference that there exists a method of individ- 
 ual evolution for eliminating "Sin" — that is, 
 violation of the laws of our physical, mental, 
 and spiritual nature, and the tendency which 
 causes this violation — by an infusion of en- 
 ergy and vitality necessarily involving an 
 infusion of the nature of God. From what 
 we know by experiment of the nature of 
 Love, we know that this infusion must be ap- 
 licable, not to a single clan or race, but to 
 every individual. Also (see chapter on the 
 nature of God) we know that the first step in 
 this course of evolution must be made by the 
 individual. 
 
 We find experimentally that God raises 
 individuals from a lower to a higher grade of 
 life by a process of evolution. For this rea- 
 son we judge that there is no gap in nature, 
 
68 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 and that this method inferred above must 
 follow the law. But if it is a method of 
 evolution we at once know a good deal about 
 it. We are not at sea in dealing with meth- 
 ods of evolution. Our knowledge of the way 
 a new quality, for instance, is evolved may be 
 called fairly exact. 
 
 The quality first occurs, without known 
 cause, in an individual. It usually appears 
 in a rudimentary form, but sometimes, as in 
 the case of "Sports" or "Freaks," the form is 
 not rudimentary but fully developed. From 
 that individual it passes, by heredity, to 
 others. It is fostered by the environment, 
 but transmitted by generation and inheri- 
 tance. Before the formulation of the theory 
 of evolution the thought of the world had 
 recognized this and, as mentioned above, we 
 have numerous cases of "Holy Nations" be- 
 lieving themselves possessed of inherent spir- 
 itual energy and vitality by physical heredi- 
 ty; in fact it is evident from what we know 
 of evolution that, if the Infinite and Eternal 
 Energy is to transmit to us such vitality, it 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 69 
 
 will be by the law of birth and heredity. It 
 is equally evident, however, that a method of 
 evolution applicable to every individual can- 
 not proceed by a method of physical heredity, 
 which of necessity confines it to a single clan 
 or race. We are thus led by the theory of 
 evolution to look for some method of gener- 
 ation and of heredity from an individual 
 which shall be independent of physical birth. 
 Analogies to such a method are claimed 
 in the combination and reaction of some of 
 the unicellular organisms, but a tolerable 
 parallel is best seen in the mental action of 
 mankind, where we are all familiar with the 
 spectacle of the ideas of one man generating 
 the same or like ideas in the minds of others 
 without physical birth. These ideas influ- 
 ence action, often to the extent of the destruc- 
 tion or preservation of the individual. They 
 are not material, they cannot be weighed and 
 measured, they are not subject to exact defi- 
 nition. Thus, in a certain sense, they do not 
 come within the province of science ; yet the 
 experience of generations proves that they 
 
70 SOME STUDIES rN" RELIGION. 
 
 are potent forces of nature, and with all nat- 
 ural forces science will some day deal. The 
 propagation of the idea of liberty, for exam- 
 ple, has been partially traced. Its origin is 
 lost, but we see through all history how it is 
 generated in one mind by contagion from an- 
 other when the conditions are favorable, and 
 how, when the conditions are not favorable, 
 the idea is not born. 
 
 The things we do not know about God 
 are incalculable, but the things we do know 
 have led us to the conclusion that their ra- 
 tional explanation demands the existence of 
 a well-known method of personal evolution 
 much more intimate and searching (since it 
 involves Himself), than what is usually 
 called "religion," and one which infuses 
 energy and vitality into the individual 
 by inheritance from another individual 
 through a process faintly analogous to 
 physical birth, and more nearly so to the 
 transmission of ideas. The nearest and 
 best analogy to the process was furnished 
 some centuries ago by a teacher of Judea 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 71 
 
 who compared it to the grafting of a 
 branch on an olive tree or a twig on a grape 
 vine; by which the grafted part receives a 
 certain infusion of the life of the other and 
 lives with its own vitality governed, rein- 
 forced, and sustained by the vitality of the 
 vine or tree. 
 
 There is in addition a matter in regard to 
 the nature of the Unknowable which the phil- 
 osopher Haegel has pointed out and which 
 throws some light on this subject. With long 
 and technical discussion Haegel arrives at 
 the conclusion — perfectly well known to 
 mankind before he reached it — that things 
 exist, as far as we are concerned, because of 
 their differences. The world is full of a 
 number of things because the things are dif- 
 ferent. If they were all the same the world 
 would vanish from our knowledge — for we 
 only perceive things by their differences. If, 
 in addition to this, the difference of number 
 were to cease there would be only one thing, 
 and intelligence would vanish ; for the exist- 
 ence of intelligence depends on the existence 
 
72 
 
 SOME STUDIES IX RELIGION. 
 
 of two things : the intelligent person, and the 
 thing on which his intelligence is exercised. 
 Energy would cease, for energy requires for 
 its existence something besides itself. In 
 short, nothing would exist. 
 
 Now the Cosmos bears in it the marks of 
 an Infinite and Eternal Energy. This 
 Infinite and Eternal Energy, which has 
 all things as its product, could not have 
 been homogeneous. It must have been 
 differentiated in some way, so as to react 
 upon itself. Haegel pointed this out. In 
 addition, since the reaction of two bodies 
 reaches a state of poise, but the reactions 
 of three bodies are immeasurable, we know 
 that the Infinite and Eternal Energy must 
 have been differentiated in two or more 
 ways ; it must be at least threefold. 
 
 A different statement of the same fact 
 can be made in the language of the hypothe- 
 sis that God is Love. Love implies a person- 
 ality and requires love for its existence. 
 Thus the Infinite and Eternal Love, in the 
 ages past, must have composed and existed 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. i 6 
 
 between at least two personalities and proba- 
 bly between three, each capable of personal 
 action yet each of the same essence; just as 
 the North and South Atlantic, whose inter- 
 action in the Gulf Stream makes Europe hab- 
 itable, are composed of one and the same sea 
 water. 
 
 This, in technical theological language, is 
 called the doctrine of the Trinity. It is de- 
 nied on all sides because of its incomprehen- 
 sibility; but, when divested of its technical 
 phrasing, an analogy for it can be readily 
 found. 
 
 No one denies that there are five oceans. 
 They are sufficiently differentiated to be 
 sharply defined. The North Atlantic is not 
 the South Pacific, nor by any stretch of hu- 
 man credulity can they be made the same. 
 Yet there is a type of human mind which de- 
 nies that there can be three persons and one 
 God, three beings and one substance, and at 
 the same time finds no difficulty in accepting 
 the fact that there are five oceans, and that 
 they are all one "Sea." 
 
74 SOME STUDIES I^ RELIGION". 
 
 It is plain, then, that the Infinite and 
 Eternal Energy must be differentiated into 
 more than two of those centres of activity 
 which we call personalities ; although Herbert 
 Spencer only reiterated the teaching of St. 
 John when he pointed out that these centers 
 of activity differ from human personalties in 
 being so much more centred, broader, deeper, 
 more intensified, that he refused to apply the 
 word "Personality" to them as containing be- 
 littling human associations which make it un- 
 worthy of them. As we have no other word, 
 however, and as there is a real analogy be- 
 tween the higher forms of human activity 
 and the lower modes of action of the Divine, 
 the mass of mankind has continued to use 
 the word as the nearest approach to the fact 
 of which human language is capable, or 
 which the human brain can clearly conceive. 
 
 We are led, then, by the facts of nature, 
 to look for some process of individual evolu- 
 tion completed at or after death, and deriving 
 its energy by a process analogous to grafting 
 — a sort of artificial yet vital and real hered- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 75 
 
 ity — from one of the three persons of the 
 threefold Divine Energy or Personality. It 
 will be seen that it is only necessary to derive 
 this energy from one by the analogy of the 
 Oceans ; for in order to fill a canal with sea- 
 water it is not necessary to establish indepen- 
 dent connection with all oceans — Atlantic, 
 Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic — but 
 merely with one of them. 
 
 The original individual in whose person 
 this method of evolution begins must differ 
 from all other individuals in such a way as to 
 permit to each an artificial, yet vital, heredity 
 from Himself — much as a vine differs from 
 its grafted branches. He must be connected 
 with the Infinite and Eternal Energy, not as 
 a branch is connected with a vine or an ani- 
 mal with its species, but as an animal or vine 
 is connected with its own inherent and vital 
 forces. These dwell in the vine, the vine is 
 their embodiment, they ARE the vine. Thus 
 this individual would be indwelt by, would 
 in fact BE, one of the centres of activity or 
 Personalities of the threefold Infinite and 
 
76 SOME STUDIES 1ST RELIGION. 
 
 Eternal Energy. It is noteworthy that this 
 fact has been appreciated by human intellect 
 throughout all history, nearly every religion 
 pointing back or forward to some divine in- 
 carnation as a necessary consequence of the 
 fact that the Energy, which is the basis of all 
 things, is not only differentiated (from the 
 perversion of which fact comes polytheism) 
 and Eternal, but also Infinite. 
 
 It is worth remark that a systematic ar- 
 rangement of human knowledge on any sub- 
 ject can properly be called science; the na- 
 tures and relations of God and man make 
 up religion ; and thus the conclusions reached 
 above can be called either religious or scien- 
 tific, whichever you please. If stated as in- 
 fallible truths they arouse scientific opposi- 
 tion. If stated merely as a working hypo- 
 thesis, even as the most tenable hypothesis, 
 they arouse religious opposition. But if 
 stated as the reasonable conclusions from the 
 known facts, it is submitted that they should 
 arouse no opposition at all. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RELATIONS BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. 
 
 IT WOULD be well to note that these writ- 
 ings do not aim at adding anything to 
 knowledge. The writer has no knowledge to 
 advance, and, so far from being novel, the 
 chief deductions mentioned gain whatever 
 value they may have from the fact that they 
 are the weighed and tested conclusions of 
 mankind. But, as a cautious attempt at 
 translating familiar human conclusions out 
 of theological technical terms into those made 
 familiar by popular science, this work may 
 have interest to a class of readers who would 
 as soon think of reading Sanskrit as theolo- 
 gy. It may even be that some of the state- 
 ments may strike such readers as novel. 
 Some of us can recall the time when we re- 
 
78 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 garded the multiplication table as a new dis- 
 covery. The hills are immeasurably old, but 
 they are new to each new traveler. 
 
 It is pleasing to note that the scientific 
 position that the Infinite and Eternal Energy 
 is the basis of all things necessarily involves 
 the fact that there must be relations between 
 God and man, and therefore a religion. It is 
 a scientific principle that between cause and 
 effect there is always a relation, and man is 
 a product and effect of the Infinite and Eter- 
 nal Cause. Thus it is unnecessary to trans- 
 late the usual theological arguments for the 
 fact that a true religion must exist, since 
 science bears testimony to it with all the 
 force of an impassive witness. This real re- 
 ligion must be immeasurably close and inti- 
 mate, for man is sustained in every minutest 
 process and action by the laws of nature, and 
 "The laws of nature are the modes of action 
 of the Unknowable." 
 
 It will be seen that various degrees of 
 knowledge of the relations between God and 
 man must produce various systematic ar- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 79 
 
 rangenients of that knowledge, or "Relig- 
 ions." These "religions" will be true, as far 
 as they go, but compared with the full knowl- 
 edge of the relations between God and men — 
 with the Religion whose possibility we infer 
 from science — they will be false in varying 
 degrees. Thus fetish worship and ancestor 
 worship are recognitions of the fact that 
 "There is a power not ourselves," but fail to 
 recognize that it "Makes for righteousness," 
 or that it is an "Infinite and Eternal Ener- 
 gy." Hindu, Greek, and Roman polytheisms 
 are, or were, recognitions of the presence of a 
 power not ourselves, but of which we are the 
 products — a power differentiated into centres 
 of activity resembling personalities ; but they 
 failed to realize that the power was a unit 
 under its diversity, and a short study of the 
 Greek myths or Hindu customs will prove 
 to any one that they had no suspicion that 
 it "Makes for righteousness." Zoroaster 
 never discovered that the Infinite and Eter- 
 nal Energy was the basis of all things. 
 Buddhism is a religion of negation and des- 
 
80 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 pair. That the energy which caused the Cos- 
 mos "Makes for righteousness/' that the very- 
 existence of the Cosmos proves that the con- 
 structive tendencies outweigh the destructive, 
 that any personal evolution must be, not by 
 negation, but by infusion of energy and vital- 
 ity from the Infinite and Eternal Energy, 
 all these seem to have escaped its thinkers. 
 Mohammedanism is a reaction from polythe- 
 ism, and takes no account of any differentia- 
 tion of the Unknowable. It will thus be seen 
 that all of the great world-religions except 
 two — those of Christ and Mohammed — fail 
 to take account of all those facts in regard to 
 the nature of the Unknowable, weighed, test- 
 ed, and announced, by Matthew Arnold and 
 Herbert Spencer. They are thus partially 
 true, since even fetishism recognizes one of 
 the facts ; but their truth is only partial, and 
 their conclusions, in that they deny known 
 scientific facts in regard to God, may be dis- 
 missed as relatively false. 
 
 The best w T orking hypothesis obtainable 
 by scientific means as to the relations be- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 81 
 
 tween God and man is this, that there is a 
 mode of personal evolution working through 
 life, completed at or after death, applicable 
 to every individual, and producing, by a pro- 
 cess of artificial heredity not unlike grafting, 
 an influx of energy and vitality from the In- 
 finite and Eternal Energy ; the effect of this 
 influx, when unhindered, being the elimina- 
 tion of the hereditary tendency to break nat- 
 ural laws. The theory as to the Nature of 
 the Unknowable, which may be briefly stated 
 in the words "God is Love," implies the exist- 
 ence of such a mode, its success in some cases, 
 its rejection in others, and, either before or 
 after death, its presentation in some form to 
 every individual of the human race, to be by 
 each accepted or rejected. This last state- 
 ment, while a necessary inference from the 
 theory that God is Love, will be received with 
 anathema by many trained in the theological 
 mode of technical expression. To such it is 
 recommended that they read the third chap- 
 ter of the Eirst Epistle of St. Peter, and pon- 
 der on the necessary implications thereof, as 
 
82 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 also the statement of St. Paul that the heathen 
 are judged by the light of their own con- 
 sciences, and the fact that there are just men 
 in all races (God hath not left Himself with- 
 out witness in any nation), counterchecked 
 by the statement that there is no salvation 
 without Christ. It is noteworthy that the idea 
 of liberty, however strenuously presented, 
 does not propagate in uncongenial minds, but 
 minds prepared for it make it a part of them- 
 selves when it comes. The same may be said 
 of this inheritance of Divine Energy. 
 
 A review of the dominant religions of the 
 world — all of which are usually looked upon 
 as hopelessly unscientific — when occurring 
 in a work on that "Religion" whose existence 
 we infer from Science, will probably arouse 
 amusement not unlike that which comes from 
 a consideration of children's plays in a work 
 on Sociology. Yet children's plays throw 
 valuable light on some social problems. Now, 
 since there is every reason to suppose that 
 this mode of evolution of which we speak is 
 presented to many individuals here and now, 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 83 
 
 it follows that it should be the heart or vital 
 centre of some one of the world's dominant 
 religions. Experiment shows, as every stu- 
 dent of comparative religion knows well, that 
 in any religion the vital inner core tends to be 
 overlaid by more or less formal imitations 
 based on misunderstandings and perversions, 
 so that it is necessary to compare the inner, 
 as distinguished from the outer, element of 
 religions to eliminate accidental variations. 
 This has been attempted above with the con- 
 clusion that all the dominant religions, ex- 
 cept those of Christ and Mahomet, deny some 
 of those known facts in regard to the nature 
 of God which may fairly be called authorita- 
 tive conclusions of Science. 
 
 We know that a mode of individual evo- 
 lution deriving energy from a Person of the 
 Divine Energy would begin in an individual, 
 for we know the law of evolution. It would 
 form a new variety of mankind. This va- 
 riety would in time supplant all others ; but 
 between its first appearance and its gradual 
 triumph there would be much time when it 
 
84 SOME STUDIES IN KEEIGION. 
 
 would co-exist with others. Thus, for a 
 while, it would be only one of several of the 
 great spiritual varieties or religions of the 
 world. Examining the great religions we 
 find that all, except those of Christ and Ma- 
 homet, go counter to definite facts in regard 
 to the nature of God, arrived at not from re- 
 ligious but from scientific investigation, and 
 announced by Herbert Spencer and Matthew 
 Arnold; while Islam and some forms of 
 Christianity go counter to what we know of 
 the differentiation of the Unknowable, and 
 Islam and all forms of popular Christianity 
 go counter to what we know of the nature of 
 God by incorrigible and essential anthropo- 
 morphism. The anathema with which this 
 conclusion will be received by many who 
 have been trained in the technical theological 
 methods can only be compared to the reproof 
 with which a professor would meet a school- 
 boy who ventured to correct him in his own 
 specialty. Yet the schoolboy might refer to 
 the text-book. 
 
 It is matter for interest and curiosity to 
 
SOME STUDIES IN" RELIGION. 85 
 
 note the attacks upon anthropomorphic re- 
 ligion by those of the scientific ranks in 
 whom a real and vivid love for truth has 
 worked to its final consequence, and produced 
 an active hatred of falsehood. Such men re- 
 form Christian thought as the old prophets 
 reformed the Jewish religion, but they are 
 no more in antagonism with Christianity 
 than Jeremiah was with Jehovah. Not all 
 minds are logical, some minds are influenced 
 by self-interest, and eighteen centuries of 
 Christian thought have given time for many 
 illogical and even interested deductions to 
 be formulated and presented as Christianity. 
 Minds which hold such deductions present 
 them as part of the Christian faith, and think 
 of disproofs of them as temporary triumphs 
 of some evil power over the Christian faith ; 
 much as the Sanhedrim regarded the logical 
 and accurate remarks of Jesus on their tradi- 
 tions as direct attacks on the religion of Jeho- 
 vah. Christ and the prophets, however, un- 
 derstood that they were not attacking the re- 
 ligion of Jehovah, but false deductions there- 
 
86 SOME STUDIES I^ T RELIGION. 
 
 from; while it is to be regretted that many 
 scientific men have rested under the impres- 
 sion that, in disproving the ideas popularly 
 presented as Christianity, they were disprov- 
 ing Christianity itself. 
 
 One false deduction presented as Christi- 
 anity — that in regard to Faith — has been 
 spoken of before. Faith is not some mysteri- 
 ous entity, but a mental position necessary 
 both to religion and science. Its presenta- 
 tion as primarily a mysterious religious force 
 is inaccurate. 
 
 A second false deduction is that in regard 
 to the nature of inspiration. That the In- 
 finite and Eternal Energy must communicate 
 with man is self-evident from the fact that 
 man is Its product, not a product finished 
 and left, but one supported and governed by 
 "The modes of action of the Unknowable," 
 as Mr. Spencer styles the laws of nature. 
 Since thought and intellect are parts of 
 man's being, there must be some communica- 
 tion of the Unknowable with the intellect of 
 man. If these communications ever rise above 
 
SOME STUDIES IIST RELIGION". 87 
 
 the threshold of consciousness, some form of 
 what is usually called inspiration must exist. 
 It is matter of interest in this connection to 
 turn aside a moment, and examine into the 
 nature of inspiration ; not as that nature is 
 falsely deduced from scripture, but as it is 
 really deduced, translating as far as possible 
 from the theological into the scientific mode 
 of expression. To phrase it differently, the 
 popular theory of inspiration is so widely 
 and so justly denied both by scientific men 
 and others, that it is worth while pointing- 
 out the theological position on the subject. 
 
 Revelation or "Unveiling" is, roughly, 
 the giving a man insight into some part of 
 the mind or plans of God. It is thus a rising 
 above the threshold of consciousness of some 
 communication of the Unknowable. Any com 
 munication to others of this information by 
 such a man, whether in speech or writing, is 
 called inspired, and the man himself, by a 
 somewhat looser use of the word, is called 
 inspired also. The documents concerned con- 
 tain occasional accounts of communications 
 
88 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 from the Unknowable which do not fully rise 
 above the threshold of consciousness. Thus 
 we are expressly told that when the high 
 priest said of Christ, "It is expedient that 
 one man die that the whole people perish 
 not," he prophesied, and did not know it. 
 Here was no conscious revelation. A higher 
 phase is that of Pharaoh relating his dream 
 to Joseph. The dream was a revelation, the 
 words were Pharaoh's, the truth was God's. 
 The source of the information had not risen 
 above Pharaoh's threshold of consciousness. 
 In another place it is recorded that the arti- 
 zans who constructed the Mosaic Tabernacle 
 were God-guided. The term "Inspired" is 
 usually refused to their work, however, as 
 being work dealing with the material uni- 
 verse rather than with the spiritual. The 
 phrase, "An inspired candlestick," would be 
 as incongruous as the phrase "An inspired 
 candlestick-maker. " 
 
 It is evident that, if revelation occur, in- 
 spiration follows as a natural consequence. 
 It is equally evident that, if the communica- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 89 
 
 tions of the Unknowable with the mind or in- 
 tellect of man ever rise above the threshold 
 of consciousness, revelation nmst occur. As 
 no scientific man, admitting revelation, could 
 quarrel for a moment with the inspiration 
 which comes from it, the question from a 
 scientific point of view becomes an examina- 
 tion as to whether those communications 
 from the Unknowable which support the 
 mind of man ever rise above the threshold of 
 consciousness. 
 
 The laws of nature are the modes of ac- 
 tion of the Unknowable. The discovery of a 
 law of nature is the discovery of a mode of 
 action of the Unknowable. The method by 
 which new laws of nature are discovered is 
 not unknown to us. They do not reveal them- 
 selves to all men, but only to men specially 
 prepared. They are not found out by medio- 
 cre minds but by men of genius, and not of 
 indiscriminate genius, but of genius along 
 the lines on which the law works. For in- 
 stance, a man of military genius, however 
 great a general, is not found to make great 
 scientific discoveries. 
 
90 SO^IE STUDIES IX RELIGION. 
 
 The preparation required is almost 
 lifelong. It consists of accumulation of 
 vast stores of facts already known, and 
 of a certain mental transformation or 
 "Education" of the individual, brought 
 about during the acquiring of those facts. 
 This alone only fits a man for the ac- 
 cumulation, possibly for the discovery, of 
 new facts. To discover the law governing 
 those facts requires something more — genius 
 — scientific perception — scientific imagina- 
 tion working along logical lines — call it what 
 you will. Some day, while pondering on the 
 facts, there comes either in dim glimpses or 
 more often like a sudden illumination the 
 perception of the law that underlies them. 
 This is formulated, tested, established, an- 
 nounced, and the world has advanced a step 
 in the knowledge of God's modes of action in 
 the physical universe; or else it is formu- 
 lated, tested, and not established; and it is 
 seen that the scientific perception of the man 
 who conceived it w r as faulty. The preparation 
 and ability necessary to the discovery of new 
 
SOME STUDIES IH RELIGION. 91 
 
 natural laws so marks a man that it is ob- 
 served that many trained on the same lines 
 can tell with considerable accuracy by the 
 nature and style of his announcement, even 
 before the supposed law is tested, whether his 
 scientific perception is or is not accurate. 
 The history of science is filled with the rec- 
 ord of false theories, supposed to be real vi- 
 sions or perceptions of the modes of action 
 of the Unknowable. The fact that we now 
 know them to be false implies that there are 
 true laws which we can, at least partially, 
 recognize. Each true law has been formu- 
 lated by a man across whose mind has flashed 
 a perception of a mode of action of the Un- 
 knowable. The perception conveys the law 
 and the power accurately to tell the law, for 
 we can tell what we fully understand. The 
 word "Inspired" is not applied to such a sci- 
 entific man, or to his formulation of a law, 
 for the same reason that it is not applied to 
 the candlestick or candlestick-maker of the 
 Pentateuch. 
 
 Now the actions of the Unknowable are 
 
92 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 not confined to material phenomena. "Mor- 
 al," "Spiritual," or "Non-material" phe- 
 nomena are also based on the Unknowable. 
 These modes of action of the Unknowable do 
 not reveal themselves to all men but 
 only to men specially prepared; not to 
 mediocre men, but to men of genius along 
 spiritual lines. The preparation required 
 is almost life-long. It consists of accumu- 
 lation of a vast store of moral or spir- 
 itual facts and a certain mental transforma- 
 tion brought about during their accumula- 
 tion. This fits a man for transmission of 
 these facts and possibly for the discovery of 
 more. To discover the laws underlying those 
 facts — underlying the dealings of God with 
 man — requires something else. Call it 
 "Spiritual perception," "Spiritual insight," 
 "Revelation," what you will. Some day, 
 while pondering on the facts, there comes in 
 dim glimpses, or more often like a sudden 
 illumination, the perception of the law that 
 underlies them — the mode of action of the 
 Infinite and Eternal Energy which causes 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. \)6 
 
 them. This is formulated, announced, test- 
 ed, and established, and the world has moved 
 forward a step in the knowledge of God's 
 mode of action in the spiritual universe; or 
 else it is formulated, announced, and not 
 borne out by experience, and it is seen that 
 the inspiration of the false prophet who con- 
 ceived it was not from God. The prepara- 
 tion and ability requisite for revelation so 
 marks a man that many trained along spirit- 
 ual lines can tell with considerable accuracy 
 by the nature and style of the writing wheth- 
 er the inspiration be true or false, even be- 
 fore time and experience have tested it. The 
 revelation conveys the law x and the power ac- 
 curately to tell the law ; we can tell what we 
 understand. Because a man has seen scien- 
 tific truth his message is true, but even New- 
 ton may have inaccuracies in style and illus- 
 tration. The message is truth. The brain 
 that saw the truth can tell it. Misspellings, 
 misprints, verbal alterations, Newtonian 
 English — none of them affect the truth of the 
 law of gravitation. If it should be proved 
 
9-i SOME STUDIES I^T RELIGION. 
 
 that not Sir Isaac Newton but some other 
 man wrote the treatise and made the discov- 
 ery, the law of gravitation would still govern 
 the swinging planets, and the world of men. 
 So also if Isaiah's Hebrew proved faulty, his 
 style obscure, his illustrations untrue, and 
 his book written by some unknown man, the 
 inspiration of the book of the prophet Isaiah 
 would not be affected in the slightest. 
 
 It is submitted that since the law of rev- 
 elation is found to govern science it cannot be 
 unscientific, and that it is not unscientific to 
 hold that God has communicated information 
 of His modes of action in the "Spiritual" 
 world to certain men, record of which com- 
 munication exists in certain documents at 
 the present day. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD IN RELIGION. 
 
 CHAT there are relations between God and 
 man; that these relations are immeas- 
 urably more vital and intimate than what is 
 usually called "Religion ;" that part of their 
 law can be learned from documents; that 
 there is a future life, and that a right or 
 wrong use of those relations decides whether 
 that life be one of happiness or of misery — 
 these things are necessary deductions from 
 what may be fairly called scientific conclu- 
 sions as to the nature of the Unknowable. 
 They are the hypotheses which come nearest 
 to explaining the observed facts, and so long 
 as they are presented merely as tentative, 
 working hypotheses, it is not apprehended 
 that any scientific man will object to 
 
96 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 them. IsTay, more, the most tenable working 
 hypothesis is that these relations cluster 
 around one individual of the human race, 
 and energy and vitality can be derived from 
 him by a process of pseudo-heredity present- 
 ing analogies both to transmission of ideas 
 and to grafting. 
 
 'Now so long as these hypotheses are pre- 
 sented with due humility, as working hypo- 
 theses should be presented, they arouse no 
 particular hostility. It is believed that any 
 who care to verify the reasoning and the ex- 
 periments which lead to them will agree that 
 the balance of evidence inclines in their fa- 
 vor. Only one thing difficult of apprehension 
 occurs in them. It has been found that minds 
 not acute apprehend but slowly the theory 
 that God is Love, and are prone to surround 
 it, when accepted, with a cloud of miscon- 
 ceptions and false deductions. In regard to 
 all the other theories advanced and deduc- 
 tions made here, the reasoning is simple and 
 the logical connection plain. Of course a 
 deduction drawn from an hypothesis depends 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 97 
 
 for its establishment upon the validity of that 
 hypothesis; but so self-evident are the steps 
 which lead to those deductions that it is pos- 
 sible that some readers have not identified 
 in this presentation the doctrines of the In- 
 carnation, the Hypostatic Union, the In- 
 dwelling of the Word, the reception of Sav- 
 ing Grace and many others. 
 
 It will be seen that if the root-hypotheses 
 are true the rest necessarily follows, and that 
 the balance of probability inclines somewhat 
 toward the truth of the root-hypotheses. It 
 is, therefore, not too much to claim that when 
 presented in this way — as a tissue of tenta- 
 tive theory and deduction ending in a work- 
 ing hypothesis — the main principles of theol- 
 ogy are not unscientific. Even this much is 
 a gain; for the main principles of theology 
 are usually thought too unscientific for toler- 
 ation. It is worth notice that upon the prin- 
 ciple of adopting that which best explains the 
 facts as a working hypothesis, and then act- 
 ing upon it, the scientific sanction for the 
 Christian position as to life and action is per- 
 fect. 
 
98 SOME STUDIES IX RELIGION. 
 
 The Christian world, however, does not 
 present these matters as working hypotheses. 
 On the contrary it advances them with all the 
 certainty, and twice the assurance, with 
 which the scientific world thunders forth the 
 theory of evolution. As working hypotheses 
 they are tenable, even probable ; but whence 
 comes the change by which they are advanced 
 as certainties ? Argument, from the time of 
 Christ to the present day, has failed to bring 
 out any universal solvent of all difficulties 
 which might give a philosophical cause for 
 announcing them as certainties. Yet either 
 there are reasonable causes, or else, by some 
 strange alchemy, the whole human race when 
 dealing with religious matters lays down its 
 human reason. It is probable that this latter 
 proposition, while seemingly held by the ma- 
 jority of scientific men, is essentially un- 
 scientific. 
 
 Now there is a method by which all hy- 
 potheses are dealt with and tested. It is, as 
 far as we know, the only method of perma- 
 nent value. It was announced bv Aristotle, 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 99 
 
 re-announced by Lord Bacon, and enforced 
 by St. Paul. It gives — humanly speaking — 
 certainty as to the matters tested, and its 
 name is the "Experimental Method." 
 
 The experimental method did not appear 
 in the world with Aristotle; the first savage 
 who ever tried two things to see which was 
 best, had the idea. It is not confined to sci- 
 entific matters ; on the contrary, it is the basis 
 not only of scientific but also of religious cer- 
 tainty. By courses of experiment — compared 
 to which for duration and for number of sep- 
 arate experimenters those of modern science 
 are the passing amusements of a coterie — 
 every proposition of Christianity has been 
 tested, confirmed, assailed, re-tested, and re- 
 established many times. The experiments 
 are open now. Any one is free to try them. 
 There are many hundreds of them, each add- 
 ing its item to the mass of conclusions. To 
 those who have tried many of them, the teach- 
 ings of Christianity appear no more tentative 
 or hypothetical than any other established 
 truths. 
 
 LtfCLi 
 
100 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 It is noteworthy that the experiment 
 must bear upon the hypothesis. An experi- 
 ment cannot be called upon to settle a ques- 
 tion with which it has no connection. Cer- 
 tain illogical advocates of religion gained 
 great and deserved ridicule among scientific 
 men when they attempted to settle the astro- 
 nomical theories of Galileo by a process of 
 Old Testament exegesis. It is not unnatural 
 that certain illogical advocates of science 
 gain great and deserved ridicule among theo- 
 logians when they attempt to settle points of 
 Old Testament exegesis by an application of 
 even the modern development of the astro- 
 nomical theory of Galileo. 
 
 It is self -evidently impossible to point out 
 here all the experiments made. They may be 
 found recorded in books of theology and de- 
 votion; recorded, however, in the technical 
 phrasing of theology. A simple one, which 
 «an be translated into popular language more 
 readily than most, is that which deals with 
 prophecy. 
 
 Take the Christian books. Determine 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 101 
 
 the latest date to which they can be assigned. 
 If they contain correct predictions of events 
 which at that date were future, the possible 
 explanations are designed coincidence, unde- 
 signed coincidence, happy forecast, interpo- 
 lation of "predictions" after the event, or 
 prophecy. 
 
 Undesigned coincidence is eliminated by 
 the number of predictions. One coincidence 
 was to be expected, two are likely, three not 
 improbable, ten barely possible, a hundred 
 unthinkable. Designed coincidence is elimi- 
 nated by the circumstances of the fulfilment. 
 If the persons who fulfilled the predictions 
 were ignorant of the predictions, hostile to 
 them, or unable to control the details of their 
 own fate, they could not have purposely ful- 
 filled them. Forecast is eliminated by de- 
 tail. If a man predict that an acquaintance 
 will be hanged he may show his own pene- 
 tration; if he add the approximate time the 
 penetration is great ; but if he correctly give 
 cause, place, costumes, action of execution- 
 ers, and minute and trivial details of acci- 
 
102 SOME STUDIES IX RELIGIOX. 
 
 dental circumstance, it is beyond the power 
 of forecast of the human brain. Interpolation 
 in the manuscripts is eliminated by textual 
 criticism. There remains, then, the fact that 
 a man who undertakes such an experimental 
 investigation with the same painstaking care 
 that he would give to a problem in biology 
 will probably rise from his study, as many 
 thousands have risen before him, with the 
 conviction that the usual scientific view as to 
 the existence of an intellect which foresees 
 and communicates to man certain future 
 facts should be almost completely recast. It 
 may be added that a man who will not under- 
 take such an investigation ought not, in jus- 
 tice, to deride the conclusions of those who 
 do. 
 
 In dealing with the Christian records, the 
 attention is soon called to an authoritative 
 conclusion of Science wdiich is so true, so self- 
 evident, so opposed to the false Anthropomor- 
 phic or Heathen or Popular idea of God and 
 of religion, and so carefully, logically, — 
 (and technically) — asserted by theology, that 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION". 103 
 
 the misunderstanding between scientific and 
 religious teachers as to it has all the elements 
 of humor. It is this: that the Infinite and 
 Eternal Energy works by law. Laws of na- 
 ture are the modes of action of the Unknow- 
 able. They depend upon His character. 
 Thus a reversal of a law of nature is unthink- 
 able. It involves a denial of the character 
 of God. It would imply wavering and irres- 
 olution in Him who is the basis of all things, 
 and in whom there is no wavering neither 
 any shadow of turning. Belief in it would 
 be unscientific. "Nay, more," add the theo- 
 logians, "it would hardly be too much to call 
 it blasphemous." 
 
 This being so, it will at once be seen that 
 the Anthropomorphic or Popular theory, 
 which regards miracles as reversals of the 
 laws of nature, is not only unscientific but 
 irreligious. When set face to face with that 
 theory, and required to believe either that re- 
 versals of the laws of nature occurred or that 
 the narratives are not true, the natural and 
 prompt conclusion of men who understand 
 
104 SOME STUDIES I1ST RELIGION. 
 
 that the Infinite and Eternal Energy works 
 by law is that the narratives are not true ; the 
 promptness of this conclusion being in exact 
 proportion to the clearness with which the 
 man understands the reign of law in nature, 
 and the consequent reverence in which he 
 holds the intellect and rationality of God. 
 Even a superficial acquaintance with liter- 
 ary criticism, however, convinces the reader 
 that the untruth of the narrative is not inten- 
 tional. The quaint and gentle narratives bear 
 all the marks of truth except that they seem 
 to contradict the nature of God. It cannot be 
 that reversals of the laws of nature occur; 
 but to account for the evident belief of the 
 writers in their own stories, persons who 
 think that miracles are reversals of nature 
 have presented many theories. They are rec- 
 ords made in good faith, but merely records 
 of traditions, and garbled traditions at that. 
 They are re-edited interpolations. They are 
 forgeries so skilful that the men who made 
 them persuaded themselves that they must 
 be true. They are allegories. They are sun- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN" RELIGION. 105 
 
 myths. They are moral tales or parables. 
 They are written by men insane with super- 
 stition. All these theories and more have 
 been put forward both by men inside and out- 
 side of the Christian ranks. The number of 
 the theories bears witness, if witness were 
 needed, both to the universal impression that 
 the narrators were telling the truth as they 
 knew it, and to the irreconcilability of that 
 truth with the popular idea of God ; or, to be 
 accurate, to the irreconcilability of the theory 
 of miracles, based upon the popular idea of 
 God, with what is known of the reign of law 
 in nature. 
 
 The fact that miracles may not be revers- 
 als of the law of nature seems to have escaped 
 many who write and talk on the subject. As 
 a matter of fact, a miracle is simply a won- 
 derful thing; by tacit consent modern Eng- 
 lish writers seem to apply the word to a won- 
 derful thing done by or to a religious teacher. 
 JsTow, whenever any wonderful thing occurs, 
 investigation and experiment prove that it 
 has come about, not from violation of laws of 
 
106 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 nature, but from an unusual combination of 
 known laws with the occasional intervention 
 of an unknown law. Our method of discov- 
 ering unknown laws of nature depends upon 
 this fact ; a very common fact in experiment- 
 al science. Thus when Galvani, by placing 
 the moist legs of a dead frog in contact with 
 both iron and copper, caused the muscles to 
 twitch, he was dealing with a wonderful 
 thing caused by what was at that time an un- 
 known law of nature. The final result is our 
 present mastery over electricity. 
 
 "Wonderful things done by, or to, a relig- 
 ious teacher probably have no special exemp- 
 tion from this rule. They should be the result 
 of unusual combinations of known laws with 
 the occasional intervention of an unknown 
 law. Owing to the scarcity of religious 
 teachers of the first class, and consequent lack 
 of facilities for experiment, some of the laws 
 still remain unknown; but many, unknown 
 at the time, are known now. That stock ob- 
 ject of derision, the story of Jonah and the 
 whale, will serve to illustrate this fact, and 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 107 
 
 serve, also, to illustrate the garbled way in 
 which the public repeats such stories. Much 
 comment has been wasted on the story be- 
 cause whales have throats too small to admit 
 a human body; the fact that a sperm whale 
 can swallow an ox, and the further fact that 
 any one who cares to turn to the book and 
 read will see that the record never said it was 
 a whale at all, being both omitted. In Greek, 
 English, and Hebrew, the record says "A 
 great fish." The incident of a great fish 
 swallowing a man alive occurs somewhere 
 nearly every month. For nineteen centuries 
 the problem of how such a man could exist 
 for three days or so without air, and in the 
 stomach of a fish, was regarded as insoluble. 
 It was pointed out that, if alive, he would 
 not be digested, for digestion does not pro- 
 ceed on live flesh, else the digestive fluid of 
 each stomach would destroy the stomach it- 
 self ; but that he should remain alive and 
 conscious was taken as either untrue, or a 
 proof of the operation of some unknown law. 
 About twenty years ago we began to gain 
 
108 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 vague shadows of the law. At the present 
 day any one acquainted with the laws govern- 
 ing catalepsy, especially catalepsy induced 
 by terror, will admit after a moment's reflec- 
 tion that whether Jonah was swallowed by a 
 great fish and lived three days in that fish 
 or not, is a matter for discussion and evi- 
 dence ; but that he COULD have done so un- 
 der certain unusual but well-known condi- 
 tions is beyond question. 
 
 The miracles recorded in the Christian 
 books, if they be produced by natural laws 
 still unknown, or by unusual combinations 
 of known laws, are not irrational. It is per- 
 fectly possible that they happened. Investi- 
 gation as to whether any particular miracle 
 happened or not is a mere matter of weighing 
 of evidence, and follows the rules of evidence 
 applicable to the investigation of any other 
 phenomenon which cannot easily be repeated 
 on a scale of laboratory experiment. 
 
 It will be seen that a miracle is thus no 
 more and no less divine in origin than any 
 other phenomenon produced by unknown 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 109 
 
 laws of nature, or by "unusual combinations 
 of known laws. Any product of a law of na- 
 ture, whether that law be known or un- 
 known, is in a sense divine, for it is good 
 science to hold that the laws of nature are 
 the modes of action of the Unknowable ; but 
 miracles are no more divine than other 
 things. That a man should perform "Mir- 
 acles" does not prove that he is a divinely- 
 inspired teacher. It only proves that on ac- 
 count of inspiration or for some other reason 
 he knows much more than his associates, and 
 can thus probably teach them something they 
 do not know. If anything more is learned 
 about his mission and character, it must be 
 learned by observing the nature and tendency 
 of all his acts and teachings, and the pur- 
 pose of his miracles. 
 
 Lest this deduction in regard to the value 
 of miracles as evidence should seem to be ad- 
 vanced as new, it is well to ask those in sym- 
 pathy with the theological method to refer 
 to such authorities on the study of miracles as 
 Archbishop Trench; and also to ponder on 
 
110 SOME STUDIES 1ST RELIGIOX. 
 
 the implications involved in that statement 
 of the miracles of Antichrist found in the 
 Book of Revelation. 
 
 It is noteworthy that the so-called "Ex- 
 periment" outlined here is a question of a 
 study of writings. For those wishing exper- 
 iments of a more vivid nature, it is recom- 
 mended that for a given length of time they 
 rigidly follow moral laws (such as that of 
 telling the exact truth) and note the results; 
 or that they attempt to use coercion in re- 
 ligious matters and observe its effects ; or that 
 they engage in practical philanthropy; or 
 that they enter into a course of experiment 
 to determine the source of the strength and 
 charm of those characters who come nearest 
 to successful imitation of Christ. A short 
 course of such study will revolutionize many 
 preconceived ideas in regard to the assump- 
 tions of theology, and will point out, better 
 than the most elaborate treatise, why certain 
 theological theories, by those who have in- 
 vestigated them, are regarded not as theories 
 but as established facts. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE NEXUS OF RELATION. 
 
 nO ONE who studies religion along the 
 lines pointed out in the last chapter, the 
 confusion of heterogeneous elements soon as- 
 sumes coherence and regularity; but this 
 complete study requires a painstaking care 
 as minute and strenuous as that needed to 
 master the valence theory of atomic combina- 
 tions. To those who wish to approach the 
 subject along another line, the theory of evo- 
 lution which teaches that each new variety 
 begins with an individual furnishes a con- 
 venient starting point. 
 
 To identify the individual through whom 
 energy and vitality can be conveyed to us 
 from the Infinite and Eternal Energy by a 
 process of "Spiritual" or non-material hered- 
 
112 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 ity, should not be difficult. It is evident 
 that such an individual could not remain 
 obscure. Either he has not yet appeared, or 
 else he must be well known as one of the great 
 religious leaders of mankind. Those leaders 
 can be counted upon the fingers of one hand ; 
 they are Confucius, Gautama Buddha, 
 Zoroaster, Christ, and Mahomet. The hy- 
 potheses already outlined are inconsistent 
 with the life-history of any but Christ. 
 
 The life-history of Jesus Christ is suf- 
 ficiently well known to need no review. Some 
 of the documents in which it is recorded 
 have been called in question as to genuine- 
 ness and authorship, but while the details of 
 individual records may be shaken, the broad 
 outlines remain undisputed. Sufficient is 
 known to assure us that if the source of vi- 
 tality and energy has yet appeared upon 
 earth, it must have been in the Person of 
 Jesus of ^Nazareth. As a source of energy 
 He was not only the greatest figure of His 
 time, but, for that matter, of this time also. 
 He provided a process of grafting or pseudo- 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION". 113 
 
 heredity, expressly appointing means for be- 
 coming "co-heirs" with Him by becoming 
 "of one body with" Him. But it is an un- 
 doubted fact that He died. Thus it may be 
 that He was not that source of vitality drawn 
 from the Infinite and Eternal Energy whose 
 existence we infer from evolutionary science. 
 
 If , however, it was proven by experiment 
 that He existed after death, and that His 
 vitality had overcome all elements of disor- 
 ganization and lack of adaptability to en- 
 vironment, it will be seen that that vitality, 
 if imparted to us by "Spiritual" heredity, 
 would convey to those who assimilated it the 
 potentiality of the same power. It will also 
 be seen that the theological dogmas tenta- 
 tively advanced here in the form of theory 
 and hypothesis, would receive confirmation 
 of the same kind as that which established 
 the laws of planetary motion when the discov- 
 ery of the planet Uranus removed from them 
 the hypothetical element. 
 
 It will be noted that failure to repeat an 
 experiment has no bearing upon the question 
 
114 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 as to whether that experiment did or did 
 not succeed as recorded, unless all the essen- 
 tial conditions are reproduced. This prin- 
 ciple is so plain, and is so fully enforced in 
 scientific works, that it is unnecessary to en- 
 large upon it here. One of the conditions 
 of the experiments referred to is that the per- 
 son experimented on was or was not the 
 nexus or centre of vitality connecting us with 
 the Infinite and Eternal Energy ; the success 
 of the experiments implying that he was so, 
 the non-success implying that he was not. 
 Thus the non-success of the experiments 
 when applied to any other individual cannot 
 be expected to prove more than that the essen- 
 tial condition of success is lacking; that the 
 individual experimented on is not the source 
 of vitality and energy for whom we seek. 
 They cannot be called upon to do more and 
 prove that no such source exists: while if 
 used to deny the accuracy of record of a suc- 
 cessful experiment it is necessary that it 
 should be shown that they were performed 
 upon an individual who is such a source. 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 115 
 
 When, for example, it is claimed that experi- 
 ment has shown a certain point in British 
 North America to be the North Magnetic 
 Pole, the demonstration that the same experi- 
 ments fail in every other spot on the globe, 
 merely proves that those spots are not the 
 North Magnetic Pole ; while if unsuccessful 
 repetitions of the same experiments are used 
 to attack the historic accuracy of the records 
 of the first experiment, it must be shown that 
 they were conducted upon the North Mag- 
 netic Pole before any scientific man will 
 listen. In like manner, when it is claimed 
 that Christ rose from the dead and is there- 
 fore Divine, the fact that experiment has 
 proven that any or all of the rest of the 
 human race do not rise from the dead, can 
 only prove that the rest of the human race 
 are not divine. If used to impugn the ac- 
 curacy of the recorded experiments as to 
 Christ's resurrection, it must be showm that 
 they have been conducted upon someone who 
 was Divine and that he did not rise again. 
 What were the recorded experiments in 
 
116 SOME STUDIES IN EELIGION. 
 
 regard to Christ, and under what conditions 
 did they occur ? 
 
 Of course, if the statements recorded in 
 the documents are correct, there is no further 
 need of investigation. The experiments 
 were exhaustive and they prove the case. 
 Anyone who will read the accounts from the 
 standpoint of inquiry as to whether the med- 
 ical tests of death were conclusive and the 
 tests of vitality of the risen body complete, 
 will agree that, granted the accuracy of the 
 narrative, a death and resurrection did occur. 
 Before the light thrown upon the problem by 
 the theory of evolution was realized, there 
 existed a school of thought holding that the 
 documents could not be true because of the 
 incredibility of the statements involved ; but 
 the position is hardly tenable at present on 
 account of our increased knowledge, many 
 biological discoveries having exhausted our 
 faculty of wonder; apart from the fact that 
 incredibility has no bearing for or against 
 the truth of a proposition, as was shown when 
 Montezuma found it incredible that unknown 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 117 
 
 beings riding unknown beasts and fighting 
 with unheard of weapons should have landed 
 upon his coasts. "Such things do not hap- 
 pen/' he said in effect, "while messengers 
 often lie : therefore this thing must be a lie 
 of the messengers." A discussion of the fal- 
 lacy involved can be found in most books of 
 logic. 
 
 We have, then, to examine the records 
 of a series of experiments dealing with the 
 vitality of an organism: there are five inde- 
 pendent sets of records, four of which are 
 bitterly attacked in regard to genuineness 
 and accuracy. To base upon them any con- 
 clusions involving their genuineness is thus 
 unscientific. The fifth and oldest set of rec- 
 ords is partial only, given in the form of allu- 
 sions. Its genuineness is admitted (the ref- 
 erence is to the undoubted Pauline Epistles), 
 and establishes the fact that the other four 
 were written in good faith ; believed, that is, 
 by their writers ; but as to details of the ex- 
 periments it is insufficient. It establishes, 
 however, that the dead and bloodless body of 
 
118 SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, with a spear-wound 
 through the heart, was placed in a definite, 
 localized tomb. Thirty-six hours later it was 
 missing. His followers believed that they 
 had seen it raised from the dead. Xow what 
 became of the body ( 
 
 If raised from the dead, the matter is 
 explained at once. If not raised, what be- 
 came of it ? The apostles and disciples did 
 not steal it, for they could not have done so 
 without their own knowledge, and their sub- 
 sequent lives and deaths show that, as far 
 as their knowledge went, it had undergone a 
 resurrection and return to vitality. The op- 
 ponents of Christianity from the critical 
 standpoint have advanced many theories to 
 account for the established and admitted fact 
 that the records were believed by their 
 writers; the hysteria theory of Renan is a 
 case in point ; but the theories all fail to ac- 
 count for the disappearance of the body. 
 
 It is evidently beyond the province of this 
 work to rehearse here the modern arguments 
 for and against the truth of the resurrection. 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION". 119 
 
 jSTo other matter has been discussed so thor- 
 oughly. No other historical event of any 
 age is capable of such moral and legal proof. 
 No recorded experiment is capable of such 
 scientific proof, except when the accuracy of 
 the record is assumed. Doubt the accuracy 
 of record of a scientific experiment and that 
 experiment immediately becomes harder to 
 prove than the resurrection; assume the ac- 
 curacy of the records of the resurrection and 
 no scientific experiment has greater or more 
 conclusive proof. It is plainly beyond the 
 scope of this work to enter into an exam- 
 ination of the date and authorship of the four 
 Gospels — the accuracy of the record. It will 
 be seen, however, that any person arriving 
 by critical or historical investigation at his- 
 torical certainty in regard to the resurrection, 
 arrives also at certainty that the theological 
 doctrines advanced here under the form of 
 theory and hypothesis are really established 
 facts. It is suggested that criticism of the 
 views of those who hold that they have ar- 
 rived at such historical certainty, should be 
 
120 SOME STUDIES IIST RELIGION. 
 
 suspended until the critic has examined the 
 record of the experiments which led them to 
 that conclusion. 
 
 Two ways have thus been pointed out 
 along which the tenets of theology may be 
 submitted to experiment. These experi- 
 ments have been exhaustively tried. They 
 may be repeated by anyone wishing to do so. 
 A third line has been suggested which may 
 be summed up in the words, "Let the investi- 
 gator place his life, as far as possible, in har- 
 mony with that of Jesus of Nazareth, and 
 observe the change of feeling and the increase 
 of insight which comes from the new point 
 of view." It is claimed that in direct pro- 
 portion to the thoroughness with which the 
 lives are made alike, the conclusions of the 
 experimenter will approximate those of 
 Christ ; so that, if their conclusions differ, it 
 is possible to work back and find the cause 
 of difference in some lack of Christlikeness 
 in the life of the experimenter. 
 
 This third course of experiment was orig- 
 inally advocated in the words, "Whoso doeth 
 
SOME STUDIES IN RELIGION. 121 
 
 My will, he shall know the doctrine"; and 
 such accuracy as theology may have, comes 
 from the fact that its doctrines were orig- 
 inally formulated by men who had advanced 
 some distance along the lines of this course 
 of experiment. It is simple scientific fair- 
 ness that those who would oppose their con- 
 clusions should first try the experiments on 
 which their conclusions were founded. 
 
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