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THE TESTIMONY OF REASON

THE TESTIMONY
OF REASON

BY
SAMUEL L. PHILLIPS

WASHINGTON, D. C.
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
431 ELEVENTH STREET
MCMIII

COPYRIGHT, 190J
BV
SAMUEL L. PHILLIPS

CONTENTS

PAGE
Preface  7
Nature of God  11
Argument of Analogy  13
Darwinism  -.  16
Atheism  18
Agnosticism  20
Agnosticism and Evolution  24
Pantheism  28
Evolution and the Moral Sense  34
Science  37
Science and Cosmogomy  41
Science and Christianity  49
Immortality and Truth  53
Sin  56
Sin Permitted  58
The Moral Future of Mankind  59
Natural Life and Immortality  60
Sin and Providence  61
Special Providence of God  62
Special Providence and Experiences  63
Faith  6s
Faith and Knowledge  67
The Love of God  69
Immortality of the Soul  70
Excelsior  79
Heaven  84
Satan  86
The Heavenly State  87
Hell  89
Recognition in Future Life  91
Christ  92
The Church of Christ  107
Miracles  109
Conclusion  115

PREFACE
From the middle of the last century to the
present time a great wave of unbelief in the
principles of revealed religion has been passing
over the minds of some of the most learned
men. The dicta of the Scriptures have been ignored
by them and nothing believed except it be agree
able to natural reason. What are supposed to
be the teachings of science have largely dis
placed faith.
Those who have rejected the doctrines of
orthodox Christian churches are not to be
regarded with either indifference or pity. No
man lives who is a greater lover of truth than
the scientist. The pursuit of science is the pur
suit of truth, and the student of science makes
truth his deity. He believes whatever facts
teach; he follows blindly, joyfully where his
reason leads.
If the student of divinity can show the stu
dent of science wherein he is wrong, what im
portant premise in his syllogism is false, or has
been omitted, none will embrace the new
demonstration with more delight and enthu
siasm than the latter. But the citation of mir-

VIU PREFACE
acles will have no influence on his mind, for he
sees no variableness in the laws of nature he has
been studying; the assertions of prophets and
apostles, of confessors and priests will not con
vince him he has erred, when his reason assures
him their assertions are contrary to his experi
ences. He believes truth and nature to be one
and harmonious.
It would seem, therefore, more attention
should be given by the representatives of the
Christian church to arguments founded upon
known facts and known laws ; that the scientist
and agnostic should be approached on their own
battle ground, their weapons seized and the
fight waged with arguments from nature
against arguments from nature, and after the
contemners of revealed religion have been made
to see, as I believe they can be, that many of the
important truths of Christianity can be estab
lished to a high degree of probability by purely
rational considerations from facts, in whose
truth they firmly believe, then they will be in a
much more receptive state of mind to acknowl
edge that, after all, they have been surprised at
the confirmatory human arguments brought
forth ; that much more truth resides in the relig
ion of the Lord Jesus Christ than they had sup
posed; that there being so much of probable
truth in it all, it is only a fair argument the
whole of it may be truthful, until finally, in the
impotency of their own reasoning, in the scien-

PREFACE IX
tific recognition that there is so much in nature
beyond the understanding — whole worlds be
yond physics — they will yield themselves entire
ly to the ennobling, the glorifying faith in the
Saviour of Mankind.
To accomplish something in this line, which
has been the experience of the writer, is the aim
of this book.
Washington, D. C,

THE TESTIMONY OF REASON

NATURE OF GOD

One of the fundamental criteria for human
judgment is the estimation of a being's faculties
by his works. When we hear a distant bark we
affirm without seeing that the animal making
the noise is of the dog species ; when we find a
nest hidden among the branches of a tree we
conclude some bird has built it ; when we behold
a ship sailing on the water we know man has
fashioned it. This comparative method of rea
soning is so universal, animals act on it as well
as men, and so essential is it that deprived of
this process of arriving at knowledge, mankind
would never have attained to even the present
mental status of the brute world.
Accordingly, when we look out on nature and
find that a square described on the hypothenuse
of every right angle triangle is equivalent to the
sum of the squares described on the other two
sides ; that one of the functions of logarithms is
that a high power of a number may be
obtained by the multiplication of two numbers.

12 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
thus shortening to a line and the work to a
minute what would probably take an expert
arithmatician a long time to solve, and cover
ing many pages with figures ; that in electricity
the current is always equal to the electromotive
force divided by the resistance; that any two
forces may be resolved into a single force which
will be their diagonal; that in chemistry when
one atom of nitrogen combines with three
atoms of oxygen there invariably results nitric
acid, and so on to probably a billion instances,
we are forced to conclude that the Being who
ordained these things should be so — for it is
inconceivable the triangle or nitrogen, etc.,
should have made its own laws — of necessity
was a geometer, a mathematician, an electrician,
a civil engineer and a chemist.
But to be endowed with such capacities and
knowledge the creator of such things must have
been possessed of mental faculties similar in
character to those of man, for the latter has dis
covered, formulated, and applied them by the
exercise of his mental faculties.
If the above facts be correct and the conclu
sion drawn from them be legitimate, it follows
that Almighty God must be, in the broad sense
of the term, a Being possessing intellectuality
-of which man's own intellectuality is, in some
-respects, a feeble likeness.

ARGUMENT OF ANALOGY
A celebrated argument of Analogy was in
effect, if one should visit an uninhabited
island and in traversing it find a watch for keep
ing time, such individual would conclude, on
examining its parts and noticing their depend
ence one on the other and all tending to pro
duce a common result, that some intelligent
being had made the watch. It next cited the
innumerable evidences of design in vegetables,
animals, and mankind, and affirmed that all of
these things showed a far more complex and
wonderful mechanism than the watch, and by-
analogy they must have been made by an intelli
gent Creator.
This argument was not seriously disputed
when promulgated, but of late years it has been
ignored by many scientists because they believe
Darwin and his followers have shown it to be
probable that some species of vegetables and
animals have originated either by artificial or
natural selection, or unconsciously by adapta
tion to their environment.
Giving the contention of the evolutionists the
utmost force its believers claim, it does not
invalidate or even touch the conclusions drawn
13

14 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
from, for example, the laws of electricity, which
have existed from the original fiat, laws in this
one division of science so numerous, so precise,
so unvarying, so complex many of them can be
solved only by the calculus, but so certain and
true that although pages after pages of the most
refined mathematical processes are required to
be filled for their solution, there are never any
inconsistencies between the electrical phe
nomena and any of the intermediate or final
equations which represent them.
In such instances as electricity, as gravita
tion, as chemistry there has been admittedly no
evolution. The qualities of matter, and the laws
governing the sciences today were made in the
beginning. Man with his expanding intellect
has discovered many of them, possibly he may
be simply on the threshold of the temple of
knowledge. These laws are more complex than
the mechanism of the watch, and it is inconceiv
able for them to have been the work of chance.
Chance is a synonym of disorder, of change.
The laws of nature are ever certain, and won
derfully designed to produce an harmonious
creation. The Creator who conceived and
brought them into being must have exercised a
knowledge, a foresight, an intellectuality be
yond thought, and though animals and men
may be admitted to have been evolved from
lower orders, evolution has had no part in

ARGUMENT OF ANALOGY 1 5
bringing the laws of nature into existence.
They were perfect in the begfinning and have
never changed. They were made by a single
fiat of the Almighty.

DARWINISM
It may be admitted that it is probable species
originated from a common ancestor by virtue
of a law of the survival of the fittest to live, and
the inheritance by its progeny of desirable
acquired characteristics.
But this law is one of God's laws, and while
the aforegoing analogy in pointing to the pres
ent mechanism of the eye, or ear, or heart as
proof of the direct and immediate handiwork
of an intelligent Creator, in the sense of a watch
being the work of an intelligent man, is prob
ably not perfect, yet if it was said the laws of
evolution which have wrought these changes
and improvements were the work of an intelli
gent Creator, the conclusion would be irrefu
table. Granting the assertions of the most extreme
evolutionists, it is no impeachment of the power
and intelligence of God to admit all vertebrates
had a common ancestor in the very remote past,
rather it is an evidence of His power to be able
to impress on all vegetable and animal life this
ability to develop into differences and higher
beings and evolve the harmonious and beautiful
world we see before us.
i6

DARWINISM 17
There is nothing, therefore, in evolution an
tagonistic to the creation of nature by the all-
wise and powerful God in whom we believe.
The workman who produces screws by means
of machinery he has constructed and put in
operation is as much a maker of such screws as
he who fashions them severally with his own
hands.

ATHEISM
The scientist who refuses to believe in an
intelligent God as the Creator of the universe
because He is not manifest to his physical
senses, but in his efforts to account for all the
apparent and wonderful evidences of design
which surround him affirms that nature was
self-created and is self-existent, is compelled to
defend successfully these propositions :
I. That solids, liquids and gases could have
established the innumerable and various laws
under which they act.
2. That matter had not only the intelligence
to ordain these laws, but to create them of such
complexity as to be solvable in many cases only
by the higher mathematics.
3. That substances which exhibit neither
memory, nor intelligence, nor life can invaria
bly act in accordance with such laws.
4. That such uniformity of action does not
presuppose some outward influence impressed
upon matter, or some quality of motion attach
ed by creative power to its constituents, for if
such uniformity of conduct does involve any
extraneous influence, then some Thing superior
to matter is required in the organization of

ATHEISM 19
nature, and atheism must be abandoned for
theism. 5. Inasmuch as there is in all nature only one
power capable of formulating and solving its
laws mathematically, namely, the intelligence of
man, it is not a persuasive inference that the
Author of such laws must have possessed the
mental faculties man possesses; because it is
inconceivable to suppose a Being is able to
create except in a few isolated instances, what
he does not understand.
In view of these propositions addressed to the
atheist, and because no atheist has ever answer
ed either of them, the existence of an intelligent
and all powerful Supreme Being is rendered
highly probable.

AGNOSTICISM
The agnostic scientist declares he has no
knowledge of God on which to found even a
reasonable hypothesis of His nature.
The mistake of the agnostic is he demands
conclusive evidence of a fact which he does not
require, and cannot obtain, on any other sub
ject. Man has no capacity beyond the mere act o£
moving things. His whole physical existence
is spent in changing the position of particles of
matter and placing them in new relations to one
another. When one grasps fully the narrow
limit of his powers, the vaunted self-apprecia
tion of his capacity dwindles to small propor
tions. Nor is man's knowledge of matter of any
more moment than his power over it. The
learned chemist does not know, for example,
why the union of one atom of mercury and two
of chlorine invariably results in corrosive sub
limate, and of two atoms of mercury and two of
chlorine forms calomel. The biologist, though
surrounded by life and growth on every side,
does not understand why some cells divide and
others multiply from within, or why growth

AGNOSTICISM 21
takes place at all. The psychologist is equally
at a loss to comprehend the underlying princi
ples of his science and to tell us how the mind
performs the functions of memory, or even why
the impress of a picture on the retina gives sight
to animals.
And yet no scientist doubts these phenomena.
He knows there is something within the mer
cury, within the living cell, within the mind,
some occult power, some inherent quality im
pressed upon them by a force outside of the
atoms, beyond his own power, beyond his un
derstanding, that makes each substance act
invariably in a certain manner — not at hap
hazard — but with such obedience to definite law
that the law itself, in some cases, may be formu
lated and subjected to mathematical analysis
and conclusions reached which are yet beyond
verification by experiment. In a word, the ag
nostic demands full knowledge of the Creator,
convincing proof of His essence, of His power,
of His methods of creation, when he has not the
ability to understand the least of His creations.
In matters relating to his special field of in
vestigation the agnostic scientist is not so exact
ing as when he approaches the subject of the
Deity. No class of men are more prone to
speculation than such investigators. Their first
effort after a few experiments is to form a gen
eralization, and hypothesis, under which they
group the facts ascertained and from thence

22 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
deduce the past and future order of events;
and each one believes most firmly in his own
particular theory, a belief as strong as any
Christian experiences when he thinks o£ his
God. In the science, for example, of magnetism,
some, in order to account for the phenomena,
affirm that an ether permeates all matter, even
the densest steel; others reject this view and
assert that motion is indestructible and that
magnetism is due to the vibrations of mole
cules; while others account for its manifesta
tions by polarity. Notwithstanding this diver
sity, their poverty of knowledge, many of
these men believe implicity in their respective
theories, and in the next breath deny that
all the testimony of design exhibited in
nature, in the very science they are investigat
ing, shows any evidence of an intelligent Crea
tor — thus adopting one rule of investigation as
to matters in which their hearts are interested
and prone and another when they are indiffer
ent or adversely biased.
All men realize that human judgment is often
unreliable. Twelve jurors hear the same evi
dence, and if the subject-matter involves ante
cedent prejudices or diverse interests, each
juror honestly arrives at conclusions in accord
ance with his predelictions. Nine judges chosen
for their ability, integrity, and learning, some
of one political party and some of another, hear

AGNOSTICISM 23
alike all the facts and arguments of a case sub
mitted for decision, yet each arrives at different
results in exact conformity to his political bias,
at the same time thoroughly impressed with the
soundness of his views, which he elaborates in
an able opinion.
So it is, a man not wishing to be bound by
the restraints of the decalogue and the higher
principles of Christian life, or from association,
or other causes, finds little difficulty in con
vincing himself that God is entirely unknow
able, that Christ was simply man, and the crim
inal laws are an adequate moral code. The
religious man with the same knowledge, find
ing the precepts of the Old and New Testa
ments set forth rules of conduct in accordance
with his own aspirations, contemplates with
pleasure the benignity, the love, the morality of
their authors, and readily believes in an all-wise
and loving God and merciful Saviour.
The result arrived at in this paragraph is, the
conclusions of the agnostic — of even Mr. Her
bert Spencer, a truly great philosopher and a
prince of "hypothesis," who has found in
nature adequate circumstantial evidence for
belief in a thousand theories regarding life and
man, but no evidence of an intelligent Crea
tor — are from his inconsistency entirely value
less. No man can comprehend God — all men may
apprehend Him.

AGNOSTICISM AND EVOLUTION
A fair statement of the main principles of the
theory of evolution is that organic life, in its
efforts to accommodate itself to its environ
ment, is able to modify its components and to
transmit such modified characteristics to its
progeny. Those entities which cannot adapt
themselves to the masterful conditions envelop
ing them perish in the struggle for life, while
those modifying themselves to such conditions
survive as the fittest to live, and in the majority
of cases perpetuate their species accompanied by
such desirable acquired characteristics.
In the case of vegetation where physical mat
ter is alone concerned, evolution finds its field
for modification chiefly in structure. With all
animals intelligence plays a most important
part in securing food, alliance of mates, and
escaping dangers. Evolution of the mental
faculties is to them no less important than the
physical. With regard to man, inasmuch as he pos
sesses a high social and moral sense in addition
to other qualities common to all animals, the in
dividuals who regard obligations — such as
truth, fidelity to duty, friendship, etc. — have in
24

AGNOSTICISM AND EVOLUTION 25
all ages, savage and civilized, been preferred to
the untrustworthy and selfish, and thereby es
caped dangers, secured mates, and propagate'd
offspring partaking of these characteristics.
Evolution, it is claimed, has therefore grad
ually, but most efficiently, been raising the social
and moral standard of mankind.
Evolutionists regard these laws modifying
species as inherent in organic life and as un
varying and controlling in their spheres as the
laws of gravitation in their domain.
Christian evolutionists believe they are the
laws of God; agnostic evolutionists that they
were ordained by "They do not know whom or
how." But both schools of thought are generally
agreed there is something in nature ever tend
ing to produce higher forms of life out of the
lower, and that nothing of consequence, when
long periods and great numbers are considered,
seems to exist to produce a retrograde move
ment in the development of life.
If the foregoing be a fair statement of the
principles of evolution so far as they concern
mankind as a social and moral creature, name
ly, his truth, his performance of duty, his
friendship, his charity, in a word, his altruism,
and if laws exist in harmony with and impel
ling man towards such moral development, then
it results — ^provided the following facts be true
— that agnosticism is opposed to and at war

26 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
with these laws of evolution, and that Christi
anity is a most powerful, aye, absolutely the
most powerful aid such laws of evolution have
ever engaged.
An examination of the directory of the Bor
oughs of Manhattan and Bronx, composing the
central part of the City of New York, for 1902-
1903 will show that there are at least sixty-
seven asylums and homes for aged men and
women, friendless girls, orphans, sick seamen
and soldiers, and the destitute generally, main
tained by charitable institutions bearing con
spicuously and characteristically a name asso
ciated with Christ; also that there are at least
four hundred and twenty-six Christian church
es. These churches probably will have an aver
age membership of five hundred persons, and
each church one society or guild for the relief of
the poor and sick, making four hundred and
twenty-six unincorporated voluntary organiza
tions at work in the field of Christian charity
and righteousness. There are seventeen colleges
and academies, twelve nurseries, fifteen dispen
saries, thirteen hospitals, and one hundred and
fifty-five societies for Christian work, all using
as their sign a name distinctly identified with
Christ, and if it be estimated that one hundred
persons are on an average affiliated with each
of the foregoing two hundred and seventy-
nine incorporated asylums and societies, there
results that two hundred and forty thousand

AGNOSTICISM AND EVOLUTION 27-
Christian men and women out of one million
two hundred and fifty-five thousand six hun
dred and seventy-six adults over twenty years
of age (U. S. Census) are more or less actively
participating in the moral improvement of their
fellow citizens.
On the other hand, the writer has been unable
to find in this directory a single society, associa
tion, or institution whose name would indicate
its members were agnostics and were engaged
in any work designed to teach men truth, the
performance of duty, or the extension of the
hand of charity.
If, therefore, there be some ruler, or some
power, or some law of this world which has es
tablished the laws of evolution and it is intend
ed by such power for its nature to be unknown
and unknowable, then such supreme power has
taken the very best means to thwart its purpose
of evolutionary development so far as the social
and moral nature of man is concerned.
But such a conclusion is absurd, and in pro
portion to its absurdity is agnosticism indefen
sible. If on the other hand, evolution be the work
of design — and it seems to be inconceivable
for so much correlation in nature to exist
without design, — then the extraordinary use of
Christianity in the social and moral develop
ment of man is a strong evidence of its truthful
ness.

PANTHEISM
Pantheism disputes atheism by asserting
there is a God ; it contradicts agnosticism by de
claring the nature of God is known ; it attacks
the monotheism of Christianity by affirming
God resides in everything — in the rocks, in
water, in gases, in physical life, in the intellect
of animals, in the moral sense of man, in my
consciousness. So far as my consciousness is concerned, I
have no sensation, it is a part of God — I do not
feel God to be within me, or any part of me.
On the contrary, I have a very decided appre
hension God is outside of me, that I am a weak
animal of very limited powers, meagre knowl
edge, and imperfect judgment. I feel myself to
be a creature, not a creator — a creature of defi
nite functions to be exercised according to un
varying laws, which neither my ancestors nor
myself have had any part in establishing. And
if neither myself nor my ancestors established
the laws of nature, whose ancestors have ?
I have no reason to believe other men are on
any substantially higher plane than myself.
Many considerations lead me to believe the
lower orders of animals and vegetable life, the
28

PANTHEISM 29^
fluids, gases and rocks would be possessed of
much less of the Godhead than myself.
So on the one subject I understand better
than any other in whole range of my knowl
edge, — that is, my consciousness, — I have not
the slightest sensation either by instinct or de
duction that any part of the Godhead resides
in me.
To set up therefore a theory opposed to the
first principles of consciousness, it is submitted,
must be unsound reasoning on which to account
for the Primal Cause, for in all other matters,
we find the instincts of consciousness are truth-
J^ul.

In the absence of definite demonstrable knowl
edge and where probability is the best conclu
sion to be arrived at, analogy, if the essential
elements of the cases compared are similar, fre
quently leads to a reliable deduction and is the

source of much knowledge.

The argument of analogy is based on the uni
versal experience of mankind that like causes
produce like effects and like effects may be
traced backward to like causes.

20 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
Notwithstanding, as stated in the preceding
paragraph, man's power over physical nature is
limited to the moving of things, yet in the
realms of his intellect and emotions he is a
-creator. The architect having a conception of grand
eur and of fitness caused stones to be moved
together into definite structural positions
which hold for centuries his conceptions,
-apparent to men. Yet who will affirm the
relative position of the stones is still a part
of the man who conceived the thoughts, and
whose body may have moulded in the grave for
generations ? So with the poet, the painter, the
inventor. Surely it will not be said the trage
dies of Shakespeare are still a part of him, a
million of steam engines a part of Fulton. The
intellectual conceptions incorporated in them
were their creations, they went out from them,
and when gone were no longer part of their
creators. God tints the evening sky with beauty,
the painter conceives a glorious sunset and
fastens its evanescent beauty on his canvas. God
fills the world with pathos and love and patriot
ism, the gifted novelist creates the same emo
tions and holds his reader with tearful eyes.
Turner is dead and Walter Scott is dead, but
their creations still live. When once given
birth they were no longer part of their creators.
So by analogy is it not probable that the
creations of beauty and sublimity and patriot-

PANTHEISM 31
ism do not embody the essence of the Being
which brought them into existence ?
Pantheism by its definition incorporates God
in these thoughts and emotions as much as it
does in the rocks.

An argument against pantheism is the law of
evolution. Geological and biological investiga
tions certainly demonstrate, if they show any
thing, that life has been evolved to higher and
not lower states. If we confine the argument to
man we find him endowed with a physical, intel
lectual, and moral nature. To attain the high
est results these three components must develop
with practically equal steps. It is now well rec
ognized that the best specimens of manhood
cannot be produced unless a man be physically
and morally as well as intellectually strong. A
deficiency in any one of these important char
acteristics puts him out of the race with men
who possess them in a greater degree. Some
place morals first, others intellect, and others a
strong body. For the perfect man they should
stand abreast.
Now man is in many respects an imitative
animal. Nothing is better known than that he

32 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
is raised by association with virtue and lowered
by contact with vice — he is elevated by the en
nobling thoughts of truth, of love, and of char
ity; of power and of wisdom.
To conceive, therefore, that the Godhead re
sides in matter, in low unclean animals, in
vicious beasts and men, would if thoroughly be
lieved debase the believer and end in pagan
idolatry. While on the other hand nothing has
done more for the elevation of the human race
in Christian lands than the high moral con
ceptions it has entertained of its God — clothing
Him with majesty and glory, with wisdom and
every virtue, and which it feebly and for
ever most imperfectly endeavors to imitate, yet
in the imitation evolves a nobler creature.
If evolution be true, then pantheism cannot
be.

The only creative power on this earth is
intellect, and the highest intellect is that of man.
As stated above, such creative power is limited
to mental conceptions — as beauty, sublimity,
adaptability, love, fear, etc. — and the ability to
move matter into positions to represent them.
These conceptions are analogous to some of the
phenomena observed in nature.

PANTHEISM 33
Is it not then in the absence of all demonstra
tive knowledge on the subject, a fair inference
that the Creator of these analogous conceptions
in nature possesses intellectuality the same as
man? To reject this only source of rationalistic
knowledge and adopt the fanciful hypothesis
that the Creator resides in all things — in stones
and water, an hypothesis at war with all our
knowledge — does seem to be contrary to princi
ples of sound analogy.

EVOLUTION AND THE MORAL SENSE
Agnostic evolutionists endeavor to account
for the human idea of God and morality by de
claring both of these conceptions to be the re
sult of deductions from experience and the
transmission of the impress of such experience
after the manner of instincts to progeny.
The primitive idea of God, they affirm, was
derived from nature, as, in the return of boun
tiful summer with the sun ; by the downfall of
the beneficent rain with clouds; from the fear
inspired by tornado, by lightning and thunder ;
by birth ; by disease ; by death, and innumerable
other occurrences which impressed themselves
powerfully on the minds of early men, and all
of which were outside of them and beyond their
control. Hence, the conception of a supernatural being
was begotten and transmitted by heredity. The
Christian theist has no complaint with this
theory. A material part of the argument herein
advanced is built upon man's recognition of
the Diety from His works — that God speaks to
mankind in every phenomenon of nature, in
every evidence of design ; that it is impossible
from human experience, which is that no corre-
34

EVOLUTION AND THE MORAL SENSE 3$
lation of parts exists to produce definite results
without an intelligent designer, for man to con
ceive the myriad evidences of design in nature
were the outcome of blind chance and not the
result of intelligence commensurate with the in
tricacy and extent of the combinations and re
sults. In regard to morality or man's duty to man,
the agnostic evolutionist asserts that inasmuch
as all men in all ages have perceived truth and
justice and charity have been beneficial to them
selves, that these qualities have been cultivated
to an extent adequate to become hereditary.
It is not to be denied that in many cases mor
ality and a predilection to vice have been trans
mitted to offspring ; that all sensible men recog
nize the practice of these virtues contribute to
their well being, and that such charactertistics
are, as a rule, improved by association, intelli
gence and education. To this extent the theist
agrees with the agnostic. But the Christian
theist goes further and affirms man in his rela
tions to man is a part of nature ; that the prac
tice of truth, justice and charity is as necessary
for the life and development of the human
species as gravitation is for the certain return
of the seasons. If gravitation is perceived to
be the work of an intelligent Creator, why
should not truth, justice and charity, as essen
tial in their sphere, have the same source?

36 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
Furthermore, the Christian theist asserts
there are special reasons for believing the above
moral qualities spring from God. In the
entire domain of nature there is nothing but
truth. No deception exists in any physical
phenomenon. There is no injustice; no dis
crimination between mortals. Rain and sun
shine and death await all with impartiality.
God's providence is full of charity and kind
ness. How many weak mortals are constantly
violating the laws of nature without suffering
annihilation which has come to others for the
same offence ? How many have sinned, and not
been found out, while others for less offences
have suffered ignominy?
With such constantly recurring exhibitions
of truth, justice and charity proceeding from
the Creator as their source ; with truth, justice
and charity as the very foundation on which
man's evolution must be built, and which are
in perfect accord with the higher and higher
development of this world, is not the probabil
ity convincing enough on which to base belief
and action that these moral attributes of man
have proceeded from the same high source ?

SCIENCE
To the Christian mind there cannot be any
contradiction between truly ascertained facts of
nature and truly interpreted revelation. They
both proceed from the Godhead — and God's
works are harmonious.
If a fact of nature should be demonstrated
beyond doubt, and it should be contrary to
assumed revelation, the theologist should revise
his interpretation of the Scriptures and ascer
tain his error. On the other hand, where there
is a plain and unmistakable revelation opposed
to an unverified scientific theory, the theory
should be scrutinized again for its error. The
past history of the sciences of physics and of
theology demonstrates that neither are entitled
to be considered infallible. Nothing is better
known than the fact that the scientific truths of
one age have been displaced by those of the fol
lowing, and these in turn shown to be errone
ous by still later investigations. So that none
can affirm that a number of the accepted theo
ries of the present time may not be displaced in
the next century. The brevity of these discus
sions does not allow of the enumeration of the
many changes in theories which have occurred
37

38 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
in chemistry, astronomy, geology, and biology,
and unless man has attained the ultimate limit
of knowledge — which no scientist will affirm —
it is likely present conclusions must be abandon
ed or modified, and new ones take their place.
So with theology. This science has been
altered to conform to ascertained facts, and
some of its cherished beliefs will doubtless be
modified in the future.
One instance each of the remolding of theo
ries in the sciences of nature and of theology
must suffice. The sun is losing heat by radia
tion into space at an inconceivably enormous
rate. Investigation does not show adequate
cooling in proportion to the amount of heat
given off. To account for this discrepancy
scientists fifty years ago generally accepted the
conclusion that the heat was maintained by the
falling of meteors into the sun attracted from
space by its immense mass. At the present date
this theory has been generally abandoned as in
sufficient to account for the ascertained phe
nomena — although many meteors doubtless do
fall into the sun — and another substituted,
namely, that the sun is in a gaseous, incandes
cent state, and by the force of its gravitation is
condensing to a smaller sphere, and in conse
quence of such condensation is giving off its
heat, just as air, gases, or any other matter
when condensed parts with its heat.

SCIENCE

39

In a former century Galileo adopted the
Copernican theory, and asserted that instead of
the sun moving around the earth every day, it
remained practically at the center of the earth's
orbit and the earth itself revolved on its axis in
twenty-four hours. This announcement was
received by the ecclesiastics with horror, and
was pronounced by them to be "heretical and
contrary to faith." Galileo was placed under
arrest and sentence. Since then churchmen
have, in view of the well-ascertained truths of
astronomy, modified their theology. But many
persons declared there was no truth in the
Scriptures and became infidels, just as many
have done since the theory of evolution has been
discussed. But there is no more real antagonism between
evolution and the Scriptures than there was
between the daily revolution of the earth on its
axis and the Old Testament. One of the most
important assumed contradictions between the
theory of evolution and revelation is the Mosaic
account of the creation, and particularly the use
of the word "day" in giving the order of
sequence of the cosmogony. But clearly the
term "day" may not have been understood by
the inspired writer in the restricted sense of
twenty- four hours.. Nothing changes more
than the meaning of words, and particularly
their use by early unscientific writers when
compared to the more exact lexicography of the

40 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
present time. The expression "day" may
originally have designated a cycle, an era, an
epoch — for a thousand years, aye, a million, in
the sight of God, may be as one day, as a watch
in the night.

SCIENCE AND COSMOGONY
As stated in the preceding paragraph, the
truly ascertained facts of Nature and correctly
interpreted Revelation being both emanations
from God, there can be no antagonism between
them. It is therefore important to understand
clearly what Revelation teaches and to test its
important facts with truth derived from Na
ture. I. Revelation declares that an all powerful,
all intelligent God created the heavens and the
earth and all that therein is.
Does Science in any domain of its investiga
tions contradict this proposition? No astron
omer can point to one ascertained fact in dis
proof. No geologist can even suggest any other
creator for the rocks. They may shield them
selves behind agnosticism and declare they have
no proof — that they do not know how nature
came — but this position is not inconsistent with
revelation that God made them. It neither af
firms nor denies.
No biologist has created the spark of life. So
far as we know, life is an unbroken chain from
the dawn of creation to the present instant. It
may be that all, even the highest animals, have
41

42 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
developed from a single protoplasmic cell. But
this is not inconsistent with the Mosaic cos
mogony, or incompatible with God's creation
of them.
Modern scientific research has generally
agreed upon the following order of events in
the evolution of nature.
I. There existed gaseous or nebulous mat
ter without form.
2. In this attenuated state the matter was
dark. 3. Under the influence of the laws of gravi
tation such matter aggregated and by condensa
tion emitted heat and light.
4. The aggregation of matter towards a
center of gravity produced a rotary motion.
Those revolving masses of matter having their
surfaces next to the great incandescent central
masses would be illuminated, while the opposite
sides would be dark. This constituted the first
division of light and darkness, or day and
night. The above sequence of events is in ex
act accord with the Mosaic account.
5. The influence of gravitation in forming
globes of these inconceivably great nebulous
masses, necessarily made concrete suns, comets,
etc. This constitutes the Mosaic firmament called
Heaven — we also call it "The Heavens" — and
indicates the formation of suns as distinguished
from the planetary systems of suns. Accord-

SCIENCE AND COSMOGONY 43
ing to Genesis and Science this was accomplish
ed next after the creation of light.
6. In the earliest epochs of creation two of
the most important and largely distributed
gases were hydrogen and oxygen. The union
of these constituted then, as now, water. So
universal was the vapor of water, and water,
before the formation of rocks, and so liquid is
highly heated matter, all the planets might
fairly be described as waters, and when the cen
trifugal force of any revolving mass was
greater than its centripetal force, a portion
would be thrown off with an independent revo
lution, and "divide the waters from the waters."
Thus was constituted the planetary systems of
all the great suns including our own.
This is the order usually stated in nebular
hypotheses, viz: first the conglomeration of a
central sun, and next the throwing off of at-
tendent planets. This is also the order of cre
ation as narrated by Moses.
7. We now come to the consideration of the
earth. As stated above, in the earliest periods
of its creation, the vapor of water and water
were one of the most abundant compounds. Ge
ologists can state only approximately the incon
ceivably great quantity of water contained in
the rocks, crystals, and other substances of the
earth's surface. There is practically nothing
anhydrous. So that by the absorption of water
in the formation of solids, by its percolation

z!4 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
into the strata of the earth, where it became
heated and formed steam and raised the earth's
surface, dry land and seas were formed — for
the elevation of land at one place of necessity
lowers level at another. The usual geological
account of creation calls for plant life next af
ter the appearance of dry land. The carbonif
erous era in which the great coal measures were
laid, and their depths, even on the sides of
mountains, show indubitably their very early
origin. The above events practically correspond in
exact order with the third Mosaic day.
8. Prior, and extending, to nearly the close
of the carboniferous state of the earth's exist
ence, in consequence of the vast quantity of
water on its surface, of its own internal heat,
and the higher heat of the sun than at present,
immense masses of vapors or clouds obscured at
all times the sun and stars, but not their light —
as is probably the case with the planet Venus at
this day.
Then on the disappearance of the thick en
velope of vapor the stars for the first time ap
peared and with them the disks of the sun and
moon, which "marked the seasons and days and
years." Here again science and the Mosaic account
coincide. 9. The geologist and biologist and Moses
-are agreed the first of life was begotten in the

SCIENCE AND COSMOGONY 45,
waters, and began possibly in the Laurentian
seas. Briefly, it developed from foraminiferae
through fishes to amphibuous animals and
swimming mammals.
10. There are in museums of natural history
the fossil remains of half reptiles and half birds,
showing a gradual transformation of some of
the inhabitants of the water into "winged
fowls." This constitutes a remarkable confir
mation of the record of Genesis, for "winged
fowls" were created immediately after the
things which "moved in the waters."
II. Next, the rocks and sediments of the
earth's crust show "winged fowls" developed
into creatures with teeth like bats, some living
no longer on grass and seeds but on insects and.
flesh; in other cases expanding toes became
fewer in number, the wings changing into
dwarfed forelegs, like the kangaroo whicli
brings forth its young in an immature state.
Thus in the cycles of time the cloven hoofed an
imals were produced, that is, cattle and swine
and the Mosaic order is cattle next after the
fowls. Some mammalia and snakes have been
found in the deposits of the Eocene period, and
following their advent, animals of the field
came generally in the Miocene, the next era.
The twenty-fourth verse of the first chapter ol
Genesis records this same succession.
12. Scientific men agree that the theory of
evolution places man's creation as the last. The
scriptural account does the same.

46 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
It will hardly be contended that when the ac
count of the creation was written mankind was
learned in natural science. There is no writing
extant to show men were skilled in astronomy,
or possessed of telescopes so necessary for
ascertaining the nature of the firmament. There
was no knowledge of gaseous or nebulous
masses or conditions, or of the laws of gravi
tation and their effects in producing heat, light,
rotation, suns, and planetary systems, and
yet in the six preceding items we have an accu
rate outline of the nebular hypothesis which has
received general acceptance since the days of
Laplace, and stated in the exact order of occur
rence. The Mosaic narrative gives great prominence
to the order or succession of events. This, it
seems, is apparently of more importance than
any other one characteristic of the recital.
Clearly, it places its own credibility upon its
order of the narration and impliedly challenges
contradiction. As enumerated above there are six distinct
and well ascertained agreements between the
Mosaic account and the cosmic order of nature.
There has not been, so far as the writer
is aware, one event in the formation of the firm
ament narrated by Moses which has been shown
to be out of its natural sequence.
Now when there are six events of such uncer
tain order of occurrence as the above and which

SCIENCE AND COSMOGONY 47
an unlearned mind on the subject has to place
in correct order the chances are 719 to one that
he will misplace them.
When to these odds are added the statements
that matter was at first nebulous, and its then
attenuated state was dark, that under the influ
ence of gravitation it became luminous and de
scribed orbits, and formed suns which turned on
their axes, and threw off attendant planets, the
conclusion is irresistible that some mind more
learned than man's at that day, indited the
story. We have also reason to believe, when Moses
wrote geological and biological science was
unknown. No man then knew whether fishes
were produced before fowls, or man before cat
tle. Each division of animal life was apparent
ly distinct from the other.
When there are four independent facts to be
stated by a person without knowledge to guide
their arrangement there are 23 chances to one
he will name them in the wrong order. But
Moses placed them in the succession since
assigned by geological evolutionists.
It seems to my mind that this demonstration
is conclusive of the Inspiration of the Old Tes
tament. If this Book be inspired then it follows an in
telligent God exists; from the existence of an
intelligent God who revealed the Mosaic ac-

48 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
count of the Creation, it follows that He was
the God of the Old Testament; from His being
the God of the Old Testament it follows as the
New Testament is a continuation of the Old
Testament that He is the God of the New Tes
tament.

SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY
The second and remaining primary truth of
revelation is that Jesus Christ was the Son of
God and that he arose from the dead.
Does science disprove these facts ? If so, in
what division of science is it to be found ? The
sole argument against them is, no man living
has seen a dead man come to life. If the facts
of the case ended there, if no other considera
tion entered into the subject than the return of
life to a cadaver, the argument would appar*
ently be conclusive.
But the Christian religion is founded essen
tially and avowedly on the supernatural. The
immaculate conception of Jesus, His miracles
contravening the ordinary laws of nature. His
resurrection, are each and all above nature. All
science can say, it is beyond its domain, there
is nothing in nature like it — more, it may even
truthfully say the burden of proof is on the
Christian. To this the disciples of Christ en
thusiastically answer they accept the challenge,
and point. First, to the wonderful laws which
govern the universe as evidence of an all-wise
and intelligent Supreme Being — a Supernatural
Being as their Creator. Second, That the
49

so THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
results of these laws — namely, the harmonious
revolutions of the sun and his system of planets
and their effects, the development on this earth
of inorganic matter and of organic life in such
remarkable unison and sympathy, the blue sky,
the liquid waters, the green fields and fruits and
grain, the wonderful mechanism of animals,
aye, even the ability of vegetable and animal life
to evolve according to definite laws ; the domes
tic happiness of all creatures, their love of life,
the myriad unperceived mercies and pleasures
they enjoy, the higher and nobler life of man —
all point to and demonstrate that this Super
natural Being cares for, aye, loves every living
thing. Granted such a Being exists — and no other
hypothesis accounts for nature — and loves his
creatures, what more probable conclusion, in
order to appeal to this higher nature of man, to
lead him to a still nobler life, to carry out His
own beneficent designs that higher and yet
higher creations are in the order of His Fore
knowledge and Design, than that God should
come Himself on earth to man, in the most
sympathetic and appealing manner, namely, as
a man in human flesh so as to be perceived and
known by men? Would such conduct be be
yond the measure of His love or the range of
His power ? Nothing is more likely to a Being
who has created this beautiful world and
allowed His creatures to adapt themselves so

SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY Si
joyously to it. Would such a Father confine
Himself to administering only to the demands
of the body ? Does not an earthly father seek
to improve the morals and best nature of his
son ? Is not God as loving as the man of this
earth ?
This Supernatural Being saw below Him a
part of His creation possessed of intellectual
and moral attributes. It needed greater direc
tion and development. In His providence the
time had come for a great advance, physically,
intellectually, and morally. This advance could
not take place in the natural order of events
without increased morality among men. Peace
must abide for the mind to apply itself to the
arts and sciences. He therefore sent His Son,
"The Prince of Peace."
If there was no other argument in favor of
the divinity of Christ than the advance of the
human race since and in consequence of His
ministry, its amazing development should be
enough to convince any unbiased mind of the
truth of Christ's resurrection.
Surely an all-truthful, all-loving, and care-
taking God would not have allowed this extra
ordinary progress of the human race to have
been based on, and to continue as, a result of a
falsehood. Even men in the affairs of this
world, when important matters are involved,
are almost universally truthful.

52 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
The argument results in this, to reject Christ
is to reject God as a loving and truthful Ruler
of the world ; to accept God is to accept Christ ;
to accept Christ involves belief in His truthful
ness ; that is, in His divinity and resurrection.

IMMORTALITY AND TRUTH
Assuming an intelligent God created the
world, I think it results from the following
chain of purely rational argumentation that the
moral nature of man is immortal.
The most obtrusive fact while studying the
physical laws of nature is their unvarying char
acter. Gravitation is invariably ready to assert
itself; the laws of light, of heat, and of sound
are unfailing, and so on in the entire domain of
nature there is no shadow of an exception, no
variableness, no deception.
The moral laws encompassing mankind on
every side are no less certain. To deny there
is a God surely reduces the atheist to a lower
plane of manhood. He is not the joyous man
of elevated and ennobling aspiration as he who
bows in reverence to the Creator. To take His
Holy Name in vain brings the defamer into dis
repute. To dishonor one's father and mother,
the offender dishonors himself. To murder, to
steal, to commit adultery, to He, and to covet
are all visited by disapprobation, loss of respect,
or infamy to the violator's good name and
worldly success and happiness. These moral
laws are universal, certain in their consequences
and truthful.
53

54 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
So far then as the nature of God may be
judged from His works, it may be affirmed that
one of His predominating characteristics is
Truth; and this is the major premise of the
argument. Man is certainly, either immediately, or re
motely by evolution, the creation of God; but
whether one or the other he is His creature.
He is so far as this earth is concerned His high
est and best creation — a creation wherein he has
allowed a mental development to expand until it
has the ability to solve and thoroughly under
stand a number of His most intricate phe
nomena and laws, and a moral nature to possess
him which teaches him right and wrong, with
an active conscience to render him happy or to
sting him with remorse, dependent upon
whether he pursues the good or abandons him
self to evil, and as a part of this conscience a
recognition of God, and hope and belief, as far
as things unseen can be believed, in immortality.
In the next place, God has developed, or
allowed to be developed — which is the same
thing, in a Creator having the power to order
differently — in man a mental and moral intel
lectuality qualifying him to believe in Immor
tality. Again, God has allowed this sentiment
to be born in the hearts of nearly all men, sav
age and civilized, as a part of their very being,
but more or less perfectly and nobly, when not
perverted by false reasonings, as the individual
has attained intellectuality.

IMMORTALITY AND TRUTH 55
To permit this idea to be taken possession of
by mankind, to become a part of the warp and
woof of life, to modify its actions in the most
important concerns of its existence, and then
for it to be a dream, a falsehood, is to impeach
the truthfulness of God's dealings with man, is
to charge His inconceivable Righteousness and
Holiness with practicing a deception on His
creatures and all for no motive and no profit to
Himself. The argument reduces itself to this, unless
God has deceived man, He intends him to enjoy
immortality. And as confirmatory of this con
clusion, let it be noticed, as far as we can judge,
this hope, this idea of immortality is confined to
the genus Man and denied to all the lower
creation.

SIN
Without attempting to pass a theological
judgment upon any subject discussed, it being
entirely foreign to the scope of this book, and
consequently on the question whether the ac
count in Genesis as to the fall of Adam and the
introduction of sin in this world was allegorical
or is to be taken in its literal sense, it is never
theless probable in a purely rational considera
tion of the subject, that the feeble powers of
man in contest with his natural environment ac
count for many of the sins to which he is
addicted, and afford a strong corrobation to the
truth of the Genesis narrative that man's dis
obedience and sin were indissolubly linked with
the earning of his bread by the sweat of his
brow. Man is an animal. He must eat, and have
raiment and shelter for his body. He, for the
most part, finds himself in a climate and on a
' soil yielding after his best efforts scarcely more
than enough to feed, clothe, and house himself
and his family. He looks around and discovers
others in sharp competition with himself. Self
ishness is begotten in his heart, and all the sins
which have their roots in it. His body is often
56

SIN 57
weak, sometimes he cannot even work. His
necessities, actual or from habit, or from desire
to please those dependent on him, urge him to
appropriate what belongs to others, or to cir
cumvent them by false pretenses. Thus is born
the sin of theft. Occasionally, concomitant
with theft, follows murder — always, if detec
tion can be prevented, lies. Covetousness is
the father of fraud.

SIN PERMITTED
It follows logically from the foregoing argu
ment that God has permitted sin to exist in tiiis
world. Modern scientific research renders it probable
that a number of vegetables and animals have
since the earth became inhabited gradually
developed into higher and higher states by force
of their environment and individual efforts to
overcome obstacles; that God's method is, the
living being, if it would continue to live and
grow better and stronger, and transmit valuable
acquired characteristics to its progeny, must
work. Now this law of evolution is equally applica
ble to the moral nature of man. To rise from
the mere animal, which is, with few exceptions,
gross selfishness, to a high plane of altruism,
man must practice self-denial. He cannot deny
himself unless he suffers thereby privation, and
there is no privation if every necessity of his
nature be gratified without effort. That is to
say, if there be no temptation to sin, there can
be no effort to improve morally; and without
effort the moral nature of man would wither,
like his muscles would shrink, if he forebore all
attempt at work.
S8

THE MORAL FUTURE OF MANKIND
From all analogies it is probable man will
develop morally into a higher and higher being.
But this state will not be attained without
effort. Sin must be met and its temptations
conquered. From victorious battles alone will
evolve this nobler man. The temptations may
even become stronger than we now know them,
but the power of resistance by inheritance and
by higher moral development will keep pace
with the necessities for successful warfare to
accomplish moral growth, until in the vast
future a true millenium may come when the lion
and the lamb, figuratively, but man and man in
reality, will lie down together in perfect peace.
It thus appears that though the account of
the fall of Adam be taken in its literal interpre
tation and sin came through his disobedience —
the actual disobedience of eating the apple — the
all-merciful God in His love for His creatures
is bringing good out of evil — is preparing man
for a higher and nobler life in consequence of
resistance to sin and which He has given him
the ability successfully to combat.
59

NATURAL LIFE AND IMMORTALITY
If it be true man's moral being is endowed
with immortality, there is no reason this life
should not be a school for its development. On
the contrary, there is a strong argument that it
is ; namely, the importance God has placed upon
obedience to His moral laws, as shown by the
native pleasure experienced by men when they
do right and the remorse suffered when they do
wrong, and the social consequences which fol
low respectively the pursuit of virtue or vice.
As the moral nature is the one to live beyond
the grave, why at death should it forget its past
¦experiences? Why should God ignore the in
stincts of man which carry his soul with its
knowledge and characteristics into the future
state ?
In nature nothing is done uselessly. Every
act, every part has its appropriate function. Is
it not probable from this universal law that the
moral efforts of men on earth should follow the
moral nature of men in their future existence?
If this be so, there is the greatest utility in
striving for moral excellence in this life.
60

SIN AND PROVIDENCE
There is no doubt the moral sense of man is
one of the very strongest constituents of his
nature. As stated in the preceding paragraph,
to do right affords the highest pleasure, to com
mit sin entails grief.
From a purely rational point of view these
phenomena, which are universal, demonstrate
the obnoxiousness of sin to the Divine Creator.
Why is sin so condemned by God? Why
does He give its successful resistance so impor
tant a place in this world ?
These questions are rationally answered,
first, on the hypothesis that God's plan is
growth of every being by individual effort of
such being. Second, that the development of
His Creation as to beings (not laws) is not yet
finished for this world. Third, that indulgence
in sin retards this development of man ; that the
resistance of evil advances his perfection, and
as perfection is the goal towards which all
things are tending under the fiat of the
Almighty, indulgence in sin, therefore, thwarts
His purpose and retards the consummation of
His Holy Providence, ordained from before the
world began.
6i

SPECIAL PROVIDENCE OF GOD
The term "special providence" is here used
to signify, God alters the ordinary course of
events in consequence of prayer, or for other
adequate reasons.
From a purely rational consideration of the
subject the most convincing argument in favor
of such special providence is, the instinct with
all races of men to pray to the Supreme Being
¦of their conceptions, when in dire calamity, or
when possessed with overwhelming desires. As
stated in the views on the immortality of the
soul, we start with the fundamental propositions
that God is Truth; that He has created, or
allowed with His permission, man to develop
the consciousness that He will answer supplica
tion, and therefore such consciousness must
represent the truth.
It is inconceivable the Creator should have
permitted men for thousands of years to have
offered up continuously the deepest and noblest
yearnings of their hearts when it has all been a
farce.

62

SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND
EXPERIENCES
Thousands of truthful and intelligent men
would be ready any day to certify they have
experienced in their lives manifestations of
God's special providence.
While the experiences of men make such in
terpositions of Providence probable, they do
not preclude the conclusion that the results
might have happened in the ordinary course of
events. For example, a people in time of
drought may offer up prayers for rain, and
shortly after it does rain. While the occurrence
of rain following promptly on prayer and at a
time when the meteorological conditions are
adverse gives probability to the special provi
dence, yet none can prove the rain might not
have come without the petitions.
Thus the uncertainty of proof gives rise to
the exercise of faith, which we shall see in the
next paragraph performs so important a part
in God's providence.
Of course if all prayers were followed by ful
fillment of their supplications, the calculation of
probabilities would heap up such a fortified con
clusion it would amount to absolute certainty,
63

64 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
but prayers are not always answered fully;
indeed, it may be affirmed, many of them are
not answered at all, and therefore the occa
sional coincidence of prayer and events is not a
certain demonstration of their efficiency in
securing the interposition of God.
Yet religious men do believe their entreaties
are so often heard and granted, they, and the
writer is among them, not only do not falter
but are highly encouraged to beseech the throne
of Grace on every important matter in life.

FAITH
Why faith in God and in His mercy should
be the means by which men are restored to
health and have other blessings attend their
supplications is not difficult to understand when
it is fully appreciated, God is generation after
generation bringing man by his own efforts to
a higher and higher moral status, and that such
development is a part of the Deity's govern
ment of this earth, the ultimate end of which is
"His kingdom shall come on earth as it is in
Heaven." The act of faith, of intense faith, marks a
great advance in the moral nature of any man.
Some men have not yet reached the capacity of
being able to exercise faith. It is an act inde
pendent of intellectuality or knowledge of
worldly facts. It belongs to another domain of
man's being; to that part of his nature which
stretches out for the metaphysical, for things
beyond time and sense; to an inner conscious
ness of the Supreme Being, and which may be
the gift of the Holy Spirit of God.
By making His special providences wait only
on faith God has taken the very best means to
65

66 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
inculcate this sentiment, and as faith in Him
begets, in the most efficacious manner, a higher
nature in the individual practicing it, so man
is brought, by his own efforts, in conformity to
God's general plan of creation, to a nobler and
more perfect moral creatiu-e.

FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE
Constant complaints by the skeptical are
made, why is not God more clearly revealed
to man ? Why if there be a heaven and a hell
has not some definite knowledge been given of
them ? Why is Christ's mission not attested to
men of the present time? These, with other
questions of a similar character, are constantly
asked. Assuming as a premise the physical body is
developed only by exercise of its parts; that
mental ability is acquired by mental study ; that
moral excellence grows from a practice of
virtue, abstinence from sin and yearnings for
higher ideals; in other words, that growth is
the result of effort, then it follows logically, if
God had made Himself as plain as the sun, and
immortality a demonstrable fact ever present to
the mind, and Christ a reality greater than He
was to His apostles, this very knowledge, this
certainty would dwarf the moral sense by
requiring no effort to search for the truth, and
all those developments of the soul, now the
result of research, of strivings to know, of hope,
would be absent, and the creature would fail to
unfold the moral sense or to grow into the per
fect life for which he is destined.
67

68 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
The exercise of faith stimulates the imagina
tion, makes the pursuit of knowledge of the
Deity most entrancing, and as the result of such
efforts raises the man to a higher moral being.
This, I believe, is the reason God in His
infinite wisdom has required faith.

THE LOVE OF GOD
An instance of the Love of God, not only to
man, but to His entire animal creation, is most
clearly demonstrated by the love for life shown
by every living creature.
So beautiful is this world in which God has
placed His animal life, so enjoyable are its
pleasures of companionship, its offerings to the
appetites and senses, so pleasant is the mere act
of living, that the fish of the sea, the birds of
the air, the animals of the land, all flee from
danger and seek to save their lives.
Such bounty, such a gift of pleasure sprang
only from love.

69

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
On this highly complex earth, where every
thing is organized and governed to produce
certain results, where definite laws act at every
moment upon both organic and inorganic mat
ter, and which are all, doubtless, the subject of
exact mathematical statement and analysis, the
only legitimate and logical conclusion to be
drawn from this universal reign of law is, this
world is the work of an intelligent Creator and
not of chance.
A conclusion the physicist and moralist agree
on is, every law has a definite design ; more yet,
every law has some useful purpose as its end
or reason for existence; in a word, its intelli
gent Creator has made no law at haphazard or
for naught.
This being granted, why has our Creator
placed so much importance upon obedience by
man to His moral laws ? Why are we required
to have no other gods but Him ? Why are we
to love Him with all our hearts and souls and
minds? What good can such an insignificant
creature as myself — a mere atom in His uni
verse — do my great Creator by loving Him?
Surely no man living will be vain enough to
think his love is of itself of value to God ?
70

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 7 1
These commandments are not to benefit the
Creator, but to do good to man himself — ^to
make him better, wiser, and nobler ; to increase
his own spirituality; to cause him to overcome
sin, for sin to the moral nature of man is the
analogue of labor to his physical being, and
each must be contented with in order for
growth to take place.
If, therefore, it be true none of God's laws
are in vain, that man has an instinctive law
impressed on his heart requiring him to love
his Maker with his best efforts, the question
suggests itself, is not the injunction to love God
a somewhat useless and unnecessary require
ment if death is to be the end of man's moral
nature? While on the other hand, is not the
proposition, God does not require obedience to
His moral laws for an insufficient purpose much
better gratified by assuming all this labor
demanded of man to resist sin, to bring himself
by effort to obedience to moral laws, to subdue
and conquer his natural propensities, are for the
purpose of developing within himself a higher
nature — not a nature made worthier and nobler
by so much self-denial, and then to die with
the body — ^but a spirit, to live and grow holier
and more righteous in its immortality.

72 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
It is the almost universal belief of astrono
mers that the stellar universe was primordially
gaseous, next nebulous of unformed constella
tions, then suns of immense dimensions, which
have finally thrown off attendant planets. For
this earth to have advanced from matter in a
gaseous state, "without form and void," to its
present heterogeneity and unity, to its beauty
and adaptability to support life, it shows the
Creator's scheme has been one of grand devel
opment to higher and higher standards.
If the attention be confined to this earth where
more exact data is obtainable, the geologists can
trace in the formation of its crust, from the
archaic rocks to the present uppermost stratum,
a more and more complex character, suitable as
it advanced, by the substances it contained, for
the support of a higher life than each of the
lower formations. The paleontologists are of
opinion from an examination of the fossils con
tained in the rocks that life, both vegetable and
animal, has become more and more developed
as successive strata were deposited. The nat
uralists of the present day are almost univer
sally persuaded that vegetables and animals
have by natural selection, the survival of the
fittest to live, and the transmission of desirable
characteristics to progeny, grown from inferior
species to the intelligent specimens of life inhab
iting at this time the earth. In all these things
it has been growth towards betterment.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 73
I think this same law of growth has applied
to the mental and moral attributes of men. The
present civilization of the human race — which
far surpasses all previous states, shown in
man's exact formulation of natural laws and
his dominion over nature in consequence of
such knowledge — is an unanswerable proof he
has grown mentally to an immense degree.
The history of the world is full of evidences
of morality being higher in this century than
ever before. Wars have grown less frequent
than anterior to the birth of Christ ; the rights
and position of woman more respected; mur
der, theft and all crimes not only punished by
appropriate means and more certainly, but the
criminal is viewed in a truer light, until,
although the world is yet too full of sin, the
morality of mankind in Christian countries has
never, as a general rule, stood on so high a
plane. So a retrospect of all things will show, in a
broad sense, there has been development to
higher states. This advance upward seems to
be God's own law, and no exception occurs to
me when long periods are considered.
Another general principle of universal appli
cation is, the creation everywhere exhibits evi
dences of design. As far as known, all things
have their uses. Limit our observation to man
and we find no parts but what have functions to
perform. Remove the brain, or heart, or lungs,

74 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
etc., and the individual promptly dies. This
observation might be extended to all vegetable
and animal life, and a fair logical deduction
from the foregoing observations is, there is no
part of the Creator's work but what was fash
ioned for adequate purposes. This agrees en
tirely with the idea of an all-wise and powerful
Creator, who would not expend effort without
very definite and adequate results to follow.
From these two propositions, viz, that the
moral nature of man is intended for growth
into higher excellencies, and this growth is
designed for adequate effects to follow, the
question arises, do the moral excellencies
attained by man in this short life reasonably
and adequately fulfill the purposes of an all-
wise and powerful Creator, who could by His
fiat establish a future life for man as easily as
He has made his existence for this world?
Would not you, would not I, possessed of such
power as Almighty God possesses and having
made man in this life the subject of moral laws,
with strong instincts towards betterment,
would we not have continued his moral exist
ence in a future world and not have limited his
existence with death of the body.
The extent of the probability of such action
by a wise and sufficiently powerful man is a
logical measure of one of the probabilities of
the immortality of man's moral nature.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 75
The only argument against the belief that the
soul of man is immortal is, when man dies there
is a visible cessation of all mental and moral
attributes and faculties.
This is an argument of decided weight and
not to be overlooked by any one sincerely
anxious to arrive at truth. After the best con
sideration I can give the subject I am of opinion
this argument is not conclusive against immor
tality, and for the following reasons :
The functions of the body when death super
venes certainly cease. Death puts an end to
the acquisition of knowledge by sight, by taste,
by smell, by touch, and by hearing. Such ideas
and such mentality are certainly destroyed.
But there are other classes of thought not
dependent on the functions of the senses except
for their initial knowledge, such as memory,
generalization, and deduction from previous
experiences. These stand on the higher plane
where mental functions act on mental facts, and
are in their nature metaphysical. I recall inci
dents of my earliest childhood. They have
been lost to my consciousness for many years.
Where has the knowledge of such facts been
kept ? Has it been stored up in physical matter
by deposit of nerve granules or otherwise?
Such an explanation is a mere assumption by
the wisest physiologist. He can neither prove
nor disprove such an assertion. Memory and
the syllogistic process are beyond physics.

76 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
The physiologist may, however, reply, I agree
I cannot prove such mentalities are processes of
matter, but you cannot prove they are processes
•of the spirit. This may well be admitted, as
the present argument only requires the admis
sion of the probability that they may not be
physical processes pure and simple.
The same reasoning applies in a rather
^stronger manner to the moral attributes of man,
and by which is meant, the instinctive recogni
tion of a Godhead and man's duty to Him,'and
the moral sense of right and wrong, with the
consciousness of obligation to do right and
; avoid wrong.
This consciousnesj of moral obligation, it is
true, is in a thousand ways woven in with
•ordinary knowledge and thought, and is often
higher in proportion to the intellectuality of
individuals — indeed to such an extent, some
: affirm that conscience is a child of intelligence.
This proposition I believe in a large degree to
be false, for men often more ignorant than
others have far higher experiences in the
knowledge and love of God and lead more
moral lives than the most learned. So it can
not be affirmed that intellectuality and morality
.are absolutely identical either in their origin or
development. The objector may, however, answer, and
-with apparent reason, the beasts of the field
?exhibit ratiocination, memory, affection, re-

IMMORALITY OF THE SOUL 77
yenge, selfishness, and such other traits, and it
is not claimed their natures are immortal.
No claim is made for their immortality, be
cause there is no evidence the great Creator has
given them that instinctive belief and hope. If
He had, I would promptly believe they would
enjoy immortality, for I cannot think God
would deceive any of His creatures, the low
liest — the worm.
It is true, beasts do exhibit, and in some'
instances to an astonishing degree, the reason
ing faculties, and when they die these die with
them, not because of death of body, but because
God has decided they are not sufficiently devel
oped to enjoy and perform the duties of a
future life.
The argument, therefore, reduces itself in my
mind to this, death is not necessarily the end of
man's moral consciousness. If this conclusion
be accepted as probable, a great step has been
taken in arriving at the ultimate probability of
immortality, and this probability should induce
men to act on it, for its acceptance cannot possi
bly work injury, but certainly, even in this life,.
produces a nobler and happier man.

78 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
The skeptic on the subject of immortality
may advance this further consideration, the
assumption that the mind and moral faculties of
man survive the death of his body is entirely
without analogy to any known facts.
My own mind answers this objection in this
manner. It is not true we have no instance of
intelligence and moral nature independent of
the body. On the contrary, we have the very
highest evidence of a Being who possesses
intellectuality and morality, and who has
neither flesh, nor blood, nor vibrating nerve —
and He is God Himself. As shown in the first
paragraph of this book, God to have established
the complex laws of electricity, of forces, of
gravitation, of chemistry must Himself have
possessed the intelligence to have understood
what he was ordaining, and such intelligence as
man at this day is endowed with in a compara
tively feeble degree. But no one will hardly
pretend that God, who has made all these illim
itable worlds, whose dominion extends to infin
ity of space, has the flesh and blood and nerve
of men.
The answer to the skeptic, therefore, stands
good that a physical body, like man's, is not
necessary in order to be the abode of mind and
the moral sense.

EXCELSIOR
The best judgment I can form, on a sur
vey of the facts of nature, convinces me that
the fundamental law underlying all things is
development from lower to higher and more
complex states. This complexity is, however,
not associated with confusion or antagonism,
but with an order and correlation of parts com
mensurate with their development, and form
ing, as a resultant, an harmonious whole.
As stated in a preceding paragraph all as
tronomers are agreed that many of the concrete
suns and planets at present in the firmament are
the product of less organized gaseous and nebu
lous masses of matter. In the years of infinite
time and in the regions of infinite space there
has been going on a development by condensa
tion under the influences of gravitation, and of
cooling by the equalizing properties of heat, of
formation of more complex substances by oxi
dation and the action of acids, until we have in
our own case an earth adapted for the support
of vegetable and animal life.
There is no reason to suppose this globe in
its formation is any exception to other spheres,
or our sun with its planetary system is different
79

8o THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
from other suns and systems. On the con
trary, there are many circumstances to show,
they are all governed by the same law of gravi
tation, and the spectroscope discloses indisputa
ble proof that many substances composing the
most distant suns are found on our planet.
Nor is there any good reason to conclude the
processes so active in bringing about the pres
ent status of stellar existence have ceased to
work as efficiently as ever. No diminution in
the motion of the stars is observable, the diffu
sive properties of heat are as energetic in cool
ing the globes as when first established, the con
densation in consequence of gravitation and
loss of heat is still energetic in solidifying suns
and planets, for the bolometer actually shows
a loss of heat in distant suns and measures the
quantity given off. The result is, therefore,
the development of the creation is still going
on, and if appearances from so distant a stand
point as the earth can be relied upon, a number
of fixed stars nearest us are apparently only in
the infancy of their evolution as compared
to our earth.
The explorations of the earth's crust, and
they have been comparatively very few and
limited, show both in the character of the suc
cessive layers and the fossils they contain that
much antecedent life has been of an inferior
order to the present species inhabiting this
globe. The labors of earnest and honest biolo-

EXCELSIOR 8 1
gists demonstrate changes are now going on in
life as incessantly and as actively as at any time
in the past; that some species have become
extinct and new ones produced more and more
adapted to their environment, with a general
resultant of higher vegetable and animal organ
ism and intelligence.
Nor is it to be doubted the masses of man
kind, since historic times, have shown an ad
vancing mentality. In the domains of science,
wherein the laws of nature have been discov
ered and the forces of nature yoked as servants
of man, there is no comparison between the
capacity of the ante-christian and the scientist
of the twentieth century. So that I feel con
vinced there has been some improvement in the
mentality of the human race within even his
toric times. What has been the enormous ad
vance over men before they had learned enough
to record their acts and thoughts we can only
conjecture. In regard to the moral status of mankind, we
are only positively safe in comparisons within
historic periods. When one recalls the wars of
the earliest Asiatic nations, the slaughter of the
people of Babylon and Nineveh, the wars of
the kings who surrounded the Jews, the con
quests of Alexander, the carnage by the
Romans, by the Huns, the disregard of life and
property in the Middle Ages, the cruelty of
man to man everywhere, and compares it with

82 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
the short wars of the present era, with the few
lives lost in battle in proportion to the tens of
thousands slain formerly in a single conflict, to
accomplish which a perfect gluttony for
slaughter must have possessed the combatants,
when surrender now does not mean death, but
protection; when the civilized lands are filled
with hospitals for the sick, with houses to shel
ter the poor and friendless ; when, in a general
sense, every man is the friend of every other
man, and all join to protect the helpless from
the strong; when slavery is abolished and
nearly all are secured the blessings of life, lib
erty, and the pursuit of happiness; when it is
an honor, a recommendation, to serve God, and
to be a pure man, I think it may be safely con
cluded the morality of mankind is higher today
than at any other period of which history re
cords. The generalization to be drawn from this
brief retrospect is, God's purposes as incorpora
ted in His original creation are still unfolding
themselves ; not that the creation was not com
pleted substantially in the manner narrated in
the Books of Genesis, for astronomy, geology,
and biology offer their testimony that the order
of creation therein set forth must have been fol
lowed. Creation consisted not only of objects
created, but of laws to govern them, and it is
these laws which will allow the myriad uni
verses and all therein contained to evolve in

EXCELSIOR 83
wondrous ways new creatures in the vast
periods of infinite time for the purpose of bring
ing about inconceivably grand results as yet
buried in His own foreknowledge.
Another thought; if the foregoing deduc
tions be true, then each man may by pursuing
the good be a conscious servant of the All-High
God in bringing about, more speedily than
otherwise, the ultimate end of creation, namely,
"the coming of God's Kingdom."
When such a thought possesses a man's soul
with its full significance, there is nothing more
ennobling than the conviction, he may be the
agent of God actually working in His domains,
and what he does may leave its impress for all
time.

HEAVEN
An unprejudiced and competent study of all
known natural phenomena of the universe, it is
believed, will lead to the conclusion that no part
of nature is quiescent; that changes more or
less active are going on in every domain, form
ing new worlds in the stellar depths, new inor
ganic substances on our own earth, new organic
beings in the seas and on the land, and that
nothing is absolutely fixed and finally formed
except the qualities of matter and the laws of
nature, and as to these there is no reason to be
lieve they have varied from the time the origi
nal fiat brought them into existence, or that
they will vary in the infinity of the future.
Another conclusion equally probable will be,
although there may have been a retrogression
in some instances, yet in the vast majority of
changes there has been a development from
simpler forms to the complex, from lower to
the higher order. This seems to be the Crea
tor's method, and no where is to be found abso
lute permanency.
The popular idea of Heaven is a state of
complete perfection of souls who have con
formed in this life to the commandments of
84

HEAVEN 85
God, and who in His infinite love and mercy
has pardoned their offences and received them
into His bosom — a place of angelic beatitudes
where sin is unknown, temptations forbidden,
and absolute enjoyment provided without
change or effort.
This state of affairs is at variance with what
is apparently God's method with His visible
creations, and if the case is to be judged by the
argument of analogy, namely, if a workman
invariably performs many tasks in a certain
manner it is sound reasoning to believe he will
perform other tasks on similar lines, then I
should think Heaven was a state of activity, of
duties to be performed suitable for disembodied
spirits, possibly of trials, of temptations to be
overcome in order that the soul in conquering
them may grow nobler and more worthy to
approach nearer and nearer to God's presence
and to understand more clearly His infinitudes
and thus to enjoy ever increasing happiness.

SATAN
A legitimate deduction from the foregoing
observation is, if there be a task, there must be
capacity for performance ; if a duty, there must
be free will, and probably reward for endeavor
and punishment for failure of adequate effort ;
and finally, that angels or rather souls are as
much, it may be more, on their responsibility to
conform to God's laws which permeate and
govern the unseen than mankind is on this
earth. If this be so, if duty and free will exist in
Heaven, then some as in this life will devote
every energy to the performance of their obli
gations, some may exhibit only a mediocre
effort, while others may be guilty of actual dis
obedience and rebellion.
On this purely rational method of reasoning
from facts known to the intelligence of man
kind, the Scriptural account of the existence,
disobedience, and fall of Satan as an angel is
rendered highly probable. From the multi
tudes of worlds known to exist in space, and
the probability that some are very similar to
our earth, it is possible Satan may have been an
inhabitant of one of them.
86

THE HEAVENLY STATE
A constant argument used in these discus
sions to establish the Christian religion is the
presumption that a given law will be applicable
in analogous cases. When we know the law of
gravitation is as potent on the moon, the
planets, and the sun as it is on this earth, and
as universal among the comets, the meteors,
and the binary stars as in our own system;
when the spectroscope discloses the most dis
tant suns and nebulae are made of a number of
the same substances known to compose this
globe, a strong degree of probability is given
to the argument that the Creator has not made
different laws for the same class of facts or
objects, but rather a simplicity and unity of
governance runs through all creation and states
where they may be applicable.
For this reason, it seems to me, the soul
which has attained a higher state of morality in
this life by the exercise of self-denial and con
trol will, like the body and mind which have
respectively developed by labor and thought, be
fitted for and will take on a higher spiritual
life in the existence of beatified souls.
Further, inasmuch as progression is as a rule
the law of this life in matters of conscience and
87

88 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
morality, so it is a probable inference that there
will be temptations to be overcome, spiritual
tasks to be performed in the future existence,
the successful battling with which will evolve
nobler souls, greater happiness, and closer
approach to Almighty God, and the clearer,
deeper understanding of His greatness.
So, as a corollary, there may be in that future
life, no less than in this, the slothful, and even
disobedient, and who will, surely as God is a
just and righteous Judge, suffer the penalties
of their misconduct.
The views expressed in this paragraph quite
agree with the expressions of the Saviour, "in
my Father's house there are many mansions."

HELL
I have been unable to find any analogy in
nature for the existence of a physical Hell,
where the corporeal body will be forever burnt
by flame and without incineration; or for a
Heaven inhabited with angels in glorified cor
poreal bodies.
A knowledge of nature teaches in the most
unequivocal manner that the body of man is
composed largely of oxygen, nitrogen, hydro
gen, lime, carbon, potash, etc., and that these
substances on cessation of vital functions form
new combinations, until finally nothing is left
of the once physical body. Of course God
could at the last day create a great miracle and
actually re-form into its own flesh every body
that has ever lived. But I see no analogy in
nature for this action. The argument from what
we know of natural phenomena is against it.
The same atom of oxygen, etc., has in many in
stances been incorporated into other things. If
material bodies were to exist in the future state
composed of the elements of nature as now,
heat would be required to keep them alive, and
heat requires food to supply its loss by radia-
89

90 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
tion, or this probably greatest and most import
ant of all natural states — heat — would have to
be altered.
Inasmuch as the moral nature, the soul of
man, is something without body or parts ; is a
capacity to know right from wrong; is a con
sciousness which experiences pleasure in obey
ing an instinct to do right, and remorse by
instinct, when wrong is done the scientific con
clusion would be, if this consciousness exists
after death, any punishment it may receive will
be similar to what it experiences in this life,
namely, an intense and overwhelming regret
for joys lost.
This argument is not deemed antagonistic to
the allusions in the Bible of physical hell-fires,
because such references were most probably
written in the exaggerated figurative style of
the Psalms of David, and of the early oriental
Christian era.

RECOGNITION IN FUTURE LIFE
It seems to follow logically from the fore
going arguments, "if flesh and blood" cannot
enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and the body is
raised "a spiritual body," the relations of this
life, so largely built upon flesh and blood, in
order that the earth may be inhabited by beast
and man, will probably form no part of immor
tality. No argument from nature presents itself to
my mind for the immortality of the natural
body, but only for the spiritual body — the
soul — that instinctive consciousness within us
which teaches there is a God whose laws so far
as we perceive them should be obeyed. Soul
may recognize soul — that is as far as analogy
from rational premises, with any probability,.
leads.

91

CHRIST
The divinity of Christ has been and is a
.stumbling block to many persons as anxious to
know the truth as the most sincere believers in
the Trinity.
I recognize well that no man living has seen
Christ, or His miracles, and belief in Him to
the extent of the Christian creed must be
largely a matter of faith.
For myself, I have been led by a purely
rational system of argumentation to accept in
the fullest sense the Divinity of Christ. To
show the train of reasoning which has brought
me to this conclusion, I must repeat, in the first
place, the rational argument for faith and its
necessity. We start again with the fundamental propo
sition that God's Providence is one of progres
sion from the lower to the higher state as
exhibited in all the organic domains of nature
and this progression is the result of individual
efforts, either involuntary or conscious, exerted
in overcoming obstacles. Without obstacles to
be overcome there can be no effort. This prop
osition applies to the moral nature of man as
-well as to his physical and mental qualities.
92

CHRIST 93
As I think the subject out, there could be no
moral growth in believing in God and worship
ping Him if He had made His presence as vis
ible at all times as the sun to men ; there could
be no increased development in man's morality
if there were no temptations and no sin to com
bat. By analogy to a strictly physical law, in or
der to exert force there must be a resistance to
be contended against, so to exert moral strength
there must be something to offer resistance —
such as an absence of absolutely definite knowl
edge of the Being our consciousness instinct
ively points to as an object to be worshipped,
or a natural selfishness opposed by conscience,
and which we know it is demanded of us to
subdue or regulate within the bounds of charity
to our fellow men.
Such a growth in morality shows its desira
bility by increased happiness in this life, and the
probability, as shown in a prior paragraph, for
its being "a preparation for intenser bliss during
a future existence.
I know of nothing so capable of offering a
resistance to the conscience, of presenting diffi
culties to be overcome, like labor is to the mus
cles, as a state of affairs not apparent to the
senses and which cannot be demonstrated as a
mathematical proposition. To believe in such
a state of affairs, wanting such certainty is
faith.

^4 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
The conclusion, therefore, of this purely
rational argument becomes apparent that moral
growth would not be acquired by man from the
coming of Christ if God were constantly giving
to mankind such physical or other evidences of
Christ's Messiahship as to leave no opportunity
for the exercise of faith. In other words,
according to this argument, for God to have
accomplished in the best manner the objects of
Christ's mission, viz., the growth of man's
moral nature, He must have made the evi
dences of such mission just so far veiled as to
call for the practice of faith — for in his efforts
to believe, to peer into the mysteries of the God
head, into the divinity of Christ, to solve these
ennobling, unsolvable propositions, and at the
same time, while debating the subject, to con
template as he must the perfection of Christ's
life, man grows in such grace as will fit him for
entrance into that blissful state of immortality
we fain call Heaven.
No argument can, therefore, be drawn from
our imperfect knowledge of His Divinity, but
such imperfect knowledge is a strong corrobor
ating probability in favor of the truth of such
¦divinity. In other words, a wise and adequately pow
erful man who was seeking the moral better
ment of mankind would have caused the knowl-

CHRIST 95
edge of Christ to have been enfolded with just
the obscurities we find it.

When one looks on the face of nature and
contemplates the overwhelming evidences of
design in everything that exists, even in micro
scopic germ life; where all these evidences are
the result of either individual creation or the
outcome of an evolution established by law and
impressed upon creatures by an intelligent Cre
ator (the conclusion from the one or the other
is the same) ; where nothing has been allowed
to imperil this creation ; where higher excellen
cies in vegetable and animals are being attained
century after century; where intellectual and
moral growth has been and is taking place,
tending to one definite end — the altruism of
man — and not to contrary and warring results,
as would be the case if it were the work of
chance, when one sees all this marshalling of
forces, like a well-ordered army under one com
petent general, for a definite result, and that re
sult is beneficient, the probability is very strong
that at all events, as to great masses, as to vast
results, no matter how much the individual may
apparently be left unaided to work out his des-

96 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
tiny, the Creator has a supervision over the af
fairs of this world.
It is a matter of indifference for the purposes
of this argument whether the supervision is
immediate in each instance or general, or estab
lished by law ; in either case an infinitely pow
erful and loving Creator will hold Himself
responsible for the existence of things.
Now of all the events that have happened
within historic times none are comparable to
the influence exerted by the Mission of Christ.
It is believed the historian will agree, the pro
gress of humanity has been greater since the
Christian era than for all the eras which pre
ceded it ; that the types of manhood have very
generally improved, for many more races and
parts of races were slaves of others, with attend
ant ignorance, lust, crime, disregard of life and
rights of others, anterior to the proclamation of
"peace and good will towards men," than since ;
that with this reign of peace the scythe and cog
wheel have been forged in preference to the
spear; that all the comforts and elegancies of
the present civilization are due directly to
Christ's influence ; that a new-born charity for
fellow-men has vastly ameliorated all the asper
ities of life, a charity of which so little was
practised among the ancients, and so much
now, until nations and individuals vie with one
another as to which shall do most for suffering
humanity. All of these things an unpreju-

CHRIST 97
diced and competent judgment must declare to
be the result of the coming of Christ.
With such an array of blessings, the product
of one event, is the judgment not forced to the
conclusion by the strictly rational argument,
that no such world-changing power would have
been allowed by the Creator to have played,
without His permission, such an important part
among His creation, which He apparently loves
so much ?

The investigator of truth will instantly reply
to the conclusion of the preceding section, then
the religions of Buddha, Confucius, Mahomet
and all pretenders have been allowed by God.
This is probably true. It is a correct deduc
tion from the preceding arguments. God has
allowed sin to exist, why not a false religion —
possibly a false religion for the same reason he
lias permitted sin — probably, when He has
made known at the same time a true religion.
Such was doubtless the case when, notwith
standing the teachings of Moses and the other
patriarchs, the Hebrews so often pursued
strange gods. Such may be the case when men
in the present day reject Christ and set up some
other religion, ignoring Him.

98 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
There is nothing antagnostic to the idea, God
established the Christian religion in that He
also permitted Buddhism, Confucianism and
Mahometanism and many others. These
religions have done good to mankind. Each
has taught man higher ideals, higher aspira
tions and made him a better being.
Possibly each religion has been best suited to
the circumstances of the people, or some other
adequate reason has caused God to have per
mitted it.
To my mind, God chose for the advent of
Christ a most opportune time — a time when
men had advanced to such a state of enlighten
ment that Christian doctrines have been able to
produce the wonderful changes and improve
ments which have taken place in modern cen
turies. The argument in the preceding paragraph is,
therefore, not weakened by the conclusion that
other religions have been allowed by God. It
is unimportant, also, for this argument what
He has done in other cases. In His mercy He
has brought Christianity to our hearthstones,
and the duty follows, from this fact, to accept
and practice its precepts and to carry Christ's
gospel even to those who are devotees of such
other creeds. It is a significant circumstance,
however, that in no other religion except
Christianity has God permitted the preacher to

CHRIST 99
claim divinity. Neither Buddha, Confucius,
nor Mahomet asserted he was more than man.

A legitimate method of human reasoning is,.
one may judge men and things by results. So
when we find a religion unfolding most beauti
fully the love and holiness and righteousness of
God, teaching brotherly love and truth, the
results of which have been a wonderful pro
gress in the physical, intellectual, and moral
development of men wherever such religion has
been established, it raises a probability of its
truthfulness and the veracity of its founder, for
truth and error do not consort — grapes do not
grov/ of thistles or figs of thorns.

Not only are the results of men's conduct a
valuable criterion for testing the validity of
their claims for recognition, but the means they
employ to produce results also furnish credit or
discredit to the truthfulness of their assertions.

lOO THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
To Steal in order to give to the poor; to lie
for a good cause; to break the Sabbath day
unnecessarily to earn money for the necessities
of life ; to claim the gift of prophecy for gain,
all bear their own condemnations. But when
we find a preacher leading the most exemplary
life, devoting his energies without hope of re
ward, whose teachings breathe the highest phil
anthropy, who gives his life, as a martyr, for
his principles, such methods constitute a proba
bility that what he claims for himself is true,
because he has been truthful in all other things.
At law a man's general reputation for truth
is considered adequate to constitute a suffic
iently strong reason why he may be believed in
any particular instance. On what ground,
then, can Christ be deprived of the benefit of
this presumption which men apply in cases of
human conduct?

Many persons profess to believe Jesus Christ
was a reality — a man of the highest possible
virtues, but not the Son of God. His life they
point to as an example for all men to admire
and imitate. They further agree, nothing has
so contributed to bring about the benign results

CHRIST lOI
of civilization of the present era as the influence
of His religion.
These two positions are to my mind incon
sistent. For no proposition is plainer than
Christ in several places in the New Testament
distinctly declares His Divinity — that He is the
Son of God.
If Christ was truthful, as they affirm. He
should be believed; if He was not divine, not
the Son of God, He must have been a falsifier,
but such persons say He possessed every virtue,
and was not a falsifier, therefore their positions
are inconsistent.

The argument that Jesus Christ was the best
of men and still not the Son of God may be
attempted to be defended as follows : Its advo
cates may say, we believe Jesus lived, that He
was pre-eminently virtuous, truthful, and the
most perfect man who has existed, but we deny
He made the assertions of Himself recorded in
the New Testament. We contend that the
things therein affirmed concerning His Divinity
have been written by men who have lived since
and whose assertions are unworthy of belief.
This dictum is founded on no proof except

I02 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
what such persons claim is the natural improb
ability of God sending a Son, a part of His own
Divine Being, to this earth as a teacher and as
a sacrifice for man.
The Christians may answer, "We deny there
is any improbability in God visiting this earth
in the form of Christ. You anti-Christians
admit God made the world which has so much
beauty and love and happiness in it, that it has
been the subject of His watchful care, and man
has been the favored object of His creation,
why, then, is there any improbability in God
having visited in person this earth to direct and
prepare mankind for the advanced civilization
He at that time intended to inaugurate as the
Christian Era? If He came to this earth, the
probability is. He would have appeared as a
corporeal being, for man with his five senses
could recognize no other, limited as he is to a
cognizance of matter, and therefore God would
probably choose to represent Himself in the
form of man so as to approach nearer to the
minds and consciences of men."
It thus is manifest, there is no inherent im
probability of God having appeared among
men in the person of Jesus Christ.

CHRIST 103
Admit the authenticity of the Scriptures,
that is, their words were inspired by God, then
there is no escape from the acceptance of all
therein written as truthful.
But indeed it is fast growing to be the
fashion among men, particularly as distin
guished from women, to deny their authen
ticity. Not that one person in ten can give an
intelligent reason for his unbelief, but an
impression or a knowledge that some distin
guished atheists have held this view is adequate
on which to establish their uneducated convic
tion. But what are the probabilities of their genu
ineness in a purely rational argumentation.
Upon their face, from cover to cover of the
New Testament, nothing save the highest mor
ality is set forth — truth, justice, charity, purity,
benevolent self-sacrifice, temperance — every
conceivable virtue is taught, and nowhere is
crime, deceit or other sin authorized or pal
liated. For men unaided by inspiration to have writ
ten so much that is superlatively good, to have
never shown the cloven foot of the beast even
once, it is improbable (from our common
knowledge that men speak and act and write
from the fullness of the heart) that such indi
viduals, imbued with such elevated moral
ity, could have deliberately fabricated and
recorded what they knew to be false — more yet.

104 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
to have falsified when the falsification could
not have been of any possible profit to them
selves.

To my mind the New Testament account of
the life of Christ — His principles of morality,
His teachings. His exposition of His Divinity
and mission, His death and resurrection — is the
most extraordinary statement or scheme of
facts that has ever appeared in the annals of
mankind. Nothing written before or since
bears any comparison to it, either in the facts
recorded or the manner in which they are nar
rated. The history of Buddha, Confucius, or
Mahomet, in every essential point, is vastly
inferior. It is so unique, for centuries the most tal
ented of mankind have produced nothing like
it ; so captivating, the most learned and earnest
have become enrapt in its recitals and prin
ciples. When any scheme of such transcendent
originality, such marvellous morality, and such
persuasive probability takes a firm hold on the
minds of the best thinkers for centuries, there
is, as a matter of purely human reasoning, a

CHRIST 105
probability of its truthfulness, for the consen
sus of a large number of competent judges has
always been deemed in human affairs the best
means for arriving at truth.

The principles taught by Christ raise a prob
ability of the genuineness of His own Divinity.
With a wonderfully accurate generalization He
groups all of mankind's duties under two
heads — First, To love God with all the heart
and soul and mind; and second. To love one's
neighbor as one's self.
The perfect obedience of these two laws is
the ultimate goal to which all moral improve
ment is tending. In the long vista of the
future, seen clearly only by the eye of Divinity,
Christ, understanding the principles of God's
creation, that excelsior was the ruling thought
of the Creator and destiny of all things,
announced with more than human wisdom
these grand requirements to constitute the
highest and future man.
No being of flesh and blood alone would
have conceived of the sublimity of character to
be attained in a perfect obedience to such com
mandments, or would have deemed it prac
ticable to have set such a task for mankind to

I06 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
perform. Buddha and Confucius failed to
recognize man's obligation to the Deity; and
Mahomet, man's duty to man.
We thus have in the ten arguments presented
above ten probabilities in favor of the verity of
Christ and the truthfulness of the religion He
expounded. In a matter of worldly concern when ten
probabilities point to one conclusion and none —
except the inability of certain demonstration,
and that in a matter where certain demonstra
tion is impossible and not desirable — is shown
to exist against it, a wise man usually, with
much certainty, acts upon them.

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
Men are social beings. In co-operation they
attain their highest development. Argument
is not necessary to establish this proposition.
To live in society certain rules for govern
ment of the individuals are so necessary that in
every instance, whether nomadic, tribal, or in
more complex organizations, such rules are
established either involuntarily or by design.
Co-operation, by its very nature, implies agree
ment of conduct to produce certain desired
results. This compact to act on definite lines is
government, and men cannot escape from its
establishment if they would.
The same principle producing national gov
ernment applies in all cases where individuals-
act in common — from world-wide corporations
to a partnership of two persons.
Christ established a religion, the aim of
which was the betterment of mankind. To
promulgate it required the efforts of many dis
ciples. Their work was to have a common
object, therefore an organization with definite
rules for government of the members was
necessary. Such an organization is a church.
107

ao8 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
A church being thus proved from strictly
rational considerations to be necessary, no man
has a right to divorce himself from such an
organization, and say, "I will serve God alone."
The wisdom of church establishment is as
apparent as its necessity. Men have a right to
the example and counsel of their neighbors;
and besides nothing contributes more to stabil
ity of conduct in doing well than the restrain
ing influence of the opinion of one's fellow
'Churchmen.

MIRACLES
The historian Hume asserted no human testi
mony was competent to prove the truth of a
miracle when such miracle was a violation of
the ordinary laws of nature.
To a man who has succeeded in convincing
himself there is no God, the truth of miracles
cannot be demonstrated. God alone, it is ad
mitted, can change the laws of nature, and if
He does not exist, there is no power to perform
them. Nothing illustrates better the inconsis
tent credulity of the atheist than his ascribing
to inorganic matter the power to originate itself
and establish the inconceivably complex, but
certain, laws by which it is governed.
To hold the opinion that the laws of
gravitation established themselves, the prin
cipal theorem of which is, matter attracts mat
ter directly as the masses and inversely as the
square of the distances between them ; that light
and heat, mere vibrations, without intelligence,
could construct their own laws, could work out
even the one rule that their diffusion is as the
cube of the distance; that matter could distin
guish between its attractive force which is
directly as the mass and its working force
109

1 10 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
which is impeded as the third power of its
weight ; that electricity, believed by many to be
a pure vibration of molecules, without men
tality, could arrange its transmission so its elec
tromotive force would always be equal to the
current multiplied by the resistance — more yet,
every time any one of these forces exerts itself,
it has the intelligence to act in the same manner,
it has invariably behaved in the aeons of the
past — I say, to hold these opinions of nature, of
inanimate matter, to endow it with such won
derful intelligence and order, is more inconceiv
able than to believe an all-powerful and all-wise
Creator would perform a miracle to attest the
truth of a religion which had for its object the
elevation of man, the highest earthly product
of His creation.

Assuming the universe was brought into
existence by a Creator, it is an ordinary proba
bility that He has the power to perform mir
acles if He desires.
What men make they can unmake or alter.
If this be the rule of this life, is it not probable
the Creator of the world and its laws can
destroy the world and suspend or change those

MIRACLES III
laws? Would it not be a violation of the
ordinary principles of reasoning we apply to
earthly affairs to suppose a God who had the
capacity to make the wonderful cosmos of land
and sea and skies was Himself a slave to His
own creation, without the power to abolish, to
alter, or even to improve it?

If it be granted this world was made by an
all-powerful and intelligent Creator, whose
scheme of creation included the moral better
ment of mankind, then nothing is more reason
able, or probable, than He should appeal to that
moral nature in a manner best suited to its
ennoblement. That God has done so is plain from His
causing unhappiness invariably to attend on
disobedience of the instinctive moral laws and
contentment to follow the performance of
moral duty.
When we find Him, therefore, taking such
an active part in the moral behavior of men, is
it improbable He should go a step further and
establish a new religion, the natural effect of
which has been a great aid to such moral life?

1 12 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
If this be true, does it not follow logically,
would not any wise man, having the power,
certify in the beginning his religion by such
unusual evidences as miracles, so as to leave no
doubt in the minds of many of those who saw
them, and were to attest them to future genera
tions, of the genuineness of such religion?
Would not this wise man go a step further,
namely, after the certification of his religon by
miracles, cease in their unnecessary reiteration
in order to allow faith — the ennobling influen
ces of faith — in those miracles to operate con
tinuously by attracting attention to them, and
their evidences ; by causing an effort at belief.
and as a consequence of such effort for men to
grow into higher spirituality?
There would be no increase in spirituality if
at stated periods in every year God attested His
Divinity by an undoubtable miracle. Men
would receive it as they do the knowledge that
three and two make five. In the case of belief
in the numbers making five there can be no
advancement, and as often repeated heretofore
there can be no physical growth without labor,
and no moral growth in believing in God and
His Son if their demonstration were absolute.
The uncertainties of the miracles of Christ
are in exact accord with all the phases of God's
revelation of Himself to us. No man has seen
His Holy Essence. They are in harmony with

MIRACLES I 13
His entire plan of the evolution of life, for all
life ascends to higher planes only by effort.

God in establishing the religion of Christ
was dealing with a race of beings which
received all its primary knowledge through the
five senses. These senses took cognizance only
of matter and of the unvarying character of the
laws governing it. Plainly, the most effective
manner, from a human point of view, to appeal
to the intelligence of such creatures, to show
them that such religion came from God and
God alone, was to reverse or suspend the laws
of nature the race knew He alone could do.
The fact, therefore, that the most appropriate
means were used to produce the most effective
results, of itself, creates a probability of the
reality of the miracles of Christ.

Inasmuch as miracles involve a temporary
reversal or suspension of the laws of nature,
which can be accomplished only by an all-pow-

1 14 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
erful Being, it is manifest no man, as man, can
perform a miracle.
When, therefore, miracles are asserted by
individuals to attest things our consciousness
declare are not of God, such accounts should
be rejected. But on the other hand, as the
character of the miracles of the Saviour was
benign, was ennobling; the cause for the mir
acles was adequate ; the effects produced by the
miracles have been of the most extraordinary
beneficence ; the miracles were attested by such
numbers of competent judges and truthful per
sons as to exclude in all human probability any
mistake or fabrication, then such miracles are
as proper subjects of belief as many of the
things believed by men in the ordinary affairs
of life.

CONCLUSION
On a retrospect of the arguments herein
developed my own judgment is persuaded of
the verity of the fundamental truths of the
Christian religion. Nearly all the subjects dis
cussed are dogmas of Christianity — each an
harmonious part of that grand scheme. In
such a case when more than one proposition is
proved probable it adds much to the probability
of the others; when many, on the ordinary
principles of human reasoning, are shown to be
probable, it constitutes so high a degree of
proof that men, in many instances, stake for
tune and life on facts established in such man
ner. This is especially the case when probabil
ity is the best evidence obtainable, and it need
hardly be noticed, from the nature of the sub
jects herein discussed, there can be no positive
demonstration of either their truth or falsity.
They are all beyond proof of certainty, but not
of probability.
These conclusions, to my mind, liken them
selves somewhat to the stones of a pyramid,
wherein each successive higher course rests for
its foundation on the lower, and draws in the
115

1 l6 THE TESTIMONY OF REASON
lines to a more definite and narrowing conclu
sion, until a final apex is formed, from which
a glorious star, unfading in its fascination,
sheds its hallowing light, and in whose rays
there is beheld a benignant God, and His Son,
Jesus Christ.

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