Macroscosmus; hints toward the solution of the greatest problems

Front matter

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Chapter I. The Problem of Theism 1

" II. The Problem of Creation 13

" III. Problems in the Higher Criticism 26

" IV. The Problem of Christology 40

" V. The Problems of Revelation and Inspiration 51

VI. The Problem of Evil 58

" VII. The Problem of Unbelief 65

" VIII. The Problem of a Future State 74

Book II

The Greatest Social and Political Problems of the Age.

Chapter I. The Labor Problem 85

" II. The Marriage Problem 99

" III. The Liquor Problem 109

IV. The Sunday Problem 118

" V. The Problems of the City 125

" VI. The Problem of Education 136

" VII. Problems of the Home 154

" VIII. The Crime Problem 172

" IX. The Problems of the Church 188

" X. The Problems of the State 200

Book III

The Golden Mean Philosophy in the Solution of the Greatest Problems.

Part I

The Greatest Problems in Biology, Anthropology, Philosophy and Sociology.

Chapter I. The Greatest Problems in Biology 220

" II. The Greatest Problems in Anthropology 229

" III. The Greatest Problems in Philosophy 242

" IV. The Greatest Problems in Sociology 259

Part II. The Greatest Problems in Theology

Chapter I. The Philosophy of Religion 273

' ' II. Genesis and Geology 283

" III. The Philosophy of Christianity 292

" IV. Tennyson's Science of Religion 300

" V. Robert Browning's Philosophy of Religion 312 iv

PEEFACE.

It was more than a year after the author thought of giving the name "Cultura" to one of his former works that the name was finally adopted. He has had no reason to regret his final decision in reference to this work. It is now more than a year since he first thought of calling the present work "Macrocosmus," and he has finally decided that he can find no better title. He uses the term "Macrocosimis" as referring to the great universe of matter and mind, and intends it to include the Microcosmus. Dean Swift says : "Philosophers say that man is a micro cosmus, or little world, resembling in miniature every part of the great world."

Some of the material in this work was used in courses oi lectures during the five years the author was Chancellor of Add- Ran University (now Texas Christian University). The material in some of the chapters was also used when he was president of Columbia College, Kentucky. He has also used portions of the work in lecture courses at different colleges and universities. It might be also proper to state that a few of the chapters have been published in magazines. The author, however, has carefully revised all, and by far the largest portion of the work has never before been published. The author is always glad to acknowledge the help he has received from others, and in the body of the book the names of authors quoted are given. The author feels under many obligations to the volumes published by the Philosophical Society of Great Britain. He has not been able to find anywhere else such learned discussions on the great scientific and philosophical problems of the age. While the author acknowledges his obligations to others, the book is strictly his own, and he takes some positions in it that he has not found taken by any other writer. It should be remembered that the purpose of the work is to give hints towards the solution of the greatest problems. Author.

rNTEODUOTIOK".

In Book First o-f this work, the author discusses the greatest scientific and philosophical problems of the age. He fully believes that Christianity is essential to the solution of these problems. In fact, he does not believe they can be solved without it.

Mr. Kidd, in his "Social Evolution," fully recognizes the fact that western civilization is largely indebted to Christianity for its marvelous progress. Christianity only promotes the highest progress when it is in harmony with the spirit of its Master. The Christ is certainly the great central figure of our modern civilization.

Christ is the true interpreter of God. It has been correctly said that man is the noblest work of God, and we can just as truly say that a proper conception of God is the noblest work of man. A true knowledge of God has been a matter of progressive development. It is said that photographers can not take pictures of the great peaks of the Alps as a whole, but are compelled to take them in sections, and then put these sections together in order to make a complete picture. So man was not capable of grasping a full conception of God at once ; but God had to gradually reveal himself to man. Revelation itself was progressive. As Jesus has taught, it was first the blade, then the ear, and. afterwards the full corn in the ear. Man in the childhood of the race was. not prepared for the full revelation given through the Christ. It required centuries of preparation. The student of the Rible knows that Jehovah was at first the God of the patriarchs, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He was looked upon as the God of Abraham's tribe, and of his posterity. When Israel became a nation, Jehovah became the God of the nation. While .the prophets had a very high conception of God, it remained for the Christ to fullv reveal unto us the true nature of the Father.

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

We read in Malt. xi. 27 as follows: "Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him." In John i. 18 we have much the same thought. Jesus says: "Xo man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." The Xew Testament certainly teaches that the Christ interpreted God to man in a higher light than he had ever been known before. He taught the Fatherhood of God, and this brought God to man. The chasm between God and man was bridged, and God was brought to man. This thought has had an important influence upon the modern scientific doctrine of the immanence of God in nature. All modern culture has been greatly influenced by it.

The doctrine of the Fatherhood of God places the divine personality in a higher light than ever known before. The Buddhists strive to get rid of personality, but Christians consider it their duty to develop personality. Christ came to give life, and to give it more abundantly. The Fatherhood of God involves his goodness, and his providential care of his children. God sends the rain upon the just and the unjust. When children ask bread, the true father will not give th^m a stone, nor will he give them a serpent when they ask meat; so the Father in heaven will not reject the petitions of his children. The divine Fatherhood also involves the love of God. We thus reach the very essence of God, for God is love. When man thus understands the very nature of .God, he is prepared for the highest culture and civilization. Xenophon tells us that the mercenary troops were driven by the whip into battle. They could not make such soldiers as true patriots. It is better to serve God from fear than not to serve him at all, but those who serve God from love make better Christians. Hawthorne said that Jonathan Edwards made him fear and tremble, but that Jesus Christ made him hope and love. Jesus Christ has even taught our modern schools how to govern the students.

CirKTST THE INTERPRETER OE Man. 111 John, the Second

chapter and twenty-fifth vor«o. ; we have the following language

INTRODUCTION. IX

in reference to the Christ: "And because he needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man ; for he himself knew what was in man." Quinet gives a good description of man's relation to the universe, in the following language : "Man is neither the master nor the slave of nature ; he is its interpreter and living word. Man consummates the universe, and gives a voice to the mute creation. Man is the microeosmus, answering to the larger word and world of God." Man is the epitome of nature, and a mystery second only to the Deity. The psychologist can no more find out the soul to perfection than the theologian can find out God. Science has discovered every continent, and explored even the head-waters of the Nile ; but the human mind remains the terra incognita.

The sensational philosophy of the eighteenth century greatly degraded man, and it has had a deleterious influence upon the theology of the nineteenth century. We are now glad, however, that theology is outgrowing this materialistic view of man, which only makes him an intelligent brute. Such a view of man tends to crime and degradation. Convince a man that there is nothing in him, and it is very difficult to get anything out of him. It is said that a drunken gambler was once elected mayor of a city. He felt the responsibility, quit his old associates, had the law enforced, and became a worthy citizen.

The Bible gives a very different view 7 of 'man from that of the sensational philosophy. The eighth Psalm, according to the Revised Version, states that man was made only a little lower than God. This Psalm is a diamond, and the first and last verses are its gold setting. It teaches that man was made in the divine image, and shows his relationship to nature.

In his physical make-up man is the highest animal. Where the intelligence of the animal ends, man begins. Instinct is the highest intelligence with the animal, and it is the lowest with man. The animal is stationary, but man is progressive. More than two thousand years ago Plato described the instincts of the bee, and from that age to this it has not added a new idea to its cell. In the davs of Seneca both men and women made

X INTRODUCTION.

pets of monkeys. The women carried them in their laps, much as they do dogs at the present day. Notwithstanding such good environment, no monkey has ever been able to compose an oration or write a book.

The interpretation that Christ gives of man solves the greatest problems of modern anthropology. Jesus answers the questions, Whence came man ? What is man ? and Whither is he bound ? Man came from the plastic hand of God, and was made in the divine image. He was made only a little lower than God. He became himself a creator, and went to work at once to subdue nature. He became a poet, an artist and a philosopher. Jesus did not hold to the view of the materialistic philosopher, who denies the freedom of the will; but he held man strictly responsible for his conduct. He taught that man would be a failure even if he gained the whole world, and in doing this lost his own soul. Jesus taught that man's higher moral nature relates him to God, as the instincts of the birds of the air cause them, at the approach of winter, to seek a warmer climate. Man's higher nature must be completed in a higher world, and Jesus taught that man was bound for the mansions above. This view of man makes him a proper subject for God's revelation. It is said that when Tennyson walked in his arbor and repeated verses of his "In Memoriam," a caterpillar crawled up his desk. The worm was not capacitated to receive a revelation from the great poet. So a materialistic philosophy, that makes man only a worm of the dust, destroys the possibility of a revelation. The view, however, which Christ presents, that makes man a son of God and only a litttle lower than God himself, makes a revelation a natural thing. When we conceive of God as a father, it would certainly be very unnatural for him not to reveal his will to his children.

Christ the Religious Teacher of the Race. — The greatest writers of the past century recognize Jesus as the true religious teacher of the race. Near the close of his life Thomas Carlvle used the following language: "The tidings of the most important event ever transacted in this world is the life and death of the divine Man in Judaea., at once the symptom

INTRODUCTION. XI

and cause of innumerable changes to all people in the world.'' John Euskin has been placed at the very front of the writers of the nineteenth century. He says that his life has been dedicated, not to "the study of the beautiful in face and flower, in landscape and gallery, but to an interpretation of the truth and beauty of Jesus Christ." Among the last words of the critical Matthew Arnold are the following: "Christ came to reveal what righteousness really is. For nothing will do except righteousness ; and no other conception of righteousness will do except Christ's conception of it — his method and secret." Shakespeare, the greatest intellect, in many respects, ever known, does, in passage after passage, eulogize Jesus Christ as the religious leader and teacher of the race.

Jesus was noted for the simplicity of his style. He had not a style, but the style. History tells us of a Spartan traveler who could spend only one day in Athens. This traveler went to Phidias, the great artist, and requested him to explain the secret of his art, Phidias told him that one day was not long enough for him to explain his system of sculpture, but that it was long enough for him to study a single statue that embodied the beautiful. So the great artist unveiled the statue of Minerva, and the Spartan spent the day in studying in it the principles of beauty. While Jesus knew that a lifetime was not long enough for man to fully understand the philosophy of religion, he could understand the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. So Jesus presents a beautiful parable that teaches the Fatherhood of God, and consequently the- brotherhood of man. Charles Dickens, the greatest master of the pathetic style of the past century, on being asked the name of the most pathetic story in literature, at once answered: "The story of the prodigal son." Thomas F. Marshall, one of Kentucky's greatest orators, asked the noted Dr. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, to preach in parables as Jesus did. The great preacher promised that he would try to do so the next Sunday. Mr. Marshall went to hear the sermon in parables, but Dr. Breckenridge stated that no man could preach in parables as did Jesus.

Xll INTRODUCTION.

The Christ was noted for the breadth of his teaching. He went far beyond the view that pictures God as fear, vengeance and iron fate. While even Moses could say, when on the top of the mountain, "I exceedingly fear and quake/' Jesus, when on the mount, could say, "Our Father who art in heaven." Jesus was not satisfied in teaching simply the attributes of God, but he taught the very essence of God : God is light, God is Spirit, and God is love. No other teacher ever taught the very nature of God as did Jesus Christ. Nicodemus certainly made no mistake when he said to Jesus, "We know- that you are a. teacher come from God, for no man can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him." Not only Nicodemus, but all the great Jewish doctors of that day, had to admit that the works of Jesus were not the works of an ordinary man. They recognized in him a special influence from the unseen world.

The view of Jesus Christ in reference to the kingdom of God was revolutionary. Even Nicodemus could not understand it, The Jews, like other nations, looked upon the kingdom as under the protection of a higher power, but they never had a conception of the spiritual kingdom that Jesus came to establish. The great adversary offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world upon the same condition that other great leaders received them. Mohammed afterwards accepted them from the great adversary. The spiritual conceptions of the kingdom of God, as presented by Jesus, were so high that even the apostles were a long time understanding them. When this world reaches the high spiritual conceptions of the Christ, then the kingdoms of the world will be conquered, and true Christian culture will result in the perfection of humanity.

In Book Second of this work, the author discusses the greatest social and political problems of the age. He largely views them from the standpoint of Christian sociology. This is indeed a new science. Dr. J. N. W. Stuckenberg was one of the first persons in this country to write a book on the subject. And as a matter of fact, when he wrote it he was living in Ber-

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

lin, Germany. My attention was soon attracted to the work, as I was then a student in the East, and I bought a copy. I have been much interested in the science from that day to this. I can see no good reason why we should not study Christian society the same as we study the Christian individual.

August© Comte, the French philosopher, first introduced the word "sociology" into literature. He invented the word to represent what he called social physics. As you know, he designed his positive philosophy to supersede all metaphysics and theology. He wanted no God to influence society, but only natural law. He, however, was never able to tell whence came natural law. The laws of nature are the very thoughts of God. We are now grateful to know that. Sociology has largely escaped its materialistic environment. Sociology is the science of society, and Christian sociology is the Christian science of society ; i. e., it is the science of society viewed from a Christian standpoint. We find a sociology in the Bible, and as Christ is the central figure of the Bible, Christian sociology comprehends Biblical sociology. I regard Christian sociology as one of the most important departments of theology.

Christian sociology is a very important science at the present time ; for the tendency of Protestantism has been to an extreme individualism. Both the church and society have suffered from this extreme tendency. Individuals have been leeches, which have fattened themselves on society. Christian sociology is greatly needed to counteract this extreme'. There is also another extreme that is equally dangerous. It is infidel socialism, that has made such rapid progress during the last half of the nineteenth century. This theory really denies individual freedom, and the individual is not considered as having any intrinsic value in himself. He is only regarded as a means to an end — an instrument to advance the interest of society. While individualism makes society valuable only as a boat to carry the passenger) socialism makes society a sea, and individuals only waves that rise and fall. Christian sociology condemns both these figures ; it makes society a body, and in-

XIV % INTRODUCTION.

dividuals members of this body. The members are as necessary to the perfection of the body, as the body is essential to the health and welfare of the members. Both Christ and Paul taught there could be no body without members, and no members without the body.

In the study of Christian sociology, we should use the inductive method. We know something of the great blunders that have been made in other departments of theology by the use of isolated proof-texts. Christ and his apostles have been made to support all kinds of fanciful theories. No one should consider himself competent to speak or write on Christian sociology until he has studied carefully every passage in the Bible bearing on this subject. He is not prepared to generalize until he has wisely handled the Scriptures according to the inductive method. Even after all this has been done., it is then best to think at least twice before either speaking or writing once. You can readily see the importance of this when you consider the character of the New Testament itself. The sayings of Jesus on any subject, like those of Plato., are greatly scattered, and it is necessary to bring them together. Besides, Jesus often used figurative language, and it requires great care to always perceive his meaning. Think of the many fanciful theories that have been built upon the parable of the unjust steward. Christian sociology is indeed a very interesting science ; but those who study it should learn to watch as well as

pray.

Christian sociology especially concerns itself with three normal forms of society; viz.: the family, the state and the church. The state is a development out of the family, and, in a sense, the church is a development out of the state. Christ did not destroy the law and the prophets, but he did fulfill them. He re-enacted every commandment of the Decalogue except one, but all were placed upon a higher plane. In the place of the Jewish Sabbath, he established the Lord's Day; but even the Jewish Sabbath itself he fulfilled. "There is a rest remaining for the people of God." While, in a sense,

INTRODUCTION. XV

Christianity was a development, "first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear," still the church was quite original with Jesus. It was to be built upon a divine foundation, and be animated by the spirit of the new commandment which he himself had given.

Jesus gives special attention to the family as one of the normal forms of society. He teaches the importance of a higher morality and spirituality on the subject than had ever been known before. The overthrow of the ancient family institutions among the Komans was rapidly undermining Roman civilization. The Jews were not so bad, but their loose ideas concerning divorce were rapidly rendering void the ethical influence of Judaism. The liberal school of Hillel had become a very great offender on this question, and a man could even obtain a divorce in case he found another woman he liked better than his wife. Well could Jesus charge upon the Jewish teachers that they had made void the word of God by their traditions. He referred them back to the primal law of marriage, when God made one female for one man, and declared that the twain should be one flesh. Xot even father or mother had the right to stand in the way of a proper marital union. If necessary, man was to give up even father and mother, and cleave to his wife. In opposition to the traditional view of divorce, he would allow divorce on no other ground than adultery, which crime in itself severed the marriage bond. Jesus was very specific in his teachings in reference to the family, and the principal cause of this was doubtless the fact that the family stands at the foundation of all true civilization. It is really a social microcosm, and its purity and perpetuity are essential to the progress of civilization. Without the Christian family, we would certainly be without the Christian state and the Christian church.

On its physical side, Jesus regards marriage, like other physical social elements, as belonging simply to the present age. The much married woman of the Sadducees' puzzle is upon this principle easily solved. The levirate law will not apply to the future world, where all are as the angels of God. As the

XVI INTRODUCTION.

physical and transient in the kingdom of God will ultimately give way to the spiritual and permanent, so, in the family, the spiritual union which must have accompanied the physical, will alone survive, and the love and union of husband and wife will be transmuted into the love and union of children of a common Father. They will be united in the great spiritual family of the redeemed.

Jesus nowhere gives any systematic teaching in reference to politics. His attitude towards the state can only be gathered from his life and a few scattered statements. His statement, "Render to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar," certainly implies a recognition of civil government. Jesus and his apostles fully taught that the state was a God-ordained institution, and that all citizens should render unto it that obedience essential to the welfare of society. Jesus did not teach any particular form of government, but that form would be in the greatest harmony with his teachings which tended to bring about that ideal social condition, characteristic of the kingdom, which he preached. All the monarchy he taught was the fatherly monarchy of God, and obedience of all men as sons of God. Society can never reach the Christian ideal until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.

The word "kingdom" is probably used at times in a more comprehensive sense than the word "church," but frequently, at least, they are interchangeable terms. This is certainly the case in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew. The purpose of the church, as well as the kingdom, was to lift society to that high ideal which he had presented to his disciples. In the church, there was to be no distinction between rich and poor, bond or free ; all were to be one in Christ, Jesus was neither an individualist nor a socialist, in the modern use of the terms. He was a preacher of righteousness. He did not commend Lazarus because he was poor, but because he was a righteous man in spite of his poverty. He did not condemn Dives because he possessed property, but because he was a selfish and foolish individualist. He had not the wisdom of the unjust steward, who knew how to

INTKODUCTION. XV11

provide for the future. Dives might have made a friend of Lazarus, aud at last have been received by him into everlasting habitations. The reason why there was such a gulf between them in the future world was the fact that Dives made the gulf in the present world. Jesus clearly taught that we are only stewards of God in this world, and in the future world we will have to account for the way. we have used our Lord's money. I heard a Philadelphia preacher at the University of Texas say that in this age it is a disgrace to be poor. If he used the word "poor" in the sense of pauper, there is doubtless much truth in what he said. It may be even a greater disgrace to be rich. Mr. Carnegie has said that the time will come when it will be a disgrace to die a millionaire. Lie doubtless meant that it is a disgrace not to make a wise use of the property a man may have acquired.

It is certainly to be regretted that modern socialism has been so much under the influence of infidel leaders ; for while it has gone to great extremes, it certainly has some important truths for society. It seems in some quarters to be coming more under Christian influence. The present attack of the Roman Catholic Church upon it may cause it to defend itself against infidelity. It seems that under the direction of the Pope the Roman Church has organized a crusade against socialism. Bishop Quigley, of Buffalo, IS". Y., has issued a manifesto against it. He uses the following strong language : "As a political party, Social Democracy is a recent importation from Continental Europe. Here, as there, its avowed object is the creation of a new order of things totally destructive to the existing social, political and economical conditions under which Ave live. The attainment of this new order of things is to be effected by political agitation in the main, but revolutionary and violent methods are freely urged by its leading advocates bs soon as the masses shall be sufficiently organized to cope with the power of capital and class.

"Everywhere this movement is characterized by unbelief, hostility to religion, and, above all, uneompromised and bitter

XV111 LNTKODUCTION.

hatred and denunciation of the Catholic Church. Its official programs, the platforms of its party conventions, the public utterances of its leading advocates, its newspaper organs and periodicals, breathe hatred and threats against revealed religion, its doctrines and institutions."

Again the bishop says : "Social Democracy denies the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, eternal punishment, the right of private ownership, the rightful existence of our social organization, and the independence of the church as a society complete in itself and founded by God. Therefore no Catholic can become a Social Democrat. Therefore no Catholic can become a member of a Social Democratic organization, or subscribe for or in any way contribute to the support of a Social Democratic newspaper organ."

The Worker, the Xew York organ of the Social Democratic party, thus replies to the bishop: "The bishop's charge is a sweeping one. We now challenge him, as bishop or an honest man, to prove, not the whole, but one-hundredth part of what he has alleged. He can not do it, for it is not true. Our national party platform is printed in this paper ; let readers search there for hatred, denunciation and threats against the Catholic Church or any other. We have, in our ranks, not only men holding to the beliefs of Protestant churches, but men belonging to the same communion with Bishop Quigley and wearing the same cloth of priesthood. In the Socialist movement we ask no man his creed. We demand only his faithful adherence to the working class in its battles with the forces of capitalisim."