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II WHAT IS GOD? (Continued.)

IN a chapter entitled "Keligion's First Postulate/' Mr. John Fiske says : "As a matter of history, the existence of a Quasi-Human God has always been an assumption or postulate. It is something which men have all along taken for granted. It probably never occurred to anybody to try to prove the existence of such a God until it was doubted, and doubts oil that subject are very modern."

In the ninth chapter of the same book, he tells from a scientific point of view how the evolution of the senses expands the world, and shows us how "natural selection is equivalent to survival of the fittest. The shapes of animals, as well as their capacities, have been evolved through almost infinitely slow increments of adjustment upon adjustment. In this way, for instance, has been evolved the vertebnate skeleton, through a process of which Spencer's wonderful analysis is as thrilling as a poem. Or consider the development of the special organs of sense. Among the most startling disclosures of embryology are those which relate to this subject. The most perfect organs of touch are the vibrissae or whiskers of the cat. . . . These cat whiskers are merely specialized forms of such hairs as those which cover the bodies of most mammals, and which remain in evanescent shape upon the human skin imbedded in minute sacs. IsTow in

*5 their origin the eye and ear are identical with vibrissae. In the early stages of vertebrate life, while the differentiation of dermal tissue went mostly to the production of feathers or scales, sundry special differentiations went to the production of eyes and ears. . . . The implication of these wonderful facts is that sight and hearing were slowly differentiated from the sense of touch. And what was the result of all this for the creature in whom organs of vision were thus developed % There was an immense extension of the range, complexity, and definiteness of the adjustment of inner relations to outer relations; in other words, there was an immense increase of life. There came into existence, moreover, for those with eyes to see it, a mighty, visible world, that for sightless creatures had been virtually non-existent."

Now what does this lesson in natural science teach ? I think it tells us of our accountability, according to the teachings of Christ when he said, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear," — there are none so deaf as those that will not hear. There are a great many things to see and hear in this universe of ours, but many of them are optional with us. When — as I have been trying to make clear — our mental insight shall become enlightened, and we cultivate all the God-given powers of our minds as well as our bodies, after the pattern that Christ has given us, it is possible that we may have organisms superior to that in which Christ dwelt; for he said that greater works than he did should his believers do. He had a personality that was capable of holding the kingdom of God and of heaven within it. He had a mental vision that could see God and heaven and legions of angels all about him. It is the privilege of every person on this globe to see and hear and know all that he needs to know ; in other words, all he strives for ; and this is the vital question, namely, man's privilege and accountability. I acknowledge the necessity of the knowledge of the true God, but what is the true God ? I claim that it is our relation to the Truth. Now the question "What is Truth ?" is the one that was asked of Christ. In the conversation with Nicodemus he says : "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." That is to say, everything and every idea that we can prove to be true is God's truth, and when we know all the laws of nature perfectly, we shall know God. But we may at any time know our heart's relation to Him — our knowledge of God must be like our relation to Him, for, as I try to prove in my chapter on the new birth, we may have perfect mind or heart relation with Him at once, when we are perfectly sincere in our quest after truth, and receive His words into our hearts. So, also, we shall know Him by the same rule when we are earnestly seeking after truth, although we may not as yet arrive at perfect knowledge. The very fact that we have discovered some truth is evidence that we have seen God, though it may be onlv like trees walking.

The apostle Paul said, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in von ? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are," — or should be. Now is there anything that we believe or know about God that did not originate in man, or did not come through the mediumship of man? For even Christ was a man : we have Scripture for the statement : — "As by man came death into the world, so by man came the resurrection from death.''

If it be argued that the ancient people who wrote the Scriptures were inspired, I would answer that men are also inspired in this day, for they have the Spirit of Truth, of whom Christ promised that he should come into the world, and who is even now being manifest in a general enlightenment of all men. The time has already come when no man needs to ask another if he knows the Lord, for all may know Him : He is near them, ready to enter heart and. mind.

Let none say, the millennium will come later ! Let it not be said, there are four months and then cometh harvest time, for the people are all ready to be harvested now, and it is just as easy for the worst as for the best: every one must surrender all, — all self-righteousness, all intent to sin. It is simply an initial act of volition as a starting-point, and after that — growth !

That which is born of flesh is flesh, or animal ; this is the teaching of science. That which is born of love for the Good is Godlike, and consequently immortal.

If the teachings of Christ are not purely ethical, they are nothing; for a mysterious interpretation, taken from mysterious teachings, leaves a mystery, and a mystery is a non-entity. I believe that God was manifested in Christ; that these teachings of His were inherent in Him, and that He was the first spiritual man who was evolved or born of the great Source of all things.

In the natural world we find many of the lower forms of life which are links in the chain of the process of evolution from the lowest types of animal life up to the highest type of human beings. Also among so-called human beings we find variations in intellectual and ethical development. So among our religious theories we have today all the first forms of religions ideas. Some of them are two thousand years old, and cannot be improved upon, while many of the new and refined beliefs are really very ancient, such as those which are distinguished by the practice of faith and prayer alone for the accomplishment of their purposes. These ideas are inferior to those which, were believed in and practiced six thousands years ago.

The case of King Herod aptly illustrates some of the religious beliefs of the past. "And upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto the people. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a God, and not of a man." It is a wrong and foolish idea, either in the religious or the political world, to suppose that a man who holds some office, no matter how high, is anything more than a servant of the people. With regard to Herod, we are told that "the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory." In striking contrast to this is the case of Peter, the apostle of that same time. After he had healed the lame man, and all the people were "filled with wonder and amazement," Peter said, "Why marvel ye at this? ... as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk ?" He further told the wondering people that it was through faith in Christ that the lame man had been cured. Peter believed that Christ could endow him with, or evolve within him a power, that would heal those who came to Him for healing. There are many in our own day who could have this power if they would exercise it.

The faith that is accomplishing the most in this day is the inventive faith. There are men who are searching the heavens and the earth for clues that will carry them on to the completion of some useful machine or device. They call to their support all the powers that be, both human and divine, to aid them in the accomplishment of their purpose. Every element in nature is experimented with. This is an object lesson to those w r ho think their prayers will be answered if they sit down and wait.

In one of Mr. Drummond's addresses, he quotes Mr. Huxley as saying, "I protest that if some great power would agree to make me always think what is true, and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and wound up every morning, I should instantly close with the offer." Mr. Drummond then says : "The infinite desirability, the infinite difficulty of being good — the theme is as old as humanity. The man does not live from whose being the same confession has not risen, or who would not give his all tomorrow, if he could close with the offer of becoming a better man. ... I propose to make that offer now. Tn all seriousness, without being turned into a clock, the end can be attained. Let me begin by naming, and in part discarding, some processes in vogue already for producing better lives. The first imperfect method is to rely on Resolution. In will-power, in mere spasms of earnestness, there is no salvation. Struggle, effort and agony have their place in Christianity, but this is not where they come in. In mid- Atlantic, the other day, the Etruria, in which I was sailing, suddenly stopped. Something had gone wrong with the engines. There were five hundred able-bodied men on board the ship. Do you think that if we had all gathered together and pushed against the mast we could have pushed it on ? When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast." He goes on to give the formula: "You will find it in a letter — the second to the Corinthians: We all reflecting as in a mirror the character of Christ, are transformed into the same image from character to character — from a poor character to a better one, from a better one to one a little better still, from that to one still more complete, until by slow degrees the perfect image is attained."

Here the solution of the problem of sanctification is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the character of Christ and you will become like Christ. Mr. Drummond adds that growth is not voluntary ; it takes place ; it happens ; it is wrought upon matter. "Ye must be born again," says Christ, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed," says the apostle.

Some of the above ideas seem to me a little confused. Mr. Drummond says that the ship could not have been moved by pushing against the mast : but it might have been moved with large oars, or by the repair of the engine, which would have been an act of volition on the part of the internal personality. He gives no formula, as I have done in another part of this book — a formula taken from Christ's own lips for the propagation of life or the new birth. He tells us we must keep on reflecting character indefinitely : Why ! people would all die and perish like the beast if they should attempt to do that. How can a person reflect character before being born — born from above ?

Everything is ethical ; God is love ; He is as much our Father as He is the Father of Christ, when we are filled with love — and we may at heart be filled with love. This whole universe is filled with love as much as it is filled with air or electricity : we can see it in the solar system and in all the provisions of nature for our happiness.

It is only necessary for us to be filled with love in order that we may see it all. Even death itself is not an evil to the old and feeble. As we increase in knowledge and love, all these things will be evident. It is this love — this infinite love that gives the long eternal life in exchange for this short life of nature. Evil is the chaos of good.

In this new life God's part and man's part are clearly defined. God furnishes the sunshine and the rain — He furnishes the seed and sows it ; this is all that He will do. This He does for the evil and the good alike. The good man is he who has the honest or good heart — the good ground. He ploughs it and digs out the thorns and bushes and makes it ready for the seed. He receives the seed into his good, honest heart soil, and to the best of his ability keeps down the weeds and bushes that the good seed may grow and bear bountifully.

In nature, whether a man has anything to harvest or not in the autumn depends entirely upon himself. Theology tells us that there is something mysterious about religion. I would reply that there is nothing that concerns us that is mysterious, — all is as plain as daylight can make it. God is continually doing His part, and man's part is certainly plain and easy. The good intention is the good ground that we must furnish. Perseverance in good intentions, with the best work we are able to do, is the cultivation of the soil, and we shall reap the harvest of character. Christ and the apostle Paul both taught that the spiritual life was dependent upon the natural body for its environment as the soil in which it must germinate and grow. Neither of them taught that a man's spiritual life is inherent.

"Of the multitudes who confess Christianity," says Mr. Drummond, "how many have clear in their minds the cardinal distinction established by its founder between "born of the flesh" and "born of the Spirit?" By how many teachers of Christianity even is not this fundamental postulate ignored? A thousand modern pulpits every seventh day are preaching the doctrine of Spontaneous Generation. . . . Let us place vividly in our imagination the picture of the two great kingdoms of Nature, the inorganic and the organic, as these now stand in the light of the Law of Biogenesis. What essentially is involved in saying that there is no spontaneous generation of life ? It is meant that the passage from the mineral world to the plant or animal world is hermetically sealed on the mineral side. This inorganic world is staked off from the living world by barriers which have never yet been crossed from within. No change of substance, no modification of environment, nor any form of energy can endow an atom of the mineral world with the attributes of Life. And if there is one thing in nature more worth pondering for its strangeness it is the spectacle of this vast helpless world of the dead cut off from the living by the Law of Biogenesis and denied forever the possibility of resource within itself. ... It is as if God had placed everything in heaven and in earth in the hands of Nature, but reserved a point at the genesis of Life for His direct appearing."

Right here I think that we have discovered something of immense value. If we say, as the Law of Biogenesis has always said, that life can only come from preexisting life, we are simply saying that preexisting life must have had preexisting life continually. God told Moses that His name was I AM : but the immortal term, or the proper formula is, — All life is or must be produced by present life, — life is always produced by generation. According to scientific teaching, the natural man is an animal, belonging to the organic kingdom of nature, and will exist as long as the natural term of animal life, and who will finally return to the earth whence he came. I do not see that there can be any alternative.

If man desires to be born into the kingdom of God he must comply with the ethical teachings of Christ: these I have given, or shall give, in this book. Christ's teachings are the most reasonable that have ever been given to man, and they also correspond with the teachings of science. For as science teaches the Law of Biogenesis, so did He ; He taught it in that saying of His, so often repeated in varied forms: "Except yo become as little children ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven" ; — if you wish to live in that higher kingdom you must become like infants and be born into it.

Let us see what the apostle Paul has written on this question: he says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," — in ether words, to those who obey His teachings, whose intentions are right, who "walk not after the flesh," — that is, not after the letter of the law, but after the Spirit, the intent of the law of love.

Again he says: "For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good, I know not. ]STow if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in m© ; for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise ; the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So then, faith cometh by hearing," and hearing by the teachings of Christ. He further says : "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service; and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

I believe that all the New Testament Scripture teaches Biogenesis : and the central and vital truth of all the teachings of the New Testament is, first : — Sincere love for the Good as we strive to know it, even though limited by our short-sighted ideas of the immensity and the knowledge of God; second: — The practice of morality to the best of our ability and knowledge, minus any self-righteousness of our own. This must, of course, include love and service to our neighbor. All self-righteousness must be banished before God can find room in our hearts. Many people have struggled along through the world without solving this question ; they have lived moral lives, have loved God and the good, as they supposed, they have loved their neighbor, and have cast out every idol except this one of self -righteousness ; and that has put them on the level of the beast.

We have no goodness, neither have we any ability except that which we have received from above, Even our desires and our wills have been given to us, so has everything except our ability to choose ; but some even reject or neglect that, and there is no difference between neglecting a privilege and rejecting it.

Ill

THE HOLY GHOST

IN the first chapter I have said that I would try to show that there is a Holy Ghost, but I have not tried, and shall not try to show that it is some mysterious personage without tangibility. We have seen that God is a tangible Being, making Himself manifest in men. The tangible existence of the Holy Ghost, and the fact that it can be seen and heard in society at the present day, can also be shown. It seems quite evident that the evolution of society from an uncivilized state to its present condition of Christian civilization is the result of the operation of the so-called Holy Ghost, which is, in fact, the principle of knowledge. It should be called the principle of knowledge that will throw light upon every question of the day, separating error from truth.

Christ said, If I go not away the Comforter will not come to you ; but if I depart I will send Him unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father.

This is the same spirit that will enable men to do greater works than Christ did in the line of surgery, medicine, chemistry, physical and mental sciences, theology and political economy, and it is this same Spirit of Truth that is developing the minds of our inventors ; for the inventor is seeking after truth. He tries one combination after another until he finds the right one — the perfect one : this is the spirit that experiments to know the truth, and the world is gradually reaching it.

It will also teach us the theological truth, eliminating all the errors of the religious creeds, and show us the perfect road to eternal life. It will also in many ways exert its influence in a general evolution of man, in a greater ratio than ever known in past generations.

I believe that the Holy Ghost will bo manifest by a most stupendous evolution of society, and is really all that its advocates have claimed for it, and even more than any one has ever imagined it to be : but I do not believe that this manifestation is something or anything that is not tangible to our reason.: — that is to say, we can understand what it means, just as we can understand what intelligence means. As the Holy Ghost is now interpreted it cannot be understood.

IV The New Birth

MR. HENRY DRITMMOND, in his book, "Natural Law in the Spiritual World/' says: —

"The passage from the Natural world to the Spiritual world is hermetically sealed on the natural side. The door from the inorganic to the organic is shut, no mineral can open it; so the door from the natural to the spiritual is shut and no man can open it. This Avorld of natural men is staked off from the spiritual world by barriers which have never yet been crossed from within. No organic change, no modification of environment, no mental energy, no moral effort, no evolution of character, no progress of civilization can endow any human soul with the attribute of Spiritual life. The Spiritual World is guarded from the world next beneath it by a Law of Biogenesis. Except a man be born again — except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

Again he quotes Scripture : "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Life — that is to say — depends upon contact with Life. It cannot spring up of itself. It cannot develop out of anything that is not life. There Is no spontaneous generation in religion any more than in nature ; no life without antecedent life. ... In this

4 o THE APEX

mythical theory of the Origin of Life the whole of the New Testament writers are agreed."

He goes on to say that a moment's reflection ought to make it clear why in the Spiritual World there had to be added this mystery, the further mystery of its proclamation through the medium of revelation, and goes on to say : "This is the point at which the scientific man is apt to part company with the theologian." Again, in speaking of the natural man as the organism, and God as the environment in the process of the new birth, he says: — "Where do organism and environment meet ? How does that which is becoming perfect avail itself of its perfecting environment?" His answer is, "Just as in nature, the condition is simple receptivity. ... It is so simple that we will not act upon it. . . . But there is no other condition."

Now, in my opinion, Mr. Drummond has ignored man's part, namely, the good soil, or good and honest heart : he has, however, come nearer to the truth concerning the teachings of Christ than any other writer with whom I am acquainted. To the average mind, however, and apparently to his own, there still remains a mystery. Now Christ taught no mysteries, all is plain. Sometimes we have to dig to find the treasure, but it is well worth the cost. To my mind there is nothing mysterious in the Parable of the Sower. Christ said, — Behold a sower went forth to sow, and some seed fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit an hundred-fold. We can imagine how his voice rang out as He said these things. That cry has been heard around the world, is still echoing, and will continue to echo until it shall be heard above all the clam-

THE NEW BIRTH 41

or of this suffering earth. "He that hath ears to hear let him hear." This cry has the same ring as that other one of his when He said : "If any man thirst, let* him come unto Me and drink and never thirst again." The parable, He said, is this : The seed is the word of my teachings, — namely, the love for all things that are good, and love and service for thy neighbor. . . . The seed that fell into good and honest hearts, — hearts that had been prepared to receive it.

There is no mystery about this new birth any more than there is about the birth of a plant or an animal. Christ told Nicodemus there was nothing wonderful about it ; He said. Wonder not at what I say to you, for I say this because you are not honest and sincere. You tell me that you believe I am a man sent from God, and that no man could do the works that I do unless God were with him. At the same time you are cowardly and dishonest, for you come to Me by night. You believe in Me and in my teachings, and you wish to be benefitted by Me, and at the same time to keep your former standing as a teacher. You wish to be an honest man ; be just w T hat you pretend to be, practice what you profess to believe, before I can do anything for you. In the condition in which you now are I can do nothing for you.

Christ cannot save any one unless he be sincere, and that every one may be.

To illustrate farther the propagation of the spiritual life, let us take the case of a man who had large possessions and who asked Christ, — calling him "Good Master," — What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Christ told him to keep the law, and the man replied that he was keeping it. Then Christ told him to sell what he had and give it to the poor, and he should have treasure in heaven. Then he was to take up the cross, which was probably that of working for his living, just as millions are doing. This was not a large price to pay for eternal life. By this we see that Christ taught the distribution of wealth. He does not, however, call upon all men to give away their wealth, since all those who are engaged in any honest business, such as manufacture or agriculture, are never called upon to give up their possessions, for capital is as necessary as labor. It is only when we worship our possessions that we are called upon to give them up. It is the sincere and honest intention, motive, heart, or mind, that is demanded of us.