The natural history of religious feeling; a question of miracles in the soul

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The Natural History

Preface

THE author has been led into the present investigation by the difficulty he has encountered in his efforts to bring certain generally accepted notions regarding experimental religion into harmony with the great body of truth. He has no expectation of building for himself a complete system of philosophy; for, in his opinion, men will never be able to build, on earth, a tower reaching up to heaven: yet he thinks that they should be ever laboring to carry the building upward. He believes that their work, at any particular time, should be the shaping of the stones so that they shall be exactly fitted together, and the laying of them so that they shall make a continuation of the solid structure beneath. Each stage in the progress of knowledge has its unsettled questions, which the thinking men of the day are to settle, .one by one. "Not all questions are for all times.* '

Some of the unsettled questions of the present time relate to that body, vaguely conceived and variously defined, as the church; its nature, the qualifications necessary for membership therein, vi Preface

and the work it has to do in the world. Christians are very far from agreement on any of these questions. The proper relation of the church to the state has been a burning political question in Great Britain for many years, taxing the powers of her greatest statesmen; and now, the part which the church is to take in the education of the people, in that country, is a subject of controversy. The same questions are also agitating the public mind in France. In this country, where the church and the state are separate, the present relation of the state, not to the church, but to the Christian religion, is, to many persons, a subject of vital importance. Remembering the words of their Lord: "He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad" (Matt, xxi., 30), they are often distressed as they see the State endeavoring to maintain a neutrality towards the Christian religion which has the practical effect of hostility. Some of these questions the author has discussed in another work. He proposes now to discuss some of the unsettled questions in the church itself, such as its relation to the non-communicant world: who are to be admitted to membership, and on what terms? To these questions the various Christian denominations give widely differing answers. In the early days of the church its members were called disciples, which means simply pupils or learners; of late years, the word is seldom used,

Preface vii

and the title Christians has taken its place, a title that was never given to the disciples by their Lord nor by any inspired authority ; given only by their enemies, and as a term of reproach. This change of title, insignificant as it may seem, was followed by very important consequences; nothing less than a change in the terms of membership in the church. The determining question now is: Are you a Christian? not, Are you a disciple? and it is held that the spiritual condition necessary for an affirmative answer to the first question is far different from that which is necessary for an affirmative answer to the second . In the beginning an act of the will, in obedience to the Master's command, "Follow me," with the faith and the feeling which were involved in the act, was a sufficient qualification for discipleship. Now, however, that part of the church which is called evangelical, holds that conversion is necessary to make a man a Christian and that conversion is a supernatural, divine work, a miracle in the soul, which is always manifested in the consciousness by unmistakable emotional experiences.

The author cannot but think that this assumption involves a strange oversight of the fact that not one of those whom Christ called to be his disciples had undergone any such experience; and the fact that Peter, the only disciple whose conversion is recorded, was converted long after he had been an accepted and even a favored disciple.

viii Preface

The deductions made from this assumption are of the gravest import. It is alleged, or implied, that those who have had the experience of conversion are the chosen of God, that they are so changed in nature as to have become new creatures, are the children of God, and are destined to an eternity of blessedness; while those who have not had the experience are the rejected of God, are children of Satan, and are destined to an eternity of woe. Consequences so momentous would naturally give pause to a person of proper sensibility, before adopting the premises from which they are drawn.

The author would say for himself that he has found it difficult to reconcile the facts, observed in the lives of those who profess to have had the experience of conversion, with the assumption that underlies the profession. He has, therefore, been compelled to subject the assumption itself to a critical examination; and to review the whole question of the supernatural or miraculous divine agency in religious experience. He has to confess that this investigation was undertaken to lay spectres of doubt which were beginning to appear in his own mind. He is somewhat familiar with the objections which have been brought against our religion from the domain of science, philosophy, and criticism; and he trusts that he has been able to concede to them all the weight they can justly claim ; yet he has to say that, if the balance in his

Preface ix

mind has ever been disturbed by those objections, preponderating considerations soon caused it to settle on the affirmative side of the question; but, that the difficulties he has encountered in the domain of experimental religion have been much more seriously disturbing.

He has to confess also that, in coming to the conclusion that the alleged miraculous experiences are the products of natural causes, he has had to make no small sacrifice of preconceived notions — notions which have been derived, not more from the religious opinions prevailing around him, than from his own experience — a never to be forgotten experience, in which he supposed that his own spiritual life began.

The author thinks that the time has come for an advance to be made, in the religious world, like that which began, in the scientific world, with the appearance of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species; an advance, from an incorrect, to a more nearly correct, view of the divine order in the development of the spiritual life in man.

He trusts that the work he has undertaken in his own behalf may serve to relieve in some measure the perplexities of others who have been likewise troubled; and may, at the same time, widen the scope of the church so that she shall not be guilty of rejecting any of those whom Christ has received ; denying them the benefits of her ordinances, her fellowship, and her culture.

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If the views he has presented should happen to be proved erroneous, he would console himself with the assurance that a full and sincere presentation of an error, by provoking correction, is one of the most effective means of extending the knowledge of the truth.

I. A. C.

Washington, III., 191 i.

Part I. Natural Causes Of Religious Feeling

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CHAPTER I Tropism 3

Feeling, the cause of tropism — Heliotropism, geotropism , galvanotropism , stereotropism — Tropism , not directed by intelligence — The function of tropism — Tropism in men toward one another; of man and woman toward each other; of man toward the powers of the unseen world — Theotropism — An evidence of the existence of God — In two human tropisms the feeling may rise to the highest intensity — One taken to be miraculous.

CHAPTER II Regeneration the One Miracle in the

Human Soul . . . . 19

Classification of alleged miracles — The grace of holy orders — Sacramental grace — Papal infallibility — The ordeal — Miraculous healing — Spiritual illumination — Regeneration.

Part II. The Religious Ecstasy

CHAPTER I

The Ecstasy in the Heathen World . 29

The Yoga — The ancient Oracles — The worship of xi xii Contents

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Dionysus — Demeter — The Eleusinian mysteries — Neo-Platonism — Sufism — The Medicine of the American Indians.

CHAPTER II The Ecstasy in the Christian World . 44

Not occurring in the experience of our Lord — The early Christians sober-minded and practical — Montanism of Phrygian origin — The experience not regarded as a fruit of the Spirit by some of the most eminent of the fathers — J. D. Michaelis on prophecy in Israel — Sanctions under which the prophets spoke — The effects of natural causes.

Part III. Conversion

CHAPTER I

What is Conversion? 57

Definition of conversion — Meaning of the word in the Scriptures — Exact determination of supernatural and natural factors important but impossible.

CHAPTER II

The divine agency not so manifested as to preclude differences of opinion and inconsistencies in action in the Christian world — Controversies springing from the uncertainty — Decision of the Congregational Synod at Boston in 1662 — Division of the first Presbyterian Synod in 1741 — The failure of Jonathan Edwards's effort to make the discrimination.

Contents xiii

CHAPTER III The Variety of Means Employed and the

Difference in Result . . . -74

The doctrines of theology — The conversion of Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, and other eminent Christians, not of the standard type — Means employed by modern evangelism — Reduction of the amount and quality of the emotion in conversion.

CHAPTER IV Natural Causes of Conversion . . 94

The discontent, dissatisfaction, and distress arising from the physical, mental, and moral defects of human nature; and from the troubles unto which all men are born — The relation of the child to the parent — Sympathy and expectant attention — Obstruction to the natural tendency to turn to God — Degeneration — The reproductive impulse — Dr. Antsie. Prof. E. D. Starbuck. Prof. George A. Coe.

Chapter V

The nature and purpose of emotion — The source of emotion — Steps in the process of producing emotion — Impossibility of ascertaining the stage of the process at which the supernatural agency enters.

CHAPTER VI Changes in Character and Life from

Natural Causes 138

Social and class influences — A slumbering ideal of character, awakened and becoming dominant —

Contents

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Diogenes, Diocletian, Charles V., St. Francis of Assisi, Raymond Sulli, Louis V. — Mary Reynolds — Morbid physical conditions.

Chapter VII

Abnormal mental conditions, insanity, catalepsy, and the trance, generally attributed to the agency of superior beings — In the hypnotic trance the mind of the subject controlled by the mind of the operator — Such control by a superior being the specific characteristic of prophecy — All ages, nations, and races have had their prophets — Distinguishing characteristics of the Hebrew prophets — The prophetic state comparatively rare among them — Not encouraged by credulity — Prophecy of the time when the gift should be in the possession of all — Joel's prophecy fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, only in token — To be fulfilled, in fact, only in the future world — The assumption that it has been repeated in a revival of religion, even the most exciting, a delusion.

CHAPTER VIII The Test of Experiment . . . . 160

The hypothesis of supernatural origin will not bear the test of experiment.

CHAPTER IX Conclusion and Deductions . . .162

Conversion not produced by supernatural agency — No denial of the divine agency in religious experience — A truer and larger conception of that agency — Miracles always possible, but will not occur when the purpose they are intended to serve is fully met — Providence in the inner world a precious truth — Pro-

Contents xv vidence not excluded from that world, only the miracles supposed to be recognized therein — Even new truth may be communicated by providential action.

Chapter I

A cause of unbelief in men of the world — Involving, on the part of the converted, a forbidden judgment of their fellow-men — Putting a strain on the pure motives of the ministry — Shutting out from the Church many who may be true children of God.

Chapter II

Various senses of the word — Christ did not give a definition of, nor organize, nor promulgate a constitution — His use of the word — The synagogue — The doctrine of conversion makes the state un-christian and irreligious — Hindering the divine purpose to bring all the states and all the churches into a holy catholic union, in which each will acknowledge the authority of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords — The state now doing a large part of the work which the disciples of Christ were commanded to do.

CHAPTER III Evangelism 200

The doctrine of conversion has brought into the Church a new office, evangelism, attended with evils xvi Contents

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peculiar to itself — It is partial in its work of saving sinners, complaisantly leaving those in the rural regions, a large majority, to perish — It depreciates and discourages the work of the pastor — Gives incorrect answers to the questions: What is the main duty of the Christian? and Who are regenerate? — It is sacerdotal in its pretensions — Rejects the covenant God has made with believing parents — Overlooks the importance of spiritual culture — The kingdom of heaven in man is as the mustard seed or as the leaven — Culture depends for its success on conditions precedent, which God alone can supply — Matthew Arnold's definition of culture defective — Evil of holding that the means of spiritual culture are effective only in the converted — Do the good consequences overbalance the evil? Growing disbelief of the doctrine — The decision day — The women in the Church outnumber the men — Religious character of the various organizations of men for mutual benefit.

CHAPTER IV Repentance and Forgiveness . . . 220

The ethical sense — Its likeness and unlikeness to other senses — Its action attended with feelings either pleasant or painful — Doing right attended with pleasant feelings; doing wrong with painful feelings — What strengthens these feelings — The esthetic sense of the artist a cause of pain as well as pleasure — The pain a condition of success in his work — The evils of life not wanton inflictions of God — The justness of God and the sinfulness of man the explanation of these evils — Freedom the prerogative of rational creatures — The law of God a law of life and the penalty necessarily death — Forgiveness the most important practical concern of man — Conditions of forgiveness on the part of God — Removal of the

Contents xvii penalty and security against its being incurred again — On the part of man, repentance and desire for it — Direct action of the Spirit on the soul giving repentance, but imperceptible by the person receiving it — It may be presumed that God would use all the natural means adapted to the purpose to bring sinful man to repentance — Repentance and forgiveness secure salvation, but both to continue through life — The providence of God co-operating with his grace and giving repentance — Natural means that tend to produce repentance.

CHAPTER V The Evangelism Needed . ,. . . 227

The quickening of the spiritual life in all men — Importance of their using the means of spiritual culture — Encouragement to the use of these means — Susceptibility to exalted emotion in the nature of man — Like the first love between man and woman — The religious rapture may be not only a pleasure, but in certain conditions may serve a good purpose.

Appendix

Examples of Conversions Gathered from

a Wide Range of Space and Time . 233

The apostle Paul — St. Augustine — Martin Luther — John Bunyan — Jonathan Edwards — David Brainerd — Asahel Nettleton — Charles G. Finney — Henry Ward Beecher— S. H. Hadley.

Index 269

CHAPTER I Tropism

WE shall not attempt to frame any definition of religion, as a preliminary to the investigation upon which we are now entering ; nor shall we make any search among the definitions which have already been given, with a view of finding one that shall be acceptable to ourselves. We shall start our investigation from the obvious fact that feeling is the efficient antecedent of all religious action, whether it be of both body and mind in the practice of magic, in superstitious observance, in worship ; or of the mind alone in the construction of the various systems of mythology and theology. In beginning our investigation with the study of this feeling, it will be pertinent, if not necessary, to make a study of feeling in general. That study should begin, of course, with the simplest and least complicated manifestations of feeling — with those which are found only in the lowest forms of animal life.

Feeling, in these creatures, is manifested principally, if not only, in their turning towards, or 3 away from, certain things. This turning has been called tropism, from a Greek word which means to turn; and the turning has been given various special names, in accordance with the object to which or from which, the turning is made, such as heliotropism, geotropism, etc. The turning towards an object is called a positive tropism, and the turning away, a negative tropism. A familiar example of positive heliotropism is to be seen in the plants in a window which, however they may be set, will soon be found turning towards the light. Both positive and negative heliotropism may be seen in the germination of the seed. If a seed be placed on moist ground, that part of the germ which is to be the stem will, when it begins to grow, turn upward toward the light, and that part, which is to be the root, will turn downward away from the light.

The turning of the plants in the window towards the light has been explained by the supposition that the light promotes the storing of carbon on the side of the stem next to the window, which hardens it so that it cannot expand ; while the other side, being softer, expands. This explanation, however, will not account for all the movements of plants, not even for all that are heliotropic. It will not account for the action of the crocus, which opens its flower in the morning and closes it in the evening; nor for that of the evening primrose, which opens its flower in the evening and closes it in the morning; nor for that of the honey locust, which closes its leaflets in the evening and opens them in the morning ; nor for that of the acacia, the leaflets of which close at sunset and open at sunrise, while its flowers open at sunset and close at sunrise. This supposition fails entirely to explain the action of the sensitive plant which folds its leaflets at a touch ; or the action of the tendrils of the vine, sweeping round in a circle and instantly twining round a twig at a touch; or the action of the ivy, turning to the wall; and the action of the cilia of the spores of algae, by which they swim as though they had the power of voluntary motion. Botanists are agreed that the movements of plants cannot all be explained by the action of mechanical forces. The only explanation possible is that the Creator has lodged in them a dormant irritability, which is roused by a stimulus received from certain external objects and influences. We can hardly fail to notice two things in these movements: (1) How strikingly this roused irritability in plants is like to feeling in the animal creation 1 ; (2) that the turning secures some good for the plant which could not otherwise be obtained.

1 Mr. Francis Darwin in the inaugural address of the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Dublin on September 2, 1908, maintained that plants mayacquire habits which are transmissible; that their actions in certain cases are determined by the effect on the organism of previous actions; and adduces in support of his supposition the

In this investigation we are more directly concerned with tropisms in the animal kingdom; for they are, without question, prompted by feeling. *

Heliotropism. A Hydroid eudendrium, placed near a window, was found to bend towards the window like a positively heliotropic plant. Moths at night turn towards the flame of a lamp or the blaze of a fire. Planaria torva, placed at night in a dish, the half of which was covered with black paper, were all found under the covered part of the dish in the morning. Certain little creatures of the sea, negatively heliotropic, descend to the depths during the day and come to the surface at night.

Geotropism. If certain Actinians, a Cerianthus, for example be laid horizontally on a wire netting the meshes of which are so fine that the body of the creature can be drawn through only by force, and the netting be placed on the top of a cup in an aquarium, the body of the animal will soon be found forced through one of the meshes so that it fact that plants which have been accustomed to sleep at night retain the habit when kept continuously in the dark. He goes so far as to say that in "all living things there is something psychic"; that in plants "there is a faint copy of what we know as consciousness in ourselves."

1 Prof. Jacques Loeb, M.D., has made a laboratory study of tropism in the lower animals, and we shall take our examples of animal tropisms from his work entitled Comparative Physiology of the Brain an&JComparative Psychology.

hangs in a vertical position. If the netting be then turned upside down, the lower part of the body will turn and force itself down through another mesh ; and if the netting be turned again, the creature will be found woven in and out of three meshes in its effort to gain a position in line with the force of gravitation. Other animals have a negative geotropism. If a Cucumaria be placed on the lower edge of a glass plate which is in a vertical position, it will crawl to the upper edge of the plate; and if the plate be revolved on an axis, so that its position is reversed, the animal will crawl to the edge which is then the uppermost.

Galvanotropism. If a constant galvanic current be passed through a trough in which are larvae of Amblystoma so that it shall pass from the head to the tail, the body will bend upward; and if the current be reversed, the body will be bent downward. If the current be passed from the head to the tail, the hind legs will be braced backwards, making the forward movement easier ; and if the current be reversed, the hind legs will be braced forward making the backward movement easier. Crayfish and shrimps are affected in the same way by the galvanic current.

Chemotropism. If one side of the bottom of a box be covered with white blotting paper and the other side with the compost of stables, and certain worms, that live in compost, be placed on the blotting paper, they will all be found in a little while gathered in the compost. If a piece of fat meat and a piece of lean, both fresh from the same animal, be placed side by side where there are flies, it will be found that the eggs of the flies are all laid on the lean meat. Both the fly and its larva are chemotropical to certain chemical influences that are in the lean meat and are not in the fat.

Stereotropism. There is a tendency in certain animals to have a part, or the whole of their exterior, touched by some hard body. It is this which causes the earthworm to make its way into the ground ; and causes certain insects to seek the cracks in material objects. If a number of Nereis and an equal number of glass tubes, about the size of their bodies, be placed in a dish of sea water, it will be found after a while that there is a Nereis in each tube; and they will remain there even if the tubes be exposed to the direct rays of the sun, which would cause their death.

In all of these cases, this is to be observed: That it is feeling, and not intelligence that determines the movement. Some of the creatures can hardly be said to have any intelligence, being destitute of the organs of intelligence; but Prof. Loeb has put the fact beyond question by experiment. Sixty specimens of Planaria, which have not only a brain but comparatively well-developed eyes, were cut transversely just behind the brain and the eyes, and in the evening were put in a dish with vertical sides, half of the dish being covered with black paper. In the morning nearly all the pieces were found under the covered side of the dish. A few of both parts were huddled together in a corner of the other side where the light was a comparative minimum. The only difference between the two parts was that the anterior part reacted to the light in one minute while the posterior part required about five minutes for the reaction. The same experiment with earthworms and the worms that live in the compost of stables was followed with the same results. 1

I. It appears, therefore, that action prompted by feeling, without intelligence, is the distinctive characteristic of all tropism. 2. It should be noticed in these cases that the function or office

x Prof. Loeb goes so far as to affirm that tropism is, in all cases, the result of mechanical forces. He says: "If a moth be struck by the light on one side, those muscles which turn the head towards the light become more active than those of the opposite side, and correspondingly the head of the animal is turned toward the source of light. As soon as the head of the animal has this orientation and the median plane (or plane of symmetry) comes into the direction of the rays of light, the symmetrical points of the surface of the body are struck by the rays of light at the same angle. . . . Thus it is led to the source of the light. . . . Hence the 'instinct' that drives animals into the light is nothing more than the chemical — and indirectly the mechanical — effect of light. The moth does not fly into the flame out of 'curiosity,' neither is it 'attracted' by the light. This, notwithstanding that the hypothesis fails to explain the circling of the moth around a light which is enclosed in a translucent globe. " — Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology, 181, 182.

io History of Religious Feeling

of tropism is the promotion of the welfare and the conservation of the life of the creature; the only exception being the moth, which is impelled by its heliotropism to fly into the flame; but this may serve a good purpose in the general animal economy, the prevention of an undue multiplication of these insects, as the multiplication of others is prevented by birds, bats, and parasites. 3. It is to be noticed that the feeling before the movement is the opposite of the feeling which comes after the movement; in the one case, discomfort or pain; in the other, comfort or pleasure.

It is reasonable to suppose that tropism will be less conspicuous in animals which are endowed with intelligence than in others; but well-marked tropisms are still to be found among the higher animals. Gregarious animals have a positive tropism toward the members of their own flock; the dog has a negative tropism toward his own kind and a positive tropism toward mankind. In view of the unity of the animal creation, of which man is a member, it will be reasonable to suppose that he is not entirely destitute of tropisms. That he has certain turnings which are produced by a primitive and blind impulse, is obvious, notwithstanding that most of them are complicated with motives derived from his intelligence. A positive heliotropism appears in the turning of the eye of the infant toward the light, and a negative heliotropism appears in all men when they desire

Tropism n

to sleep. A geotropism appears in the dizziness a man feels when on a high pinnacle, and in the shudder he feels at the thought of being without any solid footing at an elevation like that of the clouds. The distress he feels when alone and the satisfaction when another is near spring from a tropism. It is an anthropotropism that makes man a social being. The turning of one sex toward the other is a tropism, a primitive action, and independent of the intelligence. The sight of the muliebria by the male will cause a turning toward the female that is antecedent to any exercise of intelligence; and, in some cases, may be so strong as to overcome the will, even when it is set in opposition by the clearest intelligence. The clothing of civilized peoples is evidence of a human tropism. The turning of the mother toward her new-bom ' off spring and of the child toward the mother is a tropism. In all cases the pleasure has a constitutional, and not an intellectual basis. We can easily see that the last two tropisms fulfil an important office in the economy of life and that, on this account, the pleasure attending them is one of the strongest of which the human being is capable. The milder degree of pleasure, attending the turning of man toward his fellow man, is friendship; the more intense pleasure, attending the turning of one sex toward the other, and of the parent toward the child, and of the child toward the parent, is love. The proverbial blindness of love must be taken as the mark of a tropism.