If ye fulfil the royal law

Front matter

Book S}.JE2Js:.

Copyright W

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Contents

Introduction — I. A Habitation of God — II. Christians — III. Shall he do also ? — IV. By this shall all men know — ^V. Am I my brother's keeper ? — VI. Father, I have sinned — VII. A people prepared for Him — VIII. I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee — ^IX. The Urim and Thummim — ^X. If I by the finger of God — XI. Quit you like men; be strong — XII. Behold the Man.

OF ALL BOOKSELLERS

By y"

Introduction

" I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, which is and which was and which is to come, the Aknighty. "

Rev. i. 8.

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

John i. i.

"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name. He shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. "

John xiv. 26.

"So then neither is he that planteth an3rthing, neither he that watereth; but God who giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are God's fellow workers; ye are God's husbandry (or, tilled land), God's building."

I Cor. iii. 8, 9.

1'^HE existence of a universal Royal Law presupposes a universal Sovereign. The giving forth of any one or more laws by a human sovereign does not assume that they shall necessarily be obeyed. But in the vast Creation of which we form a small part, and of which we can conceive a very little, in a feeble way, we find an astonishing uniformity of obedience to a regular organized process.' Paley reminds us that this is brought

» Paley's Natural Theology.

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about by more than mere contrivance and design. He says that "the laws of nature everywhere prevail; they are uniform, universal. But what do we mean by the laws of nature or by any law? Effects are produced by power, not by laws. A law cannot execute itself. A law refers us to an agent. Now an agency so general as that we cannot discover its absence, or assign the place in which some effect of its continued energy is not found, may, in popular language at least, and perhaps without much deviation from philosophical structures, be called universal ; and with not quite the same, but with no inconsiderable propriety, the person or Being in whom that power resides, or from whom it is derived, may be taken to be omnipresent. He who upholds all things by His power may be said to be everywhere present." Besides this convincing reference to the omniscience, the omnipotence and the omnipresence of the Deity, he refers to His Eternal character also. He says, "Eternity is a negative idea, clothed with a positive name. It supposes, in that to which it is applied, a present existence. As applied to the Deity, it has not been controverted by those who acknowledge a Deity at all. Most assuredly there never was a time in which nothing existed, because that condition must have continued. The universal blank must have remained ; nothing could rise up out of it ; nothing could ever have existed since; nothing could exist now. In

Introduction ix

strictness, however, we have no concern with duration prior to that of the visible world. Upon this article therefore of theology it is sufficient to know, that the contriver necessarily existed before the contrivance." He also calls our attention to the proof of the unity of the Deity in the uniformity of the plan observable in the universe. He says, "The universe itself is a system; each part either depending upon other parts or being connected with other parts by some common law of motion, or by the presence of some common substance. " Regarding the goodness of God's work, he says, "The proof of the Divine Goodness rests upon two propositions, each, as we contend, capable of being made out by observation drawn from the appearances of nature." The first is, "that in a vast plurality of instances in which contrivance is perceived, the design of the contrivance is beneficial." The second, "That the Deity has superadded pleasure to animal sensations, beyond what was necessary for any other purpose, or when the purpose, so far as it was necessary, might have been effected by the operation of pain." Paley also takes the stand that * ' the world abounds with contrivances; and all the contrivances which we are acquainted with are directed to beneficial purposes. Evil no doubt rests, but is never, that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. " But we cannot know that there exists evil without allowing that it too may have been within the range of this con-

X Introduction

trivance. That our Creator had power to create us good, and at the same time give us the ability and desire to remain good, is as certain as is His omnipotence. That He had the wisdom to create us with such quaHties as fitted us into His design, is as certain as is His omniscience. That He could everywhere direct our impulses and aspirations, is as certain as His omnipresence. That He did purposely create us liable to fall into sin, or into "missing the mark, " as Ruskin urges it should be understood, is as certain as His inspired Word; wherein He says, "I form the light, and create darkness ; I make peace and create evil. " And He adds for our warning, anticipating that He would be misunderstood, "Shall the clay say to Him that fashioned it. What makest thou ? " If our creation was not to be unusual and of universal value, why did the angels of heaven desire to look into it? What made us to be of unusual interest to them? It seems very plain to us, that the contrivance, as Paley calls it, of the experience of our race, was to partake of a period of "missing the mark" first; but that this preliminary evil should prove to be such a lesson to ourselves and others, that ultimately it would prove to be absolutely beneficial. That our Creator designed our experience we can scarcely deny from the evidence of His attributes, added to that of His written Word. That it was to be of a widely beneficial influence we must assume, as the Creator Who is the All- Wise as well as the

Introduction xi

All-Mighty, pronounced it to be good. So we are obliged to admit, that had we but the wider vision of even the watching angels, we too would pronounce it to be ultimately good. We are not admitting a dual influential power of half good and half evil, as did some of our earlier religionists, although their idea was less insulting to our Creator than the idea that He could not avoid our fall. But we are contending that it was our kind and pitiful Creator's way of bringing us to know that fire bums by letting us scorch our childish fingers a few times ; and that real obedience to our Parent brings joy and happiness and reward, while disobedience to our grieved Parent brings punishment to ourselves and helps to bring disorder to the general process or household of God our Father. So we have been burning our fingers, aye, our very souls; and we have been a riotous and unruly household, and this conduct has not produced in us a happy people. We know of no peoples who were happy, during their earthly experience, excepting those who at times and for a short while were attempting to live up to their highest ideals, the best they knew. The ideal of a soul or nation is its criterion of judgment ; and few souls or nations have lived up to this self-imposed ideal. But mostly, we have all been smarting from the fires of forbidden indulgences and weeping noisily over our well-merited punishment. But now we are quite a grown-up race ; at least many of our peoples xii Introduction

are, and we had better cease acting like young ignorant children, or we shall not be thought by the watchers to have our spiritual senses ; we shall appear as spiritual imbeciles, and indeed, mental imbeciles as well, if reason is a part of judgment; for it is our minds which decide our attitude and conduct in all things, spiritual matters included. We see that the lesson of our experience is to be a lesson also for the angels, perhaps for the good as well as for those who are disobediently inclined or absolutely rebellious. We learn from Jude, when he is warning those of the faith concerning the danger of their falling into error, that, ''Angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation. He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Peter also refers to these disobedient angels who are in darkness reserved unto Judgment. The knowledge that angels fell from the obedient way, proves to us that they had not the strength of character given them to stand their trial. And we find that they are still somewhere held in a state of (we may assume I think) spiritual darkness awaiting judgment. Shall this darkness terminate in death, or shall the Creator say unto these, ' ' Let there be light ' ' ? We do not know ; nor do we need to know. We do know that He has said to us. Let there be light, and we do need to know that this fact is our judgment; that we will not to any measurable extent allow this Light to come in and

Introduction xiii

fully radiate our habit-darkened souls, is our supreme folly. The vista of the Eternal is infinite and His designs are surely right. I think some one has, perhaps wisely, said that evil, or most of that which to us seems to be evil, is only good in the early stages of its making. I think we had better concede this to be true, for it agrees with the Creator's word at our creation. Our individual entities may have true immortality if we be proven to be worthy of so wonderful a gift of experience. If this is so, and it is scriptural to assume it, does not our human experience give us just the lesson that shall tend to keep us in the path of willing obedience so long as our memories retain the knowledge of the terrible results in pain and misery of our wilful sinning? Shall we not in all our future temptations, if such there be, remember the scars of our scorched fingers and the pain of the results of our disobedience? Shall we not be warned by the memory of our natal period, and of how as little ones we "missed the mark" for so many weary days? Paul says to the Philippians, "I press on toward the goal (or mark, A. V.) unto the prize of the high (or upward) calling of God in Christ Jesus." And during these eternal experiences which lie before us, shall we not always be glad, if we have according to our light pressed upward towards the mark; and if we have not spent all our earth-days in wilfully, or it may be carelessly, "missing the mark," in sinning? But if xiv Introduction

we do thus err we have no assurance that we shall have entity or memory in eternity ; but rather that by some process, either long or short, we shall be destroyed. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The past is in the hands of God, Who contrives and wills all things. The present He gives us with its responsibility and its promise. At this eventful day of separating the evil of the past from the incoming of good for our future Holy City, a human being's only business in life is to be a unit of an advancing army, whose battlefield lies in the difference between good and evil, and usually in our accustomed walks of life. Just to walk right, and tmder Christ's rule, brings each of us, one by one, into this army which is already marching steadily toward the Holy City, the Kingdom of Heaven. Our six thousand years are nearly consummated. Ours is the day of J05rful hope, if we love His appearing; or of terrible despair, if our vision is completely occupied with selfish desires and worldly aspirations. We are obliged by the crucial character of the particular period in which we find ourselves to-day, to choose definitely which we individually propose to do. Shall we press upward toward the Mark, or shall we continue to ignominiously miss it, in a base retreat destruction-ward ?

There are some inherent and half -latent qualities in the hearts of all men, no matter in what condition of life they may be foimd. We shall find that

Introduction xv

the same quality of observation and conclusion which has led the most religious of scientific minds to endeavour to draw the attention of the less learned or more careless to the evidence for the universality of God's power and contrivance, is the same human quality which led the more darkened minds of the ancient peoples of our Race to see evidence of a power and wisdom outside of themselves which they took to be remedy for any latent desire or need which lay in each man's inmost being. Our Creator bestowed on each of the two classes of men the same gift, although so widely separated in operation by spiri'^.ual and social condition. We find that there has always been in both these classes of mind an inherent desire to know more about this Power and Wisdom which both could see as being ever3rwhere dominant. This desire is so universally prevalent, that where you find Man, you shall also find some kind of shrine set up as meeting-place between the soul's desire and its fulfilment, the Great Father of us all. Shrines, beautiful as a dream of heaven, shrines as horrible as a nightmare of Hades, shrines arbitrary and dogmatic, and shrines idealistic; all have been set up just as the soul's conception of God's dominance was enlightened by truth. And shall we who profess to worship at the acme of all these altars, where supreme love to God and man is our sole lawful offering, shall we say that God did not meet His ignorant children at these xvi Introduction

altars, if their hands and hearts were clean, as they conceived of cleanliness? Paul, with his splendid vision of the greatness and justice of God, stood amidst the various schools of wrangling philosophers on Mars Hill and addressed them thus : ''Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very religious, for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription. To an Unknown God. What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you. The God that made the world and all things therein. He, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is He served by men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He Himself giveth to all life and breath and all things; and He made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation; that they shoiild seek God, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, though He is not far from each of us ; for in Him we live and move and have our being ; as certain even of your own poets have said : For we are also his offspring. " So we must not be too haughty over our advanced civilization and over our increased knowledge of our Father and His designs and their meaning; for with this advance rests a grave responsibility towards those who still sit in darkness; and there are many peoples even to-day who do not even profess to have received

Introduction xvii

into their spiritual conception the Light of the World. Many conceptions of the Deity have been formulated by the peoples of many ages. Some of these have borne a little resemblance to true wisdom, most of them have been more like the dreams of a disordered brain. The civilization of a people has always corresponded with its real conception of Deity, or the Supreme Cause and Power, as its units found it to be evidenced everywhere. While we find that these always correspond, yet we find no instance in which a people as a whole live in a spiritual state more excellent than that ideal with which they clothe their Deity; and scarcely ever shall we find a people living nearly up to these ideals. No people has produced a conception of a mental or spiritual character for their Deity which they have not somewhere discovered in themselves. In some ancient cults, their many gods were invested by them with the attributes which they found general in their own characters and which seemed to be present in many natural objects; these they considered to be worthy of worship. They found that the heaven above them could rage and weep and flash lightning from its eyes, just like an angry woman; that it could breathe the softest tenderest zephyr to soothe and restore. Because of the versatile, changeable or fickle character of this brooding atmosphere in which they found themselves, and perhaps mostly because of the nourishing and caressing motherlixviii Introduction

ness of it, they worshipped it in the female form as the Queen of Heaven. The sun was strong and compelling in its influence over all the earth; its warm rays were essential to the recurrent seasons of the grains, fruits, and flowers ; it was not fickle, but was regular in its rising and setting, in its winter and summer moods and its path in the heavens. It was a great kindly fatherly, beneficial being; therefore it was worshipped as a male god. I believe that in the far Orient some worship, or try to appease, some very petty gods. These are thought to steal and lie and do much petty mischief. No doubt their worshippers found these to be their own general characteristics; else where did they get their strange conception ? No matter how crude or foolish may be our understanding, we, as a race, seem to have vested all power and observable attributes in that existence which we term The Deity. It is not to be wondered at that some of our peoples invested their petty gods with evil traits of character, as they found these traits to be both ever present and powerful to hurt. So we come to see that the Natural Theology of to-day lends strong reason for the existence of these strange old cults amongst us when we were in our infant days of ignorance and crude conclusions. We were feeling around in the dark just as a babe reaches out its little hand in the darkness in search of its heart's desire and hope, its loving, brooding Mother. The Race was but —

Introduction xix

An Infant crying in the night, An Infant crying for the light; And with no language but a cry.

Does a mother not heed her babe because it is young and ignorant and helpless ? Does the pitiful Father not hear these appealing cries, or notice the weak hands that try to feel out after Him, if haply they might find Him ? The time of our ignorance is overlooked, but when we know more about our Father's plans for us, more is required of us. If we are the wiser children of this great human family in spiritual matters, is it not ours to rise early and assist to give spiritual meat and drink to the younger children, those who are not yet able to help themselves, not yet quite understanding what spiritual food really is? Where much is given, much is required of us. We should remember this warning.

We of the Christian faith have come to be a people of ideals which are immeasurably above the wisest and cleanest of any ancient religious belief, or the teaching of the sanest and wisest of the philosophical schools. Was it by natural development of species that we became a people of these superior ideals ? We are scarcely justified in taking that ground without qualifications, as our racial experience does not warrant it. Then how did we come to have these ideals, which, notwithstanding our weakness and sinning, we really hold in our holy of holies, where the soul com-

XX Introduction

munes with the Divine Presence? We as a Christian people have come to clothe the Deity of our conception with all the highest attributes which we find to be common in the very best of our human family. Our conception of God is greatly modified from even the Jewish idea of His attributes. How did this modification come about in our faith? How is it that God was by them held to be a God of Power and Justice and Vengeance, more than of loving care in His power, of mercy in His justice, and of forgiveness in His recompensing vengeance? In accepting the teaching of the Christ, we have come, almost unconsciously, to acknowledge that lovingkindness is by far the greatest thing in the world. We have come to judge our fellows solely from the standpoint of that testing word which says, "All things, therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them. For this is the Law and the prophets." And rightly so we thus judge; or the scriptures are vain and void. This causes us to see in God only that which we now demand in humanity. But we have come almost to forget that He is still a God of power to fulfil His promises, and of Justice between man and man, and of recompense to us for the good or evil character of our minds and habits. We almost over-emphasize His loving-kindness, at the expense of our fear to disobey His commands. We have come to do this from the uplifting of our own ideals

Introduction xxi

to the Christ-like standard of forgiveness. We have, in self-indulgent licence, come to think that although we demand a high ideal in our fellows, that ourselves shall be forgiven for any little wicked thing we may desire to do. It is not alone our Roman Catholic friends who have a scheme of self-indulgence in sinning. We should also remember that we ourselves consider it to be justice to punish the slight or great offence against the common law. But we ask, or demand, of God, that He should condone all the licence that we take in the breaking of His Royal Law. God has promised to forgive the soul that repents and turns away from sin ; but we should always remember that He separates and destroys wilful and rebellious sinners. A sinning soul is working towards the end of its own opportunity of eternal continued happiness. It is a dangerous miasmic vapour, that induces the hope that God will condone wilful sinning; it is not the inspiration of truth; for truth says that the soul dies which sins; that God destroys all such. True, sin lives long and reproduces plentifully; but we find by both promises and fulfilments that its end is destruction ; and in the experience of our peoples, designed by our Creator, we find that sin was allowed to run a certain course before destruction consumed it utterly. We find that in some cases the repentance of a people destroyed the sin ; while in other, and in most instances, the people refusing to repent and thus make an end xxii Introduction

of sin were destroyed along with their poisoned environment. In this way a complete end was made, not only of the unlawful practice, but of those who practised it. We have some striking historic illustrations of this. We may conclude that an experience of sin has been given us, in order that we may see its destructive character; and that after the lesson is learned by us, and by others, then there comes the time of the Harvest. The Great Harvest is the objective point of the experience of our Race. The wheat and the tares are to grow together until the time of the gathering in, and the separating of the two classes of seed; the one for the Master's future fields of good grain, the other for the fires of destruction. We believe that Christ and His Executive will work out this separating process through the minds and decisions of humanity, in and by our common law, as it is purified and instructed by this Divine Government. Already we see the shadow which is cast before these coming redemptive measures. Does not our common law already segregate criminals, insane persons, and contagiously diseased persons ? Is there not a strong movement towards the prevention of marriage between persons who are not fitted, from a physical or mental standpoint, to be parents of the future generation? Is any one's imagination so dense that he could not suggest a passing away forever of the criminal portion of our people? No criminal or drunkard should be left

Introduction xxiii

free in condition or circumstance to contaminate the next generation. Sickness of body or mind is only affliction, and should demand our tenderest sympathy; but drunkards and general criminals should be considered as the true poisoners of our next generation. This class should be made to cease, by the same common law of segregation, etc, A little skilful legislation, and we may in two or three generations be a people fitted by cleanly and healthy minds and bodies to enter the Holy City of the seventh day ; a day wherein our Spiritual nature shall have opportunity to develop Godward without the hindrances of hereditary weakness and tendency to special sinning. We should remember that the iniquity of those who hate God's Law is visited "upon the third and fourth generation." We know this to be the case from instances of the reappearance of some special weakness of body or mind in a person's grandchildren, or perhaps not until his great-grandchildren. We doubt not but that holy and wise qualities are also so transmitted. So taking this fact into consideration, the lawmakers of our civilized countries cannot hasten too quickly to eradicate the poison of criminal tendencies from the experience of our coming generations. That so much is already done, or is being discussed amongst wise people, is pretty sure proof that this remedial movement is already inaugurated in a small but very real beginning by the Presence of Him whose it is to say what shall xxiv Introduction

and what shall not be done. So, if we be wise, and of the spirit of true nobility, sons and daughters of God, we shall set out at once to so train the young of our race in mental cleanliness and sinlessness, that these may be approved and fitting forbears of the citizens of the Holy City, aye, some may even have the happy experience of being citizens themselves — if we strive earnestly to shorten the time of preparation. There is no God-given Law against hastening the holy rest of our Sabbath, if we desire to do so; on the contrary, it is invited, even urged upon us. Do, I pray, give these next three generations, as well as the present one, the holy and now rare privilege of obeying — with confident reason — the commandment which was long ago given to the children of the Race, ''Honour thy Father and thy Mother; that thy days may be long, and that it may go well with thee in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee." When we look around into the homes of average families we cannot wonder much that the little clear-eyed children do not honour their parents. This command bears heaviest on the parents. Happy the child that honours his parents, because they are always worthy of honour. If some of us have been so blest, let us thank God devoutly that He has given us the great privilege of naturally keeping this law which carries so much promise with it. Happy are those who have to learn the experience outside of home life to know what sin-

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fill habits and mental uncleanness mean. And we should remember that where much is given much is required. What are the dear little children learning, morally, to-day? The time is now come when we should see each little one as a soul who shall perhaps help to fulfil the dream of mankind, the Kingdom of Righteousness on earth. Perhaps there is no phase of religious conception so important as that of realizing accurately our position in the eternal plan. We take this stand because we see it to be a verity that no soul can give his best service to his Redeemer until he have some approximate knowledge of how the eternal plan is progressing, and in just what position his field of labour lies. Will natural improvement of species teach him this? Only in a very restricted measure. Time and racial experience alone will not teach us the importance of some given psychological moment; does not always teach us ''Just when and where to strike." We find some very ancient seers who knew just where and when to do their work, and attempted great things in the face of overwhelming odds. Early in our human career some walked with God in obedience, and became a great power for good; and always have a few known the will of God concerning them in their labours for their fellow human souls. God did not wait until we became such a wise people as we think ourselves to be to-day, before He spoke to us or laid down His Law, or xxvi Introduction