What is religion? A protest against "The spirit of the age."

Front matter

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Vv^HAT IS RELIGION?

Introduction

" 'TT^HE little light of awakened human intelligence shines X so mere a spark amid the abyss of the Unknown and Unknowable — seems so insufficient to do more than illuminate the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations that cannot be realized, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open secret which he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all religion ; and the attempt to embody it in the forms furnished by the intellect is the origin of the higher theologies. ... If the religion of the present differs from that of the past, it is because the theology of the present has become more scientific than that of the past ; because it has not only renounced idols of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see the necessity of breaking in pieces the idols built up of books and traditions and finespun ecclesiastical cobwebs ; and of cherishing the noblest and most human of man's emotions, by worship 'of the most part of the silent sort,' at the altar of the Unknown and Unknowable." (Huxley's Lay Sermons.)

Such is the view taken of religion by one of the leading scientific minds of the day. It is the natural result of an idolatry of physical science. There are but three objects which man can know — God, Nature, and Self. It is possible that the attention should be so exclusively directed to any one of these objects, that the others should be entirely lost sight of. In the present age, the thinking mind of the

VI INTRODUCTION.

public is almost exclusively directed towards one of these objects, namely, nature. The knowledge of self, under all its aspects and in all its relations, is now almost entirely neglected. To devote one's attention to the study of this so-called incomprehensible subject, is thought to be but time thrown away. Ethics, metaphysics, psychology, as sciences, are by the public almost entirely ignored. There are perhaps a few thinking men who still continue to be interested in these subjects ; but their interest must be confined to themselves. Supposing they propound their views, it is almost impossible to get the ear and to awaken the interest of the public. Plato, the father of metaphysics, Socrates, of ethics, are forgotten ; Des Cartes is hardly known. It seems to be taken for granted now, that it is impossible to arrive at anything like the truth in these departments of knowledge. And yet, after all, they are the most important, and are those which relate to what most vitally concerns mankind.

Consciousness is the basis, the condition of all knowledge. To know nature, we must read off the impressions which it makes upon our consciousness. This the scientists, who so exalt the study of nature, while they essay to throw contempt upon that which relates to self, should remember : we only know anything outside of us, because we are conscious of it within. The appeal, then, to consciousness must in all cases be the final one. What we are conscious of as occurring within, we know as confidently as anything that occurs without. The internal facts revealed by consciousness are just as much matters of certainty as are those external facts about which scientists seem to feel so confident. Now one of these facts which we find within is the consciousness of God, and this the scientist will generally allow. It is admitted in the oracular utterance of our text ; it is granted in the admission that there is any such thing

INTRODUCTION. VU

in the world as religion. But while the being of God is admitted, His nature is wholly misunderstood. An exclusive attention to one object has so engrossed and absorbed the mind of the scientist, that he is incapable of seeing anything else. He forgets that there is anything besides Nature, and thinks it the "all in all." And yet, being a religious creature, he cannot help at the same time feeling the necessity for a Deity, in whom he may gratify his religious instincts. To meet this demand, he deifies Nature, and worships it. He stands awe-struck, solemnized, with uncovered head, in the presence of his Nature-god ; he is filled with sorrow because his God is to him, and must forever remain, unknown. The impossibility of ever arriving at a thorough knowledge of the vastness of Nature fills his soul with a sad melancholy; and this, we suppose, takes the place of what is known, in a truly religious experience, as sorrow for sin, or penitence.

This worship of Nature is the religion of science. It is Pantheism. The personal God, as distinct from His works, has disappeared, and Nature is God, and God is Nature. God has, under such a scheme, ceased to be ; while He is acknowledged in words, he is denied in fact. Pantheism is Atheism ; and yet, while it deceives the soul, it satisfies many of its cravings — therefore its power and its fascination. In order, then, to arrive at the truth, we propose entering upon an investigation of the subject : What is Religion ? We propose answering this question.

In the first place, then, we ground ourselves upon the basis of Consciousness. In opposition to the prevailing tendency of the times, we propose directing our attention to the internal rather than the external. Consciousness is the mirror into which we propose looking, and we will read off the internal facts of man's nature as we find them there reflected.

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

Here we stand on the ground of absolute certainty. What I am conscious of, I know to be a fact, inasmuch as I am conscious of it ; of this I am certain, more certain than of anything else in the world. I am certain of the existence of what I see without me, because I am conscious of seeing it ; and I am just as certain of what I see within me, more certain in fact, because what I see within, I see immediately, without any interposing medium of transmission ; whereas, what I see without is made known to me through the transmission of the senses, and the senses may sometimes introduce wrong impressions into the mind. The facts of the internal consciousness are therefore inevitably certain; all that is required is the power to look within and to see one's self. The certainty .which arises from such a process is, of course, entirely personal ; it cannot be verified, as in the external, by co-operative observation. The certainty of the facts of consciousness is not increased by combined testimony. This only lays the basis for a generalization as to what are the elements of human nature, or the facts of the human consciousness. The observation, then, of the internal facts of consciousness by different individuals, serves as a basis for a psychological science ; upon them we can generalize, and so arrive at the elements and* laws of human nature. The certainty, however, in each individual case, as to his own personal observation, is in his own consciousness final ; it cannot be effected by the result of such generalization.

In entering upon the investigation of the subject of Religion, we must begin, then, with the Consciousness. Any fo7^m of religion is but a product, the result of certain forces which are to be found within human nature. The only way by which we can arrive at a knowledge of these forces is by appealing to the consciousness. These forces, then, will be found existing as facts or as elements in the human

INTRODUCTION. IX

consciousness. We will begin by making an analysis of those facts or elements contained in what may be called, specifically, **the religious consciousness," considering them in their organic connection with each other. Passing from such an analysis, we will proceed to consider the subject synthetically. Different arrangements or combinations of these elements give rise to different forms of life. One such combination gives rise to what may be termed the Moral life, another to the Religious life ; and, again, a third to what we have termed the Divine life. Next we pass on to consider the instrumentality by means of which the facts of the religious consciousness are brought out — the instrumentality, therefore, by means of which human nature is regenerated and educated for a higher sphere of existence. And this will necessitate a notice of the danger we of this present age are in, of losing faith in that Divine instrumentality — the Holy Scriptures. Finally, we will conclude with a protest against the materialism of the age, with a plea for the reality of the facts of religion, and for Christianity as being *'the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. ' '

WHAT IS RELIGION?

PART I.— AN ANALYSIS.

CHAPTER I.

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD.

A CAREFUL analysis of the human consciousness gives us the following result : A consciousness of self — of the world — and of God. These three elements, taken together, go to make up the unity of the human consciousness. Each of these conditions has its own peculiar group of sciences, with their own proper methods of investigation. All that pertains to metaphysical science belongs properly to the consciousness of self; its method being, in the first place, observation founded on introspection, and then induction and verification, landing us thus in the ultimate truths of metaphysical and psychological investigation.

To the consciousness of the world pertain all the physical sciences, its method being, as is well understood, induction. In this case, observation is founded, not upon introspection, as in the metaphysical, — but upon the report of the senses. The result of all physical inquiries belongs to, and in proportion to its thoroughness, so far, satisfies the demands of, man's consciousness of the world.

All that belongs to what is termed religion is subjectmatter peculiar to the consciousness of God.

II

A consciousness of the existence; of the reality of things lies at the basis of all knowledge ; without such a conviction it would be impossible to be interested in, or to be stimulated to the acquirement of any knowledge. Let a universal skepticism but prevail, let the mind be in doubt as to the reality of self, or of the world, or of God, and, as a matter of course, it must be paralyzed. Doubt as to absolute reality and truth, is inactivity, mental stagnation, and death. Consciousness carries with it absolute certainty. I am absolutely certain that I am, because I am conscious of it. I know, or am certain, that there is something external to myself — that the whole world of nature is a reality, because I am conscious of it. In both cases, the consciousness is immediate and necessary, differing only in the modes of verification. In the former case, consciousness is verified by introspection, or, as Descartes would say, cogito ergo sum. In the latter case, the verification, though not so immediate, is just as satisfactory, being through the senses.

Introspection, by itself, could never bring us to the intellectual fact of self-consciousness, nor could the report of the senses bring with it the consciousness of nature ; both of them must be preceded by an intellectual condition.

Psychological observation and physical observation are simply the instrumentalities which, logically speaking, a previously existing mental status uses for its information and satisfaction. The knowledge of the / is in the first place limited and confused ; self-consciousness is not satisfied with such ignorance, but seeks a clear, extended, and entire knowledge of itself. Until this self-knowledge becomes complete, self-consciousness will not be satisfied. Not until I know myself as I am known by the Omniscient, will my yearnings be quenched. Socrates was the apostle of this department of knowledge. ''Know thyself," was the dictum of his philosophy, and must remain that of every true philosopher, until self-knowledge corresponds to the demands of self-consciousness. The same conditions are true of the state of a consciousness of the world. From the very first, by a necessity of his nature, man is conscious of the external ; but in the primary stages of his development, and in the corresponding rude stages of the historic development of the race, this knowledge is limited and confused. The senses are the means used by the reason for the increase and clearing up of this knowledge. The physical sciences apply themselves to this work, and as they extend their horizon, and take in all that can be known of nature, man's consciousness of the world becomes more clear and distinct, and if it were possible to gain a distinct knowledge of the whole physical creation, then, too, would the cravings of this consciousness become satisfied, and man would rest in the fulness of a complete knowledge of the whole of the physical creation.

And now as to the consciousness of God. This, just as in the cases already considered, is an immediate, necessary condition of the soul.

It is impossible for the human mind, unless maimed in some of its departments, to fail to find these three elements clearly defined. Man must necessarily feel conscious of his own existence, of the existence of the world, and of God. It is true that these elements may exist in different minds in different proportions. In some, self-consciousness may predominate ; and here we find the psychological and metaphysical philosopher, — in fine, all the forms of egoism. In others the consciousness of the world may predominate ; this gives us the physical philosopher, and all those who live in and for the sensuous. And then, again, in a third class, the consciousness of God may predominate ; and this gives US the theologian, and all those who are properly termed religious.

In order to a full and healthy intellectual development, not only should these three elements exist together, but also in proper proportions. Any exaggeration must necessarily bring with it intellectual unhealthiness.

Now, just as in the other cases the knowledge corresponding to those mental states is, in the first place, limited and confused, so it is in this.

The consciousness of God exists before any form of religion. All these forms are but the products which a necessity of our nature brings forth. They are the forms with which the forces of man's nature, under the pressure of a consciousness, seek to satisfy themselves.

At the basis, and as the basis of every form of religion, lies this principle, namely, the consciousness of God. The question is not whether there is such a being. That we know already. We are conscious of His being, just as we are of the world and of ourselves. No evidence is required to prove the facts of consciousness ; they are already proven by the very highest kind of evidence, nay, they are more than proven, they are known. We l^ow that we are, that there is a world, and we just as necessarily know that there is a God, — we are conscious of His being. It is this conviction or consciousness that makes man susceptible of divine knowledge. By it the mind is opened to, and is anxious for further knowledge. Being conscious of a God, we are pressed to know more of Him, and this puts the soul into a state of activity, and, unless impeded, it proceeds to use all the means at its command to increase its knowledge on this subject. Under the influence of a state of consciousness, intuitively the soul knows and feels itself to be in the presence of, and in contact with the Infinite and the Eternal, and it feels after them, if haply it may find them.

Under the pressure of a self-consciousness, and rendered susceptible of self-knowledge thereby, the soul seeks to know itself. Under the pressure of a consciousness of the world, man seeks to know nature ', and under the pressure of a consciousness of God, man seeks to know God. And in proportion to the fulness and truthfulness of his knowledge will be the grade and nature of his religion. The religion which has as its basis ignorance, and error as to the Divine Being, will be superstitious and degrading just in proportion as these ingredients enter its theology. The religion which has as the basis of its theology knowledge and truth will be accordingly elevated, and will, so far, satisfy the cravings of a divine consciousness. When, in answer to the inarticulate cravings of man's divine consciousness, there comes the full knowledge of God, then will these yearnings be satisfied, and, this consciousness being filled, will rest in a sense of beatific satisfaction. Under the influence of the consciousness of God, man feels himself in contact with a dread unknown. The oppressive sense of a dim, unknown, undefined presence presses upon him; inarticulate longings agitate the soul, and man longs to, and then tries to fathom this dread unknown. We can be conscious of the presence and existence of something that we see not, nor hear, nor can understand ; and yet we feel and know that it is there — a reality. The consciousness of God, in all its stages of development, instinctively impels the mind to a formation of a complete and adequate conception of the object with which it is concerned.

Evidently there are degrees in the development of this consciousness. In the individual there is a variation. At one period of life, in the same individual, there is a more vivid consciousness of God than at another, and then the individual is most religious, and most anxious to know Him. Again, one person is more religious than another ; that is to say, he is more sensitively conscious of his God. And finally, the race is at one time more religious than at another. At certain periods in the historic development of the race, the atmosphere becomes charged with religious electricity. Such periods are times y of great religious agitation : witness the Reformation, the rise and rapid progress of the mendicant orders in the Roman Church, Puritanism and Methodism in England, and various other seasons of religious revival. There may, too, be an intensifying of the religious consciousness, and yet the prevalence of great spiritual ignorance. Interest may be awakened without the means of satisfying it. Where this occurs in the individual, it makes him superstitious, or a bigot. In the race or people, it creates, generally, cruelty and persecution : witness Mohammedanism in the East ; in the West, the Crusades and the cruelties of the Inquisition. The object which corresponds to the consciousness of God, is God. Self and the world corresponding to their respective subjective states, are intelligible. And although the knowledge of these objects is, in the first place, limited and confused, still the mind has from the very first some definite conception of the object with which it is concerned. On the other hand, the conception which the mind forms of the object corresponding to the consciousness of God is not definite ; it is, as we have said, dim and undefined. Man feels himself in the presence of the Infinite, in contact with the Eternal ; and from the very nature of the case, because the object is infinite and eternal, therefore it is undefined. To conceive of it exceeds the power of the imagination, and man expresses his sense of this in reverence, awe, and in worship. It is this very awfulness of the thing with which man feels himself to be in contact that makes religion. Worship is only possible when its object is conceived of as infinite and eternal. There is an object ; it is undefined. Man is conscious of it, and, in the spirit of awe and reverence, he worships it. There is, then, a reality which man is conscious of as God, and which he seeks to know.

The various forms of religion give us the different conceptions of God which man has aimed at. Such a conception is at the basis of every form of religion, and gives us its theism. These, then, are the elements which go to make up the unity of any form of religion. First, there is a consciousness of God which renders man capable of religion ; next, from this capacity, and under its pressure, there arises a conception of the Deity which is the theism of religion, and lies at its basis. This conception, in its turn, under the pressure of a consciousness of the immediate contact of its subject with man, becomes the object of worship, the highest form of which is prayer. And lastly, since in the formation of the theism of a religion it is impossible to leave out the elements of man's moral nature. Since therefore the conception must and will include a moral character, it follows that religion will have in it a moral element. God cannot be conceived of, even under the light of nature, but as approving the right and as disapproving of the wrong. Hence, then, along with the theism of every religion is a code of morality, as expressive of the will of God. Consciousness of the Deity makes the obligation of this law to be felt, and the breaking of it to be dreaded. And at this point it is that the cultus of a religion springs up. The moral law gives rise to it. Man feels and knows that he breaks that law ; he fears the Deity, and hence his efforts to propitiate Him. The cultus of a religion is to be found in the rite of sacrifice. Prayer is the inward worship of the soul ; sacrifice the outward. Both spring out of a consciousness of God. The one is the expression of weakness and dependence ; the other, of guilty fear.

To be conscious of anything proves that it is ; we cannot be conscious of that which is not ; it is a contradiction of terms. Faith is the evidence of things unseen. To be conscious is to be certain, requires no proof, is complete in itself. And we can be just as conscious of the unseen, and, consequently, as certain of its existence as of the seen. I am conscious of nature through my senses ; but I am conscious of God through no medium, but immediately.

The contact of spirit with spirit is nearer and more immediate than that of spirit with matter. No medium is required ; contact is immediate ; spirit communes with spirit. The All-spirit, the Omnipresent, is therefore in immediate contact with every created spirit, and there is that in us which is conscious of this. The conception which we form of the Deity is a thing entirely distinct from His being. Of His being we are conscious; of our conception of Him we are conscious only that we have it, that it is our idea of Him ; and therefore, though certain of it as existing in us, we are not certain of it as belonging to Him. This conception is knowledge ; it may be true — that is, an adequate conception of the original — or it may not be. We may misconceive God, and so have a false God. The mind, in the act of intuition, looking out for truth, does not look at ideas, but at things ; it looks out of itself. It fixes its glance upon substance ; it beholds, and as the result of its effort it gains an idea. An idea, then, is the impression made upon the mind in its cognizance of spiritual substance presented before it — the intellectual conception which it forms of spiritual substance. And just as in nature the scene presenting itself before the vision is dependent upon the eye, so in the world of Spirit the idea, the view which the mind takes of spiritual substance, varies with the condition of the intellectual vision. The more practised

WHAT IS RELIGION? IQ

and powerful the mind, the clearer the idea. The weaker the mind, the more confused its intellectual conceptions.

Thus, then, in the first place we have substance, existence, realities, self, the world, and God. Of these objects we are conscious. Next we have our ideas of them, which may be more or less perfect, and more or less false ; and these ideas taken together constitute our fund of knowledge. Of this we are conscious only as of its being ours ; we know not whether it corresponds with the reality; therefore, in this case, we believe or think only.

Consciousness is the organ for taking cognizance of substance or being ; it is this only that it takes hold of and makes known to us. But substance cannot remain long before the mind, if at all, without having qualities attached to it. The very first operation of mind is to conceive of and to know that of which it is conscious. Synchronously, therefore, with the consciousness of being, arises some conception of it j and this conception arises from the attaching of qualities to the substance. A child, for instance, begins with being conscious of God as a substance ; his mind is prepared and ready to conceive of Him. Gradually, in the course of education, one after another attribute is attached to this substance, different objects are pointed out and assigned to God as their creator; everything that is not made by man, the child is informed, is created by God. He learns thus to conceive of Him as the Creator. The substance is now beginning to leave the region of the undeiined and to take form. Again, moral attributes are assigned, and by the pupil attached to this substance ; and so on, until the pupil has learned to attach all that is known of God to Him ; and thus his conception is completed. Now, it is a law of the mind that substance should absorb qualities, and that thenceforth there is no distinction in the mind between them. Qualities attach themselves so absolately to substance that they cease to be viewed as distinct from substance itself. Thus it happens that, although our conception of God is a different thing from His substance, nevertheless, when we have attained to a knowledge of Him, we are conscious of Him according to such conception of Him.

We have been taught that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and eternal ; we have learned, moreover, that He is holy, just, and good ; and we are therefore conscious of Him as such. Henceforth we cannot disconnect these qualities from his substance, and must be conscious of Him under such conditions. The knowledge which we have of a thing thus passes over into the region of our consciousness. Thus, though all men are conscious of the same substance, they are not of the same God ; the conceptions which they have formed of that substance separate them from each other. The Hindoo is conscious of God as Brahm or Buddha, the Mohammedan as Allah, the Jew as Jehovah, and the Christian as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There are certain qualities and attributes which mankind almost universally agree in assigning to the Divine substance, namely, what we know as the natural attributes — omnipotence, omnipresence, selfexistence, omniscience, and eternity. But in relation to the moral character of the Deity there is much diversity of opinion. The Jewish and the Christian are the most familiar to us. The conspicuous attribute assigned to God, under the Old Testament dispensation, is holiness ; a new conception to the world, one, therefore, which required ^ long and elaborate system of education before it could be planted in the human mind. No religion compares with the Jewish in the conception which it offers of the Deity. In none of them does His personality so clearly and so conspicuously stand out.

The Christian conception is exactly that of the Jewish, more clearly enunciated, and presenting, moreover, to the human mind the mode of existence in the Divine substance, namely, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We then, as Christians, are conscious of God not merely as Jehovah, but also as the Triune one — the Father, Son, and Holy. Ghost. This conception has passed over into the region of our consciousness ; we cannot think of God without this conception coming with it ; the attribute has lost itself in the substance. We look up at the stars, and at once we conceive of our God as omnipotent j and we feel that he is with us as omnipresent. We look out upon the beauty of a summer landscape, and we are conscious of Him as our Father. The Christian consciousness of God contains, then, in it all that is made known of Him in the Old and New Testament. The Christian cannot be conscious of God but as therein represented. Different aspects of the Divine character, and different attributes may, according to circumstances, occupy the mind in its periods of consciousness ; but all of them will be found there, and all can be elicited when the proper occasion presents itself. And this Christian consciousness has, even unwittingly, a powerful effect upon human character and conduct ; for man cannot but be more or less affected by his knowledge of God. His consciousness of Him is a fact in his constitution. It may be much repressed, nay almost extinguished, but wherever it does occur, it brings with it all that is known of God. His mightiness and His holiness rise before the mind, and in the individual, and in the mass, even such a temporary and fluctuating consciousness produces a mighty effect. It makes this nineteenth century, with all its advance of civilization, what it is. It is this knowledge of God that puts us where we now find ourselves in the historic development of the race. The knowledge of God is a mighty element in the world's advance. Man may not recognize it, still it is a power. And it is this internal element of human nature that makes it so ; we cannot escape ourselves, and what we know of God through this vital inlet to our very immortal being will affect us. As living under the light of Christianity, we must be conscious of, and consequently affected by our vital contact with the Triune Jehovah.