Things as they are

Front matter

#2*

* icU'iU

LIBRARY QFCQNGRESS,

Preface

The chapters which compose the first part of this volume are designed to show, in a logical manner, the purpose and the order of the development of man. Man learns but slowly by experience, unless he perceives the principles to be apprehended and the way of the Eternal teaching.

The parables were written to illustrate these principles,, as set forth in the opening chapters ; but, except in a few cases, it has been tJwuglit better not to indicate the application in the text. Those who cannot receive the essays are asked to read the parables, those who cannot receive the parables are asked to read the essays, before passing final judgment on their message.

Some of the parables and parts of the essays have been published in Collier's Weekly, the vii

Preface

Criterion, the Outlook, the Christian Endeavor World, the Ram's Horn, the Arena, the New Voice, and the Philistine, to the Editors of all of which my thanks are due for permission to republish.

BOLTON HALL.

New York City, September, 1899.

Vlll

Introduction

The spiritual philosophy of the kingdom of heaven is profoundly and simply presented in Things as They Are. The roots of social wrong and the principles of social right are vividly shown by parables. The intellectual and moral entanglements which result from attachment to vested interests, the puerility of much that is called science, the pitiable littleness of professional religion, are set forth with what might be called a merciless sweetness of spirit. The exposition of the law of love, at the end of tJie letters, reads like a new epistle from Saint John.

Subjectively, — that is, as regards our own minds, — the kingdom of heaven is a state in which a man loves all his kind, and lives in commtcnion with the love that is the substance of all things, without regard to reward or return. Self is eliminated from the horizon of thought and purpose. The affections enter that region of boundless selflessness in which one bestows all there is of himself upon the ix evil and the good, the loving and the unloving, the farthest and tlie nearest, without estimating the worth of one above another. He does not value his personal existence. He has no "interests" He fives in a universal communism of love. He dwells in a realm in which there is neither "mine" nor "thine" a realm beyond the reach of weights and measures, morals and laws. All there is of God is his, and all there is of himself is his brethren' s. Nothing can happen to him, because he has nothing to do with happenings. From his point of view, nothing is evil. Beneath the shadows and the appearances of things, he abides in eternal love and life. Where he is, there is only good, love, and liberty.

Objectively, — that is, as regards the universe, — the kingdom of heaven is a society in which all men work for the common good, and each receives according to his needs or power to use ; a society in which no man calls anything his own, because all belongs to every one ; a society in which there is neither wage nor interest, neither pi'ice nor bargain ; a society in which there is no more qtcestion about how much one shall have over and above anotJier than there is question about a division of the air for individual breathing. The coming kingdom of heaven on earth will realise, in all economic facts, the highest inward aspirations of the soul. Until there is a perfect harmony of these subjective and objective spheres, tliere can be no escape from social misery and tragedy. Only the civilisation that gives to him that asks, that turns not away from him that would borrow, that sends its highest privileges upon the evil and the good, that distributes all there is by an all-inclusive and non-exclusive voluntary communism, can realise the social perfection of our Father in heaven, who freely giveth us all things ; who, zvhen the sons of men had wasted or shut up the already prodigally given resources of the woi'ld of spirit and things, - undertook to redeem them by giving them more spirit and more things.

It thus turns out that from the point of view of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, there is 710 such thing as a merely economic question. The land question, for instance, is a spiritual question, a problem of spiritual liberty, a matter of the salvation or destruction of human souls. It is only through the use of the land that the race can find spiritual unity with God,

Can such a society ever become a fact? Is the kingdom of heaven indeed at hand? We might change the question, and ask if anything else seems likely to be practicable.

What is history and experience but an open book, 011 every page of which we may 7'ead, in blood-red letters, the zvaste and misery, the utter impracticability and imbecility, of anything and everything that is not obedience to the latv of love.

When we really desire the kingdom of heaven, we shall see that it has been at hand all through the time of our wandering in the wilderness of experience and speculation.

When the desire for the kingdom is strong

enough, the ways afid means will speedily

xii appear. It is desire that creates function, in both natural and spiritual development. It would be infinitely easier, if we only knew it, actually to realise the kingdom of heaven in the structure and organism of society than it is to make a better order by the thousand tinkerings, compromises, and "scientific methods" which we usually undertake.

The desire will be created by putting and keeping the idea of the kingdom of heaven before tlie minds of men until the thought of the people begins to gather about it. The apostles of the kingdom are sent to overcome the world by the witness of their faith. It is the ideal and the passion for it which have been the sole making force of history. This is the thesis of Hegel and Saint Paul. We can establish the kingdom in objective and economic facts only by first establishing it in human thought and faith. " When the ideal once alights in our streets," says Edward Carpenter, " we may go in and take our supper in A peace : the rest will be seen to."

*See Fable, " The Visionary ."

xiii

That there is no individual extrication from social wrong is the blessing of both the individual and society. The passion for individual extricatio7i is really the evasion of individual responsibility. The only Christian innocence in a world of wrong is the sacrifice of one ' s own life in bearing away that zvrong. Only through the emancipation of the whole hitman life ca7i the citizen of tlie kingdom realise his full liberty and citizenship. Only so, can we live the life of love y — the life of the Son of God. No man of love zvill wish to be extricated from the common wrong except as a part of the common life. He dares not seek a perfection that separates him from his brethren. He zvill no more drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God be full come y zvhe?t he can drink it in fellowship with all his brethren in the ransomed society.

GEORGE D. HERRON.

Department of Applied Christianity, University of Iowa.

Contents

PAGB

A Search for Contentment . . 2j

The Deliverance from Bondage 79

I. A Counsel of Perfection

The following is the experience, given, as nearly as possible in his own words, of one who tried to follow the Golden Rule. He is a man of unusual health, ability, and energy, but is unfitted for a tranquil career in the world, because his mental and his spiritual natures are so developed that he is unable to accept what he knows and feels to be untrue. Had he been less intellectual or had he been shielded by circumstances, such as inherited wealth or the possession of a monopoly, he might long have persuaded himself that he was fulfilling the whole law of love, while actually living at ease on his fellows.

Only such circumstances can blind any one who follows his convictions to the unavoidable consequences of right doing, that prevent even an approach to perfect obedience to the Golden Rule.

"I was, " says this man, "a birthright 5 member of the Quaker body, and from my youth was filled with the Quaker spirit. I was impelled to do unto others as I would be done by, and to love my neighbour as myself, in every-day life and action; and what did it bring me to? Want! I lost all I had, as men told me I would. I inherited a fine farm and an interest in a prosperous factory. I had a good common -school education and excellent health, but these could not save my material wealth from the disastrous effects of trying to do right. A sample of how it worked will suffice. When a lad, I had sold some cows at the market, and spoke of the price I had gotten. Every one said I had gotten some shillings per head more than the cattle were worth. 'Then, ' said I, *I will go and give the sum back to the purchaser. ' The very ones from whom I had my training laughed at me. But I did give it back. In the factory I paid, not the least that the hands could be got to work for, but what seemed to me a fair living wage. It is not hard to see how soon all that, under our system of commercial and industrial warfare, parted my property and me.

" Then I was accused, even by reformers, of being hyper-sensitive and over-scrupulous. Having lost my all, I had to seek employment from other persons. I thought at the time, not understanding economics and social laws, * Surely, now I can carry out the Golden Rule ! ' But, alas ! I found the very reverse the case. In every situation, I had to tell lies orally or to act them, to cheat, to do everything that can be conceived of as the reverse of the Golden Rule or of any kind of right-doing. Now I was in a fix. I had arrived at the end of my tether ; for I could find no place or condition on this earth in which I could do right and get enough to sustain life. Either I had to give up the whole Christian .religion as totally impractical, a cheat of the first water, and die, — for the impulse to act the Golden Rule, having become second nature, made life too painful for me to live under such conditions, — or, before taking the final stand, and refusing any further action, which would also entail death, to look a little deeper, and see what were the obstacles which prevented me, as an individual, from getting a living and at the same time carrying out, in every-day life, the Golden Rule. "Remember, the teachers of my time maintained that an individual could observe the rule independently of any one else, and make a living. And this is where the orthodox teachers have such a hold on the people; for most people believe it is their own particular fault that they don't do right in every-day life, and always blame themselves, and believe they could do righteously, independently of any one else, if they liked. So long as their teachers keep them under this delusion, we can do nothing with them: this is why the churches have been the greatest obstacles to reform. Their officers are of the order of the priests of old, who were always denounced by the prophets. Here was I, willing to practise righteousness at any cost; and yet finding it impossible. Here I was at death's door in consequence. I must either do right — which means doing nothing, and death by starvation as the result — or find out why I could not live and do right. This difficulty brought me to the end of the first lesson as to the sense in which we are 'guilty ' ; brought me into contact with the general laws governing our whole social fabric, and opened my spiritual understanding. In investigating these laws, some of which are governmental and sustained by force, and others conventional and enforced by custom, I was driven to the conclusion that both set of laws are artificial and man-made, having no fixed natural or divine foundation; and that, instead of promoting righteousness, which is right-doing, in the present, they are producing crime and misery, — the very conditions they profess to destroy.

"On further study, I was led to the inevitable conclusion that I am only an atom among the aggregate individuals governed by these laws ; and that, as an atom, it is impossible for me to act contrary to these laws and remain in the body, since all my bodily surroundings are governed and arranged by them : I found that we are individually controlled by the laws that we make collectively. Hence, if the laws are bad, the individual, notwithstanding his desire to be good, must obey them, or become an outlaw. Therefore, if he obeys them, he is, from the individual standpoint of good, a sinner; and, if he refuses, from the collective or legal point of view, a criminal.

"This at once explained why, from my first attitude as an individual, I found it impossible in every-day life to carry out the Golden Rule. It also forced upon me the conclusion that my individual attempts to be virtuous or to satisfy my own conscience, were actually hurting me and all humanity both morally and materially : hence that, so long as the present system lasts, I am powerless as an individual to do right in the smallest degree.

"This enlargement of my vision deepened and corrected my first or individual conscience, which was always thinking of the result of my actions on myself, and forced me to think of the result of my actions on other persons, first materially and afterward mentally and spiritually. This revelation of the control of law on the material plane, did not help me out of my first difficulty as to doing right : it merely explained why I could not do right as an individual or independently of others, and emphasised the general wrong-doing.

"I saw that, under the present systems, we receive the greatest material benefits from spendthrifts, blackguards, and destroyers, and should continue to bless them and to build monuments to them. Thrift is a curse. It is the people that recklessly demolish wealth who keep the wheels going. 'Our present industrial system, ' says Rev. Herbert N. Casson, Ms actually built on such an insane plan that it rejoices in waste. "No waste, no business. " When a great fire ocii curs, the carpenters and masons rejoice; when sickness is prevalent, the doctors and druggists smile; and, whenever a death occurs, some undertaker is made happy. ' The greatest material benefit the labouring people could have would be the sudden death of half of them; or, failing that, to dump half the wealth of the country into the sea. Either of these would raise wages, lower rents, and really 'improve the condition of the poor/

"I saw that this should not be, and that our social system is unequalled for producing devils. It puts a premium on laziness. It promotes prodigality, produces intemperance and unnatural habits in eating, drinking, clothing, and is the fruitful source, directly or indirectly, of almost all irregularities in sexual relations.

"Here, again, I was brought face to face with death; for, if I refused to conform to these laws which directly or indirectly perverted every action of my life, I would soon be forcibly put out of existence. From my new standpoint, then, life was too pain- 12 ful to live, where I had continually to take my neighbour by the throat to put bread and butter in my mouth. There seemed nothing but death before me ; and I longed for it, if there were no way out of the difficulty. My whole world had come to an end, and my heaven had passed away : nothing was left to me. I was heart-broken, and in the depths of despair and hell. I wished I had never been born. I saw no help in my lifetime; and, like Richter's man reviewing the universe, I wanted to lie down and be hidden from the persecution of the Infinite. Then came my full illumination, and in it I saw that I was a father trying to shirk the responsibility of rearing his children. I saw the suffering entailed by having to associate continually with those who were not on my own platform. In the new light, having daily to conform to the bad customs and laws made by the majority, I understood what was meant by being 'all things to all men/ and 'All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient.' For, when our desires are in accord with all the law of the universe, the fulfilling of those desires must be lawful. I realised now what it was to suffer on the cross, what it was to have to bear the sins of others. I found now, that I myself was freed from sin, not being a willing party to it ; but, for the sake of others, I had to go on doing the things my soul revolted against. In other words, I had, as a natural man, to return and pitch pennies with children. Not that I approve of or prefer pitch and toss, but that this was the only platform upon which I could meet the children and on which they could understand me."

Such is the course of spiritual experience by which one is brought to the lofty meekness which inherits the earth, to that state in which we spread out our hands, so that we catch all the blessings of the Beatitudes.

If we act honestly with ourselves, doing

the things which we profess to believe, we

must come, either by death or life, to a new

and higher existence. In what respects an attempt at partial honesty, with regard to others, is desirable, each, in his circumstances, must decide for himself. The question should really be, "Is dishonesty or cheating ever justifiable to one who believes that acts have a moral quality in themselves? " " Is to lie, ever loving? " is another and a more difficult question.

To be honest is, neither to deceive nor to take anything, however necessary for ourselves, from any one, without giving him a full and satisfactory equivalent. That is, it is to fulfil the Golden.Rule. But, it is easy to see the impossibility, under existing conditions, of so much as verbal honesty. Truthfulness brings its natural reward in the faith that it creates, often most valuable on critical occasions, but it results in martyrdom, in greater or less degree : so does all right-doing in the world as we have made it.

Our difficulties in doing right do not arise only in the strategies of war or other extraordinary situations.

Nearly every one will assert that we ought to tell the truth and no lies. But so different are our theoretic and our actual beliefs, and so independent the practices governed by them, that we find, upon the attempt to apply our principle, that it is instantly repudiated.

Every doctor knows that his patients would not tolerate his telling the truth. The nervous invalid is seriously ill, "must be kept from all excitement, M asks if he is in any danger. "Oh, dear, no! We shall be all right in a few days. " (Dear, kind doctor!) "Well," says the nurse, "at the worst, that is an innocent white lie. ,J

The lady's maid must lie as nicely as she sews. One can't be rude, and say one is engaged or "begs to be excused": that sounds so inhospitable. Besides, some people will say, "Oh, she will see me," and come in anyway. Much better say the lady is out, or "not at home," — a mere phrase, a conventionality, which everybody understands. (Everybody, that is, except 16 those who, if they did, would insist on sending up their names, and those who would think the truth inhospitable or discover, thereby, that we are inhospitable.)

And, then, people have no business to ask if one is 'in* : they should say, 'Is she receiving?' If they do get deceived, it is their own fault. Then all the little courtesies, 'Happy to see you!' 'Such a pleasant visit ! ' and so on. Why, society would be a bear-garden without them, even if they are untrue !" So it would: for living falsely necessitates falsehoods.

The bank cashier, again, the jailer from whom the combination or the key is demanded at dead of night, the request emphasised by a revolver: surely, he is not bound to tell the truth. Spencer says, "There is no moral relation between the parties. " He cannot be expected to sacrifice his life for $100,000, which the trust company would hardly miss, nor even for $10,000, which would wreck the village savings-bank. Let him give them the wrong 17 numbers, and frustrate crime and save his own skin, or let them take the money he is pledged to protect !

Beautiful and convenient morality ! Such a handy thing to have in the house in an emergency. ! As a Christian lady told her child, who declined to say, "Glad to see you," "You must always say that, because it pleases people, whether it is true or not. " Our success depends upon pleasing people.

Yet all this has its disadvantages. It does happen that, when the invalid is nervous only, not ill, and is told so, he still worries, because he thinks, " They only say lam all right so as not to frighten me." Nay, even when he is really getting well, and the doctor says, "We must cheer him up: hope will be more than medicine, " he still thinks, "All this is a part of this affectionate system of lies: I am much worse." To be sure, the friend whom the fair one wishes to see, is uncertain whether she really is at home or away; and it is necessary now and then to call over the banister that she was only constructively "out. " Sure enough, it is demoralising to a trusted officer to have to make up his mind beforehand that he will be a coward or a traitor, if only enough inducements be held out, or, at least, if he be in sufficient danger. Then it is hard to get servants who have so nice a moral sense that they will lie for us, but not to us, and yet are not sensitive when we expose the lies we ordered.

If the banker may lie to save $ 1,000,000 from the burglars, so may he for $100,000, or for $10,000, or for $100. Even for a dollar he may tell a small lie, and a "little one for a penny. " Yet how can he help telling lies, and live ?

If a matter of life and death will excuse deception, then danger of death must, — even some danger, or at least certainty of serious injury in a serious case; and "one cannot be too careful : any illness may prove serious."

Of course, deception, when willingly done, brings its own punishment, not only in in- 19 ability to get credence, but in the actual giving over to the belief of a lie. Let the practice go far enough, and the patient becomes unable to distinguish whether what he says is true at all or not. Ay: in order to excuse himself and to quiet his conscience, the sinner will deliberately set himself to believe the falsehood he has told. "I thought he would get better. " "I really didn't remember the combination for the moment. ' ' *

" First I told him some lies. Then he told me some lies. He knew that I was lying, and I knew that he was lying. I knew that he knew that I was lying, and he knew that I knew that he was lying; and I knew that he knew that he was lying, and he knew that I knew that he knew that I was lying. Then we made our trade."

* The foregoing discussion of practical truthfulness was rejected by the New York Observer, Evangelist, Independent, Christian Union, the Chicago Interior, and others, on the various grounds that "the editor did not agree with your conclusions,'' that it was "too radical," that it was " not well to discuss such questions," that it was " out of our line," and so on. Such are the ecclesiastical guides to the kingdom.

Is not that an ordinary procedure in "striking a bargain?"

An interesting book called Who Lies? published by DeWolfe, Fiske & Company, Boston, illustrates the impossibility of honesty in our society.

There is no escape from these difficulties. To end our lives on earth, by lack of conformity to conditions or of proper care, or by reckless overwork, is but to shirk our lesson here.

Nor will it do, either to isolate ourselves, like anchorites, or to expose ourselves to death by refusing to conform our actions to the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Either course is merely to smother our voices; and, if we still the voices which can teach, and allow men to slay all the prophets, who shall prophesy to them ? That would be only to keep back the development that we might have helped.

Martyrdom attracts attention and shows earnestness, but gives no explanation of that earnestness. It has secured comparative freedom for thought and some freedom of speech from physical repression, and more martyrdom will be needed before we win these rights entirely; but, in other matters, its effect has probably been much exaggerated. Martyrdom is purely a protest ; and, when expression is prohibited by force, it is the only protest possible.

It is not permissible for an enlightened man to sacrifice himself or his powers to all, as did Buddha in yielding himself to be eaten by the famished tigress. That was but a step, a necessary step, in his development. True self-sacrifice consists in co-operating with the divine law of evolution, that works in ourselves and in others, as soon as we recognise it. It is simply leaving the worse things for the better, when we see a better thing.

Nor should we allow ourselves to take to ourselves any more pain than we can avoid, on account of the folly or wrong-doing of others. Put the suffering where it belongs, because you love the sufferer. To do other - 22 wise is to take the children away from school. It may grieve you to see them arduously learning, but it cannot be helped. The only practical thing to be done is to teach and to protest, — to be the voice of one crying, if only in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way ! " No other course is open.

II. A SEARCH FOR CONTENTMENT.

The struggle for existence among members of one body evolves love. — Universal responsibility. — Governmenty the result of the sum of zvills, not of force. — Great and small alike answerable for war. — Shows order in nature.

II. A Search for Contentment

"For the things that are pleasant to have, for food, and for the best places in which to live, there is a competition among all living beings. " The stronger in body or in wit get these things; and the weaker, "those less fitted to survive, " are starved or pushed aside. Each creature struggles and devotes life trying to get good for itself or for its young. We are part of its struggle; and each of us takes from others the means of living, or even life itself, in order to secure good for ourselves.

As all are struggling for the same objects, all the rest are opposed to each one of us. And every competitor is engaged in counteracting our plans and in bringing us to nought. This is called "the pursuit of happiness. ' '

Therefore, not even an antelope or an ant can live or die independently. It must either help its kind, in its degree, or injure 27 its kind, or perhaps, in some measure, however unconsciously, do both. We can choose only as to whether our competition shall be aimed to help or to hinder our fellows.

But the road to heaven lies through hell : through war comes peace. Suffering and death follow imprudence and weakness, to teach us wisdom and strength. Affection began with the attraction of male and female and with the necessity of defending each other, and the first conception of retribution sprang from revenge. Afterward this rose to the idea of justice. Accordingly, by natural and by sexual selection, by fights with each other and war with his kind, man has developed the ideas of prudence, of compassion, and of justice. Now we begin to understand that this fight for existence is not the object of life, but only the training for life; that not even a few can really succeed while every one opposes all the rest; that, as we rise higher socially and spiritually, we rise above the arena, and, looking down upon it, we see the brutality of it, and set ourselves to 28