God and the future life...

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE

REASOMBLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY

Contents

OUAP. PAGK

INTRODUCTION 13

I. THE IMPORTANCE OP FAITH 17

I. The Importance Of Faith

The future — that which is to come — even in this life, is to us dark and impenetrable ; hence we speak of " faith." We cannot foreknow ; hence we speak of "believing."

IS'othing is more universally and abso^-^ely true than that we "walk by faith." Eve^ ui the affairs of this life the doubter is weal^ -the successful, the powerful men are thobCi^^vho take much upon trust. They study the laws of trade, of nature, or of the human mind; and they make their ventures, or plan their course, not because they can foresee details or certainly foretell results, not because they can grasp all the elements; but in the faith that, with proper effort on their parts, and working in accordance with the laws of nature and of human nature, success will follow.

No great worldly success even is gained without a large and inspiring faith in him who is to gain it. No man has conquered difficulties, or overcome serious obstacles, who has not known times in the struggle when all the facts and all the force of events seemed to be against him, and when, but for his belief in the lawfulness of his cause, or in the care and skill with which his enterprise was planned, he would have given up. The weak, who falter and run away, are those who lack faith in this general sense. The commander who believes he is going to be beaten is beaten already ; the merchant who expects failure is crippled in advance : it is the man who believes who does the impossible; and even in this merely worldly sense it is true that by faith men have removed mountains.

The immediate future in our lives is so impenetrable to all of us that we constantly need to "walk by faith" even in the commonest enterprises, and " ITothing venture nothing win " is a proverb.

A prudent man planning an enterprise begins by examining all its elements, all the obstacles in his way, all the details likely to make for or against his success ; but if he is wise, he above all things takes care that what he proposes shall be in harmony with natural laws, and shall be helpful to the general interests and welfare of society — that is to say, of his fellow-men. He knows beforehand that he cannot hope entirely to control events ; and he guards, so far as possible, against the inevitable uncertainties by founding him-

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH. 19

self upon the general prosperity, and by going along with and not contrary to those natural laws which he understands. It is in this way that great and permanent successes are made. Thus a young man planning a career for himself would, if he were far-sighted and wise enough to deserve success, take care in the beginning that his plans were not to violate natural laws, nor to be hurtful, but beneficial, to his fellow-men ; and, having taken this precaution, he would go on, largely on faith, against great and frequent discouragements, often in poverty, friendless, misunderstood, perhaps in temporary defeat and disgrace ; but he would follow in one fixed direction, and govern his life and his course by the lines he had laid out in the beginning.

To do otherwise, to set out without definite purpose, to change from one kind of effort to another at slight temptations of fortune, would be, as you easily see, to fritter away his life ; to waste his strength without result. To be unstable, to "do everything by turns and nothing well," to live one's life without some fixed theory of action, to drift, even in the affairs of this brief life, is acknowledged by everybody to be unwise, unfit, and even deserving contempt. It is to be the sport of circumstances and to invite failure.

Now, what is thus plainly true in the affairs of

20 GOD AND THE FUTUEE LIFE.

this life must be, as I would like you to see, true in a far greater and more important sense, if you are to look for another and more permanent existence after death. If this life in the body is not all, but if it is only the prelude to a far broader, more enduring, and higher existence for you, necessarily you ought to take that other and larger part of your life into account in all your plans and thoughts. To do otherwise would be to neglect the precautions which men take, as I have said, for objects of infinitely less importance. It would be as though one should engage an architect to build a cellar, but run up a costly house over it without regard to the skill or experience even of a builder or practical mechanic.

To consent to live without definite notions of its objects and tendencies, must needs make all human effort random and unsatisfactorv, and human life an aimless or a selfish and merely animal existence. The man who does this can only drift. He is the creature of his impulses and of his fears, as are the animals. We have been left intellectually free to believe as seems to us most reasonable and conclusive on this great question. You may satisfy your minds, as some have done, that there is no God, and no future life for you ; and when you come to this conviction or faith you will live accordingly. Or you may convince yourself that there is a God, and

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH. 21

that your life — yourself — will continue after your body perishes ; and as, in the other case, if this belief takes root in your mind, if it is a conviction, you will be impelled to plan your present life in accordance with it. But it is plainly your highest duty to yourself, it is the one thing necessary to your own real manhood or womanhood, and to your satisfactory living, that you shall come to some conclusion. You ought not to put it aside ; for it is mainly the ability to consider this question which makes us higher than, and different from, the animals ; and it is the conviction to which you come, the Faith which comes to you and becomes part of you, which alone can enable you to plan your life satisfactorily, and to live it with purpose and effectively.

That is to say, you cannot live, in any sense higher than the merest animal existence, without faith. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he;" and if he will not think at all of this problem of what life means, or if he is content to think vaguely and carelessly, necessarily he drifts, as a ship whose master lays no course for her ; he tends to become no better, but rather worse, than the beasts which perish ; he abandons that which, if there is a future life, is the only important or enduring part of him, and which, even in this life, is needed to make him a man, and not merely (as we see in so many instances) an abler and more dangerous kind of animal. Nothing is so important to the direction of your lives and your efforts, to the maintenance of your self-possession and serenity of soul, as that you shall be possessed by a definite, firmly grasped belief as to the real objects of your life, and its duration and character.

To live without God in the world is sufficiently dreary ; but the man who sincerely and soberly denies God and a future life, though I tliink him a very unenviable being, has yet a faith, and may, in my belief, be happier and more useful to his fellow-men than that great number who refuse to think at all of this subject, or even than those whose faith is perfunctory, vague, a source of confusion, irresolution, and terror, and not of the strength and consistency which come of a real belief.

THE REASONABLENESS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH.

I HAVE tried, in what goes before, to impress on your minds that a belief of some kind concerning the meaning and purpose of human life is necessary to raise us above the beasts, with whom, so far as regards our bodies, we have so much in common. Life without some such belief — life without Faith, in this sense — is unendurable to thoughtful men and women. You will notice that coincidently with the general and lamentable decadence of faith in the Christian theory of life, which marks our century, has come a new and vigorous discussion of the question. What is the true meaning of life ? Some of the very men who most positively and earnestly reject the Christian faith are the most indefatigable in their efforts to establish some other theory of life. They cannot rest with mere negation ; and you may see in the tone and drift of their discussions how intolerable to these thoughtful doubters is mere doubting ; how necessary to their peace of mind is a settled belief of some kind. The men who in

24 GOD AXD THE FUTURE LIFE.

these days deny the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, are farthest from resting content with this mere denial ; they are the most active, the most prominent and zealous in their effort to discover some other and tenable faith — some other theory on which to explain satisfactorily to themselves, and harmoniously with the general laws of nature and the creation, the meaning and purpose of human life. Thus, strangely enough, this great question has never been so earnestly and widely considered as now, in this which is often called the Age of the Decadence of Faith.

They, too, who reject Christianity thus acknowledge that a faith of some kind is necessary to their comfort and satisfaction.

Therefore, that you ought to think clearly on this subject, and that you ought to settle to some form of faith, as indispensable to your satisfactory living, you may hold certain.

What, then, ought you to believe on this question ?

I believe profoundly that there is a God, and a Future Life. The more I see of human life; the more I learn of what are called natural laws; the more closely I study the history of our race, of the earth, and of the universe, the more decidedly this seems to me to be the most reasonable, and the only reasonable belief.

Naturally, I would like you to be " moved by tlie same faith " with myself. While you remained children it was sufficient for you to know that the matters I speak of were declared by Jesus, and are found in the Bible. You had no occasion to look farther; and to millions who, happily perhaps for themselves, do not come into contact with, or under the influence of the modern spirit of doubt, this remains, in like manner, conclusive. The words and the life of Jesus suffice for them. But the tendency, and often the eflEect, of modern discussion is to weaken and shake this simpler faith. Of this we cannot complain ; but it forces us to look more carefully into the subject, and, if possible, to seek a reason for the faith that is within us — outside of the Bible — because the men and the books we reason with, and which appeal to our minds often with great force and acuteness, will not accept the Bible as final.

A clergyman in the pulpit may declare that it is true that there is a God, and that he has destined us to a future life, because the Bible so declares. But the unbeliever replies, " It may be true, but I will not take it on the evidence you present. If a college professor tells me that a proposition in mathematics is true because Euclid so delivered it, I reply to him, it may be true, but it is not true for the reason you give, but outside of that altogether. Demonstrate its truth to me, then I will believe. Euclid is but a reporter. I will not accept him for more than that."

And this young doubter proposes to treat the Bible as of no more final authority than a book of mathematics. He admits that, in citing the Bible, the clergyman has offered what lav/yers call presumptive evidence, but asserts that he has not necessarily proved his case.

Now, I do not know that those of us who believe have a right to blame this doubter. We have a right, if we choose, or if by our intellectual training we are impelled to it, to use our reasoning powers on this as on all other subjects. We have a right to inquire ; and as this question is the most important of all to ourselves, we are bound to inquire. And while we cannot expect to arrive at absolute certainty on this, as on some other less important questions, I believe that intelligent inquiry will only result in strengthening faith ; and that the more closely you examine the theory that there is a God, and that there is for us a future life, the more you will be convinced that all the probabilities lie on that side ; and that those who deny these positions require, in fact, from you a greater stretch of faith, and impose upon your minds a far greater strain, than those who ask you to believe.

It would be strange and puzzling to us who accept the Bible as true if this were not so ; for to admit that the Scripture teachings of God and a future life are repugnant to the course of nature, and to what we can know of human life and character, would be to say that God contradicts himself. It is more reasonable to expect that the belief which we draw from the Bible must be confirmed by what we see in the material universe, and that the word and the works of God must be consistent with each other.

"While He has declared that no man shall see him at any time with his eyes in this life, and while He has hidden the future beyond the grave absolutely from apprehension by our bodily senses, we may, I believe, arrive at such an assurance on these subjects, from a view of the present life and of all the universe that surrounds us, as, though it cannot resolve all mysteries (and thus make faith of no importance), will yet place that faith on a reasonable basis, and confirm it by all that human thought can master of the works and laws of the Creator.

Please to observe that the greatest discoveries in science, of these later days, rest on no stronger foundation than this. The theory of Evolution is not proved — no man has seen the changes which it supposes ; all that its supporters assert is, that in some large and important aspects, but not in all, it explains the course of organic life, and the changes this has undergone, more perfectly than other theories which have been advanced. The molecular theory in physics is not proved in the sense that any one has seen, or in any other way physically apprehended, a molecule, or an atom of matter. Your teacher in physics will tell you only that it explains certain phenomena of matter better, and all these phenomena more completely, than any other theory. 'Now, what we, who believe in God and in a future life, may reasonably expect to find in a study of human life and of nature is, that our theory shall have like confirmation with these others.

If a young man at school or college should say to his teacher, " I refuse to look farther into the atomic theory which you are teaching unless you will first show me an atom," he would rightly be thought a bumptious young fellow, only moderately endowed with common-sense. But this would be just as reasonable as if one should say, " I decline to believe in God unless you show me God ; or in the future life unless you first produce me a being from that future state."

On the other hand, the inquirer into physical phenomena, when he has satisfied himself of a truth, makes that, so far as it applies, a basis of his further investigations. The mathematician, satisfied that twice two makes four — why, he knows not — does not thereupon neglect this important element in his calculations ; does not treat it as of little or no consequence. He makes it, on the contrary, the guide, the controlling factor in all his calculations. It informs and overrules his mathematical life. If, by any strange chance, doubt should be thrown on its truth, he would not rest until he had established it, or had found some equivalent truth to replace it.

In like manner I have endeavored, in previous chapters, to show you how and why whatever beliefs you may hold concerning God and the future life ought to become the rule of your conduct ; that a right belief is of vital importance if you desire to make anything satisfactory out of your life ; if it is to be anything more than a medley of confused and random acts.

God has chosen, for various reasons, some of which are suflSciently obvious, to conceal from us not merely that part of our lives which lies beyond the grave, but even all knowledge of the immediate future in this life. But he has given us reasoning faculties, has enabled us to observe facts and to draw conclusions — in short, to think. I believe that, while he has filled our lives with mysteries which we vainly strive to comprehend, he has not exacted of us either unreasonable or unreasoning belief ; and that in this supremely important matter of the future life we may come to as valid conclusions by inquiry and reasoning as men of science do in many of their investigations from the known to the unknown, or as they also do where their field of facts is large enough — in reasoning from the known to the admittedly unknowable.

To proceed systematically to the inquiry which I urge, it seems advisable to consider first what you really are, what kind of being, and what kind of circumstances surround you.

WHAT ARE YOU? 31

III. What Are You?

You are a rational, that is to say, a thinking and reasoning being, brought into existence without your previous knowledge or consent ; placed here in circumstances more or less disagreeable; subject to pain and to various kinds of suffering, the least of which, please observe, are those which affect your body; and finally to the decay and dissolution of this body.

You are unable to control your physical life, either in its circumstances or its duration, except to an extremely moderate degree. You are moved by impulses, desires, and passions, almost all of a kind injurious not only to your nobler or spiritual part, but even to your body, and which require your constant attention to control, or even to guide them. Ignorant to a very great extent of the laws of your physical being, your powers are limited on every side by boundaries which no effort of yours, or of all mankind, can do more than widen a very little ; for by no means in your reach can you foreknow even what may happen in the next moment to yourself, or to those dearer to you than your own life. The wisest of mankind is without sufficient knowledge to guard his life securely against danger or distress. Your whole existence here is one continuous uncertainty ; and so true is this that, in spite of the wisdom of the most prudent and care-taking, a proverb relates that " it is the unexpected which always happens."

From the moment of your birth but one event is certain for you, and that is your death; and you cannot even foreknow the time when this will come. As an intelligent being, you have a boundless capacity and desire for knowledge ; and you see in the universe, and even on this planet, an illimitable field for inquiry and acquisition. Yet we scarcely begin to know what knowledge is in any branch of life or nature before bodily infirmities and old age impair our physical energies and weaken the organs on whose help we depend for the exercise of our intellectual powers : as the explorer of a strange continent might be crippled on the threshold of his discoveries by the breaking down of his wagons, the death of his horses, or the desertion of his guides.

You can hope, by the utmost efforts of a long life, to know by sight only a small part of the planet on which we live ; yet you know that our earth is but one of myriads of worlds, and that our sun and

WHAT ARE YOU? 33

its planets form only one of the smaller of the systems which crowd the universe. Yon are surrounded by mysteries which the wisest of our race call " laws," and can no further explain ; and if you could master all science and all knowledge, you would only know that man has penetrated with uncertain hands but skin-deep into the infinite.

A great part of our life here is needed to teach us even the most superficial knowledge of the laws of our physical being; and yet all the knowledge we may gain and apply does not suflSce to protect us against the gravest calamities or the most unlooked-for and painful mishaps. You have a desire for virtuous conduct, yet find yourself constantly the prey of tendencies to vice and wrong-doing. Your whole conscious life here, if it is rightly conducted, is necessarily an unremitting strife with your evil propensities, which, on the least indulgence, are prone to become fixed as habits ; and with the utmost care we know not at what moment evil will overcome our good intentions.

Plan your life as carefully, as prudently as you may, bend all your energies to the achievement of your purposes, and yet you may discover in the end tliat your plans were blunders, and that your labors have led only to the disappointment of your hopes.

And finally, at the end of the most fortunate life, comes death.

If, then, we are to conclude that there is no possibility of life for us beyond the body, that pliysical death means the extinction not merely of our bodies but of ourselves^ then certainly mankind are the sport of a very cruel and ghastly injustice ; and we may reasonably ask by what strange and not to be looked for stroke of unreason, in a universe which we perceive on every hand to be the harmonious creature of laws, men have been endowed with faculties doomed to be wasted, with intelligent desires foreordained only to disappointment ? How comes this huge and inexplicable incongruity in a system which, in every part of it, save this highest, is evidently based on purpose, and carried on upon an intelligent plan?