FINDING THE SENSE OF IMMORTALITY
How shall we find the assurance of immortality?
1. We automatically find the assurance of the future when we find the
reality of the present.
Naturally, assurance will be found, if at all, where it was lost. We
shall automatically find the assurance of the future when we find the
reality of the present.
It is not claimed that all professing Christians have a firm grasp on
reality; for when religion is no more than a superficial formality, its
credulous devotees experience neither truth nor doubt; they are
religious automatons. But if we do not allow such Christians to attract
us to heaven, neither should we permit them to drive us to perdition.
If one succeeds in finding God, if he learns to grasp the religious
significance of the universe, and if he achieves a personal experience
of the kingdom of God, assurance of the future will come unbidden and
unsought. These great and present realities are the gateway to life and
the guarantee of good things to come. _Only let one find, assimilate,
and build upon this three-fold present, and the soul will blossom into
hope._
Some reasons why the quest for reality is not more frequently and
earnestly undertaken.
a. The moral failure of Christians
Some refrain from any effort to make religious attainments because of
the moral failures among professing Christians. But there are many
failures in business, education, citizenship, and every other line of
human endeavor that is worth while. On that basis a person would refuse
to live at all. We all know there are some religious sceptics who are
much more upright than some believers. From a Christian civilization
they have inherited strong wills, a deep moral sense, and physical
bodies with no marked weakness. Many of them have kindly dispositions
and charming graces. Among their most helpful friends and favorite
authors they count many of the best religious people. They themselves
are one of the best by-products of Christianity. If they did not live in
a Christian civilization they would not be what they are. Many such are
doubters simply because they have not found their religious teachers.
They have probably encountered that which, for their type of mind, was a
very unfortunate religious environment. It would have been better for
some people if they had had different parents, or a different Church, or
both. However, it is a simple matter of observation that a large
percentage of humanity is weak whether believing or sceptical, whether
it goes to Church or does not go to Church. A man who has a real saint
in him may at the same time have seven devils in himself to fight. With
no patriotic ideals or emotions some men can keep morally straight,
while some noble self-sacrificing patriot may, if he is not very
careful, fall into the ditch. It is fortunate that some doubters are so
good, and a pity that some Christians are so bad; but regardless of just
how good or bad any of us is, if this universe has a Soul it is of the
greatest importance that we make His personal acquaintance and learn His
plans; and if in anything we have deviated from His plans we should
humbly repent and get in line with the Power that must ultimately break
us if it cannot make us. If one is strong enough to perform ordinary
duties without the conscious help of God, that is no reason why he
should run away from his Father and treat Him with silent contempt. The
Father desires the company of His son, and in a thousand ways great and
small needs His son's help.
b. Because the average Christian cannot answer technical questions
Others regard the religious verities lightly because the average
Christian cannot answer technical questions pertaining to his faith. Yet
there is not one cultivated person in a thousand that can answer
technical questions concerning the material universe in which we all
live. The most highly civilized and prosperous community succeeds simply
because it relies on the technical knowledge of the few. Most of us
know electricity neither practically nor theoretically. Even among
practical electricians, how many could answer more than the simplest
questions? It requires no profound knowledge of the subject to wire a
house and give its occupants light and comfort. Yet the practical
electrician knows as well as the expert that he is dealing with a real
force, and may be able to wire the house better than the theoretical
electrician himself could do. How many good cooks are there who could
chemically analyze the food which they have prepared for their families?
It is absurd to expect the average Christian to go into all the
psychology and philosophy of his religion; as it is absurd to deny the
reality of his experience because a full analysis is not forthcoming.
The large majority of people have neither time nor qualifications to go
into an exhaustive and technical examination of the philosophy and
science of religion, any more than they have to go into the philosophy
and science of the material world. Fortunately, a more practical way
stands wide open to them. Because men are men, they may possess the
great realities before they can adequately explain them. They know the
stars before they are astronomers. They have an implicit knowledge of
God which under right conditions becomes explicit. They have intuitions
and common sense, the foundation of all knowledge. It is their
privilege, likewise, to put things to the severe test of use. In the
material world men risk their lives and fortunes on the truth of
sciences of which, at first hand, they are totally ignorant. But by so
doing they find themselves the richer and the wiser. Likewise, the
Christian multitudes who take the spiritual world practically, find
themselves the recipients of untold blessings. Their knowledge, to be
sure, is only practical, but it is their knowledge, and they would be
willing to die for it if necessary. One may have the reality without the
analysis, or he may have the analysis without the reality, or,
unfortunately, he may have neither. The happiest possible situation is
where he has both. A man may be justified in giving money and labor for
the support and extension of religion without himself being a
psychologist or a theologian. Just as the men who have given the most
money for the advancement of the sciences do not know enough about these
sciences to teach them. Yet we do not call them fools; we highly esteem
them as philanthropists and benefactors. They are often as intellectual
in the practical world as the scholars are in the scientific world. The
practical and theoretical everywhere supplement each other.
There should be experts, by all means, who know religion technically as
well as practically. And to these many inquiring troubled minds should
go for help, just as the business man goes to the experts for knowledge
that lies beyond him. Some sceptics take special delight in perplexing
common Christians with the deepest philosophical aspects of their faith.
Why do they not go to the experts? Many religious doubters never go to
any one with their problems; while others of a more superficial
character go to the religious quacks, and thenceforward help to swell
the ranks of some ridiculous or fanatical religion.
It is doubtless true that almost every one could find his religious
teacher if only he would look for him; one who could interpret religion
in such a way as to satisfy his reason and meet his deepest need. If
there is any possible way of bringing honest doubters and religious
experts together it should be done for their mutual benefit. But here is
one of the gravest practical difficulties that we have to face.
c. Antiquated forms irritating to sceptics
Crude ideas still cling to the popular statements of religion as
barnacles cling to a ship. This unfortunate and unnecessary fact drives
away from the Church many conscientious minds. Though not many of us are
scientists, yet we all live in a fairly well reconstructed material
universe. Without knowing any mathematical astronomy our general notion
of the heavens is fairly correct. Ignorant as we are of physics and
chemistry, yet we have in our minds a moderately fair picture of a world
that is compounded from the gases. The old picture of the material world
has given place to the new, even among the uneducated masses. But, sad
to say, the simple, complete picture of the reconstructed religious
world has never been given to the masses. Sometimes we lug in a little
of the dry and technical science that lies back of the new picture, but
rarely do we give the picture concrete and whole, unburdened and
untrammeled by the technical substratum. As a result only a handful of
Christians have the simple, modern conception of religion in anything
like complete form. Yet no task should be easier or more delightful than
just this work of giving the people a complete picture of the religious
world in which we live. Recently I met a man who is a good worker in one
of the most prominent churches in America, and I was surprised to find
that his ideas of religion compare with those of his renowned minister
as the Ptolemaic astronomy compares with the Copernican,--and yet he has
no realization of the discrepancy. His capable minister should draw the
picture for him. A great many sincere and genuine churches greatly
irritate the sceptical mind because of the forms in which their
religious ideas are clothed. Like a grapevine that is never trimmed,
their faith is free and easy and of luxurious growth. To the critical
doubter the suffocating atmosphere of the Church seems unreasoning and
unreasonable. It is not that he wants something learned, but something
that does not rough his mind into a state of irritation. The mischief
done is great.
It is the imperative duty of some people to go to another Church; and in
some cases to another denomination. Though the fault is on both sides,
yet they will never be able to make a harmonious adjustment.
Instead of finding a church, or some specialist, that could teach him,
unfortunately and untruthfully the sceptic usually decides that it is
impossible for him to be a Christian. So he resolves to be what he
regards as an upright man and lets it go at that. But he does not find
the great realities, except in a most vague and attenuated form.
d. The provincialism of sceptics
The most hopeless situation of all is where sceptics consort almost
wholly with sceptics. They can soon kill the last remnant of religion
that lingers in their hearts. The provincialism of doubt may be even
greater than the provincialism of a bigoted faith. In their hearts,
sceptics often try and condemn intelligent Christians with but slight
knowledge of what the Christians believe and with even less knowledge of
why they believe it. Many doubting minds take it for granted that all
Christians conceive of religion as they themselves did when they were
children in Sunday school, or boys and girls in a Junior Endeavor
society. They think that a little scientific knowledge of the material
universe makes anything more than agnosticism impossible. If their
knowledge of religion and their philosophical knowledge of the universe
were all that is known, they would be right. By learning a little more
of religion, and by acquiring a better philosophical as well as
scientific knowledge of the material universe many have regained their
grasp on God. For such as have come to see God as the center and Soul of
all things, natural science, instead of being a hindrance to, has become
one illuminating phase of theology. As a Christian believer, I find
myself continually going to expert scientists to ascertain their latest
findings. And I can truthfully say that, from a religious point of view,
their verifiable report is always interesting. It is good news. It lifts
me to higher levels of thought, to nobler planes of social conduct, and
to loftier heights of fellowship with God and men. God's blessings on
any man that discovers anything new in God's world and reports it
correctly!
A friend once said to me:
"I do not know whether there is a God or not, and I am not going to
bother my head about it; I am just going to wait and see."
If, however, he finds himself alive after the death of his body, I
venture to assert that the old problem of finding God will still
confront him. We may rest assured that there is no ghost-God to be seen
after death. This man has utterly misconceived of God and of the method
of finding Him. Death will not be a substitute for spiritual
development. If ever he finds God it will be as a Loving Intelligent
Will, and not as a glorious ghost on which his physical eyes may look.
"God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth." If we would know God we must seek Him as He is, and not
as something which He is not.
Let the sceptic consider well this statement: So far as we can _see_,
everything would necessarily appear just as it does if there were a God.
I have never interrogated any one who could suggest anything to the
contrary. If God actually exists, we shall never know Him as we know
man with local form and articulate speech, unless we come to recognize
Him in man. I dare say we shall _never_ become acquainted with God save
as we learn to know Him in our own souls, in other people, and in
nature. So if we ever expect to know Him we would as well put forth the
effort to know Him now. If it could be proved that there is a God we
should still need to find Him. But if we find him we have no need of
further proof. Our problem then is not one of proving, but of finding.
2. Equal striving for spiritual and material things is necessary
All normal people have senses which give them physical objects. Without
these, we could not commence to live a rational life. But we must
acquire some sense to make our senses of value. Most of our seeing, in
the physical as well as in the spiritual, is with our sense and not
alone with our senses. To achieve insight in any line requires effort.
The man who has senses only, lacks the insight of the man who has both
sense and senses. Therefore we must earn not only our bread by the sweat
of our brow, but everything else which has priceless worth.
How covetous we all are for the material side of things! That we may
truthfully know and really possess the material side of the universe, we
put forth prolonged and painful effort. Our striving, however, to know
and to possess the _Soul_ of the universe is pitifully meager. If we
strove no harder for the former than we do for the latter we should be
ignorant and poor beyond recognition. Having long neglected the Soul of
the universe we look up, occasionally, and demand proof that the world
has a Soul. However, it is not _proof_ that we need, but religious
insight. If I ask proof that classical music is beautiful, I must either
take other people's word for it or else acquire musical sense by living
with classical music and classical musicians. The senses of the average
man pronounce classical music very ugly. Mathematical or business
ability will not suffice; it will more likely hinder, because as a rule
it has been acquired at the expense of musical development. There are
those who actually make fun of classical music without any realization
of their personal defect which they are advertising. Charles Darwin was
probably never surpassed in the amount of data gathered for scientific
observations. And yet, there are persons in every civilized village in
the world who are better judges of music; and Paul, to say nothing of
Jesus, was so far ahead of him in religious insight that the contrast is
painful. In every realm of knowledge known to man, so-called proof is
but seeing and understanding and appreciating. Logic does not prove
anything. If for our major premise we say all normal men are rational,
we rest our belief on observation. If for our minor premise we affirm
that here is a normal man, we do so on the ground of observation. If
both observations are correct, then we need no proof that the man of the
minor premise is rational because it is self-evident. Logic is often a
convenient method of seeing, but it is never a proof. Even in
mathematics we do not prove, we see. Not a single proposition in
mathematics is proved; its truth is only perceived. The so-called proof
is but a method of separating the elements of a condensed proposition so
that these elements, one by one, may be recognized. The certainty began
with one or more axioms, and proceeded with rules built upon
observation, and the certainty at every step to the finish rested on
something self-evident. A prominent man assured me that he could prove
that two and two were four. However, the first thing I learned in
Geometry was that an axiom was too self-evident to be capable of proof.
The highly complex methods which we have devised for reducing intricate
mathematical statements of their axiomatic verities we call proof, but
the term proof can only be used in this accommodated sense, for
fundamentally we have proved nothing; we have simply increased our
intelligence by using a speedy and ingenious method of looking. When it
is said that one does not know how to prove a proposition, it only means
that he does not know how to separate and arrange the elements in such a
manner that the mind can see them. Fundamentally, _nothing in the world
is proved_. When we clearly see, doubt flees and certainty comes. If in
anything a person insists that he can not see, all we can do is to ask
him to look again; or perhaps we may try holding the truth at different
angles, or we may present its elements in some new order. If, however,
nothing enables him to see, then in respect to that particular thing he
is damned. I had a very intelligent friend who was dismissed from an
important position because he was color-blind.
While some have much stronger religious intuitions than others, yet I
think there is no normal person who may not, if he goes about it in the
right way, achieve religious insight. It takes a great deal of
maneuvering to get some people to see mathematics. And the average
sceptic has not put forth the effort to see religious truth that the
average pupil has to see mathematical truth. But I know sceptics who
_have_ put forth such effort, and they have succeeded. When a sceptic
wins a faith, in the nature of the case it is vital. Saving faith in
religion, as in everything else, is the feeling of certainty that
follows clear insight. And clear insight into any subject depends upon
intelligent study and faithful practice. While there are many things
that we positively know, and many more that we may come to know, yet it
is through rational experience, and not so-called proof, that we come to
know them.
As hungry cannibals feed upon the body of a civilized man with never a
thought that his trained mind would be worth more to them than his body,
so multitudes feed upon the body of the universe with no thought of what
its animating Will might be to them. To all who sustain such an attitude
toward the universe, its body looms large while its Soul fades. As the
cannibal missed the wealth and civilization which the larger mind of his
victim could have brought, so the mere world-consumers miss that which
the Soul of the universe could abundantly give. If it were divinely
conceived of and divinely used, the physical universe and the social
relations therein would be infinitely enriched. But when the Soul of the
universe is lost, and the body of the universe is narrowed down to the
temporal uses of the materialistic mind, we have lost the best part of
reality.
But if we know what God and the world are to-day, we have a solid basis
for knowing what they will be to-morrow. The future is not a new life
and a new universe and a new God, but the present life and the present
universe and the present God to-morrow. The remedy for a hazy future is
a luminous present. Since God carries all men, good and bad, in His
bosom, what a pity it is that we allow sloth and selfishness to deprive
us of His acquaintance and fellowship. A little play-fellow once refused
to speak to me in the presence of his newly arrived cousin. Finally he
said to his cousin with a sneer, "Dick spoke to me three times, and I
never let on that I heard him." This cut me deeply. But I now confess
with sorrow and shame that the God who carries me in His own life has
spoken a thousand times to me when I never let on that I heard Him. I
have often tried to forget Him that I might enjoy pleasures of which He
could not approve. All souls are in touch with God, and in that sense
know Him, even when they do not recognize who or what it is that touches
them; they are like the fishes that know the water but can not find the
sea.
At last it has come to this: I have simply learned to see the universe
that enfolds me, as the present energy of an intelligent Will. I see
that Will coming to human expression in me, in my Christian friends, and
in a social kingdom of infinite possibilities. That which I see _works_,
and _cooerdinates_ with all that I know, making me more glad and more
strong as the years go by. God seems to live in me and about me and
through me. That in which I live and from which I cannot escape for a
single moment of my existence, I do not try to prove. My task is to see
it more intelligently and to adjust myself to it more perfectly. I can
testify that the more I learn and _the better I live_ the more clearly
do I see that that in which I live has sense as well as chemical
energies; and that its deeper meaning and purpose may get to the surface
through my life. I no longer live in a dirt world, but in a mind world.
I believe neither in a muck world, nor in a ghost-God who is somewhere
in hiding. My universe has come to be a Will in action, a Will that
enfolds me with its energies and does not let me go. When the universe
is otherwise conceived I do not like it. My intellect and instincts
rebel against a universe materially conceived and materially explained.
It is too twisted and dwarfed for all the facts. I am rationally
convinced that I see a larger and better world.
To me, worship is the deeper penetration into that Will in whose
enfolding energies I live and move and have my being. My world has
become an oratorio with both peaceful and dramatic passages. I get nerve
thrills from its music; and more, since its text is written in plain
English, and not in an unknown tongue, I see the majestic pageant of a
well-ordered creation. I understand what the music is about, and
experience a joy infinitely beyond what I should if the music were
without words. And though I meet some severe hardships, yet I am
convinced that this is the best conceivable world in which to _begin_ a
life that is to live forever. History helps me, science helps me; and I
feel myself borne along by a union of forces toward a glorious goal. God
becomes more and more articulate in me and in all men and in all nature
as we learn to will His will and to use nature's forces as the
instruments of our enlightened and purified spirits. I also find that
this vision will not leave me unless I live beneath my best. If,
therefore, my best life and best vision go together, it would be folly
to do anything that would break the harmony.
Some may say, "this is nothing but the way _you_ see things, why not
give us something more?" No one has anything to give beyond what he
sees, unless he gives what some one else has seen; and that is entirely
uncalled for if he can not tell it better than the other man has done.
The only justification for the appearance of another book is that the
author thinks his vision is sufficiently like what others see, and at
the same time enough different to make it useful. "But I can't see it
your way," some reader may retort. Well, I am sorry. Obviously, if we
are sincere, it is for us to go on living and preaching the gospel with
the hope that some day he may come to see. The Master Himself was shut
up within the same circumscribed method. However, my contention is that
if we have "pure hearts," and are not unnecessarily confused in
thought, or possessed of erroneous thoughts, we know God here and now.
This is the luminous present that clarifies the hazy future. Not all men
know God, but in my opinion all may know Him if they go about it in the
right way. Every human being, consciously or unconsciously, must submit
to having his life moulded by a world with a God or by a world without a
God, and the finished life will be as different as the two worlds.
3. The final step in the effort to know God
To know God and to win the hope of immortality one must do more than
formulate a set of correct ideas. Correct ideas will greatly aid, yet
alone they are utterly inadequate. When the scientist gets his idea, he
proceeds to experiment with it. If he does not at first get the
hoped-for results, when the idea is clear and impelling, he performs his
experiments over and over again in the most painstaking manner. In
religion, however, many will never go beyond the idea. They wish to have
the idea fully established without experiment or application. The reason
for this difference is that, in religion, the experiment can not be made
on carbon and zinc, but it must be made on the man's own soul. The
experiment cuts right into his moral, emotional, and sentimental nature.
How often a man will admit, "I can see no flaw in your idea, but I am
not convinced that you are right." When the scientist gets his idea,
whether it is true or not, he acts as if it were true until he has
tried his experiments, and does not always abandon the idea when his
tests fail; he realizes that the fault may have been in the experiment.
Many of the greatest facts in science have long been baffled by faulty
experiments. Like consequences occur in religion. If instead of going on
to the experiment and application one keeps repeating forever the
question, "I wonder if the idea is true," he will never get anywhere
except into a deeper state of doubt. A wise person while putting his
best idea to the test will say, "I am hopeful that it will turn out
favorably because it is such an attractive, promising idea." Religious
ideas must be planted in the soul as seeds are put into the ground, and
allowed to remain undisturbed long enough to germinate. It is most
fortunate when children, through experimental knowledge, have been
taught to love good types of religion and music; and this while they are
receptive, and before they are ensnared by a thousand other influences.
Yet no one, at any age, dare neglect his religious duties and privileges
if he wishes religion to be an impelling power in his soul. In my youth,
mathematics was a great inspiration to me, but through neglect my
mathematical lamp burns low. To keep mathematics interesting and alive
one must work problems applied to constructive business.
For an example of a man who attained unto great religious certainty,
take Paul. He experienced a radical revision of his religious ideas, but
his improved ideas were not enough. To test their validity he hurled
himself upon the Christian verities with all the force of his being;
and in consequence, found a life of intimate friendship with God.
Thenceforward Paul had great things to tell and magnificent things to
achieve. "I can do all things in Him that strengthened me." He felt that
nothing could break this new bond. "For I am persuaded, that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord." His friendship with God gave him a new
conception of, as well as a new interest in, society. "So we, who are
many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another." God
the Father "Is over all, and through all, and in all." Paul's insight
broke all former bounds; it elevated him to a boundless and timeless
world; his insight gave him a deep sense of God and became the evidence
of many things not yet achieved. Here was personal assurance of God and
immortality deep, strong, and jubilant. Whence came it? Such assurance
is inherent in a life spiritually nourished and divinely employed. Hope
simply comes to such a soul, like color to the ripening apple.
This generation, though engaged in many noble charities, shows marked
signs of under-nourishment; its mind is active in the acquisition of
material knowledge, and its body is overworked in the effort to
accumulate wealth, yet its soul languishes. And there is a near likeness
between a starved soul and a starved body.
Without hope or courage, a little girl sits staring out of great
innocent eyes because she is under-nourished. This poor fading flower is
in striking contrast with the little apple-cheeked girl in bloomers who
believeth all things and hopeth all things and (as her brother knows)
can do pretty much all things. This startling difference requires no
lengthy explanation; nourishment and exercise tell the whole story.
So in our day many languid souls ask, "Where is thy God, and who knows
whether there is a life beyond?"
For an instructive contrast, place beside such a life the life of Jesus.
Living in the bosom of the Father, doing the Father's will day by day,
seeing life in the light of divine love, and witnessing the effect upon
those whom he won to a life of love and service, made it impossible for
Jesus to lose faith in immortality. While enduring the pain of the cross
He could say to the malefactor, "To-day shalt thou be with me in
Paradise."
The abundant, buoyant life nourished in the life of God and exercised in
the service of God and man, is the source of hope for the life that is
yet to be.
4. Conscious of the existence of God, we become certain of immortality
It is clear as daylight that God Himself will be defeated if He _loses
His family_. Attention has already been called to the fact that, with
the loss of His family, God would be reduced to a child-god playing with
a toy world; and that without the cooeperation of other wills He could
not finish His toy. He would be in the position of having a world full
of raw material, material capable of infinite, spiritual and social
uses, only He would be destitute of any such help as would enable Him to
turn the universe to any account whatsoever. If He were left solitary in
the world, all God's labors in creation would lead directly to shameful
defeat. Without other inhabitants than Himself, the universe would
become one colossal piece of junk. Yes, it would be worse than that;
even junk has value where there are people. Without intelligent souls to
inhabit the universe, an appalling night would settle over all creation.
Love, truth, wisdom, righteousness, and the last semblance of a kingdom
would be gone; and God Himself would as well die with His children; He
would be destitute of character, and incapable of completing that which
He began on such a magnificent scale. Having a universe like the present
on His hands, with no one to use it, nor to inhabit it, God would be an
object worthy of ridicule. The idea that God could murder His children,
or carelessly allow them to perish, and then spend an eternity in an
unfinished and depopulated world shatters reason itself; such a thought
is too appalling and abhorrent to be entertained for a moment. Just as
sure as there is a God, we shall continue to live. Anyone who believes
in God and does not believe in immortality surely never gave two
consecutive logical thoughts to the subject. (1) _Ultimately God will
have no children at all_, (2) _or He will have an endless succession of
short-lived children_, (3) _or He will have children that survive all
changes_.
The first obnoxious idea we regard as impossible and unthinkable. A
being that could live in perpetual and absolute solitude, with no more
reason and character than such a position would warrant, is not a person
that we should call God anyway.
The second thought of God having an endless succession of short-lived
children is in some respects worse.
In the autumn of nineteen hundred and fourteen, a friend said to me:
"What _is_ there, I should like to know, in Christianity? Here we've had
the Christian religion for more than nineteen hundred years--and now
this war. Oh, there is nothing in it!"
"No," I answered, "we have had Christianity about thirty-three years;
that is, a few people have had it."
When asked what I meant by such a statement, I told her that the earth
was inhabited only by children; that the average age of all living
people was only about thirty-three years; and that they would scarcely
get beyond the spanking period until their places would be taken by
another set of babies; and that these new babies would scratch and bite,
and be tempted to lie and steal just as all the babies before them had
done; and that these in turn would soon give way to another set of
babies. I told her that all the knowledge and character on earth would,
in a few days, need to be transferred to the minds of babies not yet
born, or it would entirely disappear from the earth. "Moreover," I
said, "how do you know what Christianity has accomplished? You have
never been where the Christians have gone? What do you suppose the
Apostles and all the Christians who are nineteen hundred years old have
been doing; and the multitudes who are eighteen hundred years old, and
so on down through all the centuries? You have seen only a succession of
kindergarten classes."
Though progress on earth rests exclusively upon successive groups of
children, yet we gladly recognize the social achievements that have been
made during human history. We keenly realize also the sin we all share
in not having produced better social conditions than now exist.
Nevertheless, I am absolutely certain that no succession of infants will
ever be able to put this universe to its highest possible uses. God will
never get far with His great cosmic enterprise if He employs only
ignorant little children; and that is clearly what He is doing if death
ends all. What a pity and shame it would be to throw away such a
universe; a universe of infinite intellectual, spiritual, and social
possibilities. And what a crime it would be to destroy the intelligent
beings who could turn the universe to full account if only they were
allowed ample time. That God will not do anything so foolish and wicked
we may safely rest assured.
At the close of one of my services a man came forward and spoke to me,
saying:
"If everybody were good, your job would be done."
"Now I must scrap with you," I said. "If all were good, I should have a
larger and a better job. The good people, and not the bad people, have
the greatest desire for Church. Why is the engine put on the track at
all unless it is to go somewhere? For what purpose does anyone become a
Christian, except to learn more about God and His plans in order that he
may embody them in a kingdom of love and righteousness? I am too young
and ignorant to preach you a very good sermon now, but if you will come
around where I am a thousand years from now, I will preach you a sermon
that will make you sit up and take notice." Something must be left out
of the mental structure of one who can make such a statement as this man
made to me. In the face of such conceptions of life one wonders that
religion commands the respect that it does.
There is no doubt concerning the unlimited possibilities of the
universe, nor of the limitless possibilities of the human spirit if it
is given a chance. Standing as many of us do on the threshold of these
greater possibilities, who but a devil could shut the door in our faces?
If God wanted us when we were ignorant and sinful, He wants us even more
now that we are a little wiser and a little better. If He intended to
crush us before we were fairly started why did He ever raise us to such
hope by allowing us to see the infinite possibilities?
As to our ability to survive the shock of physical death, if God made
us live in the first place, He can make us live on through all changes.
If, however, God alone survives He will be quite worse off than His
dead children; they will simply be extinct, while He will go to
the gloomiest sort of hell. Who could wish to be a mad god living
alone through eternity in a graveyard? With everybody dead, and
all kingdoms gone, and all work at an end, the universe would be one
vast--desolate--hell; such as a bad God would deserve. How _can_ any one
believe in God and not believe in immortality?