We have considered the risks and dangers of the future state, as taught by
reason and experience, and also as the foundation of a true standard of
morality. We have seen that the true mode of escape from these dangers is
_the formation of a truly virtuous character_, or in other words, _it is
making it our chief end to obey all the laws of God_.
The next question is, what are the teachings of reason and experience as
to the most successful modes of securing true virtue, or voluntary
obedience to all the laws of God?
This brings up the inquiry as to the _causes_ of voluntary action, and of
the power which one mind has of securing right or wrong volitions in
another.
In a previous chapter was pointed out the distinction to be recognized
between the _producing_ cause and the _occasional_ causes of volition.
Mind itself is the _only_ producing cause of its own volitions. Excited
desires, and those objects which excite desire, are the _occasional_
causes of choice.
The question is, in what sense can any being be the cause of virtuous
actions, or virtuous character, in another mind?
Here we must recur to the fact that the Creator, as the author of all
minds, and of all the things that excite desire, is the cause, in one
sense, of all the volitions and of all the characters of all finite minds.
It is in this sense that, in the Bible, the Jehovah of the Old Testament
says, “I make peace and _create evil_.” No other being but the Creator can
be regarded as the cause of volitions in this sense, viz., as the author
of all minds and their circumstances of temptation.
There is a second sense in which the Creator is never the cause of sinful
action in any mind. It is this: creating or modifying our
susceptibilities, or arranging temptations with _the design_ or
_intention_ of producing sinful action. This is established by proving,
that the chief end of God is to make the most possible happiness, and that
sin is the needless destruction of happiness, resulting from disobedience
to the laws of God.
The only sense, then, in which God can be called the author or cause of
sinful volitions in the minds of his creatures, is the fact that he is the
author of all created minds and of their circumstances of temptation.
In regard to man, there are only two conceivable modes, in which he can be
the cause of sinful or virtuous character in other minds.
The first mode is so to combine circumstances of temptation as to affect
the most excitable and powerful sensibilities, or to remove those objects
and influences that sustain moral principle, or by a long course of
training, to form habits and induce principles. The combinations of motive
influences that one mind can thus bring to bear on another, as temptations
to right or wrong action, are almost infinite.
Another mode is by _changing the constitutional susceptibilities_. This
can sometimes be effected to a certain degree by education, and the
formation of habits. It can be still more directly effected through the
physical organization. For example, a child may be trained to use coffee,
tea, alcohol, or tobacco, till the nervous system is shattered, and then a
placid temper becomes excitable, an active nature becomes indolent, and
multitudes of other disastrous changes are the result.
When these two modes are employed with the _design_ to induce wrong
action, then men are blameable causes of sinful action and character in
their fellow men. God, as above shown, never thus causes sin. When these
modes are employed with the _intention_ to induce virtuous actions and
character, then both God and man are causes of right moral action in
mankind.
Thus, it appears, that in the formation of virtuous character and habits,
God, educators and self are the three combining causes, each being
indispensable to the result, and thus each dependent on the others. God
decides the nature and combinations of our susceptibilities and our
circumstances of temptation. The educators of mind also modify the
susceptibilities, and regulate the temptations. Self, as the producing
cause of volition, decides the nature of our own volitions, and thus also
coöperates to regulate circumstances of temptation.
The attainment of virtuous character, therefore, depends conjointly on
God, man and self. It has been shown that God _invariably_ does _the best
he can_ to secure the most perfect action possible in all minds.
The blamable causes of all failure in right and virtuous action are self
and the finite educators of self. The unblamable causes are God, educators
and self, so far as they are faithful in doing _all they can_ to educate
aright.
With these preliminary considerations, we proceed in the inquiry as to
those modes which in past experience have been found most successful in
securing virtuous character, or voluntary obedience to the laws of God.
The first cause of right moral action is a _knowledge_ of and _faith_ in
the physical, social, intellectual and moral laws of God. It is
impossible, in the nature of things, that a new‐created mind should be
possessed of such knowledge and faith. All that is possible, so far as we
can learn by reason and experience, is that there should be a slow and
gradual development not only of each individual mind, but of the whole
race, as each generation, in turn, receives by instruction the experience
of the one previous, and transmits it with its own experience to a
succeeding generation.
The next thing that has been found efficacious in forming virtuous
character is the formation of uniform _habits of obedience to parental
rule_, in the early periods of existence. To secure this, _invariable
steadiness in government_ has been found indispensable. If a child finds
that sometimes he is to obey and sometimes he is not, there is always a
temptation to struggle against law. But if a parent’s laws, rewards and
penalties are as steady and sure as those of God, in due time the child
submits as cheerfully to the domestic rules and commands, as he does to
the laws of nature. He is no more tempted to contest parental commands
than he is to attempt to stop the flow of a river or the falling of rain.
In this way a habit of submission to law is generated, which makes all the
future discipline and training of life comparatively easy. A child learns
cheerfully to obey a heavenly Father, just in proportion as he thus obeys
his earthly parents.
The next thing taught by experience is that children should be instructed
as fast as possible in the _reasonableness and benevolence_ of all the
laws they are required to obey. Obedience is made easy and sure just in
proportion as a child is made to perceive, that such obedience is _best
for himself and best for all concerned_.
The next thing which experience has shown to be most effective in securing
obedience to law, is _love_ on the part of the educator, and corresponding
love in return from the child. To gain the love of a child an educator
must exhibit all lovable traits, and confer benefits, so as to call forth
at once admiration, gratitude and affection. This renders it easy to the
child to conform to the rules and wishes of one so beloved.
Sympathy with a child in all its trials and in all its enjoyments, still
further increases this power of another mind in right guidance.
This sympathetic influence is greatly increased by the power of a virtuous
_example_—especially if this example is exhibited by a beloved friend and
benefactor, who would be gratified by thus guiding a dependent mind.
Another influence that tends to secure virtuous action is the bearing of
pain and hardships even when it is not voluntary. Those children who are
trained in a cold clime and on a hard soil, and who are early trained to
hardships, find it far easier to conform to rule, and to bear sacrifices
for the general good, than those whose lives have been a course of
uninterrupted ease and indulgence.
To these, add the social influences of the example and sympathy of a
surrounding community. Where all around are practicing virtuous
conduct—where all admire and praise only what is good and right—it is far
easier to secure obedience to the rules of rectitude, than where the
example and sympathy of surrounding minds are opposed to virtue.
But the most powerful of all influences in securing virtuous action, is
the principle of love and gratitude toward some noble benefactor, who
saves from some terrible evils at the expense of great personal suffering
and sacrifices, and who seeks his reward in the pleasure of redeeming
those thus benefited, from the snares and ruin of sin. And the greater the
evils averted, and the more severe the suffering on the part of the
benefactor, the stronger the influence thus gained to secure virtuous
character and action in the one thus rescued.
These are the influences which experience has shown to be most effective
in securing virtuous character.
When the question is asked, “What must _we_ do to be saved?” it may be
answered in reference to all concerned in the matter; that is to say,
“What must self do—What must our fellow‐men do—What must the Creator do,
to secure obedience to his laws, and thus to save from sin and its
penalties?”
In view of the above teachings, each one for himself must seek, first,
_knowledge_ of the laws of God, and of their rewards and penalties as
discovered by the experience of mankind. In order to do this, each must
take all means to gain _true_ teachers, and to receive their teachings in
true _faith_, that is, that _practical_ faith, which includes the purpose
of obedience. Each must cultivate the intellect, the reason and the moral
sense, in order to judge correctly in receiving and applying the rules of
rectitude; each must seek to discover the reasonableness and benevolence
of these laws, and form _habits_ of steady obedience; each must seek to
discover and rightly to appreciate all the good and lovable qualities of
all who institute and administer laws, from the Creator to all subordinate
rulers and governors in the domestic and civil state; each must seek the
society of those whose sympathy and example would encourage and promote
virtuous conduct; and finally, each must make obedience to all the laws of
God the _chief end_ or ruling purpose. These are briefly the reply to the
great question in relation to self.
We are next to consider this question in relation to what men must do to
_save others_.
Here we are to take into account two subjects previously illustrated; the
first is that great law of _sacrifice_, by which each individual must make
his own wishes and welfare subordinate to the higher interests of the
great commonwealth; the second is the fact that all questions of right and
wrong are dependent on the _risks and dangers_ that threaten the
commonwealth. In cases where there is little peril or evil, each
individual has little responsibility for others. On the contrary, when all
are exposed to terrific dangers and hazards, every individual is bound to
think and care as much for the danger of each one as for his own. And just
as much as the interests of all are of more value than those of one, so
much _more_ should each place the public welfare above that of self.
In a preceding chapter have been exhibited the risks and dangers of our
race in reference to the future life. These are such, that without any
appeal to revelation, every man of humanity and benevolence must feel that
to save his fellow‐beings from such dangers should become immediately his
leading object of pursuit, his _chief end_.
In pursuing this as the main object of life, each individual is bound to
follow the teachings of experience as to the most successful modes as set
forth above. Each one, then, should become a _teacher of the laws of God_
to all who are in ignorance, to the full extent of his power, and set
forth all the motives to induce obedience; each should strive to exhibit
all those qualities and deeds which will excite admiration, love and
gratitude, in order thus to gain influence over other minds and guide them
to virtuous conduct. Each should confer benefits and practice self‐denying
benevolence toward others and thus gain still farther influence. Each
should strive to exhibit that _example_ and that _sympathy_ that are so
effective in leading others aright.
In regard to those who are the educators of the young, each must strive to
maintain that _invariable steadiness in governments_ which is so effective
in forming virtuous habits and in rendering obedience to the laws of God
more and more easy.
Finally, it should be the aim of each to establish such a _community_
around all who are being trained to virtue, that every social influence
shall repress vice and encourage virtue.
Next, we are to consider the great question in reference to the Creator.
What then must God do to save our race from sin and its miseries? What
would reason and experience teach us to expect he would do to secure
obedience to his laws?
In answering this question we must again refer to the causes which
experience has shown to be most effective, for we can conceive of no
other. We have examined the evidence that the Creator has given to each of
his children such a constitution of mind and body, and such circumstances
of temptation and trial as is _best on the whole_, as a part of an
infinite _system_ whose results are to develop through eternity. At the
same time it has been shown that God is limited, by the eternal nature of
things, to a course in which _some_ evil must exist, so that all that is
requisite to his character as perfectly benevolent, is that this evil
should be reduced by him to its least possible amount.
To suppose that God can impart at creation of each mind all the knowledge
of the millions of rules needed for all the myriads of new relations, of
myriads of beings through all eternity, is to suppose an impossibility in
the nature of things.
If it be maintained that the Creator is not thus limited by the nature of
things, but, as theologians teach, could make mind perfect in all needed
knowledge as in all other respects, at the first, then we have the greater
contradiction involved in the fact, that a perfectly benevolent being
chose for his children ignorance and sin in preference to knowledge and
virtue.
To say that it may be _best_ to create minds destitute of all needed
knowledge when the want insures infinite wrong and suffering, and when
there is power to create the knowledge that would insure perfect
happiness, is simply a direct contradiction. It is saying that _less_
happiness may be _greater_ than _greater_ happiness. For by “what is for
the best” we understand “that which secures the _most_ happiness.” And
saying that making misery where there is power to make happiness in its
place, is _best_, means nothing else but the assertion above, that less
happiness is greater than greater happiness; or that _less_ is _more_ than
_most_, which is a contradiction, inconceivable and absurd, so that no
mind can either comprehend or believe it.
Now, every theologian of every school and of every sect maintains that
“God does all things _for the best_.” Every one who believes in a
benevolent Creator does the same. This is simply saying that God does the
best possible; that is to say, there is no power that can make a better
system than God has made, or administer it with more wisdom or
benevolence. He has chosen the best possible and so he can not do any
better.
These things being granted, the teachings of experience would lead us to
suppose, still farther, that the Creator must do all that is possible to
maintain _invariable steadiness of government_. We can see that this,
which is so important in family government, must be still more so in an
infinite family. For this end, the natural penalties for wrong doing, must
be as _invariable_ as the rewards for well doing.
Again, the Creator must instruct his creatures in his laws and their
rewards and penalties to the full extent of his power. That is to say, he
must provide well‐trained educators of mind, as fast and as fully as is
possible in the nature of things, having in view the results of eternal
ages to guide his decisions.
Again, to secure voluntary obedience, he must add to the natural rewards
and penalties of his laws, the other class of motives which experience has
shown to be most effective. Thus, he must present himself to his creatures
as a being possessing all those qualities which call forth the delightful
emotions of admiration, reverence and love; he must show himself as a
constant benefactor, and as one who “does not willingly afflict or grieve
the children of men.” He must manifest his love to his creatures by word
as well as by deed. He must come personally to provide for their wants and
cheer them with his care. He must show his tenderness and sympathy in
their trials and sorrows as well as in their joys. And if they are exposed
to great dangers and evils from which they can be redeemed by self‐
sacrifice and suffering on his part, this highest and most effective proof
of love must be exhibited.(11)
To this must be added, a manifestation of his _chief __ desire_, so that
when love and gratitude ask, what can we do to please our benefactor in
return, the answer shall be, obey his laws, and work and suffer for the
good of all, as you see your Heavenly Parent does for you.
Finally, he must bring around each of his creatures the powerful social
influence, not only of his own sympathy and example, but those also of a
perfect commonwealth, where all shall be perfect as is the Father of all.
This is what we should evolve by the light of reason and experience, as
what the Creator must do to save our race. Whether he has done all this,
is a question that belongs to that system of religion which we can gain
only by revelation from God.(12)