THE NET RESULT OF LAW.
On the next evening, after the conclusion of their usual daily services,
the ancient Am-nem-hat began the conversation which occupied their
attention during that meeting by saying to Ammonius: "Thou didst observe
that the future state of just and good men who died without any
sufficient knowledge of Christianity to lead them to embrace that faith
'hath never been clearly revealed unto us.' Is it not true also that
the future state of all men hath been left almost entirely unrevealed?
I ask thee this, because I have found myself altogether unable, from my
readings of the sacred books, to locate heaven, either anywhere in this
world or in any other sun or star. And either I have utterly failed to
comprehend some of the things which I have carefully read, or else the
scriptures leave this future state in a very misty, uncertain,
indefinite condition. Wilt thou inform me how this matter may really
stand?"
"Thy reading is in no respect at fault," replied Ammonius. "Our Lord
hath left the future life altogether unrevealed, not only in respect to
the locality thereof, but also in every other respect. Types and
figures are used in reference thereto, whereby we know that it shall be
eternal and blest; but, beyond this general assurance of exalted
happiness and unfailing duration, we are not informed. To each Christian
soul it will undoubtedly be the best that is possible for him: the
place, the development, the environments thereof, and all else that
belongeth thereto, are unrevealed."
"I know not whether it would have been more pleasing to have some
definite knowledge of that future life; that is, I can not tell whether
the system of religion would or would not appear unto me to have been
more perfect if all had been revealed by it, or whether it is wiser and
perhaps even more pleasing to have left it thus vague and undefined,
with a general assurance of its beatitude," said Am-nem-hat, "yet I
could wish that something tangible and satisfying were revealed in
reference thereto. Why, thinkest thou, was it not more fully revealed?"
"I know not," answered Ammonius, "but I feel certain that it was
purposely left as a thing to be held by faith, and not in knowledge.
Either it may have been because it hath not yet entered into the heart
of man to conceive what that life may be, so that human speech could not
convey any adequate knowledge thereof; or, if it were possible to do so,
the overpowering glory and splendor thereof, if definitely grasped and
understood, and already realized, might render us impatient of this
mundane existence, and too indifferent to all the duties and obligations
thereof. I think, indeed, that those very Therapeutae, of whom Philo
speaketh, were to be censured for an unwarranted attempt to realize, in
this present world, a spiritual life which our Lord expressly reserved
for the future; an effort, indeed, necessarily impossible to succeed,
and perhaps injurious both to these anchorites and to other men also.
For the purpose of the gospel is not only to justify and save all who
believe and obey it, but the declared purpose of our Lord is to
regenerate mankind by the agency of his own kingdom; and surely it
tendeth not to the accomplishment of this purpose to have Christians
withdraw themselves permanently beyond the reach of common life and
experience; so that it is manifestly an error to suppose that, because
they have the assurance of a superlatively better life beyond,
Christians should for that reason despise the life that now is. And, in
accordance with this view, thou wilt find that the Church forbiddeth any
man to go out of the world (by suicide) as the heathen commonly do;
forbiddeth any man to seek for martyrdom, as many had done; and
forbiddeth any man to flee from that place in which he was converted
into the mountains and the deserts: because the kingdom of our Lord must
exist in the world--not out of it--for the regeneration thereof."
"But he saith himself," suggested Am-nem-hat, "'My kingdom is not of
this world.'"
"Verily," replied Ammonius. "And his kingdom is not 'of' the world, but
is 'in' the world. Not surely a kingdom founded upon the social,
religious, and political laws and customs of the world, like other
kingdoms; but, not the less, a kingdom for men living in the world, and
founded on its own social, religious, and political economies. And this
temporal, earthly kingdom, established by our Lord in the world, is the
very essence of the gospel, the most important part of the truth which
he revealed to men."
"That is new to me," answered Am-nem-hat, "for I had supposed that the
religious idea chiefly handleth the affairs of man with reference to the
future life, and that his temporal condition is the affair of
government, unto which he is kept in subjection by the sense of duty and
obligation which religion supplieth."
"And thou art manifestly in the right as to all governments that exist
or ever have existed among men, except only the kingdom of heaven. How
many governments have existed in Egypt?"
"I know not that," answered the ancient. "Our records cover thirty full
dynasties before the second Persian invasion, which occurred seven
centuries ago, but each of these dynasties represents more than one
Pharaoh, and several of them a great many; for government is not a
permanent thing, and some form of revolution ever lieth in wait for it,
as a tiger in a jungle watcheth a man to spring upon and strangle him."
"And how many governments have existed among other peoples and nations
during the thousands of years covered by the records of thy land of
Kem?"
"I know not that," said Am-nem-hat; "they are unknown and innumerable."
"Therefore," answered Ammonius, "each one of them must have contained,
in its very constitution and nature, the seeds of its own dissolution;
and, so far at least in human history, the science of government hath
learned no secret by which to secure permanency for itself."
"The inference thou hast drawn seemeth to follow necessarily and
undeniably from the known facts."
"And what hath been the net result of the science of government among
all the peoples and nations of whom thou hast ever heard?"
"Misery!"
"Yea!--But state the net result of government in political or in
philosophical terms!"
"State it for thyself; I desire to learn of thee."
"Hath not the net result of human government everywhere, in all climes
and ages and among all men, been only to produce, or develop, a ruling
class at the top of every social and political system, unto whom all the
blessings of the government and civilization are given by law; an
oppressed or enslaved people at the bottom, upon whose weary shoulders
rest all of the burdens and the waste of life; and between these two
extremes, some religious system and some armed force, seeking to adjust
the correlative legal rights and duties of the high and the low, the
rich and the poor, the class that ruleth and the class that is ruled
over, by the agency of religion, so long as the religious sentiment
serveth to keep the people in bondage, and by sword and spear when
superstition faileth? Add to this result the fact that women are
everywhere slaves, or chattels, legally lower and more debased than
their husbands and fathers, no matter what position the men may occupy;
and have we not plainly stated, in this terrible formula, the net result
of the science of human government to which it infallibly leadeth, and
from which it hath never escaped? If thy large learning hath ever
taught thee the name and location of any nation or people of whom this
is not true, wilt thou now declare it?"
"I can not name such a government or people," answered Am-nem-hat. "For
history is but a dreary record of unceasing strife--among the fortunate
for precedence and power, and among the poor for existence; and during
the struggle it hath evermore happened that the women have been trampled
into the filth and mud. I know not the reason thereof, but the fact is
fearfully true."
"Doth it then seem to thee that to have ordained some system by which
this net result of the science of government may be avoided; some truth
by which war and slavery that have cursed the life and labor of every
people under heaven, may be abolished; some social and political
organization by which the false and cruel distinctions maintained by
accidents of fortune, birth, rank, or by even genius and extraordinary
abilities, between the rich and the poor, the great and the small, the
feeble and the wise, may be utterly removed; and by which womanhood,
wifehood, maternity, shall be redeemed from slavery and elevated to such
a place that men can no more degrade them without consciously degrading
themselves also; some divine and human law of brotherhood among men by
which the race shall attain to liberty, equality, and fraternity--dost
thou think that to devise and establish such a system is a work worthy
of a God?"
"Yea, verily! most worthy of a God; perhaps impossible even unto him."
"This very system hath our Lord ordained; it is the kingdom of heaven
upon earth; it is the common Church of Jesus Christ whereby the
regeneration of mankind must be secured."
There was a long silence after this, during which all seemed to be
pondering on what Ammonius had said, and it was finally broken by Arius,
who spoke as follows: "I do not get all of thy meaning. Why is it true
that all human governments of necessity result in the slavery of the
many to the few, and in their own ultimate destruction? Why can not
wise and good men organize some form of government that may secure both
permanency for itself and the prosperity of the people also?"
"Yea, tell us that," said Am-nem-hat, "and also inform us by what means
Jesus designeth to avoid in his kingdom the net result which seemeth
necessarily to overtake all human governments sooner or later?"
"The same considerations," said Ammonius, "may furnish an answer to both
questions. But first let me ask of thy great learning, Am-nem-hat,
whether any man hath proposed, or even conceived, of some form of human
government which hath never yet been tried among mankind?"
"I think not," said the ancient. "Both Plato and Aristotle have
indulged in the attempt to define all the possible forms that government
might assume; but, even in the political dream which Plato calleth 'The
Republic,' he faileth to specify any form or machinery of government
which hath not been repeatedly tried and found to fail; only the results
he dreams of are imaginary; the government he devised hath been vainly
experimented upon by others."
"The Greek philosopher erred in his delineation of an ideal government
both by omitting therefrom the power of faith as the controlling
principle thereof, and by denying the sanctity of monogamic marriage.
His 'Republic' is, therefore, nugatory, for liberty can not exist in any
community at all unless it exists for all alike; and polygamy denies the
liberty of half the human race by enslaving women. But thou truly
sayest that every possible form of government hath been tried among men,
and that all of them alike have failed to secure either permanency for
themselves or the welfare of the people. Thou must see, therefore, that
the universal failure of government dependeth not upon the form of it,
nor upon the age, or clime, or nation in which it existeth; nor upon the
religion, language, laws, nor customs of the people; for all forms of it
have failed alike, in all ages, among all peoples, under all imaginable
religions, languages, customs, and laws. Seemeth this conclusion to be
just and true?"
"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat, "I can see no escape therefrom whatever."
"Then it surely followeth," said Ammonius, "that whatever may be the
cause of this universal failure of government, it existeth in all of
them alike, and worketh the destruction and failure of them all,
independently of the form, religion, laws, customs, or other things in
regard to which they differ one from another; for the cause of this
failure must be common to all of them. Seemeth this conclusion a valid
one to thee?"
"Verily," said the ancient. "The cause must be one common to all
governments, or else we might find somewhere a government in which this
cause did not exist and operate; and so find a government that
possesseth permanency and secureth the welfare of the people. But there
hath never been, and is not, such a government on earth. The cause of
failure must be common unto all."
"Wilt thou draw from out the store-house of thine erudition, and show
unto us one law or custom that is common to all human governments? For
in that one thing, whatever it may be, we shall assuredly find the sole
cause of the failure of governments, and of all the tyranny, injustice,
oppression, and wretchedness, that maketh human life a burden to the
masses of mankind."
"Thou must state the law or custom that is common to all governments
alike, for thyself," said Am-nem-hat, "for they differ almost
inconceivably in form, religion, language, laws, and customs; and I
recall none which is common to every human government."
"All human governments," said Ammonius, "have one thing in common: they
agree in one pernicious law and custom which is the cause of failure in
them all; for all human governments alike maintain the legal right of
individuals to acquire, hold, and transmit private property-rights in
estates, offices, prerogatives; even in women and in slaves. This is
the idolatry of mammon, of which all nations are guilty, the only
idolatry which Jesus ever denounced by name, the only one that opposeth
his kingdom with a potent logic based upon selfishness. Many are
learning to hate this idolatry in respect of the royal offices: even the
debased Romans scorn the name of 'king,' and call their master
'imperator,' the commander of the army; some tribes hate it in its
application to men, and own no slaves; the Scythians and some other
nations deny the right of property in women, and take but one wife.
Jesus Christ denies the right of private property, not only in women,
slaves, offices, and prerogatives, but in houses, lands, and everything
else. Hence the property-law of his kingdom imperatively demandeth the
transfer of all that the believer hath unto the common Church; this
sacrifice is hard to make if one hath great possessions, and, therefore,
it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. No rich man
doeth this except under the power of a dominant faith which teacheth him
that the thing which is best for all believers is best for him; and that
the common good is better than self-aggrandizement. No sane man
doubteth that the political economy of Jesus would bless the world, if
men would adopt it; but not many great, not many wise, not many rich,
not many noble, come into the kingdom, because selfishness revolts at
the sacrifice of real or imaginary advantages, secured to them by
mammon-worship. It is emphatically the gospel, the glad tidings, for
the poor, and it is a regeneration that beginneth at the bottom, not at
the top, of every social system. All human governments are founded upon
the idolatrous faith that private rights of property are the sacredest
thing in human life, and that government over the people is necessary to
protect it. Jesus denieth this faith: he saith that liberty is better
than wealth, equality better than rank, fraternity better than power.
He, therefore, in his kingdom, abolisheth private rights of property in
order to reach something that is infinitely higher and better for all
men; and he summeth up human life, laws, governments, all that
pertaineth to man's social condition, in one short sentence which
containeth in itself the ultimate truth of all social and political
economy and wisdom: 'Ye can not serve God and Mammon.' And the
Pharisees hated Jesus only because they were 'covetous'; and the Romans
and other nations persecute us even unto death because they know that
the triumph of the kingdom of heaven is the overthrow of all government
over the people; and they love power, and wealth, and rank."
"How wouldst thou punish crime if all human governments were thus
abolished?" asked the ancient.
"There would then be no crime to punish," answered Ammonius. "For human
statutes, growing up out of the idolatry of private rights of property,
both create and punish crimes. There could be neither treason nor war
in the absence of government; and all other crimes, which in some shape
are the out-put of the idolatry of mammon, would cease with the false
social and political systems which generate and nourish them. Crimes
are, and for nearly three centuries have been, utterly unknown among the
Christian communities."
"What, then, standeth in the way of the triumph of the kingdom of
heaven?"
"Naught except the selfishness of men intrenched behind the strong
rampart of private property-rights--the one thing against which our Lord
hath declared undying and uncompromising enmity."
The old man sat in silence for a long time, and his grave and noble face
showed the traces of many conflicting emotions. Finally he said: "Thy
son did once ask me why I am not a Christian, and I could not answer
him, nor do I know. But Arius thought that thou mightst understand
better than either he, or I, the exact attitude in which my soul
standeth toward Christ and his religion. Canst thou tell me what the
trouble is?"
"Then," said Ammonius unto him, "thou mayst believe that Jesus is the
Christ; thou mayst believe that his religion is divinely true and
perfect, best for thee and for mankind; thou mayst believe that he is
ready and willing to accept and save every one that cometh unto him by
faith; thou mayst believe that he will so accept and save thee whenever
thou wilt come unto him thus; thou mayst believe and purpose that thou
wilt come--but all this maketh no man a Christian! The thing which
maketh thee a Christian is the voluntary surrender of thine own will to
the will of Jesus; to abrogate all in his favor; to accept his will as
thine only law. And this he saith thou canst do if thou wilt; no man on
earth, no angel in heaven, can do this thing for thee, nor force thee to
do it for thyself; nor can any enginery of earth or hell prevent thee
from doing this thing if thou wilt. It is a matter between thee and thy
Lord only; and thou and he must transact it. But if, freely and
voluntarily, with a full purpose of heart and mind to obey Christ only,
thou makest this grand surrender of thyself to him, the light, and
peace, and blessedness which he imparteth to those who truly love him
shall be thine own forever. Wilt thou have this man Christ Jesus to
reign over thee?"
Then a glorious beauty shone from the old man's countenance, and his
eyes grew bright with happy tears, and he exclaimed joyously: "I make
this surrender now; the light breaketh in even upon my soul; it is as
plain as the noonday sun: 'Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth
peace; good-will to men!' The truth for which all my life long I have
so vainly sought cometh unto me as to a little child. And it is pure,
satisfying, beautiful! 'Praise the Lord, O my soul!'"
"'Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye can in no
wise enter into the kingdom!'" said Ammonius.
"And all men, great and small, wise and ignorant, young and old, meet
upon an exact equality before our Lord," said the boy Arius; "for God is
no respecter of persons."