of pre-existence, though in a necessarily inaccurate and somewhat
fanciful form—as though infants were a stage higher in the scale than
grown men. Such an idea would involve the old mistaken postulate of
initial perfection, which was made long ago concerning the race: whereas
the truth was innocency, not perfection. But the idea that nothing less
than the whole of a personality must be incarnated—even in the body of
an infant—leads to innumerable difficulties;—it does not even escape
unanswerable questions about trivialities such as the moment of arrival;
and it is responsible for much biological scepticism concerning the
existence of any soul at all. Whereas, on the strength of the experience
that all processes in nature are really gradual, the idea of gradual
incarnation—increasing as the brain and body grow, but never attaining
any approach to completeness even in the greatest of men—sets one above
innumerable petty difficulties, and to me seems an opening in the
direction of the truth. On this view, the portion of larger self
incarnated in an infant or a feeble-minded person is but small: in
normal cases, more appears as the body is fitted to receive it. In some
cases much appears, thus constituting a great man; while in others,
again, a link of occasional communication is left open between the part
and the whole—producing what we call “genius.” Second childishness is
the gradual abandonment of the material vehicle, as it gets worn out or
damaged. But, during the episode of this life, man is never a complete
self, his roots are in another order of being, he is moving about in
worlds not realised, he is as if walking in a vain shadow and
disquieting himself in vain.
It may be objected that our present existence is very far from being a
dream or trance-like condition, that we are very wide awake to the
“realities” of the world, and very keen about “things of importance”;
that an analogy drawn from the memories of hypnotic patients and
multiple personalities, and other pathological cases, is sure to be
misleading. It may be so, the idea is admittedly of the nature of
speculation; but the greatest of poets lends his countenance to the
notion that phenomena and appearances are not ultimate realities, that
our present life is not unlike the state of a sleep-walker—that we slept
to enter it, and must sleep again before we wake—
“We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”
As to the question whether we ever again live on earth, it appears
unlikely on this view that a given developed individual will appear
again in unmodified form. If my present self is a fraction of a larger
self, some other fraction of that larger self may readily be thought of
as appearing,—to gain practical experience in the world of matter, and
to return with developed character to the whole whence it sprang. And
this operation may be repeated frequently; but these hypothetical
fractional appearances can hardly be spoken of as reincarnations. We
must not dogmatise, however, on the subject, and the case of the
multitudes at present thwarted and returned at infancy may demand
separate treatment. It may be that the abortive attempts at development
on the part of individuals are like the waves lapping up the sides of a
boulder and being successively flung back; while the general advance of
the race is typified by the steady rising of the tide.
_Soul and Body_
The philosophic doctrine of the “self” on this view is a difficult one,
and involves much study. As here stated, the form is sure to be crude
and imperfect. Philosophy resents any sharp distinction between soul and
body, between indwelling self and material vehicle. It prefers to treat
the self as a whole, an individual unit; though it may admit the actual
agglomeration of material particles to be transient and temporary. The
word “self” can be used in a narrower or in a broader sense. It may
signify the actual continuity of personality and memory whereof we are
conscious; or it may signify a larger and vaguer underlying reality, of
which the conscious self is but a fraction. The narrower sense is wide
enough to include the whole man, both soul and body, as we know him; but
the phrase “subliminal self” covers ideas extending hypothetically
beyond that.
The idea of Redemption or Regeneration, in its highest and most
Christian form, is applicable to both soul and body. The life of Christ
shows us that the whole man can be regenerated as he stands; that we
have not to wait for a future state, that the Kingdom of Heaven is in
our midst and may be assimilated by us here and now.
The term “salvation” should not be limited to the soul, but should apply
to the whole man. What kind of transfiguration may be possible, _or may
have been possible_, in the case of a perfectly emancipated and
glorified body, we do not yet know.
In a still larger sense these terms apply to the whole race of man; and
for the salvation of mankind individual loss and suffering have been
gladly expended. Not the individual alone, but the race also, can be
adjured to realise some worthy object for all its striving, to open its
eyes to more glorious possibilities than it has yet perceived, to
“... climb the Mount of Blessing, whence, if thou
Look higher, then—perchance—thou mayest—beyond
A hundred ever-rising mountain lines,
And past the range of Night and Shadow—see
The high-heaven dawn of more than mortal day
Strike on the Mount of Vision!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XIII
GRACE
_Q. 13. Is man helped in his struggle upward?_
_A._ There is a Power in the Universe vastly beyond our
comprehension; and we trust and believe that it is a Good
and Loving Power, able and willing to help us and all
creatures, and to guide us wisely, without detriment to our
incipient freedom. This Loving-kindness continually
surrounds us; in it we live and have our real being; it is
the mainspring of joy and love and beauty, and we call it
the Grace of God. It sustains and enriches all worlds, and
may take a multiplicity of forms, but it was specially
manifested to dwellers on this planet in the life of Jesus
Christ, through whose spirit and living influence the race
of man may hope to rise to heights at present inaccessible.
* * * * *
CLAUSE XIII
The guidance exercised by the Divine Spirit, by which we are completely
surrounded, is not of the nature of compulsion; it is only a leading and
helping influence, which we are able to resist if we choose.
The problem of manufacturing free creatures with a will of their own, to
be led, not forced, into right action, is a problem of a different
nature from any of those that have ever appealed to human power and
knowledge. What we are accustomed to make is mechanism, of various
kinds; and the essential difficulty of the higher problem is so obscure
to us that some impatient and unimaginative persons cry out against its
slowness, and wonder that everything is not compulsorily made perfect at
once. But we can see that the kind of perfection thus easily attainable
would be of an utterly inferior kind.
It is to be supposed that incarnation, or a connexion between
consciousness and material mechanism, is auxiliary to the difficult
process of evolution of free beings, thus indicated; and it is probable
that matter is thus an instrument of lofty spiritual purpose. Some
religious systems have failed to perceive this, and have depreciated
matter and flesh as intrinsically evil.
One important feature of Christianity is that it recognises as good the
connexion between spirit and matter, and emphasises the importance of
both, when properly regarded. It is not mystical and spiritual alone,
nor is it material alone; but it tends to unify these two extremes, and
to place in due position both soul and body: the material being utilised
to make manifest the spiritual, and being dominated by it.
The whole idea of the Incarnation, as well as some of the miracles and
the sacraments, are expressive of this wide and comprehensive character
of the Christian religion.
It recognises the wonder and beauty of the animal body, destined to be
the scene of extraordinary spiritual triumphs in the long course of
time; and it teaches
“That none but Gods could build this house of ours,
So beautiful, vast, various, so beyond
All work of man, yet, like all work of man,
A beauty with defect—till That which knows,
And is not known, but felt thro’ what we feel
Within ourselves is highest, shall descend
On this half-deed, and shape it at the last
According to the Highest in the Highest.”
Christianity is a planetary and human religion: being the revelation of
those aspects of Godhead which are most intelligible and helpful to us
in our present stage of development. But it is more than a revelation,
it is a manifestation of some of the attributes of Godhead in the form
of humanity.
The statement that Christ and God are one, is not really a statement
concerning Christ, but a statement concerning what we understand by God.
It is useless, and in the literal sense preposterous, to explain the
known in terms of the unknown: the converse is the right method. “He
that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Every son of man is potentially
also a son of God, but the union was deepest and completest in the
Galilean.
The ideas of incarnation and revelation are not confined to the domain
of religion; they are common to music and letters and science: in all we
recognise “a flash of the will that can,”
“All through my keys that gave their sounds to a wish of my soul,
All through my soul that praised, as the wish flowed visibly forth.”
The spirit of Beethoven is incarnate in his music; and he that hath
heard the Fifth Symphony hath heard Beethoven.
The Incarnation of the Divine Spirit in man is the central feature of
Terrestrial History. It is through man, and the highest man, that the
revelation of what is meant by Godhead must necessarily come. The
world—even the common everyday world—has accepted this, and is able to
perceive its appropriateness and truth; and the traditional song of the
angels, at the epoch of the Birth—
“Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace, goodwill among men,”
is still heard in the land. Whenever there is war at Christmas-time it
is universally felt to be incongruous. Goodwill among men is conspicuous
in cessation of private feuds, in overladen postbags, in family reunions
and Christmas hampers and all manner of homely frivolities.
The Incarnation doctrine is the glorification of human effort, and the
sanctification of childhood and simplicity of life; but it is a pity to
reduce it to a dogma. It is well to leave something to intuitive
apprehension, and to let the life and death of Christ gradually teach
their own eloquent lesson without premature dogmatic assistance.
From that event we date our history, and the strongest believer in
immanent Godhead can admit that the life of Jesus was an explicit and
clear-voiced message of love to this planet from the Father of all.
Naturally our conception of Godhead is still only indistinct and
partial, but, so far as we are as yet able to grasp it, we must reach it
through recognition of the extent and intricacy of the Cosmos, and more
particularly through the highest type and loftiest spiritual development
of man himself.
The most essential element in Christianity is its conception of a human
God; of a God, in the first place, not apart from the Universe, not
outside it and distinct from it, but immanent in it; yet not immanent
only, but actually incarnate, incarnate in it and revealed in the
Incarnation. The nature of God is displayed in part by everything, to
those who have eyes to see, but is displayed most clearly and fully by
the highest type of existence, the highest experience to which the
process of evolution has so far opened our senses.
“’Tis the sublime of man,
Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves
Part and proportion of one wondrous whole.”
The Humanity of God, the Divinity of man, is the essence of the
Christian revelation. It was truly a manifestation of Immanuel.
The Christian idea of God is not that of a being outside the universe,
above its struggles and advances, looking on and taking no part in the
process, _solely_ exalted, beneficent, self-determined, and complete. It
is also that of a God who loves, who yearns, who suffers, who keenly
laments the rebellious and misguided activity of the free agents brought
into being by Himself as part of Himself, who enters into the storm and
conflict, and is subject to conditions as the soul of it all.
This is the truth which has been reverberating down the ages ever since;
it has been the hidden inspiration of saint, apostle, prophet, martyr,
and, in however dim and vague a form, has given hope and consolation to
the unlettered and poverty-stricken millions:—A God that could
understand, that could suffer, that could sympathise, that had felt the
extremity of human anguish, the agony of bereavement, had submitted even
to the brutal hopeless torture of the innocent, and had become
acquainted with the pangs of death—this has been the chief consolation
of the Christian religion. This is the extraordinary conception of
Godhead to which we have thus far risen. “This is My beloved Son.”
“Enough that he heard it once; we shall hear it by and by.” The
Christian God is revealed as the incarnate Spirit of humanity; or rather
the incarnate spirit of humanity is recognised as a real intrinsic part
of God. “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XIV
INSPIRATION
_Q. 14. How may we become informed concerning things too
high for our own knowledge?_
_A._ We should strive to learn from the great teachers, the
prophets and poets and saints of the human race, and should
seek to know and to interpret their inspired writings.
* * * * *
CLAUSE XIV
People at a low stage of development are liable to think that they can
arrive at truth by their unaided judgment and insight, and that they
need not concern themselves with the thoughts and experiences of the
past. Unconscious of any inspiration themselves, they decline to believe
in the possibility of such a thing, and regard it as a fanciful notion
of unpractical and dreamy people.
Great men, on the other hand, are the fingerposts and lodestars of
humanity; it is with their aid that we steer our course, if we are wise,
and the records of their thought and inspiration are of the utmost value
to us.
This is the meaning of literature in general, and of that mass of
ancient religious literature in particular, on which hundreds of
scholars have bestowed their best energies: now translated, bound
together, and handed down to us as the Canon of Scripture, of which some
portions are the most inspired writings yet achieved by humanity. It is
impossible for us to ignore the concurrent mass of human testimony
therein recorded, the substantial and general truth of which has been
vouched for by the prophets and poets and seers of all time.
Accordingly, if we are to form worthy beliefs regarding the highest
conceptions in the Universe, we must avail ourselves of all this
testimony; discriminating and estimating its relative value in the light
of our own judgment and experience, studying such works and criticism as
are accessible to us, asking for the guidance of the Divine Spirit, and
seeking with modest and careful patience to apprehend something in the
direction of the truth.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XV
A CREED
_Q. 15. What, then, do you reverently believe can be
deduced from a study of the records and traditions of the
past in the light of the present?_
_A._ I believe in one Infinite and Eternal Being, a guiding
and loving Father, in whom all things consist.
I believe that the Divine Nature is specially revealed to
man through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lived and taught and
suffered in Palestine 1900 years ago, and has since been
worshipped by the Christian Church as the immortal Son of
God, the Saviour of the world.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is ever ready to help us
along the Way towards Goodness and Truth; that prayer is a
means of communion between man and God; and that it is our
privilege through faithful service to enter into the Life
Eternal, the Communion of Saints, and the Peace of God.
* * * * *
CLAUSE XV
NOTES ON THE CREED
The three paragraphs correspond to the three aspects or Personifications
of Deity which have most impressed mankind,— The Creating and
Sustaining. The Sympathising and Suffering. The Regenerating and
Sanctifying. The first of the three clauses tries to indicate briefly
the cosmic, as well as the more humanly intelligible, attributes of
Deity; and to suggest an idea of creation appropriate to the doctrine of
Divine Immanence, as opposed to the anthropomorphic notion of
manufacture. The idea of evolution by guiding and controlling Purpose is
suggested, as well as the vital conception of Fatherly Love.
* * * * *
In the second paragraph, Time and Place are explicitly mentioned in
order to emphasise the historical and human aspect of the Christian
manifestation of Godhead. This aspect is essential and easy to
appreciate, though its idealisation and full interpretation are
difficult. The step, from the bare historic facts to the idealisation of
the Fourth Gospel, has been the work of the Church, in the best sense of
that word, aided by the doctrines of the Logos and of Immanence,
elaborated by Philosophy. It all hangs together, when properly grasped,
and constitutes a luminous conception; but the light thus shed upon the
nature of Deity must not blind our eyes to the simple human facts from
which it originally emanated. The clear and undoubted fact is that the
founder of the Christian religion lived on this earth a blameless life,
taught and helped the poor who heard him gladly, gathered to himself a
body of disciples with whom he left a message to mankind, and was put to
death as a criminal blasphemer, at the instigation of mistaken priests
in the defence of their own Order and privileges.
This monstrous wrong is regarded by some as having unconsciously
completed the salvation of the race; because of the consummation of
sacrifice, and because of the suffering of the innocent, which it
involved. The Jewish sacrificial system, and the priestly ceremony of
the scapegoat, seem to lead up to that idea; which was elaborated by St.
Paul with immense genius, and taught by S. Augustine.
Others attach more saving efficacy to the life, the example, and the
teachings, as recorded in the Gospels; and all agree that they are
important.
But in fact the whole is important: and at the foot of the Cross there
has been a perennial experience of relief and renovation. Sin being the
sense of imperfection, disunion, lack of harmony, the struggle among the
members that St. Paul for all time expressed;—there is usually
associated with it a sense of impotence, a recognition of the
impossibility of achieving peace and unity in one’s own person, a
feeling that aid must be forthcoming from a higher source. It is this
feeling which enables the spectacle of any noble self-sacrificing human
action to have an elevating effect, it is this which gropes after the
possibilities of the highest in human nature, it is a feeling which for
large tracts of this planet has found its highest stimulus and
completest satisfaction in the life and death of Christ.
The willingness of such a Being to share our nature, to live the life of
a peasant, and to face the horrible certainty of execution by torture,
in order personally to help those whom he was pleased to call his
brethren, is a race-asset which, however masked and overlaid with
foreign growths, yet gleams through every covering and suffuses the
details of common life with fragrance.
This conspicuously has been a redeeming, or rather a regenerating,
agency;—for by filling the soul with love and adoration and
fellow-feeling for the Highest, the old cravings have often been almost
hypnotically rendered distasteful and repellent, the bondage of sin has
been loosened from many a spirit, the lower entangled self has been
helped from the slough of despond and raised to the shores of a larger
hope, whence it can gradually attain to harmony and peace.
The invitation to the troubled soul—“Come, and find rest”—has reference,
not to relief from sin alone, but to all restlessness and lack of trust.
The Atonement removes the feeling of dislocation; it induces a tranquil
sense of security and harmony,—an assurance of union with the Divine
will.
Every form of Christianity aims at salvation for the race and for each
individual, both soul and body; but different versions differ as to the
means most efficient to this end. Varieties of Christianity can be
grouped under the symbolic names, Paul, James, Peter, and John; with the
dominating ideas of vicarious sacrifice, human effort, Church ordinance,
and loving-kindness, respectively.
In the coldest system of nomenclature these four chief varieties may be
styled, _legal_, _ethical_, _ecclesiastical_, and _emotional_,
respectively. More favourably regarded, the dominating ideas may be
classified thus:—
1. Faith in a divine scheme of redemption.
2. Simple life, social service, honesty, and virtue.
3. Spiritual sustenance by utilisation of means of
grace.
4. Obedience, unworldliness, trust, and love.
With the treatment of these great themes, sectarian differences begin:
differences which seem beyond our power to reconcile. We need not dwell
on the differences, we would rather emphasise the mass of agreement.
Probably there is an element of truth in every view that has long been
held and found helpful by human beings, however overlaid with
superstition it may in some cases have become; and probably also the
truth is far from exhausted by any one estimate of the essential feature
of a Life which most of us can agree to recognise as a revelation of the
high-water-mark of manhood, and a manifestation of the human attributes
of God.
None of the above partially overlapping subdivisions of Christianity
equals in importance the overshadowing and dominating theory emphasised
in the above creed: namely, the idea of a veritable incarnation of
Divine Spirit—a visible manifestation of Deity immanent in humanity. The
facts of the life, testified to by witnesses and idealised by
philosophers and saints, have been transmitted down the centuries by a
continuous Church; though with a mingling of superstition and error.
At present the process of interpretation has been accompanied by a sad
amount of discord and hostility, to the scandal of the Church; but the
future of religion shall not always be endangered by suspicion and
intolerance and narrowness among professed disciples of truth. There
must come a time when first a nation, and afterwards the civilised
world, shall awake and glory in the light of the risen sun:—
“—A sun but dimly seen
Here, till the mortal morning mists of earth
Fade in the noon of heaven, when creed and race
Shall bear false witness, each of each, no more,
But find their limits by that larger light,
And overstep them, moving easily
Thro’ after-ages in the love of Truth,
The truth of Love.”
The emphasis laid by the above explanation on the conception of the
human nature incorporated into Godhead, is appropriate to this country
and to the Western World generally; but we thereby imply no abuse of the
religions of the East, in their proper place, any more than of the
religions of other planets. Silence concerning them is not
disrespectful. It is not to be supposed that any one world has a
monopoly of the Grace of God; nor does it exhaust every plan of
salvation. In estimating the value of another dispensation, or of any
ill-understood religion (and no one can perfectly understand and
appreciate more than one religion, if that, to the full), the old test
is the only valid one: Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of
thistles?
* * * * *