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 BL 240 .L6 
 
 Lodge, Oliver, 1851-1940 
 
 Science and immortality 
 
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SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 
 
SIR OLIVER LODGE, F.R.S, 
 
 " SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY " 
 
SCIENCE AND 
 IMMORTALITY 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 SIR OLIVER LODGE, F.R.S. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 1917 
 
Copyright 1908, by 
 
 Moffat, Yard and Company 
 
 New York 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 SECTION I 
 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter 1. THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 
 
 BETWEEN SCIENCE AND FAITH. 1 
 
 The Teachings of Orthodox Science and of Orthodox 
 Religion contrasted. 
 
 Chapter 2. THE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN 
 
 SCIENCE AND FAITH 23 
 
 The Doctrines of Uniformity, Immanence, Agency, 
 and Control, emphasised 
 
 Chapter S. RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND MIRACLE. . 48 
 Meaning of Miracle — Arguments concerning the Mi- 
 raculous — Law and Guidance — Miracle and 
 Science — Miracle and Religion — Human Ex- 
 perience. 
 
 SECTION II 
 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 Chapter 4. THE ALLEGED INDIFFERENCE OF 
 
 LAYMEN TO RELIGION. ... 77 
 A brief Essay on the Neglect of Church Attendance. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter 5. UNION AND BREADTH 86 
 
 A Plea for Essential Unity amid Formal Difference 
 in a National Church. 
 
 Chapter 6. A REFORMED CHURCH AS AN ENGINE 
 
 OF PROGRESS 112 
 
 The Power of a truly comprehensive National 
 Church. 
 
 Chapter 7. SOME SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS RE- 
 FORM. ., .. .., 126 
 
 SECTION ni 
 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 Chapter 8. Part I. THE TRANSITORY AND THE 
 
 PERMANENT 143 
 
 Chapter 9- Part II. THE PERMANENCE OF PER- 
 SONALITY. ........ 162 
 
 SECTION IV 
 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Chapter 10. SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS THE RE-IN- 
 TERPRETATION OF CHRISTIAN 
 DOCTRINE 197 
 
 Treating of the Atonement and of Regeneration, with 
 a Criticism of the Doctrine of Vicarious Pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Chapter 11. SIN, SUFFERING, AND WRATH. .., . 218 
 A Sequel to the preceding. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGS 
 
 Chapter 12. Part I. THE MATERIAL ELEMENT IN 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 249 
 
 (1) Correspondence of Spiritual and Material; (2) 
 The Resurrection of the Body; (3) The Res- 
 urrection of Christ. 
 
 Chapter 13. Part II. THE DIVINE ELEMENT IN 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 272 
 
 (The Meaning and Importance of the Doctrine of the 
 Divinity of Christ, or the Humanity of God.) 
 (4) Christianity and History; (5) Varieties of Chris- 
 tianity; (6) Ecce Deus. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE TO AMERICAN 
 
 EDITION. 
 
 This book is based upon articles by the author 
 which have appeared in the Hibbert Journal and in 
 the Contemporary Review^ and incorporates the sub- 
 stance of many of those articles: but they have been 
 revised, in parts re-written, added to, and amended, 
 so as to develop a continuous treatment. 
 
 They are arranged in four sections or divisions: — 
 
 The first treats of the old problems of science and 
 faith, of belief in the miraculous, and in the efficacy 
 of prayer; and adduces justification for some of those 
 beliefs. 
 
 The second is mainly concerned with what are 
 commonly considered Ecclesiastical matters — that is 
 to say with Church organisation and with Public 
 Service of all kinds. 
 
 The third concerns what is called the Future Life, 
 and treats of the Immortality of the Soul. 
 
 The fourth represents the interaction between 
 Science and Christianity. This part aims at ex- 
 pounding the fundamental Christian doctrines from 
 a modern and scientific point of view, and at show- 
 ing how ancient modes of expression, and the mediae- 
 val language in which are embodied the most vital 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 truths known to mankind, can be interpreted and as- 
 similated by advanced thought. 
 
 A threat of unauthorised publication of some of 
 the Hibbert articles, as they stand, has been received 
 from America; but if any such pubhcation appears, 
 readers are hereby informed that it will not be the 
 edited and authorised edition, but a mere reprint of 
 unselected and unrevised material. 
 
 Oliver Lodge. 
 University of Birmingham. 
 May 1908. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IT is difficult for a lay individual to suppose that 
 effort on his part can have any influence in turn- 
 ing the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of 
 the just, and so in some slight degree preparing the 
 way for the Coming of the Kingdom of Heaven 
 upon Earth ; and yet he may realise that those are his 
 instructions, and that wonders are said to be possible 
 if action be taken in a spirit of faith. Consequently 
 a steward of the mysteries of physical science may, 
 without undue presumption, proceed to utter such 
 thoughts as have been vouchsafed to him on topics 
 which, however treated, are undoubtedly of the high- 
 est moment to mankind, 
 
 Lehici, April 1908^ 
 
Collect foe Third Sunday ik Advent 
 
 (Composed by Bishop Cosinin, 1661) 
 
 "O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send 
 thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that 
 the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise 
 so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts 
 of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy 
 second coming to judge the world we may be found an 
 acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with 
 the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world 
 without end. Amen," 
 
SECTION I— SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 
 
 IT is widely recognised at the present day that the 
 modem spirit of scientific inquiry has in the main 
 exerted a wholesome influence upon Theology, clear- 
 ing it of much encumbrance of doubtful doctrine, 
 freeing it from slavery to the literal accuracy of his- 
 torical records, and reducing the region of the mirac- 
 ulous or the incredible, with which it used to be almost 
 conterminous, to a comparatively small area. 
 
 This influence is likely to continue as true science 
 advances, but it by no means follows that the nature 
 of the benefit will always be that of a clearing and 
 unloading process. There must come a time when 
 such a process has gone far enough, and when some 
 positive contribution may be expected. Whether 
 such a time has now arrived or not is clearly open to 
 question, but I think it will be admitted that ortho- 
 dox science at present, though it shows some sign of 
 abstaining from vii'ulent criticism of religious creeds, 
 is still a long way from contributing in any degree 
 to their support; nor are its followers ready to admit 
 that they have as yet gone too far, if even far enough, 
 in the negative direction. No doubt both sides would 
 
2 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 allow that the highest Science and the truest Theology 
 must ultimately be mutually consistent, and harmo- 
 nious; but they are far from presenting that ap- 
 pearance at present. The term "Theology," as or- 
 dinarily used, necessarily signifies nothing ultimate 
 or divine ; it signifies only the present state of human 
 knowledge on theological subjects. And similarly 
 the term "Science," if correspondingly employed, 
 represents no fetish to be worshipped blindly as abso- 
 lute truth, but merely the present state of human 
 knowledge on subjects within its grasp, together with 
 the practical consequences deducible from such knowl- 
 edge in the opinion of the average scientific man: it 
 usually connotes what may be called orthodox science, 
 — the orthodox science of the present day, as set 
 forth by its professed exponents, and as indicated by 
 the general atmosphere or setting in which figures 
 in every branch of knowledge are now regarded by 
 cultivated men. 
 
 It may be objected that there is no definite body of 
 doctrine which can be classed as orthodox science ; and 
 it is true that there is no formulated creed; but I sug- 
 gest that there is more nearly an orthodox science 
 than there is an orthodox theology. Professors of 
 theology differ among themselves in a rather con- 
 spicuous manner; and even in that branch of it with 
 which alone most Englishmen are familiar, viz. Chris- 
 tian Theology, there are differences of opinion on ap- 
 parently important issues, as is evidenced by the 
 existence of Sects, ranging from Unitarians on the 
 one side, to Greek and Roman Catholics on the other. 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 9 
 
 In science, sectarianism is less marked, controversies 
 rage chiefly round matters of detail, and on all im- 
 portant issues its professors are agreed. This gen- 
 eral consensus of opinion on the part of experts, a 
 general consensus which the public are willing enough 
 to acquiesce in, and adopt as far as they can under- 
 stand it, is what I mean by the term "science as now 
 understood," or, for brevity, "modern science." 
 
 Similarly, by "religious doctrine" we shall mean 
 the general consensus of theologians so far as they 
 are in agreement, especially perhaps the general con- 
 sensus of Christian theologians; ignoring as far 
 as possible the presumably minor points on which 
 they differ, and eliminating everything manifestly 
 below the moral level of dogma generally acceptable 
 at the present day. 
 
 Now it must, I thinks be admitted that the modern 
 scientific atmosphere, in spite of much that is whole- 
 some and nutritious, exercises a sort of blighting in- 
 fluence upon religious ardour. At any rate the great 
 saints or seers have as a rule not been eminent for 
 their acquaintance with exact scientific knowledge, 
 but on the contrary, have felt a distrust and a dislike 
 of that uncompromising quest for cold hard truth 
 in which the leaders of science are engaged; while on 
 the other hand, the leaders of science have shown an 
 aloofness from, if not a hostility towards, the theoret- 
 ical aspects of religion. In fact, it may be held that 
 the general di'ift or atmosphere of modern science 
 is adverse to the highest religious emotion, because 
 unconvinced of the reality of many of the occurrences 
 
aj SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 upon which such an exalted state of feehng must be 
 based, if it is to be anything more than a wave of 
 transient enthusiasm. 
 
 Nevertheless, we must admit that among men 
 of science, there must be many now living, who 
 accept fully the facts and implications of science, 
 who accept also the creeds of the Church, and who do 
 not keep the two sets of ideas in watertight com- 
 partments of their minds, but do distinctly perceive 
 a reconciling and fusing element. 
 
 If we proceed to ask what is this reconciling ele- 
 ment, we find that it is neither science nor theology, 
 but that it is either philosophy or poetry. By aid 
 of philosophy, or by aid of poetry, a great deal can 
 be accomplished. Mind and matter may be then no 
 longer two, but one; this material universe may then 
 become the living garment of God; gross matter may 
 be regarded as a mere appearance, a mode of appre- 
 hending an idealistic cosmic reality, in which we really 
 live and move and have our being ; the whole of exist- 
 ence can become infused and suffused with immanent 
 Deity. 
 
 No reconciliation would then be necessary between 
 the spiritual and the material, between the laws of 
 Nature and the will of God, because the two would 
 be but aspects of one all-comprehensive pantheistic 
 entity. 
 
 All this may possibly be in some sort true, but it is 
 not science as now understood. It is no more science 
 than are the creeds of the Churches. It is a guess, 
 an intuition, — an inspiration perhaps, — but it is not 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 5 
 
 a link in a chain of assured and reasoned knowledge ; 
 it can no more be clearly formulated in words, or 
 clearly apprehended in thought, than can any of the 
 high and lofty conceptions of religion. It is, in fact, 
 far more akin to rehgion than to science. It is no 
 solution of the knotty entanglement, but a soaring 
 above it; it is a reconciliation in excelsis. 
 
 Minds which can habitually rise to it are, ipso facto „ 
 essentially religious, and are exercising their religious 
 functions ; they have flown off the dull earth of exact 
 knowledge into an atmosphere of faith. 
 
 But if this flight be possible, especially if it be ever 
 possible to minds engaged in a daily round of scien- 
 tific teaching and investigation, how can it be said 
 that the atmosphere of modern science and the 
 atmosphere of religious faith are incompatible? 
 Wherein lies the incompatibility? 
 
 My reply briefly is — and this is the kernel of what 
 I have to say — that orthodox modern science shows us 
 a self-contained and self-sufficient universe, not in 
 touch with anything beyond or above itself, — the gen- 
 eral trend and outHne of it known; — nothing super- 
 natural or miraculous, no intervention of beings other 
 than ourselves, being conceived possible. 
 
 While religion, on the other hand, requires us con- 
 stantly and consciously to be in touch, — even af- 
 fectionately in touch, — with a power, a mind, a being 
 or beings, entirely out of our sphere, entirely beyond 
 our scientific ken; the universe contemplated by 
 religion is by no means self-contained or self-suffi- 
 cient, it is dependent for its origin and maintenance, 
 
16 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 as we are for our daily bread and future hopes, upon 
 the power and the goodwill of a being or beings of 
 which science has no knowledge. Science does not in- 
 deed always or consistently deny the existence of such 
 transcendent beings, nor does it make any effectual 
 attempt to limit their potential powers, but it defi- 
 nitely disbelieves in their exerting any actual influ- 
 ence on the progress of events, or in their producing 
 or modifying the simplest physical phenomenon. 
 
 For instance, it is now considered unscientific to 
 pray for rain, and Professor Tyndall went so far as 
 to say: 
 
 "The principle [of the conservation of energy] 
 teaches us that the Italian wind gliding over the crest 
 of the Matterhorn is as firmly ruled as the earth in its 
 orbital revolution round the sun; and that the fall of 
 its vapour into clouds is exactly as much a matter of 
 necessity as the return of the seasons. The disper- 
 sion, therefore, of the slightest mist by the special 
 volition of the Eternal, would be as much a miracle 
 as the rolling of the Rhone over the Grimsel preci- 
 pices, down the valley of Hasli to Meyringen and 
 Brientz. . . . 
 
 "Without the disturbance of a natural law, quite 
 as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse, or the rolling 
 of the river Niagara up the Falls no act of humiha- 
 tion individual or national, could call one shower from 
 heaven, or deflect towards us a single beam of the 
 sun." ' 
 
 1 From Fragments of Science, " Prayer and Natural Law," 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 7 
 
 Certain objections may be made to this statement 
 of Professor TyndalFs, even from the strictly scien- 
 tific point of view: the law of the conservation of 
 energy is needlessly dragged in when it has nothing 
 really to do with it. We ourselves, for instance, 
 though we have no power, nor hint of any power, to 
 override the conservation of energy, are yet readily 
 able, by a simple physical experiment, or by an en- 
 gineering operation, to deflect a ray of light or to 
 dissipate a mist, or divert a wind, or pump water 
 uphill; and further objections may be made to the 
 form of the statement notably to the word "there- 
 fore" as used to connect propositions entirely differ- 
 ent in their terms. But the meaning is quite plain 
 nevertheless. The assertion is that any act, how- 
 ever simple, if acliieved by special volition of the 
 Eternal, would be a miracle; and the implied dogma 
 is that the special volition of the Eternal cannot, or at 
 any rate does not, accomplish anything whatever in 
 the physical world. And this dogma, although not 
 really a deduction from any of the known principles 
 of physical science, and possibly open to objection as a 
 petitio principii, may nevertheless be taken as a some- 
 what exuberant statement of the generally accepted 
 inductive teaching of orthodox science on the subject. 
 
 It ought, however, to be admitted at once by Nat- 
 ural Philosophers that the unscientific character of 
 prayer for rain depends really not upon its conflict 
 with any known physical law, since it need involve 
 no greater interference with the order of nature than 
 is implied in a request to a gardener to water the gar- 
 
8 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 den — it does not really depend upon the impossibility; 
 of causing rain to fall when otherwise it might not — 
 but upon the disbehef of science in any power who 
 can and will attend and act. To prove this, let us 
 bethink ourselves that it is not an inconceivable possi- 
 bility that at some future date mankind may acquire 
 some control over the weather, and be able to influ- 
 ence it; not merely in an indirect manner, as at 
 present they can affect climate, by felling forests or 
 flooding deserts, but in some more direct fashion; in 
 that case prayers for rain would begin again, only 
 the petitions would be addressed, not to heaven, 
 but to the Meteorological Office. We do not at 
 present ask the secretary of that government 
 department to improve our seasons, simply because 
 we do not think that he knows how; if we thought he 
 did, we should not be debarred from approaching him 
 by a suspicion of his possible non-existence, or a fear 
 that our request would not be dehvered. Professor 
 TyndalFs dogma will, if pressed, be found to neces- 
 sitate one of these last alternatives; although super- 
 ficially it pretends to make the somewhat grotesque 
 suggestion that the alteration requested is so compli- 
 cated and involved, that really, with the best intentions 
 in the world, the Deity does not know how to do it. 
 
 An attitude of pious resignation might be taken, 
 that the central Office knew best what it was about, 
 and that petitions were only worrying; but that would 
 be rather a supine and fatalistic attitude if we were in 
 real distress, and certainly, on a higher level, it would 
 be a very unfilial one. Religious people have been 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 9 
 
 told, on what they generally take to be good author- 
 ity, that prayer might be a miraculousl}^ powerful 
 engine for achievement, even in the physical world, 
 if they would only believe with sufficient vigour ; but 
 (I am not here questioning the soundness of their 
 position) they have dramatised or spiritualised away 
 the statement, and act upon it no more. Influenced 
 it is to be presumed by science, they have come defi- 
 nitely to disbeheve in physical interference of any 
 kind whatever on the part of another order of beings, 
 whether more exalted or more depraved than our- 
 selves, although such beings are frequently mentioned 
 in their sacred books. 
 
 Whatever they might be able to do if they chose, 
 for all practical purposes such beings are to the aver- 
 age scientific man purely imaginary, and he feels 
 sure that we can never have experiential knowledge 
 of them or their powers. In his view the universe lies 
 before us for investigation, and, so far as he can see, 
 it is complete without them; it is subject to our own 
 partial control if we are willing patiently to learn 
 how to exercise it, but of any other control, we would 
 say, there is no perceptible trace. Even in the most 
 vital concerns of life, it is the doctor, not the priest, 
 who is summoned : a pestilence is no longer attributed 
 to Divine jealousy, nor would the threshing-floor of 
 Araunah be used to stay it. 
 
 The two subjects, moreover, adopt very different 
 modes of expression. The death of an archbishop 
 can be stated scientifically in terms not very different 
 from those appropriate to the stoppage of a clock, or 
 
10 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 the extinction of a fire ; but the religious formula for 
 the same event is that it has pleased God in His in- 
 finite wisdom to take to Himself the soul of our dear 
 brother, etc. The very words of such a statement are 
 to modern science unmeaning. (In saying this, I 
 trust to be understood as not now in the slightest 
 degree attempting to prejudge the question, which 
 form is the more appropriate.) 
 
 Religion may, in fact, be called supernatural or 
 superscientific, if the term * 'natural" be limited to 
 that region of which we now believe that we have any 
 direct scientific knowledge. 
 
 In disposition also Religion and Science are oppo- 
 site. Science cultivates a vigorous adult, intelligent, 
 serpent-like wisdom, and active interference with the 
 course of nature; religion fosters a meek, receptive, 
 child-hearted attitude of dovelike resignation to the 
 Divine will. 
 
 Take a scientific man who is a man of science, pure 
 and simple with no element either of a poet, or a 
 philosopher, or a saint, and place him in the atmos- 
 phere habitual to the churches, — and he must starve. 
 He requires solid food, but his sole provision is air. 
 He requires something to touch and define and know; 
 but all his surroundings are ethereal, indefinable, 
 illimitable, incomprehensible, beautiful, and vague. 
 He dies of inanition. 
 
 Take, again, a narrow religious man — one in whom 
 religion is the sole aptitude — into the cold dry work- 
 ings, the gropings and tunnellings of science, where 
 everything must be scrutinised and proved, distinctly 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 11 
 
 conceived and precisely formulated, — and he cannot 
 breathe. He requires ample air and space; whereas 
 he finds himself underground, among foundations 
 and masonry, very solid and substantial, but com- 
 pletely cabined and confined. He dies of asphyxia. 
 If a man be able to live in both regions, to be am- 
 phibious as it were, — able to take short flights occa- 
 sionally, and able to burrow underground occasionally, 
 accepting the solid work of science and believing its 
 truth, realising the aerial structures of rehgion, and 
 perceiving their beauty, — will such a man be as hap- 
 pily and powerfully at home in the air as if he had 
 no earth adhering to his wings? Is the modern man 
 as happily and as powerfully religious as he might 
 have been with less information about the universe? 
 Or, I would add parenthetically, as he will yet as- 
 suredly become, with more? 
 
 II 
 
 Leaving general considerations, and coming to de- 
 tails, let us look at a few of the simpler religious 
 doctrines, such as are still, I suppose, popularly held 
 in this country. 
 
 The creed of the ancient IsraeHtes was well, or at 
 least strikingly, summarised by JVIr. Huxley in one 
 of his Nineteenth Century articles (March 1886). 
 He there says: "The chief articles of the theological 
 creed of the old IsraeHtes, which are made known to 
 us by the direct evidence of the ancient records, . . . 
 are as remarkable for that which they contain as for 
 that which is absent from them. They reveal a firm 
 
12 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 conviction that, when death takes place, a something 
 termed a soul, or spirit, leaves the body and con- 
 tinues to exist in Sheol for a period of indefinite 
 duration, even though there is no proof of any belief 
 in absolute immortality; that such spirits can return 
 to earth to possess and inspire the living; that they 
 are in appearance and in disposition likenesses of the 
 men to whom they belonged, but that, as spirits, they 
 have larger powers and are freer from physical limit- 
 ations ; that they thus form one of a number of kinds 
 of spiritual existence known as Elohim, of w^hom 
 Jahveh, the national God of Israel, is one ; that, con- 
 sistently with this view, Jahveh was conceived as a 
 sort of spirit, human in aspect and in sense, and with 
 many human passions, but with immensely greater 
 intelhgence and power than any other Elohim, 
 whether human or divine." 
 
 The mere calm statement of such a creed was 
 plainly held by Mr. Huxley to be a sufficient refuta- 
 tion. 
 
 But we need not limit ourselves to the Old Testa- 
 ment, some of whose alleged facts may admittedly be 
 abandoned without detriment, as belonging to the 
 legendary or the obscure ; we may be constrained by 
 science to go further, and to maintain that even what 
 some regard as fundamental Christian tenets, such as 
 the Incarnation or non-natural birth, and the Resur- 
 rection or non-natural disappearance of the body from 
 the tomb, have, from the scientific point of view, no 
 reasonable likelihood or probability whatever. It may 
 be^ and often has been, asserted that they appear as 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY IS 
 
 childish fancies, appropriate to the infancy of civiHsa- 
 tion and a prescientific credulous age ; readily intelligi- 
 ble to the historian and student of folk-lore, but not 
 otherwise interesting. The same has been said of 
 every variety of alleged miraculous occurrence, and 
 not merely of such dogmas as the fall of man from 
 an original state of perfection, of the subsequent ex- 
 tirpation of the human race down to a single family, 
 and so on. 
 
 The whole historical record, wherever it exceeds the 
 commonplace, every act attributed directly to the 
 Deity, whether it be sending fire from heaven, or 
 writing upon stone, or leadings by cloud and fire, or 
 conversations, whether during trance or otherwise, is 
 incompatible with the teachings of modern science (let 
 it be clearly remembered how I have defined the 
 phrase "modern science" above) ; and when consid- 
 ered prosaically, much of the record is summarily 
 discredited, even by many theologians now. Nor 
 is this acquiescence in negation confined to the 
 leaders. The general religious world has agreed ap- 
 parently to throw overboard Jonah and the whale, 
 Joshua and the sun, the tliree Children and the fiery 
 furnace; it does not seem to take anything in the 
 book of Judges or the book of Daniel very seriously; 
 and though it still clings pathetically to the book of 
 Genesis, it is willing to relegate to poetry, Le, to im- 
 agination or fiction, such legends as the creation of 
 the world, Adam and his rib, Eve and the apple, 
 Noah and his ark, language and the tower of Babel, 
 Ehjah and the chariot of fire, and manj; others. The 
 
U SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 stock reconciling phrase, applied to the legend of the 
 six-days' creation, or the Levitican mistakes in Nat- 
 ural History, after the strained "day-period" mode 
 of interpretation had been exploded in "Essays and 
 Reviews," used to be, that the Bible was never meant 
 to teach science; wherefore, whenever it touches upon 
 any branch of natural knowledge, its statements are 
 to be interpreted in a friendly spirit, Le. it is to be 
 glossed over, and in fact disbelieved. But a book 
 which deals with so prodigious a subject as the origin 
 of all things, and the history of the human race, can- 
 not avoid a treatment of natural facts which is really 
 a teaching of science, whether such teaching is meant 
 or not; and indeed the whole idea involved in the 
 word "meant" is repugnant to the conceptions of 
 biological science, which claims to have ousted teleol- 
 ogy from its arena. 
 
 Moreover, if religious people go as far as this, 
 where are they to stop? What, then, do they pro- 
 pose to do with the turning of water into wine, the 
 ejection of devils, the cursing of the fig-tree, the 
 feeding of five thousand, the raising of Lazarus? 
 Or, to go deeper still, what do they make of the 
 scene at the Baptism, of the Transfiguration, of the 
 Crucifixion, the appearances after Death, the As- 
 cension into heaven? On all these points I venture to 
 suggest that neither religion nor science has said its 
 last word. 
 
 But it may be urged that even these are but details 
 compared with the one transcendent doctrine of the 
 existence of an omnipotent and omniscient benevo- 
 
.THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 15~ 
 
 lent personal God; the fundamental tenet of nearly 
 all religions. But so far as science has anything to 
 say on this subject, and it has not very much, its 
 tendency is to throw mistrust, not upon the existence 
 of Deity itself, but upon any adjectives applied to 
 the Deity. "Infinite" and "eternal" may pass, and 
 "omnipotent" and "omniscient" may reluctantly be 
 permitted to enter with them, — ^these expansive epi- 
 thets reheve the mind, without expressing more than 
 is imphcitly contained in the substantive God. But 
 concerning "personal" and "benevolent" and other 
 anthropomorphic adjectives, science is exceedingly 
 dubious; nor is omnipotence itself very easily recon- 
 cilable with the actual condition of things as we now 
 experience them. The present state of the world is 
 very far short of perfection. Why are things still 
 imperfect if controlled by a benevolent omnipotence? 
 Why, indeed, does evil or pain at all exist? All very 
 ancient puzzles these, but still alive; and the solution 
 to them so far attempted by science lies in the word 
 Evolution, a word whose applicability to the work of 
 a perfect God may readily be the subject of contro- 
 versy. 
 
 Taught by science, we learn that there has been no 
 fall of man, there has been a rise. Through an ape- 
 like ancestry, back through a tadpole and fishlike 
 ancestry, away to the early beginnings of life, the 
 origin of man is being traced by science. There was 
 no specific creation of the world such as was con- 
 ceived appropriate to a geocentric conception of the 
 universe ; the world is a condensation of primeval gas, 
 
16 ' SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 a congeries of stones and meteors fallen together; 
 still falling together, indeed, in a larger neighboring 
 mass (the Sun). Ey the energy of that still persist- 
 ent falling together, the ether near us is kept con- 
 stantly agitated, and to the energy of this ethereal 
 agitation all the manifold activity of our planet is 
 due. The whole system has evolved itself from mere 
 moving matter in accordance with the law of gravi- 
 tation, and there is no certain sign of either begin- 
 ning or end. Solar systems can by collision or other- 
 wise resolve themselves into nebulae, and nebulae left 
 to themselves can condense into solar systems, — 
 everywhere in the spaces around us we see a part of 
 the process going on; the formation of solar systems 
 from whirling nebulse hes before our eyes, if not in 
 the visible sky itself, yet in the magnified photo- 
 graphs taken of that sky. Even though the whole 
 process of evolution is not completely understood as 
 yet, does anyone doubt that it will become more thor- 
 oughly understood in time? and if they do doubt it, 
 would they hope effectively to bolster up religion by 
 such a doubt? 
 
 It is difficult to resist yielding to the bent and trend 
 of "modern science," as well as to its proved conclu- 
 sions. Its bent and trend may have been wrongly 
 estimated by its present disciples: a large tract of 
 knowledge may have been omitted from its ken, 
 which when included will revolutionise some of their 
 accepted opinions; but, however this may be, there 
 can be no doubt about the tendency of orthodox 
 science at the present time. It suggests to us that 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 17, 
 
 the Cosmos is self-explanatory, self-contained, and 
 self -maintaining. From everlasting to everlasting 
 the material universe rolls on, composing worlds and 
 disintegrating them, producing vegetable beauty and 
 destroying it, evolving intelligent animal hfe, devel- 
 oping that into a self-conscious human race, and then 
 plunging it once more into annihilation. 
 
 "Thou makest thine appeal to me! 
 I bring to life, I bring to death, 
 The spirit does but mean the breath, 
 I know no more. , . ." 
 
 But at this point the theologian happily and 
 eagerly interposes, with a crucial inquiry of science 
 about this same bringing to life. Granted that the 
 blaze of the sun accounts for winds and waves, and 
 hail, and rain, and rivers, and all the myriad activities 
 of the earth, does it account for life? Has it ac- 
 counted for the life of the lowest animal, the tiniest 
 plant, the simplest cell, hardly visible but yet self- 
 moving, in the field of a microscope? 
 
 And science, in chagrin, has to confess that hitherto 
 in this direction it has failed. It has not yet witnessed 
 the origin of the smallest trace of life from dead mat- 
 ter: all life, so far as has been watched, proceeds 
 from antecedent life. Given the life of a single cell, 
 science would esteem itself competent ultimately to 
 trace its evolution into all the myriad existences of 
 plant and animal and man; but the origin of proto- 
 plasmic activity itself as yet eludes it. But will the 
 Theologian triumph in the admission? will he therein 
 detect at last the dam which shall stem the torrent ofi 
 
18 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 scepticism? will he base an argument for the direct 
 action of the Deity in mundane aiFairs on that fail- 
 ure, and entrench himself behind that present incom- 
 petence of labouring men? If so, he takes his stand 
 on what may prove a yielding foundation. The pres- 
 ent powerlessness of science to explain or originate 
 life is a convenient weapon wherewith to fell a 
 pseudo-scientific antagonist who is dogmatising too 
 loudly out of bounds; but it is not perfectly secure 
 as a permanent support. In an early stage of civili- 
 sation it may have been supposed that flame only pro- 
 ceeded from antecedent flame, but the tinder-box and 
 the lucifer-match were invented nevertheless. Theo- 
 logians have probably learnt by this time that their 
 central tenets should not be founded, even partially, 
 upon nescience, or upon negations of any kind, lest 
 the placid progress of positive knowledge should 
 once more undermine their position, and another dis- 
 covery have to be scouted with alarmed and violent 
 anathemas. 
 
 Any year, or any century, the physical aspect of 
 the nature of life may become more intelligible, and 
 may perhaps resolve itself into an action of already 
 known forces on the very complex molecule of 
 protoplasm. Already in Germany have inorganic 
 and artificial substances been found to crawl about on 
 glass slides under the action of surface-tension or 
 capillarity, with an appearance which is said to have 
 deceived even a biologist into hastily pronouncing 
 them living amoebae. Life in its ultimate element and 
 on its material side is such a simple thing, it is but a 
 
THE OUTSTANDING CONTROVERSY 19 
 
 slight extension of known chemical and physical 
 forces ; the cell must be able to respond to stimuli, to 
 assimilate outside materials, and to subdivide. I ap- 
 prehend that there is not a biologist but believes (per- 
 haps quite erroneously) that sooner or later the dis- 
 covery will be made, and that a cell having all the 
 essential functions of life will be constructed out of 
 inorganic material. Seventy years ago organic 
 chemistry was the chemistry of vital products, of 
 compounds that could not be made artificially by man. 
 Now there is no such chemistry ; the name persists, but 
 its meaning has changed. 
 
 It may be conceivably argued that after all we are 
 alive, and that if we ever learn how to make animals 
 or plants, they as our creation will originate from 
 pre-existent hfe; just as when we make new species 
 by artificial selection we exercise a control over the 
 forces of nature which may have some remote likeness 
 to Divine control. And this may possibly be a theme 
 capable of enlargement. 
 
 But meanwhile what do we mean by such a phrase 
 as "Divine control"? for, after all, the controversy be- 
 tween religion and science is not so much a contro- 
 versy as to the being or not being of a God. Science 
 might be willing to concede His existence as a vague 
 and ineffective hypothesis, but there would still re- 
 main a question as to His mode of action, a contro- 
 versy as to the method of the Divine government of 
 the world. 
 
 And this is the standing controversy, by no means 
 really dead at the present day. Is the world con- 
 
20 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 trolled by a living Person, accessible to prayer, influ- 
 enced by love, able and willing to foresee, to inter- 
 vene, to guide and wistfully to lead without compul- 
 sion spirits in some sort akin to Himself? 
 
 Or is the world a self -generated, self -controlling 
 machine, complete and fully organised for movement, 
 either up or do^n, for progress or degeneration, ac- 
 cording to the chances of heredity and the influence 
 of environment? Has the world, as it were, secreted 
 or arrived at life and mind and consciousness by the 
 play of natural forces acting on the complexities of 
 highly developed molecular aggregates; at first, life- 
 cells, ultimately brain-cells; and these are not the or- 
 gan or instrument, but the very reality and essence 
 of Hfe and of mind? 
 
 If there be any other orders of conscious existence 
 in the universe, as probably there are, are they also 
 locked up on their several planets, without the power 
 of communicating or helping or informing, and all 
 working out their own destiny in permanent isola- 
 tion? Everything in such a world would be not only 
 apparently but really a definite sequence of cause and 
 eff*ect, just as it seems to us here; and prayer, to be 
 eff*ectual in such a world must be not what theologians 
 mean by prayer, but must be either simple meditation 
 for acquiescence in the inevitable, or else a petition 
 addressed to some other of the dwellers in our time 
 and place, that they may be induced by benevolent 
 acts to ease some of the burdens to which their peti- 
 tioners are liable. 
 
THE Outstanding controversy 21 
 
 We thus return to our original thesis, that the root 
 question or outstanding controversy between science 
 and faith rests upon two distinct conceptions of the 
 universe: — the one, that of a self-contained and self- 
 sufficient universe, with no outlook into or links with 
 anything beyond, uninfluenced by any life or mind 
 except such as is connected with a visible and tangible 
 material body; and the other conception, that of a 
 universe lying open to all manner of spiritual influ- 
 ences, permeated through and through with a Divine 
 spirit, guided and watched by living minds, acting 
 through the medium of law indeed, but with intelli- 
 gence and love behind the law : a universe by no means 
 self-sufficient or self-contained, but with sensitive ten- 
 drils groping into another supersensuous order of 
 existence, where reign laws hitherto unimagined by 
 science, but laws as real and as mighty as those by 
 which the material universe is governed. 
 
 According to the one conception, faith is childish 
 and praj^er absurd; the only individual immortality 
 lies in the memory of descendants; benevolence and 
 cheerful acquiescence in fate are the highest religious 
 attributes possible ; and the future of the human race 
 is determined by the law of gravitation and the cir- 
 cumstances of space. 
 
 According to the other conception, prayer may be 
 mighty to the removal of mountains, and by faith we 
 may feel ourselves citizens of an eternal and glorious 
 cosmogony of mutual help and co-operation, advanc- 
 ing from lowly stages to ever higher states of happy 
 
22 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 activity, world without end, and may catch in antici- 
 pation some glimpses of that "one far-off divine event 
 to which the whole creation moves." 
 
 The whole controversy hinges, in one sense, on a 
 practical pivot — the efficacy of prayer. Is prayer to 
 hypothetical and supersensuous beings as senseless 
 and useless as it is unscientific, or does prayer pierce 
 through the husk and apparent covering of the sen- 
 suous universe, and reach something living, loving, 
 and helpful beyond? 
 
 And in another sense the controversy turns upon a 
 question of fact. Do we live in a universe permeated 
 with life and mind: life and mind independent of 
 matter and unlimited in individual duration? Or is 
 life limited, in space to the surface of planetary 
 masses of matter, and in time to the duration of the 
 material envelope essential to its manifestation? 
 
 The answer is given in one way by orthodox mod- 
 ern science, and in another way by Religion of all 
 times ; and until these opposite answers are made con- 
 sistent, the reconciliation between Science and Faith is 
 incomplete. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE RECONCILIATION 
 
 IT may or may not have been observed, by anyone 
 who has read the previous chapter, — but in so far 
 as it has been missed, the whole meaning has been 
 misconceived, — that when speaking of the atmosphere 
 or the conclusions, the doctrines or the tendency, of 
 **science," I w^as careful always to explain that I 
 meant orthodox or present-day science; meaning not 
 the comprehensive grasp of a Newton, but science as 
 now interpreted by its recognised official exponents, 
 — by the average Fellow of the Royal Society for 
 instance. Just as by "faith" I intended not the ec- 
 static insight aroused in a seer by some momentary 
 revelation, but the ordinary workaday belief of the 
 average enUghtened theologian. And my thesis was 
 that the attitudes of mind appropriate to these two 
 classes, were at present fundamentally diverse; that 
 there was still an outstanding controversy, or ground 
 for controversy, between science and faith, although 
 active fighting has been suspended, and although all 
 bitterness has passed from the conflict, let us hope 
 never to return. But the diversity remains, and for 
 
 23 
 
24 SCIENCE AI^D FAITH 
 
 the present it is better so, if it has not achieved its 
 work. Eliminating the bitterness, the conflict has 
 been useful, and it would be far from well even to 
 attempt to bring it to a close prematurely. But yet 
 there must be an end to it some time ; reconciliation is 
 bound to lie somewhere in the future ; no two parts or 
 aspects of the Universe can permanently and really 
 be discordant. The only question is where the meet- 
 ing-place may be ; whether it is nearest to the orthodox 
 faith or to the orthodox science of the present day. 
 This question is the subject of the present chapter, 
 which is a sequel to the preceding. Let me, greatly 
 daring, presume to enter upon the inquiry into what 
 is really true and essential in the opposing creeds, how 
 much of each has its origin in over-hasty assumption 
 or fancy, and how far the opposing views are merely 
 a natural consequence of imperfect vision of opposite 
 sides of the same veil. 
 
 First among the truths that will have to be ac- 
 cepted by both sides, we may take the reign of Law, 
 sometimes called the Uniformity of Nature. The dis- 
 covery of uniformity must be regarded as mainly the 
 work of Science: it did not come by revelation. In 
 moments of inspiration it was glimpsed, — "the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever," — but the glimpse 
 was only momentary, the Hebrew "atmosphere" was 
 saturated with the mists of cataclysm, visible judg- 
 ments, and conspicuous interferences. We used to 
 be told that the Creator's methods were adapted to the 
 stage of His Creatures, and varied from age to age : 
 that it was really His actions, and not their mode of 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 25 
 
 regarding them, that varied. The doctrine of uni- 
 formity first took root and grew in scientific soil. 
 
 At first sight this doctrine of uniformity excludes 
 Divine control; and the law of evolution proceeds 
 still further in the direction of excluding everything; 
 in the nature of personal will, of intention, of guid- 
 ance, of adaptation, of management. It shows that 
 things change and how they change, and it attempts 
 to show why they change. The Darwinian form of it 
 attempts to account for the origin of species by in- 
 evitable necessity, free from artificial selection or op- 
 erations analogous to those of the breeder. The old 
 Theology has gone, and guidance and purpose appear 
 to have gone with it. 
 
 At first sight, but at first sight only. So might an 
 observer, inspecting some great and perfect factory, 
 with machines constantly weaving patterns, some 
 beautiful, some ugly, conclude, or permit himself to 
 dream at least, after some hours' watching, during 
 which everything proceeded without a hitch, driven as 
 it were by inexorable fate, that everything went oif 
 itself, controlled by cold dreary necessity. And if 
 his scrutiny could be continued for weeks or years, 
 and it still presented the same aspect, his dream 
 would begin to seem to be true: the perfection of 
 mechanism would weary the spectator: his human 
 weakness would long for something to go wrong, so 
 that someone from an upper office might step down 
 and set it right again. Humanity is accustomed to 
 such interventions and breaks in a ceaseless sequence, 
 and, when no such breaks and interventions occur, 
 
26 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 may conclude hastily that the scheme is self-originat- 
 ing, self -sustained, that it works to no ultimate and 
 foreseen destiny. 
 
 So sometimes, looking at the east end of London, 
 or many another only smaller city, has the feehng of 
 despair seized men : they wonder what it can all mean. 
 So, on the other hand, looking at the loom of nature, 
 has the feehng, not of despair, but of what has been 
 called atheism, one ingredient of atheism, arisen : athe- 
 ism never fully realised, and wrongly so-called; re- 
 cently it has been called severe Theism indeed; for it 
 is joyful sometimes, interested and placid always, ex- 
 ultant at the strange splendour of the spectacle which 
 its intellect has laid bare to contemplation, satisfied 
 with the perfection of the mechanism, content to be a 
 part of the self -generated organism, and endeavour- 
 ing to think that the feelings of duty, of earnest ef- 
 fort, and of faithful service, which conspicuously 
 persist in spite of all discouragement, are on this 
 view intelUgible as well as instinctive, and sure that 
 nothing less than unrepining, unfaltering, unswerv- 
 ing acquiescence is worthy of our dignity as man. 
 
 The law of evolution not only studies change and 
 progress, it seeks to trace sequences back to ante- 
 cedents : it strains after the origin of all things. But 
 ultimate origins are inscrutable. Let us admit, as 
 scientific men, that of real origin, even of the sim- 
 plest thing, we know nothing; not even of a pebble. 
 Sand is the debris of rocks, and fresh rocks can be 
 formed of compacted sand ; but this suggests infinity, 
 not origin. Infinity is non-human and we shrink 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 27 
 
 from it, yet what else can there be in space? And if 
 in space, why not in time also? Much might be said 
 here, but let it pass. We must admit that science 
 knows nothing of ultimate origins. Which first, 
 the hen or the egg'^. is a trivial form of a very 
 real puzzle. That the world, in the sense of this 
 planet, this homely lump of matter we call the earth 
 — that this had an origin, a history, a past, intelligible 
 more or less, growingly intelligible to the eye of 
 science, is true enough. The date when it was molten 
 may be roughly estimated; the manner and mechan- 
 ism of the birth of the moon has been guessed: the 
 earth and moon then originated in one sense; before 
 that they were part of a nebula, hke the rest of the 
 solar system; and some day the solar system may 
 again be part of a nebula, by reason of collision with 
 some at present tremendously distant mass. But 
 all that is nothing to the Universe; nothing even to 
 the visible universe. The collisions there take place 
 every now and again before our eyes. The Universe 
 is full of lumps of matter of every imaginable size: 
 the history of a solar system may be written — its birth 
 and also its death, separated perhaps by millions of 
 milhons of years ; but what of that ? It is but an epi- 
 sode, a moment in the eternal cosmogony, and the 
 eye of history looks to what happened before the 
 birth and after the death of any particular aggre- 
 gate; just as a child may trace the origin and the de- 
 struction of a soap bubble, the form of which is evan- 
 escent, the material of which is permanent. 
 
 While the soap bubble lived it was the scene of 
 
28 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 much beauty and of a kind of law and order impossi- 
 ble to the mere water and soap out of which it was 
 made, and into which again it has collapsed. The his- 
 tory of the soap bubble can be written, but there is a 
 before and an after. So it is with the solar system ; so 
 with any assigned collocation of matter in the uni- 
 verse. No point in space can be thought of "at which 
 if a man stand it shall be impossible for him to cast a 
 javelin into the beyond;" nor can any epoch be con- 
 ceived in time at which the mind will not instantly 
 and automatically inquire, "and what before," or 
 "what after?" 
 
 Yet does the human mind pine for something finite : 
 it longs for a beginning, even if it could dispense 
 with an end. It has tried of late to imagine that the 
 law of dissipation of energy was a heaven-sent mes- 
 sage of the finite duration of the Universe, so that 
 before everything was, it could seek a Great First 
 Cause; and after everything had been, could take 
 refuge once more in Him. 
 
 Seen more closely, these are childish notions. They 
 would give no real help if they were true; any more 
 than other fairy tales suitable for children. 
 
 In the dawn of civilisation God "walked in the gar- 
 den in the cool of the day." Down to say the middle 
 of the nineteenth century He brought things into 
 existence by a creative Fiat^ and looked on His work 
 for a time with approbation; only to step down and 
 destroy a good deal of it before many years had 
 elapsed, and then to patch it up and try to mend it 
 from time to time. 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 29 
 
 AH very human : the endless rumble of the machin- 
 ery is distressing, perfection is intolerable. Still more 
 intolerable is imperfection not attended to; the 
 machinery groans, lacks oil, shows signs of wear, 
 some of the fabrics it is weaving are hideous; why, 
 why, does no one care? Surely the manager wdll be- 
 fore long step down and put one of the looms to 
 rights, or scold a workman, or tell us what it is all for, 
 and why he needs the woven fabric, der Gottheit 
 lehendiges Kleid. 
 
 We see that he does not now interfere, not even 
 when things go very wrong; the *'hands" are left to 
 put things right as best they can, nothing mysterious 
 ever happens now, it is all commonplace and semi- 
 intelligible ; we ourselves could easily throw a machine 
 out of gear; we do, sometimes; w^e ourselves if we 
 are clever enough and patient enough, could even 
 perform the far harder task of putting one to right 
 again; we could even suggest fresh patterns; we 
 seem to be more than onlookers — as musicians and 
 artists we can create — perhaps we are foremen; and 
 if ideas occur to us, why should we not throw them 
 into the common stock? There is no head manager 
 at all, this thing has been always running; as the 
 hands die off, others take their places; they have not 
 been selected or appointed to the job; they are only 
 here as the fittest of a large number of whom they 
 alone survive; even the looms seem to have a self- 
 mending, self -regenerative power; and we ourselves, 
 we are not looking at it or assisting in it for long. 
 [When we go, other brilliantly endowed and inventive 
 
so SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 spectators or helpers will take our places. We under- 
 stand the whole arrangement now; it it simpler than 
 at first we thought. 
 
 Is it, then, so simple? Does the uniformity and 
 the eternity and the self-sustainedness of it make it 
 the easier to understand? Are we so sure that the 
 guidance and control are not really continuous, in- 
 stead of being, as we expected, intermittent? May 
 we be not looking at the working of the Manager all 
 the time, and at nothing else? Why should He step 
 down and interfere with Himself? 
 
 That is the lesson science has to teach theology — 
 to look for the action of the Deity, if at all, then 
 always ; not in the past alone, nor only in the future, 
 but equally in the present. If His action is not visi- 
 ble now, it never will be, and never has been visible. 
 
 Shall we look for it in toy eruptions in the West 
 Indies? As well look for it in the fall of a child's 
 box of bricks ! Shall we hope to see the Deity some 
 day step out of Himself and display His might or 
 His love or some other attribute? We can see Him 
 now if we look; if we cannot soe, it is only that our 
 eyes are shut. 
 
 "Closer is He than breathing, nearer than hands or feet:" — 
 
 poetry, yes — but also science; the real trend and 
 meaning of Science, whether of orthodox "science" 
 or not, 
 
 II 
 
 There is nothing new in Pantheism: — ^indeed no! 
 But there are different kinds of pantheism. That 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 31 
 
 the All is a manifestation, a revelation of God, — that 
 it is in a manner, a dim and ungraspable manner, in 
 some sort God Himself, — ^may be readily granted; 
 but what does the All include? It were a strange 
 kind of All that included mountains and trees, the 
 forces of nature, and the visible material universe 
 only, and excluded the intelligence, the will, the 
 emotions, the individuality or personality, of which 
 we ourselves are immediately conscious. Shall we 
 possess these things and God not possess them? That 
 would be no pantheism at all. Any power, any love, 
 of which we ourselves are conscious does thereby cer- 
 tainly exist; and so it must exist in highly intensified 
 and nobler form in the totality of things,— unless we 
 make the grotesque assumption that in all the infinite 
 universe we denizens of planet Earth are the highest. 
 Let no worthy human attribute be denied to the Deity. 
 In Anthropomorphism there are many errors, but 
 there is one truth. Whatever worthy attribute be- 
 longs to man, be it personality or any other, its exist- 
 ence in the Universe is thereby admitted; it belongs 
 to the All. 
 
 The only conceivable way of denying personality, 
 and effort, and failure, and renewed effort, and 
 consciousness, and love, and hate too, for that matter, 
 in the real whole of things, is to regard them as 
 illusory,— physiological and purely material illusions 
 in ourselves. Even so, they are in some sense there; 
 they are not unreal, however they are to be accounted 
 for. We must blink nothing; evolution is a truth, a 
 strange and puzzling truth; "the whole creation 
 
32 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 groanetH and travaileth together;" and the most 
 perfect of all the sons of men, the likest God this 
 planet ever saw, He to whom many look for their idea 
 of what God is, sm^ely He taught us that suffering, 
 and sacrifice, and wistful yearning for something not 
 yet attainable, were not to be regarded as human 
 attributes alone. 
 
 Must we not admit the evil attributes also ? In the 
 Whole, yes; but one of our experiences is that there 
 are grades of existence. We recognise that in our- 
 selves the ape and tiger are dying out, that the germs 
 of higher faculties have made their appearance; it is 
 an intensification of the higher that we may infer in 
 the more advanced grades of existence ; intensification 
 of the lower lies behind and beneath us. 
 
 The inference or deduction of some of the attri- 
 butes of Deity, from that which we can recognise as 
 *'the likest God within the soul," is a legitimate deduc- 
 tion, if properly carried out ; and it is in close corres- 
 pondence with the methods of physical science. It 
 has been said that from the properties of a drop of 
 water the possibility of a Niagara or an Atlantic 
 might be inferred by a man who had seen or heard of 
 neither.^ And it is true that by experiment on a small 
 quantity of water a man with the brain of Newton 
 and the mathematical power and knowledge of Lord 
 Rayleigh could deduce by pure reasoning most if 
 not all of the inorganic phenomena of an ocean ; and 
 that not vaguely but definitely ; the existence of waves 
 on its surface, the rate at which they would travel as 
 
 1 Sir Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet. 
 
THE RECONCILIATION $S 
 
 dependent upon distance from crest to crest, their 
 maximum height, their length as depending on depth 
 of sea; the existence of ripples also, going at a dif- 
 ferent pace and following a different law ; the break- 
 ing of waves upon a shore; the tides also; the ocean 
 currents caused by inequalities of temperature, and 
 many other properties which are realised in an actual 
 ocean: — not as topographical realities indeed, but as 
 necessary theoretical consequences of the hypothetical 
 existence of so great a mass of water. Reasoning 
 from the small to the great is legitimate reasoning, 
 notwithstanding that by increase of size phenomena 
 wholly different and at first sight unexpected come 
 into being. No one not a mathematician looking at 
 a drop of water could infer the Atlantic billows or 
 the tides ; but they are all there in embryo, given gravi- 
 tation; and yet not there in actuality in even the 
 smallest degree. People sometimes think that 
 increase of size is mere magnification, and introduces 
 no new property. They are mistaken. Waves 
 could not be on a drop, nor tides either, nor water- 
 spouts, nor storms. The simple fact that the earth is 
 large makes it retain an atmosphere ; and the existence 
 of an atmosphere enhances the importance of a globe 
 beyond all comparison, and renders possible plant 
 and animal life. The simple fact that the sun is very 
 large makes it hot, i.e, enables it to generate heat, and 
 so fits it to be the centre and source of energy to 
 worlds of habitable activity. 
 
 To suppose that the deduction of divine attributes 
 by mtensification of our own attributes must neces- 
 
34 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 sarily result in a "magnified non-natural man" is to 
 forget these facts of physical science. If the rea- 
 soning is bad, or the data insufficient, the result is 
 worthless, but the method is legitimate, though far 
 from easy; and it is hardly to be expected that the 
 science of theology can yet have had its Newton, or 
 even its Copernicus.^ At present it is safest to walk 
 by faith and inspiration; and it is the saint and 
 prophet rather than the theologian whom humanity; 
 would prefer to trust. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Now let us go back to our groping inquiry — ^to the 
 series of questions left unanswered in the latter 
 portion of Chapter I — and ask, what then of prayer, 
 regarded scientifically; of miracle, if we like to call 
 it miracle; of the region not only of emotion and in- 
 telligence, but of active work, guidance, and inter- 
 ference? Are these, after all, so rigorously excluded 
 by the reign of law? Are not these also parts of its 
 kingdom? Shall law apply only to the inorganic and 
 the non-living? Shall it not rule the domain of life 
 
 1 Theologians may differ from this estimate; and if so, I defer to 
 their opinion. It is well known that the topics slightly glanced at in 
 the first half of this section have been profoundly studied by them; 
 but the subject is so difficult that an outsider can hardly assume that 
 as much progress has been made in Theology as in the physical sciences. 
 Not so much progress has been made even in the biological sciences as 
 in the more specifically physical. It is sometimes said that biology has 
 had its Newton, but it is not so: Darwin was its Copernicus, and 
 revolutionised ideas as the era of Copernicus did. Newton did not 
 revolutionise ideas: his was a synthetic and deductive era. 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 85 
 
 and of mind too? Speaking or thinking of the 
 Universe, we must exclude no part; 
 
 "All are but parts of one stupendous whole. 
 Whose body nature is, and God the soul;" 
 
 " For as the reasonable soul and human flesh is one man " — 
 
 SO God and man constitute a unity, — a unity char- 
 acterized by moral freedom in accordance with law. 
 
 Let us take this question of guidance. We must 
 see it in action now or never. Do we see it now? 
 Orthodox theology vaguely assumes it; orthodox 
 science sees it not at all. What is the truth? Is the 
 blindness of science subjective or objective? Is the 
 vision absent because there is nothing to see or be- 
 cause we have shut our eyes, and have declined to con- 
 template a region of dim and misty fact? 
 
 Take the origin of species by the persistence of 
 favourable variations, how is the appearance of those 
 same favourable variations accounted for? Except 
 by artificial selection, not at all. Given their appear- 
 ance, their development by struggle and inheritance 
 and survival can be explained; but that they arose 
 spontaneously, by random change without purpose, 
 is an assertion which cannot be made. Does anyone 
 think that the skill of the beaver, the instinct of the 
 bee, the genius of a man, arose by chance, and that 
 its presence is accounted for by handing down and by 
 survival? What struggle for existence will explain 
 the advent of Beethoven? What pitiful necessity 
 for earning a living as a dramatist will educe for us 
 
Sd SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 Shakespeare? These things are beyond science of 
 the orthodox type ; then let it be silent and deny noth- 
 ing in the Universe till it has at least made an honest 
 effort to comprehend the whole. 
 
 Genius, however, science has made an effort not 
 wholly to ignore; but take other human faculties — 
 Premonition, Inspiration, Prevision, Telepathy — 
 what is the meaning of these things? Orthodox science 
 refuses to contemplate them, orthodox theology also 
 looks at some of them askance. Many philosophers 
 have relegated them to the region of the unconscious, 
 or the subconscious, where dwell things of nothing 
 worth. A few Psychologists are beginning to attend. 
 
 Men of religion can hold aloof or not as they please : 
 probably they had better hold aloof until the scientific 
 basis of these tilings has been rendered more secure. 
 At present they are beyond the pale of science, but 
 they are some of them inside the Universe of fact, — ■ 
 all of them, as I now begin to believe, — and their 
 meaning must be extracted. So long as this region is 
 ignored, dogmatic science should be silent. It has a 
 right to its own adopted region, it has no right to be 
 heard outside. It cannot see guidance, it cannot rec- 
 ognise the meaning of the whole trend of things, the 
 constant leadings, the control, the help, the revela- 
 tions, the beckonings, beyond our normal bodily and 
 mental powers. No, for it will not look. What be- 
 comes of an intelligence w^hich has left this earth? 
 Whence comes the nascent intelligence w^hich arrives? 
 What is the meaning of our human personality and 
 individuality? Did we spring into existence a few: 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 37 
 
 years ago? Do we cease to exist a few years hence? 
 It does not know. It does not want to know. 
 
 Does theology seek enhghtenment any more ener- 
 getically? No, it is satisfied with its present informal 
 tion, which some people mistake for divine knowledge 
 on these subjects. Divine knowledge is perhaps not 
 obtained so easily. 
 
 At present, in the cosmic scheme we strangely draw 
 the line at man. We know of every grade of animal 
 life from the amoeba upwards, with some slight hiatus 
 here and there, — the lowest being single cells indis- 
 tinguishable from plants, — but the series terminates 
 with man. From man the scale of existence is sup- 
 posed to step to God. Is it not somewhat sudden? 
 The total descent from man to the amoeba is an in- 
 comparably smaller interval. Yet that is a deep 
 dechvity ; profound, but not infinite. Why this sud- 
 den jump from the altitude of man into infinity? 
 Ai-e there no intermediate states of existence? 
 
 Perhaps on other planets, — yes, bodily existence 
 on other planets is probable, not necessarily on any 
 planet of our solar system, but that is a trifle in the 
 visible universe; it is as our little five-roomed house 
 among all the dwellings of mankind. But why on 
 other planets only? Why bodily existence only? 
 Why think solely of those incarnate personahties 
 from whom, by exigencies of place, we are most iso- 
 lated? Because we feel more akin to such, and we 
 know of no others. A good answer so far, and a 
 true. But do we wish to learn? Have we our 
 minds open? A few men of science have adduced 
 
88 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 evidence of intelligence not wholly inaccessible and 
 yet not familiarly accessible, intelligence perhaps a 
 part of ourselves, perhaps a part of others, intelli- 
 gence which seems closely connected with the region 
 of genius, of telepathy, of clairvoyance, to which I 
 have briefly referred. 
 
 Suppose for a moment that there were a God. 
 Science has never really attempted to deny His ex- 
 istence. Conceive a scientific God. How would He 
 work? Surely not by speech or by intermittent per- 
 sonal interference. He would be in, and among, and 
 of, the whole scheme of things. The universe is 
 governed by law ; effect is connected with cause ; Mf a 
 thing moves it is because something moves it, ^ effects 
 are due and only due to agents. If there be guidance 
 or control, it must be by agents that it is exerted. 
 Then what in the scheme of things would be His 
 agents? 
 
 Surely among such agents we must recognise our- 
 selves: we can at least consider how we and other 
 animals work. Watch the bird teaching its young to 
 fly, the mother teaching a child to read, the states- 
 man nursing the destiny of a new-born nation. Is 
 there no guidance there? 
 
 What is the meaning of legislation and municipal 
 government, and acts of reform, and all the struggle 
 after better lives for ourselves and others ? 
 
 Pure automatism, say some ; an illusion of free will. 
 Possibly; but even a dream is not an absolute nonen- 
 
 1 If this involves controversy, then sequent with antecedent, 
 
 2 This I wish to maintain in spite of controversy. 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 39 
 
 tity; the effort, however it be expressed or accounted 
 for, exists. 
 
 What is all the effort — regarded scientifically — 
 but the action of the totality of things trying to im- 
 prove itself, striving still to evolve something higher, 
 hoher, and happier, out of an inchoate mass? There 
 may be many other ways of regarding it, but this is 
 one. Failures, mistakes, sins, — yes, they exist ; evolu- 
 tion would be meaningless if perfection were already 
 attained; but surely even now we see some progress, 
 surely the effort of our saints is bearing fruit. This 
 planet has labored long and patiently for the advent 
 of a human race, for millions of years it was the abode 
 of strange beasts, and now recently it has become the 
 abode of man. What but imperfection would you 
 expect? May it not be suggested that conscious evil 
 or vice looms rather large in our eyes, oppresses us 
 with a somewhat exaggerated sense of its cosmic im- 
 portance, because it is peculiarly characteristic of the 
 human stage of development : the lower animals know 
 little or nothing of it; they may indeed do things 
 which in men would be sinful, but that is just what 
 sin is — reversion to a lower type after perception of 
 a higher. The consciousness of crime, the active 
 pursuit of degradation, does not arise till something 
 like human intelligence is reached; and only a little 
 higher up it ceases again. It appears to be a stage 
 rather rapidly passed through in the cosmic scheme. 
 Greed, for instance, greed in the widest sense, accu- 
 mulation for accumulation's sake: it is a human 
 defect, and one responsible for much misery to-day; 
 
40 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 but it arose recently, and already it is felt to be below 
 the standard of the race. A stage very little above 
 present humanity, not at all above the higher grades 
 of present humanity, and we shall be free from it 
 again. 
 
 Let us be thankful we have got thus far, and 
 struggle on a little farther. It is our destiny, and 
 whether here or elsewhere it will be accomplished. 
 
 We are God's agents, visible and tangible agents, 
 and we can help ; we ourselves can answer some kinds 
 of prayer, so it be articulate; we ourselves can inter- 
 fere with the course of inanimate nature, can make 
 waste places habitable and habitable places waste. 
 Not by breaking laws do we ever influence nature — 
 we cannot break a law of nature, it is not brittle, we 
 only break ourselves if we try — ^but by obeying 
 them. In acordance with law we have to act, but act 
 we can and do, and through us acts the Deity. 
 
 And perhaps not alone through us. We are the 
 highest bodily organisms on this material planet, and 
 the material control of it belongs to us. It is subject 
 to the laws of Physics and to the laws of our minds 
 operating through our bodies. If there are other 
 beings near us they do not trespass. It is our sphere, 
 so far as Physics are concerned. Of any excep- 
 tions to this statement, stringent proof must be forth- 
 coming. 
 
 Assertions are made that under certain strange 
 conditions physical interference does occur; but there 
 is always a person of unusual type present when 
 these things happen, and until we know more of the 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 41 
 
 power of the unconscious human personahty, it is 
 simplest to assume that these physical acts are due, 
 whether consciously, or unconsciously, to that person. 
 
 But what about our mental acts ? We can operate 
 on each other's minds through our physical envelope, 
 by speech and writing and in other ways, "but we can 
 do more : it appears that we can operate at a distance, 
 by no apparent physical organ or medium; if by 
 mechanism at all, then by mechanism at present un- 
 known to us. 
 
 Supposing, then, that we are open to influence 
 from each other by non-corporeal methods, may we 
 not be open also to influence from beings belonging 
 to another order? And if so, may we not be aided, 
 inspired, guided, by a cloud of witnesses, — not wit- 
 nesses only, but helpers, agents like ourselves of the 
 immanent God? 
 
 How do we know that in the mental sphere these 
 cannot answer prayer, as we in the physical? It is 
 not a speculation only, it is a question for experience 
 to decide. Are we conscious of guidance ; do we feel 
 that prayers are answered? that power to do, and to 
 will, and to think, is given us? Many there are who 
 with devout thankfulness will say yes. 
 
 They attribute it to the Deity; so can we attribute 
 everything to the Deity, from thunder and lightning 
 down to daily bread ; but is it direct action ? Does He 
 not distribute the work among agents ? That is what 
 analogy suggests, but it is difficult to discriminate; 
 and it is not necessary; the whole is linked together, 
 
 "Bound by gold chains about the feet of God," 
 
42 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 and through it all His energising Spirit runs. On 
 any hypothesis it must be to the Lord that we pray — ■ 
 to the highest we know or can conceive ; but the answer 
 shall come in ways we do not know, and there must 
 always be a far Higher than ever we can conceive. 
 
 Religious people seem to be losing some of their 
 faith in prayer : they think it scientific not to pray in 
 the sense of simple petition. They may be right: it 
 may be the highest attitude never to ask for anything 
 specific, only for acquiescence. If saints feel it so, 
 they are doubtless right but, so far as ordinary 
 science has anything to say to the contrary, a more 
 childlike attitude might turn out truer, more in ac- 
 cordance with the total scheme. Prayer for a fancied 
 good that might really be an injury, would be foolish; 
 prayer for breach of law would be not foolish only 
 but profane; but who are we to dogmatise too 
 positively concerning law? A martyr may have 
 prayed that he should not feel the fire. Can it be 
 doubted that, whether through what we call hypnotic 
 suggestion or by some other name, the granting of it 
 was at least possible? Prayer, we have been told, is 
 a mighty engine of achievement, but we have ceased 
 to believe it. Why should we be so incredulous? 
 Even in medicine, for instance, it is not really absurd 
 to suggest that drugs and no prayer may be almost as 
 foohsh as prayer and no drugs. ^ Mental and phys- 
 
 1 Diseases are like weeds ; gardening is a bacteriological problem. 
 Some bacteria are good and useful and necessary; they act in digestion, 
 in manures, etc.; others are baleful and mean disease. The gardener, 
 like the physician, has to cultivate the plants and eradicate the weeds. 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 43 
 
 ical are interlocked. The crudities of "faith-healing" 
 have a germ of truth, perhaps as much truth as can 
 be claimed by those who condemn them. How do we 
 know that each is not ignoring one side, that each is 
 but half educated, each only adopting half measures? 
 The whole truth may be completer and saner than the 
 sectaries dream ; more things may be 
 
 "wrought by prayer 
 Than this world dreams of." 
 
 We are not bodies alone, nor spirits alone, but both ; 
 our bodies isolate us, our spirits unite us: if I may 
 venture on the construction of two lines, we are like 
 
 Floating lonely icebergs, our crests above the ocean, 
 With deeply submerged portions united by the sea. 
 
 The conscious part is knowing; the subconscious 
 part is ignorant : yet the subconscious can achieve re- 
 sults the conscious can by no means either understand 
 or perform. Witness the physical operations of "sug- 
 gestion" and the occasional lucidity of trance. 
 
 Each one of us has a great region of the sub- 
 
 If he ignores the existence of weeds and says they are all plants, he 
 speaks truth as a botanist, but is not a practical gardener. If he says, 
 "Gardening is all effort on my part, and nothing comes from the sky, 
 I will dig and I will water, I care not for casual rain or for sun," he 
 errs foolishly on one side. If he says, "The sun and the rain do every- 
 thing, there is no need for my exertion," he errs on the other side, and 
 errs more dangerously; because he can abstain from action, whereas he 
 cannot exclude rain and sun, however much he presumes to ignore them: 
 he ought to be a part of the agency at work. Sobriety and sanity con- 
 sist in recognising all the operative causes — spiritual, mental, and ma- 
 terial. 
 
44." SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 conscious, to which we do not and need not attend: 
 only let us not deny it, let us not cut ourselves off 
 from its sustaining* power. If we have instinct for 
 worship, for prayer, for communion with saints or 
 with Deity, let us trust that instinct, for there lies 
 the true^ realm of religion. We may try to raise the 
 subconscious region into the light of day, and study 
 it with our intellect also; but let us not assume that 
 our present conscious intelligence is already so well 
 informed that its knowledge exhausts or determines 
 or bounds the region of the true and the impossible. 
 
 IV 
 
 As to what is scientifically possible or impossible, 
 anything not self -contradictory or inconsistent with 
 other truth is possible. Speaking from our present 
 scientific ignorance, and in spite of the extract from 
 Professor Tyndall quoted previously, this statement 
 must be accepted as literally true, for all we 
 know to the contrary. There may be reasons why 
 certain things do not occur: our experience tells us 
 that they do not, and we may judge that there is some 
 reason why they do not. There may be an adapta- 
 tion, an arrangement among the forces of nature — 
 the forces of nature in their widest sense — which en- 
 chains them and screens us from their destructive 
 action; after the same sort of fashion as the atmos- 
 phere screens the earth from the furious meteoric 
 buffeting it would otherwise encounter on its portent- 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 45 
 
 ous journey through ever new and untried depths of 
 space/ 
 
 We may indeed be well protected; we must, else 
 we should not be here; but as to what is possible — 
 think of any lower creature, low enough in the scale 
 of existence to ignore us, and to treat us, too, as 
 among the forces of nature, and then let us bethink 
 ourselves of how we may appear, not to God or to any 
 infinite being, but to some personal intelligence high 
 above us in the scale of existence. Consider a colony 
 of ants, and conceive them conscious at their level; 
 what know they of fate and of the future? Much 
 what we know. They may think themselves governed 
 by uniform law — uniform, that is, even to their un- 
 derstanding — the march of the seasons, the struggle 
 for existence, the weight of the soil, the properties of 
 matter as they encounter it — no more. For centuries 
 they may have continued thus; when one day, quite 
 unexpectedly, a shipwrecked sailor strolling round 
 kicks their ant-hill over. To and fro they run, over- 
 whelmed with the catastrophe. What shall hinder his 
 crushing them with his heel? Lahorare est or are in 
 their case. Let them watch him and see, or fancy 
 that he sees, in their movements the signs of industry, 
 of system, of struggle against untoward circum- 
 stances; let him note the moving of eggs, the trying 
 to save and to repair — the act of destruction may by 
 that means be averted. 
 
 1 The earth does not describe anythins: like a closed curve per annum; 
 the sun advances rather more than ten miles per second, in what is prac- 
 tically a straight line. 
 
46 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 Just as our earth is midway among the lumps of 
 matter, neither small like a meteoric stone, nor 
 gigantic like a sun, so may be the place we, the human 
 race, occupy in the scale of existence. All our ordi- 
 nary views are based on the notion that we are highest 
 in the scale ; upset that notion and anything is possi- 
 ble. Possible, but we have to ascertain the facts : not 
 what might, but what does occur. Into the Hves of 
 the lower creatures caprice assuredly seems to enter; 
 the treatment of a fly by a child is capricious, and may 
 be regarded as puzzling to the fly. As we rise in the 
 scale of existence we hope that things get better ; we 
 have experience that they do. It may be said that 
 up to a point in the scale of Ufe vice and caprice 
 increase ; that the lower organisms and the plant world 
 know nothing of them, and that man has been most 
 wicked of all ; but they reach a maximum at a certain 
 stage — a stage the best of the human race have 
 already passed — and we need not postulate either vice 
 or caprice in our far superiors. Men have thought 
 themselves the sport of the gods before now, but let 
 us hope they were mistaken. Such thoughts would 
 lead to madness and despair. We do not know the 
 laws which govern the interaction of different orders 
 of intelligence, nor do we know how much may de- 
 pend on our own attitude and conduct. It may be 
 that prayer is an instrument which can control or in- 
 fluence higher agencies, and by its neglect we may be 
 losing the use of a mighty engine to help on our lives 
 and those of others. 
 
 The Universe is huge and awful every way, we 
 
THE RECONCILIATION Vt\ 
 
 might SO easily be crushed by it; we need the help of 
 every agency available, and if we had no helpers we 
 should stand a poor chance. The loneliness of it when 
 we leave the planet would be appalling; sometimes 
 even here the loneliness is great. 
 
 What the "protecting atmosphere" for our disem- 
 bodied souls may be, I know not. Some may liken 
 the protection to the care of a man for a dog, of a 
 woman for a child, of a far-seeing minister for a race 
 of bewildered slaves ; while others may dash aside the 
 contemplation of all intermediate agencies, and feel 
 themselves safe and enfolded in the protecting love 
 of God Himself. 
 
 The region of true Religion and the region of a 
 completer Science are one. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 
 
 I. Science and Religion 
 
 rjnHERE was a time when religious people dis- 
 JL trusted the increase of knowledge, and con- 
 demned the mental attitude which takes delight in its 
 pursuit, being in dread lest part of the foundation 
 of their faith should be undermined by a too ruthless 
 and unqualified spirit of investigation. 
 
 There has been a time when men engaged in the 
 quest of systematic knowledge had an idea that the 
 results of their studies would be destructive not only 
 of outlying accretions but of substantial portions of 
 the edifice of religion which has been gradually 
 erected by the prophets and saints of humanity. 
 
 Both these epochs will soon belong to history. 
 Thoughtful men realise that truth is the important 
 thing, and that to take refuge in any shelter less sub- 
 stantial than the truth is to render themselves liable 
 to abject exposure when a storm comes on. Few are 
 not aware that it is a sign of unbalanced judgment 
 to conclude, on the strength of a few momentous 
 discoveries, that the whole structure of religious be- 
 lief, built up through the ages by the developing 
 
 .48 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 49 
 
 human race from fundamental emotions and instincts 
 and experiences, is unsubstantial and insecure. 
 
 The business of Science, including in that term, for 
 present purposes, philosophy and the science of criti- 
 cism, is with foundations; the business of Religion is 
 with superstructure. Science has laboriously laid a 
 solid foundation of great strength, and its votaries 
 have rejoiced over it; though their joy must perforce 
 be somewhat dumb and inexpressive until the more 
 vocal apostles of art and literature and music are able 
 to decorate it with their light and more winsome 
 tracery: so for the present the structure of science 
 strikes a stranger as severe and forbidding. In a 
 neighbouring territory Religion occupies a splendid 
 building — a gorgeously-decorated palace; concerning 
 which. Science, not yet having discovered a satisfac- 
 tory basis, is sometimes inclined to suspect that it is 
 phantasmal and mainly supported on legend. 
 
 Without any controversy it may be admitted that 
 the foundation and the superstructure, as at present 
 known, are inadequately fitted together; and that 
 there is, in consequence, an apparent dislocation. 
 JNIen of science have exclaimed that all solid truth 
 is in their keeping; adopting in that sense the words 
 of the poet: 
 
 "To the solid ground 
 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye." 
 
 On the other hand men of Religion snugly 
 ensconced in their traditional eyrie, and objecting to 
 the digging and the hammering below, have shud- 
 
50 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 dered as the artificial props and pillars by which they 
 supposed it to be buttressed gave way one after 
 another; and have doubted whether they could 
 continue to enjoy peace in their exalted home if it 
 turned out that part of it was suspended in air, with- 
 out any perceptible foundation at all, like the 
 phantom city in "Gareth and Lynette" whereof it 
 could be said: 
 
 "the city is built 
 To music, therefore never built at all. 
 And therefore built for ever." 
 
 Remarks as to lack of solid foundation may be re- 
 garded as typical of the mild kind of sarcasm which 
 people with superficial smattering of popular science 
 sometimes try to pour upon religion. They think that 
 to accuse a system of being devoid of solid foundation 
 is equivalent to denying its stability. On the contrary, 
 as Tennyson no doubt perceived, the absence of any- 
 thing that may crumble or decay, or be shaken by 
 an earthquake, is a safeguard rather than a danger. 
 It is the absence of material foundation that makes 
 the Earth itself, for instance, so secure: if it were 
 based upon a pedestal, or otherwise solidly supported, 
 we might be anxious about the stability and dura- 
 bility of the support. As it is, it floats securely in 
 the emptiness of space. 
 
 Similarly the persistence of its diurnal spin is se- 
 cured by the absence of anything to stop it : not by any 
 maintaining mechanism. 
 
 To say that a system does not rest upon one special 
 fact is not to impugn its stability. The body of 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 51 
 
 scientific truth rests on no solitary material fact or 
 group of facts, but on a basis of harmony and con- 
 sistency between facts: its support and ultimate 
 sanction is of no material character. To conceive of 
 Christianity as built upon an Empty Tomb, or any 
 other plain physical or historical fact, is dangerous. 
 To base it upon the primary facts of consciousness 
 or upon direct spiritual experience, as Paul did, is 
 safer. ^ There are parts of the structure of Religion 
 which may safely be underpinned by physical science : 
 the theory of death and of continued personal exist- 
 ence is one of them; there are many others and there 
 will be more. But there are and always will be vast 
 religious regions for which that kind of scientific 
 foundation would be an impertinence, though a 
 scientific contribution is appropriate. Perhaps these 
 may be summed up in some such phrase as *'the rela- 
 tion of the soul to God." 
 
 Assertions are made concerning material facts in 
 the name of religion; these science is bound to 
 criticise. Testimony is borne to inner personal ex- 
 perience; on that physical science does well to be 
 silent. Nevertheless many of us are impressed with 
 the conviction that everything in the universe may be- 
 come intelligible if we go the right way to work ; and 
 
 1 It will be represented that I am here intending to cast doubt upon 
 a fundamental tenet of the Church. That is not my intention. My con- 
 tention here is merely that a great structure should not rest upon a 
 point. So might a lawyer properly say: "To base a legal decision upon 
 the position of a comma, or other punctuation, — however undisputed its 
 occurrence — is dangerous; to base it upon the general sense of a docu- 
 ment is safer,'* 
 
5t SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 so we are coming to recognise, on the one hand, that 
 every system of truth must be intimately connected 
 with every other, and that this connection will con- 
 stitute a trustworthy support as soon as it is revealed 
 by the progress of knowledge ; and on the other hand, 
 that the extensive foundation of truth now being laid 
 by scientific workers will ultimately support a gor- 
 geous building of aesthetic f eehng and religious faith. 
 
 Theologians have been apt to be too easily satisfied 
 with a pretended foundation that would not stand 
 scientific scrutiny; they seem to believe that the re- 
 ligious edifice, with its mighty halls for the human 
 spirit, can rest upon some event or statement, instead 
 of upon man's nature as a whole ; and they are apt to 
 decline to reconsider their formulae in the fight of 
 fuller knowledge and development. 
 
 Scientific men, on the other hand, have been liable 
 to suppose that no foundation which they have not 
 themselves laid can be of a substantial character, 
 thereby ignoring the possibility of an ancestral 
 accumulation of sound through unformulated ex- 
 perience. And a few of the less considerate, about a 
 quarter of a century ago, amused themselves by in- 
 stituting a kind of jubilant rat-hunt under the ven- 
 erable theological edifice: a procedure necessarily 
 obnoxious to its occupants. The exploration was un- 
 pleasant, but its results have been purifying and 
 healthful, and the permanent substratum of fact will 
 in due time be cleared of the decaying refuse of 
 centuries. 
 
 Some of the more seriously conducted controversj[ 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 5$ 
 
 between the two contending parties turned upon 
 those frequently discussed topics — the possibihty of 
 the Miraculous, and the efficacy of Prayer. Let us 
 elaborate the thesis maintained in the last chapter, 
 by discussing further, though still briefly, these two 
 connected subjects. 
 
 II. Meaning of Miracle 
 
 We must begin by admitting that the term "mira- 
 cle'* is ambiguous, and that no discussion which takes 
 that term as a basis can be very fruitful, since the 
 combatants may all be meaning different things. 
 
 1. One user of the term may mean merely an un- 
 usual event of which we do not know the history and 
 cause, a bare wonder or prodigy ; such an event as the 
 course of nature may, for all we know, bring about 
 once in ten thousand years or so, leaving no record of 
 its occurrence in the past and no anticipatory proba- 
 bility of its re-occurrence in the future. The raining 
 down of fire on Sodom, or on Pompeii; the sudden en- 
 gulphing of Korah, or of Marcus Curtius, or, on a 
 different plane, the advent of some transcendent 
 genius, or even of a personality so lofty as to be 
 called divine, may serve as examples. 
 
 2. Another employer of the term "miracle" may 
 add to this idea a definite hypothesis, and may mean 
 an act due to unknown intelligent and living agencies 
 operating in a self-willed and unpredictable manner, 
 thus effecting changes that would not otherwise have 
 occurred and that are not in the regular course of 
 nature. The easiest example to think of is one 
 
54 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 wherein the lower animals are chiefly concerned; for 
 instance, consider the case of the community of an 
 ant-hill, on a lonely uninhabited island, undisturbed 
 for centuries, whose dwelling is kicked over one day 
 by a shipwrecked sailor. They had reason to suppose 
 that events were uniform, and all their difficulties 
 ancestrally known ; but they are perturbed by an un- 
 intelligible miracle. A different illustration is af- 
 forded by the presence of an obtrusive but unsus- 
 pected live insect in a galvanometer or other measur- 
 ing instrument in a physical laboratory; whereby 
 metrical observations would be complicated, and all 
 regularity perturbed, in a puzzling and capricious 
 and, to half -instructed knowledge, supernatural, or 
 even diabolical, manner. Not dissimilar are some of 
 the asserted events in a Seance Room. 
 
 3. Another may use the term "miracle" to mean the 
 utilisation of unknown laws say of healing or of com- 
 munication; laws unknown and unformulated, but 
 instinctively put into operation by mental activity of 
 some kind, — sometimes through the unconscious in- 
 fluence of so-called self-suggestion, sometimes 
 through the activity of another mind, or through the 
 personal agency of highly gifted beings, operating 
 on others; laws whereby time and space appear tem- 
 porarily suspended, or extraordinary cures are ef- 
 fected, or other effects produced, such as the levita- 
 tions and other physical phenomena related of the 
 saints. 
 
 4. Another may incorporate with the word "mira- 
 cle" a still further infusion of theory, and may mean 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 5$ 
 
 always a direct interposition of Divine Providence, 
 whereby at some one time and place a perfectly 
 unique occurrence is brought about, which is out of re- 
 lation with the established order of things, is not due to 
 what has gone before, and is not likely to occur again. 
 The most striking examples of what can be claimed 
 under this head are connected with the personality of 
 Jesus Christ, notably the Virgin Birth and the Empty 
 iTomb; by which I mean the more material and con- 
 troversial aspects of those generally accepted doc- 
 trines — the Incarnation and the Resurrection. 
 
 To summarise this part, the four categories are: 
 [(1) A natural or orderly though unusual portent, 
 1(2) a disturbance due to unknown live or capricious 
 agencies, (3) a utilisation by mental or spiritual 
 power of unknown laws, (4) direct interposition of 
 the Deity. 
 
 III. Arguments concerning the Miraculous. 
 
 In some cases an argument concerning the so-called 
 miraculous will turn upon the question whether such 
 things are theoretically possible. 
 
 In other cases it will turn upon whether or not 
 they have ever actually happened. 
 
 In a third case the argument will be directed to the 
 question whether they happened or not on some par- 
 ticular occasion. 
 
 And in a fourth case the argument will hinge upon 
 the particular category under which any assigned oc- 
 currence is to be placed: — 
 
 For instance, take a circumstance which undoubt- 
 
56 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 edly has occurred, one upon the actual existence of 
 which there can be no dispute, and yet one of which 
 the history and manner is quite unknown. Take, for 
 instance, the origin of Life; or to be more definite, 
 say the origin of Hfe on any given planet, the Earth 
 for instance. There is practically no doubt that the 
 Earth was once a hot and molten and sterile globe. 
 There is no doubt at all that it is now the abode of an 
 immense variety of living organic nature. How did 
 that hfe arise? Is it an event to be placed under 
 head (1), as an unexpected outcome of the ordinary 
 course of nature, a development naturally following 
 upon the formation of extremely complex molecular 
 aggregates — protoplasm and the like — as the Earth 
 cooled; or must it be placed under head (4) , as due to 
 the direct Fiat of the Eternal ? 
 
 Again, take the existence of Christianity as a living 
 force in the world of to-day. This is based upon a 
 series of events of undoubtedly substantial truth cen- 
 tering round a historical personage ; under which cate- 
 gory is that to be placed? Was his advent to be re- 
 garded as analogous to the appearance of a mighty 
 genius such as may at any time revolutionise the 
 course of human history ; or is he to be regarded as a 
 direct manifestation and incarnation of the Deity 
 Himself? 
 
 I am using these great themes as illustrations 
 merely, for our present purpose; I have no intention 
 of entering upon them in this chapter. They are 
 questions which have been asked, and presumably an- 
 swered, again and again; and it is on lines such as 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 57 
 
 these that debates concerning the miraculous are 
 usually conducted. But what I want to say is that 
 so long as we keep the discussion on these lines, and 
 ask this sort of question, though we shall succeed in 
 emphasizing difficulties, we shall not progress far to- 
 wards a solution of any of them: nor shall we gain 
 much aid towards life. 
 
 IV. Law and Guidance 
 
 The way to progress is not thus to lose ourselves in 
 detail and in confusing estimates of possibilities, but 
 to consider tw^o main issues which may very briefly be 
 formulated thus: 
 
 1. Are w^e to believe in irrefragable law? 
 
 2. Are we to beheve in spiritual guidance? 
 
 If we affirm the first of these issues we accept an 
 orderly and systematic universe, with no arbitrary 
 cataclysms and no breaks in its essential continuity. 
 Catastrophes occur, but they occur in the regular 
 course of events, they are not brought about by capri- 
 cious and lawless agencies; they are a part of the 
 entire cosmos, regulated on the principle of unity and 
 uniformity: though to the dwellers in any time and 
 place, from whose senses most of the cosmos is hid- 
 den, they may appear to be sudden and portentous 
 dislocations of natural order. 
 
 So much is granted if we accept the first of the 
 above issues. If we accept the second, we accept a 
 purposeful and directed universe, carrying on its evo- 
 
58 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 lutionary processes from an inevitable past into an 
 anticipated future with a definite aim; not left to the 
 random control of inorganic forces like a motor-car 
 which has lost its driver, but permeated throughout 
 by mind and intention and foresight and will. Not 
 mere energy, but constantly directed energy — the 
 energy being controlled by something which is not 
 energy, nor akin to energy, something which presum- 
 ably is immanent in the universe and is akin to life 
 and mind. 
 
 The alternative to these two beliefs is a universe of 
 random chance and capricious disorder, not a cosmos 
 or universe at all — a multiverse rather. Consequently 
 I take it that we all hold to one or other of these two 
 beliefs. But do we and can we hold to both? 
 
 So far as I conceive my present mission, it is to 
 urge that the two behefs are not inconsistent with 
 each other, and that we may and should contemplate 
 and gradually feel our way towards accepting both. 
 
 1. We must realise that the Whole is a single 
 
 undeviating law-saturated cosmos; 
 
 2. But we must also realise that the Whole con- 
 
 sists not of matter and motion alone, nor 
 yet of spirit and will alone, but of both and 
 all; we must even yet further, and enor- 
 mously, enlarge our conception of what the 
 Whole contains. 
 
 Scientific men have preached the first of these de- 
 siderata, but have been liable to take a narrow yiev^ 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 59 
 
 regarding the second. Keenly alive to law, and 
 knowledge, and material fact, they have been occa- 
 sionally blind to art, to emotion, to poetry, and to the 
 higher mental and spiritual environment which in- 
 spires and glorifies the realm of knowledge. 
 
 The temptation of rehgious men has also lain in the 
 direction of too narrow exclusiveness ; for they have 
 been so occupied with their own conceptions of 
 the fulness of things that they have failed to grasp 
 what is implied by a strictly orderly cosmos. They 
 have allowed the emotional content to overpower 
 the intellectual, and have too often ignored, disliked, 
 and practically rejected, an integral portion of the 
 scheme, — appearing to desire, what no one can really 
 wish for, a world of uncertainty and caprice, where 
 effects can be produced without adequate cause, and 
 where the connection of antecedent and consequent 
 can be arbitrarily dislocated. 
 
 The same error has therefore dogged the steps of 
 both classes of men. An acceptance of miracle, in 
 the crude sense of arbitrary intervention and special 
 providence, is appropriate to those who feel strangled 
 in the grip of inorganic and mechanical law, with- 
 out being able to reconcile it with the idea of friendly 
 guidance and intelligent control. And a denial of 
 miracle, in every sense, that is of all providential lead- 
 ing, and all controlling intelligence, may be the out- 
 come of the same kind of inability in people of dif- 
 ferent temperament, — people who cannot recognise a 
 directing intelligence in the midst of law and order, 
 .who regard the absence of dislocation and inter- 
 
60 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 ference as a mark of the inorganic, the mechanical, 
 the inexorable. Wherefore the denial of miracle has 
 often led to a sort of practical atheism and to an as- 
 sertion of the valuelessness of prayer. 
 
 But to those who are able to combine the acceptance 
 of both the above faiths, prayer is part of the orderly 
 cosmos, and may be an efficient portion of the guid- 
 ing and controlling will; somewhat as the desire of the 
 inhabitants of a town for a civic improvement may be 
 a part of the agency which ultimately brings it about, 
 no matter whether the city be representatively or au- 
 tocratically governed. 
 
 The two beliefs cannot be logically and effectively 
 combined by those who think of themselves as some- 
 thing detached from and outside the cosmos, operat- 
 ing on it externally and seeking to modify its mani- 
 festations by vain petitions addressed to a system of 
 ordered force. To such persons the above proposi- 
 tions must seem contradictory or mutually exclusive. 
 But if we can grasp the idea that we ourselves are an 
 intimate part of the whole scheme, that our wishes 
 and desires are a part of the controlling and guiding 
 will, — then our mental action cannot but be efficient, 
 if we exercise it in accordance with the highest and 
 truest laws of our being. 
 
 V. Miracle and Science 
 
 How mind can act on matter at all is at present a 
 puzzle. Life is clearly the intermediary, and a live 
 thing can perform actions and bring about changes in 
 the material world that cannot be predicted by me- 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 61 
 
 chanics and that would not otherwise have occurred. 
 There have been many who beheve that such changes 
 affect the conservation of energy, and render that 
 law doubtful, unless hfe itself be one of the forms 
 of energy. But my contention is that life is, from 
 the mechanical point of view, not a force nor an 
 energy, but only a guiding and directing influence: 
 affecting the quantity of energy no whit. It directs 
 terrestrial energy along a certain channel, it utilises 
 the energies which are running to waste, so to speak, 
 and guides them in a specific way ; as a waterfall may 
 be made to light a town instead of merely dashing 
 itself picturesquely against rocks. 
 
 This subject of "guidance" is a large one, and I 
 must be brief. I have dealt with it in my book on 
 Life and Matter; but it is a point of fundamental im- 
 portance, and I will try to exhibit it still more clearly 
 and illustrate what I mean by guidance, namely, the 
 influencing of activity without "work," the direction 
 of energy without generating it, the utilising and 
 guiding existent activity for preconceived and pur- 
 posed ends. To show that work is not necessary for 
 guidance even in mechanics, we may instance the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 A railway guides a train to its destination; while 
 the engine supplies the energy and propels it. Any 
 force exerted by the rails is perpendicular to the mo- 
 tion and does no work; unless, indeed, by friction it 
 exerts a retarding force not perpendicular to motion. 
 
 But if this be used as a parable it may be objected 
 that the exertion of force is itself a mechanical oper- 
 
62 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 ation, even though no work is done ; and that a force 
 cannot act without altering the distribution of mo- 
 mentum, though it must leave the amount unaltered. 
 
 Quite true, action and reaction are always equal 
 and opposite, and both are always to be found in the 
 physical world. Life may call out a stress in that 
 world which would not otherwise exist then and 
 there ; but it sustains none of the reaction — never does 
 it exert an unbalanced force, never does it generate 
 any momentum — no more than it generates energy. 
 It only directs operations which thoroughly obey the 
 laws of mechanics, and from the mechanical point of 
 view are complete in the physical world. 
 
 Life and mind have determined where the rails 
 shall be laid down, and when and whence and whither 
 the trains are to be run, but they exert no iota of 
 force upon them; so the distinction between a pro- 
 pelling and a deflecting force is a needless distinction 
 for our present purposes. Whenever a force is ex- 
 erted it is exerted as a stress between two bodies, 
 whether it be a working or a guiding force. 
 
 But, for the kind of guidance exercised by life, 
 force, through a common intermediary, is not a neces- 
 sary one. A path can guide a traveller to his destina- 
 tion without exerting any force upon him at all. 
 Conversely, a railway time-table, emanating from the 
 Traffic Manager's office, determines the running of 
 many trains ; but it is not a form of energy, nor does 
 it exert force. 
 
 The liberation of energy can be accomplished by; 
 work entirely incommensurate with the result : and so 
 
EELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 63 
 
 ultimately it would appear that it can be achieved by 
 none at all, through the mysterious intervention of the 
 brain as a connector between the psychical and phys- 
 ical worlds, which otherwise would not be in touch. 
 
 All that a human being can do is to get some of 
 the energy from the outside world into his muscles 
 by the act of feeding; and when there it is amenable 
 to nerve messages sent from his brain, and so ulti- 
 mately from his mind, — ^which apparently has the 
 power of liberating detents and pulling triggers in 
 that strange physiological link with another order of 
 existence. How the brain acts: how a thought or an 
 act of will can liberate the energy of a brain cell in a 
 particular direction: is not yet known. It belongs to 
 the mysterious borderland between physics and psy- 
 chology. We can only appeal to the fact of con- 
 sciousness, and illustrate it by saying that a trigger 
 can precipitate an explosion, of violence quite incom- 
 mensurable with that of the energy required to pull 
 the trigger; and the work done in pulling the trigger 
 results in infinitesimal local heat, of just the same 
 magnitude whether the prepared explosion results or 
 not: it is independent also of the direction and the 
 epoch of the shot. The aim, and the moment at which 
 to pull the trigger, are determined by the mind of the 
 sportsman, without affecting the question of energy. 
 Life is not energy, but it is the director of energy, 
 and of matter. It achieves results which would not 
 otherwise have occurred. Even plant hfe does that, 
 the green leaves direct the energy of sunshine to the 
 decomposition and re-invigoration of thoroughly 
 
64 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 burned and stable compounds, carbonic acid and 
 water. 
 
 Engineering and architectural operations produce 
 Forth Bridges, and tunnels, and buildings of a char- 
 acter instinct with mind and purpose. The organic 
 energy needed for the operation is brought by the 
 navvies in their tin cans, and they direct that energy 
 so as to exert propulsive force and do the work; but 
 the controlling mind is that of the architect and the 
 engineer. 
 
 The only thing that prevents our calling it a miracle 
 is that we are so thoroughly accustomed to the occur- 
 rence. 
 
 Mind determines. Life directs. The material and 
 energetic universe is dominated and controlled by 
 these agencies; which utilise the energy they find 
 available, and direct it into appropriate channels. 
 
 Finally, whatever difficulties we may feel about 
 understanding the process, we ought not to be accused 
 of dualism by reason of our insistence on the separate 
 categories of life and mind on the one hand, and 
 body and mechanism on the other. However domi- 
 nant one of these predicaments may be over the other, 
 they may be all ultimately but parts of some compre- 
 hensive whole. Domination or even antagonism be- 
 tween the parts of a whole is common enough. One 
 man can dominate or can oppose another, although 
 both are members of the same race, nation, or f amil}^ 
 The head can dominate a limb, though both are parts 
 of a single body. So also can IMind and Life domi- 
 nate and transcend matter and energy. And they do 
 
EELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 65 
 
 this just as effectually, even though in some ultimate 
 monistic unity they can be all recognised as parts or 
 aspects of some one stupendous Reality. 
 
 VI. Miracle and Religion 
 
 So much for general considerations, which in this 
 case are by far the most important ; we may now de- 
 scend to a few practical remarks. When speaking of 
 miracles, what people are usually interested in are 
 miracles in detail; they have usually some special in- 
 stances in their minds, and they want those instances 
 discussed. Using the term "miracle" in quite a popu- 
 lar sense, and meaning by it nothing defined or sus- 
 ceptible of definition, but simply the hst of miracles 
 they find recorded in the Bible or in the fives of the 
 Saints, they ask, "Has the progress of science rend- 
 ered the occurrence of these things more or less prob- 
 able?" The first and obvious answer, — that it has 
 rendered them subjectively less probable, that is to 
 say, less easy of acceptance than they were at the time 
 of their record, or even fifty years ago, — is too mani- 
 fest to require giving. For till recently they were 
 hardly questioned, except here and there by a few 
 adventurous spirits who were liable to be stigmatised 
 as "infidel" for being faithful to their convictions. 
 
 But if the subjective aspect is passed by as too ob- 
 vious, and if it is asked whether science has made the 
 occurrence of the so-called miracles objectively more 
 reasonably probable, — it is controversial, but it is not 
 absurd, to answer concerning several of them — "in 
 
66 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 some respects, yes" : — an answer which is most readily 
 appHcable to the miracles of heahng. And why ? Be- 
 cause in modern medical practice, especially as devel- 
 oped on the Continent, some of these occurrences can 
 be imitated to-day; for instance, the production, by 
 self or other suggestion, of wounds analogous to the 
 "stigmata." Whether this fact, assuming it for the 
 moment to be a fact, is one to be welcomed or other- 
 wise by interpreters of Holy Writ, is a question for 
 themselves to answer. 
 
 The reasonable scientific view is that a complete 
 knowledge of nature would enable us to recognise the 
 rationale of every event which ever occurred, or ever 
 can occur; and so it would seem to follow concerning 
 any given apparent prodigy — either that it did not 
 happen as related, or else that it happened in accord- 
 ance with natural laws of which at present we are 
 more or less ignorant. Some of the popularly-quoted 
 miracles certainly did not happen, and were never by 
 competent judges really thought to have happened, as 
 narrated by the poet or rhapsodist of the time. To 
 regard the poetic suspension of the motion of the sun 
 (or earth) as a scientific statement is absurd. But 
 while it is mere illiteracy to suppose that all classes 
 of recorded miracle represent statements of fact — 
 since careful precision in recording fact is a rather 
 modern accomplishment, and not likely to be regarded 
 then, nor in some quarters even now, as a particularly 
 desirable or edifying accomplishment, yet certain of! 
 them may be worthy of consideration, as at any rate 
 believed by the recorder to have occurred as he states 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 67 
 
 them; and, besides, as not being wholly outside the 
 range of conceivable possibility. 
 
 Eut in so far as they are recognised as reasonably 
 possible, they surely lose their power as specifically 
 religious evidence, and become merely a hint towards 
 an extension of scientific fact. I suppose it must be 
 admitted that the more natural and so to speak com- 
 monplace an event becomes, the less exceptional re- 
 ligious significance can be accorded to it. Neverthe- 
 less it may be legitimate to recognise that a human 
 being of specially lofty character may, perhaps inevi- 
 tably, be endowed with faculties and powers beyond 
 the present scope of the race: faculties and powers 
 fully intelligible neither to himself nor to anyone else. 
 Even a genius has an inkling of exceptional powers. 
 No one can explain, or render ordinarily probable a 
 priori, the existence of a child-prodigy capable of per- 
 formances in music or in arithmetic beyond the power 
 of nearly all adults. Genius combined with sainthood 
 may achieve what to ordinary men are marvels and 
 miracles. Even without sainthood, and without 
 genius, some abnormally constituted species of the 
 human race — ^possibly anticipating future develop- 
 ment as a kind of premature sport, or possibly dis- 
 playing the remains of ancestral powers now nearly 
 lost to the race — are found to possess faculties un- 
 usual and incredible, faculties which in fact are widely 
 and vigorously disbelieved by nearly all who have not 
 studied them. 
 
 Whether a given prophet has extraordinary power, 
 and how far his power extends, is a matter for evi- 
 
6S SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 dence ; but whatever his power, it is by the content of 
 his message that he is to be judged, not by some ac- 
 companying extension of the customary control of 
 mind over matter. All this is well-worn ground, and 
 I refrain from emphasising a great number of obvious 
 contentions, e,g,j that it is quite wrong to accept a bad 
 and immoral message because it is accompanied by 
 conjuring tricks of amazing ingenuity; and the like. 
 The worst of men can do things beyond the power of 
 an insect, things which to its consciousness, if it had 
 any, would be miraculous. 
 
 Either there are modes of existence higher than 
 that displayed by our ordinary selves, or there are not. 
 If there are, it is the business of science to ascertain 
 their existence and what they can do in the way of 
 interaction with our material surroundings: it is not 
 necessarily the business of rehgion at all, though like 
 everything else it will have a bearing on religion. 
 But, because it is a nascent and infantile branch of 
 science, is it therefore of little importance or small 
 interest? By no means. All these things are essen- 
 tially worthy of investigation, and they will be in- 
 vestigated by those who feel called to the work, 
 although they are looked at askance by some of the 
 scientific magnates of to-day. The gain of realising 
 that they are unessential to religion and to human 
 hopes and fears, is that their investigation can be 
 conducted in a cool calm spirit, without prejudice 
 and without preconception, with no object in view 
 but simple ascertainment of truth. The atmosphere 
 of religion should be recognised as enveloping and 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 69 
 
 permeating everything, and should not be specially 
 or exclusively sought as an emanation from signs and 
 iWonders. 
 
 Strange and ultranormal things may happen, and 
 are well worthy of study, but they are not to be re- 
 garded as especially holy. Some of them may repre- 
 sent either extension or survival of human faculty, 
 while others may be an inevitable endowment or at- 
 tribute of a sufficiently lofty character; but none of 
 them can be accepted without investigation. Testi- 
 mony concerning such things is to be treated in a 
 sceptical and yet open-minded spirit; the results of 
 theory and experiment are to be utilised, as in any 
 other branch of natural knowledge; and indiscrim- 
 inate dogmatic rejection is as inappropriate as whole- 
 sale uncritical acceptance. 
 
 The bearing on the hopes and fears of humanity 
 of such unusual facts as can be verified may be con- 
 siderable, but they bear no exceptional Tvitness to 
 guidance and control. Guidance and control, if ad- 
 mitted at all, must be regarded as constant and con- 
 tinuous; and it is just this uniform character that 
 makes them so difficult to recognise. It is always 
 difficult to perceive or apprehend anything which is 
 perfectly regular and continuous. Those fish, for 
 instance, wliich are submerged in ocean-depths, be- 
 yond the reach of waves and tides, are probably 
 utterly unconscious of the existence of water; and, 
 however intelligent, they can have but little reason 
 to believe in that medium, notwithstanding that their 
 
Ufa SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 whole being, life, and motion, is dependent upon it 
 from instant to instant. The motion of the earth, 
 again, furious rush though it is — fifty times faster 
 than a cannon ball — ^is quite inappreciable to our 
 senses; it has to be inferred from celestial observa- 
 tions, and it was strenuously disbeheved by the ag- 
 nostics of an earlier day. 
 
 Uniformity is always difficult to grasp — our senses 
 are not made for it; and yet it is characteristic of 
 everything that is most efficient. Jerks and jolts are 
 easy to appreciate, but they do not conduce to prog- 
 ress. Steady motion is what conveys us on our way, 
 collisions are but a retarding influence. The seeker 
 after miracle, in the exceptional and narrow or exclu- 
 sive sense, is pining for a catastrophe ; the investigator 
 of miracle, in the continuous and broad or compre- 
 hensive sense, has the universe for a laboratory. 
 
 VII. Human Experience 
 
 Let us survey our position. 
 
 We find ourselves for a few score years incarnate 
 intelligences on this planet; we have not always been 
 here, and we shall not always be here : we are here in 
 fact, each of us, for but a very short period ; but we 
 can study the conditions of existence while here, and 
 we perceive clearly that a certain amount of guidance 
 and control are in our hands. For better for worse 
 we can, and our legislators do, influence the destinies 
 of the planet. The process is called "making his- 
 tory." We can all, even the humblest, to some extent 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 711 
 
 influence the destinies of individuals with whom we 
 come into contact. We have therefore a certain sense 
 of power and responsibihty. 
 
 It is not likely that we are the only, or the highest, 
 intelligent agents in the whole wide universe, nor 
 that we possess faculties and powers denied to all 
 else; nor is it hkely that our own activity will be 
 always as limited as it is now. The Parable of the 
 Talents is full of meaning, and it contains a meaning 
 that is not often brought out. 
 
 It is absurd to deny the attributes of guidance and 
 intelligence and personality and love to the Whole, 
 seeing that we are part of the Whole, and are per- 
 sonally aware of what we mean by those words in 
 ourselves. These attributes are existent therefore, 
 and cannot be denied; cannot be denied even to the 
 Deity. 
 
 Is the planet subject to inteUigent control? We 
 know that it is: we ourselves can change the course 
 of rivers for predestined ends, we can make highways, 
 can unite oceans, can devise inventions, can make 
 new compounds, can transmute species, can plan 
 fresh variety of organic Hfe; we can create works of 
 art; we can embody new ideas and lofty emotions in 
 forms of language and music, and can leave them as 
 Platonic offspring ^ to remote posterity. Our power 
 is doubtless limited, but we can surely learn to do 
 far more than we have yet so far in the infancy of 
 humanity accomplished; more even than we have yet 
 conjectured as within the range of possibility. 
 
 '^Symposium, 209. 
 
72 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 Our progress already has been considerable. It is 
 but a moderate time since our greatest men were chip- 
 ping flints and carving bones into the likeness of 
 reindeer. More recently they became able to build 
 cathedrals and make poems. Now we are momenta- 
 rily diverted from immortal pursuits by vivid interest 
 in that kind of competition which has replaced the 
 competition of the sword, and by those extraordinary 
 inequalities of possession and privilege which have 
 resulted from the invention of an indestructible and 
 transmissible form of riches, a form over which 
 neither moth nor rust has any power. We raise an 
 increase of smoke, and oiFer sacrifices of squalor 
 and ugliness, in worship of this new idol. But it will 
 pass ; human life is not meant to continue as it is now 
 in city slums ; nor is the strenuous futility of mere ac- 
 cumulation hkely to satisfy people when once they 
 have been really educated; the world is beautiful, and 
 may be far more widely happy than it has been yet. 
 Those who have preached this hitherto have been 
 heard with deaf ears, but some day we shall awake to 
 a sense of our true planetary importance and shall 
 recognise the higher possibilities of existence. Then 
 shall we realise and practically believe what is in- 
 volved in those words of poetic insight: 
 
 The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's: but the earth hath 
 He given to the children of men. 
 
 There is a vast truth in this yet to be discovered; 
 power and influence and responsibihty lie before us, 
 appalling in their magnitude, and as yet we are but 
 
RELIGION, SCIENCE AND MIRACLE 73 
 
 children playing on the stage before the curtain is 
 rolled up for the drama in which we are to take part. 
 
 But we are not left to our own devices; we of this 
 living generation are not alone in the universe. What 
 we call the individual is strengthened by elements 
 emerging from the social whole out of which he is 
 born. We are not things of yesterday, nor of to- 
 morrow. We do not indeed remember our past, we 
 are not aware of our future, but in common with 
 everytliing else we must have had a past and must be 
 going to have a future. Some day we may find our- 
 selves able to realise both. 
 
 Meanwhile, what has been our experience here? 
 We have not been left solitary. Every newcomer to 
 the planet, however helpless and strange he be, finds 
 friends awaiting him, devoted and self-sacrificing 
 friends, eager to care for and protect liis infancy and 
 to train him in the ways of this curious w^orld. It is 
 typical of what goes on throughout conscious exist- 
 ence; the guidance which we exert, and to which we 
 are subject now, is but a phase of something running 
 through the universe. And when the time comes for 
 us to quit this sphere and enter some larger field of 
 action, I doubt not that we shall find there also that 
 kindness and help and patience and love, without 
 which no existence would be tolerable or even at some 
 stages possible. 
 
 Miracles lie all around us : only they are not mirac- 
 ulous. Special providences envelop us : only they are 
 not special. Prayer is a means of communication as 
 natural and as simple as is speech. 
 
74 SCIENCE AND FAITH 
 
 Realise that you are part of a great orderly and 
 mutually helpful cosmos, that you are not stranded 
 or isolated in a foreign universe, but that you are part 
 of it and closely akin to it ; and your sense of sympa- 
 thy will be enlarged, your power of free communica- 
 tion will be opened, and the heartfelt aspiration and 
 communion and petition that we call prayer will come 
 as easily and as naturally as converse with those 
 human friends and relations whose visible bodily pres- 
 ence gladdens and enriches your present life. 
 
SECTION II— CORPORATE WORSHIP 
 
 AND SERVICE 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ALLEGED INDIFFERENCE OF LAYMEN 
 TO RELIGION 
 
 THE average layman of the present day is often 
 accused of being indifferent to religion. But 
 the allegation as worded seems to me untrue, unless 
 by "laymen" is understood the great mass of the peo- 
 ple. Even then I doubt if they are indifferent to 
 real religion, or to reality and sincerity and lofty- 
 mindedness of any kind. No one can be really in- 
 different to the great problem of existence — the mys- 
 teries of life and death and of human destiny. It is 
 doubtful whether people in general can be considered 
 indifferent even to theology, of a sort, — not to prob- 
 lems connected with apparent oppositions between 
 knowledge and faith, for instance, nor to questions 
 of Biblical interpretation and the nature of Inspira- 
 tion. They are not unopen to the influence of a 
 saintly life, or disposed to treat lightly such funda- 
 mental subjects as the existence of Deity and the rela- 
 tions between man and God. 
 
 I gather that they are not indifferent in this coun- 
 try to these topics, because they seem always willing 
 to read about them or to discuss them. And if this 
 refers chiefly to the more educated classes, it may be 
 maintained on behalf of the masses that their ap- 
 parently perennial excitement about what doctrines 
 
 .77, 
 
78 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 shall be taught to small children, though it may lack 
 lucidity, seems to argue anything but indifference. 
 
 In Germany and France, so far as I can judge, 
 people in general do not care in the same way to dis- 
 cuss religious questions, and theological magazines 
 are confined to specialists ; there is little or nothing of 
 general interest and wide circulation on the subject. 
 In those countries minds seems closed, either in the 
 positive or in the negative direction, as regards re- 
 ligious beliefs. But here it is otherwise, and I have 
 heard it maintained at a discussion society that there 
 was really nothing except religion and politics which 
 was worth the trouble of getting excited about. 
 
 Nevertheless there is a sense in which people in this 
 country are indifferent to something allied to religion 
 — at any rate to its outward and visible manifesta- 
 tions. To Ecclesiasticism they are indifferent, and 
 they do not in any great number go to church. I take 
 the allegation which is here being dealt with to intend 
 to ask the question. Why is this? Why have the out- 
 ward and visible forms of religion lost hold ^ of both 
 educated and uneducated people? 
 
 I believe that over-pressure is one answer — a gen- 
 eral sense of the shortness of life and the immense 
 amount there is to be done in it. This holds true 
 whether the press of occupation is caused by the de- 
 mands of pleasure, or of business, or of investigation, 
 
 1 1 say "lost" hold, because I suppose I may assume, from the churches 
 which they erected, as well as from the example of truly Roman Catholic 
 countries at the present day, that, in say the twelfth century, observance 
 of the outward forms of religion once really had a firm grasp of the 
 majority of Englishmen. 
 
INDIFFERENCE OF LAYMEN TO RELIGION 79 
 
 or of work for the public weal. In each case time is 
 all too short for what can now be crowded into it. As 
 soon as our faculties are well developed, and our in- 
 fluence fairly active, it is almost time to begin to 
 think of being called to service elsewhere, — ^there is 
 no leisure to expend in unprofitable directions. 
 
 Is going to church unprofitable, then? To some 
 men often yes; to others, I suppose, always no: save 
 in the sense that they have not profited by it. Perhaps 
 to none is it quite unprofitable, but they may think it 
 so. If it acted as a stimulus and an inspiration and a 
 help to life, then surely people in general would not 
 be so foolish as to be indifferent to it. But they may 
 be mistaken ; this is the age of strenuousness and high 
 pressure, and it may be that a quiet two hours of 
 peaceful meditation would be the very best sedative 
 and rest-cure for many men whose activities are wear- 
 ing them out. Some, and those the most strenuous 
 of all, have found it so. Mr. Gladstone, for instance, 
 was a studious attendant at public worship, and I 
 should not be surprised to hear that the German Em- 
 peror and President Roosevelt are so hkewise; possi- 
 bly in their case partly as an example, but also quite 
 possibly as a private solace. 
 
 One cannot but admire men, to whom every five 
 minutes is of value, who thus give up large tracts of 
 time to religious exercises ; and it is possible that many 
 active men who ignore this help would be the better 
 in every way if they too submitted themselves to the 
 same discipline. It may be one of those cases where 
 more haste is the less speed, and where the public as- 
 
80 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 sembling of ourselves together in a reverent and wor- 
 shipful spirit would be a real contribution to vitality 
 and power. Under certain conditions I feel sure that 
 it would be so, but is it so under present conditions? 
 The answer must depend partly on individual tem- 
 perament, partly on the form of "service" available. 
 We must all be acquainted with the soothed and 
 sympathetic feeling which is sometimes the result of 
 attendance at a place of worship in company with 
 others, even if nothing particular has been said worth 
 carrying away: this is felt especially if the occasion is 
 a symbohc one — a national thanksgiving, for instance, 
 a demonstration of rehgious feeling by members of a 
 scientific body, or other occasion of that kind; but if 
 it is a mere everyday or weekly service, there must be 
 some special harmony or congruity between the as- 
 sembly and the words that have been said, or the 
 ceremonies that have been performed, in order that 
 the effect may be produced. 
 
 There appear to be some ecclesiastically minded 
 persons who can derive sustenance from what to 
 others may seem extraordinarily commonplace, or 
 even childish, proceedings. I have seen Mr. Glad- 
 stone (the name of so great a man may be employed 
 as illustration without impertinence) in an attitude 
 of rapt and earnest attention, — not to the words of 
 the Bible, which anyone might be glad to hear, nor 
 to the words of the Prayer Book, which to those with 
 a strongly-developed historic sense may carry with 
 them a world of half- felt emotion— but to the utter- 
 ance from the pulpit of a very ordinary discourse. 
 
INDIFFERENCE OF LAYMEN TO RELIGION 81 
 
 T?5 most of us, however, this patient self -contribution 
 to what is going on is denied; and the feehng with 
 which some go away from an average place of wor- 
 ship is too often a feeling of irritation and regret for 
 wasted time. 
 
 I have known men of energy supply the needed 
 intellectual exercise, and contrive to stimulate their 
 historic sense, by using a Latin Prayer Book and a 
 Greek Testament ; and something of the sort is sorely 
 needed if one is to attempt to keep one's attention 
 fixed on the ancient formularies, so familiar from 
 childhood, and recited or chanted in so meaningless a 
 manner. 
 
 The greater number of men, I believe, cultivate 
 the habit of inattention during the greater part of 
 the proceedings; and it is possible, though less easy, 
 to preserve an attitude of mental inattention even 
 when reciting formularies with the lips. To attend 
 strenuously to the meaning of the clauses, in a creed, 
 for instance, or even in the Lord's Prayer, is an effort. 
 I do not believe it is often made. The words are 
 sHpped through, and if an idea is caught every now 
 and again, that is all that can be expected. There 
 was a time when this inattentive recital of the well- 
 known and familiar could be tolerated ; and before the 
 days of education it was probably useful. To some it 
 may be useful still — to others it is tedious. The fact 
 is, the conventional English Church Service, or eclec- 
 tic admixture of combined services, is too long, and, 
 as I think, too mechanical. The Psalter as a whole 
 is oppressively tedious — I speak for myself; man;g 
 
32 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 of the chants one is weary of. The jewels would 
 shine out more brightly if re-set. Some of the pray- 
 ers are beautiful, or would be if they were properly 
 read and were not spoiled by such frequent iteration. 
 iThe little song at the end of each commandment is 
 gorgeous when one hears it in the Elijah, but it gets 
 tiresome at the ninth repetition. The "Confession" 
 is historically interesting and sometimes perhaps ap- 
 propriate, but as a rule it is excessive and unreal; and 
 if ever true, it is not a thing one wishes to sing in 
 public, nor indeed to sing at all, still less to pay a few 
 illiterate boys and men to sing or monotone for one. 
 
 The Te Deum, on a national occasion, and sung 
 slowly and emphatically, may be magnificent: as or- 
 dinarily treated it is almost useless, and seems only 
 inserted as a convenient break between the Lessons; 
 save occasionally when the setting and singing are 
 specially good, in which case it can be enjoyed as an 
 oratorio is enjoyed. 
 
 Some people may be able to utihse parts of the 
 service which to others are tedious, and it may be con- 
 tended that there is something for everybody; but 
 for most people there must be long spells of dulness. 
 
 Length, however, is not the only objection: rapid- 
 ity, which is perhaps a consequence of length, is an- 
 other. Constantly and rapidly repeated formularies 
 must surely tend to become mechanical. We jeer at 
 the Thibetan water-worked praying-wheel as a 
 mechanical form of prayer; and yet I can imagine a 
 peasant joyfully going on with his labour in the 
 fields, in the consciousness that bis prayer was being 
 
INDIFFERENCE OF LAYMEN TO RELIGION SS 
 
 periodically turned up to heaven by the forces of 
 nature, and his soul might send an aspiration after it, 
 without interfering with the industry of his body. I 
 doubt if such a ritual is really more mechanical than 
 some Enghsh services which I have attended. I know 
 well that any Uturgy — ^the bleakest as well as the most 
 ornate — can elevate the soul of the truly pious; but 
 this minority cannot be included among the laity of 
 whom indifference to religion is even alleged. 
 
 As to the recital of a few incredible articles in 
 the creeds, I say nothing: they are not numerous, and 
 hardly act as a strong deterrent except to a few ear- 
 nest souls; if there were reahty about the procedure, 
 some of the clauses would be repellent, but as it is, 
 the so-called Athanasian hymn can be chanted 
 through with the rest: it is an interesting glimpse 
 into an ingenious mediaeval mind, to whom all the 
 mystery of Divinity was expressible in words, with 
 great positiveness of assurance, and with arithmetical 
 precision of specification. But so far as the Creeds 
 and the Articles contain things to which we and our 
 teachers, the beneficed clergy, are expected to adhere, 
 they may be to some extent deterrent; and it must be 
 admitted that they require a good deal of explana- 
 tion, and in manner of expression are rather out of 
 date. 
 
 With all the enthusiasm for religion in the world, 
 I would say to professional Churchmen, you really 
 cannot continue to expect people to wade continually 
 through so much mediaeval and ecclesiastical lore. 
 lYou must free the ship of official relig;ion from in- 
 
84. CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 crustation : it is water-logged and overburdened now, 
 and its sails are patched and outworn. I do not ask 
 you to use steam or any new-fangled mode of pro- 
 pulsion. By all means keep your attachment to the 
 past, but study reality and sincerity; strive to say 
 what you really mean, and to say it in such way that 
 others may know that you mean it, and may feel that 
 they mean it too. The American Church has modi- 
 fied some of the features characteristic of the Angli- 
 can Liturgy; and its authorised Prayer Book contains 
 interesting mijior variations ; all of which are devised 
 in the interests of elasticity and freedom, yet subject 
 to a commendable spirit of conservatismt. 
 
 I trust that it is not an inseparable concomitant of 
 a State rehgion that petitions should be tied and 
 bound in rigid forms, that no audible prayer can be 
 uttered except what is printed and authorised; it is 
 pitiful when the only initiation permitted, even at 
 times of stress, lies in the emphasis which may be 
 thrown upon certain words, and the pauses that may; 
 be made after them. But at least the sermon is free. 
 So let preachers realise their opportunities and make 
 use of them, and let them no longer throw away their 
 chance of moving the hearts of men towards a higher 
 and more useful and unselfish life, by over-attention 
 to the conventional arrangement called the Church's 
 Year. The annual commemoration of everything is 
 often made an excuse for laziness: it saves the trou- 
 ble of choosing a subject. It provides a hackneyed 
 theme ready to hand, to be treated in a conventional 
 
INDIFFERENCE OF LAYMEN TO RELIGION 85 
 
 and hackneyed manner. Silently and patiently the 
 people sit there, and are not fed. 
 
 Religion is one thing; Church services as often 
 conducted are quite another thing. Modification 
 will be resented and opposed by some singularly 
 minded lay Churchmen ; nevertheless, if more eminent 
 ability is to be attracted to the service of the Church, 
 if the great body of the laity are to be reached in any 
 serious and effective manner, modifications, excisions, 
 and reforms are necessary. It is not religion to which 
 people are indifferent. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 UNION AND BREADTH 
 
 A Plea for Essential Unity Amid Formal Dif- 
 ference IN A National Church 
 
 "The true tragedy is a conflict of right with right, not of right with 
 wrong." — Hegel. 
 
 1S00N became aware that my little book called 
 The Substance of Faith could hardly be re- 
 garded as an eirenicon in respect of the present Eng- 
 Uoh Education controversy, though I began it some- 
 what with that hope, and still think that it should be 
 of some assistance in that direction; for it is apparent 
 that the dispute between Church and Dissent is not 
 only of long standing historically, but is intrinsically 
 deepseated. It would be worth a considerable effort 
 if the inflammation due to that chronic sore could be 
 reduced; but the cure should be attempted, not by 
 blinking or denying the reality of the differences, but 
 rather by facing them resolutely and understanding 
 their nature and origin before seeking to prescribe a 
 remedy. 
 
 The dispute which is most alive to-day between 
 State Church and Free Churches is not exactly re- 
 ligious: it seems to be rather ethnological or anthropo- 
 logical. That is to say, it may be held to represent a 
 difference inherent in the varied nature of humanity. 
 
UNION AND BREADTH JSTl 
 
 and to correspond to the divergent views taken of re- 
 ligion by two different types of mind. If there is 
 any truth in this statement, it ought surely to be pos- 
 sible to recognise the fact, and to adjust our arrange- 
 ments to it, as to any other of the facts of nature. 
 
 It must have been frequently pointed out before 
 — but sometimes statements bear and need repetition 
 — ^that there are two chief rehgious types: one type 
 valuing ceremony and artistic accessories and human 
 organisation and intervention; while the other, 
 thinking itself competent to dispense with what it 
 may consider adventitious aids, seeks to worship, 
 neither in temple nor even in mountain, but directly 
 in spirit and in truth. This one thinks that the Holy 
 Spirit is equally accessible to every individual. That 
 one conceives that a Special Power is miraculously 
 transmitted by ceremonial means, namely, by the im- 
 position of hands. 
 
 Those who take this which may be called the Apos- 
 tolic view, necessarily exalt the Church, which to them 
 is God's vicegerent upon earth ; for its priests possess 
 a power denied not only to laymen but to ministers 
 of all other denominations, who in this essential re- 
 spect are and must be regarded as laymen. It is true 
 that the branches of the Catholic and Apostolic 
 Church do not agree among themselves entirely as to 
 the authentic channels of this mysterious influence. 
 To the Roman, the Anglican Catholic is a layman, 
 even though he be a prelate.^ To the Anghcan, the 
 
 iThe question of the recognition or non-recognition of Anglican Or- 
 
8S CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 President of the Wesleyan Conference, or the Mod- 
 erator of the Presbyterian Synod, may be in friend- 
 ship a brother, and in good works a helper, but he has 
 no claim to recognition as a priest; nor, indeed, does 
 he prefer such a claim, because he does not belong to 
 the type which appreciates the idea of Divine influ- 
 ence ceremonially conveyed from one human being 
 to another. 
 
 But the distinction of type is not confined to the 
 clergy: it runs through the laity likewise. Those who 
 believe in the special and exclusive character of eccle- 
 siastical priesthood are bound to venerate the Officers 
 invested with those powers, and to submit to their 
 teaching and influence, irrespective of their person- 
 ality; for they can not only help and strengthen you 
 by administration of the Sacraments: they actually 
 have the power of forgiving your sins, — or, still more 
 remarkable, of preventing the forgiveness of your 
 sins, if they be so minded. 
 
 Baptismal regeneration is only one of the things 
 which can be efl*ected through their agency, but that 
 too is a power of great magnitude, and if your cliild 
 is to be eternally lost without their aid their aid must 
 be sought; for in this ceremony he is made, according 
 to the Catechism — not recognised only and admitted 
 into the Church as such, but actually made — a child 
 of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven.^ 
 
 ders is sometimes said to have been decided like a move in a game or 
 in party politics— after private discussion as to which course was best 
 calculated to benefit one side and to damage the other. The subject ap- 
 pears to be eminently fitted for such treatment. 
 iThe preposition "in" is used in the Catechism, but "by" occurs in 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 89 
 
 True, they must be regarded only as instruments 
 and vehicles of Divine mercy; but in so far as Divine 
 mercy is felt to be a vital thing, the channels by which 
 it is dispensed become of overwhelming interest; and 
 if they, as Officers of a corporate and divinely or- 
 dained Church, really have in any sense a monopoly 
 of the Holy Spirit, their unfolding of the Bible may, 
 be the only expUcation religiously permissible. 
 
 It is only those who have no belief in the reality of 
 priestly powers of this kind — people to whom such 
 powers seem like superstition, who prefer to worry 
 out truth for themselves, and who pray directly to the 
 Fountain of Infinite Wisdom to keep them from 
 being deceived and to lead them into the way of truth 
 — it is only these who can afford to dispense with, or 
 in some cases even to resent, the good offices of the 
 Catholic Church, whether in its Greek or Roman or 
 Anghcan branches. 
 
 If now we bethink ourselves what is it that con- 
 stitutes the essential difference of type, I think we 
 shall find that w^e must admit as the most distinctive 
 feature of the Prayer Book, from the denominational 
 and ultra-protestant point of view, not the ordinary 
 popular services of Matins and Evensong, nor the 
 still more beautiful form for Holy Communion, but 
 the regulation for the Ordering of Priests. The 
 greater part of that service may be passed as unde- 
 nominational, save that naturally it seems intended 
 expressly to sever the Anglican from the Roman 
 
 one form of the baptismal service: "Seeing now . . . that this child 
 is by baptism regenerate." 
 
90 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 priesthood, but the official sentence which accompanies 
 the laying on of hands is distinctly and purposely 
 hierarchical. Those who accept that are Churchmen ; 
 those who rejoice at it are high- Churchmen. All 
 other details sink into insignificance before this Epis- 
 copal pronouncement: 
 
 * 'Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of 
 a priest in the Church of God, now committed unto 
 thee by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins 
 thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins 
 thou dost retain, they are retained." 
 
 This has been said ceremonially to every Anglican 
 parish priest in the British Isles, some of whom doubt- 
 less believe that a mysterious efficacy has descended 
 upon them, and that they possess the awful power 
 thus conferred. 
 
 That being so, it should be, and probably is, clear 
 to any contending and opposing party that priests 
 so consecrated, and animated by such beliefs, cannot 
 possibly consent to open their schools to dissenters: 
 it would be more reasonable for doctors to open the 
 hospitals to quacks. They are bound to insist on 
 their high prerogative, and to teach children to come 
 to them for the sacramental and other inspired influ- 
 ences which they can bestow on the penitent and the 
 faithful, or be false to their trust.^ And conversely, 
 
 1 "Experience has shown the inefficacy of the mere injunctions of 
 Church order, however scripturally enforced, in restraining from schism 
 the awakened and anxious sinner; who goes to a dissenting preacher 
 *because (as he expresses it) he gets good from him': and though he 
 does not stand excused in God's sight for yielding to the temptation, 
 surely the ministers of the Church are not blameless if, by keeping back 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 91 
 
 those who stoutly deny and conscientiously resent the 
 idea of any such special privileges — who quote in op- 
 position, for instance, 1 Cor. i. 17 — ^may feel bound 
 to express their views also, and may earnestly seek to 
 prevent their children from coming under avowedly 
 sacerdotal influence. The text or texts in the Bible 
 on which an absolution dogma is based must be held 
 responsible for a good deal of the perennial conflict 
 between Church and Dissent. It may be possible for 
 BibHcal critics to say that John xx. 21-23 is a later 
 insertion, like Matt. xvi. 19 and the end of Mark; 
 but assuming the most orthodox possible view, and 
 taking the record of the words about the forgiveness 
 and the retention of sins as exact, it is open even to 
 devout Bibliolators to argue against the modern use 
 of such a formula, somewhat as follows : *'By whom,'* 
 they might ask, "were these words spoken to the dis- 
 ciples? Not by Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh, but 
 by the risen Lord just before His Ascension and Ses- 
 sion at the right hand of God. That which He could 
 say then, to those whom He was leaving comfortless 
 for the ten days between His departure and the feast 
 of Pentecost, is now said by every bishop of the 
 Church. But it does not follow that what could be 
 said once, under exceptional circumstances, is suitable 
 
 the more gracious and consoling truths provided for the little ones of 
 Christ, they indirectly lead him into it. Had he been taught as a child, 
 that the Sacraments, not preaching, are the sources of Divine Grace; 
 that the Apostolical ministry had a virtue in it which went out over the 
 whole Church, when sought by the prayer of faith; that fellowship with 
 it was a gift and privilege, as well as a duty, we could not have had 
 so many wanderers from our fold, nor so many cold hearts within it'* 
 XAdvt to Tracts for the Times, 1834). 
 
92 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 for indefinite repetition." Thus might opponents 
 contend, and their contention might have to be admit- 
 ted as true, and the modern use of the formula vir- 
 tually explained away, save by a few extremists who 
 still adhere to its literal interpretation. 
 
 Hence there is a well-marked cause of difference, 
 and justification of a mihtant attitude. How then 
 can it be hoped to effect formal reconcihation of the 
 two religious types? At first sight, only in one of two 
 ways : either by general admission of truth in a sacer- 
 dotal of this kind; or, on the other hand, by the 
 equally improbable admission of the imaginary char- 
 acter of any sort of basis for such a claim — a percep- 
 tion that, though it has survived the shocks of time, 
 and come down the centuries to our own day, it is yet 
 a human imagination, and essentially false. 
 
 Taken in its literal and bald signification, the ordi- 
 nation sentence above quoted would be intolerable to 
 a low or to a broad Churchman; consequently he must 
 be able to interpret it otherwise. He would doubt- 
 less claim that it signifies the right to declare the judg- 
 ment of the Christian conscience, or at any rate of the 
 Christian Church, as to details of right and wrong: 
 to formulate, in fact, the judgments of the Holy 
 Spirit, under whose guidance he is henceforth to act. 
 Securus judical orbis terrarum. It is not, however, 
 a barren formula removed from practice: it enters 
 into the pastoral work of the priest, and is apphed to 
 sick persons in the following form: 
 
 "By his authority committed to me, I absolve thee 
 from all thy sins, In the name," etc. 
 
UNION AND BREADTH gs 
 
 Even this, however though challenged by John 
 Henry Newman, and regarded by him as inadmissi- 
 ble save under the Roman 2egis, is doubtless capable 
 of refined interpretation. And so it is with all the 
 formularies — else it were impossible for great and 
 good men, to whom the natural sense of some of them 
 must be repugnant to hold office in the Church to-day. 
 Let it be admitted, once for all, that saving and min- 
 imising interpretations are known and utilised by 
 many of those inside the pale; and I shall assume, 
 without question now, that they are justified in these 
 interpretations under the circumstances. But those 
 outside the pale, and those who are hesitating to en- 
 ter it, are liable to take these formulae more nearly at 
 their face-value, and to mistrust ingenuity of inter- 
 pretation. Wherefore — and that is my point — such 
 formulae act as obstacles, as weapons of exclusion, and 
 as causes of dissension and bitterness; even among 
 those who in all essentials agree. And they have 
 another function, perhaps equally harmful: they en- 
 courage extreme sacerdotal pretensions in a few ex- 
 ceptionally constituted persons, who, whatever may be 
 their saintly character, are in disaccord with the reli- 
 gious ideals of the nation. So much so, indeed, that 
 they might find their proper place in another and a 
 foreign communion. 
 
 Seeing, therefore, that such formulge may do harm, 
 it is open to question whether they do a compensating 
 amount of good. Words, such as those above quoted, 
 either mean something definite, or they do not. If 
 they confer any real power, if they give real strength 
 
94 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 to the Church, they must be retained; but if they serve 
 no useful purpose, if they signify only what is nat- 
 urally to be expected without them — namely, the 
 power of appreciating and fostering the good, of de- 
 tecting and condemning the bad, which is possessed 
 by every decent man — if they are only a difficulty to 
 be boggled at and explained away, they constitute a 
 weakness, not a strength, and it may be well to have 
 them changed. 
 
 In any case it is quite absurd for either side in the 
 controversy — the ancient controversy between Catho- 
 lic and Protestant, between Priest and Presbyter, be- 
 tween High Anglican and Free Churchman, between 
 upholders of public ritual and insisters on private con- 
 science, between the objective and the subjective 
 types of worshippers, between those who lay stress on 
 the Brotherhood and those who emphasise the indi- 
 vidual life — ^it is futile for either side to pretend that 
 the other side is wicked and schismatic and alienated 
 from God. So perhaps there is a third course — what 
 some think the fatal course of compromise — in which 
 the permanent vitality of the two types of religious 
 humanity is recognised, and something of absolute 
 truth admitted to be visible from both points of view. 
 In which case it might not be too much to hope that 
 the two groups, no longer hostile, could ultimately 
 agree to live together in harmony, as two wings of an 
 enlarged National Church; without need for anyone 
 to abandon the phase of truth, or the form of worship 
 which especially appeals to his disposition and theo- 
 logical understanding. At present there are Non- 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 95 
 
 conformists, obedient to private judgment and dis- 
 obedient to authority, at both ends of the Church of 
 England: — ^those who left it when what they con- 
 sidered too much superstition was enforced; and those 
 who, without leaving it, feel conscientiously impelled 
 to ignore both lay jurisdiction and episcopal "admoni- 
 tion" when too little superstition is ordered; — ^mean- 
 ing by "superstition," in this connexion, the outcome 
 in practice of over-belief. 
 
 I do not venture to suggest inclusion in a National 
 Church of those who take a non-national view of their 
 civil obhgations. No question of union or of adap- 
 tation can be entertained by those who regard a for- 
 eign Potentate and foreign Conclave as supreme au- 
 thority and fount of inspiration: nothing short of sub- 
 mission and conversion would be acceptable to them. 
 Nor is it possible for them to join a merely national 
 Church, however nearly their creed may approach one 
 section of it on the purely religious side: a certain 
 canon — which I presume is still in force — ^to wit, that 
 subjects of a temporal ruler disapproved by the 
 Church may be relieved of their allegiance, and that 
 the promulgation of unacceptable doctrine is to be 
 suppressed with a high hand — constitutes a sufficient 
 obstacle/ It is far from desirable that any ecclesias- 
 
 1 The Lateran Council decree, above referred to, part of the Roman 
 Canon Law, is guarded against in the English Church by the oath of 
 the King's sovereignty administered to deacons, which runs as follows: — 
 "I A, B, do swear, that I do from my heart abhor, detest, and abjure, 
 as impious and heretical, that damnable Doctrine and Position, That 
 Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any Authority of 
 the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects, or 
 anjr other vv^hatsoever. And I do declare, that no foreign Prince^ PersoDi 
 
g6 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 tical gauntlet which investigators of truth may have 
 to run should in the smallest degree be backed up by 
 the power of the State. But no such difficulty arises 
 when contemplating a reincorporation of the Free 
 Churches which have grown up and divaricated in 
 consequence of a long spell of intolerant bigotry end- 
 ing in an act of disruption in and about the year 1662. 
 Many of them could easily rejoin one pole of a Na- 
 tional Church if it sought to attract them ; at any rate 
 they need not be repelled by enforced uniformity in 
 detail, nor by any kind of secular legislation. The 
 Legislature conspicuously shrinks from interference 
 with liberty of conscience and must recognise that 
 it made mistakes in the past whenever it con- 
 sented to be coaxed or coerced into narrowness 
 and brutality in matters of faith. It would surely 
 welcome a movement in favor of breadth and reinte- 
 gration, if it were mooted by those most concerned. 
 There is the more hope for some such solution, in- 
 asmuch as none but a bigot could claim to grasp in 
 
 Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath, or ought to have, any Jurisdiction, 
 Power, Superiority, Pre-eminence, or Authority, Ecclesiastical or Spir- 
 itual, within this Realm. So help me God." 
 
 This is the wording of the decree: "Let the secular powers, what- 
 ever offices they may exercise . . . exterminate from the territories 
 under their jurisdiction heretics of all kinds marked out by the Church. 
 . . . But if any temporal ruler, being required and admonished by 
 the Church, shall neglect to purge his land from this heretical filth, 
 let him be bound in the chain of excommunication by the metropolitan 
 and other bishops of the province. And if he shall disdain to make 
 satisfaction within a year, let this be signified to the Supreme Pontiff, 
 that he may declare the vassals of that ruler henceforth released from 
 their allegiance, and may offer tlie land to occupation by Catholics, who, 
 having exterminated the heretics, may possess it in peace and preserve 
 it steadfast in the Faith." 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 97i 
 
 his own person the whole truth concerning a subject 
 of infinite magnitude, or could suppose that the 
 precise form of worship most suited to himself must 
 necessarily be dominant throughout the cosmos. 
 Wherefore it might be recognised, by reasonable per- 
 sons on either side, that the manifest enthusiasm and 
 religious fervour of those from whom they differ are 
 roused, not by falsehood and error, but by real por- 
 tions, even though they be fragmentary portions, of 
 Divine truth which have hitherto escaped their own 
 ken, or for which their own emotional and sesthetic 
 nature happens to be unfitted. 
 
 The possibility of such a concordat may at first 
 sight seem remote, but it is worth more than momen- 
 tary consideration, and it is possible to detect more 
 reasonableness embedded in the proposal than appears 
 on the surface. 
 
 First of all, then, let us ask is it true that any 
 worshipper, however spiritually minded, can dispense 
 altogether wdth material facts as an aid to the ex- 
 pression and realisation of spiritual truth, and as an 
 external stimulus to the attitude of worship? Can 
 the spiritual and the material, in fact, be entirely and 
 utterly discriminated and separated? I will not ask 
 whether such separation is or is not desirable; I will 
 not point out how much loss would be sustained if it 
 were practicable — how fatal to half of nature such an 
 achievement would immediately be ; but I will simply 
 ask, is it ever done, as a fact? I believe that a little 
 consideration will show that it is never really accom- 
 
98 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 plished, and that some material agent is active even 
 in the most refined and spiritual perceptions. It will 
 at least be admitted that in the case of some religiously 
 minded persons the sights and sounds of nature 
 awaken a sense of Divine presence. In others the 
 same feelings are aroused by hearing of some human 
 action, or by meeting other human beings with whom 
 they are in sympathy. Some men are carried God- 
 ward by beauty, others by truth, others by goodness; 
 and some even by the commonplace actions of daily 
 life. A remarkable face, casually encountered, or a 
 word even from a stranger, has been known occasion- 
 ally to call up thoughts akin to worship, even in the 
 most unritualistic follower of George Fox. 
 
 "Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch, 
 A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, 
 A chorus-ending from Euripides, — 
 And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears 
 As old and new at once as nature's self. 
 To rap and knock and enter in our soul." 
 
 If there be any truth in the suggestion — and it is a 
 question which must be answered by each for himself, 
 it can hardly be put in a form that will equally apply 
 to every individual — then an essential feature of the 
 sacramental efficacy of material or external things, 
 when spiritually regarded and transfigured in the 
 light of a dominating faith, is admitted: for material 
 means whereby the soul can be elevated, and brought 
 into conscious relation with Deity, are essentially of 
 the nature of sacraments. 
 
 "To attempt to grasp the infinite by reason," says 
 Plotinus, "is futile; it can only be known in immedi- 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 99 
 
 ate presence. The faculty by which the mind divests 
 itself of its personality is Ecstasy. In ecstasy the soul 
 becomes loosed from its material prison, separated 
 from individual consciousness, and becomes absorbed 
 in the Infinite Intelligence from which it emanated." 
 This condition of inspiration, direct intuition, or en- 
 thusiasm, — some approach to what is meant by "see- 
 ing God," — is but transitory, and may be rare, but it 
 can be induced by a great variety of instrument. A 
 few attain it during the contemplation of law and 
 order enshrined in a mathematical expression, or in 
 some comprehensive philosophic formula ; but to many 
 the transfiguring and revealing experience is her- 
 alded by the song of birds, by sunshine upon grass, 
 by the wind in tree-tops, or by the wild solitude of 
 mountains. To one the vision comes during the 
 music of an orchestra or the sight of a great work of 
 art; to another, the atmosphere of an empty cathedral 
 is fuU of it; while to another, again, the same cathe- 
 dral must contain lights and incense in order effec- 
 tively to act as a medium. To many the acts of 
 common worship are an invaluable aid; while others 
 find their fullest help towards realising the Divine 
 presence in the consecrated materials of a purposely 
 arranged and specially organised Sacrament. 
 
 The means of grace last mentioned — being con- 
 sciously directed to a desired end — ^must be considered 
 as especially forcible and effective; at any rate for 
 those who are constituted in such a way as to appreci- 
 ate accessories and aids of this kind. But it is not to 
 be denied that, in spite of good intention, these eccle- 
 
100 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 siastical forms and ceremonies strike another type of 
 religious disposition as so humanly ingenious and spe- 
 cifically organised as to repel rather than attract di- 
 vine thoughts; which with these people arise in more 
 spontaneous fashion, amid the simplicity of almost 
 unassisted worship in plain buildings, or among the 
 solitudes of unconsecrated nature. 
 
 It must be admitted however, — and I presume that 
 Nonconformists would be the last to deny it, — ^that 
 there is always a danger lest, if human effort and or- 
 ganisation be altogether discarded, as they sometimes 
 are by religiously minded secularists, the opportunities 
 for spontaneous excitation of religious thoughts may 
 seldom or never occur; and so gradually the power of 
 entertaining lofty ideas may become atrophied by 
 lack of use. Moreover, those who depend entirely on 
 the capacities of their own unaided individual soul 
 may find, in times of stress, a sad emptiness and 
 dearth of comfort there. That is at once the weak- 
 ness and strength of an emphatically spiritual re- 
 ligion : it makes a severe demand on the worshippers' 
 own powers and faculties. This constitutes a weak- 
 ness, — for there come times when the spirit is so 
 harassed by the troubles and trials of existence that 
 even the stoutest cannot stand the strain ; but it con- 
 stitutes also a strength, — inasmuch as it braces and 
 exercises and develops the fibres of the character. 
 
 There will also be those who are impressed with, not 
 so much the right as the duty of private judgment; 
 and on the other hand there will always be those who 
 willingly; submit to authority;. In the same wajr we 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 101 
 
 must recognise a constitutional difference, a differ- 
 ence of temperament, a difference of response to di- 
 verse appeals. But the difference is only dependent 
 on "accident" or appropriateness of vehicle: it is not 
 a difference of really fundamental character; and 
 though it is natural to prefer one form of material 
 accessory to another, it is not human, at least it is not 
 religious, to despise and reject them all. 
 
 It is perhaps not known to everybody that the 
 general nature of a sacrament is recognised by the 
 Enghsh Church — very likely by the Roman Church 
 too, — for it is definitely laid down in the "Homilies" 
 that in a certain sense there may be many sacraments : 
 
 "Therefore neither it, nor any other sacrament else, 
 be such sacraments as Baptism and Communion are; 
 but in a general acception the name of a sacrament 
 may be attributed to anything whereby an holy thing 
 is signified" {Homily on Common Prayer and Sac- 
 raments) . 
 
 Wherefore, opponents may ask, why not then carry 
 out this doctrine into practice? why urge the impor- 
 tance of two, or of seven? 
 
 One orthodox answer is that the two are "necessary 
 to salvation," — a doctrine corresponding with the 
 over-hteral misreading of a text, and not really be- 
 lieved any more than the corresponding "Athana- 
 sian" clauses are believed. But a better answer, and 
 indeed the answer of Christendom generally with few 
 exceptions, is that the two were in a special sense 
 authorised and enjoined by Christ; so in order to es- 
 timate their crucial character it is instructive to con- 
 
£102 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 sider how these specially Christian sacraments arose. 
 It is easy to add an element of mysticism to the bare 
 facts, and those who make this addition may claim it 
 as a sign of spiritual growth; but the addition should 
 be voluntary, it cannot wisely be imposed by legisla- 
 tion. The bare facts themselves may be legitimately 
 and inoffensively regarded somewhat thus: 
 
 Jesus found the old baptismal act of ceremonial 
 washing revived and used as a sign of repentance by; 
 his great precursor, — either as a symboHc cleansing, 
 or else as a symbolic burying to sin and new birth to 
 righteousness (for both significations can be attached 
 to the rite of immersion) ; instinctively he recognised 
 the advantage of associating divine thoughts with so 
 common an act as bathing or washing, and, just as he 
 utilised any common event for doctrinal purposes, so 
 he utilised this act, by submitting himself to it: there- 
 by canonising it among Christians for all time. But 
 then he did the same thing virtually with the sower 
 and the seed, with a marriage feast, with fisherman's 
 nets, with carpenters' tools, and a multitude of com- 
 mon incidents of hfe; though in these the Church, 
 perhaps fortunately, has been slower to follow him to 
 the full extent. I say fortunately, because it is so apt 
 to let its enthusiasm carry it unwisely far: in the case 
 of baptism it has at certain periods of its history, at 
 any rate in some of its branches, gone too far, and 
 converted a ceremony of admission into a miraculous 
 rite of saving efficacy. 
 
 In another case also it has not only followed, but 
 has lemphatically gone beyond and exceeded, its in- 
 
UNION AND BREADTH flOS 
 
 structions, to what many think a lamentable extent; at 
 times even daring to inflict torture and death on those 
 who could not travel with it along this humanly ex- 
 tended road. For the common act of eating and 
 drinking was among those conspicuously sanctified by 
 Christ; on that pathetic occasion when, after long 
 discourse on his approaching fate, and much figura- 
 tive speech concerning the necessity for complete 
 union with himself, he took up the bread and the wine, 
 no doubt blessing them after the still extant Jewish 
 fashion, and then — perhaps half thinking of ancient 
 pagan rites, wherein exuberant gentile worshippers 
 had spoken of eating the flesh of a god, and certainly 
 remembering the sacrifices of flesh and blood f amihar 
 in their own scriptures and in the forthcoming pass- 
 over — added, in a moment of enthusiasm fraught vrith 
 strange destiny for the future Church, "This is my 
 flesh and this is my blood. Bless it, and take it, and 
 remember me whenever henceforth ye feed together." 
 As for himself, this was his last food and his last 
 drink — a long spasm of torture and hunger and thirst 
 was all that lay before him on earth — *'I shall taste 
 no more of the fruit of the vine till I drink it new with 
 you in the Kingdom of my Father." 
 
 Regarded simply and naturally, it is a gracious 
 domestic ceremony ; akin to the toast of good fellow- 
 ship, but with the sadness of pain and parting com- 
 mingled. It was surely intended as an act of union 
 and brotherhood, not as a testing instrument or divid- 
 ing engine. The sharing of one loaf is recognised 
 by St. Paul (1 Cor. x. 17) as a symbol of the oneness 
 
104 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 of the many in the Christian body — a true com- 
 munion. 
 
 Looked at from the point of view of subsequent 
 history, and what human organisation has made of it, 
 even devout worshippers must admit that superstition 
 has been prone to enter, and that its ecclesiastical de- 
 velopments have been at times painful beyond de- 
 scription. 
 
 Yet that should not prevent those who prefer not 
 to partake of ecclesiastically administered sacrament 
 from recognising that to others it constitutes the very 
 bread of life, and that to worshippers of this character 
 the meaning and efficacy of the symbols are en- 
 hanced beyond measure by ceremonial observance 
 and ritual. 
 
 What has been said about sacraments can be in- 
 terpreted as applying to priesthood also. A priest is 
 a vehicle of the Holy Ghost, an interpreter of divine 
 things, and a helper towards higher life. Priesthood 
 is a reality ; but, if my interpretation of it be correct, 
 it cannot be a professional monopoly. Like genius, 
 it evades definition; but is it not likely to be coercible 
 and transmissible by ceremonial means. Surely it 
 must be true that the Spirit moveth where it listeth, 
 and is not amenable to clerical control. 
 
 Every man, woman, or child who has the power of 
 elevating the thought of another human being, every- 
 one who is chosen to act as a channel of the Divine 
 Spirit, is for the time a priest. It may be well to set 
 aside and train and guard a band of persons who feel 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 105 
 
 specially called to this high office ; in the hope that by 
 discipHne and custom their powers of true priesthood 
 and sainthood may increase. It is desirable that the 
 Church should set store by and guard its priests, just 
 as it guards its sacraments, from pollution and con- 
 tamination with the things of the outer world. Pre- 
 cautionary and reverential arrangements are humanly 
 inteUigible and more or less necessary, but they are 
 not essential ; they are matters of ecclesiastical polity, 
 not of divine ordinance. 
 
 The Church recognises, indeed, that every man is in 
 some small sense a priest in his own household, and 
 admits that in times of emergency he may act as such, 
 up to the point of administering the minor sacrament 
 of Baptism, provided he employs the right material 
 and the authorised form of words; but, save for this 
 charitable exception, it jealously guards its own 
 rites and privileges, and denies the real apostolic 
 authority to all save those whom it has itself 
 ordained: thereby and to that extent appearing to 
 claim a monopoly of the Holy Spirit, which, in the 
 judgment of many, it cannot rigorously sustain, ex- 
 cept in so far as it may be justified by public conven- 
 ience and usage. 
 
 So long as specific and special priesthood is recog- 
 nised as possessed only in a representative capacity, it 
 can do no harm. Harm begins when an exclusive 
 character is claimed for it. The true official priest is 
 representative or typical of the potential priesthood 
 of all religious humanity, a symbol of the close con- 
 nection and affectionate intercourse between God and 
 
106 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 man: somewhat as Christ was essentially the son of 
 man and son of God, to the exclusion of none of his 
 bretliren. 
 
 In this form the office is not to be stigmatised as 
 sacerdotal — it is only to be so stigmatised when it 
 claims to be exclusive, when it seeks to be a monopoly 
 of the grace of God. 
 
 So also the Eucharist may legitimately be held to 
 represent or typify a Divine Presence, provided it is 
 likewise taught that all nature is the living garment of 
 God, and that space and time are expressions of His 
 thoughts. It is not a claim for the Divine presence, 
 but a claim for the Divine absence — anywhere — that 
 should be resisted. 
 
 There is no need for nonconformist feeling in these 
 matters, except in details of administration which may 
 well be made more elastic. Priesthood and sacra- 
 ments are realities ; forms and orderly ceremonies are 
 necessary for collective human worship : it is their ex- 
 aggeration and misunderstanding that is to be depre- 
 cated, not the things themselves. Those who think 
 they are worshipping in spirit only, are really using 
 forms and material aids, though the forms may be of 
 a simple character. An attitude of body, an enforced 
 silence, a gathering together into an accustomed build- 
 ing, the reading of a book, the singing of a hymn — 
 all these are physical and material aids to spiritual 
 growth, and are therefore essentially sacramental. 
 It is but a question of degree; and those who cannot 
 utilise forms of so simple a character are justified in 
 
UNION AND BREADTH lOTJ 
 
 seeking to invent and enjoy ceremonies of a more 
 elaborate kind. 
 
 So also, everyone privileged to act as a minister 
 of God, a true vehicle of the Holy Spirit, is for the 
 time being a priest by right divine. It is only because 
 under present conditions such influence is compara- 
 tively rare, that we have to betake ourselves to a pro- 
 fessional priesthood. It is a necessity: it is not an 
 ideal. The ideal held out by Christ himself was a 
 high one. *'Be ye perfect," he said. Be a Christ, 
 he might have said: be thyself a messenger and re- 
 vealer of divine truth, up to the measure of thy ca- 
 pacity. "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." He did not 
 say these things to the priest and orthodox worship- 
 pers of his own day — to them he said quite other 
 things : — these high injunctions he laid upon a body of 
 trained and chosen peasants who had loved and fol- 
 lowed him, and thus ordained them with genuine 
 priesthood. 
 
 And to all the animate and inanimate creatures, of 
 earth and air and sea, he gave a message too. On 
 all of them he conferred sacramental efficacy — noth- 
 ing is unholy or unclean — everything can join in the 
 song of joy and worship that rises from all healthy 
 nature. By his teaching the whole world of matter 
 is transfigured and glorified before our eyes ; it is suf- 
 fused with immanent Deity, and has become, for 
 those with eyes to see, a mirror of the Almighty. 
 
 Now all this, which to most of us is so clear now, 
 
108 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 was not equally clear to the generality of folk in the 
 times gone by. Saints here and there seized the truth, 
 no doubt, and tried to express it in language fitted to 
 their time; but from the great mass of the people it 
 was hidden. Persons in high office — Archbishop 
 Cranmer and others — put together our Hturgy, 
 during a moderately exalted period of English his- 
 tory, utilising many beautiful petitions and formu- 
 laries, and showing great genius for the work; but it 
 is not to be supposed that they were gifted with infal- 
 libility, so that they grasped the truth completely and 
 expressed it for all time. Nor was the Act of Parlia- 
 ment which crystallised and congealed the Prayer 
 Book an inspired document.^ Admitting that his- 
 toric forms make a special appeal to the emotions, 
 revision of the Prayer Book on the intellectual 
 side ought to be and is necessary, especially after a 
 century of great intellectual achievement. The ques- 
 tion arises whether the time is not ripe for revision 
 now. 
 
 Loth as I am to meddle with professional and ec- 
 clesiastical matters, the present juncture in the history 
 of the English Church and nation seems to me suffi- 
 ciently important to compel those who recognise the 
 pressing need for social reform, and the great power 
 and influence for good which a truly efficient Church 
 would possess, to urge a reconsideration of the im- 
 plicit tests and requirements imposed on candidates 
 
 1 Even Newman, in a tract urging no concession or tittle of alter- 
 ation, says: "I confess that there are few parts of the Service that I 
 could not disturb myself about and feel fastidious at, if I allowed my; 
 mind in this abuse of reason." 
 
UNION AND BREADTH 109 
 
 for Holy Orders in the Church of England at various 
 stages in their career. — The fact that it is a National 
 Church removes the charge of impertinence from the 
 utterance of a layman on such matters. The spirit of 
 the following sentences, taken from "His Majesty's 
 Declaration" printed in every Anglican Prayer 
 Book, is not attractive to an age which has imbibed 
 the idea of evolution and some conception of the faith- 
 ful investigation of truth: 
 
 . . . "the settled Continuance of the Doctrine and 
 Disciple of the Church of England now established; 
 from which We will not endure any varying or de- 
 parting in the least Degree. . . . We will, that all 
 further curious search be laid aside. . . . And that 
 no man hereafter shall either print, or preach, to 
 draw the Article aside any way, but shall submit to it 
 in the plain and full meaning thereof: and shall not 
 put his own sense or comment to be the meaning 
 of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and 
 grammatical sense. 
 
 "That if any publick Reader in either of Our Uni- 
 versities, or any Head or Master of a College, or any 
 other person respectively in either of them, shall affix 
 any new sense to any Article, or shall publickly read, 
 determine, or hold any publick Disputation, or suf- 
 fer any such to be held either way, in either the Uni- 
 versities or Colleges respectively; or if any Divine 
 in the Universities shall preach or print any thing 
 either way, other than is already established in Con- 
 vocation with Our Royal Assent; he, or they, the Of- 
 fenders, shall be liable to Our displeasure, and the 
 
11(J CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 Church's censure in our Commission Ecclesiastical, 
 as well as any other: And We will see there shall be 
 due Execution upon them." 
 
 If the Church excludes, and to some extent even 
 if it only threatens to exclude, from its ministry all 
 young men who are unable to accept a system of 
 archaic formulse as valid, with whatever saving 
 clauses and subterfuges it dilutes in practice its 
 theoretical requirements, it may be creating for itself 
 an "unnatural selection," so to speak, a survival or 
 selection of the weakest. And if it does so, then, like 
 any other organism in the same case, it must in the 
 long run infallibly degenerate. 
 
 I believe that its leaders, its real leaders, admit that 
 it could with advantage amend its procedure in sev- 
 eral particulars; especially that it could diminish the 
 amount of mechanical uniformity and allow some 
 elasticity in the use of a liturgy which, though fra- 
 grant with historical aroma, has now become to many 
 people monotonous and barren. But the chief wish 
 of those who love the idea of a National Church is 
 that it would so modify its entrance barriers, and so 
 simplify its formularies, as to draw to itself more 
 young men of character, intellect, and breadth of 
 view. 
 
 Only so can it once more become, what it ought to 
 be and is not, a truly comprehensive National Church, 
 — one flock under one Shepherd, — elevating and 
 sanctifying the State by connexion with it ; instead of, 
 what many now consider it, an unholy alliance of 
 mingled constraint and privilege, — ^hampered in its 
 
UNION AND BREADTH IH 
 
 own actions by the rigidity of its connexion with 
 Parliament, and yet drawing thence so much worldly 
 dignity and social independence as to be regarded 
 with suspicion by an able and energetic portion of a 
 religiously minded nation, whose ministers are ex- 
 cluded from co-operation in the National ceremonies 
 and from official recognition by the State, and who 
 consequently conduct their ministrations at a percep- 
 tible disadvantage ; a disadvantage which to Newman 
 seemed so serious that he wrote, in 1833: "We know 
 how miserable is the condition of religious bodies not 
 supported by the State." 
 
 The difficulties surrounding reform are consider- 
 able, though it is possible to exaggerate them; but 
 sooner or later it will be undertaken; and the exclu- 
 siveness of State connexion will be broken down, 
 either by the method of disestablishment, or by that 
 of greater comprehensiveness and union. Would 
 that a movement might be made towards union ! Not 
 union in every minor doctrine, nor in every detail of 
 practice, but unison of effort, coupled with clear prac- 
 tical perception of the real needs of the time. To this 
 end artificial boundaries must be broken down, and 
 the domain covered by the National Church must be 
 broadened till it includes all aspiring workers who 
 are casting out devils in the one Name. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 A REFORMED CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 
 
 "Religion was once the pillar of fire which went before the human 
 race in its great march through history, showing it the way. Now it is 
 fast assuming the role of the ambulance which follows in the rear and 
 picks up the exhausted and wounded. This, too, is a great work, but it 
 is not sufficient. And when religion has disburdened herself of all her 
 dead values, she will once more, in intimate association with ethics, rise 
 to be a power which leads men forward." — Hoffding. 
 
 IN the preceding chapter I have urged that the re- 
 creation and continuance of a truly National 
 Church must involve a great simphfication of Church 
 enactments, so as to leave fair freedom of interpreta- 
 tion concerning the meaning of Christian ceremonies ; 
 and that the way to reform lies through a movement 
 of breadth and incorporation, which should consoli- 
 date the now prevalent desire for greater tolerance 
 and union. 
 
 In the belief that the subject is of great import- 
 ance, and that the time is nearly ripe for reform, I 
 now wish to proceed further in the same direction, 
 and to urge that, putting less trust in oaths and form- 
 ularies, we should cease from attempting to bind byj 
 anticipation revolting and unwilling spirits, and show 
 more faith in living humanity — especially in the kind 
 of humanity which feels called to work in the Chris- 
 
 ill2 
 
CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 115 
 
 tian vineyard. There need be no forced alteration 
 of procedure in religious services, but there should 
 be large avoidance of compulsory uniformity. We 
 must admit the existence of worshippers of different 
 types, we must realise the need for growth and de- 
 velopment, and must encourage loyalty to the spirit 
 of truth — especially among those who co-operate in 
 good works; in the assurance that, by those who do 
 the works, all essential doctrine will be sufficiently ac- 
 cepted, without compulsion, in due time. 
 
 It may seem inappropriate, and in strict sense im- 
 pertinent, for a student of science to feel strongly on 
 such topics, but it is an inappropriateness not without 
 precedent. The general welfare of humanity, and 
 the stability of advancing civilisation, are themes of 
 interest to all, whatever our special studies may be; 
 and before now a prophet of Art has felt constrained 
 to urge that artistic development must be stunted, and 
 the highest art impossible, until social conditions are 
 improved. So also some writers and speakers, with 
 the ear of the populace, condemn a peaceful absorp- 
 tion in scientific pursuits, amid the surrounding mass 
 of poverty and misery, as a mark of selfishness and 
 hard-heartedness. What is the good of abstruse 
 scientific theories, they say, when what people need is 
 wholesome food and warmth and decent homes ! And 
 the thoughts of many a would-be student are per- 
 turbed in the same way. These good and sympathetic 
 people vicariously feel the pressure of life so keenly 
 that no occupation save relieving the pain seems worth 
 while. Their lives and sympathies are so absorbed 
 
114 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 and exhausted in the tormenting problems of a great 
 city, under present conditions, that they grow to re- 
 gard the multifarious interests of the world through 
 the perspective of the victim on the rack, to whom 
 but one thing is needful. 
 
 But I lay no particular stress on a likelihood of 
 injury to knowledge, through prevalent lack of sym- 
 pathy with pure science and ignorance of its intrinsic 
 value, nor on any other merely intellectual obstacle; 
 that is not the sort of thing which paralyses activity 
 and acts as a constant sore. If society were in a 
 healthy condition, if the development and elevation of 
 man had not to take a secondary and quite subordi- 
 nate place to the development and accumulation of 
 property, a few generations of better education could 
 easily mend it on the intellectual side; but it is the 
 greedy and essentially uncivilised condition of what 
 prides itself as the most practical part of society, and 
 the consequent deep-rooted and unadmitted canker 
 eating into the bones of the social organism, that is. 
 disquieting and oppressive. 
 
 It is against all this that a National Church is or 
 should be fighting. If these evils are to be uprooted, 
 I cannot see how the uprooting can be done by a 
 single reformer or prophet — a Carlyle, a Ruskin, or 
 a Morris — ^here and there; they must be attacked by 
 an organised army of workers and thinkers, imbued 
 with the right spirit, informed as to the real facts, 
 devoted to the cause of goodness, and trained for the 
 detection of long-accustomed errors and for the de- 
 velopment of human life. 
 
CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 115 
 
 An efficient contingent of such an army exists, or 
 should exist, in the churches of every denomination. 
 Here are men picked out, we must suppose, for their 
 keen perception of right and wrong, for their en- 
 thusiasm and longing after higher life, — men who are 
 subjected to special training for the work, and then 
 sent as missionaries throughout the whole range of 
 society, to preach Christ's Gospel and to bring the 
 Kingdom of Heaven into realisation upon earth. 
 Here should be a general staff of commanding 
 power, if only it be in real touch with the people, if 
 only it realises the extent and the quahty of its mis- 
 sion, and is properly prepared to cope with it. But it 
 must concentrate its weapons upon the enemy, and 
 must not employ them in internecine warfare. An 
 army whose officers dispute among themselves, whose 
 horse and foot are in conflict, and whose artillery is 
 trained upon its engineers, is not an efficient instru- 
 ment of conquest. 
 
 Those who realise to some extent what a power for 
 [good a truly National Church might be, and how with 
 comparative ease the earnest religious spirit of Eng- 
 land could absorb and utilise the energies of such a 
 Church — a truly Christian and truly comprehensive 
 Church, with the best men attracted, not repelled, the 
 present narrow mechanical uniformity superseded by 
 breadth and liberality, with errors of past history dis- 
 carded, mean jealousies extinguished, and differences 
 composed — such persons may feel that the reform 
 and strengthening of the Church is perhaps the best 
 though not the most direct route towards elimination 
 
116 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 of the wrongs and amelioration of the evils of our 
 social state. At present many of the thinking work- 
 ers are alienated from what they imagine is rehgion; 
 and a cry for general secularisation is gaining ground. 
 The State may be rightly urged to have nothing to do 
 with controversial religion ; but the elimination of re- 
 ligious disputes and the elimination of religion are not 
 necessarily the same thing. The cessation of all re- 
 cognition of religion itself by the State is certainly 
 not a step in the right direction. 
 
 The cry for disestablishment is not loud just now; 
 but it is liable to be raised at any time, so long as the 
 present condition of special privilege continues. The 
 cry is really a cry for more equality of treatment — 
 for more national recognition all round. Only a few 
 want to separate all religion from the State; though 
 many might rejoice at freedom from so-called Eras- 
 tian control. A section of Presbyterians north of the 
 Tweed may feel conscientiously opposed to State- 
 connexion of any kind, and some Nonconformists 
 may imagine that they feel conscientious objection; 
 but that is not the real bugbear in England; it is the 
 limitation and narrowness of the connexion that is 
 really objected to. Broaden the Church out till it is 
 truly national, by removing the preposterous coercion 
 in detail which is now nominally exercised, — and the 
 grievance disappears. The National Church could 
 then absorb the best activities of all denominations, 
 and the nation would be strengthened on its highest 
 side to an incalculable extent. Efforts at betterment 
 pf human conditions are precarious and difficult and 
 
CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 117 
 
 rather blind, so long as mutual hostility or suspicion 
 persists among the branches of the Christian Church. 
 
 Either corporate action towards amelioration is im- 
 possible, or the Church, in the most comprehensive 
 sense, should be the most powerful army for good in 
 existence. Its ministers are like officers distributed 
 throughout the country, with social prestige and the 
 attentive ear of a large proportion of the more 
 leisured and opulent classes; these Officers should be 
 engaged, even more than at present, in training and 
 enlarging and disciplining the forces of progress, 
 ready for a re-birth of society. 
 
 Herein lies, I believe, the most vital reform of all; 
 but it is not a reform that can be procured by direct 
 aim; it must arrive spontaneously after attraction of 
 the best and ablest men to the ministry. The nation 
 should demand the Ministry of its best men — in the 
 Church as well as in the Cabinet. 
 
 And the reform contemplated should be real and 
 genuine; the Confession of sin repeated in ecclesias- 
 tical buildings should be no conventional and mean- 
 ingless chant, nor should it be supposed to apply only 
 to individual and personal sinfulness; it should above 
 all, in collective worship, apply to collective sin, — to 
 that sinfulness of society which Christ would de- 
 nounce if he came again among us. The vigour of 
 that denunciation would, I expect, eclipse anything 
 now heard from pulpits; though it would, I believe, 
 take a different and unexpected direction, and con- 
 cern itself less with the weaknesses and follies and 
 half -repented sins of humanity, than with the greed, 
 
118 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 the selfishness, the sheer individuahsm and mammon- 
 worship which excite but occasional reprobation; it 
 would attack the heartless and contented acquiescence 
 in conditions which debase the soul of a people and 
 erect the extravagant luxury of a few on the grind- 
 ing poverty of many. 
 
 In that sense an acknowledgment of fault is in- 
 deed urgently and constantly needed ; but the feeling 
 should be driven home and made real; confession 
 should never be allowed to degenerate into an easy 
 perfunctory form. The selfishness of society is the 
 really burning sin of our time, and it is the more dan- 
 gerous because so generally unrecognised. It has 
 been unrecognised in the chancel as well as in the 
 nave — it seems never to have been adequately recog- 
 nised by an Established Church as a whole — and to 
 this one cause such a Church is thought to owe much 
 of its impotence; to this is due much of the mistrust 
 of the Church by the people, who have found it in the 
 past often against themselves, and siding with the 
 rich and powerful; — an attitude singularly different 
 from that of its Master. That inspired song the 
 '^Magnificat" struck the keynote of primitive Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Let us freely and heartily admit that a great in- 
 ternal effort is now being made to revive the early 
 spirit in the Church — the spirit of brotherhood and 
 social work. And yet there is room. The enthusiasm 
 and exertion of some Anglican leaders are beyond 
 praise, but their spirit has not yet permeated the 
 whole mass. Wherever thei right spirit exists the 
 
CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 119 
 
 people respond to it, as they did in a.d. 30. Christ's 
 teachings frequently dealt with the subject of riches, 
 even then, when vast accumulations were hardly feasi- 
 ble, save in a form accessible to the ravages of moth 
 and rust ; but with the invention of stocks and shares 
 the possibihties of property have enlarged, and his 
 denunciations now might be unexpectedly welcomed 
 by some who do not profess and call themselves Chris- 
 tians. There are men — men of influence among the 
 artisans — who openly scoff at what they call rehgion, 
 who nevertheless plead "not guilty" for the down- 
 trodden victims of pernicious surroundings; who em- 
 phasise the fact that we are our brothers* keepers; 
 who really long for a fairer and wholesomer setting 
 for the life of human beings, and who have been re- 
 pelled from Christianity, not by the teachings of 
 Christ himself, but by the confusions and errors of his 
 nominal disciples. These men call out for the clergy 
 to be "converted to Christianity." What do they 
 mean? It were perhaps well for ministers of all de- 
 nominations to consider what they mean. 
 
 Doubtless in so speaking they are to some extent 
 making the mistake illustrated by the above-quoted 
 objection to unharassed scientific work. For just as 
 strenuous intellectual concentration needs eves tem- 
 porarily shut to the mass of avoidable misery and 
 pain — pain caused by human stupidity and by almost 
 inhuman selfishness, to which everyone must shut his 
 eyes at times, or life were impossible — so the clergy 
 must at times possess their souls in peace and com- 
 fort; they have to minister to believers and sinners 
 
120 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 and saints, as well as to contend against hypocrites 
 and Pharisees and servants of Mammon. The Church 
 cannot only struggle and fight, it must sometimes 
 stretch out its hands towards the farther shore, un- 
 hindered by differences and controversies, and un- 
 burdened by the sense of social misery and 
 degradation. Not all services need be mission serv- 
 ices; every now and then saints may allow their souls 
 to expand in mystic worship of the Supreme, and may 
 aim at devout contemplation and ecstacy; on certain 
 days their "Divine Service" may be limited to the 
 ecclesiastical and esoteric kind which now all but 
 monopolises that splendid name. 
 
 But that must not be the chief employment of their 
 lives; not while present evils continue. The Church 
 must be militant if it is to become triumphant; it 
 must learn strategy, and must throw its forces in the 
 right direction. Right belief is intensely important, 
 but is slow of attainment, and for the present right 
 action is more prominently called for. It is no time 
 for vegetating and leaf -development : it is fruits that 
 will be looked for. There must be far less of "Who- 
 soever will be saved must thus think" and far more 
 of "Whosoever will save others must thus dof' God's 
 in His heaven truly, but all is not right with the 
 world. Books written to-day immerse us, and rightly 
 inmierse us, in a welter of poverty and misery. The 
 bitter cry of the victims of competition, of the out- 
 casts of civilisation, and of the children who are born 
 to sin and wretchedness, when they are not born to 
 death, — the cry of multitudes with hardly any chance 
 
CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 121 
 
 of decent happiness and no outlook upon the beauty 
 of this world, — this cry must be ringing in the ears of 
 God till He cannot hear the chants of the churches, 
 however musically they may be intoned, however fre- 
 quently they may be repeated, and however completely 
 the Ornaments-rubic may be obeyed. The spirit of 
 greed is abroad; its net has gathered human beings 
 together in heaps, has removed them from the fields 
 and hedgerows, and has forced them into crowded 
 dens. With success this spirit is doing devil's work; 
 it and its ally, smug self-satisfied stupidity, are the 
 modern fiends; these are the Satans with which the 
 Church should be fighting. 
 
 What we have to learn is that the will of God is to 
 be done on earth; that the Kingdom of Heaven is to 
 be a present kingdom, here and now, not relegated 
 always to the future. Eternity is not something in 
 the future, any more than it is something in the past: 
 it extends into the future and it extends into the past 
 — ^without limit both ways, — but this is eternity, this 
 moment we are alive, and the message of Christ re- 
 lates to "'is/' not to "will he" The present is the only 
 opportunity for a deed. We are to realise the high- 
 est here. If not here in this condition, why anywhere 
 in any condition? For wherever we are will always 
 be *'here,'* and the time will always be "now." As 
 soon as God's will is done on earth as it is done in 
 heaven, a great part of the distinction between the two 
 states of existence is abolished. That diminution of 
 distinction is what the terrestrial Church has to strive 
 to accomphsh; that is the ultimate object of its in- 
 
122 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 spiration and its labour: the ideal is to be made real, 
 the world is to be transfigured and transformed. The 
 task of the priest is the reconciliation, in our conscious- 
 ness, of self, the world, and God. 
 
 It is with a knowledge of a mass of feeling and 
 effort, some of it at present soured and hostile to- 
 wards what it used to hear preached from pulpits of 
 nearly every kind, but genuine in its aims and its love 
 for humanity, that — using the word "Church" in the 
 broadest sense, as the combined and corporate society 
 of good men in action, — men whose lives and energies 
 are devoted to the highest aims, in the spirit of real 
 and effective and universal Christianity — I urge that 
 if the nation is to be regenerated, it must be regener- 
 ated through the agency of The Church. There must 
 be a union of effort among all who are casting out 
 devils in the one Name. 
 
 But how great a change is needed! Contrasting 
 the work that is to be done with the means adopted in 
 too many cases for avoiding the doing of it, a prophet 
 would be justified in exclaiming to the churches, and 
 to the Church of this country, "Awake thou that 
 sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give 
 thee life!" 
 
 Divine Service 
 
 The popular notion of Divine Service makes it con- 
 sist of a multiplicity of so-called "services," which are 
 too often no service at all, but recreation or sensuous 
 enjoyment to those engaged in them; — a kind of 
 service perhaps as unacceptable to the Deity, under 
 
CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 123 
 
 existing circumstances, as those other religious cere- 
 monies inveighed against by the first Isaiah, in a pe- 
 riod of less opportunity and responsibility than the 
 present, when, as now, it could be said of a large part 
 of society, "every one loveth gifts and foUoweth after 
 rewards . . ." and the cry of the oppressed is not 
 heard even at the temple altars : 
 
 *'To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices . . . who 
 hath required this at your hands. . . . Bring no more vain oblations ; 
 incense is an abomination unto me. . . . Your new moons and your 
 appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am 
 weary to bear them. . . . When ye make many prayers I will not 
 hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put 
 away the evil doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to 
 do well; seek justice, set right the oppressor, relieve the oppressed." 
 
 The Church was not founded by temple services, 
 nor will it grow in that way. An exceptional Forty 
 Days, for the strengthening of the soul, and invigor- 
 ation or insurance of its dominion over the body, must 
 be wholesome and right ; and other times of seclusion, 
 as means to ends, are more than justified; but it is as 
 means to an end that they should be regarded, — and 
 the end is nothing less than the reform of social 
 abuses, and the rescue of humanity from the damning 
 conditions of hopeless and degrading squalor. 
 
 The kind of society which allows its cliildren to be 
 befouled and degraded and brought up in an atmos- 
 phere of crime, is the kind of society that should be 
 dealt with by the aid of a millstone and a rope. If it 
 uses its fresh human material as manure, it may flour- 
 ish in a rank w^ay, it may shoot up a coarse and luxur- 
 iant growth, it may yield a crop of milHonaires ; but 
 
124 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 some kinds of fruit are too expensive for rational 
 cultivation, some are not altogether wholesome: there 
 are trees which must be hewn down and cast into the 
 fire. 
 
 Religious bodies may pride themselves on the 
 soundness and orthodoxy of their beliefs; but "he 
 that doeth righteousness is righteous"; and supposed 
 good beliefs are no compensation for bad results, 
 either in society or in an individual. To speak 
 strictly, such results are inconsistent with healthy be- 
 liefs — "do well will follow thought" if the thought be 
 of the right kind ; and there is high authority for the 
 uselessness of merely crying Lord, Lord ! It is deeds 
 far more than creeds that are wanted now ; or rather, 
 it is creeds interpreted and acted out in deeds. We 
 have to discover^, but we have also to realise. We do 
 not want matter without form, any more than we want 
 form without matter. An idea must be incarnated 
 before it is eiFective. That is how Christianity was 
 founded, when the Logos was made flesh, 
 
 "And so the Word had breath and wrought 
 With human hands the creed of creeds 
 In loveliness of perfect deeds 
 More strong than all poetic thought." 
 
 Nothing less than a re-incarnation of the Logos 
 will reinvigorate the faith of Christendom and carry 
 forward the salvation of mankind. That is the mean- 
 ing of the Second Advent. It is in our power to 
 make ready the way; that is what our enlightenment 
 and education and privileges are for. Man, though 
 a little lower than the angels, is a messenger and serv- 
 
CHURCH AS AN ENGINE OF PROGRESS 125 
 
 ant of God just as truly, and his high mission is mani- 
 fest. We as a nation have gone ah^eady into the ends 
 of the earth; let us see to it that we understand and 
 carry out rightly our great commission, in no narrow 
 and iconoclastic spirit; remembering that, unless we 
 set things right at home, our teaching will be ineffec- 
 tive, and sarcasm will be the emotion excited by our 
 example. The second incarnation will be in the hearts 
 of all men — a reign of brotherhood and love for which 
 the heralds are already preparing their songs. Al- 
 ready there are "signs of his coming and sounds of 
 his feet" ; and upon our terrestrial activity the date of 
 this Advent depends. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS REFORM 
 
 IF I were challenged to say wherein I think that an 
 improvement might be made in the regulations 
 and arrangements for a National Christian Church 
 under present conditions, I should emphasise three 
 things : 
 
 First, more spontaneity and less monotony in 
 Church service of all kinds, and the abandonment of 
 mechanical uniformity in worship. 
 
 Second, more liberal education for Ministers; and 
 the broadening and simplification of tests, so as to ex- 
 clude as few good men as possible. 
 
 Third, and consequent upon these two, clear- 
 sighted recognition of the signs of the times, study 
 and enlightened encouragement of true beneficence, 
 and stalwart opposition to all abuses of power. 
 
 I hesitate to enter into detail concerning these 
 things, and yet I feel impelled to make the attempt; 
 so, if I proceed, I will do so straightforwardly and 
 without expressed apology. 
 
 Rubrics 
 
 First, concerning regulations for the services of the 
 Church. Here I plead not for legislation, but for the 
 
 126 
 
SUGGESTIONS TOWARD REFORM 127 
 
 absence of legislation — for the removal of the close 
 and definite legislation which exists now. 
 
 Permissively the Prayer Book can remain un- 
 changed, with merely a substitution of *'may" for 
 * 'shall," and with the occasional iteration of words 
 stating that for many centuries such and such was the 
 practice of the Church, — thereby indicating a respect 
 for historic continuity ; but all sentences laying down 
 a prescribed procedure, not as advisable only, but as 
 compulsory — so that any the least variation from it 
 becomes an illegality to be proceeded against in law 
 courts — should surely be cancelled. 
 
 Within the Church itself some rules can be laid 
 down, as from time to time may be thought wise by 
 the several branches, but they will not be burdensome 
 upon the conscience. In the Episcopal branch the 
 Bishops will naturally have paternal authority, which 
 doubtless they will exercise with moderation and wis- 
 dom; in the Presbyterian branch the Presbytery will 
 have appropriate authority; in the Congregational 
 branch, it is to be presumed, the Council; and so on. 
 Details of practice and use of formularies w^ould thus 
 be decided on by eligible and sometimes competent 
 bodies, who can readily modify them from time to 
 time, and can leave what elasticity they think wise; 
 and Parliament would be relieved of a burdensome 
 and archaic responsibility. 
 
 The Prayer Book, considered as a legal document, 
 was drawn upon the assumption that any freedom or 
 elasticity or spontaneity in conducting a service was 
 sure to be misused — not through malice and wicked- 
 
128 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 ness, but through ignorance and stupidity. It is, in 
 fact, founded on mistrust of intellectual or spiritual 
 competence, — ^mistrust which tends to justify itself 
 by reaction of the mechanical system itself upon 
 those constantly subjected to its constricting influ- 
 ence. It is also based on the idea that religious feel- 
 ing is a proper subject for legislation, and that it is 
 possible to coerce men's beliefs, to govern their in- 
 clinations and control their consciences, by a system of 
 rigid rubies and regulations; whereas it is notorious, 
 and almost proverbial, that if the will to break law is 
 active, the most carefully drafted clauses have ex- 
 tremely little binding force. For their interpretation 
 depends in no sort on the intention of those who 
 framed or of those who authorised them; their inter- 
 pretation can be garbled to suit an emergency, or can 
 be adapted to a changed system of opinions. 
 
 For instance, the Thirty-Nine Articles, agreed 
 upon by Convocation in 1562 "for the avoiding of 
 diversities of opinions," were for the most part drawn 
 up by Protestants as a bulwark against the Church 
 of Rome — a defence against any approach to the doc- 
 trines of that Church in certain well-known and fa- 
 mous controversies: — such as. Scripture not the Rule 
 of faith; Faith not the sole Instrument of Justifica- 
 tion; Infallibility of General Councils; Purgatory, 
 Pardons, Relics, Invocation of Saints; five additional 
 Sacraments; Transubstantiation ; the sacrifices of the 
 Mass. But Cardinal Newman, while still a minister 
 of the Church of England, was able to show, in his 
 
SUGGESTIONS TOWARD REFORM 129 
 
 famous Tract 90, that the wording of the Articles, 
 when taken in conjunction with the similiarly Prot- 
 estant "HomiUes," did not, as a matter of fact, ex- 
 clude the interpretation regarded as baneful by those 
 who formulated them; in fact, that the Articles lent 
 themselves to Roman interpretation. They did not 
 indeed suggest such an interpretation on their sur- 
 face, but they were patient of it. He argued this 
 with extreme ingenuity, and some special pleading, 
 but, as I think, with a good deal of success. Cer- 
 tainly he has had followers who have largely availed 
 themselves of an unexpected and welcome elasticity 
 in the direction of Romanism, thus unexpectedly dis- 
 covered in, or extracted out of, or perhaps foisted 
 into what was intended to be a rigidly Protestant 
 document and scheme of Protestant theology. 
 
 And so it will always be with a living and growing 
 Church, or any other organism — quite irrespective of 
 the rights and wrongs of any particular controversy 
 or School of thought. If the thought or School 
 exist, if living and earnest people feel that truth and 
 progress lie in a particular direction, then, however 
 ultimately mistaken they turn out to be, no system of 
 formularies can bind them; they will not hand over 
 their conscience and their judgment to the custody of 
 a past. They can be loyal to a living and present 
 spirit in the Church to-day, but not to dead formula- 
 ries. These they will either ignore, or v/ill take in a 
 non-natural sense, or will twist till they mean the op- 
 posite of what they were intended to mean. A form 
 
130 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 of words IS usually capable of interpretation in ac- 
 cordance with a living will; and if not, it can be 
 either ignored or altered. 
 
 History is familiar enough with obsolete and re- 
 pealed Statutes : why should the Statutes which regu- 
 late so vital a thing as the professed National 
 Religion alone be free from reconsideration and 
 amendment? If non-alteration be regarded as neces- 
 sitated by some theory, — that theory is a superstition ; 
 the only justification for rigid adherence to fixed 
 forms is the practical danger of licence and unset- 
 tling of faith that might result from freedom. That 
 is a point of policy on which it is possible for reason- 
 able people to take opposite sides, at any particular 
 juncture or crisis; but it will be generally admitted 
 that a faith dependent on blinkers and fetters for its 
 maintenance is not likely in a progressive age to last 
 many generations. Anchorage to a submerged rock 
 is not safe amid rising waters. 
 
 Suggestions Concerning the Liturgy 
 
 The Liturgy itself must be dealt with by experts, 
 and it is barely proper for me to make suggestions; 
 but having gone so far I will hesitate no more, but 
 will proceed in brief and dogmatic fashion to say 
 what I feel constrained to say. For it is an admitted 
 fact that the Church of England is less in touch with 
 the people than it used to be, and this is not likely to 
 be wholly and solely the fault of the people. Indeed 
 it may be due to unwisdom rather than to fault of 
 anj kind. 
 
SUGGESTIONS TOWARD REFORM 131 
 
 At present both the Daily Services are supposed 
 to open with the note of personal sin. But it is to a 
 great extent unreal, and the declaration of absolution 
 follows far too cheaply and easily. Moreover, even 
 if such a beginning is appropriate sometimes, or to 
 some people, it is not always and equally appropriate; 
 and when constantly repeated such confession be- 
 comes merely monotonous, exciting no f eehng or in- 
 telligence whatever. 
 
 If a service is to be efficacious against sin, it should 
 deal with it far more seriously and continuously. If 
 felt as a reality sin is no light matter, and should not 
 be casually slurred over. During such a service, 
 dominated by the sense of personal sinfulness and 
 contrition, the confession of the Communion service 
 is likely to be more effective than the other. The 
 Litany would be an appropriate continuation: many 
 things should precede a declaration of Remission. 
 
 But there should be more than one form of ser\dce: 
 there might be at least three alternative forms— 
 sometimes one, sometimes another to be used. One 
 form of service should sound a different note; it 
 might be a service not of contrition but of praise. 
 It might open with the Benedictus, continue with the 
 General Thanksgiving, with the Te Deum, the Can- 
 tate, or the Venite — without the Jewish ending if 
 possible — and so forth. And in all these services the 
 great and eloquent short prayers need never be omit- 
 ted, such as the prayer of St. Chrysostom, the Col- 
 lects for Peace and for Grace, and, when appropriate, 
 the Evening; Collects, as also that for the special day. 
 
132 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 together with Epistle and Gospel and of course the 
 Lessons. 
 
 But the multiplicity and wearisome number of ex- 
 tracts from the Psalter might be mitigated with ad- 
 vantage. The Psalms for the day might be omitted 
 altogether. There can be no need to work through 
 the whole Psalter every month: it is a useless burden; 
 besides, a few of the Psalms are hardly edifying in 
 worship, however instructive they are as historical 
 and biographical lessons. 
 
 At times of stress or anxiety a special selection of 
 prayers might be made, and at all times extempore 
 and spontaneous prayer should be permissible. It is 
 profoundly wrong that a petition from the heart of 
 a minister of God is never to be uttered during Divine 
 service. It is an edict of suppression and impotence 
 for the reading desk: of dulness and starvation for 
 the pew. "For a certain measure of variety arrests 
 and engages the attention of worshippers, and sus- 
 tains their interest." The very name ^'reading desk" 
 is full of wrong suggestions. The lectern is appro- 
 priately named, and so is the pulpit, but the spirit of 
 genuine supplication should brood over at least a part 
 of the service. 
 
 Another form of service — where forms are used — • 
 might be dominated by the idea of collective or social 
 struggle and error, by the sense of national and cor- 
 porate sin, by effort after better conditions of exist- 
 ence for others, and by the spirit of public service. 
 Here would come the prayer for Royalty, for Parlia- 
 ment, for the Clergy, for all people ; as well as others 
 
SUGGESTIONS TOWARD REFORM 133 
 
 appropriately chosen, and many added to suit the 
 needs of the time. 
 
 At all times it is appropriate to remember the sick 
 and suffering, the prisoners and captives, the deso- 
 late and oppressed; just as it is always natural to 
 pray for peace ; and in these cases prayer is not merely 
 intercessory prayer, but is a petition for the impulse 
 ourselves to do what lies in our own power to aid in 
 these so touching and so accessible ranges of activity 
 in direct human service. 
 
 The keynote of each service should be reality. 
 There should be no vain repetition and no mere form- 
 ulae recited in haste without attention to meaning. 
 At present far too much is attempted — far too much 
 in quantity, — and this perhaps is responsible for the 
 hurry and apparent desire to get through. Surely 
 everything said should be said deliberately and im- 
 pressively. Possibly, however, the present manner 
 of utterance is not really or solely dependent on the 
 amount to be got through in the time, but is a rehc 
 of the Roman practice of reciting prayers in Latin, 
 so as not to be understanded of the common people; 
 with the object apparently of exciting vague emotion 
 undiluted with intelligence. The practice is vener- 
 able — ^but it is hardly consistent with the genius of 
 the Church of England. Intelligibility throughout 
 is surely not a thing to be deprecated, if it can be 
 secured. To this end the service should be short in 
 length, even though not always short in time. Non 
 multa sed multum applies intensely to the effective 
 use of a Liturgy. A quantity gabbled through is 
 
134 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 useless and unimpressive. A small amount really 
 driven home is far more effective. The Te Deum is 
 specially effective when sung slowly and deliberately. 
 It was so sung in more than one church at the last 
 Declaration of Peace. 
 
 Above all, the Lord's Prayer, with its brief and 
 profound sentences, is not properly treated when sub- 
 jected to the gabble of a choir. Every sentence in- 
 volves thought. The single phrase "Thy Kingdom 
 come" speaks volumes, and by itself is sufficient for a 
 morning's worship. As a musician takes a theme and 
 develops it fugally and antiphonally with devices of 
 augmentation and diminution and with illuminating 
 counterpoint, so could such a theme as this be made to 
 dominate and re-appear throughout a service. The 
 repetition of the Lord's Prayer several times in an 
 hour signifies the intention to use it as a sort of re- 
 frain; but as a refrain it is ineffective, the repetition 
 is far too mechanical and careless. The clauses are 
 worthy of better treatment than that. 
 
 Take such a clause as "Thy will be done"; — it em- 
 braces the whole of religion. If I were a musician I 
 would set the Lord's Prayer to music, and with 
 clashes of instruments and with silences would bring 
 out a part of its meaning in unmistakable manner.^ 
 The opening phrase "Our Father which art in 
 heaven" may in its full form exhibit signs of liturg- 
 ical growth or addition, but the note "Father," the 
 dominant of all the chords, is authentic enough. It 
 
 1 When I wrote this " The Kingdom " had not been produced, and I 
 did not then kno\7 the scheme of Sir Edward Elgar's work. 
 
SUGGESTIONS TOWARD REFORM 1S5 
 
 is all that appears in Luke (Hort and Westcott's 
 text), and it is enough. 
 
 Wider Education 
 
 We need only refer in very general terms to the 
 sort of education appropriate to a candidate for the 
 Ministry of the Gospel. He must be instructed in 
 professional subjects, of course — I say nothing about 
 those ; but it is plain that if he is to have any influence 
 on the thought of his time, he must not be ignorant 
 of that thought. If he is to mix with people, and 
 adapt himself to various conditions of men, he must 
 be able to retain their respect. Immersion in the at- 
 mosphere of scholastic theology alone will not suffice. 
 The Bible is a literature with which he must be famil- 
 iar, but he must not be a man of one book. If he 
 knows only the Bible, he will not know that. A broad 
 and general education should be his, and the discov- 
 eries of his age should not be alien to him. In the 
 course of his career he is bound to meet argumentative 
 sceptics; men sometimes of narrow sympathies, but 
 occasionally of fairly wide reading. These he should 
 be able to encounter on their own ground. 
 
 It is true that to take a leading position, and to 
 grasp a considerable range of human knowledge, is 
 not given to all; there must be some whose lives are 
 east amid simpler surroundings, and who will there 
 feel more at home. That is well ; but we are consider- 
 ing the ideal up to which a few can be trained, while 
 the majority will rise towards it as far as they can, 
 though they fall short of attainment. The ideal for 
 
136 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 a minister of Christ to-day is not represented by that 
 held out in the charge of the Ordination service, "ap- 
 ply yourselves wholly to this one thing, and draw all 
 your cares and studies this way;" it is not enough, nor 
 is it even wise, to limit study to one thing, and to for- 
 sake and set aside all other studies. 
 
 Certainly something just and needful is intended, 
 by that warning against worldly cares and studies, 
 but it is liable to be misunderstood. And even in af- 
 fairs of business, it may be argued that as so many 
 of the clergy have to address men of business, it 
 would be wise for them not to be wholly ignorant and 
 incompetent even in that atmosphere. It is no easy 
 service which the nation demands of its religious 
 teachers — it is the highest and most difficult possible; 
 and the very best and ablest men are needed for the 
 work, if it is to be done properly. At present many 
 are deflected to other careers. In some cases the 
 deflection is due to attraction elsewhere; but in too 
 many it must happen that a faithful and competent 
 man is either consciously or unconsciously repelled by 
 the demands and injunctions placed in his way, — ^by 
 the attempt made to scare his present conscience or to 
 snare his future one. He knows that the critical 
 spirit is not the spirit of worship ; but he knows also 
 that, however successfully his critical faculty may be 
 put to sleep for a time, it will rise and torment him 
 later on if he abandons his birthright of growth and 
 freedom. So he chooses another vocation. 
 
SUGGESTIONS TOWARD REFORM 137 
 
 Tests 
 
 And now, what about tests ? What tests should be 
 applied to candidates for ordination, so as to exclude 
 self-seeking hypocrites and stealthy infidels? What- 
 ever words are used, the test-formula should be said 
 by the candidate himself, not by another for him ; and 
 it should be said without prompting. The amount of 
 memory needed, for a simple rehearsal like that, is not 
 too much to expect from a man to whom preaching 
 and the cure of souls is to be entrusted. A simple 
 form should suffice : why should not the following be 
 held sufficient? 
 
 Here, solemnly in the face of this congregation, I 
 declare before Almighty God, to whose holy will I 
 entirely submit myself, that I long for Christ's ideal 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth; and, God 
 helping me, I will with all my power and ability 
 strive to this end and to no other, with such wisdom 
 as it may please the Holy Spirit to confer upon me; 
 for whose guidance I will always pray to the Father, 
 in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Such a declaration, made in full voice and w^ith 
 uplifted hand, would be far more solemn and impres- 
 sive as an answer to the question whether he thinks 
 he is truly called to the ministry of the Church, than 
 the present curious expected answer, 'T think so." 
 
 Some further declaration on the secular side, 
 against the domination of any foreign potentate in 
 this realm, and some precautionary statement against 
 Jesuitical interpretation and underground scheming. 
 
138 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 would seem to be necessary also. Moreover, it would 
 be desirable so to legislate that no weapon of super- 
 stition could ever be wielded, by Church authority, so 
 as to inflict on the laity that element of compulsion 
 from which the clergy had been freed. It is to be 
 hoped that certain anti-English auricular practices 
 will never be permitted in the National Church, how- 
 ever comprehensive it may become. 
 
 Re-incoiiporation 
 
 This article ought to close with practical sugges- 
 tions as to how Nonconformist bodies are to be re- 
 incorporated into the National Church ; but that must 
 be left to others. I know that at the time of writing 
 an unexpected and most regrettable recrudescence of 
 hostilities has arisen between the State Church and the 
 Free Churches — animosity breaking out over the 
 primary education of the children of the poor — show- 
 ing that the pugnacious spirit was only dormant, and 
 that any immediately practical suggestions towards 
 general Christian co-operation would be untimely. 
 
 But surely such a state of things can only be tem- 
 porary. Either some mutual understanding is possi- 
 ble on such a subject, or the country is on the verge of 
 an era of secularism. 
 
 It may be that thorough union will come only 
 through disestabhshment — ^that a truly comprehen- 
 sive National Church is impossible. That is one way 
 towards freedom of conscience. Either the State 
 Church must be enlarged, broadened, and liberated — 
 
SUGGESTIONS TOWARD REFORM 139 
 
 freed from exclusive dignities too dearly bought, — 
 or it must cease to be a State Church. 
 
 I will not attempt to forecast the course of history: 
 all that I am concerned to urge is union, for the pur- 
 pose of fighting a common foe, cessation of interne- 
 cine quarrels, unison of effort among all the branches 
 of the Church of Christ. To me it seems that, as soon 
 as artificial restrictions and disabilities are removed, 
 the re-incorporation will be almost automatic — or 
 would be so were it not for the question of pre-restora- 
 tion endowments. If a money question is all that 
 would then hinder union — if there is nothing more 
 serious and fundamental than property to be con- 
 sidered — it would be a fact worth finding out. 
 
 JMy attention has just been called to certain articles 
 on Church and State, issued in 1891 by Dr. Martin- 
 eau as vol. ii. of his collected Essays, Reviews^, and 
 ^Addresses. Some of them deal with this very matter, 
 especially the essay called *'The National Church as a 
 Federal Union." He pointed out the inconsistency 
 of a Church priding itself, simultaneously, both on 
 its rigorous uniformity and on the width of the range 
 of its belief; and says that while the Acts of Uni- 
 formity remain, the work of the Church will be 
 honeycombed by the canker of unveracity and self- 
 sophistication. 
 
 I will not repeat his arguments and proposals, for 
 whether those particular proposals are hopeless or 
 not, the spirit of his vision of the unity of Christen- 
 dom — the longing to see the various folds all one 
 flock, in accordance with the parting prayer of Christ, 
 
140 CORPORATE WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 *'for them which shall believe on me . . . that they 
 all may be one" — remains as real as ever. Moreover, 
 many of the non-established Churches are riper for 
 union among themselves now than they were even a 
 short time ago; and I will quote the concluding words 
 of the preface to the volume containing Martineau's 
 ecclesiastical essays: 
 
 "I cannot withdraw a protest, however hopeless 
 it may seem, against allowing the Christian Church 
 to remain a mere cluster of rival orthodoxies, disown- 
 ing and repeUing each other; while, in the inmost 
 heart of all, secret affections live and pray, with eye 
 upturned to the same Infinite Perfection, and tears 
 let fall for the same universal sorrows." 
 
SECTION III— THE IMMORTALITY OF 
 
 THE SOUL 
 
 The substance of this section was given as the first lecture on the 
 Drew foundation established in connexion with Hackney College, Lon- 
 don, under the presidency of Dr. Forsyth. 
 
 141 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE TRANSITORYj AND THE PERMANENT 
 
 Part I 
 
 "If a man is shut up in a house, the transparency of the windows is 
 an essential condition of his seeing the sky. But it would not be prudent 
 to infer that, if he walked out of the house, he could not see the sky 
 because there was no longer any glass through which he might see it." — 
 M'Taggaet, Some Dogmas of Religion, p. 105. 
 
 DR. M'TAGGART, in his book called Some 
 Dogmas of Religion, from which I have taken 
 the excellent apologue ^ prefixed as a sort of motto to 
 this article, says some things with which I am not able 
 wholly to agree. I should like to deal with these at 
 greater length in some other connexion, but mean- 
 while I will quote one of them. In his chapter on 
 Human Immortality he says that an affirmative an- 
 swer to the question "Has man an immortal soul?" 
 would be absurd. He wishes to maintain that man 
 is a soul rather than that he has one ; because the pos- 
 sessive case would indicate, he says, that the man 
 himself was his body, or was something that died with 
 the body, and that he owned something, not himself, 
 which at death was set free. 
 
 1 This must not be understood as sustaining what Mr. Haldane de- 
 risively calls the "window" theory of the senses, as if they were apertures 
 through which an inner man looked out at an alien universe: a parable 
 must not be pressed unduly. 
 
 143 
 
U4i THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 But if we make the correlative statement, and say 
 that "man has a body,'* surely we are stating an un- 
 deniable truth. And as to what the man himself is — 
 I apprehend that he is a union of soul and body; and 
 that without the one or the other he is incomplete as 
 a man, and becomes something else — a corpse per- 
 haps, a spirit perhaps, or it may be both. But 
 whereas the two were necessarily united during the 
 man's life, death separates them; and the final pro- 
 duct, whatever it is, can be described as "man" no 
 longer. Hence the form of the question preferred 
 by Dr. M'Taggart, ''Are men immortal?" does not 
 seem to me so appropriate as the more popular and 
 antique form, "Is the soul immortal?" For surely 
 without hesitation everybody must give to his ques- 
 tion, about man, the answer: "Not wholly," or "Not 
 every part of him." Part of what constitutes human 
 nature is certainly mortal. On one side man un- 
 doubtedly belongs to the animal kingdom, and flour- 
 ishes on this planet, the Earth, by aid of particles of 
 terrestrial matter which he utilises for that purpose. 
 
 By the soul, then, we must mean that part of man 
 which is dissociated from the body at death : that part 
 which is characteristic of a living man as distinct from 
 a corpse. It may be said that it is really more an 
 inter-relation than a part, and that this inter-relation 
 is what is meant by vitality ; so that it has been roundly 
 asserted that the apparently disappeared "vitality" is 
 a nonentity or figment of the imagination, and that to 
 speak of it as still existing is like speaking of the 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT 145 
 
 "horologity" of a clock which someone has smashed 
 with a hammer. 
 
 Very well, admitting that vitahty is a mere relation 
 between the body and something else, it is just the 
 nature of this "something else" that we are discussing; 
 and it is no help to start by assuming that this dissoci- 
 ated and perhaps imaginary portion is the man him- 
 self, any more than it is helpful to start with the 
 equally gratuitous assumption that the visible and 
 tangible body is the man himself. 
 
 The vanished constituent with its attributes may 
 turn out to be more intimately characteristic of, and 
 essential to, the man's real nature and existence, than 
 is the material instrument or organ which has been 
 discarded without having disappeared: they may turn 
 out to have a more permanent and therefore a more 
 real existence than the temporary vehicle which served 
 to manifest those attributes and properties during 
 their short tenure of earth life; they may be more es- 
 pecially the seat of his personahty and individuality; 
 • — but those are just the things which are subject- 
 matter for debate, and they must not be postulated a 
 'priori. 
 
 As a matter of nomenclature, I want to discrimi- 
 nate between the term "vitality" and the term "hf e" ; 
 to use the former as signifying a union or relation be- 
 tween the body and something else, and the latter to 
 denote the unknown entity which by interaction with 
 material particles is responsible for their vitality. 
 True, hf e, thus defined, is a portion or partial aspect 
 
146 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 of what is often spoken of as "soul," but the term life 
 can be used by many to whom some of the associations 
 of the more comprehensive term are objectionable. 
 
 The first simple and important truth that must be 
 insisted on, is the commonplace but often ignored and 
 even denied fact, that there is nothing immortal or 
 persistent about the material instrument of our pres- 
 ent senses, except the atoms of which it is composed. 
 
 Any notion that these same atoms will at some 
 future date be re-collected and united with the dis- 
 sociated and immaterial portion, so as to constitute 
 once more the complete man as he appeared here on 
 earth, who is thereafter to last for ever, — any notion 
 of that sort, though most unfortunately believed, or 
 at least taught, by one great branch of the Christian 
 Church, is a superstition, not by any means yet really 
 and thoroughly extinct or without influence on senti- 
 ment, even in quarters where it may be denied in 
 words. It is too much to expect that is should be so 
 extinct. 
 
 Nevertheless, the teaching of natural science is in 
 accordance with the teaching of common sense in this 
 matter. The present body is wholly composed of ter- 
 restrial particles; it consists of atoms of matter col- 
 lected from food and air, and arranged in a certain 
 complicated and characteristic f<^rm. The elemental 
 atoms are first combined into the complex aggregate 
 called protoplasm, which is an unstable compound 
 whose chemical constitution is at present unknown, 
 but whose property it is to be always in a state of flux: 
 it is not rigid or stagnant or fixed, but is constantly 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT 147 
 
 breaking down into simpler constituents on one side, 
 and constantly being renewed or built up on the other, 
 so that it has a kind of life-history, for a certain per- 
 iod. This period of activity, in any given case, lasts 
 as long as the balance between association and disso- 
 ciation continues. While the balance is tilting in 
 favour of assimilation, we have the period of youth 
 and growth ; when the balance begins to tilt in favour 
 of disintegration, we have the commencement of old 
 age and decay; until at a certain, or rather an uncer- 
 tain, stage, the disintegrating forces gain a final 
 victory, and assimilation wholly and sometimes sud- 
 denly ceases. Then presently and by slow degrees the 
 residue of protoplasm left in the body — ^unless it is 
 speedily incorporated into some other animal or plant 
 ■ — is resolved into similar and simpler compounds, and 
 ultimately into inorganic constituents; and so is re- 
 stored to mother Earth, whence it sprang. 
 
 What, then, can be legitimately meant by the 
 phrase Resurrection of the body? Well it is highly 
 desirable to disentangle the element of truth which 
 underlies ancient beliefs and is the condition of their 
 durability; and, whatever may be the case with other 
 forms of religion, it is clear that Christianity both by 
 its doctrines and its ceremonies rightly emphasises the 
 material aspect of existence. For it is founded upon 
 the idea of incarnation; and its belief in some sort of 
 bodily resurrection is based on the idea that every real 
 personal existence must have a double aspect — not 
 spiritual alone, nor physical alone, but in some way 
 both. Such an opinion, in a refined form, is commoa 
 
148 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 to many systems of philosophy and is by no means 
 out of harmony with science. 
 
 Christianity, therefore, reasonably supplements the 
 mere survival of a discarnate spirit, a homeless wan- 
 derer or melancholy ghost, with the warm and com- 
 fortable clothing of something that may legitimately 
 be spoken of as a "body" ; that is to say it postulates 
 a supersensually appreciable vehicle or mode of mani- 
 festation, fitted to subserve the needs of future ex- 
 istence as our bodies subserve the needs of terrestrial 
 life: an etherial or other entity constituting the per- 
 sistent "other aspect," and fulfilling some of the func- 
 tions which the atoms of terrestrial matter are con- 
 strained to fulfil now. And we may assume, as con- 
 sonant with or even as part of Christianity, the doc- 
 trine of the dignity and sacramental character of some 
 physical or quasi-material counterpart of every spirit- 
 ual essence. 
 
 But though some such connexion is essential, any] 
 actual instance of it may be accidental and temporary. 
 Take our present incarnation as an example. We 
 display ourselves to mankind in the garb of certain 
 clothes, artificially constructed of animal and vegeta- 
 ble materials, and in the form of a certain material 
 organism, put together by processes of digestion and 
 assimilation and likewise composed of terrestrial ma- 
 terials. The source of these chemical compounds is 
 evidently not important ; nor is their special character 
 maintained. Whether they formed part of sheep or 
 birds or fish or plants, they are assimilated and be- 
 come part of us ; being arranged b;^ our subconscious 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT ug 
 
 activities and vital processes into appropriate form, 
 just as truly as other materials are consciously woven 
 into garments, no matter what their origin. JNIore- 
 over, just as our clothes wear out and require darning 
 and patching, so our bodies wear out; the particles 
 are in continual flux, each giving place to others and 
 being constantly discarded and renewed. The identity 
 of the actual or instantaneous body is therefore an 
 affair of no importance: the body which finally dies 
 is no more fully representative of the individual than 
 any of the other bodies which have gradually been dis- 
 carded en route: there is no reason why it should per- 
 sist any more than they: the individuality, if there is 
 one, must lie deeper than any particular body, and 
 must belong to whatever it is which put the particles 
 together in this shape and not another. 
 
 There is nothing at all similar to this automatic de- 
 cay and replacement, this preservation of form amid 
 diversity of particles, in the mechanism of a clock. 
 All that its *'horologity" could mean would be the 
 special assemblage or grouping of parts which enables 
 it to fulfil certain functions till it wears out, or so 
 long as its worn parts are periodically replaced by the 
 clockmaker. The "vitalit}^" of an organism means 
 this and more, for it can replace its own worn parts. 
 A clock has nothing of personal identity, it is not a 
 good illustration of a living organism. The identity 
 of a river is a much closer analogy ; and many are the 
 associations which have accordingly gathered round 
 the names "Tiber," "Ganges," "Nile." Rivers have 
 always had attributed to them a kind of poetic per- 
 
150 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 sonality, though no one can have really supposed them 
 to possess genuine life. 
 
 I wish here to make a short digression in order to 
 say that the old and true statement that "everything 
 flows and nothing is stagnant," thus conspicuously ex- 
 emplified by the material basis of life, need not in the 
 least signify, as it is sometime3 taken to signify, that 
 everything is evanescent and nothing is permanent; 
 still less than everything is fanciful and nothing is 
 real. The ancient aphorism of the inspired Hera- 
 clitus makes a statement about existence which is 
 vitally and comprehensively true; and it is a truth 
 which constitutes the keynote of evolution. 
 
 To return. The more frankly and clearly the truth 
 about the body is realised, namely, that the body is a 
 flowing and constantly changing episode in material 
 history, having no more identity than has a river, no 
 identity whatever in its material constitution, but only 
 in its form, — identity only in the personal expression 
 or manifestation which is achieved through the agency 
 of a fresh and constantly differing sequence of ma- 
 terial particles, — the more frankly all this is reahsed, 
 the better for our understanding of most of the prob- 
 lems of life and being. 
 
 The body is the instrument or organ of the soul: 
 and in its special form and aggregation is certainly 
 temporary, — exceedingly temporary, for in the most 
 durable cases it lasts only about a thousand months — • 
 a mere instant in the life-history of a planet. 
 
 But if the body is thus trivial and temporary, 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT 151 
 
 though while it lasts most beautiful and useful and 
 wonderful, what is it that puts it together and keeps 
 it active and retains it fairly constant through all the 
 vicissitudes of climate and condition, and through all 
 the fluctuations of material constitution? 
 
 For remember that we are now not dealing with the 
 human body alone. All animals have bodies and so 
 have plants. All that has been said, of the tem- 
 porary character of the material aggregate animated 
 by life, applies to a vast variety of organisms, many 
 of which can be encountered on the earth: not to speak 
 of the myriads of other worlds. 
 
 What causes the very same particles to be incor- 
 porated first into the form of a blade of grass, then 
 into the form of a sheep, then into the form of a man ; 
 then into the form of some law invertebrates — "politic 
 worms" (for whose existence, however, in normal 
 cases there is, I believe, no biological authority), — 
 then perhaps into a bird, then once more into vegeta- 
 tion — perhaps a tree? What is it that combines and 
 arranges the particles, so that if absorbed by root or 
 leaves they correspond to and form the tissue of an 
 oak, if picked up by talons, they help to feed the mus- 
 cles of an eagle, if cooked for dinner, they enter into 
 the nerves and brain of a man? What is the control- 
 ling entity in each case, which causes each to have its 
 own form and not another, and preserves the form 
 constant amid the widest diversity of particles? 
 
 We call it life, we call it soul, we call it by various 
 names, and we do not know what it is. But common 
 
152 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 sense rebels against its being "nothing"; nor has any 
 genuine science presumed to declare that it is purely* 
 imaginary. 
 
 Let us now, therefore, try to define what we mean 
 by "soul," though in our necessary ignorance the task 
 is not easy. The term is indeed so ambiguous that 
 many may think it is better avoided altogether; but 
 the more precise term "mind" is too narrow and exclu- 
 sive for our present purpose. 
 
 The following definition may sufficiently represent 
 my present meaning: The soul is that controlling 
 and guiding principle which is responsible for our per- 
 sonal expression and for the construction of the body, 
 under the restrictions of physical condition and an- 
 cestry. In its higher development it includes also 
 feeling and intelligence and will, and is the store- 
 house of mental experience. The body is its instru- 
 ment or organ, enabling it to receive and to convey 
 physical impressions, and to affect and be affected by 
 matter and energy. 
 
 When the body is destroyed, therefore, the soul dis- 
 appears from physical ken ; when the body is impaired, 
 its function is interfered with, and the soul's physical 
 reaction becomes feeble and unsatisfactory. Thus 
 has arisen the popular misconception that the soul of 
 a slain person or of a cripple or ]3aralytic has been des- 
 troyed or damaged; whereas only its instrument of 
 manifestation need have been affected. The kind of 
 evils which really assault and hurt the soul belong to 
 a different category. 
 
 It may be said that, in so far as soul is responsiblq 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT 15S 
 
 for bodily shape, soul seems identical with the princi- 
 ple of life^, and that all living things must possess 
 some rudiment of soul. 
 
 Well, for myself, I do not see how to draw a hard- 
 and-fast distinction between one form of life and 
 another. All are animated by something which does 
 not belong to the realm of physics and chemistry, but 
 lies outside their province, though it interacts with the 
 material entities of their realm. Life is not matter, 
 nor is it energy, it is a guiding and directing prin- 
 ciple ; and when considered as incorporated in a certain 
 organism, it, and all that appertains to it, may well 
 be called the soul or constructive and controlling 
 element in that organism. 
 
 The soul in this sense is related to the organism in 
 somewhat the same way as the "Logos" is related to 
 the universe ; it is that without which it does not exist, 
 that which vivifies and constructs, or composes and in- 
 forms, the whole. 
 
 Moreover, in the higher organisms the soul con- 
 spicuously has lofty potentialities ; it not only includes 
 what is connoted by the term "mind," but it begins to 
 acquire some of the character of "spirit"; by which 
 means it becomes related to the Divine Being. Soul 
 appears to be the link between "spirit" and "matter" ; 
 and, according to its grade, it may be chiefly associ- 
 ated with one or with the other of these two great as- 
 pects of the universe. 
 
 Now let us consider what is meant by Immortality. 
 Is there anything that is not subject to death and an- 
 
154 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 nihilation? Can we predicate immortality about any- 
 thing? Everything is subject to change, but are all 
 things subject to death? Without change there could 
 be no activity, and the universe would be stagnant; 
 but without death it is not so clear that its progress 
 would be obstructed; unless death be only a sort of 
 change. 
 
 But is it not a sort of change? Consider some ex- 
 amples : When a piece of coal is burnt and brought 
 to an aj)parent end, the particles of long-fossilised 
 wood are not destroyed; they enter into the atmos- 
 phere as gaseous constituents, and the long-locked- 
 up solar energy is released from its potential form 
 and appears once more as light and heat. The burn- 
 ing of the coal is a kind of resurrection ; and yet it is 
 a kind of death too, and to the superficial eye nothing 
 is left but ashes. 
 
 Take next the destruction of a picture or a statue, 
 let it be torn to pieces or mashed to powder: there iis 
 nothing to suggest resurrection about that, and the 
 beautiful form embodied in the material has disap- 
 peared. 
 
 Such a dissolution is a more serious matter, and 
 may be the result of a really malicious act. It is per- 
 haps the nearest approach to genuine destruction that 
 is possible to man, and in some cases represents the 
 material concomitant of a hideous crime. True, noth- 
 ing material is destroyed, the particles weigh just as 
 much as before ; yet the expression is gone, the beauty 
 is defaced, an idea perhaps is lost. 
 
 But, after all, the idea was never really in the 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT 155 
 
 marble or in the pigments ; it was embodied or incar- 
 nate or displayed by them, in a sense, but it was not 
 really there. It was in the mind of the artist who 
 constructed the work, and it entered the mind of the 
 spectators who beheld it — at least of those who had 
 the requisite perceptive faculty; but it was never in 
 the stone at all. The inert material, from the impress 
 of mind it had received, was able to call out and liber- 
 ate in a kindred mind some of the original feelings and 
 thoughts which had gone to fashion it. Without a 
 perceptive faculty, without a sympathetic mind, the 
 material was powerless. Set up in, or sent to, a 
 world inhabited only by lower animals, it would con- 
 vey no message whatever, it would be wholly mean- 
 ingless; just as a piece of manuscript would be, in 
 such a world, though it contained the divinest poem 
 ever written. 
 
 Nevertheless, by the supposed act of vandalism a 
 certain incarnation of beauty has been lost to the 
 world. Though even so it is not destroyed out of the 
 universe : it remains the possession of the artist and of 
 those privileged to feel along with him. 
 
 Consider next the destruction of a tree or of an ani- 
 mal. Here again the particles remain as many as be- 
 fore, it is only their arrangement that is altered; the 
 matter is conserved but has lost its shape ; the energy 
 is constant in quantity but has changed its form. 
 What has disappeared? The thing that has disap- 
 peared is the life — the life which appeared to be in 
 the tree or the animal, the life which had composed or 
 constructed it by aid of sunshine and atmosphere, and 
 
156 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 was manifested by it. Its incarnate form has now 
 gone — no more will that life be displayed amidst its 
 old surroundings, it has disappeared from our ken; 
 apparently it has disappeared from the planet. Has 
 it gone out of existence altogether ? 
 
 If it were really generated de novo, created out of 
 nothing, at the birth of the animal or of the tree, we 
 should be entitled to assume that at death it may have 
 returned to the nonentity whence it came. 
 
 But why nonentity? What do we know of nonen- 
 tity? Is it a reasonable or conceivable idea? Things 
 when they vanish are only hidden. And so con- 
 versely: it is readily intelligible that some existence, 
 some bodily presentation, can be evoked out of a 
 hidden or imperceptible or latent or potential exist- 
 ence, and be made actual and perceptible and what we 
 call real. Instances of that sort are constantly oc- 
 curring. It occurs when a composer produces a piece 
 of music, it occurs when an artisan constructs a piece 
 of furniture, it occurs when a spider spins a web, and 
 when the atmosphere deposits dew. But what ex- 
 ample can we think of where existence is created out 
 of nonentity, where nothing turns into something? 
 We can think of plenty of examples of change, of or- 
 ganisation, of something apparently complex and 
 highly developed arising out of a germ apparently 
 simple; but there must always be at least a seed, or 
 nothing will arise ; nothing can come out of nothing : 
 something must always have its origin in something. 
 
 A radium atom is an element possessing in itself 
 the seeds of its own destruction, Every now and then 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT 157 
 
 it explodes and fires off a portion of itself. This can 
 occur several times in succession, and finally it seems 
 to become inert and to cease to be radium or anything 
 like it; it is thought by some to have become lead, 
 while the particles thrown off have become helium, or 
 occasionally neon, or sometimes argon. Let us sup- 
 pose that. We cannot stop there, we are bound to go 
 on to ask what was the origin of the radium itself. 
 If it explodes itself to pieces in the course of a few 
 thousand years, why does any radium still exist? 
 How is it being born? Does it spring into existence 
 out of nothing, or has it some parent? And if it has 
 a parent, what was the origin of that parent ? 
 
 Never in physical science do we surmise for a 
 moment that something suddenly springs into being 
 from previous non-existence. All that we perceive 
 can be accounted for by changes of aggregation, by 
 assemblage and dispersion. Of material aggregates 
 we can trace the history, as we can trace the history of 
 continents and islands, of suns and planets and stars ; 
 we can say, or try to say, whence they arose and what 
 they will become ; but never do we state that they will 
 vanish into nothingness, nor do we ever conjecture 
 that they arose from nothing. 
 
 It is true that in religion we seek to trace tilings 
 farther back still, and ultimately say that everything 
 arose from God ; and there, perforce, our chain of ex- 
 istence, our links of antecedence and sequence must 
 cease. But to allow such a statement to act as an in- 
 tellectual refuge can only be a concession to human 
 infirmity. Everything truly arose from God; but 
 
158 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 there is nothing specially illuminating in such a state- 
 ment as that, for everything is in God now ; and every- 
 thing will continue to be animated and sustained by 
 God to all eternity. It is not legitimate explicitly to 
 introduce the idea of God to explain the past alone; 
 the term applies equally to the present and to the 
 future. 
 
 So the assertion just made, though true enough, is 
 only a mode of saying that what was in the beginning, 
 is now, and ever shall be, world without end. This 
 is a religious mode of expressing our conviction of the 
 uniformity of the Eternal Character, but it is not a 
 statement which adds to our scientific information. 
 iWe may not be able to understand Nature, we are 
 certainly unable to comprehend God. If we say that 
 Nature is an aspect of the Divine Being, we must be 
 speaking truly ; but that only strengthens our present 
 argument as to its durability and permanence, for we 
 shall certainly not thus be led to attribute to anything 
 so qualified any power of either jumping into or 
 jumping out of existence. To make the statement 
 that Nature is an aspect of the Godhead is explicitly 
 to postulate eternity for every really existing thing, 
 and to say that what we call death is not annihilation 
 but only change. Birth is change. Death is change. 
 A happy change, perhaps ; a melancholy change, per- 
 haps. That all depends upon circumstances and 
 special cases, and on the point of view from which 
 things are regarded; but, anyhow, an inevitable 
 change. 
 
 I want to make the distinct assertion that no really 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT 159 
 
 existing thing perishes, but only changes its form. 
 
 Physical science teaches us this, clearly enough, con- 
 cerning matter and energy: the two great entities with 
 which it has to do. And there is no likelihood of any 
 great modification in this teaching. It maj^ perhaps, 
 be induced in the long-run to modify the form of 
 statement and to assert conservation and real existence 
 of ether and motion (or, perhaps only, of ether in 
 motion) rather than of matter and energy. That is 
 quite possible, but the apparent variation of statement 
 is only a variant in form; its essence and meaning are 
 the same, except that it is now more general and would 
 allow even the atoms of matter themselves to have 
 their day and cease to be; being resolved, perhaps, into 
 electricity, and that into some hitherto unimagined 
 mode of motion of the ether. But all this is far from 
 being accepted at present, and need not here be con- 
 sidered. 
 
 The distinction between what is transitory and 
 what is permanent is quite clear. Evanescence is to 
 be stated concerning every kind of "system" and ag- 
 gregation and grouping. A crowd assembles, and 
 then it disperses: it is a crowd no more. A cloud 
 forms in the sky, and soon once more the sky is blue 
 again; the cloud has died. Dew forms on a leaf: a 
 little while, and it has gone again — gone apparently 
 into nothingness, like the cloud. But we know better, 
 both for cloud and dew. In an imperceptible form it 
 was and soon into an imperceptible form it will ao-ain 
 have passed; but meanwhile there is the dewdrop 
 (glistening in the sun, reflecting all the movements of 
 
160 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 the neighbouring world, and contributing its little 
 share to the beauty and the serviceableness of creation. 
 
 Its perceptible or incarnate existence is temporary. 
 As a drop it was born, and as a drop it dies; but as 
 aqueous vapour it persists : an intrinsically imperisha- 
 ble substance, with all the properties persisting which 
 enabled it to condense into drop or cloud. Even it, 
 therefore, has the attribute of immortality. 
 
 So, then, what about life? Can that be a nonentity; 
 which has built up particles of carbon and hydrogen 
 and oxygen into the form of an oak or an eagle or a 
 man? Is it something which is really nothing; and 
 soon shall it be manifestly the nothing that an ig- 
 norant and purblind creature may suppose it to be? 
 
 Not so; nor is it so with intellect and consciousness 
 and will, nor with memory and love and adoration, 
 nor all the manifold activities which at present 
 strangely interact with matter and appeal to our 
 bodily senses and terrestrial knowledge; they are not 
 nothing, nor shall they ever vanish into nothingness 
 or cease to be. They did not arise with us : they never 
 did spring into being; they are as eternal as the God- 
 head itself, and in the eternal Being they shall endure 
 for ever. 
 
 Though earth and man were gone, 
 And suns and universes ceased to be, 
 
 And Thou were left alone, 
 Every existence would exist in Thee." 
 
 So sang Emily Bronte on her deathbed, in a poem 
 which Mr. Haldane quotes in full, in his Gifford Lec- 
 tures, as containing true philosophy. And, surely 
 
THE TRANSITORY AND THE PERMANENT l6l 
 
 in this respect there is a unity running through the 
 universe, and a kinship between the human and the 
 Divine; witness the eloquent ejaculation of Carlyle: 
 
 *'What, then, is man! What, then, is man! 
 
 "He endures but for an hour, and is crushed before 
 the moth. Yet in the being and in the working of a 
 faithful man is there already (as all faith from the 
 beginning, gives assurance) a something that pertains 
 not to this wild death-element of Time ; that triumphs 
 over Time, and is, and will be, when Time shall be no 
 more." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 
 
 Part II 
 
 "After death the soul possesses self-consciousness, otherwise it would 
 be the subject of spiritual death, which has already been disproved. 
 With this self-consciousness necessarily remains personality and the 
 consciousness of personal identity."— Kant, quoted by Heinze. 
 
 IN the preceding chapter on "The Transitory and 
 the Permanent," permanence was claimed for the 
 essence, the intrinsic reahty, the soul of anything; and 
 transitoriness for its bodily presentment — that is, for 
 all such things as special groupings, arrangements, 
 systems, which are liable to break up into their con- 
 stituent elements, and cease to cohere into a united 
 and organised aggregate. The only real destruction 
 known to us, in fact, is this disintegration or breaking 
 up of an assemblage : things themselves never spring 
 into or out of existence. All we can cause or can ob- 
 serve is variety of motion — never creation or annihila- 
 tion. And even the motion is transferred from one 
 body to another, and transformed in the process ; it is 
 not generated from nothing, nor can it be destroyed. 
 Special groupings and appearances are transitory; it 
 is their intrinsic and constructive essence which is per- 
 manent. 
 
 But then, what about personality, individuahty, our 
 
 162 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 16S 
 
 own character and self? Are these akin to the tem- 
 porary groupings which shall be dissolved, or are they; 
 among the substantial reahties that shall endure? 
 
 Let us see how to define the idea of personality or 
 personal and individual character ; — A memory, a con- 
 sciousness, and a will, in so far as they form a consis- 
 tent harmonious whole, constitute a personaUty ; which 
 thus has relations with the past, the present, and the 
 future. And we shall argue that personality or indi- 
 viduality itself dominates and transcends all temporal 
 modes of expression, and so is essentially eternal 
 wherever it exists. 
 
 The Hfe of an insect or a tree may in some sort — 
 must, one would think, in some sort — ^persist, but 
 surely not its personal character! Why not? Be- 
 cause, presumably, it has none. We can hardly im- 
 agine that such a thing has any individuality or per- 
 sonality : it appears to us to be merely one of a group, 
 a mere unit in a world of being, without personality 
 of its own. That is what I assume, though I do not 
 dogmatise; nor do I consider it certain, for some of 
 the higher animals. Anyhow we may at once admit 
 that, for all those things which only share in a gen- 
 eral life, the temporarily separated portion of that 
 general life will return, undifferentiated and unident- 
 ified, to its central store: just as happens in the bet- 
 ter-understood categories of matter and energy. 
 
 That is simple enough. But suppose that some in- 
 dividual character, some personality, does exist. 
 Suppose that not only life, but intellect and emotion 
 and consciousness and will are all associated with a 
 
164 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 certain physical organism; and suppose that these 
 things have a real and undeniable existence — an ex- 
 istence strengthened and compacted by experience 
 and suffering and joy, till it is no longer only a func- 
 tion of the material aggregate in which for a time it 
 is embodied, but belongs to a universe of spirit closely 
 related to immanent and transcendent Diety; what 
 then? If all that really exists, in the highest sense, is 
 immortal, we have only to ask whether our person- 
 ality, our character, our self, is sufficiently individual, 
 sufficiently characteristic, sufficiently developed, — in 
 a word, sufficiently real; for if it is, there can then be 
 no doubt of its continuance. It may return, indeed, 
 in some sense, to the central store, but not without 
 identity; its individual character will be preserved. 
 
 Conservation of Value 
 
 Professor Hoffding of Copenhagen goes farther 
 than this. In his book on the Philosophy of Religion 
 he teaches that what he calls the axiom of "the con- 
 servation of value" is the fundamental ingredient in 
 all religions — the foundation without which none of 
 them could stand. In his view, as a philosopher, 
 agreeing therein with Browning and other poets, no 
 real Value or Good is ever lost. The whole progress 
 and course of evolution is to increase and intensify 
 the Valuable — ^that which "avails" or is serviceable 
 for highest purposes, — and it does so by bringing 
 out that which was potential or latent, so as to make 
 it actual and real. Ileal it was, no doubt, all the time 
 in some sense, as an oak is implicit in an acorn or a 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITYi 165 
 
 flower in a bud, but in process of time it unfolds and 
 adds to the realised Value of the universe. 
 
 To carry out this idea we might define immortality; 
 thus: 
 
 Immortality is the persistence of the essential and 
 the real: it applies to things which the universe has 
 gained — things which, once acquired, cannot be let 
 go. It is an example of the conservation of Value. 
 The tendency of evolution is to increase the actuality 
 of Value, converting it from a potential into an avail- 
 able form. 
 
 Value may, however, be something more than 
 merely constant in quantity, according to Professor 
 OHoffding. Experience of evolution suggests that 
 it must increase. Certainly it passes from latent to 
 more patent forms; and though it sometimes swings 
 back, yet, on the whole, progress seems upward. Is 
 it not legitimate to conjecture that while Matter and 
 Energy neither increase nor decrease, but only 
 change in form; and while life too perhaps is con- 
 stant in quantity, though alternating into and out of 
 incarnation according as material organisms are put 
 together or worn out; yet that some of the higher 
 attributes of existence, — love, shall we say, joy per- 
 haps, what may be generalised as Good generally, or 
 as Availability or Value, — may actually increase: 
 their apparent alternations being really the curves of 
 an upward-tending spiral? It is an optimistic faith, 
 but it is the faith of the poets and seers. Whatever 
 evil days may fall upon an individual or a nation, or 
 even sometimes on a whole planet, yet the material is 
 
166 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 subordinate to the spiritual; and if the spiritual per- 
 sists, it cannot be stationary: it must surely rise in the 
 3cale of existence. For evil is that which retards or 
 frustrates development, in any part of the universe 
 subject to its sway, and, accordingly, its kingdom 
 cannot stand: evil contains an essentially suicidal ele- 
 ment, so that on the whole the realm of the good must 
 tend to increase, the reahn of the bad to diminish. 
 
 "No existing universe can tend on the whole to- 
 wards contraction and decay; because that would fos- 
 ter annihilation, and so any incipient attempt would 
 not have survived; consequently an actually existing 
 and flowing universe must on the whole cherish de- 
 velopment, expansion, growth: and so tend towards 
 infinity rather than towards zero. The problem is 
 therefore only a variant of the general problem of 
 existence. Given existence, of a non-stagnant kind, 
 and ultimate development must be its law. Good and 
 evil can be defined in terms of development and decay 
 respectively. This may be regarded as part of a 
 revelation of the nature of God" {The Substance of 
 Faith) . 
 
 From this point of view the law of evolution is that 
 Good shall on the whole increase in the universe with 
 the process of the suns: that immortality itself is a 
 special case of a more general Law, namely, that in 
 the whole universe nothing really finally perishes that 
 is worth keeping, that a thing once attained is not 
 thrown away. 
 
 The general mutability and mortality in the world 
 need not perturb us. The things we see perishing 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 167 
 
 and dying are not of the same kind as those which 
 we hope will endure. Death and decay, as we know 
 them, are interesting physical processes, which may 
 be studied and understood; they have seized the im- 
 agination of man, and govern his emotions, perhaps 
 unduly, but there is nothing in them to suggest ulti- 
 mate destruction, or the final triumph of ill ; they are 
 necessary correlatives to conception and birth into a 
 material world; they do not really contradict an opti- 
 mistic view of existence. 
 
 So far as we can tell, there need be no real waste, 
 no real loss, no annihilation; but everything suffi- 
 ciently valuable, be it beauty, artistic achievement, 
 knowledge, unselfish affection, may be thought of as 
 enduring henceforth and for ever if not with an in- 
 dividual and personal existence, yet as part of the 
 eternal Being of God. 
 
 Permanent Element in Man 
 
 And this carries with it the persistence of person- 
 ality in all creatures who have risen to the attainment 
 of God-like faculties, such as self-determination and 
 other attributes which suggest kinship with Deity 
 and make their possessor a member of the Divine 
 family. For whether or not this incipient theory of 
 the conservation of value stand the test of criticism, 
 it is undeniable that, as in the quotation from Carlyle 
 at the end of my last article, seers do not hesitate to 
 attribute permanence and timeless existence to the 
 essential element in man himself. They realise that 
 he is one with the universe, that he may come to be in 
 
168 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUU 
 
 tune with the infinite, and that his spasmodic efforts 
 towards a state wherein the average will rise to a level 
 now attained by only the few, are part of the evolu- 
 tionary travailing of the whole creation. "All 
 omens," says Myers, "point towards the steady con- 
 tinuance of just such labour as has already taught us 
 all we know. Perhaps, indeed, in this complex of in- 
 terpenetrating spirits our own effort is no individual, 
 no transitory, thing. That which lies at the root of 
 each of us lies at the root of the Cosmos too. Our 
 struggle is the struggle of the Universe itself; and 
 the very Godhead finds fulfilment through our up- 
 ward-striving souls" (Myers, Human Personality ^ ii. 
 p. 277). 
 
 To return to the problem of individual existence 
 and to a more prosaic atmosphere. What we are 
 claiming is no less than this — ^that, whereas it is cer- 
 tain that the present body cannot long exist without 
 the soul, it is quite possible and indeed necessary for 
 the soul to exist without the present body. We base 
 this claim on the soul's manifest transcendence, on its 
 genuine reality, and on the general law of the per- 
 sistence of all real existence. 
 
 Recognition of the permanent element in man and 
 of the probability of his individual survival, — that 
 is to say, of the persistence of intelligence and mem- 
 ory after the destruction of the brain — if such re- 
 cognition is to be of the greatest use to mankind, 
 should be based on general considerations open and 
 familiar to all, and be independent of special study 
 with results verified by only a few. But if general 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 169 
 
 arguments are insufficient, and if the reader has pa- 
 tience with a more specific line of investigation, then 
 I submit that the question can also be studied by the 
 aid of observation and experiment, and that a con- 
 viction of persistence of personality can be strength- 
 ened by the record and discovery of specific facts. 
 
 Expression of Thought in Terms of Motion 
 
 The brain is definitely the hnk between the psy- 
 chical and the physical, which in themselves belong to 
 different orders of being. In the psychical region 
 ^'thought" is the dominant reaUty; in the physical 
 "motion." The bodily organism mysteriously enables 
 one to be translated in terms of the other. Without 
 some connecting mechanism, such as that afforded 
 by brain, nerve, and muscle, the things we call intelli- 
 gence and will however real, would be incapable of 
 moving the smallest particle of matter. Now, since 
 it is solely by moving matter that we can operate at all 
 in the material world, or can make ourselves known 
 to our fellows, — for in the last resort speech and 
 writing and every action reduce themselves to muscu- 
 lar movement, — and since death inhibits this power, 
 by breaking the link between soul and body, death 
 naturally stops all manifestation, interrupts all inter- 
 course, and so has been superficially thought to be the 
 annihilation of the soul. 
 
 But such a conclusion is quite unwarranted. Exist- 
 ence need not make itself conspicuous: things are 
 always difficult to discover when they make no im- 
 pression on the senses: the human race is hardly yet 
 
17a THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 aware, for instance, of the Ether of space; and there 
 may be a multitude of other things towards which it 
 is in the same predicament. 
 
 Superficially, nothing is easier than to claim that 
 just as when the brain is damaged the memory fails, 
 so when the brain is destroyed the memory ceases. 
 The reasoning is so plausible and obvious, so within 
 reach of the meanest capacity, that those who use it 
 against adversaries of any but the lowest intelligence 
 might surely assume that it had already occurred to 
 them and exhibited its weak point. The weak point 
 in the argument is its tacit assumption that what is 
 non-manifest is non-existent; that smoothing out the 
 traces of guilt is equivalent to annihilating a crime; 
 and that by destroying the mechanism of interaction 
 between the spiritual and the material aspects of ex- 
 istence you must necessarily be destroying one or 
 other of those aspects themselves. 
 
 The brain is our present organ of thought. 
 Granted; but it does not follow that brain controls 
 and dominates thought, that inspiration is a physio- 
 logical process, or that every thinking creature in the 
 universe must possess a brain. Really we know too 
 little about the way the brain thinks, if it can prop- 
 erly be said to think at all, to be able to make any such 
 assertion as that. We terrestrial animals are all as it 
 were one family, and our hereditary links with the 
 psychical universe consist of the physiological 
 mechanism called brain and nerve. But these most 
 interesting material structures are our servants, not 
 our masters: we have to train them to serve our pur- 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 171 
 
 poses; and if one side of the brain is injured, the 
 other side may be trained to act instead. Destroy cer- 
 tain parts of the brain completely, however, and con- 
 nexion between the psychic and the material regions 
 is for us severed. True ; but cutting off or damaging 
 communication is not the same as destroying or dam- 
 aging the communicator: nor is smashing an organ 
 equivalent to killing the organist. When the At- 
 lantic cable broke, in 1858, intimate communication 
 between England and America was destroyed; but 
 that fact did not involve the destruction of either 
 America or England. It appears to be necessary to 
 emphasise this elementary matter, because the con- 
 trary contention is supposed to cut straight at the root 
 of every kind of general argument for survival hith- 
 erto adduced. 
 
 But after all, it may be said, the above contention 
 proves nothing either way; granted that breach of 
 communication does not mean destruction of terminal 
 stations, it leaves the question as to their persistence 
 an open one. Yes, it does ; it leaves persistence to be 
 sustained by general arguments, such as those of the 
 preceding chapter, which were directed to establish- 
 ing the priority in essence of the spiritual to the ma- 
 terial, of idea to bodily presentation; and to be sup- 
 ported by any kind of additional and special experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Argument from Telepathy 
 
 First of all, then, we must ask, are we quite sure 
 that the breach of intercourse is as clear and definite 
 
172 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 and complete as had been supposed? We have no 
 glimmering conception of the process by which men- 
 tal activity operates on the matter of the brain ; so we 
 cannot be sure that its influence is limited entirely to 
 the brain material belonging to its own special organ- 
 ism. It may conceivably be able to affect other brains 
 too, either directly, or indirectly through an imme- 
 diate influence on the mind associated with them. In- 
 telligent communication is normally carried on by 
 means of conventional mechanical movements, calcu- 
 lated to set up special aerial or etherial tremors; 
 which have to be apprehended through sense organs 
 and brain, and interpreted back again into thought. 
 But we are constrained to contemplate the possibility 
 of a more direct method, and to ask, is there ever any 
 direct psychical connection between mind and mind, 
 irrespective of intermediate physical processes? It 
 is a definite though difficult question, to be answered 
 by experience. And an affirmative answer would 
 suggest, among other things, that though individual- 
 ity is dependent upon brain for physical manifesta- 
 tion, it may not be dependent on brain for psychical 
 existence. 
 
 Such independence is difficult to prove directly, in 
 a way convincing to those who approach the subject 
 without previous study, or with prejudices against it; 
 because in the proof, or to produce any recordable 
 impression, a bodily organ — such as brain or muscle 
 — must be used. We are not, and cannot be, com- 
 pletely independent of the body in this earth life ; but 
 we can bring forward facts which seem to indicate 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 173 
 
 an activity specially and peculiarly psychical, and 
 only slightly physical. Of physical modes of com- 
 munication between mind and mind there are many 
 varieties : none of which do we really understand, be- 
 yond a knowledge of their physical details, though 
 we are well accustomed to them all ; but we know of 
 one which appears not to be physical, save at its ter- 
 minals, and which has the appearance of being, in its 
 mode of transmission, exclusively psychical. That is 
 to say, it occurs as if one mind operated directly 
 either on another brain or on another mind across a 
 distance (if distance has any meaning in such a case) ; 
 or as if one mind exerted its influence on another 
 through the conscious intervention of a third mind 
 acting as messenger; or as if mental intercourse were 
 effected unconsciously, through a general nexus of 
 communication — a universal world-mind. All these 
 hypotheses have been suggested at different times by 
 the phenomenon of telepathy; and which of them is 
 nearest the truth it is difficult to say. There are some 
 who think that all are true, and that different means 
 are employed at different times. 
 
 What we can assert is this, that the facts of "tele- 
 pathy," and in a less degree of what is called "clair- 
 voyance," must be regarded as practically estab- 
 lished, in the minds of those who have studied them. 
 There may be, indeed there is, still much doubt about 
 the explanation to be attached to those facts ; there is 
 uncertainty as to their real meaning, and as to 
 whether the idea half-suggested by the word "tele- 
 pathy" is completely correct; but the facts them- 
 
174 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 selves are too numerous and well authenticated to be 
 doubted, — even if we except from our survey the di- 
 rectly experimental cases designed to test and bring 
 to book this strange human faculty. 
 
 Thus telepathy opens a new chapter in science, and 
 is of an importance that cannot be exaggerated. 
 Even alone, it tends mightily to strengthen the argu- 
 ment for transcendence of mind over body, so that 
 we may reasonably expect the one to be capable of 
 existing independently and of surviving the other; 
 though by itself, or in a discarnate condition, it is 
 presumably unable to achieve anything directly on 
 the physical plane. But telepathy is not all. Telep- 
 athy is indeed only the first link in a chain: there 
 are further links, further stages on the road to 
 scientific proof. 
 
 Arguments from Pr^ternormal Psychology 
 
 Have we no facts to go upon, only speculation, 
 concerning the actual persistence of individual mem- 
 ory and consciousness, — of much that characterises a 
 personality — apart from a bodily vehicle? Facts we 
 have; but they are not generally known, nor are they 
 universally accepted: they have still, many of them, 
 to run the gauntlet of scientific criticism even among 
 the few students who take the trouble to study them. 
 Their theory has been worked at pertinaciously, but 
 it is still in a rudimentary stage, and by the mass of 
 scientific men the whole subject is at present ignored, 
 because it seems an elusive and disappointing inquiry, 
 and because there are other fields which are easier of 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 175; 
 
 cultivation and promise more immediate fertility. 
 The chief of the facts to which we can appeal be- 
 long to one of three marked regions : 
 
 First, experiences connected with genius, vision, 
 and dream, extending up to premonition and 
 clairvoyance, — the specially 'psychological re- 
 gion. 
 
 Second, the singular modification of bodily faculty 
 sometimes experienced, — ranging from un- 
 usual extention of sensory and muscular 
 powers, such as hypersesthesia and what is tech- 
 nically known as automatism, up to various 
 grades of what has been described as material- 
 isation; — all which great group of asserted and 
 controverted phenomena may be said to belong 
 to the 'physiological region. 
 
 .Third, the at first sight disconcerting facts con- 
 nected with apparent changes, dislocations and 
 disintegrations, of personality — what we may 
 call the pathological region. 
 
 Concerning all this mass of information, not only 
 is the theory far from distinct, but many of the facts 
 themselves are only sparsely known: they belong to 
 a special branch of study, which, conducted under 
 many difficulties, cannot be properly apprehended 
 at second hand. 
 
 Suffice it therefore to say, that whereas it is quite 
 clear that manifestation of memory and conscious- 
 ness, in a form capable of being appreciated by or 
 demonstrated to us, is evidently not possible without 
 
176 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 a material organism or body of some kind, yet — in 
 the judgment of many students of the subject — a 
 surviving memory or personality, even though dis- 
 carnate, need not be utterly and completely pre- 
 vented from still occasionally operating in our 
 sphere. 
 
 For as it was possible for what, in Chapter VIII., 
 we defined as "soul" to compose and employ an organ 
 suited to itself, out of various kinds of nutriment, 
 so also it appears to be possible, though not without 
 difficulty and extraordinary trouble, for a discarnate 
 entity or psychical unit occasionally to utilise a body 
 constructed by some other similar "soul," and to make 
 an attempt at communication and manifestation 
 through that. It has even been conjectured that by 
 special exertion of psychical power a temporary 
 organ of materialisation can be constructed, presum- 
 ably of organic particles, sufficient to enable some 
 interaction between spirit and matter, and even to 
 display some personal characteristics, through the 
 utilisation of a form partially separate from, though 
 also closely connected with, and as some think even 
 borrowed from, the bodily organism of the auxiliary 
 person known technically as the "medium" of com- 
 munication, whose presence is certainly necessary. 
 In favour of such an occurrence there is much evi- 
 dence, some of it of a weak kind, some of it quite 
 valueless; but again some of it is strong, evidenced 
 by weighing, and vouched for by experienced nat- 
 uralists and observers such as Dr. A. R. Wallace and 
 Sir W. Crookes, as well as by the eminent physi- 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 177 
 
 ologist Professor Richet, and by Professors Schiap- 
 arelli, Lombroso, and other foreign men of science. 
 
 The idea here suggested is admittedly bizarre and 
 at first sight absurd; nevertheless something of the 
 kind has the appearance of being true, in spite of its 
 having been discredited by much professional fraud 
 exercised upon too willing dupes. The phenomenon 
 on which it is based is at any rate a puzzling one, call- 
 ing for further investigation: which must ultimately 
 pursue it into a region quite apart from and beyond 
 the obvious possibilities of fraud ; that is to say, must 
 not only establish it as a fact, if it be a fact, but 
 must ascertain the laws which govern it. 
 
 Argument from Automatism 
 
 More frequently, however, a simpler method, akin 
 to telepathy and to what is commonly known as in- 
 spiration or "possession," is employed; whereby some 
 portion of the brain of "the automatist" appears to 
 be operated upon directly, so as to produce intelHgible 
 statements, in speech or wiiting, often of consider- 
 able length and occasionally in unknown languages; 
 — these messages being, at least in the cases where 
 they are not merely subjective and of Httle interest, 
 apparently irrespective of the ordinary consciousness, 
 and only shghtly sophisticated by the normal mental 
 activity, of the person by whom this organ is usually 
 wielded, and to whom it nominally "belongs." 
 
 The body, in fact, or some part of the body, 
 though usually controlled and directed by the par- 
 ticular psychical agent which has composed and 
 
178 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 grown accustomed to it, can sometimes be found 
 capable of responding to a foreign intelligence, act- 
 ing either telepathically through the mind or telerg- 
 ically by a more direct process straight on the brain. 
 Sometimes the controlhng intelligence belongs to a 
 living person, as in cases of hypnotism; more usually 
 it is an influence emanating from what we must con- 
 sider some portion of the automatist's own larger or 
 subliminal self. Occasionally a person appears able 
 to respond to thoughts or stimuli embedded, as it 
 were, among psycho-physical surroundings in a man- 
 ner at present ill understood and almost incredible; 
 — as if strong emotions could be unconsciously re- 
 corded in matter, so that the deposit shall thereafter 
 affect a sufficiently sensitive organism, and cause sim- 
 ilar emotions to reproduce themselves in its subcon- 
 sciousness, in a manner analogous to the customary 
 conscious interpretation of photographic or phono- 
 graphic records, and indeed of pictures or music and 
 artistic embodiment generally. And lastly, there are 
 people who seem able to respond to a psychical agency 
 apparently related to the surviving portion of intelli- 
 gences now discarnate, in such a way as to suggest 
 that the said intelligences are picking up the thread 
 of their old thoughts, and entering into something like 
 their old surroundings and their old feelings — 
 though often only in a more or less dreamy and semi- 
 entranced condition — for the purpose of conveying 
 hallucinatory or other impressions to those who are 
 still in the completely embodied state. 
 
 It would be a great mistake to assume, without 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 179 
 
 proof, that any given automatic message really 
 emanates from the person to whom it is attributed; 
 and such a generahsation applied to all so-called mes- 
 sages would be grotesquely untrue. But then neither 
 should we be safe in maintaining that none of them 
 have an authentic character, and that they are never 
 in any degree what they purport to be. Tlie elimina- 
 tion of the normal personality of the automatist, and 
 the proof of the supposed communicator's identity, 
 are singularly difficult; but in a few cases the evi- 
 dence for identity is remarkably strong. The sub- 
 stance of the message and the kind of memory dis- 
 played in these cases belong not at all to the brain of 
 the automatist, but clearly to the intelligence of the 
 asserted control : of whose identity and special knowl- 
 edge they are sometimes strongly characteristic. As 
 to the elimination of normal personality, however, 
 it must be admitted that, in all cases, the manner and 
 accidents or accessories of the message are liable to 
 be modified by the material instrument or organ 
 through which the thought or idea is for our in- 
 formation reproduced. The reproduction of a 
 thought in our world appears to demand distinct ef- 
 fort on the part of a transcendental thinker, and it 
 seems to be almost a matter of indifference, or so to 
 speak of accident not determined by the thinker, 
 whether it make its appearance here in the form of 
 speech or of writing, or whether it take the form of a 
 work of art, or of unusual spiritual illumination. 
 This is surely true of orthodox inspiration, as well 
 as of what we are now conjecturing may perhaps be 
 
18(J THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 an attempt at some additional method of arousing 
 ideas in us. Moreover, in both cases, lucidity is only 
 to be expected, and is only obtained, in flashes. The 
 best of us only get flashes of genius now and then, 
 and the experience is seldom unduly prolonged. 
 Why should we expect it to be otherwise? 
 
 There is another aspect of the matter that may be 
 mentioned too. For most of the difficulty of inter- 
 communication we ourselves must be held responsible. 
 Our normal immersion in mundane aflfairs may be 
 very sensible and practical, and is probably essential 
 to earthly progress until our civilisation is rather 
 more consolidated and developed, but it can hardly 
 facilitate conmiunion with another order of existence. 
 Nor is it Hkely that we should be able to appreciate 
 the intimate concerns of that other order, even if it 
 were feasible to convey a detailed account of them. 
 
 It is true that messages are often vague and disap- 
 pointing even when apparently genuine; untrue that 
 they are invariably futile and useless and inappro- 
 priate, — such an assertion could only be made by peo- 
 ple imperfectly acquainted with the facts. In certain 
 cases it is quite clear that a bodily organism has been 
 controlled by something other than its usual and 
 normal intelligence, and in a few cases the identity 
 of the control has been almost crucially established: 
 though that is a matter to be dealt with more tech- 
 nically elsewhere. 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 181 
 
 Subliminal Faculty 
 
 The extension of faculty exhibited during some 
 trance states has suggested that a similar enlarge- 
 ment of memory and consciousness may follow or ac- 
 company our departure from this life, and is partly 
 responsible for the notion of the existence of a sub- 
 liminal or normally unconscious portion of our total 
 personality. On this subject I can conveniently refer 
 to the summary contained in Myers' chapters on 
 ^^Disintegrations of Personality" and on "Genius," 
 in vol. i. of his Human Personality. This doctrine — 
 the theory of a larger and permanent personahty of 
 which the conscious self is only a fraction in process 
 of individuahsation, the fraction being greater or less 
 according to the magnitude of the individual, — this 
 doctrine, as a working hypothesis, illuminates many 
 obscure facts, and serves as a thread through an other- 
 wise bewildering labyrinth. It removes a number of 
 elementary stumbling-blocks which otherwise ob- 
 struct an attempt to realise vividly the incipient 
 stages of personal existence; it accounts for the ex- 
 traordinary rapidity with which the development of 
 an individual proceeds ; and it eases the theory of or- 
 dinary birth and death. It achieves all this as well as 
 the office for which it was originally designed, 
 namely, the elucidation of unusual experiences, such 
 as those associated with dreams, premonitions, and 
 prodigies of genius. Many great and universally 
 recognised thinkers, Plato, Virgil, Kant, I think,* 
 
 iln justification of the inclusion of this name, the following may 
 
182 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 and Wordsworth, all had room for an idea more or 
 less of this kind ; which indeed, in some form, is almost 
 necessitated by a consideration of our habitually un- 
 conscious performance of organic function. What- 
 ever it is that controls our physiological mechanism, 
 it is certainly not our own consciousness; nor is it 
 any part of our recognised and obvious personahty. 
 
 "We feel that we are greater than we know." 
 
 Our present state may be likened to that of the 
 hulls of ships submerged in a dim ocean among many 
 strange beasts, propelled in a blind manner through 
 space; proud perhaps of accumulating many barna- 
 cles as decoration; only recognising our destination 
 by bumping against the dock wall. With no cogni- 
 sance of the deck and the cabins, the spars and the 
 sails ; no thought of the sextant and the compass and 
 the captain ; no perception of the lookout on the mast, 
 of the distant horizon; no vision of objects far ahead, 
 dangers to be avoided, destinations to be reached, 
 other ships to be spoken with by other means than 
 bodily contact; — a region of sunshine and cloud, of 
 space, of perception, and of intelligence, utterly in- 
 accessible to the parts below the water-line. 
 
 To suppose that we know and understand the uni- 
 verse, to suppose that we have grasped its main out- 
 lines, that we realise pretty completely not only what 
 is in it, but the still more stupendous problem of what 
 
 suffice as an example: "For if we should see things and ourselves as 
 they are, we would see ourselves in a world of spiritual natures with 
 which our entire real relation neither began at birth nor ended with the 
 bodjr's death." — Kant, quoted by Heinze. 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 183 
 
 is not and cannot be in it — as do some of our gnostic 
 (self-styled "agnostic") friends — is a presumptuous 
 exercise of limited intelligence, only possible to a cer- 
 tain very practical and useful order of brain, which 
 jhas good solid work of a commonplace kind to do in 
 the world, and has been restricted in its outlook, let 
 us say by Providence, in order that it may do that 
 one thing and do it well. 
 
 And just as we fail to grasp the universe so do we 
 fail as yet to know ourselves: the part of which we 
 have become aware, the part which manifestly gov- 
 erns our planetary life, is probably far from being 
 the whole.^ The assumption that the true self is com- 
 plex, and that a larger range of memory may ulti- 
 mately be attained, is justified by the researches of 
 alienists, and mental physicians generally, into those 
 curious pathological cases of "strata of memory" or 
 dislocations of personality, on which many medical 
 books and papers are available for the student. In 
 cases of multiple personality, the patients, when in 
 the ordinary or normally conscious state, are usually 
 ignorant of what has happened in the intervening pe- 
 
 1 Such an admission is quite consistent with recognition of the mo- 
 mentous character of this present stage of existence, not only while it 
 lasts, but as influencing, and contributing in every sense to, the future; 
 the doctrine of the subliminal self throws no sort of contempt or dis- 
 couragement on the things which really ought to interest us here and now. 
 There is "danger of losing sight of the ideal in our immediate life, and 
 thinking that it is to be found only in the past or in the future," says 
 Professor Caird; whereas our little struggle is part of the great conflict 
 of good and evil in the universe, and we should be encouraged were we to 
 "realise that our life is not an aimless or meaningless vicissitude of 
 events, but an essential step in the great process." 
 
184 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 riods when they were not in that state, and are not 
 aware of what they have done when in one of the 
 deeper states; but as soon as the personahty has en- 
 tered an ultra-normal condition, it is often found to 
 be aware, not only of its previous actions when in 
 that condition, but also of what was felt and known 
 while at the ordinary grade of intelligence. 
 
 The analogy pointed to is that whereas we living 
 men and women, while associated with this mortal or- 
 ganism, are ignorant of whatever experience our 
 larger selves may have gone through in the past — 
 yet when we wake out of this present materialised 
 condition, and enter the region of larger conscious- 
 ness, we may gradually realise in what a curious 
 though legitimate condition of ignorance we now are ; 
 and may become aware of our fuller possession, with 
 all that has happened here and now fully remem- 
 bered and incorporated as an additional experience 
 into the wide range of knowledge which that larger 
 entity must have accumulated since its intelhgence 
 and memory began. The transition called death may 
 thus be an awaking rather than a sleeping ; it may be 
 that we, still involved in mortal coil, are in the more 
 dream-like and unreal condition : 
 
 "Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep — 
 He hath awakened from the dream of life — 
 'Tis we who, lost in stormy visions, keep 
 With phantoms an unprofitable strife." 
 
 (Shelley's "Adonais.") 
 
 The ideas thus briefly indicated have been sug- 
 gested by a mass of unfamiliar experience, upon 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 185 
 
 which it is legitimate to speculate, though quite ille- 
 gitimate to dogmatise; but in case they seem too 
 fanciful to serve as any part of a basis for human 
 immortality, it may be well to show how clearly the 
 possibility of a larger and fuller existence than the 
 present is indicated by facts with which we are all 
 familiar. 
 
 Argument from Genius 
 
 It must be apparent how few of our faculties can 
 really be accounted for by the need of sustenance 
 and by the struggle for existence; and how those 
 necessary faculties and powers naturally assume an 
 overweening importance here and now, from the fact 
 that they are so specially fitted to our present sur- 
 roundings. So that the less immediately practical 
 mental and spiritual characteristics can be spoken of 
 by anthropologists as if they were of the nature of 
 sports and by-products, not in the direct Hne of evo- 
 lutional advance. 
 
 But, says Myers: 
 
 "The faculties which befit the material environment 
 have absolutely no primacy, unless it be of the merely 
 chronological kind, over those faculties which science 
 has often called hy-products, because they have no 
 manifest tendency to aid their possessor in the strug- 
 gle for existence in a material world. The higher 
 gifts of genius — poetry, the plastic arts, music, phil- 
 osophy, pure mathematics — all of these are precisely 
 as much in the central stream of evolution — are per- 
 ceptions of new truth and powers of new action just 
 
186 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 as decisively predestined for the race of man — as the 
 aboriginal Australian's faculty for throwing a boom- 
 erang or for swarming up a tree for grubs. There 
 is, then, about those loftier interests nothing exotic, 
 nothing accidental; they are an intrinsic part of that 
 ever-evolving response to our surroundings which 
 forms not only the planetary but the cosmic history 
 of all our race." 
 
 We can regard these higher faculties, these inspir- 
 ations of genius and the hke, not only as contributing 
 to our best moments now, but as forecasts or indica- 
 tions of something still more specially appropriate to 
 our surroundings in the future — anticipations of 
 worlds not realised — rudiments of what will develop 
 more fully hereafter; so that their apparent incon- 
 gruousness and occasional inconvenience, under pres- 
 ent mundane conditions, are quite natural. Ulti- 
 mately they may be found to be nearer to the heart 
 of things than the attributes which are successful in 
 the stage to which this world has at present attained; 
 though they can only exhibit their full meaning and 
 attain their full development in a higher condition 
 of existence, — whether that be found by the race on 
 this planet or by the individual in a life to come. 
 
 "An often-quoted analogy has here a closer appli- 
 cation than is commonly apprehended. The grub 
 comes from the egg laid by a winged insect, and a 
 winged insect it must itself become; but meantime it 
 must for the sake of its own nurture and preserva- 
 tion acquire certain larval characters — characters 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 187 
 
 sometimes so complex that the observer may be ex- 
 cused for mistaking that larva for a perfect insect 
 destined for no further change save death. Such 
 larval characters acquired to meet the risks of a tem- 
 porary environment, I seem to see in man's earthly- 
 strength and glory. In these I see the human ana- 
 logues of the poisonous tufts which choke the captor 
 — the attitudes of mimicry which suggest an absent 
 sting — the ^death's head' coloration which disconcerts 
 a stronger foe." 
 
 For the triumphs of natural selection, then, we 
 must look not to the spiritual faculties and endow- 
 ments of the race, but to the businesslike masterful- 
 ness which makes one man a conqueror and another 
 a milhonaire. These we can regard as larval charac- 
 ters, of special service in the present stage of exist- 
 ence, but destined to be discarded, or modified almost 
 out of recognition, in proportion as a higher state is 
 attained. This I take to be the deep meaning of the 
 Gospel sentence beginning "How hardly!" 
 But to continue Myers' biological parable: 
 "Meantime the adaptation to aerial Mfe is going 
 on; something of the imago or perfect insect is per- 
 formed within the grub; and in some species, even 
 before they sink into their transitional slumber the 
 rudiments of wings still helpless protrude awkwardly 
 beneath the larval skin. Those who call Shelley, for 
 instance, *a beautiful but ineffectual angel beating 
 his wings in the void,' may adopt, if they choose, this 
 homeher but exacter parallel. Shelley's special gifts 
 
188 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 were no more by-products of Shelley's digestive sys- 
 tem than the wings are by-products of the grub" 
 (Myers, i. p. 97). 
 
 The meaning, you see, is that they are in the direct 
 Mne of evolution, when the whole of existence is taken 
 into account; and that similarly in the evolution of 
 genius we are watching the emergence of unguessed 
 potentialities from the primal germ, — the first reveal- 
 ings 
 
 "Of faculties, displayed in vain, but born 
 To prosper in some better sphere." 
 
 (Browning's "Paracelsus") 
 
 Moreover, what is true for the individual must be 
 true also in some measure for the race. Embryology 
 teaches us that each organism rapidly recapitulates 
 or epitomises, amid how different conditions, its an- 
 cestral past history. It is legitimate to extend the 
 same idea to the future, and to regard the progress 
 of the individual and the progress of the race as in 
 some degree concurrent; since their potentialities are 
 similar, though their surroundings will be different. 
 This argument, so far as I know, is novel, but not 
 undeserving of attention. 
 
 Argument from Mental Pathology 
 
 And as to the disintegrations of personahty, — the 
 painful defects of will, the lapses of memory, the 
 losses of sensation — such as are manifested by the 
 hysteric patients of the Salpetriere and other hos- 
 pitals, — the lesson to be learnt from those patholog- 
 ical cases is not one of despair at the weaknesses and 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 189 
 
 ghastly imperfections possible to humanity; rather, 
 on this view, it is one of hope and inspiration. For 
 they point to the possibility that our present condi- 
 tion may be as much below an attainable standard as 
 the condition of these poor patients is below what by 
 a natural convention we have agreed to regard as the 
 "normal" state. We might indeed feel bound to re- 
 gard it not only as normal but as ultimate, were it not 
 that some specimens of our race have already tran- 
 scended it, have shown that genius, almost super- 
 human, is possible to man, and have thereby fore- 
 shadowed the existence of a larger personality for 
 us all. Nay, they have done more, — for in thus real- 
 ising in the flesh some of the less accessible of human 
 attributes, they have become the first-fruits of a 
 brotherhood higher than the human; we may hail 
 them as the forerunners of a nobler race. Such a 
 race, I venture to predict, will yet come into exist- 
 ence, not only in the vista of what may seem to some 
 of us an unattractive and unsubstantial future, but 
 here in the sunshine on this planet Earth. 
 
 "Prognostics told 
 Man's near approach; so in man's self arise 
 August anticipations, symbols, tj'pes 
 Of a dim splendour ever on before." 
 
 For as the hysteric stands in comparison with us 
 ordinary men, so perhaps do we ordinary men stand 
 in comparison with a not impossible ideal of faculty 
 and of self-control. "JNIight not," says ISIyers, "all 
 the historic tale be told, mutato nomine, of the whole 
 race of mortal men? What assurance have we that 
 
190 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 from some point of higher vision we men are not as 
 these shrunken and shadowed souls? Suppose that 
 we had all been a community of hysterics, all of us 
 together subject to these shifting losses of sensation, 
 these inexplicable gaps of memory, these sudden de- 
 fects and paralyses of movement and of will. As- 
 suredly we should soon have argued that our actual 
 powers were all with which the human organism was 
 or could be endowed. . . . Nay, if we had been a 
 populace of hysterics we should have acquiesced in 
 our hysteria. We should have pushed aside as a fan- 
 tastic enthusiast the f ellow-suif erer who strove to tell 
 us that this was not all that we were meant to be. As 
 we now stand, — each one of us totuSj teres, atque 
 rotundus in his own esteem, — we see at least how 
 cowardly would have been that contentment, how vast 
 the ignored possibilities, the forgotten hope. Yet 
 who assures us that even here and now we have de- 
 veloped into the full height and scope of our being? 
 A moment comes when the most beclouded of these 
 hysterics has a glimpse of the truth. A moment 
 comes when, after a profound slumber, she wakes 
 into an instant clair — a flash of full perception, which 
 shows her as solid, vivid realities all that she has in 
 her bewilderment been apprehending phantasmally as 
 a dream. . • . Is there for us also any possibility of 
 a like resurrection into reality and day? Is there for 
 us any sleep so deep that waking from it after the 
 likeness of perfect man we shall be satisfied; and 
 shall see face to face; and shall know even as also we 
 are known?" 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY! tigi 
 
 Whatever may be the answer to this question, it is 
 undoubtedly true now — and that it is true is largely 
 owing to him and his co-workers — that * 'these dis- 
 turbances of personality are no longer for us — as 
 they were even for the last generation — mere empty 
 marvels, which the old-fashioned sceptic would often 
 plume himself on refusing to believe. On the con- 
 trary, they are beginning to be recognised as psycho- 
 pathological problems of the utmost interest; — no 
 one of them exactly like another, and no one of them 
 without some possible apercu into the intimate struc- 
 ture of man." 
 
 Religious Objections 
 
 Whatever objections to the above argument may 
 be adduced from the side of science — and there are 
 sure to be many, for free criticism is its natural at- 
 mosphere, — there is one from the side of religion — 
 more often felt than expressed perhaps — which I 
 must in conclusion briefly notice: 
 
 Objection is sometimes taken against any attempt 
 being made gradually to arrive at what in process of 
 time may come to be regarded as a scientific proof 
 of such a thing as immortahty; on the ground that 
 it is an encroachment on the region of faith, a pre- 
 sumptuous interference with what ought to be 
 treated as the territory of religion alone. 
 
 To meet these objectors on their own ground, they 
 might be reminded of such texts as 2 Pet. i. 5, Prov. 
 XXV. 2, as well as of the still more authoritative en- 
 couragement to investigation contained in Luke xi. 
 
192 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 
 
 9 and in 1 John i. 5 ; the latter, or indeed both, being 
 an expression of the basal postulate of the man of 
 science, namely, the ultimate intelligibility of the Uni- 
 verse. 
 
 But, after all, an objection of this kind can only be 
 felt, first by those who think that knowledge is the 
 enemy of belief, instead of its strengthener and sup- 
 porter, and second by those who unconsciously fear 
 that the domain of religion is finite, and who there- 
 fore resent encroachments as diminishing its already 
 too restricted area. It cannot be felt by people who 
 realise that the dominion of religion is unhmited, and 
 that there is infinite scope for faith, however far 
 knowledge — real and accurate scientific knowledge — 
 extends its boundaries. The enlargement of those 
 boundaries is all gain; for thus the one area is in- 
 creased while the other is not diminished. Infinity 
 cannot be diminished by subtraction. No such ob- 
 jection to the spread of knowledge was felt by that 
 inspired writer who hoped for the time when "the 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as 
 the waters cover the sea." 
 
 Whatever science can establish, that it has a right 
 to establish : more than a right, it has a duty. What- 
 ever science can examine into, that it has a right to 
 examine into. If there be things which we are not 
 intended to know, be assured that we shall never 
 know them: we shall not know enough about them 
 even to ask a question or start an inquiry. The in- 
 tention of the universe is not going to be frustrated 
 by the insignificant efforts of its own creatures. If 
 
THE PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 193 
 
 we refrain from examination and inquiry, for no bet- 
 ter reason than the fanciful notion that perhaps we 
 may be trespassing on forbidden ground, such hesi- 
 tation argues a pitiful lack of faith in the goodwill 
 and friendliness and power of the forces that make 
 for righteousness. 
 
 Let us study all the facts that are open to us, with 
 a trusting and an open mind; with care and candour 
 testing all our provisional hypotheses, and with slow 
 and cautious verification making good our steps as 
 we proceed. Thus may we hope to reach out farther 
 and ever farther into the unknown; sure that as we 
 grope in the darkness we shall encounter no clammy 
 horror, but shall receive an assistance and sympathy 
 which it is legitimate to symbolise as a clasp from the 
 hand of Christ himself. 
 
section iv— science and chris 
 
 tianity: 
 
 193 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS THE RE-INTERPRETATION 
 OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
 
 NOW that religion is becoming so much more real, 
 is being born again in the spirit of modern criti- 
 cism and scientific knowledge, may it not be well to 
 ask whether the formal statement of some of the doc- 
 trines which we have inherited from mediaeval and 
 still earher times cannot be wisely and inoiFensively 
 modified? There is usually some sort of forced sense 
 in which almost any statement can be judged to have 
 in it an element of truth, especially a statement which 
 embodies the beliefs of many generations. But 
 when the element of truth is quite other than had been 
 supposed, and when the original statement has to be 
 tortured in order to display it, it may be time to con- 
 sider whether without harm its mode of expression 
 can be reconsidered and redrafted, — to the ultimate 
 benefit indeed of that religion of truth and clearness 
 which we all seek to attain. 
 
 No doubt the crudity of popular statements of doc- 
 trine is recognised by many modem theologians and 
 experts, who have travelled far beyond the original 
 intention and superficial interpretation of their 
 creeds and formularies; and these may be ready and 
 anxious for revision, although their responsible ut- 
 
 197 
 
198 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 terances on fundamental subjects are duly restrained 
 and cautious, lest they offend the ignorant whose 
 minds are not yet ripe. In that case it may be per- 
 missible for laymen to show that they at least are 
 ready for a doctrinal revision — a kind of stocktaking 
 such as is necessary from time to time in all living 
 and expanding subjects, and is especially necessary 
 now after a century of notable advance in natural 
 knowledge. 
 
 It may be objected that revision of religious for- 
 mulae is no concern of mine ; and there is force in the 
 retort. I find that I have said below that harm is 
 liable to dog the footsteps of a well-meaning fanatic 
 or a blatant fool. Possibly it is in something akin 
 to the spirit of the fanatic that I take the risk of en- 
 tering upon what may prove a thorny path, though 
 I earnestly trust that very little pain to others need 
 accrue from any errors of mine. 
 
 Consider, then, the doctrine of the Atonement, and 
 let us ask whether the expression of that doctrine 
 traditionally and officially held or supposed to be held 
 by the churches to-day is satisfactory. 
 
 In days when the vicariousness of sin could be ac- 
 cepted, and when an original fall of Adam could be 
 held as imputed to the race, it was natural to admit 
 the possibility of a vicarious punishment and to ac- 
 cept an imputed righteousness. In the days when 
 God could be thought of as an angry Jehovah who 
 sent pestilences until He was propitiated by the smell 
 of a burnt-offering, it was possible to imagine that 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 199 
 
 the just anger of an offended God could be met by; 
 the sacrifice of an innocent victim. 
 
 The fall of man and the redemption by blood there- 
 fore in a measure go together, and may be said to 
 constitute the backbone of Evangelical Christianity, 
 which in some of its crude and revivalistic forms 
 always lays great stress upon blood and its potent re- 
 deeming efficacy. 
 
 But all this is much older than Christianity; and it 
 is clarifying to realise how these strange doctrines, 
 preached even at this day, represent a survival of re- 
 ligious beliefs held five or six centuries before the 
 Christian era. 
 
 In those admirable translations of Euripides with 
 which Professor Gilbert Murray has delighted the 
 heart not only of scholars but of at least one student 
 of science, we find in his notes on The Bacchce the fol- 
 lowing passages: 
 
 "A curious relic of primitive superstition and 
 cruelty remained firmly embedded in Orphism — a 
 doctrine irrational and unintelligible, and for that 
 very reason wrapped in the deepest and most sacred 
 mystery: a behef in the sacrifice of Dionysus him- 
 self, and the purification of man by his blood. 
 
 "It seems possible that the savage Thracians, in 
 the fury of their worship on the mountains, when 
 they were possessed by the god and became 'wild 
 beasts,' actually tore with their teeth and hands any 
 hares, goats, fawns, or the like that they came across. 
 There survives a constant tradition of inspired Bac- 
 chanals in their miraculous strength tearing; even bulls 
 
200 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 asunder — a feat, happily, beyond the bounds of hu- 
 man possibility. The wild beast that tore was, of 
 course, the savage god himself. And by one of these 
 curious confusions of thought, which seem so incon- 
 ceivable to us and so absolutely natural and obvious 
 to primitive men, the beast torn was also the god! 
 The Orphic congregations of later times, in their 
 most holy gatherings, solemnly partook of the blood 
 of a bull, which was, by a mystery, the blood of 
 Dionysus Zagreus himself, the 'Bull of God,' slain 
 in sacrifice for the purification of man. 
 
 "It is noteworthy, and throws much light on the 
 spirit of Orphism, that, apart from this sacramental 
 tasting of the blood, the Orphic worshipper held it an 
 abomination to eat the flesh of animals at all. ... It 
 fascinated him just because it was so incredibly primi- 
 tive and uncanny; because it was a mystery which 
 transcended reason!"^ 
 
 Professor Murray seems to think it hard for a 
 modern to contemplate the victim and the priest as 
 in any sense one person, but orthodox religious people 
 will experience no difficulty, as is evidenced by the 
 line they are accustomed to sing: 
 
 • "Himself the Victim and Himself the Priest," 
 
 which, it must be admitted, forms a curious parallel; 
 though the meaning is simple and legitimate enough, 
 
 1 Mr. L. P. Jacks has called my attention to an interesting article on a 
 similar subject, by Dr. Farnell, in the Hibbert Journal. 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 201 
 
 namely, that the sacrifice is voluntary: else, indeed 
 were it mere execution. But a few strange hymns 
 are more worthy of the worship of Dionysus, at least 
 in some of its older and more primitive and purer 
 forms, than of a place in a church-service (A. & M.) 
 collection of to-day. These hymns emphasise, for 
 the edification of the laity, the more barbarous con- 
 comitants of sacrificial and vicarious redemption, by 
 blood drawn from and pain inflicted on an innocent 
 victim who is hkewise a god. 
 
 Sometimes the blood is represented as being used 
 for cleansing purposes: 
 
 "Oh, wash me in Thy precious blood." 
 
 Sometimes it is described as a vivifying draught : 
 
 "May those precious fountains 
 Drink to thirsty souls afford;" 
 
 but pagan precedents are closely followed, and pagan 
 survival is clear. 
 
 The idea of sacrificial suffering judicially self- 
 inflicted by a widely vengeful Deity is an essential 
 element in popular theology : 
 
 "He, Who once in righteous vengeance 
 Whelmed the world beneath the flood. 
 Once again in mercy cleansed it 
 With His own most precious Blood, 
 Coming from His throne on high 
 On the painful Cross to die. 
 
 "We were sinners doomed to die; 
 Jesus paid the penalty." 
 
202 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 It is more like a legal fiction or commercial transac- 
 tion than a natural process. 
 
 "Scourged with unrelenting fury 
 For the sins which we deplore. 
 By His livid stripes He heals us. 
 Raising us to faU no more." 
 
 "Had Jesus never bled and died. 
 Then what could thee and all betide 
 But uttermost damnation?" 
 
 This sort of crude materiahsm naturally leads to a 
 kind of idolatry: 
 
 "Faithful Cross, above all other. 
 One and only noble Tree, 
 None in foliage, none in blossom. 
 None in fruit thy peer may be; 
 Sweetest wood, and sweetest iron; 
 Sweetest weight is hung on thee. 
 
 "Thou alone wast counted worthy 
 This world's ransom to sustain. 
 That a shipwrecked race for ever 
 Might a port of refuge gain. 
 With the sacred Blood anointed 
 Of the Lamb for sinners slain." 
 
 Suppose, however, that the belief in the efficacy 
 of sacrifice is old, and that our form of it has a long 
 ancestry which may be traced: that need not under- 
 mine its essential truth; it will only mean that hu- 
 manity had glimpses of truth earlier than the full 
 revelation, and the familiar doctrine of "types" will 
 be appealed to. 
 
 In certain beliefs, such as that of immortality, I 
 should myself allow the argument to have weight, 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 203 
 
 and should not be unwilling to appeal to the antiquity; 
 of human tradition as tending in favour of some sort 
 of truth underlying this perennial and protean faith ; 
 and so in the matter of vicarious punishment and 
 bloody atonement by an innocent victim or by an in- 
 carnate god for the sins of humanity, if we could 
 feel a real and helpful truth underlying it, we might 
 admit that the antiquity of the tradition was even in 
 its favour. But it cannot be that all religious creeds, 
 without exception, which are inherited from barbar- 
 ous times have a true ethical significance: some of 
 them must surely be mistaken, and it becomes a ques- 
 tion which of them we may retain and which we must 
 gradually seek to emancipate ourselves from. I 
 would not be in the least dogmatic in such a matter, 
 but surely it is generally recognised that although the 
 sufferings and violent death of Christ were natural 
 consequences of His birth so far in advance of His 
 age, and although the pity and terror of such a 
 ghastly tragedy has a purifying and sacramental in- 
 fluence, yet we are now unable to detect in it anything 
 of the nature of punishment; nor do we imagine for a 
 moment that an angry God was appeased by it, and 
 is consequently disposed to treat more lightly the sins 
 of men here and now, or any otherwise than as they 
 have always been treated by a constant, steadfast, per- 
 severing Universe. 
 
 Nor can we suppose that leaders of theologic 
 thought are able to derive satisfaction from the more 
 modern doctrine (perhaps, for all I know, a heresy) 
 that it was not so much an infinite punishment as an 
 
204 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 infinite repentance that was efficacious; so that, ade- 
 quate repentance having been achieved once for all 
 long ago, sinners have nothing further to do but to 
 believe and acquiesce in it. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the higher man of to-day is 
 not worrying about his sins at all, still less about their 
 punishment. His mission, if he is good for anything, 
 is to be up and doing,^ and in so far as he acts 
 wrongly or unwisely he expects to suffer. He may 
 unconsciously plead for mitigation on the ground of 
 good intentions,^ but never either consciously or un- 
 consciously will anyone but a cur ask for the punish- 
 ment to fall on someone else, nor rejoice if told that 
 it already has so fallen. 
 
 As for "original sin" or "birth sin" or other notion 
 of that kind, by which is partly meant the sin of his 
 parents, — that sits asbolutely lightly on him. As a 
 matter of fact it is non-existent, and no one but a 
 monk could have invented it. Whatever it be it is 
 not a business for which we are responsible. We did 
 not make the world ; and an attempt to punish us for 
 our animal origin and ancestry would be simply 
 comic, if anyone could be found who was willing to 
 take it seriously. 
 
 Here we are ; we have risen, as to our bodies, from 
 the beasts ; as a race the struggle has been severe, and 
 there have been both rises and falls. We have been 
 helped now and again by bright and shining indi- 
 vidual examples — true incarnations of diviner spirits 
 
 iMatt. xxiv. 46, xii. 43. 2 Matt xxv. 25, 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 205 
 
 than our own, — notably by one supremely bright 
 Spirit who blazed out nineteen hundred years ago, 
 and was speedily murdered by the representatives of 
 that class whose mission it appears to be to wage war 
 against the prophets, and to do their worst to exter- 
 minate new ideas and kinds of goodness to which they 
 are not accustomed. Fortunately for the race, they 
 are only able to kill the body; the soul, the inspiration, 
 the germ of a new and higher faith, seems for ever 
 beyond their grasp. 
 
 But now that orthodox people enthusiastically 
 recognise his supreme goodness, they take steps to 
 deny that he was effectively man, — only half man 
 say some, only quarter man say others:^ human only 
 on one side they feel he must have been, else he could 
 not have been so good, so wise, so patient. So the 
 hope of a higher humanity is to be taken from us, in 
 order that man's sins may be superhumanly atoned for 
 and an angry God illogically ajDpeased. 
 
 Well, well! demi-gods were common enough in 
 those days. And again it may be said that the anti- 
 quity of the behef is to its credit, and that these tales 
 of the gods ^ were but crude heraldings of a divine 
 truth some day to be made clear. 
 
 But why, why, what is the good of it? Can a di- 
 vine spirit not enter into a man born of two parents? 
 Is divine inspiration to be limited to a being of ex- 
 
 1 This is a reference to the doctrine concerning the supposed origin 
 of the Virgin. 
 
 2 Familiar to the Jews during their Babylonian captivity and the 
 Roman conquest. 
 
206 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ceptional parentage? If we grant that it is a physi- 
 ological condition towards or at which the race should 
 aim, — if we suppose that some day we shall have 
 one parent only, and that that is to be our apotheosis, 
 — there would be meaning in it. In that case Christ 
 would indeed be the first-fruits, and would repre- 
 sent some unknown possibility in our physical na- 
 ture. But do people think that? And if not, 
 what is the virtue of semi-parentage? If for a Di- 
 vine Incarnation we admit human parentage at all, 
 we may as well admit it altogether. If a taint is 
 conveyed by inheritance from or dependence on hu- 
 man flesh — grossly built up by daily food of terres- 
 trial materials and grossly cleared of refuse — that 
 taint appertains not to fatherhood only, but to mother- 
 hood also; and the only way to avoid the imaginary 
 stain is to postulate a being sprung like Pallas from 
 the brain of Zeus — a pure embodiment of thought, a 
 true psychological "conception." That Christ pos- 
 sessed a divine spirit in excess, to an extent unknown 
 to us — ^that he was an embodiment of truly Divine 
 attributes,^ which as thus revealed we worship — may, 
 be willingly admitted; that he represents a standard 
 or peak towards which humanity may try to aim, is a 
 tenable and helpful creed; but that his body was ab- 
 normally produced, even if it be the fact, seems to 
 give no assistance. I derive no sort of comfort or 
 intellectual aid from an idea of that kind. 
 
 For what is virgin birth? merely a case of par- 
 
 1 John xvi. 28, xvii. 4. 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 207 
 
 thenogenesis. It has been asserted perhaps errone- 
 ously, that X-rays have the power to produce parthe- 
 nogenetic development in some lowly kinds of ova.^ 
 It is doubtless thinkable enough. I would not say it 
 is impossible, but that it is ethically useless. The 
 lowest organisms multiply by fission, sexual reproduc- 
 tion comes in later as an improved form; but it comes 
 in very low down — as low down as the higher plants 
 — and exists throughout the main animal kingdom. 
 Possibly at some other stage, or by some other pro- 
 cess, it may be dispensed with. If so, it will be a bi- 
 ological fact of scientific interest, and, if ever applic- 
 able to man, a development of astounding social sig- 
 nificance, but nothing more. There is no virtue in 
 multiplication by fission, any more than there is 
 vice in multipHcation by sex. Both are superla- 
 tively interesting facts, hke many other facts of 
 science, and no one can say that we understand the 
 extraordinary truth that a gentle warmth applied for 
 a certain time to a sparrow's egg will result in a live 
 creature breaking forth, which had not existed before, 
 endowed with power to live and feel and grow and 
 propagate his kind to the third and fourth thousandth 
 generation. For some reason — a wise and good 
 social reason — mankind, living in a crowded state, has 
 surrounded the multiplication process with ritual and 
 emotion and fear. No doubt this is absolutely justi- 
 fiable and right, and, by experience, necessary ; but it 
 may in some cases have gone too far; and it seems to 
 
 ^British Medical Jourjial, 13th February 1904, p. 383. 
 
208 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 me to go too far when it denies that a divine spirit 
 can enter into any body except one that has been pro- 
 duced in an exceptional way. Whatever the mys- 
 terious phrase "Son of God" means, and it probably 
 means something mighty and true, it cannot mean 
 that. A belief in that is materialism run rampant. 
 
 And yet even materialism need not be a term of 
 abuse ; for if matter be the living garment of God, — 
 as it certainly is the temporary raiment of man, — and 
 if the Divine Spirit be immanent in everything that 
 exists, I do not say that a glorified materialism may 
 not enshrine some elements of truth, when properly 
 understood; nor would I seek to deny the benefit of 
 Sacraments, in spite of their curiously material char- 
 acter. But the vicarious expiation, the judicial pun- 
 ishment of the innocent, and the appeasement of an 
 angry God, are surely now recognisable as savage in- 
 ventions ; though they have left their traces on surviv- 
 ing formulae, which accordingly have to be explained 
 away. And so likewise the superior virtue of a one- 
 sided human origin, for any Redeemer or Exemplar 
 of mankind, seems to me unworthy of a period of 
 spiritual awakening, of a cleansing acceptance of the 
 facts of nature, of a purification of the material uni- 
 verse by the recognised permeance of an immanent 
 energising God, of whom we too are fragmentary, 
 struggling, helpful portions. 
 
 II 
 
 What, then, are the Truths underlying the great 
 mysteries connected with the appearance and work 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 20g 
 
 of Christ? Here I approach the positive part of my; 
 task, entering a region already flooded with literature; 
 yet must I not shrink from an attempt to supplement 
 negative criticism by such provisional and tentative 
 positive judgment as I have been able to form, from 
 the scientific point of view — the only kind of judg- 
 ment to which I am entitled, — concerning the under- 
 lying Realities. No justification of this course 
 should be necessary, because a fine jewel only flashes 
 the brighter when turned about so as to expose every 
 facet to the light; so I proceed without hesitation, 
 though as briefly as is consistent with intelligibility, 
 to set them down: 
 
 1. Incarnation with Pre-existence. 
 
 2. Revelation or Discovery. 
 
 3. Continuity and persistent Influence. 
 
 The utterance of science on these heads is not loud 
 and is not positive, but I claim that at least it is not 
 negative. No science asserts that our personality will 
 cease a quarter of a century hence, nor does any 
 science assert that it began half a century ago. 
 Spiritual existence "before all worlds" is a legitimate 
 creed. 
 
 No science maintains that the whole of our person- 
 ality is incarnate here and now : it is in fact beginning 
 to surmise the contrary, and to suspect the existence 
 of a larger transcendental individuality, with which 
 men of genius are in touch more than ordinary men. 
 We may be all partial incarnations of a larger 
 3elf. Incarnation of a portion of a divine spirit 
 therefore involves no scientific dislocation or contra- 
 
210 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 diction, nor need it involve any material mechanism 
 other than that to which we are accustomed/ For 
 only the germ is derived from others; the body is 
 built under the guidance of the indwelling, living, 
 personal entity : it is adapted to and serves to display 
 the features of that entity under the limitations and 
 disabilities of a material aspect; as the epiphany of 
 an artist's conception is restrained by the limitations 
 of his medium, as well as by his lack of executive skill. 
 
 Granting, then, the advent of as lofty a Spirit as 
 we can conceive, — perfectly human on the bodily side, 
 with all that that implies, and perfectly Divine on the 
 spiritual side, whatever that may mean, — what sort 
 of result may be expected to follow? 
 
 Consider the position. Here is mankind, risen 
 from the beasts, making gods in the hkeness of its 
 ancestors, — in something worse than its own likeness, 
 ■ — cruel, jealous, bloody gods, who order massacres 
 of helpless non-combatants and cattle, the courts of 
 whose temples and tabernacles are a shambles served 
 by a greedy self-seeking priesthood and by profess- 
 ional religious people who play to a gallery.^ Into 
 such a world, that is to say, a world with these general 
 characteristics, in spite of occasional bursts of bright- 
 ness and much homely virtue, imagine the thorough 
 incarnation of a truly Divine Spirit, and what would 
 be the consequences? 
 
 The immediate consequences we know. On the 
 part of the priests hostility and murder; on the part 
 
 iJohn i. 12-14; 1 John iii. 2. 
 2 Matt, xxiii. 5. 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 211 
 
 of peasantry, curiosity growing into sympathy ; on the 
 part of a few earnest souls love and adoration. But 
 what in the long-run would be the permanent conse- 
 quences? Surely a discovery of the truer nature of 
 God : one of the veils w ould be dravni aside from the 
 face of Deity, and there would partially emerge, not 
 Jehovah any more than Baal, but a Being whom it 
 was possible to love, to serve, to worship ; for whom it 
 is possible to live and work, and, if need be, die. 
 There would be the beginnings of a real at-one-ment 
 between man and God.^ 
 
 Observe that the influence exerted is exerted wholly 
 on man. The attitude of God has changed no whit ; 
 there never was any hostility to be washed out in 
 blood; He had felt no stupid wrath at the blind ef- 
 forts, the risings and sinkings of men struggling in 
 the mire from bestial to human attributes; there was 
 nothing to appease. But there was plenty to reveal: 
 an infinitude of compassion, an ideal of righteousness, 
 the inevitableness of law, the hopelessness of rebel- 
 Kon,^ the power of faith, the quenching of supersti- 
 tious fear in filial love ; a real and not a mechanical sal- 
 vation, no legal quibble but a deep eternal truth. Let 
 man but see the face of God, so far as it can be re- 
 vealed in the flesh, and he will catch a glimpse of a 
 Holy of Holies such as he had not conceived. The 
 savage inventions of a jealous God who resents the 
 worship of anything but himself, who thinks more of 
 his own glory and dignity than of the creative work 
 
 1 John xiv. 7; Mark xv. 38. *John xvi. 8. 
 
212 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 of evolution, who arranges that if people do not theor- 
 ise correctly here and now then they shall suffer eter- 
 nal pain — all these ignorances fall into the region of 
 blasphemous fables, henceforth to be promulgated 
 by fanatics alone. 
 
 And yet let us be fair. The worship of Jehovah 
 was based on a recognition of the majesty and sa- 
 credness of Law; an element nevermore to be de- 
 stroyed. And as to punishment for wrong belief, — 
 the notion of an eternal penalty attaching to discord- 
 ance or dislocation between ourselves and the Universe 
 of which we are a part is a true and luminous idea. 
 When our beliefs are out of harmony with facts, when 
 our theories are false, we are liable to act erroneously, 
 and accordingly to suffer by conflict with inevitable 
 law, even though we act in accordance with our faith, 
 ^nd so are not consciously wicked or infidel. The 
 connexion between true theory and right action is real 
 and close, although very hkely the commonest faults 
 of men are due less to wrong notions than to weak 
 wills; but the sins due to wrong theory are liable to 
 be much more really deadly^; there is no wickedness 
 so violent as that organised by the fanatic who thinks 
 he is doing God service, nor is there any harm worse 
 than can follow the footsteps of a well-meaning bla- 
 tant fool. And the penalty is in a sense eternal, that 
 is to say seonic,^ for it is incurable except by mental 
 
 1 Matt, xxiii. 30, 34. 
 
 2 There seems to be a popular idea abroad that the derivation of the 
 word eternal signifies without end — I suppose from e and terminus — 
 and that the word aeonic is milder. But in truth they mean just the 
 same; only one is the Latin and the other the Greek form. The sup- 
 posed popular derivation is a false one. 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 213 
 
 and spiritual revolution. So long as wrong beliefs 
 continue, so long there must be a sense of dislocation, 
 a feeling of friction and of grit: the only remedy is 
 to get right with the Universe. The sin and the dam- 
 nation are co-eternal or co-eeonal. 
 
 The law thus stated is no theologic dogma, it re- 
 sults from no arbitrary fiat,, it is the commonplace ex- 
 pression of a natural fact. It is exemplified in the 
 running of every piece of human machinery, and in 
 the working of our own bodies. Anything out of 
 gear is a source of disquiet, of inefficiency, and of 
 pain; health and happiness result from a restoration 
 of harmony. 
 
 How the grit got into the cosmic organism may be 
 a hard question; perhaps it has never yet been out. 
 This may be a narrow, temporal way of conceiving 
 the matter — but let it pass for the present. Anyhow 
 we could not have become what we are without it; 
 and the word "grit" has acquired a forcible psychic 
 connotation. After all, grit is only matter out of 
 place ; it has no intrinsic or absolute quality. Whether 
 it exists for good or for ill, we did not put it there ; 
 though it is our privilege to help to remove it. We 
 are the artisans of creation, at least in this outlying 
 planetary district, and a magnificent co-operation is 
 our highest privilege.^ 
 
 Almost every widespread doctrine has a meaning 
 and enshrines a truth, visible when freed from its 
 blasphemous accretions; and the doctrine of seonic 
 
 1 John V. 17. 
 
214 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 damnation, even as too specifically interpreted by 
 Athanasius, is a glimpse of the truth that whosoever 
 will enter into the joy of the Lord must endeavour to 
 understand rightly the cosmic scheme,^ and that ex- 
 cept a man get into harmony with Truth and Reality 
 he cannot ascend to the destiny in store for him — He 
 cannot be "saved." 
 
 In the same way a germ of truth can be detected in 
 that persistent element of popular theology, the idea 
 of sacrificial suffering, self-inflicted. There must be 
 such a germ, else the belief could not have proved 
 itself of such "saving" power; — and even the current 
 crudities of expression may have had their use, in the 
 recent transitional age of the earth's history — the geo- 
 logical epoch during which the evolution of man has 
 been beginning — that uneducated age out of which 
 we cannot yet be said to have emerged. The essence 
 of truth contained in it would appear to be that the 
 responsible task of evolution from animal to higher 
 man, the struggle humanam condere gentem^ could 
 not be undertaken and carried through even by Deity 
 without grievous suffering and agonising patience ^ ; 
 and this sympathetic shudder through the whole of 
 Existence might well be parabolically expressed in 
 terms of current altruistic sacrificial legend. Subject 
 to proper interpretation, the legend has a meaning: 
 the mistake lay in imagining it an expiatory transac- 
 tion, instead of a natural and necessary process, quite 
 unlike the alternate moods of fury and affection some- 
 times exhibited by a chief to slaves. 
 
 1 Matt. xxii. 11. 2 Rom. viii. 22, 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 215 
 
 It was not a bare necessary and natural process, 
 however; the aspects of Deity are so infinite that they 
 cannot be grasped simultaneously. The personal as- 
 pect is as vivid as any of the others^ and, from this 
 point of view, the genuineness of Divine suffering, 
 no matter how inevitable,^ has always been recognised 
 as a revelation of Divine and Fatherly love. 
 
 The redeeming and elevating efficacy of such a 
 conviction is manifest. The perception of something 
 in the Universe wliich not only makes for righteous- 
 ness, but which loves and sympathises in the process ; 
 and yet is no mere indiscriminate charity, weakly re- 
 lieving man from the consequences of his blunders or 
 stealthily undermining his powers of self-help, but 
 a true benevolence, which healthily and strongly and 
 if need be sternly convinces him that the path of duty 
 is the path of joy,^ that sacrifice and not selfishness 
 is the road to the heights of existence,^ that it is far 
 better to suffer wrong than to do wrong :^ — such a per- 
 ception inevitably raises man far above *'the yelp of 
 the beast," "saves" him, saves him truly, from seons 
 of degradation, and enables him to "stand on the 
 heights of his fife with a ghmpse of a height that is 
 higher." 
 
 Selfishness long continued must lead to isolation 
 and so to a sort of practical extinction:^ it is hke a 
 
 1 See Chapter II. § iv. above. 
 
 2 Luke XV. 4. 
 
 3 Matt. XXV. 21, 30. 
 
 4 Matt. xvi. 25 ; John xii. 32. 
 
 5 Plato, Gorgias 469, conversation with Polus ; and elsewhere. 
 
 6 Cecilia de Noelj by Lanoe Falconer. 
 
216 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 disintegrating or repulsive force in the material 
 cosmos, while love is like a cohesive and constructive 
 force. All this is no new doctrine, thank goodness! it 
 has been preached and practised by the prophets and 
 saints of the human race for generations — by some 
 mighty ones even before the advent of Jesus of Naz- 
 areth. For that love is the quickening force of the 
 spiritual universe, and that its fruition would lead to 
 super-humanity, had been clearly stated before it was 
 in the Fourth Gospel supremely emphasised; and the 
 words put by the Socrates of Plato into the mouth 
 of Diotima the prophetess of Mantineia ^ have a deep 
 and growing meaning for those who have ears to 
 hear. 
 
 A discovery once made by the human race is perma- 
 nent : it fades no more, and its influence grows from 
 age to age. We are now beginning to realise a fur- 
 ther stage in the process of atonement ; we are rising 
 to the conviction that we are a part of nature, and so 
 a part of God ; that the whole creation — the One and 
 the Many and All-One — is travailing together 
 towards some great end; and that now, after ages of 
 development, we have at length become conscious por- 
 tions of the great scheme, and can co-operate in it 
 with knowledge and with joy. We are no aliens in a 
 stranger universe governed by an outside God ; we are 
 parts of a developing whole, all enfolded in an em- 
 bracing and interpenetrating love, of which we too, 
 each to other, sometimes experience the joy too deep 
 
 1 Symposium, 191-213. Best translation in Myers' Human Personality, 
 vol. i. p. 113, 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 217. 
 
 for words. And this strengthening vision, this sense 
 of union with Divinity, this, and not anything artifi- 
 cial or legal or commercial, is what science will some 
 day tell us is the inner meaning of the Redemption of 
 Man. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 
 
 IN the last chapter certain great topics were dealt 
 with so briefly that if left without amplification 
 they may give rise to misunderstanding ; indeed their 
 treatment has already aroused some criticism, notably 
 an extremely friendly comment by Dr. Talbot, now 
 Eishop of Southwark, published in the Hihhert Jour- 
 nal^ wherein, while criticising judicially, he neverthe- 
 less holds out a hand of welcome. 
 
 This article was replied to sufficiently in the suc- 
 ceeding number of the Hihhert Journal, and not 
 much of my reply need be here reproduced. 
 
 I will only say that whereas in the greater part of 
 the present book, and indeed of my writings gener- 
 ally, the mode of treatment aims at being positive 
 rather than negative — seeking to construct rather 
 than to destroy, and hoping to replace error quietly 
 by substitution of truth — ^the last chapter does 
 to some extent take a negative or destructive attitude 
 and accordingly demands extremely careful treat- 
 ment. 
 
 I do not conceive of myself, however, as attacking 
 Theology or Theological doctrine: I discern an ele- 
 ment of truth in nearly every doctrine, perhaps in 
 quite every doctrine which the human race has been 
 
 21§ 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 219 
 
 able to believe for a long period; but I am seeking to 
 scrutinise more closely, and if possible display to 
 greater advantage, that side of those doctrines which 
 faces us across the frontier of our scientific territory. 
 This side has been less efficiently attended to by the 
 builders than the fa9ade devoted to edification; and 
 some or our own outworks approach so near to the 
 Theological position on its more prosaic side, that an 
 occasional raid, inspired by admiration and conducted 
 with reverence, may be pardoned. 
 
 It looks to me as if part of the building were need- 
 lessly obscured by coatings and stucco and excres- 
 cences, once thought ornamental. Perhaps this ex- 
 traneous matter had the useful effect of protecting 
 the building through times of ignorance and violence, 
 but some of it is now seen to be little better than dis- 
 figurement and crudity, hiding the beautiful structure 
 beneath; it was this extraneous matter alone that I 
 intended to attack in my last chapter. 
 
 But in this legitimate restoration work at the pres- 
 ent day a number of operatives are engaged; some 
 doing their occasional best from outside, like myself, 
 others, as regular workmen acting from within, hke 
 Dr. Talbot. With his scheme of the structure, as 
 seen from his point of view and stated in the Hib- 
 bert Journal^ I have extremely little cause to dis- 
 agree. He is one of the many whom I referred to as 
 having already emancipated themselves from errors 
 of the past to a large extent; and if it still seems to 
 me that here and there in his statement traces of 
 crudeness remain, who am I that I should suppose 
 
220 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 myself capable of infallibly detecting and evaluating 
 all forms of crudity? 
 
 I notice that Professor Masterman admits the 
 crudity of ordinary statements of Christian doctrine, 
 but justifies it as necessary to catch the attention of 
 ignorant laymen, who are accustomed to speak in 
 terms of "blood." I think it possible for the clergy 
 to over-estimate the crudity and ignorance of the 
 laity. A professional jargon is apt to be employed 
 which by habit may sound appropriate on Sundays, 
 but does not represent the mental attitude of anyone 
 at other times. Perhaps spirit and character once re- 
 sided in the blood, as compassion in the bowels, viru- 
 lence in the spleen, love in the heart, and other emo- 
 tions in other viscera, but few persons imagine that 
 they live there now. I say nothing against the meth- 
 ods of the Salvation Army in its own sphere of ac- 
 tivity: these may be justified by their results. I 
 somewhat doubt whether ordinary Church procedure 
 is so justified. 
 
 I suggest that it is not wise to assume too invinci- 
 ble an ignorance on the part of habitual worshippers. 
 It may, for instance, be of doubtful wisdom to with- 
 draw documents from common use on this ground 
 alone, and at the same time to suggest that neverthe- 
 less they convey essential truth to clerics instructed 
 in refinements of interpretation; it is rather too sug- 
 gestive of the attitude of the priests in John vii. 49. 
 The really learned in theology are respected by all, 
 but they are infrequently encountered. It would be 
 fairer to admit that some of the documents in use 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 221 
 
 lare themselves imperfect and antiquated, that they 
 have been in many respects outgrown, and that truth 
 as now perceived can now be more clearly expressed. 
 [But I refrain from any more ecclesiastical sugges- 
 tions. 
 
 Perhaps, however, I may unobtrusively remark 
 that such expressions as righteous vengeance, angry 
 Father, wrathful Lamb, do not seem satisfactory 
 forms whereby to represent what the Bishop well calls 
 "a stately and austere conception of order." Nor is 
 it likely that "the bright front and buoyant tread of 
 early discipleship" arose from anything so negative as 
 sin overcome: it was not that which animated the 
 Apostles; and though it certainly contributed to the 
 inspiration of the Magdalene, we should hardly speak 
 of "bright front and buoyant tread" in her case. 
 
 Something more positive is needed to explain any 
 living and energising enthusiasm. The incidental 
 treatment of sin in Chapter X. is, however, one of the 
 points on which further explanation is certainly de- 
 sirable; and all the supplementary points I now pro- 
 pose to deal with may be grouped under four heads 
 as follows: 
 
 1. That evolutionary treatment of sin is apt to 
 minimise unduly the sense of sinfulness. 
 
 2. That it is misleading to deny the revealed Wrath 
 of the Holy One against sin. 
 
 3. That heresy lurks in any non-professional treat- 
 ment of the relation between the Humanity and Di- 
 vinity of Christ. 
 
222 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 4. That while controverting the notion of vicarious 
 punishment, the true significance of the doctrine of a 
 vicarious Atonement may be missed. 
 
 Let us take these points in order. 
 
 1. On page 204 above the following sentence oc- 
 curs: 
 
 *'As a matter of fact the higher man of to-day is 
 not worrying about his sins at all, still less about their 
 punishment: his mission if he is good for anything, 
 is to be up and doing." 
 
 When writing these words I was well aware that 
 they laid me open to a retort based upon John ix. 41 ; 
 nevertheless the statement seems to me true "as a mat- 
 ter of fact," provided by "higher men" are under- 
 stood leaders in the world's activity, whether they are 
 working in the public eye or in the study or in the 
 office, or anywhere save in the cloister. Perhaps when 
 so put it will be granted, merely as a matter of fact, 
 if saints are excluded, and if no moral judgment in 
 favour of the thesis is claimed or supposed to be in- 
 volved in the statement. But it will be contended that 
 more than a matter of fact was implied in that sen- 
 tence, that there was an element of judgment also, 
 and that it was one of approbation: that the epithet 
 "higher" signified that a man who was up and doing, 
 instead of introspecting and mourning over his sins, 
 was in the path of progress, and was to be praised 
 rather than blamed. Undoubtedly I did mean that 
 too; and in order implicitly to justify that attitude, 
 without presumption and without tedious contention. 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 223! 
 
 I gave two Biblical references — one to Matt. xxiv. 
 46, where the "servant who is found so doing" is au- 
 thoritatively "blessed," and the other to the warning 
 contained in Matt. xii. 43, that apologue about the 
 fate of a house which was left unoccupied after hav- 
 ing been cleansed and decorated. 
 
 It may surely without unorthodoxy be held that 
 there are two ways of overcoming sin and sinful tend- 
 encies : one the direct way, of concentrating attention 
 on them with brooding and lamentation ; the other the 
 indirect and, as I think, the safer and more efficacious 
 and altogether more profitable way, of putting in so 
 many hours' work per day, and of excluding weeds 
 from the garden by energetic cultivation of healthy 
 plants. 
 
 It will be said that brooding and lamentation is not 
 a fit description of the exercises of rehgion, that a 
 safeguard of a higher order than any terrestrial oc- 
 cupation can be secured by conscious emotional peni- 
 tence and aspiration. It may be so ; but it is not quite 
 certain. The following sonnet may or may not be 
 good poetry, but it would appear to embody, in ex- 
 aggerated and feminine form, a phase of experience 
 not unfamiliar to the ordinary human soul: 
 
 **A soul of many longings entered late 
 
 A chapel like a jewel blazing bright, 
 
 And fell upon the altar steps. All night 
 She held with hopes and agonies debate; 
 With tears the litanies love-passionate 
 
 Drenched her; triumphant colours burned her white; 
 
 And, as the incense flamed in silver light, 
 God sealed her to His own novitiate. 
 
2241 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY^ 
 
 "And then, because her eyes were charmed with peace, 
 And blinded by the stars new-born within 
 
 The lit sweet lids God's dreams had lovered, — 
 Nine paces from that House of Ecstasies 
 Her feet were taken in the snares of sin; 
 
 And, ere the morning quickened, she was dead." i 
 
 We must all of us have known what it is to be com- 
 pelled to say, not always, nor often, it is to be hoped, 
 — it is as stupid to exaggerate in these as in any other 
 matters, — but occasionally in the course of our lives, 
 or even constantly in connexion with some minor in- 
 grained habit which we should like to overcome, 
 
 "Video meliora, proboque, 
 eDeteriora sequor." 
 
 And this doing not what we see to be best, but some- 
 thing inferior which we do not really approve or will 
 to do, is what constitutes one aspect of sin. Plato, 
 indeed, argues in the Gorgias that a wicked man is 
 not really obeying his own will, that he is enslaved and 
 acting contrary to his true self; but whether that be 
 so or not, few of us have the spirit to be wilful sin- 
 ners. Wilful sin is, as has been often said, rebellion 
 and lawlessness, the misuse and misapplication of nat- 
 ural powers; it is akin to dirt, to disease, to weeds — 
 Le. to matter and cells and plants out of place, and 
 working harm instead of good. It is like a fire es- 
 caped from control and consuming instead of serving. 
 Even so a banked-up lake constructed for the water- 
 supply of a city, if it burst its embankment, may; 
 whelm villages in flood. 
 
 lOne of Rachael Annand Taylor's poems, called "The Vanity of 
 YowB," 5[uoted in the Times Literary Supplement for 15th April 1904. 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 225 
 
 Our business is to restrain and control, to direct and 
 guide, the forces of nature and our own forces. The 
 man of vigorous sin, rightly trained and directed, may 
 become the man of wholesome energy. There is some 
 valuable material being wasted in our prisons: unre- 
 claimed soil festering for lack of plough and harrow. 
 Good men of small and restrained activity may not 
 constitute the most efficient or the most approved in- 
 struments of progress. The ascetic may endeavour 
 to avoid all danger, by never making a mountain lake, 
 by never Hghting a fire, by never going to sea, by run- 
 ning no risks and living a poverty-stricken existence ; 
 and may succumb after all : as soldiers may be econo- 
 mised in war till they fall victims to some miserably 
 ignominious disease. We are called upon rather for 
 full exercise of all our powers, for full vigour of life, 
 but subject to discipline and reason and restraint. 
 What we call vices and virtues are compounded of 
 very similar vital forces : their character is dependent 
 on the direction we give them. Every activity can be 
 deflected from the vicious into the virtuous direction; 
 and an unsought joy is the reward. 
 
 While dealing with these everyday considerations, 
 it is desirable to avoid misconception by exphcitly 
 making the admission that doubtless there is a sense in 
 which radical imperfection can be predicated of the 
 whole human race without exception: the sense in 
 which the heavens can be said to be unclean and the 
 angels to be chargeable with folly ; the sense in which 
 Job, though able to rebut the charge of hidden wick- 
 
226 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 edness brought by his friends, was wiUing abundantly; 
 to admit vileness when accosted by the Deity. 
 
 For devotional purposes this comparison of human- 
 ity with infinite Perfection and infinite attributes gen- 
 erally may be appropriate and useful, though no finite 
 emendation can be effective against it; one would ex- 
 pect the f eehng aroused by contemplation of Infini- 
 tude to be one of humility and abasement rather than 
 one of contrition and penitence, but I admit that saints 
 have found it otherwise, and that their experience is 
 conclusive. 
 
 2. So much for practical and human considerations ; 
 but there is another and more important matter, on 
 which explanation is needed, namely, where I con- 
 tend that the sacrifice of Christ need not be regarded 
 as expiatory, or as appeasing the righteous anger of 
 a wrathful God, because (p. 211) . — 
 
 *'He had felt no wrath at the blind efforts, the ris- 
 ings and sinkings, of men struggling in the mire from 
 bestial to human attributes — there was nothing to ap- 
 pease." 
 
 This has been attacked as unscriptural : ''Angry 
 with the wicked every day," "The wrath of the 
 Lamb," and a multitude of familiar texts, can easily 
 be quoted. 
 
 Very well, the epithet "unscriptural" has no coer- 
 cive force unless the text appealed to carries with it a 
 conviction of its own inspiration. There is plenty of 
 "anger" in the Old Testament undoubtedly, but that 
 is just where one would expect to find it on the sur- 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 227 
 
 vival hypothesis; and I doubt not the Prophets had 
 plenty to make them angry/ 
 
 But it is scarcely worth while to waste time in dis- 
 cussing the relative authority of texts : every one must 
 be aware that this is no rose-water world; the things 
 that have happened in it, and the things that may yet 
 happen in it, are appalling. We must admit the force 
 of experiences which gave birth to ejaculations such 
 as Luke xii. 5 and Hebrews x. 31, whoever may have 
 been their author, and I am glad of the opportunity 
 of enlarging upon this subject of sin and Divine 
 anger somewhat; it was quite too briefly and super- 
 ficially treated in Chapter X. : indeed it was not really 
 dealt with at all. 
 
 It suited the priests to say that God was angry 
 when a budding nation desired to have a king in order 
 to weld it together. It suited them to say that he was 
 angry when prisoners were taken captive instead of 
 
 1 Of the two texts above quoted at random the first is from Psalm 
 vii. 11, and the words "with the wicked" seem to be a gratuitous in- 
 terpolation of the translators, an evident attempt to make intelligible 
 the supposed sentence, "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry 
 every day." The Prayer Book version— more effective as usual— ren- 
 ders it thus, "God is a righteous Judge, strong and patient, and God 
 is provoked every day"; which is doubtless as true as any statement of 
 the kind can be. 
 
 "The wrath of the Lamb" occurs only in Revelation, so far as I 
 know; and there also is to be found that hyperbole, intensified from 
 Isaiah and from a common industry of the country, about the vintage 
 of blood flowing "to the horse-bridles" from the trodden winepress of 
 the wrath of God. The author's feelings are evidently overcharged. 
 And if we had lived in times of really efficient persecution we too 
 might have tried, less poetically, to assuage our indignant helplessness in 
 the same sort of way. 
 
228 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 being massacred; and again that he was wroth when 
 the first census was contemplated. 
 
 So also in rather later times God was represented 
 as angry with idolaters, not ostensibly because some 
 special practices of idol-worship may have been de- 
 basing, but because he was "jealous." There are 
 plenty of good reasons against idolatry among intelli- 
 gent and "chosen" people, but this is not one of them: 
 nor is it to be supposed that the stock of a tree is ever 
 really worshipped, even when prostrated to. An idol, 
 to ignorant and undeveloped people, is a symbol of 
 something which they are really worshipping under a 
 material form and embodiment: the sensuous pre- 
 sentation assists their infantile efforts towards ab- 
 stract thought, as material sacraments help people in 
 a higher stage of religious development. But some 
 of these helps should be outgrown. An adult mathe- 
 matician hardly needs a geometrical figure, crudely 
 composed of fragments of chalk or smears of plum- 
 bago or ink, to help him to reason; and if he uses 
 such a diagram he is aware that he is not really at- 
 tending to it, but is reasoning about ideal and unreal- 
 isable perfections; he has soared above the symbol, 
 and is away among the cementing laws of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 If an image or a tree-trunk or other symbol helps a 
 savage to meditate on some divine and intractable con* 
 ception, if it has been so used by thousands of his an- 
 cestors, and has acquired a halo of reverence through 
 antiquity and by the accumulation of human emotion 
 lavished upon it, — a missionary should think twice 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 229 
 
 before he is rude to it, or abuses it or pulls it down. 
 iWe do not rebuke a child for lavishing a wealth of 
 nascent maternal affection on some grotesque black- 
 Betty of a wooden rag-covered doll; we do not de- 
 spise, we honour, a regiment content to be decimated 
 so it may save its flag, — which materially is almost a 
 nonentity. And so if we send missionaries, we should 
 send competent men, who will gradually educate by 
 implanting useful arts and positive virtues; and we 
 should tell these messengers clearly that negative and 
 iconoclastic teaching may be very cruel. 
 
 These things depend upon grade attained. It was 
 very right for Hebrew prophets to feel indignant and 
 to wax sarcastic when they saw the degenerate wor- 
 ship of a moderately enhghtened people descending 
 to the level of a grinning idol or the stock of a tree; 
 and they may have rightly felt that to replace such 
 symbols as these by the more advanced symbol of an 
 angry and jealous God would be a spiritual help of 
 the highest kind possible to a nation at such a stage 
 of ethical development. In this manner the texts con- 
 cerning anger and jealousy can be amply accounted 
 for. 
 
 Moreover, like most other symboKsm, they embody 
 a real truth. Quite irrespective of texts in its favour, 
 we may be willing to recognise Divine wrath as a real 
 and terrible thing; though we must also be ready to 
 admit that the gloom of rehgions antecedent to Chris- 
 tianity, and its own later struggle amid nascent civili- 
 sation, overshadowed the Gospel message unduly; 
 and fear was a powerful weapon in the hands of 
 
230 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 priests, which they did not fail to employ. But I feel 
 no contradiction between all this and the above quota- 
 tion from page 211. So far as I can judge, it is 
 not likely that a Deity operating through a process 
 of evolution can feel wrath at the blind efforts of his 
 creatures struggling upward in the mire. I judge 
 rather that the human impulse to lend them a pitiful 
 and helpful hand can with difficulty be restrained, can 
 indeed only be restrained by lofty and far-seeing Wis- 
 dom, and by perception of "the far-off interest of 
 tears." 
 
 Nevertheless, I am sure that what may without ir- 
 reverence be humanly spoken of as fierce Wrath 
 against sin, and even against a certain class of sinner, 
 is a Divine attribute. But, then, what do we mean by 
 "sin" in this connection? It is a term which, in a dif- 
 ferent sense from charity, likewise covers a multitude. 
 I do not wish to enter upon a dissertation on the na- 
 ture of sin in general from the scientific standpoint. 
 For our present purpose we can regard the matter 
 quite simply, as something of which we have all plenty 
 of experience; but I maintain that when we are speak- 
 ing of the sin against which God's anger blazes, we 
 do not mean the sins of failure, the burden of remorse, 
 the acts which cause contrition and penitence on the 
 part of a saint or a child or a labouring man — a 
 labouring man or woman of any class ; we mean some- 
 thing quite other than that. And I assume that 
 therein we are consistent with the doctrines of the 
 Church. 
 
 If not a wicked absurdity, it is surely a libel to as- 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 231 
 
 sert that God is angry with ordinary human f aihngs, 
 and with the dismal lapses from virtue of poor out- 
 casts of civihsation. We are famihar, for instance, 
 with the fierce wrath of Christ, — his language was 
 denunciatory in the extreme : but against what sort of 
 people? It was not the publicans and the harlots 
 whom he stigmatised as a generation of vipers, or 
 whom he threatened with the damnation of hell; 
 rather it was some specimens of the unco' guid of that 
 day — people perfectly satisfied with themselves, peo- 
 ple ready to forbid deeds of healing on the Sabbath, 
 and eager to stifle the holiest if they had the chance ^ 
 • — it was with these that he was angry, not with any- 
 one who could be described as helplessly and ineffi- 
 ciently struggling out of the mire towards better 
 things. 
 
 There were sins of which he was genuinely 
 ashamed, so that he stooped and wrote upon the 
 ground when they were suddenly obtruded upon his 
 notice by coarse experimenters: shame so acute that 
 even those ruffians had the grace subsequently to slink 
 away; but it was stoning of the Prophets, wilful 
 blindness to the Highest, it was blasphemy against 
 the Holy Ghost, that excited his fiercest reprobation. 
 
 Just as it is impossible for the human race at any 
 given time to select that one of their number who will 
 be best remembered a thousand .years hence, so it is 
 difficult for us to judge what class of people are rend- 
 ering themselves most liable to high Displeasure now. 
 
 1 Mark iii. 5, 6, 29. 
 
232 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 I suppose that the respectable and rehgious world of 
 Judaea was genuinely astonished, and not a little scan- 
 dalised, at its vigorous denunciation by an itinerant 
 Preacher, long ago; and it is just possible that to-day 
 those self-satisfied people who shut their eyes to truth, 
 and propagate error, are at least as harmful to the 
 general advance as are some individuals whom Society 
 for its own safety finds it necessary to keep in seclu- 
 sion.^ 
 
 A Church which, let us say, excommunicates Tol- 
 stoi may possibly be composed of pious individuals 
 whom it does not become us to judge, but I can con- 
 ceive that in its corporate capacity any Church which 
 opposes reform, which persistently takes the wrong 
 side, which sustains abuses such as the droits de seig- 
 neur in the past, and perhaps other only less flagrant 
 abuses to-day, may be regarded as deserving of vig- 
 orous Denunciation; and if such an institution, in 
 some neighbouring country or elsewhere, should hap- 
 pen to fall upon evil days, it may find itself unsuc- 
 cessful in its endeavour to fasten the blame upon any- 
 thing but itself. 
 
 There are many grades of sin; and anyone may 
 know the kind of sin which excites the anger of God, 
 by bethinking him of the kind which arouses his own 
 
 1 And, incidentally, may it not be also possible that the omission on 
 the part of Society to make any serious and satisfactory effort to train 
 and humanise and redeem those whom it thus takes under its providential 
 control (not to mention their subjection to the inhuman device of solitary 
 confinement) is liable to be regarded in High Quarters as deserving of 
 reprobation just as severe as that accorded to any more actively com- 
 mitted crime? 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 233 
 
 best and most righteous anger. I can imagine that 
 the infernal proceedings of Nero and of the Holy 
 Inquisition were repugnant and nauseating to the 
 iUniverse to a degree which was almost unbearable. 
 The fierce indignation that would blaze out if one 
 were maliciously to torture a child or an animal in view 
 of an ordinary man or woman, would surely be a 
 spark of the Divine wrath ; and we have been told that 
 a millstone round the neck of a child-abuser is too 
 light a penalty. 
 
 Sins of this kind are a boil, an abscess, on the Uni- 
 verse : they must be attacked and cured by human co- 
 operators, they are hardly tractable otherwise; ^ just 
 as in the complex aggregate of cells we call our body 
 the dominant intelligence cannot unaided cope with 
 its own disease, but must depend on the labours of its 
 micro-organisms, the phagocytes, which swarm to any 
 poisoned plague spot, and there actively and painfully 
 struggle with and inflame and attack the evil, till one 
 side or other is overcome: so it is with man as an 
 active ingredient in the universe. We are the white 
 corpuscles of the cosmos: and like the corpuscles we 
 are an essential ingredient of the system, our full po- 
 tentiality being latent until stimulated into activity 
 by disease. 
 
 If it is possible for a man at times to feel a sort of 
 hatred and anger against his own weaker and worser 
 self, so I can imagine a God feeling what may be 
 imperfectly spoken of as disgust and wrath at de- 
 
 1 Psalm cxv. 16. 
 
234 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 fects which still exist in his Universe — in Himself, 
 dare we say? — defects for which in a manner he is in 
 some sort responsible, defects which he has either 
 caused, or for ultimate reasons permitted, or has not 
 yet, in the present stage of evolution, been able to 
 cure consistently with full education and adequate 
 scope for free development of personality; defects 
 which surely his conscious creatures will assist him to 
 remove, now that the bare possibility of the existence 
 of these ferocious evils has done its salutary and ulti- 
 mately beneficent work. 
 
 In this sense, therefore, it would be inappropriate 
 to deny any amount of wrath against sin and even 
 against the blatant sinner — ^the class of people who 
 can only be impressed by the falling of a stone which 
 shall grind them to powder. But it is not for people 
 in the vicious state that the consolations of religion 
 are available, they are not the bruised reed whom he 
 will not break : and there is no sense in perplexing or- 
 dinary struggling, kindly, weak, unhappy humanity, 
 with alleged fearful penalties attaching to even 
 minor disobedience: penalties which must be exacted 
 somehow, no matter much from whom; nor need we 
 spoil people's conception of the Fatherhood of God 
 with distorted legends, representing him as a Roman 
 Father who will not scruple to visit their sins and 
 shortcomings upon the innocent body of his own Son, 
 since that is the only condition on which his wrath 
 may be turned away and his hand not stretched out 
 still. 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 235 
 
 3. There is one sentence in my last chapter wherein 
 I appear to suggest that Christ's body was human, 
 his spirit divine; thus making a possibly untenable 
 though simple distinction between the vehicle and the 
 manifestation, and trespassing on a theological terri- 
 tory which is full of heretical pit-falls. 
 
 It would have been better to avoid even the appear- 
 ance of entering on so large a question as the nature 
 of Christ by a mere side-door. My object at the mo- 
 ment was not anything so ambitious, but merely to 
 indicate what would be the effect on mankind of the 
 arrival of a personage, with a human and therefore 
 accessible and mortal body, animated by a spirit of 
 divine perfection. I wished to urge that among the 
 results of the thorough incarnation of a truly Divine 
 Spirit would be the beginnings of a real atonement 
 between man and God; and that the influence exerted 
 would be exerted wholly on man. Farther than that 
 I did not then intend to go ; nor do I propose to go 
 much farther now, though the temptation is consider- 
 able. It is easy to recognise that the subjects of the 
 Incarnation and the Resurrection are profoundly dif- 
 ficult, and yet to feel impelled to express surprise at 
 the language which eminent theologians sometimes 
 permit themselves to employ. I take the following 
 astounding sentence from Canon Moberly's article in 
 Lux Mundi: 
 
 P. 236. "No one will now dispute that Jesus died 
 upon the Cross. If He did not on the third day rise 
 again from that death to life — cadit qucestio — all 
 Christian dogma, all Christian faith, is at an end," 
 
Q36 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 I suppose it is intended as a paraphrase of St« 
 Paul's "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching 
 vain and your faith is also vain." But the two state- 
 ments are perfectly different. If Christ be not risen 
 in some sense or other, if his death was the end of him, 
 according to the current but perhaps not quite cor- 
 rect conception of the death of a dog, then indeed is 
 the prospect blank. 
 
 But "rise again from death to life on the third day" 
 must mean far more than persistent existence and in- 
 fluence : it seems to mean resuscitation, after the man- 
 ner of Lazarus. Indeed, the fourth article of the 
 Church definitely asserts that it does mean that and 
 more. But an attempt to link the whole of Christian 
 faith inextricably with an anatomical statement about 
 flesh and bones, as in Article 4 of the Anglican 
 Church, is rash. 
 
 Again: 
 
 P. 237. "No one to-day disputes that He was 
 truly man. Is it true that He was very God? It is 
 either true or false. As to the fact there are only the 
 two alternatives. And between the two the gulf is 
 impassable. If it is not false it is true. If it is not 
 absolutely true it is absolutely false." 
 
 Do theologians always know what they mean when 
 they glibly use, in a serious and solemn sense, the 
 awful term God? Have they any notion of the Uni- 
 verse at all? Are they still limited to tribal or plane- 
 tary conceptions of Deity? They talk, or used to 
 talk, about "dispensations." We ourselves, as a na- 
 tion, give dispensations to children or savages other 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 237 
 
 than we should give to developed people ; a planetary 
 dispensation is one thing, a planetary God another. 
 These attempted identifications of the Messiah with 
 the Most High, verge on the blasphemous. When 
 Peter w^as blessed for a burst of bold and enthusiastic 
 affirmation and adequate recognition of Christ's di- 
 vine nature, he said no such thing as that. What he 
 said was, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God." 
 
 As to affirming that Christ is either God or is not 
 God and that there is nothing more to be said: there 
 are few complex propositions of which so simple a 
 positive or negative affirmation can be made. For 
 instance, it is almost proverbially difficult to reply to 
 the childish question whether a given historical char- 
 acter was "good" or was not good. 
 
 The word God must have an infinite diversity of 
 meaning, and two uses of the term are prominent. 
 One connotes vaguely the Absolute Sustainer and 
 Comprehender of all existence: the other signifies 
 such detailed conception of Godhead as the human 
 race has been able to frame. This latter has been 
 helped on mightily by the revelation of Jesus, among 
 those who can accept it, — the revelation of genuinely 
 human faculties and feelings, and even something of 
 the unconscious simplicity, of childhood,^ in the Di- 
 vine Being, — and the further revelation, so enthusias- 
 tically glimpsed by the youthful David near the end 
 of Browning's poem "Saul," the perception that Di- 
 
 1 Luke ix. 48. 
 
238 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 vine as well as human love may be and actually is 
 strong enough to submit to sacrifice and genuine suf- 
 fering on behalf of the beloved. 
 
 This revelation and perception may to some have 
 become so keen and piercing that to no other aspect of 
 Godhead can they pay attention. These are they 
 who say that Christ was very God in the absolute 
 sense; and subjectively they may be right. It is a 
 statement, not of what they conceive of Christ, but of 
 what they mean by God. One cannot define or ex- 
 plain the known in terms of the unknown. 
 
 4. Lastly we come to the doctrine of a vicarious 
 Atonement, and in what sense that can be considered 
 to embody a genuine truth. The late Bishop of 
 Southampton, Dr. Arthur Lyttelton, in his article on 
 the Atonement in Luoo Mundi (pp. 282, 283), says 
 that — 
 
 "'It was from the Law that the Jews derived their 
 religious language; their conceptions of sacrifice, of 
 atonement, of the effects of sin, were moulded by the 
 influence of the Mosaic ceremonies. . . . The sacri- 
 ficial ceremonies and language of the Law throw light 
 upon the apostolic conception of the Sacrifice, the 
 Atonement of Christ." 
 
 With this historical estimate I entirely agree. The 
 ceremony of the Scapegoat, and indeed the whole so- 
 called Mosaic system, are clearly responsible for a 
 great deal of the doctrine which penetrated into the 
 New Testament, and has survived even to the present 
 day. 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 239 
 
 But then it will be found that this same Article is 
 full of the word "propitiation": — a word which em- 
 bodies compactly what I regard as an error or a 
 crudity, and serves to focus the issue. The basis of 
 his contention throughout is given succinctly in the 
 following passage (p. 282) : 
 
 "Examination of the sacrificial system of the Old 
 Testament is necessary in a discussion of the doctrine 
 of the Atonement, for several reasons. 
 
 "The institutions of the Law were, in the first 
 place, ordained by God, and therefore intended to re- 
 veal in some degree His purposes. His mind towards 
 man." 
 
 That is where I join issue. I would rather go to 
 the opposite extreme and say that the Gospel was an 
 attempt to break away from sacrificial and priestly 
 tradition; that the "not destroy but fulfil" referred 
 to the major denunciations and other accumulations 
 of race-experience, which were on right lines as far 
 as they went, not to the minor institutions and super- 
 stitions which had become an incubus destructive of 
 living personal religion. We may not all in every 
 respect be equally enamoured of the parable of the 
 Prodigal Son — I myself am conscious of a subter- 
 ranean sympathy with the sentiments expressed by 
 his elder brother — but the whole story is very human, 
 very familiar, and full of manifest inspiration; and 
 without wishing to press it unduly, we must admit that 
 any feeling of wrath against the offender, or even 
 against the offence, is rather conspicuously absent 
 from its scheme. The sense of guilt is there, in pro- 
 
240 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 nounced form, but as a one-sided feeling; and its 
 paternal counterpart seems not to have been removed 
 by expiatory sacrifice or by propitiation of any kind, 
 but simply to be non-existent. There is very little 
 residue of the Mosaic dispensation in that story. 
 
 So markedly has this been felt indeed by some 
 preachers that, in dismay at finding themselves 
 adrift from their familiar moorings, a few have 
 actually seized upon the fatted calf and tried to 
 construct some kind of propitiatory sacrifice out of 
 that. 
 
 But observe that I have never said a word against 
 vicarious suffering: I have contended against the 
 notion of vicarious 'punishment — a very different 
 idea. But I cannot agree with everything that is said 
 even about vicar ous suffering — real though it admit- 
 tedly is. For instance, the Bishop of Southwark 
 urges that the vicarious suffering of the Atonement 
 did somehow redress, cancel, redeem, propitiate, — 
 these words are used in a private letter, while their 
 substance appears in the article above referred to, — 
 and he appears to insist that the idea of a Father who 
 is necessarily hard upon us because himself so right- 
 eous, is a part of the orthodox view. With great de- 
 ference I cannot admit the appropriateness of the 
 above verbs to modern insight: they seem to me sat- 
 urated with the atmosphere of pagan survival and of 
 ante-Isaiah Jewish traditions. No one supposes them 
 to apply to vicious and persistent sins; but if they 
 only apply to negligences and ignorances for which 
 we are heartily sorry and earnestly regent, they are 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 241 
 
 unnecessary, except in a subjective and comforting 
 sense. 
 
 But then this is a real sense: there must be some 
 meaning in the perennial experience of relief and 
 renovation at the Cross. Was it not there that Chris- 
 tian's burden fell, — type of many thousands of de- 
 vout persons? Is there no regenerating agency at 
 work in justification of this mass of real human ex- 
 perience? Far be it from me to doubt it; and it be- 
 hoves me, who have presumed to emphasise one aspect, 
 to emphasise the other also, in order to make a picture 
 not too obviously incomplete and one-sided. 
 
 I am now going to use the word "sin" in its theo- 
 logical and, so to speak, "official" sense, — the sense of 
 imperfection, disunion, lack of harmony, the struggle 
 among the members that St. Paul for all time ex- 
 pressed; there is usually associated with it a sense of 
 impotence, a recognition of the impossibility of 
 achieving peace and unity in one's o\^ti person, a feel- 
 ing 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 pos- 
 sibilities 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. All religions worthy of the 
 name are based upon some heroic and self-sacrificing 
 life, upon some man with clearer vision than his fel- 
 lows, one who is in closer touch and sympathy with 
 the Divine. 
 
242 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 And not insight and heroism alone: Paul was able 
 to bear the sufferings of this present time with hero- 
 ism, but Paul was not crucified for us, nor are we bap- 
 tised in the name of Paul. No, there is evidently 
 something unique about the majesty of Jesus of Naz- 
 areth which raises him above the rank of man; and 
 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 cov- 
 ering and suffuses the details of common life with 
 fragrance. 
 
 This conspicuously has been a redeeming, or rather 
 a regenerating agency — I know nothing of "cancel- 
 ling," "redressing," or "propitiating": those words I 
 repudiate; but it has regenerated, — 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. 
 
 There are other parts of the Hon. Arthur Lyttel- 
 ton*s beautiful essay on the Atonement in Lux Mundi 
 to which I should like to refer. I find myself in 
 agreement with the initial three or four pages and 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 243 
 
 with the concluding three or four pages ahnost en- 
 tirely. By dint of working through a maze of rather 
 intractable material, which he treats as well as it is 
 possible for it to be treated, he arrives at what I con- 
 ceive to be the legitimate conclusion. He discards 
 the infinite-punishment doctrine completely, he 
 brushes lightly aside M'Leod Campbell's infinite-re- 
 pentance modification of it, and he attempts to justify 
 the view of a perfect sacrifice. 
 
 So far as he associates this with vicarious penalty 
 and emphasises the propitiatory aspect of the Atone- 
 ment, he goes, as I consider, wrong; he even argues 
 that in his agony and death the Son must have been 
 engaged in propitiating not only his Father's wrath 
 but his own also; that he was, in fact, taking upon 
 himself, and so both retrospectively and prospectively 
 warding off from others, the wrath of the Lamb. 
 This truly is a logical outcome of the orthodox doc- 
 trine, but it should serve as one of the modes of dis- 
 crediting some of the crudity in that doctrine and re- 
 ducing it to a kind of absurdity. 
 
 But when Dr. Lyttelton arrives at page 310 he has 
 emerged from Mosaic medigevalism into an atmos- 
 phere of truth: it is true that Christ bore his suffer- 
 ings, as we should learn to bear ours, victoriously and 
 in unbroken union with God. He showed that the 
 highest and the best might have to suffer, so long as 
 the world was imperfect. 
 
 In an admirable essay on "Pain" by J. R. Illing- 
 worth in Luce Mundi this part of the matter is put 
 with great clearness: 
 
244 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 "Once for all the sinless suffering of the Cross has 
 parted sin from suffering with a clearness of distinc- 
 tion never before achieved. • • . The sight of perfect 
 sinlessness combined with perfect suffering has 
 cleared our view for ever. . . . Sin indeed always 
 brings suffering in its train, but the suffering we now 
 see to be of the nature of its antidote. . . . But while 
 sin involves suffering, suffering does not involve sin. 
 . . . We suffer because we sin, but we also sin because 
 we decline to suffer. . . . The pleasures of each gen- 
 eration evaporate in air; it is their pains that increase 
 the spiritual momentum of the world." And so on 
 (p. 123 to the end). 
 
 The problem which had puzzled the ages, the prob- 
 lem of the book of Job, of the tower of Siloam, was 
 practically solved. 
 
 And Christ showed how the sting might be taken 
 out of all suffering by meeting it with a spirit of un- 
 daunted faith. The power of sin lay in the presence 
 of an evil and rebellious disposition. Rid of that, and 
 though pains and sorrows would come as before, they 
 could be faced in a spirit, not of submission only, but 
 of undying love and hope and almost joy. 
 
 So the cognate or complementary problem of the 
 Greek Dramatists also — the problem which looms 
 large in the tragedies of Euripides in especial — the 
 dread that man is the sport and plaything of omnipo- 
 tence — ^the fear, the paralysing fear, of caprice or 
 even wickedness on the part of higher powers — the 
 dismal uncertainty whether pain is not sometimes 
 mere gratuitous torture, the outcome of divine jeal- 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 245 
 
 ousy or malevolence or anger or some other pagan 
 attribute: all this was somehow removed from man- 
 kind by the victory of Christ, and except in a few 
 individual cases has never very seriously troubled it 
 since. 
 
 Not only was indifference to suffering and tem- 
 poral loss the outcome of it, but there was superadded 
 a certain glory in suffering, in emulation of so noble 
 an example: to fill up, as was hyperbolically said, 
 what was behind; this feeling infused such vitality 
 into the Apostles and the early Church as to carry 
 them victoriously through a terrible period of danger 
 and untold misery. It made them staunch; men and 
 emperors found that they simply could not effectively 
 hurt those whom this faith had seized. And in less 
 troublous times the element of suffering and poverty 
 was still felt to be so vital that it was often self-in- 
 flicted in order to secure a deeper joy. So is it always 
 in ages of burning faith; comfort and luxury and 
 this present life, with all that they rightly contain of 
 happiness, are cast aside as almost worthless in ex- 
 change for a spiritual exaltation. 
 
 But it will be said that this violent enthusiasm and 
 contempt for mere individual temporal well-being is 
 not Christian alone, that it is common to all religions. 
 Granted. I will not contend that Christ was the only 
 channel of this influence, though he has been the chan- 
 nel for most of us; nor do Buddhism, Brahminism, 
 Mohammedanism, Confucianism, exhaust the cate- 
 gory of religions more or less efficient in this particu- 
 lar. In islands of strange worship, amid savages o£ 
 
246 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 unclean life, the same enthusiasm for the spiritual as 
 dominating the material is felt ; for it is a part of the 
 truth of God, and is limited to no age or creed. And 
 in countries which by superficial outsiders are said 
 to have no religious faith it is to be found. The Jap- 
 anese soldier throws away his individual life by the 
 thousand, in order that his nation may take a noble 
 place in the world and begin its destined work of 
 civilising Asia; yet when he is dead what is Asia or 
 his country to him? He must be dominated by a liv- 
 ing faith, in perhaps he knows not what. He may 
 not be able to express it, but his faith may be none the 
 less efficient for lacking the outward precision of an 
 Athanasian formula. 
 
 But whatever be the case with other religions, the 
 sacrifice of Christ has convinced the Western world 
 of sin to a unique degree, of its reality and dire con- 
 sequence, of its unreasonableness, its aspect as a dis- 
 ease which must be cured — with the knife if need be, 
 but cured; we have learnt that it is foreign to the 
 universe, it is not the will of God, it is not due to his 
 caprice, or amusement, or dictation, or predestination, 
 or pagan example; it is something which gives even 
 Him pain and suffering; it is something to be rid of, 
 and there is no peace or joy to be had until unity of 
 will is secured and past rebellions are forgiven. The 
 sin of the creature involves suffering in the Creator: 
 the whole of existence is so bound together that dis- 
 ease in one part means pain throughout. This is the 
 element of truth in the vicariousness of suffering, 
 
SIN, SUFFERING AND WRATH 247 
 
 and in extension of suffering to the Highest; but it 
 is not vicariously penal, nor is it propitiatory. 
 
 The orthodox doctrine of the Atonement implicitly 
 maintains that God cannot forgive sin, unless and 
 until He has exacted an adequate penalty somewhere. 
 This does embody a kind of truth, for an eddy of 
 conduct, good or ill, can only disappear by expending 
 its energy in producing some definite effect. In one 
 sense, therefore, a penalty must follow every inhar- 
 monious action: a penalty not falling on the wrong- 
 doer alone, but, involving the innocent likewise, and 
 bringing needless pain into existence. Perception of 
 this may be part of the punishment, for there can 
 hardly be a fiercer feeling than remorse ; but the sting 
 will not be fully felt till the spirit has become broken 
 and contrite and open to the healing influences of 
 forgiveness. There is no agony like that of returning 
 animation. Forgiveness removes no penalty: it may 
 even increase pain, though only that of a regenera- 
 tive kind; it leaves material consequences unaltered, 
 but it may achieve spiritual reform. 
 
 Divine forgiveness is undoubtedly mysterious, but 
 it must be real, for we are conscious that we can for- 
 give each other. It should be an axiom that what- 
 ever man can do, God a fortiori can do also ; meaning 
 by "man" not merely any poor individual man, but 
 the whole highest ethos of the race, including saints, 
 apostles, prophets, everybody, — and including Christ 
 himself. How are we taught to ask for forgiveness 
 of sins? As we forgive others. This does not solely 
 
248 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 mean, as it is usually taken to mean, because we for- 
 give others, nor in so far as, nor on condition that we 
 forgive our fellows, but it means after the same 
 fashion as we forgive or should forgive them. And 
 the reason given is a luminous one; it has nothing to 
 do with propitiation, it makes no reference to sacrifice 
 or vicarious penalty, nor to the merits of any media- 
 tor ; no, the reason given is a noble and sufficient one, 
 and it is simply this: "For Thine is the Kingdom, 
 and the Power, and the Glory, for ever." What 
 more can we add but the word "Amen"? 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 THE MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 
 
 MEN of science who make a life-study of the ma- 
 terial world alone, and habitually close their 
 minds to the influences of poetry and of emotional 
 and rehgious and even philosophical literature gen- 
 erally, are apt to grow into the behef that the material 
 aspect of the universe is the only aspect which mat- 
 ters, — sometimes going so far as to hold that it is the 
 only aspect which is truly real. 
 
 Theologians and mystics and even men of letters, 
 are liable to err in a similar though complementary 
 manner, and by exclusive attention to one region of 
 human nature become so imbued with its supreme 
 importance that they ignore and despise the universe 
 of matter, force, and energy; regarding with com- 
 placence not only their own ignorance, but the ignor- 
 ance also of teachers of youth. 
 
 This distinction between schools of thought on 
 the intellectual plane is fairly obvious; and a similar 
 distinction holds also in the religious sphere. 
 
 There are those, on the one hand, who hold that 
 "God" and "spiritual beings" and "guidance" and 
 "intelligent control" are words of only superstitious 
 meaning — that the world, as revealed by our senses, 
 is the sole reality, our bodily life our true and only 
 
 249 
 
250 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 existence, and the world of poetry and religion but a 
 dream. 
 
 There are those, on the other hand, who so im- 
 merse themselves in spiritual contemplation that the 
 things of sense shrink into nothingness, and our pres- 
 ent Hfe, with all that pertains to bodily and terrestrial 
 activity, becomes insignificant, or even acquires a neg- 
 ative value, since material things are a snare and a 
 temptation, tending to divert our feet from the true 
 path, and apt to fill our souls with clogging and 
 vicious trifles. 
 
 The extreme in the one case has been called roughly 
 materialism or naturalism or positivism; its religion 
 is a practical religion of human nature and earthly 
 service, its god a glorified humanity, and its immor- 
 tality merely racial, being one of sentiment and mem- 
 ory. 
 
 The extreme in the other case has been called spirit- 
 ualism or mysticism or asceticism or puritanism, for 
 it has many phases; its religion is largely occupied 
 with worship, sometimes in the form of contemplative 
 awe and ecstasy, sometimes of labour for the glory 
 of God; its God is a high and holy Personality of 
 illimitable perfection, far removed from the strug- 
 gles and trials of this mortal life, which is a mere epi- 
 sode or probationary discipline before men's souls are 
 lapped for ever in the peace of the Eternal, or are 
 tortured by exclusion from His presence for all eter- 
 nity. 
 
 " Between the extremes comes the religion which we 
 know as Christianity. Looked at cosmically, this 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 251 
 
 aims at being a comprehensive and inclusive scheme, 
 capable of embracing the essential elements of both 
 the other systems, — ^recognising and worshipping God 
 in the Highest, loving and serving man even at his 
 lowest, accepting the facts of nature and despising 
 nothing that exists, desiring to utihse the opportuni- 
 ties of this present life to the uttermost, and yet be- 
 lieving that it is possibly not the beginning, certainly 
 not the end, of our existence; rejoicing in the objects 
 of sense, realising also the beauty and truth of things 
 only reached now by studious contemplation, reject- 
 ing the idea of any ultimate conflict between matter 
 and spirit, and, when they appear to conflict, giving 
 supremacy to the spiritual. 
 
 ^ It is the mission of the Priest to emphasise one of 
 these aspects; it is the business of the Naturalist to 
 emphasise the other; it is the desire of the Philosopher 
 to reahse the element of truth in both departments, to 
 grasp truth in its breadth and comprehensiveness; 
 while it is the duty of the Religious man to apply the 
 truths, so recognised, in the conduct of practical life. 
 But the task of the unifier is not an easy one ; it is 
 not to be supposed that every exuberant utterance of 
 the mystic is true, that every balanced imitation of the 
 naturalist is true, and that it only remains to under- 
 stand and accept both. His task is much harder than 
 that: he has to exercise discrimination, to scrutinise 
 and weigh carefully, not letting himself be over-per- 
 suaded by the enthusiasts on either side, and so gradu- 
 ally to evolve for himself a system of thought which is 
 ,as true and helpful as may be possible to a being in his 
 
252 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 present state of development. This is the task which 
 lies before us all, and this is the task upon which the 
 great prophets of humanity, each in his day and gen- 
 eration, have been engaged. This work absorbs the 
 attention of many leading Christian theologians at 
 the present time — men who exhibit welcome breadth 
 of knowledge and are imbued with scientific method. 
 
 I. The Correspondence of Spiritual and Ma- 
 terial 
 
 First of all, then, the whole doctrine of "Incarna- 
 tion" exhibits an idea of the interaction between the 
 spiritual and material. Just as man has at least a dual 
 nature — the material organism and the dominant mind 
 — so it was felt must God be thought of as interacting 
 directly with this material scheme, and must be sup- 
 posed incarnated in or clothed upon with a material 
 body, subject to growth, disintegration, and death, 
 like our own. An extraordinary and bold concep- 
 tion, manifestly symbolic or pictorial of something, — 
 not literal nor reducible to any simple formula, — ^it 
 nevertheless involves a great truth, the kinship be- 
 tween spirit and matter. Any divine revelation to be 
 accessible to us, must have an accessible and bodily 
 form. So must a ghost or vision ; however objectively 
 unreal it may be, it must appear in the likeness of man, 
 and will usually have garments such as we have been 
 accustomed to associate with human beings: it must 
 appear in material accessories, or it could not appear 
 at all. That is the essence of revelation : and even in 
 the most sublimated case, even if no outward form or 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 253 
 
 voice were subjectively constructed, yet something in 
 the brain must be affected, else not only could there be 
 neither speech nor language, there could not be any 
 definite impression, not even the vanishing impression 
 of a dream. 
 
 But the materialising tendency of the human race 
 has gone farther than that. Given the incarnation of 
 a divine spirit in a mortal frame, they have not been 
 content with that already sufficiently difficult idea; 
 they have pressed further to ask how that body was 
 produced, and what ultimately became of it; and so 
 we have legends of abnormal birth and of bodily 
 resurrection. 
 
 But the latter difficulty is not a problem raised by 
 the phenomena associated with Christ alone; it is a 
 difficulty which has troubled all humanity. We are 
 all supposed to be spirits endowed with immortality, 
 as taught the ancients; but we all have bodies — the 
 apparently necessary medium of manifestation and of 
 individuality, — what becomes of them? Socrates was 
 content to suppose that the body remained behind, 
 sloughed off, and was restored to the elements of this 
 material world. But the early Christians were not 
 satisfied thus to get rid of their material part: a vein 
 of materialism ran through their Christianity; they 
 supposed that the bodies were only temporarily dis- 
 carded, and would ultimately rise and rejoin their di- 
 vorced spirits at the sound of some future signal: a 
 grotesque idea which, strange to say, still survives in 
 the thoughts of unimaginative persons and in some 
 portions of the liturgy. 
 
254 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 But, it is contended, this is an essential part of 
 Christianity, however it be interpreted; the mere per- 
 sistence of existence was a pagan idea and existed long 
 before Christ. The special feature of Christianity 
 was not the survival or persistence of existence, even 
 of individual existence, but the resurrection of the 
 body ; and hence this doctrine is rightly emphasised in 
 the creeds. 
 
 Moreover, the very basis of Christianity — the In- 
 carnation — emphasises and dignifies the perception 
 that man consists essentially of both soul and body, 
 and that he is to be aided and raised and saved, not by 
 spiritual influences alone, but by agencies appealing 
 to his senses and acting primarily upon his bodily or- 
 ganism. 
 
 It is the neglect of this truth which has often ren- 
 dered the evangelising activity of religious bodies so 
 futile. They have tried to save souls alone. They 
 are growing wiser now, and are beginning to realise 
 that once bodily conditions are set fairly right, peo- 
 ple's souls are much better than has been credited; 
 there is a lot of innate goodness in humanity, and to 
 enable it to blossom and flourish it needs little more 
 than the material care which is lavished upon the 
 plants in the garden. They themselves do the flower- 
 ing and fruiting, — the gardener has only to expose 
 them to sun and air to keep them clear of parasites 
 and weeds. 
 
 And so, throughout, it will be found that Christi- 
 anity has a definitely materialistic side ; and it becomes 
 a question for us what is to be the modern interpreta- 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 255 
 
 tion of all the singularly developed mediaeval doc- 
 trine, and how far it is to be accepted as in any sense 
 corresponding to reality. For that it is not to be ac- 
 cepted in a crude form, such as that in which it is 
 preached by ignorant persons to-day, was obvious to 
 the New Testament writers, and doubtless to the most 
 enlightened saints of all time; but that it contains 
 some element of truth, enshrined in its strange form- 
 alism is to be strongly maintained. 
 
 The purely spiritual side of religion, so far as it 
 contents itself with positive assertion and is not oc- 
 cupied with denying material facts, does not now con- 
 cern us. It is the material side which I wish to con- 
 sider, especially whether religion should have a ma- 
 terialistic basis, and how far its excursion into ma- 
 terialism may be warranted by experience. It is 
 plain that for our present mode of apprehending the 
 universe a material vehicle is essential; that which has 
 no contact with the world of matter cannot be di- 
 rectly apprehended, and has for us no effective exist- 
 ence. A purely spiritual agency may be active and 
 the activity may be guessed at or inferred, and may 
 be believed in, but the only evidence of its existence 
 that can be adduced is the manifestation of that ac- 
 tivity through matter, and the only moments when a 
 glimpse can be caught of the activity are the moments 
 at which action on matter occurs. 
 
 Dreams, visions, thoughts, inspirations, — all things 
 known to us, no matter how intangible and subtle 
 their essence — are enabled to enter what we call our 
 present consciousness solely by some action on, or ac- 
 
256 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 tion in, the brain. They may act on other material 
 particles too, but on the matter of the brain they must 
 act, or they give no sign. 
 
 A whole world may exist beyond our senses, may 
 exist even in space and close to us for all we can tell, 
 and yet if it has no means of connexion, no links with 
 the material world, it must remain outside our con- 
 sciousness; and this isolation must last until we grow 
 a new sense, or otherwise develop fresh faculties, so 
 that intercommunication and interaction can begin. 
 Whether there is any interaction at present between 
 this and a supersensual world is a question that may 
 be debated, but the above assertion that some such 
 interaction is an essential preliminary to our recogni- 
 tion of such a world is hardly susceptible of debate. 
 
 Now, this dependence of the spiritual on a vehicle 
 for manifestation is not likely to be a purely tempor- 
 ary condition: it is probably a sign or example of 
 something which has an eternal significance, a repre- 
 sentation of some permanent truth. 
 
 That is certainly the working hypothesis which, 
 until negatived, we ought to make. Our senses limit 
 us, but do not deceive us: so far as they go, they tell 
 us the truth. I wish to proceed on that hypothesis. 
 To suppose that our experience of the necessary and 
 fundamental connexion between the two things — the 
 something which we know as mind and the something 
 which is now represented by matter — has no counter- 
 part or enlargement in the actual scheme of the uni- 
 verse, as it really exists, is needlessly to postulate con- 
 fusion and instrumental deception. 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 257 
 
 Philosophers have been so impressed with this that 
 they have conjectured that mind and matter are but 
 aspects, or modes of perception, of one fundamental 
 comprehensive unity ; a unity which is neither exactly 
 mind nor exactly matter as we conceive them, but is 
 something fundamental and underlying both, as the 
 ether is now conceived of as sustaining and in some 
 sense constituting all the phenomena of the visible 
 universe. 
 
 This monistic view, if true at all, is Hkely to be per- 
 manently and actually true; and, though it by no 
 means follows that mind is dependent on matter as we 
 know it, it will probably be still by means of something 
 akin to matter — something which can act as a ve- 
 hicle and represent it in the same sort of way that 
 matter represents it now — that it will hereafter be 
 manifested. 
 
 This probability or possibility may be regarded as 
 one form of statement of an orthodox Christian doc- 
 trine. Assuming that Christianity emphasises the 
 material aspect of religion, as its supporters assert that 
 it does, it supplements the mere survival of a discar- 
 nate spirit, a homeless wanderer or melancholy ghost, 
 with the warm and comfortable clothing of something 
 that may legitimately be spoken of as a "body"; that 
 is to say, it postulates a supersensually visible and tan- 
 gible vehicle or mode of manifestation, fitted to sub- 
 serve the needs of future existence as our bodies sub- 
 serve the needs of terrestrial life — an ethereal or other 
 entity constituting the persistent "other aspect," and 
 
258 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 fulfilling some of the functions which the atoms of 
 terrestrial matter are employed to fulfil now. 
 
 Not only the authority of St. Paul, but the influ- 
 ence also of poets, can be appealed to as sustaining 
 some truth underlying the crude idea above formu- 
 lated. To them the highest feelings have, and appear 
 necessarily to have, a material outcome or counterpart 
 associated with them. Take "love," for instance: 
 many have been the attempts to spiritualise it into a 
 discarnate entity; and doubtless it is in its highest 
 form the purest and least gross of all the emotions; 
 yet it must ultimately be recognised that it has a sac- 
 ramental or material side, wherein the flesh and the 
 spirit are united and inseparable, and where neither 
 can be discarded without loss to the other. It has been 
 always easy to deride and condemn the bodily side of 
 our nature, but by the highest seers this has not been 
 done. The glorification and transfiguration, not the 
 reprobation, of the body has been the theme of the 
 highest prophets and poets, and those who in "matter" 
 detect nothing but evil are essential, though well- 
 meaning, blasphemers. It has been easy also to tilt 
 the balance the other way, and, by discarding or ig- 
 noring the spiritual side, to wallow and blaspheme in a 
 far more degraded and degrading manner. This 
 tendency in times of decadence has been dominant, 
 and nations and individuals have had to struggle with 
 the overweight of their animal ancestry, and some 
 have succumbed; but, shorn of its exaggeration, there 
 is a truth to be perceived on the material side too, and 
 we must be careful that in spurning the exaggeration 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 259 
 
 yve do not lose some of the essential truth embodied in 
 it. In so far as the mis-called "fleshly school of poet- 
 ry," for instance, is not fleshly in any low sense, but 
 inspired, the permanence and importance and dignity 
 of the side now known as material is the truth which is 
 being preached.^ It may happen that in some cases 
 the message is too dazzling for the messenger, and he 
 may succumb to the enchantment of his vision, so that 
 he lose the jewel itself and be left blindly grasping 
 only its empty setting ; but the message itself must not 
 be unduly discredited on that account. 
 
 Assuming then — as consonant with, or even as part 
 of, Christianity — the doctrine of the dignity and nec- 
 essary character of some quasi-material counterpart 
 of every spiritual essence, it becomes our duty to in- 
 quire what part of this connexion is essential, and 
 what is accidental and temporary. 
 
 Take our present incarnation as an example. We 
 display ourselves to mankind in the garb of certain 
 clothes, artificially constructed of animal and vegeta- 
 ble materials, and in the form of a certain material or- 
 ganism, put together by processes of digestion and as- 
 similation, likewise composed of terrestrial materials. 
 
 The identity of the corporeal substances and chemi- 
 cal compounds is evidently not of a permanent and 
 important character. Whether they formed part of 
 sheep or birds or fish or plants, they are assimilated 
 
 1 1 regret to have to refer, even for the sake of illustration, to 
 this discredited and noxious criticism of the poetry of Rossetti, but I 
 hope that the lofty character of the thing criticised is sufficiently manifest 
 to enable every reader to perceive the beauty of the message and the 
 inspiration of the poet. 
 
260 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 and become part of us, being arranged by our sub- 
 conscious activities and vital processes into appropri- 
 ate form, just as truly as other materials are con- 
 sciously woven into garments, no matter what they or- 
 iginally sprang from. Moreover, just as our clothes 
 wear out and require darning and patching, so our 
 bodies wear out; the particles are in continual flux; 
 each giving place to others, and being constantly dis- 
 carded and renewed. The identity of the actual or 
 instantaneous body is therefore an affair of no impor- 
 tance : the individuality lies deeper than that, and be- 
 longs to whatever it is which put the particles together 
 in this shape and not another. 
 
 II. The Resurrection of the Body 
 
 When, therefore, at what we call death, this con- 
 trolling entity leaves the terrestrial sphere of things — 
 assuming that it does not promptly go out of exist- 
 ence, a thing which it would be very surprising for 
 any existing entity to do — it is unnecessary to suppose 
 that it will continue in a wholly discarnate condition 
 for a time, until presently it becomes able to resume 
 the poor decayed refuse which it left behind on this 
 planet. 
 
 The idea of rejoining the corpse in this sense is un- 
 thinkable and repulsive : it could only arise in ages of 
 ignorance. The identity of the material particles 
 does not constitute the identity of the person, nor is 
 it essential to the identity of the body. What is 
 wanted to make definite our thoughts of the persistent 
 existence of what we call our immortal part, is simpl}^ 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 261 
 
 the persistent power of manifesting itself to friends, 
 'i,e, to persons with whom we are in sympathy, by; 
 means as plain and substantial in that order of ex- 
 istence as the body was here — though the manifesta- 
 tion need not be of so broadcast and indiscriminate a 
 character as it is now ;^ — we may surmise that any im- 
 mortal part must have the power of constructing for 
 itself a suitable vehicle of manifestation which is the 
 essential meaning of the term "body." 
 
 The question whether the individuality and personal 
 identity and consciousness and memory, and all that 
 constitutes an ego, are preserved, is worthy of exami- 
 nation and research ; the fate of the terrestrial residue 
 is of no great consequence — ^not much more than if it 
 consisted solely of old clothes. 
 
 To those who stigmatise this as dualism, and say 
 that it is contrary to the ultimate identity of matter 
 and spirit, I reply No. Monism does not assert that 
 atoms of matter are any aspect of me. The pen- 
 holder is an instrument subservient to my will, and it 
 may be made to express my thought, but it is no part 
 of me — I can throw it down when done with, and 
 when worn out I can burn or bury it, but I do not 
 
 1 This sentence probably requires amplification: its meaning is this 
 — Present human bodies bring us into contact with strangers and make 
 us aware of people in whom perchance we take no interest. Hereafter 
 our acquaintanceship may perhaps be limited to those with whom we 
 are linked by ties of affinity and affection — the mode of communication 
 being probably of a more sympathetic or telepathic character, and less 
 physical, than now. If so, this planetary episode is a great opportunity 
 for enlarging our sympathies and for making new friends; so that the 
 emphasis laid by great prophets on "love," and their condemnation of 
 selfishness as a deadly vice specially destructive of fulness of person- 
 ality and wealth of existence, becomes amply intelligible. , ^ 
 
262 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 thereby lose the power of taking another, nor of learn- 
 ing to write with a different instrument and in another 
 language if I travel to other countries. There may 
 be a sense in which all matter is evidence of, and an 
 aspect of, the thought of some World-Mind; but 
 most of it is certainly neither evidence nor aspect of 
 my mind. Matter divorced from all Mind whatever 
 may possibly thereby cease to exist ; but the furniture 
 certainly does not cease to exist when I leave the room, 
 — ^nor would it be affected if all humanity were to 
 perish off the planet. 
 
 Those who press monism to these absurd lengths 
 will find a difficulty in preserving the clearness of 
 their thoughts ; and in self-defence they will take ref- 
 uge in a narrow and illiterate and most unscientific 
 variety of dogmatic scepticism, or agnostic dogma- 
 tism. 
 
 Soul and Body 
 
 The phrase * 'resurrection of the body" undoubtedly 
 dates back to a period when it was thought that the 
 residue laid in the grave would at some future signal 
 be collected and resuscitated and raised in the air : and 
 superstitions about missing fragments and about the 
 permissibility of cremation, even to this day, are not 
 extinct. But all this is clearly infantile, and has long 
 been discarded by leaders of thought; and it were 
 good if the phrases responsible for the misunderstand- 
 ing could be amended also. 
 
 "Resurrection of a body" would be but little im- 
 provement, for the body that hereafter "shall be" is 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 263 
 
 not that body which was planted in the ground; and 
 the future "body" can hardly be said to have risen 
 from the grave. Nor does the Nicene version "resur- 
 rection of the dead" give much assistance, for that 
 which survives is just that which never was dead; it 
 did not cease to be, and then arise to new life ; its ex- 
 istence, if persistent at all, is necessarily continuous; 
 the whole argument for persistence of existence de- 
 pends on continuity, — on the fact that real existence 
 does not suddenly spring into being out of nothing, 
 and then suddenty vanish as if it had not been. 
 
 Perhaps the word "resurrection" may be interpreted 
 as meaning revival or survival; and "death" can be de- 
 fined as a separation between the psychical and physi- 
 cal aspects of an individual, and as a definite physico- 
 chemical process occurring to the body or material 
 vehicle of mxanifestation. So far as the undying es- 
 sence or spirit is concerned the teaching of Socrates 
 holds to this day: "Let them bury him if they could 
 catch him : but he himself would be out of their reach." 
 
 It is all very well to stigmatise this as pagan teach- 
 ing, and to hold it in light esteem, — it is teaching to 
 which multitudes to-day have not risen ; and a real and 
 vital belief in such a doctrine could not but have a be- 
 neficent influence on conduct. It may be true to say 
 Christianity assumes all that, and supplements it with 
 the Pauline doctrine of a resurrection-body, or spirit- 
 ual body; — it does, but it is likewise true that the 
 phrases of the Church do not assist people to grasp 
 even the truth underlying the Socratic doctrine of im- 
 mortality, and so, when they perceive the falsity of 
 
264 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 corporeal resurrection, they are apt to lose faith even 
 in persistence of existence. Having been accustomed 
 to associate personality with a buried corpse, the mani- 
 fest decay and dissipation of the body destroys, in the 
 semi-educated, the whole idea of immortality ; and with 
 it is apt to go religion too. * 'Resurrection" is itself 
 a misleading word : the phrases which suggest that the 
 person himself is entombed, the phrases about wait- 
 ing till the last day, and about the general resurrec- 
 tion, even the habit of burying with the face to the 
 east, and the custom of burying relatives together, are 
 all misleading or are liable to misinterpretation. 
 Some of these customs are legitimate and humanly 
 intelligible; and so strong a hold have these ideas on 
 mankind, that even the greatest poets, who have 
 shaken themselves loose from the thought, cannot, and 
 possibly do not wish to, shake themselves loose from 
 the time-honoured language in which it was embedded, 
 for even Tennyson says : 
 
 "in the vast Cathedral leave him." 
 
 But God forbid that I should presume to pragma- 
 tise or dogmatise as to the language which ought to 
 be employed: let us get our thoughts clear, and the 
 language of devotion and of poetry may continue to 
 be employed in due season. Words and ancient 
 phrases can touch the emotions, as music can, without 
 being too closely scrutinised by the intellect; the for- 
 mulae of centuries must be respected, and a priggish 
 precision of expression may be quite unsuited to wor- 
 ship. 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 265 
 
 III. The Resurrection of Christ 
 
 Let us then, in a spirit of orthodoxy, now approach! 
 the person of Christ — the Christ long recognised by 
 Christendom as a Divine Person in human form: let 
 us assume that in order to display himself to the in- 
 habitants of this planet he was provided with a body 
 like our own, eating and drinking and sleeping and 
 suffering and dying like any of us: what should we 
 expect to happen to his body — the body of Jesus of 
 Nazareth — when it was done with? 
 
 That he should survive death, that he should be able 
 to appear to worshippers, that he w^ould exert a peren- 
 nial and vivifying influence on his discij)les of all time 
 — all this is orthodox, and all this is not repugnant to 
 science as I conceive it. Is anything more necessary? 
 That a historial legend should have grown up con- 
 cerning the disappearance of the body from a tomb is 
 almost inevitable, considering the state of belief at the 
 time. If an apparition of someone recently deceased 
 appeared now to ignorant people, I imagine that most 
 of them would expect the corpse to have been utilised 
 for the purpose, and to have been either temporarily 
 or permanently disturbed in its grave. And to dis- 
 prove a continued existence it might be held sufficient, 
 among ignorant people, to point triumphantly to a 
 tomb not empty. 
 
 But, then, Christ by ecclesiastical hj^pothesis was 
 unique: he was not as one of us, his appearance was 
 likely to transcend ours, and his body was likely to be 
 
266 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 diiFerently constituted from ours : so it has been main- 
 tained. 
 
 I think it may be argued that, thus conceived, the 
 Incarnation would hardly sustain the complete and 
 efficient character which orthodox creeds claim for it. 
 The whole idea of the Manhood is that he was a man 
 like ourselves, subject to human needs, open even to 
 temptation, obedient to pain and death. That his 
 spirit was superior to ours few deny, but that his body 
 was essentially different I confess seems to me like 
 superstition. His raiment at any rate was made in 
 the ordinary way, yet it too shared in the glory of the 
 transfiguration. The Transfiguration was a splendid 
 episode, typifying the dignifying and dominating of 
 matter by the indwelling spirit. The shining in the 
 eye of genius, the almost visible glow pervading the 
 body in moments of exaltation, this, raised to a higher 
 power, permeated and suffused the poor human body 
 and travel-worn peasant garments of Christ, till the 
 few privileged witnesses had to shade their eyes. 
 
 So it is reported concerning JMoses after his solitary 
 conmiunion with Jehovah; so it may have been with 
 Joan of Arc; so it may be again from time to time 
 with the most exalted saints. These things are le- 
 gends, it is true, but they are more than legends ; they 
 bear on their face the signs of hyperphysical truth — 
 not in detail of narration, perhaps, but in essence. So 
 it was with Saul's vision at Damascus; so it may have 
 been with the scene at the Baptism; so, it is not in- 
 conceivable, may there be some foundation of truth 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 267 
 
 even for the legendary appearances to Magi and to 
 shepherds at the Nativity. 
 
 The mental and the physical are so interwoven, the 
 possibilities of clairvoyance are so unexplored, that I 
 do not feel constrained to abandon the traditional idea 
 that the coming or the going of a great personality 
 may be heralded and accompanied by strange oc- 
 currences in the region of physical force. The mind 
 of man is competent to enchain and enthrall the forces 
 of nature, and to produce strange and weird effects 
 that would not otherwise have occurred. Shall the 
 power be limited to his conscious intelligence? May 
 it not also be within the power of the subconscious in- 
 telligence, at moments of ecstasy, or at epochs of 
 strong emotion or of transition? 
 
 That there should be storms and earthquakes at the 
 Crucifixion is sure to be legendary, but that it was 
 hkewise true is not in the least inconceivable. We 
 know too little to be able to dogmatise on such things : 
 we must observe and generalise as we can. 
 
 Hence if the historical evidence is strong and de- 
 finite for the disappearance, not of bodies from tombs, 
 but of that one Body from its tomb — the exception 
 being justified on the ground of its having been in- 
 habited by an exceptionally mighty Spirit — I am not 
 one to seek to deny the possibility on scientific 
 grounds. I will only say that the proof of material 
 resurrection or resuscitation adduced in the Gospel is 
 not such as will bear scrutiny: it offers no case what- 
 ever to the Society for Psychical Research. If the 
 
268 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 stone and the seal and the watch had been found in- 
 tact, and yet the tomb empty, there would have been 
 something to investigate. But to find the place aban- 
 doned, and the stone rolled away, is equivalent to find 
 the grave rifled: no question of dematerialisation need 
 arise. But surely that is not what should be meant by 
 Christian Resurrection : I submit that for the purposes 
 of religion at the present day no exceptional treat- 
 ment of the discarded human body is necessary; and 
 the difficulties introduced by the effort to contemplate 
 the circumstances of anything approaching physical 
 resuscitation, or re-employment of the same body, are 
 very great. 
 
 The Appearances during the Forty Days are not 
 inconsistent with the legends of apparitions the world 
 over; and a farewell phantasmal appearance — des- 
 cribed as an Ascension — is credible enough. The 
 presence of the wounds also is quite consistent with 
 what is observable in apparitions as known to us : they 
 by no means establish physical identity. The body 
 notoriously had not its old properties, for it appeared 
 and disappeared and penetrated walls ; and ultimately 
 this supposed compound of terrestrial particles as- 
 cended into another order of things, "and sat down 
 for ever at the right hand of God." We are out of 
 the region of physics here, and attention to the details 
 of any material body in such an atmosphere introduces 
 strangely inappropriate considerations : the very atoms 
 of which it was composed would not last for ever, the 
 chemical compounds would soon decay: surely we 
 need not assert such a thing of the body which was 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 269 
 
 buried in the tomb, any more than we assert it of the 
 four or five previous bodies which, during the Incar- 
 nation, had been worn and discarded, particle by par- 
 ticle. 
 
 Moreover, it is depressing to the ordinary Christian, 
 who knows or ought to know that his own flesh, bones, 
 and other appurtenances will assuredly not rise, to 
 have to think of Christ's Resurrection as a unique 
 occurrence; for the express Pauline doctrine of the 
 Resurrection is that it is the type or parttern of our 
 resurrection; and the more normally we can regard 
 the human side of Christ, and everything connected 
 with liis body both before and after death, the better 
 and more hopeful is it for us his brethren. 
 
 May I suggest that the mystical spirit, which is the 
 vital essence of any church or rehgious fellowship, 
 though it may be incarnate for a time in a creed, 
 should not be !*or ever fossilised therein, but should 
 continue open to the fertilising influences of reason 
 and expanding kowledge, and, like any other spirit, 
 should dominate and survive its material body. 
 
 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER XII 
 
 Lest it be thought that a wholesome and proper in- 
 gredient of materialism as an element in Christianity 
 has been in this chapter attacked, let me try to make 
 plainer the balanced position taken or intended by at- 
 tempting a summary of its main points. Its conten- 
 tions are as follows : 
 
 1. That Christianity is an intermediate and unify- 
 
270 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ing religion, between the extremes of spiritualism on 
 the one hand and materialism on the other; and that 
 the whole idea of a divine Incarnation as well as many 
 of the miracles and the sacraments, can be regarded 
 as expressive of this comprehensive character. 
 
 2. That the correspondence or connexion between 
 matter and spirit, as now known, is probably a symbol 
 or sample of something permanently true, so that a 
 double aspect of every fundamental existence is likely 
 always to continue; but that the supposed necessary 
 and perpetual dependence of the human spirit on ordi- 
 nary chemical terrestrial matter, for its manifestation 
 and activity, is illusory and superstitious. 1 Cor. xv, 
 49, 50. 
 
 3. That not only persistence of existence but full 
 retention of personality and individuality can be con- 
 ceived, without the hypothesis of retention of any 
 particles of terrestrial matter ; since identity of person 
 in no way depends upon identity of particles even 
 now. 
 
 4. That the real meaning of the term "body" should 
 be explained and emphasised as connoting anything 
 which is able to manifest feelings, emotions, and 
 thoughts, and at the same time to operate efficiently 
 on its environment. The temporary character of the 
 present human body should be admitted for purposes 
 of religion; although it usefully and truthfully dis- 
 plays the incarnate part of us during the brief episode 
 of terrestrial life. Job. xix, 26. 
 
 5. That the incarnation of Divine Spirit called 
 Christ revealed to humanity certain aspects of Deity 
 
MATERIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 271 
 
 in a unique degree ; but the more akin to ordinary hu- 
 manity the human side of Christ can be considered, 
 the more luminous is the teaching, and the better for 
 the hold of Christianity upon the race. 1 Cor. xv, 16. 
 
 6. One of the lessons to be learned is the poten- 
 tiality of the Divine latent in all humanity : and this is 
 displayed both in its freedom to rebel and in its power 
 of indispensable and filial service. John x, 30, 35. 
 
 7. That the spread of scepticism and dogmatic ag- 
 nosticism is largely due to the attempted maintenance 
 of incredible and materialistic dogmas by the ortho- 
 dox; to the comparative neglect of the essential, the 
 spiritual, and the practical. 
 
 8. That materialism of an untransfigured and un- 
 glorified description is out of place in religion, but 
 that the right kind of materialism is in place. For the 
 mystical or sacramental use of earthly materials is 
 helpful, though there always comes a point at which 
 they cease to be expressive. An attempt to press them 
 beyond their significant point leads to impossible de- 
 tails, and becomes indistinguishable from fidgetting 
 and worrying superstition, unworthy of an emanci- 
 pated and Affiliated race. 
 
 9. That the salvation offered by Christianity is of 
 the whole man — body and soul together — and that 
 this fact is the supreme justification for energetic 
 practical effort in rectifying social abuses, in improv- 
 ing social conditions, and securing to people generally 
 a fair opportunity for a decent and honourable life. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 THE DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 
 
 IV. Christianity and History 
 
 AS a physicist my desire is to go out as far as pos- 
 sible to meet theologians on their approach to 
 the camp of physical science; for it is generally far 
 more useful to discover points of possible agreement 
 than to emphasise points of difference. To my com- 
 rades in science I would point out that the leading men 
 among orthodox Christians now set us a good ex- 
 ample, since they no longer seem to desire to interpose 
 any insuperable protest against overhauling from time 
 to time the material and historical assertions associated 
 with Christianity, and discarding those which cannot 
 be estabhshed as facts. Discarding, that is to say, 
 those which do not satisfy one at least of two criteria 
 or conditions : that of being well evidenced historically 
 on the one hand, and that of satisfying or being felt 
 essential to spiritual aspiration, either of an individual 
 or of a church or fellowship on the other. If I am 
 right in this understanding, I am willing to accept the 
 criteria suggested, without further criticism, and have 
 pleaded in the foregoing pages for the gradual re- 
 consideration of certain traditional tenets, on the 
 grounds : 
 
 272 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 273 
 
 (a) That they are not of a nature to be well ev- 
 idenced historically (to say more than that 
 would imply that I regarded myself as a 
 competent historical critic) ; 
 
 (&) That they are not edifying to people at any- 
 reasonable intellectual level; while as to 
 higher spiritual aspiration, it is independent 
 of them. 
 
 It is satisfactory that culture and learned theolog- 
 ians of the present day profess themselves ready to 
 welcome criticism of dogmas in which no doubt they 
 personally believe ; and we can now shortly proceed to 
 the more positive or constructive division of our sub- 
 ject. 
 
 Meanwhile it is reasonable to accept the historic 
 Christ, as represented in the Gospel, together with the 
 general account given of his teachings. In so far as 
 the record is not accurate — and even without any 
 knowledge of biblical criticism we must admit that it 
 is bound to be inaccurate — ^we may be sure that the 
 record is likely to be inferior to the reality, that the 
 report of the teachings may have been spoiled and 
 garbled in places but is not likely to have been im- 
 proved. Some of these spoilings may have been due 
 to misunderstanding, others to a desire for extra edifi- 
 cation; and it is difficult to say which attitude of a 
 transcriber is the more dangerous. 
 
 A similar view, however, may be held concerning 
 the record of the words of any astounding genius; 
 his contemporaries and immediate successors are not 
 
274. SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 likely to improve upon his teachings: even as mere 
 commentators they may exhibit well-intentioned stu- 
 pidity; but, if they have to act also as reporters, 
 omission eked out by exaggeration must be prominent, 
 and unconscious misrepresentation is bound to occur. 
 
 But now in the case of Christ we may surely go 
 much farther ; we may admit his inspiration in an ex- 
 traordinary sense, and may accept the general con- 
 sensus of Christendom as testifying to his essentially 
 divine character : in other words, he must perceive that 
 he has revealed to the inhabitants of this planet some 
 of the salient features of Godhead to an altogether 
 exceptional extent. 
 
 He displays, in fact, attributes which many persons 
 understand and signify when they use the word 
 "God" : so much so, that they call him by the name of 
 the Spirit which he reveals."^ He does not display all 
 the known attributes of God — not those studied in 
 Natural Theology, for instance, — but he exhibits 
 those which are most important to poor struggling 
 humanity, and those which by their very simplicity and 
 naturalness might otherwise have been overlooked by 
 the human race, or stigmatised as too hopelessly an- 
 thropomorphic. The attributes of Fatherhood, for in- 
 stance, strongly and simply realised, constitute one 
 revelation; the effective combination, or even identi- 
 fication, of love of God with service of neighbour, 
 constitutes another; and there is, it seems to me, an 
 
 1 The statement that the Christ depicted in the gospels is God, is a 
 statement illustrative of our conception of Godhead, and not really an 
 explanatory statement concerning Christ: we cannot define or explain 
 the known in terms of the unknown. 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 275 
 
 even bolder conception of Deity suggested, in the 
 dramatic parable "the child in the midst," of which I 
 fancy we have but an abbreviated version. 
 
 The only place where we find it necessary to hesi- 
 tate, and perhaps to remonstrate, is on the material- 
 istic side of orthodox Christianity — the place where 
 the ordinary phenomena of nature enter into the doc- 
 trines, and are more or less associated or incorporated 
 with them. Here it is natural to plead for more elas- 
 tic treatment, and here alone do I imagine that the 
 modern mind can see farther and walk more securely 
 than the mediaeval mind ; it is possible that in the light 
 of accumulated knowledge it can in some respects 
 see more clearly than even the saints and prophets of 
 the past. 
 
 It has been the perennial glory of Christianity that 
 it can adapt itself to all conditions of men and to all 
 changing periods of time; but it has done so always 
 by modification of the non-essential : the spirit and es- 
 sence have preserved their identity; the accidentals, 
 in Judaea, in ancient Rome, in mediaeval Germany, in 
 modern England and America, — the accidentals have 
 been different. 
 
 But throughout, it will be said, certain of the ma- 
 terial aspects have preserved their continuity and 
 identity unchanged. Some of the miracles, especially 
 the physical details supposed to accompany, or by 
 some even to constitute, the Incarnation and the 
 Resurrection, have never been doubted by Christians. 
 Until recently, I agree, no, not to any great extent; 
 but half a century ago they were seriously doubted 
 
^76 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 by the people who thereby felt themselves outside the 
 flock, but who in all practical details of life and con- 
 duct were as good as — well, were comparable with — 
 orthodox Christians. The disbelief went, in my judg- 
 ment, too far : it extended itself to some of the spirit- 
 ual teachings — those concerning prayer, for instance ; 
 and it threw needless doubt upon some phenomena, 
 such as those referred to in the last chapter, which 
 may after all have been facts. Whether it went too 
 far or not, an atmosphere of disbelief became preva- 
 lent; and it was generated by the persistence of the 
 faithful in certain material statements which to an 
 age of more knowledge had become incredible. The 
 extreme excursion of the pendulum has subsided now, 
 but it is still swinging, and when it settles down it will 
 not occupy precisely the same place as it did before 
 the oscillation began. The swing was caused by a 
 shifting of the fulcrum or point of support, and only 
 the bob has been visible. So it has become our duty to 
 determine how much and in what direction the real 
 pivot of the pendulum has been effectively moved, and 
 to realise that that is the position which will be taken 
 by the oscillating mass of opinion when present dis- 
 turbances have subsided. Those, if there be any, who 
 think that it can ever go back permanently to a pre- 
 nineteenth-century position, or to a position deter- 
 mined by the first six or any other past centuries, are 
 assuredly mistaken. 
 
 We shall now endeavour to arrive at a closer ap- 
 preciation of what the essence of Christianity really 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 277 
 
 is; first, however, recollecting what it has been con- 
 sidered to be by all sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 V. Varieties of Christianity 
 
 Christianity is a word of wide significance, and it 
 is not easy to attach to it a definite meaning. It is 
 clear that as it exists among us it has many phases, 
 which may be grouped around five or six principal 
 types. 
 
 1. First there is evangelical or spiritual Chris- 
 tianity, usually associated with the name of Paul, 
 which seeks to emphasise a forensic scheme of salva- 
 tion, and to link itself on to the Hebraistic and Hel- 
 lenistic ideas of blood and vicarious sacrifice. Salva- 
 tion by faith in the Atonement is the central feature 
 of this scheme, and right conduct is a secondary 
 though natural sequel to right belief and to trust in 
 what by Divine mercy has been already fully accom- 
 plished; so that no "performance" is necessary for 
 salvation, but only assimilation of the sacrifice and 
 oblation of Christ, once and for ever accomplished. 
 
 This variety of Christianity aims at attending to 
 the spiritual aspect only, and despises the material; it 
 rejects the intervention of men and of material aids; 
 it mistrusts the use of music and ornament, and it 
 endeavours, sometimes with poor success, to condemn 
 the beauty of this present world in comparison with 
 the glory that shall be revealed ; even the sacraments 
 it is inclined to minimise, and to regard them as me- 
 morial services helpful to the spirit, rather than as 
 
278 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 agencies of real and present efficacy achieving some-, 
 thing otherwise unattainable. Definite historical fact 
 is of supreme importance to this variety of belief ; for 
 if that be taken away the basis of faith is under- 
 mined, and the system totters to destruction. 
 
 2. Next there is ecclesiastical or dogmatic Chris- 
 tianity, usually associated with the name of Peter, 
 which is apt to emphasise the efiicacy of ceremonies, 
 to regard material actions and priestly offices as essen- 
 tial to salvation, and to insist not only on their sym- 
 bolic interpretation, but on some actual physical 
 transformation, some bodily or material efiicacy. It 
 builds less upon an historic past, and more upon a 
 present virtue residing in the Church, or accessible to 
 and utilisable by the proper officers and dispensers 
 of the means of grace. It feels the importance of! 
 times and seasons and buildings and sensuous repre- 
 sentation; it is apt to concentrate attention on eccles- 
 iastical details, with a zest for minutiae, which, when 
 compared with the vital issues at stake, strikes an out- 
 sider as rather pathetically humourous; and it some- 
 times so elaborates the material acts of worship, such 
 as the sacraments, that they tend to take on the nature 
 of incantation, and are occasionally performed by the 
 priest alone, the congregation passively sharing in 
 their mysterious and miraculous virtue. 
 
 3. Then there is the practical and energetic form of 
 Christianity, usually associated with the name of 
 James, which emphasises the virtue of good works 
 and the importance of conduct, which regards belief 
 and doctrine as of secondary importance, which seeks 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 279 
 
 no cloistered virtue, but throws itself vigorously into 
 social movement, and endeavours both by word and 
 deed to serve the brethren, and by active charity to 
 ameliorate the lot of those whom it thinks of as 
 Christ's poor. 
 
 4. Yet another variety is the mystical or emotional 
 form of Christianity, usually associated with the 
 name of John, which seeks by rapt adoration and 
 worship of the Redeemer and love of all whom he has 
 called his brethren — "even the least of these my 
 brethren," — to rise to the height of spiritual contem- 
 plation and ecstasy : tending somewhat in this its high 
 quest to isolate itself from the world, in order to lose 
 itself in an anticipation of heaven. 
 
 5. There exists also, one must admit, some trace of 
 what may be called governing or hierarchical Chris- 
 tianity, which glorifies the priestly office, which seeks 
 after temporal power, which regards the material 
 prosperity of the Church as of more importance than 
 the welfare of states and peoples, which joins hands 
 with autocratic rulers for the oppression of the poor, 
 which blesses and sustains violence, so it be used 
 against the Church's enemies, which banishes and ex- 
 communicates the saints — even those of its o\mi house- 
 hold, — and by corruption of the best succeeds in abet- 
 ting the cause of the worst. This is the kind of Chris- 
 tianity which attracts the special notice of sceptics and 
 scoffers; and most of the diatribes of good men 
 against Christianity and the Christian ideal are 
 based upon some confused apprehension of this 
 ghastly and blasphemous travesty. 
 
280 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Whether it exists, here and there, in this country it 
 is not for me to say, but it certainly has some existence 
 in that country which must some day pass through 
 the throes of an ultimately beneficent revolution — the 
 country whose Church has excommunicated Tolstoi, 
 and whose late Procurator of Holy Synod, in fur- 
 therance of what he conceived as legitimate ecclesias- 
 tical aggrandisement, exhorted the Czar to folly and 
 wickedness in terms of fulsome and superstitious 
 adulation. 
 
 6. Lastly and ostensibly the base of all these varie- 
 ties — but how different from some of them, — there is 
 the Christianity particularly exemphfied and taught 
 by that Syrian Carpenter, during his three years of 
 public service, before his execution as a criminal blas- 
 phemer. The name of that gentle and pathetic figure 
 has been used by the greater part of the Western 
 world ever since, sometimes to sanctify enterprises 
 of pity and tenderness, sometimes to cloak miser- 
 able ambitions, sometimes as a mere garment of 
 respectability. 
 
 Whatever view we may take of this Personality, we 
 can most of us recognise it as the greatest that has yet 
 existed on this planet; hence, if it is through human 
 nature that we can gradually grow to some dim con- 
 ception of the majesty of the Eternal, it is the life 
 and teachings of that greatest Prophet that we shall 
 do well to study diligently when we wish to disen- 
 tangle and display some of the secrets of the spiritual 
 universe; and, by the saints, his words have always 
 been recognised as the highest yet spoken on earth 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 281 
 
 concerning the relations between man and man and 
 between man and God. It is certain that only a few 
 of his utterances are contained in our documentary 
 records, and it is probable that some of them have 
 been mutilated and spoiled in transmission; neverthe- 
 less it is of interest to take those recorded words and 
 see how far they countenance the various schemes or 
 types of Christianity which have been based upon 
 them. And in particular I wish to select those 
 which seem to strengthen the case for either a partly 
 material or a purely spiritual interpretation of 
 Christianity. 
 
 First, to clear away the blasphemous use of Christ's 
 name in association with political or temporal or hier- 
 archical Christianity, the following will suffices 
 
 "My kingdom is not of this world." 
 
 "Woe unto yon, generation of vipers, that stoneth the prophets," etc. 
 "Ye make the commandments of God of none effect by your tradi- 
 tion." 
 
 There are many emphatic statements that religion 
 is peculiarly a spiritual affair: 
 
 In favour of a spiritual form of religion 
 
 "God is a spirit, and they that "The sabbath was made fop 
 
 worship him . . ." man." 
 
 "Neither in this mountain nor "Meat ye know not of." 
 
 yet in Jerusaiem . . •" "The kingdom of heaven is with- 
 
 "The words that I speak unto in you." 
 
 you they are spirit . . ." "Beware of the leaven of the 
 
 "That born of flesh is flesh, of Pharisees and Sadducees." 
 
 spirit is spirit." "It is the spirit that quickeneth, 
 
 "Ye make clean the outside of the flesh profiteth nothing." 
 
 the cup." "How is it that ye do not under- 
 
 "Pray in secret." stand?" 
 
 "Mint, anise, and cummin." 
 
282 
 
 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 On the other hand, there are several texts whicK 
 appear to support material accessories: 
 
 In favour of a ceremonial and material form of re^ 
 
 ligion 
 
 "This is my body." 
 
 Baptism. "Suffer it to be so 
 now." 
 
 "This kind goeth not out save 
 by prayer and fasting." (Ques- 
 tionably genuine.) 
 
 Breaking of bread and giving 
 thanks. 
 
 "Eat the flesh of the Son of man 
 and drink his blood." 
 
 "Spit and touched his tongue." 
 
 Anointing eyes. 
 
 Wedding garment (otherwise in- 
 terpretable). 
 
 But the most numerous of the teachings have an 
 immediately practical bearing: 
 
 In favour of a 'practical form of religion 
 
 Grapes and thistles. 
 
 Heal the broken-hearted, liberty 
 to captives, etc. 
 
 "Inasmuch as ye did it . . ," 
 
 "Go and sell all that thou hast." 
 
 "Worketh hitherto, and I work." 
 
 "Well done, good and faithful 
 » • • 
 
 Do the will to know of the doc- 
 trine. 
 
 "Blessed is that servant who is 
 found so doing." 
 
 Fruitless tree cut down. 
 
 "I was an hungered." 
 
 "Gather them that do iniquity 
 
 Sower and seed. 
 
 Good Samaritan. 
 
 "Casting out devils in thy name." 
 
 "Heareth and doeth." 
 
 Tree known by fruit. "By their 
 fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 "They that have done good to 
 the resurrection of life," etc. 
 
 "Not every one that saith Lord, 
 Lord." 
 
 Cup of cold water. 
 
 "He that doeth the will of my 
 Father, the same is my brother," 
 etc. 
 
 "This do and thou shalt live." 
 
 In many statements the human side of the Messiah 
 is specially emphasised : 
 
 Emphasising the human side of Christ 
 
 "The Son can do nothing of himself." 
 "I seek not my own will." 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY, 283 
 
 "I am come in my Father's name." 
 
 "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory." 
 
 "He hath given me a commandment what I should say." 
 
 "Son of man." 
 
 "Why callest thou me good?" 
 
 "Ye both know me and know whence I am." 
 
 "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." 
 
 (Statements emphasising the Divine side will be referred to later.) 
 
 A few texts, so far as they are genuine, can be ap- 
 pealed to as supporting ecclesiastical Christianity: 
 
 In favour of an ecclesiastical form of Christianity 
 
 "Keys of the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 "Sitting on twelve thrones judging," etc. 
 
 "Bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." 
 
 "If he refuses to hear the church, let him be," etc. 
 
 But it must be remembered that the frequency of 
 expressions which, though full of meaning, can hardly 
 be taken literally, but were so strongly figurative that 
 even his Eastern associates w^ere misled, is notorious: 
 
 Figurative expressions 
 
 "Hateth father and mother." "Let the dead bury their dead." 
 
 "Renounceth not all that he "Come to me and drink." 
 
 hath." "Whatsoever ye shall bind on 
 
 "Prophet cannot perish out of earth shall be bound in heaven." 
 Jerusalem." "Remove mountains." 
 
 "Let him sell his cloke and buy "Some standing here shall not 
 
 a sword." taste of death." 
 
 "Not to give peace but a "Keys of kingdom of heaven." 
 
 sword." "Bread of life." 
 
 Camel through needle's eye. "Born again." 
 
 "Sit on twelve thrones judging." "Destroy temple." 
 
 "Son coming in the clouds of "He that believeth is not 
 
 heaven." judged." 
 
 "This generation shall not pass "Eat my flesh and drink my 
 
 away." blood." 
 
 "I came not to judge the world." "Everlasting fire," 
 
 "This is my body." 
 
284 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 If we endeavour to draw from all these texts a 
 general deduction concerning the kind of religion 
 intended and taught by the Founder of Christianity, 
 I cannot but feel that the balance inclines strongly in 
 the double direction of a spiritual interpretation on 
 the theoretical side, combined with a thoroughly prac- 
 tical and simple outcome in daily life. These ele- 
 ments, the spiritual and the practical — the worship of 
 God as a Spirit, and the service of man as a brother — ■ 
 are undoubted and emphatic constituents — the warp 
 and the woof, as it were — of the pure Christian faith, 
 but it is difficult to maintain that they are uniquely 
 characteristic of it; even when taken together they 
 can hardly be said to constitute a feature which 
 sharply distinguishes it from all other religious 
 creeds. For a still more fundamental substratum or 
 framework — for a perception of the really character- 
 istic and essential element in Christianity — we must 
 look away from the detailed words and teachings and 
 contemplate the Life as a whole. 
 
 VI. EccE Deus 
 
 What, then, is the essential element in Christianity, 
 the essential theoretical element which inspires its 
 teachings on the ethical side? In the inculcation of 
 practical righteousness other noble rehgions must be 
 admitted to share, but there must be an element which 
 it possesses in excess above others — some vital element 
 which has enabled it to survive all the struggles for 
 existence, and to dominate the most civilised peoples 
 of the world. 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 285 
 
 A religion is necessarily compounded of many es- 
 sences, and is sure to be mingled with foreign ingred- 
 ients, some worthy, some xmworthy; but these acces- 
 sories cannot account for its vitahty, for its adaptation 
 to various ages, and for its acceptance by all condi- 
 tions of men. A miraculous birth and resurrection 
 were certainly not distinctive of Christianity; they 
 have appeared in other reUgions too; we must look 
 for some feature specially characteristic and quite 
 fundamental. 
 
 I believe that the most essential element in Chris- 
 tianity is its conception of a human God ; of a God, 
 in the first place, not apart from the universe, not out- 
 side 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. By what else indeed can it 
 conceivably be rendered manifest? Naturally the 
 conception of Godhead is still onl}^ indistinct and par- 
 
 1 It may appear hardly fair to treat the doctrine of Incarnation as 
 an intensification of the doctrine of Immanence; inasmuch as some may 
 consider them almost antithetic. Spinoza, for instance, held the one, but 
 would assuredly have eschewed the other. I do not disagree, but point 
 out that there is a tendency nowadays to strive rather towards a unifica- 
 tion of the two doctrines. It may be admitted that emphasis on the 
 philosophical notion of Immanence is comparatively recent on the part 
 of theologians; but it can hardly ever have been completely absent from 
 the Christian atmosphere, since St. Paul in his Athenian address clearly 
 lent it his countenance, and it is implicit in the doctrine of the Logos, 
 
286 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY; 
 
 tial, 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 devel- 
 opment of man himself. 
 
 This perception of a human God, or of a God in 
 the form of humanity is a perception which welds to- 
 gether Christianity and Pantheism and Paganism and 
 Philosophy. It has been seized and travestied by 
 Comtists, whose God is rather limited to the human 
 aspect instead of being only revealed through it. It 
 has been preached by some Unitarians, though rever- 
 ently denied by others and by Jews, who have felt 
 that God could not be incarnate in man: *'This be far 
 from thee, Lord." It has been recognised and even 
 exaggerated by Catholics, who have almost lost the 
 humanity in the Divinity, though they tend to restore 
 the balance by practical worship of the Mother and 
 of canonical saints. But whatever its unconscious 
 treatment by the sects may have been, this idea — the 
 humanity of God or the Divinity of man — I conceive 
 to be the truth which constituted the chief secret and 
 inspiration of Jesus: "I and the Father are one." 
 "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." "The 
 Son of Man," and equally "The Son of God." "Be- 
 fore Abraham was I am." "I am in the Father and 
 the Father in me." And though admittedly "My 
 Father is greater than I," yet "he that hath seen me 
 hath seen the Father"; and "he that believeth on me 
 hath everlasting life." 
 
 The world has been slow to grasp the meaning of 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 287 
 
 all this. The conception of Godhead formed by some 
 devout philosophers and mystics has quite rightly been 
 so immeasurably vast, though still assuredly utterly 
 inadequate and necessarily beneath reality, that the 
 notion of a God revealed in human form — born, suf- 
 fering, tormented, killed — has been utterly incredible. 
 "A crucified prophet, yes; but a crucified God! I 
 shudder at the blasphemy," ^ yet that apparent blas- 
 phemy is the soul of Christianity. It calls upon us to 
 recognise and worship a crucified, an executed, God. 
 
 The genuine humanity of Christ is now manifest 
 and clear enough, though that too has been in danger 
 of being lost. There have been efforts to ignore it, 
 and many to confuse it — attempts are still made to 
 regard him as unique, rather than as the first-fruits 
 of humanity, the first-born among many brethren. 
 
 Realisation of the genuine and straightforward 
 humanity of Christ is obscured by a reverent misap- 
 prehension, akin in spirit to that which originated the 
 Arian denial of his divinity. Both modes of thought 
 shrank amazed from the suggestion that God can be 
 really incarnate in, and manifested through, man: at 
 any rate, not in normal man; such a thing only be- 
 comes permissible and credible if the JNIan is abnormal 
 and unique, according to the orthodox view. 
 
 It is orthodox, therefore, to maintain that Christ's 
 birth was miraculous and his death portentous, that he 
 continued in existence otherwise than as we men con- 
 tinue, that his very body rose and ascended into 
 
 1 Kingsley's Ilypatia. 
 
288 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 heaven, — ^whatever that collocation of words may; 
 mean. But I suggest that such an attempt at excep- 
 tional glorification of his body is a pious heresy — a 
 heresy which misses the truth lying open to our eyes. 
 His humanity is to be recognised as real and ordinary^ 
 and thorough and complete : not in middle life alone, 
 but at birth and at death and after death. Whatever 
 happened to him may happen to any one of us, pro- 
 vided we attain the appropriate altitude: an altitude 
 which, whether within our individual reach or not, is 
 assuredly within reach of humanity. That is what 
 he urged again and again. "Be born again." "Be 
 ye perfect." "Ye are the sons of God." "My Father 
 and your Father, my God and your God." 
 
 The i^nuniqueness of the ordinary humanity of 
 Christ is the first and patent truth, masked only by 
 well-meaning and reverent superstition. But the sec- 
 ond truth is greater than that — without it the first 
 would be meaningless and useless, — if man alone, 
 what gain have we ? The world is full of men. What 
 the world wants is a God. Behold the God! 
 
 The Divinity of Jesus is the truth which now re- 
 quires to be re-perceived, to be illumined afresh by 
 new knowledge, to be cleansed and revivified by the 
 wholesome flood of scepticism which has poured over 
 it; it can be freed now from all trace of grovelling 
 superstition, and can be recognised freely and enthus- 
 iastically : the Divinity of Jesus, and of all other noble 
 and saintly souls, in so far as they too have been in- 
 flamed by a spark of Deity — in so far as they too can 
 be recognised as manifestations of the Divine. Nor 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 289 
 
 is it even through man alone that the revelation comes, 
 though through man and the highest man it comes 
 chiefly; the revelation is imphcit in all the processes of 
 nature, and explicit too, so far as human vision, in 
 the person of its seers and poets and men of science, 
 has been as yet sufficiently cleared and strengthened 
 to perceive it. 
 
 For consider what is involved in the astounding idea 
 of Evolution and Progress as applied to the whole 
 universe. Either it is a fact or it is a dream. If it 
 be a fact, w^hat an illuminating fact it is! God is one; 
 the universe is an aspect and a revelation of God. 
 The universe is struggling upward to a perfection not 
 yet attained. I see in the mighty process of evolution 
 an eternal struggle towards more and more self-per- 
 ception, and fuller and more all-embracing Existence 
 — not only on the part of what is customarily spoken 
 of as Creation — but, in so far as Nature is an aspect 
 and revelation of God, and in so far as Time has any 
 ultimate meaning or significance, we must dare to 
 extend the thought of growth and progress and de- 
 velopment even up to the height of all that we can 
 realise of the Supernal Being. In some parts of the 
 universe perhaps already the ideal conception has 
 been attained; and the region of such attainment — 
 the full blaze of self-conscious Deity — is too bright 
 for mortal eyes, is utterly beyond our highest 
 thoughts; but in part the attainment is as yet very 
 imperfect; in what we know as the material part, 
 which is our present home, it is nascent, or only just 
 beginning; and our own struggles and efforts and 
 
^ga SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITYi 
 
 disappointments and aspirations — ^the felt groaning 
 and travailing of Creation — these are evidence of the 
 effort, indeed they themselves are part of the effort, 
 towards fuller and completer and more conscious ex- 
 istence/ On this planet man is the highest outcome 
 of the process so far, and is therefore the highest rep- 
 resentation of Deity that here exists. Terribly im- 
 perfect as yet, because so recently evolved, he is 
 nevertheless a being which has at length attained to 
 consciousness and free-will, a being unable to be co- 
 erced by the whole force of the universe, against his 
 will; a spark of the Divine Spirit, therefore, never 
 more to be quenched. Open still to awful horrors, to 
 agonies of remorse, but to floods of joy also he per- 
 sists, and his destiny is largely in his own hands; he 
 may proceed up or down, he may advance towards a 
 magnificent ascendancy, he may recede towards 
 depths of infamy. He is not coerced: he is guided 
 and influenced, but he is free to choose. The evil and 
 the good are necessary correlatives ; freedom to choose 
 the one involves freedom to choose the other. 
 
 So it must have been elsewhere, amid the depths of 
 cosmic space, myriads of times over in all the vistas 
 of the past; and thus may have arisen legends of the 
 
 iSo, in Professor Gilbert Murray's version of "The Trojan women" 
 of Euripides, — whose tragedies represent a parting of the ways between 
 an old theology and a new, — ^the tortured Queen Hecuba turns from 
 the gods that know but help not, to the majesty of her own immeas- 
 urable grief, and in a moment of exalted vision perceives that even 
 through her sorrow life had somehow been enriched, and that though 
 Troy was burning and the race of Priam extinct, they had attained 
 immortality in ways undreamed of, and would add to the harmony of 
 the eternal music. 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 291 
 
 evolution of what are popularly called angels, some 
 ascendant in the struggle, others fallen by their own 
 rebellion. Let it not be supposed that these instinctive 
 legends are based on nothing: they are a pictorial 
 travesty doubtless, but they are not gratuitous inven- 
 tions ; it is doubtful if entirely baseless or purely grat- 
 uitous inventions would have any vitahty, every living 
 idea must surely be based upon something ; these cor- 
 respond to something innate in the ideas of humanity, 
 because embedded in the structure of the universe of 
 which that humanity is a part. 
 
 A question presses on the optimist for answer there- 
 fore : Are the rebellious and the sinful not also on the 
 up grade? Ultimately and in the last resort will not 
 they too put themselves in tune with the harmony of 
 existence? Who is to say? Time is infinite, eternity 
 is before us as well as behind us, and the end is not 
 yet. There is no "ultimately" in the matter, for there 
 is no end: there is room for an eternity of rebellion 
 and degradation and misery, as well as for one of joy 
 and hope and love. We can see that virtue and happi- 
 ness must be on the winning side, while crime is a 
 fruit of arrested development, or reversion to an an- 
 cestral type; we can perceive that vice contains sui- 
 cidal elements, while every step in an upward direction 
 increases the potential energy of the moral universe; 
 yet clearly there is to be no compulsion; the door of 
 hope is not closed, but it must of free-will be entered, 
 and good and evil will be intermingled with us for 
 many seons yet. The law of progress by struggle and 
 effort is not soon to be abrogated and replaced by a 
 
292 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Nirvana of passive contemplation. There is too mucK 
 to do in this busy universe, and all must help. The 
 universe is not a *'being" but a ^'becoming" — an an- 
 cient but light-bringing doctrine when realised, — it is 
 in change, in development, in movement, upward and 
 downward, that activity consists. A stationary condi- 
 tion, or stagnation, would to us be simple non-exist- 
 ence; the element of progression, of change, of ac- 
 tivity, must be as durable as the universe itself. Mo- 
 notony, in the sense of absolute immobility, is un- 
 thinkable, unreal, and cannot anywhere exist: save 
 where things have ceased to be. 
 
 Such ideas, the ideas of development and progress, 
 extend even up to God Himself, according to the 
 Christian conception. So we return to that with which 
 we started: 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 pro- 
 cess, solely exalted, beneficent, self-determined and 
 complete ; no, 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 condi- 
 tions as the Soul of it all; conditions not artificial and 
 transitory, but inherent in the process of producing 
 free and conscious beings, and essential to the full 
 self -development even of Deity. 
 
 It is a marvellous and bewildering thought, but 
 whatever its value, and whether it be an ultimate reve- 
 lation or not, it is the revelation of Christ. Whether 
 
DIVINE ELEMENT IN CHRISTIANITY 29S 
 
 it be considered blasphemous or not — and in his own 
 day it was certainly considered blasphemous — this was 
 the idea he grasped during those forty days of solitary 
 communion, and never subsequently let go. 
 
 This is the truth which has been reverberating down 
 the ages ever sinde ; it has been the hidden inspiration 
 of saint, apostle, prophet, martyr, and, in however 
 dim and vague a form, has given hope and consola- 
 tion to the unlettered and poverty-stricken milHons : — 
 A God that could understand, that could suffer, that 
 could sympathise, that had felt the extremity of 
 human anguish, the agony of bereavement, had sub- 
 mitted even to the brutal hopeless torture of the inno- 
 cent, and had become acquainted wath the pangs of 
 death, — this has been the chief consolation of the 
 Christian religion. This is the extraordinary concep- 
 tion of Godhead to which we have thus far risen. 
 "This is my beloved Son." The Christian God is re- 
 vealed 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": — surely one of the most inspired utter- 
 ances of antiquity. 
 
 Infinitely patient the Universe has been while man 
 has groped his way to this truth: so simple and con- 
 soling in one of its aspects, so inconceivable and in- 
 credible in another. Dimly and partially it has been 
 seen by all the prophets, and doubtless by many of 
 the pagan saints. Dimly and partially we see it now; 
 but in the life-blood of Christianity this is the most 
 vital element. It is not likely to be the attribute of 
 
294. SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 any one religion alone, it may be the essence of truth 
 in all terrestrial religions but it is conspicuously Chris- 
 tian. Its boldest statement was when a child was 
 placed in the midst and was regarded as a symbol of 
 the Deity; but it was fore-shadowed even in the early 
 conceptions of Olympus, whose gods and goddesses 
 were affected with the passions of men; it is the root 
 fact underlying the superstitions of idolatry and all 
 varieties of anthropomorphism. "Thou shalt have 
 none other gods but me" : and with dim eyes and dull 
 ears and misunderstanding hearts men have sought to 
 obey the commandment, seeking after God if haply 
 they might find Him; while all the time their God 
 was very nigh unto them, in their midst and of their 
 fellowship sympathising with their struggles, rejoic- 
 ing in their successes, and evoking even in their own 
 poor nature some dim and broken image of Himself. 
 
 END