THE NECESSARY ORDER OF REVELATION.
The proper arrangement of the various parts of any communication designed to convey knowledge from one to others, is an important factor in this subject of revelation. Remember "the clear is the true." This is the case in all methodic arrangements; to this rule there are no exceptions. The fundamental truth must first be developed. A child must first be instructed in the rudiments of numbers in order to learn the science of mathematics, otherwise no sensible progress can be made. Intricate problems in Euclid are not to be presented to beginners for solution. So, in religion, the primary thought of the existence of God is the first great truth made known. Second, we are taught that he possesses power, wisdom and goodness. This instruction must also be adapted to the capacity of those who are to be taught. We know that the very young mind needs more simple instruction than the adult. As, of necessity, there was a first man, and a time when that first man began to be, so, of necessity, in the beginning of the life of that man, however perfectly developed his body might have been, his mind was infantile—destitute of the first principles of an education.
Object lessons were called for. Here they come in hills and dales, dry lands and running waters, in trees and vines, in shrubs and grass, flowers and fruits, beasts, birds and winged insects and creeping things, and higher up in the sun with his brilliant light, and in the moon with her paler rays, and in all her attending, sparkling stars. Here are the objects for man's first lesson. Just now the wise man of this world, a skeptic, asks the question, Could not the first man, with all these objects before him, learn by the use of reason the fact that all these objects originated from a creator? And if he could he certainly needed no revelation, for, reasoning from nature up to nature's God, he might then, from the order, beauty and harmony of all, reach the idea of his character, and from this deduce a knowledge of his will, and if so a revelation was not necessary. This seems to me very clear, and you often say "the clear is the true." This is my reason for rejecting the idea that a revelation was ever made.
Will you, Mr. Christian, grapple with this? I would with pleasure if there was anything in it to grapple with, but you will see nothing real in your premises, for objects teach nothing without an instructor. There lies a brick, pick it up and examine its surface closely; do you, from it, reach the idea of its maker? No. Yet I know it must have been made, for I have seen other bricks made, and this resembles them. Very well. Did you ever see worlds made, and, if so, does our earth resemble them? But when you saw those bricks made were there not several men engaged in their manufacture, as well as horses? There is no analogy in your premises; you beg the question entirely; you take the whole foundation for granted; your argument is "as clear as mud."
Had you seen others made by only one maker, then and only then could you by analogy have reached even the idea that ours was made also. Also, the makers of those bricks may have been of the most base and malignant disposition, for you can learn nothing of their disposition from the bricks; they only testify of the skill of their makers—this is all. Do you not see that you give me nothing to grapple with? The truth is this, nature gives you no sufficient foundation for religion. Revelation must of necessity furnish us with that. Without revelation no one can learn of the existence and character of God. The knowledge of his existence, power and wisdom might excite reverence, but this alone could not bring man's religious powers into activity. To this must be added the knowledge of his goodness and kindness towards, and his love of, those who are required to worship him. And in addition to all this, there must be a revelation of the divine will concerning human action, for the term worship indicates submission and obedience; without this, very important elements would be wanting, and the system show great imperfection and want of wisdom—as man could not learn his relation nor obligation to that great Creator and Preserver of all. But give in addition the knowledge of man's relation to and dependence upon God, with a knowledge of his will in the form of law or commands, with promises of good annexed, resting upon the condition of obedience. Such a system of revelation would be perfect, fitted to the necessities of human nature. And you, Mr. Skeptic, have agreed with me, that the nature of man was true and right. Now, when we find a perfectly straight edge, and then find another edge that fits it, we know that the last is also perfectly straight, for straight and crooked edges do not match. Having already found the kind of a revelation that human nature made necessary, in my next I shall show that such a revelation is contained in the Bible. Then as human nature is true, and as the Bible's revelation is exactly fitted to it, the inevitable conclusion will follow that the Bible does contain a revelation from God to man.
WHERE SHALL WE TAKE INFIDELS TO GET THEM OUT OF UNBELIEF?
Goethe says it is a law of the demons that they must get out at the same place where they sneaked in. This is a very suggestive expression. If a mathematician makes a mistake in the solution of a problem his only chance to get out of the difficulty lies just at the point where the mistake was made. He must remain in perplexity until he finds the mistake and corrects it. This law holds good in all our intellectual operations. Many men are professedly in unbelief. How shall we get them out? This is an important question and needs to be well studied by all Christian ministers. If we can find out just how they got in, then it will be easy to get the honest ones out. But it is well to remember that many professed infidels are only skeptics in heart. They are unbelievers at will. The most effectual remedy for such unbelief, as yet known, is an attack of cramp colic, or some other fearful affliction. Under such circumstances they always surrender. There is not much chance for Gospel means as long as a man's unbelief is simply a profession. His disease is not one of the head, but of the heart; yet our law holds good here. The man himself may repent; may make to himself a new heart and a new spirit. This is his way out. If a man gets into unbelief through a misunderstanding of Bible facts he will never get out short of a better understanding of those same facts.
If he gets in through the impression that science and the Bible are in conflict, there is no way to get him out short of a removal of the impression. Hence the importance of ministers being scientists. Many unbelievers claim that the Bible and science conflict, who have never investigated them, and know comparatively nothing of either. This class, too, is in the majority. They are men who ape certain leaders, being under their influence. Many of them love to have us know that they know something about such men as Strauss, notwithstanding their ignorance of even the man. To have such a mind do their thinking is the highest of their ambition. There is a good deal of heart disease about these fellows. They really glory in the names of such men as Strauss. He was so far away that they never learned the fact that "he was divorced from his wife, the former actress, Agnese Schebest, and spent his days going about from place to place. His pseudo-theology or mythology ended in a theatrical comedy, and the comedy in a tragedy." "In 1839 this famous Dr. Strauss—who resolved the gospel history of salvation into an incoherent and self-contradictory mythological poem, and denied the existence of a personal God and the immortality of the soul—was duly elected professor of Christian dogmatics and ethics in the University of Zurich, by the party then in power, which consisted mostly of demagogues and frivolous infidels."
But the free Swiss would not submit, so the people of the Canton of Zurich rose in their republican majesty and marched to the city under the lead of an energetic pastor, and with the weapons which they hastily collected scared the Strauss clique away; they very courageously took to their heels; then the people of the Canton of Zurich placed the government into the hands of conservative, trustworthy Christian men, and quietly retired to their mountain homes without shedding a drop of blood. The new government elected Mr. Lange in the place claimed, but never occupied, by Strauss; but Mr. Strauss claimed half the salary, and it is said that he enjoyed it, up to 1857 at least.
How much influence could such a man in our own country exert over the American mind? For these facts touching the life of Strauss, see "Germany; Its Universities, Theology and Religion," by Phillip Schaff, pages 101, 386. The reader may rely upon the quotations given above. I have taken them with the book referred to open before me.
Infidels who investigate the Bible honestly, with reference to an understanding of its contents, are unknown to us. The master spirits in unbelief give abundant evidence of their ignorance of the scriptures of the Bible. Not one in a thousand ever investigated the scriptures of the Bible with pure and honest motives. Many have never investigated it at all. To read a chapter here and there for the sole purpose of finding fault and getting up a difficulty, is not investigation. An honest investigation requires a very different course. All the evidence must be brought into the court and presented in such a manner as to be understood, just as it was given, otherwise the court is not qualified to decide righteously in the case. That all such men as Col. Ingersoll have failed to thus investigate the Bible is evident from the fact that they, to be like him, must be infidels in all their history. It is published to the world that the Colonel was born an infidel. He has been hacking away at religion and the Bible ever since he was a small boy. So his infidelity is not the result of an intelligent investigation of either science or religion. I will not undertake to say what the Colonel's trouble is, but if he was born an infidel it is possible, according to our law, that he will die an unbeliever.
Many infidels, governed by a spirit of fanaticism, undoubtedly, have labored with as much earnestness as if the world's salvation depended upon their efforts, without the least hope of bettering its condition, for the false philosophy of materialism which they advocate gives to a man nothing to live for except his own animal nature. This philosophy says all is well as long as you dodge the sharp corners of the laws of your country. If the materialist can avoid paying fines, along with all other penalties of the laws of his country, what need he care for one course of life in preference to another? Do you say he has a conscience? Well, it may be that it is not seared so that he is past feeling. Very few men, I know, ever reach such a depraved condition. And this is doubtless the greatest reason why all infidels, as a general rule, get into mental distress during great bodily afflictions. Many of them are converted by disease of the body, for two reasons: first, they were unbelievers at will, just because it suited their desires, and, second, because they are in possession of a religious nature or conscience. But men who are converted by disease of the body are liable to go back to the old wallow as soon as prosperity and health crown them again.
Many men are driven to irreligion through its abuses. I have often thought it a misfortune that we Americans are under the necessity of meeting the infidel literature of the old world, for the simple reason that it is evolved out of the circumstances peculiar to state churches. In America our religion is heroic; that is, it rests upon the merits of its own evidence, and is supported by the voluntary contributions of the people. But in Europe, where the mass of our infidel literature comes from, Christianity is not free and independent, but entangled with the affairs of state, and supported by the secular arm. The result is that difficulties are continually arising out of the unholy alliance which are disgusting to the independent scientific mind. The natural result is to drive such persons into irreligion. Where men are educated in both science and religion, and have not been all their lives called upon to look upon religion in a secular light, tangled up in the interests of politics and law, there should be no fears on account of any literature that infidels may pass around. The misfortune that I speak of is not with such men, but with the uneducated in religion and science, who are more than anxious to find an excuse for irreligion. Christianity fears nothing in the light.
The desires that have only a bodily end and aim, that are unconnected with the high, holy, and noble purposes of a pure, true, and good life, are false desires, and should be cast off.