"It will confer a dignity of existence, an intelligence, that shall suffice to sustain our life after the loss of our wealth, after the stroke of disease or lightning has fallen, after the loved one has forever quitted our arms."
It is said Jesus was a chosen medium to communicate to the people of the earth the higher sentiment of love which prevails in the sphere of spirit life. His mission was to teach the doctrine of love to humanity, and to afford a striking and never to be forgotten example of its violation.
This same Jesus taught that God's law is written in the hearts of men, and to those who listen to His voice—the still, small voice of the spirit—"He moveth in them to will and to do according to His good pleasure." This shows, as Maeterlinck says, "That the invisible justice that reposes in the moral life of every man" comes from God and His epistle, written on the secret tablets of the human soul.
Goldwin Smith says: "It will be found that Anarchism and Atheism generally went together. But minds of the finer cast have preserved the religious spirit while they have thrown off the shackles of creed. Yet the Positivist feels the need of a religion, and for the worship of God he substitutes the worship of humanity. Humanity is an abstraction, an imperfect abstraction. It cannot hear prayer or respond in any way to adoration. The adherents of Comte's religion, therefore, are few. Tindall and Huxley would console us for the loss of religion by substituting the majesty of law. But the idea of law implies an intelligent, authoritative imponent of some kind. There is no majesty in a sequence.
"The all-embracing philosophy of Herbert Spencer excludes the supernatural and Theism in its ordinary form, and looks upon them as the Unknowable, which he presents as an object of reverence. But unknowableness in itself excites no reverence, even though it be supposed infinite and eternal. Nothing excites our reverence but a person, or at least a moral being." Thus does Goldwin Smith, the great Freethinker of to-day, demolish the Freethinkers of yesterday, the Tindalls, Huxleys and Darwins of Materialism, the Comtes and Voltaires of Atheism, and the Herbert Spencers and Ingersolls of Agnosticism, and contends for the inexorable necessity of a personal deity with intelligent moral or spiritual power. He says the present tendency is "to minimize the supernatural and throw it into the background, bringing the personal character of Christ and his ethical teachings into the foreground," and, "the legemen of reason should consider to how great an extent our civilization has hitherto rested on religion."
Abstract humanitarianism, and scientific naturalism do not constitute a moral standard, nor can scientific postulates be made a basis for moral culture. Only when acted upon by man does nature give response to the increasing purpose of the world, and the supreme test is spiritual. Religious truths are fundamental truths. First, the existence and personality of God; second, His creation and government of the universe; third, man's immortality and freedom of will. These are not contradicted by the solid facts of science nor shattered by "the great eternal iron laws of the universe." On the contrary all harmonize with these great truths.
Emperor William of Germany in his letter to Admiral Holbrun, Feb. 20, 1903, says: "I distinguish between two different kinds of revelation—progressive and, as it were, historical, the other purely religious. It does not admit of a doubt that God reveals Himself continuously in the race of men created by Him. He breathes into man the breath of His life, and follows with fatherly love and interest the development of the human race. In order to lead it forward and develop it, He reveals Himself in this or that great sage, whether priest or king, whether among the heathen, Jews or Christians. Hammurabi was one, so was Moses, Abraham, Homer, Charlemagne, Luther, Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant, and Emperor William the Great. These he sought out and endowed with his grace to accomplish splendid, imperishable results for their people in their intellectual and physical provinces according to His will." Emperor William seems from these statements to be a firm believer in spiritual revelation and personal inspiration.
"The second form of revelation, the more religious," he said, "is that which leads to the manifestation of our Lord. It was introduced with Abraham, slow but forward looking and omniscient, for humanity was lost without it. Now begins the most astonishing activity of God's revelation. Abraham's race and the peoples developing from it, regard faith in one God as their holiest possession, and it follows, hold fast to it with iron-like consistency. It was the direct intervention of God that caused the rejuvenation of His people through centuries, till, the Messiah, heralded by prophets and psalmists, finally appeared, the greatest revelation of God in the world, for He appeared in the Son Himself. Christ is God—God in human form. He redeemed us, and inspires and entices us to follow Him. We feel His fire burning in us. His sympathy strengthens us. His discontent destroys us. But also His intercession saves us. Conscious of victory, building solely upon His word, we go through labor, ridicule sorrow, misery and death, for we have in Him God's revealed word. That is my view of these matters. It is to me self-evident that the Old Testament contains many sections which are of a purely human and historical nature and are not God's revealed word. These are merely historical descriptions of incidents of all kinds which happen in the political, religious, moral and intellectual life of this people."
This letter of Emperor William was in reply to Prof. Delitzsch, who contended that Moses and the Israelites got their laws and religion from the Babylonians. The recent discoveries in Asia Minor seem to refute Delitzsch, especially those at Nippur.
Nippur is situated between the Euphrates and Tigris in Babylonia. It is one of the oldest towns spoken of in the Scriptures. The famous temple, library and school for priests cover an area of thirteen acres, and are pronounced the most far-reaching archeological discoveries of the century. Only about one-twelfth part of the library has been uncovered, out of which over twenty thousand cuneiform tablets and fragments have been obtained belonging to the era three thousand years before Abraham, or nearly six thousand years before our time.