“Again, though Christianity is one of the three religions that teaches universality and though God knows no race and no people, extending to all a universal promise, man in combined conceit and prejudice declares I am of God’s chosen people. The reason is obvious; take Judaism; it has never countenanced universality; to the Jew, God was the god of the Jews—and surrounded by idolatrous nations—to their inspired prophets they were the chosen people of God, having been taught by precept and by experience that God discriminates in his temporal blessings between an idolater and a follower. It took a vision to remove this prejudice from the mind of Peter; [pg 256] and today there are those in Christian churches who could not learn the lesson of universality by many visions, and like Jonah sit by the roadside hoping and waiting for Nineveh’s destruction.
“God, infinite—that is, great past being measured—is not alone the God of the Presbyterians, of any nation, of the men of today, of this little world, but all the worlds that have been and that make and are to make the universe. What right have we to think that the universe was made simply for the man we know? Is it an unreasonable flight of fancy to assume that God has spoken through his prophets and given his Son for the redemption of the men of other worlds than our own? The Bible literally says, the universe was made for man, because, though inspired, it is man-worded and God spoke to man through his prophets in a comprehensive language. He told what was fit in language not to be restricted to the letter, which is not the custom of the East, but to be interpreted as man grew in comprehension. Nor is it necessary to a true faith in God and Christianity to believe that God’s prophets never spoke to humanity or wrote down his messages on tablet or cylinder seal before those messages were given by the Bible to the Jewish nation.
“Those who question the Bible as an inspired book, say the account of the creation follows too closely the Babylonian and Chaldean records. Prophets even figuratively recounting a fact or interpreting a message, would give it in such form that to the mind of man, the account would be similar in essentials; and such similarity but tends to prove the truth of the fact and the same general source of information. A brief portion of the Chaldean account reads:
“‘When the upper region was not yet called heaven,
When the lower region was not yet called earth,
[pg 257]
And the abyss of Hades had not yet opened its arms,
Then the chaos of waters gave birth to all of them
And the waters were gathered into one place * *
The moon he appointed to rule the night
And to wander through the night until the dawn of day.
Every month without fail he appointed assembly days.
In the beginning of the month at the rising of the night
It shot forth its horns to illuminate the heavens.
On the seventh day he appointed an holy day
And to cease from all business he commanded.’
“The supposed seat of earliest civilizations, as also the birthplace of several religions, was in the valley of the Euphrates. There man, enjoying the benefits of a tropical region, which counted for much in the beginning, had opportunity for intellectual leisure and gave thought to religion. These civilizations passed away and the seat passed on to the Mediterranean coast, where attention primarily was given to the development of material government; again the seat passed on to Europe and seems passing to America and to nations devoting their energies to the material wants of man. We are promised yet another; when ‘the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea;’ and that is the task assigned to Christendom.
“To make the world Christian must we modify our definition—‘That God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth’—to ‘God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, but not immutable, seeking to preserve all his creatures as the best of shepherds each of his hundred lambs; anxious that all find the shelter of the fold—not [pg 258] having decreed from the beginning the fate of each lamb—but as time shows fitness culling for service; so anxious to save all the flock as to send his Son as a vicarious atonement.’
“Thus there comes into the continuity of the partnership between God and man, the chief character, the Son; transformed into the lowly man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, having no place to lay his head, hunted by enemies, stoned out of a city, disowned by kindred and by Peter, fleeing for his life, betrayed, crucified, suffering the fate of all reformers, to be despised and rejected, to be misunderstood, to live alone; yet not alone, because the Father was with him and he and the Father are one, and he had his mission of redemption.
“His coming, consummating the purpose of the partnership, precipitated a conflict, which at its physical inception seemed a most uneven struggle. Arrayed on the one side were a few fishermen under the leadership of a Nazarene, the son of a carpenter; and on the other, the educated, self-righteous Jew, the Jewish law, the Jewish church, Greece, decadent because of her many gods and voluptuousness, mighty Rome, mistress of the world, enthroned on seven hills and reaching out and drawing to herself all known realms and empires.
“The trend of victory was first apparent on the land locked sea of Galilee, the growth spread to Jerusalem, to Antioch, the east coast cities of the Mediterranean, Rome, Europe, America, the civilized world; because it offered a gift the world must have. If Scribes and Pharisees, priests and Levites stopped their ears, Gentiles and prodigals, Publicans and sinners listened. It preached the true faith, which is inherently inextinguishable and must live and grow. Some find it easier to crucify and to part His raiment than to grasp the spirit of His teaching; [pg 259] yet many hear, and, born again, lead transformed and beautiful lives.
“Its growth is as ‘a lump of leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.’ When the path of prophet and believer is too easy the growth is slow. The sting of persecution is necessary to fructify the seed, to make ready the field; but there are occasional seasons of abundant harvest and never a failure. Gamaliel, in Acts 5:34-39, gives the reason.