What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul

by Richard La Rue Swain

From what I knew of this poor man, he was probably neither more nor less a pagan than the man with a mahogany dining room. The doctrine of the kingdom of God on earth, with but little consciousness of God, is surely increasing among rich and poor, both in the Church and out of the Church. And as personal acquaintance with God goes, the assurance of immortality invariably fades.

Many women, of varying degrees of intelligence and social standing, are doing commendable social work for the love of humanity with but dim consciousness of God. It has come to pass that fine women may whisk about in silks and limousines visiting day-nurseries and the like without bending the knee to the Father or remembering that the babies are God's little ones. Yet no right-minded person wishes to diminish the social service of this day by whomsoever rendered. On the contrary, he feels that the Church which overlooks the poor babies should have a millstone hanged about its neck and be cast into the sea. Nevertheless, a kingdom without the consciousness of God in the hearts of its subjects will never succeed in saving the assurance of immortality. The old religion could not succeed without a bottom, and the new religion will not succeed without a top. This topless kingdom, spreading far beyond the Church, is making many feel that they are better off without the Church. Some of these are sincere and substantial men and women, while others of them are extremely superficial.

Many of the latter class will tell you with real self-appreciation that they look after poor stray kitties, and feed the birdies in cold weather, and in fact befriend all the animals. Really, they are too busy with good works among animals and needy people to go to church and, as one of them told me, they are not among the narrow-minded people anyway "Who believe in hell."

This generation needs to learn the necessity, and the sane psychology, of Christian experience. To put it plainly, it should be converted to God. With God in our thoughts and affections we can hardly be too careful about the material side of His kingdom; for the religion of Jesus means the spiritualizing of the material, all the way from our bodies to the end of the material forces that are at our command. Though ever so many cups of cold water be given, if they are not given in His name or with a consciousness of His share in the gift, the kindly deed will not impart to us Christ's assurance of life eternal.

6. We automatically lose the assurance of the future when we lose the reality of the present

Because he has nothing in his ice-bound world, the Eskimo hopes for nothing. There is nothing within his present grasp that suggests great things to come. Whereas, the civilized man hopes for a glorious future not yet attained because he sees that the present warrants such a hope. No one can reasonably hope for that which the present does not justify. Only let him be sure that he knows the present. Men who miscalculate the future usually do so because they fail to apprehend the present facts. We cannot judge what the fruit will be unless we know the particular variety of tree. The future history of the universe depends upon whether there is a God now. Either there is or there is not a God. If there is, the one not knowing Him has a very superficial knowledge of the world that now is. A God-projected and a God-filled world will have a very different future from a world of mindless ether and mindless electrons. The discovery of electricity and some knowledge of its behavior were necessary before men could dream of electric cars and electric lights. When electricity and some of the laws were known, however, the dream was unavoidable, and like many another rational prediction it has come true. When the thought of God fades, Christian hope dies. If one is only agnostic with reference to the existence of God, he is simply agnostic on the subject of immortality. In exact proportion as we lose connection with the deeper realities of the present, we forfeit insight into the future. As one who is entirely ignorant of chemistry has no criteria by which to judge the future of chemistry, so the one having no personal consciousness of God, nor clear vision of the deeper meanings of life, has no data for a rational prediction of the future. Paul said that the rulers of his day did not know spiritual things, or they "Would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Not knowing God, naturally they did not recognize His purpose when they met it in the character and teachings of Jesus; so they ignorantly put Jesus to death. Things which their eyes saw not and their ears heard not, were recognized by those who knew God. "For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But we received the spirit which is from God; that we might know."

Our expectations for the future always rise spontaneously out of our vision of the present. Whether it will rain within the next forty-eight hours I can but imperfectly predict because I recognize but a few vague weather conditions. The weather bureau, however, with many more present facts at its command may predict with far greater certainty.

The man who knows nothing but a material universe cannot believe in immortality. Any effort to convince him is but a waste of breath. If he is right in thinking that the universe has no soul, then he is right in believing that there is no future life.

The Soul—granting that it has a Soul—is the best part of the universe. To have lost God, therefore, is to have lost the best part of reality. And the loss does not end here, for, in the best sense, we have lost the world also. Though its chemistry and physics remain the same, its higher meaning and finer uses no longer exist, for us, when God is eliminated. To comprehend the universe we must know it philosophically, poetically, and religiously, as well as scientifically. Some unwisely think that to know it scientifically and poetically is enough. If the forces of nature are energies proceeding from an Infinite Mind, and if we might so use these forces as to express His wisdom and love in all human relations, then the universe is fundamentally different from the atheist's world. The one who does not recognize an infinite Mind of love and righteousness, must prostitute the world to uses lower than the highest. And as soon as he does this he has not only lost the Soul of the universe, but in the very finest sense he has lost the body of the universe as well. On such a poor foundation, his common sense saves him from the folly of trying to build a temple that pierces the skies. He may still remain a gentleman, and have a most kindly and unselfish disposition within certain limits, but at a thousand points he will find his will at right angles with the one who lives in a different world,—in a world that warrants the long look. I have experienced the world from both points of view. And though my common conduct did not vary greatly, yet when I was deeply conscious of God, and saw the universe all vibrant with His thought and love, my life in its inner meaning and quality was different from center to circumference.

Here, then, is the crux of the whole matter. In so far as we have lost the assurance of a future life, it is because we have lost so much of the present that what remains of it is not sufficient to arouse a lively anticipation of immortality. True, our sense of reality is oppressively intense in the physical realm; we clutch, with death-like grip, that from which the Soul has escaped. But the husk will not support spiritual life nor give assurance of the life to come.