STUDY V. MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR

CHRISTIANITY.

"For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live; but seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down_righteousness to the earth, seek him that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth (Jehovah is his name); that bringeth sudden destruction upon the strong, so that destruction cometh upon the fortress." (Amos v. 4-9.)

PART I. THEOSOPHY.

THAT we are living in a period of religious unrest, no one can doubt who has given any thought to the ten or a dozen forms of new faith which have found adherents in our midst. As would be expected, most of these cults have some truth which is worth retaining; and one should, so far as possible, see what this truth is.

Closely related to the non-Christian religions or ethnic faiths is the system of thought known as Theosophy. The Theosophical Society was organized in New York in 1875, and perhaps Madam Blavatsky and Mrs. Besant have been among its most noted advocates. It claims to be the final religion, the final science-in fact, the final wisdom. As a cult it is esoteric—that is, only the initiated can understand it fully. Its authority rests on a secret tradition which is the special property and revelation of an advanced brotherhood, who through successive incarnations have come to that high stage where the secrets of the universe may be revealed to them. Madam Blavatsky claims to have been associated with this brotherhood in receiving her revelations.

Theosophy is closely related to Brahmanism, is purely pantheistic, denies the personality of God, and says all objective reality is a temporary illusion. From the one oversoul man proceeds and hither he returns. "The most that can be said is that the absolute periodically differentiates

itself and periodically withdraws the differentiation into itself." After this human existence has been dissolved, man enters into a kind of heaven where he remains a longer or shorter time, in accordance with his merits, and then is ready for a reincarnation or rebirth. If he is ever able by perfection of life to get freedom from the wheel of death and rebirth, he then enters Nirvana or is reabsorbed into the absolute.

While it cannot be denied that some of the Theosophists have lived beautiful lives, nevertheless their system, like all other forms of pantheism, cuts the true nerve of moral action. If I am a part of God, then I cannot sin; for God, being the all-pervasive, all-inclusive, all-perfect essence, whatever I do he does, and hence I have no more responsibility. It denies all reality to man, just as does Hinduism, and hence takes all motive out of life. The mystical, contemplative element in it has made an appeal to many restless souls; but this mystical element arises out of the fact that man is a delusion, and his final salvation consists in getting out of himself, as it were, finding out that he is a delusion, and hence passing out of this shadowy existence. In no such system can any permanent satisfaction be found. Extinction is not a goal worth working toward, and such a religion is a poor incentive to life. It is pessimistic to the core and gives no incentive to high endeavor.

STUDY V. MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR

CHRISTIANITY.

"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. The more the prophets called them, the more they went from them: they sacrificed unto the Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. Yet I taught Ephraim to walk; I took them on my arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that lift up the yoke on their jaws; and I laid food before them." (Hos. xi. 1-4)

"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I cast thee off, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? my heart is turned within me, my compassions are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee; and I will not come in wrath." (Hos. xi. 8, 9.)

PART II. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

In

PERHAPS Mrs. Eddy would resent her system's being put close to Theosophy, but here it logically belongs. Christian Science, too, owes part of its large influence to its Hinduistic elements. Mrs. Eddy distinctly denies the personality of God and says: "God is not a person; God is principle.' other words, her system borders on, or may be called, a type of pantheism. She is in harmony with both Theosophy and Hindu thought when she denies all reality to the sense world. "Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that mind is all in all, that the only realities are the divine mind and idea. God is the only intelligence of the universe, including man." "There is no finite soul or spirit." "Matter will finally be proven to be nothing but a mortal belief." "Matter and its belief-sin, sickness, death-are states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come to stop. They are not ideas, but illusions." "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death, inasmuch as he derives his essence from God and possesses not a single original or underived power." "Thus the long tragedy which sin is supposed to have enacted in the world turns out to have been only a deceptive dream."

It will at once be seen how close this comes to philosophic Hinduism. God is all in all. He is the one essence. Man's

earthly state is pure delusion. In fact, man has no real and separate existence. There is, therefore, no solid foundation for morality, no good or final development, not even any sure basis for knowledge, since all sense impressions are mere delusions. The system is full of contradictions. It resents being called pantheistic, and yet denies all personality to God and makes man a kind of emanation of the divine. It holds that God is love; but one wonders how love can be an attribute of a completely impersonal element.

Into her system Mrs. Eddy has incorporated the power of suggestion in curing physical ills; and that she and her followers have wronght many marvelous cures, no one need deny. The system has rightly called attention to the close relation of the mind to the body and also to the fact that any real religion should have reference to well-being in this life as well as in the life to come. It undoubtedly has helped some people and has struck at that otherworldliness which has at times been the bane of Christianity.

But these virtues do not explain away the inconsistencies or make it a tenable system for a thoughtful mind. Professor Leuba's lame defense of this doctrine of the unreality of matter as identical with idealism seems to me wide of the mark. Concrete idealism does not deny matter, but claims that it is not opposed to, but, as it were, a manifestation of, spirit. Christian Science has value neither as Christianity nor as science and must sooner or later run its course.

STUDY V. MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR

CHRISTIANITY.

"The high mountains are for the wild goats;
The rocks are a refuge for the conies.
He appointed the moon for seasons:
The sun knoweth his going down.
Thou makest darkness, and it is night,

Wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth.
The young lions roar after their prey,

And seek their food from God.
The sun riseth, they get them away,
And lay them down in their dens.
Man goeth forth unto his work
And to his labor until the evening.

O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works!
In wisdom hast thou made them all:
The earth is full of thy riches."

(Ps. civ. 18-24.)

PART III. PESSIMISM.

ANOTHER Cult which is closely related to the Oriental religions is that of Pessimism. Both Schopenhauer and Von Hartman were in deep sympathy with certain elements of Buddhism. According to Schopenhauer, the world is the expression of will, and bad will or blind will at that. The will as unsatisfied striving creates the world. This world, he claims, is the worst possible world. Thought is not permanent, since it is a mere function of the brain. There is, therefore, no possible immortality, since when the thought vanishes with the brain there is no personality to be immortal. Life is taken up with the pursuit of happiness, which may never be attained; hence life is a failure. There is much more of evil in the world than there is of good. Man is worthless and deserves no better than he gets.

Plunged into so deep a sea of pessimism as this, the one recourse was to find an exit from existence. This both Schopenhauer and Von Hartman found in the Buddhistic doctrine of extinction. Pessimism accepts one substance or being, which is impersonal, of which all souls are simply emanations. Here it is hardly at one with Buddhism, but in the fact of widespread misery and suffering the two systems come together again. Like Buddhism, Pessimism finds relief through extinction.