The Universe a Vast Electric Organism

Flammarion says: "Science in revealing the plan of the universe will show that the moral universe is based upon the same plan, that both worlds form but one world and that spirit governs matter. The same laws rule everywhere and make the vast universe a unity. All the ages of the past and future are one with the present, and thinking beings will live eternally through successive and progressive transformations. Everything progresses toward supreme perfection. The material world has but an apparent existence, and the reality underlying it is a force imponderable, invisible and intangible." Man is apparently an animal, but he is not; that is the visible side of his nature and is deceptive.

All he beholds is apparent. The reality is something altogether different. The sun seems to revolve around the earth, and the earth seems to stand still. The reverse is true. We dwell upon the surface of a body revolving in space and projected with a velocity seventy-five times greater than the speed of a cannon ball.

We hear a harmony of sweet sounds which charm our senses. The sound does not exist; it is an impression made upon our sense of hearing by vibrations of the atmosphere which themselves emit no sound. Without the auditory nerve and brain there would be no sound. In reality there is only motion in the ether.

The rainbow expands its radiant circle, the rose and lily sparkle in the sunshine; the green fields and golden grain diversify the landscape by their vivid colors. But there are no colors; there is no light; there are only undulations in the air that set the optic nerve vibrating. The sun warms and fertilizes, the fire burns, but there is no heat, only the sensation of heat. Heat, like light, is only the result of motion—invisible, all-potent, supreme. Here is a solid iron joist sustaining tons of enormous weight, yet the joist is composed of molecules which do not touch each other and are in continual motion. What constitutes the solidity of this bar of iron? Not the atoms that compose it; but the cause of its solidity is molecular attraction, the invisible force of magnetic attraction.

The present scientific theories have only been apprehended by the brightest intellects within the last half century, and would have been a conglomeration of absurdities to the wisest men of the world a century ago. So, written revelation had to use the language and symbols understood by the ancients. And it seems that scientific evolution is constantly struggling for new terms to express new ideas and discoveries.

Some scientists believe it impossible for the terrestrial being to attain a complete knowledge of the truth because he has only five senses, and a multitude of the phenomena of nature remains unknown to his mind because he has no means by which to reach them. Just as if we should be unable to see if deprived of the optic nerve, or to hear if deprived of the auditory nerve. Our terrestrial harp may be wanting in many chords which prevent us from catching the perfect harmony and truth of the universe. It is said the smallest magnet can more easily than Newton or Leibnitz discover the magnetic pole, and the swallow has more knowledge of the varieties of latitude than had Columbus or Magellan. But whatever our experience, it is a part of the book of God and nature.

Flammarion says: "No one who is aware of the progress made in the exact sciences of to-day can pretend to be a materialist. The psychic atom, the principle of the human organism would be immortal, like atoms everywhere, if scientists were to admit the fundamental axioms of chemistry. But it would be superior to atoms, and be conscious of its existence. Can the soul partake of the character of electricity? We conceive that it exists as force that survives the dissolution of the body."

I conceive the soul controls electricity, which is the right hand of its power, and the tongue of the spirit, and survives in conscious power "the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds." "Whither does the soul go?" asks the same author, and he answers "to other worlds. Yes, living principles of force can transport them from one world to another." I agree with him. I believe they go to other worlds, and the other worlds are perfected sun-worlds. We must not think that the soul belongs to some supernatural world. There is nothing that is not in nature. Nature is unceasing progress. It is only a few thousand years since terrestrial humanity emerged from its chrysalis state of being. Yet certain spirits have attained transcendent power, and humanity has produced a Shakespeare, a Goethe, a Hugo, a Newton, and a Milton. We live in reality among the stars.

We are inhabitants of the skies. Life, light and eternal progress to perfection is the final end and purpose of the universe. Every thinking man feels in his moral and psychic nature that he is linked to justice, truth and Deity.

Maeterlinck, the Danish philosopher, sustains this thought in his latest work when he says: "Though nature appears unjust and nothing authorizes us to declare that a superior power rewards or punishes here or elsewhere, it is none the less certain that an image of that invisible, incorruptible justice we have vainly sought in the sky or the universe reposes in the depths of the moral life of every man. It will not add to or take from our wealth, it will bring no immunity from disease or lightning, it will not prolong one hour the life of the being we cherish; but if we have learned to reflect and to love, it will establish in heart and brain a contentment that shall still be inexhaustible and noble.

"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.

These show strong evidence of civilization and culture. There have been found evidences that freehand drawing, clay-modeling and sculpture were taught. There were found works of reference, scientific treatises, and various technical volumes on astronomical and religious subjects.

These discoveries show the knowledge and culture that existed in the days of Abraham, and are a powerful demonstration of the unshaken truth of Old Testament prophesies.

Prof. Hilprecht, who made these excavations and discoveries, says: "As the attempt has recently been made to trace the pure Monotheism of Israel to Babylonian sources, I am bound to declare this an absolute impossibility, on my basis of fourteen years' researches in Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions. The faith of God's chosen people is: 'Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord,' and this faith could never proceed from the Babylonian mountain of gods—that charnel-house full of corruption and dead men's bones."

The fact is, as far as I am able to judge, every recent discovery of science tends to sustain the essential truths of the Bible, and confirm the religious concept.

Those who think that religion is losing its power should remember that thousands of converts are added to the churches daily, and fifteen church buildings on an average are erected every day in the United States alone. And there are besides thousands of persons, like myself, of a thoughtful, religious nature who are not members of any religious order.

Scientists should omit from their works all spirit of antagonism to religious faith. Such antagonism impairs the usefulness of their works, and is an offence against public morals, public security, and man's aesthetic nature and psychic advancement. Religion has helped to develop the spiritual life of the race, and is the anchor of all good society, good government and exemplary conduct in man.

The religious faith and even superstitions which some scientists rail at with such vehemence was a necessary phase of human history and experience to lift the human race to a higher plane of spiritual power. Science has passed through the same phases of credulity and superstition.

Whiskey, wines, and intoxicants once had their useful phase in arousing the sluggish brains of our half-civilized ancestors to higher realms of thought and perception. So, what now seem the most absurd superstitions once had their usefulness in deterring men from crime and causing them to lead better lives. The dread of physical punishment hereafter, and the fear of a hell and a devil that never existed, had a salutary effect on countless millions of the past which no moral persuasion or scientific arguments could have reached. But all intoxicants with their blighting curse, and all superstitions with their blinding ignorance have had their day of usefulness and should be relegated to the dark tomb of oblivion.

The solemn cathedral, the soft-toned organ, the mellow light from colored windows, the awe and anxious faith, have added soul development and psychic power to human life.

The mother who bowed in prayer, the father who assembled his children around the family altar, have added spiritual power to themselves and their posterity for all generations.

And it is the honest, home-loving, God-fearing and praying mothers and fathers of the past three centuries that have made the Anglo-Saxon race and the civilization of to-day what it is.

The Bible says truly, "to be spiritually minded is life," and to be worldly minded is to lead us back to pagan selfishness, when cruelty was a pastime, and poisoning and assassination were fine arts.

This book of God we call man is bound in imperishable atoms that dissolve into-viewless ether, and are tied together with electric bands as pliable as silk and as invisible as thought, and the spirit they enwrap is as strong and enduring as omnipotence.

The statement is often made to the prejudice of religion that religion has been the cause of most of the wars and cruelties that have desolated the earth since the commencement of human history. This is unjust and misleading. Until the formation of our government, church and state were united among all nations and politics and religion were blended, and a purely religious war was impossible. As to the miracles of the New Testament, if they were all discredited the immaculate teachings of the gospel would remain. The peculiar glory of Christianity is the regeneration it brings to man, putting him under the law of love; and without miracles we would still have vital, uplifting, heaven-inspiring Christianity.

As to the infallibility of science, she has nothing to boast of over religion. Science has been groping her devious way from colossal blunder to blunder, and championing as many absurdities and superstitions through all the ages as ever the religious devotee dreamed or the religious concept propagated. She is still teaching some of the grossest superstitions and incredible absurdities. Science has received nearly every fundamental truth from religion, and is at last steadily developing and proving the true religious concept of the universe, in showing that all visible things are the product of invisible spirit, invisible law and invisible force; that the spiritual and invisible world is the supreme reality; that its Creator and Ruler must be the Father of Spirits, and virtually re-echoes the words of Christ, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." It teaches universal love, helpfulness and equality, which was demonstrated by Christ when He called for water and washed the feet of those who worshiped Him. This was His last object lesson, so little understood in Christian philosophy. But ethical and psychic science have lifted it to be the glory of perfected civilization, and endorsed the exalted truth, "Let him that is greatest among you be the servant of all."

All knowledge and truth are in a sense inspired revelation from God, whether written in nature or the human soul. There is scientific revelation written in physical facts and recognized by the senses; there is God's revelation written in the secret conscience and reasoning power of man, and they naturally sustain and supplement each other and the revealed truths of the Scriptures.

It may be that the first chapter of Genesis was not intended so much as an infallible record of the divine order in the creation of the world as to teach the vastly higher spiritual truth that creation is the work of God, thus leading men to His worship and away from the lower worship of sun, moon and heathen deities.

The mechanical conception as to the mode of inspiration and revelation tends to give way before a larger conception of the process—that God speaks to man through the experience of the events of life. Thus revelation becomes a living process, and all later history may become a commentary on sacred history, renewing and confirming the primal utterance of God to the soul of man.

The reign of law, which was little understood by the ancients, is now universally accepted and endows the human race with new powers. It also gives new conceptions of the "intelligibility of nature," which is but a modern scientific term for religion or the reliance on the will and wisdom of Creative Deity.

Herbert Spencer's "persistency of matter and force" is but another expression of the reign of law. And as law is the result of an intelligent spiritual concept and impulse, the lawmaker of the universe must be a supreme, intelligent, spiritual personality.

And the reasoning, intelligent soul of man, by discovering the immutable laws of nature, which are the unchanging decrees of Deity, has learned the art of controlling the great powers of nature for the use and convenience of man.

But in the ultimate analysis it is God's spirit and will that control the universe, and man's spirit and will which evolve the art of controlling, and masters the great powers of nature.

Therefore, we must look to the powers of the mind to subdue all other powers. This it does by constructive reason and vitalizing faith. By constructive reason it builds bridges, tunnels mountains, operates engines, telegraphs and all the appliances of modern commerce. By vitalizing faith it renews and strengthens body and soul, and seems to work the miracles of God.

Prof. Osler says: "Faith is a most precious commodity. Faith is the great lever of life. Without it man can do nothing, with it all things are possible. Galen says: 'Confidence and hope do more good than physic.' Faith in the gods or the saints cures one, faith in little pills another, hypnotic suggestion a third, and faith in a plain, common doctor a fourth. In all ages the prayer of faith has healed the sick, and the mental attitude of the suppliant seems to be of more consequence than the powers to which the prayer is addressed."

Miracles, says criticism, belong to an age of ignorance. With the dawn of knowledge they diminish. In its meridian light they disappear.

The Jews were eminently addicted to belief in miracles. With them there was satanic miracle as well as divine. They believed in persons being possessed by devils, and all efforts to disentangle them from the demoniac miracles and to resolve them into cures of lunacy by moral influence was vain.

Comte totally discards belief in God, but, feeling the need of a religion, substituted the worship of humanity. Humanity is an abstraction by itself, but combined with the Christianity and the monotheism of the New Testament, it is the perfection of ethics and religion. They who preach the religion of humanity, morality and true socialism will find it more perfectly taught in the New Testament, with nobler incentives and higher inspiration and spirituality, than elsewhere in human history. And it accords more perfectly with the book of truth, written in the reason and conscience of man.

Prof. C. F. Kent of Yale, says: "There is no conflict between science and religion. The Bible does not pretend to teach science, but does speak with authority with regard to questions of morality and religion.

"The pathetic fact is that the fundamental spiritual truths the Bible narratives seek to teach are lost sight of in the contention for historical accuracy, which was entirely secondary with the authors. The prophets used ancient narratives, the same as Jesus used parables, to illustrate spiritual truths."

Dr. Beet, of Wesleyan College, England, denies that either "the endless suffering or the extinction of the wicked is taught in the Scriptures," and says: "Very few Wesleyans now adhere to Wesley's teachings concerning it."

The essential truths of the Bible are just as true without miracles as with them. Christ said a wicked and perverse generation seeketh a sign or miracle.

Truth is inherently true and needs no miracle to confirm it. And the tendency of all ancient writers, as well as those of the Bible, to exaggerate natural phenomena into wonders and miracles cause many to discard the great truths of revelation. I undertook to show how Joshua might have mistaken a luminous aurora borealis for the sun standing still. And I am inclined to think that a mistranslation is responsible for the story of Jonah and the big fish. Somewhere in ancient history I got the idea that the pirate boats in ancient times were called, "the big fish." If so Jonah might have been captured by the pirates after being thrown overboard, and put in the hole or belly of the boat, and after three days, seeing no prospect of a ransom, was thrown onto the land. God may have prepared the pirates and boat for this purpose and a miracle would be unnecessary. The writers of that day would say Jonah was swallowed by "the big fish," meaning the pirates captured him, and centuries afterwards the translators would make a great miracle out of it. Take many of our modern expressions, as, "the ship and sailors went to Davy Jones' locker;" if centuries hence our language should become obsolete, the translators would say, "the ship was in a great storm, and it and the sailors were all saved by running into David Jones' big chest." That would be a literal translation, but would not state the facts. Take another illustration. In the war, "a company was lost in the woods and was gobbled up by the enemy." A future translation would read, "a company of soldiers was lost in the woods and a ferocious turkey gobbled and eat them all up." Either of these would make a greater miracle than Jonah and the whale.

I mention this to show how easy it is to mistranslate an obsolete language, especially an Oriental language, always so full of figures of speech, hyperbole and parables.