The answer is, that to only one of these religions or philosophies is this new revelation absolutely fatal.That is to Materialism.I do not say this in any spirit of hostility to Materialists, who, so far as they are an organized body, are, I think, as earnest and Page 53moral as any other class.But the fact is manifest that if spirit can live without matter, then the foundation of Materialism is gone, and the whole scheme of thought crashes to the ground.
As to other creeds, it must be admitted that an acceptance of the teaching brought to us from beyond would deeply modify conventional Christianity.But these modifications would be rather in the direction of explanation and development than of contradiction.It would set right grave misunderstandings which have always offended the reason of every thoughtful man, but it would also confirm and make absolutely certain the fact of life after death, the base of all religion.It would confirm the unhappy results of sin, though it would show that those results are never absolutely permanent.It would confirm the existence of higher beings, whom we have called angels, and of an ever-ascending hierarchy above us, in which the Christ spirit finds its place, culminating in heights of the infinite with which we associate the idea of all-power or of God.It would confirm the idea of heaven and of a Page 54temporary penal state which corresponds to purgatory rather than to hell.Thus this new revelation, on some of the most vital points, is not destructive of the beliefs, and it should be hailed by really earnest men of all creeds as a most powerful ally rather than a dangerous devil-begotten enemy.
On the other hand, let us turn to the points in which Christianity must be modified by this new revelation.
First of all I would say this, which must be obvious to many, however much they deplore it: Christianity must change or must perish.
That is the law of life -- that things must adapt themselves or perish.
Christianity has deferred the change very long, she has deferred it until her churches are half empty, until women are her chief supporters, and until both the learned part of the community on one side, and the poorest class on the other, both in town and country, are largely alienated from her.Let us try and trace the reason for this.It is apparent in all sects, and comes, therefore, from some deep common cause.Page 55People are alienated because they frankly do not believe the facts as presented to them to be true.Their reason and their sense of justice are equally offended.One can see no justice in a vicarious sacrifice, nor in the God who could be placated by such means.Above all, many cannot understand such expressions as the "redemption from sin," "cleansed by the blood of the Lamb," and so forth.So long as there was any question of the fall of man there was at least some sort of explanation of such phrases; but when it became certain that man had never fallen -- when with ever fuller knowledge we could trace our ancestral course down through the cave-man and the drift-man, back to that shadowy and far-off time when the man-like ape slowly evolved into the apelike man -- looking back on all this vast succession of life, we knew that it had always been rising from step to step.Never was there any evidence of a fall.But if there were no fall, then what became of the atonement, of the redemption, of original sin, of a large part of Christian mystical philosophy? Page 56Even if it were as reasonable in itself as it is actually unreasonable, it would still be quite divorced from the facts.
Again, too much seemed to be made of Christ's death.It is no uncommon thing to die for an idea.Every religion has equally had its martyrs.Men die continually for their convictions.Thousands of our lads are doing it at this instant in France.Therefore the death of Christ, beautiful as it is in the Gospel narrative, has seemed to assume an undue importance, as though it were an isolated phenomenon for a man to die in pursuit of a reform.In my opinion, far too much stress has been laid upon Christ's death, and far too little upon His life.That was where the true grandeur and the true lesson lay.It was a life which even in those limited records shows us no trait which is not beautiful -- a life full of easy tolerance for others, of kindly charity, of broad-minded moderation, of gentle courage, always progressive and open to new ideas, and yet never bitter to those ideas which He was really supplanting, though He did occasionally lose His temper with their more Page 57bigoted and narrow supporters.Especially one loves His readiness to get at the spirit of religion, sweeping aside the texts and the forms.
Never had anyone such a robust common sense, or such a sympathy for weakness.
It was this most wonderful and uncommon life, and not his death, which is the true centre of the Christian religion.
