IS A WORLD-RELIGION POSSIBLE?

Evening Star, Issue 15066, 24 December 1912, Page 6

IS A WORLD-RELIGION POSSIBLE?

The Rev. J. H. G. Caappb, Unitarian minister, of Timaru, and late Presbyterian minister of St. Andrew's. South Canterbury, conducted the Unitarian service in the Trades Hall on Sunday night, and lectured on 'ls a World-religion Possible ?' Mr Chappie said: In olden time the Prophets were badly treated, and even now were not too kindly received, but looked upon with suspicion, and turned into heretics. But in politics and business the prophet was slowly becoming the most useful man. 'The mail who could see what was going to be and anticipate trade in the business world couM s?et the highest salary. In the history of the human race there had been several golden agts. About five centuries B.C. was a remarkable age— the age of Plato, Confucius, and Buddha. The time was ripe, and the men appeared. In India Brahmanism had outgrown itself., and Biiddha was the. man wanted. Nearly 2,000 years ago Hebraism, by contact with a. wider world, gradually became obsolete, and the right Man appeared in Jesus. About five centimes after, many of the Easterns not able to absorb the theological mixture of Hellenism, Paganism, and Judaism, and known as Christianity, Mohammed appeared, and Mohammedanism is still a growing power in Northern Africa. It was interesting to note all this, for between our own twentieth century and the second century there were striking parallels, as had been often pointed out. The growing commerce in the Persian Gulf, the Bed Sea, and the Mediterranean brought about the same impact of ideas and collision of thought at that time that we have i> day, and demanding a wider cosmopolitanism. Then, as now. there- were mystics evolving creeds out of Eastern moonshine—some trying to rationalise the old theologies, philosophers framing systems of morality apart from creeds, clerica'ism saying that the social order was beinc sapped by the decay of faith;. strange swerstitions gaining influence in intelligent society, instead of grovelling errors, dogged adherence of the Conservatives to a bo.rren orthodoxy—blind groping towards a cosmopolitan creed—and the governing and capitalistic classes then, a-3 now. saw that the old creed was bound up with the old order. "Lucian, the second century wit. had written a dialogue on an " Auction Sale of the Gods," and the time was rips for another Ltician to immortalise himself by putting up at auction the religious dogmas of to-day—dogmas that had no more existence in the world of fact than had the mythological gods of the Old World. The truth was now—and it had tc be faced—that since Copernicus reversed the astronomical system, Lyell and Geikie the geological, and Darwin, Spencer, and Huxley the biological, the whole fabrications of Christian dogmas were tumbling about the people's ears, for the basic stone was being removed—the " Fall of Man," upon which the whole Christian religious world rested—thanks (?) to our b«loved brother Paul, who did his best in his day and generation, but utterly fails to satisfy culturcn thought to-day. The Rev. Dr Storrs recently said, and the words are ominous: "The doctrines of Christianity are not iu the words of Jesus, but in the writings of Paul." Harnack and Fucken practically say the same thing: that the popular religion to-day is not Christianity, but Pauliiiism. And there is a revolt of reason at the present time. The baby-house weld of Ptolemy has gone. The theological man has gone, with his total, depravity and the inferential libel that :t suggests upon the Deity. The fantastical salvations resulting from it have gone, together with the Heaven of Jewellery—golden harps, golden streets, and gates of pea.rl. The Hell of Chemistry has gone with them. Crude Orientalisms were being tc=«eci overboard, and now we have a new universe, a new God, and a new man. We were stripping off the religious swaddling clothes. Religion in the past' had been the fruit of nun's ignorance, and in the future it would be the fruit of man's intelligence, and man's growing knowledge had rung the death knell of orthodoxy. But. says the trembling soul, what have you. got left? The Unitarians. Universalists'i Theosophkts, and the growing army of clergymen, with liberal v ; ews, in most pulpits -e----ply: Everything worth having remains. Out of- all this turmoil and' theological chacs there'will be a synthesis of religious thought and belief that'will eventually survive, and all the-leading religions will add to it. All religions have common elements, and have common correspondences rooted in common principles. Professor Mas Midler said: "He who knows only one religion knows none." With a wider culture and a freer thought man would cease to be merely mvnicipal, provincial, colonial, international, or even planetary. Man was cosmic; and, who knows, perhaps at death be enters into cosmic consciousness. When man climbs up to the higher levels, and away from the spot where he cannot see the wood for the trees, he feels and knows that in his own thought he traces the universal thought. Kepler felt that when he exclaimed: " Oh, God. I think Thy Thoughts after Thee." In the human heart there beats the infinite heart. The universal religion that would eventually arise from the ashes of to-day's dying beliefs would be splendidly ethical, a close friend to science, and in harmony with it. It would have keen social sympathies, and inspiring to heart-warm deeds. The beliefs would be logical and rational. It would arise above priestcraft, ritual, and clericalism, which, after all, are only the twenty century vestiges of magic of the Old World medicine men. It would stand for the unification of mankind. Theism would remain, but the views of God would be sane and progressive. The thoughtful religious world at the present time was rushing at express speed towards a pure and exalted Theism. Science, mankind, and religion all demanded unity. The little maps and charts of the sectarian world had to go, tut the "things that cannot fail" would remain. I know that right is right, That it isn't good to lie: That love is better than spite, And a neighbor than a spy. When the anchors that faith has cast Are dragging in the gale, I am quietly holding fast To the things that cannot fail. > And fierce though the fiends may fight, And long though the helpers hide, I know that Truth and Right Have the universe on their side.