SUBSTANCE OR SHADOW?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13781, 20 June 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUBSTANCE OR SHADOW ?

■ , BT. XtnDlS ■ VEEB.IS.. ■ j. I{ The fool hath said.in his heart'—and we all know what he said. "-What is truth' asked Pilate, and the world stall- puts the : question. .- . Elusive and. illusive sha-dow-;"''obscure\ philosophies and spun-ouc sophistries still uurken counsel and beguile the wanderer.. .-'.-...- . . The cold negations of amorphous teaching Irani of Tibetan brooding,,-, or the' joy--less:outlook of the stoic or ApKtle o£ Kbayaur may or. may not be .the , : product of those archaic days when sons of God, allied to daughters of the earth, begat those myths and mists- which spread and^ cast their lure; but ever since a righteous Noahor a.despondent Job alike acknowledged a. Creator's rule- the citadel of truth has been assaulted, and Babylonian towers, erected but to fall, have tested truth, and proved it by their own confusion. Long before that dread tribunal to which the Lord of Life submitted, advancing truth" and mans experience had conspired to form a basis—more or less, moral— individual and national existence. To the great Jewish people, ere yet they had become a nation, a law more loftv than any yet conceived had been promulgated; and in the remnant of that once mighty race may "still be found the signal attestation of mysterious and incommunicable Glory a Presence and a Power controllingand pervading all which to the end of Time must be for ever veiled, or convincingly made manifest. Many. various have been the conceptions of its greatness, dark and dire the individual struggle of searchers for the unknown God. Terrible their altars.. vcty fearful were fall' s?a<3c7ifees, marveli'3 he\Tr, c ] their ignorant credulity, I Druidic worship and the Delphian oracle suffice to tell. The Persians tire-worshipper, the Roman victim/:'the mythic lore- of Greece, the temple vowed to Saturn,;or the fifth century'erection in which were blended Christian form and heathen rite, present continual proof of man's necessity for supreme and supernatural relation. lo quote a writer, speaking with authority ! "That all mankind is perplexed and entangled about these considerations, that all men ever were so, without exception, more or less, and continue so to this day— that of themselves they miserably grope in the dark, and are never able to come to any satisfaction, neither as to what is present nor as to what is to come, I would manifest from the state, office, and condition of conscience, and the indelible innate ideas and presumption about them that are in the hearts of. all by nature. The whole history of all religion which hath been in the world, with the design of all ancient and present philosophy, do manifest this truth.". "*O, that I knew where I might find Him," has been the cry alike of priest and pagan, of a'Kempis, Augustine, and of Plato— breathing of mankind since Job bewailed himself and Elijah moaned, "It is enough."

The universal need that presupposes Deity is a challenge from "the soul of'man to ips august Creator.

Whether it. be better. for the clay to willingly receive the image of the potter, or, refusing, to accept and represent the crude, confused imagination of vessels of ■its class, to bow to one God or to many, is .matter for the individual conscience, but from a" point where experience arid faith conjoin, where judgment might be fixed, it would seem bettor that an unveiled atheism, the stark and bold , denial ' of the fool, wrought less harm to others than the miasmatic exhalations, the shrouded heresies, that seek to undermine the ramparts of belief. A Stygian gulf to bo avoided is less dangerous than the mirage" of intellect, or ?that self-poisoned air which threatened the dweller in the cave. Air, pure food, and light are the first conditions of life physical ; why, in. the"" spiritual domain, should they be banished? Give us in. these hardpressed—these restless and electric-—days something vital. Do not mock us with sound and terminologystones without bread—husks which hold no kernel. This vaunted religion of humanity! Where is its place? What is its creed? Is it not centred in man and restricted to a study of himself— easy vent in socialism, its final force in anarchy? Is it not encumbered with a thousand • sickly growths, and encompassed by continual doubt? Does it ever speak with ■ certainty, or proclaim in few decisive words its aim and history? Docs it thrill and stir the pulse and rouse to noble action? Serene, unboastful, does it, while it talks of " culture," exhibit sturdy growth or. fruitful deeds? Here and there where taste and temperament, heredity perhaps, present within its camp, that asks for imitation, some semblance of vitality, some germ. that struggles to the light, might make appeal; but what can scientific method, or the hewing, hacking, destructive criticism of the moment do to relievo heart hunger, to reclaim the wretched _ or the miserably fallen? Can it show a force as vital in the city or the outpost, a hand as helping, or a heart as ready as that of the despised " Salvationist?" Crude though his method be, loud sometimes his shouting, the rugged : way and the vibrating voice proclaim conviction, and a force so urgent that it can- ; not be withstood.

Milton did not forecast the Army and its work. Its harsh street music was not in his mind, but two centuries and more of intervening shams, contrasting baubles, convince us of the merit of their holy purpose. Milton, couldst thou be living at this hour thy words, in spite of the discordant drum, hold a hint well counted to their, credit

How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But, musical as is Apollo's lute. And a perpetual feast- of nectared sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. Strains that after all might "recreate" a soul under "the ribs of death," even in this poor time. Salvationists, though scorned, look forward to the time when— , , Evil on itself shall back recoil. And mix no more with goodness; when at last Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, It shall be in eternal restless change, Self-led, and self-consumed— they too would doubtless venture that— ... If this fail, The pillared firmament is rottenness, And earth's base built on stubble. . . „ Doubt is a cold and wayward mistress: her footsteps are unstable, the path, to which, she beckons— over arid plain.*, there to mountains dark as Erebus or dank with vapour— slippery and uncertain. Her arguments are soft and specious, and intricate the maze they weave, but her helmet is of brass, her feet unshod; her glance is downward and her grasp material. She recks not of the things impossible to man's conception, and scorns the immortality which was taught by Plato and proclaimed by Paul, inferred by Bacon and accepted with the simplicity of childhood by the rough, great-hearted Johnson. Looking before and after within these low horizons, pining for what is not fretful . and wretched, the offspring of Doubt has nought wherewith to mateli the noble army of confessing martyrs, no stone wherewith to slay the champions of Truth. Miserable comforters all are wraiths and fictions when precipices daunt and icy chills, invade," this trembling house of clay. Who would, who could prefer the abstract to the. concrete, -allow the vague and the impersonal to dominate the reason, and rule in the affections? Sight-less, soulless, such inflated teaching carries . in its balloon-like sphere a dangerous element. Great heights in certain atmospheres may be attained, bub descent is rapid and collapse inevitable. So far, the religion of humanity has presented small performance, nor : can its hroua-

gators point, amongst tho ranks of ibSd- { to warriors and statesmen who lav wr~ j the admiration of the world, Command:* j genius .they"■'-, may sometimes ckisi, but leaders of scientific thought md practical research are rare.:.'- They- cannot claim -a, ■Brewster,' .'Faraday,'-. or -Kelvin, -nor could. such cold philosophy beget a lively patriotism, a- brain to lead a conquering amy, ..a loval heart like .Nelson s. :: Could it furnish forth -the motive, that thrilled his' dying message, and prompted 'the tenderers* of farewells? Never! while human love and duty spring from the fount eternal, and cast immortal radiance on 'that- brief existence, which but for Jt-' were, ..poor' indeed. '■■■'; ■-. - . -"I have been told," says one,, "that.if a man that was. born "blind, could obtain his sight but i .for : -'.one hour during his- whole life,- and should.- at the .first, opening.'- of _ his eyes, six his sight upon the sun when it was in in 'full glory, either at, the rising or the set-ling of it, ho" would be so transported find amazed, and so admire the glory of it that he would not. willingly turn his eyes from that first ravishing object to behold all the other various beauties this world could present to j them." Experientia clocet. Life from birth | to death, extremes t which . bound man's l thought and work, his tendency and character, tho troubles which beset him and the joys which comfort are tests by which most theories are tried; actual and" positive, beneath their weighty stress the flimsy and diaphanous must disappear. The old fallacies and new deceptions, the earliest myth,, the latest song of sibyl or of, syren must pass and perish,'but while day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night'showeth knowledge, Faith in her sweet reasonableness will .display her trophies, rising superior to, but not'opposing, Reason,