PANPATRISM versus PATRIOTISM.

NZ Truth, Issue 508, 13 March 1915, Page 1

PANPATRISM versus PATRIOTISM.

FOUR FOURFOLD FATEFUL FORCES : f Anglican \ i Slav .) RACIAL RIVALRIES-RELIGIOUS RANCOURS. COMMERCIAL COMPETITION— COLONIAL CONQUEST. INDEFINITE IMPERIAL EXPANSION. Vac Victis I ■ ■ ' < ' '" : , XI, « . ■ .•■ • r . -

This 'pistle is but the termination of t'other last preceding it; and like the lady's letter, the pith of it is m its postscript, even as f $h.e sting, o±'^th«-scorpion:is>-iit its ; tail. The point of this letter lies m jts pertinency and application to Pananglicanism, which we propose to prove is Paulican m principle and policy. It matters little to the purpose of these articles that the proof of this proposition presumes charges of prevarication and "mental reservation" so frequently made against what has ( been sophistically styled "Jesuitical Morality," and • described by Junius m one of his celebrated^ letters, succinctly, thus : — An ostensible enga&ftigent, with q mental reservation, la the first principle or the "moraie relaolie." prof eesed and inculcated by tho Society of Jesus, «• • ' • , No^v, whether such a description of the morality of the Jesuits be correct or not, depends pretty much on what one means by truth. "What is truth?" asked pagan Pilate of Jesus, more than nineteen hundred years ago, and got no answer: and the world has waited eyer since for the answer. Truth is riot always truth to all people at all times And under all circumstances; it ..varies- according to individual experience, knowledge or lack of knowledge, and to one's, own' moral, religious and political and general prefereboes and prejudices, predilections and preconceptions. Absolutely pure, unadulterated truth is not a thing or a fact that can be pbygioally handled, mentally meajraved, or morally, weighed. \ ..,'• Troth is a conception of a qual- j !$y of sentiment that is no more 4eflaal>le than Space, Time or j Bternity, It is a sontiment, not a fact ; an aspiration rather than an aot«ality; a superstition shaping '^ijteelf according to tho prevalence or lack of knowledge Tho whole World is a living lie; tho Cosmos is a collossal contradiction arid conundrum to tho finite imucl — the feeble, fallible human uudeVptanding confronted and eonfoundod by the Infinite Eternal. # • * If, as tlio Psalm-singer thinks, Eternity's too short" to utter Ull the praiso due to the Creator for all His- wondrous works and Hw manifold mercies to tho ehildron of mon, how shall His creatures m this, one of tho very least of tho. many never-endiug, everfolving myriads of socn aud un>n worlds, aud inconceivably tant and multi-million many-OS-magnified constellations, pyiiipr and waxing and waning, appearing and disappearing, reappearing and disappearing, again tind agaiu, during aeons of meanuvoloHs ages at appointed times aud rognlar epochs, how shall we humble bifurcated human radishes staggoring stupidly and bluud-

ering blindly on the surface of this infinitesimally small sphere m the inconceivable, incomprehensible infinitude o£ space, even i^itruth about, the Almighty Creator, the Great First Cause? \" k, ' • # *. In our ignorance of the truth about His creation, we biped brutes are compelled to call God the Great First Cause which we can neither conceive nor comprehend nor express. No man hath ever seen God; no man can ever know Him or comprehend Him. .?or mankind, creation can have > Neither beginning nor end. To ' grasp the beginning and the extent and the end or purpose of the Cosmos would be to be equal with God, which can never be, because an infinitude of finites cannot comprise or comprehend Infinitely , Incomprehensible Infinitudes. •'• # . To know God would be to be God, for are we not told that "God is a spirit, and they that worship" Him must worship Him m spirit and m truth?" The nearest man can get to truth is to fear God, as we must, and to love Him, if we can—if the idea of a poor finite worm loving an Awful Almighty God Eternal is conceivable to the finite feeblo human understanding. All that man can do is to adore, and, if he will, worship, like Pope's poor Indian, the Unseen Spirit or the Unknown God of the cultured Pagan Athenians, Whom presumptuous, prevaricating Paul pretended to declare or make known unto them. • # • It. is seemly and reverent, even if superstitious, to worship what ones believes to be a beneficont Power, even though it cannot be soen and comprehended, or even proved, by process of human reasoning, actually to exist. This it is that imparts such a solemn splendour to some oi'Hho songs of the Psalmist. What oan be finer than the following adoring apostropho of David to the Deity : — "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast orduined; What Is man thnt thou art mindful of him? and the soul of man, that thou visitest him? • • • This is lino, very fine, but not much finer than Addison's famous odr : — The spncloun firmament on high, With nil the blue ethereal sky And Hpnnsled heavens, a nhinlng frame Their (front Original prooliilm. Tir unwenry'd nun, from duy to day, Doc-H his Creator"* power display; The work of an Almighty hand. Soon an the evening .shades prevail The moon lako.M up the wondruii* tale. And nlKlKly I" the li«tinluß earth, UopentH the story of her birth; Whllfil nil the Mtnr* around her burn, And all the planet*. In their turn, Confirm the tldlnßH as they roll, And «prcud the truth from pole' to polt.

What though m solemn silence, all Move 'round the dark terrestrial ball; What though no real voice or sound • : Amid their radiant orbs be found? ' In reason's ear they all rejoice • And utter forth" a glorious voice; Forever singing, as they shine, The hand that made us is divine. * * * But poor perfervid Paul, with all the red-hot zeal of a religious renegade, sought to make proselytes by paltering 'with truth. Paul • was a great funambulist on words ; , he could twist 'em iind tergiversate with them with the agility of a wire-walker and the skill of a sword-swallower. He could make the same words mean anything, everything, or nothing at all, at different, times for different, things, and at other times for the same things. * •- . * Take the following sample of > meretricious mouthing as a choice specimen of his dubiousness m definition, m which he pretends to define faith m Hebrews XI., I. : Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not Been. which is not a very clear or comforting definition of Christian faith to conic from a converted Jew Apostle, who says he had God's will revealed to him when suffering from a stroke of the sun ■ on- tho road to Damascus, whither he was journeying to further prosecute, his persecution of the ChrisIt seems a pity that Paul did not imitate the example of bis meek and lowly Master, Jesus, Who, when He could not give a straight answer to Pilate's plain ; question, stdod modestly mute, or ! discreetly dumb. Paul's penchant . for plucking brands from the burning bj* process of prevarica- .. tion got him into lots of trouble during his lifetime, and caused ! terrible trouble and turmoil m the , Church long after he was dead. * * * 1 But to give Paul his due— his . bare due, and nothing more — it must be admitted that if he is not very clear as to the principles on which his preaching is based, he is almost comically candid as to the processes by which he pursues and promotes his proselytising i propagandum. Read his own description of his purpose and his ; "modus operandi" for achieving i it — making proselytes — as set ( forth, m I. Corinthians, Chap 9, . v. 19-23:— 19. For though 1 be free from all men, yet I have mado myself serl vant unto all, that I might gain the more. 150. And unto the Jews T became a Jew that 1 might gain the "Jews; 1 to them that are under the law, as under the law, that 1 might gain l lh.em that are under the law. t 21. To them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under tho law to Christ), that I might gain them that ore without law. 22. To tho weak became I 'as wenk, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, I that I might by all means save some. 28. And this I do (or the gOBpoI'K sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. 1•* • , It is, perhaps, just us woll that : Paul took the Corinthians into his [ confidonno, and told thorn that all : this jump-Jim-Crow juggling whs "for the gospel's sake." Had ■ Paul not given such an assurance, neither the Corinthians no;---any others of Paul's founding catechists and catechumens could have believed or even conceived that such tergiversation and prevarication on the part t of this Prince among Apostles could have | beou practised for tlio pure purj pose of partaking in.tho hlcssiugs ij of tho Gospel. Such finessing wit h i words is not characteristic of the teachings of tho, (ientle -Jesus I whom Saul never saw and Paul : ! novcr heard — except when suffering from sore eyes and a stroke of tho sun on. the hot dusty Damascus road. * • • It was this scientific system of saintly prevarication which put the sweet .soul of Kenan out of • sympathy with Paul, who, n« th<; Christian preacher to Pagans. a\-» ways seemed to be wearing the

casuistical cloak of Saul "the persecutor o£ the Christians. So, too, it is iprecisely* this pauline cloak of politic' prevarication that seems to designate the 'Postle Paul as the protagonist of Pananglicanisni of modern days — as will be attempted to be shown "m our next," as "the serial story-tellers say. JOHN NORTON. Melbourne, February 24th, 1915. Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle. '•Wherefore, brethren, labor tha more, that by good works you may make sure your callings and election." — 2 Peter 1, 10. "Bpt who shall persevere even unto the end? Ho that shall have been In the Body of Christ, he that shall have been m the members of Christ, and from the Head shall have learned the patience of persevering."— -S. Augustine. Our ignornnce of many points In S. Matthias's life serves to fix tho attention all the more firmly upon, these two — the occasion of his call to the apostolate, and the fact of his perseverance. We then naturally turn In thought to our own vocation and our own end. The lesson of S. Matthias is enhanced by tho warning we derive from the fat« of Judas, to whom he is set by Scripture m such fearful contrast — Judux, who hud been a friend of .lesus, with the grace and vocation of an Apostle. But Judns loved monoy. and little by little avarice ate away all tlw good that was m- his. ' He became a thief. Hardening hi."* henrt, he judged others and became bitter and false, at last, blind with ambition and pride, for a few pieces of silver ho betrayed his Savior. He then hanged himself upon a tree In despair, and- dying m nnal impenitence went, In the words of t?. Peter, "to his own plai-«-." Nf't he who begins, but j he who perseveres to the end shall bo saved. I . SAINT MATTHIAS. After our Blessed lord's Ascension. Ills disciples nii?i together, with Mary Mis Mother and tho eleven Apostles m an upper room at Jerusalem. The little company numbered no man- than 120 souls. They were waiting for the promised coming of thi* Holy Ghost, and they per-M-wreO m prayer. Meanwhile thero wu« a solemn m-t to bo performed on the pan of the Church which could not We postponed. The place of tho fallen Judas mu»t be (Hied up. that tuu elect number of the Apostles

mipht be complete. S. Peter therefore, as Vicnr nf Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. That whi«h I the Holy Ohont had spoken by the j mouth of David eoncerninK Judas, h«> j .*nid, must ho fulfilled. Of him it had been written. "HI.H bishopric l««t.j anothor tftkr-." A cholrr tlunfore was to In* nmd»» of one? aniotiK ih«sr i who hnd been their companions from the beginning:, who could bear w' 1 " j ness to Ui<* Resurrection of Jesuis. | Two werp named of equal merit, .lo- ; Boph railed Bnr.«nbas nnd Matthias. , Then after praying to God, who ! knows the heart* of all men, to show j which of these He had chosen, they j onHt lots, and the lot fell upon Mat- ; thins, who was forthwith niunboifd ; with the Apostle*. It 1h recorded of j the Snlnl ilniH wonderfully elected , lo .<«o hi{?h " vocation that he was j abovo all remarkable for hit* mortification of the flenh. It was tint. 1 * He. made his election aut«.