The Unconscious Illapse

THE UNCONSCIOUS ILLAPSE. BY CLAUDE T. BARNES. The religious thought of the world is a confusion: having cast away some fallacious tenets of its creeds, the sagacious laity, every- where, is now in a state of hopeless perplexity in arranging the few principles it has reserved. By permitting no argument, by a constant petitio principii, begging of the question, the Roman Cath- olic church maintains its position; but elsewhere the clergy is fore- most in the progress of doubt. There has been an evolution from Wind belief to mistrust, and from mistrust to chaos; but out of the disorder is slowly developing the truth. Years ago, our scientific men were nearly all as indifferent to- ward religion as, in olden times, were the Laodiceans; but that want of interest sprang from incomprehension, not dislike; now they are meeting the unbiased latitudinarians half way in the mutual confidence of ascertaining the true religious conception. The term "latitudinarians" must not be understood to include the soi-disant reformer of London, Mr. R. J. Campbell, for his mag- niloquence and radical "new theology" are dismissed with a word by those who know him best. Mr. W. Robertson Nicoll, a close friend of Mr. Campbell, recently wrote in The British Weekly as follows: Mr. Campbell is constantly pronouncing on the gravest questions without hav- ing studied one of them at first hand. We have read several of his recent ser- mons, and have been amazed and disconcerted by paragraph after paragraph of ignorant dogmatism, inconsequent thinking, and misty generalization. After this depreciation by a personal friend, it is, probably, not a groundless opinion in one who listened to Mr. Campbell's sermons during two years, to say that the successor of Dr. Parker

— 784 IMPROVEMENT ERA. is at the end of his ability as far as his influence in changing the world's religion is concerned. He has created a stir, of course; but he is not a true representative of those whose aim is the sys- tematization of the gospel in their own minds, and to their own in- finite relief. Dissenters, sceptics, agnostics, rationalists and idealists, these honest and learned seekers after truth may bp ; but they are precisely the wise men to whom Tennyson referred when he said: Believe me there exists more faith In honest doubt than in half the creeds. As Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazor looked upon the infant Christ with mingled wonder and incredulity, so these Magi of our time are viewing the incongruities of belief with the fervent hope of finding the gem of truth somewhere among them. As a loosened buoy floats slowly inland, by the soft propulsion of an evening breeze, so are the unsettled minds of the world, un- consciously, drifting towards one little island —The Isle of Truth, "Mormonism." Some cast their anchors in a bay here, some, in an estuary there, seeing no more than the peninsula or promontory near them; but few make their way up the river, up the mountain to its summit, there to look with gladness upon the delectable island of truth about them. Numerous are they who have grasped but one principle of the gospel, and, through our inability to reach them, are still waiting in the little inlet which, alone, they have seen. It is almost saddening to read of their ceaseless longing for that greater view, and to know that, in all cases, we cannot, at present, reach them. Those who have read Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, Faust and The Sorrows of Werther, or who have perused Arthur Hugh Clough's poems Qua Cursum Ventus, Qui Laborat Oral, The shadow, The Venice, The Stream of Life, Where Lies the Land, and Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth know what — oppression this longing for greater light is in literature. Clough says, in Per the Pensa: To spend uncounted years of pain Again, again, and yet again, In working out in heart and brain The problem of our being here; To gather facts from far and near,

— THE UNCONSCIOUS ILL APSE. 785 Upon the mind to hold them clear, And, knowing more may yet appear, Unto one's latest breath to fear The premature result to draw Is this the object, end and law, And purpose of our being here? Thus it is in literature that one finds the deepest expression of this melancholia; but, though scientists and philosophers are burdened with the same dolor, they are unconsciously drifting into recognition of the one great system of truth. The greatest religio-philosophical magazine published today is The Hibbert Journal of London, for only the Melchiors and Gas- pars of our time debate in its forum. An Oxford writer, Mr. Sturt, in the October number, unconsciously defends two well- known "Mormon" principles — The Eternal Progression of God and of man. Briefly, the Latter-day Saints have always believed that, forever, God will progress and man will progress, that there will, evermore, be for both something yet to learn. A- university student may be perfect as far as concerns his capability of answer- ing any arithmetical problem that a child of seven may conceive; but in the realm of higher mathematics he may be decidedly limited and imperfect in his powers: "Mormonism" teaches that mankind is like the child of seven, and that God is necessarily per- fect only so far as his works demand that he should be. Keeping this in mind, then, listen to what Mr. Sturt says: Instead of regarding God and the world as essentially static and completed, we should regard them both as in process of evolution. In regard to the world this is generally conceded; but it is not noticed that evolution in the world logi- cally implies evolution in God. If the movement of the world comes from God, then it must have importance for God — God must be better for it; if God were none the better, then the creation and continued existence of the world would have no meaning from God's point of view. Let God and the world be truly changing, truly improving, and a splendid vista opens before us; we become like young men looking into the track of a sunset. The things that are, seem merely promises of the wondeiful things that will be. ' For five years this doctrine of Eternal Progression of God and of man has been upheld most vigorously by one of the greatest living scientists, Sir Oliver Lodge, (f the University of Birming-

786 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ham. Some of his articles in The Hibbsrt Journal have so ac- corded with the deeper principles of "Mormonism'' that they could very well have been distributed as Latter-day Saint tracts. Unlike any of his compeers, he is constantly maintaining that An- thropomorphism is true, i. e., that God has a body like that of man, and different from man's only in quality and perfection. This has always been a characteristic tenet of "Mormonisnj." Verification of these statements concerning Mr. Lodge can be obtained from any of his late writings. Probably he is the most illustrious one of those of whom it might well be said: "They are unconsciously 'Mormon.'" In the Fortnightly Review for April, appeared an article by Prof. H. H. Turner, F. R. S., the subject of which was, as he said, "a new fact of startling importance." It is not "new" to the Latter-day Saints: "Mormonism" has always taught that, as man is likeGod in body, so he may become like God in power. As God controls a world, man may; and thus throughout the infinitude of space will be created numberless planetary systems to be under the care of the sons of God. Already the divine plans of salva- tion are being worked out in other worlds, consequently there are now other universes than ours. This great truth has not been recognized heretofore by the savants of the world; but, how the masters of science are unconsciously drifting into a recogni- tion of "Mormon" truths, is seen from what Prof. Turner says of this latest observation: What alters the case completely is the recent discovery that the universe of stars is not single, but multiple in character; we are surrounded by not one uni- verse, but at least two. The honor of the discovery of a second universe of stars belongs to Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, of Groningen, who devoted his address at the Congress of Arts and Sciences at St. Louis in 1904 to this topic, pointing out how the existence of more than one stellar universe was indicated, without, however, giving details for dis- tinguishing one from another. Following up the suggestion, Mr. A. S. Edding- ton, recently appointed chief assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, has found it possible to demonstrate the existence of at least two universes, and to estimate their relative numerical strength. It may be added that before Prof. Kapteyn's St. Louis address had been pub- lished or otherwise known to him, Mr. H. C. Plummer of the Oxford University Observatory independently pointed out (Monthly Notices, vol. lxv, p. 566) that known facts indicated the existence of more than one universe.

THE UNCONSCIOUS ILL APSE. 787 Wherever one may be, one finds the thoughts of educated men in confluence toward the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints. Each intellect is attracted by one or more principle, and, as it con- verses with the other minds of the world, none realize that though at present far apart, these minds like streams and rivers are fast flowing toward the same waters surrounding the Isle of Truth. One day recently as Dr. Hugh T. Black, the famous preacher of Edinburgh, was strolling about the campus of the University of Michigan, he conversed freely on the subject of Revelation, and finally said, in response to a direct question, that he believed in modern revelation from God. Thus another "Mormon" tenet has a powerful exponent; and so it is ad infinitum — every single prin- ciple of the gospel is defended by one scholar or another, though few of them know it in toto. One of the most reasonable and comprehensive principles prop- agated by the Latter-day Saints is baptism for the dead; i. e., those who died without hearing of Christ are not damned, but are taught the gospel in Paradise, and upon their acceptance of it there, await baptism for them by their friends on earth. The world realizes that in damning those who have never had a hear- ing, it is committing a cruel injustice; but being unguided it con- tinues to flounder and to guess at the truth. The latest attempted solution of the problem comes from Dr. Levi Gilbert, editor of The Western Christian Advocate. In his book called The Hereafter and Heaven, he makes bold to ask that prayers for the dead be in- troduced in Methodism. This is a confession that something ought to be done for the departed; but that the suggestion only leaves the world in a more complicated maze as to the method of saving the dead, and that the world will never of own accord its discover the grand principle underlying vicarious work for the unenlightened souls of past ages, is apparent from the comment made upon Dr. Gilbert's idea by another Methodist, the editor of The Central Christian Advocate. He says: May we be permitted to ask by whom and with what intentions we may ex- pect prayers for the dead ultimately to be offered?And from whom as well as for whom we may ultimately be expected to draw the suffrages of these prayers? We do not argue now; we ask for definitions and limits. For we must remember that not even Rome allows us to pray for the damned. Her system of

788 IMPROVEMENT ERA. purgatory is only a system of purification, of discipline and heavenly leading. Would our prayers mean less? Would we adopt the word "purgatory?" It is more pitiable than anything else, to see the leaders of a church talking of changing its basic beliefs as would the members of a national convention talk of changing the basic principles of a political party in order to fight the next campaign. How can truth change? Everyone is familiar with the world's renunciation of infant damnation; but few confess that in casting away that inhuman doctrine, it has accepted a well grounded principle of the Latter- day Saints. A few years ago people were hearing some such doctrine as this: Hell is divided into seven lodges., each sixty times hotter , than the one above it. Dalkiel is the presiding angel of Sheol, the seventh lodge. Sheol is 4,084,560,000,000 times hotter than fire; and into it shall be cast Elisha, son of Abuya, all Sabbath breakers and idolators, there ever to remain in torment! Sufficiently warm places for all other sinners were provided by the other six lodges. This awful statement was not given only in terrorem, but as a literal description of hell! Today we hear little of it: the hell of fire and brimstone is an excruciating absurdity of the past."Mor- monism" never has propounded such an idea; indeed, the transfor- mation of the world's belief concerning hell, seems to have been a direct result of "Mormon" influence. Imagine being born into the next world deformed or with comparatively inferior capabilities and powers, and you have a fair idea of what the real hell is. This alteration of the world's belief concerning the baptism of babes and in regard to hell, is an astonishing proof of the falli- bility of its religions. It seems absurd to think of God's making a mistake and of his changing his mind concerning a prerequisite to salvation; but the doctrine of infant damnation is now, unques- tionably, altered; hence, mirabile didu, God has changed his mind! It is as if God had attempted to build a ten-story building with a one-brick wall; and then after the structure had collapsed, had decided that the wall was not thick enough. The religion which changes its doctrines not only exposes its own fallibility, but neces- sarily makes God an imperfect architect. One who reads gospel

THE UNCONSCIOUS ILLAPSE. 789 principles, however, of a half century ago, will find them exactly the same today; and so it will be eternally. Truth cannot change. On January first 1900, people were somewhat startled to hear that a Miss Agnes Ozman, of Topeka, Kansas, had spoken with other tongues, as did the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost. Since that time many more have spoken with tongues; and now an "Apostolic Faith movement" claims that the gift is restored. Mr. Parham, one of the leaders, says: "We truly are in the days of the restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." A writer in The Wesleyan Methodist says that the sincerity of these people is undoubted; but, however, that it is a matter of history that in the early days of the "Mormon" Church whole days of speaking meetings were devoted to it. The Latter-day Saints have always taught that the gift of tongues is one of those "signs which shall follow them that believe;" hence, this late manifestation of the gift can therefore be regarded only as another evidence of the unconscious illapse into "Mormonism." Another surprising indication of this drifting toward the doc- trines of the Latter-day Saints appears in the religious statistics for 1906, as compiled by Dr. H. K. Carroll, in The Christian Ad- vocate. Of the 54 denominations in the United States in 1906, the Latter-day Saints were seventeenth in point of membership, but fifth in the matter of net gains! Of the 870,389 communi- cants that joined the 54 churches last year, 52,107 became "Mor- mons!" The outlook was never brighter; all mankind is unconsciously drifting toward the Isle of Truth. The world is in a quandary be- cause it knows not towards what it is tending. It behooves us to open its eyes, to work harder than ever before. Let the motto of each be: nulla dies sine linea —no day without something done for God and his people. University of Michigan.