What and Where is God? Part 16

Now, the contemptible Jonah had no business being there in the sun; he should have been at home helping his wife, if he had nothing else to do.

But better still, he should have been in Nineveh rejoicing with the converts who had been redeemed from destruction by his preaching.

Note the fine sarcasm of our author, "So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd."

However, when the gourd was smitten by a worm, and the sultry wind blew, and the sun shone hot upon his head, our mean little Jonah again asked G.o.d to kill him. Now Jonah, "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?"

"Yes, I do well to be angry even unto death." Were ever such words of irony spoken! O Israel, you are smitten with grief because of your poor little gourds, but don't you think you might have a little pity for all those innocent people who were so untaught morally that they did not know their right hand from their left?

It would be well for us to remember that we, as well as ancient Israel, fret and fume over a lot of little nothings. Little griefs and little deprivations vex us sorely. But while our brothers and sisters over much of the earth go naked and starved and diseased, we feel no pity. We are very tender-hearted over little things, we are deeply moved over some fict.i.tious story; but for the appalling tragedies of dark continents and exploited peoples, our hearts are flint.

Obviously, Israel understood only too well the biting sarcasm and bitter irony of Jonah's ringing satire. If the author of this parable could know that a generation has since risen, with so little historical and literary ac.u.men as to believe that Jonah is literal history, I think his body would turn over in its grave. If he knew that he had set people to wrangling over the question of whether a fish could swallow a man, instead of sending them out as missionaries to all the Ninevehs of the earth, he would feel sorry that he ever wrote the book.

When intelligently understood, there is no other literature extant that makes such a strong moral and religious appeal for social justice and political righteousness as the prophets. The writings of the great prophets of Israel const.i.tute a practical _sociology_, founded on the Fatherhood of G.o.d and the brotherhood of man; a sociology so enriched by a wealth of historical materials as to make it a treasure-house for all workers in social betterment.

To save the ordinary Bible reader from confusion, I have purposely avoided all questions of origin and composite character, along with many other interesting and useful facts concerning the Scriptures. This simple approach to the Scriptures is for the purpose of helping the average person to find the soul of the Bible. For it is the soul of the Bible, and not its incidental features, that enriches the soul of the reader.

4. The New Testament in general

In the New, as well as in the Old Testament, the letter kills while the spirit makes alive.

As the historical and literary methods of study have imparted a new beauty and a new significance to the messages of the Old Testament, the same methods will, in like manner, affect the messages of the New Testament.

The personal Christ is the _soul_ of the New Testament. In Jesus, righteousness is more than a decalogue or a catalogue to be followed; it is a character to be possessed. In Jesus, G.o.d is more than a Divinity to be obeyed; the Infinite Will is an indwelling Spirit,--the soul of man's soul. While the Old Testament never recognizes G.o.d as dwelling in man, the New Testament takes the G.o.d of Israel and the righteousness of Israel and places them in human life; not as a theory, but as personal experience. This is the old righteousness and the old religion made new.

When we say that Jesus is the soul of the New Testament, we have no reference to perplexing questions about how He came or how He went. We mean that the G.o.d-filled Jesus is the soul of all the New Testament teachings. The pure, strong Son of G.o.d is the lodestone of the Gospels and the Epistles. It is He that draws honest souls into divine fellowship with the Father and His family. To see the character of Jesus in its most lovely aspects, and to feel His love that heals and transforms, is to receive the very best that the New Testament has to give.

The perplexing questions of psychology, of tradition, of ma.n.u.scripts, and of miracles are interesting enough for those who are equipped to study them; but all these are much less than the one essential thing. To know Him, and to feel the power that He can exercise over all that are attached to Him in love and service, is life eternal. Granting that the miracles are true, yet it is infinitely more difficult to be certain of the truth of a miracle than it is to be certain of the truth of the Christian religion. The Christian religion may be tested at first hand.

We can taste and see that the Lord is good. By keeping company with Jesus, and walking in His foot-steps, we are able to decide for ourselves whether we care for Him and His way of living. Though one were in utter doubt concerning everything else, if he saw in Jesus something so much to be desired that he was willing to forsake all and follow Him, he would find himself in loving fellowship with the Father. "Whosoever will, let him come." And, "Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." Though in doubt about every question of scholarship, the one who personally tests the life and teachings of Jesus from day to day is able to answer, "One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see." To find one's self sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, after living among the tombs as one mad for wealth or pleasure or popularity, is the last word in religion.

Having thus blazed the straight path to G.o.d, let me urge it upon my readers that they take up the broader and deeper study of the New Testament literature as they have opportunity. For, in so doing they will broaden and deepen their lives, and better fit themselves to live in society as those who helpfully and intelligently serve.

But some may say, "How are we to know that our religion is true unless we have some ancient, miraculous proof!"

My answer is that in nothing does G.o.d so much delight, as in making Himself known to those who intelligently receive Him in pure hearts.

When G.o.d is _here_, even if it were possible, we do not need to prove His existence; we simply need to get acquainted with Him. Miracles may have been necessary in times past; if so, they served their purpose when they were needed. Since it is harder to verify an ancient miracle than it is to verify the presence of G.o.d in our own hearts, we cling to the greater certainty without being too dogmatic concerning the wonders reported in a primitive age. If one believes in miracles, no one can prove that he is wrong. If he is so const.i.tuted that he cannot believe in them, G.o.d will not turn him away if he follows the Master with his whole heart. If any one desires a richer a.s.surance of G.o.d and His forgiveness, let him be a more intelligent and a better Christian; let him make a larger investment of himself in the service of G.o.d. I have nothing to say against miracles; but I should like to testify that it has been possible to lead many to Christ by getting them to become His disciples first, and then letting them have plenty of time to settle the question of miracles as best they were able.

Though I bring an indictment against myself, I must say, what we most need is a ministry with Apostolic faith and fervor. We need St. Pauls and St. Johns. We need leaders who can make G.o.d real and sin hateful.

5. The book of Revelation

Seeing that so many good Christians are perplexed by the apocalypses, we shall close this chapter with a brief study of the book of Revelation.

The mystery that once shrouded the book of Revelation is gone. As Professor Porter says, "The historical method has, it is not too much to say, broken the seals. To the historical student these apocalypses have become, in their general character and chief messages, among the best instead of quite the least understood books of the canon. And their importance has grown with their understanding."

The book of Revelation throws more light on the past than on the future.

It has to do largely with a crisis in the early Christian Church, and not with the end of the world and the "const.i.tution of the unseen universe."

The probable date of the book is about ninety-three A. D. The great Christian leaders were gone, the heathen elements were entering the Church with their traditions and rites, and the Roman government was setting up emperor worship to strengthen the loyalty of diverse populations. The mandate that all should enter the temples of the emperor and worship him as divine was particularly hard on Jews and Christians who refused to worship any but the one true G.o.d. The persecutions that followed a refusal to worship the emperor, with all the other devitalizing influences mentioned, threatened the very existence of the Christian Church.

It was to meet this crisis that the book of Revelation was written. And this accounts for the poetical and visionary style adopted by the author. Strong language was needed; something that would quicken the imagination and revive the fainting hearts of those who were growing cold and indifferent. Dynamite was needed. No gentle utterance would suffice. The writer realizes the awful conflict that is about to ensue between the gentle Lamb and His humble followers on the one side, and the great dragon, Rome, and his vile cohorts on the other. Somehow, the Christians must be convinced that the Lamb will finally triumph over the beast, or all is lost. After the sweet, simple letters of admonition and praise to the Churches, in which he pictures Christ among the candlesticks, the task of rea.s.suring the persecuted followers of Jesus must somehow be achieved. So he goes to his task as a fireman goes to the work of saving a building that is on fire. Ordinary means will utterly fail. He first looks to the heavens, and then to the most striking imagery of the Old Testament, and never refuses a striking figure from any source that promises to serve his purpose. He gathers from far and near anything that will startle and encourage. As the winds drive the clouds until their blackness terrifies, so he gives free rein to his own imagination while marshaling his material. He commands the heavenly trumpeters, and brings forth appalling hors.e.m.e.n riding in the heavens. He sees one-third of the sun, moon, and stars, smitten after the blast of a heavenly trumpet. He sees an angel open a pit from which belches forth smoke that darkens the whole heavens. Out of the smoke come forth locusts that look like horses prepared for war. They have golden crowns on their heads, and men's faces, and women's hair, and lion's teeth, and breastplates of iron. Their wings sound like chariots and many horses rushing to war. And they have scorpions' tails with stings, to sting the men that have not the seal of G.o.d on their foreheads. He a.s.sures the poor sufferers that sealed mysteries, and distresses, and woes await them; but that Christ shall be able to solve all mysteries, and that he will command all powers in heaven and earth to fight on their side until the old dragon, whose earthly embodiment is Rome, shall be cast into the sulphurous pit and sealed. Finally, in the most beautiful and poetical fashion he declares that the battle shall be won, the clash of arms and the blare of trumpets shall cease, heaven and earth shall be cleared of their fierce combatants, and in that happy and peaceful hour the reward of the faithful shall appear. Heaven shall descend on a new earth that is redeemed. The Lamb and His bride, the faithful Church, shall again be united. And this new heaven on earth shall be inexpressibly beautiful; the architecture shall be symmetrical, and richly adorned. The gates of the city shall be pearls, and the streets gold. The city shall not, as the old Jerusalem, be built of common stone; even the foundations shall be adorned with jasper, and sapphire, and chalcedony, and emerald, and sardonyx, and sardius, and chrysolite, and beryl, and topaz, and chrysoprase, the jacinth, and amethyst. There shall be a river, and trees bearing fruit for food and leaves for healing. All these things the writer a.s.sures them shall soon come to pa.s.s. In the great day of victory throngs of people shall be there, arrayed in white; all, both the living and the dead, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, shall be present. They shall be invited to the marriage of the Lamb, and to the wonderful feast that will follow.

We are justified in believing that this poetical and highly imaginative portrayal of the conflict was very effective with the humble, illiterate, and sorely persecuted people who const.i.tuted the Christian Church at that time. They revived from their coldness, they turned their backs upon the insidious temptations and allurements of the heathen world, and went in armies to the martyr's death. Rome was conquered, but not in the way the author expected. Rome was conquered by being made Christian, at least nominally and politically. The histories that record the conflict between the Christians and Rome are not less blood-curdling than the book of Revelation. The conflict was frightful, only it was in terms of blood, and fire, and dungeon. If the ingenious and infernal methods of torture, invented by Rome, present a picture difficult to read, what must the reality have been to bear? We should never cease to thank G.o.d that these humble Christians were nerved for the conflict. The modern world owes these martyrs a debt of grat.i.tude as high as the heavens and as deep as the seas. When we consider the people, the times, and the crisis, the book of Revelation was a means well suited to a n.o.ble end. Who can look upon such a scene, and witness such heroism, and read such desperate utterances rising out of the conflict as are recorded by the author of Revelation without wishing to be a better man, and a more loyal follower of the one who still stands among the candlesticks,--His Churches. Sabatier has wisely said, "Apocalypses do not reveal to us the secrets of the divine providence, but do reveal the optimistic believing nature of the soul."

During the recent war, many portions of our country were burnt over with the fanaticism that has sprung from a false and unhistorical interpretation of Revelation and other apocalyptic writings.

The following extract from Professor Porter's book, "Daniel and Revelation," is of special interest:

"The more theoretical or theological messages of the apocalypses it is evidently impossible for us to accept in any literal way as a message for our day. That which they claimed to do, namely, to unveil the heavenly world and the future age, they really did not do. We cannot accept their descriptions of heaven, of G.o.d's throne, or of the angels, their names and functions, as a revelation of hidden realities. They are at most figurative and imaginative representations or symbols of faith in G.o.d and a spiritual realm. We are interested in these things only, on the one side, for the imperishable faith and hope behind them, and on the other for their place in the history of human speculation and fancy.... Although we cannot receive their theoretical message, yet their practical message for their own time is a true message for all like times, and in a measure for all times alike. Religious faith in times of a dominating, aggressive, or insinuating worldliness needs to maintain itself by the a.s.surance of the real dominion of the unseen world over the world of sense, and by the hope of some approaching manifestation of G.o.d, some open demonstration of the rule of justice and goodness. The apocalyptical temper is needed when religion is a.s.sailed and in danger; and in all times the religious life needs to maintain its purity and strength by some sort of protest against the world, some defiance of ruling ideals and customs, some faith in realities above those of sense, and in truths contrary to appearances. The greater apocalypses were inspired by a living faith in the ideal and an eager expectation of its coming into reality; and faith in ideals which the world contradicts is too rare and precious a thing to be despised because its form is strange."