CHAPTER I God and Government "We do not see the light from the nearest fixed star for more than four years after it leaves the star. From many stars we do not see it for a hundred, or for many hundreds of years. From some of the faintest stars it may take light even thousands of years to reach us. No doubt streams of light are traveling towards us which set out on their long journey before Christ was born and have not yet reached us. The stars from which they come may no longer exist, we shall never know it." 1 "The starry heavens, an ordered frame, -Addison. IGHT travels at the rate of 186,400 miles a second, LIGHT of second. around the earth. This fact alone would seem to suggest that immediateness, or instantaneous direct action in government is a chief principle in the character of God. But added facts concerning the ordered frame of light do not warrant the assumption. Light is capable of traveling, and does travel, more than twenty-four trillions of miles from the nearest fixed star before it is able to impress itself on the human retina. Twenty-four trillions of miles measures distance in space that is 252,000 times the distance from the earth to the sun. When we take into account the fact that some of the faintest stars visible to the human eye may have taken perhaps a thousand times as many years to send their light to us, through twenty-four thousand trillions of miles, which is 252,000,000 times the distance from the earth to the sun, the immediate or instantaneous action of God as concerning the government of his universe is not predi 1. For the convenience and freedom of the reader, all notes have been placed in the rear of the present work; see Table of Contents. cated. Light that may be four thousand years old when it reaches us and is able to do its perfect work, suggests that the elements out of which the frame of the universe is constructed necessarily require time on their part to do their work, and corresponding poise, or the faculty of waiting on the part of their Original. The student of the principles of God's government further discovers that neither confusion nor bluster mars the perfection of his government. Not confusion, for it is witnessed that vast systems of worlds are revolving in stated orbits with inconceivable velocity without deflection or accident throughout the universe of which our planet is a part. Not bluster, for not a sound falls on our ears from the whirling millions of worlds. To none of our senses but sight, and then out of an azure dome of calm, the burning suns make their appeal. They do not trouble us with glare or heat, though some of them, like Spica, must be of such immense size that they are giving out thousands of times the light and heat of our sun. And as to sound, even Arcturus, which is bowling along over our heads at the rate of three hundred miles a second, smiles on us silent and still. The further wonder of God's government increases, when we examine the quality of alacrity to obey the divine will that has come to reside in light. The astronomer will tell us with his solemn twinkle, that light is the electro-magnetic polarity of luminiferous ether. When we press him to undo this mystery of words he will say: "If you will take one-tenth of an inch; and if you will take two-fifths of this tenth of an inch; and if you will take one-thousandth of this twofifths of one-tenth of an inch, light exists because, in the process of time, in this infinitesimally small space, particles of ether come to be magnetically and electrically endowed, so to speak, with a power of momentum that keeps them revolving with inconceivable rapidity in their invisible orbits of space, and so light is generated." Here we are upon certain suggestions that bear upon the problem of the government of human society. "In the process of time," observes the scientist, the particles of ether "come to be endowed" with their superalacrity to obey the behest of the Infinite Intelligence. It may have taken thousands, even millions, of years to accomplish this alacrity. Now that the sufficient period has elapsed, the particles that participate in the generation of light are perfectly governed to generate an immaculate quality of light. Light may be relied on as infallibly true on every occasion, whatever its importance: for the guiding of the surgeon's knife, the pilot's wheel, the engineer's throttle, the steepleclimber's rope or ladder, the aerial scout's angle, the child's running steps over the dangerous crossing, or the smallest event in life. We must assume, then, that the governing Mind of the universe has proved the case for perfection of government, even before man's arrival on the scene. But we must assume as well that if perfection on the part of the frame of the universe has required time, time will be a most important factor in the perfection of intelligent alacrity and dependableness for the governing of the initiative faculties of mankind on which the well-being of human society depend. But now enters a factor into the problem of human government that causes us to dismiss the case of the government of the material universe. This factor is Christ. Nature, we say, is governed by the law of gravitation. Human kind, it is predicated by true statesmanship, are governed by their attitude to the Mind of Jesus Christ. This proposition is warm and throbbing with life. It comes glowing to us on all sides from many minds; as observe a typical statement: Recently back from half a year's investigations in the Near East-my third stretch of foreign service since the beginning of the war-I am occasionally asked for generalizations upon the present plight of the nations. Of the welter of trouble in the world, I am not here writing: everybody already knows something about it, although America has yet to learn the full story. At the moment, I am considering possible remedies. The choices are four. "Behold the Paris Peace Conference, which taketh away the woes of the world," shouted a medley of voices, believing themselves heralds of the dawn. All over the earth, the hurt and helpless and heart-sick nations and peoples turned yearning eyes toward Paris. What if, as myriads hoped, the council of world leaders should discover and eliminate the causes of mankind's misery? Well, I went to Paris, and found out. I saw the Peace Conference functioning. As a newspaper man, I was somewhat behind the scenes, and familiar with the hidden interests that were shaping the course of events. I saw the idealists eclipsed and outvoted by the "practical" statesmen who desired to rearrange the man according to various national "interests." Then I went through Europe and the Balkans to the Levant, and saw these Paris-planned schemes operating: and I saw also the consequences. There is no hope for permanent peace by the Paris program, because it does not recognize or satisfy the deepest desires of the peoples; nor does it offer any new inspiration or objective to mankind. So I am one of those who are heavy of heart because our trust in Paris has proved misplaced. What then? Autocracy cannot take away the woes of the world. Neither can Bolshevism. Peace conferences eventuate in selfish bargaining and plant new seeds of sorrow in the world. Is there any hope? There is. I watched it arising in the minds of many men whose professional responsibility it is to study the times. Again and again, these soldiers, statesmen, investigators and other servants of civilization expressed to me the conviction that the only possible hope for the terribly-torn world is in religion. Some predicted the rise of a new prophet, or a new faith. Others thought that a revival of Christianity would suffice. All saw that the world's woes will not disappear until the world's sin is healed. So we are shut up to the fourth choice, since autocracy, Bolshevism and international adjudication have all failed us. That fourth choise was indicated by the hairy prophet of the Jordan-"Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!" That is it. No remedy that stops short of the root of the trouble can cure. Sin and its selfishness and sordidness and sensuality must be taken away before the weight of woe can be lifted from humanity's heart. New natures alone can effect a new world. Men's motives must be changed before their habits can be altered. Unless we can give mankind a new mind, even the mind that was in Christ Jesus, we cannot give it a new world. That proposition is as philosophically sound as it is practically plain. There is no other hope for our times than "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. 2 Mr. Ellis' words, "Unless we can give mankind a new mind, even the mind that was in Christ Jesus, we cannot give it a new world," are scarcely debatable. Given the mind of Christ the world would live by the golden rule. We may take this fact with us as the first law of our science. The mind of Christ, which is the mind of God, is the source of the healing of the world's woes. In the present state of the world's progress, however, no small part of our task is to find the mind of Christ. Granting that the opposite of the mind of God is "sin," and granting the old definition of sin, that it is "any transgression of, or want of conformity to, the law of God," it is to be said that we have progressed very far beyond a willingness to admit that the moral and social laws of God as laid down in the Bible and accepted by Christ have any bearing at all on our modern life. Even in the Church it is held that the Bible on the whole is a man-made book. It is rather the common opinion that it is out-of-date on questions of the day. |