New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-05-11
GOD IN HIS WORLD
A SUGGESTIVE STUDY.

. distirc,;shod ,arman is a remarkable contri-
button TO current religious literature iheIe 10
indeed nothing especially original IN Vhe gen,
cral aim Of the writer, which is clearly eAP'e'So
in the title Of the book. To interpret inc "o'l"
and the facts of human life. in such way as 10
reveal the immaDent presence OF DIVINE Nie"'o'
and Governor. has been the object alike OF the
theologan and the preacher i'll every age. b''
the value of this particular Interpretation lies
in the suggestive and ssful handling of certain
facts and theories The author has brought to
hear ON the questions he discusses, wide and
Thorough knowledge not only Of the questions
themselves but of many other lines or thoNght
which are intimately related to them Every
one of his statements gives evidence or having
been drawn from a deep well OF culture. 1t
would be equally unjust to call him either con-
sentative or liberal There are in his utteranccs
no traces of that religious and intellectual Bour-
bonism which shuts its eyes to the living thoughts
of living men and on the other hand he never
plays the role Of the cheap sciolist, who thinks
that his tumble of ill-digested ideas is necessarily
true because new In his treatment Of the great
problems of God and religion he is at once
revercnt and bold and while casting his specula'
tons in a lofty poetical form, at the same time
weaves into these speculations ideas that are OF
the most intense practical interest TO mankind
Briefly. the argument of the book is as follows
Man is not sporadic accident in the universe
but holds certain profound relations 10 the Creator
through it, and all the physical and mental move
ments of the human race have been heroic
though often futile. attempts TO interpret those
relations. The Divine Life in man has al
ways been a mystery. The sense at once OF us
reality and its mystery fifty represented in
all the ancient religions, with their rites picturing
sorrow for transgresson. and the profound need
Of Ruf tbc
gradually swallowed up in the nothingness of
Nirvana and the later Hellenic faith with its
almost ideal beauty, at last led its followers up
10 the dead wall of skepticism. The sacred mys-
teries indeed EMBODIED certain great conceptions
of mans relation to God but in time they ended
in pperility, and finally they found their fitting
anticlimax in the death of all the ancient re-
ligions under the brutal mitarism of the Roman
Empire
and then came the Holy Night when the In
carnaton OF Jesus Christ was consumlnated.
Explain that fact you please. Strip from it
the numerous wrappings of legend and the ny
periodical additions of poetry. Take 1t from It's
warm Oriental setting, and translate it into the
cold forms of Western thought Do all this and
more, ard there will yet remain a tremendous
IesiGuum Of fact which only be explained on
the theory that Christ is the manifestation OF
God in the world and that through Him alone
human life finds its true Interpretation. Into
this Divine Human Fellowship we are all al
mitted as members. Underneath the material
form of the universe we discern the spiritual
substance. In the Law Of Love promulgated by
Jesus we find the complete answer 10 all the
questionings of mankind formulated in the
old religions. And so it is that in al the history
of the world there is no chapter so impressive as
the brief record left us of the
little Galilean community in Jerusalem.
For the first time in human eX-
perience there were revealed to man some of the
Divine possibilities of Association. Ever since
then this idea of Association. founded on the fact
Of Brotherhood, has been working as a powerful
leaven in human history.
In the accelerated movements Of modern times
We spiritually discern only the Divine quickening
OF the brotherhood, while even yet this fellow
ship is not visible as an outward embodiment.
Now. there is an awakening in the Church, as in
the great Wesleyan revival; and again, when the
Lord is excluded by formal ecclcsiastcism. only
partially, accepted by a haltng faith then we
world, even BY those who are not called by His
name. The last the supreme lesson of Faith is
in all mankind. for the determination Of its own
issues; and the final issue is universal brother
hood, not from the adoption of any sociological
theory, but from the radical renewal. az its very
source in the human heart, of all social life.
If we have set out to find the Palace Of King.
resolving that we will enter il and live with Him.
III the night way, ana Shall never see the Palace
nor find the King; He is serving our poor broth
s IN and if we WIFI HIM in M S
shall find Him there, and every howell viii seem
unto us His Palace
fine sense Of perspective marks the authors
whole treatment OF the subject. lie understands
just how much and how little the old religions
mean. lie does not regard them separate spor-
adic facts, but parts of great whole, man.
less m n
after God, which has in every age characterized
huma nifty. And out of all the Earring religious
creeds and speculations that have marked the
history Of the race, he deity constructs a many
colored, but harmonious, floor Of mosaics. upon
which the Son Of God may walk in the mighty
Temple Of Eternal Truth. His book Is prose
poem in which an idcast paints for us the realism
of the unseen spiritual world in strokes at once
artistic and pregnant with meaning. Though
often dropping into the hortatory style of the
preacher, his most elevated rhapsodies are com
pact with thought. While the prevailing tone of
the book is one of joyous hopefulness, there are
here and there in it bits of feeting shadow, which
remind us that there is darkness as well as light
in human life as when it is declared that human
freedom is the power TO choose one of many paths,
all of which lead to the grave: or when IL is as
serted that there can be no record of Golden
Age, because only in the face Of death do men
build monuments.
There are many epigrams in the book; all of
them arc striking. and many Of them most
felicitously express some new idea in a new way.
They are valuable not merely for their prcg-
nancy of thought and clearness Of expression, but
because they utterances that have evidently
grown out Of the life of the writer. They arc
the transcript of souls struggle with the mys-
terry of the worlds origin and the problem OF
human destiny.
We cannot refrain from giving in conclusion
two more extracts which illustrate the author 3
felicity of style and originality OF thought The
first is a noble word painting of Nature:
In Nature there is nothing inert; her ways are
the ways of life. Her chemistry is SO constant,
40 universal that the web Of her veil shows no
intestices. The only breaks and patches IN her
-. LIZ a.s,n4a Lna Ial Ill