The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-03-15
A VOICE FROM KANSAS.

NATURAL Law In the spiritual WOrld'' ns
Viewed by gu. Pirates"
To THE CLUB-"Best be the tie that
binds" etc. Yea, beloved, when one sees
men and women who are always engaged
| In the mad struggle alter those things that
minister only to the bsser SELF. and who
deny all higher evolution to the soul and
intellect, how one reioices to know that
there is Fellowship of kindred minds"
which snnihilstes space and compensates
Tor much that is unavoidable.
And so find myself this evening in the
midst OF this Inner circle" whose banner
proclaims that the tie that binds" is
"honor, love and charity" May it ever
be thus
As we have been requested to discuss.
or review. with extracts some of the books
contained in the club list which we
have read, l have concluded to
begin with Drummond's Natural Law
in the Spiritual World" This work is
said to be more widely read than other
books OF its kind published. do not re-
member OF ever having read anything
outside OF the bible--that made spiritual
things seem so clear and tangible TO me
have studied this book, at intervals. for
the last six months and it still facinates
me. Ii is certainly worth ones while to
read such literature AS this, and | com
mend il to all who wish 10 make the most
of their time. In the preface Prof. Drum
mond saws: The real problem have set
myself NAV be stated in a sentence: Is
there not reason to believe that many of
the laws oil the spiritual world. hitherto
regarded az occupying an entirely sepa-
rate province, are Simply tho laws oil
the natural world2 Can We identity the
natural laws. or any one OF them, IN the
spiritual sphere? That vague lines every
where run through the spiritual world is
already beginning o toe recognized. Is IL
possible to link them with those great
lines running through the visible uni
verse which we call the natural laws, or
are they fundamentally distinct? In a
word, is tie supernatural natural or un-
natural" Further on he SAYS:
confess that, even when IN the first
dim vision, the organizing hand OF law
moved among the unordered truths of
my spiritual world, poor and scantily
| furnished ss it was, there seemed TO come
over IL the beauty OF transhguration.'
Again he Saws: TO those who already
| find themselves fully nourished on the
Older forms of truth, do not
/ But TO those who are feeling
/
| by a sense of instability in the foundation
OF their faith, now brought to bay by
specific doubt at one point, raising, as all
| doubt does, the question for the whole. i
would hold up q light which has often
been kind to me. There Is @ sense OF
solidity about law of nature which be-
longs to nothing else in the world. Here,
at last, amid ell that is shifting is one
| thing sure one thing outside ourselves,
unbiased. unprejudiced, uninfluenced by
like or dislike, by doubt or fear; one thing
that holds on its way to me eternally, in
cOrruptibls and undefled.'
In the introduction" Prof. Drummond
propounds this query:
And what is the search for spiritual
truth in the laws OF nature, but an at
tempt to utter in PARALLELS which have
been hid 80 long in the world around
without q preacher, and to tell me once
more that the kingdom OF heaven is like
unto this or to that?"
In the chapter on "Biogenesis" he writes
this declaration
The spiritual world is guarded from
the world next in order beneath it by a
law of Biogenesis-e except a man be born
again except man he born OF
water snd of the spirit he cannot enter
the kingdom of God 1t is not said. in
this enUnc.atiOn of the law. that II the
condition be not fulfilled the natural man
will not enter the kingdom OF Gud. The
word is cannot. For the exclusion Of the
spiritually inorganic from the kingdom CT
the spiritually organic is not arbitrary.
Nor lie the natural man refused admission
on unexplained grounds. His admission
is q scientific impossibility Except a
mineral be born from Rbove'-frOm tho
kingdom just above tit cannot enter the
kingdom just above II. And except a
man be born from above by the same
law, he cannot enter the kingdom Just
above him. There bein1 no passage from
one kingdom to another, whether from
inorganic to organic. or from organic TO
spiritual, the Intervention of lie is a scien-
tifc necessity If a stone or a plant or an
animai or q man is to pass from q lower 10
higher sphere.
1.-THE plant stretches down to the dead
world beneath it, touches its minerals and
gases with its mystery of life. and brings
them up ennobled and transformed 70 the
living sphere. The breath of God, blow
ing where IL listeth, touches with it's
mystery OF life the dead souls OF men,
bears them across the bridgess gulf be-
tween the spiritually inorganic, aud the
spiritually organic, endows them with its
own qualities, and develops within them
these new and secret fscultie-, by which
those who are born again are said TO sac
the kingdom OF God"
Again on this same subject he saws:
spiritual life 10 not something outside
ourselves. The idea is not that Christ is
in heaven and that We can stretch ont
some mysterious faculty and deal with
Him there. This is n vague form In which
many conceive the truth, but IL is contrary
TO Christ's teaching aud to the analogy OF
nature. Vegetable life il not contained
in reservoir somewhere In the skies, and
measured out spasmodicaly at certain
seasons. The life is in every plant and
tree, inside its own substance and tissue,
and continues there until it dies.
Life II definite and resident
and spiritual life ia not visit from a
force, but = resident tenant in the
soul. The living spirit of
Christ dwells in the Christian"
In the next chapter he speaks on the
subject OF Degeneration" as follows
"If a man neglect himself for few years
he will change into.A worse man and a
lower man. If il il his body that he neg
lscts. he will detsrieate into wild and
bestial savage. fit is his mind
it will degenerate into imbecility and
madness. IL he neglects his
conscience, ii will run of
into lawlessness and vice. Or.
lastly. IL IL is his soul.
il must inevitably atrophy, drop of in
ruin and decay"