The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-23
GUESSEs In HlGHESTBROWNING.
st. Johns Death in the Desert-The
Poets study in Religious Doubt
and Certainty.

poems. ltS subtle sentences, OBSCURE De-
cause overladen with profound thought out
rageously condensed. make it as difficult
reading as Rants "Critique of Pure Rea-
son." 1t is only by the most patient study
that the ordinary citizen can make head or
tail out Of this metaphysical essay. Any one
who can read it is ready for "Sordello" or
"Paracelsus.
IF / will that he tarry until 1 come,'
said the risen Christ to Peter, point
ing to St. John. what is that to thee?'
The beloved disciple has handed down this
comment, "Then went forth this saying
abroad among the brethren that that dis
ciple should not die yet Jesus said not
HE shall not die" but IF will that he
tarry until 1 come, what is that to thee?"
So long as John lived, the belief (of which
Jesus was certainly the author) that the
judgment should come before Johns death,
nerved the church of the first century to
live individually up to those transcendental
standards that Christ prescribed-impossible
otherwise of attainment. If the world was
about to end, why not give to him that
asketh of thee" or why Turn away from
him that would borrow?" If this world had
only a few years to survive, ''Why not sell
all thou hast, give TO the poor and follow
me?" If the world was about to end, what
use had Christ's followers for honor, or
money, or worldly possessions? And the fact
that John reached an extreme old age GER
tainly gave vitality and currency to our
Savior's utterance, There are some of this
generation that shall not see DEATH
Whether in this, as in other particulars, He
has been correctly reported is another
question
But, alas. for this beautiful illusion! John
at Ephesus, where he had so long been the
head of the Eastern Church. Peter, James,
Luke, Matthew, in fact, every eyewitness
of His majesty had gone. With the death
of the aged disciple to whom on Patmos had
been granted the apocalyptic vision, the last
living link between the church and the Mas
ter would be broken. Henceforth, no one
could say 81 saw, heard, / handled" but
in it's place hearsay and tradition was to
be thenceforward all that the world could
possibly know of it's Christ This constitutes
the enormous difference between the church
of the first and of the subsequent weary
centuries in the past and those coming CEN
turtles which now bid fair to stretch away
until the crack of doom. The dying disciple
with prophetic vision. sees this. AS through
an optic glass he views the dreary ages of
doubt lying before the young church, and
especially does he clearly see the skepticsm
of the last half Of the nineteenth century:
when men, the flies of latter spring
Shall lay their petty eggs and sting,
And weave their petty cells and die"
Briefly, this poem is an attempt to justify
and fortify the Christ story against the
skepticism of to-day. 1t is said to have been
called out by Remains Life of Christ" pub
lished in 1854, which celebrated book was
T. Il
ments added, of a far ADLER and more pro-
found work, Strauss Life of Christ" pub
lished twenty years before in Germany, and
first made accessible to the English public
together with another equally able book in
the same vein-Fuerbach's Essence Of
Christianity by the translation of George
Eliot. The great English woman was so car
ried away by these two German authors
which she first put into English dress that
she ultimately lost her faith, vastly to the
detriment of her power as a novelist, as
will be seen at a glance by comparing
Daniel Deronda" and ''Mfddlemarch" with
adam Bede," 1.-The Mill on the Floss and
"Romola."
Limited space forbids me to consider more
than three or four points in this poem:
First-Browning' conception of miracles.
Second-Does man make his own God, i. e.,
is God subjective instead of objective?
Third-God's methods with mankind in
matters spiritual
1 am compelled to regard Browning as
looking lightly upon the miracles of our
Savior. His assertion is that miracles are to
spiritual truth as the twigs which we place
around growing plants to the plants them
selves:
ITO show inside the germs of herbs unborn,
And check the careless steps would spoil
their birth.
Doth the fruit grow? then miracles babe
ware,
AT first at root and stem. saved both till
From trampling OK, rough boar or wanton
goat"
Some commentators try to make them
selves believe that this language refers to
the claim made by some skeptical critics
that miracles ought to happen to-day
well as in the first century. This is not
Brownings meaning, I think. TO compare
miracles and historical Christianity to the
twigs which we set around growing plants,
sure to be, after the plant is developed, re-
moved and thrown away, is a fundamental
mistake in the office of miracles. True,
Browning afterwards says:
Il say, the acknowledgment of God in
Christ,
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee
All questions in the earth and out Of it,
And has so far advanced thee TO De wise"
Still this attempt to dismiss our Savior's
miracles so lightly is fatal to ChTists claim
of divinity as well to the supernatural
character of the religion he founded. Why
divorce Christ's Power from Lis Person
atty? If He was holden of death and the
story of His resurrection is myth, what
becomes of His promise to raise UP His dis
ciples at the last day? If He could not con-
troll the forces of nature; if He did not
make the blind see, or the deaf hear and
the lame walk, how could He consistently
say, Believe in mel am the resurrection
and the Iife?" What becomes of His claim
as a great Physician of souls if he was
baffied by the maladies of the body?
Our Savior's miracles cannot be treated
as Browning treats them-spoon food for
the babes of the first century-without at
the same time robbing Christ of His divin-
ity Besides our Savior was not philoso-
pher, neither was he merely teacher. lie
was divine; He was an object of worship;
He came to humanity an incarnation
from God. Take away His miracles and you
relegate Him to the category and level of
a teacher and philosopher. who must
take His chances with Plato and Socrates