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LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

GIFT OF

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Class

Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West 23d St., New York
A SERIES OF SEVEN VOLUMES CONTAINING A SYSTEM OF

COMPARATIVE AESTHETICS.

By GEO. L. RAYMOND, L.H.D.,

PROFESSOR OF ^ESTHETICS, PRINCETON AND GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITIES.

"We consider Professor Raymond to possess something like an ideal equipment for the
line of work he has entered upon. His own poetry is genuine and delicately constructed, his
appreciations are true to high ideals, and his power of scientific analysis is unquestionable."
. . . He "was known, when a student at Williams, as a musician and a poet — tne latter be-
cause of taking, in his freshman year, a prize in verse over the whole college. After gradu-
ating in this country, he went through a course in aesthetics with Professor Vischer of the
University of Tubingen, and also with Professor Curtius at the time when that historian of
Greece was spending several hours a week with his pupils among the marbles of the Berlin Mu-
seum. Subsequently, believing that all the arts are, primarily, developments of different .
forms of expression through the tones and movements of the body, Professor Raymond made
a thorough study, chiefly in Paris, of methods of cultivating and using the voice in both sing-
ing and speaking, and of representing thought and emotion through postures and gestures.
It is a result of these studies that he afterwards developed, first, into his methods of teaching
elocution and literature" (as embodied in his 'Orator's Manual' and 'The Writer') "and later
into his aesthetic system. ... A Princeton man has said of him that he has as keen a sense
for a false poetic element as a bank expert for a counterfeit note; and a New York model who
posed for him, when preparing illustrations for one of his books, said that he was the only
man that he had ever met who could invariably, without experiment, tell him at once what'
posture to assume in order to represent any required sentiment.'' — New York Times.

I—Art in Theory. 8vo, cloth extra .... $1.75
Analyzes art and beauty, and the different formulated theories
concerning them.

"A well grounded, thoroughly supported, and entirely artistic conception of art as a
whole, that will lead observers to apply its principles . . . and to distrust the charlatanism
that imposes an idle and superficial mannerism upon the public in place of true beauty and
honest workmanship." — The New York Times.

"A book like this is especially welcome at the present day, when the plague of putrid
anaemia is wasting the very substance of mind, when in literature egoism dominates, and in art
impressionism, to the exclusion in the one case of truth and in the other of thought. We
cordially recommend this book to all who desire to import something of deliberation and ac-
curacy into their thinking about matters of art." — The (London) Realm.

. "His style is good, and his logic sound, and ... of the greatest possible service to the
student of artistic theories."-— A rt Journal (London).

"Scores an advance upon the many art-criticisms extant. . . . Twenty brilliant chapters,
pregnant with suggestion. . . . An author not bound by mental servitude." — Popular Science
Monthly.

"Every careful reader must be delighted at the handling of the subject at once so har-
monious and symmetrical as well as natural. ... It appears in a form which one may almost
call artistic in itself." — The Dial, signed by E. E. Hale, Jr.

"The work is one that has been inspired by the true spirit of aestheticism — a genuine
'art-inspiration.' By nature the author is himself an artist. His books have been freely criti-
cised, but the breadth of his thought and knowledge, the combined assurance and subtlety of
his reasoning, his suggestiveness and enthusiasm must be allowed by his keenest reviewers."
— New Haren Register.

"Professor Raymond is doing a genuine service by these profound and fascinating books.
He raises the standard of intelligence upon art subjects by a considerable measure. He
helps make the United States more ready for the day when true art shall abound much more
widely, and be understood much more clearly." — Public Opinion.

II — The Representative Significance of Form, 8vo, cloth extra, $2.00
Considers thought and emotion as attributable to aatural forms
and to subconscious and conscious mental action, and to genius and
acquired skill in religion, science, and art, and to the epic, realistic,
and dramatic in each art.

"A ripe work of a ripe scholar. Professor Raymond recalls the two incomplete tendencies
in art; the first, that of 'the transcendentalists, who confounded artistic inspiration with reli-
gious inspiration, and the second, that of the French school, which confuses artistic observation
with scientific observation. In these twenty-seven solid chapters, the author has struggled
with the tremendous task of restoring that balance between these two extremes which charac-
terizes the highest art. The latter part of the volume is especially satisfactory owing to the
clear manner in which the definitions and characteristics of epic, realistic, and dramatic art,

Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West 23d St., New York

together with their various subdivisions in the different arts, are made to seem inevitable." —
Boston Transcript.

"It is a very scholarly study of a most interesting and important tonic. s It is a careful
investigation of the sources of human conceptions, religious, scientific, and artistic, and of the
artistic forms through which these conceptions find appropriate expression. The book is evi-
dently the ripe fruit of years of patient and exhaustive study on the part of a man singularly
fitted for his task. It is profound in insight, searching in analysis, broad in spirit, and thor-
oughly modern in method and sympathy. The first and more strictly philosophical part of
the work cannot fail to be helpful to ministers who are trying to deal with the great problems
of theology as they present themselves today." — The Universalist Leader.

"Its title gives no intimation to the general reader of its attractiveness for him, or to
curious readers of its widely discursive range of interest. ... Its broad range may remind
one of those scythe-bearing chariots with which the ancient Persians used to mow down hostile
files. The writer must be conceded an equal liberty of spreading with the warrior, and Pro-
fessor Raymond has availed himself of it with good reason, to the fullest extent. . . . Profes-
sor Raymond's endeavor in his whole work is to get toward that balance between . . . oppos-
ing tendencies which characterized ancient Hellenic art. Cut this demands a correct recogni-
tion both of the relationship of art alike to religion and to science, and of the limitations to
art which the double relationship involves. Nothing can be foreign to a thorough treatment
of aesthetics that is needed to bring out the facts which define and establish this relationship
and the discriminations it requires. . . . Professor Raymond seems justified in his insistence
on a larger recognition of the subconscious activity of the mind as the condition of a revival
of art and equally of the relief of religion from a deadening materialism and a stifling tradi-
tionalism. ... In all departments truth is the product of an activity which is blended of
conscious and subconscious factors. Here he comes on ground which some will question, but
he does not go beyond what conservative investigators in the field of psychical research regard
as satisfactorily established." — The Outlook.

"An original thinker and writer, the charm of his style and clearness of expression make
Mr. Raymond's book possible to the general reader, though worthy of the study of the student
and scholar. He proclaims the truth as he finds it, and in view of the sceptical and material-
istic tendencies of most scientific criticism, it is not an unimportant task which he has per-
formed,— that of showing that all that is needed for the highest spiritual stimulus, all that is
vital to practical religion can command acknowledgment and acceptance upon its own merits."
— Hartford Courant.

"A valuable essay. . . While . . . far from being so metaphysical as to be unreadable or
lacking in concrete teaching, it deals with general principles and moves in a highly rarefied
atmosphere of speculation. It is really in effect a treatise on the meaning of artistic meaning
. . . Professor Raymond goes so deep into causes as to explore the subconscious and the un-
conscious mind for a solution of his problems, and eloquently to range through the conceptions
of religion, science and metaphysics in order to find fixed principles of taste. . . . He gives
the matter a highly interesting discussion from which a student will derive ... a strong and
healthy stimulus to independent reflection." — The Scotsman (Edinburgh).

Ill— Poetry as a Representative Art. Fully illustrated with quota-
tions from the foremost poets. 8vo, cloth extra . . $i-75

"A remarkable work, alike for the completeness with which a very comprehensive subject
is treated, and for an acuteness and originally which open up new relations and applications
that render the scope of the subject still more extensive. The technique of versification, the
rhetoric of poetical composition, and the mutual bearings of the two, have received no lack of
attention; but we know of no book to be compared with this, in bringing the whole into unity
as distinctively a 'representative art.7 . . . We can promise the reader that he will find it lu-
minous and interesting. ... We hail this work as a great contribution to clear thought. . . .
Mere sentiment or imagination will not constitute the poet (par excellence, 'the maker') any
more than sensitiveness to color and harmony and form will furnish a painter, a musician, a
sculptor, or an architect. It is the ignoring of the fact that poetry is equally an art of repre-
sentation, the picturing, and modeling, and singing of thoughts and feelings by visible and
audible symbols, which accounts for the failure of many a promising aspirant for the bays." —
Christian Intelligencer.

"The scope of his work embraces every relation of poetry to language and to sentiment.
The author's plan is an exhaustive one; his manner of working it out shows a thorough study
of his subject and an astonishing familiarity with the whole range of English poetry. . . . crit-
ically examined. The student of literature will find the book worthy of exhaustive study. —
Philadelphia Inquirer.

"I have read it with pleasure, and a sense of instruction on many points." — Francis
Turner Palgrave, Professor of Poetry, Oxford University.

"Dieses ganz vortreffliche Werk."- — Englishche Studien, Universtitat Breslau.

"An acute, interesting, and brilliant piece of work. ... As a whole, the essay deserves
unqualified praise. If every poetic aspirant could learn it by heart, the amount of versifying
might be reduced by a half, and the amount of poetry increased by a larger ratio. ... It ap-
plies the test under whose touch the dull line fails. It goes further than this, and furnishes
the key to settle the vexed questions as to moralizing and didactic verse, and the dangerous
terms on which sense and sound meet in verse." — N. Y. Independent.

"Treats a broad and fertile subject with scholarly proficiency and earnestness, and an
amplitude and exactness of illustration that makes his work definitely and clearly explicit. —
New Orleans Times-Democrat.

"The work will be welcomed, must be studied, and will grow upon the schools as it is
appreciated." — Journal of Education.

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West 23d St., New York

"Certainly of its kind, nothing has been offered the American public so excellent as this.
Professor Raymond has thorough insight, a complete mastery of critical style, and a thorough
acquaintance with the poets. He has produced something that must live." — Hartford Post.

"The results are the most important ones yet attained in its department, and, we believe,
the most valuable." — Boston Globe.

"Professor Raymond has rendered a valuable service to literary criticism. There is un-
doubtedly far less general knowledge of the canons of poetic art than there is of the princi-
ples underlying painting and sculpture. Yet there are absolute and attainable standards of
poetic excellence, and upon these may be founded a system of criticism. Such standards can-
not, of course, altogether be taught . . . but their underlying principles can be taught, and,
perhaps, they have never been so well set forth as by Professor Raymond." — Boston Traveller.

"A profound, and, as nearly as may be, a satisfactory natural history of poetry itself.
The reason of poetry, its right to be, and the sources of its power will stand out clearly before
the mind of the reader. . . . The study of Professor Raymond's volume by the rising genera-
tion of preachers would go far toward endowing the sermon of the immediate future with a
high ana chaste literary quality." — Presbyterian Review.

IV— Painting1, Sculpture, and Architecture as Representative Arts.

With 225 illustrations, 8vo $2.50

"Expression by means of extension or size . . . shape . . . regularity in outlines . . .
the human body . . . posture, gesture, and movement . . . are all considered. ... A
specially interesting chapter is the one on color. . . . The author has worked out his theory
logically and minutely; the book is one for careful study." — Current Literature.

"As a matter of necessity such a work must be more or less technical, but the author, in
this instance, has succeeded in freeing himself, to a great extent, from all technical words
and phrases, thereby making his book much more acceptable to the general reader. Each
thought is exemplified by illustrations so judiciously selected that even the uninitiated can
readily grasp the meaning . . . helping ... to better understand and appreciate art, while to
the student it will prove of absorbing interest." — Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.

"The volume is one of great value to the student of art for art's sake. It is profusely
illustrated." — Boston Transcript.

"The artist will find in it a wealth of profound and varied learning; of original, sugges-
tive, and most helpful thought ... of absolutely inestimable value. He will perceive more
perfectly than ever before the representative character of art, and how it can be used as a
medium of human thought and emotion." — The Looker-on.

"The work combines to a rare degree the excellences of the scholar, the artist, and the
philosopher. Mr. Raymond is not an imitator. His work is his own, and his broadness of
view and logical presentation of his facts and theories make his books memorable contributions
to the literature of aesthetics." — Portland (Me.) Transcript.

"The whole book is the work of a man of exceptional thoughtfulness, who says what he
has to say in a remarkably lucid and direct manner." — The Philadelphia Press.

V— The Genesis of Art-Form. Fully illustrated. 8vo . . $2.25

"In a spirit at once scientific and that of the true artist, he pierces through the manifes-
tations of art to their sources, and shows the relations, intimate and essential, between paint-
ing, sculpture, poetry, music, and architecture. A book that possesses not only singular value,
but singular charm." — N. Y. Times.

"This book is one whose usefulness cannot be exhausted in any one line of art, but ap-
plies to all. It is equally useful for the student of prose, poetry, and rhetoric. It will enrich
and deepen his conceptions of the principles of art-form as applied to language and his ability
to apply them. For all kinds of large criticism as concerned with art in any department, it is
a book of great merit." — The Independent.

"A help and a delight. Every aspirant for culture in any of the liberal arts, including
music and poetry, will find something in this book to aid him." — Boston Times.

"The work is one which the art-student will enjoy, while the veriest novice cannot read it
without learning something that he ought to know. ' — Rochester Herald.

"It is the production of an expert who, although a specialist, is broad in his knowledge
and sympathetic in his applications. ... It is eminently a suggestive, stimulating work, and
many young readers will thank the author not only for the facts and principles which he has stated
and illustrated, but also for a powerful and healthful impulse in uplifting directions." —
Boston Congregationalist.

"In the same lucid, straightforward style is Professor Raymond's essay on comparative
aesthetics. So much has been \yritten about art in the obscure, enigmatic way that relief from
it is a kind of pleasure. . . . Simplicity can be noble, grand, and effective, and he who reads
these books will never suffer the misgivings the old grandiloquence . . . was quite likely to
provoke as to the effectual value of any art-criticism. . . . 'The Genesis of Art-Form' is a
contribution to thought. ... It is his theory that the great masters pursued the methods
pointed out, but not knowingly, perhaps." — The Providence Journal.

"It is impossible to withhold one's admiration froni a treatise which exhibits in such a
rare degree the qualities of philosophic criticism." — Philadelphia Press.

VI— Rhythm and Harmony in Poetry and Music. Together with
Music as a Representative Art. 8vo, cloth extra . $1.75

"The author covers the whole ground of poetics, including scansion and verse-forms, antl
explains the means by which poetic effects are attained by the use of variety in measure and

Published by G.P.Putnamjjons, 27 & 29 West 23d St.,New Yoi

line alliteration, etc. . . The historical origin and development of the musical scale furn
ma'enal for an interesting chanter, while several others are devoted to the means of exprt
ing ideas through "music . . - illustrated by motives from various operas. The book is full

^Spjid ^here-ld^T wo^d Lm ^thfreader as if detail had run itself i,
neaiiinffless fragments, or as if the author's theory were overburdened with trivial illust
tTons but r'ead though from beginning to end, the cook shows solid thinking, sound positio
and iiat significance in the details which prove them. —N Y. Observer.

KThe analysis js. at times, so subtle as to be almost beyond the reach of words, but t
author's grasp of his subject nowhere slackens, and the quiet flow of the style remains i
clouded in expressing even the most intricate phases of his argument. . . . No treatment cov
be freer from technicalities or word- juggling, hven to a mind unprepared for the close r
son.ng of some parts of the book, as a whole it will be stimulating with that large suggesti
m- that accompanies a widening of the mental horizon."— Portland Oregoman.

"Pn.fessor Raymond has chosen a delightful subject, and he treats it with all the chai
of narrative and high thought and profound study."— New Orleans States.

"In other wavs Professor Raymond's book calls for high praise, and in nothing more th
for the gallant way in which he stands for higher ideals in art than those which are popul
in these days." — Springfield Republican.

"The reader must be, indeed, a person either of supernatural stupidity or of marvello
erudition, who docs not discover much information in Professor Raymond s exhaustive a
instructive treatise. From page to page it is full of suggestion. — T he Academy (London)

Vii— Proportion and Harmony of Line and Color in Paintir-
Sculpture, and Architecture. Fully illustrated, 8vo . $2 '

"Marked by profound thought along lines unfamiliar to most readers and thinkers.
When grasped, however, it becomes a source of great enjoyment and exhilaration. . . .
study of human proportions and measurements is particularly interesting, as showing the
and congruity in nature's handiwork. He would show us that the same unity and order .
characterize all works of art. ... It is addressed to the practical artist who paints. '•
models clay, or writes music, yet is of equal value to the critical student of art who \v.
form his judgment of the world's productions in art on sound lines. In short, no critical p
son can afford to ignore so valuable a contribution to the art-thought of the day as Profes
Raymond has given us in this series of volumes." — The Art-Interchange (N. Y.).

"The book is comprehensive and particular. It is scientific and mathematical to the c'
without destroying the beauty of the creations it analyzes. It is, above all, logical and met
odical, maintaining its argument and carrying along from one subject to another the dedu
lions which have preceded. The luminous treatment ... is one of the triumphs of the boc
and the application of the theories expounded . . . will arouse discussion in every ai
school. The closing chapter sums up the results of the seven volumes of the series, and
worthy of mention as condensing the conclusions of seven highly technical volumes into
few pages. . . . For scholar and specialist, and as books of reference, the series is imal.iab
and the present volume stands high in it for its plain and convincing statement of a great
involved subject." — Portland (Me.) Transcript.

"The fruit of profound study and observation that cannot but be of the greatest aid t
true conception of what is truly artistic, and to the forming of a correct taste. It is a learii
and luminous criticism of methods, and a most profound analysis of the effects of proportic
and harmony when properly employed. The thoroughness and clearness with which it is dc
will be surprising to the layman, and canno^ but open the eyes of even the professional artis4
to a new importance and new possibilities in the subjects treated. The author brushes asid
all schools and all fashions of art and goes to the root of the subject — the production of th;
proportion and harmony in form which shall be permanently dignified, noble, and pleasing i
the human eye. Every suitable example of ancient or modern art is drawn upon for illustr;
tion, and all the elements of form which constitute the greatness of the world's masterpiece
explained. The text is aided by hundreds of illustrations and diagrams." — Pittsburg lime.

"The author has covered this fascinating field as no other writer, so far as known to th
Hawk-Eye, has ever attempted, and he Has brought to his task a ripeness of scholarship and
terseness of expression that give to his themes a special charm even to those readers whom h
leads into hitherto untrodden pathways. One does not need to be a scholar to follow
scholar as he teaches while seeming to entertain; for he does both." — Burlington Hawk-

"The artist who wishes to penetrate the mysteries of color, the sculptor who desires i
cultivate his sense of proportion, or the architect whose ambition is to reach to a high standar
will find the work helpful and inspiring." — Boston Transcript.

"The philosophy underlying and permeating the whole structure of this intelligent ar
criticism should be given, in and out of educational institutions, the widest possible publicitj
Like others of Professor Raymond's series, it will be found a mine of original, suggestive
and helpful thought." — Boston Globe.

The Essentials of ^Esthetics. Fully illustrated, 8vo $2.5(

A compendium of the preceding volumes, designed as a Text-Book

"So lucid in expression and rich in illustration that every page contains matter of dee
interest even to the general reader." — Boston Herald.

"It can hardly fail to make talent more rational, genius more conscious of the principle
ft art. MM the critic and connoisseur better equipped for impression, judgment and appraise
ment." — New York Times.

THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF INSPIRATION

ATTEMPT TO DISTINGUISH RELIGIOUS FROM SCIEN-
TIFIC TRUTH AND TO HARMONIZE CHRISTI-
ANITY WITH MODERN THOUGHT

GEORGE LANSING RAYMOND

FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY

gorfe anb Honfcon

1908

OF THE

:NIVERSiTY
/

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America.
Published, December, 1907.

PREFACE

Near the end of a life which began with a theo-
logical training, but has been spent mainly as a pro-
fessor in college or university, I find myself with this
book prepared for publication. Some of it was written
several years ago; some of it has been written re-
cently, but the whole has been carefully revised. It
is the outgrowth of an endeavor — exceptional, as is
thought, in its processes, tho not in its purposes — to
find a way in which all that is essential to the methods
and results of scientific and historic research can be
accepted, while, at the same time, nothing that is es-
sential to the theory or practise of religion need be
rejected. That, in our age, any endeavor with this
object in view is deserving of the effort expended
upon it requires no arguing.

A few months ago I was dining beside a scholar who
presides over one of the foremost educational institu-
tions of New England. "Why is it," I asked him,
"that Andover Seminary has so few students?"
"Mainly," he answered, "because the New England
colleges have so few who want to study theology."
"Yes," I said, "they are waiting for my book."
"What book?" he asked. "Mine, or some other," I
answered, "written to show that a man can be both
an out-and-out Christian and a thorough scientist;

iii

17469.3

PREFACE

can exercise to the full both faith and rationality; can
be bound to a church for his support, yet be free in his
methods of thinking." "A hard thing to prove," he
said. "Yes," I replied, "but it must be proved by
some one, or else religion itself can not hold the ap-
proval of most of us." Then I explained that, for
years, while occupying a professorship necessarily
bringing me into close relations with students profi-
cient in oratory, I had noticed a gradual decrease in
the proportionate number and quality of those enter-
ing the Christian ministry, altho many failing to do so
had seemed not only particularly fitted for success in
it, but particularly unfitted, intellectually, morally, or
spiritually, for following with satisfaction to them-
selves any other calling.* Their turning from the

* The following enumeration of students and graduates in theological semi-
naries of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, as reported to the General
Assembly for the years 1895 and 1907, was printed in The Princeton (N. J.) Press
of September 28, 1907, under the signature of Rev. Lewis W. Mudge, D.D.

Students.

Graduates.

1895

1907

1896

1907

Princeton

264
112
100
29
24
208
31
39
61
40
19
23

178
62
72
38
42
106
12
11
22
51
19
26

78
42
32
6
3
78
14
5
8
9
5
8

44
20
21

-2
2
16

Auburn

Western . . .

Lane

Kentucky

McCormick

San Francisco
German Dubuque. . . . .

German Newark

Lincoln
Biddle

Omaha

Totals

950

639

288

155

These figures are still more significant in view of the great increase, during these
twelve years, in the total population of the country and of the yet greater pro-
portionate increase in the number of those attending the colleges from which the
students of Presbyterian seminaries are drawn.

PREFACE V

ministry, I said, so far as they had given expression
to that which had influenced them, had seemed due
less to any lack of sympathy with religion in general
than to a repugnance to becoming special pleaders
and hired advocates of what appealed to them as a
narrow and biased, and, so far, uncourageous and un-
manly method of accepting and interpreting religious
dogmas and practises. Such being the case, I exprest
to my neighbor my conception of the importance of
one of the objects to be undertaken in this book —
namely, the removing of difficulties in the way of
those whose mental attitude is that of the students
just described.

The serious reader will ask, at once, whether this
undertaking is feasible; whether what is proposed can
be done in any such way as to do justice to all the re-
quirements of religion. If it can not be so done,
then, of course, this book must prove a failure. It
will merely add one more volume to the many, already
too numerous, in which the spiritual is ignored for the
sake of the comprehensible, or the comprehensible for
the sake of the spiritual. This book can prove a suc-
cess in the degree alone in which neither of these is
ignored, but each is credited with the influence legiti-
mate to it, and this in its entirety. But if it be feasi-
ble to attain such a result, so stated, why has it not
been attained before? One reason is that it has not
before been demanded, or, at least, not as universally
as at present. Another reason is that the facts from

vi PREFACE

which deductions such as are to be presented in this
book can be logically drawn had not been studied,
were not understood, and, presumably, could not have
been conceived by the theologians of even the last
century, to say nothing of men like Calvin or Luther,
or like Augustine or Aquinas.

At the same time it is somewhat remarkable that,
even in such circumstances, some of the conclusions
indicated in the pages that follow have not already
been more widely recognized than is the case. Most
of our Protestant churches, for instance, profess to ac-
cept the principles underlying the Protestant Refor-
mation, especially the one assigning authority to the
Christian Scriptures, and the one asserting the right of
private judgment in interpreting these. But most of
our Protestant theologians seem reluctant, at least, to
admit that either principle should be carried to a
logical conclusion. In doing this, as must be confest,
they are faithfully following the examples set by both
Calvin and Luther. But historians, without excep-
tion, attribute mainly to these examples the sudden
check put, in the sixteenth century, upon the prog-
ress of the Reformation. May future historians be
saved from attributing to the same a like check put,
in the twentieth century, upon the progress of all
Christianity! Why is the danger of such a check a
present menace? Because the science of the day
trains the mind to be candid and logical; and theology
is inclined to be neither. If, for instance, two pas-

PREFACE vii

sages of Scripture seem to conflict, and so evidently,
too, that every thinking mind must perceive it, the
theologian, instead of frankly admitting the fact and
then trying to find a theory that will justify it as a
fact, either denies that it is a fact, or, as will be shown
hereafter, makes only one of the two passages authori-
tative.* Again, while admitting, as a matter of theory,
the right of private judgment, he by no means al-
ways acknowledges it in practise, especially when an-
other's interpretation of Scripture differs greatly from
his own. No one can deny that such attitudes of mind
tend to lessen very considerably the influence of the
reformed churches, while, at the same time, they do
not strengthen that of the unreformed. Those in the
reformed churches desire, as a rule, not less but more
candor and logic, which is exactly what the unre-
formed are not prepared to give them; and those in
the unreformed churches, if affected at all by a similar
desire, are apt, like the French of our day, to look for
the fulfilment of it beyond the confines of any church,
even reformed, in which their demands can, at best,
be only partly met. This is the same as to say that,
in this age of general education and scientific thinking,
religion, in order to preserve its influence over men,
must be prepared, without prevaricating or hedging,
to satisfy all the requirements of the rational nature.
One object of the treatise that follows is to present a
theory in accordance with which this can be done

* See pages 142, 106, 199, 307, and 308.

viii PREFA CE

As applied to practise, the aim of the book may be
illustrated thus: Some time ago I attended a meeting
of scientists. As I looked about me I became aware
that, so far as I knew, not one of those present was
considered by himself or by others to be what is con-
ventionally termed religious. Yet in the unselfish,
untiring and well-nigh unrewarded labor that every
one of these seemed performing for the advancement of
the knowledge, the health, and the comfort of his fel-
lows, I recognized such devotion, conscientiousness,
and charity as could not be rightly designated irre-
ligious. About the same time my attention was
called to a meeting of ecclesiastics. All who took
part in it were, presumably, considered by themselves
and by others to be religious in an exceptional degree.
Yet no reported speech of any one of them happened
to be devoid of a certain selfish, intolerant, and un-
magnanimous disregard of the feelings and thoughts
of others such as, so far as one could draw just con-
clusions from a few utterances, did not place the
speaker outside the pale of those ordinarily supposed
to be particularly characterized by distinctively Christ-
like traits. In view of these facts, it seemed to me
that it was about time for the world to have some
criterion more trustworthy than those commonly ac-
cepted by which to judge of the kind of faith and life
separating the religious from the non-religious. This
seemed especially important in view of the influence
which men of both types mentioned are constantly

PREFACE ix

exerting upon the young and the inexperienced. Is it
not unfortunate that one of the first type, whom these
can not but esteem and, therefore, instinctively strive
to imitate, should be connected in their minds with
irreligious and not infrequently injurious precepts and
examples, which, if also imitated, can not but lead
astray? And is it not equally unfortunate that a man
of the second type whom the same classes can not fail
often to disesteem, and, therefore, to strive not to
imitate, should be the one connected in their minds
with that which is religious and, as a rule, elevating
and fitted to lead aright? Is there any need of pre-
venting a man of either type from exerting the sort of
influence for which his personal traits fit him? It
does not seem to me that there is. But before this
can be recognized by most men they require clearer
views than they usually have with reference to the
connection between Christianity as a system and the
Christian as a subject of it. Here is a reason, there-
fore, in addition to reasons already given and to others
naturally associated with each, seeming to justify, as
applied to practise as well as to theory, an attempt, as
in this book, to make a more careful study than has
yet been undertaken of the nature of that phase of in-
fluence to which spiritually minded people believe that
religion owes its source.

I may, perhaps, be excused for mentioning, before
closing this Preface, two regards in which the thought
presented in the pages following differs essentially

X. PREFACE

from that in almost all other works written with a
somewhat similar intent. In the first place, while em-
phasizing the importance of rationality in religion, the
arguments advanced are not in the least degree allied
to those of " rationalism" in the materialistic sense in
which this term is ordinarily used. On the contrary,
they tend distinctly toward belief in the spiritual, and
this to a degree not true of very many of the Chris-
tian discussions of our times. In the second place,
while emphasizing spiritual discernment as necessary
to the understanding of the literal statements of the
Scriptures, the arguments are not advanced as pleas
for — nor, indeed, against — any merely esoteric method
of interpreting occult symbols or allegories. On the
contrary, the whole line of thought tends distinctly
toward confidence in the sufficient intellectual equip-
ment of those who exercise merely honest and un-
biased common sense.

GEORGE LANSING RAYMOND.

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY.
November 1, 1907.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PAGE

Conditions of Prevailing Thought Which Occasioned This Book-
Comprehensive Character of the Results Reached in It— In-
spiration and Revelation— Apparent Inaccuracy in the Hebraic
and Christian Scriptures— No Writings or Utterances Sup-
posed to Be Inspired Are Free from Ambiguity, or from the
Liability of Being Interpreted Differently— A Logical Mind
Can Not Accept This Condition Unless It Perceive Some Rea-
son for It— This Reason Must Be Found, if at All, in the Na-
ture of the Spirit Inspiring, of Which We Can Not Know ; or
of the Man or Mankind Inspired, of Which We Can Know. ... 1

CHAPTER I

THE NATURE OF TRUTH AS INDICATED BY WHAT MEN

SEEK WHEN THEY SEARCH FOR IT, AND THINK

THAT THEY FIND WHEN THEY OBTAIN IT

Methods Through Which It Is Proposed to Ascertain the Nature
of Truth— Scientists and Philosophers Search for Truth as
Something Behind Appearances in Space— And in Time-
Therefore Conceive It to Be Not Alone in the Appearances
Themselves — But in These as Related to Certain Methods of
Operation— Same Facts Shown by the Treatment Given to
Formal Statements— The Truth in Them Discovered by Re-
garding Relations to Surrounding Circumstances— Therefore
to Methods of Operation— Absolute Truth as Existing Without
Reference to Relations — Necessity of Considering Methods of
Operation Shown by What Men Find When They Think That
They Have Obtained Truth— Meanings of the Adjective True
—Further Meanings— Its Meanings When Material or Bodily
Conditions Are Compared With Mental or Spiritual — Its
Meanings When Applied to Language— The False in Language
Is a Want of Conformity to a Method of Operation in a Mental
Process— Summary of the Meanings of the Word True— Of the

Word Truth 9

xii CONTENTS

• CHAPTER II

THE NATURE OF TRUTH AS INDICATED BY WHAT MEN

DO WHEN RECEIVING AND IMPARTING

ITS INFLUENCE

PAGE

Objections to the View Presented in the First Chapter— Truth, as
Exprest in Language, Should Not Be Confounded with the
Formula ; Illustrated from Methods of Interpreting the Bible
—Its History Noteworthy for the Methods of Life Which It
Illustrates— Its Prophecies Valuable for Their Fulfilment Not
Only, but Applicability to Laws Operating Everywhere— Con-
firmation of This Principle of Interpretation of the Bible in Its
Explanations — Its Arguments — Its Injunctions — Real Meaning
Lost When Truth Is Supposed to Be Conformed to Formulae
Alone, and Not Also to Methods of Operation— The Use of the
Word Truth in the Bible— Illustrations— Inferences— Truth Is
Perceived in the Process of Searching for It— Supposing
Change Inconsistent with Absoluteness in Truth Is a Source
of Both Infidelity and Bigotry— Right Views of Truth as a
Corrective of These— The Truth in Revealed and Natural
Religion Connected with a Conception of Method — One Recog-
nizing This May Be a Friend to Both Progress and Perma-
nence—Inferences from the View Here Presented— A Few
Forms in Space May Reveal Universal Methods— One Mind
May Represent God— And One Life, if Full of Love— The Mis-
sion of the Friend— Comfort in This Suggestion— The Changes
of a Few Moments May Reveal Universal Methods— Child or
Man with Short or Long Life May Both Have Experience of
Them.. 26

1 CHAPTER III

THE MIND'S SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SPIRITUAL OR IN-
SPIRATIONAL, AS CONTRASTED WITH
MATERIAL, INFLUENCES

To What Men Refer When Using the Term Inspiration— When
Using the Term Spiritual— Considered an Influence Not Trace-
able to the Conscious Sphere of the Mind— But Traceable to
or Through an Inner or Subconscious Sphere — Proofs of the
Existence of This Sphere, as in Memory, Fright, Fever, Hyp-
notism—Subconscious Philosophical and Mathematical Intel-
lection—Resulting from Previous Conscious Action, as in

CONTENTS xiii

PAGE

Skill — Not Resulting from Previous Conscious Action : Co-
burn, Mozart, Blind Tom — Subconscious Diagnosis of Disease
at a Distance — Subconscious Apprehension of Distant Occur-
rences—Both in Space and Time— Mind-Reading— Automatic
Writing — Apparitions — Connection Between Such Facts and
Belief in a Future State of Rewards and Punishments — Often
Attributed to Natural Material Causes— Should Be Attrib-
uted to Influences from Nature's Occult Side — Shown in
Susceptibility of the Primitive, Uneducated Man to Such In-
fluences— Instinct and Reason — Instinctive and Rational — In-
stinctive and Religious — Instinctive and Animal — Story of
the Fall — The Mental Actions of Animals — Of Negroes, In-
dians, and Those Subject to Hallucinations, with Inferences
Therefrom — Like Inferences with Reference to the Origin of
Religion Drawn from Primitive Religious Customs — With
Growth of Intelligence, Physical Occult Manifestations Are
Considered Less Important Than Verbal — But the Verbal Con-
tinue to Be Associated with Subconscious Intellection. . , 51

CHAPTER IV

THE MIND'S CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CONSCIOUS INTEL-
LECTION TO THAT WHICH IS RECEIVED THROUGH
THE SUBCONSCIOUS

Subconscious and Conscious Influences Manifested in All Forms
of Intellection — Value of That Obtainable from the Former
Depends on the Character of That Given by the Latter— Ob-
ligation of an Inspired Man to Interpret Promptings from
the Subconscious by His Conscious Intellection — Fulfilment
of This Obligation Characteristic of Writers — Consequent In-
tellectual Progress Connected with This Form of Inspired
Communication — Recognizing Relationship of Christian to
Other Forms of Inspiration Does Not Impair the Authen-
ticity and Authority of the Christian Scriptures — Or Lessen
One's Veneration for Them— Nor Does the Acknowledgment
That Signs and Wonders Are Wrought in Other Religions —
The Testimony of the Christian Scriptures Upon This Subject
—Rationality of the Scriptural Test as Applied to Spiritism
— Hudson's Theory — Importance of Investigating Spiritism —
The Dangers Attendant Upon Accepting, Without Thinking,
Its So-called Revelations Also Threaten Those Accepting, in
the Same Way, Revelation in Any Other Form

xiv CONTENTS

4 CHAPTER Y

THE NECESSARILY SUGGESTIVE CHARACTER OF IN-
SPIRED OR REVEALED TRUTH

PAGE

Ambiguity and Indefiniteness Seem Characteristic of the Com-
munications Received Through Inspiration and Revelation —
The Method of Action of the Inner Sphere of the Mind May
Render This Result Necessary— We Can Study This Method
Through the Analogous Methods of Hypnotism— Limitations
of This Study — Hypnotism Influences Through Suggestion,
Which Leaves Expression Free and, When Influencing Differ-
ent Minds, Different— The Bearing of This Argument— Analo-
gies from Hypnotism May Explain Many Things Assigned to
Spiritual Influence in the Scriptures— This Is so of Conver-
sion— Of Atonement, of Spiritual Unity, of Creation, of Proba-
tion, of Life After Death— Suggestive Revelation May Be More
Influential Than Dictatorial— Additional Evidence of This—
Suggestive Control in Religion Conforms to Divine Control as
Manifested in External Nature— Suggestive Nature of Re-
vealed Truth Already Widely Acknowledged by Christians—
This Acknowledgment Not Antagonistic to Continued Study
of the Scriptures— Illustration of the Way in Which the Same
Inspired Truth May Be Exprest in Different Forms — Different
Legends in Different Religions May Give Expression to the
Same Fundamental Truth— Influence of This Fact Upon Fu-
ture Theologians 107

CHAPTER VI
SIGNIFICANCE AND FORM IN SUGGESTED TRUTH

A Conception Impressing Our Minds Is Not Identical with a
Word Expressing It— The Latter Is a Result of Materializing
the Conception — Use of Materialized Conceptions by Man
and by the Creator— Universal;; Recognition of This Use— Ap-
propriateness of Its Use in Inspiration and Revelation— How
This Fact Modifies Certain Current Conceptions— Differences
Between Scientific and Religious Truth — Application to
Statements in the Bible — Rendering These Conformable to
Reason— And to Philanthropy— Degrees of the Credibility of
the Influence Occultly Exerted Through the Subconscious—
Depends Upon the Truthfulness of the Suggestion Given It
as a Premise— The Truthfulness of This Suggestion and of Its
Results Must be Determined by the Action of Some Con-

CONTENTS xv

PAGE

scions Mind— Whose Conscious Mind This Is— It Is a Mind In-
fluenced by Heredity and Environment— This Explains the
Development of the Truth as Revealed in the Bible— The Ex-
planation Accords with Biblical Statements— With General
Opinion— This Conception Does Not Render Biblical Truth
Less Determinant 134

CHAPTER VII

THE RATIONAL METHOD OF INTERPRETING BIBLICAL
STATEMENTS

Theories of Modern Biblical Critics— How to Reconcile with the
Conception of Inspiration the Conception That Parts of the
Bible Are Compiled from Other Writers— Scriptural Warrants
for Testing by the Conscious Mind the Truth Coming Through
the Subconscious— The Test Afforded by the Results of Previ-
[pus Information— Of Intuitive Insight— Of Logical Inference
—Application of Faith to Matters Beyond the Reach of Con-
scious Information, Intuition, or Inference 158

* CHAPTER VIII

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST INTERPRETING BIB-
LICAL STATEMENTS AS SUGGESTIVE AND NOT
DICTATORIAL

The View Presented in the Preceding Chapter Seems to Subject
the Truth of God to the Judgment of Man— This Method in
Analogy with Other Ways in Which Man is Expected to In-
terpret Divine Truth— Nature and Experience Influence Him
so as to Cultivate His Power of Acting Rationally— Effect of
This Upon the Young— We Should Expect the Same Method
to Be Pursued in Revelation: Impossibility of Any Other
Method Except the Suggestive in Communicating Spiritual
Truth— The Error of Interpreting the Scriptures Literally 169

* CHAPTER IX

CHRISTIAN DOGMATISM AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDER-
ING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Conclusions Reached in Preceding Chapter— Confirmation of These
Afforded by the Scriptures— These Conclusions Are Not Ac-
cepted by Christians in General— Deleterious Effects of This

xvi CONTENTS

PAGE

Manifested in Diminished Attendance Upon Church Services
—The Church Should Remedy This Condition— Origin of Dog-
matism, Intolerance, and the Dark Ages— Dogmatism and In-
tolerance as Irrational as Uncharitable— Creeds Should Not
Be Made a Test of Christian Character— Applied to the Doc-
trine of Inspiration— Injurious Effects of Applying Such a
Test in Connection with This Doctrine— Same Principle Ex-
emplified with Reference to the Doctrine of the Personality of
God— The Trinity— The ImmaculateiConception and Incarna-
tion—The Method of Salvation— The Problem in Salvation— Its
Solution in the Work of the Christr— How Dogmatism, Tho
Based Upon This Solution, Does Harm— Not Only Among
Christians, but Non-Christians, as Buddhists and Moham-
medans— Same Principle Applied to Doctrine of Eternal Pun-
ishments—Certainty with Reference to Spiritual Truth Not
Justifiable— Illustration of the Practical Evils of This Atti-
tude. . . 178

CHAPTER X

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDER-
ING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

The Church Not an End but a Means— The Church Intended to
Influence Opinion, Inclination, and Conduct — Opinion Most
Influenced Not by Authority, but by Thought— Illustrations
from History— Same Principle Applied to the Influence Ex-
erted Upon Belief by the Numbers Attending Any One Church
— Or Exerted Upon Expressions of Belief — External Unity of
the Church May Be Detrimental to Influence of Thought as
Thought — Influence of Thought as Thought, Aside from the
Influence of Authority Upon Christian Opinion — And Upon
Conduct— Reasons for This— The Conception of the Church
Which Harmonizes with the Testimony Afforded by Historic
Christianity— By the Primitive Church— Enforced Unity of
the Church Is Not the Spiritual Unity of Christians— Nor Is It
Made Prominent Where the Church Is Growing— The Church
as Influencing Inclinations Through Rites or Rituals— Wor-
ship Can Not Be Exprest Through Argumentative or Dog-
matic Language— Neglect of This Principle in English Cathe-
drals—In Assemblies of Those of Divergent Views— Principle
Applied to Hymns— To Prayers and Repetitions of Creeds—
The Church in Influencing Conduct Is Sometimes Dictatorial,
Sometimes Prohibitive, but Usually Negative — The Chris-

CONTENTS xvii

PAGE

tianity of the Christ Is Positive— The Christian Must Do More
Than Seek His Own Salvation— Development in the Church
of the Feeling of Individual Responsibility — Further Develop-
ments to Be Expected in the Future— These Theories Not Due
to Lack of Appreciation of the Work of the Church 21<T

* CHAPTER XI

CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE AND CONDUCT AS AFFECTED
BY CONSIDERING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Important to Consider the Church's Influence Upon the Indi-
vidual— Supposed Origin of Subconscious Tendencies — The
Important Matter Is to Recognize That They Exist, and Are
Often Antagonistic — The Antagonism Is Caused by a Con-
sciousness, Which We Term Conscience, That One Tendency
Has Superior Claims to Another — The Nature and Function of
Conscience— Its Promptings from the Subconscious Different
in Different Minds— Character of the Influence from the Sub-
conscious to Some Extent Under One's Control — The Result of
Environment and Habit— The Influence of Conscious Repeti-
tion— The Influence of Rituals and Rites — Overbalanced by
the Influence of Example— Reasons for This— Futility of Con-
fining Efforts for Reformation of Character to Effects Merely
Addressing the Eye or Ear — Influence of Example Upon the
Subconscious Mind 247

* CHAPTER XII

CHRISTIAN FAITH AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDERING
SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Suggestion Influences One Differently When in a Conscious and
in a Subconscious State— In Either State, He Surrenders Con-
trol of His Subconscious Mentality to One Alone in Whom He
Has Confidence— Importance of Noticing This Influence of
Personality — Its Relation to Christian Faith and Conversion
—To Preaching and Revivals— Faith Not Peculiar to Chris-
tianity—Nature of Christian Faith— Faithfulness and Fidelity
Essential to It — But Not Perfection of Character — Faith as In-
fluenced by the Agencies Employed by the Church, as in For-
mulation—Error Necessarily Introduced Into This— Two II
lustrations — Influence of Church Authority — Influence Upon
Faith of the Historic Christ— How Faith Necessitates Free-
dom of Mental Action— Scriptural Warrant for This 265

xviii CONTENTS

» CHAPTER XIII

UNITY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF AS AFFECTED BY CON-
SIDERING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Principles Unfolded in the Preceding Chapter Can Be Applied in
All Religions— What Are the Most Common and Universal
Religious Conceptions — Communications from Bad and Good
Spirits— Homage Appeasing the First, and Soliciting Favors
from the Second, Who Are Often Supposed to Be Heroes and
Ancestors — Formulation of Opinions Concerning These and
Their Teachings Into Systems of Belief, as by Copernicus,
Zoroaster, Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, and the Christ — Chris-
tianity Not Necessarily Antagonistic to Other Religions, as
Shown by Its Holding Many Similar Beliefs— Acknowledging
Certain of the Truths in These Religions Might Benefit Chris-
tianity—This Need Not Imply Acknowledging That Every-
thing in Any Other System Is True— Nor Need It Throw
Discredit Upon Missionary Effort, but Lead It to Emphasize in
Christianity That which Is Lacking in Other Systems, and Is
Essential in Its Own— Religious Unity— This Must Begin by
First Acknowledging the Truth Common to All Religions 287

CHAPTER XIV

CERTAIN OTHER PROBLEMS MADE SOLVABLE BY THE
THEORY PRESENTED IN THIS BOOK

Reconciliation Between the Claims of Inspiration and Apparent
Inaccuracy and Contradiction in the Text Giving It Expres-
sion— Between the Claims of Absolute, Eternal, and Infinite
Truth and the Apparent Impossibility of Stating or Deter-
mining This ; Pragmatism— In What Sense, Value, or Worth,
Emphasized in Pragmatism, Is a Test of Truth — Difference
Between Knowledge Which Is Applied to a Part and Faith
Which Is Applied to a Whole— Illustration— Difference Be-
tween This View and That of Pragmatism — Reconciliation
Between the Full Acceptance of Revealed Truth and the Full
Exercise of Reason— Between Liberality of Thought and Honest
Acceptance of the Christian System, Applied to Those Not
Members of the Church— To Scientists— Applied to Members
of the Church — Reconciliation Between Complete Adherence
to One's Own Religious Views and Complete Toleration of
the Views of Others— Between Others' Acceptance of the Truth
in One's Own System and Conservation of the Truth in Theirs

CONTENTS xix

PAGE

— Between Rationality or Intelligence and Spirituality or
Faith— The Material and the Spiritual— Spirituality— If In-
spired Truth Be Suggestive, Spirituality and Faith Can Fol-
low It with No Lessening of the Exercise of Intelligence and
Reason— Conclusion ; 306

INDEX.. 337

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

INTRODUCTION

Conditions of Prevailing Thought Which Occasioned This Book— Com-
prehensive Character of the Results Reached in It— Inspiration and
Revelation — Apparent Inaccuracy in the Hebraic and Christian
Scriptures— No Writings or Utterances Supposed to Be Inspired
Are Free from Ambiguity, or from the Liability of Being Inter-
preted Differently— A Logical Mind Can Not Accept This Con-
dition Unless It Perceive Some Reason for It— This Reason
Must Be Found, if at All, in the Nature of the Spirit Inspiring, of
Which We Can Not Know; or of the Man or Mankind Inspired,
of Which We Can Know.

One who mingles much with educated men in our
country will find large numbers of them doubting
whether a modern mind, trained to observe scientifically
and to reason logically, can without bias accept as
true the form of religion most prevalent in our times,
or, indeed, any religion, and yet honestly weigh all the
arguments that can be brought against it. There
must be some reason for their doubting this. To at-
tribute the reason to the false working of their minds,
as contrasted with the right working of the minds of
other people, would be manifestly uncharitable and
illogical. The doubters themselves are often men of ex-
ceptional capability and conscientiousness. All minds,
of course, have their idiosyncrasies; but these alone
are not sufficient to account for similar effects produced
upon large classes of men who, above all things, are

2 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSP1RA TION

thinkers. There must be something and often much
in the external conditions to cause these effects. In
the case that we are considering, the external condi-
tions are the forms in which are presented what are
termed the truths of religion. So far as a mind does
not accept these forms because of something in them-
selves, we must hold that this something is either
essential to the truth that is in the form or that it is
non-essential to this truth. If essential, then there
seems to be no escape from concluding that supposed
truth which can not stand the tests of modern science
and reasoning must, sooner or later, become wholly
discredited. If non-essential, then every effort should
be made to change the method of interpreting it and of
separating it, so far as possible, from the essential. The
pages that follow have been written upon the hypothesis
that the latter supposition is correct, as well as to show
why this may be supposed to be the case, and how the
conditions occasioning it may be met.

An endeavor to deal with such subjects as these is
an undertaking for which, in the present state of re-
ligious thought and life, no earnest man writing for
earnest men need make excuses. One fact, however,
in justice to the author ought to be stated. When he
entered upon his work he had no conception of the com-
prehensiveness of the inferences which would logically
follow upon obtaining from it any definite results.
These inferences, one after another, have unfolded
themselves from his line cf thought as naturally as a

INTRODUCTION 3

bud bursts through a branch from which it springs.
Indeed, they have seemed inevitable; as inevitable to
him as to some they must seem revolutionary. Not-
withstanding their revolutionary semblance, however,
and the consequent repulsion with which many a
cautious and conscientious mind will undoubtedly
greet them, it is his opinion that for the momentous
problems involved the general conclusions reached
afford the only rational and, at the same time, con-
servative and safe solution.

The subject to be developed necessitates making a
thorough study of what is termed, when applied to its
source, inspiration, and, when applied to its results,
revelation. One must begin by ascertaining, if he
can, how far the Church, or the Christian community,
has a correct conception of their character, and there-
fore of the form of guidance which they are fitted to
give. In order to answer these questions, the author,
when he entered upon his work, tried first to determine,
if possible, the nature of truth in general. But, very
soon, the necessary connection between this subject
and the particular religious aspects of it that occasioned
the study rendered inevitable an extensive examination
into the methods of statement and phraseology em-
ployed in the Hebraic and Christian Scriptures.

No one can honestly pursue such an examination
for any considerable time without finding all his con-
ceptions of the importance of his undertaking confirmed.
In not a few but many cases what is said in the Scrip-

4 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

tures is apparently, at least, inaccurate. Quite fre-
quently certain of their statements do not seem to ac-
cord with certain other of their statements; or with
accepted principles of common sense and right con-
duct; or with well-ascertained facts of history and of
science. Notice that the phrase used is "apparently"
inaccurate. Many of the passages, upon examination,
prove not to be so in reality. Possibly all of them
could be proved not to be so. But "apparently" they
are so. Nor that this should be the case will seem
strange to any one who merely recalls the thousands of
books crowding every large theological library which
have been written for the sole purpose of proving that,
in references made to subjects of which they treat,
Biblical inaccuracy, tho apparent, is not — when the
words are properly interpreted and understood — ac-
tual; for the purpose of proving, in other words, that
in many cases the Scriptures either do not say what
they mean or do not mean what they say.

As implied in the opening paragraph of this Intro-
duction, the first inclination of a mind, influenced at
all by the condition just indicated, is to discredit the
Scriptures altogether, as well as the whole system of
religion unfolded in them. How can one believe that
to be true, is asked, which, in so many of its details,
appears to be untrue? If, with this question upon his
lips, one still cling to a hope in the existence of inspira-
tion, his next move will be to discover, if possible, some
form of supposed revelation that is not charaterized

INTRODUCTION 5

by what seems inaccuracy. No one acquainted with
the subject fails to know that this is something which
one may seek forever and not find. Every student of
the influence exerted by such writings as the Vedas,
the Zend-Avesta, the Koran, or the Mormon Bible
knows that what is true of the Hebraic and Christian
Scriptures is true of all the others. All have given rise
to different sects whose differences have been occasioned
by different methods of understanding and of inter-
preting the same passages in the same writings. But
besides writings, there are other agencies through
which it is supposed that spiritual truth can be re-
vealed. In certain communities there are official
leaders, who individually, as in the Roman and Mor-
mon churches, or collectively, as in churches that make
much of councils, are credited with giving forth what
they have to say under, at least, divine superintendence.
But this superintendence does not prevent the same
conditions occasioned by sacred writings. There is
apparently no end to the different interpretations given
to the same utterances; or to the different degrees in
which these utterances are supposed to be inspired.
Besides official religious leaders, there have been also
—and, apparently, from the beginning of history-
individuals whose claim to inspiration has been based
upon evidence which they themselves have been sup-
posed to furnish. They are represented in our own
time and country by the clairvoyants and mediums of
what is termed spiritism. Are the communications

6 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

of these then characterized, as a rule, by accuracy?
Certainly not; and, probably, few intelligent spiritists
would think otherwise. Each of these, apparently, has
a way of attributing a part of what seems revealed to
some undeveloped or — what the outside world would
term — evil spirit. This fact alone — and no one will
dispute it — is sufficient to show that the spiritists have
not found everything supposed to be revealed to be
equally trustworthy. Moreover, besides this, many of
them, probably the majority, refuse to accept much
that is accredited to those whom they consider highly
developed spirits, owing, as is said, to the different
" conditions" prevailing in the spirit- world and in
our own.

It is evident, in view of such facts, that a logical
mind must do one of two things — either reject wholly
everything in the nature of inspiration, or, for some
reasons that need not now be discust, accept a part
of it. So much that is best in the world has been di-
rectly traceable to the influence of the latter course
that one would not like to abandon it without a struggle.
.But how can he not abandon it and yet act rationally?
This is one of the questions involving, more or less, all
of the others, which this book has been written to an-
swer. At first, as has been intimated, the author had
hoped to answer it by such a study of the nature of
truth and of the consequent methods of interpreting
passages supposed to communicate it as is made in this
book between pages 9 and 49, Chapters I and II. But

INTR OD UCTION 7

after a little a different conclusion was necessitated.
All that is unfolded in these chapters is relevant to the
subject, and important, so far as it goes. But it does
not go deep enough, nor is it broad enough in its ap-
plicability. Suppose it to be all true. Suppose the
Christian Scriptures — suppose all writings or utter-
ances of an inspired religious leader or teacher — to re-
quire, as there indicated, an interpretation according
to some method of philosophic inquiry, historic research,
or literary criticism. Why should this be the case?
Why should they not have been so indited as to be
understood by that vast majority of people who are not
philosophers, historians, or litterateurs? Why should
any communications be so written or uttered as to
render not only probable but possible innumerable
misinterpretations? How can we reconcile an am-
biguous result with attributing it to an Omniscient
Cause aiming to produce the opposite? In no way
whatever. Our only logical conclusion must be that
there was no reason for seeking to avoid the divergences
of interpretation that so perplex us.

Why, then, was there no reason for this? In view of
the Source to which religious people ascribe the am-
biguous result, the answer must be that any different
result was not necessary, or not possible, or, at least,
not in accordance with the requirements of the condi-
tions. Of what conditions? Of those pertaining, on
the one hand, to the Spirit inspiring, and, on the other
hand, to the man, and the mankind, inspired. With

8 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

reference to one of these factors — the conditions per-
taining to the Spirit — we can, of course, only make sur-
misals. With reference to the other factor, however—
the conditions pertaining to man or mankind — it is
different. These are clearly within the reach of human
understanding. To investigate the methods in which
the mind can receive and utilize any influence what-
ever that affects it is a perfectly legitimate function
of psychology, and this is that which is to be done in
the present volume. In order to avoid going outside
of the province of psychology, and to keep the lines of
thought within what all will acknowledge to be logical
limits, few references, and these only indirect ones, will
be made to purely theological questions such as other-
wise one might wish to discuss — questions like those
concerning the nature of the inspirational influences
considered in themselves, and the differences in their
sources and effects. The character of the general ar-
gument to be presented, and the considerations pre-
sumably having weight with those for whom it was
chiefly written, seemed to demand that it should deal
almost exclusively, as the reader will find that it does,
with an examination of the evidences of the mind's
being adapted by nature to be affected according to
the methods which in religion are attributed to in-
spiration, and, in connection with this, an examination
of the ways in which, when so affected, the mind
naturally expresses itself in thought, word, and action.

CHAPTER I

THE NATURE OF TRUTH AS INDICATED BY WHAT MEN

SEEK WHEN THEY SEARCH FOR IT, AND THINK

THAT THEY FIND WHEN THEY OBTAIN IT

Methods Through Which It Is Proposed to Ascertain the Nature of
Truth— Scientists and Philosophers Search for Truth as Some-
thing Behind Appearances in Space — And in Time — Therefore
Conceive It to Be Not Alone in the Appearances Themselves — But
in These as Related to Certain Methods of Operation— Same Facts
Shown by the Treatment Given to Formal Statements — The Truth
in Them Discovered by Regarding Relations to Surrounding Cir-
cumstances—Therefore to Methods of Operation— Absolute Truth
as Existing Without Reference to Relations— Necessity of Con-
sidering Methods of Operation Shown by What Men Find When
They Think That They Have Obtained Truth— Meanings of the
Adjective True— Further Meanings— Its Meanings When Material
or Bodily Conditions Are Compared With Mental or Spiritual— Its
Meanings When Applied to Language — The False in Language Is
a Want of Conformity to a Method of Operation in a Mental
Process— Summary of the Meanings of the Word True— Of the
Word Truth.

The object of this essay is to consider, in view of im-
portant facts indicated in the Introduction, the nature
and influence upon thought and action of what is termed
inspired or revealed truth. This object necessitates,
first, an understanding of what is meant by truth in
general. To determine this, the most sensible way
seems to be to ascertain, if we can, exactly what it is
that men who use the term mean by it. How can we
best ascertain this? By examining their definitions of
it? Certainly. But we can do more. As we all know,

10 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSP1RA TION

actions sometimes speak louder than words. There-
fore, in connection with such definitions of the truth
as men have formulated consciously, let us observe
their actions also when dealing with it; and the con-
ceptions of it which these actions unconsciously reveal.
While pursuing this course, in order to reach results
sufficiently comprehensive, let us start with an analysis,
as complete as we can make, of the different methods
through which such self-revelations can be rendered
possible. Of these methods, we shall find that there
are three; in other words, that men indicate their con-
ceptions of the nature of truth by their dealings, first,
with its sources; second, with its substance; and, third,
with its results; or, to extend each of these three heads,
first, by what they seek when they search for the truth;
second, by what they think that they find when they
obtain it; and, third, by what they do when they re-
ceive or impart its influence.

In accordance with this analysis, let us begin by
learning what we can from the sources to which, when
searching for truth, men are accustomed to attribute
it. Through observing what they seek in such cases,
we certainly ought to gather some suggestions with
reference to what they think it to be when obtained.
Scientists and philosophers investigate, as we say, the
appearances surrounding them. But what in these do
they investigate? Merely the appearances as appear-
ances? Do they believe that they can obtain the truth
thus — even a part of it, to say nothing of the whole of

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 11

it? Not at all. They often tear each superficial ap-
pearance into shreds. To detect its subtle elements,
they hunt for them as for hidden treasure. Then, look-
ing, if possible, through the elements, they strain their
vision onward and inward, as if, beyond the whole ma-
terial fabric, were something for which they still must
search. Their efforts often are of no avail. They
prove, at least, that each who undertakes them has a
firm conviction that the truth can be discovered through
the outward forms of nature, else why should he ex-
amine them? And they prove, as well, his firm con-
viction that the truth itself is not to be attributed to
anything that is wholly in the outward forms, else why
should he, in his examination, try to probe beneath
them?

Appearances are not confined to stationary forms.
Another element is potent in the universe. The folds
upon earth's mighty vestment rise and fall. The fickle
shadows come and go. The brilliant colors separate
and blend. One listens and he hears the bustle of per-
petual movement. He infers that somewhere under-
neath the movement there must throb a heart of life;
that there must be an occasioning condition, and that
connected with the condition he shall be able to discover
the truth. And so he uses other tests upon the forms.
He puts them through augmented changes for experi-
ment. He boils, he burns, he dissipates, he fuses, he
compounds them. His efforts often end in no discov-
eries, and yet they prove, at least, his firm conviction

12 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

that the truth may be discovered through the outward
changes, else why should he examine them? They
prove, as well, his firm conviction that the truth itself
is not to be attributed to anything that is wholly in the
outward changes, else why should he, in each experi-
ment, try so hard to attain to that which has condi-
tioned them?

Indeed, if the truth were wholly in outward shapes
or changes, why would it not be patent to the eyes of
every one? To recognize it, what would be the need
of more consideration than a single superficial glance?
Yet all the world admit that truth is something that in
any large degree is revealed alone to one with penetra-
tion, perseverance, and a more than ordinary measure
of intelligence.

But to say that the truth for which these men are
searching lies not wholly in the outward shape or
change is to make no more than a negation. Consid-
ered positively, what is this truth? As has been said,
it is something underneath appearances in space or in
time. But is it underneath appearances in one of these
alone, or in both? The moment that the question is
asked, every one must answer "In both." The rocks,
as they appear in space alone, can never teach what is
meant by geologic truth; nor can the stars, when merely
standing still "like Joshua's sun at Ajalon," teach what
is meant by astronomic truth. To the study of rocks or
stars as they appear in space these searchers after truth
must always join a conception of the influence of time.

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 13

It is this conception alone which causes the scientist
to break apart the rocks in order to detect their evi-
dences of development, or to adjust his telescope to the
stars in order to make out their variations of movement.
So with effects that appear in time. No one can under-
stand the truth with reference to the successive notes
of a trumpet or a violin until he has studied the rela-
tive contractions of the spaces through which different
quantities of wind have passed, or the relative spaces
through which different chords have been stretched,
or have been made to vibrate. Now, granting this to be
as stated, what is the truth which, as a result of examin-
ing effects both in space and in time, the man, at last,
imagines himself to have discovered? What is it, ex-
cept what may be termed the method of operation? The
truth concerning a tree is learned when it is ascertained
how that bulk which is apprehended in space has been
affected by that growth which is apprehended in time.
The truth concerning a tune is learned when it is ascer-
tained how that note which is apprehended in time has
been affected by that string which is apprehended in
space. With this conception in mind, let us go back
now to notice if it be confirmed by what we know of the
aims of the scientist or the philosopher. We need not
linger long here. All recognize that no one is a scientist
in reality who merely knows, no matter how extensively,
the surface-facts with reference to shapes or changes.
Before we can call him this, we must believe that he has
looked beneath appearances, and through their agency

14 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

has been led to apprehend, if not to comprehend, the
operations and the methods of the operations which
have brought things to their present state, and which
are manifested in the fulfilment of what are termed
laws. And is it not a fact that a man is acknowledged
to rank high in science and philosophy in the degree
alone in which he has been able to discover and to prove
that certain of these methods operate identically be-
neath phenomena that in themselves are different?
Did not Newton, Spencer, and Darwin attain their
eminence mainly because, in the opinion of their follow-
ers, they had the penetration to detect some one of
these methods whose operations can be illustrated by
analogous occurrences in all the different departments
and developments of nature? Some method of this
kind, some principle of inevitable applicability, accord-
ing to which each endeavors to explain the facts of
nature — in other words, to which each endeavors to
show that these facts conform — constitutes the basis
of his scientific or philosophic system. This is that, in
order to discover which the shapes and changes of the
universe have been examined by him. This is that
which, when discovered, he considers to be the truth.

That such is the case is exemplified by his treatment
not only of the forms of nature, but of the statements of
others representing what, before his time, they have
learned from these forms. It is exemplified in his treat-
ment even of verbal statements that he believes to con-
tain the truth. Take, for instance — because directly

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 15

in line with the chief object of our inquiry — the way
in which a Biblical scholar examines the text of the
Scriptures even when he considers it to be inerrant.
Is he satisfied to accept the surface-meaning of the text?
Does he not rather search beneath it, just as we have
found that scientists do when trying to discover the
truth through the forms of matter? He doubts, he
reexamines, and with any number of learned opinions
weighed against his own decision, not infrequently, he
ventures to uphold it. In doing this, he proves that he
believes that the truth, tho exprest in a form of
thought, is not identical with the form itself, but under-
neath it.

Now, underneath a form of thought, what is it that
must be considered before we can know the whole truth
that it expresses? When wise men hear a statement,
what is the chief criterion by which they test its credi-
bility? Is it not the circumstances in which it is ut-
tered, or to which it applies? And what are circum-
stances? Are they not things that stand around, that
come before, beside, or after? To regard a thing in
connection with its circumstances, what is this but to
regard it as a thing acted on, and thus as a thing that
is connected with other things that act — that is to say,
as in itself a part of a process, as in itself a constituent
element of an operation?

But an operation in its progress may pass through
many different phases. At any given time, each of
these phases in succession may represent the method

16 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF 1NSPIRA TION

operating through them all. If when the sun is on the
horizon, one affirm that in an hour it will be dark, he
may be saying what is true or false, true if it be evening,
false if it be morning. The truth or falseness which
is not determined by a similarity or difference in the
statement — is it not determined by the degree in which
the statement fits, or is true to methods as these really
operate in nature? In nature it grows dark at eve,
but not at dawn. Again, if one place a bud in the sun-
light, it becomes a flower; but if one place a flower
there, it withers. Therefore, in making a statement
concerning the effect of sunshine on the appearance of a
bush, he must regard the condition that it has reached
in the process of its growth. Once more, there is one
method of operation in religious life. But if a patriarch
in the early ages became religious, his impulse to duty
might have prompted him to multiply the number
of his wives (Deut. 25; 5-9). A similar impulse in
modern times may prompt a Christian to content him-
self with one wife; and in making statements concern-
ing the effects of religion on the lives of either of these
men, one must regard the circumstances in which each
is placed. These examples show that no one is fit to
judge of the truth if devoid of sufficient insight — to say
nothing of experience — to enable him to look beneath
the formula. Precisely similar statements may be true
or false even when applied to similar occurrences, if
these be manifested in different circumstances of time
or of place.

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 17

Nevertheless most men believe that there is such a
thing as absolute truth. But where is it, and when do
statements give expression to it? In the realm of na-
ture, the absolute seems to be suggested by a similar
method indicated through all the different phases which
different substances assume. The philosopher discovers
what he conceives to be the absolute so far alone as he
discovers this method into which all differences fit, or
to which they can all be manifested to be true. Why
should not the same principle apply universally?

This question will be recognized by all as having a
certain pertinence. But can the conception from
which it springs stand the test of analysis? Appro-
priate as this conception may be when the term truth
is used in an abstract and general sense, is it equally
so when used in a concrete and specific sense? The
answer to this question necessitates our taking up the
second topic mentioned at the opening of this chapter,
namely, men's conceptions of truth as indicated by
their dealings with what they suppose to be its sub-
stance— i.e., by what they think that they find when
they obtain it. When a man says that he has the
truth, or, to begin with the adjective, that a certain
thing is true, what does he mean? Primarily, the ad-
jective refers — does it not? — to that which conforms to
something, or fits it. Nothing is true, except as it is
true to some other appearance or conception with
which it is compared. This meaning is evident, even
when we use the term merely in contrast to the term

18 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

false. When we say that a door is true, indicating
that it is what it appears to be, that it is really a
door, and not an imitation of one, we mean that it
conforms, or is fitted, to that conception of a door
which we have in mind. In this use of the word true,
one might think that we were merely comparing ap-
pearances with supposed appearances; but notice that
we are also taking into consideration certain condi-
tions underlying the appearances, which conditions
cause the appearances, so to speak, to operate as they
do upon the eye. The comparison is between the
effect of a real door and the effect which some sup-
posed door might have upon some supposed spectator.
This, in some of its applications, is not an uncommon
use of the adjective. For instance, the sentence,
"John is his true name," implies a comparison be-
tween the effect of a certain form upon us in calling
to our thoughts or lips the word John and the effect
which some other form produces, or which John's sup-
posed form, if present, would produce upon a sup-
posed acquaintance.

But there are other possible ways of interpreting
this phrase, the door is true. It may mean that the
door corresponds in material, size, shape, color, or,
perhaps, in only one of these regards, to some other
doors which are near it. In these cases, too, it is evi-
dent that the comparison is not between appearances
except so far as they are considered effects produced
by certain like methods of operation upon the eye.

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 19

Or the phrase may mean that the door fits into its
doorway, or conforms to the architectural design of
the room or building in which it is seen; and, in this
case, there may be involved no likeness whatever in
the appearances as mere appearances. It is in the
effects which certain principles controlling the con-
struction of straight lines, angles, or curves have upon
both the door and its framework, or upon the door
and also upon the windows, cornices, and gables ac-
companying it. The word true, therefore, does not
imply necessarily a comparison between external forms
or appearances. Nor, again, does it imply necessarily
a comparison between the substances of which these
forms are compounded, because the constituent ele-
ments are often known to differ as widely as the con-
stituted appearances. A painting, for instance, may
be true to a hall in which it is hung. Every one of
the cases mentioned, however, does imply a corre-
spondence between conditions beneath the forms,
which conditions produce effects. Whatever produces
an effect, operates. If anything operate upon differ-
ent material elements in such a manner as to indicate
similarity, the similarity, which can not be in the mat-
ter of the elements, must be in the manner — in other
words, in the method of operation.

This statement will be rendered more apparent when
we apply the word true not to that which is made to
conform or to be fitted to material conditions, but to
mental conditions. A man's words or deeds, for ex-

20 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

ample, are said to be true to his opinions or character.
How can they be true to that which in itself is in-
visible? The visible can not conform to the invisible
in form or in substance. It must conform to it in the
manner, or in the method of operation. One says,
again, that the color upon a maiden's cheek is true.
By this he means that the flush or the pallor there is
produced according to a method that conforms to that
of nature — is not a result of mere painting or washing,
but is a result of the movement of the unseen blood
within the system; and, more than this often, that it
is conformed to unseen mental excitement or depres-
sion. This use of the term is revealed still more
plainly when we come to consider the possibility of
the existence in man of both a body and a soul. The
body is material; the soul, so far, at least, as we can
become acquainted with it, is immaterial. How now
can the bodily expression be true to the soul's ex-
perience? In formal appearance, frowns, gestures,
words, do not resemble anger, feeling, or thought.
Evidently the expression is true in the degree only in
which it represents, by way of analogy or correspond-
ence, the method in which one thought or feeling
succeeds another.

It may be asked, perhaps, if single words do not
often give expression to thoughts, and how it is that
a single word can represent a method of operation,
which term operation necessarily implies a process.
The answer is that a single word does not express

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 21

thought except so far as the word may be perceived
to be related in some way to a series of words. One
asks, "Do you love me?" The answer is "Yes," per-
haps; but this "yes" has no meaning, conveys no
thought, except to one acquainted with the previous
question. Then it is recognized to be a short way of
indicating the process which would be fully exprest by
saying, "I love you." A child, confronted with a
fearful sight, cries out, "Oh!" This "oh" conveys no
unmistakable meaning except to one who has knowl-
edge of its occasion. Then it is recognized to be an
effect of the process of thought or feeling started by
the fearful sight. The fact is that thoughts in the
mind invariably flow consecutively, one combination
of them following another. For this reason each com-
bination, except when exprest in an abbreviated form,
because this is supposed to be sufficient to suggest the
longer form, is invariably represented in what is
termed a sentence. A sentence always implies or ex-
presses a subject, a predicate, and an object. This is
true even where the predicate is a passive verb, be-
cause, in this case, the subject and object are the
same. A subject, a predicate, and an object indicate
a beginning of a movement, a movement, and an end
of it. A movement is an operation. Therefore every
sentence expresses an operation. And not only so,
but it expresses a method of operation. Sense is not
indicated simply by an order of sequence in words.
This order may differ in different languages, and even

22 THE PSYCHOLOGY OP INSPIRATION

in the same language. "If so, I will go," means ex-
actly the same as "I will go, if so." Sense is indi-
cated by the order of dependence in the words; that
is, by the method in which one word is made to affect
or to be affected by another. Accordingly, it may be
said that every sentence manifests a method of opera-
tion. Moreover, as this is manifested in language,
and as language is always representative of something
that is not language, the method of operation in the
words must be representative of one that takes place
in a sphere which is not that of words. If one say, "I
went there," he means that the method of operation
in his words represents the method of operation in his
deeds.

If the order of dependence of the words upon one
another — i.e., the method of operation indicated by
them — do not agree with the method in some other de-
partment which they are supposed to represent, we
have what is false. It may be made false either by
representing, as if it had existed, an operation that
has never taken place; or by misrepresenting an
operation that has taken place. In the latter case,
this might be done by substituting some fictitious sub-
ject, predicate, or object in place of one really por-
traying the conditions, or by inverting the order in
which one of these parts of the sentence should be
made to depend upon other parts. This is so evident
that it need not be illustrated.

Accordingly, we see that our use of the words true

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 23

and truth indicates conformity — based upon compari-
son— not alone to forms or to formulae, but to methods
of operation. If we say that a man is true to himself,
we seldom mean merely that his deeds or words com-
pare with other of his deeds or words. We usually
mean that the methods of operation in them compare
with methods of operation in others of them, or we
may mean not that they compare with words or deeds
at all, but that they compare with certain varieties
of mental operations which both represent, and which
take place in the dissimilar and non-apparent realm
of consciousness. If we say that a friend is true
to another, we seldom mean that this friend's face,
deeds, words, thoughts, feelings, or even wishes are
similar to the other man's. We may mean merely
that the friend, with his own face, etc., has a way of
acting in such a manner as to carry out the other
man's purposes. It is a law of life that one's actions
are so ordered as to secure his own welfare. If his
friend's actions be made to accomplish the same re-
sult, then this friend is true to him. When a man is
true to God, he is true to the character of God, as this
has been revealed to him through methods of opera-
tion in nature and in revelation. This thought will be
brought out more distinctly hereafter. At present we
need dwell no longer on what is indicated by the ad-
jective true. We have traced it from its lowest to its
highest signification. When attributed to any form,
material or imagined, of structure, deed, or word, the

24 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

adjective indicates that the form is conformed to an-
other form, with which, in whole or in part, in general
effect or in underlying conditions, it is compared.
The fact of conformity is made evident sometimes be-
cause the forms appear alike, by which we mean that
they operate similarly on the eye, ear, or some other
sense, or, at times, on the imagination regarding them.
The same fact is made evident at other times because,
while they do not appear alike, nevertheless they
manifest certain results of like methods which, in con-
nection with different existences, or, possibly, in dif-
ferent spheres of existence — one material and one
mental — have been operating to produce the appear-
ances.

Truth is the substance of that of which true is the
quality. As what is termed an expression, whether
made in a form of words or of deeds, of literary art or
of plastic art, can not invariably conform in form or
appearance to what is audible, visible, or tangible in
the external world, the truth in such an expression can
not be said to be determined invariably by anything
except the conformity of the method of the expres-
sion's operation upon the mind (whether influencing
intelligence or emotion) to the method of operation
(upon either the senses or the mind) indicated in ex-
isting external appearances or processes to which the
expression refers. In a similar way, the truth, when the
term is applied generically, is determined by the con-
formity of the method of the expression's operation

THE NATURE OF TRUTH 25

upon the mind to some one method of operation in
the universe, to which method all methods under par-
ticular appearances or processes are supposed to be
organically related. It is in this latter sense that the
truth can be said to be infinite, eternal, and absolute.

CHAPTER II

THE NATURE OF TRUTH AS INDICATED BY WHAT MEN
DO WHEN RECEIVING AND IMPARTING ITS INFLUENCE

Objections to the View Presented in the First Chapter— Truth, as
Exprest in Language, Should Not Be Confounded with the
Formula ; Illustrated from Methods of Interpreting the Bible —
Its History Noteworthy for the Methods of Life Which It Illus-
trates—Its Prophecies Valuable for Their Fulfilment Not Only,
but Applicability to Laws Operating Everywhere — Confirmation
of This Principle of Interpretation of the Bible in Its Explanations
— Its Arguments — Its Injunctions — Real Meaning Lost When
Truth Is Supposed to Be Conformed to Formulae Alone, and Not
Also to Methods of Operation— The Use of the Word Truth in the
Bible — Illustrations — Inferences — Truth Is Perceived in the Proc-
ess of Searching for It — Supposing Change Inconsistent with
Absoluteness in Truth Is a Source of Both Infidelity and Bigotry-
Right Views of Truth as a Corrective of These— The Truth in
Revealed and Natural Religion Connected with a Conception of
Method— One Recognizing This May Be a Friend to Both Progress
and Permanence — Inferences from the View Here Presented — A
Few Forms in Space May Reveal Universal Methods— One Mind
May Represent God— And One Life, if Full of Love— The Mission
of the Friend — Comfort in This Suggestion — The Changes of a Few
Moments May Reveal Universal Methods— Child or Man with
Short or Long Life May Both Have Experience of Them.

Before concluding the subject begun on page 10 it is
necessary to notice men's conceptions of the truth as in-
dicated by their dealings with its results — i.e., by what
they do when receiving or imparting its influence.
Some may not perceive how, if the truth be not identical
with a form of statement in a creed or a dogma, it can
affect thought or action in the degree in which it should.

SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT 27

They may find fault with a theory which seems to in-
volve a weakening not only of speculative doctrine,
but of practical faith, because lessening confidence in
those statements on which spiritual life must depend
for guidance. An endeavor will be made now to show
that this theory does not have the effect thus attributed
to it, but rather the opposite.

It seems to be a legitimate inference, from what has
been said already, that, to be rightly influenced by a
statement, we need to be influenced by something more
than the statement itself. But the same inference may
be drawn as a result of other considerations. For in-
stance, if truth were identical with a formula presenting
it, why would not one's wisdom be proportioned to his
memory? But of course it is not. Again, why is
candor necessary in order to attain success in an intel-
lectual investigation or charity in a religious one? How
can wise philosophers or earnest theologians, convinced
to the contrary, too, yield a conscientious toleration to
the views of their opponents? With what reason can
they, in their words as well as in their deeds, virtually
act upon the hypothesis that truth may be exprest
in statements diametrically opposed to those that they
themselves make? How could one affirm of two such
statements, "Both may be true," unless intending to
admit, and conscious that the one to whom the asser-
tion is addrest will just as readily admit, that by the
truth something is meant which is communicated
through the statement, but is not by any means iden-

28 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

tical with it. Or, to apply the same thought where, in
this connection, it will have the most significance — i.e.,
to the statements of creeds or dogmas of which mention
has just been made — what church is there that fails to
recognize the necessity, where one is to be influenced,
as he should be, by such statements, of that spiritual
discernment of which the Apostle Paul speaks when, in
1 Cor. 2; 14, he says that "the natural man receive th
not the things of the Spirit of God, . . . because they
are spiritually discerned"? What is spiritual discern-
ment? Let us consider it for a little, and, that there
may be no doubt as to its meaning, let us examine it
where there is the least possible opportunity of admit-
ting a difference between the phraseology and the mean-
ing which the phraseology is intended to convey; let us
apply it, that is, to the words of the Bible.

The greater portion, perhaps, of this book is com-
posed of history and prophecy. Who imagines that
the history in it is valuable chiefly on account of the
events related considered merely as events? Is it not
rather on account of the events considered as illustra-
tive of principles, illustrative — i.e., of the methods of the
divine government, of the modes according to which
spiritual laws operate ? Do commentators or do preach-
ers represent that the mere memory of the transactions
recorded in the book is more important than the morals
to be drawn from the transactions which, in the order
of their occurrence, indicate the methods of the usual
development of religious life? Are not the individuals

SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT 29

and the nations mentioned in the book understood to
be typical of other individuals and nations? Are not
their experiences recognized to be intended to reveal
primarily the methods in which doubt or faith and sin
or righteousness in every age and country are either
punished or rewarded? Is it not the revelation of these
methods that renders possible a sermon based upon a
story in the Bible? Is it not the possibility of our con-
forming our own lives to these methods that renders it
possible for us to be benefited by the truth derivable
from the story? Certainly the last four questions can
be answered in the affirmative. If not; the " higher
criticism" of the last two decades would not have been
able to persuade so many to acknowledge that the un-
scientific writers of the Bible could draw their lessons
from what are, possibly, mere traditions and legends,
and yet not impair one's faith in the spiritual truth
contained in them. Why should not truth be revealed
through them as well as through the purely imagined
figures used by David in his psalms, or the imagined
parables used by Jesus in his discourses?

The same principle applies to the prophecy of the
Bible. Of what special value to our time is it to be
told that Tyre or Sidon shall be destroyed on account
of wickedness? While comparing dates we learn, of
course, that these denunciations of the cities came be-
fore the destructions of them; and our faith in prophecy
may be strengthened by noticing the fact. Yet the
sole value of passages of this kind does not rest in such

30 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

an application of them; nor their chief value. Why do
men to-day read and reread these same passages? Why
does the clergyman preach about them? Is it not be-
cause it is felt that they have a significance for all time
as well as for the times in which they were uttered?
Do not methods of operation evidenced in prophecy
as well as in history repeat themselves? Altho certain
words used may have been uttered in denunciation of
particular cities, and fulfilled with literal exactness as
applied to them, may not the methods exprest in the
words be applied to every town or country in which
existing evils may provoke similar violence? The
world first learned of the philosophy of history from
Herder. The Church, if it had had but very little
of its treasured " spiritual discernment/ ' might have
learned of the same from Moses, and thus proved the
prestige which the children of eternity ought to have
over those of time.

Now let us turn from history and prophecy to those
parts of the Bible in which the Scriptural reasons for
the uses of both have been distinctly stated. How
ma.ny times, and in how clear language, are we informed
that certain persons and events are to be interpreted
representatively! How many times that Abraham,
Moses, Joshua, David, Jonah, are typical of the Christ!
How many times that the flood, the exodus, the wander-
ing in the wilderness, the lifting up of the serpent, are
emblematical of a universal method operating every-
where, and through which man can be delivered from

BIBLICAL ARGUMENTS 31

sin! How many times is the word Israel or Babylon
employed, not with literal exactness, but to indicate,
by way of metonymy, a class of people inclined to
righteousness or to unrighteousness!

Those parts of the Bible which are not devoted to
history or prophecy or explanations of their methods
of imparting truth may be classified under the head
either of arguments or of injunctions. Let us notice
what we can learn from these. Through arguments,
truth is demonstrated. Through injunctions, it is
merely stated. How is truth demonstrated in the
Bible? The Apostle Paul, whether writing to the
Romans or to the Hebrews, argues thus: " Abraham
believed God, and it was counted unto him for right-
eousness" (Rom. 4; 3). Through faith, Abel, Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, and countless others " obtained a good
report" (Heb. 11; 39). Therefore, if the Christian be-
lieve, his faith also shall be so counted, and he also shall
obtain a good report. And again, all that priests and
sacrifices of the former Testament accomplished, the
Christ of whom they were symbolical has accomplished
(Heb. 10; 12). Therefore the Christian, different as are
the forms of his religion, is saved according to the same
method. But evidently arguments of this kind have
no force whatever, except so far as it is recognized that
the truth of religion consists less in conformity to the
apparent form than to the method of operation which
this form exemplifies. Or let us recall the words of
the Christ. We are told that he never spake without

32 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

a parable (Mark 4; 34). How do parables present the
truth? By means of a parallel instance. They illus-
trate a principle applicable to one phase of life, through
pointing to the way in which it operates in another
real or fancied phase. They indicate the working of a
law in one department or development of nature,
through instancing its operation in a corresponding
department or development. And they have no force
whatever; they suggest no arguments at all, except so
far as mankind recognizes that there is a sense in which
to find the one method operating in all different de-
partments and developments of nature is to find the
truth. The words which caused the common people
to affirm that the Master spake "as one having author-
ity" (Matt. 7; 29) were almost invariably these state-
ments of parallels. " Behold the fowls of the air," he
said; " . . . your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are
ye not much better than they?" (Matt. 6; 26). "If
ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father which is in
heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
(Matt. 7; 11). "Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"
(Matt. 7; 16). Such were the statements of the Christ;
and not alone in his case, but from the time when he
stood upon the shores of Galilee, without one priest to
place a hand upon his head and ordain him as a messen-
ger of God, down to the present, in the cases of all men
whom the people hear with gladness, as they throng the

BIBLICAL INJUNCTIONS 33

halls of all the sects, statements in the form of parables
or parallels have had an influence beyond all others in
proving to men the presence of a mind that has pene-
trated to the sources of truth, and can reveal it. Why?
Because the masses have recognized the connection
between the truth and a method of operation applicable
universally.

From the arguments of the Bible let us turn now to
its injunctions. How are these presented? If its ar-
guments affirm conformity to like methods operating
beneath different effects which are mentioned, its in-
junctions imply this conformity. They refer to one
series of effects that necessarily suggests another. In-
deed, one could almost assert that that which mainly
causes the Scriptural precepts to be accepted by so
many with the authority of absolute truth is this fact.
They are precepts which it can be said that men of
every age and place, the Hindu and the Hottentot,
the Englishman and the Egyptian, can recognize to be
truthful. The more they search the book, too, the
more they find in it passages that can apply to al-
most every series of their own experience and of their
neighbors7, and equally well to almost every series of
events in the history of the human race and of the
material world. Upon whatever ground a man may
base his confidence in the Bible, the testimony of every
thoughtful mind, the implication of every Scriptural
discourse, the confession of every new convert, proves
that a main source of Scriptural authority lies in the

v \

34 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

fact which Coleridge stated when he said, "It finds
me." Here is a book which satisfies the wants of
human souls, just as the earth about one satisfies the
wants of human bodies. The force of the argument of
Coleridge is derived from the inference that the Power
which made man must have made the world, and that
inasmuch as the precepts of the Bible accord with the
laws which operate in the world they must accord with
the purposes of this Power. It would be difficult to
recall a single Biblical statement of a spiritual truth
which can not be illustrated by showing the applica-
tion of the methods which it indicates to the methods
operating in the realms of intellect and of physics.
For instance, take a passage like the following:
"Quench not the Spirit" (1 Thess. 5; 19). The an-
alogy is obvious. Pour not water on fire. Extinguish
not the life of one element by adding another hostile
to it. Do not drive away spirituality by bringing in
worldliness.

There are other cases in which the method indicated
is less easy to recognize. In these we need to remem-
ber this — that truths are simply finite, transient, and
concrete embodiments of the truth which is infinite,
eternal, and absolute; and that in order to perceive
the latter in a given formula, we must distinguish it
from what is merely finite, transient, and concrete.
For example, take a statement like the following:
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved" (Acts 16; 31). The truth that is to influence

TRUTH IN THE METHOD 35

us in this is either in the concrete transient formula,
or in the absolute, eternal method of operation indi-
cated by the formula. But if it be in the formula, we
can not reconcile the statement with such statements
as the following, which also are in the Bible: " Abra-
ham believed God" — without the words Jesus Christ
added — "and it was counted unto him for righteous-
ness" (Rom. 4; 3); "In every nation he that feareth
him, and worketh righteousness" — without mention of
believing— "is accepted" (Acts 10; 35); "These, hav-
ing not the law" — without any reference even to a
knowledge of Jesus Christ — "are a law unto them-
selves" (Rom. 2; 14). Accordingly we must conclude
that the absolute, eternal truth in the phrase, "Be-
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved," is less in the formula than in the method in-
dicated by it. This method grows clear to a finite
mind in the proportion in which it is translated into
finite terms, or, better, is made definite. These two
words, Jesus Christ, are intended to remind one of
what that person said and did when representing, so
far as this was possible in a human form, the char-
acter of the deity. To one who recalls the method of
the representation, the words make the injunction well-
nigh infinitely clearer to comprehension. He should
guard against thinking, however, that they are more
important than the method which they are intended
to illustrate. The words are definitive and not in-
finitive. The absolute and eternal truth which they

36 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

are used in order to make clear is the need of having
faith in spiritual supervision, love, or aid. In every
phase of natural life, all persons who are compara-
tively ignorant, weak, and sinful need to trust for
guidance in the wise, the strong, and the loving, and,
for the highest guidance, in the highest wisdom,
strength, and love, hence in the deity. To define this
method of salvation by annexing the words Jesus
Christ to the statement, and causing us to think of
what he said and did, may communicate good tidings
to the souls who otherwise might have too vague no-
tions of the unseen deity; but it does not, save in a
negative sense, communicate bad tidings to the souls
who can not, or who do not, know of the definition
which makes the infinite truth more finite. Con-
sidered in relation to the context and with an accu-
rate conception of the meaning of the words believe,
saved, and Jesus Christ, the passage quoted expresses
a truth fundamental to all religious character and
charity. But divorced from its connection, no one
can know that believe means more than intellectual
assent, or saved more than mere comfort in this world,
or Jesus Christ more than the being who is sending
people to perdition in Michelangelo 's picture of the
"Last Judgment."

Once more, not only in the history, prophecy, argu-
ments, and injunctions of the Bible do we find that
the truth which men are to accept and obey involves
conformity to a method of operation, but also, and in

TRUTH AS LIFE 37

the clearest light, in passages in which the sacred
writers have employed the word truth. The Bible
does indeed apply the term to language. "I tell you
the truth/7 said Jesus (John 16; 7). But what was
this truth? If it were something that he could illus-
trate by one of the parables which he was constantly
using, then it was a method. Moreover, he said not
only, "I tell you the truth," but also (John 14; 6) "I
am the truth"; and one can not account for such a
use of terms unless conceiving of the truth as some-
thing different from words, tho, of course, it may also
include them.

What did the Christ mean by the expression? What
could he have meant except that he conceived of him-
self as the truth just as all nature is the truth — con-
ceived of himself as a representative of the character of
the Creative Power? But how is character represent-
ed? Always through methods of operation. "What is
truth?" asked Pilate of Jesus (John 18; 38); and was
answered — in not the words but the deeds of the Master
—that one acts according to the methods of truth when
long-suffering and self-sacrificing. "I am the way,"
said Jesus, "the truth, and the life" (John 14; 6). What
is a way but a method? What is a life but a progress
according to a method? The Apostle, looking down
that way, enjoined upon his followers to "walk in love,
even as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given him-
self for us an offering and a sacrifice to God" (Eph. 5;
2). "For I rejoiced greatly," said John, "when the

38 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee,
even as thou walkest in the truth " (3 John 3); and
again, "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but
in deed and in truth" (1 John 3; 18). To walk "in the
truth" and to love "in the truth" must mean to pur-
sue a certain method. Again, when the Christ says,
"Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice"
(John 18; 37), he must refer to every one whose feel-
ings, thoughts, and deeds accord with his own — to
every one in active sympathy with his methods of life.
All such passages— and they might be multiplied
greatly — show that, so far as the nature of abstract or
religious truth can be judged by what the writers of
Scripture believed to be its results, it is not identical
with a formula; nor can it be communicated orpossest
by one who apprehends it merely as this. A formula
can be accepted by the intellect alone. It can be
mastered, once for all, by a single act of memory; and
can exert its full influence when obeyed solely accord-
ing to the letter. Only as we may suppose that the
truth is not in the letter but in the method, the prin-
ciple, the spirit exprest through the letter, can we in-
terpret intelligently such Scriptural passages as have
been quoted. Only as we may suppose this can we
understand why such effects should result as these
passages claim. No truth except that which is sup-
posed to be in methods rather than in statements can
characteristically oblige a man to think in order to per-
ceive it, and to work in order to accept it. Why but to

STRIVING FOR TRUTH 39

emphasize these latter effects of the truth and the
importance of them are we told that the publican,
who smites upon his breast and sighs out, "God be
merciful to me a sinner/' tho he may not have fulfilled
many a requirement of a formal law, should be com-
mended rather than the Pharisee, tho he may have left
not one jot or tittle of this law unfulfilled? The pub-
lican yearns for higher conceptions and attainments.
He lives according to true methods, and so has the
truth. The Pharisee is content with what he possesses
already. He does not live according to true methods.
He does not have the truth (Luke 18; 10-14).

Let, then, the souls so often blamed because they
look away from what they have, and search on every
side of them for more, toil on! Their toil, tho it
may gain them little to be touched or seen, may yet
develop life in them. Each sigh may force still farther
from their breasts the poisonous breath of error, each
aspiration draw still nearer them the inspiring air of
heaven. There is so much more truth on the earth
than mortals can imagine possible! When Lessing
said, "Did the Almighty, holding truth in his right
hand and search for truth in his left hand, tender me
the one that I should prefer, I should ask for the search
for truth"; when Malebranche affirmed, "If I held
truth a captive in my hand, I would let it fly that I
might once more chase it, and capture it," they spoke
far more the wisdom of the heart than of the head.
The truth held in one's hand? The absolute, eternal

40 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

truth? Can it be handled — all of it? Is not often the
effort of obtaining it, the method of discovering it, its
most important factor? If this be so, it is through the
desire for this truth, and not in any sating of the desire,
that it can be possest. This is the reason why —

" There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds."

In Memoriam: Tennyson.

To the spirit, progress is more acceptable than a pre-
cept, life than a tale that is told. Through struggle
men experience development, and doubt that leads to
struggle is a means of grace. The moment of the
Christ's intensest doubt came just before the greatest
victory of his faith. The cry, "My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27; 46) was the minor
prelude preceding the triumphant cadence, "It is
finished "(John 19; 30).

Even the very infallible unchangeableness of which
dogmatism sometimes boasts may be in itself a ground
for grave suspicion. Is it the sign of a living thing to
stand unmoved for centuries amid the shifting seasons
of the world's advance? — to fix the gaze of greatest ad-
miration on the past? — to find the holiest ideal there,
and to long for the superior sanctity of that which has
been buried? Did ever painter yet depict one faintest
realization of a living faith in which the face was not
turned toward the future? What is the influence that
sways the individual or the community whose aim is
sought amid the smoke of centuries consumed? Re-

TRUTH AND PROGRESS 41

member Lot's wife! There is a civilization beautiful
to look upon which may be a monument of what?
Of death — possibly of damnation. It is a question
whether, without being crusht and killed, a living
thing — and truth, according to the Scriptural represen-
tation, is surely this — can ever be confined for long in a
single unchanged mould; whether a root having any
life at all will not necessarily have enough of force to
bend and crack and cast aside whatever urn of worldly
manufacture may surround it. Has not every age had
experience enough to be taught that previous ages held
too firmly to the form, that changes in the form do not
affect the substance of the truth? Why then should
each new phase of truth be met with the same old folly
of opposing it? Why should a theoretical misconcep-
tion, as foolish as the child's that takes the mask for
the man, cause all those mournful, yet quixotic, cru-
sades that tend to persecution, if they do not end in
martyrdom? In the world of nature, once at least in
every year, the white snows melt upon the mountains;
and the gleaming ice upon the streams is heaved up,
rent apart, and swept away. Why, now and then,
should not like changes be expected in the world of
thought? Why should not men anticipate a breaking
up and disappearing of formal aspects, however bright
and beautiful, however appropriate and satisfactory
they may have seemed in their own now long past
season? But what men might expect and should ex-
pect, they will not; and when these changes come —

42 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

alas for such as base their confidence on forms alone!
Like those that pitch their tents upon the shifting
sands of a flooding stream, they find all things about
them trembling, crackling, sinking; and in the sudden
frenzy of bewilderment it often happens that the very
voice most boastful of unwarranted credulity becomes
most blatant of an equally unwarranted despair.
"Truth is a form," says one. "Forms change. This
fact is patent. Therefore truth must change. There
can be no enduring ground of certainty; by conse-
quence, no faith. At best, the truth consists alone in
sincerity to personal conviction" — and, arguing thus,
he ends by having no conviction. "Truth," says an-
other, "is immutable and eternal; it can not change,
and, therefore, forms should not. No change can be
compatible with faith whose essence is submission to
external standards. Accordingly the Church must hold
to these implicitly, and, if it have occasion, must en-
force them by the exercise of its authority" — and,
arguing thus, he ends by exercising, as if in its behalf,
his own authority alone. The first man goes astray
because he has perceived an operation changing the for-
mula, but, while perceiving this, has failed to recognize
that in the method of the operation lies the truth; the
second goes astray because he has observed a method,
but has looked upon a single aspect of it as a mould to
which all future aspects are to be conformed. He does
not view it as only the outward and the transient phase
of that which in its inward self alone is enduring.

TRUTH AND SINCERITY 43

But he who apprehends that truth involves con-
formity to a method of operation, and that the truth
involves conformity to one eternal, absolute method,
need not fall the prey of either of these errors. Merely
because he perceives nothing but the changeable in
formula, he need not imagine that there is no perma-
nent truth at all exprest in them, nor that, by conse-
quence, the truth which all men and the Bible exalt,
and for which he himself is striving, consists in mere
sincerity. Sincerity is truth to self — a true expression
in outward speech and manner of the processes of
thought, feeling, and volition experienced within.
But a life in accordance with the truth, altho implying
this, may include much more. It may include an ex-
pression, not alone in outward bearing, but in inward
life as well — in processes of thought, feeling, or volition,
whatever they may be — that accords with that which
is understood by the term the absolute. So far alone
as the laws of the absolute are " written upon one's
heart" is sincerity to self sufficient. But otherwise, if
one's inward life do not accord with methods of the uni-
verse, he may be true to himself and yet not be true to the
methods operating through all time and in every place.

As shown on page 31, the Apostle to the Gentiles, in
order to prove faith the attitude of soul acceptable to
God, felt constrained to prove that this was that
through which in every period of their history the
Israelites had been saved.* And is there any one who

* Rom. 1; 17, quoting Hab. 2; 4. Rom. 4; 3, quoting Gen. 15; 6.

44 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

fails to recognize the force of an argument which shows
the methods of one system of religious life to be not
different, but similar to methods which have been recog-
nized in part in every other system? However this
may be, the truth of the Biblical religion — what is it
except conformity to the methods of life equally ap-
parent in the individual experience of religious men
both before and after the coming of the Christ? The
truth of natural religion — what is it but conformity to
the methods equally apparent in the development of
the soul and of the forms of physical life by which it is
surrounded?

He who recognizes these conceptions can be a friend
both to progress and to permanence. He can argue,
on the one hand, that the forms of truth may change,
and he can maintain, upon the other, that the methods
working underneath these forms must remain the same.
He can perceive the shifting of the scenery upon the
stage of life without supposing that the stage itself is
shifting. He can note the curtain falling without
imagining that it is falling upon everything that he
should treasure. He can cease to hear the murmurs
of applause, and can watch the retiring of the audience,
without surmising that all the joys in store for him are
left behind. He knows that, tho he may no longer see
the forms or listen to the words that represented to him
once all that appeared to be the truth, this does not in-
dicate that the truth itself does not exist. He knows
that while forms do not and can not last forever, the

TRUTH AND CHANGE 45

methods of operation whose phases they represent may
and must endure; and that in them can endure that
absolute verity to which all men, in exercising faith,
acknowledge their allegiance.

To certain readers conceptions such as these may
appear too vague and insecure. Their minds are finite,
and they crave the definite; and not a few of them may
wish to walk by knowledge, not by faith. Yet others
are not so. To them the suggestions here presented
will be welcome not alone, but stimulating. For so
far as the absolute truth is conceived to be conformity
to a single method operating everywhere, so far it will
appear not speculative but logical to infer that for a
man to know with thoroughness a single mind and a
single world may be the same, in kind tho not in degree,
as to know the mind of God and of all the universe; and
this not in a pantheistic or materialistic sense, but in a
spiritual sense, inasmuch as God reveals his character in
each as well as in all ; inasmuch as his laws are the laws
of one whose wisdom is so absolute that his wise meth-
ods need no alteration.

To know one mind may be the same in kind as to
know God! Is not this a conception almost radiant
with suggestions? Was it not thus that Jesus, the man,
could be for us the image of the invisible God, the ex-
pression of his character, and hence the truth? But
the Christ was said to be an elder brother — the first-
born among many brethren (Rom. 8; 29). Had he-
has he — brethren? Then others besides the Christ can

46 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

represent the Godhead. If so, when can they do this?
It must be when they live according to the truth, and
when also they feel impelled to express to us with truth
the thoughts and feelings actuating them. But in what
circumstances do they feel impelled to this? Is any
mortal really frank except among his friends? Is he
truthful save so far as he is loving? Perfect love alone
casts out the fear that causes diffidence. It alone
prompts one to surrender wilfulness to spontaneity.
It alone enables him to dare to open all his heart to one
who listens at his side. But ordinary men can live the
truth only at intervals, or express it to only a single
soul. The Christ is claimed to be the truth at all times
and to every one. If this claim be justified, he must
have loved all. In the words, ' ' I am the truth, ' ' he gave
the profoundest expression of this love. He could not
have been the one save as he had the other. So to
thoughtful minds the simplest fact of his history is
equally significant with the Crucifixion to which the
Church has chiefly called attention; only men are gross,
and need the physical, material expression.

Yet again, it has been shown that truth is possest in
the degree alone in which it is lived, experienced. The
love, accordingly, which causes others to be frank is
efficient in imparting truth to us in the degree alone in
which it affects ourselves. Thus do the laws of the
mind necessitate the methods of Christianity. Christ
was the truth, but only those who are "of the truth
hear" his "voice" (John 18; 37). Only those who do

TR UTH AND 1 0 VE 47

the Father's will can "know of the doctrine" (John
7; 17). Our friend may open to our view the workings
of his heart; but it is friendship, love, awakened in our-
selves in view of that which he reveals, which measures
our appreciation and appropriation of his experience.
Not so much, then, the one that merely is loved knows
of the godlike in a man, and hence of God; but "every
one that loveth . . . knoweth God" (1 John 4; 7).

And who can say that he has never had a friendship,
a merely human friendship too, in which there were
experiences akin to this ; from which there were emitted
sane tify ing influences like those which might accom-
pany the revelations of a God? Those happy faces
that still flit before us whenever we recall the fresher
days of youth; those friends who met us in the years
when our whole souls were yearning for the knowledge
of the godlike; those who held to our ideals so bright a
love that we could never keep our thoughts from it;
those in the sunshine of whose smiles truth, that no
longer felt the wintry influence of frigid frowns, broke
into buds upon our lips and flowered all round them in
our blushes — were they not the dearest messengers
to teach our souls of God? "Every one that loveth
. . . knoweth God." And was not this — the knowl-
edge of God's self — the fond possession that made our
blood so thrill in all our pulses, that made our souls so
tremble as if in ecstasy to shake off the robes of matter,
nay, that made this old earth here itself a heaven? If
we knew God, indeed, what further blessing could ex-

48 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

istence furnish us? And would not all the blessedness
of such a state be owing to a mood which friendship
had developed in us? " Every one that loveth . . .
knoweth God."

There certainly is comfort to an earnest mind in con-
ceiving that the truth, with all its infinite essence, may
be learned through knowledge of some single phase
of it; that a single world may teach us of the universe,
a single man, of God; that we may find, tho not in an
exclusive sense, our heaven in our household, and our
God himself in every friend — in the least of all his
children who is hungry and is fed by us, and is thirsty
and is given drink by us (Matt. 25; 35-40).

The range of truth, however, by considerations such
as these, is simplified, not only in the realms of space,
but also in the realms of time. The experiences of life
are granted us that we may learn the truth through
them. How long must life be ere we shall have learned
it thoroughly? The insect that can flutter through
its brief existence in a day can experience birth and
growth and death as truly as the mastodon. A few
words or a few deeds may reveal to us the character of
a friend. Through them we may learn his methods
of believing, feeling, doing ; through them we may learn
the truth concerning him. A few words from the
book of revelation, a few evolutions in the works of
nature — why may they not reveal to us, with equal
certainty, the character of him who is the eternal, the
infinite, and the absolute?

TRUTH AND LIFE 49

When the Christ declared that every one who was
of the truth would hear his voice, whom did he mean
to mention? Only souls that could speak wisely of a
long experience? Only the men whose feeble feet had
traveled through the whole hard path of life, whose
limbs were tottering on the borders of a grave from
which, perhaps, they shrank • in fear of an offended
Deity? Did he not mean the little children also, who,
perhaps, could not articulate a sound, whose limbs
were tottering too, but not from heaviness, and who
shrank too, but not from that sweet face which had
gazed upon them through harsh crowds that would
have kept them back from him? The eternal, the in-
finite, and the absolute truth — think not that a mor-
tal's share of it can be measured in the scales of time
or of space. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand
years " (2 Pet. 3; 8). The soul of a little child that dies
is riper than we think, perhaps. Some of the smallest
in the graveyards may have lived the truth in a deeper
sense than those whom men call great. Are any of us
certain that it would have been worse for us had we died
early? Is there not much promise in a promise of per-
petual youth? Are not the cherub faces crowded on
the canvas of the artist a vague prophecy of some
superior joyousness and beauty in the children who go
forth to live as children evermore within the realms
of spirit? How is it with mortals when they linger
longer here? Let withering lips and deathlike coun-
tenances tell. We have our good things — Heaven

50 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

forgive us that we call them good! — on earth. And
is this wretched and distorted lie into which the earth
has shaped so many of us, to speak and do and be our-
selves forever? And if we be not satisfied with what
this world can make of us, if we rebel against it, what
comes then? To the Christ, who spake, and did, and
was the truth, the world cried, " Crucify him! crucify
him!" It is so with many still. For them to speak
the truth is death to influence, to do the truth is death
to position, and to be the truth — this is to complete
the aim of life. It is to be sacrificed, to die, and to live
in spirit only. Yet this fate may not be without its
compensations. In the last address of the Christ to his
disciples — the same in which he prophesied his coming
Crucifixion — he also said, " These things have I spoken
unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full" (John 15; 11).

CHAPTER III

THE MIND'S SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SPIRITUAL OR INSPIRA-
TIONAL, AS CONTRASTED WITH MATERIAL, INFLUENCES

To What Men Refer When Using the Term Inspiration— When Using
the Term Spiritual — Considered an Influence Not Traceable to the
Conscious Sphere of the Mind — But Traceable to or Through an
Inner or Subconscious Sphere — Proofs of the Existence of This
Sphere, as in Memory, Fright, Fever, Hypnotism — Subconscious
Philosophical and Mathematical Intellection — Resulting from
Previous Conscious Action, as in Skill — Not Resulting from
Previous Conscious Action : Coburn, Mozart, Blind Tom — Sub-
conscious Diagnosis of Disease at a Distance — Subconscious
Apprehension of Distant Occurrences — Both in Space and Time —
Mind-Reading — Automatic Writing — Apparitions — Connection
Between Such Facts and Belief in a Future State of Rewards and
Punishments — Often Attributed to Natural Material Causes —
Should Be Attributed to Influences from Nature's Occult Side
— Shown in Susceptibility of the Primitive, Uneducated Man to
Such Influences— Instinct and Reason— Instinctive and Rational-
Instinctive and Religious — Instinctive and Animal — Story of the
Fall — The Mental Actions of Animals — Of Negroes, Indians, and
Those Subject to Hallucinations, with Inferences Therefrom—
Like Inferences with Reference to the Origin of Religion Drawn
from Primitive Religious Customs — With Growth of Intelligence,
Physical Occult Manifestations Are Considered Less Important
Than Verbal— But the Verbal Continue to Be Associated with
Subconscious Intellection.

We have been considering the nature of truth as
determined by that which men show that they seek
when searching for it, by that which they suppose them-
selves to find when obtaining it, and by that which they
do when receiving or imparting its influence. The ob-
ject of this volume is to inquire into the nature, not

52 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

only of truth in general, but of that particular depart-
ment of it — already discust to some extent, but not
fundamentally — which is termed the truth of inspira-
tion. It becomes incumbent upon us now, therefore,
in accordance with the purpose indicated on page 9,
to gain a clear understanding, if we can, of what is
meant by inspiration. The word itself may indicate
in part an answer to this question. Those using and
justifying the term believe in an inner as distinguished
from an outer influence exerted upon the mind, and at-
tributable to a spiritual source. They may acknowl-
edge that a man may be inspired in connection with
what he hears or sees, as by a patriotic song or a flag ;
but they do not acknowledge any necessary or inevitable
connection between the external object and the effect.
They point out that another man, standing by the side
of the first, might be conscious of no inspiring influence ;
and also that vast numbers of those subject to this
influence experience it irrespective of any appeal what-
ever to any of the senses; and the source of this appeal,
because not necessitating, in order to make itself felt,
any such material agency, is termed spiritual.

This term spiritual, as thus used, is very broad and
varied in its meaning. But one fact may be said to be
uniformly true of it. It always refers to an effect ex-
perienced within the mind, which effect, tho it may be
an indirect result, is never a direct result of anything
seen, heard, felt, smelt, or tasted in the external world.
Some, however, conceive of the effect as not external

INSPIRATION 53

or material in the sense only of being mental — i.e., as
having been derived or developed in one's own mind.
Others — and well-nigh all religionists — conceive of the
effect as one produced, without the necessary inter-
vention of the senses, by one mind upon another.
They differ, however, when trying to determine what
or whose mind it is that produces the effect. One
holds that it is the mind of some person now living upon
the earth; another, of some spirit that formerly lived
upon the earth; another, of some intelligence of a differ-
ent order from any that has ever lived upon the earth;
and, finally, another, that it is the mind of the Deity.
The first may be said to be, in the main, the view of the
mere psychologist; the second, the view of the modern
spiritist; the third, the view of some spiritists, and of
many Christians, especially Catholics; and the fourth,
the view of the majority of orthodox Protestants. The
Bible, in mentioning the effects of the Apostles' preach-
ing (Acts 17; 1-4), the reappearances of Moses and
Elias (Matt. 17; 3), and the appearances of angels of
God (Acts 27; 23), as well as of the Lord (Jer. 31; 3),
and of God (2 Chron. 1 ; 7), seems to sanction all four
views. Even this fact, however, tho acknowledged,
does not reconcile the conservative Christian to spirit-
ism. Because of the passage in Rev. 22; 18, "For I
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this Book, If any man shall add unto
these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that
are written in this Book/7 which passage is taken to

54 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

refer not merely to the Book of the Revelation, but to
the whole Scriptures, he maintains that all that can
be rightly deemed inspired revelation has ceased. To
account, however, for cases in which new doctrines
have apparently been proclaimed, some Episcopalians
and all Catholics hold that certain officials of the Church,
individually, or assembled in lawful councils, are di-
vinely guided to interpret the " truth once delivered"
(Jude, 3); and are sometimes inspired to develop it
even to the extent, in connection with councils of the
Church, of giving it unf ore tokened meanings. This
attributing of inspired authority to develop the truth
is paralleled by a somewhat similar authority attributed
by Mohammedans, Mormons, and New Churchmen to
their respective religious leaders. It is worth while to
notice also that even some who profess to believe that
revelation is no longer imparted through inspiration,
nevertheless seem inclined to judge the trustworthi-
ness of those who interpret the traditional doctrines by
tests suggesting a different opinion. Some Presby-
terians have a subtle belief in the inspiration of the
answer in the Westminister Catechism to the question,
"What is God?" because this answer was originally
composed of the first few unpremeditated words of a
prayer that ended a discussion in which no one had
been able to think out a satisfactory definition. It is
doubtful whether there are not a large number of in-
telligent people who have in them a little of the same
feeling that made the old Seventh-day-Baptist min-

INSPIRATION 55

isters, after reaching their pulpits, open their Bibles
and take the first text to which a casual undirected
finger would point. We have probably all heard of
one of their sermons — on Cant. 2; 12. "The voice of
the turtle is heard in our land " — " Brethren, you know
the turtle ain't got no voice. But on a summer evening
as you're a-walkin' a-nigh the pools, you hear the
turtles a-droppin' off the logs into the water. The
voice of the turtle is the sound of a droppin' into the
water, the sound of a baptism, the sound of a joinin' of
the Church — that's the sound of the good time comin7."
It must be owing, too, to some belief in present relig-
ious inspiration that, to-day, the most popular ideal
of a distinctively religious teacher, to say nothing of a
prophet, excludes anything supposed to call particular
attention to his own conscious intellection, or even to
his own intellect. He may possess, and add to his in-
fluence by possessing, accuracy of observation, breadth
of information, and brilliancy of style, but it is felt that
the value of his work does not depend mainly upon
them. He is supposed to be guided to his utterance
by a spiritual agency that works within him, and
which can, occasionally, make the words of an ignorant
fisherman or a weak child as enlightening and uplifting
as those coming from the lips of the most learned scholar
and skilful advocate.

Such facts as these are sufficient to indicate among
religionists a belief in an inner or occult sphere of the
mind which can be influenced in other ways than

56 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

through the senses. Let us notice now some of the
proofs that may be adduced in order to confirm this
belief. To begin with, all philosophers admit — tho
they may explain differently — the existence of this
occult mental sphere. Of its operations, a man is
ordinarily unconscious; and of its results he can know
so far only as they may influence another sphere of
which he is ordinarily conscious. So different, in fact,
are the operations in these two spheres, often engaged,
as we shall find, in carrying on at the same time two
different processes of thought (see page 62), that they
have been termed — tho, of course, not with scientific
exactness, as the reader will understand whenever sug-
gestions of this are made hereafter — two minds, namely,
the conscious and the subconscious, which latter term
is used to indicate a mind of some of the results of
which we are conscious, but of the processes of which
we are unconscious. It is noteworthy, too, that, even
in the physical frame, there are indications of duality
in the mental constitution. Not only are there two
separate lobes in the brain, each apparently containing
a separate set of mental organs, but there are two
systems of nerves connecting the brain with the rest of
the body. It has not been proved that, of the two lobes
in the brain, one is the seat of conscious and the other
of subconscious action; but this has been proved of the
two sets of nerves. Those of the cerebrospinal system,
which move the hands, limbs, and the facial and vocal
organs, are controlled by conscious action; those of

THE SUBCONSCIOUS SPHERE OF MIND 57

the sympathetic system, which move the circulatory
and digestive organs, are controlled by subconscious
action. To complete the correspondence, as prepara-
tory to observing the way in which the conscious and
the subconscious spheres often work conjointly, it is
well to notice, also, that there are certain movements,
like winking and breathing, which can be carried on
both consciously and unconsciously.

In considering these two spheres of mental activity
and the relations between them, it is unnecessary to
dwell upon the sphere of which we are conscious. But
it is important, for a proper realization of all the bear-
ings upon religion of that which we are now discussing
to develop, for a little, certain facts and inferences with
reference to the subconscious sphere. The facts with
which we are most familiar are afforded, perhaps, by
memory. The mind is constantly recalling experi-
ences of which it has been so thoroughly oblivious that
they have been supposed to have been lost. But
equally conclusive evidences of the same subconscious
possibility may be furnished by other mental processes.
When trains of thought are conducting to conclusions
with the rapidity of lightning, what is the mind doing
but making use of stores not only, but of methods that
are not outside of it but in it, and yet are hidden so
deeply in it as to be beyond the reach of any conscious
control? In normal mental action we are only partly
aware of the extent and importance of these stores,
and may be startled to hear it stated that, probably,

58 THE PSYCH OL OGY OP INSP1RA Tl Otf

nothing whatever that a man has ever seen, heard,
touched, tasted, smelled, or, by the slightest practise,
developed into the suggestion of a habit, is lost, but
remains indelibly imprest upon the intellect and
character. Nevertheless such seems to be the case.
Captain Frederick Marryat, author of "The Adventures
of a Naval Officer," relates that at one time he jumped
into the sea to save a sailor's life, and, on rising, found
himself in the midst of blood, giving evidence of the
presence of a shark. Between that moment and the
moment almost immediately following, when he was
rescued, he reexperienced, according to his story, about
everything that he had ever done or said or thought.
Coleridge states, in his "Biographia Literaria," that in
a German village near Gottingen a young woman,
twenty-five years of age, who could neither read nor
write, was seized with a fever. While in this state she
kept constantly repeating Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
Her physician, being of a scientific turn, traced back
her history. He found that she had once been a serv-
ant in the house of a Protestant pastor. This man
had been in the habit, while walking up and down in a
passage into which the kitchen opened, of reading in a
loud voice Latin, Greek, and rabbinical Hebrew.
Many of the very phrases, which the physician had
taken down in writing at her bedside, were found in
the rabbinical books in this man's library.

Results analogous to these — occasioned, as will be
noticed, in the one case by fright and in the other by

HYPNOTISM 59

fever — may be produced by hypnotism. That hypno-
tism exists as a fact, no one informed with reference
to the subject now thinks of denying. An influence
that can enable a patient, without being conscious of
pain, to have a tooth pulled or a limb amputated is a
reality. An influence, not induced by another, but
apparently self-induced by nervous excitement, which
can cause our Southern negroes in revival meetings to
fall down as if dead, and fail to feel pins vigorously
stuck into them — a fact which many have confirmed —
is a reality. This much being conceded to hypnotic
influence, perhaps it should be added here, in prepara-
tion for several references that will be made to the
subject hereafter, that there is every reason for sup-
posing that the immediate effect of the condition, like
that of fright and of fever, is physical rather than, as
sometimes supposed, mental. It may be described as
a method of putting the conscious body and, through
it, the conscious sphere of the mind to sleep. When
this has been done, that which is in subconsciousness
may be made to wake up, and to take charge of the
body's organs of expression. But there is no proof
that hypnotism does any more than furnish an oppor-
tunity, availing itself of which the subconscious can
exercise its influence in a way normal to itself, yet not
ordinarily observed because hidden behind the activi-
ties of consciousness. The germs of thought from
which the conceptions of the hypnotic patient are de-
veloped are often very elementary in character. Sub-

60 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

jects possessing no oratorical gifts, for instance, are
told to personate some famous public speaker, and
at once they set out, and, with apparent ease, deliver
addresses closely resembling not only in method but in
phraseology some speech of this man which they have
previously heard or read, tho only in an extremely
superficial and heedless way. The author himself
knows of a reasonably authentic instance, being per-
sonally acquainted with all the parties concerned, in
which — tho in the presence, indeed, of one familiar
with the Italian language, which fact may have in-
fluenced the result — a man who knew nothing of this
language, when hypnotized by another, who also knew
nothing of it, was made to sing, with correct Italian
words and pronunciation, a song which the subject had
heard but once, and this years before.

This occult action of the mind, of which we are
speaking, is not confined, however, to memory. If it
were, its results could all be allied to the ordinary phe-
nomena of recollection, of which it would merely be an
unusual development. Similar action is evident in
connection with logical and mathematical processes,
and even with those involving skill, which would
appear, at first thought, especially dependent upon
conscious direction. Von Hartmann, in his " Philoso-
phy of the Unconscious," as translated by W. C. Coup-
land, quotes this passage from Jessen's "Psychology":
"When we reflect on anything with the whole force of
our mind, we may fall into a state of entire unconscious-

SUBCONSCIOUS INTELLECTION 61

ness, in which we not only forget the outer world, but
also know nothing at all of ourselves and the thoughts
passing within us. After a shorter or longer time, we
then suddenly awake as from a dream, and usually at
the same moment the result of our meditation appears
clearly and distinctly in consciousness without our
knowing how we have reached it. Also, in less severe
meditation, there occur moments in which a perfect
vacancy of thought is combined with a consciousness of
our own mental effort, to which, in the next moment,
a more vivid stream of thought succeeds. Certainly,
some practise is required to combine serious reflection
with simultaneous self-observation, as the endeavor
to observe thoughts in their origin and their succes
sion may easily produce disturbances of thinking and
arrest the evolution of our thoughts. Repeated at-
tempts, however, put us in a position clearly to per-
ceive that, in fact, in every arduous reflection a con-
stant ebb and flow of thoughts, as it were, takes place
—a moment in which all thoughts disappear from
consciousness, and only the consciousness of an inner
mental strain remains, and a moment in which the
thoughts stream in, in greater fulness, and distinctly
emerge into consciousness. The lower the ebb, the
stronger the succeeding flood is wont to be; the stronger
the previous inner tension, the stronger and livelier the
contents of the emerging thoughts." Whether or not
the reader has ever been able to detect these two proc-
esses in his own thinking, he may, at least, recognize

62 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

that others have done so ; and it is in logical accordance
with the inferences derived from the existence of both
processes that certain scholars have maintained that
by fixing their attention in the evening just before re-
tiring for the night upon some subject — whether de-
tails to be committed to memory or problems to be
solved — they could find their work very much furthered
if not wholly completed, in the morning. It is said
that the astronomer Kepler used to practise upon
this theory.

The fact of the existence, side by side, of mental
action both subconscious and conscious is much more
easy to prove than most of us are aware. How often
have we heard a friend unconsciously hum or even sing
aloud in perfect time and tune a song, while his con-
scious energies were directed toward the accomplish-
ment of a task entirely different in character! We
are all more or less familiar, too, with the conditions
under which a conscious action, or series of actions,
may be made to become unconscious. Every one who
has acquired skill in any department knows that it is a
result of practise continued until the mind has become
enabled to superintend a large number of details with-
out having any of them clearly in consciousness. Every
musician, for instance, is aware that after repeating a
composition on the piano the execution may become
so familiar that his fingers will play it automatically,
as it were, while his thoughts are very intently fixt
upon something else, possibly upon the general ex-

COBURN AND MOZART 63

pression of the theme of the music, possibly upon some-
thing having nothing to do with this art in any form.

When the subconscious action of the mind takes
place in connection with processes which a man has
learned and mastered, we may always attribute it, as
we do recollection, to previous conscious action. But
there are cases in which previous conscious action has
had nothing to do with the subconscious action. As
illustrating what is meant, take first the cases of light-
ning calculators, as they are termed — many of them
mere children, who have hardly mastered reading and
writing, much less arithmetic. In a way apparently
unknown to themselves, they are able to solve the most
intricate mathematical problem almost as rapidly as
it can be read to them. Zerah Coburn was but eight
years old when exhibited before audiences of the fore-
most mathematicians of his time. Here, according to
the English " Annual Register" of 1812, are two of the
questions asked him, and answered before the numbers
could be written down: "What is the square root of
106,929?" "What is the cube root of 268,336,125?"
Or take, again, the cases of musicians able to execute
apparently the most difficult compositions without
having gone through any previous study or practise.
Mozart was only three years old when he began to play
in public concerts, and when only eight years old he
had composed a symphony for a full orchestra. He
was, however, the son of a musician, and his facility
might be attributed to some extent to his surroundings

64 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

or to heredity. But neither of these reasons can in any
way account for the performances of others. There
is for instance, in our own country, Blind Tom, as he
is called. He is an exceptionally ignorant negro, yet
he can remember and execute, apparently, any compo-
sition that has been played but once before him; and
on the spur of the moment, he can sometimes add to
what he has heard "variations" as successful as the
average of those resulting from long hours of labor on
the part of educated musicians.

In these cases, the ultimate results of subconscious
mentality are not essentially different from what might
be expected if facility were acquired through practise
directed by conscious effort. It is possible to conceive
of thoroughly educated mathematicians and musicians
who, after long experience, might produce effects ex-
actly similar to those that have just been mentioned.
We can only say of these latter effects that in them the
subconscious facility was not acquired through con-
scious effort as a fact. But now, going a step farther,
we shall find that there are cases in which it could not
have been acquired thus as a possibility. We shall
find that subconscious or occult action is sometimes
influenced by conditions or occurrences with which
the mind could not have become acquainted through
the eyes or ears, or by any method through which one
ordinarily obtains or develops knowledge or thought.
The following is an illustration of such a case. Some
years ago, Professor John W. Churchill, of Andover

OCCULT PERCEPTION OF THE DISTANT 65

Theological Seminary, gave the author permission to
use the following story. In order to try an experiment,
the professor said that he obtained the names and ad-
dresses of two persons in Boston, of whom he knew
nothing, except that they were patients of a physician
of his acquaintance. With these addresses in his pos-
session, he called upon a certain Dr. Tucker, residing
in Brooklyn, N. Y. This man, a graduate of the
Harvard Medical School, claimed to have discovered
in himself, soon after beginning to practise, a peculiar
supernormal gift. The professor wished to test it.
"Can you prescribe," he asked, "for a person now in
Boston?" "I think so," said the doctor. "Have
you his address?" The professor read one of the ad-
dresses that he had brought. "I will go," said the
doctor, "and see the patient." Then, placing his
hand on his brow, he began to talk something like this:
"Number — , Blank Street. Yes, I see — red brick
house — two stories — bay window on the first floor. I
enter — a winding stairway. The patient is in the
second-story front room — a lady — blonde — blue eyes
—rather stout — about thirty-five years old — is trou-
bled," etc., describing her symptoms and ending with
a diagnosis arid prescription. After attending to this
patient, the physician went through a similar process
with reference to the other. Professor Churchill
handed a copy of what had been said, as taken down by
the Brooklyn physician's stenographer, to the physician
in Boston. "Everything here," said this physician,

66 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

"is as accurate as it would be if the one who dictated
it had come here by rail, visited the houses, and heard
the patients describe their own symptoms." In olden
times — possibly in some places in our own time — a
physician whose mind could act in this way would be
considered to be under the influence of divine inspira-
tion. But it can be shown that Dr. Tucker was not so.
The ability to work "signs and wonders" of this kind
does not necessarily guarantee the truth of the words
uttered by the workers of them. The author knows of
at least one patient — a son of the Rev. Dr. J. M. Lud-
low, of Orange, N. J. — with reference to whom the
occult diagnosis of this physician, tho agreeing with
that of other eminent physicians consulted, was shown
by a post-mortem examination to have been unmistak-
ably erroneous. Yet a previous description, super-
normally given, of the symptoms and appearance of
the patient had been as accurate as in the cases men-
tioned above.

In these cases the mind seems to have been able to
control the course of its occult activity, and to examine
symptoms, and to exercise judgment, when as far from
its own body as Boston is from Brooklyn. Here is
another case in which no such control was exercised.
Yet the conditions at a distance were just as accurately
perceived. Notice, too, how thoroughly the circum-
stances justify such a use as is made in "Macbeth" of
the appearance of Banquo's ghost. The story was
related to the author by an eye-witness, General Karge,

OCCULT PERCEPTION OF THE DISTANT 67

a successful officer in our war of secession, and, for
about twenty years, a professor in Princeton College.
He presented the story as one of other reasons leading
to his giving up certain wholly materialistic views of
life, into which he had fallen in early manhood. He
said that during the war of secession, while recruiting
in New York City, he was on Fourteenth Street, opposite
the Academy of Music, taking supper in the rooms of
an Austrian military engineer who also was in the serv-
ice of our government. This Austrian had a son, a
graduate of the military school of Hanover, Germany,
who, some months before this, with his father's con-
nivance, had eloped from that place with the daughter
of a Jewish banker, whose consent to her marriage
could not be obtained. According to Jewish customs,
the banker, after his daughter's flight, had gone through
a ceremony in his synagogue excommunicating and
anathematizing her for marrying against his will and
outside her race. Very naturally this ceremony had
had a serious effect upon the daughter's mind. At the
time of the occurrence about to be related, the Jewess
was presiding at the table at which the engineer and the
general were seated, her husband being absent. Sud-
denly, her hand, which happened to be holding a cup
of tea, and her whole frame began to quiver; then, with
a frightened look upon her face, she shrieked out in
German, "My father is dead! My father is dead!" and
fell senseless to the floor. A physician was summoned,
but the lady, tho partially restored physically, did not,

68 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

for a long time at least, recover her reason. Soon after
the physician had arrived, the Austrian engineer and
the general, in talking over the circumstances, decided
to take down the exact time of the day. They did so,
and three weeks later — telegraphic communication be-
tween Europe and America had not then been estab-
lished— they received information that the banker had
died in Germany at virtually the same hour at which
the events just described had taken place in New
York.

Exactly what was the form assumed by the impres-
sions conveyed to this Jewess the general never ascer-
tained. It never was feasible to do so, owing to her
mental condition. But that sometimes in such cases
persons are seen, and at other times words are heard,
seems abundantly proved. Certain reports made to
the English Society of Psychical Research, published
by Meyers & Gurney in a volume entitled "Phan-
tasms of the Living," contain accounts of something
like six hundred experiences of the same general char-
acter, all occurring in our own times, and confirmed
by the testimony of at least two persons. Many of
these persons, too, who all give their names and ad-
dresses, are widely known. One remarkable feature of
such occurrences is that, in an occult way, they make
known not only that which is distant in space, but
sometimes also future in time, nothing, perhaps, being
better authenticated than the experience which certain
persons have of premonitions. Nor is there much

OCCULT PERCEPTION OF THE FUTURE 69

reason to doubt that, in rare cases, the remote future*
even is foreseen with an accuracy of detail as perfect

*When studying this subject, several years ago, the author used to hear
a large number of predictions, but the conclusion reached by him was that In
no circumstances was it worth while to anticipate either trouble or success on
the supposition that the predictions might be fulfilled. Almost all of them were
proved to be mere fabrications of fraud or fancy. But now and then, with just
sufficient frequency to throw doubt upon the result's being due to mere coinci-
dence, such a prediction would be fulfilled, and with marvelous accuracy. For
instance, an English psychometrist consulted without premeditation because of
a sign seen on a door — a man who, as a psychometrist (see note on page 160),
might, of course, have merely perceived distant property occultly, and, as any
man might upon seeing it normally, have made a guess with reference to its
prospective value — described a house, of the existence of which the author was
conscious of knowing nothing. The house was said to be a thousand miles or
so away from where they were, and in a certain State where the author had
never spent more than a week, the name of which State was given. The house
was described so that its identity and surroundings could be recognized. It
was stated that, on account of visiting a place in sight of this house, the author
would obtain a sufficient sum of money to become independent. Two years
later, he found himself in the State indicated, face to face with just such a house,
and, because of being there, a difference of opinion arose with reference to prop-
erty which he partly owned. This difference led to his accepting an offer to
divide the property, and in less than a year, tho no part of that which went to
others had increased in value, his had increased tenfold. It seems important to
add, in order to show the method in which such prophecies — if they be prophecies
— are usually fulfilled, that the statement heard two years before had mc.de no
impression upon him, and would probably have been forgotten had it not been
written down in a note-book. Nor was it the influence of the prediction that
had brought about the result, this being owing to wholly unexpected and un-
solicited offers made and urged upon his acceptance by others. Such facts
seem to indicate that, possibly, our conceptions, not only of space, but of time,
are due to material limitations, and that the mind, so far as it can act outside
of these, can occasionally look forward as readily as sideward. At any rate,
there seems to be a sense in which every man has his own destiny rolled up
within him; and in rare instances, as applied to rare occurrences, it may be
supernormally unrolled. Notice, for instance, the following, told by an excep-
tionally trustworthy person, a friend of the author: This friend, while on a visit
to an uncle who was a physician, accompanied this uncle when calling upon a
patient suffering from a nervous disorder. The patient, a complete stranger
from a distant city, almost before being introduced, turned upon the physician's
companion, who, as it happened, was to be married in a few days, and said:
"You will not marry the person to whom you are engaged. But do not regret
it. You will marry happily this person's most intimate friend." The predic-
tion was fulfilled in all regards, the intended wedding being first postponed and
then prevented by the parents of the engaged parties, owing to a disagree-
ment because the family of the one was Protestant and the family of the other
was not.

70 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

as could be afforded to an eye-witness. All of us have
read of reasonably authenticated prophecies that have
been made to men and women who have subsequently
had exceptional careers; and these have been by no
means confined to those living in prehistoric periods.
Take, for instance, the prophecies of their careers said
to have been made to Marie Antoinette and the Empress
Josephine, or by the Indian Kanawa of George Wash-
ington in his early life: "He can not die in battle. The
Great Spirit protects that man and guides his destinies.
He will become the chief of nations, and a people yet
unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire.7'
Or take Abraham Lincoln's dream about a ship, as told
by him on the day on which he was assassinated, and
which, as he then said, he had dreamed several times on
the night preceding some trying event in the history of
the nation. Another characteristic of this inner or occult
mentality needs to be noticed. It can not only trans-
gress the limitations of matter, and see or hear things at
a distance in space or in time, but without the exercise
of any power that, in the slightest degree, resembles
sight or hearing, it can cause consciousness to become
cognizant of the thoughts and feelings, both conscious
and subconscious, that are at work in the minds of
others. We have an example of this in ordinary mind-
reading, in which one person, or a number of persons,
will think of some action, and a third person, not told
what the action is, will perform it. Frequently, how-
ever, a proficient mind-reader, instead of being in-

MIND-READING 71

fluenced by the conscious thoughts of others, is in-
fluenced by their subconscious thoughts. He will
speak of scenes and events entirely forgotten by them
and buried in memory, but which, when thus unex-
pectedly recalled, are recognized as being detailed with
accuracy. Undoubtedly many of the phenomena of
modern spiritism are of. this nature. The medium,
possibly because thrown by his visitors into a fully or
partially hypnotic condition, recalls facts which are
stored in their subconscious memories. This explana-
tion would account both for the accuracy of the de-
liverances and for their apparent strangeness. "I was
not thinking at all of this subject," says the visitor,
"and was told so-and-so about it." Indeed, the writer,
in experimenting once with an extremely successful
mind-reader, found that this man had the most success
in reading certain words written by another and kept
concealed when the one who wrote them did not concen-
trate his thought upon them, but, in a general way,
thought of something else.

Connected with this ability of the mind, through its
subconscious powers, to receive communications from
outside itself are some very interesting developments.
The Rev. William Stanton Moses states that while his
hand was automatically writing his "Psychography,"
he spent his time in reading Plato. It is frequently
supposed that such statements are due to self-decep-
tion or falsehood, and that all automatic writing on the
part of " spiritist mediums" is fraudulent. In some

72 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

cases this may be so (see page 101). But in other cases
it is not. The author is well acquainted with a Presby-
terian Doctor of Divinity, in exceptionally good stand-
ing, who himself, with other members of his family,
practised automatic writing, till the results became so
inexplicably accurate as literally to frighten them and
they desisted. The author is acquainted with another
person into whose mind come the words of essays con-
cerning subjects of which, sometimes, the person
writing them knows nothing when the essays begin.
The sentences in these essays are involved, and their
meanings difficult to determine. But after being
written down, the one whose hand has transcribed
them studies them, exactly as one would an early Eng-
lish text, and then translates them into plain English,
and publishes them — usually in religious weeklies.
This person is a spiritist, the reader may think. Not
at all; but, at the time when these things were told,
had never attended a spiritist seance, and was strongly
opposed to any one's doing it. Then an untrust-
worthy enthusiast, the reader may think. Not at all,
again; but was the president of a society with ramifi-
cations all over the country, among the officers and
members of which were clergymen and others whose
names were household words in exceptionally conserva-
tive Christian denominations.

^ Indeed, any of us who may succeed in gaining the
confidence of those about us will be amazed to find how
many have had individual experiences of such a nature

APPARITIONS 73

as to confirm the general trustworthiness of all the
statements that have been made here with reference
to the occult action of the mind. "You knew my
son," said Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to Dr. J. S.
Shipman, rector of Christ's Church, New York, who
repeated the words to the author, "the night that he
died, a thousand miles away from home, he came back,
and we saw him." After making every allowance pos-
sible for mistakes in judgment, for mere hallucinations,
and for coincidences, there remains a mass of evidence
by rejecting which a man shows more credulity with ref-
erence to material limitations than he could show with
reference to immaterial possibilities by accepting.*

The supposed apparition mentioned in the preceding
paragraph suggests what, for our purposes, is perhaps
as important as any consideration connected with this
subject. A few years ago, it was quite common in our
country to hear clergymen and others ascribe that
belief fundamental to all religions — the belief in the
existence of the soul after death — to the revelations
recorded in the Christian Scriptures. One can not
easily account for such a misunderstanding or mis-
representation of facts. Every observant traveler or

*An exhaustive enumeration and description of treatises dealing with the
occult will be found in the Bibliographical Index of "Demon Possessions and
Allied Themes," written by J. L. Nevius, D.D., for forty years a Presbyterian
missionary to the Chinese, and published by the Fleming H. Revell Company, of
Chicago, 1894. Few are aware how thoroughly and scientifically this whole
subject has been studied, or how extensive and valuable is the literature that
treats of it. Dr. Nevius, it may be said, acknowledges communications from
spirits; but, apparently, from evil spirits only, dividing into good and evil those
whom the modern spiritist would divide into the more or less "developed."

74 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

historian knows that this belief is practically universal,
as proved not only by that which is usually taught, but
by such practises as the placing with the dead of their
weapons and clothing, as among the aboriginal Ameri-
cans, Australians, and Africans; or the worshiping of
the dead; and, at stated seasons, scores of years after
their burial, the spreading of tables before their graves,
as among the Japanese and Chinese; as well as by
what is indicated upon the monuments, or is taken for
granted in the literature of ancient Assyria, Egypt,
Greece, and Rome. Indeed, it is simply a fact that
among the people of Asia to-day there are more cus-
toms and ceremonies suggesting a belief in a life after
death than there are among the Christians of Europe
and America; and there are more references to such a
life in the literature of ancient Greece and Rome than
in that of Judea. Every schoolboy who has studied
classic mythology can recall descriptions of Elyseum
and Hades in the writings of the former peoples; but
our most learned commentators have failed to find
more than a very few references to any such belief
throughout the entire Old Testament. Nor among
non-Christian people is there any failure to believe in
future states of rewards and punishments. These also
are described, or taken for granted, by the classic
writers, and are just as thoroughly taught by the Budd-
hists and other religionists of the Orient as by our-
selves.
Now, how did such beliefs originate? The theory

BELIEF IN ANOTHER LIFE 75

held in our country a few years ago attributed them,
except among the Hebrews, to the imagination. It
was said that they were gradually developed in human
experience, at times when it was affected by such re-
sults as the rustling of trees in dark woods, or the
dashing of waves on lonely shores — results arousing
the mind to superstition, while they worked upon the
sources of apprehension and conscience. Even more
specific beliefs with reference to the personality of the
gods, and their relations to men, were supposed to be
derived through natural methods of development —
some of them, for instance, through the same methods
as those causing the formation of language. Take,
for example, such an argument as this: When men
had no word for the sun, they would naturally call it
the father of the day, or — for a similar reason — call the
earth a mother; and owing to this usage of words they
would, after a time, come to associate real fatherhood
with the one, or motherhood with the other, and finally
to imagine each to have a personality, and thus to
worship the sun or the earth as a god. Max Muller,
in the fourth of his lectures on "The Science of Re-
ligion/' gives a modification of this view, tho still at-
tributing the origin of religion to imagination. He
says that when the primitive man, feeling his incom-
pleteness and need of dependence, and wanting some-
thing like a father in heaven, chose the name sky to
express his conception of it, he "did not mean . . .
that the visible sky was all he wanted. . . . But when

76 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

that name had to be used with the young and the aged,
with silly children and doting grandmothers, it was
impossible to preserve it from being misunderstood.
The first step downward would be to look upon the
sky as the abode of that being which was called by
the same name. . . . Lastly, many things that were
true of the visible sky would be told of its divine name-
sake, and legends would spring up destroying every
trace of the deity that once was hidden beneath that
ambiguous name."

There is undoubtedly much truth in what is thus
exprest, so far as it may be supposed to apply to the
development of religious conceptions. But it does not
explain the origin of the germ from which these con-
ceptions were developed. Such statements fail to
penetrate to the source, they fail to go to the bottom
of the subject. They fail to show us why winds, waves,
or skies, in combination with darkness, loneliness, or
weakness, should cause a man to associate noise, force,
or height with the influence of spirits; or to show us
why particular uses of language or applications of it
to things on earth or in heaven should suggest this in-
fluence. We attribute certain noises in our houses to
the shutting of a door, to the draft of a furnace, or to
the gnawing of mice. But why do we do this? Be-
cause we have had experience, or others have had ex-
perience of which they have told us, of similar noises
that could be traced to these sources. This is that
which occasions and justifies our inferences. Just so,

BELIEF IN ANOTHER LIFE 77

experiences of his own or of others like the one related
on page 73 would justify superstitious inferences on
the part of the primitive man. But nothing else
would. If the man had never had such experiences,
or heard of them, he might attribute certain sounds to
birds or to animals, but he would not think of attribu-
ting them to spirits. Take into a forest one who has
never been told that there are ghosts, and you will
have a hard time convincing him that any of the noises
about him are produced by a being impossible to see.
Only, therefore, as we consider the possibility of the
mind's being actually influenced at certain times from
the hidden or occult in nature do we seem to have a
thoroughly satisfactory reason for the prevalence of
superstitious beliefs.

That this is the true reason appears probable, more-
over, in view of the fact that any consciousness what-
ever of being influenced through subconscious mentality
is more likely to be experienced by a primitive, unedu-
cated man than by an educated one. Education gives
one control over his mental resources. It causes him
to understand himself, as we say, or to be conscious of
himself. This control, once established as a habit,
inclines him to hold in check the promptings of the
subconscious, so that its effects shall manifest them-
selves either not at all, or only indirectly, by coalescing
with those of which he is conscious. When this is the
condition, the suggestions and imaginings due to sub-
conscious intellection can not easily be distinguished

78 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

from the results of conscious intellection. The edu-
cated man, looking at his subconscious nature, as he
does, through a glass darkly, always seems to see the
texture of the material veil hanging in front of it. With
the uneducated man, however, it is different. Influ-
ences exerted through the subconscious often appeal
to him directly. Indeed, there are reasons for believing
that when we go lower than the uneducated man we
find these influences appealing even to the animal.
There are reasons for believing that they are allied to
all manifestations of intelligence which, in the absence
of a predominating mental control, such as has just
been said to characterize the educated man, we at-
tribute to instinct.

Mr. Henry R. Marshall, in his " Instinct and Reason,"
defines instinct, which, in another place, he shows to be
largely hereditary, as "the force within us which tends
to make us act under certain conditions as all others
who are of the same type — which leads us to under-
take typical reactions." Instinct, for instance, makes
us, without conscious thought, ward off with our hand
a stone that seems moving toward our head. Reason,
he defines as "the force which tends to make us vary
from such typical reactions/' as, for instance, not to
ward off the stone when we have learned that it is fast-
ened to a string and can not reach our head. From
this conception it seems logical to associate the action
of instinct with any mental manifestation which is not
the result of reason. But the range of mental action

INSTINCT AND REASON 79

which is not the result of conscious reason is exceed-
ingly large. There is occult or subconscious mental
action, which seems to correspond both to that which
is due to instinct, as in the case of conscience, and also
to that which is due to a certain amount of reasoning,
as in cases of lightning calculators and automatic
writers. At the same time all that we can not con-
sciously attribute to reason, whether it be due to
instinct because hereditary, or to automatic physical
or mental action because acquired by practise, or to
subconscious reason acting behind all instinctive move-
ments, as some suppose it to act behind the movements
of the lower animals — all this we may call, because,
as distinguished from rational, it seems to be such,
instinctive — a word which differs from instinct in being
an adjective signifying an effect which has the quality
or appearance of that which results from instinct.

In the volume written by the author entitled, "The
Representative Significance of Form," it was main-
tained that to the predominance of the instinctive, by
which is meant spontaneous and unpremeditated men-
tal action, like that of conscience or of aspiration —
we are mainly indebted for our conceptions of those
laws of being and becoming which give expression to the
methods of the Creative Spirit, and which constitute
what men term religious truth; that to the predom-
inance of the reasoning or conscious action of the mind
we are mainly indebted for scientific truth; while to
the very nearly harmonious or equal blending of both

80 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

instinctive and reasoning, of both subconscious and
conscious, mental action we are mainly indebted for
artistic truth.

But why should this be? Especially why should the
instinctive tendency be allied to religion? — Why but
because it is this which rules in external nature, and
therefore represents the Creative disposition and de-
sign? Is it necessary to suppose that this concep-
tion, which is exprest by many of the wisest and
best, is merely a fabrication of fancy, having no founda-
tion in fact? Does Wordsworth mean nothing when
he says? —

I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man :
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

Lines Composed a few Miles above Tintern Abbey.

Or Matthew Arnold, when he makes a more definite
reference to the same thought? —

" Ah, once more," I cried, "ye stars, ye waters,

On my heart your mighty charm renew ;
Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you,
Feel my soul becoming vast like you."

From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of heaven,

Over the lit sea's unquiet way,
In the rustling night-air, came the answer :
" Wouldst thou be as these are ? Live as they."

Self-Dependence.

THE SUBCONSCIOUS IN ANIMALS 81

Why should not that which rules in inanimate na-
ture rule also in animate nature? And tho we know
that it does not rule in a man, except so far as he
consciously allows it to rule, why should we suppose
that this conscious action is, in anything like the same
degree, necessary on the part of the animal. None
of us ordinarily conceive of an animal as sinning. Why
is this — even among those foremost to conceive of a
man as sinning? Why, but because we do not con-
ceive of an animal as consciously violating the laws of
his being — as consciously doing otherwise than ac-
cording to the promptings of his instinctive or sub-
conscious nature?* But we all know that a man can
do, and often does do, exactly the opposite of that
indicated by such promptings. He does this because
of his higher human possibilities, because of the pre-
ponderating and often counteracting influence that can
be exerted by his conscious and reflective powers as
influenced by his physical surroundings.

Shades of the prison-house begin to close

Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,

He sees it in his joy ;

The Youth, who daily farther from, the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended ;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

Ode on Intimations of Immortality: Wordsworth.

*Possibly it is to the subtle recognition of this fact that we can attribute
the worship of animals, or the sacredness with which they are, or have been,
regarded among different people.

82 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

It is sometimes represented that the story of the
fall in the third chapter of Genesis can not be made
to accord with the theory of development — much less
with that of evolution. But it might be argued with
some truth that it is exactly the kind of story that can
be made to accord with this theory. What but a
mental condition very close to that of an animal could
be characterized by a lack of " knowledge of good and
evil," or a lack of experience of temptation coming
from without — from the lower physical side of life as
represented in the serpent — and conflicting with the
promptings coming from within? Only an animal can
be true to every condition of his being, and obey these
latter promptings only, and these unconsciously. A
man, to be true to every condition of his being, must
obey them indeed, but consciously and calculatingly,
and in such a way as to make them conform to the
good as contrasted with the evil of which the play of
cause and effect in the outward material world has
taught him. Very important reasons for holding this
conception of that which a man should do will be
given hereafter. At present our business is to make
sure of the facts on which the conception is based.

It has been said that there are grounds for supposing
that the animals are influenced through methods cor-
responding to those according to which men are in-
fluenced through the subconscious or inner sphere of
the mind. That this is so may be made to appear
while we notice how the animals may be supposed to

THE SUBCONSCIOUS IN ANIMALS 83

communicate with one another. Of course they are
obliged to communicate without formulating thought
in words or gestures, because they have neither articu-
lating organs nor hands. But, tho incapable of formu-
lating thought, are they incapable of having it? If
so, why does a dog wag his tail and ears and growl in
his sleep? Is he not dreaming? But if he can dream,
he must be capable of processes of thought. Yet how
can he have processes of thought, without using words
or gestures? How but precisely as a man can — by
seeing in imagination series of pictures? A man when
hungry thinks not only of the word hungry, but he has
a vision of something that can be eaten. If he wish
to tell another what his feeling is, he may use the word
hungry; and this other also, if understanding the word,
will have a somewhat similar vision. But notice that
the essential, indispensable factor is not the word, but
the vision that is caused in the listener's mind. The
word is convenient, and, if a feeling be at all complex,
it is extremely important, in order to convey distinct-
ness and discrimination of meaning. But the essential
thing is to cause the vision. Now a dog certainly
remembers what he has seen. If so, he can probably
recall it, but to recall it, he must have a vision of it.
If he himself have a vision of it, ability to transmit
conceptions in an occult way may enable him to con-
vey a similar vision to another dog's brain. Is it pos-
sible that this is the way in which animals communicate?
Why is it not? Any one who will have the patience

84 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

to watch them will notice that they often communi-
cate without making a single sound or movement.
Who has never seen two dogs or birds, at some dis-
tance from each other, start at exactly the same
moment for the same place? Moreover, there is evi-
dence that they are often influenced by men in this
occult way. How is it that a snake is charmed, or a
horse broken — or guided, for that matter? The next
time that the reader is riding a horse, and comes to four
corners, let him try to turn him in the direction chosen
without using the reins — i.e., by merely thinking. This
can sometimes be done. A dog belonging to an ac-
quaintance of the author was in the habit of bounding
up into a bedroom every morning, and drinking water
poured out from a pail that had been standing there
overnight. One day, there was a discussion in this
dog's presence with reference to the unhealthiness of
drinking-water that had been uncovered for as many
hours as this. From that time, no effort could get him
to continue his former morning practise. It is hardly
conceivable that he should have understood the subtle
distinctions of words, and the bearings of the discussion,
as men would have done. But it is conceivable that he
should have been influenced by the concentration of
the thoughts of the family, with or without the indi-
cation of the fact in their countenances,* upon this

*Animals are, undoubtedly, keen readers of the countenance; yet, in order
to explain all cases, it seems necessary, in connection with this, to suppose them
to be tamed, trained, and casually influenced according to methods more or less
resembling those employed in hypnotism.

THE SUBCONSCIOUS IN THE IGNORANT 85

particular water as something that one should not drink.
Nor, apparently, can an animal be influenced by
the thought of one who is merely near at hand. Dr.
C. N. Pierce, of Philadelphia, once told the author of a
dog whose master frequently goes to Europe. But
the moment the steamer bearing the master home
reaches New York, his family, living sixty miles away,
are made acquainted with the fact by the movements
of this dog. The intellection in this case seems to be
exactly similar to that of an old negress once known
by the author. She would now and then announce
by name to her mistress the coming arrival of a guest,
who would reach the house from one to five hours later.
This faculty of the negress, which could be paralleled
by many other illustrations of the mind's being in-
fluenced from the occult side, perhaps even by that
instinct which keeps the Indian from being lost amid
dense, untrodden forests, manifests itself among mem-
bers of the colored race in other ways. It is well known
by Southern clergymen that, almost invariably, in
describing their conversions, these people tell of per-
ceiving figures and scenes which they take to be super-
natural; and in such language that it seems scarcely
possible to suppose the effects to be merely such as
white men attribute to the imagination. Similar
visions, too, if not common in this day among the
Indians, were, at one time, supposed by some tribes to
be necessary to the formation of character. In north-
ern Michigan, the young men, before being permitted

86 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

the full prerogatives of manhood, were sent into the
woods, and made to rest in hammocks swung among
the trees, and to fast — the identical method pur-
sued by Swedenborg — until they had had more or less
of what in our day would be termed psychic experience.
Of course, it is possible that every experience of this
sort may be a mere hallucination, in the sense in which
people generally, and not philosophers, use this term—
i.e., a result of imagination wrought upon by an ab-
normal, if not a diseased, condition of the physical
nerves. But what of that? It does not lessen the
force of the argument begun on page 74, which argu-
ment this explanation of the connection between the
instinctive and the religious has been introduced in
order to render more intelligible. The argument is
that such experiences come to certain persons now,
and have come to others in the past; and that they
are now, and have been, attributed to causes that are
not material, normal, or natural, but supposedly the
opposite — spiritual, supernormal, or supernatural; and
that this fact, especially in view of the far greater
number of psychic experiences among the primitive,
uneducated people who may be supposed to be nearest
to the animal in their nature sufficiently accounts for
the origin of primitive beliefs in the supernatural, or
— what is the same thing — for primitive religion.

Primitive religious customs, too, strengthen this gen-
eral argument. Among the aborigines of America,
Africa, and Australia, who, in historic times at least,

TRANCE CONDITIONS 87

have had no chance to imitate one another, there are
two distinct forms in which spiritual communications
are supposed to be imparted through the seer, or medi-
cine-man, whatever he may be called. According to
one form, this man goes into a dark place — sometimes
a hut entirely shut in by poles — and those who consult
him are said to hear utterances, and, less frequently,
to see living figures emerging which are different from
his own. According to the other form, while visible
to all, he seems to be taken possession of by some in-
fluence that often makes him numb to physical sensa-
tion, and that always makes him talk or act in a man-
ner apparently foreign to his own character.* The

*It is well known that, in our own time and country, there are conditions
resembling this, into which certain persons fall, owing to their temperament or
state of health, or to some hypnotic influence, as we may term it, consciously
or unconsciously exerted upon them by others. In these conditions the body,
while apparently put to sleep, seems to be made the direct instrument of the
subconscious — either of the subject himself, according to the hypnotic theory,
or of one obsessing it, if we accept the trance-theory. The result is that, while
in this condition, these persons sometimes manifest a degree of mental culture
and force of which in their conscious moods they give no indications.

A telegram from San Francisco, published in most of the newspapers of
January 21, 1897, contained the following: "A shock-headed boy of fifteen,
whose school days have been limited to three short years, and whose life has
been passed chiefly in a little country town in Washington, delivered a lecture
here last night upon the ' Different Religious Systems of the World, Now and in
the Past.' Charles Anderson is the boy's name. He was born in Cowlitz
County, in 1882, and lived there until two months ago. When lecturing, the
boy's language and manners seemed to belong to some gray-haired old patriarch,
and many of his hearers pronounced the discourse a deep and learned disserta-
tion. And yet his conversation reveals a woful lack of education and he can
scarcely read. Charles says he has been able to produce his condition at will,
and tho unable to foretell his subject, he is able to remember a little of his dis-
course after the trance, but not enough to render him any more intelligent in
his e very-day life."

The author himself has heard from the lips of a woman, apparently in-
capable even of understanding the subject discust, what was virtually — tho
never purporting to be it, nor recognized to be it, so far as he knows, by any
one but himself — the whole system of ancient Gnosticism, together with the

88 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans seem to
have given a ceremonial development to these primi-
tive methods of receiving supposed spiritual com-
munications. Most of the Egyptian temples contained
rooms absolutely dark; and one of the Assyrian seances
is probably described with accuracy in the account in
the twenty-eighth chapter of 1 Samuel of the appear-
ance to Samuel for Saul in the cave of the Witch of
Endor. Many references are made by the classic
writers to the mysteries, especially the Eleusinian, as
solving questions with reference to the future. Were

main propositions of the Platonic germ which this seems to have developed —
all presented with a wealth of illustration, information, and eloquence which he
does not hesitate to say that he has never heard equaled by any unpremedi-
tated effort on the part of any mind working normally. That the whole dis-
cussion was foreign to the woman's natural ability, range of thought, and, ap-
parently, belief, was proved by conversations with her when in her normal
moods; and that what was said in the abnormal moods was unpremeditated was
proved by frequent questions that guided the course of her presentation, in
which never, on different occasions, was the same phraseology or method of il-
lustration exactly repeated. However, what was said in this way — tho it was
all upon an elevated plane — was not taken by the author for indisputable truth.
Why not? Partly because it was impossible for any one to determine its source.
It might have come from an hypnotic reading of that which was stored uncon-
sciously in the mind of the investigator, tho this seemed improbable, inasmuch
as analogous deliverances of the same general tenor were made in his absence,
Jt might have come from that which was stored in the subconsciousness of the
woman herself, tho this, too, seemed improbable, inasmuch as she would scarcely
have been interested sufficiently in such lines of thought even to have read of
them. It might have come from that which had been stored in the conscious
or subconscious mentality of some of her ancestors, or of some living person at
a distance, or even been subconsciously read from some book. Or it might
have come, as the woman herself supposed, from some spirit; yet, even so, this
spirit might have been — to say the least — insufficiently informed to warrant
confidence in the truth of the things uttered. Only two satisfactory conclusions
could be drawn from the circumstances. First, the same as that which will be
argued on pages 162 to 168, namely, that whatever may be uttered in this super-
normal way must be judged precisely as it would be if uttered in a normal way
— that is, by its conformity to previous information, and to the results of in-
tuitive insight and logical inference. The other conclusion reached was this:
that here, presented to eyes and ears, in the nineteenth century, was something
that legitimately suggested the origin not only of Platonism and Gnosticism,

SACRED WRITINGS 89

they a continuation of the dark stances of the African
woods and the Egyptian temples? — or were they a ritu-
alistic or representative recalling of these? As for the
actions in the open daylight of those supposed to be
possest by a spirit, it is hardly necessary to point out
that these must have been very similar to the actions
of the Indian fakirs, and of the Mohammedan dervishes,
while all of the methods indicated are apparently re-
peated in modern spiritism.

Now, let us notice another important fact. It is
this: in the degree in which, among any adherents of
a religion of this kind the intellect becomes developed,

but of much of that imaginatively weird cosmogony which has ordinarily been
attributed to merely the Oriental imagination, and even, too, the origin of
Polytheism as developed among such civilized people as the ancient Egyptians
Greeks, and Romans. These ancient people had minds as intellectual and
logical as our own; and one may be sure that they had some good reasons for
their beliefs. (See Pliny's rational discussion of specters in his letter to Sura,
B. 7; 27.) Almost all commentators agree that the words of Paul in Col. 2 ;
18, "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and wor-
shipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen," refer to
Gnosticism, and to angel-worship in it. Why, therefore, has not one come upon
the original thing who — in connection with psychical phenomena and physical
transformations which, if related, would not be credited by any one who had
not seen something similar — has heard this system taught at regular intervals
to people, some of them of decided intelligence, who believed themselves to be
in the presence of a very superior spirit? Even supposing these people to have
been completely deluded, why could not others, in similar circumstances, have
been similarly deluded in ancient times? And if so, notice the inference not
only with reference to Gnosticism but to Polytheism: how long would it have
been before this superior spirit would have had followers; and after the "me-
dium" through whom the utterances were received had passed away, how long
would it have been before these followers would have conveyed to others, with
all the suggestions with which imagination would naturally augment the original
facts, a traditional belief in this spirit that had once talked to them? And
what would a belief in this superior spirit and its teachings be but a belief in
what the Greeks meant by the term god — not the Supreme Being, but a superior
being, the existence of whom might or might not (from some of the literature of
the Greeks we may judge that it did not) interfere with their acknowledging One
supreme being? Does not this line of thought present a far more natural and justi-
fiable theory through which to account for Polytheism than is usually advocated?

90 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF 1NSPIRA TION

they come to pay less heed to mere physical phe-
nomena— i.e., to abnormal sights and sounds, con-
tortions of the body, mysterious rappings, or workings
of " wonders "—than to verbal communications, some-
times accompanying and sometimes not accompanying
these, which communications, because verbal, appeal
more exclusively to the intellect. Is not this exactly
what we should expect? A man, according to the
degree of his mental development, demands particulars.
He is not satisfied with such general conceptions con-
cerning the existence of life beyond the visible as alone
can be suggested through physical phenomena. He
craves to hear everything described in words. He de-
sires to understand, and, for this reason, to have a
religion that will appeal with the authority not only
of subconscious but of conscious mentality — in fact,
with the authority of the whole rational being. Ac-
cordingly, in Greece and Rome we find religious truth
attributed mainly to the utterances of oracles and
Sibyls; and in India and Eastern Asia, as well as among
the Hebrews, Mohammedans, and Christians, attributed
to sacred writings.

It must be borne in mind, however, that even these
writings are generally supposed to involve an exercise
of subconscious intellection. Their authors have been
almost universally represented as subject to influences
exerted through the subconscious mind in other ways.
As we all know, this is claimed to have been true of
many of the writers of the Christian Scriptures; and

SACRED WRITINGS 91

not only of them, but of Mohammed and Joseph Smith;
and it is Kant, the philosopher, who is authority for
the trustworthiness of the same claim as made by
Swedenborg, the latter, when in Denmark, having, ac-
cording to Kant's testimony, accurately described to
him at the time of their occurrence, certain events—
a fire, for instance — taking place in Stockholm.* So
much as to the general connection between what are
termed sacred writings and the other methods in which
effects coming from or through subconscious agency
manifest themselves.

*A similar claim is made also by the essayist mentioned on page 72. It is
said that, some years before the essays there described began to be written, this
person, who had been for many years an invalid, felt one day a chill coming on
and, at the same moment, began to describe a supposed scene outside the win-
dow— an Oriental pasture-ground and a shepherd who apparently took posses-
sion of this person's body, which, rendered perfectly rigid, fell to the floor. The
attendant, instead of being allowed to tender assistance, was urged to take a
pen and write as dictated. What was dictated was a prediction, which came
true, that, from that hour, there should be no more sickness, and that, in time,
something of practical importance to the world, which subsequent events have
caused to be associated with these essays, should be revealed through the agency
of the invalid. As, too, in the cases of Mohammed, Swedenborg, and Smith,
this person does not assume to have been influenced to supplant Christianity,
but merely to interpret and develop certain phases of it. The whole story,
which reads like a leaf torn from a life of a Joan of Arc, the author himself has
heard from the lips both of the person receiving these communications and —
unless in this one regard his memory fail him — of the person to whom the first
communication was dictated.

CHAPTER IV

THE MIND'S CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CONSCIOUS INTELLEC-
TION TO THAT WHICH IS RECEIVED THROUGH
THE SUBCONSCIOUS

Subconscious and Conscious Influences Manifested in All Forms of
Intellection — Value of That Obtainable from the Former Depends
on the Character of That Given by the Latter — Obligation of an
Inspired Man to Interpret Promptings from the Subconscious by
His Conscious Intellection — Fulfilment of This Obligation Charac-
teristic of Writers— Consequent Intellectual Progress Connected
with This Form of Inspired Communication — Recognizing Re-
lationship of Christian to Other Forms of Inspiration Does Not
Impair the Authenticity and Authority of the Christian Scrip-
tures— Or Lessen One's Veneration for Them — Nor Does the
Acknowledgment That Signs and Wonders Are Wrought in Other
Religions— The Testimony of the Christian Scriptures Upon This
Subject— Rationality of the Scriptural Test as Applied to Spirit-
ism— Hudson's Theory — Importance of Investigating Spiritism —
The Dangers Attendant Upon Accepting, Without Thinking, Its
So-called Revelations Also Threaten Those Accepting, in the Same
Way, Revelation in Any Other Form.

As was indicated on page 56, the range of a man's
physical possibilities include results attributable both
to subconscious and to conscious control; and it is
logical to infer that the same is true of his mental pos-
sibilities. In other words, it is logical to infer that
some effects of both conscious and subconscious con-
trol are to be found in everything that the mind does.
In religion the thoughts and emotions which are first
influenced may be supposed, for reasons already given,
to be in the subconscious region, the results of which

REVELATION AND RATIONALITY 93

dominate over results — which nevertheless, as we shall
find hereafter, must interpret them — in the conscious
region; whereas in science, the thoughts and emotions
first influenced may be supposed to be in the conscious re-
gion, the results of which dominate over results in the
subconscious region. Let it be understood therefore that
while, for theoretical purposes, we can separate subcon-
scious from conscious mental action, this is not because
conceptions in either religion or science are supposed
to be determined by either kind of action exclusively.

The exact truth seems to be that whatever is received
through subconscious agency is liable to be more or
less modified by thoughts and feelings in some conscious
mind. This conscious mind may be either that of the
person who is being influenced, or inspired, as we say,
by or through his own subconscious intellection; or it
may be the mind of another who, through the com-
bined results of conscious and subconscious processes,
may be supposed to be furnishing external suggestions
to the inspired person. If the conscious mind be that
of the inspired person himself, the quality and value
of that to which he is inspired will depend upon his
own intellectual and spiritual attainments and charac-
ter. Nothing seems to have been more clearly proved
than the fact thus stated. In the degree in which a
man becomes wise, the promptings of his conscience,
for instance, which furnish one phase in which sub-
intellection manifests itself, coincide with the deduc-
tions of rational judgment and inference. Moreover

94 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

— and this fact is interesting — in the degree in which
there is this coincidence; i.e., in the degree in which
the effects of subconscious mentality are exactly paral-
leled by those of conscious mentality — in this degree
the mind itself becomes oblivious of any distinction
between conscious and subconscious processes. It is
a man not of high but of low intellectual and spiritual
attainments who is constantly thinking and therefore
talking about duty and conscience; that is to say, duty
and conscience as such present their claims most strong-
ly to the mind that is most strongly prompted to dis-
regard them. The wise and good desire what is wise
and good, and in pursuing them are hardly conscious
that they have a conscience. So with the educated
and refined as contrasted with their opposites. As a
rule, only the comparatively uncultivated recognize a
clear distinction between the results in their own minds
of conscious and of subconscious intellection. In the
degree in which a man's mentality is of a high order,
or has been highly developed, he ceases to talk in an
insane, trancelike, or even absent-minded way. At
every stage, he seems to hold in check and to direct
the course of subconscious logic by considerations that
are in conformity with fact and common sense. This
is probably one reason why the ancient Hebrews were
forbidden to consult with familiar spirits or necro-
mancers (Deut. 18; 10, 11), as well as why it is said, in
1 Cor. 14; 32, that "the spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets."

THE SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL 95

Here there seems to be the clearest kind of an intima-
tion of an obligation on the part of even an inspired
man to use his own conscious mental powers in order to
preserve the balance between his instinctive subconscious
promptings — which promptings may be sometimes sym-
pathetic, sometimes conscientious, and sometimes bigot-
ed— and the rational influences of his conscious nature.
Otherwise, if he do not preserve this balance, he may
become merely an enthusiast or fanatic, as intimated in
these verses following the one just quoted : (33) i l For God
is not the author of confusion but of peace." (40) "Let
all things be done decently and in order."

Now notice that to none are the spirits more likely
to be subject than to a prophet who is a writer.
For he, as a rule, is a thinker, and therefore a man who,
however unconsciously his mind may work at times,
is always more or less under the influence of sugges-
tions from the conscious region, even if merely because
he is always accustomed, before his words are com-
mitted to script, to review and to correct them. This
is true even when he is not completely aware that he
is thus reviewing them. Perhaps it is not too much
to say that no thoroughly cultivated man will ever,
whatever may be the sources of his inspiration, allow
his thoughts to leave him before they have been filtered
through the clarifying criticism of his conscious mind.
For this reason, sacred literature is more conformed to
the rational results of mental action than is any other
form of religious influence.

96 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

Is not this fact sufficient to explain the remarkable
intellectual and spiritual progress which begins to
characterize the people of all countries just as soon as
they begin to hold the theory that religious truth can
be wholly or chiefly communicated through sacred
writings? A peculiarity of the Hebrew religion was a
belief in the authority of a traditional written law; and
the people were forbidden to consult familiar spirits
(Deut. 18; 10, 11) or to hearken to diviners (Jer. 27; 9),
who, but for these traditional Scriptures, would prob-
ably have been the chief agents of religious instruction.
The result of following the injunctions of a written law,
rather than of leaders like these, was a cautious, re-
flective, calculating habit of mind which two thousand
centuries have not sufficed to eradicate from the char-
acter of the race. The same characteristics have been
developed, too, among Protestant Christian nations,
causing them, in this regard, to present a sharp con-
trast to the other Christian nations, with whom a
written word is not so exclusively authoritative. A
similar characteristic is evident also among the people
of China and Japan, who are guided by the writings of
Confucius, as contrasted with the inhabitants of Central
Asia and of Africa, where sacred books have less in-
fluence than have fakirs and other supposed religious
wonder-workers.

It is sometimes thought, especially in Christian com-
munities, that any attempt to trace all the different
results of inspiration, and, therefore, all possible forms

REVELATION AND THE OCCULT 97

of revealed religion to or through exactly the same
mediumship of occult mental action is practically the
same as an attempt to lessen a belief in the authen-
ticity and authority of the sacred writings of the
Church, and thus to deprive the world of any trust-
worthy standards of faith and practise. Let us con-
sider; for a little, whether this opinion is justified.
To begin with, is it not a fact that the vast majority
of those who reject the teachings of the Bible do so be-
cause at heart materialists? And are they not mate-
rialists largely because they fail to recognize that there
is any subconscious, or hidden, mental nature, or any
consequent possibility of one's being influenced from a
spiritual or hidden source? Did they realize these
facts, and, therefore, the fact that the method of re-
ceiving truth represented in the Scriptures is not out of
analogy with things that, with reasonable frequency,
fall to the lot of human experience in other directions,
might not the chief cause of their doubts be removed?
And if this cause were removed, might not the accept-
ance of the plausibility of the main proposition with
reference to inspiration preserve for the theologian a
large number of arguments otherwise not available;
and with these might he not substantiate important
subordinate propositions?

But, says, perhaps, the objector, the view that has
been presented implies that the mind acts according
to the same method when coming into possession both
of that which is religiously true, and of that which is

98 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

religiously false; and this view tends to lessen the rel-
ative esteem in which one should regard the former.
At first thought, this inference is natural, perhaps, but
will it stand the test of reflection? To say that, in
both cases, the method of receiving the truth is the
same is not to say that the truth itself is the same.
Because we receive information about both cold stone
and red-hot iron through the same sense of touch, it
does not follow that the things felt are the same, or
affect us similarly. To acknowledge that many differ-
ent cases may involve a method of becoming acquainted
with objective influences such as do not necessitate
communication through one of the five physical senses,
does not involve acknowledging the equal trustworthi-
ness of all things communicated through the method.
It does not involve ranking every mind-reader or
"medium" with the great prophets. To perceive
partial analogies between the influence exerted by
the former and by the latter does not involve giving a
similar rating to all of them. But it does involve a
recognition of the use, in all cases, of similar mental
possibilities. It does involve this very logical con-
clusion of common sense — that, only in the degree in
which men realize that there is some method of in-
fluencing them through an objective appeal of which
they become conscious not from without but from
within, can they realize that the kingdom of God—
tho there may be much there besides this — is, as stated
in Luke 17; 21, within them.

SIGNS AND WONDERS 99

But this line of argument, the objector may say
again, involves an admission that not only revealed
words, but " signs and wonders" that accompany and
attest the authority of these words, are common to all
religions; and are not necessarily fraudulent in inferior
religions. Yes; but is this admission dangerous? Is
it not more dangerous to hold an opposite theory?
Would you have people accept as true what a man
says merely because he works what seem to be mir-
acles? Magicians, hypnotizers, mind-readers, clairvoy-
ants, fortune-tellers, all do this, and some of them who
can tell with remarkable accuracy numbers of things
that one has done in the past, as well as what is going
on at a distance, frequently make statements that are
utterly untrustworthy when referring to the most or-
dinary occurrences. What would be the result if the
words of such were taken for the eternal, the infinite,
and the absolute truth? Many of us refuse to follow
the ecclesiastical guidance of Joseph Smith, the founder
of the Mormon faith. Yet much of his influence is at-
tributable to the fact that he was a successful reader
of experience, character, and thought through a " peep-
stone," as it was termed. Which theory would con-
ventional Christians have had a right to consider the
more dangerous to the regions visited by him — that
which denies the existence of a method of mental action
like his unless one is divinely inspired, or that which
admits its existence even where there is no divine in-
spiration?

100 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

It seems as if here, at least, the writers of the Bible
were right. They did not deny that the Witch of En-

-> dor (1 Sam. 28; 7-25) or Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8;

' 9-11) could produce genuinely supernormal results.
They admitted that the wise men of Egypt "did in like
manner with their enchantments" to Moses (Ex. 7; 11).
But truth was not therefore attributed to the utterances
of such characters. There was a clear intimation that,
tho " signs and wonders" may legitimately call atten-
tion to a religious leader, there are better ways through
which to assure oneself of the truth of his utterances.
" Blessed are they/' said Jesus, "that hear the word
of God, and keep it. An evil generation . . . seek a

^sign" (Luke 11; 28, 29). "Believe not every spirit,"
even tho it be a spirit, said John, "but try the spirits
whether they are of God" (1 John 4; 1).

On the whole, is not this that the Apostle John en-
joins a sensible thing to do; and a sensible principle
upon which to act when doing it? Does it not afford
the best "working plan" to recommend to those who
seem in danger of allowing credulity or superstition to
overbalance their judgment? If we seek to influence
them by telling them that they are dupes or con-
sorters with evil spirits, we may merely repel them.
If not angry with us, they may, at least, lose confi-
dence in our opinions. But in the degree in which we
succeed in getting them to try the supposed spirits we
may hope, in case they be deceived, to have them dis-
cover the fact. It is not the man of open mind — the

MEDIUMS 101

man who is willing frankly and fairly to try a new
thing, and think it over before passing judgment on it
—who is in danger of becoming a victim to false no-
tions. It is the man of closed mind, who is willing to
think about nothing. To him alone does one sparrow,
no matter what the season, make a summer; and one
psychic phenomenon — no matter how orthodox he has
been before — prove the presence of a true prophet.
No wonder his friends try to keep him away from
"mediums." If these know one thing that he fails to
understand, or to have learned, he may imagine that
they know all things. Of course, they do not, and
can not; and what they do know, or can know, they
frequently fail to report correctly. The record of the
police courts of every large city reveal that many a
" professional" fortune-teller, clairvoyant, or medium
is merely a paid agent, leading the credulous into
speculation, and even, occasionally, into vice. The
slight facility in mind-reading which enables him to
give his visitors' names and vaguely tell half a dozen
incidents of their past lives is supposed to guarantee
infallible wisdom of advice with reference to buying
stock in some mine that has no value, or to seeking
employment in some house in which virtue is by no
means its own reward. Even a "professional" who
intends no harm may be indolent or self-indulgent, or,
at least, loath, for a few dimes, to undergo the nervous
exhaustion frequently incident upon a genuine prac-
tise of his "gift." The author himself, upon placing

102 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

his hand on the heart of one man when in this abnormal
state, found it beating at the rate of almost two hun-
dred strokes a minute. No wonder if the "medium"
thus affected preferred ordinarily, as was said of him,
to practise sleight of hand, accompanied by tales con-
jured from his own normal imagination. Other "me-
diums," again, who have no wish to deceive, are so
constituted, sympathetically, that the very hypnotic
susceptibility enabling them to give reports from the
subconscious, forces them to report, more than any-
thing else, that which is in the thought and wish of
their visitor. Others still — and this is a very frequent
result — with the most honest intentions, seem unable
to distinguish what subconscious intellection, supposed
to be sent on its journey, sees or hears from what
consciousness imagines it possible to see or hear. Of
course, to follow implicitly the advice of either of these
last two classes would be about as wise as to follow
that of an insane person. Finally, there are others
who, tho they seem to be able to distinguish the mental
action that is subconscious, mistake its significance,
and, as in the case mentioned on page 66, give advice
that is erroneous.

Thomas J. Hudson, in his "Laws of Psychic Phenom-
ena," attributes all occult communications to subcon-
scious mentality, acting either independently or as
influenced by the conscious or unconscious thoughts
or feelings of others. Modern spiritists do not believe
that this theory can account for all the facts. Owing

MEDIUMS 103

to communications apparently received from some per-
son who has passed away, and who only, as is alleged,
could know of occurrences that are mentioned, they
attribute many of the phenomena of which we have
been speaking to the influence of spirits. But sup-
pose that one accept this theory-— what then? Does
it change, in the least, the conditions pointed out in
the last paragraph? May not communications coming
through a genuine medium be just as untrustworthy
as they would be if coming through one whose "gift"
was owing to some phase of what is termed mere hyp-
notism? Are not many statements that are made by
mediums untrue? Are not many of their prophecies
never fulfilled? Is not much of their advice mislead-
ing? Suppose that a medium have every personal
trait necessary to genuineness, honesty, and an intel-
ligent interpretation of communications. May not,
now and then, some deceitful spirit indite them?
What indisputable proof can we find that they are
indited by that lost friend of ours, say our mother, or
by that famous warrior, say Napoleon, or by that re-
ligious man, say Beecher, whom the spirit purports to
be? Now add one more consideration, which is that
in the vast majority of cases predictions given in this
way that are afterward fulfilled attract, when first
heard, little attention, and are brought to an issue,
as in the cases mentioned on pages 69 and 91, without
any directing effort on the part of the one receiving
them; and does not the value of such advice for com-

104 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

mercial or any materially practical purposes appear
exceedingly slight? And do not the dangers of fol-
lowing the advice appear correspondingly great?

We should not overlook the fact, however, that this
whole subject, considered theoretically or theologic-
ally, is in itself of great importance. What can be
more important than that which concerns the appre-
hension of the possibilities, mental or spiritual, of the
subconscious processes of mind — of their capabilities
of receiving and giving impressions, whether before
death or after it? On the whole, therefore, notwith-
standing the dangers, this importance justifies philo-
sophic and scientific investigation. Nor, in refutation
of this view, is it sufficient to quote the old Hebrew
laws against witchcraft and sorcery, as in Deut. 18; 10,
11. These laws, much as they may have been needed
in order to uphold, in an unscientific age, the authority
of a theocracy governed by a priesthood, can not be
proved to be applicable to the same extent in our own
age and circumstances; and if they could be proved to
be so, a strong argument could be framed to show that
they do not apply to an investigating attitude of mind,
but to the opposite of this — to an attitude of mind
in which, waiving the exercise of his own judgment
and reason, a man is looking to the occult for that
which can take the place of them. We may be sure
that, in this world, nothing can ever rightly do this—
a statement that is equally applicable whether one be
seeking to solve the petty problems of material life or

REASON MUST TEST REVELA TION 105

the profounder ones of spiritual life. Every circum-
stance connected with the formation or development
of character proves that our own minds are given us
to be used by ourselves. Nor should we expect any
worthy gain in life, individual or collective, from a
course in which any other agency is allowed to inter-
fere with our using them to the utmost degree that is
possible.

The trustworthiness of this view will be confirmed
upon our recalling that the misunderstandings and
errors incident to the form of psychic communications
just considered are not peculiar to it, but are likely to
occur in connection with any similarly occult method
of influencing thought and emotion. Of course, the
communications considered inspired in Christianity dif-
fer greatly from those in spiritism. The former are
handed down the ages in written records, and, because
these require more intelligence on the part of the com-
municators than does any other form of communica-
tion, we may suppose their results to be more intel-
ligent. At the same time, as stated in the Introduction
to this volume, all forms of inspired communica-
tion, even those in sacred books, can be proved histor-
ically to involve more or less ambiguity and tendency
to misapprehension. Nor is this fact, as applied even
to the Christian Scriptures, without its dangers. How
many times and for how many centuries has the right
to be educated, to think for oneself, and to follow the
dictates of one's own conscience been denied, and the

106 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

right to enforce acceptance of officials and dogmas
through exercise of extreme cruelty and persecution
been affirmed! — all in supposed fulfilment of injunc-
tions, or examples of the proper methods of obeying
injunctions, given in the Bible! No candid mind,
considering the subject fully, can fail to admit that the
errors incident upon following, without exercising ra-
tional discrimination, the dictation of a spirit-medium
are also incident — tho more subtly, perhaps, and to a
far less degree — upon following, without exercising
the same, the dictations of the Christian Scriptures.
In these errors attendant upon not interpreting the
Scriptures rightly we have a reason for the careful
study of the nature of revelation in addition to the
reason mentioned in our Introduction, which con-
cerned their being discredited by thoughtful minds on
account of their apparent inaccuracies.

CHAPTER V

THE NECESSARILY SUGGESTIVE CHARACTER OF INSPIRED
OR REVEALED TRUTH

Ambiguity and Indefiniteness Seem Characteristic of the Communica-
tions Received Through Inspiration and Revelation— The Method
of Action of the Inner Sphere of the Mind May Render This Result
Necessary— We Can Study This Method Through the Analogous
Methods of Hypnotism — Limitations of This Study — Hypnotism
Influences Through Suggestion, Which Leaves Expression Free
and, When Influencing Different Minds, Different— The Bearing
of This Argument — Analogies from Hypnotism May Explain
Many Things Assigned to Spiritual Influence in the Scriptures—
This Is so of Conversion — Of Atonement, of Spiritual Unity, of
Creation, of Probation, of Life After Death— Suggestive Revelation
May Be More Influential Than Dictatorial — Additional Evidence
of This — Suggestive Control in Religion Conforms to Divine Con-
trol as Manifested in External Nature — Suggestive Nature of
Revealed Truth Already Widely Acknowledged by Christians—
This Acknowledgment Not Antagonistic to Continued Study of
the Scriptures— Illustration of the Way in Which the Same In-
spired Truth May Be Exprest in Different Forms — Different
Legends in Different Religions May Give Expression to the
Same Fundamental Truth— Influence of This Fact Upon Future
Theologians.

That which has been unfolded in the chapters pre-
ceding this has sufficed, it is hoped, to make clear that,
in all religions there is more or less acknowledgment
of the existence of an occult method of influencing the
mind irrespective of the ordinary methods of communi-
cating with it through one of the five senses. In con-
nection with the acknowledgment of this method,
let us now recall what was said in the Introduction

108 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

with reference to the acknowledgment of an effect of
ambiguity and indefiniteness produced when the sub-
ject of the occult influence endeavors to describe or
to explain his experiences to others. Even those in-
clined to deny in words this ambiguity and indefinite-
ness are obliged to confess them in their deeds, or they
would not admit to their libraries so many books that
interpret differently the same passages in the same
sacred writings. Such books prove, beyond question,
a condition that exists, and exists, so far as one can
judge, universally. But can it be said that this con-
dition should exist, and this by necessity f If the latter
could be proved, it would do more than anything yet
advanced in this argument to explain the conditions,
as well as to reconcile our minds to those features of
them, which, according to what was said on page 7
of the Introduction, seem inconsistent with what may
reverently be termed the obligations of Omniscience.

So far we have considered the subject before us, as it
were, indirectly and from the outside, judging of the
methods of impressing and expressing influence exerted
upon the inner sphere of the mind from the results—
i.e., from what men so influenced say or do. But are
we sure that these results in expression are traceable
to such impressions as those to which we have assigned
them? Of course, we think so; but are we sure of it;
and, if not, is there any way of becoming sure of it?
Is there any way in which, in accordance with the
strictest scientific requirements, we can show how

SCIENTIFIC HYPNOTISM 109

the inner mind is influenced and how it expresses
the results of this influence? Is there any way in
which one can do for the subject before us something
akin to that which is done by the philosopher when,
from metaphysics, which has enabled him to surmise
the methods of the mind's action, he turns to physics,
and laying bare, as it were, the nerves of the brain,
unravels their tangled skein, and seeks for accurate
knowledge according to the methods of physiological
psychology ?

Yes, there is a way of so studying the subject. There
is a way, not only of surmising, but of knowing as a
fact, that the inner processes of mind can be influenced
immediately, and not, as through the senses, mediately;
and of knowing also that, when thus influenced, they
invariably not only do but must express the results of
this influence ambiguously, indefinitely, inaccurately,
and, at times, to all appearance, conflictingly. And
this way is one the truth of which can be demonstrated
scientifically. It is found in hypnotism — not hypo-
thetical hypnotism to which have been assigned all
sorts of unproved phenomena such as are used to sus-
tain the claims of extreme spiritists, but scientific hyp-
notism, the phenomena of which, and the methods of
producing which, can be studied by all, and the laws
of which are acknowledged by all who have studied
the subject intelligently. The facts acknowledged are
these. A scientific hypnotizer, when once he has his
subjects under control, can influence their thoughts

110 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

and feelings irrespective of that which, at the same
time, their senses perceive in the real world. Not-
withstanding what they actually see, hear, or expe-
rience in other ways, he can make them believe that
they see, hear, or experience something else; and he
can also make them give expression in words and deeds
to what they think and feel with reference to this
something else. Such a hypnotizer does not purport
to be acting under the control of a spirit — i.e., to be in-
spired to do something of the methods and results of
which he himself may remain unconscious. He claims
to be, and every one who has examined into the nature
of the influence that he exerts recognizes him to be,
acting as a rational man, fully conscious of his own
methods, and capable of reporting authoritatively what
results from them. He can know, therefore, and can
explain to us, the character of the influence which he
exerts over the inner mental processes, and just the
degree of accuracy with which those whom he has
hypnotized give expression to that which they have
received from him. Accordingly, unless the mind
when influenced in other ways than through the eyes
and ears, acts differently in different cases — which
we can not logically infer — the method in which the
hypnotizer influences this may be supposed to follow
the analogy of the method in which a spirit — of what-
ever rank or power — influences it.

Not, of course, that hypnotism, or anything else, can
explain everything that we might like to know about

THE SPIRITUAL SUBJECT TO LAW 111

the method. Nothing in this world ever explains
everything. What is important for us, in the present
case, is that we should recognize the fact of the ex-
istence of the method and of its expressional results,
This is really about all that we can know of any method
that we term natural. When we have learned that a
certain plant grows in a certain place, in a certain way,
developing into certain limbs, leaves, flowers, or ber-
ries that produce a certain effect, we have about
reached the possible limits of human knowledge with
reference to the plant. When one asks why it grows
as it does, we can do no more than refer the cause to
its own nature. So when any one asks why the mind,
when influenced irrespective of ordinary effects com-
municated through the eyes or ears, expresses itself
as it does, we can do no more than refer the cause of
this to its own nature. But, notwithstanding the
limits of our information, when we have really found
out what this nature causes the mind to do, just as
when we have found out what the nature of the various
plants about us causes them to do, we have found out
what is of immense practical value both to thought and
to life. Moreover as, in the nature of things — to go
back to the same reason — the Creative Power can not
be expected to change the characteristics once given
the plant, even tho, when ignorantly used for food, it
may prove deleterious to the body, so the same Power
can not be expected to change the characteristics once
given the inner sphere of the mind, even tho, when

112 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

ignorantly consulted for spiritual guidance, it may
prove deleterious to the spirit. As rational beings,
what we have to do is to study and to learn the nature
of mind, as of other things which experience presents
to us, and then to think and to act in accordance with
our knowledge.

It seems as if such considerations as these should
cause every philosophic theologian to study carefully
the methods of hypnotism. What are the chief of
these? — The preliminary effect, as most of us know, is
a deadening of the outer consciousness. This is pro-
duced in different ways. Sometimes passes with the
hands are made in front of the patient's eyes; some-
times his attention is fixt steadily on a revolving disk,
or upon a stationary object; and sometimes merely a
command is given. For our purposes, the preliminary
methods of inducing the state are immaterial. What
concerns us is the method of exerting influence over
thoughts and feelings after the state has been induced.
What is the method? Hypnotists agree in declaring
it to be the method of suggestion. The patient is
made to have some general conception. He is told,
for instance, that he is a fisherman or a fish, a soldier
like Napoleon or a President like Garfield, a Demo-
cratic stump-speaker or a Republican office-holder.
Then he is allowed to develop the suggestion in his own
way. It is usually asserted, too, that, when once the
suggestion has been given, whether based upon what
is true or false, all the processes of memory or logic

HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION 113

which are started in the patient's mind are developed
with flawless consistency. At least, the inhibitions
and checks which seem inevitably to introduce into the
processes of conscious logic more or less of that which
is irrelevant, are removed. When, for instance, a
patient is told that he is George Washington, or is
given a logical problem to solve, or is made to impro-
vise an oration upon some subject, or attributed to
some public man whose opinions are well known, the
result seems never to fail. It is like that which might
come from a perfectly constructed automatic machine.
Just here, however, in order to avoid a misapprehension
that might arise, it is important to notice that if, in
such a state, a patient be asked to repeat deeds that
he has seen, or words that he has heard, he will usually
do this with marvelous accuracy; but, in connection
with this fact, it is still more important to notice that
such cases of repetition afford no argument from
analogy which can be applied to inspiration, for the
reason that in them the patient is presumably limited to
what has affected his mind through the outer senses of
seeing and hearing, whereas in inspiration the inner
mind is presumably influenced mainly by effects not
produced through the outer senses. In this place,
therefore, we are called upon to consider such cases only
as do not involve a mere quickening of the normal
memory with reference to things actually seen or heard.
With reference to all these cases, it can be said that
the deeds and words through which the patient repre-

114 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

sents that which has been suggested are often wholly
unexpected by the one who has hypnotized him. In-
deed, the methods through which two or more patients
represent the same suggestion are never exactly the
same. They can not be, for one reason, because they
depend to such an extent upon what previous ex-
perience has stored in each one's memory. Besides
this, no two persons, probably, are fitted by nature to
render their representations equally intelligible. Dif-
ferent patients, therefore, frequently give expression to
the same suggestion in very different ways. Never-
theless, the general effect produced upon the methods
of expression of all the patients under the influence of
any one suggestion at any one time is the same — a
statement which, using terms in a broad way, could be
paralleled by saying that the representations, tho dif-
fering in form, are all alike in spirit.

Before going on to illustrate and amplify what has
been said let us try to bring clearly before our minds
the reason why it is important to illustrate and amplify
them. Let us notice the bearing of them upon our gen-
eral subject. This may be briefly stated as follows:
if suggestion be the method through which, irrespect-
ive of any form of communication made through the
senses, the inner or subconscious processes of mind are
influenced in such cases as are susceptible of full exam-
ination, it is logical to conclude that the same may be
the method through which these processes are influ-
enced in cases not susceptible of full examination.

HYPNOTISM AND INSPIRATION 115

There may be and must be different characteristics in
the sources of this influence and different degrees in
which it exerts its control, and therefore there must
be differences in the character of the expression and in
the accuracy with which it represents the effects of the
control; but until the human mind is changed so as to
become what all known facts prove it not to be, we
have no rational right to infer that any quality or
quantity of such control can make the influence which
is exerted anything but suggestive, or the expression of
the effects of the influence anything but that which is
natural to the expression of suggestion.

Just at this point it is not unlikely that some reader
will be inclined to follow this line of thought no further.
To compare the highest inspiration to anything re-
sembling an effect accompanying hypnotism, or revela-
tion to anything in the least resembling an hypnotic sug-
gestion, may seem to involve suppositions which a due
regard for the dictates of reverence or conscience should
not tolerate. But let him pause and consider the sub-
ject for a moment just as it is presented. Not the
slightest intimation has been given that the influences
produced by a man in hypnotism are presumed to be
on a level with those produced by the Supreme Spirit
in inspiration. It has been supposed merely that the
two may be produced by a similar method because
affecting a similar inner sphere of the mind. Thus
understood, what is here to be said may afford illustra-
tions by way of analogy which may prove exceedingly

116 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

helpful, inasmuch as they may make certain claims of
religion appear more in conformity than they some-
times do to accepted laws of nature and of reason.
For instance, Mr. Thomas Jay Hudson in "The Law
of Psychic Phenomena" maintains that the result of
suggestion exerted upon subconscious mental action in
hypnotism is in exact accord with that produced by
the central doctrine of Christianity, namely, salvation
through faith. When a patient is told "You are
Abraham Lincoln," it is through exercising a form of
faith that he voluntary yields his own will, believes the
words that are told him, and becomes, to his own con-
ception, what the hypnotizer suggests. Yet the hyp-
notizer suggests this in only a very general way, and
watches, with as much interest as any one else, to see
what will be the result of his subject's conception of
Mr. Lincoln's character. In like manner, according
to the Christian theory, when the Christ told men that
they were sons of God they became these by believing
in him and in his words, and voluntarily yielding their
wills to him; but at the same time he merely suggested
a conception which they were left free to carry out in
their own ways. He did not for either individuals or
communities dictate actions or formulate creeds. His
followers were "called unto liberty" (Gal. 5; 13).
Again, if one wonder how faith can permanently change
character, even ordinary hypnotism, which is not a
divine but merely a human agency subordinating con-
sciousness in such ways as to allow the subconscious

SUGGESTION AS REMEDIAL 117

to be influenced directly, may throw some light upon
this subject.

Observe the following from an article by Dr. R. Os-
good Mason on "The Educational Uses of Hypnotism/'
from the North American Review for October, 1896.
"In the summer of 1884," he says, "there was at the
Salpetriere, a young woman of a deplorable type — a
criminal lunatic, filthy in habits and violent in de-
meanor, and with a lifelong history of impurity and
theft. M. Auguste Voisin, one of the physicians of the
hospital staff, undertook to hypnotize her at a time
when she could be kept quiet only by the strait-
jacket and the continuous douche to the head. She
would not look at the operator, but raved and spat upon
him. M. Voisin, however, kept his face close to hers,
and followed her eyes wherever she moved them. In
ten minutes she was asleep, and in five minutes more
she passed into the sleep-walking or somnambulistic
state, and began to talk incoherently. This treatment
being repeated on many successive days, she gradually
became sane when in the hypnotic condition, tho she
still raved when awake. At length she came to obey in
her waking hours commands imprest upon her in her
trance — trivial matters, such as to sweep her room —
then suggestions involving marked changes in her be-
havior; finally, in the hypnotic state, she voluntarily
exprest regret for her past life, and, of her own accord,
made good resolutions for the future, which she carried
out when awake, and the improvement in her conduct

118 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

was permanent. Two years later M. Voisin wrote that
she was a nurse in a Paris hospital, and that her con-
duct was irreproachable."

There are several other of the accredited results of
religious influence that a recognition of these analogies
between it and hypnotic influence may render more
conceivable. Take, for instance, the effects supposed
to be produced by the incarnation and atonement of
Jesus. As a rule, even such a degree of confidence as
must antedate the influence of a hypnotizer must de-
pend upon his subject's belief not only in his ability,
but in his good-will and kindly interest. But what can
afford the highest evidence of these? — what but love?
And how does love manifest itself? In this world it is
simply a universal law that love, from that of a friend
to that of a mother, manifests itself in self-sacrifice, and
the degree of it in the degree of self-sacrifice. "Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friend" (John 15; 13). Notice again the
conception of the spiritual unity of the Christ with God,
as well as the associated conception of which the Church,
with its literalism (when applied exclusively, as all
literalism must be, to only a single application of the
general principle involved), is in danger of losing sight
—the conception of the spiritual unity of all believers
with God, the conception exprest in the prayer of Jesus,
in John 17; 21: "That they all may be one; as thou,
Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be
one in us." Can anything in human experience cause

HYPNOTIC AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE 119

us to conceive of the possibility of spiritual unity exist-
ing at the same time with separate personality, as well
as an understanding of the ascertained fact that a
hypnotizer can actually control the mind of his patient,
and yet, as in the case in which he tells him that he is
Abraham Lincoln, can allow him virtual freedom of
both thought and action; allow him, that is, to develop
his own conception of Mr. Lincoln's character?* Again,
take the statement in the opening of the Bible, that the
world was created in six days, and the corresponding
statements in Is. 34; 4, and Rev. 6; 14, that the heavens
shall finally be rolled together as a scroll. It may be
said with truth that there is only one possible explana-
tion in accordance with which such statements can be
shown to be analogous to anything supposable in human
experience. A hypnotizer can make a dozen or more
men all agree in conceiving of themselves as being in a
place wholly different from that in which they were a
moment before. What is to prevent millions of think-
ing creatures from being made to perceive a world
created out of nothing, and kept believing in it for
generations and then being made as suddenly to see this

*The fact that a subject, tho hypnotized and thus caused mentally to de-
velop a false premise (see page 148), nevertheless usually continues to give ex-
pression to his own idiosyncrasies — a man, for instance, to manifest his sense of
dignity, and a woman her sense of modesty — is important. It shows not only
the groundlessness of much of the fiction which ascribes the commission of crime
to hypnotic influence, but also a reason for supposing that the agent of expres-
sion, however elsewise influenced, is, in the last analysis, the subconscious self,
and so for supposing also, as far as the conditions throw light upon life as it will
be when wholly free from the body, that selfhood, individuality of character,
will continue in the future state.

120 THE PSYCH OLOGY OF INSPIRA TION

world disappear? Nothing except a lack in the uni-
verse of power able to exert the same kind of influence
on all minds that is now exerted on a few minds.
Similar considerations may show us why it is rational
to suppose that the future life of the individual should be
wholly determined by his present life, not only spiri-
tually considered but intellectually. In the results of
hypnotism, we have a picture of what the mind does
when its own physical powers are not dominant over
it. What does it do? It goes on developing the
premise last or, at least, most strikingly presented to it.
It perceives in itself and in its visible surroundings
whatever the hypnotizer suggests as being there. It
experiences the literal, as well as poetic, truth of what
Milton says:

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

Paradise Lost, 1.

Let the suggestion embody a belief in the Fatherhood
of God and the brotherhood of souls — what could pre-
vent the mind's continuing, after being freed from the
body, to live on forever in the same belief? " To-day,"
said Jesus to the penitent thief upon the cross — " to-day
shalt thou be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23; 43).
Who shall say that it is not strictly in accordance with
the laws of this world as well as of the next that this
promise should be fulfilled? Again, the inner processes
of thought, when not outwardly checked, develop, as
has been said, with complete recollective, logical, and

SUGGESTIVE INFLUENCE EFFECTIVE 121

illustrative consistency that which previous experience
has stored. Now so far as what is thus developed has
its germs in previous experience, so far is it not logical
to conclude that spiritual life in the next world must
continue to unfold from ideals formed in this world?
and if so, have we not a provision for eternal limitation?
But if, at the same time, the mind through memory,
logic, and imagination can develop its stores in ways
practically infinite, then, in connection with limitation,
have we not also a provision for infinite expansion?
And if we can answer such questions in the affirmative,
can we not perceive more clearly than otherwise one
reason why life in this world should be one of probation
and acquirement, but in the next world one of fruition
and rest? Besides this, if minds be able to have occult
intercourse with one another, what is to prevent the
discoveries, inventions, and conceptions of every age,
which must necessarily, perhaps, be confined to a
material plane, from being a help to those who have
gone before, and who are now upon a spiritual plane?
If nothing can prevent this, then we may understand
why a patriarch of old should expect to be blest owing
to the character and achievements of his descendants,
and why the presence of a cloud of witnesses on high
(Heb. 12; 1) should be used as an inducement to one
who cares little for anything except the opportunity of
helping others.

So much for certain analogies between the suggestive
influence accompanying hypnotism and that which

122 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

in religion is termed inspiration. But what, it may be
asked, about the analogies between the results of sug-
gestion and the results of inspiration which are termed
revelations? Is not the attempt to prove that the
statements of a religious leader or writer should be con-
sidered suggestive, rather than dictatorial, equivalent
to an attempt to lessen a man's regard for the authority
of the source from which the statements come, and to
diminish their influence upon him? It undoubtedly
is equivalent to this as applied to the letter or form of
the statements, but not as applied to the spirit of them;
not as applied to the general subject-matter or the
principle to which the statements give expression.
Nor does the conception that the general subject-matter,
or the principle involved, is exprest suggestively tend
to weaken such effects as this is fitted to exert upon the
minds to which it is addrest. If we be told that a father
trains his son not through the use of explicit, dictatorial
injunctions, but by way of suggestion, we do not neces-
sarily infer that he has less authority or influence with
his son than have other parents who use the other
method. We are often inclined to think the contrary.
Any parents with superior physical strength who dic-
tate what their boy shall do, will be obeyed as long as
they are in sight. But this method will not always
cause the boy to obey them when they are not in sight.
Nothing but regard and love for his parents will make
him do this. Regard and love are occasioned by mani-
festations of wisdom and sympathy; and these traits,

THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT 123

in the treatment of a child are never manifested as
fully as by the parent who governs through suggestion.
It is in the degree in which they are manifested that
his children acquire and incorporate as habits in their
characters his own methods of thinking and acting.
Why should not the same principle apply to the meth-
ods in which the heavenly Father deals with his children?
There are other reasons, too, why spiritual influence
should be supposed to be exerted in the suggestive way
that has been indicated. In what way except through
the endeavor to understand suggestions, and to embody
them in definite mental and material forms, can spiri-
tual life develop? Even by divinity itself could it be
developed according to any other method? A fully
formulated, dictatorial control relieves a man of the
necessity of thinking. A suggestive control obliges him
to think. Oblige him to do this, where both he and
others have liberty, and no matter how unwisely he
may, at first, carry out suggestions, a right tendency
thus started will ultimately attain righteousness; a
little leaven, after a time, after many generations,
perhaps, will finally leaven the whole lump. It is
probably because of a recognition of this principle that
the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 3; 6, speaks of himself and
his fellow workers as being " ministers of the new testa-
ment; not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life." This statement,
the history of the world has proved to be true. As a
fact, the letter has killed. It has done this both be-

124 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

cause the theory of literalism, so conscientiously ad-
vocated, has been the death of any form of belief in
the Scriptures on the part of large numbers who —
debarred from a theory which might explain — could
not fully ignore what to them have seemed to be dis-
crepancies; and also because the truth, when considered
only in itself, so far as it has been supposed to be iden-
tical with a form or a formula (see page 38) has failed to
stimulate to activity, and so to spiritual life. To-day, as
in the days of Adam and Eve, knowledge of good and
evil, so far as it is accompanied by a desire for nothing
beyond this, tends to spiritual death. The curse of
bigotry and priestcraft lies not alone in the fact that by
false forms and traditions they make void the truth, but
that they make it void by true forms and traditions so
far as they exalt these to undue importance; so far as
they point to effects logical to thought or attractive to
the eye, and say "Know these, or do these, and thou
shalt live." If the Church be paradise on earth, this
latter Eden may have its tempter as surely as the former
one. When a man is told that he can attain all that
mind or soul can need through accepting some dogma,
performing some ceremony, undertaking some service,
what can be the result but to counteract the tendency
to faith in that which is unseen? On earth the soul
should walk by faith, because this leaves all about one
an infinite margin that stimulates desire; and only
through desire for surer, purer, better things can intel-
lect be developed or spirit sanctified.

DIVINE INFLUENCE SUGGESTIVE 125

Such a view of divine influence as thus exerted in the
invisible realm is the only one in harmony with the same
as exerted in visible nature. This gives a brook rocks
to rise above and ledges to dash upon, that, through
their agency its volume and future speed may be in-
creased. So, also, nature gives a man personal foes to
rise above, and financial woes to dash upon, that,
through their agency his wisdom and future energy
may be increased. Amid material obstacles, the man
who tries to save his life by flying from the conflicts
granted to experience may lose it; but the man who
pushes forward, tho he lose his life, may find it. Amid
spiritual obstacles, the soul that has the faith to move
is vivified with health; the one that is content to lie
and sleep and dream, whoever or whatever may give
the authority to do so, is only stiffened into death.
Why should not the influence, in this regard, of the
written word be exerted in analogy with that which is
exerted by the unwritten word of nature?

Now let it be added, for the enlightenment of those
who may fear that to answer this question in the affirm-
ative would imperil the influence of the Christian Scrip-
tures, that it has already been answered in the affirm-
ative by millions who are still exerting not only a
distinctly Christian but a Biblical influence. For years,
during the time in which this work has been in con-
templation, the author has been examining as well as
he could the processes in the minds of people of such
character. He has been trying, if possible, to discover,

126 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

beneath their own explanations, which seldom inter-
pret correctly the real workings of the mind, what
their actual beliefs were. As a result, he has found
few, if at all intelligent, who did not practically accept
the text of Scripture as suggestive rather than dicta-
torial. Nevertheless, owing to the influence upon them
of doctrines which they had learned, they would seldom
acknowledge this fact even to themselves. Would it
not be of benefit to them, as well as to their associates
of other or of no religions, if there could be some widely
accepted philosophic principle in accordance with
which theory and practise, in such cases, could be made
to coincide?

Or, to consider the subject in another light, would
the acceptance of such a principle interfere in the least
with the interest or importance attaching to that tex-
tual study of the Scriptures, which, for centuries, has
been the source of so much that has been stimulating
to the general thought of the world, and been produc-
tive of so much of its progress? Would the acceptance
of this principle not rather furnish a well-grounded
reason which, hitherto, has been lacking, for ending
the prejudice, bigotry, bitterness, and persecution
which have frequently been manifested in connection
with such study? As for the study itself, it is a grave
mistake to suppose that this could be stimulated more
by a belief in the absolute infallibility of the letter of
the text than by the other theory. The most effective
mental stimulus does not come from a feeling of cer-

r' SUGGESTIONS CAUSE STUDY 127

tainty with reference to such a subject. One who has
been led to conceive that the results of inspiration,
from their very nature, must be mainly suggestive has
obtained an additional inducement for studying them.
He now feels impelled to do so because he knows that
no brief, superficial reading will enable him to learn all
that is in them. Why should this suffice to interpret
what is termed the written word of the Spirit any more
than a similarly superficial reading should suffice for
the unwritten word that appears in nature? Upon
those, therefore, by whom the theory presented in this
book shall be accepted we need not expect any less in-
fluence to be exerted by theological discussions or lead-
ers. There will be, however, this difference between
this influence and that coming from many religious dis-
cussions and leaders of the past. Whatever thought
this influence may awaken will be communicated to
others in the only form in which it is possible for thought
to be communicated successfully. No church that
adopts the theory that the truth of inspiration is sug-
gestive can logically try to cause men to accept it by
the use either of physical or of moral force. Such a
church will be compelled to recognize that a mind can,
accept thought only by thinking it.

Now let us go back to illustrate and amplify, as has
been promised, what was meant by saying that the
outer representation in word and deed of that which
has been suggested to the inner mind, tho differing in
form, may be alike in spirit. Here is an instance that

128 THE PSYCH OL OGY OF IN8PIRA TION

may exemplify this: the author knows of a case in
which it is claimed that, through influence occultly
exerted upon subconscious processes of thought, an
attempt was made at a distance of a thousand or more
miles to induce a man; who had not been met or heard
of for years, to leave off a habit which the one who
exerted the influence surmised rightly, tho psychically,
to be undermining his physical and mental powers.
The influence, purely argumentative in its own char-
acter, is said to have appealed to the subject — who did
not become aware of the attempt till receiving, days
later, a letter dated on the night in which it was made—
in the form of a very startling dream, in which he seemed
to see the figure of death, to feel it touch him, to ex-
perience dying, to awaken in a beautiful spiritual world,
and there to be chased and caught by a hideous monster
loathsome to sight, smell, and touch, who pretended to
be a bosom friend, and gave himself the name of the
habit from which it was sought to deliver him. Sup-
pose this man, upon awakening, had told his dream,
and others had accepted it, as a literal account of an
actual " vision," they would have done what millions
have done in the past, and would have contributed
their share to the formation of a new "myth." It is
possible, however, that some other man influenced
according to the same method, in order to cure the
same habit, would have had some other "vision," and
that the two "visions," when compared, would have
been found, in their details, to be very different, pos-

ORIGIN OF MYTHS 129

sibly conflicting. What then? Then those who had
taken the details of either " vision" to be that which
was of importance in it would have been obliged to
think one or the other of the reports of the details to
be false. Those, however, who had realized that both
visions might be results upon minds, differently consti-
tuted and cultured, of an exactly similar suggestion,
would have recognized that both might be true to this
suggestion, and, also, tho apparently conflicting, true to
one another.

It seems pertinent to ask here whether what has just
been said may not serve somewhat to interpret a fact
often noticed and at different times differently re-
garded. This fact is the similarity in import, notwith-
standing differences in detail, of the representations of
conditions in the spiritual world which have been at
the basis of the beliefs and ceremonies of different re-
ligions. For instance, not only among the Hebrews,
but in ancient Egypt, Greece, India, and Persia, in
connection even with Polytheism, there was a recog-
nition of the existence of one Supreme Being, and, in
all but the Hebrew religion, a suggestion of a peculiar
relationship between this Being and two others, such
as, in Christianity, has been developed into the doctrine
of the Trinity. Again, we find assigned to more than
one of the chief religious leaders a virgin-birth,* a life
of holiness on earth, a death followed by a resurrection,
and a devotion ever after, to the spiritual assistance of

* See note on page 198.

130 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

his worshipers. All these things were represented as
true of the Persian Mithras, many of them of the East
Indian Buddha, most of them of the Egyptian Osiris;
and they are suggested in the prophecies of the return
to earth of such national heroes as Caesar of Rome and
Arthur of England. Similar ceremonies, too, have
characterized most of these religions. The followers of
Mithras observed sacraments, among which were bap-
tism and the eucharist. Professor Franz Cumont's
"Mysteres de Mithra" is said to show a photograph of a
bas-relief of the ceremony of the latter, in which bread
in the form of a wafer bears upon it, strangely enough,
the impression of a cross. A European attending
to-day a Buddhist service in China or Japan might
imagine himself to be in a Catholic church; but the
resemblance in this case would be no closer than be-
tween a modern Protestant service and that of the
Hebrews, or of the ancient Greek or Roman Stoics, or
even of the present Mohammedans. Nor in listening
to the exhortations in these religious gatherings would
the differences noticed be as great as is sometimes
imagined. In almost all of these religions there is, as
in the Christian, an insistence upon the necessity of
faith, fidelity, chastity, honesty, and holiness. Once
in visiting a class-room in an American Congregational-
ist Missionary College in Japan, the author found that
they were studying ethics, and that their text-book
was one of the works of Confucius. As is well-known,
the Christians of the third and fourth centuries used

SIMILARITY IN RELIGIONS 131

to attribute everything in the heathen religions un-
mistakably resembling things in their own to the
machinations of the devil, intended, through imitation,
to deceive the elect, and capture them for his hostile
camp. The same conclusion was reached by the
Spanish fathers who first came to South America, and
found among the Peruvians not only sacrificial cere-
monies resembling those of the ancient Hebrews, but
the distribution of bread and wine, confession, penance,
and monasticism, which they had supposed to be
peculiar to Christianity. Within the last hundred
years, in view of what has been learned not only of the
similarity between the rites of all the higher religions,
but of the pure character of most of the teachings in
them all, a more charitable theory has prevailed. This
may be said to be exprest in the passage of the
Bible chosen as an opening text by the late Dean
Trench in his "Hulsean Lectures" on this subject,
namely, "The desire of all nations shall come" (Hag.
2; 7). According to this theory, all of these religions —
the higher ones, at least — owe their origin to the inborn
rather than inspired struggle of man after truth, and
all point to Christianity, in which is found a fulfilment
of his inborn desire for an inspired revelation. It
seems as if a broader interpretation than this might be
acceptable in the near future. If no conditions in the
spiritual world can ever be communicated to men ex-
cept through the use of material symbols or forms, and
if these can never represent the conditions fully or

132 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

adequately, nor to minds, differently constituted or
cultured, in an exactly similar way, then different
symbols or forms may be used, in different nations, for
the purpose of expressing exactly the same truth or
principle, and not only in Christianity, but in all these
nations, they may be inspired.

When the future philosophic theologian comes to take
in this conception, he will no longer be satisfied to study
the sacred text of only his own form of religion, much
less that of some commentator like Thomas Aquinas
or John Calvin. He will study the text of all the higher
religions, trying to find the similar import represented
through their different legends, and the similar principle
expounded in their not greatly differing precepts. Such
an attitude of mind will almost infinitely elevate his
aims and widen his horizon. It will cause him to
search for the absolute, eternal, and infinite truth, and
not merely, as, too frequently is the case now, for that
which can be no more than relative to his own surround-
ings and purposes, if not to his own interests as the
hired advocate of some institution endowed for the
purpose of perpetuating current opinions irrespective
of the influence which should naturally be exerted upon
all opinions by advancing thought and knowledge.
Then, too, those who are guided by such a theologian
will come to have a philosophic reason for believing in
the universal spiritual fatherhood of God and in the
spiritual brotherhood of man. They will come also to
have a reasonable hope that the spiritual aspirations of

SIMILARITY IN RELIGIONS 133

mankind, fulfilled, as they undoubtedly have been—
tho, possibly, not exclusively — in the ideal presented
in the career of the historic prophet of Judea, will unite
in such a way as to make literally true the prophecy
that "all the kingdoms of the world" shall "become
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ77 (Rev.
11; 15).

CHAPTER VI
SIGNIFICANCE AND FORM IN SUGGESTED TRUTH

A Conception Impressing Our Minds Is Not Identical with a Word
Expressing It— The Latter Is a Result of Materializing the Con-
ception— Use of Materialized Conceptions by Man and by the
Creator — Universal Recognition of This Use — Appropriateness of
Its Use in Inspiration and Revelation— How This Fact Modifies
Certain Current Conceptions — Differences Between Scientific and
Religious Truth— Application to Statements in the Bible— Render-
ing These Conformable to Reason — And to Philanthropy — Degrees
of the Credibility of the Influence Occultly Exerted Through the
Subconscious— Depends Upon the Truthfulness of the Suggestion
Given It as a Premise — The Truthfulness of This Suggestion and of
Its Results Must be Determined by the Action of Some Conscious
Mind— Whose Conscious Mind This Is— It Is a Mind Influenced by
Heredity and Environment— This Explains the Development of the
Truth as Revealed in the Bible— The Explanation Accords with
Biblical Statements— With General Opinion— This Conception Does
Not Render Biblical Truth Less Determinant.

The thoughts brought out in the preceding chapter
seem to carry with them the conclusion that, when nor-
mally exprest, the utterances of a mind supposed to
be inspired, because influenced from within irrespect-
ive of appeals through eyes and ears, are illustrative
rather than exactly reproductive of that which has im-
prest it. This conclusion will become stronger the more
critically we examine the subject. We shall find, too,
that the principle is applicable to the utterances even
of such conceptions as are only indirectly traceable to
influences exerted upon the inner sphere of the mind.
All utterances, as made by men, assume the forms of

MEANINGS OF WORDS 135

words. But what are words? They are not repro-
ductions of anything in the mind; they are merely
symbols of something there. Moreover, they are
symbols which, tho used by several men in the same
sense, by no means indicate necessarily that these men
are representing through them the same conception.
For instance, take such a word as " thirst" or " water."
A dog, when he wants a drink, will run to and from a
pail in which he has been accustomed to see water.
He evidently has in mind a vision of this water, and not
the word " water." He never uses the word, and
probably, therefore, does not think of it. So with a
child who can not talk, or a savage whose vocabulary
is limited. Grown people who understand language
use the word, and, possibly, think of it. But, besides
this, they think of something else. Just as clearly as
the dog thinks of a pail, a child of a tumbler, or a
savage of a river, they may think, according to the
place in which each has been accustomed to sate his
thirst, of a spring, a water-pitcher, or a public bar. This
is the same as to say that the same general impression
or conception may appeal to the mind in the form of a
different image, and, if this image were carefully de-
scribed in language, would be exprest to others in a
different word. Add to this now the fact that thought
in the mind is never at rest; that one thought is always
passing into other thoughts; that one image is always
connecting itself with other images; and we must con-
clude that often out of the same psychic impression

136 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

revealing itself definitely as a single image, different
minds may construct, by way of accretion, whole series
of imaginative fabrics that in form are different from
one another.

Now notice that the first image, and, of course, all
the later images, are results of each mind's appropri-
ating, for its purpose, objects or conditions that have
been perceived in material nature. To each of these
images it may give a name, which name develops into
what we term a word. Any one will recognize this who
knows about the origin of words. The word is, for
instance, comes through the German ist, the Latin est,
and the Greek esti, from the old Sanskrit word as in-
dicating the act of breathing; and because whoever
breathes exists, it means to exist. The Greek word for
spirit meant originally breath; and as the breath, tho
unseen, evidently keeps the body alive, spirit came to
mean the unseen principle of life, that without which,
when it departs, the body dies. So on through large
numbers of words till we come to those of modern
origin like understanding, uprightness, and pastime. It
may be said, therefore, that, altho the first psychic
impression produced on the mind may be spiritual,
the moment this impression assumes definite form and
becomes an image, either in the mind's conception or
as represented in a picturesque word, and still more
as this image connects itself with other images, the
results become more or less materialized in character.
In this form, tho occasioned by spiritual influence

EXPRESSION MATERIAL IN FORM 137

and representing it, they can not be said to be spiritual
in themselves. They are merely illustrations drawn
from the material world of something spiritual, which
otherwise could not be communicated to us through
the use of eyes or ears. We are not justified, there-
fore, in claiming that these illustrations contain literal
truth. Nor again are we justified in claiming that they
contain no truth, or that they are not worthy of the
most scrupulous study undertaken in order to ascertain
what this truth is.

The principle involved in these statements has come
to be virtually recognized by all thinkers. They ac-
knowledge that, at every stage of intellection, a man
is forced to use the forms of the material world in order
to represent his mental processes. Otherwise they
could not be perceived clearly nor understood intel-
ligently even by himself, and much less by others to
whom he wishes to communicate them. Take any one
of the more important of the emotions that actuate us
and we shall recognize this fact. Take that experience
in some of the manifestations of which religious people
believe that a man most resembles the Unseen One.
Think how love, which is begotten often in a single
glance, and is matured in a single thrill, gives vent to
its invisible intensity. How infinite in range and in
variety are those material forms of earth and air and
fire and water which are used by man as figures through
which to represent the emotion within him ! What ex-
tended tho sweet tales, what endless repetitions of

138 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

comparisons from hills and valleys, streams and oceans,
flowers and clouds, are made to revolve about that soul
which, through the use of them endeavors to picture
in poetry spiritual conditions and relations which
would remain unrevealed but for the possibility of
being thus indirectly symbolized! Nor is it man alone
who is obliged to use the forms of material nature in
order to reveal the workings of his spirit. He himself
does this only, as it were, by way of imitation; only
because he partakes of the nature and therefore must
follow the methods of the Creative Spirit to which
all men and all material nature owe their origin. If
what has been said be true of the expression of human
love, why should not the Great Heart whose calm beat-
ing works the pulses of the universe express divine love
through similar processes evolving infinitely and eter-
nally into forms not ideal and verbal, but real and
tangible — in fact, into forms which we term those of
nature?

Do we not all, subtly, at least, believe in the two
statements just made? Do we not believe that ma-
terial nature furnishes the representative implements
through which a man creates language, and that it
furnishes also the actual implements through which
the Creative Spirit produces a language speaking,
tho in a less articulate and distinct way, to our
thoughts and emotions? Have not all who can under-
stand this passage of Wordsworth accepted it as vir-
tually true?

EXPRESSION MATERIAL IN FORM 139

" I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth ; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity.

" . . . And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man :
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."

Lines Composed a few Miles above Tintern AJbbey.

But now, if in ordinary words, all men, as a rule, ex-
press themselves by appropriating material forms of
nature through which to represent their thoughts, why
should not an inspired man do the same? And if the
Divine Spirit find expression in the "unwritten word7'
through material forms, why should not the same, or
something in analogy with the same, be used in the
methods of expression in the " written word?" This
argument from analogy certainly seems approximately
rational. Let us notice now how it applies to the in-
terpretation of what are termed inspired Scriptures.

Here, at the outset, one is compelled to admit that a
logical conclusion from the thoughts that have so far
been presented will not permit all of the readers of this
volume to retain without modification the opinions
with reference to our subject which up to this time
they have not only held but cherished. This objection,
however, is not insuperable. The scientific, artistic,

140 THE PSYCIIOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

or literary method of interpretation applied to that
which exerts a religious influence need not necessarily
destroy it. In such a case, to recognize that this in-
fluence can affect the mind only indirectly through
understanding, emotion, or imagination might be a
help rather than a hindrance. To go immediately to
the most indisputable source of inspiration of which we
know, take the utterances of that Master who spake
as " never man spake" (John 7; 46). So far were
his words from being like those of a philosopher formu-
lating a system, or of a leader dictating action, that
hardly two associations of men since his time have been
completely agreed as to exactly what body of belief or
visible organization most accurately represents Chris-
tianity as he proclaimed it, his apparent theory being
that, if men came to take into their natures, as a living
force, the inspiration derived from the suggestions that
he gave them — from such a suggestion, for instance,
as that they were sons of God — then that, both as in-
dividuals and as members of his corporate church, they
could safely be left, in applying the suggestion, to exer-
cise the " liberty" with which he had made them "free"
(Gal. 5; 1). Now if this were true of the words of
Jesus, why should it not be true of the words of other
inspired prophets? Have any of them been more truly
inspired than he was?

This argument from example may be confirmed by
one based upon the nature of the conception which in
religion is communicated. Significance obtained, as

SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH 141

it mainly is in science and largely is in art, through the
conscious action of the mind, may be imparted with
jdefiniteness and accuracy to an extent not true of that
which has been obtained mainly or wholly through sub-
conscious action. When we speak of scientific truth
as applied to a statement, we mean something that
formulates the mind's conscious knowledge of every
essential detail entering into the general result; we
mean something that manifests no defective work of
observation or of memory. When we speak of religious
or even of artistic truth, of truth that is either inspira-
tional or imaginative, it is often impossible that we
should mean this; for we are speaking of something
that involves certain contributions from the mind's
hidden sphere of action, and because this reveals to us
no form that can be perceived or even distinctly con-
ceived, they can not be formulated. They can be-
merely represented or suggested. Take the following:

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world,
Like a Colossus ; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

Julius Caesar , 1., £: Shakespeare.

Scientifically considered, hardly one word of this is true.
No man who ever lived could bestride the world like a
Colossus, or have any grown man not a dwarf walk
under his legs. Yet the statement is not false, because
the words mean merely that certain spiritual or mental
relations existing between the man and us, which rela-

142 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

tions can not be seen, are the same as those that might
exist between the height that might be supposed to be
seen in a Colossus and in a petty man, and that, there-
fore, these forms that might be seen can suggest this
unseen relationship. Or take another illustration:

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings,
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

Richard III, v. 2: Shakespeare.

This again is not literally or scientifically true, but only
by way of suggestion. Hope never had swallows' wings ;
and it takes a good deal more than it to make kings
gods, or meaner creatures kings.

If a principle like this apply to the phraseology of art,
it must apply still more to that of religion. In the
Bible, God is called sometimes a sovereign whose actions
are limited by only his own will (Dan. 4; 35), and some-
times a father whose actions are limited by the needs
and wishes of his children (Ps. 103; 13; Matt. 7; 11);
the Christ is called sometimes the only son of God
(John 3; 18), and sometimes the first born among
many brethren (Rom. 8; 29); and Abraham is called
sometimes the father of the Israelitish race (Is. 41; 8),
and sometimes of those who are not members of that
race (Rom. 14; 16). Taken as illustrations used to
suggest relationships in an unseen spiritual world,
through what we can see and know of the relationships
of king, father, son, brother, or children in a material
world, these expressions may prove exceedingly helpful ;
but taken as statements of literal fact, they are contra-

BIBLICAL TERMS SUGGESTIVE 143

dictory; and taken as arguments to prove exact con-
ditions in the spiritual world, they may be very mis-
leading. No better proof of this fact can be afforded
than by the many books and sermons written by Cal-
vinists to show that some doctrine like that of " elec-
tion," " imputed righteousness/' or " eternal generation"
does not involve the irrational or erroneous conclu-
sions that many have supposed, but has been mis-
understood. Of course, it has been misunderstood;
but might not a more thorough remedy for the mis-
understanding be found by tracing it back to the ex-
treme and erroneous literalism in which it first took
rise. In order to show due regard or reverence for
spiritual relationships which can only be figured or
symbolized through reference to conditions in the ma-
terial world, it is not necessary to ignore practically,
or to deny, the plain statement in the Scriptures that
"eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath pre-
pared" (1 Cor. 2; 9). "My thoughts are not your
thoughts. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts" (Is. 55; 8, 9); "Un-
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past find-
ing out" (Rom. 11; 33).

A similar principle applies to many Biblical expres-
sions. The truth in them would often commend itself
to us much more effectively could we perceive that they
need not be interpreted literally. When, for instance,

144 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA. TION

we are informed that "The Lord spake unto Moses,"
or unto some other prophet, and are told the words
spoken, why is it necessary for us to suppose that the
term spake refers to words heard? Why need it indi-
cate more than an influence exerted in an unseen,
spiritual sphere suggestive of that which, in the material
sphere, would be exerted through the use of language?
We are acquainted with this method of understanding
a statement, even when applied to a resemblance in
conditions that are both material. A mother explains
to her child that the mother-bird pushes the young
birds out of her nest and tells them to fly; or she ex-
plains her feelings, when the child does wrong, by say-
ing that she is angry. In both cases, she says what,
scientifically considered, is false ; yet it is strictly true-
in spirit, as we say. And how else can we suppose the
Scriptures to be true? If thus interpreted — i.e., con-
sidered to be true merely in spirit — we can explain the
most of their apparent discrepancies. We can explain
why, for instance, we are told in Ex. 11; 1, 2, that, just
before the Israelites were to leave Egypt forever, "The
Lord said unto Moses . . . Speak now in the ears of
the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor
and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and
jewels of gold"; and are also told in Ex. 12; 35, that
"the children of Israel did according to the words of
Moses, and they borrowed," etc. If scientific accuracy
had been the object here, we should have been informed
in verse 35 that the Lord originated the idea. Fortu-

LITERALISM AND PHILANTHROPY 145

nately, we are not so informed. For this reason,
when we come to consider the discrepancy indicated be-
tween what we conceive to be the character of God and
the advice to do evil that good may come, we may con-
clude that these passages, interpreted in a literary and
not a literal sense, mean no more than that Moses was
inspirationally imprest with the conception that he
should lead the people out of Egypt, and obtain funds
for the purpose in the best way that he could, in which
circumstances the natural promptings of a descendant
of Jacob as well as of an enslaved race impelled him into
advising the subterfuge of the false pretense of borrow-
ing. So with the words of David and the works of
Joshua. The accounts of these picture to us minds
inspirationally imprest with the importance of sup-
pressing and ending unrighteousness and idolatry. If
these minds carry out the despotic and military prompt-
ings of their age, by writing imprecatory psalms and
committing wholesale slaughter, such manifestations,
tho suggesting the feelings and methods of the Lord,
do not necessarily express them with scientific accuracy.
Read Ps. 109; 1-29 and Joshua 8; 26, 27: 10; 40 and
11; 20.

When we think of all the iniquity and cruelty in
family, society, and state which have resulted from the
extreme literalism of the officials of ecclesiastical or-
ganizations, we can not avoid feeling that the interpre-
tations of the Scriptures rendered possible by conceiv-
ing of all inspired expressions as mainly suggestive,

146 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

may be as much in the interest of philanthropy as of
philosophy. Nevertheless, it is not supposed that all
will accept these methods of interpretation. Some are
so constituted that they imagine that inspired words
can not be true unless they are true literally. There
are some, too, who think the same of poetry. But, as
was intimated a moment ago, they are not the ones who
understand poetry the best or get the most truth out
of it.

Before passing on now to formulate certain principles
in accordance with which what has been said may be
practically applied to the interpretation of the Christian
Scriptures, let us, in order to approach the subject in
as broad and general a way as possible, inquire first into
the degrees of credibility to be given to any communi-
cations such as — are not supposed to be, but, pre-
sumably— have been proved to be given through some
occult influence, or, at least, some influence exerted
over the inner sphere of the mind. Let us ask how far
in themselves, simply because of the methods they in-
volve, such communications may be considered worthy
of credence. To answer the question in a manner as
nearly scientific as possible, let us go back to hypnotism
again. Let us ask whether a man, when receiving and
developing a hypnotic suggestion, is necessarily dealing
with the truth? There is no need of emphasizing the
importance of this question. It is relevant to all the
revelations of not only what are termed heathen re-
ligions, but even of some of the non-heathen. Among

UNTRUE OCCULT COMMUNICATIONS 147

certain adherents of these, as we know, any actual
proof that one has been actuated to deeds or utterances
through some inner or occult influence is considered a
proof also of the supernatural trustworthiness of every-
thing that, when so influenced, he may do or say. Is
there any scientific justification for this belief? Only
one answer to this question accords with an intelligent
understanding of the subject. That answer is, "None
whatever."

Those acquainted with the phenomena of hypnotism,
and, therefore, with the operations of subconsciousness
as disclosed — tho not originated — by hypnotic in-
fluences, believe themselves to have reasons for holding
that its processes of memory and logic are developed
with well-nigh flawless consistency. When, however,
from the method of development, they turn to examine
the germ that is thus developed, they find that the
same mind, when given suggestions entirely antago-
nistic in meaning, will develop each of them with equal
consistency. But if this be so, why does it not follow
that, in case the suggestion be untrue, and the premise
therefore false, the entire result of the subconscious
mental action will be false? This certainly does follow.
A hypnotized man, if told that he is a bird, will act in
one way; then, if told immediately afterward that he
is a fish, he will act in another way, and each way will
conform to his own conceptions of the mode of proce-
dure of the being suggested. An insane man who sup-
poses himself to be suffering from an injury inflicted

148 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

by a friend, or to be a king or an animal, acts exactly
as he might act had he been permanently hypnotized.
He can often remember and argue certain points with
great accuracy, but he applies his ability to the devel-
opment of a false premise.

Now how, in a case of hypnotism or insanity, can the
truth or falsity of the premise which subconscious
mentality is developing be determined? How but by
some action of conscious mentality. In the hypnotized,
this, though seemingly dormant, is never, probably,
completely so. It usually does not manifest itself when
the suggestion can be carried out passively or play-
fully, as in results of mere speculation and fancy. But
when it comes to practical results of serious action,
then the conscious mind, as if realizing that it should
prevent danger to itself, is almost certain, we are told,
to assert itself; then, a modest nature will not act im-
modestly; an innocent nature will not incur guilt.
Whether we consider the theory or the practise of
hypnotism, therefore, some influence from a conscious
mind, as already indicated elsewhere, seems required in
order to prevent the misguidance of falsehood. This
mind may be that of the patient himself, if it can be
partly or fully restored to its normal condition. Other-
wise, the mind of another or of others surrounding the
patient must decide upon the truthfulness of the
premise submitted. Evidently so far as concerns the
patient himself, whether hypnotized or insane, it is
because, for the time being, his consciousness is not

INSPIRATION AND INTELLIGENCE 149

working, that he is a victim of groundless imaginings.
So much with reference to the hypnotic patient. How
is it, now, with reference to one who is in a trance?
Is not his consciousness, too, in a condition in which
it is not working? And if so, what inference must we
draw? Before answering this question let us recall
that many attribute all inspiration to trance-conditions
or to hypnotic conditions, which, in many of their mani-
festations, can not be distinguished from trance-con-
ditions. In addition to this, let us also recall that in
certain countries, as in India and in parts of Southern
Europe, the insane or idiotic, for the very reason that
they manifest few results of conscious intellection, are
supposed to be peculiarly gifted in the direction of in-
spiration; and also that, in some philosophic books,
insanity is allied to the subconscious intellection which
is manifested in the artistic inspiration of genius. What,
upon recalling all these facts, are we to conclude?
Undoubtedly, that insanity, hypnotism, trance-condi-
tions, and artistic and religious inspiration, all involve
to some extent, the same form of mental action. But
we need not go beyond this, and conclude that all the
results of this form of mental action are similarly con-
ditioned or are equally untrustworthy. The exact
fact seems to be that their trustworthiness in each case
depends upon the premise or suggestion which forms
the germ from which the conscious result of the sub-
conscious process is developed — which, by the way, is
a very strong argument, as the merest tyro in logic can

150 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

recognize, for the importance of having external re-
ligious standards of belief conform as nearly as pos-
sible to such as are absolutely true. To the insane,
surrounding circumstances acting upon diseased nerves,
give the suggestion. To the hypnotized, the hypno-
tizer gives it. To the one in a trance, the persons con-
sulting him — i.e., for whom he goes into the trance-
may give it. Even tho consciously they may give
nothing, nevertheless they may give it in the form
of general impressions, conveyed from their subcon-
scious mental tendencies. It is this fact, indeed, that
affords whatever warrant there may be for the claim
of the spiritists that those who consult a " medium"
with the intention of rinding fraud are almost certain
to find it. In such cases the " medium" is the one
hypnotized, and they are the hypnotizers who furnish
the suggestion. In fulfilment of the same principle,
those believing strongly in Catholicism usually hear,
when consulting a clairvoyant, no doctrines radically
inconsistent with their general belief; or if they be
Quakers, none radically inconsistent with the opinions
of Penn;* or, if they have a different experience
this fact usually furnishes good evidence, that, at

*This is not to say that they may not occasionally hear statements which
they will find hard to reconcile with their beliefs: but only that, if so, they will
be left to recognize the discrepancy for themselves. As bearing upon this gen-
eral subject, Alfred Russel Wallace in his "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism,"
pages 218 to 220, says that conflicting sectarian dogmas are sometimes pro-
claimed through the agency of "mediums"; but he claims that these are never
given except avowedly as the opinions of some individual spirit, and that, not-
withstanding them, the legitimate inferences concerning the future life so far as
it is actually described are in all cases, as coming from all "mediums," virtually
the same.

INSPIRATION AND INTELLIGENCE 151

heart, they themselves are not in sympathy with
their creed. Of course they may be to blame for
this, but in the degree in which the creed is erroneous
they must be commended; for the facts show that they
are more in sympathy with truth in general than with
any particular form in which they have hitherto received
it. Indeed, in case a mind has ever been wrongly in-
structed, it is only in the degree in which it is abso-
lutely unbiased that it can obtain from one in a trance-
condition anything resembling absolute truth.

What has been said leads to the same conclusion as
that reached in Chapter IV — a conclusion, however,
so important that it seems well to recur to it whenever
it needs to be newly applied. The conclusion is this—
that whatever is received through subconscious agency
is liable to be more or less modified by thoughts and
feelings in some conscious mind. As has been inti-
mated, this conscious mind may be either that of the
person who is being influenced, or inspired, as we say,
by or through his own subconscious intellection; or it
may be the mind of another who, through the com-
bined results of conscious and subconscious processes,
may be supposed to be furnishing external suggestions
to the inspired person. If the conscious mind be that
of the inspired person himself, the trustworthiness of
the premise which he develops will depend upon his
own intellectual and spiritual attainments and char-
acter. If the conscious mind be that of another, or
of others surrounding him, the trustworthiness of the

152 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

premise will depend upon their intellectual and spiri-
tual attainments — i.e.j upon whether they know what
truth is, and whether they desire to have it exprest
with exactness.

To state this thought differently, the form of an
inspired communication must depend to some extent
upon the intelligence and character of the minds
through which and to which it is made. It is impor-
tant to notice, in addition to this, that this form may be
affected by both conscious and subconscious intellec-
tion in these minds. The reason for this is that the
results of conscious observation of external objects
and events are constantly being stored and developed
in the subconscious region, and furnishing the whole
mind with its material. The conditions, therefore,
seem to indicate that what may be termed the formula-
tion of inspiration is always liable to be more or less
modified, because developed under the influence of
suggestions coming both from the mind of the inspired
person and, sympathetically, from the minds of those
to whom his communications are given. In other
words, it seems to be necessary to admit the effect upon
inspiration of environment, under which term we may
include both the individual and the general thought
of one's own age, and not only of this but of former
ages of which the thought of one's own age is a result.

In these conditions we seem to find a needed ex-
planation for those who argue — with however much or
little reason it is not necessary for us, at present, to

PROGRESSIVE TRUTH IN BIBLE 153

discuss — that the earlier books of the Bible manifest in
places the influences of comparatively low domestic,
social, ethic, religious, and, as applied especially to
accuracy, scientific and historic standards. We can
attribute such facts — if we have not the ability or
data to prove that they are not facts — to the environ-
ments of him through whom the religious influences
were communicated. It seems, too, as if this were a
more satisfactory explanation of what is called "the
development of truth'7 in the Old and New Testaments,
than is the theory that ascribes it to some plan of the
Almighty such as, if carried out by a man, would involve
—as some think — a form of deception. Rather than
to foster such an impression, and to seem to attribute
to the Creative Power limitations in morality, is it not
better to attribute the result to limitations in ability?
When man was given a rational intellect and a free
will, to say nothing of a material body, spiritual in-
fluence over him was limited. Why is it not logical to
infer that at the same time, and for the same reasons,
the possibility of holding spiritual communication with
him was limited? If so, whether the substance of in-
spiration may be supposed to come immediately from
the Divine Being, or mediately through other intervening
intelligences, it is hardly possible to conceive that its
highest and broadest significance could be intelligible to
the low and limited capacity of the human mind receiv-
ing it, or could become wholly expressible, or rendered
wholly intelligible, through any effort of that mind.

154 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

To a certain extent this view must be conceded to be
justifiable by a large number of very orthodox people,
if they wish to be logical. Who of them deny that, in
accordance with what is said in 1 Cor. 2; 14, the truth
of the Scriptures must be "spiritually discerned "?
But what does this mean except that the inspired ele-
ment is underneath the phraseology rather than in it?
Indeed, are not all the words of the phraseology, with
their various suggestions, more or less the results of
the thinking processes, conscious and subconscious, of
the mind that happens to be the medium of the spiritual
communication? "We have this treasure," says Paul,
referring in 2 Cor. 4; 7, to the truth that may be sup-
posed to be divine and absolute, "in earthen vessels/'
We know that the divine purposes, as they are mani-
fested in other earthen vessels — in crystals, flowers,
and animals— are not embodied with unvarying pre-
cision. Probably no diamond, rose, or human face
was ever discovered that did not manifest some varia-
tion from that which science could prove to be its
typical or ideal form. Now if these material objects
all leave some of their material influence upon the evi-
dent divine plan to shape them in accordance with a
divine law, why should not the human mind also leave
some of its more powerful mental influence upon the
truth which the mind receives, transmits, and, to a
certain extent, interprets?

We may illustrate this subject in another way. Sup-
pose a man to have all the subconscious requirements

MENTAL BALANCE IN THE INSPIRED 155

for inspiration — susceptibility to the promptings of in-
stinct, of conscience, and of sympathy — nevertheless do
we not all recognize that without something in his
conscious thinking to balance this, he may be entitled
to have no more influence than a mere enthusiast, or
even an influence as injurious as that of a fanatic? In
either case, our most common comment on his efforts
will probably be that he is not practical. What do we
mean by this? What but that he is not able to ac-
commodate his speech and action to existing emergen-
cies— i.e., to surrounding material conditions, to facts
as discovered by investigation, and comprehended
within the sphere of what we term knowledge ? Only
as that which takes its rise in the realm of spirit is
correlated by a man to that which is in the realm of
matter, so as to find expression through it, can he do
for his fellows all that a man of intelligence should do.
This is true as applied to him not only as a thinker, but
as a teacher and leader of others who should think.
No one can cause either himself or his neighbor to ap-
prehend the full import of spiritual conditions whose
mind is not able to do, in some degree, as did the Christ
when he never spake without a parable (Mark 4; 34)
—i.e., without indicating a correspondence between
spiritual and material conditions. Men can not fully
recognize the religious connection between mercy and
salvation, between faith and love, unless they can per-
ceive them illustrated through analogies of the same
in secular connections. They can not fully realize the

156 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

relations between God and man, unless they can see
these relations imaged in the relations between man
and man, or, if they be Christians, between the Great
Master and man. Indeed, religion can not become in
the highest sense rational and enlightening, unless it
be led by certain ideals; and ideals are always earthly
vessels with heavenly contents; outlines modeled on
the lower world, filled in with light and color from
the upper; figures of the actual transfigured by the
potential.

What has just been said, if it be in accordance with
facts, may render the statement of the truth less com-
prehensible and definite, but it need not render the
truth itself less apprehensible and determinant. As
applied to other matters, when a person urges us to a
course of justice, or wisdom, or warns us of danger or
folly, we have no difficulty in recognizing the truth
of his appeal, notwithstanding manifestations of even
great exaggeration and inaccuracy of statement, so
far as concern details of emphasis and recollection. We
at once separate the significance of what he has to say
from that which he has formulated — i.e., the spirit of
his expression from the letter of it — clearly recognizing
that the defects in this latter are attributable to his
own mental limitations, and do not materially affect
that which to him constitutes the essential part of the
communication. Why should not the same principle
apply to some extent at least — even tho complete
investigation may show that it is never necessary to

INSPIRATION IN THE SCRIPTURES 157

resort to it to the extent which some imagine — to that
which may be supposed to be received through the form
of inspiration which is exemplified in the Christian
Scriptures?

CHAPTER VII

THE RATIONAL METHOD OF INTERPRETING BIBLICAL
STATEMENTS

Theories of Modern Biblical Critics— How to Reconcile with the Con-
ception of Inspiration the Conception That Parts of the Bible Are
Compiled from Other Writers— Scriptural Warrants for Testing
by the Conscious Mind the Truth Coming Through the Sub-
conscious— The Test Afforded by the Results of Previous Informa-
tion—Of Intuitive Insight— Of Logical Inference— Application of
Faith to Matters Beyond the Reach of Conscious Information,
Intuition, or Inference.

If we can suppose the principles brought out at the
conclusion of the chapter preceding this to be applicable
to the interpretation of the Christian Bible, we shall
find them affording a strictly logical method of recon-
ciling the very highest conception of the sources of
inspiration with the most advanced theories of modern
Biblical critics. These theories one need not himself
accept in order to recognize the importance, in view
of the many who have accepted them, of showing that
they do not necessitate a rejection of the authoritative
character of the writings to which they apply.

One reason why the theories are sometimes supposed
to necessitate this is that, according to them, many
of the books of the Bible, instead of being, as was
formerly supposed, consecutive and original, were
compiled from different writings existing previously to

158

COMPILATION IN THE BIBLE 159

the time when they were arranged as at present. It
is held, moreover, that these previous writings were not
only of Hebraic origin, as indicated in such passages
as Joshua 10; 13, "Is not this written in the book of
Jasher? " or as 1 Kings 11 ; 41, "And the rest of the acts
of Solomon and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they
not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?" but
that they were often of Gentile origin. The first two
chapters of the book of Genesis, for instance, are said
to contain two separate accounts of the creation, in the
first of which the word used for God is invariably the
Hebraic equivalent for Elohim, a plural title for the
Almighty adopted by the Hebrews from other languages
and in the second is invariably the Hebraic equiv-
alent for Jehovah, the peculiar title of the God of the
Jews. The first of these accounts, too, is said to have
been discovered among the ancient Chaldean records,
tho mixed there with many childish legends and
polytheistic explanations. It is claimed that the com-
piler of the book of Genesis reproduced this account,
leaving out the legends, or at least those from which
important spiritual lessons could not be drawn, and
making the explanations monotheistic. Can such a
claim be reconciled with a theory of inspiration that
shall continue to render these books authoritative?
Evidently, according to the view presented in Chapter
IV, it can be. For, in the first place, according to this
view, inspiration may exist among any people. The
general order of creation may have been perceived by

160 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

some Chaldean seer — possibly later, with the same
result, by a Hebraic — in the manner suggested in the
note at the bottom of this page ; * and if so, there would
be truth in the general outlines. But, in the second
place, according to this view, wherever inspiration
exists, the conscious thinking of the seer or interpreter
is apt to modify it. This fact may account for any
number of additions, mythologic or polytheistic, made
to the inspired matter either by the Chaldean seers
themselves, or by the writers who handed down their
utterances. But the same fact may also account for
the omission of myths, and the substitution of the
monotheistic theory, on the part of the Hebraic com-

* William Denton, who was at one time the State Geologist of Massachu-
setts, in his book entitled "The Soul of Things," gives accounts of hundreds of
experiments in what he calls psychometry. In this the subconscious mind
seems to derive a suggestion from a material object, and to be influenced to
make explorations into its story in a manner somewhat analogous to that in
which the mind of the physician mentioned on page 65 explores the distant.
Professor Denton found that certain persons were what he termed "sensitives.*1
Into the hands of these he would place a particular object without informing them
about it; and they would then describe it and give its history. For instance, he
would put lava into the hands of a child ignorant of its character, and this child
would describe the whole process of its formation from a volcano. The author
of this book has placed letters in the hands of persons of this kind, who, without
opening them, have not only determined their contents, but have accurately de-
scribed the characters of their writers and the localities from which the letters
were sent. One of these persons is said to have described in this manner the
experience of a nail, all the way from the mine, whence its iron was taken,
through its voyages in a battleship to a sea-fight. It seems useless to argue
any question with one who denies that a knowledge of the existence of such
methods of mental action does not materially assist the mind in conceiving how
the series of pictures in the first chapter of Genesis, describing successive stages
in the creation of the world, which no man could ever have seen, might have
been composed. Nor does it lessen, but increase a true conception of divine
inspiration, to find some way, as in this case, of making its possibilities more
comprehensible. When the divine mind works through human agency, it is not
only appropriate for us, but incumbent upon us as rational beings, to try to
ascertain the methods of this agency.

INSPIRED COMPILATION 161

pilers. We all know that certain minds, when a com-
plicated mixture of fact and fiction is presented to them,
manifest peculiar facility in separating the one from
the other, and bringing to light the truth. Most of us
feel, too, if we do not know, that such minds reach
their conclusions through work that is not done wholly
in the region of consciousness. They reach them in-
tuitively, as we say, which is the same as to attribute
them in part to the mental processes that are hidden.
If, in the selection and arrangement of written records,
these mental processes took place in the mind of one in
thorough sympathy with the Source of all truth, and
while developing suggestions derived from this Source,
why might not the result conform completely to that
which is demanded in inspiration? Why should there
be any greater difficulty in ascribing inspiration to the
selection and arrangement of prehistoric matter, as in
the book of Genesis, than of historic matter, as in the
books of the Kings? And, once more, going back to the
main proposition advanced in this chapter, why should
we not suppose that, in this prehistoric matter itself,
there should be certain results of inspiration which,
when selected and arranged by the inspired compiler,
would have just as much authority as could be assigned
to original documents?

We are now prepared to say that, in trying to ascer-
tain the character of the truth of inspiration, it seems
rational to carry out the principle already suggested
on page 100. Intelligently interpreted, the expres-

162 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

sions, " Blessed are they that hear the word of God and
keep it" (Luke 11; 28). "An evil generation . . .
seek a sign" (Luke 11; 29), and " Believe not every
spirit," even tho it be a spirit, "but try the spirits
whether they are of God" (1 John 4; 1), can have but
one meaning; and this is that men should test a state-
ment, even tho coming from an acknowledged spiritual
source, precisely as they would a statement coming
from any other source. And how would they test this?
Mainly, it may be said, in three ways: by its conformity
to the results in consciousness — first, of previous in-
formation; second, of intuitive insight, and, third, of
logical inference, as determined according to the laws
of evidence and of argument. In the Scriptures, all
three methods are recognized as legitimate.

Here is what is said of the first of them: "Let that
therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the
beginning" (1 John 2; 24). "To the law and to the
testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them " (Is. 8 ; 20). ' ' Search
the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal
life. And they are they which testify of me (John 5;
39). "We ought to give the more earnest heed to the
things that we have heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip" (Heb. 2; 1). "These were more noble than
those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word
with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures
daily whether these things were so" (Acts 17; 11).
Compare also John 15; 3 and 17; 17: 2 Tim. 3; 15:

TESTS OF BIBLICAL TRUTH 163

Deut. 11; 18, 19: Jos. 1; 8: Rom. 15; 4: 2 Peter 1;
19, etc. The general principle underlying such in-
junctions is almost self-evident. It is this: The in-
dividual has time to discover and develop compara-
tively little; he must avail himself of that which,
through revelation or reflection, has been attained by
others who may be considered to have been, on the
whole, accurate in their observations, honest in their
convictions, candid in their representations, and wise
in their conclusions. In a general way, this may be
said to necessitate every one's having what may be
termed intellectual charity. Exercised toward the be-
liefs of his ancestors, and in an ecclesiastical direction,
this charity might make a man a churchman, and
zealous in training the young in the tenets of his church;
but, at the same time, exercised toward the beliefs of
strangers or of adherents of other sects or religions, the
two methods of testing truth yet to be considered would,
of themselves, cause him to recognize mental rights to a
sufficient extent to keep him from being a bigot. But
some may ask how, if we apply the first test, can we
also apply the second and third tests; in other words,
how can one let that " abide" in him which he has
" heard from the beginning/7 and yet, while doing this,
not surrender his individual exercise of intuitive in-
sight, or logical inference? In this way, as it seems:
According to what was said on page 152, that which is
received from without the mind, when left to take its
natural course — i.e., when left to influence one's spirit

164 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

in the way in which nature has provided that the spirit
should be influenced — sinks into the region of un-
consciousness. Here, digested, so to speak; by the
mind, and incorporated into its working organism, the
importations from without become a part of the sub-
conscious possessions, giving inevitable bias to each
prompting that emerges into consciousness. For this
reason they may be said to be constantly operative in
the mind. But they are not operative in any such
way as to interfere with the conscious freedom of the
mind, whether exercised in forming judgments or in
drawing conclusions. In Chapter XII it will be
shown that a man of faith is one who is governed by
his subjective promptings, and, in this sense, by that
which has been " heard from the beginning/' and which
gives bias to these; but, at the same time, it will be
shown that he must exercise the conscious powers of
his mind fully as much as others who have no faith.
His mind works differently from theirs solely in being
"not disobedient unto the heavenly vision" (Acts 26;
19), in giving not only due, but chief consideration to
the spiritual side of life — to motives that come from
the realm within, from the ideal ; whereas the others do
not give these the chief consideration, being influenced
almost exclusively from the material side of life, from
that which is outward and real. The great religious
leaders — Augustine and Luther not only, but Jesus as
well — have been characterized not by any neglect of
the results of intuitive insight or of logical inference,

TESTS OF BIBLICAL TRUTH 165

but by a conscientious endeavor to subordinate or
conform these to that which has been " heard from the
beginning." They have sought to develop this latter,
and not to destroy it. They have been conservative as
well as progressive. They have tried to graft the new
upon the old, and thus to reform rather than to revo-
lutionize. If we grasp this conception of the subject,
we shall perceive that an application of the test that
we have been considering need not interfere with an
application of the tests that are to follow. The most
conscientious and conservative mind, when working
normally, can be governed by that which has "been
heard from the beginning," and yet be influenced not
by precept but by principle, and being so, can carry
this latter out not according to the letter but according
to the spirit, and therefore so as not in any sense
to make the "word of God," communicated in any
other way, "of none effect through" mere "tradition"
(Mark 7; 13).

This last quotation may well introduce the second
test of truth mentioned on page 162, namely, that
afforded by the conformity of results to those of intui-
tive insight. "Blessed are they," said Jesus (Luke 11;
28), "that hear the word of God and keep it" — i.e.y with-
out any other evidence. "An evil generation . . . seek
a sign" (Luke 11; 29); and the method of the apostles
is said to have been "by manifestation of the truth
commending" themselves "to every man's conscience"
(2 Cor. 4; 2). The idea here seems to be that truth

166 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

can be determined at times by its own inherent quality.
Indeed, for other reasons, one might almost be justi-
fied in holding a theory that a mind working normally
should recognize the difference between truth and error
as inevitably as a tongue recognizes the difference be-
tween the sweet and the bitter. Of course, the trust-
worthiness of this theory can never be fully tested, be-
cause, as a fact, the mind seldom or never does work
normally. Consciously or unconsciously, it is constantly
under the influence of false standards of thought and
action, causing false conceptions of what causes truth
to be of authority, and mistaken endeavors to make
the information freshly presented conform to false-
hood already accepted. Notwithstanding this, it is
probably a fact that absolute truth is attained mainly
in the degree in which men who lead the world to the
appreciation and application of new phases of the
truth, as well as the followers of such men, are largely
inclined to judge of it intuitively; and that no other
method, if conscientiously applied, can so well pre-
serve men in times of either religious decline or progress
from too great retrogression on the one hand or pre-
cipitancy on the other.

The third test of truth was said to be conformity to
the results of logical inference or reasoning. "Let us
reason together," says Isaiah in Is. 1; 18; let us give a
"reasonable service," urges Paul in Rom. 12; 1. A
result may be rendered reasonable in many different
ways — chiefly, perhaps, by being made to fulfil the

TE8T8 OF BIBLICAL TRUTH 167

laws of argument or of evidence, as applied either to
the substance of an utterance, or to the character of its
utterer, as manifested in either his words or his actions.
" Believe me," said Jesus to Philip, " ... or else believe
me for the very work's sake" (John 14; 11). But to
whatever this test of logical inference may be applied,
it is a test which the mind is always ready to assume
that it has a right to apply. Who ever heard a sermon
in the most bigoted of sects the whole object of which
was not to show the accordance of some statement in a
text with not only the previous information of the
audience concerning its subject or other subjects, and
with the intuitive promptings of conscience, but also
with conclusions logically deducible from an examina-
tion of testimony and argument?

But if we may judge of truth according to these last
two tests, some one may ask what are we to do with
inspired statements to which neither test can be ap-
plied, with statements concerning matters beyond the
reach of human insight or reasoning, with statements
which have to be accepted upon faith? The answer
is that one holding the theory just presented would
have to accept such statements for the same reason
that causes any one else to accept them (see page 314).
The strongest argument in favor of them is that the
matters to which such statements refer form a part of a
general system of belief, and that a system which can be
proved to be true as a whole must be true in its parts;
and the force of this argument can not be lessened by

168 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

anything that has been said here. There is every
reason to believe that the three tests that have been
indicated, when applied to Scriptural truth; will prove
it abundantly able of itself to maintain any authority
that it may need

CHAPTER VIII

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST INTERPRETING BIBLICAL
STATEMENTS AS SUGGESTIVE AND NOT DICTATORIAL

The View Presented in the Preceding Chapter Seems to Subject the
Truth of God to the Judgment of Man— This Method in Analogy
with Other Ways in Which Man is Expected to Interpret Divine
Truth — Nature and Experience Influence Him so as to Cultivate
His Power of Acting Rationally— Effect of This Upon the Young—
We Should Expect the Same Method to Be Pursued in Revelation :
Impossibility of Any Other Method Except the Suggestive in
Communicating Spiritual Truth — The Error of Interpreting the
Scriptures Literally.

All the objections that can be brought against the
line of thought just presented may be resolved, in the
last analysis, into one, namely, that it seems to sub-
mit, and even to subject, that which is supposed to be
divine truth to the tests of human judgment, and this
the judgment not merely of a collection of men, but
often of an individual. It is argued that to allow each
man to determine independently the application of
divine truth to himself and to those for whom he is
responsible is equivalent to claiming that he can get
along without any divine guidance whatsoever. In-
deed, some go so far as to insinuate that if one be left
to make out of the Bible what he chooses, he is no
better off than if he had no Bible. A little reflection,
however, will reveal that such inferences are not
strictly deducible from the premises. It is not logical

170 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

to conclude from what has been said that a man can
get out of the Bible what he chooses, but only what he
thinks; and a Bible which is made a source of thought
may impart a great deal, even tho accepted suggestively
rather than dictatorially. Besides this, on account of
the influence always exerted from the divine source of
life over the mind, especially that part of it which in-
cludes the subconscious, a man, even if left to himself,
is not left without something impelling him, and this
in a very unmistakable manner, to construe the truth
submitted to his judgment in accordance with the
divine intention. The very fact that one is created
with the possibility of eyesight and given light causes
him to be guided by the Creator, even tho in addition
to this he feel no hand leading him. In the same way,
the very fact that he is created with the possibilities of
subconscious mentality, not to say morality, and given
suggestions, causes him to be guided by the Creator,
even tho in addition he hear no word of explicit
command.

Whatever may be said against the method of ac-
cepting the Scriptures advanced in the preceding
chapter, this method is in analogy with those that we
are obliged to pursue when accepting any truth that
the Divine Being imparts in any other way. There is
many a lesson taught by nature; but we are forced to
study hard in order to learn it; and, even then, we are
not always certain that we have learned it aright.
Meantime, however, we have learned enough — if not

TR UTH IN NA TUBE SUG GESTED 171

to satisfy our desire for knowledge — at least to secure
our physical safety. As will be shown presently, this
is exactly paralleled by what every man can learn from
the Scriptures with reference to that which can secure
his spiritual safety. Again, in connection with the
suggestive character of divine revelation as imparted
through nature, the human mind has been so influenced
that every mental factor that is of real value in human
progress has been stimulated to the full. If man had
not been left to find out many truths, which are not
revealed in nature but merely suggested, humanity
would never have known such developments as are in-
dicated by the words philosophy, science, and history.
The same is true with reference to the revelations in the
Scriptures. Think how the world of thought would be
impoverished if it could be possible to eliminate from
our libraries not only all our theological works, but all
the essays, poems, and novels written in order to ad-
vocate or oppose certain peculiar interpretations of
vague and doubtful passages of Scripture! How, too,
would the world of achievement be impoverished,
could we eliminate from it the results, in philanthropy
and missionary enterprise, which have been due to
organized efforts to emphasize one or another of these
possible interpretations !

But how about the individual ? it may be asked. Is
he to be left to be the slave of his own lack of intel-
ligence and judgment? There is but one answer to
this — he certainly should be left in this condition,

172 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TTON

unless his own reason tell him that it is wiser for him
to be guided by those who have learned more, and
have thought more, than he himself has. Fortunately,
reason, wherever it is followed, usually does tell most
men exactly this. So far as it does not tell them this,
one can not easily perceive upon what ground it can
be argued that they are under obligation to surrender
their own mental rights; especially in view of the fact
that, by not doing so, they are really increasing their
ability to exercise these? If there be any solution for
the most important problem which life presents to all
of us; if there be anything that explains what existence
on earth is intended to do for a man, the solution, so
far as it can be indicated by the facts of experience,
must be this — that life is designed to train a rational
creature to act rationally — by which latter word is
meant here to act in accordance not merely with the
highest intellectual, but also with the highest emotional
and spiritual motives. No one can consider for any
length of time the conditions to which a man is sub-
jected on earth without recognizing that, in order to
do right, he must always make a rational choice be-
tween alternatives. Moreover, as if all the conditions
were arranged so as to force him to exercise this choice,
he must always make it between alternatives of such
a nature that either of them, if allowed to influence his
action without his making a choice, would necessitate
his doing wrong. For instance, take one of the primary
obligations of religious practise: a man, it is said,

LIFE DESIGNED TO TRAIN RATIONALITY 173

should be self-sacrificing and generous. But how? If
saving nothing, he give away all that he has, he will
impoverish himself to such an extent as to become not
only a public nuisance but a public burden. Even if,
like the so-styled "holy men77 of India, he do not walk
the streets naked, and beg, he will, at least, oblige
others to work for him, and, possibly, tax themselves
in order to build a poor-house in which he may find
board and lodging. On the other hand, if he become
a miser and save everything, he will enrich himself at
the expense of the community, and become an equal
nuisance and burden, because contributing nothing to
the general welfare. What can he do? It is usually
impossible that any one should tell him this, because no
one can know all the demands that circumstances and
conscience may make upon him. It is impossible that
he should do exactly right, therefore, except so far as
he exercises his own reason, and makes a wise choice
between giving too much and too little. Exactly the
same sort of choice must be exercised with reference to
every question that presents itself for practical solu-
tion. In no methods of pastime or of business, of enter-
tainment or of philanthropy, of feasting or of exhort-
ing, of dancing or of praying, of manifesting loyalty to a
political party or to a church of which he is a member,
can a man do right merely by following the advice or
dictation of others. There come times when it is es-
sential that he should make for himself a rational choice
between extremes.

174 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

How almost every earnest young person between
fifteen and twenty-five years of age suffers because of
this obligation! Just as he becomes free from the dic-
tation of parents or teachers, how he longs — often
unconscious of the reason why — for some other person
to take their places and tell him exactly what is or is
not right ! This feeling explains why so many, at this
age, rush into churches, or orders, which claim it to be
the first duty of mind to submit to the authority of
others. But is it wise or right for reason, in this way,
to rid itself of its responsibilities? Certainly not, if
the object of life be to train one to use his reason. Cer-
tainly not if, by missing this training, one miss the de-
velopment which he was sent into the world to secure.
Nor, however much of the effects of training or develop-
ment he may avoid by such a course, can he ever
escape wholly from the responsibility that he seeks to
shirk. His mind may become that of a bigot, too
weighted on one side by authority to think with bal-
ance, or that of a fanatic, too excited or affrighted by
the same to think with sequence; nevertheless there
will come times when he must think, and think for
himself — times when he is reading in private his Bible
or his ritual — times when he is dealing in private with
his servant or his fellow. Is it not inevitable that, at
such times, the reason that has been so treated as to
form a habit of not acting at all, or of not acting nor-
mally, will come to one decision, and the reason that has
not been so treated will come to another decision? If

BIBLE SHOULD TRAIN RATIONALITY 175

so, which decision of the two is likely to be more in
accord with the laws of nature, material or spiritual,
human or divine? — that given by the reason which has
been artificially sheltered like a grown man always
kept in a nursery? — or by the reason which the influ-
ences naturally exerted upon life in the world have, ^
according to methods divinely designed, brought to
the condition that must have been intended?

Besides what has just been said, however, and the
very logical conclusion that may be drawn from it,
which is that the same method of divine influence which
is exerted upon reason through nature and experience
should be exerted upon reason when coming also
through the mediumship of the inspired Scriptures,
a deeper consideration needs to be noticed before one
can apprehend fully why spiritual truth is not com-
municated through explicit statements. This consider-
ation is that, to communicate it thus would be in-
trinsically impossible. How could men accustomed
to only material conditions be made to understand the
nature of spiritual conditions except by way of sug-
gestion? The common sense at the basis of this ques-
tion ought to reveal itself even to the advocates of the
view opposed to the one here presented, if, for no other
reason, because they all profess strenuously to believe
in the literal interpretation of the Bible. What does
this book say on the subject? (Is. 55; 8, 9) "My
thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than

176 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways"; or,
to quote again from 1 Cor. 2; 9, "Eye hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him." Those of us who prefer to interpret
these passages as we do others — i.e., by the aid of
reason — will recall that the experiences of mind — which,
if not a part of those of spirit, are, at least, the ones most
resembling the experiences of spirit — are never mani-
fested through our material body by anything that, in
the least, resembles themselves. In the seven volumes
on " Comparative Esthetics" written by the author of
this book, innumerable illustrations are given of meth-
ods of representing — and representing very unmistak-
ably, too — certain thoughts and emotions which, be-
cause of being experienced only in the inaudible and
invisible mind, need, in order to be made known to oth-
ers, to be translated, as it were, into forms that can be
seen or heard. It is pointed out, however, that, in no
instance is the representing sight or sound at all like
the mental experience which is represented. There
is no resemblance, for instance, between a questioning
attitude of mind and an upward inflection; or between
a threatening attitude and a contracted fist. So we
could go through the whole list of thoughts and emo-
tions made known through some form of natural or of
artistic expression, as in music, poetry, painting, sculp-
ture, or architecture, and, tho we might find all of them
represented suggestively, we could find none of them

SPIRITUAL WORLD INCONCEIVABLE 177

presented exactly as they are. If this be so, and if it
illustrate, as presumably it does, a universal fact with
reference to the degree in which the spiritual can be
communicated through the material, how mistaken
must he be who acts upon the theory that the Scrip-
tures should or can be understood literally? We can
probably understand and interpret them thus to some
extent. Almost every word, which originally had more
or less of a figurative or merely representative meaning,
becomes apparently literal when it comes to be used
conventionally with only one meaning. But when we
consider such words, phrases, and prolonged descrip-
tions of the Scriptures as attempt to describe conditions
that can never come to be conventionally understood
because they have never and can never be experienced
or conceived by mortals, we would better be humble,
and gratefully accept what is revealed to us upon the
hypothesis that it is merely suggestive. It is one thing
to believe that we can derive from the Scriptures
that which is sufficient to secure our individual sal-
vation— all must believe this or else believe the author
of them a deceiver — it is an entirely different thing to
believe that we may be made to receive from them
anything more than very vague intimations of those
mysteries which it is impossible to have explained in
terms of this world.

CHAPTER IX

CHRISTIAN DOGMATISM AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDERING
SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Conclusions Reached in Preceding Chapter— Confirmation of These
Afforded by the Scriptures— These Conclusions Are Not Accepted
by Christians in General — Deleterious Effects of This Manifested
in Diminished Attendance Upon Church Services— The Church
Should Remedy This Condition — Origin of Dogmatism, Intoler-
ance, and the Dark Ages — Dogmatism and Intolerance as Irrational
as Uncharitable— Creeds Should Not Be Made a Test of Christian
Character — Applied to the Doctrine of Inspiration — Injurious
Effects of Applying Such a Test in Connection with This Doctrine
—Same Principle Exemplified with Reference to the Doctrine of
the Personality of God — The Trinity — The Immaculate Conception
and Incarnation— The Method of Salvation— The Problem in Salva-
tion—Its Solution in the Work of the Christ— How Dogmatism,
Tho Based Upon This Solution, Does Harm — Not Only Among
Christians, but Non-Christians, as Buddhists and Mohammedans
—Same Principle Applied to Doctrine of Eternal Punishment-
Certainty with Reference to Spiritual Truth Not Justifiable-
Illustration of the Practical Evils of This Attitude.

In accordance with what was said in the preceding
chapter, it seems neither best nor possible for sacred
writings to give expression to truth in any other way
than by that of suggestion — not best because of what
is required for the development of reason in man; and
not possible because of the essential differences be-
tween the spiritual and the material, which latter
furnishes the only means in this world of enabling us
to interpret that which issues from the former.

A very slight examination of the history of the

AMBIGUITY OF SCRIPTURE 179

effects of any sacred writings will confirm this concep-
tion of the character of their influence. As was said
in the Introduction, sacred writings such as the Vedas,
the Zend-Avesta, the Koran, and the Bible are all
differently interpreted by different groups of readers.
" There are sixty distinct sects of Buddhists in Japan/'
said a Japanese priest to the author; and, as we all
know, there are almost as many different Christian
sects in America and England. Yet Quakers and
Romanists, Unitarians and Episcopalians, Presbyte-
rians and Universalists, Baptists and Christian Scien-
tists, are all equally ready to argue that their peculiar
tenets and forms are those that most accurately repre-
sent the truth as exprest in one and the same Bible.
No additional fact is needed in order to prove that, in
the text which presents this truth, it is exprest sug-
gestively, not explicitly. If exprest in the latter form,
rational minds, when studying it, could not draw from
it so many divergent conclusions.

Nevertheless, a large number of people seem to think
otherwise. As applied to Christians, at least, the ma-
jority seem to believe in their hearts, even when they
try to be the most charitable, that what is termed
Scriptural truth is something which can be exprest
explicitly, and that no one can be a Christian in reality
unless, consciously or unconsciously, he has accepted
it as thus exprest. One would naturally think that the
practical result of such a belief — and the belief itself is
held because this is thought to be its practical result

180 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

— would be to cause those influenced by it to unite
in accepting the Biblical phraseology as it is. But,
strange to say, the contrary is true. The actual prac-
tical result is to cause the acceptance of the Biblical
phraseology only so far as it has been interpreted in
creeds, rituals, and hymns prepared by theologians
and others who, as a rule, are acknowledged not to have
been inspired. These persons, acting in accordance
with what they suppose to be the requirements of the
human mind, think that they can make the truth of
inspiration more effective by rendering it more explicit.
But this is an end that they can not attain without
adding to the Biblical phraseology very much that is
originated by themselves. The very nature of that
which they are undertaking to do necessitates this.
In other words, the natural effect of their efforts at
times is to take from Scriptural truth the suggestive
and inspiring quality which furnishes the foremost
proof of its spiritual origin. Moreover, after they have
substituted, so far as they can, materially explicit
statements in place of those that are spiritually sug-
gestive, there is nothing left for them logically but to
expect men to receive their products in the only way
in which explicit statements can be received — i.e., ex-
plicitly or dogmatically. Having supposed this, the
next logical step is to try to compel acceptance of these
through means, as indicated in Chapter X, other than
those legitimate to an appeal to the thinking faculties
alone.

DIMINISHING CHURCH ATTENDANCE 181

If this supplanting of the expressions of inspiration
by those of theology, and this compelling of an ac-
ceptance of the latter through physical, moral, social,
national, or any other kind of force, be erroneous, we
should expect the results to make this fact clear? Do
they? One is not unwarranted in giving to this ques-
tion an answer most emphatically affirmative. Some
months ago, the author heard it stated from a London
pulpit that the churches of that city, including Sunday-
schools, are attended by four-fifths of the children, but
by only one-fifth of the adult population. The state-
ment set him to thinking. He concluded that this con-
dition must be owing to the fact that certain methods
used by the Church appeal more effectively to children
— or are supposed by their guardians to do this — than
they appeal to their elders. Can this be so; and if it be
so, what are these methods? So far as concerns their
general character, they must, of course, be such as are
used to influence sentiment and conduct through first in-
fluencing thought. Does the Church use any methods of
influencing thought which, owing to their nature, are
effective with the young, and are not effective with
the grown? A moment's reflection will convince us
that such methods are used; and will reveal to us also
what they are. A child is obliged, and therefore is
accustomed, to have others think for him. A man is
obliged, and therefore is accustomed, to think for him-
self. As a consequence, the child, when he goes to
church, naturally accepts what has been thought out

182 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

for him by others. The man does not naturally do
this. There has been a change in the demands of his
mind. Yet the Church has not changed its methods —
i.e., not essentially. It gives the man less teaching and
more preaching; but often in the latter, and almost
always in its confessions, rituals, and hymns, there are
implications that his first duty is to accept the results
of the thinking of others. Does not this fact account
for the absence from Church of large numbers, especially
in cases in which, as often happens, they are so ex-
ceptionally serious in their characters that their lack
of interest in it can not rightly be ascribed to any con-
stitutional or acquired lack of interest in that which
makes for the general welfare? Is it strange that some
of these appear to the author, at least, to be honest
when they argue that they ought not to seem to sanc-
tion, even by their presence-, gatherings in which their
most clearly God-given rights are ignored, if not denied?
The arguments through which a man reaches such
conclusions may be fallacious. But is it not the duty
of the Church to remove, as fully as possible, the grounds
on which they are based? In the Middle Ages, when
few were educated, or allowed to choose their own ways
of work or of government, or their own employers or
rulers, the present traditional methods of the Church
and of its officials accorded with those of other con-
temporary institutions. But is it so to-day? If not,
the sooner the fact is recognized, the better. Can it
be recognized in such ways as to preserve the Church's

FREE THOUGHT NOT IRRELIGIOUS 183

essential character? Can sufficient truth to attain the
ends of the Christian system be held and communicated
in such ways as to allow every spiritually minded man
the right to think for himself? Or — to express the
thought in another form — can we, in order to meet the
exigencies of our own day, carry out the principles un-
derlying the Protestant Reformation to their logical
conclusions and make the reform complete? We cer-
tainly can, if there be sufficient warrant for accepting
the theory presented in the previous chapters of this
book. We can not, if obliged to accept the theory
held by most of the churches of our time to the effect
that Christian truth — i.e., the truth which must be
accepted by all whose intellectual opinions can be
termed Christian — can be, and has been, exprest in
explicit formulas which men have prepared in order to
interpret it. The reasons for these two statements are
evident. The theory that truth can be sufficiently ex-
prest when left indefinite and suggestive, necessarily
carries with it the inference that a man's thought can
be stimulated in its sources so as to move toward the
right, even when left free to develop itself according
to the dictates of his own intelligence. The theory
that truth must be exprest definitely and explicitly
necessarily carries with it the opposite inference, name-
ly, that a man's thought will not move toward the right
unless it be developed in accordance with the domina-
ting influence of some external constraint.
Let us consider, for a little, this latter, which may be

184 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TIOJST

said to be the theory most prevalent at present; and,
first, something with reference to its origin. Concern-
ing this, ecclesiastical history does not leave us in
doubt. Creeds originated in the efforts of men to
obviate the supposed evils arising from the differences
of opinion natural to the human mind. After the
death of Jesus, the apostles and their followers began to
think about that which he had said to them. This was
right on their part. It was doing that for which their
minds had been made. But, after a little, some of
them began to fear that certain logical conclusions
drawn by others would prove detrimental to the Chris-
tian system. What then? How should this condition
have been met? Wrong thinking should have been
corrected — not so? — by right thinking. The only ra-
tional way in which to treat one who questions truth
is to try to have him answered. This seems to have
been the method at first adopted in the Church. When
the Apostle Peter made the mistake — shown by the
history of the Church to have been a mistake — of sup-
posing that all Gentiles becoming Christians should be
circumcised — i.e., should first become Jews — the Apostle
Paul says (Gal. 2; 7-21), "I withstood him, to the face,"
and then quotes the arguments that he used. Later,
however, Christians changed their methods. Instead of
trying to convert, they adopted the thoroughly human
method of trying to compel their antagonists. Those
with one opinion claimed to be the only genuine Chris-
tians, and excommunicated those with other opinions.

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE 185

At first the former merely refused to have dealings with
the latter; but this meant much in an age when already
few pagans had dealings with Christians. A century
or so later, when certain of those associated with one or
another Christian body attained political power, this
power was used against its opponents. Finally, after
two or three more centuries, those whose opinions hap-
pened to be reenforced by the weapons of civil authority
succeeded in silencing, through persecution, most of
those inclined to think for themselves, as well as in
accustoming almost all others not to think at all.
Then, for well-nigh eight centuries, the world had ex-
perience of the Dark Ages.

It is humiliating to some of us, but it is a fact, that
these were owing not to paganism so much as to the
form of Christianity that then prevailed. We can
recognize, now, that the methods of the latter were as
irrational as they were uncharitable, excusable, if at
all, on no other ground than that of the limited mental
and social experience of the ecclesiastical officials. Ex-
ternal pressure can no more turn the current of a man's
thought than a hand can turn the course of the wind;
nor would it be possible in any church for a sinner, if
first induced to believe it to be a sin to follow his own
convictions, to be converted from the error of his ways,
no matter how thoroughly he might feel convinced of
it. The Reformation brought a change, but not a
complete one. Many still believe that truth can be com-
municated through force — not through physical force

186 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

necessarily — in most countries sects are now allowed—
but through moral, social, or national force — force which
excludes a man, because he differs from others in re-
ligious opinion, from their circles or privileges in eccle-
siastical, domestic, or political life.

This book has not been written to show that any one
of these creeds is true or untrue, but to show that the
use of all is unwise, so far as they are employed as tests
to indicate who is or is not a Christian. This is so be-
cause the indefinite expressions of the Scriptures which
the creeds seek to render definite are just what are
needed for the practical influence which Christianity is
intended to have upon the minds and lives of men in
general. In order to show this, let us look at certain
subjects of thought which the Scriptures present in-
definitely and the creeds definitely.
. It is natural to begin with what the Scriptures say
of themselves — i.e., with what is called the doctrine of
inspiration. With reference to this as to other sub-
jects, some Biblical passages seem to be explicit. For
instance; we read in Rev. 22; 18, "I testify unto every
man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this
book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book, "
and a like imprecation upon him who " Shall take away
from the words." It is by no means certain, however,
that these statements refer to any but the Book of
the Revelation, or that, if they refer to the whole Bible,
they are applicable to anything more than to the pro-

DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION 187

duction, by addition or subtraction, of spurious Scrip-
ture— of that which is represented to be inspired when
it is known not to be so. In view of the interests in-
volved, most of us probably would agree that the
punishment threatened the author of this is not too great.
The most unequivocal statement with reference to in-
spiration in the Bible is in 2 Timothy, 3; 16, "All Scrip-
ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness." Is there any one who believes in
any form of divine inspiration who can not accept this
statement exactly as it stands? But human minds are
so constituted that, the moment such a passage is read,
they begin to speculate about it. They ask how does
the inspiration of the Bible differ from other forms of
inspiration, as in the so-called false religions, or in re-
ligious or secular poetry? They ask what is the method
of the inspiration — is it accomplished through divine
superintendence, or direction, or suggestion? — when
a man is in a normal or in an elevated condition of
mind? — with his powers acting consciously or uncon-
sciously? Or they ask what is the extent of the in-
spiration? Does it apply to the statements of physical
or historical facts? — or only to the subjects which these
facts illustrate, with the precepts that accompany
them? — to the style and the words, or only to the sub-
stance and the sense? As long as minds exist, men
who use them properly can not avoid arguing such
questions, and adhering to the conclusions to which

188 THE PSYCIIOL OGY OF INRPIRA TION

their arguments seem logically to lead. But are they
justified in making the acceptance of their own con-
clusions a test of orthodoxy — of that which a man, if a
Christian, should believe? Does not the very fact that
they are conclusions prove that they can not be reached
except by one whose mind has passed through the
processes through which they were reached by the first
who proclaimed them? If so, such conclusions can be
communicated only through argument. They can not
be communicated through authority or force, physical
or moral. For any church to attempt to communicate
them thus is to attempt the impossible. It may,
indeed, secure outward assent, but to try to obtain this
from those who can not give inward consent is to try
to habituate large numbers of such as can not avoid
thinking for themselves to lip-service and hypocrisy.
v But how about the effect of such methods upon those
who do not think for themselves, or, at least, not suffi-
ciently to study the subject? Strange as it may seem,
the methods when used with these appear to have no
influence at all, or else one that is harmful. Chil-
dren need theories with reference to inspiration no more
than with reference to other things. Grown people,
whatever they may be told, are really influenced by
inspiration only so far as it inspires. With them any-
thing inspiring through a material agency, like a word,
owes its influence to the fact that the statement which
appeals to the outward material sense appeals also to
the inward mental sense. As the Bible says, "the

DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION 189

things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned"
(1 Cor. 2; 14); "The Spirit itself beareth witness with
our spirit77 (Rom. 8; 16). If anything in the Bible
fail to appeal to this inward sense, a man may declare
and fancy that he believes it inspired, but it does not
affect him as if it were so. For instance, few of us,
probably, have ever known any man — no matter how
orthodox his views upon inspiration — who, merely be-
cause of certain passages in the imprecatory psalms,
was influenced to believe that vindictiveness and re-
venge are right. In some way, unconsciously to him-
self, he has seemed to recognize that to accept the
apparent meaning in these cases would involve a mis-
understanding and misinterpretation of the mind of the
Spirit. On the contrary, few of us, probably, have
ever known any one — no matter how unorthodox his
views upon inspiration — whose spirit has not at once
yielded assent to most of the ideals exprest in the pre-
cepts and embodied in the life of Jesus. The truth
seems to be that the Spirit does not need the dictating
of human teachers robed in the gowns of theologians to
the extent that some suppose, being abundantly self-
sufficient when appealing to the human spirit without
their aid. Nor when the book of God is in the hands of
the people is it necessary to affirm that all who are to
be rightly influenced by it must accept every phrase
of it as infallibly correct, literally as well as suggest-
ively. To say this is to assert what few honest men
can investigate long enough to be certain that they

190 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

believe, and what very many must reject because the
surface-facts do not seem to sustain it. Even if such
men accept the theory nominally, they can not accept
it as a result of their own thinking, and therefore not
rationally. Anything accepted not rationally is ac-
cepted irrationally, and if, at the same time, it be
revered, it is accepted superstitiously. Even thus ac-
cepted, the Bible may still appeal to reason in part,
because it is full of thought; but it will appeal in part
also to the irrational, and therefore have something of
the same demoralizing influence — tho, perhaps, almost
infinitely less in degree — as is exerted on the pagan by
his fetish.

Now let us pass on to the doctrine of the personality
of God. As all know, many make much of this, argu-
ing it from the innumerable passages in the Scriptures
in which the personal pronoun is used in addressing
the Divine Being and in speaking of him. Besides this,
it is argued that not to recognize his personality lessens
one's sense of his Fatherhood and sympathy, as well as
of dependence upon him and responsibility to him.
There is no doubt about the force of these arguments,
or of any man's right to present them to others. But
how about influencing one to accept the results of the
arguments by making them a test of religious charac-
ter and eligibility for church-membership? There are
those whose conceptions of God are best exprest in
language like this: "In him we live and move and
have our being" (Acts 17; 28); "Whither shall I go

DOCTRINE OF A PERSONAL GOD 191

from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy pres-
ence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if
I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (Ps.
139; 8, 9), and "One day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3; 8).
Some who hold such conceptions find it difficult to
reconcile them with the limitations which seem neces-
sary for personality. Who can say that their views
introduce into thought an element of mystery greater
than the circumstances warrant? Who can say that
this mystery seems too great to allow their minds to
receive truth sufficient for the practical purposes of
Christianity? To think that God can not be limited
as in personality is not the same as to think that,
through imagination, the same Being can not experi-
ence what personality is, or, through inspiration and
incarnation, represent it to human beings. If what is
conceived of Him be inclusive of all that personality
might be or do, what more is necessary? Besides this,
is it not possible for a too narrow conception of divinity
to do harm? What else can be affirmed of theories
attributing to God the passions and motives of human
beings; or of theories tending toward deism — i.e., the
conception of a God existing apart from nature, phys-
ical or human; or tending toward idolatry; i.e., the con-
ception of a God existing in a part of nature, as in a
picture once seen over a shrine in southern Germany?
It represented Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, and under it
was inscribed, "The Trinity. "

192 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

Let us take up, now, this doctrine of the Trinity, in-
cluding that of the nature of the Christ. The only
passage in the Bible explicitly affirming the doctrine
is the one in 1 John, 5; 7: "For there are three that
bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost, and these three are one." Without ex-
ception, it is said, the best scholars admit that this
passage is an interpolation. It is not in the original
text. This fact, however, does not disprove the doc-
trine, but merely removes it from the sphere of explicit
statement to that of suggestion. The suggestion is de-
rived from observing that, in the Bible, the personal
pronoun is used when quoting, addressing, or mention-
ing each of the three — the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost; and that each is reported as influencing,
through word or deed, each of the others. Besides
this, certain philosophers, noticeably, in our day, those
of the Hegelian school, argue the impossibility of con-
ceiving of a deity except as conscious of self, of non-
self, and of a connection between these two, which, in-
terpreted in terms of theology, means God in the
spiritual, or the Father, God in the natural, or the Son,
and God in the connection between the two, or the Holy
Ghost. See also what is said on this subject on page
129. But however Scriptural or logical such con-
clusions may be, few men are exegetes or philosophers.
Why need the Church insist upon having all accept their
conclusions? There certainly are reasons why some
should, at least, hesitate to do so. The word person,

DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 193

as applied to a member of the Trinity, does not mean
exactly the same as when applied to an earthly being;
and a man who recognizes something inexact in the
word may be merely trying to be true to the operations
of his own mind. Moreover, the word unity, as applied
to the Trinity, does not mean exactly the same as when
applied • in material relations. At most, it can mean
only spiritual unity. But what is spiritual unity?
No human being can comprehend this. He can merely
apprehend what it may be through using an illustra-
tion from analogy. If it were possible for several
human beings to think, feel, and will alike, we should
say that they were animated by unity of spirit. But
some one reminds us that this is not a fair illustration,
because the unity of the Godhead is supposed to be
organic. What then? There are those who suppose
that, owing to subtile conditions existing in the occult
sphere, all spiritual union, even that between men, is
organic. But this supposition can not be proved. No;
neither can the supposition with reference to the
method of the unity of the Godhead. So long as the
general fact of Spiritual unity is admitted, need — not
does, but need — the doctrine of the Trinity mean more
than this? Is anything more demanded to cause men
to recognize all that is claimed of the Christ as repre-
senting the character of God in his dealings with men,
or all that is claimed of the influence of the Spirit as
coming from God? Of course some will argue — and,
if they believe it, should argue — that more is demanded;

194 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

but does this justify them in forcing conviction, in or
out of the Church, through modes of influence other
than arguments? Few in the churches have any clear
view of the meaning of the Trinity; and the endeavor
to demand of men a clear view has done much harm,
not only to those whom it has kept out of the churches,
and of all connection with Christianity, but to many
who, after joining Christian churches, have found them-
selves doubting their creed. Besides this, the em-
phasis given the doctrine has been harmful on account
of false conclusions drawn from it. Theologians tell
us that this emphasis does not interfere with the
acceptance of the doctrine of the humanity of the
Christ; but practically it does. The Mass suggests less
fellowship with men than did his Last Supper. Again,
notice the following in the prayer of the Christ for his
disciples (John 17; 21) "that they all may be one, as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also
may be one in us"; and again, in verse 22, "The glory
which thou gavest me I have given them, that they
may be one even as we are one." How can this prayer
be well explained so long as a church so emphasizes
the unity of the Christ with God as to exclude the pos-
sibility of the conception of any analogous unity be-
tween the Christ and men? Can there be any doubt,
either, that there is a direct connection between the
unwarranted exaltation of the Christ in the Mass — by
which is meant the imitation of the services of both
the Jewish and pagan temples introduced into the wor-

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 195

ship at the altar — and the unwarranted degradation of
manhood, as witnessed in the denial and suppression
of social, educational, and civil, as well as religious,
rights, which have characterized all countries in which
the unreformed churches have had unopposed sway.*
Is it not significant that the recent changes in the di-
rections of freedom and enlightenment in some of these
latter countries have been accompanied by a distinct
lessening of the influence of the Church?

But how is it, some one may ask, with those doctrines
so clearly connected with that of the Trinity — with
those that concern the immaculate conception and the
incarnation? — are these, too, stated in the Bible only
suggestively? Most certainly they are; and in a sense
still more apparent than is true of the doctrines al-
ready considered. It is true that, in the Scriptures,
the Christ is repeatedly termed the Son of God, and
that his coming as such is represented as having been
foretold, and as having been voluntary on his own
part. But associated with these representations we
have, in the first verse of the first chapter of Matthew,
what is stated to be "the generation of Jesus Christ." f

* Contrast merely the percentages of illiteracy in certain countries of Europe,
controlled respectively by the adherents of the reformed and of the unreformed
churches. The figures are taken from Appleton's Universal Cyclopedia for 1906.

German Empire, 0.11 Netherlands, 5.40 Russia, 70.80

Sweden and Norway, 0.11 England, 5.80 Portugal, 79.

Denmark, 0.54 Italy, 38.90 Servia, 86.

Finland, 1.60 Greece, 45. Rumania, 89.

Scotland, 3.57 Spain, 68.10

fThe ecclesiastical explanation of this is that it refers to legal parentage, not
to paternity. Yet the reading of Matt. 1; 16, preferred by W. G. Allen in his

196 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

What is it? It is the genealogy of Joseph, and of him
alone. The writer of this genealogy thought either that
it was important for us to believe Jesus to have been
the son of Mary alone, or he did not think so. If he
had thought it important, he would not have given us
the genealogy of Joseph alone, or at all. He gave us
this. Therefore, we must conclude that he did not
think the belief important. Now if, in the perplexity
in which this first verse of the New Testament naturally
plunges us, we recall one fact, we may have the per-
plexity somewhat lessened, at least. The Scriptures
are constantly attributing to God things that are done
by men, and rightly, too; for if there be a God, he must
work through man as well as through material nature.
If we bear this in mind, we shall perceive that it need
make no practical difference in the effect upon our
lives whether we consider Jesus to have been miracu-
lously conceived, or merely at the time of his birth made
what he was by the Spirit; or, in connection with one or
both of these, or even with neither, taken possession of
by the Spirit, or, as the theosophists say, a Spirit at
one with God, at the time of his baptism and induction
into the ministry, as indicated in Matt. 3; 16: "And
Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out
of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto
him" (not necessarily unto everybody) "and he saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting

" Critical and Exegetical Commentary" on this Gospel, is that of the Sinaitic
Syrian version, which is, "Joseph, to whom was espoused Mary, a virgin, begat
Jesus, who is called Christ.''

THE PERSON OF CHRIST 197

upon him; and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." All
these theories involve the conception of a man inspired
from the highest spiritual source; one of the three can
be accepted by any one who believes in any form of
inspiration, from that represented in immaculate con-
ception to that reported in psychic research. It is
not absolutely necessary, either, that one should have
more than the last conception, in order to receive the
full effects of the work of the Christ. If his words and
works, as recorded and developed historically, appeal
to a man as manifesting the highest qualities of spiri-
tual life, this man will be forced — he can not avoid it —
to recognize the Christ as the representative on earth
of divine life. What more than this simple recognition
is needed for the practical results and purposes of the
Christian religion? To say that such recognition is
sufficient need not prevent those whose minds require
more from accepting the most extreme views and
arguing others into accepting them. But it does tend
to prevent the use of the machinery of the Church in
order to force all men to accept these views. In pre-
venting this, it tends to prevent also the harm which
the Church may do through such a course. What is
this harm? The causing of hundreds of thousands to
reject Christianity entirely, because they have been
taught to think that the whole system rests upon what
they conceive to be a myth borrowed from heathen-
dom— a myth because it is something which no one can

198 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

now prove ; and borrowed, because a tale exactly like it is
told of many of the founders of many other religions.*
The recognition of the sufficiency of the broader view
would prevent, too, that lessening of the uniqueness of
the work of the Christ which seems necessarily to ac-
company the ascribing of immaculateness not only to
Mary, the mother of Jesus, but also, as among some, to
Anne, the supposed mother of Mary.

Now let us pass on to consider what the Church repre-
sents as to the nature of the influence exerted by each
member of the Trinity upon the salvation of man.
God, the Father, we are told, created men, knowing
from the beginning that many would be lost. But he
elected some to salvation. That he might save these,
yet satisfy his inherent sense of justice, it was arranged
that the Christ should come to earth and, taking upon
himself the punishment that men deserved, should
suffer and die, tho not eternally. As a result, God was
enabled to send his Spirit to dwell with those for whom
the Christ died, and to sanctify and redeem them.
Several of us probably have known personally some one
who has declared his belief that no one can be saved

* This is a statement which no student of history will deny. According to
Greek or Roman mythology, JLthlius, Amphion, Apollo, Areas, Aroclus, ^Eolus,
Bacchus, Hercules, Mercury, Prometheus, and others were all sons of Jupiter
by a mortal mother; and, at least, Perseus and Romulus, by a virgin-mother.
A divine father and a virgin-mother were claimed also for the Indian Krishna
and Buddha, the Siamese Codom, the Chinese Lao-tsze, the Egyptian Horus,
the Persian Zoroaster, and others. The early Christian writer, Justin Martyr,
in his First Apology written about one hundred and twenty years after the
time of the Christ, admits all this. In Chapter XXI he says, "You know how
many sons your esteemed writers ascribe to Jupiter"; and in Chapter XXII,
"If we even affirm that he was born of a virgin, we accept this in common with
what you accept of Perseus," etc.

THE PLAN OF SALVATION 199

unless consciously, or, in some vague way, uncon-
sciously, he has accepted the whole of this doctrine as
thus exprest. The doctrine is undoubtedly suggested
in the Bible. But — and this explains the use of the
word suggested rather than stated — the opposite of the
doctrine is just as clearly suggested. There is no hint
of this doctrine in the parable of the prodigal son, or in
such a passage as in Acts 10; 35, "In every nation he
that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted
with him"; and merely a hint in passages more to the
point, like 1 Cor. 15; 22, "As in Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive." There seem to be
only two conclusions which can be drawn from these
discrepancies: first, that we should not be too certain
that the view conforming to either side of the question
is unqualifiedly correct, and so should not be too dog-
matic; and, second, that both views probably represent
some single spiritual principle which the limitations
of human language have caused minds having a vague
conception of this principle to represent in phrases
or figures which, if interpreted too literally, are mis-
leading.

The problem of salvation seems to involve this ques-
tion— how can a man whose character is naturally
formed and developed by the material be developed also
by the spiritual, and ultimately changed into a spirit?
That man is naturally developed by the material we all
know. He is born with a material body. He learns
by using eyes and ears upon material surroundings.

200 THE PSYCH OL OGY OF TNSPIRA TION

He thinks — clearly at least — because of material organs
which can articulate words with which to formulate
and separate his thoughts. He does his duty because
he recognizes his relationships to material objects and
being about him. When we consider how spiritual
influence can be exerted upon him, it would seem that,
according to this law of his nature, such influence, too,
should be exerted in part through the material. If
the object be to develop spiritual character, he should
be able, if possible, to see this spiritual character em-
bodied, and exerting influence, through a material
body.

It is exactly such a requirement that appears to be
fulfilled in the person of the Christ and of Christlike
men. In the case of the Christ, however, it seemed
necessary to show not only the presence of the spiritual
in the material, but also the supremacy of the one over
the other. How could this be done better than by a
life in which all desires connected with the material, in
so far as they interfered with the spiritual, were denied
indulgence, and finally sacrificed, as in the death upon
the cross. Nor does this conception of the influence
of the Spirit as exerted externally through example,
and therefore exerted, as it were, indirectly, interfere
with a conception of its influence exerted internally
and, as it were, directly. So far as we know, in this
world, the two methods usually accompany each other.
What is seen to be done by a hero upon a battle-field
causes his followers to catch, as we say, his spirit.

A LL RELIGIONS SIMILAR 201

What is known of the life and death of the Christ causes
exactly the result indicated in such passages as in John
12; 32, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto me"; or in John 16; 7, "If I go not away the
Comforter" (i.e., the Holy Ghost, the Inspirer) "will
not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him
unto you."

It is apparently by carrying to what seem logical
conclusions, not the spiritual significance, but the ma-
terial figures representing some such primary principles
as these that theology has built up its systems, going
into details with reference to the functions of each per-
son of the Trinity, the nature of divine sovereignty,
foreknowledge, election, effectual calling, perseverance
of the saints, and so on. A logical mind is made, of
course, to be logical. It is merely exercising an inborn
right when it is so; but has it a right to use other agen-
cies than argument to cause other minds to accept its
conclusions? Are not primary principles about all that
one can expect the ordinary Christian to recognize? Are
they not all that the great majority of the Christians
about us actually do recognize? If so, to insist upon
having all recognize what only a few are, even in-
tellectually, prepared to accept, is practically need-
less. Besides this, it is harmful. Hundreds of thou-
sands of sermons have been preached in many of our
churches to show that people need not become fa-
talists, or doubt the love of God, or embrace any
one of a dozen other conclusions detrimental to

202 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

Christian life, merely because certain doctrines of
the Church seem to tend toward these conclusions.
Why convey the impression then that it is essential
to hold the doctrines from which such conclusions
are derived? Of course, we must all have our own
theories concerning religion; but it is better to keep
opinion to ourselves than to be selfishly opinionated.
We should all be logical; but we should also bear
in mind that logic is merely a method, a method too
that, if applied in certain cases, may, like light, bring
others, if not ourselves, more of rottenness than of
ripeness. We should all be alert to correct every de-
formity in the Christianity about us; but we should
remember also that a prudent surgeon drops his scalpel
when it seems to imperil life. Too much in the theory,
the logic, and the activity of Christianity, as developed
in our times, not only fails to influence for good many
who think that they believe in it, but causes many,
without good reason, to think that they do not believe
in it.

Among this latter class may be included earnest
seekers for truth not only in Christian, but in non-
Christian countries. "In one part of the service in
your temple," said the author once to an intelligent
Buddhist priest of Japan, " gates were opened in front
of a small shrine in which was an image of the Buddha.
Were your people worshiping it"? "No," was an-
swered; "the Buddha is known not to be present ex-
cept in spirit." "But," said the questioner again,

ALL RELIGIONS SIMILAR 203

"the words used called upon the Buddha to help them."
"Certainly/' came the reply; "the Buddha represents
the highest attainment possible to the human intellect.
Any one more intelligent than we are is naturally
wiser. He can help us. Besides this, in a normal de-
velopment, any one with the highest intelligence must
have not only more knowledge, but more breadth of
view, magnanimity, spirituality, as you Christians say.
The Buddha helps us spiritually." Again, a Moham-
medan once, when trying to explain to the author the
conception at the basis of his religious belief, used this
illustration, "If I do what you want of me in my coun-
try, by and by I may go to your country. There I
may need work, possibly food and clothing. Then I
may find you, and, because of what I have done for
you here, you may introduce me, say, to your father,
and he will help me. Mohammed introduces us to
God." Possibly the adherent of some other religion
might use somewhat similar illustrations to indicate
his conception of the work done for him by its leader.
What is important to notice is that, when we get
down to the bases of these religions, there is not so
much difference between them and Christianity as we
sometimes suppose. Merely because human nature is
everywhere the same, all men are apt to believe in
some form of mediation that brings both intellectual
and spiritual help. They may not call the agent of
this "the Christ," or "the Lord"; but we should not
forget that it was the Christ himself who said (Matt.

204 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

7; 21), "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." If
the thinkers of the world, either in Christian or in non-
Christian communities, are ever to be brought into com-
plete harmony with the Church, it will be because of
its recognition of the full bearing of this principle upon
doctrine and practise.

One word more now about that from which salvation
through the Christ is supposed to save men. Some
deem it to be from what is termed eternal punishment.
But what does this mean? The Scriptures can not be
said to do any more than suggest the answer. If the
future state be one of progress, the man who has failed
to avail himself of his advantages in this life will be
eternally punished if eternally kept behind the degree
of development attained by the man who has lived
differently. But does the Greek term translated eter-
nal indicate what we mean when we use the English
term? Many scholars think not, and, even as applied
to the English term, if by the " temporal" be meant the
" material," why need the " eternal" mean any more
than the " spiritual"? Even the mention, in Mark 9;
44, of the hell "where their worm dieth not and the
fire is not quenched" is equivocal. The only place in
which these conditions could be fulfilled literally would
be in a material world like our own. But if it be a
description of a material world, then future punish-
ment means reincarnation. This would imply some

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT 205

hope for those who experience it, as well as a larger
hope for those who, having experienced here what it
is for spirits to be in prison, wish to avoid any further
experience of the same kind. Perhaps, on the whole,
some such belief would be consoling. If we could think
that, in our present life, we are being punished for sin
in a former state, many of the mysteries of the world
would be solved; and some of us would be much more
grateful than we seem to be at present to recognize that
we are not worse off than we are. But all these sub-
jects are — why should they not remain? — subjects of
speculation. No one view of them is necessary for the
practical purposes of Christianity. In his saner mo-
ments, every man believes that all sin is, must be, pun-
ished by its influence upon his conscience or his sur-
roundings, either in this world or in the next. Why
should the Church not be satisfied with this general
belief? Why should the harm be done which follows
when many are led to think God unjust, while yet also
a being to be worshiped and imitated; to say noth-
ing about the harm done when the officials of a church
attempt, for a compensation, to furnish a certificate to
be accepted in the next world in place of character, as
if, forsooth, it were not true that "the Lord knoweth
them that are his"? (2 Tim. 2; 19).

The thought that is suggested to the author just here
would, of itself, furnish no slight confirmation — if he
still needed any — of the importance of the general
subject treated in this book. The thought is this:

206 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

that very many of his readers will suppose that, by
admitting the possibility of the truth of many of the
theological tenets that have been mentioned, he is
virtually arguing their probability, and even affirming
their certainty. In reality, however, he is doing, and
intending to do, nothing of the kind. But notice the
proof that the existence of the supposition furnishes
of the fact that, as a rule, men who discuss spiritual
truth are expected to do this in the spirit of the prop-
agandist, absolutely certain that one peculiar view is
right, and that the world is doing wrong in not recog-
nizing it to be such. Why is it that men appear so
certain with reference to spiritual truth? The reason
must be either in the nature of this truth or in them-
selves. It can not be in the nature of the truth, be-
cause, according to all serious thinkers, as well as
writers of innumerable theological books, nothing is
more difficult than it to understand or to apply.
The reason for the apparent certainty must be, there-
fore, in the men themselves. What is it in men that
causes them to claim to know with certainty that which,
owing to its nature, can not be known with certainty?
However we may reply to this; whether we ascribe the
condition to individual self-esteem, pretense, or hypoc-
risy, or to the associative instincts of partizanship
exerted in behalf of some defensive or aggressive
church, the answer is not creditable to human nature.
No man is dealing fairly with his fellows who is adding
the weight of his own personality to the side of the

CERTAINTY IN RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 207

scale in which he is supposed to be putting only the
truth. When will the millions of those who are con-
tinually doing this — some consciously and some un-
consciously— recognize how immeasurably they might
advance the spiritual enlightenment of those about
them by acknowledging the exact facts with reference
to the way in which they regard their creeds. How
do they do this? How does faith regard any subjects
which are at the basis of its own actions? As certain?
No; if it did this it would be knowledge, not faith.
It regards them as most highly and rationally probable,
which is the same thing as to say that it accepts them as
suggestively but not indisputably true. This being
the case, how unfortunate it is that almost every new
theological treatise, ritual or even hymnal, should seem
to vie with the last in emphasizing that unfair trait
in human nature which practically misrepresents the
conditions which it professes to express!

This subject has some very practical bearings. The
most important of these is this — that wherever an effort
is made to advance any kind of truth through methods
that involve untruth, as when, in a sermon or hymn,
something is asserted to be certain which is felt to be
merely probable — then, together with the influence of
the truth, there is always conveyed some influence also
of the untruth. Several years ago, the author was
traveling on an ocean steamer. One Sunday evening
the passengers were asked to assemble in the saloon
for a service of praise. They were told that a fellow

208 THE PSYCHOLOG Y OF INSPIRA TION

passenger, a young Hebrew student of music, with an
exceptionally fine voice, had promised to lead the sing-
ing. When they came together, they found that those
in charge of the music had not selected hymns in which
all could honestly join — hymns of general praise*—
but those giving dogmatic expression to the most
distinctively orthodox Christian doctrines. Think of
singing, in such a service, a hymn of adoration to
"God in three persons, blessed Trinity," or hymn 170
in the Presbyterian Hymnal, "God of God, Light of
Light, lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb, very God,
Begotten not created, 0 come let us now adore him."
Yet probably these people, as lacking in Christian

*Like those beginning with the lines, "My God, how endless is thy love";
"Sweet is the work, my God, my king"; "Lord of all being, throned afar";
"Nearer, my God, to thee"; "The spacious firmament on high"; "All people
that on earth do dwell"; "O bless the Lord, my soul"; "O worship the Lord, all
glorious above"; "Through all the changing scenes of life"; "O God, our help
in ages past"; "Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme"; "When all thy
mercies, O my God"; "Gracious Spirit, love divine"; "He that goeth forth
with weeping"; "Teach me, my God, my king"; "Father, whate'er of earthly
bliss"; "I love to steal away"; "Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning";
"Come, ye disconsolate"; "To-morrow, Lord, is thine"; "Gently, Lord, O
gently lead us"; "My soul, be on thy guard"; "The King of Love my shepherd
is"; "God is my strong salvation"; "While thee I seek protecting power";
"Guide me, O thou great Jehovah"; "Lead, kindly light"; "In heavenly love
abiding"; "Thy way, not mine, O Lord"; "He leadeth me, O blessed thought";
"God is the refuge of his saints"; "My God, my Father, while 1 stray"; "God
moves in a mysterious way"; "The Lord my shepherd is"; "Your harps, ye
trembling saints"; "My times are in thy hands"; "How gentle God's com-
mands"; "My God, the spring of all my joys"; "My God, is any hour so sweet?"
"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire"; "O thou that hearest prayer"; "As pants
the heart for cooling streams"; "I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be"; "My
God, permit me not to be"; "'Tis by the faith of joys to come"; "Beyond the
smiling and the weeping"; "One sweetly solemn thought"; "O mother, dear
Jerusalem"; "Forever with the Lord"; "O, where shall rest be found?" "Brief
life is here our portion"; "Jerusalem, the golden"; "There is a land of pure
delight"; "O God, beneath thy guiding hand"; "O Lord of hosts, almighty
King"; "God bless our native land"; "My country, 'tis of thee"; "Day by day,
the manna fell," etc.

IRRELIGION IN WORSHIP 209

courtesy as in character, thought that they were doing
a religious deed in making this young Hebrew, on ac-
count, too, of his own good nature, give a distinctly
dishonest expression to his own sentiments. It is not
often that persons of so widely divergent views at-
tempt to worship together. It is not often, therefore,
that a supposed religious service involves so much that
is irreligious. But when we think of the necessary
differences in the premises, reasonings, and conclusions
of human minds, even if all be Christians, can we be
certain that many of the services held exclusively for
them are entirely free from a tendency to the same
form of irreligion; or that the Church itself is wholly
without blame for this? Can we be certain, either,
that those who are striving for the unity of Christen-
dom while, at the same time, advocating a more strict
acceptance by all men of the rites and creeds of their
own branch of the Church are aiming at any result
that is desirable? What is desirable seems to be the
conforming of all spiritual methods to the requirements
of spiritual truth, the very nature of which, as has
been shown, necessitates its being communicated not
dogmatically, but suggestively. Only when these re-
quirements have been fulfilled can we have any reason-
able expectation that the Church will be able also to
conform its methods to the demands of the mature and
rational mind which it should seek to influence, or to
what we have every reason to believe to have been its
practise during its earliest and most efficient period.

CHAPTER X

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDERING
SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

The Church Not an End but a Means— The Church Intended to Influ-
ence Opinion, Inclination, and Conduct— Opinion Most Influenced
Not by Authority, but by Thought — Illustrations from History —
Same Principle Applied to the Influence Exerted Upon Belief by
the Numbers Attending Any One Church — Or Exerted Upon
Expressions of Belief— External Unity of the Church May Be Det-
rimental to Influence of Thought as Thought — Influence of
Thought as Thought, Aside from the Influence of Authority Upon
Christian Opinion— And Upon Conduct— Reasons for This— The
Conception of the Church Which Harmonizes with the Testimony
Afforded by Historic Christianity — By the Primitive Church —
Enforced Unity of the Church Is Not the Spiritual Unity of
Christians — Nor Is It Made Prominent Where the Church is Grow-
ing— The Church as Influencing Inclinations Through Rites or
Rituals— Worship Can Not Be Exprest Through Argumentative
or Dogmatic Language — Neglect of This Principle in English
Cathedrals — In Assemblies of Those of Divergent Views — Principle
Applied to Hymns— To Prayers and Repetitions of Creeds — The
Church in Influencing Conduct is Sometimes Dictatorial, Some-
times Prohibitive, but Usually Negative— The Christianity of the
Christ is Positive— The Christian Must Do More Than Seek His
Own Salvation — Development in the Church of the Feeling of In-
dividual Responsibility— Further Developments to Be Expected in
the Future— These Theories Not Due to Lack of Appreciation of
the Work of the Church.

The trend of thought in the chapter just closed may
incline some to infer that the author underestimates
the importance and influence of the Christian Church.
But need this inference follow? The answer will de-
pend— will it not? — upon one's conception of the ob-
ject of the Church. We can imagine certain very worthy

.210

THE CHURCH A MEANS, NOT END 211

people greatly elated and singing almost endless dox-
ologies in view of Church-unity brought about through
the method which is discredited in the concluding
paragraph of the preceding chapter. But we can also
imagine others, equally religious and conscientious,
who, the day after unity had been thus obtained, and
because it had been thus obtained, would consider it
their duty to start a new schism. No schism can be
started except as it starts what is claimed to be a
church. Apparently, therefore, they would believe in
a church as fully as would those from whom they had
separated. To a certain extent, too, both parties would
agree in their conception of the character and function
of the Church. Both, for example, would consider it
an external organization; but the one would look upon
this as an end, and the other as a means. Otherwise
the one would not make so much of organic unity nor
the other so little. Some think that when the Church
organization is considered an end there is danger of
its arousing sentiments analogous to those finding ex-
pression in class-feeling, partizanship, and patriotism,
all of which have important uses in life, but, neverthe-
less, have more or less tendency toward that narrow
and selfish view of the supreme importance of oneself
and his environment which leads a man to plan, in
everything that is done, first, for his own set, for his
own party, or for his own country, right or wrong. On
the contrary, when the Church organization is consid-
ered a means, this very fact seems to subordinate such

212 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

sentiments to the study of methods needed in order to
elevate the condition of every man, even tho a stranger,
opponent, or alien, simply because it is felt that, by
the ties of a common humanity, this man is related to
every other man, and so to oneself. Which conception
of the Church has the warrant of the Scriptures?
Would it not be as difficult to find a single passage in
them unequivocally suggesting the former as it would
be to find one not unequivocally suggesting the latter?
For instance, take Heb. 10; 24, 25, "Let us con-
sider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves to-
gether, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one
another." It is certainly not the organization as
such, nor the officials of the organization, that are
emphasized in this, any more than is the case in the
passage in James 5; 16 and 17, "Confess your faults
one to another and pray one for another. . . . The
effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much." We can scarcely imagine a modern priest of
any high Church quoting to his congregation such pas-
sages as these without qualification and explanation.
And if not, why not? Which is more likely to be
wrong, the conception exprest in the Scriptures or in
in the utterance of the modern priest?

Whether considered as a means or an end, we shall
find the Church designed to influence men in three
directions — that of opinion, of inclination, and of con-
duct, each respectively having mainly to do with

DOCTRINAL INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH 213

thought, with feeling, and with will. Opinion, at
least religious opinion, is mainly affected by the doc-
trines of the Church; inclination by its methods of
worship, or its services, as they are termed; and con-
duct by its discipline. At the same time, no ecclesi-
astical agencies seem intended to influence the mind in
any one of these directions alone. The sacraments, for
instance, are supposed to have effects in the direction
of both worship and discipline, tho, at present, it might
be said that they are chiefly directed toward empha-
sizing doctrine. This is owing to a method sometimes
termed " fencing the ordinances." To this phrase and
the purpose represented by it there could, of course, be
no objection in case nothing were attempted further
than to prevent a misunderstanding of the meaning of
the ordinances and to promote an intelligent use of
them. But much more than this is attempted. In
many churches, rites like those accompanying the Lord's
Supper, baptism, confession, burial, and marriage are
administered to or for those alone who have given
assent to certain dogmas having to do with the organiza-
tion's general theories, but not, except very remotely,
with these rites themselves. Through means of them
and the natural desire of the people to share in what-
ever benefits may be supposed to attend them, the
Church endeavors to enforce upon its members its
whole theological system. The same endeavor is made
also, but less directly, through the teaching of its
catechisms and the enjoining of the public repetition in

214 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

its assemblies of its creeds, hymns, and rituals. The
general influence thus exerted we may term that of
ecclesiastical authority.

Now let us ask what is the actual effect of the en-
forcement by the Church of such authority? Does it
furnish the most successful way of influencing opinions?
Of course, the majority of men think that it does.
Otherwise, our leading churches would not almost uni-
versally employ it. But are the views of the majority
correct? When authority sets out to influence opinion,
exactly what are its effects? Undoubtedly, to em-
phasize that which it proclaims. Moreover, because
this is emphasized, almost all children, many women,
and some men may suppose that they accept it as their
own opinion. But let us consider the subject a mo-
ment. Opinion is an inference derived from thought,
and thought is that of which we become conscious
through thinking. Authority may dictate to a mind
that which is the opinion of others ; but this opinion can
not become the mind's own, unless this mind be fur-
nished with facts and proofs which can cause it, as a
result of its own thinking, to draw the inference which
the opinion expresses. Otherwise, if mere authority
be exercised, wholly aside from that which only can
legitimately influence thinking, one of two things will
happen: either the mind will disregard authority and
think for itself, or else it will submit to authority and
not think at all — at least, about the subject which
authority has tried to make it accept. In neither case

DOCTRINAL ECCLESIASTICISM 215

has authority been successful in influencing opinions—
in the former case, because it has awakened thoughts
leading away from the opinions which it would en-
force ; in the latter case, because it has supprest thoughts,
substituting for rational acknowledgment of facts or
proofs mere prejudice, and introducing for the govern-
ing principle of mind bigotry, superstition, or fanati-
cism. Only in the degree in which authority exerts its
influence as an agency subordinated to the purpose of
making men think about that which is presented can
their minds be permanently influenced by it.

We find these facts illustrated in the histories of the
Church in all countries. In the Middle Ages — as is
true in some communities to-day — the influence of
religion upon prejudice was enormous, but its influence
upon thought was barely perceptible. The people,
when driven by their priests, could hardly be said to
be actuated by thought any more than the beasts of
burden when driven by the people. Yet who can deny
that not to be actuated by thought is not to be actuated
by mind which God has made supreme in man? It is no
wonder that, in individual conduct and in general
civilization, there should have been, in those times,
and is in those communities now, very little, either in
private, social, or civic life, of what Paul, in Gal. 5; 22,
terms the fruit of the spirit — love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance. On the other hand, in every age in which
Christianity has made great advances, whether in

216 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

the first centuries of the Christian era, in the reforma-
tion of the sixteenth century, or in the missionary
enterprise of the nineteenth, it has done so with scarcely
any help at all from the exertion of authority — simply
through presenting thought to the thinking mind.

But it may be asked whether the fact that certain
phases of opinion are accepted by large numbers, many
of whom are intelligent and influential, does not, of
itself, affect the thoughts of those whom the Church
seeks to influence? Most certainly it does. In such
cases, the presumption always is that the phase of
opinion which appeals to so many of this character
can not but be important. Very well, then, it may be
added, the condition indicated is exactly that of the
Church. Why, therefore, should this not seek to reen-
force its doctrines through the influence of the number
and character of its members? Who has said here that
it should not? But there are different ways in which
this kind of influence may be exerted. These may be
illustrated by recalling those which may be adopted by
a political party. The party may organize, hold meetings,
have processions, and call attention to its principles by
conducting what is termed a campaign of education,
through such methods making an appeal to thought,
and seeking to lead the people, through an exercise of
their own intelligence, to accept the truth of which they
have been convinced; or, on the other hand, the party
may make its appeal merely to the spirit of comrade-
ship— to that which causes men to join with their

RELIGIO US A UTHORITY AND THINKING 217

friends, and to go with the crowd. So far as the latter
method and it alone is pursued, success results because
of preventing the people from thinking about the real
issues. But in case they need to think about these; in
case they be called upon to vote on questions especially
demanding an exercise of mind, is it not easy to per-
ceive that any large success in the campaign, tho no
dishonesty were practised in it, would be detrimental
to the interests of the country? And if this sort of
campaign can not be justified in politics, how can it, in
the least degree, be justified in religion, the whole ob-
ject of which is, or should be, to influence the thought-
ful side of a man's nature? The influence of the Church
is not legitimately employed except when emphasizing
phases of opinion in such a way as to make a man ex-
ercise his own thought with reference to them. Any
method of presenting them of such a kind as to suppress
a man's reasoning faculties is not above the level of
witchcraft, which, before psychic subjects had been
studied scientifically, was considered and, sometimes,
as judged from its effects, rightly considered essentially
Satanic.

Almost equally injurious is an influence upon a man's
thoughts so exerted as to prevent any expression of
them. The world can not afford to lose — no institution
has a right to deprive it of — such results of private in-
telligence as may add to the intelligence of the com-
munity. But, as we all know, this is the exact effect
often produced by the undue exercise of authority on

218 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

the part of the Church, whether the result of this be
an influence exerted directly or indirectly. The author
once boarded at the same house with a naval attache of
the Spanish legation in London. This man was al-
ways arguing against the Catholic Church, insisting,
for instance, that its rapid growth in the United States
presaged the speedy overthrow of our free institutions.
Nevertheless, he attended regularly the services of this
Church in London, his exprest reason for doing so being
that, if he did not, he should lose social standing among
those of his own country with whom he was obliged to
associate. Here was a very mild phase of indirect in-
fluence, but nevertheless exerted so as to prevent an
exceptionally intelligent man from expressing in con-
duct the results of his own thinking — in other words,
from exerting his own intelligence in such a way as to
add to the intelligence of the community. It is ex-
actly the kind of influence that has been produced in
every age and country in which has been experienced
that so-styled blesse'd consummation which some have
in mind when they pray for the unity of Christendom.
Wherever there has been one church, there, on ac-
count of the intrinsic selfishness, narrowness, and
tyranny of its masses, as well as of its rulers, there has
been, on the part of many of its ablest men — those best
able to use their own minds — a seething mass of self-
seeking calculation, moral cowardice, chronic hypocrisy,
and habitual falsehood, with all the lack of integrity
and intrinsic morality in eveiy direction which neces-

RELIGIO US CONFORMITY DEMORALIZING 219

sarily finds expression in one who dare not obey his
conscience, or be an enthusiastic devotee of the truth
as he himself perceives it. On the contrary, in the de-
gree in which the conception of one church as a single
external body, with one set of dogmas and rulers having
authority over opinion and conscience, has declined,
in that degree has the effect upon religious life of such
influences as are merely social, political, or partizan
declined; in other words, in that degree has truth been
left to appeal to men merely as truth, and thought
merely as thought. No one can overestimate the
practical benefit of this result. To it is due almost all
the progress of the world in either education, sociology,
or government since the sixteenth century. It is not
denied by any historian that this progress was first
developed in the countries of Northern Europe, and
among those who emigrated from them to America.
It was in these countries in which men's general con-
ception of the Christian Church was no longer con-
founded with that of a single external organization
that thought was first allowed to exert the legitimate
influence of thought upon the mind of the indi-
vidual.*

Has the influence thus exerted been detrimental to
the effect of Christianity upon opinion and conduct?
Does not this to-day in these Protestant countries ex-
ert as much influence as it does in non-Protestant coun-
tries upon public legislation and private character?

* See note on page 195.

220 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

Would not the statement that the Christian sentiment
of a nation demanded a certain measure have more
weight with more legislators in Great Britain or in the
United States than it would in France or in Italy?
Certainly, in the former countries, in which virtually
all men, by the very force of circumstances, have been,
as it were, compelled to acknowledge that many differ-
ent external organizations may be legitimate develop-
ments of the Church of the Christ, no legislator would
dream of opposing any measure, as is frequently done
in other countries, merely because of its being advo-
cated by Christians. " At the head of the Government
of this country," said Father Eugene Hannan, of St.
Martin's Catholic Church, Washington, D. C., as
reported in The Evening Star, December 17, 1906, "are
Christian gentlemen, but it is not so with the French
republic. They are unchristian and atheistic and hate
the name of God." "I am weighing my words," said
Cardinal Gibbons, the head of the Catholic Church of
the United States, in a statement prepared by him and
published in most of the papers of America and Europe
on December 14, 1906 — "I am weighing my words, and
say, with deliberate conviction, that the leaders of the
present French Government are actuated by nothing
less than hatred of religion. We have no spirits akin
to these in this country. We have here much indiffer-
ence to religion; but we have no body of men, no great
party that makes it a chief aim to weaken the power of
religion, and, if possible, utterly to destroy it out of

RELIGIOUS CONFORMITY AND UNBELIEF 221

the land. But in France the Jacobin party is not dead.
Their spirit is as living to-day as it was in the last
decade of the eighteenth century. They hate God ; they
hate Christ; they hate his religion. And yet the ut-
terances of such men are received as unsuspectingly
by many Americans as would be a discourse by Mr.
Cleveland, Mr. Roosevelt, or Mr. Taft — men who
recognize the powerful influence religion has in pro-
moting the welfare of society ... It is easy to show
that I am not misrepresenting. . . . Let me give you
a few examples of the language of these men and you
can judge if the American people have ever heard any-
thing similar from their own leaders, or if any American
statesmen would dare to utter such statements. What
would we Americans say if a Cabinet officer were to
propose this?" etc. Such, according to the testimony
of the primate of the Catholic Church in America, is the
condition in France three or four hundred years after
the too nearly successful attempt to suppress religious
non-conformity in that country through the killing or
banishing, so far as possible, of all the Huguenots. The
proportion, too, of the people of France who are willing
to be led by the element which the cardinal deplores is
significant. According to telegraphic reports published
in all our newspapers of February 20, 1907, two months
after this cardinal and others had had ample oppor-
tunity to explain the animus of these irreligious leaders,
one of their actions, subsequently denounced by the
Vatican, was sustained by the representatives of the

222 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

people in the Chamber of Deputies in Paris by a vote
of 389 to 88.

Now let us notice another noteworthy fact, so gen-
erally acknowledged as to need no confirmation. It is
this — that no Englishman or American of wide ex-
perience would admit that the intellectual or moral
character of Christian people, especially of the Christian
clergy, ranks lower — he is usually ready to argue that
it ranks higher — in his own country than in any coun-
try exclusively controlled or dominated by a single
church. Probably no man in the United States, cer-
tainly none, so far as recorded, thought of challenging
the following statement written to a Catholic, Mrs.
Bellamy Storer, by President Roosevelt on May 18,
1900, and published in all the principal newspapers of
the country on December 11, 1906: "I emphatically
feel, as I have always told you, that the chance for
bettering the Catholic inhabitants of the tropic islands
lies by bringing them up to the highest standard of
American Catholicism. The worst thing that could
happen both for them and the Catholic Church would
be for the Catholic Church to champion the iniquities
that have undoubtedly been committed, not only by
lay, but by clerical would-be leaders in the Philippines
and elsewhere. One incident, which I actually can
not put on paper, came to my personal knowledge in
connection with a high Catholic ecclesiastic in Cuba,
which was of a character so revolting and bestial that
it made one feel that the whole hierarchy in the island

NON-CONFORMITY AND TRUTHFULNESS 223

needed drastic renovation." Think how impossible it
would be to make such an accusation against any
official or officials of any church in the United States
without an instant demand for proof and the ecclesias-
tical prosecution of the one accused!

For these conditions — for the respect paid to the
opinions of Christians as Christians, and for the general
belief in their intellectual and moral integrity — there
are extremely good reasons; and they are all connected
with the existence of what is termed schism. The
first of these reasons is that, when every one is not only
free in fact, but feels free, to express, in word and deed,
his own inward religious convictions, the tendency to
that trait, which probably the majority of men acknowl-
edge to be at the basis of all that is most reprehensible
in character — i.e.j untruthfulness — is lessened. The
requirements of religion at least furnish no occasion
for indulgence in it. The second reason is that, where
there are many different branches of the Church repre-
senting many different views and methods, with some
of which one can hardly fail to agree, the tendency to
truthfulness is increased. The third reason is that this
tendency is developed in such a way as not necessarily
to unchurch a man. He can still remain theoretically a
member of the Church universal, through joining one
of the bodies recognized to be one of its legitimate
branches. The fourth reason is the natural and inevi-
table competition between these branches. This need
not be, and, in America, it is not, as a rule, at all hos-

224 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

tile; nevertheless it causes the members of each branch
to be critical of those of other branches, and thus
serves to keep all true to a high standard. Finally,
a fifth reason is that this high standard is attained
through the only condition of Church life which can
actually make it and Christian life synonymous. Prob-
ably there are hundreds of thousands to-day in France
and Italy who, while claiming to be friendly to the
ideal embodied in the life of Jesus, acknowledge them-
selves to be enemies of the only organization which to
them represents the Church. This statement could not
be applied to the same extent in either Great Britain or
the United States, simply because the conception that
in these countries men have of the Church, as something
not necessarily involving a single external organization,
renders the condition indicated unnecessary, if not
impossible.

Now can this conception, which seems to be so ra-
tional in itself and so beneficial in its results, be justified
by the lessons derivable from what is termed historic
Christianity; — in other words — to use the term in the
sense in which those did who originated it — from the
history of the development of the Church as an external
organization? A negative answer is often given to this
question; and such an answer is often supposed by
high-churchmen to furnish an irrefutable argument
against the view that has here been presented. But
let us think a little. The only logical answer to our
question must make it affirmative. Consider, for a

THE HISTORIC CHURCH NEVEfR ONE 225

moment, the contents of ecclesiastical history. Of
what do they mainly consist? Of what except records
of methods through which individuals and communities
have protested against assumptions of authority in
matters of belief and practise on the part of coun-
cils and officials of the Church? Of what except the
records of controversies, persecutions, and wars that
have resulted on account of the persistence of these
protesters? Of what except the records, one after
another, of the triumphs, not invariable but frequent, of
these protesters or of their successors? Merely a list
of the names of the different Christian churches might
furnish an indisputable proof that what some term the
" divine influence" manifested in processes of develop-
ment has not kept the Church an organic unity, but
has brought into being many different organizations.
These have originated, too, almost always because of
fidelity to conviction and conscience on the part of
those who, like the earliest followers of the great
Master, were "put out" of some existing "synagogue"
(John 9; 22, 12; 42, 16; 2). The Nestorian, Armenian,
Coptic, Greek, Roman, Waldensian, English, Lutheran,
Presbyterian, and Wesleyan churches are all distinct
and different. Many of them are much more distinct
and different than are the more recently organized
Protestant sects at present existing in England and the
United States; for these latter are accustomed, as most
of the former are not, to exchange both members and
pastors. In view especially of this latter fact, and of

226 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

the development of charity both of head and heart
which it indicates, no extreme Protestant need fear to
acknowledge all the force that there may be in the argu-
ment derived from the development of historic Chris-
tianity. But while accepting this argument, he has
a right to insist that his opponents who start it shall
agree not to stop it before it reaches its logical termina-
tion. What is this? The acknowledging of the legit-
imacy of the condition that the Church has attained in
England and the United States. The majority of the
people of these countries alone of all the world have
carried into practise the only theory concerning the
Church which can be rightly inferred from the ways
in which the Providence of God, through the ages, has
developed it. Its growth has been not that of a stream,
always moving toward some single channel and never
upward; but like that of a tree, always getting away
from its one trunk and mounting higher, as well as re-
vealing, in each successive season new branches which,
to one who did not know that all were offshoots of
a single stalk, would seem not only more numerous,
but more divergent. So much for the argument from
historic Christianity.

Now let us notice whether the same conception is
justified by something else — i.e., by the conditions ex-
isting in the primitive church, so far as these are re-
vealed in the records of the Scriptures. There need be
no uncertain answer to this question. Take such a
passage as the one undoubtedly referring to the Church,

CHURCH UNITY SPIRITUAL 227

beginning, "There is one body and one Spirit" (Eph.
4; 4), or 1 Cor. 12; 13, "For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body" — do these passages refer to a
spiritual body or to a material one? — and if to the
latter, in what circumstances can one spirit be supposed
to animate this material body or organization? Is it
when the organization, as such, forces men to utter
one set of opinions and to perform one set of rites, while,
all the time, they may be thinking something different
in their minds, and wishing to do it in their hearts?
Yet this is exactly the condition where unity is enforced
either by the action of officials, or by the popular senti-
ment in the organization occasioned by such action.

It certainly seems difficult to understand how unity
that is thus enforced can ever be unity of the spirit. No
two individuals can have unity of spirit except in the
degree in which, in the presence of the other, each is
free, and feels free, to say and to do what he chooses.
Why should it not be the same in the case of two, or of
any number of Christians? But if it be the same, then
one might say with truth that there is often far more
religious unity of spirit in one little New England vil-
lage, tho divided into half a dozen sects all agreeing to
disagree in some things, but uniting, as they usually do,
in the practical work of charitable organizations and
Men's or Women's Christian Associations, than would
be possible in any single church in Christendom in-
spired by the merely partizan spirit that caused its
members to speak of it as " the " church.

228 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

At this point the reader may begin to perceive the
bearings of these conclusions upon the subject mooted
at the opening of the present chapter. If men believe
that any phase of opinion, whether religious or political,
be essential to human welfare, or be merely very im-
portant, it is natural, and, sometimes, obligatory that
they should unite with others of the same belief, and
organize, in order to propagate this phase of opinion.
Their organization, in proportion to its size and to the
character of its members, may — as it must necessarily—
draw attention to the phase of opinion for which it
stands, but, for reasons already given, for it to exert
even in this way any except a distinctly mental in-
fluence is not legitimate theoretically. Nor is it wise
practically. Who can have failed to notice this latter
fact? When a man is trying to control our thought,
he is apt to succeed in exactly the degree in which he
seems to be expressing his own personal convictions.
The moment that we have reason to suppose him a
special pleader for a certain cause or clientage of which
he is the official spokesman, we keep our minds more or
less closed even to those parts of his argument which
we should otherwise accept. A preacher who is always
backing his pleas with the authority of the Church may
have great influence with those of his own communion,
but he has little influence with others. This fact alone
accounts for the rapid growth of Christianity in every
age and country in which those who have pleaded for
it have seemed to stand, as it were alone, and to work

CHURCH WORSHIP 229

for their own individual belief, rather than for that of
an organization of which they were members. It was
so in the early days of Christianity, of the Reformation,
of the Wesley an revival, and of the Salvation Army; and
it characterizes the great missionary work at home and
abroad that is carried on at present very largely by
laymen of the various Christian associations.

So much with reference to the Church's influencing
thought through enforcing belief in its doctrines. On
page 212, the second object of the Church was said to be
to influence inclinations or feeling. This is a far more
important phase of its influence than is sometimes
recognized. Many, especially in Protestant countries,
suppose that the chief, if not the sole, object of attend-
ing a church service is to hear the sermon. But what
will those wTho think this do in case the sermon contain
for them nothing new in the way of thought, nor even—
what is sometimes a substitute for thought — in the way
of presentation? This can be said of many a sermon,
and, by experienced readers or thinkers, of many that
are quite instructive and inspiring to the young and
inexperienced. What then? Shall those whom the
sermon fails to interest cease to attend the services?
Yes, if they be accustomed to follow only their
own inclinations. But not by any means "yes," if
they be accustomed to regard the welfare of others.
In the latter case, they are likely to recall that the
young need to be instructed, the inexperienced to be
guided, the despondent to be made hopeful, the selfish

230 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

to be made sympathetic, the sordid to be made aspiring,
as well as a whole world of people almost submerged in
a mean fight for material gains to be saved from it by
the rest and meditation naturally accompanying a still
Sabbath, and the uplift and outlook naturally sug-
gested by a religious gathering. This is the reason
why many a man who expects to get nothing for him-
self from the sermon never fails to be present where
others can hear it. Nor can it be truly said even of
him that he gets from the service nothing for himself.
That which does not minister to the head may minister
to the heart. For some, the mere assembling with
others, though, as often in the meetings of the Society
of Friends, no word be uttered, has, in itself, a human-
izing, a sympathetic, and therefore a spiritual effect;
and upon many more the ritual, but especially the
music, exerts a similar effect. These facts are formally
recognized in most churches by the use that is made of
the sacramental rites, especially those connected with
the " communion," or the "Lord's Supper," and of the
hymns, chants, and prayers. Even the sacramental
rites, however, so long as they may be supposed to in-
fluence in certain particular directions, do so chiefly
on account of the expressions in the rituals that ac-
company them. For this reason, all that needs to be
discust here may be included under what may be said
of these latter. Let us ask, at once then, what is the
legitimate influence of the Church's prayers and hymns?
No one can deny that, to an extent, they may have

D 0 GMA TISM IN RITUALS 231

an educational and doctrinal effect. Therefore, it is
merely natural that some should suppose it appropriate
that they should often give an exact and even extreme
expression to some peculiar dogma. Perhaps this form
of expression may be justified so far as an influence is
intended to be exerted upon children, for whose opin-
ions their parents are as yet responsible, or upon grown
people who have long been accustomed to receive cer-
tain dogmas as true. But in churches the doors of
which are thrown open in the hope that all who enter
may join in the services as well as listen to the sermons,
may not the dogmatic, when introduced into the de-
votional parts of the exercises, effectually interfere
with that for which these are intended?

We all know that emotional conditions of mind differ
from those that are logical, and that, sometimes, the
two are antagonistic. If a man be in an excited mood,
either hilarious or grievous, his excitement is likely to
disappear the moment he becomes thoroughly ab-
sorbed in the solution of a mathematical problem. So
with a worshiper expected to join in a church service.
Anything that appeals to his argumentative faculties,
even if not opposed to his own traditional or specula-
tive opinions, nevertheless supplants, to some extent,
that which is essential to the spirit of worship. This
fact has been practically, tho possibly unconsciously,
recognized by the organizations of laymen which con-
duct the largely attended meetings for men held on
Sundays in certain theaters of most of our American

232 THE PS YCIIOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

cities. The non-dogmatic character of the hymns and
prayers at these meetings is to be ascribed not only
to the practical aim of avoiding offense, but to the
philosophic aim of securing concurrence of emotion,
and of affording a method of worship truly representa-
tive of the devotional attitude of all. The result is one
more of many instances proving the truth of the state-
ment of the Christ that the kingdom of God, because
within, "cometh not by observation/' or " through
things to be observed" (Luke 17; 20). How few
important changes in the methods of the Church have
been started by others than laymen or subordinate
clergymen! Apparently, the government of God in
the Church differs in no respect from his government
in the state, in which, as a rule, reforms come from
those who are in humble rather than in high positions.
As Paul says in 1 Cor. 1 ; 27, "God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things that are
mighty." As for this change in the removal of dog-
matism from the prayers and hymns, is it not about
time that the wisdom of doing it should be acknowl-
edged by the Church as a church? Why should unity
in devotion, or the possibility of devotion of any kind, {
be imperiled by the introduction of that which, as com-
pared with it, is really non-essential? Why should
not the service of petition and praise, so far as concerns
this alone, be one in which all can truthfully join? In
asking this question, the author would not like to have
his readers imagine him so unacquainted with esthetic

D 0 GMA TISM IN WORSHIP 233

effects as not to recognize that with many the harmony
of a service, especially if it be wholly musical, exerts a
far more potent influence than do the words used in it,
frequently, indeed, causing the meanings of these to be
wholly disregarded. We all know that college stu-
dents of the most scrupulous morality join not only with
great heartiness, but with great sympathetic benefit to
themselves, in the singing of extremely bacchanalian
songs; and do so without the least consciousness that
the sentiments in these entirely misrepresent their own
convictions and practises. The same principle applies
to large numbers who derive a corresponding benefit
by joining in the music, tho they can not join in the
sentiment, of the services of the church. But the
principle does not apply to all ; and for their sakes, as
well as because of the supreme importance of avoiding,
in the worship of God at least, the slightest tendency
to evil, the words presented for use should be con-
fined, if possible, to such as all can use with absolute
truthfulness.

It seems strange that the English Church has not
considered this question as related, at least, to the mode
of worship used in its cathedrals. At present the only
difference between the service in these and in the
smaller parish churches is that the former is a little
more of a spectacle — therefore one might almost say
a little less spiritual. But suppose a service of another
kind were introduced into the cathedral — a service in
which every religious man of the nation could join.

234 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

In this case, how much more than at present might the
Church be able to do for the nation and for humanity!
But no; "God hath chosen the weak things of this
world to confound the wise" (1 Cor. 1; 27); and the
spiritual work that might be done for the Christ by the
learned " hierarchy enthroned" in a cathedral is left to
be done mainly by unlettered laymen on the stage of a
theater.

A more broadly phrased ritual and hymnal is needed
however, not merely when an audience is expected to
be large, but, still more, when on account of being large
it is expected to be promiscuous — to be composed of
those of many divergent views. This latter condition
may exist often where the assembly is comparatively
small, as on shipboard, or at an army-post. Frequently,
in such places, men of different religious convictions
would like to worship with their fellows; but some
of them can not do so because of the supposition—
to say nothing of the self-righteous and self-opinion-
ated determination — on the part of others that devo-
tion must be dogmatic. Who can deny that it would
be expedient, as well as charitable, for the Christian
Church to prepare and recommend rituals and hymns
that could meet such conditions?

Were this work to be undertaken those engaged in
it would be surprized to find, not how much, but how
little — yet enough to justify their efforts— would need
to be omitted or changed. To illustrate this in the
case of hymns, any religious man can join in almost any

DOGMATISM IN WORSHIP 235

of these addressing either the Father or the Spirit, or
dwelling upon the aspirations or the duties of the relig-
ious life. Even with reference to other hymns that
seem less general in expression, it is simply a fact that,
no matter what it may be written to express, the best
hymn, or even prayer, like genuine poetry, or a sincere
request, is seldom didactic. It gives utterance to that
which is in the heart rather than in the head. When
the heart speaks, the expression may be very vague, yet
sufficiently suggestive to satisfy those whose concep-
tions are very definite. A hymn that, at one time, was
invariably sung at every communion service in a cer-
tain well-known Presbyterian church was written to
give vent to the feelings of a Unitarian; and it is not
too much to say that many of the words inspired by the
most intense consciousness of faith in the Christ and
communion with him could be sung, because of their
purely poetic quality, not only by Unitarians, but by
Hebrews and Buddhists, especially if it were under-
stood that, by common consent, the phraseology could
be accepted in a suggestive and not a dogmatic sense.
Of course, such religionists could not join in singing
lines like those mentioned on page 208; but might it not
be better for the spirit of devotion — to say no more —
if believers, no matter how fervent, in the Trinity or
the incarnation, could be induced to express their feel-
ings in terms less mathematical and physical?

Now let us consider the prayers that make up so large
a part of many of the rituals. We shall find that the

236 THE P8YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

tendency to dogmatism by no means asserts itself in all
of these. It would be difficult to find a religious man
of any belief who could not join in "The Lord's Prayer/'
or even in petitions tendered "in the name of the Lord/'
in case it were understood that the worshipers' inter-
pretations of this phrase could be allowed to differ.
But why should they no t be ? To allow this would merely
carry out the logical inference from the conception
that spiritual truth should be considered suggestive
rather than dogmatic. Moreover, it would merely be
recognizing publicly a fact already recognized privately.
The fact is this — that all the worshipers, even in the
most orthodox churches, do not interpret the phrase in
exactly the same way. Why should not the theory of
the Church, in this regard, be made to conform with
acknowledged practise? As for the repeating or sing-
ing together of what is termed "the creed " — even if as
elementary as the Apostles' — may not this practise,
except in meetings held exclusively for the expression
of the religious convictions of particular organizations,
be a little, to quote Shakespeare, "from the purpose"
of the services into which it is introduced? In promis-
cuous audiences, may it not exalt dogmatism to the det-
riment of both devotion and truthfulness, and not in-
frequently to their exclusion?

The third object of the Church was said to be to in-
fluence will and conduct through discipline. The way
in which a man supposes this object to be attainable
will depend upon what has been already mentioned in

CHURCH DISCIPLINE 237

another connection, namely, upon the degree in which
he conceives the Church to be an end or a means. By
one who conceives it to be the former, discipline is
often supposed to have accomplished its purpose when
the members of a church have been brought into sub-
jection to its officers, or have been made to fulfil its
prescribed observances — as, for instance, by being
present, once a week, in a building at a religious service
where they can see others and let others see them; by
paying regularly their pew-rent or other money due the
church, and contributing their share to additional col-
lections; or by not being absent too frequently from
the confession or the communion. By those who con-
ceive the Church to be a means rather than an end, the
object of discipline is supposed to be attained in the
degree in which its members are kept from pursuits
or indulgences such as dancing, tippling, card-playing,
or theater-going, which are considered to have an evil
practical tendency, as well as from those which are
more generally acknowledged by all to be wrong or
vicious in themselves. The latter conception of the
object of discipline is broader than the former, yet both
are narrow — the former because it concerns itself merely
with observances of the Church, and not with one's
fulfilment of his duties toward his fellows; and the
latter because it concerns itself merely with external
conduct, and not with influences exerted over many
inward motives which must be present before a man can
be a Christian in the highest sense. This is the same

238 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF 1NSPIRA TION

as to say that discipline exercised so as to secure merely
such results as have been mentioned affects only a small
part of that which constitutes character. Moreover,
as a moment's thought will convince us, it affects only
the meanest part of this, because it affects that part
only which is actuated by a desire to secure one's own
personal benefit, or, as this is termed in religion, one's
own salvation. A man could possess all the traits which
it would be possible for the kinds of discipline that have
been mentioned to create or develop and yet do very
little in the way of positively uplifting his fellows or
manifesting such characteristics as were in the Christ.
Almost the last words of the great Master to his dis-
ciples on the eve of his Crucifixion, which he seems to
have foreseen, were these (John 15; 11), "These things
have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in
you, and that your joy might be full." No man can
have this joy in his soul who has not experienced within
himself, in some degree, the love to which the Master
refers in the verses preceding and following this; for
instance, in verse 10, "If ye keep my commandments
ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my
Father's commandments and abide in his love," and
verses 12 and 13, "This is my commandment, that ye
love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends." It was the self-renunciation exercised by
the Christ, not in his own behalf but for the benefit of
others, that caused the joy in which he wished that

THE JOY OF CHRISTIAN LIFE 239

others might share. That the same self-renunciation
on their part might result in the same experience of
joy is something of which all of us might become con-
vinced, in a partial degree at least, from our own ex-
perience. Every man who has ever become wholly ab-
sorbed in a great undertaking, either in behalf of an
individual, a society, or a state, knows something of the
unconsciousness of weariness, danger, or pain accom-
panying the feeling of enthusiasm that carries one
through his task. There is a joy of the conflict as great,
at times, as that of any victory that can follow it. In
the height of the battle the severest wounds are often
unfelt. Experts in reading the human countenance
declared in the sixteenth century, both in England and
upon the Continent, that many martyrs burned at the
stake had apparently experienced no physical suffering.
Why should this not have been the case? If a man
have no sense of pain when the conscious nature is be-
numbed as in ordinary hypnotism, why should not the
same result follow the far more complete dominance of
the subconscious when the spirit is supreme? Is it
strange that the great Master should have wished
something like the "joy" attendant upon this con-
dition, as applied to the common disappointments and
disasters of life, to be the perpetual experience of those
whom he foresaw destined to constant conflict from
which, in this world, there could be no release? The
attitude of the Christian mind which, according to any
profound or comprehensive view of the subject, the

240 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

discipline of the Church should be designed to develop —
what can it be except such as is a natural expression of
this "joy," due to the pervading influence of the Spirit
of the Master?

And how is it possible for one to possess this joy in
anything like completeness who is merely seeking his
own salvation? Every church in Christendom might
be crowded with supplicants from morning to night,
engaged, when not present in the church, in deny-
ing themselves every pleasure whatsoever, and even
in starving and scourging themselves to the verge of
death, and yet, among them all, there might not be
one man really possessing the spirit or manifesting the
conduct of a genuine follower of the Christ. The Christ
did not aim for his own salvation. How can it be sup-
posed that his followers should do this? A follower
of the Savior should himself be a Savior. The dele-
gating of all saving work to some official of a church,
and the consequent lack of spiritual interest in life, be-
cause in it there seems nothing spiritual to do, is one of
the saddest characteristics of the towns and villages of
southern and eastern Europe. From them the scores
of educational and benevolent secular and religious
societies that give social and humanitarian employ-
ment to surplus aspiration in almost all similar locali-
ties in our own country seem to be entirely absent.
No wonder that, where life is so tame, because, in the
truest sense, so spiritless, many more than would other-
wise be the case seek divertisement in tippling and

THE CHRISTIAN A SA VIOR 241

gambling and other pastimes that are frivolous if not
vicious. About the only expression which is afforded
in these communities for anything like that spiritual
fellowship which is well-nigh essential for the full en-
joyment of life is connected with ecclesiastical cere-
monies. For providing these the Church should have
full credit. They seem often like oases in a desert of
disinterest. The ceremonies enable the people to sing
and march together, all drest in their best and some-
times in fancy costumes; more than this, in such a con-
dition to see others and — what is often more satis-
factory— to be seen by them. Yet one can not avoid
feeling that the consequent spiritual uplift is to that
which might attend upon a broader conception of
Christian life, just about what the assembling and
blowing of the same people against the outside of a
balloon in which they wished to rise might be to that
which would follow the appropriate inflating of it.
What the people most need is not a priest to marshal
processions and emphasize his own leadership in these,
but a presence of spiritual influence inspiring the con-
duct of ordinary life, and emphasizing the right and
duty of every one to use his reason in methods of de-
veloping it. At what period in the Dark Ages did the
officials of the Church discover that, in the degree in
which this condition could be realized, that which would
separate the people from the priest and elevate him
would be decreased, whereas that which would join the
priest to the people and elevate them would be increased !

242 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

It is interesting to trace the development of the con-
ception of the privilege and responsibility of the in-
dividual Christian. The Wesley ans seem to have been
the first, in our own country, to emphasize it strongly.
But, in doing this, they have been surpassed recently
by those enlisted in the Salvation Army. At first, in
both bodies, the conception of Christian work was
largely limited to that of exhorting. Many, however,
can not exhort to edification. Owing to the discovery
of this, perhaps, as much as to any other reason, there
has been developed the theory embodied in the Young
Men's and the Women's Christian Associations, as well
as in other allied and similar societies, namely, that any
method of increasing the comfort, the intelligence, and
the spirituality of an individual or a community is
directly Christian in effect. In fact, there has been
developed the theory that, as the Church is a collection
of the followers of the Christ, all services are appropri-
ate for it which represent a ministering to humanity
according to any of the methods of the Christ. He
spent his time on earth not only in teaching, preaching,
and praying, but (Acts 10; 38) in going " about and
doing good," and in such ways that, after he had passed
through a province, it might be said (Luke 7; 22) that
"the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear." All this kind of work was done, too,
by one who, according to his own testimony (Luke
7; 34), came "eating and drinking," so that men said,
"Behold a gluttonous man, a wine-bibber, a friend of

THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE CHURCH 243

publicans and sinners." It is the general principle un-
derlying the methods of the Christ, as indicated in such
passages, that has gradually led men to consider it a part
of the work of the Church not only to establish hospitals
for the sick and the unfortunate, and institutions for the
education of the young, the blind, and the deaf, but,
through all possible efforts in other directions also, to
seek to diffuse knowledge which shall prevent and cure
disease and suffering, and increase human comfort and
welfare, whether manifested in spirit, mind, or body;
and to do all these not in a super-spiritual, ultra-
sanctified, unnatural way, causing men to rank the
Christian with those who are not in real sympathy
with the interests and pleasures of the world, but in a
way following the example set by the Christ and ful-
filling the conception exprest in his last prayer for his
disciples (John 17; 15), "I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep
them from the evil." It is a development from con-
siderations like these that has given rise, in late years,
to what is termed the institutional church — a church
containing many other rooms besides the main audience-
hall, in which rooms, during almost every hour of every
day of the week, individuals and classes can meet for
instruction and entertainment, domestic, social, intel-
lectual, and physical, as well as for what in the past
has been termed religious. But, as yet, this conception
of the institutional church is hardly out of its infancy.
Men are supposed to be sufficiently loyal members of

244 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

such a church who merely support it with contributions
of money. But there is a better way of doing this, and
it must be found before the Christian can be brought
fully into such sympathy with the work of the Christ as
to possess that "joy" of which he spoke in the passage
quoted a moment ago. This way will be found when
each man has come to perceive it to be his privilege, as
well as his duty, to spend a part — say a Sabbath part, a
seventh — of his time and effort in the service of those
from whom he can expect no return. This service may
be rendered within or without a church-building, which,
like the Church itself, is merely a means to an end ; and
it will usually be rendered most effectively in the di-
rection in which the one who renders it is most of an
expert. A teacher can instruct, a scientist can en-
lighten, an actor can represent, a singer can charm,
a capitalist can subsidize, a banker can finance, a
servant can attend, a clerk can assist. A housewife, a
cook, a milliner — any one who wishes — can find some-
thing to do in adding to the information, the skill, the
inspiration, the uplifting of the lives of those who, as
related to that of which they themselves have made a
specialty, may be supposed to be below their level.

And what about association, it may be asked, with
the poor and the degraded? — where filth reeks and
malignant germs are rampant? The cleanly and the
cautious will have to guard against these, and run their
risks, just as soldiers do on battle-fields. But let us
hope that, before many years, the most illiterate and

77/7? CHURCH FOR HUMANITY 24o

lowly will attain such intelligence and thrift as to
tolerate neither mire nor microbes, and even the
capitalist, whom, by the way, we may always expect
to have with us so long as human ability is able to
triumph over lack of it, will not care to refuse to con-
tribute toward fresh clothes for those who lack them,
or toward a method of cleansing for those who have
them. When that time comes, no one will any longer
recognize the sarcasm in the Chinese story of the
laboring man who, when a finely drest acquaintance
had sought to snub him by not recognizing him on the
street, prostrated himself, and rendered thanks to the
man for having purchased and worn that elaborate and
heavy suit of ivory that others might have a chance of
gazing upon a spectacle of such unparalleled splendor;
both rich and poor will learn, at last, that, at least,
half the pleasure of life consists in having pleasurable
surroundings; they will learn to give from what they
themselves possess in order to increase the intelligence,
the purity, the beauty, the elevation, the spirituality
of their own environment. When this time comes, the
Hebrew, the Buddhist, the Mohammedan, and all the
others whom the Church is so anxious to convert to
Christianity will scarcely need to be converted; they
will be unable not to perceive, on every side of them,
the proofs of the benefit which the world has received
from it. These proofs will be afforded not because of
any outside absolution or discipline traceable merely
to a pope, a bishop, a priest, or a presbyter; but be-

246 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

cause of the example of private Christians who (1 Cor.
4; 2) "have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness . . . but, by manifestation of
the truth," commend themselves "to every man's con-
science" ; who have (Matt. 5; 16) "let their light so shine
before men" that others, seeing their "good works,"
have been led "to glorify their father which is in heav-
en," and who, as confest followers of the Christ, have
so manifested the character and aims of him whom
they follow as to lead the world to recognize in him the
ideal of all men, or, as declared in Hag. 2; 7, "the de-
sire of all nations."

Sufficient has been said to indicate that the theories
advanced in this book are not due to any lack of ap-
preciation of the importance and influence of the
Church. They are due to the fact that the author is
unable to discover in what way many of the present
methods of certain churches can have the effects upon
opinion, worship, and conduct which not one, but every
church should consider desirable. It seems to him,
too, that these effects might all become possible were
all the requirements for the member of the Church
unmistakably related to a single and simple declara-
tion of a purpose to heed the call of the Christ when
he said "Follow me." No individualistic tendency of
thought, feeling, or action could prevent any man from
entering into the service of the Spirit for the good of
humanity; and no one, once sincerely enlisted in such
a service, could go far astray in any way.

CHAPTER XI

CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE AND CONDUCT AS AFFECTED BY
CONSIDERING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Important to Consider the Church's Influence Upon the Individual —
Supposed Origin of Subconscious Tendencies— The Important Mat-
ter Is to Recognize That They Exist, and Are Often Antagonistic
— The Antagonism Is Caused by a Consciousness, Which We Term
Conscience, That One Tendency Has Superior Claims to Another —
The Nature and Function of Conscience— Its Promptings from the
Subconscious Different in Different Minds — Character of the In-
fluence from the Subconscious to Some Extent Under One's Control
—The Result of Environment and Habit— The Influence of Con-
scious Repetition — The Influence of Rituals and Rites — Overbal-
anced by the Influence of Example— Reasons for This— Futility of
Confining Efforts for Reformation of Character to Effects Merely
Addressing the Eye or Ear — Influence of Example Upon the Sub-
conscious Mind.

If from the preceding discussion certain inferences
may be drawn with reference to the methods best fitted
to advance the purposes of the Church, still more im-
portant inferences may be drawn with reference to
those best fitted to advance the interests of the indi-
vidual. To these methods some references have neces-
sarily been made when considering the work of the
Church. But more remains to be said. According to
the theory that has been presented, the Church is one,
and only one, of many means of attaining the end for
which it, together with other agencies, is designed.
This end is the right development, and, so far as pos-
sible, the perfecting of the character of the individual.

247

248 THE PSYCH OL OGY OF IN8PIRA TION

In view of this object, a consideration of what this
right development needs is as important in order to
confirm what has been said hitherto as it is on its own
account.

In order to ascertain, if possible, exactly what that
is for which we are in search, let us recall the line of
thought presented between pages 55 and 106 of this
volume. Emphasis was there given to one fact which
no one who has made a study of the human mind ever
disputes. This is the fact that, aside from the processes
of our minds of which we are aware, there are others, by
which we are more or less influenced, of which we are
not aware, except when, in fulfilment of certain mental
laws, their results emerge into consciousness. The ex-
planations of this fact differ. Some attribute the re-
sults to what has been stored in a man's memory during
his present life; or, when thus stored, has been developed
there through merely such methods as those of associa-
tion, imagination, or logic. Some think that a certain
reservoir, as it might be termed, of conceptions and
tendencies is inseparable from the physical constitu-
tions that we inherit from our ancestors. Some think
that such conceptions and tendencies, tho purely men-
tal in themselves, were developed in some physical
relationship of the mind in a previous state, which
mind, in its present state, is reincarnated; and, finally,
some think that such experiences come from a mental
or spiritual environment which enables the mere think-
ing of other intelligences to influence the mind almost

SUBCONSCIOUSNESS AND CONSCIENCE 249

to the same degree in which through the senses it is
influenced by persons or phenomena that can be seen
or heard.

Possibly all these explanations may contain some
truth. None of them can be proved to contain the
whole truth. The explanations, however, need not
concern us at present. No practical, not to say ra-
tional, man can expect to be influenced in a discussion
like this by any except proved facts. From only such
facts, therefore, will the conclusions that are to follow
be derived. These facts may all be summarized in one,
which is this — that whatever may be the source of sub-
conscious processes of mind, every man is, more or less,
influenced by them. Not merely a child, but every
grown person, does many things for no more conscious
reason than that he wants to do them. Some of these
wants are connected with bodily appetite, as when one
wishes to eat or to drink, and we may ascribe the effect
to the craving of the physical nature. But other wants
are, just as clearly, not connected with bodily appetite,
as when a child seeks to satisfy his curiosity by obtain-
ing knowledge, or his fancy by hearing a fairy tale.
In the latter cases, we are obliged to attribute the result
to a craving of his mental nature. If this were all that
could be said, we might not be justified in inferring
that there was any mental process preceding the cra-
ving. But let us consider the facts further. There are
cases in which the physical craving and the mental, of
both of which we are conscious, are clearly antago-

250 THE PS YCIIOL OGY OF 1N8PIRA TION

nistic. For instance, a child or a savage who discovers
others eating, and snatches their food from them,
especially if he injure or kill them in order to do this,
is, according to almost all well-authenticated testi-
mony, conscious of, at least, some slight feeling tending
to deter him from his deed. The feeling might be sup-
posed to be experienced merely because the physical
were manifesting interference with the mental ; because,
to satisfy a desire for food, a man were disregarding his
desire for fellowship, or, at least, for continued good
fellowship, and were exciting enmity and danger to
himself. Undoubtedly, all these have something to
do with the feeling; and they indicate that there is a
mental process in connection with it. But while one
or the other of them may explain the particular situa-
tion indicated, they fail to bring clearly to the light the
general principle underlying all possible situations.

This principle seems to be connected with the fact
that the antagonistic impulse is felt whenever any
appetite or desire whatever — whether of body or of
mind, or whether by way of causing mere negative re-
luctance or positive fear — interferes with another desire
which appears to have claims superior to its own.
Exactly what the superior or higher desire is may not
always be clearly distinguishable; but the general fact
that it exists is distinguishable, and, in connection
with the fact, the antagonism that is occasioned. It
is to the consciousness of this antagonism that we
ascribe what we term " conscience." In itself con-

CONSCIENCE AND RATIONALITY 251

science seems to be a feeling existing anterior to any
recognition, on our part, of any mental process pre-
ceding it. And yet a study of conscience finds its
dictates so often rational that we seem obliged to as-
sociate them with the results of rational processes,
though, usually, with processes that have taken place
in our minds subconsciously in the sense that we our-
selves were not conscious of them. We seem obliged
to do this the more because, among the considerations
contributing to the results, we can often detect con-
ceptions known to have been stored in memory from
experiences through which we ourselves have passed.
Indeed, very few thinking men, no matter how un-
premeditatedly and apparently instinctively conscience
has impelled them to a certain course, will fail, when
questioned, to give what they term their conscientious
reasons for pursuing this course.

Conscience, therefore, seems to be a regulative faculty
intended to control conscious mental action; but to be
itself more or less subject to the control of subconscious
mental action. So far as it is a regulative faculty, it
apparently bears somewhat the same relation to pro-
posed action as that which is borne by the instinct of
self-preservation. When this latter instinct keeps a
man from becoming intoxicated by liquor, or from
jumping off a high precipice, the sensations that he
feels are almost identical with those attributed to con-
science in cases where this latter keeps him from steal-
ing or from killing. Desires, lower or higher, seem to

252 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

be necessarily attendant upon lower or higher possi-
bilities, and wherever both exist a regulative principle
seems necessary in order to subject the former to the
latter. When the desire for self-preservation keeps a
man physically safe we attribute the result to his
rationality. Can we attribute to the same the result
when his conscience keeps him not only physically but,
sometimes, mentally and spiritually safe? In other
words, if one experience a similar sensation when
rationality is trying to keep him from physical ruin,
and also when conscience is trying to keep him from
moral ruin, can we not conclude that, in some regards,
the two are similar? Yet everybody knows that they
are not similar in all regards. Few would say that,
as ordinarily interpreted, rationality and conscientious-
ness are the same. In what regard then do they differ?
The answer has already been suggested. The feeling
experienced in conscience is connected with rationality
only so far as it may be the result of subconscious
processes of logic not manifesting themselves until the
moment when they emerge into consciousness. The
feeling experienced in rationality is the result of con-
scious processes of logic. A man can not be what we
term conscientious without obeying his subconscious,
which, as has been shown, is allied, at least, to his
spiritual and moral nature. He may be rational, often
so, as applied to certain questions, in the highest sense,
without being influenced in the least from the subcon-
scious, spiritual, or moral nature. At the same time, a

CONSCIENCE AND THE SPIRITUAL 253

mind that is rational in the broadest meaning of that
term — i.e., accustomed to weigh candidly and justly
all the reasons presented from every quarter — will not
disregard the results of subconscious logic reported in
conscience, any more than those of conscious logic
recognized in the inferences of what is ordinarily termed
reasoning. In all time, men seem to have accepted
without questioning the impulses of conscience, as if
intended, in some mysterious way, to register the
opinion of the spiritual nature with reference to the
spiritual quality of thought or action. What a con-
firmation of the truth of this conception is afforded by
a clear recognition of the connection between the sub-
conscious and the spiritual, as well as between what we
term the promptings of conscience and the emergence
into consciousness of the results of subconscious rational
logic? Is there not the best of reasons why it should be
admitted, ns it usually is, that a man can not be re-
ligious without being conscientious? That he serves
his conscience (2 Cor. 1 ; 12) furnishes the best possible
proof that he walks according to his inward light
(John 1 ; 9) ; that he is loyal to the kingdom of God as
indicated by the laws that are written upon the
heart (Heb. 8; 10).

But there is something else to be said in connection
with conscience. As has been shown, it is always more
or less subject to the control of subconscious mentality.
This explains why the impulses of conscience, while
inclining each to that which appears to him to be in

254 THE PSYCH OL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

accordance with the highest desire, or to be, as we say,
for the best, by no means incline each to think or to
act in the same way. They may incline a savage to eat,
a Moor to enslave, and an American to educate his
captive. No more conscientious men have ever lived
than some who appear to most of the enlightened
people of our own time to have been mere supersti-
tious bigots, malicious fanatics, or persecuting tyrants.
These facts must be owing to different conditions in
subconsciousness to which, or, at least, through which,
the particular form of action to which conscience dic-
tates is traceable. As intimated on page 248, it mat-
ters little practically what theory we adopt with refer-
ence to that which occasions these conditions, whether
we derive them from heredity, from previous existence,
or from spiritual or mental environment. We can not
now change our ancestors or our past, nor be certain
of the right way in which to avoid the possible influence
of spirits whom we can not see or hear.

But according to any theory, there is, at least, one
source of these conditions over which we can exercise
control. This source is the present world in which we
live. All the companionships, the customs, the opin-
ions, the events with which our minds consciously come
in contact, assist in forming within us such habits of
thought, of feeling, of action; or, if not so, in filling our
minds with such conceptions as, when recalled to
memory, in accordance with the laws of association,
shall determine the courses to which conscience impels

CONSCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT 255

us. This latter, indeed, seems to be, in fact as well as
in figure, an inward light enabling us to see the out-
lines of each present emergency merely or mainly as
they appear against a background of our own past
experience.

The fact, thus indicated, will be recognized to be of
great importance. If every slightest record made on
the mind through eye or ear remain there forever, as
seems to be suggested by what was brought out on
pages 57 to 63, how essential it is that, from the
moment that a child begins to observe to the very end
of his life, his mind should be kept from seeing or hear-
ing that which, in any way, tends to lower his concep-
tions of such methods of thought or action as are worthy
of himself or just toward his fellows! There are those
who think it one of the objects of worldly existence to
build up a spiritual environment, a heavenly mansion
and estate, as it were, in which the soul shall dwell
after passing out of this material existence. The truth
of such a theory may not be possible to determine, but,
by analogy, we can perceive that it is not contrary to
reason. Even in present life men become that for which
their previous experience has fitted them. Unless
brought face to face with facts that evince the con-
trary, to those who have been thoughtful, all sur-
roundings seem suggestive of thought; to those who
have been cruel, all seem suggestive of cruelty; to those
who have been pure, all seem suggestive of purity. If
there be any existence after death, it must be mental

256 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

rather than material ; and, so far as that which is mate-
rial is left behind, whatever remains is that which during
earthly experience has come, as we say, to occupy the
mind. The inferences from these facts with reference
to the importance of surrounding our children, as well
as all the uninstructed and the unfortunate, with right
influences, practical and theoretical, and of ourselves
holding aloof from association with all that is evil, are
obvious.*

*It has been ascertained that every influence with which we come in con-
tact has a suggestive effect, which, without any effort or encouragement on the
part of the subject of it, may develop in his mind very much as does a seed
when it sends up from the ground a plant; moreover, that those promptings so
necessary to moral character, which we attribute to instincts, ideals, or con-
science, are all affected in strength and quality by the results in unconscious
logic and imagination which are thus evolved. When, therefore, we are allow-
ing the minds, especially of the young and susceptible, to be filled with interest
in the methods of crime, and with descriptions or pictures of its accomplish-
ment, we are necessarily imperiling that which lies at the basis of conduct, that
which keeps ideals high and conscience firm; we are weighing down and handi-
capping the spirit itself in its efforts to get through life cleanly and honestly,
and we are increasing very greatly its liability to fail in the struggle. At times,
when people are shocked by what seems clearly indecent, they are ready to pro-
test against the publication of certain proceedings in court or performances in
theaters. But sensible people ought to think even when not shocked. Did
they do so with reference to this subject, they would recognize that their pro-
test is applicable to the publication of the portrayal of the details of any crime
whatever — of swindling, blackmailing, burglary, arson, suicide, or murder, as
well as of seduction or adultery. In our country, we believe in the freedom of
the press; but, as rational creatures, only because of reasons — only as means to
an end; only to preserve our civil, social, or religious rights; to keep our people
from being despoiled of money, comfort, liberty, or other possessions or preroga-
tives of manhood. But whenever the freedom of the press, so beneficial in some
regards, tends to destroy the people's rights, especially the rights of the young
to be permitted to preserve unimpaired their standards of ideality and con-
science, and the possession of all that strengthens one for the possibilities and
triumphs of upright conduct, not to say of spiritual life, then the freedom of the
press should be restricted. No details of crime of any kind should be allowed
to be published as a part of the mere entertainment furnished by an ordinary
newspaper. If the printing of them be necessary in order to secure the ends of
justice, they should be confined, at least, to official court journals. . . . Pub-
lishers whose greed is so ravenous that it is allowed to outweigh care for the
welfare of their own children can never be expected to be influenced by such a

CONSCIENCE AND RESPONSIBILITY 257

No one can fail to recognize, however, that upon vast
numbers no amount of care with reference to these
matters can have much practical effect. Thousands
of children are born into families, thousands of men are
forced into occupations, where all environments are
almost wholly vicious. What then? Is their condi-
tion hopeless? Presumably not. Probably no spirit's
condition is hopeless except as a result of a conscious
cultivation of that which is known to be wrong. That
this is so seems to be a logical inference from another
fact not yet indicated. The fact is this — that, altho
the mind may keep stored in its subconscious region
everything with which it has come in contact (page
58), it chiefly uses for immediate practical guidance
such thoughts or experiences only as by repetition it
has accustomed itself to use. A man who has merely
read once a treatise on chemistry will seldom recall its
teachings. But if he have studied the treatise often,
and confirmed its deductions by experiments in the
laboratory, he may make its principles and expositions
regulative of almost every thought and feeling of his
life. A man who has merely been told of the methods
of representing notes in printed music, and on the keys
of a piano, will seldom recall what he has heard, but if
he have practised on a piano for four or five hours a
day for years, he will have acquired, as a lifelong

minor consideration as the welfare of the community at large. The community
must compel them to recognize its claims through legal enactments. — Extract
from an article by the author on " The Need of Legislation to Prevent the Portrayal
of the Details of Crime,"

258 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

possession, certain characteristics of thought and action
which pertain to only a musician. It is not merely the
fact, therefore, of having an evil environment, and, for
that matter, an evil psychical or physical inheritance,
that determines for evil one's material or spiritual
future. This is determined also by the fact of having
yielded to the influence of the environment, of having
repeated in thought and practised in deed the evil that
was in the environment. Many a person, amid the
worst surroundings, has not done this. These have
seemed to arouse in him merely a repugnance against
the evil. He has followed his conscience, at first, per-
haps, only blindly, but, nevertheless, gradually, to-
ward a place of comparative elevation and enlighten-
ment. It is the duty of home, society, and church to
recognize these facts, and to aim their efforts in such
ways as to incite men to the repetition of that which
shall cultivate habits of the highest quality.

Now how shall the cultivation of these, so far as
they are religious, be brought about? It is natural for
some to suppose and argue that this can be best done
through a repetition of the doctrines and practises of the
Church as exprest in its various rituals and ordinances.
That these have some influence in the desired direction
is undeniable; but it would be easy to show that this
influence does not always follow from them necessarily,
as well as to show that, when it does follow, it is owing
to something else than themselves. Many a man who
hears the dogmas of the Church repeated every Sunday

CONSCIENCE AND THE CHURCH 259

fails entirely to accept them in any such way as to
cause them to become regulative principles of his
thoughts; and many a devotee who joins, every time
that he has an opportunity, in certain formal cere-
monials of his church does not give the slightest evi-
dence of being controlled in the bargainings of business
life by the Spirit that was in the Christ.

Nevertheless, in some cases, all must acknowledge
that these methods of the churches do appear effective.
An apparent cause, however, is not necessarily an actual
cause. Very much of the upright life which, in en-
lightened countries, the Church attributes to nothing
aside from its own methods, may be found manifesting
itself, in an equally efficient manner, in a country with
a church pursuing entirely different methods. There
is as much upright life in Norway or Scotland as in
Greece or Spain. This would not be the case, if up-
rightness depended upon the methods of any particular
church. If not upon the methods, then the result,
wherever it exists, must depend upon something that
can accompany different methods. What is this?
What is invariably present wherever any methods of
the Church tend to produce uprightness of character?
There is but one answer, and everybody whose mind
is unbiased will admit it. That which invariably tends
to produce uprightness of character among people in
general is uprightness of character manifested by those
who influence them. The methods of any church ele-
vate the masses in the degree in which the teachers,

260 THE PSYCffOL OGY OF INSP2RA TION

preachers, and members of that church are persons of
exceptionally elevated character. If not; if, for in-
stance, the words of an official of a church profess re-
gard and consideration for his fellows, and, at the same
time, his actions show disregard and lack of considera-
tion, the people to whom he ministers are far more apt
to accept the lesson taught by his secular example than
by his ecclesiastical professions. Often, in such a case,
the only thing on their part that can save their minds
from an entirely erroneous, and, if the subject pre-
sented concern religion, an irreligious, inference is an
exercise of rationality sufficient to perceive the logical
incongruity between words and deeds; and to ascribe
the wrong practise not to a wrong theory, but to a fail-
ure to join theory and practise together — a fact which
furnishes one more proof of the importance, when con-
sidering the interests of even a very ritualistic church,
of having the mind trained to act rationally. Here, as
in other conditions already indicated, it is essential to
recognize that rational action is to the spirit what self-
defense is to the body.

The overbalancing effect of example as contrasted
with profession is popularly recognized in the maxim
that " actions speak louder than words." Every maxim
of this kind has usually underlying it the results not only
of practical experience, but of philosophic reasoning.
The latter in this case clearly connects what has just
been said with the general conception of spiritual in-
fluence already so many times presented. We have

EXAMPLE AND PROFESSION 261

found, as a result of noticing the condition of a patient
in a case of hypnotism, trance, or fever, that the mind
subconsciously receives impressions in ways that ac-
cord with such methods as are attributable to mind-
reading, whereas consciousness receives them through
the eye or ear. It follows, therefore, that, if a man
think or feel one thing and say another, his thoughts
or feelings may influence his audience through sub-
consciousness in one direction, while, at the same time,
his words may influence them through consciousness in
another direction. It has been shown, too, in this
chapter that the influence through subconsciousness is
that of the two which has the more determining effect
upon conscience and presumably by consequence upon
character. The conclusion is inevitable, therefore,
that, if a man while preaching love think hate — i.e., if
he be malicious or self-seeking in his methods of dealing
with his fellows, then it is these tendencies which chiefly
influence those who hear him, tho, at the same time,
they apparently accept his words as true. There have
been few times and places in Europe, during almost
twenty centuries, in which preachers have not pro-
claimed the love of the Christ and the importance of
regulating life according to the principles of the golden
rule. Yet, during the majority of these centuries,
those to whom their preaching was addrest have never
dreamed of attempting to apply what has been heard
by the ear to existing conditions as manifested in tyr-
anny and cruelty. Even amid the boasted enlighten-

262 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

ment of our own day, how few are the minds in which
the precepts of the Gospel have taken such deep sub-
conscious lodgment that they really exert a controlling
influence upon the dictates of conscience! All these
conditions become intelligible the moment that we
apprehend that it is the inner thoughts and feelings,
often the unconscious motives of a man, rather than
his profest opinions, that he is the more likely to com-
municate to those about him.

This being so, how futile to accomplish any effective
reformation or elevation of character are any kinds or
methods of rituals or rites designed to address the mind
through only the ear or eye! Their partial influence no
one can deny; but to suppose that "they can be effect-
ive irrespective of the character of him who admin-
isters or of those who administer them — which accords
with one of the doctrines of the unreformed churches—
or that by whomever administered they are essential,
is to manifest ignorance and disregard not only of the
character, but of the existence of the subconscious
spiritual nature. No wonder that the prophets even
of Israel should have declared concerning such a con-
ception: (1 Sam. 15; 22), "Hath the Lord as great de-
light in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the
voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than
sacrifice"; (Ps. 4; 5), "Offer the sacrifices of righteous-
ness;" and (Prov. 21; 3), "To do justice and judgment
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." In the
New Testament, too, we read (Heb. 10; 11), "And every

IMITATION OF THE CHRIST 263

priest standeth daily ministering and offering the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sin"; (Heb. 13;
16), "But to do good and to communicate forget not;
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased"; (1 Cor.
1; 14), "I thank God that I baptized none of you but
Crispus and Gaius." (V. 17), "For Christ sent me not
to baptize but to preach the Gospel ; not with the wis-
dom of words"; (2; 7), "but we speak the wisdom of
God"; (2; 16), "We have the mind of Christ," and
(11; 1), "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of
Christ."

For the conception of Christian influence exprest in
this last quotation, the whole trend of thought in the
present chapter has been preparing us. The call most
frequently upon the lips of the Christ was "Follow me."
A profound knowledge of human nature and of its needs
underlay it. All his most efficient disciples, ever since,
have repeated it, either explicitly or implicitly. So
far as they have influenced the world for good, they
have never done this merely or mainly by causing men
to accept certain dogmas or rites. To accept or prac-
tise these, and to form habits of doing so, may aid in
the culture of conduct, but infinitely less than does
that which every church, at times, supplies, namely,
association with those of pure and elevated personal
character. These, like the great Master whom they
follow, draw men into kindred discipleship, because,
in the depths of the subconscious nature, they subtly
incline to the constant practise of righteousness that

264 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRA TTON

most powerful of all human reformatory agencies — the
spirit of imitation. All the reasons, however, why this
is so can not be presented except in connection with
what is to be discust in the chapter following.

CHAPTER XII

CHRISTIAN FAITH AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDERING
SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Suggestion Influences One Differently When in a Conscious and in a
Subconscious State— In Either State, He Surrenders Control of His
Subconscious Mentality to One Alone in Whom He Has Confidence
—Importance of Noticing This Influence of Personality— Its Rela-
tion to Christian Faith and Conversion — To Preaching and Re-
vivals—Faith Not Peculiar to Christianity— Nature of Christian
Faith— Faithfulness and Fidelity Essential to It— But Not Perfec-
tion of Character — Faith as Influenced by the Agencies Employed
by the Church, as in Formulation— Error Necessarily Introduced
Into This — Two Illustrations — Influence of Church Authority —
Influence Upon Faith of the Historic Christ— How Faith Necessi-
tates Freedom of Mental Action — Scriptural Warrant for This.

Christians, as a rule, while admitting that Chris-
tianity should influence conscience and conduct, claim
that it should be expected to do this only indirectly,
through first influencing faith. They quote the pas-
sage from Hab. 2; 4, so often repeated in the New
Testament, "The just shall live by faith," and ask how
can one live, or be saved by this, unless the reasons for
having it have been made known to him? And what
are such influences as are exerted by the dogmas and
other agencies of the Church, except methods causing
these reasons to be known? In answer, it must be
admitted that faith — rational faith which only becomes
a rational man — can not be awakened without reasons;
but it need not be admitted that the most effective

265

266 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

reasons for having faith can be afforded by such meth-
ods as those indicated. Let us notice in this chapter
why, in accordance with the conceptions already pre-
sented, this need not be admitted.

According to these conceptions, there are, in certain
cases, tendencies of the mind coming from its inner
region of subconsciousness which dominate its conscious
thought and action. These tendencies, so far as they
may be due to the agency of other minds, seem to re-
sult from suggestions which may be given by either
very explicit and emphatic statements and examples,
or by the contrary. The suggestions, after being re-
ceived by the mind, are developed in it by subconscious
processes until in some men they become so powerful
as to influence all habitual opinions and practises.
The development may take place while consciousness
is inactive, as, occasionally, in fever, hypnotism, and
trance, or while it is active. If inactive, it may exert
no perceptible influence over the suggestion. If active,
the exercise of conscious discrimination, as indicated
on page 152, may assist both in determining the form
of the suggestion when received and in developing it.
In both cases, however, so far as can be ascertained,
subconscious intellection manifests the same method.
It accepts the suggestion, and develops it, according to
laws determining its own inward processes. The ac-
ceptance of the suggestion, in the case of fever, hypno-
tism, or trance, is due to a surrender or waiving of in-
fluence on the part of the conscious mind — in fever,

SUBCONSCIOUSNESS AND SUGGESTION 267

because there is too much weakness to resist and not
surrender; and in hypnotism and trance, because there
is no strong wish to do otherwise. This is proved by
the fact that some men can not be hypnotized, and
comparatively few can go into a trance. By many,
therefore, the methods used in order to make one lose
his consciousness can be successfully resisted. But
even where there is no loss of consciousness, where the
mind apparently remains in a normal state, the sug-
gestion that controls the subconscious processes may
be due to a surrender analogous in kind tho much less
complete in degree. Instances of this form of surrender
many of us can recall from our own experience. We
have said things and done things different from what
not only our conscious reason and judgment, but our
better inclination would approve; and all this ap-
parently because some one, in some mysterious and
occult way, has influenced us through suggestions given
to our subconscious nature.

Now in what circumstances do our minds make
either a complete or a partial surrender of conscious
self-control? Almost invariably, so far as can be ascer-
tained, it is when another person so affects us that we
are willing to be controlled by his suggestion; in other
words, when we have sufficient confidence, or, as used
in a broad sense, faith in him for the kind of control
that in the circumstances his suggestion needs to exer-
cise. This can be affirmed even of cases in which a
man — as, for instance, one who goes into a professional

268 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

trance — may be supposed to hypnotize himself. His
own personal will then causes him to surrender his own
conscious to his own subconscious nature. Usually,
however, he surrenders to some one else — a spiritist
medium to the person who comes to consult him, a
hypnotic patient to a hypnotizer; and when the in-
fluence is exerted in connection with continued con-
sciousness, as in the sphere of society, politics, or re-
ligion— when the surrender is made to some lover,
pleader, or exhorter — it stands to reason, in all such
cases, that a man surrenders to some one in whom, for
some cause, he has confidence. In a case of hypnotism
the result is expected to be merely temporary and
comparatively unimportant. Therefore the mind in-
fluenced need have confidence in merely the skill and
professional honesty of the operator. In other cases,
as in that of religion, the result is represented, and often
expected, to be of permanent and profound importance.
Therefore the mind, before it can yield to the influence,
needs to have the greatest possible confidence in the
one to whom the surrender is expected to be made.
This fact becomes more apparent in view of that which
has already been pointed out as the most noteworthy
difference between the conditions in the methods allied
to hypnotism and those allied to religion, namely, the
fact that, in the former, the conscious mind allows
itself to do nothing, sometimes not enough to remain
aware of its own identity; whereas, in the other state,
the mind remains in the highest degree alert, the same

FAITH IN SELF AND FORMS 269

principle applying here as in inspiration, as explained
on pages 92 to 96. Even in that ecstatic condition
in which, as in the frenzy of fanaticism, the conscious
reason seems to be paralyzed, it is, nevertheless, very
wide-awake, as compared with the slumber which char-
acterizes— sometimes, but not always — the subject of
hypnotism.

Extremely important for us to notice here is the
connection between the action of the mind, when sub-
consciously receiving or developing suggestions, and
the influence upon this mind of personality. As has
been said, this personality may be one's own. A man
may hypnotize himself; or, without doing this con-
sciously, he may do it in effect by surrendering the
whole drift of his thought to his own inner instincts
and impulses. Thus Milton, Wordsworth, and Napo-
leon, at a time when no outside person recognized that
for which they were fitted, are said to have had faith
in themselves. Usually, however, that which awakens
faith is some other one's personality. Occasionally,
this statement may seem disputable. But even then,
as when one's faith is awakened by a book, it is a ques-
tion whether he is not influenced really by the person-
ality behind the book. As for effects produced by the
dogmas and ordinances of the Church, it might be
argued that it is less these than the personality of
parents who accept them that influences the faith of
children, as well as that it is the individual or collect-
ive personality of those who administer or attend the

270 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSP1RA TION

services that influences the faith of others. At any
rate, no one can deny that such is mainly the case.
There may be differences, too, in the quality and quan-
tity of the suggestions that prove influential. Mere
words may have a certain effect. A man may hypno-
tize himself, as it were, by repeating a prayer, as in
incantation. A priest may hypnotize him by waving
in front of his eyes a crucifix or the eucharist; but, even
in the latter case, the influence of the personal char-
acter of the priest, as shown in the preceding chapter,
may be very much greater than that of the mere mate-
rial symbol which is used.

For these reasons, when we are searching for that
which is best fitted to influence religious faith, we
should not be satisfied with anything that fails to
present the most exalted conception of religious per-
sonality. It is only in the degree in which the sug-
gestion of this is wholly what it should be that the faith
which is awakened can exert a wholly regenerating in-
fluence. Why this is so is easy to explain. When
men have sufficient confidence in another to surrender
their subconscious mentality to his suggestions, they
can not do otherwise than begin to imitate his modes of
thinking, feeling, and acting. In other words, they can
not do otherwise than begin to develop logically the
suggestions which they have received from this person
with reference to either theory or conduct, their minds,
in these regards, acting in exact analogy to the way in
which a hypnotized man accepts and fulfills the sug-

FAITH IN PERSONALITY 271

gestions of the hypnotizer (see page 116). As indi-
cated already on page 120, the story of the conversion
of the thief upon the cross beside that of Jesus (Luke
23; 40-43) corresponds entirely to what might be in-
ferred from a knowledge of the methods through which
the human mind must be influenced — in case there
be any such thing as a subconscious spiritual nature,
or a religious effect produced upon it. The thief
might have profest to believe in the Christ, and not
done so. But, in case that which he had seen and
heard had really convinced him of the supreme, and,
for this reason, divine quality of the Spirit that was in
the Christ, from that moment the acceptance of this
fact with the new premise from which all his mental
subconscious processes were to be developed, would
have been enough to change his entire conceptions of
life and of its obligations. If from that time forward
he had really believed the love manifested by the Christ
to be the sovereign principle ruling in heaven, and
himself to have been called to be a citizen of that
heaven, there is no psychological reason why this
premise and the endeavor in his own experience to
carry it out logically should not have made him in
spirit and, so far as possible with his physical frailties,
in earthly relations also, a citizen of the heavenly
kingdom.

There may be sound philosophy, therefore, in the
theory that true religious life may be traceable to faith
awakened by preaching, or by other agencies used in

272 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

the Church. But we must not forget the overbalancing
influence also of the preacher, or officiator. As for the
preaching, it seems to be in accordance with one of the
most indisputable of nature's laws, that a man, through
the workings of subconscious mental or spiritual proc-
esses, should become that which he is told that he may
become. There may be much truth, too, in the theory
that religious life may result from a very sudden con-
version. It may be true besides this, inasmuch as the
subconscious nature is influenced by suggestion im-
parted in connection with examples unconsciously set
by individuals still more than by their conscious words
and deeds (see page 261), that this sudden conversion
may often take place in connection with a general
movement such as is termed a revival, in which vast
multitudes are simultaneously prompted to recognize
their religious obligations. It is a mistake, however,
to suppose that revivals are peculiar to a few favored
sects of Christians, or even to Christianity. All human
communities accepting any possible form of religion—
from North American Indians to Arabian Mohamme-
dans— have, at different times, become subject to these
phenomena. Wherever the revivals have occurred,
too, the overflow in the mind of influence from the
subconscious and the consequent whelming, to some
extent, of the conscious, with its necessarily rational
control, has resulted in a certain amount of irrational,
and therefore deleterious, action. Even in the day of
Pentecost, Peter found it necessary to say (Acts 2; 15),

SCRIPTURAL FAITH 273

"These are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but
the third hour of the day." Both the generally bene-
ficial effect of these revivals, issuing in many a sudden
conversion, and their occasional excesses and injurious
effects are explicable according to the theories con-
necting the subconscious and the religious as advanced
in this book.

The same theories enable us to recognize that faith,
too, is not peculiar, as is sometimes supposed, to Chris-
tianity. Only the declaring of faith to be the guiding
religious principle is peculiar. As such, it is related to
the revelation of the Christ in much the same way as
induction as a philosophic principle is related to the
writings of Bacon. Induction had been practised for
centuries before the time of Bacon. What he did was
to recognize the fact, and emphasize the importance
of it. In a similar way, the Christ recognized and
emphasized the importance of faith.

Now, having noticed what is the source of faith, let
us consider, for a little, its nature. The Scriptures tell
us in Heb. 11; 1, that faith is "the evidence of things
not seen" — i.e., the evidence in consciousness, augmented
by all the comprehension of which the conscious mind
is capable, of an influence beyond or below the reach
of consciousness; of an influence which, tho manifested
in its results, is not in itself perceptible. At first
thought, the reader may be inclined to think that,
while there may be in faith evidences of impulses,
whims, ideals, hopes, that actuate some people, there

274 THE PSYCH OL OGY OF INSP1RA TION

is no evidence, as is now to be maintained, of what may
be termed the dominance of subconscious intellection
as the latter is described in Chapters III and IV. But
let him reflect a little. The Christ, in speaking in
Luke 15; 17, of the turning-point in the life of the
prodigal son, says that "he came to himself." This
is the exact language in which almost every one de-
scribes the way in which a man who has been insane^
intoxicated, or asleep gets out of this state into one that
is normal and rational. What the Christ evidently
meant was that at this time the prodigal came to a
consciousness of his own mind and life, especially in
their higher spiritual relations— to a consciousness^
therefore, of those promptings of the better subcon-
scious or spiritual self which ought to be supreme in
every rational being. It is because of bringing one to
a consciousness of these that conscience imparts a feel-
ing of obligation.

The fact alone of coming to consciousness in the
sense just indicated might not make a man of faith,
much less a man of Christian faith. Faith is deter-
mined not by the mere recognition, but by the enthrone-
ment of these inward promptings; and Christian faith
by the enthronement of the particular promptings to
which the Christ directed attention. At the same time,
a recognition of these promptings in any form must
tend to make one correct his conscious by his subcon-
scious intellection, and thus tend in the direction of
faith.

CHRISTIAN FAITH 275

Notice too that, as thus interpreted, faith is the
evidence of obedience to a controlling tendency di-
recting not merely toward opinion, but, as has already
been shown in other connections, toward practise; for
faith impels toward every direction in which a man can
exercise conscious intelligence. "Shew me thy faith
without thy works," says the Apostle, in James 2; 18,
"and I will shew thee my faith by my works." Ac-
cordingly, we may say that in connection with any
exercise of feeling, thought, or will faith involves a
condition of conscious dependence upon a subconscious
source of spiritual intelligence and guidance. Faith
includes in its range, therefore, not only mental assent
and belief, but also emotional and volitional acquies-
cence and loyalty; in fact, all that is indicated by the
terms faithfulness and fidelity.

Once more, it needs to be noticed that, even with
faithfulness and fidelity characterizing a man's faith,
these do not necessarily insure perfection of character.
A fanatic may have these, and be very far from being
perfect. This is so, in the first place, because of the
dependence of faith upon what one has already, through
experience and habit, stored in subconsciousness. The
faith itself may be genuine, and yet, working, as it
often does, on very imperfect material — the memories
and associations of some low form of life — its results
may be very imperfect. In the second place, the same
may be true because of the dependence of faith upon
the degree and kind of conscious intelligence through

276 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

which the promptings from the subconscious must be
outwardly exprest. It is impossible to suppose that
any of these when modified at all — and they are always
modified to some extent — can assume exactly the same
phase when passing through the conscious mind of the
educated and of the uneducated — that they will occasion
in both exactly the same thoughts or deeds. Here
again we may notice the analogy between the results
of faith and of what we term conscience. Conscience
impels a man toward that which he thinks ought to be
done; but, as pointed out in Chapter XI, exactly what
it is that ought to be done is, in each case, apparently
left to be decided by his own intelligence. A cannibal
may suppose that he ought to eat his enemies, but an
enlightened man that he ought to feed them. Now
why should not an analogous principle be fulfilled in
connection with all tendencies started in the subcon-
scious mind? And if so, what are we to conclude?
That they do not tend toward the right? Not at all-
only that, while they tend toward this, they do not
immediately attain it. Once more, genuine faith may
produce imperfect results, in the third place, because
of its dependence upon a man's ability, even when he
knows what should be done, to perform it. Faith,
however strong and earnest, can not make a man cease
to express his thoughts and feelings through his con-
scious mind and body, both comparatively weak, if not
wicked. But faith can turn his energies in the right
direction, and he can begin to walk by it, even tho

CREEDS AS INFLUENCING FAITH 277

he may not, for many a long day, walk very fast or far,
or without much stumbling.

What has been said of the source and nature of faith
will enable us to discuss intelligently that which was
mentioned in the opening paragraph of this chapter,
namely, the tracing of faith to the agencies employed
by the Church. For our present purpose, all these
agencies may be classed under two heads: first, those
connected with what may be termed the authoritative
formulation of opinions as exprest in dogmatic creeds
or rituals, the influence of which may be dissociated
from that of personality; and, second, those connected
with authoritative personality, tho, as means employed
by the Church, this may refer to the influence supposed
to be exerted by the public office or position of the
person rather than by his private character. Let us
begin by considering the influence of formulation aside
from personality. Of course, for reasons given on page
262, the mere fact of being exerted aside from person-
ality would tend to show that the effects upon faith of
this influence can not be the most powerful possible.
But this fact is to be considered under our next head.
At present, let us consider the effects of formulation in
itself. Doing so, we shall notice that its peculiarity is
this : it presents for the substance that is to be accepted
by what is termed faith that which is — not incidentally,
as would be true of all such influence, but necessarily—
a result of some mind's conscious action. Nothing can
be formulated in either creeds or rituals of which this

278 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

can not be said. They always embody some con-
clusion that certain men have reached as a result of
their own thinking; and it is this conclusion that fur-
nishes the premise, accepted through faith, from which
a mind according to methods indicated on page 147,
subconsciously develops its own thought and tendency
to action. This is the same as to say that formulation
aims to do for minds framed to work subconsciously a
large part, at least, of that work which may legitimately
be termed their own. Formulation seeks, so far as it
can, to prevent these minds from drawing their own
conclusions. It attempts to suppress and keep dor-
mant, in a large degree at least, that in a man which,
more nearly than anything else of which we know,
constitutes the essence of spiritual activity (see page
55). Thus it may be said that faith in creeds or rites
— if indeed it can be rightly termed faith — is inevitably
connected with a lack of faith in the human mind or
spirit; and, so, why not also in the Creator that made
this spirit what it is?

But more than this can be said against a phase of
faith awakened through the agency of formulation. It
is one thing, when influencing a man through faith, to
present to subconscious intellection for logical develop-
ment well-ascertained facts. It is another very different
thing to present for this certain inferences that men
have consciously drawn from these facts. The reason
for saying this is that these latter — the inferences-
are almost never any more than very partially true.

CREEDS AS INFLUENCING FAITH 279

They are influenced not alone by the premise from
which they have been deduced, and by its legitimate
unfoldment in subconsciousness (see page 152), but
also by many surrounding conditions that are seen or
heard during the time when the premise is in process
of unfoldment. Were we to tell a man, while in full
possession of his consciousness, to act like the Emperor
William, he might be so influenced by surrounding per-
sons and things and by his relations to them that, altho
a good mimic, his representation would be quite in-
complete, and, at the best, perhaps, appear like a
caricature. But were we to hypnotize him, and leave
the whole work to be done by subconscious mentality,
the imitation throughout would be as perfect as a per-
fect memory and power of personation could make it.
(see page 113). So if we try to make a man, while in
full possession of his consciousness, act out the princi-
ples of the golden rule, he will go to his place of busi-
ness, and perceive, in the real world about him, so
many circumstances and conditions almost necessarily
modifying the possibility of the exact fulfilment of this
rule that in little that he does can its regulative in-
fluence be recognized. But if we hypnotize him, and
leave the result to subconscious mentality, almost
everything that he appears to think or to wish will,
probably, be in complete accord with this rule's strict
application (see page 113). What dogmatism does
is to take inferences drawn by one mind consciously,
and therefore more or less erroneously, and make

280 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

these the premises from which another mind, so far as
allowed to work at all, must subconsciously draw its
conclusions. What must be the result? What but
error, error necessarily and inevitably?

This can be shown by noticing the influence of al-
most any doctrine of the Church. For the present;
two illustrations will suffice. Take the bread and wine
of the Lord's Supper, and what is said of them in the
Scriptures. If, on the one hand, these be presented
without any dogmatic inferences that men have drawn
from them and seek to enforce on others, subconscious
intellection, in most cases, will accept as a premise the
general suggestion of spiritual communion with a
spiritual Lord, and develop it logically in such a way as
not to interfere with the exercise of sufficient intel-
ligence to recognize that many other things besides
partaking of these elements are necessary in order to
bring one into full possession of all that there is in the
Christian life. But if, on the other hand, that which
the mind accepts as a premise be the dogma which men
have formulated as a result, not of inner subconscious
mental processes, but of outer considerations consciously
perceived, such as the supposed practical necessity of
making men think it absolutely essential to partake of
the elements — the dogma to the effect that the bread
and wine are transformed literally into the body and
blood of the Christ — then through the agency of faith
the resulting conception held in subconsciousness as a
guiding principle over the communicant's opinion and

FAITH NEEDS SUGGESTIVE TRUTH 281

conduct will be the conviction that he has taken into
his body for digestion a portion of the Lord's body;
and that this, of itself, without further effort on his
own part, will leaven the whole lump of his nature and
make it like his Lord's. Nor is this kind of influence
peculiar to a single church. In connection with dog-
mas very different from the one just mentioned, there
is often sung, especially in revival meetings, the fol-
lowing:

"Nothing either great or small

Remains for me to do ;
Jesus died and paid it all,
All the debt I owe."

Here again, if the dogmatic wording in this form be
not the premise presented to his mind, a man will
have no difficulty in recognizing that other considera-
tions are necessary in order to express the whole truth ;
and he will try to discern what this truth is, and let
it alone develop that which in his inner nature prompts
to opinion and conduct. But if his faith accept as the
premise to be developed by subconscious logic no more
than is formulated in these verses, he will be impelled
to the exact level of religious attainment, and no
higher, than the logical conclusion to be drawn from
the statement contained in them and from it alone.
The result will be an ideal of Christian life supposed to
be satisfied by an endeavor to do

"Nothing either great or small.

Now let us turn from the influence supposed by the
Church to be exerted upon faith by the formulation of

282 THE PSYCHOL 0 G Y OF INSPIRA TION

opinions as exprest in dogmatic creeds or rituals to that
supposed to be exerted by personality. As said before
on page 262, the Church usually is apt to connect this
influence with that exerted by official position rather
than by private character. How seldom is the priest
considered to be an exemplifier of a mode of life that all
men are expected to follow! Are there any who sup-
pose that his celibacy, or his costume, or many other
of his peculiarities are to be imitated by people in gen-
eral? Is it not true that, in almost all of his relations
to others, he appears mainly in the role of a dictator of
a mode of life to be led riot by himself, but by them?
Notice, however, that, according to the inferences log-
ically following upon the line of thought already pre-
sented, anything tending to separate him in appear-
ance or pursuits from those to whom he is supposed
to minister must tend to lessen his influence over their
spiritual natures. These are chiefly influenced, as shown
on page 270, by that which induces to imitation.
Anything therefore which can not be imitated, or even
expected to be imitated, is, owing to its very nature,
unfitted to influence the spirit in the highest degree
possible. It is strange that the unreformed churches
have never recognized, for instance, that the main rea-
son for such good as they have done has been traceable
less to the dictation and domineering of their higher
clergy, who have stood apart from the masses, than to
the pale faces of their priests and nuns, who, not-
withstanding a garb that has tended somewhat in the

FA TTH IN THE CHRIST 283

other direction, have, nevertheless, made themselves one
with the people, and seemed to spend their lives in
going about among them and "doing good" (Acts 10;
38). It is still more strange that these churches have
never recognized to what extent their ignoring of this
influence of personal character, and the substituting,
for faith awakened to activity by it, a trust supposed
to be awakened by mere dogmas and decrees, by mere
ordinances and officials, has tended to throw into the
shade that faith awakened by the personality of the
Christ — or, as one might say, faith in the Spirit of the
Christ — which alone can be at the basis of spiritual de-
velopment in his follower. How can the intelligent,
not to say the enlightened, suppose that souls when
hungering for the bread of spiritual life can be sated
with the stones of a material altar; or when aspiring for
kinship with the Master of Nazareth, can imagine this
desire fulfilled while merely witnessing the processions
and performances of others like themselves! Such
conceptions as these are all the more remarkable in
view of a fact which every student of human nature
knows. This is the fact that no regeneration of char-
acter is possible except in the degree in which the sub-
ject of it has, in some way, obtained an ideal of what
his life should be that is higher and purer than the one
that he already possesses. But whence can come this
ideal; in fact, any ideal? It is always the creation of
the mind that conceives it. For this, if for no other
reason, it can never be said to be dictated from the

284 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

outside. It is never more than suggested from this;
then, afterward, as a result of subconscious logic, it is
developed within.

This fact shows us why it is that what is known of the
character and life of the Christ and of the effects of his
work in his own and subsequent ages, slight as some
may deem the world's amount of accurate information
with reference to these, is nevertheless sufficient for
the purposes intended. Let it be granted that men,
in enthroning him, as they have done, have robed him
in the garments of their own ideality. The texture of
this has been woven in the subconscious nature from
threads of evidence suggestive of such intrinsic lofti-
ness and love that the ideal resulting has been almost
infinitely inspiring to the individual and the race.

The fact just considered shows us again why this
ideal, and the faith which alone can make men strive to
realize it, never can do all that they are fitted to do for
a mind except when this is left free to develop thought
and action according to its own subconscious prompt-
ings. As indicated on page 136, to interfere with this
free development is to subject the mind to the rule of
the material instead of the spiritual. But if the mind
be left free, what then? Then we must have outward
expressions of spiritual faith that differ both from one
another and from the forms that gave the suggestions
from which they were developed. If a man were a
parrot, it might be enough for him to learn to repeat
by rote the words of a creed. If he were an ape, it

FAITH NEEDS FREEDOM 285

might be enough for him to imitate the actions of others
in a ceremonial. But he is a man with a mind, and a
mind — owing to the law controlling subconscious logical
action — never gives forth that which has entered it in
exactly the same form in which it has been received.
No one can even plant a growing bush in soil and then
draw it forth without finding some of the soil attached
to its roots. Nor can he leave it in the ground for a
season without its bearing limbs or leaves that change
its appearance. How much less can one expect to plant
seeds of thought in the mind, and — in case it be living-
expect nothing to come forth different from that which
has been placed in it !

In view of these facts, we may perceive an element
of divineness in the Scriptures wholly overlooked often
by those who insist upon its literal interpretation.
It would be almost impossible to conceive of any num-
ber of ordinary men, with the tendency which almost
all invariably manifest to become dictators or dogma-
tists, devising such a method of presenting truth as is
found in the Old and New Testaments. Think only
of the latter. How vaguely does it indicate any system
of theology, or any form of ecclesiastical worship or
government? Evidently the whole intention — so far
as results can indicate intention — was to govern a man
by giving expression to certain principles, and to leave
him at liberty to develop from these such forms of
thought and practise as commended themselves to his
individual judgment. Yet, if this were the intention,

286 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

think how it has been thwarted! There have been
times when no individual, even tho accepting the gen-
eral facts underlying orthodoxy, was allowed to give
expression of his personal interpretations of these, nor
even to worship in any language other than that pre-
scribed by authority. To-day, in many places, there
is the same tendency. It seems neither Biblical nor
rational. How can one justify the assuming of a right
to use the machinery of the Church for this purpose?
When a forest is dead, we may cut it up into houses and
villages; but, while it is living, if we wish it to con-
tinue so, we must let it alone. If the religious tendency
in man be a development of his natural constitution,
just as is the case with the artistic or the scientific, then
it must fulfil the same general laws; and it is impossible
to expect, and irrational to plan, for a time when faith
shall manifest in doctrine or practise anything resem-
bling absolute uniformity.

CHAPTER XIII

UNITY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF AS AFFECTED BY CON-
SIDERING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Principles Unfolded in the Preceding Chapter Can Be Applied in All
Religions— What Are the Most Common and Universal Religious
Conceptions— Communications from Bad and Good Spirits— Hom-
age Appeasing the First, and Soliciting Favors from the Second,
Who Are Often Supposed to Be Heroes and Ancestors — Formu-
lation of Opinions Concerning These and Their Teachings Into
Systems of Belief, as by Copernicus, Zoroaster, Buddha, Moses,
Mohammed, and the Christ— Christianity Not Necessarily Antago-
nistic to Other Religions, as Shown by Its Holding Many Similar
Beliefs — Acknowledging Certain of the Truths in These Religions
Might Benefit Christianity— This Need Not Imply Acknowledging
That Everything in Any Other System Is True — Nor Need It
Throw Discredit Upon Missionary Effort, but Lead It to Emphasize
in Christianity That which Is Lacking in Other Systems, and Is
Essential in Its Own— Religious Unity— This Must Begin by First
Acknowledging the Truth Common to All Religions.

There is a sense in which the statement made at the
end of the preceding chapter may be applied not only
to the various branches of the Christian Church, but to
the various branches of religion in general. That any
spiritual connection exists between all these, especially
between all of them and one's own form of religion,
is difficult for some men to perceive. But such a con-
nection has already been suggested on page 129. In
discussing it further, it is natural to begin by noticing
the opinions held on the subject by the founders of
Christianity at or near the time when it started. Few

287

288 THE PS YCH OLOGY OF 1NSPIRA TION

occasions seem to have occurred in which to express
such opinions; but when they did occur there is no
doubt as to the meaning of the testimony which they
present. In speaking, in Matt. 8; 10, 11, 12, of the
Roman centurion who was an adherent neither of the
Jewish religion nor of the new religion of the Christ,
the latter declares, " Verily I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto
you that many shall come from the east and west, and
shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the king-
dom shall be cast out." Again, the Apostle Peter, in
speaking, in Acts 10; 35, of Cornelius, another Roman
centurion, who, like the one just mentioned, apparently
knew very little of either the Jewish or the Christian
religion, makes the affirmation that "in every nation
he that feareth him [i.e., God] and worketh righteous-
ness is accepted with him"; and the Apostle Paul, in
Acts 17; 23, speaking to the Greeks, who apparently
had never before heard of Christianity, tells them that
him (i.e., the God) "whom ye ignorantly" — not refuse
to worship, but — "worship, him declare I unto you."
Limitations with reference to knowledge concerning
religion, and mistakes with reference to religious con-
duct, these early founders of Christianity recognized
in the so-called heathen religions, but they did not
deny to any one of them in any place a certain degree
of revelation and illumination. "When the Gentiles
which have not the law," says Paul, Rom. 2; 14, 15,

LIBERALISM OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 289

"do by nature the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which
show the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another."
These quotations seem to show that the founders of
Christianity had a theory different from those who,
a century or two later, were terming all non-Christian
conceptions false or devilish. It is important to em-
phasize, too, the fact that had they, or other early
Christian missionaries, used such terms, or held a theory
that necessitated their using them, they would have
had harder work than they did have in converting the
intelligent and loyal people of the world — those loyal
to the traditions of their own families and races — to
Christianity. The same principle may be applied to
those who to-day are missionaries in foreign lands.
Most Christians know what is meant by saying that the
Christ becomes the Savior of a man, not by doing more
for him than has already been done, but by being more
for him, by being recognized as such. In the same way,
he must become the Savior of mankind not by doing
more than he has done for it, but by being more, and
by being recognized as such. If the passage in Haggai
2; 7, "the desire of all nations shall come/7 refer to the
Christ, as Christians are given to saying, the effort of
the Christian should be to reveal to the non-Christian
in what sense the historic Christ is fitted to satisfy the
religious desires and conceptions of all men.

290 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

In order to reveal this, it is important to find out,
first, so far as possible, exactly what are the most com-
mon, because the most universal, religious desires and
conceptions. Fortunately, it is not difficult in our day
to determine this. The religious, as well as other de-
velopments of almost all people, have been quite thor-
oughly studied ; and there are existing in our own time,
in Africa, Asia, Australia, and America, races of the
most primitive character, which, therefore, may be
supposed to have the most primitive form of religion.

When we ask what this primitive form is, it seems, in
all cases, to be very nearly the same. It is some form
of spirit-worship; and the spirits that are worshiped
are, as a rule, believed to be those that have lived on
the earth and departed, and that survive in a more
ethereal state. The belief in the survival of the spirit
is indicated not merely by the fact that consultations
are held with those who, in some mysterious way, are
supposed to communicate with the dead, but by the
well-nigh universal custom of burying with the dead
certain of their belongings, which it is supposed that—
so far as these can be turned into that which is spiritual
—they may need and use in the ethereal life. In
Christian communities, as intimated on page 75, this
well-nigh universal belief in the survival of the spirit is
often attributed to imagination. If by imagination,
as thus used, be meant an experience seemingly seen
or heard objectively, which, nevertheless, is really seen
or heard only subjectively, the theory is plausible, and

UNIVERSAL RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 291

psychologists are warranted in discussing it. But if,
by imagination, in this case, be meant the faculty of
the mind which causes a child or a man to build up
images, as in reverie or poetry, or, as we ordinarily say,
to fancy things, then we must reject the explanation
as illogical. One consideration that renders it so was
indicated on page 76. Another is the fact that an
exactly identical conception of the life hereafter has
been imprest in this way upon the minds of all men
whatsoever, whether uncivilized or highly civilized,
whether aboriginal Africans, Asians, Australians, Amer-
icans, or ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, or mod-
ern East Indians, Chinese, Japanese, or spiritists of
Europe or America. It is difficult to believe that this
uniformity of conception with reference to condi-
tions in the other world is due to the exercise of what
we ordinarily mean by imagination. If that were the
case, each man who used his imagination, in order to
originate a conception, would give us a different one.
That this is so will appear upon examination of the
avowed poetic and therefore confessedly imaginative
statements in some of the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman
writings, as well as of those of some of the early Chris-
tians, or of Dante, Milton, and Klopstock. The descrip-
tions of all of these differ very greatly. But when we
turn to primitive sources and find evidences that the re-
ports received were, professedly, under hypnotic, trance,
or clairvoyant conditions, then we usually find sub-
stantial agreement. This is not a mere unwarranted

292 THE PSYCHOLOG Y OF INSPIRA TION

statement that can not be proved. Any man wishing
to prove it can do so by exercising no more patience,
perseverance, caution, or judgment than would be
necessary in searching for any other fact. All that is
necessary is to make a study of reports of this kind
communicated to oneself or collected from the testi-
mony of others, and, whether originally given in Eng-
lish, French, German, East Indian, Chinese, or Japanese,
these reports will be found in all essentials to coincide.
Nor does it make any difference whether the descrip-
tions of heaven and hell be given by a man who has
been a lifelong student of science like Swedenborg,
or by a half-idiot like a negro in an African forest.
Through all, the outlines of the same heaven and hell
can be distinctly recognized. This is no result that can
be attributed to individual imagination. It must be
attributed to a law universally fulfilled wherever there
seems to be the slightest reason for supposing that we
are getting the records of what is perceived by the sub-
conscious or spiritual nature. The conditions, in this
case, are such as to leave us only one of two possible
conclusions. We must believe either that the truth
is indicated in them, or else believe that the human
mind has been so constructed as to produce for us a
universal and stupendous lie.

Besides the recognition, in primitive religion, of the
continued existence of the spirits of those who have
left the earth, there is always a recognition of a differ-
ence in character between these spirits. Some are

GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 293

thought to be evil, or, as spiritists prefer to put it, un-
developed; and some to be good, or highly developed.
It is usually asserted, too, that the most highly devel-
oped seldom, if ever, communicate with men. The au-
thor is acquainted with one often consulting such sources
who has assured him that the most convincing argu-
ment in favor of their trustworthiness is furnished him
by the fact that his own father — a man of exceptional
purity and reserve — has never been represented as
being the source of such communications. This con-
clusion, perhaps, would be considered by most spiritists
unwarranted. They usually are ready to admit that
large parts of the so-called communications to individ-
uals are frivolous and indicative of frivolous sources.
But the claim is made that there are also indications of
sources of an exceedingly elevating and inspiring char-
acter. The most common theory seems to be that
spirits are not necessarily worse or better than can be
found among those that are seen and heard in this world,
and that whatever may come from them is addrest to
the mind and is to be judged by the appeal that it makes
to reason.

The recognition of a difference in character between
spirits leads, very naturally, as will be perceived, to
two forms of what may be termed homage, namely,
that paid to evil spirits, and to good spirits. The evil
are represented as needing to be appeased, lest they
should do harm, and the good as deserving of solicita-
tion because capable of conferring benefit. Both forms

294 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

of homage are found not only among uncivilized, but
among civilized races. We have all heard of the
hideous rites of North American Indians, but, even in
countries like China and Japan, hideous images can be
seen representing evil spirits before whom one can
readily fancy that hideous rites alone would be in
place. Only comparatively ignorant people are much
influenced by fear of these evil spirits; but in both
China and Japan many are seen apparently making
them offerings. The homage given to good spirits
usually assumes two forms, which, however, are closely
connected. These two are the worship of heroes and
of ancestors. In reading the Greek and Roman classics,
we think mainly of hero-worship; but if we study their
customs, we find that, in some cases, their penates, or
household gods, were their own ancestors. In other
cases the heroes whom they worshiped were men of
ancient times and, being so, were also men from whom
most of the people imagined that they themselves
were descended. So with the ancestral worship of
China and Japan. There is more hero-worship con-
nected with it than we ordinarily suppose. The author
himself has seen in Japan the caskets containing the
remains of Shoguns, famous warriors, who died some-
thing like three hundred years ago, carried in pro-
cession and set opposite a long table at which, in sup-
posed communion with them, the prominent characters
of a province partook of a feast and enjoyed a per-
formance of dancing and music. So the worship of

RELIGIOUS LEADERS 295

ancestors in Japan is connected with some worship
also of heroes, this word worship, however, being, as a
Buddhist priest assured the author, altogether too sa-
cred a term to apply to a mere expression of a belief
on the part of the people of a possibility of obtaining
aid from ancestors pleased with all endeavors to carry
out the traditions of their families.

These endeavors seem to lead necessarily, after a
time, to more or less reasoning with reference to the
real or supposed desires or designs of these ancestors.
It is natural, therefore, that what is believed concern-
ing them, or concerning the life most in accord with
their supposed characters, should come, by certain
more thoughtful and rational men, to be formulated in
writing, just as in time such men come to formulate in
writing all matters of common opinion. It is at this
stage that many of the more intelligent people cease
to be guided by seers or mediums, whose powers are
apparently attributable as much to physical or nervous
as to psychical or spiritual traits, and to be guided by
the great thinkers. Of those of these thinkers who
have had the most influence in their own and subse-
quent times, Confucius, while not denying, ignored the
spiritual, believing that what humanity needed was a
system of morality fitted to produce the best results
in this material life, and that, if this system were formu-
lated and practised here, it would, of itself, afford the
best possible preparation for a spiritual life. Buddha,
on the other hand, ignored the material world, confi-

296 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

ning himself to teaching methods of ridding the spirit
from the influence of the body, and from interest in
mere bodily pursuits. Zoroaster tried to balance the
spiritual, or the good, against the bodily, or the evil,
and seemed to think that, altho the former would ulti-
mately triumph, the influence of each in this world is
very nearly equal. Moses and Mohammed both di-
rected attention to the spiritual, but to this, mainly,
perhaps, as embodied in the material. The Christ
directed attention to both, altho he separated them,
admitting, however, their inseparability in this world;
but, while doing so, he insisted that the spiritual should
be considered supreme, and that to its direction and con-
trol the material, in all cases, should be subordinated.

It is unfortunate, in some regards, that Christianity
was trained in its youth to the methods of the Roman
Empire. In this latter, all will recall the emphasis
given to written laws and government by force. Any
system, perhaps, after existing for centuries sur-
rounded almost exclusively by such methods would
have been influenced to express its doctrines in written
creeds and to manifest its discipline through ordained
authority. Nor is it strange that the time came when
any one who was outside the body acknowledging
these doctrines, or controlled by this authority, should
have been deemed outside the pale of that which was
considered to be the kingdom of God. Nor is it
strange that many, even in our own times, should
hold the theory that Christianity, like the Roman

COMMUNICATION WITH SPIRITS 297

Empire with which it first marched to its victories, is
necessarily in its very character antagonistic to other
religions, and before it can obtain recognition for it-
self must obtain from its converts a repudiation of
them. Some of our zealous missionaries — but, for-
tunately, not all of them (see page 73) — feel it to be
their first duty to oppose such a belief as that in
spirits, whether bad or good, or in paying homage to
ancestors, or to the precepts of a Confucius, or the
doctrines of a Buddha. But why? Those who lived
in Biblical times certainly believed in spirits both bad
and good, and that a man could communicate with
them. Innumerable instances to prove this can be
cited. Not only were evil spirits supposed to take
possession of mind and body, and to need to be cast
out, as related in Mark 5; 1-14; but good spirits
were supposed to control and to make their sub-
jects mediums of the truth (Gen. 41; 38: Num. 24; 2:
1 Sam. 19; 20: II. Chronicles 15; 1: Matt. 3; 16, etc.).
We are told that two angels came to visit Lot (Gen.
19; 1); that one wrestled with Jacob (Gen. 32; 24,
30); that one talked with Daniel (Dan. 9; 21), and
that two appeared to three of the disciples (Matt. 17;
3). All the conditions of a modern seance are present
in the story of the summoning of Saul by the Witch of
Endor (1 Sam. 28; 7-25); and certain spiritists insist
that similar conditions were realized in connection
with the appearance of the crucified Christ to his
disciples as related in John 20; 19-29.

298 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

Besides this, those who lived in Biblical times seem
to have believed in something resembling homage
rendered to ancestors. What was their Jehovah, if
not the God of Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 32; 9: Rom.
4; 2, 9, 12, 16)? Now if, in the early days of the
Church, the accepting of these beliefs did not prevent
one from accepting Christianity also, why should it do
so in our own days? And how is it with accepting
the teachings of the great religious leaders? A few
years ago the author attended a recitation in ethics in
the Doshisha, the college founded by the American
Congregational missionaries in Kobe, Japan. The
text-book from which the students were reciting was
by Confucius. Evidently the missionaries had found
that there was no greater antagonism between his
system and Christianity than the Apostle Paul had
found between Christianity and Platonism (Acts 17;
23). If the reader will turn back to page 203, he will
find indicated in what sense it may be true that there
is much less antagonism than is sometimes supposed
between the same system and Buddhism or Mohamme-
danism. Nor is there any reason for holding that
even reincarnation, as taught by the one, or a mate-
rial heaven, as pictured by the other — tho neither
doctrine, of course, in its details — is necessarily in-
consistent with the system of the Gospel (Mark 9; 11-
13: Rev. 21; 1,2).

There is no doubt, too, that by acknowledging the
possibility that truth may be contained in certain of

NON-CHRISTIAN BELIEFS IMPORTANT 299

these systems Christianity itself might be greatly
benefited. If Christians considered possible the con-
tinued life and activity of spirits, the materialism of
Western civilization might be perceptibly diminished;
if they considered possible such a condition as obses-
sion by evil spirits, a surrender to the promptings of
what seem mainly, but may not be solely, men's own
passions and appetites might be considered more dan-
gerous than at present. If, with Confucius, they im-
agined that the principles of conduct should be the
same as applied either to material or to spiritual life,
they might realize the importance in the present of
exercising more unselfishness and self-control. If,
with the Buddha, they imagined the conditions of life
hereafter to be a necessary and normal result of the
life lived here, they might be more anxious than they
are now to live uprightly and benevolently in this
world. If, with Zoroaster, they gave due weight to
the well-nigh equal power of evil and of good, they
might be more careful to avoid coming under the
power of the former. If, with Moses and Mohammed,
they gave due weight to the inexorable fulfilment of
law, they might be more careful to study and under-
stand the laws of their own physical as well as moral
being.

All this is not the same as to say that any of these
systems are true in all of their ramifications. What
system is? Certainly not Christianity as it has been
developed. But for these defects in it we do not,

300 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

most of us, think it necessary to reject it wholly.
What intelligent Christians do is to allow themselves
to differ with reference to many things, which may be
considered non-essential, if only they can agree with
reference to a few things which may be considered es-
sential. It has come to be recognized that the ques-
tion of being a Christian or not is determined not by
the whole contents or results of one's thought, feeling
or action, but by the emphasis given to certain of
these. Why should not a similar test be applied to
the adherents not only of the Christian, but of every
religion?

The objection most frequently urged against this
view is that it throws discredit upon Christian mis-
sionary effort, because it virtually renders it unneces-
sary. But why? If we believe in any kind of social
or educational reform, it is our duty to proclaim our
opinion, and to advance the application of our meth-
ods. Why should we not recognize that similar action
is more imperative as applied to the much more im-
portant matter of religion? The only logical infer-
ences to be drawn from the line of thought just pre-
sented are that, in advocating his own religion, one
should try, first, to exercise charity toward others
and not argue against any tenet of their religion that
does not clearly conflict with some tenet that is es-
sential to his own; and, second, to present to them
from his religion that only which it is clear that other
religions do not contain. Now what may Christianity

PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIANITY 301

be said to contain which other religions do not? We
can not answer this question by saying that it is a
church with a Bible, or with a set of dogmas or creeds.,
or with officials, rites, or rituals. Other systems have
all these, or what corresponds to them. What Chris-
tianity has that other systems have not is this — a
new truth, but new mainly because revealed according
to a new method; that is, primarily, through the Christ,
and, secondarily, through Christians who believe that,
in some mysterious way, because of the influence upon
them of his life and death, they are inspired and guided
so that, while living in the world, and entering into
all its legitimate pursuits and pleasures, they never-
theless can make their earthly life a representation to
others and a foretaste for themselves of a spiritual life
hereafter. In order to perceive that this is that
which is peculiar to Christianity, it is not necessary
to believe the exact accuracy of every account in the
Scriptures; it may be said that it is not even neces-
sary to accept as wise everything that is represented
as having been done or said by the Christ. All that
is necessary is to recognize the fact that his whole
mission, as in his words, whether blessing little chil-
dren or cursing money-changers; or as in his deeds,
whether dining with publicans and sinners or praying
with his disciples, whether receiving the plaudits of the
multitudes because the son of David or allowing him-
self to be sacrificed on the cross, had this end in view
—to manifest the life of love, and through doing this,

302 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

to draw all men into likeness with himself. His fol-
lowers are Christians in the degree, and in the degree
alone, in which they live, not exactly in the same
particular way, but according to the same general
method, always ready to sacrifice their own plans and
profits, and, if absolutely necessary, their lives for the
benefit of their fellows.

Does any one suppose that there are any large num-
ber of Confucianists, Buddhists, Parsees, Hebrews,
Mohammedans, or Spiritists who would reject Chris-
tianity if they could be brought to believe this to be
the essential part of it? And, if influenced not to re-
ject it, would it be long before very many would be
brought to acknowledge in the Christ as well as within
themselves the power of that vague something which
is termed the spiritual? In fact, would it be long be-
fore they would have developed out of their own
thinking, but in a spontaneous way and in a personal
form, some of the very dogmas of the most orthodox
Christianity which now they reject because finding
them presented by way of dictation and authority
instead of suggestion?

This question causes one to feel that the time has
come for the world to recognize a fact which, at first,
seems paradoxical. It is this, that, as applied to all
different religions, nothing except the broadest charity,
which not only allows but welcomes divergences, can
ever lead to the acceptance by all men of a single re-
ligion. As was said on page 227, no two individuals

CHARITY AND RELIGION 303

can have unity of spirit except in the degree in which,
in the presence of the other, each is free, and feels free,
to say and to do what he chooses. This is so with
reference to all men associating in ordinary inter-
course. Why should it not be so with reference to
those associating in religion. Once, when the author
was young, and more uncharitably disposed than at
present, he traveled for a time in Europe with a strenu-
ous Unitarian. This man and himself seemed in com-
plete religious accord — i.e., unity of spirit — except
when tempted into a controversy. Then they seemed
as wide apart as the poles. After a time both tried to
analyze the reason for this, and concluded that, in
such cases, the selfish desire to justify the contro-
versy caused each to weigh down his side of the argu-
ment with more and more of his own self-drawn de-
ductions, thus making his statements more and more
individual and peculiar, till the thoughts exprest were
selected for use for the very reason that they were
widely separated. No one ever brought about spir-
itual unity by controversy, but through sympathy,
and the first condition of sympathy is to discover
unity beneath individual difference.

Enough was said on page 129 to indicate in what
sense one may hold that there are truths common to
all religions. These truths, when one's main object
is to bring about religious unity, need to be acknowl-
edged. In some countries they are already acknowl-
edged. This may be said to be the case to an unusual

304 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

degree in Japan — that country from which, to-day, all
of the rest of the world seem to be deriving so many
useful lessons. These lessons are derived not merely
because of Japan's recent military successes, but be-
cause of the characteristics of spirit and mind which
rendered these successes possible. More than any
other nation of which history gives an account, Japan
— to judge at least from its course during the last fifty
years — seems to be governed by principles of ration-
ality. Within that time many in the higher classes,
who formerly were the only ones allowed to bear arms,
influenced by a desire to secure the good of the coun-
try, have, of their own initiative, resigned their posi-
tions of influence, and most of their exclusive rights
and privileges, thus virtually abolishing caste. Besides
this, the whole nation has voluntarily laid aside the
governmental, educational, and, to some extent, the
social traditions of centuries in order to adopt what
the experiences of other nations have proved to be
best for a people. If the Japanese rationality be the
result of a Confucian or a Buddhist religion, for the
sake of humanity let us all become Confucianists or
Buddhists! But this is not necessary. What we need,
in order to equal them in mental breadth, is not the
same beliefs that they have, but the same attitude of
mind toward all beliefs. In that country, Confucianists,
Buddhists, and Christians can meet together and ex-
change views, and, when they part, can feel that they
have been communing with a spirit that has united

JAPANESE RATIONALITY 305

them. What spirit? Are we not justified in believing
it to be the spirit of that Creative Life which prompts
each, and which therefore, if accepted as a guide, would
allow each to give truthful expression to that which is
revealed within his own nature. If all men be the off-
spring of the same divine source, and if justice and
impartiality characterize this source, there must be
some truth lodged with each individual, and some mode
of life manifested by him that is worthy of the notice
and regard of all others. If this be true in any sphere,
it must be true also in that of religion.

CHAPTER XIV

CERTAIN OTHER PROBLEMS MADE SOLVABLE BY THE
THEORY PRESENTED IN THIS BOOK

Reconciliation Between the Claims of Inspiration and Apparent Inac-
curacy and Contradiction in the Text Giving It Expression —
Between the Claims of Absolute, Eternal, and Infinite Truth
and the Apparent Impossibility of Stating or Determining This ;
Pragmatism — In What Sense, Value, or Worth, Emphasized in
Pragmatism, Is a Test of Truth — Difference Between Knowledge
Which Is Applied to a Part and Faith Which Is Applied to a
Whole — Illustration — Difference Between This View and That of
Pragmatism— Reconciliation Between the Full Acceptance of Re-
vealed Truth and the Full Exercise of Reason — Between Liberal-
ity of Thought and Honest Acceptance of the Christian System,
Applied to Those Not Members of the Church — To Scientists—
Applied to Members of the Church — Reconciliation Between Com-
plete Adherence to One's Own Religious Views and Complete
Toleration of the Views of Others— Between Others' Acceptance of
the Truth in One's Own System and Conservation of the Truth in
Theirs— Between Rationality or Intelligence and Spirituality or
Faith— The Material and the Spiritual— Spirituality— If Inspired
Truth Be Suggestive, Spirituality and Faith Can Follow It with
No Lessening of the Exercise of Intelligence and Reason— Con.
elusion.

It seems fitting in this closing chapter to indicate-
partly by way of recapitulation and partly by way of
supplement — some of the problems which suggested
the preparation of this volume, and which the author
hopes that it may prove instrumental in solving. The
first of these problems is, of course, the initial one in-
dicated in the Introduction, namely, how to reconcile
the claims of an inspired religious writing with the

306

INSPIRA TION AND IN A CCURA CY 307

existence of apparent inaccuracy and even contradic-
tion in certain details of its statements. What better
answer to this question could be found than the one
given in this volume? It has been shown that, when
a man is inspired, the very conditions necessitate that
whatever is revealed should affect, first, the inner or
subconscious realm of his mind; that whatever may be
received in this inner or subconscious region influences
both it and the outer, or conscious realm, by way of
suggestion; and that whatever influences by way of
suggestion must, from its very nature, leave the outer
or conscious realm free to express itself according to
methods dominated by its own inherited or acquired
intelligence. It follows logically from all this that we
have no reason to expect to find evidences of inspira-
tion in the specific details of the expression, except so
far as, indirectly, they may indicate the general trend
of that which is exprest. Specific details can never be
supposed to be a necessary part of that which is merely
suggested. On the contrary, they are often originated
solely by the particular human mind which happens to be
the agent of the communication. They are not logically
attributable to the spirit that inspired it. It seems
important to add now that to make these statements
is really to do no more than to formulate a principle in
accordance with which the very persons who object to
it are constantly acting. Compare the statement in
1 Cor. 15; 22, "For as in Adam all die even so in Christ
shall all be made alive/7 with the following from Matt.

308 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

25; 46: "And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment." Compare also Rom. 10; 13, "Whoso-
ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,"
with Matt. 7; 21, "Not every one that saith unto me
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."
It is impossible that any mind should accept, in a
literal sense, such apparently contradictory statements.
In each case one or both of the two must be accepted
as a partial statement of a general truth; and it is the
general truth alone that is believed to be inspired.
Why should not all theologians frankly admit this?
If they did so, they would have a theory which would
fully explain all the facts. Moreover, because the con-
ditions of the workings of subconscious mentality have
been, as in hypnotism, scientifically determined, the
explanation would be scientific, and, better than all,
it would be of such a nature as to render it possible for
a rational thinker to believe both that the source of the
inspired suggestion may itself be absolutely infallible,
and also that the expression of it, owing to the many
limitations of the human medium through which it
must be received, may be ambiguous and apparently
inaccurate and contradictory. The exact fact seems to
be that the spiritual, which is infinite in its nature^
necessarily becomes finite when limited, or — what is
the same thing — made definite by being exprest—
and, too often, supprest — in terms applicable to only
material conditions (see page 142). Therefore spir-
itual truth can be apprehended in the degree alone in

PRAGMATISM 309

which it is recognized to be — not dictatorial in form,
but — suggestive .

What has just been said will indicate the solution
by our theory of another problem which is, perhaps,
the most important now agitating theological circles.
It is this — how to reconcile the claims upon us of
what one must suppose to be fundamental truth with
the apparent impossibility of stating, or even of de-
termining, this so as to satisfy, for any length of time,
the demands of reason and experience. The endeavor
to solve this problem has, of late, given rise to what is
termed pragmatism. This term is widely applied to
many methods, only a few of which can be adequately
considered now. For instance, it has been used as
synonymous with that " practicality" upon which
very many philosophers of the past have insisted — i.e.,
with the application of common sense to philosophical
discussion, and the acceptance of a theory that, in
view of all possible conditions, will "work." When
the term is used with this meaning, its applications
are so broad that few can oppose the conceptions in-
volved in it without seeming to reject what they them-
selves accept. But there is a narrower meaning of
the term. As thus employed, especially when, as thus
employed, it is applied to theological questions, it seems
to be based upon a kind of agnosticism exercised less
with reference to the existence .or attributes of the
Almighty, than to truth so far as, like the Almighty,
this may be supposed to be absolute, eternal, and

310 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

infinite. According to Professor J. M. Sterrett, in his
" Freedom of Authority/7 page 311, pragmatism
"seems to be an extension of the worth-judgments of
the Ritschlians to the field of all knowledge.'7 De-
veloped philosophically by Professors Howsor^ James,
and Schiller, respectively, in their volumes entitled
"The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays/7 "The
Will to Believe, and Other Essays/7 and " Humanism,
Philosophical Essays77; and, theologically, by Messrs.
Sebatier, Harnack, and Loisy, respectively, in their
volumes entitled "Outlines of a Philosophy of Re-
ligion/7 "What is Christianity/7 and "L7Evangile et
L'Eglise," pragmatism assumes that men do, and,
therefore, must, determine the truth in any principle
by noticing its practical effects in human life. We
are to accept the dogmas and discipline of the Church,
for instance, because they have been proved to be
beneficial to mankind. We are to accept them, ten-
tatively, at least, for this reason alone, irrespective of
any question with reference to the absolute, infinite, or
eternal nature of the truth which they represent,
which truth we can not, or, at least, we do not know.
With reference to it, we must remain agnostics. There
is, of course, much justification in applying to any ob-
ject of observation in this world the principle, "ye
shall know them by their fruits77 (Matt. 7; 16). But,
as applied where one is in search for truth, can this
be considered in any other light than as a "working
principle77 to be used merely like an hypothesis in

PRAGMATISM 311

order to aid in the discovery of something more cer-
tain? Used in this way, as an hypothesis, there can
be no objection to accepting such a theory and adopt-
ing such a method as seems to secure the best prac-
tical results. To do this is merely to act rationally.
But for the pragmatist to go further; for him to sug-
gest, if not suppose, that the hypothesis, because it
works well, is, in any sense, for this reason alone, all
that one can or need know of absolute truth is to
make the same mistake intellectually as is made mor-
ally by those who suggest that because they are sin-
cere, because they are obeying the dictates of con-
science, they are absolutely right. As most of us
know, they are usually not. On the contrary, they
are often manifesting the same attitude of mind
which the bigots and persecutors of all the ages have
proved to be absolutely wrong. Why? What, in such
cases, is the mistake? Should these bigots and per-
secutors have been insincere? Should they have vio-
lated their own consciences? Certainly not. The first
element of morality consists in having faith in the dic-
tates of one's own conscience. But, in connection
with having this faith, they should also have recog-
nized that their consciences belong not to others, or to
the Almighty, but to themselves alone; and, by con-
sequence, merely impel them to live true to what ap-
pears to be best to their own intelligence and sym-
pathy. This recognition would have led them not to
be untrue to self, but, in addition to being true, to

312 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA T10N

strive to increase their knowledge and love till, finally,
if possible, all their thoughts and emotions should be-
come true also to everything wisest and best by which
self is surrounded and can be influenced.

So with the theory that the pragmatist has found to
be of " value." If it have been proved to be this, a
man, as a rational being, should value it. But how?
As something practically useful, but not necessarily,
as a matter of theory, truthful. To try to accept it in
the latter way involves making three mistakes. The
first consists in confounding the beneficial with the
best. Fifty years ago, almost everybody held the
opinion that tuberculosis was not a contagious, but an
inherited disease. The opinion was beneficial. It
prevented people from running away from their
friends and relatives who needed nursing. But the
opinion was not true. Tho not contagious through
ordinary breath or touch, the disease is contagious
through the dried expectorations which may fill the
air that one breathes, and thus come to touch his
lungs. The second mistake of those considering the
useful to be the truthful lies in confounding the rela-
tive with the absolute — that which seems true to the
results of one's own experience with that which is true
to universal experience. Of course, the two are not
identical. There must be some broader test of truth
than that which is determined by the knowledge or
judgment of a single individual. The third mistake,
closely connected with both the others, lies in con-

PR A GMA TISM 313

founding the methods of faith with the methods of
knowledge. All the essays in the "Will to Believe/'
by Professor James, would have been more effective
logically, as well as religiously, if he had recognized
this distinction; if, instead of intimating that partial
information, because useful, may be true, he had
frankly admitted that it may or may not be true, but,
because useful, should be utilized, on the ground that
a man needing knowledge should have faith to act ac-
cording to the amount of knowledge, tho limited, that
has been given him; and that the man needing light
should have faith to follow after as much light, even
tho limited, as he has the good fortune to see. The
fact seems to be that we mortals are always living, as
it were, in a twilight where that which can bring full
day is under the horizon. Nevertheless, we can see a
few things near at hand; and toward them we can
walk according to knowledge. But, besides these,
there are other things that loom dimly in the dis-
tance; and with them comes often the promise, far
away, of a great light. This does not make our pres-
ent pathway clear, but it suggests the direction that
we should take in order to reach a clear pathway. If
we follow in this direction, we are rewarded in two
ways: first, by getting nearer to the light; and, second,
by learning from experience how to get along safely
with such little light as we have. Neither of these re-
sults, when applied to a man's search for truth, corre-
sponds exactly to that which is logically inferable

314 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

from what is said by the adherents of pragmatism.
The man who is constantly hoping to attain truth or
who is constantly learning to do without it, is by no
means in the same attitude of mind as the man who
surmises that he has truth, or that no one can get
along unless he has it. Unlike the latter, the former
accepts suggestions merely as such; and then, after the
manner of hypnotism (see page 269), lets his subcon-
scious intellection add its own logical conclusions.

The failure to recognize that the faith (see page 274)
awakened and determined by such conclusions is nor-
mal and necessary in mental action is perhaps the
chief defect in Kant's philosophy. Had Professor
James recognized this, he might have made the lesson
that he desired to impress seem less original, but, at the
same time, he would have made it seem more accept-
able. This is so because it could then have been proved
to conform to the precepts and the theories of almost
all the foremost philosophers of all the ages. What
has always been their fundamental method? When
brought face to face with the phenomena of matter or
of mind, what have they done? They have analyzed
the different effects in each; they have traced them
backward, step by step, to their primary elements,
and when these have been found, and often not till
then, they have compared the first appearances with
others in which the effects of the same elements are
visible. And why have they done this? Is there any
better answer than that of Sir William Hamilton in

PRAGMATISM AND FAITH 315

one of his " Lectures on Metaphysics"? "The mind,"
he says, "can not conceive that anything that begins
to be is anything more than a new modification of pre-
existent elements; it is unable to view any individual
thing as other than a link in the mighty chain of be-
ing; and every isolated object is viewed by it only as
a fragment which to be known must be known in con-
nection with the whole of which it constitutes a part."
In other words, according to this writer, the answer to
our question is that these philosophers proceed as they
do because they have a conception of a whole, of an
ideal whole, as we might say, tho in reality only a few
parts are perceptible. But what is the nature of this
ideal, and whence is it obtained? Its nature is the
same as that of an ideal in religion or in art; and it is
obtained just as is an ideal in these — i.e., through
faith and imagination. To show this, let us take an
elementary conception, and trace it to a condition in
which it passes into what we term a general law or, as
explained in Chapter I, a general truth of science.

If one have been so circumstanced that he has never
known of more than one death, he may say, "A man
appeared for a little while and then vanished." This
is not an expression of faith or of imagination; it is the
statement of a fact, and, so far as it goes, of a result
of investigation. But after the observation of many
deaths he may make the statement general. He may
say, "A man appeareth for a little while and then
vanisheth." Here is a result of investigation which

316 THE PSYCHO L OGY OF INSPIRA TION

has had added to it a result of faith. The general state-
ment is made because the lives of many persons have
been observed, and have all manifested the tendency
indicated. Again, joining to his observations of men
an observation of a single material appearance, one
may say: "Man is a vapor; he appeareth for a little
while and then vanisheth." Here we have a result of
faith and — because we have two factors of a compari-
son both indicated, namely, man and vapor — a result
also of imagination. Once more, observing a similar
tendency not alone in man and in vapor, but in many
other things, one may make his statement universal.
He may say: "All life is a vapor"; "The things that
are seen are temporal"; "This life's a dream, an
empty show." But notice that just as soon as he
makes his statement universal, even tho his surmisal
be based upon such wide observations of life and its
methods that his words have almost the accuracy of
scientific conclusions, nevertheless he has gone, still
more decidedly than in the cases previously men-
tioned, outside the realm of investigation or knowl-
edge. It is impossible that one should investigate all
the objects, events, or experiences to which a so-
called universal law can apply. He can associate it
with all of them so far only as he exercises faith, and,
by imagination, conceives that what is true of the part
is true of the whole; or, to express this differently,
conceives of the part as imaging the whole.
This conception of the result is very different,, and

PRAGMATISM AND PROGRESS 317

leads to a very different effect upon thought and action,
from that which seems to be induced by pragmatism.
Apparently, the logical influence of the latter is — as,
indeed, its advocates themselves claim — to make a
mind more or less satisfied with the degree of truth at-
tained, and therefore with existing conditions in so-
ciety, state, and church. The conception advanced in
the paragraph preceding this can do no more than in-
cline the mind toward an acceptance of these as tenta-
tive, perhaps, but probably trustworthy guides to-
ward something, conceived to be similar, to which
they may lead. This is an attitude of mind that is
characterized at once by humility in view of one's own
limitations, by faith in view of one's own inward im-
pulses, and by an unquenchable thirst for progress in
all that makes for enlightenment and betterment.
Nothing but continued search for truth can satisfy a
mind anxious to attain it, and yet always conscious
that it has not been attained. It is needless to point
out to what extent the conception of inspiration as
being suggestive in its tendency harmonizes with this
attitude of mind and develops it, at once dealing with
the problem which pragmatism is intended to solve,
and doing it in such a way as not to lessen but to in-
crease the stimulating effect of those intimations
which, for the season, are allowed to hold the place of
truth. The only method through which the mind can
accept a suggestion is through thinking about that
which is suggested. The more this is thought about,

318 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

even if never discovered, the more elevating and en-
larging, if it be absolute, infinite, and eternal, will be
its influence. If this be so — and who can deny it?—
have we not realized exactly the conditions fitted to
give that discipline and development which all the
wisest and best have believed to be the design of every
experience in this earthly life?

This thought leads us to recognize that the theory
here presented can enable us to solve another problem
— one as old as the oldest religion, and yet freshly
presented for the solution of every individual of the
present the moment that he arrives at an age where
he begins to think for himself. This problem is, how
to reconcile the full acceptance of revealed truth with
the full exercise of one's own reason as directed to its
conclusions by the results of conscience, insight, ex-
perience, and logical processes. There is no satisfactory
answer to this question for any one who, in all cases,
accepts what is supposed to be the expression of re-
vealed truth as true in a literal, explicit, dogmatic,
dictatorial, infallible sense. Nothing can be accepted
in this sense except by one who, so far as concerns the
interpretation of the particular expression involved,
has waived the exercise of his own reason. Neverthe-
less, many have been persuaded that they should do
this. The result that follows, when they do not think
at all for themselves, is superstition ; when they think
in part for themselves, but from dictated premises,
bigotry; and when they think wholly for themselves,

REVELATION AND REASONING 319

hypocrisy. Through all three conditions, moreover,
which are all more or less blended, the mind is being
forced to do that which it can not do if acting naturally ;
in other words, if acting in accordance with the laws
of its Creator, which is the same thing as to say if acting
religiously. The mind is not acting naturally, because
minds, as minds, can receive nothing except as they
think it; and they can not think anything to be which
to their own thought or reason appears not to be.
This is a fact practically acknowledged by every
Church in which there is preaching, the aim of which
is always to prove that the dogmas and practises en-
joined by the Church are in conformity with those en-
joined by reason. Why has it been so seldom recog-
nized that an effect of exactly the same kind should
be the aim of all the ordinances of the Church? How
could this be recognized? By accepting, as applied to
the original revelation and to all ecclesiastical develop-
ments of it, this theory with reference to the suggestive
character of truth. The only way in which a mind
can be influenced by that which is clearly felt to be
suggestive is through the thought, and the endeavor
to carry into logical processes the thought, which the
suggestion occasions. According to the theory of this
book, therefore, the very acceptance of revelation as
a guide to life involves the use of reason. Nothing
that is suggested can appear to be essential except so
far as it appears to be in conformity with reason. To
some this statement will seem radical and revolutionary.

320 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIHA TION

But it merely formulates and places upon a philosoph-
ical basis the principle upon which ninety-nine out
of every hundred intelligent Christians are constantly
acting. Is it not desirable that they should know
what this principle is, and, besides knowing it, be able
to defend it?

This thought naturally suggests another problem to
which the theory presented in this book affords a satis-
factory solution. This is, how to reconcile liberality
and independence of view in Christianity with an honest
acceptance of its system as a whole. This is an ex-
ceedingly practical question. We all know men of
great ability and integrity — Abraham Lincoln* and
John Hay are prominent representatives of the type—
who, while regular attendants upon some Christian
Church and supporters of it, and apparently interested
in all its efforts for the betterment of the world, never-
theless are not what are called members of the Church,
or communicants. No one can fail to perceive that
if they were, this fact would make them much more in-
fluential than they are in advancing the form of religion
represented by the Church. Nevertheless, when they

* Lincoln's only published utterance concerning church-membership has
been recently quoted thus by General Horatio C. King in an article in The
Christian Work and Evangelist, of New York: "I have never united myself to
any church, because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine which
characterize their Articles of Belief and Confession of Faith. Whenever any
church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the
Savior's condensed statement of the substance of both law and gospel, 'Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church I will join with all my
heart and all my soul,"

CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP 321

tell us, as they do, that they stand aloof from it, be-
cause of certain statements in the confessions to which
the Church requires assent before admitting to mem-
bership, which statements their minds can not accept,
we feel that such men are intellectually justified in
remaining aloof from it. We are presented, therefore,
with the strange anomaly of thinking that men are
doing right at the same time that we know that they
are not exerting as distinctive a religious influence as
they might exert. If a man be ever right in not doing
anything, it must be because of something wrong in
that which he is expected to do. In this case, what is
he expected to do? — To say that he accepts certain
statements as explicit, dictatorial expressions of the
truth. Suppose that, instead of this, he were ex-
pected to accept them merely as suggestive expres-
sions. If so, he would be expected to do no more than
he is already doing. It is because he believes in the
general truth represented by the Church, tho not in all
its special claims, that he is already an attendant upon
its services and a contributor to its practical work.
Might it not be wise for the Church to weigh carefully
the conditions that conform to the requirements of
earnest and really religious men of this character?

The men just mentioned are supporters of the
Church because of the practical good that they per-
ceive it to be accomplishing in the world. On account
of this, they waive their intellectual objections to some
of its doctrines. But there are other men, equally

322 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

upright and religious, who apparently consider it
wrong to aid in any way an institution, however prac-
tically beneficial, the doctrines of which do not con-
form to their conceptions. These are mainly men of
scientific training, who, in the search for truth, demand
above all things accuracy, and can not accept any
statements that appear to be in the least degree in-
accurate. One of these called the author's attention,
a few months ago, to what he termed the " absurd and
humiliating" discussion that had recently taken place
in a convention of a certain religious body. " Ap-
parently," he said, "not one of its members knew or
could state exactly what he believed." " Could you
yourself do that?" he was asked. "No," he answered,
"but I don't pretend that I could; they do." This
answer explained the situation exactly — the reason
why he and the Church were not at one, as well as the
right method of making them so. In fact, being a
religious man, he and the delegates to that convention
were possibly in actual agreement. On his own part,
he was ready to admit, in unequivocal terms, that he
could not give an exact statement of his religious
beliefs. These delegates, according to what they had
said in their convention, were also ready on their part
to admit the same. Why, therefore, did he imagine
himself, and why did they imagine him, at total vari-
ance from the belief of the Church? So far as he was
concerned, this was because he had false conceptions,
and so far as the Church was concerned, because it had

THE CHRISTIAN AND THE LIBERAL 323

conveyed to him false conceptions, of the degree of
accuracy with which that which is termed revealed
truth is, or can be, exprest. Had both recognized the
suggestive character of this expression, both would
have been in possession of a great fundamental prin-
ciple that would have made it logically possible for
the scientist to be a churchman, and for the Church
to have welcomed the scientist. He would have recog-
nized that revealed truth is related to religion exactly
as what are termed the laws of gravitation, or of evo-
lution, are related to science. They are merely sug-
gested, but, because strongly suggested, they are often
allowed to determine scientific beliefs (see pages 314-
317). But they can not be accurately proved. He
would have found, therefore, that there was neither a
logical nor an analogical argument justifying him in
wholly separating himself from a church whose prac-
tical effects proved it to be of positive benefit to the
world; and the Church, on the other hand, would have
gained the influence of a man whose conscientious and
scrupulous regard for the truth would have greatly
enhanced its influence with minds of a similar char-
acter; who, as things are, are frequently inclined, as
he was, to deem the exprest attitude of representatives
of the Church " absurd and humiliating/7 if not hypo-
critical.

This theory of suggestion is needed, not only by those
who are outside of the Church, but, still more perhaps,
by those who are inside of it. The author once knew

324 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

an unusually talented and promising theological stu-
dent. At the end of his course he found himself unable
to preach either in the Church in which he had been
educated, or in any other Church. He could not ac-
cept the whole of any of the formulated creeds, one
seeming to assert, and another to deny, too much.
His theological professors argued with him; they told
him that his mind was too critical; and, tho they did
not say so, they evidently thought that it was too con-
scientious. They told him that he need not accept
every specific statement or word of the confession of
the Church — only the general system unfolded in it.
They evidently told him this because feeling vaguely,
tho not divining clearly, some such conception of re-
vealed truth as is brought out in this volume. Never-
theless, as this truth had never been formulated or
formally accepted by their church, the student whom
they were seeking to influence could not reconcile their
argument with honest adherence to their own profest
principles. As he said once, "I fail to see how one
who calls himself a liberal Christian can be anything
but a hypocrit." The proportion of ordinary preachers
who are liberal Christians is much greater than of
theological professors. To the kind of mind repre-
sented by this theological student — inflexibly logical
in its processes — all such preachers — and they include
many of the most honest and earnest that the world
holds — appear to be hypocrits. Could anything be
more important for them, or for the many whom they

ORTHODOXY AND TOLERATION 325

might influence for good, than to have proved, and gen-
erally accepted, a theory such as is unfolded in this
book? According to this theory, liberal Christianity
is the only logical Christianity — the only system con-
sistent with a clear understanding of the suggestive
nature of all truth that is inspired.

The connection will be recognized between what has
just been said and another problem for which the
theory of this book furnishes a solution. It concerns
the methods in which one can reconcile complete ad-
herence to his own religious opinions with complete
toleration for those of others. These two attitudes of
mind are found, at present, among large numbers, es-
pecially in our own country. But even here it is felt
by not a few that the condition is due solely to the
force of circumstances. These have brought together
so many of divergent views that it has become neither
feasible nor possible for those of one belief to ostracize
or persecute those of another. It does not seem to
occur to some that, irrespective of such circumstances,
toleration may be a matter of principle, logically re-
sulting from a correct understanding of the nature of
inspired truth itself. If this were presented in forms
dictatorial, explicit, and infallible in expression, the in-
dividual or church possessing it might be justified in
using not only persuasion, but force upon all who
doubted, rejected, or ignored it. But the moment that
one comes to think that this truth, owing to its very
nature, must be imparted by way of suggestion, his

326 THE PSYCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

method of causing the world to receive it will be con-
fined to an appeal to thought. A suggestion, like a
puzzle, not only gives every one who hears it an inde-
pendent right to interpret it in his own way, but is
more likely to be solved in the right way in the degree
in which every one who hears it has been allowed to
contribute his share toward its solution.

Ay, when men desire the whole truth, each one's nature like a chart

Shall unfold to show what only all together can impart,

Till that time, though those about us vie to be the foes of truth,

Let it be its own defender ; they will learn in time, forsooth,

How much more may spring to light, where only wondering fancies

teem,

Than where listlessness in stupor slumbers on without a dream;
How much more may be discerned, where love too lightly waives dis-
trust,
Than where mad intolerance gags a pleading doubt with naught

discust.
They will learn that wise men find that minds when trusted most,

confess
Where are hid the springs of thought which he who moves them needs

to press,
Learn that those who war with words must heed, ere crown'd with

victory ,

Both the right array'd against them, and the wrong ; for charity,
First in logic as in worship, leads the mind's triumphant train.
'Tis the Christ, not Aristotle, holds the scepter of the brain.

A Life in Song: Watching, XIX: Raymond.

Another problem closely connected with the one
just considered is how to reconcile in the minds of
others who differ from ourselves their acceptance of
what they can believe in our system of truth without
the rejection of what they must continue to believe in
their own. In this age many of us are constantly
brought into contact with adherents of religions

NEW RELIGION AND OLD TRUTH 327

both older and younger than ours are — with Hebrews,
Buddhists, Confucianists, Mohammedans, Mormons,
Spiritists, Christian Scientists, and so on. It is well-
nigh impossible for one who has much knowledge of
human nature, or confidence in it, to suppose that any
of these systems contain nothing except what is false.
They must all contain some truth or they could not
appeal to the mind with the authority of truth. Why,
then, do some of these systems tend — as can be proved
of them, as, in fact, can be proved of some forms of
Christianity — to error both in theory and practise —
error, too, which, as rational humanitarians, to say no
more, we sometimes deem it our duty to try to cor-
rect? Why, but because, in connection with the truth
that is in them there is some untruth? How can we
best correct this latter and prevent its deleterious ef-
fects? Is it by attacking the whole body of truth in
which those whom we seek to influence believe? This
would merely cause us to lose all influence with them.
It would not unfrequently necessitate our including,
among other things declared by us to be untrue, cer-
tain things which their own experience has proved to
themselves, at least, to be the contrary. If we wish
to influence them, must we not admit the fact that
they are in possession of some truth? At first thought
the admitting of this may seem simple enough; but,
on second thought, we shall find the ground on which
we can base the admission extremely difficult to ex-
plain either to ourselves or to others. It is difficult

328 THE PSYCHOL 0 G Y OF INSPIRA TION

because sometimes the very untruth which we deem it
important to refute is, or is believed to be, an organic
part of the system which they consider to be revealed.
Our arguments against uncharity, zeal not according
to knowledge, unreasonable bigotry, superstitious for-
malism, or the prevention of contagious diseases by
faith might be convincing were it not one of the'
very things supposed to be taught by being revealed.
If it be taught thus, or is believed to be taught thus,
what is to be done? Nothing can be done, and done
successfully, unless we can get people to perceive that
the essential character of revelation is the imparting
of truth by way of suggestion. When, and only when
they perceive this, will they begin to perceive that it
is essential that they should use their own minds in
receiving truth; then only will they begin to compare
different utterances, and the bearings of each, and the
logical connections between them; and then only may
we expect them, finally, to arrive at that to secure
which is one of the reasons why the revelation is made
suggestive, namely, a rational conclusion. Indeed,
until in some way they have been brought to realize
that it is the function of inspiration to influence mind,
which is the same as to say to influence thinking, they
will not exercise thought, or, as we say, common
sense, when deciding what they should believe or do.
The effect upon the world of not thinking, when
manifested by large numbers of people, furnishes the
worst possible menace to all that makes for peace,

SPIRITUALITY AND RATIONALITY 329

enlightenment or progress. No animal is more dumb
than a rational man when he becomes the slave of
any theory that seems to justify his acting irration-
ally. Nor is it easy to perceive how a religious man
can be prevented from feeling justified in acting thus
by any other theory of revelation than the one pre-
sented in this volume.

Just here it would not be strange if some should be
inclined to feel, notwithstanding all that has been said
in this book of spirituality and faith, that, in some
way, they have been unduly subordinated to certain
supposed requirements of rationality and intelligence.
For the benefit of such it seems well to show now that
the theory here presented is the only one that can
satisfactorily reconcile all these. This can be done by
causing the reader to recognize that what is really an-
tagonistic to spirituality, as a condition of mind, is
not rationality, but materialism; and that what is
really antagonistic to faith, as a motive, is not in-
telligence, but a presumption of knowledge, which is
the very thing in which many a man, for the very
reason that he is intelligent, does not indulge.

In order to accomplish our purpose, let us begin by
getting as clear an idea as possible of what spirituality
is, and of what is the connection between it and faith.
A trustworthy conception of the former can perhaps be
best obtained from what is probably the earliest at-
tempt to explain it. In Rom. 8; 5, the Apostle Paul
says: "They that are after the flesh do mind [i.e.,

330 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

seek, serve, obey] the things of the flesh, but they that
are after the spirit the things of the spirit." In this
passage men are not divided according to their external
religious affiliations. So far as the terms seem capable
of interpretation, either the "material" or the "spiri-
tual" may be found among Catholics, Presbyterians, or
Friends, or, for that matter, among Mohammedans,
Buddhists, or Confucianists. According to the apostle's
use of the word, the one test dividing the two classes
is that some "mind" the things of the flesh, and that
others "mind" the things of the spirit; or, as the verse
preceding this puts it, "walk after the flesh" or "after
the spirit." What is meant by such phraseology is
clear enough. We all recognize the classes to whom
it refers. There are certain people in the world who
walk after the flesh — i.e., who, in the courses which they
pursue, aim — not invariably, perhaps, but as a rule--
to secure the pleasure, comfort, and welfare of their
physical bodies. They indulge its appetites and lusts,
if not by way of gluttony, then of greed, constantly,
in disregard of the claims of others, adding to their
possessions in the physical world about them, and thus
increasing their influence on what may be termed the
physical plane. There are others who do the contraiy.
In the courses which they pursue in life, they aim-
not invariably, perhaps, but as a rule — to secure the
pleasure, comfort, and welfare of that within them
which does not pertain to the body. They are con-
scious of thoughts and emotions tending to certain

SPIRITUALITY 331

ideals and aspirations which give a man a distaste for
the results of appetite and lust ; i.e., give him a conscious-
ness that these thoughts and emotions can not enjoy
free, unimpeded exercise in case the appetites and lusts
be indulged. Therefore such persons practise, as ap-
plied to the latter, what is termed self-denial. Be-
sides this, the same thoughts and emotions lead to a
sense of sympathy and responsibility for others, which
give a man a distaste for the results of greed aimed at
increasing one's own possessions at the expense of his
neighbors, or aimed, at least, at preventing the free,
unimpeded exercise of that to which his sense of sym-
pathy or responsibility prompts. Therefore such a per-
son practises what is termed self-sacrifice. The sickly
mother gives up her own health to secure that of her
child; the volunteer patriot gives up his own life for
that of the state; the foreign missionary gives up his
own home to secure one for the savage. This giving
up shows spirituality. Now notice that it shows this
because it assigns preeminent importance not to what
is without the mind, but to what is within it. The
physical body and its physical surroundings contain
things — all things — that can be seen or heard or han-
dled; and these are clearly outside the mind — i.e.,
outside the sphere in which thought and emotion are
experienced. When the materialist is aiming for these
things which he can see, hear, or handle, and can ob-
tain or increase as a result of clearly comprehended
calculation, he may be said to know them and, when

332 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION

he deals with them, to be walking according to knowl-
edge.

On the other hand, the ideals and aspirations, the
promptings of sympathy and responsibility for others,
which the spiritual man obeys are just as clearly inside
the mind — i.e., inside the sphere in which thought and
emotion are experienced. Nor are all the processes of
thought and emotion influencing the spiritual man
inside the region of his own consciousness. Many of
them are in the subconscious region. He does not
always see — often he does not care to find out — the
steps of logic, if indeed there be any, behind that course
to which his conscience or conviction directs him. He
does not always see — often he does not care to find
out — the material end that his action will attain, or
if any end worth having in this world be that which it
will attain for himself. If he be a patriot, for instance,
he goes where he is by no means assured that he will
not meet his death. He says that he does so in order
to serve his country. But what will be the use of a
country to himself in case he has died for it? Why
does he not go somewhere else and find some other
country for which it will not be necessary for him to
risk his life ; existence in which country, therefore, will
be sure to be of use to him? He certainly would do so
if he were a man who walked according to merely
knowledge. Why does he not run away? Because^
so far as concerns his actions in this regard, he is a
spiritual and not a material man. He is walking not

SPIRITUALITY AND FAITH 333

according to knowledge — i.e., not in a sphere in which
causes can be ascertained and results calculated; — he
is walking according to faith — i.e., in a sphere in which
one can learn no more of causes and results than can
be obtained from the promptings of ideals, aspirations,
and sympathies which are impelling him from within,
tho, of course, always in view of such realities, ne-
cessities, and possibilities as seem to be calling upon
him from without.

It is not necessary to argue that all this is the same
as to say that the promptings, obedience to which in-
volves both spirituality and faith, are and must be-
as has been shown to be true with reference to all in-
fluence exerted first upon the inner mind — suggestive.
If they were explicit and dictatorial in character, men
would be fully aware of what they were expected to do.
They would be controlled by the letter of the law, not
by its spirit, or that which is spiritual in the law. They
would obey it without any exercise of faith, on account
of knowledge. The self-sacrificing parent, soldier, or
missionary is not influenced by considerations which
he can knowingly calculate. He is influenced merely
by his general determination to serve with the best
motives and, as prompted by these, to the best of his
ability, the family, the state, or the church which
need his services. Notice, however, that this general
determination does not lessen the rationality or in-
telligence with which the determination is formed, or
put into execution. Nor, indeed, does it lessen the

334 THE PS YCHOL OGY OF INSPIRA TION

exercise of either of these before he comes to his deter-
mination. No man can come to a wholly rational or
intelligent conclusion if he fail to consider candidly
and balance honestly against other considerations any
consideration that should have weight in determining
his conclusions. Who can say that suggestions from
the subconscious mind should not be included among
these considerations? Are not men rational and in-
telligent when, in fulfilment of the promptings of
conscience, aspiration, or sympathy, they become self-
sacrificing parents, soldiers, and missionaries? Ac-
cordingly, we perceive that it is not the material, but
the spiritual man, not the man who walks wholly ac-
cording to knowledge because of information that can
be dictated, but the man who walks according to faith
also because of thought or feeling that is suggested,
who exhibits such rationality and intelligence as is in-
fluenced to the greatest degree, and from the greatest
number of sources.

There are other religious problems for which the
theory presented in this book seems to furnish a satis-
factory solution. But they need not be considered
here. All can be included, in a general way, among
those that have been mentioned.

It only remains for the author now to write a single
concluding sentence. Perhaps he may be excused for
putting it in this form — that if his readers can not
accept the premises, the methods, or the conclusions
of his volume, nevertheless a sufficient excuse for the

CONCLUSION 335

writing of it will be furnished to himself, if only it
have so emphasized the general subject as to convince
thoughtful men of its supreme importance; and if only,
influenced by an endeavor to correct whatever in the
argument seems misleading, some wiser man than he
shall let the world know why the theory that has here
been presented is wrong, and why some other theory
is right.

INDEX

ABSOLUTE right, 311; truth, 17, 25,

33-35, 43, 45, 132, 151, 311.
Accuracy of Bible and Sacred Wri-

tings, 4-6, 307, 308, 322.
A life in song, 326.
Ambiguity in Bible and Sacred Wri-

tings, 4-7, 179, 180.
Ancestral worship, 294, 295, 298.
Animal mental action, 81-85.
Apparitions, 67, 68, 73, 77, 86-89; see

Spirits.

Appearances; see Forms.
Appetites, higher and lower, 249, 250.
Aquinas, x., 132.
Arguments of Bible, 31-33.
Arnold, Matthew, 80.
Associations, mental and ethical influ-

ence of, 255-258.
Augustine, x.
Authority, used to control religious or

church belief or practise, 179-186,

214-229, 296, 297.

BACON, F., 273.

Bible, arguments in, 31-33; develop-
ment of truth in revelation in, 153;
history in, 28, 29; injunctions in, 33-
36; literalism in, 41-43; prophesy in,
29-31; rational interpretation of,
162-168; truth as represented in,
28-40; see Scriptures and Sacred
Writings.

Biblical communications analogous to
those of nature, 170-172; state-
ments suggestive not dictatorial,
169-177; susceptible of misinterpre-
tation, 105, 106; views of spiritism,
100, 297, 298.

Blind Tom, 64.

Buddha, 203, 295, 297, 299.

Buddhists, 302, 304.

, x., 132.

Candor in theological discussions, xi.
Cathedral services, 233.
Catholic Church, 218, 220-222.
Certainty claimed when suggestion is

experienced, 206, 207.
Character, personal, chief source of re-

ligious influence, 259-262, 272; see

Example and Personality.
Changes in truth and opinion, 12, 41-45.
Children and truth, 49.
Christ, the, as influencing faith and

character, 240, 242, 258-264, 269-

274, 282-284, 289, 301; humanity of,

and doctrine of Trinity, 194, 195;
influence of, in salvation, 192-205;
miraculous birth of, 195-198.

Christian life, 236-246.

Christianity, benefited by other re-
ligions, 299-300; historic, as an ar-
gument for church unity, 224-226;
its peculiarity, 301, 302.

Church, a means not an end, 211, 212;
and scientists, 321-323; attendance
on, 181, 182; effect on character of
its services, 258-264; external unity
of, 218, 219, 224-227, 286; history
of, 215, 216, 224-226; Us discipline,
dogmas, and worship, 210-246; its
exercise of authority, 179, 180, 214-
229, 296, 297; its influence on con-
duct, 259-264; on faith, 277-286;
on opinion, 213-229; on thought,
216-218, 285, 286; preaching, 272;
uniformity detrimental to senti-
ment and character, 218-229; primi-
tive form of, 226, 227; Scriptural
conception of, 212.

Church-membership, 320-325; require-
ments for, 246, 320, 321.

Churchill, .1. W., 64.

Coburn, 63.

Coleridge, 34, 58.

Compilation in Bible may be inspired,
158-161.

Conduct, influence on, of the church and
religipn, 218-222, 236-246, 256-264.

Confessions; see creeds.

Conformity, religious, 218-229.

Confucius, 295, 299.

Confucianists, 302, 304.

Conscience, 248, 249, 250-256, 261,
262, 266-268, 276, 311, 312.

Conscious and subconscious spheres of
mind, 55-106; influence of conscious
over subconscious intellection, 92—
100, 147-156; relation to conscience,
248-254; to faith, 266-268, 275, 284,
285, 314; see Spiritual.

Consciousness; see Conscience and
Conscious.

Contradiction in the Bible, 307-309;
see Inaccuracy.

Conversion, 116, 120, 271-274; through
hypnotism, 117, 118.

Creation, explained by hypnotism, 119,
120; by psychometry, 160.

Creeds, 26, 28; as repeated in church,
236; origin of, 184-186; use of in
churches, 179-181.

337

338

INDEX

Crime, details of, should not be pub-
lished, 256, 257.
Cumont, F., 130.

DARK AGES, 185, 241.

Desires higher and lower as related to
conscience, 249-253.

Development of character, 40; of truth
in the Bible revelation, 153.

Discipline in the Church. 236-246.

Distance, occult perception of, 65-68.

Dogmas, 26, 28.

Dogmatism, as connected with au-
thority, 213-229; with considering
Biblical truth suggestive, 178-209;
with conserving truth, 40-42; with
external organization, 211, 212;
with faith, 277-286; with hymns
and rituals, 232-236.

Doubt, a means of grace, 40.

EDUCATION, effect of, on mental con-
scious action, 77, 78, 93, 94; in
countries with unreformed churches,
195; of the young, 255-258.

Environment, effects of on methods of
accepting and expressing truth, 145-
156; influence of on the young, 255-
258.

Evil spirits, worship of, 293, 294.

Expression of suggested or inspired
truth, 110-115, 135-156.

Example, importance of, 258-264.

FAITH, 27, 42, 45, 116, 207, 265-286;
accepts truth as suggestive, 207,
266-271, 283-286, 312-318; and
hypn9tism, 116; and knowledge, 155,
156; in dictates of conscience, 311,
312; influenced by dogmas, 265, 266;
normal and necessary to mental ac-
tion, 313-317; reconciled to ration-
ality, 329-334; versus knowledge,
122-124, 155, 156, 331-334.

Fever, as influencing thought, 58.

Fidelity, a characteristic of faith, 275.

Finite truth, 34, 36, 45.

Forms, truth in, 11-14, 18, 20, 24, 26, 41.

Formulas, 16, 35, 38, 183; see Forms.

Freedom of thought, 216-218; char-
acteristic of a religion founded on
faith, 116, 119, 122-124, 284-286;
intended to be produced by Bible,
285, 286.

French attitude of mind toward re-
ligion, xi., 220, 221.

GENIUS and subconscious intellection,
149.

HABITS, 254-256.

Hamilton, Sir W., 314.

Hebrews, 302.

Herder, 30.

Hero Worship, 294, 295.

Historic Christianity, argument for

one church from, 224-226.
History, use of in Bible, 28, 29.

Hudson, T. J., 102, 116.

Humanity of the Christ, 194, 195;
conception of lessened by the doc-
trine of the Trinity, 194, 195.

Humanitarian effects of the Church,
195, 244-246.

Hymns, 208, 209, 232-235; see Wor-
ship.

Hypnotism, 59, 60, 109-120, 239, 261,
266-269, 271; allied to faith, 112-
114; explaining conversion. 116-118,
120; creation, 119, 120; life after
death, 121; spiritual life of Christian,
118, 119; unity of Christ and be-
lievers, 118; what are its methods,
112-114; what truth is obtained
through it, 146-151; why it explains
inspiration and revelation, 109-114.

IDEALS, 156; in Christianity, 283-286;
in philosophy and science, 315.

Imitation of leaders in religion and
Christianity, 246, 263, 264, 282-284.

Immaculate conception, 195-198.

Immortality; see Life after Death.

Inaccuracy of Bible and Sacred Wri-
tings, 4-6, 307-309.

Inference, logical, as interpreting the
Bible, 166-168.

Injunctions of the Bible, how stated,
33, 34.

Insight, intuitive, as interpreting the
Bible, 165, 166.

Inspiration, 4, 6; doctrine of Biblical,
186-190, 285; meaning of term, 52-
55; results modified by conscious in-
tellection, 95, 96; results allied to
those of hypnotism, 98, 109-132,
140-156; see Sacred Writings.

Instinct, 78, 79.

Instinctive mental action, 79-81.

Interpretation of the Bible, historic,
scientific, literary, 139-142; rational,
161-168.

JAMES, W., 313, 314.

Japan, rationality in, 304, 305.

Jessen, 60.

Joy of the Christian life, 238-246.

KEPLER, 62.
King, H. O., 320.

Knowledge of God, 45-50; versus
faith, 124, 155, 156, 331-334.

LANGUAGE; see Words.

Last Supper, 194, 280, 281.

Lessing, 39.

Letter and spirit, 122-124, 154-156,333.

Liberalism in early Christian church,
287-289; in the modern church, 322-
325; reconciled with loyalty to
church, 320-325.

Life after death, belief in, 73-77, 290-
293; not attributable to imagina-
tion, 290-292; similar views of, 291,
292; suggestions concerning, from
hypnotism, 121.

INDEX

339

Lincoln, religious views of, 320; premo-
nition of, 70.
Literalism, 41-43, 118, 137, 141-146,

177, 285, 286, 333.
Literary interpretation of Scripture,

140-146.
Logic, subconscious, 60-64, 113, 120,

147, 248-254, 266-268, 278-284, 314,

315.
Logical inference in interpreting the

Bible, 166-168.
Love, as related to faith, 118; to truth,

46-48.

Ludlow, J. M., 66.
Luther, x.

MALEBRANCHE, 39.

Marryat, F., 58.

Marshall, H. R., 78.

Mason, R. O., 107.

Materialist, 97, 330-333.

Materializing effects on spiritual truth

of expression, 134-139, 175-177.
Mathematical, subconscious mental

action, 60-64.
Mediums, 5, 6, 53, 69, 71-73, 85-91,

94, 96-106, 268; see Spiritism.
Memory, 57, 58, 248, 254, 275.
Method of operation constitutes the

truth, 13-24, 28-35.
Michelangelo, 36.
Mind-reading, 70. 71.
Ministry, diminishing numbers enter-
ing, viii.; not Christlike, xii., xiii.
Miraculous birth of the Christ, 195-

198.
Missionary effort not discredited by

liberal views, 300, 301.
Mithras, sacraments of, 130.
Modern thought, ix., x.
Mohammed, 9i, 203, 296, 299.
Mohammedanism, 90, 91, 99, 298, 302.
Mormon, 99.

Moses, W. S., 71; the prophet, 296, 299.
Mozart, 63.
Mliller, 75.

Music, church, 232-235.
Musical, subconscious proficiency, 63.
Myths, illustration of origin of, 128-

132.

NEVIUS, J. L., 73.

Negro, occult mental action of, 85.

OCCULT sphere of the mind, 55-95; see

Subconscious.
Organization, necessary in the church,

228.

PARABLES of Bible, purpose of, 32, 37.

Parses, 302.

Personality, its influence in Chris-
tianity and faith, 112-118, 241, 242,
258, 264, 267-269, 270, 272, 277.
282-284; that of God, 190, 191.

Pierce, Dr. C. N., 85.

Practicality in determining truth, 309-
318.

Pragmatism, 309-318.

Prayers, 232, 235, 236; see Worship.

Preaching. 229, 272.

Premonitions, 69, 70.

Progress, 40-44, 317. 318.

Prophecy and premonition, 69, 70; use

of, in Bible, 29, 30.
Protestant, 96; Reformation, x., 183,

185; influence on education and

character, 195, 219-223.
Psychometry, 160.
Punishment, ethereal, 204, 205.

RATIONALISM, xiv.

Rationality, and self-defense, 260; in
interpreting the Bible, 158-168;
necessary in the seer, 155, 156; to
develop this in man the object of
life, 172-175; reconciled with faith
and spirituality, 329-334.

Reason reconciled with revelation,
318-320.

Reformation, Protestant, x., 183, 185,
186; influence on education and
character, 195, 219-223.

Religions, all similar, 129-131, 202-
204; attitude of early Christian to-
ward non-Christian, 287-289; Chris-
tianity benefited by truth in other,
299, 300; truth in all, 288-299, 327.

Repetition, effects of on habits and
character, 257-258.

Responsibility for promptings of con-
science, 254-258.

Revelation, 54, 55; reconciled with
reason, 318-320; see Inspiration.

Revivals, 272, 273, 281.

Rites, effects of, on faith, 277-286.

Rituals, 182, 229-236; see Worship
and Words.

SACRAMENTS, 213; of Mithras, 130.

Sacred Writings, danger of literal in-
terpretation of, 105, 106; differ from
spiritist communications, 105; in-
accuracy in, 4—6; inspiration of, 186—
190, 285; method of interpretation
of, 140, 161-168.

Salvation Army, 242; as the aim of
Christianity, 240; plan of, 198-202.

Schism, effects of, on thought and life,
211, 223, 224.

Scientific, literary, and religious use of
words, 141-145; system, 14.

Scientists, attitude toward religion,
xii., xiii., 321-323.

Scriptures, danger of literal interpre-
taton of, 105, 106; differ from
spiritist communications, 105; inac-
curacy in, 5; inspiration of, 186-
190, 285; method of interpretation
of, 140, 161-168; see Bible, Biblical,
and Writings.

Seance, 88, 89, 297.

Self-preservation, instinct of com-
pared to conscience, 251, 252.

Sentence, represents a method of op-
eration, 21, 22.

340

INDEX

Shakespeare, 141, 142.

Signs and wonders not proving divine
power, 99, 100.

Sincerity not truth, 42, 43, 311.

Space, apprehension of truth in, 10-13.

Spencer, 14.

Spirits, communication with, 297, 298;
worship of good and evil, 293, 294;
see Apparitions, Life After Death,
and Spiritism.

Spiritism, 53, 72, 98-106; and Chris-
tianity, 105, 106, 297, 298; its testi-
monies with reference to spirit-
world similar, 129, 130; its trances,
87-89, 91; Scriptural references to,
100, 297, 298; see Mediums.

Spiritual, in this book, xiv.; life, 27;
meaning of, 52-55; subject to law,
111; truth can not be communicated
except suggestively, 175-177.

Spiritualism; see Spirits and Spiritism.

Spirituality, definition of, 329-334;
reconciled with rationality, 329-334;
world similarly described among all
nations, 129, 130.

Sterrett, J. M., 310.

Subconscious, contrasted with con-
scious sphere of mind, 55-95, 147-
156; degree of truth obtainable
from, 146-151, 248, 249, 266, 268,
314-318; relation to conscience, 248-
256; to faith, 266-268, 275, 284-286,
314; see Logic.

Suggested truth, as related to dogmat-
ism, 178-209; as related to faith,
116, 207, 266-271, 283-286. 314-318;
form and significance in, 134-157.

Suggestion, effects in influencing mind
and character, 122, 123, 154: effects
in stimulating study, 126, 127; ef-
fects upon progress, 171 317-326;
its influence in conversion, 117; in
faith, 116; in hypnotism, 112; in in-
spiring through truth, 107-133; in
reconciling absolute with limited
truth, 309-318; in reconciling con-
tradictions and inaccuracies with in-
spired writing, 307-309; reconciling
liberalism and church loyalty, 320-
325; reconciling new truth with old
traditions, 326-329; reconciling or-
thodoxy with toleration, 325-326;
revelation with reason, 318-320;
spirituality and faith with ration-
ality and intelligence, 329-334.
Suggestive, not dictatorial, character
of Biblical statements, 169-177, 183;
making Biblical , communications
analogous to those in nature, 170-
172; spiritual truth normally com-
municated thus, 175-177.
Swedenborg, 86, 91.

TENNYSON, 40.

Theologians and candor, xi.; future,

132; should study hypnotism, 112.
Thought, repression of its expression,

216-218; see Freedom of Thought.

Time, apprehension of truth of nature
in, 11-13.

Toleration, 325, 226; reconciled with
orthodoxy, 325, 326.

Tradition, as interpreting the Bible,
162-165.

Trance conditions, 87-89, 91.

Trinity, 129, 192-199, 235.

True, its meaning, 17-24.

Truth, and life, 48-50; and love, 46-
48; as absolute, eternal, or infinite,
17, 25, 132; as essential and non-
essential, 2; as represented in the
Bible, 28-40; development of rev-
elation of in Bible, 153-156; in
methods of operation, 13—50; nature
of, 9-49; not in outward forms or
formulas, 10-49; not in space alone,
11; not in time alone, 11, 12; ob-
tained sometimes in hypnotism, 146-
153; spiritual, can be communicated
only suggestively, 175-177; use of
in the Bible, 37-39; what it ex-
presses in the Bible, 28-40.

Tucker, Dr., 65.

UNCONSCIOUS; see Subconscious.

Uneducated, the, particularly, subject
to subconscious influence, 77, 78,
85, 86.

Uniformity of Christian thought and
practise not desirable, 218-229, 286.

Unity of all religions, 288-305; of the
Church intended to be spiritual, 218,
219, 226, 227, 286; of the spirit in
religion, 302-305; spiritual, as illus-
trated by analogies from hypnotism,
118, 119, 193.

Unwritten Word, analogy of its form
and influence to Written W., 125, 139.

VALUE, as criterion of truth, 309-318.
Virgin-birth of the Christ, 195-198.
Voisin, M. A., 117.
Von Hartmann, 60.

WALLACE, W. F , 150.

Words, ambiguity of meaning of, 135-
137; origin of, 136-139; scientific,
literary, and religious use of, 140-
145; symbolic and illustrative in
character, 135-142.

Wordsworth, 81, 139.

Worship of ancestors, 294, 295; of
good and evil spirits, 293-294; of
heroes, 294, 295; in the church, 229-
336; non-effective when dogmatic,
231-236; or irreligious, 209.

Writing, automatic, 71, 72, 90, 91.

Writings, Sacred, ambiguity of, 4-7;
effect upon form of religion where
they are influential, 96; inaccuracy
of, 4-6; see Bible, Biblical, and
Scriptures.

YOUNG, the, as influenced by associa-
tion, environment, arid reading de-
tails of crime, 256, 257.

ZOROASTER, 296, 299.

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Full text of "The psychology of inspiration; an attempt to distinguish religious from scientific truth and to harmonize Christianity with modern thought"

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