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Page 42
(3) It is here designed to be asserted that the forces of the invisible
seek to be continually in full play on the intellectual and moral
natures of man. Our unique Christian Scriptures have this thought for
their whole significance. It begins with God's walking with Adam in
the garden, and goes on till it is said, "Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," in the invisible, and by
the invisible, from before the foundation of the visible world. It
includes all time and opportunity between and after; we need specify
only to intensify the conception of the fact. Paul says, "Having
therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day," when
otherwise oppressive circumstances and hate of men seeking to kill him
would have prevented his continuing in life. It is possible for all
who believe to be given power, out of the invisible, to become sons of
God. It has been said that there is power and continuousness enough in
the tides, winds, rotating and revolving worlds for man to make a
machine for perpetual motion. The only difficulty is to belt on. The
great object of life in the visible should be to belt on to the
invisible. Our great Example who did this made his ordinary doing
better than common men's best, his parentheses of thought richer than
other men's paragraphs and volumes. And he left on record for us
promises of greater works than these, at which we stagger through
unbelief. We should not; for men who have lived by the evidence of
things not seen, and sought a city that received Jesus out of sight,
have found that "God is not ashamed to be called their God." They have
wrought marvels that men tell over like a rosary of what is possible to
men. It is beyond the belief of all who have not been touched by the
power of an endless life. But what they do is chiefly valuable as
evidence of what they are. It is little that men quench the violence
of fire, and receive their dead raised to life again. It is great that
they are able to do it. That they hold the hand that holds the world
is something. But that they have eyes to see, a wisdom to choose, and
will to execute the best, is more. Fire may kindle again and the
resurrected die, but the great personality survives.
These forces are not discontinuous, connected with this temporary
world, and liable to cease when it fails. They belong to the
permanent, invisible order of things. Suppose one loses his body.
Then there is no force whereby earth can hold its child any longer to
its breast. It flies on at terrific speed, dwindling to a speck in
unknown distances, and leaving the man amid infinitudes alone. But
there are other attractions. There was One uplifted on a cross to draw
all men unto him. Love has finer attraction for souls than gravitation
has for bodies.
Then all his being thrills with Joy. And past
The comets' sweep, the choral stars above,
With multiplying raptures drawn more swift
He flies into the very heart of love.
It is hoped that the object of this writing is accomplished--to widen
our view of the great principle of continuity in the universe. It is
not sought to dwarf the earth, but to fit it rightly into its place as
a part of a great whole. It is better for a state to be a part of a
glorious union than to be independent; better for a man to belong to
the entirety of creation than to be Robinson Crusoe on his island. We
belong to more than this earth. It is not of the greatest importance
whether we lose it or it lose itself. We look for a "new heavens and a
new earth." We are, or should be, used to their forces, and at home
among their personalities. This universe is a unity. It is not made
up of separate, catastrophic movements, but it all flows on like the
sweetly blended notes of a psalm. "Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the
midst of the sea;" though the heavens be "rolled together as a scroll,"
the stars fall, "even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs," when it
is shaken with the wind, and though our bodies are whelmed in the
removal of things that can be shaken. For even then we may find the
calm force that shakes the earth is the force that is from everlasting
to everlasting; may find that it is personal and loving. It says, "Lo,
it is I; be not afraid."
Whatever comes, whether one sail the spaces in the great ship we call
the world, or fall overboard into Mississippis and Amazons of power in
which worlds are mere drifting islands, he will be at peace and at home
anywhere. He will ever say:
"The winds that o'er my ocean run
Blow from all worlds, beyond the sun;
Through life, through death, through faith, through time,
Great breaths of God, they sweep sublime,
Eternal trades that cannot veer,
And blowing, teach us how to steer;
And well for him whose joy, whose care,
Is but to keep before them fair.
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