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Page 35
Moreover, there is no indication of any cessation of such phenomena. In
these days, when we say that no man should be asked to affirm anything
which he cannot verify, voices of warning and entreaty are vivid, the
consciousness of protection is distinct, support in trial is frequent,
and the evidence that some force, or some person, is steadily leading
humanity toward truth and righteousness is as convincing and constant as
ever.
What shall be said of these facts which are so numerous and so evident
as to make an effort at classification and explanation imperative?
Four answers to this inquiry are possible. Is the old doctrine of
Guardian Angels true? Possibly we may be, individually, under the care
of spiritual beings who are appointed for that service. That conviction
often prevails, although so far as I have observed, not usually in
association with perfect sanity. A man of noble bearing and grave and
solemn manner who was talking about using the telephone for
trans-Atlantic communication, once declared that all men living now are
under the leadership of those who have gone, and that the great of other
times are continuing their work through those now on earth. He added: "I
am confident of my success for I am the representative in these days of
Sir Isaac Newton." Subsequent events proved that Sir Isaac Newton must
have lost most of his common sense since his departure from the earth,
or he would have chosen a more rational representative.
This theory in no way solves the problem before us, but rather
complicates it, because it does not explain how the relation of souls is
adjusted. That there may be some truth in this speculation may be freely
granted. One text at least appears to give it a little confirmation:
"Are not their angels ministering spirits sent forth to minister to such
as shall be the heirs of salvation." That seems to teach that some who
have never dwelt in earthly bodies are the appointed ministers of those
who live on the earth.
Many other persons dismiss this subject by saying that all souls, like
all objects in nature and events in history, are parts of an everlasting
and universal process, and that speculation is useless and a weariness
to the flesh. That is the easiest way out of the difficulty, but it can
be taken only by ignoring the facts. Are all ideas concerning spiritual
ministry delusions? Then how shall we account for the imagination which
is capable of giving birth to such magnificent dreams? And we may
venture to ask also--Who started this movement in which we are all
involved? How comes it that in this cosmic loom such a wondrous fabric
is being woven, if there is no pattern, and no weaver, and will be no
one to enjoy the work when it is finished?
Possibly no one is warned against sin, impelled toward virtue, supported
in sorrow, led into larger visions of truth; and, possibly, truth and
right are also dreams, and the mind itself a delusion; and, possibly,
there is nothing but delusion. Then all study and struggle are useless;
let us go to sleep. But, some one else says, perhaps the phenomena of
which you speak are, in one sense, realities but caused by reactions of
the soul on itself. First it imagines that some spiritual leadership is
desirable, and then it concludes that that leadership is discernible. In
other words, sorrow, sin, relief, joy, truth, right, are only
imaginations born of other imaginations. If any are satisfied with such
reasoning the task of enlightening them is hopeless.
There is another explanation of the sublime, ancient, and world-wide
facts which are before us. It is the answer of Jesus, which is simple,
profound, rational, and satisfying. He told His disciples, when they
were grieving that they should see Him no more, that they would always
have with them the Spirit of Truth who would convict of sin, show things
to come, and lead into all truth. That Spirit in the Scriptures is
called by one of the sweetest and dearest names in the languages of
men--the Comforter. Some have wrongly imagined that the New Testament
teaches that the presence of the Comforter is a new event in human
history. Not so. The Spirit of Truth inspired and sustained the Apostles
and Martyrs as He had sustained the Patriarchs and Prophets and the same
Spirit which is represented as descending upon Jesus at His baptism
brooded upon the face of the waters when the earth was without form and
void.
Jesus teaches that God, as a Spirit, has never been absent from His
creation and never out of touch with the spirits of men. In the
beginning He created; later He inspired, supported, taught, comforted;
and always and everywhere He is present to sustain, to lead, to comfort,
to help, to save, and to bless. How simple, rational, and satisfying is
this interpretation of the phenomena of human history!
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