Part 9 (2/2)

Pursuing this comparison between Jesus and modern life, I inscribed upon the handsome churches whose pews bring enormous incomes, and on the palatial residences of Bishops, with salaries of from twenty-five to a hundred thousand dollars, these words:

”How hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of Heaven,” and, ”It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.”

In plain words, the gospel condemns wealth, and cries, ”Woe unto you rich,” and ”Sell all thou hast and give it to the poor,” which, by the way, would only be s.h.i.+fting the temptation of wealth from one cla.s.s to another. Buckle was nearer the truth, and more modern in spirit, when he ascribed the progress of man to the pursuit of truth and the acquisition of wealth.

But let us apply the teachings of Jesus to still other phases of modern life. Some years ago our Cuban neighbors appealed to the United States for protection against the cruelty and tyranny of Spanish rule.

We sent soldiers over to aid the oppressed and down-trodden people in the Island. Now, suppose, instead of sending iron-clads and admirals,--Schley, Sampson and Dewey,--we had advised the Cubans to ”resist not evil,”

and to ”_submit_ to the powers that be,” or suppose the General of our army, or the Secretary of our navy, had counseled seriously our soldiers to remember the words of Jesus when fighting the Spaniards: ”If a man smite thee on one cheek,” etc. Write upon our halls of justice and courthouses and statute books, and on every lawyer's desk, these solemn words of Jesus: ”He that taketh away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.”

Introduce into our Const.i.tution, the pride and bulwark of our liberties, guaranteeing religious freedom unto all,--these words of Paul: ”If any man preach any other gospel than that which I have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Think of placing nearly fifty millions of our American population under a curse!

Tell this to the workers in organized charities: ”Give to every man that asketh of thee,” which, if followed, would make a science of charity impossible.

To the workingmen, or the oppressed seeking redress and protesting against evil, tell this: ”Blessed are they that are persecuted,” which is equivalent to encouraging them to submit to, rather than to resist, oppression.

Or upon our colleges and universities, our libraries and laboratories consecrated to science, write the words: ”The wisdom of this world is foolishness with G.o.d,” and ”G.o.d has chosen the foolish to confound the wise.”

Ah, yes, the foolish of Asia, it is true, succeeded in confounding the philosophers of Europe. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, did replace Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, Caesar and the Antonines! But it was a trance, a spell, a delirium only, and it did not last,--it could not last. The charm is at last broken. Europe is forever free from the exorcism of Asia.

I believe the health and sanity and virtue of our Europe would increase a hundred fold, if we could, from this day forth, cease to pretend professing by word of mouth what in our own hearts and lives we have completely outgrown. If we could be sincere and brave; if our leaders and teachers would only be honest with themselves and honest with the modern world, there would, indeed, be a new earth and a new humanity.

But the past is past. It is for us to sow the seeds which in the day of their fruition shall emanc.i.p.ate humanity from the pressing yoke of a stubborn Asiatic superst.i.tion, and push the future even beyond the beauty and liberty of the old Pagan world!

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figures on a Phoenician Vase, Showing the Use of the Cross, Evidently in Some Ceremony of a Religious Nature.]

CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM

Christianity as an Asiatic cult is not suitable to European races. To prove this, let us make a careful comparison between Paganism and Christianity. There are many foolish things, and many excellent things, in both the Pagan and the Christian religions. We are not concerned with particular beliefs and rites; it is Paganism as a philosophy of life, and Christianity as a philosophy of life, that we desire to investigate. And at the threshold of our investigation we must bear in mind that Paganism was born and grew into maturity in Europe, while Asia was the cradle of Christianity. It would be superfluous to undertake to prove that in politics, in government, in literature, in art, in science, in the general culture of the people, Europe was always in advance of Asia.

Do we know of any good reason, when it comes to religion, why Asia should be incomparably superior to anything Europe has produced in that line? Unless we believe in miracles, the natural inference would be that a people who were better educated in every way than the Asiatics should have also possessed the better religion. I admit that this is only inferential, or _a priori_ reasoning, and that it still remains to be shown by the recital of facts, that Europe not only ought to have produced a better religion than Asia, but that she did.

In my opinion, between the Pagan and Christian view of life there is the same difference that there is between a European and an Asiatic.

What makes a Roman a Roman, a Greek a Greek, and a Persian a Persian?

That is a very interesting, but also a very difficult question. Why are not all nations alike? Why is the oak more robust than the spruce?

What are the subtle influences which operate in the womb of nature, where ”the embryos of races are nourished into form and individuality?” I cannot answer that question satisfactorily, and I am not going to attempt to answer it at all. We know there is a radical difference between the European and the Asiatic; we know that Oriental and Occidental culture are the ant.i.theses of each other, and nowhere else is this seen more clearly than in their interpretations of the universe, that is to say, in their religions.

In order to understand the Oriental races, we must discover the standpoint from which they take their observations.

But first, it is admitted, of course, that there are Europeans who are more Asiatic in their habits of life and thought than the Asiatics themselves, and, conversely, there are Asiatics who in spirit, energy and progressiveness are abreast of the most advanced representatives of European culture.

Nor has Asia been altogether barren; she has blossomed in many spots, and she nursed the flame of civilization at a time when Europe was not yet even cradled.

To show the intellectual point of view of the Asiatic, let me quote a pa.s.sage from the Book of Job, which certainly is an Oriental composition, and one of the finest:

”How, then, can man be justified with G.o.d, or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? _Man that is a worm, and the son of man, which is a worm_.”

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