Volume Ii Part 41 (1/2)
PRAYER.-On two hypotheses alone is there any sense in prayer, that not quite extinct custom of olden times. It would have to be possible either to fix or alter the will of the G.o.dhead, and the devotee would have to know best himself what he needs and should really desire. Both hypotheses, axiomatic and traditional in all other religions, are denied by Christianity. If Christianity nevertheless maintained prayer side by side with its belief in the all-wise and all-provident divine reason (a belief that makes prayer really senseless and even blasphemous), it showed here once more its admirable ”wisdom of the serpent.” For an outspoken command, ”Thou shalt not pray,” would have led Christians by way of boredom to the denial of Christianity. In the Christian _ora et labora ora_ plays the role of pleasure. Without _ora_ what could those unlucky saints who renounced _labora_ have done? But to have a chat with G.o.d, to ask him for all kinds of pleasant things, to feel a slight amus.e.m.e.nt at one's own folly in still having any wishes at all, in spite of so excellent a father-all that was an admirable invention for saints.
75.
A HOLY LIE.-The lie that was on Arria's lips when she died (_Paete, non dolet_(19)) obscures all the truths that have ever been uttered by the dying. It is the only holy _lie_ that has become famous, whereas elsewhere the odour of sanct.i.ty has clung only to _errors_.
76.
THE MOST NECESSARY APOSTLE.-Among twelve apostles one must always be hard as stone, in order that upon him the new church may be built.
77.
WHICH IS MORE TRANSITORY, THE BODY OR THE SPIRIT?-In legal, moral, and religious inst.i.tutions the external and concrete elements-in other words, rites, gestures, and ceremonies-are the most permanent. They are the body to which a new spirit is constantly being superadded. The cult, like an unchangeable text, is ever interpreted anew. Concepts and emotions are fluid, customs are solid.
78.
THE BELIEF IN DISEASE _QUA_ DISEASE.-Christianity first painted the devil on the wall of the world. Christianity first brought the idea of sin into the world. The belief in the remedies, which is offered as an antidote, has gradually been shaken to its very foundations. But the belief in the disease, which Christianity has taught and propagated, still exists.
79.
SPEECH AND WRITINGS OF RELIGIOUS MEN.-If the priest's style and general expression, both in speaking and writing, do not clearly betray the religious man, we need no longer take his views upon religion and his pleading for religion seriously. These opinions have become powerless for him if, judging by his style, he has at command irony, arrogance, malice, hatred, and all the changing eddies of mood, just like the most irreligious of men-how far more powerless will they be for his hearers and readers! In short, he will serve to make the latter still more irreligious.
80.
THE DANGER IN PERSONALITY.-The more G.o.d has been regarded as a personality in himself, the less loyal have we been to him. Men are far more attached to their thought-images than to their best beloved. That is why they sacrifice themselves for State, Church, and even for G.o.d-so far as he remains _their_ creation, their thought, and is not too much looked upon as a personality. In the latter case they almost always quarrel with him.
After all, it was the most pious of men who let slip that bitter cry: ”My G.o.d, why hast thou forsaken me?”
81.