Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors Part 4

The distinction between the two seems to be this: The naturalists in theology a.s.sert that G.o.d comes to man through nature, and nature _only_; the supernaturalist declares that G.o.d comes to man, not only through nature, but also by other methods outside of nature, or above nature.

There is no question between them as to natural religion. Both admit that; supernaturalists believe all that naturalists believe, only they believe something more.

But how is _nature_ to be defined? What is meant by nature? Various definitions are given; but we wish for one now which shall really express the issue taken in this controversy. So we may define nature as law. All the nexus or web of existing substances and forces which are under law belong to nature. All that happens outside of these laws is either preternatural, unnatural, subternatural, or supernatural. If it is something _outside of law_, but _not violating_ it, _nor coming_ from a higher source, we call it _preter_natural; like magic, ghosts, sorcery, fairies, genii, and the like. What _violates_ law is _un_natural. What is so low down that it lies below law, as chaos before creation; or nebulous matter not yet beginning to obey the law of gravitation; or intelligences, like Mephistopheles or Satan, who have sunk so low in sin as to have lost the perception of right and wrong, is _subternatural_, _below_ nature.

What belongs to a religion above the laws of time and s.p.a.ce, above the finite, is supernatural.

Thus brutes, and men like brutes, who are below the moral law, are _subter_natural as regards that law. We do not call it a sin in a tiger to kill a man, for he is _below_ law as regards sin. He is _below_ the moral law. Again, we can conceive of angels so high up as to be above the moral law, in part of its domain, not capable either of common virtue or of common sin, according to _our_ standards of morality, though perhaps under some higher code of ethics. They are supernatural beings as regards _that_ law-the moral law of this world. As regards some parts of the moral law, there are, no doubt, mult.i.tudes of human beings above it even in this world. There are many persons quite incapable of swearing, lying, stealing, getting drunk, flying into a pa.s.sion, and to whom, therefore, it is no virtue to avoid these vices. They are simply _above_ that part of the moral law. They are _super_natural beings as respects that part of human character.

After these ill.u.s.trations, we can see what is meant by _supernaturalism_.

If there is anything in this world which comes from above the world, and not from the existing laws of being, _that_ is supernatural.

-- 2. The Creation Supernatural.

In this sense, all but atheists must admit the supernatural. If, for example, you admit the _creation of the world_ by G.o.d, that was a supernatural act; _that_ did not come from the existing laws of the world, because it created those laws. All the order and beauty of the world, its variety and harmony, its infinite adaptation of part to part, and each to all,-these existed in G.o.d's mind before they existed in nature. They were supernatural, as ideas, before they appeared in nature as facts. And if, as most geologists suppose, the crust of the earth denotes a long series of creations, successive epochs, at the close of each of which new forms of vegetable and animal life appeared, then each of these was a new creation; that is, a new supernatural act of the Almighty.

The physical world, therefore, shows a power above itself. The natural testifies to the supernatural, the all to the over-all. The existing web of laws gives evidence of MIND, outside of itself, above itself, arranging and governing it.

-- 3. The Question stated.

This being granted, the question between naturalism and supernaturalism is, whether this superintending mind, which came from above the world into it by acts of creation, when the world was made, has or has not come into it subsequently. We have a series of creations down to the time that man arrived on the earth. When _he_ came, he was a supernatural being, and his coming a supernatural event. Unless we a.s.sume that he was developed, by existing laws, out of some ape, gorilla, or chimpanzee, his coming was supernatural. Now, did supernatural events cease then, and since that time has the world gone on of itself? or have there been subsequent incursions from a higher sphere-a new influx from above, from time to time, adding something new to nature? Naturalism says no; supernaturalism says yes.

-- 4. Argument of the Supernaturalist from successive Geologic Creations.

The supernaturalist says, G.o.d comes to us in both ways-through nature; that is, through the order of things already established; and also by new creative impulses, coming in, from time to time, from above. He contends that such a new creative impulse came into the world through Jesus Christ, adding a new substance and new forms to those already existing-a new life not before in the world, proceeding according to new laws. This new creation, as the Scriptures themselves term it, is Christianity. This is also said to be in a.n.a.logy with the course of events. For, if there has been a series of creations before, bringing animals into the world, and higher forms of physical life,-if these have been created by new supernatural impulses coming in at intervals of hundreds of thousands of years,-why deny that another impulse may have come in four thousand years, or forty thousand years, after man was created, to add a new form of spiritual life to society?

In the world, as it was at first, there was not a living plant or animal; after thousands of years, or millions of years, there came into the broad seas of the lower Silurian epoch, some of the lowest kinds of animals and seaweeds, a few trilobites and mollusks, but no plants save fucoids. Next came, after a long time, a few cartilaginous fishes and corals. A long time pa.s.sed-thousands of years rolled by: then came real fishes and land plants in what is called the Devonian period, or the old red sandstone.

After a great while came the period to which belongs all the coal formation; and in that carboniferous epoch first appears a whole vegetable world of trees and plants, to the number of nine hundred and thirty-four species. Some insects arrived at this time, as beetles, crickets, and c.o.c.kroaches, which are, therefore, much more venerable than man. More thousands of years go by: then the earth receives a new creation in the form of gigantic frogs, enormous reptiles, and strange fishes. But as yet no mammal has come-not a bird nor a quadruped has been seen on the earth.

Then, after another long period, these appear, in what is called the _tertiary_ period; until, at last, some remains of man are found, in the diluvium, or gravel. Geology thus, once thought to be atheistic, gives its testimony to a long series of supernatural facts; that is, to the successive creation, after long intervals, of entirely new genera and species of vegetables and animals. As you turn these great stone leaves of that majestic ma.n.u.script roll written by G.o.d's hand, which we call the earth, you and he has been writing new things on each page, new facts and laws, not on any former leaf. New types of life, not prepared for by any previous one,-by no slow evolution, but by a sudden step,-break in. On the previous rocky page is to be found not one of their species, genus, order, or even cla.s.s, to point back to any possible progenitor. So that the globe itself says, from these eternal monuments of rock, "Behold the history of supernatural events written on me." Each creation is higher than the last: finally man is created. But still from above, from outside the world, the creative life is ready to be poured in. Only the next creation is to be moral and spiritual, not physical. No new physical forms are now added, but a new moral life is poured into man, making _him_ a new creation of G.o.d. "For if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature." The a.n.a.logy was so striking, that the apostles noticed it, and constantly speak of Christ as the medium of a new creation.

-- 5. Supernatural Argument from Human Freedom.

But there is another example of the supernatural element in the world. Dr.

Bushnell, in his book called "Nature and the Supernatural," contends that man is capable of supernatural acts; that, in fact, every really _free_ act is, and must be, a supernatural act. To those who hold the doctrine of necessity, this is, of course, no argument. But they who believe, in the testimony of their own consciousness, that they are free beings; who feel that they are not dragged helplessly by the strongest motive, but can resist it or yield to it; who, therefore, feel themselves responsible for what they do, or omit to do, they can see that in a real sense they create new influences. Their actions are not results of previous causes, but are new causes, not before in the world. Some supernatural power dwells in man's will just as far as it is made free by reason and choice. Man stands between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and error, with the power of choosing either one or the other. If he chooses one, he sends a power into society, life, humanity, to help it forward; if the other, he sends in a power to hold it back. This power is not from man's nature, but from something in him outside his nature. When he acts from habit, impulse, pa.s.sion, and not from choice, he is simply a natural being; when he acts from choice, he is not a natural being, but either a _super_natural or a _subter_natural being, according as he chooses good or evil. When he chooses good, he rises above the natural man into the sphere of angels; when he chooses evil, he sinks below the natural man into the sphere of brutes or demons.

-- 6. Supernatural Events not necessarily Violations of Law.

Now, says the supernaturalist, if we have all this evidence to show that G.o.d not only acts through nature, by carrying on existing forces and laws, but also has repeatedly come into nature with new creations, not there before,-and if even man himself has a certain limited but strictly supernatural power, so as to be able to stand outside of the nexus of law, and act upon it,-why deny, as incredible, that G.o.d should have made a new moral creation in Christianity? should have created a new cla.s.s, order, genus, and species of spiritual beings, not represented before by any existing congeners? And why question that what we call miracles-that is, physical interferences with natural laws-should have attended this sudden influx of spiritual life? We do not claim, says the judicious supernaturalist (like Dr. Bushnell, for example), that miracles are suspensions or violations of natural laws; but that they are the natural modification of the agency of such laws by a new and powerful influence.

Of this, too, there is ample a.n.a.logy in nature. The mineral kingdom, for example, is pa.s.sively subject to mechanical and chemical laws, which are resisted and modified by plants and animals. A stone obeys pa.s.sively the law of gravitation; a plant resists it, rises into the air in opposition to it. Such a proceeding on the part of a plant must seem to a stone a pure miracle. If a piece of granite should write a book of theology, it would probably say that the plant, in growing up, had violated or suspended a law of nature. But it has not. The force of gravitation has worked on according to its own law; it has been dragging the plant downward all the time, only the vital power in the plant has overcome its force, and modified the result. And, again, a tree, seeing a dog run to and fro, might call that a miracle. The tree, unable to move from its place, could not conceive of the possibility of voluntary motion. But no law of nature is violated; only a higher power comes in-the power of animal life.

To a dog, again, the proceedings of a _man_ are strictly miraculous. To plant corn, reap it, thresh it, grind it, and bake bread out of it, is exactly as much a miracle to the dog, as the multiplication of loaves, or turning water into wine, by Christ, is a miracle to us. But no law of nature was violated in either case. Reason in the one case, some profounder spiritual power in the other, may have modified the usual operation of law, and produced these results.

The Orthodox supernaturalist therefore contends that the supernatural is a constant element of life. Higher natures are all supernatural to lower natures, but natural in themselves, because obedient to the laws of their own nature. Nature, without this supernatural element, is only a machine, of which G.o.d, standing outside, turns the handle. This is a low conception both of nature and of G.o.d. As Goethe says, in one of his immortal lyrics,-

"Not so, outside, doth the Creator linger, Nor let the all of things run round his finger, But moves its centre, not its outer rim; Comes down to nature, draws it up to him; Moving within, inspiring from above, With currents ever new of light and love."

-- 7. Life and History contain Supernatural Events.

And besides all this, says the supernaturalist, we have continued and constant evidences, in all history and in all human experience, of the existence of this supernatural element. Only a small minority of mankind have ever doubted it; and those are men so immersed in physical science, or so hampered by some logical manacles, or so steeped in purely worldly affairs, as to be incapable of seeing the supernatural facts which are recurrent evermore. Christianity itself has been an uninterrupted series of supernatural events. The physical miracles of Christ are nothing to the spiritual miracles which Christianity is always working. Bad men are made good, weak men strong, cowardly men brave, ignorant and foolish men wise, by a supernatural influence given in answer to prayer, poured down into hearts and minds which open themselves to receive it. The conversion of a bad man by the power of Christianity is a miracle. The power of faith, hope, love, which every Christian has experienced, coming into him, not through any operation of his nature, but simply poured into his soul from some higher sphere,-this makes all argument unnecessary to one who has had ever so little Christian experience.

This is the substance of Orthodox supernaturalism; and this seems to me to be its truth, separated from its errors.

The naturalism of the present time we conceive to be partly directed against a false supernaturalism, and partly to be a mistake arising from a too exclusive attention to the _order_ of the universe, as expressed in _law_.

-- 8. The Error of Orthodox Supernaturalism.

Supernaturalism has generally disregarded G.o.d in nature, and only sees him in revelation. It has allowed a sort of natural religion, but only in the way of an argument to prove the existence of G.o.d by what he did a long time ago. But it has not gone habitually to nature to _see_ G.o.d there, incarnate in sun, moon, and stars; incorporate in spring, summer, autumn, and winter; in day and night; in the human soul, reason, love, will. G.o.d has been all around us, never far from us; but theology has only been willing to see him in Jewish history, in sacred books, or on Sundays in church. Let us see him there all we can, but see him also in every rippling brook, in every tender flower, in all beauty, all sublimity, all arrangement and adaptation of this world. No wonder that naturalism should come to do what the Church has left undone-to find its G.o.d and Father in this great and wonderful world which he has made for us. The creed says, "G.o.d the Father, G.o.d the Son, and G.o.d the Holy Ghost;" that is, G.o.d the _Creator_, seen in Nature and Providence; G.o.d the _Redeemer_, seen in Christianity; and G.o.d the _Sanctifier_, seen in every righteous and holy soul. But the Church has neglected its own creed, and omitted _G.o.d the Creator_, often also G.o.d the Sanctifier, and has only seen G.o.d in _Christianity_, in its history, its Church, its doctrines, its ceremonies.(8) Against this, naturalism comes as a great and needed protest, and calls us to see G.o.d also in nature and life.

Then the Church has been too apt to teach a miraculous revelation, in which the miracles are violations of law. But as G.o.d is confessedly the author of law, it has made the Deity violate his own laws; that is, has made him inconsistent, arbitrary, irregular, and wilful. Deep in the human mind G.o.d has himself rooted a firm faith in the immutability of law; so that when miracles are thus defined, naturalism justly objects to them.

-- 9. No Conflict between Naturalism and Supernaturalism.

But between true naturalism and true supernaturalism we do not think there need be any war. We know that there are many men so rooted in their faith in nature, that they cannot see anything outside of it, or beyond it. To them G.o.d is law, and law only. Even creation is repugnant to them, because they see that creation is really a supernatural thing. Hence come the theories of development; the "Vestiges of Creation;" the nebular hypothesis; the Darwinian theory of formation of species by natural selection; the notion of man coming out of an ape; pantheistic notions of a G.o.d so immersed in nature as to be not its intelligent guide, but only its unconscious soul; the whole universe proceeding according to an order which is just as much above G.o.d's knowledge as above ours. Now, the best geologists a.s.sure us that there is no evidence in support of the trans.m.u.tation of species. Mr. Darwin's theory of the formation of species by natural selection is this: In the struggle for life, the strongest and best adapted animal lives, the rest die. This animal transmits to its offspring its own superior qualities; so a higher animal is gradually developed. For example, the giraffe was not made by G.o.d with a long neck in order that it might browse on the leaves of high trees. But when leaves were scarce, the animal who happened to have a neck a little longer than the rest was able to get leaves. So he lived, and the rest died. His children had longer necks by the law of hereditary transmission. So, in the course of ages, animals were gradually found with very long necks.

Thus the walrus has a curved horn growing downwards from his lower jaw, by which he climbs on to the floating ice. We must not suppose, however, that G.o.d gave him the tusk for that purpose; but the walrus, or seal, who happened to have a little h.o.r.n.y bone under his chin, could climb on the ice and get his food more easily, and so he lived, while the rest died; and his descendants in the course of a few hundreds of thousands of years came, by repeating this process, to have horns, and so this species of phoca arrived.

It is certainly possible to believe this theory. But in believing it we have to suppose two things; first, a happy accident, and then a law of transmission of hereditary qualities. Now, the theory subst.i.tutes this law of transmission and these happy accidents for the creative design. Is anything gained thereby? The domain of law is extended a little. But extend it as much as you will, you must at last come to something above law. Suppose these laws by which walrus and giraffe came, were all in the original nebula, so that no Creator has been needed since, and nothing supernatural-nature has done it all since. But who put the laws there to begin with? You have to take the supernatural at last, or else suppose an accident to begin with. Accidentally, all these wonderful laws happened to be in a particular nebula. He who shrinks from this supposition accepts the supernatural, all at once, at the beginning, instead of the supernatural all the way along, "What does he gain by it?" He gains merely this, that he puts the Creator out of sight; or rather, puts himself out of sight of the Creator. He wors.h.i.+ps the great G.o.d _Development_ instead.