PREFATORY REMARKS." READERS Who are theological specialists, or who have devoted years of time and labor to this branch of study, will find few original investigations, though perhaps some novel ideas, in these pages. The object of the author is, to introduce a general theorem as the probable basis of such practical doctrines as can be maintained in the future, now that theological criticism has demonstrated the unsound foundations of many of the hitherto received dogmatic beliefs. Such criticism has been, hitherto, chiefly destructive in its character; but the scope of the present work is constructive; it is to point out to general readers a philosophically sound basis for religious trust and practice in the future. As the great mass of readers are unfamiliar with investigations that are quite hackneyed to well-read theologians of the modern school, a general knowledge of the results of such investigations has been attempted to be given, (together with some new suggestions of the author's,) as introductory to his statement of the general religious theorem. To prepare the way for a sound and rational belief, the uninitiated must first be made aware of what is unsound, philosophically, in dogmas generally received. The general theorem, which will be the acknowledged foundation, as I conceive, of the future religion of cultivated man, as it has been, partially recognized and more or less obscurely stated, that of the most ancient beliefs, — is explained in chap. For authorities quoted, see Index of Names at end of the work. ix vi. at length, and illustrated throughout the work. Some remarks on the probable practical working of this doctrine in the future, will be found at or near the close. Future religion must, evidently, either take the direction which the Church is now taking, towards greater personality, or proceed in that of greater spirituality or intellectuality. The contention of this book is, that the latter course is more in accord with the facts of nature and science, and, therefore, must ultimately prevail. The religion of the coming century in civilized lands, ― the world's-religion of a not-distant future, will, in the writer's belief, rest mainly on the teaching of Christ, as that teaching becomes separated by criticism from the additions made to it by his disciples and by the early Church, and more fully expounded and understood. The Great Unity, the Unity of Life, physical and spiritual, will be recognized as a prominent feature of the Master's teaching. But the Christianity of the future will be relieved from the incubus of the marvellous and the legendary. Thus relieved, the great stumbling-block in the way of the spread of Christ's religion will be removed. The Brahmist of India, the Booddhist and the Confucian of China and Japan, the cosmopolitan Israelite, the disciple of Zoroaster, and even the proud Mohammedan, strong in the confidence of his pure monotheism, will gladly acknowledge the pre-eminent superiority of the teaching and the life-example of the Nazarene, when no longer required to accept the repulsive dogma of a complex Deity, and when the great teachers of these great world-faiths are by Christians admitted to honor as the Master's worthy coadjutors in the work of bringing to pass upon earth the true Kingdom of the one God, the reign of his Father and of man's Father, of his God and the God of the universe. In regard to one of these great teachers, Gautama, — as I have taken the generally received view that he was an Agnostic as to belief in Deity, neither asserting nor denying, but rather ignor ing a God; it is right to add that the lately published translation and criticism of the "Tevigga Sutta," which came out after my sketch of Gautama was stereotyped, gives us good reason to believe that he fully acknowledged God (Brahm), and held with the Vedantists, that the righteous soul becomes finally re-united to this Supreme Soul, its source. TURE CONCEPTIONS OF RELIGION.- RATIONAL EXPECTATION OF ANOTHER LIFE ON PHYSICAL GROUNDS. THE grand questions, the answers to which are the objects of all religious inquiry and the substance of all creeds, may be stated as follows: 1. What is the origin of man and of the universe? (This involves the question of God.) 2. What is the duty of man? 3. What is the future of man? In the most uncultivated races, and at the earliest periods of history, no sooner does man begin to think, when passing beyond the mere animalism of savagery and of infancy, than he is struck by the fact of his being surrounded by a vast and wonderful universe, which is entirely independent of him. The question as to its origin and his own is very soon suggested to his mind, and this question in turn soon suggests the idea of mysterious invisible Power as an originating cause: this thought, again, gives rise to the feeling of indebtedness to that Power for existence, the hope of continued benefits, the fear of his wrath, the desire, in short, to propitiate the great Invisi ble. The idea of an intelligence and power far superior to his own is naturally clothed by him with an anthropomorphic form and nature, because he is unable to conceive I |