Religion elevates him who is devoted to her service above ‘Time as such, above the Transient and the Perishable, and puts him in immediate possession of Eternity. On the one original Divine Life his eye reposes; there his love is rooted; whatever seems to be beyond this one original Life, is not beyond it but within it, and is merely a temporary form ofits development according to an absolute Law which likewise lies within itself; he sees all things only in and through this one original Life, and in every individual life he sees the whole Infinite Universe of Being. His view is thus always the view of the Eternal, and what he sees, he sees as Eternal and in the Eternal: nothing can truly de which is not, even on that very account, Eternal. Every fear of perishing in death, every effort to discover ap artificial proof of the immortality of the soul, lies far beneath him. In every moment of bis existence he has immediate possession of the Eternal Life with all its Blessedness; and he needs no argument or inference to prove the truth of that which he possesses in ever-present consciousness. There is no more striking proof that the knowledge of the True Religion has hitherto been very rare among men, and that in particular it is a stranger in the prevailing systems, than this, that they universally 268 LECTURE XVI.
place Eternal Blessedness beyond the grave, and never for a moment imagine that whoever will, may here, and at once, be Blessed.
This is the True Religion. What we maintained above, —that this Religion never comes forth in outward manifestation, nor reveals itself in external results, but is only the perfection of man’s inward being,—this has been thoroughly confirmed by our delineation. The Religious Man, indeed, does all those things without ex- ception which the Law of Duty enjoins; but he does them not as a Religious Man, for he was already bound to do them, independently of all Religion, as a purely Moral Man;—as a Religious Man, he does the same things, but he does them with a nobler, freer inspira- tion. We must, however, necessarily pass through Pure Morality before we can attain Religion; for Religion is the Love of the Divine Life and Will, and he who obeys this Will reluctantly can never love it. By Morality we are first trained to obedience; and from habitual obedience Love arises as its sweetest fruit and reward.
But how shall our poor perplexed and harassed Human Race ever attain this Religion, and by its means be brought into this haven of secure repose? Some conditions which must previously be brought about we can easily indicate. In the first place, the Civil condition of the State and its internal and external peace must be firmly established. The empire of Good Mannerg must have commenced; the State must have no longer to struggle with its own necessities, or to impose them on its Citi- zens; this is necessary in order that quiet and leisure may be obtained. According to what we have said in our previous discourses, all this has already come to pass by means of Christianity as the fundamental principle of modern times; and in that same principle we have the assurance that this progress will still continue, and be carried out into farther and yet more perfect results. In PUBLIC RELIGION OF THE PRESENT AGE. 209 this respect Christianity itself, by means of its external relations, bas fashioned and prepared the world on which it is destined to burst forth with all its inward and essen- tial nobleness; and our whole view of modern times has thus acquired a new significance, and the keystone has been placed on the completed structure of our inquiry.
In this state of order and tranquillity Mankind, or at least a large portion of them, must necessarily elevate them- selves, in the first place, to Pure Morality. At this point, the power of the State, and the unconscious influence of Christianity in its external relations, come to anend. The State, as we have already seen, can impel its Citizens to negative Good Manners by means of Legislation and Go- vernment, and to positive Good Manners by means of the establishment of Equal Rights for all; and it may thus remove the most powerful obstacles to the development of Pure Morality; but it cannot impel them to this Morality itself, for the source of this Jies within themselves, in their own minds, and in their own free will.
How much less then does it lie within the power of the State again to raise the great mass of its Citizens, or at least a large portion of them, from this generally diffused Morality to the higher dignity of True Religion. Whatever may be done in future times for the diffusion of this True Religion by great men whose hearts may be powerfully animated by its presence,—whatever these may.do as in- dividuals——the State, as such, must never propose this purpose to itself; for its efforts would unavoidably prove abortive, and produce something quite different from the end desired. Indeed, I may add that no State will pro- pose this purpose to itself, for the maxim which we have now laid down will one day be universally recognised.
How then shall an impulse arise by which Mankind may be moved to the acknowledgment and diffusion of True Religion? I answer, in the same way that all progress in Religious Knowledge has hitherto been brought about; 270 LECTURE XVI.
by Individual Men, who, although as yet but partially and imperfectly, have still by one point or other of Religion been attracted, animated, and inspired, and have possessed the gift of communicating their inspir- ation to others. Such, in the beginning of modern times, were the Reformers:—such, in later days, when almost the whole of Religion was placed in the maintenance of orthodox systems of Theology, and the inward Reli- gion of the heart was cast forth and neglected, were the so-called Pietistic Teachers, who gained an unquestionable victory; for what is the whole modern Theology, which would reduce the Bible to the level of its own shallow and superficial understanding, but a corruption of the view of the Pietists, retaining the contempt which these Teachers entertained for the orthodox systems of The- ology, but casting aside the holiness of Feeling by which they were guided? And so in our own Age, when it has somewhat recovered and composed itself from the manifold errors with which it has been perplexed and harassed, will Inspired Men arise and bring to it that of which it stands in need, We have finished the task which we proposed to ourselves:—we have delineated, briefly and succinctly as was our purpose, the Characteristics of the Present Age contemplated from those essential principles which belong to all Time. There remains nothing further for us to do but to add a conclusion to the whole. Permit me, for this purpose, to invite you here once again.
ems) LECTURE XVIL CONCLUSION.
In the preceding Lectures we have delineated the Present Age as a necessary part of the great World-Plan on which the Earthly Life of our Race is arranged, and have endea- voured to disclose its secret significance; we have sought to understand the phenomena of the Present by means of this Idea, to bring them forth as the necessary results of the Past, and to predict their immediate consequences in the Future;—and if we have succeeded in this our under-: taking, we have then understood our Age. We have been engaged in these contemplations without thought of our- selves or of our own position. Speculation warns every inquirer, and with good reason, against this self-forgetful- ness. To show the justice of this warning in our own case: —Should our view of the Present Age prove to have been a view taken from the standing-point of this Age itself, should the eye which has taken this view have been itself a product of the Age which it has surveyed, then has the Age borne witness to itself and such testimony must be set aside; and so far from having explored its signifi- cance, we have only added to the number of its phenomena a most superfluous and unproductive one. Whether this has been our position or not, can only be determined by a retrospect of our previous inquiry; and this retrospect can O72 LECTURE XVII.
O72 LECTURE XVII.
only be accomplished by placing our inquiry before us as itself a phenomenon of Time, and indeed of that Age in which it has occurred, namely,—the Present.
But however indispensable it is, in every mental occu- pation, that we should not lose sight of ourselves, it is yet most difficult to do this, particularly to do it aloud; that is, to speak of ourselves. Not indeed that I should find any serious difficulty in speaking of me, the particular in- dividual who now addresses you. In the Introductory Lecture, when I first sought to combine and establish this audience, I spoke without hesitation of myself, what I be- lieve no one has ever taken amiss, and what I do not regret having spoken; but now, at the conclusion of my task, I know not how to utter one word respecting myself which shall be worthy of utterance. The question is not of me; it is not I who have desired to think and to inquire:-— had my thought or inquiry been a matter of any moment, I could have accomplished that without saying aught to any one on the subject; but from such self-contemplation no result for the world could ensue; for what the Individual thinks, or does not think, constitutes no event for his Age; —but it is We, as one company devoted to this purpose, and borne on to unity of thought in absolute forgetfulness of our own individual persons, (as we have often before given outward manifestation of this unity of thought, and do so now)—it is We who have desired to think and to inquire;—and it is to this we, and by no means to my- self, that I refer when J speak of this mental retrospect of ourselves, and of the difficulty of accomplishing it aloud and in public speech. So much in that case strives for utterance which each of us would more fitly think for him- -self, that an incautious man might be misled into touch- ing upon subjects which modesty would rather leave un- touched, and into urging upon the attention considerations which are offensive to the cultivated mind,—not on their own account, but because they are spoken on the suppe- CONCLUSION, 273 sition that those to whom they are addressed cannot make them for themselves. As I have hitherto, I believe, kept myself free from this sort of eloquence,—which indeed is permitted only to one class to which J do not belong,—I hope I shall continue to avoid it, even to the end.
I have said that we shall to-day take a retrospect of our previous inquiry, and of the theory which has been its result—our theory not mzne as I have already explained; —especially in order that we may be assured that this theory is not itself a product of the Present Age, the influence of the Age upon us being hidden from our view. To this end I maintain, that this theory is assuredly no product of our own Age—if, tn the first place, it be not a product of any Age whatever, but lies beyond all Time; and also (since in that case it might prove absolutely empty and without significance, and so disappear in mere vacuity and nothingness)—if, tn the second place, it becomé the root and principle of living vitality in a New Age.
In the first place, that we may be able to determine whether our now completed theory does actually lie be- yond all Time, let us inquire what has been the nature of this theory, considered in its essential elements, and to what chief department of human thought it has be- longed? J answer:—It was a Religious Theory; all our contemplations were Religious contemplations, and our view of things, and the eye which embraced that view, were Religious.
According to the thought which, directly or indirectly, distinctly or obscurely, has animated all our previous discourses, and, in our last discourse especially, has been considered on all sides;—according to this thought, I say, RELIGION consists in regarding and recognising all Earthly Life as a necessary development of the one, original, perfectly good and perfectly blessed Divine Life. Now, it is first of all quite clear that this view ma 274 LECTURE XVII.
does not consist in the mere perception or contempla- tion of life, or of anything else, and that it cannot arise from such perception or contemplation. By the most careful observation of phenomena we can go no further than to know that so and so is the case, but by no means to reject or disallow this as mere appearance, and to seek a higher significance behind it. The Religious mode of thought can thus never be the result of mere observa- tion of the world, since, on the contrary, this mode of thought rests on the imperative maxim—not to accept this world and all Earthly Life in it as in itself true and real existence, but to assume another Higher Existence superior to the world. This maxim must be developed in the mind itself, as an essential element originally implanted there;—and no man can ever arrive at this truth by mere empirical, observation, since it entirely abolishes empirical observation as the highest and de- cisive test of reality. It is clear that this maxim stands in direct opposition to the principle which we have in- dicated as that which guides the thought of our Age; that this thought can never attain toit; and that, by means of the very first supposition of something higher than the World, we raise ourselves above such an Age and cease to be its product. In short, not mere observation, but Pure Thought, in itself and by itself, is the first element of Religion. In the language of the schools:—Metaphysic, that is, the Super-sensual, is the element-of Religion. From the beginning of the world down to the present day Religion, whatever shape it may have assumed, has been Metaphysic; and he who despises and derides Metaphysic,—that is, everything a@ priori,—either knows not what he means, or else lhe despises and derides Religion.
Are we set free from this limitation and bondage in the Apparent?—then the next step towards the attainment of True Religion is our second maxim:—To place the foun- CONCLUSION. 275 CONCLUSION. 275 dation of the world neither in Chance, which in other words is to accept a foundation of the world and yet not to ac- cept it; nor in blind Necessity, which in other words is to accept an absolutely inconceivable and dead foundation of the world, and of all the life in the world; nor yet in a living, but evil, capricious, and man-hating Cause, as Superstition has done at all times in a greater or less degree;—but in the One, absolutely and unchange- ably good, Divine Existence. We said that our first maxim,—not to accept Apparent Existence in Time as in itself true and real, but to assume a Higher Existence beyond it,—must be developed within the mind itself; and even so our second maxim,—to regard this Higher Existence as Life, and as a good and Blessed Life,— must likewise be developed in the mind itself as an in- herent element originally implanted there. At most, we can only receive help from without by the communication of such thoughts from others with the invitation to test them by our own sense of Truth; by which, if it be but rightly interrogated, and if the mass of preéxisting errors and prejudices be not too powerful, they will doubtless be confirmed. There is no logical means by which this insight may be forced upon man, for,even the dullest and rudest form of mere Egoism is consistent in itself, and he who determines with stiff-necked obstinacy to abide there cannot be compelled to quit it.
In a word,—as we have already clearly set forth in our last Lecture,—In the view of Religion, all the phenomena of Time, without exception, are regarded as necessary and progressive developments of the One, Ever-blessed, Orginal Divine Life, and hence each individual phenomenon is re- garded as the necessary condition of a higher and more perfect life in Time which shall arise from it. Now,— and this is to be particularly remarked,—this one, essen- tially abiding and unchanging view of Religion, is itself divided in ats form, and assumes a double aspect. Namely, 276 LECTURE XVII.
——we may either possess only a general insight into the fact, that, since all life manifested in Time can be nothing else than a development of the Divine Life, so also the particular phenomenon which may be in question is ne- cessarily a development of this Divine Life:—the fact, I say, that such is the case, without any conception of how and in what way itis so; and this form of Religion we may name the RELIGION OF REASON, which lies beyond all understanding and all conception, although its clearness and certainty do not on that account suffer the slightest abatement:—The Religion of Reason, we style it, for it is the mere acceptance of the fact, without comprehension of the manner of the fact. Or, in the second place, we may understand and conceive how and in what way the plie- nomenon in question may be the development of a Higher Life;—the more perfect development which is to proceed from it may present itself to sight, and the phenome- non in question may then be recognised, clearly and distinctly, as the necessary foundation from which the actual progression has arisen;—and this latter form of Religion may be named the RELIGION OF THE UNDER- STANDING. These two forms embrace the whole domain of Religion; the Religion of Reason encompassing both its extremities, while the Religion of the Understanding occupies the centre. How each individual Human Being as such, and his particular fortunes, connect themselves with the Eternal,—this, as the lower extremity of the domain of Religion, cannot be comprehended; and as little, how this whole present and introductory Life of our Race is related to the infinite series of Future Life and determined thereby,—as little, I say, can this, as the higher extremity of the domain of Religion, be comprehended by us; but that they are altogether good and necessary for the Perfect Life, is distinctly apparent to the Religious Man. On the other hand, the significance of this first Earthly Life of the Race, considered in itself and apart from all CONCLUSION. QT other Life, and as the Life of the Race not individual Life,—this, as the middle sphere of this domain of Reli- gion, may be conceived and has been conceived by us; and on the same ground, it may be conceived how each of the necessary Epochs of this Earthly Life is related to the whole, and what is the particular significance of each in itself. Here, therefore, lies the domain of the Religion of the Understanding;—and this domain we have traversed in our inquiry, putting forward the Epoch in which we live as its clearest and most intelligible point.
The question, What has been the nature of our inquiry, is answered. What we have done is this:— we have raised ourselves into the domain of Religion by that way which is the most easy and accessible to our Age,—the way of Understanding. So surely as our inquiry has been a Religious inquiry, it has been no product of our own Age but has transcended all Ages and all Time; so surely as it has applied itself especially to the domi- nant principle of our own Age, it has raised itself from the level of this particular Age above all Time. ‘The greatest obstacle to reflection is when a man no longer hesitates or stumbles at anything, no longer wonders at anything, and no longer seeks any explanation of sur- rounding phenomena. Of all the wonders that surround a man in this condition of indifference, whatever touches him however slightly because it has a direct influence on his own personal weal or woe, is that which lies nearest to him among the events of the Time. But what cultivated mind has not sometimes at least pondered in astonishment over those wonderful phenomena, demanded the meaning of them, and earnestly longed for a solution of its questionings? Without allowing ourselves to be occupied with trifles, which often fall within the domain of the absolutely unintelligible, or even when they are intelligible lead to nothing great, we have considered and characterized the Age, broadly and as a whole; but 278 LECTURE XVII.
278 LECTURE XVII.
so that none of the members of this assembly will be apt to find anything passed over which specially interests him. We have characterized it in a rational and religious frame of mind, regarding all things as necessary parts of the whole, and as securely leading tv nobler and more perfect results.
Thus there can be no doubt’ that our inquiry has tran- scended the limitations of Time. But this alone does not satisfy us. That it is no product, no favourite opinion, no mere prejudice of our Age, is well:—but is it not perhaps a mere nonentity, a deceptive show, a dream disappearing in the empty void of Time, and having no existence in True and Real Time? We have now to set forth the principles upon which this second question must be answered.
To this empty void of Time belongs everything which is adopted for the purpose of mere pastime, or, what is the same thing, for the satisfaction of curiosity founded upon no earnest desire of knowledge. Pastime is but an empty waste, interposed between times devoted to serious occupations. At the opening of these Lectures I undertook nothing more than that I should occupy your thoughts for a few hours of this winter in a man- ner neither unseemly nor disagreeable:—more I could not promise reckoning on myself alone; and to promise even this unconditionally was itself a hazard, for com- munication upon my part presupposed the power of re- ceiving such a communication upon yours, and a definite communication presupposed a definite degree and form of this receptive power. If you have taken me altogether at my own word in this matter, then you may now congratu- late yourselves that you have, in the course of this winter, got rid of sixteen or seventeen hours of idleness by means of a new amusement which has at least proved good, pro- fitable, and wholesome;—and against this I have nothing to say. But in this case, it is quite certain that these CONCLUSION. 279 sixteen or seventeen hours have been to you not true but mere empty and vacant Time.
To True and Real Time belongs everything which becomes the necessary principle, foundation and cause of new and hitherto non-existent phenomena in Time; for the first characteristic of true Life is to create other Life from itself. That which by means of these in- quiries might become such a principle was the ruling tendency and practice of contemplating all things without exception from the Religious point of view. Now it is impossible that this principle should have been im- planted within us, for the first time, by means of the contemplations which have occupied us for a few hours of this winter. In the first place, we have already re- marked that this principle cannot be communicated to manfrom without, but must have its root originally within his own being, and has actually such an inward existence in all men without exception;—and in the second place, we have not been able to avail ourselves of nearly the whole of the means which might have been employed to awaken and call forth this principle. The whole artificial train- ing of the school, the systematic rise and overthrow of each objection, the gradual upturning of every branch of error by the roots; further, the profound and lengthened course of study, and the artificial development of the power of thought, which are presupposed in these things; —all these could not here be employed; and thus, the Religious Sense could not here be implanted, nor even for the first time awakened and called forth. It was presupposed that this Religious Sense bad already made its appearance, and manifested its genial and invigorat- ing influence in all the minds who have taken part in our inquiries, and only slumbered under the concealment of the numerous and incessant occupations and distrac- tions of life and its every-day occurrences. ‘To this sense, asleep but not dead, we were able confidently to appeal, 280 LECTURE XVII.
just as each of you might have done for himself, had he had time and aptitude for meditation on matters of this description. It became my business to apply a portion of my time to the production and _ adjustment of such a dis- course as each of you might have addressed to himself, and which he must actually address to himself at last, testing it by his own sense of Truth, if it is really to be addressed tobimatall. At most, I could thus only lend some assist- ance to my hearers, by removing the opposition between their spiritual condition at the time when the Religious Sense first developed itself within them, and that in which they now stand; by separating distinctly and forcibly this Religious Sense itself, which is at all times essentially one and the same, from the casual and diverse limitations which surrounded its first development, and planting it, beyond these limitations, into their present state of mental culture.
There is, in the first place, one good criterion by which we may arrive at a preliminary solution at least of the question we have proposed,— Whether the considerations which we have here set forth have been mere empty verbiage, or intellectual conceits, serviceable at most to pass away an idle hour?—or whether they have come home to something already living within ourselves?—~ this, namely,—if we have been conscious that our own long-cherished presentiments and feelings have here been distinctly spoken forth, and that we ourselves had previously thought of the matter almost exactly as it has been here expounded;—then we may be sure that something already living within us has been touched. This, I say, is but a prelimimary and even but a par- tially decisive criterion. It is indecisive on the following account:—one man may cordially assent to it in whom only a fugitive scientific or esthetic pleasure bas been excited, which indeed may manifest itself in a more con sistent view of the world, or in more inspired productions CONCLUSION, 281 CONCLUSION, 281 of Art, but can never enter into the inmost recesses of the mind:—another man may gainsay it, because he goes to its consideration full of scientific prejudices, who does nevertheless give his assent to it at bottom,—and he may gainsay it the more veliemently the more he is irritated and chagrined by the secret harmony which reigns between his own mind and that which, according to his theory, must be error;—but, his whole character and mode of thinking being penetrated with this har- mony, his conduct stands in opposition to his theory, until at last this theory itself, no longer receiving any nourishment from the heart, fades and falls away like withered leaves.
But the sure and perfectly decisive criterion whether something already living within us has here been touched, and that so powerfully that it can never again fall back into slumber,—for in that case the present awakening would again need a new revival which could never be anticipated with certainty, the present being worthless but for the future awakening, without which it would disappear in mere.empty Time;—the sure and perfectly decisive criterion of this question, I say, is this:—Whether the Life which has thus been called forth do ceaselessly extend itself, and become the source and foundation of New Life.; In our last lecture, we have clearly shown that True Religion does not manifest itself outwardly, and does not impel man to any course of external conduct which he would not otherwise have adopted, but that it only com- pletes his true Inward Being and dignity. It is neither an action, nor an incentive to action, but insight:—it is Lieut, and the One True Light, which bears within it all Life and all the forms of Life, and pervades their innermost substance. Once arisen, this Light flows on spontaneously for ever, spreading itself forth without term or limit;—and it is as idle to did it shine as it would be na 282 LECTURE XVIL.
to address such a command to the material sun when it stands in the noon-day heavens. It does this without our bidding; if it shine not, then it has not arisen, At its uprising darkness, and the brood of spectres and phantasms which are born of darkness, vanish of them- selves. It is in vain to say to darkness,—‘ Let there be Light!’—no Light can come forth from it, for there is none within it. As vain is it to say to man lost in the Transitory and Perishable,—‘ Raise thine eyes to the Eternal!’—he has no eye for the Eternal;—his eye is it- self transitory and perishable, and reflects only the Transi- tory aud Perishable. But let the Light itself burst forth, then the darkness becomes visible, retires, and draws off like shadows across the field. The darkness is the thoughtlessness, the frivolity, the fickleness of men. Where the Light of Religion has arisen, there is no longer need to warn men against these things, or to struggle against them;—they have already vanished, and their place is no longer known. Are they still there 7— then the Light of Religion has assuredly not arisen, and all warning and exhortation is in vain.