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Sunday Evening Lectures: No. XLI. The Spiritual Life,

A Lecture, delivered in the Mechanics' Institute, Castlemaine, On Sunday, November 27th 1870.

By G. C. Leech, Esq.

From the "Castlemaine Representative" of the 1st December, 1870.

Published By H. Bamford, Barker-Street, Castlemaine.

The following lecture was delivered on Sunday evening last by G. C. Leech, Esq., in the Mechanics' Institute. Subject: "The Spiritual Life." Reported by Mr E. C. Martin.

We read to you to night from the most authentic of the epistles of Paul, and in the lesson you heard those memorable words, "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; and he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." Interpreted in their broad, true meaning, the words were meant to indicate the great truth that the man who seeks his happiness out of the gratification of sense will find those gratifications altogether dependent upon his perishable material nature; whilst the pure and nobler cultivation of the spiritual part of man's being will exist coevally and coeternally with a spirit immortal and imperishable. The spiritual life of man being thus the all-important part of his being, it will not be foreign either to its interest or importance, briefly to trace the history of spiritual life. Nearly all the philosophers of the past have divided things into spirit and matter. It may be that the dividing boundary was fixed sometimes too arbitrarily, and also in past has been fixed in ignorance of great laws, which have since become familiar to the ignorant portions of mankind. Still philosophy retains the time honoured distinctions of spirit and matter. Contrary to ordinary theology, we hold that both spirit and matter are eternal; that not only was there never a point in the infinite past when God the Great Spirit was not, but neither was there any moment of eternity bygone in which there were not also space and matter. It is held now by men of advanced thought who are very far indeed from being atheistic—although the opprobrious term has been freely bestowed upon them—that page break in matter there is an all prevading power of developing itself into active life and form. But that all-pervading power is not what we call Deity, but behind and above that inherent power in matter there is the great Soul of the Universe which has given order, beauty, and unbroken continuity to that inherent power of matter. In the great work of creation, God, through countless ages, thus governed and directed the evolving of the lower forms of life. Not only have there been in the past, but there are still new creatures coming into being—all those creatures which we describe as the lower creatures—developing the inherent powers of nature, evolving life and motion, and those qualities which go to preserve life. But to man of this world, and the creatures of worlds beyond who possess immortality, belongs another nature—the spiritual nature or what we call a soul. The difference between the creature of soul and the soulless is this: When the body of the lower creature decomposes there is an end to its existence. No particle of matter is lost, but there is an end to the individuality of the creature. In the case of man, when there comes upon upon him the change called death, which is a term in no wise to be applied to his soul, but merely the material part of him—in this change called death which orthodoxy has surrounded so much with a degrading fear—there is dissolution and decay only of the material nature. When death supervenes, we are done with this body. Believe not the silly fable that the soul and body will sleep for cycles of time, and on the Judgment morn will be awakened to life and being—do not entertain the idea of a material resurrection—it will not bear the test of reason. The life of the soul goes on in unbroken continuity. The spiritual life is in no wise broken, or its continuity suspended by the change called death. When men have arrived at that belief there will be no superstitious fears of death, and no idle terrors of the churchyard and funeral. Now, some will say, what proofs have you of the existence of the spiritual life? The material world is tangible and present to us by the evidence of our senses? My answer is—We have no proofs at all in the logical sense of proof. We believe in the spiritual life through the deep inward convictions coming home to our souls. If I am appealed to by a man who does not believe in the spiritual I can only say—until you stand in the position I occupy you cannot be assured of the existence of the spiritual life. The second-rate defenders of Christianity are very fond of talking of their proofs of the supernatural, and the half-educated present miracles in support of their belief, and as proofs of the supernatural. In the spirit of averment they present something as proof to you which equally requires proof. Second-rate men do so, but high-class men do not. I will read to you a little extract from a sermon preached on a special occasion by the Eight Reverend W. G. M'Gee. He first refers to the class of men who believe in Jesus as a great moral teacher, as an exemplar and guide, as a man who trampled beneath his feet his lower nature, in whom all the forces of love for the beautiful and true were concentrated. He refers to them, and then to another class of men who believe in supernatural influences. You will see how differently a high-class mind enters into the controversy as compared to others you are familiar with:—

Now this claim of Christ's church is not admitted as that other is of which we spoke. It is largely rejected by those who admit that other. There are many who are ready to admit that Christ, the Teacher, is helpful to the spiritual life of men, who will not admit that He is necessary to it. They acknowledge that we are taught by His morality, and elevated by His example; but not that we are, or can be "saved by His life." He is for them a great moral teacher, but not a Divine Saviour. This is the world's controversy with the Church. It is one form of that long controversy which, in one shape or other, has ever been waged between the Church and the World the controversy between those who acknowledge only the visible and the natural, and those who believe in the invisible and the supernatural. The idea of a Teacher, whose words and example instruct men, is simple, natural, intelligible—it is accepted. The idea of a Saviour, whose life, communicated to, those who believe in Him, shall give them life, is mysterious, inexplicable, supernatural, and therefore must be rejected. And the page break world on this point, as on every other where the supernatural comes in, challenges the Church for proof of its claim. "Prove, demonstrate to us," is the demand, "that Christ is this supernatural life-giver, and we will admit it; until then we refuse to accept Him as such, and it is unreasonable of you to ask us to do so." Now to this demand the answer of the Christian should always be, we have no such proof as that you ask for. A demonstration of the super-natural is an impossibility: it is a contradiction in terms. No amount of evidence drawn from the world of nature can demonstrate the existence of a world above nature. The facts which we allege as evidences of the supernatural—such as miracles and prophecy—are themselves supernatural; and our adducing them as such in proof of the supernatural is a mere begging of the question in dispute. The supernatural is not to be demonstrated, it is to be felt; it does not prove itself to sense, it reveals itself to faith. Between the man who insists on seeing before he believes, and the man who believes in order that he may see, the dispute is endless. It is really as profitless as a dispute about tune between a man with a musical car and one without one; or a dispute about the qualities of a picture, between one who looks at it from the proper distance, and in the proper light to take in all its beauties, and who insists upon examining it only through a powerful microscope. They have no common measure of the thing in question. They are not so much opposed to as utterly apart from each other. Each truly testifies to what he sees; but one believes that he sees or hears, more than the other. The answer and the only answer each can make to the other is this—Stand where I do, feel as I feel, and you will see what I see, and hear what I hear.

Now you see, admittedly, that a great Christian divine, standing in a high position, addressing himself to a large scientific audience, tells the world that there is no proof of the supernatural. It is only capable of being felt, not demonstrated. When I present you my views of the spiritual life, of course they are incapable of proof. They have come home to my own mind from impressions. These impressions have been received during the purest moments of my life—at a time when I would have been glad to receive spiritual impressions of the purest character. I present them to you as being of value from having realised and felt their strength myself. If they agree with your reason you will receive them with more or less trust,. If not, you will reject them. I conceive that this world in which we now live is the first stage of our individual existence. It has often been averred by thoughtful men that we have had an antecedent existence. It has been evoked as a sort of proof—if proof it may be—that there comes on the memory dim recollections of an existence which could not have belonged to earth. There is no doubt that some such dim and undefinable flashes do light up the minds of some individuals with a kind of twilight. But, however these phenomena may be acccounted for psychologically, I am convinced (to my own satisfaction) that this is the first stage of our individual existence. I have every faith that in the next sphere of existence, and all future spheres, we shall have a distinct memory of life on earth and all things incident thereto. And if I can thus hope and believe of the future I am justified in coming to the conclusion that if there had been a past existence we should have a memory of it, so that the belief would come home to us as a faith. In this the first sphere of existence—the soul which came from God, and which having come from God, must assuredly never be sent down into an abysm of nothingness—has received the position of sovereign and master. It is necessary that in order that the Creator's purpose should be fulfilled concerning us that we should have two natures. In our natures, whether body or soul, there is nothing inherently evil. I have great respect for Paul, the tent-maker, but I do not believe him when he says, "in mo there is no good thing." Quoting from memory, Theodore Parker says, "in him there was much that was good." Even in that body of his, which sometimes drew from him a querrulous cry, there was much that was good. In the words of Theodore Parker there is not in this body of ours a bone that is not a good bone, nor a muscle that is not a good muscle, nor a connecting nerve which is not a good nerve, and which were not devised for a good purpose. When Paul said to the contrary he was mistaken, just page break as he was mistaken when he thought the world was coming to an end in his time, and thought that men and women should not marry. Neither in our spiritual nature is there anything bad. I have far too great respect for God to believe that He created a being, who, in the language of orthodoxy is to be continually speaking of himself as poor, naked and blind. Is such an idea worthy of, or honouring to the Great Creator? God has given to our material nature, certain faculties and functions necessary to our existence, and they are all in their original condition, good, useful, and necessary. So long as the soul governs, guides, and regulates its carnal companion, so long does man fulfil the high functions which God intended concerning him. When the soul is suffered to abdicate its sovereignty, when the soul suffers the body to have the mastery, when it abdicates its power, and becomes its servant and slave, then indeed man becomes a wreck and ruin. But not destined for ever to be a wreck or eternally a ruin. Yielding to our material nature—yielding to if you like to call it sin—not in the theological sense,—but if you like to use the term as short and familiar—yielding, I say to the suggestions of our lower nature, materially retards the purposes of God towards us, and brings sure and inevitable suffering. There is in the law of God, whether natural or spiritual, that which brings inevitable pain and suffering, if the law be set aside or disregarded, and taught and restrained by these moral lessons, man rarely refuses to listen to the supernatural monition. We are told that the theory of development which ascribes a course for the soul upwards and onwards, is opposed to experience. Sec, says orthodoxy, see how base and vile such and such a man is. Now I am inclined to think that when the Great teacher gave the listening multitude the warning, "Judge not, that ye he not judged," he gave the lesson to those who were in the habit of forming opinions of their fellows from outward circumstances. I have come across in my time, some strong, fierce, and lawless men, but I never yet met man or woman but who had some good—much good, and before we take upon ourselves to judge, we must see what their temptations have been. We should, in fact, before we dare to judge, know as God alone can know, all the hidden secrets and springs of life, men's natural proclivities, their temptations and opportunities. Some are brought up in the atmosphere of crime; some are subjected to strong temptations to which others, surrounded by affluence, friends, and good councillors, have not yielded, because they were never presented to temptation, and in the very physiology of man there are causes for psychological weaknesses. We hold that in no man is there anything which should lead his fellows to despair of God's great purpose concerning him—he will be, no matter how bad now, ultimately developed into a noble, pure and exhalted being. Having come to the conclusion that there is a spiritual life—a life which will be unaffected by death, the question is how best to develope that life? Remember, men and brethren, that as Paul made a mistake, so have many, others, in supposing that the mortifications of the flesh and the denial of the wants of nature is the best way to please God and fulfil his great purposes towards us. The Ascetics did so, the Monks and hermits did likewise; and the Ascetics of Buddhism and of all religions have fallen into the mistake of imagining the body to be the enemy of the soul and that between the two there should be a kind of internecine war waged. On the other hand we believe that this body of ours is an ally and companion of the soul on earth, to be honoured and reverenced as a gift of God just as much as our spiritual nature. The man who keeps his body in health and strength, who pays regard to the voice of nature does best for his spiritual nature. I recollect not long ago having a tract put into my hand m the street; it was orthodox in every respect, so far as doctrine was concerned, but at the same lime the object of it seemed to be to declare war against the clergy of all denominations. I, myself, have been accused of saying some hard things against them, but this tract of which I speak, said things much harder than l have ever uttered. The writer averred as proof of the subject of his complaint page break that when ho, the writer, went to a clergyman of this town in a state of deep spiritual agitation, the religious teacher advised him to go home and take some pills for he was evidently suffering from depression of spirits in consequence of a disordered liver. I am inclined to think that the religions teacher referred to was rather above his fellows. There is no doubt that there is a strong connection between the health of the body and the health of the soul. The man who thinks he is going to mortify and disregard the one and maintain the other in health and peace is vastly mistaken and does but dishonour to the wisdom of God who made the one as much as the other. Take due care of this body of yours, but above all see the soul is the master and guide. Be temperate in your eating and your drinking and every function of life. Then the soul discharges its office, and will develope into gigantic proportions. I spoke of being temperate in eating, everyone understands that. Every man should take care when he rises from any meal to be free from a sense of repletion. If men did this they could on rising from the table address themselves to any employment whether spiritual or material. With regard to temperance in drink, my strong impression and belief on that point is that thorough temperance is complete abstinence. The man who enjoys thorough health and strength of body and takes alcohol or stimulants into his system is taking poison. It may be there are certain conditions of body when vitality is low, and affected by disease or fatigue, when it is necessary; But I say the man whose heart beats soundly, and is in the enjoyment of ordinary health, who takes spirits into his system, over stimulates that system and exhausts the forces of nature. No man has ever clone so who has not paid the penalty more or less afterwards. No man who has taken into his system that which is intoxicating is capable of high intellectual or spiritual exertion. I remember speaking to a man on this matter, who was much respected. He was lost in the wreck of the London. He told me he was ordered by his medical attendant to take wine for ague. He was obliged to take it in the middle of the day, for he said if he took it at night it made him incapable of prayer. He was a man who did not rest his Christianity on dogmas but on the realities and obligations of life, and I can very well understand how, his natural and moderate habits being disturbed, he found himself incapable of high aspirations. In these things that discipline and regimen which are good for the body are also good for the soul. They keep all powers of the body and soul in a healthy, clear, pure state, fit to discharge their several functions. To all men, no matter how carefully they live, will come inevitably the change called death. Then the body will be resolved into its kindred elements from which grass will grow and oxen will feed, whose flesh will develope another race of men. We shall be done with this body for ever, and the soul will enter into a newer and purer sphere of being. It will be born into a condition of existence somewhat kindred to its life here. The man who has struggled against the promptings of his lower nature will be freed from his material body, whose evil tendencies weighed him down and retarded his progress to good. But there are those who will carry with them the low tastes and appetites of earth. For them there will be a place of probation—not punishment for sin, but suffering to teach them that hereafter, as is taught now, every violation of a natural or spiritual law injures man, and brings with it its inevitable consequences. God governs by law, not by direct action Let me exemplify my moaning. You would not suppose that God causes by direct action the tree to grow, and the flower to bud and blossom. You know all these things come into action by the operation of law. In the operations of nature he does not act. by direct intervention, but by law. So also in spiritual nature does he act as surely and defined as in natural and material affairs. Except in the eye of the Creator we are at the present moment only groping in the dark. No man but a very silly one ventures to dogmatise on that which almost belongs to the region of the unknown. In the next life there will be none of this doubt. Yet through the countless ages of eternity there will be yet something to learn con- page break cerning God's laws and Almighty power. I believe from my own impressions,—but yon will only accept them so far as they coincide with your own reason,—that God works his wonderful purposes towards mankind through the intermediate agency of spiritual beings; just as in the vegetable kingdom, he does not produce fertility by direct intervention, but by the operation of fixed laws. I think the souls of the past generations of men have not altogether abandoned this world of ours. It is not necessary that the departed should be linked to earth. If it be the soul's free choice it may go to other and brighter regions. If in the memories of earth there are no ties to bind it to earth it may and doubtless does choose its new sphere of beauty. But I can conceive how the spirits of men with intense and gigantic love for their fellow creatures, may of their own free will, choose, under the will and fiat of the Creator, to help the spirits of other men. And I cannot for one moment believe that through the eighteen centuries that have rolled away since Jesus of Nazareth breathed out his life upon the cross of Calvary, that the millions of men who have believed upon him have believed and trusted in vain. I do not believe that ever Jesus claimed for himself as many of the missionaries of the Gospel have claimed for him, divine honours. But, though mistaken men have given to him a rank he never claimed, and would net, I can understand how the great soul of the Galilean, how that nature that went out in unutterable love to mankind, may still benefit his fellows and infuse into their hearts, when they are yearning for his presence, new spiritual life and strength. May we not venture—for, after all, these are but speculations—may we not venture to believe, especially if it gives us spiritual strength, may we not believe that Confucisn. Caky Amouni, and all the great and good of the past,—the men who in their days towered above their fellows—who gave new spiritual life to the debased and low, who framed new and better laws for men than they found them with,—still linger in the world to sustain the fainting, drooping, hearts of men? Why need it be confined to those specially great or good? Why may we not be-allowed to hope that the spirits of departed kindred may by their own choice stay here to guide, help, and sustain their friends? Nor less admirable or great is the God who uses this functional method of carrying on his government. When you and I walk forth in the glory of the morning and draw new life from the air and fresh magnetism from the earth—do we feel the less grateful to God because we receive his gifts from the lower world and not from himself direct? From God the unbroken chain descends freely to man. I said a little while ago in matters of spiritual life we are groping in the dark. Be not discouraged with regard to this: we are in the dark with regard to details and philosophy, but in so far as spirtual life is necssary to enlightening and comforting the human soul there is no darkness or difficulty. The breath of God is as free to help the soul as the breath of Heaven is to sustain the material body. Amongst all creeds and all dogmas, in all systems, there has been this clear breath of God to man and in this respect all religions agree with each other. They only differ in details and dogmas. All agree with regard to the two great commandments—Thou shaltlove the Lord with all thy heart; and thy neighbour as thyself. We learn in the systems whether of Confucnis, Caky Amouni or Zoroaster that the soul which yearns for truth and beauty will surely be satisfied, as surely as food will alleviate the hunger, and drink quench the thirst. Let mo, in conclusion, give you an illustration, an Indian gentleman brought up in the Brahminical faith intensely desirous to learn the truth read the religious books of his own nation. Those books, like the books of Christianity, have become clouded over with superstition. He eliminated the truth, and cast out what regarded as error. He read the Jewish and Christian scriptures—wisely, indeed, without the assistance of missionaries. He was perplexed by their palpable contradictions. They reflected, he found about 100 forms of belief, Catholicism, Protestantism, &c, &c., &c As they do at homo so these do abroad—anathematise one another. He wisely avoided receiving instructions from Christian page break teachers, and examined the books of the old and new Testaments himself. The life of this gentleman—Chunder Sen—teaches this great fact that no soul struggling for light fails to receive it. I will read you this extract from his experiences:—

My first inquiry was, What is the creed taught in the Bible? Must I swallow the whole theology of Christianity which is put before the world as Christianity? Must I go through all the dogmas and doctrines which constitute Christianity in the eye of the various sects, or is there something simple which I can at once grasp and turn to account? I found Christ spoke one language and Christianity another. I went to him prepared to hear what he had to say, and was immensely gratified when he told me "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and love thy neighbour as thyself;" and then he added, "This is the whole law and the prophets;" in other words, the whole philosophy, theology, and ethics of the law and the prophets are concentrated in these two grand doctrines of love to God and love to man, and then elsewhere he said, "This do and ye shall inherit everlasting life." I was anxious to inherit everlasting life, and who is not in this assembly? and humbly I approached Christ and waited for an answer, and this was the answer I received, "If I loved my God with my whole life, not intellectually or emotionally but with the warm fervour of my heart and soul, and if I served man as my brother, and loved him as myself, I would most assuredly inherit everlasting life"—(applause). This is the true Christian creed as Christ set it forth in the Gospel; if I do accept this I shall be saved. But I need the means, the way to the accomplishment of this sacred precept. There is something in the Bible which has staggered many who stand outside the pale of orthodox Christanity, and that is the egotism of self assertion. Christ says truly, "Love God and love man, and ye shall inherit everlasting life;" but still docs he not say, "I am the way; I am the light of the world?" Does he not say, "Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest?" Not in one or two exceptional passages, but in many passages does he lay considerable stress upon this I. There is constant allusions to himself as the way to eternal life. He who said the only way to eternal life is the love of God and the love of man also says, "I am the way." Jesus Christ, then, truly analysed, means love of God and love of man. In him we see a heavenly embodiment of this love of God as the Father and the love of man as the brother; and instead of there being a contradiction we find that there is absolute and most charming harmony between these two precepts. If we love God and love man we become Christlike, and so attain everlasting, life. Christ never demanded from me worship or adoration that is due to God the Creator of the Universe. He appeared to me to put himself forward in the Gospel as the way, not the goal—as my guide, not the destination at which I have ultimately to arrive. He places himself before me as the spirit which I must imbibe in order to approach the divine Father, as the great teacher and guide who will lead me to God. "I am the way," he said, and if we avail ourselves of that way we shall roach our destination, which is not Christ, but God the Father.

This is the conclusion he comes to concerning the religion of Jesus. By the unaided struggles of this Indian's mind he found the truth in the words of Jesus, when he said, "Truly I am the way, the truth and the light." And it may come to pass yet in our world that in a higher and more advanced condition of man's spiritual life there will arise one who will say, I am the way." But neither will he mean, nor did Jesus mean, that he was the goal or end. Every good man or exemplar is the way. The mistake of humanity has been in deifying Christ. His soul is grieved by the gigantic error. The mistake in times past has been in supposing that an utter finality has been fixed, that a beacon lighted 4000 or 2000 years ago will light us on the path of the Infinite. As there has been, so there will be—progression that will so develope mankind that after generations will be as superior to us, both spiritually and physically, as we are to the African gorilla or the Indian ape. Onward and upward will be the course of men, while ever varying nature will be evolving new forms of life. We shall not rein habit this world, but in other worlds and other spheres we shall develope into brighter, and nobler being. Men and brethren every surrender to our lower nature; every yielding to that which is selfish and unbrotherly is delaying the development of our glorious life. page break Therefore let us struggle manfully, fight bravely and heroically; then when the hour comes when we feel nature sinking, and physical vitality departing from us, when the gathering film of death hides the loved forms by our bedside, the gates of death to us will be the gates of life. Death will be our welcome home; and when we have passed from this world of probation and trial we shall be received by kindred spirits of the glorious past, with the kindred spirits of our household. We shall be received with the splendid glories bestowed on a triumph over the world, the flesh, and temptation; a triumph in which the victory will be complete and the glory altogether unclouded.