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OCTOBER 30, 1908
The Commoner.
9
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THE PRINCE OF PEACE
I offer no apology for speaking upon a re
ligious theme, for it is the most universal of all
themes. If I addressed you upon the subject
of law I might interest the lawyers; if I dis
cussed the science of medicine I might interest
the physicians; in like manner merchants might
bo interested in a talk on commerce, and farm
ers in a discussion on agriculture; but none of
these subjects appeals to all. Even the science
of government, though broader than any pro
fession or occupation, does not embrace the
whole sum of life, and those who think upon
it differ so among themselves that I could not
speak upon the subject so as to please a part
without offending others. While to me the
science of government is intensely absorbing,
I recognize that the most important things in
life lie outside of the realm of government and
that more depends upon what the individual does
for himself than upon what the government does
or can do for him. Men can bo miserable under
the best government and they can bo happy
under the worst government.
Government affects but a part of the life
which we live here and does not touch at all
the life beyond, while religion touches the in
finite circle of existence as well as the small
arc of that circle which we spend on earth. No
greater theme, therefore, can engage our at
tention. Man is a religious being; the heart instinc
tively seeks for a God. Whether he worships
on the banks of the Ganges, prays with his face
upturned to ,the sun, kneels toward Mecca or,
regarding all' space as a temple, communes with
the Heavenly Father according to the Christian
creed, man is essentially devout.
There are honest doubters whose sincerity
we recognize and respect, but occasionally I
find young men who think it smart to be skep
tical; they talk as if it were an evidence of
larger intelligence to scoff at creeds and refuse
to connect themselves with churches.. They, call
themselves "liberal," as if a Christian were ,
narrow minded. To these young men I desire
to address myself.
Even some older people profess to regard
religion as a superstition, pardonable in the.
ignorant, but unworthy of the educated a men
tal state which one can' and should outgrow.
Those who hold this view look down with mild
contempt upon such as give to religion a definite
place in their thoughts and lives. They aBsume
an intellectual superiority and often take little
pains to conceal the assumption. Tplstoy ad
ministers to the "cultured crowd" (the words
quoted are his) a severe rebuke when he de
clares that the religious sentiment rests not
upon a superstitious fear of the invisible forces
of nature, but upon man's consciousness of his
finiteness amid an infinite universe and of his
sinfulness; and this consciousness, the great
philosopher adds, man can never outgrow. Tol
stoy is right; man recognizes how limited are
his own powers and how vast is the universe,
and ho leans upon the arm that is stronger
than his. Man feels the weight of his sins and
looks for One who is sinless.
Religion has been defined as the relation
which man fixes between himself and his God,
and morality as the outward manifestation of
this relation. Every one, by the time he reaches
maturity, has fixed some relation between him
self and God, and no material change in this
relation can take place without a revolution in
tho man, for this relation is the most potent
influence' that acts upon a human life.
Religion Is the basis of morality in the in
dividual and in the group of Individuals. Ma
terialists have attempted to build up a system
of morality upon the basis of enlightened self
interest. They would have man figure out by
mathematics that it pays him to abstain from
wrong doing; they would even inject an element
of selfishness into altruism, but the moral sys
tem elaborated by the materialists has several
defects. First, its virtues are borrowed from
moral systems based upon religion; second, as
it rests upon argument rather than upon au
thority, it does not appeal to the young and by
the time the young are able to follow their
reason they have already become set in their
ways. Our laws do not permit a young man
to dispose of real estate until he is twenty-one.
Why this restraint? Because his reason is not
mature; and yet a man's life is barely molded
by the environment of bis youth. Third, one
never know.-just how much of his decision is
Address Delivered by William Jen
nings Bryan at Numerous Chautau
quas and Y. M. C. A. Meetings in the
United States, and at Tokio, Manila,
Bombay, Cairo, Jerusalem, Montreal
and Toronto
duo to reason and how much Is duo to pas
sion or to selfish interest. Wo recognizo tho
"bias of self-interest when wo exclude from tho
jury every man, no matter how reasonable or
upritrht ho may bo, who has a pecuniary interost
in the result of tho trial. And, fourth, ono
whoso morality Is based upon a nice calculation
of benefits to bo secured spends time figuring
that he should spend In action. Those who
keep a book account of their good deeds seldom
do enough good to justify keeping books.
Morality is the power of endurance in man;
and a religion which teaches personal respon
sibility to God gives strength to morality. There
is a powerful restraining influenco in tho belief
that an all-seeing eye scrutinizes every thought
and word and act of the individual.
There Is a wide difference between the
man who is trying to conform to a standard of
morality about him and the man who Is en
deavoring to make his Ufe approximate to a
divine standard. Tho former attempts to llvo
up to the standard if It is above him and down
to It if it Is below him and if ho is doing right
only when others are looking he is sure toflnd
a time when he thinks he Is unobserved, and
then he takes a vacation and falls. One needs
the. inner strength which comes with Oie con
scious presence of a personal God. If those who
are thus fortified sometimes yield jto temptation,
how helpless and hopeless must those be who
rely upon their own .strength alone!
There are difficulties to be encountered in
religion, but there are 'difficulties to bo' erf
countered everywhere. I". passed through .a
period of skepticism when T waB in college and
I have been glad ever since that T became a
member of the church before T loft homo for
college, for it helped mo during those trving
dnvs. The college days cover the dangerous
period in the young man's life; it is" when he Is
just coming into possession of his powers when
ho feels stronger than he ever feels afterward
and thinks ho knows more than he ever does
know.
It was at this period that I was confused
by the different theories of creation. But I
examined these- theories and found that they
all assumed something to begin with. The
nebular hypothesis, for Instance, assumes that
matter and force existed matter in particles
infinitely fine and each particle separated from
everv other particle by space Infinitely great.
Beginning with this assumption, force working
on matter according to this hvpothesls cre
ates a universe. Well, T have a right to assume,
and T prefer to assume a Designer back of tho
desfem a Creator back of creation; and no
matter how long you draw out the process of
creation, so long as God stands back of it. you
can not shake my faith in Jehovah. Tn Genesis
it is written that. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, and T can stand on
that proposition until T find some theory of cre
ation that goes farther back than "the begin
ning." T do not carry the doctrine of evolution as
far as some do; T have not yet been able to
convince mvself that man is a lineal descendant
of the lower animals. I do not mean to find
fault with you if you want to accept It; all I
mean to say is that while you may trace your
ancestry back to tho monkey If you find pleas
ure or pride in doing so. you shall not connect
me with your family tree without more evi
dence than has yet been produced. It Is true
that man, in some physical qualities, resembles
the beast, but man has a mind as well as a body
and a soul as well as a mind. The mind is
greater than the body and the soul is greater
thiin the mind, and T object to having man's
pedigree traced on one-third of him only and
sufficient to explain man ns an animal; it in
necessary to explain man In historyand .tho
Darwinian theory docs not do this. Tho ano
vCliUe mih,B lhcory' ,B 0,dor th n, and
yot ho Is still an apo, while man is tho author
SboutCusni civilization which wo see
Ono doos not cocapo from mystery, however
by accepting this theory, for it does no oxplaTn
tho origin of life. When the follower of Da"
win has traced tho germ of llfo hack to tho
ZCnno0nn V1 wh,c,h ,l "PPears-and to follow
inna r nnist exorcise moro faith Ihan religion
Si8 T1!0,?" t,mt rlcntlslB differ. Soma
believe that the first germ of llfo camo from
1 rrP,anGt and ot,,or h0,(1 t It was tho
result of spontaneous generation.
If I were compollcd to accept ono of thoso
theories I would prefer tho first for If wo can
chase the germ of life off this planet and got
wnv L? ,mC0 wo cun KUCRB tho rcBt ot io
way and no ono can contradict us, but If wo
accept tho doctrine of spontaneous goneratlon
wo can not explain why spontaneous genorntlon
ceased to act after tho first germ was created.
Go back as far as wo may, wo car not
escape from tho creative act, and it is Just as
easy for me to believe that God created man as
ho is as to believo that, millions ot years aKo,
Ho created a germ of llfo and endowed It with
power to develop Into all that wo seo today. But
I object to the DarwJnlan theory until more
conclusive proof Is produced, because I fear
wo shall lose tho consciousness of God's pres
ence in our dally llfo, If wo must assume that
through all tho ages no spiritual force has
touched the llfo of man or shaped tho destiny
of nations. But there Is another objection. Tho"
Darwinian theory represents man as reaching
his present perfection by the operation of tho
law of hate the merciless law by which thV
strong crowd out and kill off tho weak. If this
is tho law of our development, then, If there is
any logic that can bind tho human mind, wo
shall turn backward toward the beast in pro
portion as wo substitute the law df lovo. How
can hatred bo the law of development when
nations have advanced in proportion as thoy have
departed rom that law and adopted tho law of
lovo?
But while I do not accept tho Darwinian
theory 1 shall not quarrel with you about It;
I only refer to it to remind you that it does
not solve the mystery of life or explain human
progress, r fear .that some have accepted It In
tho 'hope of escaping from the miracle, but why
should the miracle frighten us? It bothered mo
once, and I am inclined to think that it is one
of the test questions with the Christian.
Christ can not bo separated from the mirac
ulous; His birth, Ills ministrations and His
resurrection, all involve tho miraculous and
tho change which His religion works In tho
human heart Is a continuing miracle. Eliminate
the miracles and Christ becomes merely a human
being and His gospel is stripped of divine
authority.
The miracle raises two questions: "Can
God perform a miracle?" and, "Would Ho want
to?" The first is easy to answer. A God who
can make a world can do anything Ho wants to
do with it. The power to perform miracles Is
necessarily implied in the power to create. But
would God want to perform a miracle this is
tho question which has given most of tho
trouble. The more I have considered it the
less Inclined I am to answer in the negative.
To say that God would not perform a miracle
is to assume a more intimate knowledge of God's
plans and purposes than I can claim to have.
I will not deny that God does perform a miracle
or may perform one merely because I do not
know how or why He does it. Tho fact that
wo are constantly learning of the existence of
new forces suggests the possibility that God may
operate through forces yet unknown to us, and
the mysteries with which we deal every day warn
mo that faith is as necessary as sight. Who
would have credited a century ago the stories
that are now told of the wonder working elec
tricity? For ages man had known the light
ning, but only to fear it; now this invisible cur- '
rent is generated by a man-made machine, im
prisoned in a man-made wiro and made to do
tho bidding of man. Wo aro even ablo to dis-
that the lowest third. Falrbairn lays, dawn, a P?nso wiUi tho wire and hurl words through
sound propdsition .tthen "he says' that It IsVnot space, a'ifittr-X-ray Tun enabled us to look
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