The Whole World to Be Combined
By George McCready Price
How Conditions of This Time Provide for It—It Becomes a Religious and Despotic Confederacy
“EXTENSIVE religious combinations to effect a political object are . . . always dangerous. . . . All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate on the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequences.”—Senate Report, January 19, 1829. The thought of a unified race, a consolidated humanity, “when the battle flags are furled in the parliament of man, the federation of the world,” has long been a very alluring ideal. Many of our greatest poets and prose writers have contributed of their genius to portray its attractiveness. And at this call of “Excelsior,” voiced by these idealists, myriads of souls of more sluggish temperament have felt their nerves thrill and their pulses quicken, together to join in this rallying cry in which all humanity seems to be taking part. A World-Wide Neighborhood
Several material factors are contributing to bring about this result. 1. First of all may be mentioned the modern development of rapid communication. The railroad, the steamship, the automobile, have in effect abolished distance and time, bringing the distant parts of the world together, so that each man is, so to speak, the next-door neighbor to every other man. And the telephone, the telegraph, the daily paper, belting the world with their instantaneous communication, have done even more to abolish linguistic and geographical boundaries, and to convert the world into one vast community, with common interests, common aspirations, and a unified self-consciousness. 2. Modern industrial and commercial enterprises have long ago ceased to halt at national and geographical boundaries, and by their interests, have developed increasingly strong motives for internationalism. Material development and economic prosperity, whether in the individual, the nation, or the race, is fast becoming the one absorbing pursuit, the one enterprise esteemed worthy of human effort and endeavor. No belief is more widespread than the obsession that the elevation of humanity is to be effected by improved industrial and economic conditions, and by increased facilities for the acquirement of the material comforts of life on the part of the proletariat. And the concerted action of the scattered units of the proletariat throughout the world is seen to be essential in order to secure such a result in any adequate degree. But not only are the present conditions of competition a system of injustice and wasteful extravagance; one of the greatest sources of waste is seen to be the competition between the nations, resulting in the burden of militarism and the awful war that is crushing out the very life of the people of Europe, all because of the surviving feeling of nationalism, and the lack of a feeling of internationalism, the lack of a united world consciousness. Thus in many ways, a world state, a consolidated humanity, is deemed essential to make the aims of modern life most effective. Hence the widespread movement for international arbitration and universal peace, is supplementing the demands of commerce or “business” for at least a sufficient approach to world unity to admit of the throwing down of the barriers of hatred and exclusiveness that have so long kept the peoples of the world apart. World State—World Religion
Man is as certainly a religious animal as he is a social animal, and a world state implies a world religion. What shall it be? Under the terms of this ultimate democracy, religion also must be subject to man’s own desires; in fact, must be shaped and developed under human control. The religions of the present day, like all things human, are subject to improvement; and this improvement must be brought about by man’s own efforts. Spiritualism Plays an Important Part
That spiritualism in a refined and dignified form, such as modern optimistic mysticism, will be one of the factors in this world religion, is not a matter of doubt. As one has remarked, “It is obviously in keeping with the doctrine of the divinity of man to believe that human beings who have ‘passed beyond’ are more enlightened touching unseen things than those who are yet in the body.” Humanism stands in need of a supernatural factor; and here is one ready to hand, with unlimited possibilities. Nor can it afford to ignore the entrenched power of the great historic Roman Church. Romanists, who boast of miracles as a sure sign of the true church, will not object to the wonders of spiritualism when the latter gets in good working order; and the Roman Church, like this ultimate democracy, aspires to be universal. Here, then, we have a three-fold union that would appear to be eminently capable of bringing peace and harmony to our poor, distracted humanity; for all “will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world, and the ushering in of the long expected millennium.” But there are the gravest objections to this program. The Bible Christian, the Neo-Protestant, says at once that this concept of humanism and ultimate democracy ignores the reality of sin. “Instead of one united humanity having a common destiny, there are two great sections of humanity, one composed of those who have life through faith in the Son of God, and the other of those who have not life; one embracing the children of God, and the other the children of wrath.” The ultimate cause of evil is not in man’s evil environment, but in man’s evil nature; and all schemes for the world’s salvation, however much we may admire them on other grounds, tend to obscure or implicitly deny the imperative necessity of individual salvation and the new birth. They aim “to get rid of the consequences of sin in human nature without getting rid of the sin itself.” They are concerned with the symptoms rather than the causes. And even if they could accomplish anything worth while for the general welfare of the race, and would stop short of curtailing individual rights and liberties under the plea of the good of the whole, they would still be an evil and not a good in so far as they tended to step in between the individual and his personal accountability to his Creator. But as it is one of the best established laws of biology that acquired characters are not capable of being transmitted to offspring, is it not in the highest degree unscientific to suppose that a changed environment can ever bring about a change or improvement in the type? What would this world state be like? As nothing of the sort has ever yet been seen, we can only conjecture. Personally, I do not look for a real organic union of the scattered groups of humanity. It will be bad enough if they unite on such concepts of progress in social systems, in ethics, and in religion, as are held by them in common, and concertedly undertake to mold the development of the race in accordance with this idea. Instead of governments that are instituted to conserve men’s rights, in which all powers not delegated are reserved to the individuals and the people, the modern evolutionary concept is that the whole is greater than the parts, and that as the collective body is the real source of human improvement, a free hand must be allowed it in shaping the destiny of the race. Despotic to the Last Degree
I desire to be clearly understood. All honor to those who are trying to secure a greater degree of “social justice” for the oppressed and downtrodden of this or of any other land; and all honor to those who are seeking to lessen or to abolish the evils of war and the hideous waste and oppressive load of militarism, which has been one of the chief ways in which the hungry generations have trodden down the poor workingman. But, in the light of history, such a world unification, involving, as it necessarily must, a concerted effort to subordinate the rights of the individual to the supposed good of the whole, must surely be despotic to the last degree. For hundreds of years, the “iron monarchy of Rome,” as Gibbon calls it, crushed out the religious if not the civil liberty of the individual for the supposed stability of the whole. But the Roman Empire in its palmiest days was a mere baby, a doll, compared with this great world despotism which is already looming up on the horizon of our time, and which millions of voices are already welcoming with glad acclaim. Duties Above World Duties
But the Bible Christian, the Neo-Protestant, will never submit to a world despotism such as this, when it interferes with his duty toward his God. His Master, when here on earth, persistently and consistently refused to have any part in civil or political affairs, declaring, “My kingdom is not of this world.” On another occasion, He said, “If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not. . . . The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day.” On still another occasion, the undisputed rule of all the kingdoms of the world was offered to Him; but He refused it with the most decided emphasis, and thus set an example for His church to the close of time. But this offer of the kingdoms of the world has seemed more attractive to the apostate church of all ages; and evidently any church that avails herself of this offer which was spurned by her Master, thereby declares herself to be not the true church of Christ. A church that unites with the civil power, be it state, national, or world-wide, must be an apostate church, and hence must be intolerant. But to such a power, the true Christian will never submit. Like all the bright heroes of the past, he declares, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Here, then, is the coming conflict. With all the powers of earth arrayed against those who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” the conflict will be most5terrible. But it will be short, and the issue is not doubtful; for the prophecy pictures “those who had gotten the victory” over this world combination standing on the sea of glass before the throne of God. “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” “DISEASE is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health. In case of sickness, the cause should be ascertained. Unhealthful conditions should be changed, wrong habits corrected. Then nature is to be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and to reestablish right conditions in the system.”