登陆注册
4614900000013

第13章

THE LIKENESS OF GOD

In my last chapter I endeavoured [sic] to show that each living being, whether animal or plant, throughout the world is a component item of a single personality, in the same way as each individual citizen of a community is a member of one state, or as each cell of our own bodies is a separate person, or each bud of a tree a separate plant. We must therefore see the whole varied congeries of living things as a single very ancient Being, of inconceivable vastness, and animated by one Spirit.

We call the octogenarian one person with the embryo of a few days old from which he has developed. An oak or yew tree may be two thousand years old, but we call it one plant with the seed from which it has grown. Millions of individual buds have come and gone, to the yearly wasting and repairing of its substance; but the tree still lives and thrives, and the dead leaves have life therein. So the Tree of Life still lives and thrives as a single person, no matter how many new features it has acquired during its development, nor, again, how many of its individual leaves fall yellow to the ground daily. The spirit or soul of this person is the Spirit of God, and its body-for we know of no soul or spirit without a body, nor of any living body without a spirit or soul, and if there is a God at all there must be a body of God-is the many-membered outgrowth of protoplasm, the ensemble of animal and vegetable life.

To repeat. The Theologian of to-day tells us that there is a God, but is horrified at the idea of that God having a body. We say that we believe in God, but that our minds refuse to realise [sic] an intelligent Being who has no bodily person. "Where then," says the Theologian, " is the body of your God?" We have answered, "In the living forms upon the earth, which, though they look many, are, when we regard them by the light of their history and of true analogies, one person only." The spiritual connection between them is a more real bond of union than the visible discontinuity of material parts is ground for separating them in our thoughts.

Let the reader look at a case of moths in the shop-window of a naturalist, and note the unspeakable delicacy, beauty, and yet serviceableness of their wings; or let him look at a case of humming-birds, and remember how infinitely small a part of Nature is the whole group of the animals he may be considering, and how infinitely small a part of that group is the case that he is looking at. Let him bear in mind that he is looking on the dead husks only of what was inconceivably more marvellous [sic] when the moths or humming-birds were alive. Let him think of the vastness of the earth, and of the activity by day and night through countless ages of such countless forms of animal and vegetable life as that no human mind can form the faintest approach to anything that can be called a conception of their multitude, and let him remember that all these forms have touched and touched and touched other living beings till they meet back on a common substance in which they are rooted, and from which they all branch forth so as to be one animal. Will he not in this real and tangible existence find a God who is as much more worthy of admiration than the God of the ordinary Theologian-as He is also more easy of comprehension?

For the Theologian dreams of a God sitting above the clouds among the cherubim, who blow their loud uplifted angel trumpets before Him, and humour [sic] Him as though He were some despot in an Oriental tale; but we enthrone Him upon the wings of birds, on the petals of flowers, on the faces of our friends, and upon whatever we most delight in of all that lives upon the earth. We then can not only love Him, but we can do that without which love has neither power nor sweetness, but is a phantom only, an impersonal person, a vain stretching forth of arms towards something that can never fill them-we can express our love and have it expressed to us in return. And this not in the uprearing of stone temples-for the Lord dwelleth [sic] in temples made with other organs than hands-nor yet in the cleansing of our hearts, but in the caress bestowed upon horse and dog, and kisses upon the lips of those we love.

同类推荐
  • THE FIGURE IN THE CARPET

    THE FIGURE IN THE CARPET

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 送崔侍御之岭南二十

    送崔侍御之岭南二十

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Blazed Trail

    The Blazed Trail

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 乐府古题要解

    乐府古题要解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 燕山外史

    燕山外史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 汝为妖色

    汝为妖色

    已经上架啦,大量存稿,放心食用哦,绝不坑扶甦将一只黄莺养成了人,两两情根深种。但是,当“前世宿命”浮出水面,隔着恩恩怨怨、今生前世的爱情是否还能如愿?不废话了,就是神仙和妖精谈起了恋爱,要多独宠有多独宠,要多虐恋有多虐恋
  • 错综复杂的爱情

    错综复杂的爱情

    我亲爱的读者们,《错综复杂的爱情(别名:被老天玩弄的爱情)》已经上架了,这是红袖对作品和作者的肯定★★★★★★欢迎大家阅读,希望大家一如既往的支持轩轩。★★★★★★
  • 四系魔法师

    四系魔法师

    作为偏房所生的邵峰,在邵家基本没有什么地位,他本以为自己就要那样子悲惨的过上一生,可谁知他竟然碰到一个可以改变他命运的人。邵峰觉得自己的人生之路或许会有改变。但异变突起,整个邵家竟然被各方势力联手灭掉。而邵峰则是被扔到了万丈深渊之下。那本是必死无疑的地步。可谁知邵峰竟然活了下来,并且还有了奇遇。
  • 恕中无愠禅师语录

    恕中无愠禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 道缘浮图

    道缘浮图

    谁家年少,煮酒调笑。盈握素腰,同舟醉邀。燕开庭的纨绔日子本来过得舒舒服服,走马章台,倾倒渭水,闲来无事再修修道,却不料被卷入一场仙家风波……
  • 末世之狐妖降临

    末世之狐妖降临

    作为一名狐妖,为什么母亲风情万种,父亲风华绝代,而自己就像一只被拔毛的丑小鸭!!我到底是不是亲生的啊!而且,为什么人类世界如此恐怖!丧尸来临啦!!男主??男主你有女朋友啦!?没事,我不要你的人也不要你的心,只要把我的东西还给我就好啦!
  • Ninepercent之小助理

    Ninepercent之小助理

    通过《偶像练习生》出道的ninepercent撞上勤工俭学的林柚会发生什么碰撞呢?林柚:“对不起我要辞职!”某九只:“你敢走我们就敢把你活捉回来。”此文无玛丽苏,一切不为真实,请勿对号入座,如有雷同,纯属巧合!不接受借梗抄袭转载!不接受!!!原地花式爆炸!
  • 暗伤

    暗伤

    星期一上午,太阳已经升起来老高,小容还在镜子前面慢吞吞地梳头,她把辫子编来编去,编了好几遍,还是不满意,就干脆梳成了马尾。马尾有些散,她用手在龙头下接了一些水,将头发拢了拢。她一点也不想去学校。她妈妈这两天一直对她唠叨,让她考试成绩一公布,就回来告诉一声。爸爸倒是没有这么催,但是,她知道,他不是不在意她的学习,而是这么多年,她在学习上从来没有优秀过,他是对她失望了。小容的爸爸老方是蹬三轮的,满大街跑,每次经过这个小城的重点中学门口时,里面的学生有要坐三轮车的,他从来不收钱。
  • 重生清欢

    重生清欢

    温锦苏出自书香门第,而玉清欢则是青楼女子。她是候夫人,而她只是侯爷的一个妾罢了。玉清欢以为她与温锦苏之间争的是一个男人,视她为敌,可温锦苏却死了。她才知,她一直不是喜欢那个男人,只是她不喜那男人碰温锦苏。直到玉清欢回到了当初刚进侯府时,看着她的满脸温柔,这一世……
  • 梧桐那么伤

    梧桐那么伤

    你曾给了我一道伤疤,在眉心;你曾给了我一记耳光,在脸上;现在,你给了我一辈子的内疚和挂念,在胸膛。我可以再也不看镜子,忘记这道伤疤;我可以不去回忆,忘记这记耳光;但是我如何让自己的心脏不再跳动,来遗忘这辈子对你的挂念和内疚?