The Messiah-Ideal: Comparative religious legislations, doctrines and forms unfolding that Ideal

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The Messiah-ideal. Comparative religious legislations, doctrines and forms unfolding that ideal.. (1896)


Author: Fluegel, Maurice, 1831-1911

The Messiah-Ideal. Comparative religious legislations, doctrines and forms unfolding that Ideal

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VOLUME I.

Jesus of Nazareth,

HIS ASPIRATIONS AND ETHICAL LEGISLATION
HISTORICALLY DEVELOPED.



BY

MAURICE FLUEGEL,

BALTIMORE, MD.
Author of "ThoughtH on Religious Rites,''  'Spirit of the Biblical Legislation'' etc.


PBKPf OF THca KppH Ik Sons,     » BALTIMORE. 1806.


To the memory of my dear, departed mother, Esther, and my

son Eli.

The Author.



Copyright secured by the Author, 1896.

Ill

Contents of Volume I.

Page.

INTRODUCTION.— Motive, Range and Scope of the Work 1

President G. E. Day of Yale University 8

CHAPTER I.

RELIGION AND ETHICS. PARALLELS 10

Innate Ideas. Revolution and Evolution. Herbert Spencer 12

Religious Leading and Minor Principles. 13

Max Mueller. Monotheism and Polytheism 15

Influence of Religion on Morals. Herbert Spencer 17

As Religion so the Community 21

Leading Rites and Ceremonies. 23

CHAPTER n.
RELIGIOUS IDEAS, FORMS AND SEASONS.

HEAD COVERING AND WORSHIP.. 25

Herb. Spencer on that . '. 27

Bible, Mishna, Talmud«on it 30

WINTER HOLIDAYS, YULE, CHANNUKKA,

Booths, Thankwivings, Christmas, Neir' Year 33

Holy Seasons Socially 35

Days of Repentance and of Joy with Hebrew, Parsee, and Polytheist 37

CHAPTER in.
SPRING HOLIDAYS AND THEIR EVOLUTIONS.

PASSOVER AND EASTER 40

THE "SEDER" AND THE LORD'S SUPPER 43

The Hebrew and his Passover (* 45

Passover Rerainiscenses. Ideas 46

Passover Symbols 53

APHIKOMEN AND EUCHARISTIA 56

Ostara, Easter, Passah, Resurrection 56

The Passover Lamb 57

Easter Sports 58

Easter Legends and Ovid's Myth 61

Hoary Easter Banquets 62

Easter Cakes, Herbs, Egps ' 64

Mysteries : Aphikomen, Hostia and Eucharist 66

The Hidden Image and Zophon 69

IX)RD'S SUPPER AND APHIKOMEN. THE RITUALS 70

Essenians and Gentile Christians 73

CHAPTER IV.

THE MESSIAH-IDEA. ITS ORIGIN 76

JESUS' ASPIRATIONS 81

The Trial of Jesus 87

Legal Aspects of the Trial 89

Pentateuch and Maimonides on Idolatry 91

Maimonides and Max Mueller on it 93

Talmudonit. The "Rebellious Sage" 94

Criticism of Jesus' Trial 96

KING OF THE Jews. The Corpus Delicti 98

Paul's Innovations 100

Gospels on Jesus' Trial 102

Messiah's Thorn Crown 105

Cross and Apotheosis 106

CHAPTER V.
BIBLICAL PARALLELS AND EVOLUTIONS.

Abraham and Agamemnon. Isaac's Sacrifice. Iphigenia's 108

NIOBE AND RIZPHA. —Critical Remarks 118

PATRIARCHIAL STAFF. SCEPTER AND CROSS 121

HEBREWS AND HYKSOS in Egypt 124

Staff and Crux 131

Roman Cross. Fasces. Crux 133

republished in" 1868.



IV

Page.

Bluffing of Ephraim and Manasse 136

Altars and Stvlae 137

LABAN'S THERAPHIM AND PENATES 139

Abraham and his Anarels 142

LOTH AND HIS WIFE. Baucis and Philemon 143

SAMSON, HERCULES AND MELEAGROS 149

Samson and Meleagroe 154

Monotheism and Polytheism 158

THE WANDERING JEW. Perseus .and Atlas 160

CHAPTER VI
ETHICAL AND LEGAL EVOLUTIONS. Elohim. Yhvh. Shaddai..l63

Temple Worship. Anthropomorphism 165

Priesthood. Freedom. Kinghood 167

Holidays. Sabbath 170

Sacrifices, idem human 172

Primogeniture 176

Polygamy. Divorcement 178

Slavery. Blood-revenge. Levi rate's Marriage 181

MIRACLES. "SUN BE STILL!'' 183

CHAPTER Vn.

SURVEY OF THE MESSIANIC IDEAL 190

IDOL AND UNKNOWABLE 191

The Mediator 1 94

Split of the Ideal and the Real 1 97

The Mystic Books 198

JESUS OF NAZARETH 199

JESUS AND THE ADULTERESS 200

No Capital Punishment 201

A Great Historical Era 204

THE HISTORICAL JESUS , 205

CHAPTER VI I L

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT as the Messianic Legislation 212

BACKGROUND OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 215

The Essenes ' 216

ESSENE PRACTICE AND DOCTRINE 218

Mount Sermon and Essenian Parallels 221

MOUNT SERMON AND TALMUDICAL PARALLELS 222

More such Parallels. 224

Jesus and Essenism 226

Parseeism and Bible 228

CHAPTER IX.

ANALYSIS OF MOUNT SERMON. MATTHEW V 229

Continued. — Mount Sermon Analyzed 231

Continued. — Sacrifices. Divorcement 235

TH E LORD'S PRAYE R 246

Messiah Legislation. Adam Smith, Malthus, Jesus 250

Essenian Jesus and Epicurian Horace 253

RANGE OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2G0

CHAPTER X

OTHER VIEWS ON THE MOUNT SERMON 266

Its Verses Assenting to the Pentateuch 273

Its Verses Dissenting from the Pentateuch 275

ESTIMATE OF THE MOUNT SERMON 278

Dangerous Precedents. Religious Compromise 288

Cardinal. Chief-Rabbi. Professor Franz Delitzsch 292

Signs of the Times 297

(close of Vol. I, and Themes of Vol. II :

(Jesus, Paul, Gospel, Mohammed & Koran, Parseeism, Qabbala etc) 209

Errata 303

Comments on the Author's Works 305



INTRODUCTION.



It was about ten years ago, at the University-Library
of Leipsic, Germany, that I conceived the idea of writing
a series of treatises on the several religions and legisla-
tions of the foremost nations of history. I was then, for
the first time, deeply engrossed by the study of the hoary
Persian religion, with its sacred books and their leading
ideas, doctrines and rites. I felt struck with the revela-
tion of the great parallel lines and the affinity of the
Zend-Avesta with the Bible, the Gospel and the Koran.
Gradually the far-reaching and cheering idea of the unity
of religions dawned upon my horizon, like an illuminat-
ing flash of lightning in midnight darkness. Wonderful and
novel as that aspect seemed to me, it nevertheless was
not really new. It was but an echo of olden impressions.
It was a dormant reminiscence from former years, newly
awakened. I felt that akin almost to Plato's doctrine
that our ideas are primordial and not acquired. Long ago
that idea had been foreshadowed in my early biblical
readings. It was that sacred legend there, from hoary
times, that man had worshipped but Yahveh, that the
Yahveh'CuXt. had been firmly established during the
Adamic era of civilization ( ) and that but later, strife,
corruption and war, natural and human catastrophies,
the **deluge of Noah" and the ambition of *' Nimrod,*' the
Tower of Babel and the violence of revolutions had dis-
integrated and scattered mankind ; had brought about
the differentiation of the race and the breaking up of the
Yahveh'Cult, into many hostile peoples and opposing
creeds. — That biblical legend seemed to coincide with
the new thoughts streaming forth from the tomes I was
then poring over, the sacred books of the hoary Parsee
religion. That traditional statement of a time of reli-
gious unity, of pure, natural religion established among

(I) Gen. IV, 26.



2 THE MESSIAH-IDEAL.

the human race, seemed to be confirmed by the volumes
on Parseeism. Revolving in my mind the parallel-lines
of thought in the great bibles, the leading, ethical books
of the world, that view of an original religious unity ap-
peared to be corroborated and confirmed, viz : that man's
leading ideas and forms are identical in their great out-
lines, and that their seeming discrepancies are the result
of circumstances; that the great law of evolution, of the
development in time, locality and surrounding conditions
presided over the formation of the multiplicity of creeds
and churches, dogmas and rites ; just as it did over na-
tions and tongues.

This was the fundamental idea enunciated in my
''Thoughts on Religious Rites and Views'  This idea I
elaborated more explicitly and clearly in my attempt de-
nominated the ''Spirit of the Biblical Legislation'' The
same idea is elucidated now in this volume, the analysis
of the doctrines and the aspirations of Jesus of Nazareth.
It will be further developed in the following volume on
Paul and the Gospels, Mohammed and the Koran, with
their parallels in Talmud, Mysticism, Parseeism, etc., all
setting forth the Messianic scheme. They are one series
of studies on the bibles of the leading nations of the
world. All point to the great fact of the essential unity
of creeds ; that the great legislators, the authors of the
leading ethical books, have aimed at the amelioration of
man by all intellectual, moral and social means at their
disposal, and that these means, the principles and ideals
inculcated, were running, in parallel lines, bearing a
strong mark of affinity. They prove religion to be deeply
imbedded in man's moral nature, showing the diverse
spiritual systems to have had their origin and root in
the eternal essence of mind, which centres in the Deity.
They are coinciding in chief points, then developing and
differentiating in minor traits, according to social, cli-
matic, geographic and dietetic conditions and environ-
ments.

My first publication on these Bible studies was in 1888 :
''Thoughts on Religious Rites and Views'' Q) It was fol-

(1) ®rbanfrn fiber reHgi'ofr Srau c unb fCnf auungcn.



NATIONAL HEROES. 3

lowed in 1893 by a volume on the ''Spirit of the Biblical
Legislation  I now hand over to the kind public this third
book: " 'The Messiah-Ideal ' setting forth that great
aspiration of universal history. It is an independent study,
yet in intimate combination with, and a close continua-
tion of the preceding two volumes. Alike with them,
it treats of biblical analogies and ethical evolutions of
leading religious themes ; yet its real subject-matter is
special. While the first discusses religious forms and
ideas among all creeds, sects, countries and ages ; while
the second treats particularly of the central laws and in-
stitutions of the Mosaic Code and its derivations, this
present work has for its proper object the leading doc-
trines and views of the Gospel and of the Koran, with
their analogies in the Old Testament, the Talmud, the
Avesta, etc. The most prominent figure of this volume
is Jesus of Nazareth. It is followed in Volume 11. by
Paul of Tarsus ; closing with Mohammed, the Arabian
Legislator.

As in my preceding work, so have I here attempted,
not to discuss and give an exhaustive survey of all the
details of my theme, but rather to distill from Gospel
and Koran their pure spirit and essence. Reverently, but
critically, I have interrogated, as a simple truth-seeker,
not as a devotee, those intellectual leaders and master
minds and their literary legacies in Bible, Gospel, Koran,
Avesta, Homer, etc., concerning their suggestions, their
social and ethical schemes, their proposed means and
final objects to be reached. Mostly, it turned out, these
leading intellects were simply the mouthpiece of their
national psychology, the respective geniuses of the peo-
ples they were representing. And Just that is the cri-
terion of their own genius ; their fitness is proven by
their answering to national needs. Analysing the teach-
ings of these ethical minds, it came out that these were
usually in harmony with the conscious or unconscious
leading needs and aspirations of their respective sections
of mankind, be it of Judaea or Rome, of Greece, Arabia,
Persia, etc. These national heroes proved to be the
personified exponents of history ; the dial-hands of hurry-



THE  MESSIAH IDEAL



ing time ; the echoes of the silent, yet persistent objects
of human endeavor ; the result of the crossing and the
conflict of wisdom with passion, of the national strong
and weak points, of selfishness and generosity, etc. So
were, too, the leading features of the several sacred
books herein contemplated. They proved to embody
the final objects of the national aspirations, all intent
upon the ultimate goal of human destiny.

It is not necessary here to rehearse the popular, ex-
aggerated verdicts to which have been carried the biased
estimates concerning the authors and the writings con-
stituting the several canons, excesses committed both by
their adherents and by their opponents. The people
usually extol tomorrow what they have vilified yesterday.
A close examination of facts shows that the author of the
Sermon on the Motint was simply the exponent and
flower of all the best and noblest ever uttered in Judaea ;
that the fine Paulinian chapter on charity, just as his
unique logic, were the bloom and the gold-dust of the
mystic Hellenists of his age. Even so was Islam the
flower and fruit of the most thoughtful Koreischits of
Arabia. Each of them was the choicest of the chosen
ones. But each was, what he had to be ; he could not
be otherwise ! Each did the best and the noblest of his
epoch, amalgamated with the unavoidable alloy of his
national and local environments. And just because they
did that, viz: the best and the fittest which their time
allowed, they have earned their places in the human
pantheon ; even their dark and weak sides became per-
fections and were necessary, just as an alloy of brass is
to the silver of the goldsmith.

This adaptation proved to be the nerve of the Sacred
Books, the secret of their strength, the cause of their
having been accepted by their respective adherents as
their Bible, their divine guidance, their rule of conduct.

This final aim and tendency of the sacred books, most-
ly identical with the goal of history, this drift of all hu-
man progress, I have designated by the hoary, popular
and pregnant ideal and mystic personification of the



MESSIAH IDEAL



''Messiah'' Messiah is, originally, a Hebrew word
meaning the anointed one, the highest dignitary, leader,
sacred priest, general in chief and prince, appointed by
the legitimate organs of the Hierarchy to that exalted sta-
tion. It corresponds to our modern President or the Ro-
man Prince-elect. ( ) Now **Messiah*' has become for the
last 2000 years a historico-mystical household word, a
metaphorical figure for dignity, saliently standing forth
in the sacred writings of Western nations, Arian, Tura-
nian or Shemitic. In this work I do not convey by
** Messiah," the idea of a definite, special, concrete per-
son, a real personal Messiah, but rather the conception
of such an ideal personality. I believe to be fully war-
ranted in comprehending by that hoary, historico-reli-
gious title and term, all the best and the noblest,
men have ever aspired at, for individual, national or uni-
versal human improvement and happiness.

Thus I denominated this work ** TheMessiah-Jdeaiy It em-
bodies all the ethical ideas and ideals concerning a leader,
a great personality, aspiring at and actually bringing
man a step nearer to the realization of universal justice,
peace, goodness and contentment. In the Occident, this
was popularly assumed to have been realized by Jesus of
Nazareth. The orthodox Jew is yet expecting his Da-
vidian Messiah. In the Orient, it is Mohammed of Me-
dina. Farther East, it is Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius,
etc. Indeed, these ideals and ideas are carried out in
every country and age by their respective bearers.

On account of the magnitude of their aspirations, by
far transcending any single human capacity, such men
have often assumed more than human nature can bear,
and their import has, at all times, been estimated by the
unthinking masses, either far beyond or far below, their
real level. Love and admiration would extol them ; hate
and prejudice would belittle them. They have been de-
clared the images and emblems of the deity by some, and
by others again, dragged down to the level of fiends, and
criminals, mountebanks or demented persons. Such was

(1) Princeps civi talis.



6 THE MESSIAH-IDEAL.

the fate of the master minds of Bible and Gospel, Avesta
and Koran, etc.,objects of deification and of vilification, of di-
vine worship or savage vituperation. Inquire at the votaries
of such books or Codes, and they will tell you that these
are the first and the last words of the godhead ; that all
wisdom, knowledge and holiness are compressed in their
volume. Ask their detractors, and they declare them a
compound of nonsense and pretense, of shams and sub-
terfuges. But that is all bias and prejudice ; for the sa-
lient fact that each of these books is recognized by mil-
lions as their Bible, proves that they must needs contain
many good and great things. The other fact that there
are several such '*Sacred Canons," and that neither is
universally recognized, shows that they do not contain
ALL the great and good things. Indeed, as the sunlight,
so are the great ethical truths, scattered everywhere,
pervading in part each creed and not monopolized by
any. It teaches that Divine Mind is ever and constantly
revealing new truths, and that everywhere some of these
verities may be found. This volume attempts to give
the proper places to the heroes of past religious thoughts ;
no deification and no demonizing! It tries to re-in-
state and rehabilitate them into their proper stations in
the great pantheon of human benefactors. The Messiah-
crown should no longer be monopolized in favor of this
or that prophet and legislator. No, its rays are shining
over many countries and ages ; they radiate over and hal-
low a galaxy of noble heads, who have toiled and thought,
suffered and given an impulse by their selfsacrifice, and
brought down new ideas and incentives for human im-
provement.

In thus trying to humanize, rehabilitate and portray
in their just proportions the great historical teachers, I
hope to bring nearer to one another the antagonistic par-
ties of creed and race. In showing that all of them have
one ethical stock in common, that most often their iden-
tity is essential and real, and their disagreement but for-
mal and circumstantial ; in trying thus to mitigate sec-
tarian prejudice and misunderstanding, I may contribute
a mite towards that peace- and good-will policy, aspired



PAN-LATINISM, PAN-TEUTONISM, PAN-SLAVISM. 7

at by all the great teachers, by all the real claimants to
the messianic crown.

Glancing over the pages of history, what an amount
of tears and blood, wars and devastations have not been
caused by religious misunderstanding, exaggerations and
belittlings ! To mitigate fanaticism, to enlighten ignor-
ance, to bring opponents nearer to each other, to help to
a better understanding about the import of the leaders
and their labors, about the different names and attributes
of the same Supreme Power, about the diverse forms of
worship of the same Divine Ideal, about the different
claimants to the same thorny messiah-crown, to show
that everywhere great hearts and minds have struggled,
bled and sacrificed themselves  that messiahs have to
bear a crown of thorns, have to ascend the cross and
fructify the world, with their feelings, their thoughts, and
their hearts ; to show that the harvest of their seed
ought to be peace and good will, light and sympathy,
mutual justice and kindness, modesty and toleration, —
not strife and bitter prejudice, not fanaticism and racial
hate, not ostracism and oppression, not privilege of
church and arrogance of race ; to suggest that there are
many creeds and sects, but that one religion is under-
lying and pervading them all — to show that, to impress
that, is the object of this modest work.

Surveying the world at this very present moment,
what do we see? Europe is one vast military camp ;
peoples, races and creeds are hostile to each other; con-
stant war-rumors are hovering on the horizon; the
stronger are in barracks and the weaker are under the
yoke, toiling to feed the stronger; pan-latinism, pan-
teutonism and pan-slavism are in vogue ; so are anti-
semitism, anti-irishism, anti-poleism ; Europe is against
Asia, the Occident against the Orient, the Cross against
the Crescent ; Bible, Gospel and Koran are made a pre-
text for oppression and ostracism ; individuals, nations
and countries are weighed, not by their own merits, but

by the scales of official creed, race and privilege ;

whilst in reality, Bible, Gospel and Koran, as

Avesta and Vedas, are equally and identically teaching



8 THE  MESSIAH-IDEAL.

one measure and one weight for all. To point that out,
to approach parties with their hates and prejudices, and
call on them: Stop, brethren, stop in your fratricide!
Moses and Isaias, Jesus and Hillel, Mohammed, Manu
and Zoroaster, all have taught peace and good will for
men, as the highest worship to God; the God of Jew,
Pagan, Christian, Moslem, etc. . . . this is the object of
these following pages and of my preceding work.

Well do I know the smallness of my contributions to-
wards that aim. I did the little I could, and may the
reader take my will for the deed!

The kindness with which my preceding labors have
been received, inspired me with the confidence to en-
trust this volume to the indulgence of my readers. At
this instance may 1 be allowed to mention this yet. It
was in 1889 when President George E. Day of Yale
University, on the occasion of reading my  'Thoughts on
Re/zgzous I ilcs,** kindly wrott m  the following: ♦'See-
ing your clear style, I have strongly felt what a contri-
bution it would be if you would undertake to show the
teachings of the most distinguished one of your nation,
as given in the admirable Gospel translation of your
friend, Professor Fr. Delitzsch. .... Is it not wonderful
that one of your nation stands out as an ethical teacher,
immeasurably above Plato, Socrates, Th. Aquinas, etc.'' !
He continued: *'l venture to express the hope that you
would examine and state what the teachings of Jesus

really were Rising above the region of passion or

prejudice, you might, if so disposed, present the subject
in a strictly objective way  as you would Mohammedan-
ism, etc. Such a presentation, I am sure, would be
welcomed by all thinking men." — These sentiments,
worthy of a true scholar and a University President, have
been my guides in writing these pages. I desired to
answer the question: ' Watchman, what of the night?";
to descry the dawning day of reason and argument; to
show that the thinking Catholic, Protestant and Jew are
at one concerning the high ethical value of Jesus* teach-
ings, and that the differences are but concerning mysti-
cism and supernaturalism, which ought not to be in the



PEACE AM) G(X)l) WILL TO ALL. 9

way of ** peace and good will to all." — My former work
has met with kindly encouragement from different parts-
of America and Europe, from scientific men as well as
from the public at large. My warmest thanks be here-
with tendered to them. It is that encouragement which
has cheered me in my labors; and I hope this volume
will be as kindly received as its predecessors.

Maurice Flueuel.
Baltimore, September 1895.



CHAPTER I.

Religion and Ethics. Parallels and Developments.



In 1 888 I published a small volume, denominated :
   Thoughts on Religious Rites and Views,*  or ''Bible and
Parseeismy That treatise starts with and unfolds the one
central proposition that there are ostensibly many sects,
theologies, churches, creeds, ritualistic systems, etc. ; but
that there is hardly more than one fundamental, posi-
tive, religious system, with its negatives and counter-
propositions. That system is the real nucleus, the
mother- religion underlying all denominations, of which the
many existing churches and creeds are but copies, ap-
proximately more or less successful exemplars and ethi-
cal photographs, practical realizations coming up more
or less accurately to the original ideal and prototype.
This prototype is man's inborn faith ; the faith in a Su-
preme Moral Order, Providence — God, with the sequels
of human soul, ethical rule of conduct, and reason in
practical life.

God, soul, conscience, duty, truthfulness, mental and
spiritual development, useful activity, etc., are man's
original faith. Faith is the early outcome of our latent,
innate, ethical instincts, our natural sympathy with the
just and the equitable. These embryonic instincts have,
early, evolved a faith, ''organized,'  and latent within us,
which slowly has developed into religion proper. Origi-
nally, nature has endowed man with a deep, organic
sympathy for everything just, equitable, and noble.
These vague instincts then developed into an organized
moral and spiritual sense or faith, and that has at last
evolved a definite, reasoned, ethical system, a religion
and a church.



religion inborn. ii

Religion Inborn.

This our faith, my little book continues, is not exter-
nal and artificial ; nor, at once, supernatu rally brought
home to our consciousness. No, it is inborn ; it is eter-
nally resting in the sanctuary of our souls ; it is its es-
sential element, its innate, divine Revelation ; dawning
upon it slowly, growing with it, just as our ideas of vir-
tue, truth, equity, love, liberty, beauty, etc. It is the
very essence of our humanity, and our morality. Our
humanity and spirituality without that religious con-
sciousness are but self-deceptions. Our ideas of justice,
goodness, duty, solidarity, etc., are but the offshoots and
the fruit of that inborn religious consciousness. It is
the bond between creature and Creator, the sympa-
thetic feeling of men*s relation and kinship with one
another and with the Author of all existence. It is
''religion'' in its etymological sense — religo — ; the

f olden chain binding man to man, and all men to God.
o live in accordance to that bond and fulfill all one's
duties is religious life. And what with the common
mortal is a mere guess, a shadowy opinion, is, with the
prophet, an insight, a clear intuition, a deep conviction,
a mental flash of thought, a revelation.

As to divine service, or devotional exercises, they are
the realizations, more or less rational and adequate to
the innate longings of man to come into contact with
his divine Parent.

This religious consciousness is clearer or darker,
more mystic or more rational, more formal or more
real, according to our individuality, capacity, education,
environments, etc.

It is hardly, in any one, totally extinguished. It
blazes up the brightest in the heart of the sage, of the
prophet. The prophet is a religious genius. What we
all feel, dimly, as if veiled, as in a dream, he sees clear-
ly and brightly; **he sees the truth, face to face.'*
**Truth is the seal of the Deity,"Q is a deep, oriental
adage.

.noK napn  bt lomn (1)



12 tiik mkssiaii-idkal.

Herdekt Spencer on Innate Ideas.

Mr. Herbert Spencer, the hoary sage, once gave
utterance to this bold thought, viz.: **When, roaming in
a noble forest, we stand still, struck with admiration
at its lofty and mystic grandeur, — that is not simply our
own personal, momentary sensation. No, it is the ac-
cumulated feeling of the entire past behind us, the or-
ganized reminiscences of our innate, dormant lo.ve for
our ancient forest-homes reawakened ; when, millions
of years ago, we — that means the entire animal king-
dom — lived and roamed in the woods, in the guise and
shape of brutes, as wolves, bears and apes." To this
my little book remarks :

This Spencerian idea on dormant recollections is true,
but in an inverse sense, viz: When wrapt with admira-
tion for the beauties of nature, when turning our gaze
heavenwards, contemplating the majesty of the starry
heavens, or the splendors of the sunrise, or the horrors
of the aroused, terrific ocean waves, or the enrapturing
vista from Mount Blanc, etc., that feeling, that enthusi-
asm, that intense beatitude is not our own individual,
momentary, thrilling sensation. No, it is a noble remi-
niscence, accumulated in the human race, growing and
increasing from father to son, viz: the remembrance of
our innate, spiritual elements, our divine kinship ; the
consciousness that we are born for such bliss ; or, ac-
cording to Plato, in Phaedon : **the soul's recollection of
its eternal cognitions."

Revelation and Evolution.

Looking deeply into the folds of our soul, mustering
the images in our mind, we recognize that feeling as a
former sensation ; as when an old friend is suddenly
looming up into our presence ; as a faint reawakening
of a dormant recollection, slowly developing, and des-
tined once to come out in its full bloom. My book is
thus trying to combine and harmonize the seemingly
contradictory doctrines of Revelation and of Evolution,



KKlJcnoUS LEADING PKINCIPI,ES IDKNTICAL. I 3

of mysticism and of rationalism. The religion of the
human heart is primordial in our nature ; it is there in-
born, implanted by its Divine maker. It is the soil
wherefrom shoot up the blossoms of our reason, our
ethics, our practical virtues, our sense of justice, and
sympathy, all the noble aspirations, all our real su-
periorities over the brute, all that we call humanity.
Mankind's prophets and leading legislators are but the
privileged spokesmen of that universal, religious en-
dowment.

Historical Progress.

But that religious instinct is often dormant and hushed
back. It is slowly aroused by advancing civilization and
humanization. This slow, but steadfast growth is humaii
progress. This is historical evolution. Its great turn-
points are marked as religious Revelations, epochs, desig-
nated in history as : Moriah, Sinai, Charmel, Mount Olivet,
Medina, Wittenberg, Plymouth Rock, etc. Its full
realization is the prophetic messiah ideal. It is reve-
lation, because co-aeval with the very origin of human
existence. It is evolution, because its full bloom is not
at the cradle of the human race, but at its far off goal,
its tardy Zenith, in the distant future. Hence come the
Hebrew prophetic, hoary messiah hope, the Parsee reign
of Ahura Mazda; the Christian kingdom of heaven, the
Darwinian survival of the fittest, the Spencerian do-
minion of rational ethics, and the Socialistic ideal of ab-
solute equality. They are all one and the same thing,
expressed in different terms. It is revelation as directly
coming from the Supreme Source. It is evolution as
the natural unfolding ever going on in history. This I
call: ''A Scientific basis for Religious Revelation.

Religious Leading Principles Identical.

My book goes on to show that side by side with mi-
nor differences, the leading principles of the world's
great creeds are pretty nearly identical. So is the fun-
damental dogma of the biblical ever-living, righteous
God, the Supreme Being y Yhvh, Everywhere He is con-
ceived as the pure spiritual Essence of all existence. So is



14 THE MESSIAH-IDEAL.

(Divine (Providence in the universe and in human his-
tory admitted everywhere. So are the universal father-
hood of God, and the universal brotherhood of man.
So is the immortality of the human mind. So is a moral
and intellectual humane life, or righteouness, universally
acknowledged as all-important. So is everywhere ac-
cepted the ethical dogma of the final, universal triumph
of right and reason over injustice and folly. The eter-
nal progress of our race is achieving that victory, as its
noblest goal. Its most potent aspiration is the future
supremacy of right and reason in human affairs, as it
ever has been in the universe at large. So reads a
hoary meditation: **Thy will be done on earth as in
Heaven." (*) This is the recognition of the supremacy
of the God of righteousness: **On that day God will be
One and his name One."

Parallels in Minors.

But even less evident views are identical in nearly all
the great denominations. Monotheism split into dual-
ism with the Parsees ; into Trinity with the Brahmans,
the Egyptians, the Magi and the Christians, etc. ; into
polytheism with the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the
ancient Israelites, the Phoenicians, Greeks and Ro-
mans, with the unthinking of all times ; Fetichism was
and is ever the creed of the thoughtless masses.

We find most generally accepted the belief in angels,
demons and spirits, good and evil ; in paradise and in
hell. So is the impurity of matter in the human body,
especially in the feminine one. All that is found among
Parsees, Brahmans, Syrians. It is less salient indeed in
the biblical creeds ; yet on the whole it was there too, re-
tained as a relic of the past ; the belief in bodily im-
purity may have been an incentive for greater cleanli-
ness, or, a reaction against the preceding ancestor- and
hero-worship.

The Pentateuch, in many places, alludes to a hoary
epoch, at the dawn of an earlier civilization, the Adamic

, . ir jT Di BT nvf}?' wn ronna di bt rmy (1)



MAX MUELLER ON MONOTHEISM AND POLYTHEISM. 1$

era, when the Yahveh worship was established, liter-
ally: ''When they began to call on Yahveh'' (Gen. iv,
and xxvi). In many other passages too, it asserts that
true worship and right conduct are older than Abra-
ham and Sinai ; that long before the deluge, pure spir-
itual monotheism was mankind's creed, justice and
truth the rule of human life ; that later, for reasons not
explicitly mentioned, corruption of the moral sense came
on ; with corruption of the religious sense, the biblical
writers assuming that the religious sense is the root,
and the ethical sense its fruit, and that man's moral and
social improvement depends largely upon his theolog-
ical improvement, upon the purity of his creed.

The great philologist, Professor Max Mueller, of Ox-
ford, England, seems to take the same position in his
earlier works, backed by linguistical reasons. He
shows that the theology of Homer and Hesiod and Or-
pheus is already the outcome of such a degeneration ;
that the gods of Greece and Rome had greatly dete-
riorated from their original standard ; that former ages
had a purer worship and a sounder morality. Thus the
biblical view of a degeneration of the religious sense
may be historically substantiated. Hence, according to
those very hints in Genesis, are Abraham, Moses and
the prophets not so much the inaugurators, as rather
the restorators of the universal innate faith, the type of
an earlier religious phase.

Max Mueller on Monotheism and Polytheism.

At my inquiry. Professor Max Mueller, of Oxford,
England, was so kind as to send me in reply some chap-
ters from his new book then about to appear : ''Origin
of the Vedante,'' where he says the following concern-
ing monotheism and mythology :

"We see in the Vedic hymns the first revelation of
Deity, the first expressions of surprise and suspicion,
the first discovery that behind this visible and perish-
able world, there must be something invisible, imper-
ishable, eternal or divine. No one who has read the
hymns of the Rig-veda, can doubt any longer as to



1 6 THK MKSSIAIMDKAI..

what was the origin of the earliest Aryan religion and
mythology.

**A1I the leading deities of the Veda bear the unmis-
takable traces of their physical character. Their very
names tell us that they were in the beginning, names of
the great phenomena of nature, of fire, water, rain and
storm, of sun and moon, of heaven and earth. After-
wards we can see how these so-called deities and he-
roes became the centres of mythological traditions,
wherever the Aryan speakers settled, whether in Asia
or in Europe. This is a result gained once for all and
this light has shed its rays far beyond the Vedic mythol-
ogy and religion, and lightened up the darkest corners
in the history of the mythological and religious thoughts
of the other Aryan nations, nay of nations unconnected
by their language with the speakers of Aryan speech.
In the same way the growth of the divine idea is laid
bare in the Veda as it is nowhere else. We see before
our eyes who the bright powers of heaven and earth
were, that became the devas, the bright ones, or the
gods, the deities of other countries, We see how these
individual and dramatic deities, ceased to satisfy their
early worshippers, and we find the incipient reason*
ers postulating One God behind all the deities of the
earliest pantheon.

hii'*As early a writer as Yaska, about 500 B. C, has
formed to himself a systematic theology, and represents
all the Vedic deities as really three : those like the fire,
whose place is on earth ; those like Indra, whose place
is in the air and those like the sun, whose place is in the
sky ; nay, he declares that it is owing to the greatness
of the deity, that the one Divine Self is celebrated as
if it were many.

One God.

*'We see, however, in the ancient hymns already, say
1500 B. C, incipient traces of this yearning after one
God. The gods, though separate individualities, are
not represented as limited by other gods, but each god
is for the time being implored as supreme, a phase of



IXFLUKNCE OK REI-KUON ON MORALS. IJ

religious thought, which has been described by the
name of Henotheism, as distinguished from the ordinary

Polytheism These were indeed giant

strides, and we can watch them clearly in different parts
of the Veda, from the simplest invocations of the un-
known agents, behind sun and moon, heaven and earth,
to the discovery of the one God, the Maker of heaven
and earth, the Lord and Father, and lastly to the faith
in one Divine Essence (Brahman), of which the Father
or Maker of all things is what they call the pratika or
fact, or manifestation, or, as we should say,    persona,
the mask, the person.

**This was the final outcome of religious thought, be-
ginning with a most natural faith in invisible powers or
agents behind the startling drama of nature, and ending
with a belief in One Great Power, the unknown or rather
the unseen God, worshipped, though ignorantly wor-
shipped, through many ages by the poets of the Vedicage.''

Influence of Religion on Morals. — Herbert Spencer.

The inter-dependence of religion and morals, the
claim that the corruption of the one brings about the
corruption of the other, and that rectification of the reli-
gious thought produces refinement of the moral feeling,
.that an enlightened God-idea will bring about social im-
provement generally, seems to be admitted by Mr. Her-
bert Spencer, too. In his (Data of Ethics he makes a
strong effort to sever ethics from dogma and denomi-
national creed, but not from the essence of religion;
viz: religion as the rule of inter-connection between
man and man, and all men to Supreme Law; or our
feeling of dependency upon a higher Power, that com-
mands us social righteousness. In one instance only, to
my remembrance, Mr. Spencer seems to make an at-
tempt to depart from that line of thought. It is in his
Sociology II, p. 640, (Edition of New York, 1883. in a
long note), on: ''The influence upon morality of a de-
cline of religious belief; or whether morality can exist
without religion;" there he says:



1 8 THE MKSS1AH-II)EAI..

'***Not much difficulty in answering this question will
be felt by those who, from the conduct of the rude tribes
described in this chapter, turn to that of Europeans dur-
ing a great part of the Christian era; with its innumer-
able and immeasurable public and private atrocities, its
bloody aggressive wars, its ceaseless family-vendettas,
its bandit-barons and fighting bishops, its massacres, po-
litical and religious, its torturings and burnings, its all-
pervading crimes, from the assassinations of and by kings,
down to the lyings and petty thefts of slaves and serfs.
Nor do the contrasts between our own conduct at the
present time, and the conduct of these so-called savages,
leave us in doubt concerning the right answer.

*'**When, after reading police reports, criminal as-
size-proceedings, accounts of fraudulent bankruptcies,
etc., which in our journals accompany advertisements
of sermons, and reports of religious meetings, we learn
that the amiable ''(Bodo and(Dhintals,'' who are so ''hon-
est and truthful,'' **have no word for God, for soul, for
heaven, for hell," (though they have ancestor-worship
and some derivative beliefs), we find ourselves unable
to recognize the alleged connection. If, side by side
with narratives of bank-frauds, railway-jobbings, turf-
chicaneries, etc., among people who are anxious that
the House of Commons should preserve its theism un-
tainted, we place descriptions of the ' fascinating" ''Lep-
chas,'' who are so ** wonderfully honest," but who pro-
fess no religion, though acknowledging the existence of
**good and bad spirits," (to the last of whom only they
pay any attention), we do not see our way to accepting
the dogma which our theologians think so obviously
true ; nor will the acceptance of it be made easier, when
we add the description of the conscientious Sdntdl, who
** never thinks of making money by a stranger," and
** feels pained if payment is pressed upon him" for food
offered; but concerning whom we are told that of a su-
preme and beneficent God the Sdntdl has **no concep-
tion." Admission of the doctrine that right-conduct de-
pends on theological conviction, becomes difficult in
reading of the Vedahs, who are *' almost devoid of any



ANALYSIS OK THE ABOVE. 1 9

sentiment of religion/' and **have no idea of a Supreme
Being/' nevertheless, '* think it perfectly inconceivable
that any person should ever take that which does not
belong to him ; or strike his fellow, or say anything that
is untrue/* After finding that among the select of the
select, who profess our established creed, the standard
of truthfulness is such, that the statement of a minister,
concerning cabinet transactions, is distinctly falsified by
the statement of a succeeding minister; and after their re-
calling the marvelous veracity of these godless  Bodo
and (bhimals, and Lepchas, and other peaceful tribes,
having kindred beliefs, going to such extent, that an
imputation of falsehood is enough to make one of the
Hos destroy himself; we fail to see that in the absence
of a theistic belief there can be no regard for truth.
When Christian ministers with university culture insist
upon the sacred duty of blood revenge, whilst the Lep-
chas are forgiving, it our church-going people

strive to get fortunes for making display, whilst the
Afruras covet wealth to pay the debts of the poor. . . .
we must reject the assumption that brotherly love is the
consequence of religion. . The truth is that the-
ory is almost nothing, and practice almost everything. . .
Nominal creeds go with political burglaries .... to get
scientific frontiers Organized crime of aggres-
sive war and private annexation of other people's prop-
erty . . . Conversely these uncultivated tribes prove that,
being exempt of war, living unmolested, they molest no
one; their altruism is fostered and they display the re-
sulting virtues. We need teaching that it is impossible
to join injustice and brutality abroad with justice and hu-
manity at home.""

Anatasis of the Above.

This entire long passage has the well-known acumen
and originality of the great thinker. But it seems some-
what lacking of his accustomed moderation. It is but a
note, a by- thought jotted hurriedly and out of humor.
Like the great prophetic teachers of old, he feels indig-
nant and deeply revolted at the customary hypocrisy of



20 THE MKSSIAH-IDEAL..

the rulers. And as they did, so Mr. H. Spencer gen-
eralizes here too, vehemently and abruptly. Remember
that hypocrisy is not religion, just as pretense is not reality.
Hypocritical creed is but a convenient cloak for injustice.
The missionary precedes with the bible; behind comes
the dealer with alcohol ; and lastly, but most important,
follows the soldier with powder and lead. But the abuse
of religion is not its use. What in this world has not
been abused! Thus the quoted note strikes me as not
in harmony with the general tenor of Mr. H. Spencer*s
views, expressed often and throughout his great scientific
works. Nor do I think that the religionist would be at
a great loss to set aright the above quotations, viz:
Young, rare, scattered nuclei of savages, in a state of
primitive nature, not yet experiencing the bitter struggle
for existence of our crowded societies, can do without
the apparatus of a systemized religion, pompous public
worship and ethical culture. Their instincts, their feel-
ings, man's natural prudence and inborn altruism will
suffice to make them respect each other's rights and
crave each other's good will. In such a condition of
primitive innocence are, or were, the petty savage tribes
just quoted above. Nor must we overlook the fact,
fully acknowledged by Mr. H. Spencer, that even they
had some kind of religion, as ''ancestor-worship '' or
**belief in spirits,'' or some other sort of belief, to which
they undoubtedly attached and from which they derived
their humble ethics, for this is a universal law with civil-
ized and savage men. The facts quoted can at the ut-
most bear out the generalization that **there are many
roads to the heavenly father," that *'no church is alone
saving." that mdiny political burglars, or even common
house-breakers, may belong to the dominant churches,
and that many dissenters or even heretics may embody
the highest ideals of virtue. But this is a truism long
ago known. The prophets Isaiah, Joel, Amos, etc., have
long ago preached it in the open market, and Jesus,
Paul, Mohammed, etc., even have divulged and pro-
claimed that secret to the world at large. Mr. H. Spen-
cer, the hoary scientist, has simply reiterated it and even



rant's CATIIEOOKIC IMPEKATIVK 21

with the identical irascibility and impulsiveness peculiar
to impatient great and good men. Now, when these
savage tribes grow into peoples, when they live crowded
and in close proximity, when soon engaged in the bitter
battle for existence, fighting want and passion, revenge
and lust and ambition with all the usual temptations,
stimulants and excitements of crowded social life, then
the voice of simple infantine nature is stifled and hushed.
Then men will feel the need of solid rules of con-
duct, pillars to uphold the social fabric, principles
of mine and thine, of right and duty. Then too,
we shall feel the need of stricter coercions and of
great leading maxims, to substantiate it, to peremptorily
command and enforce right conduct; some Code, some
authority to dictate by, the **Cathegoric Imperative,'' (*)
the absolute ''Thou shall   These two sets of thought,
of social needs are called for: the one is religion, the
other is ethics. Then it will soon be made clear, that
the nobler the religion, the better the ethics. The more
perfect the God-idea, the more so human society. That
the middle-ages, that our own present times, exhibit yet
so much violence and wrong-doing, folly and vice, does
not disprove of that theory. No, it corroborates it. Had
we no religious institutions at all, no manner of creed,
•church or worship, society would be far worse off. And
commensurate with the higher status of our religious in-
stitutions, goes a higher social status. The truer and
the purer the church, the nobler the state. The purer,
the more adequate the teachers and the clergy, our sci-
entific and our ethical masters, the better the people ,
the more right conduct, the more law-abiding, the more
enlightened the head, the truer the heart and the more
pure and solid the hand.

As Religion so the Community.

A glance at human affairs in hoary times, in olden
times, in middle-aged times, in modern times and in

(1) Kant



2 2 THE MESSIAH-IDEAL.

present times will fully corroborate and illustrate that
reasoning. The lesson of such a comparison will be:
that we must constantly polish and perfect our religious
conceptions, since they are the mighty handle for im-
proving our ethical and social conditions ; ever convinced
that a nobler dogma and a purer church will yield a no-
bler state, truer ethics, more right conduct and more so-
cial happiness. But just there looms up a new difficulty.
To improve the church with its dogmas and forms, we
must begin with acknowledging that there is room for
improvement, that it is not yet the absolute good, that
it is not infallible, that it does not embrace the whole
and the full truth, etc. And that acknowledgment is
dangerous! For if it is not infallible, how should we
accept it as a guide, as a base for the state ? If the
teacher himself may err, how can he teach? Human so-
ciety needs a base immovable as the rocks, and as mor-
als rest upon religion as their comer-stone, the religion
must be solid and stationary; and if stationary, how can
we have social, moral and mental progress? This is the
earnest difficulty. Yet it is not irremediable. That ques-
tion is answered by : The child must believe the teacher
infallible, the adult needs not so to believe. The char-
iot of society rolls upon two wheels, not one. The state
really stands upon two evenly balanced forces, making
up the full equilibrium of interests. Human society needs
stability; or else we shall have anarchy. Human society
needs progress ; or else stagnation and corruption will
set in. The church and the sciences are the exponents
of these two forces, man's two poles, the centripetal and
the centrifugal forces of human civilization. The one is
ever conservative, the other, ever progressive. The one
asks faith, the other proof. The genius of mankind or
Providence, and the consensus of all the leading think-
ers give the preponderance, according to circumstances
and environments, to either of these two agents ; and this
preponderance decides for stability or for moving on-
wards. It decides according to needs. Whenever the
old is effete and absolutely in the way, revolution comes
on, forcible innovation, be it in the church, be it in



LEADING RITES AND CEREMONIES. 23

the state. These epochs form the great crisis in religion
and in society. Such epochs were those of Mounts Si-
nai, Karmel, Olivet, Medinah, Wittenberg, the Ameri-
can and the French Revolutions, etc.

Evolution, Retrogression and Progression.

We have seen the biblical view is, that already in pre-
historic times, pure Yahv eh-v/orship and pure, social
right-conduct reigned in the world. But, it will be asked,
is this not the very reverse of evolution ? The evolu-
tion-theory is : man began as a block or a brute and is
to close as the brightest, rational being ; religion be-
gan with crude ancestor-worship or fetichism, and rose
to the One holy godhead; while I claim with the Bi-
ble and the earlier view of Professor Max Mueller the
very contrary, viz: a degeneration of man and of his no-
blest conception, Religion !

Here I beg to show that this is  jumping at conclu-
sions.*' Evolution does not claim that human history is
ever and always upwards and improving, constantly go-
ing from lower to higher. There are in human affairs
but too often relapses, movements from higher to lower,
momentary retrogression. In times of prolonged war
and ruin, famine and pestilence, etc., the result will be
retrogression. Even so with the biblical Adamic era,
mankind had conceived a higher type of deity, and hence
a higher type of humanity, the two always going to-
gether. Then with **corruption'' (Sodom) and ''wars"
(Nimrod and Kudur-Lomar) collapse came on, and de-
generation ensued. Polytheism, Moloch, Baal and As-
taroth-worship resulted ; that means, violence and sensu-
ality gained the upper hand; until Abraham and Moses
led mankind back to Yahveh and the Decalogue. So
later on, the reaction against Roman brutality was Jesus
and Paul. The present era of ''blood and iron'' is such
a relapse into brute force and sensuality from the civili-
zation of half a century ago.

Leading Rites and Ceremonies.

We have glanced at the universality of leading reli-
gious ideas. But not only such doctrines, dogmas and



24 THE MESSIAH-IDEAL.

views have been originally identical, growing from one
stock and, according to clime and social conditions, etc.,
have varied, slowly, and loomed away from their original
type among the various denominations and races; — I
claim more : even the leading rites and ceremonies stand
in the same relation. These also, originally, were but a
small nucleus of such religious forms ; but according to
clime, soil, environments and the further spread of man-
kind, they, too, have varied, unfolded and grown into that
maze we now behold with wonderment. It is often these
forms alone, which make the difference of sects and
creeds. It is often such alone that separate man from
man. If men would but try to understand and reason
on their difficulties, these would soon vanish.

So, for instance, are the differences between Mosaism
and Mohammedanism wholly based upon the differences
of time, clime and ethnical character. Islam is really
but an adaptation of Mosaism to Arabia and Arabians.
This the Koran repeats a hundred times, expressly. This
w e find verified when critically examining the theological
and the ethical basis of the Koran. Everywhere we find
the identical theology and the same moral principles ;
occasionally changed only just as much as necessary to
suit the habits, views and propensities of the roving bar-
barians, then, plundering, wandering,lascivious and sensual
Arabs, so much at variance in these respects from the
Benai Israel, long ago accustomed to civilized, settled,
pastoral and agricultural pursuits, in steady homes, un-
der a firm, civil government. This discrepancy is al-
ready foreshadowed in the character of Jacob and Esau,
twin brothers, yet so diverse. These discrepancies ex-
plain the whole difference between Mohammedanism and
the original Pentateuch, so emphatically endorsed by the
Koran.

The early establishment of Christianity took place, by
adaptation to circumstances and, comparatively, without
much violence and revolution ; because it took 300 years,
viz : from Paul to Constantine, hence men reasoned and
compromised their differences ; Christianity is such a com-
promise. While the Reformation cost Europe half of



HEAD-COVERING AND WORSHIP. 25

its population ; because people did not reason about their
variances; because princes and ecclesiastics coaxed them
on to bloodshed and prevented them from calmy reason-
ing and compromising. Had the Popes, had Charles V,
and Philip II, not imagined that their positions were at
stake, had the Protestant princes not been so eager to
seize upon the benefices of the church, a compromise
would have been reached, and those bloody auto-da-fes
and ruinous wars and popular uprisings would never
have taken place. The European nations would have
compromised upon the modes of worship and forms of
catechism, even of papacy. The personal interests alone
were at the bottom of the troubles, forms do yield and
compromise.