John Fiske believed that we live in a natural universe and that God works through Nature, and that in fact Nature is the spirit of God at work. Doubts never disturbed John Fiske. Things that were not true technically and literally, were true to him if taken in a spiritual or poetic way. God, to him, was a personal being, creating through the Law of Evolution because He chose to. The six days of creation, were six eons or geologic periods. No man has ever been more in sympathy with the discoverers in Natural History than John Fiske. No man ever knew so much about his work as John Fiske. His knowledge was colossal, his memory prodigious. And in all of the realm of science and philosophy, from microscopy and the germ theory, to advanced astronomy and the birth of worlds, his flowing imagination saw the work of a beneficent Creator who stood above and beyond and outside of Natural Law and with infinite Wisdom and Power did His own Divine Will. Little theologians who feared science on account of danger to pet texts, received from him kindly pats on the head, as he showed them how both science and scripture were true. He didn't do away with texts, he merely changed their interpretation. And often he discovered that the text which seemed to contradict science was really prophetic of it. John Fiske did not take anything away from anybody, unless he gave them something better in return. ¶“A man's belief is a part of the man, he said. "Take it away by force LITTLE LITTLE JOURNEYS 1 and he will bleed to death; but if the time comes that he no longer needs it, he will either slough it, or convert it into something more useful." Every good thing begins as something else. Evolution is at work on the creeds as well as in matter. A monkey-man will have a monkey belief. He evolves the thing he needs, and the belief that fits one man will not another. Religious opinions are never thrown away-they evolve into something else, and we use the old symbols and imagery to express new thoughts. John Fiske, unlike John Morley, considered "Compromise" a great thing. "Truth is a point of view— let us get together," he used to say. And so he worked to keep the old, as a foundation for the new. I once heard him interrupted in a lecture by a questioner who asked, "Why would you keep the Church intact?" The question stung him into impassioned speech which was better than anything in his manuscript. I cannot attempt to reproduce his exact language, but the intent was that as the Church was the chief instrument in preserving for us the learning of Greece and Rome, so has she been the mother of art, the inspirer of music and the protector of the outcast. Colleges, hospitals, libraries, asylums, art galleries, all come to us through the medium of religion. The convent was first a place of protection for oppressed womanhood. To discard religion would be like repudiating our parents because we did not like their manners and clothes. The religious impulse is the art impulse, and 150 both are manifestations of love-and love is the basis of our sense of sublimity. Certain phases of religion we surely will abandon. We will purify, refine and beautify our religion, just as we have our table etiquette and our housekeeping. The millennium will come only through the scientific acceptance of piety. When the Church and State separated it was well, but when Science and Religion joined hands it was better. Science stands for the head; religion for the heart. All things are dual, and through the marriage of these two principles, one the masculine and the other the feminine, will come a renaissance of advancement such as this tired old world on her zigzag journeys has never seen. Sociology is the religious application of economics. Demonology has been replaced by psychology, and the betterment of man's condition on earth is now fast becoming the chief solicitude of the Church. It will thus be seen that John Fiske's hope for the future was bright and strong. The man was an optimist by nature, and his patience and good nature were always in evidence. He made friends, and he held them. Huxley, who of all men hated piety that was flavored with hypocrisy, loved John Fiske and once wrote this: "There was a man sent from God by the name of John Fiske. Now John holds in his great and generous heart the best of all the Church has to offer, hence I no longer go to prayers, but instead, I invite John Fiske to come and dine with us every Sunday, so are we made better-Amen.” 151 LITTLE The Price is Ten Cents Each or One Dollar for Ten-as long as they last The Roycrofters, East Aurora, New York Your Favorite Immortal EOPLE who think and feel have a favorite author, composer, painter or orator, and to have this Ideal One enshrined in a beautiful book is indeed most pleasing; and to make a volume that will answer this purpose has been the fond aim of The Roycrofters. The De Luxe Little Journeys come nearest to our ideas, and we want you to know it. ¶ As a token of respect and esteem, as an appreciation of a duty beautifully performed & as a birthday, wedding or anniversary present, our De Luxe Little Journeys are very popular among the Discerning. The size is just right, the price is right, too. On Roycroft Water-Mark Paper, Hand Illumined, Bound THE ROY CROFTER S East Aurora, which is in Erie County, New York, U. S. A. |