46. FINAL STAGE OF INTELLECTUALISM

Therefore, we repeat the apostolic injunction: 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols.'

ULTIMATE INTELLECTUALISM.—THE TENDENCY OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION

The tendency of the modern movements of thought may be accurately determined by noting carefully the attitude of those who are its leaders. In the first stages of a movement it is generally impossible to say in what it will end; but when its course has become definitely marked out the end may often be predicted some time before it is reached. We are fully justified in speaking of "ultimate intellectualism," that is to say, of the final stage of intellectual development, since this development is now rapidly approaching a condition beyond which it is not possible to progress. When, through the progress of intellectualism, the human reason has been exalted to the place of supreme authority, and man is declared to be Divine, it is safe to say that the last stage of intellectualism has been reached. Beyond Divinity, it is not possible for even the imagination of man to exalt himself. It needs no long investigation to ascertain that Humanism, or the exaltation of man to the place of God, is the real religious principle involved in all the homage paid to Science, Evolution, Progress, and the like. Thus, the word "Science," as used in the literature, religious parlance, and pulpit utterances of the day, is simply a name reverentially given to the collective efforts of men to gather information concerning the physical universe. Whatever discoveries result from these efforts are not "the revelations of Science" but the discoveries of men; and hence the tributes paid to Science are in reality paid to MEN. Likewise, the word "Civilization" is merely an imposing and admiring title, bestowed upon that complicated state of Society which the collective activities of man have brought into existence, embracing all the doings and achievements of the modern man, from peace congresses to submarines, and from aeroplanes to cigarettes.

The worship of Man as truly Divine, and the spirit of Man as represented in some transcendent human genius or "Superman," is therefore the inevitable outcome of the existing forms of idolatry; for, when one stops to consider the matter, it must be evident that the names Science, Progress, Evolution, and the like stand for mere abstractions, and that the real source, creator, and sustainer of them all is Man. Heretofore we have considered the manifestations of the religious principles of Humanism in movements of the popular sort, and as set forth by those who

COLLEGE IDEALS SAMPLED stand forward as the spokesmen of such movements; and have also considered those principles as they are found in the great economic movement of the day, that is, Socialism, which is the uprising of the masses of men who are neither intellectual nor learned. But now, and finally, we will seek an indication of the present state and tendency of Intellectualism, and of the effect of the education now being imparted to those who have the highest mental endowments, and who enjoy, at the same time, the best existing facilities for their cultivation. To obtain such indication we have only to go to the foremost seat of learning in America. Probably there is no institution in the United States which exerts a greater influence upon the formation of ideas than Harvard University. Some of the best minds of the country have their ideas formed and their ideals shaped in the atmosphere of that ancient and highly respectable seat of learning; and upon leaving it they become the propagators of those ideas and ideals. In doing this they are aided by having, in addition to their own personal intelligence and culture, the weight of the influence and authority of the University. By sampling, therefore, the ideas that prevail, and are held in esteem at Harvard at the present time, we may learn what ideas will shortly become (if they be not already) current among the intellectual, or so-called "thinking," classes all over the land. Of the complete departure of this great University from the teaching, encouragement, or recognition of, anything partaking even remotely of Evangelical truth (or what Dr. Gordon calls the "New England Theology") it is needless to speak; for the facts in this regard are well known. Our present interest is to ascertain, not so much what Harvard has drifted from, as what it is drifting (or has drifted) to.¹ It is very striking and significant indeed to find (as we do) the ideals of the solidarity and supremacy of Man pervading the atmosphere, and saturating the thoughts, of those who are at the top of the scale of intelligence and culture, precisely as we found them to be the inspirations of those who are lower down in the social scale. From the top to the bottom these ideals have thoroughly permeated the mass of humanity. The spirit of twentieth century intellectualism manifests itself, with a distinctness leaving nothing to be desired on that score, in the Harvard Class Poem for the year 1908. This production was highly commended and widely published, in whole or in part, in the secular press. We quote below some of the stanzas, in which Satan's creed of the Deity of Man is stated with startling distinctness, notwithstanding the ¹ See in this connection footnote on page 304 of this volume; also the author's pamphlet on Modern Philosophy: A Menace to the English-Speaking Nations.

AN ANTHEM TO "MAN"

obscurity which is one of the chief literary characteristics of the production.

The appropriate title of the poem is "MAN," and these are the opening verses:—

"Now in the East the morning dies,

The full light of the splendid sun

Strikes downward on our lifted eyes,

And the long journey is begun.

Across the shattered walls

A voice prophetic calls,

With tumult and with laughter

We rise and follow after.

"The modern world, immense and wide,

Awaits us, huger than before,

With new stars swimming in the void

And science broadening evermore.

The sweep of the limitless vast,

The past is dead and past;

Yet through it all for ever

One voice is silent never."

The reader will note the tribute to the "modern world," and that to "science broadening evermore"; but he may require some help in order to identify with certainty the "voice prophetic" which is "silent never," and which is heard even above the tumult, and above the laughter, and the noise of the clanging city. As I gather from the two following stanzas, this inextinguishable voice is none other than that of

MAN:—

"'Mid iron wheels and planets whirled

The clanging city, in the street,

—The machinery of the modern world—

His lips cry loudly and entreat;

Like one that lifts his head

For a second time from the dead,

—Out of the Church's prison,

The new Christ rearisen!

"O holy spirit—O heart of man!

Will you not listen, turn and bow

To that clear voice, since time began

Loud in your ears, and louder now!

Mankind, the Christ, retried—

Recrowned, recrucified;

No god for a gift, God gave us,

Mankind alone must save us."

This last verse contains the essence of the poem.

The cardinal points of its doctrine are that Mankind is the Christ, and that the heart of Man is the Holy

Spirit. As the essence of the gospel of God's Word is that "He GAVE His ONLY-BEGOTTEN Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life," so the loftiest note in this Class

Poem of 1908 is struck in the line, "No god for a gift

God gave us," wherein that text is flatly contradicted, and in the assertion that "Mankind alone must save

"THE TRUTH" AND "THE LIE"

us." One of these statements,—that of the Gospel, or that of the Harvard poet,—is "the Truth," and the other is "the Lie." One of them proceeds from the "Spirit of Truth," and the other from the "Spirit of Error." This must be conceded by all, since the two statements are in direct contradiction, one of the other. Which is the Spirit of Truth? the Spirit who inspired the writer of John's Gospel, or the spirit who inspired the Harvard Class Poem? This is a question of life and death—of everlasting life and everlasting death; "because they which received not the love of THE TRUTH that they might be SAVED," are given over to "strong delusion that they should believe THE LIE; that they might all BE DAMNED who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in the unrighteousness" (2 Thess. ii. 10-12).¹ The doctrine that mankind is the only saviour of men is amplified in the next stanza; and, in the next succeeding, it is declared that men's gods are within themselves, and that the new world republican is heaven reborn in man and woman:—

"O world, grown pitiless and grim!

O world of men, had you but known

Your brother is your Christ, through him

You must be saved and him alone!

¹ We have introduced the definite article "the" where it occurs in the original text.