Article March 8, 1919 Issue

The League of Nations

JOHN GOODFELLOW RAMSBOTTOM

Now that so much is being heard about a League of Nations and so much highly trained and earnest thought is being bestowed upon the subject and all that it implies and may entail, by some of the most responsible and serious people on both sides of the Atlantic, and on both sides of the equator too, may it not be interesting as well as profitable to examine whether any authority, and if so what sanction can be found for any such an idea or its fulfillment in Holy Writ.

Even a rapid glance back through the Bible record appears to indicate fairly unmistakably that it is no new or recent idea growing out of the battle of the nations nor germinating spontaneously and for the first time in the brain of any statesman of to-day, but is at least as old as Jacob's cross-handed blessing of Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, when it was said that Ephraim should become a multitude or a great company of nations, and Manasseh a great nation; if not back to God's covenant with Abraham, which was definitively renewed to Jacob (or Israel).

Much patient investigation and ingenious theorizing has been done in the attempt to straighten out and elucidate the Bible chronology and to coordinate it with astronomical and geological research and discovery. Archæological discoveries in Egypt, Chaldea, Troy, Crete, and elsewhere, also the deciphering of ancient scripts, hieroglyphs, cave drawings, and so forth, have moved back human horizons beyond the five or six thousand years supposed to be covered by Biblical chronology, but it is not therefore to be lightly assumed that this disposes of the authenticity and accuracy of the Biblical record (even as mere human history), for this record finds one corroboration after another in the light and results of modern research. Investigation does not alter or destroy the significance of that record when it is seen metaphysically as the record of mortal man's concept of himself as a thinking being, and as the history of his growth out of himself as a mere animal into some understanding of man as a son of God, even though it be granted as proven that animal, even human, life existed thousands of years before the Biblical date of creation. Furthermore, any discrepancy between the period covered by the Bible records and those contemplated by either astronomy, geology, or archæology is seen to be beside the question from the purely spiritual or metaphysical point of view, for on the basis of eternity what are five thousand or fifty thousand years, much less the life on earth of any man, unless they are seen as exemplifying, in degree, the eternality of Principle?

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
Distribution Work
March 8, 1919
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit