VIII. Nature and the Bible

The Book of Nature

Nature has an extraordinary fascination for the Sadhu. But he does not love Nature in the spirit of St. Francis, preaching to the swallows or singing his canticle to " brother Sun." Nor, again, has he that feeling of immanent Divinity which marks the nature-mysticism of a Wordsworth. The Sadhu 's point of view is much nearer to the Hebrew. The Hebrew attitude is thus described by Dr. Sanday in an unpublished paper written just before his death: " ' The Greeks studied nature for its own sake: they observed it for its own sake and they analyzed it for its own sake. As their disciples, we do the same. But the Hebrew Prophets cared very little for these things. They were interested in nature, and have left behind them magnificent descriptions of nature: but that was not for the sake of a purely calm contemplation of nature in itself. They always had an ulterior object; they were always thinking of nature as the handiwork and expression of God. "What they, the Hebrew prophets, were really bent upon was, as I said, the things of the spirit. And as many of these things could not, or could not readily, be expressed directly, they were glad to express them indirectly: and as nature is full of analogies between the things of the body or material things, and the things of the spirit, they were glad to

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make use of these analogies in their task of expounding these latter to the mind of their hearers. In other words, they used them not for their own sake but as symbols. "

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork." The Sadhu loves Nature not so much because he feels God in Nature, but because God made Nature and Nature is to him an open book speaking in parables about the things of God. He loves the beauty, especially the snow-clad beauty of the Himalayas, but it is less for the sake of the beauty itself than because in those eternal solitudes it is easier to hold communion with God and to read the great truths, which are written, as he says, all over Nature in capital letters. Not only beautiful but also unattractive sights of Nature — barren stretches of sand, festering decay — discourse to him in parables of God. Hence the phrase he so often uses — the Book of Nature.

The saint or the genius ever fails to comprehend why other people cannot see what is so obvious to himself. So the Sadhu wonders why there are so few who habitually read the Book of Nature and derive from it the comfort and inspiration which he himself finds there. The fruits of his reading in that book are the illustrations and parables which make up the greater part of his teaching.

"To read other books you must master painfully the language in which those books are written, but this is not so with the Book of Nature. It is written in a language which is simple and intelligible to all." "Live with Christ, and the Book of Nature will be clear to you." To the Sadhu it is rest as well as illumination. Asked what relaxation he had, living as he did a life of high

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tension, he said, " Reading the pages of the Book of Nature. ' The thought of crossing the English Channel on his way to Paris filled him with delight, for it would provide him with another opportunity to study Nature. He stood on the deck and gazed at the deep blue sea, joy beaming on his face.

He compares and contrasts the Bible and the Book of Nature.

"The Bible and the Book of Nature are both written in spiritual language by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit being the author of life, all Nature, instinct with life, is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the language in which it is written is spiritual language. Those who are bom again have the Holy Spirit for their mother. So to them the language of the Bible and of Nature is their mother tongue, which they easily and naturally understand." The difference, however, between the Bible and the Book of Nature is this: "The message of the Bible is simple, direct and straightforward, whereas the message of the Book of Nature has to be spelled out carefully letter by letter. " In the Bible itself the Sadhu discovers instances of a use of the Book of Nature similar to his own, in passages like "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow, " or "He shall be like a tree planted by the water-side, that bringeth forth his fruit in due season. ' " Curiously enough he did not mention in this connection the parables of our Lord.

He was asked, "Is there any difference between your study and the Hindu's study of the Book of Nature? Did not the Hindu seers, the poets of the Vedic hymns, also read the pages of the Book of Nature? " "Yes, they did," he replied, "but they lost God in Nature. The 1 Ps. li. 7. 2 Pa. i. 3.

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Christian mystic finds God in Nature. The Hindu mystic thinks that God and Nature are the same. The Christian mystic knows that there must be a Creator who has created the creation. "

The Sadhu remarked that to him the Book of Nature of which he speaks includes also human nature. His illustrations are drawn not only from trees, plants and animals, rivers and mountains, but from the varied drama of human life. But though men and women, with their motives and their difficulties, furnish him with abundant material for shrewd and observant contemplation, he does not view humanity with the eye of a Dickens delighting in its idiosyncrasies, or of a Meredith turning his microscope upon its subtlest intricacies, but rather with that of a preacher, who is also an artist, seeing everywhere the material for a telling parable. Moreover, though interested in men and their ways, he is nothing of a sightseer. When he was in Oxford boat races were in progress, but he declined an invitation to go and see them. Nor did he display any special pleasure in the fine buildings and other sights of the city. He does, indeed, take pleasure in visiting new scenes; but this springs more, we surmise, from a desire to get a sort of bird's-eye view of God's world than from anything like the zest for exploration which fires the ordinary traveler. He is glad to see famous cities; but "I don't like cities," he said once, 'they are rough pages of the Book of Nature. "

The Bible

"When asked which were his favorite books of the Bible, the Sadhu answered, "The Bible, like a lump of

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sugar, is sweet to me at whatever point I taste it. " Nevertheless he does in practice draw distinctions. The New Testament is the staple of his spiritual food. This, on account of its smaller size, he is able always to carry with him, in the Urdu version, being, indeed, beside his blanket and his robe, his only earthly possession. In his addresses he constantly quotes the New Testament, but only rarely refers to the Old — and then usually to the Psalms. Of the visions in Ezekiel he said once, "They are riddles. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of their meaning and sometimes not. " And when asked whether he was specially attracted to the Book of Eevelation, he replied, "Not very much. " The Gospel of St. John is the book which he reads most often and to which he most often refers.

Asked why he is so much drawn to St. John's Gospel, he replied that it was because it is so simple and yet so deep; and also because, being written by the beloved disciple of Jesus, it gives a new and marvelous insight into His character and possesses a charm all its own. "St. John leaned on Christ's breast. He had a warm heart and spoke, not mouth to mouth, but heart to heart with Jesus. So he understood him better." Again, " St. John bore witness for Him whom he knew. He did not say 'whom I have read of in books or heard about as the Savior of the world,' but 'whom we have looked upon.' He lived with Him three years, day and night. He loved our Savior more than others and he could understand the love of his Savior and bear witness for Him. How many of us could say the same thing, that we have heard and seen Him, that our hands have handled Him, that we can bear witness for Him?" It is the Sadhu's desire some day to expound the Gospel of

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St. John, using his own characteristic method of illustration. It is to be hoped he may carry out his intention. "When I was traveling in the Central Provinces I was talking to some non-Christians about our living Savior. I finished speaking, and I asked those people if any one would like to read the Bible to know something more about Jesus Christ. There was a man there, an enemy of Christianity. He took a copy of St. John's Gospel. He read two or three sentences, and then straightway tore it into pieces and threw it away. This was in a compartment in the train. After two years I heard a wonderful story. The same day that this man took St. Jolin's Gospel and tore it up into pieces and threw it out of the window, a seeker after truth was going along the railway line. He was a real seeker after truth. For six or seven years he had tried his hardest to find the truth; but he was not satisfied. As he was going along the railway line thinking over these things, he found the torn pieces of the Gospel, and he took them up and began to read. He saw the words 'everlasting life.' According to Hinduism it may be true that we are not going to die, but that we shall live through transmigration, and come back again into this world. But " everlasting life '! Then in another piece of the Gospel he saw the words 'the Bread of Life.' He was anxious to know something about it. What was that Bread of Life? He showed the pieces to another man and said to him, 'Can you tell me what this book is? I am sorry that somebody tore it up.' The man said, 'That is Christian. You must not read it. You will be defiled. You must not read such books.' At last he said, 'I must know something more. There is no danger in knowing more about these things. ' He went and bought a copy of the New Testament and

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began to read it — and he found our Savior. Now he is a preacher of the Gospel in the Central Provinces. Really the torn pieces of St. John's Gospel proved to be a piece of the living Bread — the Bread of Life. "

The Sadhu tells several similar stories of cases where the New Testament has penetrated and produced conversions among those whom no missionary has been able to reach. Naturally Christianity so reached may sometimes include eccentric elements. "In one Buddhist temple in Western Tibet when I went to see the library of the Lama, the Buddhist priest, I was surprised to see a copy of the New Testament there, and I asked him, " Where did you get it?' He said, 'It is a wonderful book. There are many wonderful things in this book. Do you know who is that Jesus Christ in the Bible? He must have been an incarnation of Buddha.' I said, 'I believe in Him. He is my Savior and the Savior of the world.' The priest replied, 'I do not know whether He is the Savior of the world; but I know that He is an incarnation of Buddha, and Tibet is the roof of the world, and He is coming again and His throne will be in Tibet, and He will rule over aU the world because it is the roof of the world. So we are expecting Him and He will come back again, and He will reign in this world, the incarnation of Buddha, Jesus Christ.' "

Of the real aim and significance of the modern critical approach to the Bible the Sadhu has probably little or no first-hand knowledge; but by what he does know about it he is strongly repelled. He is indeed seriously concerned about "this spiritual influenza," as he calls it, and about the disposition to regard our Lord merely as a great moral teacher, which he believes to be its result.

Coming from such a man the protest demands consideration. There are Scholars who do need reminding that Prophets, Psalmists and Apostles were — like the Sadhu — men who lived in, with and for God. Some of them saw the light less clearly than others, but all were mystics of the only true type — that is, men who know God, because they have loved God and striven to do His will. Amans ah amante accenditur says St. Augustine, " lover is set afire by lover." He who approaches their writings in something of the spirit in which he would approach the Sacrament may himself catch fire; he too may find God. And he should be the better able to do this if he has enough knowledge of the history, outlook and surroundings of the writers to bring to his reading the imaginative insight which is needed for the full understanding and appreciation of all great literature. The critical study of the Bible is far the most important branch of Sacred Archaeology and of Church History —but it is archaeology and history, and no more. Once let the microscopic study of documents and dates become an obsession, blinding one to the weightier matters of the law, and a "spiritual influenza" does indeed result. " These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. "

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But the Sadhu 's own view of inspiration, from the standpoint of which he criticizes critics, is by no means the rigid mechanical theory which some Western theologians of the older school have upheld. It demands no verbal infallibility.

"When I was staying in North India in the house of a friend I was reading a religious book in which were some things I did not understand. My host, a D.D. and a Ph.D., explained my difficulties, and his explanation sounded to me quite satisfactory. Later on, however, I

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met the author, who explained to me his real meaning, which was very different. Just so, learned men very often misinterpret the Scripture. If we want to know the real meaning we must go to the Author, that is to say, we must live with the Holy Spirit.

" ' The Holy Spirit is the true Author of the Scriptures, but I do not therefore say that every word, as it is written in the Hebrew or the Greek, is inspired. Just as my clothes are not myself, so words are only human language. It is not the words, but the inward meaning that is inspired. The language used by the authors of the Bible was the same language as that of ordinary life, and therefore was not really adequate for spiritual things. Hence our difficulty in getting back through the words to the real meaning, but to those who are in contact with the author, that is with the Holy Spirit, everything is plain. 'My words are spirit, and they are life,' but it was of the meaning, not the letter, that this was spoken. "When the Holy Spirit speaks to men He does not speak in human words, but in that language of the heart, that direct wordless speech of the spiritual world, which I hear in Ecstasy.

"When I am in Ecstasy and speak to the Angels and Saints, it is not in the language of this world, but in a spiritual language without words which seems to come quite naturally. Before I utter a word or move my lips the meaning is out; and this is the same language in which truth was communicated to the authors of the Scripture. Afterwards they tried to find words to express what had been revealed to them. But often they may have failed to get just the right word, but the meaning they were trying to express is inspired. They must have felt acutely this difficulty in expressing the

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full meaning of what often cannot be really put into words, and after they had written it down, having done their best, they must have thought to themselves, " After all, something is better than nothing, and we miist give our message.' "

Speaking of the Bible on another occasion he said, "We take food. The valuable part of our food is digested and the useless part goes away in filth. The soul will assimilate naturally the elements which are good for itself: the rest will go away of themselves."

Of the part played by the Bible in his own conversion, he speaks thus:

"I used to read the Bible and I felt the power of the Word of God. Of course, I did not like it sometimes. I used to criticize it and I used to tear up the Bible and bum it in the fire. But even then I must confess that sometimes I felt its wonderful power and attraction. It was a sort of fresh cool breeze — perhaps that illustration will not appeal to you — you prefer fire more than a breeze; but to those who are living in hot countries the cool breeze is refreshing — the breath of life. As a seeker after truth I tried first to be satisfied, to find peace and joy, from Hinduism or wherever I could find it. But the scriptures of Hinduism, the good teaching of other religions, could not satisfy me. When I used to read the Word of God, I felt that it was a refreshing cool breeze, the breath of life. Although I used to tear it up, I felt its power. Many others felt the power of the Word of God. They used to say, 'You must not read the Bible."Why? "Because of its magic. You will become a

iThis, and the stories, pp. 155-56 are from an address at the Annual Meeting of the Bible Society in London. Cf. The Bible in the World, June, 1920.

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Christian. Many who began by reading the Bible have become Christians. You must not read it.' Some of those who were non-Christians and who were opposed to 'Christianity realized that there was power in it. I used to feel in those days the wonderful power and attraction of the Word of God. I came to know my Savior. Through the Word of God I was introduced to my Savior. I knew Jesus Christ through the Bible. When He revealed Himself to me in a vision I became converted and I felt heaven on earth. "

The last three sentences sum up his whole position. In his view of the Bible, as in everything else, he is the mystic whose mysticism centers on Christ. Or, as he himself puts it, "The purpose of the Gospels is merely to introduce us to Christ."

Miracles

The Sadhu believes implicitly in miracles. "The day of miracles is not gone, the day of faith is." And he regards — whether justly or otherwise, we need not here consider — those who hesitate to accept the miracles of the Bible as holding a diminished conception of the power of God. "Formerly the Bible used to be a large book. Now it is printed in such a way that men carry it in their right pocket. So formerly God used to be thought of in a large way. Now men are trying to make God small and to carry Him in their left-hand pocket." "The miracle of the new birth is the greatest of all miracles. He who believes in that miracle believes in all miracles."

"The Saints in Heaven, though they help men spiritually on earth, are not allowed to come down and work

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directly, but only indirectly, through other men. The angels could easily convert the world in ten minutes. Some of them have asked for the privilege of being allowed to suffer in this world, but God refused their request, because He did not wish to interfere with men's freedom by such an exercise of miraculous power. The Apostles were allowed to work miracles in order to prove that they as well as Christ had authority behind their word, and miracles are still occasionally allowed but not often. "

In London or New York everything that strikes the eye speaks of organization, invention and the science that has made all this possible. Nature appears to have been all but tamed by man, and the conception of the Reign of Law appeals to the imagination as well as to the reason — and it is hard to believe in miracles.

In an Indian village, upon mountains like the Himalayas, by rivers like the Ganges, where the luxuriance of tropical forest alternates with the vast expanse of endless plow-land or of desert plain, haunted by the scorch of the sun by day and the jungle's multitudinous hum by night, man, cowed and defenseless, senses the One behind it all as palpitating with mysterious and wholly incalculable Power. Add to this an ancient culture, exuberant in tales of marvel, entirely lacking in the scientific spirit — and it is difficult to disbelieve in miracle.

To take up one side or the other in such a controversy, or even to argue at length that the issue is one which really matters very little to the religious man, would be inappropriate in this place. Our purpose is

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to portray the Sadhu as he is; but, if the portrait is to be a true one, the background it stands out against must be seen to be his environment, not ours.

The Sadhu believes in miracles, not merely because he finds them in the Bible, and in the Book of Nature as it reads most naturally to rural India's eyes, but because they have happened, or have seemed to happen, to himself.

The following is taken from the shorthand report of the address given to the meeting presided over by the Bishop of London, mentioned above (cf. p. 18). The experience described is his own and in India he has often told it as such. But he had sufficient knowledge of the English point of view to be aware that if he told it as a personal experience he would focus attention on himself and distract it from the moral he was enforcing, so he characteristically told it as if it had occurred to some other person.

" There was a man whom God had called in the mountains. At first the people did not want to receive him. In the beginning it was rather difficult for him. He was tired and hungry and thirsty. He went into a cave and began to pray and was tempted: " You came to tell the people about Jesus Christ,' the tempter said, 'but where is Christ now? You are hungry and thirsty and your Savior does not help you. ' But when he began to pray he found a wonderful Peace, and he could say, " My Savior has heard. ' He could not get food or bread, but he took some sweet leaves, and it was as though he had never tasted such luscious food before. The presence of our Savior had changed them.

" Afterwards a crowd of people came with sticks and stones in their hands to attack him. He closed his eyes

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and said, " Thy will be done. I commit my soul into Thy hands. " But, when he opened his eyes, he saw that they had gone. He spent the whole night praying and in the morning eighty or ninety people came in a crowd to see him, but not with sticks or stones in their hands.

" 'If you want to kill me here I am, the man said.

" 'Last night we came to kill you and stone you, but to-day we have come to ask one question. We have seen many people from different countries and know them allj but last night we saw some wonderful people: to which country do they belong? You were not alone last night, so many people were standing around you in shining robes, who were they?"

" Not one or two saw this vision, but the whole crowd. Those men in the shining robes belonged to heaven. They are sent to work for those who bear witness for Him and obey Him. But those who live a life of prayer shall see much more wonderful things than that. They will find that Peace which they can find nowhere else."

The Tamil addresses contain this story:

"In Tibet there was a man who sought God, but not finding Him was restless and unhappy. Finally he became so dejected that he resolved to commit suicide. At that time a stranger came to him, and said, 'I know a man a hundred miles away, living outside this kingdom, who can help you." The man gladly agreed to see him. After several days' travel they both reached the bank of a river. 'Stay here,' said the stranger. 'Seven miles away is the village where the man of whom I spoke lives. I will go and bring him back here. ' With these words he crossed over to the other side of the river and went to the village and brought back with him that Christian. The Christian and the other man talked for a long time,

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and the latter believed in Christ and was ready to be baptized. He looked for the stranger who helped him by bringing him all this way, but could not find him anywhere. He thought that he was the Christian's friend, and the Christian thought that he was the friend of the man from Tibet. Finally they decided that he was an angel. And the man was baptized. But though the angel spent several days with him he did not preach to him. It was God's will that this part of the task should be done by a man, the Christian who lived a hundred miles away. "

The following excerpt from a letter to the Nur Afshan, illustrating as it does both the Sadhu's way of life and the atmosphere in which he moves, will appropriately end this chapter:

"A few weeks ago a Christian Sadhu by name Sundar Singh came about preaching the Gospel in the villages round about Narkanda and suffered a great deal of persecution. We were sitting and chatting... when a farmer by name Nandi came up and said:

" "A very strange thing has happened in our village. One day while we were reaping the corn in a field a Sadhu came up to us and began to preach religion. We all felt very annoyed at this interference in our work and showered curses on him; but little heeding our curses and threats the man went on with his talk. At this my brother took up a stone and hit the man on the head. But this good man, unmindful of the insult, closed his eyes and said, " 0 God, forgive them! " After a while my brother who had flung the stone was suddenly caught with a splitting headache and had to give up reaping. At this the Sadhu took my brother's scythe and started 1 Quoted by A. Zahir, A Lover of the Cross, p. 11.

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reaping the corn. We all marveled and said, "What manner of man is this Sadhu, that, instead of abusing and cursing us in return, he prays in our favor? " Then we took him to our house where he told us many nice things. After he had gone we noticed an amazing thing. The field where this good man had reaped has never yielded so much corn as it has this year; we have gathered two maunds above the average this time.'...

"A few days ago I met a European lady on her way to Simla. I told her about this matter and she advised me to send an account of this marvelous incident to the Nur Afshan.... Hence according to her advice I send this communication to the Editor... and request the Sadhu ji himself to visit that same village again, so that we may benefit by his holy preaching....

(Signed) Jiya Ram. "