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Chapter 7
STORMY YOUTH and PROFESSORIAL TURBULENCE
Jack was out of sorts, and could not find any sort of peace.
Little A on the other hand, was enquiring prayerfully as to the best way to induce a willingness to hear the Gospel in that youthful turbulence.
As the evening progressed, Jack was unusually touchy, and that, thought Little A, might be because I touched him, repressing a slight dimple that grew in his cheek at his own fancifulness.
When once he was harassing his own mother, the lad let out such a string of vile language that it made Little A glad that he knew so little, being so little, about such words, but it was apparent that Gladys, for that was her name, was not so much shocked or appalled, but desolate in spirit at such an exhibition of gross and formless folly, as if a rubbish tin had suddenly decided to exchange places with her son, and the latter had not really noticed.
It was when Jack went to bed, but not to sleep, that the tussle began. Little A resolved to think youthful thoughts of exuberance, to remind Jack that life was still there; and when he did so, Jack seemed to smile and to dream little night-naps, as if in a minor trance. Life, thought Jack, it is not for mere defilement, as if one were some kind of decaying mushroom, mere mould in decline. My own mother! and the words I spoke, How could such things adhere to me ? I must be too sticky for such trash, as if I were simply a trash can on legs instead of wheels.
Here Little A prayed for him to have the awareness of goodness, and Jack began to tremble in a way that simply amazed the angel. O God, Jack cried, if ever there were a product that mocks his producer, I am it. Yet it is not my will to find such defilement, and I am desolate in my distresses. Why not show me something of what you are like ? for I really would like to know.
It was then that Little A pictured to himself a giant projection screen on which the Christ was to be seen slowly dying, on purpose but without hastening the process, because in this case, it was not like some lawyer pleading for his case with vitality and drama, nor like some surgeon cutting away and sewing, with perspiration and aching back as he bent over his assiduous task, nor yet was it like a simple sunset, when a glory suffuses the earth to announce the departure of solar light from the palette of the divine artist, as some new effulgence of dawn begins to come nearer. It was a combination of the ecstasy of securing the lost, the agony and the anguish of death creeping up like some assassin, the bearing of guilt for those loved and the celestial, indeed heavenly holiness which looked on all like a Field Marshall. He could regard the entire process of rejection, condemnation and angony as bearing the meaning of the end and the measure of the way, so that there was a look of incredible gratitude in the eyes which fulfilling a love for the lost which, reaching back to the eternity from which He came, was now being consummated, as the minutes passed, in duly completing its divine mission.
Whether Jack could share either the words or the sight, or see the site, he did not know; but what he did know was the effect, if indeed effect it was. Jack sat up suddenly and prayed. God, he said, if I have sinned in malice, and self-will, in intolerance of what annoys me and in folly of mind and heart, seeking what does not matter and not caring at the consequences for me or for others, forgive me. I have heard of Jesus Christ, so I am going to ask you in His name to do this for me, and to cleanse me out, so that instead of being like a stable floor, low and sopping up the excrements of this world, I can be clean and love what is good and even do it.
I don't know how You could do this, but if You are willing, this is my plea and my call. God never forget that I did this, for it is beyond all my comprehension, but well within yours; and if I need to know more, then show me, and if I have not put it quite right, then forgive that too, but you know the heart, and the fact is that I can even now see Christ in His death and it is bearing into my consciousness that it is for me to the point that it might as well be for me alone he died, so vast is His coverage and so enormous His lovingkindness.
Little A heard, for he was ministering to one of the heirs of salvation, and he gave thanks to the Lord, and asked Him to show Jack what else he needed to know, that he could be sealed with the blood of the everlasting covenant, and saturated with grace, being now so empty that being filled with that water which surges up and flows, rising and sparkling into eternal life would be a beautiful thing.
Jack got up and was soon looking around in the living room for the family Bible, and finding it, he went back to bed, turned on his bedside light and began to read. It was at John 4 that he arrived, and seeing that there was a divine water which was such, that having this, one would never thirst again, he thanked God for this, and said, Well, I believe now in You and in Your Son, so I am trusting you for all this, and as he said so, a peace that was like that of the twinkling stars at night, when their height seems depth, and their number munificent and their silence beautiful, seemed to settle on him, as dusk settles on the dying day; and at the same time, a strength seemed to come to him, like the growing of red apples in the sunshine, and the effect of going and coming was so profound that he felt as if he had been newly created, and in his mind there echoed the words, You must be born again!
Born again! he thought, that is what so many spiritual snippets are constantly saying, and it is clear that they neither know what they say, nor care, but are merely using the idiom of language instead of the reality to which it makes reference. Yet, is one to throw away a good banana because one just tasted a rotten one ? He pondered these things, and Little Angel projected a thought of a babe held by its father, and looked on with joy, so that though it was so little as to seem almost laughable, yet it had potential which was received with a deep paternal blessing.
Jack smiled, and began to commit the rest of his life to the Lord, and consider what he could do for his friends, who would now find him far more difficult to bear with than they had the previous day, for it was now early morning.
Take up your cross and follow me! Little A projected, but whether Jack could receive such a picture, he did not know, so he prayed to the Lord to bring this to his mind that very day, and passing from that place, he sought out Jack's friends, if by any means he might make them more ready for what would surely come to pass, for, thought he, if Jack is truly a new creation in Christ, nothing is surer than this, what he now is, he will now follow in action.
At this he smiled, and suddenly became aware of a great sense of joy in heaven, as if a divine communication had been sent to him, and in his mind there appeared a solemn meeting rather like that in which he was sent, and there was a sudden explosion of joy which, had they not been heavenly beings, might have destroyed the palaces; but since they were, it merely made them leap for joy, for heavenly things are not subject to devastation as are things on earth, and their energies are channeled wisely.
Suddenly Little Angel had a great desire to go home, but instead, he realised that if he had love, then he must work, and if he worked, then he must know what he was doing, for none of his work could do anything unless the Lord both gave it blessing and power, wisdom and discretion; so he prayed as if his life depended on it, and was rewarded in a little with so refreshing a sleep that it seemed as if a world for him alone had been created, and that the brooks were playful while the oaks cast shade, and the Lord was arising with healing in His wings, and suffusing his spirit with a sense of well-being so great that he could hardly contain it without bursting, and with that, he sang in his sleep, though there were none but the angels and the Lord to know it.
The next morning however he realised that his work was just beginning, and that he must look aloft to the Lord to find its precise nature. He resolved to visit the University Professor he had known in the celestial land when by some sort of space-shute he had unexpectedly arrived, and found him in conference. As Little A looked about him, he found the air filled with jagged rocks and precipices, where their thoughts ruptured themselves in steep declines, and awful discontinuities, and the ground seemed to shake as their heavy duty ideas rolled around, like so many tanks; but there was neither peace nor promise and a more desolate scene he had never witnessed, for there seemed to be a melody of malady, and though they often cleared their throats and uttered their thoughts, it was like chasms walking, and the emptiness at their bases was like space without stars, inverted and below.
Shuddering with the intensity of the irrational depravity he was witnessing, Little A projected a scene of harmony and understanding in the secure knowledge of God who as author of man, is also master of thought, and to his amazement, he heard the professor he knew, whom he thought of as Exitintoglory, but since this was too long, called Exinglory, and then for more brevity, just Laurie, from Exing-lory, since Ex-Laurie would be too preoccupied with the past. Surely, however, he thought, he IS Ex-Laurie if his name were Laurie, and he is in glory, for the saints, Ephesians 2:6 tells me, are sitting in heavenly places. All this being settled, he simply called him Laurie, but then, this did not matter, as none of them knew anything of this.
I cannot agree with you gentlemen, said Laurie, for the simple reason that what you say is not, according to scientific method, valid. If you were to show evidence of new information in new designs in an upward mode, then I would have to find some cause for this, and hypothesising away, with due regard to all the possibilities I could construe from the rest of nature and its origins, I would test them out. However in this case there is no single datum to investigate; for the only thing we have is endless seeming endeavours in the past, to explain what does not appear to happen in all our researches, both those activated by our own proddings and those which are subject to natural duress, and what is this ? Whoever heard of something called by such a name as 'science' dabbling in more than dubious metaphysics in order to explain non-events, assumed to happen, with non-laws, not seen to translate into practice.
Non-laws for non-events, this is surely the very height of absurdity, and for my part, I prefer to find that creation - for nothing so far past all our creative corporate efforts as this, deserves any other name, and as to the event, we do it ourselves in our own limited ways, all the time - that creation, I say, is the result of what creates.
What is that ? asked a fellow professor, who rather like Laurie, but not his new ideas.
Well what by our knowledge creates, asked Laurie ? I create by a combination of powers, processes and functions, don't you ? For example, I am blessed in possessing a mind, and this has innate powers of analysis which I surely did not invent, and the university training only made me more aware of them, and how to ensure they did not err, just as a physical training instructor might do for the body. He did not MAKE the body in the slightest degree, just added finesse to its deployment; and so here. The thing was innate, and though I have enough freedom to will to create conditions for its best use, or not, that decision does not in the least make it. It is a gift, a created gift, and I am the recipient.
Its creation takes what it has to produce it, and more, since production is one thing, and reception is another, and the creation in between is awesome in its superiority to its product in this field. It is, as you all know, harder to make up E=mc2 - to realise that it is so, why it is so, and to know the processes by which you find this out, discover it, than to receive its release! This is the nature of creation.
I also possess will, so if I wish, I can turn to physics or chemistry as my pursuit; and within this, to atoms or electrons, as my interest in focus, and so on. Using will and mind, and analytical power, and imagination, which is another gift enabling me to create worlds of my own, though no one lives in them, I can establish ideas and make them intimately close to the matters I wish to investigate, and with them, my mind weaving in and out of the things it knows of other natural laws and of creation, I put in and strike out, until I have something which resembles in my imagination, what is happening. Then I use my analytical ability to see if this has any flaws, contradictions of known laws or logic, and having done this, if I am not satisfied, then I refine it or discard it, as the case may be, depending on whether it is in error basically or only superficially, and when all this is done, I ponder it and probe it to see if I have missed any feature which is too clumsy or inappropriate, or merely illusory.
It is then that I test it to find if it actually works, for in science you must be able to test empirically, to differentiate what you are doing from metaphysics as such. If the test shows that it is non-verified where it projected something different from what happens, then I either cast away the hypothesis, for that is what it is, altogether away, or seeing by imaginative comparisons and logical infiltration, what is wrong, I adjust it and then test again. It is ONLY when the test is satisfactory, and the projection from the theory is right, that I accept it. Even then, I am not satisfied. I test in all sorts of directions, and investigate both mathematically and in terms of form and dynamics, the underlying assumptions of my hypothesis, and compare this with all that I know of parallel events, and relevant laws discerned to operate and therefore received, seeking to get as close to my case as possible, in these researches. It is when on all sides and in every way of which I am aware, I have subjected my hypothesis to evidential duress, to test in all sorts of conditions held in mind and found in practice, that I dare to make it an hypothesis to share.
Whatever you imagine, the MINIMUM requirements in principle for creation are not less than these, for though an aircraft flies faster than a crow, and a bulldozer digs better than a spade, yet what each does is what HAS TO BE DONE, and whether it be done with excess or surplus capacity is wholly irrelevant to what it MUST HAVE to act in this sphere, and with these results. The law of causality cannot be dismissed without using it, since it is inscribed in the very differentiae which enable characterisation and hence words, and when it is not dismissed, then what it requires must be faced, not with fantasy or desire, but with dutiful stringency of method. This then is the position, and what changes it is mere castles in the clouds, and even these are too vaporous.
We must be governed by reason and reality, alert to the empirical with self-discipline in our imagination, and proceeding to find things by scientific method, in science.
In this case of organic evolution however, it is the exact opposite. The imagination is working overtime, with the ideas are being collected from its own domain, and although these conflict with law, with observation, with the nature of the procedure in the field of information, which tends to die rather than grow, they are put forward as hypothesis. Why on earth should anyone do that, omitting firstly, the need to gather empirical fact in order to explain it, and then omitting the need to harmonise with all known law, and then pushing the thing forward, and insisting on egregious 'explanations' for all that continually does not happen, as if science were turned on its head, and we were a set of preachers without a bible, inventing one built on nothing but fantasy.
Gentlemen, I cannot agree with this methodology, it is not science, and I insist for my part, that the examinations will make it perfectly free for students, both in the way questions are put to them, and the way their answers are reviewed, so that they may START with the empirical, CONTINUE with the harmonisation with known law, PROCEED with evidential testing and without philosophic intrusion based on nothing, and then PRESENT the hypothesis which best explains. Incidentally, NO hypothesis which is anti-verified in ANYTHING, can stand; and any one which meets EVERY test is to be preferred.
I do not need to tell you that in theory; but in this practical setting, where quite frankly, rampant passion seems to replace obvious and established method, I must remind you. We are receiving what is outlawed, and outlawing what is meeting the criteria. If this is not prejudice, what is ? and if this is science, on what grounds!
The Chairman, with eyes like leaping flames, then turned on Laurie, and heaping sarcasm and ignominy on him, advised him that this was mere flamboyance and maverick behaviour, and they had more important things to consider than surges into strange ideas, and that his tenure was not yet completed, and would be considered in the light of all these things.
Laurie thanked him effusively for being so honest, and observed that he had heard of people being dismissed in ways which could not be explained except in terms of just such persecutory prejudice, and unscientific canons, and it was good to know that his case was thus in the open. The Chairman, suppressing his fury, asked him if for the sake of completing their agenda, he would mind leaving the group, and Laurie agreed, under protest, declaring that he was willing to suffer for his integrity and the truth, but did not care to agree as to its propriety.
Little A was delighted, and began to think thoughts of kindness towards Laurie who to his amazement, after leaving the meeting, jumped for joy; so he tried to induce in him thoughts of skiing, which he particularly loved, and an awareness of thrusting downhill, for although, he thought, you are going down, it is exhilarating to suffer for the truth, and the bottom of the hill is just that, the bottom. It is not the pit, which is fit for those who leap into the heights, with nothing below them but air.
