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W/L03
ON THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL.
BY THE LATE
EEV. JAMES CEANBEOOK,
EDINBURGH.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
NO. 11, THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD,
UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.
Price Threepence.
��ON THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL.
HE existence of evil has constituted a problem which
men’s speculative intellect has attempted to solve
ever since speculation began. Throughout all the
world there are suffering, pain and death. The young,
the beautiful and the prosperous, no less than the aged,
deformed and poor, are subject to them. The brightest
prospects suddenly become clouded, the dearest hopes are
dashed to the ground, the intensest enjoyments suddenly
are turned into wormwood and gall, the most promising
career ends in disaster. And it is not the immoral
and irreligious alone that thus suffer; the virtuous and
pious are equally the victims.
The same thing
happeneth to the just and the unjust.
Nor can the evil always be traced to causes which
might have been avoided. It is sometimes inevitable,
at all events inevitable by us. The elements of nature
may combine against us—movements in society which
work the general good may produce our ruin—friends
may prove foes by their very friendliness. And even if
we could trace all suffering to our own moral defects it
would only be putting the question a step further back.
Whence these moral defects ? how came they into the
world ? how did they originate ? and why are they not
remedied ? It is perplexing and full of mystery.
I may have something to say upon the method in
which the question should be dealt with, towards the
conclusion, but for the present I wish to call your
attention to the way in which it was dealt with in
ancient times. And it is with the oriental method I
am now more concerned. Evil did not present itself
T
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On the Existence of Evil.
to the Greeks in those same despairing colours that it
appeared to the Orientals in. They lived in the enjoy
ment of the present, a free happy life; and nature
seemed to them full of beauty and gladness. When
the subject of evil came before them therefore, it came
in a tempered form, and they were calmer to answer it
than the Orientals were. Besides that, we know very
little of Grecian thought and speculation before the
scientific spirit had begun to dawn upon them. Con
sequently when their authentic history begins the
primitive beliefs are already modified and come before
us considerably toned down. Yet that they felt the
existence of evil a very mysterious problem their
tragedians very impressively testify. They resolved it,
however, all into the operations of a dark fatality, of
which there was none to give an account, and which lay
beyond the control alike of gods and men.
It was in later and more corrupt times that the
notion arose that evil comes from the envy of the gods
—a notion however, which could only arise out of a
sense of prevalent happiness. The authentic history
of the Hebrews begins about the time of the Babylonian
captivity, but we get some glimpses into their theo
logical conceptions before that time. So far as their
sacred books inform us, however, the subject of evil
does not seem to have weighed very heavily upon their
minds. The account given in Genesis of its introduc
tion into Paradise must have originated in very
primitive, that is barbarous times, and has very much
the appearance of being an importation from some
foreign source. None but the rudest people could have
imagined that tale about the serpent’s tempting Eve and
the curse subsequently pronounced upon the reptile.
And the account seems never to have made any very
deep impression on the Hebrew mind, or to have
recurred in their history until a much later period.
For we can hardly take the very contradictory myth of
Moses healing the children of Israel by a brazen serpent
�On the Existence of Evil.
7
as having any reference to the one in Paradise. And
yet this narrative in Genesis seems the only attempt to
explain the origin of evil until the period of the prophets,
if we can say an attempt was made then. But the
truth is, we know so little of the Jews during the inter
vening period that it is difficult to say what their
thoughts and speculations were. The book of Job
indeed is wholly composed for the purpose of discussing
this question of evil; but in the first place, it belongs
to the period of the Babylonian captivity and in the
second place it has been doubted whether it is Jewish
in its origin at all. My own opinion is in favour of its
late Chaldaic or Hebrew origin. For the introductory
part which is anti-Hebraic, giving that account about
Satan appearing before God and bringing evil upon Job,
is no integral part of the book, and it is most note
worthy that whilst in those introductory two chapters
all Job’s evils are directly attributed to Satan, in the
remaining forty chapters he and his doings are not once
referred to as offering any solution of the mystery of
evil, but the evil is directly and immediately, after the
Hebrew method, referred to God.
At the time of the Jewish captivity, however, a new
element was introduced into the Hebrew theology,—the
doctrine of evil spirits. I do not mean to deny that
they had some notions of their existence before; for
they naturally arise amongst nearly all barbarous people,
and it is difficult to suppose the Hebrews escaped.
But during the captivity and after, the doctrine became
elaborated, and henceforth formed a more and more
prominent feature in their theology. It is generally
said they derived these notions from the Persians. It
is certain they brought them from Babylon. Amongst
both Babylonians and Persians, and indeed the whole
of those nations lying round about the regions of the
Euphrates, these speculations concerning the source of
evil occupied a very large measure of thought. Natural
constitution and temperament acted on by climate,- and
�8
On the Existence of Evil.
the vicissitudes of their ever-changing fortune seem to
have forced them upon them. I can here only refer to
the doctrine by which the Persians attempted to solve
the mystery. Evil is so mingled with the good that the
only explanation seemed to them to be, that there are
two creators and rulers of the world, the one evil and the
other good; that these two rulers are perpetually at
strife with each other; that as the one prevails good
follows, as the other prevails evil follows ; and this
strife will go on until at last the good will prevail over
the evil, and the evil spirit will be held in eternal
bondage. I am not clear whether the notion of a yet
higher existence than these two creators whose inter
ference ultimately ends their strife, is of so early a date
as that I am now referring to ; but the probability, at
all events, is that it did not belong to the original
conception of the theory. Now each of these creative
spirits has caused to emanate from himself other spirits
through whom he carries on the government of the
world, the good spirit giving existence to angels, the
evil spirit giving existence to devils or demons.
Now it is clear the Hebrews could only embrace this
doctrine in a modified form, and probably the Chaldaeans only held it in a modified form, since, if we may
trust tradition, the doctrine of the divine unity came from
them. Be that however as it may, those who held, as
the Hebrews held, the strict doctrine of Monotheism,
could only hold the doctrine respecting the evil spirit
and his emanations in a very subordinate sense. The
evil spirit must be a creation of the Supreme, and
therefore if not originally good, he can at all events
have no power beyond what the Supreme permits him
to exercise. Only one passage in the Old and New
Testaments that I recollect refers to the fall of these
evil spirits from a primitively purer state; but the Jews
had determined their whole history long before the
canon of the New Testament closed. In First Chron.
chap. xxi. ver. 1, Satan is said to have stood up against
�On the Existence of Evil.
9.
Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. This
book of Chronicles belongs to the age after the
Babylonian captivity, and strikingly illustrates the
later growth of this doctrine of evil spirits ; for in
Second Samuel chap. xxiv. ver. 1, which is a more
early composition than that of Chronicles, God himself
is said to have been the instigator of David; and that
is much more in accordance with the purer Hebrew
idea. In the writings of the Apocrypha most of which
belongs to the centuries immediately preceding the
New Testament books, the doctrine. of evil spirits
comes out much more prominently, and you are enabled
by a careful study to trace its growth with tolerable
accuracy up to New Testament times.
I need not say how prominent the doctrine is made
in the New Testament. Satan is invested with all but
infinite powers, and all evil is traced up to his agency.
The account given us of the temptation of Christ at
the beginning of his ministry is one of the most
extraordinary and extravagant conceptions in the world,
and yet it is evident how deeply it laid hold of the
Hebrew mind from the repetition of it in the three books
of the evangelists. There, as you will recollect, Satan
appears in person, and not only tempts Christ, but
carries him sailing through the air to a pinnacle of the
temple, and then whirls him away to the top of an
exceeding high mountain, whence he shews him all the
kingdoms of the world in an instant, the Indian, Persian,
Roman, extending from the far east to the British Isles.
The rationalists say, this was only a vision; but that
shews, first, the rationalists will say anything to get
out of a difficulty; and secondly, their ignorance of
Jewish literature, which makes it plain that there
would be nothing extravagant in this narrative to the
Jewish mind. The Jews then could have believed
more absurd things than this, if any one could have
invented anything more absurd about the Devil. And
therefore when the plain and evident meaning is the
�io
On the Existence of Evil.
literal one, it is as immoral as it is unscientific to seek
for any other.
In the writings ascribed to St Paul, we find the
doctrine of evil spirits employed to account for nearly
all evil. The chief of these spirits is the “ prince of
the power of the air working in the children of dis
obedience,” “the God of this world, blinding the
minds of them which believe not,” and, with his hosts,
he constitutes the “ principalities and powers ” against
whom all spiritual warfare has to be maintained. All
not regenerated are “ the children of the devil,” and
“ his seed remaineth in them,” so that they cannot
cease from sin. Here you see is a trace of the old
Persian doctrine of Satan’s part in the creation of the
world. Wicked souls are created by the evil spirit—
and have their wickedness. The notions respecting
these evil spirits were taken up thus into the Christian
Church and developed there with the same absurdities
that we find amongst the later Jews. Some of the
Rabbi contended that they were created by God with
all their evil propensities, on the second day of the
work of creation at the same time that hell was created.
Others that their creation was on the sixth day, and
that God originally intended to provide them with
bodies, but that immediately on the creation of their
spirits the Sabbath commenced, so that there was no
time to complete this part of the work.
I must here make what may seem almost like a
digression to tell you a rabbinical story about Lilith,
but which also accounts for the origin of evil spirits.
Modern critics have noticed a contradiction between
the narrative given of the creation of woman in the
first and second chapters of Genesis. In the first she
appears to have been created at the same time with
Adam, and in the same way. In the second she is
created after him and out of his side. Now the Rabbi
saw the contradiction but explained it easily. They
are in fact the narratives of two distinct creations, said
�On the Existence of Evil.
11
they. First of all God did create a woman out of the
dust of the earth along with Adam. Her name was
Lilith. But as soon as created, she began, like some
modern ladies, to contend about her rights. Adam
said, It behoves thee to be obedient; I am to rule over
thee. Nay, said Lilith, we are on a perfect equality, for
we were both formed out of the same earth. So
neither would submit to the other. But Lilith finding
she was getting the worst of it, pronounced the Shemhamphorash—i.e., the forbidden name Jehovah.
Instantly she was carried away through the air and
became the mother of the evil spirits. God, to console
Adam, afterwards created Eve out of his rib.
Amongst all barbarous people that have any idea of
the supernatural at all the conception of evil spirits is
found. It seems to the barbarous mind the natural
counter-part of the notion of good spirits, and is as
necessary to explain existent evil as that of good spirits
is to explain existent good. Many of these nations pay
far more attention to the worship of the evil one than
they do to the worship of the good, because I presume
fear is a more predominant feeling with them than trust.
But now, it is a curious and not uninstructive
inquiry, how comes it to pass that so many people,
apparently quite independent of each other, conceived
this method of explaining the existence of evil, both
physical and moral? Nay, that many people, and some
of them those who are called well educated, in the
present day cling to this method still ? That even if
we grant the existence of evil spirits, it would be no
solution of the problem of evil, any thoughtful person
I should think can discern. It would only remove the
difficulties a step further back. For if evil spirits lead
men to evil, how came they to be allowed such a power,
and how came they to be evil ? The Persian doctrine
can be the only ultimate one in this direction, and
that cuts the knot of the difficulty but does not untie it.
Now, it seems to me easy enough to account for the
�12
On the Existence of Evil.
method, for it arises out of the same principle asfetishism, polytheism and all those animations of the
objects of nature which prevail in rude and barbarous
periods. The tendency of all uncultured minds is to
ascribe their own qualities to all the active powers in
nature. And hence every thing seems to them moved
by will, and is possessed of consciousness. By and
by a little culture slightly modifies this tendency.
As the natural object gives no sign of feeling, its
possession of volition begins also to be questioned.
Then comes the second, the polytheistic stage, when
the moving power, the will, and the consciousness are
supposed to reside not exactly in the natural objects
themselves but in genii or spirits belonging to them,
All nature is still instinct with life, but it is a life also
above and besides nature. It is at this period the
notion of evil spirits arises. Before, the natural object
that brought the evil was in men’s apprehension the
person who did it and was blamed. Now, it is the
spirit that moves the object for the purpose of inflicting
the evil. And when once the notion of an evil spirit,
above and beyond the object in nature which brings to
one evil is conceived, every terror, every calamity
multiplies the number and increases the dread of them.
Our great poet has supplied us with the illustration of'
this in the “ Midsummer Night’s Dream ” when Puck
frightens away the mechanics of Athens by introducing,
their companion with an ass’s head on his shoulder.
When they him spy,
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun’s report,
Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
So at his sight away his fellows fly :
And, at our stamp, here o’er and o’er one falls ;
He murther cries, and help from Athens calls.
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,.
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong ;
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch ;
Some sleeves ; some hats ; from yielders
All
things catch.
�On the Existence of Evil.
*3
Now this is precisely the principle. Fear converts
the briers and thorns, catching their garments as they
flee, into spirits dwelling in the hnshes, overpowers
their senses, and drives them headlong before unseen
beings. And so before terrible calamities men became
overwhelmed with fear, and construed the calamities
as the work of evil spirits. It is the advance of science
which has expelled these evil spirits from the domain
of the physical world, and which is expelling them
from the domain of the mental world. In the physical
world the work is almost complete, so far as the Western
nations are concerned. What was formerly considered
the resrdt of the agency of good and bad spirits, angels
and demons, is now proved to be the effect of natural
forces acting according to fixed and unchanging laws.
Storms, plagues, earthquakes, and such like things are
now reduced to the categories of science, and the demons
are exorcised from them. A nation visited with
pestilence, and an old woman who has lost her cow, no
longer think it the work of the devil, but know it is
traceable to some natural cause.
The same cannot be said with the like extent of the
domain of mind. There are numbers, and some of
them so-called educated people, who not only believe in
the existence of evil spirits, but also that they have
power over the human mind to suggest evil thoughts,
and to arouse evil passions. The reason that the
notion lingers so much longer in the domain of mind
is quite evident. Thought and feeling have only of
late been made the objects of scientific enquiry, and
perceived to be subject to law. The metaphysicians
here have ruled with few to dispute their sway, and
whilst they have not been slow to admit the existence
of law in the order of the suggestion of thought and
the excitement of feeling, their dogmas concerning the
freedom of the will have overridden this law, and after
all made it a fitful uncertain thing. But the more
rigid investigations of modern biologists having reduced
�14
On the Existence of Evil.
thought, feeling, and will to the condition of functions
of animal life, have made them as severely subject to
natural law as any of the physical. functions are.
Thought and feeling originate in a definite order, and
by a force strictly correlated with nerve force. There is
no room left therefore for the play of evil spirits ; and
of necessity they become superannuated. But this
knowledge has not yet become widely spread, and those
ignorant of it are therefore left free to the play of their
fancies or the indulgence of their credulity. As soon
as fancy becomes chastened by knowledge they too will
lay aside such creations for facts.
But now, abandoning such a method of accounting
for evil, where are we ? What other shall we adopt ?
I shall not enter into the metaphysical explanations,
which are numerous. None of them can possibly
satisfy the mind, for they rest on no basis of fact, and
often seem nothing better than a cloud of obscure words
from which one cannot draw one ray of light. It avails
nothing to be told that “ evil is good in making,” that
it is “ the negation of good, and arises out of the
imperfection necessarily characterizing all finite things,”
and that it is “ the permitted means by which God
raises us to a higher condition.” Such phrases explain
nothing. They leave the facts only more obscured.
Bailing therefore all methods of explanation allow me
to urge upon you the only wise course left open to us.
And that is to give up all quest into the mystery, and
just deal with the facts as they are so as to remedy the
evil. All those teleological questions about the design
the creator had in this thing and in that; the questions
about the reasons of this and the other, are idle and
absurd. We know nothing of what lies beyond us, in
regions our senses cannot penetrate. We know nothing
of God’s mind, designs, or aims, beyond what is actually
done in nature. Let our theories therefore be ever so
well constructed upon mere ideas and fancies they
remain nothing but ideas and fancies still, and these
�On the Existence of Evil.
15
are not worth one moment’s care so long as they are not
tested by facts. And there would be no practical good,
even supposing it were possible, in solving such a
question as the origin and the reason of evil. It would
not make the pressure of the evil one whit the less. It
would not give us one particle of help towards removing
its pressure. What we really want to know is those
laws of nature by observing of which we may prevent
the evil, or if it come remedy it. And that, whether
we speak of physical or moral evil, we can only do by
the direct and careful study of nature—nature I mean
in her physical and moral aspects. And the long ages
that have been wasted in speculations about demons
and evil spirits, or in metaphysical fancies, are chiefly
to be regretted as so much time gone which might have
been devoted to the pursuit of this useful knowledge,
had men but cared more for facts than fancies, and
known how limited their powers are.
But their
absurdities and failures may teach us wisdom if we be
wisely inclined. Let us give up the foolish fanciful
pursuits of our fathers. Let us take the world as we
find it—let us study the order of its phenomena, and
the imposed conditions of human well-being and happi
ness. And then, although we may leave the mysteries
of evil unsolved, we shall daily become more free from
the evil.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS PRINTERS, EDINBURGH,
�
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On the existence of evil
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Conway Tracts
Good and Evil
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Text
POSITIVE RELIGION:
ITS BASIS AND CHARACTERISTICS.
LECTURE III.
BY THE LATE
REV. JAMES CRANBROOK,
EDINBURGH.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
NO. 11, THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD,
UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.
Price Threepence.
�■
�LECTURE III.
N the last Lecture, I directed your attention to
certain feelings which arise within us whenever we
come face to face with nature. They are common to
the cultivated and the uncultivated alike, hut, I think,
are greatly intensified by the larger knowledge of the
cultivated obtained through the revelations of science.
The feelings are those of wonder, awe, and the sense of
the mysterious arising out of the perception of the order
and constancy, the adaptation and fitnesses, the beauty
and beneficence of the whole universe. The smallest
object as well as the most sublime tends to excite them,
and the more fully we comprehend the processes by
which all the changes in nature are effected the more
deeply they excite our wonder and awe, and the more
intensely they make us feel how mysterious every thing
around is.
Now, as we have also seen, it is not natural for man
to stand before this mystery with these feelings of
wonder and awe without his curiosity being excited, and
his being led to investigate the origin and causes of the
objects which so move him. He must ask himself,
How came this universe into existence ? What is it
that determines the order and constancy with which
each antecedent is followed only by its own consequent ?
Who or what arranges those organizations by means of
which such admirable results are obtained? What
controls the course of human actions so that they
become not merely an accumulation of events but a
I
�4
Positive Religion.
history ? And the answer in almost every case which
has hitherto been given has laid the basis of man’s
doctrine of God. For, failing to find any response from
without to his questioning, each man has been content
to project upon the phenomena his own image, and in
it to find the cause. As he has gazed upon his own
thought reflected upon the universe, in delight at his
discovery he has exclaimed, Behold the solution of the
mystery! See the Creator of the universe revealed in
the midst of his works !
But now, what are we to do who have been con
vinced of the truth of the phenomenal philosophy ?
who deny that it is in the power of man by any means
to transcend the phenomenal? Such explanations as
others resort to are proscribed to us. We may neither
affirm nor deny anything which rests on conjecture
merely, however seemingly plausible an explanation of
the facts it may be. We are bound down to that
which can be verified, and can only admit -of
hypotheses as the temporary guides of our tentative
inquiries. To us therefore the theories of Polytheism,
Monotheism, Pantheism, and Atheism are alike idle
fancies making affirmations about that of which we can
know nothing. And yet in us nature moves these
feelings of wonder, awe, and mystery as deeply as in
others, and we not less than they intensely long to
penetrate the great secret of the universe. Yes, in
some of us I believe these feelings swell with a power,
an intensity, a consuming fervour others never experi
ence ; and that because we know the questions they
originate can never be answered. What then must we
do ? Are we alone of all mankind doomed to live
without a religion ? Has our culture come to this, that
nothing is left for us to worship ?
Now let us be calm and look at the facts. And,
first, this is clear, the mystery is insoluble; God is
unknowable; we can affirm nothing whatsoever of his
existence. The orthodox no less than we constantly
�Lecture 111.
5
say this. Mr Mansel says it; Sir William Hamilton
said it; the whole School of Locke has always said it;
and indeed all modern philosophers bnt the Cartesians.
Only most of them endeavour by means of a special
revelation or of some specious argument to take back
what they thus have clearly admitted. We however
abide firmly by that admission. We cannot transcend,
we cannot know anything but phenomena and the
relations in which they exist, and therefore we can
neither know God in himself nor explain the mysteries
of the universe. However intense therefore the feelings
which nature inspires within us, however deep and
ardent the longing to explain these mysteries we have
in common with others, we own our inability and never
attempt to satisfy the longing.
But are we therefore worse off than those around us?
We are better off. They in explanation of the
mysteries of the universe create by their fancies an
object they call God, and then fall down and worship
it. We knowing the worthlessness of fancy abstain
from such creations and content ourselves without the
explanation. They in their ignorance glory in their
knowledge.
We in our knowledge confess our
ignorance. At least we have learned this, not to walk
where there is no light to lead. But I meant more
than this when I said that we are better off than they
who delude themselves with the creations of their own
fancy. I meant that the unknowable, the mystery of
the universe, is truer, more real to us, than it is to them,
is more present and has greater and a grander, purer
influence over our feelings. The very fact that we do
not play with it and transmute it into fanciful forms,
but accept it as it is, determines this. I must
however explain what I mean more fully from another
point of view.
We meet, then, with mystery on every side. Directly
we begin to enquire we come upon ultimate facts we
cannot explain. If by means of science we can trace any
�6
Positive Religion.
particular process to the operation of some general law,
not only the general law hut the reason why that general
law gives rise to that process is unknown. The interpreta
tions and revelations of science only multiply the inexplic
able facts. Now, the law of our mind compels us to look
in every case for an explanation, an antecedent to what
we observe. The law has arisen out of our experience,
probably, and depends upon the association of ideas;
but it is not the less imperative and insisting than an
original law of the mind. We cannot escape from it,
and therefore are always asking, how or why these
primary facts exist, and what that is which determines
them to be. We cannot but look for that something ;
we cannot think of them coming to be without it; and
yet we cannot find it; we learn from experience, it lies
and must ever lie beyond our knowledge. But then
this discovery only makes the law more urgent and the
mystery more insistent. At all events, here we are
with the mystery ever before us, ever pressing upon us,
meeting us at every step, in every movement, the most
real, most unquestionable, the truest thing in life.
Speculative philosophers may raise doubts about our
own substantive existence, they may raise doubts about
the correspondence between the outer world and our
own sense presentations of it, every thing in the
universe may be made a subject of doubt, but this one,
the mystery of existence, the unknowableness of the
antecedent of all things, our ignorance of the determin
ing condition or cause of all conditions and causes.
The very doubts which men raise concerning other
things, bring this fact more urgently before us and
leave it an unquestionable reality. And observe, it is
not a mere negative fact, that is thus urged upon us.
It is not merely that we do not know; but that there
is a something we do not know, viz., the antecedent,
determining condition, cause, or source of these facts,
of this universe so mysterious to us. In assuming its
existence we are not transcending our experience j we
�Lecture 111.
7
are merely doing what every natural philosopher, and
indeed what every man or woman does when asking
after the antecedent conditions of any ordinary
phenomenon. We never suppose any phenomenon
comes into existence under any given form without
some pre-existing, determining conditions or cause. In
proportion to the activity of our intellect in every case
we enquire what were these pre-existing, determining
conditions or cause, and in asking of course assuming
the fact of their existence. We are only doing the'
same thing when we assume that there is a something
which determines the existence of the whole universe,
and each of its primary facts and consequents,
although we confess that something can never be
known to us.
Now, this mysterious, unknown, unknowable some
thing, the antecedent of all consequents, the primary
condition of the existence of all objects and their
relations, not only thus seems to us the truest and
most real of all things which occupy our thoughts, but
it fills us with that awe which has ever been considered
the very first element in religion, as nothing else in
the universe can do. All other things, however great
and sublime, however recondite and complicated, we
can hope by patient thought eventually to comprehend
and master. There is not a phenomenal power in the
universe but which we may ultimately comprehend, and
through the comprehension make subservient to our
purpose. But here, before the great mystery, we are
helpless : here is what we can never know, and before
which we must ever subserviently bow down; here is
the limit of both our understanding and our activity,
our knowledge and our action. We are surrounded
with its wonders, and can only exist as we can conform
ourselves to the conditions it has imposed. How
little, how insignificant, we feel before it 1 We are
filled with awe, with reverence, with wonder. Spon
taneously we humble ourselves and worship. What
�8
Positive Religion.
then, shall we call this unknown and unknowable,
determining condition of all existence? this hidden,
mysterious source of the universe ? this all-pervading,
all-comprehending, all-determining something, which,
we know must be, and yet ever eludes our grasp? Call
it! What signifies the name ? No term can name it.
God ! — Fate! —Causa-causarum ! — the All-in-All! —
every word has been abused; and every word therefore
fails to describe the awfulness, the reality of this ever
present mystery. But then, name it we must, and
since all names are insufficient, but some have been
rendered sacred by the use of ages, we will keep to the
sacred names, and call this unknown and unknowable
condition of the universe God and Lord.
But more important than to inquire after names, is
it for us to note that in those deep feelings already so
often enumerated, we have the exercise of the religion
appropriate to such an object of worship. That which
is unknown can in itself possibly call forth no other
feelings than those of wonder, awe, and the sense of
mystery; whatever else in any case is mingled with
these, must come from other and adventitious sources.
Accordingly, as I have before intimated, these feelings
are at the base of all the religions which have ever
existed in the world. Whatever has been superadded
to them, the great mystery of the universe, which has
originated all religions, has inspired only these.
This is very distinctly taught in F. W. Newman’s
book called “ The Soul,” where principles very different
from mine are inculcated. Mr Newman thinks we
have a distinct faculty which he calls the soul, whereby
we immediately apprehend God. In its rudest and
most uncultivated state it simply apprehends him as a
mysterious power which calls forth its wonder and awe.
As it learns more of nature, it rises gradually to the
perception of his wisdom, goodness, love, and holiness,
calling forth the feelings also of admiration, gratitude,
trust, the sense of sin and adoration. And those who
�Lecture 111.
9
are more orthodox than Mr Newman follow very nearly
the same order in their supposed development of the
religions of Jews and Christians through the special
revelations of God. By the side of these matured sys
tems, the simple feelings which constitute the whole
basis of the religion of the Unknowable must appear
very meagre and deficient. But a closer examination
will show us that those other feelings of admiration,
gratitude, trust, the sense of sin and adoration, arise
only by attributing to the object of worship qualities,
the knowledge of which is derived from his works.
Contemplating these works, they discern the order,
beauty, adaptation, and the beneficent results which
arise from them; and by the study of the nature and
history of man discern the moral character of the
system by which he is governed. All that is thus dis
cerned is then transferred to the object of worship, as
expressive of his nature and character, and the feelings
which are excited by it are directed towards him as the
embodiment and source of all which calls them forth.
Now, I do not deny that upon their principles this
process is allowable ; and I freely own that when you
have by such a process constructed a God, it must have
an immense influence over your life. The conception of
such a Being, when realized to the feelings, must wholly
control them and overwhelm the influence of every
other object. But, as we have seen, the principles or
method by which this process is conducted is altogether
false. It is purely subjective. It has no basis of fact
to rest upon. The object of worship is the pure creation
of the fancy. It is an idol in all the bad senses of the
word “idol.”
Nor, when we come to examine into the matter
closely, can we allow that the influence which such an
object has over the feelings and life is wholly good.
This we might, a prion, have expected, from the fact
that the object of worship is an idol. All error contains
within itself the germs of evil in some form. And there
�io
Positive Religion.
are several evils to which this error gives rise—1st,
There is the false trust a sense of personal relationship
to one so infinitely wise and good calls forth, leading to
a childish dependence upon his care, and diverting the
attention from, the study of the laws of Nature, and
from the self-government which is the duty and highest
prerogative of man; 2dly, There are the spurious affec
tions excited by the contemplation of such an object,
giving a transcendental tone to the whole character, and
making one’s nature, so far as they are operative, false
to itself and to all the real objects around it; and 3dly,
There are the efforts aroused to render oneself pleasing
and acceptable to so great a Being, which, being regu
lated by no rational principle, tend to become of a
frenzied and fanatical character, leading to an indiffer
ence towards the ordinary and proper duties and enjoy
ments of everyday life. I might mention other evils ;
but probably they all could be summed up in these,
which so obviously arise out of the belief in question,
that I need not stay to prove the fact.
But now, when we restrain our fancy and refuse to
follow those around us into these creations of an object
for worship, we not only avoid these evils but we do
not lose any of the real good, any of the solid comfort,
of the healthful stimulus to feeling which they suppose
themselves to find. For, as we have seen, they derive
their knowledge of the supposed qualities which call
forth the trust, love, and adoration, &c., from the
study of the works of nature. So that it is, in fact,
not the qualities considered abstractedly, but the works
of nature which elicit the feelings. Accordingly we
find that the pure and simple study of nature produces
the same feelings in us. But then there is this;
difference. They transferring the facts to their idol,
and investing him with them as attributes, they dare
not afterwards question their infinite perfection. We
regarding them simply as facts of nature, are at liberty
to note all the modifications and counteractions, and
�Lecture III.
11
regulate our feelings accordingly. Thus e.g., a study
of nature as a whole leads us to the perception of her
beneficent tendencies. Happiness and good are the
predominating results of her operations, and this
perception calls forth our trust and confidence in the
general issues of life and enables us to repose without
agitating care upon the general course of events. So
far then we are upon the same ground as those who amuse
themselves with the conception of an idol who brings
about these results in consequence of his personal
relationship to themselves. But from this point we
diverge. They are bound by the nature of their
conception of this idol to implicit and universal trust.
We, on the other hand, recognising merely the order of
phenomena, soon discern that there are many contra
dictions to this seeming beneficence. We observe in
the midst of the general good and happiness not a little
evil and suffering. We learn that the good and
happiness depend upon conditions which often are not
realized. We do not place, therefore, implicit trust in
the course of events, nor expect with absolute
certainty the issue of good. We anticipate the possi
bility of evil; our trust is associated with watchfulness;
we calculate on contingencies that will require resistance
and efforts of a painful character to surmount; we
prepare ourselves to meet possible sorrows, that when
they come they may not overwhelm us. Now, surely
everybody must own that it is better thus to moderate
our trust and confidence, since the real facts of life
require it, than to blindly confide in a power and find
in the issue our confidence misplaced.
But again, the contemplation of nature leads us to
the perception of its beauty, loveliness, and fitnesses;
and the contemplation of human nature especially
presents to us its moral and spiritual excellences and
beauty. This perception calls forth towards the whole,
feelings of complacency, delight, and admiring, adoring
affection; whilst towards human nature the more
�12
Positive Religion.
tender affections of appreciation, approbation, and
sympathising love flow forth. And in the exercise of
these feelings there are both joy and stimulus to our
higher sensibilities and powers. Now, I own these
feelings differ much in their character from those of
persons who embody the excellences and beauty of
nature in a personal being. But the difference is
wholly in favour of those who abj ure all but the actual
facts. For in their case the feelings are entirely real,
whilst in the other they are given to a fancied object
which, by the confused and conflicting elements that
are made to enter into its composition, and the mingling
of the infinite and finite, entirely falsifies them, and
gives them a fanatical bias. The love, the adoration,
and the joy in nature of a pure phenomenalist, ennoble
no less than they gladden his whole being; the love,
the adoration, and joy felt by the supernaturalist for
his idol are not indeed without spiritualizing excellences,
but in their highest condition are always based upon a
falsehood, and therefore must necessarily tend to a
degradation of the worshipper.
I think, then, it will appear from these considerations
that nothing is gained when theists proceed to add on
to the pure and ever-present mystery of the universe
which calls forth our wonder and awe, other qualities
of a personal character which call forth the more
personal feelings of trust, confidence, love, adoration,
and such like. On the contrary, by keeping ourselves
to the pure and rigid facts we are saved from an other
wise inevitable fanaticism, and the influence of our
religion in every respect becomes more ennobling and
purifying.
But this does not mean that we must not associate
all the processes of nature, all the facts, issues, and
tendencies we observe in her with that mysterious
unknown before which we adore. On the contrary,
they are necessarily associated with it. For, as I have
explained, and I presume, as we all feel, it is not alone
�Lecture III.
J3
the most generalized facts which suggest this sense of
mystery, but also each individual succession of phe
nomena. We not only feel unable to account for the
universe as a whole, but for each particular connection
between two events. The fire, e. g., burns my flesh and
causes pain. Upon enquiry, I find the following
phenomena explanatory of the fact:—The heat consists
of the motion of the infinitely small particles of the
atmosphere. These striking my flesh with an amazing
although calculable rapidity, like cannon balls striking
a wall, destroy the fine tissues of the skin, and by
exciting the nerves spread over them cause the pain.
Very well; this is the physical explanation so far as we
can carry it. But now, why do those infinitely small
particles cannonading the skin destroy its tissue 1
Why does the destruction so move the nerves as to
cause pain ?
We are absolutely ignorant.
You
observe, then, it is not merely that we cannot compre
hend these facts under more general ones, but each
particular fact, each succession of phenomena in itself
is incomprehensible and full of mystery, and so brings
us into the presence of that unknown something we
call God. In this way all the facts of existence, and
of co-relation, all the processes and laws of the
universe, so far as known to us, are associated with that
unknown condition or cause, and are derivable from it
as consequents. Whatever of order and organization,
whatever of beauty, and beneficence nature discovers
must ultimately be referred and ascribed to it. Nor is
there a single object that comes under our contempla
tion which does not immediately suggest it. And thus
we own, even with a fuller and more consistent mean
ing than the orthodox, that all things are related to,
and dependent upon God ; but we dare not follow
them in their rash inferences of what God must there
fore be. When, e.g., they and we contemplate the
complicated and yet beautiful conditions upon which
the eye is capable of seeing, we both refer them to God,
�14
Positive Religion.
the unknown antecedent of these existent conditions.
But then, they, taking as their guide the analogies of
human nature, proceed to attribute to their God the
human faculty of wisdom and will, in bringing these
conditions about; we, on the other hand, adhering to
our principle that we only can know phenomena, dare
not follow them in such inferences. We own that if
God be like men the organization of the eye would
prove his wisdom or skill in contrivance ; but then we
do not know that he is like men; we do not know
that any of his qualities are like human qualities at all.
We, therefore, would not be so presumptuous as to infer
he possesses anything like human wisdom. We merely
content ourselves with bowing down in wonder, awe,
and reverence, before the unknowable cause of that
wonderful work, the eye and its power of vision. For
all we know that cause may possess personality and all
the mental qualities possessed by man. But also, for
all we know, its qualities or modes, of existence may be
absolutely unlike ours. To attribute human qualities
to it may be as absurd as to attribute them to the
planets or the trees. Surely, therefore, it becomes us
to abstain from such attribution and simply to bow
down and adore.
But now, I know that to uncultivated persons this
abstinence from fancying qualities and modes of
existence to fill up the gaps in our ignorance will be
next to impossible. The undisciplined mind is the
most impatient of uncertainty and doubt. Where it
has not facts to constitute knowledge or to form a
judgment upon, it always precipitately creates them in
its fancy. It is only the cultured, the disciplined, the
matured mind that is capable of suspending its judg
ments, refraining from the formation of opinions, and
confessing its ignorance until it has before it sufficient
facts to justify its proceeding to a conclusion. And
then, in this special case respecting the mode of
the divine existence, the sentiments associated
�Lecture III.
*5
with it are apt to make men more impatient still.
They have so long been accustomed to indulge their
fancies without restraint, and have associated with
them so many of their dearest affections and the whole
system of their morality, that to renounce these fancies
and to own their ignorance, seems like rooting up all
that they esteem precious and good. And then, too,
certain supposed consequences frighten them into pre
cipitancy. “ If,” say they, “ God should after all possess
the same mental characteristics as man, only in infinite
perfection, what a fearful condition they will be in, who
have not recognised and owned them.’’ As if a being
even with human qualities in infinite perfection could
ever be displeased with his creatures for not recognising
what he has given them no faculty to discern ; or as if
he could be pleased by our stumbling upon truth even,
by the exaltation of our fancy over our reason, when
the constitution he has given us expressly requires that
reason should be supreme and that we should only
accept as true, what it can justify.
But however difficult the acquisition of the habit of
restraining our fancy and suspending our judgments may
be, every cultivated and disciplined mind will neces
sarily make the strongest efforts to acquire it. It is
essential to a rational life. By it alone can we escape
those superstitions which, based upon ignorance, are
constantly springing up into existence and carrying
away multitudes of deluded victims. And surely, of
all subjects that can solicit our judgment, none can
require such deliberation, such caution, such restraint
of fancy, such sober and solemn adherence to fact, as
that which concerns the existence of God. I call upon
you, therefore, as rational beings to ponder upon and
accurately examine the real facts of this great question.
Let neither intellectual impatience nor a maudlin
superstitious fear precipitate your conclusions or
prevent you from that calm and logical investigation
which it requires. Follow the truth and nothing but
�16
Positive Religion.
the truth; whithersoever it leads follow it, and that, in
the firm persuasion it can lead to nothing but good.
The positive principles I have set before you, have
been necessarily so mingled with references to other
doctrines that I will conclude by re-stating them in a
brief summary.
We are limited by our faculties to the knowledge of
phenomena in their relations of co-existence and succes
sion. In the study of these phenomena, however, we
instantly come to ultimate facts for which we cannot
account. This incapability fills us with wonder, awe,
and a sense of mystery. But although we cannot
account for them, we are persuaded there is a something
which accounts for them. We could no more suppose
them without an antecedent, a cause which accounts for
them, than any other fact. This unknown and un
knowable antecedent or cause is what we call God. It
pervades the whole universe, and is related to every
individual object inasmuch as the same mystery, the
same impotency, is developed in the whole and in every
object. But although this cause, condition, or ante
cedent is connected with every object, we can infer
nothing respecting its nature or attributes, excepting the
one attribute of anteceding or conditioning. In itself
it is unknown and unknowable excepting as the
unknown. The only devout feelings therefore appro
priate to it are those already named, wonder, awe, and
the sense of mystery. How worship, and especially
public worship, emerges out of this I shall show in the
next lecture.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
�
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Positive religion : its basis and characteristics. Lecture III
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Text
ON THE HINDRANCES
TO
PROGRESS IN THEOLOGY.
*
*
MBY THE LATE
EEV. JAMES CRANBROOK.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
MOUNT PLEASANT, RAMSGATE.
Price Threepence.
�L---------------------- ---------------
ILUIL—.
‘I
L
�ON THE
HINDRANCES TO PROGRESS IN THEOLOGY.
HEN one considers the great amount of intelli
gence and active thought existing in modern
society, especially as compared with the past, one is
apt at first to be surprised that so little progress has
been made amongst people in general in religious, or
more properly speaking, in theological questions.
Those who venture upon such questions, to think for
themselves and to doubt, or in any very serious
degree to modify, the old and long received dogmas,
are still the easily numbered few ; whilst the
unreasoning, quiescent and bigoted recipients of the
orthodox beliefs are the overwhelming majority. It
may help to encourage those of you who are for mak
ing progress in theology as well as everything else,
and possibly to awaken profitable reflection in those
who have hitherto been indifferent in the matter, if
I offer you this evening some considerations serving to
account for the still great preponderance of the old
beliefs.
In the first place, then, notwithstanding the
admittedly wide-spread intelligence of the present
day, I think the comparatively slow progress of
theology is due to the very imperfect education which
has been and still is generally received. It must be
observed that the active intelligence amongst us is
not due to the education in the technical or scholastic
sense of the term. Whatever improvements have
been made in the methods and subject-matter of
W
�4
On the Hindrances to
teaching, have been made within the last fifteen or
twenty years, and such improvements have not
affected those who have advanced to the middle
stage of life, and whose thinking constitutes the char
acter of the present generation. When they were at
school scarcely a single step had been taken out of the
old rut along which scholastic education had dragged
. its slow course for generations. There was nothing in
it to quicken the mind or to form those habits of
thought which alone constitute a liberal, broad and
national intelligence. Boys in the middle classes learn
ed a little Latin, less Greek, some Geography, scraps of
naratives called History, under the designation of
Astronomy the names of stars they never were
taught to identify, and were in many cases pretty
well drilled in Arithmetic. Girls learned still less of
what was useful; in arithmetic seldom got beyond
reduction, and became prodigies if they reached the
rule of three (as it was called); but were thought to
make up for the deficiency by acquiring the power
of tinkling dance music and battles of Prague on the
piano, of drawing on paper straight lines which did
not lie evenly between extreme points, and circles
whose radii were anything but equal to one another,
and of making embroidery and other fancy articles
the taste of which was an offence to gods and men.
In all this education received by both boys and girls,
there was nothing to teach them observation,
analysis, reflection, comparison, reasoning, or any of
those intellectual processes which are essential to the
full exercise and development of our rational nature
Of course there were exceptions to this. Here and
there were teachers far before their time, whose pupils,
if led through the same routine course, had breathed
■into them a spirit of enquiry which has made them
assume a place amongst the most progressive of the
day. These, however, were the exceptional cases, and
education was for the most part such as I have
described it.
Fortunately, however, there were influences at work
�Progress in Theology.
5
in society ready to meet these boys as soon as they
left the school for the business of life, which were
calculated to do in part the work their school educa
tion ought to have done. The great discoveries of
science, applied to manufactures and commerce, had
already begun to change the whole aspect of social
life. The most active thought had become necessary
to conduct the ordinary affairs of business. Accurate
observation and reasoning had become as necessary
in the shops and the mercantile counting-house, as in
the study of the savant and the philosopher. Infor
mation became essential; the cheapening of the
newspapers supplied the want, and with the com
mercial information, they furnished other kinds of
intelligence. Thought thus became amazingly quick
ened, and the intellectual activity of the present day
has ensued.
But now, observe, this kind of intellectual activity,
thus superinduced, does not necessarily extend itself
to all subjects coming within its sphere. On the
contrary, being called forth for a specific purpose, it
is very apt to confine its activity to the purpose for
which it has been called forth. It does not assume
the character of a general habit of mind, but is merely
a particular instrument employed for a particular end.
It is analogous to the development of the physical
powers. The physical powers may be developed by
proper training altogether, so that whenever anything
has to be done by any, or all of them, it will be done
with the full and most perfectly developed powers;
but instead of this general education, we may develop
for a particular end some one or the other of these
powers alone, that of the arm for working, hammering,
&c., or of the legs for running, walking, or say, turning
a lathe. Just so is it with our thoughts—there are
the general and the special education; and the special
education may be very complete for its purposes and
yet leave the thoughts without those habits of general
application which are essential to the completely
rational man.
�6
On the Hindrances to
Now that is precisely what we find (with daily
increasing exceptions, however, thank God) to be the
effect of the training or education forced upon men
by the business pursuits of the present day. The
special training for business does not extend its
influences over the general habits of thought, and
consequently men may be found most intellectually
efficient within the sphere of their active life, who
beyond it shew no more rationality than children.
The want of early training affects the whole sphere
of their thought excepting in that one direction in
which the necessities of their circumstances have
compelled them to become rational. As I have said,
there is a great increasing number of exceptions to
this statement, where men of all classes and pursuits
are exercising rational habits of thought upon all
subjects coming under their notice; but still, I have
described what up to this time has been the prevailing
fact. And the fact explains at once the slow progress
made amongst the majority of people in theology, or,
as it is generally termed, religion. They have received
their creed in the mass, there has been nothing in
their education to lead them to enquire into the truth
of either this doctrine and that, or of the system as a
whole. They listen to the teachings they receive from
Sunday to Sunday with absolute credulity, leaving all
their faculties of reasoning in abeyance; or if exer
cising them, exercising them upon the most insignifi
cant points. Or if they attempt to reason and enquire
upon the vital points, they never bring to bear upon
the subject the same acuteness of observation and
analysis, the same closeness of comparison and reason
ing, that they employ in their business concerns.
They treat religion as altogether a different kind of
thing, and indulge in all the loose habits of thought
their unsound education left untouched. And so,
when we consider all the other influences at work’
we. cannot wonder that such men remain fixed in
their , old superstitions, and become sometimes even
the bigoted, opponents of progress. Their education
has determined their destiny.
�Progress in Theology,
7
And all I have said of men applies equally to the
case of those women whose household affairs are of
sufficient magnitude to require the exercise of much
attention and judgment. Indeed, such women are
often better situated than men for acquiring general
rational habits of thought, for the objects they
have to attend to are of a more miscellaneous char
acter, and less likely, therefore, to confine the appli
cation of the rational powers to one narrow and
specific line. But then, on the other hand, there areother causes, chiefly arising out of the affections,
which counteract these more favourable circumstances,
and which nothing but an early training could in the
majority of cases correct. And thus it comes to pass
that amongst both men and women rational opinions
make but slow head-way, and only here and there are
found those, who, having risen above the education of
their youth, become rational in matters of religion.
The second cause I assign for the slow progress
of religious thought is fear—blind, unreasoning,
superstitious fear—which extends its influence over
all persons not yet redeemed from its curse. Fear
has been the prime and most effective motive power
in nearly all, if not all^the religions of the world up
to the present time. In some, of them its agency was
overwhelming. God, or the gods, were represented
in an awful aspect full of vindictiveness, revenge, and
cruelty. Men trembled at the thought of them.
Their religion became a mere effort to appease the
divine displeasure, or to purchase the divine favour.
Oriental speculations had considerably modified these
conceptions when Christianity arose and became (at
all events as presented by its founders) the gentlest
form of faith the world then had known. The
teaching of both Christ and Paul, so far as it is ascer
tainable, presented the character of God in a benign
relation to the world, and encouraged trust and love
rather than- fear. One dark and gloomy doctrine
however was still retained, which although neutralized
�8
On the Hindrances to
in the loving spirits and teaching of these noble men,
became developed into fearful forms under the influ
ence of the fiery and dark minds which succeeded
them. I refer, of course, to the doctrine of eternal
punishment. That doctrine I am compelled to own
both Paul and Christ distinctly taught. I should be
glad to think that the philanthropic apostle, and
above all that the gentle, loving Jesus had given no
countenance to the immoral doctrine. But all honest
criticism forbids me from doing so. The methods of
criticism adopted by those who hold the contrary
conclusion seem to me altogether subversive of rational
interpretation, and would leave every document at
the mercy of the interpreter.
Now, the doctrine they sanctioned, and which the
whole ®f the New Testament teaches or recognises,
has ever since been made more or less an efficient
instrument of terror. In the hands of the best men
of the church it has been used merely for the purpose
of restraining vice or stimulating faith. But the
darker spirits have used it with Satanic power to
mould men to their will. Especially has this been
the case in times of doubt, heresy, and schism. Then
with all the vehemence of eloquence, and with all the
invention of art, its awful, sulphurous terrors have
been drawn forth before the affrighted imaginations,
of men, in the expectation that the fear of the horrible
torments of an endless life might preserve them
within the orthodox fold of Christ. In the present
day such representations are much modified, and the
fear arising out of them is consequently less active.
The genteel, tolerably-educated minister of your city
churches would not venture to deal out flames and
fiery darkness as his fathers did. It is only in some
out of the way parish, situated at what seems the
worlds end, in some little conventicle where the
preacher is innocent of a day’s schooling, that you now
hear of eternal damnation in all the fulness of its
horrors. Yet the influence if it has a strong hold of
men s, and especially of women’s feelings.
�Progress in Theology.
9
Fear has always restrained enquiry.
The
anathemas of the church long held back the mind
of Europe from enquiry into the protestant dogmas.
“ What if the Church’s dogmas should prove to be
true ? The eternal perdition would be incurred by
the doubting of her creed.” The same fear virtually
operates now. “ One’s first concern is the salvation
of the soul. What if one exposed it to jeopardy by
pursuing these inquiries about the incarnation, the
atonement, the inspiration and authority of the
Bible ? Leave such questions alone, and tread not on
such dangerous ground.”
Such dangerous ground !—that is of course,
assuming, before the enquiry, that these orthodox
dogmas are true. But what if they be untrue ?
Which will be the dangerous ground then ? And
how can you tell whether they be true or untrue
until you have thoroughly investigated the matter ?
Should they prove to be untrue, and untrue I
thoroughly believe them to be, they must be working
intellectual and moral mischief in your souls. For
every lie entails intellectual and moral mischief.
But it is of no use to tell a large portion of the
orthodox this. The fear of losing the soul has so
taken possession of the feelings that it shuts out all
reason, all common sense, and leaves them the miserable
victims of their superstitious delusions. They turn
a deaf ear to all argument, evidence, and proof of
every kind, and see nothing but the hazard of eternal
woe in the questionings of reason. They have no con
fidence in the divine fatherhood that the gospel of
John tells them about ;•—no confidence that the God
of truth will guide aright the mind seeking to know
the truth, much less have they any confidence in the
rational faculties with which man is endowed, and in
the certainty that all honest enquiry must bring a
blessing of some kind with it. But that grim devil
the ignorance of barbarous times conjured into
existence, and those dreaded torments over which he
presides, frighten them out of their seven senses into
�io
On the Hindrances to
the irrational act of clinging tenaciously, as if for
their life, to the unexamined dogmas of orthodoxy.
One grieves to see the gentle nature of women so
abused, but grows indignant when men, pretending
to a higher intellect and a stronger understanding,
show the same foolish weakness.
And yet all
around us the dark superstition is keeping both men
and women, parsons and people, from all thorough
going rational enquiry. It is as powerful in this
respect amongst large masses as ever ; and no doubt
it will require another generation before the multitude
arise above it.
In the third place, I think an ignominious love of
ease, comfort, or peace of mind, keeps a large number
from enquiry. There are very few who love truth for
its own sake. It is courted rather for the fortune it
brings, the blessings of a physical and spiritual kind.
Most seek some ulterior end, and above all ease,
comfort, peace of mind and great enjoyment. Now if
you do not harass your brains by entertaining doubts
and making enquiries, orthodoxy will furnish you
with these desired blessings. On cheap terms it will
assure you of the salvation of your soul and God's
present and eternal favour, and in addition will
bring you the approbation, sympathy, and regard of
the respectable people around you. But if you once
set off upon the dangerous road of free enquiry,
instantly all these blessings disappear, and there is
no saying to where you will be led. Knowing this,
the majority of quiet well-to-do people are very care
ful to shun enquiry.
And the mischief feared lies in two directions :
first, in the dogmatical. When verities which have
been venerated for ages are once called into question
and doubt, their mind loses all its anchorage ground,
and seems to itself like a ship out at sea in the midst
of a storm. Whither it will be driven no one can
tell. And there are again two things which distress
it; the one is the uncertainty and suspension of faith
into which it is brought. Most minds rebel at this.
�Progress in Theology.
11
It requires thorough mental training and discipline
to be able to suspend one’s judgment without pain
during the examination of evidence. We become
impatient of it, and want to settle down on the one
side or the other. The mind wants rest; but as long
as enquiry lasts there can be no rest—no reposing
on assured truths—no drawing of comfort from’
sweetly consolatory doctrines ! It is all hard work,
and moving on from point to point. And so rather
than embark upon such troubled waters, shoals of men
superstitiously keep the harbour of the old faiths.
There at least, so long as they do not doubt, they
find quiet and comfort.
And then the other thing which keeps them from
enquiry is that they find many are led when once
they loosen their moorings, lengths which seem to
them perfectly horrifying. Some who once were good,
sound, orthodox believers have become what these
people call perfect infidels; and mistrust of themselves,
apparently, or mistrust of the truth, leads them to
fear such if they once set out might become their
own fate. Some could go as far as Robertson of
Brighton, but it would be dreadful to get to the
length of Martineau! Some could go as far as
Carlyle, but it would be ruin to think like Stuart
Mill 1 Some could accept of the theism of Newman,
but the positivism of Comte would be perdition ! So
each and all have their several bugbears of infidelity
which terrify them from thought. It does not seem
to occur to such people that it is just possible that
those who have gone the lengths they fear to go,
may have reached the truth. They only think of the
consequences to which they presume it will lead.
“ Oh, say they, we could find no comfort, no ease, in
such horrible doctrines, however true they might
appear. All peace would be thrust from our souls
for ever.”
Well, and suppose it were so; did you come into
this world for ease and comfort, or to find the truth
and live by it 1 Is blessedness to be had in a false
�12
On the Hindrances to
peace, or in the living facts of the universe ? Ease !
Comfort! For shame ! Go get you into a cradle and
call out some crazy beldame from the workhouse to
rock you your worthless life long. That is all such
drowsy souls are fit for. And yet although all reason
must condemn them, although they themselves must
for very shame be forced to own that in the pure and
perfect truth man’s supreme bliss can alone be found,
and that in this day of the disruption of parties and
the dissolution of churches each one must search out
that truth for himself, this bugbear of extreme
Infidelity keeps thousands, and will continue to keep
thousands, from all manly and honest enquiry. One
grieves over their weakness, but the remedy seems
far away.
The other disturbance to one’s comfort and peace
lies in the social direction. Men like to be at ease
when their professional or business engagements are
over. It is comfortable to get home, sit down by the
fireside, chat with one’s wife and children, read the
newspapers, or doze over a glass of wine. Besides,
these are acquaintances, perchance friends, amongst
whom one likes to spend a pleasant evening now and
then over a game at cards, or in conversation upon
the social and political gossip of the day. But now,
earnest religious enquiry is very apt to break in upon
all this, to make one’s home a scene of constant con
tention and tears, and to make one’s acquaintances
very shy and distant. If the wife have not the
intellect to enter into the questions with the
husband, or the husband with the wife, to what
bickerings, sometimes angry discussion and wordy
contentions, it leads. And then who can resist those
tears and those earnest appeals, “ if not for your own
sake, for the sake of the souls of our darling
children give up such wicked doubts!” And
then the good people, too, aid the home influence.
Who will associate with an infidel ? Who will have
anything to do with him who denies the verities of
the faith ? “ My dear fellow, such notions are
�Progress in Theology.
13
not respectable, and I can assure you if it became
known that you hold opinions so dangerous it will
materially affect your business. You have a young
family rising up, and cannot afford to indulge in such
speculations. Besides, I confess all your friends
concur with my own feeling in the matter, that is,
however much we respect you, we should not like it
to be known we associate with the companion of
infidels. You are all right, you know, but you will
be thrown amongst all sorts of vagabonds, and people
will suspect that you have fallen into the vices to
which Infidelity always leads. Give it up, my dear
fellow, give it up, if you do not wish every respectable
acquaintance to give you up.”
Who could withstand such arguments as that ?
So the poor fellow does give it up, dismisses his
doubts, henceforth walks demurely with his wife and
sweet babies every Sunday regularly to church, and
by and by gets held up by his minister as the very
type of “ That large and respectable class of intelli
gent men who amidst the doubts and scepticism of
a licentious age hold fast by the old faiths 1”
Another reason just alluded to operates with some.
I referred to the low character imputed to those who
depart from the old beliefs. It is the common con
clusion of weak minds that he who doubts the accepted
dogmas is a bad man. And even what the world
calls respectable men and women, great professors of
religion, think it no shame to either create or pro
pagate all sorts of lying slanders against the infidels.
Now and then this is done unconsciously of the wrong,
the ignorant people not knowing that slander is a form
of immorality and that to speak evil of one another
without sufficient evidence is a crime. But generally
the evil is known, but committed under the palliating
thought that it does God service. Now the effect of
this is twofold: 1st, Ignorant people who do not
know the wickedness of which religious people can be
guilty, believe the slanderers, and shrink very natu
rally from connecting themselves with such seemingly
�14
Hindrances to Progress in Theology.
disreputable parties. And 2dly, They are very apt to
conclude that bad men cannot have found the truth.
Of course the character of a person cannot affect the
truth or untruth, the validity or invalidity, of his
arguments and propositions. And a rational person
would judge of the doctrines by these alone. But in
matters of religion, as we have seen, the majority are
not rational. And so these slanderers succeed in
their efforts to deter the weak-minded from enquiry,
and in God’s name effectually do the devil’s work.
Other reasons might be added to these to account
for the large number shunning all enquiry upon the
questions of religion; but these must at present suffice.
And they are sufficient to encourage our faith and
hope in the gradual progress of the truth. That which
lies at the root of them all, the want of a sound judg
ment, a disciplined mind habituated to exercise its
reason upon all things, must gradually give way
before the more enlightened system of education all
classes are feeling their way towards. And in time
it will affect women as well as men. Those tender
affections which now bind them to superstition will
not always be so perverted. When woman receives
the education her nature requires, the intellect will
assert its proper supremacy. Already there are some
noble pioneers, the vanguard of the advancing race.
When the whole host has come forward, then divine,
bliss-giving, beauteous truth shall be our sovereign
mistress, and all men will dare to follow whithersoever
she may lead.
Turnbull and Spears, Printers, Edinburgh.
�
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On the hindrances to progress in theology
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Cranbrook, James
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Place of publication: Ramsgate
Collation: 14 p. ; 19 cm.
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Thomas Scott
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[18--]
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RA1595
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Theology
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (On the hindrances to progress in theology), identified by <a href="www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.
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Theology