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It
1 nJE
Gospel
OF
Common
i
Sense
IV
��Moy
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
THE GOSPEL
OF
COMMON SENSE
��THE
GOSPEL
OF
COMMON SENSE
BY
STEPHEN CLAYE
LONDON
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO.
LIMITED
STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C.
��INTRODUCTION.
The writer does not claim that there
is anything new in these pages. Com
mon sense is as old as the everlasting
hills, but it is to the lifting of this
quality into a virtue of vital import
ance that the present effort is di
rected. This little boat is launched
with feelings of intense reverence for
the Divine authority over all things.
The Almighty is, to the writer, a liv
ing, energising reality, of whom he
has never lost hold, although he
may have wandered in the fields of
honest doubt and floundered hope
lessly among the creeds. But he
ranks among those who no longer
consider it an honour to be classed
as a Christian. If there is to be
labelling at all, he would rather be
designated as one who is seeking
honestly and fervently to take up
all the duties of life as they present
themselves. He has been led to
�6
this state of mind by the utter un
reasonableness of many religious
teachers, and the absence of any
striking virtues in not a few pro
fessors of exceptional piety.
This, to some, may seem a startling
position. In the never-ending strife
between the many forms of religion,
dogma and creed hold so absorbing
a place that the loop-hole into which
the element of common sense can
creep does not seem a large one.
The religious teachers of all sections
appear to be so anxious to do the
thinking for their several communi
ties, that it will be described as a
bold effort to break away from this
recognised order of things. It is not
enough to say that mankind should
go to the clerics for their religion, as
they go to the doctor for medical help
and to the lawyer for things with a
legal bearing.
Life is such an intensely real
thing, and to many thousands of
both sexes it is full of sadness.
The whole of our existence is a com
plex mosaic. The uncertainties and
«
�7
unrealities of what has been taught
with regard to a future existence
are so apparent, that whatever may
cause thought and heart-searching
is deserving of consideration, how
ever much that attempt may depart
from the old grooves and forms of
expression.
Everything in life, or appertaining
to life, is the result of growth, and
growth so gradual that we lose sight
of the principle in the shibboleths
of parties and sects. Growth, it is
acknowledged, is only another name
for evolution, but evolution is a
process rather than a principle, and
that is why the term growth is used.
It is in the acute realisation of
growth that the heart warms to the
Father heart, and feels that the lot
of the individual is a small speck in
the economy of time which may be
measured by millions of years.
Paul, at Athens, fixed his keen in
telligence upon the temple devoted
to the worship of the unknown God.
The devotees accustomed to gather
in that temple may have been nearer
�8
in thought and aspiration to the true
God, than were the eager worship
pers in the temple of Delphi, waiting
to learn the report of the oracles.
These oracular utterances, there is
no doubt, were nothing more than
the tricks of priests.
The critics will be good enough to
remember that the writer accepts
the biblical records as they stand.
He is at variance with the custom of
literal interpretation which prevails,
and the insistence upon a particular
view being accepted as attaching to
a particular passage or incident. He
claims that it is perfectly justifiable
to deal with the records as we have
them in the Bible, exactly as we
should with any other old record or
book. It is not improbable, that
had the destruction of books in the
early centuries not taken place at
Alexandria and Constantinople, we
should have been in possession of
literature which would have changed
the whole current of the world’s
thought.
�THINGS ETHEREAL/
Nature holding the Balance.
It is extremely doubtful whether the
balancing power in Nature, as a force
in human life, has been sufficiently
recognised. The ever-present ele
ments of Conservatism and Liberal
ism, Socialism and Individualism,
Sacerdotalism and the search after
simplicity in worship, extreme re
ligionism and growing agnosticism
are always at war with each other.
These provide the elements which
give the balances to life, and make
human thought and energies so very
gradual in their influences and effects.
Were it not for these balancing
powers being ever present, improve, ment in any department of life would
become the despair of humanity,
either in being too stationary on
the one hand, or too revolutionary
on the other hand. Nature gives
�10
something for all, and the leaders
of every school of thought are at all
times ready to see gleams of en
couragement as current events pre
sent themselves to their particular
point of view.
All history records the same fact.
The golden age of Greece gave us its
Solon and its tyrants immediately
followed. The centuries during which
the power of Rome was on the wane
were filled with opposing forces,
which to many must have seemed to
make the real decay of the great
power of Rome an event beyond
the range of possibility. By the side
of the growing Saxon predominance
of centuries ago were the sapping
powers of excessive religious imagina
tion. At the time of the Refor
mation there were intellects battling
for the mastery over thought, and
others striving for personal freedom
of action in religious matters. So
at whatever period attention may
be directed, the advancing and
the retarding streams are found
running together side by side, now
�11
intercepting each other, and now
overwhelming each other, in the
effort to gain the dominating power.
These conflicting forces were scarce
ly ever more potent than is the case
at the end of this century. The priest
for the moment is very much in evi
dence, and the ever-widening dislike
towards the priest and all his works
is causing many to look with distrust
upon what the man of form and cere
mony is endeavouring to build up.
The strife is inevitable, and thef
priest would like to stifle this war
among conflicting forces. And out
of this heterogeneous warfare man
kind is realising some of its best
thoughts and most vitalising energies.
Thought and effort are at issue
with the priest, and the present at
tempt is merely to take stock and to
see how the land lies for the coming
days of the new century.
The preacher is, like the poor, al
ways with us. He comes in with the
cradle years of infancy, and he re
mains until the eventide of age, when
the things of vanity and vexation are
�12
put aside for the quiet of the grave.
Whether the good man really helps
or hinders us is the question into
which inquiry is to be made. There
is no desire to be unnecessarily harsh,
but while in the ordinary departments
of life average discretion is exercised
in the selection of men, it is too much
absent in the selecting of men for the
Christian ministry, no matter what
the sect may be. Judging from numer
ous specimens of the genus, it Would
appear that any one seems good
enough to show people the way to
the kingdom of heaven.
There is no desire to attack a class
or combination of classes. Some of
the dearest friendships in the life of
the present writer have been among
the class frequently referred to in
these pages. It would be manifestly
unfair to withhold credit for the ex
ceedingly useful social work done by
the large and ever-extending body of
clergymen and ministers of all de
nominations. Homes and individuals
have been cheered, and the sad and
distressed everywhere have, by their
�ministrations, had the burdens of life
lightened and made more bearable.
Whether charity has been abused,
and indolence and dishonesty en
couraged, by the profuse distribution
of blankets and soup, is another
matter.
To premise then. Fault is found
with the man and his methods, or
rather with the class and their pre
tentious claims. It is alleged against
him that he frequently stifles and
harasses, when he, in point of fact,
seeks to guide and to aid.
If there was any purpose in the
creation of the human mind, that pur
pose was to give the intellect the
freest play and the widest latitude for
its development. Man in the image
of his All-wise Creator is so in his
intellect, if at all. That ever-present
and ever-working marvellous machin
ery which compasses the universe in
its operations, as represented by man,
comes nearest in heart and brain to
the full-souled Father of the begin
nings of all things. The priest hides
this Father, and gives humanity but
�14
a poor caricature of Him. And he
does this not wilfully, but with a per
petual mental twist, the inevitable
result of which has been universal dis
tortion, and man driven farther and
farther away from the sheet-anchor of
all that goes to make up the sum total
of life and thought.
It is a far cry from a cadet of the
Salvation Army to the newest owner
of a cardinal’s red hat. Between the
silence of the Friends’ meeting-house
and the gorgeous ritual of Lincoln
Cathedral, there lies a sea of life so
vast that it is impossible not to be
awed in the contemplation of it. But
from the one end to the other of
ministerial preparation and after work
mistakes are made, from which the
preachers of all denominations rarely
ever wholly recover. Theology is not
an exact science, and the supposition
that its laws and principles are as
rigidly discoverable as are the laws and
principles attaching to mathematics,
chemistry and all the other sciences, is
a mistaken one. The text-books of the
ministerial colleges in use everywhere
�15
start their teaching from this sup
position, and seek to close every
avenue that would tend to encourage
independent thought in any direction.
It is this violation of a natural law,
perpetrated during his education, from
which the average cleric, be he estab
lished or unestablished as classifica
tion goes, never seems to fully recover.
He rather appears to take it out of
humanity by treating him as a plaster
cast of some intricate piece of me
chanism, which requires its propor
tions of fuel, occasional applications
of oil, and the constant attention of
the engineer to keep him in due work
ing order.
The present writer finds fault with
this cast-iron view of theology. Is
there in all the wilderness of theo
logical teaching a single dogma, creed
or assertion which is absolutely and
unalterably beyond the range of
question and doubt? The universal
acceptance of a Creator is a fact and
not a dogma.
If the purely evangelical view of
religion were so capable of proof as
�is claimed by its professors, would the
nations of the universe be so insane
as to turn a deaf ear to it ? By
“ evangelical view ” is meant the me
chanical process of so much sin, origi
nal or otherwise, so much repentance,
and so much eternal salvation, giving
the believer ecstatic joy and continual
days of happiness here below, and a
positive claim for these blessings in a
larger form in the world to come.
The vitalising force of the evangelical
view of things is at once admitted,
and is in fact the only prevailing
power among the theologians. Why
it should be so is not easy to se@i
The place and influence of the
rhapsodist have never been absent.
Simon Stylites, with his nearly forty
years of life on his sixty-foot high
pillar of three-foot diameter, had his
latest descendant, on the religious
but not the ascetic side, in the
singularly beautiful life of the late
C. H. Spurgeon. Both believed im
plicitly in the rigidly exact view
which gave to man his fall and his
salvation. The rhapsody of both was
�17
very much on parallel lines, and in
the age of either, a countless number
have been the willing believers of the
teaching. It would thus be folly to
deny to the rhapsodist not only that
he has filled a large place in religious
thought, but that the very existence
and propaganda of religion demanded
his presence. That he is a creation
of the priest for his own purposes
would not be so readily conceded.
The present effort is a plea for
natural religion and the ever-widen
ing love of the great First-cause, by
whatever name He may be known.
Man does not require the theo
logian to teach him this, and these
truths would have been evident ir
respective of all theological teach
ing. The plea is that theological
teaching has rather beclouded than
made these facts clear, and has
driven humanity rather away from
them, than brought him, in many
cases, to a clearer view of either one
or the other.
The theologian is the last to be
reformed in all the universe. He ,
B
�18
" ”*■» seems to come absolutely at the
I tail of everything. In the orthodox
genesis of things, first was created
the world, then man, followed by
woman, and after these came the
| priest, and he has been after them
' ever since, and seems doomed to
never overtake them.
He resents criticism, and has his
own peculiarly polite way of dealing
with his critics. But when his fum
ing is over, the fact remains that after
every other class have absorbed and
assimilated changes and reforms, the
cleric remains in his concrete form,
almost unchanged and unchangeable.
He is ever the figure in armour, splut
tering about with his weapons, fight
ing in an imaginary tournament, chiefly
of his own creation. The ages jog on,
and leave him stranded very dry out
of the water, gradually, but surely,
accepting, when no other course is
left, every modification of belief which
he has protested that he never would
accept.
No, never, he reiterates
again and again, will he ever accept
the changes, even were the last ditch
�19
in sight, and the figure in armour were
to die there in presence of his beloved
flock, especially the feminine part of
his oommunity. He ever remains the
figure dragged at the tail of every
movement. He never leads unless he
makes a hash of it, as in educational
matters, and is only impelled along
because he cannot resist the current
which drives him forward. His pre
tentious claims have become a by-word.
His arrogance knows no limits, and
his intelligence is very often the re
sult chiefly of his denominational
newspaper, and the current opinions
of the female members of his con
gregation.
Had he the power, he would again
bring into use the thumbscrew and
the stake. And did he in reality hold
the keys of the kingdom of heaven it
would go hard with humanity. Man
kind owes to him no branch of human
progress, but has cheerfully submitted
to feed and clothe him as a parasite
upon its organism. He is the great
est gigantic body corporate of the
day. As a social factor he has no
�20
I
\
j
•
peer, and in his aggregate form could
become, and has on a few state
occasions become, a veritable Poly
phemus.
In his days of youth, when he
is supposed to be acquiring his
ministerial training, he is indeed
a nondescript. Were it not that
there is around him a double-barred
castle composed of ladies, he would
be laughed out of society in scorn.
Those dear creatures, who do so
much to make life happy and joyous,
would look with scorn upon their
non-clerical male friends, were they
so insufferably conceited, and so
contemptibly mean, as the average
student undergoing his ministerial
training.
No other class in society receive
so much homage with so little intellectual power to support it, as do
the clerical party. True, the adula
tion is not what it was even some
few years ago, and this is a cause
for great lamentation among the
select circles composed chiefly of their
own cloth.
�21
When the time of incubation is
over and the marrying time comes,
what a serious business, for them, it
becomes! Wealth and beauty lay
themselves at the feet of the wearers
of white ties. From the pulpit there
fall thunders against the love of filthy
lucre, and the preacher comes down
from his pedestal and marries the
richest woman upon whom he can set
eyes. The average member of the
male persuasion stands no chance
whatever if a parson is in the running.
He is the upper crust of the matri
monial market. “ I used to positively
venerate ministers,” said a lady once
in the hearing of the writer, “ until I
married one, and then I didn’t.” At
a tea-meeting, on one occasion, a
speaker stated that it seemed to him
remarkable how many ministers had
married rich wives, and shortly after
wards become afflicted with a sore
throat, and had retired from pastoral
work to a position of independence.
He knew, he said, of three such cases
in their county. At the close of the
meeting one presenttaxedthe speaker,
�22
who made the statement, with being
unnecessarily hard upon ministers
who had married rich wives. “ May
I ask if you married a rich wife ? ”
“Well, yes, I had some money with
my wife.” “ And have you resigned
your pastorate ? ” “Yes----- ” “Ahl
you are a fourth. I did not know of
you.”
Are these gentlemen, who are sup
posed to live very near heaven, so
much better than ordinary mortals ?
He would be a bold man who claimed
that they were better in any respect
whatever. They are no better than
• other men, and in many cases are not
nearly as good, notwithstanding their
comfortable and enviable surround
ings. In their relations with each
other, clergymen and ministers are
notoriously mean and captious. It
would be interesting to tabulate the
opinions about lay preachers held by
the regulars. They have rarely, when
off the platform, a generous word for
a ministerial brother. The quantity
of praise distributed among each other
at public meetings leaves nothing to
�be desired in that direction. But in
private the bickerings and jealousies
among the brethren of white tie in
signia would discredit the green-room
of a theatre. In truth, the chief claim
to any holiness at all, in far too many
instances, lies in the particular cos
tume which these gentlemen assume.
Eighty Thousand Sermons,
it is estimated, are preached every
Sunday all the year round. To claim
that a tithe of this Sabbath eloquence
represents a stream of wisdom would
cause general amusement. If on
any subject in the whole range of
literature so much triviality and
common-place drivel were talked, as
is uttered under the name of a sermon,
the whole process would be laughed
out of court. But they are sermons :
the object, it is argued, must of ne
cessity be good, and it is, say some,
no great hardship to bear so much
infliction. God made the preacher
for a man, and his sermon is in
tended as a contribution towards
human poverty, therefore let him
�24
pass for a man, and think kindly of
his homily.
The Cords of Conventionality
are more firmly tied round the neck
of clergymen and ministers than is
the case with any other section of
the community.
There are some
excellent gentlemen among them,
whose nobility of soul is as trans
parent as glass, who chafe under
the existing conditions and environ
ment of their work. This is, for
that particular section, very unfor
tunate. It is furthermore never easy
to work freely when surrounded by
so many great expectations. Those
over whom he ministers are jealous
of the pastor’s reputation, not only
as to his orthodoxy, but for general
things. Consequently the poor man
hears at once if his gown is not on
quite straight, or his wife’s go-tomeeting bonnet is a little too showy.
Congregations are notoriously exact
ing. A political constituency is as
child’s play to keep all the parts going
Smoothly, when compared with the
�25
whims which an average shepherded
flock will display. This atmosphere
of conventionalism is responsible for
much of the feeling of having to
work in chains which does prevail in
not a few minds. Why there is not
enough inherent strength among the
fraternity to throw off this yoke and
make a bold stand for liberty of
personal thought and action, it is not
easy to conceive. That the usual
course of procedure has led to a good
deal of lack of honesty is clear. So
many pastors, it is reasonably to be
feared, do not preach what they be
lieve, and a large number of others
do not believe what they preach.
The mental reservation with regard
to certain tenets to which some have
to subscribe is too often taken as
sufficient salve for the conscience.
The prevailing absence of mental
honesty is indeed alarming.
Fictitious Value of Paraded Piety.
Surely it is high time that there
was a new price set upon the head of
advertised piety. Some of the most
�26
rampant humbug ever inflicted upon
mankind, has been done, and is being
done, under the guise of piety. Why
it should be expected that much
prayer and imaginary fasting should
make the individual more worthy of
trust, it is hard to say. Shop-keepers
are known to mix pious expressions
with the sale of soft goods. A
master builder has looked earnestly
upwards, and at the same time de
frauded his men out of as much of
their wages as he could succeed in
keeping. These classes are not put
forward as worse than others. The
fault seems to lie in a sort of general
feeling that there is a demand for
expressions of piety, and the supply
is quite equal to the demand. The
churches have fed this feeling, and
still feed it so lavishly that one well
known to the investing public, in
his intervals of company promoting,
presents a prominent church with a
gold communion service, upon which
is duly inscribed his name, and
was afterwards confirmed by leading
ecclesiastics, who seem ever ready
�27
to lend their services for this sort of
show business.
It is time that this fictitious
value thus attached to paraded piety
should receive a check. If a man or
a woman is a greater fraud than
usual, the chances are that they rank
amongst the most obviously pious.
Soft-heads and impracticable people
generally, who harass and clog the
wheels of life, are striking examples
of fluency in public prayer and regu
lar attendance at religious services.
Any man of experience, and who is
scarcely yet up to middle life, has
been fortunate if he cannot call to
mind instances of this character.
Religious Drunkenness.
This excessive parade of piety has
produced its corollary of religious in
toxication. The May meetings and
church congresses are prolific in the
number of cases of religious drunken
ness, of which they are the immediate
cause. The rushing from meeting to
meeting, the following of a favourite
�28
pastor about from place to place, and
hanging in rapt adoration upon his
very adjectives, are the common
sights of the month of May, and
are again repeated when the autumn
days come along. Alack-a-day for
many a man and his children, if he
and they are afflicted with a wife and
mother who suffers from periodical
spells of religious drunkenness.
The place of the revivalist in re
ligious life is a very mixed one. Con
verted colliers, prize-fighters, and the
rest of the family must have made
really a very handsome thing out of
revival meetings. The choice lan
guage, home-made words and illustra
tions of these gentlemen are decidedly
fetching. One distinguished lady of
this persuasion, whose fees vary from
two to ten guineas a service, is war
ranted to fetch tears on any occasion.
In seafaring life freight ships which
take occasional journeys are dubbed
as tramps, and are not much loved by
the regular services. Why the regu
lars in clerical life should tolerate
this select body of speakers it is not
�easy to see. The writer remembers
a converted pugilist on one occasion
taking off his coat, and going for a
supposed opponent, strutting about
the platform during the process like
an enraged bantam. This was all
done with the idea of making people
see the error of their ways, and
coming to a right mind.
The Clerics in Educational
Matters.
Could this absence of common
honesty receive any stronger proof
than it does in educational matters ?
It is dogma and creed first, clerical
influence second, and education a long
way last. Our national system of
education ought to be a thing too
sacred for the petty jealousies of
creeds. The men of the street pay
the piper in the form of rates, and
the clerics call the tune, and the tune
they would set to the narrowest
and most rigid dogmas that ever
blasted humanity, and destroyed the
vigour of the individual intellect.
The average man does not know what
�30
to make of these preachers of honesty
who themselves set such a poor ex
ample of common honesty.
The clerics never will know how
deep the iron has entered into men’s
souls over this education question,
and the spirit which has been dis
played by the clerical section. The
men who pay the bills, and are asked
to leave control to the clerics, are full
of dismay, and will never again wholly
trust, either with regard to this life or
the life to come, the so-called leaders
who have played them false, and to
whom the child to be educated is
merely the pawn on the religious
chess-board.
The Catch Phrases in Early
Religious Instruction.
The inner heart of the writer stands
still when he looks backward across
many days to the religious terrorism
of his young years. Time after time
has it been his lot to go to bed in
abject and quaking terror at the
dreadful things he heard from the
pulpit of a village place of worship.
�Thank God ! that has become a thing
of the past, and the youth of to-day
little recognise how great for them
has been the gain. The pet and
favourite phrase so commonly heard
about “giving one’s heart to Christ ’’
had to the writer always the meaning,
that it represented a willingness and
a desire to die. He never heard the
expression without associating it with
this interpretation. It is all very
well for the preacher to assert that
he never meant this, but the fact re
mains as related, and this is only a
sample of many others which could
be quoted.
It is the Revulsion of Feeling
which leaves so many scars behind.
Having to unlearn what has been
learnt from these teachers, and to
learn over again, is a process so very
disastrous that now the advice of the
wise father to his child of inquiring
mind is, to be fearless in search for
truth. Fear not, my boy or my
daughter, he says, in effect, what the
honest search for truth compels thee
�32
to recognise. Only be sure that the
search is a truly honest one. Look
conclusions straight in the face, and
fear no consequences in the upsetting
of previously cherished convictions.
The Age of the World.
That which has been the cause
of much mental doubt and trouble
in the human mind, is the limited
duration of time given as the age
of the world. The clerics gave, years
ago, some 6000 years as the period
of time covered by everything. All,
according to them, was in due chrono
logical order, from the date of the
apple business down to the begin
ning of the new era.
There is
nothing the preacher likes so much
as the chart, imaginary or otherwise,
outlining for him where each event
falls, and its full sequence and effect
on all other occurrences. The march
of intelligence has caused him some
what to drop this 6000 years’ esti
mate, now that he finds he is not
believed, as he has so frequently
dropped other teachings when he
�discovered that they were received
with doubt. Still the ill effects of
the teachings have been left behind,
and it requires an almost lifelong
education to realise the full meaning
of the age of the world.
There
is a consensus of opinion that the
world is millions of years old. Scien
tists give as their reasons how long
it would take for the earth to cool
down from a heated mass to freezing
point. It is not enough to say that
this calculation is purely speculative,
for the earth has been always losing
heat. A period of time has been
estimated for this, of from 15,000,000
to 30,000,000 years.
In general terms it has been esti
mated that the world has been in
existence 100,000,000 years, and
that there have been human beings
on it for 1,000,000 years. Whether
this be so or not is not vital to the
present argument.
All that it is
desired to emphasise is that the
few thousand years, formerly accepted
as the period of time since the crea
tion of the world took place, are
�34
really but the merest drop in the
ocean of time that has elapsed since
things began to take form.
A new theory, not generally known,
may be mentioned here, although it
has no immediate bearing upon the
matter, and that is, that the human
body is surrounded by an invisible
fluid, or, as some physiologists term it,
a magnetic fluid. Nothing definite has
been known of this until recent ex
periments have made the fact clear
that this is really the case. A scien
tist has been at work for some years
on this question. In a laboratory
illuminated by a red light only, he
placed a plate at the bottom of a tray
containing hydrochinone developer.
At the end of twenty minutes the
plate, upon which the extremities of a
man’s fingers had been held, revealed
not only the marks of the fingers
but also round each mark a luminous
zone, which was clearly indicated.
Science has never been antagonistic
to right views of God. It may have
clashed now and again with the
strained theories of the Almighty
�35
which have been advanced, and
clashed it certainly has with some of
the assertions put forward by overzealous religionists.
The Advocates of Verbal Inspira
tion
do not seem to have had a very good
time during recent years. To claim
full and direct intercourse with the Al
mighty for the writers of the Old and
New Testaments is a system of logic
peculiar to itself. Some of these
friends will scarcely admit even varie
ties or grades of inspiration, notwith
standing that the difference all the way
through the books is so very appar
ent. The actual spoken word of the
Almighty Father is recorded, say they,
from cover to cover, and many of them
honestly believe that this is the case.
To question this at all may lead, they
are fond of repeating, to a Sahara in
the opposite direction. Suppose that
a collection of some passages and
narratives were withdrawn from their
setting and issued in a separate form,
what would be the result ? And yet
�36
these very same passages and records
are shown surreptitiously from youth
to youth of both sexes. There is
belief implicitly in the principle of in
spiration. But it should apply to
every great and good writer who has
added to the world’s wisdom, and
given it thoughts that breathe, and
words that burn into the human
mind, to make it the better and the
holier for the work done.
It is only of late that the revised
version is entering into more general
use in the pulpit. The people, say the
clerics, were not prepared for the
changes made in the translation.
That is the reason, it is to be sup
posed, why still greater and more
numerous changes were not made by
the revisionists. The people are in
ignorance, and let them remain so, is
in effect the verdict of the good
friends who have this life and the
next under their especial charge.
Literal Interpretation
has followed the teaching of verbal
inspiration as a natural sequence.
�37
And we have been landed in chaos,
worse confusion, by literal interpre
tation. To be informed that we are
to take the records as they stand,
without any question or thought
whatever, is an insult upon human
intelligence. These good teachers
who claim to know so much of the
inner workings of the mind of the
Almighty Father, speak of its being
dishonouring to God to give utterance
to any query which seeks light where
there now appears darkness. Herds
of swine smitten with madness,
bushes which burn and are not con
sumed, and Jericho walls crumbling
at the blast of the human voice,
must, forsooth, remain as they stand
to puzzle the generations to come as
they have puzzled the ages that have
gone, because, say they, these are
part of the everlasting pillars of truth.
Men begin to doubt whether some
of these records and incidents are
among these pillars of truth, and are
no longer afraid to state their reasons
why they so doubt.
�38
The Tyranny of Texts
is a natural child of literal interpre
tation. It is delectable to meet the
man or the woman of texts. No
matter what the circumstances or
conditions of life may be, out comes
a text as pat as a little slice of butter
from the hands of the dairymaid.
The whole universe, according to
these “unco guid ” folks, is governed
by texts, and some of them verily
believe that the Creator is Himself
subject to texts.
Ecclesiastical Conundrums.
The bewildered layman may fairly
ask for some respite from the re
ligious conundrums which are ever
filling the air. At one time it was
the great question of the eastern
position. Now it is candles on the
communion table, and it is hard to
say when the matter is to be settled
and never heard of again. The con
flict is between the High Church and
Low Church, and a solemn judgment
was given recently in the Consistory
Court, to the effect that the aforesaid
�39
candles may be placed at each end of
the table, but must only be lighted
when it is too dark to see without
them. The delightful thing is that
the extreme section of the Establish
ment finds so many petty ways of
evading great ecclesiastical decisions.
The Church has never been without
these conundrums. Some of the
most characteristic panoramas of
word-painting that are to be found
in Gibbon are in his chapters descrip
tive of the internal conflicts of the
early Churches. The controversy
which raged a few years ago, in and
around the diocese of Lincoln, roused
to a fever heat the whole of the
Anglican ecclesiastical world. The
judgment which filled many columns
of a day’s issue of the largest daily
paper, was the finest masterpiece of
casuistryever published, and has never
yet been equalled by the sacred college
of the Jesuits. There is nothing that
the cleric loves so much as ecclesi
astical nuts to crack. Heresy-hunt
ing is such a delightful pastime, and
there is no telling what it may pro-
�40
duce, or to what point the contro
versy may lead. Hair-splitting lifted
to a science, is what some of these
discussions might be labelled. A
state of white heat, merely in the pre
liminary talk as to the definition of
terms, is a common occurrence, and
woe to the ministerial brother who
does not toe the line. The first duty
of a parson is to talk, and he does it
with a persistency which completely
obscures the small peR^ntage of
men in parliament, who are ready at
a moment’s notice to advise the
nation at length upon any subject
under the sun.
What has been the gain from these
everlasting ecclesiastical conundrums
is not very clear. The wearied lay
man hopes that some day he may be
less troubled with them.
He is
perhaps under the impression that
there are in life things more import
ant than the burning of candles, the
wearing of caps, and the gymnastics
of a gorgeously attired sweet young
man who has, perhaps for the first
time in his life, just left his dear
�41
mother’s side. What is to be the
ultimate outcome of the numerous
secret societies of the ritualistic
clergy, time alone will reveal, but the
presence of these societies does not
betoken good for the nation.
The military authorities might be
excused if they suggested a counter
attraction to these ecclesiastical
conundrums. The time may come
when the defence of old England will
become a-real necessity. Or if not
this, when the absence of the trained
troops will leave home defence to the
civil powers. Why should there not
be a parsons’ corps ? As champion
cricketers and tennis-players they are
supreme. It is only a step from this
to the handling of a rifle. These gen
tlemen are so accustomed to the ad
justment of the niceties between pro
fession and action that they could
quickly bridge the apparent incon
gruity of men of peace undergoing a
state of preparation for war. A
present is made of the suggestion to
those who govern the powder and
shot of the nation. One thing is be
�42
coming clearer, as the march of events
brings the changes in the kaleidoscope,
that the defence of home and nation
is not beyond the range of possi
bility. When that time arrives the
clerical party will no doubt be found
engaged in the congenial task of
splitting straws and not in shoulder
ing a musket.
The Biblical Records.
Preachers are rarely very definite
in their exegesis as given to their
people.
How remarkably few are
the preachers who relate anything
beyond the commonplace facts as
to how the particular record under
their observation came to be written,
how many years after the incident
happened that the record was written,
and follow on with some of the less
known characteristics of the writer!
Biblical students do not fully realise
that, with the exception of Luke,
every other writer, so far as or
dinary information goes, was a Jew.
The Jew, as historian and recorder,
has not at all times been the guile
�43
less creature that he claims for him
self. He looks at everything through
intensely Jewish eyes. The Jew is
first and foremost to the Jew, and the
non-Jewish world has, in all ages, been
material for the contempt of his race,
who are the blessed of Jehovah. To
the Jews of the early centuries and
especially to the Jews who wrote the
biblical records, the Almighty was
simply a highly magnified Jew. His
favoured people have always been the
Jews—in Jewish estimation. The
Jew had but to lift up his eyes to
heaven, and blessings rained on his de
voted head. Did he long for personal
or national gain, it was all the same.
So vastly is everything steeped in this
feeling that the biblical records, in
their eternal adulation of the Jew,
often pall upon the Gentile mind, and
give the reader a longing for some
thing less Hebrew in context and
tone.
The presupposed Jewish nation
ality of the Creator accounts largely
for the Jew’s way of looking at things.
Seven-eighths of his life,his aspirations
�44
and feelings were saturated with super
naturalism. He would far rather ex
plain the most ordinary and natural
things of life as being of the miracu
lous than their being of the nature of
ordinary everyday occurrences. Of
two methods of describing an event,
the simple matter of fact and the in
troduction of the miraculous element,
he would always select the latter.
The Jew, in his most simple character
istics, is very imaginative, but the be
setting sin of the Oriental Jew has been
threefold imagination, which made it
impossible for him to look at anything
from a natural point of view. This is
a vital factor in the survey of records,
and the writer holds that preachers
never touch upon this matter, and
become indignant when questions are
put upon the trustworthiness of the
records.
Prayer.
Prayer should be the earnest re
source of the human soul. The heart,
in its deepest sadness and affliction,
turns its desires to a source other than
�45
human. In its best and healthiest
aspects it should be the truest form of
naturalness known. Yet to judge from
the torrent of prayers uttered in public
it would seem to be the constant and
first resource of mankind. The gates
of heaven have to be stormed, and the
Almighty is told many things that He
must be exceedingly amazed to hear.
The immediate effect of very many
public prayers, were they effective,
would be to cause a series of miracles
to be worked. It would appear to be
the impossible things of life which are
most in request, judging from numer
ous samples of public prayers.
It is possible to meet occasionally
the man who seems, from his own
point of view, to have made a bargain
with the Almighty. The supposed
bargain has the appearance of so
much commercial success for so
many prayers and so much money
given for charity.
The greatest religious lack of the
day is that of reverence, and preachers
are responsible for its absence. The
familiar way in which they speak of,
�46
and address the Almighty, has pro
duced this disastrous result.
Oh that more reverence in all man
kind might dwell! The simple heart
which can—in the garden among the
birds, or in the field, in any place
where the works of Nature are, and
that means everywhere—take off the
hat, bow the head and bend in honest
reverence, cannot surely be long un
blessed. The stream of chatter run
ning through the Churches cannot
produce this feeling, or give much aid
in the cultivation of it. The garden
of reverence is indeed the Lord’s
own, and the soul must go direct to
the Almighty for its supplies of pure
and unalloyed heart-felt joy.
So many of what are usually
termed means of grace are merely
perfunctory observances, which are
not looked upon as privileges but as a
duty, and these same means of grace
are not mended in the process.
The Place of the Jew In Life.
The Jew has through all ages oc
cupied so large a place in history
�47
that there is much excuse for intro
ducing him here. He represents a
nationality without a nation. When
ever he has been the outcast of
nations, he has taken indirectly, when
opportunity has presented itself, a
terrible revenge. Always the same
in all ages in his pursuits and idiosyn
crasies. N ever the hewer of wood and
drawer of water since the old Egyptian
and Babylonian days. Even then it
is likely that he was the jeweller and
silversmith. But to find him, since
that period or the time of his captiv
ity, as a stonemason or engineer,
would be to discover a curiosity.
He is never a trouble as a citizen.
But for dirt, selfishness, sensuality,
prevarication and the capacity for
corrupting, he has few equals. No
other nationality of which we have
any record would have required the
Levitical law in order to keep clean
in himself bodily, and in his sur
roundings, as did the Jew. The
minuteness of those instructions is
a monument of the needs of the Jew.
Had he not been told that out of the
�48
mouth of Jehovah there came the
law that he was not to step more
than a few yards away from his
bed without washing himself, he
never would have washed himself,
until absolute need required the
operation. But why he should have
been allowed to dominate the in
telligence of the universe and govern
its thoughts, is one of the mysteries
of the centuries.
In his own
estimation, when Jehovah his God
has not given him lands and
countries to possess, He has given
him the minds of nations to order
and to control. The promise of the
land of Canaan to the Jew is one of
the prettiest fictions in all Christen
dom.
And yet what a part this plays in
all history since those memorable
days, and how everything of import
ance since then is overshadowed by
these family troubles of the Jew !
When in the fulness of time he
was to possess the said land, and
spies were sent to prospect, they
straightway find their way to the
�49
house of Rahab the harlot. Their
geographical knowledge of Jericho
was evidently extensive and peculiar,
like Dick Swiveller’s knowledge of
London, and the Oriental Jew could
scarcely have given, to the generations
that have followed, a more striking
proof that he has always been amongst
the most unclean of humanity. It
is argued that this gives proof for
not accepting as absolutely veracious
everything that the Jew has been
pleased to throw at the door of
human thought and inquiry.
Miracles.
The great stumbling-block of Chris
tian evidences is that of the miracles.
Do the everlasting truths which re
late to life in all its aspects need the
proof of miracles to support them ?
The craving for the supernatural in
the Oriental mind at the time of
Christ was an unnatural and vitiated
one. The one great fact of the uni
verse is that of human life, and yet
after centuries of thought it remains
as much a mystery to-day as it was in
D
�50
the beginning. Miracles are a species
of fungus growth. If they ever really
happened they are utterly useless as
props for truth. Greater than any
miracle which ever could be con
ceived is natural law by which
everything is governed. There is
nothing which so fills the contem
plative mind with awe and reverence
as to see around on every hand the
evidences of the supernatural wisdom
and wonderful love so clearly ex
pressed. The minutest insects, the
simplest species and varieties of
flowers, and the mammoth creatures
of the universe, alike show this
amazing dominant force, and yet
a force so silent that it seems
completely lost in the blaze and
confusion of the religious sects.
The love of the Creator, evidenced
in the working of these natural
laws, is so clear, that the wonder
is a sect of natural-law worship
pers have not established them
selves long ago, and to-day are not
as numerous as are the Fire Wor
shippers. A love so Divine and flow
�51
ing like an everlasting stream that
knows no beginning or ending, must
send the devout worshipper to his
knees. Is it not reasonable to sup
pose that the Almighty Father, who
could endow the universe with this
proof of His power, would, had there
been any necessity, have indeed
worked miracles in reality, and would
not have left the recorded miracles
standing on such a flimsy foundation ?
It is very possible that there may be
forces in Nature that are not now
understood, and which, when we do
understand them, will make the socalled miracles perfectly clear to the
ordinary mind. But then, when those
new forces are thus captured, the in
cidents will cease to be looked upon
as miracles.
Electricity is not a new force, but
it has remained for modern times to
capture it and reduce it within the
scope of natural laws. Hypnotism
is not a new force; but the merest
rudiments of the power are not
yet understood. When that under
standing does become possible the
�52
miracles of healing may become clear
to all.
The modern miracles of Lourdes
and Holywell are really as wonder
ful as some of the New Testament
miracles. Pent-up enthusiasm, gigan
tic faith, and actual healing waters,
accompanied by careful and constant
massage have accomplished wonders.
These are events which may be simply
repeating themselves, just as in every
other section of life, events and
incidents repeat themselves.
That wise law-giver, Moses, one of
the greatest Jews, as well as one of
the truest leaders of men ever known ,
was, as every great hero has been, a
man greatly in advance of his age.
He knew the need of vivifying his
power as well as magnifying the
authority which was associated with
the hidden prophet. The whole of the
plagues of Egypt, it is contended by
the writer, are explainable by natura
causes. The burning bush was the
great central burning thought of the
man’s mind which absorbed every in
terest and every spark of enthusi
�53
asm of the man’s passion for his
nation. Was there not a burning
bush in the mind of Buddha, Soc
rates, Christ, Alfred, Savonarola,
Luther, William the Silent, and Crom
well ? These names are grouped to
gether with all reverence.
The
striking of the rock for water may
have been the work of the earliest
water-finder of which we have any
record. The modern water-finder
with his wand is a reality, who will,
for his usual fee, tell where there
is water, and what course the water
takes. The last plague of all is pos
sibly explainable on the ground that
the Israelites may have been exempt
from some terrible epidemic which
afflicted the Egyptians, and especially
attacked the elder part of the com
munity. The simplicity of life, whole
some diet, abstinence from pork may,
had we only the complete details, ex
plain much. Trichinosis would be
known as a disease then as now, only
the system of therapeutics was much
more limited than now.
The whole contention of the writer
�54
is that it requires such unlimited
faith to accept these incidents as
miracles, and so much has been taken
for granted. It is infinitely more
satisfactory to try and discover
whether, after all, there is not
some natural law underlying the
whole series of events. This can be
done without any excessive attempt
to merely explain away. The entire
records are accepted implicitly, but it
is argued that the details are incom
plete, and this being the case we are not
bound to look upon them as miracles,
in the usual sense of the term.
The young mind is staggered on the
very threshold of inquiry and belief
if these events are to be taken as
miracles. Far preferable aTid wiser,
it is urged, is the plan of keeping as
close to Nature and Nature’s methods
as it is possible to keep.
Attention is reverently turned to
the miracles of healing of Him who
delighted to call Himself the Son of
Man. All disease, the Jew thought
and taught, was just punishment for
sin. Whatever was being suffered
�55
was deserved, said the priest, and he
urged that there was no right in try
ing to get rid of it, or to get away
from the affliction. This was perhaps
the most high and mighty dogma or
doctrine that the high priest, with
his satellites the Pharisees, had to
enforce, and they did it with a brutal
directness which was bound to make
them ultimately the most despised of
men. Of human, tender sympathy
for suffering from man to man there
was none in public. Go down to your
grave in pain, said they, and anathema
to the One who came with soft and
gentle touch to ease the lot of the
suffering, and assuage the paroxysms
of pain. Oh those sleek and wellfed rulers and teachers of the Jews!
The tenderest human voice ever
known was heard amidst this din and
inhuman religious teaching. Instead
of harshness there was softness and
helpfulness. Instead of damnation
there was blessing. The mystic
power of human sympathy sweeps
over that part of the earth, and joy
takes the place of weeping. Surely
�56
with such a change as this the won
der would have been had miracles of
healing not taken place.
The Claim of the Blood Sacrifice.
There is no part of this little book
that the writer approaches with more
fear and trembling than the present
section. The Christ is to him so in
finitely real in His aspect as the Son
of Man that he cannot imagine any
need for that sacred person to be
classed in any loftier capacity. Son
of God He unquestionably was, but
as every true hero has been, who
has bowed his head to the yoke and
enriched humanity with his life.
The private report of Pilate to the
Roman Emperor, discovered in the
Vatican archives, and made public in
the autumn of 1897, did not add much
to biblical information, whether the
document is a genuine one or not.
It gave a very matter-of-fact account
of the proceedings, such as might have
been written by the Roman governor.
The fabric of the fall of man re
quired a strong corner-stone to com
�57
plete the structure. The element of
blood sacrifice, flowing through the
ages and pervading the old religions,
is exactly like the thin red cord which
runs through every naval rope, to
show, as long as that rope shall last,
its national and royal use.
An angry and enraged Deity re
quiring to be appeased with the shed
ding of blood is not by any means
found only in the Christian religion.
The late king of Benin knew something
of the same doctrine with, let us say,
a different Deity. Does it truly lift
the estimation of an ever-loving Al
mighty in the human mind that He
should, with that massive tenderness
which is pictured as an attribute,
have shown less love for His Son,
than a very average mortal would
show for his offspring in the present
century ? Does the net-work of the
centuries absolutely need the theory
of the blood sacrifice, outside the
fabric of clerical necessity for propa
ganda purposes ?
It would indeed have been wonder
ful had Christ not paid with His
�58
life for His open and vigorous de
fiance of the entire circle of Jewish
law and order. The Master’s en
thusiasm for humanity was bound to
bring this punishment upon His
sacred head. The high priest, in his
communion with the Divine in the
holy of holies, could not admit of a
competitor. The kernel of Christ’s
work was to bring mankind back to
a loving Father. The priests had
clouded the majesty and goodness of
the Almighty. The Nazarene Teacher
tore away the clouds and gave hu
manity such a glimpse behind the
holy of holies of which the high priest
in his cloisters had never dreamed.
This work He sealed with His life,
and the work, taking it on its national
and human level, could not have been
complete without the shedding of His
life’s blood.
Sacred head, wounded for His
fellows! Yes, ten thousand times
deeper and truer than the creed
of shedding His blood to appease a
Father’s heart, ever helps us to real
ise. That there was haste in the
�59
burial owing to the nearness of the
Sabbath, is admitted by the records.
It is within the range of possibility
that resuscitation followed this pre
mature burial, and so gave us the
theory of the resurrection through
the minds of followers who, under the
accepted rule, went infinitely farther
than their Master, in the claims made
on His behalf.
The theory of the Divine concep
tion is inseparably linked with the
foregoing. They were bound to be
indissolubly connected. To accept
both theories without question of any
kind is the simplest way out of the
difficulty. To adopt this course is to
need the faith which is to remove
mountains. How much faith has
never been defined I A human mother
and not a human father, must inevit
ably be a serious problem to many
adults. The children of the gods in
the old religions form a numerous
company.
Many things might have been
different, had Christ left behind some
of His own writings.
�The Ministry of Hymns.
The one man service in religious
worship, unless that one man be
a man of many and varied gifts,
often becomes very trying. There is
much cause for doubt whether the
ministry of hymns fills the place in
public religious worship that should
be the case. By this it is not meant
merely the singing of hymns, for of
singing there is enough. What is
meant is that the thoroughly spiritual
hymns should be lifted into a pro
minence which would cause them to
fill naturally their place as prayer
hymns. Some of the best known
hymns have a power within them of
expressing the longing of the inner
most heart. They are often far
sweeter to the devout soul than are
the dreamy extempore prayers of the
preacher. The Havergal, the Whittier,
and many other hymns, are among
the most divinely inspired of religious
writings. They give the individual
soul glimpses of the eternal which
may become the most acceptable, as
well as the most helpful part, of the
�61
entire service. Passages from some
hymns could be named, that are
among the loftiest thoughts ever
uttered by man or woman.
How rarely any but the most per
functory place is given in the service to
hymns! Batches of verses are some
times omitted, and whatever is read
of the hymn is too often read in the
most slovenly way possible. Yet the
history attaching to a large range of
hymns would afford material for a
number of sermons, and material more
interesting than much of the compo
sition so frequently heard. To take
one as a sample, and that, perhaps, the
best known of all hymns. Few hearts
cannot but be stirred by the grand
strains of “ Rock of Ages.” This hymn
was originally written at the end of
an article on the national debt. It
®tsas used as an illustration to show
the magnitude of man’s debt to God.
Toplady, the writer of it, born in 1740,
was a Calvinist, and waged constant
wordy wars with Wesley, and Toplady
could utter some scorching things.
It is the whole pathos of the Gospel
�62
reduced to a poem, and it forms a glori
ous prayer. There are few languages
into which it has not been translated.
Toplady’s life covered a brief span of
existence, but no man ever raised a
finer monument to his own memory
than did the writer of these familiar
verses. Some of the sweetest hymns
known have been written by Unitarians.
A plea is put in for the prayerful
ness of hymns, a little less of the
preacher and a little more of some
body else. The ministry of the
prayer hymns, and the devotional
character of our sacred poems, are
deserving of more attention at the
hands of our religious leaders.
The Ministry of Nature.
There are days in each of the
seasons when all Nature seems to de
mand the worship of mankind. Foli
age, verdure, the song of birds, water,
hills and valley make all Nature full
of a Divinity so real that to doubt
the presence of a Creator would be
to doubt one’s own actual existence.
If religious services could only be
�held at such seasons out of doors., how
straight from the heart on many oc
casions would be the worship. Lin
naeus fell on his knees on seeing a field
of gorse all in golden splendour. A
rose garden, a bank of heather, a field
of ripe corn, an orchard, or, in fact, any
section of Nature, is well calculated
to arouse similar feelings in all but
the most deadened minds and hearts.
It is the marvellous variety in Nature
which takes possession of the mind.
This can only be fully grasped by
close attention to some department
of Nature, such as insect collecting,
flower or fern growing, or some other
section of natural science. Then the
truth comes home with vivid realism,
and this not alone to the enthusiast,
but even to the one who takes only an
indifferent interest in these matters.
The sanctification of the hobby
rider would form a capital text, and
has often done so for many a clergy
man who is himself a hobby-rider.
Among the finest rose growers in the
world are some country clergymen.
The man without a hobby is indeed a
�man to be pitied, as it is the finest
safeguard against moping ever in
vented. Hobby-riders do not very
frequently display a suicidal ten
dency.
Nature keeps her secrets to be
dug out by the student or ardent
admirer, and when she begins to
reveal, she fills the soul of her devotee
with a passion for her handiwork
which is ever expanding. Her lessons
are absolutely limitless. It is easy
enough to begin at one end of the
study of any given subject in natural
science, but one never reaches the
other end.
Thank Heaven for something that
can fill a longing heart, and this
is done by dear mother Nature,
which simply teems with evidences of
the abounding love of an ever-existent
Deity.
The Ministry of Common Things.
The old teaching of the religionists
used to be, that nobody could claim
entrance to the kingdom of heaven
unless they brought in their trail
�65
some other soul they had been instru
mental in saving as a brand from the
burning. This idea is now tapering
down somewhat, but still prevails in
some communities. Many more un
likely things may happen than being
abruptly questioned, in a railway
carriage or other public place, as to
the welfare of your soul.
The
members of the Salvation Army are
greatly given to this sort of thing, and
the person not ready with satisfactory
answers may have a very bad ten
minutes. Much is made, as a rule,
of the making use of the regular
means of grace, and this, by a freak
of the parson’s, always includes the
systematic giving of contributions
towards public worship.
Many a sad and weary heart,
buffeted and badgered by surround
ing circumstances, is among the
most saintly to be found anywhere.
Heaven help humanity if church
membership is the only entrance to
the state of being blessed. Life
seems to get sadder as the years
creep on, and after a certain period
E
�66
of years there ceases to be a surprise
at whatever happens. The only anti
dote to this is the personal ownership
of some Pandora’s box, to be opened
in secret it may be, to give renewed
strength for another round of the
same humdrum duties, the same
trials and vexings of spirit which be
come the common lot of mankind.
The aged, who have become grey in
trying to pay their way, and who have
again perhaps in late years to take
up the burdens of life for grand
children,—the mother, full of the
cares of the household, and who does
not get the help she should get from
the partner of her life,—the husband,
keeping business worries and life’s
strain all to himself because he has an
unsympathetic and unhelpful wife, to
whom it is no use telling them,—the
maid with her longing to be loved,
and looking in vain for the love that
never comes,—the man, younger or
elder, animated by strong feelings,
and who has left a place in his mind
for the new commandment, Thou shalt
not:—-these and many other types
�67
may be included in the ministry of
common things in daily life, which
become so common that they seem
to be overshadowed by the appeals
for the heroic one hears at times
from the pulpit.
Were it possible to gather statis
tics of the lives that have been
saddened, the homes made unhappy,
by a too persistent absence of the
father or mother at religious meetings
and kindred gatherings, there would
indeed be surprises. It would be a
new doctrine to hear in some dis
course that there were possibly some
among the hearers who would best
serve the Almighty by remaining at
home, rather than in attending wor
ship. And yet this would be the
simple truth in more instances than
it would be pleasant to chronicle.
The poet’s “ Psalm of Life ” is re
sponsible for a good deal of mis
conception.
The sublimity of a
mother mending a pair of juvenile
trousers, or a father rolling across
the floor with his child, may not be
of a distinctive order. But never
�68
theless some of these trivial things
do leave behind them along the sands
of time the sweetest recollections of
faithful love, which attach themselves
to one’s life.
The grandeur of simplicity, in life
and conduct, is deserving of more
attention. There is ofttimes more
strength of character in those whose
voices are never heard outside their
own limited circle, than there is in
those who, for ceaseless chatter at
meetings, whether for prayer or talk,
would merit a first prize.
The good qualities of the unpromi
nent and the undistinguished, are the
things to which attention is called.
A fresh handful of flowers from the
Master’s lips for the weary and heavy
laden is what the writer would like to
bestow. The charmed circle of church
members absorbs so much of the
blessing, that there is none left for
the still larger circle outside.
An elder was once heard to say
that he never knew what devilry was
until he became a member of the diaconate of a large church, and had seen
�69
exhibitions of it within that board of
management. But this is by the way.
It is sacrilege to hint at such a thing.
The breaking of a pastor’s heart by
heartless and cruel deacons—the
deliberate wrecking of a church by a
mediocre but disappointed parson,
never could, of course, happen any
where. These things have, how
ever, happened, and will happen
again.
The old Greeks ran their races in
the national games for simple crowns
of laurel or parsley. The laurel and
the parsley would need to be widely
distributed, if those received their due
share who are simply good, and who
try to do their best although they
may often stumble and fall, and this
under difficulties which, if they were
generally known, would astound the
flippant users of texts whose talk is
so frequently full of fiery illustrations.
Natural Religion.
A cursory acquaintance with litera
ture shows how the professors of re
�ligious systems are reluctant to devote
much attention to natural religion.
They will not admit that there is much
to lament in the teaching of some
Christian circles, where the idea of
God has been degraded by childish
and little-minded views. In the most
elementary of civilisations there is
some idea of a God, of a being beyond
and out of themselves, whose wrath
is to be appeased or who is to be
worshipped. The heart of man, says
the Book, is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked. But when
this is granted, there is much in the
heart of man, in its better moments,
which turns to things higher and that
which is holier than itself. Whether
this natural religion is helped or
hindered by much of the creed and
dogma of the day is a question open
to discussion.
Leaders of Christian thought are
a little too much given to describing
any school of thought which differs
from their own as antagonistic to
religion.
One distinguished man
spoke of positivism lately as a “ once
�71
clamant and pretentious rival of the
Gospel.”
The positive philosophy
has never pretended to be a rival of
the Gospel. This is not by any means
a treatise issued on behalf of posi
tivism, but justice should be done,
and justice to opponents is not a
striking virtue with the leaders of
Christian thought. The same speaker
went on to refer to the coarser forms
of secularism and the assertive schools
of materialism. From this he pro
ceeded to say that the decay of these
systems had issued in the spread of
agnosticism, “ which, like the general
weakness of the body, is more difficult
to treat than positive disease.” This
is very pretty, but the most ingenious
part of the whole address was when
he proceeded to reconcile science and
faith. Here he took credit to the
Christian Church for its having gradu
ally accepted and incorporated truths
which were at first denounced as
subversive of the faith, and learned,
though with culpable tardiness,
how to extract from criticism the
elements of reconstruction.
The
�whole address—and it was delivered in
the autumn of 1897 before an im
portant section of the free churches—
was an amazing example of Christian
apologetics. The despised “ systems ”
which have never been or even sought
to be rivals of the Gospel, have, it is
clear, accomplished some good, if
only to gain a confession that the
best of their teaching has been tardily
assimilated into Christian beliefs.
These same despised “ systems ”
have kept clearly in view the natural
religion within man, and have insisted
upon the cultivation of this, not by
means of creeds and dogmas, but in
a keener grasp of the realities of life.
It is not enough to say that a merely
natural religion has not strength
enough for the part it is called to
fulfil. It has strength enough to
bring a man closer to his God, and
there is much to be heard in the
Churches and seen in the lives of the
saints of to-day, which it would be a
great charity to suppose led one very
far in his search for God and truth.
�73
Heaven.
The book of Daniel and the book
of Revelation are responsible for the
unhinging of many minds. The spirit
of prophecy and the spirit of revela
tion were inborn in the Oriental
Jewish brain. The especial depart
ment of the devout Jew was to be
come the mouthpiece of the Almighty.
The school of prophecy was peculiarly
his own, prior to the Christian
era. Far be it from the writer to
undervalue this. It has had many
uses, and literature and history would
be the poorer were there not those
weird lamentations and prophecies
of Jeremiah, the beautiful poems
of David, the depths of wisdom dis
played by Job, and the truly national
zeal of the father of diplomatists—
Daniel. All these, and much else
that could be named from the pages
of Holy Writ, have had a utility for the
whole world which is rarely ever
touched upon by preachers.
The
adapting of the prophecies, uttered
hundreds of years previously, to the
events of the first century of the
�74
present era was inevitable, but the
doing so is chiefly made up of asser
tion unaccompanied by much direct
proof.
No part of religious teaching has
become more changed of recent years
than the views promulgated with re
gard to heaven. The heaven of our
childhood was a very real place, and
as Wordsworth beautifully says,
heaven lies about us in our infancy.
The white robes, pearly gates, golden
streets, and the strains of harps and
hallelujahs were all as tangible as
were the descriptions of a city we
had never seen. The rapid success
of Christianity in the early centuries
owed much to this teaching. The
daily life of its adherents had little of
joy in it, and the world in which they
had to live their life was at the best
a burdensome place, out of which
they were eager to get at the earliest
opportunity.
Martyrdom afforded
the readiest and most glorious exit.
Thousands then, as they would
to-day, readily lay down their life
in order to merit the glorious
�75
hereafter, which has for ages been
pictured in terms so entrancing, that
there is a natural disinclination to
part with a single one of the beautiful
ideas regarding this place prepared
for the blessed. There is the same
feeling about parting with the stories
of the fairies. Life has not much
imagination in it, and all admit that
the culture of the imagination has its
uses, but it should not be done at the
expense of truth.
Now the preachers dwell less and
less with the book of Revelation, and
the dreams of the spiritually-minded
John in Patmos. Heaven, they say,
is a condition of mind and not a place.
The kingdom of God is within you,
taught the deep-souled Christ; and
so gradually a new order of thought
is taking the place of the old. This
is certainly a gain, and childhood is
indebted for so much.
It would be folly to suggest any
new theory in a field which is so
completely one of conjecture. That
man has within him some immortal
part is quite clear.
The loving
||
�76
Father would hardly inflict upon
His children such a terrible schooling
below, merely that it should end with
death. Out of all apparent death there
comes a new life of some kind, and
even a bundle of dead leaves illus
trates this axiom. What that im
mortal part is, will probably never be
fully known, and the old discussions
as to whether it is mind or matter,
are now vanishing.
That there are other worlds than
our own, and worlds which have no
possible use to our planet, or this
world to them, has long ago been
shown us by astronomers.
That
they may have some use as new
worlds for departed spirits, is not
improbable.
There is no desire
to advance theories of Swedenborg
or to defend the nirvana in the
teaching of Buddha. Both are in
themselves beautiful, and may have
touched a higher plane of probability
I than is generally acknowledged. Man
is such a little speck in the wide
expanse of time behind us, and pos! sibly in the still wider expanse of
|
�77
z
time in front of us, that the preachers
have committed no more serious error
than in seeking to limit so precisely
the plans of the Almighty in their
teachings about heaven.
Slow and imperceptible growth is
the all-pervading law. The begin
ning in a new world, wherever that
may be, at exactly the point we leave
off in this world, in the progress and
discipline of the soul, is not mere
chimera. The distribution of natural
gifts, and the wide diversion which
rules the possibilities, longings and
achievements of the individual mind
and soul, are so real, that some such
prospect is worthy of consideration.
Nature, at the same time, is scru
pulously fair to her children, giving
to all in some way or other, and at
some time or other, a chance ; and
this is why Nature may be better
trusted than may the clerics, who
desire to so microscopically prescribe
her aims and ends.
�78
Hell.
The old teaching that we should
be good in order to escape hell and
so gain heaven, is to appeal to the
very lowest and most trivial motives
in the human soul. When the old
divines sounded the blasts of hell
terrorism could go no farther. Ever
lasting torment and punishment was
a picture in which they positively
revelled. The writer has, on more
than one occasion, heard an Irish
Roman Catholic priest secure obedi
ence and respect by threatening to
send a child to hell. Realism could
not one whit surpass what it has
achieved in its descriptions of hell.
To be cast out of the synagogue was
the highest form of punishment that
could be inflicted on the rebellious
Jew. The Gehenna outside the city
walls had a corresponding place in
his mind. Here the dead and the
filth of the city lay, and that to him
was hell.
In this lies the basis of the dogmas
about hell, and the bogey of the
devil is capable of just as simple an
�79
explanation. That there is a spirit
of evil as well as a spirit of good
within man and in the world, requires
neither theory nor dogma to substan
tiate, but the preachers might, with
a little thought and more honesty,
have spared some of the terrors in
the childhood of those who are the
middle-aged of to-day.
Thank Heaven for the gospel of
hope and of love which is slowly
permeating the Christian Church.
For this we are indebted, first to
the poets, and after them to Non
conformity, for giving voice to gentler
and more humane teaching.
�THINGS MUNDANE.
The Social Revolution.
That a complete social revolution
is gradually coming about is patent
enough.
In the home there is the neverending trouble with regard to those
who serve. In business life it looks
very much as if a maximum of pay
and a minimum of work governed the
action of the majority. There is an
increasing difficulty in securing the
services of trustworthy people. The
employer is too often looked upon
merely as the figure-head of the ship,
and as one who is of no more im
portance than the youngest clerk in
his employ. He is often regarded
as one fattening on the labour of
those around him, and some do not
hesitate to call him a stealer of other
men’s labours. Labour is primary
and capital secondary. The god of
�81
some newspapers is the working man
in his aggregate form. He it is who
is to save the world, and with his
eight hours’ day and enlarged intelli
gence he is to usher in the reign of
peace and plenty, and so prepare
mankind for the millennium. How
he is misled by his so-called leaders
recent events only too well illustrate.
Some assert that the new woman
only exists within the covers of works
of fiction. But although the speci
mens may not be so pronounced as
the novelists’ characters, she does
actually exist, although in a modified
form, in the home and social life.
Man has ruled so long, say they,
that it is time woman had a turn.
Man, they are good enough to assert,
has used his power with such gross
unfairness that the only way to bring
him to his senses will be to deprive
him of his power altogether. To
reduce the general statements made
into plain English, the husband and
head of the house is simply the poor
creature who pays the bills. When
he has performed that function he has
F
�82
carried out the purpose of his exist
ence.
All this is becoming increasingly
evident, and there is in each instance
the usual corollary of result—smaller
houses are taken, in order to require
fewer servants; employers buy goods
more constantly from abroad, rather
than have the trouble incident to
manufacturing ; a marked disinclina
tion to marriage on the part of men is
proved by the returns. And so on all
through, the social revolution is per
meating our national life, and no
amount of preaching will stem its
current. The old feeling of mutual
interest between employer and em
ployed, whether in the home, the
workshop, or the counting-house, is
disappearing, and is giving place to
a merely pounds, shillings and pence
view of everything.
Parsons pretend to be close read
ers of the signs of the times. But
the handwriting must sink deep into
the wall before they can read it, in
order to do something that will tend,
in a serviceable way, to aid and direct
�83
the better and deeper currents of our
national life. The charge is that the
preachers live in too artificial and
unreal an atmosphere to influence
materially the everyday life of the
people. The particular cut of a sur
plice or a waistcoat is of so much
vaster importance than the encourage
ment of the smaller virtues of life.
Man must work out his own salva
tion with fear and trembling, whether
as applied to religion, commerce or
politics. He will get precious little
help from the beneficed or unbeneficed
clergy. The plain fact is that being
a parson is very much of a business,
just as much of a business indeed
as being a pawnbroker or a grocer.
The Lord’s call is an interesting fic
tion in too many instances. The
Lord would have to call a long time
if there were not some solid ad
vantages in what presents itself at
the other end of the call. Possess
ing, as the preachers do, enormous
facilities and gigantic power to be
come a factor in the nation’s life,
it is not easy to define whether that
�84
power is in a helpful direction or
otherwise.
Several of the old revolutions may
have to be fought over again. The
struggle against priestcraft, the aboli
tion of duties known as the Free
Trade war, and other old causes
may recur, and shake society to the
roots.
Waste.
One of the greatest evils of modern
times is that of waste. Nature provides
bountifully of everything, and man, in
his superior wisdom, wastes on all
hands. Were there no waste any
where, there is not a single person
on the face of the earth who would
be without food or would go without
a single real want unsatisfied. The
Churches, which ought to lead, are
themselves the most prolific of wast
ers. Waste in words, waste in work,
waste in buildings, and waste follows
their steps along the whole route of
religious effort and activity. To begin
with, the colleges of each denomina
tion, established or unestablished, are
�85
greatly in excess of the need. Four
or five of these institutions for a
meagre supply of students, and the
whole machinery of study provided for
tens when there are only units to be
instructed. Almost everywhere this
is the case with denominations of
every conceivable shade and name.
The churches rear their spires, and
compete with each other, not for the
uplifting of the whole community,
but to strive for the mastery of the
saved.
Man deserves punishing
with want, for this fearful waste,
and until he gathers up the fragments
and stops the leaks of life everywhere,
he will be greatly to blame. This
much of his salvation, however, he
will have to accomplish without the
help of the parsons.
The A B C of Life.
By this is not meant the origin
of life—that greatest of all mysteries.
What was the origin of life is mere
conjecture, but there ought to be
sufficient diffidence on the part of
�86
preachers to prevent them giving
too much of the Adam and Eve inter
pretation of the beginnings of life. It
is perhaps a daring speculation that
life itself may have been brought to
the earth by an aerolite. But science
has given us many new facts which
have been scouted at first by the
preachers, and then accepted by
them when they could no longer
deny them. Some who read these
pages will be old enough to remember
the howl that went up on all hands
when Colenso’s theories about the
Pentateuch first became public. The
same people will vividly recollect how
Darwin was scoffed and rebuked for
his boldness; and from the pulpits
everywhere there came denuncia
tions against this earnest student of
the A B C of life. Darwin’s grave,
in that poem in stone, Westminster
Abbey, should ever remain a rebuke
to preachers, but it is doubtful
whether it ever presents this lesson
to them.
By the A B C of life is meant
that the early lessons to children
�87
should have a truer hold on the ori
gin of life, and also as to the meaning
of life with all its various purposes—
that this life is something more than
a preparation for another life.
The parent is not wise who gives
his child a shambling and shuffling
answer, or, worse, a lying answer to
the puzzling questions put to him.
The child learns by asking questions,
and untold mischief has been done by
the giving of answers which have had
to be unlearned in later life. The
catechism is a fruitful source of mis
chief. Much of it requires re-casting,
but such a task would be undertaken
in fear and trembling, and so what
was practicable and teachable enough
in the generation before the passing
of the Elementary Education Act is
considered good enough for the chil
dren of to-day. It is not right to
teach children so-called truths about
this life and the next, whatever that
may be, as if everything had been
absolutely settled beyond the range
of question and doubt. Assertions
are made in the teaching of children
�88
with regard to these matters as if a
new truth or a new light upon an old
truth never could be put forward.
Life’s Energies.
What has the Church to say, in a
practical way, of that which concerns
every human being in the land?
True, it fulminates about purity, but
does little to really help towards
reaching that desirable end. Every
where there are traces of the serpent.
Where groups of boys, or groups of
girls, live together or work together,
the same story could be told. And
the dear mother Church holds its
tongue, as, forsooth, these things must
be talked about with bated breath.
Why cannot simple lessons in physio
logy, especially bearing upon the
sexual functions, be given ? The
forces within are part, and probably
the most important part, of a beautiful
whole in the human frame. Their
bearing upon health is incalculable.
They are, in fact, health itself, or at all
> ,'V» events the physical thermometer of
the absence of, or presence of, health.
�89
Some wholesome and common-sense
teaching in this direction would be a
national boon. But generations go
on staggering and stumbling in the
dark. The youth of both sexes drop
into habits which may become most
disastrous. The absence of knowledge
leads in so many cases to an entire
change in the current of the individ
ual life, and this change is often for
the worse instead of for the better.
Youth must and will learn, and,
sad to relate, the newspapers, illus
trated and others, take care that at
all events plenty of information on
one side of the subject shall be dis
seminated. The cry is for more light—
that the human frame shall be taken
as a perfect whole, and the youth be
as familiar with the relations of all
the parts of the body as he is with
the laws of football or tennis. The
young of both sexes should be taught
the faculty of taking care of them
selves. If they cannot do this when
a certain age is reached, and they
have to go out into the world with
its numerous pitfalls, their elders
*
�cannot undertake the task on their
behalf.
The Relations of the Sexes.
Men and women have never had
greater capacity for being companion
able than is at present the case.
The English girl, when she is free
from the “ new woman ” nonsense, is
the sweetest, healthiest, most lovable
and most companionable being on
the face of the earth. It is lament
able to think how many of them
must go through life unmated, and
to whom there will not come the
love of husband and the clasp of
her own child’s hands. Bubbling
over with vitality, and with the feel
ings of motherhood overflowing to a
point little understood, this is a pros
pect which it is not pleasant to con
template. All these softer feelings
are part of her own dear self, and
yet in the harnessing and subduing
of them she may become harsh,
cynical and ungentle. Does Nature
really mean all this ? It may be
questioned whether the purpose
�91
of the Almighty is fulfilled when
the stereotyped injunctions of the
preacher, who is often the least
qualified to give these injunctions,
are uttered.
A visit to the West Indian Islands,
or some other part of the world
where the life of the native is un
fettered, is a curious eye-opener to
the observant mind.
Without a
want unsatisfied, the coloured popu
lation seem to live the happiest
and fullest life of any individual
in the entire universe. They are
the merriest beings to be found
anywhere. The simple fruits and
vegetables of the earth give them
food in abundance, clothing is not
dear and lasts long, and all the
shelter they require is from the rains
and the cold air of the night, and
this is easily afforded by a wooden
hut.
The effect of seeing all this is to
sometimes wonder whether civilisa
tion is an unmixed blessing. Civilisa
tion is bound to win, but there are
not a few who are beginning to ask
�92
whether all the chains which the
religionists have forged need to be
worn with civilisation.
Where the ordinary preacher comes
in when a practical solution of pro
blems of this nature is desired is not
very clear. He has little to say
about them, and is disposed to let
the problems solve themselves. So
long as his pleasures of all kinds are
assured, the rest of mankind may
take care of themselves.
The Spanish Roman Catholic
priest, probably the most unclean
morally of any class of men on the
face of the earth, has settled this
matter very conveniently for him
self. His method of life was very
neatly put by a guide in a Spanish
city, who said to the writer, in re
ferring to the priests, “ They have no
wifes but many womens.” Par be
it from the writer to suggest any
such solution as this, for it would
only lead to worse confusion than at
present exists. He simply asks that in
the attempt to solve this question com
mon sense shall play a part, and that
�93
things shall not be taken so much
for granted as we are asked to do.
Mother Nature, on the one hand, has
endowed humanity with pressing
needs; yet, on the other hand, the
preacher comes in and defies mother
Nature and all her ways, and these
ways are to be seen everywhere in
the natural world.
Marriage.
The writer believes fully in the
sacredness of marriage. The home
life of dear old England is its finest
national trait, and may Heaven spare
this to us! But it is to be regretted
that so much mischief has been
caused by erroneous teaching. It
has been a terrible shock to many to
find that after all marriages are not
made in heaven. Whether the other
place has anything to do with a good
many marriages is another matter.
That the married state is capable of
producing the highest happiness
which the heart of man or woman
can conceive, is undenied, but some
how or other the assortment is bad,
�and thus some who naturally expect
happiness in this state have to be
content with either very little or an
experience the reverse of joyous.
The writer has heard both husbands
and wives, married to partners of a
distinctly religious tendency, say that
if there is to be a knowledge of each
other when the wearing of white
robes and the walking of golden streets
comes along, they would rather there
should not be. And even, if necessary
to avoid it, they would prefer another
place, as there would be probably
better company to be found.
How little chance there is of the
sexes really and truly knowing each
other before marriage. Years of court
ship cannot do what a single week of
living together will accomplish. For
two to know each other in any useful
way they must live under the same
roof or work together for a time.
Such a plan is, however, impossible
under the existing conditions of
society.
Alas for the aching hearts among
both husbands and wives,—the un-
�95
mated and uncompanionable couples
who have, willynilly, to live their lives
together, with as much toleration as
they are able to muster! The United
States, with its youthfulness, has
perhaps unwisely settled this matter
very drastically, by permitting divorce
on the ground of incompatibility of
temper. The old country adheres to
its rigid laws about this matter, and
the Church trembles with dismay
when any alteration in the law of
divorce is suggested.
The union of two soul-knit beings in
marriage is as near the Divine as any
thing on this lower world can reach.
Every couple think that this must be
the state they are destined to reach,
but the percentage which actually does
reach it is indeed small. Surely a
larger number might reach it if the
whole theory of life, conduct, and
habits were made clearer from earliest
years.
Parentage.
There is no gladder sight in all the
range of life than the happily married
�96
English girl nursing her first baby.
Sad must be the life that cannot be
moved at such a scene. Yet it is
mournful to think how little know
ledge there is about the duties and
privileges of parentage. How much
longer it will take to annihilate the
doctrine that the Almighty is respon
sible for the existence of every child
born into the world, it is hard to say.
It is a fraud upon mankind to teach
him that this is so, and it is a con
temptibly mean attempt on the part
of man to shift his responsibility from
his own to other shoulders. The
preachers are much to blame for the
gross misconception which prevails
about this matter, beginning as it
does on the very threshold of life
itself. What a startling thing it would
be to tell congregations that the
disposition of children, the temper of
children, and much that appertains to
life are largely within their own con
trol. In the breeding of pigs and
horses man will take infinite pains,
but when it comes to the birth of a
human soul, he often cares less than
�97
he does about the next brood of
chickens in his poultry-yard.
The solemnity of parentage is a
text needing more than the orthodox
three heads in order to make it clear,
and to cause the truths attaching to
it to be learned in a way they will
never be forgotten. Parentage is the
holiest function of man or woman.
It is only by being a father or a
mother that we can understand the
depths of the Divine heart. Thank
God for the cradle, and for the sweet
faces that lie there, or have been
there in years gone by.
Amusements.
There ought to be profound admira
tion for the work done for the nation
by the Puritans during the days of
the Stuart contamination. It will
be readily granted that the Puritans
ran to excess in the opposite direction
to the Royalists. But there was
every reason why this should be the
result of their way of viewing things
and course of action. Still, in the
attempt to crush the natural gaieties
G
�98
of the human heart, they gave to
the generations that have followed
a legacy which has only very gradu
ally been put aside. An inevitable
necessity for everybody is relaxation
in one form or another, and ra
tional amusements are as essential
as is food. The attitude of many
preachers against the theatre is,
very possibly, natural. But there
are theatres and theatres, and a few
could be named which really might
be classed as educational institutions
as well as places of amusement. The
dramatic instinct is inborn in man.
To imitate is as natural as is sleep,
and whatever is part of human nature
must surely be »right and safe to
cultivate. Let young people see the
best of plays, and, it is urged, a stan
dard of excellence will be imper
ceptibly formed in the mind, and
plays of a lowering character will
cease to attract. It has remained
for the Victorian era to witness the
national pride and true appreciation
of our glorious Shakespeare.
It
should be impressed upon the juve
�99
nile mind that some passages, which
to us are coarse, in the works of
our great poet, must be taken as
the form of language in common
use at the time. This ought to
suffice with the average intellect
for a proper interpretation being
placed upon such passages. The
mere fact that now we express
ourselves differently, shows the
national advance which has been
made. Wise fathers and mothers
will accompany their young people
to the theatres of select and special
reputation. Whatever interests sons
and daughters during the teens should
interest parents. No greater mistake
can be made than to treat young
people from fourteen and upwards as
children. Young folks should be taught
the proper use of money, amusements,
and everything appertaining to life.
No defence is here put forward of
all amusements and all theatres. A
vital difference exists, and discrimina
tion is necessary. Actors and actresses
might be mentioned whose work is
elevating, and whose love for their
�100
art has made them geniuses of the
first rank.
Numerous provincial
towns and rural districts cannot of
course have these advantages. A
good play lifts the mind from its
cares and worries, and gives fresh
ness and new vigour. The place of
amusement in life is not a question
which becomes settled when the
preacher has described all theatres
as being the gates leading to perdi
tion. More music, more pictures,
more soundly good plays introduced
into life, and these with many other
advantages will enable this dear old
land of ours to hold its own for an
unlimited number of generations to
follow. The croakers in the relig
ious bodies who talk about the decay
of the British nation are on the in
crease. More help to render this
decay impossible may be asked of
them.
Excess of Zeal.
There is ample room in the world
for the enthusiast. But it will be
a sorry time if the world is ever
�101
governed exclusively by enthusiasts.
Although the author writes as an
abstainer, it is impossible to deny
that among the advocates of temper
ance some of the most intemperate in
language are to be found. It will be
readily acknowledged by many friends
of this movement that the very object
for which they are working has often
been anything but helped by the un
reasonableness of those possessing
an excess of zeal. The cold water
treatment makes sometimes a very
distressing bath, and national so
briety, for an exceedingly thirsty
nation, would be better served if
there were not so manifest a dis
position to treat all who do not quite
side with temperance advocates as
fools or drunkards, or even a mixture
of both.
The companion to the just-named
advocate is the anti-vaccinator, anti
smoker, and the vegetarian, and often
all four are to be met with in one
and the same person. The opinion
of the whole medical faculty added
together is as nothing when com-
�102
pared with the opinions of the one
who defies Jenner and all his works.
It is utterly useless to argue with
these friends. They simply attack
an opponent with a zeal that does
not give a chance for a word by
way of reply.
Others who suffer from excess of
zeal are the anti-opiumites and the
opponents of what are known as the
C. D. Acts.
The writer has no intention of dis
cussing either one or the other of
these questions. The whole desire is
to point the moral that often a little
fuller information, or a blazing side
light, will give an entirely different view
of a question affecting the community,
and prevent an excess of zeal. What
close inquiry has done in numerous
instances is to cause one to doubt
whether some of these agitations,
begun and conducted by those belong
ing to the religious communities, have
not done more harm than good. Take,
as an example, the view that an exclu
sive rice diet of the native populations
of India requires an antidote, and that
�they find that best antidote in opium,
which is taken for this purpose, and
not for its other purposes, so glow
ingly pictured by the good friends
who champion the movement on the
public platforms.
The association for preserving the
Sabbath, and others which could be
named, may also be placed under this
class.
There is another matter closely
allied to this question. If there does
not exist in the country a peace-atany-price party, there does exist in
the Churches a party who would
rather see old England down on her
knees and degraded than that she
should fight. The lads’ brigades
scattered throughout the United King
dom are an abomination to these
friends. It is cultivating the military
spirit, say they, at the expense of the
finer elements of character. The time
may come, and come sooner than the
Churches think, for England to enter
into the stiffest fight either by land
or sea that she has ever had. There
is no spirit of prophecy in this state
�104
ment. The heads of both political
parties know well that the dangers
which surround us are far more real
than are generally imagined. The
Englishman or the Englishwoman
who cannot be roused at the bravery
and entire absence of fear that have
been displayed by our troops in India,
whether British or native, lay them
selves open to be pitied.
How common is the experience that
the radicalism of one’s youth gives
place to a more sober view of things
when middle life is reached. Excess
of zeal leads the young to the feeling
that they can settle every question
under the sun in a ten minutes’ talk.
Later life brings with it the less rosy
aspect of things—that it is not so easy
to dissipate difficulties, and the mind
becomes humbled and readier to listen
to opposite views, with a greater will
ingness to learn.
The writer has cause to think that,
scattered throughout the Churches,
there are men and women who have
to acknowledge to themselves that
they do not see eye to eye with their
�105
teachers as was formerly the case..
It would be sacrilege to attempt to
disturb the beliefs of the aged. But
there are many young people who,
with the advancing strides of educa
tion, are unable to accept without
question the faith of father and
mother. It is not that there is any
less belief in religion. But it is the
excrescences of the creeds which they
find it impossible to retain in their
minds, without asking the why and the
wherefore of these things. True re
ligion is something so solemn, real,
and important, that to lose hold of it
would be a disaster to the individual.
All honour to the pastors who re
cognise these facts, and who have
honestly tried, as far as they dared
to do so, to combine with their teach
ing some of the more reasonable views
which now prevail. The progress in
this direction is, however, slow, and
during the process some may lose
hold altogether of the sense of the
Divine in life.
Within the limits of a small book it
was manifestly impossible to deal fully
o*
�106
with many matters which have been
simply touched upon. Should there
be need, the questions here raised
will be considered at length in a
future volume.
The writer finishes, as he began,
with the belief that the best interests
of religion and religious teaching will
be served by a fearless but reveren
tial attempt to treat difficulties as
they present themselves, rather than
to pass them over in silence.
*
�����
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The gospel of common sense
Creator
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Claye, Stephen
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 106 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Annotations in pencil and ink. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.
Date
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1898
Identifier
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N088
Subject
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Natural theology
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The gospel of common sense), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Natural Theology
NSS