Part 9 (2/2)

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APPENDIX IV

'What many upright and ardent souls have rejected is a misconception, a caricature, a subjective Christianity of their own, a traditional delusion, which no more resembles real Christianity than the conventional Christ of the painted church window resembles Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is true that at this moment the great majority of the people of this country never go to any place of wors.h.i.+p, and this is yet more the case on the Continent of Europe. Does it in the least degree indicate that the ma.s.ses of the European nations have weighed Christianity in the balance and found it wanting? Nothing of the sort.

The overwhelming majority of them have not the faintest conception of what Christianity is. I myself have met a great number of so-called ”Agnostics” and ”Atheists” in our universities, among our working-men, and in society, but I have never yet met one who had rejected the Christianity of Christ.'--HUGH PRICE HUGHES, Preface to _Ethical Christianity_.

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APPENDIX V

'Wheresoever Christianity has breathed it has accelerated the movement of humanity. It has quickened the pulses of life, it has stimulated the incentives of thought, it has turned the pa.s.sions into peace, it has warmed the heart into brotherhood, it has fanned the imagination into genius, it has freshened the soul into purity. The progress of Christian Europe has been the progress of mind over matter. It has been the progress of intellect over force, of political right over arbitrary power, of human liberty over the chains of slavery, of moral law over social corruption, of order over anarchy, of enlightenment over ignorance, of life over death. As we survey this spectacle of the past, we are impressed that this study of history is the strongest evidence for G.o.d. We hear no argument from design but we feel the breath of the Designer. We see the universal life moulding the individual lives, the one Will dominating many wills, the Infinite Wisdom utilising the finite folly, the changeless truth permeating the restless error, the boundless beneficence bringing blessing out of all.... And what shall we say of the future? ... Ours is a position in some respects a.n.a.logous to that of the mediaeval world: the landmarks of the past are fading, the lights in the future are but dimly seen.

Yet it is the study of the landmarks that helps us to wait for the light, and our highest hope is born of memory. In the view {225} of that retrospect, we cannot long despair. We may have moments of heart-sickness when we look exclusively at the present hour: we may have times of despondency when we measure only what the eye can see.

But looking on the acc.u.mulated results of bygone ages as they lie open to the gaze of history, the scientific conclusion at which we must arrive is this, that the course of Christianity shall be, or has been, the path of a s.h.i.+ning light, s.h.i.+ning more and more unto the perfect day.'--G. MATHESON, _Growth of the Spirit of Christianity_ (chap, x.x.xviii., 'Dawn of a New Day').

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APPENDIX VI

'Shadows and figments as they appear to us to be in themselves, these attempts to provide a subst.i.tute for Religion are of the highest importance, as showing that men of great powers of mind, who have thoroughly broken loose not only from Christianity but from natural Religion, and in some cases placed themselves in violent antagonism to both, are still unable to divest themselves of the religious sentiment or to appease its craving for satisfaction.

'That the leaders of the anti-theological movement at the present day are immoral, n.o.body but the most besotted fanatic would insinuate: no candid antagonist would deny that some of them are in every respect the very best of men.... But what is to prevent the withdrawal of the traditional sanction from producing its natural effect upon the morality of the ma.s.s of mankind? ... Rate the practical effect of religious beliefs as low and that of social influences as high as you may, there can surely be no doubt that morality has received some support from the authority of an inward monitor regarded as the voice of G.o.d....

'The denial of the existence of G.o.d and of a future state, in a word, is the dethronement of Conscience: and society will pa.s.s, to say the least, through a dangerous interval, before social conscience can fill the vacant throne.'--GOLDWIN SMITH, 'Proposed Subst.i.tutes for Religion,' _Macmillan's Magazine_, vol. x.x.xvii.

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APPENDIX VII

'It no less takes two to deliver the game of Duty from trivial pretence and give it an earnest interest. How can I look up to myself as the higher that reproaches me? issue commands to myself which I dare not disobey? ask forgiveness from myself for sins which myself has committed? surrender to myself with a martyr's sacrifice? and so through all the drama of moral conflict and enthusiasm between myself in a mask and myself in _propria persona_? How far are these semblances, these battles in the clouds, to carry their mimicry of reality? Are we to _wors.h.i.+p_ the self-ideality? to _pray_ to an empty image in the air? to trust in sorrow a creature of thought which is but a phenomenon of sorrow? No, if religious communion is reduced to a monologue, its essence is extinct and its soul is gone. It is a living relation, or it is nothing: a response to the Supreme Reality. And vainly will you search for your spiritual dynamics without the Rock Eternal for your [Greek] _pou sto_'--JAMES MARTINEAU, Essays iv. 282, _Ideal Subst.i.tutes for G.o.d_.

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APPENDIX VIII

'It is an awful hour--let him who has pa.s.sed through it say how awful--when life has lost its meaning and seems shrivelled into a span--when the grave appears to be the end of all, human goodness nothing but a name, and the sky above this universe a dead expanse, black with the void from which G.o.d himself has disappeared. In that fearful loneliness of spirit ... I know but one way in which a man may come forth from his agony scathless: it is by holding fast to those things which are certain still--the grand, simple landmarks of morality.

'In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pa.s.s, whatever else is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no G.o.d and no future state yet even then it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, better to be brave than to be a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blessed is he who, when all is drear and cheerless within and without, when his teachers terrify him and his friends shrink from him, has obstinately clung to moral good. Thrice blessed, because his night shall pa.s.s into clear bright day.'--F. W. ROBERTSON, _Lectures, Addresses, etc._, p. 49.

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