Part 30 (1/2)
”But if this is once allowed I don't see where you are to draw the line. The heathen are very likely honest enough.”
”I said the teaching of the church, Mr. Wynne. If a man earnestly searches his heart and follows this guide as he understands it, there can be no danger.”
”Mr. Strathmore,” Maurice said, ”perhaps it seems like forcing myself upon you, and then taking the liberty of fighting your views; but this is too vital to me to allow of my stopping for conventionalities. You seem to me to be inconsistent. You refer to the church as the supreme authority, but you give into the hand of every man a power over that authority.”
The other smiled with that warm, sympathetic glance which was so winning.
”Does it seem possible to you,” asked he, ”that two human beings ever mean quite the same thing by the same words? Isn't there always some little variation, at least, in the impression that a given phrase conveys to you and to me?”
”Theoretically I suppose that this is true,” a.s.sented Maurice; ”but practically it doesn't amount to much, does it?”
”It at least amounts to this,” was the reply, ”that what one man means by a set form of words cannot be exactly the same that another would mean by it. The creed is one thing to the simple-minded, ignorant man, and something infinitely higher and richer to a Father in the church.
You would allow that, of course.”
”Yes,” Maurice hesitatingly a.s.sented, ”but I shouldn't have thought of it as an excuse for laxity of doctrine.”
”I am not recommending laxity of doctrine. I am only saying that since absolute unity of conception is impossible, it is idle to insist upon it. I am not excusing anything. A fact cannot need an excuse in the search for truth.”
The young deacon felt himself sliding into deeper and deeper waters, though the mien of Strathmore seemed to inspire confidence. He was more and more uncertain what he believed or ought to believe.
”But is this the belief of the church?” he persisted.
”What is the belief of the church if not the belief of its members?”
”I do not know,” Maurice answered. ”I came to you to be told.”
He tried to grasp definitely the belief which was being presented to him, but it appeared as elusive as a shadow in the mist. Mr.
Strathmore's look was as frank and clear as ever. There was in his eyes no sign of wavering or of evasion; his smile was full of warmth and sympathy.
”My dear young friend,” the elder said, ”I don't pretend to speak with the authority of the church; but to me it seems like this. We live in an age when we must recognize the use of reason. We are only doing frankly what men have in all ages been doing in their hearts. Men always have their private interpretations whether they recognize it or not. Nothing more is ever needed to create a schism than for some clear thinker to define clearly what he believes. There are always those who are ready to follow him because this seems so near to what many are thinking.”
”But that is because so few persons are ever able to define for themselves what they do believe,” Maurice threw in.
”Then do they ever really appreciate what the doctrines of the church are?” Strathmore asked significantly.
Maurice shook his head. He seemed to himself to be entangled in a net of words. He could not tell whether the man before him was entirely sincere or not. There seemed something hopelessly incongruous between the position of Mr. Strathmore as a religious leader and these opinions which seemed to strike at the very foundations of all creeds; yet the manner and look with which all was said were evidently honest and unaffected.
”Don't suppose that I think it would be wise to proclaim such a doctrine from the housetops,” continued Strathmore, answering, Maurice felt, the doubt in the face of the latter. ”I speak to you as one who is face to face with these facts, and must have the whole of it.”
Maurice rose with a feeling that he must get away by himself and think.
”Mr. Strathmore,” he said, ”I am more grateful than I can say for your kindness. I'm afraid that I've seemed stupid and ungracious, but I haven't meant to be either. I see that every man must work out his own salvation.”
”But with fear and trembling, Mr. Wynne.”
The smile of the rector was so warm and so winning that it cheered Maurice more than any words could have cheered him; Mr. Strathmore grasped the young man warmly by the hand and added:--
”Don't think me a heretic because I have spoken with great frankness.
Remember that the good of the church is to me more dear than anything else on earth except the good of men for whom the church exists. G.o.d help you in your search for light.”