Part 11 (2/2)

The commandments recited, the child is asked--”What dost thou chiefly learn by these commandments?” and he answers that--”I learn two things: my duty towards G.o.d and my duty towards my neighbour.” We would urge here that man's duty to man should be the point most pressed upon the young. Supposing that any ”duty to G.o.d” were possible--a question outside the present subject--it is clear that the duty to man is the nearest, the most obvious, the easiest to understand, and therefore the first to be inculcated. Surely, it is only by discharge of the immediate and the plain duty that any discharge becomes possible of one less near and less plain. Besides, the duty to G.o.d taught in the Catechism is of so wide and engrossing a nature that to discharge it fully would take up the whole time and thoughts. For in answer to the question, ”What is thy duty towards G.o.d?” the child says:--”My duty towards G.o.d is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength; to wors.h.i.+p him, to give him thanks, to put my whole trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy name and his word, and to serve him truly all the days of my life.” First, ”to believe in him;” but how can the child believe in him until evidence be offered of his existence? But to examine such evidence is beyond the still weak intellectual powers of the child, and therefore belief in G.o.d is beyond him, for belief based on authority is utterly valueless. Besides, it can never be a ”duty” to believe; if the evidence of a fact be convincing, belief in that fact naturally follows, and non-belief would be very stupid; but the word ”duty” is out of place in connection with belief. ”To fear him:” that the child will naturally do, after learning that G.o.d was angry with him for being born, and that another G.o.d, Jesus Christ, was obliged to die to save him from the angry G.o.d. ”To love him;” not so easy, under the circ.u.mstances, nor is love compatible with fear; ”perfect love casteth out fear... he that feareth is not made perfect in love.” ”With all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength.” Four different things the child is to love G.o.d with: What does each mean? How is heart to be distinguished from mind, soul, and strength? In human love, love of the heart might, perhaps, be distinguished from love of the mind, if by love of the heart alone a purely physical pa.s.sion were intended; but this cannot explain any sort of love to G.o.d, to whom such love would be clearly impossible. Once more, we say that the Church of England should publish an explanation of the Catechism, so that we may know what we ought to do and believe for our soul's health. Bentham urges that to put the ”whole trust” in G.o.d would prevent the child from putting ”any part of his trust” in second causes, and that disregard of these would not be compatible with personal safety and with the preservation of health and life; and that further, as all these services are ”unprofitable” to G.o.d, they might ”with more profit be directed to the service of those weak creatures, whose need of all the service that can be rendered to them is at all times so urgent and so abundant.” The duty to G.o.d being thus acknowledged, there follows the duty to the neighbour, for which there seems no room when the love, trust, and service due to G.o.d have been fully rendered. ”_Ques_. What is thy duty toward thy neighbour? _Ans_.

My duty towards my neighbour is to love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me. To love, honour, and succour my father and mother. To honour and obey the king, and all that are put in authority under him. To submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors, and masters. To order myself lowly and reverently to all my betters. To hurt n.o.body by word or deed. To be true and just in all my dealings. To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart. To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. To keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chast.i.ty. Not to covet nor desire other men's goods; but to learn and labour truly to get mine own living, and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please G.o.d to call me.” The first phase reproduces the morality which is as old as successful social life. ”What word will serve as a rule for the whole life?” asked one of Confucius.

”Is not reciprocity such a word?” answered the sage. ”What thou dost not desire done to thyself, do not to others. When you are labouring for others, let it be with the same zeal as if for yourself.” The second phrase is true and right; the next is often foolish and impossible. Who could honour such a king as George IV.? while to ”obey” James II.

would have been the destruction of England. Honour and obedience to const.i.tuted authorities is a duty only when those authorities discharge the duties that they are placed in power to execute; the moment they fail in doing this, to* honour and to obey them is to become partners in their treason to the nation. The doctrine of divine right was believed in when the Catechism was written, and then the voice of the king was a divine one, and to resist him was to resist G.o.d. The two following phrases breathe the same cringing spirit, as though the main duty towards one's neighbour were to submit to him. Reverence to any one better than one's-self is an instinct, but ”my betters” is simply a cant expression for those higher in the social scale, and those have no right to any lowlier ordering than the simple respect and courtesy that every man should show towards every other. This kind of teaching saps a child's mental strength and self-respect, and is fatal to his manliness of character if it makes any impression upon him. The remainder of the answer is thoroughly good and wholesome, save the last few words about ”that state of life unto which it shall please G.o.d to call me.” A child should be taught that his ”state of life” depends upon his own exertions, and not upon any ”calling” of G.o.d, and that if the state be unsatisfactory, it is his duty to set diligently to work to mend it; not to be content with it when bad, not to throw on G.o.d the responsibility of having placed him there, but so to labour with all hearty diligence as to make it worthy of himself, honourable, respectable, and comfortable. At this point the child is informed: ”Thou art not able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the commandments of G.o.d, and to serve him, without his special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer.” But if the child cannot do these things without G.o.d's ”special grace,” then the responsibility of his not doing them must of necessity fall upon G.o.d; for the child cannot pray unless G.o.d gives him grace; and without prayer he can't get special grace, and without special grace he can't ”do these things;” so that clearly the child is helpless until G.o.d sends him his grace, and therefore the whole responsibility lies upon G.o.d alone, and he can never blame the child for not doing that which he himself has prevented him from beginning. Diligent prayer for special grace being thus wanted, the child is taught to recite the Lord's Prayer, in which grace is not mentioned at all, and he is then asked--”What desirest thou of G.o.d in this prayer?” ”I desire my Lord G.o.d, our Heavenly Father, who is the giver of all goodness, to send his grace to me and to all people; that we may wors.h.i.+p him, serve him, and obey him, as we ought to do.” We rub our eyes; not one word of all this is discoverable in the Lord's Prayer!

”Send his grace to me and to all people”? not a syllable conveying any such meaning: ”that we may wors.h.i.+p him, serve him, and obey him ”? not the shadow of such a request. Is it supposed to train a child in the habit of truthfulness to make him recite as a religious lesson what is utterly and thoroughly untrue? ”And I pray unto G.o.d that he will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies, and that he will be merciful unto to us, and forgive us our sins.” ”All things that be needful both for our souls and bodies” is, we presume, summed up in ”our daily bread.” Simple people would scarcely imagine that ”daily bread” was all they wanted both for their souls and bodies; perhaps the souls want nothing, not being discoverable by any real needs which they express. ”And that it will please him to save and defend us in all dangers, ghostly and bodily; and that he will keep us from all sin and wickedness, and from our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death.”

Here, again, nothing in the prayer can be translated into these phrases; there is nothing about saving and defending from all dangers, ghostly and bodily, nor a syllable as to defence from our ghostly enemy, by whom a child will probably understand a ghost in a white sheet, and will go to bed in terror after saying the Catechism which thus recognises ghosts--nor from everlasting death. The prayer is of the simplest, but the translation of it of the hardest. ”And this I trust he will do of his mercy and goodness, through our Lord Jesus Christ; And therefore I say Amen, so be it.” Why should the child trust G.o.d's mercy and goodness to protect him? There would be no dangers, ghostly and bodily, no ghostly enemy, and no everlasting death, unless G.o.d had invented them all, and the person who places us in the midst of dangers is scarcely the one to whom to turn for deliverance from them. Mercy and goodness would not have surrounded us with such dangers; mercy and goodness would not have encompa.s.sed us with such foes; mercy and goodness would have created beings whose glad lives would have been one long hymn of praise to the Creator, and would have ever blessed him that he had called them into existence.

The child is now to be led further into the Christian mysteries, and is to be instructed in the doctrine of the sacraments, curious double-natured things of which we have to believe in what we don't see, and see that which we are not to believe in. ”How many sacraments hath Christ ordained in his Church?” ”Two only as generally necessary to salvation, that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.”

”Generally necessary”; the word ”generally” is explained by commentators as ”universally,” so that the phrase should run, ”universally necessary to salvation.” The theory of the Church being that all are by nature the children of wrath, and that ”_none_ are regenerate,” except they be born of water and of the Holy Ghost, it follows that baptism is universally necessary to salvation; and since Jesus has said, ”Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you”

(John vi. 53), it equally follows that the Lord's Supper is universally necessary to salvation. Seeing that the vast majority of mankind are not baptized Christians at all, and that of baptized Christians the majority never eat the Lord's supper, the heirs of salvation will be extremely limited in number, and will not be inconveniently crowded in the many mansions above. ”What meanest thou by this word _sacrament?_ I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and as a pledge to a.s.sure us thereof.” If this be a true definition of a sacrament, no such thing as a sacrament can fairly be said to be in existence. What is the inward and spiritual grace given unto the baby in baptism? If it be given, it must be seen in its effects, or else it is a gift of nothing at all. A baby after baptism is exactly the same as it was before; cries as much, kicks as much, fidgets as much; clearly it has received no inward and spiritual sanctifying grace; it behaves as well or as badly as any unbaptized baby, and is neither worse nor better than its contemporaries. Manifestly the inward grace is wanting, and therefore no true sacrament is here, for a sacrament must have the grace as well as the sign, The same thing may be said of the Lord's Supper; people do-not seem any the better for it after its reception; a hungry man is satisfied after his supper, and so shows that he has really received something, but the spirit suffers as much from the hunger of envy and the thirst of bad temper after the Lord's Supper as it did before. But why should the grace be ”inward,” and why is the soul thought of as _inside_ the body, instead of all through and over it?

There are few convenient hollows inside where it can dwell, but people speak as though man were an empty box, and the soul might live in it.

The sacrament is ”a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to a.s.sure us thereof.” G.o.d's grace, then, can be conveyed in the vehicles of water, bread, and wine; it must surely, then, be something material, else how can material things transmit it? And G.o.d becomes dependent on man to decide for him on whom the grace shall be bestowed. Two infants are born into the world; one of them is brought to church and is baptized; G.o.d may give that child his grace: the other is left without baptism; it is a child of wrath, and G.o.d may not bless it. Thus is G.o.d governed by the neglect of a poor, and very likely drunken, nurse, and the recipients of his grace are chosen for him at the caprice or carelessness of men. Strange, too, that Christians who received G.o.d's grace need ”a pledge to a.s.sure” them that they have really got it; how curious that the recipient should not know that so precious a gift has been bestowed upon him until he has also been given a little bit of bread and a tiny sip of wine. It is as though a queen's messenger put into one's hand a hundred 1000 notes, and then said solemnly: ”Here is a farthing as a pledge to a.s.sure you that you have really received the notes.” Would not the notes themselves be the best a.s.surance that we had received them, and would not the grace of G.o.d consciously possessed be its own best proof that G.o.d had given it to us? ”How many parts are there in a sacrament? Two; the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace.” This is simply a repet.i.tion of the previous question and answer, and is entirely unnecessary. ”What is the outward visible sign, or form, in baptism? Water; _wherein_ the person is baptized _in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost_.”

This answer raises the interesting question as to whether English Christians--save the Baptists--are really baptized. They are not baptized ”in,” but only ”with” water. The rubric directs that the minister ”shall _dip it in_ the water discreetly and warily,” and that only where ”the child is weak it shall suffice to pour water upon it” It appears possible that the salvation of nearly all the English people is in peril, since their baptism is imperfect. The formula of baptism reminds us of a curious difference in the baptism of the apostles from the baptism in the triune name of G.o.d; although Jesus had, according to Matthew, solemnly commanded them to baptize with this formula, we find, from the Acts, that they utterly disregarded his injunction, and baptized ”in the name of Jesus Christ,” instead of in the name of ”Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” (See Acts ii. 38, viii. 16, x 48, xix. 5, etc.) The obvious conclusion to be drawn from this is, that if the Acts be historical, Jesus never gave the command put into his mouth in Matthew, but that it was inserted later when such a formula became usual in the Church. ”What is the inward and spiritual grace? A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace.” What? a baby die unto sin? how can it, when it is unconscious of sin, and therefore cannot sin? ”A new birth unto righteousness?” but it is only just born, surely there can be no need that it should be born over again so soon? And if it be true that this is the inward grace given, would it not be well--as did many in the early Church--to put off the ceremony of baptism until the last moment, so that the dying man, being baptized, may die to all the sins he has committed during life, and be born again into spiritual babyhood, fit to go straight into heaven? It seems a needless cruelty to baptize infants, and so deprive them of the chance of getting rid of all their life sins in a lump later on. This is not the only objection to baptism. Bentham powerfully urges what has often been pressed:--

”Note well the sort of story that is here told. The Almighty G.o.d,--maker of all things, visible and 'invisible,'--'of heaven and earth, and all that therein is.'--makes, amongst other things, a child: and no sooner has he made it, than he is 'wrath' with it for being made. He determines accordingly to consign it to a state of endless torture. Meantime comes somebody,--and p.r.o.nouncing certain words, applies the child to a quant.i.ty of water, or a quant.i.ty of water to the child. Moved by these words, the all-wise Being changes his design; and, though he is not so far appeased as to give the child its pardon, vouchsafes to it a _chance_,--no one can say _what_ chance,--of ultimate escape. And this is what the child gets by being 'made'--and we see in what way made--'a child of grace.'”

”What is required of persons to be baptised? Repentance, whereby they forsake sin; and Faith, whereby they steadfastly believe the promises of G.o.d made to them in that Sacrament. Why then are infants baptised when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them? [Why, indeed!]

Because they promise them both by their sureties, which promise, when they come of age, themselves are bound to perform.” Surely it would be better if these things are ”required” before baptism, to put off baptism until repentance and faith become possible, instead of going through it like a play, where people act their parts and represent somebody else.

For suppose the child for whom repentance and faith are promised does not, when he comes to full age, either repent of his sins or believe G.o.d's promises, what becomes of the inward and spiritual grace? It must either have been given, or not have been given; if the former, the unrepentant and unbelieving person has got it on the faith of his sureties' promises for him; if the latter, G.o.d has not given the grace promised in Holy Baptism, and his promises are therefore unreliable in all cases.

”Why was the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ordained? For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby.” What very bad memories Christians must have!

G.o.d has come down from heaven on purpose to die for them, and they cannot remember it without eating and drinking in memory of it. The child is then taught that the outward part in the Lord's Supper is bread and wine, and that the inward part is ”The Body and Blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper,” the body and blood nouris.h.i.+ng the soul, as the bread and wine do the body. If the body and blood convey as infinitesimal an amount of nourishment to the soul as the small portions of bread and wine do to the body, the soul must suffer much from spiritual hunger.

But how do they nourish the soul? The body and blood must be somehow in the bread and wine, and how is it managed that one part shall nourish the soul while the rest goes to the body? ”verily and indeed taken and received.” From the eager protestation one would imagine that there must be some doubt about it, and that there might be some question as to whether the invisible and intangible thing were really and truly taken.

It needs but little insight to see how woefully confusing it must be to an intelligent child to teach him that bread and wine are only bread and wine one minute and the next are Christ's body and blood as well, although none of his senses can distinguish the smallest change in them.

Such instruction will, if it has any effect on his mind, incline him to take every a.s.sertion on trust, without, and even contrary to, reason and experiment; it lays the basis of all superst.i.tion, by teaching belief in what is not susceptible of proof.

”What is required of them who come to the Lord's supper? To examine themselves, whether they repent them truly of their former sins, steadfastly purposing to lead a new life; have a lively faith in G.o.d's mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his death; and be in charity with all men.” It is the custom in many churches now to have weekly, and in some to have daily, communion; can the communicants who attend these steadfastly purpose to lead a new life every time? and how many ”former sins” are they as continually repenting of? Here we find the overstrained piety which throughout disfigures the Prayer-Book; people are moaning about their sins, and crying over their falls, and resolving to mend their ways, and vowing they will lead new lives, and the next time one sees them they are once more proclaiming themselves to be as miserable sinners as ever. How weary the Holy Ghost must get of sanctifying them!

Such is the Catechism that ”The curate of every parish shall diligently upon Sundays and Holy Days, after the second lesson at evening prayer, openly in the Church” teach to the children sent to him, and which ”all fathers, mothers, masters, and dames shall cause their children, servants, and apprentices (which have not learned their Catechism) to come to the Church at the time appointed,” in order to learn; such is the nourishment provided by the Church for her lambs: such is the teaching she offers to the rising generation. Thus, before they are able to think, she moulds the thinking-machine; thus, before they are able to judge, she biases the judgment; thus, from children puzzled and bewildered, she hopes to make men and women supple to her teaching, and out of the Catechism she winds round the children's brains, she forges the chain of creeds which fetters the intellect of the full-grown members of her communion.

London: Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, 28, Stonecutter Street, E.C

February, 1885.

<script>