Modern Substitutes for Christianity Part 11

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APPENDIX XVIII

'We have compared Positivism where it is thought to be strongest with Christianity where it is thought to be weakest. And if the result of the comparison even then has been unfavourable to Positivism, how will the account stand if every element in Christianity be taken into consideration? The religion of humanity seems specially fitted to meet the tastes of that comparatively small and prosperous cla.s.s who are unwilling to leave the dry bones of Agnosticism wholly unclothed with any living tissue of religious emotion, and who are at the same time fortunate enough to be able to persuade themselves that they are contributing, or may contribute, by their individual efforts to the attainment of some great ideal for mankind. But what has it to say to the more obscure mult.i.tude who are absorbed, and wellnigh overwhelmed, in the constant struggle with daily needs and narrow cares, who have but little leisure or inclination to consider the precise role they are called on to play in the great drama of "humanity," and who might in any case be puzzled to discover its interest or its importance? Can it a.s.sure them that there is no human being so insignificant as not to be of infinite worth in the eyes of Him Who created the Heavens, or so feeble but that his action may have consequence of infinite moment long after this material system shall have crumbled into nothingness? Does it offer consolation to those who are in grief, hope to those who {245} are bereaved, strength to the weak, forgiveness to the sinful, rest to those who are weary and heavy laden? If not, then whatever be its merits, it is no rival to Christianity. It cannot penetrate or vivify the inmost life of ordinary humanity. There is in it no nourishment for ordinary human souls, no comfort for ordinary human sorrow, no help for ordinary human weakness. Not less than the crudest irreligion does it leave us men divorced from all communion with G.o.d, face to face with the unthinking energies of Nature which gave us birth, and into which, if supernatural religion be indeed a dream, we must after a few fruitless struggles be again resolved.'--RIGHT HON. ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, _The Religion of Humanity_.

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APPENDIX XIX

'Truly if Humanity has no higher prospects than those which await it from the service of its modern worshippers its prospects are dark indeed. Its "normal state" is a vague and distant future. But better things may yet be hoped for when the true Light from Heaven shall enlighten every man, and the love of goodness shall everywhere come from the love of G.o.d, and n.o.bleness of life from the perfect Example of the Lord.'--JOHN TULLOCH, D.D. LL.D., _Modern Theories in Philosophy and Religion_, p. 86.

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APPENDIX XX

Mr. Frederic Harrison came under the influence of both the Newmans.

'John Henry Newman led me on to his brother Francis, whose beautiful nature and subtle intelligence I now began to value. His _Phases of Faith, The Soul, The Hebrew Monarchy_ deeply impressed me. I was not prepared either to accept all this heterodoxy nor yet to reject it; and I patiently waited till an answer could be found.'--_The Creed of a Layman_.

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APPENDIX XXI

Even Mr. Voysey admits the constraining power of the Cross:

'That is still the n.o.blest, most sublime picture in the whole Bible, where the Christ is hanging on the Cross, and the tears and blood flow trickling down, and the last words heard from His lips are "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." That love and pity will for ever endure as the type and symbol of what is most Divine in the heart of man. Thank G.o.d! it has been repeated and repeated in the lives and deaths of millions besides the Christ of Calvary. But wherever found it still claims the admiration, and wins the homage of every human heart, and is the crowning glory of the human race.--C.

VOYSEY, _Religion for All Mankind_, p. 105.

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APPENDIX XXII

'Not only the Syrian superst.i.tion must be attacked, but also the belief in a personal G.o.d which engenders a slavish and oriental condition of the mind, and the belief in a posthumous reward which engenders a selfish and solitary condition of the heart. These beliefs are, therefore, injurious to human nature. They lower its dignity, they arrest its development, they isolate its affections. We shall not deny that many beautiful sentiments are often mingled with the faith in a personal Deity, and with the hopes of happiness in a future state; yet we maintain that, however refined they may appear, they are selfish at the core, and that if removed they will be replaced by sentiments of a n.o.bler and purer kind.'--WINWOOD READE, _Martyrdom of Man_, p. 543.

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APPENDIX XXIII

'There is a servile deference paid, even by Christians, to incompetent judges of Christianity. They abjectly look to men of the world, to scholars, to statesmen, for testimonies to the everlasting and self-evidencing verities of heaven! And if they can gather up, from the writings or speeches of these men, some patronising notices of religion, some incidental compliment to the civilising influence of the Bible, or to the aesthetic proprieties of worship, or to the moral sublimity of the character or gospel of Christ, they forthwith proclaim these tributes as lending some great confirmation to the Truth of G.o.d!

So we persist in asking, not "Is it true? true to our souls?" or, "Has the Lord said it?" but, "What say the learned men, the influential men, the eloquent men?" Shame upon these time-serving concessions, as unmanly as they are fallacious. Go back to the hovels, rather, and take the witnessing of the illiterate souls whose hearts, waiting there in poverty or pain, or under the shadow of some great affliction, the Lord Himself hath opened.'--F. D. HUNTINGDON, _Christian Believing and Living_.

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APPENDIX XXIV

'It is foreign to our purpose to discuss the various theories which have been advanced to explain the genesis and power of the Christian Religion from the cynical Gibbon to the sentimental Renan and the Rationalist Strauss. One remark may be permitted. It has been our lot to read an immense amount of literature on this subject, and with no bias in the orthodox direction, we are bound to admit that no theory has yet appeared which from purely natural causes explains the remarkable life and marvellous influence of the Founder of Christianity.'--HECTOR MACPHERSON, _Books to Read and How to Head Them_.

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APPENDIX XXV

The Song of a Heathen Sojourning in Galilee, A.D. 32.

If Jesus Christ is a man, And only a man, I say That of all mankind I cleave to Him, And to Him will I cleave alway.

If Jesus Christ is a G.o.d, And the only G.o.d, I swear I will follow Him through heaven and h.e.l.l, The earth, the sea, and the air!

RICHARD WATSON GILDER.

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APPENDIX XXVI

'I distinguish absolutely between the character of Jesus and the character of Christianity--in other words between Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus the Christ. Shorn of all supernatural pretensions, Jesus emerges from the great ma.s.s of human beings as an almost perfect type of simplicity, veracity, and natural affection. "Love one another" was the Alpha and Omega of His teaching, and He carried out the precept through every hour of His too brief life.... But how blindly, how foolishly my critics have interpreted the inner spirit of my argument, how utterly have they failed to realise that the whole aim of the work is to justify Jesus against the folly, the cruelty, the infamy, the ignorance of the creed upbuilt upon His grave. I show in cipher, as it were, that those who crucified Him once would crucify Him again, were He to return amongst us. I imply that among the first to crucify Him would be the members of His Own Church. But nowhere surely do I imply that His soul, in its purely personal elements, in its tender and sympathising humanity was not the very divinest that ever wore earth about it.'--ROBERT BUCHANAN in Letter of January 1892 to _Daily Chronicle_ regarding his poem _The Wandering Jew_. _Robert Buchanan: His Life, Life's Work, and Life's Friendships_, by Harriett Jay, pp.

274-5.

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APPENDIX XXVII

'I do not believe I have any personal immortality. I am part of an immortality perhaps, but that is different. I am not the continuing thing. I personally am experimental, incidental. I feel I have to do something, a number of things no one else could do, and then I am finished, and finished altogether. Then my substance returns to the common lot. I am a temporary enclosure for a temporary purpose: that served, and my skull and teeth, my idiosyncrasy and desire will disperse, I believe, like the timbers of the booth after a fair.'--H.

G. WELLS, _First and Last Things_, p. 80.

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APPENDIX XXVIII