"Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise."
--Francis Quarles.
FIRST PRINCIPLE: _Of material means as conditions of welfare in this
world_.--Theology works by "spiritual" means, Secularism by _material_
means. Christians and Secularists both intend raising the character of
the people, but their methods are very different. Christians are now
beginning to employ material agencies for the elevation of life, which
science, and not theology, has brought under their notice. But the
Christian does not trust these agencies; the Secularist does, and in his
mind the Secular is sacred. Spiritual means can never be depended upon
for food, raiment, art, or national defence.
The Archbishop of York (Dr. Magee), a clearheaded and candid prelate,
surprised his contemporaries (at the Diocesan Conference, Leicester,
October 19, 1889) by declaring that "Christianity made no claim to
rearrange the economic relations of man in the State, or in society. He
hoped he would be understood when he said plainly that it was his firm
belief that any Christian State, carrying out in all its relations, the
Sermon on the Mount, could not exist for a week. It was perfectly clear
that a State could not continue to exist upon what were commonly called
Christian principles."
From the first, Secularism had based its claims to be regarded on the
fact that only the rich could afford to be Christians, and the poor must
look to other principles for deliverance.
Material means are those which are calculable, which are under the
control and command of man, and can be tested by human experience.
No definition of Secularism shows its distinctiveness which omits to
specify _material_ means as its method of procedure.
But for the theological blasphemy of nature, representing it as the
unintelligent tool of God, the Secular would have ennobled common life
long ago. Sir Godfrey Kneller said, "He never looked on a bad picture
but he carried away in his mind a dirty tint." Secularism would efface
the dirty tints of life which Christianity has prayed over, but not
removed.
Second Principle: _Of the providence of science_.--Men are limited
in power, and are oft in peril, and those who are taught to trust to
supernatural aid are betrayed to their own destruction. We are told we
should work as though there were no help in heaven, and pray as though
there were no help in ourselves. Since, however, praying saves no ship,
arrests no disease, and does not pay the tax-gatherer, it is better to
work at once and without the digression of sinking prayer-buckets
into empty wells, and spending life in drawing nothing up. The word
illuminating secular life is _self-help_. The Secularist vexes not the
ear of heaven by mendicant supplications. His is the only religion that
gives heaven no trouble.
Third Principle: _Of goodness as fitness for this world or
another_.--Goodness is the service of others with a view to their
advantage. There is no higher human merit. Human welfare is the sanction
of morality. The measure of a good action is its conducive-ness to
progress. The utilitarian test of generous rightness in motive may be
open to objection,--there is no test which is not,--but the utilitarian
rule is one comprehensible by every mind. It is the only rule which
makes knowledge necessary, and becomes more luminous as knowledge
increases. A fool may be a believer,* but not a utilitarian who seeks
his ground of action in the largest field of relevant facts his mind is
able to survey.
* The Guardian told as about 1887 that the Bishop of Exeter
confirmed five idiots.
Utility in morals is measuring the good of one by its agreement with the
good of many. Large ideas are when a man measures the good of his parish
by the good of the town, the good of the town by the good of the county,
the good of the county by the good of the country, the good of the
country by the good of the continent, the good of the continent by the
cosmopolitanism of the world.
Truth and solicitude for the social welfare of others are the proper
concern of a soul worth saving. Only minds with goodness in them have
the desert of future existence. Minds without veracity and generosity
die. The elements of death are in the selfish already. They could not
live in a better world if they were admitted.
In a noble passage in his sermon on "Citizenship" the Rev. Stopford
Brooks said: "There are thousands of my fellow-citizens, men, and women,
and children, who are living in conditions in which they have no true
means of becoming healthy in body, trained in mind, or comforted by
beauty. Life is as hard for them as it is easy for me. I cannot help
them by giving them money, one by one, but I can help them by making the
condition of their life easier by a good government of the city in
which they live. And even if the charge on my property for this purpose
increases for a time, year by year, till the work is done, that charge I
will gladly pay. It shall be my ethics, _my religion_, my patriotism, my
citizenship to do it."* The great preacher whose words are here cited,
like Theodore Parker, the Jupiter of the pulpit in his day, as Wendell
Phillips described him to me, is not a Secularist; but he expresses here
the religion of the Secularist, if such a person can be supposed to have
a religion.
* Preached in reference to the London County Council
election, March, 1892.
A theological creed which the base may hold, and usually do, has none
of the merit of deeds of service to humanity, which only the good
intentionally perform. Conscience is the sense of right with regard
to others, it is a sense of duty towards others which tells us that we
should do justice to them; and if not able to do it individually, to
endeavor to get it done by others. At St. Peter's Gate there can be no
passport so safe as this. He was not far wrong who, when asked where
heaven lay, answered: "On the other side of a good action."
If, as Dr. James Martineau says, "there is a thought of God in the thing
that is true, and a will of God in that which is right," Secularism,
caring for truth and duty, cannot be far wrong. Thus, it has a
reasonable regard for the contingencies of another life should it
supervene. Reasoned opinions rely for justification upon intelligent
conviction, and a well informed sincerity.
The Secularist, is without presumption of an infallible creed, is
without the timorous indefiniteness of a creedless believer. He does
not disown a creed because theologians have promulgated Jew bound,
unalterable articles of faith. The Secularist has a creed as definite as
science, and as flexible as progress, increasing as the horizon of truth
is enlarged. His creed is a confession of his belief. There is more
unity of opinion among self-thinkers than is supposed. They all maintain
the necessity of independent opinion, for they all exercise it. They all
believe in the moral rightfulness of independent thought, or they are
guilty for propagating it. They all agree as to the right of publishing
well-considered thought, otherwise thinking would be of little use. They
all approve of free criticism, for there could be no reliance on thought
which did not use, or could not bear that. All agree as to the equal
action of opinion, without which opinion would be fruitless and action
a monopoly. All agree that truth is the object of free thought, for many
have died to gain it. All agree that scrutiny is the pathway to truth,
for they have all passed along it. They all attach importance to the
good of this life, teaching this as the first service to humanity. All
are of one opinion as to the efficacy of material means in promoting
human improvement, for they alone are distinguished by vindicating their
use. All hold that morals are effectively commended by reason, for all
self-thinkers have taught so. All believe that God, if he exists, is the
God of the honest, and that he respects conscience more than creeds,
for all free thinkers have died in this faith. Independent thinkers from
Socrates to Herbert Spencer and Huxley* have all agreed:
* See Biographical Dictionary of Free Thinkers of all Ages
and Nations, by J. M. Wheeler, and Four Hundred Years of
Free Thought from Columbus to Ingersoll, by Samuel Porter
Putnam, containing upwards of 1,000 biographies.
In the necessity of free thought.
In the rightfulness of it.
In the adequacy of it.
In the considerate publicity of it.
In the fair criticism of it.
In the equal action of conviction.
In the recognition of this life, and
In the material control of it.
The Secularist, like Karpos the gardener, may say of his creed, "Its
points are few and simple. They are: to be a good citizen, a good
husband, a good father, and a good workman. I go no further," said
Karpos, "but pray God to take it all in good part and have mercy on my
soul."*
* Dialogue between Karpos the gardener and Bashiew Tucton,
by Voltaire.