The Theism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is in some
respects different from the Deism of the eighteenth. It is not so
cold, the God in whom it believes is not so distant from His creatures.
But it is not {144} less vehement in its depreciation of Christianity
as a needless and even harmful addition to the Religion of Nature.
Conspicuous among the advocates of this modern Theism have been Francis
William Newman, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, and the Rev. Charles Voysey.
Francis Newman, in his youth, belonged, like his brother the famous
Cardinal, to the strictest sect of Evangelicals, but, like the Cardinal
also, drifted away from them, though in a totally different
direction.[4] As he found the untenableness of certain views which he
had cherished, the insufficiency of certain arguments which he had
employed, he came with much anguish of mind to the conclusion that the
whole fabric of historical Christianity was built upon the sand. He
rapidly renounced belief after belief, and caused widespread distress
and dismay by a crude attack upon the moral perfection of {145} our
Lord. His conviction that Christianity had nothing special to say for
itself, and that one religion was as good as another, seems to have
been mainly brought about by a discussion which he had with a
Mohammedan carpenter at Aleppo. 'Among other matters, I was
particularly desirous of disabusing him of the current notion of his
people that our Gospels are spurious narratives of late date. I found
great difficulty of expression, but the man listened to me with much
attention, and I was encouraged to exert myself. He waited patiently
till I had done and then spoke to the following effect: "I will tell
you, sir, how the case stands. God has given to you English many good
gifts. You make fine ships, and sharp penknives, and good cloth and
cottons, and you have rich nobles and brave soldiers; and you write and
print many learned books (dictionaries and grammars): all this is of
God. But there is one thing that God has withheld {146} from you and
has revealed to us; and that is the knowledge of the true religion by
which one may be saved."'[5]
But although Newman was led to give up Christianity, and practically to
hold that one religion was as good as another, he clung tenaciously to
what he supposed to be common to all religions, belief in God, a belief
deep and ardent. The rationalism of the Deists did not approve itself
to him. 'Our Deists of past centuries tried to make religion a matter
of the pure intellect, and thereby halted at the very frontier of the
inward life: they cut themselves off even from all acquaintance with
the experience of spiritual men.'[6] He nourished his soul with psalms
and hymns: he sought communion with God. He saw the weakness of
Morality without the inspiring power of Religion. 'Morals can seldom
gain living energy without the impulsive force derived from
Spirituals.... However {147} much Plato and Cicero may talk of the
surpassing beauty of virtue, still virtue is an abstraction, a set of
wise rules, not a Person, and cannot call out affection as an existence
exterior to the soul does. On the contrary, God is a Person; and the
love of Him is of all affections by far the most energetic in exciting
us to make good our highest ideals of moral excellence and in clearing
the moral sight, so that that ideal may keep rising. Other things
being equal (a condition not to be forgotten) a spiritual man will hold
a higher and purer morality than a mere moralist. Not only does Duty
manifest itself to him as an ever-expanding principle, but since a
larger and larger part of Duty becomes pleasant and easy when performed
under the stimulus of Love, the Will is enabled to concentrate itself
more on that which remains difficult and greater power of performance
is attained.'[7] Where shall we find a more {148} vivid or more
spiritual description of the rise and progress of devotion in the soul
than in the words of this man, who placed himself beyond the pale of
every Christian communion? 'One who begins to realise God's majestic
beauty and eternity and feels in contrast how little and transitory man
is, how dependent and feeble, longs to lean upon him for support. But
He is _outside_ of the heart, like a beautiful sunset, and seems to
have nothing to do with it: there is no getting into contact with Him,
to press against Him. Yet where rather should the weak rest than on
the strong, the creature of the day than on the Eternal, the imperfect
than on the Centre of Perfection? And where else should God dwell than
in the human heart? for if God is in the universe, among things
inanimate and unmoral, how much more ought He to dwell with our souls!
and they, too, seem to be infinite in their cravings: who but He can
satisfy them? Thus a restless {149} instinct agitates the soul,
guiding it dimly to feel that it was made for some definite but unknown
relation towards God. The sense of emptiness increases to positive
uneasiness, until there is an inward yearning, if not shaped in words,
yet in substance not alien from that ancient strain, "As the hart
panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God;
my soul is athirst for God, even for the Living God."'[8]
Mr. Newman, in his later days, we understand, had modified the
bitterness of his opposition to historical Christianity and was ready
to avow himself as a disciple of Christ.
Miss Frances Power Cobbe was another devout spirit who, with less
violence but equal decisiveness, accepted Theism as apart from
Christianity. In her case, even more visibly than in Mr. Newman's, it
was not Christianity which she rejected, but sundry distortions of it
with which it had in her mind become {150} identified. She wrote not a
few articles so permeated with the Christian spirit and imbued with the
Christian hope that the most ardent believer in Christ could read them
with entire approval and own himself their debtor. She took an active
part in many philanthropic movements, and she was an earnest and
eloquent advocate of faith in the Divine Ordering of the world and in
human immortality.
'Theism,' she said, 'is not Christianity _minus_ Christ, nor Judaism
_minus_ the miraculous legation of Moses, nor any other creed
whatsoever merely stripped of its supernatural element. It is before
all things the positive affirmation of the Absolute Goodness of God:
and if it be in antagonism to other creeds, it is principally because
of, and in proportion to, their failure to assert that Goodness in its
infinite and all-embracing completeness.'[9] 'God is over us, and
heaven {151} is waiting for us all the same, even though all the men of
science in Europe unite to tell us there is only matter in the universe
and only corruption in the grave. Atheism may prevail for a night, but
faith cometh in the morning. Theism is "bound to win" at last: not
necessarily that special type of Theism which our poor thoughts in this
generation have striven to define: but that great fundamental faith,
the needful substruction of every other possible religious faith, the
faith in a Righteous and Loving God, and in a Life of man beyond the
tomb.'[10]
'All the monitions of conscience, all the guidance and rebukes and
consolations of the Divine Spirit, all the holy words of the living,
and all the sacred books of the dead, these are our primary Evidences
of Religion. In a word, the first article of our creed is "I BELIEVE
IN GOD THE HOLY GHOST." After this fundamental dogma, we accept {152}
with joy and comfort the faith in the Creator and Orderer of the
physical universe, and believe in GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF
HEAVEN AND EARTH. And lastly we rejoice in the knowledge that (in no
mystic Athanasian sense, but in simple fact) "_these two are One_."
The God of Love and Justice Who speaks in conscience, and Whom our
inmost hearts adore, is the same God Who rolls the suns and guides the
issues of life and death.'[11]
In an able paper, _A Faithless World_, in which Miss Cobbe combated the
assertion of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, that the disappearance of
belief in God and Immortality would be unattended with any serious
consequences to the material, intellectual, or moral well-being of
mankind, she forcibly said, 'I confess at starting on this inquiry,
that the problem, "Is religion of use, or can we do as well without
it?" seems to me {153} almost as grotesque as the old story of the
woman who said that we owe vast obligations to the moon, which affords
us light on dark nights, whereas we are under no such debt to the sun,
who only shines by day, _when there is always light_. Religion has
been to us so diffused a light that it is quite possible to forget how
we came by the general illumination, save when now and then it has
blazed out with special brightness.' The comment is eminently just,
but does it not apply with equal force to Miss Cobbe herself? The
Theism which she professed was the direct outcome of Christianity,
could never have existed but for Christianity, was, in all its best
features, simply Christianity under a different name.
That Theism, as a separate organisation, gives little evidence of
conquering the world is shown by the fact that, after many years, it
boasts of only one congregation, that of the Theistic Church, Swallow
Street, Piccadilly, {154} of which the Rev. Charles Voysey is minister.
Mr. Voysey was at one time vicar of a parish in Yorkshire, where he
issued, under the title of _The Sling and the Stone_, sermons attacking
the commonly accepted doctrines of the Church of England, and was in
consequence deprived of his living. He is distinctly anti-Christian in
his teaching; strongly prejudiced against anything that bears the
Christian name: criticising the sayings and doings of our Lord in a
fashion which indicates either the most astonishing misconception or
the most melancholy perversion. But his sincerity and fervour on
behalf of Theism are unmistakable. He describes it as _Religion for
all mankind, based on facts which are never in Dispute_. The book
which is called by that title is written for the help and comfort of
all his fellowmen, 'chiefly for those who have doubted and discarded
the Christian Religion, and in consequence have become Agnostics or
{155} Pessimists.' It is prefaced by a dedication, which is also a
touching confession of personal faith: 'In all humility I dedicate this
book to my God Who made me and all mankind, Who loves us all alike with
an everlasting love, Who of His very faithfulness causeth us to be
troubled, Who punishes us justly for every sin, not in anger or
vengeance, but only to cleanse, to heal, and to bless, in Whose
Everlasting Arms we lie now and to all eternity.'[12]
Mr. Voysey has compiled a Prayer Book for the use of his congregation.
The ordinary service is practically the morning or evening service of
the Book of Common Prayer, with all references to our Lord carefully
eliminated. The hymn _Jesus, Lover of my Soul_ is changed to _Father,
Refuge of my Soul_; and the hymn
Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come,
{156} is rendered:
Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy lore is seeking me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O loving God, I come.
The service respecting our duty, and the service of supplication have
merits of their own, but, except for the wanton omission of the Name
which is above every name, there is nothing in them which does not bear
a Christian impress. 'Christianity _minus_ Christ' would seem to be no
unfair definition of their standpoint: and without Christ they could
not have been what they are. The Father Who is set forth as the Object
of worship and of trust is the Father Whom Christ declared, the Father
Who, but for the manifestation of Christ, would never have been known.
Far be it from us to deny that the Father has been found by those who
have sought Him beyond the limits of the Church: this only we affirm
that those by whom He {157} has been found, have, consciously or
unconsciously, drawn near to Him by the way of Christ. Nothing of
value in modern Theism is incompatible with Christianity: nothing of
value which would not be strengthened by faith in Him Who said, 'He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.'