Gentlemen,--Through the generous and voluntary liberality of a highly
esteemed and estimable Freethought friend, and at his suggestion, I have
been enabled to get out this Second Edition of my pamphlet, of upwards
of 4,000 copies, chiefly for gratuitous distribution among yourselves.
The gentleman referred to conceived the project of supplying every
Minister in the Province with a copy, and it was further decided to also
supply the College Students.
The compliment to pamphlet and author, which this action on the part of
an intelligent and discriminating Liberal implies, I, of course, duly
appreciate. When the work was written a few months ago, at the request
of fellow-liberals, I had no expectation that it would ultimately
go before so critical and learned a body of readers as the Clergy,
Graduates, and College Students of Ontario. I supposed one modest
edition of 2,000 copies would be all that would ever see the light.
But it has been otherwise desired by my readers. I have, therefore,
no further apology to make for presenting you with the work (my object
being the advancement of truth), and I earnestly submit for your best
consideration its subject matter rather than its literary merits or
demerits. The time has come when these great questions must be examined,
for they _will_ come to the front in spite of the most tenacious
conservatism. Everywhere, thoughtful men are earnestly looking into
them. That the old landmarks in religious belief are being effaced and
the Creeds and Confessions rapidly breaking up is becoming every day
more and more apparent. Goldwin Smith, a man of great historical acumen,
has recently said "A collapse of religious belief, of the most complete
and tremendous kind, is, apparently, now at hand."* The Rev. Hugh
Pedley, B.A., Cobourg, in a very able paper in the July (1880) number of
the _Canadian Monthly_, on "Theological Students and the Times," says:
"There can be no doubt that all forms of thought, all systems of belief,
however venerable with age, are being: handled with the utmost freedom.
Skepticism is becoming more general, and is protean in its adaptibility
to circumstances. There is the philosophical skepticism for the
cultured, and popular skepticism for the masses: the Reviews for the
select, Col. Ingersoll for the people. No _Index Expurgatorius_, whether
Catholic or Protestant, whether ecclesiastical or domestic, is barrier
strong enough to stem the incoming tide." He also says: "I would
advocate a manly, courageous dealing with the doubts of the age in all
our theological schools." * * * "Let there be no timid reserve. Let our
young ministers face the whole strength of the rationalistic position."
* * * "It is not enough that ministers should be well read in church
history, not enough that they should be able to expound in logical
fashion the church doctrines of the Trinity, the Atonement, &c, not
enough that they should understand the architecture of a model sermon.
These matters are quite right in their place, but the minister should go
further. He must go down to the root question, and enquire whether the
history, the systematic theology, and the homilectics are based on a
really Divine Revelation, or only on a series of beautiful legends which
foolish, but reverent, hands have wreathed about the person of Jesus of
Nazareth, a wonderful, religious genius that long ago illumined the
land of Palestine." Further, Mr. Pedley says: "We find men talking as if
thoroughness of investigation would inevitably lead to a loosened hold
on Christianity. So much the worse then for Christianity. If young men
of average intellect, and more than average morality, find that the more
keenly they study Christianity, the less able they are to accept it, and
preach it, then must Christianity be relegated to the dusty lumber-room
of worn-out and superseded religious systems."
* "The Prospect of a Moral Interregnum."
--Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1879.
Mr. Pedley then goes on to point out the effects of ignorance, on the
part of the minister, of the arguments and writings of Freethinkers. He
says: "If he be pastor in a reading community, he will know less than
his congregation about matters which it is his special business to
understand. He will stand towards the Bible, as an ignorant Priest
stands towards the Pope, accepting an infallibility that he has never
proved. He will appear before the intelligent world as a spiritual
coward, a craven-hearted man, who dare not face the enemy who is slowly
mastering his domains. He will become a by-word and a reproach to the
generation which he is confessedly unable to lead, and which sweeps by
with disdainful tread, leaving him far in the rear."
These are brave words and frank admissions, which should be well
pondered by every clergyman, minister and priest, and every theological
student, for should they fail to acquaint themselves with the doctrines
and arguments of their opponents, they will speedily find themselves, as
Mr. Pedley warns them, preaching to people who know more than they about
matters which it is their special business to know.
Yours earnestly for Truth,
A. P. Selby, Nov. 22nd, 1880.