ENTHUSIASM.
Such are the qualities and such the circumstances that increase and
nourish religious feeling, of such are the more religious of all
peoples. What is the result in their lives? Does their religion cause
them to live more worthy lives? Are the more deeply religious those whom
the world at large most deeply respects? What is the effect of their
religion in their lives?
I am not speaking here of professors of religion, of priests or monks,
of fakirs or yogis, of any whose lives are directly devoted to the
practice of the teaching of religion. They are a class apart, and are
judged by standards other than ordinary men. Their world is another than
that of ordinary folk. I speak now of the religion of those who still
live the lives of ordinary people. What effect has religion upon them,
and how are they ordinarily regarded in the world?
It is strange that if indeed religion be the truth of truths it should
be regarded with such impatience, with such suspicion, if brought into
ordinary life. For so it is. Every class has its own rules, its own
conventions; every profession, every teacher, every form of society has
its own rules, which are not founded at all upon religion. In every walk
of life it is assumed that, subject to the special etiquette of that
trade or profession and to the observance of what is considered
honourable conduct therein, every man's actions are governed by
self-interest alone. If a man allege any reasons but this he is regarded
with doubt and suspicion. He is avoided. I will give an instance in
point. There was a doctor once whom I knew who practised a certain
"cure" for disease--it is quite immaterial what the system was; it was
especially good for tropical diseases--and as some of us were conversing
with him on the subject, and recalling with gratitude and pleasure the
benefit we had derived, it was suggested to him that he might do well in
India. "If in a hill station," we said, "you were to establish yourself
and practise your treatment, you would have a large clientele. Many
Englishmen who could not afford the time to come home would come to you,
and there would be natives also. Such treatment as yours would hurt no
one's caste. No doubt you would do well, you would make a name and be
rich." This was his answer: "I would not care about that if I could only
do those poor natives some good." It was sincerely uttered, I doubt not.
There was no conscious cant, but it fell upon his hearers as a chill.
The conversation dropped, it changed, and gradually we went away. The
remark pained. Why? It is always so. Trade is trade and professions are
professions, but religion is apart. It is not to be intruded into daily
life; it is to be kept sedulously away. Not because its introduction
suggests something higher and shames or discountenances the observances
of life. The feeling is the very reverse. We suspect it. It does not
suggest a higher code of morality at all. No man of experience but would
instinctively avoid doing business with anyone who brought his religious
motives into daily intercourse. Let a man be as honourable, as
scrupulous, as high-minded as he can. We honour him for it. But
religious! No. To say that we suspect the speaker of cant is not always
correct. It may in cases be so, but not always, not generally. It is not
the reason of the instinctive withdrawal. To say that religious feeling
is a handicap in the struggle for life is also incorrect. It is not a
handicap at all. Let a man be as religious as he likes provided he
tempers it with common sense and keeps the expression of it for home
consumption. To say that a man is highly religious in his private life
is praise, and creates confidence. To say that a man intrudes religious
principles into his business or profession or daily intercourse is
enough to make men shun him at once. He becomes an impossible person.
This is a strange commentary on the theory of religion, that what is
supposed to elevate life is, when introduced into everyday affairs,
almost always a sign of incompetence or fraud. Yet it may be so. Some
years ago all Britain was alarmed by a terrible bank failure. It was
colossal, the biggest perhaps that has ever occurred. There were no
assets, and there were liabilities of over ten million pounds. The
shares were unlimited, and the shareholders liable for all this great
sum of money made away with by dishonesty and crime.
It brought ruin, absolutely blank ruin, to many thousands of people.
The directors of this bank were known in the city as religious men. They
were kirk elders, Sunday school teachers, preachers--I know not what.
They were steeped in religion and iniquity to the lips. They were tried,
and some went to penal servitude.
There was again some years later another terrible failure. It was a
building society and its allied concerns. And again the chief managers
were known as intensely religious men. They too, were prominent members
of the religious community to which they belonged; they gave freely to
charity; they held, it was stated, prayer meetings before each
consultation of the Board. They were steeped in lying and fraud also.
And again quite recently a solicitor absconded with great sums of trust
money. The same story. It has been the same story over and over and over
again.
The writer can remember being concerned in the trial of a similar case
in the East.
It is useless to assert that all these men were hypocrites, that they
shammed religion, that they used it as a bait to catch the unwary. It
may be true in one case or two, but not in the majority. It is useless
to assert that their assumption of religion was false. Who discovered it
to be false until the catastrophe? No one. They lived among religious
men, their lives were to a great extent open. Was there any doubt about
the truth of their religion then? No one has suggested such a thing.
These men were religious from boys, they lived among religious people
all their lives. They were honoured and respected for that religion. No
man could sham such a thing. It is easy to talk of deceit; but a life of
such deceit, such sham is impossible. It is quite absolutely impossible.
That the religion of these men was and is as good and as real as that of
other men it is impossible to doubt. Criminals are often very religious.
What is the explanation of this?
Well, Christians when presented with these facts have two answers. One
is that these men are all shams--an impossible explanation. The other is
a mournful shake of the head, and the statement that such a connection
ought not to be; religion should always purify a man. "Should" and
"ought!" What answers are these? Who can tell what "should" and what
"ought" to happen? The question is what _does_ happen? And all history
tells us that there is nothing so deplorable, nothing that results in
such certain catastrophe, nothing that ends by so outraging all our
better feelings, as the bringing of religion into affairs. Let us recall
at random the greatest abominations we can remember. The Thirty Years'
War, the Dragonnades, St. Bartholomew, the Witch Trials, the fires of
Smithfield, the persecution of the Catholic priests in Elizabeth's time,
the Irish Penal Laws. All these were done by religious people in the
name of religion. No faith is free from the stain. Can anyone possibly
say that the men responsible for these were shams? Was Cortez a sham,
was Cromwell, were all the Catholics in France shams? Were the
Crusaders, who celebrated the victory that gave back the city of the
Prince of Peace to His believers by an indiscriminate massacre, shams?
Did not the German Emperor in one breath tell his army that their model
was Christ, and then in the next to show no quarter in China? Who were
the most ruthless suppressers of the Mutiny? Did not blood-thirstiness
and religion go together? Is the Boer religion sham? Yet they lie and
rob as well as any other man, or better. Is it not a maxim that a
fanatic in any religion is simply blind, not only to his own code, but
to all morality? Does not the religious press of all countries furnish
examples of the deplorable lengths to which religion, unrestrained by
worldly common sense and worldly decency and honour, will go? I do not
wish to press the point; it is a very unpleasant one. No one who honours
religion can touch it without sorrow; no one who is trying clearly to
see what religions are can overlook it. Religion requires to be tempered
with common sense, with worldly moderation and restraint; taken by
itself it is simply a calamity. But if religion has its failures, has
it not its successes? Have not great and beautiful things been done in
its name? Are not almost all the great heroisms outcomes of religion?
Yes, that is true, too. If religion has much to be ashamed of it has
very much to be proud of. In its name has been done much of which we are
proud. No one will deny that. More than enough to set off the evil?
Well, that is hardly what I am seeking. I am trying to find out what is
the effect of religion--or, rather, of an excess of religion--when
imported into life. Is the influence all for good? I think in face of
history we cannot say that. Has it been all for evil? That answer is
also impossible. Then what effect has it had? And I think the reply is
this.
When religion (any religion, for it is as true of the East as the West)
is brought out or into daily life and used as a guide or a weapon in the
world it has no effect either for good or evil. Its effect is simply in
strengthening the heart, in blinding the eyes, in deafening the ears. It
is an intensive force, an intoxicant. It doubles or trebles a man's
powers. It is an impulsive force sending him headlong down the path of
emotion, whether that path lead to glory or to infamy. It is a
tremendous stimulant, that is all. It overwhelms the reason in a wave
of feeling; and therefore all men rightly distrust it, and the tendency
grows daily stronger to keep it away from "affairs." For the people who
are most apt to bring religious motives into daily use are not the
clearest and the steadiest; they are the more emotional, the least
self-controlled, those who are fondest of "sensation." And the want of
self-control, the thirst for emotion, when it passes a certain point is,
we know, always allied to immorality, is very frequently a form of
incipient insanity, and not seldom results in crime.
It is not probable any believer will think the above true of his own
faith, but he will do so of every other. If you are an European, think
of Mahommedanism, of some forms of Hinduism, of the Boxers, who are a
religious sect. You will admit it to be true of them certainly, as they
will of you. And to come nearer, if you are a Catholic, you will see how
true it is of Protestantism; if you are a Protestant, of Catholicism.
And that is enough. Each believer must and will defend his own faith;
that is the exception, the one absolute Truth. So we will suppose this
chapter to refer only to others, the false faiths. Everyone will admit
it to be true of them.
It must not be forgotten that this chapter is not of the general effect
or the ordinary results of religion. It applies only to the excess when
brought into public or business life. Do not let us have any mistake. Of
the ordinary effect of religion in an ordinary person there is here no
word at all. The general effect of religion on private natural life is
quite another subject, a very different subject indeed. Therefore let us
have no misunderstanding.