"There is no unbelief;
And day by day, and night by night, unconsciously
The heart lives by that faith the lips deny,--
God knows the why."
Finally, and most important of all, let us not worry ourselves so much
about the intellectual opinions of men; but look rather to their
spiritual condition. The church ought to think less of creed and more
of character. The essence of faith lies not in correct conclusions
upon doctrinal points; but in righteousness, and love, and trustful
submission to God's will. No scepticism concerning dogmas touches the
heart of religion. If that seems at all heretical, let me cite good
orthodox authority. I might quote Bishop Thirlwall, of the Church of
England, in his judgment concerning Colenso's attack upon the accuracy
of the history of the Exodus in the Pentateuch, that "this story, nay,
the whole history of the Jewish people, has no more to do with our
faith as Christians, than the extraction of the cube or the rule of
three." Or I might quote Canon Farrar's weighty words, in a recent
article in the _Christian World_, upon the true test of religion. "The
real question," he declares, "to ask about any form of religious
belief, is: Does it kindle the fire of love? Does it make the life
stronger, sweeter, purer, nobler? Does it run through the whole
society like a cleansing flame, burning up that which is mean and
base, selfish and impure? If it stands that test it is no heresy."
That answers the question as aptly as it does manfully. And to the
same effect is the noble sermon of Dr. Heber Newton a few weeks ago,
in which he subordinated the question of the denominational fold to
the higher interests of the Christian flock; and that notable saying
of Dr. MacIlvaine's at the Presbyterian Presbytery the other day,
when, quoting the admission of one evangelical minister, that it was
the Unitarian Martineau who had saved his soul and kept his Christian
faith from shipwreck, he added significantly, "You must first find God
in your soul before you can find Him elsewhere." Yes, the prime and
essential thing is to find God in the soul; to worship him in spirit,
by a pure conscience, a loyal will, a heart full of devotion to God's
righteousness and love to all our kind. This is to worship God in
truth. And what have Calvin's five points, or the composite origin of
the Pentateuch, or the virgin birth of Christ to do with such
worship? If a man likes to believe them, very well. But if he cannot
honestly credit them, why should we shut the doors of the church
against him and threaten him with excommunication? Were these the
requirements that Jesus Christ laid on his disciples? Not at all. Look
all through the Sermon on the Mount, study the Golden Rule, and the
Parable of the Good Samaritan, or the conditions Jesus lays down in
his picture of the last judgment as the conditions of approval by the
heavenly Judge, and see if you find anything there about the
infallibility of Scripture, or the Apostolic succession, or the Deity
of Christ, or any other of the dogmas on account of which the
ecclesiastical disciplinarians would drive out the men whom they are
pursuing as heretics. How grimly we may fancy Satan (if there be any
Satan) smiling to himself as he sees great Christian denominations
wrought up to a white heat over such dogmas and definitions, while the
practical atheism, and pauperism, and immorality of our great
metropolis is passed over with indifference.
Sunday after Sunday, the Christian pulpit complains that the great
masses of the people keep away from their communion tables and do not
even darken their doors.
Does not the fault really lie in the folly--I may almost say sin,--of
demanding of men to believe so many things that neither reason nor
enlightened moral sense can accept, and making of these dogmas
five-barred gates through which alone there is any admission to
heaven?
If we wish the Church to regain its hold on thinking men it must
simplify and curtail its creeds; it must recognize that the love of
God is not measured by the narrowness of human prejudice, and that
God's arms are open to receive every honest searcher after truth. Let
him come with all his doubts, provided he comes with a pure heart and
brings forth the fruits of righteousness. Let us no longer pretend
that it is necessary for a Christian life to know all the mysteries of
God. Let it no longer be thought a mark of wickedness for a man
honestly to hold a conviction different from the conventional
standard; but let us respect one another's independent search and
judgment of truth. True faith consists not in any special theory of
God or His ways, but in the uplifting of our spirit to touch His
spirit, and the diffusing of whatever grace or gift we have received
from Him in generous good-will amongst our fellows.
If the Christian Church is to go forward successfully again in the
power and spirit of that Master whom it constantly invokes as "the
way, the truth, and the life," it must make that way and life its
guiding truth. It must aim constantly at greater simplicity in its
teaching, and a broader, more fraternal co-operation in Christian
work. Its motto should be the motto of the early Church, "In
essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things,
charity." Then shall a new and grander career open before its upward
footsteps.