BEFORE fully entering on this paper, I should like those who may be
inclined to read it to understand very distinctly, once and for all,
that I am a Christian. I am sorry that the too-hasty misjudgment of
others compels me to assert the fact. The term “atheist” has been
applied to me by several persons who should know better,--for it is
an absolutely false, and I may add, libellous accusation. That it has
been uttered unthinkingly and at random by idle chatterers who have
never read a line I have written I can well believe,--nevertheless it
is a mischievous rumour, as senseless as wicked. Poor and inadequate
as my service is, and must ever be, still I am a follower of the
Christian Faith, _as expounded in Christ’s own words to His
disciples_. I believe that Christian Faith to be the grandest and
purest in the world,--the most hopeful, the most strengthening, the
most soul-supporting and ennobling religion ever taught to humanity.
To me, in hours of the bitterest trial, it has proved not “a reed
shaken by the wind”--but a rock firmer than the foundations of the
world, against which the waves of tribulation break in vain and
disperse to naught,--and when brought face to face with imminent death
as I have been, it has kept me fearless and calm. I know--because
I have experienced--its priceless worth, its truth, its grand
up-lifting-power; and it is because this simple Christian Faith is so
dear to me, and so much a part of my every-day life, that I venture
to ask a few straight questions of those who, calling themselves
Christians, seem to have lost sight altogether of their Master and
His commands. I like people who are consistent. Inconsistency of mind
is like uncleanliness of body; it breeds discomfort and disease.
And in this wonderful age of ours, in which there is so little real
“greatness,”--when even the tried heroism of our leading statesmen and
generals is sullied by contemptible jealousies and petty discussions
of a quarrelsome nature,--when the minds of men are bent chiefly on
money-making and mechanical inventions to save labour (labour being
most unfortunately estimated as a curse instead of the blessing it
indubitably is), I find inconsistency the chief ingredient of all
modern thought. Things are jumbled up in a heterogeneous mass, without
order, distinction or merit. And the principal subject on which men and
women are most wildly, glaringly inconsistent is that which is supposed
to be the guiding rule of life--religion. I should like to try and
help settle this vexed question. I want to find out what the Christian
Empire means by its “faith.” I want to know how our King proposes to
enact his magnificent part of “Defender of the Faith.” I venture to
lift up my voice as the voice of one alone in the wilderness, and
to send it with as clear a pitch and true a tone as I can across
the sea of discussion,--the stormy ocean of angry and contradictory
tongues,--and I ask bluntly and straightly, “What is it all about?
DO YOU BELIEVE YOUR RELIGION, OR DO YOU NOT?”
It is an honest question, and demands an honest answer. Put it to
yourselves plainly. DO YOU BELIEVE WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL IN
THE FAITH YOU PROFESS TO FOLLOW?
Again--put it with equal plainness--DO YOU NOT BELIEVE ONE IOTA
OF IT ALL, AND ARE YOU ONLY FOLLOWING IT AS A MATTER OF CUSTOM AND
FORM?
Let us, my reader or readers, be round and frank with each other. If
you are a Christian, your religion is to believe that Christ was a
human Incarnation or Manifestation of an Eternal God, born miraculously
of the Virgin Mary; that He was crucified in the flesh as a criminal,
died, was buried, rose again from the dead, and ascended to heaven as
God and Man in one, and there perpetually acts as Mediator between
mankind and Divine Justice. Remember, that if you believe this you
believe in the PURELY SUPERNATURAL. But let anyone talk or write of the
purely supernatural as existent in any other form save this one of the
Christian Faith, and you will probably be the first to scout the idea
of the supernatural altogether. Why? Where is your consistency? If you
believe in one thing which is supernatural, why not in others?
Now let us consider the other side of the question. You who do
not believe, but still pretend to do so, for the sake of form and
conventional custom, do you realize what you are? You consider
yourself virtuous and respectable, no doubt; but facts are facts, and
you, in your pretence at faith, are nothing but a liar. The honest
sunshiny face of day looks on you and knows you for a hypocrite--a
miserable unit who is trying in a vague, mad fashion to cheat the
Eternal Forces. Be ashamed of lying, man or woman, whichever you be!
Stand out of the press and say openly that you do not believe; so at
least shall you be respected. Do not show any religious leanings either
to one side or the other “for the sake of custom”--and then we shall
see you as you are, and refrain from branding you “liar.” I would say
to all, clergy and laity, who do not in their hearts believe in the
Christian Faith, “Go out of the Church; stand aside and let us see who
is who. Let us have space in which to count up those who are willing
to sacrifice all their earthly well-being for Christ’s sake (for it
amounts to nothing less than this), and those who prefer this world
to the next.” I will not presume to calculate as to which will form
the larger majority. I only say it is absurd to keep up churches, and
an enormous staff of clergy, archbishops, bishops, popes, cardinals,
and the like, for a faith in which we do not TRULY, ABSOLUTELY,
AND ENTIRELY BELIEVE. It is a mere pageant of inflated falsehood,
and as such must be loathsome in the sight of God,--this always with
the proper proviso, “if there indeed be a God.” Yet, apart from a God
altogether, it is degrading to ourselves to play the hypocrite with the
serious facts of life and death. Therefore, I ask you again--Do you
believe, or do you not believe? My object in proposing the question
at all is to endeavour to show the spiritual and symbolic basis upon
which the Christian Faith rests, and the paramount necessity there is
for accepting it in its pristine purity and beauty, if we would be
wise. To grasp it thoroughly, we must view it not as it now seems to
look to us through the darkening shadows of sectarianism, BUT AS IT
WAS ORIGINALLY FOUNDED. The time has come upon us that is spoken of
in the New Testament, when “one shall be taken and the other left,”
and the sorting of the sheep from the goats has already commenced. It
can be said with truth that most of our Churches, as they now exist,
are diametrically opposed to the actual teachings of their Divine
Founder. It can be proved that in our daily lives we live exactly in
the manner which Christ Himself would have most sternly condemned. And
when all the proofs are put before you plainly, and without disguise
or hyperbole, in the simplest and straightest language possible, I
shall again ask you, “DO YOU BELIEVE, OR DO YOU NOT BELIEVE?” If you do
believe, declare it openly and live accordingly; if you do not believe,
in God’s name leave off lying!
The Symbolism of the Christian Faith has been and is still very much
lost sight of, owing to the manner in which the unimaginative and
unthinking majority of people will persist in looking at things from a
directly physical, materialistic, and worldly point of view. But if we
take the life and character of Christ as a Symbolic representation of
that Perfect Manhood which alone can be pleasing to God,--which alone
can be worthy to call the Divine Source of Creation “Father!”--some of
our difficulties may possibly be removed. Christ’s Gospel was first
proclaimed in the East,--and the Eastern peoples were accustomed to
learn the great truths of religion by a “symbolic,” or allegorical
method of instruction. Christ Himself knew this,--for He taught them
many things by parables.
We shall do well to keep this spirit of Eastern symbolism in mind when
considering the “miraculous” manner of Christ’s birth. Note the extreme
poverty, humility, well-nigh shame attending it! Joseph doubted Mary,
and was “minded to put her away privily.” Mary herself doubted the
Angelic Annunciation, and said, “How shall this be?”
Thus, even with those most closely concerned, a cloud of complete
disbelief and distrust environed the very thought, suggestion, and
announcement of God-in-Man.
It should be remembered that the Evangelists Mark and John, have no
account of a miraculous birth at all. John, supreme as a Symbolist, the
“disciple whom Jesus loved,” wrote, “The WORD was made flesh and dwelt
among us.”
Securing this symbolic statement for ourselves, we find that two of the
chief things which we attach importance to in this world--namely, birth
and position--are altogether set aside in this humanizing of the WORD,
and are of no account whatever. And that the helpless Child lying in
a manger on that first Christmas morning of the world, was, despite
poverty and humility, foredestined to possess more power than all the
kings and emperors ever born in the purple.
Thus, the first lessons we get from the birth of Christ are--Faith and
Humility--and these are the whole spirit of His Divine doctrine.
Now,--How does this spirit pervade our social community to-day, after
nearly two thousand years of constant preaching and teaching?
Look round on the proud array of the self-important, pugnacious,
quarrelsome, sectarian, and intolerant so-called “servants of the
Lord.” The Pope of Rome, and his Cardinals and his Monsignori! The
Archbishop of Canterbury, and _his_ Bishops, Deacons, Deans and
Chapters, and the like! The million “sects”--and all the cumbrous
paraphernalia of the wealthy and worldly “ordained” to preach the
Gospel! Ask them for “proofs” of faith! For signs of “humility”! For
evidences of any kind to show that they are in very soul and life and
truth the followers of that Master who never knew luxury, and had not
where to lay His head!
And you, among the laity, how can you pray, or pretend to pray to a
poor and despised “Man of Sorrow,” in these days, when with every act
and word of your life you show your neighbours that you love Money
better than anything else in earth or in heaven!--when even you who are
millionaires only give and do just as much as will bring you notoriety
or purchase you a “handle” to your names! Why do you bend your
hypocritical heads on Sundays to the Name of “Jesus,” who (so far as
visible worldly position admitted) was merely the son of a carpenter,
and followed the carpenter’s trade, while on week-days you make no
secret of your scorn of, or indifference to the “working-man,” and more
often than not spurn the beggar from your gates!
Be consistent, friends!--be consistent! IF YOU BELIEVE IN CHRISTIANITY,
you must also believe in these three things:--