industrialism as we know it to-day is comparatively modern. It dates
from the introduction of machinery and mechanical transport, and
coincided in its beginnings with the vogue of the so-called
"Manchester School" in political and economic theory. The modern world
of industry has been built up by the enterprise of capitalists working
upon the basis of unrestricted competition. Joint-stock companies and
"trusts" are simply capitalistic combinations for the exploitation of
industrial opportunities upon a larger scale.
The economic theorists of the Manchester School regarded wages as
necessarily governed by the working of the "iron law" of supply and
demand. It was the "interest" of the employer to buy such labour as
was required at as cheap a rate as possible. It was assumed that in
this, as in other matters of "business," his procedure must be
determined wholly by self-interest, to the exclusion of "sentimental"
considerations. Individual employers might be better than their creed,
and in the smaller "concerns" the relations between employer and
employed were often humanized by personal knowledge and intercourse.
With the advent of the joint-stock company this no longer held good.
"A corporation has no bowels." Directors were not personally in
contact with their workpeople, and their main consideration was for
their shareholders. The whole tendency of the industrial order of
society as it developed was in the direction of the exploitation of
the workman in the interests of "capital."
It was not that members of the employing class were consciously
inhuman. It was simply that they were blinded to the human problems
which were involved. They had become accustomed to regard as natural
and inevitable a wage-slavery of the many to the few. Labour was a
commodity in the market. The workman was a unit of labour. Regarded
from the point of view of Capital he represented simply the
potentiality of so many foot-pounds of more or less intelligently-
directed energy _per diem_. His life as a human being, apart from the
economic value of his labour, was from the "business" point of view
irrelevant.
The system was based upon a lie. "Treat human beings as machines as
much as you will, the fact remains that they are incurably personal."
The wage-slaves of the modern world asserted their personality, and
the modern Socialist-Labour Movement is the result. The forces of
organized labour have won some notable victories. They are a
recognized power in the land. There are those who hope, and those who
fear, that they will in the end become socially and politically
omnipotent. It is now generally recognized that society prior to the
war was on the brink of a struggle between the classes of great
bitterness, and that the social condition of the country after the war
is likely to be fraught with formidable possibilities. There are many
observers who regard a social revolution, in one form or another, as
inevitable.
Much, no doubt, will depend upon the temper of the returning troops,
both officers and men. That men and officers have learnt to know and
to respect one another upon the battlefield is acknowledged, but those
who imagine that herein is contained a solution of social and labour
problems are likely to prove grievously disappointed. A great deal of
nonsense is being talked about the effects of "discipline" upon the
men. Military discipline has its admirers: but men of mature years and
civilian traditions who in the present conflict have served _in the
ranks_ of His Majesty's Army are not included among their number. They
have submitted to discipline for the period of their military service.
They are quite able to recognize that it is essential to the
efficiency of the army as a fighting machine. But they conceive
themselves to have been fighting for freedom: and their own freedom
and that of their children and of their class is included in their
eyes among the objects for which they fight. They will be more than
ever jealous, after the war, of their recovered liberties, and
determined to assert them. It is probable that one result of
demobilization will be an enormous accession of strength to the ranks
of the Socialist and Labour parties. The "class war" with which
society was threatened before the European War broke out is not likely
to be a less present danger when "that which now restraineth" is
removed by the conclusion of peace.
What in relation to these problems is the message of the Christian
Church? The distinctively Christian ethic is based not upon self-
assertion but upon self-sacrifice, not upon class distinctions but
upon brotherhood. "Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour's
good." The principle is of corporate as well as of individual
application. In an ideally Christian society, the interests of
"Labour" would be the sole concern of "Capital," the interests of
"Capital" the sole concern of "Labour": and the message of the Church
to the contending parties should be, now as always, "Sirs, ye are
brethren."
Neither party, however, is likely at present to pay much heed to such
a message, which is apt to sound like an abstract and theoretical
truism remote from the actualities of life. In point of fact, the
large sections of the population who live permanently near or below
the poverty line are largely precluded by lack of leisure from
entering into the Christian heritage of the spiritual life, and are
too much obsessed by the daily struggle for material existence to have
patience with exhortations to regard with sympathy either the
temptations or the good intentions of the well-to-do. The latter in
turn are apt to resent any attempt to stir in them a social conscience
with regard to the problems of poverty or the fundamental causes of
labour "unrest," to regard the security of dividends as conveniently
guaranteed by the laws of GOD, and to hold, in a general way, that
everything has hitherto been ordered for the best in the best of all
possible worlds. The Church--and more particularly the Church of
England--is commonly regarded both by "Labour" and by "Capital" as
traditionally identified with the Conservative Party in politics. The
Church-going classes love to have it so, and the world of Labour not
unnaturally holds aloof.
It is nevertheless sufficiently obvious that the future of
civilization after the war will be largely in the hands (or at the
mercy) of organized Labour. And it is worth remembering that our
Saviour died not for the rich only, but for the poor, having moreover
Himself lived and worked as a labouring Man. There are those who
regard the spirit of idealism and world-wide brotherhood by which the
Labour Movement is inspired as the most profoundly Christian element
in the life of the modern world, and the existing cleavage between
Labour and the Church as a tragedy comparable only to the tragedy of
the war. It is the plain duty of a Christian man to do what in him
lies to remedy this cleavage, to think hard and honestly about social
problems from a Christian point of view, and to make it his business
to have an adequate understanding and sympathy with the real character
and motives of Labour aspirations and ideals.
CHAPTER VIII
CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS
Politics at their worst are a discreditable struggle between parties
and groups for selfish, and sectional ends, full of dishonesty and
chicanery and corruption. It is often recognized at the present time
as desirable that none should be for party, but all for the state. The
Christian ideal goes further than this: it is that none should be for
party, but all for the Kingdom of GOD, and for the state only in so
far as the state is capable of being made the instrument of that
higher ideal. The Christian man is not to hold aloof from political
life, but to seek, so far as his personal effort and influence can be
made to tell, to Christianize the political struggle. In every
contested election he is bound to think out in the light of Christian
ideals the issues which are at stake, without either prejudice or
heat, and to register his vote in accordance with his conscience under
the most solemn sense of responsibility before GOD. He is bound, of
course, to be a reformer, standing for cleanness of methods, probity
of motives, honest thinking, class unselfishness, and the elimination
of abuses and malpractices. He will tend in most cases to be a cross-
bencher, in the sense of being independent of party caucuses and
concerned only for social and political righteousness.
A Christian man who has leisure and opportunity can render enormous
service by going into politics, more especially into municipal
politics, which are too often surrendered to the tender mercies of
corrupt, narrow-minded, or interested local wire-pullers. There is an
enormous field of unselfish social service and opportunity lying open
to Christian laymen in this connexion. There can be no truer form of
work for the Church of GOD than the work of a municipal councillor who
seeks not popularity but righteousness.
The carrying over of Christian ideals into national and international
politics is equally indispensable. In the sphere of international
affairs in particular, while other nations have, for the most part,
rendered official lip-service from time to time to ideals of
international morality, it has been reserved for Germany to declare
openly for the repudiation of "sentiment," and for a policy of
undisguised cynicism and _real-politik_. The doctrine that the state
as such is exempt from moral obligation towards its neighbours, and
that the whole political duty of man is exhausted in the service of
his country and the promotion of her purely selfish interests and
"will to power," has been exhibited in action by the Prussian
Government in such a fashion as to incur the moral reprobation of the
world. The cynical doctrines of _real-politik_, the belief that the
"interests" of the state are in politics and diplomacy paramount, and
that "the foreigner" is a natural enemy, the belief that in all
international relationships selfish and self-interested considerations
must really determine policy, are unfortunately by no means
unrepresented, though they are not unchallenged, in the political life
of other countries besides Germany. There are influential publicists
in England to-day the _principles_ of whose political thinking are
really Prussian. It remains to be seen whether, when the time comes
for peace to be made between the nations, the forces of international
idealism will prove strong enough to carry the day, or whether we
shall have a merely vindictive and "realist" peace which will contain
within itself the seeds of future wars. There can be no question but
that a Christian man is bound to stand both for the freedom of
oppressed nationalities and for the right of all peoples freely to
determine their own affairs, and also for the duty of nations as of
individuals to love their neighbours as themselves, and to seek
primarily not their own but each other's good. If these professions
are to be more than nominal they must mean a readiness for national
sacrifices and for national unselfishness in time of peace as in time
of war.
CHAPTER IX
CHRISTIANITY AND WAR
Christianity is opposed to war, in the sense that if men and nations
universally behaved as Christians, wars would cease. The ideal of the
Kingdom of GOD involves the reign upon earth of universal peace. War
is, therefore, in itself, an unchristian thing. It is, moreover, a
barbarous and irrational method of determining disputes, since the
factors which humanly speaking are decisive for success in war, viz.
the organized and unflinching use of superior physical force, are in
principle irrelevant to the rights or wrongs of the cause which may be
at stake. The victories of might and right do not invariably coincide.
It is not surprising, therefore, that a certain proportion of
Christians--the Quakers, for example, and many individuals who have
either been influenced by the teaching of Tolstoy, or else, thinking
the matter out for themselves, have arrived at similar conclusions to
those of Tolstoy and the Quakers--should hold that in the event of war
a man's loyalty to his earthly city must give way to his loyalty to
his heavenly King in this matter. Experience shows that there are men
who are prepared to suffer persecution, imprisonment, or death itself
rather than violate their principles by service in the armed forces of
the Crown.
There are obviously circumstances conceivable in which it would be the
duty of all Christians to become "Conscientious Objectors." Such
circumstances would arise in any case in which the state endeavoured
to compel men's services in a war which their conscience disapproved.
In the present European War it so happens that there are probably no
Englishmen who regard the German cause as righteous and the Allies'
cause as wrong. The problem of Conscientious Objection has, therefore,
only arisen in the case of those Christians who hold the abstract
doctrine of the absolute wrongness, in whatever circumstances, of all
war as such.
There are those who, though personally rejecting this doctrine,
consider that those who hold it are wrong only in that they are
spiritually in advance of their time. The majority, however, of
Christians have felt that the Pacifist or Quaker doctrine is not
merely impracticable under present conditions, but that it rests upon
a fallacious principle. For it appears to deny that physical force can
ever be rightfully employed as the instrument of a moral purpose. In
the last resort it is akin to the anti-sacramental doctrine which
regards what is material as essentially opposed to what is spiritual.
The questions at issue are not really to be solved by the quotation of
isolated texts or sayings of our Lord from the Gospels. What is really
in dispute is the question of the form which, in the context of a
given set of national and political circumstances, may rightfully be
given to the application of the Christian principle of universal,
righteous, and self-sacrificing Love. No one can dispute the fact that
in certain circumstances Christianity may demand the readiness to die
for others. Are there any circumstances in which Christianity may
demand the readiness to _slay_ for others, either personally, or
mediately through service in a military machine which as a whole is
the instrument of a national purpose only to be achieved through the
slaughter of those in the ranks of the opposing armies?
The majority of Christians have answered this question in the
affirmative. They have held that there are circumstances in which the
claims of Love are more genuinely and adequately acknowledged by
taking part in warfare than by abstaining from it. They have insisted
that there are circumstances in which it is no true act of love, even
towards the aggressor, or perhaps towards the aggressor least of all,
to permit him to achieve an evil purpose unchecked: that resistance,
even by force of arms, may be in the truest interests of the enemy
himself. They have maintained that it is possible to fight in a
Christian temper and spirit, without either personal malice or hatred
of the foe: that not all killing is murder, and that to rob a man of
physical life, as an incident in the assertion of the claims of
righteousness, is not, from the point of view of those who believe in
human immortality, to do him that ultimate and essential injury which
it might otherwise be held to be.
No one, however, who has had anything to do with modern war can doubt
that it is intrinsically beastly and devilish, or that it is apt to
arouse passions, in all but the saintliest of men, which are of an
extremely ugly kind. To affirm that it is possible, as a matter of
theory, to fight in a wholly Christian spirit and temper, is not to
assert that in actual practice more than a small minority of soldiers
succeed in doing so. It is possible to be devoutly thankful that when
the issue was posed by the conduct of the Germanic powers in the
August of 1914 the British Empire replied by entering upon war, to
hold that it was emphatically the right thing to do, and that it
represented a course of conduct more intrinsically Christian than
neutrality would have been. But it is not possible to maintain with
truth that the British nation as a whole has been fighting either in a
Christian temper or from Christian motives. It is undeniable that
uglier motives and passions have crept in. Sermons in Christian
pulpits upon such themes as the duty of forgiveness or the Christian
ideal of love towards the enemy have been neither frequent nor
popular. Undoubtedly the German Government in its general policy, and
particular units of the German Army and Navy upon many occasions, have
acted in such a way as to give provocation of the very strongest kind
to the unregenerate human impulses of hatred and of revenge. It is not
surprising, though it is regrettable, that under the influence of this
provocation many persons, otherwise Christian, have either frankly
abandoned the Christian doctrine of human brotherhood, or else have
denied that the Germans are to be regarded as human beings. On the
whole, and speaking very broadly, it may be said that the troops have
shown themselves more Christian in these respects than have the civil
population, though there are many exceptions upon both sides. It is to
be feared that the Church, in so far as she has been represented by
her clergy (though here, again, there are many exceptions), has been
too anxious to be identified with a merely Jingo patriotism to
exercise any very appreciable influence in restraint of unchristian
passions. It is to be hoped and anticipated that there will be a
strong reaction after the war both against militarism and the less
desirable aspects of the military mind, and also against the
belligerent temper and spirit--especially, perhaps, on the part of the
men who have themselves served and suffered in the field.
CHAPTER X
LOVE, COURTSHIP, AND MARRIAGE
No element in Christian practice has been more widely challenged in
modern times than the Christian ideal of marriage. Our Lord's standard
in these matters was simple and austere. "Whoso looketh on a woman to
lust after her hath committed adultery already in his heart."
"Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication" (the exceptive clause is of disputed authenticity)
"causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is
divorced committeth adultery."
The _State_ in certain cases gives legal sanction to "adultery" in
this latter sense, and there is a vocal and probably increasing demand
that legal facilities for divorce upon various pretexts, with liberty
of remarriage, shall be further extended. The Divorce Law Reform Union
has announced its intention to promote in Parliament a Bill which, if
carried, would have the effect of reducing legal marriage to a
contract terminable after three years' voluntary separation by the
will of either party. Doubtless a robust opposition will be offered by
Christian people to the adoption of so lax a conception of marriage
even by the State. Experience in other countries seems to show that
unlimited facilities for divorce do not tend to the promotion either
of happiness or of morals. But it needs to be recognized that the
State, as such, is concerned only with the legal aspect of marriage as
a civil contract, and that it has to legislate for citizens not all of
whom profess Christian standards even in theory. The law of the State
may well diverge from that of the Church with regard to this matter,
though it does not follow that so lax a standard as that which is now
proposed would be in the best interests even of the State.
The Church regards Christian marriage as indissoluble. In cases of
adultery she counsels reconciliation, wherever possible, upon the
basis of repentance on the part of the guilty and forgiveness on the
part of the injured partner. If this is not possible the Church
sanctions, if need so require, separation, but not remarriage. There
are also unfortunately other cases in which the married relationship
proves so intolerable as to render a temporary or permanent separation
admissible as a last resort. The remarriage of either party during the
lifetime of the other is nevertheless held to be unchristian. With the
practical difficulties which beset the Church in the attempt to
maintain within the circle of her own membership a stricter standard
than that which is recognized by the Civil Law and by society at large
we are not here concerned. Our concern is with the Christian standard
as a positive ideal, on the effective maintenance of which, as
Christians believe, depends the stability of the home and the
Christian family, and the redemption of sex-relations from mere
animalism and grossness.
A Christian husband takes his wife in matrimony "for better for worse,
for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to
cherish, till death them do part, according to GOD'S holy ordinance."
The step is irrevocable. The union is intended to be life-long. It
has, moreover, in view not only "the mutual society, help, and comfort
that the one ought to have of the other," but also "the procreation of
children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to
the praise of His holy Name." A few words may usefully be said under
these heads.
(i) Marriage ought to be based upon love; and love, though naturally
and normally involving the element of sexual attraction, ought to
include also other and deeper elements. A Christian man who has lived
a clean and disciplined life ought to be sufficiently master of his
passions to avoid mistaking a merely temporary infatuation for such a
genuine spiritual affinity as will survive the satisfaction of
immediate desires and prove the stable basis of a life-companionship.
Hasty marriages are a common and avoidable cause of subsequent
unhappiness. It is obviously undesirable that couples should enter
upon matrimony until there has been a sufficiently prolonged and
intimate acquaintance to enable them to become reasonably sure both of
themselves and of one another. In many cases there is much to be said
for regarding betrothals in the first instance as provisional. It is
better to break them off at the last moment than to marry the wrong
person.
The Victorian conventions with regard to all these matters were
thoroughly bad. Girls were brought up in carefully-guarded ignorance
of the implications of matrimony and shielded by perpetual chaperonage
from anything approaching comradeship with the opposite sex.
Eventually they were in many cases stampeded into a marriage which had
its origin either in a clandestine flirtation or in the designing
operations of some match-making relative, who made it her business
first to "throw the young people together" and then to suggest that
they were virtually committed to one another by the mere fact of
having met.
The reaction which has taken place against all this is upon the whole
salutary. The new social tradition which is growing up makes it
possible for the unmarried of both sexes to meet one another with
comparative freedom, and to establish relations of friendship, which
may subsequently ripen into love, unhampered by any such morbidly
exciting atmosphere of intrigue and suggestion on the part of
relatives and friends. But the new freedom of social intercourse, if
it is not in its turn to prove disastrous, demands on the part of the
young of both sexes a higher standard both of responsibility and self-
control, and of knowledge of what is implied in the fact of sex. The
experience of married life is, moreover, not likely to prove a
success, save in rare instances, unless there is between the parties a
real community of interests and tastes, unanimity, so far as may be,
of ideals and of religious convictions, and at least no very great
disparity of educational and intellectual equipment.
(ii) A Christian marriage includes among its purposes the procreation
of children. It is here most of all that unanimity of ideal and of
conviction between husband and wife is essential. A man and a woman
ought not to take one another in marriage without first being assured
of each other's mind upon this subject. "If marriage is to be a
success each must learn respect for the other's personality, real give
and take, and the horror of treating the other just as a means to his
own pleasure, whether spiritual, intellectual, or physical: and both
must think seriously of the responsibilities of parenthood. Husband
and wife must work out their ideals together, in perfect frankness and
sincerity, and it is impossible to have true and sacred ideals of
their joint physical life unless there is the same openness and
understanding and sympathy on this point as on all others." [Footnote:
_Ideals of Home_, by Gemma Bailey (National Mission Paper, No. 43).]
There must be mutual consideration and self-control: the need for
self-restraint and continence does not disappear with the entry upon
marital relations: it is if anything intensified.
There is a real problem here which needs to be thought out. To the
practice of "race-suicide," by which is meant the artificial
restriction of parentage by the use of mechanical or other
"preventives," Christian morality is violently opposed. On the other
hand, it may reasonably be held that people ought not to bring
children into the world in numbers which are wholly out of relation to
their capacity to feed, clothe, educate, and train them. "The enormous
families of which we hear in early Victorian times were not quite
ideal for the mother or the children, nor for the father if he were
not well off." [Footnote: _Ibid_] It may be found necessary in
practice to limit the size of the family either upon economic grounds
or (in particular instances) in the interest of the mother's health.
It is to be feared, however, that the modern tendency in both respects
is to shirk the responsibilities of parenthood on grounds which are
thoroughly selfish. The Victorian doctrine that "when GOD sends mouths
He sends food to fill them" may have been unduly happy-go-lucky. The
recent remark of an officer in a certain British regiment, that since
he and his wife had only L8000 a year between them, he felt that he
could not afford to have more than one child, was entirely shameless.
It would seem, moreover, that the comparative childlessness of modern
marriages is sometimes due not to the husband's reluctance, upon
economic grounds, to beget children, but to the wife's reluctance to
bear them, a reluctance which in some cases arises either from such
shrinking from the physical pain and sacrifice of motherhood as goes
beyond what is really justified, or from mere self-indulgent
absorption in social pursuits and pleasures. There ought to be in a
Christian marriage more of the true spirit of adventure and romance, a
greater readiness for sacrifice, a more willing acceptance of parental
responsibilities, and of the obligation of self-denial for the
children's sake. There can be no question but that modern families--
with the paradoxical exception of the families of the very poor--have
been tending to be smaller than they either need be or ought to be.
At the same time it is generally conceded that _some_ measure of
limitation is in most cases reasonable and necessary. The vitally
important thing is that such necessary and reasonable limitation
should be secured not by artificial evasion of the consequences of
intercourse, but by self-control and deliberate temporary abstinence
at certain periods from the intercourse of sex. [Footnote: It may be
suggested that in cases of genuine perplexity it is advisable to
consult, as occasion may require, either a medical man who is also a
Christian, or a wise--and preferably a married--spiritual guide.]
For the union of the sexes in marriage is according to the mind of the
Christian Church an essentially pure and holy thing. It is a sacrament
of the fusion of two personalities, whereby they are at once
individually and mutually enriched, and at the same time mystically
and spiritually knit together in such a way as to become in the sight
of GOD indissolubly one: the unity of husband and wife being
comparable, according to a famous saying of S. Paul, to the unity
which exists between Christ and His Church. Now, although, from this
point of view, the significance of married life is to a great extent
impoverished and frustrated, if intercourse is so regulated as to
render the marriage childless not in fact merely, but in intention,
yet it does not follow that procreation must be directly in view on
every individual occasion, since the mystical value of intercourse as
a spiritual sacrament of love may still exist in independence of such
intention. It is nevertheless, surely, clear that a Christian man and
his wife are morally precluded from coming together except with a deep
sense of the sacredness of what they do and of its intimate connexion
with the mysteries of life and birth, and a corresponding readiness,
in the event of conception taking place, to accept the ensuing
responsibility for the child as a sacred trust from GOD, "the Father
from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named." With the
use of "preventives" and other devices, which degrade into a mere
means of carnal satisfaction an act which is meant to bear a deeply
spiritual and religious meaning, the Christian interpretation of
marriage seems plainly and obviously incompatible.
A few words may be added with regard to the upbringing and education
of children. Here, again, there has been a reaction--which upon the
whole is good--from the unduly rigorous disciplinary methods of the
past. It may be doubted, however, whether the reaction has not in some
cases been carried too far. Children ought to be controlled and
disciplined by their parents, and no expenditure of care and thought
and tact is too great to devote to the rightful training of their
characters. But experience seems to show that parents sometimes fail
to recognize that their children grow up. It is important that in
proportion as they grow towards maturity of character and independence
of personality the strictness of parental discipline should be
gradually relaxed. At a certain stage the real influence of parents
upon their children will depend upon their refusal to assert direct
authority. Not a few of the minor tragedies of home life arise from
the ill-judged action of parents who treat as children sons and
daughters who are virtually grown up.
The problem of the religious education of children cannot here be
discussed in detail, but three or four leading principles may be
suggested.
(1) It ought not to be necessary to say that children should not be
taught to regard as true statements or doctrines which their parents
believe to be in fact false. This applies in particular to certain
views of the Bible. The ideal should be so to teach the child that in
later life he may have nothing to unlearn.
(2) When children are old enough to read they should be encouraged to
read the Gospels. They ought not, however, to read the Old Testament,
with the exception of certain Psalms and other specially selected
passages, until they are of an age to distinguish what is Christian
from what is Jewish, and to recognize the principle of religious
development.
(3) Children should be taught in the first instance the practice
rather than the theory of religion: devotions in which doctrine is
implicit, rather than doctrine as such. As their minds expand they
will ask the reasons for what they do and the meaning of the worship
in which they engage, and they will need to have suggested to them an
elementary, but not a stereotyped, theology. They should from the
beginning be encouraged to think and question freely on religious
subjects.
(4) They should occasionally accompany their parents to Church, and in
particular should from time to time be present when the latter receive
Holy Communion. They should have the service explained to them in a
simple fashion, and should be encouraged to look forward to the time
when they will be confirmed, and become communicants themselves.
PART III
THE MAINTENANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
CHAPTER I
HOW TO BEGIN
The practice of Christianity depends for its possibility upon the
existence and maintenance within the soul of an inward principle of
spiritual life towards GOD. The reason why so many nominal Christians
fail conspicuously to manifest the fruits of Christianity in their
lives is simply that they have no vital personal experience of the
power and efficacy of the life in Christ. They have never been
effectually gripped by the religion which they nominally profess. They
are not transformed, or in process of being transformed, by the Holy
Spirit's power.
The plain man, confronted by the Christian ideal, if he does not at
once dismiss it as impracticable, is apt to ask, or at least to
wonder, how he is to begin. It is a question to which no cut-and-dried
answer can be given. But at least no beginning is likely to lead to
very much in the way of fulfilment which does not sooner or later
involve something like personal "conversion" of heart. Conversions may
be sudden, or they may be gradual: but religion, if it is to be a
reality, means in the end the establishment of vital personal
relations with the living Christ. It means the acceptance of His
challenge, self-surrender to His appeal, the combination of an
acknowledged desire to serve Him with acknowledged impotence and
bankruptcy before GOD.
Sooner or later the Spirit convinces men of sin. Either a man,
essaying light-heartedly to follow Christ, discovers in the very
attempt his inability to do so, and is found traitor to his Master's
cause in the first encounter: or else, it may be, at the very outset,
the consciousness of what has been wrong in conduct and character and
motive in the past stands as a damning record between his soul and
GOD, and forbids him without repentance to take service in the
campaign of Christ at all. The consciousness of sin as a "horrid
impediment" in the soul is not, of course, true penitence until a man
has been brought to realize in the light of the Cross that the
difference between what he is and what he might have been is treachery
to Him whose man (in virtue of his baptism) he was meant to be, and
that by being what he is, and acting as he has acted, he has
consciously or unconsciously contributed to the wounds wherewith
Eternal Love is wounded in the house of His friends.
The measure of a man's penitence, whether early or late developed in
him, is very apt to be the measure of his spiritual insight and of his
spiritual sincerity. The familiar words of the hymn--
"They who fain would serve Thee best
Are conscious most of wrong within,"
are profoundly true to Christian experience. But repentance--which is
sorrow for sin in the light of the Cross--is abortive and merely
results in spiritual paralysis unless it issues in confession--that
is, frank and open acknowledgment before GOD, and if need be also
before His Church--and the seeking and finding of reconciliation and
forgiveness as the unmerited gift of GOD in Christ.
There are those in whose case the inward conviction of sin and the
realization of the need for pardon are the first impulses of awakening
spiritual life. There are others with whom it is not so. They are
conscious of the attractiveness of the Man Christ Jesus. They would
desire to be on His side and to be of the number of His disciples.
They are dimly aware, or at least they more than half suspect, that in
Him is to be found the satisfaction of a need for which their soul
cries out. With S. Peter they find themselves saying to Christ, "Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life," But they
cannot as yet with any inward reality profess themselves conscience-
stricken with regard to the past. They are not aware of themselves as
conspicuous sinners, or indeed, it may be, as sinners at all. The
experience of penitence and of Divine forgiveness must come to them,
if it is to come at all, at a later stage. It is not by that postern
that they enter upon the Way of the Spirit.
But the Way is in either case the way of fellowship, and the Spirit is
the spirit of discipline. The newly found spiritual life, however
awakened, needs to be maintained and fostered by fellowship in the
Church, by regular habits of Christian devotion, by faithful communion
in the Sacrament of Life. Plainly, if a man is not already confirmed,
his first step must be to be prepared for confirmation: if he has been
confirmed, but has lapsed from communion, he must resume the
communicant life. He needs to claim the status and privilege of
effective membership in the Body of Christ, and to form for himself a
rule of inward life and discipline. Rules of devotional life must
necessarily vary in accordance with a man's surroundings and
opportunities, and perhaps in some of their details in accordance with
a man's temperament. But at least there ought to be a rule of regular
private prayer, a rule of regular communion, a rule of Bible-reading
or "meditation," and a rule of self-denial and orderliness in daily
personal life.
CHAPTER II
PRAYER
Prayer is a difficult matter, both in theory and in practice. But it
is essential to learn to pray.
It is important to recognize that the scope of Christian prayer is
much wider than mere intercession or petition. It is the communion of
the soul with GOD, and its purpose is union with the life of GOD in
identity of purpose with His will. The beginning of prayer is a
_sursum corda_, a lifting up of the heart to GOD. It is well to
remember that true prayer is never a solitary act, even when a man
prays in solitude. We pray not as individuals but as members of a
Family, and our prayer is spiritually united and knit together with
the common prayer-life of the universal Church, of which it forms a
part. We pray, moreover, not to wrest to our private ends the purposes
of GOD, not to induce Him, so to speak, to do our wills instead of
His, but to unite our wills with His will, as children who have
confidence in their Father. True prayer is offered in the Name of
Christ--that is, it is prayed in His Spirit, according to His mind and
will. It can never, therefore, be selfish or self-centred. The Lord's
Prayer is its model and its type. A few words may be said in
explanation of this prayer.
It begins with a recognition of the common Fatherhood of GOD. It is
only as members of His Family that we can approach Him: He is in no
sense our personal or private GOD, but the common Father of us all.
And our Father is "in heaven"--that is, supreme, eternal, the Lord and
Ruler of all things. His Name is holy, and to be hallowed: it is in
reverence and deepest worship that we bow before Him. He is King, and
we pray that His Kingship may be realized, in earth as it is in
heaven: and that His will may be done--that is the supreme desire of
our hearts, and the highest object of our petitions.
And therefore we are vowed to His service: and because we are sure
that He will supply whatever we really need to that end, we pray in
confidence for daily needs both spiritual and bodily--"Give us this
day our daily bread." And remembering that we are unprofitable and
faithless and disloyal servants we ask forgiveness for our sins, well
knowing that we can only be forgiven as we ourselves are ready to
forgive. And so looking to the future and mindful of our frailty we
pray that GOD will not lead us into "temptation" or trial, without at
the same time providing a way of deliverance from the assaults of
evil. The prayer customarily ends with an ascription of praise and
glory to GOD.
That is the type and model of Christian prayer: and prayer is truly
Christian just in so far as the spirit and temper of the Lord's Prayer
inspires it. We can only pray rightly in the Holy Spirit. "We know not
what to pray for as we ought: but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities."
As for the technique of prayer, a man, on kneeling or standing to
pray, will do well to spend a short time first in silence and
recollection, waiting in stillness upon GOD, remembering His presence,
His holiness, His love, and His responsiveness to His children's cry.
Let him next make an act of adoration, spoken or unspoken, and invoke
GOD the Holy Spirit to enable him to pray aright. Then let him pour
out before GOD all that is in his heart, his troubles, his anxieties,
his perplexities, his sins: let him ask for forgiveness: let him give
thanks: let him pray for the coming of GOD'S Kingdom, in its various
aspects: commending to GOD'S guidance and protection all right causes
and aspirations in the world, in things both social and political and
international, in things ecclesiastical, in things moral and religious
and missionary: let him add personal and private intercessions for
those near and dear to him and for those whom he meets in the daily
intercourse of life: and let him end as he began, in a few moments of
quiet waiting upon GOD.
That is the general scheme of a Christian's private prayers. They
should include in due proportion the several elements of adoration,
thanksgiving, penitence, petition, and intercession. They need not be
lengthy. "Use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking." It is quality and
not quantity of prayer that counts. And the prayers of a busy man must
necessarily be short.
But it is worth while taking time and trouble over the ordering of
one's prayers. A man's intercessions, in particular, are not likely in
practice to have the width, the range, and the variety which are
desirable, unless they are planned and ordered in accordance with a
coherent scheme which is thought out in advance. It is the part of
wisdom to keep a note-book, in which names and subjects for
intercessory prayer may be jotted down and distributed over the days
of the week for use in due rotation. Such schemes, however, if drawn
up and used, should be revised from time to time, and not suffered to
become a mechanical burden or a legal bondage. There should be freedom
and spontaneity in a Christian's prayers. It is well to have rules,
and to try not to be prevented by mere slackness from keeping them.
But it is important to see to it that the self-imposed rule is so
framed as to prove genuinely conducive to reality in prayer, and
suitably adapted to opportunity and circumstance: and it is very often
a good thing from time to time, in the interests of freedom, quite
deliberately to break one's rules.
With regard to forms and methods of prayer, it is desirable that men
should learn to pray freely in their own words, or even in no words at
all. Provided a man remembers reverence, he need not stand on ceremony
with GOD. But it is advisable also to use books and manuals of prayer
--at any rate in the first instance: to use them, but not to be tied to
them. Many such manuals have been compiled and published within recent
years: the majority of them are unsatisfactory in varying degrees. A
few, however, can confidently be recommended: especially _Prayers
for the City of God_, compiled by G. C. Binyon (Longmans); _Prayers
for Common Use_ (Universities Mission to Central Africa, Dartmouth
St., Westminster); and _Sursum Corda, a Handbook of Intercession and
Thanksgiving _, arranged by W. H. Frere and A. L. Illingworth (A. E.
Mowbray and Co., Ltd.).
Prayer need not be confined to stated hours and times. Interpreting
prayer at its widest, the ideal should be to "pray without ceasing."
It was said of an early Christian writer that his life was "one
continuous prayer": and it is well to form the habit of inwardly
lifting up the heart to GOD from time to time in the midst of daily
cares and business. Where Churches are kept open it is often possible
in passing to spare time to enter and kneel for two or three minutes
in quiet and recollection before GOD: but it is perfectly possible to
pray inwardly at any time and in any environment. Fixed times of
prayer, nevertheless, there must also be: and a man should at least
pray in the morning upon rising and in the evening before going to
bed. If a time can also be secured for midday prayer, so much the
better: but this is more difficult. To have formed a really fixed and
stable habit of daily prayer is an enormous step forwards in Christian
life. Much depends upon learning to rise regularly at a fixed hour
before breakfast: and this in turn depends upon a regularity in going
to bed, which under modern conditions of life it is not always easy to
achieve. If a man is obliged to be up so late at night that it is
morally certain that he will be too tired to pray with much reality
before turning in, he should endeavour, if it is at all possible, to
secure some time for prayer at an earlier stage in the evening.
Difficulties in the life of prayer beset everybody. Thoughts have a
way of wandering, the "saying" of prayers tends to become mechanical,
moods vary, and there are times in most men's lives when they feel it
almost impossible to pray with any sense of reality. A man should not
lightly be discouraged. He may be recommended to remind himself that
GOD knows all about it, and that the resolute offering of his will to
GOD at such times, in defiance of distraction and difficulty, has
special value. It is well to take God into one's confidence. "If GOD
bores you, tell Him that He does." He is no exacting tyrant, but a
Father caring for His sons. Those who care to do so may find _Prayer
and some of its Difficulties_, by the Rev. W. J. Carey (Mowbray &
Co.), a helpful book to read in this connexion.
A final word may be said with regard to a theoretical difficulty which
many people feel in connexion with the intercessory and petitionary
sides of prayer. Since GOD'S will, it may be argued, is presumably
going to be done in any case, and since He knows the real needs both
of ourselves and of our friends better than we do, what is the point
of praying for them? To many people it may be a sufficient practical
answer to refer to the example and precept of Christ, who both taught
and practised intercessory prayer. But it is possible to go a little
further, and to point out that it appears to be GOD'S will, not merely
that such and such a thing should be done, but that it should be done
in response to our human prayers. True it is that "your Father knoweth
what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him": but our Lord
emphasized this truth, not as a round for regarding prayer as futile
or unnecessary, but as a reason for praying. For prayer is an
expression of the filial spirit towards our Father, and the more
simply and naturally we approach GOD as children, making our petitions
before Him with childlike hearts, the more truly will our prayers be
in accordance with that spirit of sonship which is the mind of Christ.
At the same time, the knowledge that our Father is wiser as well as
greater than we will forbid us to clamour for what in wisdom is denied
us, and will in general govern the spirit and scope of our petitions.
Just as our Lord points out that an earthly father, if asked for
bread, will not give his child a stone, so conversely in the
experience of every Christian it often happens that in his blindness
he asks a stone, and is given bread. But no Christian will ask
deliberately and knowingly for stones.
CHAPTER III
SELF-EXAMINATION AND REPENTANCE
"The unexamined life," said Plato, "is not worth living." Similar
advice was given by Marcus Aurelius. The practice of self-examination,
therefore, is not distinctive of Christianity: it is an obvious
dictate of wisdom, wherever life and conduct are regarded seriously,
that a man should from time to time take stock of himself in the light
of his ideals and learn to know and recognize in detail where and how
he has fallen short, and what are the besetting sins and weaknesses
against which he must contend.
The Christian man will judge and try his life by the standards of
Christ, with growing sensitiveness of conscience as spiritual
experience deepens: not shrinking from the confession of sin and
failure, desiring not to be self-deceived, but to know and to
acknowledge the truth. There is nothing in this of priggishness or
unreality. It is a necessary discipline. The Christian life is meant
to bear the fruit of a character developing in growing likeness to the
character of Christ: but none is suddenly made perfect: the old Adam
dies hard: and the Christian by confession of repeated failure may at
least learn the lesson of humility and self-distrust.
The rightful complement of self-distrust is trust in GOD: the rightful
issue of self-examination and confession is the realization of divine
forgiveness, fresh courage, and a new start. The very core of the
Gospel is here. He who has bidden men forgive those who trespass
against them "unto seventy times seven" is not to be outdone in
generosity by man. But in order that sin may be forgiven it must be
acknowledged as sin against GOD and treachery to Christ, and repented
of with true sorrow of heart. Repentance is not mere self-contempt,
self-pity, or remorse. It is sorrow for sin, which has for its motive
the love of GOD and the realization that human sin meant and means in
the experience of GOD the Cross.
Nothing so deepens the religious life as true repentance, nor is there
anything so fatal to true religion as self-righteousness. "If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us." "To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." But the
first prerequisite of repentance is self-knowledge--a difficult
matter. Gross carnal offences, strong and flagrant sins, if such there
be, are obvious and upon the surface. The subtler sins of the spirit--
thoughtlessness, for example, or snobbishness or priggishness and
pride--though we are quick to remark upon them in others, are apt in
our own case to pass undetected. It is the Spirit who convinces men of
sin. Only as we are resolute to enter into "the mind of the Spirit"
can we hope to know ourselves as in the sight of GOD we really are.
The matter is complicated by the fact that those who, as things are,
most systematically practise self-examination and confession of sin
too often view the matter in a somewhat narrowly ecclesiastical
spirit, and make use of forms of self-examination which mix up real
and serious moral offences with "sins" which are merely ceremonial,
trivial, or imaginary, as though the two stood precisely upon the same
level. "One must abstain from sexual sin _and_ not go to dissenting
places of worship; one must not steal _and_ must be sure to abstain
from meat on Fridays." A man's own sense of reality should enable him
to guard against this sort of thing, and if fixed forms of self-
examination are used, to use them with discretion.
The forms most commonly suggested in manuals of devotion are based
upon the Ten Commandments. This is in accordance with the teaching of
the compilers of the English Prayer-book, who, after bidding intending
communicants to "search and examine" their "own consciences (and that
not lightly, and after the manner of dissemblers with GOD)," proceed
to lay down that "the way and means thereto is: First, to examine your
lives and conversations by the rule of God's commandments: and
whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by
will, word or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to
confess yourselves to Almighty GOD, with full purpose of amendment of
life."
The Commandments are, however, as they stand, both negative in form
and Judaistic in character, and if used in this way as a "rule" of
Christian conduct must be spiritualized and reinterpreted in the light
of the Gospel. The second and fourth Commandments, in particular, are
in their literal significance obsolete for Christians: it is a false
Puritanism which would forbid sculpture and religious symbolism in the
adornment of a Christian church, nor is any one in the modern world
likely to confuse the symbol with the thing symbolized: while the
observance of the Sabbath is part of that older ceremonial "law" from
which S. Paul insisted that Christian converts should be free (Coloss.
ii. 16). There is, however, a spiritual idolatry which consists in
allowing any other object than the glory of GOD and the doing of His
will to have the primary place in the determination of conduct--there
are men who worship money, or comfort, or ambition, or their own
domestic happiness, or even themselves. And the Commandment about the
Sabbath, though it has no literal value to-day (and certainly no
direct bearing upon the sanction or significance of Sunday) may serve
to suggest the important principle that a man is responsible before
GOD for the use he makes of his time, and that it is a religious duty
(not confined to any particular day of the week) to distribute it in
due proportion, according to circumstance and opportunity, with proper
regard to the rightful claims of work, of worship, and of recreation
and rest. The remaining Commandments are capable of being similarly
interpreted as suggesting broad positive principles rather than as
merely prohibiting wrong actions of a particular and definite kind:
and so treated they form as convenient a framework as any other for a
scheme of questions for self-examination.
It is possible, however, that some men may prefer to use as their
basis some standard more distinctively Christian than the ancient law
of Judaism--for example, the Beatitudes (Matt. v. 1-12) or the "fruits
of the Spirit" (Gal. v. 22). A man will in any case do well either to
frame or to adapt his own scheme for self-examination, with special
regard paid to whatever he may discover by experience to be a
besetting sin or weakness, or a temptation to which he is particularly
exposed. It should be remembered that the measure of what is wrong in
a man's life is the measure of the contrast between his character and
that of Christ, and that the chief flaws in Christian character and
achievement (which are also those most likely to pass undetected) are
not uncommonly such as fall under the head of "sins of omission"
rather than of commission--the leaving undone of what ought to have
been done, the failure to exhibit positively in relation to GOD and
man the qualities of faith and hope and love. A man should ask himself
wherein he has chiefly failed, and come short of the glory of GOD:
whether he is loyally observing any self-imposed rule of life and
discipline, and fulfilling any resolutions which may have been made,
or any obligations which have been undertaken. Having made in this
manner an honest attempt to discover his own shortcomings and failures
before GOD, let him with equal honesty confess them, seek forgiveness,
and in the spirit of repentance and restored sonship start again.
The late Lieutenant Donald Hankey, better known as "A Student in
Arms," criticizes Churchmen of a certain type as being unwholesomely
preoccupied with the thought of their sins, and allowing their
consciences to become a burden to them. They should, he says, 'think
less of themselves, and trust the Holy Spirit more. The advice is
excellent: but morbid scrupulosity is not a common fault of English
laymen. The habit, as Mr. Chesterton expresses it, of "chopping up
life into small sins with a hatchet" is, of course, to be avoided: but
the purpose of self-examination and self-knowledge is not to encourage
morbid introspection, but by frank acknowledgment and repentance to
get rid of the past and with recovered hope and serenity to reach
forward towards the future. A man cannot "walk in the Spirit" unless
he is inwardly "right with GOD."
With regard to sacramental confession, the rule of the Church of
England is sane and clear. It may be expressed by saying that "none
_must_, but all _may_, and some _should_" make use of it. In the case
of a conscience seriously burdened in such a way that a man hesitates
to present himself for Holy Communion unabsolved, to go to confession
is obviously the right remedy. There are other cases in which men find
by experience that it helps them to be more honest and candid with
themselves, with GOD, and with the Church, if they go to confession
from time to time as a piece of self-discipline and a needed spiritual
tonic. Yet others discover that they flounder less in spiritual
things, and that their religious life is deepened and made stronger,
if they place themselves for a time under wise direction. Systematic
direction, of course, has obvious dangers. It may tend to destroy
independence of character. It may cause a man to become "priest-
ridden." But the dangers are not inevitable, and there are without
doubt cases in which it is of value. Much obviously depends upon the
wisdom and common sense of the director. The Prayer-book refers
penitents to a "discreet and learned" minister of GOD'S Word. If a man
proposes to practise habitual confession he will do well to assure
himself of the discretion and learning of the priest whose help he
seeks.
The method of making a sacramental confession is simple. Self-
examination is made beforehand, the results being, if need be, written
down, either in full, or in the form of notes to assist the memory. A
first confession should cover the whole life so far as remembered,
from childhood upwards: subsequent confessions the period since the
last was made. The confession should aim at completeness, an effort
being made to remember not only specific acts of wrongdoing, but
slight failings and weaknesses of character and the general lines and
tendencies of faulty spiritual development. Symptoms should, if
possible, be distinguished from causes, habits and tendencies and
besetting sins from isolated acts. Cases in which a sin has been
deliberate should be noted as such: but there should be no dwelling
upon extenuating circumstances or intermingling of claims to virtues
or graces of character with the admission of defects. No names may be
mentioned, nor may third persons be incriminated by any form of words
which would enable the confessor to recognize their identity. The
priest hears the confession sitting in a chair. The penitent kneels
beside him and confesses as follows:--"I confess to GOD Almighty, the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, before the whole company of
heaven, and before you, that I have sinned in thought, word, and deed,
by my own fault. Especially I accuse myself that (since my last
confession, which was...ago) I have committed the following sins....
[Here follows the confession in detail: after which]. ... For these
and all my other sins which I cannot now remember, I humbly ask pardon
of GOD, and of you, father, penance, counsel and absolution. Wherefore
I ask GOD to have mercy upon me, and you to pray for me to the Lord
our GOD. Amen."
The confessor then gives advice and counsel according to his wisdom,
commonly imposes a penance, and if assured of the sincerity of the
penitent, pronounces absolution according to the form prescribed in
the Prayer-book Office for the Visitation of the Sick.
CHAPTER IV
CORPORATE WORSHIP AND COMMUNION
The really essential thing is the Communion. There may be minor
outward differences as to the manner of its celebration: you shall
find in one parish a tradition of Puritan bareness, in another a full
and rich ceremonial symbolism, with lights and vestments. A man may
have his personal preferences, but it is a mistake to attach undue
importance either to the presence or to the absence of the external
adjuncts of worship. What matters is the Body and Blood of Christ.
A man must have his own regular rule with regard to Communion. To
communicate spasmodically or upon impulse at irregular intervals is
not the way to build up a stable Christian character. Where
circumstances make possible the leading of a fairly regular life and
give adequate opportunity for preparation beforehand, weekly communion
is the best rule. Where this is not possible, a fortnightly or even a
monthly rule may in particular cases be the best.
Preparation for Communion should be real, but need not be elaborate.
It should be made overnight, and should include a review of the period
since the last Communion was made, prayers for pardon and new
resolves, if possible a short meditation on the essential meaning of
the Sacrament, and the selection of some particular theme to be the
focus of intercession at the service itself.
At the actual service it is well to arrive early, with a few moments
to spare for quiet and recollected prayer before the Liturgy begins.
The first part of the service is preparatory. Any pauses or intervals
should be filled up by private prayers.[Footnote: Forms and
suggestions which, may be used by those who find them helpful are
provided for this purpose in any manual of devotion.] From the moment
of consecration until the end of the service the mind should be
concentrated as far as possible upon the thought of Christ's realized
Presence. A man should go up to the altar to receive Communion as one
desiring to meet his Lord and to be renewed in Him, returning
subsequently to his place to render thanks for so great a Gift. When
the service is over it is best not to hurry out of church, but to
linger for further thanksgiving and prayer as occasion serves.
It is an ancient rule or custom of the Church to receive Holy
Communion fasting, giving precedence to the food of the soul over that
of the body. To insist rigidly upon such a rule in any and every set
of circumstances is a piece of unintelligent and unchristian legalism:
but many persons are of opinion that to observe it wherever it is
reasonably possible to do so makes for reality. There is a real value
in the element of asceticism and self-discipline involved in the
effort to rise early and come fasting to church: and the fast may be
interpreted as a kind of outward sacrament of the inward reality of
spiritual preparation--a preparation of the body corresponding to the
preparation of the soul, It is, moreover, an advantage of the early
morning hour that the mind is undistracted by the occupations and
diversions of the day. For all these reasons the early morning
Communion is to be preferred to Communion at a later hour.
Whether a man is a weekly communicant or not, he should _in any case
be present as a worshipper_ at Holy Communion Sunday by Sunday, and
should regard attendance at the weekly Eucharist as the most essential
part of church-going. No one who makes it a rule of his life to be
present on Sundays and other festivals of the Church at Holy Communion
ever has cause to regret having done so.
A man who for any reason (_e.g._ by the nature of his employment) is
debarred from attending regularly on Sundays should, if possible,
secure an opportunity of regular attendance at Holy Communion on a
week-day. There are usually churches to be found, at least in the
towns, which have an early morning Eucharist daily throughout the
week: and advantage can also be taken of this if on any particular
occasion the regular Sunday Communion has been missed. If neither
Sunday nor week-day opportunities are available, the need should be
met by what is known as "spiritual communion": that is to say, a man
should read over the Liturgy in private, unite himself in spirit with
the Eucharist as celebrated in the particular church with which he
happens to be most familiar (as representing for him the worship of
the Church Universal), and pray that he may receive the spiritual
benefits of Communion though deprived for the time being of the actual
Sacrament. Apart from the "early service," which is now almost
universal, schemes of worship upon Sunday mornings vary in different
parishes. In some churches Matins and Litany are sung and a sermon
preached, a late Eucharist without music being commonly celebrated
about noon: in other parishes Matins is said quietly without music at
a comparatively early hour, and the Eucharist is solemnly sung, with a
sermon, as the principal service of the forenoon, usually without more
than a very limited number of communicants, partly because if the bulk
of the congregation communicate at a sung Eucharist the service
becomes intolerably long, and partly because the majority of those
desiring to receive Communion have done so fasting at an earlier hour.
In large towns a man can usually find churches of either type
according to his preference. In "single-church areas" he ought for the
sake of fellowship and good example to conform, as a rule, to what is
customary. It is desirable, in a general way, to be identified with
the corporate worship of the parish: but it is worth remarking that,
apart from the weight due to this general consideration, there is no
particular sacredness about the hour of eleven o'clock, and a man who
has communicated before breakfast, and perhaps contemplates
attendance, later on, at Evensong, may not unreasonably feel justified
in devoting the forenoon of Sunday (which is usually his solitary
morning's leisure in the week) to other purposes than those of
worship. If the preacher is worth listening to (which is not
invariably the case) it is a good thing to go and hear him: and it is
well, therefore, to attend one or other of the services (morning or
evening) at which a sermon is preached. But it is not essential to
attend both: and the question may be raised whether one sermon a
Sunday is not as much as most men can profitably digest. A sermon is
in any case (except at the Eucharist) a detachable appendix to a
Church service; and it is both possible and legitimate either to
attend the service and leave the church before the sermon, or to avoid
the service and come in time to hear the sermon, according to
preference or opportunity.
As regards external details of observance, kneeling, and not
squatting, should be the attitude adopted for prayer. It is customary
to turn eastwards for the Creed, and in some churches, though not in
others, to kneel at the reference to the Incarnation in the course of
the Nicene Creed. It is also a common practice in some churches to
genuflect (_i.e._ to drop for a moment upon one knee) on rising from
one's place to go up to the altar to communicate, in reverence for the
Blessed Sacrament. A man should adapt his personal usage in these
minor details to whatever appears to be customary in the particular
church in which he is worshipping.
It is often extremely difficult for the clergy to know personally the
men of their congregations, since it is rare in most neighbourhoods
for the men to be at home during the hours when it is possible for the
clergy to visit. In these circumstances a man ought to be willing to
take the initiative in making himself known to the clergy of his
parish, and to co-operate as far as possible in any effort which may
be made, through parochial Church Councils or otherwise, to develop
the spirit of fellowship in a congregation. There is very often about
Anglican Church worship a stiffness and frigidity which badly needs to
be broken down. Appropriated seats, where they exist, are a particular
curse, and anything which can be done in the way of abandoning chosen
seats, even if "bought and paid for," to strangers in the interests of
charity is a real piece of Christian service. A stranger ought not to
be made to feel uncomfortable, but to be welcomed in every possible
way. The ideal is that every church, in every part of it, should be
free and open at all times to all comers.
CHAPTER V
THE DEVOTIONAL USE OF THE BIBLE
It is to be feared that the habit of reading the Bible in private for
purposes of devotion has largely dropped out of modern usage, partly
by reason of the general stress and urgency of modern life, and partly
because men do not quite know what to make of the Bible when they read
it. They are aware of the existence of what are called "critical
questions," but they do not know precisely the kind of differences
which criticism has made. It is a pity to acquiesce in an attitude of
this kind, and it is greatly to be desired that the habit of reading
the Bible regularly and becoming familiar with its contents should be
revived.
There are two distinct methods of reading the Bible which are of
value. One is to take a particular book and to read it straight
through like a novel, in order to get the impression of the writer's
message as a whole. Advantage may be taken of occasional opportunities
of Sunday or week-day leisure for this purpose. If the book is studied
with the help of a good commentary, so much the better. A man who
would be ashamed to be wholly unfamiliar with modern or classical
literature ought to be equally ashamed to be wholly unfamiliar with
the literature of the Hebrews.
The second method of reading the Bible consists in the devotional
study of particular passages, sometimes called by the formidable name
of "meditation." The parts of the Bible best adapted for this purpose
are the Gospels, certain portions of the Epistles, many of the Psalms,
and portions of the greater Prophets. The essence of the method is to
read over a short passage quietly after prayer for spiritual guidance,
to browse over it for a few minutes and follow out any train of
thought which may be suggested by it, to apply its message in whatever
way may seem most real and practical to the spiritual problems of
immediate daily life, and to conclude with prayer and resolution for
the future. It is not practicable for the majority of men to make such
a "meditation" a matter of daily habit, though this may easily be
possible for people of leisure. But it may be suggested that it is
both practicable and abundantly worth while for ordinary people to
allot at least half an hour a week for such a purpose. Our fathers
unquestionably fed and nurtured their souls to an extraordinary degree
by spiritual reading. It ought to be possible for modern people, in
spite of modern distractions, to acquire and maintain the capacity to
do the same.
CHAPTER VI
ALMSGIVING AND FASTING
The two things were originally closely connected. Men fasted in order
to give to others the savings which resulted from a reduced
expenditure on personal needs. "Lent savings" represent a modern
revival of this idea. The essence of Christian almsgiving is that it
should be the expression of Christian charity or love: and love means
the willingness to serve others, at cost to self. Gifts and
subscriptions which represent merely the largess of a man's
superfluity and cost nothing in the way of personal self-denial are
not really in this sense almsgiving. The Gospel prefers the widow's
mite to the rich man's large but not really generous contribution, in
cases where the larger sum represents the lesser personal cost.
It was the rule of the ancient Jewish Law that a man should give away
a tenth part of what he possessed, but this ought not to be adopted
under modern conditions as a literal precept. The poor cannot afford
to spare so large a fraction of their incomes. The wealthy can in many
cases give away a much larger proportion without feeling particularly
stinted. It is the duty of every man whose income is above the line of
actual poverty (_i.e._ exceeds what is necessary for the literal
subsistence in food, shelter, and clothing of himself and those
dependent upon him for support) to consider with his own conscience
before GOD what proportion should be set aside for educational and
other purposes, and what proportion should be directly given away in
charity. Anonymous subscriptions are the best, and the amount
available for distribution should be carefully allocated as between
rival claims. Details, of course, must vary: but a certain proportion
should in any case be given for the purposes of directly religious
work at home and abroad. A man who really believes in the universality
of the Gospel will in particular subscribe to the full extent of his
capacity to foreign missions.
With regard to fasting it has been suggested in an earlier chapter of
this book that there should be some personal rule of self-denial in a
man's life. A table of fasts and days of abstinence is printed in the
Prayer-book, though the Church of England does not normally prescribe
in detail how such days are to be observed. It is worth remarking that
the spirit is not necessarily in contradiction to the letter; but
meticulous outward observances are not of the essence of Christianity,
nor is it desirable to obtrude such observances in an ostentatious
manner in mixed society. The rule of the Gospel with regard both to
almsgiving and to fasting is that such things should be done in
secret. It is usual, however, for Church people, at least in normal
circumstances, to pay some special regard to the observance of Lent,
and particularly of Holy Week, as a season of fasting and self-denial,
and also (with a less degree of strictness) to the four weeks of
Advent as leading up to Christmas. It is a good thing to enter into
the observance of these and other seasons of the Christian year so far
as circumstances permit: and at the least to make a point, if it is at
all possible, of reading during Lent and Advent a more or less serious
book of a religious or theological kind, or in other ways endeavouring
to deepen, by some special practice or observance, the inward
devotional life. The Sunday Collects, Epistles, and Gospels are of
course appointed with special reference to the significance of the
various seasons in the Church's year, and provide suitable passages
for private meditation at such times. Advantage may also be taken of
the special courses of sermons and additional services provided in
almost every parish during the seasons of Lent and Advent. Loyalty to
the Brotherhood in matters even of minor observance is a great
principle to be borne in mind in this connexion. There is usually a
method in the Church's madness, and her prescriptions and counsels are
the product of a very considerable empirical acquaintance with the
workings of the human soul.
THE END