These divisions of the Church mean to me cargo vessels, and if for any
reason they can't carry, they should go out of commission. If one is
beyond repair or the type has been superseded, it should go out
permanently. We continue to run old three-deckers for fighting battles,
or Columbian caravels for freighting purposes. It appears to some to
cause a temporary setback to fighting efficiency to send a once
serviceable ship to the scrap heap, but it is the best and cheapest in
the end. In the North Sea fishery I saw hundreds of sailing craft that
had helped to make fortunes, that had kept the markets full, and that
still had years of life, laid up, and then sold practically for old
junk. Why? Simply because swift steam-trawlers had been found to do the
work better.
These sub-organizations, as far as I am concerned, are existing merely
to help men to work in the spiritual field. They are not like some
yachts, just to carry bunting and paint to be admired. As for church
affiliation, what I like to see is a hungry man going where he will be
fed and get strength. I trust it does not seem flippant to say that I
look on all church organizations in the same way, and that the tradition
of a long past suggests to me the inefficiency of a dotage, quite as
much as the stimulating aroma of potency which, as in the case of some
wines, can only be acquired by the lapse of time. Some will say that
this Modernism has no sense of obligation, no sense of veneration, makes
no allowance for the idiosyncrasies of others. Well, that may be so. I
may plead, on the contrary, that what we call the ancient Church was the
youthful Church. The Church of the twentieth century is the ancient,
grown-up Church.