I cannot but feel astonished and grieved at the perversity of those
who[19] persist in looking upon Mr. Ruskin as altogether a noxious kind
of a scribbler, and likely to do much injury by the unflagging constancy
with which he perseveres in pointing his finger at all our weak and sore
places. And yet it cannot be said that even if he does "lade men with
burdens grievous to be borne," he himself "touches not the burdens with
one of his fingers."
[19] It was but yesterday that a voice reached me from one of the
remotest of our Ultima Thules amongst these mountains, affirming,
with something like self-gratulation, that he "cared less than
nothing for anything Mr. Ruskin might write outside the subject of
Art!" Yet one of the best of our Bishops--and we have many good
ones--wrote by the same post: "Mr. Ruskin's letters are full of
suggestive thoughts, and must do anyone good, if only in getting
one out of the ruts." But, alas! against this I must needs set the
dictum of another dignitary of the Church, an intensely practical
man: "I have a great reverence for Mr. Ruskin's genius, and for
what he has written in time past, and on this account I would
rather not say a single word in comment upon these letters;" and
again--"I really could not discuss them seriously."
But let us consider this last letter. Is not every word of it
true--severely and austerely true,--but still true? But yet here still
the fault remains (though I say it with the utmost deference,
remembering that, after all, I have infinitely more to learn than I have
to teach), the fault remains that the truth is put too keenly, too
incisively, to be classed with practical truths.
Yes, the petitions of the Lord's Prayer are for a perfect state in this
life. We do pray for a Paradise upon earth, where either temptation
shall no longer exist, or where sin shall have lost its power to injure
by losing its power to allure. But will the most incessant prayer,
individual, combined, or congregational, ever bring us to perfection?
Alas! my friend, you would gladly persuade us so; you would lead the way
yourself, but that the first half-dozen steps you take would have, or
have long ago, proved to you that sin is ever present, even in the best
and purest of men.
I trust they are very few indeed who are so easily persuaded by the
conceited self-sufficiency of the "scientific people" to cease from
prayer under the belief that all things move on under the control of
inflexible laws, which neither prayer nor the will of God, if God has a
will, can change or modify. Magee[20] has a valuable note on the subject
of the "Consistency of Prayer with the Divine Immutability," in which he
puts this truth in a mathematical form. He says, "The relation of God to
man + prayer is different from the relation of God to man - prayer. Yet
God remains constant. It is man who is the better or the worse for
prayer or no prayer."
[20] On the Atonement.
It is pleasant to reflect that with the simple-minded Christian the
belief in Christ, because he knows that Christ loved him and died for
him, is exceedingly little moved by these so-called scientific doubts.
The propounders of these entangling questions move in a region where he
would feel cold and his life would be crushed out of him, and he
declines to follow science at so great a cost, believing besides that
science might often be better termed nescience, for he has no faith in
such science. Instead of being presented with clear deductions, drawn
from observation and experience, he sees but too plainly that, as each
philosopher frames his own belief out of his inner consciousness, there
cannot fail to come out a very large variety of beliefs, and that, if
the religion of the Bible were exploded and became an obsolete thing,
its place would be usurped by a motley crowd of infinitely varied creeds
of every shape and hue, each claiming for itself, with more or less
modesty and reserve, but with just equal rights, the supremacy over
men's consciences. And in the meanwhile, women and children and the
poor, and in fact all who are not altogether highly, transcendentally
intellectual, must, for want of the requisite faculties and
opportunities, do without any religion at all. I suppose most people can
see this, and therefore will pay a very limited attention to the claims
and pretensions of science-worship.
I come to a sentence where once more the proclivity for satire breaks
out for a minute: "But in modern days the first aim of all Christians is
to place their children in circumstances where the temptations (which
they are apt to call opportunities) may be as great and as many as
possible; where the sight and promise of 'all these things' in Satan's
gift may be brilliantly near." I was reading this from the MS. to a
mother, accomplished and amiable, who of course thought in a moment of
her own little flock of sons and daughters, all the objects of the
tenderest care and solicitude; and she felt that she at least had not
deserved this stroke. But the truth is that we must read this sentence
as we read our Lord's, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:
I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. x. 34). The sword was not
the object of our Lord's coming, but the unhappy result through sin. He
came to bring peace on earth, yet was He "set for the fall of many in
Israel." The wisest and best of parents place their sons in the
profession or position in life where temptations abound, not because
they desire to see them bow before Satan, and become the possessors of
"all these things" which he promises "I will give thee," but because
there is no position in the active life of the world that is free from
temptations; and those temptations are the strongest and most numerous
often just where the real and undoubted advantages are the greatest and
most numerous. Mr. Ruskin, with a strong and legitimate figure of
speech, is simply putting an inevitable result as the work of apparent
design.
If the distinction between the glory and the power of the kingdom of God
and the false lustre of earthly power and worldly allurements is not
sufficiently dwelt upon in our pulpits, none will regret it more than
the earnest preachers in whom the modern Church of England abounds. If
it be granted, as I think it must be granted, that the highest wisdom is
not always exercised in the choice and preparation of our subjects of
preaching, every true-hearted and loyal Churchman must be grateful for
the fearless candour of the writer of the letters we have been
considering, in pointing out to us our prevailing deficiencies, even if
he does not, which is not his province, point out how to attain
perfection.