THE CHURCH AND PROGRESS.

NZ Truth, Issue 76, 1 December 1906, Page 3

THE CHURCH AND PROGRESS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Let me thank you for the prominence given to my letter ■m your issue of the 17th inst.. and for your criticism upon the same. Many of your remarks I heartily endorse as they are m perfect . accord with the text of my former article. You ask: "Would he (Clergyman) have us do-' minated by the church ?" This question is put with evident indignation which would be quite justifiable had I not already answered it emphatically m the negative. Quoting from my letter, I said : "That time has gone by. and there is not the slightest evidence that it will ever return—nor is it desirable that it should." There is one remark m your article to which I take exception. You say "Chuirch and religion are not consonant with progress." It is to this statement that I confine my present remarks. There are those who look upon Progress wijh suspicion, as the enemy of the Church. There are those who tell us that if we acceit modern ideas of Progress we must inevitably renounce the Church. Some tell us this m fear and sorrow, and others shout for joy over what they believe to be the destruction of all the churches. The former bid us close our eyes and ears and take refuge m ancient temples ; the latter bid us come out from temples altogether, and join them m demolishing those obstacles m the way of Progress, which only serve to hide the sunlight and cast cold shadows on man's pathway. Thus a church like my own finds itself between two fires. On the one hand I am assailed by the old churches ; on the other I am attacked by the radical Philistine, who looks upon all churches as only throwing dust m ' vco:'le's eyes. Will you permit me to surest a view to this ouestion somewhat different from that either of old church or no-church ? First of all, what, do we mean by Progress ? It is cuute plain that it does not ni^sn pioinr round m a circle. Progress means advance from one noint lowards another, the latter being: considered a 'higher point than the former. A mill-wheel does not progress. A plant progresses when it _r_duallv. step by step, unfolds its hidden nature, and., under the influence p[ sunshine ami iain, bursts forth m all tJie beauty and marvel of flower and fruit An animal progresses when from a life germ it slowly passes throiJp-1? •a'ii stage of embryonic life and «it lenMli reaches the fully develoi\°d form of its species. Progress is from the undeveloped to the fully developed, from the im perfect to thp perfect. By. human progress we mean the advance of.man towards fuller manhood and womanhood, fronf t'he undeveloped to the developed human brim But what is human being? I answer : Mind, conscience, heart. The man is the rational and the spiritual. The progress of man, therefore, is m the rational and m the spiritual. This is his distinctive life. Otherwise he is not distinguishable from a brute. Of course you may say, man is just a brute, and his progress consists m century by century becoming a clever and cleverer brute. But m pur calm momente this view will not commend itself to> us. Even such a progress, however, would still be procress m mind. Mind would , become more and more the mark, instead of unreflecting,'unideal instinct. For a human being to progress is to become more a human bein?—a being that is governed not by passion, or impulse or the desires of the moment, or individual appetite, but by ideala of truth, rational order, beauty', social sympathy, harmony and love. Well, man has made some progress from the animal towards the human. No fact is better established than; this.i We may have brutes among us, and we may often be hypocrites, but our Ideals are there, however far short we come of them m practice. Now, how, have these Ideals been reached ? By growth—a growth m which the lower has been made use of by the higher, just as an animal makes use of protoplasm. The mysterious force oalled "vegetable life" reveals itself under certain conditions, when the crust of the earth becomes cool enough. So under certain conditions human life reveals itself—the mysterious force called self-conscious, [rational, spiritual man. These ideals have been reached, man has become man, by the inner, hidden force which has war ought him, just as an inner, hidden force produces a flower when certain conditions are fulfilled. ( But to produce the finest flowers artificial selection is necessary, and you must conserve results. What you gain this year must be carried on to next year. The finest blooms and fruits could not be reached without the husbanded experience and skill of many gardeners. So to produce the finest manhood and womanhood, you must conserve results. How is this done ? Partly by heredity. But heredity will not account for all- Many generations of carpenters will noit produce a finished carpenter, though it may perhaps make it easier for one to learn the art. If, however, you establish a guild of carpenters, then the art and skill of one generation may be handed on to another, and the unaccountable genius of individuals may be conserved for all. This, then, is the great role which old institutions and organised societies play m the promotion of human progress—they conserve ideals, and pass them on from generation to generation. The socialism which ignores the individual genius is folly ; so, also, is the individualism which ignores the influence of the social environment, and of the social conservation of energy. So much for the question, what do we mean by Progress ? Now, what do we mean by the Church ? We mean by it simple what by reading history we see it to have been, and what we think we see that it is, and might be. Apart from all dogmas about the Church, the Church we regard as a grand conserving institution for handine on from generrtion to preneration the great spiritual Ideals of the race—the hotbed m which such Ideals are nursed and Fostered, and f-rprinu; up into larger, fuller ~rowth. It is, at least, one of the great social institutions m which what mi^ht otherwise be lost is preserved, as the growth of years is preserved m the tree. The Church is the great spiritual societv m which we are made to feel our affinity with .Jesus of Nazareth —Jesus our social is- '<•■•■" Brother, who is the Christ of Humanity. That the Church has i

come shamefully far short of this grand Ideal, is true ; but you cannot are;ue from the perversion and abuse of an institution against its real nature. The family and the State have also been perverted and abused ; and if we are told, that therefore the state and family should be abolished, we can . reply that the individual, too, has been perverted and abused, and should . by the same logic be likewisp annihilated, 1 . If ..such" be Progress, and if such be the true Ideal of the Church, then it is easy to see the relation m which the one stands to the other. . The Church's foundation is not "Miracle," but 1 the "Spiritual Nature of Man." iWhat has science to object to this foundation ? Only if science can be shown to lead to materialism, and ! the animal, can it be opposed to j the Church. I do not wonder that many hold aloof from the churches ; but is not a church the need of our times and country— a religious society bound together not by creeds but by religious Trust. Hope and Love, whose aim would be to educate, organise, and direat the moral and spiritual forces of quit nature ? 'I ' know that true Progress and the Church are one.— Yours, etc., CLERGYMAN.