RELIGION OF CHURCHES AND OF RATIONALISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14566, 31 December 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

RELIGION OF CHURCHES AND OF RATIONALISM.

BY DR. J. GILES.

As timber-girt and bound together in a liuilUir.<* cannot bo loosed by shaking, so the heart that is stablis-tied by advised counsel shall fear at 110 time.—Eceles. xxii., 16. Tins text would be very suitable tor inscription over the entrance to a Rationalist lodge, but it is doubtful whether the Churches could adopt, it with equal confidence. They seem to be in a constant state of uneasiness, seeking some way of recovering their hold on the public mind, and 'discussing what should be their attitude to the working (lasses, and to Socialism. and generally to social and political problems, and they hope to capture, the rising generation by introducing " Bible teaching" in the public schools. No doubt a, committee of Rationalists could make a selection from the Bible of passages suitable for insertion in school reading books, but we think the Bible is on the whole a very unfit- book for the teaching of a rational and humanist religion m the public schools. Wo also object- to the insidious device of a referendum which reckons on tho indolence, indifference, and perplexity of parents for an affiniwtivo answer to the deliberately vague and unexplained question whether they desire Bible teaching in the schools or not. THE CHURCH IN HISTORY. The Christian Church needs the''fullest credit it can claim as a set-off to the tet rible tale of ambition, avarice, .and corruption of malignant bigotry and ruthless cruelty which for 12 centuries rolled through the ages a torrent of blood and fire until it was partly stemmed and quenched by the purifying waters from trie fountains opened by the renascence of learning and the Protestant Reformation. And some set-off may be found in the success with which the Church by its superior knowledge and organising talent welded into the coherence of national polity, the fierce and free races that subverted the Roman Empire. The Church also did many works of charity, and sometimes protected the oppressed against baronial and feudal tyranny, and it must not be forgotten that through her worst times she yet could nourish many saintly lives of men and women. At the very time of the infamous crusade against the Albigehses there flourished in her bosom the fragrant and beautiful virtues of Francis of Assisi, whoso love of men and animals and birds, and of all nature anticipated the very spirit of the modern "atheist" poet, expressed in the ecstatic exclamation:

" Earth, ocean, air; (wotherlioo.! ■" Yos ! says the Christian apologist, the Church went wrong because of its union with the ruling power of the State and forgetting the teaching of its founder. But then why is the Christian angry with Gibbon for exposing the means by which this acquisition of temporal power was accomplished For it was certainly not done by the sweet reasonableness of the Sermon on the Mount, or tho virtues of a St. Francis. It was rather by the fiery zeal and fervid fanaticism generated by the expectation of the speedy coming of the kingdom of the Son of Alan, in which the elect believers should have crowns and thrones, and their oppressors be brought to confusion and shame, as well as by the politic organisation of the Church, that tho imperial genius of Constantine • was persuaded in what quarter lay hi» best chance of effectual support. For the vame* spirit animated the Church when climbing to power as after she attained it, and 1 she has fully justified her boast of being "ever the same." j

PRESENT-DAY ROMANISM, A few modern incidents may be cited to help our judgment how far the Soman Church is being influenced by the evolutionary current which is so manifestly moving the Protestant communities in the direction of a more liberal theology. Some years ago Mr. St. George Mivart, a biolologisfc of some distinction entered the barque of St. Peter, but lie had hardly taken his seat before he began to make the boat rock rather inconveniently, He wrote articles in the magazines, among which ho maintained that unbaptised infants might have a fairly good time in the lower regions. These essays were con demxied and Mr. Mivart submitted, but shortly before his death he again began to give trouble, and Cardinal Vaaghan drew up .1 confession of faith which he required , him to sign on pain of excommunication. Mr. Mivart was willing to sign the confession if His Eminence would assure him that ho might at the same time hold opinions plainly at variance with it. Then lie was told that what was the matter with him was not intellectual scrupulosity but moral perversity and pride, and so the excommunication fell. Then, after his death, there was a wretched wrangle over his bones, but the lav/ of England vindicated the dead scientist's rights of sepulture. A very similar' case occurred not long ago, when the late Father Tyrrell, who had followed Newman into the fold, was struck with dismay by the Papal encyclical against modernism, in which the notions most dear to tho Late cardinal and himself were unsparingly condemned. Father Tyrrell thereupon let himself go a little, * and wrote for the Times newspaper a scathing criticism of the encyclical, which, of course, was followed by the inevitable excommunication, which again was followed by a squabble over the bones of tho deceased priest; but this was settled by the charity of some Catholic friends, who made some sort of compromise between their affection for the deceased father and their ecclesiastical obedience. Then there i 3 the case of the Abbe Loisy, the learned theologian, and the most o.blo opponent of Harnack, the great Rationalising Protestant professor of divinity. The Vatican authorities would doubtless be pleased to see Harnack demolished, but they found it awkward to employ a champion who could never swing his battle-axe without knocking it through a church window. So Loisy also had to be suppressed. On the other hand Haec'Kel tells us of Jesuits with scientific knowledge* who have explicitly admitted the doctrine of evolution in tl»o production of new forms of living beings, and who then proceed with ingenuity that does infinite credit to the Jesuit training colleges, to prove that these views in no way contradict Catholic dogma. What will ba the issue of the struggle thus going on between the literal thought growing within the Church and the stem repression which, the authorities feel to bo the only way to retain their supremacy is hard to say, but we may safely predict that the fermenting life will expand until it bursts the. confining shell, or eke will turn sour, and bring everything to corruption and decay. • PRESENT-DAY PROTESTANTISM. The process of liberation goes on apace in all the Protestant communities, except in such email sections which still bewail the increasing declivity of what the late pastor, Charles Spurgecm. used to call tho "down grade." Leading theologians 110 longer rest the case of Christianity upon miracles as in the days when Paley's 12 respect-able witnesses had it all their own way. Thomas Chubb, a tallow chandler of Salisbury, pointed out nearly 200 years ago that miracles proved power, and 'nothing else. This logic is well presented by a tide from the Jewish rabbinical writings. Certain rabbis* met to debate a doctrine expounded by Rabbi Eleazar, which, however, failed to convince them. So Rabbi Eleazar, feeling a little annoyed, propose*! to convince them by 'working a few miracles He caused a tree to transplant itself to another place, a stream to ran wpaPl, and the walls of the building to lean as if aboui to fall on his obdurate brethren. But v Rabbi Joshua, igaigflY. jrenrarkctfr 43at^h^r4>erigaaiainf£s>.

wars irrelevant, which made Rabbi Eleazar very angry, and is exclaimed : "Perhaps you will believe a voice from heaven I' 1 Thereupon a voice was heard in. the air, saying: "Rabbi Eleaaar speaks the truth, hear him!" Then Rabbi Joshua said it was quite true that Rabbi Eleazar should understand that a voice which

made an assertion without giving reasons could settle nothing, and that the phenomena they had witnessed, though curious and worth inquiry into their cause, could have no bearing upon questions that ought to be settled "by argument. A modem scientist could scarcely epectk more to the | point. But the position has of late ye-n.rs become reversed, and it is often, said that the miracle should be proved by the doctrine rather than the doctrine by the miracle. That. is to say that the life and character of the Founder are so evidently divine and superhuman that we can not only believe Him to have worked miracles, but ..must also accept Him as, for all mankind, tho unique representation and embodiment of divinity. This view., whatever may be the objections to it, lias at ail events the merit of superseding _ the old.and hateful doctrine of Calvinism, ' which ir.ade tho sins of a finite being become infinite, as offences against an infinite God, who was therefore fully justified in condemning to eternal torment all who" wore riot redeemed by the blood of a "divine victim; a doctrine revolting by its sliCdr atrocity, and by its absurdity, calling to mind Hume's sarcasm that "our holy religion was not only proved by miracles at. its origin, but to this day requires a miracle to enable us to believe it."

Ideals, like tastes, are not to be disputed about, but when it is attempted to force one ideal upon the whole human race, it is time, for criticism to bestir itself, and the work of criticism seems distinctly fatal to the authenticity and trustworthiness of the gospel biography of the Master, so that many find it" now impossible to extricate, the true figure and lineaments from the mass of inconsistency of legend and of myth with which they hive been -overlaid.

ETHICS. No criticism can destroy the power and beauty of the higher Christian ethics: but it is only due to other great religions, as philosophies, to say that the highest gospel ethic was familiar and commonplace to them long before the Christian era. And in this connection it must be remembered that while the general precepts of Christianity are of the noblest kind, yet the Maker is sometimes represented as proposing motives for right conduct that are not of the highest ethical character. The disciples are told to avoid the vain ostentation, of the Pharisees in doing good works to be seen of men, not because this is vain and in. cere, but in order that their Heavenly Father may reward them openly; that is, they are to look for the very same kind of reward as the Pharisees, only transfigured and glorified. No such motive' as this is held out in the four noble truths, and the eight-fold noble path of that wonderful religion of the Buddha,' wito appeals always to experience and observation, and sets forth the highest ideal oi character without any reference to supernatural sanctions. And in this matter the religion of humanity and of Rationalism is at one with Buddhism, for although there is nothing to prevent the Rationalist from speculating beyond what is known, he most rest his doctrine of human service upon known and demonstrable facts. ' -If he takes the four cardinal virtues of the story, he will find that they cover all the ground, and of those four the Rationalist has often had special need of fortitude. For down to quite recent tunes free thought- has always been persecuted, and the nineteenth century had a long list of victims, from Robert Taylor and Richard Carlisle to Georg-3* Jacob Holyoak and Charles Bradlatigh and Annie Besant. And if this sort of persecution, has died out, the Rationalist yet has need of fortitude to face those problems'of the mind that seen, to bring the human destiny of himseK and all other men into doubt and jeopardy. From "these mental terrors tha only deliverance is in the

RELIGION OF HUMANITY. The evolution of the moral sens© means the continual expansion of sympathy from the individual to the family, to 'the tribe, to the community, the nation, the empire, and the whole human race, and as these circles widen it is felt thai the life enlarges,, the happiness of life increases, and we are lets and less troubled by speculations about the future of our personalities, those bundles of weaknesses, of vain de--sires, ind foolish passions, which evGry wise man would wish to get rid of. The consideration of this enlarging life brings us to the important, but not less certain, conclusion that the soul of every generation is reincarnated" In its successorsa thought of solemn import to everyone who has in any degree merged his petty personality in. the life of the race. And if such absorption in humanity ie a thought of high inspiration, why should we shrink from the prospect of tffis ultimate merging of humanity in the All, whether we call it God, or ".the infinite and eternal energy or substance.

FIELDS OF SPECULATION. The mention made of "reincarnation" will call to mind the doctrine which under that name is so widely taught by the Theosophical Society, and which probably for most rationalists may be said to lie in that middle field of conjecture that lies between things that are proved' and tilings that are disproved. Without discussing this subject at length it may be said that its great attraction lies in its moral potency : for the notion <:? the re. il embodiment in a future life of every sp.-cific individual now living, who is therefore always engaged in making himself now what he will tie hereafter, is a very different thing from the heaven and hell doctrine, from the more unpleasant of which alternative*) the wicked always expected to escape either by priestly absolution or vicarious atonement. The philosophers said that the penalty of folly was to be a fool, and of vice to be a degraded being. But unfortunately the fool does not know himself to be a fool, and the vicious man does not mind the degradation so long as he can got the gratifications for which ho craves. But' if he were convinced of this doctrine of individual reincarnation ho would be likely to take more heed to his ways. And the whole soul who says: " I do not ask for a happy heaven; I only long for the chance of helping with improved faculties the evolution of humanity," would gain fresh strength from the knowledge that fresh chances would be given him as often as might be necessary. GROPING. fv. The great French naturalist, Lamarck, who preceded Darwin some fifty years, thought that the transmutations of living species took place through an _ effort or ,- nisus" of the animal which, with a consciousness more or less dim, according to the stage of its development, put forth. feelers, as it were, eearclhng in what direction its growth could best take place. So the human race is ever putting out feelers, antennae, tentacles, into the dark, searching for new and hidden truths; avid so we have a perennial stream, on the one hand, of metaphysical philosophy rebuked by positiviets," and on the other of occult research condemned by scientists. Yet perhaps it is not wise to go round with a cleaver and lop off these feelers and tentacles, wherever they may appear, for who knows but what something may come of them However, these things may l>e, the Rationalist may dwell securely in his welltimbered edifice, with ita foundation on the rock of duty, and with the fiag of Humanity floating overhead, _ ami need not worry himself about question/;, as yet insoluble. And he may remember two wise and pithy savings. Spinoza^--the model of a good and wise- man—in his poor lodging, and with the hand of death sensibly approaching, said: "There is nothing of which a free man thinks less than of death." And Thoreau, the American hermit puilosapher and apostle of the simple life, when on his death bed, a good pastor came to make sine that his soul was fitted for heaven, politely waved the. subject siade, saying, " One world at. &