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1,1 KK OF LORD LANGDALIO. Memoirs of the...
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The Old And New Theology. Lectures And M...
shown how Protestantism itself , except when in opposition , has belied its own principles of freedom , and become Papal in its pretensions to infallibility when opposing those who protested against it . But whatever the practice may have been , the leading princip les are those just stated . The tendency of the _Reformation was to make relig ion more subjective , consequently more vague ; and to express more directly the intimate relation of Man to his Creator as a spiritual bond . To develope that tendency to its utmost limits has been the purpose of The Leader ; and we have welcomed from all sides adherents to that cause , not regarding minor differences with any minuteness . Comte and Feuerbach , Newman and
Parker , Foxton and Martineau , Emerson and Henry James—they are all working towards one end though by various routes- —and that end we may name the Democratization of Religion _^ which " anoints the man and supersedes the priest" ( to use Henry James ' s expression ) , which does for Religion what Democracy does for Politics , viz ., tends to replace external , arbitrary coercion , by internal , voluntary conviction . For what we have said respecting the progressive development of Religion applies equally tb Politics , there also the tendency is from despotism to liberty , from government to self-government .
Having thus briefly touched upon these capital points let us turn to Henry James , and see what tidings he brings of the strife between the Old and New Theology . " Every attentive reader of the gospels will have remarked , that the controversy between Jesus and his antagonists , was a controversy between the most enlarged humanity on the one side , and a well-established orthodoxy on the other . The battle which he fought , was the battle of universal man against thc principalities
and powers of this world , who sought to make humanity a stepping-stone to their exaltation . It was not as commonly reported , a battle between God on the one side and man on the other : for the Christ invariably declared God to be the unchangeable friend of man , infinitely more ready to show him favour than man was to ask it . It was a battle between God considered to be thus friendly to universal man , on the one side , and a set of men , or rather a nation of men , on the other side , w ho arrogated His special friendship to themselves , on the ground of a certain ritual righteousness which distinguished them from the rest of mankind .
" In fact , the doctrine of the Christ is nothing more and nothing less than a revelation of the essential unity of God and man . He acknowledged no other mission than the vindication of humanity from the stigma of unrighteousness before God , no other joy than to persuade the conventionally vilest of men of the infinite righteousness he had in God . No matter what the occasion may have been , you find him invariably identifying himself with the interests of the most enlarged humanity , and ready to sacrifice every private tie which in any way involved a denial of the universal brotherhood of the race . But what is the use of dwelling on the point ? Every one who reads the Scripture for original instruction , and not merely for the confirmation of some traditional opinion , recognises in Jesus the God-anointed champion of humanity against established injustice and superstition .
" If then the mission of the Christ claimed this humanitary character , we may be very sure that the sovereign touchstone of his Church will be its possession of the same spirit . We may be very sure that the interest of humanity will occupy the first place with it , and personal or private interests a very subordinate place . " Suppose then we apply this test to the existing or sectarian church : we shall at once discover its complete destitution of the spirit of Christ . Instead of a zeal for humanity in it , you perceive only a zeal for the person of Jesus himself . In fact , as I showed on a former occasion , the church makes Jesus , under the name of a mediator , a perpetual barrier to the cordial intercourse of God and man . Let me make this charge plain by an example . Suppose me , then , influenced by the traditions and customs of the society in which I live , to apply to any of our clergy for thc benefit of church communion . He thereupon proceeds to question me as to my fitness , and in the course of his inquiry seeks above all to be satisfied on this
point , namely , whether I am willing to receive the divine blessing only for the sake or through thc merits of Jesus Christ . He tells me that God abhors me personally , and will not look upon me apart from Jesus . He is not content to tell me what Christ himself tells , that there is no such thing as merit in God ' s sight , or any ground of boasting in one man over others , _Bince all goodness comes from ( iod . Far from it ! A doctrine like this would prostrate the wall of separation between the church and the world , giving the latter despised personage in fact a very fair chance of salvation . But he is very careful to tell me what Christ does not tell me , namely , that God entertains a personal aversion to me , that I am in fact in my natural person intolerably odious to him , and can expect no particle of favour at his hands which is not purchased by the expiatory sufferings of Jesus . This is the essential rallying point of orthodoxy , and accordingly if my memory prove well posted up here , my way is tolerably clear to church-membership . "
" Such is the sum of orthodoxy , the setting up a personal pretension . Instead of alriding the test therefore of a conformity to the spirit of Christ , to that spirit of humanity which animated all his labours , that spirit of peace on earth and good will to all men which was exhibited as much in his condemnation of tho Pharisee as in bis clemency to the publican ; it completely violates it by converting Jesus into a monster of self-seeking , and turning all the grace of the gospel into a mere argument of his personal supremacy . It represents the whole beneficent work of the Christ to have been undertaken with a view to his own ultimate glory . Whatever mercy may have been in it , no one shall reap the benefit of it without an entire prostration of his personal will to that of Jesus . For mercy was not the end of the work , it was only the means to an end , which end was the establishing his _peMomil empire over the human mind . "
" Certainly nothing can bo moro inhuman than this pretension . It outrages every instinct of humanity , to ascribe perfection ton person who claims my worship under penalty of death , under _jicnalty of everlasting misery . If , is a purely diaholic claim , which all humanity disowns with loathing . and contempt . In fact orthodoxy lives the little life" yet left it only by a dexterous appeal to the sensuous imagination , only by flattering the instincts of a low prudence or expediency . Contemning the spirit of humanity , all that is best , and loveliest in humanity disowns it , " The humanitarian mission of Christ is every whero insisted on . Road this , — " Never since the world has stood was a fair fame moro outraged than that of
The Old And New Theology. Lectures And M...
Jesus has been by _ecclesiastical usage . < liook at his gospel . Do you find _« , slightest token there of his Having any quarrel with the conceded sinner ? T ) not his whole quarrel lie on the contrary with the conceded saint , with him wh _^ in the eyes of all men was righteous ? Do you find him on any Occasion mising to honour those who _made much of his person—promising to favour th " who should call themselves by hi * name ? On the contrary does he not , _wheney looking forward to his second or spiritual coming , pronounce that profession ** calling the one thing odious and c _& ngerous ? _^ Truly it is so . His whole controversy is represented as lying with his professing followers , those who profess to he the children of God . He had no quarrel in his first coming but with those who professed to be God's people par exe & llence , and despised the claims of others , s also he represents himself at his second coming as having no quarrel but with those who under the profession of honouring him , have only heaped npon him all manner of personal adulation , all manner of interested personal sycophancy . "
These extracts will convey a notion of the plain speaking of Henry James , as also of the serious thought which lies under it ; but to our minds the great service of his Lectures is the emphatic way in which he shows that the Old Theology , b y making Creation a voluntary act , a thine * ab extra , leaves the creature in a very insecure relation to the Creator , inasmuch as Will is notoriously fickle ; whereas the New Theology asserts a secure immutable relation , for it denies that creation is an exhibition of the divine will , strictly so called , and affirms it to be an operation of the
essential perfection of God , an outgrowth of his very Selfhood—a thing lived , not done . All that Henry James says on it we advise the reader to meditate ; and add thereto this supplement by way of a pplication : if it be blasphemous to talk of the fickleness of the divine "Will , the blasphemy falls back on those who predicate a Will , i . e . a human faculty . Nay , do not the Christian Teachers themselves teach this fickleness when they make God first condemn man for the sin of Eve , and % en relent upon the intercession of Christ P So dangerous is it to talk of t _^ e Deity in human language ! On the relation between God and Man , _Jfenry James says : —
" The sectarian conception of the relation _between God and man is notoriousl y disclaimed by science , or the organized observation of nature and society , because every advance of science demonstrates the perfect imity of God and man , by showing the whole realm of nature divinely accommodated to the development of . man ' s _potver , and to the aggrandizement of 'his passional and intellectual existence . Our ecclesiastical dogmas teaeh the opposite of this . They place God in the attitude of exacting something from his own dependent creature , and they place the creature consequently in a meritorious attitude towards Him , in the attitude of serving Him for a reward . Science demonstrates that the _ipnly becoming temper of mind on our part towards the Divine , is that of boundless exultation in the riches of His beneficence , and of determined activity towards the ftjllest possible realization of it . Sectarianism , on the other hand , declares that Gc 4 looks upon us with aversion , save as we are connected with itself ; being stayed in His purpose of summary destruction only by the intervention of a third party : and that our proper position
towards Him therefore is one of trembling and abject supplication . Every day of the week the sun comes forth to illustrate the benignity of the Universal Father , and the waving of leaves , and the murmur of brooks , and the laughter of corn on the hill-sides , and the ringing melody that ascends frpm the whole physical creation , and the myriad-fold success of human enterprise in the realms of traflic and art , all attest and confirm the illustration . Much mora eloquently , even , does the grander temple of the human heart proclaim the same benignity . For we find all of its various affections when left to their unperverted flow , bringing forth fruits of invariable joy and peace . But on Sunday , _sectarianism diligently denies all that the busy week and a peaceful heart have taught us . For instead of confirming their tidings of the life which comes everywhere unbought , and even unsought , of the glory that is on every creature , both great and small , which the Divine hand has fashioned , it reports a life universally forfeited , and never to be regained , save in a , limited measure , and through the purchase of inconceivable suffering . "
And further on : — - " It is impossible , when men begin to apprehend that G 0 < 1 is a spirit , and that his kingdom accordingly is exclusively within them , that they should not speedily dismiss that sanctity which stands in meats and drinks , and thc observance of _sahbaths and baptisms , and sacraments . When I perceive God to bo no longer a mere outside and finite person , but the very life of my _lifef , more inseparable from my inmost self than my soul is from my _lxxiy ; when 1 perceive that neither height nor depth , neither the highest heavens nor tho lowest hellf have power to sever 1110 from his profuse and benignant presence , it seems a purely superfluous and therefore ridiculous thing , to attempt commending myself to him by anything I ciui do ,
especially by anything I can do in the way of favourably _differencing myself from other persons . I am profoundly ashamed of such differences . * * How sad it is to witness tho complacency with which tho sectarian heaps up his family-worship , his private devotions , his social concerts of prayer , his Sunday exercises , fancying full surely , that thus , and not otherwise , does one's soul fatten for tho skies . Of course sincerity always attracts your _respeefj , wherever it appears » but if superstition mean tho worship of that of which one Is ignorant , where c »» wo find it in livelier play than hero ? Would one cv 0 r dream that this man was worshipping the Giver of life ? Would it not rather _fcoin that ho was woishipping tho withholder of it , from whom nevertheless he wus resolved one day to
extract it by the irresistible forceps of prayer ?" Wo must cease , though extracts and comment _lqro us on . Wind _avc have quoted will be _sufftcient to justify tho _praiso g iven to this volume , and will , we hope , excite tho reader ' s curiosity to see all Henry James ha * to say . That tnoro is not a little to bo questioned , or even flatly denied , will not affect the general interest and suggestivoncs * of thc volume .
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1,1 Kk Of Lord Langdalio. Memoirs Of The...
1 , 1 KK OF LORD _LANGDALIO . Memoirs of the Right Hon . Henry Lord Lanydalo . lly Thomas Dufl ' us I Tardy- Two ' vols . ' _J ' ° _^' "Y _^ K can by no means agree with tho critics , that 'L ord T . nngdalo ' _s _wns n _<>' a life worth of being written , simply because Lord Langdalo was ,, () .... man of brilliant talents , such as "astonish" generations . It was a H » worthy of being written ; but lot uh hasten to add , worthy of being wri ty ' well . Mr . Hardy has made but a poor biography out of his _matori iuh » _nevertheless , poor as it is , wo are not disposed to question its usoiulncs .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21081852/page/18/
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