Produced by Al Haines
The Religious Situation
WM. TYRRELL & COMPANY
1908
[Transcriber's note: This book was originally part of Smith's "NoRefuge but in Truth." It was split into a separate e-book because ithad its own title and verso page.]
(From the North American Review.)
"I express myself," says Bishop Butler, "with caution, lest I should bemistaken to vilify reason, which is, indeed, the only faculty which wehave to judge concerning anything, even revelation itself; or bemisunderstood to assert that a supposed revelation cannot be provedfalse from internal characters." "The faculty of reason," he says, "isthe candle of the Lord within us against vilifying which we must bevery cautious."
What would the world be without religion? That is the dread questionwhich seems now to be everywhere presenting itself. Would even thesocial fabric remain unshaken? Has not its stability partly dependedon the general belief that the dispensation, with all its inequalities,was the ordinance of the Creator, and that for inequalities here therewould be compensation hereafter? The belief may not in common mindshave been very present; but it would seem to have had its influence.Apparently, it is now departing. In some places it seems to have fled.Scepticism, with social unrest, comes in its room.
What is now the position of the clergy? Keepers and ministers oftruth, as they are understood to be, they alone are debarred byordination vows and tests from the free quest of truth. They areecclesiastically bound not only to hold, but to teach and preach, asdivinely revealed, what many of them must feel to have been disprovedor to have become doubtful. Their uneasiness is shown by writings,such as "Lux Mundi," struggling to reconcile orthodoxy with freethought. It is shown by a growing tendency on the part of pastors toslide from the office of spiritual guide into that of leader ofphilanthropic effort and social reform. It is seen, perhaps, even inthe tendency to give increased prominence to musical attraction in theservice. Sermons grow more secular.
Clerical biographies, such as that of Jowett, sometimes reveal privatemisgivings. The writer has even seen the pastorate of a large parishassumed by one who in private society was an evident rationalist andmust have satisfied his conscience by promising to himself that hewould do a great deal of social good. There is, no doubt, practically,more latitude than there was; heresy trials seem to have ceased, andone of the writers of "Essays and Reviews" became, without seriousoutcry, Primate of the Church of England. But ordination vows remain;so does the performance of a religious service which includes therepetition of creeds and forms a practical confession of faith. Hollowprofession cannot fail to impair mental integrity, or, if generallysuspected, to kill confidence in our guides. Read Canon Farrar's "Lifeof Christ" and you will see to what shifts orthodoxy puts a clericalwriter who was, no doubt, a sincere lover of truth.
The religious disturbance shows itself at the s