MR. MAURICE ON THE SATANIC SCHOOL. To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR."
SIR,—As one of those who has been accused of expressing sympathy with a "Satanic candidate," I wish, first, to thank you for your able and manly defence of us; and, secondly, to say that I cannot avail myself of it, if you meant that I did not as a clergy- man, as a theologian, wish for Mr. Mill's success, but on some other ground. I cannot separate myself into two different beings. If I did not wish to have a man in Parliament who I believe in my conscience would contribute more wisdom to its debates than almost any other man, I should be a traitor to the Church of which I am a member, I should sin against God, I should not believe that the Church must derive strength from all the light which can be thrown upon its condition or its history, I should care more for my opinions, which are altogether unlike Mr. Mill's, than for the truth.
I am immensely confirmed in this conclusion by the indignation which the passage which has been quoted from Mr. Mill's answer to Sir William Hamilton has excited. I can say of that passage what I should hardly dare to say of any other in Mr. Mill's writings ; I accept it wholly, absolutely, unreservedly. If I did not I would go next Sunday into my pulpit and tell my congrega- tion that I had deceived them ; that God had not revealed Himself in His Son ; that it is not true that One who took our nature is the perfect image of the Father. I must deny the Incarnation if I deny the relation between divine morality and human morality, if I do not accept in the length and breadth of it Mr. Mill's assertion that it is better to suffer any torments here or hereafter than to believe in an unrighteous God. I am sure this was the faith of every prophet, every apostle, every reformer—of the early Christians who were called atheists by the idolators of those days —of Him who was said to cast out devils, through the Prince of the Devils.—Your obedient servant, F. D. MAURICE.
[In denying that we had any right to inquire into Mr. Mill's special theology, when we know so much of his noble political principles, we, certainly did not mean that Mr. Maurice, or any other of his supporters, should support hills without reference to their own theological principles—quite the reverse.—ED. Spectator.]
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