CORRESPONDENCE.

GENEALOGIES WHICH MINISTER QUESTIONS. [To THE EDITOR. or THE " SPECTATOR."] fist,-0 wing probably to the general indifference to the subjects with which it interests itself, that excellent society, the Church- men's Union—its full title is the Churchmen's Union for the Advancement of Liberal Religious Thought—has been, till lately, less known than it deserved to be. It suddenly finds itself notorious. During its annual Conference, held a few weeks ago at Cambridge, the London and provincial Press published startling snippets, under sensational headlines, purporting to be quotations from the addresses delivered.

" A chiel's anaang ye takin' notes,

And, faith, he'll prent it."

In one Scottish parish, known to the writer, the Presbyterian minister, the Roman Catholic priest, and the Episcopal clergy. man denounced its " strange and erroneous doctrines." " Sweet are the uses of " advertisement ; and the Conference has cer- tainly been advertised. Its proceedings have now been pub- lished in the Modern Churchman ; and though, as might have been expected, they are less revolutionary than one would have gathered from the paragraphs, the matter dealt with is delicate ; " novelty in religion is often error, from the refraction with which it enters into our conceptions."

" This is what theologians call Prevenient Grace," said an Eton tutor of a past generation to his pupils, commenting on Romans viii. 30. But (he added wisely) the less we know of these things the better." It is permissible to think that those responsible for the Conference were ill-advised in taking " Christ and the Creeds " as their subject. But it is certain that, if the conservative and central sections of the Church allow themselves to be driven by popular clamour into continuing the discussion, they will be, if possible, even more unwise. Those who desire to make party capital out of the incident will do well to remember that it is easier to provoke than to put an end to controversy ; and that the Church of England is in no state to stand either a crisis or a strain. A leading organ of clerical opinion has lately pointed out, with commendable candour, that " evidently in religion things aro going back. The supply of clergy is not only diminishing, it is disappearing ; church-building has ceased ; with regard to confirmations, the total for the ten years 1908-17 shows, in comparison with the total of the previous ten years, a decrease of more than half a million. There is every reason for serious disquiet." A heavy responsibility will rest on these, be they who they may, who, under whatever pretext, aggravate the situation. " The negroes of the West Indies have an expres- sive phrase for those who deliberately cause discord. They call it making sin.' " [Church Times, September 2nd.] It is not the case that the tradition on the question is uniform. " The eternal- pre-existence of the Divine Son was taught far more consistently after than before the Council of Nicaea," says Cardinal Newman ; it was the singular privilege of the ante. Nicene Church to be without creeds and articles of faith. And, when the age of definitions set in, error lay wait on each side for the unwary. It was difficult to avoid the Arian Scylla without going dangerously near the Docetic Charybdis ; or to steer clear of the Docetic Charybdis without being drawn into the Arian Scylla. The orthodoxy of Marcellus of Ancyra, e.g., is a standing crux for theologians. For twenty years Athanasius affirmed it ; and when political events dictated a certain change of front on his part, it is doubtful whether this was accompanied by a change of opinion : " he continued (says the historian) to mention with an ambiguous smile the venial errors of his respectable friend." The line is, in fact, wavering ; " thin partitions angry chiefs divide." It is difficult to think that any good purpose can be served by raising the unquiet ghosts of those defunct controversies. No one is now thinking on these lines :

the questions cannot be answered ; we do not even know what the terms mean. " If thou heat understanding, answer thy neighbour ; if not, let thy hand be upon thy mouth." There would be fewer religious disputes were the discussions of the rival sectaries opened by the reading of what is perhaps the greatest of English sermons—that of Bishop Butler on " The

Ignorance of Man."

A wise worker in the mission field has lately reminded us

that " the missionary who seeks to serve the Lord Jesus must sometimes wonder whether he would please Christ better by speaking less about Him." Would that theologians were of this mind! With the ascertained results of history and criticism, theology, properly so called, must make her own account. But speculative formulas stand on other ground. These formulas have in them an admixture of human opinion and will ; they have been shaped in, and by, history ; they might have been other than they are. And, as their expression is necessarily that of their time, the terms employed are often what Hobbes calls " insignificant speech "—i.e., " names which signify nothing, but are taken up and learned by rote from the

schools." In this case they become rather formulas of concord than conclusions of the understanding. It is at once mischiev- ous to disturb them and impossible to add to their number: the age of creed-making is past. And an enforced interpretation

of an old formula is, in fact, the imposition of a now one ; so the vicious circle goes on. It is the besetting sin of Churchmen to say Dinit Dominus, when it is themselves, not the Lord, who have said it. The presumption is one which it is not easy to qualify. Religion has suffered more from this cause than

from all other causes put together.

There appear to be three distinct Christologies in the New Testament : that of the Synopties and the early chapters of the Acts ; the Pauline; and the Joannine. But it is impossible to identify that of the Councils of the Fourth Century with

any one of them ; and the orthodox Petavius quotes a remark- able admission of Athanasius that the Apostles, on account of the inveterate prejudice of the Jews, "preached in the

beginning, with admirable wisdom, only the human qualities of Christ." And the Monarchia, on which Epiphanius insisted, has been lost sight of by modern theology. Many of us are unconscious Tritheists ; and the Christology of our pulpits is Docetic ; it repudiates rather the name than the thing. " Who shall declare his generation ?" These words of the prophet were quoted repeatedly by the Fathers with respect to this mysterious subject. They defined, as it were, in spite of them- selves, and against their better knowledge. " Every year, every moon (writes Hilary), we make now creeds to describe invisible mysteries. The partial, or total, resemblance of the Father and of the Son is a subject of dispute for these unhappy times." Such controversies, when we have read into them all that we can—and much that we cannot—leave an impression of barrenness ; what have later dogmatic developments, the speculative conclusions of theology stereotyped in the decrees. of the great Councils, added to the words of Christ ?-

" It seems (says a great English teacher) to bo an opinion which is gaining ground among thoughtful and religious men that in theology the less we define the better. Definite state- ments respecting the relation of Christ either to God or mln are only figures of speech ; they do not really pierce the clouds which ' round our little life.' When we multiply words, we do not multiply ideas ; we are still within the circle of our own minds. No greater calamity has ever befallen the Church than the determination of some uncertain things which are beyond the sphere of human knowledge. A true instinct prevents our entangling the faith of Christ with the philosophy of the day

the philosophy of past ages is a still more imperfect exponent of it. Neither is it of any avail to assume revelation, or inspira- tion, as a sort of shield, or Catholioon, under which the weak points of theology may receive protection. For what is revealed, or what inspiredcannot be answered d priori ; the moaning of the word Revelation must be determined by the fact, not the fact by the word."—.Towx7r, Essay on " Atonement and Satisfaction."

That the " hedge of the law" was designed not to formulate new truths but to exclude new errors is no doubt the case.

But, when the errors against.which it was a protest passed away, it survived like fossil remains of earlier geological strata in a new formation. Its value, then, became, and remains, rather

historical than actual. Its various stages show what has been, and serve as milestones on the long road that lies behind us and stretches beyond us, which those who were before us have trodden, and which t- ose who come after us will tread. Hence, because its roots lie so deep In the past, its high associational value. " Modern " Churchmen will be unwise if they overlook

this. " The old is better." How many generations have worshipped in these words ! With what memories, with what affections, are they not impregnated ! With what emotions, with what tears, are they not suffused ! The Church does well to retain them. But—let us not confuse two orders. As knowledge, what have they added, what can they add, to that sublime thought—a thought linking up God and man into one unbroken unity—" The Word was made Flesh " l'—I am, Sir, &c.,