PURITANISM.
[To 772 EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."} SIR,—Sorely it is better to dwell on the exceeding beauty of holiness than on the exceeding sinfulness of sin. What we are always contemplating may become a part of us. The hopeful sign of the present day is that the spirit of the Apotles is leaven- ing society, and the commands of our Lord. are literally obeyed. Men go out into the highways and hedges in search of guests when those who are bidden make excuse. Socialism is only a semi-scientific word for " brotherhood "—the Christian ideal. Separatism, the Pharisaic attitude, "I am holier than thou," was the vice of the Jewish nation for rebuking which our Lord suffered. There is no division between pagan and Christian; what was good in paganism is of Divine origin, and prophets have borne witness to God from the beginning of the world. The yoke of Christ is not that yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear, but the yoke of fellowship and unity, helping us to plough a straight furrow for the fruitful seed. " True yoke-fellow," says St. Paul to his comrade. Primitive Christianity is to be found in the slums of South- wark, spite of squalor and misery, which engender vice. There the unbounded generosity of the poor to one another shames our nice calculations of less or more. The purse is lean, but the heart is full. " Original sin," we are now warned, has been a soul-destroying dogma in our schools. We take inherent wickedness for granted, and stunt rather than foster natural growth and development, and so excuse weak- nesses which we are bound to resist. Christianity is quixotic, but who does not love the Knight of La Mancha ? Who would not have a portion of his spirits ? It was not much learning which made St. Paul mad. We have outgrown a system of rewards and punishments : we have loftier aims. Faith which
can remove mountains is alive among us yet : faith in God's purpose and man's destiny. It lives in spite of what we see and deplore, and strive to remedy. And its sisters are Hope
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