Students of religious history are familiar with the brilliant generalization
in which Troeltsch distinguished between the " church-type " and the " sect-type " of Christianity. Those interested in such matters will find in The Seceders : the Story of a Spiritual Awakening, edited by Dr. J. H. Philpot (Fem. combo and Sons, 7s. 6(L) an almost perfect example of the sect-mentality with its trend to inwardness and individualism, its puritan morality and total lack of historical perspective, working itself out to its logical end. The "spiritual awaken- ing " of the English Church in the first half of the nineteenth century is connected in most minds with the Oxford Move- ment ; but the torpor and worldliness which had invaded the Establishment also caused a vigorous reaction in the opposite direction, towards Evangelical piety of the most rigid and un- compromising type. The "Seceders "—Joseph Philpot and William Tiptaft—were two earnest clergymen of this temper of mind, whose convictions forced them to leave the Anglican Church where they felt that "dreadful lies are solemnly told the blessed Jehovah by His professed ministers." Their story has its heroic aspect ; for they were of the stuff that counts all well lost for conviction's sake. The modern Christian will find himself in a strange world where lovers exchanged their kisses, "if any," across an open Bible, and self-torturing introspection was a main occupation of faith. In spite of some noble • and touching passages he will probably find the correspondence of the Seceders rather hard going ; but at least it may cause him to reflect with gratitude on the more genial theological climate of our own day.
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