CONFORMITY AND CONSCIENCE.* Tnis volume was briefly noticed in our
columns a few weeks ago. We need not apologise for returning to it in view of the intense interest with which its subject is regarded at the present time. This subject, briefly put, is the comprehen- siveness of the English Church, with a special reference to the difficulties of those who do not feel themselves able to accept the whole system of dogma that is implicitly or ex- plicitly stated in the formularies of the Church. Don't give up church-going,' says the preacher to his audience—the volume consists of sermons delivered from the pulpit of St. Peter's, Vere Street—' because there are some things in the Church services which are beyond your faith: He begins by some plain words about the practical danger to the spiritual life of abandoning the practice of worship. "As the life of man is higher in organised society than in solitude, so is the spiritual life of man higher in the church than in the cell, whether the cell be that of the agnostic or that of the Catholic." This is well said, for it addresses a serious argument to those who have a sincere reason for keeping away from worship. We are not sure whether the sarcasms with which the preacher assails the insincere are not below his dignity. The second and third sermons treat generally the question whether a worshipper can honestly join in services which do not coincide, whether it be by excess or by defect, with his own belief. The following passage may be taken as characteristic of his position :—
" The finality of logic is fanaticism. Obscurantism may threaten you, but it cannot hurt you,
• Nor blind Authority boating with his staff The child that might base led him.'
Do not let it triumph and turn you out of the Church because you cannot believe all that it professes to believe. If you cannot appropriate the whole loaf, do not let it take from you the half or the quarter. If some part of the service is out of harmony with your convictions or feelings, be silent; let it pass, allowing those to use it who may find it a help. If it is indeed a truth, the day may come when you too will perceive it and adopt it, like St. Thomas, who in one assembly of the faithful was unable to believe in the resurrection of Christ, but was convinced:of it in another."
In the sermons that follow the preacher takes the different parts of the Prayer-book, sketches their history, expounds their meaning, and suggests possible modifications, always with a view to setting the door as wide open as may be.
Now, though we find ourselves in very general agreement with Mr. Page Roberts, and sympathise entirely with his purpose, we cannot help doubting whether he would not have done better to leave unsaid, or at least to have post- poned to another opportunity, some of the things which we find in these discouries. He desires, we understand, above all things, to be practical. Is it practical to aspire to an expurgated Psalter and a Lectionary revised for a second time ? Are these things within the range of possible change? We quite see that there are verses in many of the Psalms, and some whole Psalms, which are not in accord with Christian feeling. But does any one seriously believe that it would be possible to obtain anything like a general acquiescence in having these portions of the Psalter struck out ? There are Old Testament lessons which breathe the spirit of which we may say with the authority of the Master Himself that it is not the spirit of the Gospel. (The very story which called forth the rebuke to the sons of Zebedee is read, though not on a Sunday.) But is it in the least degree likely that a second Revision of the Lectionary would be acceptable, when even the first has scarcely yet been met with universal approval? We do not at all wish to forbid the discussion of these matters, but let the discussion be at
• Our Prayer Rook Conformity and Conscionce. By W. Page Roberts, M.A. London I Smith, Rider, and Co. Ids.]
the proper time and in the proper place. This time and this place are not, we take it, to be found in the occasion which has called forth these sermons. Is there not a danger that the special audience which the preacher addresses may retort,—' Yes, when you have expunged these objectionable Psalms, these chapters which breathe a pre-Christian spirit, then, but not till then, we will take part in your worship'? It seems to us that the only practical plan is to take the services as they stand, and set forth such an accommodation of them to the consciences of those who stumble at this or that part of them as may be consistent with honesty. And this accommodation must come in substance to something like this. Christianity is the offspring of Judaism, and in the records of the parent faith we have the process of develop- ment by which the offspring came to be what it is. The contrasts as well as the resemblances are full of instruction and comfort.
The Creeds certainly present more difficulty. The Athanasian Creed may be put, for the present purpose, out of the question. Whatever burden it may be to the minister who is bound, as far at least as rubrics go, to repeat it on certain days, the layman is allowed to receive it in a decent silence which cannot be construed into assent. But assent to the Apostles' Creed is required of the candidate for baptism, and to the Nicene of those who would join in the Holy Communion. Mr. Page Roberts's answer to the difficulty is this. There are passages in the Athanasian Creed which many pass in silence, "so if in either of the other two Creeds there are statements you cannot understand, cannot present to your mind so as to hold them in intelligent assent, or about which you are perplexed and undecided—at such times be silent, and wait if perchance that which now is clear to some may in the future become clear to you." This goes some part of the way, but it does not go the whole. It does not cover the case of a sponsor who has to affirm his entire assent to the Creed. It is somewhat anomalous that one who joins in the worship, and even participates in the Communion, should not be able to assent to the baptismal formula of belief.
But though we point out these difficulties it is with no desire to depreciate Mr. Page Roberts's thoughtful and able sermons. They will, we are sure, be a source of help and strength to many readers and deserve special praise and support at a time when the spirit of comprehension, or, to give it a higher name, the wider Christian charity, so greatly needs to be kept in constant remembrance.
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