cal machinery which could so manipulate the intellectual faculties, as to enable its author to write it without the faintest suspicion that nothing had ever been written before so effectually to disprove the very dogma he intended to affirm. In the presence of a real mystery the mind of man is over-awed; his heart tenderly touched with emotions of wonder and reverence. The very thought of God is enough to slacken his too facile speech; to clothe his spirit with the garb of a waiting servant and a listening disciple. "God is in heaven and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few," expresses man's native reverence before the real mysteries of the universe. Believers in the Athanasian Creed may learn a lesson even from those Materialists whom they despise and dread by turns, but who know what is becoming in a human soul when face to face with some unsolved problem of Nature's mysteries. The conservation of force, or the correlation of all forces to each other, or to a supreme force—life itself and mind-these are mysteries, deep and stupendous; and the man of science bows his head and silently peers and waits-waits and peers into the gloom, looking for the widening streak of heaven-sent light and truth. He places a hand on his lips lest he should presumptuously claim to know more than he really does know; and he ever distinguishes between faith and knowledge, between hope and certainty. But the theologian ?-he never hesitates for a moment. He keeps his dictionary at his elbow to see how a doubtful word is spelt, and binds his orthography to the standard authority. If he is in doubt for a moment he ransacks his Bible, or his Creeds, or his Articles of Religion, and says, It must be so, for it is written." If his mind-being human and loving reason by its own pure nature is startled by a contradiction between one dogma and another, he dares not reject either one or the other. He must take both or be damned. Why? "The Creed says so," or or "the Bible says so," or "the priest says so. And what has reason to do with religion? Little enough, God knows, if by religion we mean the Christian Creeds, and if by reason we mean common sense, 66 But this religion is not, like genuine mystery, above reason, but basely, abysmally, below it. It does not draw one upwards in solemn aspiration trying to learn what it meaneth; but it insults us from beneath our feet. It mocks at our lawful and healthful mental faculties, and scornfully tells us to believe that one is three and three are one; that there are three Gods and there are not three Gods at one and the same time; and if we cannot or do not see it, hell will be our portion. Of all the false pretences none is more transparent and shameless than to call this dogma of the Trinity one that transcends our reason. It does not transcend reason, but simply insults and outrages it. No man ever believed it yet. Many have believed in one God out of the three. Many more have believed in three Gods, but none ever believed the three were one; and not all the maledictions of the Athanasian Creed, with the sum total of the curses issued from Trent and the Vatican added thereto, could ever induce the reason of man to perceive and acknowledge at once two logical contradictories. There must be many, surely, who still feel anxious to think as Jesus Christ thought, and to believe as he belived. I will not be so dishonest as to profess to be one of that number, for I do not care whether I agree or disagree with any one, however high an authority, so long as I believe what is strictly reasonable and true. But this very independence of external authority ought to add weight to my assertion that the doctrines of the Athanasian Creed were never taught by Christ; are totally irreconcileable with His simple teaching and behaviour, and that if they could be proclaimed in his hearing to-day, he would be the first to greet them with the scorn and ridicule which they deserve. Born and bred, living and dying, as a Jew, depend upon it, he would not forswear the Creed of his fathers; but with all the fervour of a great prophet, and the burning piety of a religious man he would sweep the pretentious nonsense and the glaring contradictions of the Athanasian Creed out of his path, and proclaim again in his holy zeal "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and that is God." "There is but one God, and there is none other than he, and to love him with all the heart and all the soul is better than all offerings and burnt sacrifices." "The hour is coming, yea is now come, when the true worshippers shall worship [not the unity in Trinity or Trinity in unity but shall worship] the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship him." My orthodox friends, you may hate me for my sarcasm this day against your Athanasian dogmas, but I have Christ on my side to-day; and if you hate me you must hate him too! CARTER & WILLIAMS, Printers, 14, Bishopsgate Avenue, Camomile Street, E.C. still trust is as different from this as the darkest night in winter from the brightest and loveiest day in spring. The Christianity that still lives and still conquers, proclaims that man will be punished for his own sin only, that pardon is free to every repenting sinner, that love to man is the supreme proof of that love to God which is at once the highest duty and the highest joy of the Christian, and that heaven consists in immortality of virtues." But this change would never have come about if it had not been for our persistent attack upon the Christian view of the endlessness of God's wrath. A few Puseys, and Spurgeons, and Moodys, may be left to bear their testimony to the New Testament doctrine; but the mass of Christian men are losing their hold of this most blasphemous of all the false creeds of mankind. I leave anyone to judge whether the theology, the piety, the devotion of this 100th psalm is not unspeakably superior to orthodox Christianity. It avails nothing for them to claim that they have used it to this day. They may have used it, but they perverted, overclouded, and corrupted it by the rest of their teaching, and by much of their liturgy. One of their own poets laid his tainted hands on it and spoiled the whole sweetness of it in one touch. Hear this parody of the first verse and tell me if you can recognize in it the loving confidence of the old Hebrew psalmist. "Before Jehovah's awful Throne Ye nations bow with sacred joy! Yes, that is it, "He can destroy"-that is the key-note of Christianity-only that "destroy" means in their lips to keep alive for ever in torment. That verse sums up the contrasts between the ancient Theism and the modern Christianity. It places before us the aspect in which such psalms are regarded by Christians and the fearful way in which they are perverted by the importation of Christian dogmas and Christian sentiments. But in spite of it all, you see God's truth does endure from generation to generation. It lasted till Christ was born and will outlive Chris tianity. Here it is to-day, fresh in a thousand-nay, in a million hearts, that God is one in whom we can safely trust, because He hath made us and is responsible for our wellbeing; that God is one in whom we all may rejoice with joy unspeakable, and into whose presence we should ever come with hearts full of thanksgiving and praise; and that while we are in our right minds, in spite of all the sorrows and sins of the world, we should ever speak good of His name. Christianity is an encumbrance if not an impertinence. Let me alone. Leave me to the uncovenanted mercies of my God; myself is my best pledge of His eternal favour to me and to all men. I did not make myself. I look with perfect trust to Him who brought me here. I will praise Him while I live, "And publish with my latest breath CARTER & WILLIAMS, Printers, 14, Bishopsgate Avenue, Camomile Street, E.C. |