Arrows of FreethoughtFoote, G. W. (George William)
Religion
Arrows of Freethought
Foote, G. W. (George William)
Free thought
Mr. Brown opines that Christ will reign until all his enemies are under
his feet. And who are these enemies? Not the souls of men, says Mr.
Brown, for Christ "loves them with an infinite tenderness." This
infinite tenderness is clearly not allied to infinite power or the
world's anguish would long since have been appeased and extinguished,
or never have been permitted to exist at all. The real enemies of Christ
are not the souls of men, but "the hates and passions which torment
them." Oh those hates and passions! They are the dialectical balls with
which Mr. Brown goes through his performance in that circle of _petitio
principii_ so hated by all logicians, the middle sphere of intellects
too light for the solid earth of fact and too gross for the aerial
heaven of imagination.
It will be a fitting conclusion to present to Mr. Brown a very
serious matter which he has overlooked. Christ, "the blessed and only
Potentate," came on earth and originated the universal religion nearly
two thousand years ago. Up to the present time three-fourths of the
world's inhabitants are outside its pale, and more than half of them
have never heard it preached. Amongst the quarter which nominally
professes Christianity disbelief is spreading more rapidly than the
missionaries succeed in converting the heathen; so that the reign of
Christ is being restricted instead of increased. To ask us, despite
this, to believe that he is God, and possessed of infinite power, is to
ask us to believe a marvel compared with which the wildest fables are
credible, and the most extravagant miracles but as dust in the balance.
THE PRIMATE ON MODERN INFIDELITY.
(September, 1880.)
A bishop once twitted a curate with preaching indifferent orthodoxy.
"Well," answered the latter, "I don't see how you can expect me to be as
orthodox as yourself. I believe at the rate of a hundred a year, and you
at the rate of ten thousand." In the spirit of this anecdote we should
expect an archbishop to be as orthodox as the frailty of human nature
will allow. A man who faithfully believes at the rate of fifteen
thousand a year should be able to swallow most things and stick at
very little. And there can be no doubt that the canny Scotchman who has
climbed or wriggled up to the Archbishopric of Canterbury is prepared
to go any lengths his salary may require. We suspect that he regards the
doctrines of the Church very much as did that irreverent youth mentioned
by Sidney Smith, who, on being asked to sign the Thirty-nine Articles,
replied "Oh yes, forty if you like." The clean linen of his theology is
immaculately pure. Never has he fallen under a suspicion of entertaining
dangerous or questionable opinions, and he has in a remarkable degree
that faculty praised by Saint Paul of being all things to all men, or
at least as many men as make a lumping majority. What else could be
expected from a Scotchman who has mounted to the spiritual Primacy of
England?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account