British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871Various
History
British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871
Various
English periodicals
'98. _Q._ Is it wicked then to enter a meeting-house at
all? _A._ Most assuredly; because, as was said above, it is
a house where God is worshipped otherwise than He has
commanded, and therefore it is not dedicated to His honour
and glory; and besides this, we run the risk of being led
away by wicked enticing words; at the same time, by our
presence we are witnessing our approval of their heresy,
wounding the consciences of our weaker brethren, and by our
example teaching others to go astray.
'99. _Q._ But is language such as this consistent with
charity? _A._ Quite so: for when there is danger of the
true worshippers of God falling into error we cannot speak
too plainly, or warn them too strongly of their perilous
state; at the same time that it is our duty to declare in
express terms to those who are without, that they are
living separate from Christ's body, and consequently out of
the pale of salvation, so far, at least, as God has thought
fit to reveal.'
Assuming, as we may fairly do, that the author of all this--well! we
need not describe it--preaches as he publishes, have the heretics and
sinners whom he thus consigns to perdition no right to complain that,
besides receiving--according to the 'Clergy List'--£230 a year of
public money, he should also be invested with authority by the State?
It is idle to say that truth is truth, and falsehood falsehood, and
that the one will prevail, and the other perish, no matter whether he
who utters it is an established clergyman, or a dissenting preacher.
In the long run it will be so, but the struggle between truth and
falsehood is prolonged when, instead of the two being left fairly to
grapple with each other, the weight of State-influence, as well as of
State-gold, is thrown into the wrong scale. To speak plainly, the
establishment of a Church is an organized system of bribery in favour
of that Church. It may fail to buy the adherence of strong and
independent minds, but the minds of the majority are neither the one
nor the other. It appeals successfully to the self-seeking, the
timid, the conventional, the fashion-loving, and _they_ are to be
found among every class of the community. And, in doing so, it
inflicts injustice--injustice to those who reject the established
doctrines, even though they may be in possession of every civil right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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