Church and Nation: The Bishop Paddock Lectures for 1914-15Temple, William
Religion
Church and Nation: The Bishop Paddock Lectures for 1914-15
Temple, William
Church and state
Let us suppose that we meet on one day with two beggars. One of them is
a man who has borne a good character throughout his life, and has lost
his work through no fault of his own; the works on which he was employed
were closed, and he is now tramping in search of more work. All of us
of course will say—"He deserves help and we will help him." Yes; and it
is quite easy to help him. We have only to set him up again, and all
will be well. It is not his own fault and we can rely upon him to make
use of another opportunity. The other beggar is a man who has lost this
place, as he has lost many before, through indulgence in some vice, such
as drink. There are very many people who will say, "Well, it is his own
fault, and now he must suffer for it." If God had taken that line with
us, where would our redemption be?—"It is his own fault, now he must
suffer for it." To say that is to repudiate the Gospel in its entirety.
It is to call the Cross absurd and scandalous. "God commendeth His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died."
No; the Christian will say, "This man needs help more than the other."
It will not be the same kind of help. It is no use merely to give him
money. That may merely help him to go wrong quicker than he would
otherwise. He needs something that will cost us, probably, more than
money; he needs our time—time to make friends; time to remove his
suspicions; time to enter into real sympathy with him, and to detect
what elements of strength there are in his character, that we may build
them up again. But he needs help more than the other, and the Christian
will be bound to give it, and he will say—"It was his own fault; he
cannot help himself; it depends entirely on us; we will render to him
according to his need."
And all of this would lead to another formula for describing the justice
which we shall desire to practise in the State, and in all our secular
life of which the State is the highest organisation—The recognition of
personality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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