The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
Now, awakened from the nightmare superinduced by you, I
find myself past the opportunities of youth, the time for preparations
in other professions irrecoverably lost, and a family dependent on me.
The situation concerns not only you and me, but others we have involved.
For years I have been laboring with you to try and persuade other youths
into the same situation as my own. Something is due to them. I have
deceived them and must undeceive them. You say I must be true, but you
must be true also. I have innocently reached a position which enables
me to compel you to publish to the world exactly where you stand. I will
clearly define my convictions: if you cannot tolerate them in your pulpit
the youth will know the precise limits to their freedom they agree to
in entering your ministry. If you can tolerate them they will know your
liberalism. Therefore I remain here proclaiming my truth, and will not
help you to cover the truth up by a resignation relieving you of the duty
of proclaiming your position with equal clearness. You have got me here,
and if I go now you must turn me out. So shall the cause of truth be
advanced.”
While this may be affirmed, I think, as a general ethical principle,
it is equally true that each case must be judged by itself. The above
principle depends on the condition that the ministry has been honestly
entered from religious motives, there being no mental reservations
at that time. It will be observed that in the case of Mr. Call the
consideration entered that he had passed through a phase of Shelleyan
scepticism in early youth. This had to be weighed, and perhaps may
have had much to do with his determination to retire voluntarily from
the ministry. He never concealed his views, however, and it is well
known that great efforts are made by older preachers to beat down the
scepticism that often arises in the minds of young candidates for the
ministry. In such case these unwise advisers assume a large share of
responsibility for the event, whether enough to justify the subsequent
heretic in compelling a conflict must depend on the minister’s
conscience. Although, therefore, Mr. Call decided rightly, in accordance
with his moral consciousness, it were by no means fair to maintain, with
the author of “Robert Elsmere,” that ministers who find themselves more
liberal than the majority of preachers in their church should surrender
to such mere superiority of physical force without testing its legality
and laying on it responsibility for its exercise of power. Robert Elsmere
should, on moral principles, have remained in the church. By so remaining
Colenso, Dean Stanley, Charles Kingsley, Max Müller, Professor Jowett,
Matthew Arnold, and others, have revealed the fact that, in their church,
thought is not delivered up by law to the despotism of a majority.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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