nature and through other figures in history, are as significant as the
creed embodied in a tale in Galilee and on Golgotha nineteen centuries
ago. But whatever cleavage may appear hereafter in the religion of the
West, the search for the essence of Christianity, even when it works
through controversy, will contribute to lop off idle dissensions and
reveal fellowship in fundamentals where men had previously supposed
themselves to be hopelessly divided.
It is a little invidious to choose out any particular movements for
special reference, and in so doing I may merely betray personal bias
rather than critical judgement. Yet it is perhaps permissible to point
out that the genesis of the Adult School movement is the natural
development of the Quaker respect for that of God in every man. It
represents the longing for a religious fellowship which does not force
opinion but offers the most favourable conditions for the formation of
independent judgement and the growth of individual faith. How far the
movement realizes its ideal, I forbear to inquire, but its very
existence affords some evidence of the belief in the positive virtue of
toleration as an essential element of the Christian character. Another
powerful factor making for co-operation and better understanding among
Christians may be found in the Student Christian movement. For this
country its value has been enhanced if not created by the opening of the
older Universities to Nonconformists. The future leaders of all our
Churches are now being educated together, and through the Student
Christian movement, they are educating each other and facing together
old controversies and inherited problems at a time when their judgements
are least hampered either by tradition or responsibility. What this may
mean for the religious life of this country, we cannot yet tell, but it
is certain that a new temper will be brought to bear on our divisions.
The men who learn to appreciate one another through this association,
tend to hold together when they pass out of the Universities into their
life-work. There are springing up through the Student movement new
associations or fellowships which conserve and continue the unifying
impetus of the movement itself. Nor is that unifying power confined to
this country. It forms a world-wide federation whose lines of
communication have not been cut even by the present war. In every land,
the Student movement intends to resume international intercourse at the
earliest possible moment. I think it is not simply the bias of a student
in favour of his own class, which makes me regard the Student Christian
movement as one of the most hopeful developments in the religious life
of our age.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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