The Archbishop of York is peculiarly qualified1 to speak on religion and progress. His form of thanksgiving to the God of Battles for our "victory" in Egypt marks him as a man of extraordinary intellect and character, such as common people may admire without hoping to emulate2; while his position, in Archbishop Tait's necessitated3 absence from the scene, makes him the active head of the English Church. Let us listen to the great man.
Archbishop Thomson recently addressed "a working-men's meeting" in the Drill Hall, Sheffield. It was densely4 crowded by six or seven thousand people, and this fact was cited by the Archbishop as a proof that the working classes of England have not yet lost interest in the Christian5 faith. But we should very much like to know how it was ascertained6 that all, or even the major portion, of the vast audience were working-men. It is easy enough to give any meeting a name. We often hear of a Conservative Working-men's banquet, with tickets at something like a guinea each, a duke at the top of the table and a row' of lords down each side. And our experience leads us to believe that nearly all religious meetings of "working-men" are attended chiefly by the lower middle classes who go regularly to church or chapel7 every Sunday of their lives.
Even, however, if the whole six or seven thousand were working-men, the fact would prove little; for Sheffield contains a population of three hundred thousand, and it was not difficult for the clergy8 who thronged9 the platform to get up a big "ticket" meeting, at which a popular Archbishop was the principal speaker, and the eloquence10 was all to be had for nothing.
The Archbishop's lecture, or sermon, or whatever it was, contained nothing new, nor was any old idea presented in a new light. It was simply a summary of the vulgar declamations against the "carnal mind" with which we are all so familiar. Progress, said his Grace, was of two kinds, intellectual and moral. Of the former sort we had plenty, but of the latter not so much. He repudiated11 the notion that moral progress would naturally keep pace with intellectual progress, and he denied that righteousness could ever prevail without "some sanction from above." This was the sum and substance of his discourse12, and we have no doubt that our readers have heard the same thing, in various forms of language, some hundreds of times.
Like the rest of his tribe, Archbishop Thomson went abroad for all his frightful13 warnings, and especially to France. He severely14 condemned15 the French "pride in progress," which led to the Revolution. His Grace has certainly a most original conception of history. Ordinary historians tell us that the Revolution was caused by hunger, bad government, and the rigidity16 of old institutions that could not accommodate themselves to new ideas. But whatever were the causes, look at the results. Compare the state of France before the Revolution with its condition now. The despotic monarchy17 is gone; the luxurious18 and privileged aristocracy has disappeared; and the incredibly wealthy and tyrannous Church is reduced to humbleness19 and poverty. But the starving masses have become the most prosperous on the face of the earth; the ignorant multitudes are well educated; the platform and the press are free; a career is open to every citizen; science, art, and literature have made immense strides; and although Paris, like every great capital, may still, as Mr. Arnold says, lack morality, there is no such flagrant vileness20 within her walls as the corruptions21 of the ancien régime; no such impudent22 affronting23 of the decencies of life as made the parc aux cerfs for ever infamous24, and his Christian Majesty25, Louis the Fifteenth, a worthy26 compeer of Tiberius; no such shameless wickedness as made the orgies of the Duke of Orleans and the Abbé Dubois match the worst saturnalia of Nero.
His Grace felt obliged to advert27 also to the Paris Commune, about which his information seems to be equal to his knowledge of the Revolution. He has the ignorance or audacity28 to declare that the Commune "destroyed a city and ravaged29 the land;" when, as a matter of fact, the struggle was absolutely confined to Paris, and the few buildings injured were in the line of fire. This worthy prelate thinks destruction of buildings a crime on the part of Communalists, but a virtue30 on the part of a Christian power; and while denouncing the partial wreck31 of Paris, he blesses the wholesale32 ruin of Alexandria.
His Grace ventures also to call the leading men of the Commune "drunken dissolute villains33." The beaten party is always wicked, and perhaps Dr. Thomson will remember that Jesus Christ himself was accused of consorting34 with publicans and sinners. Drunken dissolute villains do not risk their lives for an idea. The men of the Commune may have been mistaken, but their motives35 were lofty; and Millière, falling dead on the Church steps before the Versailles bullets, with the cry of Vive l'Humanité on his lips, was as noble a hero as any crucified Galilean who questioned why his God had forsaken36 him.
That intellectual and moral progress naturally go together, the Archbishop calls "an absurd and insane doctrine," and he couples with these epithets37 the honored names of Buckle38 and Spencer. Now it will be well to have a clear understanding on this point. Are intellectual causes dominant39 or subordinate? Even so intensely religious a man as Lamennais unhesitatingly answers that they are dominant. He affirms, in his Du Passé et de l'Avenir du, Peuple, that "intellectual development has produced all other developments," and he adds:—
"It is represented that evil, as it appears in history, springs entirely40 from the passions. This is quite false. The passions disturb the existing order, whatever it may be, but they do not constitute it. They have not that power. It is the necessary result of the received ideas and beliefs. Thus the passions show themselves the same in all epochs, and yet, in different epochs, the established order changes, and sometimes fundamentally."
The truth is that the great moral conceptions are securely established, and the only possible improvement in them must come from the increased fineness and subtlety41 of our mental powers.
Civilisation42 and progress are, according to Archbishop Thomson, nothing but "cobwebs and terms." He besought43 the working men of Sheffield not to go for information to a big book written in some garret in London. His Grace, who lives in a palace at other people's expense, has a very natural dislike of any man of genius who may live in a garret at his own. What has the place in which a book is written to do with its value? "Don Quixote" and the "Pilgrim's Progress" were written in gaol44; and for all Archbishop Thomson knows to the contrary every gospel and epistle of the New Testament45 may have been written in an attic46 or a cellar.
The Archbishop seems to hate the very idea of Progress. What has it done, he asks, to abolish drunkenness and gambling47? To which we reply by asking what Christianity has done. Those vices48 are unmistakably here, and on the face of it any objection they may furnish against Progress must equally apply to Christianity. Nay49 more; for Christianity has had an unlimited50 opportunity to reform the world, while Progress has been hindered at every turn by the insolent51 usurpation52 of its rival.
Dr. Thomson admits that he cannot find a text in the Bible against gambling, and assuredly he cannot find one in favor of teetotalism. On the contrary he will find plenty of texts which recommend the "wine that cheereth the heart of God and man;" and he knows that his master, Jesus Christ, once played the part of an amateur publican at a marriage feast, and turned a large quantity of water into wine in order to keep the spree going when it had once begun.
We repeat that all the Archbishop's objections to Progress, based on the moral defects of men, apply with tenfold force against Religion, which has practically had the whole field to itself. And we assert that he is grievously mistaken if he imagines that supernatural beliefs can ennoble knaves53 or give wisdom to fools. When he talks about "Christ's blood shed to purchase our souls," and specifies54 the first message of his creed55 as "Come and be forgiven," he is appealing to our basest motives, and turning the temple into a huckster's shop. Let him and all his tribe listen to these words of Ruskin's:—
"Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy. Both your religion and policy must be based on it. Your honesty must be based, as the sun is, in vacant heaven; poised56, as the lights in the firmament57, which have rule over the day and over the night If you ask why you are to be honest—you are, in the question itself, dishonored 'Because you are a man,' is the only answer; and therefore I said in a former letter that to make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education. Make them men first and religious men afterwards, and all will be sound; but a knave's religion is always the rottenest thing about him.—Time and Tide, p. 37."
These are the words of a real spiritual teacher. Archbishop Thomson will never get within a million miles of their meaning; nor will anybody be deceived, by the unctuous58 "Oh that" with which he concludes his discourse, like a mental rolling of the whites of his eyes.
As we approach the end of his address, we begin to understand his Grace's hatred59 of Progress. He complains that "intellectual progress never makes a man conceive eternal hopes, never makes a man conceive that he has an eternal friend in heaven, even the Son of God." Quite true. Intellectual progress tends to bound our desires within the scope of their realisation, and to dissipate the fictions of theology. It is therefore inimical to all professional soul-savers, who chatter60 about another world with no understanding of this; and especially to the lofty teachers of religion who luxuriate in palaces, and fling jibes61 and sneers62 at the toiling63 soldiers of progress who face hunger, thirst and death. These rich disciples64 of the poor Nazarene are horrified65 when the scorn is retorted on them and their creed; and Archbishop Thomson expresses his "disgust" at our ridiculing66 his Bible and endeavoring to bring his "convictions" into "contempt." It is, he says, "an offence against the first principles of mutual67 sympathy and consideration." Yet this angry complainant describes other people's convictions as "absurd and insane." All the sympathy and consideration is to be on one side! The less said about either the better. There can be no treaty or truce68 in a war of principles, and the soldiers of Progress will neither take quarter nor give it. Christianity must defend itself. It may try to kill us with the poisoned arrows of persecution69; but what defence can it make against the rifleshot of common-sense, or how stand against the shattering artillery70 of science? Every such battle is decided71 in its commencement, for every religion begins to succumb72 the very moment it is attacked.
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1
qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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emulate
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| v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿 | |
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necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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13
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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rigidity
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| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
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monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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humbleness
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| n.谦卑，谦逊；恭顺 | |
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vileness
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| n.讨厌，卑劣 | |
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corruptions
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| n.堕落( corruption的名词复数 )；腐化；腐败；贿赂 | |
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impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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affronting
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| v.勇敢地面对( affront的现在分词 )；相遇 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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advert
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| vi.注意，留意，言及；n.广告 | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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29
ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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villains
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| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
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consorting
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| v.结伴( consort的现在分词 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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40
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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43
besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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44
gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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45
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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46
attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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47
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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48
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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49
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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50
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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51
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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52
usurpation
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| n.篡位；霸占 | |
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53
knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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54
specifies
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| v.指定( specify的第三人称单数 )；详述；提出…的条件；使具有特性 | |
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55
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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56
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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58
unctuous
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| adj.油腔滑调的，大胆的 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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60
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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61
jibes
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| n.与…一致( jibe的名词复数 )；（与…）相符；相匹配v.与…一致( jibe的第三人称单数 )；（与…）相符；相匹配 | |
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62
sneers
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| 讥笑的表情（言语）( sneer的名词复数 ) | |
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63
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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64
disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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65
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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66
ridiculing
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的现在分词 ) | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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68
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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70
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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71
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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succumb
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| v.屈服，屈从；死 | |
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