PART II.

THE CHRISTIANITY OF TO-DAY.

CHAPTER XII.

Introductory Remarks.

HAVING now endeavoured to present to the reader a general outline of the Religion of Jesus, with such comments thereon as seemed necessary to make him understand it in the light that I have ventured to view it, we will now turn our attention to the Christianity of Today, and try to discover how far it differs from or coincides with that taught by Christ. Should I be able to prove to any minds that the barriers which separate Christian from Christian in our day, are baseless creations of the human brain and may therefore be safely overturned, my efforts will not have been in vain, since to remove ill-will and prejudice between man and man is surely an object worthy of every one's ambition, be he Christian or infidel.

Before considering the tenets of modern Christianity it will be as well to remind the reader-who believes in salvation only through faith in Christian doctrines, and perhaps, too, the doctrines of some particular sect of Christians that, according to reliable statistics, there are twelve * See Chambers's Encyclopædia, title, "Religion."

M

hundred and seventy millions of men and women in this world of ours, who have a religious belief. This religious belief, doubtless, in nearly all cases, involves a belief in a God, and in worshipping Him, they really worship the same God as we do, though their conceptions of Him may not agree with our beliefs. As I shall show presently, there is abundant evidence in the Old Testament that the Jewish conception of God—as a God of vengeance, jealousy, and wrath-differed also considerably from our conception of the Deity, as taught by modern Christianity. Of this countless host of God's creatures who now, to the best of their lights, believe and worship what they conscientiously hold to be true and good, the proportion of Christians is actually not more than one-fourth in point of numbers; and of the three hundred and fifty millions of Christians in the world, only ninety-five millions are Protestants as against one hundred and eighty millions of Catholics. Taking the Protestants, we find that the Anglican Church can claim no more than fifteen million followers! In the presence of these undeniable facts, what are we to say of the ignorance bigotry, and intolerance-to say nothing of the almost blasphemous presumption-which characterise the adherents of any one of these comparatively insignificant subdivisions of Christian sects--be they Roman Catholics with one hundred and eighty millions, or Anglicans with only fifteen millions-who have the audacity to assert that the Almighty will punish everlastingly all who do not think as they do? They do not stop to think that, in their wholesale condemnation, they not only consign to eternal perdition those of their fellow-Christians who differ from their favourite opinions, but the whole of the nine hundred millions of men and women outside the Christian faith!

Not only are we Christians in a minority of one-fourth of the populations of the earth, but our faith is split up into so many petty subdivisions, that it is impossible for an inquirer into the principles of modern Christianity to dis

cover where true Christianity is to be found. Perhaps this fact may be taken as the best argument that it is not to be found in any one of them. There are no fewer than twentytwo different sects of Christians amongst the ninety-five millions of Protestants alone, who all claim, either directly or by implication, that they alone have the truth; and most of them impliedly believe, if they do not, like the Roman Catholic and English Churches, publicly assert, that all who do not accept their particular interpretation of truth will be damned!

Since, however, truth can never be divided against itself, we may learn from these statistics one great fact, to begin with, which it would be well if all sectarians would take to heart, and that is: that all these sects cannot be right, nor is it probable that all, save one, can be wrong. Men of the greatest learning, earnestness, and piety, are to be found in the ranks of all of them, and these men sincerely believeaccording to the reason which God has given them-that their creed and practice is alone acceptable to the Almighty. Is it not, therefore, almost an inevitable inference that not one of them has the whole truth to the exclusion of the others, but that truth and error exist in all of them? Again, if we infer this from the differences amongst Christians, may we not also infer another and a still greater fact—namely, that although the three hundred and fifty millions of Christians may have amongst them the whole truth, yet it is exceedingly improbable that all other religious bodies in the world are in absolute darkness and condemned by the Creator to be punished eternally for not having more light! They may have less of the truth than we have, but it is surely gross presumption on our part to say that they have not enough, by God's pleasure, to effect their salvation. If any man believes that in his sect is to be found the truth unadulterated, and that in the rest some truth may exist, but much error,— -are there not, in all the other sects combined, men of equal ability and greater numbers who would say the contrary?

Strange to say, however, there are-as I hope to showa number of grains of truth which all sects alike possess and all alike are agreed on, and these grains of truth are none other than the unadulterated moral teachings of Christ.

Probably no Christian sect exists which does not teach and profess to believe in the simple precepts taught by Christ, which we have examined and classified in Part I. of this work, under the head of the Practical Teachings of Christ, and summarised under five heads in Salvation According to Christ (ante p. 98); whilst probably not two of the whole Christian sects are agreed on those teachings of Christ and his Apostles, which I have classified on p. 58, ante, under the head of Doctrinal Teachings of Christ, and afterwards summarised on p. 99, ante. However not to anticipate the conclusions come to hereafter -let us proceed to consider Christianity as we find it in the leading Christian sects of to-day, and in doing so, I shall give the place of honour to the Church of England, as being the Established religion of this country.

Christianity according to the Church of England.

The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common Prayer, we are told, were "agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces, and the whole clergy, in the Convocation holden at London in the year 1562, for the avoiding of diversities of opinion and for the establishing of consent touching true religion."

Here follows the King's Declaration, wherein it is proclaimed that the Thirty-nine Articles " do contain the true doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to God's Word; which we do therefore ratify and confirm, requiring all our

loving subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof, and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles."

Again, in another part of this Declaration, it is once more repeated-touching these doctrines-that "from them. we will not endure any varying or departing in the least degree." The King declares himself to be the "Supreme Governor of the Church of England," and, as such, claims the right to require implicit obedience to these Articles, requiring that no man "shall put his own sense or comment to be the meaning of any Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical sense."

It is impossible, nor is it necessary, to give these wellknown Articles at length. I will merely draw the reader's attention to a concise summary of what they declare to be "the true doctrine of the Church of England."

Article 1. The Trinity.

2. Christ's Divinity and the Atonement: "To reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men."

Article 4. His Resurrection and Ascension.

5. The Holy Ghost.

6. Holy Scripture: "Whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith, or be thought necessary to salvation."

If the reader will turn back to Chapter X., page 134, where I have treated of the doctrines taught by Christ, he will see that the conclusions there come to are entirely against the necessity of believing these doctrines as a sine quâ non to salvation. What Christ did require of those who wish to be saved, I have already sum