sets us free from this. For lack of diffused knowledge in the dark ages the priest grew strong, and his fetters were firmly fastened on the minds of the people. What ushered in the great Reformation? The wonderful revival of learning in the preceding half century. That is indisputable. Knowledge brought freedom, snapping the priestly chains, abating the Church's prerogatives and restoring to men the rights of their divine sonship-free access to the living word and the living God. Where the priest still holds sway is where darkness and ignorance most rule. It is for lack of knowledge people go into captivity to the priest, and it is for lack of knowledge they are led captive by the infidel-not by means of it. I have been amazed at the gross ignorance, the palpable blunders, the shallow arguments of most popular infidel lecturers in England and America, and at the simple, credulous way in which most of their open-mouthed hearers have sucked them in. I suppose these men have made a large number of converts to their unbelief; but I am persuaded that this success is due mainly to the lack of knowledge in our churches; and as far as my observation goes, the majority of their converts come from that denomination, or set of denominations, which pays the least attention to culture, and is content with the smallest modicum of education for its ministers. A very moderate amount of knowledge would prevent them from falling a prey to the gross mis-statements and fallacies of these stump orators. I do not mean to say that it is only the least intelligent portion of the community whose religious belief is at present being shaken. No doubt a considerable proportion of the more thoughtful and cultured are being, at any rate, estranged from the Church, some of them altogether losing faith in God. But why? Largely through lack of knowledge in the Church itself and even in the leaders of the Church. I remember on my first visit to America, some forty years ago, how James Russell Lowell said to me, speaking of the prospects of religion, “I am not afraid of the Church being vanquished by the world, but I am afraid sometimes of the Church being left behind by the world." I scarcely understood him at the time. I have seen enough since to explain and justify his fears. Time was when the Church took the lead in everything, not simply in theology, but in art, literature, philosophy, science, politics, because it controlled all the sources of knowledge and made the most diligent use of them. It is losing -I might say it has lost-that control, and is ceasing to be the people's guide. They look for leading elsewhere. Why? Mainly because of that mischievous distinction drawn between secular and so-called religious knowledge to which I have before alluded. The Church has held it sufficient to maintain the study of theology with at most a smattering of philosophy, and to treat other branches of knowledge with indifference and suspicion if not with aversion and direct hostility. What is the consequence? First, theology itself has suffered; for theology, as we have seen, must draw its materials from every kind of revelation that God has given i.e., from every branch of science and every field of knowledge; and secondly, although the trained theologian may still be able to hold his own as a matter of pure dialectic against the popular infidel lecturer or even the scientific agnostic, the Church is getting out of touch with the people. It has too often treated with indifference the questions in which they have deep interest-social questions, political, economic, scientific questions-as though religion had nothing to do with them, and the Nemesis has followed that the people have become indifferent to it. It is incapable of leading, and is in danger of being, not exactly confuted, but simply left behind. And the people suffer. They know not what they miss. They are destroyed for lack of knowledge, lack of that which it most behoves them to know. For after all, it is true, as Augustine said, "Thou, O God, hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless till it rests in Thee." They crave something without knowing what it is they crave. It is the true knowledge of God, and for lack of it they are led into captivity by the spiritualist, the political agitator, and the religious charlatan, by any shallow demagogue, who, having a little more knowledge than the masses of the people poses as the possessor of all knowledge, corrects the errors of theologians, politicians, economists, as being himself a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes; propounds to the multitude, as the remedy for present evils, schemes that would aggravate them ten-fold, and so befools their understandings with plausible sophisms that they think the command, Thou shalt not steal, applies only to individuals, not to com munities, and that while it is a crime to rob the poor, to rob the rich is a positive virtue. Therefore I say with the wise man of old (and I say it with emphasis to the young people) " Get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. Get it as a duty you owe to yourselves, as a duty you owe to your fellows, as a duty you owe to God. The God who made the seeing eye and the thinking brain` intended them to be used. The God who has given abundant opportunities for the increase of knowledge in the present generation, intended you should avail yourself of them. The God who has made you the member of a community intended you to serve it, and how can you serve it without knowledge? Can the blind lead the blind; will they not both fall into the ditch? For lack of knowledge the people perish, and your power to save them will depend largely on the breadth and accuracy of your attainments. Suffer no one to prejudice you against knowledge.' If one tells you in pious tones, "Ah! brother, God does not stand in need of our knowledge," you may answer with confidence, "Still less does He stand in need of our ignorance." If you are reminded, "Knowledge puffeth up," be sure that more knowledge will bring you down. The more you learn, the more you will find there is to learn, and consciousness of your deficiencies will make you humble. There is no conceit like the conceit of ignorance. Not he who knows least is the most lowly-minded, but he whose extending knowledge acquaints him with the vast realms of the divine order, and reveals to him his own insignificance. Learning begets reverence. Ignorance breeds only superstition. He serves God |