The Churches and Modern Thought

Ibid, p. 3063, par 10.

59

In Studies in the Character of Christ, by Rev. C. H. Robinson, Hon. Canon of Ripon and Editorial Secretary to the S.P.G.

60

Enc. Bib., art. “Nativity,” par. 10, 11, 12.

61

The late Rev. A. B. Bruce, D.D., Professor of Apologetics and New Testament Exegesis, Free Church College, Glasgow.

62

See Enc. Bib., art. “Gospels,” par. 139.

63

See Enc. Bib., art. “Gospels,” par. 138, where the reasons for this conclusion are explained. See also par. 108.

64

Author of various theological works, Hulsean Lecturer, Cambridge, 1876; Select Preacher, Oxford, 1877.

65

The interpolation in the last chapter of St. Mark goes back far into the second century. It is important to bear in mind that none of the dates given by Dr. Harnack and other authorities applies to the Gospels exactly as we now have them. Accounts of miracles have been added subsequently!

66

Enc. Bib., art. “Lazarus.”

67

Ibid, art. “Gospels,” par. 147.

68

W. C. van Manen, D.D., Professor of Old-Christian Literature and New Testament Exegesis, Leyden.

69

Spoken in an address to the St. Paul’s Lecture Society, at the opening of a new session in 1904.

70

The italics in these quotations from Dr. Harnack are mine.

71

Fully reported in the Methodist Times.

72

The Greek version, known as the Septuagint (LXX.), made in Egypt in the third and second centuries B.C. for the use of the numerous body of Greek-speaking Jews and proselytes in that country.

73

A Greek document which is supposed to have existed and then to have been entirely lost (imagine God’s Word lost!), and to contain some of the matter related by St. Matthew and St. Luke, while omitted by St. Mark. N.B.—While the evangelist St. Mark is relegated to the position of a translator only, St. Matthew and St. Luke are taken by orthodox theologians to be mere copyists of St. Mark and a “lost” document!

74

See art. “Gospels,” in the Enc. Bib., and Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek.

75

In his address at the Church Congress held at Weymouth in 1905.

76

In his address at the Church Congress held at Weymouth in 1905.

77

In his work, Verbal Inspiration. Quoted by Bishop Colenso in The Pentateuch Examined.

78

The Dean of Canterbury, speaking on the Bishop of Winchester’s paper at the Church Congress, 1903.

79

The Dean of Canterbury, speaking in St. Mary Bredin’s Church, Canterbury, December 4th, 1904.

80

See Appendix.

81

See Bk. VIII., chap. ii., par. 2, on p. 324, vol. i. Eusebius (Oxford: Parker & Co.). His candour here is deserving of all praise; but his methods can hardly be termed scientific; while an impartial perusal of his Vita Constantini, a panegyric on the Emperor Constantine, should be enough to shake the confidence of all but the blindest of his admirers.

82

See p. 179, chap. xv., of Gibbon’s Rome (Oddy, 1809).

83

See Appendix.

84

In note A, pp. 42–3, of his book, The Study of the Gospels.

85

At the discussion on Christian Science during the London Diocesan Conference, May, 1906.

86

See his book, The Days of His Flesh; Hodder & Stoughton, 1906.

87

See chap. xxviii. of The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, by the Rev. George Adam Smith, M.A., D.D., LL.D.; Professor of O. T. Lang., Liter., and Theology, etc.

88

The quotation is from Canon C. H. Robinson’s book, Studies in the Character of Christ.

89

J. G. Frazer (Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Hon. D.C.L. Oxford; Hon. LL.D. Glasgow; Hon. Litt. D. Durham, etc.), in his Preface to the second edition of The Golden Bough.

90

Professor Max Müller, in The Science of Religion, p. 40.

91

The italics are mine throughout this quotation; also words within brackets [ ].

92

See Appendix.

93

“We are accustomed to find the legendary and the miraculous gathering, like a halo, around the early history of religious leaders, until the sober truth runs the risk of being altogether neglected for the glittering and edifying falsehood” (Enc. Brit., vol. iv., art. “Buddhism,” p. 424). This process is recognised as a universal rule. What grounds have we for assuming that Christianity is exempt from it?

94

See Appendix.

95

See Appendix.

96

Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, was possibly a historical person. We are quite in the dark as to the precise date of Zoroaster. Duncker places him about the year 1000 B.C.

97

Apol. I. 54 and I. 21. Quoted in the Enc. Bib., art. “Mary.”

98

Pp. 78–9 of his important work, Divine Immanence.

99

Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi., pp. 197–200.

100

Egyptian Belief, p. 370.

101

Middleton’s Works, vol. i., pp. 63, 64.

102

Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. ii., p. 260, note 3.

103

See his work, Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii., p. 113.

104

Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi., p. 95.

105

Myths of the New World, p. 166.

106

P. 393 of Monumental Christianity, or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church as Witness and Teachers of the One Catholic Faith and Practice.

107

In his book, Bushido, pp. 15–19 and 24.

108

P. 152 of his book, King David of Israel (Watts, 1905).

109

The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. ii., p. 220.

110

Ibid., vol. i., Preface, p. xv.

111

They appear in Part II., pp. 171, 183, 188, 300, and 302.

112

A translation of the Chinese version of the “Abbinishkramana Sûtra.” For the probable date, see Appendix.

113

See Herbert Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, Vol. I., Part I., chapter on “The Primitive Man—Emotional.”

114

Professor Robertson Smith, in The Religion of the Semites, p. 347. Dr. W. R. Smith was a distinguished Scottish Biblical scholar and Orientalist. From 1881 he was associated as joint editor of the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica with Professor Spencer Baynes, after whose death in 1887 he was sole editor.

115

J. M. Robertson, in his book, Pagan Christs, pp. 373–4.

116

For this and the following graphic accounts I am indebted to Mr. J. M. Robertson’s book, Pagan Christs, Part IV.—“The Religion of Ancient America.”

117

Quoted from his celebrated book, The Golden Bough.

118

See p. 145, note.

119

See Appendix.

120

See “Gods of Cultivation” in Grant Allen’s Evolution of the Idea of God.

121

See Appendix.

122

The Evolution of the Idea of God (chapter on “The Gods of Cultivation”).

123

Ibid (chapter on “The Origin of Gods”).

124

Principles of Sociology, vol. i. (chapter on “Primitive Ideas,” p. 102).

125

Principles of Sociology (chapter on “Inspiration, Divination, Exorcism, and Sorcery,” p. 241).

126

P. 366, vol. ii. of The Golden Bough.

127

Anacalypsis, vol. 1., p. 638.

128

St. Matthew xii. 40.

129

See Appendix.

130

Studies in the Character of Christ, vi. 102.

131

Encyc. Brit., art. “Mythology.”

132

See Appendix.

133

See p. 117 of Monumental Christianity.

134

See Appendix.

135

Quoted from Darwin’s Descent of Man.

136

“The preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations I call natural selection” (Darwin, Origin of Species, ed. 1860, iv.).

137

Darwin, Varieties of Animals and Plants, xx., 178.

138

Concluding remarks in Darwin’s Descent of Man.

139

Ibid.

140

See his book containing the aforesaid lectures, and called God’s Image in Man and its Defacement in the Light of Modern Denials. (Hodder and Stoughton; 1905.)

141

Lent by Mr. Reginald Blunt to the Chelsea Public Library.

142

See Professor Huxley’s essays, “The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature” and “Mr. Gladstone and Genesis,” appearing in the Nineteenth Century for December, 1885, and February, 1886, respectively, and also in the collection of Huxley’s essays entitled Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions.

143

Dr. Torrey informed a huge audience in the Albert Hall recently that he had given up the theory of Evolution for scientific reasons. “People speak of the missing link; why, they are all missing!” cried Dr. Torrey. Now, this is nothing more nor less than an untruth, and Dr. Torrey must know that it is, if he has studied Evolution, as he assures us that he has. Here is an example of the way Christians are misinformed by their spiritual teachers on the subject of Evolution. But what can you expect of an evangelist who thinks that he is serving God’s cause by slandering the dead, as he did in the case of Colonel Ingersoll and Thomas Paine?

144

See Mr. W. H. Mallock’s Religion as a Credible Doctrine, p. 177.

145

Origin of Species, p. 65.

146

From The Story of Creation, by Edward Clodd. Chapter on “The Origin of Species,” p. 95 of the cheap edition.

147

The Nineteenth Century, February, 1888, pp. 162, 163.

148

Pp. 519–20.

149

Theism, by the Rev. Robert Flint, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Moral Philosophy, Divinity, etc., being the Baird Lectures for 1877.

150

On p. 39 of his own work, Anti-Nunquam.

151

The Light of Asia, Book the First.

152

Quoted from Huxley’s Lectures on Evolution.

153

Quoted from Huxley’s Lectures on Evolution.

154

Controverted Questions, pp. 100, 102, 103, 104.

155

In Lectures on Evolution.

156

Quoted from “The Interpreters of Genesis,” in the essays on Controverted Questions, p. 91.

157

“Mr. Gladstone and Genesis,” pp. 112–3 of Controverted Questions.

158

The Descent of Man, p. 10.

159

The Nature of Man, by Metchnikoff, p. 41.

160

The Descent of Man, p. 10.

161

The Nature of Man, p. 42.

162

Man’s Place in Nature, p. 126.

163

Ibid, p. 127.

164

The Nature of Man, p. 42.

165

Man’s Place in Nature, p. 111.

166

Ibid, p. 139.

167

Ibid, p. 102, note.

168

Pp. 49–54. At the late International Congress on Tuberculosis, Professor Behring paid the highest tribute to Metchnikoff’s labours on phagocytosis. Strange indeed are the instruments chosen by God for conferring His benefits on mankind; for the author of The Nature of Man denies His existence!

169

Described in the Lancet, January 18th, 1902.

170

The Nature of Man, pp. 45–48.

171

The Descent of Man, vol. i., p. 14. According to the latest authorities, however, the human ovum (when mature) differs in many respects from other (especially non-mammal) ova.

172

See the “Family Tree” of Life in the Appendix.

173

“It is,” says Professor Huxley (in Man’s Place in Nature, 1863, p. 67, and quoted by Darwin in his Descent of Man, p. 14), “quite in the later steps of development that the young human being presents marked differences from the young ape, while the latter departs as much from the dog in its developments as the man does. Startling as this last assertion may appear to be, it is demonstrably true.”

174

The Descent of Man, vol. i., pp. 17–18.

175

See The Nature of Man, p. 60.

176

The Descent of Man, vol. i., p. 29.

177

The Evolution of Man, vol. ii., p. 708.

178

Ibid, 774.

179

The Descent of Man, vol. ii., p. 32.

180

The Nature of Man, p. 67.

181

The Descent of Man, vol. i., pp. 32–33.

182

God and My Neighbour, p. 134.

183

The document and the hostile criticisms concerning it in religious papers are highly instructive. Except for the correspondence on the subject in the Standard during May, 1905, under the title of “Faith and Religion,” the general public are not likely to know of the matter.

184

Tylor and Hartmann, however, believe in the animal descent of man, and therefore in a rise from primitive civilisation.

185

Our ancestors were never “molluscs”; “worm” would be an appropriate word here.

186

Review in the Church Times of May 31st, 1905, of the Dean of Westminster’s book, Some Thoughts on Inspiration.

187

This and the following quotations are from “Advent Lectures on Sin,” delivered by Dr. Gore, then Bishop of Worcester, in St. Philip’s Church, Birmingham. They were reported in the Church Times of December 4th, 11th, and 18th, 1903.

188

See pp. 234–5.

189

In an address to the Students’ Christian Union of Owens College, Manchester, on January 8th, 1904.

190

In his interesting book, Problems of Religion and Science, p. 70.

191

Teleology is the name given to the doctrine of final causes; the theory of tendency to an end, or the arrangement of things as they are for a purpose.

192

See Appendix.

193

Contemporary Review for May, art. “The Scientists and Common Sense.”

194

Under this title there is a pamphlet (Charles H. Kelly, Paternoster Row) by the Ven. J. M. Wilson, Archdeacon of Manchester, in which the latitudinarian views to which I refer are openly expressed. See Appendix.

195

Flint’s Theism, pp. 133–4.

196

Theism, p. 102. This book is a standard apologetic work on Theism. Dr. Flint is also the writer of the article on “Theism” in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

197

See p. 73 of Haeckel’s Critics Answered, by Joseph McCabe.

198

Ibid, p. 73.

199

Haeckel’s Critics Answered, p. 74.

200

Religion and Science, pp. 89–90.

201

Theism, Lecture IV.

202

See p. 76 of Haeckel’s Critics Answered.

203

Theism, p. 79.

204

Chapter on “Theism and Natural Selection.”

205

Religion and Science, p. 83.

206

Religion and Science, pp. 89, 90.

207

In The Ethics, Part i., appendix.

208

In his work, Divine Immanence.

209

Divine Immanence, pp. 71–2.

210

Ibid, pp. 71–2.

211

Ibid, pp. 71–2.

212

Ibid, pp. 71–2.

213

Ibid, p. 73.

214

Ibid, p. 161.

215

Divine Immanence, p. 161.

216

In the preface to his poem.

217

Art. “Theism” in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

218

E.g., see p. 15 of The Three Superstitions, by Dr. Keeling, an ex-professor of gynecology.

219

Theism, p. 245.

220

Theism, p. 246.

221

In an address at the inaugural meeting of the session of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, held on October 31st, 1905.

222

A Text-Book of Apologetics, by Charles Harris, B.D., Lecturer in Theology and Parochialia, St. David’s College, Lampeter; Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Llandaff. (London: John Murray, 1905.) A noticeable point about this latest contribution to apologetic literature is that, though it purposes to deal with all the chief arguments which have been urged against religion, it leaves the weightiest argument of all—the argument from Comparative Mythology—practically untouched. Why is this?

223

Theism, p. 228.

224

Theism, “The Argument from Order.”

225

Theism, p. 226.

226

Ibid., p. 67.

227

This description is borne out by the Rev. A. R. Robertson, D.D., in The Roman Catholic Church in Italy (Morgan & Scott), a book which was accorded a flattering reception in January, 1903, by the King of Italy. In Southern Italy the Church’s methods remind one of what Paschal tells us concerning the Jesuits—how they kept men wicked, lest, if they became virtuous, the priests should lose their hold upon them.

228

Encyclopædia Britannica, art. “Newman, John Henry.”

229

See art. “Francis William Newman,” by Francis Gribble, The Fortnightly, July, 1905.

230

Being an address given at the Pusey House, Oxford.

231

Their guiltlessness is made abundantly clear in Robert Blatchford’s Not Guilty, a book containing a lucid presentment of the case for Determinism which may be understood of all. There are copious illustrations of heredity and environment—terms the wide application of which must be thoroughly realised.

232

Regarding his philosophic position, however, see Appendix.

233

In his book, Rough Ways Made Smooth, chapter on “Bodily Illness as a Mental Stimulant.”

234

In Occult Japan, by Percival Lowell (Riverside Press), there is an interesting account of these practices.

235

The delusions of the “Christian Scientists” in mixing up religion with psychic healing can only be attributed to their ignorance of modern psychology. Those who know better, and are making money out of it, are as shamefully imposing upon the credulity of religious folk as is the Roman Catholic Church with her shrines of healing.

236

In the December (1904) Journal of the Society for Psychical Research a lady gives a vivid description of how she cured herself completely of certain nervous complaints by auto-suggestion. It is interesting to note that she says: “I did not believe in the efficacy of this treatment one bit; I just made myself do it; but I felt, most of the time, that it was extremely ridiculous.” See also Appendix.

237

The following is from the Mikado’s Rescript issued on the conclusion of peace:—“The result is due in a large measure to the benign spirits of our ancestors, as well as to the devotion and duty of our civil and military officials and the self-denying patriotism of all our people.... We are happy to invoke the blessing of the benign spirits of our ancestors.” N.B.—The word “God” is conspicuous by its absence; “ancestors’ spirits” take its place.

238

International Journal of Ethics, April, 1904, p. 338, art. “Professor William James’s Interpretation of Religious Experience,” by James H. Leuba.

239

An instructive treatise on this subject will be found in Vol. II., ch. x., of Weismann on Heredity. (Clarendon Press Series.)

240

Do you know a hymn tune by Lord Crofton, set to the words, “Bless’d are the pure in heart”? When I first heard that tune played I shook with emotion. I did not know at that time the words that the tune had been set to; so it could only have been the music that affected me. At one time I confess that I myself used to mistake this hysterical element in my nature for religious fervour.

241

The Ven. Archdeacon J. M. Wilson, D.D., late headmaster of Clifton College—in the Journal of Education, 1881.

242

In Three Essays on Religion, p. 80 of the Cheap Reprint issued for the Rationalist Press Association.

243

As remarked by the Bishop of London in a sermon at Westminster Abbey. See cover of Mr. Guy Thorne’s book, When it was Dark.

244

Quoted from an address delivered by the Bishop of London at St. Paul’s, as reported in the Church Times of October 7th, 1904.

245

See footnote p. 37 of The Religion of Woman, by Joseph McCabe.

246

Professor Jinzo Naruse. For the quotation see chap. xxi. on “The Position of Women” in Mr. Alfred Stead’s recent publication, Japan by the Japanese.

247

See p. 31 of the Rev. Herbert Moore’s The Christian Faith in Japan.

248

Ibid., p. 129.