The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-11-07 00:00:00

THE RELIGION OF YOUNG MEN.

Most people have at some period of their lives asked
themselves what are the noes and advantages of religion
which cannot lie rut well supplied by the accepted notions
of morality or the current cuetems of civilieed society.
hard to imagine a state of untutored nature, in
•ier convictieus should be unfettered, our ideas
spontaneous, our minds untinctured by the traditions of
our yol.l. bleu and teachinge filter down through
generations. For 5.,1110 time philosophers anti wen of
er;ence it tool wonders from the investigation of Caspar
liattier"i. singular ea,e, yet maw it is well-known to have
born only it gross piece ef intimater.. It is thus not so
easy so may be thonght to give a definite answer to the
what the to religion? !lost men take
their religion, am they do their parentage, on trust The
loie to a large fortune thinks less of his money than the
wobienlv enriched lesttlr. In like manner, the religion
that is imbibe.' in infancy has often lost vivid personal
intereet cm nianheod's c =piloted promise in arrived at
When a young man is exceptionally religions, he is
usualle voted a prig. Acetone a large party collected in a
nutty house: ito notorious sinners In their inidet ; the
avorage tone ef well-bred indifference, with the tacit
acceptance of the Christian 400(11144 prevailing amongst !
tbeni. When the Sunday comes round, and the ladies '
more or less willingly prepare for church, what in the
conduct of the young men ? One or two plead indisposi-
tion ; some have urgent lettere to write :others only attend
the London churches, where the music is excellent and
the ritual elaborate. The host, possibly not one of the
most eager, finds himself the only man in the
astemblage of devout women, with perhaps' a school-
boy home for the holidays, and an Oxford tutor
who is shortly about to take orders. Yet not one of
these apparently irreligious young mon can fairly be called
vicious; they would shrink from a mean or dishonourable
action: they would not ill-treat a woman ; they are brave,
! upright, and straight-forward ; but they have an invincible
! repugnance to going to church. Attendance at church is
not to be regarded as the criterion of holiness. Women,
even when vain, idle, :wad worldly, pay more regard to the
external observances of religion. Why this difference
Hits? and and wife, united together in the bends of love
and tiyinpathy and common endurance of the minor cares
of life, drift apart when the question of religion presents
Itself. Perhaps of the two the man is the more honour-
able, the more estimable, the more self denying. Again,
the unmarried man, reversing St. Paul's dictum, cares for
the things of this %natl and shelves the question of •
future state. It would almost seem as if the sole use of
religion were to nourish infancy and console old age. Are
the petitions offered up at our mother's knee of no avail
Have the tender words lisped in childish reverence borne
no fruit, then, that the grown-up man virtually rejects all
that reemed to him in early youth so right and beautiful?
It is impossible here even to summarise the causes why
the religion of young men is so unsatisfactory. But two
chief reasons May he enumerated. The one is the con-
sciousness of unbelief, the other a species of false shame,
withholding a man from giving utterance %opinions with
which his whole life is at variance. Roman Catholics assert
as one of the great advantages of their church, that her
members are so fully impressed with the truth of her
dochinca that, though vicious, careless, and irreligious,
they never for one moment doubt, andsean at any time
be reconciled to religion, the most outrageous of
sinners becoming the greatest of eaints. There are cer-
tainly examples of this sort in history ; yet it would not
be right to attribute such results entirely to the teaching
of the Vatican. Rather let it be said that the very energies
and passions which propel men into wickedness are, when
converted into a right channel, merely helps to sanctify.
It is a very Common phase is a young 1111112's life that,
suddenly removed hem the quiet holy influences of home,
where doubts had never entered, nor discussions oppressed
them, he finds life entirely different, hedged roil nd with
temptations, brimming over with material pleasures and
interests, entirely shutting out from his clouded gaze the
traditions of his childhood: at first he waxes lax in his
religious exercises, soon he begins to ponder,
after a while he doubts. Ile declines to advo-
cate any special theological notions. His morality
is that of the man of the world, of the man of society, of
the merchant, of the politician. • Honesty is the but
policy '—therefore he is honest. Let us now look at the
Calll of the man who, while believing the creed of his fore-
fathers, while recognising its full value and wishing he
could adopt its ethics, cannot shake himself free (rein the
trammels of contagious thought, nor trample on the
tinsel-like morality around him. This is the sort of man
who is successful in nothing ; with &conscience too tender,
inconvenient scruples, and an utter want of stamina, he
fails in dila acy because he caniot push to • successful
conclusion a policy of fraud he throws the ballast of his
life overboard, and has uot the courage to avert or endure
the inevitable wreck. Iteligioti is to him no guiding star,
no comfort or support, hut • troublesome mentor chiming
In with old scraps of morality at odd nionienta, and
interfering just sufficiently to deaden his courage
and damp his energy. He also does not go to church;
but the Ten Commandments dance an odd medley in his
brain and get mixed up with diplomatic reports, shares
of disagreeable constituents. Then there are, of
and dealings on the Stock Exchange, or the un-limited
butteriug
c„,inpui in addition, the large CbIAS of indolent persons who
; will not take the trouble to reflect, and who vaguely hope
that "lame day it will all come right.- These drift idly
on, and, arrived at middle age, have no more fixed
religious opinions than at.twenty. Meanwhile, between
the unbelievers, the victims to false shame, and the
"feckless folk," the percentage f young men who attend
church avid are Idled with a real and lively interest in
, religion bi slender indeed. .
Fnini whom do nein receivo their religious notions ?
Clearly from their mother..
.whose minds have apieh.„‘„4
in the clerical interpretation f the, Prayer-b.aik. The
next htag,l ean seariely be said to
fortify shirking, indifferent, and
irreverent attention may . unlade it lad with a dislike iif
c .erything connected wile illeelegv. What woutler that
early matilussl inclin,•.to the belief that men of the
have nothing to tb. south
,ndigious dogmas; it is
Higlibleallt to bear of men. like Godwin, educated
in the ,trictest i alvinistic practices, developing into the
democrat and free-thinker ; or Lord Macaulay, whose
childhood -vas passed in the surroundings of puritanical
Ciapham, settling down to a life which, while one of
unblemished morality, yet could not be chewed as that of
a • relittioua man; Trts. man has a sound religion who has
not prov..sl and tried it, anti who in not prepared to lose
all, sooner than the certainty of hia belief. This is the
faith that has converted nations, built cities, overcome
tribulation, and crowned the pallid brow of martyrdom.
Not neceasarilj an eblawate system of theological
subtleties and scholastic quibbling, not even a
Ming string of leYstic &Fluffs ; only a clear conceit,e
lion of the purls., ,if life, with the eternal }Ulm. I
„? thing, tool the theme wisdom of the Almighty
F.itber. had young men souse such strong convictions,
I perliauee li:ss might be heard of City frauds, of double-
dealing idaibiaing, of overreach,ng and blatant
humondity. To hew, however, that Mere dread of the
malice sit ViSii itan, and the vague fear of a super-
naLia al and a, tvranoi, will guide loan aright in
the euick-eanda tkeeptatioi. and the heated turmoil of
the life struggle. Is but. to huild a house on sand. There
must be ,milethiug rahmql wrung in an education which
leaves our young men Indifferent, evolving their &MSC of
right and wrong as llot tucY .an from the tangled web of
ties worm., policy, with a , enee the:. all billOtimitisfactory.
yet with • clear kaowledge of the remedy, while mothers
tipti *Tie., sigh and woeder what it is that make* young
IJOD so averse to religious Christianity itself cannot be
fault fa it, then, in our method of interpretation that
the error lies I

On Tuesday the Lord Mayor entertained about two
hundred and fifty of the leading members of the dramatic
profession at a banquet at the Mansion House, the
company including scion. antrum, and dramatic
authors and critics. •