The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-21 00:00:00

- SUN,', LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 21, 1861.

THE

TIM BISHOP OF LONDON AND THE

.N.E117 THEOLOGY.

The name of the Bishop of London stands third
on the list of the prelates who have signed the re_
cently published manifesto against the opinions set
forth in "Essays and Reviews." Those upon
whom the views taken by the seven essayists have
come as a surprise will be interested in the fact,
that as long as 14 years ago Dr. Tait discerned
the character of the present theological crisis, and
from the pulpit of St. Mary's, Oxford, prefigured
its general features. When most men's minds were
full of the consequences to be apprehended from
the principles set forth in the " Tracts for the
Times," Dr. Tait publicly told 'his University
that that commotion, great as it appeared, was local,
accidental, transitory, and obscured a far more im-
portant movement, the signs of which might even
then be descried. A " shaking of all opinions" was
about to follow that reaction from Tractarianism,
which was one of the effects of the publication of
Mr. Newman's essay; and the practical question,
the preacher said, was what ought to be done to
guide the minds of younger students. The great
object, he pointed out, was "to direct attention to
some intelligible, enlightened, and well-grounded
Protestant system, which might recall men's minds
to the simplicity of the Gospel, and enable them to
take their stand on the theology of the New Testa-
ment, amid the ruins of that baseless traditional
teaching which was crumbling around them."
The chief purpose of the discourses referred to—
which were published in 1846, as " Suggestions
Offered to the Theological Student under present
difficulties"—was declared to be " to show the spirit
in which speculative error ought to be met," and
it may be of service amid present perturbations to
glance at the opinions which the Bishop formed on
this very practical question at a time when his
thoughts were far from the distractions of high
official station. Dr. Tait at once placed his finger
on the speculations of German divines as the source
of the dangers to be feared, and pointed out that
they would arise in the field of Biblical criticism.
His language on this point, read in the light of the
event, is remarkable. Having expressed a doubt
whether they, the teachers of the University, were
prepared, as they ought to be, to meet the approach-
ing forms of doubt, he said:—
"It is sure to come upon us now-a-days in a new
and subtle form, often arming itself with its most
formidable weapons from the very storehouse of the
sacred books. And is it not certain that there are
many questions connected with the authenticity and
authority of these books on which we, in this coun-
try, with all our vaunted learning, are not as yet
prepared with the requisite information and thought
to enable us to vindicate the truth? Is it not too
true that the great majority. of serious men feel
themselves quite taken, as it were, by surprise,
when such difficulties are forced upon their notice?
And if the watchmen of Israel have not looked
their danger steadily in the face, how can they be
prepared to meet it ?"
They were, he said, encouraging studies in secu-
lar literature, e.g., discussions of the credibility of
the early Roman history, which were sure in time
to suggest to all minds that the freedom of inquiry
which they engender might sooner or later be ap-
plied to the sacred books; but they were taking
little pains to provide themselves with that know-
ledge which was necessary to prevent those studies
from being perverted.

" The difficulties that threaten to come upon us,
are then to be met, not surely by closing our eyes
to the danger, and looking with suspicion upon
those who would prepare themselves to meet it ;
not surely by lagging behind our age, and allowing
our minds to be engrossed with the refutation of
errors that have already had their day; but by seri-
ously applying ourselves to those many and very
severe studies which are absolutely indispensable
as the discipline that is to train us for the coming
warfare. . . . It would be ruinous to put off accus-
toming ourselves to these investigations till the ne-
cessity becomes urgent—to neglect to train our
troops till the enemy is at our gates. Many years
must be given to the diligent study of the language
and history of the Bible, if we would be ready
really to defend it when infidelity assails.

In his third discourse Dr. Tait described in almost
touching language the trials of the thoughtful
Christian as he for the first time turns to the critical
hs tuumdya-nowf
thhe
dßi
vi
nl ee,
ea
lnd en re remarks
ini
ttsh
eeucmo
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iautni f
" When the simple lessons which we learned in
childhood are first examined by us with a critic's eye,
who shall explain the strange feelings that spring
up within ? In self confident and thoughtless minds,
nay, perhaps in all, there will be at first a burst of
that enthusiasm with which youth and vigour
scarcely ever fail to welcome au emancipation
from controlling power. If this feeling continues,
the danger is imminent, and the soul must suffer
grievous loss. . . . "While the mind is in this
perplexed state, it will look almost with envy on
the contented acquiescence of the uninstructed poor,
who have never dreamed of any difficulties, and
whose faith reposes happily on those detached por-
tions of the authorised English version of the Scrip-
tures with which they happen to be familiar, as
affording for all their needs a full and satisfying
supply from God's living oracles."
Dr. Tait having in these and other passages of
similar significance, but more detail, pointed out
the dangers of the critical study of the Bible, notices
the question why a pursuit so dangerous should be
persevered in, God, he replies, has made it indis-
pensable. We may wish that He had so ordered
man's mind that no doubts could ever arise in it,
that the very sight of the Bible should cause a con-
viction of its truth and authority to flash on every
mind, that there had been no verse in it at all diffi-
cult in structure or meaning ; but, whatever we may
wish, this has not been God's plan. "He has given
the revelation of his will in such a form as requires
the aid of man's other light of reason to make it
plain. Nay, He has even ordained, that as an un-
derstanding of His truth is not forced upon us by
the mere letter of His word, the mode in which we
exert ourselves to obtain an insight into its mean-
ing shall be to many of us the trial of our faith."
The very fact that difficulties are found to attach to
the critical study of the sacred writings is assigned
'by Dr. Tait as a reason for encouraging it ; for, he
observes that, speaking humanly, there is scarcely
anything more likely to spread doubt and unbelief
among us than the existence of a general suspicion
that many difficulties are involved in the critical
study of the Bible, which no one has the courage
or ability to grapple with. " Wherever a general
suspicion is engendered that something is amiss
in our system of religion, which from policy
or cowardice we are anxious to conceal, there hidden
infidelity will make rapid progress, and many a
man of honest mind will in secret be tortured by
anxiety, having no leisure to examine for himself
difficulties he had heard of. and be distressed by a
painful suspicion that those who ought to examine
for him are deliberately or unwittingly banded
together to mislead." The passage which follows
is exceedingly applicable to the present time :
"And here it seems well to remark that the cri-
tical study of the Bible is more than ever necessary
to be encouraged now, from the particular circum-
stances of our own age and country. Whatever
may be thought of the honesty or policy of endea-
vouring to conceal difficulties and stifle inquiry for-
merly, the days when such methods of propping up
the truth of God were possible, are at an end. Or
—not to speak harshly of the well-meant conduct of
ecould country
tghoeoddaymsenwihnenfotrhmeer
mindstimes—forof
u
the
ms a sin s
o
be directed, as if they were children, and with-
drawn
from all dangerous speculations to those
thoughts which their superiors in education consi-
dered to be edifying, have passed away. The old
times with their mingled good and evil—the old
ideas of the paternal duty-of Government both in
Church and State to lead the mass of men as it were
blindfold, and to shut up knowledge within the
privileged caste of those who were thought likely
to make a good use of it, have passed. We may
look back on the retiring scene, and while its less
pleasing features are softened by the effect of dis-
tance
as it fades from our view, we may long to
recall it—some may even wish, in their day dreams,
that they had lived four hundred years ago ; but,
whether it were good or whether it were evil, the
old state of things can never be brought back. It
is in our generation, and amid the men of our own
generation—amid their thoughts, bad as well as
good, their questionings and doubtings, and shallow
disputations, as well as their energetic impatience of
concealment and hatred of all formalism, that God
has placed the scene of our responsibilities ; and it
is vain to think we can do any good amongst them
by attempting to teach them on the principles of a
departed state of society, and not as their own cha-
racters and circumstances require.
It is certain that every man in this country who
Can read, either knows already, or may learn any

ME

WWI

day as he reads, what those difficulties with respect
to the Bible are on which infidels insist ; and it
must be well also that he should know their refu-
tation—or, better still, that be should feel that con-
fidence which is inspired by a persuasion that good
and learned men have candidly met these difficul-
ties, grappled with them fairly, and vindicated the
truth. Nor can this service be said to have been
performed for us by the able writers on evidences
of the last age ; for since their time infidelity has
much changed the grounds of its attack. Its objex-
tions are much more cornected now than in forz.ner
times with a minute critical examination ol: the
sacred books—and therefore it is in the field of
criticism that it must be met and overthrown."

In treating of the spirit in which speculative
error should be met—a topic to which the first dis-
course is especially devoted—Dr. Tait selects the
Gospel according to St. John as a model. Adopting
the view of early writers—that certain errors of
his time were before the apostle's mind, and that
the desire of combating them very much deter-
mined the point of view from which he surveyed the
history and recalled the discourses of his Master—
he proceeds to exhibit the characteristic of his
polemic. St. John was, before all his brethren, the
Apostle of love, and unless controversy be carried
on in the spirit of love, it is essentially unchristian.
Error may, indeed, appear to be rooted out by the
sword, "or without such harshness may be borne
down by the mere weight of a stern authority,
which seeks to overwhelm at once an erring brother
and his doctrine. Speaking generally, however,
such a mode of warfare will ensure no lasting vic-
tory. It may induce a few to do violence to their con-
victions, and thus gain for the winning cause the aid
of some treacherous waiters upon fortune." But
usually error checked by force alone will spring up
at last only the more vigorously. St. John's example
is a protest not against all persecution merely, but
against all bitterness or violence even of speaking
or writing against those who are in error. This
love, however, so far from being inconsistent
with earnestness, can never be present without
depth and intensity of zeal for truth. St. John's
love was well suited to reclaim, because it must
have enabled him to enter into his erring brother's
difficulties and peculiar temptations, and thus must
have conciliated at the very moment that it opposed.
Dr. Tait then notices more directly the Gnosticism
of the age in which St. John lived. The Apostle
wrote to dispel error arising from the blending of
Christianity with the strange transcendental philo-
sophy of the East. " But mark," says the preacher,
" the mode which he adopts to combat it," and then
he proceeds to show how St. John recognised and
fully allowed the existence of a true Divine gnosis,
such as that for which the Eastern philosophy was
seeking by merely human means. It was by dwell-
ing upon and encouraging men to follow after the
true Christian gnosis that St. John sought to sup-
ply those wants of the mind which were leading
men into heresy. He did not seek to chain men's
minds down when they wished to soar. He knew
that as truth is certainly more to be loved than
error, so every error into which men fall is only
attractive because it bears some resemblance to a
truth, and therefore the only way to stop men's
rash pursuit of error is to set before them the true
light. No heresy ever yet gained any adherents
which had not some features of truth to recommend
it to men's better nature ; and the attempt to over-
throw error by mere protests tind negation, if it
affects men at all, will but make them infidels or
heretics. Thus no one can hope to free his brethren
from religious error unless he is able to understand
and appreciate those feelings by which they have
been led astray. " And when these feelings are
discovered, it is vain to seek to cure them by mere
thwarting. Christ's religion is no dry, unnatural
system, which cannot be embraced by our minds
till they have been forced into some formal mould
contrary to their whole nature. It is in vain to
say that the Gnosticism of the apostolic
age was nothing but unmixed error and
folly of human wisdom. Like any other
heresy, it reflected the shadow of many great
truths ; and whenever the Apostle can discover any
truth glittering from amidst the mass of error, he
turns to it eagerly, and strives to purge it from the
dross which overlays it. " Had St. John met his
Gnostic antagonists by mere protest and denial, he
might have encouraged a materialising system,
almost worse than the errors he was opposing."
Yet, in all this there was no compromise; the
truth was at all times steadfastly maintained.
This summary presentation of opinions on a
question of the day, formed in times calmer than
our own, may have its uses, when men are tempted
by the prevailing excitement ;to employ weapons
which, under circumstances favourable to reflec-
tion, they would condemn.—. Daily News.

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)

The weekly returns exhibit a continued im-
provement in the public health. The deaths in
London were 1,328 in the week that ended last
Saturday, having declined to that number from
1,459 in the previous week. The average number
for the corresponding weeks of 10 years 1851-60,
when corrected for increase of population, is 1,345 ;
and it will be seen that the actual number for last
week is less than the calculated amount, but does
not materially differ from it.
The deaths caused by pulmonary diseases in the
week, not including phthisis or whooping-cough,
were 291, while the corrected average is 306. The
most fatal in this class was bronchitis, and the
deaths from it amounted to 168, and were exactly
equal to the average. Bronchitis is fatal chiefly to
old persons ; pneumonia, which is fatal principally
to the young, numbered but half as many deaths as
bronchitis. Phthisis carried off 145 persons, 78 of
whom died in the period of 20-40 years. Whooping-
cough, of which 88 died, is at the present time
causing more than the usual mortality, a remark
that also applies to croup, which was fatal in 20
cases. There were eight deaths from syphilis.
Three widows and two men died at the age of 90
years and upwards ; among the former was the
widow of a carpenter, who died at the age (as stated)
of 102 years, at 19, Bedford•square Mile-end, Old-
town. A woman died from a fishbone, which had
lodged in her stomach twelve days previously, and
caused inflammation and hemorrhage. Two sons
of a mattress-maker, aged respectively three and
two years, died on consecutive days at 54, Warwick-
street, Borough-road, from " poison, probably
arsenic ; no evidence now taken" (Inquest ; post-
mort.)

DLit week the births of 889 boys and 963 girls,
in all 1,792 children, were registered in London.
In the ten corresponding weeks of the years
1851-60 the average number was 1,747.
METROPOLITAN WATERS, JANUARY, 1861.
The London waters exhibit, according to the
analyses of Dr. Robert Dandas Thomson, F.R.S.,
a larger average amount of impurity than usual,
dependent upon the thaw, which has tended to
bring down much organic matter from the land.
The Thames at high water at London-bridge con-
tained much organic matter, both in solution and
suspension, but was unusually free from sea water;
the impurity per gallon being 24.80, the organic im-
purity 3.60, and the mechanical impurity 4.73, of
which P 96 was organic, and 2.77 inorganic matter.
In solution this water contained •668 grains of
ammonia, which is equivalent to 1.88 grains of car-
bonate of ammonia per gallon, or nearly 30 times more
than the quantity found in Thames water above
Teddington Lock, a difference due to intermixture
with much sewage. - . .

Total impurity Organic im
per gallon. purity.
gil. or deg. gre. or deg.
0.0 0.0

Distilled Water
Loch Katrine water, new supply
to Glasgow
Manchester Water Supply 4.32
Thames Water at London-bridge 24.80
THAMES COMPANIES.
Chelsea

Grand Junction .
West Middlesex.

22'12 212
2244 I'2o
20'84 2.00 "i'