New-York tribune., 1900-03-14

THE SOCIAL MEANING OF MODERN RELIG-
Thomas c. Hall. ID. d. Octave, PIP. XIV, 2S3.
Charles Scribner's Sons
II is no dscredit to Professor Hall to say that
he does not altogether comprehend some of the
great social movements and tendencies of mod
ern life. For nobody can do that But he has
studied with great care and sympathetic insight
the social side of England's religious life and
what he has 10 say about it in this little volume
is well worth reading. The ecclesiastical side OF
religious movements and upheavals is occa-
sionally worth recording. But theoogians gen.
orally have invested il with Importance out
OF all proportion TO its real value. The vital
thing about religious growth religious
revolution is not the inevitable creed that 1t will
produce. but the social laws and ideals that
il will inspire. The creed is an artculated
skeleton to be taken out of its cabinet once in
a while and reverently busted But it has
after ALL only indirect bearing the life of
the multitudes of the plain people who while
groaning and sweating in the strenuous battle
of life, must perforce construct for themselves
a rough and ready social ideal out of the reg-
ion they have been taught. The theologies from
4 TO all carefully arranged and labelled in
the works of the Church historians But these
theologies are very much like evaporated fruit
They reveal little nothing of the abounding
life Of the people of their day.
II is, perhaps with some such thought as this
study Of religion in England. Out of the Refor-
nation came many variant religious impulses
that finally crystallized into two strands one
representing Anglicansm and the other Dis
sent. 1t would be impossible here to describe
in detail the points of difference between these
two norms of religious life 1t is more to the
purpose that though different they were alike
in far they reflex of Anglo Saxon
character. Even the Roundhead and the Cava-
1for llO--p ata6l
Of life and conduct as Englishmen. and after
they got through hating each other for the love
Of Cod they came finally TO realize that fact.
Hence, in spite of its diversity IN religious be-
lief, England has. on the whole, tended to pro-
duce but one ideal of social conduct. Whether
he be Churchman Dissenter, the Englishman
always insists captalizng the words Ought,
Must and Duty. They have become for him
sort sf minor trinity, to be explained
perhaps, than other mysteries Of the Universe
but always to be worshipped with unquestion-
ing reverence. This is what may call the
Sociological Conscience of the English speaking
race. 1t is easy to laugh at it, as indeed the
wits OF the Latin race often do, and to show
how far short OF its lofty ideal has been the
actual social life of those who profess to revere
il. Yet there il is, TO be taken into the account
at once the most tangible and the most priceless
fruitage Of England's many hued mosaic of re-
ligious creeds
In the last analysis, perhaps the worth Of the
common man is the fundamental article in the
social well the religious creed of the Eng
iish people 1t is for the common man that the
State exists and the Church bears her sacred
commission. In other civilizations his rights
may have been defined by philosophers or sung
by poets; but in England they written in
imperishable letters on the statute books Of Par
lament, which is, above everything else, the
forum and mouthpece of the common man. 1t
because the Church did not seem to reach
him that Methodisn arose, and the inspiration
of its life, social quite much religious, pro-
duced IN turn the great evangelical movement
in the English Church. Then when the open
ing up of avenues of thought and activity
in secular life brought about the undue growth
of the Broad Church movement. with its ten
dency to emphasize the material forces of civili-
tive. Thus. through the interplay of religious
forces and ideals, the present day civilization of
England has been produced. That civilization
is the daughter Of religion; yet, curously
enough, il was never stronger than 1t is to-day,
when the theologians lamentng the de-
cadence Of creeds. Perhaps this decadence is
not urrnixed evil. One shudders indeed, in
looking back to the days when the creeds
strong-the days Of the Holy Inquisition of
The Massacre Of st. Bartholomew. Happily
that nightmare of religion is gone. and the
churches to-day of every name coming more
and more to realize that the only religion worth
cultivating is that which means first and al
ways. "sweeter manners, purer laws"