New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-07
three or four dissenting Britons to be deemeu
the voices of the British Nation.
TRUTH AND AUTHORITY.


few weeks ago we noted the appearance Oh
a remarkable tractate by IN Episcopal clergy
man of Rochester, the Rev. Algernon > crap
sew in which he contended that the ONCE
bearers In the Church-that is, the clergy-ha'e
no right to Identify the Church with themselves
and controverted the theory that Christian nni'y
can be attained by insisting on an absolute UNI
formity of belief. He now follows TINS Win
another tractate, entitled The Answer VI
PLATE" which, coming from a representative
High Church Episcopallan, will doubtless excite
widespread discussion. His general proposition
Is that Christian doctrine to-day needs to be re-
stated In such way that II will be In accord
with the facts of the visible universe, as ascer-
tanned by scientific investigation. Ihere are
two ways in which such restatement might De
made. First, 1t might be gathered from tue
utterances of individual religious thinkers VINO
feel themselves inspired to proclaim some truth
TO the world. The credential OF any such utter
ance Is the truth 1t contains. Its reward 10
those who accept 1t is that they shall have the
truth; its penalty If they reject 1t, that they
shall lose it.
Or the proposed restatement might be FOR
INFLATED by some synodical body duly repre-
senting the ecclesiastical organization A creed
so formulated does not rest, of course, on us
own inherent truthfulness, but must be en-
forced by power external to itself. And men
are called upon to believe it, not necessarily be-
cause it is true but because 1t has been pro-
mulgated by a given authority. As between
these two sources of religious belief Mr.. Crap
sey declares for the former. ITO IT, he says,
1--WE owe the whole body of religious truth
(which we have In the world. No council ever
added to the sum of truth; all that 1t has ever
claimed TO do is to arrange and interpret the
truth already in existence" In other words,
truth is never discovered in committee" When
the medieval Church became corrupt the at
tempt was made TO reform 1t by corporate &C
ton, but 1t faled and it was left for an in
divdual Luther, first to formulate the beliefs
that have revoutionized the world
Yet Reformed Christianity, though standing
for truth as against mere authority, came in
process of time TO be bound hand and foot In
the grave clothes of the most rigid doctrinal
formulas imposed not because Of their In
herent truth, but because the Church author
lied them. This dogmatc yoke of Protestant
ism can be broken only by the spirit of scientific
investigation that is to-day so powerfully af-
fecting human life. 1t is no longer possible for
churchmen to deny the main contentious of
science They have worked themselves into the
very warp and wool of the thought of MANKIND.
against the advance of science is as futile as
1T would be to throw chips against the wind.
Nor is 1t correct to say that scientific truth has
no spiritual import. Among other things it has
made Infnity and Eternity parts Of human
consciousness, instead of mere words of theol-
ogy. For good or for evil, In our day, the
two leaved gate has been opened, and man
stands in the antechamber of the Infinite and
1.-The Eternal, and from that Presence he can
never come out. With these things in mind
no one can ever again deny the theological i'm
'portance of scientific truth" Science, how
ever, is making great mistake when it con-
tents itself with establishing individual theories
and fails to unity all these independent theories
in great synthetic theory of the universe
The 1nfinity and Eternity Of science must, of
themselves, crush man. He stands before them
covering with fear as they mock at the little
ness of his stature and the shortness of his
days What is needed, In the opinion of Mr..
Crapsey, is great scientific generalization that
Will satisfy the spiritual instincts of man. and
a recognition by religion of the freedom of
thought From the free expression of Christian
thought alone can come such a statement of
christian truth as will bring the teaching of re-
hglon into harmony with those natural truths
which scientific investigation has discovered
and established