The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-21

HE to believe. are dreaming of a church or religious organization which shall possess (to slightly change the for mula of Mir. Burgess) the soul satisfy ing elements of beauty. universally and truth. But for all that, however turing the unity. the grandeur. and the lingering mediaeyal enchantment of the Roman Catholic church may be, the failure of the tractarian movement at Oxford, the very home of lost causes" as Matthew Arnold lovingly calls her, has, one may safely say, conclusively shown that the temper Of refined and intelligent Professionalism is, as a whole, sane and liberal rather than sentimental and reactionary.
 After all I suppose one ought not to be surprised that the church which expelled Dr. Crapsey for heresy-Dr, Crapsey said we were standing by the deathbed of a great religion-should make capital of the new anti-proyinc- ial sentiment in religion and endeavor, in true jesuit fashion, gently to draw the thinking public within her pale.
 As I understand these matters, those who first dreamed of a new Catholicism were not believers in any established creed. Matthew Arnold inl his protests against church disestab- lishment in England plainly had in mind a thoroughly liberal religious organization with the attributes of beauty universality and truth--a new church to be born of a reconciliation between anglicanism, non-conform- 1 ism, agnosticism and all the rest, working together of all the forces which make for righteousness. Doubt less the dream of tho new Catholicism
 -and this it is possible Dr. Smyth who the other day preached most in- l terestingly on the new Catholicism, would agree to-is just about what certain Englishman q just now forget
 his name) hinted at some fifteen or
 twenty years ago; namely, vast and
 universal society for the preservation
 of goodness in this "unintelligible
 world"
 And yet it may be that what is pop ularly known as orthodoxy has come
 to stay; if may be that we are to have
 the masses always with us; and 1t
 may be that for them
 "" to resign.
 VI" All too human creeds and scan
 Simply the way divine
 is and always will be a discipline too
 severe. Perhaps it is, as Benjamin Kidd asserts, a scientific fact that the
 supernatural element of religion as a universal social phenomenon, is its es-
 sential element If this be so, per haps the best thing that can happen
 to the Anglo Saxon peoples is to have the English church do for them what
 Catholicism has done for the Latin peoples; that is, unite them, in one great religious organization which shall possess, if not the truth. the valuable clements of beauty and uni.
 versatility together with whatever Mir Burgess may mean by 'fullness." By effecting a wise compromise witl 1. the somewhat contumacious indivldu ,, ality of non-conformism this might bt one. And to effect such a consumma,
 tion 1t may be. as the curate of Chris . church says 1t is. necessary to pre- serve" that most despised and mucf
 maligned tactual succession
 :, But supposing human nature in tn, , large to be the child of darkness tha {, Benjamin Kidd declares her. what : melancholy outlook for the philoso
 pher who burns to see the popular realization of truth for truths sake
 (For it must not be forgotten tha ;. Kidd seriously declares that tn. spread of tho truth and tho conse i, quent evaporation of supernatural re , ligion would speedily be followed b. : the moral collapse of the race.) Alas < for our philosopher; he Is condemne' ] to that small audience, the judicious l and forced to give mp the great bull ] of darkling humanity. towards whom :, his heart yearns. to the connictin, ministrations of the Jesuit and tn . evangelist.
 : Finally. if Mir. Kidds theory is real ' ly sound; if the future developmen : of the race is to be in the direction q ' moral stamina only; if Hebraism | l to have possession of the field to tn n practical utter exclusion of Hellenism
 1t would seem that the logical outcom of the new movement could be, as ! have already hinted. nothing nor than return to the Roman Catholi Ideal. What else can result if there | f to be a general reunion of Christia, forces, If some form of the old theol t ogy is to be the basis of that reunion and if there Is to be amongst us n, general free open intelligence an, f breadth of view. Unless all the sect actually arrive at the moral simpllcit, of ancient Israel-a state of thing which would simply mean the non-ex istence of any highly organized churcl E with a specially trained priesthood if is impossible to sec how any re | union of non Roman christendon f could take place other than by re \ turn to the Roman Catholic ideal- F practical return of all denomination u to the Roman Catholic church. On ' thing is certain; there would be n f necessity for anything else. With tn L general decline of the talent for ah | struce reasoning theology would he y come a mere working mechanism | something for churchmen to learn b | rote, not 10 wrangle over. and moth ' ing more serious could happen anon I them than mere incompatiblities c ! temperament which could hardly as