The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-07

A recent writer in the Edinburgh Review has spoken of Bishop Gore as The strongest man in the Church of England to-day" Whether this be true or not, it is certain he is one of the most interesting figures in the life of the English church at the present time. Educated in the strictest school of the Oxford Tractarians, his first ap- pearance before the reading public was in the volume called Lux Nun di," which caused such excitement at the time and has not yet been forgot ten. Of this he was the editor ana wrote the leading and most signiii- cant article. In this paper he shows that he is aware a great historical philosophical and theological revolu- ton had taken place and one of the very foundation stones of the orthodox theology of the past was treated in a spirit which proved that he no long CT considered it one of the essential articles of faith.
 Since that day he has been more and more felt in the theological world and more and more his utterances have aroused interest and curiosity about the man himself For one Of the noticeable things in all his writ ings is the sense of a personality nlleu with deep earnestness and passlon- ate endeavor to see things as they are and to find the truth which he believes to be found by each soul for itself. He never shuts his eyes to facts as too l.s. hot seeks with all his strength to under stand the new and save the old. His opinions and convictions seem often times in conflict with his admissions and concessions and this Is one of the interesting features in his character. The old clings to and hampers the new life that is rising out of it. Like Milton's vision,
 Now half appeared
 The tawney lion, paving to get free. He no sooner feels the logic of one concession than he falls back upon the earlier convictions for stability in the sea of changing thought, and asserts, that here is an unchanging wall which cannot and shall not be touched. His mind seems to have within it two con- flicting clements. On the one side hls inherited and traditional theology. on the other his growing and expanding vision of truth. Breadth, freedom. generosity, insight, progress on the one side and on the other rigour, hard ness, lack of sympathy and theological narrowness
 The present volume presents the man on all these sides and is more in- teresting ,on that account than a more formal and scientific treatise. It is composed of a number of addresses given during Lent and of sermons on different occasions which are in a way related to each other through the common purpose and the common aim which has inspired them. They are essentially popular and give there fore in the simplest and most direct way his own feelings and his own con- yictions upon the subjects with which
 he deals Above all else the inmost convictions of the real man are every
 where present. He is much in earnest and can see no hope for life and truth unless all are in earnest about the things which are highest. The first sermon is, from the point. of view of
 intellectual self-revelation, the most interesting in the volume. He faces the
 fact that there is great religious unrest and endeavors honestly to discover the causes. He does so successfully as far as he goes, we think, though he does
 not seem to realize how much the
 school to which he belongs has driver thoughtful and critical minded men away from the consideration of the subject of religion and Christianity
 He knows we are in an age of change
 and uncertain equilibrium and he
 knows what such ages mean. "In such
 an age of religious unsettlement it is
 well to remember that, after all, it is
 to\ages of such mental ferment as
 ours, and not to ages of mental stag.
 nation, that we owe our great debt oi
 gratitude for the work of religious
 construction" P. 4.
 He sees what the past century oi
 scientific thought and discovery ha:
 meant to the world and how utterly
 different the horizon now is before the
 cultivated thinker of to-day as con-
 Jr6SIeu WILL tIldt ol d. Oo yCdi
 ago. He says, The change wrought 1T
 the imaginations of men is,as grea
 as when they first found out three
 centuries ago, that this world was no
 the center of the universe, that there
 was no heaven over our heads and nt
 hell under our feet" P. 5.
 In the presence of these new condi
 tions with all the revolutionary forces
 which belong to them what is mos
 needed he says: "Is frankness of mind
 In any settled period the permanen
 faith becomes encrusted with more ol
 less temporary clements, the gold be
 comes mixed with dross: and when ;
 turn of the wheel of thought take
 place we must have the intellectua
 courage to seek to disassociate tn,
 permanent from the impermanent, t
 draw distinctions between essentia
 and accidental, to make concession
 and to seek readjustment" P. g.
 This language so consolidating ant
 wise is used however chiefly toward
 the scientific knowledge and the scl
 entific mind which have been the pro
 duct of the last century of progress
 Yet to the doubtful and mentally dis
 turbed among the young universit
 students to whom he was preaching h.
 uses these wise words in relation t
 the value of religious experience: "Yol
 cannot hurry these experiences. Blu
 you can resolve not to be a hypocrite
 never to let your doubts excuse yo-
 from mankind the best practical us
 of what religious conviction you stil
 possessSIt is a great thing to believe i
 God. Do not delay to be a devou
 Theist while you are determinin
 whether you ca nbe good Chris
 tian." P. 203.