Читать книгу Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct - Marie Corelli - Страница 8

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London is “a pagan city.” Such was the uncompromising verdict lately pronounced upon it by the Venerable Archdeacon Sinclair, of great St. Paul’s. “A pagan city”—he said, or was reported to say—“with churches glimmering here and there like fairy lamps twinkling in the spaces of darkness upon a lawn. Like fairy lamps, they serve to show the darkness rather than to illuminate it.” It was in a manner striking and curious that the Archdeacon should have chosen such a simile as “fairy lamps” for the Churches. It was an unconsciously happy hit—no doubt absolutely unintentional. But it described the Churches of to-day with marvellous exactitude. They are “fairy lamps”—no more!—only fit for show—of no use in a storm—and quenched easily with a strong puff of wind. Fairy lamps!—not strong or steady beacons—not lighthouses in the rough sea of life, planted bravely on impregnable rocks of faith to which the drowning sailor may cling for rescue and haply find life again. Fairy lamps! Multiply them by scores, good Archdeacon!—quadruple them in every corner of this “pagan” city of ours, over which the heart of every earnest thinker must yearn with a passion of love and pity, and they shall be no use whatever to light the blackness of one soul’s midnight of despair! “Pagan London!” The roaring, rushing crowd—the broad deep river of suffering, working, loving, struggling humanity, sweeping on, despite itself, to the limitless sea of Death,—every unit in the mass craving for sympathy, praying for guidance, longing for comfort, trying to discover ways out of pain and grief, and hoping to find God somehow and somewhere—and naught but “fairy lamps”—twinkling doubtfully, making the gloom more visible, the uncertainty of the gathering shadows more confusing and misleading!—“fairy lamps” of which the “Church of the Laodiceans,” so strongly reproved by the “Spirit” in the Revelation of St. John the Divine, must have been the originator and precursor—“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth!”

It is perhaps to be doubted whether any Churchman, no matter how distinguished, learned, fashionable or popular, has the right to call London or any city which is under the Christian dispensation “pagan.” No one man can honestly say he has probed the heart of another,—and if this be true, as it undoubtedly is, still less can one man assume to judge the faith or the emotions of six million hearts—six million striving, working and struggling souls. That even a handful of the six million should still wander towards “fairy lamp” Churches, in the hope to find warmth and luminance for their poor lives in such flickering and easily quenched sparks of life, speaks volumes for the touching faith, the craving hope, the desire of ultimate good, which animates our “pagan” citizens. For, if after two thousand years of Christianity, some of them are still passionately asking to be taught and guided, still praying for strength and courage to fight against many natural besetting sins, and still seeking after such pure ideals of work and attainment as can alone make life worth living, it is not they, surely, who merit the term “pagan.” They should not be so much blamed as compassionated, if, when searching for God’s fair and open sunshine, they only stumble at the “fairy lamps,” and, angered thereby, turn altogether away into the outer darkness. Such a term as “pagan” can be applied with far more justice to their teachers and preachers, who, having all the means of help and consolation at their disposal, fail to perform their high duties with either power, conviction or effect. It is quite easy to say “Pagan London,” but what if one spoke of “pagan clergy”? What of certain ecclesiastics who do not believe one word of the creed they profess, and who daily play the part of Judas Iscariot over again in taking money for a new betrayal of Christ? What of the ordained ministers of Christianity who are un-Christian in every word and act of their daily lives? What of the surpliced hypocrites who preach to others what they never even try to practise? What of certain vicious and worldly clerical bon-vivants, who may constantly be met with in the houses of wealthy and titled persons, “clothed in fine linen and faring sumptuously every day,” talking unsavoury society scandal with as much easy glibness as any dissolute “lay” decadent that ever cozened another man’s wife away from the path of honour in the tricky disguise of a “Soul”? What of the spiteful, small-minded, quarrelsome “local” parsons, who, instead of fostering kindness, neighbourliness, goodwill and unity among their parishioners, set them all by the ears, and play the petty tyrant with a domineering obstinacy which is rather worse than pagan, being purely barbarous? Many cases could easily be quoted where the childish, not to say querulous, pettiness of the ruling vicar of a country parish has helped to narrow, coarsen, and deteriorate the spirit of a whole community, spreading mean jealousies, fostering cheap rivalries, and making every soul in the place, from Sunday school children up to poor workhouse octogenarians, irritable, discontented and unhappy. And if the word “pagan” be used at all, should it not be particularly and specially applied to those theatrical dignitaries of the Church whose following of the simple and beautiful doctrine of Christ consists in sheer disobedience to His commands—disobedience openly displayed in the ornate ritual and “vain repetitions” which Christ expressly forbade. “For all their works they do to be seen of men; they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.” And while “enlarging the borders of their garments” they institute “processional” services and promenades round the “fairy lamp” churches, with various altar-bobbings and other foolish ceremonies, caring nothing for the Spirit of the faith, if only all forms and observances, imported from Rome, or from still older “pagan” rites than the Roman, namely, the Græco-Egyptian, may be in some way introduced into the simple and unaffected form of prayer authorized by the Church of England. Disloyal to both God and the King, the “pagan clergy” are doing more at this present day to injure the cause of true religion among the masses than is any lack of zeal or want of faith that may exist in the people themselves. Who can blame sensible men and women for staying away from church, when in nine cases out of ten they know that the officiating minister is less Christian, less enlightened, less charitable and kind-hearted than themselves? Canon Allen Edwards, in an admirable letter addressed to the Press, put the case of “pagan London” very clearly. He says: “We do not want new churches.” True. No more “fairy lamps” are required for the general misleading of the straying sheep. He adds: “We want new men.”

This is the real need—men! Men of thought—men of heart,—men of true conviction, ardent faith, passionate exaltation, and unceasing devotion,—men who will not play about with “show” services, like amateur actors in a charity performance,—but who will sincerely care for and sympathize with their fellow-creatures, and will offer up the prayer and praise of humanity to an all-wise Omnipotence with that deep heartfelt fervour which is always expressed in the utmost simplicity of form and language,—men who have the intelligence to understand intelligent people, and who are as able to deal sympathetically with the spiritual troubles and perplexities of an educated person as with those of the ill-taught and frequently ill-fed rustic,—men who, if they preach, can find something to say of the marvels of this God-born creation of which we are a part—who will teach as well as admonish,—and who will take reverent care not to set the Almighty Creator within a small circle of their own special form of orthodoxy, and condemn every creature that wanders outside that exclusive “fairy lamp” enclosure. Canon Allen Edwards further remarked that “The reason why the working classes do not go to church is the same reason why I do not go to the Derby, not because I think it wrong, for I have no opinion on the subject, but because I have no interest in the things that go on there. And this is the reason, and no other, why many men do not go to church. They are not interested in what is done there.... A large number of those who are going into the ministry to-day are, for one most essential part of their work, entirely without the first elements of equipment. They cannot preach, and they are not helped to try and learn, and yet preaching is that very part of their work for which the people expect, and have a right to expect, equipment of the highest order.”

The Canon says: “they cannot preach.” That is true enough, but why? I maintain that if they felt their mission, they could preach it. If they loved their fellow-creatures a thousand times better than themselves, as they should do, they would find much of greatness, beauty and truth to say! If they honoured and worshipped their Divine Master as they profess to honour and worship Him, there would be little lack of spirit or of eloquence! People always know when a speaker or a preacher is in earnest. He may have a faulty utterance—his elocution may be far from perfect, but if the heart attunes the voice, the voice carries. There are many hundreds of noble clergy—but they are fewer than the ignoble of the same calling. And many there are, not only ignoble in themselves, but who attempt to pervert their very churches to illegitimate uses. I quote the following from a letter addressed to me on one occasion by a notorious “minister” of the Gospel.

“As the vicar of one of the largest parishes in England, I am often put to it how best to attract to the church the careless and the indifferent. Though a very strong High Anglican, I am an intense believer in the Priesthood of the Laity. It is the one weak spot in the Church’s system that she does not, as do the non-conformists, make sufficient use of and properly appreciate the services of her lay members. It has occurred to me therefore this year that by way of a start in this direction I should ask the help of certain leading people in the Literary, Dramatic and Artistic worlds. My friend, Mrs. X., has already made a beginning by reciting two poems in my Church, and thereby moving intensely a congregation of upwards of 3,000 people.” Now Mrs. X. was, and is, a well-known actress, and she recited the two poems in question from the chancel steps at the conclusion of the Sunday evening service. I am told, (though for this I will not vouch,) that money was taken at the church doors, and seats reserved and paid for, precisely as if the sacred building had been suddenly metamorphosed into a theatre or music hall. It never seemed to occur to the reverend gentleman who is the proprietor of this once “consecrated” building, that if he could not attract to his church “the careless and indifferent,” the fault probably lay in himself and his general unfitness. As a “very strong High Anglican” he would naturally have leanings towards the theatre and its lime-light effects, and certes, the “Priesthood of the Laity,” whatever may be meant by that term, is more to be believed in than the Priesthood of this particular ordained “priest” who instituted and encouraged a kind of stage recital from the steps of a sacred chancel, where the actor or actress concerned was invited to declaim his or her lines, with back turned to the Altar, the Communion-table serving as the “scenery.” Such men as these are the real “pagans,” and they do infinite harm to the dignity and purity of the Christian doctrine by their unworthy and debasing example. Churches under their dominance are less than “fairy lamps” in their influence for good,—they are the mere flare of stage footlights, showing up the grease-paint and powder of the clerical mime.

A deep religious sentiment lies at the hearts of the British people, as indeed of all peoples in the world. No nation, small or great, was ever entirely given over to atheism. If atheism and indifference affect a few, or even a majority of persons, the fault is assuredly with those who are elected to teach “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” They are chosen and solemnly ordained to be the friends, lovers and guides of humanity,—not to be selfish pedants, quarrelsome quidnuncs, and bigoted despots, exposing themselves, as they often do, to the righteous scorn, as well as to the careless contempt of the more honest laity. When they show themselves unworthy, the people fall away. When even one minister of religion appears as co-respondent in a divorce case, tens of thousands of men and women turn their backs on the Church. When anything low, mean, despicable or treacherous is said or done by a professing “servant of Christ,” the evil word or deed from such a source makes Christianity a byword to many more than the merely profane. When certain great dignitaries of the Church sit wine-bibbing at “swagger” dinner-parties, relating questionable or “spicy” anecdotes unfitting for the ears of decent women, they lose not only caste themselves, but they lay all the brethren of their order open to doubt. “Example is better than precept.” We have all written that in our school copy-books,—and nothing has ever happened, or ever will happen, that is likely to contradict the statement. If London is indeed a “pagan” city, as Archdeacon Sinclair has solemnly declared from under the shadowy luminance of his own big “fairy lamp,” St. Paul’s Cathedral, then the clergy, and the clergy alone are responsible. On their “ordained” heads be it! For “pagan” people are merely the natural outcome of a “pagan” priesthood.