South Place Magazine
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No. S. FEBRUARY, 1899. Vot. IV. SOUTH PLACE MAGAZINE Contents PAGE. PURITANISM, PROTESTANTISM. AND PRIESTHOOD.. 65 By HERBERT BURROWS. ENGLAND AND ISLAM (Ill)..... .................... 68 By HENRY CROSSFIELD . COLLET DOBSON COLLET............................ 71 By G. J. HOLYOAKE, E . F. BRIDELL·Fox, EDITII S . COLLET, and Dr. MONCURE D. CONWAY, A VISION OF HADES (Poem) ........................ 76 By CHARLES E . HOOPER . THOMAS PAINE.,.................................... 77 NOTES AND COMMENTS •..• ,.,....................... 78 CORRESPONDENCE .••...... , . • . • 79 NOTICES, &tc.. • 79 Monthly. ;;ad., I O .R 2~. 6<1 . PER AHHUW, POST F Rf!E 1on~on SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY, FINSBURY, E.C. A. & H . B , BONNEH, J & 2 TOOK'S COURT, CHANCERY LANE, E .C . -------............... South Place Chapel & Institute, Finsbury, E.C. Object of the Society. " The object of the Society is the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment, the study of ethical principles, and the promotion of human welfare, in harmony with advancing knowledge. " FEBRUA.RV~ ~S99. A sfI'ics oj fO/l1' Srwd4,Y Mor/ring DIscourses will b~ delive/'ed 0/1 "I,vPERI A L CITIZENSHIP" by GRAHAM WALLAS, M.A., as 1I1Idel' :- February sth.-G RAHAM WALLAS, M.A.-" Old Ideals and New Problems.tt 1. "Agnus Dei" ... ... .., .. Golllloll. Anthems. I 2. 11 0 Star of Eve" (" Tannhauser") ..• 11'j-,g~o: Hymns, 23, 33. February 12th.-GRAHJ\.M WALLAS. M.A.-" The Limits of Imperial Self Government. " Antbc sIr " La Serenata " (with Violin Obligato) ... ... Brticr). m. 2. "Neverfrom lips of cunning fell" (NO.22I) TroJts .~t1lr. Hymns, 30, 60. l'ebrU:1r'y 19th. GRAHAM WALLAS, M.A.-" A Governihg Democracy." t. H A storm sped Over 'Sea and land 11 (No. 37) .. , Het/hOt'll" Anthems. i 2. "Be thou faithful unto death" (" St. Paul ")... I.. Mrlldt/s$ohfl. Hymns, 26, 38. February .6th.-~~AH~M WA;!--LAS, M.A.-" Patriotism and Humanlty,lI Anthems. 1r. A Sprnt Song .. .. .. , ... .... ... J1aydll. 2. U Around, around flew each sweet sound If ••• Bnrllttt. (" The Ancient M~riner ") Hymns, 35, 39· Visitm's may take allY Seats vacallt at the close of Ihe first A IIthem, alld they ale vlviled. 10 abtaill illformati01l regal'di.JZg Ihe Socul,y in tlte Library either befol'e O~ after the Services. A Colle&tioll is made at tile close of each Service to e1lable Visitors to colZtribZlle 10 the expenses of tlte Society. • • SUNDAY SCHOOL. The Children meet in the Chape l every Sunday morning, at It.I5, and tbeir lesson Is j:lven ~n the Class-room durin~ the discourse. The fol1owin~ are the arrangem.ents:- • February sth.-Miss LIDSTO~E: .. The Rise of the Greek Empire ... t2lh.-H. CROSSFIELD: U Culture and Life." 19th.-Si. G. FEN TON : " Praying Wheels." z6th.-F. FRECHET: "Garibaldi, Italy's Patriot. It MEMBERSHIP . .. Persons paying for siltings in the Society's place of Meeting for tbe time being are thereby constituted members of the Society. Members who are twenty-one years of a~e or upwards, whose names have been twelve lIIonlh. upOn the register, and whose subscrrptions for tb. previous quarter have been paid, shall be qualified to vote and to hold office."-Extract /.01/1 the Rules Sitting8 may be obtained upon application in the Library, or to HAROLD SEYLER,14 Brading Road, Brixton Hill, S.W., Hon. Registrar of Members "nd Associates, prices varying from IS. to 10S. per quarter. Persons under 21 are charged half the usual prices. ASSOCIATES. Persons residing at a distance, and who are unable to attend the services regularly, may become Associates of the Society upon payment of an Annual SUbSCllption of 58., with the privilege of receiving all the current publications of the Society. Subscriptions may be paid In the Library, or to the Hon. Registrar of Seat Holders at above address. Cyclists desiring to attend at South Place are intormed tbat the Committee have made arrangements for housing tbeir machjnes. The Chapel is licensed for Marriages. SOUTH PLACE MAGAZINE. , NO.5. Vol. IV. FEBRUARY, 1899. 2d. Monthly. 28. M. per annum, post tree (Tlte writers of Articles appea l'illg ilt this M agazil/c are alO1tc l'cspo1tsible for the opilliol/s tltcrem expl'cssed.) PURITANISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND PRIESTHOOD. From all Address delivered at Soltth Place Chapel, 011 Sllllday, 27111 November, 18g8, By HERBERT BURROWS. IN the history of mankind there has been one constant factor, the effort of man to know himself, to discover whether he has or has not a spiritual relation to a spiritual universe, and to settle the vexed question as to whether his own life is consciously continuous or only a single and transitory bead upon the endless thread of chance and change. The three words which form the subject of the address are three phases of the strivings of this conscious religious element. Just now they are peculiarly applicable because of the disturbances which, initiated in a blundering way by Mr. Kensit, are taking place in the Anglican Church. Although we may stand outside that Church, yet we as citizens have the right and the duty to consider and discuss every question which in any way concerns, whether politically, Socially or religiously, any of our fellow citizens. And this because in our complex modern society what affects one affects all. It is a mistake to suppose that the Ritualistic guarrel is merely a quarrel about candles, vestments, incense, crosses, and altars. These are merely symbols of the underlying priestly doctrines and assumptions, which have always been inimical to the true progress of mankind, and w~ich have always a tendency to become dangerous in national. hfe, because their constant effort is to control the civil power III anti-democratic directions. The Reformation in England was not due solely to the lust and greed of Henry VIII, nor g.en.erally to Luther's religious zeaL It was intensely individ~ahst1c-the revolt of the slowly a~akening individual man agalDst the coercive and organised VOlce and power of the priest and the Church, against that sacramentalism which has always been the keynote of both the Roman and Anglican Churches: The ordinary Protestant saddled himself in this struggle w1th an infallible Bible but with n? .infallible interpreter, the result being a hundred sects and a ~hv1ded Christendom, thus partially carrying out his individual Ism. The Puritan of all men pushed his individualism to its 66 logical conclusion. Although he pinned his whole lif.e to the Bible, he was his own priest and allowed no one to stand between him and God as he saw him revealed in its pages. The two opposing factors of the universal religious sentiment may be typified by the sternly individualistic Puritan and the priestly sacerdotal party wherever found. Among the latter of these the Anglican Church is to be classed, for its very existence depends upon pure sacerdotalism. The Christian sacrament is a religious ordinance believed to have been instituted by Christ himself, or by the Church in virtue of powers derived from him as God, by the use of which the members of the Church believe that they can approach nearer to God at particular times or seasons, and can thus, by coming into closer than ordinary contact with him, build themselves up in their spiritual life. Sacramcntalism is the belief in this, and sacerdotalism is the further belief that the divinely appointed priest, who in "irtue of that divine appointment is necessarily marked off from the people to whom he ministers, is essential to the proper adminis tration of the rite. This is the basis of Romanism and Angli canism, and in a modified degree it has its place in some systems of Nonconformity. The actual rule of life for the outward organisation of the English Church is the Prayer-book, and it is saturated with sacerdotalism. By the ordination service the priest is supposed to specially receive the Holy Ghost at the bands of the bishop, and thereby he alone is made fit to administer the rites of the Church. No layman may trespass on this so-called sacred right. Out of this grows naturally the whole priestly and Ritualistic position; and if the ordinary" Protestant" church man were logical he would not attempt merely to check the use of vestments, etc., but he would leave the Church itself, as opposed to every tradition of the religious individualism on which he prides himself. Morally the result of sacerdotalism is harmful to the indi- vidual and the nation. Another's standard of moral right or wrong is not the standard for us. Man's coherent life can only progress towards a coherent end as each individual sees and knows what he personally believes to be right, and acts up to that seeing and knowing because i.t is right and not hecause he is told so. The helping hand we must always seek for-the riper experience of wiser years than our own is always to be gratefully accepted as a basis for our own thought; but at the last, at the ultimate, no outside hand must lead us blindly, no experience but that of our veriest inmost souls must point the way. And so there is no greater blasphemy against the true order of things than to assert that at any particular moment any particular man can truthfully say to another: "I absolve thee, go in peace, thy sins are for~i ven, the burden is lifted from thee." The burden cannot be lifted from the heart of the wrong-doer, nor from him to whom the wrong has been done. till in the long process of evolution the causes which set the wrong going have been counter-balanced by a new set of causes, which often in their inception mean long and bitter anguish.