THE COUKJER
ARE CHRISTIANS HYPOCRITES?
Written for The Coukiek.
The Rev Dr. McDonald, of the Protestant Episcopal Church
of the Ascenscion,.New York, made the following statement
in a sermon delivered a few years ago:
"There is a belief prevalent that the clergymen of io-day are not
honest; that they believe things they dare not preach, and that they
preach what they do not believe and what they feel certain in their
own minds is not true.7'
'there is, -unfortunately for the Christian religion, such a belief
prevalent, No one can deny it. And as the regularly ordained
ministers of the gospel do but expound tho doctrines of their sev
eral denominations, subscribed to by the members of the different
congregations, is it cot apparent then, granting the insincerity of min
isterial teaching, that church members themselves are liable to the
same charge of professing that which they do not believe? And are
not both charges well founded? Is it not a fact that modern Chris
tians can be justly accused of hypocrisy?
The Nineteenth century professor of the Christian religion finds
himself shackled with the chimerical philosophy of the dark ages.
Against his will, against the mandate of that inner consciousness
which asserts itself in ever human being, he is made to accept the
vagaries which emanated from the age of sophistry and mysticism.
His enlighteneu understanding is allowed no opportunity for shap
ing his own religious convictions. As long as he is in the church he
must perforce bow in humble submission to the decrees of ancient
monks and priests who delighted in making Christ's religion a
stumbling block in the way of the earnest seeker after truth. The
Reformation did indeed remove from the church some of the ill con
ceived dogmas originated in the preceeding centuries; but many
barriers were left untouched. The curtain of progress and truth,
was but partly lifted, and God's pure sunlight was permitted to suf
fuse but a portion of the dark recesses and bywajB of the gloomy
past. And even with the sundering of old traditions and heresies
came now obstacles in the path of the humble .follower of Christ.
Calvin and Luther, with others, fought and conquered the pester
ing dragons of fanaticism only to add new burdens to tho church
they rescued. Before Luther, before Calvin, before Savonarola, be-'
fore Erasmus, thinking men wrestled with their consciences over
tho encumbrances of the Christian faith, and in their inmost hearts,
rejected the false for the true, turned aside the base covering to
pluck the hidden kernel of truth. But those were dangerous times.
Men questioned religious teachings at their peril. While inwardly
protesting they were compelled to accept what was offered in si
lence. A man's liberty or life was the penalty of disbelief in the
empirical theology of the day. Thus were men and women forced
by canting priests, backed by the awful power of inquisition, to pro
fees belief in creeds and articles of faith which their own under
standing could not endorse, and a large number of the followers of
the disciple of truth were made unwilling hypocrites.
True the Reformation affected a change. Its influence was clari
fying, and men were left free, within certain specified limits, to ex
press themselves in accordance with their personal convictions; but
since that time theology has been practically at a standstill. The
teachings of the principal actors in the great upheaval were ac
cepted almost as inspired precepts from heaven, and these, with so
much of the foundation of the mediaeval church as was left undis
turbed, have constituted and do constitute the theological founda
tion of the new church. In the intervening years the superstruct
ure has developed and enlarged, but the bases, zealously guarded by
scholastic divines, have not been touched. The modern structure is
upheld by decayed foundations planted in ignorance and supersti
tion centuries ago. Knowing the habitation to be insecure, Chris
tians have keen compelled to live on in silence. To-day the mother
church and her lusty offspring are all guilty of hypocrisy.
Study the conditions of salvation offered by the different denomi
national divisions of the church. There was a time, now long past,
when men were told; "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved." Now man's diabolical ingenuity has interposed
new obstructions in the way of a direct path to the presence of the
Almighty, and in addition to faith and an endeavor to comply with
Christ's precepts, and to follow his example, we are compelled to
accept and express faith in the variegated theological doctrines of
purely human origin. According to the immutable decree of the
church, manifested in its different branches, wecan'reach the goal of
salvation only through tho rocks and shoals of baptism, holy water
predestination, absolution etc. We do not believe all this;
but we must submit if our names are tu be enrolled among the army
of the saved. That we do not believe in these things is evident by
the spirit of dissent which is now beginning to manifest itself so
prominently .throughout the length and breadth of the land. The
ministers themselves do not believe in them any more than do the
rank and file of the church, as is witnessed by the fact that the doc
trinal discourses of one-hundred years ago are seldom heard in the
modern pulpit. To-day the Presbyterian minister, in the face of
widespread disapproval of the central facts of Calvinistic theology,
is loth to preach on the doctrine of predestination or election. It is
not so many years since faithful church-goers expected and demand
ed learned theological harrangues on some one or other of the dog
matic hypotheses which have for so many years been looked upon
as the fundamental principles of the Christian religion. Religion
was not a simple, loving faith, and sermons on the simple story of
Christ's saving grace were not regarded with favor by a people
steeped in what they called "orthodoxy." The horrors of a
raging hell, the awful punishments in store for tho unbeliever, the
importance of the observance of the forms and ceremonies of the
church, the elaboration of the nicities of theological teaching, all
these possessed far moie interest for the attendant upon divine wor
ship than the relation of the Saviour's sacrifice for the salvation of
the world and the accompanying appeal for a more Christ liks life.
Instead of discourses pointing out the lessons to be drawn from the
Saviour's blameless life and urging men to emulate Him, to study
His character, dreary essays on harsh and ungodlike theories,
originally promulgated by pharisaical ecclesiastical dignitaries,
seemed to be most in demand.
But today, while the standards of the respective churches retain,
to a considerable extent, the old-time doctrines and creeds, minis
tern are not given to enlarging upon them. At stated intervals
Baptist ministers and Methodist ministers and Presbyterian minis
ters do instruct their hearers in the special beliefs of their several
churches; but they prefer generally to give such subjects a wide
berth. For the undercurrent of popular disapproval of the monkish
vagaries and philosophical speculation foisted on religion, slowly
gathering in force and power for hundreds of years, has at last
assumed a threatening aspect. The pent-up feeling of the mass
of professing Christians is already beginning to express itself in no
uncertain way, and the ministers knowing this, dare not, if they 60
desired, offend the growing sentiment of the people by the old form
of pulpit instruction.
Evidences of this as yet not adequately expressed disbelief in the
array of forms and creeds and doctrines and observances which have
bo long Btifled the church are not wanting. The widespread dissen
sion in the various denominations betokens in unmistakable termsa
universal protest against the old standards. At home and abroad
the spirit of discord is stalking forth. In ever' religious sect trouble
over doctrinal points is brewing. There is a slashing and crashing
of creeds. At no time since the Reformation has there been such a
decided and general objection to the ancient teachings of the
church.
When the sum of one million dollars is presented to a university
accompanied by the following statement, does it not seem that
decided exception is taken to the old system of doctrinal teaching?
"It is my earnest wish that at proper times and in a proper man
ner, I would suggest at least once a week, the attention of the
students, at all stages of their course, may be called to the teaching
of our Saviour, as recorded in the gospels, as distinguished from the
interpretations of theee teachings ly men, as embodied in creeds,
catechisms, articles of faith and denominational dogmas."
Couched in such language the above really amounts to a proviso.
James B. Colgate used these words in notifying the trustees of
Colgate University, of Hamilton, New York, of his gift of one million
dollars to the institution. When Dr. Briggs, of the Presbyterian
church, by the advocacy of liberal ideas which a few years since
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