Robinson, M. E.

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SELF-GOVERNMENT IN RELIGIONBY M. E. ROBINSONSO many lives of unselfish devotion have derived their force andbeauty from the traditional religions, especially, perhaps, theJewish and the Christian, that one hesitates to plead for a freshpresentation of the old religious truths. These, however, canhardly be accepted, in their present form, by many of the learners inthe self-governing schools, because they are often supported byarguments which would convince only those who rely on authoritywithout observing and thinking for themselves.For example. Dr. Gore defends divine "justice" wdiich used"cruel and monstrous tyrannies" as instruments of chastisementand then destroyed them for this compliance ; maintains that, in theScriptures, "unconstrained naturalness of narrative is more con-vincing than scrupulous accuracy:" and states that, God, "perfectin righteousness," made Himself known to man largely through the"true" Hebrew prophets—true according to their own showing andtheir contempt of their rivals—whose message consisted, the un-learned reader finds, in angry self-assertions and particularizedthreatenings of hideous devastations and massacres, with a generalcommand, here and there, to do justly and love mercy. Thesewriters were acutely conscious of God as a person, distinct fromthemselves, issuing their denunciations, of the divinit}' of whichthis conviction, for Dr. Gore, is evidence enough.This great apologist confesses that his religious beliefs are nativepredispositions, and that he allows science to modify them only uj)to the point beyond which he feels that his innermost self wouldbe "quenched or blinded." He thus reveals the reason why re-ligious and political thinking promotes enmities and favouritisms—why, for instance, the ruling classes in England do not regard theGovernment as cruel and incompetent for letting the miners well-nigh perish ; and why the late Mr. A. C. Benson, as a child, wouldSELF-C-.OVERXMEXT IX RELIGIOX 623pass a Xonconformist chapel with a thrill of horror. By the mis-taking of principles and convictions for facts lamentable conse-quences are, today, being wrought; e.g., the division of all the greatchurches into quarreling sects, and the fighting of Jews againstArabs in Palestine.Such hatreds are due to deep impressions made in babyhood.A very indulgent mother may turn a child into a Roman Catholic,who needs protective influences, or, by reaction, into a blatant atheistor Protestant, or a quietly independent Quaker; just as a sternfather whom he admires ma}' bring him up to be a power-lovingLutheran, like the Germans who wanted to subject all the world totheir discipline.All the religions, in fact, particularly those which claim divinesanction for belief and conduct, have produced both weak andstrong, ugl}' and beautiful characters; and most of them, now, em-body ideas of authority and obedience, punishment and reward,which have long been abandoned in criminology and education.Dr. Relton, representing the Anglican Church, threatens unbeliev-ers with the loss of personal immortality, and, as if to give a psy-chological appearance to this warning, suggests that their personal-ities may be disintegrated after death, and the fragments cast on"a spiritual dust-heap" and worked up into new souls.Would not self-disciplined learners regard this doctrine as aninsult? Having been placed in circumstances that suit their char-acter and abilities, but oiler difliculties enough to give them onlya hero's chance of reaching the appointed goal, they have won notprizes, as the result of bribery or competition with others, but thetriumph of having arrived at a standard to which their own self-respect has urged them. They do not what they are told by God,king, parent or teacher, but the right they have themselves discov-ered after making experiments and mistakes. Therefore the workis stimulating sport, and the master a friend and referee, not anangr}', commanding, punishing tyrant.The child of the age will, in time, create a world"Where the will rages not with fever to destroyDiffering wills, or warp another's life to its use.But each lives in the light of its own joy."Those who would assist him in this constructive work mustbase their religion not on creeds and ceremonies, but on kindnesses.624 TH1-: OPEN COURTunderstandings and imaginations. Knowing that belief on demandis impossible, they must leave the child free to form his beliefsaccording to his own experience and poetic power. They musttherefore put splendid examples before him in the shape of greatworks of art, and employ stories instead of sermons to drive moralshome. The story constitutes a valuable discipline, because it is achallenge to the listener's own intelligence to side with the nobleand against the ignoble characters ; whereas the sermon carries withit a criticism of him which, deep in his mind, often creates resent-ment and rebellion. Moreover the preacher may, unwittingly, takean unfair advantage of the congregation because his personalityhvpnotizes them and paralyzes their judgment. On the other hand,the personality of the story-teller is lost in the story. For thetime being he is the story.The religious helper of the modern child, adult and adolescentmust, further, bring out heroism and the power to take responsibilityand reject enervating doctrines—that, for example, disease can beremoved by pure thought or prayer ; that pardon cancels ill deeds;that Christ will come again to tell His people exactly what to do,as their parents did when they were children, or as, in the war, thecommander did on the field and the doctor and nurses at the hos-pital : or that sin is a debt which can be paid by the sacrifice of aninnocent saviour. The victim pays, and so does the offender, inthe long run, by the degradation of his character and the hatredof others ; and nothing will remove the stain or right the vvrongbut rebuilding the character and confessing the sin to the sutTererand. as far as possible, making amends to him.To make such reparation transgressors will sometimes need theaid of a pastor who will interpret their relation to the injured ones.He should be a specialist in the study of human nature and socialorganization, and, like the psychologists at the clinics for childguidance, ought to be so interested in and sympathetic for individu-als, that he will make no trouble of studying their mental and physi-cal make-up and all their history if he cannot, otherwise, helpthem to understand themselves, their companions and their circum-stances.The need for personal guidance and enlightenment may begauged by the popularity of spiritualistic mediums, advice columnsin the newspapers, bureaus for would-be suicides, and similar work-SELF-GOVERNMENT IN RELIGION 625ers and institutions. And indeed the duties of life are perplexingand numerous enough to overburden even the strongest man orwoman acting alone. They consist in doing one's work well, ful-filling one's famil}- obligations, and being just and generous to allthe world.A\'e do not know who made the universe or gave us power toexplore it. We only know that it is magnificent beyond our loftiestimaginations, a vast and beautiful inheritance that we can think ofand use, at once deeply humble and exultantly proud, only withreverence, joy and gratitude. We are living in a world which isat least fifty million years old and has illimitable resources. Thatsigns and wonders are necessary to declare the glory of the spiritor spirits who wrought so stupendous a creation is a pitiful mis-conception. Xever have these left themselves without witness ; andso great and beneficent is their power that no man need fear to trusthimself to them, even in death, which, probably, is not a solutionof personal continuit}', but a fulfilment of our best selves.It is true that we must bear the burdens and cure the diseasesof humanity unaided ; but it is onl}- by meeting these responsibili-ties with courage and faith that we achieve what Professor Aber-crombie calls "the first of all virtues, the virtue of personal existencewhich is wrought in the white heat of man's essential vigor, that\lgor by which he is himself against the world." For this crea-tional work secondhand experience will not serve. Probably it isthe impulse to evade the difficulties of ''this present" which hasled so many people to borrow bizarre foreign religions, like theEnglish Buddhism and ^lazdaznanism of today, and the Judaismwhich has made British folk sing ''Jerusalem my happy home"without a sense of strangeness, or think of heaven as a glitteringcity, not, according to their natural inclination, as a place of woods,fields and gardens.^ On the authentic testimony of our own eyesand ears, honestly accepted and checked by the testimonies of con-temporaries, we shall see visions more splendid than documentsand excavations have revealed; and they will give rise to finerbenevolences. Have we not "a cloud of witnesses" of "the thingsthat are more excellent?" What scripture has equalled the majestyof ^I. Adrien Le Corbeau's The Forest Giant, the simple kindnessof Mr. David Grayson's Adventures in Friendship, or the noblecatholicity of Mr. Ralph Hodgson's The Song of Honorf There^See, Studies in Arcady, by Norman Gale.626 THE OPEiX COURTscores of painters, musicians and writers whose works, like these,are so human that mortals deem them to be divine. They andtheir work are imperfect, but such as they have they will give usif we will only take.The people at large need a ]a}men's religion which would makesvstematic use of the gifts of present-day artists; promote thepatience, charit\- and serenity which are waning with the declineof Christian culture ; perpetuate the noble respect of Jesus forsuffering and failure ; maintain the joyful dependence on othersthat is so much more gracious than the hard self-sufficiency of thenon-religious: and bring about the prayerful tranquillit\- in which,mavbe. communion is established between human creatures andhigher, discarnate beings of many orders.As it would never be an end, but always a means, the new church-—or school of personality, or social art and science association—ought to have a minimum of organization; and it should providefacilities for pursuits which, like those of the Boy Scouts, wouldin themselves be a discipline, willingly undergone, for an ideal,without external authority, and thus would help the memberstoward self-realization.The following scheme is presented in the hope that it will draw-criticism and attract workers who will co-operate in realizing it.SL^NDAY PROGRA.AOIEThe services, held on a Sunday afternoon or evening, wouldconsist in stories—mainly biographies, but also fairy and folk tales,narratives belonging to world histor}-, nature stories, etc.—told bya gifted and well-trained story-teller. There would also be read-ings of poetry and essays, as often as possible by the authors them-selves ; music of both the past and the present ; a familiar hymn ortwo : and a few minutes of silence.WEEKDAY PROGRAMMEThe pastor would be versed in applied psychology, in order that,as father—or mother—confessor, he—or she—could help enquir-ers to make the best of themselves, and to overcome faults whichprevented them from being happy, successful and useful to others.He ought, also, to give lessons on home life and hygiene to par-ents, adolescents and betrothed men and women, and help childrento choose their vocation ; and he might lecture on demography, the:lf-(;()\'!:r.\ m 627mental causes of war. the origin of hatreds and similar themes.There would be many activities which would enable the mem-bers to act up. without self-consciousness or self-righteousness, tothe visions that were shown them on the Sundays. For instance,there might be a gardening club ; a nursing sisterhood ; an ideal-homes exhibition committee : a Bible-study group : a prayer circle,a series of seances : a drama troupe ; a book-and-picture society;a choral association ; a musical apj^reciation compan}- : a literatvu'eclass, and so on.As much as possible the leaders of the church associations^vould use existing institutions rather than establish new ones. Forexample, it is to be hoped that they would persuade the whole con-gregation to join Peace and Health societies; and that the}- wouldtake advantage of the evening institutes in the neighborhood forlearning an\- sciences, arts and industries which they wished tomaster in order to help themselves and the others.The church would, indeed, be like a large family the membersof which were always promoting one another's prosperit}'—but notat the expense of outsiders—and cultivating each other's person-alit}-. Each would be expected to bring the characteristic gifts ofthe rest into use. and not to demand self-sacritice of anyone.The works of the church would, in fact, be neither "charities"nor, for the most part, mere amusements like dancing and whistdrives : but well-conceived, educative enterprises of the nature,to some extent, of social experiments. On the ]\Iontessori and Dal-ton principle the}' \\ould be initiateci and maintained almost entirel}'by the members, not by the organizer or the pastor : and wouldshow that good people need not be sentimental and merely harmless,and are not necessaril}- inferior to the makers of evil conspiraciesin patience and endurance, energ}- and imagination, intelligence andesprit dc corps.

Self-Government in Religion.

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Self-Government in Religion.

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