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    618 Q£t)e %e&Het+ [Saturday,

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    LANGFOBD ON SCEPTICISM. Religious Scepti...

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    Allston's Literaky Remains. Lectures On ...

    * ay the wind blows , when every feature is set the other way ; the knees smite together , and sound the alarm of fear , under a fierce countenance ; and the legs shake with anger , when all above is calm . " The greatest of all fools is the proud fool—who is at the mercy of every fool he meets . " Of the " Poems , " -which , close this volume , our onlycriticism lies in this fact—we could not read them ! AVe began most of them , but always failed in resolution to read through . America may accept them as poems . In England they will be shunned as incurable mediocrity .

    618 Q£T)E %E&Het+ [Saturday,

    618 Q £ t ) e % e & Het + [ Saturday ,

    Langfobd On Scepticism. Religious Scepti...

    LANGFOBD ON SCEPTICISM . Religious Scepticism and Infidelity ; their History , Cause , Cure * and Mission . By John Alfred Langford . John Chapman . Often as we have heard the cry , ** The Church is in danger" ( and in truth it always has been in danger ever since the age outgrew its teaching , and forced it into the unpleasant situation of a Corporate Sham ) , we have never seen such formidable peril as that which threatens its existence at the present moment ; attacked from without , and crumbling to decay within , it has only support from its machinery and wealth . The masses are unbelievers . The earnest

    among believers are passing over to Nonconformity , Unitarianism , Spiritualism , and Catholicism . Two convents a-year are built in England—not a bad statistical view of the progress of Catholicism ! while the quantity of restless discontent agitating the Church would not be adequately measured by the number of those who openly secede , or the number of works directed against it . In our columns there have been abundant

    indications of this breaking-up . The volume before us must be classed among them . It is written by an earnest , a religious , nay an orthodox man , seeing that he believes in Revelation , and accepts the Bible as the work of God written by men . His fervour is unquestionable . His directness of aim gives a pugnacity and severity to the book which , to the easygoing acquiescent , will seem to place him in greater antagonism to received opinions than is actually the case . But , although he is unsparing in denunciation , in point of creed he does not differ very widely from enlightened orthodoxy . His task is one demanding great erudition and great power : —

    " Infidelity has existed in all times and all nations . Under every kind of religious worship , from the fetishism of the savage to the high spiritualism of the Christian faith , it has had an abiding' place on the earth . No people can point to their annals and declare that in their progressive career infidelity has had no retarding , no accelerating influence . The nations of antiquity afford sufficient corroboration of our assertion . The Bible abounds with evidence . The history of Greece and Home may be summoned as a witness . The imperfect records —or rather our imperfect system of interpretation—of Egypt , Phoenicia , and nations whose history goes farther

    into the past than the comparatively modern ones of Greece and Rome , have still abundant proofs of the existence of this constant accompanicr of our race . Mahommcdanisin , Hiudooism , and all the thousand and one isms which have governed , and which still govern the spiritual life of millions , have all their annals of the unfaithful . The phenomenon has ever been a fruitful cause of controversy , both with the sword and the pen . Many a bloody battle has been fought through , and many a mighty tome written upon , its existence . Still the question appears as unsettled as ever . Our press teems with works upon its present influence . Our pulpits

    fulminate their thunders against its devoted head , and utter fearful lamentations upon its increase amongst us . Daily do wo hear that our institutions are being sapped , our inorals depraved , our religion undermined , by its insidious and open attempts . Under a variety of names , we arc told , its baneful power is felt in all ranks of society . The emptiness of our churches is cited ; the recklessness of a iargc part of our people upon sacred subjects is adduced as proof positive that we are going to darkness and destruction , through the folly or wickedness , or both , of sceptics and unbelievers , in a

    thousand forms is this hydra-headed monster devouring his victims daily . Socialism , Communism , Pantheism , Spiritualism , are given us a few of the forms of its manifestation . [ Revolutions arc said to be its immediate production ; and anarchy its certain and constant attendant . All the evils which afflict humanity , socially or politically , are proved to owe their potency to this the arch evil . Beneath the terror excited by the constant contemplation of its effects , and the fear of its increasing growth , men become prophets of disaster , and foretellers of mill . "

    Ho therefore undertakes a reconsideration of the subject . And first , a ft or noticing the loose mnimer in which the word infidelity is used , he proposes as a definition : "The infidelity of a people to its own idea of truth nt any particular yeriocl of its history "—in short , by infiiU-Uty lie means unfaithfulness : — " Under one or other of our four definitions may be

    arranged all that is needed for the proper understanding and due appreciation of the nature of infidelity , its history , its mission , and its cure . We will now give them in consecutive order . " 1 . Infidelity exists amongst a people when they are untrue to their own accepted idea of God , and sink below their own standard of religious excellence . " 2 . That is infidelity which denies religious control , and man ' s responsibility to God . " 3 . That is infidelity which sets up virtue , human perfection , or any temporary and mutable power in place of the one and immutable God .

    " 4 . That is infidelity which , from a recklessness , a love of pleasure , and worldly freedom , looks upon religion as a restraint , and the idea of a retributive God as an idle fancy , promulgated from interested motives , and kept up for purposes of police and social order . In these four categories may be included all the minor distinctions and the varying manifestations of this spiritual phenomenon . " This is somewhat sweeping , and does , it must be

    confessed , greatly alter the current signification of the word . But an author has every right to affix his own definitions so that he abide by them , and this Mr . Langford does , for he finds infidelity rankest in the church ! He begins with an historical survey of Modern Rome , France , Germany , and England , and without any difficulty signalizes the unfaithfulness of the churches to Christianity as understood by the Apostles : this has been done too often and too well to have much effect in a new author , nor does Mr .

    Langford make any important addition to what we had before . His erudition is not comprehensive and minute enough , and much of it we suspect to be second hand ; but the topic is one demanding exhaustive erudition . He succeeds best in grouping general facts with a view to a declamatory onslaught . Here is a specimen of his hardhitting : —

    THE PEOPLE AllE NOT OF THE CHURCH . " The founder of the faith has ceased to be the hope of mankind . If the > -people need reform they go anywhere rather than to the preachers of to-day . Politics is a more potent power , has more hold upon their hearts , claims and obtains more of their time , boasts , more truly boasts , of possessing more of their hope , their trust , their faith , than does religion . This is not an isolated thing ; it is the general position of the people at the present day . The most active , earnest , laborious , and thoughtful part of the masses , as they arc somewhat irreverently called , arc out of connection with any

    religious community . The greatest wotks of the world are done by men opposed to it . The charities of life are performed by other hands than religious . The most philanthropic men of the age arc not only laymen , but men who desire to be known as not connected with any religious denomination . The churches arc almost powerless over the people . They possess not their sympathies . Their influence extends not beyond the comparatively few , who from Sunday to Sunday assemble in their respective buildings , and listen to the prosy discourses against abstract sin therein delivered . The popular heart is untouched . Political cries are more potent to

    arouse them than the voice of the preacher . Nay , if he calls in the street , the people walk on the other side and smile . Doubt of their sincerity is the common expression of the people in relation to the ' cloth . ' A thousand street proverbs might be gathered in illustration of this . They are well known to all , and need not to be repeated . It is sufficient for our purpose that none are more sensible of the fact than the religious themselves . They know the fact , and while they are quarrelling about the cause the breach is every day growing wider . " If , for the sake of experiment , a man were to go the round of our places of worship , as they are called , round of our places of worship , as they are called ,

    whether properly or not , in the true interpretation of that awful word , and note by whom they are visited , what a strange question must arise in his mind . Whore are the people ? would he exclaim with surprise . The tone of gentility and outward respectability which mark their visitors sufficiently indicate the kind of religion taught within . Depend upon it nothing is taught there that can offend tho most fastidious ears of respectability . One need not enter to know the diluted Christianity which is poured upon the ears of the well-to-do listener . Watch the air of placid contentcdness with which they enter , and the still more easily recognized air of

    contentednesa with which they return home to their wellspread tables , their ease , comforts , and luxuries . But in the meantime where are the people ? Where the outcasts , the Pariahs , the publicans , and sinners , Avhom Jesus came 'to seek and to save ? ' Anywhere rather than in a church . Some seeking the fresh air in a country ramble , after a week of unmi'igated toil in close and ill-ventilated workshops . May God give them joy Others seeking to wile away their weekly dole of leisure in bed , not so much from delight in the luxury as from complete physical exhaustion . Son > c renewing their acquaintance with the morning draught , to freshen them

    up , after the exhilaration of the Saturday night ' s debauch has given place to the lassitude and wretchedness of returning consciousness . In such and worse condition are thousands of our people , everywhere crying unto God ? see how the Church performs its mission for tho children of men . ' Everywhere tuuongst them is a growing contempt for the ministers of religion . The clnss who used to be honoured ami esteemed are now the least respected . If they on some particular occasion rouse from their accustomed lethargy , and actively labour to effect some amelioration in the condition of the people , the unexpected , and we may truly sny the unwonted , attempt is received with contempt and

    derision ; their motives are questioned ; some insidiou s and underhand dealing is looked for ; everything except a pure wish to benefit the people is attributed to them ; reasons for their conduct are sought anywhere but in the programme issued by themselves ; ulterior designs , which have for their object the consolidation or increas e of their own power , are declared the moving springs of their actions . The sheep will not receive the shepherd ; the flock forsake the pastor . No cry is so impotent to raise the enthusiasm of the people as the « Church in danger . ' The answer is , ' let those who profit by it see to its condition and defend it . We , who are only injured by its existence , care not if it fall . Let it go . * Any amount of evidence might be adduced in support of our assertions . The Church is not of the people ; the people are not of the Church . "

    Nor does he rest there ; but having shown that the People are kept from the church , he proceeds to show that

    the—CHURCH IS NOT IN EARNEST . " Church principles , that is , honesty in trading , purity of being , holiness of living , and strict truthfulness in all our relations with our fellow-man , are absent from amongst us . Our trade , our commerce , our social life , our politics , are not conducted religiously . There may be , and doubtless are , exceptions ; but we are speaking now of the general condition ; Our trade has become trickery ; a system in which each one ' s object is to get the weak side of his brother . Our social life is one awful mass of corruption . In no part of it is it holy and pure . Our poor are extremely poor , and therefore

    ignorant , sinful , and dangerous . Our middle classes are apathetic and careless ; our rich indifferent and luxurious . Nowhere is the spirit of Christ potent amongst us . Every one thinks of his own things , and not of the things of his brother . In our politics the support of party is the grand object sought after , and not the ruling of the nation by just and holy laws . An aristocracy has to be kept . Useless offices and sinecures must be reserved , no matter how useless , how burdensome , that Lord So-and-so ' s younger sons may be provided with situations by which the dignity of their station may be preserved , and the honour and glory of the kingdom

    maintained . What matter though the wail of an overlaboured , over-taxed , and uneducated people rise to the throne of God against such proceedings ? While politics means party triumph , and not the temporal salvation of a nation , these iniquities will be of constant occurrence . But , worse than all , our religion is not Christian . A huge practical infidelity lords it in our temples , and presides at our altars . The Church , the congregation , the sect , not man , is the cry . In no denomination could we apply the rule of Christ and find it conformable thereto . The Christianity of the market-place has devoured the Christianity of Christ . Our professors are truly so . God ' s

    house has again become a scene of money-changers . Its glory has departed . God has not forsaken us , but we have forsaken Him . Daily are souls going down to death who never heard His name , except to blaspheme ; and our preachers for the most part content themselves with complaining Sunday after Sunday of the spread of infidelity ; of the growth of unbelief ; of the enemies of religion . They should look nearer home . The greatest infidelity would be found in the Church . The worst unbelief presides every week at the altar . God ' s chicfest foes are amongst those who announce themselves as his soldiers . "

    These , he admits , are strong charges . Were they the whole truth the church could not last for a day . Having completed his display of our religious condition , Mr . Langford proceeds to examine the causes thereof , which he finds to be in the tendency of churches to become unfaithful to their mission , and to look after the " flesh-pots of Egypt " rather than after the welfare of souls ; in bibliolatry ; in church establishments ; in Sectarianism ; and in the antagonism which the professors of religion have ever offered to philosophy and science . In Part III . he undertakes to indicate the cure of the evils of which the above are the causes . Herein ho falls in with the view so constantly put forward in our columns that the bond of union , should not bo one of dogma but of

    faith—that the lleligious Sentiment should bring together in harmony those now separated by the minute differences of lleligious Speculation . The following passage we are glad to quote : — " The only thing ever asked by Christ and his Apostles was , that life should show whose followers the new converts were . No number of articles were ever offered them to sign before acceptance could be allowed to the fellowship of the community . The true idea of a church is altogether neglected and misinterpreted , when opinion has become its bond of union . Yet this is the only bond at present existing . The slightest difference of interpretation , nay , tho least objection to a form of church discipline and government , is sufficient to create

    a division , in which the very laws of morality are unblushingly broken , and all religious forbearance sacrificed for victory and triumph . Dr . Arnold has truly said : — 1 The true and grand idea of thn Church , that is , a society for the purpose of making men like Christ , earih like heaven , the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of Christ , is till lost , and men look upon it as an institution for religious worship and religious instruction , thus robbing it of its life and universality , making it an affair ' of clergy , not of people ; of preaching and ceremonies , not of living ; of ? Sundays and synagogues , instead of one of all days , und all plaees , houses , " streets , town , ami country . ' Nor is this surprising , when opinion ami creed are made the test of a man ' s fitness for heaven . The golden mca-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 21, 1850, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21091850/page/18/