“THE CRASH OF CREEDS.”

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 445, 12 February 1890, Page 5

“THE CRASH OF CREEDS.”

QUESTION CONSIDERED IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT. Auckland, Feb. 10. At the Temperance Hall last night the Rev. E. H. Gulliver lectured on the “ Crash of Creeds,” considered in its social aspect. He said that many of those present had probably read Lord Lytton's “ Last Days of Pompeii,” and would remember his graphic description of the catastrophe which overwhelmed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the year 79. Then, as now, the cone of Vesuvius had towered for centuries harmless over the lovely Bay of Naples, and none realised the nearness of theimpendingruin; someominous rumblings had been heard, indeed, but they passed unheeded, until on a day when the pleasureloving inhabitants were gathered in the amphitheatre intent on their cruel sports, the horrified spectators saw through an opening in the awning the column of smoke and fire I’ising from the mountain, and in a few hours the ruin was complete. The picture given by Lord Lytton may serve as an emblem of what takes place from time to time in other fields—in the fields of faith and of social life. Going back through the pages of history we saw that revolutions and reformations were presaged and foretold by murmurings of dissent and discontent which were little heeded, and repressed or ignored by the governing powers; but these murmurings indicated the working of forces in the mind of man which at last found vent in the revolutions and reformations which changed the face of society. In our own day we could hear plainly enough the murmurs which foretell the approaching crash of creeds. It was not only professed unbelievers who foretold the storm, but from the ranks of Christianity itselt they saw step forth man after man declaring that the day of creeds and dogmas was ended. They saw men like Bishop Colenso, Dean Stanley, Mr Haweis and Mr Voysey rejecting the fetters of the past, and claiming the right to place religion above dogma, and to revise their creeds and recast their formulas by the light of the knowledge of to-day. Nearer home they had the Rev. Charles Strong building up a church of the future in direct antagonism to the creeds and dogmas of the past. Such a change as was ( thus indicated could not occur without far- ( reaching effects. New ideas were working in the minds of men, but only the future could tell the ultimate result. When Fulton and Watt experimented with steam, they could little dream of the full powers of the mighty agent they were calling into existence ; but now the force they evoked is tamedi and harnessed to take the labour of the world on its tireless shouldeis. When the spasmodic contraction noticed in the leg of a frog gave the first hint of the power of galvanism, who could guess that in that phenomenon lay the clue to the wonders to be afterwards revealed by Wheatstone in the telegraph and Edison in the telephone ? We see now that from the simple ideas of the first discoverers of these natural forces have sprung results which have changed altogether the conditions of human life, but there are still mightier changes impending. The sound of the throb of the steam engine, and the click of the telegraph, had grown familiar, but those who listened could hear another sound, as of the rising tide ; it was the low moan of Socialism circling the world ; it was the voice of man in his might protesting against conditions and creeds grown obsolete and intolerable. We read every day of the endless conflict of selfish interests, of strikes and lock-outs, of trusts and combinations of all sorts. These things show the desperate efforts made by the nations to adapt themselves to the changed conditions of life, and. when to these we add the mental ferment which forebodes the crash of creeds, we may well feel that the coming years are fraught with mighty issues. What was the thought that followed naturally on the use of the words “I believe ?” * They would find that the use of those words naturally entailed the use of the words “I condemn.” It was not by chance, that the Athanasian Creed closed with the thought of damnation. We saw Christendom marching for centuries under the banner of the Cross, but from the days of its greatest power down to the present time its record is a record of persecution, often traced in letters of blood. Here, where we should most expect to find gentleness, self-sacrifice, and love, we find the air dark with the smoke of conflict, simply because some used the words “I believe ” in one sense, while others used the same words in another sense. The story of the Inquisition, of the persecutions carried on in the Netherlands by the Duke of Alva, and the whole dark history of religious strife taught the same lesson. The fatal words “I believe” were at the root of the evil. Could we for a moment suppose that such results would have followed if the Governments and people had tried to give practical effect to “t7ie teachings ” of the Sermon on the Mount, instead of disputing as to what they did, or did not, believe about *Hhe Teacher ?” The world would have had a better history today but for this evil use of the words “I believe,” but we must not confound the “ belief” which defines, disputes, and condemns, with the “ faith ” which trusts and aspires and loves, for that is quite another matter. Nothing had so blasted the face of the earth as the fettex-ing system of “ creeds.” What right had we or any man to impose on another some particular forin of words, however beautiful or accurate it might seem to us? We know that the same things appear under varying aspects to different people ; the very flowers and leaves bear one aspect to the artist and another to the farmer, and yet another aspect to the naturalist. We know all this, and yet we insist that our fellow-creatures shall expx-ess their “ belief ” about things in their very nature incomprehensible and undefinable in identical words for ever. Could W 6 think that Christ would ever have set forth such a document as the Athanasian Creed? We felt that something was needed to replace the dogmas of the past, and guide our thoughts to God. We could not think that mankind would ever be content to live without religion. We look around and see various ideas brought forward to keep religion alive amidst the crash of creeds, such as positivism, agnosticism, etc,, and we need not fear that the spii-it of true religion, which bids us live for humanity with faith, love and hope for the future, will fail to find fit expression in the changeful times that lie before us.