health and sanitation. In a word, to avoid the blight of specialism, the work of the specialist, which he for his own advantage has involved and complicated, must be simplified and distributed throughout the whole community. A simpler life alone can rid us from the incubus of the classes called "professional," but in reality parasitic.

The vision of a "Church" which shall be rational and cosmopolitan may not be realised in our day and generation: "We see it, but not nigh" (Num. xxiv. 17). Yet it is most rational and reasonable that men who share the same faith should associate themselves together, and should strive to propagate their views of truth. The light of faith cannot be kept under a cask (Matt. v. 15).

"Shall not a body of men acquainted with each other, helping each other to fight, sustaining each other in falls, holding forth to each other the prize of a common victory, be possible once more on earth?" asks Maurice.1

"Let combination and brotherhood do for the newer and simpler faith what they did once. for the old let them give it a practical shape, a practical grip on human life!" (Mrs H. Ward).

Of such non-sacerdotal Churches the world

1 "Lessons of Hope,” p. 102.

can never have enough: nor is it possible for their members to be too active and too much. in earnest. Probably a religious and cosmopolitan freemasonry will arise, its members known to each other by certain signs and symbols, and cherishing ideals quite incompatable with the existing order; hated therefore by the world, as were the early Christians and the Pythagoreans five hundred years earlier still. This at least is the dream of the present writer.

CHAPTER XXII

HERETICS, SCEPTICS, SCHISMATICS, and INFIDELS

I take refuge in the Truth.-Buddhist Formula.

"Orthodoxy is my doxy: heterodoxy is another man's doxy."BISHOP WARBURTON.

"The Church has been from early times the most irreligious body in the world . . . parasites of society, betrayers of the New Testament, enemies of civilisation, inveterate poisoners of Truth at its very springs, starvers of freedom, masters of the most guilty hypocrisy the world has ever seen."-Hon. ROLLO RUSSELL in the Utopian.

Such are the men who apply the term "heretic to the friends of Truth!

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WHATEVER the priest likes not, or understands not," says Martin Luther, "that is heresy." Protestantism was a heresy in the sixteenth century, as it is still in the South of

Europe; and now, in the twentieth century, Protestantism, almost worn out, has forgotten its own "heretical" beginnings, and in its turn brands all religious progress as "heresy." Thus it is that those who neglect the passing religious fashion of the hour are accused of heresy, unorthodoxy, latitudinarianism, and so forth. But we need not be "careful to answer in this matter" (Dan. iii. 16), nor should we hesitate to confess with Paul that "we worship God after a way which some men call heresy" (Acts xxiv. 14), "for we have hope toward God so long as our conscience is clear of offence."

The fact of being in a minority cannot possibly affect our salvation, and ought not to disturb our peace. We know that all must sooner or later join the glad chorus of the initiates, heuron ameinon; I have found a better way! Why should we not, therefore, pray like Paul, that all men may come to think as we do, and be at the same time more free than we are from the bonds of sin? (Acts xxvi. 29). This is Christ's prayer, "Thy Kingdom come!"-the kingdom of reason and truth.

A noble answer to the charge of heresy was that made by Rogers, a Protestant martyr of the Reformation. "Thou art a heretic!" said the sheriff. "That will be known," replied Rogers, "at the last day." Here was no shuffling and no quibbling.'

1 Fox, "Book of Martyrs."

"Heresy" means "choosing." It is clear that if we do not choose our own religion, we must hand over the choice to some one else. In this case we are no better off, for "if we believe things only because the pastor says so, or because the Assembly so determines, the very truth we hold becomes a heresy."1

A devout heretic thus communes with the Deity: "Where should I, weak mortal, infinitely minute manifestation of God's infinite life, where should I obtain the courage, the audacity, to break with the beliefs consecrated by ages, unless it be in the firm faith that God is thus seen to be at once more powerful, more beneficent, and nearer to the heart of man than His most fervent worshippers have ever thought." 2

The word "sceptic" means a person who looks carefully into things. It is obvious that the more important a matter is, the more closely we should examine it. Now, Religion concerns us more deeply than anything else. Therefore it cannot possibly be wrong to be a sceptic. On the contrary, it is the bounden duty of every man to be sceptical in matters of Religion. The theologian may prefer the blindfold believer in his doctrines and dogmas, and he may denounce the sceptic and the heretic; but, fortunately, the safety of our souls is not within his power but in the hands of God.

1 Milton, "Areopagitica."

Enfantin, "La Vie Éternelle."

"Orthodoxy" means holding correct opinions. But the term orthodox" is generally applied to persons who profess those doctrines which are fashionable in a given time and place. Thus a man who is orthodox in England is heterodox in France, Spain and Italy, and vice versa. He who concerns himself about orthodoxy or unorthodoxy is little likely to arrive at truth, for he commits the sin of looking to man and to man's opinion, rather than to God, the only source of truth. With God there is no such thing as orthodoxy and heterodoxy; but there is truth and falsehood. And the true man is known, not by his creed, but by his acts.

Schism" means dividing" or "separating." Each religious body considers those who separate from it as "schismatics." Thus the Romanist brands the Anglican and all other Protestant sects as schismatical, and the Anglican, in his turn, ludicrous as it may seem, applies the same offensive term to all the Protestant dissenters. But we are not concerned with the sense which bigots may attach to the word.

Schism is not invariably wrong, nor yet is it always right. If a man separates himself from a religious body because his convictions are fundamentally different, he performs a sacred duty. On the other hand, if he deserts his coreligionists on account of some trifling divergence of opinion, he commits a sin, and injures the cause of truth so far as in him lies. He is not