No Refuge but in Truth

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of No Refuge but in Truth, by Goldwin SmithThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.orgTitle: No Refuge but in TruthAuthor: Goldwin SmithRelease Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #19567]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO REFUGE BUT IN TRUTH ***Produced by Al HainesNO REFUGE BUT IN TRUTHBYGOLDWIN SMITHTORONTOWM. TYRRELL & COMPANY1908COPYRIGHT, 1907-1908BY THESUN PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANYCOPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1906BYGOLDWIN SMITHCONTENTS.PREFACE. I. Man and His Destiny II. New Faith Linked with Old III. The Scope of Evolution IV. The Limit of Evolution V. Explanations VI. The Immortality of the Soul VII. Is there to be a Revolution in Ethics?The Religious Situation[Transcriber's note: Because "The Religious Situation" had its own title and verso page, it was split into a separate e-book.]PREFACE.The letters collected in this volume appeared, with others, in the New York Sun, to the Editor of which the thanks of thewriter for his courtesy are due.Appended is a paper on the same subjects commenting on one by the late Mr. Chamberlain, since published in theNorth American Review. To the Editor of the North American Review also the writer's acknowledgments are due.There appeared to ...

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NO REFUGE BUT INHTURTYBGOLDWIN SMITH

TORONTO .MW8091TYRRELL &OCMNAPY

CONTENTS.PREFACE. I. Man and His Destiny II. New Faith Linked with Old IIIIV. . TThhee SLciompite oof f EEvvoolulutitoionn V. Explanations VI. The Immortality of the Soul VII. Is there to be a Revolution in Ethics?The Religious Situation[Transcriber's note: Because "The ReligiousSituation" had its own title and verso page, it wassplit into a separate e-book.]

PREFACE.The letters collected in this volume appeared, withothers, in the New York Sun, to the Editor of whichthe thanks of the writer for his courtesy are due.Appended is a paper on the same subjectscommenting on one by the late Mr. Chamberlain,since published in the North American Review. Tothe Editor of the North American Review also thewriter's acknowledgments are due.There appeared to be sufficient interest in thediscussion to call for the publication of a smalledition.The age calls for religious truth. Nine thousandpersons communicated their cravings to the Editorof the London Daily Telegraph. By their side thepresent writer places himself, not a teacher, but aninquirer, seeking for truth and open to conviction.The position of the clergy, especially where testsare stringent, calls for our utmost consideration.But I submit that it would not be improved by anyattempt, such as seems to be made in a work ofgreat ability before me, to merge the theological inthe social question. Benevolence may still be farbelow the Gospel mark, and the Christian faith maysuffer from its default. But the increase of it andthe multiplication of its monuments since the worldhas been comparatively at peace cannot bedenied; while of the distress which still calls for an

denied; while of the distress which still calls for anincrease of Christian effort, not the whole is due todefault on the part of the wealthier classes.Idleness, vice, intemperance, improvidentmarriage, play their part. Let us not be led awayupon a false issue.There is nothing for it but truth.

.IMAN, AND HIS DESTINY.Time has passed since I first sought access to thecolumns of The Sun, ranging myself with the ninethousand who in an English journal had craved forreligious light. The movement which caused thatcraving has gone on. The Churches show theirsense of it. Even in that of Rome there is a growthof "Modernism," as it is called by the Pope, who,having lost his mediaeval preservatives of unity,strives to quell Modernism by denunciation.Anglicanism resorts to a grand pageant ofuniformity, beneath which, however, lurk Anglo-Catholicism, Evangelicism, and Liberalism, by nomeans uniform in faith. The Protestant Churchesproper, their spirit being more emotional, feel thedoctrinal movement less. But they are notunmoved, as they show by relaxation of tests andinclination to informal if not formal union, as well asby increasing the aesthetic and social attractions oftheir cult. Wild theosophic sects are born and die.But marked is the increase of scepticism, avowedand unavowed. It advances probably everywhere inthe track of physical science. We are confrontedwith the vital question what the world would bewithout religion, without trust in Providence, withouthope or fear of a hereafter. Social order isthreatened. Classes which have hithertoacquiesced in their lot, believing that it was a divine

ordinance and that there would be redress andrecompense in a future state, are now demandingthat conditions shall be levelled here. The nationsquake with fear of change. The leaders ofhumanity, some think, may even find it necessaryto make up by an increase of the powers ofgovernment for the lost influence of religion.Belief in the Bible as inspired and God's revelationof himself to man seems hardly to linger in well-informed and open minds. Criticism, history, andscience have conspired to put an end to it. Theauthorship of the greater part, including the mostimportant books, is unknown. The morality of theOld Testament differs from that of the New, andthough in advance of the world generally in thosedays, in more places than one, as in the case ofthe slaughter of the Canaanites, shocks us now.There are errors, too, in the Old Testament of aphysical kind, such as those in the account ofcreation and the belief in the revolution of the sun.Of the New Testament the most important books,the first three Gospels, our main authorities for thelife of Christ, are manifestly grafts upon a stock ofunknown authorship and date. They betray a beliefin diabolical possession, a local superstition fromwhich the author of the Fourth Gospel, whoevidently was not a Palestinian Jew, was free.There is discrepancy between the first threeGospels and the fourth, notably as to the day andconsequent significance of Christ's celebration ofthe Passover. It is incredible that God in revealinghimself to man should have allowed any mark ofhuman error to appear in the revelation.

We have, moreover, to ask why that on which theworld's salvation depended should have beenwithheld so long and communicated to so few.There remains of the Old Testament, besides itsvast historical interest, much that morally stillimpresses and exalts us. Of the New Testamentthere remains the moral ideal of Christ, our faith inwhich no uncertainty as to the authors of thenarratives, or mistrust of them on account of themiraculous embellishment common in biographiesof saints, need materially affect. The moral ideal ofChrist conquered the ancient world when theRoman, mighty in character as well as in arms,was its master. It has lived through all thesecenturies, all their revolutions and convulsions, theusurpation, tyranny, and scandals of the Papacy.The most doubtful point of it, considered as apermanent exemplar, is its tendency, not toasceticism, for Christ came "eating and drinking,"but to an excessive preference for poverty andantipathy to wealth which would arrest humanprogress and kill civilization. We have, however, aNicodemus and a Joseph of Arimathea, as well asa Dives and a Lazarus. Nothing points to a SimeonStylites. Self-denial, though not asceticism proper,is a necessary part of the life of a wanderingpreacher, which also precluded the exhibition ofdomestic virtues. The relation of Jesus with hisfamily seems to have been hardly domestic; wehave no record of any communication between himand Joseph; in his last hour he provides a retreatfor his mother.

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