The Chapel on the Hill

Transcribed from the 1904 Deighton Bell & Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
ALFRED PRETOR
FELLOW OF ST. CATHARINE’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE AUTHOR OF ‘RONALD AND I’
“Some falls are means the happier to arise.” — Cymbeline , iv. 2 ad fin
CAMBRIDGE DEIGHTON BELL & CO. LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1904
CAMBRIDGE PRINTED BY JONATHAN PALMER ALEXANDRA STREET
To the memory of ‘ Judy ’ ( Ob. Aug. 27 , 1904 )
“A soul she had on earth.” —Byron. “The more I learn to know man, the better I like dogs.” —German Philosopher.
To those , I think a lessening number , who may find themselves at variance with “ my Rector’s ” theology , I tender the following quotation from one of the ablest and deepest thinkers of the past century :
“If, instead of the ‘glad tidings’ that there exists a Being in whom all the excellences which the highest human mind can conceive exist in a degree inconceivable to us, I am informed that the world is ruled by a Being whose attributes are infinite, but what they are we cannot learn, nor what are the principles of his government, except that ‘the highest human morality which we are capable of conceiving’ does not sanction them; convince me of it, and I will bear my fate as I may. But when I am told that I must believe this, and at the same time call this Being by the names which express and affirm the highest human morality, I say in plain terms I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow-creatures.”—J. S. Mill, Examination of Sir W. Hamilton’s Philosophy , pp. 102, 103 (Criticism of Mansel).
I have omitted from the above the author’s peroration , which is couched in language too strong to suit the taste of the present generation .
That the Bible is our one and only true guide , we believe ; but we are nowhere instructed to make an idol and a fetish of the form in which it is presented . It was written to suit all times ; we must read it in the language of to-day .