CHAPTER VII. FREE SPEECH BECOMES ANNOYING.
As the next meeting of the Scripture Club was about to open, certain members noticed that Mr. Jodderel had taken a seat which would entitle him to be the first person called upon for an opinion, and that he was divesting his pockets of a large number of books, most of them in faded and unconventional bindings. The members glanced at each other in terror, and when the opening prayer was concluded, Mr. Radley promptly exclaimed:
"Mr. Leader, the New Testament contains eight thousand verses, lacking two. With occasional quadrennial exceptions, there are but fifty-two Sundays in a year. We have already consumed, on an average, two Sundays to a verse; at this rate we will need more than three hundred years to get through the New Testament. Certain chapters, like the first chapter of Matthew and the third chapter of Luke, may form exceptions; but as no man here can expect to live through much more than one-tenth of the time necessary to consider all the Gospels and Epistles, and as, even at the rate of a verse to a day, we would need to have our lives extended to several times the average longevity of mortals, I move that no single verse of Scripture shall be allowed to monopolize the attention of this class for more than one Sunday."
"I second the motion," said Mr. Alleman.
"Mr. Leader!" exclaimed Mr. Jodderel, "I object. We have spent two Sundays in considering the third beatitude, and we know no more about the whereabouts of the kingdom of heaven than when we began. If the proposed resolution takes effect now, and we find each verse of the Gospel as interesting as those already studied, no one knows how many of us may go from our deathbeds to the bar of God without knowing what to expect thereafter."
"And as God is only our Father, and the maker of the universe, and as we profess only to believe that he is wiser and more loving than any earthly parent, we daren't trust him to make the matter plain in the next world," observed Captain Maile.
"Question!" exclaimed every one who had perceived Mr. Jodderel's collection of books.
The question was put and carried, with but two dissenting voices, that of young Mr. Waggett being one of them. Then the Leader read the verse:
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled;" and he asked Mr. Jodderel to open the discussion. The gentleman addressed maintained a sulky silence for about two minutes, and finally remarked:
"This class seems bound to drift from spiritual interests to temporal ones. The discussion of the most important question suggested by revelation has been prevented by an almost unanimous vote, and now we are expected to consider righteousness—mere morality—and its rather dubious earthly reward. Filled? Why, certainly they will be filled. In this late day and age no man studies the moral law without learning more than his mind can hold. Righteousness is good; it is necessary; men need to learn about it, and others need to teach it, but it's an awful come-down for the great fact of a life beyond the grave."
"Certainly," said Captain Maile. "Righteousness is full of annoying little bothers about what ought to be done for other people, while the kingdom of heaven consists only of what is to be done for ourselves. The Bible is crammed full of these tormenting hints, and they always appear just when a man would rather think about something else; being given by divine command, though, as the majority of the class believe they are, I suppose they must be talked about in one way or another."
"They certainly should," said Broker Whilcher, who had been attracted to Mr. Jodderel's side by the array of books which that gentleman had begun to bring into line. "I have a sad reputation in point of orthodoxy, but what Captain Maile admits in sarcasm, I declare in the most solemn earnest. Morality is the order of things, and to a sinner like me, it seems to be a matter of prime importance. The interest which some of the members display in the nature of the kingdom of heaven is quite natural and proper; but how they propose to get there without morality, or, if they please, righteousness, is a puzzle to any man who reads the Bible and notices the importance attached to right conduct."
Deacon Bates promptly called President Lottson to the chair, took the floor himself, during an animated buzz by the class, and delivered with rapidity and emphasis the following speech:
"The method of reaching the better world, other than that of mere right doing, is rightly a matter of wonder to those who do not accept the inspired Word as a divinely designed and revealed plan for the salvation of sinful man. But if any of the good Book has binding force, all of it has; it stands or falls as a whole. We are informed by the apostle whose writings fill half of the New Testament, that 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin, which is death. For what the law'—that is, the law of righteousness—'for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' And again we are told—oh, blessed assurance to those who find the law of righteousness impossible to fulfill!—that 'Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.' And we are also told, by the Saviour himself, that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life.' The law cannot be fulfilled by man; we are all imperfect; even when we will to do right the flesh wars against the spirit, and ignorance hinders men of the best intentions from doing what they would do. No man can be saved through the law; excepting Jesus Christ, 'there is no other name under heaven whereby mankind can be saved.' I hope I have answered the gentleman's question in a manner distinct enough to be understood by him and such others here present to whom the Gospel plan of salvation is not as plain as it should be."
Deacon Bates resumed the chair, and Broker Whilcher replied:
"The explanation is perfectly satisfactory, as an answer to my question; but it seems to me rather strange that any one should be willing to enter without effort when everybody is plainly told the desires of the king and benefactor whom they expect to meet."
Builder Stott sat next, and hastened to the rescue of faith from a freethinker like Mr. Whilcher.
"Suppose we do right always," said he, "what does it amount to? Our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight, according to the inspired Word, and there's very little to hope for from anything so worthless. Nobody knows, even when he's doing his best, whether he is right or wrong. Even Satan sometimes appears as an angel of light. I can remember many a time when I've done what seemed to be exactly the right thing, and I not only went without any credit for it, but it seemed to make everything else go wrong. I begin to think the Lord knows his own business best, and that we can't meddle with it without getting into trouble."
"Getting into trouble is an excuse for not trying to do right, is it?" asked Captain Maile.
"No, it isn't," replied Mr. Stott quite testily; "but a man can do a great deal of trying without succeeding, and without finding what is the proper thing to do. If we always knew just what was right, we should never get into trouble."
"I should like to ask the gentleman if Christ, the apostles, and prophets never got into trouble?" said Mr. Alleman.
"I suppose they did," replied Mr. Stott, in visible embarrassment; "but—but that was divinely ordained for the benefit of sinful man."
"I should like also to ask if the gentleman considers the servant above his master, and free from responsibility for his conduct?"
"No, of course not," said Mr. Stott, "but——"
Mr. Stott's expression remained unfinished for so long a time that Mr. Buffle took pity upon him, and remarked:
"It seems to me that unless hungering and thirsting after righteousness is a special virtue, it would not have been brought into this small group of qualities for which special blessings are promised. If it is of so much consequence, we ought, in gratitude to God, to be anxious to learn just what righteousness is. What we are to get for practicing it isn't of so much consequence. And as there aren't many of us who have had so much reason to study the meaning of the word as our friend Judge Cottaway has, I think the class will be willing to waive the regular order of answering for once, and hear from the Judge his opinion of this important word."
Every one looked at the Judge, and Deacon Bates remarked that he would assume that Mr. Buffle expressed the sentiments of every one.
"Righteousness," said the Judge, with his regulation court-room air, "has but one meaning. Philologically, legally, morally, and spiritually it means right doing. Legally, righteousness consists in obeying the law, and, by implication, refraining from offending the law. Morally, it is the very highest attainment possible to man; in its fulfillment every ordinary duty of man toward man is accomplished. Spiritually, either under the old dispensation or the new, its range of application is increased and its nature strengthened and elevated. By no correct line of reasoning, nor by any honest interpretation of the letter and spirit of the Scriptures, can the imperative obligation of man to do righteousness be set aside. Because the term is frequently used as a synonym for piety, there is no excuse for substituting religious belief for it, for true piety must include righteousness, and has no foundation without it. The religious sentiment may suddenly take possession of a man who has previously been unrighteous; but it is reputable and valuable only so far as it induces its subject to attain, not only to negative righteousness, the refraining from misconduct, which the law holds to be sufficient, but also to that positive, active virtue, enjoined by all the inspired teachers, which shall make a man actively virtuous, and from higher motives than that of merely escaping penalties and gaining rewards. Christ himself said of the moral law that every jot and tittle of it should be fulfilled."
"And it was fulfilled, on the Cross, when he cried, 'It is finished,'" interrupted Builder Stott.
"That's so," said young Mr. Waggett, now thoroughly aroused. "If it hadn't been, we never could have been saved."
"If the gentlemen really infer from Christ's last words that he meant to set aside the moral law," resumed Judge Cottaway, "the Church has been making a sad blunder during the twenty centuries which have followed the scene on Calvary. During all these years, she has been a teacher of morality; she has restrained, sometimes by persuasion, oftener by authority, sometimes by mistaken methods, sometimes in too lukewarm a manner, the baser passions of mankind, and encouraged the nobler qualities. In legal righteousness, the ancient Romans surpassed the world, and gave the models of all codes in operation to-day in the civilized world. And yet righteousness among the Romans, while wise, was often vindictive, and always wholly selfish. The smallest, most ignorant community in our neighborhood to-day has a higher, purer conception and practice of morality than the central city of the world had in the time of Christ, and though it is not under the special direction of the Church, its growth can be traced back to no other source."
"I've often heard," said Mr. Jodderel, "that so an Episcopalian admits the authority and divine origin of his Church, he can believe anything he pleases, and the address we have just listened to convinces me that the statement is true. Why, gentlemen, while nobody has a higher respect for Judge Cottaway's character and attainments than I have, it seems to me that he isn't much different from a Unitarian or any other freethinker that imagines he has some hold upon religion. Why, gentlemen, what's the good of Christ having lived and died at all, if we're still in bondage under the law? I don't mean that we're not to do right when we can—I want to do right as much as any man ever did—but if I've got to be bothered about all the little points that the Scribes and Pharisees fussed over, I don't see how much better off I am than they were."
"The gentleman is better off, as he expresses it," said the Judge, "because he has the benefit of the clearer light which Christ shed upon the law, and because through the life and death of Christ he has incentives to that love for the Source of all goodness which enables a man to overcome difficulties which, to the merely selfish moralist, are utterly insurmountable. It is thus that love becomes the fulfillment of the law, for it enables the weakest man to overcome his worst inclinations."
"What becomes, then, of the doctrine of justification by faith—the corner-stone of all Protestantism?" asked President Lottson.
"It remains as strong as ever," answered the Judge. "All are forgiven, our misdeeds committed in ignorance, when—mark the condition—when we are honest in intention and effort. 'The just'—the righteous, that is, those who do right to the best of their knowledge—'shall live by faith.' I would remind the gentleman that Christian theology, of every school, is based principally upon the principles laid down by that masterly jurist, the Apostle Paul, and that he makes of faith not the master but the subordinate of love. 'And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.'"
"You can't go back on Paul," remarked Squire Woodhouse, "but it's often seemed to me that religious people treat Paul a great deal as the boys treat my orchard; they steal the apples they like the looks of best, but the best I've got are really the least handsome, and I generally have the full crop to myself."
Some one reminded the Leader that it was one o'clock, and the class arose.
"I'm going into Humbletop's class after this," said Builder Stott to President Lottson. "I was a little doubtful when this class was started whether it wouldn't sooner or later run things into the ground, and now it has done it. Cottaway is a dangerous man, for all his knowledge and squareness. There are men here, members of our Church, that'll be as likely as not to swallow all that he said, and then what'll their faith amount to? I say that if any such nonsense gets a hold in this church it ought to be made a matter of discipline."
"I think I shall remain with the class," said President Lottson. "There is a great deal of what is said here that I can't approve of, but that is all the more reason that somebody with a cool head and quick wits should be on hand to prevent the orthodox faith from going to ruin."
"I was very much interested in your remarks," said Broker Whilcher to the Judge. "Matthew Arnold has put forth some of the same views."
"I am glad to hear it," replied the Judge. "They will save him from drifting into vacuity, and they will convince his readers of his honesty of purpose. I wish only that I could believe that such views had as strong a hold upon the Church as they have upon the outside world. Verily, Christ never spoke a truer saying than that 'a man's foes shall be they of his own household.'"