CHAPTER VII
THE DAY OF NEW IDEAS
“Voices call us—whither? Ah! whither?”
It is doubtful business to ascribe new ideas to a whole people. For change of ideas is more gradual than change of manners. We may go on for a long time acting under one influence and thinking that we believe in another. But from all that has gone before, I think we may assume a change in the governing beliefs and sentiments of the nation greater than any change since the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the old faith gave way to the new and with the new faith came new courage, new arts, new enterprise, a new literature.
As to our religion, that has indeed changed. The Calvinist, the old Evangelical, lingers yet here and there, but he is comparatively rare; even in the narrower sects there has been a broadening influence at work. In the Anglican faith—the Church of England—which is apparently destined to absorb all other forms, we have agreed tacitly to talk no more about the salvation of our souls, neither to talk about it, nor to think about it; to believe ourselves to be one flock in one fold, with one shepherd. Whether this change conduces to the higher spiritual life, I cannot venture to affirm or to deny; I am no theologian. That the world has become, through this change, through the cessation of the awful question which formerly poisoned life, far, very far happier than it was, I do declare without hesitation and from my own personal knowledge and experience. There was no very high spiritual life, formerly, so far as I remember, among those who sought the hardest to limit the mercy of Heaven; they led the common life of the lower slopes, with trade in their minds and trade on their souls. There is no very high spiritual life under the changed conditions; still the common folk live the common life. Here and there among the clergy is found a Stanley; here and there among the crowd one lights upon a saint. Always there is the common life for the multitude; always there is the saintly life for the chosen few, whether the leader is St. Francis or Calvin, whether the head of the Church be the Pope, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, or John Wesley. Let us teach men and women to live well, with full consideration for each other—which is the most comprehensive virtue; the life which thinks of others is the happiest.
Photo by Russell & Sons
H.R.H. THE DUKE OF YORK
