I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
E. Meyrick Goulburn, D.D.
Dean of Norwich.
The Deanery, Norwich, February 7th, 1871.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Norwich, Feb. 13th, 1871.
Rev. Sir,—I received with extreme pleasure your circular letter of 7th inst., relating to, and defining the objects of the Discourses intended to be delivered next month in the Cathedral, by the Bishop of Peterborough, and I am induced to reply to it by the conviction that great good may result from “the scheme,” if you can be induced to modify it in some particulars.
The circular states that the Discourses are to be “directed against modern forms of infidelity,” and have for their object the “vindication and establishment of the Christian faith,” but I assume your ultimate object is the vindication and establishment of truth—no matter what the truth may be. If my assumption be correct, I heartily sympathise with your object, and as a Sceptic or Infidel, will co-operate with my Christian brethren if permitted.
May I call your attention to a practical difficulty in the way of the scheme, which I fear you have not sufficiently considered? In the present state of opinion, or rather in the absence of real opinion, on these subjects, Sceptics or Infidels cannot always insure the attention of Christian hearers, or of persons indifferent to the subject of their discourses, but these and not the confirmed Infidels, are the persons the zealous Sceptic most desires to reach. I imagine your difficulty is the same. You want to get at the mighty mass who know and care nothing about these questions, and also at the Infidel whose opinions you deem so mischievous. The fact is, the great mass and the Infidel are not likely to attend unless their attention be in some manner especially drawn to the Discourses, but you will probably have a large congregation of believing Christians, whose faith may be confirmed, but yet who do not hold opinions you wish to change.
I beg to suggest a mode by which I think the difficulty may be removed, and an interest created that will be useful to the cause of truth—to Christian truth, if Christianity be true—but to truth, whether Christianity be true or false.
I intend to invite to Norwich some person who shall be well known as a representative exponent “of modern forms of Infidelity,” and request him to deliver a course of lectures at about the same time, and on the same subject as that chosen by the Bishop of Peterborough, and if you think it would be useful to give the public the opportunity of reading as well as hearing the discourses, both expositions of the subject might be published together, and more extensively circulated and read, in consequence of the greater interest that would be thus created.