(1877.)

walking along the strand and fleet street and through the heart of the city, noting the churches on the way—high st. martin’s, st. mary-le-strand, st. clement danes, the cathedral, and the many still left wedged in by offices in the narrowest and busiest streets, or lanes of london—i am always reminded of the old wooden ships laid up “in ordinary,” as one sees them at plymouth and portsmouth, and elsewhere. the churches, like the ships, though not so surely, may have done good service in their time; but their day is past, never to return. when we reflect on the subject, however, we find manifold differences between the state of the churches and that of the ships. these are dismantled, unrigged and dismasted, passive white hulls ghostly on the waters, as it were the phantoms of the old swift-winged and thunder-striking eagles of battle. but the churches remain in all their pride, complete in equipment from lowest vault to topmost spire, even those which are shut silent all the week, without the least pretence of use, and in which on sunday the droning and drowsy worship of a meagre congregation “rattles like a withered kernel in a large shell.” again, the crews of the ships were discharged as soon as these were put out of commission, while the full crews of the churches, rectors, vicars, ushers, beadles, are kept on at full pay, and saunter through the old exercises and parades as if they were valiant effectives instead of dummies and shams. and this death-in-life of the churches is more dreary and doleful than the naked death of the ships.

these churches officially and effetely represent what is called the english reformation, the most ignoble in europe; which, as macaulay remarks, merely transferred the full cup from the hand of the pope to the hand of the king, spilling as little,as possible by the way. it is true that the state church thus established, in spite of its illogical position, boasted great men in its early days, inspired by patriotism as against rome, with abounding faith for the mysteries, with firm belief in the bible, with full confidence in metaphysical divinity. but now rome is formidable no longer, the mysteries are seen to be not only incomprehensible but self-contradictory, the bible has been torn asunder by criticism, metaphysical divinity has been proved baseless; all the best thought of the age abandons the church and disregards its dogmas; it has great men no more, nor ever again will have. its general character is well hit off by ruskin, himself a devoted christian, in the phrase “the smooth proprieties of lowland protestantism.”’ it may be worth while to quote a little more from him on this subject (“modern painters,” part v., chap. 20, “the mountain glory”)—“but still the large aspect of the matter is always, among protestants, that formalism, respectability, orthodoxy, caution and propriety, live by the slow stream that encircles the lowland abbey or cathedral; and that enthusiasm, poverty, vital faith and audacity of conduct, characterise the pastor dwelling by the torrent side.” and again: “among the fair arable lands of england and belgium extends an orthodox protestantism or catholicism—prosperous, creditable and drowsy; but it is among the purple moors of the highland border, the ravines of mount genévre, and the crags of the tyrol, that we shall find the simplest evangelical faith and the purest romanist practice.” in other words, in religion the highlander is enthusiastic and superstitious, the low-lander lukewarm and worldly. thus our fat english church still keeps to the text, “by grace ye are saved;” but its grace now is chiefly of deportment. it boasts that its clergy are gentlemen; and they may be, as a rule, in society, though we unbelievers seldom find them so in controversy; and it seems to be persuaded that we should continue to allow it several million pounds a year to keep up this supply of gentlemen, when every profession, every trade shows gentlemen quite as good, with the advantages of more intellect, more experience of life, more courage and more sincerity.

there is indeed a section of the clergy full of zeal—to restore the priesthood. how some of these gentlemen compound with their consciences in taking english pay and position for doing romish work, is a standing puzzle to honest laymen untrained in casuistry. but as they do rank themselves among the parsons of our state church, their ecclesiastical pretensions are even more ludicrous than they are outrageously arrogant. for ever preaching up the authority and discipline of the church, they are the first to rebel against it when it does not suit their whims. thus mr. tooth, of hatcham, not only defies an act of parliament, but also defies his bishop, and has plenty of abettors in doing both. i read in the daily news: “two of mr. tooth’s supporters, whose letters we have published, insist that the public worship regulation act is not law and is not binding on churchmen, because it has never received the sanction of convocation”—the said convocation having about as much influence and authority in the country as a tavern discussion society.

again: “one writer talks of the church having been declared to be free from all civil jurisdiction in spiritual affairs by many successive sovereigns. we did not know that our sovereigns had a right to make laws by royal declarations, [and] not merely for their own time, but for all time. according to these principles of constitutional government we have three rival law-making powers in england—the parliament, with the sovereign for one; the declaration of the sovereign for another; and convocation for a third. of these parliament would seem to be the weakest, for it cannot negative the proceedings of the other two; but either of these two can declare invalid what it has done.” can anything be more absurd? here is a state church established by parliament with the sanction of the monarch, endowed with national endowments, liable to be disestablished and disendowed by parliament with the sanction of the monarch; yet many of its ministers claim to be free from the authority of the state and parliament to which it owes its existence and subsistence! if they really desire such freedom, they can easily obtain it. they have but to sever their adulterous connexion with the state, restoring to the nation the endowments they have so long misused, and they will then be emancipated from all control, at liberty to teach what doctrines and practise what ritual they please. but these super-spiritual clergy keep a desperate clutch on the revenues. if anything could be more absurd than the defiance of parliament, it would be the defiance of their ecclesiastical superiors by these champions of absolute ecclesiastical subordination. his bishop inhibits mr. tooth, mr. tooth coolly disregards the inhibition, and one who sympathises with him calmly writes to the daily news? “considering how bishops have been appointed since the reformation, it is hard to see why mr. tooth and your correspondents should even pretend to obey them.” this is frightful, and may well make even the hardened sceptic shudder. what! a genuine successor of the apostles (else the english church has no genuine priesthood) chosen by the holy ghost itself (in obedience to the recommendation of the king or queen) against his own humble wish (for he declared nolo episcopari); and english churchmen need not even pretend to obey him! such is the subordination of those who maintain the extreme authority of the church!

jesus has told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and the house of our state church is divided against itself most savagely. but as the factions, while opposed to each other in all else, thoroughly agree in adhering to their endowments and privileges, and with this object shore up and buttress the edifice whose fall would be otherwise imminent, it behoves us to exert ourselves in bringing to the ground as speedily as possible the unsure and dangerous building, and diverting the immense funds misemployed in sustaining its uselessness to the real edification of the people. for as materially the church of st. mary is planted silent, void and death-like in the midst of the living currents of the strand, obstructing and breaking the broad stream into two narrow arms, so intellectually and morally, in whatever channel our active life may flow, we find a similar obstacle, and in all directions we meet one cry—“the church stops the way.”

but when we have removed the obstacle, when we have blasted it as the americans recently blasted that other rock of hell-gate, clearing the entrance to new york’s noble harbor, we shall find another and a more inveterate obstacle fronting us—a book. a book seems but a slight thing to bar the way; but multiplied by millions and millions, and desperately defended as divine and infallible by legions of zealots, it constitutes a far more formidable barricade than the stoutest church of stone. the various sects of nonconformists, who all join with us in attacking the state church, will all join the churchmen to maintain against us their common fetish, the bible. regarding this as a human production, there is much of it which we highly esteem; but regarded as the word of god, it works far more evil than good, and the evil is ever increasing while the good decreases; for the revelations of science grow ever more clear, and men must more and more strain their consciences and sophisticate their intellects in order to believe that they believe in the super-human character of the book which reason and science show to be so thoroughly human. we are told by men whom we respect that, considered historically, christianity and the other great religions merit better treatment than we are wont to accord them. certainly they merit better treatment than is accorded them by those who crudely brand them all alike, in all their doctrines and legends and ritual, as the mere inventions of priestcraft fostered by kingcraft and statecraft. but we are far from committing ourselves to such an impeachment, not less monstrous than the most monstrous superstition it assails. we freely recognise the naturalness of these religions in the past, their genuine consonance with the communities wherein they arose and prevailed; the sincerity and truth and nobleness formulated, however erroneously, in many of their dogmas, embodied, however imperfectly, in many of their myths; but we see that their day is gone by; we cannot allow the past, which was the real childhood and youth of mankind, to dominate the present, which is its riper age; we discern that the errors of the dogmas and the fiction of the myths are now so obvious and incontestable that to revere them as faultless and authentic is a gross self-delusion. when we say—“the tree is dead; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?” we do not imply that it never bore good fruit. on the other hand, when we admit that it once bore good fruit, we do not imply that it is not now dead and an encumbrance to the ground. it is precisely because we do consider these old faiths historically, because we fully recognise their early efficiency and vigor, that we can thoroughly realise their decrepitude and dissolution. and taking western christianity in particular, both the roman embodied in mary and the protestant embodied in jesus, we affirm that it has no longer real life, but only the “ghastly affectation of life.” reason and science have disembowelled it, have removed its heart and its brain. it is ready for the historical embalmer. its great part in the drama of human life is played out; it is still kept above ground, its life still asserted, because large numbers would lose much by the frank acknowledgement of its decease, and other large numbers who cannot bring themselves to face the fact of its death, persist in hoping against hope that the lifelessness is hut a swoon or a cataleptic fit, from which it will yet awaken with renewed strength. we, however, dare to see what we cannot help seeing, we venture to avow the fact which is beyond fair dispute. doubtless the living man did brave work in his time; but shall we therefore bow down worshipping his mummy, and keep it from its sepulchre, and continue to allot immense revenues to his army of servitors who have now no service to render? no; the sooner we bury the corpse and send the servitors about their business the better for us and for them.

thus far i think all secularists will go with me. but for many, perhaps the majority of us, who are not only secularists, but republicans, there is a third great obstacle, the throne, which is now little else than a costly sham. yet, sham as it is, it is still strong to obstruct, being encompassed and fortified by the power of the nobles, the power of the clergy, the power of the wealthy, the degraded and degrading snobbishness of the middle and lower middle classes. the artisans and laborers generally, as we know, care nothing for it or are distinctly hostile. we have had some great monarchs, though the greatest we ever had was crown-less, and we can yield to monarchy in the past something of such historical respect as we yield to christianity. but who that is not a very serf by nature can feel any genuine respect for monarchy as we have it in these days? when the main duty of the king or queen is to countersign the decrees of parliament; a duty which the lord chancellor or the speaker could perform just as well and with more promptitude. one need not dwell on the character of the reigning house, which, brought ignobly to the throne, has been consistently ignoble from the first until the accession of her present most gracious majesty. a much nobler royal family would be just as superfluous now as the present we have outgrown the need of a paternal or guardian king. nor is the question of principle really affected by the fact that this ignoble family, like other species of the lower animals, is excessively prolific, and that every prince or princess born of it, costs us several thousands a year. we should not grudge the money for service rendered; the gravamen of our impeachment is that no monarch now can render service of value. the effective energy of our monarchy in these days is well symbolised in the procedure at the opening of parliament—royal carriages without royal occupants; royal life-guards with no royal life to guard; a royal robe spread on a vacant throne; the lord chancellor reading a royal speech composed by responsible ministers. her majesty during fourteen long years has been doing her best to teach us how well we can get on without a monarch, and how stupid we are therefore to keep one at a great expense. we may find something venerable in the throne when put aside and conserved simply as a curious relic of the past; we find it merely absurd while retained for useless use, a pretentious seat with no one to sit in it. as théophile says: “si rien nest plus beau que l’antique, est plus laid que le suranné.”