242 AGNOSTICISM vn 



worst forms of Christianity are of great practical 

 advantage to them. What deductions must be 

 made from this gain on the score of the harm done 

 to the citizen by the ascetic other-worldliness of 

 logical Christianity ; to the ruler, by the hatred, 

 malice, and all. uncharitableness of sectarian 

 bigotry ; to the legislator, by the spirit of exclu- 

 siveness and domination of those that count them- 

 selves pillars of orthodoxy ; to the philosopher, by 

 the restraints on the freedom of learning and 

 teaching which every Church exercises, when it is 

 strong enough ; to the conscientious soul, by the 

 introspective hunting after sins of the mint and 

 cummin type, the fear of theological error, and the 

 overpowering terror of possible damnation, which 

 have accompanied the Churches like their shadow, 

 I need not now consider ; but they are assuredly 

 not small. If agnostics lose heavily on the one 

 side, they gain a good deal on the other. People 

 who talk about the t comforts of belief appear to 

 forget its discomforts ; they ignore the fact that 

 the Christianity of the Churches is something 

 more than faith in the ideal personality of Jesus, 

 which they create for themselves, plus so much as 

 can be carried into practice, without disorganising 

 civil society, of the maxims of the Sermon on the 

 Mount. Trip in morals or in doctrine (especially in 

 doctrine), without due repentance or retractation, 

 or fail to get properly baptized before you die, and 

 a plebiscite of the Christians of Europe, if they 



