Eernew of Revieir^, SO/Sj'JO 



Leading Articles, 



-97 



AN AGNOSTIC'S PROGRESS. 



From Darwin to Christ. 

 Mr. W. Scott Palmer concludes, in the February 



Conteniporary Rcvicic. the story of his .spiritual pil- 

 grim s progress froni Acmosticism ti> th<' Chri.-^tian 

 faith. 



PANTHEISM IX CHRISTIANITY. 



In the second and concluding paper on his pro- 

 gress he tells us how he discovered the trlement oi 

 Pantheism in Christianity: — 



I disjtovered it in the service of Benediction at the Ora- 

 tory in Broiupton-road I might liave included in the 

 catalogue of my shining Epiphany stars that unforgotten 

 afternoon. 



I remember vividly the profound emotion with which I 

 saw at last a great gathering of pilgrims worshipping, as 

 in my queer but honest way I worshipped, and acknow- 

 ledging — it seemed — as I acknowledged, the oneness of 

 spirit and matter, the imrae<i8urable greatness that pene- 

 trated and included the very least, the infinite issuing 

 through the finite, the 9U)irenie source reflected in the 

 image, God comiTig to man through the little things being 

 made, i saw all this in a people prosti-atie as I was pros- 

 trate, before an everyday material thing. 



And afterwards I felt more lonely than ever. Here was 

 a multitude at o7ie with me, yet divided from me by a 

 huge dogmatic structure with which I could not away — or 

 ■eo I thought 



Was there anywhere, I asked myself, a religion making 

 it " possible to escape." as Edward Caird says. " the oppo- 

 «ite absurdities of an Ituhi-idiuili.^m which dissolves the 

 unity of the universe into atoms, and an abstract Monism 

 which leaves no room for any real individuality either in 

 ■God or in man?" 



HOW " LUX MUXDI • HELPED HIM. 



He goes on to tell us that for some time he 

 sought in vain. But at last Mr. Aubrey Moore's 

 essay on ' Lux Mundi " brought him to what he 

 sought. He says : — 



I was set on the way to it by another book, for long aji 

 occupant of my pilgrim-sack and still now and then 

 packed in it for gome special use. This new book was 

 " Lux Mundi." Aubrey ^loore first showed me that I might 

 find in the Christian religion a beauty, even a philo- 

 sophic, reasonable beautj'. which I could not find else- 

 where. His essay on "The Christian Doctrine of God" 

 tore a veil from my eyes. I have learnt many things since 

 then, but I still see in " Lux Mundi " my first discovery of 

 Christian truth, and of a harmony of opposites in the 

 Christian religion there and there only. I discovered then 

 that St. Paul was an Evolutionist ami Christianity evolu- 

 tionary, and I knew that without evolutioti all religion 

 ■was .-i vaiTi thing. 1 discovered that n)v first book, which 

 had begun the unfolding of my soul, had been . sorely 

 needed to send Christians back to Christ and His .Vpostles. 

 I discovered that the current concejition of Christianity in 

 the si.xties and seventies was so blighting to n>e. onl.%- be- 

 cause it had Tiot recognised fully the light of the divine 

 reason shining an)oiig men. There was good historical 

 cause for this; it is easy to explain it now. 



HOW DAHWIX I.ED TO CHRIST. 



Mr. Palmer says that it was the dynamic concep- 

 tion that came to him with Darwin's book which .set 

 him on the road. The unfolding of his soul had 

 been, at least, on the intellectual side so far, and in 

 the main an unfolding of the idea of man. But the 

 idea suggested further developments: — 



I should think 'The Origin" a broken fragment if I 

 cf>uld not see that when it shows how man sums up iii him- 

 self the stuff and story of earth and earthly life, he js btit 

 pointing to a large summing-up beyond, a summing-up of 

 which philosophy and psychology have given me glimpses, 

 but which only the God-Man can possibly complete Is it 

 prejudice on niv nart that makes me look so ardently for 

 oneness in life; for a divine humanity, as well as for a 

 Iiuman animal? If there l.c :i living God He must l.e one 



with man, or He is no God for man. Is there anywhere 

 except in the Christian order a way of seeing all life as 

 one, and yet preserving the true, reasonable life of each? 

 la there anywhere, except in the Christian order, a way of 

 seeing God and iian as one. and yet preserving the self- 

 conscious, self-determining life of both? 



I have found no other order of thought in which these 

 great demands are met: ami sn I find myself more at home 

 with this — the Christian order, philosophy, scheme of doc- 

 trine -Hnd fact — than I ever found myself elsewhere. 



Sport as the British Bushidu. 



Mr. C. B. Fry, who tends with priestly devotion 

 the cult of sportsmanship considered as a branch 

 of the higher ethics, draws in his JLagazine for Feb- 

 ruary a parallel which is wonderfully illuminative. 

 So much of our vocabulary of lut^taphor is drawn 

 from the commercial sphere that it is positively re- 

 freshing to be reminded, as Mr. C. B. Fry has re- 

 minded us, of the ethical metaphors which English- 

 men have drawn from sport. Among these figures 

 of speech derived from sportsmanship, he has re- 

 marked upon the national love of " fair play " ; 

 our disapprobation of conduct that is •" nut cricket " ; 

 our moral insistence on " Play up, play up, and play 

 the game."' In his magazine he says: — 



Sportsmanship, properly uiulerstood, is something very 

 potent and very real. In descriliing the <ode of ethical 

 ideals ajid of nra*tical precept of the Samurai, known as 

 Bushido, a Japanese writer says: "To be a Samurai in 

 the true sense of the word has been the highest aspiration 

 of a Japanese. Your term, "gentleman." when understood 

 in its best sense, would convey to you an approximate 

 idea, if you added a dash of soldier blood in it. Recti- 

 tude, courage, benevolence, portenese. veracity, loyalty — 

 these make the ideal Samurai; and his list of desirable 

 finalities is not considered complete without a well-de- 

 veloped body and military skill. To have good sense 

 enough to keep his name honourable, to act instead of 

 talking cleverly, was the chief ambition of a Samurai." 

 In a word, the true ' sportsman " is not very far from 

 being an English equivalent of the follower of Bushido. 

 Sportsmanship implies the active i>ursuit of field sports, or, 

 at any rate, a liking for them: but its i-cal import con- 

 cerns, first and foremost, an attitude of mind towards all 

 pursuits, a code of feeling and of conduct. 



In these days, when our popular pastimes are accused — 

 wrongfully, but not without apparent reason — of being 

 wholly given over to professionalism, when even firat-clasB 

 cricket is by many regarded as chiefly n- matter of gate- 

 money, we may well pause and consider whether the basis 

 of true sportsmanship, upon which all games should be 

 founded, is not in need, to say the least, of some rein- 

 forcement. 



It may appear fanciful, but I do not think it really is 

 so. to suggest that the establishment of rifle shooting, with 

 its inalienable tinge of active patriotism, ;i8 a national 

 pastime, and the co-operation of our great games clubs to 

 that end. would bring into the atmosphere of our field 

 snorts .a freshening breeze of undeniable sportsmanship. 

 Nay, more, it would to some extent bring sportsmanship, 

 the active participation in games ;ind field .sports, and 

 tlie proper spirit of such participation, even nearer than 

 at present to the splendid code of the Samurai. 



The Century for February is the mid-winter fic- 

 tion number. Of the more serious articles, that by 

 \V. S. Harwood. on fighting bug by bug, or saving 

 California's fruit crops by introducing an insect fcK- 

 to the destructive insect, is worthy of mention, 

 and this I have noted at length elsewhere. Per- 

 haps the most striking feature is the .series of 

 portraits of Keats, chiefly those by Severn. Charles 

 A. Proutv pleads that some Governmental body be 

 empowered to fix the railway charges, and so end 

 the present concentration of monopoly. 



