242 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



involves this principle, and that in its interior heart 

 the Method of Authority is fatally in conflict with 

 the spirit of Christ. 



In making this assertion, I do not mean, of course, 

 that the principle of Authority has not, as a matter 

 of history, been compatible with some of the teach- 

 ings and something of the spirit of the great 

 Founder. To mean this, would amount to saying 

 that the great bulk of the historical Christian body, 

 whether Greek or Romanist or Protestant, has al- 

 ways been entirely false to the spirit of its Lord ; 

 and this no man of impartial or intelligent judgment 

 could affirm. But what I do mean is, that wherever 

 the principle of Authority has entered and operated 

 in historic Christianity, it has interfered with the 

 free expression and development of that teaching 

 and spirit which is most specifically characteristic 

 of Jesus when his mind and work are viewed, as 

 they must be, in the light of the comparative his- 

 tory of religious thought. I mean that so far as the 

 various Christian bodies which adhere to the prin- 

 ciple of Authority have succeeded in displaying the 

 spirit of Christ, and unconsciously keeping its inmost 

 secret still alive in the world, they have done so, 

 not because of the doctrine of Authority, but in 

 spite of it, — such inward vitality, so kindred with 

 the interior life of humanity, as this advances along 

 the pathway of civilisation, has that central insight, 



