240 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [x. 



The Bishop of Brechin said well the other day: 

 "Liberality in religion I do not mean tender and 

 generous allowances for the mistakes of others is only 

 unfaithfulness to truth/' 1 And, with the same qualifi- 

 cation, I venture to paraphrase the Bishop's dictum : 

 " Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to 

 truth." 



Elijah's great question, " Will you serve God or Baal ? 

 Choose ye," is uttered audibly enough in the ears of 

 every one of us as we come to manhood. Let every man 

 who tries to answer it seriously, ask himself whether he 

 can be satisfied with the Baal of authority, and with all 

 the good things his worshippers are promised in this 

 world and the next. If he can, let him, if he be so 

 inclined, amuse himself with such scientific implements 

 as authority tells him are safe and will not cut his 

 fingers ; but let him not imagine he is, or can be, both 

 a true son of the Church and a loyal soldier of science. 



And, on the other hand, if the blind acceptance of 

 authority appears to him in its true colours, as mere, 

 private judgment in excelsis, and if he have the cou- 

 rage to stand alone, face to face with the abyss of the 

 Eternal and Unknowable, let him be content, once for 

 all, not only to renounce the good things promised by 

 " Infallibility," but even to bear the bad things which 

 it prophesies; content to follow reason and fact in 

 singleness and honesty of purpose, wherever they may 

 lead, in the sure faith that a hell of honest men will, 

 to him, be more endurable than a paradise full of 

 angelic shams. 



Mr. Mivart asserts that " without a belief in a personal 

 God, there is no religion worthy of the name/' This is 

 a matter of opinion. But it may be asserted, with less 

 reason to fear contradiction, that the worship of a 



1 Charge at the Diocesan Synod of Brechin. Scotsman, Sept. 14, 1871. 



