252 REV. W. R. INGE, D.D., ON FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE. 



mankind's life in time, is merely to make it explicit, to mifurl 

 the scroll on which the law of God is written. Hence we see — 

 I really think that there is no exception to the rule — that an 

 institution, as soon as it has perfected itself and imposed the 

 yoke of its discipline on those who are subject to it, begins to 

 strangle the idea which it was intended to preserve,* and finally 

 is immovably chained in fetters of its own forging. It perishes 

 at last from sheer immobility and inability to adapt itself to 

 changing conditions. If this fate has been even partially escaped 

 by Catholicism, the classical example of a religion of authority, 

 it is only by virtue of a saving inconsistency derived from the 

 Christian elem.ent in its origins — an element which values 

 inwardness and mysticism, and so keeps the mind open to receive 

 the "fresh springs" which flow continually from the living 

 God. But we know that the relations of mysticism and 

 ecclesiasticism in the Roman Church have been generally imeasy 

 and disturbed. 'Authority in religion always fears and distrusts 

 the inner light, and with good reason, for it proclaims a rival 

 authority against the voice of the Church. Both claim infalli- 

 bility, though neither can substantiate the claim. Infallibility 

 is a category which men cannot use. What guarantee 

 can we have that any authority is infallible ? It may speak 

 in very dictatorial tones ; but that is no proof of Divine inspira- 

 tion. It may buttress itself with the prestige of long tradition, 

 but error does not grow more respectable by becoming inveterate. 

 It may claim confirmation from signs and wonders ; but there 

 is not the slightest reason to connect Divine inspiration with 

 power to upset the normal processes of nature. When we have 

 proved our miracle to our own satisfaction, we find that its 

 evidential value is nothing at all. The sons of the Pharisees 

 (we are told) cast out devils, and Charles II touched successfully 

 for the king's evil ; but we should not specially value the opinion 

 of the former upon the grace of humility nor that of the latter 

 upon the grace of chastity. Absolute authority is impossible, 

 because it assumes not only absolute wisdom and goodness in 

 Him who imparts the revelation, but a corresponding absolute- 

 ness in the wisdom and goodness of him who receives it ; other- 

 wise how can the recipient discern the voice of God from other 



* Compare the wise words of Kant : "All things, even the most sublime, 

 grow small under the hands of men, when they turn the ideas of them 

 to their own use." 



