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THE REV. CAXON JAMES O. HAKNAY, M.A., O.Y 



creed/' or " the Church's creed/' but just " the Creed/' " But 

 that's not what I want. I want to know what you really believe 

 yourself, as a man, you know/' 



Then I suppose that he felt that he owed me some sort of 

 apology for talking to me in such a way. 



" You mustn't think I'm an atheist," he said, " or a sceptic, 

 or anything like that. I'm not. I used to go to church pretty 

 regularly. I used to go to communion sometimes, with my 

 mother, you know. I never doubted about any of the things I 

 was taught. I just took them as they came. I supposed they 

 were all right. Anyhow I didn't bother. But now I want to 

 know." 



This boy's case is not unique. It is not even rare. I am 

 inclined to regard it as to some extent typical. Just such is the 

 attitude of ordinary Englishmen towards the doctrines of the 

 Christian faith. They know, in broad outline at least, the 

 fundamental truths which the Church teaches. They have so far 

 accepted these truths that they have not denied nor attempted 

 to deny them. But they have not connected them in any way 

 whatever with ordinary life. Life is one thing — real, pressing, 

 intensely important. The Creed is another thing — belonging to a 

 different region, not bearing on practical affairs. This attitude 

 is logically impossible and intellectually absurd. But that does 

 not matter. Very few of us are troubled by logic, or incHned to 

 give much weight to intellectual considerations. We have our 

 faith on one side of a high wall and ourselves on the other, and 



we get on well enough until . Well, the time came for that 



friend of mine, and he wanted to get the faith over the wall, to set 

 it down on the path his feet trod, and to find out, " man to man," 

 whether there was anything in it. 



There is plainly something the matter with a Church whose 

 sons, at the critical testing-time, turn round and say, "Is there 

 anything in it ? " It is quite plain, I think, that this is not a 

 question of intellectual doubt, of faith blighted by the Higher 

 Criticism, or scorched by scientific materialism or anything of 

 that sort. Our apologetics, though quite useful things in their 

 way, are no real good to a man like the one who talked to me. 

 He had not read — very few men have read — Harnack or Haeckel. 

 Most of us would never have heard of Nietzsche if our orators had 

 not taken to telling us (towards the end of 1914) that Nietzsche 

 caused the war. I do not think the Church of England can fairly 

 be blamed for want of zeal in defending the faith. She has 



