MODERNISM : ITS ORIGIN AND TENDENCIES. 



133 



appeal to Cardinal Mercier in his Mcdicev(disia. I cannot blame 

 him for his honourable sentiment of loyalty to the great 

 communion to whicli lie still belongs. But I would ask him, 

 in all seriousness and in all sympathy, if he himself would have 

 been a possibiHty but for the solvents applied to Roman theology 

 by a Catholicity broader and worthier than that to which he 

 still continues to cling. 



I have now expressed what I feel on this subject with 

 plainness, but I trust in no dogmatic spirit. If I have used the 

 personal pronoun pretty largely, it is not because T regard 

 myself as the ideal man, with whose conclusions every rational 

 person must agree, but, on the contrary, because I can only 

 speak for myself, and therefore refuse to dogmatize. I am 

 quite willing to be converted, if I am shown to be mistaken. 

 But I believe we shall never have a true development of 

 Christianity until it is founded on sound reason, until it takes 

 account of other bodies and other theologies beside that of Eome, 

 and is established by the fullest, the Ireest, and the friendliest 

 discussion. Finally I must say that it seems utterly impossible 

 that the Church of Eome can tolerate such utterances as those 

 of the modernists, and that for a very simple reason. On the 

 day she does so, she ceases to exist. 



Discussion. 

 The paper being concluded — 



The Chairman (Dr. Heywood Smith) expressed the thanks of 

 the meeting to Chancellor Lias for his paper, and said that all were 

 indebted to him for his frankness and boldness in holding such 

 language. The great difficulty to his mind was to define Modernism : 

 did it imply development, had it this as its object ? If so they must 

 bear in mind the possibilities of this development and consider 

 whither it might lead them. Then it might he that they would 

 have to ponder whether simplicity was not more valuable than any 

 development to further complication of structure. There was also 

 the question to consider as to whether Modernism attacks one 

 sect and one creed only for its abuses, or whether it is not merely 

 increasing criticism to hypercriticism of all established religion. 



The Eev. E. Y. Fathfull Davies (Secretary of the Christian 

 Evidence Society) said that Modernism was a wide subject with a 



